Off Course
Chapter Five
"I've seen some pretty strange things in my day, done a lot of crazy stuff, from my first missions as a Padawan to that unfortunate incident with a dreadnaught, separatist fleet and a black hole. I still insist that the 'Coruscant Adventure' – as we have come to call it – was one of the most bizarre and harrowing of them all."
—Ahsoka Tano, interview on HoloNet: Legends, circa 33 GrS.
The universe had a predisposition for irony and took great pleasure in the bafflement of its denizens, Ahsoka thought. She was in a dark alley on Coruscant's Level 1327, crouched over a dying body. Unlike the handful of Quarren at the alley's entrance, this one was not her doing, yet.
"Ventress?" She prodded the body in question, swathed in rags and grievously injured. "What did you get yourself into now?"
For two years they had been enemies, ever since Asajj Ventress decided to drop by on Teth for afternoon tea and up until Dooku had forsaken his assassin at the battle of Sullust, where she had fallen off the grid.
They were probably still enemies, but as Ahsoka commanded armies in the Outer Rim and Ventress slunk about various hives of scum and villainy, they hadn't had the opportunity to sort things out. Ahsoka was rather temped to do so now, her index finger hovering beside the activation stud on her shoto, but she reminded herself, she was the decent, good-guy here.
"Stow it, Tano!" Ventress spat in response to Ahsoka's greeting and question, "Shouldn't you be saving someone or studying, anyway?"
Ahsoka smirked sardonically, "But I am; I'm saving you, and studying how it feels to have a ten-million credit death mark."
Through her pain, Ventress rasped a chuckle. "Finally broke ways with Skywalker? Or did you mouth off to some senator?"
"Admiral, actually." Ahsoka retorted, busying herself with first aide that was a good three hours overdue, "According to Tarkin, I'm responsible for the bombing of the Jedi Temple, sedition, collusion, something reckless or another, gross misconduct, murder of a prisoner, and half a dozen other charges I couldn't be bothered remembering."
Doped up on a full course of painkillers from Ahsoka's medkit, Ventress was a fair deal more relaxed, and also available to crack jokes. "My, I think I might actually have a shorter sentence! I need to catch up. Know of any banks that I could rob?"
Ahsoka appreciated the humour, but sensing a clone patrol on their way, knew that she was running low on time. "I'll suggest a few if you survive." Finished with her work, she put her medkit away and turned suddenly grim. "That is a big 'if' though."
Ventress looked weary; despite her mockery and boasting, she knew her own limits and the measure of her opponent. At the moment, her state was severely weakened, she doubted if she could even lift a limb, and her opponent had gained a degree of ruthlessness and cunning.
It was ruthlessness she saw this time. "I don't trust you." Ahsoka said rather bluntly, "I don't know you, don't know your reasons for following Dooku, your reasons behind your career choices afterwards – anything. I helped you because dying in an alley is not the way a Jedi – or Sith – should go. But I can't have you turning me in or attacking me, so the question stands: do I kill you outright and save myself the consequences, or do I send you unconscious to the Jedi to do as they please?"
As she saw the saber hilt raise in preparation, it was the first time Asajj Ventress felt respect for anyone in over a decade. Killing her would have been the Sith thing to do, while sparing her without question would have been naïve. As did Ky Narek in those years long past, Ahsoka had given her a choice; fight or move past her past.
"I will return to the Order." She said, contentment falling over her, as she made her own decision once more. "I probably should never have left."
With a sigh, Ahsoka lowered her hilt. Be it pummel or emitter, she was not yet so cold as to use either without hesitation on an unarmed person, even if that person was the insufferable Ventress. "I don't know if you should be moved or not," she said, "But we're running out of time."
Getting up and spotting a speeder parked at a club not far away, Ahsoka called upon the Force to lift Asajj's body and float it into the back seat. She set the autopilot to go straight up and squawk on the Jedi Medical frequency, and with a mild compulsion to sleep, sent Ventress on her way.
The warehouse on 1312 was a colossal dump. In both senses of the word, Ahsoka discovered, peaking over a pile of rubble and seeing the floor strewn with industrial debris.
On some cosmically-unknown impulse, Ventress had told her about her attackers; a Mirialan and Twi'lek, and their place of confrontation. Foreseeing a trap, Ahsoka had checked in with the Temple and had ventured forth. So far, all was quiet, but that did nothing to allay her suspicions.
