"So what happens to Letta now?" Ahsoka asked as she, Anakin, Admiral Tarkin, and Barriss Offee left the funeral for the fallen Jedi. Letta Turmons had been proved guilty of the attack on the temple, and Ahsoka had never been more angry in her life.
"The bomber has been moved," Tarkin answered contemptuously.
"Moved? Where? Why should she be moved?"
He looked down at her. "The Republic Military has taken her into custody.
"But why?" This was exactly what she was afraid of. Letta deserved justice for her actions, and since it was an act against the Jedi, they should be the ones to determine punishment. "This is a Jedi matter, isn't it?"
"Clones were killed, which makes this attack a military matter. An attack on the Jedi is an attack on the Senate."
Now where had she heard that before? Master Windu had said almost the exact same thing, making her wonder who he heard it from. She knew for a fact, thanks to Lux, that the Senate was busy with yet another bill to fund the development of more clone troopers. The Temple bombing could be used as a potential argument in debate, but it wasn't really of much concern. Tarkin and the Chancellor were pushing it to the surface for reasons not yet clear to her.
Anakin stepped forward. "Admiral Tarkin is right. Letta isn't a Jedi. It's not for us to judge and jury over a citizen of the Republic."
She stopped in front of them. "If Letta's guilty, she's guilty. And she should be dealt with."
"Calm down, Ahsoka. Remember, revenge is not the Jedi way."
She took a deep breath an crossed her arms in front of her, glancing at Barriss, who was more quiet than usual. It was understandable, however. They had just come from a depressing funeral.
"The evidence seems clear, Ahsoka. Nothing will ever change," Barriss said.
Tarkin took that as his que to talk some more. "The Chancellor feel very strongly that the Jedi be removed from as many military matters as possible. You yourselves said that you're peacekeepers, not soldiers."
Her eyes narrowed. "I hope Chancellor Palpatine knows what he's doing," she spat.
"I assure you that he rarely does anything without a strategy." The elevator dinged, and he stepped on.
Alright, Tarkin. Two can play at this game.
-:-:-:-:-:-:-
After a conversation with Barriss and half of a briefing in the war room, Ahsoka was on her way to the Republic Prison Complex to speak with Letta. It was odd that she had requested her specifically. All of it was very odd to Ahsoka. Something was off.
She landed her ship outside the prison, but hesitated a moment. If something were to happen to her, Lux would be devastated. She had been so caught up with the case that she forgot to tell him that she was back on Coruscant. She slipped the secure comlink out of the pouch in her belt and called him.
There was no response, so she left a message. "Hey, Lux. It's me. I acted like a sick idiot the last time we were together, and I'm so sorry. I hope you'll forgive me. I just wanted to let you know that I'm back on Coruscant. I'm not sure for how long, but I have a feeling it's for a while. Something's about to happen, and isn't going to end well. If I go down, I'm not letting anyone take you down with me. I'm going to destroy this communicator just in case, and I recommend you do the same." She paused, debating what to say next. "I love you. I hope you still feel the same about me after what happened. I owe you more than an apology." She let out a sigh and smashed the comlink using the force.
The prison complex itself was enormous. Red-armored clones in groups of 5-7 were everywhere. The whole place felt cold and void of anything but fear and sadness. She approached the entrance and walked down a long, narrow hallway to a check-in center. Clones stood behind a glass panel, watching prisoners through cameras.
The commander looked up from what he was doing at Ahsoka. "Yes?"
"I'm Commander Tano. Letta Turmond requested to see me."
He walked over to the panel and crossed his arms. "A lot of innocent people died in that blast. Good job capturing her."
She nodded as they scanned her. One of the screens flashed red as she remembered her lightsabers and communicator.
"Leave your comlink and the lightsabers here." He pointed down at a box on her side of the wall. She did as he said, carefully placing them in. It suddenly moved to the other side of the wall as the commander came out to escort her to Letta. "Follow me."
He took her past a series of energy shields blocking off the prison chambers. She couldn't help but notice how much more secure this prison was than the others she'd been to in the past. The only one rivaling it had been the citadel, and that had been quite the adventure. Since Tarkin seemed to admire the citadel so much, he created his own just like it.
The trooper swiped his card, and the door to Letta's cell opened. She stepped inside and gave the place a once-over. I'm glad I don't have to live here, she thought. Letta sat sulking in the corner.
"What do you want, Letta?" She was still very mad, and talking to her was a waste of her time.
"I was told if I ever needed help, you were the Jedi to contact." Letta picked her head up and glared at the troopers.
"Give us a minute, please," Ahsoka said, looking up at them. The commander nodded, and the door closed. "You don't have much time, Letta, so I suggest you get whatever you have to say off your chest." She crossed her arms and walked over to her.
"The idea of feeding Jakar the nanodroids was not mine."
You have got to be kidding me. "Why are you saying this now?" Letta had been insisting every time someone questioned her that she worked alone. "Why didn't you reveal this before?"
"Because my life in in danger!" She crawled to the edge of the bench and stood up. "The person responsible will be able to get to me unless you know the truth."
"What's the truth?"
