AN : If we hit 300 power stones in 24h, there will be an extra chapter.
...
She had him there. By all evidence, Sifo was a close friend to Dooku and an integral part of his operations at the New Temple. The Jedi Master's death had caused Dooku no shortage of headaches in its immediate aftermath.
But somehow Vos just couldn't shake the feeling that it had to be the Count. He had to be involved somehow.
...
His holocom rang, almost startling him. After a second ring, Vos answered.
Even through the blue projection of the holocom, Luminara Unduli looked tired. The Jedi Master had spent the better part of a week on Raxus Prime, which was not conducive to good rest for a force sensitive.
The constant simmering of the Dark Side had worn on all the Jedi who went to investigate the murder, leaving even the strictly orthodox Mirialen worn and disheveled. Her normally immaculate headdress was creased, like she hadn't hung it up properly before going to sleep in the morning and just threw it on without bothering to iron it.
"Any progress?" The Jedi Master asked, without a hint of a formal greeting.
After he was silent for a moment, Aayla answered instead. "No. The Palace security record is clear, Dooku was here the entire time. So was his apprentice. Neither of them had access to his ship. His reason for sending Sifo to Raxus checks out."
Vos let his padawan go on,not quite ready to admit that he was wrong just yet. After she was done, Vos turned the question around. "What about you? Any new information on your end?"
Luminara scowled. "...Possibly. We found a witness."
"That's great."
"Sifo returned a rented speeder to the stand right out front from the shipyard, and we found the boy manning the counter at the time of the explosion."
"What's the problem, then?"
"There's three: One, he was running a side business as a spice dealer selling glitterstim, two, he was using some of his own supply at the time of the explosion, and three, his testimony is contradicted by the physical evidence."
Vos clicked his tongue in frustration. "How much of a contradiction?"
"He claims Sifo was outside the ship at the time of the explosion, when we found his remains on the bridge."
"Great." Vos grunted, frustrated.
"It gets worse." Luminara hesitated, before adding, "He claims he saw Sifo get attacked by another jedi before the ship exploded. One with a red lightsaber. Which we don't have a body for, despite supposedly being caught in the blast."
Vos' brow crinkled as he considered the implication. A Sith? They were extinct.
"I know. It sounds impossible to me." Luminara. "His testimony would be worthless before a court, and I'm not even sure if we can draw any leads from it.
"So dead ends in every direction." Aayla concluded.
"Yes, Padawan, it seems that way."
Hesitating slightly, Vos decided to ask another less tactful question. "And the New Temple Jedi? Priala? Anything suspicious there? Trying to cover something up maybe, or hide evidence? Anything that could link a Jedi from the New Temple to the crime scene?"
Luminara scowled. "She disappeared completely. No one from the investigation team heard a word from her, until she showed up again three days later with Sifo's missing lightsaber."
"...Where'd she find that?"
"With local security. They stole evidence from our crime scene and tried to pawn it on the black market. Priala also learned that planetary security was involved with the Black Sun, so she just arrested half the precinct with their own cuffs. All she's managed to prove since arriving is that our crime scene was completely contaminated before we even boarded the ship on Coruscant."
"Force be with us." Aayla groaned.
"One step forward, ten steps back." Vos summarized.
"There are no conclusions we can draw from our investigation." Luminara shook her head slightly, seeming disgusted at the words she was saying. "Sifo died in an explosion that originated from his ship. It's still possible that this was the result of an accident due to a malfunctioning plasma reactor. At the moment, I have two leads left."
"And those are?"
"Sifo's ship was insured. If we can find out who last serviced it we might be able to rule on whether this was an accident or not."
"That's not very promising."
"Secondly, if you can use your psychometry on Sifo's lightsaber, we can determine if he was attacked by a Jedi assassin or not."
"Oh, no." Aayla sighed. "We're going to Prime?"
"I'm afraid so." Luminara answered. "Finish up there and come back here."
Vos hung up, irritated.
After a moment of silence, Aayla spoke up. "A malfunctioning plasma reactor would explain some things. Like, how Sifo never detected the explosives on his ship, or sensed that someone was plotting to kill him. It would fit the available evidence."
