The Chosen One (Part 3)
It took a week for Skywalker to come back.
In said week, she had been 'screamed' at by the Council for 'influencing a padawan', which she shot down by saying she didn't teach or coerce him to the Dark Side which was her agreement with the Courts/Yoda; Had Obi-Wan project through the bond, look at her, and speak at her with nothing but disappointment; Dooku had outright threatened her against doing anything of the like again to any of his lineage. Qui-Gon she hadn't seen more than once, and he just gave her the flattest most unimpressed look she swore she had ever seen. Her most pointed response to all of this was the same thing she said to the Temple Guards.
She hadn't controlled how Anakin reacted, that was all him.
If they had a problem with Skywalker seeing parallels of slavery, well, that was on them to address.
Still, she'll admit she's rather surprised when the boy sits down across from her at breakfast. "I would have thought your Master wouldn't allow you to come anywhere near me again."
"That's not his decision to make."
She pauses briefly at the tone, a tint of warning rolling down her spine from the Force, that she needs to pay attention, that this is important. She actually glances up at Supernova, and there is nothing but hard steel in his eyes. Grim determination and eagerness for a fight are what she feels leaking through his shield. "I would think as your Master, it would be."
His eyes narrow. "I don't appreciate what you did."
"Which was what?" she challenged.
"I don't like whats asked of Temple Guard, whats required of them, what they choose to give up," he gritted out, "It makes me want to puke honestly thinking about it, but that's just it, its a choice. I never had a choice, they did. If they want to give up who they are like that? Fine, I wont ever like or agree with it, but I don't have a say in the matter."
"Hmm, that was rather well said," complimented Siri, "Which one of them coached you through saying that?"
"None of them."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I might have taken a few things they said in my own words," admitted Anakin, scowling a little.
"The word you're looking for is 'paraphrased'."
"Don't you mock me."
"Can't help it Supernova, its in my nature," she said cheerfully, pointedly ignoring the Force.
She'll give this conversation the attention its due, but she wont shun who she is to do it.
He narrowed his eyes. "Peace is a lie, there is only passion."
Siri twitched, caught offguard, wary, and very very curious. "Where did you hear that?"
"Obi-Wan and Dooku staying up late to try and pick your code apart awhile back," he said.
Oh she is in very, very dangerous territory. Is that his game? Get her in actual, legitimate trouble with the Jedi and the Courts if they get into this topic? Is he wearing a wire? She does a pass with the Force, but feels no electronics on him, not even his comlink. "And why exactly are you reciting it at me?"
"Because its ridiculous."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh Supernova, here you are parroting Jedi at me, whatever shall I do?"
"No, I mean its just as ridiculous as the Jedi one."
That gets a sharp laugh out of Siri, and some of the Jedi at tables in hearing range giving Skywalker a 'look'. They didn't appreciate badmouthing their code, but Siri just found it amusing. "Alright then Supernova, whats ridiculous about them?"
"There is no emotion, there is peace. Peace is a lie, there is only passion," he said, mouth twisting like he tasted something sour, "Why is it one or the other? They're both flat out wrong..."
Listen listen listen...
"...you can have emotion, and you can have peace. Mom sure as hell could when she got into a mood and then calmed down after. Everyone can."
"Literal interpretation will lead you to banging your head against the nearest wall over and over again," she advised in a mock sagely tone, tilting her head a little to try and hear what the Force was whispering at her.
"Yeah, except both codes from what I seen ARE taken way to literally," he said with frustration, "Not by everyone sure, but in what I see around here a lot do, on the Sith side what I see in you seems that way, and what little I've gotten to read or hear about the old Sith. Some Jedi I swear would stop breathing if the Code was changed to tell them not to."
Truth truth truth...
Siri brushes aside the Jedi part as unimportant, focusing on her own. "Personally, I don't deny peace Skywalker, I'm at peace when I'm sleeping, dreams aside, that's what sleeping is for. What I deny is complacency and stagnation."
"If that's what your code means why don't they just say it?" he said.
She shrugged. "I didn't make the code up."
"Well, if you ever kill Sidious, change it, or do you intend to let him make you him and keep at it?" said Anakin, chin tilting up.
Siri narrowed her eyes. "I won't let him make me anything."
"You already have," said Anakin, "You let him make a slave out of you."
A warning growl escaped her lips, the Force darkening around her.
"You're just as much of a slave as I was," said Anakin in challenge, "Only, instead of just being used, he tried to do something worse. He tried to turn you from a slave into a slaver, make you just like him to keep doing what he wanted, and then eventually do what he did to you to someone else."
He leaned forward. "And you wanna know something? That new naming thing the Sith do, that's one of the oldest slaver tricks in the book. 'Gifting' a slave a new name, destroying who they used to be, making them..."
"Yours," he spat out.
