Darth Plagueis, part three : The time Obi-Wan tried to bully a Sith Lord - and failed badly but survived due to the amusing nature of the attempt
Darth Plagueis had not expected so quick an answer to the message he had addressed to Yan Dooku. In fact, he had not expected a response at all, for he had deliberately sent it so it would be received after the fact. He had sent it to the console of the Dooku apartment, where others Jedi shouldn't have any reason to go, and left some time so the Jedi would have the time to ransack it if they felt so mistrusting in one of their own. Besides, a message with an opening sentence about Jedi idiocy would convince any of those bastards to discard the rest. Dooku was the only one used enough to his stance about the Jedi to shrug it off unaffected. Dooku, and his padawan, it seemed.
"It is my understanding you offered your assistance in the matter of Galidraan" said the padawan. Kenobi, if Hego remembered right. A well-matched pair with his master from what he had heard, as they were both prone to unusual problem solving methods. The padawan implication had been anticipated, as well as his lack of implication, but odds had been slim he actually arrived in his office, muscling his way through the security through guile, mind trick, a training remote operating a diversion and slight deformation of the truth as well as a copy of his message. A resourceful padawan, certainly.
"I do remember sending a message to Yan Dooku" acknowledged the Magistrate of the IGBC, sending back with a wave of hand the late security service he would need to rectify. A well-meant message who should have reached its target after his brethren abandoned him to the judiciary, validating every insult Darth Plagueis had ever given to the Jedi in Dooku hearing. Well, he supposed the padawan had not abandoned his master, and his tragic death could be the final nail of the coffin. "And it seems to me you are a few years too young to be a Jedi Master".
"I was a few years too young to lose my first master, but Master Dooku offered to continue my education" replied the slim twig before him "you were surely aware, when sending that message, that it would not reach my master as it was sent to the console of our quarter and my master was incarcerated". Quite a bright little twig, unaware he could be snaped at any moment. Darth Plagueis inclined his head, seeing no need to state the obvious, that two comm numbers were easily switched if one did not bother to remember which one was fix and which one was portative. "Should I understand you are an envoy of the Jedi Order?"
The twig nearly scoffed at that ridiculous statement "Of course not. And I was given to understand any request from the Jedi Order would be ill received. So I was rather surprised by your message". The training remote switched position in a faint buzz, irritably zooming in the office since the security team had left. A mirthless smirk pulled his lips as he pounced on the occasion to avoid the insightful remark "The Jedi took away my daughter under false pretense and I had to learn through underhanded means her death fifteen years after the fact. And now, they left to flounder for their mistake one they claimed as their own. Do you truly think I do it for the Jedi Order?" The answer unbalanced the padawan but did not make him retract his fangs as Darth Plagueis expected it would. He bared them and his reply was exactly what Hego had addressed him. "The Jedi Order cast me out as unwanted when I aged out, in a galaxy I knew nothing about. This is not about the Jedi Order. This is about Yan Dooku. You kept contact forty years with him despite being a Jedi."
What an offensive little twig. Quick thinker, a bit too ambitious in his targets. "And you hope that I will believe your Order know nothing of your visit?" Darth Plagueis drawled in an amused tone. The padawan raised an equally amused eyebrow and answered brightly "Factoring the travel time between this building and the Temple and accounting all the flags I raised before coming, I would say the majority of the Council will be aware before an hour". That was more unexpected, as well as the cheerful tone in which the padawan announced he had bothered most of his command structure. Did the twig barge into his office then inform him he had taken a life-insurance against him? A look at the padawan informed Hego he indeed did, and was quite proud of it. Amusement vanished as he asked: "What exactly did you sought when coming here, padawan Kenobi?"
