"I have little enough trust for droids," her dream man was telling her. "Men can be stubborn, it is true, but the mechanical mind may too easily be turned against its masters, even against itself. I would rather trust a man."

"As would I," she answered, "but a single man or woman. It is simple, relatively speaking, to know the heart of one person. Yes, I would rather trust one man, but a hundred?" She shook her head.

"What a shockingly undemocratic statement." Her love's lip curled. "You might as well come out and say that you have no faith in the Republic."

"I do have faith in the Republic. I have great admiration for its project: a million worlds bound together in peace. What could be nobler? What I doubt is its leaders' ability to react quickly, even in their own interests. I will alleviate that need. We just have to discover a scalable solution."

Her companion had stopped listening to her. He had gotten that pensive look on his face, that adorable furrow in his brow.

"Would you say," he asked, "that a child is bound to be like their parents, more or less? In their character? In their heart?"

She did not understand what had brought this on, but said, "I suppose, to degrees. Though, I like to think no child is limited by their ancestry. Why?"

He stroked his black beard.

"I was only thinking… a single man…"

Mara awoke on Kix's couch, coming too all at once, as seemed to always happen after these dreams. She was still tired but could not lay on those lumpy cushions any longer. She sat up and immediately locked eyes with Han sitting at the kitchen table.

"What are you still doing here?" she asked. Shouldn't he have been back at the naval academy?

"Just another guest of the hotel chez Kix," he said. "Try the caf. It's extra watery this morning."

"Did you make it yourself?"

"Yeah. Oops."

She ambled over to join him at the table.

"You talk in your sleep," he said.

"Great. Good to know."

"Bad dreams?"

"Weirds dreams."

"'Bout what?"

"My beloved," she answered, feeling too groggy and uninhibited to lie.

Han raised an eyebrow. "Is he hot?"

"In a kind of ornery, patrician way, sure."

"Thought you Jedi weren't supposed to do that whole thing."

"Oh—" she waved a dismissive hand "—it's not like that. He's not actually mine—or I'm not actually me."

Han blinked rapidly at her in a performance of innocent confusion. "Oh? OK then."

"No," she tried again, "it's like this: sometimes I dream visions of the past. I see them through the eyes of someone else, someone who was there, experiencing that person's perceptions and emotions. I've been having these ones for a while now."

"The same dream?"

"The same cast. The plot continues to develop. I'm on some kind of quest, though that part doesn't seem to be getting very far."

"Yeah, I get it," said Han. "Nothing like your real life."

"Hmm," she lowered her head to rest it on the cool plastic of the table. "You're lucky I'm not awake enough to hit you."

"But I was right?" Han chuckled. "About the Jedi no nooky rule."

"The rule is no attachment," Mara corrected him. "So, for most of us, effectively yeah. No… physical stuff ."

"Yeah? No wonder you guys have to be recruited as babies."

He wasn't wrong. Puberty was hard enough on most species without throwing the Jedi demands for a tranquil heart into the mix. Many cultures celebrated and encouraged the lusty romps of youth. The Jedi Way must feel anemic to anyone who grew up like that. For Mara, though, having had the chance to observe the ridiculous antics that many humans got up to in the course of their first courtships, she did not feel especially as though she were missing out. The only thing that had ever made her wonder was knowing about Anakin, about his former love for Padmé, Senator Amidala. There must have been something to it, for it to temp a will so strong as his. The Senator was beautiful, but surely there had been more, something like 'real love,' so far as such a thing existed.

Instead, she found herself telling Han about how the current Grandmaster of the Order had six wives and that he had been afforded special license because of the small number of genetic males among the Cerean population. Han was laughing so hard that Mara thought he was going to fall out of his chair when Kix joined them.

"What's so funny you two had to go and wake me up?" the old trooper asked.

"Sex," Mara answered, Han being too breathless to say a word.

"Oh," said Kix. "Fair enough. You'll be getting on back to the temple soon?"

"I suppose I'd better," said Mara. She pushed her anxiety at that prospect down as deep as it would go. "First, though, I was hoping you could tell me what you heard from Slink yesterday, now that you're rested."

"Ah," Kix nodded, "right. Things went better for us than for you, sounds like."

"I would hope so," Mara grumbled, "Slink being your friend and all. What did he have to say about this ship?"

