Aang and Jo arrived at Tatooine. Neither of them had a good feeling about the mission; but Aang believed he was doing what had to be done, and Jo just couldn't believe they could find any results anytime soon. The sight of an enormous desert planet made Jo shiver, ironically.
"Where do we even begin?" Jo asked with a wavering tone.
Aang sensed his concern and looming fear, but only replied, "The hotspot."
"The hotspot's hotspot. That makes, total sense. Where exactly would that be?" Jo asked, shrugging off his concern.
Aang was about to answer, but found his memory fumbling with the name. "I, seem to have forgotten. It's been a long time since I've been here."
Jo sat back in the co pilot's seat, eyebrows raised. 'What are we even doing?' He thought. "Do you at least remember how to get there?"
"That- yes, I do. . . I think." Aang mumbled the last part.
Mos Eisley was a big landmark, not only known for the despicable figures lurking there, but for renowned pilots, spies, and informants. The further into Tatooine Aang flew, the more he remembered. Aang realized he was going the wrong way.
"Oh that's right." He said, suddenly swerving the ship around. Jo shook around in his seat.
"Force' sake, Aang!" Jo shouted, tightly bracing himself.
"Sorry about that."
"Look I know you're old, but you don't have to drive like it!"
Aang let that comment slide.
Shortly, Jo spotted a settlement on the horizon and pointed towards it.
"That's where we're going." Aang clarified.
They landed in one of the spaceports, paid their toll, and took a look around.
"First things first, I'll need some lubricant and cleaning fluids." Jo said.
"We're going to Mos Eisley Cantina." Aang replied, initially ignoring Jo.
"That works too; they have good substitutes."
Mos Eisley Cantina was much less popular these days. A few decades passed since the Empire's death, and people slowly learned more and more about Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, and his history. That led to the full abolition of slavery across the galaxy. That made a lot of people lose money, and interest in business on Tatooine. Podraces were shut down, because slave dealers and traders, and crime bosses were mostly involved. Tatooine was just a desert planet now. Except it wasn't, and that's why Aang and Jo are here.
They kept their hoods on as they walked through Tatooine's roads, covering up their Jedi garb. The Republic created many enemies when they destroyed all business on Tatooine, so the two of them did not want to attract too much attention. Although the two of them, their whole team overall, were not directly affiliated with the Republic, people here would not see it that way.
Aang and Jo entered Mos Eisley Cantina and looked around. Aang approached the bar table. He heard Jo follow him, but looked back with a stranged look as he didn't hear any beeping when Jo passed through.
Jo looked back too, wondering what Aang was looking at. He wasn't alive the time this cantina didn't allow droids, but still knew about it. Jo thought Aang expected the alarm to go off when he passed his mostly-metal body through, so he clarified, "Oh they took that out a while back. Check it out." Jo said, pointing to the bartender, who happened to be a droid.
Aang blinked as he processed the information. "How long has it been since you've been here?" Jo asked.
"I think I was last here when the Empire was defeated. I saw the broadcast here." Aang answered as they both sat down at the table.
The droid scanned over Aang and Jo's faces, unsure what to make of them. "I will need to see your IDs."
"We're not here to drink." Aang said. "We're here for information."
"You'll have to be more specific." The droid replied.
"Is there anyone we can talk to that specializes in unsolved things? Mysterious stuff and the likeness?" Aang asked.
"Searching. . ." The droid said, his memory databanks whirring. Aang and Jo heard the buzzing from its head. After a moment, the droid replied. Its head turned to a booth and pointed to the figure. "He may be able to help."
"Thanks." Aang said, leaving some credits onto he table.
"I do not require credits for information." The droid said.
"It's for him." Aang said, jutting a thumb at Jo.
The droid looked at Jo, waiting for a request.
"I just need good-enough containers of 'energizing fluid' for my mechanical functions, and oil to keep my metal joints easily mobile." Jo said.
Aang sat casually across from the Rodian the droid pointed him to. He was about to speak, but the Rodian clearly had something on his mind and beat Aang to it.
