Ahsoka had to admit, the moment had caught her off guard. It could have been because she had been focusing on other people, but as she walked to the medical wing, she realized that she hadn't prepared anything to say to the Jedi once they recovered.

By the time she saw Kix standing outside the entryway to the recovery room, she still had no idea what she was going to do next so she decided to stall. "What can you tell me?" she asked him, desperate for time.

Stretching his neck, he shrugged. "They're all fine, but some are more stable than others. Some of them had to undergo surgery to treat a few internal wounds, but the others should be able to get up and move around in the next hour or so. No guarantees, of course, but we'll see how the next five hours go for them."

Five hours. They still had five hours before they got back to Coruscant. To Ahsoka, it seemed like an eternity. "Who received the worst of it?"

"General Gallia, General Adi-Mundi, and General Windu," he rattled off, representing each with a finger. "Broken rib, internal bleeding in the stomach, and a broken leg, respectively."

Ahsoka rubbed her temple, staring through the one-way glass that separated her from them. It wasn't ideal, but she was grateful it wasn't worse. Scarlet Haven was known for far more damage, as per her experience.

"The minor injuries?" She inquired further, knowing that there had to be something.

"Cuts, bruises, scraps, burns, dislocations, concussions, the works," Kix listed somewhat dismissively. "Nothing that couldn't be treated in minutes. All of those should heal in a week, if not sooner. I can give you a full report later, once I clean up a little bit."

Ahsoka nodded. "I can't imagine the mess you made to stabilize them all. Go ahead and do what needs to get done, I'll follow up with you later."

He smiled, pulling off a pair of latex gloves. "Thanks, Commander," he told her, before walking off to the surgery rooms to tidy up. Time to pull out the hydrogen peroxide.

After watching him walk away, Ahsoka looked back into the recovery room. She knew that once she walked in, there was no turning back. The Jedi Council could reclaim the authority of the cruiser and withdraw her rank in a matter of seconds if they chose to. According to Kix, none of them were in the condition to command a battalion, but all of them outranked her and despite the 501st's confidence in her, she couldn't fight them on anything concerning the property of the Senate.

Deeper down, she was still afraid of rejection. There was nothing for them to reject her from really, so the fear was irrational, but that wasn't helping her nerves. These were the same people that had expelled her and lied to her a year ago. These were the same people that failed to notice Sideous at the height of his power and stood by and watched as she made the sacrifice to kill the Sith Lord. As individuals, she knew they wanted to do good, but as a unit? No trust whatsoever.

They were going to ask questions, ones she probably would rather not answer or did not like. The only thing that gave her the courage to walk to the door and face her accusers was the knowledge and belief that her life was nothing to be ashamed of. Unless they pulled rank, they had no power over her anymore. They could not dictate her future any more than she could dictate theirs. She entered and steeled herself to the reactions she was about to receive.

Caleb, Jinx, and O-Mer had already gone in when Kix had finally allowed them to visit their masters. The Jedi had not asked about the mission yet, so none of them had revealed that anyone special was on board the cruiser, much less who it was. No one expected Ahsoka to turn the corner and walk in, so when she did the entire room fell silent. Even the medics who were keeping an eye on the Jedi quietly slipped out through the back door, not wanting to get involved in any drama.

Mace Windu was the first to speak. "Tano?"

Ahsoka nodded, making sure to conceal the many emotions she was feeling. "Hello, Master Windu. It's been a while."

Depa Billaba turned to Caleb, who was seated next to her bed. "You didn't mention she had come as well."

"You didn't ask, Master," he replied, shrugging. "I figured you would ask when you were ready, but I didn't want to tell you if you were still recovering from your injuries."

"How are you here, Ahsoka?" Plo Koon asked, wincing as he sat up on his cot. "We have not heard from you in over a year."

"No," she admitted, "but I heard that you thought you did. Your Inquisitor friend seemed like quite the character."

Farther down the room, Obi-Wan scoffed. "I'm afraid 'friend' is stretching the truth. I'm sorry to repeat Master Plo, but how in BLAZES are you here?"

Ahsoka grinned at his outburst. Even now, she could still count on Obi-Wan to lighten the situation. "I don't know if the Padawans already told you, but all of you were replaced with Changelings. It was actually thanks to the fake Master Windu that I came."

"Me?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. "What did I do?"

"Things that you would never have done," she answered simply. "The Changeling looked like you, but they didn't have the act quite down."

Shaak Ti, who was in one of the cots nearest to the door, hid a smirk. "And where are these Changelings now?"

"At the Detention Center, the last I heard," Ahsoka answered, turning to face her. "When I left they hadn't been identified, but from what the interrogators could tell they were hired by the Separatists, but not necessarily loyal to them."

"That's all well and good," Adi Gallia remarked, "but how are you here? Since when do you appear out of nowhere to join a mission halfway across the galaxy?"

Ahsoka looked to Jinx, O-Mer, and Caleb. "Have you told them about the emergency council yet?"

When all of them shook their heads, she continued. "The Order elected a temporary council to take charge of the Temple in your absence. They granted me permission and rank to lead the 501st Legion for one mission, both of which will be repealed upon re-entry into Coruscant's atmosphere."

