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Author	Topic: Zero Sum: The Innocent Saga, Part Three (of Five)
Rogue1-and-a-half Title: Manager: Amphitheatre Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 6/3 4:16pm Subject: Zero Sum: The Innocent Saga, Part Three (of Five)
	For those interested in catching up, here are the first two parts, neither particularly long. Kinitics: Part One Broken Circuit: Part Two ******************************************************** ZERO SUM THE INNOCENT SAGA PART THREE Ran Keltar felt that he had tripped down the womprat hole. This was not the right Jedi Council he was talking too. Oh, yes, this was the Council chamber; the seats were even arranged correctly, but there was a moment late in the meeting with the Council, when Ran Keltar felt very sure that he had slipped into a bizarre alternate reality. "Perhaps, lie, we should," Yoda said matter of factly; it was this line that had prompted Keltar's spiral into his own particular dream world. They had been hashing over the events of the previous days, mainly the disastrous sting operation against Family and Future, carried out mainly by Keltar himself. It had ended with the realization that it had been a sting operation by Family and Future against him. "The story broke immediately," Van Spicer said, steepling her fingers. "It contained all the details. A peaceful protest by Family and Future at the site of what they call a Jedi Kidnapping, the taking of a child from its parents. The protest involved fake blasters; they were very open about that. The blasters apparently had the word 'fake' actually written on them?" Keltar nodded as did Tomack. "Yes, I didn't notice. I was focused." Tomack spoke. "I didn't notice either; no one would if someone was charging you with a blaster. You don't take time to read the manufacturer off the butt." "Understood," Spicer said. "They also admit to a small explosion that damaged only two trash containers." "Left us little ground for a comeback, they have," Yoda said. "Admitted to anything that could be construed as wrong doing, they have." "And what of the purpose of your mission?" Spicer asked. "The child you were to pick up, the child who was taken by Family and Future?" "I don't believe they took the child at all," Keltar said. "This has been a set up since word go. What about our spy inside Family and Future?" "No contact for over seventy-eight hours," Levid Fronacht said, running a hand over his large skull. "He's either a double agent, really working for them, or they knew he was working for us," Keltar said. "Either way, they knew I was a Jedi when I arrived. They strung me along, made me believe that they were planning to kill Tomack when he arrived on planet to pick up his new prospect." At Spicer's questioning look, Keltar shook his head. "No, they never said it; just implied it. They kept saying they were going to break new ground; I thought they were talking about taking children away from us, about killing Tomack. They were really talking about sacrificing themselves to make us look bad." "That was the one detail not included in the initial news report," Fronacht said. "How many of them died. They left that entirely up to you. They were ready to die for their cause." "Yes," Keltar said. "And we obliged them." "The news report was ready to go out; they had it planned to the wire. It even said that you had infiltrated their ranks and that they had informed you of the peaceful protest as you were to participate," Fronacht continued. "Their plan worked to perfection." Keltar felt his face growing hotter by the second. "I was played like a fool, but it didn't start with them. Xerton, the smuggler who pretended to be a Jedi and took the child, he claimed it was Family and Future, even gave me a description of Dun Weir." The name rolled off his tongue and Keltar remembered his saber blade sliding into Dun Weir, pinning him to the wall, Weir's last defiant, choking laugh, the moment when Keltar had realized he had been lied to from the beginning. "So you truly believe," Spicer asked, "That Family and Future had nothing to do with the original kidnapping?" Tomack raised a hand. "I agree with Master Keltar on this," he said. "Key to the plan of Family and Future is that they can claim complete lawfulness to this point. They didn't break the law in staging this 'peaceful protest,' they claim we interrupted and I don't think they would dare to have actually kidnapped a child simply to put this plan into motion." Keltar took up the thread. "My thought is that they heard about the missing child and put the plan together on the fly; fool me into thinking they had the child, fool me into thinking they were going to kill Tomack, fool me into killing them, discredit the Jedi." Yoda rubbed his chin. "Never actually said, they did, that they would kill Tomack?" "Never," Keltar said. "Even at that, they left themselves complete deniability. If I tell the truth, I'll have to say that I simply assumed it from their inferences." It was then Yoda dropped the line about lying, a moment later Van Spicer waved the two Jedi Masters out. It was time for the Council to talk privately about a media strategy, a way to spin the apparent cold blooded murder of three innocents by a rampaging Jedi with a chip on his shoulder. Ran Keltar was glad to leave. He had a lot of thinking to do. If Family and Future hadn't taken the child, then who? Xerton, the smuggler who'd lied originally, would have the answer to that he hoped and whether the Council okayed it or not, he was going back to Xerton and find the truth. He wasn't dropping this; this was his problem. He'd found the child, picked him as a Jedi candidate and gone to fetch him; when the child had disappeared, taken by people unknown, people claiming to be Jedi, it became Keltar's problem. And he wasn't going to let anyone else solve it. After the two had left the Council Chamber, the Council talked long into the evening, and in all their minds, they wondered what they had done to inspire such hatred, that three men would willingly give their lives for no other reason than to do them hurt. This was a hatred worth thinking on; the Jedi Council feared, in the back of their collective mind, that they had strayed somewhere from the ideal. -----signature----- All they found of the Duchesse d'Alencon was her head.
