Lime-lensed Lord - I do write many of those ;).

SpeechBubbleMe- You have updated. I am pleased :). Sascha is a very good fake boyfriend - I originally had them having a lot more fun in these 'fake' roles, but it was hard to fit it in without it taking away from the story.

A/N - Nothing from me!

As always, Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 12: Not Ourselves

Nara Nalto thought that the classes in the Jedi Temple were often very boring. But in comparison, her class on advanced combinatorics at Apren Polytechnic was downright sleep inducing. It didn't help that she had already mastered almost all of these concepts when she was 12. It also didn't help that the lecturer, a Givin, was trying to make the mathematical concepts approachable to those without a strong background in mathematics. Not exactly enthralling stuff.

So, as usual, she tried to occupy her brain with thoughts of boys. But even that wasn't really working today. Every time she tried to think about one of her various crushes, she could hardly even hold the thought of them in her head before they dissipated. Sighing, she started flipping through the applications on her datapad. She had a couple of games on there that could probably keep her occupied until the end of class, and she was deciding between which one she was going to choose.

She had almost booted one up when a message from Zven Hitplik showed up on her datapad. Zven had been silent since yesterday, when she had replied to his message, saying that she would show up to his 'big event.' But now he was messaging her again. That was good. While Sascha felt that their big break had been learning about Quetziel Roa, she still felt that Zven was going to be the person that allowed her to infiltrate deep into this conspiracy. Looking up how Quetziel was involved in this was going to be Sascha's job. Hers was to get close and stay close to Zven.

After sharing some short, polite, messages, Zven asked if she was free for lunch, and she replied that she was free after her class ended. Smiling at her progress, she closed her datapad and tried to pay attention to the lecture again. She managed to pay attention for a few more minutes before her mind started to drift again. This time, it was at least focused on the task at hand. She wondered about how she could play Zven so that he would start to trust her. She'd already played hard to get, so that was probably not a tactic that she could pursue for much longer. So she had to play the part of the eager potential zealot. It was not something she did very much. Though she could lie and put a false front as well as anyone, faking that sort of enthusiasm was difficult for her.

"But what choice do I have," she muttered under her breath.

She sent Sascha a quick message, telling him that she wouldn't be coming home immediately after class and that she'd be meeting Sven. Sascha replied with a quick message, wishing her good luck and reminding him that he had class coming up, so he would around campus if she needed him. She didn't expect that she would.

Mercifully, the class ended soon afterwards and Nara made her way through campus to the restaurant where she had met Zven before. She looked around the front of the restaurant and didn't see Zven hanging around, so she went inside. She spotted the Zabrak in a booth about at the midway point of the restaurant, but Nara paused when she saw that there was someone else sitting with him. She couldn't get a good look at the other person in the booth, but judging from the long brown hair that she could see, she was better the person across from Zven was a human female, or at least a humanoid that featured hair.

Her first guess turned out to be correct. Across from Zven was a severe looking woman with brown hair that was tied in a austere braid. Not exactly good looking, she still had a striking look to her, with sharp features, an angular nose and piercing blue eyes. Nara instantly nicknamed her 'The Hawk.'

She forced a cheerful wave and tried to seem happy to be there instead of vaguely terrified, "Hi Zven. Am I here early?"

Zven smiled thinly, "Actually you've arrived just in time. Nara Nalto, meet Jas Garthi. Jas, meet Nara Nalto."

Jas gave her a look she could only describe as 'slightly unbridled hostility.' "Charmed," the human gritted out.

Zven noted the less than welcoming greeting, "Come on, Jas, play nice. Nara's one of the good ones."

"We'll see about that," Jas said flippantly. "Stupid 1st year students are all the same, Zven. I keep telling you this."

Zven's tone suddenly became lower, and harsher, "And I keep telling you that unless we recruit new people, we'll never grow."

Jas looked her over and snorted derisively, "If you say we are stuck with her, than we are stuck with her. Come on little Togruta, sit beside me."

Nara took her seat in the booth across from Zven. It was a good position, because if something went horribly wrong, it wouldn't be that difficult to escape from. "Anyone order food? I'd be happy to chip in some credits towards lunch."

Zven smiled kindly, "We already ordered food, thank you. I got you what you had last time."

Nara was slightly taken aback but forced a smile, "Thanks."

Jas withdrew a small black device that was a few centimeters wide and about double that in height. "What's that?" she asked.

"It's a device that disables recording devices that might be listening in," replied Jas caustically.

