ARCA Barracks.

"Captain can you get me some figures on the survival rates of Mandalorian trained Squads compared to other trainers?" Zey steepled his fingers, which Maze knew meant he was worried about something and was pondering on it.

"Yes sir." He hesitated, "Can I ask why?"

"We've lost two more squads. I want… we need more Commandos trained up and there are some CT's who have shown promise. But we need to get them trained up and It's who we get to train them."

"Yes Sir!" He pulled up the details on the datapad in his hand and handed it over. He had ready correctly guessed the Mando ones were way above any of the others.

"Here sir." He handed over the pad.

"Thank you Maze. That's all for today."

"Sir?"

Zey smiled he was trying to give the one clone he could help, some leeway.

"I want to study this, so if there's nothing else you need to do, you have some free time."

"Sir!" He saluted and left the office.

Walking down to the Ops Room, he saw Skirata coming up the corridor; he barely acknowledged him.

"Meeting with the General, Captain." Skirata advised as he walked past, Maze nodded. Another one of those meetings, where everything and nothing was said. Plausible deniability. Then some CIS supporter or agent known only to SOB disappeared, usually on Coruscant, which was why there was plausible deniability. Isard would hate that they were operating like this, which Maze had to admit, gave him some satisfaction.

He mentally checked off where the Nulls were supposed to be. He could check on them but it would just give him a headache and indigestion. Although he had liked the idea of Lieutenant Mereel hijacking a transport to Kamino; they had brothers to protect there, ones who could not protect themselves and they had to be kept out of the Separatists hands. Jango had been quite specific about that.

He checked into the Ops room; the Advisors were all fully occupied. He slid into a chair. They knew he was there but he had not disturbed them, he patched himself into the chatter. Ion Team had done well, just on their way back. Climber was a good man. Maze had been a little unsure how to put it to the General about linking some squads to battalions and Jedi but the General had okayed the trial and more were being assigned. It seemed to be working well. They still reported in but didn't have to travel all the way back to Triple Zero to get there orders. More responsive. Captain Gregor's the next team to be linked to the 212th. That could be interesting.

He looked around the room, there was nothing more he could do here. No reports to compile or file. General Jusik had not brought any new gadgets from R and D to try out. He had down time.

Ninety minutes later, he had hit the gym and was still feeling fidgety. He looked at the time, the University Library would still be open. He showered and pulled on his armour.

.

"Sir." Johl's occasionally squeaky voice piped up, "Can I help you?"

"No I'm fine..Johl. I'll just go through."

The assistant looked a little sheepish.

"Ms Devro isn't here."

"Oh." Maze was a little shocked and let it show. She was always here. "Is she ill?" it was his first thought.

"No. She took some personal time." The lad smirked at him, "She does have a life outside of here you know."

"Yes, of course she does. Thank you." Maze was still shocked, he was even polite to him.

He turned and walked away.

Of course she has a life away from here. From me. From a clone. What was I thinking?

But it still irritated him.

Bloody Devro.

.

"Sir!" The Captain walked straight into Zey's office, the door was open and he had no reason to think he would not be welcome. He saw the General's visitor, General Iri Camas. Maze stood to attention and saluted the other Jedi.

"Sir!"

He passed the datapad to General Zey and turned to leave.

"Thank you Captain. There's fresh caf. Get a mug and join us."

He flicked a glance at Camas, he wasn't happy about that.

"Arligan?" Camas queried.

"I'm sure the Captain will be able to provide valuable insight into what we're discussing."

"I'm good Sir and I'll stand if you don't mind." He moved and stood at parade rest at the rear of the room; he could see both Generals. He provided the information Zey requested on the survival rates of the Commando squads and was watching Zey and Camas in conversation.

Or a verbal duel.

"These discrepancies in the stores…." Camas started.

"Are we really going to rehash this?"Zey retorted.

"Questions are being asked."

"Deflect them, the Senate does."

Maze wanted to smile, this was a side of the General others rarely saw. Holding his own against the ones that would put him and his brothers in danger—without another thought. Zey tries not to and Maze appreciated that.

"We are not the Senate, Arligan. We are above that."

