Chapter 3: A Reunion in Silver, Blue and Green
Scorpious Holicron entered the Emperor's audience chambers, just as Mas Amedda was scuttling out. Scorpious dressed finely, in an indigo jacket with tails and a pale grey shirt, with loose trousers and tight black boots, the insignia of the Office Inquisitorial pinned to the front of his suit. His blonde hair was cut short and he was pale and handsome with a strong jaw, and two deep blue eyes. His right arm was clasped in his left hand behind his back. The skyline of Courusant could be seen beyond the window, with the large room bare save a few Sith artefacts that were held on pedestals.
"Ah, Scorpious," the Emperor, looking like a shadow in his cloak, said beckoning him over. "I am glad you have arrived."
"Emperor Palpatine," he replied, seating himself in a chair in front of the Emperor's desk. "You do me a great honour."
The Emperor waved his hand. "There is no need for flattery. I have called upon you because the task I have in mind is one that would be most suited for your particular set of skills."
A lifetime of training allowed Scorpious to keep his face neutral, but the flicker of resentment burning inside of him. He had been one of the many padawans who had failed to pass the trials into becoming a knight but had been kept around the Temple in more menial and auxiliary tasks. His role had been working on psychological health and his emotions had slowly gone from joy and gratitude at being allowed to stay at the Temple, to growing anger, resentment and hatred as he was forced to listen to and counsel Jedi on their problems from small to large. He had been one of many the Emperor had rescued, seeing greater purpose in him. But the anger at that menial task still fuelled the furnace within.
"I would be delighted to oblige, Lord," he said, voice neutral. "What is the task that you have in mind?"
"We have received reports of a Jedi sighting."
This made Scorpious sit up straighter. "A Jedi sighting...?" he said, trying to keep the note of interest out of his voice. "Surely this would be a task for the Grand Inquisitor or Lord Vader?"
"This is a more delicate matter. Requiring more of, fine scalpel than a blunt instrument."
Scorpious smiled at the implicit praise. "And the assignment would be...?"
The Emperor pressed a button and the frozen holographic image of Jedi, wielding two lightsabres appeared in the middle of the desk. Scorpious stared at it, certain he recognised her from somewhere, but unsure where. He focused in on the diamond pattern tattoos across her nose...and then it clicked.
Scorpious looked through the hologram at the Emperor, brows furrowed in confusion. "I thought she was executed?" he asked.
The Emperor grinned.
Barriss deflected the strikes and lashed out with her own, which were turned aside, to the deafening sounds of plasma crashing against one another. She was vaguely aware of people around her holding up comms, filming what was going on, a couple of the drunker ones cheering and placing bets. She was vaguely aware that this was bad. But her entire concentration was taken up first with stopping a blade from slicing her apart and second with trying to keep her heart under control.
It was her. Her. She was alive and after all this time they'd finally met again.
In the worst possible place.
In the worst possible circumstances.
Ahsoka's assault was furious, her blades swinging in from a variety of angles giving Barriss no real-time to get on the offensive herself. She was being driven back towards a wall, each blow costing her a stride, where she'd be pinned with no further room to manoeuvre.
Come on Barriss! she berated herself. You're better than this - you kicked her ass the last time you two duelled!
She ignored the part of her brain that reminded her that this was over a year ago and Ahsoka had been out of sorts and confused at the time.
Ahsoka shot a vicious swipe at Barriss' head but, rather than blocking the strike, she instead ducked it and pushed herself forward. She slipped under Ahsoka's guard and delivered a kick to her back, knocking her forwards. Ahsoka used the tips of her fingers to flip herself over, twisting in the air, so she landed facing Barriss. Barriss twisted and landed in front of the bar. She raised her hand up and three bottles of alcohol floated up and she flung her hand forward, chucking them at Ahsoka.
"No!" the bartender screamed, diving over the table to grab one of the vintage bottles and hauling it to safety, crashing to the ground with it.
The other two hurtled at Ahsoka and she slashed both her blades, cutting the bottles in half and igniting the alcohol inside into brief fireballs. The spectators ooed at the sight.
"Now hold it!" Barriss called, holding up one hand in a placating gesture. "I get that you're angry, but you don't want to kill me do you?"
