After a humiliating training session, Hera walked with Ezra to the others. "Kanan?" he asked, hoping to talk more about it, but Sabine shushed him.

"You made the HoloNet," she announced, and the entire crew listened to the broadcast.

A male announcer was speaking. "...the stolen TIE fighter was later used to attack a transport full of innocent workers."

Zeb, who happened to have flown that TIE, objected. "You liar! We set 'em free," he corrected, but at that moment, the broadcast was interrupted. The channel crackled with static as another speaker took over the announcement.

"Citizens, this is Senator-in-Exile Gall Trayvis. I bring more news the Empire doesn't want you to hear."

"What's a Gall Trayvis?" Ezra asked, having never heard of such a person.

Hera explained quickly, not wanting to miss what was being said. "The only member of the Imperial Senate with the courage to speak out publicly against the Empire."

The broadcast changed from an image of Trayvis to a recording of two stormtroopers walking with a man in an orange prisoner suit. "One of the Republic's greatest peacekeepers, Jedi Master Mace Windu, is alive. He has been imprisoned unlawfully somewhere in the Stygeon system. As citizens, we demand the Emperor produce Master Windu and grant him a fair trial before the entire Sena-"

Crackling again, the channel switched back to the Imperial news report, and Sabine shut off the system. No one cared about what the Imperials were saying, not now.

Kanan and Hera had both perked up at the mention of Master Windu. Hera could already tell Kanan was tempted to go after the Jedi Master, and from beside them Ezra asked, "This Windu...you knew him?"

Did he know him? Of course, he knew him, or at least he knew of him. Kanan was pretty sure every Jedi that used to live at the Coruscant Jedi temple knew of him. "I met him more than once. He taught my master when she was a Padawan. He was a great Jedi Master. Brave, skilled, disciplined." After a moment's consideration, he added, "In fact, he'd make an excellent teacher for you. There've always been rumors he survived the Clone War, but they never came with a specific location before. We can't pass this up." He started talking to Hera and didn't notice Ezra's expression at the mention of the apprentice transfer.

"Was hoping you'd say that," Hera agreed, smiling. "I'll set course for the Stygeon system."

"The rest of you, prep for an op," he instructed. Everyone moved to get ready, everyone except for Chopper and Ezra.

Once the others were gone, Chopper laughed at the teenage kid. "You hear that?" he asked, rather rhetorically. "He's done with me. He's gonna pawn me off on some stranger."

Chopper found it much more amusing than he did. He rolled off still cackling, but Ezra just stood there, his face falling. Maybe he should have guessed it. Kanan was probably regretting asking him to come on board and Ezra didn't blame him. After the disaster he had been during training, he'd regret it too.

~

Kanan ran up behind Sabine, who was at a nearby computer locating their target. "Where's Master Windu?" he asked, hardly able to believe they were this close to finding him. They were literally in the building with another Jedi, and a Jedi Master at that. They were so close.

"Detention block CC-01, isolation cell 69," she reported, conferring with the Imperial network.

"They have isolation cells on the lower levels?" he confirmed, double-checking with the computer, but it was true. "We planned off outdated schematics," he realized, slamming the console with his fist. That was the risk they ran with these types of missions, but today was the worst day to have this problem.

Behind him, Ezra hadn't quite caught up yet. "What does that mean?"

"It means the plan changes," he told him, a harsh edge starting to take over his tone.

From behind him, Zeb started picked up on the snap at the kid and tried to intervene a little bit. "You got a backup plan?"

The visual of the new schematics ran through his head, and already he was trying to plan new routes for them. "Figuring out one right now," he told them, walking towards the elevators. If they were in unknown territory, then splitting up was a bad idea. "Zeb, Sabine, you're coming along."

"What, we're supposed to hold our escape route here?" Zeb questioned, hesitating before joining them in the lift.

"Now the turbo-lift is our escape route," he explained, starting to put the pieces together in his mind. "Let's go!"

The Lasat complied, and Ezra hopped onto the elevator with them. The doors closed and took them down, and Kanan started working through the finer details of what needed to happen next. It wasn't like he was a stranger to having his plans ruined, but why did it have to happen on the day they were rescuing a Jedi? A real Jedi, not a Padawan like himself?

He tried not to worry, but for some reason he was feeling the pressure of this mission. Master Windu was the closest thing Kanan had gotten to Depa in over a decade, and he was ready to hand leadership over to someone else. Most of his life since the Jedi Purge had been just like this: he was making it up on the fly. He didn't know much about training an apprentice, but he was sure improvising was not the right way to do it and he was sure Master Windu would agree. Once he had another Jedi's lead to follow, hopefully, life would get a little easier.