"In order to understand the galaxy's mysteries, you have to be aware of everything around you. I'm no stranger to the unique figures that come 'round these parts, so you're going to have to work harder to hide your Jedi identities." The Rodian said. Aang subtly gripped his lightsaber hilt, prepared to sacrifice a little bit in case this Rodian had them made. "But my natural curiosity has -yet again- got the better of me." The Rodian leaned forward and asked quietly, "What mystery has the Jedi so involved that you've come here for the likes of me for help?"
"A Rodian speaking perfect Basic is not very common, so I must have come to the right one." Aang replied. "I assume you know of the mysterious purges of military bases all around the Outer Rim?"
"Who doesn't? What's it to you? Ya' upset that people took away something you hold dear?"
"Many lives were taken in those attacks. I have an inside source that tells me the hidden base of that criminal organization is here on Tatooine."
"And why should I help you?" The Rodian asked, crossing his arms and leaning back.
"I am not affiliated with the Republic. I lead a small team of Jedi that operates outside the Republic."
"E'eryone around here believes the Jedi are guilty by association. 'Affiliated' or not."
"You won't help us." Aang assumed from the negative-sounding responses he'd consistently received.
"Us?" The Rodian asked.
"Your emotions distracted you from noticing the other one I came here with."
Jo appeared -seemingly out of nowhere- outside the booth, behind the Rodian. "Hey there." He said cheekily.
The Rodian slowly turned to face Jo. When he met him eye-to-eye, it remained that way. For a moment, there was some strong familiarity between them. "Where have I seen you before?"
"You seem familiar too." Jo said, scanning him. The Rodian matched one he encountered long ago, one whose life he saved. When he remembered, he snapped his fingers. "Loren Hospital! Two years ago! A long pole pierced your left side just below the heart." Jo put his hands below his heart, around the ribcage where the mentioned injury happened.
The memory came back to the Rodian. "I was lucky to survive. . . Doctor Loren? Dr. Kell's adopted son?" The Rodian stood up. "Well what the kriff, kid?! You've grown- eh, kind of." He noted that the cybernetic half hindered any normal height growth. Jo had grown, but being a cyborg made the process slower. "I remember hearing about what happened to the place. I thought everyone died."
"The Force willed me to stay alive. I've had a better life since, able to help a lot of people."
Jo mentioning the Force slightly unnerved the Rodian. "You too?"
The question confused Jo. He looked at Aang, who nodded and said, "He knows."
"Yyyyyeah." Jo said, dragging out his response.
The Rodian couldn't turn in the one who saved his life. Matter of fact, 'I owe him, don't I?' He thought. He sat back down, letting out a long exaggerated breath. 'Figures he's a Jedi too.' He thought. Turning his attention back to Aang, he said, "I owe him my life." He pointed behind himself at Jo. "If what you're doing is as important as it seems, I'll help you."
Aang jumped on the subject immediately. "Tell us everything you know about it."
The Rodian drifted his eyes around, reading the room; he noticed there were a few sets of eyes on them. "Not here. There's already too much attention on you."
The team on Kamino managed to pack up a few of the cloning machines, as well as some items from the clone arsenal for evidence; the trooper corpses were covered and disposed of. The circumstances had Rye thinking, "I never thought the Republic would get involved with Kamino again."
"And I was told I wouldn't get involved with the Republic." Exar said passive aggressively.
"We're not going over this again, Exar." Rye said.
Exar quietly scoffed and turned away. "Where do you guys keep evidence like this anyway?" He asked.
"That's classified." Calista butted in. She was leaning against a wall, supervising the work.
"So you don't have any evidence lockers like they show in the holonet programs?" Exar asked.
"No. Those are for show." Calista said with a small, but smug smile.
Exar exaggerated offense with a chuckle. "See now that's some Bantha sh- . . ." Exar's expression transformed from unbelieving to chilled. His eyes stopped moving, and he shivered. "He's here."
Rye sensed something wrong and quietly asked Exar, "Mirtis isn't coming back is he?"
