Attention: It's been a while, but since I last published, this site had an issue with emails not getting through. From my understanding, it was caused by too many messages getting caught by spam filters, that the email companies put the site on a black list of sorts, and wouldn't let anything through. They have recently fixed the issue in some way, and have released a whole bunch of emails in their backlog over several days. I don't know if my story's updates were in that backlog, so when you get this, you may want to look back a few chapters to make sure you've read everything. Chapter 64 or 68 was the first one where I noted the lack of emails for, though I know they came back for a week somewhere in there and then were gone again. This isn't the first time such an issue has occurred, and probably won't be the last. If you'd like to learn about alternative methods to stay updated on my stories, please look at my profile page.
Previously On: Jango and Siri along with several of the Jedi and Mandalorian children are traversing the inside of the Temple looking for Anakin, who has been possessed by the ghost of Palpatine. Palpatine has stolen the item from Yoda that they wanted to use to exorcise the Sith ghosts from their people, and he has his own designs for it. Dooku has taken Yoda out of the Temple to save him.
Chapter 71- Inside The Temple
Jango stood tall and proud in front of the group of younglings that had come up on the lift to join him. One of the Jetti'ade was staring at him with her arms folded impatiently while he did his final count. She had been disappointed to learn upon coming up the lift that she'd still need to wait for the others to join them before they sprang off into battle again.
"Okay, we are going to meet Siri's group. Freya, can you lead me to Master Cohun's old room?"
To his surprise, this did not get the fiery teenager to charge into leadership, as he expected. Instead, she blushed, and looked down at the floor.
A half second after this, Jango remembered what Siri had said about the room's current uses. It was a location for Ten'raysh dajunili (Teenagers) to meet and murcyur (kiss) without adult supervision. And he realized what, in her mind, he'd just asked her. "We are going to meet Siri and the others there. It's an out of the way room, and likely not used by the darjetii, I am told."
"Oh yeah. It's this way." She pointed and started walking without giving him eye contact.
Jango shrugged when one of his own Ade eyed him curiously. He didn't want to get into a discussion about this here, so he turned and pointed to the others to follow the Jetti'ade down the hallway. He scolded himself for forgetting how aalyc ad'ike (emotional kids) of that age can be. Ratiin nadala bal iviin'yc buurenur. (always hot and quick to storm)
Jango didn't know what he expected when he walked in on Werd Jetii (shade Jedi) Siri and the other adiik (Youngling). He expected they'd be preparing, the way his verde (warriors) do before a battle, or even sitting and resting. But he did not expect the Jetii adiik to be sitting on the floor with his head down and his eyes closed. Or Siri to be sitting there with her eyes opened yet a far off look on her face.
On the far side of the room were two of his own younglings he'd sent with Siri. "What's going on here?" He asked them.
"They're Meed-i Tate-ing" He said, then smiled, proud of himself for pronouncing the difficult word. "She says it'll help her find Anakin faster."
Jango moved his fingers in front of Siri's eyes, but she did not respond.
"She is likely aware we are here. When she finds him she will come back to us." Freya explained.
Jango nodded. Then thought out loud, "Is there anything we can do to help?"
The Jetii adiike all looked between themselves. "Not really sir. I mean we might be able to join Kent and try to boost her, the way he is doing, but it's likely they are too far along for it to make a difference anyway." Answered the boy named Alex.
"Yeah, It would take too long to find them. Besides, like Freya said, they are aware we are here. If they needed our help, they'd come back for us." Added the young Nautolan boy named Ramu.
"Okay," Jango tried to shake off his confusion, talking about a person in front of him as being too far away to find. "Then we put up a guard, and do rounds. I don't want them distracted if we can help it."
He looked over and Alex nodded, confirming he was correct. He then proceeded to break his group up into teams and assign them shifts.
There was a tense moment as two Sith paused in a hallway to eye each other. In the times their souls were alive, most Sith were at war with each other. Bane's plan might not have much tolerance for infighting, but even he cannot see all corners of the temple. It would not be unheard of for one of them to swing a lightsaber at the other.
Fortunately, they didn't, and the moment with baited breath passed without violence. Sidious, who had been waiting on his hands and knees, breathed out a sign of relief. Not that he would have minded the fight, no. It was Bane's plan, and he had already lost this Sith's loyalty. But if they stayed to fight, others would come to watch, and Sidious would've needed to stay hiding there even longer.
Sidious glared at his knees. They were covered in dust. It had been years since he was forced to crawl and hide from anybody. Sure, he might have died without an heir, but he was the only Sith to make Supreme Chancellor, too. That should count as something. 'Shouldn't it,' he paused to look around.
"No comment, my dear host." He shrugged. "Look at me. I get annoyed by your interfering memories one minute, then I am talking to you the next. No, that's not an invitation to respond, boy. Which way was I headed?" Sidious took a moment to strengthen his shields, then turned right at the door.
It would have only been a short distance between where the lift took him up to, and the private lift only used by the Jedi council and those they wish to see. Would have, if Bane hadn't taken the key out of the lift. He had given it to Darth Plageus, who gave it to one of their failed apprentices, who had apparently lost it on this floor somewhere. Incompetent fool.
Sidious had already captured and interrogated him using a form of hypnosis to learn that much. 'How Pathetic! He didn't even put up a resistance. And yet I am the one they reject.' Sidious thought.
'A slaver values blind loyalty the most. They will reject anyone who tries to think for themselves.' Came the voice of the boy Anakin Skywalker.
Sidious rolled his eyes. 'There you are! I almost missed you… Not.'
As he walked along, he paused from time to time to let his eyes scan the floor of a room. This time he froze. 'There it is!' The item he identified was on the opposite side of a room, crowded with Sith who were apparently using a set of flimsy cards they'd discovered amongst the youngest Jedi's possessions to duel each other. 'Stupid Sith, dead so long you've never heard of Wookieemon.' He smiled again feeling the pride when he learned the Dark Aura card had been, most likely, based on one of his own moves.
