Chapter 4 - A Search For Truth

Author's Note: I'm like 100% certain that not one single person will guess the mastermind. xP

~ Amina Gila


This doesn't make any sense. How could the Council do this?! Ahsoka doesn't think she's ever been so confused and angry before – not even after the Temple was bombed, given that somehow, they're blaming Anakin for that too.

This is Anakin. Her master. And they just – how could they do that? How could anyone believe this? He's one of the best Jedi the Order has ever had. How could the Council not see that after everything her master has done for them and the galaxy?

And they literally threw him out of the Order.

She wants to scream. Or cry. But nothing she does will make the Council change their minds or make them undo what they've already done.

The Temple Guards are about to lead him away now, and she has no idea what's going to happen after that. Rex already contacted her to check through recordings, but she hasn't been able to find anything fast enough yet.

They're about to keep moving when she sees Obi-Wan approaching.

"Anakin," he calls.

Anakin looks up, though his expression is uncertain, hurt, and... a dull acknowledgement all at once.

"How could you do this?" Ahsoka demands, furiously, without waiting for Obi-Wan to speak, "You know Anakin would never do this!" It's hardly a respectful way to talk to a Jedi Master, but she's too angry to care right now. She can't believe the Council would do this, and that Obi-Wan wouldn't even... be able to stop it.

"I know, Ahsoka," he interrupts, "This was not a decision anyone on the Council wanted to make."

That doesn't even make any sense. "Then why did you?"

"The Senate was demanding it," Obi-Wan replies, bluntly. "Without sufficient tangible evidence, we could give them no valid reason for refusal." He's looking past her at Anakin as he says it.

"So that's just it? You threw him out because the Senate said so, even though you know he's innocent?!" Ahsoka demands, voice rising. None of this makes any sense to her. Why would they have to do something that's clearly wrong just because of politics?

"As I said, it was not a decision anyone wanted to make," Obi-Wan insists, taking a step closer to her no longer master. Because of the Council. And the Senate. "Anakin, I am... sorry things came to this." There's a sincere regret in his voice, but she's still too upset to care right now.

"I understand," Anakin replies, quietly, avoiding his gaze.

"We will do whatever we can on our end to find... further evidence before the trial," he promises.

Anakin only nods slightly, and Obi-Wan looks as though he's going to say something else, but then opts not to.

Ahsoka's not sure if she wants to scream at him or cry more, but she can only watch, doing neither, as the Temple Guards lead her master away. To a trial that could easily lead to... to – No, she can't think about that.

Everyone knows what the penalty for treason is in the Republic, but it's not something she even needs to begin thinking about it. They'll prove Anakin is innocent. They will. She has no idea how anyone could even think he's guilty in the first place, and they just need to find a way to make that obvious to the Senate.

"Ahsoka," Obi-Wan starts, finally snapping her out of... staring vacantly at the corner of the hall that Anakin disappeared around.

"What?" She can't help that she nearly snaps. She only partly feels bad about it.

"I know you have continued the investigation," Obi-Wan says, "Have you discovered anything as of yet?"

So now he asks? They didn't even bother to ask her beforehand. "No, but I am searching. Someone must have planted that droid," she replies, shortly, turning to leave. She had best get back to that, because it's the only lead they have on finding a way to prove Anakin's innocence.

"Ahsoka, there are protocols I know you don't always understand –" he starts to say.

No, she does not care to hear any of his justifications right now. "I understand that Anakin could be – be found guilty for treason if I don't find something," Ahsoka interrupts, and takes off down the hall without another word. She doesn't want to talk to him about this at all – she just needs to find evidence about who's really responsible for framing her master.

It doesn't take as long as she might have thought.

The numbers of cameras in the living areas are relatively limited because there's no real need for them, but she finds a recording of... a certain very familiar youngling going into Anakin's room, with something very obviously tucked into her robes. She's glancing around, to make sure no one's watching, before darting inside, coming out moments later without it.

What?!

