"—thought it was a good day." Matt comments as all around us, this party keeps filling up.

Pretty soon there won't be any room left.

"Win's a win." JJ smiles just before the Force alerts me to something on my—

"Oof!" I act surprised and allow Sabine's hug to take me a single step before I plant and hold my ground. "Hi!"

"Hi! I didn't know you were here!"

Well, that's because you were with your frat boy and I didn't want you to see me.

I'm unable to stop myself from shooting JJ a look, that he copies perfectly before reflecting it to Matt who laughs. "Yeah, well clearly word's gotten out about this party."

"We probably need to get inside…" Jaicey looks to JJ.

That's probably smart for all of them.

A gentle nudge in my ribs forces me to turn and peer down at Sabine, who still has an arm wrapped around me. "How are you? I tried getting your attention when you were coming off. Didn't you hear me?"

"No." I shake my head. "Are you talking about near the tunnel?"

Down there it's all concrete and the student section's right there so all the yelling just becomes a wall of noise.

I heard her, but ignored her until one of the linemen grabbed me and shepherded me inside the tunnel.

"Yeah, that's what I thought happened." Sabine's expression drops.

"Sorry."

Stop saying sorry, you have nothing to apologize for.

"Ezra st—"

"Hey yo! EB!" Somebody behind me calls out, and I turn, grateful for the distraction and see—

Oh no way.

Beside me, Sabine turns before inhaling sharply. "Cayle!"

He's back!

"Hi Sabine, how are you?" Cayle asks while making his way over.

Sabine responds by detaching from me and pulling Cayle into a hug. "I'm good, thanks! I, uhm—"

"You're going to go back to hang out with your boyfriend. I'll see you guys later." Cayle makes the hand wave looks completely natural before Sabine releases him and turns to Jaicey, Matt, JJ, and I.

"I'm going to go back to hang out with Ryan. I'll see you guys later."

That was slick.

"What the fu—" Jaicey hisses out before looking to me for an explanation.

Beside her, JJ's face is frozen for a second. "That…is awesome."

Matt laughs at JJ's comment before turning to me. "So I guess he's heard."

He probably got the audio recording from my car.

"Yeah, but enough on that. She's not worth that oxygen." Cayle dismisses the topic before turning and smiling at me. "Hey."

Cayle.

Without a thought, I go in for the handshake/bro hug and Cayle follows through before giving me a solid squeeze. "Aww." Jaicey gushes behind us.

"Shut up babe."

Cayle and I let go, only for Cayle to turn to Matt. "Heard you're on Team Bad Guy now. Welcome, I'll have to get you some merch later if that's cool."

Matt laughs then hangs his head. "I've got a reputation to uphold here!"

"What's Team Bad Guy?" Jaicey instantly follows up, causing Cayle to turn to her.

"Oh, nothing really. He did more in five minutes when Maul came through than Sabine's done in over a year. And my boss likes him, so yeah. Team Bad Guy."

"I want to be on Team Bad Guy." JJ volunteers as tribute before his girlfriend blindly swings her arm at him.

"Because everybody hates your work and your bosses." Matt successfully reads between the lines.

"Exactly." Cayle nods.

Jaicey whips back to look at Matt. "You made his boss like you?!"

"Guess so."

Cayle backs him up with a simple. "He did. Now I'd hate to press but you all should probably get inside. This party's only getting more popular if I had to judge by the traffic coming in here."

"Yeah…" JJ turns and his expression falls as yet more people are filing out into the backyard.

"Now's probably the time to get through to be honest. Upstairs should still have some space." Cayle helpfully adds.

Matt and JJ both start making a move towards the door before Jaicey looks to Cayle. "What about you two?"

"I'm borrowing. He'll be back." Cayle smiles at her, only for a frown Jaicey usually only uses on JJ to come out.

Nope.

"Jaice—c'mon. We're heading upstairs." JJ calls after her, forcing Jaicey to make a decision.

