Chapter 4: The Inquisition
The grate in the floor wobbled slightly, before creaking open and a set of cerulean eyes appeared at the crack. The eyes shifted around a moment, looking out on a stable. It was quite large, with a gate shut at the end. Crucially, there was nobody there.
"Coasts' clear," Ahsoka said, pushing the grate fully open and clambering out. Barriss cautiously popped her head out and then followed after. She stood up and glared down at her filthy and soaked shoes, and the splashback that had crept up her calves. She ripped her shoes off and wrung them out, brown brackish water spilling to the ground. She did not want to think about how the water got that colour.
She held them in her fingertips, glaring at the ruined shoes with little runnels of water dripping down them. "Kark it..." she muttered, flinging them away. There was no saving them.
She looked over and saw that Ahsoka was standing near one of the paddocks. A fathier was stood there, looking mournful, and she was stroking her hand along his face. Along the fathier's skin, the faint darkening of electroshocks could be seen. "I wonder if we could let them go..." she said, softly.
Barriss snorted. "Yes, sure. Whilst we're at it, why don't we put neon signs over our heads saying 'we're escaping this way'." She gestured at the gate. "Let's go."
Ahsoka drew her hand back reluctantly. "Another time maybe..." She followed Barriss over to the gate. Barriss used the Force to backflip through the crack between the end of the gate and the top of the roof, and Ahsoka did the same, flattening sideways to clear the gap. On the other side, they snuck around the edges of the field, the cheering patrons all focused on the racing and silently made their way into the larger town. The lights of the casino were visible up on the hill. Hitting the main street, they paused and awkwardly glanced at one another.
"Where are you parked?" Barriss asked.
Ahsoka pointed over her shoulder. "At the main hangar. You?"
Barriss pointed in the other direction. "Out by the beach."
"Right. Guess we're going in opposite directions then."
"Looks like it."
Another silence.
"Well, this has been an interesting and more eventful day than I thought it would be." Ahsoka nodded. "Goodbye Barriss."
She turned and started up the street towards the main hangar. Barriss turned away, paused and then swung back. "So that's it?" she called. Ahsoka paused. "After all this time, just 'goodbye Barriss' and 'may the Force be with you'?"
Ahsoka turned her head, expression icy. "I don't remember saying 'may the Force be with you'..."
Barriss twitched. "Cold...fine then. Goodbye sarlaac head!" She spun on her heel and stormed down the street, turning back briefly to flick both middle fingers at Ahsoka, and then whirling back and carrying on.
"You little schutta!" Ahsoka shouted after her, but Barriss gave no indication of hearing. Ahsoka's lips twitched and twisted and then she let out a growl of frustration and marched up the street. She turned into an alleyway and then slowed and halted. She let out a deep breath and put her arm on the wall, her legs shaking slightly.
She's alive... she thought. She's alive... She didn't know what to do with the information. She'd accepted Barriss' death a long time ago before the execution had been scheduled to take place and now...
Now she didn't know what to do or how to respond.
She shook her head. It doesn't matter, Ahsoka, she thought. You're not going to see her again, or at least you're not likely to. That's all. Accept that she's out there, and move on from it.
She took a deep breath and carried on towards the hangar.
Barriss marched down the street. She had almost cleared the streets, heading out towards the beachfront where there was separate ship storage arranged out on a section of the beach further away from the casino. She reached one of the last buildings and paused.
She slammed her head onto the wall.
She peeled her forehead off and angrily wiped at her eyes. "Stupid..." she muttered and carried on, heading onto the beach and towards the parked ships. What had she thought would happen, after all? That Ahsoka would listen to her? Forgive her? No. Barriss couldn't blame her for her reaction, for wanting nothing to do with her.
And yet, for a brief moment in the cell and outside, she thought she'd sensed something of the spark they used to have. That there was something of the old friendship that was still alive.
But that was past now, and her own childish reaction certainly wouldn't have helped. And there was no sense in raking over it. What was done was done and that was all there was to it.
She took in a deep, shuddering breath.
