A year and eleven months ago...

Obi-Wan was waiting for Anakin when he scampered back up the steps to the chancellor's mansion and slipped through the foyer. Even in the crowded hallway beyond, the forensics team and other personnel gave the Jedi Master a wide berth. His refined manner and impeccably appearance intimidated some people, but after years of close friendship, Anakin was confident Obi-Wan was one of the warmest people he'd ever met.

Today, though, the other man's expression was dark and somber.

"Hello, Master," Anakin said, raising his voice a little so the words coasted over the din of beeping consoles and miscellaneous chatter of droids and humanoids both. "We weren't expecting you to join us – what with me and Ahsoka being far away from Coruscant when it happened clearing us of suspicion, and all that."

Obi-Wan's gloom deepened. Anakin forced a smile and hoped the questioning frown that was fighting to take its place didn't slip out through his eyes instead.

Obi-Wan lifted one of his crossed arms to stroke his beard. The gesture was more natural, less confined, without the gauntlets and pauldrons he customarily wore on the battlefield. "You should have, with the stunt you just pulled."

Anakin started, but checked himself with the memory of Padmé's soothing hand on his shoulder before he got too defensive. On closer inspection, Obi-Wan didn't seem angry, only worried.

"Rumors about the chancellor's condition are gaining weight with every hour that passes," Obi-Wan continued, "and you left his home with Senator Amidala on your arm when no one would have seen you go in. Were I a casual observer, that would suggest you made use of a secret passage."

"So? Palpatine is – was – the leader of the Senate. A secret passage or two to ensure his safety isn't unheard of, and ensuring his safety is the Order's job," Anakin shot back, but he had a sinking feeling he knew where Obi-Wan was going with this.

"Anakin, think. Everyone who called on the chancellor in the last three days – Senators, military, personal friends – all of them were turned away at the door. Now Jedi Knights are inexplicably appearing and disappearing? That would seem to me like something is going on with the chancellor the Jedi don't want getting out."

Anakin cursed himself silently. He'd been so caught up in seeing Padmé again he hadn't stopped to think, hadn't thought to argue Ahsoka's cheeky maneuvering or protest her underlying concern for his mental health. It would help their case that Palpatine had been public about his friendship with Anakin, but Obi-Wan was right: if the chancellor's mansion was being watched (which was essentially a given, between the HoloNet reporters and the spies sent by his political rivals) Anakin had just put the secrecy of the investigation in serious jeopardy.

Anakin groaned and ran a hand through his hair, struggling to regain that sense of apprehensive calmness from the second half of the speeder ride, imagining Padmé's touch was something physical that could rub off on him and be stored up for later. "Forgive me, Master," he said finally. "I wasn't thinking. I'm not used to all this sneaking around."

Well, technically that was a lie. But he had a lot more practice sneaking to Padmé's penthouse apartment than he had sneaking to the chancellor's home, of all places. It wasn't his fault the Council hadn't given him an explanation for what to do in an emergency; if anything, he thought he'd done rather well to distract her.

Until he'd broken down crying and told her everything, of course. But Obi-Wan didn't know that part, and Anakin wasn't about to tell him.

Obi-Wan uncrossed his arms and took Anakin's hands. "Please, old friend, be more careful. Our time to find answers is limited enough as it is. If our margin for error thins much more..."

"I know, Master. I'll do better. So, what else brought you here?" Anakin asked, hoping to change the subject. "There must be something, or you would've commed to give me the lecture like you did earlier instead of flying all the way here."

Obi-Wan huffed delicately. "But I was careful not to give anything about the mission away over the comm, wasn't I? There's only so much of what I just told you I can disguise with implication and allusion," he said. "But I digress. I have news."

"Good news?" Anakin asked, his unease ticking up another notch. All he was able to call back from the speeder ride now was the apprehension, not the calmness.

"Unfortunately, no. I vouched for your honesty with the Council when you claimed you told Senator Amidala nothing of your and Ahsoka's purpose here, but Republic High Command was... unconvinced."

