"Where is she?"
Barriss pretended not to understand.
"Where is who?"
The Grand Inquisitor spoke casually.
"You know very well who, youngling."
He took another step toward the laser wall of her cell.
"Your master."
Barriss crossed her arms.
"Wasn't she killed on Kashyyyk?"
The Grand Inquisitor nodded.
"That is what the official report stated."
He began to pace in front of her.
"However, the fact of the matter is that Luminara Unduli has yet to be found dead or alive. Plus the sweeps of the planet have yet to yield any results."
Barriss sat back down in her chair.
"And you think I know where she is?"
"Indeed I do. I was led to this conclusion by the recent security recordings of you in your cell. They show you shaking your head and whispering to yourself while meditating. Lip movement analysis shows that you were telling someone to just leave you alone."
The Grand Inquisitor faced Barriss once more.
"So tell me. Was that your master calling to you through the Force?"
Barriss went silent and lowered her head.
The Grand Inquisitor showed his serrated teeth as he smiled.
"Ah, so she was."
He couldn't help but chuckle to himself.
"Typical Jedi. Holding out hope for her pupil until the bitter end. But instead, her compassion has merely hastened her end. Now tell me, youngling. Where did she say she was? She must've given you her location in the hopes that you would return to her."
Barriss spoke under her breath.
"Why should I tell you?"
The Grand Inquisitor knelt down on one knee and looked Barriss in the eyes.
"Because you and I both want the same thing."
He lingered on his next word.
"Justice."
Barriss was listening now.
"Justice for all of the people your master failed. You, at Geonosis. Your friend, Ahsoka Tano, on the Tranquility. Those civilians she let die on Coruscant. And not to mention the countless younglings she could have saved during Order 66. Where was she then? While they were being gutted by Lord Vader? What mission has she been a part of that has not resulted in death, loss or genocide? And why should she not pay for her crimes? Just like all the other Jedi who failed you and the rest of the galaxy?"
Barriss was thinking to herself now.
The Grand Inquisitor's voice softened.
"Tell me where she is and I will have the Emperor shorten your sentence. Consider this a bit of community service. Now please. Tell me. For the good of all of us. Where is Luminara Unduli?"
Barriss closed her eyes for a moment before meeting the Grand Inquisitor's gaze. With a short breath, she answered him.
"Tempes."
…
The Jedi outpost on Tempes had been abandoned since the end of the High Republic. But still, Jedi would occasionally go there to either meditate or study the artifacts left behind by the Jedi that came before them.
What a foolish place to be stuck in.
Landing his TIE fighter by the entrance, the Grand Inquisitor removed his helmet and stepped outside into the pouring rain. Walking across the soaked pavement, he used the Force to open the front door marked by the Jedi's insignia.
Once he stepped inside, the Grand Inquisitor found himself enveloped in darkness. As he took a moment to reach out with the Force, the door suddenly shut itself behind him.
The very next moment, he felt a presence with him in the outpost.
Then, without hesitation, he drew out his blade and blocked the lightsaber of Luminara Unduli.
Unduli was quick and precise with her every attack, not uttering a word as she struck at every opening in rapid succession. But the Grand Inquisitor was prepared. Having studied Unduli's lightsaber technique in the Jedi Archives, he knew exactly where she would strike, block and parry. With only one of his blades activated, he quickly drew her back into the shadows, his weapon's red hue now encompassing Unduli's green hue in the pitch black darkness.
Unduli was resourceful however, using her free hand to throw surrounding rocks at her opponent. A few dodges later, the Grand Inquisitor drew out his second blade, using one blade to fight the Jedi and the other to deflect the objects being hurled at him. Soon, Unduli ran out of rocks and was left with only her lightsaber and the Force. In an act of desperation, she held out her hand and tried pushing the Grand Inquisitor back with a burst of wind. In response, the Grand Inquisitor held his double-bladed saber behind his back and activated the rotation mechanism. His blades began to spin rapidly behind him, propelling him toward the Jedi against the push of her Force current. Her energy exhausted, Unduli's attack began to weaken. And once it did, the Grand Inquisitor leapt forward and used his blade to cut the Jedi's saber hilt in half.
In the blink of an eye, Unduli's green blade dissipated and her broken hilt fell to the floor. Then, with equal speed, the Grand Inquisitor pushed the Jedi back with the Force, knocking her into a nearby wall, breaking her back and leaving her crumpled on the floor in pain. Too injured and exhausted to even return to her feet, Unduli could only glare at the Grand Inquisitor, who knelt before her and looked pridefully into her eyes.
"Before I bring you in, Jedi, I want you to know exactly how I found you."
Unduli tried pushing herself up.
"Do you want to know who told me where you were?"
She gritted her teeth.
"I'll lean in closer so you can hear me."
As she fought through the pain in her body, the Grand Inquisitor whispered to her.
"Barriss Offee."
With that, the Jedi's energy suddenly vanished. Her face elicited pure shock and hurt as she slowly gave up.
"You thought you could save her? Turn her back to the light?"
He chuckled with malicious glee.
"You truly cannot help yourself, can you? No matter what you do, no matter where you go, your compassion will always be your undoing. Because you just can't resist that itch. That urge your beloved council instilled in you at such a young age. You are a slave to the Jedi Code. Living in fear of a power you claim to understand, but can never hope to. Unlike you, Jedi, I do not fear the dark side. And neither does your precious pupil. She and I are now a part of something far greater than anything the Jedi Order could ever hope to be. We are the future. The Sith are the future. Our order will be eternal. The galaxy's first and final. Our stories will be told forever. And yours…yours won't even be a footnote."
As she drifted into unconsciousness, Unduli spoke to the Grand Inquisitor for the first and last time.
"No light every truly dies. It just gets harder to see. But you can always find it. You just need to look."
The Grand Inquisitor smirked.
"Cute."
…
Weeks later, the Grand Inquisitor walked through the halls of the Spire on Stygeon Prime. There were still repairs being done to the prison since Maul was broken out by his followers just a few years back. Luckily, Unduli's cell was completely fortified, blocking any form of communication with the outside. The Jedi had been keeping herself occupied with the typical meditation forms used by her dead order. But today, her time in the Spire would finally end.
As the cell door opened, the Grand Inquisitor stepped inside and stood in front of his prisoner. Knowing what awaited her, Unduli stood up from the bench and looked her captor in the eyes. Impressed by her lack of fear, the Grand Inquisitor smirked before gesturing to the execution chamber in the cell with them. Her face unmoving, Unduli stepped into the chamber and closed her eyes, bracing herself for what was to come. With the cell's cameras recording, the chamber's door shut and the Grand Inquisitor smiled.
"A fate worse than death."