"Someone is being aggressive." Bail Organa's voice was unrecognizable through the masking, but Ahsoka could imagine the worry in his tone. "There's rumors it's a Jedi."
"They're right." Anyone with talent and a modicum of training would have felt the eruptions in the force. Once it wouldn't have been noticeable but in this darker galaxy any light was blinding. "Whoever it is, they're strong."
"The Council is entirely accounted for." Bail was kind in not stating the truth bluntly. For all their actions Ahsoka never wanted the Council dead, much less Anakin or Obi-Wan. "Can you think of anyone else with the ability? It was obvious during the war that not all Jedi were equal and this one seems to be more powerful than most."
"No, but it has been a few years." A Padawan could have spent time training before deciding they were ready to take on the Empire. "It doesn't take much time for someone strong in the force to become dangerous, the wisdom to know when to act is what the Jedi spent most of their time trying to teach."
"Wisdom that's lacking. Blowing up shipyards over Corellia isn't going to persuade anyone to fight."
"It shows the Empire is vulnerable." Ahsoka didn't really disagree with Bail, but she'd fought in a war he'd only watched. It was hard to sit back and do nothing while watching the enemy act, and she could sympathize with the Jedi. "After their string of triumphs any injury to the Imperial navy has to encourage someone."
"Separatist holdouts maybe, whatever is left of them." There'd be scorn in his voice there. The Separatists might have been the Emperor's pawns, but Bail wasn't willing to let them off the hook for their role in ending the Republic. "There isn't anyone else engaged in organized resistance."
"Your forces aren't impressed by the destruction of Star Destroyers?"
"Most of them feel it's a dirty way to fight, that we're better than terrorists."
It was a nice sentiment, but Ahsoka couldn't help thinking it was naïve. War had changed the Jedi, it would change Organa too. He couldn't see the entire picture either, not without the force. "They're more than terrorists. I've felt them three times, and the first two never made the holonet."
That caught his attention, he responded almost before she finished which was an aberration for the normally painfully polite senator. "Where were they? Could you tell?"
"Once in the Core, near Coruscant, five months ago, and then somewhere in the mid-rim, right before Corellia." It was hardly a precise vector, more of a vague sensation. The only reason she was confident it was close to Coruscant was because the darkness that covered the galaxy had been briefly disrupted at the source, like a gust of wind letting the sun shine through smoke.
"When was the first one precisely?"
"One-ninety-one of this year." She hadn't written it down, not wanting to remember the death of another Jedi, but it was easy to recall it with the aid of the force.
"Something happened then." It was easy to forget that Bail was so well informed. Despite working with him for three years Ahsoka still defaulted to the mode that she'd have more accurate intelligence than senators. It was a dangerous habit, and one she tried to control. "It was announced as a training exercise, but there was a two-hour ban on ships leaving Imperial Center." That was another dangerous habit, Ahsoka still thought of it as Coruscant when the planet's new name was mandatory.
"Why would a Jedi dare go there?" It was the heart of the Empire's power, not to mention the home of the Emperor himself.
"Maybe they didn't have a choice."
"You think they were captured?" Ahsoka had fought a dark sider serving the Emperor and hadn't thought much of his skills. Maybe the Emperor had realized their deficiency and sought to turn Jedi instead. "And then they escaped?"
"Or were set loose." Ahsoka didn't immediately respond and Bail seemed satisfied with the silence.
Keeping the channel open for no reason was dangerous though. "Whatever happened, we'll find out. I'll let you know if I find anything more."
"Until then." The transmission ended, the lack of the scrambler's white noise made the cockpit seem deathly quiet.
Ahsoka sighed, and then pulled up her itinerary. Since she started working with Bail she'd been his general-purpose troubleshooter, a title that was only occasionally literal. Her current task was scouting planets for their use in the struggle against the Empire. It was boring work that didn't take full advantage of her skills, but it was important.
The squadrons of A-wings Bail sponsored didn't fix themselves, nor provide their own bases. Finding planets with sufficient industry to build the needed components and the appropriate lack of curiosity to host them was vital. Ahsoka could meet with the contacts and tell if they were worth working with, and just how far they could be trusted better than anyone else in Bail's employ. The answer was almost always no, and not at all, but she'd found a few locations which justified keeping her on the job.
As she pulled the lever to send her ship into hyperdrive she found herself wondering about Dantooine. She'd been once before, but only briefly. The planet had suffered in the Clone Wars, and was only slowly bringing itself back to the semi-prosperous obscurity it once had. A few more shipments of advanced industrial parts would be lost in the noise, and the damaged infrastructure provided plenty of empty space for individuals interested in privacy. More than that, Mace Windu had fought there, and despite the Jedi Master's abrasive personality he had a bizarre gift in inspiring loyalty. It would probably be a bust, but she felt a bare minimum of hope. Perhaps it was the force.
