Lost and Longing.

Aayla shook her head, arguing with Harry in the hope of him seeing her point of view was going to be hard. With Ahsoka, who she thought might be an erstwhile ally against her as well, her job just got exponentially harder. "They didn't have a choice with you. The Chancellor and the Senate took a stand that they needed you, as their main suspect, to face a trial."

"So the Jedi Order just expelled me so that I could be put on trial?!" Ahsoka shot back, her tone heated and defiant.

"They had no choice!" Aayla responded defensively, "The Senate and Military can't put a member of the Jedi Order on trial."

"So the Jedi, with the exception of my Master, the Order just abandoned me!" Ahsoka spat.

"What were they supposed to do?" Aayla demanded. "They were trapped between transparisteel and a corusca gem."

"How so?" Harry asked smoothly, genuine curiosity filling his tone.

"They had to turn Ahsoka over for trial," Aayla said, slumping slightly as defeat entered her tone. She was having to defend actions she herself believed were almost indefensible. "The only other option was to defy the Chancellor and the Senate."

"So why didn't they?" Harry asked. "From my understanding your Senate doesn't control the Order." "That's true." The blue Twi'lek replied, before her shoulders slumped completely, "But this war... it's changing things. There is a large sentiment out there that the Jedi are part of the reason it's gone on so long. From our relative inaction at the start, to the ongoing confrontations since then. Count Dooku as a leader of the Separatists as a former Jedi. The Jedi are also blamed for the Sith that we have made no secret of hunting for."

"The general public doesn't differentiate," Ahsoka added, surprising Aayla as she at least supported her in part. "They don't see that there are differences between the Sith and the Jedi."

"Of course not," Harry agreed easily. "To a casual observer it seems to be two sides of the same coin, that can only sometimes be told apart by the color of their swords. Otherwise to Joe Public, they're the same thing, weird powers, and a lot of rumor and speculation surrounding the mysticism. So they don't see the difference."

Aayla nodded, pleased that at least some of what she said wouldn't require convincing Harry. "The Council is in a very precarious position with public opinion. Truthfully it's only the public profile of some of the heroes, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and yes, before this trial and tragedy Ahsoka was definitely a high profile war hero as well. That has kept the public mostly quiet. That could easily change." She trailed off as Harry's eyes had narrowed while she spoke.

He turned to look at Ahsoka for several long seconds. His expression unreadable before it turned speculative, "Clever bastard..." he murmured. Ahsoka looked confused, though the focus of his expression wasn't on her, rather he seemed to be figuring something out. "What? Who is clever?"

"I'm not sure," Harry admitted. "But whoever it is seems like they might be able to school my old headmaster at the whole manipulation thing."

"Huh?" Aayla said eloquently at the sudden change in topics, her equilibrium once more thrown off.

"Well, if I were paranoid, or a betting man, I would say that was perfectly set up," Harry said. "The Jedi Order, either turns Ahsoka over, or they face a public backlash for protecting one of their own." Aayla nodded, "That's what I just said. It falls in with our suspicions that the Dark Lord we're searching for is close to the Senate and has a number of them under his control."

"But you didn't go deep enough," Harry shook his head in reply, and chuckled. "I didn't even think about it. Whoever may be doing this was probably playing a longer game. So they banked on the Order doing what was easy instead of what was right. But even if they didn't, they got what they wanted. Ahsoka put on trial. The public loves their heroes. They love even more to see those heroes torn down."

"That's a rather cynical viewpoint," Aayla interjected "Perhaps, but it's true. Eventually the public comes to resent heroes. Because they don't see the struggle, the pain, or the tragedy heroes have to deal with. Usually that isn't shown. Instead, sooner or later they are a constant reminder to public of someone they could have been, or someone who is better than them," Harry replied, his voice even and clinical.

"Of course, there's one thing the public loves even more than seeing a hero brought down, is to see for themselves a hero overcome the odds stacked against them and triumph. Even if the public is part of those odds against them," Harry said and twitched slightly in annoyance.

A trace of grudging admiration entered his voice. "Assuming it wasn't just one giant coincidence, whoever set that up couldn't lose. The Chancellor and Senate end up with eggs on their face. The Jedi end up with eggs on their face and the only person or persons who come out of this looking good are Anakin and Ahsoka."

"Who in the galaxy could manipulate things like that?" Ahsoka asked.

"I don't know," Harry replied with a shrug after a thoughtful pause.

Aayla's voice was quiet, though there was no mistaking the fact that she was disturbed. "If you are right, it's just more proof the Jedi have to find the Dark Lord."

"If the Jedi are smart they are looking hard at all the connections to any of the main players in that whole drama, Ahsoka, her master, the masters who pushed for expulsion, the senate members that pushed for trial, the military officers who did the same. While none of the may be this so called Dark Lord, some of them are certainly puppets. The question becomes where do the strings lay and who is pulling them?"

"If they are looking close, then you shouldn't be surprised that they are investigating you," Aayla replied.

"I'm not, I told Ahsoka you'd be coming, but I figured it was more about pride, given the fact that I publicly spanked those two Jedi, than it was part of a grander scheme." Harry shook his head, "We've gone way off track. Despite all of that, it doesn't excuse screwing over Ahsoka and then essentially pardoning the real guilty party." "As I said, the Council was merciful and gave her a second chance under strict observation by her former Master," Aayla replied.

"Mercy to the guilty can be treason to the innocent," Harry said with finality as he gestured at Ahsoka. "The traitor had her second chance and third and fourth as Ahsoka was set up more and more for murder."

Aayla nodded a little bit, "You heard me just say that I don't entirely disagree with you."

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