"No. It's him."
"Who?" Erickson asked. He was smart, but couldn't always put two and two together.
Calista knew something was up. She raised and extended her hand, halting her team's progress. Everyone froze.
Exar closed his eyes, delving into his senses. He sensed Erk where he was; where Erk was, destruction usually followed. And they were in a hot spot. 'A wet spot.' He thought.
A shadow grew behind Calista, slowly and silently. A blade was drawn, about to strike her down.
Exar spotted Erk and immediately went to action. In a flash, he used the Force to pull Calista away and swung his own lightsaber at Erk, batting Erk's blade away. "You're surrounded. Surrender."
"Who is this?" Calista asked quietly.
"Remember that group I told you about? Meet its top student. Erk, the one of many nicknames." He said with an annoyed tone.
"Don't patronize me. You betrayed us."
"I did NOT! Stop telling everyone that!" Exar said, pointing his lightsaber at Erk. "What are you even doing here? You're outnumbered, outmatched, and well outgunned."
"I do seem to be outmatched, don't I?" Erk asked.
"Get him." Rye and Calista said. Suddenly, everyone dropped what they had and shot their blasters at him. It was a rather large barrage of energy blasts for Erk to handle at once. He disappeared in a puff of smoke, but not before whispering a message to Exar.
"You led your people to their doom."
His first thought was the Zabraks on Dathomir II. "My people are in danger." He said suddenly.
"What?"
"Who?"
"I'm pretty sure we're all in danger."
Voices all around him, confused at Exar's sudden outburst. "He was provoked. He's going after my kind on Dathomir II now."
The revelation of a Dathomir II surprised everyone except Rye and Erickson. "This is getting out of hand." Calista said, rubbing her forehead. "Now there are three of them."
"He said two." One of the team members said.
"Two Dathomirs and Iridonia. The Zabraks are repopulating." Said a clearly unpleasant Calista.
"You can't go off on your own, Exar. I'm sorry." Rye said.
"I don't want to go on my own." Exar said. "Just all of us in this room were enough to overpower Erk. We can beat him if we catch him there. The Sith will be extinguished!"
Calista became interested. The thought that she could be on the mission to end the manhunt for the Sith and officially establish peace filled her with optimism and pride. "Finish loading everything up. We have a new course."
The quick compliance shocked even Exar. Everyone obeyed and moved double time, moving to get everything they had onto their ships.
Calista stepped aside to call Bolen via hologram, to update him on the news.
"I trust you have good news, because we. . . really don't have anything except that someone somewhere has hands on more of this mysterious substance." Bolen said, a hand dragging across his exhausted face.
Calista had forgotten about that. The thought of the mysterious element and the Sith clashed together, and she thought she had an answer. "We're hot on the trail of the Sith. We're following him to, eh, Dathomir II."
Bolen only stared, his frozen expression saying several things. "Calista, I love you, but you've got to stop messing with me."
"I didn't believe it myself." Calista said quietly, surveying the room to make sure Exar wasn't listening. "The thought of more of them running around." She faux shivered. "Overly aggressive creatures, they are." She whispered.
"Okay, people have a right not to like other people or species, but that's something you ought to keep to yourself. It's people who act on those feelings that make all others so aggressive."
Calista's feelings about Zabraks centered around everything she knew about Darth Maul and his brother. Old Jedi tales, pirate legends, even underworld stories; but primarily one experience she never talked about. Other than that, Calista had only heard of badly off stories about Zabraks, and not much about positive ones.
A thought occurred to Bolen and he had to ask, "How did you figure out where the Sith was going?"
"He was here, and told Exar that he had doomed his kind."
"He was there, and didn't fight?" He asked, concern and fear in his voice.
"Why do you seem so off put all of a sudden?"
"Calista, listen to me, you're walking into a trap if he's luring you somewhere else instead of taking you head on here."
"We overwhelmed him here, so that'd probably be a smart move for him." She said with a sarcastic chuckle.
