Darth Cain, the Reluctant Sith Lord

by Zahariel

Some time between TPM and ATC, a hyperdrive malfunction results in the return of a long-lost ship from the ancient Sith Empire, carrying the dreaded Darth Cain, whose reputation in the Old Republic was matched only by his imposter syndrome. Needless to say, this throws a wrench into the plans of Darth Sidious …

4. Envoys

As they came out of hyperspace, Anakin did his best to conceal his trepidation under a mask of calm and serenity. He probably wasn't doing very well, but Obi-Wan and Master Plo Koon didn't mention it : they both had more urgent concerns on their minds.

They had travelled to Perlia using Senator Donali's ship, the Shield of Damocles, which was a rare model from the Outer Rim that Anakin had never seen with his own eyes before. He had spent much of the journey in the engine room, badgering the crew with questions and helping them with various jobs.

The rest of the time had been spent practicing his lightsaber forms, and studying the intel they had on Darth Cain. Obi-Wan had decided that this was the perfect opportunity to teach Anakin the history of the Old Republic, and to his own surprise, Anakin had found himself fascinated by the stories of the Great Galactic War between the Jedi and the Sith, the Republic and the Empire.

The stories had felt more like myths than historical events, and he wondered how much had been distorted over time and how much was true. Thousands of Jedi and Sith, battling for the fate of the galaxy, leading armies to war until the galaxy had run red with blood in a conflict that had only been matched in its scale and devastation by the so-called New Sith Wars one thousand years ago … it just didn't seem real.

But it was real, he reminded himself, and soon they would meet the remnants of that legendary epoch face-to-face. At least that wouldn't include Vaylin, Darth Cain's apprentice, who apparently was the daughter of the most evil and powerful Sith to have ever lived, and who had once led an armada of droid-ships which had conquered the galaxy in a few months. But while she was still on Tatooine, her Master was on Perlia, and if everything went right, then they would meet him in person.

Anakin felt a strange mix of dread and excitement at the thought. The biography Madame Nu had compiled had read like a high-budged holodrama's script, although there had been a lot of annotations marking where she was extrapolating from incomplete sources, or where there was reason to suspect the accounts she had used as primary sources were somewhat biased.

The Padawan shook his head and focused on the present. The Jedi had joined the Senator on the bridge for the hyperspace exit, ready for … anything, Anakin supposed. So far, though, there hadn't been any sudden wave of the Dark Side coming for them, no supernatural terror unleashed upon them by Darth Cain all the way from the planetary surface (which, according to several of the records, was apparently something he could do, though he'd only done it very rarely).

Looking at it through the ship's long-range scanners, Perlia looked … perfectly normal. Unlike many of the worlds Anakin had visited, its position relative to its star allowed it to have multiple biomes, with water covering about two-thirds of its surface. Numerous cities dotted its landscape, but nothing like the urban sprawls of Coruscant.

In Anakin's opinion, it certainly didn't look like the stronghold of an evil Sith Lord bent on galactic domination. He turned his gaze away from the main display and looked at the orbitals : Perlia didn't have anywhere near the number of artificial satellites as most Core worlds, especially since most of the existing ones had probably been destroyed during the pirate raid, but there were still a handful functioning. But, of course, they weren't what he and the crew of the Shield were looking for.

One of the crew gasped audibly, before hastily making some adjustments to the display. And there it was : the Invincible. It was big, it was terrible, and it was beautiful. Anakin had never heard of a ship like this : the closest he could think of was the Lucrehulk he'd destroyed six years ago during the Battle of Naboo. But while the Trade Federation ship had ostensibly been designed for cargo transport and 'providing security to business activities', nobody could look at the Invincible and think that this was anything but a weapon of war.

Swarms of fighter crafts were flying around the Invincible like insects buzzing around a great slumbering beast – though of course, the superdreadnought's immobility was only an illusion. There were also numerous civilian crafts moving around, and a steady flow of cargo being shipped in and out of the numerous hangar bays.

"There are some signs of battle damage, but I don't recognize the weapon type that would have left traces like this," mused Master Plo Koon as the higher-resolution scans arrived. "What do you think, Padawan ?"

"Well, I don't think the pirates were the ones to hurt them," said Anakin. "It's probably leftover damage from their last engagement. We don't know what exactly the alliance forces faced on Molech, but given they brought the Invincible in the first place, there must have been some void defenses of some kind."

"You're probably right, Anakin," said Obi-Wan. "And I imagine they're also replacing the hyperdrive. It malfunctioning is what brought them here – now – you know what I mean, and I doubt they want to risk it again."

"I don't think anybody makes hyperdrives that big anymore, though," frowned Anakin. "They must be building one specially for it."

"Do you have any idea how hard that would be ?" asked the Kel Dor Master.

Anakin frowned as he considered the Jedi Master's question. Hyperdrives were delicate, incredibly complex pieces of technology, and you didn't want to mess with them – as the Invincible's misadventure had illustrated.

"Well, the Sith Empire had the know-how to build one, that's obvious," he began. "But hyperdrive tech has come a long way since then, and if I was the one in charge of replacing it – and after an accident like this they will want to replace it completely, not just do some repairs – I'd want to use the occasion to do some upgrades. That'd mean obtaining new technology, having the engineers familiarize with it and come up with an upscaled schematic …" Anakin swallowed, suddenly aware that he was rambling.

"I mean, it's definitely doable, but it will take time and effort." He made some more estimates, before adding with more confidence : "I think … I think that, at least for the next few months, the Invincible is going to be stuck in Perlia. How long exactly will depend on whether the Sith can get help from other systems with the industry needed, since Perlia didn't have it and I don't think the superdreadnought's on-board foundries can handle an order of that size."

"Thank you, Padawan," said Master Plo Koon. "That is somewhat reassuring, although obviously it hasn't stopped Darth Cain from striking beyond the system already."

"Yes, but it's not like the people he sent to Tatooine did anything bad," Anakin pointed out. "Or illegal, for that matter."

He had actually looked it up : there'd been a bunch of lawyers interviewed on the Holonet about it. Turned out, since Tatooine wasn't formally part of the Republic, the Sith's invasion, execution of Jabba and liberation of the slaves wasn't even vigilantism. After all, they had been acting under the authority of Darth Cain, who was (legally) the Sovereign of Perlia, in order to free the native citizens of Perlia who'd been captured during the pirate raid.

Of course, Republican law being what it was, he didn't doubt for a second that the matter could be dragged in front of the courts for years anyway. The fact Padmé had come all the way to Coruscant to ask for help freeing her planet from the Trade Federation's occupation only to end up having to lead the counter-attack herself had taught Anakin everything he needed to know about how much you could trust the bureaucracy and the Senate to do the right thing.

"Anakin," began Obi-Wan in a warning tone of voice, but before he could launch into a full lecture, one of the bridge crew called out :

"Captain, we're being hailed."

"Put it through," ordered the officer.

"Unidentified starship, this is the Invincible," said a voice that spoke Basic with an accent Anakin had never heard before (not that this was rare in a galaxy of over a million inhabited worlds). "State your identity and reason for coming to Perlia."

"Invincible, this is the diplomatic vessel Shield of Damocles," replied the captain. "We are carrying Senator Donali of the Damocles Sector to talk with the Perlian authorities about recent events, as well as an escort of Jedi."

There was a brief pause, and then : "Repeat that, Shield of Damocles. Do you confirm that you have Jedi on board ?"

"Yes." The Jedi had discussed this with the Senator, and Donali had insisted that they don't try to hide their presence aboard his ship, lest the Sith take it as a hostile move. While it'd make investigating the situation on Perlia more difficult, Plo Koon and Obi-Wan had agreed that this was the wisest course of action.

Anakin hadn't argued at the time, but now, with the Invincible and its many, many guns looming in the distance, part of him wished he had. He took a deep breath and tried to push his nervousness into the Force. If they decided to blast their ship from the void, there was nothing any of them could do about it anyway. He could only hope that the records about Darth Cain being reasonable (and wasn't that something, the thought of a Sith Lord the Jedi of the Old Republic had thought was reasonable) were accurate.

"… Standby for a moment," replied the Imperial officer. "Do not deviate from your current heading : we have several weapons locked on your signature."

The link went dead, leaving an uncomfortable silence behind.

"Well, that certainly sounds ominous," said Obi-Wan with a strained smile, and Anakin felt a bit of relief at the thought that his Master shared his nervousness about the situation.

There was nothing they could do, so they waited while the pilot continued on their approach. Then, less than a minute later, the link opened back up, and this time, it wasn't audio-only, but a full holo transmission, which the captain immediately accepted.

The transmission showed a tall, beautiful woman with a piercing, commanding gaze, with rank insignia and several medals nobody outside of Perlia but a handful of galactic historians could've identified. There was a blaster holstered at her hip, and Anakin could tell she knew how to use it. If she was nervous at all about addressing a couple of Jedi, a Senator and a Padawan, she didn't show it.

"Shield of Damocles, this is Commodore Kasteen," she said. "I've been informed you are carrying a diplomatic party from the Republic. Is that correct ?"

"Yes, Commodore," said Donali, taking the lead before the Jedi could say anything. "I am Senator Donali, representative of the Damocles Sector in the Galactic Senate. I was on Coruscant when I learned about the … recent events."

"And your first reaction was to fly to Perlia in person ?" The woman raised an eyebrow, looking almost impressed (and Anakin had a feeling she wasn't easily impressed). "You're not like most Republic Senators I've heard about, Sir Donali, and I mean that as a compliment. And I've heard you were accompanied by Jedi ?"

"Indeed," said Master Plo Koon, stepping forward. "I am Plo Koon, Jedi Master and member of the High Council. With me are Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker."

Kasteen's eyes swept over them as they were introduced before stopping on Anakin, who did his best to avoid fidgeting under her attention.

"I question the wisdom of the Jedi Order, if they saw fit to send a child into, for all they knew, could be a deadly trap," she said in a neutral tone.

Anakin bristled. He wasn't a child. He was fifteen years old !

