Little bit of info I learned actually insinuates that 'Fulcrum' wasn't only Ahsoka's callsign in The Rebellion, but of several informants. I probably missed this when I got the opportunity to watch some of Rebels but after a while worked picked up and never got to finish.

ALSO THIS WILL BE THE CHAPTER WITH THE BIG TIME-SKIP.

Yes, there have been minor time-skips and I could keep fleshing things out but I feel like I don't need to drag this out without too much or an idea and frankly I am going to be pretty busy with my work hours as they are. I won't jump to the battle of Endor or anything that far down the line, but definitely want to do some more inquisitor battles, maybe even do some stuff with Rebels provided I can finish watching the series and don't forget that Starkiller/Galen Marek is still waiting in the wings!

All credit to respective owners.

-Y.A.R.N.

The newly identified Ahsoka didn't seem to care that Cere knew her — or at least her name — as the Torgruta nimbly leapt out of strike range and flipped her blades into a shien grip. Her eyes flicked between Cal, Cere, and Xavier as they ignited their saber and took their stances. Her eyes lingered on Merrin and her mouth twisted into a tight frown at the night-sister. The tension was only growing as she assessed how best to incapacitate each of them if it came to a fight when she was outnumbered. Cal shifted subtly to shield Merrin by pushing her behind him as he met Ahsoka's gaze without fear or apprehension.

"We are not your enemy." Merrin offered, noting Ahsoka's focus, "We don't mean any harm, we simply wished to speak with Senator Organa."

"I hope you don't mind if I can't just take your word on that?" Ahsoka replied, "Bail is a good friend and I take his and his family's protection very seriously."

Thinking that Cal probably wouldn't help given what limited information he had of other Jedi as he was constantly on a ship for the majority of his time with Jaro Tapal, Cere stepped up to greet the Torgruta.

It wasn't exactly small news around the Temple when The Chosen One had taken on an apprentice and who that apprentice was. It wasn't small news that a certain padawan had nearly been imprisoned for bombing the temple when the culprit had been apprehended moments before sentencing. Ahsoka Tano had been the topic of much musing and discussion during The Clone Wars as being just as lucky and headstrong just like Anakin Skywalker.

The student truly took after their master.

"Jedi Knight Tano." Cere greeted calmly, "It's good to meet you. I am Jedi Knight Cere Junda and these are my friends, we came to speak to Bail Organa about the future of the Jedi Order and possible locations or pockets of rebellion against The Empire."

Ahsoka's blades dipped slightly, "The future of the Jedi Order?"

Cal took this moment to chime in, "My name is Cal Kestis. I was a former padawan to Jedi Master Jaro Tapal, and survived Order 66 thanks to him. That was several years ago, after five years of keeping my head down I was forced out of hiding and have been fighting The Empire ever since. Right now though? We are trying to find a place to hide and hone our skills, we were hoping Senator Organa could maybe point us in the right direction as he is one of the few senators who publicly decries The Empire."

Ahsoka shifted out of her stance but kept her lightsabers lit, "Who are the two with you?"

Xavier decided not to dither for his introduction, "Xavier Gray, son of Jedi Falon Gray and currently training to be a Jedi."

Xavier had debated long and hard about whether he should claim that title, but in the end he decided it was truer than anything else. He may not have been naturally born from Falon himself, but he was the template that Xavier came from. Frankly of the millions of failed attempts and abominations of a Jedi clone Kamino had made before the dumb luck of a stabilized product of him and his 'brother' was a fluke. He heard — even seen a couple — of the hundred upon hundreds of failed and mutilated attempts; all of the failures having a sensitivity to The Force, but bodies and mind completely mutated by the process used. The Kaminoans had tried to see why they were stable and sane, but no matter what they tried to do — everything from perfectly recreating the process, using their samples as a basis for the experiment, and even reusing the very tubes they came from — to replicate the 'success' of X-1 and X-2, nothing worked. It may have been The Force, it may have been saboteurs, it may have been pure dumb luck, but it was what it was. He was his own person and made his own decisions; so while he may not have been what was intended, but he was what was there and that was enough for him.

Merrin followed soon after, "I am Merrin, training as Xavier is. I am the last of my sisters and I intend to one day be a Jedi."

"You're a night-sister of Dathomir." Ashoka said, frowning in clear mistrust, "Like Asajj Ventress."