"Good joke. What is it really?"

Jas snatched the device off the table, "This girl is the best you could find? She's dumber than a brain damaged Wampa, Zven."

Nara made a split-second decision and decided to stand up for herself. She'd rather be seen as too aggressive rather than too meek. Besides, she was a 'little Togruta' as Jas had reminded her. Nara reached out and grabbed a hold of the collar of Jas' shirt, "You have a problem with me? Maybe we should go outside and settle this the Togruta way."

Jas grabbed at her forearm, but she held on, tightening her grip. Nara was wondering how far she would have to take this when Zven spoke up, "Nara. Enough."

Nara held on for a second longer and then released her grip on Jas' shirt.

Jas brushed herself off, "She's a fighter. That's good."

"We don't need fighters, Jas. I keep telling you this," said Zven patiently.

"That's not what the others think, Zven," replied Jas. "I am yet to be convinced by your approach, Zven."

Nara broke in to the conversation, "Will someone clue me in with what you guys are talking about? I feel like you guys have a special language that I'm not privy to."

Zven gestured to Jas, who reluctantly set the device in the middle of the table and pressed what was looked to her to be an essentially invisible button.

"We can talk safely now," said Zven.

"Talk safely about what?" asked Nara, still playing clueless but knowing exactly what Zven wanted to talk about.

"The Jedi Order. And how to rid the Republic of its infestation," said Jas drumming her fingers on the table.

"My colleague is direct," said Zven, "but correct. We believe that, much as you argued on your first day, that the Jedi Order does far more harm than good to the Republic. And we want to search for a way to get the Jedi to leave the Republic. Peacefully," said Zven, shooting a significant glance at Jas, who ignored it totally.

"What...I mean...how...I mean...Isn't that illegal?"

Zven held his arm out in a calming gesture, "Nothing we have done is illegal, Nara. Nor will we ask of you anything that could get your expelled from school. You have my word on that. But this is important work. More important than your studies."

Nara pretended to be flummoxed, but her heart was racing. Here was going to be their big break in the investigation. Clearly this group had two factions. Zven represented the peaceful side, Jas the more extremist side. All she had to do now was play along and figure out where this was going.

"Okay. How do I help? What do you want me to do?"

Jas sighed, "We need someone to help recruit people into our little organization. Only with numbers do we have strength. The problem with recruiting at a University is that after people are done their studies, they leave, often to different cities or different planets. It makes it difficult to coordinate when people are far flung across the galaxy. But the University is a great place to recruit. Young people have open minds and enthusiasm, whereas adults..." Jas trailed off.

"...have already come to their conclusions," Nara finished.

"And they have jobs and other commitments that complicate things," said Zven, picking up on her point. "The onus is thus on us to move forward with our goals. Once we get them into the mainstream, we have a real chance of making real change."

"I don't know," said Nara. "Aren't the Jedi going to put up a fight? I don't think they'll abandon the Republic easily."

"Maybe the Togruta isn't as dumb as she looks," muttered Jas.

Zven glared at Jas, who took the hint and shut her mouth and stirred her drink with a utensil. Zven returned his attention back to her, "It will not be easy and it will not be overnight. But we can be the catalyst for a change, one that will help reinvigorate the Republic. You know this, Nara. That's why you got up there on that stage and proposed that debate topic, because you know that this is the way to move the Republic into a new era."

Nara paused, letting her gaze drop to the table, appearing to reflect on what Zven had said, whereas in reality she was just trying to figure out the right amount of enthusiasm that she should have. She raised her eyes to meet Zven's, "Tell me how to start."

Zven smiled, "We'll start small with you. One thing I want you to start with is try to find people like you, people with open minds that could be convinced that our cause is a righteous one, is a correct one. If you've met people like that, bring them to our meeting tomorrow. I realize that this is short notice, and you have not had a lot of time at Apren Polytechnic. But if you know anyone..." Zven trailed off. "They'll be welcome."

"What is this meeting going to be about?" she asked.

Zven began to speak, but stopped when he saw that the server droid making its way to their table with their food. After the server droid deployed their food in its proper place (done with its usual silent efficiency), it wheeled away, no doubt going back to the kitchen to pick up the order for another table. "As I was going to say," said Zven, "It's just going to be an introductory meeting where we broach our ideas. Nothing more than that."

"Which is why it is a waste of time," muttered Jas.

"Our members need to be recruited from somewhere, Jas," Zven replied.