"Fortunately for all of us, my lord Cain has no intentions of re-opening the ancient hostilities between our people at this time. In fact, he's quite interested in hearing what the Republic and the Jedi Order have to say. You are authorized to land at these coordinates," she continued, and the navigation computer chimed as it received the information. "An escort will be waiting for you. Do not," her already cutting tone becoming sharper than a lightsaber, "attempt anything stupid. There are thousands of Sith soldiers on Perlia who are well experienced in killing Force-users, and should you be foolish enough to attempt anything against Darth Cain himself, you will live long enough to regret it."

The transmission ended.

"That," began Anakin, before swallowing and continuing, "sounded a lot more intimidating than it should. Didn't it ?"

"I agree," sighed Obi-Wan. "Senator, you're still committed to this course of action ?"

"Of course," replied Donali, sounding a little affronted. "It is my duty to ensure the people of Perlia aren't in any danger or under duress. And I trust you won't do anything that'll test the good Commodore's threat ?"

"So long as the Sith respect the basic principles of diplomacy and the sanctity of ambassadors, we won't be the ones to make a hostile move first," promised Master Plo Koon.

"Then we'll be fine. Captain, take us down to the designated coordinates, please."

"Yes, sir."

The Shield of Damocles came down through the atmosphere with only minor turbulences (Anakin made a mental note to check the compensators on the way back) and landed at the capital's spaceport. There were signs of hastily patched battle damage everywhere, which made sense : the spaceport would have been one of the pirates' priority targets.

A group of soldiers stood waiting when the diplomatic party came down the ramp (Donali and the three Jedi : the Senator had left his aide aboard the ship, seeing no sense in risking anyone else's life if this turned out to be some kind of elaborate trap). They all wore the same black and red armor, with helmets Anakin couldn't help but think made it look like they had buckets on their heads.

So these were the soldiers of the old Sith Empire, who had nearly brought the Republic to its knees. Anakin could feel their wariness through the Force without even trying. They outnumbered the three Jedi (well, two Jedi and one Padawan) twenty to one, but they were still nervous. Not afraid, though : merely tense, the same way he'd be before a flight he knew he could do but which would challenge him.

Unlike the armed goons Obi-Wan and he had encountered before on missions, these soldiers weren't awed by the Jedi's reputation. After all, like Kasteen had said, they had fought alongside the Sith against Jedi before (and other Sith too, if the records were correct about the Empire's predilection for infighting).

One man stood out among the soldiers : a Human in his forties, wearing what Anakin assumed to be elaborate robes of office (that, or he'd left his home in his pajamas and nobody had the heart to tell him).

"Senator Donali," the man greeted the Senator, who had taken the lead of their little group, "welcome to Perlia."

"Regent Trevellyan," replied the Senator, shaking the man's hand. "It's a pleasure to be here, even under these circumstances."

"It's Prime Minister now, actually," corrected the man. "With Darth Cain's return, the Regency has ended."

The Senator and Jedi tensed at the name of the planet's new ruler, but Anakin heard the reverence in Trevellyan's voice when he spoke it. Whatever else Cain had done since his return, he'd clearly gained the admiration of the ex-Regent.

Which, given he'd saved his planet from the largest coordinated pirate raid in centuries, shouldn't have been much of a surprise, but according to the history lessons Anakin'd gotten on the way to Perlia, Sith weren't exactly kind to their subordinates. Especially those who, like Trevellyan, could be perceived to have failed to keep the Sith's possessions safe.

"And these must be the Jedi envoys !" continued Trevellyan, looking briefly at each of the Jedi in turn. "I bid you welcome to Perlia as well. Rest assured that you've nothing to fear : Darth Cain explicitly commanded that emissaries of the Order be granted every courtesy."

"We're pleased to hear it," replied Master Plo Koon with a polite bow, which Obi-Wan imitated, Anakin hastily following.

"Before we go meet the Sovereign, there is someone else we must pick up," said Trevellyan. "You aren't the only off-world visitors we have today : another visitor arrived in-system just as you began your descent."

"That is quite the coincidence," Obi-Wan pointed out. Trevellyan shrugged.

"I suppose so, but in truth, we were expecting a lot more curious visitors. I guess the journalists are still too scared to swarm the planet looking for answers. I expect that'll change once you make your report to Coruscant and people see the Sith aren't killing people in the street, or whatever other ludicrous rumors are circulating in the Core right now."

Rumors. Yes. Definitely not something they had worried about on the way here.

Trevellyan escorted them to another of the spaceport's landing pad, just in time for the ship to land. It was, Anakin recognized, a solar sailer – specifically, a Punworcca 116-class interstellar sloop, with extensive (and expensive) modifications. It was beautiful, and very rare, being part of a very limited production run due to the sheer cost of buying and operating it. Clearly whoever it belonged to must be very rich to be able to afford one, while also having good taste, which from Anakin experience was far from being the same thing.

A tall man with white hair and beard, dressed in simple but elegant clothing and holding himself with the kind of poise Anakin had only seen a handful of Senators ever manage, came down the boarding ramp. He was alone, but somehow that didn't seem strange. The Jedi Padawan would've thought him another diplomat, some kind of ambassador from a nearby world come to Perlia for the same reason as them, if not for how strong he felt in the Force – and the reaction his companions had to seeing him.

The moment he came into view, both Obi-Wan and Master Plo Koon briefly froze. They knew the man, Anakin realized, and after looking at him again he realized he'd seen his face before : there was a bust of him in the Archives at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. What did that mean ? Anakin had always assumed the busts were there to honor old Jedi, but the man before him was very much alive, and while the two older Jedi with him were clearly surprised by his presence on Perlia, he didn't think they were surprised to see him alive.

He really should have asked what the busts meant, but he had already been on shifting sands with Madame Nu at the time. Even though he hadn't meant anything bad when he'd remarked out loud that he had never seen a Human as old as she was – Tatooine not being the kind of planet people lived to reach old age.

Not that her advanced years kept the Chief Archivist from being really scary when pissed off, of course.

"Welcome to Perlia, Count Dooku," the Prime Minister greeted him warmly. "We are honored by your presence."

"I assure you, the honor is mine," replied the nobleman, shaking Trevellyan's hand, before looking at the Jedi. "And I see I am not the only diplomat to have made the journey. Master Plo Koon, Knight Kenobi, and Senator … Donali, was it ? What an unexpected surprise."

"Count Dooku," said Obi-Wan with a stiff bow, which Anakin hurriedly copied. "What a coincidence to see you here."

"You know each other ?" asked Donali.

"No, but we know of each other," replied Dooku. "After all, I was once the Master of Qui-Gon Jin, who was Knight Kenobi's own Master."

Oh. That meant … that meant that when Obi-Wan had lost his Master, and Anakin had lost the Jedi who'd helped him escape slavery, Dooku had lost his Padawan. Anakin still struggled to understand just what the Master-Padawan bond was supposed to mean within the Order, but he knew losing someone hurt, and he could feel Dooku's grief in the brief flare of pain mentioning Master Qui-Gon caused in his aura.

"Really ?" asked the Senator, looking back and forth between the two men. "And you never met before today ?"

"No," replied Obi-Wan. "We didn't."

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Dooku turned his gaze to Anakin, who did his best not to squirm.

"And this is?"

"Oh, my apologies, Count," said Obi-Wan (though his voice remained tense despite his words). "Where are my manners ? This is Anakin Skywalker, my Padawan."

"I see," said Dooku, still looking at Anakin. "So you are the boy Qui-Gon found and brought back to Coruscant all those years ago."

Anakin was used to feeling judged and found wanting from all the time he had spent in the Temple, but Dooku's inspection was in a class all its own. He hadn't even said anything mean (aside from calling him 'boy', but everyone was probably a child to him, except maybe Master Yoda), and Anakin already wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it.

"Hmm," he muttered, before straightening himself up. "Yes, I am, sir. You're a Jedi, then ?"

"Not anymore, I'm afraid," replied the Count with a small smile. "I was once a member of the Jedi Order, before leaving it due to … disagreements with the way the Order's approach to modern politics."

Wait, you could do that ? Anakin had always assumed that once you joined the Jedi Order, it was for life.

"Why are you on Perlia, Count ?" asked Master Plo Koon. "The situation here is already volatile enough."

Everyone focused on Dooku, including the Prime Minister and the Senator.

"You know of my efforts to bring stability and prosperity to the Outer Rim, I am sure," answered Dooku. "In light of what transpired on Tatooine, I've come to ascertain where Darth Cain stands on these issues."

"Count, surely you cannot be thinking of allying with the Sith ! Not after …" Obi-Wan trailed off.

"Darth Cain may be a Sith, but you and I both know he had nothing to do with Qui-Gon's death, Kenobi. If by working with him, I can prevent some of the atrocities taking place beyond the Republic's reach, then my duty as a ruler demands that I consider it, at least."

There was a moment of tense silence following the nobleman's proclamation, eventually broken by Trevellyan, who ignored the awkwardness with all the skill expected from a veteran politician :

"Now that we have gotten everyone, please follow me. A transport is ready to bring you all to the Sovereign."

---

This, reflected Obi-Wan as their eclectic group boarded a speeder to Darth Cain's location, was not how he'd envisioned this mission going. It was also incredibly awkward, and not just because their transport was preceded and followed by another one full of Imperial soldiers who'd spent most of their careers battling Jedi and Republican troops.

Meeting his grandmaster for the first time had been an unexpected surprise. Dooku had left the Order years before due to his disagreements with the Council; and for a long time, Obi-Wan had been worried his Master would follow in his footsteps and leave him behind. Even now, he wasn't certain what would've happened if Qui-Gon hadn't died on Naboo. The Council had granted his Master's dying request of allowing Obi-Wan to train Anakin, but they might not have if Qui-Gon had lived – and then, what would Dooku's student have done, convinced as he was that Anakin was the Chosen One destined to bring balance to the Force ?

He sighed. It was pointless to think about what-ifs. Qui-Gon was dead, and while training Anakin had been among the greatest challenges of his life, he was still glad he'd done it, and proud of the progress his Padawan had made in the last six years. If he could only learn to reign in his temper and find peace in the Force, Obi-Wan had no doubt Anakin could become one of the greatest Jedi to have ever lived – something which was even more important now, with the Sith resurgent.

