WARNING: Emotionally graphic.
Chapter 36 - The Questions We Failed to Ask
Master Plo Koon was more than pleased with his latest Padawan. Actually, he was just happy to have a Padawan again. Being a Council member made taking on a new learner difficult as much of his time was tied up. Raising a teenager was never an easy task, and being on the Council deprived them of missions they could be on. The Temple was a fine enough place to be natured in, and a well enough place to work in one's adulthood, but it wasn't where one should spend their youth if they hoped to serve the larger galaxy.
But his new Padawan wasn't a teenager who needed keeping.
And for Padawan Feral Oppress, both the Jedi Temple and Coruscant was an exotic adventure.
Plo glanced at the young Zabrak, his tattoos were intricate over his ochre skin, darker outlines of the birthmarks beneath. Somehow Feral managed to look completely unthreatening which Plo attributed to his relaxed gate and bright golden eyes that stared around him in wonder.
Neither of his names seemed to fit him. The only way one might confuse the young Zabrak with being 'feral' was that he was incredibly shy around strangers. As for 'oppressing', Koon had never met a Force user with so much potential whose aura was so incredibly light.
Feral reminded Koon of a warm spring breeze, new hope awakening after a long winter.
As Padawan and Master, they were well suited, Plo had never felt the Force so assertive in the rightness of a choice before.
Following the intention of the Force was on the best of days a murky business, yet here and now, he felt as if he was exactly where he needed to be.
They were currently walking the long halls of the Temple, and unlike Qui-Gon's Padawan, Feral seemed most interested in everything, from the Temple's foundation to the wider city.
Plo had learned that Feral, while skittish in civil circumstances was nonetheless a fearsome warrior. What Feral needed to learn as a Jedi was not how to fight, but how to be a voice for peace and life in the galaxy.
He needed to learn who he was and then learn who he could be outside of his brothers and people.
"Come, Padawan, tell me more of yourself, of your family. You have told me a great deal about your older brother Savage, but little of Maul. Surely, as he is your twin you must have been close?"
Or possibly rivals, but Plo doubted that. Maul had been too protective of Feral for them to have been warring with each other in the past. Maul acted as the older, leading Plo to suspect that Maul had protected Feral as Savage had from great personal harm.
"His birth name was Wrath Oppress," Feral said easily, his voice pleasant.
He had an ingrained quietness to him, but Plo believed he would make a fine story teller one day. "Why did he change his name?"
Feral shrugged, "I don't think it was his choice. We were separated when we were young. We were still with our mother even."
"That must have been traumatic. Why did your mother part the two of you?" Plo asked, knowing that their mother was the leader of their clans.
"It wasn't Mother Talzin, she was furious, but there wasn't anything she could have done."
"What do you mean, done? She was your mother, your guardian."
Feral's golden eyes turned sad, "Wrath was kidnapped by a Sith Lord by the title Darth Sidious. He was more powerful than our mother, and by the time anyone knew Wrath was gone they could have been anywhere in the galaxy."
Plo froze in his tracks, feeling his eyes go wide, he worried his protective lenses might fall out, "A Sith Lord?"
Feral nodded, not understanding at all the effect his words were having, "That's where Wrath's title comes from, he's Darth Maul."
Plo's mind spun.
Did Qui-Gon know of this?
"Maul is a Sith Lord?"
"Not technically," Feral said, "he would have to kill his Master to truly become one. But he was trained as a Sith. That's why he's the most powerful Dathomirian."
Plo was very glad for his mask, that Feral couldn't see the horror on his expression, "Is he still a practising Sith? Is that what he is training the Nightbrothers to be?"
Feral snorted, "No. Sith torture their apprentices, Maul hasn't tortured any of us. He's been showing us Form VIII and teaching us how to listen to the Force, both the Darkness and the Light. The Dark scares me though. Both my brothers have more control than I do."
Plo was fighting to keep his voice even, just like Rey Palpatine, Feral didn't understand the significance of the words he spoke.
Rey.
Surely, the girl wasn't so blind to not have noticed that Maul was more than Dark Sider. Was she protecting him? Had he manipulated her against the Order?
Or was this another one of Jinn's unorthodox social experiments?
"Does your twin have a lightsaber?"
Feral grinned, a happy smile, and like a boy speaking of a new fighter ship, he said proudly, "A dual sided lightsaber. It's red which is really neat because it matches his skin. His skin tone is rare, you know? True scarlet is prized by the females."
Plo almost sighed, whatever trouble this new knowledge would lead to, Plo could at least be grateful Feral was already securely initiated into the Order as his Padawan.
