AN: So I am starting to think this is the best fanfic I've ever written, I actually have this mapped out completely and have had to rewrite entire chapters because of changing ideas, so I have reached my 100K already but I am still determined to have 100k postable content by next Sunday. Please, please review, it helps so much and I can't thank you all enough.
Chapter 10 - Because it is the Light
Qui-Gon had had four apprentices in his life. Feemor who had made knight faster than most, Xanatos who killed himself rather than face punishment for his crimes, Obi-Wan who was, let's be honest, the perfect Padawan who Qui-Gon did not deserve, and Rey who never ceased to amaze.
So when he felt the first trickle of her fear, his heart twisted, knowing that this was a journey she had to face alone. Even when she called for help.
And he kept telling himself that until the bright sun that was Rey's near infinite compassion and energy went supernova, creating a black hole where only light should be.
Through the bond with Xanatos, Qui-Gon had felt his growing discontent, but he had not felt him fall to the Dark Side. The bond had broken when he had decided to leave.
But his connection to Rey remained as strong as ever, and a part of him wish it hadn't.
Qui-Gon had once almost fallen himself, but he hadn't-
Not this, he had not become this. Such pain, such hatred, and cruelty… such evil.
He had never known its like, and he almost fell to his knees and lost his lunch having that darkness roaring through the bonds.
Obi-Wan wasn't so lucky.
And then the tide changed, and Qui-Gon gasped as he felt Rey dying.
The Living Force itself turning on her as the evil within her was shoved outward.
He didn't understand, was she attacking the Force?
The bond grew slack, for lack of a better description, and Qui-Gon tried to get a handle on his own panic as he raced into the cave following that shadow, that residual light that was the Master and Padawan bond.
He wondered if they would find her dead, or merely dying.
The evil that had found her swirled in the Force like ink thrown into a clear pool. Qui-Gon was certain every Force sensitive in the galaxy must have felt it.
He ran faster, drawing on the Force, its power mirky, but no less strong.
The Force had been growing clouded for years, had been sick almost, now it felt injured.
Qui-Gon felt Obi-Wan at his side as they had to slow down in order to make it through smaller passageways.
Rey had ventured deep.
Some of the stones they passed bore fresh saber scrapes, indicating that she had, at least partially, finished her own lightsaber.
Unless someone had been down here waiting for her.
He suppressed the thought as they came to a hole.
He closed his eyes to gauge how deep it went. Had she fallen during her vision quest?
He and Obi-Wan jumped together.
Obi-Wan lit his saber, casting everything in black and blueish white lighting.
"Rey!" Obi-Wan cried as they spotted her curled on her side.
Qui-Gon put a hand out, holding his senior Padawan back. Obi-Wan stayed, raising his saber to better light the space.
"Rey," Qui-Gon called softly, "Rey." He tried calling to her through the Force, but she made no response.
He touched a hand first to her shoulder then neck.
Her pulse was slow and weak, but he didn't think she was in danger of dying.
He pushed the Force into her, but there was no response, as if she wasn't a Force sensitive, as if she couldn't feel him calling to her, feel them shaking the bonds as if he could will it back to life.
But she wasn't dead, just- empty.
He felt for her injuries, nothing broken, but she would be bruised and hurting. He tried to focus on healing her neck, the back of her head, but it was difficult.
Healing other Force Sensitives was supposed to be easier.
But there was a discordance around Rey, as if the Force was trying to connect with her as much as he was.
Not wholly satisfied but deciding this was past his capabilities, he gently picked her up.
"Rey?" he asked, her eyes were open, looking at him.
"Rey?" he tried again.
Obi-Wan approached then, he touched her forehead, and in the blue light, Qui-Gon saw her eyes track him.
"Rey," Obi-Wan begged, "Please say something? You feel hollow within the Force."
Not light or dark, she felt hollow, like a shell washed clean as the waves swirled it along the sand.
"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon called to him, "We need to go."
He nodded his head too rapidly before stooping to pick an elongated hilt off the ground.
Qui-Gon pulled on the Force and sprang upwards, careful to use the Force to soften their impact.
He felt Rey curl against him, and he looked down in time to see her close her eyes.
