The next day, Ree takes her family to the limmic match. Corellia devastates Coruscant. The day after that, she obsesses over her date all day. Z has tickets to the opera for the rest of the group, but it turns out Onna and Oola already got their own, so Z is left with two extra seats. Lydia gets invited (and is scandalized when Oola offers her a receiver for the bug she planted in Ree's gown), and Zan, who agrees but seems dubious. Kedrihm'Val goes just to make sure Z won't run amok, and he's fairly aghast at Onna and Oola.
The date--Ree and Kyp, and Han and Leia--goes well. Rodian opera is interestingly...Shakespearian. Then the Force-users sense an actor who keeps thinking about the chancellor's box. Ree leaps forward as he shoots, then a guy with a lightsaber and an assassin droid kicks into the door to their box. Z, who's in formal wear, leaps on the actor from above. And angry droids attack the stage.
Z disarms the actor and shoots him in the crotch, then sees the droids and calls "A little help!" Zan and Lydia jump down to the stage, while Kedrihm'Val swings up into the catwalk.
Han blows up the assassin droid. Kyp, Leia, and Ree all face the other poor sucker with their lightsabers out. Han and Kyp take him out, and then Kyp backflips out onto the stage, followed a second later by everyone else. Z stuffs a stun grenade into the actor's pants and throws him up to Oola, with the order, "Keep him alive!"
Kedrihm spots a guy sneaking through the catwalk and leaps at him, coming down on him feet-first on the stage. Z screams, "PRIMAL JEEEEEUSTICE!" "Shut up, Z," Kedrihm'Val replies. Lydia and Ree each take another target out, noting that these guys look kinda Thule. Leian and Zan hold back to keep an eye out, while Kyp destroys a big gladiator droid that they brought in. Han blows up the last droid to a standing ovation. Zan closes the curtains with the Force.
Oola and Onna come down to the stage with their unconscious captive. Ree is miffed, but they don't let her break off the date to take the prisoners back to the temple. After the group leaves, the date continues to dinner. "I don't know what they expected to happen," Han comments to Leia. "Maybe they should've waited till tomorrow night so we'd all be together."
At the temple, the Jedi already saw the action in the news. "I don't know what they expected to happen," Kedrihm'Val comments. The Rodian, it turns out, was mind-controlled, and does not hold a grudge. They're a tough and practical people, the Rodians, not to mention violent.
Meanwhile, back on the date, they talk about the name of Reeshome, and what'll happen to it now. Ree keeps calling Kyp "Master Durron." "You can call me Kyp, Ree," he points out to her. "And you can call me Master Solo!" Han adds cheerfully, then gets slapped upside the head by Leia. Aw, they're flirting. Leia asks Ree what she plans to do in a year or two once she's done with the heroics. Han reassures her that not every date involves getting shot at (though it isn't unusual). Kyp compliments Ree's bread, which makes her very happy.
Regarding the incident at the opera, the news headlines proudly proclaim, "The Oddest Way We Know of to Commit Suicide!"
Kedrihm'Val suspects that these guys aren't really Thule. Oola finds out the droids were mindwiped yesterday, stolen property. She tries to see who stole them, but it proves to tell them nothing more than that the Force users who attacked them did it. Kedrihm'Val looks for ID, and finds a couple of vials of dirt. He takes those to Oola. Oola has SARR poke, er autopsy the dead bodies for DNA and ID signs. All notable identifiers are gone, but the Force users have Shadow Academy tattoos.
Searching for hobbies to talk about, Kyp asks Ree if she knows anything about flying fighters. Han compliments Kyp's taking out Anakin, especially his piloting. He notes offhandedly how fast Kyp got to Dathomir, then turns back to talking to Leia. Ree follows up on the hint (it was quite something, after all, especially seeing as he was supposed to be out with Luke in another quandrant of the galaxy at the time, fighting a war). Kyp tries to dodge the subject, but after Leia drops another hint, Ree finally grasps the implication that Kyp had purposely gone out of his way to protect her. Kyp tries to change the subject to Life Day on Ree's world and how they celebrate it.
Oola spots more dirt and Shadow Academy signs. The earth, it turns out perhaps predictably, comes from Alderaan. The DNA is also all Alderaanian. She gives the report to Luke, who says, "oh WOW." He considers that it may be a frame-up and puts Roon on the case. They meet Dalt outside the Council chamber, who has been waiting to get the story from them. Dalt suggests finding addresses and ransacking houses. Zan turns out to be lurking, too, and he wonders if the Imperials are involved in manipulating the Alderaanians. Dalt says they helped with the Shadow Academy because they wanted Force users of their own.
Oola tells her brother to watch the Alderaanian delegates. He asks after the Blueprint, which is being kept at the temple. Then Oola and co. take Dalt burgling (they take him to the nicest places). The first house is pasted with Alderaanian stuff. In fact, all the places do except for the Shadow Academy people, who are also the only ones who don't have dedicated secure holomailers. Oola manages to recover a little from those--they have a meeting place at a gentlemen's club for Alderaanian men. All these men are members. The homes of the Shadow Academy guys, on the other hand, have nothing special or incriminating lying about at all, which makes sense considering they're actually trained in how to do this sort of thing.
On the date, Kyp wants to know why Ree's family obsessed over their tractor so much. Ree explains how it's important to a farm family. It's their way of trying to impress him. They talk about Set Harth. Kyp suggests they meet at the library to do some research tomorrow. How cute, he's asking for another date!
SARR gets sent to the club, since only Dalt and Z can really pass for Alderaanian males and...well, that's not safe. SARR learns that the assassins were very patriotic. The place is very mopey, anti-Republic, and anti-Jedi, except for some Antarean Rangers who're irritated by the irrational attitudes of the others and want to engage in further discussion with the Republic. Endek is bitter, but he's not irrational. Well. He's telling spooky stories about Vader chasing him. It looks like the two Shadow Academy guys were taking advantage of a pack of big talkers who were easily led.
Kyp walks Ree home--considering they live in the same place--and take the long way through gardens outside the temple. Kyp is actually smooth. They run into Luke just outside a side entrance to the temple, who briefs them on events. Kyp and Ree studiously ignore Mara lurking in the shadows of the bushes.
SARR bestows a very roundabout compliment on the group for being proactive and useful. "You make me money by being you. I value that." Incidentally, droids aren't actually allowed to own property. He's been hiding it as Onna's assets.
By the next day, the press has gotten hold of the idea that the assailants were Thule agents. Kedrihm points out that if the plotters behind this really want to frame Alderaan, then they'll either try again or provide convenient information to the press.
Luke gives his address, informing people that he's establishing more training facilities, helping the Republic secure its borders (near the Imperial Remnant, is the implication, and "We're keeping an eye on you, Thrawn" goes unsaid), and focusing on fixing Abindosan. Then he announces his engagement, to the surprise of everybody including Kyp (but not Han).
The crew plans to go after Drath soon. Also, Dalt thinks he can find away to find the mutated woman from his base on Rodia.
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