Soon, Obi-Wan noticed they were leaving the capital behind, and asked Trevellyan where exactly they were going.

"We're going to the ancient Sith Temple," explained the Prime Minister. "After the transfer of power was done, Darth Cain relocated his seat of governance to his old stronghold. He said it was to avoid disturbing the day-to-day workings of governance, even if it meant we had to do some repairs to make the place liveable again."

Right. Obi-Wan was sure that was the only reason Cain had decided to do such a thing.

Moments later, the Sith Temple became visible : it was a large pyramid, rising far above the forest surrounding it. Even from afar, he could see gardening droids, cutting the vegetation which had grown over the structure over the ages, while teams of construction workers were doing repairs.

As they approached the pyramid, their speeder landed, and Trevellyan explained they'd need to go the rest of the way on foot. The reason why was immediately obvious : a recently cleared space at the foot of the Temple was occupied by a large and growing camp, full of people belonging to a whole array of species.

People wearing the white uniforms which was associated with humanitarian work across the galaxy were distributing supplies, taking names, offering medical assistance, and otherwise doing the hundred jobs needed to care for a sudden influx of civilians. It was nothing Obi-Wan hadn't seen before on worlds struck by disasters, though the people of this … shanty town ? No, that wasn't right : the buildings were clearly well-made, if of a style that clashed with what he'd seen of Perlia's architecture so far.

But there was something about the residents which echoed in the Force, as if they couldn't quite believe what was happening – like a part of them expected it all to be a dream. It was the sight of a Weequay family who all had surgical scars on their arms which made the coin drop, and Obi-Wan realized that all these people had been slaves before. This camp was where the people who'd been freed on Tatooine and needed a new start in life had come.

He glanced at Anakin, who was staring at their surroundings with wide eyes. The joy his Padawan felt at the sight of so many liberated slaves was obvious, and once again, Obi-Wan felt a pang of guilt and shame at the thought that it had fallen to a Sith to help these people.

"This all looks very military," he said aloud, gesturing to the uniform metallic grey of the buildings around them. "There isn't much color around here."

"An unfortunate necessity," explained Trevellyan. "Perlia's building industry is already at capacity dealing with the damage of the pirate raid : to house these people, the Invincible's foundries produced prefabricated habitats, and, well, it's a military ship, so the designs were all for Imperial Army bases. It's not the most comfortable or elegant, admittedly, but it keeps the elements at bay."

As they walked toward the temple, a presence began to press against the Jedi's minds. It felt like approaching the lair of a great beast, knowing full well it was awake and praying it wasn't also hungry.

Obi-Wan did all he could to stay calm as well. He had to : not just because the mission depended on it, but because Anakin was right there, and he had to be an example for his Padawan. He drew on the Light side of the Force, and felt its serenity fill him, pushing back the tide of encroaching darkness.

A blond woman in plain robes was waiting for them at the top of the stairs leading to the main entrance, resting with her back against the wall to the side of the opening, a walking cane next to her. She was quite beautiful, but what really drew Obi-Wan's attention was the way the tide of darkness pouring out of the temple seemed to part around her. It wasn't like what it was doing around Obi-Wan and Master Plo Koon, where it was burned back by their inner Light, or Anakin, whose raw power was pushing it back with a sense of wariness.

Instead, it split around her, like flowing water around a stone – no, that wasn't quite right. It wrapped itself around her, with what felt like … affection ? He had no idea how that was possible, but he made a note of it to tell Master Plo Koon later, just in case he hadn't noticed, or felt it differently due to the differences in their Force senses.

"Hello, everyone," she greeted them with a smile. "I already know all of your names, so let me introduce myself : I am Amberley Vail, Jedi Knight."

"We were unaware that the Order had sent another Jedi to Perlia," said Master Plo Koon, who didn't quite sound suspicious, but was clearly expecting further explanation. The woman's Force presence was undeniable, and she didn't feel like a Sith, but that didn't mean much.

"Oh, they didn't," answered Vail with a wave of her hand. "I came to the system aboard the Invincible. I suppose you could say I am a Jedi Knight of the Old Republic."

The truth of her words echoed in the Force as she pushed herself from the wall, leaning on her cane instead. The motion revealed a lightsaber hanging from her belt, of a design no one in the Order had used in thousands of years.

"Aboard the Invincible ?" repeated Dooku. "Were you a prisoner, Miss Vail ?"

That had been Obi-Wan's first thought as well, but the soldiers who had escorted them from the spaceport didn't seem nervous around her as they were around the other Jedi. They weren't completely at ease in her presence either, but it was clear from their body language that they didn't see them as a threat – and not just because of her cane, and the injuries its presence implied.

"No, not a prisoner," she immediately denied. "I was part of the raid on Molech – you know about that ? Good," she added when the Jedi nodded – and, interestingly, so did Dooku. "Anyway, I was there, and I got injured, quite badly. Cain saved my life when he carried me aboard his ship while the building we were all fighting in collapsed."

"I am afraid I have never heard of you," said Master Plo Koon.

"Really ?" She quirked an eyebrow. "You did get access to the Order's records about Cain, right ?"

"Of course," assured Obi-Wan. "The Order wouldn't send us on this mission without all the information available."

"And you didn't find my name in there ?" She was frowning now, but Obi-Wan was getting a sense through the Force that she was … pouting, somehow. "I'm surprised."

"Many records of the time period have been lost over the ages, I am afraid," explained Plo Koon. "Our briefing was very clear on that matter. The fact that we know as much as we do is a testament to the skills of our Chief Archivist."

According to Madame Nu's notes, the bulk of these losses had occurred during the New Sith Wars, the apocalyptic conflict which had brought the Republic to its knees and the Order to the edge of extinction before the Army of Light had defeated the Brotherhood of Darkness in what had, at the time, been thought to be the final battle against the Sith. During that century of horrors, Coruscant had been targeted many times by Sith plots and raids, and while none of them had matched the legendary Sacking that had ended the First Great Galactic War, the Temple had been breached several times, resulting in much loss of life and knowledge.

"Yes, that would make sense," sighed Vail. "I suppose I'll have to return to Coruscant at some point to clear things up. For now, you better all come in. Cain is checking on the vault underneath the old palace, making sure everything is still where he left it : that's why he isn't here to welcome you in person. He's finishing things up down there, and will join us in the meeting room."

"The vault ?" asked Obi-Wan. "Our information on Perlia didn't mention anything about a vault being on the planet."

"Lord Cain's personal collection of artefacts from the Great Galactic Wars, stored away underneath his palace because they were too dangerous to carry on the Invincible," explained Trevellyan, sounding inordinately proud of the fact. "Until the return of the Sith, we believed it to be little more than a legend, but it was among the first things Darth Cain asked about after the situation in the system had been handled."

"Shouldn't these objects have been given into the custody of the Jedi Order when Perlia rejoined the Republic ?" asked Plo Koon.

"Probably," said the Prime Minister with a straight face. "But for some strange reason, the existence of the vault and its contents weren't mentioned anywhere in the treaty signed by my distant predecessors when the planet returned to the Republic, which is why we thought it mere legend."

"How strange," deadpanned Obi-Wan.

"Oh, strange has nothing to do with it," cut in Vail. "The Republic knew about the vault, and so did the Order. Force, they even knew most of its contents. My guess is that it just wasn't worth the hassle to fight another planetary war when diplomacy was an option, especially since trying to force their way into the vault without Cain's authorization codes would have cost them a lot of people."

"How did the Order know what was in the vault ?" asked Anakin, confusion plainly visible on his face. Vail looked at him with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

"How do you think, Padawan ? I told them, of course."

"Is that something you should admit aloud ?" asked Obi-Wan, gesturing at the armed troopers still escorting them.

"Oh, they know," replied Vail with a wave of her hand. "I did it with Cain's permission. He wanted everyone to know what was in his collection."

For several seconds, Obi-Wan's wits failed him completely, before he managed to croak out :

"Why ?!"

"Boasting, mostly. Every Sith Lord in the Empire had their own pile of Dark Side relics, it was tradition. Though admittedly, Cain's was bigger than most," she added with a wink. "We were all very lucky he had no interest in using it against the Republic. Now come on, let's get inside."

Vail led them through the complex, passing teams of workers cleaning the ancient building and preparing it for habitation. Electric lights provided more than enough illumination, but the spiritual darkness of the place still pressed down on Obi-Wan, stronger and stronger as they went deeper into the complex.

"This place looks in better state than I would have expected given its age," noted Dooku.

"We did our best to maintain it," said Trevellyan. "It was, and is an important part of Perlia's history. But our small contingent of historians and workers were only tasked with preventing it from degrading, not keeping it ready for habitation." His smile wavered slightly. "I'm afraid we stopped believing Darth Cain would return at some point in the last three thousand years, and didn't dedicate as much effort and funds to it as we should have."

"Don't worry, Prime Minister," said Vail. "Cain didn't expect you to keep the place in pristine condition all this time. I think he was surprised it was still standing at all, to be honest."

She brought them into a large, windowless square chamber containing an oval-shaped table with a bunch of chairs around it, whose largest wall was covered in a large fresco depicting a stylized figure with a red lightsaber leading black-clad soldiers into battle against an unseen foe under a tempestuous sky.

A plaque to the side of the artwork explained that this was the work of an obscure Perlian master, dating back to Darth Cain's rule – his first rule, now, Obi-Wan thought – and represented the Sith Lord leading his forces to liberate the planet from its previous, unnamed (and, crucially, not depicted anywhere on the fresco) rulers.

"Take a seat," said Amberley, gesturing to the chairs laid around a conference table at the center of the room before following her own advice, sitting down with a sigh of relief.

"Are you hurt, miss Vail ?" asked Anakin, looking at her with a concerned expression.

"It's nothing I won't recover from in time, Padawan," she replied. "Like I said, I barely made it out of Molech alive, but say what you will for the Imperials : they know how to patch someone up when they really need to. At least I can walk around and not be stuck inside the medbay now."

"And why exactly would Darth Cain need to 'patch you up' ?" asked Obi-Wan.

"Because," said a new voice, "there is no honor in abandoning those who have fought alongside me."

