Mace Windu had been scouring through Senate documents in his office. While still the Jedi Grand Master he was also the representative of the Jedi Order in the Senate and the head of the Galactic Jedi Party and thus had access to many classified documents save for those reserved for only the Chancellor himself, but with just a minor bit of finagling of the codes he could see even these. While he had been looking for evidence of Neo-Separatist or Palpatine Loyalist activity in the Senate so as to strong-arm through another Senate Purge, which he had found a few Senators in the Palpa-cult, and he had already given orders for their arrest. Their very presence in the government was an affront to Jedi interests, and thus Republic interests. However that wasn't what had really gotten his attention. Clacking away at the keys to break into the funding sector to see if any funds were being syphoned to fund Palpatine-oriented projects, he did notice an old entry:

DS-1 BATTLESTATION: [STATUS]….UNFINISHED…...POSTPONED_INDEFINATELY

"DS-1 Battlestation?" he muttered curiously. Going in to check status of this apparent secret project, he noticed the date, during Palpatine's term as chancellor, no doubt a Sith plot to take over the galaxy.

DS-1 BATTLESTATION: Project_enactment-Chancellor Sheev Palpatine…Project_cancellation-Chancellor Padmé Skywalker…Current_Budget:22,000,000,000

What battlestation could possibly cost 22 trillion credits? What was Palpatine planning? There was an upload of the schematics but he was no engineer. Still, it couldn't hurt to at least try to gain an understanding. Pulling up a holoprojection of the vessel, a spherical space station approximately the size of one of Coruscant's moons, powered by millions of kyber crystals focused around a dish. It was a planet killer. The red light of the hologram shone the words:

ULTIMATE WEAPON PROJECT MK.1

Continuing his investigation Windu opened the locator for the space station in order to find this "Ultimate Weapon" and see to its destruction. If it were still to float in space it would be found by enemies of the Republic and used to wreak terror across the galaxy.

LOCATION…[REDACTED]

Barriss woke to the sound of her commlink beeping. Rubbing the sleep away from her eyes, she semi-blindly reached for it in the dark, flopping her hand about on her night table until she found it. Taking the call, she yawned and asked, "Yeah?"

"Barriss! I need to talk to you," Ahsoka asked. She sounded panicked, almost scared.]

"Can it wait just a few hours?"

"NOW."

"Ok, let me grab my glasses," Barriss muttered. Her eyesight had never been perfect but for the past twelve years now she actively needed correctional lenses. She could have worn contacts or even gotten laser surgery to fix the problem but Riyo thought she looked cute with glasses so she stuck with the ancient traditional lenses.

At the noise, Riyo had finally stirred awake, "Babe? What's going on?"

"I don't know. Where are my glasses?"

"My side," Riyo answered, handing the black frames to her wife.

"Why are they on your side?"

"Half of your clothes are on my side."

"Oh right."

"Nice to know I made an impression."

"Babe, I'm half-asleep. I can barely remember my name right now."

Ahsoka couldn't help but roll her eyes, not that she was in a place to judge, after all she and Lux had been planning on doing just that a few hours ago. "Ahem," she interrupted, "Kind of an emergency call here Barriss."

"What happened?"

"Gràinne happened."

Now the pair were awake. "Ahsoka… what do you mean 'Gràinne happened?' Is she here?!"

"No, well, I… I don't think so. We managed to communicate through the Force, like we can, but it was. It was more. It was like she was actually here…"

"Are you sure it wasn't just a freaky dream? She's been on all our minds lately."

"She took her sword," Ahsoka answered with finality.

"What?" was all Riyo could whisper.

"I'm in a complete fluster right now trying to figure out what's going on."

"What did she want?" Barriss asked. "Was she trying to turn you Dark?"

"No… I don't think she was. She said she needed my help, that Palpatine was hiding in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and she needed my help to get inside. Her daughter is dying and she thinks he can save her if he tortures whatever she needs out of him."

