"We searched his ship thoroughly," Anakin reported to the trio who had been interrogating Bane, "but we found no trace of the children, and no holocron."
"Did you check the navigation systems?" Windu asked with growing concern.
"We did, but apparently Bane wiped all navigation data beforehand," Anakin said with obvious frustration.
"He must have purged the records before he even reached Naboo," Ahsoka added bitterly.
"So what do we do now?" Spider-Man asked, his voice tight with worry. "What does he want with those children?"
"Well, he's a bounty hunter and a complete psychopath," Pietro said bluntly. The clone troopers standing guard barely managed to suppress their grins at his assessment.
"That raises the critical question—how do we make him talk?" Plo Koon asked the assembled group.
"Perhaps we could use the Force to compel him to cooperate," Anakin suggested, his gaze fixed on the detention cell holding the captured bounty hunter.
"Bane is no ordinary criminal," Plo countered thoughtfully. "I'm afraid simple telepathic influence won't be effective against someone of his mental fortitude."
"Telepathic influence?" Pietro became visibly interested. "What exactly does that involve?"
Anakin provided a brief explanation. "Essentially, we can use the Force on individuals with weaker wills... to influence them to perform actions they wouldn't normally consider."
"Right, because that's completely different from torture—it just bypasses free will entirely," Natasha said with cutting sarcasm.
"It's far more complex than that, Ms. Romanoff," Plo said in a conciliatory tone.
"What if we combined our efforts and focused on his mind simultaneously?" Ahsoka suggested.
"Well, using the Force to coerce a particularly strong will into compliance is... extremely dangerous."
"There's a significant possibility his mind could be permanently damaged in the process," Windu added gravely.
The alarm and horror on Pietro and Peter's faces was unmistakable when they heard this revelation.
"Wait, what?" Spider-Man interrupted sharply. "Permanently damage his mind?"
"What alternative options do we have at this point?" Anakin asked defensively.
"Those children's lives hang in the balance," Anakin argued with growing intensity. "I understand this isn't the most honorable course of action, but we may have no choice."
"But destroying someone's mind? I always believed you were supposed to be peacekeepers and healers, not performing mental lobotomies," Spider-Man said with obvious disgust.
Ahsoka and Plo both stared at the young hero with expressions of hurt and disappointment.
Plo sighed wearily and placed a reassuring hand on the New Yorker's shoulder. "If this worst-case scenario does come to pass, then we will bear the full weight of that responsibility."
Spider-Man's eyes widened in shock before narrowing with obvious distrust as he studied the Jedi around him.
"Responsibility, huh?" Spider-Man asked pointedly. He wanted desperately to intervene and stop this course of action, but realized he was in no position to do much here, unwilling as he was to accept the moral reasoning of these Jedi.
He quickly turned and strode away, with Pietro immediately following Spider-Man out of the area.
"What's his problem with all this?" Ahsoka asked with genuine confusion.
Natasha sighed softly but remained silent, understanding more than she was willing to share.
Ahsoka recalled a previous conversation she'd had with Barriss and Spider-Man back at the Temple, where he'd seemed to react rather strangely to discussions about duty and responsibility. What did those concepts truly mean to him?
"As much as I despise having to resort to this, we have no other viable options," Anakin said, now feeling genuinely guilty considering the reaction he'd just witnessed from Spider-Man.
Nodding grimly to Skywalker, Windu re-entered the detention cell with Anakin and Plo following close behind, while Ahsoka and Natasha positioned themselves just outside the doorway.
The three Jedi Masters stood before Cad Bane, and the bounty hunter regarded them with mild curiosity and growing unease.
Closing his eyes in concentration, Anakin raised his hands first.
Channeling the Force through his voice, Anakin spoke with compelling authority, "You will take us to the holocron."
Bane scoffed dismissively. "Your Jedi mind tricks have no effect on me whatsoever."
Plo Koon then joined the mental assault, mirroring Skywalker's actions and repeating the same commanding words, "You will take us to the holocron."
This time, the Duros bounty hunter began to feel something invasive probing at his consciousness, and he started shaking his head violently as the mental pressure intensified with each passing moment.
Soon, Mace Windu finally added his considerable power to the effort, and all three Jedi were concentrating their full attention on their target. "You will take us to the holocron."
Bane began to struggle desperately as he felt an excruciating headache building. "I... I... I can't! You're deluding yourselves!"
"Take us there immediately!"
