Chapter 81: New Path
Satine Kryze was dead. It was unthinkable, and yet it was. Not only was she dead, but Mandalore had been ravished, Sundari burned by a united efforts of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the galaxy, and with the death of the pacifist queen of the Neutral Systems, the protected empire fell apart. Bo-Katan Kryze, the late Duchess' younger sister, had not been on Mandalore at the time of the attack and had survived the execution of her Death Watch, and she was not one to do anything but exact consummate revenge on all those responsible for the death of the Mand'alor. Thousands of systems, including former Separatist and Republic worlds, were suddenly without leadership, and the war found them quickly. Within a day of the fall of Mandalore, the Separatists and the Republic were already fighting over the neutral worlds, sending the once peaceful planets into war-torn chaos. All hope for peace had died with Satine, and everyone knew it.
Anakin had returned from his mission the morning after it had happened with news of his own. He had recovered one of the ships that had been stolen by Kenobi, though with this small victory came a great deal of failure. His infiltration team, with the exception of Admiral Tarkin and Commander Rex, was all dead, including Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, another Council member fallen at the hands of the Sith. Anakin reported that the Master had managed to kill one of the monestrous rancors that followed Kenobi into battle, but not the biggest one, and the Masters dreaded the thought of how many Jedi would die trying to kill that beast. Ki-Adi-Mundi was one of the best swordsmen in the Order, and even he could only kill one before he had perished.
But it wasn't all bad news. Anakin had brought home Jedi Master Saesee Tiin, who had been used as bait to lure the Jedi on to the trapped ship. It was true that trusting the Master was close to impossible, given what they knew Kenobi was capable of, but having him back in one piece was a relief, a breath of much needed confidence that they could rally behind. And what was more, Master Tiin had information, and a great deal of it. True, it couldn't be trusted, but as he stood before him, his hands clasped tight in front of him and his head bowed, they had a difficult time believing that their friend had been broken.
"They call it what?!" Mace had gasped, staring wide eyed at the Iktotchi, and Master Tiin raised his head and looked straight at him, completely unamused.
"The rancor is called Yoda, and Kenobi loves that beast." Saesee groaned and rubbed his head. He hadn't been there for long, and while Anakin had finished his report, he sensed that the young Knight was troubled and searched for guidance. Interrogating him could wait, and he wasn't to be trusted in any case. "I don't believe Skywalker is done, Masters," he snapped, his patience long since gone for having been in Sith custody for nearly a year. Anakin looked surprised for a moment, but it quickly melted away into gratitude, and he bowed.
"Thank you, Master." Anakin chewed on his lip as he looked over to Qui-Gon. He was silent, and had been all morning, and if his eyes weren't closed, he was staring off into space at nothing, or something very, very distant that only he could see. Anakin knew that look. It was the same expression his Master used to get when he thought about Obi-Wan so long ago when he thought he was dead. Before they knew he was alive. Before they knew he was Sith. Anakin could use his guidance right about now, but it didn't seem like he could count on it at this moment. Perhaps something had happened. Perhaps he wouldn't say what it was before the Council. Skywalker would make certain to seek him out later, after the Council had been dismissed.
"The Force spoke to me," Anakin said softly, slowly, wincing when he realized how stupid it sounded, how arrogant it made him seem. "On the mission. I felt it, over and over again that it was the day that Obi-Wan would die. But...he's not dead. He escaped."
"Escaped to Mandalore, no doubt," Luminara said softly, her voice laced with sympathy for her old friend.
"Maybe he died on Mandalore," Kit Fisto suggested, and Quinlan Vos glared at him like he was the stupidest creature in the galaxy.
"Of course he isn't dead," Vos snarled, his hands tightening into the hem of his robes. "You think the underworld can bring Kenobi down when an entire Order of Jedi can't?" He scoffed. "Obi-Wan isn't going down because of any of us, and he sure as hell wouldn't suffer such an undignified death at the hands of the galaxy's riffraff. Trust me, he's alive."