Maul might be a Sith, but Plo would see Feral knighted as a Jedi.
Qui-Gon Jinn was at his near limit.
He knew joining the Council was a bad idea.
It's why he had turned down the position when Obi-Wan was still his Padawan when the boy was sixteen.
But no, Dooku had to go and make him his stand in representative, and as Dooku was recovering, the rest of the Council kept piling on the work.
He was certain Mace and Yoda were the ones taking full advantage.
And whether Qui-Gon liked it or not, which he didn't, he was a Council member.
Sigh.
"Serreno is still safe," Dooku insisted, "Jango could not have overcome the Temple Guards."
"But our enemies know Serreno is vulnerable now," Ki-Adi Mundi said.
"So is this Temple," Qui-Gon said, so, so tired of talking in circles, "And our enemies know that too. Or have we forgotten what happened to Bant Eerin?"
Everyone fell silent, because of course, no one had forgotten the Master, Knights, and Padawan they had lost.
Kit looked away to the horizon, he had seen Bant knighted after Tahl had passed.
Depa spoke in a serene voice that did nothing to hide the steel behind her words, "Exactly why building a new Temple over tragedy is what we are trying to avoid."
"Not over," Dooku said, "In memory of. My sister died because of her relationship to me. It is the double edge sword of our existence, the price of service, why for thousands of years we tried to forsworn attachments. We should not forget what we are trying to build. For thousands of years we have struggled to disentangle ourselves from attachments that web us to individuals and communities that web us to the rest of the galaxy while at the same time trying to provide the galaxy with the stability to thrive in peace."
Dooku rubbed a hand over his face, in an uncharacteristic glimpse of his inner exhaustion, "That there are reasons for why we had our traditions is as real as our reasons for moving on from them. We should not forget our history, and we should never forget what it means for us a people to be more than the Knights. Our people are scholars, leaders, farmers, pilots, healers, what defines the Jedi is more than those of born receptive to the Force. We are people of this galaxy.
"Jenza died because of me, but that does not make me regret loving her. I do not love her less because I mourn her, because I failed her. Let her life and her passing be the beginning of our new path. We who walk the path of Light must never forget that not everything we do will be successful or just. Not everything that is the Force's will is fair.
"Yet nothing will deter us from striving to walk that path."
A respectful silence followed.
Finally, Yoda spoke, "The Temple of Jenza, shall it be. Remembered always will Jenza Dooku be."
Qui-Gon let out a long breath, this didn't mean that Yoda was ready to depart from Coruscant, the Grandmaster thought they were all being too hasty.
But that they would be naming a Jedi Temple after a non-Force sensitive, someone whose memory would live on forever because of the familiar bond between a brother and sister, mattered.
Qui-Gon did not believe that every Knight would, should, or even want to start families of their own, but he knew many would.
He knew he would have with Tahl if he had been given the chance. And had warned the Council that the stigma against those who did not hold to the old ways would make some hesitant and fearful even to bring their relations to public view.
Those who had married by blessing of the Council went to great lengths to never flaunt their relationships.
It was humbling to realize that Yoda, at least, had heard him.
Maybe being on the High Council wasn't so bad.
Just then, Master Plo Koon strode into the room, the only Council member who hadn't been present, either in person or hologram.
"Obi-Wan?" Qui-Gon asked, spotting him behind the Kel Dor, "Why are you here?"
Obi-Wan shrugged, his hands folded in his sleeves, "Master Koon summoned my presence."
By the state of his hair, Qui-Gon suspected that he had been sparring with Ahsoka.
"He is here," Plo intoned, "for his hearing, as are you Qui-Gon Jinn."
Qui-Gon straightened in his seat, feeling suddenly like a youngling caught with a real lightsaber when Yoda wasn't present.
Dooku leaned back in his seat, amused, "What amusement have they found themselves in this time?"
Plo sat and gestured between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, "I wish to know how deep this conspiracy goes. Either you're all excellent liars or the issue is much more complex than it will sound."
Obi-Wan looked as confused as Qui-Gon felt, what was Plo talking about?
"All of them?" Shaak Ti asked.
"I have summoned Padawan Rey and Master Maul here as well."
Maul had been deemed as a Master in the eyes of the Jedi Order as he was the head of what some had begun to call the Dathmiri Jedi, even if it was Masters Fay and Mor currently training them.
Both Fay and Mor had reported that whether Maul was on the planet or not, all of the Nightbrothers answered to him. His brother, Savage Oppress was Maul's second, and while the Nightbrothers seemed more than happy to learn from Fay and Mor, none save Feral Oppress seemed the slightest bit tempted to join the Jedi Order.