Windu looked at O-Mer and the other Padawans. "I thought you led the mission to Lokori."

He shook his head. "We voted that Ahsoka be in charge since the clones already trusted her, and she was the one who had seen Scarlet Haven before. She planned out all of the teams so that we could get everyone out as quickly as possible, right before we destroyed the base. I can't speak for the other squads, but my team had no casualties."

"Neither did mine," Jinx added, smiling supportively at Ahsoka.

"Unless Ahsoka's squad lost someone, which I doubt," Caleb suggested, "I don't think we lost anyone."

Ahsoka nodded, refusing to externally show pride at the fact. "No casualties were reported. Everyone who came on the mission returned."

That really shut up the Council. For several seconds, no one spoke, until a slow, steady clap came from the very last cot in the room. All heads turned to see Anakin slow-clapping for Ahsoka, a giant grin across his face.

"I was wondering what took you so long," he quipped, sitting upright. He was the least injured of the Jedi, so he was freer to move than the rest.

Ahsoka smirked and raised an eyemark. "Well, if you hadn't gotten kidnapped, I wouldn't have had to figure out where in the galaxy you were hiding out at. It's not my fault the Lokori system is six hours away."

He glared at her, amused. "It's not my fault Changelings invaded the Temple, and yet here we are. I don't know what I'm supposed to do when I'm asleep."

"Not get kidnapped?" She suggested.

"Very funny, Snips."

Obi-Wan stared at the two of them, absolutely bewildered. "I see not much has changed in the past year," he commented, but Yoda stirred from across the room.

"Changed?" His weary voice asked, sending Ahsoka into flashbacks of her childhood. "Hmm, I'm afraid so." He made eye contact with Ahsoka, staring not only at her form, but looking through the Force as well. "Yes, indeed, I am afraid so."

Ahsoka could tell that he was not speaking as the Grandmaster at that moment, but as a mentor, an old friend, so she let some of her guards down (not all of them), and tried to be honest. "Does that bother you?"

She could tell by the looks of others' faces that it certainly bothered them. They too looked into the Force, and undoubtedly saw the Darkness that she had nurtured over the past two months, as well as the Light. Her Force signature was probably radically different from anything they had seen before, except maybe for Yoda.

He took a long time to respond. "Arrives uninvited, change does," he finally said, quite vaguely. "One cannot stop a river, as one cannot stop change." After a moment longer, he realized, "Accepted it, you have."

"The Force works differently than I thought it did," she explained, remembering the day she had chosen balance over chaos. "As my understanding changed, I tried to change with it."

"Regret it, do you?" Yoda asked, and Ahsoka felt like he was staring into her by the way he looked at her.

She hesitated before answering. Looking back, did she regret leaving the Order? Did she regret swearing loyalty to Sideous, only to betray it a year later? Did she regret choosing to start over, to make something of herself without the Jedi Order, the only life she had ever known?

"No," she answered, "I don't."

It was then that the Council really began to see her as the person she now was. They saw her civilian attire, how personalized and individual it was, and saw that her identity no longer lied in the rules of her past. They saw her blaster and realized that she had made compromises to the ethics and morals she had been taught as a child. They saw her eyes, hardened with betrayal and pain, and were dumbstruck by the fact that she no longer cared for their rules, their Code, their lifestyle, or their beliefs. They had made her a civilian, and yet, they never expected her to become one. It came as a shock when the person they had let go of, let go of them. It was the biggest slap in the face she could have given them.

None of the Masters had figured out what to say in response by the time Kix came back in. "I apologize for interrupting, but I'm going to have to ask all of the commanders to leave the recovery room. We need to run vital tests again."

Ahsoka nodded, completely disregarding the weight of the previous conversation. "Thanks, Kix," she told him and beckoned for Caleb, Jinx, and O-Mer to follow her out.

As soon as the doors sealed behind them, Caleb breathed out a sigh of relief. "That was interesting," he remarked, running a hand through his short hair. "That's not how I expected that to go."

"No kidding," Jinx agreed, crossing his arms. "I'm going to need a minute to process that."

"You do that, but I'm going to need to sleep," O-Mer announced. "I haven't slept since we left Coruscant. Anyone else coming with me?"

The other two Jedi nodded, but Ahsoka denied the offer. "I doubt the Council has run out of things to say to me, and until one of them gets cleared I need to stay awake in case of an emergency. You guys go on."

"If you say so," O-Mer replied, walking off towards his quarters. Ahsoka was left standing in the hallway, watching them, until the doors to the recovery room opened again. She turned to see if Kix had come back, but he was still in running tests. Someone else had come out instead. Anakin.

"Well, I think you made a good first impression on the Council," he joked, limping just a little bit as he walked, but otherwise okay. "Nothing like a little passive-aggressive conversation to start the morning."

Ahsoka laughed. "For once in my life, I couldn't care less." She smiled up at him. "It's good to see you, Skyguy."

He grinned, cocking his head down the hall. "What do you say we go find somewhere to chat?"