"How's your side feeling?" Anakin asked.

"Better," she responded, massaging it. "Nothing a bit of bruise ointment won't fix, once I get back to my ship."

"Yeah, that ship that you nearly shot me down with? I remember that one." He scowled, but only half-heartedly.

She laughed again. "Oh yeah! Right, I forgot about that. And to be fair, I was never going to kill you."

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Sure you weren't."

"I'm being serious. For some reason, Darth Sideous doesn't want you dead. Or at any rate, he doesn't want me to kill you. Can't say I'd enjoy it either."

A smirk curved his mouth. "So you don't want to kill a Jedi, but you have it out for the Chancellor."

"Hey, remember, I was a Jedi once, too. Maybe I wasn't Temple-trained, but I was a Padawan all the same."

"I guess you weren't always a part of the Dark Side," Anakin mused. "You know, if you would stop ransacking our shipments and bases, the Jedi Council might think a little higher of you."

The Inquisitor waved it off. "If I'm being honest, I couldn't care less about what the Council thinks. As I said, I did watch her trial. They aren't always right, although they're better than most."

Anakin thought for a moment. Despite all of his ill will towards them, he knew the Sister was right. It was easier to admit it out here, away from them, than in the Temple.

"Who are you referring to by 'most'?" He questioned, and they started walking again, but at a casual pace towards the base Anakin had arrived at earlier.

"The Senates, both of them actually. I can't tell you how many Senate meetings I've had to sit through because Sideous ordered me to. I never had to do that for the Republic, as a Padawan, but I've had my fill of the Separatist Senate."

"The Republic Senate isn't much better," Anakin told her, sniggering. "Believe me, I've sat through plenty of them."

"Have you noticed that they clap, a lot?" The Sister started mimicking them, golf clapping daintily. "I wonder how their hands don't fall off."

Anakin threw up his hands. "Thank you! I tried telling Obi-Wan that once, but he said that I was crazy! There's so much formality and grandiose speeches, I'm starting to think that politicians don't even realize it anymore."

"I've given it a lot of thought, and I've decided that the Senates are at war because everyone else knew that it was easier to fight it out instead of trying to get them to agree. At least if you get shot, it's over with quickly, and not in five hours."

Anakin laughed and the Sister joined in, chuckling at her own joke. They continued complaining about Senate meetings and many other things besides, when, about a kilometer from the base, Anakin noticed a glint hidden by the foliage.

"My ship," the Sister explained. "I didn't want to park it in the city, so it's out here instead."

"I get it," said Anakin. There wasn't a Separatist base near here, so she didn't have free parking as he did.

He watched her walk up the ramp, before turning back to him and speaking one more time. "Just to be clear, this doesn't change anything," she confirmed, and he nodded.

"Next time I see you, this didn't happen," he said. "No hard feelings, no strings attached."

"None," replied the Inquisitor, and she smiled one last time. "As I said, you Jedi are a lot better when you're not swinging your lightsaber around."

"So are you," he offered, and he walked off, not looking back. A minute after he had left, he heard the Sister's engines fire up, and the ship lifted into the sky and took off.

Anakin stared at the ship long after he couldn't see it. At the end of the mission, he was no closer to knowing if the Inquisitor was Ahsoka or not. He did have a few answers though.

The Sister had explained her backstory, although she could just have made it up. Anakin felt a pang of guilt. If she was telling the truth, then his fighter had been the cause of her master's death. It wasn't that long ago that Anakin had thought that Obi-Wan had died while chasing Rako Hardeen. At least back then, he had had Ahsoka to help him and be with him while they dealt with the idea. The Sister must not have had anyone when her master had died. Anakin realized that he hadn't asked for his name.

The night as a whole had been one of the strangest Anakin had been through. He had teamed up with one of the most successful Separatist warriors and snuck into a drunk collector's house to steal holocrons that tossed them up into the air before giving them a vision and dropping them. Then he and the Sister had exchanged a lengthy conversation, all without trying to kill each other. In the end, it hadn't even felt like they had been fighting each other for over two months. That reminder about no strings attached had actually been necessary.

Anakin could see now that what she had said was true, the Sister wasn't really on either side. She just had a personal hatred for the Chancellor, not necessarily the Republic itself, or even the Jedi. It was almost like she was on her own side, which would explain why she hadn't fully committed to being a Sith and had settled for Inquisitor.