She only hesitates for a split second before turning to Cayle. "He'd better come back. He needs to have some fun."

"He will." Cayle smiles at her, and apparently that satisfies Jaicey because she moves to follow JJ and Matt.

Leaving just Cayle and I.

"So I'm staying?"

"It's just for a second…" Cayle doesn't waste a second and begins guiding me back towards a back fence. "I'm glad you decided to come through."

"I needed to be social."

Keep up appearances.

I can't let the last party I'm at be the one where Maul popped up.

And it's an easy way to keep an eye on Sabine.

Cayle only smiles as we weave our way through the crowds before he sneaks two beers out of an open cooler and pops open the back fence before holding it open just enough for us to slip through.

—

I don't think anybody even noticed either.

"Nice work…when'd you get back?!" I demand of him.

Cayle doesn't look up as he's unscrewing the caps. "Landed an hour and a half ago. Changed, now I'm here."

"Did you get the message I asked for Ahsoka to pass along?"

Cayle nods while extending my drink to me. "She said it as soon as she had a moment with me alone. But I already knew."

"I'm sorry you had to deal with my mess."

"It's not your mess, it's our mess. As Jedi—" Cayle raises his bottle in a toast. "—and as your friend."

I unconsciously chuckle before raising my bottle to complete the toast before Cayle taps the bottles together and we both take a drink.

"You won."

"Because of you." Cayle counters.

"I was halfway across the world babysitting Mira."

Cayle winces. "I saw the latest pictures…she's too big."

I know.

"Yeah, well…don't distract me. I can't have helped, I was definitely not there."

"The guy only had one card to play, power. And you, more than anyone taught me how you can beat power. It's why Dooku, as soon as he could, got you into combat training to teach you a second pitch." Cayle elaborates.

"Where is he?"

Cayle doesn't immediately respond, instead pulling out his phone and saying quietly "Kyle…you heard the man."

"I did, Master Bridger."

"A sound for sore ears. Good to hear you Kyle." I smile then sip my drink again to settle my nerves. "I…can't believe you're here."

All I was told was that he'd be back as soon as he could be.

"The security of the intel ended up overriding everything else. That and there's a fifty-foot hole in the side of the Temple I was at, so…" Cayle makes a face.

I can't help but laugh again then turn away. "You're…in a good mood." Cayle comments.

Well yeah.

"Here." Cayle doesn't force me to reply, instead showing me a live feed of a…bulky, dark-skinned man with long horns on top of his head that are half chopped off and visible facial tattoos, heavily restrained inside of what looks like a sealed box.

"He looks like him."

"He said that he's his brother. Which I guess I can buy, since you know we know so little about the Dathomir Islands." Cayle stows his phone back into his pocket.

Pirates back in the day used to say that part of the South Pacific was haunted, cursed by witches.

"What's his name?"

"Savage Oppress. I was hoping tomorrow you would come be the bad guy. Maybe even throw on your mask for me."

No.

"I'd prefer not to." I counter.

Cayle sips his drink and seems to understand. "Okay, but to be fair he's afraid of him. The little we've talked to him, that's pretty clear. Which makes little sense because he still attacked, thinking you were there."

"Idiot."

"Yup." Cayle nods before toasting me again. "I told him that he's lucky you weren't there. I think you would have killed him—no offense."

Actually, I can see that.

"Fighting fire with fire…maybe. I am trying." I point out.

"I know you're trying. But it seems to be a little binary right now and I think that when faced with Form VII, you would have answered in kind. And that doesn't leave much room for mercy."

"You think it was Form VII?" I casually ask, then sip my drink again.

Cayle nods. "Had all the markers. His stance, his mentality, the weakness to the Force…"

Huh. That's interesting.

"Is that how you beat him?"

Cayle shakes his head. "I beat him a couple of ways, if you don't mind me saying. Long story short he was too distracted by his horns to see me trapping him with a pillar. You couldn't see but his leg's shattered."

"You dropped it on him? Damn."

I like it.

