"Have you had any more luck than the normal news?" Matt innocently asks Daisy.

Daisy turns and gives him a slightly offended look. "Does my news not count as news?"

"It…" Matt waffles. "There's some swiss cheese stuff in there."

"I don't co-sign everything of what's on Truths of the Holonet. But nothing that comes from the Rising Tide on Truths of the Holonet is like what you're talking about. The 'They faked the Moon landing' crowd. That's not us."

"Isn't it all one thing?" I play the dumb guy in the room, then inhale a mouthful of potatoes and beans to keep my mouth shut.

"Truths is a Forum. It's a website." Daisy explains, looking at me with a tinge of belittlement in the air. "Rising Tide is an Organization. We share what the mainstream news doesn't want you to know, the dirty facts."

"The stories they're spinning us." JJ helpfully lobs out there.

Daisy affirms JJ's point with a wave of her hand. "And we do the dirty work for democracies everywhere. Thank God for FOIA."

"For what?" Sabine asks.

"Freedom of Information Act. Shit, that takes us back to the start of all this. It was one of my DC sources that broke the story that Vader was in DC!"

"Why?" I follow up.

You're the dumb guy. Play the dumb guy.

"She was looking through White House guest logs and records and saw that one day was basically clear. Went back, checked against the President's Schedule, which is posted every day…didn't match up."

Jaicey makes a noise of understanding. "So sloppy." JJ chides before his fork clatters against his plate.

"Ezra, this is so good bro. Thank you."

"Yeah, thank you!" Daisy follows suit while Sabine gets caught mid-bite and helplessly looks over at me.

"You're welcome. There's more in the kitchen." I nod my head then scoot a little so everybody can squeeze by me here on the floor.

JJ gets to his feet before Jaicey follows up. "Come sit."

"Yeah, that's not fair that you cooked, then have to sit on the floor." Daisy points out.

"I'm fine." I quickly say. "I was last one in, you all get the seats. I'll be up and down anyway."

And it's not like the floor is uncomfortable.

I have no room to complain about anything. Not in my position.

I should just be happy where I am with what I've got.

"Anyway, back to the Vader thing, it's all of a piece. After the logs are doctored, they claimed National Security and classified everything from that day. There's been a court case filed, but that's not getting heard until December—"

Past the election.

"—and at that point, it might not even matter." Daisy concludes. "We have no clue what they talked about, and barely that he was there."

"Sources liked him though." JJ quips.

Oh jeez.

"Huh?" Sabine looks lost.

Daisy gives the look she gave to me, to Sabine. "Sometimes, when people can't go on the record, they couch it by saying 'Sources close to—blah blah blah'. It's a common joke on Truths."

Truths.

"Who would the sources even be? People in the White House?" Matt guesses.

Yeah, probably.

"Exactly. And that's the weirdest thing. They liked him!"

—

"They what?!" Sabine leans forward.

"No way." Matt adds.

Daisy only nods. "Yeah. That's unanimous. Apparently a lot of them were scared, except for like his senior, senior people. Like Thrawn, Tarkin, those guys. And he was smuggled in somehow and was nothing but nice and polite. Never bothered anybody."

JJ adds "There's still a touch of debate about the timeline. Because some people swear he left, and some swear he stuck around and toured with the next group in the general population."

"No." Daisy disagrees. "It's settled. He left, that other guy, his whole story's off. Half of it was like 'I was in the middle of a busy day and I knew he was there and kinda saw him. Then he was gone.' Vader was only there for like 45 minutes. It's the only way they could have pulled it off."

"Don't they have like, cameras constantly pointed at every inch of the White House?" Sabine asks.

"Yeah." I piggyback off that point. "It's the White House."

"We can't find him!" JJ calls back from the kitchen.

Daisy adds "We don't know what we're looking for. It's not like he was walking around in that Vader helmet. We don't know what he looks like."

"God!" JJ hollers, causing me to jump and whip around behind me. "The number of Vader masks this Halloween…"

So man—

"Oh goodness, all of them! Everybody's going to be wearing those, sounding like an asthmatic that smokes two packs a day still. Scaring the crap out of little kids."

"Aww." Jaicey makes a pitiful noise. "Those poor kids."

Vader's the stuff of nightmares.

Yeah I am. Let me out, I want to say hi to Sabine.