"What did they do this time?" Obi-Wan asked with a sigh.
"How much do either of you know of Maul's history?" Plo countered.
"His mother is Talzin, the absurdly powerful witch leader of the Nightsisters," Obi-Wan said a bit flippantly, he never was graceful if he thought he was being accused of something unjustly
For that matter neither was Qui-Gon.
"And he is an incredibly strong force sensitive who dabbles in the Dark. He is also an unparalleled bounty hunter," Obi-Wan finished.
Qui-Gon spoke next, "It was already acknowledged that he is my Padawan's mate. I know Rey cares and trusts him. Therefore so do I."
And if he ever gives me a reason not to, I will gut him.
Plo nodded, "So tell us, was it the two of you who taught Rey how to use a saberstaff or was it Darth Maul?"
Darth Maul, Qui-Gon repeated the title silently.
And suddenly the Dathomirian's strength in the Force was explained. His cunning.
And why he had been so attached to Rey from the beginning.
Qui-Gon met Obi-Wan's horrified gaze as he came to the same conclusions.
A Sith Lord had been trying to convert his Padawan right in front of them.
And they hadn't even tried to stop him.
No, they had let Council members begin to train an entire sect strong with the Dark Side of the Force.
They had declared Maul a Master.
What had they done?
Fay, present in hologram, burst out laughing. Mor beside her put his head in his hands, "How did I miss that? I knew his ship was of Sith legacy but Maul didn't feel…"
Mace shook his head, "Maul is more than a Dark Sider, or everything we know about the Sith is tainted by a stilted history. The Sith were completely immersed in the Dark. Yet Maul is a Gray Jedi even if he wasn't taught by a Jedi. He practices Form VIII, that is a form literally impossible to Master without the Light."
Obi-Wan nodded, "Unless Sith can bounce between using the Light and Dark in equal measure, I would have said the same. And Maul doesn't feel evil. He saved my life when he helped Rey and the Mandalorians get that bounty off my head."
"Who was Maul's Master?" Depa asked.
Plo shook his head, "Feral knew him only as Darth Sidious. Apparently, Darth Sidious was powerful enough to kidnap one of Mother Talzin's sons when he was still in her care."
Mor sucked in an audible breath, "He couldn't have been more than nine years old then."
"So even if he is a Sith," Fay said, "could we blame him? In his adulthood, he seems to have found a better way of life, and he is the same age as Obi-Wan."
Plo sighed, "Feral said that Maul taught his brothers in the Light and the Dark, but that he hadn't trained them to be Sith because he hadn't been torturing them."
"Wait, what?" Obi-Wan asked, "why is Maul not torturing his people something of note?"
"Way of the Sith it is," Yoda said.
Obi-Wan still looked confused, "Why would anyone willingly submit to torture?"
Dooku stroked his beard, "The Jedi and the Sith are not so opposite as you might think. In their doctrines, they may glorify emotions and freedoms, but the goals of the Sith ape ours in parallels. But the thing that truly defines the differences between our peoples was how we trained our apprentices.
"The Sith found power in pain, fear, and anger, so they routinely tortured their apprentices. Old texts speak of encouraging attachments between family and lovers only to kill the objects of their affections for the sole purpose of creating the greatest mental and spiritual harm on the apprentice, giving them the greatest access to power as possible."
"Is that what happened to Bant? Did someone torture her to make her-" Obi-Wan broke off.
They all knew Bant Eerie had been tortured into insanity.
But Qui-Gon wasn't thinking of Eerie, he was thinking of Sheev Palpatine possibly being Darth Sidious. Of the Chancellor who was desbrite to win over his 'daughter's' affections even when she so obviously hated him.
Was Sheev trying to make Rey his apprentice by having Maul win her over, or was Rey to be the sacrifice that pushed Maul fully over the edge?
Dooku spoke gently, "Knight Eerie was subjected to great torture, but she was not a Sith. Her mind was broken and she was plummeted into the Dark. To train a Sith would take a great deal more time and conditioning. It isn't simply torture for torture's sake, it's culitivating a lack of compassion, pain for a purpose, sacrifices for power. The Sith are not the Dark, and the Dark itself is not more powerful than the Light, but it makes for the better weapon to reap destruction."
Obi-Wan swallowed, "Maul isn't like that. He would sacrifice almost everything for Rey."
"That," Mace said, "is not a good thing, Master Kenobi."
Obi-Wan shook his head, "That's not what I meant, I mean that there is no power that he would sacrifice her for. He is not blind within his Darkness. The Force speaks to him."
