"Kina! What the HELL?" Qui-Gon bursts into the room, snatching away the communicator and the lightsaber, which seems to have turned on by itself in Kina's hands, the golden blades flickering, subtle shades of red starting to return.

Kina is shaking, but her voice is steady; she has no complaint about Qui-Gon taking the 'saber and indeed was about to break contact herself - C3PO had instructions about things like this, too.

"I took a risk.  It paid off.  We can get into that communicator, now, and I know the face of another Sith Lord.  It sucked.  But it was worth it.  And the reason I didn't tell you my plan, because I wanted to, believe me, was because I was certain the Temple would refuse to permit it on ethical grounds.  Normally, they wouldn't be wrong.  Normally, none of this would be a thing that was happening.  Normally they'd have someone who'd been indoctrinated by Yoda into seeing 'caring' as a thing Jedi don't -- "  She cuts herself off.  "That's not charitable and I am clearly more emotional than I should be.  I do think Yoda's asking too much of his students, though.  ...Normally, there wouldn't be a Jedi capable of empathizing with Maul in the way I felt necessary to try, because if I wanted to get his password, I'd need to be in his head.  ...It sucked.  But it was worth it to find out what I learned."

Kina slumps, and looks like she really needs a hug.  "I should write down what I saw; there are details I didn't say out loud that are probably relevant.  Not to mention the faces.  But after that...I think I intend to rest, and let my mind focus on anything other than the Sith.  I still haven't been to the workshop; maybe I could visit and pick up a training saber?  ...and reconfigure this one, probably.  I could plausibly press for the face of the first Sith Lord still, but...I think that's beyond me right now, and I think it somewhat unlikely that he slipped in a way that's readily found, too.  ...Maybe just get an entirely new chassis, but reuse the kyber crystals; that seems more...right."

"Kina, I know that you're trying to help, and I'm very grateful, but can you at least run plans by me? I can't actually go against the Council, but I promise, whatever you tell me will stay private." He sighs. "You can write up a report and send it to... R2 just left, but I'll see if I can find anyone else who can handle the technology. Is there anything incredibly urgent? If not, I suggest you rest."

He hasn't handed anything back to her.

"There is the other Sith I saw.  A Muun, who was able to command both Maul and Maul's Master to bring him blood of Force-sensitives for research.  If you have people who're good at that sort of thing...I'd set them to looking for strange medical equipment purchases, especially correlated with disappearing Jedi.  Track them from both ends.  And for Force's sake you should stay safe.  I'm pulling things off that will find them eventually, and they will want to mess with me because of that, and I lean on you for support, which means they'll mess with you."

...Qui-Gon is apparently getting a hug from Kina now.

"Give me a few minutes and some parts; R2 was running the slicing but I think I have the password's...finger pattern.  Threepio?  Did you get it?"  The protocol droid nods.

"...Master Jinn, I certainly understand you holding onto the lightsaber, because I don't want me to have that, but I want to keep the kyber crystals?  They're...they're a comfort, and they're mine in a way few other things are.  And I'm going to need the comm for just a minute to hopefully get it open.  But then, yes, I should be not doing things.  Especially these sorts of things.  The last fragment of vision - Maul was, tied up, descending towards lava, couldn't escape - and I think that was a warning that I'd best back off, for now, because the pressure is certainly getting to me.  Sith.  They're worse at teaching practices than Yoda."  She laughs wryly.

"The kyber crystals are what holds the connection to the Sith! I understand that it's more connected to you, but that doesn't reassure me much! I'm not trying to keep you from having it forever, but at the very least I'll want to be there to supervise you whenever you're using it. Which you are not doing immediately." He does give her the comm, though.

"Speaking of supervising and teaching you, what I came in here to tell you is that I've received special permission from the Council to train you as my Padawan learner."

