Here, have this. Happy New Year. One of my resolutions is to get back to weekly updates. Let's see how I do.

Reviews and criticism are always welcome.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

Here, have this. Happy New Year. One of my resolutions is to get back to weekly updates. Let's see how I do.

Reviews and criticism are always welcome.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

"No."

"No?"

"We are not playing this game." Windu retorted, his voice laced with an undertone of annoyance. There seemed to be a sort of uneasy tension in the High Council Chambers as the four of us. Qui-gon, Obi-wan, Anakin, and myself stood there in the middle of the room. I had time to change out of my bounty hunter gear while I waited for Anakin to be tested by the Council.

"May I ask why then?" I said, resisting the urge to roll my eyes.

"Too old, the boy is." Yoda said. I knew this was coming, yet I still found it frustrating.

"You must see he is the chosen one." Qui-gon interjected as he put his hands on Anakin's shoulder's for emphasis. I had to take a moment to just stop and ponder the deja vu of this whole situation. I found the need to do a quick scan around the room for cameras all of a sudden. There were none, but I couldn't help myself. I saw Plo-koon look at me quizzically so I stopped messing around. Then I saw Anakin looking at me with a question on his lips.

"Not now." I mouthed quietly. Anakin looked like he had no idea what was going on. I wouldn't have either at that age.

"It doesn't matter, the boy is not to be trained and we directly forbid Knight Luminara from taking him as a padawan." Windu looked right at me when he said that. It was almost like he didn't like me.

I restrained the urge due my usual snarky thing. Right now wasn't the best time to be antagonistic. It wasn't my own ass on the line here.

"Since when has the council been so particular about who a knight takes as a padawan." Qui-gon said, coming to my defense again. "She was led to the boy by the Force. You must see that."

"Never clear is the Force's will." Now Yoda sounded agitated at that. He wasn't as strict as Rancisis or Windu, but he was no Plo-Koon or Yaddle either. Qui-gon claiming the Force's will would no doubt make even him lean toward Windu's position on this matter.

"Then I will take the boy as my padawan learner. As a fellow Master you cannot dictate who I take as a padawan learner like you can with Luminara." He looked at me. I nodded slowly in approval showing I was okay with the decision. Something I had not wanted initially, but I had just gotten mentally prepared for the prospect of taking Anakin on. So it was kind of a let down.

"Already have padawan, you still do." Yoda said.

"The code forbids a second." Windu concurred.

"Then I would like to submit Obi-wan for the Jedi Trials." Qui-gon said. "He is ready, and has been for some time."

I nodded in agreement, but didn't say anything. Windu and Yoda looked at eachother. They were powerless. I sensed an undercurrent of unease as many saw Qui-gon as pushing Obi-wan too early. Luckily. Obi-wan was practically a knight at this point and would pass the trials with ease.

We were dismissed and the Council adjourned their session. Qui-gon and Obi-wan went to speak on their own. Anakin stuck by my side. Masters Plo-Koon and Yaddle approached.

"It is good to see you return to the Temple." Plo said.

I bowed my head slightly to the two masters. Anakin awkwardly followed suit. "It is good to be back, even though not much seemed to change."

"You know how things are and have always been, we Jedi like to take our time in everything we do. Perhaps a bit too much at times." Yaddle said with a chuckle. Part of me regretted not getting to know Yaddle more over the years. I hardly ever had time with my training and escapades around Coruscant.

I nodded and put a hand on Anakin's shoulder introducing him to the two masters properly. "Anakin, this is Master Yaddle and Master Plo-koon."

"Masters, this is Anakin Skywalker." They inclined their heads. Anakin mimicked the gesture.

"Your story and skills are remarkable young Anakin. To accomplish so much while so young is a great achievement." Plo mentioned.

"I just wanted to help." Anakin stammered.

"Humble too," Yaddle said with an amused smirk.

Qui-gon and Obi-wan returned.

