A New Jedi in an Old Republic

Raven's Claw

Jan returned from the cockpit, having checked on the status of their fuel. "We're good for a while yet," she said as she found Kyle stripping out of the Jedi's robes and putting on something more comfortable.

Not quite ignoring him, she pulled up a fresh dataslate and cleared up a new file on it. "So, what do we do?"

"First thing's first," Kyle said as he fought to put on his shirt in the tight confines of the ship, "The Valley of the Jedi."

Jan nodded and wrote that down. She wasn't about to argue with that. Actually, she was. "Why that now?"

"It's the right thing to do," Kyle said. "I mean, if we mess things up, the Poem of Ages might not come to fruition. And I don't want to leave that to chance."

"Alright," Jan agreed. "But are you sure you're not in it for the Force Nexus itself?"

Kyle faked thinking hard for a moment. "Nice side effect, but not my goal. If anything, I'll ask the spirits there for some training instead."

"Why? Aren't you already a Battlemaster?"

"Yes, but don't forget Jan, my Order is new. We had to do more with less. If we end up doing things by ourselves, we'll need all the advantages we can get."

"And if we wind up working for the Jedi, you want as much as you can to teach or use."

Kyle flopped down into his bunk. "Now that's a scary though. Them handing me a Padawan because they don't know what else to do with me."

Jan looked around the Claw. "Where would we put them anyways?"

The Jedi's mouth curled up in a grin. "We'll just have to get a bigger ship."

"But do we work for the Republic? Or the Jedi?" Jan worried.

"That's hard. I want to say yes, if only because running running around doing our own thing is liable to get us unfair attention from both sides in this war," Kyle thought out loud. "You know, let's decide what we want to do before coming back to how we're going to do it."

"Sure. What next. Kill Jerec?"

"And Palpatine. I'm still up in the air about Vader though. I don't know if he's fallen yet or not."

Jan set down the dataslate. "Killing Emperor Palpatine won't be easy."

"Well, for starters, he's only a Chancellor now," Kyle pointed out, "but yes. He's still a Sith Lord."

"Can't you just let the Jedi know he's a Sith?"

"He's a major politician," Kyle shook his head, "so he must had a perfect illusion or disguise. I can't go to the Council and say 'Hey, Palpatine is a Sith Lord, you might want to get rid of him' without any proof."

"You could do that yourself," Jan offered. "I mean, I'm willing to lay credits on you beating him in a fight."

Kyle nodded. "That's not a problem. Rather getting to him would be, and getting out. Hate to save the Republic from the Sith and not live to see it. Not suicidal." He announced as he played with his lightsaber. "Disruptor Rifle?"

"Maybe," Jan thought about it. "Would have to get into a position to take the shot, and that would require knowing his schedule." She picked up the dataslate. "Kill Palpatine. But the 'how' can come when it's time to do it."

"We should save that for last then," Kyle said. "Get all the little things out of the way first."

"You call DARTH VADER a little thing?"

"Yes," Kyle replied nonchalantly. "I mean, he falls thanks to Sidious, so we have a couple ways to work with that."

"So Kill or Redeem Vader."

"Anakin Skywalker," Kyle corrected. "I don't think he's full Sith yet. Imperial records showed he first showed up near the end of the Clone Wars, loyal to the Emperor."

"I think we should go with the salvation route," Jan suggested. "Luke and Leia might object if we prevent them from being born."

Kyle snorted. "I can just see that. Luke as a Force Ghost dressing me down for that."

Jan held back a chuckle as well. "What do we do about Jerec?"

"Or Qu Rhan." Kyle added. "When we come back... dammit."

"What?"

"We're backing ourselves into a corner here. Best way to find out about the two of them is to ask the Jedi, and they won't give that information out for free." Kyle bitterly pointed out.

"What else can we do?" Jan could see where Kyle was going with this. Like called to like, and she wasn't going to get int eh way of that for any selfish or petty reasons.

"I bought up a couple weeks," Kyle sighed. "Perhaps we can visit Sulon and Alderaan?"

"You want to visit your father." Jan was accusatory. "Why?"

