There's a Mirror On the Wall

Obi-Wan flattens his ears, wrapping his newly acquired tail around him as he tries to pretend this isn't happening. It's bad enough that he's all of ten pounds of fluff - soaked fluff that looks like a half-drowned womp-rat according to Anakin. He doesn't need to be hearing what sounds like his master's voice in the back of his mind. Not right now.

He jumps, and whirls, hissing violently when he feels something swipe across the back of his head. That Obi-Wan doesn't stumble when he lands has more to do with the ground being layers of leaf litter and mud than any sort of balance. It doesn't stop his legs from sliding out from under him, though, and he stares up at the much-larger cat that has disturbingly familiar blue eyes.

/You're dead./

/I was./ Qui-Gon - it has to be, for all that he's a cat - flops down on the ground with more grace than Obi-Wan had just managed. /I was following you when you tripped... whatever it was./

Obi-Wan can hear the frown in Qui-Gon's voice, a sense of puzzlement. If even someone who was dead - a ghost? - has no idea what they found was, how are they supposed to figure it out? Especially since they're all of them rather small and feline.

He glances over when he hears a confused and slightly wary mrow, fairly certain the cream-and-yellow cat that's watching Qui-Gon is Cody. There are other places where he's certain there are other clones-turned-cats creeping through the leaf-litter toward them, stalking in the same manner they might on two feet in armor.

It's a pity they can't talk in the same manner Obi-Wan can talk to Anakin and Ahsoka and Qui-Gon, while turned into cats, but he can at least try to make sure they don't attempt to mob Qui-Gon. Carefully, he picks himself up out of the mud, ignoring the extra wet and grime in his fur, and pads over to Qui-Gon, climbing up so he's sitting on his shoulder. It's disconcerting, being that much smaller, but the new line of sight does make up for it.

Cody gives him another mrow, though this time it sounds distinctly more annoyed, and Obi-Wan can see how tightly Cody's ears are back against his skull as the small cat begins to stalk toward him. Or toward Qui-Gon, he's not quite sure which.

*leaves fic, and runs away giggling*

"Who are your new friends, little one?" The woman smiles, glancing over them all a moment. Evaluating them, and Qui-Gon feels as if she's dismissed them - unimportant or harmless.

"They came to Watto's shop for a part for their ship, and they can't find it. I thought we could take them where they need to go?" Anakin tilts his head, his smile never fading.

"Perhaps." The woman looks up, looking them over a moment. "Where did you need passage to?"

"Coruscant, for nine passengers. Can your ship handle that many?" Qui-Gon folds his hands in the sleeves of his tunic, avoiding any appearance of using a mind trick, in case she is familiar with that technique.

A smile quirks up the corner of the woman's mouth, her eyes crinkling at the corners in some private amusement. "If you're very familiar with each other, I think that can be arranged." She pauses, tilting her head in an echo of Anakin's earlier gesture, watching Qui-Gon for a long moment. "You don't have a lot in the way of luggage, I hope?"

"There are several dresses my lady needs to bring with her." Padmé speaks before Qui-Gon can confirm the lack of luggage. "We cannot leave them behind, Master Jinn."

"Hmm." The woman purses her lips a moment. "That will cost more than just the passengers, child. There's not going to be a lot of cargo room with as many people as your Jedi intends."

"We can bring fewer people, but the wardrobe must come. My lady will require them on Coruscant." Padmé gives Qui-Gon a long look, and he smiles, tilting his head. She can keep her ruse, and he will leave it to her to determine how many of those in her party will accompany them, and who will remain with their crippled ship.

"If the lady agrees to a reduced entourage, and there is room for her wardrobe." Qui-Gon looks at the pilot again. "How much will it cost us?"

"Expenses incurred by leaving my apprentice behind, any fees Coruscant charges for docking and customs, and five thousand Chomar or ten thousand Republic dactariis." The pilot glances at Padmé a moment, a flash of curiosity crossing her face. "And if I have to make repairs because I'm transporting someone important and someone gets ideas, the cost of those as well."

"That's expensive, especially for cramped quarters."

