"I'll be honest," Ahsoka said as she took her seat, "I kind of assumed Sareena would be running the debriefing thing."

"She'll arrive when she can," Bail Organa answered from another chair at the conference table. "She wanted to find out for herself how a two million credit bounty could be posted without her being informed."

"Her and me both," she muttered, idly tapping her fingers on the fine wooden table. "I don't like surprises these days."

Even the basic conference rooms at the Aldera Royal Palace were grandiose. Living on the run more-or-less continuously for the last ten years, and under Jedi austerity in every memory before that, she felt uncomfortable; as if the bronze walls themselves were going to demand she explain why someone like her deserved their company. On a more practical level, she knew the place was ridiculously expansive, in a way the massive Jedi Temple on Coruscant could only pretend to emulate. And as with there, any surprises strong enough to come here would wipe out the entire place before anyone knew the full extent of the threat. It was kind of how she felt about herself, if she was being honest.

"I suppose not," the senator commented before Ahsoka could get too far into introspection. He seemed to have a talent for timing his delays to her state of mind. Maybe it was a diplomat thing? "So how did the mission go, roughly?"

"We tracked the path of the star yacht, the Silver Sparrow, from spaceport to spaceport; Sareena asked nicely where the spaceport staff was amenable, Beril sliced quietly elsewhere. We found a leg the yacht never reached its destination in, and investigating nearby systems revealed there was a pleasure craft found abandoned and adrift by Imperial authorities. They left the ship unattended, and salvagers did the rest; we tracked the salvagers' part-trading and eventually acquired the engine, which of course is where ship identification transponders are to verify we tracked the correct ship. Incidentally...could I get eighteen thousand credits?"

He tilted his head. "I thought you didn't want credits?"

She sighed. "Well, I kinda put Sareena on the spot getting the engine, and—"

"Say no more," he stated firmly. "I'll just get it to her directly, if that's OK with you."

"Fine by me," Ahsoka agreed. Then curiosity started poking her in the head. "Sareena seemed unhappy. Was that a problem?"

"Don't worry. Sareena just prefers having things ready in advance. So what's your assessment of what happened to the Silver Sparrow?"

Ahsoka paused briefly at the change of subject. "I have a hard time believing the Empire would take prisoners and then leave the ship for anyone to find. It was probably abandoned when they found it. It's also hard to believe they'd choose to leave a ship behind after they found it, so I have to guess something drew them away. Which would make it incredibly convenient timing that the ship was salvaged before the Empire got back to it."

"So you're thinking it was a cooperative effort between the raiders and the salvagers?"

"Yeah, assuming they weren't one and the same. No idea what the Sparrow was doing out there, but the engine had false identification in place when we found it. They could still be trying to identify the presumably-rich passengers to know where to send ransom demands."

A chime echoed in the room, a mere second before one of the doors slid open. Sareena strode to an empty chair at the table, scowling.

"That bad, huh?" Ahsoka said nonchalantly.

Sareena exhaled slowly as she sat down. "Said the bounty wasn't on Laani Sy, so they didn't think we needed to be informed. Told them we were attacked by people who thought the possible payday was worth the risk of misidentification, and to inform us of any activity specifically targeting Togruta. Before I have to start holding them responsible for such unpleasant surprises."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. She was beyond sick of being viewed as interchangeable with every other member of her people. Whatever reasons anyone imagined they had to justify it, she hoped for a day when she could expect to be judged for who she was, not what she was. Even here, among allies, she couldn't quite shake the feeling that her erstwhile Jedi status was the main source of their acceptance.

"So what'd I miss?" Sareena continued.

"Ahsoka was just telling me her theory about the passengers," Senator Organa answered.

"The Raider-Empire-Salvager scenario?"

"Yep," Ahsoka confirmed.

"It's quite a plausible sequence of events, but I don't like what it does for the odds of the crew still being alive. Dumping the hostages would be less risky than ransoming them."

"True, but I'd like to think we'd have heard if there were bodies found on or around the ship. Taking the passengers away only to dump them later makes no sense. They'd have to have at least planned on checking if they were worth ransoming, or they wouldn't have bothering capturing them at all."

"That we hadn't heard about your bounty doesn't fill me with confidence, but your point is taken. Speaking of bounties...What was with throwing the Gamorrean around?"

Ahsoka looked askance at her. "I wasn't going to stand there and get flattened, if that's what you mean."