"Because as far as I know, he's dead." Kyle looked sad. "And I can tell you want to want to see your world again." He glanced at the flowers he talked out of the Senator that were still on her workbench. "I think it will do us both good to take a break like that." He smiled. "We were supposed to go on vacation, remember?"

Jan couldn't argue. Not truthfully. "So how do we do this then?"

"Well, we have some easy goals, and some harder ones," Kyle thought things over. "Drop me off at Baron's Head on Sulon, then go visit Alderaan. That will give us some time to ourselves. Once you're done, come back, pick me up and we go to Ruusan where I deal with the Valley. After that, we come back here and start to sort things out with the Jedi."

"You sure?" Jan asked. "I mean, is there any way we can do what we need to someway else?"

"You... want to join the Seperatists?" Kyle asked, not sure if she was serious or not. "I mean, they are led by a Fallen Jedi, Count Dooku. He thinks he's a Sith. I could sign up, work my way up and deal with them from the inside."

"Is there a connection between him and Palpatine? Rule of Two?"

Kyle's thoughts crashed to a halt. Sidious would have an apprentice before Vader, right? And what better way for Palpatine to use the War to his advantage than to control both sides? "Sithspit, you're right!" He slammed his fist against his bunk. "We kill Palpatine and Dooku, or whoever his apprentice is will just step up!"

"Wow, I never thought I'd hear you say that killing a Sith wasn't the best course of action."

"Oh, it still is," Kyle admitted. "It's just we need to be prepared for the fallout. I mean, Palpatine dies, there goes the head of the Republic. He's a public figure, and even if we could make it look like an accident, there will be investigations. An actual assassination will be blamed on the Separatists, and who knows how they'll respond to that?"

"Not well. Imagine if Mon Mothma got killed by a Remnant assassin while she was still in office."

"They would sic the Jedi on them, and all the gloves come off." Kyle growled as he began to appreciate the difficulties involved in taking out the future Emperor. "Damn him!"

"Relax Kyle!" Jan put out a hand to comfort him. "It's difficult, but not impossible. And as you said, we can leave him for last."

"Whatever happened to chasing down your average, everyday Sith Lord for a final confrontation in some ancient arena where he and I would have a great showdown for the fate of the Galaxy?" Kyle complained as he rolled his shoulders. Just thinking about going saber to saber against Palpatine was enough to get him a little fired up.

"You watch too many vids," Jan retorted.

"I live too many of them."

Jedi High Council Chamber

"Serious, this is." Yoda meditated as the other Councilors still in the room reflected on their own observations. "Unknown, this Jedi is. Much to learn."

"We should not have let him leave," Plo Koon thought. "What if he doesn't come back?"

Shaak Ti objected. "We have no legal right to do so, Master Koon. Unless you were intending on forcing him?"

"That would not be acceptable," Ki-Adi-Mundi acknowledged. "He is extremely powerful, and he held himself like he knew how to fight."

"I agree. The soft touch was needed," Mace concluded that line of discussion. "Violence is not something we should resort too."

"And yet that still leaves us with more questions than answers. How could we miss an Order that has at least three masters? Tal. Mara Jade. Kyle Katarn. And they have connections in the Senate! Mon Mothma isn't exactly a rank-and-file member of the government!" Ki-Adi-Mundi started listing off issues.

"Not to mention impersonating a Jedi," Shaak Ti said. "Although he did admit it was less impersonation, and letting others think so. Very subtle."

"Sith-like, you mean." Plo said what they were all thinking in some form or another.

"Believe that, I do not. Consider it, I must." Yoda agreed to the point. "Proof in his actions will come."

"I agree with that, though careful observation will be required." Mace said. "But we don't need to make a decision now. If this 'Master' Katarn returns to us, we can decide then. If he doesn't, then he is obviously a rouge Jedi. Something we must deal with to minimize our distractions in this coming war."

"I will inquire with the office of the Senator to see if I can determine what was delivered," Shaak Ti said as she stood up. "That will give us more information to plan with."

