Obroa-skai

Viah pushed down her frustration as she retraced her steps for what seemed like the thousandth time. Although she knew some dust residue was a longshot as far as leads went, she had still held out hope. Now, as she once again stood over what she had no choice but to accept as the end of the line, in a hallway of the Obroa-skai College campus, she resigned herself to the fact that she would need a new lead.

Her mind went to the next logical step: If the trail goes cold and doesn't pick up anywhere else in the next several miles' radius, either the artifact has gone to ground onworld somewhere—in which case I'd have no choice but to let the Empire spearhead this things—or…

"It's not onworld anymore."

Her next move decided, she accessed her vambrace console as she made her way back to the campus infirmary.

Entering the head nurse's office, she activated the (thankfully undamaged) terminal. A couple easy hacks later, she was now face-to-screen with the patient records of the day of the invasion, when the thief would've presumably gone there.

"If I can use the concentration level of the residue, using the time of the invasion's commencement as a reference point to estimate the time of day the thief checked in, then cross-reference that with the patient records, I can then try and account for all of the suspects one by one, see if any managed their way offworld in that time window."

Frustration gave way to rejuvenation as she typed away, the thrill of the hunt once more seizing hold of her.

The Republic cruiser Vanicus

"Status?" Captain Richter Jysed prompted as he surveyed the newly updated holomap on the bridge.

"The Sith still have a fairly solid hold on all the major scientific and medical points of interest," Karmus reported, "The bulk of their forces are predictably focused on the medical areas. Elementary military strategy and all."

"Have we made any headway?"

"Slowly but surely. Our foothold is just about fully established." Karmus indicated several points throughout the holomap. "They've all but abandoned the Obroa-skai College, so that's looking like our best prospect for a staging ground. Once we can get that locked down, it'll be smooth flying from there."

"Good." Richter nodded before turning to the other officers. "Carry on. Tell the squad commanders I want a report on the conditions of their fighters before we send them out. Dismissed."

Karmus and the others saluted their captain, though Karmus stayed standing at attention as the others turned to leave, only easing up once the last officer had left.

"And…" Richter began, "what of the, er… target?"

"Off-planet," Karm confirmed, "Uriel saw to that personally."

"Then this is officially a straight military campaign now," Richter said with satisfaction, taking comfort that he was now fully in his element. "Then let's get to work doing what we do best, Karm."

"As you say, Captain," Karmus answered as he turned on his heel. He'd only taken three steps before one of the comms officers interrupted.

"Captain," she called, "Message from one of our groups near the spaceport area. Said according to the spaceport personnel, a ship just took off. Armed, neither Republic or Imperial transponder."

Richter glanced at his son. "Mercenary?"

Karmus glanced back. "Or fugitive." He turned to the comms officer. "Any communications with the spaceport about it?"

"No sir. Nor any intercepted from the Sith."

"No chances," Richter declared, "There's nothing these Sith won't try. Try hailing them, see if they respond."

"Yes sir." The comms officer turned her focus to contacting the ship.

The Nau'ur

"Repeat, this is the Republic ship Vanicus. Identify yourself."

"Damn it," Viah cursed, as she thought her options through. At this point, they knew nothing of her, and a lie now would only risk a complete loss of trust if it were exposed.

The honest approach then.

She keyed her comm. "Su cuy'gar. This is Viah Thavid of the Nau'ur, bounty hunter, leaving the planet." Obviously.

The Vanicus

Richter raised an eyebrow. "A Mandalorian, here, leaving a planet that's just become a battlefield? How… uncharacteristic."

"Not all Mandos are necessarily tools of the Sith," Karmus replied, "especially if they're bounty hunters."

"If she's a bounty hunter," Richter said pointedly before addressing his comm officer. "Inquire about her business on the planet."

The Nau'ur

"For security purposes, we would like to inquire about your contract on Obroa-skai."

Viah sighed. Deciding to take the gamble, she responded:

"I'm sure you can understand for obvious reasons why I as a hunter am compelled to not disclose the nature of my bounty, Vanicus."

Silence. Viah held her breath, as she did a visual scan of the ship before her and began the calculations to lightspeed. Then:

"I suppose it wouldn't be too much to inquire at least how long you'd been on this particular contract?"

Viah smirked triumphantly as she answered, "Still am. Got the contract on planet, just hours before all hell broke loose down there. No offense, but between you and the Empire, you can both burn each other into orbit for all I care, hopefully you'll both be done by the time I have to come back."

Another pause, before: "Thank you, Nau'ur. Happy hunting."

"Vor entye," Viah replied, closing the channel before indulging in a smirk.

The Vanicus

Karm watched as the bounty hunter's ship jumped to hyperspace, forcing himself to shake off the bad feeling he was starting to have about this…

Dantooine

Uriel eyed his prey, on her knees blindfolded as he stalked around her. He focused his mind on his most painful, unsavory memories, using them as fuel, and mentally taking it all out on her.

Adrielle's breathing increased, a small involuntary whimper escaping her lips.

Then, he struck.

His blue blade came sailing toward her, stopping just inches from her neck, the same time that she expelled the breath she'd been holding.

Uriel nodded as he pulled the blindfold off her. "A marked improvement. Though you still wear your fear conspicuously. Remember, just as you can pick up on the emotions of those around you, others attuned to the Force would also be able to pick up on your emotional reactions in turn. It'd be too easy for some Sith to use that to their advantage to sniff you out, and then you'd be in for a really bad day."

