Jedi Master Quinlan Vos was anxious. He was a man of action, a Jedi who likes to always be on the move doing whatever he could to help the Galaxy at large. It was only when the stakes were high, his life was on the line, and a goal was in front of him that he truly felt calm.
The Temple on Coruscant was not that. It was a peaceful place of methodical meditation and careful consideration. It was a place that set Quinlan Vas's teeth on edge and made the tribal marking across his nose itch.
Splashing water on his face, Quinlan took a deep breath to set himself at ease. He knew he has a reputation for impulsive behavior. That despite his rank of Master and the free range in how he handles missions, he was not truly trusted by the council. It was just so difficult to sit still when there was work he could be doing. Actions he could take to make someone's life better. That was what he and his fellow Jedi were here for and it was something he fully agreed with. The Temple was just a bit too slow to react to the Galaxy for his tastes. Too reactive. Too passive.
Shaking the water droplets off his face, Quinlan grabbed a towel and wiped his face clean before stepping out of his apartment.
"Hello there," a familiar voice called out, making a grin appear on Quinlan's face.
"Kenobi, good to see you," Quinlan said, getting his old friend.
"I am glad to see you are here. Could you help us with a little issue we are facing?"
"Straight to business, same as always," Quinlan looked Kenobi over and noticed the serious look on Anakin's face even as Kenobi's was much warmer. "What can I do for you?"
"We have a rocket launcher used in an assassination attempt. Can you use your psychometry to help us figure out where the suspects might have gone to next?"
Quinlan gave a nod and reached out to the item in question with his hand and the force.
The ability to see the history of an item was a rare gift among Jedi and one that was not looked on favorably by the high council due to the risks involved in its use. The user would feel the echoes in the force from the item including the emotions felt during its use. Weapons in particular were rarely used with the calm and grace a Jedi strived to achieve and maintain at all times and the dark emotions felt in combat by those not sensitive to the force could lead a Jedi down a dark path that was difficult to turn back from.
Despite the risks, the ability gave Quinlan Vos a distinct advantage to tracking people down, so he had practiced the ability to a truly amazing level. Grasping the rocket launcher his mind was thrust into the past and into a different mind.
Calming her mind, she began the process of separating herself from the memory and remembering who he was and that he was watching a memory. Once he was looking through the echo as an outside observer, Quinlan paid partial attention to the events of the assignation attempt, looking for other echoes he could follow along.
Grasping one, he found himself in a multitude of memories, an echo built from repetition. A club frequented after a job was completed where she was known by her human disguise.
Separate self from echo.
Quinlan reestablished who he was and began looking for a name. He knew where to go, but did not know who he was tracking. If only more people were more vain, it would be so much easier to track them down. The more self absorbed people left strong echoes of exactly who they were. Changelings on the other hand were always far more focused on hiding and blending in that their surroundings were what they focused on.
It took far too long to find the name.
"Zam Wesell," Quinlan Vos said as he came out of the vision. "A Clawdite mercenary. I know where she probably went."
"Lead the way," Kenobi said, following his friend out of the Temple.
—-
The Archives were a treasure trove of information so detailed and across such a wide range of topics that even someone with the life span of Grand Master Yoda would have difficulty getting through it all. In the heart of the Archive was a vault that contained the most important and dangerous information. Lists vital for the Jedi Order's continued functioning, holocroms with dangerous techniques, and Sith information.
Only two people had full access to the Vault's most dangerous information with the entirety of the High Council needing to agree to give limited access to any other member of the Order.
It was with the full access granted to him as Master of the Order that allowed Mace to scratch his curiosity, to delve deep into the records of the Order to see if he might find who Padawan Degurechaff, or even who he was, in their past lives.
The duties placed upon him kept his dives into the deeper reaches of the archives quick and less frequent than he might have liked, but he finally located several files that looked promising. In particular was a manifesto written thousands of years ago that bore a lot of similarities to the proposal Degurechaff wrote only a few years ago. The differences though were disturbing.
The manifesto was titled, "The Economic Impact on the Utilization of Enslaved Populations within the Empire and How to Dismantle the Dependency on Slavers by Darth Gental".
An anti-slavery manifesto written by a Sith of all things.
Mace Windu began to pace the Vault as his grip on the tablet tightened. The Force had not lead him to this information. The Force had nothing to provide him in the form of guidance. The Force had been very quiet lately, as though a shroud was being put in place to blind the Jedi.
With a deep breath, Mace released his frustration into the Force and focused on the information at hand. Reading through the manifesto, he saw similar arguments Padawan Degurechaff would have and did make in her proposal, but the methods and tactics proposed had a much darker bend to them. Of brutally killing slavers and using their corpses as examples of what would befall and other slaver that got in the Darth's way.
The scraps of information not written into the manifesto gave Mace a clear enough idea of what Darth Gental's life was like. A red headed slave punished in such a way to leave a distinctive chain shaped scar across his face before he somehow clawed his way into the Sith ranks where he eventually went on a crusade against slavers. The Jedi of the time warned not to fully trust him, but that if slavers were involved he could be worked with peacefully enough.