"What does that mean?"

"The autopsy hasn't yielded any definite clues about how the chancellor died. To ensure the investigation isn't tampered with or sensitive details reach the wrong people–" he glanced meaningfully at Anakin "–Command is sending a representative to keep a closer eye on things. Admiral Tarkin's fleet was already on its way back from patrol near Shili, and he'll be joining us within the hour."

Anakin opened his mouth to bite out that they didn't need supervision. Obi-Wan lifted his hand to ask for silence before the words made it up his throat. Anakin grumbled, but held his peace.

"But we still have an edge," Obi-Wan said calmly. "While Tarkin is their first choice because of his exemplary record, he doesn't have an alibi for the night the chancellor passed. The Council was able to spin that in a favorable direction and send eyes and ears of our own – and someone who intends to lend a helping hand as well. Our two groups can hold each other accountable, that way."

"Who?" Anakin blurted, but Obi-Wan's slow smile answered his question before he'd even finished asking it. "Really? Oh, thank the Force it's you."

Obi-Wan chuckled. "I'm choosing to take that as a compliment and not a slight against our fellow Jedi. But yes, I'm here to make myself useful. I will need some context about your findings first, however."

"Of course," Anakin said, and led Obi-Wan to a quieter part of the hallway that had formerly been occupied by the division of the forensics team operating the scanners. Motion upstairs drew his attention, and he assumed they'd finished their sweep on at ground level and were starting on the second floor.

Obi-Wan crossed his arms and raised a brow expectantly. "So?"

"I'm sorry to say we don't have much. All the employees on the chancellor's staff have solid alibis, but Ahsoka wanted to take a closer look at a Zygerrian woman – Tanil Vitej, I think her name is. Ahsoka could tell you more than I could." Anakin reached into the Force, following the tether connecting him to his snarky apprentice, but the other end of it was nowhere close. "Speaking of, where is she?"

"At the chancellor's office suite in the Senate, I believe; she'd already left by the time I arrived. The protocol droid at the door told me Ahsoka wanted to cross-reference tense political situations in Palpatine's career with the dates his staff were hired to see if she could find a connection."

Anakin lifted his wrist and inputted Ahsoka's code into the comm clipped to his glove. "I'll comm her and let her know what's happened, then."

"No, Anakin, wait! Someone might overhear."

"Even a direct communication without using a relay station in orbit?" Anakin frowned. "You know as well as I do those are almost impossible to intercept."

"We... can't be too careful, right now. Remember the margin, Anakin."

Anakin sighed. "All right, fine. Do you have a speeder?"

"It's down in the tunnels." Obi-Wan gestured to a nondescript door at the end of the hall that led to the basement of the manor. Beneath that, hidden behind some deceptively heavy-looking furniture and a secret door, was the passage that linked Palpatine's home to the Jedi Temple and his office in the Senate. "Shall we?"

Anakin nodded briskly and started walking. Obi-Wan hesitated only a moment before following.

"I must confess, I'd expect you to be more invested in the Zygerrian lead."

Anakin shoved another frown behind a front of calm indifference. Where was Obi-Wan going with this? Anakin had made his burning drive to find the chancellor's killer clearly known in the Council chamber earlier that day. Had he been too forceful, made it seem like he was lying? Did Obi-Wan think he'd be too set on finding the killer to keep an open mind to other possibilities?

His stomach clenched in resentment at the thought.

"It's Ahsoka's speculation based on her personal feelings alone – not even insight given to her by the Force," he said finally. "I've encouraged her to follow up on it, since it's pretty much all we have until the forensics team finishes sweeping the house or the pathologists find something amiss in the autopsy, but it's to be taken with a grain of salt."

"You've gone out on longer limbs for less."

Anakin gritted his teeth at the jab, but kept his answer simple as he opened the basement door and headed down the stairs: "I want to find the truth."

