"I think we can wrap this up now, milady," says Windu. "Qui-Gon has the right to select a Padawan. All in favor?"

A little over half of the Council raise their hands. Yoda is not among them.

Palpatine watches as Qui-Gon exits, though his eyes don't visibly follow him.

"Master Jedi, the election seems to be taking longer than expected. However, we've successfully gotten permission for the Queen to bring up to five Jedi to Naboo, in order to protect her and investigate the threat by this assassin."

"We and our people are very grateful for your assistance. Do you have anyone selected for the mission?"

"Master Mundi, Master Koon, Master Fisto, Master Ti, and... ready to accompany them, Master Jinn was, but occupied, he seems to be. Master Windu, prepared, are you?"

Windu nods.

"We're prepared to leave within an hour. Will that work with you?"

"Yes, I think. Ready, we will be."

Padmé thanks them, and leaves the room, Palpatine scuttling off behind her.

Half an hour later, Palpatine watches as the ship flies away, Jedi onboard. He'll contact the Trade Federation at some point, to make sure they're ready, but the outcome of the battle really doesn't matter much; he's gotten what he needs from the Naboo. It's Qui-Gon Jinn who's on his mind.

Because Qui-Gon had been completely correct. The Chosen One trusted him; if anyone could convince her that the Jedi were on the path of good, it would be him. When she doubted the Jedi and prepared to leave the Order, it would be him who would bring her back.

Unless...

In a side alley of the deepest layers of Coruscant, carefully selected to be entirely empty, Darth Sidious places a call.

"Something came up, my friend," Sidious says, a grin on his face. "Something that appeared to be a significant problem. However... I think it may be an opportunity. A chance to achieve two goals in one strike. A chance for you to become stronger."

Kina Skywalker, meanwhile, is holding a disassembled-reassembled encrypted communicator in one hand, with a freshly added tracer program, and the lightsaber that was the Sith's in the other.

She's let the Jedi, and Padmé, know that she's going to try to crack the Sith Lord's communicator again, since R2's brute-forcing still hasn't hit the jackpot.

What she hasn't told anyone yet is precisely how she plans to try.

So, sitting in a secluded meditation room, C3PO in place as her assistant/spotter, she places the communicator on a table before her, and starts pacing, stalking, back and forth, pulling on that part of herself that knows this Sith.

It's risky.  She knows this.  It's probably something most Jedi would disapprove of on principle, especially Master Yoda whose word is almost law.  She knows this.

If it works, however...she might be able to crack this conspiracy open, just a bit more, and that is worth it, because a thousand years of absent Sith, and then definitely a Sith Lord and his Master, means that they've gotten close enough to doing whatever it is that they're trying to do that they think it's worth exposing themselves to the galaxy to do it.

So she stalks the dark, gloomy depths of the Temple, and meditates on the mindset of the Sith Lord, in the days before his death to Qui-Gon's blade.

She knows his pain, intimately, but that is not the sum of a soul's life story.

She knows that this Sith Lord was never all that far from his pain, that this would remind him of it more than most.  It is a tool for communicating with his Master, after all.

She knows some of where he's been, and some of what he's done, and some of how he might have reacted to that, and she has seen his soul herself, in its final moments.

It's not a perfect reconstruction.  She'll try anyway, because to succeed, she must.

She wraps herself in memory and guesswork, opens herself to the Force, picks up the communicator, and thinks about last days on Tatooine, seen through another's eyes.

She sees the communicator in her hand, but it's interpolated with another vision, where it rests in the scarred red hand of Maul. He's sending a message, not speaking but typing, to someone labelled only "S." The Queen is landing on Tatooine. Closing in on the Jedi before it's too late. There's a previous message sent by the same address, something about blood, but Maul turns off the device and hops onto his speeder. He races across the sands, crashing through the crowds until he makes it to the Jedi. Leaping off of his now unsteady speeder in time to throw it at the Master, he leaps towards the Padawan, lightsaber drawn.

After a series of slashes, there's a small sting on the back of his head, distracting him for only a fraction of a second, but it's long enough, and then he's thrown forwards. He scrambles over the Padawan, his lightsaber ready, and -

Even with his head separated from the body, it takes him a few seconds to die. Even so, it's almost a relief.

