Outside the blast room, the troopers and the Padawans waited for the plan. Ahsoka did a quick headcount before deciding what needed to be done.

She addressed the whole group. "So far, the troopers have taken down eleven Changelings, and I took out a twelfth one in the Lower Levels before I came here. Twelve isn't enough to fill the missing numbers, though, so until we know otherwise we have to assume that there are more Changelings hiding in the Temple somewhere. All of the Padawans, divide yourselves into three groups, one for each squadron. O-Mer will lead the first squad, Jinx will take the second, and I will take the third. O-Mer, sweep through the mess hall, the communication and command centers, and the Council room. Jinx, I want your squad to take all the training facilities. I'll go through the storage units and the library. Stun any Changelings you find."

Everyone nodded and began to pull out their weapons. A Padawan in the rear of the pack, named Edisa, piped up. "What about the real Jedi? Where are they?"

Ahsoka had thought about this and had come to the following conclusion: "I doubt that the Changelings would have been able to smuggle away over a hundred Jedi without anyone noticing, so it is possible that they are still in the Temple. That's why I want the squadrons to be extra careful during the sweeps. Check every crevice in the building. If the Jedi are really here, then we'll find them. If they have been kidnapped, then we'll decide what to do after the Temple is secure."

That decision seemed to please everyone, so Ahsoka pulled out her blaster and flicked the safety off. After a moment's consideration, she bade them all, "May the Force be with you."

Splitting up into three, everyone dispersed up the stairs and to their assigned locations. Caleb didn't leave Ahsoka's side and pulled out his lightsaber. Ahsoka turned towards the rear of the building and down the storage halls, and they worked their way through their assigned area. They swept through multiple stashes of rations, spare robes, medical supplies, and plenty of other resources that weren't being used. After a thorough scan of all twenty rooms, nothing had been found.

Ahsoka turned to Caleb. "Check in with the other squadrons."

He nodded and held his wrist up. "Ahsoka's squad, checking in. Nothing in the storage units."

Jinx responded first. "We've gone through most of the upper training rooms, but no one is up here except us. We're making our way down to the large training halls."

"Same status in the mess hall, but the command center looks a little tampered with," O-Mer added. "I'm not really sure what happened, but someone definitely got their hands somewhere they didn't belong."

"Not good," Ahsoka mused. "Tell them to keep going. Securing the Temple takes precedence. The systems will have to wait."

Caleb relayed the message, and their squadron wound their way down to the library. No one saw any Changelings or Jedi, but Ahsoka refused to let her guard down. They approached the doors to the library, when someone in the group, Dixtar, voiced some concern. "Is anyone else worried about what's behind those doors?"

A sinister feel was radiating from the library. The clones obviously had no idea, but Ahsoka and the Padawans could sense it easily. "I feel it too," Caleb responded. "Something happened here."

"Weapons at the ready," Ahsoka commanded, and she raised one hand at the doors. "Three, two, one."

She opened the doors quickly with the Force and raised her blaster, ready for any resistance that might meet them.

What actually met them? An entire hall full of Jedi.

Frozen Jedi.

The troopers and Padawans prepared to fight, but when none of the Jedi reacted or even moved, they hesitated. They weren't literally frozen, but they were all stuck in random, odd positions as if someone had frozen time while they were doing something.

Ahsoka beckoned the squad forward, and they all crept slowly towards the Jedi. The entire library was full of them and none of them seemed to be conscious. What was more, none of them were radiating their Force signature. Even Madame Jocasta, the librarian, who was notorious for the upkeep of the sacred Jedi holocrons and records, was among the frozen. Many other faces were in the crowd as well, like Aayla Secura and Quinlan Vos. Healers, sentinels, trainers, the nursery caretakers, all of them were here. The only faces Ahsoka didn't see were those of the Jedi Council and Anakin.

She studied Aayla Secura, who happened to be standing closest to her. It looked as if she had just reacted to an adversary when she had been frozen. They were ambushed, then. They probably took down the Masters first, then froze the Knights. Ahsoka reached up and felt around the neck of her top before her fingers found what they were searching for.

Some black market dealers had been experimenting with the idea of a nervous system suppressor. By halting all functions of the nerves, except for those necessary to stay alive, the body froze in whatever position they were in. It was supposed to be very painful, from what Ahsoka had heard as the Inquisitor. Having commanded the Separatist armies was starting to come in handy.

On Aayla's neck was a small metal disk, the suppressor, digging into the Jedi's blue skin. Ahsoka dug her nails under the rim and ripped it off, and Aayla fell to the ground, groaning and shaking.

The troopers and Padawans that had come with Ahsoka ran over to see what had happened and nearly rejoiced when they saw the Jedi moving of her own free will. The Togruta caught her and did her best to steady her shaking body. "It's all right, it's over now." Aayla continued to shudder but leaned on Ahsoka for support as she regained control over her body.

Holding up the disk, she instructed the others, "Search for this on their neck. Pull hard, and get ready to catch them, if you can."

They eagerly set to work, glad to have found a way to get everyone back to normal. The Jedi began falling to the ground, responding to the pain of coming out of suppression. Eventually, they began to rise to their feet and then started asking questions about what in the galaxy had happened, and how they had gotten in the library.