"He isn't,' Qui-Gon muttered, and Anakin breathed a sigh of relief to hear his Master. Qui-Gon looked up, his deep blue eyes filled with pain, his face lined with sadness. "You were right, Kit. Obi-Wan died on Mandalore with Satine. We're left with something far more dangerous." Master Jinn frowned as he looked around the room. "Surely I'm not the only one who felt it. This isn't just a disturbance in the Force, it is being torn apart."
"I felt it," Vos said quickly, "but I didn't know what it was. I thought it was the end of Mandalore."
"I thought it was Ki-Adi-Mundi's death," Plo Koon said sadly to the quiet murmurs of ascent from the other Jedi. "When Skywalker told us he was dead, I was certain that was the disturbance I felt."
"I thought it was just the usual," Luminara said softly. "Every single day, this war brings new horrors to us, new tragedies that shake the Force to its foundations. Every day, a new disturbance. But..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I admit, this one was different."
"It seems like we all felt it," Qui-Gon said. "We're all right. The disturbance was caused by all of it, but what I felt was the same thing I felt the day we thought Obi-Wan died on Serenno. But this...it was much stronger."
"You think he's fallen further?" Mace asked in disbelief as he laid back and shook his head. "I don't see how that's possible."
"It's possible," Luminara, Quinlan and Qui-Gon said in unison, and Mace bit his lip and looked at the ground.
"It's no mistake that so many of us have fought him and lived," Qui-Gon said firmly. "He's been holding back, he has always been holding back. We've been able to reason with him in the past, and he's stayed his blade with me on more than one occasion."
"Many of us have been safe from him because he's maintained his attachments from his time as a Jedi," Luminara added. "He could have killed me on the Tranquility, but he stopped when I was defeated. I always felt my old friend inside him. He was darker, yes, and much changed, but still Obi-Wan."
"And he loved that girl of his," Vos said softly, sadly, as if he had suffered the loss as well. "Even when he was a Jedi, he loved her. Love isn't a thing of the Dark Side, and if he's now lost that, if that was his only tether to the light..." Quinlan shivered when he felt a chill rush through him, the darkness within him stirring at the thought, and he bit down on the inside of his cheek as he repressed the feeling. This wasn't the place for it. "Qui-Gon's right. Obi-Wan lost the love of his life and the unborn child they made together. He's gone."
Anakin couldn't explain it, but he felt a sudden pull of sympathy for the Sith Lord. In many ways, he and Obi-Wan were different sides of the same coin, and far, far more similar than he ever cared to admit. They both shared a love of flying, both stood as vergences in the Force, both were trained by Qui-Gon Jinn, both loved women that they had been assigned to protect, and in the course of the mission, had fallen in love with their charges. A shiver ran through Anakin. They had shared so many similarities, and he couldn't help but wonder for a moment if, perhaps, they didn't stand as opposites, but were simply on the same path. Was he destined to fall as Kenobi had? Was he in danger of losing Padmé as cruelly and suddenly as Obi-Wan had lost Satine?
He wasn't sure what would happen if he lost the girl he loved. Vos had the right of it. Love was not a feeling born from the Dark Side, but like anything else, feelings could be warped and twisted by doubt and fear and jealousy and darkness. He had been jealous of Obi-Wan in the past for the lust he inspired in Senator Amidala, still felt that jealousy sometimes now, a maddening thing that plagued him with thoughts and dreams of them together, passionately entwined and maddening in its intensity. Anakin knew that it had never happened, but still, the thought plagued him and filled him with doubt and fear that maybe, just maybe, these weren't just dreams, but visions of things yet to come.
