Disclaimer: I only own Rae and her crazy. And the obvious OCs.
To Guest(s): Currently, Rae only knows that she's a Way of Shadow Monk. These monks have a very small list of spells they can use their ki points on, so she's not going to be summoning dolphins. I will admit, that's quite the mental image but Rae's not going that direction. Stealing Yoda's lightsaber on the other hand... if the Troll gets her annoyed enough she just might. Additionally, if Rae ever gets access to a wider spell list, it's going to be limited by the rules of her current reality. Force magic is a thing, but it seems to be limited to illusion and enchantment so... still no dolphin summoning.
And yes, Anakin survived the previous chapter. He's a kid testing his limits and somehow he's become one of Rae's Precious People, she isn't going to kill him. Make him wish for death, maybe, but she won't kill him.
Time-line: 2 years, 5 months. Roughly.
Chapter 15: Phantasm
She had a plan. Honest! She did! It was... the execution of the plan that was... tricky. Rae sighed and looked at herself in the mirror before ripping the robes from her back with a huff of disgust. "I can't just walk out looking like a shady wheeler-dealer!" she scolded herself, glaring at the seedy looking brown and gray cloak and tunic. She sighed and ran her hand over her tightly braided hair. She was going to start gathering information, dirt, on Palpatine, root out the connections between him and Maul and Dooku... and while she could likely ferret that information out via the holonet, or the Star Wars equivalent of the Dark Web, she didn't want it tracked back to her. So, she needed to go somewhere else. Preferably somewhere no innocents would get dragged into such a dark web of lies and manipulation. Huffing out a sigh, she decided to carry her disguise with her. Some hair chalk, mascara, darker foundation, brown lipstick, an over-sized sweater, some reference books, earbuds, and a second datapad got shoved in her satchel while she pulled her hair up into a high ponytail and tugged on a well-fitting jacket before heading out.
/*/
Reaching a convenient alley, she ducked out of sight to switch out her jacket and apply the makeup. After sending a Minor Illusion of her previous look walking out the other end of the alley and maintaining it until it turned down another dark path, Rae decided that she was covered well enough. Now looking sufficiently different than when she entered the alley, she set off in search of a 24/7 or late night cafe. A few minutes later, she gave a weary grin when she found the perfect place. A late night cafe with free holonet access. She pushed open the door and trudged over to the counter. "Welcome to Chaos Café! What can I get for you?" the peppy Twi'lek behind the counter asked. Rae yawned expansively before blinking blearily at the board behind the server.
"Can I get a... triple shot mocha with a club sandwich?" she asked. The Twi'lek nodded, though Rae caught the slight widening of her eyes.
"How long you been up?" the girl asked. Rae gave a mirthless chuckle.
"Stopped counting after the 17th hour," she said, implying she'd either woken absurdly early... or she'd already pulled one all-nighter.
"Yikes," the barista winced. "What's that name? For the order?"
"Darla," Rae answered with a mental smirk. Pop culture references that only she would get? Priceless~!
"I'll have that right out for you, Darla!" the barista said with far too much cheer for the 'exhausted Darla,' who hummed and turned to stagger to a table in the back. She collapsed into the seat and pulled out her reference material and datapads, the picture of a student in the grips of a challenging research paper. She plunged into the holonet, doing a deep dive on everything she could think of concerning the career of Sheev Palpatine. Every now and again, she'd consult one of the books she'd brought with her – tomes on the structure and regulations for the Republic and its governing bodies – and make a few extra notes before diving back into the holonet. It wasn't all that long ago she had been studying for her degree that she'd forget what a student hard at work looked like.
/*/
"Darla!" Nina called, but Darla didn't budge. "Darla!" Still, the Human with pink streaked hair continued to flick through her datapad. Nina waited until she was turning to one of her books before trying again. "Darla!" The Human jerked a little, then gave a sheepish smile as she tripped out from behind her table.
"Sorry. Paper's due tomorrow. At half past the ninth bell," she said, taking the caf in both hands and melting a little as the heat filtered into her hands. Nina winced. It was already approaching the 23rd bell of the rotation.
"Good luck," she told the young woman. "And don't forget your sandwich!" Darla spun a little on her heel and grabbed the plate with another sheepish smile... which might be more exhausted, now that Nina thought about it. Despite having worked at Chaos Café for nearly two years, the young Twi'lek wasn't all that familiar with Human expressions. While her people were human-like, there were still certain differences that made things a little difficult sometimes.
"Thanks," Darla said with some complex, tired, emotion thick in her voice. Nina nodded and watched Darla weave her way back to her table and sink onto her chair a little more carefully than she had to begin with, likely because of her order. With a shake of her head, Nina turned her focus back to the cafe at large.
