Journey had to leave for some reason he didn't say, but Ahsoka decided to stay in the Chasm and explore a little bit. She found a few hidden gems while she was down there.

First, some of the ancient shops from the first days of Coruscant were still active. Well, somewhat. A few of the bars were still in full swing, but all of the customers looked like people Ahsoka didn't want to know about. Every single one seemed to be armed. Ahsoka also saw a lot of black market deals go down while she watched. She counted five drug deals, three weapon sales, and even an intelligence trade. Totally illegal, but it was interesting to watch. She remembered how Ventress had mentioned getting private repair deals and wondered if this place was what she was referring to.

Ahsoka began to wonder why these people were sneaking behind the Republic's back to make these deals, too. It wasn't illegal to sell drugs, or weapons, although maybe intel was a little different. If someone applied for a permit, they could sell the same things, just with a few rules attached. So why didn't they just make life easier for themselves?

Maybe it had something to do with the paperwork involved. I mean, Fuller had to submit papers to the government just to hire me, Ahsoka thought. Imagine what people must have to do in order to do things like this legally.

They probably needed the credits. For one reason or another, they were desperate enough to break the law in order to do this. Either they had very unusual priorities or it was the only way they could make money. Now that Ahsoka had been down here for a few days, she was willing to believe it. Why has the Republic been so focused on fighting a war across the galaxy when there are people who need help right here, on Coruscant?

Sideous, of course, was the easy answer, but this had to go deeper than just one power-hungry Sith Lord. Not even he could have been the root cause of ignoring this for so long. Ahsoka was really starting to hate politics. She was hundreds, thousands of meters below the surface, and she still couldn't get away from it.

Eventually, she started back towards Level 22. She wanted to see if she could buy a holster today, so she could stop hiding her blaster in hard-to-reach places. If it was on her hip, it would be a lot easier to fight with it.

She made it back out to the grate she had entered the Chasm from and jumped back up to the street level. Quietly, she replaced the grate and started towards the thick of the sector. By now, most of the civilians were out at work again, so there wasn't too much traffic to weave through.

The first place Ahsoka thought to check was the market she had visited a few days ago, but she instantly remembered that there hadn't been a single weapons shop in the whole building. It was probably a liability to sell weapons in a place that got so crowded, but it meant that Ahsoka didn't know where to buy a holster from. It was the best place to start, though, so she didn't have much of a choice.

She was about halfway to it when a run down vending station caught her eye. Unlike a lot of the stores in the market, this one had no neon, and very little advertising adorning the brick walls, but there were two things that Ahsoka cared about: a) it had weapons, which meant it probably had holsters, and b) it was government approved. Even with her doubts about the Republic, it was probably safer than one without permits. She went in.

It was fairly quiet, and there were only two other customers inside, neither of which seemed to care about her. There were three employees behind the counter: two men who were fooling around with cards and death sticks and one female who was actually trying to do her job. Music was playing inside, but it wasn't anything like the music Ahsoka had heard at parties or galas. It wasn't her favorite, but Ahsoka didn't plan on coming back here anytime soon after she got what she came for, so she just ignored it.

Blasters were near the back of the store. One of the other customers was back there too, looking at the large semi-automatic options. Almost immediately, she felt through the Force that this guy was no good. It took a lot of willpower not to knock him out and call the clones to come to arrest him, but Ahsoka just avoided eye contact. If he wanted a blaster that big and that powerful, she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, provided he didn't try to shoot her or anyone else. After all, she had been in the military. She was used to weapons, and she was good at using them. It wasn't the weapons she was worried about.

She pulled out her blaster from her bag and started sliding it into holsters on the rack, trying to find which one fit it best. Her blaster was kind of bulky, so it needed a larger holster than the ones Rex used for his sidearms. She found one that fit, and none of the others they had in stock seemed to work as well so she brought it up to the counter.

The other man, not the one who had been looking at blasters, finished paying for a taser, and walked out. Ahsoka set the holster down to be scanned and pulled out her credits to pay for it, but the first man had walked up behind her, carrying a blaster, and he was turning off the safety. Ahsoka held still as the employee, the woman, pretended not to notice him. This must happen pretty often down here, Ahsoka thought. This girl has quite a nerve.