"Speaks to him?" Yoda asked, "What mean you?"
Qui-Gon was watching his own apprentice very carefully, knowing that Obi-Wan understood Rey in ways he had failed to see many times over through the years.
"Being around Rey is like being around a convergence in the Force," Obi-Wan said, "Around her, things happen. She is a point of change, a challenge to doctrine and legend because she isn't doing anything on purpose, she just responds. She is an answer to many questions we have failed to ask. But Maul is… Maul isn't just reacting to circumstance. He pushes the limits, and when he is pushed back he listens." He met Qui-Gon's gaze then, "He's a mystic like my Master. He obeys the Force, not an Order, not a Master, but the Force itself."
Sifo-Dyas smiled, "Only your line, Dooku, only from your line could something like this have ever been an issue."
Dooku smiled at Qui-Gon, completely unrepentant.
Mace rested his hand on his knee, "But that still means he could be a Sith, or at least that he once was a Sith apprentice." He looked at Qui-Gon and Qui-Gon felt his own jaw tick as Mace smirked at him with a completely sober expression, his dark eyes gleaming with mirth, "And her Master never questioned her on it."
Qui-Gon was quite certain he was never living this down, both Mor and Dooku looked overly amused. Obi-Wan looked thoughtful, but then, while Rey had not been Obi-Wan's official Padawan, Rey had been entrusted to them both.
What if Maul really had been out to hurt her?
Kit seemed to be thinking along the same lines, "Didn't Rey go to the Underworld with Maul? On more than one occasion?"
That's when it really sunk in for Qui-Gon the problem Rey had making friends. In the Order, outside of himself and Obi-Wan, all of Rey's nearest and dearest friends were the younglings she trained and trained with as well as the Council members. She was well loved by the Council, and she spent enough time with at least half them. Which meant that Dooku, Sifo-Dyas, Mor, Plo, Kit, Mace, Yoda, and Fay, knew exactly how much time Rey had spent out of the Temple over the years.
Rey didn't speak of Maul often with anyone but perhaps Obi-Wan, yet thinking of how much danger she could have been in…
Mor voiced the nightmare, his hologram wavering a bit as he sat forward, "Rey taught Maul Form VIII, the Way of the Butterfly, but what did Maul teach her?"
Just then Rey and Maul entered the room. Both froze in a synchronized step as the full attention of the room fell on them.
Rey's brow was pinched and she looked distracted, as if something was poking at her and she was set to ignoring it.
Maul simply crossed his arms and glared at everyone in the room, waiting.
Dressed in black robes, he was Rey's opposite. She was a warm presence, dressed in white and palest grey, her staff still used more as a staff, a peacekeeping weapon, than as a deadly saber.
While Maul looked as if he needed no weapon to rip your heart out from your chest and eat it in front of you as you died.
Qui-Gon glared at the Zabrak who had perhaps been trying to steal his Padawan from and greeted coldly, "Darth Maul."
Maul bared his teeth, but it might have been a smile, "Nine years, Master Jinn, that took you nine years to deduce, or did my twin tell you?"
Sifo-Dyas put a hand to his lips to cover a laugh he turned into a cough.
Dooku sat forward, "If we discover that you have done her any harm then-"
"You do realize I could have killed her at almost any time?"
Qui-Gon's breath caught as he realized how true that was.
Rey didn't react, and Obi-Wan stared at her with concern even as he said nonchalantly, "Oh please, Rey could have killed you anytime she pleased."
Maul gave Obi-Wan an amused smirk, but he didn't refute the point.
"Are you admitting to being a Sith?" Qui-Gon asked.
Maul glared at him with amber eyes, "It isn't illegal to be a Sith. Perhaps unhealthy, but not illegal."
"Kidnapping is illegal," Plo said.
Maul rolled his eyes, "So it was Feral. But yes, kidnapping is illegal, even if Dathomir is not a part of the Republic, my mother was the law, and Darth Sidious took me without hers or the Nightsisters' consent."
"Without yours?" Mace asked.
Maul shrugged, "Until I returned to Dathomir, I didn't even remember my own name. But I remember the first time I met Darth Sidious. He told me that my mother ordered me to go with him. That she had given me to him."
"And believe him, you did?" Yoda asked.
Maul snarled soundlessly at the Grandmaster before he said, "She was going to send me away one way or another."
"Bring you where, did he, this Darth Sidious?" Yoda asked.
"Mustafar."
"Hmm…" Yoda said, "Difficult place to live, Mustafar is. Prosperous only in recent years has it been for the larger population."
