Anabeth: New Beginnings

Chapter 15 - Information Retrieval

The next morning began very early for Ana. Since she had only gotten back to the Temple very late in the night, she could count the hours of sleep she had gotten on one hand. At least they had Bane in custody though.

Ana stood in her kitchen, waiting for her coffee machine to finish making the beverage. She looked around, glancing into the living room where her eyes found the clothes from lat night. She had thrown them on her sofa in a hurry to go to sleep last night, having all intentions to just throw them out in the morning.

But no that she was thinking about it again, she changed her mind. Maybe she would need them again somewhere down the line. Washing them and storing them away would perhaps be the better idea. And she had to admit, she had grown to like the outfit last night.

When her coffee was finally done, she headed out of the door with her mug in hand. Windu had asked to see her in the strategy room along with the rest of the Council to discuss the situation with Bane. As always, she was among the first to arrive with only Mace and Allie already present.

Her former Master raised an eyebrow at her cup of coffee. "You sure that's going to cut it?"
"What do you mean?" Ana asked return.
"He's trying to tell you that you look the personification of sleep deprivation," Allie explained. "How many hours did you get?"

"Three," Ana admitted quietly, as she took a sip of her coffee. She pulled a slight face at the bitterness of it which earned her a chuckle from Mace and Allie.
"The taste takes some getting used to, but trust me, you'll feel better after," Mace told her.
"Sure hope so. I think I'm more of a tea person though."

Before long, everyone was present either physically or via holo call an they begun their meeting.
"The good news is, as of last night, we have Bane in custody," Windu began. "The bad news is we still need to get him to talk. Ideas?"

"Keep in mind that while I got my three hours of sleep in, he's had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with Maul. It might work to our advantage," Ana pointed out.
"Maybe that actually might," Anakin spoke up. "Let's separate the two for a bit and question Bane.

And while we do that, Ana can speak to Maul about getting information from Bane on our behalf. It might work, and if not we can always return to the drawing board again."
"I like that idea, let's do it," Windu decided. "But before we try, let's hear when I can expect all of you back again."

"I'm headed to Ryloth to pick up the troop there, I won't be around for another few days," Depa was the first to give an update.
"I'll be back tomorrow if all goes well," Master Plo informed them.
"So will I," Aayla joined.

"I can probably be on the move within the next two days," Mundi spoke.
"I'm still waiting for the republic to send someone I can hand the clone training of to. Once that's done, I can be back within a few hours," Shaak Ti explained.
"I'll speak with Chancellor Organa about that," Windu promised before ending the meeting.

Afterwards, Ana dropped off her empty coffee mug in her quarters while Anakin, Windu and Drallig went to grab Bane from his cell for an interrogation. She took her time to ensure they would already be long out of the cell block when she arrived before heading down to talk to Maul.

"You're finally back I see," he greeted her. "And from what Bane told me, I owe you his company as well."
"Well, he's not here for your entertainment," Ana sighed.
"Indeed. He mentioned an incident on Mandalore."

"So he really was behind it," Ana said with relief in her voice.
"You arrested him on a whim?" Maul laughed.
"We arrested him based on evidence that was leading to him," she corrected him. "What else did he say?"

"Something about how he should done more research on the Jedi leading the operation on Mandalore beforehand. I think he underestimated you," Maul revealed.
"I need a favor," Ana began while Maul gave her an intrigued look. "Find out who hired him."

"And what do I get out of this?" Maul asked.
"Come on, just show us some good faith," Ana begged. "Show me some good faith."
Maul stared at her for a moment in contemplation. "Fine. I'll do this in good faith, as you call it."

"Thank you," Ana expressed her gratitude, deactivating the ray shields of Maul's cell and handing him a small commlink. "Just signal me once you have the information. But don't get any ideas, I specifically made sure this thing isn't powerful enough to blow out the ray shield."
"I wouldn't have expected anything less," Maul replied as he took the device.

Ana swiftly activated the ray shield again and bid him goodbye before leaving. She called the others who, as expected, had been unsuccessful with Bane so far. They proceeded to escort Bane back to his cell to try out their plan with Maul.

For the next few hours, Ana was helping out Windu with the flood of paperwork he had received concerning the relinquishment of the Jedi authority over the clone army. It turned out that throughout the war, quiet a few military ships and equipment had gotten mixed up with the Jedi which they would now have to locate within the Temple and return. For the ships this way easy enough since they were big, but Windu had to assign a whole squad of landing bay workers to locate the smaller equipment around the place.

When they were finally done with that, they went to meet Ahsoka and Anakin for lunch. They all caught up on what they had done throughout the morning and proceeded to make some smalltalk as they enjoyed their food. They has just handed back their food trays and were headed out of the door to the mess hall when Ana's commlink interrupted them.

She went to look at it in the speed of light, recognizing the caller ID to be the one from the commlink she had left Maul immediately
"Get the Council together. We're about to find out who Bane's employer is," she told her companions before hurrying off down the hallway.

Ana arrived in front of the cells only a few minutes later. The guards easily let her through and she entered the room. Bane had barely turned to look at her when Ana and Maul had already locked eyes.
"Zygerria and the Shadow Collective. They're working together on something. They're the ones who hired him."

"Why, you two faced excuse of a Sith Lord!" Bane raged at him. "You're just her pet. I knew I shouldn't have trusted you!"
Maul laughed in amusement while Ana just proceeded to ignore the bounty hunter. "Thanks. I'll drop by later. Right now, I need to deal with this."
And as quickly as she had entered the room, she was out of it again, heading towards the strategy room to share her newest information.