Ahsoka snarled and flipped her blades into her reverse grip.
Barriss face fell. Oh...she does want to kill me...
Ahsoka leapt forward and scissored the blades, Barriss leaping up and out of the way. She landed and spun in time to block the follow-up strikes and swung her own blade, Ahsoka stepping to the side and slashing with her left, Barriss just managed to pivot in time to block the strike. Furious, she responded with an upper cutting strike that knocked one of Ahsoka's blades high and then slapped it with her other blade from behind, sending the lightsabre tumbling out of Ahsoka's grip. Barriss let out a crow of triumph, more in surprise than expectation, that turned to wheeze as Ahsoka slammed a kick into her stomach and sent her flying across the room and crashing and skidding across one of the dice tables.
Barriss groaned as a Rodian exploded into angry gesticulations. "Oh come on! She's using a reverse grip, she's compromised her reach and power! You need to-"
Barriss shoved her lightsabres at him. "Do you want to try?!" she snarled. Then she whipped her head back as a yelling Ahsoka descended from the heavens, lightsabre held with both hands, aiming a vicious strike at her. "Kriff!" Barriss shouted and crossed her blades.
Plasma exploded from the force of the contact as Ahsoka landed, and the dice table snapped in half spilling them down, with chips and dice tumbling. The cracking table unbalanced Ahsoka and Barriss used the gap to crunch her body up and kick with both feet, knocking Ahsoka over her head. Ahsoka whooshed out a breath and then landed in a crouch. She flung out her hand and her other lightsabre shot into her palm, out of the grasp of a young man who was trying to pocket it, and she whirled in time to lock sabres with Barriss.
The two women glared at one another over the spitting of the crossed blades. They screamed at one another as they pushed, trying to overpower one another-
A loud bang snapped them out and they whirled away from one another. The captain of the guard, with his guards surrounding them, pointing a shotblaster at the roof where he fired it to catch their attention. Dust filtered down from the crack in the ceiling and the captain angrily brushed it off his uniform. The others were all pointing their blaster pistols.
"Right," the captain said in a commanding voice. "That's enough of that show. Now both of you, drop the laser swords."
Ahsoka and Barriss glared at the guards, and then at each other to let each other know that it was definitely their fault this had happened, and then simultaneously deactivated their swords, chucked them on the ground and slumped into a cross-armed, cross-legged position, like two children caught fighting by their parent.
"Bind them and chuck them downstairs," the captain said, and after much-exchanged glances, two brave souls stepped forward to do that.
Barriss sat on the bench in the cell, her arms in binder cuffs behind her, whilst Ahsoka stood in the opposite corner, similarly bound, and glowering at her. Barriss kept her gaze to one side, but she did sneak glances at Ahsoka. She was a bit taller now, her montrals taller and leku longer, wearing a midnight blue Togrutan tunic, with baggy trousers, boots and gauntlets. A set of beads hung over the back of her montrals. They'd been like that in the cell for a long time.
"You know," Barriss said, after a small clear of her throat. "In all the scenarios where I imagined us running into one another, I don't think 'getting into a fight in a casino and then being locked a cell together' featured among them."
"I never imagined it at all," Ahsoka replied.
Barriss winced. "That's...harsh..."
Ahsoka raised a brow. "Because I thought you were dead."
"Oh. Right. Of course."
Silence again.
"Though you have to admit," Barriss spoke up again. "That, on the whole, I was about eighty-percent right about the Jedi."
"For the Force's sake..." Ahsoka moaned and turned her head. "Can you really not resist launching into the 'I told you so' speech?"
"Well, I did..." Barriss didn't quite keep the petulant tone from her voice.
"You said the Jedi were the villains in the conflict and had all fallen to the Dark Side. You didn't say the Chancellor was a Sith Lord!"
"I said I got it eighty-percent right!"
They glared at one another and then pointedly looked away from one another.
There was another long silence.
"You seem particularly snippy today..." Barriss muttered.
Ahsoka narrowed her eyes. "Yes it's funny what framing someone for a crime and nearly getting them executed will do for their mood."
Barriss winced. "That's...fair..."
"How did you get out anyway?" Ahsoka tilted her head to one side. "They were going to execute you, the same as with me."