"I know." Obi-Wan sighed. "Your heart is in the right place. I'm merely trying to make sure your head is there along with it. Your history with the Zygerrians is... dodgy, and I wouldn't blame you for wanting to delegate the matter to Ahsoka."

Anakin groaned. So this was what Obi-Wan was getting at. Couldn't everyone just leave him alone about Zygerria?

"Master," he began, his hackles rising, but Obi-Wan was quicker to the punch.

"Allow me to go out on a limb as well, Anakin. Count Dooku made an alliance with Queen Miraj – unofficially, under Republic radar, but no less binding. Coruscant is not invulnerable to attack, and it wouldn't be beyond either of their means to sneak an operative into the chancellor's home. I don't doubt your fervor, but the only reason we even found the missing Kiros colonists was because... well..."

Obi-Wan trailed off into an uncomfortable silence, leaving Anakin crushingly alone with the disgust roiling beneath his skin, the phantom fingers tracing down his spine. Anakin took a deep breath and forced the feeling away. Obi-Wan meant well, and he was trying to protect Anakin's feelings and his own sense of propriety. But Anakin didn't need protecting, and he certainly cared a lot less than some people about what was proper and what wasn't.

Stepping so lightly around Anakin the second the conversation took a turn toward the indiscrete was even more of a slap in the face than treating what Anakin had done like a vulnerability. Obi-Wan was doing both. Anakin had made the choices he'd needed to and then he'd gotten himself out of the situation; he'd left nothing out of his report post-mission. It wasn't a big deal, and it certainly wasn't going to influence Anakin's outlook now.

"Just say it, Obi-Wan," Anakin gritted out. "After I let her bed me and sliced her computer console for your location while she was sleeping it off. I spent nine years of my life learning how to fake looking broken when I'm not."

Obi-Wan's eyes softened in sympathy. "Anakin..."

"Really, it's fine. I was able to bring Rotta back to the Hutts after one of their own hurt me and my mother. I did what I had to do to save you and the colonists, and now I'm working through it."

"You still seem angry."

"Like I said," Anakin said tightly as they came to a stop in front of the secret door – too tightly, which irked him, "I'm working through it. I'm not unbiased, but my past experiences won't get in the way. For now, I'm letting Ahsoka follow a theory. If she learns it has some substance to it, I won't shy away from it."

Obi-Wan was silent for a long moment. "Very well, Anakin. But–"

"Can we please just–" He stopped himself when the words came out near to an angry yell. "Go find Ahsoka?" he finished weakly.

Blessedly, Obi-Wan only nodded. In the sudden absence of conversation, the creak of leather and soft whirr of machinery was startlingly loud. Abruptly Anakin realized he was opening and closing his cybernetic so sharply he'd probably drained half a power cell by now. Flushing, he activated the panel to open the door and crossed his arms tight to hide the offending hand in the crook of his elbow.

If Obi-Wan sensed his discomfort, he didn't deign to mention it. Instead, he moved the bundle of furniture concealing the door aside with the Force and stepped through, beckoning for Anakin to follow. Then, without another word, the two Jedi descended into the darkness beyond.

Ahsoka grimaced when her datapad buzzed and a familiar message flashed across her holographic display, achingly bright in the dusky twilight that was the room's only other real lighting:

ACCESS DENIED.

She shut her eyes tight and rubbed them, hoping to ease her long-overdue headache before it really set in. The rank of commander gave her security clearance that usually suited her needs, but even that wasn't enough to bypass the impressive safeguards protecting the majority of Chancellor Palpatine's files.

"All this red tape makes a girl feel like she's up to no good, even when she's conducting a government-sanctioned investigation," she mumbled, reluctantly blinking her eyes open again.

Some twenty feet in front of her, Artoo, Anakin's trusty Astromech, whistled in agreement. Smiling, Ahsoka set her datapad aside on the plush red carpet and rose to her feet. Maybe he'd made some progress combing the office computer terminals for suspicious-looking bugs.

