Chapter Fifteen

Ahsoka was tired.

The last few days had been mentally exhausting and more than a little distressing. No matter how hard she tried to stop thinking about it, the Temple bombing still ate at her.

Coruscant had developed quite the record of terrorist acts over the past two years, but this felt different. Maybe it was because this was the first time the Temple had been targeted, she had to admit that had made it all feel more personal. But somehow it was the bomber herself, Turmond, that bothered her more than anything else. Try as she might, Ahsoka just couldn't wrap her mind around it, a Republic citizen harboring so much hatred for the Jedi…

"I just don't get it." She said to Ghes. "I mean, I know not everybody agrees with the war, but planting a bomb? And in the Temple of all places?"

Ghes shrugged. He'd only returned to Coruscant that morning, with Ahsoka having picked him up from the fleet yard earlier after she'd left the service for the victims of the bombing that the council had held that morning. After everything that had happened… she needed someone to talk to.

"The Temple's a symbol," Ghes said, digging through a cabinet for a can of caf. "of the Jedi, of the Republic… It makes sense as a target, for a terrorist anyway."

They'd gone to Ghes's apartment, Ghes having made it abundantly clear after that first time that he wanted to spend as little time as possible in the Temple. That was okay with Ahsoka, she'd moved in enough of her stuff that she could live out of the apartment for a few days. Besides, she didn't much want to be at the Temple right then either.

"That really doesn't explain why they'd want to plant a bomb." Ahsoka said, leaning back against the counter next to Ghes.

"What do you want me to say?" Ghes asked, coming out of the cabinet empty handed and turning to face her. "Some people are just crazy. Crazy and pissed off are a bad combination, especially when it comes to politics."

That really was it, wasn't it? Turmond had had a motive and she'd had the opportunity. Try as she might, Ahsoka wasn't going to find whatever x-factor set her apart from the hundreds of others in the same position, what had turned her into a killer. It was a hard pill to swallow, but it might just be something she'd have to accept.

"You didn't have to rush back, you know." Ahsoka said, trying to push the bombing and Turmond to the back of her mind. "I would've been heading back to the fleet tomorrow anyway."

"Vor can handle things without me for a few days." Ghes said, dismissing her concern with a wave. "Besides, I thought you could use my help with your investigation. I used to be a private investigator, you know."

"Yes, I know." Ahsok said, rolling her eyes.

It was amazing how often Ghes referenced his previous career compared to how few details he'd ever given her.

"But when I get here," He continued. "I find out that you, cyar'ika, are so amazing that you had the whole case wrapped up neatly in a few days. And I came all the way from the Outer Rim for nothing."

"So that's the only reason?" Ahsoka said disbelievingly, eyebrow cocked.

"Maybe…" Ghes said, smiling wryly as he moved in front of her, placing his hands to either side of her waist and trapping her against the counter. "Or maybe I haven't had any time alone with my girlfriend in almost a month…"

Ahsoka matched his smile, seeing exactly where he was going. This was just the distraction she needed right now.

"Well then, what are you waiting for, soldier boy?"

Ghes leaned in… only to be interrupted by the beep of a commlink.

Ahsoka closed her eyes and sighed.

"Yours or mine?" She asked.

"Yours." Ghes groaned, clearly aggravated with the interruption.

Ahsoka swore under her breath as she brought the device up to her mouth.

"Commander Tano." She said, fighting to keep her own irritation out of her voice.

"Ahsoka," Anakin's voice answered. "are you in the Temple?"

Ahsoka sighed again. It was only fair, she supposed, she'd doubtlessly interrupted Anakin and Padme more than once.

"No, master." She answered. "I'm… out."

"Out?" Anakin asked.

"Afternoon, General." Ghes answered without being prompted.

"Oh…" Anakin said, seeming a little embarrassed when he realized what he'd done. "Anyway, Ahsoka, Admiral Tarkin called. He said Turmond's ready to talk, but only to you."

"All right." Ahsoka said. "I'll head over there right now."

"Now?" Ghes asked with a grimace as she returned the commlink to her belt.

