.

When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud
And goes down burning into the gulf below,
No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud
At what has happened. Birds, at least must know
It is the change to darkness in the sky.
-Robert Frost

EPILOGUE

The window captured the sunset, the arching fire catching on distant windows and setting the city ablaze. His city.

The sunset was squalid, the grasping chemical ridden air slowly releasing its last grip on the light. The pollution shifted from sickly blue to a rancid and jagged red and yellow. It faded into night, the sky an orange-puce color, aglow with the trapped light of the city.

Sidious had always taken pleasure in nightfall, especially here on Coruscant, and had taken pains to ensure that the Chancellor's office was on the side of the Senate building that would give him the best view of the event.

The Force rippled. Warning. His glance changed, until he was looking at the transparisteel rather than through it. In the room's reflection he watched the small passageway ease open. Maul eased out. Without bothering to turn, Sidious watched him bow low to the ground. Sidious let the silence grow tense and fearful, then raised an eyebrow.

"Master." Maul bowed again.

But his slave's obsequity was not enough this time around. He had failed. Sidious raised a hand sharply and Maul fell to the ground, twitching at the lightening he knew better than to dodge. Just as suddenly, he dropped his hand, though Maul kept twitching and gasping as the lightening ran its course.

The two had not returned to the Temple as he had planned. He would have known of their arrival the moment they'd decelled from hyperspace at the edge of the system.

And Maul's presence meant he had lost the trail. Rage boiled up. Failure was not acceptable. He turned on his heel, letting his robes snap out.

"You lost them," the Sith Lord hissed, allowing his eyes to flash yellow. Maul clawed onto his belly, submitting to Sidious' masterful rage despite his own growing temper. Sidious turned his back on the Zabrak, leaving his place by the window and stepping over to his desk. He flicked a finger to ensure the office door was locked. He settled into his seat and steepled his fingers, sinking into thought.

The chessboard opened up in front of him. The trap he'd set had gone awry when the two had not returned to his city and his grasp. He reviewed his assets. The possibilities of tracking them down, kidnapping them. Driving them back into his immediate sphere.

He was Chancellor, yes, but a Chancellor very much at the beginning of his term. His powers were absurdly limited and he didn't yet have the people's trust. Nor did he have proper control of the administration. Due to the way he took office, he'd been forced to keep most of Valorum's staff in place. Until they were replaced with men of more secure loyalty, Sidious couldn't throw the weight of his power behind the search. He had to rely on Maul—a blundering, thick-headed weapon built for offense, not for the hunt. It was the disgusting waste of an asset better suited for far different work. But…Sidious placed a finger on his lips in thought as he watched his apprentice writhing on the floor. He cocked his head.

Perhaps there was a way to use Maul to his advantage.

The beast was no tracker, but he was cunning. He wouldn't be able to find the targets himself, but maybe…

This will work to my advantage after all.

Obi-Wan shifted, tuning out the murmur of the people around him. But his training was thorough and although he was wholly engrossed by the holonovel in his hands, he was aware the moment the tension in the lounge shifted. He glanced up, surveying the room over the top of the book with a raised eyebrow. His eyes narrowed as they lit on the source of the disturbance.

The holoprojector?

It was the news. A breaking news report, according to the scrolling words on the bottom.

"—ound the body of Dentor, son of Senator Bergil of Gandor." Obi-Wan's stomach swooped at the strange familiarity he saw in the teen's face. "He was reported missing four days ago on Zor. Authorities have refused to release pictures, claiming that the body was mutilated beyond visual identification. Senator Bergil's office released a statement earlier today."

The screen shifted and a tiny alien with orange skin and sharp teeth stood in front of reporters saying, "The authorities will catch the perpetrators and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of Gandorin law."

The reporter appeared again. "The case is further complicated by the fact that the crime was not committed in Gandor territory, raising questions as to who will be able to prosecute the case, as Gandor does not have an extradition treaty with Cashni where the body was found."

The story changed again, this time on some new law passed by the Republican Senate.

Obi-Wan tuned it out, as did the rest of the lounge. It was a strange report. Senator's son or not, jurisdictional problems or not, the galactic channel rarely aired such region specific stories, preferring to stick to truly intergalactic news. The Force tugged at him and that was enough to validate Obi-Wan's curiosity. Reaching down, he pulled out his holopad and began to research the case, beginning with the local news reports.

The case, he quickly realized, was more complicated than he had anticipated.

Dentor had been vacationing on the pleasure planet Zor with his friends, when he failed to show up to his hotel room. His friends eventually reported him missing. The manhunt failed to find anything, when four days later, his body was found on a different planet, in a different sector. If he hadn't been a senator's son, if his DNA hadn't been on file, they would have never been able to identify the body. Three separate planets, in two different sectors, all claimed jurisdiction over the case.

It wasn't until he uncovered a preliminary coroner's report that his stomach sank and twisted.

He skimmed through it, phrases like multiple lacerations and cauterized and prolonged torture popping out through all the medical jargon.

Apprehension and a sick curiosity drove him on, and he carefully sliced into the sector's confidential files. It was a high profile case and the file was well hidden, but eventually he found it. The body had been carefully photographed and several three-dimensional models had been uploaded as evidence. The wild, half-formed theory that had driven him to research the case twisted into fact the moment he saw the first image.

The burns, the markings, they were distinctive. Even perverted into torture, he easily identified the cause, having several similar markings on his own body after so many years.

The senator's son had been killed by a lightsaber.

A/N

And that's a wrap.

I know, I know. It's very much an end to a beginning and not an end end. I really hope I'll have a sequel for all of you one day, but right now I don't. I can tell you that I only finished this story because of the supportive reviews I received. If it wasn't for y'all I wouldn't have finished this story. Thank you so much for your support and for actually reading all of this :D I'm beyond flattered!

Thank you!