Puppet of the Sith Chapter 2 V2 – Back in the Temple

Second chapter of Puppet of the Sith, Barriss is back in the Temple, trying to deal with everything that happened.

Hope you enjoy.

;-

Coruscant, Jedi Temple, several days later

Barriss Offee was sitting cross-legged in her quarters, trying to meditate. She tried to clear her mind but it was turning out to be a lot more difficult than she had imagined. Even as a youngling she had never struggled this much with meditation. With a frustrated groan she moved and leaned back against her bed.

So many things had happened these past few weeks. After she had recovered somewhat from the shock, Master Unduli had begun to fill her in on everything that had happened during the gap in her memory. She still had difficulties with accepting the fact that she had fallen under the control of a Sith and that she had committed such horrible crimes.

She had seen the reports of the damage and all of the lives that had been lost. Her Master had assured her that she hadn't been responsible for what happened, but that didn't really ease all of her guilt. It had been her hands that set everything in motion. So many had died. Worst of all, she had almost gotten her best friend executed.

Thinking about Ahsoka reminded her about what happened two days ago. The mind-control necklace Anakin freed her from was being transported to a secure facility so it could be investigated. However, before it could reach its destination, a bounty-hunter destroyed the transport and the necklace with it. This resulted in a wild chase that was being broadcasted all over Coruscant. In the end the bounty-hunter took his own life before he could be captured. Barriss shivered slightly remembering the extreme amount of anger she had felt coming from Anakin afterwards.

She had overheard Master Windu and Master Yoda talking about the bounty-hunter.

"What kind of loyalty would make someone take their own lives rather than being captured?" Master Windu had asked. There was a short silence before Master Yoda replied: "Loyalty? Perhaps, but fear, fear can make one who lives below a slave to one living in the highest tower."

Barriss sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. "What kind of evil could inspire such fear in another?" she asked herself. The answer was already known to her. The black robed Sith that did all of this. She wasn't able to remember much about the Sith nor could she recall if she had seen his face or anything else that could have identified him. But, at the same time she was glad that she had no memories of being tortured by one corrupted by the Dark Side.

She stretched her legs and leaned back against the bed, looking at her arms that were now mostly covered in bacta-patches. Her visit to the Halls of Healing had revealed more burns over the rest of her body, as well as a number of bruises on her back caused by a hard impact. That last one was from Anakin slamming her into that tree after he had unmasked 'her'. She didn't really mind that pain. It felt deserved, in some ways.

A large group of Jedi, including a few members of the council, had expressed concerns that she might succumb to the Dark Side now. She was glad that her master had stood up for her. Barriss relaxed a bit and a small smile spread on her face. Attachment was against the Jedi Code, but she had always thought her master to be more than just her master. The two of them had shared a lot of hardships but they were always able to pull through the seemingly impossible.

Her eyes wandered across the room until she saw the picture frame on her nightstand. She called it towards her with the Force, smiling as she remembered when it was taken. It was a picture of her and Ahsoka, taken shortly after the brain worms incident. Ahsoka had insisted that before they left the med bay and parted ways, they'd take a picture to remember to crazy adventure they shared on and after Geonosis. Barriss had told her that she'd remember it anyway, but Ahsoka's stubbornness won in the end.

Barriss put the picture down beside her and asked to no one in particular: "Where did you go Ahsoka? Why did you have to leave?" She sighed and the same feeling of guilt and she had been feeling for days came rushing back. "Could I have resisted the Sith someway? Would you still have been here then?" Quieting her mind like she had been trying became impossible. Her thoughts drifted to Ahsoka and the adventures they had shared. She was thinking of possible ways of how things could have worked out, ways that would have made sure that Ahsoka had stayed. But she didn't, she left. "I hope you're safe Ahsoka, wherever you are…" She said out loud, hoping her lost friend would be able to hear her. Right now all she wanted to do was locate Ahsoka and find some way to apologize to her, to make things right again. She thought to herself: "Would master Unduli allow me to go search for her or…."