"Sorry." She said. "If it's about the bombing…"

"I know." Ghes sighed, stepping back to let her away from the counter.

"To be continued." Ahsoka said reassuringly as she gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Drive me?"

"It's your speeder." He countered. "But I'll tag along if you want."

Turmond was being held in one of the newer GAR facilities on Coruscant, built after the start of the war rather than inherited from the pre-war Judicial Forces. It had a more martial feel than most of the older facilities, an atmosphere reinforced by the orbiting gunships and abundance of clone guards standing watch both on the grounds and throughout the corridors Ahsoka and Ghes passed through on the way to the detention center. Ghes seemed to know a lot of them, which wasn't surprising since he'd started out working with the Coruscant Guard at the beginning of the war. In fact, the only one of the shocktroopers who didn't seem glad to see him was the officer in charge of the detention area.

"Commander. Colonel." Commander Fox said flatly as he saw them approaching from his position inside the guard station.

"Fox." Ghes responded in the same tone.

"Admiral Tarkin said Turmond wanted to see me." Ahsoka said, stepping up to the guard station.

"A lot of innocent people died in that blast." Fox said to her, opening the first of the two security barriers after she dropped her commlink and lightsabers into a slot in the guard station window. "Good job capturing her."

"Thank you." Ahsoka said politely, uneasy with being praised when the way that this had played out still didn't sit right with her. She glanced over her shoulder at Ghes. "Are you coming in with me?"

"No." He said, leaning against the guard station blast window. "Probably better if I wait for you out here."

"Probably." She agreed, a little reluctant even if she knew it was probably right. "I'll try not to take too long."

"Don't worry," Ghes said, waving away the concern. "I'll hang out here and catch up."

"Suit yourself." Ahsoka shrugged before stepping through into the mantrap. She pulled her lightsabers and commlink off her belt and placed them into a slot in the barrier separating the trap from the guard station.

"All right, scan her." Fox said to the tech next to him once he'd closed the barrier behind her.

The scanners in the walls around her buzzed for a view seconds before the red lights lining the frame of the trap turned green.

"You're good to go, ma'am." Fox said, opening the second barrier into the cell block itself.

The detention center was designed along the same lines as the brigs onboard Venators and other newer Republic capital ships, with cells lining either side of a hexagonal passageway, set into the lower part of the wall so anyone walking down the center could observe the prisoners from an elevated position.

"You can leave your lightsabers and commlink here." The commander continued, stepping out from behind the guard station and starting down the walkway. "Follow me."

Turmond's cell was about a hundred meters down the walkway on the left side. Fox stopped just short of the door and turned to face her.

"She hasn't said anything to any of my men." The commander explained, leaning closer to her and lowering his voice. "And the only thing the interrogator got out of her was that she wanted to talk to you."

"But she's been cooperating?" Ahsoka asked, glancing around Fox at the closed cell door.

"More or less." He answered. "She seems spooked by something, just sits in the back of her cell."

So Turmond was afraid, then. But of what? The first thing that came to Ahsoka's mind was that the woman had had an accomplice after all, maybe more than one, and now she was afraid that they'd somehow get to her to keep her from talking. It was certainly an attractive idea, but that left the question of why Turmond wanted to talk to Ahsoka when she could have told that to the Rep Intel interrogator.

"Alright." Ahsoka said, nodding toward the cell. "Let's get this over with."

Fox nodded back to her before opening the door and stepping aside to let her through. As Ahsoka stepped into the cell she saw what the clone had been talking about. Turmond sat on the bed/bench that lined the back wall with her knees pulled up to her chest and her back in the corner. She seemed relieved to see Ahsoka, but eyed Fox nervously where he waited just outside.

"I'm giving you five minutes, Letta." Ahsoka snapped at the woman, not seeing any reason to feign politeness. "Now, what do you want?"

"I was told if I ever needed help, you were the Jedi to contact." She responded shakily, staying huddled in her corner.

By who?, Ahsoka thought. She waited a few moments for the woman to continue, but she didn't, instead remaining silent while she continued to eye Fox. Whatever it was she had to say, she didn't want to say it in front of the trooper.

