LIVING HISTORY
by ardavenport
= = = Part 34
EPILOGUE
The air traffic was heavy in the lanes that passed on all four sides of the Jedi Temple, endless lines of air speeders and transports crossing the backdrop of blue midday skies. Qui-Gon stood at attention in the center of the Jedi Council room at the top of one of four lesser spires rising high over the Temple. Breathing deeply, he stared at the endless gray metaloid horizon of the city-planet of Coruscant, and reached for calm in the anonymous artificial plain and the ubiquitous air speeder traffic. The Council remained stonily silent, a multi-species circle of disapproval, satisfied that their rebuke had silenced him.
"Your decision is final then," Qui-Gon stated. There was no room for questioning at this point.
"It is." Mace Windu answered, the newest member of the Council and already one of the most visibly dominant.
"It is impossible for a Sith to renounce their power. It has simply never happened." Depa Billaba's tone was more kindly, as if she hoped to convince a misinformed Qui-Gon Jinn of the error of his ways.
"Consumed by the Dark Side, they are. A true Sith, Yarr could not have been." Master Yoda shook his head.
"She was only a pretender," Ki Adi Mundi smoothly repeated the Jedi Council's decision. "The holocron alone proves that. It was never used. It was likely defective when it was made, but she would have no way of knowing that. She kept the artifacts of Darth Baras after she killed him, but she never had any real power, other than her own abilities and powers of persuasion. Which must have been considerable," he quickly amended, throwing out this minor concession, "if she was able to deceive and kill a Sith Lord and then rule in his place."
"And Master Minigan? Were Yarr's powers of persuasion so great that she deceived the Jedi Knight who destroyed her? And Hulus, her apprentice?"
Master Yoda lowered and shook his head sadly. "Younger he was, when he defeated them."
"Of course, Hulus was a pretender as well. If there was no Master there could be no apprentice. Which had to be why he was so easily defeated when he attacked Keth and Minigan as soon as they arrived on Maarzim. Before they realized his true nature." Master Lerton explained.
"Fallen, Keth had, in the fight with Yarr. Affect even Jedi, loss does." Master Yaddle continued. "Mistaken, Minigan was about Yarr's true nature." The Council members had already conspicuously dropped the 'Darth' title from Yarr's name.
None of the Jedi Council had said anything about Minigan's statement that he had 'seen' Yarr's holocron destroyed. It was only a second-hand account and they would likely have decided that the person who recorded Minigan's account had misinterpreted what he said. Minigan never recorded a holocron of his own.
Qui-Gon stared up above the eyeline of the circle of Councilors judging him. "I wish to record my dissent."
"You have that right," Windu agreed. "But it will be separate from our judgement." Which meant that it would be buried in the Archives and not included in any of the history the main Archives taught to the young. Only someone researching Maarzim, Yarr and her defeat on Maarzim would see it. Qui-Gon inclined his head, indicating his acceptance. He had no other choice.
"You are dismissed."
Qui-Gon bowed low, turned his back on them and left.
Defeated, he sagged against the wall of the lift on the ride down. It had been like hitting a wall. As soon as the words were out of his mouth that Darth Yarr had renounced the Dark Side, the Council, the Archivists and senior Masters had denied the possibility and very soon began questioning if Yarr had ever been a Sith at all. They fixated on the holocron, whole and intact but as harmless as if it had never been used. So, that was their conclusion.
Strangely, they had not cared at all about his performance in the Living History Play. The most they gave him were disapproving frowns. Most disturbing was that they discounted the vision that had caused it and the others that he and Obi-Wan had. None of them had seen or felt anything other than the cold, empty void in their meditations together, and that could be interpreted in whatever way the Council saw fit.