That was... the same youngling she ran into in the hallway. This is weird. She has a hood pulled over her head, so Ahsoka doesn't think she'd even be able to recognize her, if not for when she'd accidentally run into her in the hallway.

But why would a youngling ever do that?! How would they do that? She couldn't have been more than ten, so... Obviously she couldn't be the one behind it, but... maybe someone put her up to it? Gave her a dare or something? But shouldn't she already have heard what this led to and said something?!

Either way, at last it gives Ahsoka somewhere to start, and she heads off to find the youngling immediately. It's hard when she doesn't have a name, but partly with the help of the hologram, they're able to identify who it must be.

"Reva?" Ahsoka queries, staring down at her. Her name is Reva Sevander.

"Padawan Tano?" she asks, "This isn't... about when I was out after hours, is it?" She feels decidedly nervous, but... something about it almost seems like more than it should be.

"Not specifically," she replies, eyes narrowed, "But that's not the first time you did that, is it?"

Her expression flickers. "I was just –"

She really doesn't have the patience for this right now. "You snuck into my master's room. And you left that droid there, didn't you? It's on camera." And seriously, Reva should've known better than to do something so incredibly stupid. How could she even have been convinced to get involved a... prank like that? And how has she not heard what it led to?!

Reva's expression tightens, instantly flickering with anger. "You would never understand," she retorts.

What? That's... a strange reaction. "Understand what?" Ahsoka demands, "Why would you do that? Do you know what you've caused?!"

"I did what had to be done, because no one else would do it," she snaps.

What?

What is wrong with her? And that is not how ten-year-olds should talk, like literally ever. Does this mean she was fully in on what happened the whole time?! Why? "You were directly involved in this?"

Reva blinks, as though it occurred to her for the first time that Ahsoka hadn't been directly accusing her of being knowledgeable about what happened in the first place. Apparently... from her guilt, she assumed Ahsoka would know, though how and why a ten-year-old could do this, she still doesn't understand. "Of course," the girl scoffs.

It's takes all her will power not to... positively explode. She was directly involved in framing Anakin, for no reason. And she was behind the Temple being blown up. How could any Jedi do something like that?! "Who else was involved in this?"

"What makes you believe anyone was?"

There's no time for this nonsense. She needs to take this evidence to the Senate as soon as possible, but first... they'll have to see if they can get a proper confession out of her. And information about who else was involved because someone obviously was. "You're too young to have masterminded this by yourself."

The sudden Force-shove catches Ahsoka off-guard, flinging her across the room, and Reva bolts. Maybe what really throws the Togruta off so much is that – that was the Dark Side. She could clearly feel it, and – what's going on here?!

This is a Jedi youngling. She shouldn't know anything about the Dark Side. She's not old enough to have Fallen, right?!

Pushing herself upright, Ahsoka instantly gives chase. The master who watches over the younglings already noticed her gone, and immediately joins the pursuit – and really, tracking a ten-year-old is next to impossible, but it's far easier when the rest of the younglings in the area here what happened and join the search.

They track her down quickly enough, mainly because she doesn't have a proper lightsaber of her own, cornering her before she can escape.

"You're too blinded to ever understand," Reva hisses, glaring at her.

"You can take your explanations to the Council," Ahsoka says, sharply. They need to bring this to them immediately.

**w**

Anakin stares numbly at the walls of the cell around him. He doesn't know how long it's been since he was brought here again, but he still feels just as numb with shock and denial as he did before.

Being trapped always first reminds him of Dooku and the Separatists and... all of that, but right now, he can't stop remembering Tatooine. It's not that he was ever... contained there. He wasn't. But still, it feels very much the same.

In the end, he doesn't think he's ever been anything other than a slave. Always fighting to be more, to be... something, but he always knows in the end that he never will be. He'll always be here – at the bottom of society. He... could be content with it sometimes, because he still has Ahsoka and his men and Obi-Wan and Padme and... the Chancellor. It's easy to forget sometimes.

Of course, he understands why the Council made the decision they did. They... had to, really. They had to do as the Senate asked, especially when they had no real reason not to. It was for the greater good, and as a Jedi, he knows that.