"Agreed. Dismissed we are. Reconvene we shall." Yoda pulled himself out of his chair and followed Shaak Ti to the doors, Ki-Adi-Mundi and Plo Koon following.

Staying behind, Mace Windu waited for them to leave before turning his thoughts inward. Kyle Katarn. A peace with the Dark Side, and all the stronger for it. What did that mean to him, who was at constant war with the Dark Side?

Regardless of the decisions of the rest of the Council, he would need to confront this man. Sooner, or later, it didn't matter.

Office of Senator Mon Mothma

"Senator," the head of her security detachment alerted her, "We have figured out how to open that case."

Mon Mothma looked at the holo. "Thank you, Commander. What is in it?"

"We actually haven't opened it up, Senator. You see, there's a bioscanner built into the hinge, and it seems to be connected to the combination lock at the front. I already have a man slicing the combination out of the system, but if this was meant for you, there's a good chance it needs your bio-signature to open."

Left unsaid was where someone would get that information. There were very few people who could have access to it, and then using a Jedi, even an AgriCorps one to make the delivery spoke more volumes about what was going on that anything else so far.

"Thank you Commander. Alert me when you are ready to open it up. Will I be needed for the bioscanner, or will you be able to slice that too?"

"I'd rather not take the chance, Senator. It's a lot more complicated than a simple combination lock. We will take all possible precautions for your safety, Senator."

"Do you have an estimated time until you're done?"

"No more than an hour, Senator."

"Call me again when you are ready."

"Of course, Senator." the commander of her security detail cut the line, leaving the young Senator alone with her thoughts. "The only thing I need now is for the Jedi or the Chancellor to call for a meeting.

Knowing she had invoked a higher power, she waited for her communications line to signal an incoming call. She wasn't disappointed when it failed to happen before going back to checking on the latest piece of legislature to cross her desk, a refinement to the Military Appropriations Act.

Raven's Claw

"Temple Air Control, this is Raven's Claw. Requesting permission to depart for orbit, then out of the Coruscant System." Jan sat in her chair, warming up the engines as Kyle finished securing the ship.

"Raven's Claw, this is Temple. Permission denied. We have a VIP convoy moving through the region for the next twenty minutes or so, and only emergency vehicles are allowed into it."

"Well, that explains why no one has taken off or landed lately," Kyle remarked as he took his own seat. With the Force, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Just bad timing."

Jan accepted that. "Thank you Temple Control. Please put us into the cue to launch once our flight path is clear."

"Understood Raven's Claw. We will give you a ten minute warning."

"Damn," Jan muttered as she throttled down the engines. "All that and we're stuck in traffic."

"Can't be helped," Kyle said, reassuringly. "Not surprised either. Given everything that's happened, someone important was bound to be here, and gets a free pass out while the little people get shoved aside."

"You? Little people?"

Kyle put up a warning hand. "Someone's coming." He could feel it in the Force, and Jan tensed up. "Let me greet them." Kyle put a hand on Jan's shoulder to avoid her getting worked up over this. "It's probably nothing."

"Sure, Kyle." Jan flicked a switch to lower the back ramp, Kyle grabbing his saber as he went down there. No sense in not.

"Hello," Kyle said as he looked at the Jedi before him. Young, male. Human. Brown hair. And in the Force...

"Hello," Anakin Skywalker greeted the Jedi who so intrigued Master Kenobi. He shouldn't have been up and about like this himself, but taking a long walk was better than sitting in the healing halls and meditating. "It's a nice ship you have here. I don't recognize the model."

"It's Corellian Engineering Corporation. Hawk Series. A follow-up to the HWK-290 line." Kyle responded carefully. The age was right, the Force.... oh by the Force, this kid was powerful. Skywalker powerful.

Anakin could feel the jolt of wariness from the other Jedi as the two of them felt each other out. "That would explain it." He was careful to stay away from the engines as he looked down the hull of the ship. "This lines are familiar, but the engines are completely different. I first thought that it was two separate ships that had to be salvaged into one."