"They're capable of symbolizing that.  It's not what they are, not anymore.  I had to - I'm as much a connection as the crystals are, at this point, perhaps moreso.  I'm the one with memories; the crystals are just Force-resonant.  I don't even want a lightsaber all that much, overall.  Don't get me wrong, I'm going to have one, and train myself to use it, but it's just so...weapon.  And that feels very wrong.

"...I'm glad you're going to be teaching me.  You actually know how emotions work.  And might have ever failed and recovered.  Apparently unlike Master Yoda.  Which is really quite petty of me to say, but it seems to be true enough that I can't argue myself out of the position yet, and concerns me about the standard education, for all that it's been one lesson I walked out of with him.  Is he always like that?"

Kina looks to C3PO, and inputs the few characters she's sure of, of the password!

"Threepio, is that enough data?"

"Dear Maker, I am not an astromech, but from the library Artoo left me, and what your hand did, I believe the remainder to be -" And then C3PO does math to transform the movement of Kina's fingers based upon measurements of Maul's hand, and the known bits of the password - which will hopefully reconstruct it!

Qui-Gon watches as they work. "I really don't think Yoda is as bad as you seem to think. I certainly don't agree with him about the best way to handle emotions, but he's been a very helpful teacher. I wish you had at least given him a little more of a chance. Anyway, yes, I'll be teaching you, and we probably will start out lightsaber training soon - I would say tomorrow, but I guess we have a few higher priorities at the moment."

"You say there was a third Sith? From what I understand, the ancient tradition of the Sith was to have only two alive at a time, one master and one apprentice. I suppose things have changed in the past thousand years. And they were hunting Jedi? For... blood research?"

"I did.  I gave him three chances.  Though I suppose I should at least explain why I think what he was teaching was harming his students, if he agrees to actually talk to me instead of the image of me he has in his head.

"If I had to guess...And this is a guess...I'd guess that the Zabrak was being raised as a backstabbing attempt, just based on how much of him was...combat, and only combat.  Compared to the Muun doing research.  Or the other Sith Lord meddling in whatever he's meddling with with the Trade Federation.  Sith have to inherit somehow, if there's only ever two, and I'd put money on it not being by age.  But the big Sith Lord caught wind of the small Sith Lord doing this, somehow, and decided that Maul was an interesting research subject, so he got to live as long as he was useful.  The Muun said Maul was anomalously powerful, given his midi-chloran count; 'barely double galactic baseline'.  I have no idea what any of that means, in practical terms, other than it being evidence that midi-chlorans probably aren't everything.  And, yes.  They were hunting Jedi.  For blood and hearts.  If there are suspicious disappearances of field Jedi...I imagine that quite a few of them were Maul's work, and a lot of them on the Muun's orders."

And the communicator opens!

The message history isn't long; there are only three days' worth of records.

Arrived on Tatooine. Surveyed major cities and the ship is not present. Suspect they have landed in the open desert. They'll need repairs at some point. Recon droids are monitoring shops.

(voice call begun)

(voice call ended. 2 min 19 sec)

Positive identification in Mos Espa, one Jedi with two assistants. Attack?

No. Monitor and wait for the ship to land; the Queen must be present.

Jedi has visited the home of young slave. Advise?

Most likely the Jedi's aversion to slavery. Notify me with updates.

Jedi have entered slave into podrace.

(voice call begun)

(voice call ended. 6 min 57 sec)

Slave has won podrace. Jedi have acquired hyperdrive.

Continue surveillance until ship arrives. Plan remains the same. Kill both Jedi and as many Naboo as possible; let the Queen escape.

The Queen is landing on Tatooine. Closing in on the Jedi before it's too late.

(voice call begun)

(voice call failed to connect)

"...Why the kriff were there specific orders given to let the Queen escape?  How does the Sith plan benefit from Queen Amidala arriving at the Senate and smacking it around until it starts actually moving?  Ohhh, I've got a bad feeling about this...Well, now that we're in the comm, we can track its routing and see where its counterpart was.  So.  This needs to go to...whomever it needs to go to to get the investigation started and shake things out of the holonet providers' records.  Not you; you're already known to their agents, do not go off alone."