She moved voluntarily, he thought at Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan asked aloud as they made their way back through the tunnels, feeling even longer now that they couldn't run, "What happened to her?"
"I don't know."
"What was that that went through her, it was… awful."
"I don't know," Qui-Gon repeated, focusing most of his energy on monitoring Rey's condition.
She seemed stable, but she wasn't in good condition. There was something terribly wrong and it went beyond the physical.
"Do you think there was someone down there? I didn't sense anyone."
"I don't know, Padawan mine, I do not know."
He had only one idea, something the Guardian of the Whills had informed him of, and he didn't at all like that idea.
And he knew for certain it would not alleviate Obi-Wan's concerns.
They finally made it to the ship, and when Qui-Gon went to lay Rey down she sat up.
Obi-Wan rushed to her side, "Rey?" He tugged on her braid, "Come on, Rey, talk to us."
Qui-Gon's heart clenched. "Obi-Wan, bring us back to Coruscant."
Obi-Wan was the better pilot and he could get them there quicker than Qui-Gon could.
Obi-Wan looked torn, but he did as he was told, touching her shoulder as he left.
Qui-Gon swivelled one of the chair's seat to face her and buckled her in.
She made no move to aid or hinder him, just as she seemed to be not reacting to the Force.
But her hazel eyes watched him and she didn't seem dazed.
No, her mind was there, working over some problem that seemed to overwhelm her with hopelessness.
And that's what it was, he realized.
She hadn't turned to the Dark Side, at least she wasn't consumed with it now. No, she had lost hope.
Rey, who could look death in the face and laugh joyously at Obi-Wan's sarcastic remark on their delightful doom, had lost hope.
He thought it would have been easier to pull her back from the Darkness than this, because he couldn't for the life of him understand what would cause this reaction.
He took her hands and turned them palms up, resting on her knees. He then laid his palms on hers, so that their fingers laid on each other's wrists. Her pulse had evened some. Her hands were cold from taking off her gloves, left behind in Ilum.
"Did I ever tell you of Tahl?" he asked. "The first and only woman I ever loved?"
Rey's eyes focused on him more solidly.
He waited for her to say something but she made no answer, not even a shake of the head.
He continued, "We grew up together. She was absolutely incredible, her connection to the Force, not her power, but her sensitivity to it, was unparalleled."
Rey watched him, her mood did not change, but she was listening, that much he could tell.
So he went on. He kept his voice even, deep, and he took long pauses, inviting her to ask questions.
She never spoke.
Qui-Gon hadn't talked about Tahl in depth in a very long time, in fact, he didn't think he ever had. Not like this, not to immortalize her stories in the memories of anyone else. He knew Obi-Wan was listening as well.
Qui-Gon didn't stop speaking, nor did he fight to suppress his emotions the memories brought, he let them feed into the Padawan bonds and let the Force sweep away the excess.
Obi-Wan was as quiet as Rey.
By the time they reached Coruscant, he was in deep need of a hot cup of tea with lemon.
Rey had yet to utter a syllable but her hands had wrapped around his wrists to give him comfort.
She was going to be alright, whatever happened to her in that vision, with the Force, his youngest Padawan was going to be alright.
Obi-Wan must have felt his relief because his expression went from concerned to murderous when Mace greeted them on the platform.
"The Council has requested your presence," Mace said, eyeing Rey whose expression expressed nothing.
"She needs a healer," Obi-Wan said, without a hint of his typical deference to the Council.
They would make a maverick out of him yet.
"She's walking," Mace noted, "Depa can see to her."
Rey was walking on her own following Qui-Gon like a lost initiate.
Obi-Wan took her hand and they both gave a say of relief when she wrapped her hand around his.
Qui-Gon thought she needed sleep, and that they all needed tea. But he nodded to Mace, even as they went to the Council chambers they could feel the Force fluctuating. And at the apex of that changing, Rey.
She was like ground zero of an explosion, the Force churning around her like radiation.
But somehow, it didn't seem to be affecting her, she wasn't closed off from it, she was indifferent towards it.
When they got to the room, Dooku offered his own seat at once as Mace motioned to Depa.
"Get her jacket off," she ordered.
Obi-Wan helped Rey whose version of helping was holding back her arms so he could slip the layers off. When she was left in her regular tunic, Depa stood behind her and healed what remained of the bruises.