Copying the files to take with him, Mace Windu left the Vault no longer sure he wanted to know what his past life's self was like. Both he and Padawan Degurechaff had difficulty at a young age dealing with the darker emotions and needing a way to channel the dark side of the Force in a way that was only harmful for enemy combatants. They both had lightsaber crystals that were violet in color. What else did they have in common? Were they both Sith in a previous life?
Mace Windu stopped as the question he was trying to avoid asking crossed his mind. He looked into his reflection on the windowed surface overlooking the Hall of a Thousand Fountains.
He was himself, no matter what a previous life might have been. He had achieved his current position in the Order through his own efforts, overcoming the difficulties in his own way. He would continue to not let a past life dictate his current self or his future actions.
Looking at the tablet with the information on Padawan Degurechaff's previous life saved, he had to ask himself a different question, 'Was the allure of long lost techniques causing the council to push one of their younger members into a bad path? Were the leading her astray by having her rewalk down a dark path?'
Master Yoda would have no answers, but, in his long years at the Temple, Mace knew the old master would be able to help find the best path forwards.
—-
"Our attempted assassin came to hide out in a club?" Kenobi asked Quinlan Vos.
"No. She comes here often. They make cocktails just the way she likes them."
"Let's go," Anakin said, starting to head in before being grabbed by his Master.
"Not so fast my young Padawan, we can't just go barging in."
"Obi-wan is right. I'm the only one of us who could tell who she is to begin with. I'll go in and try to make contact."
"I'll go around to the back. Anakin, keep an eye on the front. She might try to make a run for it if she realizes that we are here and after her."
"Yes Master." With a nod, Anakin took up position across from the entrance to the club, leaning against a wall.
Obi-wan Kenobi went down an alleyway till he spotted the back door of the club. Looking around, he found a nearby ledge that after an excellent vantage point and jumped up to it. Once he was in position, he quietly whispered his readiness over a comm to Quinlan Vos who entered the club.
The Outlander Club was a nightclub and gambling hall that specialized in clients of ill-repute and the high class clientele that enjoyed getting to know a few unsavory individuals. A place where names did not matter and faces rarely stayed in one place. Heading to the bar, Quinlan stared down the other patrons while he got a drink. A disgusting concoction with no attempt to balance the strong ethanol with any sweetness or acidity. It almost tasted like straight alcohol with a tinge of a swampy green color.
Carrying his drink Quinlan made his way around the club glancing at the games being played and the drugs being sold. Quinlan Vos was at peace. There was a tension as though a fight could break out at any moment. Distrust could be tasted on the air behind the stale sweat and acrid smoke of death sticks.
Spotting the human form of the would be assassin, Quinlan put a swagger in his step and sat across from her.
"Zam Wesell?"
"Who's askin'?" The glare she gave was formidable. Eight out of ten by Quinlan's measure, but nothing compared to some of the territorial mothers whose nests he stumbled upon.
Leaning back and sliding a hand under the table, Quinlan open his robe to show his lightsaber. "A Jedi. Got some-"
Quinlan jerked. A blaster was fired.
"- questions to ask you." Quinlan was gripping Zam's blaster under the table, aiming the business ends down at the floor.
"I got nothing to say to you," Zam growled, trying to adjust her aim against the strong grip Quinlan had.
"How about I do the talking for a moment then, Changeling?" Quinlan smirked at the extra heat the term got out of her. "Associates of mine found that you attempted to assassinate a senator. We know you are not an ideologue who would die for the cause. No, you are just some hired gun paid to do the dirty work. You give us the name of who hired you and we let you walk away."
"I snitch, and I'll be killed. The one who hired me paid good money and is not the type to let loose lips live."
"We can help then. Transfer your credits to a new identity, take you to a new place, set you up with a new life."
"Like the Jedi would do something so underhanded as to help some 'criminal thug' like me escape my past."
"You will find I am not like most Jedi. I don't stay cooped up in the Temple all day. I know what it takes to get what I need done. If that means a few laws need to be broken, well I'm not one to look too closely at what has been written into the books recently."
"What kind of place would you take me to?"
"I have some business out in the Tion Cluster. I can drop you off anywhere on the way."
"No tracker."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
"And five thousand credits."
"Done."
"I tell you after I have the credits and new identity in hand."
Quinlan Vos let go of the blaster. "If that is all, put your blaster away and I'll call my associates and let them know we will be leaving peacefully together."
"You are awfully trusting Jedi."
"I show you a bit of trust and let you feel comforted by your blaster, and we can get this done quicker and easier. Like I said earlier, we want your boss, not you. You are not being arrested and you having your blaster will remind of that as we head to the Temple."
Zam nodded to herself. "Right. Make your call and let's go. The stink of this place is starting to get to me."
With a nod, Quinlan pulled out his comm. "I have located the target. We will be exiting together through the front."
Two confirmations later, Quinlan and Zam quickly finished their drinks and headed out the front. Zam took three steps before grabbing her neck and collapsing to the ground. Quinlan Vos reacted quickly, slowing her descent to the ground and setting her on her back.
Her pulse was stopped, she was no longer breathing, her face caught in its final moment. She was dead. Moving Zam's hands, Quinlan found a dart just as Anakin and Obi-wan arrived on the scene.
