It was already Tuesday, and Gauges and Gears had still heard nothing from Tano. They knew she had warned them that this might happen, but it still didn't put them at ease. Not just because she was one of their better employees, it's just she had a habit of getting into trouble.

After the work shift was done for the day, everyone gathered in the staff room, even people like Nox and Tyme who usually didn't stick around this long. Trace was really only there because Leslie and Rya were, but she was there.

Luce was flipping through news channels to see if anything sounded like it might explain where Tano was, and Wheeler was calling her parents to see if they knew anything. It showed how worried she was for Tano because she never called her parents. Ever. Everyone was reaching out to old friends to see if they had heard anything about an orange Togruta. They even called people like Granger on the off chance that they had heard anything.

Thyla even tried calling Tano herself, but that didn't work either. They didn't know if that was because she was just really far away or if she wasn't answering her comlink. Journey suggested that they check her house to see if maybe she had gotten back recently, but that idea was shut down. She would answer a call if she was home.

Kind of tired of all the concern for someone she barely knew, Trace groaned, "Why are we still looking for her? It's not like we're going to find her."

"So?" Jackson argued, sinking into a chair and collapsing on the table. He had just finished calling Granger, who hadn't heard anything either. "It's not like we have anything better to do."

"Maybe you don't, but my sister is probably worried about where I am," Trace fired back. "I'm not usually out this late."

"Do you ever think your sister may be a bit too controlling?" Rya asked cautiously, propping her chin up on one hand.

Trace looked confused as if she had never heard of such a thing. "No, what makes you say that?"

The Twi'lek shook her head, not really wanting to explain it right now. "Never mind."

Behind them, Wheeler ran into the room, having just got off the communicator with her mom. "Channel eighty-seven," she told Luce, who immediately complied and switched the projector.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and focused on the hologram, which showed a distressed reporter in front of a building that was absolutely demolished. It was smoking in several areas and parts of it had been blown up. None of them knew what building it was, but it didn't comfort any of them.

"-Senate has only recently released details on what has happened and why, and the news isn't exactly promising for the Republic. It does provide answers, though, to the question everyone is asking: what has happened to the Jedi?"

"But Tano isn't a Jedi!" Tyme argued, pointing at the news reporter. "What does this have to do with her?"

Everyone else shushed him as the frame transitioned to a shot of the Senate building lobby. "Earlier this week on Sunday night, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker was stationed at the Senate Building to protect Chancellor Kanai. In this security footage, he was walking with Senator Amidala and Senator Organa, only to be fired upon by a group of clone troopers. The Jedi managed to deflect all blaster fire and escape the building, where he was pursued across the surface until he escaped into the tunnel system near the Detention Center." Various clips of footage played, showing the different aspects of the story. "A few minutes later, his battalion, the 501st Legion, reported him dead."

Quietly, when Anakin's picture was put up on the projection, Leslie mumbled, "Nooo, that's the cute one."

Everyone within her vicinity either groaned or laughed while the reporter went on. "No explanation was given for this sudden turn of events, but it didn't stop there. This course of action has taken over all battalions of the Grand Army of the Republic. Jedi generals and commanders all over the galaxy have been reported dead by the hands of their clone troopers. Of the eight members of the Jedi Council that were reported alive after the recent attack on Coruscant, all but one have been executed." The screen showed the profile pictures of all the Jedi Masters before darkening them, except for a green alien with white hair. His picture remained lit while the other pictures disappeared. "While not all Jedi have been reported dead, those who may still be alive are missing in action, and their identities will be protected until more information about this massacre is released.

"The horror doesn't stop here, however. Not only were the active Jedi killed but every Jedi, from the young to the old, were targeted in what is beginning to be called the 'Jedi Purge'. After killing Skywalker, clone troopers across Coruscant marched upon the Jedi Temple, the sacred home of the religion's disciples. From the eldest Master to the newest Youngling, no survivors were found among the ruins of the building. Again, some Jedi are unaccounted for but where they may be is uncertain."

"What the hell..." Journey murmured, turning to the others. "Do you think Tano knows? I mean, she grew up with these people, she's probably known them since she was a kid!"

Thyla rested her head on his shoulder, sighing deeply. "I'm just glad she's not a Jedi anymore."