The man pointed the barrel of the blaster at her head. "How about you hand those credits to me, alien, and I'll let you live."

Ahsoka, unfazed by his threats, spun and knocked the blaster out of his hands. She pulled out her own and fired straight at his chest, in stun mode not kill. He fell to the ground in one shot. The whole fight lasted less than two seconds.

She turned back to the counter, where the two men on drugs had hidden for cover. The female had pulled out a small blaster of her own and was pointing it at where the gunner had stood, but she hadn't fired. She looked at Ahsoka, impressed.

"I was about to stun him, but it looks like you had it covered," she said, her eyebrows raised. "I'm assuming that happens a lot to you?"

Ahsoka smirked. "More than you know."

The female, who's name was Tasha, according to her name tag, finally seemed to notice who Ahsoka was. She lowered the blaster. "No kidding. Do you want a discount on the holster? It's normally 50% off for people who stop robberies in here."

"Really?" Ahsoka asked, pleasantly surprised. "I'll take that. Thanks."

Tasha rang up the purchase. "No problem. Glad to know that not all Jedi aren't too righteous to help out a little down here, even if you've gone rogue."

Ahsoka took the extra credits and put them back in her bag. "I think if they knew, they might do a little more to help."

Tasha, not entirely convinced, just handed the holster back to her. "Well, if you want to get back into fighting, we could use your reflexes. That happens almost every week, and these two aren't any help." She jerked her head at her male coworkers, who had scurried out the door to the backroom. "They probably haven't even called the feds yet."

The two of them chuckled. "I'll keep it in mind," Ahsoka told her. "Good luck with the rest of your shift."

"Thanks," Tasha said, smiling for the first time. "Oh, and by the way, I don't know if you heard a whole lot about the Inquisitor, but one of the senators did some announcement the other day, clearing your name. Just in case you haven't heard."

"Got it," she said, attaching the new holster to her belt. "Thanks for the heads up."

"Anytime," Tasha responded.

Ahsoka walked out the door, and thirty seconds later, she heard a stampede of footsteps running to the shop. Clones. She ducked down an alley, just in case, and once they passed, she set off in a run back home.

That's the first time I've seen clones down here, she realized. Do they have some kind of alert for weapons stores that are robbed? A special response team?

Oh, well. It didn't really matter, as long as that thug didn't hurt anyone. She was kind of surprised that he hadn't gone for that other customer. He had to have been in there for a while. His purchase had been much bigger than hers.

Why didn't he jump the other guy? Ahsoka wondered, jumping up to the roof to run home. Why me? I guess I'm smaller, but my name has to be floating around at least a little bit. Especially right now. I mean, Tasha had heard it so why not him?

Ahsoka kept thinking as she leaped from one roof to another. In the shop, her blaster had been hidden in the back of her waistband so she didn't look armed, but she had a reputation for trouble. She had run from Jedi before, back when she had been arrested, and a lot of people had thought that she had been the Inquisitor. Tasha had kind of proved that point.

As for size, the other man had only been a few centimeters taller than her. He didn't look too menacing, especially compared to the thug that had tried to shoot her. He was human, maybe that had something to do with it. She was a Togruta, after all. Maybe he had a bad experience with Togruta.

As if, I'm probably the only Togruta on Coruscant, expect for Shaak Ti. The odds of them meeting are barely above 0.

It couldn't be against Togruta specifically, and it definitely couldn't be because she was female. Tasha had kept completely calm during the threat, especially compared to her colleagues, who had cowered at the first sign of intimidation. That might have been the deathsticks, though.

Ahsoka didn't really see any other reason why the thug would have attacked her, though. She hadn't offended him, to her knowledge, and she didn't start the fight. The thug had wanted her credits, but why her credits? Why not just rob the store in general?

Then she remembered Tasha's blaster. It would have been harder for him to fight the competent employee, not to mention that she was used to the store getting attacked. The thug had gone for the easiest target, Ahsoka. How am I an easy target?

She just couldn't figure it out. It didn't matter, though. Ahsoka got to her building and dropped down to the street to enter in. Whatever reason the thug had chosen her, it had been his mistake, and it would be the same mistake anyone else who attacked her would make, too.

Come and get me, she mentally taunted the world. If I'm going to live down here, I might as well make it interesting.