Cere's mouth tightened as she had heard enough about the sith assassin; Asajj Ventress had been a long-time thorn in the Jedi's side throughout The Clone Wars as she served Count Dooku before apparently vanishing off the face of the galaxy. Still, Merrin was a part of their family and Cere wasn't willing to leave anyone behind after all that they had been through and what they had endured.

She had done that once and it cost her almost everything she loved.

Never again.

If Ashoka or Bail would not help them, then there was nothing here for them.

Merrin closed here eyes and her shoulders slumped, "Perhaps the last night-sister of Dathomir, The Clone Wars sought to that. I never participated in the battles with the Jedi but recently left Dathomir to find myself and be with my new family."

Ahsoka seemed to mull over that statement, "So why do you want to speak to Bail? He's just a former senator."

Cere smiled, The Force humming in her ear the words she needed, "We both know that isn't exactly true now, is it? After all, why are you here then? Also, The Force pointed us to talk to him, and we trust it."

Ahsoka hesitated before she deactivated her lightsabers as Cal's group did as well, "Just be warned, you try anything to harm him and I will not hesitate."

Ahsoka was good to her word and guards lead the group to a sort of council room where usually governors and other important figures gathered. Now it was empty save a impeccably dressed man in expensive clothing and two decorated guards. Bail Organa had the presence of a man who was able to speak and navigate potentially difficult situations when it came to politics. An polite and disarming smile glowed on his face as he saw their little group as he formally greeted Cere and the rest. Cal frowned as he realized exactly how little he had been aware of since his time as a Padawan, Scrapper, or Jedi Knight.

As a Jedi on the run, he never really had the time to be in one place, and Dantooine wasn't exactly a culturally rich planet. It was farm world for general farming and not much else, except — in his and his family's case — occasionally scuffling with the Kath Hounds and Kinrath while engaging in various forays in exploring the temple and caves that resided there to see if there were more in the ancient temple to see other than the Kyber caves. Not much given how badly time had ravaged the ancient ruins and broke the building and masonry down to simple chunks of rock and dust.

With Cere talking with Bail to one side while Cal approached Ashoka who waited patiently on the side, "So you survived the purge?"

Ahsoka turned to face him with a wan smile, "Yes… It wasn't easy but I managed to survive thanks to the help of an old friend and recently joined up with the Rebellion after Bail found me and a run in with an inquisitor. I wanted to help people bring down The Empire and restore The Republic; I know I have a long road ahead but I can't just turn a blind eye to it all when people need help."

Cal smiled as he knew how Ahsoka felt, "It must be nice to be a Jedi and working towards helping people again."

Ahsoka frowned and shook her head, "I'm not a Jedi. Not anymore."

Cal tilted his head in confusion, "You're not? I thought with the lightsabers and all…"

Ahsoka palmed one of her lightsabers and her hand gently traced the hilt with her fingers while her eyes gained a distant look, "While I was a Jedi Knight during the purge, there was a time I left The Order before that because I lost faith. I came back, but the purge happened and now I think that all of this taught me that maybe I just can't be a Jedi… and I accepted that I don't have to be a Jedi to do the right thing. That all because I walk a different path, it doesn't mean that I am going astray or going to become a monster."

Cal stared and suddenly smiled as though the Togruta was the answer to all the questions he had, "You abandoned the old ways too?"

Ahsoka turned to him in surprise, "What do you mean? Aren't you a Jedi Knight?"

Cal leaned back and stared at the ceiling, "I guess I am but… Cere knighted me informally as there really isn't a council to do it for me. But things aren't they way they used to be since the age of the original Jedi and the creation of The Empire. Everything has changed and I guess that maybe I don't want to be a formal Jedi if I can't make something new that will be better and actually be able to last and adapt. When I was on the run, I came across some people who taught me that maybe being a traditionalist Jedi just isn't feasible for the way things are anymore. From what they told me, the stagnation, arrogance, and overall detachment of the The Jedi Order was what really contributed to their downfall, not just the war. The galaxy had changed but the Jedi acted as though it was the same place from a millennia ago and didn't care. The Force has guided me onto a new path I hadn't considered and I've been much more at peace because of it. I guess I never considered there was more out there than simply The Sith and The Jedi; I mean Merrin used the force even though it wasn't the way I knew it. There is so much that we just don't know or haven't seen, there is something out there for what's left of the future of the Jedi. I know it."