"Hey Jan, turn off the engines, will you? It's just a kid who wants to check out the new ship!" Kyle felt it was best to play it relaxed. If this was Skywalker, then this would be a good first meeting. If it wasn't, then there was no sense in escalating things either. "I wasn't aware we were so interesting," he said as he watched Skywalker like a hawk. The more he sensed, the more he knew that this was Anakin Skywalker.

"It must be a prototype," Anakin mused. "The Hawk series is still fairly new." He felt Katarn's spike of emotion then, knowing he was now correct. He had to add 'access to prototypes' to what bothered his Master. And what bothered Obi-Wan bothered him. That's why he was out here, even though he shouldn't be.

"Can't say much about it. You're Kenobi's apprentice, right?"

"Yes, I am." That simple admission dismissed any of Kyle's lingering doubts as to the possibility of a mistake or mix-up.

"He send you, or something?"

"Actually, no. I keep an ear to those who work on the landing pads, and your ship was unusual enough to come to my attention. I'm something of a mechanic and flyer" he shared with Kyle an honest smile, for he truly did love both. "So I was curious."

Kyle relaxed. Slightly. "Can't argue too much with that. What do you fly?"

"I don't really have a preference," Anakin admitted. "It's the flying itself, more than how I do it that matters." He walked closer to the nose, running a hand over the hull. "You're not much of a flier, are you?"

"Not really." Kyle followed Anakin around, trying to get a feel for the young man. He was extremely powerful in the force, and he could sense the emotions roiling under the surface. He hadn't fallen. Not yet. But all the ingredients were there. "It gets me from place to place. I try not to live in her too much. The air recyclers give up after a while."

"What's wrong with them?" Anakin stopped his survey to look at Katarn directly. "Are the filters getting clogged up?"

"What?" Kyle was taken aback slightly. The thought of Darth Vader doing mechanical work on his ship was so wrong, he was certain that the only person who could object more would be Jan. And Force or no Force, no one touched her ship without her permission. "No, nothing like that. It's just the ship is small, a courier to go from one place to another. Spend too much time in it, and you start to sense things."

"Ah," Anakin understood. "Nothing that needs fixing then."

"Nope." Kyle said. "I heard you were at Geonosis. Fought Dooku." He decided to pry, to see if he could get a feel for how Luke's father reacted to facing a Sith.

"I did. He bested me." There was anger in that statement, which Kyle watched with some concern. "I should have been stronger."

"I hope you're not talking about just being stronger in the Force. Because from where I'm standing, you've got plenty of that."

"As do you, Master Katarn."

"Please, call me Kyle. I ain't your Master, and there's no need to be formal."

"Formal. Yes. I have heard rumors you're not from our Order." Anakin saw Kyle react to that. Truth as well. But the Council had already interviewed him, so there was no reason to make an issue of that. "Have you fought a Sith, Kyle?"

Kyle relaxed, though not to let down his guard, but to avoid tensing up. "Yes. Yes I have. Never something I looked forward too."

Anakin nodded. "It seems there is much more going on in the Galaxy than the Jedi are aware of. So much darkness."

Kyle didn't respond.

"Kyle?" Jan tapped the cockpit window and yelled to be heard. "Ten minutes!" He raised a hand in recognition. "If you'll excuse me, I've got to be going. It was nice meeting you, Skywalker. I think we'll have to sit down and talk."

"I think we do as well." Anakin quickly vacated the platform, watching with curiosity and concern as Kyle boarded the Raven's Claw. There was much to tell his Master and the Council.

On the ship, Kyle took his seat and secured himself. "That was a botch," he complained as Jan checked the ship's systems.

"How so? Who was that?"

"Oh, some farm boy from Tatooine by the name of Anakin Skywalker." The name caused Jan to pause in fear. "Yea. Him. Apparently someone has noticed that the Claw hasn't actually been built yet and he came out to have a look.

"How bad did things get?" Jan asked as she slowly composed herself after being in the presence of the future Dark Lord.

"He's in denial over loosing to Count Dooku, and that anger is going to fester unless someone"

"You mean you," Jan interjected.

"Someone helps him work through it. I may have also admitted to fighting Sith myself."

