- Disarray at a Military base! Alleged culprit Ahsoka Tano has escaped her holding cell and now is on the move within the base. Coincidentally, Captain Rex, General Skywalker and Commander Fox of the Corousant Guard find injured clones in a near vicinity to her. For security and diminishing a potential catastrophe, the base is on full lock down. How will everyone act in these new circumstances? -
Chapter 8. Rejuvenation bell
"Are we meeting again tomorrow?" – asks Marshal Sezk.
"I hope not. Honestly, I feel a bit tired."
"Sometimes duty calls, regardless of your physical or psychological state."
"That is the reality of responsibility. If one can't handle the difficultness, that person should not be there."
"I concur."
The group of six arrives back at the speeder hangar; the assigned overseeing senate guards notice their arrival. Without much hesitation, they straighten their back and wait for their close appearance.
"Rick, Jarred, how did you time pass?"
"Without any interference from anyone, sir." – answers Rick.
"Good job. You are now all going back to the current room, where the senators are. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Dismissed."
The escort of Padawan Menson almost completely evaporates, only Marshal Sezk stays near him and the speeder for a longer period of time.
"This is goodbye, Menson."
"For now, Sezk."
"Correct."
They shake hands. Later the near 40 year old male turns around, puts on his helmet and in a precise pace goes out of the hangar. The noise in this area is severely lesser than in the circle shaped corridors of the Republic Senate building. The Padawan acts out on his suspicions and takes a look at his communicator; turns out he has missed two calls from somebody.
"Layers on layers, on layers."
He checks the person's identity, an indifferent face expression appeared. Both Kelan and Mundi were looking to speak to him. While the Kelan one made a lot of sense, the Master's call was of unknown reasoning.
"This does not seem good."
Oswald puts on his helmet, turns on his speeder and races off back to the Jedi Temple.
A little later.
"She escaped her cell?"
"Yes, Admiral Tarkin."
"How could this happen?" – asked Captain Trend.
"Simple. She overpowered them." – coldly answered Tarkin.
"That is impossible. She can't turn of the lasers using the Force. It requires a key card."
"I agree with him." – added a commander.
This angered Tarkin a bit more.
"Let us not forget that she has sympathizers all around. One of them could have easily broken her out."
"That can be the case, Admiral. If so, we must get there and review the security footage."
"I salute your activeness, Captain Trend. That is why you and the Commander should go on ahead. I have a task to do before my leave. I will join you soon enough."
"Understood, Admiral."
Admiral Tarkin waited until both soldiers left the room. After he called Chancellor Palpatine to notify him of the current status with the Jedi prisoner, the leader of the Republic thanked for the importation and asked to be updated, if anything crucial changes.
"Your rhetoric is getting out of control, Main."
"Is it, Organa? Somehow I doubt that."
"I'm not happy with the current power the Chancellor holds too. This does not mean, however, I am near the border of treason."
"Well. Let us fact check then."
"Alright. First one?"
"The Republic was built on fairness, was it not?"
"Yes."
"More than 1000 senators have been quite happy with giving 'emergency' powers to the Chancellor."
"That they have."
"Now this makes him far more relevant, important and powerful than the Senate. You could even say he overrules the Senate's decisions. If one person can nullify any sort of notion from, for example, 100 senators, then fairness is dead. Which means the Republic's foundation is dead."
Bail Organa, the senator of Alderaan, felt sadness. He understood his colleague's frustration with the current situation, but didn't want to be as harsh, vicious or melancholic about it.
"We can still manage to force him to sign an executive order that would relieve of his power after The War is finished."
Senator Main didn't look fazed by Senator Organa's optimism.
"Sorry, my friend."
He stands up from his chair against the table.
"The time of optimism, belief in reestablishing a fair government has passed. You do not have the backing of an amount of senators that could make this happen. At least half of them believe that Sheev Palpatine is a prophet and are happy being his marionettes."
The male nods and leaves Alderaan's senators office. In the midst of all the movement around said office, a man covered in red armor oversees the departure.
"I should tell Amedda."
The man calms himself, takes up a normal stance and walks off toward his goal. It doesn't take him long to reach his goal.
"What have you to report?"
"There is friction in the Chancellor's critics' camp."
"What proof do you have of this?"
"I just saw Senator Main leaving Bail Organa's office in quite a distraught face. I believe their experiencing substantial differences."