Barriss glanced at her and then looked away. "I...had help...from a, well, a mutual friend of ours," she said.
Ahsoka's brows rose. "Master Unduli?"
"No, not Master Unduli," Barriss replied, not quite keeping the bitter tone out of her voice. "It was Palpatine."
Ahsoka's eyes widened. "Why?" she croaked after a moment. "What could he want?"
Barriss shrugged. "I have no idea. And I have no intention of finding out." She stretched herself out a little, her joints cracking. "As soon I learned who he was, after the whole takeover business, I ran away as fast and as far as I could and I've been doing my best to keep my head down ever since."
They lapsed into another silence. Ahsoka had turned her head away, her brows furrowed, concentrating and thinking. Barriss kept glancing over at her and then away. She tapped a foot on the ground.
I must not fear, she thought. But she couldn't quite bring herself under control. All the scenarios she'd imagined were now shattered, replaced with this reality, and suddenly all the things she wanted to say, all the addresses, speeches, questions everything she'd imagined doing and saying, all of it was locked up and blocked up and every time she tried to bring it out, her tongue would tighten up rigid. She licked her lips to try saying something again.
Anything to break the accusing silence.
"So what are you doing here?" Barriss asked.
"What's it to you?"
She shrugged, trying to play it cool. "Nothing, really, just curious." And the silence is getting to me...
Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "If you must know, I was here to meet someone. I was hoping to complete a transaction, but then he had a heart attack."
Barriss' eyes went wide and she blushed. Ahsoka noticed and quirked her head. "What?" she asked.
"Nothing!" Barriss blurted.
"You're looking very guilty..."
"Well... I may... may have...been the one responsible for that..."
Ahsoka took a moment to compute the information and then stepped forward, anger darkening her face. "You murdered him!" she snarled.
"I didn't murder him, I assassinated him!" Barriss responded, glaring.
"Oh, such a big difference! So you're not content with copying Ventress' lightsabre design, you're also copying her former job?"
"Oh please, give me a break! I need credits to survive. And I don't just kill anyone, I do my research to make sure they deserve it."
"He was going to sell some weapons to a Resistance group I'm working for!"
"He also sells to the Empire!"
Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Of course he did, I'm not that naïve. But he was doing good work. He was helping us!"
"Really? And do all good people quaff wine and laugh with the Imperials as their latest weapons get demonstrated on nearby villages?" Barriss said with a glare.
Ahsoka paused. She turned her face away. "I...didn't know that..." she said, quietly.
"No. But I bet your Resistance buddies did and didn't tell you," Barriss replied, failing to keep the slight triumphant note out of her voice.
Ahsoka shot her a look. "And I will be having words with them about that."
Another long silence took hold.
Barriss berated herself. Why had she felt the need to needle Ahsoka then? It was such a petty thing to do, and for what? A moment's satisfaction? A fleeting sense of superiority or, a more quite part of her brain insisted, a fleeting sense of 'see we're not so different'? Of course, Ahsoka would never have agreed to work with someone like that if she'd know. She would probably refuse to work with the Resistance group if she had known they were willing to deal with such people. She held to her principles, Barriss knew that. She wasn't like...
...like her...
Barriss swallowed and shook her head slightly. It was time to go. This proximity, in the confined space, was getting to her too much. She needed to get into action, get on the move and get out. She rocked back slightly and then hopped onto her feet, moving over to the bars of the cell. She pressed her face against the bars and at the end of the corridor, she could just make out the guard, sat in his chair with his boots crossed on the desk.
"Are you rested enough?" Barriss asked. "There were a lot of cameras up there and I doubt two people fighting with lightsabres is a story that's going to keep quiet for long."
"I've been waiting for you," Ahsoka said, cracking her neck.
Barriss shot her a look. "Funny. So what's the plan?"
"How about a traditional 'mind trick' to hand over the key?"
"And if he's not weak-minded?" Barriss raised a brow.
Ahsoka shrugged. "Then we'll work something out from there."
"Hey! Hello!"
Cantiss knew he should ignore the call but after a few moments of hearing variations on 'hi' he got sufficiently annoyed that he uncrossed his boots, put down his video comm and marched over to the cell. It was the Togurtan that was calling, the Miralan hanging about in the background, and as he approached she beamed at him.
