The Second Padawan

Shadow of the Jedi -ii-

Gambler's Choice
Shadow of the Jedi
Part ii

I frowned immediately as we landed on Mustafar. The planet retained all of its negative energy since the last time I was here.

The coordinates I was given were at a minery run completely by droids. 3 shuttles were landed around mine.

"It's been a while." A husky female voice alerted me. I felt her presence and it was Assaj Ventress, accompanied by Hallo Cohl. "You've grown a bit." She chuckled.

"And you have hair." I smiled, and R2 beeped in agreement. "So, why have you called me here?"

"Even amongst the Jedi, I only trust a few." She said, "And this information needs to be kept under wraps."

I crossed my arms over my chest, "And you trust me so much?"

She planted a hand on her hip, "Anakin Skywalker isn't allowed to conduct any Jedi missions, Obi-Wan has resigned from The Order, and your former classmate is busier with Council meetings, so there leaves you." A smirk crossed her lips, "Oh, and Quinlan put in a good word."

She looked over to Hallo, giving him the non-verbal confirmation to explain what was going on. He walked over to me with a tablet. "Here's everything I'm going to tell you in text." He began walking, as I followed, glancing at the tablet as he spoke. "A mother of a 3-year-old had her child
Kidnapped." He said, "His name is Plimis, he was listed in the Holocrons as a force-sensitive child."

What he said immediately brought me back to my closed missing children's case. It was like a repeat of one of my biggest failures.

"The mother has a tracker built into the child's clothing, due to them being from Jakku, and the increase of kidnappings. The trackers led us to this." We walked up a few stairs and looked down below, a half-melted ship lay on the ashen shores. The ship's design was strange, it was spherical but had a solar panel wing on each side.

"What is this?" I asked him.

"The Republic Police engaged in a firefight and reported supernatural abilities beings used, similar to those of the Jedi. And this ship, from what we could salvage, is not registered under the Republic, or the former Separatist Militaries."

"Could it not just be an unregistered personal ship? There are many of those in the mid-rim."

He smirked, "Exactly what I thought until I saw this." He pulled up a scan of a series number for the ship. 'TIE'

"I've never heard of this model...let alone series," I admitted.

"Me neither, and we both fought in the Clone Wars since year one. Ventress has never heard of it either." I looked behind us and saw Ventress was no longer there. "She's tracking a known spice dealer." He said as if he could hear my thoughts.

I took a closer look at the fallen vessel. "What happened to the pilot?"

"They fled, leaving the child at the shore. They had an accomplice in another vessel of similar structure. Thankfully Plimis is still alive, and is en route back to Jakku."

"Do we have any leads on who this person was?"

He nodded and swiped on the tablet to a hologram. It was a boy, someone who looked around Padawan age. He pushed his hands outward, as whoever had the hologram fell backwards into the lava. I winced, knowing the policeman was now dead and dissolved in the lava below me. "A force user..."