"This is good. Thank you for you service. Keep an eye on any other critic."
"Will do, Amedda."
They nod to each other and go their separate ways.
Back at the Jedi Temple, 30 minutes after the breakout. Oswald parks his speeder in his usual position, takes off his helmet. He makes sure his double-bladed lightsaber is strongly mounted, stretches his arms a bit. Following that the grey cloak is guided around his limps, the fast drive had it a bit curled up. Sometimes an upcoming event can strike fear into anyone, especially to Force sensitive beings, since their upcoming events can be unseen to the general public.
"No more waiting."
Oswald calls Kelan; she answers the call quite quickly.
"Oswald, where have you been?"
"Doing a crucial task, Kelan. I assume you have the information from Katooni?"
"That I do. Come to me."
"Very well. Where are you?"
She mentions her contemporary place.
"Good. I'm coming right away."
"I'll be waiting."
The call ends.
"Now for my Master. Based on the last call, this should be even more fun."
He presses a button, starts sending a signal towards his device. Mundi takes more time to answer.
"Padawan! Are you at the Temple?!"
"Yes, Master. What's with your emotions? You sound distressed?"
"With good reason, Padawan. Ahsoka Tano has escaped from captivity."
"That … is … madness, Master. I seem to remember her being under lock and key."
"That is what I also believed. However, Master Skywalker informed me of this outcome."
"Not to be overstepping my boundaries, I would want to know, when did he contact you of this?"
"About 20 minutes ago."
"Is that all?"
"I'm afraid not, my Padawan. Another Jedi Master wants to speak with you very soon."
"About what, Master?"
"That I do not know, Menson. The only thing she said was that she wanted an audition with you."
"Understood. Where?"
"Come to the ante-room of the Jedi Council's chamber."
"I'll be there in less than an hour."
"An acceptable time."
The line goes dead.
Few minutes pass. Kelan was at odds with herself, the turbulence of her sensibilities was seriously painful. Katooni didn't say a lot. That was what one part of her stated. Ordinarily, a small quantity of things to go by was an annoying feeling, no doubt, but at least it didn't cripple the core of a Force sensitives thinking ability. Sadly, the twi'lek's situation was of an unordinary kind. This time – quality, highlighting words were at play. By this moment in time, the tholothian Youngling had spooked the twi'lek Padawan.
"An infinitely big dark side presence? On Corousant? The same planet, where a ton of Jedi live? It sounds … so … ridiculous."
The other part of her was reassessing the previously mentioned ideas.
"I promised him I would relay the information from Katooni as pure and/or raw as possible. I don't intend to lose Oswald's trust."
The just recently mentioned blue eyed human approached her at his normal pace. She took this as a positive sign.
"Nice to see you, Kelan." – in a whispering tone states Oswald.
"Good to see you … functioning … at a reassuring level. I hope you would've taken Zane's advice about a brake."
Mundi's Padawan notices the sleigh.
"We did talk about my removal from our investigation for a couple of hours. Sadly, a very important message came in and my plans were adjusted."
The younger Padawan shrug her shoulders, swiftly retreated into the nearest shadows. Soon both of them were in a poorly lit area of the hall. The seriousness was even more perpetuated by her widened eyes; a strong message seemed to be a rational conclusion.
"So I went and talked to Katooni."
"How did it go over?"
"Good. I got the message without a Master noticing me at the Med Bay."
Oswald's interest went up another level.
"Didn't you happen to meet one after leaving the Med Bay?"
His friend felt a bit stunned. Such knowledge should only be achievable for one Jedi Master – Master Yoda. She could not believe the bulls-eye that Menson hit at this moment. Trying to suppress her inner turmoil and wanting to stay on topic, the correct guess of a past action was attributed to a third party.
"Yes, I did. How do you know this?"
"A Master has requested an audition with me in the ante-room of the Jedi Council's chamber."
"You believe it is the same one?"
"Most likely is, Kelan. Can you give me his or her name?"
"I don't see, why not. It was Master Ti."
"Thank you. Now back to Katooni."
"Yes. She didn't say a lot, but …"
"But?"
Padawan Elanesquil grabs her semi-unstable emotional state and holds her in a somewhat static state.
"There was one sentence."
"Fine. Tell me."