"I saw how you dodged the other guy. You could've just gotten out of his way, without the risk of blowing your cover!"

Ahsoka caught the nearly-accusatory tone that time. "I didn't want to see if his friends were going to shoot you guys, so I distracted them. With him. Most of that 'throw' was his own momentum anyway!"

Sareena took a deep, deliberate breath. "I'm just worried about what will happen to the rest of us if the Empire finds you."

"So am I. But letting you die just so the Empire can't kill you makes no sense. And like I was getting to, the guy was charging in such a hurry he couldn't decelerate himself; it was a pivot, not a throw. Don't need to be a Jedi to pull that off."

"That may be, but you certainly aroused Beril's suspicion."

Ahsoka decided to deflect the subject, since she already knew she made the best decision. "So why aren't she and Rian in on this with us, anyway?"

Senator Organa leaned forward. "It's need-to-know," he said. "If the Empire finds out, it's all over for us; it's too great a risk to spread."

"Besides," Sareena added, "Rian will best do his part unknowingly."

Ahsoka narrowed an eyebrow. "And what part is that?"

"He enjoys showing off, I'm sure you've noticed. All the better to draw attention away from you...if he doesn't know his displays of force are competing with displays of Force."

Ahsoka shrugged. "So noted, I guess."

Sareena sighed. "So anyway, assuming the Assembly still wants us to find the guy...Our technicians didn't find anything on the engine other than what Ahsoka already told us, so our next step should be heading back to where the Sparrow was found adrift, see if we can backtrack who set it adrift."

"Don't know how else we'd find the passengers," Ahsoka agreed. "We may as well plan on heading out there, we can call it off if the Pantorans want to finish this on their own."

"In that case," Senator Organa said, "plan to head there in a day or so. Hopefully our contacts will find out about any unpleasant surprises in advance this time."

"I'd appreciate that," Ahsoka said.

"As would we all," Sareena commented. "And while we're talking about unpleasantries, the scenario is concerning me. The Pantorans didn't tell us how long ago the Sparrow left their space, and I'm forced to assume that's the ship's actual name. If they wanted the ship's itinerary hidden, would they want us alive to spread it around?"

Ahsoka frowned, feeling an insult by proxy. "You think Chuchi set us up?!"

Sareena rolled her eyes in response. "No, but there are a lot of planetary officials on Pantora to assume she would balk if she knew we were being set up."

Ahsoka blinked. "I suppose. Why would they want to sabotage us, though?" At least she resisted the urge for making a strong outburst.

"Compared to other near-human worlds," Senator Organa stated, "Pantora's retained a great deal of independence. Excessive caution could make them...unwilling to accommodate the facility we want to establish in their system."

Ahsoka groaned. "Stupid speciesism again. It doesn't even make sense, Palpatine had all sorts of hand-picked advisors when he was Chancellor."

She quickly covered her mouth, as a sickeningly oily memory squeezed her stomach. After the sensation had passed, she coughed and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "Sorry. Vader told me it was because the Emperor was too weak to rule without enslaving the galaxy, but I don't see a connection." Shortly before Vader had tried to execute her, a weeks-old memory that was still quite rancid in her mind.

Senator Organa sighed. "Whether he genuinely believes in it or not, it's certainly allowed the Empire to do as he commands from day to day, by keeping the galaxy too busy feuding amongst itself to notice."

Ahsoka sighed in annoyance. "Pit the galaxy against itself, and he comes out on top. It's the Clone Wars all over again."

"Somewhat. But he isn't cloaked in secrecy this time. He doesn't care who knows he's an enemy, and that complacency will give us an opportunity to strike when the time is right."

"While we're talking about opportunities to strike," Sareena cut in, "I imagine the Pantoran Assembly will want us to deliver the recovered engine, for their techs to examine themselves?"

"Yes...but in light of your concerns, I'll see if I can make alternative arrangements. In the meantime, if there's anything either of you want to do here on Alderaan, this is a prime opportunity."

"Does wandering aimlessly around the palace count?" Ahsoka asked sarcastically.

"I believe that's a palace tradition, so yes," Senator Organa answered with a smile.

"Again?" Beril growled in annoyance. "Geez Rian, didn't you take enough pictures of mountains when you were still living on Corellia?"