"I was raised in isolation," Maul said.
"Loyal to your Master, you were," Yoda said.
"Yes, I was."
"Change, what did?"
"He ordered me to kill Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to break Rey's spirit."
Qui-Gon felt his heart wrench, and he was on his feet a moment later, reaching for his saber before he knew what he was doing.
But Obi-Wan stepped in front of Maul.
"Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon almost growled.
"Listen to what he's saying, Master, he disobeyed the creature who was his Master, who kidnapped, tortured, and trained him, to save my life," Obi-Wan said, his blue eyes unflinching, "again."
Qui-Gon took a breath then glared over Obi-Wan at the Zabrak, "You will tell us who your Master is."
"Chancellor Sheev Palpatine," Maul answered without missing a beat.
The room dropped into perfect silence.
They had suspected for some time now, after all, there wasn't much eviler then selling one's child into slavery.
Even if that timeline didn't fit in with what Rey had told them. The current Chancellor becoming the future Emperor Palpatine had been a disturbing thought that had taken root.
In eras long since passed, there used to be Jedi Chancellors, in fact, only Jedi had been allowed to hold that seat in the Republic. What twisted rhyme was it now that a Sith was Chancellor, and would make of the Republic an Empire?
"Rey, did you know of this?" Plo asked.
Rey who hadn't spoken since entering the room looked up from the floor, "About Sheev or Maul?"
"About either being Sith," Sifo-Dyas asserted, his eyes bright.
Rey met Qui-Gon's gaze, "I told my Master of my suspicions about the Chancellor, and Maul told me of the nature of their relation last night."
"Last night? How did you not suspect what he was sooner than that?" Mor asked, "Plo said he has a double sided lightsaber."
Maul sighed, and Qui-Gon bet he was lamenting not clarifying with his brother what should and shouldn't be discussed with the Order, just as Qui-Gon was realizing what he might have told Rey about the Sith.
Really though, once she had exercised nearly every Sith shade unbound in the Force, a part of him had assumed, perhaps wrongly, that she knew more about the Sith than any Jedi living, including Yoda.
But Rey shrugged, "I knew he was a Dark Sider from the moment I met him."
"And you didn't think that was a problem?" Mace asked a bit coldly.
"The galaxy is huge, and I knew next to nothing about the Jedi. I didn't realize how rare it was for there to be such powerful and trained Force sensitives outside of the Order."
"It's been years, Padawan Palpatine," Ki-Adi Mundi said, "you might not have known better at first but you must have realized that he was-"
"Dangerous?" she asked, voice heated, "Of course I knew he was dangerous. The second night I met him we went down to the Underworld and killed a horde of Cthon and a group of bounty hunters after me because I was a Senator's daughter."
Looking back, Qui-Gon really wondered how he wasn't expelled from the Order.
Mace gave him a look like he was thinking the same.
Mor, however, started laughing.
Mace glared harder at Qui-Gon.
Mor was Qui-Gon's fault as much as Rey's partnership with a Sith was his fault.
Qui-Gon looked at Obi-Wan who was frowning at Rey, "Maul took out a horde of Cthon and a group of bounty hunters, on his own?"
She glared at him, "No, I was there."
"Rey, I remember you coming back that night, you hadn't had your lightsaber long, that was back before Maas made your staff. You weren't that proficient to take on a horde of zombie creatures."
"I gave Maul my lightsaber, and I used my original staff."
That was such a Rey answer.
Shaak Ti, one of the newest members of the Council, looked aghast, "You gave a stranger your lightsaber?"
Rey shrugged, "I could have gotten it back from him."
"He was a Sith, you were hardly even a Padawan," Gallia said.
Maul snorted.
Depa frowned at him, "You think you are so weak, Darth?"
Maul shook his head, "She is my Master's daughter, and her lightning is more powerful than his, it's real."
Qui-Gon relaxed a bit, as he remembered that as much as Rey had needed them, she hadn't actually needed them to keep her safe from physical harm. Not in the same way that Ahsoka or most Padawans did.
"She still put herself in untold amounts of danger," Ki-Adi Mundi insisted.
Rey crossed her arms, "I was a slave on Jakku for most of my life. I was a scavenger, I survived on Tatooine on my own without anyone's help. You think a Dark Sider is dangerous? Try being a child stuck out in the desert with no water and no one coming to save you."
"The Underworld is not-" Ki-Adi Mundi began.
"Mos Eisley is more dangerous than Coruscant's underbelly," Maul interrupted. "Tatooine is ruled by the Hutts and the desert is ruled by the suns."
