Disclaimer: All rights belong to the Star Wars franchise which belongs to Disney. Obviously, I do not own any characters, except for my own OC's, and I intend to keep it that way.

Author's Note: Hey, so this is my first attempt at writing Fanfiction like this in my life on such a large scale. I appreciate that you would take the time to read this and please, give me any feedback on this first chapter, as well as any suggestions for future chapters. Also, special thanks to SpeedMasterDash for convincing me to write this, if you have the time you should check out his own Fanfiction. Cheers!

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

STAR WARS

The Jewel Before the Jedi

An epoch of peace has been cast aside, burned to a crisp by the new one ushered in.

The Galaxy is tearing itself apart in its war of domination between the Galactic Republic and the Separatist Alliance. Meanwhile, the members of the Ancient Jedi Order remain brave and vigilant as they are stretched thin across far-flung worlds with death-defying battles.

However, the newest revelation that has caught the attention of the Jedi Council happens to be very close to their home on Coruscant. Once again they have assembled to discuss a matter of very dangerous import.

Unbeknownst to a certain Jedi Master, destiny is about to intervene and plot a course for a grand adventure...

Episode 1: "It's A Matter of Respect."

He was minding his own business, as usual. His quarters seemed to be the only good place left to practice some worthwhile meditation, everywhere else was too noisy and full of discord. He sat cross-legged, as he was taught since he was a small boy, on the floormat, thinking vigorously. Finally, he thought, he could find the opportunity to reach into his own mind once again.

If there wasn't a beeping sound coming from his wrist communicator, that is. He grunted furiously as he realized that there was really no escape from his fellow Jedi, not anymore. He reached over with his hand and pre sed down on the communicator.

"Yes, what is it?" He asked, clearly annoyed by the interruption.

"Your presence is requested by the Council, it is of the utmost importance." A stern voice replied.

"Oh, why of course Master Windu, it always is. Fine, I'll be there shortly." He got up, and threw over himself his brown cloak and neatly straightened it out before walking out of the door.

With that, Quinlan Vos started his trek to the Jedi Council chambers. As he walked through the maze of hallways towards the spire elevator, he silently cursed as he visualized the agonizing boredom that would soon envelop him once he reached his destination. Whatever the twelve esteemed and sometimes arrogant members of the council wanted with him was likely important, but that didn't make the prospect of another meeting feel any more appealing to the Kiffar Jedi.

Along the way, he walked through one of the larger hallways that bordered the edge of the Jedi Temple. As such, there were massive windows that let a very generous amount of light inside. Quinlan gave a very small gasp of satisfaction as the rays of light hit his Tan skin. He always found this sensation to be strange, but admittedly in a very welcoming way. It took Quinlan a moment to realize that the halls of the temple were quiet today, just like they had for some time now. There were far less Jedi in the temple these days with the war with the Separatists going on, and that meant there was very little else in the way of sensory note but the feeling of the sunlight.

He passed through a set of automatic doors and into the elevator that leads to the Jedi Council chambers. There were no floors between the spire and the base of the temple, so all Quinlan had to do was press a single button that activated the lift. As he rose, Quinlan took a meaningful glance through the outside window. The beautiful high rise buildings in view his view towered several kilometers over the planet's surface. Surrounded on all sides by a constant flow of airborne traffic that gave the scene a mesmerizing feeling to look at. It would have been a perfect and beautiful sight, but not to him. That same light also gave way to massive shadows that blended into the background of the structures, and Quinlan knew all too well of the less-than-beautiful things that happened under that veil of darkness. To him, it was like a physical manifestation of the Dark Side, taunting the Jedi and its Light, daring it to come forth and try to snuff it out. He thought of this idea in his head before he was interrupted by a beeping sound from the elevator, he had reached the summit of the spire.

He was about to walk inside the council chambers when he stopped and felt something, off; it was like the Force was telling him that something was not as it should be. For some reason, the Council seemed to be in discord, when it was usually exhuming a sense of tranquility. Even in previous times of crisis before the Clone Wars commenced, like Naboo, or the Stark-Hyperspace war, they did not buckle under pressure.. Now, that was all gone. Quinlan was slightly worried by this feeling, but he bottled it up and dismissed it as he walked inside.

