The crushing weight of the Dark Side was slowly lifted from the Jedi as they got further away from the hellhole. Luminara could breathe again. Barriss no longer felt like she was freezing. They could sense Flayseno, but only felt a husk, as if he was dead in all but name, sitting in the copilot's chair, staring blankly at the wall. Without warning, he stood, same blank expression on his face, and walked towards the storage area. Barriss looked to her Master with a slightly worried expression, to which Luminara was going to calm when her commlink beeped.
Projecting a hologram of Obi-Wan, he didn't even wait for her to greet him, "Care to explain why your ship's tracking says you two are on Moraband?"
Luminara closed her eyes and sighed, "It's a very long story."
"I'm from Stewjon. I like long stories."
"And it can't wait until I return to give my report to the Council?"
"Considering Shaak and Quinlan are currently in my living room drawing up plans to hijack a Venator to come rescue you, I'd advise against it."
"I hardly-" Luminara made to answer before being interrupted from the other side.
"Is that Luminara?" she heard a feminine voice, Shaak, call out, before Obi-Wan was shoved out of the frame by her and Quinlan. "Do you have any idea how worried we've been?!"
Then it was Quinlan's turn to scold, "Why didn't you answer any of our messages Lumi?!"
"What messages? I haven't gotten anything from either of you!"
From out of frame Obi-Wan called out, "I tried to tell you that region of space is a dead zone!"
"Well excuse me for making sure our friend didn't become a dead zone!" Shaak snipped back.
Suddenly Luminara's commlink started buzzing and beeping as more and more backlogged messages started coming in. Fifty-seven in all, and eighty missed calls.
Luminara watched the backlog fill in and muttered, "Oh Force…"
"Details," Quinlan demanded.
"Now," Shaak finished.
"Alright, mom and dad," she sighed in slight annoyance at their attitude, but still sending waves of appreciation out for being willing to commit an act of terrorism to ensure she was safe.
Vos narrowed his eyes, "Calling me 'daddy' isn't getting you out of anything this time."
"Quin!" Shaak scolded.
Electing to ignore her friends' antics, Luminara continued, "The short version is that the mission Barriss and I were sent on was… successful?"
"I don't like how that sounds like a question," Obi-Wan commented.
"Well, the artifact, wasn't really an artifact." The three raised a brow/brow marking in unison, and so Luminara continued, "What we collected was a man who had been frozen in carbonite, probably for millennia. We were attacked by Grievous, and during the fighting, the carbonite was accidentally thawed, letting him free."
"Wait, you found a person?" Shaak asked.
"That still doesn't explain Moraband," Quinlan remarked.
Before Luminara could continue, she heard two loud clatters on the floor. Turning to see the source she saw her lightsaber rolling to her foot and Barriss' rolling off to the side. In the doorframe stood the Dark Lord himself, his eyes haunted and pleading. "Takest thine sabers. I care not if thou wishest to slay me." With that, he turned and continued to wander the shuttle, pacing back and forth."
"Was that him?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Yes," Luminara answered.
"Please tell me that he isn't saying to kill him because of the reason I'm thinking."
"This is why I wanted to wait for the Council report."
"Screw the Council!" Shaak snapped, ignoring that she and Obi-Wan were on said Council, "Is he a Sith?!"
Luminara just nodded. "That's why we were on Moraband, or Korriban, as he called it," the very word felt like a curse laced with poison to the Jedi Master's tongue. "He was adamant that we take him back home, not believing us when we told him the Empire was long gone while we tried to apprehend him. He's been in a daze ever since we got off the planet."
"Great!" Shaak laughed in building hysterics, "You and your Padawan are locked, practically alone, in a shuttle, with an armed and dangerous Sith Lord from the Ancient Wars with nothing to lose!" The Togruta Master then shouted, "You're going to die!"
"His weapons are locked away and…" she didn't necessarily pity the Sith, but "he's not even trying to fight or resist. Just, pacing, dazed and confused. He keeps muttering about how he's sorry to someone named Elara."