Everyone in the room turned as the speaker strode into the room like he owned it – which, of course, he did.

Somehow, Darth Cain was even more intimidating in person than in holo. He was tall for a Human, towering above everyone else in the room. His face had the kind of look kings, tyrants and warlords across the galaxy paid fortunes to be given in paintings and sculptures. His hair was black and cut short, and his eyes were the same yellow Maul's had been (something which Obi-Wan had later learned was a sign of the Dark Side's influence). He wore an ornate suit of armor (but no helmet, or any kind of headgear) and a black cape hung from his shoulders. A lightsaber was attached to his belt, and he walked with the self-assured air of a warrior confident there was nothing in the galaxy he could not take on.

Obi-Wan only had one second to take in the Sith Lord's appearance before his Force presence, which had so far been hidden by the building's latent Dark Side energies, registered to his senses.

In that moment, the Knight understood that for all his power, all his lethality, Maul had been a child in the ways of the Sith. Qui-Gon's killer had been all bloodthirst and cold rage, turned into a razor-sharp blade of hate through training methods Obi-Wan preferred not to speculate on. Cain, however, was like an icy storm, sapping all strength and warmth; like the weight of a hand pressed against the back of his neck, not hard enough to be painful, but to serve as a constant reminder of what he could do to them all if he so chose.

Obi-Wan blinked, and forced himself to look away. Only then did he notice the droid following behind Cain. It carried no visible weapons, but there was no doubt whatsoever in his mind that it had been designed for combat, and was far, far more lethal than any Trade Federation's model.

"I've already been told who you are all. As for me, I am the Sovereign of Perlia," declared Darth Cain, his voice booming in the chamber. "By the law of the land, the will of the people, and the strength of my armies."

It should have sounded like a boast, but from him, it was instead like the proclamation of an undeniable, unchallengeable truth.

"I bid you all welcome to Perlia," the Sith Lord went on. "Senator Donali, I am pleased to meet a member of the Galactic Senate willing to come here despite the circumstances."

"To do anything else would have been a gross dereliction of my sworn duty," replied the Senator.

"Perhaps, but I am sure that wouldn't have stopped many of your colleagues from making excuses."

"In my experience, politicians are rarely willing to make the kind of sacrifice they demand of their people." Darth Cain sat on the seat at the head of the table, before continuing : "Now, let us talk. Why did you come to my world ?"

"We are here to learn what your intentions are, Lord Cain," said Plo Koon. "Our records show that you were among the few Sith of the old Empire with whom diplomacy was possible. Given the circumstances of your return, it is the hope of the Jedi Council that this hasn't changed."

"I have no intention of starting a Fourth Great Galactic War," replied Darth Cain. "My people fought three of them, and lost. Re-igniting old hatreds now won't serve anyone's interests."

"Do you intend to let Perlia remain a member of the Republic ?" asked Donali.

"That depends on how the Republic decides to react to my return," and wasn't that a loaded statement. "My analysts are still catching up with the changes in Republican law, but they have already brought several worrying points to my attention – first among them the fact that, by current regulations, the existence of the Invincible is illegal."

"That is correct," said Master Plo Koon. "Under the Ruusan Reformations, a military ship of that size should be dismantled."

"Which is obviously not going to happen," Cain immediately replied with complete self-assurance. "The Invincible is the result of decades of work by my people, and the last remnant of Imperial might in the galaxy. Dismantling it is unthinkable; if the Republic insists on it, then Perlia will enact its right to secede from the Damocles Sector."

Obi-Wan didn't miss Dooku's smile at the mention of that possibility, and his heart sank. The Order was well aware of Yoda's former Padawan's actions in the Outer Rim, but there was a difference between rallying political opposition to Republican mismanagement and joining hands with the Sith. Had his grandmaster really grown so disgruntled with the Republic that he'd consider allying the Separatist Movement with Darth Cain ?

"Technically," Anakin suddenly spoke up, before closing his mouth as everyone turned to look at him. Obi-Wan sent him an encouraging nod (he would rather his Padawan had stayed silent, but now that he had already started talking, it was better to present a united front), and he managed to continue : "technically, since the Invincible's hyperdrive doesn't work, it doesn't violate the regulations. At the moment, it's more of a very large, very well-armed system defense station than a ship."

"You are correct, young Padawan," said Cain with a smile you could have cut beskar with. "My analysts pointed out the same thing. But as you no doubt already guessed, we are already working on replacing the hyperdrive. We cannot, after all, leave our most powerful weapon stranded in this system if we are to continue prosecuting our crusade against slavery."

"That is our second point of discussion," said Obi-Wan. "The details of Perlia's Republic membership will be for you and the Senator to discuss, but we are concerned about what happened on Tatooine."

"Does the Jedi Order object to the liberation of slaves now, Knight Kenobi ?" asked Cain, one eyebrow mockingly raised. "If so, then things have changed a lot since my time."

"Of course not," replied Obi-Wan. He had to tread carefully here : galactic politics aside, Anakin would never forgive him if he implied the Order was fine with slavery in the Outer Rim (which it absolutely wasn't, and had done everything it could to curb while restricted by its allegiance to the Republic and its laws). "We do have an issue with the summary execution of slavers, though. Even someone like Jabba deserved a trial, if only to give his victims closure and drag information on the rest of the Cartels into the light."

"Vaylin was the one to plan the attack on the Hutt's palace," said Cain. "My apprentice has always been fond of dramatic gestures, but in this instance, I approve of her choice. Jabba's death sent a message to the rest of the slavers in the Outer Rim that no matter how rich and powerful they are, no matter how safe they think themselves, they cannot escape punishment for their crimes. It has made them afraid, and fear is a powerful weapon."

"So you truly intend to wage war against the entire Hutt Cartels then ?" asked Dooku.

"Yes. Did Vaylin's proclamation not make this clear ?" replied Darth Cain, sounding genuinely confused by the question. "The war has already begun. There's no doubt in my mind that the Cartels are preparing to fight us as we speak, if only to be the ones to claim Jabba's former territory for themselves."

"Why ?" asked Anakin, and Obi-Wan really wished he had the good sense to tell his Padawan to be quiet and not draw attention to himself during the meeting. He usually always did it before they met important people, and to his credit Anakin obeyed most of the time, but he'd been too distracted by everything else going on this time. "You are a Sith. Every record we have shows that the Empire practiced slavery on a far larger scale than the Hutts. I am happy to see the slaves free, but why are you doing all of this ?"

There was a pause, then Darth Cain began to speak :

"Vaylin hates slavery because of her past, which is not mine to share. She spent most of her life in chains, and now that she has broken free, she sees all other chains as a reminder of what she has left behind. Sending her to Tatooine was a test to see how much she'd grown, and she passed it with flying colors by showing her ability to work with the assets at her disposal to achieve a greater result than anything she could have managed by herself."

Obi-Wan searched the Force for any sign of deceit, trying to ignore the pressure of the Temple and its master, and found none.

"As for myself," the Sith Lord continued, "I have long believed that slavery is the mark of a weak civilization. A nation which resorts to slavery is either too primitive to function without it, or too decadent to choose to dispense with it. In the Empire, it was the latter : slavery served no real purpose other than to allow the weakest, most degenerate Sith to indulge in petty cruelty, as well as to provide a source of cheap labour which could be exploited for short-term gains, without any thought to how it negatively impacted the Empire's future. It encouraged the worst traits of my people, which led to our defeat more times than I care to count."

"That doesn't sound very Sith-like," ventured Obi-Wan. Immediately, he felt a spike of fury from the troopers in the room, but they settled down with a gesture from their master, who seemed neither surprised nor insulted by the Jedi's comment. "From what the Jedi archives tell us of the Dark Side, it encourages domination over all others, regardless of the cost."

"An acquaintance of mine once said that a true Sith is the ultimate individual : there are as many Sith philosophies as there are Sith," said Cain, his gaze growing distant as he looked at something only he could see. "Other Sith Lords believed that the path to power is to force everyone else down so that you can stand above them. But all of them forgot one very important thing : it is a big galaxy, and there is always a greater power."

"A Sith might be able to subjugate a city, a continent, a world, even a Sector, but there will inevitably be limits to their reach. And if you spend all your time and energy keeping others down, then that is less time you can spend on bettering yourself. The Sith of the Empire were so focused on ensuring their supremacy within the Empire by eliminating potential rivals that when the time came to face the Republic, the whole thing eventually crumbled down. That is why I believe that the path to true power lies in allowing others around you to rise up, so that you can test yourself against them. And that is the other reason why I will lead my people to war against the Cartels."

"Sith need enemies," he continued, the Dark Side swelling with every word, cawing its appreciation. Obi-Wan fought to keep his expression calm, while around him, Dooku and Plo Koon appeared unaffected, Vail was looking at Cain with a small smile, and Anakin was … listening with an enraptured look on his face, oh dear. He'd need to have a serious talk with his Padawan later.

"Only by challenging oneself can one's understanding of the Force grow, and there is no better challenge than conflict with a worthy foe; Darth Malgus was right about that, at least, even if he was wrong about many other things. For all their repulsiveness, sloth and cowardice, the Hutts have endured in this galaxy for over twenty thousand years, even though they are despised by almost every other sentient race that has ever met them. They will make a good enemy for my people to hone themselves against."

And now the truth came out. If (and it was if, not when, Obi-Wan reminded himself) Darth Cain won the war his apprentice had begun on Tatooine, it would leave him in a far better position than his current one. The Sith's resources would grow with every liberated world, every criminal ship seized and repurposed. And meanwhile, the Republic couldn't intervene without public support, and who in the Core Worlds would approve of helping the Hutts keep people as slaves, when all they needed to do was absolutely nothing ?

To most people, the Sith were nothing but ancient history, at most a legend used to frighten disobedient children into behaving. So long as Cain spun this carefully, he could even tear the Republic between those who would want to help him bring freedom and order to the Outer Rim and those who were in favor of sitting back and doing nothing to either help or hinder him.

He didn't know if this was really all a long-term scheme, or if Cain was being sincere when explaining his motivations. Thankfully, that wasn't his job : he was just here to make contact, ensure no harm came to Senator Donali, and survive long enough to report back to the Council if things went out of hand.