"Are we?"

Camas almost grunted.

"We can if you wish, Camas. I'm sure there is satisfactory explanation. But I would say this? Do we ask the Senate how much they spend on expenses that are nothing to do with the war? How much of their expenses are simply rubber stamped? How much are for their own gratification? For their Mistresses or gigolos? Or for simply a whim?"

Zey jabbed his fore finger at the datapad.

"These— these— piddling amount of credits are nothing compared to that."

Maze thought something else was behind this. He was no fan of Camas, nor were many of the squads, compared to him Zey was —Maze didn't know how to describe Zey, except he was better that Camas, and he was glad he was attached to him. Sull had been Camas' Aide but he was in the field now. That had not worked out well.

Zey continued, "Clone troopers are well disciplined. Even the alpha ARC troopers" he glanced sideways at Maze, "surly though they are — are predictable in the sense that Fett gave them precise orders which they continue to obey. But the Commando batches are almost as unpredictable as the Nulls and the Nulls are as good as being Skirata's private army. That's the problem with having intelligent clones trained by a ragbag of undisciplined thugs— They've turned out at best idiosyncratic, at worst disobedient but they'll probably win the war for us. Tolerate them!"

There was silence.

"If there's a discrepancy, the Commandos will have a good reason."

Maze stepped forward, "May I, sirs?"

The Jedi looked at him.

"There was that Inventory droid that had a malfunction, sir, just after CSF completed those arrests, after that joint operation."

"Thank you Captain. I had forgotten about that."

Maze stood back, his usual glare on his face. He had to keep up his surly façade, if just to annoy Camas, knowing he looked just like Sull when he did that and ignore the fact that it was probably a Null who tampered with the said droid. Just because he could.

Camas looked between the two of them not getting a read on either of them.

"Was there anything else General?" Zey asked.

Camas narrowed his eyes and Maze thought he was going to argue the point, then he restrained himself.

"In that case, I have a proposition for the Council." Zey pushed his datapad in front of Camas

"I'm listening."

"Our losses are too high. Especially when the orders come from the Chancellors Office."

"What are you saying Arligan?"

"Just an observation at present."

"Captain Maze has already reorganised the Advisors and arranged for Squads to be allocated to specific Generals and Battalions. The next ones to get one are Kenobi and Commander Cody, a full squad is being attached to them."

Camas nodded at Maze; he assumed it was in thanks.

"Hopefully that can help us reduce losses in transit; despite the capability of our pilots."

He grunted in agreement; both Jedis glanced at him.

"We need more Commando's training up. There are CT's who have shown promise. All clones learn quickly and adapt. All we need are the trainers, ones that we don't have to take out of active service and ones that give us the best results."

"And they are?"

"Mandalorians." Zey pushed his datapad at Camas.

"Mandalorians? Arligan are you really suggesting….."

"We have to get over our past differences with them and whatever we think of them. The facts speak for themselves."

"They do?"

"Look at them."

He jabbed his finger at the datapad.

Camas studied the figures; Zey could speak volumes with figures, no Force jumbo jumbo for him and Maze appreciated him for it. Finally Camas looked up.

"You'll have to convince the Council. They may not be open to it."

"I can do that."

"Tomorrow?"

"I'm ready now."

.

Jedi Temple

It wasn't a full council meeting, it never was these days but the stalwarts were there, Master Yoda, Mace Windu, Ki Adi Mundi, although they had recently lost Ima-Gun Di and his troops on Ryloth, even Kenobi was here by holo. Skywalker would have been ideal, he was more soldier than Jedi.

They listened intently, some were more amenable to Mandalorians than others. There had been rumours about Kenobi and the Duchess but there were always rumours about Kenobi.

Zey laid out his information and concluded:

"I think it's significant that the casualty rate among commando squads trained by Mandalorians is lower than those trained by other races. Somehow, Mandalorians imbue their charges with a sense of purpose, self-confidence, and almost obsessive sense of clan — of family and that gives them a genuine survival advantage.

Let us be thankful they're on our side this time."

He looked around at the faces in front of him.

He had won.

.