"Anakin, we should be going. I would like to go over what Luminara already taught you." Qui-gon said. Anakin looked a bit wary. He had been tested all day by the Council. Yaddle saw this.

"Master Qui-gon. Perhaps it would be best for your new padawan to rest a while. I can vouch that what Luminara had taught him was more than adequate while he tested with the Council. His feelings were in check and his senses were a lot more focused than they would have been if he hadn't been found earlier." Yaddle said.

"I concur with this assessment." Plo-koon said.

Qui-gon nodded, "I see. Perhaps a break then. Come along." He gestured for Anakin to follow.

Plo and Yaddle bowed and left. Yaddle gave the boy a small wave before doing so.

I followed Qui-gon. I looked at Obi-wan who was giving the boy a quizzical look.

"You know," I said, slowing down and letting Anakin and Qui-gon get some distance as Obi-wan stopped to talk. "You are more than ready for the Trials. I wouldn't be surprised if Qui-gon recommended it after Naboo whether or not Anakin was found."

Obi-wan frowned and looked down the hall at Qui-gon. "I want to believe you."

"Obi-wan, you are ready." I said it like a statement of fact.

He looked at me and nodded. He left without a word. He had too much on his mind I gathered. I found myself alone in the temple halls. I decided to check on my room, which was unaltered. I checked my messages at the small terminal.

Typing in my password I found there were two. One from Damask and the other from Ganorn.

I opened the one from Damask.

"Luminara, I have sent you some more reading material. It was too robust for a simple comm transmission. More from my mysterious associate. Check the locker at the usual place." It was dated a month ago.

I sighed. Damask and I had kept up some correspondence since our original meeting. While he no doubt could ask Dooku these questions. I mentioned something about a personal theory on the Midichlorians at our second meeting perhaps a bit purposefully. That sparked Damask's urge to flex his own research. The conversation was over three years ago if I recall. He had sent me tidbits over the years to get my perspective on the matter. I think because I was a lot younger than Dooku and the fact that the Jedi kept Sith teachings reserved for only masters, he must have thought I wouldn't recognize what he had sent me. If I ever did, it would have been too late for me anyway.

That didn't mean what he sent wasn't intriguing. I knew what to look out for, but the stuff in his "associate's" research was very interesting. Even if I knew the mysterious "associate" was just his true self as Plagueis. Still I couldn't help but devour the research he sent. It was like watching a natural disaster. It is horrific to see the damage and mayhem it caused, but you can't help looking on at the unfolding destruction anyway. It didn't help that I knew about the torture and mengala-esque shit Plagueis preformed to learn this knowledge.

Ganorn's message was a lot more recent.

Bellicose, I may have messed up? I heard you were off-world again. Just stop by when you can.

I sighed. Seeing as there wasn't much to do here. I left the temple. No one stopped me. I needed to check on the apartment anyway to store my gear. It was just that everything in that place was a reminder of the last four years, I didn't want to go back. However I was afraid my gear may be confiscated by the temple guard or worse stolen by the Gray Paladins. They weren't thieves but I didn't want them borrowing my stuff either. They took care of their gear, but I suspected they did it to annoy me. I was pretty sure I was one of the few Jedi that ventured into the basement and they were annoyed I wouldn't join them. So they liked giving me excuses to go down into the basement, the weirdos.

I checked out the usual drop point for Damask's correspondence at some storage office not too far from the temple. I kept my senses up, in case I had a shadow. A Datapad lay inside the locker. I took it and left. I would have to add to the other bits of research I had stored in my apartment.

I wasn't going to risk leaving this in the temple of all places. It would just be a quick in and out. Assuming I didn't misremember where I stored the other datapads. No they had to be there. I turned my speeder toward the lower 5000s to my new apartment. Well, a new old apartment. I had to change back into my Bellicose gear before visiting Ganorn as well.

I stopped by Ganorn's office.

He had a full on firm now with assistants and actual clients. I simply waltzed in wearing my armor. One of the new assistants tried to stop me. I gave a helmeted stare to one who was going to. They backed down and I entered Ganorn's office. Luckily Ganorn was alone in his office. I simply sat.

