Chapter 1

Derelict:


"Hmm, I don't like the look of it." Kanan's words matched her own ominous feelings as she stared intently at the the massive side port of the derelict ship, it appeared to be unpowered... It also appeared to have been there for some time, years perhaps.

The ship was shaped like a typical star destroyer but oddly enough it had more volume, lacking the relatively slim dimensions of the other war ships of the Imperial fleet. The ships nose was also different, it was flattened yet it looked just as imposing as before, windows raced along the edge of the ships bow. It's engines also were quite atypical for a Star Destroyer, it had twelve thrusters rather than seven, all of the thrusters were massive as opposed to just having three large thrusters.

"Odd looking ship..." Kanan's words hung in the air, her silence was assent to his observations.

"You ever see a ship like this Fulcrum?" His teasing manner was not returned, Ahsoka liked Kanan a lot but the ship was drawing all her focus, she concentrated searching her memories as she tried to recall if she had ever seen a ship that matched the layout of this derelict vessel.

"Why do you think it's here of all places?" Ahsoka said in a low maidenly voice, her hand lowered as she subconsciously gripped one of her Lightsabers.

Kana's hand reached out gripping her left fingers that were enclosed around the blade, he seemed to be slightly unpracticed at such gestures... Though it wasn't as if he had many opportunities for practice...

Kanan breathed out slowly, he moved his hand from hers and used it as a rest for his chin as contemplated the mystery that they stumbled upon... These diversions unforeseen diversions were becoming too frequent of late. He breathed out another sigh.

"Well it's definitely Imperial though obviously I have never seen that model." He stated as his eyes bore into the side of the hulking ship.

The Ghost drifted a good kilometer away, they were jamming all signals but such an action seemed unnecessary in this case.

"Yes it must be?" She replied with an ominous tone.

Kanan pointed at the bridge.

"I can see part of an imperial insignia, it's hard to see from this angle but I can just make it out" his words filled the silence.

Ahsoka finally looked away from the oddly shaped ship and sat back down, the ship was slowly spinning like a bottle on its side.

"Well considering that this is your ship." She grinned.

"And your base too if we are successful, how do you think we should deal with anomaly?" She said once again with a serious tone.

He leaned back in the pilots chair, contemplating their options.

The ship was a few billion kilometers away from Tentu and thus its moon, but if an Imperial patrol came searching for the ship it would no doubt send probe droids to scout the surrounding planets, the closest planets being in close proximity to Tentu, of course.

He sighed again in frustration, can't anything ever just be simple? "That's the price of being a rebel fighting perhaps the most powerful dictatorship that the galaxy has ever known" he thought bitterly to himself.

He made up his mind, using a cheery tone to hide his anxious feelings about the ship;

"Well, the ship could have resources or other valuables we could use or sell, we are running low on credits so it might be worth a look" he looked over at her with a smile twitching at the corner of his mouth

"So, we are going to do what we always do" he postulated.

"Which is?" Ahsoka said with a slight grin.

"Oh you know, smuggler stuff" he said with a voice that mimicked that goon Hondo Ohnaka which his apprentice had taken a liking too... which wiped the grin off his face.

"I thought you were a Jedi not a bonafide criminal, and a pirate no less." She said was a little laugh.

"How do you know Hondo." She said recognizing the voice Kanan mimicked, she reminisced about old memories of that scoundrel.

"Oh we have had "dealings" with him in the past." He said while rolling his eyes.

"Dealings not to your favor I would imagine." She said again laughing a bit.

She really did know Hondo, thought Kanan. Hondo was tolerable, but what frustrated him was his friendship with Ezra, he knew that Hondo would trick and hurt Ezra if it would profit Hondo... "Ezra is just going to have to learn that lesson on his own" Kanan decided, forcing himself to think of more important things.

"Aren't Jedi supposed to be better than mere smugglers." She said again teasing him.

"Well, not all of us had the luck of being trained by a general, rule breaking comes much more easily to me than being a Jedi." Kanan said offhandedly while checking that his Lightsaber and blaster were connected properly to his belt.

"You clearly didn't know Master Skywalker then... he followed rules about as often as he played with sand." She said with a smirk.

"Sand?" Kanan asked a little confused.

"Sand..." She repeated, it was an inside joke that Kanan didn't understand.

"He really hated sand, I never asked him why, though it probably had something to do with him growing up on Tatooine." she said in a tone belying the pain she still felt, a pain that had only grown since the day she felt that darkness that should have been her master, "Why did I leave you Anakin" she whispered to herself so quietly that Kanan couldn't hear, she could see the darkness even now, taunting her with images of the fate of her friend, brother and old master.

She still had trouble believing that he could fall to the dark side, after all the times he fought against such evil. How could he fight for a force that enslaved people after he was a slave? She remembered a mission they once took, to infiltrate the slaver scum on Zygerria only to end up becoming slaves for real. To think that Anakin could now fight for an evil that was even worse than the Zygerrians or the Huts who had enslaved him as a child, she shuddered at the implications of such darkness.

"Unfortunately we didn't bring that bucket of bolts with us, so we will have to manually dock and scan, I hope your up for it because it can be very tedious" he said with a grain of frustration.

His voice brought Ahsoka out of her painful musings, a depressed look stole across her face before she could stop it. Kanan didn't notice though, thankfully.

Kanan rubbed his eyes, he hadn't gotten much sleep lately especially since "Fulcrum" had began living on the Ghost, "Bah" he thought to himself, I may no longer be a Jedi, but I am still part of their world even if that world is long gone and is unlikely to ever come back... he mused to himself thinking longingly of his old master... how many years has it been now? Much longer than a decade...

Ahsoka noticed the blank stare on Kanan's face and her intuition revealed his feelings to her.

"I'm sorry, It's not good to bring back old memories, especially memories of "that" time." She said sorrowfully.

"It's alright Ahsoka, those memories are part of what make us who we are..."

Ahsoka nodded and turned around staring at the derelict ship again, she folded her arms and started tapping her fingers.