Mor waved it away, "I concur, but Rey, how was his lightsaber not a warning to you?"
Rey looked at him, "Maul told me it was illegal for non-Jedi to have lightsabers."
Obi-Wan hid a smile by putting a 'thoughtful' hand to his lips.
"And that didn't strike you as a perhaps bad thing?" Gallia asked.
Rey shrugged, "Master Jinn didn't find me until I was nineteen, so no, it didn't strike me as odd that there might be others missed by the Order. And as far as owning illegal objects, I repeat, I was a scavenger. Illegal is a sliding scale."
Qui-Gon had to fight not to laugh at that.
"Why didn't you kill Obi-Wan, Master Maul? And do you prefer Master or Darth?" Fay asked.
Maul looked at her with interest, "Either is fine. And I didn't want to hurt Rey, much less break her. Besides killing Kenobi is suicide."
"Because you believe Master Kenobi is stronger than you?" Fay asked.
"No," Maul said, Qui-Gon frowned at him, believing that very few in the galaxy could beat his Obi-Wan in single combat, "Because even if I could kill him, Rey would end me."
Depa looked startled, "You think your own mate would kill you?"
Maul raised a tattooed brow at her, "You say that as if the notion is incomprehensible, when the practice is quite common for my people."
Depa blinked at him.
Mor, however, was more single focused, "But Rey, you said you gave him your lightsaber. Where was his?"
"Maul didn't have it on him."
"You want us to believe that a Sith left his lightsaber home?" Gallia asked.
Qui-Gon spoke, "You were hiding it from her, trying to blend in."
Maul sighed, "Yes, and she went shopping in one of the upper distracts, a scanner would have caught the metal."
"But you showed her eventually," Plo said, "you taught her how to truly adapt to a double sided lightsaber. Both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are wonderful teachers, and Rey is quite adept, however, many on the Council thought she would have needed to have learned from someone who specialized to adapt a new lightsaber Form to a dual blade when its creator only used a single beam."
Rey nodded, "He did teach me. Most nights we are together we train."
Qui-Gon exchanged a look with Obi-Wan.
Sure, Qui-Gon had spent a great deal of his time with Tahl sparring, but they had grown up together, once they… once they became more intimate, talking and other things took priority over sparring.
Yet he wasn't surprised that Rey had formed such a relationship. He had to remind himself that 'mated' was not a synonym for marriage.
That Rey and Maul's possible idea of a romantic night was picking fights with angry bounty hunters and stirring up trouble with high end shop keeps and monsters from lore, made a lot more sense to him than a traditional romance between the two.
"And the red beams weren't a clue that he was more than just a powerful Force user with acquired lightsabers?" Mor asked.
Rey blinked at his holoimage, "What does the colour have to do with anything?"
There was a long drawn out silence broken by Mace sighing deeply, "Another thing you neglected to tell her, Qui-Gon?"
Qui-Gon fought to keep his breathing even so his pulse wouldn't speed and cause him to flush.
"What's wrong with red?" Rey asked, "The colour looks cool."
Maul was smirking at them all, smug bastard.
Obi-Wan seemed equal parts exasperated and amused, "Rey, has it escaped your notice that not a single Jedi in the Order has red lightsaber?"
"So?" Rey asked, gesturing to Mace, "He's the only one with a purple lightsaber I know of. And yellow and orange are pretty rare to see around too."
"You do know, Padawan," Mace said, his tone reproachful of Qui-Gon more than her, "that the colours do have some meaning."
She nodded, "Maul told me red is the colour Force sensitives not associated with the Jedi Order tend to us."
Dooku laughed, "Well, that's not wrong."
Qui-Gon pinched the bridge of his nose, this was like the Mandalorians all over again.
Yoda chuckled too, "Much to learn, still do you, Padawan Palpatine. Problem laid before, you have. Declared him a Master, have we, accepted this male's brother as one of our own, have we, and training his people, are we. Yet declared themselves the enemy of the Jedi, the Sith have. Leave us where does this?"
Maul shook his head, "I will help you destroy Sidious. I am no more a Sith than I am a Jedi. I am an agent of the Force and Rey's ally."
"Why didn't you tell us about Sheev before?" Mace asked.
Maul looked at the speaker of the Council, "Would you have believed me?"
"Yes," came from almost every member of the Council, including Qui-Gon.
Maul stared at them before saying, "And I was afraid you would do something stupid."
"Like reveal that you are a traitor to him?" Mor asked, "He will try to kill you after this."