Siri glared at him, trying to work out what to say. It wasn't like she hadn't made that comparison herself, to being Sidious's slave. Like hell was she ever going to outright admit it and allow him a win, especially in public. "You have a lot of gall for a snot nose desert slave rat."
"Yep," he said cheerfully in a mockery of her own sadistic-cheerfulness, popping the P.
"I'm going to skip ahead and ask if there is a point to where you're going with this?" gritted out Siri.
Anakin's outright challenging demeanor faded into something sad.
"Your code says that you're suppose to break your chains," said Anakin quietly, "But that's a lie, all I've heard and seen it do is put more chains on you. Chaining down everything that might have made you a good person once."
Siri clenched her fists, about ready to maul the boy, damn the consequences...
"So I'm going to ask you an honest question."
Listen, truth, listen...
"When is the last time you've been truly happy," he asked, "That was solely because of the Dark Side and the Sith?"
Never.
The question and initial reactive answer is a surprising punch to the gut. She swallows at how offguard and piercing it was. She has to truly think on it. When was the last time she had been happy, that wasn't tainted by something like smothered guilt or regret? Wasn't punished by Sidious? Or wasn't criticized by him or Zannah as a weakness? That wasn't from finding dark delight in someone else's suffering? Relaxing Alexi and Mighella was born off the suffering caused by the Black Sun, and Zannah was... well Zannah, everything the soul fragment did was to further a goal. Siri... she can't honestly think of anything.
Even more, she can't think of the last time anyone ever bothered to ask her that.
It takes her a moment to smother the reaction and then return the favor, snapping back, "When's the last time you've been happy since you became a jedi?"
Anakin's smile is sad. "Whenever I'm in my quarters with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, not really acting like a Jedi."
Siri just... sat there, surprised by the honesty.
Anakin looked away, his youthful face so confused and lost. "I've been here a few years and I... I still don't understand the Jedi. They're nothing like the stories I heard in the outer rim."
"The Jedi and the Sith," he said quietly, "I don't think either of them use their side of the Force the way they should, just the way they think is right."
There is something massive, monumental, in his words that ring through the Force. But Siri can't for the life of her figure out why they cause such a deep reaction, why they are so critically important. Sure, the Jedi and the Sith are both failed Orders in her opinion, but... somehow, his words mean more than that. More, different, than her own cutting attacks she'd use against Kenobi and the Jedi.
"But what do I know?" said Anakin bitterly, "I'm just a twelve-year old slave boy who can't do Force the right way."
Siri snorted. "'Do Force'? Really?"
Anakin shrugged. "What else do you call using it?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Using the Force."
He scowled, and Siri just snickered in response before they fell into silence, and she regarded him. There was so much more to this boy than met the eye. So much more...
"What do you want Siri?"
She blinked. "Pardon?"
"What do you want?"
"Nothing at the moment aside from you to stop talking," she said flatly, not liking where she felt this was going.
"You know what I mean."
"I don't think I do.'
"Siri."
"It doesn't particularly matter what I want for the next seven years," she answered flatly, "More so until Sidious is dead."
He gave her an unimpressed look, closing his eyes for a moment, sighing, then opening them and looking at her with a mixture of sadness and kindness that makes her skin crawl, and for a moment, there's a woman's face composed over his that she doesn't recognize, wearing that exact same look.
"What is it that you want Siri?" Anakin asked, "No Jedi, no Sith, no Light Side, no Dark Side, no Force, what do YOU want?"
Something in his words, that echo in the Force, sends a ripple through her, its like a system shock, and for a moment, the Dark is fleeting in her. "I..."
She looks away for a long moment, she wants out of this damn room. "I don't know, its never mattered what I want, and I... don't think anyone has ever asked me that without their own preconceived notions of what they want for me. Even Obi-Wan... he wants me a Jedi again, or at least not a Sith."
"Maybe you should think about what you want," he said, before leaning forward, "Or can you?"
"I AM capable of thinking for myself, brat," she retorts flatly.
"Without the Dark Side influencing your thoughts?"
Oh that little kriffing shit, she saw where this was going. "You just lost all subtly there, Supernova."
"I wasn't trying to be."
Siri shook her head, stood, and deposited her tray, leaving the room.
Of course, Anakin didn't know when to quit, he followed out behind her. "Its an honest question. Can you think without the Dark Side making itself known? I can feel it sometimes when you speak or when you're thinking, like a hungry pulse that rolls over you. It pushes you to react or act certain ways, doesn't it?"
Siri purses her lips. "You really should drop the subject."
"Mmm, nope."
She sighed. "Skywalker, the Force will always influence those who use it just as those who use it influence the Force back. Yes, even the Jedi are influenced by their precious light."
"Maybe so, but at least it doesn't feel like its yanking me around and snapping at me or trying to force me to think or act in a way it likes," said Anakin, "It gives me a choice."