"Let's dock with that ship, unless you have a better idea"

"No" said Ahsoka

"This ship is still a few billion kilometers away from the planet, we don't want the Empire to have their eyes on this system unless we can avoid it" she said, becoming slightly frustrated with their ever increasing bad luck, she almost laughed remembering how many of the Jedi Masters even Plo Koon would occasionally repeat the dogma that "there is no luck", She wondered what they would think in her situation...

"I figured as much, I was just waiting for you to confirm my own thoughts" he said in a resigned tone.

"All right, you wanna dock the ship while I go grab some spare supplies and a flashlight?" He said hastily.

"Yea, maybe you can get one of Ezra's spare helmets, one of them should have a flashlight module on them" she replied distractedly for she was docking Ghost in the ships large hangar.

How odd that the hangar doors stood ajar, the ship had no power that they could detect yet it still maintained a breathable and temperate atmosphere, this was more than odd.

"I got a bad feeling about this" Ahsoka murmured.

"I know what you mean" Kanan said softly still glancing at the ship again from the doorway.

"I would get you a helmet too but I suppose that wouldn't help" He said offhandedly, still focused on the ship as if he couldn't break eye contact.

Ahsoka landed the ship in the hangar.

"Maybe you could see if sabine has painted any of them, maybe there is a helmet that matches my outfit" she said with slight interest.

"I don't know, your armor is pretty bland and her painting is usually very eccentric" he chuckled in his usual deep tone.

"It's not bland she muttered." She murmured just loud enough for him to hear, she impatiently began tapping her fingers on her arm.

A few minutes later Kanan returned with a Stormtrooper scout Helmet, he also had other supplies locked into his belt, he walked into the cockpit and tapped the helmet against the wall to get Ahsokas attention.

He presented the helmet to Ahsoka with a slight flourish, Ahsoka shared in slight shock at the "non standard issue" helmet that Sabine had modified.

"What... is that supposed to be?" she said incredulously.

The Helmet was covered in blue and white zig-zag stripes on the side, the front panel of the mask was surrounded with a silver aura with a blue streak running across the eyebrow ridge without touching the eye covers.

"Well, you said you wanted to find a helmet that would suit your outfit, I guess Sabine was inspired by your Lekku" Kanan said handing her the helmet.

"It's beautiful" she said in slight awe.

"That girl sure knows how to paint" she added while staring at the beautiful patterns on the sides of the helmet.

"Yea she sure does, well I will use the helmet, you take the flashlight" Kanan suggested.

Ahsoka took the flashlight while Kanan donned the helmet.

The exit ramp lowered onto the smooth dark floor, the material of the floor seemed to be standard issue for Imperial star cruisers Kanan noted as he looked around the large room.

"It's really... open in here, no clutter, no crates or anything else, it's kind of eerie don't you think" he said to her in a quiet tone.

"Yea, I don't like how this room feels, look at the walls... there are no vents, it seems that the only way in or out of the ship is that one door over there" she said as she shined her flashlight across the room hitting a blast door.

"it's more dark than I am used too that's for sure" Kanan muttered.

"I think the Imperials like that feeling in their ships, always with the black floors, what's odd is that black material is usually only used for the floor's in Imperial hangars, in this room it is the same material on every surface" Ahsoka said while she observed the room all around them.

"Yea..." he replied uneasily.

The Hanger was large... no that was an understatement, most ships had much smaller hangers except of course ships like the Imperial Star Destroyer's and their variants. Normally there were crates or other debris scattered in such hangers of derelict ships, but this hanger was smooth and clean like nothing had been here for years...Nor was there a sign of struggle or any other such anomaly, it like everyone just packed up and left, Kanan was growing more and more uneasy.

"Did you scan to see if there were still escape pods?" he asked her.

"All the escape pods were jettisoned" she explained to him.

"Other than the power being out and the pods being jettisoned I couldn't detect any anomaly that would explain why the ship is deserted" she said questioningly.

"If you're wondering what I think, I really have idea as to why they would leave this ship and not even have a scrap team come to collect it" Kanan answered her.

They moved closer to the door, finally reaching it. Kanan tried opening the door with the console but it was unpowered. Ahsoka raised one eyebrow at him.

"I'm just checking" he replied.

"There is no scuff marks from other ships, no signs of a struggle, there is nothing in here and no evidence that anything has been here in some time" he mentioned in passing.

She stopped right by the edge of the blast door, and looked at him again.

"I thought you said you saw an Imperial insignia on the nose of the ship" she asked quickly.

"Yea I did, what of it?" he grabbed his Lightsaber as he replied, igniting it and started slicing through the door.

"Well if Imperials did evacuate through the escape pods then don't you think even one of them would have reported the location of this derelict ship to the Empire?" She asked while staring at the molten metal dripping from the door.

"Yea that's a good point, so if the imperials evacuated then why haven't they informed the Empire? Perhaps none of them could inform the Empire? he said as he finally cut through the last segment of the blast door, he used the force to pull the molten cylinder out of the hole and place it gently to the side.

"I don't believe it." He exclaimed.

The hole he cut wasn't nearly long enough to penetrate to the other end of the door.

"That's some blast door." He murmured.

"Stand back." Ahsoka muttered, Kanan glanced at her then moved back a few feet.

She used the force to propel her Lightsabers into the hole and cut a clean another length of material out of the hole, she used the force to pull her weapons back and clip them to her belt while she quickly pulled the rest of the molten metal out of the excision laying it beside the other debris.

"That should do it." She said a bit smugly.

"Thanks." He replied with a bit of sarcasm.

"Well, we haven't seen anything to suggest that there is any danger." She spoke slowly.

"Yet." He sighed out.

"Is something wrong?" She said a bit irritably

"Hey, no need to be snippy." He replied off nonchalantly

"Nothings wro- hey, are you alright?" He said, seeing the look of pain on her face.

"I didn't mean to insult you, I am just a bit on edge." He said quickly.

"You didn't do anything, it's just Anakin used to call me snips... I had almost forgotten." She said distractedly with a expression on her face.