"Elara?"
"Master?" Barriss poked her head into the room, coming out from the sleeping area where she had taken refuge while the pair were on Moraband, "Flayseno's crying, I don't know what to do."
"Just," Luminara wasn't entirely sure what to do either. Comforting someone was never a strong suit of hers, let alone when that someone was a sworn enemy of the Jedi Order, "Just, leave him be. Come and get your lightsaber."
"He gave them back?" Barris asked.
"You let him take them?!" Quinlan shouted.
"Hi, Master Vos!" the Padawan waved.
"Hello Barriss." Quinlan replied, significantly calmer than he was half a second prior.
"Hello Padawan," Shaak greeted, "how are you, sweetie?"
"I've had an… interesting, few days."
"Yes, we were just yelling at your Master about that," Obi-Wan replied sardonically.
Luminara ignored the three holograms and answered Barriss's question, "Yes, it appears he doesn't seem to care about his safety anymore."
"Keep us updated, Luminara," Obi-Wan implored, "Shaak and I need to call an emergency Council meeting about this."
She nodded in understanding and then closed the call as Barriss collected her lightsaber from the floor. "I should probably check and see if Ahsoka's tried contacting me. If three Jedi Masters were about to steal a Venator I can only imagine what she'd try to drag Anakin into."
"It was only two of them- wait how much of that did you hear?"
"All of it."
Luminara's lips tightened, "I see."
An awkward silence formed, eventually broken by the younger woman, "Master, did you and Master Vos ever-"
"No!" Luminara answered. Remembering back to their youngling and Padawan days, it was Obi-Wan she had a liking for, but she was hardly going to mention that.
"Right, sorry," Barriss apologized before ducking out of the room. Once she got into the ship's sleeping quarters with Gree and Drod, the third surviving clone must have been elsewhere, she took out her commlink and sent a message to Ashoka.
Barriss: I don't know what you've heard, but if you and Anakin are going to try something stupid, stop. We're fine.
Her comm chimed in a minute with Ahsoka answering back.
'Soka: Should I have heard something?
Barriss: If you haven't yet, you will. We're on our way back to Coruscant now.
'Soka: Cool. We just got back too, for a little while at least. Hey, want to grab lunch with me and Riyo when you get back?
Barriss heart skipped a beat. Ahsoka had introduced her to the Senator for Pantora a few months back (five months, two weeks, three days, and seven hours, but who was counting?). At first, she thought she was going to be another stuffy, old, self-important politician, but was pleasantly surprised to learn she was quite the opposite. She was around her age, outgoing (beyond the pleasantries expected of an elected politician), a little reckless (she was Ahsoka's friend after all), and had the personality of a sentient cupcake. Barriss chewed her bottom lip for a moment before sending a message back.
Barriss: Sounds good! Where were you thinking?
'Soka: IDK, let me text her real quick.
She might have had a small crush on her. She knew it could never go beyond that though, it should never go beyond that, no matter how much she might have wanted it to.
'Soka: She just texted back! She said there was a new Mirialan restaurant near the financial district if you wanted to go. Or there's a really good Alderaanian place.
Barriss: Aren't places near there really expensive?
'Soka: That's what I said! But she said it'd be her treat so [shrugging emoji]."
Barriss: Is she sure? I can try to pay her back.
'Soka: I'm pretty sure if you tried reaching for the check, she'd bite you.
Barriss blushed at that before shaking her head to clear out the impure thoughts.
Barriss: OK. If she's sure about it.
'Soka: [Smiley face emoji]
Barriss leaned back onto the cot, her heart going crazy. It was just lunch, that was all it could ever be. Just lunch. Still, getting to spend time with her would be nice. Oh, and catching up with the hyperactive Togruta she was friends with would be nice too. Hopefully Ahsoka could start to calm down with age. She heard Master Kenobi's voice in her head, "Considering Shaak and Quinlan are currently in my living room drawing up plans to hijack a Venator-" Yeah, Ahsoka would probably never outgrow her troublemaking.