Bolen knew Calista wasn't that stupid. He sensed another motive for her wanting to follow Erk to Dathomir II. "Calista, it's probably better that planet remains neutral. Involvement with the Republic will only put a bigger target on them."
"If we took them for the Republic, we'd be able to keep an eye on them." She said quietly, not sure how well this was coming across. She felt it was hard, not being force-sensitive and married to a Jedi.
"Keep an eye on them?" Bolen asked, raising an eyebrow.
She gave up and simply didn't respond.
Bolen sighed. "Calista, I too know the power of scars, but I don't let it consume me. Now I'm more dedicated than ever to keeping the galaxy safe by eliminating the threat of the Sith. Why don't you guys wait for me? I'll be able to give more support."
"But the element-"
"Will reveal no more than we already know about it now. You know how I get when I'm cooped up like this."
"I couldn't stop you if I tried." Calista said.
"I'll get going soon. And please, Calista, try to work on yourself. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor are supposed to be unbiased."
Exar peeped from a door on their floor level. "Ey, they're uh, all waiting for you." He pointed his thumb into the hallway.
Bolen ended the call himself. Calista sighed, put her device away, and caught up with her team.
The team seamlessly boarded their evidence onto the ship, but Exar was still uneasy. In his experience, there was always a catch even to the simplest jobs. He kept his eyes glued to the doors of the facility as he stood guard in front of the ship.
Everyone was prepared for takeoff, but Rye realized Exar was still standing outside the ship. Erickson got up to get him, but Rye stopped him. Erickson gave him a questioning look, then Rye waved his hand down, motioning him to sit back down.
Rye looked at Calista. "Your mission, ma'am. You should be responsible for everyone on the team."
Calista took a deep but quiet breath. She knew what he was doing, but figured Rye and Erickson would refuse to have it any other way; so she decided to save the hassle. She stood out the ship behind Exar.
"We're trying to leave." She said monotonously.
Exar didn't answer for a moment, trying to perfect the sentence he wanted to output. "I can't pretend I don't sense the hostility you feel towards me."
Calista rolled her eyes. She didn't want to deal with this at all, but her ego inflated so much she couldn't leave without having the last word. "So what?"
"All my life I, resisted public images, any sort of coverage. I was raised to defy governments and authorities other than that who raised me."
"Is that supposed to change my outlook on you?"
"No. But do you know what is is that separates people like you and me from the real bad guys?" He managed to take his eyes away from the door to glare at Calista.
"Do enlighten me."
"We put our differences and biases aside to help the greater good, to defeat the greater evil. And in doing so we destroy the evil that lurks within us."
Although Exar's words were a bit cliched, Rye and Erickson were shocked to hear such words coming from him.
"I never took him as the 'wisdom' type, did you know about this?" Erickson whispered to Rye.
"This is, also new to me." Rye answered quietly. 'In just a couple days, we learned of Exar's dark side named Mirtis, and now it seems we have firsthand experience of his own wisdom.' Rye's train of thought went full steam ahead; he wondered how much more of Exar everyone didn't know.
The Follnors tuned back in to Exar and Calista's conversation. "Despite what I'm feeling now, I have to be the bigger man and repress those emotions. Because they're not going to get me anywhere." Exar said.
That statement confused the Follnors. Many experiences in the past have proven that Exar was definitely not one to hold back his emotions; much less to serve the greater good, but rather to serve his own interests. Rye began thinking; he leaned forward, leaning his face on his joined hands. This was a very new side to Exar, and none of the brothers were sure if it was because of the circumstances or because he could have possibly changed. They knew Exar greatly resented the Republic, but the restraint and tolerance he was showing was shocking. It seemed like a good thing, but Rye couldn't help but feel that something was very off about it.
"What's your point?" Calista asked.
"Answer me this: do you think it's proper for such a biased person to hold such a high position of power in the Republic government?"
That bombshell took everyone by surprise. Every eye inside the ship widened as each head turned slowly towards Exar.
