Author's Note:
Falcona, I'm still not seeing how directing you to more hints on someone's identity is 'shooting a guess down', but sorry if I came across that way. You were right about the shaper. :) I would've e-mailed that (in fact, I've tried) but for some reason I can't send email, anymore; only receive.
Thanks, DarkSith—Uh, do you mind if I don't put that last part? I'm still trying to figure out what I think of angel's common usage… Anyway, I'm immensely relieved that people besides my friends and their parents like my stuff. :)
This came faster than I expected. I need another RAM card before I can update my system.

Chapter content: mainly Tahiri, Luke & Kyp talking to (different) odd people.
Enjoy! :)

Nineteen

Vreep! Vreep! Vreep! Vreep!
She groaned. Stupid alarm! Eyes squeezed shut, Tahiri rolled over and slapped the alarm off. The sudden pain in her stomach took her breath away.
I need more exercise.
Squinting, she opened her eyes. She had to do something about that impersonal gray paint.
Her comm beeped.
Sighing, she got carefully out of bed and answered. "Jedi Veila."
"Tahiri? It's Barriss. Meet you for breakfast?"
She almost laughed. A dead Jedi asking her for breakfast. She could see Jaina throwing a fit. Yeah, and you've married a dead Jedi, genius.
That thought soured her humor. "Why?"
"Don't you want to hear how grandpa's doing?"
"Very funny." When Tahiri thought about it, she realized she didn't even know this woman. "And I think Master Skywalker should get that report."
"That's why I'm giving it to you."
Tahiri wondered if Barriss was one of those who wasn't fazed by anything. "Why don't you give it to Master Luke?"
"Me? Like I'd be able to get in the same room as him!"
"What do you mean?" Getting irritated by this conversation, Tahiri found herself snapping.
Silence came over the comm for several seconds before Barriss spoke again, and then tentatively. "Breakfast? This'll be easier in person."
Tahiri scowled, but realized breakfast with someone who'd known Anakin Skywalker pre-Darth Vader could be anything but uninteresting.
"Fine." Peeved at Barriss's success, she slapped off the comm and flopped back on the bed. After a moment, she groaned and smacked the comm back on. "Where?"
"Pick a place. I'll meet you." Before Tahiri could reply, the dead woman continued, "It'll be on me."
This time, Barriss cut the connection.
Pick a place. I'll meet you. Tahiri frowned. What was the woman, a telepath?