Ahsoka smiled and leaned back as Cal did, "It's a radically different galaxy than before. We need to adapt if we want to survive."

Cal laughed, "I can't agree more."

Cal grimaced as he caught Ahsoka's lightsaber before twisting out of the way of her second saber, trying to slice at her a she slipped away like water. He backed away under the rain of Ashoka's attack, their lightsabers crashing in a series of crackles and sparks as they dueled across a large hall Bail had emptied for Ahsoka when she felt like training. They were not leaving to join a cell immediately as Bail himself said that he needed time for his slicers to open channels to what rebel cells were open to accepting Jedi. With that somewhat disheartening news, they stayed at the world for a couple of days, the life output of the residents providing a moderate amount of cover for their light. Cal had wanted to see how his Jar'Kai matched up against someone who had long since been using the style. Cere had agreed that it would be a good idea to see just how far he had to go when it came to his lightsaber skills and let Ahsoka provide over his teaching while she focused on helping Xavier and Merrin.

So far?

Cal was hilariously outmatched.

Ahsoka was lightning fast and more flexible than he could have thought; compared to Ashoka level of mastery in Jar'Kai, he may as well have been a untrained boy waving two lightsabers around (which was depressingly close to the truth than he would've liked to admit). She must have been practicing for years in that style for her to be able to pull off all the stunts and dodges she did. A foot hit his chest and pushed off, sending him stumbling back as Ahsoka vaulted away sabers whirling around her. She was constantly moving and ducking away from his strikes and her blade subtly moving to knock is strikes off just enough so that she had the gap to dance out of his range. Cal drew back, taking a moment to just observe their fight so far, what her strategy was and how her fighting style worked as he caught his breath.

She was liquid ferocity and fluid grace all combined into a beautiful style that made Cal wish he could keep this training up till he was just as skilled.

Honestly his Jar'Kai was still middling at best, he almost exclusively used it to break guards with heavy-handed blows since all the way back on Dathomir; even with all his training with Zhar, Vandar, and Revan, they were honing his connection to the force more while he sparred sparingly with them. No doubt that their training had definitely made him stronger than when he was fleeing from Vader or beating Trilla, but he was still at the level of a somewhat-experienced knight. If anything, his unpolished basics and inexperience with the two lightsabers was actually keeping him from fighting back as well as he could even with his single-blade style; even with his double-saber — something he had worked hard to improve on since he had seen Jaro Tapal practice tirelessly over the years he had been his padawan and during as well as after his quest for the holocron — he was far, far more skilled than his Jar'Kai. But he was beginning to grow better with it — he knew he was — he just needed to curb his impatience. No one became a master in a week, true mastery of any lightsaber style took an investment of years and even now he was still only scratching at the tip of his potential.

"Do you want to switch to a single saber or your double-saber?" Ahsoka asked, idly twirling a saber in her hand "I know you handle using one saber better than two."

Cal frowned but shook his head, "No… I am already decent with a single saber, but I need to learn this. I don't want to place all my eggs in a single basket, that's just arrogance and planning for failure."

Ahsoka smiled and slid into her stance, flipping her lightsabers into a shien grip, "Alright. Let's get back to it."

Cal sat in front of Merrin, his eyes closed as his fingertips were pressed against hers, training in her magicks as Ashoka and Cere watched from the sides. It was the first time he was going to be taught by Merrin about her magicks and felt a bit nervous about it. He wasn't worried about Merrin hurting him or him being unable to do it, but the last time he met someone who mixed both was Malicos and he knew Merrin was also remembering the fallen Jedi when she did this for him. Still, he wanted to know her magic, and not just because it would help him get stronger, but to help Merrin know she contributed so much more than she did. She didn't doubt her place in the group anymore, be he could feel the melancholy insecurity when Cere taught him and Xavier when she was resting. He felt the sensation of the green fire he had seen Merrin conjure on multiple occasions wrap around his hands and tapped into The Force to get a better feel for it.

Different, but familiar.

It just felt like Merrin.

