Another update! A longer chapter, I hope you all like it. Thanks to everyone for stopping in and letting me know there are a few of you out there still reading!
"Those Jedi were there to protect you, Jolee." The voice floated across the room, detached, both physically and emotionally. The manner in which the High Council member spoke matched her ice blue eyes and severely tight bun of frosty hair.
"Master Atris, thank-you, but do not trouble yourself," Vrook directed towards her testily.
"On the contrary, Master Vrook," she replied in the same tone, "no trouble at all, I assure you." She then returned her gaze towards the threesome. "They were not there to cause you harm, Padawan Bindo, or coerce you into anything against your will," she continued, emphasizing Jolee's rank and status.
"Coulda fooled me—we were at that party against our will," he snorted, pointedly ignoring her snide reference; did she not know he could give a gizka's royal behind for what she thought of him or his position within the Order? He stifled the impulse to scoff at her; he decided not to waste his time or breath on it. This whole meeting was a sham and useless diversion; why he agreed to their summons escaped his reasoning; why he thought the Council would suddenly become helpful was beyond him. Despite the membership being a whole new cast of fools, they were as secretive and superior—and damned infuriating—as he had recalled. "Thank the Force Bastila came up with the idea to shield our minds from your tricks!"
"This was your plan, Padawan?" Vandar asked, his eyes filled with dismay. At the mention of her name, Bastila had snapped out of her meditation and looked around, confused. "Well? Padawan Shan, answer: did you instruct the others to use Immunity against a threat that did not exist?" Bastila could only nod as she hung her head even lower at hearing the question put to her.
"Twice now, within the space of two days, your distrust of the Council has lead to unimaginable tragedy," Atris said evenly. "We should not need to offer an explanation, but I see one is in order. Shortly after you left last night, Padawan Bastila, we received word from the Republic: they had captured two Sith soldiers near the embassy. From them they received information on an attack planned for the dinner this evening. We agreed to assist them in guarding you, but you and your companions were not at the hotel. We mounted a search, and located you as quickly as possible; we kept vigil over you all, fearing the Sith may have discovered our knowledge of their plot and thus would seek to attack you directly."
"You did not find Jiara in this search?" Bastila asked.
"No, but we were not looking for her. We had hoped if she could not be found by us, she would not be found by them. We also theorized that perhaps she had sensed the Sith, and removed herself to reduce the risk to the rest of you. This was a vain hope, it seems."
"Then why take our weapons if you knew of the danger? Why not warn us?" Juhani demanded.
"That was not our order to disarm you," Atris answered with blatant irritation. "We did not tell you of the situation because we did not want you to betray our own plans or alert the Sith that their plot had been discovered—but we did not anticipate the spies infiltrating the senate, nor the attack at the earlier gathering. All reports indicated an assault at the dinner. The Republic had guards stationed there, and our orders were to assist them at that site."
"Yuthura did say they had a change in plans," Jolee muttered. "You should have told us, we would have been able to bluff our way through, and still been on guard. We got past you, didn't we? You cannot hold us at fault for what we were lead to believe by your actions in this."
"There have been missteps by all concerned, it would seem, the blame is not ours alone," Vrook rebuked. "What is done is done. We must move forward with the consequences."
"Indeed. We believe Revan is still weak, having recently recovered her memories. Her ability to use the dark energy of the Force is not yet returned fully to her. We have decided to act quickly in this," Master Atris continued.
"Already the Sith rally to her. Reports of troop movements are flooding the space ways. The Star Forge is gone, but not before it created a vast and mighty fleet. They only needed leadership, and it seems they have that now," Vandar said. "We cannot allow Revan to inspire them further. We learned the lesson of waiting in this matter the first time we walked this path. It will not happen again," he announced firmly, but sadly.
"To this end, we have allied ourselves without reserve to the Republic. We are set to meet with them to settle strategy as soon as possible. We paused only to hear from you, to learn what knowledge you had in this. I am glad we waited: your information was most revealing." Atris slipped back to the shadow; then as one, the entire group turned and drifted from the room through a door to the left. Vandar and Vrook remained, stern and disapproving stares directed at their former students.