He shook his head to clear the thought. That would never happen. Darkness was all around him, and it was misleading his thoughts, making him feel his dreams were something more when they weren't. But if he had lost Padmé, were he to lose her forever as Obi-Wan had lost Satine, he wasn't sure how he would react. Anakin felt his attachments deeply, and did not cope well with loss. He was still angry about the death of his mother, still thought of her and ached, though the burning need for revenge had long since abated. He had always strove to protect the ones he loved and was shaken when he had failed to protect his mother. If he failed to protect Padmé too...
He could understand how such a loss could kill a man.
"Are you certain he isn't dead?" Mace asked quietly. "I mean, actually dead. Everyone that was present who saw Duchess Satine die are dead themselves."
"And who do you suppose did that, Mace?" Vos growled, and Qui-Gon reached out to put a calming hand on the Kiffar's shoulder.
"I'm sure," Jinn said softly. "Obi-Wan and I have always been connected. I felt him die. I felt everything that he used to be wither away. It's a painful thing to feel another's soul be torn from them, but I felt it. Obi-Wan is dead, and when I reached out to him, the Dark Side pushed back. He's alive. He just...isn't Obi-Wan anymore."
Again, Anakin felt the pull of compassion. Had Satine worried for Kenobi's safety the way Padmé had worried for his? Were they together before she died? Did she blame him? Did he blame himself? It made the idea of killing the former Jedi easier. It would be a mercy to release him from that pain, but Anakin knew that it was that same pain that would make him stronger and far, far more dangerous than he had been. And that was a frightening thought.
"This changes nothing," Windu said quickly. "We all knew we were dealing with a Sith Lord, and he's already done his work to tear the Order apart. Our stance on him still stands. Skywalker will hunt him down."
"With all due respect, Master Windu," Luminara said, a bit colder than she usually spoke, "this changes everything. Before, we at least had an idea of what we are dealing with, but if Qui-Gon is right and everything that was Obi-Wan is finally dead, than we have no idea of what sort of darkness has been unleashed." She shook her head. "Rushing in will only get more people killed. We need to find out what he's capable of."
"And how do you suppose we do that?" Mace asked, and Luminara smiled slightly.
"We just had a Jedi returned to us that spent nearly a year in his custody."
Saesee Tiin looked at her like she was crazy. "You can't trust anything I say, Masters. He may have influenced me without my knowledge."
"Do you think you've been influenced?" Qui-Gon asked softly, and the Iktotchi looked away, his clasped hands tightening.
"I don't think he's altered my memories, no. But Eeth Koth believed his story as well."
"Listen to what you have to say, we will," Yoda said softly, the first words he had spoken in many meetings carrying all the more weight for his previous silence. "Judge their worth, we will, after your truth, we hear."
It was enough. He took a deep breath and shifted from foot to foot as he struggled to find where to begin. "...he's been in my mind," he growled, teeth grit and hands clenching as he fought back his rising anger. "I was always aware of it, he wanted me to be. Even if you resist, he can make you kneel."
"And you submitted to him?" Quinlan asked, straining to keep the interest out of his voice, and felt a wash of relief when it came across as simple concern.
"No. I mean..." he growled and looked away. "Yes. Though I don't remember those times. He always told me later about the times I..." He swallowed hard, his chest tight. "About the times I called him Master." He felt sick, and there was a bad taste in his mouth just from saying it, and the Masters in the room seemed to pick up on his disgust. He was telling the truth, and the more they listened, the more they felt him, the more they believed that Kenobi hadn't tampered with him. Still, they needed to be cautious.
And he told them everything. About the physical torture he endured at the hands of Cody, the clone second in command to the Sith, about the mental torture Kenobi subjected him to, about the vicious horned rancor Yoda, a beast that Obi-Wan was mentally connected to. But worst of all was news about Shaak Ti, the Master presumed dead after the Battle of Kamino. How she had chosen, or was made to choose the Sith, how she was used as a pleasure slave to Kenobi's clone, how the Sith had tortured the Iktotchi with the knowledge of the Togruta's willing corruption. Saesee Tiin insisted that she was beyond saving, which was difficult to hear, but they believed it. If it was true. They sat in silence when Tiin had finished speaking, the Iktotchi Master staring at the ground with his fists clenched as he attempted to suppress his emotions, and the Council didn't know what to believe.