"My Master asked me to kill Kenobi nearly a year ago, instead, I started what is rumoured to be a branch of the Jedi Order on Dathomir. Sidious is assuredly settled on killing me."
"Theoretically," Dooku asked, "what would it take to get back in his good gracious?"
Maul shook his head, "Perhaps kill Kenobi and bring Rey back to him with her undying loyalty to him. But even still, my Master believes in the Rule of Two. Sidious would still kill me because he can only have one apprentice."
Kit asked, "Was he the one who tortured Knight Bant Eerie and General Grievous?"
"I never met Knight Eerie, and if it was Sidious who broke her, then I was unaware of it. But yes, General Grievous was his… pet."
"If you were already betraying your Master with his being aware of it, then what were you afraid of us doing with this information?" Sifo-Dyas asked.
"Try and arrest him," Maul said, "he's unpopular now, that doesn't make him powerless. He would get out of anything you could hope to charge him with, he will escape you if you try to arrest him physically."
"So what do you suggest?" Qui-Gon asked, even as his attention had fallen back to Rey who was hyper focused on the chair he had left.
Or was she staring at the floor?
Maul had noticed too, so his amber eyes tracked her as she swayed from foot to foot even as he spoke to the Council, "Kill him, Rey and I could manage it. But more help would be welcome to keep him from escaping."
"We can't just kill the sitting Chancellor," Gallia said, "No matter what he's done. We've been publicly saying that we plan to step back from the Republic, killing the High Chancellor would be akin to declaring war."
Which they couldn't afford.
The Jedi was the baseline defence of the Republic, but the Republic had many, many resources, they could scrape together a force to bomb Serreno to be near inhabitable without them having the proper scraping army together.
Qui-Gon wondered how hard it was really to assassinate a man anonymously...
"Rey?" Obi-Wan asked, "What are you looking at?"
She said nothing, her gaze unfocused, shoulders rounded in her dove-grey robe.
Obi-Wan touched her arm gently, and she flinched away from him so hard, she lost her balance and Maul steadied her, nearly catching her. He growled, "Rey, just let it happen and be done with it."
She shook her head violently, "No, whatever it is, I don't want to see it."
"The Force is trying to tell you something," Maul insisted.
She just kept shaking her head.
"There is a reason the Force is screaming out to you through the base to the centre of this Temple," Maul said.
She pushed back from him, backing up until she backed into Obi-Wan, she almost screamed at Maul, "Then you look!"
His expression was indecipherable, "That is not my gift."
"This isn't a gift, it's a curse," she said, she looked pale, and she was trembling even as Obi-Wan hugged her from behind.
"The more you fight a vision that is trying to be heard, the worse it will be," Sifo-Dyas said, "You know as much."
Qui-Gon touched her cheek, "Rey, see me."
She looked up at him, her hazel eyes brimming with tears, "Don't make me, please, Master Jinn. I don't want to live in the Temple anymore."
Qui-Gon's heart broke for her, "Then we will leave, now."
He could holomessage for the stupid Council meetings. He knew it had been bothering Rey that they hadn't been sent on a mission in months even as Obi-Wan and Ahsoka left on their own adventures. It was getting to the point where between his meetings, and her spending nearly every single night outside the Temple, the only times Qui-Gon got to see her was when he could escape with Yoda to watch her train with the younglings.
There were good reasons why new Council members were highly advised against taking Padawans and why the Council hadn't officialized his status yet.
Yoda might say that she had much to learn, but who didn't? No, Rey should already have been a knighted.
Yoda was just dragging his feet in approving her for the trials because he was trying to convince her to become a caretaker like Ali-Alann.
The trials were the same, the vows were different.
Qui-Gon disagreed with Yoda's pushing for it, Rey was a great teacher, but she had limits. In an emergency, he would absolutely trust her to take care of a hundred children if she needed to, but she wasn't suited to the day to day work of tending to children in a stable environment.
Rey nearly begging him to be allowed to leave the Temple without leaving the Order, without leaving him, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka behind, was evidence enough of that.
Maul stepped into her view, "You cannot run from this."
She bared her teeth at him and hissed, "I don't want to be here!"
He got in her face and Obi-Wan took a step back, with her still in his embrace, he brought Rey back with him. Maul snarled, "Will you act out of fear, mate of mine?"
Rey twisted free of Obi-Wan with anger on her face that disturbed Qui-Gon as she shoved at Maul's chest, "Fine! Fine, I know what the Force wants! It wants us to leave, but if you need more proof-"
She cut off abruptly, her steps fluid, a grace she had learned from endless practice with Obi-Wan, as she dropped to her knees in the place she had been staring at since entering the room.