He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

"I am sorry for making you think about him, but right now we need to focus on our job which is finding a secure base for our immediate rebel cells." He said in a gentle tone, letting her know that he was willing to hear her but that he was also becoming impatient, he wanted to finish this job, the Rebel fleet didn't have an eternity to wait.

Ahsoka nodded, they both turned to the opening in the blast door which had been exised perfectly, Kanan reached up and turned a nob on his helmet causing another beam of light to reveal some of the room on the other end of the segment.

"Ladies first." He playfully taunted her, trying to get her mind off her memories.

She nodded and wen't through the opening with both her Lightsabers out and ready for anything. Kanan climbed through after her in a similar stance with his weapon drawn as well.

"Okay, lets just be careful, alright?" Kanan said with a worried glance at Ahsoka.

"Hey, we have Lightsabers you know." Ahsoka said jokingly.

"Let's hope Lightsabers are all we'll need." Giving her a meaningful look as he grimaced at the thought of the sheer probability of that notion.

After waiting a minute to let the metal cool, they both crawled through the excised hole, they found themselves in an antechamber which also had no vents, no opening save for a door that was paced around twenty five meters down a darkened hallway.

"What is this place? I have never seen Hangars and their connecting passages be... concealed, not on a ship at least." Kanan spoke softly gripping the hilt of his blade tightly, reassuring himself with the soothing feeling of its weight in his hand.

"What worries me is why the design of this place is so... sterile, it reminds me of a mission I helped lead back on Naboo during the Clone Wars, a "mad" scientist brought an extinct virus back from the dead... the Blue Shadow Virus." Ahsoka said in a thoughtful voice

"His underground base had a similar precise and concealed layout." Ahsoka finished her sentence with a bit of anger at the thought of how many would have died had that man succeeded in his mad delusion to put the galaxy on its knees again from that terrible plague, she had only read about its affects but she knew that such a plague could have easily wiped out every spaceworthy species in the galaxy.

They reached the second door and again tried to open it via the console.

"Why bother?" asked Ahsoka.

"I was just seeing if power is out all across the ship rather than in specific sections, though clearly this ship has had major engine failure of some kind and has lost it's backup auxiliary power, which means that life support should be down" Kanan said puzzling the matter

"But if life support is down then why did we detect a breathable and temperate atmosphere on the ships scanners?" She replied raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know, but obviously something is keeping the atmosphere and temperature stable." He said starting to look back at the ship.

"Whatever went wrong assuming something actually did go wrong..." He gave her a meaningful look.

"You think this might be a trap?" Ahsoka asked unfazed, she clearly had been thinking the same thing.

"I don't know, but whatever happened doesn't seem to have damaged the ship as far as we can tell, for all we know the ship could have been abandoned over a simple issue and the Empire has just been too lazy to send out a scrap crew to salvage the ship" he answered her.

"Yea, but we both know how seriously the Empire takes their little projects, and like you said this ship seems to be important based on its layout, I doubt they would just leave it here for anyone to discover... which means that whoever was on this ship either didn't or couldn't inform the empire that they had to abandon ship" he said in deep though.

"Or like you said, this could be a trap designed to lure in the unwary... or maybe even Rebels specifically, the Empire must know that we have been scouting for a secure base and they may have taken the time to lure insurgents with the chance of resources." She replied thoughtfully.

"This ship seems awfully expensive for just a simple trap" Kanan said as he observed the second blast door barring their way, he sighed at the mystery as he once again ignited his Lightsaber preparing to cut through the second barrier.

"Allow me" Ahsoka said quickly, as she repeated the same procedure as before, she had to make two cuts, and like before there was now two mounds of charred metal placed by wall close to the entrance.

They both maneuvered through to the next room, As Kanan crawled out of the hole he marveled again at the seemingly simple but precise design. They were in another large rectangular room, empty just as the other though this time there were four blast doors, one located in the middle of each wall.

"We should go to the bridge first" Ahsoka said as she observed the walls, shining her light across their dark interior.

"That's probably our best bet" Kanan confirmed as he began to make his way across the room, the air was temperate just like in the other room.

"How does life support and temperature stay stable if there are no air vents connecting each segment of the ship?" He mused.

"Maybe each segment has its own life support and heating systems..."she responded with a dubious look showing that she didn't believe it herself.

"As unlikely as that seems, I can't imagine another way other than for all the doors to be open between each segment, but this ship seems to have been derelict for quite some time, the heat at least should have radiated away a long time ago" he said now thoroughly baffled.

"The only logical explanation I can come to, "she peered at him" is that someone has been maintaining this ship but just merely making it appear to be abandoned or derelict." She said with a look that spoke a volume of implications.

"We best be on our guard then" Kanan said adamantly.

They reached the third Blast Door and once again Ahsoka cut through the door just as before.

Again after waiting a minute for the molten interior to cool, they then proceeded to crawl through for the third time, they found themselves in a hallway that was about fifty meters long, there were three blast doors spaced on each side, at the end of the hallway another blast door stood ajar. They both began to slowly walk towards the open door while being as quiet as possible.

"Let me go first" Kanan muttered.

"This helmet has night vision... Turn off the flashlight and grab my arm, I will guide you to the side of the opening" he said quickly as he fumbled with the helmets interface.

Ahsoka complied immediately, she good at making split decisions that required little explanation, she firmly gripped his hand instead of his arm, he chuckled a little bit as her suggestiveness in such a gesture. "Leave it to a grey Jedi to cross boundaries unnecessarily." he thought to himself, grinning inwardly.

They both silently yet swiftly approached the vacant opening, he led her to the left side of the door and pushed her gently but firmly against the wall.

"I'm gonna have a quick peek" he said confidently.

"Stay here and keep quiet" he said, she scowled at him a little forgetting that he could see her face, this made him grin as he turned and quickly moved into the room.

It was a good thing they were so far from Tentu's Blue Gas Giant, there was practically no light filtering in through the observation windows at the nose end of the ship, thus the command room was nearly pitch black. He looked around, the layout of the room was nearly identical to the standard template for Imperial cruisers and frigates, terminals on the walls then beyond those walls a single aisle which led to a few of the observation windows, in crevices in the floor there were chairs and desks each containing their own intricate terminals and equipment. He paused as he saw it... there was a lone figure standing absolutely still in the middle of the aisle.