That doesn't mean he can quite shake the bitterness of it, or the... emptiness flooding him at the knowledge that he's not a Jedi anymore. That everything he's spent his life working for was ripped away and means nothing now. He doesn't even know what's going to happen in the trial, though there's no way they have nearly enough evidence to prove anything.

Anakin has always wanted to leave the Order. He just... never expected to be expelled like this. It would be one thing if it was for Padme, for someone or for the life he chose and wanted. But this isn't what he wanted. This could never be what he wanted.

Anakin looks up at the sound of the door opening, startled to see Padme standing there. "Padme?" he asks, blinking in surprise.

"Ani," she murmurs, approaching him, "I heard what happened."

"What... are you doing here?"

"Someone has to represent you in the Senate," she explains tightly – she's clearly extremely upset.

Oh.

Of course. He hadn't even considered that part of it yet. It had been... lost in the face of everything else that just happened. Even if he'd thought through the evidence a little on his own, just to... know what he could say about it.

The Council didn't listen when he tried defending himself, though. Will the Senate? Palpatine will be leading, though, and he... he'll listen. Anakin knows that much.

"What happened?" Padme asks, moving closer, "I heard the Council expelled you?"

He scrubs a hand over his face, suddenly too exhausted to even consider standing. He has no idea how the past some days have come to this. But still, he explains the situation again, giving her all the details – she needs to know if she's going to represent him properly.

"I know this was the Senate's demand, but I still can't believe they would do that," she sighs.

"They must focus on the needs of the many," he replies. It's true, so it shouldn't sting as much as it does. He's just one person. They have no reason to risk anything for him – they shouldn't – especially when this mess is so much his own fault for running in the first place.

"Still, I don't see how any of them could have thought you guilty," she replies, fiercely.

"They didn't," he answers, numbly. Or at least, Obi-Wan said they didn't, but he could distinctly feel the suspicion from Windu and Mundi, and... maybe some of the others. Not that it matters right now. They just need to focus on making the case to the Senate.

"I'll be working on the case," she decides, looking as though she wants to move closer, but physically stops herself – the prisons are being watched by cameras, after all. Anything they do or say will be recorded, and they don't need that. "Will you be... alright?"

He nods. The answer is obviously negative, but... he still appreciates that she asked.

"I'll... come back if I have any further questions," Padme says, gaze lingering on him a few moments before she slips from the cell, leaving him alone again.

To nothing but his spiraling mind. Sometimes, that's a worse place to be than the prison cell.

**w**

Obi-Wan knew Ahsoka would find something eventually, but he never expected her to walk in with a youngling, of all things. What's most confusing, though, is how she feels of the Dark Side.

"Why would you do this?" Obi-Wan demands finally when she's...clearly reluctant to share anything further about what happened.

Reva glares at him. "Because he deserves it. Because it was the only way you would see what you're too blind to – what he will become. He's a monster."

...

"What?"

"You were his master," she snaps, "You should have been able to see it long before it happened."

"... What are you talking about?" Because she seems to have totally lost her mind.

"I saw what Skywalker will become. Maybe you're too blind to see it, but at least others of this Order are not."

Given that the rest of her... ramblings make absolutely no sense at all – why does she seem to have some... something against Anakin that she's refusing to explain? – he focuses on the rest of her words instead. Based on what she said, someone else obviously was involved in this.

"See what?"

"I saw the future," Reva replies, angrily – though it seems a little more sullen now. "I lived it. Skywalker will destroy the entire Order. He attacked the Temple and killed everyone."

...

What?

"... I hardly think you're one to speak, seeing as you helped bomb the Temple," Obi-Wan replies, icily. He has no idea what she's talking about, if she had some kind of vision or what, but either way, it doesn't matter, because it doesn't excuse what she caused.

More likely, he suspects, she somehow stumbled into some kind of Sith... trap somewhere, and it corrupted her.

"I did what I had to," she retorts, "It was the only way you would listen. And it's the only way to stop him."