Flayseno sat at the holocomm unit, trying to access any information he could about what happened to his family, his apprentice, his master, anyone. Luckily the technology hadn't seemed to change anywhere near as much as the vernacular had, so he had relatively little issue getting the holonet to work.
What did happen to the Sith Empire?
He was answered with articles and papers of historians specializing in ancient history and archeology of" this or that sector. Ancient history. He had no idea how long he had even been frozen. Long enough for the Academy to fall to ruins, for everything he had ever cared about and fought for to be reduced to dust. Apparently, there had been multiple Sith Empires since his freezing, each one less stable than the last. The last Sith state had been extinguished over a thousand years ago. After searching for battles he had served in, which themselves had been fought over and over again, he finally was able to pinpoint when he had been stolen from his wife and child. Four thousand years ago.
Four thousand years. There were civilizations that could have gone from early metal working to hyperspace travel in that amount of time. Four thousand years, he had slept while the galaxy burned, while his family yearned. Four thousand years.
Darth Vayikra: [NO RESULTS]
He prayed that simply meant Maris had a peaceable life and no one thought it important to make note of her.
Elara Naberrie: [1 Result]
He clicked the link, which led to a short sentence. Elara Naberrie, semi-mythical founder of the Naberrie house of Naboo, supposedly the widow of the renowned Sith Lord Darth Flayseno. He saw his own name highlighted, indicating results for himself. He didn't click it, and just stared at the holoprojection. His wife, his Elara, his beautiful, marvelous, perfect wife. His heart and soul, reduced to a single sentence. A sentence that noted how she might not have even been real. She was real. She was the light of his galaxy. His Precious. It offered no explanation extolling his wife being by his side during campaigns and missions, it mentioned nothing of how it was her negotiation skills which brought a renegade clan of Mandalorians to service under the Emperor, it didn't even mention how she ended up on Naboo instead of Alderaan.
He eventually tore his eyes away from the sentence, which didn't even have a picture attached to show the galaxy a small fraction of her beauty, and continued trying to learn more. His Master had been reduced to a similar footnote, a mirthless smile appearing under Flayseno's mask for a fleeting second. His allies and friends in the Dark Council had a handful of pages and papers written about them and their exploits. All but two had met violent ends. Ends he could have saved them from. Ends that didn't have to happen if he had not been frozen in Kaelon's trap. He could have stopped their assassins, he could have stopped their murders, he could have-
Back on Coruscant, the Jedi Council was in an emergency meeting with everyone present either physically or via hologram. This was far too important to miss the meeting for.
Windu started the conversation, "The news Masters Kenobi and Ti had just given regarding Master Unduli's location is, alarming to say the least."
Rancisis shook his head, "As if it wasn't bad enough, we had to deal with Dooku, and his Assassin, and possibly this 'Darth Sidious,' assuming Dooku wasn't leading us on a wild nerf chase to find a phantom, now we have this new Sith, old Sith, bah!"
"Did we at least get a name for him?" Galia inquired, "Something we can use to try and research him and find any weaknesses to exploit."
Ti replied, "Padawan Offee had mentioned a 'Flayseno.' That was probably his title.
Kenobi picked up, "I've already sent in a request for Archivist Nu to send the Council everything she has in the library about a 'Darth Flayseno.' If the Archives have anything, we should be receiving it within the hour."
As if summoned, there was a knock on the council door. "Enter!" Yoda called, prompting a young Twi'lek girl to come in with a small basket of data cards. She bowed and said, "Greetings Masters. Master Nu told me to bring these up to you?"
"Yes, hand them to me," Master Koon ordered, nodding when she did so. "Thank you, Padawan. You are dismissed."
The Twi'lek padawan gave another short bow and turned to leave as the Councilors each got a various card and plugged it in to their datapads.