Forcefully, I divide the last hunk of my chicken just as JJ slides by having refilled his plate. "How much more is there?"

"Potatoes are starting to look marginal, everything else is fine."

"Sweet." Jaicey proclaims, then leads Sabine past me and into the kitchen.

Sabine quickly turns back and pokes her head through though. "Ezra, do you want more?"

Not really, my appetite's…

"I'm okay, thank you Sabine." I smile up at her, only for Sabine to frown.

"I thought you said you were super hungry."

I did. Because I was.

"I was, now I'm full. If I want more later, I'll go grab it. Thank you though." I say to Sabine just before Daisy excuses herself and Sabine is forced to disappear beyond the curtain to allow her through.

"Cameras." Matt turns to JJ as he's chewing his newest bite. "White House."

JJ makes an affirmative noise before clearing his throat. "Right. Daisy's right, we don't know what we're looking for."

"We can kinda guess!" Daisy follows up. "But even then it's really a guess!"

"Guess what?" I ask JJ.

"What do we know? His Dad. There aren't many, but we do have some pictures of him. So we have one-half of him. Problem is, we have no idea who his Mom is."

"Tried that back in the day!" Daisy calls out from the kitchen, just before the sound of a metal spoon on Pyrex overrules her for an instant. "The Lothal Social Security Office was run by some guy installed by Sidious. I mean…we really don't talk enough about Sidious!"

"What were the headlines?" JJ replies to Daisy. "He blackmailed the mayor of Lothal to get illegal permits in his neighborhood, which he then used to make those insane laboratories under people's houses—"

"Under their houses?" I continue my stupidity.

"He was using two of the local box stores as fronts to move illegal merchandise. He was on the City Council. Like I said, he hid not just his kids, but himself, whoever he wanted, probably for some horrific human trafficking…Monster." Daisy concludes.

"Takes a monster to raise a monster," Jaicey comments as she returns to the room. "That Vader…do you think he's here?"

"Somewhat, yeah. But if you would have told me that before this summer it wouldn't have surprised me." Daisy shrugs.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Math." JJ simply says. LA has what, 3 million metro, twenty million in Greater Los Angeles?" JJ turns to Matt.

"If you're counting damn near everything it's twenty." Matt comments. "It's really like eighteen."

"Fine, eighteen million people. You drop one person into a city that we already knew had a Jedi Temple? And we've had it on good authority for years that Vader moved monthly, if not more." JJ points out.

The Council was very afraid of allowing me to get attached to a place.

"How?" Sabine asks. "More sources?"

"The Jedi have to report some things, even though they like to think they're above the law. Hell, I mean that got them into trouble here, in California with your dumbass governor. Last fall they had that whole big hullabaloo in Sacramento."

That I was at.

Sabine's eyes flash to me for an instant before she looks away as Daisy goes on. "So between eighteen million people, plus multiple cities, plus the fact that he's definitely not a dog and they can't take him out into a city on a leash, he's, he can't do anything. He can't go out. He's stuck, living we assume in Jedi Temples. Bouncing from place to place without a home."

"Why do that? Why not turn him over and let him go to prison? Because that—" Sabine gestures at Daisy. "That kind of sounds like prison, all that moving around and never stopping."

"It's definitely not comfortable for sure." JJ comments. "But I don't think the Jedi care."

Jaicey makes a face. "Living my whole life out of a suitcase?"

"Even harder when you account for all the murder." Daisy casually cracks.

"Ouch." JJ cringes. "Truth hurts."

…

Yeah.

I don't deserve this. I don't deserve any of this.

I should not be here.

"Dumb question, but I'm dumb." Matt begins, then adds. "And I'm just playing devil's advocate."

"Oh my…" Jaicey pops up off the couch. "You two are spending too much time together." Jaicey says to JJ. "Look at this! He sounds like you!"

"That's not a bad thing!" Daisy celebrates.

JJ defends himself. "I just ask questions."

"And now we have somebody who is on a Federal WATCHLIST JUSTIN JAMES. In our house!"

Justin James…

Is that JJ's actual name?!

"Arrested nine times and proud of it!" Daisy says, indeed clearly proud.

Bet none of her stories are as good as mine.

Mine was so good they had to wipe the tape.

