Dathomir, the arrival

First, it's off to Yavin to talk to the Dathomiri students. They recall an outsider coming in to lead the Nightsisters, and how unusual it was because none of the Dathomiri are all that keen on outsiders. She had something to do with slaves, and kept trying to get into the Imperial compound. They never knew why, but the place was on auto-defense and there was no way the witches could break in. She used the Dark Side aggressively, which took a toll on her body, so she clung desperately to youth. She used a technique to drain vigor from other Force users, which restored her. She also had a core group of children she kept isolated from everyone else. Whether they were special followers or prisoners, no one is quite sure. The students name some Dathomiri who might be able to tell them more.

Kyp sends a message to Ree that Anakin has woken up and left the planet. He's probably heading to Dathomir, but Kyp did a bit of computer magic so that Anakin was misinformed on where to find it. It won't keep him away forever, but it does buy the crew a head start.

Next, to Ree's home. Dalt eats pie while Ree tells her uncle everything. He takes it better than the family insisted he would. He says Mora cared for her family, but she just wasn't cut out for farm life. She had a paranoid streak--didn't like gossip, and she tended to assume it was about her. Which, granted, it often was. Ree asks him to record a message for Mora.

INON helps Ree's mother cooks, and when she finds out Dalt is a chef, he gets drafted too. Z gives him the hairy eyeball and doesn't let him near the chocolate.

Ree's uncle is surprised when he learns who Dalt is. "You brought your villain home? Well, I suppose pie can make just about anything better..." Dalt likes being referred to as the crew's villain. Devith also suggests that Ree hunt up Endek. He's on-planet somewhere.

About then, Ree's youngest brother careens into the kitchen, panting and losing his mind about a guest at the door. Turns out, Han Solo has stopped by. He wants to talk about some of the "hard choices" they'll be making soon. Cal, Ree's brother, is amazed at how ugly the Falcon is.

Han, it turns out, is there to make some...not-quite-suggestions on how Anakin and Padme should be handled. He doesn't advocate killing them, exactly, but...well. Well. How far do you risk the galaxy just for one or two people?

Ree, meanwhile, slides into a chair across from Endek, taking a small sort of revenge for him turning up out of the blue on her all the time. She gets right to the point: "Hi! We're going to Dathomir. Wanna come?" He agrees.

So, what do they do when they get to Dathomir? Han wants to know. Honestly, they don't have a whole lot of plan. Take care of the Gate first, since it's the biggest threat. Dalt nixes the idea of blowing it up, as he says that could be disastrous (er, oops?). Dalt thinks he could disconnect the device in about 20 minutes if they drop him in with a stealth team. Alternatively, it's a bit rocky, but they could try pulling it away with a tractor beam so he can deal with it somewhere else.

Then they'll need to deal with the academy. Oh, and Maul may be there. That'll be Ree's department, along with anyone else who can manage to be sufficiently fast and/or brutal. They call Malina to help out, and figure they'll try to recruit some help among the other witch clans.

Dalt says he has the codes for the Imperial fortress. They can dock there, which will protect them from any craziness going on. Also, it'd certainly get Mora's attention, which means Ree might be able to talk to her. Z is thrilled at the challenge of taking on witches riding rancors.

So, asks Kedrihm'Val once that's all settled, what would happen if you blew up one of those devices? Well, says Dalt, that would really suck. Evil Dark Side goo flying everywhere, getting into the water table, gravitating toward any life. It might start corrupting a place. It'd particularly suck on a planet thick with life energy, like Dagobah or Dathomir or...Abindosan... Then Dalt kind of gives him a look that says he just realized why someone might be asking, and adds, "It'd head toward those reefs like magnets."

Anyway. A problem for a time when Darth Maul doesn't have a giant Dark Side laser.

It's easy to get into the garrison, and Dalt has quite obviously been there before. He's even got his own leather chair. It doesn't take long before the Nightsisters head out that way. Dalt captures one so they can question her. Turns out there are two groups now in-fighting. One is Mora's group, and the other is led by a new arrival...who turns out to be Padma Amidala. But Padme wasn't Force sensitive, so how could she get the witches to listen to her...? Maul put himself in Padme's body and put the Blueprint in his! The witch is shocked when she realizes what they're saying. She demands to know if they can prove it.

Perhaps they can, if they can drive Maul out of Amidala's body. And if they can find Maul's and disable it before he reaches it, they won't have to deal with a raging Dark Side Zabrak. They're able to locate Maul's ship about a mile from the are where the Nightsisters are fighting. they can disable him, zap him with some ysalamiri hormone (Oola's carting the stuff around now), and take the body to the battlefield so that everybody's there to see the result. Oola, Z, Kedrihm'Val and Dalt will grab him.

Dalt spots an AT-AT in the installation's hangar. He, Z, and Oola all want to take it for a test drive, but that's not exactly stealthy. Lydia has to use the Force on Z to get him to calm down. Actually, it's hard to tell whether it works or not, but at least he grudgingly listens.

While Z mines the ship with more detonators than they can account for him carrying (really don't want to know where he puts those), the plan goes as planned. Until they realize that Maul put Padme's consciousness in his body. That slows them down a bit, till Dalt says he can rig a droid to hold her mind for a short term. Once he does that, SARR grabs Maul's body and more hormone and medical implements start popping out of his head. When the alarmed meatbags ask just what he's doing, he explains that he's splicing ysalamiri hormone into one of Maul's thyroid glands (apparently Zabraks have four) so that his own body produces it. Creepy, but effective.

That done, they get back and Dalt activates the satellite defenses to defend against any pesky incoming Jedi clones. Then he takes Z down to the armory, where Z gets a Dark Side lightning gun and Dalt picks up a couple of extra lightsabers. The Nightsister, now feeling fairly cooperative, tells them how to surprise Maul.