-Chapter 10-

Two days before

"…e convene here today to go over the packet received from this upstart Skywalker who thinks he's a head of state and thus worthy of our attention." Said a particularly uptight Senator. Mace Windu sighed, he just wanted to send a few Jedi strike teams after Skywalker at the same time. He had only ever been authorized to send master-padawan pairs and the occasional single strike team as it had to remain off the books due to Tatooine being outside of Republic jurisdiction. By several sectors and multiple soverign rulers. Now that Skywalker was a head of state, even though the route Skywalker took to become as such was questionable legally and absolutely horrid morally, things would be even more difficult for him. Short of declaring war on Skywalker, he was legally untouchable with automatic diplomatic immunity inside of Republic systems for all crimes past and future. And from Mace's offhand recollection that was a LOT of records to delete. Mace wasn't feeling very Jedi-like lately as he had been having dreams of the conversation he and the rest of the Council had with his rival Qui-Gon all those years ago.

Flashback

"There is one.. Other… little... thing, masters" Qui-Gon slowly and amended at the end of his report to the council. His face was significantly flushed. He had just gotten back from Naboo after freeing their people from Trade Federation occupation. The encounter with that young force user on Tatooine had been troubling for Qui-Gon and it had haunted him since. He relayed the entire encounter to the council and then explained that until he and Obi Wan encountered and then killed the Zabrak, he had thought that the boy was the one sent after them. "His force presence was smothering, but I didn't feel it until he spoke with the Queen. I also felt a… powerful dark lust emanating from him. An emotion that is present only in the fallen. It may have been a stretch to attack the boy, but at the time our group was heavily affected by the prolonged exposure to the unfamiliar Tatooine climate, myself regrettably included. My better judgement was more of a snap offhand decision."

Qui-Gon grew more animated, gesturing wildly as if to take the focus off his earlier blunders and trying to stir the council into a storm of righteous fury, related his experience having his mind invaded by the boy. "Only the most powerful of force users could have done that, even more so since he was too young to have extensive experience in the art. Also that he would be willing to practice such an art in the first place? The boy is a threat, I tell you!"

End Flashback

At the time, Mace had thought that Qui-Gon was simply embarrassed at having lost his lightsaber to a barely trained, self taught, initiate. Months later and several reports from Jedi Shadows assigned to monitor the lad, Mace was agreeing more and more. Over the years, as Shadows started mysteriously going missing, he became extremely wary and ordered a hit on the at that time young man. At when their bodies were left on the temple steps in sacks marked "Self Defence, Motherfucker!" sans all force artifacts and their lightsabers, his fears were confirmed. The boy was a major threat. An individual able to successfully take on and kill entire Jedi strike teams needed to go away, for good. Only a Jedi could have so much personal power as only they could be trusted to wield it for the good of the Jedi.

Now, he was one hundred percent certain that Anakin Skywalker needed to die. If it took glassing his planet into the stone age, then that's what it would take. "Jedi like thoughts? What are those? I can't remember the last time my thoughts were Jedi like." Mace frowned deeper, deeply disappointed that he had sunk this far. But in the scheme of things, he would fall 1000 times deeper if it meant the success and prosperity of the Jedi order.

"The sub-committee has been sent some representatives from the Jedi council to assist us with this matter." The man added as an afterthought. "We hope to…." The man was cut off by Padme Amidala "Senator Barne, That is enough. The only thing we should do with that packet is hand it over to GAR high command for processing into battle plans. That monster needs to be stopped. His crimes are numerous and include offenses that would see him brought straight to the chopping block for crimes against civilization on any core world. Need I remind you of the RNN crew he starved to death? STARVED!"

Senator Amidala was of course referring to the ghastly video that the RNN crew had recorded to go along with the packet.

A holographic likeness of Cynthia appeared, though she was prone, barely slouched against a wall, not even looking at the recorder. "This is… *Cough*… Cynthia… Cynthia Amena. Two weeks ago we were captured by… *Groan*... Baron Anakin Skywalker. He dragged us into jail cells, and then took me and interviewed me before sexually harassing me. He then had his hench droids put us back into our ship and hardwired our hyperdrive towards Coruscant. It wasn't until a day later that we realized that our hyperdrive wasn't the only thing he messed with. He also took all of our food, emergency rations and water, including emptying out our septic systems. Normally this would have been annoying but ultimately harmless aside from a few hunger pangs before we got to our destination. Unfortunately he has replaced our hyperdrive with a very… primitive one. We will not make it alive. The crew has decided not to resort to cannibalism as even doing so won't guarantee our survival, to do so feels like we would be simply giving in to his evil. I'm the last one left. I hope you can see this monster brought to justice for his crimes. Tell my family th..." Her head lolled and her lips moved, completing her thought "..at I love them" before she breathed out and went still for a final time. The recording continued on for a time, decay set in slightly, then at the very end it showed a masked rescue crew running through the ship checking pulses, proclaiming time of death confirmations and zipping up body bags. One of them spotted it and the bag that Cynthia carried and picked it up. He looked into the bag briefly, then shut the recorder off.