Each one a different paper or document, some were contemporary to the Sith and others research papers from various universities of archeology or ancient history. Each one had the same titles given to him, Empire's Wroth, and The Martial Lord of Loyalty. Master Fisto had been given a data card which contained a snippet of extremely grainy security footage showing him dueling a Jedi Knight and forcing him to his knees within minutes. The footage cut out before the almost certain killing blow, too corrupted by time to be complete. Most present internally cringed seeing the fury of the now resurrected Dark Lord in action. Mace sent a message to the Order's legal division to send up someone. They needed to cover every possible angle. They needed to be prepared for every single eventuality with this Darth Flayseno.
Darth Flayseno needed a drink, nay, he needed an entire liquor store. He then realized he probably had not a single credit to his name anymore. He doubted his old accounts were still connected, even if he was moderately wealthy in his previous life, his accounts would have almost certainly been closed out or inherited. He may as well check. He started with the private account, he and Elara had agreed to keep a private account in addition to the joint one. Last he checked there should have been a million credits in it. Not that it even kriffing mattered, it would have been closed out millennia ago or at least inherited by their child. Maybe he should see the articles and papers written on his life, if only to see if any of them mentioned whether they had had a boy or a girl. He wasn't sure why he was wasting his time with this exercise in futility. He just needed something, anything to keep his mind off of everything he had lost. He sent in a fingerprint and retinal scan to the holocomm table
INTERGALACTIC BANKING CLAN
ACCOUNT HOLDER: Roto Naberrie
ACCOUNT TYPE: Savings
AMOUNT: 167,286,563,254,567,186,804,005,958,920,994,195,741,897,087,701,796,511,763,572,369,092,070,110,004,879,547,480,037,549,382,506,993,529,389,056 Credits
INTEREST RATE: 6%
INTEREST INTERVAL: Yearly
For questions or concerns, please contact your local branch of the INTERGALACTIC BANKING CLAN or call-
He stared blankly at the screen, confused. Why was his account not closed out thousands of years ago? Did it just get lost in the paperwork? There was no "Intergalactic Banking Clan" in his day. He had banked with Alderaan's Fifth Credit Union. They must have been sold off or conglomerated into this Banking Clan. At least he didn't have to worry about payment while he drowned his sorrows, a small comfort.
"What do you mean we can't arrest him?" Eeth Koth asked in incredulity.
"I mean," answered the Chief Litigator of the Jedi Order, a middle-aged Theelin man, "we would have no legal grounds for holding him. Being a Sith in and of itself is not a crime. While things Sith normally do are crimes, this is an extremely unique case. Given what little record we have of him, anything we have evidence of him doing is either, legal in the Republic, was legal in the Republic at the time, was a legitimate and legal act during wartime, was not done within the Republic's then-borders. If he did do anything that was illegal, and not done during wartime, and it was done within the Republic's borders, then either the evidence would have long since been destroyed by time or the statue of limitations would have expired.Frankly, Masters, we would have no legitimacy to try and arrest him on arrival, every court in any civilized system would throw it out."
Ki-Adi-Mundi tried again, "Surely there must be some way we can hold him! Jedi are duty-bound to protect the Republic from chaos and innocent bloodshed! Not let their main perpetrators run loose within walking distance of the Temple!"
"Not unless you fancy a kidnapping charge and another scandal for the Order to deal with."
Kenobi stroked his beard, trying to figure a way out of this puzzle, "Could we keep him under observation to prevent anything from happening?"
The Chief Litigator thought about this for a moment, "Well, legally speaking the Jedi Order has the right to theoretically keep anyone under observation. Tapping comm lines, shadows watching from a distance. Even Senators and the Chancellor are, theoretically, not exempt. Granted trying to actually do anything regarding them is a lost cause."
"Let's focus on the topic at hand," Mace Windu chided. He may not have been the biggest fan of the Chancellor, but a Sith Lord was a greater threat to galactic stability than a power-hungry politician. When Palpatine could shoot lightning from his hands and manipulate minds with more than just his words, then maybe it would warrant a shift in priorities. Until then, this "Flayseno" was a far greater issue to be tackled.
