Shaak Ti sat down on the cushion and waited patiently for the door to open. The Younglings had just finished a lesson with one of their trainers and would be coming up any minute now. She hadn't found a chance to talk to them further about their vision until now, and she was hoping that they had been able to talk to their fellow Younglings about the veil.

It wasn't often she sought out counsel from children, and it was an odd sensation to depend on a group of Younglings for answers. She spent so much time teaching the Younglings, most of the time teaching them how to control the Force, but it was her that was giving advice in those moments. This was different.

Shaak smiled. She had seen almost every Jedi, Padawan, and Youngling come through the Temple in the past fifteen years or so. She had watched them grow and mature, and she was always happy to see another one of her students pass the Trials of Knighthood. It was an important landmark in their journey, and Shaak was always proud to be even the smallest part of it.

Shaak hadn't recognized the Force signature of the Inquisitor, during their brief encounter on Kiros. She didn't necessarily know why, perhaps it was because she hadn't met her before or maybe it was because of the Darkness in her, but the Inquisitor had never been one of her students. No part of the presence radiating from the Inquisitor hinted at the identity of Ahsoka Tano, at least not to her.

She wanted to contemplate what she ought to say to the Council on the matter, but at that moment her thoughts were interrupted by the six Younglings returning from their training. The door slid open and they came in single file, laughing and joking as they sat in a circle around Shaak Ti, in the same order that they had the other day.

When they all settled and sat silently, Shaak opened her eyes and looked at them all in turn. "How was your training today, little ones?" She asked softly, not wanting to worry them with what was truly on her mind.

"It went well," Ganodi answered, and the others nodded in confirmation. "Our trainers seem pleased with our progress lately."

"We've been talking to others," said Katooni, "about the veil you asked us about. No one else has seen it in their visions."

Shaak nodded slowly. "How many Younglings did you talk to?"

Zatt picked up the conversation. "As many as we saw. It was tough to talk to them outside of class, but we asked during meals and breaks and no one said anything about a veil, or something blocking their visions."

"We even talked to Padawan Dume, and he talked to some of his Padawan friends," Gungi said. "Most of them didn't see it either."

"Most of them?"

Byph answered. "He said some of the older ones did. According to him, the only Padawans who saw the veil were older, almost at the age that they would take the Trials. Most of them were eighteen and older."

Shaak did her best to hid her concern. Older Padawans, just like she had suspected. "Did they say anything about what it was like?"

Ganodi nodded. "Padawan Dume said that the veil was more of a haze to the others, and it formed into their surrounding. Some of them saw things in the haze, and sometimes it spoke to them."

Not good, definitely not good.

"Master, why can't we see the veil, like the others? Do we need to be stronger in order to see it?"

"The veil is not a good thing, Zatt. It prevents me from seeing my visions like they ought to be. I'm just wondering why it isn't affecting you."

"But we are seeing the mold, still. Is that a good thing?"

Shaak didn't answer right away. It was certainly a good thing to see and be aware of, but all the same, Younglings probably ought to not have visions so Dark at such a young age.

"Is there any way that I can see the same vision?"

The Younglings looked around at each other. "Well," said Petro, "Padawan Dume was the one who taught us how to meditate together. He said if we focused on each other's consciousness' while meditating, it was possible to have the same vision. You could meditate with us."

Shaak scrunched her forehead. "Padawan Dume taught you?"

"Yeah," said Katooni. "It was Padawan Tano who taught him."

"And why did he teach it to you?"

No one answered, then Gungi spoke up in a small voice. "We wanted to see if the seven of us could see where Padawan Tano had gone."

"It was just that, well, Master Skywalker seemed so upset when she left, and no one knew where she was. We, we thought that if we found her, and if he knew..." Zatt trailed off.

Shaak didn't speak. She hadn't realized how much Tano had impacted these Younglings, as well as Dume. They had tried to combine their strengths to try and find her.

"Did you see her?" She asked finally.

They shook their heads, clearly ashamed of their failure to find her.

Shaak wanted to tell Skywalker what they had said. If he knew how much Ahsoka meant to them, maybe he would realize that not everyone was against her here.

She pushed the thought out of her head. "Let's try to meditate together. If I see this vision, I might be able to understand it more."

They all closed their eyes and rested their hands on their knees, sitting cross-legged on the ground. After a few moments of focusing, Shaak felt her consciousness blend together with the Younglings, and the training room disappeared.

From space, the eye of Shaak's mind zoomed in on the planet of Coruscant. She saw it, the black, Dark mold infecting every inch of the surface. It was covering the mega-city, taking the streets, the buildings, the homes of countless people.

It all seemed to be spreading from a central point, right there, Shaak decided, and her mind brought her closer to its source. On the way, though, she stopped and paused to look at the Temple.

She felt her feet hit the steps of the Temple, but it hardly mattered to Shaak. The mold was weaving itself into cracks in the walls-no. No, the mold was creating cracks in the walls. Spider-web lines were scattering across the Temple, and the very foundations of the sacred place were already crumbling. Shaak looked up at the Council Room, looking over the steps, but the mold had all but consumed it. It even seemed to be spreading from it, if she looked hard enough. She could see the stress on the room, how it was beginning to break. The tension from the mold was too much, it was tearing the room apart.

If the Council Room fell, it would fall on the rest of the building, damaging the foundations further than it had already been damaged. The entire Temple would collapse, killing everyone in it.