The padawan answered with a placid face and a serious tone: "My master look at you with a modicum of warmth, which is for him a glowing endorsement. I am not certain I share his opinion of whether you would actively go against him as a Jedi or spare him your resentment for being the individual he is. The timing of your message is rather… auspicious as well. However, my master made so many enemies in the course of his life that I do not believe it is you who is actively using the judiciary as a torturer and an execution comity." Wrong of the details but correct on the lay out, and already more perceptive than many, his master included. Some gall to tell it to his face after having correctly evaluated the amount of damage he could do solely as Magistrate of the IGBC. Darth Plagueis studied his face with interest. What a bright foolish twig. Reminded him of both his apprentice when he did not watch his mouth and the padawan master with his mad plans. He wondered if the padawan would be able to pull it off as well as Dooku generally did.
"And you came here to tell me that" said the Sith then kept silent, curious about the padawan answer. "I came here to tell you I received your message and that the Jedi Order is aware of my presence here". The padawan left the silence stretch, without seeming bothered by it. A copy-cat, understood Darth Plagueis, tailoring his tactic for his adversary. Which is why he could recognize Dooku influence. "Have you, per chance, ever met Senator Palpatine?" The padawan eyes narrowed, clearly unsettled by the question, but he answered nevertheless in a soft slow voice: "A very cruel man, sometimes giving into pettiness. Probably one of the most dangerous sentient beings in the galaxy. Fascinating to watch him at work. My master has regular dinners with him".
"And you seemed to have learnt much from him" replied the Sith, without answering the unvoiced question about the reason he brought up Sheev in the conversation "like you had learnt daring from your master". The padawan smiled ironically "My first master, actually. A brilliant madman, unless he was a mad genius" his eyes flickered upward in a heartbeat, toward the infuriating remote, and his own followed them. And it was then he saw the mark, gone in a flicker as the remote turned, then again, swift but recognizable. A Sith rune. "Your master's?" he asked nonchalantly before looking at the padawan, taking in his shields. Very good shields, pulled tight around him defensively, and ones he never saw on padawans before. Better than most Jedi actually, little passing through but still a sense of Light. Not very defensive against a trained enemy, but perfect to hid and disappear in the background. Your master's too, he wanted to ask. Wanted to prod and unravel the shielding, because it was unlike his own and those he had studied with Tenebrous and later in the Temples.
"Spoil from his line" said the padawan and his attention recentered on the matter at hand. The padawan with a Sith relic. Who's your first master, he wanted to ask, see whether the remote came from up jumped Dark Sider having found it to be killed off by Jedi later on, or if there was another Sith line in the galaxy. It was possible. It was maybe even before him. He rolled the words in his mouth, spoil from his line, leaving unsaid whether they were claimed through inheritance, battle, or Sith succession. The human was too young, he thought. "You must miss him" Darth Plagueis tentatively offered in a neutral, sympathetic tone. "I do" answered the padawan, but he did not say more and his expression was guarded. Wary. Familiar with manipulation. Was your master killed off, the Muun wondered, or were you always a Jedi padawan and I am mistaken.
The silence stretched, the human bothered but feigning he wasn't, as youth taking their thumbling steps often were. Sharp fangs for a parasitic specie, observed the Muun, deliberately longing on his chair and watching unease crept in his guest, but still baby teeth. Carefully, he sent forward a tendril toward the shields, evaluating them. He steered away from the shields, creeping behind him, then slowly approached and brushed the surface of the shield. The human did not perceive anything until a breath away. He did not twitch, but his Force signature wavered slightly before violently lashing out in direction of the tendril. He would have caught him if Plagueis had not paused when he first showed sign of detecting something, then hurriedly retracted the tendril. Just a prod to ascertain knowledge of his surroundings after a perceived disruption, the Sith understood. Shame for the boy he sent it behind him, or that his shields were too close from the body to adequately perceive attacks. The Muun could have snaped his neck and the twig wouldn't have felt a thing.
"Your master brought three things on the table when he first sought by help" the Sith calmly told, deciding to end the silence here as it was clear the boy would not desist first "expertise about the Republic agents he sought to constrain to his view, the willingness to blackmail me, information I wished. You brought me the first two". The padawan answered in a low tone "I have nothing that you could want. And I do not seek expertise". The Muun quirked an eyebrow hearing the last addition. The shields distorted in tremblement around the boy then smoothed out, calm and deceitful. "Oh?"