"Give us a minute, please." Ahsoka said over her shoulder.

Fox nodded curtly and tapped his finger on the side of his helmet before turning to leave. He'd keep listening in on the cell's surveillance system, just in case.

"You don't have much time, Letta," Ahsoka continued after the cell door had closed. "so I suggest you get whatever you have to say off your chest."

"The idea of feeding Jackar the nano-droids was not mine." Turmond said after a moment, referencing her late husband whom she'd turned into her unwitting bomb.

So she's going to be direct, then.

It wasn't the most surprising confession the woman could have made, she didn't have anything in her background related to explosives or nanotech, as far as Ahsoka knew she didn't have much education in general. No, Intel and CSF had been certain from the minute she and Anakin had brought her in that Turmond had gotten the ordinance from a third party, they just hadn't been able to get her to admit it.

"Why are you saying this now?" Ahsoka asked. "Why didn't you mention any of this before?"

"Because my life is in danger." Turmond answered, less hesitant but just as weary. "The person behind this will be able to get to me unless you know the truth."

"Then tell me what the truth is." Ahsoka insisted.

"A Jedi." Turmond admitted, pausing for a moment after she'd said it as if she expected to be struck down in that instant, and continuing when she wasn't. "A Jedi showed me how to create the bomb and how to put the nano-droids in."

Now that shocked Ahsoka. Not that it could be true, there was no way a Jedi would have betrayed the order like this, by killing the beings they'd lived and worked alongside. Even Dooku had taken years to turn his saber on his former comrades. That an act of terrorism like Turmond's could have been planned by anyone inside the Order…

"Why would a Jedi do this?"

"There are some citizens of the Republic, like myself, who believe the Jedi Order is not what it used to be." Turmond explained, a note of self-righteous arrogance slipping into her voice. "The Jedi have become warmongers, military weapons, and they're killing when they should be keeping the peace. One of these Jedi agreed with us, one who wanted to make a statement and was willing to attack your own order to do it."

"Who?" Ahsoka asked, taking another step towards her.

She still wasn't sure she was willing to accept even the possibility that what Turmond was saying was true, but that didn't mean she was lying either. Beings had been known to impersonate Jedi to manipulate others to their own ends, Ahsoka had almost been abducted as a child by such a man. What Ahsoka knew was that Turmond believed what she was saying.

"If you protect me, I will tell you," Turmond continued, backing further into her corner. "because it is obvious to me now that I have been set up."

"Letta," Ahsoka said, holding up her hand and doing her best to radiate reassurance to the woman through the Force. "calm down. I can protect you, but first you have to tell me who's behind this."

"It's…." She began, only for her voice to catch in her throat.

"Leeta?" Ahsoka asked, trying to coax the woman to continue.

Turmond's eyes bulged with shock and panic as her hands moved searchingly to her throat, a cough turning into the horrible, wet sound of a human trying to breath through a closing windpipe. By the time Ahsoka realized what was happening, she'd begun rising up into the air over the bunk.

"Letta!" Ahsoka yelled, throwing up her hands and trying to break the phantom grip of the unseen Force user as Turmond continued to grab uselessly at her own neck, lashing out with kicks that found nothing to connect with as she continued to panic.

Ahsoka searched desperately for something, anything to exert her own will against to receive the pressure on Turmond's throat, but found nothing. Desperate, she turned her attention away from the suffocating women and cast her senses outward to try and locate the attacker, and found… nothing.

Impossible, she thought, there was no way anyone could get close enough to be doing this without her being able to sense them. Looking back up at Turmond, she met the woman's eyes, eyes that in that seemed to cry out help me in that moment before the cartilage of her windpipe collapsed with a sickening crunch and she collapsed into an unmoving heap on the cell floor.

"Letta!' Ahsoka repeated panickedly as she fell to the ground beside the woman, searching desperately for life signs she already knew she wouldn't find, almost not even hearing the pneumatic woosh of the cell door as it opened behind her.

"Back away from the prioner!" A clone's voice ordered, pulling Ahsoka's attention away from Turmond. There were four of them behind her, Fox included, eyeing her wearily and keeping a tight grip on their weapons.