Agreement went around the room as the reporter kept talking. "Well, not technically," Luce conceded, "but she definitely still acts like a Jedi. She just ran off to go save another planet, didn't she?"

"She's always running off to go do something," Jackson agreed, smirking. 

"SHH!!" Wheeler admonished him, pointing at the screen.

The scene had shifted and the reporter was no longer talking about the Temple. "As if that wasn't enough, we are being forced to mourn the death of all Jedi, both present and past. Not even those expelled from the Jedi Order were safe from the Jedi Purge."

A pin could have dropped in the room and all of the occupants could have heard it. No one was making a sound. 

"Less than an hour before the attack on Coruscant and the Chancellor's life happened, former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano, better known as the 'Jedi Gone Rogue', was sent as an advisor with a division of the 501st Legion. Her teacher, General Anakin Skywalker, sent all of them with representatives from the neutral system of Mandalore to liberate it from the rule of the renegade Sith Lord Darth Maul. According to Tano's most recent report, she had succeeded in capturing Maul and was on her way to deliver him to Coruscant.

"Minutes later, however, the Venator-class cruiser dropped suddenly out of hyperspace. The cause for the drop has yet to be identified, but the last reports sent out by the cruiser notified the Republic that while Maul escaped capture and fled from the ship, Ahsoka Tano was executed."

Tano's name and image appeared but Wheeler snatched the projector, turned it off, and hurled it at the nearest wall. Everyone else was too stunned to stop her. Tears had already started falling, and Leslie had actually run out of the room, pushing past Fuller who was standing in the doorway.

Fuller stared after her before looking back at the occupants of the room. "I was just..." he trailed off, having heard enough of the news report to know why some of them were crying. Clearing his throat, he told Trace, "Your sister's here to pick you up." He walked away, and seconds later they could all hear a door slamming. 

"She's gone," Tyme whispered, looking at the floor. No one knew what to say after that but after a moment of tense silence, she quickly grabbed her bag and left the room, no longer feeling welcome. They all watched her dash away to her sister before looking back at the floor, letting the grief fester.

When he couldn't take it anymore, Nox asked, "Why? She wasn't a Jedi, so why?"

Luce shook his head, biting his lip. "No, that's not it," he told him, suddenly slamming his fist on the table and standing up. "SHE WAS THEIR FRIEND!!! Tano was their best friend, she talked about them all the time! Didn't she say? DIDN'T SHE SAY THAT HER BEST FRIEND ON THE SURFACE WAS A CLONE???"

"It didn't matter," Wheeler spat, clenching her fists. "People on the surface don't care about anyone belowground. They never have, never will. Once Tano came down here with us, they dropped her like dirt."

"So all of those stories she told us didn't matter?" Jake asked, wiping tear trails off her cheeks. "It was all for nothing?"

Wheeler pointed at where the projector had been. "Who do you think killed her? It was probably that clone she was talking about! Her 'best friend' probably pulled the trigger!!!"

Covering the cones on the side of her face, Rya began rocking back and forth in her chair, shaking her head. "Don't say that, don't say that! She loved that clone, he meant so much to her! You remember what she said about him-"

"And a lot of good that did her!!!" Wheeler shouted, tears falling out of her own eyes. Her screams came in gasps now, her chest heaving as she spoke. "She trusted him, and now she's dead! That's what happens on the surface, that's what happens to ANYONE who believes the lies surfacers say!!! They killed her! She was fighting in THEIR army, to help THEM, and THEY killed her!!!"

That's what put Thyla over the edge. She broke down sobbing, and Journey pulled her close despite grieving himself. No one else looked at Wheeler, unable to face the truth she thought to be undeniable. Tano had gone to the surface, and the surface had betrayed her.

Wheeler didn't wait for anyone else to lose it, she knew no one was comfortable with her in the room anymore. She grabbed her stuff and ran out the door without saying another word. 

~

Twenty minutes later, she was walking up the stairs to Tano's house. Wheeler didn't know why, she hardly even remembered the journey over here, but for one reason or another she found herself in front of Tano's door. Hopelessly she knocked, knowing there would be no answer. There was no point in knocking, not when there was no one inside.