Jas made a dismissive gesture and focused her attention on her food.

"It'll just be me and a few other people talking about the Jedi Order and how we feel they are holding back the Republic. Then those who are interested can join our little...club."

Nara frowned, "And you are sure that this is nothing illegal?"

Zven laughed, "Of course. We're just using our right of free assembly and freedom of speech. But we think of these rights as benign. I say otherwise. I say those are the rights that allow us to shake the foundation of the Republic."

"It can use a good shaking," Nara said.

"We'll give it one. I promise you that. Maybe we give it a nudge today. But in a few years, it will be an earthquake."

Jas grinned wickedly, and raised her glass, "To causing earthquakes."

Zven nodded and raised his glass as well, "To causing earthquakes."

Nara joined in, raising her glass to the other two and clinking softly against it, "To causing a tidal wave. Because if there is an earthquake in the right place, at the right time, they can make a tidal wave. And that is what we are going to do with the Jedi Order. We are going to sweep it away"

"I'll drink to that!" declared Jas, throwing her drink down with gusto. Zven followed suit in a much more disciplined fashion. Nara drank the contents of her glass as well (it was just juice after all), and hid a little smile. A meeting where all the anti-Jedi people were going to be together? Sounds like the place where she wanted to be.

Sascha Whitestar was skipping class for the first time in his life. In fairness, if he was supposed to try to fit in with his colleagues at Apren Polytechnic, this was probably the best way to do so. For whatever reason, lots of students decided that skipping classes (that they were paying thousands of credits for) was a good idea. It didn't make sense to him, but it was the way things were, apparently.

The reason he had skipped class? Quetziel Roa. He had a strong suspicion about Quetziel from the moment that his name had been mentioned. This was the sort of person that was could have been in charge of the whole anti-Jedi sentiment. All he had to do was find him.

But that was proving to be difficult. While Sascha had no trouble in pulling up all of his records through a search that was routed through the Jedi Temple, that only told him about Quetziel's actions previous to his arrest, not anything that happened to him afterwards. As far as Sascha could tell, the man had fallen off the face of the galaxy. He not no recorded job, no recorded place of address. Quetziel Roa was currently a ghost.

The obvious answer to his problem was that Quetziel had probably packed up and left the planet, never to return. One run in with the law had probably been enough for him. But...for whatever reason, Sascha didn't believe that this was the case. It wasn't the Force telling him this, no, it was good old fashioned common sense. Quetziel had roots here. Quetziel was a zealot and a zealot would not abandon his flock, not without good reason.

Sascha drummed his fingers against the table. How could he find someone who didn't want to be found?

The first part of finding someone was thinking about what he would do if he was in Quetziel's position. Sascha generally found it easy to slip into the heads of many different people, he recognized that as a naturally empathetic person, it was easier for him to see what was in the hearts and minds of others. But try as he might, he couldn't fathom what Quetziel's next move might have been.

Sascha stood and started to pace in the apartment. His problem, he suspected, was that if his theory of Quetziel being his friend Doro's brother was just that, a theory. If it were true, then who knew what kind of length someone would go to get 'their' family back? It wasn't a motivation that Sascha really understood. That meant it was more than a little difficult for him to understand how his adversary might think.

That option unavailable to him, he considered what someone like Quetziel's goals might be. Whereas someone like Zven seemed to approach this issue from an intellectual position, he imagined that Quetziel might approach it from an emotional one. Zven wanted to remove the Jedi from their position of power because (for whatever reason) he felt that the Jedi were holding back the Republic. It seemed like Quetziel might be undertaking these actions just to hurt the Jedi and those that support them, like a child lashing out. A dangerous child.

So what was his next move going to be, Sascha wondered. There had to be some sort of pattern. But how could he know the pattern if he didn't know what actions Quetziel had been behind.

"I'm wasting my time," Sascha said out loud. Then he realized it was true. Whatever leads they had were going to come through Nara. And that meant that Nara was of crucial importance. Sascha picked up his keycard from the table and headed outside. If he wasn't going to be in class, he might as well be useful.

Nara played the eager new recruit as Jas and Zven detailed their long term plans for the 'Society for the Preservation of the Republic' as they called themselves. Nara suggested ways that they could recruit and influence people in more effective ways. Any technique that she suggested that landed in a moral gray area was often embraced by Jas, and then gracefully shot down by Zven. But in general, what she did was listen and take mental notes, notes of names, locations used by Zven and Jas. She got a sense that the Society for the Preservation of the Republic was not as large as Nara would have thought.