Bane began to collapse under the mental pressure, breathing heavily now. "I... I'll take you there." He then jerked himself out of his momentary submission, realizing he was beginning to surrender to their influence, and screamed defiantly, "No! Get out of my head!"
Ahsoka watched with growing concern and horror as she observed the bounty hunter struggling against the telepathic assault, his veins bulging prominently and throbbing visibly under the strain.
Finally, the three Jedi released their combined hold on Bane, causing him to collapse forward onto the interrogation table while gasping desperately for air.
Seeing that their initial attempt had been unsuccessful, Anakin proposed grimly, "Perhaps we should attempt this again with greater intensity."
Ahsoka was about to voice her serious concerns and objections when the bounty hunter seemed to finally surrender completely.
"I... I've had enough of this torture," he exhaled raggedly. "I'll take you... to recover the holocron. You'll get those children back safely."
Soon after, Bane was escorted to a waiting transport by a clone security team led by Commander Wolffe and several trusted sergeants.
The assembled Jedi and Avengers stood in the main hangar bay of the Resolute, carefully considering the implications of Cad Bane's surrender and subsequent words.
"He agreed to take us to the holocron," Windu observed thoughtfully, "but he also mentioned something about Jedha."
"What did he mean by that?" Ahsoka asked with obvious confusion.
"The situation is far more dangerous and complex than we initially anticipated," Plo Koon said grimly. "Something we foolishly failed to consider in our planning."
"What are you talking about?" Pietro asked with growing concern.
"He could have easily copied the holocron's data and transmitted it to whoever hired him for this operation. That means he could have confederates moving to capture the other children on the list simultaneously," Plo explained with obvious dread.
"So what's our course of action now?" Spider-Man asked with forced calm, still somewhat wary of the Jedi after witnessing their interrogation methods in the detention cell.
"We're going to have to divide our forces," Anakin decided. "One team travels to Jedha to protect the Force-sensitive children there. Another team accompanies Bane to retrieve the holocron. And a third team needs to locate where the kidnapped children are being held."
"Bane wouldn't be foolish enough to store the holocron in the same location as the captive children," Plo reasoned logically. "He would have separated them as a security precaution, without question."
"But he deleted all the navigation data from his systems," Ahsoka pointed out. "How can we possibly track them down?"
"There must be residual traces and clues aboard his ship," Natasha said with professional confidence. "No matter how thoroughly he scrubbed the data, there will always be recoverable fragments and evidence."
"So what's our operational plan?" Pietro asked.
"I will accompany Plo and our prisoner to retrieve the holocron," Mace stepped forward decisively. "Anakin, you focus on finding the kidnapped children, as you have more experience with ship navigation systems than most of us."
"That leaves Jedha," Natasha observed. "Who's assigned to that mission?"
"Jedha," Plo Koon mused thoughtfully. "If I recall correctly, Jedi Knight Aayla Secura is currently operating only one system away from that planet."
"Ahsoka, contact Aayla immediately and brief her on the situation. Then you and she will coordinate the protection mission," Anakin instructed his Padawan with clear authority.
"Master, are you certain about this assignment?" Ahsoka asked with obvious nervousness about operating independently.
"I'll go with her," Spider-Man stepped forward with a determined expression, apparently having resolved his moral concerns about their methods.
"And I'll accompany them as well," Natasha added supportively. "Those two need at least one experienced adult to provide backup."
"Then I'll remain here to assist you, Anakin," Pietro decided.
"Then let's begin immediately," Mace said firmly, turning and boarding the ship that had been prepared for their dangerous mission.
"Master," Anakin stopped them with obvious concern. "You two might very well be walking into an elaborate trap."
"Even if it is a carefully planned trap," Windu said with unwavering determination, "we will find a way to turn it to our advantage."
"Are you absolutely certain you don't need additional support?" Spider-Man asked, despite their recent unpleasantness regarding the Force mind manipulation techniques.
"We'll manage just fine, Mr. Parker," Plo assured him with confidence. "For now, we can only do what duty demands of us and prepare ourselves for whatever challenges await."
Plo turned and entered the modified fighter that Commander Wolffe had specially prepared for their mission, while Cad Bane was roughly pushed inside under heavy guard.
Knowing that time was rapidly running out and innocent lives hung in the balance, the divided groups sprang into coordinated action, with Ahsoka's team heading directly to the bridge of the Resolute to establish contact with Aayla Secura, while Pietro and Anakin remained behind to begin their systematic search for the kidnapped children.