Author's Note: Moments of silliness and levity are in my opinion part of finding hope and joy in times of darkness, which should be a core principle of the Jedi. They take themselves too seriously at all times, they need to follow Form VI and learn Moderation in all things.

Chapter 5: Grasping At the Shadow

"That was incredibly irresponsible of you. Not befitting a Jedi Knight."

Master Depa Billaba and childhood two-point-oh friend of mine reiterated for the…eighth time so far are the flight home.

"Yes, dear. Won't do it again, dear. Should I inform the guests that the wedding is off?" Jedi should have infinite patience, but I had never pretended to be a perfect Jedi, just a smart one. And that included being a smart-ass.

I got a rise out of her this time too, "Excuse me?"

The indignation was palpable.

Unfortunately that's when my Padawan decided to break in.

With dawning horror on his face, Baylan turned to Knight Taron Malicos and poorly whispered, "By the Force are they flirting? I didn't think we were allowed to do that!"

Depa's naturally tanned cheeks darkened and she turned to face my Padawan, "We are not flirting! Your master is merely a specific type of infuriating and is deflecting my rightful criticisms with poor humor!"

Of course, that's where I decided to keep digging, "Speak for yourself Depa, I've been flirting with you since we were fourteen!"

That was a lie of course, I'd struggled with the moral implications of reincarnation and kept it to light teasing until we'd have been considered legal adults of the Republic.

But she didn't need to know that.

"Jedi should not be flirting!" She also directed her eyes over towards my Padawan to highlight that perhaps I should not go into the shades of grey of that issue where it was semi-allowed as one reached Knighthood, as they assumed humanoid hormones had settled and the Jedi now had both biological, emotional, and spiritual enough control of themselves to not allow attachments to truly form.

But I had my shovel, I was going to keep digging, "I'm a Hapan. As part of the Jedi commitment to Cultural Relativism in our interactions with other species, similar to Master Mundi, I am allowed to flirt."

"That…Master Mundi's marriages are merely because of Cerean customs around illegitimacy and their declining population! He hasn't even met the last two wives! He's a sperm donor with a title! And you have never even been to Hapes!"

"Oh, I haven't, have I? Tell that to my alter ego who is a Doctor and Professor Emeritus of Lorell Archaeology at the Hapan Royal Academy of Social Sciences, almost every time I disappear for a week or two on the way back from a mission or excavation it's to give guest lectures or rub elbows with the academic elite of the Consortium at lavish parties!"

Depa looked at me in disbelief, gaping, "How could you possibly…only something close to twenty-percent of the academics of the Consortium are men, how did you? What kind of disguise?"

Her eyes widened in dawning horror, "No…please tell me that is not the disguise you use!"

I reached down underneath my co-pilot chair, and pulled out a box. From the box I carefully pulled out an expensive nano-filament attached fake beard. At least six inches long and just as wavy and dark as the hair on my head.

"That insipid fake beard and mustache joke you made every covert mission as a Padawan is your blasted 'disguise' in the Hapes Consortium?" She bit out, with a very un-Jedilike lack of calm.

I shrugged, "It made me seem older than I was when I first began the ruse as a test for Master Jerec just before my knighting."

Also it gave me a platform from which to launch my true infiltration of the Consortium's political structure should I ever need to begin on Plan C. Er…Plan Cresh I supposed. From a linguistic standpoint Aurebesh was actually a great alphabet. It had natural runes for common vowel combinations and consonant blends like Ch, Ae, Eo, Sh, Kh, Ng, Th, and Oo. Robust, flexible, and quite simple to learn as a secondary language or alphabet due to this. Likely why they used that alphabet for Galactic Basic.

Grinning at her exasperation I turned my attention back to my Padawan, "Anyways, you are both somewhat right and I am pulling the Hutt's tail here, the Jedi Order discourages long term relationships, outright forbids marriage, and heavily discourages physical relationships before a Padawan or Knight completes their species' version of puberty and has their organic hormones settle. It takes a lot of discipline and mental fortitude to indulge in the impulses of adolescent hormones and not have them serve their purpose and create whatever version of a mating bond a species has. Humans have relatively weak mating bonds chemically speaking but it's still far greater a level of attachment than the Jedi Order wishes their members to be tied to. Possession leads to fear of loss and we can follow that train of thought all the way to the Dark Side as you well know the academic explanations."

Baylan nodded to me, "I…I suppose that makes sense. So you're saying that once a Jedi is older and has…overcome biology controlling their actions and mindset there's some flexibility involved in physical relations?"

I nodded, "Generally yes, though you may get a stern talking to if you become a philanderer as Passion unchecked may also lead to the Dark Side."

He blushed crimson at my explanation, "Ph-phil, Master I would never!"

Ah the innocence of youth. He had about nine years left to keep that at most. Though perhaps he'd naturally age out of it before it was forcibly stripped away by the Clone Wars.

Depa was still mad at me even a day later when we were sitting in a Council meeting. She was in her new council seat glaring daggers at me even as she corroborated my version of the events for the Council.

"Hmm…possible it is then that old Sith Tombs accessible again once thought lost?" Yoda mused.

"Indeed, Master. My Padawan may be very talented at utilizing the Force to aid in astrogation but it's not impossible other tombs or artifacts missed could have been discovered. This Maul fellow could very well have been history repeating the Freedon Nadd Uprising."

"Hmm…made you have your point. The Council will release discretionary funding to you, and if you give us a list of preferred recruits slowly pull them we will to join your group."

"So the new Jedi Shadows are now official?"