The packets and datapad had made their way through the chain of command all the way up to the Chancellor's office. He had dismissed it at first, simply perusing through the files then filing the entire package, not having seen anything that could be prosecuted without adding another player to the war. In his opinion, they could deal with young Skywalker at a later date, preferably when the war would not become three pronged.

Senator Amidala had seen the video leaked onto the holonet by one of the first responders or one of the people who got it afterwards and was understandably disturbed. She found out of the Chancellor's stance and was equally disturbed. Also understandably, he did NOT have a good afternoon, it being disturbed by a pissed off Amidala. From this series of understandable disturbances, 'The Subcommittee to deal with Skywalker' was born.

"Master Windu do you have anything to add?" asked the Senator who was speaking. The Subcommittee had been going on and on with inane political drivel, focused more on not giving "Skywalker" legitimacy by recognizing his title than actually doing anything.

"Well to be honest, I and a handful of other masters have had a plan to deal with Baron Skywalker since he was a child just coming into his power and beginning to profess his wicked ways. Unfortunately we have been unable to receive either approval from the Senate nor the supermajority vote of the Jedi Council to bypass the Senate… yet." Mace emphasized the last word, hoping to get carte blanche to deal with the problem. He believed that he could take Skywalker but his duties on Coruscant had always prevented him from attending their little parties. "I'll personally take a team of thirty Jedi and five thousand clone troopers in a fleer and hunt him down on his home planet. We will capture him and put an end to his dark game."

The Senators were understandably disturbed at the proposed action. Not only was it Illegal, the repercussions of it being found out that they supported such a seemingly overkill mission against a rival head of state without a formal declaration of war were… well it could re-fracture the Republic.

"Master Jedi, surely with that many Jedi you don't need the clones?" Asked another Senator. "We won't be able to keep that quiet, and you know what the public will do to us! We'll be crucified!"

Mace gave him a dark look "Yes I know, though dealing with the threat that the Skywalker brat poses is much bigger than our political aspirations. Using the force to read minds is all about power. Skywalker is the most powerful force user in recent history and to have him as a Head of State? If he attends a summit, which he is entitled to, all of the national secrets of all of the attendees will be exposed to him. This is unacceptable. Even twenty Jedi shielding the minds of each other head of state may not be enough. Mind reading is not illegal as it is impossible to detect by a non force user and in court, a Jedi's word vs a Dark Side user will be painted as a religious bias by any competent lawyer in the galaxy, with their testimony dropped like spice before a checkpoint. You know what happens when religion is brought into politics, and it's ALWAYS politics in a force user's trial. Not that we actually have the right to try him for ANYTHING in the first place as he is not nor ever was a citizen of the Republic."

All the attendees winced. They knew exactly what happened when Religion was brought up. A clusterfuck, that's what.

"And that is only one of his dangerous powers." Mace elaborated "We have clocked him at being able to continuously perceive the world a minute ahead of time. No ambushing, no catching him off guard. He could buy a lottery ticket just before the drawing and walk away with the jackpot with time to spare time after time. He has more than mastered the arts of the Tusken Bladedancers that inspired parts of the second and fifth forms of Jedi lightsaber combat. We have never been able to refine those styles to their levels, nor learn directly, as the entry rites into their society are... very distasteful to our code." Ritual murder of a child under the age of five is no laughing matter after all.

None of the senators really had a response to that. Some muttering, that's all.

"So, all agreed to my plan?" Mace asked with a cheeky smile.

One by one the Senators voiced their assent, This was turning out to be the quickest session that Mace had ever attended, while simultaneously having the greatest ratio of sacred laws of the Jedi Order bent till they broke to minutes.

"We are leaving." Said Mace, his robes billowing behind him as he led the Jedi attendees out of the room, He had troops to acquire and a war to plan.

''Bout damn time, Motherfuckers.' thought Mace.