Some Council members attributed Qui-Gon's 'error' to his (understandable) outrage over discovering that the Maarzim had been hoarding and venerating Sith artifacts. The lightsaber was certainly real and presumed to have been built by Darth Baras. Others attributed his 'mistake' to the illness that he and his Padawan suffered when he first arrived on Maarzim, though the Temple medical droids had pronounced him fully recovered since he returned. They expressed sympathy to him on both points, but that wa poor consolation. Yoda sternly warned him about keeping a clear mind after long sessions meditating that showed them only the cool blue void. Even Qui-Gon could not recapture the flashes of the Dark Side that he had seen. It had all vanished into the cold past, gone like Darth Yarr herself. But that was what Darth Yarr, as Nirid, had done, wasn't it? She had thrown off the Dark Side, renounced it and the Force, leaving nothing left. And nothing to be found, eight thousand years later.
Straightening before reaching the bottom of the Council spire, Qui-Gon exited as soon as the lift doors opened. Two younger Knights entered as soon as he left and he strode down the wide staircase past other Jedi going about their business.
He suddenly turned, cutting in front of a surprised young Knight. Stopping in front of one of the tall windows in the hall overlooking the roof of the Jedi Temple, he blankly stared forward, seeing nothing though things moved on around him; people walked behind him, their bootsteps muffled by carpeted floors, their voices distant and hushed. Breathing the moment deeply, he felt the past and future fade into events that would resolve themselves, separate from himself. Now, there was only the moment, and the Force, the energy of life that he could feel all around him . . . .
Lowering his head, Qui-Gon saw that the shadows on the floor had shifted a bit. Exhaling, he let the moment go. The sounds behind him sharpened. Qui-Gon moved on.
He had told his Padawan to study in the Archives and he found him at a terminal in the large central room. Obi-Wan looked up as he approached.
"Come." He did not wait to see if Obi-Wan followed.
On the second level, among the walls of glowing data volumes, a galaxy of information that covered many hundreds of thousands of worlds over many millennia, Qui-Gon stood at the railing, staring forward, arms folded before him, contemplating the tiny insignificant events of eight thousand years ago on an Outer Rim world amidst that ocean of data. Obi-Wan patiently waited by his side and eventually Qui-Gon rewarded him for it.
"After a detailed examination of the artifacts we returned from Maarzim, consultations with the records in the Archives and much meditation on the matter, the Jedi Council has determined that Darth Yarr was never a Sith after all. She was a pretender."
Obi-Wan opened his mouth. Then lowered his eyes before looking back up at him. "You disagree."
"Yes." He turned back to the view over the Archives. "I will record my perspective on the matter. But it will not be placed in the official history."
"Will I be allowed to see it?" Obi-Wan asked, his blue-grey eyes earnest.
Qui-Gon raised his brows. "I do not believe that it will be any more restricted that usual, but there will not be anything in it that you do not already know." They had discussed everything he had seen and felt at the History Play on the transport back to Coruscant. Now they stood together in shared silence for awhile before Obi-Wan finally spoke.
"Is it possible the Council is right?"
Qui-Gon sighed. "It is possible. Likely from their point of view given that not even Master Yoda sensed darkness at all from the artifacts we brought back."
More shared silence.
"Is it possible that you are wrong?"
"Possible." Qui-Gon whispered the word out to the Archives.
"Do you think you are wrong?"
He smiled. "No. I am not."
Brow furrowed in confusion, Obi-Wan continued. "But you think it is possible that you are wrong?"
"Yes."
"But you are sure you are right?"
"Yes." Qui-Gon's grin broadened. "It is possible for you to know that you are right and acknowledge that you may not be at the same time." He sighed. "I would wish that the Jedi Council understood that better."
His Padawan's expression turned thoughtful. Lips pressed together, Obi-Wan lowered his gaze for a long moment before asking his next question.
"Is it possible then, for a Sith to renounce their power. For love?"
The Council had answered that questions with a definitive, 'no.' Qui-Gon actually sympathized with their feelings. How could a mere relationship with another person compare will all the power in (literally) the galaxy? But Qui-Gon had never loved another individual like that, with a depth of feeling, a romance that the Maarzim History portrayed between Nirid and Keth. He was comfortable now with believing in the possibility. Just as he was sure of the wrongness of the Jedi Council's decree that it had not and could not have happened..
"It's possible."
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Note: This story first posted and serialized on tf.n on 7-July-2013.
Disclaimer: All characters and the Star Wars universe belong to Disney and Lucasfilm; I am just playing in their sandbox.