"I don't know what happened." Ahsoka said, standing up and backing away from the woman's unmoving body as a trooper pushed by her and began checking for a pulse.

"Sir," The trooper said to Fox after a moment, pulling his hand away from Turmond's neck. "she's dead."

"Can't say I blame you, Commander," Fox said, leveling his pistol on her back. "but all the same, you're under arrest."

"I, n-no. I did not do this." Ahsoka said, keeping her hands raised as she turned slowly around to face the clone.

"Sure you didn't." He responded coldly, stepping aside and waving her out of the cell with the sidearm he still held on her.

Careful not to further provoke the notoriously jumpy shocktroopers, she moved slowly out of the cell and into the waiting arms of the other two troopers who had accompanied Fox into the cellblock. Positioning themselves on either side of her, they each grabbed onto one of her arms.

"Hey!" She heard Ghes yell down the hallway, and was able to look past the trooper to the left of her to see him running towards them, another trooper trailing behind trying futilely to get him to stop.

"Fox! What's going on here?" Ghes said, pointing angrily at the commander exiting the cell.

"Commander Tano killed Turmond, sir." Fox responded. "We're placing her under arrest."

"Like hell you are!" Ghes snapped, then turned to Ahsoka. "What happened?"

"I'm being framed, Ghes." She said. "Someone else orchestrated the Temple bombing, a Jedi. Turmond was about to tell me who it was…but she was killed."

"Not by you though?" He asked, a touch of genuine concern in his voice.

"No" She answered, shaking her head. "It was someone else, someone I couldn't see."

"Don't worry, we'll figure this out." Ghes said, his face taking on a stern expression of determination as he turned back to Fox. "Let her go."

"But, sir…" The trooper said defiantly.

"Now!" Ghes commanded, leaning in and jabbing a finger into the commander's breastplate. "I won't let you arrest a fellow officer on circumstantial evidence."

"Oh, but the evidence is more than circumstantial." Another voice called out from the direction of the cellblock's entrance. Surprised, Ahsoka turned to look for its source. She knew that smug, superior tone anywhere.

"Tarkin." Ghes growled. "What are you doing here?"

"I had intended to ask Commander Tano what information she had managed to glean form my prisoner." Tarkin said as he approached the group still congregated outside the open cell. "But it appears that she had little intention of talking to Ms. Turmond."

The Admiral and the two shocktroopers escorting him stopped a meter short of where Ghes stood, glaring.

"She didn't kill her, Tarkin." He said, taking a step toward the taller man.

"As I said, colonel, the evidence is quite to the contrary." Tarkin said, pulling a small holoprojector from his belt and holding it in an outstretched hand as he activated it. "The audio is strangely absent, but I believe this tells us all we need to know."

Even Ahsoka had to admit it didn't look good. Without the audio, all you could see was Turmond floating in the air, choking, while Ahsoka stood below her, hands raised. Ghes looked to her, a hint of doubt present in his eyes.

"I was trying to help her!" Ahsoka exclaimed, struggling against the clones still holding her arms.

"Indeed." Tarkin said as he deactivated the hologram. He placed the projector back on his belt before looking around Ghes and addressing Commander Fox. "Place her in an Isolation cell, commander. And have the colonel escorted out of my facility."

"I'm not going anywhere until you let her go!" Ghes snarled, drawing his pistol and taking aim at the admiral's throat so fast Ahsoka barely saw the movement.

Surprised by Ghes's sudden aggression, Fox and Tarkin's escorts fumbled with their own weapons and were slow to train them on Ghes, who moved forward until the barrel of his sidearm was directly under the admiral's chin. Tarkin didn't even flinch.

"Ghes!" Ahsoka yelled. "Don't!"

"Put down your weapon, colonel," Tarkin said, voice low, face not betraying any fear. "and I won't feel compelled to report this incident to my superiors." Then, smiling thinly, he added. "Or to master Yoda."