"What do you want?" Cantiss said, gruffly.
"Thank you so much for coming over," the Togurtan said. "We were just starting to feel so cooped up in here and so we thought that," she wiggled slightly, "you could open this cell and let us go."
Cantiss glared at her. "And why would I do that?" he asked.
The Togurtan looked taken aback and glanced at her cellmate, who gave her a look that seemed to say 'this was your idea, you solve it' and shrugged. The Togurtan looked like she wanted to say something foulmouthed, but held herself and turned back to Cantiss. "You will open this cell and let us out," the Togurtan said again, her voice stronger and she wiggled more fiercely this time.
Cantiss shook his head, baffled but growing increasingly irritated. Is she stupid? he wondered. Why does she think I'd just let her out?
"I'm afraid I won't. You're prisoners, and if you didn't want to be 'cooped up in here' then you should have thought of that before you started a lightsabre fight."
The Togurtan's expression darkened. "Now listen here you-" she began, before being cut off as the Miralan slumped onto the bench.
They both looked over. The Miralan was arching herself and panting, seemingly breathless. "What's wrong with her?" Cantiss asked.
The Togurtan stared at her companion and then shook her head, looking confused.
"Oh it's just...so hot in here...with these clothes..." the Miralan gasped. She arched her back again and Cantiss couldn't stop his eyes being drawn to the line of her neck and her chest, the tightness of the unitard leaving very little to the imagination.
Cantiss swallowed. "Well, it, uh... it can get hot down here but I'm afraid there's nothing..."
"Oh but you could help!" the Miralan said, a note of desperation and hope in her voice. "This thing, it unzips at the back. If you were to...unzip it, then that would be such a great help."
Un...zip... Cantiss couldn't stop the images of unzipping the unitard, the folds of the clothes slowly peeling back to reveal the smooth olive-yellow skin, lightly beaded with sweat, and then at the front, dropping away...
"Uh...well..." His mouth was dry. "Y-your companion could-"
"She can't help me!" the Miralan cried. "Her hands are behind her, she can't...get the zip..."
Cantiss looked over at the Togurtan, who smiled and looked slightly embarrassed and shrugged to emphasize the fact that yes, her hands were indeed behind her.
Cantiss looked back. The Miralan was looking directly, eyes large and pleading. "Please, you're my only hope..." she begged.
"Oh...all right, all right...if you come over here I'll-"
"I can't!" the Miralan wailed. "I'm too hot, I'm too unwell." Then her eyes suddenly narrowed and her voice took on a commanding tone. "You'll have to come into the cell."
Well, that seemed obvious. Of course, he would have to. If she couldn't get to the bars then the only logical thing was for Cantiss to go in and help her. He nodded and took out the keys. Then he paused and looked at the Togurtan. "You, go stand in the corner," he ordered.
She nodded and complied.
Cantiss smiled. That was that taken care of. The fools weren't going to spring anything on him. He opened the cell door and stepped inside and over to the Miralan.
"Now, miss, if you could just turn around for me-"
"Actually I'm feeling much better," she said. "Looks like it was just a passing thing. So nothing to worry about."
Cantiss frowned, he blinked. Suddenly he wasn't all that sure why he was in the cell or why it had been so important to unzip the Miralan's costume. "But a moment ago you were-"
He felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over and saw the Togurtan smiling at him and waving with her hands that were now decidedly in front of her body. Before he could react she swept her hands up and clunked him on the chin, and Cantiss was out cold before he hit the floor.
Barriss slipped her feet through the cuffs, just as Ahsoka had done, as Ahsoka rummaged in Cantiss' pockets and got the key for the binder cuffs. She undid her own and then did the same with Barriss. Barriss let the cuffs drop to the floor and twisted her wrists around. "Ah, free at last!" she said with relief, rubbing her wrists.
"How did you know that would work?" Ahsoka asked.
"Even the strongest minds can always be weakened by something," Barriss replied, with a knowing smile.
"But how did you know it would work with him?"
"Huh? Oh, I saw him checking out your butt when we were taken to the cell."
