Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano was captured in the Coruscant underworld by Coruscant Guard shock troopers under the command of Jedi Master Plo Koon and Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. Prior to the capture, Tano was framed for bombing the Jedi Temple, murdering suspect Letta Turmond, and killing three clone troopers, by her fellow Padawan Barriss Offee. Looking to prove her innocence, she descended into the Underworld, pursued by Skywalker, Koon, their respective commanders, and multiple clone shock troopers.
While in the underworld, Tano teamed up with bounty hunter Asajj Ventress. Tano contacted Offee, oblivious to the fact she was the one framing Tano. Offee told her to find a clue in an abandoned munitions warehouse. There, the Mirialan attacked Tano, and left her beaten, where she was stunned and taken back to the surface for a trial. Ultimately, however, Skywalker uncovered Offee as the real perpetrator of the crimes alleged at Tano, and she was given a full pardon, though she chose not to rejoin the Jedi Order.
Tano escaped into the Coruscant underworld.
During the third and final year of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Clone Wars, the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was bombed, killing six Jedi, several clone troopers, and maintenance workers, and injuring many more. Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano, were called in to investigate, the Jedi High Council believing that them not being present when the bombing occurred would offer an impartial investigation.
In their investigation, Skywalker and Tano, assisted by crime scene analysis droid Russo-ISC, discovered the perpetrator of the bombing; Letta Turmond, who fed her husband, Jedi temple worker Jackar Bowmani, food covered in volatile nano-droids, that would explode when he was inside the temple. This was because she believed that the Jedi had become warmongers who killed when they should be keeping the peace. Turmond was arrested, and awaited trial in the Republic Center for Military Operations.
During her imprisonment, Turmond requested Tano's presence, and would speak to nobody apart from her. After her arrival, Turmond explained to Tano she was supplied the nano-droids, and shown how to make them into a weapon, by a Jedi accomplice who sided with her beliefs about the Order. Turmond claimed this fallen Jedi also set her up to take the fall for this conspiracy. However, before she could reveal the name of the Jedi, she was Force choked to death by an unseen individual. Unbeknownst to Tano, Turmond was secretly killed by her friend and fellow Jedi, Barriss Offee, who shared Turmond's radical views on the Jedi, and was framing Tano for Turmond's murder, and the hangar bombing, because Turmond was killed before she could give any information about the bombing to the Republic. The Coruscant Guards stationed at the center, led by Clone Commander Fox, arrested Tano, incorrectly interpreting the scenario as a murder on Tano's part.
After a brief stay in her cell, Tano found an access card that would allow her to leave her cell. Assuming it was her master who supplied her with the card, she used the Force to unlock her cell. Proceeding towards the exit, she found her lightsabers, her comlink, and multiple incapacitated clone troopers, clearing the way for her exit. In actuality, this was done not by her master, but again by Offee, further framing Tano for the hangar bombing. Before she could escape, however, she was spotted by Fox, who was joined by Skywalker and Captain Rex in pursuing Tano in what was to be a lengthy chase. Tano eventually escaped into the Coruscant Underworld. Consequently, the Council decided to send Skywalker and Jedi Master Plo Koon to recapture Tano.
Meanwhile, Tano, wanted by the Galactic Senate for a large fee, and after escaping numerous Coruscant Underworld Police units, was seized by former Sith assassin—turned—bounty hunter, Asajj Ventress. Ventress intended to hand Tano to the authorities to collect her bounty. However, the two struck an agreement; Ventress would help prove Tano's innocence, and in return, Tano would try to convince the Jedi and Senate to pardon Ventress for her war crimes.
Wolffe stunned Tano after finding her in a Level 1315 warehouse.
While descending into the underworld, Skywalker and his forces spotted Ventress and Tano, but the two were able to escape. Skywalker then ordered his clones to dispatch their probe droids, which would attempt to locate them.
Trying to prove her innocence, Tano contacted Offee via holobooth, oblivious to the fact it was in fact her who was framing Tano. Offee told Tano she could find a clue, which could be found in an Abandoned munitions warehouse on Level 1315. During their exchange, Tano and Ventress were spotted by a probe droid, which alerted Clone Commander Wolffe and several Coruscant guards temporarily under his control. They attempted to arrest the two women, but they overpowered Wolffe and the other clones. As the two made their escape, Wolffe, left battered on the floor, alerted Plo Koon of their failed arrest.
Upon arrival to the munitions warehouse, Tano and Ventress parted ways. Shortly after her departure, Ventress, caught by surprise, was attacked, and left reeling on the floor, by Offee, who then took her lightsabers and helmet.
While searching the warehouse for the mentioned clue, Offee met Tano in a heated duel. Tano assumed her foe was Ventress, due to her stolen lightsabers and helmet. Offee, intending to alert the authorities to the Togruta's presence, caused multiple explosions, slashing through a container with highly flammable content and using the Force to throw barrels and tubing at it. She hoped this would further frame Tano because the warehouse housed the same type of nano-droid that was used to bomb the Jedi Temple. Eventually, Offee overpowered Tano, and left. Beaten, Tano was stunned by Wolffe, arriving at the scene. She was then cuffed and brought back to Coruscant.
Ahsoka Tano walked away from the Jedi Order.
Following her capture, the Jedi Council decided to comply with the Senate's request to expel Tano from the Order, so she could be tried by a military court. Following a brief hearing, which Skywalker came to regard as "just a formality", Tano was stripped of her rank and status as a Jedi, and transferred to military custody.
While Tano was awaiting her trial, Skywalker, determined to prove his former padawan's innocence, searched for Ventress. They fought, but without her lightsabers, Ventress was soon bested. Ventress, while being interrogated, told Skywalker about her being ambushed, and said that only a Jedi could sneak up behind her in the way that happened to her. She also revealed the only other person Tano had contacted while on the run was Barriss Offee.
Arriving at Offee's quarters in the Jedi Temple, Skywalker, discovering Offee in possession of Ventress' stolen lightsabers, dueled her, and won. She was brought to Tano's trial, and confessed to all crimes allegedly committed by her fellow padawan.
Tano was offered a full pardon by the Jedi Council, and asked to rejoin the Order. However, her faith in the Jedi shaken by their refusal to stand by her, Tano chose not to accept, and instead left to seek her own path.
The capture of Ahsoka Tano was first shown in Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series episode "To Catch a Jedi." While the duel between Tano and Offee was first shown in that episode, it was only revealed to be Offee later, in the episode "The Wrong Jedi."
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