Anakin's gunship landed just beyond the outskirts of the capital. The doors opened and his mind began to clear, somewhat. He was in his element now. He knew how to do this, he had done this a million times. He ran to the corner of a building, with Rex and his other men behind him. He motioned for a stop while he scanned the street for battle droids. Nothing showed itself, so they continued on.
Coruscant's air shuttles mimicked the underground trains of Xlenia. The tunnels were old and grimy from decades of abandonment, but they were perfect for soldiers on their way to the center of the city.
Anakin and his troopers made steady progress east. Obi-Wan and the 212th troopers would be starting on the Eastern outskirts and move in west, but on the streets instead. Hopefully, the Separatist forces would be too busy dealing with the 212th that the 501st could sneak in and sweep the building. That was the plan anyway.
The underground group reached the edge of the building first. The tunnel had a station in which riders would have gotten off the shuttle and climbed stairs to the ground level. There was also a locked, but an easily passable door that led directly into the Judicial Building. That was Anakin's route inside.
Anakin held up a fist to signal for a pause, and he activated his com-link. "Obi-Wan, we're at our entry point. How far off are you?"
"We're not far. Wait another two minutes, and then go in. We'll make sure the droids are distracted."
"Copy that," Anakin responded and relayed the message to his men. "Two minutes, get ready."
The clones double-checked their blasters and firearms, and Anakin pulled his lightsaber from his belt. He didn't activate it, but held it at the ready and waited patiently for two minutes to be up.
He only had another 30 seconds or so left, when he felt another presence in the tunnel. It wasn't one of his troopers, and it was Dark. It didn't feel familiar, not from what Anakin could remember. And they were armed. Not a good sign.
"Rex, take the men in." He looked to his captain. "I'll meet up with you inside, but I need to deal with something first."
Rex nodded from inside his helmet. He didn't know what his general knew, but he knew it wasn't good if he wanted the troopers to leave without him. "You heard the general, let's move!" He pointed forward, and the troopers burst through the door and into the Judicial Building.
Anakin, on the other hand, clenched his lightsaber and went back towards the shuttle rails. He closed his eyes and focused on the new, Dark presence.
It was young, he found, and reminded the Jedi Knight of Asaaj Ventress the more he focused on it. He didn't remember feeling this person, or thing, before, but in the instant that Anakin thought the thought, his gut told him otherwise. Something, something was off about this person. Something about them pulled Anakin towards them. A single string, a thin thread that connected their Force signature to his own. A thread that could not be cut, even if someone tried. Something in the Jedi told him that the thread had been there before, but everything else about this presence was unfamiliar. Confused, Anakin walked towards the Dark figure.
The person, whoever they were, was leaning against the curved wall of the tunnel. They had one foot propped up on the cement, and their arms were crossed. Anakin couldn't make out much else about the person in front of them, and they didn't seem in a rush to speak, so Anakin spoke first.
"Out for a late-night stroll?" He asked, opting to begin with some sarcasm. How would they respond?
The figure turned and snorted. "Even if I was, the stars are up there, not down here."
A female then. Why not?
"I didn't know the Sith were recruiting."
"Oh, they're not," she assured them. "There is already a master and an apprentice. I am neither."
"Then what are you?" He walked a few steps closer, then stopped. No need to get up close and personal yet.
"An Inquisitor." She said simply. "Someone who isn't a Jedi or a Sith, but fights on the side of people."
Anakin scoffed in disbelief. An Inquisitor? Sounded like a Sith-wannabe to him.
"Why are you here?"
"I'm here because you are."
"Show yourself, then." He ordered. "I have things to do."/
"Like meeting with the Chancellor?"
Anakin snapped into a defensive position. This person knew more than he wanted her to.
"I said, show. Yourself."
"I don't think you want me to do that." She said. He was really starting to dislike her voice. It was high, and sickly-sweet, like poison.
Anakin activated his lightsaber. If she wouldn't reveal her face, he would do it himself. His blue lightsaber glowed, and the light fell on her.
A Togruta.
Why? Anakin thought. Why did it have to be a Togruta?
Then another thought crossed his mind. Crossed, then filled, and scared him so badly that he couldn't think of anything else.
"Ahsoka?"/
It was her turn to scoff. "Do I look like your Padawan?"/
It was true, her skin was red, not black, and her montrals were drastically different. Black and white rings encircled her montrals and lekku, and her white face marks were different. Still, Anakin could shake the hope and the fear that this...this Inquisitor was his long lost apprentice.
"How do you know about her?" He asked, his voice now dripping with venom.