"Do you know where he took you?" Qui-Gon asked softly, and Tiin shook his horned head.
"I'm sorry, Masters. I never saw anything but the inside of my cell."
"All of this is irrelevant..." Anakin said softly. "The problem now is we think he's changed, and without Mandalore, we have no way of finding him before he finds us."
"We have a way," Vos said, looking up with a wicked gleam in his eye. "We have someone who knows him better than anybody." He flashed a broad grin at the silent, attentive Masters. "Asajj Ventress."
"No!" Ventress cried, suddenly pulling away from Vos as they began to climb the stairs up to the entrance of the Jedi Temple. With the quick reflexes of a Jedi Master, Quinlan grabbed her arm and tried to pull her up. She wouldn't move.
"Come on, Ventress, you said you'd help!"
"That was before we got here!" she growled, prying at fingers that wouldn't budge. "That was before I saw your Temple Guards right up there, and before I thought about how stupid I was to agree to this!"
"It isn't stupid!" Vos sighed, giving the woman a tug, but she held firm. She was not moving. "Remember what you get out of this! A full pardon! You'll be safe in the Temple, the Council has given their word!"
"What the hell does the word of a Jedi mean to me?!" It turns out that it meant a lot, but it depended on the Jedi. She trusted Qui-Gon Jinn, her friend Obi-Wan's old Master, though she could not say exactly why. And she trusted Quinlan, the Jedi that had stood up for her when she was accused of bombing the Temple. Even when it looked like exonerating Ventress would condemn his Padawan, Vos had done it. He had stood beside her when it mattered most, when the Jedi had already decided her guilt, and it made her...
She shook her head to clear the idea. There were emotions between them. Strong ones. Deep ones, made deeper by mutual respect, enough for her to become physical with him. Enough for her to want to be intimate with him, if she could find it within her to allow it to happen. Which she hadn't. Really, given his reputation, it was a marvel to her that the overly-flirtatious Quinlan Vos hadn't tried to seduce her. Nothing beyond their teasing banter, anyway, which made her believe that he was felling something as well. Something that was new, foreign, and it frightened him. Learning the Dark Side to bring about a swift end to the war was one thing, but breaking the Jedi Code by acting on emotions dangerously close to what could have been love may have been too much for the Jedi.
And if the Jedi Masters felt the emotions between them...
Ventress shivered. She'd be in trouble again. The word of the Jedi would mean nothing if they felt she was leading one of their own down a dark path.
"They just need to ask you a few questions!" he insisted. "We're at a loss and we need your help! Please!"
She growled, her fists clenching, and she reeled on him, pointing a finger in his face. "Listen, you. I do this, and we are even on the whole Temple bombing thing, alright?!"
"Alright, alright!" Quinlan cried, releasing her and throwing his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I wasn't even keeping score! This is just what friends do!"
"We are not friends!" she snarled, striding past him and taking the stairs two at a time. The Kiffar easily kept pace with her.
"Fine. Partners, then." Ventress tripped over the next step, and quickly recovered, her pale face blushing furiously. She didn't know what to say. So she didn't. She scooted closer to Quinlan as they passed through the Temple doors, and she could feel the eyes of the masked guards upon her. Once inside, the Temple was full of younglings and initiates carrying books or chasing after Knights, but they paid her no mind. Ventress hadn't been expecting that, but to the young Jedi, she was just another Force sensitive, maybe another Knight returned from the war. They didn't recoil from her like some monster like those that knew of her did, and for a moment, she felt her chest ache with a sense of belonging. She was by no means meant to be there, nor did she wish to be a part of it, but she felt...safe.