Okayyy, his patience is beginning to run very thin – seeing as he didn't have much in the first place. "I do not know what you believe you are speaking of, but Anakin is not a Sith, and has done nothing to the Temple – unlike you. And you were involved in treason against the Republic. I am sure you are well aware of the consequence of such actions." Even if she is just a child, the Senate will not take kindly to it. The laws about that... have very little discretion towards age.

Treason is one thing not tolerated by anyone, especially in wartime. Considering the circumstances, there is a small chance they will be more lenient, but it's unlikely. What bothers Obi-Wan more than anything else is how an Initiate could have been dragged into something of this nature.

"I lived the future," Reva repeats; she looks even more sullen now. "The Sith won the war. They killed everyone at the Temple, and Skywalker was one of them. I had to stop him. No one would listen to the warning any other way."

"... This was a vision?" Obi-Wan clarifies. Because it makes no sense otherwise. And... is she seriously saying that because she saw Anakin in the future, she was trying to give everyone a reason to question his loyalty now? And Obi-Wan cannot – will not – believe she's telling the truth. Anakin would never do any of that. Never.

"No. I lived it. I... think I time traveled."

Somehow, that sounds like a very lame, stupid thing an Initiate would say when in trouble, but this isn't the time to point that out. Though there is something... distinctly different about her Force presence that Obi-Wan can't make sense of.

But really, what she's saying about that doesn't even matter. What does is finding out who's behind this.

"I know you are well aware of the consequences of your actions. The Senate may be inclined to be more... lenient if you reveal who else was involved." Obi-Wan doesn't known if that's true, but they need the information.

He finds it... mildly surprising how easily he's able to get the other name out of her, though it leaves him feeling equally taken aback – Barriss Offee.

**w**

Ahsoka didn't know any betrayal could hurt nearly as much as what the Council just did, but apparently, she was wrong. "Barriss?" Ahsoka asks, disbelievingly, as the Temple Guards show up with her, too.

Yes, she'd been acting quite strange after the bombing, but that doesn't mean Ahsoka ever dreamed this is what was wrong. That she was the one behind it.

"I'm sorry, Ahsoka," she says, levelly, though the apology only makes her angrier, "I saw no other way."

"You framed my master!"

"I know you will have a hard time believing this, but I –"

What, is this about the time travel stuff Obi-Wan was telling her?! None of the Council members are sure what to think of that. "Reva convinced you of these visions?" Ahsoka demands, bitterly.

"She made me realize what I already knew," Barriss cuts her off, "The Order is falling. The Jedi are the ones responsible for this war. We have lost our way so much that we have become the villains in the conflict. All of us. My attack on the Temple was an attack on what the Jedi have become – an army fighting for the Dark Side, fallen from the Light we once clung to. It's only a matter of time before the Order and the Republic fall."

Ahsoka can only gape at her for a few moments, because... Barriss has never said anything of this nature before. Clearly, she was questioning things far more than she let on, but this?

And after what the Council did to Anakin, she can't deny that the Order is falling. That aren't what they used to be because there's no way the Jedi could've had to do that. There's no way that could've been right. But that doesn't change that what she did is exactly the kind of thing she's upset about.

Nor does it change that they dragged Anakin into it for no reason.

"You think that justifies what you've done?" Ahsoka asks, angrily, trying to keep her voice even. She has no idea who to trust anymore, because one of her friends did this. Barriss helped blow up the Jedi Temple. And she can't trust the Council anymore either. Really, she hasn't in a long time. Not since... when she met those other younglings abandoned on Wasskah. They were abandoned to their fate, with no looking for them, just like... Anakin is now.

Ahsoka has never been able to forget that. Yes, the Council didn't have the resources to search for them as they once would have, but that doesn't change how these padawans were... abandoned to their fate. Kalifa died there. The memories still haunt her. The questions that she couldn't help asking, the anger she couldn't help feeling afterwards, have never truly gone away.

"Perhaps not, but I saw no other way to stop this before it's gone too far."

