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Ahsoka grunted and set down her book to stretch out her arms. How long had she been sitting here again? Four, five hours?
Ugh, research projects were so boring. She was hungry, and tired, and she'd been staring at the same five pages for the last half an hour because no matter how she tried, she couldn't make herself care about historical Troydarian farming methods.
Footsteps sounded on the other side of the stacks and Ahsoka frowned, lowering her arms. That was weird. No Jedi walked that loudly. She got to her feet slowly, silently slipping out from around the desk and creeping up to the shelves. Peeking through, she could just about see red fabric and white hair. She recognized both- but what was the Chancellor doing here?
He must be lost again- was he really okay to be running the Republic right now? Other Jedi had reported finding him wandering around in various places, confused as to how he got there. Maybe his memory was starting to go along with his sense of direction.
She should help him leave before Master Nu sniffed him out. She wouldn't be nearly so nice.
"Excuse me, sir?" Ahsoka called, loud enough for him to hear but quiet enough to hopefully not disturb the library too much. The Chancellor turned around, looking confused.
"Oh. Hello, er-"
He forgot her name again. "Ahsoka, sir. Do you know where you are?"
Palpatine smiled, like she was some tiny little child. "You're Anakin's Padawan, aren't you? Maybe you can help me- I'm looking for a book he recommended to me, but I can't seem to figure out where it's kept. I think he said it's in the section in the back? I can't tell all these stacks apart."
Ahsoka frowned. The back section? That's where the restricted-access books were. And Master Nu didn't even let Anakin back there, he wasn't ready yet. "Umm, I'm not sure, I'd have to ask Master Nu to look."
"Oh, there's no need to bother her." the Chancellor smiled, weirdly wide. "I'll just take a quick look around and see if I spot it." He reached out to grip Ahsoka's arm, just above the elbow. She tried not to physically recoil at how gross his old man skin felt.
"Sir, really, Master Nu needs to be present for-"
"Just show me where to go, okay?" Both Palpatine's smile and his grip tightened; Ahsoka stomped on his foot and darted away as soon as his hand loosened. "Get back here, you little brat!" Palpatine shouted. Ahsoka skidded around a corner, knocking into a table covered in flimsi sheets and sending half of them to the floor before she righted herself and kept running.
"Master Nu!" she yelled. "Master Nu, help!"
The Force panged- Ahsoka jumped to the right just as a blast of crackling energy hit the floor where she'd been standing moments before. "What the kriff??" she shrieked. Was that lightning?!
Palpatine advanced, holding his fingers in a weird semi-relaxed splayed position that made it look like he was about to start very badly playing the spiano. "Last chance. Tell me how to get into the vault or I'll-" he cut off in the middle of the sentence as his head snapped forwards. Ahsoka watched in confused terror as he swayed once, and toppled over to the side, unmoving. Master Nu stood about 50 feet behind him, arm outraised and a look of sheer determination on her face. Ahsoka picked herself up off the floor carefully so as not to tear any of the flimsi she'd landed on, and crouched to pick up the book Master Nu had thrown. Master Nu joined her, pressing two wizened fingers to the Chancellor's neck.
"Master Nu?" Ahsoka asked.
"Yes?"
"Did you- um. Did you knock out the Chancellor of the Republic with a book on Gungan architecture?"
"No." said Master Nu evenly. She lifted her fingers from Palpatine's throat. "I killed the Chancellor of the Republic with a book on Gungan architecture."
"Oh Force, Anakin's gonna kill me."
"Considering the Chancellor was apparently an undisclosed Force user who attacked a Padawan attempting to stop him from gaining access to restricted information within an area of the Temple he should not have been in anyway, I think your Master will have other things to worry about."
"...Yeah you're probably right."
"Well then," Master Nu proclaimed, pushing herself to her feet with a grunt, "on to more pressing matters."
What could be more pressing than a very important dead body on the floor? Ahsoka didn't dare ask. Not after that shot.
"Start picking up flimsi, child. This is going to take hours to reorganize. I mean really, who uses Force lightning in a library?! I'll have to check every data-book along its path to make sure they haven't been damaged- trust that idiot Palpatine to take ten seconds to create a week's work."
Ahsoka nodded, and started getting to work.
This was so going in her summer-recap report.