It was still strange to be in the chancellor's public office and reception room without Anakin or Obi-Wan or another Jedi Knight with her – and even stranger to be there without the chancellor. The room's deep red color scheme and rare art objects made an imposing combination, and without the chancellor's welcoming presence to soften it, there was an almost... calculating energy saturating the place. Ahsoka had felt more at ease curling up in an unassuming corner with her datapads spread across the carpet than trying to fill the stately slate-grey desk at its center.

Even now, she didn't take the comfortable-looking chair beside Artoo's computer socket, going only so far as to lean against the side of the desk.

Artoo's shiny chrome-and-blue dome swivelled around as she approached, his photoreceptor angling up a fraction to better see her face. He gave an inquisitive chirp, and Ahsoka patted him affectionately.

"You wouldn't happen to have spotted any back doors for slicing into the chancellor's files while you were plugged into the computer, right?"

Artoo beeped an indignant negative.

"Don't pretend you're above that!" Another blart, this one accusatory. Ahsoka put a hand to her chest. "Hey, you can't blame me for asking – I had to give it a shot. I've compiled a timeline of points the chancellor was recently in danger, but I can't access the archived comm calls. If this office received a threatening message at around the time one of his staff members was hired, it'll give me a lead." With a sigh, she slouched deeper against the desk. "Any lead at all would be great right now."

Artoo made a mournful sound. Ahsoka shut her eyes again and massaged her temples, releasing her frustration into the Force as best she could while she reached for the well of calmness that was the emotional center of every Jedi. It took so long to find it the respite barely made an impact, but it wasn't her fault her inner peace was buried a little deeper than most people's.

She was so distracted she didn't realize Artoo's s-comp had started whirring again, flipping this way and that on its slender mechanical arm as it interfaced with the computer socket, until the sound stopped. Across the room, her datapad beeped, the angry red letters fading to green.

ACCESS GRANTED, the holographic message now read. Ahsoka practically dove into the plush chair in her haste to activate the desk's built-in holo-projector before she remembered why that wasn't supposed to happen.

"Was that you?" Ahsoka demanded, whipping around to face the droid.

Artoo wobbled back and forth on his two primary treads, the closest he could get to his customary victory dance without severing his link to the computer.

"How?"

He beeped an explanation. And while Ahsoka's grasp on Droid Binary wasn't the best, Artoo's word choice was unmistakably smug.

"You copied the specs of one of Anakin's code cylinders? Okay, illegality and high odds you'll be scrapped for that aside, those are keyed to a sample of a person's DNA. How did you manage that?"

Artoo's smugness deepened as he told her Anakin himself had come up with this plan to help him with his workload. Paired with a scan of Anakin's genetic code Artoo fed into the computer at just the right moment, even if Anakin was occupied elsewhere, Artoo could access almost any archive.

The facsimile DNA also let him quickly double-check Anakin's identity when he got back from long missions. After all, as Ahsoka well knew, droids couldn't use the Force to instantly tell friend from foe, and Clawdites and shadow holograms were an omnipresent danger.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure they are. And you didn't think to use this to help me before now because... why?" Another whistle. "Oh, because I didn't ask. Thanks, buddy, that was very helpful."

Artoo chirped brightly, unrepentant. Ahsoka was too relieved to be making progress to stay mad at him, and she turned her attention toward pulling up the office's comm history. Summoning her datapad back to her hand with the Force, she grabbed a spare cable from the pouch on her belt and plugged the 'pad into the terminal. Fortunately, in the database of received calls, there was a more specific folder that had been flagged for review by Republic Intelligence – the threatening messages Ahsoka was looking for.

Bouncing in her seat in a victory dance of her own, she programmed her datapad to scan the folder for messages received within a standard month of the date each employee was hired. She thought for a moment, then entered a few more commands, widening the search parameters to include coinciding leaves of absence.