"And the witness's testimony?"
"He was high at the time. He could have seen anything."
Glitter stims weren't known to make people hallucinate, Vos knew, but the witness could have had some other spice in his system or maybe a preexisting condition. Even the general population of Raxus was known to be crazy, the kid could just have undiagnosed schizophrenia.
"Well, we better get back there." Aayla suggested. "I don't think we can achieve much else here."
"...Not just yet. There's still one more person I want to talk to."
"Who?"
"His student."
Aayla looked like she thought that was a dubious idea, and Vos didn't blame her. Tan'ya was only seven, and it was doubtful she had any knowledge of the incident at all. Even talking to her was in poor taste, given that her teacher had been killed and she was likely grieving.
But despite the mounting evidence, Vos still wasn't able to shake off his suspicions towards Dooku.
"Come on, don't tell me you aren't interested in the prophesied one? Maybe helping our investigation will be how she tears that veil?"
That only made Aayla look even more uncertain.
The two Jedi eventually agreed to talk to Tan'ya, setting off towards the looming presence in the force. They didn't need to ask for directions - ever since they set foot in the palace, Vos and Aayla could feel the little girl no matter where she went.
If Vos had to guess, the girl was at the stage of her training in the Force that she was learning to grow her connection, and hadn't yet mastered it enough to shrink her presence. Among Jedi, it was seen as rude for those more powerful to leave their power completely unmasked. It was unnecessarily intimidating.
The closest point of comparison Vos could find for the girl's power was Yoda, on the rare occasions the Grandmaster revealed his full potential.
They found her in what was presumably her bedroom, and after a moment of consideration Vos stepped aside so Aayla could knock. He suspected his apprentice would be much less intimidating to the child than he would be.
After a few moments the door opened to reveal an ordinary, seven year old human girl. She had dark hair that she kept only at shoulder length, and was wearing robes appropriate for a youngling.
"Hello there." Aayla said in a kindly voice, crouching down so she was at eye level. "We're investigators from the Jedi Temple. We just want to talk to you a little bit?"
The girl's eyes narrowed at that, her expression settling into a scowl that looked like a pout on her face. "Does Father know that you're here? Talking to a minor without their guardian present must be against procedure."
Aayla turned to look at Vos, her eyebrow raised.
"We're not here as part of the investigation." Vos lied, but given this conversation would never end up in his report, maybe it wasn't really lying. "We just wanted to meet you."
"Oh? In that case, I have nothing further to say to you." The brat then stepped back into the room, and closed the door in Aayla's face.
Maybe the Force preserve whoever was stuck as master to that awful brat. Shaking his head, Vos knew there wasn't too much he could do. He could not interview a minor in an official capacity without a parent or guardian present, and if she didn't want to talk to him privately there wasn't really anything he could do to force her. At least, not while the most powerful swordsman in the entire order was right down stairs.
Aayla stood back up, and turned to her master. "Well, if that's everything?"
"...I guess it is." Vos agreed, and together they left for their ship.
...
"...So this is your scheme, Being X?"
Surveying her room, she glared at the books on the shelf and the dolls arranged on the window sill. She expected that voice to come from somewhere, anywhere, but all the objects remained inert.
"You think this is enough? You think this is how you'll get me to bow down to you?"
She stood up, too full of energy to sit still. She paced restlessly, waiting for his mocking demands.
"I should have seen it coming. Of course this is what would happen to anyone I grew close to, wasn't it?"
Where was he? She searched the room again, not finding any sign of the monstrous entity.
"Giving me the silent treatment now? Pretending you've forgotten about me? But I wouldn't be here without you, X. I know you're watching. Now that I have a family, and friends, you think you can threaten to take them away?!"
Lips curled into a snarl, she spun on the spot, waiting for Being X to appear, yet seeing him nowhere. Eventually her gaze settled on the mirror, the sweet young face of a pampered, powerless princess staring back at her. A grimace of hateful wrath bloomed across it as she jabbed a finger at her reflection.
"I've had enough. Mark my words, Being X. One day I'll be powerful enough to make you bleed. And you'll never be able to take anything away from me ever again!"
...
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