But the members they had they used well. When they showed up in public as they had outside of Ezah's concert, they showed up with their entire membership, making them seem more formidable and numerous than they were. Rather than presenting themselves as a group of outsiders, they presented themselves as mainstream thinkers. It was, Nara granted, a nice tactic. Generally speaking, people didn't want to be seen as an outsider, but rather as a part of a group of like minded people. So if people thought that it was 'cool' to dislike the Jedi, people might find themselves attracted to the ideology without thinking about it much.

She was feeling pretty good about herself and what she had managed to accomplish when she picked up the strong sense in the Force that Sascha was nearby. Huh? Why would he be here? Momentarily distracted, she missed the flow of the conversation, "Sorry guys, I missed that last part, can you repeat it?"

Zven waved her lapse in concentration away, "It was nothing. I do want to ask you one thing, though. Your...significant other...do you think he will approve of all this?"

"Who, Sascha?" Nara said, feigning being surprised.

"If that's the name of the guy you are living with...yeah," said Jas sarcastically.

"Sascha's well... I don't know how long me and him are going to last," she said, glancing away and hoping that she was doing a good job of looking embarrassed.

Luckily for her, Zven seemed equally embarrassed, "Ah, well, I didn't want to pry. These things happen, relationships fall apart. The main thing is to keep moving forward."

"You should know from experience, Zven," replied Jas. The human female nudged her, "Zven has a problem in keeping girlfriends. Not like me. Me and Emari have been going strong for three years now."

"Yes, thank you for providing Nara with an update on my love life, Jas."

Jas grinned wickedly, "You are welcome, Zven."

Nara smiled, and for a moment, she forgot that these were the people that she was investigating, and would have to take actions towards. But these weren't even really bad people in any sense of the word. Even in the Force, she couldn't feel any feelings of malice or hatred from either Zven nor (surprisingly) Jas. Were she and Sascha even doing the right thing?

Mentally, she gave her head a shake, reminding her of how Hatara had been kidnapped and Ezah threatened. Of the reports of cyber-bullying towards those that expressed pro-Jedi beliefs. But were Zven and this group behind those attacks? It was hard to see someone as principled as Zven stoop to such a level. Then again, she had only just 'joined' this group, they still probably had lots of secrets.

And speaking of Sascha, she could sense that he was hanging around outside the restaurant, probably acting as inauspiciously as possible. Ugh, why wasn't he in class? Was he checking up on her? The old Sascha was occasionally really patronizing towards her, and she hoped he wasn't falling back into his old ways.

"Unless there is anything else, I believe we can leave everything else to tomorrow," said Zven. "Nara, you can just attend the meeting as a member of the crowd, but after its done, come up to the stage and I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew."

Nara bowed her head graciously, "Thank you for this invite. I won't let you down."

"The Republic will thank you for your service, Miss Nalto," replied Zven, who paid the bill by tapping his paycard against table and pressing a button. Then he stood and indicated that she should do the same. The three of them stood up from the booth and went to the front entrance, where they milled about for a bit.

Jas pushed on her shoulder slightly, "Sorry for the hard time I gave you, but I knew how highly Zven thought of you, I wanted to make sure that he was right about you. He was."

Nara, despite herself, was genuinely touched, "Thanks."

"Where you headed now?" asked Zven.

"Home," said Nara. "Time to have a conversation about Sascha being 'my' Sascha," she said.

"Let 'em down easy, Nara," said Zven.

"I'll try. Bye Zven, bye Jas, I'll see you tomorrow," she said, pushing through the doors and emerging into the midday sun on Estimar. It was a nice day, though there were a few clouds that were threatening to disrupt the nice weather. Nara took a quick look around to see if she could find Sascha, but though she could feel that he was close by, he couldn't see him. At least he knew how to blend in, she thought, stewing on her annoyance. Did Sascha think that she needed his help with everything? Nara growled deep in her throat, a physical manifestation of her annoyance at the moment. She stalked off quickly, heading for the apartment.

She made it to the apartment before Sascha did. But, knowing that he was following close behind her, she simply stood in the little foyer, just outside of the door and waited for him with her arms crossed across her chest. When he entered less than a minute later, he smirked at her, "Didn't feel like waiting for me?"

"No. Close the door."

Sascha, evidently judging that he had done something wrong, quickly turned and closed the door. He tried to walk past her and into the main part of the room, but she stopped her with a hand on his chest, "Where are you going now?" she asked.