"If you seek an enemy to test yourself against, then what about the Jedi and the Republic ?" asked Plo Koon. "Not that I want you to declare war on us, of course; I am merely curious."

Nice of you to add that qualifier, Master Plo Koon, thought Obi-Wan sarcastically.

"One war at a time is enough," chuckled Cain. "Only a fool tries to fight a war on two fronts. And besides, it wouldn't be sporting, now would it ? The Republic has crippled its military power to a degree I still struggle to make sense of, whereas the Cartels have entire armies' worth of mercenaries, enforcers and bounty hunters. Not a proper military, yes, but as I said : they've survived that long. I'm sure by the time we're done with the Hutts, the Republic will have finished shaking off the dust of a thousand years of peace."

Oh, so the reason why Cain hadn't immediately restarted the Great Galactic War upon his return was that he didn't think it would be a fair fight for the Republic, Obi-Wan thought faintly. How nice of him. He would think Cain was boasting, if not for the raw power and air of complete self-assurance he was exuding.

"There is another thing," Darth Cain added. "You all know of the pirate raid which was taking place in this system and which we crushed upon our return. What you didn't know was that the leader of these scum was a Force-user," revealed Darth Cain. "He called himself Varan, and though no true Jedi or Sith and a mediocre duellist at best, he was gifted at bending the minds of others to his will. His bridge crew are currently in the care of our medics : their minds were hollowed out by repeated exposure, and it has been all we can do to keep them alive."

Obi-Wan blanched at the clinical description. This … this was monstrous, if true, and he still didn't sense any deceit from the Sith Lord. It was also uncomfortably reminiscent of the mind tricks many Jedi used to get their way on missions, and a pointed reminder of why that ability was considered a crutch that was only to be used in the most vital of circumstances, lest it lead its abuser down to the Dark Side.

"Why are you telling us this ?" asked Plo Koon.

"Because historically, the Jedi healers have been more gifted than ours. While I don't doubt these people committed many crimes before falling under Varan's influence, nobody deserves to have their minds violated like this. I would ask for the Order to take custody of them, and help them recover from their ordeal as best you can."

"We'll need to discuss the matter with the Council," said Plo Koon, "but I can't think of any reason why they would refuse."

"What happened to Varan ?" asked Obi-Wan. "Is he in custody ?"

"I killed him," Cain replied bluntly. "With his abilities, keeping him imprisoned would have been more trouble than he was worth. It was a swifter death than the wretch deserved for daring to raid my world, but given the situation, I decided it was for the best."

"And just as a quick reminder," Trevellyan added before anyone else could speak, "as the lawful ruler of Perlia, Lord Cain was perfectly in his right to sentence this pirate to death and execute him. While the ceremonies of transfer of power took place later, legally speaking, our Sovereign's title and authority were never removed from him, and Varan's crimes were most certainly deserving of the death penalty under Perlian law."

Cain blinked, the faintest air of surprise becoming visible on his face. Obi-Wan had a feeling the Sith Lord hadn't even considered that before killing Varan, which wasn't exactly reassuring.

"That's enough talk for now," said Cain. "I'm sure there are still things you'd want to discuss, but I believe it is best for you to see Perlia for yourselves before we speak again. You will all, of course, be granted the best hospitality Perlia has to offer, though I'm sure you'll understand if the quarters assigned to you are located in the capital rather than in this building.

Oh, thank the Force. Obi-Wan hadn't even considered the prospect of trying to sleep in the Sith Temple.

"Senator, the Prime Minister will answer any legal questions you might have. Honored Jedi, I am sure you have much to discuss with Knight Vail. Count Dooku, please stay behind. There are matters we should discuss in private."

Obi-Wan exchanged a look with Plo Koon, who nodded in agreement. Leaving Dooku to speak with the Sith Lord alone wasn't ideal, but they didn't have any justification to stop it. The meeting had already gone as well as they could expect – better, really. Best not to jeopardize the situation and withdraw for now; they needed to debrief Knight Vail and contact the Temple on Coruscant to check her story in any case.

They all stood and bowed. The first round of negotiations, such as they had been, was over.

---

The Republic envoys filed out of the room, Kenobi sending one last worried glance at Dooku before the doors closed, leaving the former Jedi Master alone with Darth Cain and his droid.

The power of the Dark Side radiated from Cain in chilling waves that lapped at Dooku's mind. Never before had Dooku met anything like it : even his Master, Darth Sidious, did not flaunt his power like this, used as he was to concealing it from the Jedi. The Count could only imagine how it must feel not to have to hide, to feel so secure in one's might.

Based on the records Dooku had accessed, Darth Cain's age shouldn't be that different from his own, yet the ancient Sith Lord still looked like a man in the prime of his life, his golden eyes the only mark of the Dark Side visible to the naked eye. It was only when sensing through the Force that the truth became clear : an endlessly raging storm of cold power, waxing and waning in accord with Darth Cain's thoughts and emotions, which it also completely obscured from detection.

Dooku reminded himself that he couldn't afford to show weakness. Sidious' warnings echoed in his skull : here was a man who had dealt with the mightiest Sith to have ever lived. He couldn't afford any slip-up, any mistake. Even if, by some miracle, he managed to escape Darth Cain, he doubted he would make it out of the temple, let alone off-world.

"Now, then," said Cain. "Let us talk, Count."

"Is your droid secure ?" asked Dooku bluntly. "The matters I wish to discuss are confidential in the extreme."

"I trust JURG-N with my life," replied Cain. "His presence here also means we don't need to worry about being overheard."

"How so ?"

"I'm equipped with an array of spying countermeasures, Count," explained the droid, in a smooth voice that was entirely at odds with its martial appearance. "From a jamming field to blank noise projection, along with more direct ways of dealing with eavesdroppers."

It raised its left hand, and a short blade protruded out of its wrist before sliding back in. Dooku blinked, slightly taken aback. He hadn't expected the droid to speak : based solely on its appearance, he had assumed it to be some kind of bodyguard model, or (given he struggled to think of a threat the droid could have protected Cain from that the Sith Lord couldn't handle himself) a personal assassin of some sort.

"That is quite the list of features," he said aloud.

"The JURG droid line was designed to serve as elite hunter-killers for the Imperial Army," said Cain. "From Republic commandos to Sith assassins, JURG-N has dealt with all manner of foes since entering my service, and he has never disappointed me. Now, Count," said Cain with a smile that sent a shiver down Dooku's spine, "what exactly did you want to discuss that we couldn't talk about in the presence of the Jedi, my fellow Dark Side user ?"

Ah.

Kriff.

For a moment, Dooku considered pretending he had no idea what Darth Cain was talking about, but he dismissed the idea quickly. It wasn't going to work, and such blatant lying was beneath him.

"May I know how you figured it out ?" He asked instead. "None of your other visitors seemed to realize the truth."

"Did you really think I would not ?" Cain scoffed. "You may be able to deceive a couple of Jedi and a confused Padawan, but I am a Sith Lord."

"I have studied the ways of the Dark Side since leaving the Order, yes," Dooku admitted. "That is part of the reason why I came to Perlia : another Jedi might have been afraid, but I do not believe merely being Sith makes you a monster unable of seeing reason."

"I see," said Cain. "You heard what I said about Varan being a Force-sensitive himself. But there is one thing I didn't tell the Jedi, Count. Before he died, Varan tried to beg for his life by revealing that he hadn't acted alone : he was ordered to gather his pirate coalition and attack Perlia by his master, Darth Sidious."

So Sidious' suspicions had been correct. That didn't bode well for Dooku, and he quickly checked his mental shields, lest Darth Cain sense the truth and destroy him.

"So tell me, Count Dooku of Serenno," asked Cain in a soft tone of voice. "Did you have anything to do with the attack on Perlia ?"

"I," Dooku opened his mouth to defend himself, but no further words would come out. The lights had gone out, and a wave of darkness was pouring out from Cain, swallowing the room, swallowing him.

His power was gone, his strength, his conviction, his certainty that he was doing the right thing, no matter how many times he woke up trembling from nightmares, it was all gone, replaced by an all-encompassing terror. He wasn't a Sith Lord in disguise, he wasn't a former Jedi Master, he wasn't even a planetary ruler in his own right – he was just an old man, tired and frail.

"No," he croaked out through the terror choking him. "I had nothing to do with it, I swear. I only learned about the attack after you had defeated it, and knew nothing of Varan until then."

Which was the truth, he hadn't known anything, he wasn't lying, he wasn't he wasn't –

The shroud of terror withdrew, and sanity slowly returned, leaving Dooku on his knees, trembling and gasping for breath, his heart beating painfully fast. Yet even as the darkness withdrew, he could feel it mocking him. He knows, he thought with startling clarity. He knows I am involved with Darth Sidious somehow, even if I'm not lying about the raid.

Cain was toying with him. Or … no. Not toying, or at least, not only that. He was letting Dooku know that, for all his power, for all that he had sacrificed in his studies of the Dark Side, all the intrigue and plotting he'd done since leaving the Order and embracing the ways of the Sith, Dooku was still nothing compared to him.

Slowly, feeling every single one of his years, Dooku lifted himself back into his chair, breathing deeply.

"If you weren't involved in the attack, then why did you come ?" asked Cain, as if nothing had just happened.

"I left the Jedi Order because I didn't agree with their passive approach to the problems faced by the galaxy." This was familiar ground, and as Dooku spoke, his voice became more assured. "The Republic is failing. The Senate now serves only itself, not the people it represents. I spent my entire life fighting to make the galaxy a better place as a Jedi, and I achieved precious little."

Merely talking about it brought it all back – years, decades spent doing the Senate's bidding, slowly realizing that he wasn't making a difference, only perpetuating a rotting, self-serving system. The old, familiar bitterness, and the righteous anger that accompanied it, pushed back the terror somewhat.

"Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the Republic couldn't be fixed from the inside. The Jedi Order blindly follows the Senate's lead, unwilling to break from the Republic's control, bound by traditions and rules that have outlived their purpose. It must evolve, but it won't."