They entered the elevator and waited in silence, Quinlan shifting from foot to foot and casually whistling, and Ventress couldn't help but smirk. Vos was a restless spirit, despite his casual ease, and silence wasn't something he did well with. He was a Jedi that would rather meditate in a crowded bar than in a silent room, would rather feel deep than not feel at all, and while it wasn't exactly conducive to fitting in with the Jedi Council, it was what made for a good person. An interesting person. She kept Quinlan around because he was interesting, and wandering the galaxy alone had been boring. Even with all the inconvenience, her time with Quinlan Vos had been...enjoyable.
The elevator opened, and they strode out together, and within a few moments, Vos had pushed the doors of the Council Chamber open, and the two walked in. Quinlan immediately took his seat, and Ventress, arms crossed over her chest, stood at the edge of the circle and refused to come closer, the Masters gripping their chairs with white-knuckled hands, the tension in the room thick and palpable. Qui-Gon had risen and bowed to her, and Ventress looked away, her ears burning with embarrassment. She would not bow back. Not even a little. Looking at the old Master out of the corner of her eye, she growled, and slightly inclined her head.
"Welcome, Ventress," Qui-Gon said kindly. "You are welcome to come in."
"I'm just fine right here, thank you," she said coldly, much more than she intended, but Qui-Gon didn't seem to mind as he took his seat.
"Quinlan has told you of our deal, yes?" he asked, and she nodded sharply.
"I tell you about the Sith, and you get me a full pardon." It wasn't ideal, but there wasn't anything she could tell them that they couldn't find out on their own. It had been a calculated risk, but being able to wander Coruscant without fear of the Jedi meant that she could keep to the higher levels of the city, places that were more closely guarded by the Jedi, and by doing so, place distance between herself and the Sith Lords that may still want her dead. "And do I still get this pardon if I can't answer your questions?" she asked slyly, and Jinn smiled at her.
"Yes. Though you must try." Ventress nodded, and he began. "There was a disturbance in the Force last night. Did you feel it?"
"There is a disturbance in the Force every night." she growled. "Every day. Every second. The Force is just disturbed, and your war is the cause of it."
"It isn't our war," Mace growled, and he was met by a hiss of disapproval from a dark haired female Jedi. Ventress looked at her cautiously. She had to have been present before, but she didn't remember her.
"Your obstinance is what nearly got you killed on Haarun Kal," Master Billaba said firmly. "You would do well to listen. Her perspective is...a new one." Windu grumbled, but said nothing else. Ventress frowned. She had felt the disturbance last night, she had heard about the attack on Mandalore, and she knew exactly what it was. But she wasn't about to tell them that. Obi-Wan suffered. The last thing he needed were the Jedi.
Qui-Gon sensed her reluctance and sighed softly. This may not work after all. "The Force is in pain, and it's origin is Obi-Wan Kenobi."
"No," she said quickly, and the Masters looked at her curiously.
"No?" Luminara repeated, and Ventress glared at her.
"No. You brought me here to talk about the Sith, not Obi-Wan. I won't help you fight him."
"If you fear him-"
"I don't." It was firm and final and left no room for questioning. "If he was going to kill me, than he would have, and I don't want to give him a reason to come looking. Obi-Wan is...used to be my only friend. I betrayed him, he never betrayed me. I will not help you kill him."
"Ventress," Quinlan said softly, and she could feel herself tremble, but kept her feelings hidden behind strong defenses. "Please. You know what happened. Everyone does. Satine is dead, and we need to know what this will do to Obi-Wan."
"How should I know!"
"Because you're his friend! You've been his friend, you know him as a Sith, and we only knew him as a Jedi." Vos took a deep breath to still his pounding heart. "Please. Everyone could be in danger. Even you."