Shaak had to stop it but she didn't know how. She did know where the mold was coming from, though, the Younglings had already said that the government was the source of the mold.

In an instant, she was before the Senate Building. This is it, Shaak thought. This is where it is spreading from.

She looked at the building, trying to see which entrance wasn't being flooded with mold, but she couldn't. Slowly, the veil she saw in her own visions poisoned the vision of the Younglings.

It's me, Shaak realized. I brought the veil into their vision.

The Temple grew hazy, and a shadow seemed to flood her sight, but she focused while she still could. I need your help, little ones, she sent into the stream of their consciousnesses. Fight back the haze!

It took a few seconds, but the veil slowly parted. The Senate Building brightened, and Shaak ran forward. She broke through a window that didn't seem to be blocked by the mold. She ran through the halls, looking for the source of the Darkness. She followed it directly into the chamber that the Senate voted on.

She burst through the doors and almost stumbled into the stream of infectious mold. Shaak didn't know what would happen if she touched it, and she wasn't interested in finding out. Instead, she looked around, trying to see exactly where in this room the mold was spawning from, but the haze was strong here. She couldn't see clearly.

More, little ones! She encouraged. Just for a minute longer, I need all of your strengths!

The veil seemed to brighten, and Shaak grew hopeful, but it did not move. It was stronger than the Younglings.

We can't keep this up, she heard from somewhere behind her. Master, we're fading!

No! She thought, but it was no use. She felt the Younglings leave the vision, right before she herself fall out of her meditation.

When Shaak opened her eyes, the Younglings were lying unconscious on the floor. She scrambled to examine them, to check for injury, but they were unscathed.

It was too much for them, Shaak realized with a shock. That veil is stronger than them at its source. They can fight it at a distance, but not as close as I was to it.

If it is so strong, why does it not cloud their normal visions as well?

Shaak was thoroughly confused, but the Younglings started to stir and she helped them sit up as they came to.

"Are you all right?" She asked each of them, and they all nodded. Some of them mumbled about "my head hurts," but it faded after time.

"Master, what was that?" Zatt asked once everyone was able to sit up on their own power.

"It was the veil that I have been speaking about," she explained. "I'm afraid that I brought it into your vision."

Petro shook his head. "No, we know it was the veil, we were talking about it in the vision. What did it come from?"

Shaak stared at Petro. "What did it come from? I don't understand, it came from me."

"No," said Katooni. "It came because of you, but it was coming from the Senate Building, just like the mold."

"We've always known the mold came from the government," Ganodi mused, "but we didn't realize it was directly from the Senate. You helped us see more than we've seen before."

"It almost looked like the mold and the shadow were coming from the same thing. I thought the veil was the mold at first." Gungi turned to his friends.

"I thought so too," said Byph, "But I think the veil is supposed to be hiding the mold. It's like a cover, so we can't see what the mold is doing."

"This means that whatever the mold is doing isn't good and that the same person is trying to hide what he's doing with the veil." Petro rambled excitedly.

Katooni raised an eyebrow at him. "I think you're getting ahead of yourself," she swatted him playfully. "We never said it was a person."

"Yeah, until we saw a face in the mold," said Zatt. "Don't pretend you didn't see it, we were all right there, except for Master Ti."

Petro stood up and started pacing. "I bet whoever is creating the mold is trying to-" He paused. "He's not actually making mold, is he? Why would anyone make mold?"

Ganodi drummed his fingers on his leg. "I bet the mold is a symbol. It's probably supposed to represent everything bad that the face in the mold was doing. It has to be because one action by itself couldn't bring down the Temple. It's too strong."

"If that's true, then the Temple must represent the Jedi Order. The whole thing, not just the building."

"And the Senate Building must mean the Senate, so whoever the face in the mold was must be a Senator!"

All of the Younglings were standing now, congregating in a tight circle. They were excited, as well as nervous, at their new findings with Shaak Ti.

"So if the mold is the senator's actions, then the veil must be what he is-"

"Or she!"

"-or she is doing to cover it up. It's been preventing the older Jedi from seeing their visions properly."

"And it doesn't affect us because..."

"Because we are younger. The senator probably doesn't think we are a threat, so they don't worry about casting the shadow over us."

"The senator is trying to break down the Jedi Order. Why, though? The Jedi fight for the Republic!"

"Maybe the senator is a traitor! They are using the Dark Side of the Force."

"They must be trying to win the Clone War by infiltrating the Senate."

"And they want to destroy the Order!"

"The senator must be a very powerful person if they can infect the whole senate."

"It's not just the Senate either. Coruscant, Alderaan, Naboo, the senator has spread his mold to lots of Republic systems."

"Who had that kind of power?"

"It could only be someone like-"

Shaak was leaning forward, barely able to keep up with their theories, but the Younglings fell silent seconds before they could propose who might be causing such horrors. Their eyes fogged up. A moment passed, then they fell to the floor in unison.

Scrambling to the little ones, she caught them with the Force so that they might not hit their heads on the ground. Seconds later, they woke up, mumbling about another headache. They looked around at each other, then at Shaak Ti, who had witnessed their vision and their discussion silently, in horror. She did not speak, but her mouth hung open.

"Master," Petro asked. "How did we get here? What happened?"

Shaak didn't respond. She couldn't. She had no idea how, or why, or how she knew, but she did know one thing:

Whoever had created the mold and the veil just wiped their memories.