Sheev Palpatine clasped his hands together behind his back as he strolled through the halls of the Jedi Temple, the two Red Guard flanking him on either side doing nothing to resolve his anxiety. This anxiety did not come from his presence within the Jedi Temple. Far from it in fact. The Jedi were still as gullible as ever, being unable to sense one of the greatest Sith Lords ever strolling right through their home base.

No, his concern was with his plans. Particularly how an unexpected and impossible variable was incredibly likely to affect them. Another Sith. Palpatine was aware of Dooku’s initiative in training his own apprentices despite knowing Palpatine’s disapproval, however this Sith was not one of his apprentice’s Dark Acolytes. This Sith was something far more terrifying. Because, if the reports were to be believed, he was not from this time period. Rather, he was from the Sith Empires of old. This meant one of two things could happen.

A: The Sith would inevitably come to open blows with the Jedi and face the full wrath of the Republic and Jedi.

Or B: The Sith would discover Palpatine’s hidden presence and reveal the Chancellor to all.

His lips thinned as a scowl came onto his face. And Palpatine didn’t like taking chances. He continued his walk through the Temple, smiling and nodding his head to passing Jedi, who each did the same with him. It sickened Palpatine, but it would all be worth it in the ultimate culmination of his master plan.

He was taking a risk now, however. But, the risk of a walk through the Jedi Temple was dwarfed by the risk of this mystery Sith revealing Palpatine’s identity. His plan was simple, and had been in motion ever since the first report from Anakin had reached him about this Sith. He couldn’t have immediately confronted them, that would have raised too many suspicions. The first part of his plan was to let the Jedi have their initial way with him while also make a military parade out of it to boost Palpatine’s support among the populace.

The next step was being implemented at this very moment. Chancellor Palpatine visits the captured Sith Lord, only to barely survive a vicious attack from the violent war criminal. Palpatine was quite confident in the success of this step, after all, if he, the master manipulator couldn’t enrage a person from an order of people known for being easily enraged, he wouldn’t forgive himself. Perhaps it would even help in his plans to turn Anakin to the Dark Side by making the young Jedi kill Palpatine’s aggressor.

The sight of a Jedi running down the hall brought Palpatine to pause. He plastered a fake smile on his face as he spoke, “Where are you going in such a hurry Master Jedi?”

The Jedi, a young human male, likely only of Knight rank paused for a moment, panting as he caught his breath, “Sorry Chancellor, the Temple is going into lockdown. Some Jedi should be coming here to collect you soon.”

Palpatine frowned internally but expressed a concerned tightening of his face externally, “Lockdown? What is going on? A Separatist attack?”

The Jedi shook his head, a bit frantically, “No sir, the Sith. The one we just captured. He’s gone missing. No one can find him in the Temple.”

For once, Palpatine’s real emotions came fully into the light, as the colour drained from his face.

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Obi Wan Kenobi was met with a solemn gathering as he entered the tower of the Council, the open interior and shining sunlight providing some comfort to him. His gaze moved around the room. Only those physically in the council room were present, unlike the recent previous meeting.

“Obi Wan, I trust you had a safe journey?” Came the deep stern voice of Master Windu.

The Jedi Master in question bowed his head slightly, a warm smile gracing his face, “Yes, thankfully. We detected a Separatist Fleet in a nearby star system at one point but neither we nor they attacked.”

Master Windu nodded before letting out a resigned sigh, “I fear we have grown too arrogant of late, too comfortable with our positions. This recent incident is only a confirmation of these fears.”

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The mood in the room plummeted once again at the mention of the recent realisation of the escape of the also recently captured Sith, “One thing is for sure, we cannot allow this to reach the public. Fear and panic would only spread and their trust in the Jedi would nose dive.” Came the voice of Plo Koon.

Obi Wan’s smile fell at the harsh truth, “Yes, that is imperative. I think it is important that I receive the full picture however. The most I truly know is that the Sith has escaped, yet I feel that there is more to it than just that.”

The room became silent once again before the elderly Master Yoda spoke up, “Missing too, is young Kandria. Unclear to us, the reason for this is. Perhaps kidnapped by the Sith. Perhaps killed by the Sith. Seduced by the Dark Side, possibly. Apologise we will for asking you this, but investigate this happening, you must. I fear the young Sith and young Jedi are important to the outcome of this war. Fail, you must not.”

