Welkin
Chapter One: The Council's Decree
"Recite the Jedi Code," the older Jedi with jagged hair instructed, slamming his walking stick against the ground.
The children sitting in the courtyard with perfect posture unbefitting their age all sounded off, "There is no passion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force. "
Their instructor nodded, his eye zeroing in on a small boy with short hair and dark eyes, "Sai."
The little boy looked up with his wide stare, blinking slowly, "Yes Master?"
"Why must Jedi follow the Code?"
"To prevent emotion from clouding our judgments," the boy offered, sounding exactly like a holocron.
"Why else?"
To Sai's side, a little girl with red hair had her hand up, stretching it higher with her other hand, face excited as she muttered, "Me! I know! Mememe!"
Their teacher ignored the exuberant girl, "Sai?"
Sai bowed his head low.
Their teacher exhaled through his nostrils, "It is to prevent the forming of bonds," the little girl let her hand down with a huff, glaring at Sai, "A Jedi's life is sacrifice, and when we die, we must dissolve utterly into the Force with no attachments. Selfish love leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, hatred to suffering, and suffering to the Dark Side."
His eye scanned the faces of his pupils, resting on his future Padawan. Sai was still, his chubby face in as deep of thought as younglings could go, "That will be all for today. Be sure to work on your meditation exercises."
When all the other younglings rushed off to go play games, only Sai was left behind. When he was alone, save for his Master, he immediately assumed a meditation position.
Danzou's grim face lit up with something close to approval, "You'll make a fine Jedi one day, Sai."
Sai only nodded, concentrating on his task.
---
Eleven years later…
The young man stood perfectly in the middle of the circle, completely at ease despite the heavy eyes scrutinizing him from all angles. His posture was straight, hands clasped gently behind his back, with his chin tilted slightly at the main figure who was addressing him.
"Do you know why we've called you here?" asked the old man sitting directly across from where the man was standing, his face horrifically scarred with a cybernetic eye where his natural left one should be.
"No, Master Danzou," the man replied, his voice flat and unfeeling.
"An…injustice has been done against this Council," Grand Jedi Master Danzou said quietly, and all eyes of those in the session drifted to the sole empty chair, "Two months ago Master Itachi was murdered."
The man inclined his head in understanding, "I am aware Master. May he be one with the Force."
Several of the other Masters in attendance inclined their heads in a show of respect, saving Master Deidara, whose face descended into a heavy scowl.
"Myself and Masters Pein and Konan," the two Jedi flanking either side of him gave nothing away, only Master Konan bowing her head in a gesture of acknowledgement, "have discussed this at length, the result of which is that we, the Council, have a mission for you."
The man smiled, "A mission?"
"Yes. We request that you seek out the murderer of Master Itachi, and bring him before the Jedi Council here on Coruscant for trial."
The man's smile stretched, "Forgive me, Master Danzou, but does the Jedi Council not forbid acts of vengeance?"
Danzou's face, if possible, only grew graver, "This is not an act of vengeance. It is for the good of the galaxy that the culprit of the crime be brought to justice, he is a danger if he is allowed to run wild."
The man tilted his head to the side, "He?"
This time, Master Konan spoke up, "Perceptive as always. We believe we have uncovered the identity of the assassin."
Master Pein spoke next, "Uchiha Sasuke, the estranged younger brother of Master Itachi, and a deserter of the Republic Fleet."
"Rumors have circulated that he is in league with the Sith Lord Orochimaru," Master Danzou said, a harsh undercurrent to his words, "The fallen Jedi who murdered his Master, the late Sarutobi," he ran his tongue over his dry lips, staring his very own Padawan straight in the eyes, "You understand the necessity of success in this mission?"
The man nodded, "Yes, Master."
Danzou nodded in turn, "Very well. You have your orders, Jedi Knight Sai. A ship will be prepared for you in the docking bay, as well as an astromech droid."
"May the force be with you," Master Konan said quietly.
Sai bowed lowly, before turning and exiting the Council chamber without another word.
Within the circle of Jedi Masters, Pein and Konan met each others' eyes for a moment too long after the Jedi Knight left the room.
"You think that runt's right for this?" Asked Master Hidan, a deep scowl on his face.
"He's perfect. I have instructed him to be perfect," Danzou said coldly, turning to stare at the liberally titled wild card of the Jedi Council, "Any discrepancies you have with Knight Sai can be addressed to me, personally."
Hidan wisely fell silent.
"Now," Danzou said with an almost joyful smile, "To the real business."
---
Sai was characteristically silent as he made his way through the halls of the Jedi Temple to his quarters, face blank and focused.
