Chapter 25: reconcile

World between worlds

"A treaty will follow soon after the Tatooine campaign," explained Obi-Wan. Both sides will be pressure to bring an end to the war or suffer a rebellion of there own.

"And then we go home and enjoy the fruits of our labor." Galen stretched his muscles. This final run-through had taken hours and he wasn't happy sitting around and occasionally standing hadn't helped either.

"Actually there is one final stage."

The entire group groaned, well all but Leia. "Wait, what," she shouted at Obi-Wan. "We have been only planning these stages. What do you mean there's a final one. You never said anything about a final one."

"Didn't think we will get this far," admitted Obi-Wan. "I saw no reason to over-stress you guys out. But now that we are," he continued as if he hadn't dropped a bomb on the group, "I can tell you that the final stage is called a surprise."

"Why? Because you didn't tell us there was another campaign or because you won't tell us about it so that we can be 'surprise.'"

"Actually its referring to Palpatine's surprise," explained Obi-Wan. "Palpatine has been planning this for years and a matter of months a group of strangers is going to destroy it. He won't just sit back and admit defeat. He will make one last effort to save his plans. I can't guess what that will be all I can say is that when an animal is cornered is when it's the most vicious. That is even more so for a Sith. Palpatine will do something grand to save his empire and since he would have been pushed into a corner he could strike anywhere and at anyone. There is no way we can plan his response. You are just going to have to wing it."

The group became silent. If Obi-Wan was suggesting to wing it then this was serious.

Coruscant

The news of the end of slavery on Tatooine was received in a completely different environment than when it had started. The push for peace, not just of the war but all conflicts, had been growing. Already many worlds had pulled themselves out of the republic and separatists' influence to declare neutrality. They were backed up by a suspiciously strong homebuilt military force and under the leadership of Mandalore. Mandalore was stronger than ever as well. Their people, who often found conflict with their warrior culture in a modern setting, had found the perfect outlook, anti-slavery. The Mandalore's don't forget insults and they were still steam from when the republic tried to frame them for the slave revolt in Tatooine. The decided to truly get involved as revenge and found that ending slavery was something that the pacifist lead by the duchess and the war hawks lead by what remained of the Vizela clan, could get behind.

The opinion began to change in both the separatist and republic. It was hard for both sides to ignore the slave revolts and it forced them to compare their own lives to the slaves. For the separatist, they began to realize that while they were the victims of the core worlds, they weren't actual slaves, a common saying that was used to defend the war. The real core slaves were on Kessel. They had much more power and rights than those who had been imprisoned in the mines. The propaganda image of the poor outer worlds being enslaved by the core worlds that had played such a role in the rebellion now seemed insensitive. And if they weren't slaves then why were they having an all or nothing slugfest with the republic?

In the republic, change was even greater. Where once the news of a rebellion on Tatooine was met with suspicion of a separatist plot, was now greatly cheer. To the point that self-proclaim holidays had led the still open government to a standstill since all the workers were out on the streets celebrating. While the separatist realized they didn't have in common with slaves as they thought, the republic citizens had the opposite. At the beginning they would have laughed at the crazy notion that they had anything in common with slaves, how could they if their government was called a republic. But even before the revolts, the notion that they didn't have as much free will as they thought had begun to sink in. Wasn't the government suppose to represent what the majority of them wanted. It seemed like a majority wanted the war to end so why were almost all the senators calling for blood. And the supreme chancellor, the leader of the republic, did anybody voted for him and wasn't his term suppose to have ended before the war even began.

Homelife had also been affected by the war. A draft had been issue months ago despite the Jedi and clones. Power, food, water, and even labor laws were rare nowadays. All had to be given to the war, a war that wasn't even to defend their homes, a war that no one seemed to want.