The amount of messages in the folder was staggering, but she had a match in seconds. Tanil Vitej was hired two weeks before Queen Miraj of Zygerria, outraged at the Republic's theft of her 'legally appropriated workers' from Kadavo, had commed the chancellor's office threatening to escalate her trade alliance with the Separatists to outright defection from the Republic. Vitej had joined the chancellor's staff right around the time she and Anakin had been the queen's captives.

Ahsoka whooped and copied the information onto her datapad. Noise from the chancellor's smaller, private office next door – the way into the evacuation tunnels – and a sudden burst of familiar presences against her mental shields drew her attention. Motioning for Artoo to unplug, she disconnected her datapad and darted back to her corner.

She'd just gotten herself settled again when Anakin and Obi-Wan walked in. "SkyGuy, Master Kenobi," she said, trying not to sound too breathless, "you won't believe what I just found."

Just don't ask how I found it.

"You have a lead?" Anakin asked eagerly.

Obi-Wan spoke before Ahsoka could answer him. "If it's not a time-sensitive lead, it'll have to wait. We have more pressing concerns at the moment, I'm afraid."

"More pressing than finding the chancellor's killer?" Anakin demanded. His outburst and the accompanying flash of anger racing across their bond threatened to worsen Ahsoka's budding headache.

"Anakin," she said sharply. In the wake of an hour-long streak of dead ends she'd only just broken, she didn't have the patience to stop their bickering nicely.

Both men stared at her, and Ahsoka winced. It was rare that she called Anakin by his first name to his face. Doing so wasn't proper for a Padawan, so she saved it for when she really needed to get his attention. But Obi-Wan's disapproval was plain, and she doubted he knew it wasn't a common occurrence – especially with her track record for bending the rules. At least they were both quiet, now.

"I... Sorry. I have a headache," she mumbled. Clearing her throat to cover her embarrassment, she added, "No, it's not time-sensitive. What's going on?"

"Command is overreacting to the way I handled Pa– Senator Amidala's unexpected arrival a little while ago. Although," Anakin added when Obi-Wan glared at him, "I admit there are some things I could've done better. So now they're calling Admiral Tarkin back from patrol to... supervise." His lips curled in disgust, but Ahsoka could sense a lot of it was directed at himself.

"Thankfully, the Council was able to come to an agreement with the military," Obi-Wan interjected. "If they are to be permitted a direct liaison, the Jedi have the same right. As someone close to both of you, I was the sensible choice – and a soft demonstration of Jedi solidarity and our faith in you, because anyone can guess my biases lie with my old Padawan and his student. But I intend to supervise... actively."

The subtle quirk of his mouth beneath his beard, a tell Ahsoka knew better than some of Anakin's, said the rest. Even if Obi-Wan had only been intended as an observer to match a military ultimatum, his personal mandate was to do everything in his power to facilitate the investigation and find answers quickly. What he facilitated, though, was entirely up to Ahsoka and Anakin's discretion.

Then the rest of the information caught up with her.

"Wait, Tarkin? That would put both holders of the Nexus Route coordinates in the same place. Are we sure that's a good idea?" Ahsoka asked, remembering the Citadel rescue operation ten months before. Tarkin and his commanding officer at the time, Jedi Master Even Piell, had each memorized one half of the coordinates for the secret route into the depths of Separatist-controlled space. Piell had shared his half with Ahsoka just before succumbing to a fatal anooba mauling.

Tarkin had professed he would give his half to the chancellor alone, while Ahsoka's instructions had been to relay hers to the Jedi Council. The two had agreed to keep their halves secret until the Republic's greatest hour of need, and avoid each other when possible to keep both holders being captured by the Republic's enemies. The arrangement suited Ahsoka just fine; she didn't particularly like Tarkin.

"That hadn't occurred to me, but perhaps that was the idea," Obi-Wan said, stroking his beard contemplatively. "The admiralty may simply be trying to prepare for every eventuality."

Ahsoka had a bad feeling, but she managed an uneasy smile. "All right. But why did you come all the way here to tell me that?"