"We shall assist in any way," Bastila offered awkwardly.
"I believe you have done enough, Padawan," Vrook chastised.
"Yes, Bastila, your actions thus far leave much to be desired. Your sudden mistrust of the Council's wisdom is surprising," Vandar expressed with disbelief. "And disheartening."
"Ha! Sounds like the lass has finally gotten a lick of sense into her!" Jolee shot back. "Hmmph, I told you they'd find a way to blame us," he muttered. "I hate being right all the time." Juhani made a poor attempt at hiding her smirk at Jolee's words; she raised her hand to cover her spreading smile as she stifled her chuckle with the thought that right now would have been the most inappropriate time for the old Jedi to break out one of his tired parables… which certainly meant he would, if given the chance. She heard him take a deep breath in preparation… but Vrook would have none of it.
"You would do well, Jolee Bindo, to remember there is always someone, somewhere, with greater knowledge than your own. A wise man moves about in search of this enlightenment, he does not sit still believing his own words to the exclusion of all others," Vrook cautioned.
"Really? Well, I will let you know when I find him," Jolee growled back insolently.
"Padawan Bastila, you defy the Council, your anger and your distrust in its motives bring you and your friends, if not the entire galaxy, to danger," Vandar continued. "I now look back at our decision to send you on this mission. It seems your training was not complete, though you appeared ready; your pride put forth an image that may have been inaccurate."
"But…" Bastila wavered. Disappointment in herself was crushing, but to hear it from her trainers was devastating.
"You shall return to the academy to reinforce your training, Padawan, before you slip further from our teachings," Vrook announced. "This is our decision."
"Yes, Masters," Bastila said thinly as she bowed low.
"Now hold on a damn minute!" Jolee began. Juhani too seemed alarmed and distressed.
"There is nothing in this to concern you, either of you," Vrook said looking back and forth at both of them. "You two are free to go; but do not interfere in this matter, nor in the situation with Revan. Your emotions betray you in this."
"Are you going to let them get away with this?" Jolee asked Bastila in a near shout.
"Not now, Jolee, leave it be." She glanced sideways at him, then motioned with her eyes to her wrist: her comm-link was blinking. Jolee raised his eyebrows, then masked his expression.
"Well, then, so be it. Anything else before we go, Masters?" Jolee drew out the last word with extreme mockery.
"Yes," Vandar said unexpectedly, causing Jolee to stumble slightly in his attempt to halt his retreat. The question was rhetorical, or so he thought; he was eager, if not desperate to get out of there and he was in no mood to answer any more pointless questions. "What can you tell us of the academy at Korriban, and the students there? We are set to review some former pupils, apparently sent here by Jiara."
"The Sith make a good sandwich," Jolee shrugged. "That's all I know."
"We were instructed to stay on board the Ebon Hawk," Juhani explained. "Jiara thought a group of Jedi would attract undue and unwanted attention."
"Yes, she was afraid we might be recognized, either as ourselves, or as spies for the Jedi. But she did tell us that she had convinced several students to turn from the dark side while she was there. I do not know more, I am sorry," Bastila bowed again.
"A final good deed from Jiara; let us hope her actions for the Light outlast and outweigh Revan's decisions for the Dark," Vandar mused. "You may go now, we wish to begin our meeting with the students. I fear we have kept them waiting long enough."
"As you wish," Bastila said with a small curtsey. Jolee and Juhani followed her through the main door.
"I cannot believe what just happened!" Juhani exclaimed once they were in the hall. "They will not help and they make sure we will not assist either! It was made clear: they are set to hunt Revan, to remove her at all costs."
"First time they actually get up off their backsides to do anything—and this is their decision? I guess I prefer their old methods," Jolee said flippantly.
"This is serious, Jolee, we must act quickly if we are to save her!" Juhani yelled.
"If she wants to be saved…" Jolee returned with no emotion.
"No!" Bastila shot back. "I refuse to believe this is what she wants, what is in her heart."
