Episode 12 - The Guilty Part 1/2

Summary: Starkiller, apprentice to the deceased Darth Nihilus, was tricked by Darth Sidius into becoming a puppet of the Jedi through a force mind-wipe. He was renamed Varus Wynn and assigned to Anakin Skywalker as his second Padawan alongside Ahsoka Tano.

Following a lead from the former Sith, Starkiller, they a Sith Holocron linked to Revan that was implanted into Varus's mind. The following investigation shed light on the fact that the Star Forge was still alive. Anakin Skywalker was assigned to follow the trail of Revan left in Varus's mind to find the Star Forge for the Republic.

Thus far they have landed on Dantooine and entered an ancient tomb of the Infinite Empire. Inside Ahsoka and Varus both encountered illusions. Varus's illusion was a version of himself, twisted and dark by the temple, and he was forced to end the illusion by promising to himself to eventually remember who he was. They recovered the coordinates to five locations that would piece together the coordinates of the Star Forge.

Varus returned home and moved out of the Temple. After a blood scan, he looked into information that was contradictory. He wasn't human. He was a Miraluka. The Jedi had been wrong on his profile information.

Despite the Jedi's hopes, sins of Starkiller's past are catching up to Varus. Maris remembers him after Starkiller murdered her Master, and sees him in the Temple. She has been told it is classified, and to leave it alone. She spent time in mourning, and has improved while Ahsoka was gone, but then someone kidnapped her and took her to a dark place on Coruscant. There, he talked with her, and showed her who her true enemy was.

And an unknown power called 'Manager' is conspiring against the Jedi, and while he died mysteriously, his legacy was taken up by a mysterious woman who also died. Just before death, she confronted Palpatine, and presented the mask of Darth Nihilus.

The second planet to on Revan's path has been Tatooine. There, Anakin is confronted with his personal demons, and his Padawans step up for him after they are captured by the Ghorfa clan: Ineh. Striking a deal with the Ineh, they will be allowed to enter Builders Valley for the Forge's coordinate segment provided Varus ends the Ghost of Ravine. Varus and Koj'Ineh hunt the ghost and Varus turns the ghost to his side after figuring out the ghost was actually HK-47, the personal assassination droid of Darth Revan. They obtained the coordinate segment from Tatooine and left shortly after.

While they are leaving Tatooine, a hunter, assigned by Palpatine to 'remind' Varus, encounters Maris, and after subduing her allows her to join him. Maris, in realizing the Republic had sent this hunter, turned to the dark side in her anger, fury, and loneliness of being betrayed.

I sat down in the middle of the ship and practiced. Just as Tree-Hugger told me, I focus delicately on levitation and put everything together. I don't claim to be an engineer or any good with blue-prints, but through the Force I can see every detail of the parts in front of me. The two hilts hover in the air off the side, and the green crystal hovers directly in front of my eyes. In it I see planes and valleys of green and forests. The sight is freeing. My heart wants to run and release itself intot the infinite planes, free of pain, free of worry, free of a lingering dark in the back of my mind.

Despite my jolly happy-go-lucky attitude, my worry has only increased. I've been experiencing more and more dreams, and each one is just as worrying. I see a loving man, being much taller than me must place me as a child, who shows me a giant pillar of fire centered in the middle of a village. I see crowds, but its more than that. I feel the crowds. I feel the heart of them, their sense of safety, their brotherly love toward each other, their interconnection. Everyone looks on each other not as a stranger, but as a friend, someone they personally understand. It isn't the cold empty looks I always see around Coruscant. Its respect, its…

Then there's a ship. First the ship is seen hovering over the planet like a black hole in its vast green sky. The people stand together around the pillar of fire and look defiantly up at it as it comes closer. The tall man pushes me into the flame, but it doesn't hurt. It feels warm and comforting like a plush pillow, and it shields me as suddenly my heart breaks from the inside. I hear screams from inside my very heart, and the sound of heartbeats in my ears suddenly ends. The fire dims down and becomes cold, until suddenly it puffs away into nothingness, and all that is left is death.

