Fortress Inquisitorius

Ahsoka knew of her destination only by reputation. Rumours and hearsay mostly, but there was always a hint of truth in those. The Fortress Inquisitorius was a place feared by the galaxy, a place of ****, despair, and ****. Of all the Jedi to have survived the Purge, the **** only knew how many had ended up there, and how few survived to become Inquisitors. Was this her prison? Or was it her future? They wouldn’t have the chance. As soon as she found Anakin, she’d be out of there before they had a chance to lay a finger on her.

With sure steps, she walked up the boarding ramp into the dark confines of the shuttle. The ride wasn’t long. A few minutes of smooth travel, followed by the turbulence of atmosphere, ending with the soft cushioning fall as the landing gears sprung back under the weight of the craft. Bright sunlight stung her eyes as the ramp lowered onto the landing platform. Shoved out before her eyes could adjust to the star’s blinding presence, Ahsoka stumbled down the ramp and onto the sea sprayed metal. Even from a cursory glance, she could tell escape into the wider planet would be a futile effort. A crystal blue ocean extended to each corner of the horizon, tame waves cresting periodically glinting in the sunlight. It might have been beautiful, save for the company.

Moments after disembarking, the shuttle lifted again into the air and curved in a graceful arc to its trajectory, the faint specks of star destroyers in orbit. Ahsoka felt herself lighten as the ground fell away from her. The landing platform sank beneath the waves into the crushing blackness of the depths, the last dot of sky snuffed out as a hatch closed above them.

Not a word was uttered by anyone as she was marched though the fortress. Her security now though was fewer, but more dangerous. The Grand Inquisitor, Seventh Sister, and the unknown, tailed by three dark troopers. ‘Guess I should have expected this,’ she thought, rounding another corner, and passing even more soldiers. Their route through comprised of ridiculously many U-turns, loops, dead ends, and needless stair climbing, just to go back down another flight minutes later. A simple tactic, but unfortunately an effective one. After so many convolutions, there was no way Ahsoka could have kept track of the way back to the exit. It did, though, allow her a better idea about the building as a whole. Many times, they walked past an open, multileveled room with the sharp red glow of ray shields across every wall dozens of times. Large cell blocks, holding hundreds of prisoners. She couldn’t be sure how many times they had walked past the same room from different sides. There could be a few hundred prisoners, or few thousand, but the message was clear. Fear.

No cell awaited her at the end of their long tour, however. Instead, one of the Dark Troopers abruptly stopped in place, opened a door just like any other and gestured her inside with a nudge of his gun. No alternative, she obliged, hearing the distinct hiss of the door closing just as she passed the threshold. She turned with a start and recognised the metallic clunk of the door locking in place. There was no control panel on this side, and it would take a lightsaber to cut through. The room around her was sparse and aesthetically similar to the rest of the fortress: black plate metal walls with an almost oily sheen; strips of red light dimly illuminating the room, not that there was much to see. The centrepiece was a standard holo-table, blue cross-hatched surface humming patiently for activation. She didn’t have to wait long before an imperious hooded figure blinked into reality, horizontal lines of light blue waving down his body as the hologram refreshed. The only part of the Emperor’s face that was visible was his smile that might have looked kindly on any other man, but on him it was only sinister.

“Am I expected to bow?” Ahsoka asked dryly, mustering as much of Obi-Wan’s characteristic sarcasm as she could. “A shame since your dogs saw fit to put me in shackles.” With a slight chuckle and a wave of his hand, her restraints dropped to the floor, the metallic clang reverberating around the room.

“You have fire in you, young Jedi, for one so hopelessly cornered,” he mused. In his voice she remembered that of the man she once knew. Chancellor Palpatine; loyal, kindly, just… false.

“I am a Jedi no longer, a fact you helped realise, Chancellor.”

“Ah, just so.” The unnerving smile didn’t fade. “But idle chat and thin-vailed jabs aren’t what brought you here, is it?” His tone was measured, carried with the certainty of man who knew of the true reaches of his control.

“I need to know Anakin is alive, prove it to me, and I will do what is needed.” The Emperor’s smile deepened as he nodded.

“Ask any question to confirm. I will not show him to you as I warn, his appearance would certainly… upset you,” the glee with which he announced it made her stomach churn and bile rise in her throat.

“Sick bastard,” she muttered. “What was the last thing I said to him, the day I left the Order?”

The emperor turned to the side, then a moment later turned back and said, “you said that you knew why he too desired to leave the Jedi.” In that moment, a torrent of emotion surged within her. Elation, despair, hope, desperation, anguish. He was alive, he could be saved. But he was trapped, a captive of the Emperor, and so was she. “And now, as per our bargain, should you do as I command, no further harm shall come to young Skywalker. Are you ready?”

Tears rolled down Ahsoka’s cheeks, pooling on her chin and dropping to the floor. The salty droplets tingled the corners of her mouth which clamped shut, her jaw set. Eyes still brimming with water, she looked up, meeting the gaze of the most powerful man in the galaxy. Her back straightened, her shoulders set back, and her chin raised she stood in certainty and uttered a single word.

“Yes.”