Twenty minutes earlier…
A young woman rushes into the florist's shop, all out of breath.
"I need a pink flower with yellow centers and white stems." She gasps, leaning on the counter for support. "Do you have them?"
The florist glances around her shop. Pink flower, yellow centers, white stems…good gravy, who would want a flower with that color scheme?
"Hold on for just a second," she says sweetly. "Let me check in the back."
In the back, the selects six pink daisies, their yellow centers bright as suns. Using her airbrush, she very carefully airbrushes the stems white.
When she comes back to the counter, the woman nearly faints with relief. The florist starts to ring up the daisies.
"That'll be-."
The woman throws a twenty-credit chip on the counter, snatches the flowers, and runs out the door. The florist watches her go.
"You forgot your change!" she yells after her, but the woman is already long gone.
…
Hero St. James fills the other doorway, a door of pure rage.
"Mom?" Katooni asks incredulously.
"Babe!" Hutch bleats through the comm. "Babe, don't do it. Take a breath."
Hero takes a breath all right. She takes a breath right before she shouts a war cry and raises the flower bouquet above her head.
"You took Katooni! I'm gonna kill you!" Hero roars, charging.
The con men don't know what she plans to do, if she wants to use the bouquet as a weapon or if she plans on tearing Barriss apart with her teeth. All they know is that she never gets to do it.
Saw launches across the room and tackles Hero with a move probably learned from University of Onderon bolo-ball.
"Get off me, Saw!" Hero roars.
"Not a chance!"
Ahsoka ignores Hero, and instead turns her focus on Barriss' lightsaber swinging toward her. She blocks it with a single practiced stroke.
"Barriss, stand down."
"Don't tell me you're still clinging to the old ideals, Ahsoka." Barriss says. "You remember the trial. The Republic was doomed from the very beginning!"
A torrent of bolts shoot toward Barriss; their friends lying down covering fire. Barriss easily uses one saber to deflect the bolts.
"The Republic wasn't failing." Ahsoka argues. "It was dragged down by darkness."
"Darkness from within!"
"Darkness that you and the Sith put there!"
Ventress charges into the fray, locking Barriss' other lightsaber. Barriss ignores her.
"The Jedi Council only fostered it. Ahsoka, they turned their backs on you."
"Because you framed her for the bombing!" Lux bellows.
"And you kidnapped Katooni!" Hero roars. Even though Ahsoka's not looking, she can guess that Katooni has nothing to say because Hero has her in a bear hug.
Steela sums up what we're all thinking. "Ever since that trial, I've just wanted to punch you in the face!"
"Or worse." Ventress hisses.
Barriss swings again. "What are all of you? A bunch of thieves trying to scratch the Empire?"
"More like stab it in the heart."
Barriss laughs. "If only, Ahsoka. If…"
Ventress' second saber breaks free of Barriss, swinging in a deadly arc toward the Inquisitor's chest.
"AUGH!"
The lightsabers drop as Barriss loses her grip on them.
Cut in half.
Gone at last.
The room falls in silence, cut only by Katooni's muffled tears
Then Hondo breaks it.
"Well," he says. "She was no friend of the tiny Jedi, so she is no friend of Hondo's!"
…
Katooni sits in between Hutch and Hero, the victim of relieved parents.
"I'm never letting you go." Hero says, kissing the top of Katooni's head another time. "Not ever. I'm going to follow you everywhere. You'd better get used to the sight of me, because I'm not leaving."
"Give her some breathing room, Hero." Hutch mutters, but his and Katooni's tight embrace belies his relief and her rescue.
Mina blots Katooni's raw wrists with a wet cloth and Katooni winces.
"You sure put up a fight in those force binders." Hutch notes.
"I was afraid she would find you all. She called someone on a hologram. He said he had 'the other one' and that we would lead them to the rest of you."
"Did this man have dark hair and a beard?" Mina asks.
Katooni nods and Mina takes a deep breath.
"Did she or the man mention Sierra?" she asks in a small voice.
"He said that she 'would be there in the morning.'" Katooni replies, looking at her feet.
Which means he's torturing Sierra and she's about to break.
Ahsoka and Steela share a glance.