The biggest issue was that Merrin said that her magicks relied heavily on the ichor that ran through her body like blood and only then could she uses the spells she managed to learn over her time on Dathomir. Normally, the nightsister would be baptized in the ichor that emanated from the planet's core, but they still had no idea what had been going on with Dathomir and no one wanted to head back. Malicos had tasted only the briefest amount of the ichor from the planet in his attempts to learn Merrin's magic and that experience caused the perversion and fall of the former Jedi Master. Cal may not have even been capable of using any of her magic without it, but if there was a chance to try, he wasn't going to back away. He prodded Merrin's flames with his senses and there was a a definite shadow of darkness that was intertwined in the magic as she gently let it pulse from her hands. Cal frowned at it but let his own flickers of Force Judgment trickle out and tangle with the green fire that Merrin wielded, twining them together. The fire flashed and crackled with the lightning as they danced with each other, neither trying to outshine the other but simply coexisting.

Merrin finally opened her eyes and Cal did the same, both of them noting how each other's force abilities felt.

"That wasn't what I expected." Cal murmured, "It's similar to using the force to heat things to a flame. Revan's book had mentioned it as a useful technique to survive extreme temperatures, but using it to create the flame whip and ichor spheres… I can't believe I never considered that…"

"All of our attacks are fueled by the ichor in our veins and the life force around us." Merrin explained, "As you call The Living Force, it the same thing with a different name that stems from our planet."

Cal flexed his fingers, "It's different than anything I felt before. There's a shadow of darkness in the magic, but it's not exactly the dark side. More like… it was muted? Not quite the blackness of The Dark Side but definitely not The Light Side either."

"We use abilities that are derived of The Dark Side." Merrin explained, "However when we use these dark abilities we are also trained to find the balance to stay ourselves. It is delicate balance and we often traverse the two sides of The Force and takes years of discipline to keep balanced."

Cal nodded to himself and clenched a fist, determination flashing across his features as he turned to Merrin, "Then let's keep going."

She smiled and nodded, "Very well."

Cal blocked a fist before Merrin spun on her heel and swept his legs out from under him, knocking him flat on his back. He groaned and sat up, ignoring the sound of what suspiciously sounded like a stifled beeping and laugh from BD-1 and Cere; he gave a unamused glare at Xavier at the clone's unabashed grin. Merrin simply offered a hand and hauled Cal to his feet and waited for him to gather himself and set himself back into a ready stance. He was never truly without protection so long as he had The Force — leaving aside the fact he knew Force Imbue and had a decent grasp of Tutaminis — but decided that he should also train his body if he ever had to fight and not reveal his overt force powers. Adding that to reading the book Revan had left, his attempts to replicate the night-sister magics, and just resting from those alone, they hadn't had too much to do. Their small stint of time spent on Alderaan was mainly used up with Cal working with Ashoka to hone his Jar'kai before they decided to at least do something more proactive that let them move around; while Cal still wasn't anywhere close to her skill level, but he had improved considerably under her tutelage. The Mantis Crew continued on their way after being inducted into the 'Fulcrum' detachments that Bail sent out to more covert operations and information gathering around the galaxy.

They couldn't risk their presence on the planet for too long as it was as they still had to a long way to go before they could fully shield themselves in The Force to provide a smokescreen from any inquisitors or Vader finding them by simply focusing. Once they finally managed that or The Rebellion beat The Empire and peace was achieved — whichever came first — they could probably establish a home planet that they could stay on indefinitely.

Bail had reached out to his contacts among The Rebel Alliance, but their positions were a bit too precarious or too zealous to accept a even a single Jedi, let alone a group of Jedi. The fledging Alliance's needed security and loyalty — which was not easy with the full might of The Empire on the other side of the line — and if there were those who weren't wholly convinced or loyal to the cause found out about a Jedi in their midst, it was very possible that they would sell out the Jedi for the bounty that The Empire had on any surviving Jedi and Rebel Alliance information. On the other side of the coin, if the troops found that a Jedi was helping them fight, they might strike out without restraint or control, bolstered by a confidence that one Jedi was all that was needed to win every fight. That sort of attack was bound to result in innocent casualties and that was an unacceptable cost; if the Rebel Alliance didn't need one thing aside from their people not being loyal, it would be acts that made them no more than homicidal terrorists.

Staying on Alderaan wasn't feasible despite the fact that it was decently safe, so instead Bail had them on several scouting missions under the guise of relief efforts since it was what Alderaan was loved for. Cal was more for fighting the good fight and dismantling Imperial outposts — being more physically active — but it was best he kept his head down for now, there wasn't a desperate time crunch as before and they all still had to learn so much more and grow before he could truly face The Empire in a real capacity.

But he had time.

They all had time.