"She hit the ground hard, but she sustained no serious injuries, not even a concussion, her lower half took most of the impact. However, something is wrong with her connection to the Force."
And that's when it started. Everyone tried everything they could think of to get Rey to talk, excluding Dooku and Sifo-Dyas who stood at Qui-Gon's side.
Rey watched everyone who spoke to her, watched them as if she had nothing to give them, as if what she had seen were beyond comprehension.
It was breaking his heart, because a part of him knew she was changed by her vision quest, but he also knew something more had happened.
Obi-Wan couldn't wrap his head around what had happened.
Rey had been in danger and they had held back.
He was never going to ignore a call for help again from her, ever.
And he was getting annoyed with the Council, even if he wanted to shake Rey himself.
Apparently, he and Qui-Gon hadn't been the only ones aware of Rey's encounter with the Dark Side.
Obi-Wan suspected that Qui-Gon knew something he wasn't sharing, so, it seemed, did Master Dooku who was watching his old apprentice with a narrowed gaze.
Unable to take it any longer, he asked, "What happened to her? Why is her connection to the Force so… she hasn't cut herself off from him."
Dooku answered him, "No, its if her connection is a rope in her hands, she holds it still but her fingers are open, neither casting the tether aside or grasping the lifeline."
"Speak you must, Padawan Palpatine," Yoda declared, coming to stand by Rey.
She, predictably, said nothing.
Obi-Wan saw it coming before Yoda had begun the motion, his voice was echoed by Qui-Gon's, "Yoda, don't!"
His walking stick came down against Rey's left knee.
The change in her was instantaneous.
Obi-Wan had enough to think, Idiot, before Rey was in a crouch, her arm extended, launching the little green master soaring across the room. Mace the closest to him, also got pushed back.
Yoda spun in the air, pushing himself off the wall, he flipped back to the centre of the room and threw out his own clawed hand.
Rey was sent tumbling back with the chairs.
She came back to her feet, 'the rope' as Dooku had called it, was no longer slack in her hands.
The Padawan and Master bonds sang, like a strung bow. But the energy itself, she wasn't drawing from the Light or the Dark, she was drawing from both the Light and the Dark.
It swirled through her, through them, and Obi-Wan shivered, there was no control here. He felt her emotions again, as if she had been in sleep mode, and now woken with a computer virus.
Yoda pulled his saber.
And Rey pulled on the Force, her anger at being drawn on calling to the Darkness like bees to syrup.
"Control, young Padawan, speak with you only, I wish."
She wasn't listening now though, Obi-Wan felt the conflict within her, he could just barely glimpse her thoughts.
She wasn't thinking in coherent sentences, she was trying to come to terms with what the Force was, what was flowing through her now, and if she were being controlled by it.
Obi-Wan exchanged a look with Qui-Gon.
She doesn't understand.
She was panting with the effort of holding so much power, shaking with restraining herself from acting one way or the other
"The Dark Side have you fallen," Yoda said.
Obi-Wan glared at the Master. Couldn't he see the Light still shining in her? She hadn't fallen, she was channelling both.
Which he wasn't really sure how that was possible, but he looked at Mace, he used both, didn't he?
Mace was staring at Rey too, "Easy Padawan, we just need you to tell us what you did to the Force."
Her gaze sharpened on him, her expression -furious.
Obi-Wan saw Mace tense.
The first words Rey uttered did nothing to bring down the tension: "Who are the Sith?"
Mace pulled his own lightsaber, the purple swishing to life.
Obi-Wan was too slow to catch Rey's saber from where she pulled it from his side. Two beams of light ignited from either end of her duel blade.
Blue, Qui-Gon sighed through their bonds, before stepping forward, "Enough! All of you enough. Rey, power down."
She turned off the saber, straightening from her crouch, but the Force remained agitated around her even as Yoda and Mace powered down their sabers.
"Who are the Sith?" she asked again.
"Powerful Force sensitives that operated on the Dark Side of the Force," Qui-Gon explained, his tone even.
She shook her head, "Why? Why…"
"Sworn enemies of the Jedi, they were," Yoda said. "Long dead, long gone are they."