"She's held on for a long time." Steela comments.
"Tor didn't ask me questions straight away. I think he was trying to soften me up." Ahsoka says, bouncing Tav in her arms.
Lux glances at the clock. "She's been there for two days now."
"Then he's probably starting." Ahsoka says darkly.
"What's he going to do?"
"Lux." Mina says sharply.
Lux ignores her. "Ahsoka, what's happening to her? What's he going to do?"
"Lux, no." Ahsoka says. "Not in front of the kids." And then in a lower voice: "I told you everything. Your dad rescued me before Tor could start the interrogation."
A mental picture flashes into his mind of Sierra screaming, covered in blood and tears.
How could you leave her behind, Lux? She's your little sister. She's looked up to you from the moment she was born and you cried because she was wrinkled, and your crying made her cry.
This time, the potential of her crying just might make me cry.
"We have to get her home." Mina orders. "Now."
"Of course, Mina…" Tandin says.
"No. Now. I'm not letting my daughter die!" She pulls herself up to her full height next to Tandin and sweet, loving Mina Bonteri is gone. BonScary has arrived. "Tor won't give her medical attention no matter how badly she needs it. If we don't get there soon, she is going to die. If not from her wounds, then from dehydration or hypothermia."
"If she doesn't tell him anything, he has to keep her alive." Korkie points out.
Ahsoka bites her lip. "John Bonteri ruined Tor's career during the Clone War, and Tor's not the forgiving type. Once Tor was back in power, he took John and Mina's money and reputations. Then he killed John…"
"And now he has his daughter." Mina finishes with a knife-sharp tone. "This is about revenge. Standard interrogation is out the window. He just wants to watch Sierra suffer."
"What if we do the same thing we did to Offee to him?" Hero suggests.
Bo scoffs. "That's one reason you all aren't Nite Owls. Tor isn't the StarChucks type."
"Then what kind of type is he? The death sticks type?" Lux grasps at straws.
Ahsoka shakes her head. "No way. He yelled at a guard who was smoking a death stick around me. He said he didn't like the way they smelled."
Ventress cracks her neck. "Dooku."
"What?"
"The Count didn't smoke death sticks or drink too much juma, but he had an addiction." Ventress says. "His ego."
Ahsoka nods. "He really did."
"That's it. We go after Tor's ego." Saw says. "And how are we going to do that?"
Soniee opens her laptop. "Give Hutch and I a few minutes, and his secrets won't be so secret anymore." She glances to the side to where Saw's hands have come to rest on her shoulders, encouragingly, as if she were an actual valued member of the crew.
With an arm still around Katooni (who is glaring suspiciously at the unfamiliar hacker), Hutch turns on his own datapad. "All right, let's see what the HoloNet knows about Mr. Peter David Torrance."
….
"Oh my force."
"Is that even possible? How does he get food?" Saw asks, staring over Soniee's shoulder at the list of dirt that she and Hutch have compiled.
"I'm counting on my fingers and my toes, and I'm not even close to the number of complaints he has." Steela says.
"Thirty-seven." Soniee tells her.
Bo-Katan's eyes bug out. "Viszla didn't even have that many civil suits."
"Yes, it looks like our man Torrance has been a very bad boy." Hutch says, nearly giggling with anticipation over what he's going to do to Tor. He's highlighted his favorite pieces of dirt in yellow marker.
Lux cranes his neck to read them.
"He didn't."
"Oh yes he did." Hutch says with obvious relish. "It took a little elbow grease to get his records unsealed but when he did…hoo boy! It was like being in a candy store."
"Are you sure all of this is true?"
"I checked a few times. And what's better, I've got actual witness testimony from the people involved." He licks his lips. "Now, let's see what this little bank account is for, huh?"
Hutch selects it, and a list of transactions fills up the screen.
"Hutch, is that what I think it's for?"
Hutch leans closer. "I think it is…"
Hero covers Katooni's eyes. "Don't look, honey."
Ahsoka turns Tav from the screen as if to shield him. "Seriously? He has a private account to pay a-?"
"The bigger question," Steela interrupts, "Is what kind of a name is 'Celestine'?"