Dooku blamed Yoda for this, though he was self-aware enough to know he wasn't entirely unbiased when his old Master was concerned. The Grand Master of the Jedi Order had lived for nearly a thousand years : he was an elder even by the standards of his mysterious species. He had led the Jedi Order for centuries, and during that time, had become blind to the slowly growing corruption that had overtaken the Republic. Yoda had become complacent, set in his ways, so used to being the wisest being in any room that he refused to even consider anyone else's point of view.

And the rest of the Order, made up of Jedi who had known Yoda as a wise teacher all their life, wouldn't challenge him either. Dooku himself had only been capable of doing so thanks to his closer familiarity with his Master which had let him see through the awe-inspiring image he projected for the rest of the Order. Qui-Gon … Qui-Gon might have seen through it, too, but they had never talked about it before he died. It was one of Dooku's many regrets where his old Padawan was concerned.

"That is why I have championed the Separatist Movement these past few years," the Count of Serenno continued, pushing down the familiar stab of grief. "I believe that the Outer Rim will be better off without being subject to the corrupt authority of Coruscant. And I am not alone in those beliefs : hundreds of worlds which have suffered under the neglect of Coruscanti rule and the depredations of criminal syndicates share my views. If the Republic cannot change, then we will leave it, and build for ourselves a new stellar nation in the Outer Rim."

"And you came here looking for guidance in how to achieve this ?" asked Cain, his expression unreadable. "Or did you hope I'd lend the might of my armies to your cause ?"

"I believe our goals are aligned in this. Surely you do not believe you will be left in peace by the Republic ?" Dooku pressed. "The Senate won't stand for it, even if the Jedi somehow accept your presence. Senator Donali might be on the side of the Perlians, but you were correct in your assessment : men such as him are rare in the Senate these days. The petty bureaucrats and Coruscanti leeches might not have the courage or resources to fight an open war, but they don't need it. If you try to play their game, they will strangle Perlia with red tape, cripple its economy with taxes and bills to prevent it from becoming a threat to their comfortable status quo."

"Only by leaving the Republic will you be able to prosecute your war against the Cartels," he concluded. "That is why I believe we can help one another."

For what felt like an eternity, but couldn't have been more than a few moments, Darth Cain merely looked at Dooku. The Count could feel the Sith Lord's gaze, dissecting his every word, analysing his proposal and considering how to answer.

"You will remain on Perlia," said Cain at last, and there was no mistaking the words for anything but an order. "I will arrange for quarters to be prepared for you. When my apprentice returns from Tatooine, we will speak of this further with the rest of my advisors. Until then, I will keep your secret from our visitors."

"Thank you, lord," replied Dooku, bowing his head.

He didn't think the Jedi would believe Cain if he told them that he'd Fallen to the Dark Side, but it was better that he didn't get that kind of attention on him. Of course, if things went as planned and he ended up infiltrating Cain's faction as Sidious had ordered, then exposing himself to the Order was inevitable, but it'd be more convenient to let the Jedi believe his 'Fall' had only happened after Cain's return, rather than years before. Certainly his Master would prefer it this way.

Now, he needed to find a way to contact Sidious without being caught, and without drawing attention to himself. That would take time, but to be frank, Dooku felt Sidious could damn well wait. Right now, he wanted to find his quarters and collapse on whatever bedding had been provided.

I might be getting too old for this, he thought to himself as he left the room, finding a pair of troopers ready to escort him out of the Sith Temple.

---

As Dooku's presence retreated, I let out a deep sigh. Thank the Force, that was over.

Kriff it all, what a day it had been. First, I had gone into the vault to check nobody had breached it during my unexpectedly long absence, which, however necessary it had been (there were things in there I most definitely didn't want getting loose in the galaxy again), had been no less exhausting. Then I had to do diplomacy with Senator Donali (whose job I really didn't envy), a party of Jedi, and – last but not least – a bunch of ex-Imperials in attendance, listening to my every word.

At least the Jedi seemed to have bought the banthashit I had given them. I had needed to come up with a justification that both they and my followers would accept, and the bastardization of Mandalorian philosophy and wildly re-interpreted Sith teachings I had cobbled together had been my best bet. That Darth Erebus would have foamed at the mouth if he'd been able to hear me was just a side benefit to the whole thing.

And then, to top it all off, I had needed to talk to an ex-Jedi who had decided that the only reasonable response to his mid-life crisis was to become a Sith fanboy.

I had been joking when accusing Dooku of being a Darksider. It had been an admittedly poor jest, a reference to the fact Dooku had left the Jedi and become a politician, nothing more. I hadn't expected it to be true, and for him to just admit to it.

Looking back on it, it only made sense that Dooku had turned to the Dark Side, and I really should have seen it coming. Of course a Jedi Master deciding to leave the Order to claim a position of political power would be Dark : it was the nature of politics. Also, there'd been many Jedi who'd turned to the Dark Side during the Great Galactic Wars out of frustration with the Republic and the Order, believing that both were 'too soft' to defeat the Sith Empire. Given that the Empire was most certainly not 'soft' and had still lost, I personally didn't think that'd been a smart move on their part.

Once Dooku had admitted to it, I'd looked at him more closely through the Force, and found the tell-tale signs of wielding the Dark Side in his aura easily enough. The fact neither of the two modern Jedi (the Padawan could be excused) seemed to have detected the touch of the Dark Side on Dooku was worrying, too.

There had been instances of Darksiders infiltrating the Jedi Order undetected before : prior to the Great Galactic War, entire bloodlines of infiltrators had been sent to the Republic, tasked with making preparations for our invasion. In one instance, a Sith Lord had managed to not just infiltrate, but lead an entire Republic superweapon program during the Cold War, and no one suspected a thing until he revealed himself.

Sure, the whole thing had gone up in flames the moment he had revealed himself and run into the Hero of Tython early in her career, but it'd still been quite the achievement. However, all of these infiltrators had used a variety of tricks to conceal their true nature. Had the Jedi really forgotten so much that the minor veil Dooku was using was enough to deceive them ?

I'd need to talk to Amberley about this later. As for Dooku himself, he was dissatisfied with the Republic. Alright, I could deal with that. Being associated with him wouldn't do my reputation in the Core any good, but then again, precious little would. He had to know a lot about the political situation in the galaxy : Malden and the other ex-Intelligence analysts under my command would appreciate his input, at least. And the other worlds of this 'Separatist Movement' might be more willing to trade with Perlia than the rest of the Republic if he vouched for us, too.

I was distracted from my thoughts when JURG-N handed me a datapad. Since Dooku had left, he had been scanning the Holonet for me, compiling what information on our visitors was publicly available. I skimmed through it, intending to go in more details with Amberley once she came back from her own meeting with her fellow Jedi.

It was clear that the Council had put some thought into who they had sent, which I guess some of my old colleagues might have considered flattering, but which only made me more nervous. Plo Koon had been involved in something called the Stark Hyperspace War, which by the standards of my days had been little more than a minor skirmish but was still one of the largest conflicts the Republic had fought in recent years. And Kenobi was a renowned diplomat and negotiator with numerous successes to his name, along with a knack for surviving whenever negotiations failed and lightsabers came out.

A Master general and a Knight diplomat made sense, especially since Plo Koon was on the Jedi Council. The Jedi were taking our return seriously, but they hadn't reacted to the sudden reappearance of their ancient enemy by calling for war, which was the best I could realistically have hoped for. I smiled to myself, thinking that maybe things weren't so bad after all.

Then I got to the entry on Anakin Skywalker, and I felt an all-too familiar sinking feeling in my stomach as I read.

Anakin Skywalker had first appeared on the galactic scene six years ago, when he'd been thanked by the government of Naboo (some Mid-Rim world I had never heard about before, but which had apparently grown in influence over the last few centuries) for his participation in the battle which had freed them from the Trade Federation's occupation.

Putting aside the fact that corporations had armies nowadays (who, by all the pits of the Hells, had thought that was a good idea ?), Skywalker had been nine years old at the time, which was concerning to say the least – but not as concerning as what I found when I dug a little deeper.

Because the reason Skywalker had been thanked was that he'd flown into the battle taking place in orbit around the planet, and blown up the Lucrehulk which had commanded the droid armies on the surface, causing them all to shut down (terrible design, that, but that's what you got when you privatized the military, I guessed). A quick search brought up the publicly available (since the Federation was renting them to anyone with the credits to spare, which was legal for some Force-forsaken reason – what could possibly go wrong with that ?!) specs for a ship of that class.

Despite the size of these things, most of their crew was made up of droids, too simplistic and recently-made to have developed a proper personality, but there were still a couple hundred living crew members.

Which meant that, at nine standard years old, Anakin Skywalker had killed at least two hundred people in a single battle. Kriff, I didn't think Vaylin had a kill-count that high at that age. Now, granted, all these deaths had happened at once in one battle, instead of being drawn-out, tortured affairs committed for sheer sadistic pleasure, and the kid's goal had most likely been to save his own life and protect his new friends. So Skywalker probably wasn't a murderous psychopath.

But still, it was no wonder the Jedi had put him as Kenobi's Padawan so he could keep an eye on him. There was no way the kid had done that without the help of the Force, but not just any Force-sensitive child could have achieved such a terrifying deed. I hadn't seen Skywalker in action, and he hadn't seemed like a violent lad during our brief meeting, but that meant little.

Despite my best efforts to avoid such things, I had met a few absurdly powerful Force-users in my life. The Hero of Tython, the Empire's Wrath, the Barsen'thor, my old acquaintance Imperius (although I suppose one could say he was cheating), Vaylin, of course, and …

And …

I can't breathe. I am on my knees, drowning in terror. The device clamped around my skull amplifies my own fear before sending it back to me in an endless feedback loop. My vision is unobstructed, but all I can see is a pair of pitiless, soulless eyes gazing down at me from a throne of lies –

"Sir ? Sir !"

I gasped, my consciousness dragged back from the past and into the present as JURG-N shook me with a gentleness few would've thought the combat droid capable of. Still panicked, I looked around : there was nobody else to witness my brief meltdown, and I trusted JURG-N not to tell what he'd just witnessed to anyone. Good. I was safe.

