"Speaking of discipline," Kanan growled once he heard the Phantom docking with the Ghost again. Ezra slid down the ladder and the adults stood up to chat. "Ezra, we need to talk."

"Yeah, we do," he agreed surprisingly as he was joined by Sabine and eventually Zeb. "About the two Inquisitors we just ran into."

"Inquisitors?" Kanan asked, and everyone was on edge now. Rex stared at the young Padawan. He had heard plenty about the Grand Inquisitor, but he was under the impression that he was dead. Not that it meant anything, the original Inquisitor had 'died' too, but no one else knew that except for Skywalker.

Kanan and Hera looked at each other before looking back at the teenagers. Sabine put her two cents in. "Yes, two. We got lucky. Zeb saved us," she explained, gesturing back to him as he climbed down with the medical supplies they had been sent to find. "Without him, things could have been bad."

Rex nodded at the Lasat. "Well done, soldier."

"It was a group effort," he said humbly. Now that he had teased the other kids a little bit, there was no need to show off. "Those Inquisitors are nasty business. Kanan, why didn't you tell us there were more of 'em?"

They all looked to Kanan, but he was speechless. He didn't have an answer. Hera stepped in before anyone else could speak and Kanan sat down. "Commander Sato is going to need a full report on this."

Everyone seemed willing to drop the question for the time being. "Well, we did get the medical supplies," Ezra reminded her. "Some of them."

"Well, that's good news," she assured him. "I'll meet you three on the command deck," she decided, and Zeb, Sabine, and Ezra took that as their cue to leave.

Before that, though, Ezra said one last thing. "Kanan, they knew about Master Skywalker."

"I'll tell him," he promised, and to himself he thought, and that won't be the only thing I say.

When all the others had left the room, Rex and Hera turned to Kanan. "Did you know there was more than one?"

"No, I didn't," he confessed, his voice low. To Rex, he asked, "Do you think Skywalker knows?"

"I honestly don't know," Rex admitted, "but if anyone knows, it would be him. You should give him a call."

He planned to, but Kanan shook his head. "We really have no idea what we're up against."

~

Anakin was in the middle of a mission when the call came. Thankfully, he was in the thick of a market that was completely crowded, so there was no way for Imperial forces to single him out. Good thing, too, because he wasn't expecting a transmission.

It was R2-D2 who let him know he had a call. "Buddy, you know I don't take calls at times like these," he reminded him. "Is this one important?"

Artoo told him it was Kanan calling, and Anakin hesitated. No matter how much Kanan disliked military hierarchy, he respected protocols like these and wouldn't call unless it was urgent. He looked around, decided he didn't want to chance being overheard, and slid down a back alley before jumping up to the rooftops.

After making sure stormtroopers couldn't see him from any lookout posts, he spoke into his comlink again. "Cloak the transmission and put him through."

The droid complied, and soon his comlink crackled with static before establishing the connection. "This is Fulcrum," Anakin said, signalling he wasn't in a safe position to talk openly. Kanan would know and understand.

"Spectre-1 to Fulcrum, sorry about the timing," the familiar voice came through. "I didn't know who else to call, though."

"It's alright, I've got some time," he assured him. "Is everyone okay?"

He sighed through the microphone. "Barely, by the sounds of it. Spectres-4, -5, and -6 just ran into two more Inquisitors on a mission."

First Offee, now more Inquisitors? Anakin set his jaw, wishing he wasn't in the middle of something. This deserved more than a cloaked transmission, it deserved a face-to-face conversation, as well as possibly some extra training time. "Injuries?"

"None, just rattled them, I think," he explained. "Rattled me too. I wasn't expecting that kind of news."

"I don't blame you, Inquisitors have a habit of popping up all over the place at very inconvenient times. Not that any time is convenient."

"Wait, you knew there more out there???"

"I thought you did..." Anakin thought quickly. "Was the Grand Inquisitor the only one you've seen so far?"

"Other than the original? Yeah!"

Anakin mumbled a few explicitives and didn't really care if Kanan heard them. "Officially, there are thirteen Inquisitors."

"THIRTEEN?"

He didn't have time to explain everything he knew, but he could give a quick summary. "The original Inquisitor was the First Sister, but she died during the Clone Wars. You killed the Grand Inquisitor, I don't know what number he is, but he fits in there somewhere. Seven more have died since then, but I don't know where they fall in the Inquisitorius. From what I've found, they have some kind of number system."

Silence came from the other end, and Anakin couldn't imagine the look on Kanan's face right now. Eventually, in a rather shocked voice, he asked, "How do you know all this?"

"Remember when I told you about the Balance of the Force?"

"Yeah, you said you could see all Force-users. Could you see them?"

"I can, but I don't know who they are," he explained. "They're just images, I don't know for sure their names or where they are. The only reason I figured out they are Inquisitors is because of evidence they've left behind or certain things about their appearance. There was one Inquisitor, the Second Sister, I think, who was killed on Nur. I had seen her drop off the Balance but I didn't know what happened to her until after I became Fulcrum. The only reason I was there at all was because it had been the headquarters for the Inquisitorius. I was trying to investigate and find some intel about the Inquisitors, and...well, I found some. Enough to give me a basic knowledge about their work, but not much else."

He sighed, looking down at his feet. "I should have told you earlier. As soon as Offee showed up, that should have been a hint that more Inquisitors were coming. They've been doing her dirty work for years, by the looks of things."