Cayle swishes around his beer, which is mostly already gone, alarmingly. "I think I want one more. I'll grab one for you too.

I don't think I need another one. I already had a cup of the house punch.

"Cayle, I—" I begin too late and Cayle's already ducked back through the gate and into the party.

Fifty-foot hole blasted into the Temple wall ended with Maul's…brother getting his leg crushed by Cayle.

And the stupid media's obsessed with Padmé and how she told everyone to wait until all the information comes in.

Her whole political party is furious with her for even thinking of siding with me.

If it's not Turkey, or me on the news, it's Padmé getting drug through the mud. Citing her husband, Master Skywalker.

People want her taken off committees, some of her colleagues have called on her to resign just for the Skywalker connection, hell she's even got a primary challenger lined up for the next election already!

Even the protests are back, although not nearly as strong as the first time. They've mostly stuck to the main drop-off/pick-up areas with their signs and gatherings and chants to put me in jail.

Doesn't matter that I was accounted for the whole time. Doesn't matter that the Jedi put out a statement saying all this.

Nothing matters, they smell blood in the water and they're a bunch of sharks.

The gate opens back up. "You suddenly look gloomy."

"I was just running through the natural progression of things. Have you seen about Senator Amidala?" I take my second drink from Cayle

Cayle frowns but nods. "She…I don't know. She's served two terms, there's a part of me that wants her and Master Skywalker to take a sabbatical. Go enjoy the world and the fruits of their hard work."

"They'd never do that."

Master Skywalker is on the High Council, and Padmé loves her job.

"I know, but still…" Cayle sighs. "Enough on that, we can't affect any of that. And you've got to stop seeking that stuff out."

"I'm just keeping up." I defend myself.

"You are, but it's also flagellating. Public punishment for what you've done. You're supposed to be trying to forgive yourself. None of that shit's helping Ezra."

I don't respond to Cayle, choosing to side-eye him before finishing off my first bottle.

Are we sure I deserve that?

They do have a point.

"I'm sorry about Sabine by the way."

"Cayle—"

"Hang on, I'll keep it short." He prefaces his statement with a smile and a gesture for me to be patient.

Whatever.

I pop the cap off my other beer and take a bigger swig than normal before Cayle starts up again. "I actually think you made the right call, approaching the conversation with her like you did. This has been bubbling for months, and it was unhealthy. I don't have to guess that every interaction with you two hasn't been comfortable."

I know Jaicey's still on Sabine's head about that.

Group hangouts have been weird.

"We might as well not have those two classes together. The lab we got split up and the lecture—"

Cayle's laugh cuts me off. "Ahsoka told me about that. You're working on the test's study guide two weeks before the test?"

"Have to. The thing's got over 150 questions, and he said all the questions will come from the guide. And the answers aren't one sentence most times either."

"Jeez…" Cayle groans sympathetically.

"Been working on it since the second week of class. I'm afraid it's going to be a nightmare the whole semester."

"Then I'm glad you're staying on top of it. Sabine and our newest member of Team Bad Guy is in there too?"

"Why do you keep saying that?" I laugh.

Cayle smiles at me. "Because that's what I've always called it in my head. I believe in you, and it's a relief to find somebody out here, in the real world that believes you and believes in you. How's that been going by the way?"

"Fine. He hasn't really asked about much. I think he's afraid to."

"Makes sense, but he'll learn. It's not that you don't want to talk, you just don't like to."

"No." I correct Cayle. "Most of the time I don't want to talk."

Cayle gives me an odd look before responding "Well that'll change as you keep expanding Team Bad Guy. And I meant what I said earlier about him. He did more for you in one day than Sabine did this whole time."

"No, she—"

"In terms of believing in you, the real you." Cayle straightens me out. "Sabine, pretty much from the start has shown why we can't tell her. I know you know this, but you may never be able to tell her—"

Yeah.

"—and he came down, rolled up on something he never could have expected, and trusted and believed in you. That's a real friend." Cayle says emphatically.