"Registration code KL8456001-V," Kix rattled off. "We weren't able to confirm its route yet around the time Slink and Hurc talked, but your handmaiden friend might be able to. It should be a matter of public record, somewhere out there."

"And Slink admitted to performing maintenance on the vessel?"

"Yes. He installed the hardware Hurc gave him to the communications array. He says he doesn't know what it was supposed to do. He didn't look too closely. Professional courtesy. He just assumed it was to spy, to pick up and record all the transmissions the ship made along its voyage. Only, he says that Hurc told him he didn't need to retrieve the device and bring it back to him when the ship returned to Coruscant."

"That would be the standard practice? Couldn't the device have just transmitted whatever information it was picking up back to Hurc here?"

"That'd be risky," said Han. "An outgoing transmission like that could have been identified by the ship's crew. Most merchant ships have dedicated communications officers. Some of them are even good at their jobs. It's safer to keep things analog as much as possible when you're stealing information."

"Noted, thanks," Mara told him. "Someone else could have retrieved it, though, somewhere else along the route."

"True," Han acknowledged. "You think whoever got it was pissed at Hurc for some reason?"

Mara did not think that, not because it was a faulty idea, but for really no reason she could identify at that moment. It just felt wrong. It could explain Hurc's death but not its manner.

"It's a theory," she said. "We can work on it more when we know more. I should get back like you said. Be in touch soon."

"You running out?" Han whined. "You haven't tried the caf yet."

"I'll take a raincheck. See you, Han."

She had taxied back to the temple often enough now to not feel self-conscious about arriving in that very pedestrian way. The sentinels standing guard were as impassive as ever and Mara wondered as she passed them crossing the portico into the main hall if perhaps no one would notice that she had left.

Stupid , she chided herself. Anakin will have noticed. And Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.

No one in the hall was paying her any mind, at least. There were none of the sidelong looks that she had anticipated. It seemed that her reprimand had not become general knowledge yet. There were, however, groups huddled together scattered through the temple, some whispering urgently. The usual pace of the morning as initiates and Jedi rushed to their duties and training had been abandoned.

Probably they're anxious about the news of the third body. It's starting to get to people, just like Vos said .

Mara reached the entrance to her quarters unaccosted. She was thinking of having a quick nap to recover from her abuse at the hands of Kix's couch when she entered and found Reva inside, waiting for her.

"Hello, Rev," she sighed. She could see in an instant that Reva knew Mara had gone truant. There was a serious look in her eye.

There was silence between them for a beat, which surprised Mara. She had expected Reva to leap directly into a scolding, her knightly prerogative. Reva looked to the window, to the door, and then at Mara.

"Come with me," she said.

"Are you taking me to the Council?" Mara asked.

"No," said Reva, "I am taking you to Obi-Wan."

There was not much difference there, and yet it was preferable to go to Master Kenobi rather than be taken to the High Council directly. Mara sensed that Reva was trying to be kind to her and did not grumble.

Qui-Gon Jinn was with Obi-Wan when Reva and Mara arrived, almost as if the two had not parted after Qi'ra and Mara had left them yesterday evening. Qui-Gon looked a little solemn and Obi-Wan a little harried. Mara felt guilty. Had she let them down that badly? It had not really even been worth it. What had she learned? Nothing she could not have still if she had been patient.

"Thank you, Reva," Obi-Wan told his old apprentice.

Reva shrugged. "I told you she'd wander back." There was an unfamiliar gravel to her voice this morning. Mara found it odd.

"Master Kenobi," she said, "I am sorry. I know I'm saying that a lot these days, but I still mean it. It's just that I promised to meet with someone last night and wasn't sure if I could get her back if I never showed. I can explain everything if it helps."

Obi-Wan listened to her with pitying eyes. "All that will have to wait, child. Please sit."

Mara had by now grown very suspicious of the atmosphere in the room. "I don't want to sit," she told Obi-Wan, eyeing him up and down. "What's happened?" She took the attendance of the room once more.

A chill coursed through her.

"Where's Anakin?" she asked.

"He went out last night to chase after you," said Qui-Gon.

"He's not back yet?"

Obi-Wan took two steps toward her. "Mara, I must tell you something."