It had the outline of a large man or droid, he stared at its motionless form for a few seconds then quickly left the room, he found Ahsoka where he had left her, she was standing there looking down at the other end of the hall, he brushed her arm with his finger tips which made her flinch just the tiniest bit. He leaned over and whispered in her ear.

"The layout is pretty standard for an Imperial cruiser, but I saw something in there." she paused and waited for him to continue.

"There is a man or a droid standing still, motionless in the middle of the aisle in there, I can't tell whether it's a droid or a man with its back turned to me... it looked too broad to be a droid yet the way it was just standing leads me to believe that it is just a droid." he told her as she turned her head to his voice.

"We should go in there and disable it, whether it is man or droid" she whispered back and with resolve.

"I don't think we have any other choice if we want to find out what happened here." he agreed with her.

"When we get in there, turn your flashlight towards the ceiling so the room is illuminated, do this before we cut it down whatever it may be, it might be more valuable to keep it intact until we understand what is going on." he said firmly, she whispered a quick ascent.

Even though he was guiding her she still moved with an experts grace, he had her stand right behind one of the walls with a large terminal on it.

"Wait ten seconds then flash the light at the ceiling" after telling her he moved down the room, he suddenly but silently jumped over the figure landing a good ten feet away from its front.
The light suddenly came on, it reflected off the smooth black surface of what was now clearly a droid though a model he had never seen before, not in the Clone Wars or at any other time. He stared at it intently, waiting for any reaction as he breathed slowly, there was no response, it had clearly deactivated while standing there and probably hand't moved in years, he slowly walked past it as Ahsoka stared at them both.

"I guess it's deactivated" he confirmed in a calm voice.

"Let's see if we can get that Holographic terminal functional again" Ahsoka said as she kept her eyes on the droid for another few moments.

"That thing gives me the creeps" she muttered as she turned to the terminal in the center of the antechamber that led into the pilots nest.

"Did you bring it?" She asked expectantly.

He detached a power cell and an interface module from his belt and handed them to her, "We may not have Chopper but she seems to be just as proficient with machinery" he thought to himself, admiring her handiwork as the holographic terminal suddenly came alive with restored power.

"How much information do you think we can get from that thing" he asked her intently.

"We should be able to get security and route logs and any messages this ship received or sent" she said in slight concentration as she began accessing the route logs looking for the origin and destination locations.

"That's odd." She said as she looked again.

"What now?" He replied impatiently.

"The route logs seemed to have been erased from this terminal..." She said now with a worried look on her face.

"You think someone wiped the logs when they were evacuating the ship?" He asked quickly.

"That would make the most sense." She answered.

"Bring up the security logs, I want to know what was on this ship because this clearly feels like a prison ship" He suggested with interest as he stared at the files flashing across the terminal.

"Your instincts seem to be dead on, this was a prison ship... yet from what I can tell they were only transporting a single prisoner... He was in... Cell three." she murmured as she looked through the files.

"Where is cell three?" He asked.

"It's right down the hall, the second door from us on... the left." She answered as she pulled up another file.

"There's security footage here that shows the prisoner." She said as the footage began to play above the terminal.

There were two figures, both male. The prisoner was in a ray shielded cage, he had a black cloak that looked very similar to what the Jedi Masters use to wear back in the old days, his hood was drawn up concealing his face. There was another figure who was covered in black armor from head to foot, he had a mask of some kind on, it looked eerily familiar, he concluded that the pacing man must be an inquisitor. In the footage the man walked closer to the monitor, turning around the cage as he continued to pace, Kanan saw it then, the rare spinning Lightsaber that he had seen the Grand Inquisitor use.

"He's an inquisitor." Kanan blurted out, she glanced to his face with a worried expression.

The inquisitor continued to pace around the cage, Kanan noticed another Lightsaber hooked to the inquisitors belt... "Odd" he thought to himself. After walking one more revolution around the ray shielded prison the inquisitor stopped, he turned and faced the prisoner who was sitting down with his legs crossed, Kanan could just make out a calm and empty expression on the mans face.

The inquisitor detached the unknown Lightsaber from his belt, he held it out in front of him, turned it over in his grip while he studied the build and pattern. It was a beautiful weapon and design Kanan had never seen before, it was about six inches from base to tip, dark grey with a faint black aura around it from the light reflecting off of it. it was cylindrical like all other Lightsabers Kana had seen but the texture of the metal was different, it made it look as if its surface was grainy like a sharpening stone yet it was as smooth and polished as fine obsidian, it was a regal and deadly looking weapon.

The shape of it was uniform, with hardly any change in thickness other than the ignition control and a slight change in texture and width at the grip points.

A blade of pure silver ignited from the tip, Ahsoka gasped.

"Another silver Kyber crystal..." she said astonished.

"They are extremely rare, other than Master Sinube and myself, I have never seen another one." She whispered as she stared at the blade.

"How do you even get a Kyber crystal to turn silver?" Kanan asked hesitantly, not sure if she would confide in him.

"A long time ago, more than four thousand years ago the old Jedi would sometimes grow their own Kyber crystals, their uniform color was silver much like his blade... and mine." She replied while staring at one of her own Lightsabers as it swung slightly from her belt.

"Is that the only way" Kanan asked as he stared at her Lightsabers too.

"No, sometimes if you are lucky, you can find them in certain places that have a strong connection to the force, places with a stronger force connection than planets like Illum." Kanan's eyes widened.

"Illum had an incredibly strong connection to the force, what kind of place could have a stronger connection." He said incredulously.

"I have journeyed to places I never thought I would ever see... I found one of my Kyber crystals on a planet like no other... it was actually a massive ship that had the characteristics of a planet, it was called Mortis, I have seen few other places with such a strong connection to the force." She said in a reflective tone as she stared at his eyes... he stared at her with a look of admiration which was unexpected, he looked into her piercing blue eyes... they had a lovely tint of green in them that made the blue a perfect shade of Cyan.

