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The Grand Inquisitor never denied the origins of their organization. For him, it started when he was a young knight. During an assignment, he encountered a vein of darkness. He was a creature of logic, and he found the Jedi Master’s dismissal of his desire to learn infuriating. The Chief Librarian’s determination to keep him from the knowledge held in the Archives only deepened his fury into hatred. Their determination to withhold information from their own members was more than just repressive. Seeds of doubt blossomed in his heart with the trial and near-execution of the Jedi Padawan Tano and the testimony of Padawan Offee. While he continued to wear the mask and bear the golden arms as a Temple Guard, he waited and planned. He was stationed on an upper level when he felt the darkness in the Force explode. He watched dispassionately as the clones marched towards the temple, blue and white flashing beneath the setting sun. Other Temple Guards stepped forward, lightsabers glowing golden in the dying light before drowning in a sea of blue plasma. He should join his brethren to assist the flight of others and just die so that others might live. No, he was finished with playing the role of a faceless protector, forgotten by the majority. He cast off his robes and masks before slipping into the shadows and hidden passages.
And yet, those pesky clones found him. He took down quite a few, not noticing that the blue plasma soared towards him like rings and not arrows. He awoke in the presence of the Dark Sith Lord Sidious, now Emperor of the Galactic Empire.
“Very good,” Darth Sidious chuckled. He signaled his apprentice, and Darth Vader bowed slightly before leaving. “Rise, Grand Inquisitor.”
When he rose, Darth Sidious spoke again, “I know who you were once. I know of your long-held desire for knowledge and your hatred towards the Jedi for their constraints. There is nothing stopping you from acquiring the truth you seek.” Then he was dismissed.
That proved to be the start of his delicate relationship with Darth Vader, whose short, yet brutal training sessions often left recruits short of a limb. Still, the young Darth Lord gave him some measure of respect, thus winning his own trust. (They usually dueled at least once whenever they crossed paths, and the Grand Inquisitor never lost a limb.) Eventually, the Grand Inquisitor gained greater control over the training and recruitment of the acolytes, all of whom were once Jedi. (But not all Jedi were skilled duelists, but nothing a little training could amend.) The acolytes grew in skill under his guidance.
Within a year of the initiation of the Inquisitor program, the number of surviving Jedi had dwindled considerably. None of the acolytes perished despite some severe injuries among the lesser-skilled. Until the Sixth Brother failed to return from Raada after reports of a togruta Jedi. With his mission complete, he set off to Raada with another acolyte, only to find this backwater moon to be mostly abandoned. He found the remains of the Sixth Brother in the smoldering ashes of a field. The acolyte later brought him the rounded hilt of their signature lightsabers. The crystals were missing. He listened to the acolyte’s report with interest. It was a disappointing, yet fascinating turn of events. And one that would likely anger Darth Vader.
He turned to one of the brothers with him and said cooly, “Set a course back to base, and inform Lord Vader that we have found evidence of another survivor.” He, himself, had other affairs to attend to.
The next four years were blissfully quiet about a particular togruta survivor. Even without special assignments from Darth Vader, the Grand Inquisitor and the Inquisitorius were well occupied. The remaining Jedi were not only hidden in some overlooked or unheard corner of the known galaxy, but they also managed to mute their presence in the Force. The Grand Inquisitor was patient, however. The Jedi will let their guard down and start getting ahead of themselves, and the Inquisitorius will be ready for them.
As expected, a rag tag group of Jedi finally exposed themselves, and the Grand Inquisitor assigned the Second and Ninth Sisters to eliminate the group. When the Second Sister failed, the Fifth Brother was assigned to support the Ninth Sister when not following leads to the Shroud.
During one such debriefing of another dead-end lead on the Shroud, the Fifth Brother noted that he found a message on a holodisk. Do you want to play a game? It was signed with a set of wing-like markings, leading them to call this perpetuator the ‘winged ghost’. The Jedi had long been the target of the unofficial hide-and-seek game against the Inquisitorius. For them, it was a game. A game they played climb the ranks and curry favor with Darth Vader and even Emperor Sidious. This message turned the game against them now.
The Inquisitors continued to receive information of potential Jedi sightings. They continued to locate the individual. Yet, by the time they arrived, their target had disappeared. Not only did Jedi disappear off their radar, but Force-sensitive younglings also disappeared. In their place was a note from the winged ghost that their target now walked the sky. Whoever wrested control of their game was a force to be reckoned with.
~0~(A few years later)~0~
The Grand Inquisitor felt a massive headache approaching as he sorted through a mountain of paperwork. Over the last several months, the Inquisitorius suffered several setbacks. Firstly, there was the failures of the Second and Ninth Sister with a rag-tag bunch of Jedi. There was also a particular Rebel group that appeared to have a Jedi in their midst, which then meant he had to collaborate with the IBS. And finally, there was the disappearance of other Jedi targets and foiling of highly confidential missions by the winged ghost. As if that was not enough, he was still sorting out the whole Kenobi issue. It did not help that Darth Vader decided to accompany him for the foreseeable future.