"So does the Dark, but you have to have the strength and power to fight for that right to choose," she countered, "The Dark Side devours weakness. If you aren't strong enough to control it, the Dark will eat you alive. It will always test you, so its on you to decide if its worth fighting it on something or not."
"And are you happy living like that?" he asked.
"Contentment is overrated and breeds stagnation."
"That's avoiding the question."
She was good at doing that, wasn't she? So avoid she did, all the way back to her room, making to shut the door in Skywalker's face, but he just, won't, quit. He slips through just before she can shut it, his fingers barely avoiding a nasty pinch. She's half expecting him to steal her couch again, just to continue to be a pain in the ass. Except... he moves to the center of the room and sits down, cross legged as if for meditation, he has the gall to motion for her to sit.
"If being happy doesn't seem worth it, if deciding what you want for once isn't enough, then I know what will get you," he said, so sure of himself.
"Oh? And what's that?" she said snidely, "What will get me to turn away?"
"Power."
She paused, startled by the answer coming from him.
"My power."
She froze. What... did he say?
"You think I didn't feel it when we were meditating, that greed, that craving?" he asked, eyebrow raised, "That hunger?"
Siri said nothing, an unsettled churning in her stomach. What... what exactly was he offering? He pats the floor in front of him, and like a moth to the flame, Siri can't help but be drawn to sit. The Force is swirling around them, the Dark Side is salivating at the potential of what he is saying, and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't too. But what is he even offering? Sure he could temporarily feed her energy, its something Force Sensitives could do as a pick-me-up for one another (mostly a Jedi thing than Sith), but that wouldn't last.
"I've been dreaming about this for the last week," said Anakin quietly, "And I think I finally get it."
Dreaming? As in visions? Repeated visions?
"Get what?" she asked, "What exactly are you offering me, Skywalker?"
He offers his hands, and she hesitates for a very long minute, her eyes staring into his, before she takes them. He enters meditation, and pulls her into it. Then she's seeing the Universe again, through the eyes of a Child of the Force. She is inside a star blazing so brightly in the Force, seeing and experiencing more than anyone else possibly could. Unlike last time though, she was not caught offguard and swept in, devoured by her hunger for his power. She does not dive in as deep as she can, going for that core, that heart. She simply basks in the heat, in that power.
Then... she sees more than she did last time. There was darkness in his core. Deep and scarred and pained, from slavery and suffering. But also greedy, selfish, and arrogant. Yet the opposites also flow through him, giving, selfless, and compassionate. He blazed so brightly that looking at him was blinding, all one saw was power, but that power, Skywalker himself, was both light and dark in a way that Jedi and Sith were trained away from. A messy swirl that left one far to close to the edge tilting one way or the other for either side to like.
He tugs her deeper into the mediation, and as much as she'd simply enjoy bathing in the blaze here, she wants more. So she follows him deeper, and she's sweating, sweltering as the power gets hotter and hotter. Her eyes are watering, squinting, hard to see anything but blinding power inside the mediation. Hard to hear over the roar of power in her ears. Hard to sense anything other than the overwhelming depth of the Force around her. She can feel Skywalker having the same kind of reaction, though not as bad as hers. She recalls Obi-Wan saying Anakin has trouble going in deeper into the Force without something breaking.
Yet here and now, he tries, and inside his meditation, inside him, she can distinctly feel that he is pressing forward for her sake. She feels his honest desire to help and it roils something in her. Despite being able to feel that, he plants his presence protectively around her, as if SHE needs the little brats help. Yet... it does. The beginnings of a Force burn fade away, and its not so overwhelming with Skywalker taking the brunt of it. They get closer to that heart, that core, that divine rhythm of its beating. Skywalker is shaking worse than she is now, it feels dangerous, like something could shatter disastrously at any moment if he lost control, but he is still pressing on, determined. He is afraid, she realizes, of that power inside of him.
But his desire to help stronger than that fear, and in that moment his shaking stops.
Anakin reaches for the core with fear in one hand and compassionate determination in the other.
The Force pulses.
Under her closed eyelids she can see the outline of Anakin Skywalker physically glowing.
He takes a small handful of that core in his hands and offers it to her.
She reaches out and touches it and...
SHES BURNING ALIVE.
Agony rips through her, physically, mentally, through the Force. Its like half of the power slips through her fingers, then the other half stays and burns her.
-Balance?-
She takes in a ragged breath, wanting to pull out of the meditation, but also wanting to stay and hold the power despite the fact it would probably kill her to be exposed to this for a prolonged period of time. Force, how does Skywalker survive having this inside of him? Its insane... no normal being could hope to contain what he is, what a Forceful Being truly is. Yet... if she died holding onto it, it'd be more than Sidious ever achieved...