It seemed nice to Anakin. The Sister technically didn't have to be loyal to the Sith, since neither of them was her master. They were her commanding officers, but they weren't her masters. She didn't answer to them. That seemed quite pleasant to Anakin, especially during everything he had to deal with at the Temple.

He didn't really want to go back, not after acting so at ease with the Sister. He hadn't felt so loose, so relaxed since he had met with Padmé a month ago. He had probably laughed more tonight than he had in weeks, maybe months. He almost wanted to get on his ship and follow her, just so he could avoid the Temple. Anakin didn't typically associate ease with the Dark Side, but the Inquisitor had been different than he had thought when he first met her.

Anakin's mind raced as he walked back towards the base. Was there a reason? Was there a point in waiting so long to finally open up to Anakin a little bit, when they were alone, and outside the influence of their masters? What had she been trying to accomplish, while talking to him? To get him to see her way? Just to get to know him? Had she been evaluating his strengths and weaknesses? Or did she really just want some company while she tracked down her holocron?

Anakin didn't know, but he was more confused than ever about her identity. On one hand, she had given a pretty complex and complete backstory, if not a little vague. She was quite intent on killing the Chancellor, and she had claimed that she hadn't seen Ahsoka since the trial.

On the other hand, her banter, her witty comebacks, her way with motors and her lightsaber, small things about her that Anakin had picked up on all pointed to Ahsoka. He hadn't seen her on the Balance of the Force, or whatever it was called. If she was hiding in disguise as the Sister, a lot of coincidences would no longer be coincidences. That, and Anakin refused to think about what it meant if Ahsoka wasn't on the Balance at all.

But then why did she want to kill Palpatine so badly? He had overseen her trial, but Anakin was sure that Ahsoka wouldn't want to kill him. It wasn't like Ahsoka to want something like that.

Maybe the Sister was Ahsoka, and tonight had been her trying to give him a message. Was he supposed to figure something out, based on what she had said, or done? Or maybe it was a trap, and the Sister was going to report back to Sideous and use what she had learned about him against him.

Anakin shook his head as he walked back within the perimeter of the base. It was too much. He didn't know anymore. Until he got some definite answers, he would never know. He would never know.

Once the Sister had jumped to hyperspace and slathered on a layer of bruise ointment for her side (she had actually picked it up for her montrals, but it helped this too), she went into the back of the ship and called Sideous. He had wanted a report of how the night had gone.

While the projector activated and the communication console fired up, the Sister thought back to what was said. Anakin Skywalker had told her quite a bit, if not somewhat indirectly. He was certainly still concerned for his Padawan. This, more than anything, made the Sister feel sympathetic for him. She had seen how much Tyrannus had been ignored, overlooked, and disregarded by Sideous lately, although he couldn't tell. Years of abuse tended to do that to a person, even someone as cold-hearted as Tyrannus.

It had been almost a year since that trial, the one with Ahsoka Tano and Barriss Offee, but Skywalker was still holding on to her. The Sister didn't need to be Temple-trained to know that attachment was against the Jedi Code. The Sister wanted to do more to help him, to lead him to his long lost apprentice, but she had to focus on her mission now. She was so close, she couldn't turn back, not even if she felt bad for Skywalker. He would be okay, but no one could complete her mission but her. The Sister had to keep moving forward.

The console connected and Sideous was projected into the dark room. "Sister, how is Skywalker?"

"He fares well, Your Excellency," she began. "I did exactly what we discussed. He believes that I hate the Chancellor with all my heart. That should give him some extra incentive to trust you, or at the very least want to protect you."

"Very good, Sister," the Dark Lord praised, and the Inquisitor smiled. "The time is growing closer, and your efforts to confuse Skywalker will soon pay off. Soon, I promise you."

The Sister nodded. "In the meantime, is there something else that you require of me?"

"The Senate is having a meeting today."

"Which one?" She clarified.

"Both of them. I've actually sent for Skywalker to look over the one on Coruscant."

The Sister hid a smirk. He was going to 'enjoy' that, especially after their little chat.

"I also want you to facilitate the Separatist Senate during their meeting."

...well that just ruined her night.

"Yes, Your Excellency. I will be there shortly."

"They are awaiting your arrival, Inquisitor."

The projector went Dark, and so did the Sister.

Just her luck. She had finally managed to have a bit of fun running around with Skywalker, and now she was back to babysitting duty.

She should have said that she had gotten injured.