She noticed the look, she quickly turned her face back to the Hologram in slight embarrassment.

With a suddenly sheepish grin he looked back at the Hologram as well.

The inquisitor was still looking at the silver blade.

"Where did you come by such a regal weapon with such a unique... Aura... I haven't seen a silver blade except when studying certain... Holocrons." the inquisitor said in a sly voice, like a snake.

At the last word the prisoner looked up sharply at the inquisitor, he said in a calm and passionate voice.

"If you learned of a silver blade from a Holocron then you should know exactly where I got it." He replied with a tone that implied the utmost honesty.

"Oh I know where you got it, I just can't seem to believe that you of all people have such a blade... especially this blade..." The inquisitor looked down at the prisoner, slowly his hands reached up to his face, there was a popping sound and the mask came off, the inquisitor was still turned away from the monitor so Kanan and Ahsoka couldn't see what he looked like... the prisoner however could.

"How... Did...You get your hands on this blade... Old man." He demanded with in a venomous tone.

"Knowledge..." The man replied.

The inquisitor laughed without humor.

"You expect me to believe that knowledge alone would have led you to the long lost blade of Meetra Surik?! Don't play games with me, I can kill you at any time it pleases me" the Inquisitor replied in a mirthful yet heartless tone.

"If you were going to kill me then you would have done so already, you are clearly under orders to bring me to "him" alive." The man replied in a steady voice.

"True... My orders are to bring you in alive... The orders were not specific on anything other than you being alive when you arrived" The inquisitor threatened in a musing voice.

The man did not seem cowed by the threat, he didn't seem worried in the slightest.

"You know why I am here, there are no relevant secrets that I have not already told you" The man said with the same calmness.

"I know... You took all the fun out of the game before I even got to play" The inquisitor responded slyly.

The Inquisitor turned back around, now they had a clear look at his face.

They stared in shock, it wasn't anyone they knew but his features were quite... unique.

It was a human male likely in his late twenties to early thirties, he had squarish yet articulate face that belied perfection in nearly all its details, he had the shadow of a beard growing clearly not bothering to shave that morning, his eyebrows were formed into a natural hawk like glare, his eyes were bright yellow, orange and red which was typical of the Sith, but the most peculiar thing about him was his silver hair, not white with age but rather it was naturally silver, strands of it fell down to his jaw but most of it seems to be held back likely in a Jedi's ponytail.

Ahsoka chuckled to herself with the sometimes hilarious habits of the Jedi especially the men.

"What's so funny" Kanan said with a frown on his face.

"Just how nearly all male Jedi I have seen have their hair in braids or a pony tail... Even master Kenobi used to braid part of his hair... At least that's what Anakin told me." she grinned ruefully at the memory.

"I thought you liked how I look." He said to himself jokingly with a falsely pained expression.

"I wasn't aware that I had ever commented on your looks... but now that I think about it" She looked him up and down slowly.

"Not bad... Not bad at all" She said with a throaty chuckle, suddenly she had a flashback of her old friend Lux saying that to her the first day they had met after they had argued about the morality of the Republic and Separatists. "Alwyas with the pleasant memories" she sighed inwardly.

Kanan's face turned a bit red at that which was extremely unusual since nothing seemed to faze him.

He was unwilling to let her get the upper hand on him especially where his pride was concerned.

He studied her in the same way she had just evaluated him... he grinned again mischievously.

"No... your not bad at all either" he chuckled.

She rolled her eyes and turned back to the Hologram, but she still had a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

The Inquisitor resumed his walk back to a desk which rested near the door, it had a terminal on it with numerous gauges and dials, he drawled while he was walking...

"I guess I will have to find a new game to entertain me in the meantime" The inquisitor reached the desk which was near the peripheral of the monitor, he sat down in a comfortable looking chair.

Leaning back he used his boot to slowly raise a gauge on the desk terminal, suddenly there was a violent cascade of pulsing electricity that ran through the ray shielded cage from the floor to its ceiling continually, the old man didn't make a sound but Kanan could tell he had tensed every muscle in his body.

After a about twenty seconds of the inquisitor watching the violent shards of electricity attack the old man he moved the dial back down lazily with his foot again.

"I should have known that a Revanchist would be quite tolerant to pain considering your unshakable resolve for the nigh impossible quest to bring balance to us all" The inquisitor said with a chuckle.

Using his foot he pushed the lever even higher up the gauge, the lightning became much more intense, it was so bright on the monitor that it darkened the rest of the room, the old man started shaking violently in the onslaught, the inquisitor let it run wildly for a good thirty seconds before he slowly pulled the lever down with his foot again.

"Delicious." He sighed, slowly he stood up, I have to go deal with some matters... I will be back... And when I return I will find some new ways to make you scream then we will begin have some true "fun", the inquisitor promised as he left the room.

"What a jack ass." Kanan murmured, Ahsoka looked over at him nodding slightly.

"Is there any more footage?" He asked as he continued to stare at the still frame which showed the old man slightly leaning on his side.

"Let's see" She murmured in a dark tone, she was clearly upset to see such things again, he knew that she fought in many battles of the Clone Wars and that therefore she must be accustomed to seeing such ghastly things... as he once was accustomed to them.

"There is footage from around eighty hours past that segment, they must had the prisoner for only a short time and were transporting him somewhere... Probably a fortified Imperial prison or something similar." The dark tone still saturated her voice and was beginning to creep onto her face.

New footage rapidly replaced old footage until it came to nearly the end of the recording.

The Inquisitor was sitting down again, he had left a slow trickle of electricity running through the prison, the old man seemed to be wearing down, clearly the inquisitor was keeping him from sleeping with that torture device.

The inquisitor turned off the electricity entirely, he stood up and walked toward the cage stopping a few feet from it, the ray shields making it appear as if he was glowing.

"Why would you risk your own life to save those who don't wish to be saved" he said softly.

"Sometimes one must sacrifice themselves in order to save what matters most to them." the old man said with the tone he had used in the previous footage, a tone of passion, sincerity and truth.

"So you came here expecting not only to sway the inquisitors to become "one" with the force but you also planned on turning Lord Vader as well?

