Back in the Game (COMPLETE)

9.9.4

"Then why bring her here?" she asked, wondering if she would even get an answer. "She's already escaped, so everyone knows she can do it again. As long as she's here, she's a threat."

"She's not exactly in the best condition to fight," Windu argued.

"That's not the point."

"We're trying to eliminate her as a safety concern," he explained, somewhat impatiently. "As soon as you finish speaking to her, she'll be taken to the execution chamber and she won't pose a threat anymore, but we have to do this first."

Ahsoka didn't agree. "She had her chance to testify, she did so the first time she was arrested. This is just a formality, meant to make the Republic look good. Every second she's allowed to live, she has more time to plan an escape and endanger everyone in the building."

Windu didn't respond right away, and when he did, it was in a low voice. "Yes, but she also has more time to turn back to the Light."

She didn't believe it. After all this time, they still wanted her back? They didn't want Ahsoka back, why Barriss?

Thankfully, Windu didn't leave her at that. "In the past four years, we've had two Jedi turn to the Dark Side. You've met the first, Asajj Ventress. She became Dooku's apprentice and fought against us for years before she disappeared underground."

Okay, Ahsoka couldn't argue with that. She didn't quite see where this was going yet, but it was more than she had thought Master Windu was going to explain.

"I knew her Master, Ky Narec, before he was slain in battle. I knew Ventress fairly well since she would come on the missions we went on together. Long before he fell, I told Master Narec that if he died, I would take on the responsibility of training his Padawan. I never got that chance, because as soon as that battle ended, Ventress vanished for years until she turned up in the Clone War as Dooku's apprentice."

He feels responsible, she realized. Did Ventress ever know? Ahsoka had a loose connection with Ventress in the Lower Levels and immediately felt the urge to tell her.

"Then the Inquisitor showed up, a little over eight months ago," he went on. "No one would outright admit it, but it tore the Jedi Order apart. Nearly everyone was convinced that we had lost you to the Dark Side. And Skywalker?" Windu shook his head. "He was still recovering from losing you. If Ky had still been alive to see Ventress fall, that's how I imagined it would go."

Ahsoka broke eye contact, staring off into space. "Sideous knew it was happening. He used it against you, and he brought down the Chosen One."

Master Windu nodded. "No one will ever speak of it, but Anakin Skywalker did fall to the Dark Side that night. It was mainly because of Sideous himself, but the Inquisitor helped him build up to it. And now, we have to deal with a third lost Padawan."

"You think she's going to turn to the Dark Side, to the Sith," Ahsoka completed, instantaneously fearing the same thing. She had considered it before, but now that she saw the pattern it felt much more real. 

"We haven't heard from Dooku since he escaped on the night that his master died," Master Windu told her. "It's been five months, Tano. I don't think he's gotten her hands on her yet, but if he's looking for an apprentice, we have a very eligible candidate in our custody right now."