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VaderLVR64 Title: Fan Fic Manager Digging out from Fay Registered: Feb '04	Date Posted: 6/4 5:28am Subject: RE: Zero Sum: The Innocent Saga, Part Three (of Five)
	OH I KNOW I want to follow this one. Please PM me when you update. -----signature----- If you have to choose between tears and laughter, remember that laughter burns more calories. They call me NANA Vader. At least she doesn't lack confidence...
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Katana_Geldar Title: Former CR Tasmania, AU Registered: Mar '03	Date Posted: 7/18 3:10am Subject: RE: Zero Sum: The Innocent Saga, Part Three (of Five)
	Who'd a thunk it, mixing politics with a mystery. Also, any word on the insider in the Jedi Order? PM me updates if you can, rogue -----signature----- Jacen and the two Vergeres http://swfanon.wikia.com/wiki/User:Katana_Geldar/Jacen_Solo%2C_Vergere_and_the_Force You love your noir? http://boards.theforce.net/before_the_saga/b10475/28179404/p1/?10 Aliena nobis, nostra plus aliis placent.
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Rogue1-and-a-half Title: Manager: Amphitheatre Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 9/4 3:17pm Subject: RE: Zero Sum: The Innocent Saga, Part Three (of Five)
	Van Spicer let out a long breath, ran her fingers through her short brown hair. She was alone in the Council Chamber, the other members having finally been dismissed. There were days she wished for anything but what she had. Any life, she thought, would be better than this one. She remembered something from an ancient text, a story of Jedi in battle. "Do you think I'd be here if I could do anything else?" one of the Jedi had said just before he died. At the time, fresh into the order, just reaching independence, her master slowly letting her free of his teaching, she'd thought the line not so much heretical as simply idiotic. Now she understood. She wondered what the young Van Spicer would have thought of the life she was now leading. She thought she knew; she would have found it, not necessarily heretical, but simply stupid beyond belief. Van Spicer was tired; she was not a leader; she certainly didn't have it within her to make the kinds of decisions she was being faced with now. Things had gone very wrong, not just today, not just this week but for a very, very long time. She walked to the window, pressed her forehead against its coolness and thought about what it would feel like to fly for even an instant. She opened her eyes. In the reflection in the window, a dim reflection in the dark council room, a shadow moved, a figure suddenly stepped forward. She caught only the shape of a hood and she spun, a gasp of fear in her throat. It was Ran Keltar. "By the Force, Ran . . ." "Indeed," Keltar said. "You didn't hear me coming?" She ignored the slightly mocking reproach that tinged his voice. "I was meditating," she snapped. "Mmm," Keltar said. "About what?" "The after life," she said, her own tones becoming mocking. She reined herself in. This kind of dislike was utterly out of bounds for a Council member. "I'm rather busy thinking about this one," Keltar said. "I've decided that I need to go back, find Xerton again. Well, not find him, he's still in prison, I suppose. But find out who paid him to feed me misinformation." Spicer gritted her teeth. "Maybe it's time to let this one go, Ran." "You're so familiar tonight," Keltar said. "Only happens when we're alone, I notice." "Calling you by your first name is hardly familiar," Spicer said. "Not compared to how familiar we used to be, it's true," Keltar said. "I've been thinking about that too." "Thinking about the future and the past all in one night?" Spicer said. "That's hardly intelligent." "Been thinking about it for a long time. I was having dreams," Keltar said. "When I was with Family & Future. I was remembering things. What was the name of that