I doubt even the Jedi would have tolerated you, perhaps they would have killed you as well" the inquisitor said mockingly.

"If the Galaxy is to survive then I and those who are of my own must do what we can to preserve the will of the force... Neither the Jedi nor the Sith are one with the force and thus your actions are largely contrary to the will of the Force... Sometimes though a Jedi and even a Sith can fulfill the will of the Force." The man said with a calmness born out of knowledge and the love of the truth.

"If the force aids me when I will it then who are you to say that the Sith or even the Jedi are acting against the will of the force? And how do you even know that the Force has a will?" The inquisitor asked, sounding interested for the first time.

"The Living Force feeds into the Cosmic Force, in the Cosmic Force consciousness is retained eternally... those in my order call it the Nether, you would call it the afterlife." the old man said with conviction.

"Most force sensitives including the Jedi and the Sith believe that conscience ends when the life ends, but they are both wrong." He continued with his wise recollections of truth.

"Tell me all of it old man or I will make you long for death in ways you never thought possible" The inquisitor threatened but Kanan could tell that he was more than curious about the words of the old man.

"I would have told you without the threats, child." The inquisitors eyes blazed at the insult but he kept silent waiting for the old man to continue.

"As I was saying, the Jedi and Sith believe that conscience ends after death but they couldn't be more wrong, many become confused concerning the truth that the Living Force feeds into the Cosmic Force, they make the mistake of thinking that the Cosmic Force is the Living Force and therefore is governed by similar rules... In reality however the Cosmic Force is as different from the Living Force as it is possible to be, as different as the light is from the darkness but like how darkness is bound to light so is the Cosmic Force bound to the Living Force." The inquisitor began to stroke his chin in thought.

"The will of the force is contained within the Cosmic Force, the Living Force is chaotic and without direction, the Living Force brings life spontaneously from all across the galaxy, but the conscience of the force resides within the order of the Cosmic Force. Tendrils of the Cosmic Force feed back in through the Living Force, by these connections the will of the force can be known." The old man was indulging the insatiable thirst for knowledge the inquisitor was clearly trying to keep hidden.

"Do you think he's telling the truth" Kanan asked in a whisper.

Ahsoka looked away from the Hologram with a look of someone who was finding what they had always been searching for.

"It makes sense so far, his words correlate with the experiences I have had since I left the Jedi Order... and even before, lets hear the rest of what he has to say" He looked at her with a worried expression.

"What? It's not like the ship is going anywhere." She looked at him puzzled.

"Something kept the life support systems functioning, it's no coincidence that we just happened to detect the ship either, that is what my instincts are telling me." He said, confiding his fears with her.

"Either way, we still need to hear what this "Revanchist" has to say, he could reveal knowledge that will help us in our fight against the Empire." The told him with resolve.

"Fine, I want to hear him anyways" Kanan looked back at the Hologram.

The Inquisitor was silent as he contemplated the words of the old man, he paced back and forth a few meters a couple of time, he stopped again in front of the old man.

"In what form do these "Tendrils" of the Cosmic Force take?" He asked, impatient for the knowledge.

"The form of those who came before... Only the most powerful of all force users can send flickers of themselves back through the Living Force after they have become one with the Cosmic Force after death... We Revanchist know because we have each spoken to those who we once knew... Loved ones... And ones that angered us.

I do know this as well... the Jedi have learned of a way to retain their conscious in a more powerful form, they have somehow learned how to delay their force energy which we can think of as being "Soul" from becoming one with the Cosmic Force... for a time at least, they anchor themselves temporarily within the Living Force..."

The Inquisitors eyes widened at the words of the old man.

"Won't the Jedi be angry that you told them this?" The inquisitor mocked him, but Ahsoka and Kanan could tell that the inquisitor was desperate for more knowledge.

"There are no Jedi and Sith within the will of the Force, there are only the children of the Force, I have come to establish the Will of the Force and to end the conflict that has raged for untold millennia... and the only way to do this is to convert one child at a time... you are such a one and the Jedi are such and even Darth Vader is such..." The old man replied with unshakable resolve.

"If you cannot even convert me then how could you possibly think that you would turn Lord Vader to your own ways whether they are true or not?" The inquisitor asked astonished.

"I only know that I must." the old man replied, suddenly a Storm Trooper in black armor entered, he looked over and saw the Inquisitor, he quickly rushed to him and leaned down whispering something to the Inquisitor. The Inquisitors face reddened in response to the trooper's words.

"How?!" He exclaimed.

As they were distracted the old man unexpectedly lifted his hands for a brief moment, the inquisitor frozen in place with a dull look on his face, his body completely hardened, one of his hands raised in anger the other in a closed fist hanging at his side.

The Storm Trooper turned and raised his weapon, but the old man spoke in a calm and powerful voice that echoed in the moderately sized room.

Kanan's eyes widened in shock at hearing the echo.

"His connection with the force must be incredibly strong." His words reflecting in Ahsoka's expression.

"That's some mind control." She said impressed.

"Do not move." The old man whispered to the Storm Trooper, the trooper followed his command immediately.

"You will leave the room, as soon as you leave the room you will remember who I am and what is happening, you will panic, you will find more Storm Troopers and bring them to this cell." The old mans voice was commanding and his words reverberated in the air, sending shock waves outward.

Shortly after the trooper left, the old man stood up stretching his body momentarily, then the other Storm Troopers entered into the room, most had their weapons raised.

Again he spoke.

"Don't move." They complied.

He had most of them stand at one side of the room while he commanded another trooper to go out and bring others, after about a half hour every trooper in the ship was enclosed in the now cramped room.

The old man ordered one of the troopers to release the ray shields that imprisoned him, the trooper turned with slow movements and flipped a switch on the desk terminal that the immobilized Inquisitor was still sitting at. With a low humming sound the ray shields deactivated, the old man sighed, pleased at how successful his plan was becoming.