That was all there was-
She halted and slipped behind a set of crates. Some instinct had shot a warning through her mind, some premonition of the Force. She took a moment and then peered around the crate towards her ship.
Her ship was some old battered model, somewhat nondescript. A burner ship, one she'd acquired on the cheap for the purpose of the job that she could then abandon and hopefully lead any pursuers astray. But in front of the ship were two people, hanging about. They looked relatively nondescript, hard to make out in the shadows. Barriss squinted at them. It wasn't unusual that there might be a guard after she'd been lugged in jail. Certainly, the casino wouldn't necessarily have a record connecting her with that ship but it wouldn't be hard to track down.
And yet...there was something about the two figures...something that was making her wary...
She squinted more-
And the glint of moonlight caught the edge of an unusual lightsabre hilt, a rod contained within a wheel.
Barriss' eyes widened. Whoever they were, they were not ordinary security personnel.
And they were waiting for her.
She pressed herself behind the crate. It didn't seem like they knew she was there. Perhaps if she could get the drop on them...but there was no guarantee that they were the only ones. There could, of course, be someone waiting on the ship.
She was about to start probing with the Force when another thought struck her with the intensity of lightning.
Ahsoka! If they were waiting for Barriss...then there was a good chance...
She slipped away from the beach and when she reached the city streets she started to run.
"Ahsoka!"
The whisper-shout came from behind her and Ahsoka let out a groan. She had been so close to the hangar, looming up in front of her, and she'd just managed to accept that she wouldn't be seeing Barriss again.
And now, like a bad credit...
She whirled around as the Miralan came hurtling towards her. "What is it?" Ahsoka hissed. "Are you really that upset about me not saying may the Force be with you?"
"No!" Barriss panted, reaching her. "I mean, yes I was hurt, but that's not why I'm here."
Ahsoka crossed her arms. "What then? Want another go at insulting my lekku?"
"No, no! I mean I'm sorry, that was mean but-" Barriss shook her head. "There are some people at my ship, people with strange lightsabres!"
Ahsoka uncrossed her arms, instantly alert. "Strange lightsabres? What did they look like?"
"I've never seen the shape before. They had a hilt surrounded by some sort of disk."
Ahsoka looked away slightly, a note of anxiety crossing her expression. "Inquisitors...looks like the news travelled fast."
Barriss furrowed her brows. "Who are the Inquisitors?"
Ahsoka looked at her in surprise. "Have you been living under a rock?"
"I've been trying to..."
Ahsoka sighed. "They're Dark Side adepts. They work for the Emperor and Darth Vader and lead the hunt for the remaining Jedi."
Barriss looked confused, processing the information. She grabbed Ahsoka's tunic, panicked. "What happened to the Rule of Two?" she demanded. "There's only supposed to be two of them, why are there suddenly more of them?"
"I don't know. I guess Palpatine changed the rule."
"He can't do that!"
Ahsoka rolled her eyes and removed Barriss' hands from her tunic. "Well, why don't you write him a letter and explain it to him. I'm sure he'll change his mind."
Barriss blushed.
Ahsoka turned back towards the hangar. She closed her eyes a moment, reaching out through the corridors to her ship, but she didn't pick up anything. Though it was possible they were hiding their presence... She bit her lower lip. There wasn't anything for it. They'd have to take the chance...
She gestured to Barriss. "Come on, maybe they're not monitoring my ship and we can get out of here."
"Wait, you want me to come with you?"
She looked over at Barriss' genuinely confused expression. "Yes?" Ahsoka said, also confused.
"Why?"
"Because I don't want them to kill you?"
"A few hours ago you making a very good attempt at it yourself."
"I can just leave you here if you would prefer."
Barriss shook both palms. "No, no! I'm happy to take the offer! Just...surprised..."
Ahsoka rolled her eyes again and turned away. "Well come on then. The sooner we get out of here, the better."
They snuck along the corridors until they arrived at Docking Bay 78. Peeking around the corner, they saw Ahsoka's ship. It was a standard light freighter, one of the Allanar make. Unimpressive and unimposing, but that was exactly what Ahsoka wanted out of it. Two wings dropped from the sides, with blasters at each end, with the ship tapering to a beak-like cockpit. It was facing away from them, with the rear entrance shut.