As he turned, he wasn't surprised when he felt the Force presence of his fellow Jedi Knight hovering outside his door.
"I hear the Council sent you on a top priority mission," Karin said with a forced nonchalance, leaning against the wall and examining her nails with a practiced bored expression.
Sai smiled, "That doesn't surprise me, seeing that your ears are big enough to hear extraordinarily well."
Karin glared at him behind the infrared visor she always insisted on wearing, "What's the mission Sai?"
"You would have to ask the Council for that information. Now, if you'd please move aside, your large backside is blocking the door."
Karin stepped aside from the door, only to jab a finger into Sai's chest, "I know what, who, you're going after Sai-"
"Then I suppose you asking me earlier was an exercise in redundancy-"
"-And if you want any chance of finding Uchiha Sasuke, you're going to need me."
Sai calmly grasped her finger, moving it aside, "Your services are not required," he said with the politest smile he could form.
"The stang they're not!" Karin said in a huff, the sleeves on her robes billowing for a moment as she crossed her arms, "I'm the only one who can sense Force presences from planets away, everyone knows that I'm the only one who could track down-"
"If everyone knows, Jedi Karin, then that must include the Council, who didn't assign you to this mission," Sai said, moving past her and walking through the pressurized doorway as it opened, "Perhaps it is because you are not prepared to face your former Master again?"
Karin gaped, for once speechless, as the door slammed shut.
Sai inhaled, pleased that that particular unpleasantness was over, and made his way over to his storage locker at the foot of his bed.
Despite living at the Temple for over fifteen years, Sai's living quarters were painfully bare. There were no sentimental effects from his numerous missions over the years, no holovids or leisure datapads, the only thing even resembling a personal item was the small workbench he installed himself after his tenth year at the Temple, cluttered with several spare parts and visual holocrons. It was Sai's only hobby, constructing digital pictures. But it was a hobby more in place because he was expected to have a hobby, and he didn't so much as blink as he realized that he would be leaving them behind.
He bent down to the locker, inputting the code as it snapped open. From there, he collected his spare set of Jedi robes, a few life support kits, the small amount of money he had held on to over the years, and his lightsaber.
His hands paused for a moment as he handled the weapon. Unlike most of the Jedi at the Temple, Sai had chosen to build one with a shorter blade. The hilt was smooth, no personal adornments, and he knew that if he were to ignite it, the pale blue signifying a Jedi Guardian would light up the room.
Deciding that he had taken too long already, Sai clipped the lightsaber to the belt of his tunic, and lifted his belongings over his shoulder. He closed his eyes for a moment, pleased that he could no longer sense Karin's presence outside of his room, and didn't look back at the place that had been his room for almost two decades.
He still had one last stop before he could head to the hanger bay.
---
"Here you are," said the apprentice Jedi historian Juugo before Sai could even announce his presence, handing a datapad over to Sai as he entered the archives.
Sai stared at the datapad, "What is this?"
"Everything that we have on Uchiha Sasuke," Juugo explained, a bashful look coming across his face, "Master Danzou asked me to prepare it."
Sai tucked it into his outer robe, "Tell him it was received."
Juugo inclined his head, "I understand. But you had better get going, Suigetsu has been…vocal about his needing to do other things," the timid historian winced when he recalled the exact words that had come out of Suigetsu's mouth over the com link when Juugo had timidly suggested a meditation trance.
"He is overcompensating for his small-" Juugo sent him a wide-eyed look, "Force abilities, no doubt," Sai said calmly, bowing his head in a gesture of farewell as he left.
"May the Force be with you, Jedi Sai," Juugo whispered quietly, before going to attend to the catalogue.
---
"Do you always make a habit of delaying direct orders?" greeted Jedi Knight and resident astromechanics enthusiast Suigetsu as Sai entered the second hanger bay, his dark eyes taking in a small ship. The half Mon Calamarian frowned at him, rubbing his coolant stained hands dry with a towel.
Sai, as he usually did, ignored Suigetsu, "This is the ship?" he asked slowly.
Suigetsu growled, but his attention was successfully diverted from Sai's lack of punctuality to ship maintenance, "I know it's an ugly heap of junk, but it'll get you to the Outer Rim and back, I guarantee it."
"It looks barely serviceable," Sai agreed, nodding his head.
Suigetsu snorted, pointing an accusing finger at his fellow Knight, "Don't give me that load of gizka shit, this thing goes faster than anything else we've got."
"The Jedi Order is not renowned for their ships," Sai said with a smile.
Suigetsu, who had made his mark among the countless other Padawans and Knights at the Temple by being the best astromechanic, and therefore being the one who slaved over the Jedi's limited resources of ships on a daily basis, felt his temper grow short, "Oh what do you know," he said sourly.