cretin you used to so close too?" "Gage," Spicer said. "Gage, yes," Keltar said. "Hard to believe he's been dead this six years." "Master Keltar," Spicer said. "This hardly seems pertinent." "It's very pertinent," Keltar said. "I can't see why." "I know you can't. You never could." Keltar stepped away from her, turned a slow circle in the room. "If I hadn't seen Gage buried with my own eyes, I'd expect him to pop out from behind one of these chairs." He stopped, turned back to her. "I still expect him to be pulling your strings." The venom in his voice was a physical thing in the room. "Enough," Spicer said. "You lied to me a lot back then," Keltar said. "I kept trusting you. I don't anymore." "You're under a lot of stress," Spicer said. "Go get some sleep. And we can talk tomorrow." "Tomorrow, I'll be gone," Keltar said. "Back on the trail of this child." He paused. "Why don't you want me to find him? Really?" Spicer lowered her head, loosed a sigh of incredible depth. "Ran . . ." "See, that's why it's all so pertinent," Keltar said. "The Jedi aren't supposed to own anything. But we own our hearts, don't we? And every feeling in them?" "We learn to master our emotions," Spicer said. Her voice was entirely flat, no inflection at all. "Yes, and I have," Keltar said. "I've given up everything the Jedi have asked me for . . ." Spicer barked a sharp laugh. "Please! We know about your activities outside this temple. You've hardly sacrificed for love. Your indiscretions are the talk of . . ." "If you think those count for anything," Keltar said, "You are a fool." He closed his eyes. "Everything I've ever wanted the Council has taken from me." Spicer closed her mouth. Delusion this deep did not brook confrontation. Keltar knew as well as she did the ways he flaunted the traditions and the Code, the one night stands, the dark bars with even darker corners. Spicer saw him then, in a flash of lightning, so young, so very young, so many years ago, remembered a darkened corner, clamped down on her tongue with her teeth and shut her eyes to the memory. "So, I'm going," Keltar said. "This child is important. I feel it. He's a turning point. If Family & Future didn't take him, then I have no idea who did. But Xerton flew the ship for whoever it was. He lied to me once; he won't lie to me again. I'll find out this time. I'm going. Tonight." Van Spicer slumped back against the window, thought again about flying, nodded. "Go," she said. "All the way to hell if you like. I don't care." Keltar turned to go away. "Ran," she said. "Try not to kill any more people." His face was in shadow. "No promises." "No more innocent people?" "No promises." -----signature----- All they found of the Duchesse d'Alencon was her head.
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VaderLVR64 Title: Fan Fic Manager Digging out from Fay Registered: Feb '04	Date Posted: 9/5 7:06pm Subject: RE: Zero Sum: The Innocent Saga, Part Three (of Five)
	I was wondering about this one. Great update! Van Spicer slumped back against the window, thought again about flying, nodded. "Go," she said. "All the way to hell if you like. I don't care." Keltar turned to go away. "Ran," she said. "Try not to kill any more people." His face was in shadow. "No promises." "No more innocent people?" "No promises." -----signature----- If you have to choose between tears and laughter, remember that laughter burns more calories. They call me NANA Vader. At least she doesn't lack confidence...
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Healer_Leona Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 4:07am Subject: RE: Zero Sum: The Innocent Saga, Part Three (of Five)
	Great to see more here. I'd have to agree with Keltar needing to get to the bottom of this. -----signature----- I want to swim away but don't know how Sometimes it feels just like I'm falling in the ocean
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