Good.  It works.  "He's sending a message; 'The Queen is landing on Tatooine.  Closing in on the Jedi before it's too late.'  His contact knew the Queen was alive and heading to Tatooine before she landed, and was aiming specifically to eliminate the Jedi with her, not the Queen herself.  His Master's name might start with S, as that is the letter this contact was saved under."

She reaches further back in history, building on the connection she now has to see a greater distance...

And she fades into another memory. This time, it's dark; there isn't much beyond muffled noises. Maul strains his ears to hear, not catching much, until suddenly a brilliant burst of light shines into his eyes, and he tries as hard as he can to resist looking away, but he can't.

When his eyes adjust, he finds himself tied down in what appears to be some sort of healing pod. But it's not healing him, it's draining; his blood flowing from him through thin pipes into some sort of machine. There's someone standing over him, wearing a dark cloak, but the hood has fallen back, and it shows his face as that of a Muun. He feeds some of the blood into a vial, and records several measurements. "This is interesting," he says. "One of the lowest midi-chlorian counts I've encountered in someone with the Force. Barely twice the galactic average. What are you?"

"Maul, sir," he says, his voice quivering, clearly still young, maybe the youngest she's seen him.

"No, what. I'm told you already have some skill. What fuels your power, Maul, if not the midi-chlorians?"

"My master tells me my pain makes me stronger, sir. I haven't really understood - "

The Muun turns a dial, and a sharp electric shock bursts through Maul's body, forcing a scream. "Significant spikes in heart rate," he mutters to himself, "heightened adrenaline, all the standard reactions to pain. But nothing seems to change in the midi-chlorians. I know the Sith ideology better than anyone. I know anger is connected to the Force. What I want to know is how."

"Sir, please, I - "

He turns the dial higher. "Those emitted during states of intense pain seem to survive slightly longer after leaving the body. Not by a significant amount. Might be chance. I'll need further measurements."

Maul is bawling at this point, screaming out anything, pleading, offering to do anything. "My master!" he tries. "My master won't let you hurt me! He'll kill you!"

The Muun turns the dial off, leering over him. "I don't think so," he says. "You don't seem to understand, Maul. I am your only master, and you would be wise not to forget that."

"Maybe a pulsing sequence would have different effects," he muses, and he returns to the dial, spinning it back and forth, watching as more and more drops of blood ebb through the tubes...

"...I think Maul's Master might have a Master; there's a Muun who is a horrifyingly uncaring person interested in studying midi-chlorans and the Force, with significant equipment involved in the studying, torturing tiny Maul and knowing much Sith philosophy.  We could possibly track that, Muuns making purchases of medical equipment...and it implies wealth.  ...Kriff.  Now there are two of them."

That wasn't quite the connection she wanted, but it was what she needed...so she lets the Force guide her aim, and reaches out again.

The next time, Maul's an adult. He's on a jungle planet, and he stands before a Jedi, a human, with a green lightsaber. "Who are you?" she shouts, but he ignores her, slashing at her several times before tripping, in what Kina can clearly feel is a deliberate motion. He falls back, his lightsaber blade pointing back behind his head, and as she reaches to complete her strike, his other blade ignites, stabbing straight through her heart.

Maul stands back up, and brushes off his robes before reaching for his comlink and tapping on it as he turns around to survey the area. "The heart's damaged, but we should still have a decent blood supply, my lord. I - " He pauses. "My lord, I'm not able to give my own - " Maul drops the device along with his saber, starting to clutch at his throat as the vessels tighten, and by this point it's happened so many times a part of him knows he's not in danger, but the rest of him can't stop the fear from filling him again and again, wondering if this will be -

"...what the kriff are they doing with Force-sensitives' hearts and blood?!  And one of the Sith can choke people through a commlink.  Kriff...Okay.  Definitely confirming that - there's some ongoing link between the two Sith Lords - because he had the second blade this time and that was Lord 1's doing and I don't believe Lord 1 wants blood for his own sake - kriff.  I'm not sure what else there is to find, I was just looking for a password, but I'm going to see this blasted thing through, I have to, I have to witness, I have to help, I'm not sure who else can and will - "

- and there's a fragment of the password on the screen and her fingers tapatapatapatap on a grid - and she asks the Force once more, straining, if there is more she should see -

There's another vision now, and Maul is hanging, chained, over a pit of lava, struggling as his head approaches the fire and he tries to escape but he can't get out and -

"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."