A self-depreciating smile appeared on the boy face "I would have liked your expertise, but I am well aware it was a long shot. I would have preferred it to seeking myself the truth, as I fully expect it to be a very dangerous venture." Like his preceding similar sentence, it took him a moment to understand it: "Are you blackmailing me?" he asked with disbelief. The boy stood primely, like an obedient conforming padawan and unlike the foolishness he had announced his intent to pursue "Merely informing you of my destination so you can relay it to the Jedi who will come knocking". That boy was blackmailing him into ensuring his safety while picking a fight with at least three senators the Muun was aware actively contributed to the continuation of Dooku imprisonment, as Hego Damask had put them in rapport then influenced them into doing the work for him.
"Thank you for having received me, Magistrate". The boy bowed then stepped toward the door. The Sith stopped him on the threshold "You are very foolish if you believe letting go a padawan do whatever foolishness he cooked up will stand against me in the courts." The padawan turned toward him, his remote zooming around his head "Not the courts, sir, merely Yan Dooku". He bowed again, then the door slid open and he stepped out in the lobby. The door closed in and the sound muted out. In the calm of his office, Darth Plagueis assessed the conversation he just had. What an infuriating clever little twig. He managed to win something on either outcome, be it the loss of his influence on Dooku or his master freedom. Hego Damask, as Magistrate of the IGBC, had the contacts necessary to pull a Jedi out of a sticky situation, even if he lacked the motivation to do so. That he would not wasn't surprising and the minimal implication he planned to take at the end would have been more unexpected that his absence of early involvement.
But to fail assuring the security of a gallivanting padawan when it was known he could track off individuals better than the authorities? That would be harder to sell off. The padawan could die in his foolish quest, whether by the senators words or through his intervention, but that would be counter-productive. Methodically, he placed a few calls, the first to a talented Bith on his staff who could follow up a feed through Coruscant surveillance cams better than most police officers, the second to set a lunch with a few judicial. And from then, discussing a personal visit to an investment and evaluate his mental state. It would not do for his pawn to do something regrettable before he became of use. The padawan had sought him out precisely because he knew of Hego Damask reputation which should instead have made him stay away. This visit showed the boy believed his master in enough danger to risk catching his interest.
And maybe that interest was warranted, because the extent of the padawan plan deployed itself in the following hours. A Jedi effectively came to enquire about the padawan whereabouts, and a Councilor nonetheless. The padawan must have raised some flags, indeed, to bring on such a posturing. Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas was easily ruffled by a few comments, and sent back with but vague indications on the padawan intentions as well as a security feed proving he had left the building alive. The Jedi subsequently whipped a few other bastards in a frenzy, hunting not so much the padawan as the responsible of their brethren incarceration. An uncharacteristic agitation for a normally apathetic group, especially apathetic who had previously decided to not invest themselves to defend their own. The padawan earned something from his visit, mused the Sith, for all he himself had not given anything. The boy had a teaching bond with his master, had showed awareness of the risk posed by the Magistrate of the IGBC, and the Jedi drew the same conclusions that he himself reached. And now they involved themselves, Plagueis had to either prove as useful as them to maintain his standing in Dooku eyes, or arrange a tragedy brought by the tardiness of the Jedi.
The padawan may have evolved into something interesting if he had not voided his current ploy. The Bith following his progress had already unearthed some oddity in form of an ability to disguise without much preparation and an account in the IGBC under a fake name. The Muun took a fleeting aspiration, his senses reaching in the Force, unable to find the padawan in the city-planet. Finding a sentient in such a multitude was near impossible, but powerful Force-sensitives such as Jedi tended to be distinguishable. But where padawan Kenobi stood, no such bright light was discernable. The boy could pass himself off as one with a more average midichlorian count, as countless generation of Sith had done. And he was apparently experimenting in stock market prevision, a discipline Plagueis was a master off and disdained by the Jedi as a whole. Such an easily snaped bright little twig, thought the Sith, following his progress on the feed.