She felt Reva take a step towards her also from behind. It was like they were trying to box her in. Were they afraid she would try to run off again? She felt like she was being squeezed.

Just spit it out , she wanted to say to Obi-Wan, but she was too wary.

He reached out a hand and grasped her shoulder.

"Quinlan Vos is dead."

He was just alive. I saw him last night.

She thought it to herself over and over again as the Council talked.

How could he be gone so fast? It was impossible. He had left her yesternight with such purpose. A man who had so much to do could not die. There must be a mistake. Vos had played some trick on them all.

They had recovered his body, they were saying, near the commercial spaceport in the southeast of the city. Two other civilians were dead, all by lightsaber wounds. Vos's lightsaber was missing.

Mara was kneeling on the cold marble floor, captive to their discussion until they decided to come to the matter of her insubordination.

"I have reviewed Master Vos's final testament," someone was saying, a woman's voice. "He confesses to a secret family, kept for a little more than a decade now, a wife and two children. He tells that they live on the planet Kashyyyk and wishes them notified of his death."

There was some general grumbling at this revelation.

"Then he has flouted our order's principles, not that this would be the first time. He should be stripped of his status. He cannot be honored with a Jedi funeral."

"Roh-Aab, what good would that do?"

"It would serve as an example to all in the Order. A Jedi who scorns our code is no Jedi at all and will be excommunicate. There can be no exceptions, sorry though these matters may be."

"Let the family have his body," another voice agreed. "We cannot mourn him as a true brother, knowing this."

"There are those who may speculate," some Master intoned, almost resignedly, "the Quinlan was responsible for the killings all along and that he slew these two new victims at the port."

"And is that a notion that we can so easily dismiss?" asked another. Mara's eyes were fixed on the floor in front of her. She did not seem to possess the power to lift them and look to whoever was saying these things

Then, there was Obi-Wan's voice: "speaking as someone who knew Quinlan well, Master Jaachovin, yes, I think we may dismiss the possibility, at least until any actual evidence for the theory is presented."

"You let your personal relationships blind you, Obi-Wan. What of this Padawan? Only yesterday, Quinlan Vos dragged her before a small meeting of this Council in shame. The same night, she disappears after receiving explicit orders to remain on Temple grounds and now Vos is dead. Is that also a coincidence?"

"That is unreasonable, Jaachovin—"

"Then let her say it is not so."

She was pushing it all back, out of her mind, propelling herself into the darkness. Down, deep down past all the noise was the black curtain. She understood what was behind it now. The dead dwelt there among all things that were past, so deep and lost that they echoed no more. If she could reach it and pull it back, she could know for certain if Vos was dead or not.

"Mara?"

Even Obi-Wan's gentle voice was like a blaring horn in her ears. She could not focus like this.

Damn it all to hell .

Her head jerked up to look at him. The pity in his eyes burned her.

"Well, child," Master Mundi prompted her, "did you follow Quinlan last night?"

The look on her face must have startled him. He frowned and sat up in his chair when she turned to face him.

"You are all… cowards ." The words hissed slowly out from her lips like poison gas. "You let him fight your war alone . And now that he's died for you, you deny him."

Her whole body was shaking from anger and the iron grip she took on her own knees did not steady her.

"This city, the whole galaxy, are afraid of you. Someone is trying to turn that fear against you and you're all too blind or too frightened to face it. Quin knew it. He knew that something was coming for the Jedi, an enemy that you failed to bury deep enough. A shadow that you never escaped. He was the only one of you with any backbone and now that he's gone, who will save you? What has all your power gotten you? Only fear."

There was silence for a moment. Or all that Mara could hear was the thundering beating of her heart.

Then, Grandmaster Mundi delivered his judgment. "Mara Jade, surrender your lightsaber."

Obi-Wan tried to interject. "Master Mundi, considering the circumstances, perhaps we ought—"

But Mara stopped him. "No," she cut him off, "it's alright, Master Kenobi."

She took her saber hilt from her belt and rolled it across the floor to rest at Ki-Adi-Mundi's feet. There was nothing to bind her to them anymore. She stood up and left without waiting to be dismissed.

"She should not have been allowed to leave," said Min Ro-Aab, as soon as Mara was gone.

"She sounded like Dooku or Master Dyas, just now," agreed Otton Gofalzi. "She may be too dangerous to go free."