-No-
The burning intensifies, she's melting alive...
Then Skywalker is there, with more of the energy, yet he doesn't let go and let her hold it alone, he holds it with her, and something pulses and settles around them. The agony settles into a painful throb, yet she has never felt more alive than she does now. She looks at that core through a lens made of the power Skywalker wields, and finds it beyond her comprehension. There is an outline, a desire of something there that makes no sense to her. The first piece of a puzzle she feels compelled to finish.
-Balance-
What is it about this state that makes her feel... feel so complete? Makes her feel like she's been missing something she can't understand her entire life. She wants to stay like this forever. Connected so deeply to the Force through Anakin it swirls around her, sights and images and differing voices in such a rush she can't understand...
"Was it all a lie Kenobi? Was I just a path to your trials?"
"I know what Siri is capable of, so much of what she knows she learned from me. She does not stay here because you force her to, but because she chooses to."
"You are scared of him, of Anakin, and its not because he is the Chosen One, you never cared or believed that before."
"I've... been having dreams."
"Rain... didn't truly die until Tomcat did."
"You're hardly an acolyte, let alone my replacement."
"I did not come here for the boy, I came here for you."
"This curse is particularly nasty because its slow. It's designed to give you hope, to slowly sap the life of the child while letting it grow, and to kill it midway through the pregnancy in order to devastate you."
"How do you beat Obi-Wan at negotiating? I've always found punching him in the face works quite well."
"Its like a bargain sale, I get to kill not one brother, but two!"
"Become my apprentice, little warlord, and I will show you power and freedom beyond your wildest dreams."
"You want to know why I dislike you clones? Because you are weak, you refuse to fight for your own freedom when you have the power to, and no, its not the Separatists that hold your chains."
"Remember, Lord Tyrosus, that there can be only two, a Master, and an Apprentice, you have yet to dispose of me, and I have yet to truly replace you. There was never room for a third."
"You did at least try to train her in my image I see. Lets see just how much."
"I am in control of this battle-station, what need have I of you anymore, Lord Sidious?"
"My name, Master Jedi, is Taelson Fry, and I'm the one who designed the Death Star."
"Celebrating already, Master?"
"I was a fool to ever have had a hope that you wouldn't selfishly betray everything we struggled for, I would have been better off without any attachment to you, any attachments at all."
"So... do you two want to be godparents by chance?"
"Don't let anyone ever tell you that someone Dark cannot love."
"I will! I will take revenge! I'll kill that decrepit old bastard for what he did to my family!"
"Get in line and get over yourself Jinn, you're hardly the only one that failed him."
"You are forgiven, father."
"...is called the Fives Trial, otherwise known as the Trial of Chains."
"Say Kun, mind if we steal your temple?"
"You should have stayed dead, Master. I am going to kill you over and over again, and I will taste vengeance unlike any have before."
"What have you done to him? To them? The old Jedi Order had their failings, but they never took it this far!"
"I killed them all yes, and do you know why? Because you belong to me, Master, and no one else."
"I'm just a failure. As a Jedi, as a Sith, as a teacher, as... as a mother. I ruined her..."
"He may feel nothing for me anymore, may hate and curse the very ground I walk on, but I still love him, even after everything. I have to go, or he will die."
"There is one lesson I have yet to teach you, how to become one with the Force!"
"I... I loved you Leia..."
Change it, change it please...
The mass is to much to process, voices and scenes important and not, one after the other washed away before she can properly register them. A storm Siri feels like she will get swept away in until Anakin pulls her back. He gives her a moment to orient herself, and then nudges her. She wants to pause, to try and make sense of the bombardment, but is greedily pulled away when she feels his intent. She's just holding his power right now, she hasn't taken it. She wants to so badly, but would it actually kill her to take this into herself? Even if he's helping? She finds she doesn't care, lowering her shields and with Skywalker's help pulling it in...
Yet as she does so, something about this tickles her as familiar...
Then it hit her, Siri saw the trap for what it was far to late, blinded by her desire and hunger. Saw that Skywalker was repeating what Ur Manka and her had done years ago to a T. But it was to late even if she had wanted to stop. He didn't need multiple attempts like she and Ur Manka did. The Force was exponentially more powerful in him than both of them had been back then, and more fluid, capable of so much more. In true Supernova disaster fashion, without a care of consequences or dangers or her permission, he reaches in, wraps her in that blinding blazing glory, fills her with it for one awing moment, for one single moment she feels like she IS the Force...
Then he full on rips her out of the Dark Side.
The Force shudders around her, her vision swims, pain splits down her skull into a heavy headache, rawness pours down her every sense. She wants to, and does, puke all over the floor with how disorienting it was. She opens her eyes and pukes again and then screams pain, shouting, "KRIFFING SHIT SKYWALKER! WHAT THE HELL!"