Then there's a specter. A being of darkness incarnate. He hurts me. He haunts me. I am so angry with him. So much anger and hatred coiled around my emptiness and loneliness that it is consuming. All I can think about is killing him, and being given the power by his own hand to kill him. Its almost a sad joke that he is teaching me to kill him. I see other faces of people my dream-self kills, people who's value amounts to nothing, because in all of them I see him. He is all that exists. He is my whole world. Without him I am nothing, and with him I wrapped in the embrace of vengeance. I feel a power in my heart that fuels me and tells me that my time for Justice is come.

Then I wake up sweating, and barely containing my screams.

This is how my nights have been going on. At first it was just a little faint imagination thing, almost like a novel. Heck, one morning I considered being a writer in my spare time. But then it just kept coming. And coming.

Each time they become stronger, and longer, and more vivid. Is my imagination really getting stronger or something? Its scaring me, and I know Ahsoka is noticing how I wake up like that, but thankfully she is staying out of it. Tree-Hugger would probably begin noticing soon. I'm going to need sleeping pills at this rate.

All I truly know is that my bloodline is that of the Miraluka, and they died to some Sith bastard. Now I just need to fill in the rest of the pieces. Where did Taris come into all this? Perhaps theres an orphanage or something there that knows me, or at least something in a government database the Jedi didn't look up.

I turn my eyes back to the green crystal and move the rest of the jigsaw puzzles together around it. I push through the lack of sleep and ensure precision. The lens fits around the crystal, the 'battery' thing behind it, a few other gizmos that I don't care to recall the name of in the midist of Tree-Huggers freakishly long explanation, and finally the hilts. The two sides of the hilt fits snugly around the gears and twists into place with a slight snap. It floats down into my waiting hand, and I fizz it on.

It explodes into a light of green, and I meditate. I see the green sky from my dreams, and I see the green grass, and for a time, I don't feel alone. It's not just the foreboding sense of death from my dreams turned around, but the fact that I hear Girly in the corner doing something, and Tree-Hugger negotiating for a landing on Manaan.

Their voices, once a minor annoyance, has become the very thing that destroys the empty silence I feel around my heart in my nightmares, and in my days.

"Good to see you, General." The ambassador to Manaan grabbed Tree-Hugger's arm in a kind of… one hand arm shake salute thing? Not sure what that is.

"Thank you, ambassador. These are my Padawans. Ahsoka Tano and Varus Wynn." Girly bows and I wave. HK-47 is on the ship still.

"Welcome, welcome. This place may look clean, but don't be fooled, its not too good to be true. The Manaan are very… orderly."

The place does look sparkly. The place is nicely furnished in polished stone, similarly to the Temple, but the atmosphere is blueish-white and has plants arranged nicely. Manaan feels welcoming in its modern cleanness while the Jedi Temple felt like a museum artifact that was polished to within an inch of its life. We are probably messing it up though. We havent had a chance to bathe since… before Tatooine. I've grown a couple layers of dirt and sand. If Tree-Hugger shakes his head, he looks like he's snowing.

"I heard a bit." Tree-Hugger acknowledges. "I was warned to be careful."

"You don't know the half of it." The man's pleasant smile drops somewhat. "It's like crossing secret-police with a home-owners association ran by a bunch of cranky retirees who scream for kids to get out of the pool in kid hour. They have put neutrality to an art form. But enough of that, if you want to get right down to business, we can, or if you want to take a day to freshen up… well, which would you like?"

Tree-Hugger looks back at us and says, "Let's freshen up a bit."

Now he's speaking my language. "Certainly." The ambassador nods. "This way."

We follow him down a brief hall, and pass by a couple other departments. The first one is filled to the brim in beds. I stop long enough to look in. There are practically hundreds of people in this room with beds, in tables, everything. Its massive and there are multiple floors. The next room has a bazillion store-fronts all compacted together, on multiple floors. After that, a giant cafeteria. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Then we come to a little lake.

And the first thing Girly does is squeal in surprise and turn around sharply.

Holy crap. Its full of naked dudes.

"Oh, my apologies." The man says. "Bathing is communal. The opposite one is for females."

Girly walks blindly away and works her way to what must be the room in question.

Anakin watches Snips leave, and motions for Varus to start disrobing. Varus looks at the door, or rather the lack of, back at the Jedi, then at the pool with naked people, and he visibly shivers. "Why are there no doors?" Varus asks.

"Not sure." Anakin said honestly. It was probably something about the natives and their culture. Thankfully you couldn't see straight into the female room from here, and vice versa. Wait a minute… "Varus, don't get any ideas."

"What?"

"Don't even think about looking into the other room. Snips will kill you, and I'll be holding you down so she can."

Anakin meant it mostly as a joke, while still being serious enough to ensure the young man doesn't do anything he shouldn't be, but the reaction he got was something else entirely: "Why the hell would I do that?"

Anakin shrugged and took his boots off. "Because." Why would Varus ask that?

He looked up at Varus and saw that his Padawan was truly curious. He wasn't blubbering in embarrassment or red-faced or… anything. OK, Varus did look aggravated, but not like a normal teenager should be.

"Varus. Because their woman."

"Yeah. Weird."

Again, not quite the reaction he expected. Back on the ship, Anakin figured that perhaps Varus lacked understanding of the body, but now he realized how true it was. He grabbed his Padawan, dragged him to the side, and whispered, "Varus… Back at the temple, you were asked to confirm the marriage of Revan and Bastilla in your memories."

"Yeah?"

"Why were you embarrassed?"

"B-because!" Varus blubbered. Here was the reaction the Knight expected. "They were touching and holding and being disgusting! Doing stuff that makes no sense. I saw it through Revan's eyes, and he REALLY -REALLY- loved it!" The young man stressed. His eyes dilated from the recollection and he started panting, but also in there was something Anakin did not expect. Confusion and fear. Varus had no idea what it was Revan was doing in those memories. All he knew was that there was a lot of emotion involved, and unknown emotions naturally were a scary thing.

Anakin sighed. He really didn't want to have to do this… "Varus… where do babies come from?"

Varus looked at him heavily and calculating. "What do babies have to do with this?"

"Answer the question."

"No freakin' clue. They're something you throw up right?"

Anakin closed his eyes and clamped his jaw shut. He forced himself to release his tight grip on the Padawan's shoulder, and he patted him. "It's OK, Varus. I'm sorry I joked about it. Just… get yourself bathed and get out when you're done."

Varus skidded away from Anakin's hold as if his body was on fire. Anakin pinched his nose and cursed the Sith for what they did to the young man. The Knight may have been ignorant going into the Temple, but he wasn't this ignorant. His mother did teach him things as a child. Even the Jedi went over the basics of various worldly concepts. Not for the sake of doing themselves, of course, but in order to be able to relate to others.

Maybe he could get Padme to sit down and talk with the two of them… While he was at it, he needed to teach them about marriage as a whole outside of what the Jedi taught. It was something Padme was still teaching him every day how to do properly, and the Padawans did figure out he was married… By the Force, his life was complicated! It was nice that his Padawans weren't holding it against him to be married, but it was something he still worried about. The most they did was threaten to blackmail him for something small, like lunch. Varus wanted to try a taco.

But really it was Ahsoka's reaction that worried him. She didn't really react. At first she was teasing, but then when reality hit, she was amazingly silent. She wasn't as loud as Varus (anymore) but it was unlike her to say nothing.

Oh great, this was probably one of those silent treatments again… She was mad, and he would have to pester her to death before she opened up.

He was a Jedi. Jedi were against attachment. They had to be above such things.

Yet he was married and couldn't imagine living without those close to him, which now included Varus.

And he had to teach them to be Jedi. Teach them to be things against his very nature.

There was no easy way to deal with this… But no, it didn't have to be hard. Just sit them down, all four of them, and talk things out. They were adults. And it could wait till they returned home.

Anakin disrobed down to his inner garments, some small robes that went around his shoulders and down to his knees, and climbed in. The water was warm and loosened his muscles at the touch. He sighed, leaned back, and felt his worries float away…

"CANNONBALL!"

Anakin cringed as water splashed over him. "Varus!" He barked. "Don't do that! We're in public!" He looked to where Varus landed, but Varus wasn't there. He rolled his eyes. Varus would be Varus. It wasn't anything bad anyway.

"How long you going to stay down there?" Anakin chuckled after several seconds. He couldn't see Varus, but the young man was down there swimming a good while. The bubbles streamed up steadily showing where he was. "Varus?" Anakin wondered out loud.

…

Could Varus swim?

Ahsoka returned from her bath to find Varus throwing up water in the hall. "What happened?"

"Varus, apparently, cannot swim." Anakin answered. Varus glanced up long enough to give glaring daggers at him, then threw up more water.

"I am sorry to hear about what happened." The ambassador dude said.

I open my mouth to respond, but what comes out is a belch. I cover my mouth, but still, my stomach was full of pool water. I wouldn't be hungry for a while at this point, but I still feel bloated. The water hadn't been too bad. Despite throwing up some water, my lungs weren't full of it to the point that I needed CPR.

I am going to thank the Force every day that Tree-Hugger didn't have to kiss me.

"He's fine." Tree-Hugger says for me. "Now, perhaps you might be able to debrief us? I assume you heard of why we are here?"

The man nodded. "I have spoken to the Manaan on behalf of the Republic, and managed to procure us rights to a submarine to reach the coordinates. Unfortunately due to their policies-"

Tree-Hugger put up a hand. "Wait. Submarine? You mean it's under water?"

Underwater? Oh, hell no! No one said anything about water! I mean, yeah, it's a planet made up 99% in water, but I was rather hoping with my luck for the extreme cases that I would land the 1%... The first time my luck doesn't give me the most extreme problem or situation available, and it's when I need it most! Great.

Tree-Hugger, tell them I ain't getting involved. I am not about to go into that water. Not without two air tanks, a life vest, a submarine suit, a sofa, a pet squid, and a shark with a laser on its head. "I'm afraid so." I hate him. The man continues, "Now here is where it gets iffy. What do you know about Manaan?"

Tree-Hugger answers, "Fish people. Very neutral. Big producer of natural pure medigel."

"At first glance, yes. The city here is entirely for interaction with 'aliens'. Their population is in cities under the water, and they are content to stay there. They care little for who owns them or not. If someone owns the space around Manaan, the people switch sides just as fast. Republic, Confederate, Sith, whatever. They hold no loyalty to anyone, and in cases, such as right now, where there are multiple sides bidding for their medigel crops, they hold a fanatical form of neutrality. They give every side the exact same amount of medigel and agreements. If we buy five-hundred units, they give the same thing to our enemy."

"But doesn't that work both ways?" Ahsoka asks.

"You would think so, but the Confederacy is using this to their advantage. Droids have no need for medi-gel at all. They buy none what so ever and just reap the benefits. This puts us in a bad place, because as much as the Republic wants and needs the medicine to heal our troops, we don't want to be giving the enemy just as much of an advantage. They won't use it, but it is very valuable on the black market. Every unit we spend to keep our men alive is five times as much in killing power from their black market profit. Maybe even six times."

As if this wasn't bad enough, he continues, "Then there are the laws that even extend to strangers. The biggest one being disturbing the peace. If either side fires a single shot, every single person who participated is put on trial. The trial process is long and complicated, but the punishment side is simple. All guilty are executed, no matter the crime."

Oh yeah, I'm screwed.

"Varus, you are going to be on your best behavior. Do you understand me?" Tree-Hugger and Girly must be thinking the same thing, because both of them are looking me in the eye.

Girly says, "No talking. No moving. Don't even breathe!"

No breathing. Gotcha. Either way I'm still screwed. Just my luck, we land on a planet made of 99% water when I can't swim, and their punishment is 100% execution with my nack for getting on people's bad first impression!

"Can we skip this planet… You know, and move on? Come back later?" I ask. "Here's a better idea! Come back without me!"

Tree-Hugger frowns apologetically. "I doubt that's possible… the artifacts have never reacted outside of you physically touching them. You have to go down there. You have to put your hand on it."

Dammit!

"Also." The ambassador continues.

No! "No more bad news! I don't want to hear it!"

"You are only allowed to go there with your pilot, who is being provided as a Manaan civilian, and no one else."

"I said I don't want to hear it!"

The ship provided wasn't anything fancy, nor was it cheap. It looked like it would get the job done. It was small enough for two people, had an escape pod just incase lodged in the side, and most of all would get me to the bottom of the ocean and back without imploding into a bazillion pieces and drowning me.

Inside is snug, and there is a little suit standing in the corner. "What's that?"

"You do need to physically touch the device. It must be so you can do that. See if there is a way to get your hand through." Tree-Hugger speculates.

Ah. There is. Sort of. The glove is material thin enough it might fool the artifact. If its underwater, hopefully they will be a bit more lax on the "touchy" rule. Otherwise the weight of water might crush my hand. Which doesn't sound entirely pleasant.

Flying under tons of tons of water in a little tin can, walking under the water of the same weight in an even smaller tincan, and extending my hand out in a two-inch size tin-can without every bone in my hand being crushed. Yeah, this is totally going to work.

Jedi must get great health insurance with the crap we have to do.

The pilot is a freak of nature. A walking shark with a flat head, more or less. It takes all my will power not to say what I'm thinking. (Fishface.) I want to. I really want to say it. But I don't want my head cut off just because these fish-people have no sense of humor. He -or she- says something, and it sounds like a lot of clicking sounds. Five credits says they don't speak Basic, or can't. The ambassador for the Republic is able to understand and talks in Basic, and I'm guessing the fishheads understand because they're conversing. Don't quote me on that, since I can't speak Manaanining -or whatever it's called- and HK isn't around to translate.

Anakin and Ahsoka return to the ship to restock. The Ambassador was kind enough to show them to a shopping center, and they were able to obtain basic goods. Food, blankets, toilet paper, and the like and some basic medicines. They filled the cabinets and sat down. Ahsoka went to reading something on her datapad, and Anakin did some research on the local customs and laws essential to tourists. Trespassing was everywhere, there was very little public room, and the crime rate in Manaan was in the bottom percentages in the galaxy. The laws were simple. Not that many crimes, only one punishment, and the judgment was based on the opinion of the judges. Each case was individually based, so a successful case didn't apply to others, unlike the Republic, where a lawyer could spin things for years.

The part that worried him was how Varus probably wasn't ready for a world where laws were absolute. The Republic could defend him on Republic worlds. On Tatooine, a good blaster or sword could do the talking. But here? It was too volatile and controlled. Every place was kept sterile. Security was absolute. Law and Justice were everything.

Too many things could go wrong.

"Where's HK?" Ahsoka asked.

Anakin looked up from where he was reading. Indeed, they hadn't noticed the droid was gone.

An assassination droid who delights in killing, loyal to Varus, let loose on Manaan…

"Oh no."

Jedi Master Mace Windu did not claim to be the most sociable of people. He didn't mind people, but he took his work seriously, and understood one of the many sacrifices a leader in an organization has to make is simply the need to make social calls. Other Masters understood that and did the same in varying degrees, and respected Windu's choice to spend as much time as possible being a leader. When some would be out eating dinner with Senators, Windu would be checking over reports and double checking or triple checking the war efforts on hundreds of fronts. Where some would be meditating in gardens, he would be dipping his head in pools of water and returning to waiting as millions of lives hung in the balance all based on a single decision he was forced to make; because others chose not to.

So why did Obi request for him to meet at a Senator's Penthouse?

Windu, judging from the time requested, presumed it to be around dinner, and dressed appropriately. The clothing was his nicest robes, albeit a few sizes small on him since the last time he worn them, and he took a minute to shine his head. Even if other's found it shameful or embarrassing, younglings liked his head.

Windu knocked and met the Naboo Senator at the door. She allowed him in, and he met his fellow Master in the lobby. On an in table resided a number of papers and documents. "Kenobi. Senator." Windu greeted.

"Windu." "Master." They returned.

Windu was about to ask why he was requested, when Obi motioned for him to sit down. "Would you like something to drink?" The Senator asked. Windu motioned 'no', and the Senator gave Obi something to drink before sitting down herself.

The documents did not look like anything special to Windu. The pictures were of faces of little consequence to him, except three. The first was the 'manager' fellow they had to deal with lately, then the woman who died in the Chancellor's office, and finally the Chancellor himself.