"It appears to be a Corellian model, but the scorch marks on the hull implies that it sustained damage in a space fight, and most likely the shields had to be replaced-"
"It wasn't a literal question," Suigetsu grumbled, "Well, since you're so enthusiastic about it, yes, I'd be glad to show you around The Paper Tiger."
"The Paper Tiger?"
Suigetsu shrugged, "You were right about it being a retired Corellian fighter, the guy who owned it prior to us named it after some sort of rabid beast that only lives on N-kada IV," he activated the docking ramp, "Let's introduce you two, huh?"
Sai followed the astromechanic up the ramp, dark eyes taking everything in with critical detail as Suigetsu pointed out the sole personal quarter, fitted with a bunk bed, the mess area, the navigational charts, the med bay, the cargo hold, the cockpit, and various other nooks and crannies of the ship before he halted in front of the only sealed door on the entire ship.
"This is the garage, there's a lot of exposed wires and pipes, so I'd leave this all to the astromech unit since you can't tell the difference between a hydrospanner and a coolant adhesive-"
"A hydrospanner is a tool used for fastening-"
"I wasn't being literal Sai. Force, do you need to work on that," Suigetsu said with a huff, before he paused in his step, a thought obviously just having occurred to him, "Oh yeah, and the astromech's a bit of a pain," Suigetsu said with a wicked gleam in his eyes, "It was built by Master Sarutobi, who made the bucket of bolts impervious to memory wipes so it's got a few programming…quirks."
"Quirks," Sai reiterated, not sure he understood.
"You'll see," Suigetsu said around his grin, the serrated teeth shining with the light from the door control panel as he opened the garage, "Sai, meet K0-N0, the most irritating astromech on the planet. K0-N0, meet Sai, the most irritating Jedi on the planet."
Sai took in the squat droid as its head swiveled around, beeping loudly at him. The astromech appeared to be a standard unit, the only discrepancies being the thick, blue-green band around its core and the oddly shaped lump of metal covering its processor.
"I don't understand, why does the astromech have a protective layer over its top?"
"You lucked out by getting the only droid in the galaxy that needs to wear a helmet," Suigetsu gave a low whistle, "Force knows Master Danzou isn't doing you any favors by giving him to you. Makes me almost happy to have been Master Kisame's Padawan instead."
Sai frowned, staring down K0-N0, "I am your Master-"
K0-N0 wheeled its head around, a miffed beep coming from it.
"It seems rather rude," Sai commented observantly.
"Maybe I can see why Master Danzou gave him to you," Suigetsu said with an eye roll.
The K0-N0 unit squealed indignantly, turning its head around and giving a shuddering sound with its processor that sounded oddly similar to a human huff.
Suigetsu couldn't keep the laughter in as he clapped Sai on the back, "The Force be with you on finding that guy, you're going to need it."
Sai said nothing, merely walked directly over to the cockpit, his hands ghosting over the controls.
Suigetsu walked up behind him, turning on a datapad, "The Council expects standard weekly reports on your progress, if you haven't successfully detained Uchiha Sasuke in a Coruscant year's time, they will be forced to send," Suigetsu's face puckered like he had been asked to lick a Wookie, "Karin to accompany you."
Sai nodded, realizing that Suigetsu was merely outlining his mission objectives before he launched.
"If you do apprehend Uchiha, there are several high dosage sedatives in the med bay, as well as a pair of restrainer cuffs, although those aren't going to do much good against a Sith. You are then to contact the Council, who will arrange a hearing on Coruscant."
"I understand."
"Good," Suigetsu mumbled, turning off the datapad, "I input the coordinates for Nar Shadaar in your star maps-"
"Nar Shadaar?" Sai's eyebrows furrowed in question.
"I doubt you've heard of it, no Jedi in their right mind would go to Nar Shadaar. It's a planet run by a crime syndicate, full of slavers, bounty hunters, and assassins. I figured it's as good of a place as any to start hunting down a Sith."
Sai nodded, not even batting an eyelash at the description.
"I suppose that's it then. I'll be going now, if you run into any problems, feel free to ask K0-N0 for assistance," Suigetsu said with a bit of a vindictive smirk, exiting the cockpit and heading for the docking ramps.
Sai grimaced at the thought of getting the irritating astromech to coordinate, but his hands started running over the controls, preparing The Paper Tiger to fly.
The very second Suigetsu stepped off the docking ramp, Sai raised it and The Paper Tiger began its journey to Nar Shadaar- leaving a very annoyed astromechanic in its wake whose sleeve had been caught in the ramp when it closed.