Then fear sets in without the Dark immediately there.
Not again-not again-not again-not again-not again-not again-not again-not again-not again-not again-not again.
She doesn't want this again!
She's internally screaming, awaiting the brutal onslaught of guilt and regret she had first suffered when she had touched the light those years ago with Ur Manka, like she had in the cell.
She curls reflexively, as if waiting for a blow...
But it doesn't hit.
Anakin's hand is on her back, and she's still connected to that power, though its fading with the loss of the meditation. She takes in ragged breaths, cursing Skywalker every other breath. Her senses are aflame and blazing, a painful throb to even touch the Force. Its a chaotic mess. "H-how the k-kriff..."
"Read his journal when no one was looking," answered Anakin, easily plucking the thought from her.
But its not the same.
Its not the same.
This isn't the same result that she and Ur Manka achieved.
This isn't light.
She doesn't know what it is.
Then Anakin pulls his hand away.
Then she loses it.
Loses whatever it was.
Loses Anakin's power seeping out of her and back into the Force.
And its like she's empty.
Its awful.
The Dark slowly returns, but not as it was. More like a predatory animal prowling around a fence, scratched and gnawing at it trying to get back in. Its been shut out, but she is so very much aware of the gate that she could throw open and allow it back in. She's tempted to out of spite. She had outright refused to even consider anything like this for so long, then she gets baited into it so easily. Even worse, she can't say he tricked her, he outright had implied this was his goal, but she had smelt power and completely disregarded that.
Yet it was worth it.
For just a taste of that power, that indescribable glory.
Force, how it was worth it...
She'll never admit it aloud, but she would do it again, just for a moment of feeling like she had.
Still... as a matter of principle...
"I'm going to kill you Supernova."
"Mmm, sure you are," he said, skeptical, "Try standing up first."
She can't even get to her feet before she tips over, the world spinning around her.
"Yep," he says smugly, "I'm going to let you nap for a bit."
He moves and puts his hands underneath her armpits, dragging her to the couch and pulling her onto it.
Then the door bursts open, Obi-Wan stumbling in wide eyed, and then Siri is aware of the pure raw -hope- pulsing down the bond with him. Of course he would come after feeling this, of course he would.
"OUT!" she roars.
She is NOT in the mood for a self-righteous hopeful sewage preaching from him or anyone else.
Obi-Wan stares at her with a look in his eyes that tickles the dark prowling around the fence, it calls in to something dark in her, its kin, wanting to claw out Kenobi's eyes for looking at her like that. She doesn't feel compelled to answer it though. He collects himself and nods, taking a step back. She sees Jinn standing outside the doorway, regarding both her and Anakin with something considerate in his gaze, thinking and calculating. Dooku is there as well, looking at Siri like he can't believe what he's seeing. Likely the trio was talking in Jinn's apartment and rushed over when they felt it.
"Anyway, enjoy your nap," said Anakin cheerfully, walking away.
"S'not napping," she slurred, and oh, she's feeling more tired and weak the further Anakin steps away.
For a moment, being connected to Anakin, taking his power within her, she'd been flying higher than a kite.
The moment he's out of the door, she drops like a rock.
"Anakin! Do you have any idea how irresponsible and reckless what you did was?" shouts, actually shouts, Dooku when Anakin finishes his smug reciting of what had happened in his own terminology to the entire gathered Council along with his lineage.
Obi-Wan, despite how his heart was still beating and fluttering with hope and happiness, had to agree. Anakin did not have the training or experience to protect himself if Siri had done anything that deep inside of his mind and meditation. It happening once, accidentally, when Siri got pulled into his meditation was one thing. Obi-Wan had experienced that himself before the first time he had a joint-meditation with his Master and Anakin. This? With intent? Was reckless.
Even worse, without any training or experience, he had given some of his energy away. What if he had given to much? Or given something he could not get back? This was something Knights only started training to do after their knighting, or healers. And healers suffering burnout or damages from pushing themselves to far and giving to much was a documented, dangerous thing. Knights and Masters had killed themselves giving away so much to try and save their padawans before. Anakin could have seriously harmed himself.
He's never been more proud of his brother-padawan.
He's also never been more infuriated with him.
"Aren't you the ones that say we're supposed to follow the Will of the Force?" asked Anakin, crossing his arms and tilting his chin up petulantly.
Of all the things Qui-Gon had to teach, following the supposed 'Will of the Force' over common sense was not one he should of. And he sees a number of the Council eying his Master with that exact same thought ringing in their heads. Anakin has to much potential and power at his fingertips to be allowed to become as reckless as Qui-Gon can be. Obi-Wan might love his master, but he's not blind to his faults. Anakin is already like this at twelve, how much more defiant and reckless could he become if Qui-Gon doesn't temper that? Defying the Council was one thing, but doing it recklessly without proper consideration for the risks and consequences was another.