"You're the one who's gone too far," she replies, bitterly.

"I couldn't ignore what Reva told me about... your master," she defends.

"What she's saying couldn't even happen!" It's utter insanity. How could anyone claim Anakin would turn on the Jedi?

"She saw it, Ahsoka," Barriss objects, "I didn't want to believe it either, but so many have lost their way. It was not hard to imagine some falling even further."

As if she's one to talk. "You did worse than my master ever could," Ahsoka hisses furiously. She's as hurt as she is angry, though anger is so much easier to latch onto. That's what Barriss was saying though, isn't it? "You don't know Anakin." And she doesn't know how someone could ever question him. No, Anakin may not see eye-to-eye with the Council much of the time, but he's still the best Jedi – and person – she has ever known.

"Even Master Kenobi never saw in the future," Barriss argues.

"This future never happened, and nor will it," Ahsoka snaps, turning away. Maybe she... might want to say more to her later, but she can't handle talking to her right now. She can't... even understand how any of this could've happened. "Assuming any of it was real in the first place."

The Temple Guards take that as their cue to keep moving, leading Barriss away.

They need to get this evidence to the Senate as soon as possible.

**w**

Anakin expected to find himself standing in front of the Senate in several hours, not the Council, to hear that the charges were dropped since apparently, Barriss and some Initiate were behind what happened? He'll have to ask for the details... later.

Ahsoka will no doubt give him a full update on the details immediately, anyway. After they talk that is. She's... going to be shaken up.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan says, softly. He looks distinctly regretful, and that's something Anakin's rarely seen in him.

"You have our humblest apologies," Plo says.

Anakin... has no idea what to say to that. It's not his time to speak, anyway, for which he's grateful. This is over now, finally, but it still doesn't really feel like it. He was still thrown out of the Order. He was still... He has known his whole life that he may someday have to sacrifice himself for the Order, and that never bothered him. But now that it's happened, it's... harder somehow.

"Made any other choice we would have, if we could," Yoda speaks up, after a few moments of silence. None of the Council seems certain how to handle this or what to say to him, as odd as that is. "Back into the Order you may come."

They're... asking him back. This is the only life Anakin has ever known. How can he turn that down? But still, it just... he doesn't know.

Anakin understands that he can be considered... expendable but seeing it – living it – is different. How can he just go back and pretend nothing has happened or changed? But it's not as if he has anywhere else to go, either.

More than that, the war is still going on. He still has a duty, to the galaxy, to his men, and to Ahsoka. She's still his padawan, and he can't leave her. He can't leave his men after what happened on Umbara. And he can't leave the Order, either, when he's supposed to... They call him the Chosen One. That's not who he believes he is. That's not who he wants to be. But that destiny has been hovering over him every moment of his life since he became a Jedi. That's the only reason he meant anything at all.

So, yes. There's... that. And Anakin can't leave it. He could never forgive himself for leaving, knowing that there's still a war, a place where he's needed, no matter how much he craves to be out and to be... elsewhere, no matter how badly he wants to settle down.

Obi-Wan moves a little closer to him. His expression is fairly neutral, likely because they're in the Council chambers, but Anakin can tell the answer he's expecting and hoping for. Waiting for. "You can come back, Anakin."

And really, he can't... say no to that, even if he wanted to. Not when Obi-Wan is asking, no matter how much it hurts that he was on the Council and would have agreed to this. He knows it wasn't Obi-Wan's decision, or even his choice, because he would've been overruled no matter how much he argued, but still. "I... accept," Anakin replies, quietly.

The words don't leave him feeling any less drained than he did before, even if the rare smile Obi-Wan gives him almost made it worth it.

It's... he's always known he doesn't belong among the Jedi, but it feels even more true now. Or maybe just even more obvious to everyone around him. This isn't his place. It's not where he belongs. It's not where he even wants to be anymore, but there is nowhere else he can go, no other decision he could've made.

What Anakin is only afraid of now is how long it will be before he starts questioning even more.

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