Darth Plagueis, part four : How Obi-Wan uncovered a Sith, and promptly offered himself as a teacher to the untrained Force-sensitive
"Did you escape your Temple again, padawan?" asked the Muun, jolting down the last of a report to the IGBC advisory council. Disguising his intrigue to the puzzle before him, displaying a disinterest unmatched by the padawan quick return, his face scrubbed raw of his false face-marking, hints of dye still in his hair, no remote in toe, and barely a day since his last visit. Eager for something, unable to hid it, and wise enough to not defend such pretense. "Your message was interesting enough the Council allowed me to come. Someone had informed Master Dooku I had been inconsiderate and they estimated his chewing out should be taken into account for the length of my punishment." The boy grimaced slightly at the reminder of his master reaction, and Plagueis silently applauded the way he had side-tracked a revelation of weakness into an open trade. This one was a talker, and would grow more proficient in such field than his first master.
"Your master enquired whether you needed to be bailed out when I visited him" the Muun pointed with amusement at the transparent questioning, putting down his stylus and reclining in his chair, gazing with interest at the twig. An air of tiredness hung around him, filtering slowly from his still tightly fastened shields. The Sith approved of such a discipline which, based on Dooku words yesterday, had been an expectation of Solo he had not discarded upon his death. "I privately wonder what use I could make of the footage of your little expedition" the Muun prodded, curious of the boy reaction. His shielding wavered, the youth having apparently failed to take into account that blackmail did go both way before he answered in a challenging tone "I do wonder what amount of footage you have, Magistrate". An offensive defense, and while Plagueis could not ascertain whether he only put in question the existence of the footage or also referred to the leverage this footage could be against Plagueis himself, he did not put it past the twig to devise a way to use it against the Muun. "Enough to see you join your master, to put Senator Tarik along and myself on charge" he answered choosing to reveal he had witnessed the kidnapping as he would rather explain away inaction than be caught in a lie about this piece of information "but by what I had watched in the interval you did not appear in need of a rescue". The boy shielding wavered a bit then he nodded and dropped the subject "I believe this situation would be better dealt with Senator Tarik directly".
"It would indeed" acknowledged the Sith "Most regrettably the Senator had incurred one too many anger and I learnt about his violent passing when my secretary attempted to book an appointment." The boy stayed silent a moment as his sole lead vanished, his shields flustering then strengthening. "I see. Any link with Master Sifo-Dyas campaign in the Senate?" The Muun stretched his lips in a cross between an annoyed grimace and a greedy smile "Too recent to say. Let's cut the chase, padawan, would you? We are both well aware you can stand your ground in banter but that I have nothing to gain of it unless the pleasure of a debate, while you hope to benefit from unearned service". The padawan shields pulled tighter and he calmly said after a moment of silence : "I came here on your request, Magistrate. It seems to me you are the one offering here and it stands reason you are either gaining something from a deal between us, or there is something you wish to gain in this bargain". The Muun smiled a wholly unkind grin at that remark, and the padawan pulled his shields tighter again for all he did not flinch.
The twig was good. Very good, for Plagueis did stand to gain from Dooku liberation and the padawan clearly saw it. Uneasy to answer, because he could not show Dooku importance to the keen student. "You still brought only two things to the table, padawan. I await the third" the Sith answered. The boy let a few heartbeats before he pulled away from the confrontation "I am not able to bargain in the name of the Order and still see nothing you could wish you could not gain by other means. Speak your terms, Magistrate". There was an hint of Sheev in the false confusion and innocence of this answer, and the ability to give nothing away and force his opponent to give him ammunition instead. The Muun took a tangent "I was quite surprised to discover your account as the Jedi detachment of material possessions is well known". The padawan, impassible, rebuked "And a Jedi my first master was not and his student I was. Besides, we both know casting all Jedi in their public image would be misadvised."
Plagueis did not know if the boy conversation with his master had included the short span about his first master and whether he had guessed his interest. But he could have and threw a bait to confirm suppositions. Suppositions which based to repeated reference to his master, the flashing of the remote and the tightly pulled shields coupled with the potential status of his master could be true. Or it could not be and so the Sith did not answer this sentence but the next, with a silent snarl and an heated look of disdain rather than words. Letting the boy choose whether it referred to his opinion of Jedi as a whole, or because he had pointed the Muun did ostensibly not include Dooku amongst them. The silence stretched as the padawan did not answer, neither did the Sith bulge, aware that the prolongated silence did reveal he had an interest in the discussion, and that to hid it now would be an exercise in futility after the boy had pointed it out.
A slight flicker was all warning Plagueis had before the boy presence exploded outward in the Force, light and sharp and gone as quickly it had come. He pulled his own shields closer, strengthening them and successfully hiding his nature, but his hands clasped the arms of his chair to restrain himself for a more violent gesture which would have shred his disguise. The boy had not moved and his shields clotted themselves back before the Sith very eyes, but he could not perceive how as he had buried his own sense under his shielding. "I studied with some attention your forays in finance, Magistrate, and I do not believe you would occupy this post if you believed threatening accounts under your supervision to be a good strategy. Your reference display either an investment in this issue I don't believe my master warrants alone unless you seek to make use of him at a later time, or that you observed in my gestion the same thing I did when observing yours." The boy leaned closer across his desk, his eyes searching and Plagueis did not dare to reach forward in the Force, busy analyzing the meaning of the padawan speech "Did you hope my master enough of a critic you could convince him to share a perspective of the Force untainted by Jedi philosophy?" That last sentence sent the Muun reeling inside for the implications it bore.
He guessed. So much wrong in his assumptions, but the twig accurately guessed he was touched by the Force. But not that he was a Sith based on his last query. So he did not reach in the Force to end the boy or start planning how to finish him once the Jedi would not come straight at him, neither did he deny. Truth was always a misdirection Plagueis employed at its full potential. "What make you believe I am touched by the Force?" he whispered, his stance unburdened and the acknowledgement plain to see. The boy smiled a tight strained smile, but not one which came from feeling threatened. "The Jedi have become used in the last thousand years to the belief there is only two type of Force-sensitives aware of their abilities: other Jedi or rogue Dark Siders, most of the time originating from their Order. I saw them near instinctively attempt to fit my first master in either of those categories, discarding every hint suggesting he may have been something other. A mere freighter captain attentive to the Force, for example, was an impossibility for them. And while I doubt it was all my master was, it remains that I am not as close-sighted to dismiss every beings not flouting their sensibility as blind to the Force."
Amusement creeped back in Plagueis, because the twig was as blind as the Jedi, believing him to be merely touched by the Force and not a master of it. "And you believe I am not a Dark Sider?" dared the Sith with amusement. "Are you a Dark Sider?" the boy asked back. "Should I know?" he answered, crafting by this simple query a picture the twig did not question "If someone has formed you, maybe. If you are self-taught, probably not." The Muun reclined in his chair, eying the boy "It would be a fair trade" he acknowledged with false reluctance, internally laughing at the boy handing him the mean to discover whether his master had been a mere freighter captain or not "but I wish nothing to do with the Jedi Order". The boy nodded his head in assent and assured him he would limit himself to his first master teaching, then they broached the subject of the two other senators Plagueis was selling out. The twig was ruthless, if a bit of a loose planner.
"Padawan" he called, and the boy turned to face him at the door "I await your visit in a week".