"You're here," he said nervously.

"Yeah, I am. What did you mean in your message." He looked at the gun on my hip before mustering up his nerve.

"I… It is just. I think I am not sure how it…" He took a breath. "I invested your money in a company. A prison complex. State of the art carbon freezing. Located in the deep core. Good place for a prison. Hard to get to and even harder to escape. However they didn't get the Republic contract. Not a single prisoner was stored there."

"So you lost the money on a prison scam?" I said.

"Not exactly, it was no scam. Everyone sold what was left of their shares after the deal fell through. I may have bought those shares. I had heard that the Republic was going to reconsider, but they didn't. So you may now be the private owner of a defunct Carbonite Prison."

I was quiet enough that the Zabrak started tapping his feet. What would I do with a prison in the Deep Core?

"How big of a facility are we talking about?"

"Big. It was built to house prisoners for the Galactic Republic. So perhaps a few million units." He said.

I was flabbergasted. "How did they get the money for that?"

"It started construction around thirty years ago. It drew in many investors for years. Then the Republic decided to renew their contract with Belsavis." He ran his hand down his face in exasperation.

"Okay. How much is the upkeep?"

"Other than droid technicians and caretakers, not much. It was designed to run with little organic support. Other than raw materials you shouldn't have to worry too much in that department." He said.

"It sounds like a good prison design. Why wouldn't the republic pull the trigger on this?" I asked.

"Politics. Chancellor Valorum's Administration didn't think it was best the PR move to open a new prison so they quietly renewed the contract with Belsavis."

"Of course." I was surprised that Valorum got elected. Though it was a close margin. I heard something about him making a deal with the Tarkin family to secure their voting block. Something about revising history for Ranulph Tarkin's death. He did die on the battlefield but his last conversation did leave a bad taste with the Veterans who fought there.

"Well, I will think about what to do with the facility." I left.

Ganorn looked relieved that I took it so well. I figured if the Facility was designed to be self-sufficient then it wouldn't hurt to hold on to it. Perhaps it will come in handy down the road, but I just had no use for such a place.

The apartment was a lot nicer than the old one. Lots of fancy whites and blacks with a dash of blue. I still remember being unreasonably mad that Komari moved from my old apartment up here without me knowing. It was our first fight. Then I learned the level above my apartment had a reservoir leak and it would have flooded the apartment. The new place wasn't much bigger, but it was a whole lot fancier. I was just glad I had automatic payments set up in case I had to go off-world for extended periods of time.

Komari had done her thing and made it into a four star hotel suite. She had sure loved spending my money. I was annoyed seeing how the place looked so fancy and now there was no way I could change any of it. I quickly went to my armory. The only room Komari didn't do much with other than install fancy gun racks.

I hung up the suit. Looking at it. I frowned seeing it was still all black. Komari insisted for years that I at least touch it up with purple and gold coloring. I… wish had done so while she was alive. Dead blue eye flashed across my vision for a moment. They said nothing, they could no longer say anything. I shook the image away.

I looked for anything to distract me from that day. Down in the bottom of the locker, I saw the cans of paint she picked out all those years ago. My unreasonably obstinate self always put up a resistance to the idea of painting the armor plates. Still don't know why.

I had been toying with the idea of incorporating the gear into my Jedi attire. Getting the materials together was the issue. I had some custom elements that needed to be made first, the cortosis battle skirt for example. Perhaps it was time to finally add it to my Jedi robes.

It felt so dumb and silly now. I looked at the armor stand, seeing the paints now, gave me an idea. I had time. I picked up the can. It was only then I noticed some stencils that were placed under the cans. Each one lined up with a different armor piece. They were symmetric shapes and outlines. They were Mirialian designs. No specific meaning behind them. I closed my eyes, resisting the urge to sit down and weep. If I did that, nothing would get done. So, throwing on a breathing mask, I began to paint. It was finally time for Bellicose to grow up a bit.