I'm surprised Daisy and JJ haven't brought that up.

"—which is fine, you're, you're cool Daisy." Jaicey amends herself.

Daisy beams at Jaicey, who then continues. "You're not helping things better though. You're rubbing off on Matt and Ezra."

"I needed to rub off on them. I still need to keep rubbin on Ezra." JJ cracks, before turning and smirking at me.

Yeah, no.

Jaicey makes an exasperated face before slumping. "Ask your stupid question, Matt."

"Sure." Matt smiles, then gives me a split-second glance.

Oh.

"You said that these Sources liked him right? Maybe the Jedi have softened him a little bit. And it's been years between when he was captured and when he popped up again."

"No, you're right. He did disappear from the radar. The only time he was in the news is when the Jedi would announce the capture of some former Sith associate. And everybody assumed it was off Vader's intel." Daisy replies to Matt.

"I'd stay away from prisons if I were him. He put a looooooot of people behind bars." JJ taunts from his seat.

"One more." I play into the taunt. "That demon dude from this summer."

"Maul, yeah." Daisy nods. "And he was far from alone. What'd the final tally come to?"

"Twenty-four men, in four vans parked in that neighborhood approximately three minutes before he appears on the first security camera." JJ rattles off.

"Whose 'he'?" Matt asks.

"Vader." JJ clarifies. "So that's an easy twenty-plus in prison right there."

"Minus those he killed or put into critical condition." Daisy points out rightfully. "It does line up with the statement though."

"Statement?" I ask Daisy.

"The White House, a few hours after everything went down, since it was like 1 AM Eastern when it all happened, they put out this statement basically saying that the operation was initially intended to surveil Maul, who entered the country that day. What happened next was not planned, obviously."

"They covered for him." JJ shakes his head.

"Totally." Daisy complains. "They threw in that the FBI and CIA were involved, making it a joint national security operation, pulled off in conjunction with the Jedi and said it all was a national security matter! It's bullshit!"

"Can they do that?" Jaicey asks.

JJ nods. "Thank the Patriot Act for that."

"With a name like that, there's no way it can be bad…" Daisy alludes darkly. "And Palpatine isn't going to fight it, even though he put in on his platform."

"And now he's paying for it." JJ chuckles.

"Best poll I've ever seen."

"You hate polls." JJ cracks at Daisy, who returns a dirty look.

"Organa +1 nationally is huge. You add in the swing states and the fact that Palpatine just won't get off Vader and hand him over? He could lose!"

"Hasn't that been a thing though?" Jaicey asks. "That the Jedi don't talk to Palpatine? So even if he says it, they don't have to do it."

Daisy spears a bite of chicken and uses the time to craft an answer. "And they're their own thing. It's technically like the Rising Tide, just crazy way bigger."

"And they have folks like Dooku that are crazy rich and could use that to their advantage—" JJ hypothesizes.

"That's against the idea of a Jedi." I blurt out, offended at the idea before quickly adding. "Isn't it?"

"Yeah, but not all the Jedi are clean. If you made it thru Order 66, you've seen some things." JJ replies darkly.

That's true.

"You don't even have to do that." Daisy piles on. "Quinlan Vos!"

Uh oh.

"Who?" Matt asks.

"Yeah, who?" I play my part.

"Old Jedi turned…well, I don't know what he is now." Daisy says as JJ is rapidly typing into his phone.

"TV superstar Quinlan Vos!"

He—He went on TV?

"Who is this guy?" Sabine asks Daisy. "I've never heard of him."

"Quinlan Vos is one of the few Jedi to leave the order once they've reached adulthood. And Vos got far, he was a Master." JJ says without looking up from his phone.

"What are you looking up?" Jaicey asks, looking suspiciously at him.

"A picture of him…I bet that'll trigger their memories. You've seen him, he made a big deal of leaving the Jedi Order."

Yeah he did.

Daisy picks up JJ's point as he keeps hunting. "He did an interview after he left, explaining why he left. He said it wasn't all because of them not imprisoning Vader straightaway, but nobody really believes him."

"Yeah, cause dude's eccentric." JJ ominously compliments me before flipping his phone to show Vos, a dark-skinned male with a prominent gold tattoo on his face now apparently—

Yoda…

I hope Yoda hasn't seen that yet.

"You love Vader!" Sabine jumps all over JJ.