Except there was. Footsteps approached the door, and for one glorious second Wheeler thought maybe she had escaped, maybe she had fooled the Republic.

Then the door opened and Tano wasn't standing behind it. It was some bounty hunter, fully armed and masked. Not that Wheeler would have known, she didn't know any bounty hunters.

From behind the mask, the hunter told her, "She's not home."

"What the hell are you doing?!?" Wheeler demanded, looking at the packed bag on their back. "You can't do that, she just died!!! Who do you think you are?" She tried to run and attack the hunter with nothing more than the intent to beat her up, but as soon as she tried her body started floating in midair, her feet barely brushing the floor.

"Don't hurt yourself," advised the hunter, holding their fist up in the air. "Besides, I'm the one who paid for this house. You think that girl coughed up the money for this place by herself?" The hunter released her, dropping Wheeler on the ground. "Think again, Pantorian."

When she regained her balance again and stood up, the hunter walked back into the house and resumed searching through cabinets, closets, and any other niches they could find. Wheeler put two and two together and pointed at the hunter. "You're like her. You have the Force but you're not a Jedi."

The hunter paused her search long enough to look at Wheeler and say, "You're a smart one, aren't you. Friend of hers?"

"Colleague," Wheeler admitted, letting herself in the house. "Friend from work."

"Then feel free to grab anything you see," the hunter invited her. "I'm selling this first thing tomorrow morning. Anything that's not gone goes to the next owners."

She looked around, but there was still plenty of furniture around, as well as dishes in the sink and a bit of a mess on the counters. Wheeler gestured to all of it, asking, "You're not going to leave something for people to remember her by? This entire community knew her, she's helped so many of them!"

"So I've heard," agreed the hunter, finally pulling off their mask to reveal what looked like an albino female. "I hear she did medical work on the side, made lots of friends that way."

"They deserve something," Wheeler insisted, seeing Tano's jacket lying on a recliner chair and picking it up. "They deserve a chance to..."

Watching her for a moment, the hunter waited as Wheeler trailed off, not finishing her sentence. After a while, she crossed her arms. "Throw her a funeral, then. Light some candles, say a few words, it won't matter. As for something to remember her by, everything that she had worth saving was with her when she left. She had her weapons when she left for Mandalore, I'm sure. Anything that might have had her Force signature is gone."

The hunter shifted the bag on her shoulder and brushed past the woman, carrying her mask in her hand. She was about to leave when Wheeler repeated, "'It doesn't matter'?"

Ventress (for of course it was her) rolled her eyes, pausing and turning around right before she passed through the doorway. The blue woman was staring at her incredulously. "It doesn't matter? Tano is dead and it doesn't matter?"

"Word of advice for you," she told her, "people die. Learn to move on, and your life will become much easier."

"You're wrong," Wheeler snarled, clutching Tano's jacket tightly. "Tano would never say such a thing."

In response, Ventress pointed at the sleeve of the jacket. "Do you know what that symbol means?"

After checking to see what symbol the bounty hunter was talking about, Wheeler answered, "She was a war veteran."

"And how many people do you think she saw die before her very eyes?" she asked, crossing her arms. "How many times do you think she had to leave behind friends because they were too far gone? How many people do you think she killed, knowing that someone would mourn them?"

No answer came from the Pantorian. At her stunned silence, Ventress chuckled. "Did you ever think as to what being a veteran meant? Tano knew war better than you ever will, you hopeful idiot. She's lost more people than you've ever known, and probably killed half as many at least. Do yourself a favor: don't speak for the dead. At least they won't have to live in the hell we're about to go through."

Putting her mask back on, Ventress turned on her heel and finally let her own tears fall. As much as she wished she could follow her own advice, Ahsoka Tano was a much better person than she'd ever be and she knew it. The galaxy had lost one of it's finest and it weighed on Ventress that someone so good could suffer a traitor's death.

"Wait!" the girl shouted behind her, running out of Ahsoka's house and calling out. "What hell are you talking about?"

"Just you wait," Ventress warned her. "The Republic isn't going to last long after this. You'd best get lost if you want to survive." She opened the doors to the staircase before turning back to give the girl one last look. "Dooku is coming."