"And what exactly did you think its will was?" asked Master Windu, skeptical and cross.
"It'd been showing me dreams of me meditating with her for the last week after the first time, it wanted me to," said Anakin, scowling.
"Were you aware of these dreams, Master Jinn?" posed Master Mundi.
"I was not," admitted Qui-Gon, frowning at Anakin.
"Why did you not think to approach your Master, your Grand Master, Obi-Wan, or anyone on this council about this?" posed Master Tiin, "Attempting this without anyone else's wisdom or advice was reckless young one."
"It worked, didn't it?" Anakin challenged back, earning a look of reproach from the Council.
But... he was right.
Obi-Wan cautiously stretches his senses back towards Siri's apartment. He does not touch her presence, but looks at her. Looks at Siri for once not wrapped firmly in the Dark Side. He feels... sadness and regret. He knew she wouldn't be the same as she was. The Siri Tachi he sees now is not close to the same as she was before. She is the same person, the same base, that same fiery personality, but without the Dark there blanketing her presence... there are scars visible through the Force all over. Ripped open even by how bluntly Anakin dragged her away from the Dark. She is exhausted, physically, mentally, and through the Force. Passed out to the point where Obi-Wan thinks she might be out for days.
The Force itself feels like someone kicked up a storm, dangerous, and yet also a breath of fresh air if one was willing to brave that storm. When he had burst into that room... the Force had felt clearer despite the danger than it had since his youth. He admits he is going to risk meditation later, at least in the privacy of his own room.
"That is not what you are being reprimanded for, young Skywalker," rumbled Master Koon patiently, "I applaud your intent, but the manner of which you did this was dangerous to both yourself, and to Tachi. She is likely to be feeling the aftereffects of this... method for some time."
"There is also the consideration," commented Fay, "That she did not consciously choose to turn away from the Dark Side. She may so very easily choose to draw on it again, and may be ever more opposed to turning away than before, to the point where once had your attempt been considered and executed more carefully, now she wouldn't even let the attempt begin."
"She won't."
"So sure, are you?" posed Master Yaddle.
"Yes."
He says it with childlike turning into teenage arrogance. Obi-Wan wants to believe that, he desperately does, but he's not going to let his hopes soar only to crash if she re-falls, if she pulls on the Dark. Because she is likely to be even more easily tempted than most. She will need help until she is firmly able to stand on her own.
"While I'm not happy that he did not come to me or anyone else with the Force's guidance so that we could help better execute its will," said Qui-Gon, moving to stand behind Anakin and put his hands on his shoulder, a look of disapproval aimed down before looking back up at the Council, "Have you considered that this might be part of how the Prophecy is fulfilled? Destroying the Sith does not necessarily mean killing them."
"She did not consciously choose to...," began Master Mundi.
"She wasn't going to!" shouted Anakin in frustration.
"Anakin," said Qui-Gon sharply, "Shouting at someone is not an appropriate away to convey your argument."
He scowled up at Qui-Gon.
"Now explain your reasoning," said Qui-Gon firmly.
"Master Ur Manka's journal says that the Dark Side warps someone's perception, it influences their thoughts, he figured that out with Siri," said Anakin, "I don't how he convinced her to try the first time since you guys said she was likely sent there to kill him, but no one here was offering her a strong enough reason to even try a second time. She'd need something powerful to make her fight that, to make her change, and she wasn't going to find that here. So I had to use the one thing I knew would get her."
His lips peel back into a sneer that is far to much like Siri's for Obi-Wan's liking. "Like grandmaster told me, she abused my past, how I think and act, so I did the same right back to her. She was greedy for power, and people says I'm the strongest Force Sensitive ever. So I used that and it worked. I'll keep dragging her out until she's ready to decide. She's not all dark anymore, its still there yeah, but she can make a choice fully on her own once she's better."
Oh Anakin... his argument is not going to go over well. Mentions of revenge, not-even subtle arrogance, willingness to do it again. While the Dark influences those afflicted with it, their decisions are still theirs, disregarding that and saying 'its just the Dark Side' is a lack of responsibility the Council won't appreciate. Its all mixed with good intentions, yes, but...
"And if she chooses to return to the Dark Side?" posed Fay, completely and surprisingly skipping over anything Obi-Wan thought she might point out, going for, he supposed, the heart of the matter.
Anakin shrugged. "Then at least it was a willing choice and not something influenced by her already falling when her master died. Maybe she can even use the Dark right this time around. I think that's what the Force wants."
What in the hell was he going on about? There was no way to use the Dark Side right. Oh Force, why in the world had he said that in front of the entire Council? Of which, there is intense disapproval, and disbelief from them. Its far to late to try to explain things and contain reactions quietly and securely in the Jinn/Skywalker apartment. There's no way to cover for or mitigate that, not when its outright spoken to them. There will be consequences.