Maze reached the University Library; it had been a bad two weeks since he last visited. They had lost two more squads, both corellian trained, both working on Missions requested specifically by the Chancellor and the General was being pressured by Skirata again. He knew when he was sidelined from their meetings that something was happening.

Camas recalled some Mandalorian trainers to train up CT's to ARC standard. He wasn't sure how he felt about that but could see the logic. Mando trained squads had a higher survival rate but then Skirata had offered some of the Nulls to help with specialised training.

That galled.

"Hi. I thought you'd forgotten me?"

Essie's voice broke into his thoughts; he smiled involuntarily.

"That's not bloody well going to happen, is it?"

"I don't know, You probably have lots of Librarians that you visit."

He scowled.

"Ooh, bad day?"

He grunted; she grinned.

"Bad couple of weeks." He elaborated.

And you weren't here the last time I came in.

"Sorry I wasn't here last time you came in. Is there anything I can do now?" her voice less teasing.

"Let's look at the Law."

"Okay. We can look at the Law on the Holonet but here we have some of the original texts, hand written on Vellum."

"Yeah. Whatever you think."

"Come on then." He followed her down to the reference section, into the corner, then past the reading area.

"Where are we going?"

"The Archive. Not many people come here."

Maze looked around understanding why. It was enclosed and smelt musty. He no longer felt comfortable here. Essie dragged the large wooden portable steps, propped against the cabinets, to the end. She climbed to the top. Maze could feel a drop of sweat on the inside of his body glove, as she pulled a long roll out of the top compartment, standing on tip toes to reach it. Then almost sliding down the steps to the bottom. He saw she had white fabric gloves on.

"Can't touch the vellum with sticky, sweaty fingers. Here!" She handed him a pair. "Come on." She backed through a door at the end carefully holding the vellum, he followed her into a room lit dimmer than anywhere else in the library. She sat at a desk and unrolled the vellum in front of her, putting old stone weights on the ends to hold it down.

"Here. I thought you would've be interested in some of the older parts of the law."

He leaned over, reading the law as it was written by the people who enacted it. A neat script, not dissimilar to his own but with numerous alterations.

"See there." she pointed out the alterations, including the dates, "It had all been written then they had to change parts of it, the words could be misconstrued and have several meanings."

In truth, he was fascinated.

Then his stomach growled.

Essie smiled, "You want to risk the Tualin?" She asked.

"Only if I can bring my blasters."

"Anytime. I like your blasters." she deadpanned.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Good. Just need to lock up!" She rolled up the vellum reverently and headed back up the ladder replacing it.

Maze watched, ready to catch her if she misplaced a foot that high up.

.

Maze pushed the door open, seeing the look of surprise on Nat's face, he took some satisfaction in that. He remembered the Ryl, the Twi'lek had spoken and looked it up, managing to get a basic translation. He also spent time practising it, on the down time he had.

"Caf, sandwich and cakes?" Asked Sol brightly.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Call me Sol."

Maze watched Essie go through to the back for some reason and Sol brought his caf.

"Rest'll be a couple of minutes." He nodded watching the back room.

Essie returned a few minutes later; when Maze realised the tension in his neck had eased.

.

It became a regular occurrence to meet her on her late nights. Somehow the General never seemed to need him, or had meetings with people where Maze was not required, like Vau or Skirata.

Each time they went to the Tualin, Essie stayed over. Initially, Maze never questioned this, as he enjoyed meeting her and endeavoured to attend, even if only for thirty minutes. But the longer this arrangement went on the more intrigued he became, as to why she didn't return home; it was no hardship for him to accompany her, he knew she had her own Apartment but Nat insisted. It was always him that insisted.

Maze thought they trusted him, obviously not; Essie appeared to and as far he was concerned she was the one who mattered.

.

ARCA Barracks.

Captain Maze dropped the flimzi pile into the Admin droids in tray.

"These need shredding, asap." he grunted, "and these." He added, dropping a pile of the Generals notes on top.

There was always boring administrative work to do in the Barracks; the filing the GAR and Republic produced could have kept half the GAR occupied, probably did and all he had were a few Admin Droids. It wasn't taxing and left him time to think, about the GAR, SOB and his brothers.