He did not reach into the Force to grasp his throat and squeeze, because the Jedi where scanning with some animation in the Senate, but opportunity would easily be found on such a venture. Awaiting for it, he watched with some amusement the padawan trick entry in his disguise inside the 500 Republica, and befuddle the head of security, after having purposefully gotten caught making disruption in the private halls. The Muun raised an eyebrow when the padawan started what was evidently a distraction speech to a bemused head of security, all the while disconnecting communication with the exterior of the office, then savagely blackmail the rodian. There may even have been some Force-persuasion into that suborning, which was unexpected for a Jedi, but he had his doubts about the boy first master.
The floor swept the padawan made afterwards showed he had no clue as of who arranged his master imprisonment outside of the guilty being senators. That he knew as much proved he had correctly haggled with the information broker he visited earlier. The manner of interrogation was rather crude, as the padawan reiterated his speech for the right of impermasexualists with each target. It was, acknowledged the Sith, a clever disguise as the hermetic suit favored by the most affirmative impermasexualists would stop short any finding of his DNA afterward and offered a ready-made explanation concerning the objectives of his invasion of the building. Most would not search further and the padawan never uttered the reason of his sudden defense of an haughty minority. The senators merely started blurting out insults and derogatory comments midway while using names of others senators, which would also be dismissed as the well-shared enmity amongst senators.
A very good Force-suggestion, Plagueis admitted before leaving for his lunch with the judicial. A bit outrageously done, as some senators at least would find odd they used certain names rather than their more outspoken enemies. The Sith was moderately surprised to find the padawan in a cell by late afternoon. A quick review of the footage by the Bith showed the padawan little expedition had ultimately failed when his time had run short, but a lead literally fell on him in form of a kidnapping. The Muun didn't even blink at the sheer stupidity of the senator involved, one of Dooku old enemies knowledgeable enough of Jedi bonds to be aware he could use the padawan to hurt the master, but stupid enough to dismiss the padawan as a valid threat. If this day had taught Plagueis something, it was that Kenobi could not be summed as a classical padawan. He was not held by the same moral constrain, and did not follow the same thinking process. That the boy let himself get kidnapped was more sensible that this display of idiocy. Calmly, the Sith discarded the senator too emboldened by his success at imprisoning Dooku and put forth a contract on the bounty hunter guild to clean off the warehouse the cams had followed the kidnappers at. There, a regrettable death of a dear padawan whose sole flaw was to love his master too much, and a ready-made culpable in the corrupt Senator who made too many enemies.
It was not in Plagueis habits to dismiss odds, so at the same time he formulated this thought he already planned contingency on the survival of the padawan, and finished the complex dance of posting an untraceable assassination request. Not on the padawan, because the Muun was not into an habit to show his hand by making his ploys appear more than happenstance, but on the senator through the guise of an actual offended party. The Sith firmly believed obstacles could be made into opportunities with the right frame and circumstances. That the Jedi nearly got the padawan killed would still affect Dooku, even if he survived. He was worthy of it, recognized the Sith when, instead of cowing before his torturers, the padawan masterly convinced them to reveal their employer, the reason of his kidnapping, the most probable betrayal of their employer, then to fight amongst themselves while he freed himself from the cuffs made for non-Force sensitive he had previously mind-tricked his kidnappers into putting on him instead of Force inhibitors.
That simple fact and what Plagueis had already observed of the padawan near insured his survival to the bounty hunter so he settled a second call addressed to Kenobi on Dooku quarter, intending to sell off the name of this senator and depending on Dooku state eventually the two others as well. The Jedi were still buzzing in the Senate and the Sith had no idea whether they had uncovered something or were aimlessly disturbing its dwellers. Sidious report would surely prove enlightening on the subject. He could not finish off the padawan at distance, but nothing stopped him from making a simple stop on the way to visit Dooku. But Plagueis stayed the thoughts and instead outfitted himself for his meeting. Opportunities happened all the time or could be engineered if pressed. In the course of the day, the padawan had exhibited some oddities which would end at his death. Some of his actions he could have expected of Sidious or of himself, but were wholly displaced in a Jedi padawan. And then there was the remote, maybe a clue to the oddness of the padawan, or an unrelated mystery, but one the Muun was genially curious about.