Not knowing how quite to respond, I sip my drink again and peer out all around us.

Dying grass, a couple of electrical boxes, and water meters…

Nobody would suspect two Jedi talking back here.

Nobody would really want to come back here.

"Listen, there's a lot going on and you're doing amazing. I really think so. You just have to focus on what's in front of you."

"I am." I point out.

Cayle smirks. "I'm not done yet. You gotta let me finish."

I wave for him to continue while taking another drink.

Go.

"You need to go find the cutest girl here and go home with her—"

"Cayle!" I snap at him.

"—you'll feel better."

"I feel fine!"

"No." Cayle disagrees. "You're all compressed into a ball of tension and stress. You need to let it out, then you can move forward."

"I don't play that game." I counter.

And besides, the cutest girl here has a boyfriend named—well that's not true.

She's not as defined as last year, her hair really does suck and I keep on resisting my instinct to wipe her mind and walk away from her because she's always on my nerves.

"I'm not saying get involved with somebody because you don't have time for that right now. Right now." Cayle doubles down while giving me a 'Listen' look. "Just one night won't kill you."

"That's a Sabine move." I say without thinking.

Cayle pauses for an instant. "So you have minded when she's been sleeping around."

"Cayle!"

"Don't." He points right at me. "Don't hit me with your bullshit. You've gotta be honest. If not with me, then at least with yourself. Otherwise, yeah, Sabine's not happening! None of it will because you're going to tie yourself into such a knot that Vader's going to come back and really ruin everything for you."

If I get that far.

Organa's +5 in most polls right now.

Because of me.

"I know why you said it's a Sabine thing, and that's half of it. It's a college thing. People sleep around in college, they make stupid decisions. Things happen. You've got such a tight grip on everything you haven't let anything happen."

"Because if I let go, bad things happen!" I point out.

Cayle replies "They won't always. And you've got to believe in that. Have some faith."

Faith.

…

…

"You really think that's what I need?"

Cayle gives me a helpless look before shrugging while finishing off his beer.

Great.

(Thirteen Hours Later)

"So, how'd it go?"

Fine.

"I actually should probably thank you." I begin while gathering up my keys, wallet, and phone and stuffing them into my shoes here in my locker.

"Told you." Cayle's confidence comes through in his voice.

"Not for that." I counter, then move the shut the door to my locker and grab my lock. "You and Kanan and Hera and Master Dooku, all of you."

When I've secured my belongings, I turn and see a confused look on Cayle's face. "Well, this should be good."

I laugh before replying "I don't know about that. I just noticed something this morning. You all have unconsciously created a three-dimensional life for me. One part of it's not just a façade."

"A façade?" Cayle parrots my words.

"I woke up around six or seven this morning." I begin explaining. "And as I'm getting my bearings, looking around I see that one half of the room is basically blank, and the half I'm facing has all sorts of pictures and toys and other things."

Cayle's confused expression doesn't move "Are we talking about the same thing?"

"The girl last night?"

"Yeah." Cayle nods before pushing open the locker room door.

"She's an Instagram influencer type. She films in her room, with one side for the camera, only for the other side to be completely blank. Nothing there."

"Is that how she was in reality?"

I nod. "Not much depth."

Cayle exhales through his nose. "That wasn't what you were there for. How long did you hang around?"

"Until I got hungry and walked to her kitchen and realized she can't cook. She had no pots or pans Cayle."

She said she used food delivery apps for everything.

Cayle winces at me. "That's a big no-no. And she was in shape?"

Very much so.

"I think she has a deal with one of those apps, but yeah." I nod. "What I mean, is that you all, everybody, had me actually decorate my apartment. It's not half empty or something like that."

It was obvious that she was never at her place much.

Cayle smiles. "Balance is important in all things. Balance at home, balance at work, balance here at the Temple…"

"Okay, Master Cayle." I roll my eyes, then push him.

"Don't crown me yet. The Council hasn't deliberated on whether defeating Savage is enough to merit promoting me to Jedi Knight."

