Blurred Sides (COMPLETE)

7.2.4

Obi-Wan returned to his quarters and laid down to rest. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his mind, but it was hopeless.

The Council had reacted exactly as Obi-Wan feared they would. All of them thought the Inquisitor was Ahsoka. All of them.

The divide was in her motive. Obi-Wan, Plo Koon, Shaak Ti, and Depa Billaba thought that the Council was to blame and that she had fallen to the Darkness because of the actions of the Council against her. All of the other Council members were of the mind that she had chosen willingly to join the Dark side, in order to get revenge on the Order. 

Master Yoda had not expressed his support of either side of the debate but said only that until she said so herself, it was not certain that the Sister was Ahsoka Tano. "Capture her, we must, if to learn the truth, we are," he had said. Obi-Wan desperately wanted to learn the truth, but he was afraid of it. 

He had known Ahsoka and had helped Anakin teach her for the three years she had been his Padawan. To think that he was the reason that she had gone to the Dark Side tore at his mind, and made him fear the day she would be brought before the Council. He feared the words that would spew from her lips and the accusations that would condemn him. If he truly had done this, then he had failed the Togruta, and there was nothing that could undo the damage he had done.

~

Mace Windu paced around his room. He had known that Skywalker was less than pleased with the expulsion of his Padawan, but he hadn't dreamed that Tano would possibly try to work against the Order. She had always been so loyal, so steady, even if she was unorthodox, like her ex-master. 

She knew how the Order worked, he realized. Tano would know how the Council would react to something like this. She's probably counting on it.

And so will the Sith, Mace thought with a pang of realization. She can betray our patterns to the Separatists. They will expect our every move.

Mace sat down and tried to concentrate. He knew that Master Yoda still wasn't certain that the Inquisitor was Tano, and until they had tangible proof, he wouldn't act on the assumption. Not this time. They couldn't afford mistakes this time. They couldn't lose any more Jedi.

His mind drifted to Skywalker. The Inquisitor definitely had something against the Chosen One himself, whether she was Tano or not. The Council could use that. The Sith had drawn out Skywalker twice now using the Sister. It's about time we reversed that bait, Mace thought.

~

Shaak Ti hardly knew what to make of Kenobi's news. She had already realized how dangerous of a tool the Inquisitor was for the Sith, but if she was Ahsoka Tano, then she was a weapon sharper than steel and more dangerous than fire. 

The Inquisitor was expendable to Darth Sideous, Shaak knew that much, and she would be killed if she failed to perform. That in itself was initiative enough, but the pain that the Council caused her had undoubtedly been the cause of her fall if she had indeed fallen. 

She feared for Skywalker, more than anyone in the Order. He was still hurting from the absence of his apprentice, Shaak could feel it. If he hesitated to fight the Inquisitor, Shaak feared that she would not match his caution. She would rip right into his vulnerability and tear his hope to shreds, and not care about the effects on Skywalker. Her potential for pain made her dangerous, and Shaak hoped, for the sake of all, that she would not live up to that potential.

~

Luminara Unduli did not return to her quarters that night but spent the evening pacing about the Chamber of Judgement, the place where she had condemned not only Ahsoka Tano but her own Padawan just a few days afterward. She was relieved that Barriss had not been the one to take on the new mantle of the Inquisitor, but Ahsoka was just as horrible to imagine.