"Yes, Master of the Order," the Theelin Jedi replied, if somewhat bitterly, "of course. As I was saying, we do have the right to keep tabs on anyone we wanted. Between that and the legal jurisdiction the Jedi have over the proper containment of rogue Force users, my legal recommendation would be for this Council to assign a group of Shadows to keep watch over this Sith, that way, when he does try anything, there will be at least one Jedi present to apprehend him. If he so much as jaywalks, we will be able to keep him imprisoned for the rest of his natural life."
Master Koon considered this before stating, "It is a risky venture."
"With all due respect Master," the Chief Litigator interjected, "any venture we make regarding this would be risky. Either we imprison him and deal with a long and costly court battle that will strip the Order of even more resources and credibility in the public eye, or we could simply let him be and then chase after him in a mad dash to try and contain the devastation he will inevitably leave in his wake, or we reach a middle conclusion which has some risk of death and destruction, but to a lesser degree and would validate the Order in the public eye." He paused, "Admittedly the PR department is not exactly my area of expertise but even I could see we need every win we can get."
Yoda nodded his head, "Consider your plan, we will."
The Theelin Master bowed, "That is all I ask, Masters."
"Dismissed, you are. Much to deliberate, we have."
On Scipio, San Hill was startled by a panicked knocking at the door of his office. "Come in."
It was Clu Lesser who entered his office, "There's a problem."
San sighed, "Can you never bring me good news?"
Clu shook his head, "This is bad. Very bad," with that ominous warning he presented a datapad to the Head of the Banking Clans, who only looked at him with concern before looking down.
"So? One of our members looked at one of the embezzling funds, what of it?"
"Look at how it was logged in."
Hill looked closer at the information being displayed before him:
INTERGALACTIC BANKING CLAN
ACCOUNT HOLDER: Roto Naberrie
ACCOUNT TYPE: Savings
AMOUNT: 167,286,563,254,567,186,804,005,958,920,994,195,741,897,087,701,796,511,763,572,369,092,070,110,004,879,547,480,037,549,382,506,993,529,389,056 Credits
INTEREST RATE: 6%
INTEREST INTERVAL: Yearly
LAST LOGIN: 12 MINUTES AGO
LOGIN TYPE: BIODATA
Hill looked at the information again, then blinked. "Have you doublechecked?"
"Of course, I did!" Lesser argued, somewhat defensively, "I've checked it five times! You can't fake a DNA login! This is legitimate!"
"But how? This account has been abandoned for millennia, that why we picked it!"
"Try as we might we could never find a death certificate."
Hill looked sternly at Lesser, standing from his desk and walking around to stare Lesser in the eye. "Do you mean to tell me," he started, his tone getting sharper and voice getting louder with every word, "that this man managed to live four thousand years, a human managed to live for four thousand years, when even the oldest Hutts have barely reached half of that, and somehow, somehow managed to not touch a single financial transaction in all that time? Until now How does that happen?!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Clu Lesser screamed before taking in a very shaky breath, "But what I do know is that either we have just been the victims of an unprecedented type of hacking that shouldn't even be possible, or this man somehow came back from the dead to look at his bank account! And considering they didn't take anything it's somehow less likely for us to have been hacked!"
San lashed out and threw the lamp on his desk at the wall, smashing it into a million pieces. "If anyone looks into those abandoned accounts we're done for. Republic, Separatist, neutral systems, they'll all be after our heads!" He started to chuckle quietly, "Centuries of fraud undone in an instant! All those years of embezzlement have finally caught up to us!" Hill began laughing in a crazed manner, "We're dead! We're done for!" His head snapped to the portraits on the wall of Chairmen past, "Oh the bed of lies you nerf-kriffers have made!" He looked back at Clu, who was starting to be less terrified of the implications of the account login and more so of the man in front of him, "We can fix this," he snarled. "Get me Clovis, the Core Five, Nix Card, everyone who knows about the scheme. I need all hands-on deck for this! NOW!"