Vos was right, and Ventress knew it. Obi-Wan had loved his Duchess, treasured her above nearly all else, but not above the Sith. With her gone, all that would be left for him was the Dark Side, and Ventress knew what a dangerous path that was. Obi-Wan was powerful and grew stronger all the time, but Ventress knew that what he had accomplished, what he could do, was not nearly close to the potential with him, and it was the woman that gave him a reason not to dig deeper. She shivered, and she could do nothing to hide it from the Jedi. She was afraid, and they could all see it.
"You can't beat him," she whispered. "You can't. You need to keep far away, you need to run."
"Can we bring him back to us?" Luminara asked swiftly, and Ventress laughed harshly.
"You couldn't bring him back before. What makes you think that you could bring him back now when pain is all he knows?"
"You came back," Vos said softly, almost affectionately. "You traveled into darkness, you saw how it nearly destroyed you, and you turned away from it. Maybe he will realize the same thing, that there is only pain on that path."
Was it possible? She didn't think so. Ventress shook her head. "I'm telling you, he will not return. You want to know about Kenobi, but you're asking questions I can't answer! Questions I won't answer," she growled, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently.
"How about this one," Kit Fisto asked, clasping his hands together and leaning forward, the short cut tentacles on his head wiggling. "Where is his base of operations?"
"You know the Separatist capital is on Raxus, he-"
"His base," Fisto emphasized, and Ventress shifted uncomfortably.
"...Dooku is Count of Serenno, so-"
"Kenobi's base." She glared at the Jedi Master, her mouth pressed in a thin line, her body tense and her shielding up.
"We need to know," Luminara said gently. "If we're going to beat him-"
"There is no beating him," Asajj snarled. "I see what you're trying to do, and it's idiotic. Don't attack him in his home. Don't try to lure him out. Don't even go looking for him. You want to beat him? Fine. End the war. Kill Dooku. It's your safest bet, and the quickest way to winning the war." She grinded her teeth together as she looked at the Masters, some of their faces hard, but most seemed to be listening. "You don't know what Obi-Wan has become. I don't know what he has become, we all just know that he's become something. You'll learn soon enough. Don't give him lives to take, make him work for it."
"I think that's sage advice," Qui-Gon said softly. "And I'm not sure I condone going after him like this. What we're talking about seems dangerously close to murder."
"It isn't," Mace said firmly. "It's putting down a dangerous threat, a rabid animal."
"Animal?" Qui-Gon gasped, his voice rising with shock. "We are talking about a man who has lost everything, and he is so connected with the Force that it rended for him. That isn't insignificant. We can't meet that kind of pain with violence, we wouldn't dream of it if it was anyone else!"
"But it isn't anyone else, Master Jinn, it's a Sith. Even you say that Obi-Wan is dead. Tell me, what is it we're left with?" Qui-Gon didn't know how to answer that. He didn't know. With a sigh, he hung his head, defeated, his long fingers rubbing his temples as his eyes closed.
"Perhaps I'm too close to this..." Qui-Gon said softly. "Let the Council decide their course, and I will follow my own. As I have always done."
Mace frowned. "I think it's time to consider options we haven't before. With the fall of the Neutral Systems, the fighting has intensified. There was at least hope for peace before. Those who were sick of fighting had somewhere to go, but now, all Mandalore craves is revenge, and the entirety of Satine's empire has become disputed territory. There is no end to this war, it's a bottomless pit. We know how to end it. All of this, all of it, can be traced back to Dooku and Kenobi."
"This isn't something we don't already know, Mace," Vos drawled, and Mace's features hardened.
"Without Dooku, the Separatist movement collapses. Without Kenobi, the Jedi will no longer be under direct attack. Without them, the movement will eat itself trying to take their place, and this war will end. Cut off the head, and the body will fall."
"Are you insane?" Luminara asked, leaping to her feet and looking at the Master in disgust. "You're talking about assassination?" Mace didn't move. Nobody did. "We need to find another way. This isn't possible, not for a Jedi."