"How could the Force do that to them?"
"Do what to them?" Obi-Wan asked, surprised at the concern in her voice.
"Enslave them?" she asked, her gaze meeting his with a world of sorrow. More sorrowful even than she had been at her father's betrayal.
He stared at her, and it seemed no one in the room had answered, the question was… bizarre.
"Misunderstand, you have," this from Yoda who knew exactly what to say.
Rey's emotions rose like sparks from a broken log in a fire, "I felt it. I felt their pain, their betrayal! How could the Force do that to them!?" Her voice was panicked now, and Obi-Wan was getting whiplash from just the backlash of her feelings.
"Because it is what the Sith did to the Force," Dooku said, stepping toward her without hesitation.
"What?" she asked.
"The Force is alive, young Padawan. And like all living things it has both Darkness and Light. Despite what many in this room would tell you, the Dark is just as natural as the Light. But extremes are always wrong. The power of the Dark Side is aggressive in nature, predatory, just as the Light is a healing source, one of defence. But the Dark Side is addictive, to wield it without slipping, without losing yourself to the call to power? Well, it is like any other source of great power, it corrupts."
"Why?" she asked, "no one deserves that- what I felt. Their- it was-" she couldn't seem to finish a thought.
Dooku stepped closer, "The Sith are more than Dark Siders, they don't just use their dark emotions to fuel their connection to the Force, they take from the Force."
"Take? Don't we all take from it?"
"Yes, but the Jedi teach their pupils to become one with the Force, in essence, you can only take as much as you have to give. To be one with the Force is more than a phrase. At a Jedi's most powerful, they are able to channel as much as their mind and body can handle."
"A Sith's?" she asked.
"The Sith go beyond their limits, willing to take on the pain to exceed them, and thus creating an imbalance that the Force itself must compensate. It is no longer the individual's pain, but the Force's pain. This is immensely powerful but-"
"There's no control," she supplied, her gaze going distant, "and if they don't have control, then the Force takes control."
"As the Sith take power that does not belong to them," Dooku finished. "The Dark Side is more powerful for fighting, it is its nature, but the draw to take more than you have, will always be there."
She shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself, her saber still in her hand, "I don't understand, why would anyone want to do that?"
Dooku gave her an odd look, "For power, with power people believe they can solve anything."
"But if they just trusted the Force…" she said, her voice trailing off as she looked inward.
Obi-Wan joined Dooku in the look they gave Qui-Gon who remained stoic.
Plo Koon asked, "If you don't understand the draw of the Dark Side, Padawan Palpatine, why are you drawing on it now?"
This startled Rey, her connection with the Force wavered.
"Breathe," Qui-Gon instructed, "Focus on your breath, let the emotions go."
She centred herself, and Obi-Wan sighed in relief when her connection to the Force went back to normal. She was bright a star as ever, the newly released darkness in the Force just made her shine that must brighter. Their bonds too, were back to what they had been, perhaps a bit more solid, but that could just be him missing the connection from the long ship ride back.
"Did someone attack you on Ilum?" Obi-Wan asked her.
She looked at him, "Yes, there was- it was odd. I mean before the Sith, I was attacked. Obi-Wan you would have to be a knight before you were able to take on a Padawan correct?"
"That's right-" he answered before Qui-Gon cut him off.
"She doesn't need to share our vision with us, such a thing is not done."
Yoda frowned, "I think in this, she must. A normal vision it was not."
"Her privacy should not be violated like this," Qui-Gon argued. He looked to Rey, "Vision quests for our sabers are Force given. Sometimes glimpsing the past, the future, what might have been, will be, or might never be, and it always reflects pieces of our deepest fears, fears that you might not even know you had."
Rey shrugged, "I don't mind, most of it didn't make sense."
"Tell she must," Yoda insisted.
Depa shook her head, "Not all of the Council needs to be here. Yoda, Mace, Dooku, and I think even Sifo-Dyas should remain, but the rest of us will trust in Master Yoda's discretion."
"Agreed," Plo Koon said, echoed by the others who bowed before leaving.
Rey looked a bit lost, her arms still wrapped around herself.
Obi-Wan went to her, putting his arms around her.
She sighed, and leaned into him.
"You scared me," he whispered.
