The masked woman isn't Barriss, stop guessing that. It's not that obvious.

Chapter 2

Ahsoka looked around; her heartrate was skyrocketing. She was surrounded by three Zabrak males, all of whom were watching her, waiting for her to slip up and reveal even the slightest trace of fear. This was not a situation she had wanted to be in. One wrong move and she would be a dead woman. Straightening her back, Ahsoka stood as tall as she could. "Drell Brood, I presume?"

The older Zabrak eyed her for a moment. He was the most powerful man in the bar. Most of - if not all - the men in the bar worked for him. Given the word he'd have twenty or thirty men opening fire on her. Yet he still took the time to study her. "Hello, I'm Drell Brood. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said with a rasp in his voice. "Here's a tip, kid; Its common courtesy whenever you meet a new person to introduce yourself before speaking to them. It shows a level of class. It also shows that you respect your host. Now you try."

"Hello, I'm Ashla. Please forgive me for my disrespect. I was in a bit of a rush to get here, when I heard that you have a bounty on a Jedi," Ahsoka said. She had been quite shocked when she received an update on the bounty hunting boards that an unknown Jedi had a hit taken out on them.

The older Zabrak looked at her for a moment. She was used to older men leering at her from time to time, but the way he looked at her it made her feel like a Padawan again. He stared at her like one of the masters would, as if he could peer into her very soul. Ahsoka thought about reaching out with the Force and try to find out what he was feeling, but something about him told her that was a bad idea. Did he know she was a Jedi? No that didn't make any sense. Besides being disrespectful to him, she hadn't said or done anything that should tip him off. Heck, being disrespectful would have been a sign she wasn't a Jedi.

"Ah yes the Jedi problem. I'm glad you brought that up. I've already had my men post a bounty on this Jedi, so why have you come here? Surely you didn't already fix my problem?"

"I'm afraid I didn't come here with good news. Your man Dez said I should come here and make my request directly to you," Ahsoka said, taking on a more professional sounding voice. Coming here was reckless, even for her. When she had heard that there was a bounty out for a Jedi, her heart raced for the opportunity to meet another survivor. However coming face to face with high-ranking members of Black Sun was not what she wanted.

"And what exactly has brought you here? It's not often that a bounty hunter would circumvent my junior to meet with me personally. Did you come to negotiate your payment?" Ahsoka shifted her weight. As she began to reply, she was cut off by Drell. "Or did your Master send you here to get more information?"

Kriff, he knows I'm a Jedi! How cou–

"You bounty hunters can be so secretive. Your sell swords. Yet you always act as if you're the fate of the galaxy is on your shoulders. Whoever you're working for should know not to send a hunter-in-training to meet with the Black Sun. Whoever's teaching you must not value manners. None of my regulars are disrespectful enough to send a kid into my bar to negotiate," he said.

Thank the Force! He thinks I'm just an errand girl. Straightening her back, Ahsoka cleared her throat, while trying to put on her best tough guy impression, "I'm not a hunter-in-training. I came out to this system because you've got a Jedi problem. I figure I can make my rep if I could kill the last of the Jedi."

Drell looked at her for a moment as if to say 'really?' before speaking. "Woah, Woah, woah. Slow your roll there kid. Who said anything about kill? The bounty is for them to be brought in alive, as in 'not dead'. Who said anything about dead?"

Ahsoka had faltered for a moment. Why wouldn't he want the Jedi dead? Most bounties were for people wanted dead or alive. Why is this any different? Looking at the other two Zabraks beside him, they seemed shocked by this revelation as well. "I'm sorry, you don't want them to die?"

"Kid, I lost twenty men to this nutcase and sure I want her dead. But I'm willing to offer the lady a job before I kill her. Jedi are a rare and valued commodity in this day and age," he said. "A single Jedi working with me against the Empire is more than enough."

His words seemed genuine enough, but he also seemed to be hiding something. Of course, he's hiding something; he's a criminal. Why wouldn't he be hiding something? she thought. It was always good to have another friend fighting against the Empire, but working with Black Sun didn't feel right. She didn't need them. She just needed their information. Once she knew what she knew, she'd never need to come back to Nar Shaddaa and deal with him. "We'll I'm just the bounty hunter you need. Dead or alive, I've got your guy. All I need is any holorecordings of what I'm going to be up against," Ahsoka said.