"All right! What Force mumbo-jumbo happened?"
Jedi Master Luke Skywalker turned to face his friend. "Han?"
Glaring, Han pointed accusingly at him. "Some Force thing put Leia in a coma last night!"
"A coma?" Luke frowned. "Hm. The shock of it, probably."
"What shock? What happened?"
"Jaina nearly had a heart attack, and her fellow pilot nearly killed himself to spare her." He spoke with a straight face. "You want more details, ask Leia when she's better."
When Luke thought about it, Leia's reaction to Father's Force-presence wasn't all that surprising. After all, he'd been startled, and he'd both had warning and known, already. He guessed he could start worrying if she didn't wake up in a few days.
Han's anger shot upward. "Look, kid—"
"Han, the only one who can describe what happened is Leia herself. I only know of a few things I experienced and am, as you can see, unaffected by."
Liar, old Ben's voice coughed in his mind, and he smiled. "I don't know what exactly Leia experienced to affect her like it has."
She probably doesn't, either. Luke coughed slightly to avoid a larger smile.
"Excuse me, Solo," the friend of Senator Whitesun's secretary stood in the doorway behind Han. "Could you please excuse us?" Enforcing his words with a mild pressure to the shoulder, the man soon had Han Solo out the door, and shut it.
Slowly, the tall man turned to face Luke, calm and collected. "I am Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn."
"Jedi Master Luke Skywalker," he returned, lips quirked, "But I'm sure you already know that."
Master Jinn nodded in reply, brow furrowed. "I… have noticed you have some… different practices, than the old Order."
Luke hid a smile as he waved the man to a chair. "So, what do you want to critique? Our marriages? Our Council? Our children…?"
Apparently surprised, Master Jinn gave him a measuring look.
"Vergere gave me a reprimand, already, you see."
"Vergere?" The man's blue eyes lit up and twinkled, his lips turning up at the edges. "Critiquing Jedi children? Really?"
"Is that surprising?"
The dead Jedi Master drew a breath. "Not really," he admitted. "But Vergere's Master—her… instructor—left the Order several times for the sole purpose of having children. The woman tried to convince her old classmate to do the same. Jedi Master and senior Council member Mace Windu." He shook his head. "No ground given there."
If he hadn't felt his father's Force-energy himself, he would've thought he was going crazy, trusting this man. "Who was Vergere's Master?"
"Thracia Cho Leem."
"Thracia… ?" asked Luke, but he remembered. 'None of my concern? So Vergere isn't yours?' Yni had snapped. "You mean…"
"Vergere was Thracia's apprentice." A wry smile showed that Master Jinn didn't mind his questions. "Once Vergere passed training, she was free to take an apprentice—your nephew, I've heard—and Thracia was freed to train another. Recently she chose Yni Lecarr."
The man's face grew distant. "Of course, that is only if the Council approves, and… and if the Jedi desires an apprentice," he finished quietly.
Luke was intrigued, but any response he could have made was interrupted by Master Jinn's commlink. "Yes?"
"Qui-Gon?"
Luke watched the dead Jedi Master's face become a mask as Senator Whitesun's secretary spoke his name.
"What is it?"
Silence.
Finally, "…I'm sorry, Qui-Gon." A trace of gentleness came through.
"Tahl?" Concerned, his knuckles turned white from clenching the commlink.
"I've found your… I've found your former Master."
Alarm showed on the man's face. "He isn't with you, is he?"
The secretary laughed wryly. "I'm not that overconfident, Qui-Gon. He's on Ryloth." She paused. "…I think. Anyway, you were the one assigned to write that report for the Council."
Luke's jaw dropped. "The old Council's back, too?"
"Many of them. For now, at least." Tahl sounded vaguely amused. "Now if a particular Jedi Master would obey his mandate…"
"Of course I will." Master Qui-Gon Jinn smiled fondly. "I'll be right over, Tahl."
"I should hope so," was her dry response, and he clicked off his commlink.
"I have to go, I'm afraid. Tahl's the only reason I was here in the first place." He hesitated. "That is to say, I needed her informational skills as a resource."
Luke could tell the other man was immensely embarrassed. "That's all right. I wouldn't think it of you—I know about the old Order's 'no attachments' rule."
"I see." If anything, Luke's encouraging statement discomfited Master Jinn even more. "She is… an old friend of mine. I'd appreciate it if someone kept an eye on her and the Senator."
Luke nodded. "Of course."
As he watched Master Jinn leave, he couldn't help but feel his opportunity to learn about the old Order went with him.

"Didn't I tell you to leave?"
Jedi Master Kyp Durron turned from the window to face the woman in the bed. "That was last time I entered."
Her eyes narrowed at him, stress lines creasing their edges. Senator Whitesun had suffered from cardiac arrest about the time a critically wounded young pilot had been wheeled into the next room. In all the commotion, she was lucky a doctor had noticed.
"Luck is a myth," she said bitterly.
Kyp grinned at her. "Hey, now. Just because you've had it a little worse than most—"
"Quit while you're ahead, Durron." Her eyes closed, she let herself lie in her pillow.
His smile dissolved. What in the galaxy did that mean? He sighed. By the Force politicians were frustrating!
"I'm here as your bodyguard." He'd toss it straight to her, see how she responded.
Misti Whitesun was suddenly supporting herself on two straight, wavering arms, alarmed. "On whose behest?"
He raised his hands placatingly. "Peace, Senator. You're in mortal danger. That's enough of a 'behest' for me."
Slowly, she lowered herself back into bed, studying him every centimeter of the way. "And is it your practice to search for an endangered being and assist it?"
"Sometimes." He grinned again.
Inexplicably, Senator Misti Whitesun flopped her pillow on her face and groaned.
Had he not known better, he would've thought she'd said 'Not again…'

Author's Note:
The Vergere/Thracia thing is actually not of my making. Thracia's a Healer, a peer of Mace Windu's, who keeps leaving the Order to have kids and returning to pester Mace into having some, himself. …Though she vanishes after she gives young Anakin some advice in Rogue Planet…
If I'm messing up on Kyp or anybody, please tell me. I'm not feeling too comfortable with how I manage some of these characters.
…You do know the review button's there for a reason, right? :)