Jusik was on walkabout, Zey was at the Jedi Council all day, which meant there was really nothing for Maze to do except deal with Personnel issues and filing; his Advisor team monitored the squads on missions. The RC's made him twitchy, to say the least but the missions were running well today. He was always on call but Zey confirmed he had tonight off; he had an 08:00am meeting with the Sergeants Skirata, Vau, and Captain Ordo, the next day.

They still had no information on Grievous. So much for the Null boys.

He cricked his neck at the thought of the meeting.

He turned on his datapad to find out more about Nat, Sol and how they were related to Essie; she avoided his questions. She had passed security for her role at the Library, so he accessed the Coruscant Citizen Database; the clunkiest piece of digital shit he had the misfortune to use. Background checks did not reveal anything out of the ordinary. The couple definitely weren't her parents and some parts of her background were missing. It raised red flags but further investigation showed there had been issues with the Coruscant Records Office. A fire years ago. A known problem he couldn't do anything about.

He traced her parents, they died when she was young; she should have been with relatives or in the Guardianship of the Younglings Office but she was not in their archives.

Something was off.

.

Coruscant Residential District

Opposite her Apartment complex, there was an empty building waiting for redevelopment. Maze broke in easily, found a fourth storey apartment with window and waited, knowing she would be finished at the Library soon and coming home.

Ten minutes later Nat and Essie came around the corner chatting and smiling, as she pushed a repulsor stroller with a Twi'lek child in it.

Essie stopped suddenly and looked straight up at the window he was at, he leaned back; when he looked out again after a minute, they had disappeared. Finally the light on her apartment switched on, again she looked out from her window at the building. He went dark and magnified her image; she had a frown on her face, as if searching for something or someone.

.

Essie had stopped suddenly and turned towards the building opposite; Nat knew that look.

"Problem?"

"I just feel someone is watching us, from over there." She nodded across the walkway.

"You go up. I'll check." Nat adjusted his jacket checking for his knife; he preferred it to a blaster.

"I don't think it's him."

"Nah. But he could have hired someone."

"I didn't think so. He shouldn't know anything and if he was back here, I'm sure I would have heard on the grapevine. I still have a few friends I keep in touch with."

Nat looked sceptical.

"He sympathised with Dooku, so I don't think he would be back here yet. It would be too difficult for him."

"I'll check to make sure. Could be a squatter. Either way you need to know."

Nat was right.

.

Maze's background checks had not thrown up any child. It had shown a next of kin as Nat Kilbie and Sol, a Twi'lek and joint owner of the Caf and Cake shop and a gym and his wife. The child had surprised him; she had never mentioned it.

Maze backed inside and leaned against the wall, trying to make some sense of it. It was then he realised— he'd lost the Twi'lek— he hadn't been in the apartment.

"Kriff! Where did he go?"

He scanned the street, nothing. He tried heat signatures, nothing. Damn. Older buildings— the walls were too thick. There was a series of adjoining rooms in this place. He pushed himself flat to a wall and with blaster raised, checked the next room, just in case—empty.

He moved on through to the next one, and the next one. Methodical just as he'd been trained.

He listened, magnified his audio. There was someone or something in here. Just where?

Maze felt his arms yanked back and pinned behind him, and a knee forced him with considerable strength and weight to the ground. Something was wrapped around his helmet blocking his air filtration ducts. It was sealed and he could not reach it to unseal it.

"Now soldier boy" growled a male Twi'lek voice, a strong Ryl accent, "What ya' up to?"

He bucked, trying to use his strength to dislodge his opponent. He barely moved him an inch.

"I fought with Gamoreans and Wookiees, in ma' time. So don't bother lad."

He recognised the voice — Nat. His HUD beeped a low oxygen warning and despite being able to hold his breath, his struggles to release himself, quickly depleted his reserves. He tried one last time summoning his strength he bucked up again. He got higher this time.

"Whoah lad. I don't want to hurt ya. Just a talk."

He was still pinned down, it slowly went black as he lost consciousness.

.