Then I noticed that the entire room was frozen over, and I grimaced. I'd lost control, then. The last time it'd happened had been when I'd received the news about the cult on Molech, and been forced to consider the possibility that Vitiate might return from the dead again. I'd thought that one advantage of being hurled into the distant future would be that I'd never need to fear that particular monster again, but it seemed I was wrong.

"Are you alright, sir ?" asked JURG-N. "Shall I contact Knight Vail ?"

"No," I managed to reply. "I … I will be fine, JURG-N. Thank you for your help."

My aide's faceplate wasn't what you would call expressive, but I didn't need the Force to sense the disapproval radiating from him. And, to be honest, I would have loved nothing more than to call Amberley back. But I couldn't, not without risking revealing weakness to both the Jedi envoys and, more importantly, the Sith acolytes in the temple.

Speaking of the Correlian devil, my comm unit beeped, showing an incoming call from the leader of the Sith security team assigned to the temple. I took a deep breath and opened a channel – voice only, as I didn't trust myself to keep what I had just gone experienced from showing on my face.

"Lord Cain, is there something wrong ? We felt a sudden disturbance in the Force."

"Everything is fine," I lied, trying to calm my heart down. "I was merely … considering unpleasant matters. Return to your duties."

One advantage of having an undeserved reputation like mine was that, as long as I managed to maintain it, my subordinates followed my orders without question. I closed the channel, confident that the incident was handled – though I also knew from experience that there was undoubtedly going to be many rumors circulating among the Sith on Perlia before long, each more absurd than the last. So long as they didn't suspect the true reason for the disturbance in the Force (that their leader's mind was still crippled from his first encounter with the creature which had created the Empire and led it for centuries), I was fine with it.

To avoid thinking about … him again, I focused on the overpowered Force-user I actually had to worry about. Much as I would prefer not to have anything to do with Kenobi's Padawan, that ship had already sailed. But if I appeared to show interest in Skywalker, the Jedi would understandably be worried about what the ancient Sith Lord intended for the teenager, and the tentative peace that currently stood between us would be shattered.

I needed to talk with Amberley about this, see what she could dig up. We'd already agreed that she'd be the one to handle the Jedi envoys, and I trusted her to be subtle as she investigated Skywalker's potential. I told myself he couldn't be like Vitiate : the Jedi would never have taken him in otherwise, let alone sent him here. I was just over-reacting, nothing more.

Even without Skywalker in the equation, I absolutely couldn't afford to fight the Republic and the Jedi Order. Sure, they were crippled by these absurd Reformations right now, but they had over a million worlds, and all we had was Perlia, Tatooine, and the Invincible. Sooner or later, the sheer number discrepancy would see us buried in a tide of warships, Jedi, and soldiers – if the Empire at its strongest couldn't defeat the Republic, then we had a snowball's chance on Mustafar to manage it ourselves.

However, the lunatics I'd brought with me through time were all used to war, and I needed to keep them busy or they would go looking for trouble. In that one regard, Vaylin's actions on Tatooine were an unexpected windfall, though I'd have appreciated it if I'd been able to enjoy more than a few days of peace for once in my life (in my opinion and those of most who had lived through them, the thirty-ish years after the Treaty of Coruscant didn't count as peace).

It would all work out in the end, I told myself. The situation on Tatooine was already stabilizing, and I trusted Kasteen's skills enough to know that as long as I stayed in the same system as the Invincible, anything the Hutts threw at us would end up crushed. The war against the Cartels would undoubtedly last for years : plenty of time to figure out a way to prevent my people from going to war with the Republic immediately after. In the meantime, I had no issue with freeing slaves from bondage and cultivating good public relations with the rest of the galaxy.

The challenge would be to balance not driving the Republic to declare war against me and not being deposed (and more importantly, assassinated) by my own disgruntled followers. But I had been walking one vibro-blade's edge or another for as long as I could remember, and this would be no different.

Or so I hoped at the time. Had I known how things would turn out, it'd have taken more than JURG-N shaking me to stop my complete and total meltdown.

---

Tatooine was every bit as miserable a planet as the last time Quinlan had the displeasure of visiting, but there was no denying the mood of the population had changed since the Sith had overthrown Jabba and taken over – and, surprisingly, for the better.

Landing on the planet had been easy : the handful of ships commandeered by the Sith in orbit couldn't possibly block the planet's entire airspace, so they hadn't even tried. Instead, every ship emerging out of hyperspace was contacted, explained the new rules of Tatooine, and told in no uncertain terms that if they had any slaves on board, they better free them on the planet (and if they tried to kill them and space the bodies to keep their presence a secret, the Sith would know, and they would not like what happened next).

The locals were very wary of lone, armed off-worlders at the moment. A couple of carefully worded questions had revealed that several bounty hunters sent by the Hutts had already arrived on Tatooine, looking to cash in on the bounty for Jabba's killer which had been published within hours of the crimelord's demise. And one of the Sith on the planet must have some talent with precognition, because none of them had made it within a hundred kilometers of their presumed target, Vaylin, Darth Cain's apprentice, before being taken out with extreme prejudice.

Not exactly the most reassuring piece of intel for an undercover Jedi to learn, but so far, he didn't seem to have drawn anyone's attention. He'd made his way through the city and reached the junk shop Obi-Wan had pointed him toward with little difficulty, and engaged its owner in conversation – business was poor, it seemed, though whether that was a consequence of the uprising or not he didn't know.

For some weird, unexplainable reason, Watto had been cagey about discussing his past ownership of slaves. But, though his species was resistant to mind tricks, Quinlan wasn't one of the Order's best Shadows for nothing, and he had gotten what he needed in the end, without the need for any violence that might have drawn the attention of the Darksiders on the planet.

The fact the Toydarian had apparently won Shmi Skywalker and her son in a podrace bet, rather than actually going out to look for slaves, had been enough to spare him from the retribution of the new order when the slave masters had been purged. Well, that and the fact that he hadn't owned any slave when the uprising had started.

Watto had only ever owned two slaves : the two Skywalker. And, several years after he'd lost Anakin (the same way he'd gained him, in a podrace bet, what the kriff, Qui-Gon), he had sold his mother to someone else – someone who had freed and married her. A handful of coins made of precious materials – much more useful as currency out here than Republic credits – had been enough to jog the Toydarian's memory further, and Quinlan had gotten a name, Cliegg Lars, and a location : a homestead in the Jundland Wastes.

Shmi's freedom was good news, but he still needed to check she was doing fine before he could call this favor to Obi-Wan's complete and focus on his actual mission from the Council.

So he rented a speeder and flew across the dreadful countryside, following roads that wouldn't deserve the name of dirt paths on any civilized world. By the time the homestead came into view, the twin suns were beginning to set (creating what Quinlan had to admit was a beautiful view), and the Jedi was mentally going over the explanation he would give to the locals.

Then he felt it, coming from the small cluster of buildings in the distance : the unmistakeable presence of the Dark Side. So far, he had managed to avoid the Sith on Tatooine (staying especially far away from Vaylin's presence, which blazed in the Force like a wrathful sun), but he hadn't expected to meet one here of all places – no. Not one. Two, he realized. There were two Sith in the Lars Homestead.

Meanwhile, he was very much alone. Briefly, the Jedi Shadow considered turning back, but gave up the idea almost at once. He had given his word to Obi-Wan, and besides, if the Sith were harming the inhabitants of an isolated settlement, then his official mission demanded that he investigate in any case.

He stopped his speeder and continued on foot, holding his unlit lightsaber in hand. He made no effort to conceal his presence : with civilians at risk, the sooner the Darksiders noticed him, the better.

Sure enough, the door to the main habitation unit opened just as he was approaching the motion sensors forming a perimeter around the homestead, and a tall figure that most definitely wasn't Shmi Skywalker or Cliegg Lars emerged.

A Sith. Not just a Darksider with enough training and power to claim the title by which the Jedi named their ancient enemy, but a member of the original species with which the first Fallen Jedi had interbred thousands of years ago, before the Great Hyperspace War. If not for the research Quinlan had done after taking this assignment, he wouldn't have recognized them, but the red skin and facial tentacles were unmistakable.

Quinlan stopped where he stood, letting the Sith approach. His own lightsaber was turned on, twin purple blades casting strange shadows in the sunset. He paused three meters away from Quinlan.

"Jedi," said the crimson-skinned fiend, making the word sound like a swear. "What are you doing here ?"

"I could ask you the same," Quinlan riposted.

The Sith opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the Force screamed a warning, just in time for Quinlan to duck and avoid being bisected by a crimson blade wielded by a black-skinned Twi'lek woman. He brought up his own green lightsaber just in time to parry the next flurry of blows, but caught off-guard and faced with a duel-wielder, he was forced to give ground.

The Sith moved in, closing the distance with Force-enhanced speed, and Quinlan prepared himself to sell his life dearly, when –

"What's going on here ?!" shouted someone. All three combatants froze and glanced at the homestead, from which a couple of Humans were emerging.

"You should stay inside," warned the Sith. "We don't want you to get caught in the crossfire –"

"There won't be any crossfire !" shouted the woman, who looked aged beyond her years by a lifetime of hard work and privations, yet still blazed with a surprising inner vigor. She turned to look at Quinlan : "You're a Jedi, right ?"

"I … I am, yes," admitted Quinlan, seeing little point in denying the obvious at this stage.

"Good. Lower your weapons, all of you," she ordered, and to Quinlan's shock, the two Darksiders obeyed – then he realized he'd done the same without realizing it. "And don't you worry, Master Jedi : Mister Khayon and Miss Nefertari are just visiting. They're not here to hurt us."

"Really ? Then why are they here ?"

"I invited them," replied the Human woman.

"You what ?"

"I," she repeated, an expression on her face that made Quinlan feel like a youngling at the Temple who had just been caught trying to steal sweets from the kitchens, "invited them. For dinner."

"I … forgive me, miss, but why ?"

"They dealt with a group of Tusken raiders before they could hit us," explained the Human man. "Then they gave us their sand people's weapons as a gift before disappearing into the night. When my wife saw them in passing during a trip to the city, she thought it was only right to invite them for dinner."