Obi Wan remained in silent thought for a moment. Finally, a reassuring smile appeared on his face, “Not to worry Master Yoda, I will be sure to find this missing Sith and Jedi with all due haste.”

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Obi Wan wrinkled his nose slightly as he stepped into the familiar diner of one of his oldest friends and trustworthy contacts. A joyous grin came onto his face as he saw Dexter Jettster sitting at a small booth in the corner, his greasy and grimy kitchen apron still on as he picked at his sharp teeth with one of his four hands.

“Dex, old friend, it is good to see you. I’m sorry to call on you again like this.” Obi Wan said as he took the seat across from brown besalisk.

The dirty diner owner jumped for a second in shock before chuckling as he broke out into a grin, “Nonsense, Obi Wan, I’m always ready to lend any aid. Besides, it gets me out of that smoke trap I call a kitchen.”

Obi Wan couldn’t help but smirk in amusement. Dex always had been a boisterous but friendly individual, “Well, I need your help identifying something for me. I’ve looked all around but I can’t find any mention of it at all.” The Jedi placed a small holodisk on the table between them, “Its related to another case of content being missing from the archives. Since you helped me with finding Kamino I was hoping you could use your prospecting expertise to identify what this plant means.”

The besalisk’s grin grew to greater heights as he snatched the holodisk from the table, inserting it into his player which soon took up the disk’s previous location, “Obi Wan, you Jedi are honestly embarrassing yourselves at this point! What happened to the greatest store of information in the galaxy, ‘ey? Why, you might as well hire me-“

Dex’s voice cut off startlingly quick as he caught sight of the projection which shot up from the player. It was a rather simple looking flower in comparison to the other fauna that inhabited the galaxy, with the only notable feature of it being the entry on how its petals ‘glowed grey’. This was the first major clue in Obi Wan’s investigation.

Alongside searches made by the Sith, other than his stated goal of viewing how the Sith Empire fell, his search results leaded to two things unrelated to that goal. ‘Storm Petals’, the flower being shown right now, and ‘Julia Romuval’. The second search was completely untraceable as far as Obi Wan could tell, being completely out of left field for someone like a Sith to search up a Jedi apprentice of no renown who died thousands of years ago. The first one had really peaked his interest however. Because the planet of origin was simply gone. The main reason this caught Obi Wan’s attention was because he had seen this sort of thing before with the missing planet Kamino. And just like with Kamino, Obi Wan hoped his old friend could point him in the right direction again.

“This…I haven’t seen one of these in a long time. It’s a bloody miracle you even know it exists.” Came the astounded voice of Dex, slightly shocking Obi Wan, “I’m surprised your precious archives didn’t have Kamino but has a bloody Storm Petal!”

Obi Wan’s eyes lit up in excitement, “So you know what it is?”

A derisive snort was Dex’s answer, “Know what it is? Every smuggler and prospector in the Outer Rim worth their salt knows either how much this flower costs or to stay the hell away from the planet its on. You could buy three shuttles with just one of these! Good ones too!”

That surprised Obi Wan even more, “Why? Does it have some strange properties which make it cost so much?”

Dex shook his head frantically, “No, no, no, this flower doesn’t do a damn thing for anyone other than a nice decoration. It costs so much because of the planet it comes from. Kavir. A prospector’s greatest dream and fear.”

Obi Wan nodded in thought. Kavir. He had never heard of the planet before, but if Dex was confident it came from that planet it likely did, especially since the planet of origin had been removed from the Archives, “What’s so dangerous about Kavir?” Came his next question.

Dex shivered. Actually shivered, as though just the thought of this dreaded planet brought a chill down his spine, “What’s so dangerous? Obi Wan, you know I trust in your abilities both as a Jedi and a person, heck, I even sent you to Kamino knowing how isolationist they were. But you have to listen to me on this one.” Dex leaned in close, a seriousness never before seen on the besalisk’s face which shocked Obi Wan into stunned silence, “Stay the hell away from Kavir. It is a hell hole you’ll never be able to escape if you enter it.”

Obi Wan broke out of his silence with a frown, “Why though?”

Dex stared into Obi Wan’s soul, portraying nothing but absolute truth, “Kavir is where gods live.”