She embraced him then, holding him tight, "I'm sorry, Obi-Wan."
Qui-Gon came to them then, putting a hand to her shoulder. "Perhaps we can move somewhere less ceremonial. I think myself and my Padawans are in need of a good cup of tea."
Mace sighed, "Fine, but don't think you can get out of this talk, Qui-Gon."
Qui-Gon said nothing as they filed out the room.
Yoda's meditation room wasn't far. Reluctantly, Obi-Wan left Rey's side to make tea for everyone.
When they were all seated, tea cups in hand, Yoda said, "Sorry I am, Padawan Palpatine, but from the beginning, you must start."
Cupping both hands around the clay cup, Rey said gaze focused on the tea, "I finished making my lightsaber before a giant attacked me."
"A giant?" Mace asked.
She frowned, "He was huge, bigger than Master Jinn, but even with the breathing apparatus, I think he was human."
"Think you?" Yoda asked, "See him you did not."
She shook her head, "No, he was wearing a helmet and all black armour, he was impossibly strong."
"And who was this man to you?" Mace asked.
"He said Master Jinn brought me to the Temple only because he thought I was the 'Chosen One,' but that was wrong. He said he was the Chosen One and I was nothing but the False Hope. He said Obi-Wan Kenobi was his Master. He warned I would be betrayed as he had been."
"But I've never had a Padawan," Obi-Wan said, frowning at hearing Rey even say that they would betray her or that Qui-Gon would only choose her for being the Chosen One.
"Sounds like another future," Sifo-Dyas remarked, "some realities have such potential to exist, that even if they don't come to pass, they leave an impression on the world. Perhaps this 'giant' was who would have been taught by Obi-Wan had you not appeared in his place."
Obi-Wan sent the prophet a grateful look, he didn't want Rey analyzing the Chosen One thing too hard, and everyone else seemed to feel the same, because Yoda asked, "And this duel? How end, did it?"
"He was winning, he was- unrelenting, and his blows were so heavy. I had to back up, he manoeuvred me deep into the caves, deeper than I had wanted to go."
"And then?"
"He Force pushed me and I fell down a hole."
"Gravely injured were you? Unable to fight?"
She tilted her head, "I hurt but- when I opened my eyes, I saw a sky of lightning with thousands of Star Destroyers. And then… I saw myself on a throne, but I was dressed in black and she was… she was a slave to the Force. So powerful, but a slave. I pitied her. She gave her saber to me but it was different from the one I had built. It folded open in the middle. When I held it I- she disappeared, and then this thing appeared, it was a corpse with someone living trapped inside, he asked me to slay him."
"Did you?" Mace asked.
"Of course."
"Because it was evil?" Mace asked, fishing for her hubris.
"Because it was unnatural, only as I brought the saber down, he said 'And the Sith will live on through you,' and that's when-" her voice cut off.
Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon put a hand on her shoulders. When she looked up at Mace, tears were trailing down her face, "And I felt them. I don't care if they were evil in their lives, no one, deserves an eternity of that. They were outside life and death, they were…" she shut her eyes, "tortured."
"Channel them you did," Yoda stated.
She nodded, and Obi-Wan felt his gut turn, he had felt the echo of that, the pain, the fear, and the hatred. He sipped his tea, trying to keep the bile down.
"Power you had," Yoda went on, "of all the Sith. Yet keep this power you did not?"
She frowned at him, "No, I tried to -I don't know- comfort them, heal them, but that was beyond me, so I gave them back to the Living Force."
It took Obi-Wan a few moments until he understood what she was saying, but when he did…
"I'm sorry," Mace interrupted, "Are you telling us, you had unlimited power in the galaxy and you just gave it up?"
"Why would I choose slavery? Why would I give up my freedom for a lie?" she asked. "The Sith think they can have everything but in reality they only lose everything they might have had, including themselves."
Obi-Wan smiled, "See, I told you that you were born to be a Jedi."
She turned to him with a smile, her eyes were still pinched around the edges, but it was their Rey smiling at him.
She was going to be okay.
"To the Sith, what became of them?" Yoda asked.
"I killed them," she said without malice.
Yoda raised his brows, "Oh-ho, and the best for others, think you know?"