"The same way the rest of the galaxy knows about her, Skywalker. Not all of us forgot."
"If you are for the people," Anakin brought his lightsaber in front of him, still ignited. "Then why are you fighting for the Separatists?"
"Maybe I'm not," she said. "Maybe I'm not on either side."/
Anakin grew impatient. "You look like a Sith, you know too much about me, and you are at a Separatist base."
"Just because I fight for people doesn't determine how I fight for them." She stared into the Jedi's eyes. "There is more than one way to do that."
"I don't have time for this." Anakin sprinted forward and attacked her, but she was expecting his movement and dodged his strike. She sidestepped, rounded off, and landed in a crouch. Pulling out her lightsaber, she ignited it and a red blade shot out of the end. For some reason, her lightsaber had a semi-circle handle. Anakin didn't have time to guess why that was, because the Inquisitor (since she had no other name) touched a button on the side of her headdress, and a two-piece mask covered the top half of her face.
She launched into a flip (which was somewhat impressive, given that they were in a fairly low tunnel), and brought her lightsaber down atop Anakin's head. He blocked the strike and pushed her off of him. He began moving forward on her, striking with every step. She stepped back with him, staying low to the ground and just out of the Jedi's reach.
The Inquisitor seemed to know Anakin's fighting style well. Every move he made, she was ready to counter, and she matched his footsteps seamlessly. He wasn't going to win this fight with the standard strokes.
He dropped down low, like she was, spun to the left, then swung his lightsaber left to right, opposite to his motion, aiming for her torso. She shouldn't have been able to block it, at least not easily, because she should have protected her back. The Inquisitor, however, activated the other end of her lightsaber, revealing that hers had two blades, not just the one. She blocked his trick stroke without straining herself.
They held that low, tense position for a second, but Anakin used the Force, and pushed her back and off her feet. She slid backward a meter or two before Anakin held his blue lightsaber to her throat. Her red one was deactivated beyond her reach. Her physical reach, anyway.
Her mask undid itself, and the Jedi stared into the Inquisitor's eyes, searching for answers she would not yield. Was she lying? Was his Padawan really in there somewhere?
"Are you Ahsoka Tano?" Anakin asked again, unsure of what answer he wanted but desperate for any.
"Look through the Force, Skywalker," she said, almost taunting him, "and see for yourself."
He clenched his jaw, furious at her stubborn nature, but looked.
All he saw was Darkness. He saw pain, suffering, skill, and power, but no Light. No crackling spark, no fiery spirit, no infectious hope. No Ahsoka.
But that thread. That thread that he felt, he couldn't ignore the thread. What was it? How did he know this...this thing in front of him?
Anakin hardened his stare. "Maybe you'll be a little more willing to confess in front of the Jedi Council."
The Inquisitor reactivated her mask. "Not yet, Jedi." She reached out and called her lightsaber, but this time, it started to spin.
Anakin jumped out of the way, and when he landed, the Inquisitor was upright, holding her double-bladed lightsaber, the handle now a full circle instead of a half. The scarlet blades began to rotate around the handle, and soon, she held a red shield in her hand, humming as it spun. She jumped and lunged at Anakin again, and this time, she was on the offensive.
The spinning blades made it difficult for Anakin to track them, but soon he was able to accurately parry her wicked-fast strokes. She pushed him back now, not trying to kill him, but not relenting either. She wanted him to go somewhere, he realized. As she spun and attacked him, he looked for the chinks in her stance, places where he could hit without being sliced in half by her spinning lightsaber. He sure wasn't going to beat her by trying to play fair. Not with that lightsaber.
He saw a weak point and went in for the lick. He blocked the movement of her saber and went to punch her gut, but she saw it coming, again. Somehow, she seemed to know his favorite moves. How was beyond the Knight. She hooked one arm around his and deactivated her lightsaber with the other. She elbowed his gut, swept his feet from beneath him, and threw him towards the door that the clones had just left through several minutes ago.
He winced as he hit the floor, and tried to breathe properly. He looked up, expecting the Inquisitor to be coming in for the final stroke, but she was walking away. Away from the center of the city, and away from the Jedi.
She spoke to Anakin but did not look at him. "You can tell the Council that the Sith are tired of waiting for surrender. Mark my words, Skywalker. Within months, your precious Chancellor will have no choice but to bow to Darth Sideous."
"And what about you?" Anakin asked between coughs. "What will happen to you?"
"Oh, who knows?" She brushed his question off with a high laugh. A laugh that sounded just as poisonous as her voice. "The greater question is, what has happened to your clones?"
And with that, she ran off down the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness.