Lord Darth Yoda - You're half right, and half wrong. As for a female on the investigative team, there was only Liska (someone you've suspected from the first). But we are going to reveal Weliss' helper at the end of this chapter...

thejoker122 - It seems that Weliss might want the Jedi to track him. You'd have to believe that Weliss would be wary enough not to be caught with something so simple as a tracking beacon.

Child of Whimsy - Thanks for the review! I think having everything done and posting regularly is the only way I could have done this - I'm just too lazy to do it otherwise! Plus, it must be good for readers because you always know that on Sunday and Wednesday there will be a new chapter. Sascha falling is certainly out of his character - Tyra, as I think I've tried to show, is his one weakness, his blind spot. Sascha is pretty much a 'pure' Jedi. But he's still sixteen and emotional. Suffice to say, I don't think the dark side will feature heavily in Sascha's journey as it goes forward - he's just too much of a 'good' guy.

A/N - So there's a doozy of a twist at the end of this chapter, that I don't think anyone has quite predicted, which is nice (because someone always predicts my twists). Looking forward to the reaction to the reveal of that one :).

Anyways, Please enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 35: The Hunter and the Hunted

When the two Jedi returned to their rented speeder it finally became time to talk about what they were going to do. Aurine set the speeder on autopilot and let it chart a course that would meander around the outskirts of the city. While she wanted to immediately plot a course directly towards Weliss, there was a few things she had to attend to first.

Sascha stared forward, looking out the window. Her Padawan's presence in the Force was...messy, to say the least. On the one hand, he was obviously thrilled that they had made some sort of progress in tracking down Weliss. On the other hand, he was clearly dreading a showdown with Weliss. But if he feared Weliss, it would be good thing for her apprentice to confront him. After all, fears had to eventually be conquered.

"So how do you think we should approach this situation?" she asked.

Sascha took a deep breath before answering, "I think we should call up First Secretary Den'arv and have him authorize us to command a squad of Bothan commandos. Then we should make a plan of action. And then we should go after Weliss."

"That seems like a very conservative plan."

Her apprentice met her gaze, "We might only get one chance at finding and confronting Weliss. We might as well take our best shot."

"And what if I would say that we don't need all of these fancy precautions. We just need to find Weliss and confront him. He's only one man, Sascha."

Sascha stayed silent for a little while, and Aurine watched the city fly by. By the way the sky was lightening, it would be morning for this section of Bothawui soon. Finally, Sascha answered her question, "I'd say that you weren't the one that fought him, Master. When we fought, he beat me...comprehensively. We shouldn't be underestimating him."

Aurine pointed at herself, "At worst, it's two Jedi against one, Sascha. I think that this is going to be rather straightforward. Weliss is a trickster, not a fighter. If we catch him by surprise, he won't have any tricks to play on us."

Her Padawan made a gesture of frustration, "Let's just do it the way you want, Master, since you obviously don't care about what I think."

In a Holomovie, this would have been the point where she would have slammed on the breaks and pulled over to the side of the road. Then she would have a stern words for her Padawan. However, Aurine Brynar was slightly above Holomovie cliches. She let the autopilot keep driving along. To respond to her Padawan, she simply raised an eyebrow at him.

Immediately chagrined, Sascha swept a hand through his hair, "Sorry, Master. I didn't mean..."

"You did mean what you said."

Her apprentice winced, but nodded, "Yes."

"Why don't you explain yourself then?"

Sascha put his index finger on his temple, "I've just been thinking a lot about something you said. When you were talking to that reporter you said you didn't know what said would happen to Weliss if we caught him. You suggested that the Jedi would try to help him, but if he could not be helped he would be incarcerated, probably for the rest of his life." He took a deep breath, "I just wondering if that was a fate that could befall me..."

She smiled kindly at her apprentice, "Sascha. I don't want to repeat our last conversation, but you have to accept that while you made a mistake, you are very, very unlikely to repeat it. And while I appreciate you are thinking about the big picture and big issues, you need to keep your focus on the here and now."

"But I always see the big picture, Master. I find it hard to focus on the little things. It's like saying 'I saved one villager,' when the village burned down. Well its great that you saved one villager but...its an inconsequential result."

"It's good to see the bigger picture," she said. "But for now, you should be focusing on learning the small details. Then you can expand the way you see the galaxy, when you get more experience."

He paused, "I'm making an idiot out of myself, aren't I?"

"Well...maybe a little. But you are make a mistake of youth, which are allowed. Almost encouraged."

Sascha's youthful features adopted a reflective look, "When I was young, I couldn't wait to grow up and have adventures out the galaxy. But now that I'm out here having adventures, all I want to do is go back to the Jedi Temple, curl up in my bed, and sleep."

"You know, apprentice, you shouldn't start sentences with 'when I was young.' You make your Master feel old," she observed wryly.

What might have been a strangled laugh emerged from her Padawan, "But did you feel the same way when you were younger?"

Aurine looked out into the lightening sky for a moment, "Not really. I was super ready to show the world that I belonged and was going to make an impact. I'm a very different person from you, Sascha. You're a thinker, I prefer action. We just saw that we have two different approaches. Neither is necessarily wrong, but think of it this way – you are going to learn how I do things, and as always, feel free to disagree. But I want you to think about how you would do things differently, and the strengths and weaknesses of what your plans would have been. That's how you'll learn to be you." She stopped herself, "I ended up answer a totally different question than I started answering, didn't I?"

Sascha laughed slightly, "Yeah, pretty much. It was good advice so I thought I'd let you keep talking."

She allowed herself a little smile, "How about we go and pay Weliss a visit and let the big picture fall into place later?"

Her Padawan hesitated for a moment, and then nodded in agreement, "Let's do it, Master."

Aurine smiled to herself. Part one of her plan, which she had entitled 'Focus her Padawan' had been a success. Now the real part of her plan could begin. The plan was a simple one. Find Weliss, subdue him, and bring him to the Jedi Council.

Aurine took a quick glance at her datapad, which showed the status of the tracking beacon placed on Weliss. It hadn't moved in a number of minutes which meant one of two things – that Weliss had ditched it by the side of the road, or that the Bothan had finally decided to stay in one place. Hopefully his home or hideout.

The Jedi Knight keyed in the coordinates, and settled in for the ride.

Sascha stared window of the speeder. It had been about a half an hour later after he had made an idiot of himself, their rented speeder was far outside Drev'starn and they were clearly heading for the Sukstav Mountain Range. The high and imposing peaks of the mountains were basically impassible terrain, which was concerning. Their speeder, suffice to say, was not equipped to climb mountains. His Master, somehow, didn't seem concerned. He wasn't sure why she wasn't concerned. She just wasn't.

He had, been watching the mountains get larger in the window with a sort of bored impassivity, when he saw something that made him straighten in his seat, "Do you see that?"

Aurine squinted at the mountain, "It's a mountain...what else is there to see?"

Sascha pointed, "Look there!"

Then she too could see it. Jutting out of the mountain was what appeared to be a fortress commandeered from a bygone age. The structure itself appeared to rise up as part of the mountain, seemingly less of something that seemed to be built by hand, but more of something that had emerged from the mountain itself. It was, agreed Sascha Whitestar, a suitable spot for a villain like Weliss to make his lair. A cliche, he thought, but suitable.

"It's a castle," she said, seemingly just to hear the words out loud.

"It certainly looks that way," said Sascha. He pulled up his datapad to see what in the Force they had gotten into. "It looks like this was...built way in Bothawui's past and has been the site of many battles over the years, but, obviously it lost its value as a defensive fortification as it doesn't really guard a major population centre."

His Master kept the speeder heading right towards the fortress, "That's interesting, but how about its more recent history?"

"I'm getting to that," he replied testily. He sorted through a few more pages of information on his datapad, sifting through historical records and hoping to find something a bit more recent. Finally, he stumbled upon some more recent information. "Looks like the it's called the Ses'tav Fortification. It laid abandoned for many decades... It seems that it became a historical amusement park about a hundred years ago, but it went out of business and closed about five years ago. The land was purchased by a corporation about a year ago...after that, I see nothing."

"So we can assume that Weliss bought this place a year ago and has been preparing it ever since. Wonderful."

"It's too late to suggest that we...call for reinforcements, right?" he asked.

"Pretty much," said Aurine. "Plus, if Weliss is as canny as we know he is, I bet he's got this whole area covered by cameras. He'll know we are coming."

"And that's a good thing?"

His Master shrugged, "It's the likely reality, it's neither good, nor bad."

Sascha thought that his Master was being a bit blase about this, but he supposed that she was the experienced one. He glanced down at the tracker, "Looks like he's in the castle itself, so does this change our plan any?"

His Master was now driving the speeder manually, "Nope. Go in, retrieve the bad guy, leave."

"You make it sound so easy, Master."

"Let's hope I'm right for once then," she said with a confident smile.

The castle was now looming right ahead of them. The structure itself appeared to rise up as part of the mountain, seemingly less of something that seemed to be built by hand, but more of something that had emerged from the mountain itself. What made it slightly more imposing is that whatever Weliss had done to the fortress had seemingly coated the exterior with the power of the dark side. The fact that he was going to go inside that very building and confront Weliss made him more than a little nervous.