"They were already dead, Master Yoda, but they couldn't move on, they were trapped in the Dark."
"You almost died," Qui-Gon said, "I felt you almost die."
"The Light didn't want them."
"But you forced the Darkness into the Light?" Dooku asked.
"Because they weren't meant to be separate and they couldn't move on their own, I freed them."
"And if they didn't want to be freed?" Mace asked.
She shrugged, "Well, maybe they shouldn't have tried to possess me. If they wanted me to feel their pain, they should have thought of how I would react to it."
"Fought you, the Force did," Yoda noted, "stop you, it did not."
"The Light fought me, Master, but the Force was with me."
"With your life paid, you might have."
She looked at him, "Could you have felt such anguish and done nothing?"
"Most would have turned it away, run from it," Mace asked.
"But she didn't know to be afraid of the Dark," Dooku noted, "not in the way we are traditionally taught in the Temple."
"Hurt the Force you have," Yoda stated.
Obi-Wan flinched, that didn't sound good.
"Still bleed it does."
Definitely, not good, he thought.
But Qui-Gon said, "No, Rey hasn't hurt the Force, she punctured an abscess. The Sith ghosts have caused pain to bleed out into the Force, but the infection must drain before it can heal. As Master Dooku says, the Force is not all light, the Force is the Light and the Darkness."
"How did you know how to exercise the Sith shades?" Sifo-Dyas asked.
She blinked at him, "I did what Master Jinn taught me to, I gave my emotions to the Force."
There was a silence, and everyone but for Rey turned to look at Qui-Gon. This time his stoic expression was cracking around the edges as he fought not to smile.
Obi-Wan thought at him, Pleased with yourself?
Qui-Gon shot back, Maybe you will listen better to my words of wisdom now?
Even as Sifo-Dyas shook his head, "All those years you lectured us about the Living Force. We thought it was a fine turn of events when your Padawan Kenobi's way of rebelling against you was to become the perfect rule abiding Jedi, but it seems the tables have turned. You're given the most powerful apprentice in the Order able to prove how we thought to fight the Dark wasn't enough, not by half."
Rey frowned at him, "I'm not the most powerful anything, Obi-Wan is better than me."
"You are more powerful, Rey," Dooku said fondly, "than Master Yoda."
Obi-Wan covered his mouth to suppress a laugh at the consternation on Rey's face.
"No, I'm not, I couldn't beat Obi-Wan, and certainly not Master Yoda."
"Come now, Padawan Palpatine," Mace said, crossing his arms, "You can't be that naive."
She stiffened, "I'm not that powerful, and I wouldn't want to be more powerful than Master Yoda."
"Why not?" Dooku asked, eyes twinkling.
"It seems exhausting," she stated.
Obi-Wan snorted and Qui-Gon laughed, Dooku put a hand to his beard to cover a smile.
Yoda made a hmmm sound.
Mace was unconvinced, "Do you truly not understand how remarkable your powers are?"
"I have a connection to the Force, Master Windu, that is a blessing, but the Force itself is remarkable. The Force is what is infinite, not me."
"False humility."
Obi-Wan shook his head at Mace as Rey began to look irritated.
"Obi-Wan and Master Jinn are more powerful and competent than me, that isn't false humility that is fact."
"Perhaps, but you have the potential to be more than either."
"I don't believe that," she said.
Obi-Wan took her hand, "He's right, Rey. You are more powerful than us."
She looked at him, her eyes bewildered, "I don't understand what you mean. I've only had a year of training."
Mace opened his mouth again, but Qui-Gon motioned him to silence with a hand, "Alright, now I think it is time my Padawans get some rest."
Yoda nodded, "Fallen to the Darkness, she has not, tempted, she was not. But aptitude you have, young Padawan, careful you must be."
She looked wary at this advice as she stood and bowed to the gathered Masters.
Obi-Wan followed her lead, but Qui-Gon caught Rey's hand, "We follow the Light, not because it will lead us to victory, but because it is the Light."
She bowed to him, "Thank you, Master Jinn."
Obi-Wan shared a look with Qui-Gon.
Rey had almost died today, but she was alright, they were alright.
Even if the insanity was only beginning.
Obi-Wan walked back with her, thinking to himself that their first mission was destined to be crazy.