"KYLE! Why would you do that?" Jan was incredulous at the slip. "You're better than that!"

"Because there was no way to lie about it! And besides, if he knows there's someone out there who can help him, either by teaching how to fight better, or by being someone who has shared in his failures, well then..."

"You're moving 'Plan: Save Darth Vader' into motion early."

"I think so." Kyle didn't like what had happened, and grumpily settled back into his seat. "Have you thought what you're going to do on Alderaan?"

"Have you thought about what you're going to do on Sulon?" Jan asked of him, partly to show how there hadn't been enough time to formulate an answer, and secondly to hope he had an answer.

"I can get to the Homestead from Baron's Head if I have to," Kyle said, thinking out loud. "I know my father came into town on occasion. I'll see what the Force has in store for me."

Halls of Healing

"Anakin."

Anakin returned, his thoughts turning cloudy and moody as he went over what was revealed to him. The mysterious Master was touched by the Dark Side. There was no way to hide that, so it seemed like he didn't. And he acknowledged fighting Sith. He didn't brag, he didn't make a show or light of it. It was a simple admission of facts that made the truth of the matter so blunt and cutting.

"Anakin?"

The Sith existed as more than just Dooku. Oh, he knew about Maul. It was hard not to when the first major Dark Side user went and killed a man who was capable of being on the Council, and was slain in turn by his own Master. But how many were there? Dooku had to have learned from someone, and he was intelligent enough to be training his own Padawan. Did the Sith even use that system? He would have to do some research, assuming he could access the information on the enemy of the Jedi.

"Anakin!"

But it was good to know that he was not alone in his battles. This Kyle Katarn had fought those who used the Dark Side and won. Obviously, or else he would be dead. But how? And where? And with whom? Had he fought Dooku? No, definitely not. And who trained him? So many questions that he needed to answer. And what could he tell the Council about his encounter? What would he tell his Master?"

"ANAKIN!" Obi-wan yelled. "Pay attention!"

"My apologies, Master." Anakin was brought back to reality by the force of his Master's glare. "I was distracted."

"Enough so that a horde of Krayt Dragons could have walked right past you and you would have missed them!" Obi-wan partly admonished his apprentice with the exaggeration. "What happened?" He tried to her Anakin to open up.

"I found where that Master you took to the Council was," Anakin admitted. "So I went to have a look at his ship, and met him."

"Oh, Anakin." Obi-wan was not surprised at all that he had done something impulsive like that. "I hope you didn't offend him."

"I think he was more worried about me, Master."

"Really? That's odd."

"I agree. But I did sense what you sensed in him, Master. I have trouble imagining how such a state would come about."

"Most likely that is what the Council wished to discuss with him, if I were to hazard a guess now." Obi-wan flexed a bit as he tested how his body was healing. "What came of it?"

Anakin decided then to not mention the encounters with the Sith. "Not much. I covered my presence by asking him about his ship, although he implied that it was more his pilot's ship than his."

"That should have been obvious," Obi-wan pointed out. "We are not supposed to own things like that."

"I agree Master. I should have spoken more carefully."

"As well you should have. Now come on, the Council let me know they want to talk to both of us after supper. It seems we already have our first assignment."

"Already, Master?"

"Well, either that, or they've decided to assign you a Padawan."

"Perish the thought, Master. Please." Anakin really had no idea how to go about teaching a Padawan of his own, and dreaded the idea.

The Office of Senator Mon Mothma

The case opened with a click, and the blast shield in front of the Senator wasn't needed. "Clear," her security detail announced as the moved to examine the contents. Scanners were brought out, and waved around before the answer was given. "Clean. They're just data slates, Senator."

"Thank you," Mon Mothma said as she was finally allowed to examine the mystery that confounded her for most of the day. A half-dozen dataplates lay neatly stacked in the small case and she picked up the first one. Activating it, she looked at the header of the files on it.

Reports on Infiltration of the Imperial Remnant by the New Jedi Order on behalf of New Republic Intelligence – an addenda written by Grandmaster Luke Skywalker

"What?"