The three pictures alone gave him a bad feeling, and he wondered to himself if they were meeting in secret over a matter they should be bringing others in on. And why the Senator of Naboo? She was a lesser Senator, not one of real power amongst the Senate.

"What is this about? Why are we not meeting in the Council chambers?" Windu inquired. "And…" He glanced to the Senator. "Is, whatever we are going to discuss, something for 'another' to hear?"

Understanding his questioning of her was not insulting, whereas most, in Windu's experience, took such straight forward questions as insulting; the Senator looked to Obi curiously as well.

His fellow Master said, "If we were to discuss this with Senators of real power, it could be viewed as treason." Windu stiffened slightly at the word. "And while we could discuss this with the other Masters, the Republic has been moving to control our actions more and more by having these 'open-house' meetings, and having more and more direct input. In addition, to discuss it with most Masters, I feel, would be a waste of time. I won't say they are lazy, far from it, but they do not observe and make difficult decisions like you do, nor have 'unique' opinions like Senator Amidala does. I know the Senator well, and trust her opinion. "

Windu acknowledged the point. He did note the Senator as a small one of unique opinion. She stood strong in her views while those like her were falling every day. And the Masters were wise in their own way, but lacked uniqueness in their opinion and perspective. Often, one person said what they all were thinking, and there was very little in the way of brainstorming or true debate. At most times it was a blessing, since they all believed and focused toward the same goal with unity. But at rare occassions, "You seek an outside opinion. A new perspective." Windu stated.

"Exactly."

"Pertaining to?"

Obi picked up a file and handed it to Windu. A copy of the same thing he provided to the Senator. "Everything on these documents are open source and free, but the connection could be so powerful as to be classified. I already asked the Amidala to turn the camera's off."

Windu took his attention to the documents carefully, then. If Obi-Wan was making such efforts as to make this in secret, and wanted outside opininions, and mentions the word 'treason'; then it must be serious.

Windu analyzed the first one. It was a man who had worked as a scavenger. He was found dead at the scene he was hired to scavenge in, the crash site of The Ravager, the flagship of Darth Nihilus.

The second document pertained to a co-worker of the man, who claimed to have witnessed his comrades death. He was found in possession of 'scavenging property', a mask, and he fought against the requests to give it up to the point that he was fired. He died from sickness days later.

The third file was of the man's wife. She was given the mask in the man's will, she witnessed the man's death, and she disapeared until she was found in a café of a rich sector dead from sickness.

The fourth file was of an alien who was a waiter to said wife, and was right there when the woman died. The alien stole the mask off the body, quit his -or her- job, and departed. The alien was found to be using Force power to deal with some lowly thugs, and died days later. Also from a sickness.

Windu pulled up the picture of the alien. "Was this one registered as a Force User?"

"No." Obi frowned. "I checked. He was not. The Order checked as a youngling, and he was found to have no power at all."

The Senator looked between them worriedly, and Windu frowned sharply. The fifth file was the same patterns. Witness, strange behavior, stealing mask, then death in a very public fashion from a disease that rotted the flesh.

'Was the mask diseased?' Windu wondered. If it was, he would have to send a squad to take it and hide it away in quarantine.

The sixth file, the seventh file, all of the files were identical with a few noting the use of Force powers on people. All of them the Order had confirmed were born without it, therefore shouldn't be using it. Windu started feeling recollection of hearing of a few people who were doing such things. It was an odd rumor at the time, and he put it away as such.

But the chain of death, behavior, mask, then public death was becoming scary.

The files moved up to the 'Manager'. Windu knew already the man was having strange behavior and he died publically, diseased, and a woman there who had, at first, helped him suddenly stopped and stole a mask from his person.

The same woman on the next file who suddenly exhibited Force Power enough to take over the minds of the entire Senate Guard branch of the Order, filled the Senate Building with such strong darkness that, evne now they hadn't purged it, and confronted Palpatine before dieing in his presence.

The same Palpatine who was suddenly acting like he didn't have a care in the world about politics.

Palpatine had a mask on his desk when they had rescued him…