"To the Dark Side, such actions lead," Yoda said softly, but the Grandmaster looked tired, conflicted, nearly defeated, and Luminara could feel herself tighten. Yoda was considering this.
"Nobody wants to behave like a Sith Lord," Mace said, backtracking a bit.
"Few do. A small step, the one that determines destiny often is," Yoda said, and Luminara nodded fervently.
"Look what happened to Obi-Wan. His fall was a slow one, but his first step into the Dark Side was well-intended. He wished to save Qui-Gon, and he reached into darkness to do it."
"How many times has this Council sat here and talked about Kenobi and Dooku? How everything leads back to the Sith? Hundreds of times, I'd wager. Dooku isn't going to change, and if we don't change either, this war will rip the galaxy apart until there is nothing left but dead worlds. We're the only ones that can stop this."
"This is exactly what drove Barriss to the Dark Side!" Luminara snapped, a rare case of her losing her temper shocking the Jedi into silence. "We cannot be like them, we cannot lose our way!"
"I think one man's life needs to be weighed against the billions that will die if the war continues," Quinlan said. "As Jedi, we're failing each day we allow this pointless war to continue. We have the power to stop it. We just need the courage to."
"Qui-Gon," Luminara said desperately. "Help."
"They're already resolved, my friend," Jinn aid sadly. "The Sith must be stopped, but I don't know how. Maybe the only way to do it is to behave in a way the Sith will not expect."
"Grows, this darkness does," Yoda said sadly, "with each minute Dooku continues to attack. With each minute Kenobi grows stronger. Stop them, we must. Survive, the Jedi must, or lost, this galaxy is."
Nobody offered any further opposition. Even Luminara sat, her head bowed sadly. "Quinlan Vos," Mace said quietly, and the Kiffar looked up. "You have already been preparing for this."
"I have," he said firmly. "And I'm ready. I just need a partner. I can't do this alone."
"I'll go," Ventress said, and she hadn't realized she had said anything until she felt the eyes of the Council on her, and the shocked, grateful stare of Quinlan. She bit down on her lip and looked at the floor, growling in irritation. "You Jedi can't do this," she said, her voice haughty as she crossed her arms. "And nobody knows Dooku like I do. If you are serious about this, than you will need me."
"Yes..." Vos said softly, and Ventress found that she couldn't look at him. Instead, she reeled on Mace Windu.
"But I want that pardon! Not after it's done, now. I don't want to be hunted by the Jedi if I come back and the mission failed." She scoffed. "If I come back..."
"We can arrange that," the Korun said, taking a deep breath of resignation.
"I'll talk to Anakin about Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said softly. "Are we still under the impression that Anakin is the one to face him?" Mace nodded. "Then we need to find him first. I hear Admiral Tarkin proved himself admirably on the last mission. We'll see if Anakin can put him to use again."
"I thought you were against this," Luminara said, tension in her voice that came from repressed emotion that she couldn't quite force down.
"I am," Qui-Gon said softly. "We need to see what sort of a man Darth Lumis is. I don't think we've faced him before, and I think it's unwise to stand against him without proper planning. Anakin needs to train for it, in any case. Give me time to see what I can find while he hones his skills. If any part of Obi-Wan is still alive, I need to know."
"You can't save him, Qui-Gon," Mace cautioned, and Jinn nodded sadly as he stood to leave.
"I know. But regardless of how far he has fallen, the man has lost the woman he loves and his child. I cared for Satine as well, and at the very least, he should know he does not mourn them alone." He closed his eyes and felt, deep within him, the small, thin thread of darkness, the connection between himself and his lost Padawan angrily throb and pulse with pain. He couldn't reach him, not since he had tried last night, not since the connection had been slammed shut on Kenobi's end, and the channel had to be reopened. Obi-wan's path was dark, Darth Lumis' even darker, and Qui-Gon needed to do anything he could to save him from at least some of that pain. He was owed compassion, and Qui-Gon wouldn't be the one to deny it.