"Alright, Oswald. She said that an enormous dark side presence lingers on Corousant."
The male immediately puts his right palm on his forehead.
"You're saying that she felt a dark side super power on this planet?"
"Pretty much."
"If she's in such a state now, it is safe to assume the dark side user knows."
"He knows of someone's discovery of him."
"Her safety might be at risk and we are at the Jedi Temple."
The palm retracts back.
"Things are not getting easier around here."
"Well said. Also, she implicitly said no mentioning of this to any Jedi Master."
"Great. Especially, when I'm meeting one or two in less than an hour." – sarcastically states Oswald.
"I wish you luck with that."
"Same to you with our investigation. What are you going to do now?"
"Nothing elaborate, Oswald. I'll probably grab a couple of our favorite drinks and meet up with Zane. We'll revisit our joint ideas … from the past."
"Good. May the Force be with you."
"And with you, my friend."
The twi'lek initiates a hug with the human; the latter one accepts the invitation. After the hug, Menson leaves the shadows first, looks around before continuing to his next destination. For some his current state seemed like an island being crushed by a tsunami, the water overflow is huge and does not seem to be weakening any time soon.
1:30 after breakout. By common design the ante-room was inferior in size to the Council's chamber. The 12 members of the highest level the Jedi Order sat in one of the Temple's towers, their seats (one could call them 'thrones') were arranged in a horseshoe, where the gap served as a line to the entrance. Pragmatism – all around the design. The Jedi Masters sat apart from each other, usually during a meeting, every single member's eyes would for at least one time gaze upon the Grand Master of the Council, whose name was Master Yoda. He was widely regarded to be the wisest Jedi in the Order, his Force abilities were great, very few would even attempt to duel him in a face-off. The previously mentioned smaller area had a carpet, fewer windows than the chamber, burgundy colored walls, two exits, one lead to the chamber, the other – to the turbo-lift. Soon the latter exit opened and a grey cloaked being appeared from it.
"Aaah. Padawan, right on schedule." – said Mundi.
Menson reclined his hood.
"Masters."
The youngest being of the three standing ones took a few steps forward and bowed to the Masters.
"Master Ti, I heard from my Master that you wanted to see me."
"That I did, Padawan Menson. Please tell us, were you at the Med Bay?"
"When?"
"2 to 3 hours ago."
The three Force sensitives stood in a oval near one of the windows in the ante-room, this was done as so to not disturb any Master going in or out of the chamber. Their tasks were held at a higher state than theirs, although Menson disputed that internally.
"No, I was not, Master Ti."
"Are you certain?"
"Extremely certain."
This altered the female togrutan's direction.
"Alright. Then could you tell me two things."
"What would those be?"
"Firstly, why was Kelan Elanesquil, one of your fellow Padawans, at the Med Bay to visit Katooni? Secondly, why Katooni asked specifically for your presence, while she was awake?"
Oswald was no fool; he knew he had to choose his next words carefully. Severe repercussions can fallow if failure is achieved. A couple of minutes passed.
"We're waiting, Padawan."
"Why yes. The two answers are connected."
"In what way?"
"Pedro sent out a signal to me, I answered, she mentioned Katooni's want for my arrival by her side as soon as possible. Kelan went instead of me, than retold me everything."
"That's it?" – asked Mundi.
"Yes, my Master."
Shaak's inkling climbed a bit.
"That explains the first thing no doubt, Padawan Menson. Yet the second one still remains a mystery to me. Can you elaborate on what did she tell you?"
"I can, but I don't see much point in that."
"Reason being?"
"Reason being lack of important information. All Kelan said was that Katooni felt very exhausted and wanted me to stay with her. I declined the offer."
"Understood, Padawan. Anything else, Shaak?"
"No, Ki. I think I've gathered everything I wanted. You can go now, Padawan."
"Thank you, Masters."
The human male bows his head and in a similar pace to his arrival's one leaves the ante-room. He really wanted to rest. That is why he picked up his pace, called Zane and talked to him about his current state. His white chocolate skinned friend had a bit of a scare in the middle part. There would be one last observation brought into fruition in reality. Barriss Offee's presence was not felt by Oswald from the hall. An 'interesting' label was attached to this experience. A few minutes passed and the human male closed his eyes in the evening of one of the most memorable, exciting days in Corousant's history.