For a moment, Ahsoka didn't know whether Ghes would stand down or put a bolt through the Admiral's neck. It appeared Ghes didn't know either, because he hesitated long enough for Fox to come up behind him and press his own pistol to the back of Ghes's head. Knowing he was beaten, Ghes closed his eyes, sighed, and lowered his sidearm. Holstering the weapon, he looked briefly back at Ahsoka, a grim sadness behind his eyes she had seldom seen, before once again hardening as he turned back to Tarkin.

"This isn't over, Tarkin." He said venomously before pushing past the admiral and his troopers

Looking at Ahsoka now, Tarkin smiled. "Oh, believe me, colonel, it is."

Anakin dashed across the courtyard of the GAR complex, pushing aside troopers and staff officers as he went. It had been less than a half hour since he'd gotten the call, first from an uncharacteristically distraught Col. Marczak, then from a disinterested GAR staffer, informing him of Ahsoka's arrest, and he was pissed. No, he was more than pissed, he was furious. Nobody messed with his padawan and got away with it, not even Admiral Tarkin.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs leading up to the main entrance, the first thing he noticed was Col. Marczak standing a half dozen steps from the top, the mottled green camouflage pattern of his armor making him stand out against the duracrete building.

"Colonel." Anakin said as he came up behind the man. "What's going on? Have they let you back in yet?"

"No." Marczak grumbled, his frustration clear. "Fox hasn't left that spot since they threw me out."

Looking the short way up to the entrance, Anakin could see what he was talking about. Commander Fox stood a meter from the actual entrance, arms folded, gazing intently back down at the colonel.

"You couldn't call in a favor?" He said, half in jest, though sometimes it seemed like every trooper on Coruscant owed Col. Marczak in one way or another.

"Not with Fox." The colonel replied. "He's always had a durasteel rod jammed up his shebs."

After that, Marczak slipped quickly into muttering strings of what Anakin assumed where Mandalorian obscenities under his breath. Recognizing that he wasn't going to be of any more use unless they needed to storm the compound, Anakin climbed the remaining steps to confront Commander Fox directly

"Commander." Anakin said, nodding politely to the trooper.

"I'm sorry, sir," Fox responded, guessing correctly what Anakin wanted. "but I can't let you in to see Commander Tano."

"What?!" Anakin said with more surprise than he liked. "Why not?"

"Like I told Col. Marczak." Fox said, gesturing down at the colonel. "Admiral Tarkin doesn't want anyone seeing the prisoner."

"That's ridiculous!" Anakin exclaimed, angered both by the situation and Fox's referring to Ahsoka as 'the prisoner'. He stepped forward and moved his hand to his lightsaber. "She's my padawan and I demand to see her!"

"I can't let you do that, general." Fox said, standing his ground.

He gestured to two of his men standing off to the side of the entrance. Riot Troopers, armed with electrostaffs. Even skilled as he was, Anakin wouldn't be able to take them down without creating a bigger incident than he willing to cause.

Yet.

Ahsoka rose slowly up off of the uncomfortable durasteel slab that was the only place to sit in her cell. She wasn't sure how long it had been since they'd left her here, a few cells down from where Letta Turmond had died in front of her. With everything that was going through her head meditation was impossible and what sleep she got was short and fitful.

She walked over to the sink, turning on the water and splashing some onto her face. In the small mirror set back into the wall, she could see that she looked as tired as she felt. It had to have been at least ten hours, possibly more, and she hadn't seen or heard from anyone besides the troopers that had thrown her the ration pack still sitting unopened on the floor beside what passed for her bunk.

Tarkin had to not be letting anyone in to see her, otherwise there was no way that she wouldn't have seen Anakin or Ghes by now at the very least. The admiral was proving to be a remarkably bitter and petty man, especially considering she'd been on the team that had rescued his ungrateful butt…

Ahsoka didn't know what gave her the sudden urge to look through the ray-shielded entrance of her cell, but when she did her eyes snapped immediately to a small plastoid rectangle attached to a lanyard laying on the walkway grating; a key card.

She smiled.

"I knew you guys wouldn't let me down." She said under her breath as she reached out, grabbing the card in the Force and lifting it up to the key slot.