Rebellions began to arise. People demanded the removal or in some cases the arrest of their senators. The more republican worlds had a special recall election. In the worlds were democracy was nothing more than just a word, more extreme measures were used. Actual revolts, some that were suspiciously similar to the ones in the separatist space, occur either forcing out the pro-war officials or in extreme cases, pulling out of the republic all together to join the neutralist.

the celebrations over Tatooine's freedom erupted in the streets on all republic planets. But the biggest one was on coruscant. Ironically Coruscant had felt the effects of the war the worst, losing what little provisions given to the citizens to feed the war machine. There was already a big living difference between its leading body and the average citizen. The leading group lived in the literal clouds while the average citizen lived underneath. It was obvious to all but the Coruscant leaders how the Coruscant citizen would view the slave revolt.

Unlike all the other worlds, Coruscant was at a standstill for an entire week as a never-ending party was celebrated in the streets. Police attempts to clear the street was met harshly by both the people and the media. The Jedi were of no help either, believing that as long as it was peaceful then it didn't concern them.

An entire week of watching the demonstration and complete shut down of the city affected the stubborn pro-war senators who were just holding onto their seats with their teeth. They change their tune and got behind the anti-war movement, seeing it as their only way to remain in power now.

When Mandalore offer to negotiate for a peace both sides took it. That wasn't unusual, since the start of the war both sides had sent peace turnovers, but both of their terms were always inflexible, the pro-war movement on both sides making sure that they would never amount to anything. This time it was different. This time both sides were eager to end it in fear that their people were getting fed up with the fighting. This time they were willing to negotiate for peace.

Which they did.

Padme couldn't be stopped. She had been running since the minute her shuttle had landed from Mandalore. While the rest of the peace delegations went to report to the Senate she had opted to tell the Jedi council the terms that had been agreed on. After all, there was a part of the treaty that would need to be filled by the Jedi.

Padme reached the floor that the council chamber was located on. She pushed past the guards, who hadn't expected it, and threw open the door. She finally came to a stop at the center of the room.

Mace was glaring at her and the guards who hurried after her. He waved his hand in dismissal and the guards return to their post. Padme was secretly touched despite the glare that he gave her. He could have had her forcibly removed, but he seemed to consider her not enough of a threat or intruder to do it.

"Senator Amidala," he called in his booming voice. "What is the meaning of interrupting this council meeting."

"The treaty," breathed Padme, leaving forward to catch her breath. "A peace treaty has been agreed upon and the senate had already agreed on the flight back to sign it. I thought you should know." Padme handed her pad to Mace, who leaned close to Yoda so both of them could read it. "Besides basic war forgiveness, there are two key points to the treaty. The first is regarding the senate. The outer rim wants control of their trade. They say that the setup now allows Core worlds to choose how much the outer rim can charge for their goods."

"That is reasonable," admitted Plo Koon from where he sat. "The Core worlds choose how much their products will cost. The only problem is the trade federation will never agree to that. They profit from their sole control of the outer rim trade."

"I don't think they will be a problem," claimed Padme. "Yes they will be upset, but they have lost many of their friends in the recalls and revolutions. For some strange reason, those senators' constituents thought that they were war profiteering. Out of the few who remain many will not object over the fear of losing their seats. This part will pass, its the next part that I'm not sure about for it involves the order."

Mace rolled his eyes, "let me guess, they want us to stay out of the outer rim."

"Actually the opposite. They want their own order." A few councilors mummer at that. It was a little surprising after all.

Mace and Yoda just stare more intently at Padme. "Did they explain. In the past, they are usually against our intervention."

"According to them because they feel like you guys are outsiders from the core worlds. They claim that a majority of the Jedi requests that get sent to you from the senate are from the core worlds so the few times that you do head to the outer rim it's to represent a core world's desire. When you finally do get a request from an outer rim you either arrive too late due to the travel time or you arrive and show no understanding of the people or the situation. They also admit that they hate the Coruscant accent that the majority of you have. They feel like you guys are outsiders who are not there to help them. They feel that if they had their Jedi not only will they be able to respond quicker, but then they wouldn't be outsiders pushing the core worlds wills on them."

Padme stopped talking to allow what she had said to settle on the group. She couldn't even guess what was going on in their minds or whether or not they will agree to this request at all. It was part of the reason why she ran over here. She didn't want either side to be surprised when the senate officially asked the Jedi to create a separate order.

"There are hundreds of abandon Jedi temples," said Padme after a while. "You could send a few Jedi to reopen one of them."