Aurine pulled the speeder up near the front entrance. "We're here. Be careful, stay alert, we don't know what we are getting into here." Both Jedi exited the vehicle, his Master's robe flapped slightly in the wind, "I'll take the lead."

Sascha looked around, "Any idea where the door is?"

His Master pointed around the corner, "Pretty sure I saw it over there."

The two Jedi moved cautiously around the corner, carefully using the stone of the castle to move as stealthily as possible. Sascha could almost feel tendrils of the dark side surround and envelop him, and it took an effort of will to shrug off the sleazy tentacles of darkness. This wasn't in the recruitment brochure, he thought, smiling to himself at the absurdity of this very situation. For whatever reason, his mood was better now than it had been previously. He was focused on the task at hand, and all the questions that had been plaguing him seemed inconsequential. They were questions that could be dealt with afterwards, he had come to realize.

When the two Jedi swept around the corner, they were confronted by a the twenty-foot tall wooden front door that seemed to emerge from the wall itself. "Do we just...knock?" he asked.

"No, we knock the door down," replied Aurine.

"Subtle."

"You know me, Sascha, I'm a master of subtlety."

"No doubt."

Aurine closed her eyes, and concentrated, unlocking the massive door with the Force. Then, together, they moved one side of the massive door enough so that they could both squeeze through.

The Jedi Knight went through the door first, her lightsaber unlit, but in perfect position to use it should the need arise. He followed her a second later.

The room in which they had entered into was an unremarkable one, with a high ceiling above them and a long, spiralling staircase that went downward. Something that stood out to the Padawan was that the staircase had a tall, impressively strong railing on the inside of the staircase, for what reason it was designed that way, he was not sure. When he peered over the edge to see how far the staircase went, he found that he couldn't even see the bottom. "I like Weliss' architectural style," said sardonically, "Any plans, Master Brynar?"

"Proceed cautiously," she said, once again taking the lead and started stepping down the staircase, senses alert. He followed a few steps his Master. As the two Jedi progressed slowly, his danger sense seemed to be telling him to be wary, but it didn't offer specific threat to be wary of.

It was at that point that a hole emerged from the roof above and two gigantic boulders emerged dropping to the ground with a tremendous clatter that shook the floor. "Oh kriff" Sascha found himself saying.

Those boulders are going to follow us down the stairs, Sascha realized. With the railing to keep them on course, the two boulders would quickly launch down the spiral staircase and more than likely crush the two Jedi and where they stood. Knowing that even if they could jump one boulder, the second one would crush them flat, both Jedi extended their arms towards the stones, attempting to slow down the rocks with the Force. The stones, which must have weighed at least a couple of tons each and with the momentum of being dropped from above were very difficult to hold in place, even with two Jedi pushing against them. They managed to slow down the boulders as they retreated down the staircase slowly, but stopping them completely, or lifting them out of the way was impossible.

"Do you think he knows we are here now?" he asked, as sweat broke out on his brow.

"He might have an inkling."

Sascha felt himself slip ever so slightly as he missed the next step down the stairs. His concentration broke for a second and the boulders gained a bit of momentum. After regaining his footing, he redirected his focus back towards the boulder. The giant rocks started slowing down again, but they were closing the distance slowly with the two Jedi.

"Master, go down the stairs and check what is at the bottom. I'll hold the boulders."

"You'll hold the boulders? No, I'll hold the boulders and you go down the stairs."

"Master we don't know what is waiting at the bottom of the stairs, it makes sense for you to go down first. Trust me, I've got this," he said, projecting confidence in his voice.

Aurine hesitated for a brief second, then he felt Aurine's focus shift and the boulders moved slightly faster towards him. "See you at the bottom, Padawan." Aurine started leaping down the stairs, taking several at a time.

Sascha wasn't entirely sure that he was going to joining his Master the bottom in one piece, but he could not even afford to think like that as he kept pushing against the boulders, preventing them from getting any more momentum. Telekinesis was hardly his best skill, but whatever willpower he had summoned during the day reinforced him as he continued to back down the stairs slowly, all the while keeping his arms extended towards the large stones, keeping them in his invisible grip.

"Padawan, I'm at the bottom," he heard the voice of his Master echo up chamber, "Now get down here."

That's good advice, Sascha realized, feeling that his control of the Force and thus his control over the boulders was slipping by the second. Taking one backwards glance to confirm his surroundings, he abandoned his push against the boulders and the stones came hurtling towards him, but he was no longer there. While he had considered simply leaping over the boulders and then casually walking down the stairs after they passed by, he wasn't sure he had the energy to do that, and he wasn't particularly interested in being flattened by a pair of gigantic boulders.