"You will all proceed to the escape pods, leaving one here, after you have left the ship you will forget everything about this ship, now leave" They all left, when the last Storm Trooper was gone the old man began to walk forward, somehow though the Inquisitor had broken the link he had over him and was pretending to be immobilized, suddenly the hand came down on the switch and the ray shields went back up, the Inquisitor then reached for the gauge that would cause electricity to run through the cage, the old man threw out his hands immobilizing the inquisitor again, it took much of his strength to keep the inquisitor there...

"That's not good." Kanan muttered.

"What is he going to do now?" Ahsoka said in a worried tone.

The old man with a concentrated face stared again at the inquisitor.

"Perfect..." The old man sighed.

The old man sat down again and slowly he himself became frozen like the inquisitor, then the footage suddenly stopped.

Ahsoka and Kanan looked at each other.

"Do you think they're still in there?" Kanan said with a worried look.

"There's only one way to find out." Ahsoka said as she turned to the doorway.

He grabbed her arm forcing her to halt.

"There is no way he could have survived in there for three years!" He exclaimed.

She looked into his eyes then down at his hand gripping her arm, her expression became annoyed.

He released her arm, grimacing at her expression.

"We still have to check, whether they are both dead or..." She didn't finish the last part not knowing what to say.

They both walked swiftly out of the command center and down the hallway to Cell three.

"Sabers out." Kanan said before they reached the door, he ignited his Lightsaber as Ahsoka gripped hers.

"I'll cut this time." He told her, not wanted her to be the first to face whatever scene might be in there.

He swiftly cut through the door, rapidly pulling the charred section out and throwing it against the opposite door... luckily the blast doors on the cells were much thinner, so in the space of a few heartbeats he made the cut and jumped through the opening, Ahsoka followed behind him, they both stood upright, Ahsoka with her silver sabers in her agile Makashi - Juyo form, Kanan in his solid defensive Soresu form.

They both stared in shock, the Inquisitor was still sitting behind the desk with one of his arms raised in rage, the old man still sat in the ray shielded cage.

"What the?" Kanan blurted out without thinking.

The old mans eyes were closed, but now they slowly started to open then they fully opened, he looked intently at both Kanan and Ahsoka, he studied their eyes then their armor and finally their weapons.

"Jedi? Here?" The old man looked confused.

Kanan removed the scout helmet and stared intently at the old man.

"How did you find me... or even know to find me?" He said, his confusion expression deepening.

Ahsoka and Kanan stared at each other then each shut off their Lightsabers.

"We don't know you and we had no idea anyone was out here until we stumbled across your ship." Kanan said in a cautious tone.

"That is a pretty big coincidence that you just happened to stumble across a ship carrying both an Inquisitor and a Revanchist." The old man said soberly.

"Are you suggesting that the force led us here?" Ahsoka said also with a trace of caution in her voice.

"That would be one way of putting it." He gazed at her with a questioning frown.

"How is it that you have a silver blade my lady?" She looked back at him without responding.

"You have no need to fear me, I am here to help you... Ahsoka" Ahsoka gasped.

"How do you know who I am?!" She demanded forcefully.

"I became well acquainted with the the Jedi Temple's records when I first set out on my mission." He drew out the last word, giving it incredible significance.

"How did you get into the Jedi Temple? It is guarded day and night by elite troopers." Kanan asked suspiciously.

"The same way any Jedi or Sith would get in, I used my wide array of skills and knowledge to sneak past the guards and access some of the Holocrons that still remained within the Jedi Vault, the real trick was uploaded a false security feed while I was there... That strained my skills to a great degree I am afraid to say." The old man said with a slight trace of humor.

"Do you know who I am?" Asked Kanan.

"Of course, Kanan. I know of all the Jedi who had records in the Temple before order sixty six, and I know of most of the Rebel Cells and a great deal about the Sith who now control the majority of this galaxy." He confided in them, clearly he trusted them.

"So you know our names, do you think it's fair we don't know yours?" Ahsoka said with a bit of hostility, his intimate knowledge of her was making her nervous.

"That is a reasonable request I suppose, my name is Limmick, you may call me Lim for short if you wish." He said with a kind smile touching his face.

"Limmick? That is an odd name." Ahsoka said.

"Isn't it though." Lim smiled at her.

"So... Lim..." Kanan said, testing the name.

"We heard a good deal of what you told the inquisitor." Lim lifted an eyebrow.

"Ah, you watched the security recording I take it?" Lim said nonchalantly.

"Yes, that was some... controversial information you spoke of." Kanan told him so that the old man might reveal more of his knowledge to them.

"Ah... So you are still curious of why I am here even after I gave the inquisitor... And apparently also you, so much fresh knowledge? I can't say I blame you, I would wish to know everything were I you." Lim said

"How about this, I will tell you much of what I know if you release me from this cage and take me with you back to your other Rebel insurgents?" Lim petitioned them with another smile.

"We just met you and you expect us to trust you so soon?" Kanan said again with suspicion.

"If you watched the recording then you should know what I am and what my intentions are, I allowed myself to be captured by an Inquisitor so I could learn more about the Sith and on the off chance perhaps gain a convert." Lim said with the same sincere and passionate voice he had used with the Inquisitor.

"What exactly is it that you can offer us?" Ahsoka said still not fully convinced that he could be trusted.

"Protection by a highly skilled master of the force, and my knowledge of course which is worth infinitely more than my abilities." Lim said, staring deep into her eyes, seeing her emotions... her soul reflected in them.

"How is it that you survived for a year without food or water, and how did you immobilize this... Inquisitor?" She asked expecting the full truth.

"I know a great deal about the force" He said as he stretched his arms and cracked his neck.

"I know how to sustain myself for years on nothing but the energy of the Living Force, as for how I subdued the Inquisitors it is an ability we Revanchist's call "Force Stasis."" Lim stared at the curiosity growing on her face, he indulged her.

"We can use the Living Force to both give and take energy away from both life and space, what I did to the Inquisitor was take away much of the energy of the Living Force from parts of his brain while supplying energy to other parts of his body, thus I kept him alive with me while I forced to sustain myself on the energy of the Living Force." Lim simplified it for her.