"But you did promise that I'd be sent back home," Adrielle said, "If we're the only ones who know about my… condition, I mean, what're the chances any Sith would even know where to look?"

"Be that as it may," Uriel insisted, "You're going to have to start getting accustomed to your life being under constant watch. Maybe not by the Sith, or the Republic, but at the very least, by us. Unless or until we can find some way to reverse what's happened, you're too much of a factor to just let back into the wild."

"But that's the thing," Adrielle said exasperatedly, "What exactly is so important about me, or that… thing I broke? It let me sense the Force, big deal, all you guys do it and you're born with it."

"There's more to it than just that."

Uriel and Adrielle turned to see Orrickos entering the room.

"You remember that blood test I administered when you first came in," he continued, "the reading doesn't lie. Your midichlorian count was still registering as well below the range associated with active Force usage. Yet you clearly have some degree of control. I'd never presume to call anything involving the Force impossible, and certainly there have been more than a fair share of Force vergences, but the simple fact is that those vergences which have the ability to grant Force sensitivity also carry with them some form of physiological change. But for the Harbinger to do so without any empirical microbial change to you is just a phenomenon that we've never known prior. But unlike us, the Sith would seek to use it, use you, for their own ends."

Adrielle nodded slowly. So that's what this damned object was called that was to blame for everything. "So the Sith would use me as a test animal, as opposed to you guys who are more about…"

"Knowledge and defense," Uriel said plainly, "the greatest gift the Force could ever grant us, along with the means to safeguard it. At least with the Jedi you need not worry about any of us cutting you open to study you."

"But at least by exercising a reasonable degree of control over your abilities, it makes our job of preventing anyone else doing that to you much easier," Orrickos said, "Speaking of which, I came to see her progress, see if I can gauge if she's suited to leave us."

"Be my guest," Uriel said, gesturing toward Adrielle as he made his way to one of the cushions on the floor to recline.

Orrickos sat cross-legged in front of Adrielle. "Are you feeling up to one more test?"

Adrielle took a moment to think before nodding. "Yeah, I think so."

"Very well." He hovered a hand over her head. "Now just like you've done with Uriel, just close your eyes" Adrielle complied, as Orrickos began reaching out. "Hmm… good… that jumble that used to be perpetually in your head has subsided. An impressive level of mental discipline, considering you've never actually trained."

Adrielle smiled in spite of herself. "Well, I always was a pretty good student. Even if I spent a lot of time skipping."

Orrickos chuckled. "Lucky you." He glanced over at Uriel and, masking his intentions entirely from Adrielle, subtly nodded at his apprentice, who likewise erected his mental barriers as he silently got up and made his way toward them.

To this point, Adrielle had found moderate success in blocking out physical and external stimuli and irritants. But if they were to be able to leave her to her own devices without worry, she'd also need to be able to handle even the unlikely internal invasion.

Pouncing, Uriel shot out his hand toward Adrielle and unleashed his attack.

At once Adrielle let out a piercing scream… but she wasn't the only one.

Suddenly, both Uriel and Orrickos's minds were bombarded by a plethora of alternating sensations: vision filled with a lone island and a desolate tundra, ears filled with deafening winds and crashing waves…

All too familiar to Adrielle, who'd seen and felt this all once before.

Orrickos was the first to get up, immediately checking on Adrielle, who groaned as she turned over.

"Wh…what the hell…" Uriel managed to get out as he got up to his knees.

"Child," Orrickos urged gently, "Are you okay?"

Adrielle gave a weak nod as she slowly sat up.

"That wasn't me," Uriel said, "Those visions… was that…"

"Yeah…" Adrielle confirmed, "That's the, what's it?"

"Harbinger," Orrickos said.

"Yeah. It's the same vision I got when I touched it. I don't know what it means."

"We do," Uriel said, looking to his master. "At least, I think we do. That island. That ice planet. They all looked a bit too familiar, didn't it?"

Orrickos grunted in affirmation. "Both worlds strong with the Force. Unfortunately our relationship with one of them is… complicated, at the moment, given the present astropolitical climate."

Adrielle nodded. "And the other?"

Orrickos inhaled. "… is kind of tricky."

He took his datapad from his robes and began traversing through the various files he had until...

"Here." He showed them his screen, which had several images on them, of a planet, and of vast oceans with islands on them. "The world is called Ahch-To. It was an old Jedi world, long since abandoned. I've read and learned about, but never actually been there."

"Me neither," Uriel said, "Always did hope to, one day though."

"Okay, but why show us these two locations?" Adrielle asked, the answer coming to her as soon as she'd verbalized the question.

"There are others," all three concluded at the same time.

"Holy…" Uriel began pacing as he stared up at the ceiling.

"By the stars…" Orrickos muttered to himself. Could he have possibly missed such a major detail, in all these years?

Adrielle was stunned silent. That artifact that was the cause of all her problems… and there were two others.

"Uriel," Orrickos started, "This has just become your main priority. Take Adrielle, find Ahch-To, we'll need to get the necessary astronav data from the Temple archive."

"Master-"

"She'll need protection, at least until we can secure the other two. I'm afraid leaving her at her home is not an option at the moment."

"Master—"

"I'll be going with you, so I can try to contact the High Council, try to work something out on the Ilum front, but for now you need to get to—"

"MASTER!"

"WHAT?!"

Uriel took a deep breath, burying his frustration and forcing himself to accept the circumstances before them and deferring to the Force—as with all things. He glanced at Adrielle, and back to his master.

"She'll need a weapon."