"We need to tell the Council!"

"For what, Barriss? What can we do? Windu already threatened to destroy us if we left Teth or got involved."

"Windu can go to Hell! We're talking about the woman who just massacred Zygeria invading Coruscant. Can you even imagine what kind of destruction she'd be capable of?"

"I know… but I just don't know where to turn, what to do. Her Sith Empire is going to obliterate Coruscant on her just having a hunch that Palpatine is even there, is even still alive, or that he even knows the first thing about Force healing, a Light Side ability… Oh, and she asked me to tell you something."

Barriss looked at Riyo, apprehensive that Gràinne had wanted to tell them something, the same Gràinne who had tormented them so long ago, the same Gràinne who had apparently developed a taste for blood. What kind of threats would Ahsoka be warning them to watch out for?

"She told me to say, 'Thank you.' You saved her husband, and gave her, her daughter, and for that she would be forever grateful."

Barriss blinked. She was still awake, right? "We are talking about the same Gràinne right?"

"I think so."

"The same Gràinne who beat me up for being a lesbian?"

"Yup."

"She wanted you to thank me?"

"Mmhmm. And to apologize for beating you up for being a lesbian."

"What?"

"I have no idea, I guess she really loves her daughter."

Shaking her head, Barriss told her friend, "Just try to get some sleep. We'll have to tell the Council in the morning, whether we can do anything or not."

The next morning, Obi-Wan especially was concerned with Ahsoka's apparent contact with Gràinne. "We have to warn the Coruscant Jed," he declared with finality, "Even if they don't listen, we can't just sit back while one group of Sith plot a government take-over in their basement and another try to launch an invasion of said basement. At least a few of them will have to listen. Either to defend the Temple or try to evacuate the planet"

"I'll try to get them to answer," Kit replied, "So far they've been ignoring every transmission."

"We have to try."

"Master, what if they don't listen or reject every transmission?" Anakin asked.

"If Windu refuses to accept our insight… then I suppose we have no choice. We'll have to send a small strike team to do it ourselves."

"And risk Windu's wrath?" Eeth Koth inquired. He held no sympathy for Windu at this rate and was quite frankly willing to let the Temple burn to teach him a lesson if that is what it took.

"It's either him or the Sith," Ahsoka commented, "At least with fellow Jedi, there's a chance of survival."

"You don't know Mace," Kit answered with a sickened look in his eye. "The man is an absolute fanatic. The only chance we'd have with 'fellow Jedi' is if he were killed in assault."

"Which is why I said, a 'small' team," Obi-Wan clarified, "If we sent in an entire militarized force of a thousand Jedi it'd be instant war. If we sent two to spread the word, we could potentially save millions of lives."

Anakin nodded, "I'll go. I can hold my own in a fight if worst comes to worst."

Ahsoka piped up, "I'll have your back Skyguy."

"You always do."

"Good. I'm sorry it had to come to this." Obi-Wan shook his head in despair. "It really seems as if this is the worst possible scenario."

Aayla asked, "Is it possible we could also send an expedition to find Master Yoda? His coming out of exile-"

"Will do nothing," Koth finished, "And for the record I am against the idea of your incursion Skywalker, Bonteri. But I will do nothing to stop it" He had just had a baby, and he was not willing to lose everything just to save Windu's hide again, not after so many years of antagonistic rhetoric coming from Coruscant, not after twenty years of threats. The fact that he once considered the monster a "friend," made him nauseous.

They were all well aware of his situation and Anakin and Ahsoka nodded in understanding, "We'll do everything we can to not get caught," Ahsoka replied.

Anakin offered, "Should anything happen, just ask Luminara for the keys to the Twilight II¸ take your wife and daughter and leave Teth.

Luminara added, "We understand and wouldn't want anything to happen to your new family."

"Thank you," Koth replied with a sigh, "Force be with us all."