The Negotiator and the Fire Fang

The Interlude: Off the Record

Sahrea Shan sat in her quarters, scrubbing away at her saber hilts. She still had mud in them from Kashyyyk and only kept finding more.

Shan was sitting cross legged on the floor, a towel over her work space along with a bucket of soapy water and fine pointed tool for the hard to reach places. She had taken the entire thing apart and found there was even more dirt packed into the silver hilt. Her eyes were sore from staring too close. Her fingers were cramping up, but she kept on. Her focus was interrupted by a knock on her door.

"Come in." she yelled. Sahrea was still zeroed in on her hilt as her guest entered into her bare quarters. It only contained a bunk, a desk topped with two holocrons, and a closet filled with what few possessions she had. Her guest stood awkwardly in the doorframe, unsure of what to do.

"Sit." Shan said, ushering with her hilt. Anakin Skywalker maneuvered around the workspace and squatted down opposite her.

He didn't say anything for a minute. He just watched as she picked grains out from the crevices of her ancestor's orange bladed saber. The knight was extremely troubled about something. She could sense his anxiety so strongly it even affected her. Her entire body went on edge the second he entered the room. She sighed and dropped the lightsaber into her lap.

"What's bothering you Anakin?" she asked him. "You're as jumpy as Herrarian Swamp Beetle." she commented with a smirk. Not even a twitch of a smile. He looked up at her, all emotion drained from his face.

Lately, he'd been a shell of his usual self. He'd been more serious, less inclined to joke, always stressed, snapping at people. Her friend sighed. He was hesitating, which was very much unlike him.

"Have you ever heard of a Force technique that could save another person from dying?" Skywalker asked tentatively. She gave him a concerned look, hoping the spike of shock she experienced didn't bleed through.

"What do you mean?" she questioned very carefully. She didn't know why, but something inside her told her to approach this with extreme caution. He tapped his knee.

"I was reading in the library and found a reference to this and I was curious." he answered offhandedly. It was a lie, but Shan responded like she didn't realize it was untrue. She was a little looser with her knowledge in hopes that he would open up as well.

"Well, it sounds like an Abomination of the Force to me. They have similar techniques." she explained.

"Is that how Darth Plagueis the Wise knew about it?" he asked, his voice both tight and inquisitive. Now this really  took her off guard. Her face expressed her surprise before his words even fully processed in her brain. Only Obi-Wan, Windu, and Yoda knew this information.

"Who told you about that?" she questioned. He looked down at his boots. "I told you. I read it." Sahrea knew for a fact there were no references to Plagueis in the library archives. But why would he lie? She narrowed her eyes at him. He wasn't looking at her. He was fiddling with the toe of his boot.

"So is it possible or not?" he asked, his voice holding an edge. Anakin looked up at her. She stared into his blue eyes, trying to discern what his trouble was, why he was lying, what he was hiding. All she got as an answer was his eyes staring back. She went back to cleaning out her sabers.

"Well, I suppose so. There are a lot of similar practices, some we don't even know." she explained, scratching out the last few grains of dirt.

"What kind of practices?" Blast it. She couldn't not not answer now. He would know that she was on to him, especially if Kenobi betrayed her trust and told him, but she didn't believe Obi-Wan would do that. If something was amiss, she couldn't let her suspicions show.