There was not an energetic greeting from any of the Jedi Councillors, unfortunately. As expected, all twelve members of the council were present in one form or another, but their physical expressions seemed to verify Quinlan's worries. Masters Adi Gallia and Ki Adi Mundi sat gravely with arms crossed, Master Kit Fisto was sitting without his signature smile, and Master Eeth Koth gave Quinlan a cold face as he entered the chambers; well, Quinlan seemed to think Eeth Koth was just like that to everyone. Yoda and Mace Windu sat next to each other seeming perplexed, both Jedi Masters looking out of touch with reality as they were clearly deep in thought. The only person who didn't seem to be phased nearly as much as the others were his old friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi, who still seemed to maintain his aura of charisma, though he too seemed to be troubled by something.

It's unusually grim, even for the council. Quinlan thought to himself. He walked into the middle of the room, his cloak gliding effortlessly against the smooth floor. As expected his fellow Jedi now began to take notice of him. He stopped at the very center of the room, and now all eyes were on him. Now, he realized that the time was right to make a good first impression as he always did. He smiled as he gave his formal bow to the council before speaking.

"Well, I'm flattered that all of you were so insistent on seeing me again, but did you really have to summon me here just to tell me to another lost lightsaber?"Quinlan jokingly asked.

Obi-Wan struggled to hide the grin on his face as his friend spoke, but that was about the extent of the Council's appreciation for Quinlan's jest. The Kiffar Jedi himself was unsurprised to see that not a single councilor besides Kenobi changed their expression in the slightest, and a few of them even had the audacity to ignore him, as if on cue. However, it wasn't the council unrefined taste that annoyed him the most, but worse still was seeing that Mace Windu was once again staring him down again like he always did. It was specifically Windu that got to Quinlan, as he used such a stoic and emotionless face which, Quinlan jokingly thought, could be sustained even if Mace got his hand sliced off or was shot in the chest. He himself gave a mental note to not try that joke again, he knew that the council was a tough crowd at times, but this was ridiculous!

Quinlan's eye then fell on the hologram of Master Shaak Ti, the Torgruta sitting straight-backed as she always did with her hands in her lap, a look of absolute composure accompanied by her natural beauty. Quinlan knew very well from experience that she greatly disapproved of his theatrical entrances, yet all of her disappointed-looking stares, rolled eyes, and sometimes even snarls that she would express to Quinlan unknowingly encouraged the act. He has even made it an unspoken tradition to look over at the woman, curious about the response that she would give each time he was summoned by the Jedi Council.

"Master Vos, I think you will need to first find your sense of humor before anything else." Shaak Ti replied with the faintest hint of satisfaction in her calm voice. Quinlan raised an eyebrow at that remark, doing his best to hide his irritation before the Torgruta continued. "Now, if you are finished, then we can get along with why we actually summoned you here."

It was then that Yoda began to speak. "Yes, an important matter for why we summoned you, Master Vos. Disturbing, our situation is. Yes, very disturbing indeed."

Quinlan was unsure where this was going. He knew whatever task he was going to be given was going to include the Coruscant underworld. From his experience, he knew that the Underworld was a haven for bandits, cutthroats, and thieves, and general low lives, as he'd seen them, and sometimes killed them beforehand too many times. But this time, perhaps due to the unusual seriousness of the council, he was thinking that whatever was happening surely went beyond a simple murder or pickpocket. Although in the back of his mind, Quinlan always thought the council liked giving him rather underwhelming assignments in the past, such as the one time he was tasked to training a group of troublesome Younglings in a lesson on self-restraint; He made his apprentice do that one for him since he felt that teaching them himself would be far too ironic.

"Disturbing is right", Master Ki Adi spoke up. "A few days ago, we received information of an attack on a Republic frigate en route to Coruscant from Kamino carrying a very special item of interest. The ship was destroyed, but we have a solid feeling that the item in question was stolen beforehand."

"That's it, piracy?" Quinlan interrupted, "Come on, you didn't seriously summon me just to tell me that, did you?"