"It wouldn't be that easy," admitted Mace. "While it's true a large number of our requests are from core worlds, those are ceremonial or delegation jobs, the few outer rim requests that arrive are usually bandits and pirates. I imagine that having a closer temple and a shorter response will result in even more requests since those groups tend to move fast. If we do create a second-order it will have to be half of our people and we were already understaffed before the war. With so many deaths in the war, I don't think we can keep two temples running, let alone fulfill any requests."

"Perhaps," asked Padme. "You could loosen your restrictions. It will allow a large group of people to fill in the open ranks along with the benefit that most of the recruits are likely to be outer rimmers."

A large uproar was the response to Padme's idea.

"The restrictions are there for a reason," objected Mace. "It's to prevent falling, creating something that would cause more destruction than any good a second temple could preform."

Padme though wasn't going to allow peace to slip through her fingers without a fight. "What about the new order. They don't seem like bad kids and they are all about throwing their attachments in this order's face. Or better yet what about the Corellian Jedis. They don't have the same restrictions and I haven't heard of any Corellian Jedi going crazy and killing people."

The council didn't care so much for her lip, but Padme refused to back down. "You guys cad still keep your code," she offered, "but to get the new temple some Jedi why not agree to allow families. Why not give them a less restricted code. After all its on the outer rim, life is tough there, having families maybe what those Jedi need to get through the day."

Silence. Padme allowed it. She had made her point now it was up to the order to bring it home.

"We could try it," admitted Shaak Ti. "It could boost our numbers as well. We often accept Jedi from different orders into ours as long as they agree to our code. In a generation, we could receive newly train Jedi from the outer rim temple who agree with our code. It may weaken our numbers temporarily but we will get it back and then some in the next generation."

"I suppose one more Corellia like temple wouldn't hurt," admitted another council member, one Padme didn't recognize. "It would also be a good place to send the more…rough Jedi. The ones who never care to settle down in a city like Coruscant. They would be much more at home on the outer rim."

"The temple will be, where?" Asked Yoda asked he finally admitted defeat.

"The new order set up a temporary headquarters on Lothal," said Mace. "It would already be functionally which is something that all those other temples don't have. Besides Lothal has proven a strong base. Even if pirates and bandits decide to invade, the temple will be safe. They can also study the ancient ruins that the new order talked about."

Yoda and Mace nodded to each other. Mace handed back Padme's tablet. "We agree to the terms of this peace."

Raxus

The send-off for the peace committee was loud. Not only did the other senators crowd around there fellow senators and their ship, but a majority of the people of Raxus were there as well. The entire shipyard was full of people, banners and even some bands were playing a cheery tune. Trying to keep the people back was an army of droids circled the shipyard. The people ignore them and some even climb on top of them to get a better look a the committee.

Finally, after a year of bloody fighting, the war was going to be over. The Outer rim will have control over their trade and even their own Jedi. In fact, as part of the peace signing ceremony, the newly created Lothal Jedi council will meet the former separatist senators at the Coruscant senate where the committee will give them a lift to Lothal. There the Jedi will settle down and bring stability and hope to everyone in the region.

That was of course if the Raxus people ever let their senators go. They were falling over each other to wish good luck to the senators, those who for the entire year called for peace and until recently had been pariahs. Now they were superstars.

Then something droids that everyone had to ignore, seemed to turn on and open fire into the crowd. The air that had once been filled with shouts of joy, were replaced by shouts of terror. The crowd dispersed and thankfully the droids didn't follow them as they instead inclose on the community.

Mina Bonteri, head of the committee, addressed the head droid as it approached "what is the meaning of this she demanded. I order you to stand down."

"You don't give the orders anymore," insisted the droid.

"I do," called a voice from the shuttle. Standing on the platform of the shuttle that the group was going to take to Coruscant was Dooku and Grievous. Dooku smiled politely at the group. "I do apologize for this…rude situation but you all must come with me. There's an errand we must run before heading to the peace treaty. Droids." He gestured with his hand and the droids began to shove the committee to Dooku. Despite what he said, there was no doubt in any of their minds that he was ever going to take them to Coruscant.