Chapter Three

I sat in my chair overlooking the prisoners. Ahsoka, like the rest of the Togruta, was sitting in a cell. The blank look in her eyes was gone, replaced by sharp intellect. She was calmly watching the guards, taking careful notice of any possible weaknesses to their rotations or checks. There weren't any. I had designed the patrols, and my work is flawless.

Still, it was her duty to try and escape. Not that I minded her trying, since it would give me an excuse to kill her. Oddly, the thought of taking this particular Jedi's life was… not soul-fulfilling. I must be getting old, and going crazy.

….my chronometer had to be wrong. Three days. I have been awake for more than three days.

It was not a big problem right now. It's not as though my duties take much concentration, and, if I ration myself, I could stay awake for about a week without suffering any serious side effects. But what if this battle lasted longer than a week? Or a month?

…thinking about this particular problem only made it worse. I ordered the droids to rebuild as much of my bed as possible. It doesn't matter though- the bed is beyond repair. As for the rest...?

"Don't you ever sleep?" her voice cut through my brain like a knife. There, on my screen, was Ahsoka Tano, staring right at my camera. At first I thought that I was already losing my mind, but decided it was some kind of Jedi trick.

"…no," I answered her through the comms. She sighed, and sulked back down.

"So… what's the big deal now?"

I ignored her. Answering her question had been a mistake. She took it as a sign to complain about the war- all of it. Apparently she was demystified with the whole process; angry at what had happened, and tired of the endless fighting.

"A true warrior never tires," I said sagely.

"I'm… not really a warrior then," She answered sadly.

I thought about that for a moment. Why was she here then? My droids beeped and blooped questions I did not want to bother answering. Asajj called to let me know that someone (likely Tano) had warned the village of our approach, and that it was basically empty when she had attacked it. Poor, poor little Sith warrior. She demanded I interrogate the prisoners. There were brutal methods, of course, but I prefer the mental route. After all- what's the point in being the galaxy's greatest general if you behave like some kind of common thug?

Like Asajj?

I knew how to interrogate, how to break people, but more importantly, I knew when not to do so. I ordered the droids to bring me the little intruder. They bleeped and whirred, leaving me to go do their task. I stalked down the corridor into the cell area.

The Togruta were separated; the elders were in one cell, Tano in the next, and the youngling in the far cell away from the others.

The second the little one was out of her cell, she screamed for, "Miss Ahsoka!" While struggling in the guards' arms.

I skulked forward, putting on my most intimidating attitude, "Well now, little spy, let's see what secrets you hold!"

Tano slammed her fist against the blast shield. The rebound on that attack should have knocked her a meter backwards. Instead she snarled my name like a curse, "GRIEVOUS!"

I turned to look, "Silence, Jedi filth!"

She refused, "Let her go!"

"Miss Ahsoka, help me!"

"Grievous!"

"Jedi!"

My guards kept dragging the youngling down the hall.

"Why are you here?!" I demanded. If she was working for the Republic, I had a right to know. Pretending to be one of the locals was a common Jedi trick, one I saw through immediately.
"I left the Order!" She cried. One look in her eyes, and I knew it was true. I knew wars and I knew warriors. She had truly forsaken the Order.

"What?!"

Tears streamed down her face as she admitted it. It was… bizarre that she would confess this to me.

"I… couldn't take it anymore. The death, the destruction… I'm not like you," She turned this into some kind of emotional… thing. Crying, I never understood. Killing, yes, that I understood, but not crying, because either you're dead or alive, or your enemy is dead or alive. Crying was only the recognition of what wasn't anymore.

But why would she stop fighting? "I pretended the whole time, you know? Like I was braver than I was. I was just a stupid kid. Like her," She pointed to the young Togruta, "She's not… old enough to understand. Please, let her go. What could she have done to anger you so?"

The hours were beginning to catch up to me. Three days of not sleeping had made an impact on me if my anger was already starting to show outwardly. I didn't feel in control of it anymore. I, like my Sith masters, used anger. But now my anger used me.

"Nothing," I said as convincingly as possible, "I just want to know why you were here." I motioned for the droids to return with the crying girl. I personally deactivated the shield, and my guards pushed the youngling inside. Immediately, she went to Tano, sobbing.

The ex-Jedi glared at me. I did not care. The information I needed was already given to me. And there was no doubt in my mind about why we were here; Skywalker. The second he heard his ex-apprentice was on a Separatist planet with no lightsaber, he would immediately launch a counter-assault, using as much political gout as he could muster to get the job done.

This was just another ploy to make him vulnerable. Another one of Sidious machinations to ensnare us all in an unending war.

I sat back down into my chair, waiting for the madness to take over.