Master Ki Adi dismissed his fellow Master's lack of patience, not that it surprised him, however. "Well, I wish we could, but there's more, unfortunately. You see, one of our underground informants recently gave a report with a description of an unusual item floating around with a matching description of the item on the attacked frigate. Given the timing of the report and the details it entailed, we can only conclude that this mystery object is the same one from the frigate."

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are we talking about with this special item? Is it some kind of weapon?" Quinlan inquired.

"Yes, it is indeed a weapon." Shaak Ti said. "It was developed on Kamino as you would imagine, and I personally saw it loaded onto the frigate before it left for Coruscant. One of the lead project scientists, Director Jing Sai, told me that was an experimental ion disruptor, a handheld weapon with such power that it could eliminate starfighters, vehicles, and most disturbingly, living organisms with an effectiveness far greater than anything we already use currently." She paused, then showing a face full of serious concern, "Whoever took this weapon likely doesn't have the ingenuity to use it personally, and more likely they plan on selling it to the highest bidder. I do not think I have to tell you who that is going to be."

"General Grievous, of course", Quinlan finished for her.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," She replied.

Windu who was keeping silent for the last few minutes now eased his stoic posture and now spoke to Master Vos.

"This is why we summoned you here today. With what we know of this device from Master Ti's description, we cannot allow the Separatists to get ahold of this device at any cost, the Force only knows what would happen if they had the idea of mass producing it for their Droid Army. You are the only Jedi we can spare with the war now in full swing, and we have unanimously come to the agreement that you are the one best suited for this task, especially since we all know too well about your exploits regarding the criminal underworld."

Quinlan's face slowly grew into a smile as Master Windu spoke. He wasn't even listening to him near the end, already aware of how far his reputation reached throughout the Order, but his inflated ego was disrupted when he was then asked the following question:

"Your task is simple: You must track down this device and return it to us before the separatists or anyone else do, and arrest anyone you find involved with its trafficking. Now, keep in mind that if you are unsuccessful, then this entire war may take a turn for the worse, and the Jedi will certainly pay a grave price. Ultimately, we trust you to get this done without an incident. Are you willing to accomplish this task for the Council?" Windu asked slowly.

There was a pause in the noise penetrating the council chambers. For the briefest moment, there was nothing but complete silence from any Jedi, Quinlan most of all. He stood there motionless, before putting a smile on his face.

"Yeah, I can do it, between potentially getting run through by a cyborg with an insatiable bloodlust for Jedi, and getting captured and tortured by cold-hearted pirates, it's nothing I can't handle, really. Although, even I can't get anywhere without a place to start from."

Obi-Wan gave Quinlan a slight chuckle as he stood up from his seat, "We appreciate your enthusiasm, Master Vos. Now, if you would give me a moment." Obi-Wan said. He took out a small holo-projector that he was concealing within his brown cloak. Upon activating it, it levitated in between Quinlan and Kenobi, but with enough distance between them for the other Jedi in the room to see as well. It then emitted a large, blue, 3-D projection of Coruscant, which quickly zoomed into a specific planetary quadrant from an isometric view. Then the first layer that was visible from the surface was stripped away, revealing the levels below that constituted what was commonly known as the underworld, and then zooming further down through individual levels. Quinlan, being acquainted with many new technologies these days, was nonetheless impressed to see such detailed topography on such a simple device.

The projector then stopped zooming at a specific level, the perspective changing from isometric to a top-down one that looked at that single level, it divided the area between evenly sized squares that Quinlan knew represented the alphanumerically labeled sectors that made up that level. Kenobi then pointed to a specific area on the plane. "In that case, you can start here. Level 1356, around here you will meet with informant Master Mundi mentioned earlier. She's a special someone with a code name of 'Sapphire'; you'll understand her name quite easily once you see her. You two will hopefully proceed to come up with a plan to retrieve the device in question, in one piece mind you."

"Of course, one piece." To Quinlan's slight dismay, Kenobi was mildly referencing a similar mission eight weeks ago where Vos was tasked to retrieve a missing starfighter with valuable information stored on the ship's data drive. Suffice it to say the drive was the only thing he brought back with him, not that it made much of a difference to the council. Vos then caught onto something else. "So, it's a woman? Well, I suppose there is light at the end of this tunnel after all."