"I don't see or sense anything..." Ahsoka murmured.
"Nor I...we could be in luck..." Barriss replied.
"There's no such thing as luck..." Ahsoka looked over, with a small smile. "One of Master Kenobi's favourite sayings. I think it was a reminder never to leave anything to chance."
"Good point. On which note..." Barriss slipped her lightsabres out of her pouch, and Ahsoka unclipped hers from her belt. "Might as well head over, I suppose..."
Ahsoka nodded. She stepped out into the bay and walked towards the ship, Barriss following behind, keeping her eyes peeled and glancing around at the shadows and crates and cables littering the bay. There was a cool wind coming down from the opening of the bay and she let it breeze across her, calming her...
...Wait...
She hadn't checked the roof!
She ignited her lightsabres and whirled with them in a cross pattern, just in time to halt the red blade of a rapidly descending Inquisitor. The Inquisitor landed and then flipped up and over, spinning towards Ahsoka, who ignited her own blades and whirled to meet him. Another Inquisitor darted out from the shadows where she had landed and attacked Barriss with her flaring red blade.
Kriff, kriff! How could she have missed such an obvious entryway!
She batted aside the blows from the blade and the Inquisitor darted back, landing in front of Ahsoka's ship, the other Inquisitor joining her. They were dressed in black style light armour, which left a lot of room for movement, and both wore helmets leaving only their lower faces visible. Ahsoka and Barriss slowly moved together.
"Hee, hee, hee," the female Inquisitor giggled. "Look Brother, there's two little Jedi to play with."
"We're not Jedi!" both Barriss and Ahsoka said, and then glanced at one another before looking back.
The male Inquisitor shrugged. "Oh? Looks like this has all been an honest mistake then Sister." He chuckled. "Perhaps we should let them go?"
"We could, we could..." The female Inquisitor seemed to ponder it. And then she grinned, teeth shining bright under the helmet. "Or we could have some practice!"
Both Inquisitors ignited a second blade on the sabres and darted towards them.
Caught off guard, Barriss stumbled back as the new double-bladed lightsabre slashed at her, the Inquisitor spinning and whirling the blade, Barriss struggling to adapt to the new attack pattern. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ahsoka backing off, but holding her own. She hadn't yet switched to her reverse grip.
Seeing this calmed Barriss slightly. If Ahsoka wasn't going all out yet, then she shouldn't big them up into a bigger threat than they were. She needed to focus. She had trained for years in lightsabre combat and fought for years in the Clone Wars. She could handle this.
As she let her fear and anxiety pass she began to notice some of the gaps in the Inquisitors attack. She was flashy and agile, sure, but her footwork wasn't always complete, leaving her having to swing wider than necessary and not able to get as much force behind her strikes. And though the double-bladed lightsabre was awe-inspiring it had some obvious faults in how it forced its wielders into particular poses, moves and stances. Skilled users of the blade, like Darth Maul, could find ways to compensate for this and make the weapon as deadly in practice as it looked; but Barriss' opponent was not one of them. And the problem was only magnified in using a one-handed hilt with the double-blade.
Barriss' eyes narrowed and she planted her back foot. On the next strike that arced a little too wide in compensation, she darted in with her own slash, catching the Inquisitor off guard and forcing her into a hasty block. Her poor footwork then sent her off-balance, unable to recover her position and Barriss was now fully on the attack, striking and twisting with both her blades in a deadly rhythm, forcing the Inquisitor back further and faster as she desperately struggled to regain the initiative.
Barriss sabre swiped and cut through the side of the helmet, piercing the Inquisitor's cheek and ripping a significant chunk of her upper jaw off. The Inquisitor screamed and let loose with a wild swipe that Barriss ducked back from, as she slapped her hand to her face. Black blood oozed from the smoking portion of the Inquisitor's face and she glared at Barriss with hatred, drawing her hand away to show the missing half of her jaw, the insides cooked black by the heat of the blade and drool and blood leaking down her face.