The padawan was riffling through files for something, blackmail against the senator, the Sith surmised, when he jerked, sensing the danger in the Force. None of this were surprising, neither was the padawan escape, but Plagueis did not expect the conclusion of the ambush by the bounty hunter he had sent to burn the ground. The padawan rolled out of a first salvo as the foolish twig had embarked in this journey without a lightsaber. The bounty hunter avoided a block of concrete aimed at his head. He did not avoid the suddenly unleashed lightning. A blue crackling distorted stream of lightning so akin to a Sith one, originating from the remote with the Sith rune. The bounty hunter plummeted towards the lower levels, blue streaking on his fried armor, and Plagueis watched as the remote scooped toward the padawan who reached up, griped his buzzing form then let himself be taken away, dangling over the void.
The Sith closed the feed, lost in thoughts. It did not answer all his questions but at least some. Whoever made this remote had been a Sith Lord and one unknown of Plagueis as he had never heard of a Sith investing such a craft in a training remote. A fleeting moment he thought of Darth Tenebrous, who had been a mechanic at heart and a ship builder by trade, and who would have been able to build something like that. But his master had been more invested in ships and droids than remote, eying with mockery Plagueis early struggle with the remote when he was first introduced to the Force as a present entity and not merely a powerful gut-instinct. Tenebrous would not have built the remote, and Plagueis had seized Venamous possessions when his master other apprentice attempted to take the Sith Lord mantle. He did not believe Venamous had the time to form another. When he had foolishly battled Plagueis, he had been rash and raw, early in his own training and not long in the Dark Side.
It was entirely possible the remote had another origin. It could have been a well-maintained relic but it implied someone had regularly made said maintenance. That either it originated from an ancient Sith line treasuring it like an artefact, or was a creation of a more modern Sith. Another line, maybe perduring in present time. The echo of a Sith fighting for his survival would have been felt in the Force, even if only to the Dark Siders. Darth Plagueis himself had been present for those last desperate calls sent by Tenebrous then Venamous to the Force before he dealt with them definitely and he had never heard others in the fifty-five years he had been introduced to the Dark Side. Logically it would imply no succession happened in that time, but the remote was in the hand of a student. With Sith-like leaning, but a student nevertheless, too inexperienced to have learnt much about the ways of the Force and tellingly still a Light Sider.
Plagueis would have seen behind a disguise, unmasked the master parading as a learner of the enemy. The boy was precisely what he appeared to be: a boy with mixed heritage, already on his second master. The odds he killed the first were laughable, but he had not lied when speaking of his death. The death could have been abrupt and silent but rare were the Sith to go down without a fight. Or that Sith line could have been extinguished by Jedi before Plagueis time and one of his vanquishers kept proof of his victory with the remote. A spoil from a hard fight. But no, a Sith remote would have been destroyed by the Jedi either as anathema or in a fight as Jedi hatred would have been hard-wired in its core. Plagueis had not dabbled in mechanical construct with Sith Alchemy since his days as an Apprentice, but he remembered Tenebrous work and his creations had a mind of their own, infused in the Dark Side as they were.
He had not felt the remote, Plagueis realized then, when he inspected the Force signature of the padawan. Further proof of the use of Sith Alchemy in its creation. Coupled with the Sith rune it left little doubt the remote could had least recognize a Light Sider and would attack him unless specified otherwise. The remote did not harm the padawan and even obeyed him. Either a Jedi having stolen it then turned to the Dark Side claimed it for over half a century, or the padawan was the legitimate owner of the remote. Could it be? mused Plagueis as he flickered his shields to disguise himself from the Jedi standing before one of the cells. Not Dooku's for the Jedi looked at him with surprise when he stopped before his cell.