Quinlan turned toward the Sith and the Twi'lek : the two of them shrugged.

"Believe me, we were surprised too," said the red-skinned giant. "We aren't exactly used to civilians thanking us, let alone inviting us over. But we didn't have any reason to say no, so …"

This, decided the Jedi Shadow, had to be the will of the Force. Somehow. He wasn't sure what exactly it was trying to achieve here, but it seemed like too great a coincidence that the two acolytes would just happen to be here on the very day he came to the homestead.

He turned off his lightsaber and reattached it to his belt, before bowing to the Human couple.

"My apologies for the misunderstanding, ma'am, sir. I am Quinlan Vos, Jedi Knight. Am I correct to assume that you are Shmi Skywalker and Cliegg Lars ?"

"We are," replied the man. "Though its Skywalker-Lars now for the two of us."

"Oh, right. Watto told me about that, but I forgot, sorry."

Shmi Skywalker-Lars sighed. "Let's get inside and sit down, alright ? It's been several years since I've had a Jedi visiting my home, but I think we can still get you some water."

Which was how, five minutes later, Quinlan was sitting at a table with the couple, their son Owen, and two Darksiders, who had deactivated their weapons but were still staring at Quinlan intently. Owen served a cup of water to everyone, which, after an afternoon driving through the desert, Quinlan took gratefully, drinking slowly to show respect for what, on this planet, was a gift more valuable than any fancy dish from Coruscant's greatest restaurants.

"Why are you here, Jedi ?" asked Cliegg. "I've an idea of why you're on the planet, of course, but why come here, in the middle of nowhere ?"

"Well, before I answer," he looked at the two Darksiders "could I have the names of your guests ? I gave you mine, it's only polite."

"My name is Iskandar Khayon," the male Sith introduced himself. The Twi'lek was still silent : Quinlan had a feeling she didn't talk much, at least not to strangers. "My companion is named Nefertari. We are both Sith Acolytes, on this world to assist in its liberation from the Hutt Cartels. As Shmi said, we were invited here for dinner due to helping clear out a Tusken raiding party on the evening of Jabba's death."

The names didn't mean anything to Quinlan, but he still memorized them anyway. If he made it out of this situation alive (which was looking more likely by the moment, but he wasn't going to let his guard down), he'd send them to the Temple to see if they were mentioned in the records.

"Thank you. As you probably guessed, I came to Tatooine to investigate the recent events, make sure the Sith weren't slaughtering people, that sort of things."

"Given what some of the other Darths had their forces do to occupied worlds, that's fair," admitted Khayon. "Though Darth Cain has never approved of that kind of thing, and we aren't occupying Tatooine either."

"Well, we still need to verify, don't we ? Anyway, before I left the Temple, I was approached by a friend of mine, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's the teacher of Anakin Skywalker, who from what I understand is your son, ma'am ?" Shmi nodded. "And, since I was already going to Tatooine, he asked me to check on you while I was there. I found Watto in Mos Espa and convinced me to tell you what had happened to you, and here I am."

"Well, as you can see, I'm doing fine," said Shmi, before she suddenly frowned. "Wait. You said someone called Obi-Wan sent you ? Anakin left with a Jedi Master named Qui-Gon Jin."

"Ah." Quinlan winced. "Obi-Wan was Qui-Gon's Padawan – his apprentice, what Anakin is to him nowadays. I'm afraid Qui-Gon died a few days after leaving Tatooine, killed on Naboo by … by a Sith, actually."

There was a moment of awkward silence, which was broken by Nefertari :

"We were under the impression that, until the Invincible returned, the Sith had been extinct for a thousand years," said the Twi'lek in a husky voice that would have sounded a lot more pleasant if not for the murderous glee Quinlan still remembered seeing in her eyes during their brief duel.

"So were we," replied Quinlan with a shrug. "We were all pretty surprised when Qui-Gon arrived to Coruscant and said he'd fought a Sith warrior on Tatooine before leaving, and again when that same warrior killed him on Naboo before Obi-Wan killed him in turn. It certainly didn't help with the panic when the news of Perlia reached us, that's for sure."

"What about Anakin ? Is he doing well ?"

"I haven't spent a lot of time with him," warned Quinlan, "but he seemed to be doing fine. Obi-Wan is one of the best Jedi Knights of our generation, so he'd got that doing for him. I think he'd have come here himself, but the Council had another assignment for them."

"Another assignment ?" repeated Owen, the teenager speaking up for the first time since his introduction – clearly, he was intimidated by the two Sith and Jedi Knight in his family home, and more than a little worried, which, given that they had already fought with lightsabers, was understandable. "Where is he, then ?"

Force, Quinlan was off his game today. He'd walked right into this one.

"He should be on Perlia by now," he said, not seeing a way out. "Obi-Wan was chosen as part of the escort for the Republic's diplomacy mission to Darth Cain, and Anakin went with him."

"So Anakin is on Perlia right now ?" asked Shmi.

"Unless the whole diplomacy thing went wrong and they had to get out, but I haven't heard anything about that happening." Quinlan turned toward the two acolytes : "what about you ? Any word on the Sith grapevine ?"

"Nothing," replied the Sith – kriff, this was going to get confusing. What had the ancient Jedi thought, naming a whole Dark Side philosophy after a single species ? "Last I heard, things were going well for the first batches of refugees. Now that things have settled down here, Lady Vaylin is preparing to leave to reunite with Darth Cain."

"Eager to return to her Master's side ?" asked Quinlan, fishing for information on the woman who'd shown the entire galaxy that the Sith had returned and meant business.

Khayon and Nefertari flinched simultaneously, before darting looks around as if to check Jabba's executioner wasn't in the room with them.

"Don't use that word where she can hear you," advised Khayon. "Darth Cain is Lady Vaylin's Teacher, not her Master. And she really doesn't like anyone using that term around her."

Quinlan blinked. "Alright," he said slowly. Weird, but he could deal with it. "Then I won't. I'm a big fan of her work since coming back, anyway."

"Excuse me," said Shmi archly, "can we go back to my son, whom I haven't seen in six years, having been taken by the Jedi to a world recently raided by pirates and currently under occupation by an army straight out of some ancient war ?"

"Technically, the Sith aren't occupying Perlia," began Khayon, before his Twi'lek companion elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up.

Shmi was glaring at Quinlan now. Given that there were two Darksider killers in the room, the Shadow felt he should be less concerned about the small Human woman, yet he still found himself squirming on his chair.

"I'm sure he's fine," he said. "Like I said, it's a diplomatic mission. Darth Cain isn't going to do anything stupid that would get the entire Jedi Order after him, right ?" he turned toward the two acolytes for support.

"Darth Cain has negotiated with Jedi before," nodded Khayon. "As long as they don't do anything stupid, he will respect the sanctity of messengers."

"I see." Shmi chewed on that for a few seconds, before deciding : "Iskandar, Nefertari, you're returning to Perlia soon, right ? Bring me with you when you do."

"Shmi, dear, are you sure about this ?" asked Cliegg.

"I am, husband. It has been years since I last saw Anakin. When the Jedi took him, I … I told myself that it was for the best, even if I could never see him again. But now, I can't help but think this," she gestured at her surroundings, as if to mean their entire situation, "is a sign."

"Normally, the Order frowns on Padawans being contacted by their families," said Quinlan. "Attachments go against the Jedi Code, and getting involved in matters beyond the Order for personal reasons tends not to go well."

No matter how cold and sometimes even cruel that rule may seem, Quinlan knew it was in place for good reasons. The Force simply made the Jedi too powerful, and meeting with their blood family inevitably brought all kind of temptation with it – and that was when the parents merely wanted to see their child again. Nobody liked to talk about it, but there had been numerous instances in the Order's history where a Jedi's parents had tried to reconnect with their progeny in the hope of using them for selfish gain. It was one of the reasons the Order preferred to claim guardianship of the youngling as young as possible.

"However," he continued, "these are clearly special circumstances. And it's not like I could stop you, anyway. What about you ?" he asked Khayon. "Do you think there'll be any problem ?"

"We can get you onboard the ship bringing us back to Perlia if you wish," Khayon thought aloud. "Nobody would question it, and if they do, they won't have an issue with reuniting you with your son. Helping people is why we came to Tatooine in the first place, after all," he added with a meaningful look at his female companion.

"When do you leave ?" asked Cliegg.

"Last we heard from Lady Vaylin, she is returning to Perlia in a couple of days aboard the Dread Son. Every Acolyte is going back with her, along with most of the troops. We're leaving enough people and seized ships behind to help with the transition and deal with any opportunistic pirates."

"Mom," said Owen, "how are you getting back once Anakin leaves ? You are coming back, right ?"

"Of course I am, Owen," she reassured him, before turning to Khayon. "There's going to be regular shuttles between Perlia and Tatooine, correct ?"

"I'm not involved in decisions at that level, but that seems likely, yes," nodded Khayon.

"Then I'll hitch a ride on one of them," concluded Shmi. "I'll make sure to be ready for departure in two days. For now, let's finally have dinner, alright ?"

Quinlan had a feeling this wasn't quite what Obi-Wan had in mind when he'd asked him for a favor. But, as everyone tucked in for a meal that was far better than the fare the Jedi had expected to find on this miserable sand-ball, part of him couldn't help but wish he could be there to watch the fireworks.

---

AN : I didn't plan on Shmi going to Perlia this early in the story, but she had other plans and I couldn't stop her. I mean, she *is* the mother of the Chosen One, after all.

So I am going to have to adapt the next chapter, but that's fine. I have more or less made peace with the fact that this story is ever so slowly slipping out of my control and is going to end up much longer than I had hoped for.

This chapter ended up much longer than I thought it would. I would say I'm going to try to write shorter chapters in the future, but I know myself too well to make that promise.

One another thing : because I have been reading a lot of SW media, I have realized that people usually have nicknames for droids based on the pronunciation of their designation (R2-D2 is Artoo, for instance). And these nicknames are often used even in narration. Do you think I should change JURG-N to "Jurgen" when people are talking to/about him ? Of course, it's not like it really matters.

As always, I look forward to your thoughts on this chapter.

Zahariel out.