"You bish!" the Inquisitor snarled, voice wheezing and she stepped forward and her blades began to spin, whirling around the disk, faster and faster until they looked like a solid block of light.
Barriss stepped back slightly, perturbed by the move. Then she spotted the obvious flaw in the attack plan, shrugged slightly and stabbed her green sabre through the hilt, splitting the Inquisitors arm up to the elbow.
The Inquisitor shrieked and dragged her arm back, the two burnt halves flopping apart, the disk lightsabre dropping out of the limp fingers. Barriss stepped forward and abruptly cut off the wail, slicing through the Inquisitors neck, the head bouncing into the shadows as the body crumbled to the ground.
She spun back and started to run towards where Ahsoka was fighting the other Inquisitor.
But Ahsoka didn't need her help. The other Inquisitor struck with a two-handed blow and Ahsoka slipped aside. Caught out by the lack of resistance the Inquisitor stumbled, as Ahsoka flipped her left-hand blade into the reverse grip and slammed it backwards, stabbing the Inquisitor through the chest. He gurgled and spat blood, and Ahsoka deactivated her lightsabre and he collapsed to the ground.
Barriss smiled. "Well, that wasn't so hard," she said, deactivating her own lightsabres.
"Were these the two waiting at your ship?" Ahsoka asked.
Barriss glanced at them and then shook her head. "I can't be sure, I didn't get a good look at them at my ship." She waved her hand. "You go get things fired up, I'll wait here in case there's more of them."
Ahsoka nodded and ran to her ship, using the Force to activate the ramp. She leapt up and darted into the belly of her ship as the ramp was still completing its descent. Barriss stood out in the docking bay, glancing around, keeping all the corners and the open entrance insight. She heard the power starting up and the engines beginning.
Probably safe enough to head up now, she thought, turning around and heading towards the frigate's ramp.
"Ah, Ms Offee!"
She halted. Slowly turned around with a quizzical look.
Scorpious Holicron walked into the docking bay, his hands clasped behind him, and a pleasant smile on his face. Strapped to his side were two scabbards, one long and one short, the hilts rattling as he walked.
"Do I know you?" Barriss called.
Scorpious shook his head, stopping his walk a few metres away from Barriss. "Not formally, I'm afraid," he replied. "Though we may well have passed one another at the Temple. My name is Scorpious Holicron."
"You used to be a Jedi?"
His face twitched slightly, but his smile stayed where it was. "No. I worked in one of the more menial capacities around the Temple. Though I did get to know your Master fairly well before it all collapsed."
Now it was Barriss' turn to twitch. "So? It doesn't matter to me."
"Quite so. It is you I am here for in any case. I was waiting at your ship, but it would appear that you were wise to what was going on." He nodded at Ahsoka's frigate. "I was unaware you had an accomplice."
Barriss frowned. That's odd...if he knows about me why doesn't he know about Ahsoka?
"Why don't we all get together and have a nice chat, hmm?" Scorpious said, starting forward. "You surely would like to know what happened to Ms Unduli and-"
Barriss ignited her sabres and pointed the blue one at Scorpious. "That's far enough," she growled.
Scorpious sighed. "Very well, have it your way. The Jedi are steeped in violence, as you so eloquently put it." Barriss flinched as Scorpious drew out a long, thin, sword in his right hand and another shorter sword in his left. He held the short sword behind him and the rapier in front of his face and bowed to her. Barriss stared in confusion. "Come, come, Ms Offee," he chided her. "Surely you were taught manners in the Temple? To bow before a duel?"
Barriss snapped her blade up in front of her face and then whipped it away.
Scorpious raised himself up and shrugged. "Perfunctory, but it's something I suppose." He smiled and then adopted his stance, right foot forward the other planted back at a slight diagonal, his body sideways and facing her. He held the rapier out pointing towards her, and the short steel was held crosswise across the long blade.
Barriss stepped forward slightly. Then she darted out and slashed at Scorpious. He flicked up the long steel and caught the sabre on it, light and sparks flickering off of them, but the sword didn't cut. Barriss stepped back, reassessing. Must be made of beskar or cortosis... she thought. But she didn't have time to think further as Scorpious immediately pressed the attack.