"Were you expecting your padawan, maybe?" the Muun asked, keen to direct the conversation on the subject. "Not before tomorrow. I'll admit I did not expect your visit" answered the Jedi, a little haggard but not as much the Sith expected to find him based on the padawan behavior. Carefully, he slid a tendril forward, coiling around the minimal shielding the Jedi was maintaining despite the Force inhibitors. Different shielding than in his memory, remarked the Sith with a measure of interest, with some resemblance with his padawan actually. "I did not intend to visit" declared the Muun before lying brazenly because Dooku would not be able to perceive so while cut from the Force "I made an error in comm number when enquiring on this situation, and your padawan takes after you closely enough he tried to follow your footsteps". The shields cracked slightly open and Plagueis surged forward through the fear created by his announce. The Sith did not expect so quick an occasion. Never until now had the Jedi expressed concern for his padawans regarding Hego Damask, despite knowing his view of Jedi. Even after he started developing at least serious doubts on the disappearance of the Jedi who had stolen his daughter. If Dooku feared for a lone padawan because of a simple blackmailing attempt, he mays be closer to the mark than Plagueis thought he was.
No, the Sith understood as feelings flashed forward, the possibility of his current padawan death was just eager to come to his mind following the death of two others padawan. One more than the Muun had been aware before coming here. Dooku countenance was a mask, and inside was a loud and confused wailing barely soothed by a stream of foreign cheer. The padawan's, the Sith realized quickly, and the boy was right to be worried. The slightest push such as the one Plagueis inadvertently delivered by hinting at his padawan safety could push Dooku into permanent uselessness. He quickly squashed the anger at the waste this miscalculation could have been. Dooku was not yet a Sith for all Plagueis had taken steps toward his turning in the last decades, and Jedi were as a rule inept with emotion managing. It should have be no surprise Dooku did not channel his turmoil in an efficient fuel to be used at a later time, but allowed them to tear him apart.
"He was not as talented as you" said the Sith in a kind tone with the slight suggestion to pay attention to his words rather than the self-destructive path this emotionally stunted being was unknowingly building "but the attempt in itself was worrying". Hidden under the layer of emotions sprung forth by his assurance the padawan was alive, he planted another suggestion to ensure that the idea to follow his third padawan way out would not go further. Stay for your padawan, he whispered in the Jedi mind, and the Jedi perceived nothing for his Order handed him blinded and defenseless to a Sith. There were many other suggestions Plagueis could have planted, but he would have Dooku free of this cell and the inhibitors, and then the Jedi would meditate as their ilk was prone to do and may come across the compulsion. To infuse resentment to the Jedi this way would be deconstructed later on and reveal someone had dabbled in Dooku mind to the Jedi. Words were more prudent and reliable weapons in such situation. So the Sith only planted one compulsion which could feasibly be believed to come from the worried padawan.
"How progress your Order attempts to pull you out of here" the Sith asked in a sharp tone often associated to the Jedi, which served the double purpose of undermining his trust in his Order and drawing Dooku away from his slow dive inside. He really should get him out of here soon, thought the Sith. The Jedi lips thinned and he briefly flickered in anger but his words were measured "Slower than I would like". Plagueis sent him a telling look which the Jedi had long since learnt to interpret as derogatory to his Order, and Dooku sent him his usual look in such a circumstance, meaning that it was nevertheless his Order. But this time it lacked heat and seemed driven forward more by habit than conviction. The Jedi quickly changed the subject "Did my padawan offend you enough that he has to be bailed out?"
The Muun huffed a laugh at the memory of the padawan antics and profited of Dooku curious surprise to mask the retreat of his tendrils "It would need more than a word to bail him out after the trick he pulled, but as far as I am aware he was not caught and you don't want vocal proof against him so I will stay silent excepted to say his second strategy does not look like something you would pull off". The Jedi grimaced "And his first master strike again beyond the grave". The Sith raised an interested eyebrow "I was given to understand he was either a brilliant madman or a mad genius". The Jedi nodded with a grimace "more like one of the most infuriating beings in the galaxy. I met him twice and got tricked as many times. To this day I could not say with certitude a single thing about him excepted maybe his specie."