The ringing of the doorbell interrupted her thoughts. She reluctantly got up and made her way towards the door. She opened the door and saw that it was Katooni, one of the younglings Ahsoka had accompanied during the Gathering. "Hello Padawan Offee," Katooni began, slightly nervous.

Barriss wondered for a moment why she was nervous, but quickly recalled what Anakin had told her. Katooni and a group of other younglings had seen her possessed self trying to kill Anakin. "Don't worry initiate Katooni, I'm not going to hurt you or anyone else. That wasn't me back then and that will never be me." Barriss told the young girl, hoping to calm her down a bit. It seemed to work as she could feel Katooni relaxing through the Force.

"A package was delivered for you a short while ago. I was asked to deliver it to you," she said holding out the box she had in her hands. "I see, thank you Katooni," Barriss replied giving the girl a small nod. Katooni bowed slightly and walked away.

Barriss shut the door and went to sit down on her bed, placing the box beside her. It was a secured package carrying the Senate logo. It made her wonder who in the Senate would send her anything. She opened the box and her eyes went wide in shock. "My…My lightsaber…" she said softly, taking her weapon from the box. "How did this…?" Looking back in the box she noticed a letter. She picked it up and began to read.

"Barriss,

Master Unduli gave me this before I left. She wanted it to keep me safe, but I think that you'll need it more than I do.

I saw your interrogation on the holonet. I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that. I was glad to see that you really were innocent. I knew you weren't capable of doing such awful things.

By now, you'll have heard that I have left the temple. Don't blame yourself for it, I just need to sort things out on my own right now. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now or where I'm going to end up, but I just wanted you to know that I forgive you Barriss.

I hope that we'll see each other again someday. Until that day, may the Force be with you, Barriss.

Your friend, always

Ahsoka"

By now, a few tears were rolling down her cheeks. Ahsoka had already forgiven her. She wasn't even sure how to apologize but she was already forgiven. "You never change Ahsoka, thank you…"

Barriss then noticed another small part under the message.

"PS: could you PLEASE tell Skyguy to stop worrying so much? I'm fine and in no danger at all. I'm not planning on doing anything stupid. And yet I can still sense his worries even though I'm light-years away. It's sweet, but it's also giving me a massive headache."

Her friend's final comment made her laugh. When she wanted to put the box away she noticed that there was one more thing inside. There was a picture in there as well. It was a picture of the two of them, taken at Dex's Diner, a few days before this whole mess started.

The guilt she had felt started to fade away as she thought of what Ahsoka would be doing now if she were standing in her shoes. The answer was an obvious one: She'd be tracking whoever was responsible with Anakin, determined to make them pay for everything that happened.

One thing still bothered her a bit. Ahsoka had sent her letter in a Senatorial envelop. Who helped her with this? She was close with senator Amidala and senator Chuchi, but they were both here on Coruscant and Ahsoka had left the planet. Barriss went down a mental list of senators Ahsoka had been around until one name caught her attention. "Lux Bonteri… Of course, so that's where you went," she said aloud. It was obvious that to her that her Togruta friend had a thing for the human senator, no matter how much she'd try to deny it. Barriss hadn't been able to resist teasing her about it.

Barriss smiled to herself, her confidence restored and her guilt gone for now. She carefully placed both pictures on her nightstand and put her lightsaber back on her belt. It was about time that she tried put the past behind her and look towards the future. Master Unduli had kept her as a Padawan and she wasn't going to let her master down. She hadn't done so before and she wasn't planning on starting now.

She left her quarters to go find her master and continue her training. Her master had forgiven her, Anakin had forgiven and Ahsoka had forgiven her as well. Now she had to work on forgiving herself.

It was time to start over. It is time for a new beginning.

;-

That's the end of this chapter.

I'm going to work on updating the chapters of Tale of a Togruta and A Mirialan's Story next. As soon as I have one finished, I'll replace the existing chapter on Fanfiction and also post it on Archive of our Own.

I still have more planned for these stories and I have several other ideas for my other stories, as well as new ones, so once I fully get back into writing, I'll hopefully be posting a lot more again.

Until next time.