Dooku watched his old Padawan depart to his after a few parting remarks from Mace.
Yoda sighed, "A true Knight, Qui-Gon is. Forever on his own quest."
"And his Padawans will follow after him, treading their own paths," Dooku remarked.
Sifo-Dyas ran a thumb over his chin in thought, "The future is more unclear than ever. Whatever she did to the Force…" he sighed deeply, "I can't tell if it was a major shift or if it was what the Force was waiting for. She could have fallen today, and with the knowledge of all the Sith shades, she might have turned on Qui-Gon. It is lucky she saw the trap of power."
"A slave once she was," Yoda remarked, "die she would before became that again she would, but worry still I do."
Mace nodded, "There is different training one needs to handle the Dark Side, that she was able to call its power so easily without being swayed… it is both a good sign, and may mean she could fall without realizing it."
"This does not worry me," Dooku remarked, "what concerns me is the existence of Sith shades that are separate from objects. We all knew Sith artifacts could hold memories of them, but we had yet to confirm what Qui-Gon learned from the Guardians of the Whills. If those shades were accessible through communing with the Force…"
"The knowledge of the Sith, die with them it did not," Yoda said gravely.
"The growing Darkness in the Force," Sifo-Dyas said, "I saw war. I thought we would need an army, and maybe we will. But an army will not help us against the Sith if they are truly back."
"Large the galaxy is," Yoda said.
Dooku stood to look out the windows at the passing traffic. He wished for the quiet of Serreno more now than ever, "Qui-Gon believes the Jedi should leave the Temple. Find another planet less wind up with wealth, politics, and crime."
"Four thosand years the Jedi here have remained, run from the Sith we will not."
"All extremes are ill Master," he said, turning to the grandmaster, "if the Sith are the extreme of the Dark then what is the extreme of the Light?"
Yoda frowned, "I know not, been so good as so evil has anyone?"
Dooku looked back to the skyline, his hands folded behind him, "If the oppisite of the Sith and their evil actions, it must be the Jedi's well intentioned inaction."
"A fault, patience is not," Yoda reproached him.
Dooku didn't turn back to face him, "When the Sith died, the Jedi stopped advancing, we grew complacent within these walls. We became a tool to the Republic rather than agents of the Force."
Mace stood, "We are not politicains, Dooku."
"No, we are the peacekeepers, and as Sifo-Dyas has foreseen, peace shall not last within our lifetimes. What will the Jedi do when war is waged?"
"Maybe there wouldn't be a brewing war if you weren't supporting the Separatist movement," Mace shot back.
"The Separatists are nothing more than a voice to bring light to those who the Republic is failing," he turned back to them, squaring his feet, "to the people who the Jedi are failing."
"Democracy must be-"
"Is it Democracy if the few outway the many?" Dooku asked, "We need to know our answer to the matter of war. Who will we support, what role will we play, what does the Living Force expect us to do?"
Mace rubbed his temples, "I do not know who is worse, you or Qui-Gon."
Sifo-Dyas chuckled, "I think Obi-Wan will overshadow them both one day."
"Obi-Wan is no maverick," Mace declared.
"Perhaps," Sifo-Dyas said lightly, "or perhaps he will be the medium to which the Jedi Order learns to understand our mystics." He said the last with gesture to Dooku.
Dooku quirked a brow, "Fallen I may have been, but not a maverick."
Sifo-Dyas waved a hand, "Whatever you say, my old friend. What was your point in moving the Jedi from Coruscant?"
"The Jedi must change, and we must know our response to the Republic before they make a request in regards to suppressing war. And we must know our answer soon."
"Why?" Mace asked, "Why now when we don't know for certain if war will strike?"
"War is like decease, we must be prepared. Because if the Sith have survived, then what better time to strike than when we are deliberating during a rising galactic war?"
The four Council members exchanged looks, knowing that the four of them coming to an agreement would take time, but the entire Council?
Dooku sighed, he was happy to be back, to see the chaos his Qui-Gon left in his wake, but the constant up hill battle was less than desirable.
But he remained because he had real hope that Jedi could change. He only hoped they could be moved to change before disaster struck.
AN: Thoughts and reactions for this developing writer, pretty please?