"The way the Jedi use the force is primitive in the extreme, we Revanchist are Grey Jedi and we use the Force and we understand it thus we can harness it in its intricate complexities and accomplish feats with it that even the Sith would find baffling.

Sith Alchemy to us is like simple mathematics to advanced mathematician's." His words confounded both Kanan and Ahsoka, they were speechless.

Kanan and Ahsoka looked at each other, Ahsoka's expression softened and she nodded.

"If even a little of what you say is true then we could really use your help in many area's of the Rebellion, My apprentice and I would be served greatly by your knowledge." Kanan said, Kanan chose to trust the man.

Lim nodded at them both and smiled again.

"Like I said, I am here to help." Lim said with resolve.

"Would you have offered your "help" to the Sith as well?" Ahsoka said accusingly.

"I am here to bring all the children of the Force to the truth, not just the Jedi... or the lost Grey Jedi." His answer didn't please her.

"You are looking at this situation as "us versus them". Ahsoka the picture is much bigger than the conflict between the Jedi and the Sith, I came to end the conflict by means of knowledge not to en flame the conflict." He said again passionately.

"I am going to help your rebellion because I doubt that I will ever be able to persuade Darth Sidious to become a true child of the force... Thus as long as he and those like him are alive the fate of the Galaxy is imperiled." Lim said sorrowfully.

Kanan stared at Lim for a few moments, letting his words sink in.

"I think I am starting to understand you a little bit, you look at every life form as if it were part of you and you part of it" Kanan said, by the expression on Lims face his instincts were correct.

"Your instincts serve you well Kanan Jarrus but knowledge will serve you better." His statement struck a cord in Kanan, he was really beginning to trust the old man.

"I will explain much more of this predicament you are all in after we leave this place." Lim said sounding impatient for the first time.

"I have much work to do still" Lim said, his face showing the weight of heavy burdens.

"I do have one question." Ahsoka said calmly.

Lim looked at her expectantly.

"How is it that a derelict ship maintained life support for over a year without power?" She asked him while staring at him intently.

"Good God, it's been a year?" Lim said in shock.

"I... I don't know why life support would have held up for so long without power, one loses sense of all time and space when they become one with the Living Force in order to maintain themselves, we are in space and in time but we don't comprehend either in such a state." Lim said with a troubled look on his face.

"The only conclusion we can come up with is that something... or someone is somehow keeping the life support systems functional even without the engines feeding them power, we checked and there is no Auxiliary power either... I don't see any other way that life support could still be functioning." Kanan said with conviction in his own theory.

"But who... or what would have done this for a... year?" Lim said.

Ahsoka and Kanan suddenly looked at each other in Alarm.

"The droid" Kanan muttered.

"Do you think it was an imperial droid or something else?" Ahsoka asked quickly.

"I don't know, but that thing looked dangerous, I don't want to find out" Kanan said as he quickly moved over to the desk terminal, he flipped the switch and the ray shields came down nearly instantly.

"Ah, thank you, I have been cooped up in that damnable cell for longer than even I realized." Lim said in sight contentment.

"Do you trust me to the extent of allowing me to retrieve my weapon?" Lim asked them intently.

Kanan once again looked at Ahsoka, studying her eyes. She finally nodded and moved out of Lim's way so he could take the Lightsaber from the Inquisitors belt.

Neither Kanan nor Ahsoka let Lim know that they had heard the Inquisitor say whose weapon it originally was... "Meetra Surik" Kanan thought in astonishment, a name nearly as legendary as Revan himself...

"I think it would be wise if we vacated the ship immediately." Lim said with a troubled look.

"What about the inquisitor" Ahsoka asked as she stared at the Inquisitors fare face.

"The force stasis I have him in will stay in affect until we are long gone.

Kanan gave him a quick nod then he turned to Ahsoka.

"Should I check and see if our other friend is still deactivated?" He asked her softly.

She glanced in the direction of the bridge then back at him and nodded.

"I will come with, this time we will use both our lights" She suggested.

Kanan took the helmet from under his arm and replaced it on his head, he turned up the dial on the side and a wide beam of light shot out, hitting the opening they had made in the Blast Door.

He nodded at Lim and Ahsoka, detached his saber from his belt, igniting it as he jumped through the opening, he immediately stood upright in his defensive Soresu form, Ahsoka joined him an instant later, Lim brought up the rear at first but then walked in from of them towards the empty doorway to the bridge, he stood strong in a powerful display of the Shien form, it reminded Ahsoka of Anakin, she had seem him stand like that so many times, a deep throb pulsed in her heart at the memories.

Lim advanced toward the opening finally igniting his beautiful blade, it's silver glow caressed the walls in soft shadows as he passed through the doorway, Kanan and Ahsoka were right on his heel guarding his back and sides.

Kana and Ahsoka both shined their lights down at the aisle near the observation windows where the droid had been before... The droid... Was gone.

"I've got a bad feeling about this" Ahsoka said in a tense voice.

"Did either of you recognize the model of the droid?" Lim asked them in a powerful voice.

"No, but... It had the shape of a slim man, it was tall with a cylindrical head with two large eyes" Kanan said trying to remember how it looked, he had almost forgotten after hearing the secrets Lim told the Inquisitor.

"Not good." Lim said.

"That sounds like one of the droids that was helping the inquisitor track me down, I am pretty sure one of them was a bounty hunter called... IG-88 I think that's what the Inquisitor called it" Lim said in a distracted tone.

"We better get off this ship, who knows if that droid called for reinforcements or not" Ahsoka said, her face was tense.

All three of them swiftly raced out of the room and down the hallway to the incised blast door, they each did a running dodge slide through the opening even Lim, the "Old man is fast for his age" Kanan thought to himself.

Shortly they were all back to the ghost, they didn't see any sign of the droid, they each ran up the ramp, they had the ramp lift off and retract, the Ghost swiftly rose a few meters into the air, turned and zipped out of the hangar.

In the light of the Ghost's thrusters a figure walked out of the opening in the door, with two Red eyes it stared at the Ghost as it swiftly departed, the shadows playing across the droids body as it stared at the ship until it was out of sight, the droid turned and went back, once again fading into the shadows.