Now let's see what you have planned, Ahsoka thought as she crept out into the passageway, though she still wasn't sure who it was that was helping her. The lack of blasterfire or explosives suggested it was a bit on the subtle side for one of Anakin's plans, but if Ghes were nearby she'd have been able to sense him. She found her lightsabers on the grating a few meters from her cell, which was definitely more of an Anakin thing to do.

They could be working together.

That was a nice thought, might even make this whole mess almost worth it.

She rounded the last corner into the main passageway that led to the guard station slowly, peeking carefully to make sure it was clear. What she saw was confusing for the first moment, six shocktroopers slumped against the walls, but she quickly realized what had happened.

"No, no, no, no…." She muttered repeatedly as she ran to the nearest trooper and knelt to check his pulse, though it was obvious from charred slashes across his chest and torso that he was already gone.

This wasn't Anakin, it couldn't be, he'd never do this, and neither would Ghes. It had to be….

"Who are you?!" Ahsoka yelled into the silent emptiness of the cell block. "You killed Leeta Turmond! You killed these men! Why are you doing this?!"

Ahsoka didn't get an answer. Instead, the lights cut out only to be replaced by red emergency lighting strobing in time to a droning alert siren.

Down the hall, barely audible over the alarm, she heard the clicking of boots on metal and a clones voice.

"Move it, move it! We've got men down in there!"

They won't believe you.

No, they wouldn't. Even if she surrendered quietly right here and went back to her cell, no one would believe she hadn't done this. Tarkin make sure of it.

You have to run. It's the only way.

And she did.

Author's Notes:

The more astute amongst you may have noticed that, not only is this long awaited follow up to Chapter Twelve titled Chapter Fourteen rather than the more conventional Chapter Thirteen, but it also does not involve Lux Bontieri, the Guererra siblings or the planet Onderon as many of you may have expected it to given my past statements in previous posts.

Now, rest assured that I can count sufficiently enough to meet US Army standards and that a Chapter Thirteen of LWL does exist in an incomplete state spread out between various notebooks and word docs. Also know that it is quite likely that a completed version of that chapter will appear at some nebulous point in the future, slotted into it's proper place and answering all those burning questions I'm sure you all have about what happens. For now, though, you're just going to have to live with getting back to a story that revolves around and furthers the development of the characters we've been following since the beginning in a significant way.

Seriously though, the main reason I'm putting this out is that it's done, the next chapter is 3/4 done, and the chapter after that is fully plotted with various bits of it already written, and, with everything that's going on in the world right now, I wanted to do something I could check off under "accomplishments". I won't linger on what I'm sure everyone's sick of talking to death about, so suffice it to say that my life's been derailed just as much as anyone else's, but with the additional complication of being placed on an active status to help deal with the crisis.

Enough with that though, let's get back to what people like talking about. Christ, it's been a long time since I updated back in August. what's happened since then? The Mandalorian was actually pretty damn good, thankfully, though it added some more weird elements to new canon Mando culture like the never taking off the helmet thing. Rise of Skywalker was an astonishing trainwreck of a film that should prove once and for all that the people running Lucasfilms have no clue what they're doing creatively. Season six pt. 2 of Clone Wars is so far splitting the difference between those last two by keeping on the better side of okay, though this week's episode started showing some cracks in my opinion, with some odd dialogue and scenes and a few plot points seeming rushed.

What else...?

Oh, Rosario Dawson is going to play live-action Ahsoka like we've apparently been demanding for years, though I'm not sure how she's going to fit into Mandalorian. Dawson's a good actress, though, and season one was good enough to earn the benefit of the doubt, so I'll remain optimistic.

And, lastly that I can think of right now, they're making a sequel series to Rebels about Ahsoka and Sabine Wren making good on that bit of the epilogue to the God awful finale of that show where the two of them go find that Bridger kid in whatever space-whale gullet he's been trapped in Jonah-style out in the Unknown Regions for half a decade. It's amazing how little I care.

Well, that's it for now. It's good to be back and I promise it won't be another nine months before my next update, it might even be next week. Maybe. Probably not. I don't know anymore.