"That is all Padawan Skywalker, you are dismissed," said Master Windu immediantly and firmly.
Anakin scowls, but walks out.
"I think," said Dooku thinly after the doors close, "That we need to execute what was discussed in my padawan's apartment last week. Skywalker needs to be separated from Tachi. This is leading to dangerous heretical leanings that need to be dealt with before it spreads anymore than it already has within him. Qui-Gon needs the time to teach his apprentice the proper Jedi path without Tachi there always pulling my Grandpadawan's attention away and interfering."
His nose wrinkles. "On the matter of Tachi herself, if she can't stay away from the Dark Side without the Chosen One's power as a constant temptation and pull, can it truly be said she actually did turn away? Under her own merit?"
The Council nods in agreement.
Master Windu rubs his eyes tiredly. "I can't even begin to make sense of all the shatterpoints that have spread through Skywalker in the last week alone, there are far to many breakpoints in far to many things connected to both him and Tachi. What he did in that apartment, and what he is suggesting, is dangerous beyond belief. Qui-Gon, you need to get your padawan back on the right path. We are going to require weekly, not just monthly reports, of his training."
Qui-Gon's lips thin. "I see."
"Master Jinn," said Fay calmly, "This is not something to be disregarded, not this time. He voiced open consideration that the Dark Side can be used in a 'right manner', there are many examples of what happens when a Jedi adopts that mindset. None of which have had the strength in the Force that Padawan Skywalker does. Master Windu and I have discussed in the past that he firmly lacks the control that would be necessary to divert that outlook into Vapaad."
She levels her gaze squarely on Jinn. "This order will be obeyed, or he will be removed as your padawan and sent to the Service Corps."
"You would consider that?" protested Qui-Gon, "He is the Chosen One..."
"And as the Chosen One, he will choose," said Fay, her voice for once taking a sharp edge, "Prophecy does not invalidate free will. Being the Chosen One does not mean he actually will carry it out. He could refuse that destiny if he so chose, he could warp or taint its meaning into something else, or worse, choose to fall instead and completely subvert it. If the last starts to become the most likely, better he never receive the full training of a Jedi, and better he be hid away from the Sith discreetly in one of the Service Corps."
She let that settle in for a moment before continuing, "There is also the fact that Master Nu is not sure the archives even have the original version of the Prophecy either. I have read much on this, and there are other versions of the Prophecy that do not mention the Chosen One being a Jedi, nor do they even mention the destruction of the Sith, both potentially being added by our Order at a later date for 'clarification purposes'.
Obi-Wan doesn't properly contain his startlement, some of the council members mirroring this.
Master Windu frowns thoughtfully. "In your opinion, Master Fay, what do you personally think it means?"
"If Tachi is to be believed on the blasphemous, arrogant, damning act the Sith did to unbalance the Force," mused Fay, "It may be as 'simple' as destroying the Veil of the Dark Side. Truthfully though, I do not know if such a thing can be done without killing the Sith, or Darth Sidious at least, as he appears to mold and control it. But truly, I don't know. We are mere mortals, all of us, none can truly known and comprehend the Will of the Force, the Prophecy may have meanings we do not known or understand if Skywalker is to fulfill it at all."
Master Windu tilts his head in acknowledgement, settling back into his chair before looking at Qui-Gon. "The Council will select a mission for you and Padawan Skywalker to be deployed on within the week, likely a long term senatorial or archivist one without too much risk of danger so you may focus on his training. Perhaps a mission alongside the Exploration Corps may distract him from the intent of these missions, his over-enjoyment of anything related to flying is well known."
Qui-Gon gives a nod, but says nothing else. He's never suffered well anyone interfering in the training of his padawans without his blessing when he wasn't busy questioning his own self-worth as a teacher. Sometimes, he had wished Qui-Gon had been more consistent and calm with that over the years. But there's no use dwelling on the past. They bow and leave, retreating to their individual apartments.
Obi-Wan settles down onto his meditation mat, closing his eyes and carefully letting himself drift into the Force. There are many thoughts and emotions that he needs to sort through since Anakin's... 'session' with Siri. Doing it so close to where Anakin flat out ripped her from the Dark and kicked up a storm in the Force is... potentially unwise. But he admits he enjoys the freshness he feels from the Force. He sinks in and begins to sort himself.
First, he acknowledges and releases an emotion he should not have felt: Jealousy. He can admit to himself that he had wanted to be the one to pull Siri out. Even if this had been against her will and ended up being only temporary. It plays on feelings of inadequacy that had plagued him in his early apprenticeship. But its a foolish thing, Siri herself had once told him she considers the Jedi's strength to be their unity, their ability to work together. If alone one of them could not manage and triumph, then another could step in and help.