Yoda's lightsaber matched his diminutive frame and color. Despite herself Mara hadn't been able to suppress a burst of levity when she first saw it. Yoda twitched an ear, and for a moment she felt the gloom that surrounded him lessen.
"Djem So." Yoda's blade moved through several slashes and positions she recognized, although with a studied formality that she'd never seen before. "Defense is not enough, its makers felt. That the best way to defend was to attack, they believed."
He repeated the motions, but faster, the pitch changing as he sped through the sharp motions.
"Favor it you do, but masters you are not." He accelerated further, his sword nothing but a green blur before he abruptly halted, shutting down his saber. "Were it not for the practice I see I would call you primitive. You only fight each other though."
Luke answered the rhetorical question. "Vader as well, but our training was abridged."
"Abridged he says." Yoda hobbled back to his cane and sat, the grace and power he'd just displayed suddenly absent. "Vader is strong, as are you Skywalker, but that strength is a crutch." He waved his own at Luke. "Bad habits it covers up, poor technique is masked. Djem So suits you, but your form must be corrected."
"And what about me?" Yoda gave her a long look from the rock he was perched on, he'd watched them both spar for hours before he gave his judgment.
"That is yet to be seen." He held out one hand "Your lightsaber?" She removed the hilt from her belt and tossed it to him. A look of pain, and something else flashed across his face as he caught it. "You have made this your own, but it was not made for you." He ignited it, and the long sapphire blade only barely stopped short of the ground. "Great importance some put in the shape of the hilt, I find it rarely matters." He retracted the blade, but kept it, staring at it intently. "A more through grounding is needed by each of you. Understand the seven forms, and then you will know where you should go yourself."
"Great." Mara tried to keep the exasperation she felt hidden as she took the saber back, but both Luke and Yoda clearly noticed it. She'd learned to fight from experts, and they'd nearly instantly known what techniques best suited her. She'd have thought that the Force and a few hundred years of experience would make that easier, not impossible.
"You have much to learn Mara Jade. There is more to be trained than just your mind and muscles." He hopped off his rock, and with one hand pulled the chunk of granite from the ground, effortlessly holding a mass that outweighed him ten to one before him in total defiance of mechanics. "What can be seen is not all there is. You must come to trust in the force, not just wield it."
Yoda set the rock down with a thud that could be felt through the ground, his rebuke and lesson apparently over. He called his saber back to his hand, and ignited it.
"Now watch. Shii-Cho is the first form, and the base for all others. Repeat my motions exactly, even if strange they feel. To progress you both must forget some of what you know." Luke was already moving in concert with the Jedi Master, and with a sigh, she pulled her own blade and followed.
That night, every muscle sore and aching she went to Luke's cabin, punching in the override code without bothering to announce herself. He had his shirt off, and was applying a bacta patch to his ribs. She let her eyes linger on the bruise, she couldn't help but be proud of the blow she'd landed, until he coughed.
"Enjoying the view?"
"Just the color really. Purple suits you."
"Funny." He walked to his dresser and pulled out a tunic, black of course. "Any reason you came other than gloating?"
"Do I need another reason?"
"If you're going to admire your victories I feel like I deserve the same chance."
"Oh?" Mara couldn't resist smirking. "You'd have to win one first."
"I'd have to win one?" He still hadn't put his shirt on. "I don't think you've won one yet, Jade."
"Yet you're the one with bruises, Skywalker." She took a step closer and tried to poke his ribs, but he caught her hand.
"You sure you want me to try for them?" He didn't let go, and she didn't pull away.
"What's that saying about trying that you're so fond of?" She slowly looked up and met his eyes, the room suddenly seeming warmer.
"You'll have to remind me." If she wasn't exhausted she'd- the door's buzzer rang and they both sprang apart, Luke's tunic seeming to teleport into place.
"One sec!" Luke took the three steps to the door and hit the release, showing Garm on the other side.
He gave them both a look before speaking in a tone that was studiously bland. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
"Of course not, Mara was just here to discuss-"
"Our next steps." She smoothly cut in before Luke could flounder. "I was about to track you down too."
"Great." The admiral managed to make it seem like he believed them. "I have a few ideas, want to come to the lounge to see them?"
"Of course." She followed him out, not looking at Luke as she brushed past him. "We do need to have a more thorough discussion."