"We didn't know," Kanan went on, having not really paid attention to Anakin's story. "I thought we were done with them, but you're telling me it's only just started? Nine out of thirteen are dead, but there are still four more out there and they know about all three of us! How long are we going to have to keep looking over our shoulders?"

Anakin wanted to give a definite answer, he wanted to assure Kanan and tell him soon they'd be able to live their lives in relative peace. Instead, he told him the truth: "I don't know."

Silence followed again, and Anakin wondered if Kanan would hang up on him in frustration. He wouldn't have blamed him, as Anakin was nearly kicking himself over not warning him or Ezra about the other Inquisitors. He didn't even try to excuse his neglect.

Yet even so, Kanan was still transmitting. "That data you found on Noor, or whatever it was, did it tell you which Inquisitors were which?"

"Yes, but I don't have it with me," he explained. "Did the other Spectres see the Inquisitors?"

"A male and a female, both pretty tall. The female had yellow skin with faint patterns on her face, and the male had grey skin and light eyes. It's not a lot, but they were wearing a lot of armor so there wasn't much else to see, apparently."

He laughed half-heartedly. "It's fine, there's usually not. I'll dig that datatape up and look through it again. I've marked which ones I've found in the past five years, so hopefully that will help narrow it down. Not that it will do much, Inquisitors abandon their names once they commit. It might help track their movements, though."

"I'll take anything, at this rate." Anakin heard Kanan exhale, and he imagined him staring off into space. After a moment, he asked, "What about the other two? The ones that are still alive?"

Shaking his head, Anakin looked around the rooftops. He doubted an Inquisitor would be here, but just thinking about it set him on edge. "All the data we collect is scanned for signs of Inquisitors. If we find anything, I'm usually the first to hear about it. Unless that happens, there's not much to do except keep our eyes and ears out. Unfortunately, the Empire is fairly good about compartmentalizing. They won't announce the location of an Inquisitor unless they're deployed in the region, and it's not like the Sith to keep all their assets in one place. If you've already seen two, I doubt you'll see the others."

"Why not? Why wouldn't they send all the Inquisitors after us?"

"Just in case we beat them. They don't want to lose their guinea pigs. Tyrannus and Offee are too smart and not desperate enough."

"I'm not sure whether I should be relieved or worried."

"Both is good," Anakin decided, and Kanan laughed a little bit. It helped release the tension, but it still left them with a large problem on their hands. "The next time I stop by, maybe we can strategize a little more. I picked up a lightsaber from a fallen Inquisitor I found a few years ago. It might be a good idea to start training against it."

"When will you be around again?"

"No idea," he confessed, looking back down at the crowd he was supposed to be blending in with, "but I'll stop by the first chance I get. Hopefully, we can all stay alive until then."

A warm wind blew past his face, and he turned his head to get it out of his eyes. It was only then that he saw the starship he had been waiting for. "I'm out of time."

Kanan knew better than to protest. "Good luck. May the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you," he replied, and he ended the call. He hated cutting off the conversation, especially after he had screwed up so badly, but Anakin didn't have a choice. He didn't have a very big window for this. All he could do was promise himself that he would stop by Commander Sato's fleet soon and make it up to the Jedi.

For now, though, he set his feet and focused on the ship. As it approached, he took a running start before leaping into the air, landing on the hull as the two crossed paths. He rolled and got a hold of a ledge, steadying himself so he wouldn't fall. Maneuvering to the back of the vehicle, he waited patiently. Soon, the ramp 'mistakenly' opened mid-flight and Anakin slid in before any Imperial detectors noticed he had boarded.

Once inside, he flipped the hood of his cowl down and looked around the loading bay. No one was inside except for two guards standing near the door to the rest of the ship. Wordlessly, Anakin walked past them. This wasn't the first time he had boarded this ship and he knew his contact would be waiting for him on the main deck. Or rather, Senator Amidala's contact. Technically, Anakin was here on her behalf.

Guards lined the hallways to the deck, but Anakin wasn't bothered by them. Nowadays, though senators could usually avoid being hounded by a stormtrooper security detail, they were accompanied by personal protectors, usually formed from natives of their system. Seeing as Anakin was in the home system of Senator Amidala's contact, he wasn't surprised. Nor was he surprised when the doors opened and the contact was sitting there, waiting for him.

When he saw the rebel agent, the contact smiled and stood to greet him. "Fulcrum."

"Senator Bonteri," Anakin replied, reaching out to shake his hand. "It's been a few years."

"I see you're still doing well, though," Lux Bonteri noted, accepting the handshake. "The Empire hasn't got the best of you yet?"

"No, but they're trying harder than ever," he admitted, though he didn't dare share what Kanan had just told him.

Still, Lux didn't look very surprised. "I would too, if I were in their position. As it were, I'd rather help make sure that doesn't happen."

Anakin nodded. Onderon had been one of the first systems recruited into the Rebellion other than the systems of the original three founders: Naboo, Aalderan, and Chandrila. "I heard you have some intel for the council?"

"And plenty of it," he added, handing over not one or two, but three datatapes. "I figured it was safer to give it directly to you than to transmit it and risk the Empire tapping the message."

"Then let's see what we've got to work with," Anakin invited, motioning to the benches where Lux already had a projector set up. "Shall we?"