She was right to be weary, for as she was about to rise from her cover, a shadow picked itself up of its bedroll and moved along the catwalks below, moving into the ruins of the manager's office. Enhancing her senses through the Force not being the best idea with a roaring furnace in the next complex along, Ahsoka chose the next best thing: being there herself. Affixing her ascension cable to a girder, she repelled down, landing on a shadowed stretch of scaffolding across from the office.
She arrived to see the argument already in full bloom. One of the figures seemed to be female, garbed in a robe of midnight black, and standing calmly in the centre, weathering the storm from the other, a Cerean by all appearances who stormed to and fro, gesticulating wildly.
"…no, Lady Zentria, this has gone quite out of hand." He raged, "Jinx and I were promised revenge on Tano, but for the past six months we did nothing but skulk in the shadows. Then, the Temple got bombed. Did your Lord Sidious deign to tell you what his 'shake up the Jedi' strategy was? Now, six Jedi are dead because of you and him – six Jedi and Jinx, who died fighting Ventress for your schemes. I'm out – my quarrel is with Tano for getting Kalifa killed, not the whole Order. You have failed to provide us with any—" his rant did not continue further. A hand raised from the folds of the black cloak, and the fingers curled into an ever-tightening fist.
"That's enough," a level voice condescended, "You and Jinx served your purpose, but now, your usefulness has come to an end." Lady Zentrious loosened her grip a little, allowing the Cerean to catch a lungful of air to live through her own rant. "Your persisting devotion to the Jedi Order – hatred for Tano notwithstanding – prevented you from becoming more than a tool. And every true Sith knows what to do with a tool that has outlived its usefulness – it is discarded." On her last word, her fingred clenched completely, there was a snap of bone, and the body crumpled to the floor, bereft of life.
For Ahsoka the conversation was altogether too surreal. The name Jinx was familiar to her, the young Twi'lek from Wasskah. Now that she thought on the matter, the Cerean could very well have been a slightly older O-mer, and Lady Zentrious' voice….
"Barriss?" she gasped, unable to stop a spike of shock through the Force. Instantly, the figure turned to her, though it did not raise a weapon or a head in attack, merely lowered its hood and beckoned.
"Come Ahsoka," her old friend purred sinisterly, "We need to chat."
"Most definitely." Ahsoka snarled, drawing her lightsabers and bathing the warehouse in their pink glow. With all that had transpired, she had forgotten to retrieve her original green crystals, and now looked like a wild Sith in her own right, sharp canines bared in a scowl, and posture clearly declaring she was ready to slice and dice unless she heard something really good.
Barriss didn't even try on that regard. "You, Ahsoka, have ruined my life. I was there, with your Master on Ansion, when this whole kafuffle began. We fought side-by-side, passed through many a hardship, but then the war broke out. We were driven apart, I was still a Padawan to Master Luminara, my dear Anakin became a knight. For months I strived to pass my Trails of Knighthood, I was almost ready for the Trail of Spirit when you came along. Some bratling nobody from no-where that took the Chosen One's attention from me!"
Barriss took a breath, then continued, "That was bad enough, but then you dragged me through the hell of Geonosis again! I … Hate … you!" Her eyes, a calm blue usually, roiled with the liquid fire of the Dark Side, and she stood there, trembling with rage.
"I fought on the front lines no less than you, I did more for the Republic in the Rimsoos and who does the council recognize? Who does the HoloNet hail? Barriss Offee, Jedi Healer, or Ahsoka Tano, Tagalong? I want to forge my own destiny now, leave my own mark on the Universe. Not wallow in grief and misery under the fist of the Jedi Order."
"So you chose being a Sith…" Ahsoka snorted.
"Yes," Barriss said rather simply. "More power, and more opportunity to do as I wish. As is my birthright." She went as if to draw her saber, one that Ahsoka recognized as once belonging to Ventress, but then paused for a menacing second, "When you're out of the way, and the Jedi Order has been crushed, Anakin and I shall overthrow him and rule the Galaxy as the new Lords of the Sith."
In all her confrontations with Sith and Dark Siders – and they were many – Ahsoka had seldom encountered such frenetic hatred and zeal, not to mention such a lock of logic. The Old Masters, she thought, had it right when they called it the 'Dork Side'.
The old Jedi adage about there being no way back from the Dark Side was often misquoted, as she was, herself, a prime example of returning from there. The Dork Side though, filled with delusions and mindless self-interest, had no way back. It was thus that with a heavy heart she prepared to fight her long-time frind.
She really did not know what caused Barriss to snap; a lingering effect from the Geonosian Brain Worms, overall stress from the battlefields, her harrowing adventures on Drongar or something she was not aware of. It didn't matter, she had to be stopped, for even if she did not orchestrate the Temple bombing, she was still a threat, both to her herself, and to the rest of the Order.