He sliced and jabbed at her, using rapid and deft movements to strike. It was a different style than Barriss was used to. The Jedi blades, because the lightsabres were heavy and bottom-heavy with the blade itself having no weight, the action was normally in the arms, with long sweeping swings and greater power. But Scorpious' action was in the wrist-fast, flicking, jabbing strikes that caught Barriss out as her own sweeping strikes struggled to adjust to his subtler attacks.
This guy is on a different level from the other two!
When she did seemingly spot a gap and tried to swipe at him, he flicked up his short steel and batted away her sabre, then took advantage of her being thrown off to dart in with the long steel and cut across her cheek.
Barriss let out a howl of pain, the cut stinging in the wind, and she leapt back and skidded slightly.
Scorpious smiled and stood up, holding his long steel in front of his face, so Barriss could see blood, her blood, dribbling down its length. "First touch to me," Scorpious said.
"That's the only one you're getting..." Barriss snarled, stepping forward.
There was a whine and a rush of wind and she whirled around as Ahsoka's frigate lifted off, angled up and roared out of the docking bay. Barriss stared at it as it passed the lip, eyes wide with anger and fear. She left me... she left me!
"You schutta!" she screamed at the departing ship.
"Oh dear," Scorpious chuckled. "Perhaps you should have paid more money?"
Barriss whirled around, her eyes blazing. A distant part of her head urged her to calm herself, that she mustn't fear, but she was far past that now. She was angry. More than angry, the image of Ahsoka, laughing at her, thanking her for the distraction as she took off into the sky surging through her mind.
That little sarlaac headed schutta! After I came back to warn her, after the way she'd treated me, she just leaves me! I'll take care of this insolent prick and then I will track her down...
Scorpious' eyes widened slightly, a cruel tweak appearing at his lips. Well, well... he thought. Whoever just ran off means a lot to her it seems...this might be an easier job than I imagined.
Barriss stepped forward and spun her blades in a whirl, kicking up sparks where the edges slapped at the ground, and then she darted forward, lashing out at Scorpious, a furious barrage of green and blue striking at him. Scorpious defended himself, giving ground but not allowing himself to be boxed, maintaining his control over the situation. He assessed Barriss, her furious expression. She was unbalanced and didn't even really know it; as with a lot of people when they drew on the Dark Side without meaning to she was feeling a flood of power, but she had no direction or control. It wasn't as easy to wield as many imagined and required a firm hand to keep it steady.
Scorpious smiled and allowed it to show to Barriss and he saw her expression change slightly, visibly disconcerted by the fact that he was not bothered by her attacks. This really was all too easy...
Scorpious turned the tide with a deft manoeuvre, flicking the short steel out at Barriss eyes and making her instinctively flinch, and then took advantage of that slight break in her attacks to advance on her, his rapier a whirl. Barriss slunk back, batting it away, but only barely, and he saw the hatred and anger recede to be replaced by fear as she started to realise that she'd overextended and now had no way of getting her position back. It was an advantage of using the swords over lightsabres: the Jedi were so used to having the light of their opponents blades to intuitively react to that, deprived of it, it threw their timing off, often without them realising why. They started to fear that they were facing a superior swordsman and started diverting energy and attention to working out a way to get out of the attacks, which made them sloppier and that made it easier for Scorpious to manoeuvre.
Just as he was doing now. He was almost in place, almost in the right position to slip under Barriss' guard and slice the tendons on first one arm and then the other, rendering them useless. Then it would be an easy matter to package her up and begin the process. He could feel the Emperor's praise coming his way like a warm glow as if it was extending back from the future-
And then Barriss did something surprising.
Scorpious slashed down at her and she caught his blade on her blue sabre and he prepared to sweep in and strike with the short steel when Barriss suddenly deactivated her lightsabre and spun away. The sudden lack of resistance led Scorpious to stumble forward, and Barriss swung around and cracked her elbow into the side of his face.