"Uh, the living room?"

Sascha's glib comment almost made her snap, but having been trained from youth not to give into anger, she just turned away and stalked into the kitchen, extremely peeved.

Sascha came into the kitchen with his hands up, looking extremely contrite, "I sense we are going to have an argument, so can we please do it in the place there aren't any knives laying around?"

Nara tried to be angry, she really did. But as usual, Sascha knew the right things to say, "I don't need knives, I'm a walking predator, Sascha," she said, smiling slightly.

He nodded, "Okay, if the predator wants to come and talk with me, I'll be sitting defenseless in the living room."

Sascha left her alone in the kitchen while she closed her eyes both to calm herself down and to formulate her arguments for the discussion she was going to have with Sascha. After doing some Jedi breathing techniques she was ready to begin.

She found Sascha sitting on the couch, nervously fidgeting. "I'm calm now," she said. She could have chosen to keep standing and have a quasi superiority in the conversation, but she grabbed a pillow that she had used for meditating and sat on it. "But I was mighty annoyed with you Sascha."

"Because I followed you?" he asked.

"Yes...and you didn't even tell me you were going to do it!"

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you," said Sascha. "I hadn't really planned on it myself," he admitted. "I was just at an impasse, I thought that I was pursuing something meaningful, when I realized that I was just wasting my time. The only thing I realized was how important you are to this mission."

"So you came to protect me?" she half-snarled.

"What? No! Well...kind of?"

"Kind of," she repeated, "How did you 'kind of' come to protect me?"

Sascha sighed, "It's just that...you are so important to this mission, I figured that it might have been a good use of my time to keep an eye on you. I knew you were meeting with Zven, so..."

"...So you didn't think I can take care of myself?"

Sascha's calm demeanor finally broke and he started punctuating his words with his hands, "Of course you can, Nara! Why in the Force would you think otherwise? I know how strong you are! I wasn't out there just to protect you, I wanted to protect the valuable information that you have. It has nothing to do with your competence. Besides, I was there looking to see if Quetziel might have been hanging around. Which of course he wasn't...or I didn't see him, the last picture on record for him is like half a year old. But I wasn't there to protect you."

"You just happened to be there."

Sascha shrugged in a self-deprecating fashion, "In a sense...yeah. I wasn't thinking about protecting Nara Nalto, Jedi Padawan. I was thinking about protecting Nara Nalto, intelligence asset."

Nara had been angry, but Sascha's relentless honesty had made her reconsider her anger. Still, she wasn't about to forgive him totally. Not yet. "You should have told me that you were coming. What if we crossed paths? You might have blown my cover."

"I considered that, and that is why I stayed out of sight," said Sascha, a bit stiffly. Then his head drooped, "You are right, I should have told you what I was doing."

"There's something else bothering you, Sascha," she said. Knowing her friend as well as she did, this was not typical Sascha behavior. Therefore, something had to be eating away at him...but she had no idea what it might be.

Sascha scratched his head, "Well...I kind of feel like this whole mission has been about you surpassing me. I'm supposed to be the one that's good at these sort of tricky, non-combat situations, but I've basically been useless, while you managed to get the best lead, I couldn't even get the comlink number of a potential ally. You're already a better fighter than I am, and stronger in the Force. If you get better at this stuff than I am...I mean, you'll be a better Jedi than I am by far, a future Jedi Master, where I'll just be...you know, Sascha Whitestar, average Jedi."

Nara took a few moments to absorb that statement from Sascha. While he had always been prone to bouts of self criticism, she wasn't quite sure why it was popping up now. "We are doing this as a team, Sascha. As usual, you give yourself no credit."

"Yeah, maybe that's true. But we can discuss that later, because I really don't want to get into it now."

Nara nodded, "Fair enough, let me fill you in on my talk with Zven." Nara briefly outlined the major points that had been brought up, and expressed that she still didn't know a lot about anything that was going to happen.

"I love surprises," Sascha deadpanned.

Nara smiled, but ignored Sascha's remark, "Do you have any idea what we might expect tomorrow? What are plan might be?"

Sascha hemmed and hawwed for a moment, "Sounds like they are putting on a rally."

"Sounds about right."

"So we should probably disrupt it."

"Following you so far," she said. "Any idea how?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could debate them," said Sascha. "The Jedi Padawans debate the anti-Jedi fanatics."

Nara laughed. Then she thought...that might be a great idea.

So much for Sascha being useless.