"Isn't that nearly automatic?" I blurt out.

It's like a trigger. Defeating a Sith in open combat hasn't been done in decades, since Master Kenobi staved off Maul in Mandalore.

He was Knighted according to the Archives, and took Master Skywalker as his apprentice.

"Sometimes, but we shall see. This was only supposed to be the first of my trials. Master Tano cautioned me against looking ahead and assuming too much."

Yeah, that doesn't sound like you at all.

"I'm just glad I'm back." Cayle looks away from me as we walk down this corridor. "And I'm glad that you seem to be alright after Maul attacked you."

"I assume you've read everything about it."

"Ahsoka flew over a couple of days later with a sealed briefcase, had everything in it. The Izmir Temple Masters didn't like that they didn't even get to look at the case, the Council said only me." Cayle reveals. "I think our fights are a little alike: Survive and advance. No time to pad the resume, just get out."

You're not getting graded publicly by a former Jedi Master though, turning even more people against you.

"The biggest thing about Maul's intrusion in Riverside wasn't your combat. It's how you broke through to get shot by Zeb. That—" Cayle hesitates before we round a corner. "—is a game-changer. When'd you figure out you could do that?"

"I didn't."

Cayle just glances over at me before commenting. "I actually liked the brutality of the fight. Gave him a piece of your mind after you beat him here."

I—didn't—

"Cayle…"

"Anyway, we're going to talk to somebody we flew in with the tablets and other artifacts we had shipped here from Izmir." Cayle changes gears on me.

"Did you ever figure out what was on the Holocron?"

Cayle shrugs. "Parts. We found enough to point us in a direction. Anyway, here we are. But—before—Ezra." Cayle forcibly grabs my shoulder as I move to open the door.

"What?"

"He—please be nice in there." Cayle softens, asking very kindly.

"I'm always nice. Unless you give me a reason not to be."

Cayle scrunches up his face in doubt, but doesn't return fire. "The guy in there that we're going to talk to is a Doctor of Religious Power and Influence from the University of Cairo."

"That's a thing?"

"It is, and he knows his shit." Cayle counters. "Just…be very nice."

"Sure. Why?" I follow up.

"I'm not totally sure. I never really got the answer out of him and we didn't have time for me to pry. But I think he had a bad run-in with your Dad years and years ago. He's terrified of you, which is a shame because he's a really good dude." Cayle tells me, then slips past and grabs the door to the meeting room, and slips inside.

Great.

Pausing before I grab the door myself, I do my best to release all of the emotion in my body and focus before grabbing the door "—should be here any second—here." I hear Master Dooku's voice before I step through the doorway.

Inside the room are Masters Dooku, Jinn, Kenobi, Yoda, Skywalker as well as Kanan, and of course Cayle, who is standing beside a lighter-skinned man with a decent hairline and an academic look to him. "Told you I knew him." Cayle quips to him before stepping forward, the man himself very hesitantly before Cayle introduces us. "Doctor Janusek…this is Ezra."

"This is Dr. Zelle Janusek, young one. He's the world's foremost expert of Force anomalies in nature." Master Dooku adds from behind Cayle and the Doctor.

"An honor to meet you Dr." I bow respectfully before extending my hand and smiling. "Thank you for coming all this way."

"Not like I had much of a choice." He grumbles. "They bought out my contract in Dodoma and drug me to Turley to look at some ancient tablets that beforehand I thought were myth."

Thought.

I'm pulled out of my thought by the doctor accepting my handshake. "My god…you are real."

Uhh.

"That was…a question?" I shake the doctor's hand while glancing over to the collection of Masters.

"You disappeared—for five. Years! And these Jedi refused to say anything about it. You could have been killed and nobody would have known the wiser."

"That's not exactly their style." I attempt to lighten the mood, only for the Force around the man to react corrosively.

"You even sound like him. The casual conversation, the jokes…I know your game, if not your father's. If you try to strong-arm me, I will jump off the highest building I can find, and you all will learn nothing from me."