Exar noticed each intense stare that bored into his soul. "What? You mean none of you have thought about it before? Why do you think the Jedi were wiped out after the Clone Wars?" Exar felt a bit preachy at the moment. He decided to take this opportunity to vent all the wrongs he had on his mind. "For one, I think if a majority of the Jedi treated their soldiers like people with feelings, rather than manufactured machines, we would've had more survivors like the legend Ahsoka Tano. The Jedi thought so highly of themselves that they never saw any bigger picture, and they were snuffed out, so easily. They focused solely on power that -ironically- they didn't see the mole under their noses until it was too late."
"What's your point, Exar?" Rye asked, standing up. His question was genuinely curious and inquisitive.
"There's always a middle ground, but you're always trying to be better than everyone else; it's that sort of pride that leads to the inevitable downfall. If we decided to put all our biases aside to treat each other like equal beings, this galaxy wouldn't be so war-ridden!"
"Can I ask a question?" One of the guards asked.
Exar looked at him, acknowledging his request.
"Do we have a mole?" The guard asked.
"I'm glad you asked that." Exar said, pointing at him. "I have a question for you higher-ups." He emphasized while sharing looks between Calista and Rye. "Who is it that's leading the Republic?"
"The, Chancellor." Calista answered quietly. Exar's bold statements had genuinely shaken her.
"Duh!" Exar exclaimed. "Who is it?" No one answered. "Am I the only one who thinks about this stuff? Or do you guys choose to be blind? Why do we have a leader with no identity? Why do we have a Chancellor who doesn't show his face? I don't remember any voting seasons in recent years, do you? How and when was this Chancellor put in office? Do we know anything about this person? Any possibility that he's secretly evil?"
Exar had given Calista so much to think about, but thought that the current setting wasn't the proper place to discuss it. "We, should. . . probably not discuss it here." She said.
Exar looked around, and ended up agreeing. "Yeah, let's, let's go." Exar was about to step onboard, but the Force sounded off in his head. At the same moment, he heard a distant engine whirring. He looked up and saw some incoming ships, not of Republic design. And they began firing. "Everyone out of the ship!" He screamed, using as much Force as he could to yank everyone out of the ship. He managed to save everyone he saw before the ship blew up, but forgot about the pilots in the cockpit he couldn't see.
Everyone got up off the ground after being yanked out of the ship and dragged across the landing platform. Exar, facing the ship, turned his head to look at everyone else. "All of you, get inside! I'm going in for the pilots."
Everyone except Rye went on inside. He put a hand on Exar's shoulder. "You're not doing this alone. You can save the pilots, but this evidence is too crucial to lose." He said. Having no time to argue, Exar and Rye charged into the blazing ship.
The Republic team followed Calista into the Kaminoan building, only because they had to; they wanted to stay and fight the incoming enemies. Calista looked back outside and saw stormtroopers offloading onto the bridge between the doors and the landing platform. "Wait what are we doing?!" Calista exclaimed, pulling out her blaster and charged outside, her team following suit.
Exar maneuvered himself around the crates of evidence and the falling flames to get to the cockpit. Most of the ship was made of metal, so he couldn't manually open the cockpit doors or climb the ladder up to it. He used the Force to open the doors, and he jumped up. He looked around the cockpit and saw the pilot and co-pilot unconscious in their seats. He used the Force to release the seat straps and pick them up into the air.
He looked down past the cockpit doors and saw mostly smoke. With limited vision, he didn't have a way to safely get them down. "Master Rye!" He shouted.
Rye had managed to get a few crates out to barricade himself from the blaster fire that was commencing on the bridge. He heard Exar's call and dashed to the ladder under the cockpit door.
"I can't see much down there *cough* I'm going to pass these guys to you, and I need you to take them outside *cough*."
Rye nodded and stretched his hands out, pulling the pilots down to him. When he received both bodies, he pushed them outside away from all the smoke, and laid them down. Exar jumped down and helped Rye move the last couple crates.
"I can help these guys. Help the others." Rye ordered.
Exar nodded and jumped over the crates, lightsaber ignited and ready for action.