Still, it was not his best move. Sidious lifted a hand and reached out with the Force. The keys lifted up and he pulled them across the room. No one noticed.
Jango was startled when suddenly Siri gasped.
"Did you find him? Did you…" The question was asked from several voices at once.
"Yes. I found him." Siri bent over to drink a sip of the canteen on her side. "His shields are strong, but he has a unique pride resonance. I waited until I felt that, then looked where others were tempted to turn their eyes away."
"Which way do we need to go?" Jango asked.
"He's in one of the mess-halls. The place is crowded with a lot of dark siders. It will be difficult to get there unnoticed."
"But get there, we must," Jango finished. "Okay Ad'ike," (Little ones) he gathered his younglings. Now that they knew which way to go, he could plan a route to take.
After telling the Mandalorian where the boy's location was on a makeshift map, Siri sat back and allowed the man to plan. He picked a path, a straight line from their current location, and sent his younglings to scout the way ahead. In minutes he had her own younglings up and ready to go.
"Wait, one last thing." Jango reached to his side and pulled out a blaster, similar to the ones his children were carrying. "If we do have any trouble, I want you all to be able to fight to protect yourselves freely."
"B-but I have my lightsaber." Kent objected.
Siri had her experience using similar blasters in the field before, and she could see it was missing the combustible component, making it a stun weapon. "He's right. If you came up to Anakin now, or one of your other friends, would you use your saber on them freely."
"If I put it in practice mode…" Alex tried.
"They would still have real lightsabers, won't they?" Kent finished. "And the sith aren't going to put them in practice mode. Or hesitate before striking us down." He picked up a blaster.
"You might have to show them how to use it." Siri told Jango.
The mandalorian gave her a dirty look, before mumbling something about not raising kids right. She supposed it was because any Mandalorian youngster would've been taught how to clean and handle blasters since they were very young. Jedi younglings were experienced with lightsabers from that age, but rarely ventured into the topic of other weapons. Her Obi would be furious if he saw… The thought was painful, so she shut it down.
Jango meanwhile was instructing the younglings to aim at a point on the wall and shoot.
"This would be a good way to practice Force Senses. Where we are blindfolded and swing a lightsaber at a stun droid. Only we'd need to shoot the droid instead." Explained Leeta. She held her blaster with her eyes closed, and it made Jango nearly jump out of his skin.
"No. My number one rule, you keep your eyes open when you aim this." Siri was tempted to laugh at him, though the youngling did have a good point. She'll set it aside for later.
Sidious ran into the lift, triumphant, with the key in his hand.
"Oh good, there you are." The condescending voice made him sigh "Sheeve, I was headed up. Insert the key." Plagueis instructed him.
"Master, I…" And that instinct Sidious had been sure died when he killed his former Master reared its head and he was bowing like an insufferable youngling again.
"Oh, did you think you were being sneaky and crafty, finding the lost key where you did. Or are you surprised I recognize you in that new host. I'm not surprised you would switch out of that Force-Blind Simpleton, I'm surprised it took you so long."
Sidious grit his teeth. 'It wasn't like I had any help finding a host that wasn't already claimed by one of you.' He had learned better than to voice such complaints to the elder Sith long ago.
Echoes of pain came across his back, just as Anakin shared a memory of receiving a whipping for "Speaking out," or so the voice behind him complained.
He returned to the present when his confused Master shook him slightly. "Come out here and join us. You were always prone to fancy flippant dreams, boy. I already pushed the lift button. Step in and let the door close."
Sidious did as instructed, covertly checking to make sure the Atiduo Vele Akmuo tablet was exactly where he'd hidden it, inside the lift service panel.
"Of course, why would you ever choose a host so young? Were you hoping to get pity points from Lord Bane, by being in one so cute he couldn't throttle you?" Something about the suggestion made Plagueis laugh. "I did tell you the story about what he did to the younglings of Ambria, didn't I?"
"I agree, perhaps it was wishful thinking. But then this one does have Force potential that's not restricted by years of following the light side." Sidious was relieved that Plagueis didn't recognize the chosen one. This could not be more convenient.
Plagueis shrugged. "Whatever suits you. I enjoyed the feeling of revulsion as my host realized what was happening myself. I don't suppose Jr had the same reaction?"
"No, no he did not." Sidious supposed, if the youngling had been more revolted by him, he wouldn't be having flashbacks of the youngling's memories. But there wasn't anything he could do about that now. "You win some, you lose some." he mumbled under his breath.
I had to get a touch creative with my mandalorian translations here. There is no word that I can find for Teenagers or adolescents, but everything from 11-19 is written with the number ten before it, so ten-one is eleven, ten-two is twelve. I thus added the word for stage and you have literally ten stage, which I've interpreted to mean teenager. Then in a smaller point, buurenur is not actually a word, but I took the word for the noun storm, and added an ur to the end to make my verb: to storm.
Also, the story Plagueis hints at telling Sidious about Bane and the Children of Ambria… I made it up. Upon scanning his Wookieepedia article, the man trained an apprentice there, so he settled there for a while. I imagine the locals thought some spirit was threatening their kids, likely came up with an urban legend about it, but it was him pulling youths out to train his apprentice with them. The man wasn't exactly stable folks. He was a Sith, and apparently he had an abusive father giving him daddy issues too!
Next week's chapter is already mostly finished. I was so close to the end, I just thought to finish the story, then break it up. So hopefully it won't take me that long to get you the next chapter. I am sorry that this one took so long to publish. I had a few real life things happen that interfered with my time to write. Fingers crossed, that's over now, so…