"...It's like he wanted the Queen to be angry.  To feel helpless.  And then use that anger.  But who would be placed to take advantage of the Queen's fresh anger?  Who benefits?  ...Who benefited from what the Queen did do?  It's not like she wasn't."

"Having taken advantage of proper holonet access to update certain fast-changing datasets, and analyzing the data collected ancillary to that, I do expect that whoever it is that is pulling political strings wanted to provoke the election of a new Supreme Chancellor, Maker, Master Jedi.  That is the only thing Queen Amidala was involved with on Coruscant, and she cannot impact galactic politics while under Trade Federation blockade upon Naboo."

"...Hmm.  Who's in the running?  They're going to want to be close to the locus of control, wherever that is."

"Senators Palpatine, of Naboo, Teem, of Malastare, and Antilles, of Alderaan."

"...What species are the latter two?  I'm confident enough that the other Sith was at the very least a near-Human, even through the hood he was wearing; there weren't any things indicative of protrusions.  I've seen a lot of hoods like that; I know what they look like.  So if there's someone with eyestalks, it's not them, although I suppose the candidate is likely to just be a convenient mouthpiece - we're going to need to learn who associates with whom."

"Senator Teem is a Gran, notable for their snouts and having three eyes.  Senators Palpatine and Antilles are both human."

"Well, I suppose that we can rule out Senator Teem as the other Sith, then.  ...How do we investigate Senators?"

"...how do we investigate the Queen and her retinue?  ...wait, no.  Too young.  Way too young.  And I know Padmé does not have the personality for it."

"Still.  If I were a Sith...I'd be close, but not too close, to whomever I wanted to manipulate in galactic governance.  Probably wouldn't get too close myself, that's just asking for a roaming Jedi to apply a lightsaber.  Unless they're under some sort of Force disguise, which, you'd be better placed to know than I do if it's even possible to do that, Master Jinn, but I don't think they're going to be risking daily contact with Jedi, because that's supposed to end poorly.  So we investigate Palpatine and Antilles just in case, and we bring Teem in on it because I doubt they like the idea of dying as a loose end, and then we get everyone's social circles and close companions and favorite bars' proprietors and speeder drivers and we investigate them."

"Uh..." Qui-Gon feels like he should intervene at some point. "You think the Sith is behind one of the candidates... so your plan is to investigate them and everyone they know to see who's the Sith?"

"Not by myself; this is enough actionable information to bring the whole Order in on."

"And possibly get in touch with whoever manages the Republic's spiiieeeessss oh that's not a good thought I do not like it.  I really do not like that thought.  ...Still, if there's a way of definitely clearing someone as not-a-disguised-Sith...I bet that they'd help."

"We'll certainly investigate that. Palpatine should be cooperative, Antilles I'm not sure, and Teem I assume will fight us on it. It might be better to wait for the election to end so that we can settle the Naboo situation, but that might give them the opportunity to seize power if one of them really is a part of this."

"In any case, I want to say that I'm very impressed with everything you've accomplished, Kina. I'm looking forward to having you as my Padawan."

"...We can't actually trust Palpatine, no matter how convenient his cooperation might be.  He's within the profile of 'could, himself, be a disguised Sith Lord', and while he'd really have to have quite a fortified spleen to dare, it can't be ruled out.  He's also the person who'd know best how to manipulate the Queen, of those who aren't her own staff or kin.  Who we should probably check, too.  ...And his 'your favorite grandfather' act spooks me.  It's not real.  But I'm getting off topic.  We can't trust anybody who's not presently in the Order, as far as I'm concerned, and even then I'm not as sure of that as I'd like.

"...Honestly, I'd expect Senator Teem to jump at the opportunity to save their own skin from a Sith Lord cutting off loose ends.  There's nothing so motivating as self-preservation, to a selfish soul.

Then something percolates up again.

"...I look forward to learning from you, Master Jinn.  I'm glad you'd have me."