"No," he answered flatly, as he carefully adjusted the zoom to frame the distant city between two peaks. "Didn't have the time, it was still a new hobby when I had to leave."

"When we had to leave, you mean."

There she went again, trying to make everything about her. "You didn't need to leave."

"I certainly did when I picked you up in the airspeeder. You know, you never told me: How were you planning to get offworld if I hadn't found you?"

"I'd have figured something out," he said as he finished his recording. "Probably involving explosives, threats and pilots."

"Wanted a side of hijacking charges to go with the police murder, huh?"

He shrugged. "I worked for planetary law enforcement too. They had my record, they wouldn't have shot at me if they wanted to live." It was insulting, really; they only sent seven guys against an elite shock trooper? "They couldn't kill me any harder after that, we wouldn't arrest someone who terminated several of our own."

"I suppose not. So...why'd you come with me, a perfect stranger at the time, anyway?"

He glanced at her. Still as scrawny as she'd looked then, the few intervening years hadn't changed her much. "You had a speeder right there and frankly, I could knock you out easily if you tried anything."

She hissed indignantly.

"So why'd you decide to help out such a violent man?" he quickly interrupted, before she could waste more of his time with complaints.

The abruptness of the question only distracted her for a split second. "I kinda saw the shooting from a distance, kinda intercepted the report saying you slaughtered them before they could even draw their weapons...which would be a really neat trick since they started shooting you first...Smelled like a ripe scam for thwarting. Plus, at the time I didn't know how big an ass you are."

"Everyone I didn't have to kill to escape should appreciate your lack of foresight," he countered sarcastically.

"So what do you think about the new girl?" Beril abruptly asked.

Having expected some kind of feeble comeback, Rian was momentarily thrown off by the lack of transition. Although he guessed this would explain why she agreed to land on the side of this mountain without much protest, she didn't want any chance of eavesdroppers. "Taller than you," he said nonchalantly.

She scoffed. "Seriously, Rian—"

"If you're serious," he cut her off with annoyance, "then quit trying to lead me around and tell me what your problem is!"

"Do you think she's really who she claims to be?" she said angrily.

No pause. She was serious. "Laani hasn't said much about who she is," he answered with irritation, "and I don't see why she couldn't have been who she claims to have been."

Beril scowled. "You punched the guy she tossed around, you can not tell me that's a normal thing for someone her size to be doing!"

"It looked more like a pivot to me."

"Not the point!"

"Then what is the point?"

"You just don't get it, do you?"

"That we're working with someone more capable of defending herself than you are, and you're protesting only because you don't know why?"

"...Yes!" she yelled with exasperation. "Is that so wrong?"

Rian shook his head. He'd never have gotten anything done if he insisted on knowing everything in advance; it had to be relaxing to make a living away from the front lines. "Being too worked up over it is wrong, yes."

She stared him in the eyes, which looked like it was straining her neck. "You, of all people, are telling me not to be suspicious?"

He snorted. "No. But if you're wrong, you're just going to wear yourself out over what should be good for us."

"But—"

"And if she is...I don't know, an Imperial double agent or whatever you're thinking, tipping her off that you need to be silenced is the last thing you should do. Is there any reason to think she's a threat to us?"

"...No," she admitted.

"Should find a reason to be worried, if you want to be worried. Digging up secrets is what you do, isn't it?"

"You know I do a whole lot more than—"

"Yeah, yeah," he cut her off dismissively. "Put that energy of yours to work, isn't that something else you do?"

"You..." Beril interrupted herself this time, with a deep breath. "You're right," she said confidently, in that self-assured voice she could put on without notice. It wasn't going to fool him, and she should know that, but maybe she was too busy fooling herself. "Flitting around like a mynock isn't going to do any good. I need to figure out who I'm dealing with here, before anything else. I should've realized this sooner."

"You certainly should have realized that sooner," he agreed.

She exhaled sharply in frustration. "Why do you have to be like that?" she demanded, dropping her vocal facade.

"Getting stuck in your own epiphany has never been much of an improvement," he answered, ignoring her tone.

She growled as she shook her head. "Can we just go back?" she said impatiently, turning back towards the pilot seat of the speeder before she even finished the sentence.

"Fine by me," he declared as he approached the opposite side of the vehicle. "Let me know when you find out."

"Well duh."

"Sending the same people to the same asteroid on the same ship," Rian commented the next morning. "Giving up on sneaking, are we?"