"Holorecordings? No wonder Dez told you to come here. We don't just hand those out to any bounty hunter, especially not one of the regulars," Drell said. "Give me one good reason why I should hand over the recording."

'Oh, I don't know, because she killed a bunch of your guys,' Ahsoka thought to herself. Then again, handing out the weaknesses of a potential ally didn't make much sense. He was probably going to keep her and any other bounty hunter not on the payroll in the dark about her weaknesses. When a bounty hunter brought her in, the recording with all her abilities and weaknesses would be another bargaining chip in case she needed more of an incentive to join.

"Drell was smart, smart enough to always hold all the power in the situation. If she wanted answers she was going to have to give him a reason to trust her, or make herself a much more valued asset to have. Telling him I'm a Jedi would be the easiest way to end up getting the intel, but also the fastest way to wind up dead. If Anakin was here he might have tried to aggressively negotiate with the man or work out some sort of prisoner exchange for the information. But with neither the fire power nor the resources of the Republic, the best she could do is persuade him with just her wit and charm.

Think Ahsoka, think. I want to get the holorecording. He won't give me the holorecording unless I offer him something. I could just say that if he does this for me, I'll be more inclined to work for him in the future, she thought. Ha! Judging by the way he's been calling me kid all night, he probably thinks I've got a snowball's chance in Mustafar. Think! I've got no reputation, I've got zero work experience, and I've got zero leverage with Black Sun. There was just no way for me to get any information unless I reveal was a Jedi. No, there has to be a way to get this info without revealing my past and me owing Black Sun a favor. I have to do the unexpected.

Seeing the bored looks Drell and his men where giving her, it was now or never. "I think I might have away for you to let me see your recording," she said hastily. If she couldn't reveal any information she about herself, she could always call him on his own dealings. "It's obvious that you're keeping the recording to use as leverage, but I've been studying the lightsaber techniques to start hunting this Jedi. I could analyse the data before so you'd have a more in depth knowledge to use in your negotiations, and prove to you I'm not just some punk kid. I get to see what I'm up against and you get to see how valuable another potential asset is."

Brood looked at her, weighed his options then flicked his gaze up at another man across the room. "Kruge, take our new associate to study the recording. Be very thorough, this isn't just a test for her, got it?" The one known as Kruge gave a curt nod before getting up and motioning for her to follow him.

Ahsoka looked around. None of Drell's boys were hanging around them and Kruge wasn't making any obvious signals. As they walked, the lanky man led her up a flight of stairs to a control room on the second floor with a giant window overlooking the entire club. At least I've got an exit in case this goes south. Even before going on the run, her time with Anakin had forced her to always have some sort of exit in mind when things inevitably went horribly wrong. A quick leap through the window should have her less than a meter or two away from the entrance. Making her way into the backroom, Kruge offered her a seat on a worn-out couch. While he wandered around for a bit looking for the datachip. After a few minutes of searching for the chip, the Zabrak found it and slid it into the holodisplay on the table. He fiddled around with the device, skipping ahead to the relevant information.

"Here's when the Jedi came by. It was messed up what that freak did to our guys. I've never seen a Jedi do some of that stuff. Gives a guy the chills," Kruge said, shivering from the mere thought of whatever occurred.

The display showed a warehouse area with a few dozen meter-high stacks of boxes and a few workers operating equipment. Barring the few armed guards, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. All of a sudden the lights flickered off and on. A cloaked figure stood atop a pyramid made of several boxes.

The cloaked individual surveyed the crowd of stunned workers; glaring at them through the holes in her mask. All the workers and guards stared in silence, as if a rancor had just entered the hanger. One wrong move and all of these men were as good as dead.

Ahsoka shivered from the holorecording. The feelings in the Force were rushing into her. She could feel the fear and desperation in the workers as the sweat began to firm and trickle slowly down her neck. Whoever that person was, they certainly weren't a Jedi.