"Well, Obi-Wan was trying to–" Anakin broke off when his wrist comm gave two sharp trills – the sign someone wanted to link up with the device for an audio-only call. Pursing his lips, he lifted it to his face and answered it. "Skywalker."

"General Skywalker, this Lieutenant Chiikwa from the forensics team. We've found a suspicious bloodstain in the easternmost corridor on the second floor."

Obi-Wan's hand moved up from his beard to cup his forehead, and he sighed deeply. Anakin gestured meaningfully to his comm, and Ahsoka made a mental note to tell him in person next time she had news related to the investigation.

"According to the scanner, it was well cleaned with a very abrasive product before the floor was saturated," the lieutenant went on. "That makes it challenging to guess how much blood was lost, let alone if it was enough to a killing blow, but the size of the stain suggests a serious injury at least."

"Serious injury?" Anakin echoed, frowning.

Ahsoka dropped her voice to a whisper to make sure the comm didn't catch it. "I thought the chancellor's autopsy came back without external injuries."

Obi-Wan nodded, looking troubled. "It did," he whispered back.

"We'll be right there. Take a sample in the meantime and get started on a more in-depth analysis," Anakin said. As he ended the call, he turned to face her again. "Ahsoka, can you tell us what you found on the way?"

"No problem," she said, grabbing her other two datapads. Artoo beeped at her as she passed by, and she smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Artoo, but you haven't finished checking the system for bugs, and if I find out anything was tampered with here, I'll be able to add more names to my list of suspects."

Artoo cursed quite colorfully in Binary about being kept away from the action, and Ahsoka chuckled; true, her Binary wasn't perfect, but she knew an expletive when she heard it. Being the Padawan of Anakin Skywalker, a lot of her introductions to new languages were to their swear words – only to make sure she could tell when someone was mouthing her off, of course.

"No, swearing about it isn't going to help your case," Anakin said, grinning. "I'll see you later, okay, buddy?"

Artoo whistled more quietly, pacified, and Anakin and Obi-Wan headed back to the chancellor's private office. Rearranging the datapads in her arms to slip the cable back into her pouch, Ahsoka followed them.

The investigation kept getting more and more complicated just when she thought she'd found an edge, but that was all right. Once they got back to the manor, Ahsoka would just have to watch Tanil Vitej extra closely until the Zygerrian woman slipped up, or some other evidence against her surfaced.

Nearly two years in the past, Ahsoka has found what may be a critical lead in her and Anakin's investigation into Chancellor Palpatine's death. But the hidden power dynamics of the Republic's central institutions shadow every step Master and Padawan take in the right direction. Hindered by their new military overseer, Admiral Tarkin, will they get to the bottom of what really happened to Palpatine? Or will the complexities of the situation cloud their minds and bind their hands until it's too late to act? Only time will tell...

Well, there you go! That's the last update for the next two months... unless I'm faced with such horrible art block my resolve cracks, which of course is always possible.

As if to make up for that, I threw as much context and character intricacies into this chapter as would fit. I originally planned SOTE as a trilogy of books, though I'm open to a tetralogy or a duology if they work, and the flashbacks across all three or four are vital for contextualizing Anakin's relationship with slavery and the dark side as Vader, and how he got to where he is in the present two years after this.

I also got to clarify another change to the timeline: Queen Miraj survived! I've said it before that every divergence this story makes from canon boils down to the fact that Ahsoka and Lux never met on Raxus that time with Padmé during the Clone Wars – Miraj's continued existence included. She's not terribly important to the story, but some of her people's practices definitely served as an inspiration to the ones Dooku is trying to encourage in the present day.

With that, I'll bid you all ado and wish you a Happy New Year, since it's forty minutes into New Year's Eve where I am. May 2021 be ten times better than what we got this year; to 2020 I'll say only goodbye and good riddance. I'll be back in early March with a brand new chapter about Ahsoka and Lux's tumultuous return to Kyzeron.

Talk to you guys then, but until then, may the Force be with you and your next two months full of good things!