Giving himself over to the Force, he launched himself backwards in an athletic backflip where he landed halfway across the room. Not taking the time to admire his feat of agility, he launched himself down the staircase at breakneck speed, the only option available to him, given that that boulders were picking up speed the closer to the bottom they got. All was going well, until he lost his balance off a jump and he slipped downwards.

Even slipping he was still well trained enough, still athletic enough, to keep things from becoming a total disaster…for another few seconds. After completing a half off-balance one footed jump, he missed his intended target, whether by fatigue or lack of strength he could not quite say, nor did it really matter. His foot bounced off the stairway, and he tumbled out of control towards the bottom of room, which was approaching rapidly. Desperately he use the Force to push off against the floor of the room as it came into view, but it was mostly a vain attempt to slow down his out of control body. It was too little, too late.

He was about a meter and a half from the floor, when he saw his Master with her arm outstretched towards him. Suddenly his free fall became much slower. As he was about to his the ground, he tucked into a roll and came to a sudden, bone-jarring halt. Sascha hit the ground uncomfortably hard, but besides a scraped knee, he didn't think he'd hurt himself too badly. Which was amazing, as he thought that he'd been falling to his death seconds earlier.

The two Jedi scrambled through a the door, getting out of the way of the two boulders that collided into the wall a few moments later with a resounding crash.

Sascha laid on the floor, gasping for breath, amazed that he was still alive. Aurine came over to his side, "You okay?"

Sascha checked himself over, "Amazingly, yes."

"Next time, let me hold the boulders, will you?"

Sascha got up and brushed himself off, "Deal."

Aurine started moving forward again and he dutifully followed, feeling a bit more cautious. His adrenaline was fading and so was his bravado. The passageway that they were in reminded Sascha of something from a thousand years ago. Stone walls. Damp. Poor lighting. "Charming place," he muttered.

"Sets the atmosphere well."

"I'll remember to leave a positive review when we leave."

The two Jedi quieted when the could see the end to their passageway. They emerged in a brightly lit room that was divided into two different halves by a transparisteel wall that allowed the two Jedi to see into the other section. There were two doors that each led into a half. One door was labelled, 'Padawan Whitestar' and the other was labelled 'Jedi Brynar.'

"Do you think he might have been expecting us?" Sascha joked lightly.

"I don't think we should let him divide us," said Aurine.

"I agree."

"What makes you think that I would give you the choice?" said Weliss' unmistakable voice.

Sascha felt himself recoil slightly upon hearing his former captor's voice. He cursed at himself under his breath and then straightened.

"Why don't you come over here and we'll sort things out the good old fashioned way?" taunted Aurine.

Weliss' laugh echoed through room, "Oh no, I'm not interested in playing by your rules. You want to bring me to 'justice?' You have play by my rules. Though I have to say that you got here a little quicker than I expected. Maybe you aren't so dull, Jedi Brynar."

"I am a slow learner," Aurine agreed. Then to him, she whispered in a low tone, "Why don't you try to open the door labelled for me."

He nodded and went over to the door, which had 'Jedi Brynar' sloppily written on it. He put his hand on the handle...and immediately withdrew it when he felt a pulse of electricity shoot up his arm. Sascha swallowed a curse and shook out his right arm, "It didn't work for me," he said to state the obvious.

Aurine gestured at 'his' door, "Try that one."

Sascha walked slowly over to the door that had his name on it. Tentatively, he reached for the handle, expecting to be shocked again. Yet, when he touched the metallic surface, no shock greeted him. Cautiously, he opened the door and let it hang open. "Looks like it works for me."

Aurine adjusted her belt, "Maybe we play by his rules for now, Padawan."

"Doesn't sound particularly smart."

"Do you see another option?"

"Not really."

Aurine walked confidently to the door with her name on it, opened the door and stepped through. Sascha cautiously went through 'his' door. Now the two Jedi were divided by the transparisteel divider. He went over to the wall that divided him from his Master and pushed against it. From his little investigation, it seemed like the wall would stop anything short of a lightsaber from getting through.

"Okay Weliss," said Aurine, "We are playing by your rules. Bring on what is next."

Weliss' voice echoed through the room, "Very good, my compliant Jedi. I'll see both of you in due time. First however, I have a surprise for you."

Across from him, at the far side of the room, a door slid open.

Emerging from the darkness was a hooded figure dressed in a tight, black jumpsuit. She, because obviously it was a she, given the curves of her body, seemed somehow familiar to Sascha. Which was obviously impossible.

The figure pulled back her hood and smiled at him. Sascha froze in place. It couldn't be...

"Hello my love," said Tyra Harker.