"After the stunt your padawan pulled, I must say it is a wholly unsatisfactory answer, and after having tracked him through cams the whole day, I expect more of a payment" the Muun stated, relying on decades of more or less friendly blackmailing, and Dooku accepted the comment in the same spirit "Alas I fear I could tell you many things on Han Solo and all could be falsehood, starting by his name. He mays have been a corellian freighter with for relatives a rogue Jedi line. Or a Corellian Jedi undercover fighting against the traffic of Force-sensitive sentient beings. Maybe a Dark Siders hunter and seer unparalleled in a century. Or maybe a Sith Lord out to destroy the Jedi Order in a complicated plot. Or maybe something else entirely and the truth is forever out of our reach as his death was as mysterious as his life, for he died with seemingly no reasons and was so talented at shielding his student never had a peck at his Force signature in four years. But I know that whatever he was, getting tricked into his lies may have been a kinder fate than knowing the truth, for we never knew how dangerous he was exactly".
"I will pretend I understood this answer" the Muun said drily before switching subjects lest it became suspect, his mind racing at the implications. Dooku mays have mentioned the possibility that the boy first master was a Sith Lord in a joking tone, but the simple fact the humor did not reach his eyes and he even made the hypothesis was telling. The Jedi had seen something in "Solo" that lead him to unearth the old boogey-man of his Order. Something other than the remote for they would have taken it away if they knew of its origin. Something that warranted both Dooku hostility and grudging respect and lead him to take the boy as his own student upon his first master death. But not enough the Jedi Order would refuse the padawan as one of their own. He would need another word with the padawan, mused the Sith, to ascertain whether his ability to manipulate was truly good enough to fool Jedi, or whether he only had hints himself of his heritage.
But first he pulled up all the information of Han Solo account, including the feed placed in all public offices of the IGBC. Han Solo had not been a phantom being but rather a fake name belonging to an individual whose near sole proof of existence was two videos. An old human – a meaningless information if he was truly a Sith and a dubious one for any touched by the Force – with a Corellian look and a Corellian tone. The footage was good enough he could hear inflection and see small gestures. His expression was one of polite boredom, with a scant of pride at some of his student interventions, but the eyes alone told Plagueis he was analyzing the exchange with some interest. Not for the banker, but for the boy gestion of the situation, testing him like the Muun had once tested Sheev at the beginning of his apprenticeship. Four years was the early days of an apprenticeship. A time where the relation between a master and an apprentice was of guidance and protection more than challenge and independence. No wonder the boy kept a fond memory of his first master if he had been cut short before strengthening him with cruelty.
He replayed the brief footages many times, trying to divine more of the potential Sith through scant expressions and too-short videos. His get and awareness of surroundings could be attributed to the rough lifestyle of a corellian captain as well as the bearing of an experienced fighter. There was no lightsaber at his belt and Plagueis had not expected any considering his student did not bring his own in his blackmailing spree. With only a visible blaster he appeared a random spacer. But his speech pattern was not strictly Corellian for all it appeared to be his default one. Sometimes an hint of sophistication snuck in, or the frame of a sentence betrayed a Core influence. And in the middle of bluster Plagueis could see him spring a web then adapt to his foe reaction, closing in such a way the banker understood something the human had never said. His influence on the padawan was manifest, as the boy had tested waters the same way, revealed seemingly important but ultimately meaningless information. A fleeting instant, the Muun thought to contact the banker to interrogate him, or fire him for manifest corruption, but there would be precious few information to glean from one influenced by the Force and immunity to the Force was rare enough it was theorical.
Nothing in "Solo" could led to suspect one touched by the Force at first glance and maybe the human did not call it to him during these meetings and his manipulation was sufficient to ensure the success of his lie. If it was the case, it only revealed a bold talent in words. Plagueis did not believe so, for while good, hints creeped in Solo strength was not in words but his proficiency gained through long exposure. His master, maybe, had been a talker, but Solo was not at heart. The Sith wondered with some trepidation what could have warranted him the title of Sith Lord, or at least the confusion with one.