"Sort of," Sareena answered. "Someone needs to go back and ask about the same subject, which will look connected to us whether it's a different team or a different ship. Why go to the trouble of getting someone else up to speed or looking like we've got something hide?"

"The direct approach really saves time," he agreed, cracking his knuckles for emphasis.

"Doesn't popping your joints like that hurt?" Ahsoka asked, as she briefly glanced at his short brown hair. As frequently as he did it, she imagined some sort of deterioration would be a possibility.

"No."

"Anyway," Sareena cut in, "We'll be looking in the opposite direction from last time. That asteroid's where we picked up the trail that led to the engine, so we'll backtrack to where the ship was taken apart in the first place. There should at least be a connection to where any passengers, like our target, were taken."

"You really think he's still alive at this point?" Beril asked.

"I don't know how else we'd find out," Ahsoka said.

Beril slowly turned to look at her. "I suppose it's a good place to start looking," she eventually said. Seemed like an odd way to express agreement.

"It's a long shot," Sareena admitted, "but the Pantorans would be much more grateful to get him back alive."

"Another favor?" Rian said with some disdain.

"More likely several," Sareena answered flatly. "In any case, the ship'll be ready for launch in...twenty-seven minutes; so unless you want to hang around here in the cargo bay, go get whatever you need and meet back in half an hour, so we can head off immediately."

"Wait," Beril said, "didn't they want the engine for themselves?"

"Senator Organa's made arrangements. The Pantoran senator will be here in the next few days, and she'll take it back with her."

"Really? Senate buddies indeed..." she said softly, sounding distant.

"Is that a problem?" Ahsoka asked, a little too quickly.

Beril's reverie ended. "No, quite the opposite in fact. An owed favor's only as good as the leverage it can exert, and modifying the itinerary of a Senator takes at least middling influence."

Ahsoka suppressed her sigh. In the days of the Republic it'd have been more of a feat; the Imperial senate was little more than an advisory council, for the Emperor to disregard as he saw fit. Granted, he had a lot of leeway during the Clone Wars as well, but internal strife in the Senate was on occasion noteworthy even to the Jedi; the Senate had to have been important. It was just a collection of people with empty titles now.

Of course, Chuchi wasn't a typical Senator; she'd calmly walked straight aboard that Trade Federation battleship all those years ago, unafraid. Padme was the same way, really...And Ahsoka supposed Senator Organa was at least in the same category. It felt strange, that she met so few average people while she was with the Jedi Order...But then, that could explain why so many of the Jedi Council understood normalcy only in the abstract; why they placed their interpretations above their perceptions as blatantly obvious as...

As her dedication to the Jedi Order. Which didn't lapse until the Council broke it themselves. Maybe they were victims of their own self-fulfilling prophecies.

"You alright, Laani?" Sareena asked with mild disinterest.

Ahsoka quickly snapped back to attention, having determined that Bail Organa's sense of timing was unlikely to be a family trait. "Sorry," she said as she quickly shook her head, "I was just remembering how the Senate was during the Clone Wars. It'd be a much more impressive sign then."

"True," Beril agreed, "the Senators would have a much easier time getting someone else to do this kind of work."

"More impressive to use their own resources than their system's, I say," Rian commented.

"Huh," Ahsoka said. "Never thought about it that way..."

"Guys," Sareena said over the three of them, "we'll have plenty of time to discuss sociology after we leave Alderaan, alright? We've got a job to do, and limited time to gear up for it. I doubt raiders turned kidnappers are courteous, so expect combat."

"Good," Rian said. "Feels like time to bring out the good armor, anyway."

"And the weapons that go with it."

"Even better," he agreed.

"While I hope we won't need that kind of firepower..."

"Yeah that's a safe bet," Rian countered sarcastically.

"No kidding..." Sareena darted her eyes between Ahsoka and Beril. "What about you two? Various hardware to break into secure systems or vehicles or droids?"

"We didn't use any of it last time," Ahsoka said.

"So unless we're bringing an airspeeder to an asteroid," Beril declared with annoyance, "we're already ready already."

"...what she said," Ahsoka agreed after double-checking her parsing of the sentence.

"Alright. If you need to change your mind, you've got twenty-five minutes to do it. See you all then."

Rian turned and headed down the cargo ramp, and Beril quickly followed.