"A Jedi. A Jedi showed me how to create the bomb and how to put the nanodroids in."
Ahsoka was taken by surprise. She had hoped that the Jedi weren't involved, and it deeply disturbed her that someone had the guts to attack such a sacred place. It wasn't just a political statement, it was an attack on the Jedi Code itself. "Why would a Jedi do this?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.
"There are some citizens of the Republic, like myself, who believe the Jedi Order is not what it used to be." She stepped closer to Ahsoka and turned to face the wall. "The Jedi have become warmongers. They've become military weapons, and they're killing when they should be keeping the peace."
It was true that public opinion was swaying against the Jedi. Though she disagreed with Letta's actions, her reasoning made sense. The Jedi were becoming slaves of the Republic instead of the peacekeepers and teachers they were in the past.
"One of you agrees with us," Letta continued, pointing a finer at Ahsoka. "One of you wanted to make a statement and was willing to attack your own Order to do it."
There was a short pause. "Who?"
"If you protect me, I will tell you, because It is obvious to me that I have been set up!" She sat down and looked at the ground.
She placed a hand on her shoulder. "Letta, you have to tell me who is behind this!"
"It's...it's..." Her hands flew to her throat as she was lifted off the ground by a force-user. It took Ahsoka a second to comprehend that someone had been in the room the whole time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. She had walked right into a trap. How could she have been so stupid?
"Letta? Letta! Letta!" She looked around the room for the attacker, but there was no one. The woman gasped for air as her face began to turn purple. She fell to the ground, dead.
Ahsoka quickly checked her pulse, finding no sign on life. The troopers ran, rifles in hand. "I don't know what happened!" she said, gesturing to Letta's lifeless form.
One of the clones knelt down beside her and checked for any sign of life. He shook his head. "Commander, she's dead."
She heard the commander click the safety off on his blaster behind her. "Can't say I blame you, Commander Tano, but all the same, you're under arrest."
Her hands automatically raised above her head. "I...no, no, no—I did not do this!" She shook her head in disbelief. "There's someone else here, Commander!" It was a feeble argument, and she knew that.
"I'm sorry. For now, you will stay here. Admiral Tarkin has been given authority over this case; he will decide when he arrives."
-:-:-:-:-:-:-
Later that evening, Ahsoka had been moved to her own solitary confinement cell. She still couldn't believe that she was being held here. Well, she could believe it, but it wasn't fair. Most of the evidence pointed against her with the details of Letta's death being so vague. Whoever was responsible was certainly going out of his or her way to obviously tie the whole case to her. It was brilliant on their behalf but not good for her.
Whoever was really responsible told Letta to ask for her specifically. This led Ahsoka to the conclusion that the mastermind was someone she knew personally. It was definitely a Jedi, which meant that it could only be a handful of people.
The door slid open, and Admiral Tarkin, flanked by troopers, strut into the room, Letta's purple hat in his hands.
She stood up, trying to seem as innocent as possible. "Admiral Tarkin, I don't know what happened. I went into the room to talk to Letta, and she said she was afraid of a Jedi."
He threw the hat to the side. "You don't have to tell me any more, Commander Tano."
This surprised her. Usually Tarkin was all talk, but apparently today was different. "I don't?"
"No. There are recorders in every room." He took a disk out of his pocket and played it. Her holographic form was shown along with Letta being strangled. "Curiously, the sound isn't working on this one."
Or maybe not so curiously, she thought. Tarkin hated the Jedi, and he was not very subtle about it. He was jumping at the chance to maker her the scapegoat to prove a point.
"It seems the Jedi she was afraid of was you."
"I did not kill that woman!" she spat back at him.
"You were the only one there!" He took a step closer, pointing a finger at her. "I know that you were upset when this woman was taken into custody by the military."
She took a step back. Clearly no one had ever told him about respecting personal space. "That means nothing."
"I beg to differ." he smirked turning away.
"It was someone else, Admiral—someone I didn't see!" There was no way he was going to believe her, so there was no point in trying to convince him any further.
He started pacing the room. "You know that is very difficult for me to believe. This is a secure facility! We do not have just anyone running about!" When he reached her, he stopped and glared. "And if there was someone else, why did you not sense them?" He brought his hand to her chin.
She looked down at it and back up at him. Surely he wasn't serious. Jerking her head away, her eyes narrowed. As he left the room, she held her tongue. There were few people she loathed, and Tarkin definitely made the top of the list.
She sighed, laying down on the bench. "Looks like I'm going nowhere anytime soon," she whispered to the empty room before drifting off to sleep.
A/N: So I saw Rogue One again just now..... I have no words. I felt more engaged in the story and stuff on the second go-around, which is usually how it is for me. There were a lot of subtle references that made me really happy. The soundtrack is absolutely amazing. I was about to bawl my eyes out at the end, especially after the death of Carrie Fisher... I'm watching A New Hope tonight with some friends. May the force be with us all... NO MORE SADNESS IN THIS CHAPTER!!!
Hopefully you liked this one. My goal is to get it completely done by the end of break, which is the second week of January.
I'll see you in the next update, and may the force be with you.