"Dooku was an experienced Master, deep in his power, when he betrayed us," said Luminara. "Mara Jade suffered a deep wound today. She is young, not evil. It is not fair to compare her to Dooku."

"Shall we compare her with Barriss Offee, then?" Linc Xabonder asked darkly. "I do not mean to be cruel, Luminara. Only, it was her whom I was reminded of just now."

"Barriss let her misgivings turn to resentment," said Depa Billaba. "I too was affronted by Mara's words, Linc, but she's taken no action by which I would condemn her."

"She lef—"

"Oh, yes, yes, she disobeyed. She is—what? Seventeen? Eighteen? Youth is headstrong. And we should not be so hasty to deflect. There was truth in her words, amidst the anger. Quinlan Vos was a warrior. If this marauder was able to slay him, then we have grievously underestimated the danger that they pose. This person may mean to strike at the Jedi, just as Mara said."

"If some dark power were plotting against the Jedi, this council would have sensed it," said Ro-Aab.

At that, Obi-Wan, Luminara, Billaba, Otton, and Mundi, all of the longest-serving members of the Council, shared a look.

The Grandmaster had picked Mara's lightsaber up from the floor where it had come to a stop against his boot. He turned the hilt over in his hands, considering the design. It was not unlike her master's, though it was more simple. There was the same solid casing, but here it lacked the ridged grip. If she were like Anakin Skywalker, what would that mean? Was it a hopeful sign or an ill omen?

"Depa is right," he said. "We cannot neglect this matter any longer. I shall personally organize the hunt for this killer. There are more Jedi Knights on Coruscant than any other planet in the galaxy. They cannot long evade us here."

Obi-Wan, ever staid, offered caution. "The public is anxious of this matter as well, Grandmaster. There are those who suspect our hand has been at play in these deaths, as we've noted. They may react poorly to an increased Jedi presence in their streets."

"So we should do nothing?" challenged Xabonder. "The longer this goes on, the more who will die and the worse things will become. Better to have it out with swiftly."

"I only meant that we should be subtle, Linc," Obi-Wan replied. "We cannot just go knocking in doors and turning the planet upside down."

"No," Mundi declared. "The time for subtlety is over. Quinlan Vos was our most talented tracker. If this killer eluded even him, then we must resort to bolder tactics." He stood up, slipping Mara Jade's lightsaber inside his robe. "I shall review Vos's notes on his investigation, then we shall tighten the noose around his murderer. I want as many Knights as can be mustered posted across the planet—in pairs. No one is to go alone. See that it is done."

It was quiet at last. She was warm and weightless and her heartbeat had slowed to a steady pulse. Once more, she sent her mind swimming outward and this time no one and nothing would stop her.

She had journeyed to the edge before. That was no longer strange to her. It was the obscurity at that precipice that vexed her still. She did not see how one may cross it. At her every attempt to push further, she felt repelled.

And I thought the power of the Force was limitless. Or, were the Masters wrong about that too?

The part of her mind that always spoke in Anakin's voice replied.

It is you that is limited, not the Force. Let go of your doubt.

There were a thousand lectures echoing in those words. No one of them had ever made much sense to her on its own, but in their multitude, they spoke to her now in a single voice with a single message.

Pass beyond the fear of death.

The living mind recoiled from the thought of dying. That was instinct. It was the business of life to shun its own end. Mara had never seriously confronted it before, the inevitability of her own extinction, the end of the self that gave her so much alternating pride and shame. She had courted danger, but she had never been in a real battle, at least not one without Anakin by her side, all but assuring her safety. What did it mean to her? How would she feel to die today, thus unproven?

I may come to nothing in the end. I would hate to be a disappointment to Anakin and Vos. But Vos will never see what I become now, so it was all for nothing anyway. So be it. Now or tomorrow or what day the Force wills, I'll be a citizen of the other side. I will have to pass over, just as I am. Why not today?

And the black curtain admitted her. Slowly, sluggishly at first. It sucked all the warmth from her body, but then she was through.

There was a man on the other side. He was older, but he looked like a frightened child when he turned and saw her. He spoke and his voice cracked with emotion.

"Leave me be!"

Her heart sank.

It was not him.

Then, a flash of pain radiated across her face and she was gone.