The stranger glanced at the camera, as if to taunt whoever was watching the recording, sliver mask marred with scratches. "Attention, as of now, all of your contraband is being seized for a more noble cause. I'm giving you one chance walk out that door and continue to live. If you fail to vacate the premises or foolishly try and stop me, I will kill you." Even with the voice filter on, it couldn't hide the sadistic, condescending tone the masked woman spoke with.

Ahsoka narrowed her eyes, studying every aspect of the figure. Looking at the figure didn't do much to help, the woman was wearing dull grey armour along the torso and thighs, along with armoured gauntlets and boots. It was a long shot but she was hoping that whoever this person was they would be someone she'd seen or at the very least someone she's heard of before.

The temperature plummeted; the workers could see their breath, as objects around them began to shake. Even the men began to quake in their boots. The masked woman took the time to look at each and every worker. She patiently waited for each worker to make eye-contact before moving on to the next. It was as if she enjoyed watching them gaze into the holes in her mask, hoping to find some shred of humanity, only to realize there was none. The trepidation must have been maddening.

A guard trembled in fear, clutching the rifle in his hand for dear life. His palms had begun to sweat. He could feel his heart thump as the pressure began to build. He had felt as if someone had turned off the air supply to the room as he began to gasp for air. He was no coward. He was a war hero for crying out loud! But standing before them was something he'd never seen. One shot was all it would take and it would be over. No fear. No panic. No monster. Before he could raise the blaster to his face, a shot rang out amongst the crowd. A guard screaming like a mad man began to open fire on the masked intruder, screaming as loud as he could, barely missing his target.

It was like a dam broken; as the fear they felt was lifted. The men rallied together as the cloaked woman dodged and weaved through the blaster fire. None knew which among them did it, but somehow they managed to land a hit along her shoulder. This emboldened the men, as they began to yell out to one another to for aid. They spouted out curses as they yelled at her to die. This wasn't some sort of monster - it was flesh and blood.

The woman, for her part, continued to dodge them. At first she was sluggish and caught a bit flat footed. However, as the battle raged on she seemed to get faster and faster. She leaped from box to box, always leaping as soon as both feet touched the ground. The interloper pulled out traditional-looking saberstaff, from their robes. Making their way to the closest exit, the masked woman turned around to face her attackers. Activating the saberstaff, the men began to stop their advance. Even after five years the signature weapon of the Jedi was still a sight to see.

Taking advantage of the pause in the battle, the masked woman jumped into the crowd. Hoisting several men off the ground, and using them as shields as she cut down the workers one at a time. As the herd began to thin and the men began to flee, she separated the saberstaff into two blades. She threw one into the back of a retreating worker, and use it to cut down anyone that got too far away.

She used the Force to drag any of the workers who tried to hide back to her and impale them on her lightsaber. She watch each one of them wither and die. Before throwing them to the ground, apparently not worthy enough to be added to her meat shield, and moving on to the next.

Her other lightsaber continued to hurtle through the air, cutting down worker after worker. While her initial kill with the weapon had lodged itself into the back of a lucky worker, the masked woman seemed more interested in dismemberment. The thrown blade hovered less than a foot off the ground as it began to hobble the workers who had tried to flee from her.

Once the floor was cleared of any living combatants, she dropped her meat shield to the ground. The blaster fire stopped, as the guards on the railing abandoned the fight to search for an exit. It must have been quite a shock to realize that the closest one was now blocked by the stranger that killed half a dozen of their crew.

Calling back the lightsaber from the back of one of the cowards, the stranger planted both feet shoulder width apart. Raised one arm diagonally inward and the other pointed downward. The men soon began to fire, hoping that they'd get lucky and kill whoever this person was.

With the arrival of new blaster fire she spun around, going through her kata, blocking and redirecting all the shots until only one of the men was left. Reconnecting the blades, the masked woman deactivated the lightsaber as she spun around to face the lone survivor, pulling the man from the railing towards her in a single fluid motion.