"Don't get ahead of yourself Quinlan, you don't even know what she looks like yet!" Obi-Wan said with a hint of glee. He knew very well how his counterpart had a reputation to mingle with women with "great personalities" during a mission or two, as Vos would put it, but Kenobi decided to spare his old friend the embarrassment while in front of the council. "Don't worry about that, you'll know her when you see her. And from what I've heard, she knows how to make quite a first impression."

"I'll be the judge of that, Kenobi," Quinlan smirked. "Alright, when do I head out?" Quinlan asked.

"We already had a feeling that you would take up this mission even before you arrived, you've never let us down before, after all. Therefore we have already informed our agent that you will be coming. You're free to depart whenever you are ready, but try not to take up too much time, time is of the essence in this case." Kenobi said.

"Good point," Quinlan said approvingly. "Well, I guess I better get going then. After all, Kenobi, you mentioned that I had an "appointment" with this mystery woman of ours".

"Indeed, being late on your first date is definitely the last thing you would want to do!" Kenobi said, clearly enjoying the casual banter he had in front of high council, ignoring the subconscious demands from his peers to stop at once.

"Oh, and Quinlan?" Kenobi asked, just as Vos was beginning to walk out of the chambers. "Be careful, I know far too well how stubbornly confident you are, but please double your efforts to preserve your skin this time, trust me. May the Force be with you".

"And you too, Obi-Wan". Vos bowed again, then strode out of the council chambers.

Obi-Wan retrieved his holoprojector from the floor, using the Force to deactivate it as it was being pulled toward his extended hand, and then sat down. He was most satisfied that Quinlan had eagerly accepted this important assignment, but something was still eking in his mind, and he quickly realized that his fellow councilmembers were feeling the same way.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Master Kit Fisto was the one to speak, his voice low and methodical... He made a brief shuffle in his seat before speaking up to his fellow Jedi. "Granted, I'm not saying that anyone else could do it better than Vos, but I sense that something is still not as is should be."

Shaak Ti gave her own insight. "Well, as usual, he doesn't seem to be too fazed with any of the risks we mention to him. Even so, are you sure it was the wisest decision to assign him this mission alone?"

"Oh heavens no, Master Ti," Obi-Wan replied, "you don't know him like I do. You see, it's the added risk in these types of missions that actually motivates him to work alone without the risk of "extra weight" to burden his unorthodox plans. Besides, I think that this agent of ours will do just fine."

Master Eeth Koth and his cold face spoke up, not wanting Kenobi and his natural charisma to dominate the conversation. "I would wager that Master Ti's description is an understatement. I think that Master Vos' overtly defiant nature, and honestly, his disdain for regulations will eventually get the better of him, and I don't think any agent is going to keep him for succumbing to his own arrogance."

Yoda spoke up again. His own word instantly gaining the attention of everyone in the room, such as the respect other had of him. "Remember Master Koth, always in motion, the future is. With Master Vos, hard to tell what is to come for him. Hmm, a road with many paths we have approached, but trust in the Force, I do. Powerful, it is, and intervene, no doubt it will."

Kenobi nodded in agreement with Yoda's wisdom. "Yes, well I just hope the Force is powerful enough to anticipate whatever crazy ideas Quinlan will come up with. He seems to revel in trying to put us on edge with his sort of recklessness, being the brash maverick he is. But what am I saying? Perhaps for once, his recklessness will prove useful to him, but only time will tell."

Quinlan walked out of the council chambers and back into the elevator, activating the button to return to ground level. On the way down, he was silently thinking about his new schedule, if all went according to plan, of course. The council's new task for him wasn't anything out of the ordinary, only this instance had raised the stakes significantly compared his previous missions. Then again, danger always seemed to have a surefire way of reaching Quinlan no matter the odds. Finally, he remarked to himself, in the way that only a real egotistic would remark.

"Great, another errand for the council, at least they had enough respect to ask me politely." He smiled at that.