Ahsoka did her best to let the Padawans take care of the questions while she made sure that every Jedi was released and recovered. She checked every aisle, every corner, and every shelf she could find. When she was sure that no one had been missed, she leaped up to a ledge near the ceiling and looked out over the scene.

Those Padawans who's masters were in the room reunited with them, and the older Padawans who had been frozen tried to figure out where their master was. They started racing out of the room and Ahsoka had a feeling it would be useless to try and stop them.

Caleb ran over to her and joined her, kneeling beside the civilian. Ahsoka could tell that he was no less stressed than he had been several minutes ago, but to his credit, he masked it for the time being. "The others are finished with their sweeps," he told her, handing her his comlink.

She took it, starting the conversation. "This is Ahsoka. We've found most of the Knights. They were in the library. Our area is clear."

O-Mer spoke next. "We didn't find anyone. All clear here."

"Same in the training halls," Jinx finished.

Ahsoka released the tension in her muscles. "Temple secure. If someone wants to let the Younglings out of the basement, I'm sure they'd appreciate it. On a separate note, you may want to come to find your master in the library instead."

"What did you mean by 'most of the Knights'?" O-Mer asked. "What about the Council?"

"They're not here," Ahsoka answered reluctantly. "If no one else has found them, then they must be missing somewhere."

Jinx sighed. "Of course not. You don't know this yet, but we got assigned to masters, finally. I'm Master Gallia's apprentice."

"And I'm Master Plo's," O-Mer added. "Our Masters are still missing, and so is Caleb's."

Ahsoka looked at Caleb, who's face was washed with concern and looking at Ahsoka desperately for help. "How are we supposed to find them?" He asked, and she heard the underlying note of panic beginning to rise.

O-Mer answered him. "I don't know, but there's something you guys should see, in the Council room. There's no one here, but..."

"We should see it," Jinx finished.

"Hurry, you guys," O-Mer pleaded, and Ahsoka disconnected. She jumped down to the ground, with Caleb right at her heels. They dashed past the crowd of Jedi, who were beginning to leave the library. Neither of them spoke as they ran to the Council room, fearing the worst.

Jinx had beat them to the chamber. Both he and O-Mer were waiting for them when they burst in, weapons drawn, just in case. It didn't take long to see what had O-Mer so concerned.

Blaster bolts singed the walls and floor, and many of the Council members' chairs were overturned or scuffed. A fight had clearly broken out here, but there were no bodies. The room had a haunting silence and felt more empty than ever.

The three Padawans approached their master's chairs and set them straight, but Ahsoka didn't move. It didn't take long for her to connect the dots. The Knights had been found, but the Jedi Council was missing, along with the Chosen One. That wasn't a coincidence. Something large was at play here. This wasn't a terrorist act, but a Separatist one. They had landed a hit on their home turf. Without the High Council, the Order was crippled and so was the Republic.

Jinx turned to Ahsoka. "If they weren't in the library, then where are they?"

"Prisoner," O-Mer answered, standing up and walking to the window. "They're gone."

"They're not gone," Caleb insisted, "not unless we give up on them. They can't be dead yet, they're stronger than that."

His words were brave, but Ahsoka, who had watched over him for almost a year, could hear the fear in his voice. He was telling the others just as much as he was telling himself. It had to be true, he had to believe it if he was going to make it.

Ahsoka took her bag off of her shoulders for the first time since she had jumped out of the gunship. The Padawans came over to see what she was retrieving, but it didn't take long for them to realize what it was.

She had packed all of the lightsabers of the Changelings into her pack before they had gone to find the little ones. She had ignored it at the time for the sake of the mission, but now that she had time to think it over she realized who the Changelings had chosen to change into. There were eleven of the twelve Council members, and the Chosen One made twelve missing. There had been twelve Changelings. The numbers added up.

Ahsoka lifted all of the lightsabers except for Anakin's into their owner's chair and let them rest there. "The only Jedi who had fakes were the ones who had been kidnapped. That way, there was only one of each of them here at a time."

The Padawans' hearts sank, and Caleb asked her, almost pleading. "So what do we do? How do we get them back?"

Ahsoka sat on her knees. "It's not up to me, Caleb. Now that the Knights have returned, they must decide what to do. I only led this mission because no one else could get outside help from inside and because no one else had a plan to clear the rest of the Temple."

"But we can't let them go, Ahsoka!" He insisted. "They wouldn't let us go!"

Maybe you three, she thought, but I'm not so sure about me. "I'm a civilian, Caleb. I can't lead a rescue mission, but the Jedi can. I doubt they are any less concerned about the Council. They won't abandon them."

Jinx began gathering the lightsabers. "We'll take these to them. They'll know what to do. They'll figure out a plan to get them back."

The three ran out of the door with the lightsabers, but Ahsoka kept Anakin's with her. She stared at it, wondering what had happened that someone could have snuck up on him. If she was being honest, she wasn't that worried about him, at least, not yet. He had been in worse trouble than this before, and she didn't doubt that one way or another, he would get out of this too. All Ahsoka was unsure of was whether she would be a part of it.