There wasn't much to say after that. Everyone dispersed, huddling in small groups, and walking off to talk. They all knew better than to go far, but news like that had to be processed.
The only person who didn't leave the holotable was Ahsoka, who dug through the Republic database for as much information as she could. She was trying to find any news about Barriss, hoping that someone would have seen her on Coruscant or anywhere else, but she had been a ghost. No one had reported that the Mirialan had been spotted.
After a few fruitless tries, she powered down the HoloNet portal and slipped out of the command center by herself. She had gone unnoticed at first, but Rex turned around to ask her something and saw that she was missing within a few minutes. He looked over to the Jedi, and when they realized the same thing, Anakin excused himself and went after her. He wasn't surprised Ahsoka had left alone, but he wasn't going to let her get away with it either.
It didn't take him long to find her. Ahsoka had climbed up to the roof and was watching the sunset, sitting with her knees drawn to her chest. He could tell she knew he was there, but she didn't react as he walked up behind her, sat down and leaned back on his hands. Anakin didn't need to speak to ask what was on her mind. She knew that's what he had come up there for.
"How come every time Barriss gets involved in something, it ends so badly?" she asked, not expecting an answer. She crossed her arms over her knees, thinking all of the things she could have done to prevent what had happened. Ahsoka had so many chances to tell the Republic about the chips, or kill Barriss, or-
"Cut it out, Snips."
Anakin startled her out of her train of thought, and she looked over at him. "What? I didn't-"
He shot a glare at her, not buying it for a second. "All of us are thinking the same thing. Don't try to blame yourself without looking around you. We all could have done something more."
"Were you the Inquisitor for a year?"
"Were you the Chosen One since you were nine? We could do this all day."
They could, Ahsoka wasn't stupid enough to test him on it. Rex had told her the same thing Anakin was, more or less, but her guilt wasn't listening to reason but to the screams of the fallen.
"If we focus on everything we could have done, we aren't going to be able to do anything to fix it," Anakin reminded her, leaning forward. "I know you aren't a Jedi, but you and the clones are the only other fighters we've got. If there's any way to protect the other survivors, we have to fight together. You can't do that if you keep blaming yourself for everything that's happened. That's what Yoda did, and look where he is now."
She nodded, listening to her teacher. Not even for a second did either of them question that Ahsoka was in this for the long haul. Anakin knew her well: If she wouldn't let go of her guilt for herself, she would do it for her friends. No matter how much she blamed herself, she wouldn't let it stand in the way of helping them. Thinking of the older Jedi, she asked, "Obi-Wan is taking it hard, isn't he?"
"He won't talk about it," Anakin admitted, looking forward again. "Barely said a word to me when it happened, hasn't said anything about it since."
"Do you know why he left?" she asked, letting her knees fall. "If he hadn't, survivors would have rallied behind him once he called. Nearly the entire Order believed in Yoda, doesn't he know that?"
Shaking his head, he told her, "I think he does, which is why he left. He blames himself for Palpatine and Dooku rising, and for the fall of the Order. I'm sure he said more to Obi-Wan after he started walking out, but I wasn't there for it."
It wasn't like Ahsoka disagreed. The Jedi Council should have recognized a Sith Lord was in their midst years ago, and Yoda was the strongest and oldest Jedi of them all. He of all people should have noticed something. "So he's punishing himself for the fall of the Order?"
"I don't know," he said, lying down on his back against the sloped roof. "All I know is that when Qui-Gon died, Obi-Wan looked to Yoda more for advice and support. Now Yoda is gone and the rest of the Council is dead, and Obi-Wan feels like it's up to him to protect anyone that's left. I think it was why he wanted to come out and find you when he did. It was one of the first things he asked about after Yoda walked away."
He paused for a minute, worrying about his master. Although he knew Obi-Wan felt responsible for him, Anakin felt like he needed to look out for him now. After seeing him break down in the Temple and how much Yoda's abandonment had hurt him, Anakin wasn't sure how much more the Jedi Master could take.
Turning his head, he decided to focus on the person he was with at the moment. "So do you want to tell me what else happened on Mandalore?"
"Can you-can you read my mind or is it just that obvious?" Ahsoka asked, not even remotely surprised.
Anakin didn't know, it honestly could have been both. Sitting up, he didn't answer and waited for her to explain what else was on her mind. She took a breath, then rotated slightly to face the Jedi. If anyone could help her with this, it was Anakin.
"Two weeks ago, Maul had taken Barriss to Dromund Kaas to kill Dooku," she explained, starting from the beginning. "He wanted to take over the title of Sith Master, but I had thought it was just a position. Maul claimed that it was more than that."
"More...like it's more complicated or it's more important?"
Shrugging, Ahsoka answered, "Both, from the sound of it. He said that when a Sith Master dies, their power passes to the person who killed them. That person, who was usually the Master's apprentice, became the new Master, and so on. He said it was a tradition for Sith apprentices to kill their masters to inherit their power and the power of every Sith before them. Even Sideous did this."