"I cannot believe it either," Juhani quickly agreed. "How could she have done all those good deeds, going out of her way to help everyone we encountered while trying to find the Star Maps, if she were truly evil? Just as she saved me from the darkness in the Grove, she saved me on Taris all those years ago. I remember that day, I remember how she was then… it is how she is now. The Council did not make her follow the Light by reprogramming her mind: she made that decision on her own," Juhani growled.
"Seems to me they hoped to reset her," Jolee answered. "Put her back to the point just before she started to fall, when she was still a Jedi Knight. Good plan, except now she remembers what they left out. I don't know what exactly caused her to give in to the shadow, Juhani, she never told me. But you have a better first impression of her than I do."
"What do you mean?" Juhani blurted. "Out with it, old man, and no damn story to illustrate the point! Just tell us, right now!" Her teeth were bared in a feral snarl.
"No respect for the aged!" Jolee protested. "You young people are so damn impatient! Oh yes, the whole galaxy will cave in on itself if we don't act this very instant. Bah! It was here before us, it will be here after we are returned to the Force, doesn't really matter what we want…"
"You met her before, didn't you? When she first found the map on Kashyyyk," Bastila said as the realization dawned on her. Why hadn't she figured this out sooner? Jolee nodded and sighed.
"That I did. She was dark then, dark as I've ever seen them… and she chose that path, Juhani. Just as sure as she chose to do all those helpful things this time around."
"WHAT did you say! Explain yourself, Master Bindo," Juhani sneered, her eyes narrowed and her lips curled over gleaming fangs. Jolee clenched his jaw and straightened his posture at the insult.
"As much as I too would like to know what you mean, Jolee, now is not the time. First we need to see what Carth has to report," Bastila said raising her wrist, indicating the personal comm. "He has been trying to contact me for the past several minutes. Where can we find privacy?" she asked as she looked around… and came face to face with a group of teens. Jolee and Juhani also turned to them, their argument forgotten—it was difficult to ignore the intense emotions these kids cast off: anger, pride, distrust, suspicion. These were the Sith students, certainly. Bastila bristled at the realization that Vandar and Vrook had compared her, indirectly, to them. In remanding her to the academy, they were in fact saying she had been slipping towards the dark side, not simply forgetting her training. Her eyes narrowed, and she came to realize one of the students was staring back at her just as intently.
"Excuse me, have we met?" she asked curtly. The boy, the tallest of the group, wilted in her glare. He was in his mid-to-late-teens, as were the rest. He seemed familiar; but then all boys were the same to Bastila: awkward and against the rules.
"No sir… ma'am… miss," he stuttered as he snapped a salute; a Sith reflex.
"We are here to join the Jedi," another boy offered. A girl behind him nodded in agreement.
"Very good," Juhani answered. "A wise and bold decision. The Council chambers are just ahead," she pointed back to the doors.
"Thanks," he said as the group shuffled past.
Bastila realized she was still staring at the boy; he seemed locked in her gaze. She relaxed her posture towards him. "May the Force be with you," she told him. He nodded and scurried from her. As he caught up to the group, Bastila heard her name whispered. She turned to see the tall one shove another boy who mocked him.
"Yes sir, ma'am… that was Bastila, you idiot! Way to go!" the shorter one teased.
"Shuddup Mekel!" he said with another shove as they disappeared into the chamber room.
"Pretty popular there, Bastila… think he has a picture of you in his room?" Jolee harassed.
"So I am the poster girl for the Sith?" she growled at him. "This proves Jiara was correct in leaving us on the ship—our mission would have been in danger if I am so easily recognized. I begin to appreciate the whole mask idea Revan had…" Her comm blinked again. She looked around—the hall was now empty. She quickly pressed the button.
"Carth, what has happened?"
"Bastila, damn it! Why doesn't anyone ever answer my comm-link calls!" Carth's angry voice crackled through the air. "Get here on the double—it's Canderous."
"We're on our way, Carth, try to hold on," she said as she cut the link.
"But you are ordered to return to the academy," Juhani stammered.
"Yes," Bastila answered as she continued towards the front doors. "But they did not say when, did they?"