He is glad Anakin did so, even if his methods were questionable.
Next he wonders how Anakin actually did it. Because as it had been pointed out, it hadn't been a conscious choice on Siri's point. She had let Anakin in, yes, but hadn't taken the final step she had with Master Ur Manka and accepted it. Anakin had just outright ripped her from the Dark, something Obi-Wan would have considered impossible outside of severing the Force completely from someone like Ulic Qel-Droma had been in the far past. Was this a capability of the Chosen One? To do the impossible? Or was this something the Jedi had never uncovered themselves?
Regardless, he's not sure its safe. Siri is still emanating pain and exhaustion through the Force. There are some that might consider that, or even worse, an acceptable price to pay for freeing someone from the Dark Side. But they forget, as much as most don't deserve the right, Sith are people to, and have their own rights so long as they are complying with the law and not an active threat. He wonders if Anakin could do that to Sidious...
The shadow has chosen his path...
Obi-Wan startles a little bit at the clear and yet very sad answer from the Force. Obi-Wan considers it for a moment before returning a sense of understanding to the Force. For all the evil Sidious had done and will do, he could have chosen to do good instead, but did not. And thus does the Force grieve for its lost child. Yet... how is it different for Siri?
The Force plucks and nudges a memory...
"Sith training is meant to purge the apprentice of all connections to their past lives. To destroy and beat out of them their ability to feel compassion, mercy, and the like. The Sacrifice is the pinnacle of that effort, where the apprentice is meant to kill someone who once held significance in their life as proof of severing their chains of the past, and their devotion to the Sith Order."
Siri's words during her questioning session in the Senate fill his ear. He sends an apology to the Force for asking a question he should have already been able to answer. Sidious has destroyed himself out of a lust for power, Siri had yet to fully do so. She had done absolutely damning things, but... no one who could still love was lost unless they chose to be. Though...
"...no one here was offering her a strong enough reason to even try a second time. She'd need something powerful to make her fight that, to make her change, and she wasn't going to find that here..."
Anakin's words strike at him in a weary way, and he honestly wonders, what would it take to get someone as fallen or more fallen than Siri to willingly chose to leave the Dark Side...?
Obi-Wan's meditation is suddenly swept away, and he finds himself standing in a hanger bay somewhere, alarms blaring. But what draws him is a young man in darker clothing leaning over... someone in a dark life support suit?
"No, you're coming with me. I'll not leave you here. I've got to save you."
"You already have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister, you were right…"
Then its gone, and Obi-Wan is left confused. What... was that?
What could have been...
What was that supposed to mean?
But the Force grows silent, and Obi-Wan takes the hint. The Force may offer guidance, but it is not a nurse maid. Some things people have to figure out on their own. He lingers, on the sadness of that moment he saw. Whoever the man was, he had been going to die no matter what. The love though, and the care the younger man had felt for him, the compassion, it had blown Obi-Wan away with how deep it was. But what was the difference, Obi-Wan wondered, between that pair, and Obi-Wan and Siri themselves? Their situation, what had been done and lead up to that?
Was this a past could have been, or a future could have been?
Did it matter?
He supposed not.
He took in a deep breath, let it out, and returned to his meditation...
Patience...
The Dark Side both placates and snarls in response to the molten fury burning through Sidious's veins. He is not some foolish overeager child, he knows what happened does not require an immediate reaction as Tachi's betrayals and revelations to the Jedi had in years past. But this... what she had done... he would have to be deaf to the Force to not feel what had happened. A second time his apprentice had broken her loyalty to the Dark Side and the Sith. The first time she had the excuse of stumbling into it while under an act to kill Ur Manka. Her petty challenges over the last few years to him were still true to herself and the Dark Side, but this?
It is rare that Sidious has ever felt personally wounded by something.
What had gone wrong in her training to allow this?
Sidious clasps his hands behind his back as he stares out the window in his office towards the Jedi Temple. He is missing something, he feels it. Something important. It had better be significant, otherwise he will not refrain from capturing and/or killing Tachi the next time he has the option to do so. Taming a rebellious and renegade Sith Apprentice was one thing, but someone who would truly return?
That deserved only extermination.
*ping ping*
Sidious turns back to his desk, moving to sit and read a report from-from the Jedi Council. Ah, yes, required by court order to keep the Republic government, and more importantly him, up to date on anything relating to Tachi. Good, answers then. He opens it, reading it once, pausing in disbelief, reading it twice, then he sits and lets the shock of it roll over him, then he slowly reaches for his comlink.
"Vosa."
"Yes Master?"
"I have a new mission for you, I will send you the details and the location within the week, prepare yourself to be of use," he said with cold, acid fury in his tone.
"As... you wish," she said cautiously, "What are my orders?"
"Kill Anakin Skywalker."