The guard gasped for air, clawing at the invisible hand around his throat. The woman pulled him closer to her, with the Force keeping him a few feet off the ground. The masked woman began talking to him. Whatever they were saying was too quiet for the recorder to pick up, but the man began to gesture to some large crates on the far end of the warehouse. She dropped the man to the ground and began to walk towards the crate. As the man picked himself off the ground, he managed to get maybe four feet before his neck was twisted at an unnatural angle.

"And that's pretty much it," Kruge said. "After that she loads up the crates on to her ship, and sets fire to the product before she flies away."

"Can I get a look at the ship?" Ahsoka asked.

"All I can tell you that it's a type-C freighter, other than that, nothing. You were called in here to analyse the fighter, not the freighter," he said lazily.

Is he telling me that so I don't look further in the tape or to keep any information to their organiszation? Judging by Drell's last comment to the guy, it could be either-or. Kruge was being tested. He might be more careful as part of his test. Looking at the security camera at the top of the room, she wondered if Drell was watching them now.

Pressing the issue was not going to work for whatever reason he wasn't going to budge on the matter if she insisted. Taking her mind off the recording she thought of the masked woman. She wasn't a Jedi; no Jedi would have fought like that. The savage ruthlessness was like nothing she had seen in a long time. This was a darkside user on par with Maul. Ahsoka felt a pit begin to form in her stomach. All the darksiders she and the Jedi fought were either knowingly or unknowingly servants of Palpetine. Whoever this mystery woman was, she was working with the Empire.

So far all she knew of the Empire's Force sensitives were that they hunted Jedi. Had there been so few Jedi after the purge that they were using the Inquisitors for black ops? Or was this just another branch of the Empire who also employed Force users? Thinking about it made her call into question what little information she did have on the Empire. Heck, she didn't even know if this was the Empire for sure.

Ahsoka took a deep breath. Panicking wasn't going to help her. All the darksiders I've fought were working for Palpetine. Plus it wouldn't make sense for a new darkside to emerge, because Palpetine would stomp them out. Any third party would have to go into hiding or they'd die. Any and all information of a third party's existence would have to be erased. Meaning it had to be the Empire. So them leaving behind a tape of them killing a ton of people wouldn't have been an accident; she looked directly into the camera. This wasn't a random attack, this was statement. The Empire wanted them to know that this was the power of a single agent. That's why the camera was left intact.

The knot in her gut told her that she went wrong somewhere. If this was an Imperial agent, why wouldn't they be have worn an Imperial insignia on their armour? Why would she have tried to not fight? Unless the Empire wasn't looking for a fight. It was a false-flag operation. The Inquisitor was sent to scare them and steal from them, so they'd run to the Empire for protection. Any rival gang or third party wouldn't care about killing, but if the Empire was after having Black Sun working for them they'd have to have enough of their people alive to make it worth it.

However, that still left the crate of unknown goods. The Empire didn't care about the drugs. They seemed to be only interested in the crate. If she stayed on Nar Shaddaa she might be able to provide protection for Black Sun and draw out the agent, but an organization as large as Black Sun had bases all around the Outer Rim. Watching one warehouse wouldn't get her anywhere.

"Are you done thinking over there?" Kruge asked. "We're not paying you to sit around. We're paying you to do a job."

"Firstly, you're not paying me anything yet. Second of all, yes, I am done. The Jedi was using the Jarkai variant to the first form of lightsaber combat. It's built for crowd control and is taught to all beginners. After that she used it again for blast defection. She's a Padawan who's taken what little she does know to the highest level," Ahsoka said.

Thinking about her more, she's got Force augmented speed and enough training in the mind trick to make an entire crowd feel fear. Her telekinesis is strong, but nothing to write home about for her age. She can lift a grown man off the ground from a few meters away without accidentally killing him.

"Good eye, some of our more trusted specialists said the same thing," he said. "Drell's going to be happy he's taking a chance with you."

Speaking of Drell, did he already know that this wasn't a Jedi? Judging by his restraint and the wisdom in his eye something told her he'd had a feeling this wasn't a Jedi. He wasn't offering her a job. He was trying to kill the Inquisitor. He was using the Empire's hatred of Force sensitives against them. Tricky bastard, since this is black ops having a bounty hunter kill a rogue Jedi couldn't get them into trouble and it would allow them to fight back, while also letting them play dumb.