The pilot grins, showing off sharp canines - filed or natural, Qui-Gon isn't certain. "You won't find a better price, not if you want to make it to Coruscant from here with such a pretty companion. There are a lot of people who'll pay more than that to have her delivered into their hands, and people who won't care that you're a Jedi."

"That's the second time you've named me Jedi." Qui-Gon still has no sense that she's Force-sensitive. "What makes you think that?"

"I don't just make runs in the Outer Rim, Jedi. I know when I see one." She shrugs. "You don't hide very well, anyway. Now, you can pay the price I named, or you can try some other pilot, but as I said, you won't find a better price, nor a safer ship."

/We almost lost him./ Tages sounds as shaken as Rossi feels, though he does his best to hide it while he watches Aaron resting on his hospital bed. /He would have been dead too long, if that piece of fin-rot hadn't brought him here./

/I know./ Rossi keeps his reply internal, even though he would prefer to speak aloud, and knows Tages wants to pace. It takes a moment to lock down that urge again, and by the time they're no longer half a second from exploding into movement, Aaron is watching him in return.

"Did you hear what happened this morning?" Anything to keep himself from blurting out something that would reveal Tages, would make Aaron suspicious of what might be going on beyond Rossi being worried.

"No." Aaron's voice is quiet, and a little rough. Tears, Rossi would wager, that he refuses to admit or shed.

"We had a situation." One which had dragged them from sleep, though fortunately not from a session with the sarcophagus. He'd been planning to do that after he woke up.

/We can use it tonight, before bed. Sleeping after should be enough to let the worst of the side-effects dissapate. The rest we can pass off as the stress of the last case, and this./

"Unsub had already killed two people; said he was going to keep killing, unless a man used his son as bait." Rossi watches Aaron's face, and can feel Tages watching with him. Observing reaction, and judging how well he's getting through to Aaron.

"What happened?" Aaron doesn't break his gaze, only blinks a little, holding so still Rossi worries a little.

"We kept the boy safe." As if there had been any other option. "Worked the profile. It was a happy ending."

/Only because we didn't have to argue with paramedics about Reid./

/There was a doctor right there, and the paramedics weren't far away. He would have been fine even if the wound were a bit worse./

Tages gives a mental snort that Rossi ignores in favor of paying attention to Aaron's reaction to the news. Looking away, his eyes shining a little brighter with unshed tears, not quite what Rossi's looking for.

"Do you know why I'm telling you this?"

Aaron's reply is almost inaudible, but at least it's a yes.

"No other group in the world could have pulled off what your team did in a matter of hours."

Aaron closes his eyes, and Rossi hears Tages begin to curse quietly in the back of his mind.

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, Dave."

"We'll get Foyet."

/And I will eat his.../

/Tages. Remember that I would rather not eat parts of other human beings? No matter how richly they might deserve having parts of them being consumed by a predator in front of their eyes./

/Hmph. I still want to./

There are times when Rossi still is disconcerted by Tages, by the utterly alien mind that has been his companion for so long.

Aaron finally opens his eyes again, but he won't look at Rossi, gaze darting over the ceiling panels instead.

"I promised Haley we would get him, but the truth is if he stops killing, we have no way of tracking him." There's a creeping despair in Aaron's voice that Rossi does not like hearing. "He stopped killing for ten years just for the pleasure of watching Shaunessy's life fall apart."

Aaron stops, letting out a sharp breath, and Rossi has to bite back a promise that there's nowhere Foyet can go on the planet - or anywhere else - that he and Tages can't find him, even if he stops killing. Even if the team fails. It's technology beyond what he should have access to, and no matter how much he wants to protect his team, and his planet, he can't do that if he tips his hand now.

"What's Jack going to remember about me in ten years?" Aaron's voice doesn't quite wobble, but Rossi can hear the break beginning, the fear that Aaron had hidden until now.

He takes a step forward, Tages whispering vicious promises of destruction in his ears. "Hotch, look at me." Rossi waits until Aaron does look back at him to add, "I'm telling you. We'll get him."

/And he will not kill again, even if I have to take him apart with my bare hands./

/You know that will end our career, and make it hard to keep living, if we don't have an exit plan./

/We always have an exit plan, Dave. We'll be fine. So long as the team is alive and in one piece, we'll be fine./