"Surrender, Barriss," She soothed, as much as she could, even lowering her blades a trifle, knowing it wouldn't work, but needing to try. "You're a healer, I'm a guardian – I can beat you. Don't make me do it."
Barriss laughed coldly once more, "There is one thing I never told you about Drongar, 'Soka." She purred, drawing a vile from the folds of her robes, "Bota – that lovely little plant – greatly boosts one's connection to the Dark Side. I doubt you will be a match." Saying so, she sent a stream of purple lightning at Ahsoka.
The first forks struck the hilts of her sabers, knocking them out of Ahsoka's grasp. The second would have slammed into her chest, but something happened. Something clicked in the back of Ahsoka's mind. Raising her hand, she absorbed the oncoming flow of energy.
"And there's one thing I forgot to tell you about Mortis," Ahsoka growled with the effort, "I've been to the Dark Side, myself."
Before Barriss could collect herself, Ahsoka lowered her hand, from the open-palmed shielding gesture into a predatory claw, pointed at her shrouded friend. Speaking words she did not know the origin of, she advanced, "The Jedi are right to call the Dark Side by such a name, for it draws on anger, and fear, and hatred, and all these emotions come from within, given you a momentary boost, but eating at your body. The Jedi have the right idea; let the Force flow through you, give you strength, and aid you in your battles. Now, my old friend, experience the actual power of the Force."
Saying such, Ahsoka delved into the Force, half-instinctually gathering from around her electrons from passing atoms. Then, in a tremendous show of Force, a torrent of red energy burst from about her fingertips, engulfing the body of Barriss and overwhelming her frantic Force Shield.
It was done. Barriss Offee was dead.
Ahsoka lowered her hand, wearied and bewildered, and crumpled into darkness.
Okay, To Catch A Jedi is done. The Anti-Ahsoka faction has been taken down by unforseen circumstances and Sith Treachery, and all we have to cover is the trail, at least from the canoncical standpoint. After the trail - which I'll be sure to treat with the same logic as I did the rest of the arc - we'll move onto other galactic affairs.
I really did not intend for this to be another 2k chapter, but the plot grew a life of it's own as Ventress was sent off to the Jedi and I found myself here.
Pertenant Notes: Zentria - Barriss Offee's Darth title - comes from the word 'Resent' or 'Resentful'. It was first meant to be Zentrious, but...it struck me as too cliché and too masculine - Sidous, Tyrannus, so on.
Bota is a plant from Drongar (MedStar books) that, as I siad, enhances connection to Dark Side. I didn't like the idea of that plant originally, but I found a way to use it to my advantage.
Rimsoo is a phonetic representation of RMSU, Republic Mobile Surgical Unit - field hospital complex.
Wasskah was that moon where Ahsoka wound on in TCWS3.
Ventress' 'redemption' was a spur-of-the-moment decision - I was actually going to have her killed - but I suffered an attack of conscious and decided to leave her alive as a potential plot device - but I make no guarantees in that regard.
As for this, Force confrontation, it was one of the things that annoyed me in the series. Ahsoka was a front-line combatant, while Barriss was generaly a healer and had less experience with combat. So, there shouldn't have been such a wide skill desparity in their duels. The Force was what Barriss should have used and excelled, especially when I chucked in Bota.
As for Ahsoka absorbing and casting lightning...it has been an avenue I wanted to explore ever since Mortis came out. In that arc she had died, and was revived by the essence of the Daughter. Not a healing trance or something of the sort, but a full-blown, game-esque rivival. As Ahsoka was revived, so did the Daughter die, transferring - it seems - her strength and/or essence into her. If we follow the Living Force - the Yoda version - side of things, wherein the Force is an energy field created by living things and some living things have more of it than others, than Ahsoka would absorb part of the power from the Daughter.
If we consider the George Lucas Butchery circa 1999, Force is maintained by midiclorians so nothing happens because midiclorians are localized to the body, cannot be transferred, Ahsoka dies, Anakin goes on a killing spree, ya-da-ya-da-ya.
This - and the things i have planned for Obi-Wan and Yoda - make me, dare I say, excited to write the rest of this fic.
Tha stuff aside, what do you guys think on the "new and improved" motive for Barriss & Co.?
Okay, before I make a further fool of myself or give something improtant away, I'd like to thank you all for reading, and bid that the Fiction be With you!
Clean word count: 2175 | Published : 19/11/14, 1201 GMT