Then why let her see the tapes? If he thought I was a bounty hunter, bringing me here would have me bring the "Jedi" to him, no questions asked. If he thought I was an Imperial agent he thinks that I think that he has or wants a Jedi on his payroll and that I'd send an Inquisitor after him to hunt down the other Force sensitives he might have. Unless that was also part of his plan. Drell would be able to feed the Empire false news for weeks while fighting his shadow war. All Black Sun would have to do is send out the word that any Force sensitive that wants a job gets placed on suicide missions until their luck runs out. Killing agents and keeping their attention where he wants it.

Getting out of Black Sun's way would have to become a top priority for her. This shadow war was too big for her, and with everyone involved having being so secretive, she didn't really have time to decode who knows what. Bail would have to send someone here who could learn about Black Sun and this war with the Empire they were having.

"Getting up from the chair, Ahsoka walked with Kruge. "I've gotten all I can. Tell Mr. Brood I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to work for him," she said before heading for the back door of the club.

"Wait kid. Before you go there is something you should know. The Jedi had taken slaves from us. That's what was in the crate. If you're going to have any luck in tracking them down, that's going to be you're first clue. You've got some good insights, and I can see there's a brain in that head of yours, so stay safe and bring that guy in," he said trying to act cool. "Oh and if Drell asked, I didn't tell you that."

Ahsoka gave a curt nod before heading out. Slaves changed everything. If it had been drugs or spice, Ahsoka would have let this pass, but lives were on the line she had to save them. This was going to be a long day.

"Kruge returned to his seat in the bar. Drell looked up from his drink with an expectant look. "She said what the others said about the Force users. Nothing new, but she didn't comment on her Force powers. I didn't let her have free reign and didn't give her any information she couldn't have figured out." Taking a moment to gather his courage, Kruge was about to speak when Drell interrupted.

"You're wondering when we changed from murdering her to offering her a job." Taking a swig of his beer, he looked up to the boy smirking. "You've got a long way to go if you want to be a captain, my boy. Tell me what kind of bounty hunter has worn out armour that has dozens of scratches and dents, but not a single scorch mark from a blaster? That kid's a Jedi. No doubt about it. I sent Dez to have one of the regulars tail her. Once she does her duty as a Jedi thing and fights the rogue one, of the regulars will swoop in, explain everything, and give "Ashla" the job offer."

"What if she refuses?" Kruge asked.

"Drell looked at him. "The regulars been given instruction if she refuses. They're to bag her up and bring her to us to have some negotiations." Thinking back to their talk, he observed all the twitches and ticks as she was speaking. A picture was starting to form in his head. This Padawan was late in her training when the Jedi coup happened, and was off world with her Master when the master was killed. Now here she was a Padawan on the cusp of being a knight just trying to survive. The universe had just gift wrapped the best kind of Jedi, desperate, alone, and oh so very moldable. "Joining Black Sun will be the best thing the kid's been though in the last five years. We may not be the Jedi, but we can give her normalcy, stability, and a place to come back to."

"What about the Empire? They're still hunting Jedi." Kruge said. This new turn must have been really getting to him. Normal guards and police were one thing, but the fleet of the Empire was another thing.

"To Kruge's credit, this was both an added bonus and complete disaster. On one hand, a fugitive Jedi would be a powerful tool. On the other hand, the Empire might come to their doorstep because of her. On the other other hand, she was a Padawan. Even the most promising Padawan is still just a Padawan. "Relax Kruge, the Empire is still busy searching for Masters and Knights. One lowly Padawan would go unnoticed. Nobody is going to haul an entire Star Destroyer all the way to the Outer Rim for a single Padawan. Plus, if they do come knocking, all we have to do is claim we had no idea she was a Jedi. Now go and tell prophet there's been a change of plans."

Drell watched the boy leave, before tending back to his drink. Selling out a nice kid like her didn't really seem fair, but then again, life wasn't fair. He'd do what he could for the kid, but when her time was up… her time would be up.