Scorpious careened away and nearly lost his balance but just managed to hold his footing. Barriss grinned at him, recovering some of her poise, as she reactivated her sabres. "Second touch to me," she called.
Scoprious was furious, with her and her impish manner and with himself. He'd got carried away and stopped paying attention. He wouldn't make that mistake again. He raised himself and turned around-
Barriss gasped.
Scorpious' right eye, where she'd struck his face, burned a feral yellow, the pupil slicing through like a predator's eye.
"Oh I'm sorry," Scorpious chuckled. He reached up to his left eye and removed the contact lens, revealing another burning yellow eye. "I'm afraid in the last days at the Temple, this started showing up so I had to hide it. And old habits don't always go away easy. You understand I'm sure?"
"Of course," Barriss said, mouth dry. She swallowed.
"Now where were we? Oh yes." He glared at her, settling himself into a ready position. "The last round..."
Barriss settled herself, holding up her sabres, berating herself to concentrate, concentrate. I must not fear. Fear closes all the paths except anger. And the path to anger leads to hatred, and the path to hatred leads to the Dark Side. I will let the fear pass, and when it does, all paths will be open to me. But the fear wasn't passing, it was hanging around like a malignant cloud and she could feel her heart hammering as Scorpious glared into her, glared through her, and started his advance.
Then a low whining and rumbling came to her ears and she whipped around to see Ahsoka's light frigate burst past the overhang. The cannons on the ship fired at Scorpious, and he dove aside, just managing to keep outside of the range of the blaster fire and the explosions they caused. Barriss looked up and saw that the ramp was still disengaged, and she used the Force to leap up and land on the ramp, running up it and hitting the button to close it as the ship tilted back.
Crouched behind some crates, Scorpious glared up at the frigate and sheathed his swords. Another time...
In the cockpit, Ahsoka slammed the levers as the frigate shot upwards, pulling against gravity's drag as it started heading for the exosphere.
Barriss heaved herself inside and slumped into the co-pilot's seat. "I thought you'd left me," she said, sullenly.
Ahsoka spared her a slight glance. "I saw you struggling with him on the camera and figured it would be better to do a flyby, rather than risk him pursuing you on, or giving more time for others to arrive," she explained. "I thought you'd trust me."
Barriss shrugged. "Maybe I should have but...it's been a long time."
"Well you got on, that's the main thing. Who was that?"
"Some guy called Scorpious Holicron. He claimed to work at the Jedi Temple. Do you know him?"
Ahsoka shook her head. "Most of the Inquisitors are former Jedi, or Temple staff or padawans of one form or another though." Outside the cockpit, the dragging and rumbling stopped as the ship cleared the atmosphere and was out into space. In front of them was the wedge shape of a light cruiser, and from its underbelly, four fighters spilt out and streaked towards them.
"Kriff..." Ahsoka muttered, pulling on the controls to take them away. "Knew it wouldn't be so easy."
"You can get rid of them right?" Barriss asked a note of worry in her voice.
Ahsoka grinned at her. "Of course! I was padawan to not only one of the greatest Jedi Knights in the order, but also the greatest star pilot."
Barriss' face lit up. "Oh yeah! You were Skywalker's padawan!" Then her face darkened with horror and she scrambled for the seatbelts. "Oh kriff you were Skywalker's padawan!"
Laser blasts flashed past the cockpit and the frigate rumbled as some detonated against it, as the fighters tried to ferry them back in range of the cruiser's tractor beam.
"Do you need me to man the turrets?" Barriss asked, clinging on to her seat.
"Nope we don't have them, but I have a manoeuvre to take care of this."
"I was afraid you were going to say thaaaaa-!"
Ahsoka turned off the engines and slammed the yoke to the side. The frigate kept its forward momentum but swung on its axis so it whirled around to face the pursuing ships, the g-force pressing Barriss into her seat. Before the pilots could react, Ahsoka squeezed the trigger and the blaster cannons fired out, ripping the pursuing ships to shreds, the explosions buffeting their frigate slightly. She punched a button and the engines burst into life, the frigate shooting through the dissipating explosions and wreckage, pressing them both back into their seats.