He nodded, just beginning to see where this was going. He remained silent though and let Ahsoka speak.
"Maul thought that Dooku had the power of the Sith because he assumed that after the Inquisitor killed Sideous, Dooku would want revenge. Somehow he figured out that Dooku hadn't done this, and that he thought you did. Maul said himself he wanted you to come to Mandalore with Obi-Wan so he could kill you and take the power of the Sith from you."
"Except I didn't," Anakin continued, following her train of thought. "You're still alive, even after the Sister killed Sideous, so...." Realization struck his face, and his eyes grew wide. "The power of the Sith is in you?"
Ahsoka nodded, letting her gaze drop. Looking away, she went on. "I didn't realize it until Maul said it. The Sister and I have been fighting it down ever since, but it isn't going away either. I'm not even sure it can."
Racking his mind, Anakin thought back to the meeting everyone had just had in the command center. Ahsoka hadn't brought it up then, which led him to wonder, "Did you tell Rex and the others?"
"I didn't want him to worry. They've already done so much just to protect me and to betray the Republic, I didn't want to add the Force to their problems. It's not their fault they're following a Sith-"
Ahsoka cut herself short, closing her eyes and holding her chin up. He saw her pressing her lips together, trying not to let anything out. She hadn't meant for that last sentence to escape her, but it was what she was afraid of.
"Are you sure about all of this?" Anakin asked, shifting right up next to her. "Was Maul telling the truth?"
She didn't respond, but Anakin saw her concentrate internally, and a moment later, he felt it too. A power that reminded him too much of Sideous had nested inside of her, waiting in the shadows for a chance to consume Ahsoka. She was able to reign it back in, but now that Anakin knew it existed, he was hyper-aware of it too.
With clenched fists, she told him, "I don't know what to do with it. I don't even know what to do from now on, now that we're all here on Xlenia. Nothing feels certain anymore."
Anakin could see in her face how lost she felt. Ahsoka had no direction to turn, no path to follow, in her own mind. He could feel the fear in her, but he wasn't afraid for her. "Okay."
Slowly, she looked at him, and he nodded at Ahsoka. "Okay," Anakin repeated, "we'll figure it out."
He wasn't telling her what to do, he wasn't saying he had a plan, he was just promising that whatever did happen, they would do it as a 'we'. They would find the path forward and go on it together. For some reason, that, more than anything else he could have said, reassured Ahsoka. They would figure out what to do with the raging spirits inside of her when the time came. When that time was, she had no idea, and it probably wouldn't be soon with all of the other chaos at hand, but one day they would.
Looking back out over the capital, Ahsoka focused on the setting sun on her skin, trying to absorb the warmth of the rays. Anakin, having felt her sense of calm restored, watched the sun begin to fall over the horizon. It was such cruel irony, in his mind. The light from the star was fading just as the Light of the Jedi Order had died away.
It wasn't the first sunset he had watched, though. He could still see Ahsoka's silhouette walking away if he tried hard enough, except she was right here. She wasn't walking away, but she was facing the purge of the Jedi even though she wasn't one herself. Ahsoka was beside Anakin not because of any oath to the Order but because it was her choice, just like it had been her choice to walk away. She was choosing to defend her friends despite knowing what it meant for her.
"Wait," Ahsoka whispered suddenly, crawling to her feet and to the ledge of the roof. "What is that?"
Anakin stood up, trying to see whatever it is that she saw. It didn't take him long. She was looking down at the landing platform below them, at the shuttle the Jedi had taken to get there. A blinking red light was on the back of the roof.
Reaching an arm out, he pulled it to him with the Force. Not only did the device continue to blink, but a quiet, pulsing ring was emanating from it. A beacon.
Ahsoka and Anakin yelled a colorful word at the same time and immediately reached back for the command center. Activating her comlink, Ahsoka alerted everyone else: "Time to go! Get everything we can back on the shuttles!" Beside her, Anakin destroyed the beacon and discarded it over the side of the building before sliding back in through a window.
In the command center, the clones had started to regather and Obi-Wan was looking for them. "What's going on?"
"The clones at the Temple tagged our shuttle before we left," Anakin explained briefly. "We've probably had someone tracking us this whole time!"
Obi-Wan muttered the same colorful word as the other two had earlier as he rubbed his forehead furiously. "Jedi shuttle, we should have seen that coming. Of course, they would add an extra tracker!"
Ahsoka, grabbing her bag and a few supplies the troopers had found in storage, went on. "We don't know how much of a head start you guys have, but we need to leave the atmosphere before another ship comes our way."
"Yeah, it's a little late for that," Rex announced, pointing to the screen above the radar console, where a red blinking light had appeared and was slowly moving towards the surface. "What's Plan B?"