/*/
Several hours and a small mountain range of caf mugs later, 'Darla' gave a muffled cry of utter frustration. Nothing. Not a thing! How!? How could Sideous be so good at covering his tracks?! Good to the point there was literately nothing to be found on the holonet about... Her hands froze where they were gripping at her hair. There was... nothing. No huge mistakes, no scandals, no overly snide remarks, no incidents where one Senator or another had gotten just a little too offended at him, no assassination attempts. In fact, the only complaints she could find on the man was that he was too conservative or too neutral! A slow smile spread over her face. Perhaps... the powerful Sith had been a little too good at covering his tracks, she decided. At least the night hadn't been a total wash, the disguised splicer decided, typing up a report on how Senator, currently Chancellor, Palpatine was just a little too squeaky clean. Emboldened by this discovery, Rae began digging into other politicians – ones that she knew were connected to Palpatine – to see if they too were just a little too clean. What she found... was far more dirt than she had expected on the Senators for the planets that would later join the CIS. And it was 'good' dirt too, some real spooky skeletons, not just baseless rumors. Of course, if she just leaked this stuff all over the holonet that's all it would be considered but... She checked the chrono. It was nearly three in the morning. She sighed, worked for thirty more minutes to sell that she was finishing the last of her 'paper', then sat back with a happy sigh. "Finished?" Nina asked. Darla chuckled weakly.
"Finally," she groaned. "Just glad my apartment isn't too far. I'm ready to pass out, despite the caf." Nina chuckled and started clearing away the mugs.
"You going to be back again?" she asked. Darla groaned as she started putting her books away.
"Not sure, really. Don't take this the wrong way, but I really don't want to do this again," she said. "Man, that was a killer. Not looking forward to class in the morning." Nina gave a sympathetic sound and stood with a full tray and a wry smile.
"Well, you know where we are if you ever need a change of pace," she said. Darla gave a wan smile and a little mock salute.
"That I do. Thanks for putting up with me," Darla drawled, her words slurring slightly in her exhaustion.
"Oh no problem! It's part of why Chaos Café opened in the first place! The owner always wanted a place like this when he was a student, so when he graduated he put his business degree to work and opened up the Café he'd always despaired of finding! OH! I forgot to tell you! If you show your student ID, you get a 15% discount on all caf! Don't forget next time, okay?" Darla blinked at her, then smiled.
"Yeah... I'll remember that. Thanks, Nina," she said before bobbing her head and staggering out of the cafe and down the road, already looking for an alley where she could switch her look again.
/*/
Rae collapsed on the Meditation Pillow someone had left in the path from the door to the kitchen and only managed to kick off her boots before passing out with her head pillowed on her arm. Ten hours later she woke feeling like she'd gone five rounds with a steamed Obi-Wan... using only 'training sabers'. "Ugh... not looking forward to doing that again," she moaned. Towards the end of the previous night, her exhaustion had not been faked. Groaning, she dragged herself into the refresher and turned the water on hot. Twenty minutes later she was feeling more human and returned to straighten her living room before fixing a cup of herbal tea and settling down to watch a comedy holo. Her findings from the night before could wait a little longer before final processing, and it was her day off.
/*/
According to the chrono, it was roughly five in the afternoon when Rae finally pulled up what she'd found the previous night. While she was disgusted with the Senators, the amount of blackmail she now had was pleasing. Though... the lack of incriminating evidence on Palpatine was frustrating. His wookiepedia page had... wait. She looked back at the aritcle and sighed. He'd started down his Dark path early and learned from a Dark Master how to hide behind a veneer... but maybe. She took another look at his early life. Maybe, revealing what he'd done as a youth could help? Regardless, having something concrete to chase might just be what she needed to get a hang of the whole intelligence gathering thing. So, that night, she took her encrypted datapad and found a nice, shady, cantina in the lower levels to hide out in, and started hunting for records of Sheev Palpatine's early years. When the official records didn't give her anything, she grit her teeth and sought out the Dark Net. Utilizing one of the last lessons Blon had taught her before leaving Coruscant wasn't something she had wanted to do, but Palpatine had left her no choice. It was dodgy, dangerous work – no telling who was watching or what nasty bits of code could latch onto the digital trail one left – and left her feeling dirty. Once more, she was left unsatisfied. No-one kept records that old on the Dark Net. It was likely no-one kept records like the ones she sought hard-copy either. With a snarl, she pulled back from the Dark Net and wiped the data-cache for the evening. It seemed, if she wanted to find the evidence she craved, Phantasm was going to have to get a bit more hands on. This was not a pleasant thought as Rae felt it would open her up to far more danger than simply being in the Star Wars universe and training with Jedi had already brought to her. Growling, she made her way out of the cantina and set about vanishing into the currents of the lower city.