Much easier than being cramped in this elevator. "Ugh, his plan gets worse all the time," Sabine complained from his right, almost proving his point.

"Just hope he doesn't change it again," Zeb reminded her, which hurt his ego just a little bit.

"I'm standing right here," he announced, pointing to the very spot on the floor that his feet were on.

That didn't deter the others. "We know," they both said in sync, and Ezra only adverted his gaze so he wasn't looking at any of them. Kanan crossed his arms in defiance. And this is why we're rescuing Master Windu, he thought.

~

After beating up the two guards who were standing at the turbo-lift entrance, Kanan creeped out of the doors into the detention block. "Maintain com silence, and whatever you do, hold. This. Lift," he instructed, and he looked around to make sure no one had noticed their entrance.

Unfortunately, someone had. Two more stormtroopers came around the corner and raised their blasters at the Padawan. Ezra stepped to the side for cover, but Kanan didn't move. Instead, he moved them, using the Force to pull the soldiers towards him. He tensed his biceps and contracted them as their heads flew towards his arms, and he knocked them both out with one hit.

"Wow, you're really not messing around tonight," Ezra noted.

He could have spent the rest of the evening explaining why that was, but he settled for: "There's a lot more at stake than you realize."

They found the cell they were looking for, along with another set of guards. It made sense, the Empire would guard any Jedi they found with as much manpower as they had. It was the same reason Kanan was so determined to not be captured. He was only a Padawan, but that wouldn't matter to someone like Agent Kallus.

Catching the gaze of the farthest trooper, he waved his hand in front of his face. "Shouldn't you be guarding the Jedi's cell? It's on the next level."

"It's on the next level," the guard repeated, and the other man turned to face Kanan.

"You'd better get moving," he suggested.

The trooper nodded in agreement. "We'd better get moving." The two of them turned and ran for the turbo-lift, and Ezra ran up behind Kanan.

Gesturing to the fleeing troopers, he asked, "When do I learn that?"

"Master Windu will teach you," Kanan answered, moving Ezra so he could access the control panel for the cell. As the door opened, he added, "Much better than I could." He didn't look back to see how Ezra reacted to his statement.

The cell, of course, was dimly lit, but the two of them walked in and saw a man seated on the far side. A human with dark skin, handcuffed and wearing an orange prisoner suit, just like in the announcement. Yet when Kanan looked at him, something was different than what he remembered. The man looked up when he realized they had entered, but the uneasy feeling only increased when Kanan made eye contact with him.

Ezra, who was making sure to stay behind Kanan, asked, "Is it really him?"

"Yes, but...something's wrong," he said, looking again. The relief he was expecting to feel right now wasn't there.

Master Windu stood up from the bench and walked over to them, standing right in front of Kanan. He said nothing, though. There was no greeting, no recognition, nothing. Surely, Master Windu couldn't have forgotten him that easily, right? Yeah, he looked different as Kanan Jarrus, but some small part of him was Caleb Dume, the apprentice of Windu's apprentice. Didn't he know that?

"Master?" he asked, hoping his voice would trigger some kind of reaction.

The one he got wasn't the one he was hoping for. Master Windu walked to the side of the cell, and if Kanan looked closely enough, his image flickers. He turned around, and with a sorrowful face, he walked back into a module of some kind. No, not a module, a sarcophagus.

Neither of the other two could keep the surprise off their face when they realized what was happening. The Jedi Master's form changed, and the life that had been projected into the room faded into reality: What was left of Mace Windu's remains took their place in the coffin. His cheeks sunk into his face so his jawbone was prominent, and his brown skin faded to dark grey. It was a good thing they couldn't see the rest of his body, who knew what it looked like now.

"What happened to him?" Ezra asked, but Kanan couldn't speak to answer. "I don't understand!"

"No?" an unfamiliar voice called out from outside the cell, and the two of them turned to see the visitor. "It doesn't seem complicated."

He was almost more unnerving than seeing Windu's remains. He had the palest skin either of them had ever seen, and the red markings on his face didn't help either. His armor suggested that he was Imperial, but his presence suggested something more. There was something about him that sent goosebumps down Ezra's arms.

"I am the Inquisitor," he announced, drawing a lightsaber from behind his back. A red one. His yellow bloodshot eyes stared down Ezra and Kanan, and his mouth split into an eerie grin. "Welcome."