"I love his whole vibe." JJ defends himself. "His mystique. His 'I'm here, you're all gone' energy. Take one look at the videos online, you can see it."

"Nobody really actually likes him." Daisy agrees with JJ. "I don't think."

—

"If what you were saying is true, with him moving every month, I don't think they do either."

No…they really didn't.

"What'd this Vos guy say?" I chum the water for Daisy and JJ.

None of the reports I've read have mentioned Vos. And they're right, he—

"One of the major channels brought him on as an 'analyst' and threw him onto one of those panels. And he said like five things." Daisy annotates. "Most importantly, that he doesn't think that what the Jedi are doing is working."

—

"He went and used one of those interactive boards and basically broke down a ten-second clip of Vader that they cut. And all of it came to the conclusion that he still is acting, moving, fighting like a Sith, like a bad guy. I can't use all the terminology and lingo. It's on YouTube now, it's got like ten million views or something like that."

"Pass me the controller." JJ asks Matt.

Jaicey groans. "Do we have to?"

"It's like three minutes babe." JJ placates her.

"And don't worry." Daisy cheerfully says to Jaicey. "If things keep going the way they're going? Vader's going to have to leave and really go into hiding with the Jedi. Hell, the Jedi might have to pull out of the US!"

Wait what?!

I don't bother disguising my look before Matt speaks up. "Oh no way!"

"Yeah!" Daisy turns to explain to him. "Organa's getting pushed by the far wing of his party to banish the Jedi from the country if they refuse to turn over Vader to pay for his crimes."

"Why wouldn't the Jedi do that?" Jaicey asks. "Why not just give him over?"

Daisy shrugs helplessly. JJ answers for the both of them. "No idea, he killed Jedi too. Jedi Masters."

"Organa probably won't cave but this couldn't have come at a better time for him. Convention week in Florida, and all the news is about is Vader?" Daisy smiles.

She's…

She's legitimately happy about this.

"You know he'll be flying out here next week." JJ comments to Daisy before coming to stop on the video.

"My sources inside his campaign are already planning stuff." Daisy fires right back.

"Play it," Sabine asks JJ. "I want to hear what he said."

JJ complies, and the snapshot of a sterile Tv set, mostly white with Vos and a female anchor standing next to a board. "Alright Q, I think we got the board working now—" Somebody off-screen jokes.

"Now walk us through this. Just what do you see, what you think he's thinking…" The anchor beside Vos asks him.

Vos, who is dressed in a suit for the occasion nods. "Okay, first just his stance. His posture. The mindset of a Jedi is patience, to wait and allow the Force to dictate what you should; do next. You have to be open and listen. Look at his posture. He's up—" Vos used a laser pointer to highlight that I'm looming large over the entire scene.

I just landed by the gate.

"And he immediately advances. Boom—Boom—You ever seen a Jedi knock somebody out cold with their fists?" Vos asks the room.

"No." A male voice answers coldly.

"Exactly! Hand to hand combat is taught, of course, but it's not the option you go to. The entire philosophy the Jedi have been telling us, rarely albeit, that is getting ignored here. It's not about fighting, it's about how you fight."

"You don't think he's displaying the traits and attributes the Jedi say that he's capable of displaying."

"Very well said Lisa." Vos agrees. "If he is, he certainly didn't in this situation."

"Which is another problem entirely." Another male voice says, and the camera cuts. "He's already demonstrated the kind of person he is. And now, years into his…whatever you want to call it? He's still, looking like a Sith to a trained eye. To me it just looks like a bunch of awesome lights swinging around. Imma be honest with you all—"

Everyone laughs on the TV, along with Matt, Sabine, and Daisy.

"Do you see anything good?"

Vos nods as the camera cuts back to him. "He's clearly very strong. He has kept the remarkable power he flashed all those years ago. He maintains his focus on his goal and completely destroyed whatever Maul's plan was."

"What do you think the plan was?"

Vos visually looks unsure. "I can't say. All we have to go off of is the statement from the White House that it was a joint operation that went awry."

JJ clicks the controller and the video stops. "The rest of it's boring stuff. They go back to the board."

That was the best part.

He's right. He's…

He's absolutely right. He and Dooku. And I'm sure the Council will bring that point home to roost.

It looks very bad.