"And what about you?" Ahsoka asked.

Sareena rolled her eyes. "My rifle, wilderness survival pack and field surgery kit were aboard before I called any of you here." She paused to look around the empty cargo bay with a suspicious expression. "I assume you're still all you need?"

"And I brought a couple blasters, too," Ahsoka answered with slight disgust. She wasn't exactly good with pistols, but appearances had to be kept, and she could use two with the same mediocrity as one. Blasters didn't handle like lightsabers, but her ambidexterity hadn't lapsed over the years.

"Two, huh...I keep forgetting to ask, didn't you used to fight with two lightsabers?"

"I've found it easier to be versatile with a hand free." She'd also realized how overdependent she had become on having two lightsabers, when Barriss beat her with a Ventress impersonation after she'd dropped one of them; but she figured the best way not to dwell on those long-ago events was not to give anyone else a reason to bring them up.

Ahsoka slowly noticed that the shouts of the hangar crew and the hiss of steam venting, which were certainly audible while she came up the ship's ramp, were now mottled behind the background noise of machinery; despite the wide door to the hangar still being open. "Did you really cover the entire cargo bay with a sound damping field?"

"I'm sure at some point, the ship hauled vocal livestock that spaceports don't want to hear," Sareena confirmed obliquely. "It's a subtle field, softening voices enough to thwart surveillance without suspiciously cutting all sound," she added pointedly.

"Are you still going on about that?" Ahsoka countered incredulously.

"Even during the Clone Wars you had a reputation for impulsiveness, and it seems well-deserved. We're trying not to draw attention to you, if you'll recall."

Ahsoka frowned. "Are you saying I can't control myself?" she accused.

"Oh I know you can," Sareena answered flatly. "But I don't think it's natural, you have to pause to think about it first. And when you don't pause you fight, and you're simply too much of a fighter not to draw attention to yourself."

Ahsoka took a deep breath through clenched teeth. "You're underestimating me," she declared defiantly.

"Then do me a favor and make sure I'm wrong."

"With pleasure," Ahsoka agreed with a smirk.

Sareena rolled her eyes.

Ahsoka supposed Sareena had something vaguely resembling a point. She'd never been one for letting a problem go unresolved. In her experience "subtlety" usually meant "don't do anything about it", and all the subtle Jedi might as well be dead for the good they were refusing to do. But at the same time, to imply she was incapable of self-restraint when the situation required it? Who ever heard of a Jedi without self-discipline, anyway? "So do you have any other prudent-yet-insulting questions for me?" she asked with irritation.

"No," she answered coldly. "I'm sure you'll find out if I come up with one."

"Of course I will," Ahsoka countered sarcastically. "Make sure it's prudent. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be anywhere else."

"Fair enough. Don't get lost, twenty-three minutes."

Rather than answer, Ahsoka quickly turned around and walked briskly across the cargo bay and out the door, hearing the sounds of hangar activity gain clarity as she went. The difficulty of resisting the urge to stomp her way out was seriously undercutting her evaluation of her own self-discipline, but she emerged victorious in the struggle. It was still worrying her, though.

She knew Sareena was responsible for the well-being of the four of them, and the kind of attention looking for Ahsoka would be incredibly detrimental. Why did it feel so insulting, when she was fully aware it wasn't an insult? And even if it were an insult, Sareena's disdain simply wouldn't be important enough to be worth caring about. It shouldn't bother her...so why did it?

Ahsoka sighed, as she decided to pace around the corridors surrounding the hangar. As much as she didn't want to think about it, Sareena's analysis would describe Anakin quite well. And he had the exact tendency Sareena was worried about, charging into things without stopping to think about anyone else who might be involved. She kept up with him easily, but the clones in their command weren't always lucky. And these days...

She briefly clinched her eyes shut and let the thought, that Anakin himself was as much a victim of Darth Vader's oppression as the rest of the galaxy, slide through her mind without stopping.

The thought of turning into another Anakin, letting her own determination bring tragedy to everyone around her, was frightening. And to think that it had already happened and she just hadn't noticed—

No.

However she felt about him, and whatever she learned from him, she was not Anakin. She, nor he, nor anyone else could afford for her to inherit his weakness. She would fight him off inside her own heart, if she had to. Exercising more control over her impulses should be a breeze by comparison, so if that was all it took, so much the better.

She hoped that was all it took.