Ahsoka shuddered slightly. "There is such a thing as too much information," she muttered. Barriss smiled in amusement. Ahsoka started towards the cell door. "Hopefully they've kept our lightsabres down here..." She slipped into the corridor and Barriss followed her a moment later, shutting the cell door behind them. She walked over to the desk, where Ahsoka was rifling through the cabinets. She gave a little yelp of triumph and plucked out her set of lightsabres, attaching them to her belt and then passed over Barriss' set. Barriss took them and slipped them into the pouch at her back.
"Now we just need a way out of here, preferably without being seen," Ahsoka muttered as she poked her head around the corner.
"Oh that's nothing to worry about," Barriss declared, with an extravagant shrug as she wandered past Ahsoka. "You should know the score by now: there's always a tunnel, or an air vent, or an escape hatch or," she snapped her fingers and gun pointed them at a manhole on the floor, "a sewer, that we can crawl through."
"I was afraid you were going to point to a sewer."
"Come on, it can't be worse than those tunnels on Geonosis."
Ahsoka shuddered. "Don't remind me..."
Barriss held her hand out and concentrated on the manhole, reaching through the force to grip it. After a moment it rattled slightly, and then lifted out silently and she held it up in the air. She used her other hand to gesture to Ahsoka. "You first."
Ahsoka shot her a slightly suspicious look, but stepped past and hopped down the hole. "Can you take the cover from me?" Barriss called, keeping her voice low.
"Give me a sec..." Ahsoka called back, a slight tinge of disgust in her voice. Bending over, Barriss could get a good idea of why as an ugly smell assailed her nose. "Got it!" Ahsoka confirmed.
Barriss took her arm away and the manhole stayed floating. Then she took a breath and hopped through the hole. She dropped down and her feet splashed into something horrible. "Ugh!" She let out a wail and lifted up her feet, the shoes now soaked through with truly filthy water. "I knew I should have brought my boots!"
Ahsoka couldn't stop herself from cracking a smile at Barriss' misfortune, and ever so subtly shifted her feet to draw attention to her boots as she slotted the manhole cover silently back in place, sending them into darkness.
Barriss glared vibroblades at her. "Don't you start..." she muttered, pinching her nose slightly to try and adjust to the horrific smell. "I take it back, this is worse than Geonosis."
"It's not that bad," Ahsoka said. She drew out and ignited one of her lightsabres, the silver-white glow illuminated the gloom. Barriss immediately shrank back and put one hand to her own sabres, drawing a puzzled look from Ahsoka. "It's for light," she explained, using the tone she reserved for idiots.
"I know that!" Barriss spluttered, blushing and drawing her hand away. "I was just startled."
Ahsoka rolled her eyes and gestured with her montrals down the tunnel. "Come on, the sooner we start the sooner we can get out of here." She turned and started walking down the tunnel and after a moment Barriss followed, sloshing through the muck.
"Ick...ugh...eew...yeaach...eeww..."
"Are you going to whine the whole way?" Ahsoka snapped.
"I might do!" Barriss retorted.
So, the opening duel, the beginning of the bickering, and the villain has been introduced as well! Scorpious has grown a bit, in my head, as I've plotted out this thing; and his former career is a clue as to the brand of viciousness he's going to unleash. I'm fairly sure that my thought here on what happens to padawans that fail is likely wrong according to canon, but I like the idea that the Temple Guards, other workers etc. are all former padawans who didn't make the cut and are silently building up resentment without the Jedi noticing, making them easy converts to the Inquisition.
The Resistance group mentioned here is not the Rebels. We'll be meeting them soon enough, but it's basically one of many independent groups that have sprung up in response to the Empire. Ahsoka is starting to come into the realities of the dirty business involved in rebellions, and the compromises that are necessary for it; something that Barriss will be drawing attention to. They're certainly having an awkward reunion thus far, and neither seems that keen to address the big old Bantha in the room...yet anyway...
After the opening flurry with these chapters, this is probably going to settle into a chapter a week/every two weeks depending on work levels. I don't envision it being that long, maybe around 10-15ish chapters; so it should all be done in time before the arrival of the new Ahsoka TV series, and Barriss' inevitable reveal as the villain of that, throwing this sort-of carefully planned to fit with canon timeline story into disarray...ah well.
Let me know what you thought and thanks again for reading!