The commlink on the holotable blinked and beeped furiously. He answered immediately, for delay might mean a trip to the medical bay. (Darth Vader may have not taken out a limb, but he was partial to making the Grand Inquisitor choke on his words). It was an order to go to the war room. He entered to find Darth Vader waiting for him.
“I received a report of a sighting of one certain Togruta female,” the Sith Lord began. “The inquisitors made mention of a ‘winged ghost’, and perhaps you could clarify?”
The Grand Inquisitor pulled up the file. In the last four years, that individual managed to foil a significant number of missions. And every time, the person had the gall to leave behind their mark. More recently, the winged ghost left an image of a cloaked and hooded figure. Only those white wing-like markings showed along with the individual’s smirking mouth. The encrypted voice said, “Catch me if you can.” There was an echo of laughter in the tone. (They ran the image and audio through so many de-encryption means, and they still found nothing.) The Grand Inquisitor said, “I am currently under the assumption that this particular individual is actually group. I believe it is currently unaffiliated with this Rebel alliance that has sprung up.”
His only response was that of a respirator. Then at last, Darth Vader spoke, “That may be so, but I recognize these markings.” A few taps and a picture of a padawan appeared. To be more precise, Padawan Ahsoka Tano. The Sith Lord gestured towards the female’s cheekbones.
The Grand Inquisitor then saw that match. He mentally added another the task of editing the ‘winged ghost’ file to his long to-do list. He carefully commented, “I will put the inquisitors on high alert.”
“Forward all reported sightings to me,” Darth Vader commanded. “I will personally oversee this case.”
The Grand Inquisitor nodded slightly with a furrowed brow and unsettled frown. He could not risk the ire of the Sith Lord after the whole Kenobi debacle, but Ahsoka Tano was likely as delicate a matter as Kenobi.
“Ahsoka Tano was trained by an extremist,” Darth Vader said matter-of-factly, responding to the Grand Inquisitor’s obvious doubt. “Even if she had been inactive in the last few years, she would be highly lethal.” With that, the Sith Lord departed, leaving the Grand Inquisitor to finish a mountain of work with a throbbing headache.
The Sith Lord received a direct transmission from one of the inquisitors. He answered with a slight tilt of his head, “I take that you have encountered Ahsoka Tano?”
The inquisitor glanced nervously around him, before saying, “Yes, Lord Vader. I attempted to detain Tano.”
“Attempted,” he murmured, his tone taking on a dangerous glint. “I will debrief you myself, in-person.”
A few hours later, the inquisitor was brought to the Executor. The Sith Lord wasted no time in forcing the inquisitor into the interrogation room. Within a few short moments, the inquisitor found himself bound to the stand with nothing but the emptiness of his master’s helmet peering at him.
The Sith Lord delved into the inquisitor’s memories, brushing off the inquisitor's shoddy defenses as if was a speck of dust.
The red glow of the inquisitor’s lightsaber moaned to life. In the flickering streetlight of some back alley in some junky town stood a Togruta. Distinctive white markings nearly glowed against orange skin, as did the white in her head tails. Her clothing appeared nearly like what she wore to Mandalore – sleeveless tunic, traditional sash, and leggings. In addition to the typical shin guards, knee pads, gauntlets, and vambraces, she also wore a breastplate. If she added a few more pieces, she might as well have been kitted out in full Mandalorian armor. Curved hilts of two lightsabers rested on her belt. The handles were white with silver diamonds and golden lines.
“Lord Vader will be pleased by your capture,” the inquisitor chuckled darkly.
The Togruta merely smirked, “You can try.” She did not draw her sabers even as the inquisitor attacked with a ferocious snarl. Instead, she danced around the inquisitor. Clearly toyed with inquisitor, but the inquisitor was not experienced enough to realize that fact. Finally she reached out, pushing the inquisitor back. The inquisitor’s lightsaber retracted suddenly and the scene darkened significantly.
Her voice echoed, her voice slightly disappointed, “That’s all you got?” Then there was nothing more.
He exited the inquisitor’s mind, not even bothering to repair the mess he made. Well, he did enough to keep the inquisitor from going insane since the Empire still had need of the Inquisitorius. He left the inquisitor and headed straight to his quarters.
After removing most of his suit, he knelt on the mat in his reflection room. He should be angry, furious beyond imagination. That he was left to live a living death. The sorrow he first felt had burned away, leaving nothing but cold, calculated fury against the now and the future. And yet, this news, this turn of events did not bring him the same burning hatred that he held against his old master. It did not bring sorrow of what was.
In the past, no one challenged him to such a unique degree like Ahsoka Tano. In the present, no one challenged him now. Not even the Grand Inquisitor could match his skills. He even grew so bored that he ordered Tarkin to hunt him down. But now, he was the hunter. He smiled slightly. From what little he gleaned from the inquisitor’s mind, Ahsoka Tano must have continued her training, for she was brazenly confident. He, himself, had continued training, but he had something she did not have. A suit that was both a weakness and a strength. The weight of the armor not only made him physically stronger, but in his early days as the apprentice, it strengthened his grief-born anger. His…reunion with Kenobi proved its weakness. Altering the suit would also be a challenge. The Emperor was not weak, despite his age, and the still young apprentice knew it. Regardless, the Sith Lord could not allow Ahsoka Tano to defeat her former master.