—

Whoa.

I hastily take a step back and place my hands behind my back before Master Jinn speaks, breaking the tension. "There'll be no need to go to such extremes."

"Like I was saying out in the hall Ezra—" Cayle picks up the conversation again. "In addition to Force anomalies, he's pretty good at reading ancient Sith runes. Unfortunately, we couldn't complete our work before Maul's brother rudely tried interrupting."

"Is that who he was?" Dr. Janusek asks the Masters. "Sent to kill me?"

"Sent to destroy the tablets, more likely, he was." Yoda clarifies for the man, who—

He doesn't buy it.

Through the Force, Dooku beckons for me to round the table before Master Tano speaks. "I know you've told me, but for the room here Doctor…what have you been able to decipher from these tablets and tests?"

Scattered across multiple tables here in the room, laid upon what is clearly protective sheeting, are some very old tablets and paper scrolls.

"Decipher is the correct term, Master Jedi. The…well, the word to use is slang, of the Sith Language is unlike any other I've ever encountered. So my reading could be incorrect."

"I've made a call for Dr. Foster to fly in from Cambridge. As I understand it he's the world's foremost expert on the Sith language that's not a Jedi." Windu volunteers.

I sidle up next to Master Dooku, who below the table indicates for my silence before Dr. Janusek speaks up again. "Excellent…I would hate for my interpretation to get somebody killed."

"What is your interpretation?" Dooku asks gently.

He's trying to keep him focused.

He does not feel comfortable with me being here.

"What these texts describe, are places around the world where the Force and its unknown energies seem to congregate and gather. For what reasons…unknown. I—haven't gotten that far yet."

"A Force Nexus." Master Tano interprets.

Master Jinn nods. "To be more precise…a vergence in the Force. Places such as this are documented and are known to exist in places like in Jedha City and Ilum."

"Not to correct you Master Jedi—"

Master Jinn welcomes the interruption by Dr. Janusek. "Please."

"All of the descriptions of these, let's use the word, vergences, are far from the Jedi's view of the Force. These places seem to defy reality, manifesting your worst fears into reality. Visions of the past, future, or present. Feasting on your fears, robbing whoever enters of all hope and determination to combat the Sith. And…far worse things."

They're like logs…of experiments.

"And these places are real." I look to Master Jinn. "We know they exist."

"Yes, young one."

"Why do you call him that?" Dr. Janusek cuts in.

Dooku responds. "Because, if you look past the familiar appearance, you will see the face of a young man who has much to learn of the intricacies of the Force."

"His father didn't teach him all this when he was under his tutelage?"

"No," I reveal. "That's more my brother's expertise."

I don't have to explain the rest, all the Masters know the rest.

"This brother of which you cannot find?" The Doctor asks me, then pointedly looks away. "That's reassuring, I change my mind." He turns to Cayle. "I do want the protection you extended to me and my family. God knows we're going to need it."

"Doctor, at this time we have nothing to suggest that you or your family are in any sort of danger." Master Windu interjects calmly.

"Not to correct you." Dr. Janusek does just that. "But you reached out to me, flew me halfway across the world to look at some ancient tablets and texts that were stored in a Jedi storage device…that was stolen by Darth Maul. Whose brother, six days ago, blew up half of a Temple to try and get this."

The words hang in the air for a half-second before he just laughs. "If not optimistic, you people are delusional."

"Not delusional." Master Skywalker speaks for the first time. "Just keeping a level-head, assuming nothing. I would recommend you do a similar thing Doctor."

"I am, I'm giving you my expert opinion—"

He's too worked up. He doesn't want to be anywhere near me.

He does not like that I'm here.

"Master." I turn to Dooku and speak very softly. "I believe that I should go. Allow the Doctor to focus. May I go meditate on this knowledge?"

Dooku's eyes flash from me, to the Doctor. "Yes. We'll retrieve you when we have concluded here. May the Force be with you."