As they came back towards the cruiser, Ahsoka pulled them into a dive towards the planet and then pulled up as she felt the resistance of the exosphere. She skimmed along the top of it, counting on the presence of the planet below to stop the cruiser from firing any lasers it had at them. Then, as she hit the curve of the planet, she peeled off and they slingshotted out of the planet's gravity well, increasing the speed briefly and taking them far out of range of the cruiser.
More fighters showed up on the radar, proximity warnings flaring, as Ahsoka punched buttons on the console.
"They're gaining on us!" Barriss shouted.
"That's okay...because we..." The console bleeped and Ahsoka shoved a lever forward. "Are out of here!"
The stars outside the cockpit lengthened and the frigate shot into hyperspace.
"I'm afraid they got away, Lord Holicron," the voice at the other end, laced with fear, said.
"No matter," Scorpious replied, mildly. "It makes the task more difficult but not impossible. We will pick up their trail."
"Yes, Lord Holicron," the voice couldn't keep the relief from it. "I will send down some more investigators to assist you."
"Thank you." Scorpious deactivated his comm. He stared up at the sky for a moment longer and then glanced around the docking bay, noting the bodies of the two Inquisitors, the lightsabre wounds on both, and how far apart they were. Then he walked out of the docking bay, heading for the casino. He couldn't quite stop the smile coming to his lips. This was proving to be a more interesting hunt than he had envisioned.
"We did it!" Barriss cheered, punching the air. "You did it!" she corrected, grinning at Ahsoka. "That was amazing flying!"
Ahsoka shrugged modestly. "What can I say? I learn well, and I learned from the best." She uncoupled her seat straps and Barriss did the same. "We should have a bit of time before we reach our destination, so I guess I can give you the tour."
Barriss nodded and followed Ahsoka as she showed her around the ship. It wasn't too large, aside from the cockpit and the lower levels engine and maintenance area, the living quarters consisted of a medium-sized open space that combined a relaxing area, featuring a couch and a game table, with a small kitchen area, consisting of an eating table, some cabinets and a cooker of some description. Ahsoka briefly showed Barriss her room, it was a decent size but functional, before showing Barriss the spare room.
The spare room was small. It had a single metal palette bed that slid out of the wall, with some cushions and covers stored in another cabinet. Another door led through to the refresher and shower room, and there was a small cabinet for storage.
Barriss glanced around the room and seated herself on the bed. "You don't get many visitors do you?" she asked wryly.
"Nope," Ahsoka replied. She turned to go. "I'm going to get some rest."
"Okay. Ahsoka?"
She turned back, glancing over her shoulder.
"Thank you," Barriss said, with a small and grateful smile.
Ahsoka nodded. "You're welcome." She tapped at the panel on the door and it slid shut.
Barriss lay her head back against the wall and let out a deep sigh. It was hard to believe that it had all panned out this way. The escape had certainly been something else. But now that it was all finished, and the adrenaline was leaving her body, she suddenly came to realize just how physically and mentally tired she was.
She took her lightsabres out of her pouch and set them down on the floor, then swung her legs up onto the palette and rested her head back against a cushion.
Just a small meditation, she thought. Just to get my head clear...
She shut her eyes and drifted straight into sleep.
And that's the Canto Bight arc done! After that relatively action-packed opening, we'll be moving into some slower scenes now and we might actually arrive at the Hurt/Comfort part of this whole gig. I enjoyed writing the encounter between Barriss and Scorpious and the fight was an interesting one to do. Hopefully, I conveyed Scorpious' more European fencing style as against the Jedi's more kendo sword-fighting style well, but if not... well that's what it was intended to be ^_^;
Thanks to those of you who have left reviews - it is encouraging to know that people are enjoying the story! To address one of the questions: Palpatine's motives in letting Barriss go are kind of what he sets out in the first chapter, though it's not the whole story. It will get addressed as to exactly what he was up to, but it won't be happening for a while yet.
Thanks as ever for reading - and any reviews/favourites/follows/thoughts are greatly appreciated!