/*/
Safely back in her apartment, Rae sighed and got ready for a shower. The rushing water was far more comfortable to listen to then the thoughts chasing each other around her head. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and all too soon she was sitting on her couch with a mug of tea, a datapad, and her thoughts. "How am I going to get the evidence to remove Palpatine from play?" she asked the air softly, staring at the dark surface of the 'pad. The Mission: Impossible theme began to play, then a whisper of Citizen Four drifted through her mind. Curious, she typed the name into her – limited- Google search and came up with a film about the Snoden Report. The one about the overreaching NSA surveillance program. She hummed, watching the film and considering the techniques and programs they discussed. "Well... I knew what I was planning was dangerous, and a little outside the law," she remarked to herself. "But now the question is: how do I set something like this up to target the Republic government? It's not one planet, it's a galaxy!" Padme's theme replaced the spy theme. Well. There was a thought. Padme could get her into the governmental seat of Naboo as well as the Senate Tower... but did she want to involve the teen with this? Planting surveillance without Padme's knowledge was reprehensible to Rae. No, she wouldn't use Padme like that. She thought about bringing the young Queen into her scheme, of telling her what she was doing and why... but felt a shiver of dread. She couldn't do that to her friend, she wouldn't! It would paint too large a target on too precious a soul. Padme's theme grew stronger and Rae growled. "I won't put my friend in danger like that!" she barked.
"I am a friend of the Jedi. I'm no stranger to taking risks." Rae scowled.
"That is Clone Wars Padme talking, not current Padme," she told the Force. The musical equivalence of annoyance rang around her and another quote was pulled from the misty depths of her memory.
"If you see injustice, you must stand up and face it. You must get involved." She sighed.
"Yeah, okay, that... that was present in her from the beginning," she admitted. "And I've already planted a seed of doubt in Palatine within her mind. But still, bugging the Senate Tower? Bugging the Communications Hub? I don't see her allowing me to do that, not in good conscience. I doubt even their own intelligence agency has anything close to what I'd need!" The humming quieted, replaced by the usual strains of life the Planet City echoed with. Then, almost tentatively, the sound of her Clarion's engines combined with an unfamiliar chanting song.
"Vode an!"
"What does that mean?" she muttered. She typed it into her – limited – google search and came up with a youtube video link. "Republic Commando?" she muttered, looking at the information in the card below the recommendation. She clicked the link and read the translation for the lyrics. "Surely, that was altered," she muttered. Why would mandalorians sing about being the sword of Jedi and the might of Coruscant? Wait... fighting for Jedi and Coruscant, the capital of the Republic. Republic Commando. "Of course! The Clones!" Rae exclaimed. The Jedi might have been a victim in the War, but it was the Clones that got the worst of it. Though, considering how several units had come to see their Jedi... perhaps they'd gotten some of the best as well. Regardless, with Palpatine being untouchable at the moment, the Clones were likely her best bet at gathering information on the brewing War.
"I'm just a simple man, making my way in the galaxy." That was an iconic Jango Fett quote. Why was the Force pointing her toward Jango? Hum. She pulled up his wookipedia page and started reading.
/*/
"Force, his Legends backstory is sad," Rae said, tossing her Ipad lightly onto the coffee table and grimacing at her cold tea. "Born on a farm, orphaned by Death Watch, adopted by the leader of the True Mandalorians, betrayed by his adoptive father's second-in-command, sold to slavery, broke out, remade himself, killed Montross, got hired by... wait. But Dooku had been the one to lead the fight against Jango and the True Mandalorians on Galidraan! Why would he have made a deal with him? That makes no sense... unless Dooku looked significantly different? But... ugh. This is just leading me in circles! What really happened to make Jango agree to this job, even when it was offered by the man who lead the attack against his forces, and did it really result in the death of all the Haat Mando'ade?" Rae muttered and created a folder labeled Galidraan on her Phantasm datapad. She began her deep dive into the events linking the planet with the Haat Mando'ade. The longer she worked, the more she realized this was going to be a long term project. For some reason, that thought just made her excited.
/?/
A/N: I... yeah, this kinda spiraled but... I don't hate it. Also, as a University student, I can say that the cafe scenes are at least 90% accurate. And I want that cafe, one that's open all night with free, high speed, wifi and a student discount that's close to my dorm. Ah, dreams.