That got me a glare from Master Windu, "Do not jump too far ahead, Knight Khal. Any…officializing of this group will require continued success and proof of the need. If the Zabrak was a lone apprentice of a lost Sith Holocron we do not need to start a full inquisition."

"Hmm…while that was a bit stricter than I would have gone," Master Plo Koon interjected, "I do agree with finding a long term need before we turn you into an official sub-group of the Order. Now, what is your next step?"

I nodded towards the Kel-Dor master, "My next step is run down the origins of this Zabrak. There is no way Master Jinn was the first Jedi he killed. I plan to look at mysterious Jedi deaths and disappearances over the past twenty years and see if any can be traced back to either this Maul himself or whatever cult or Master he was involved with."

"We could always take a look at Dathomir," Master Billaba interjected, "We did discuss previously how many Dathomiri Zabrak are part of their Nightbrother clans."

I nodded, conceding the point, "I have…other lines of investigation for Dathomir that I would like to obliquely pursue before we go for a direct confrontation that setting foot upon their territory would provoke."

At this the saurian council member Coleman Trebor nodded his large head, "Indeed, conflict with other Force utilizing sects is not something we wish to trigger in the midst of this unknown Sith resurgence."

Going over the specifics for a few more minutes the Council dismissed me and I made my way over to some of the lightsaber sparring arenas to join my Padawan. He was practicing right now and I wished to finally show him something new and interesting I had been tinkering with, it was only in the past month or so I had felt confident enough to begin teaching it however.

"Alright, young Baylan, this is what I have been working on piecing together from old lightsaber combat manuals from the High Republic and earlier for you," I explained as I paced along one side of the arena we had claimed.

He nodded with enthusiasm, he'd noticed the change in my lightsaber hilt and I'd told him about the bare minimums of this project ahead of time. A test of his patience, as any good master would do.

"You are growing into a more powerful build than I, and your form preferences reflect that. I am quite competent with Form V, however I do not touch the Djem So variant. Whereas this is your specialty. Thus I remedied that, taught myself some of the more classical Djem So techniques and then used those basics to teach myself to make this work."

With a dramatic flourish and a triple snap-hiss, the flanges along the top of my lightsaber's primary emitter folded down and along with my primary blade two smaller beams of light shot out of the flanges turned mini-hilt emitters.

"The crossguard combat style was made for combating other lightsaber wielding enemies in larger numbers than Makashi can handle," I explained.

"Now I am going to demonstrate the basic stances, as well as some of the basic techniques. The crossguard hybrid-form utilizes primarily Form V, Djem So variant, Form VI Niman-standard, and a few key moves from Form IV Ataru for finishers and Force technique combination attacks."

My Padawan looked like a kid I had released into a candy store with a large credit-chit.

I'd never been prouder.

I returned to my quarters almost two hours later, ready for one of the few luxuries that the Jedi Temple had, a real hot water shower. Now, as a genetically ridiculous Hapan I may not sweat quite as much and it was relatively odorless, a hot shower after a workout was a luxury from my past I could never break myself of desiring. Sonic showers were great, and the higher end ones even baked in a wicked massage function.

I was not as surprised as one might expect to see Depa waiting for me by the door to my quarters, still looking…well outwardly anyone that didn't know her would think she was perfectly calm. To a friend of over thirty years the slight wrinkle of her nose told me she was still mad at me.

I sighed as I palmed the sensor to open the door, "Come on in, Master Billaba, what do we need to address?"

I was slightly hoping that instead of addressing anything we'd be undressing, but with Depa it was always a bit of a coin flip how she reacted to me frustrating her. And occasionally that coin would land on its side and count as both.

As I entered and hovered my lightsaber over onto a small wall mount installed especially for it, she walked in behind me and began with the tongue lashing.

"There are ways to run down the Dathomir lead without direct confrontation with the Witches!" She began, "What could you possibly need to do beforehand that we could not do simultaneously with our own covert operation?"

I shucked my robe off and continued towards my refresher.

"I'm going to hop into my shower after a long round of training, so if you wish to continue to berate me please do so through the door."

"You infuriating man!" She complained, "Always trying to deflect or distract when people disagree with you! Why must you always insist on having everything be done your specific way?"

Oh fun, this topic again. I shed my boots and tunic and checked to make sure I had the right soaps and shampoos in the shower waiting for me. I did. You never knew what you'd forgotten to restock before a mission.

"The Witches are our best lead and you know it!"

I turned the water on to get it up to temperature and grabbed my wet-hair soni-comb from my medicine cabinet.

"The Mountain Clan would certainly treat with us! We could use them as intermediaries to," She paused here for some reason. No idea why, definitely wasn't me stripping down the rest of the way and getting into the steamy shower.

"To inquire with the other clans about a Nightbrother as strong as the Zabrak we are searching for the origin of."

It was a good point, if I didn't want to independently study the Witch Kingdom of the Dathmiri without triggering the Witches to attempt to beat me to some of the important artifacts I was hunting down.

"They could…oh blast it. You stupid, silly man."

I had just begun to rub the shampoo into my hair when I heard some rustling, and muffled clunk as if a lightsaber hilt had fallen onto the ground atop a pile of robes. Certainly not a sound I was chronically familiar with or anything.

Just as I rinsed the last of the suds out of my hair I turned and saw a naked Depa Billaba slide into my shower behind me and shut the door.

I opened my arms and she leaned up and grabbed the back of my head with both hands, "You are so frustrating."

The searing kiss she placed on my lips heavily undermined that sentiment, but I had never complained before, and I was not about to start now.