"Rey," Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan warned her a breath too late as she laid a hand on the floor.
Her spine bow back a moment later as the seizure started.
Maul bellowed in rage, a loud barking sound as the three of them ran to her.
Maul seemed afraid to touch her as he dropped to her side.
Qui-Gon, however, sat behind her helping to hold her shoulders as Obi-Wan got her legs untangled from underneath her. Her eyes were rolling back.
It was painful to watch her like this. Painful to know there wasn't much they could do.
Qui-Gon began murmuring to her, even as he helped guard her limbs from flailing and hitting the ground.
He glanced up at Maul, and Qui-Gon thought he would have to relearn everything he knew about the Dathomirian.
The fearsome warrior and bounty hunter was replaced with an almost child like fear and helpless as he sat by his mate's side, unable to reach or help her.
Qui-Gon put a hand on the younger male's shoulder, "She will survive this."
Maul's amber eyes were too wide as he looked up at him, and Qui-Gon saw Feral in him, so the person he might have been had a Sith Lord not stripped him of everything.
Yet Rey has seen him, or perhaps Rey had fallen for who he had become. Rey was the child Palpatine had abandoned, like some breeder throwing an animal into the wild to grow up strong or be killed, only to come back and try to reclaim it. While Maul had been the child Palpatine beaten strength into.
Perhaps they weren't so opposite after all.
Qui-Gon squeezed his shoulder, "You were right, and we must trust that the Force has its reasons for reaching out to her."
Maul looked down at Rey, and still afraid to touch her, he said, "Or maybe I was wrong."
Obi-Wan shook his head, "She is strong enough for this."
"But she said she didn't want to-"
"It was her choice to touch the floor," Obi-Wan said firmly.
Qui-Gon let out a breath and settled into waiting for Rey's vision to pass, the rest of the Council hovered around them.
Qui-Gon was pretty sure it wouldn't take much to convince the Council to execute Darth Sidious, after all, he had done worse to Rey than this.
The images came in and out, the sound too warped around her as she fought not to be here.
As she fought not to be the being filled with rage, sorrow, and resigned determination.
She had never felt such power before, but whoever she was, he was incomplete, his mind a fractured mess of reasoning and darkness.
She was still in the Council room, but it was dark, so dark. And a group of younglings were hiding behind the Council chairs.
As she and her vision buddy approached them, a young boy walked forward.
Even knowing it was a vision, Rey tried screaming out to him to run, tried reaching him through the Force.
And her vision that was more real than a should have been, like a memory or a scar on the Force, allowed her to sense the boy.
Sors Bandeam, the baby boy Master Ali-Alann had handed her only this morning when his father gave the boy to the Temple.
Sors mother had died in childbirth and father had been struggling for a year to try to care and provide for his son. But Sors had grown malnourished and when his father discovered he was Force sensitive, he had sold everything he owned to buy a one way trip to Coruscant to bring his son to the Temple.
Sors had been so quiet in Rey's arms, but his blue eyes had stared up at her with trust and demand that only babe could assume.
You will take care of me because I trust you with all that I am or might ever be.
A pact that was as old as life and thought.
Now Sors Bandeam stared up at her, his cheeks round with health, he had grown up well. His father would be so relieved.
"Master-" Even as fear trembled his voice, he spoke with such bravery as he said, "...there are too many of them! What are we going to do?"
Rey's heart broke for him, and she would defend them until her breath.
But her shadow had other ideas.
The Jedi are evil, the Jedi do not know love. I will free these children from their bondage, free them from a life of service cursed without love.
They don't even know that they are slaves.
Rey screamed, as a blue saber ignited in her hand and she felt Sors die beneath her strike.
And she continued to cry soundlessly as her sanity was shattered.
At least it was quick.
At least the betrayal of the children's trust was brought to a swift end as she finally was able to identify the shadow forms she had glimpsed on the floor.
Rey had held Sors this morning in her arms and thought of all the potential, of the man he might grow to become, of the adventures and trouble he would find, of all the hope and love he could share with the galaxy.
Yet all of that life and opportunity had been rendered to this, small bodies lifeless in the heart of the Jedi sacred centre.
She wanted to destroy the mind she was in, even if it killed her, there was no price she would not pay to keep this from happening, to keep this monster from murdering their younglings.
He thought they weren't loved? He thought that the Jedi's reserved ways meant that they did not love?
He didn't understand that what the Jedi were a family, a single community of all variety of life throughout the galaxy. He didn't understand how miraculous it was for all these different beings to share a commonality strong enough to hold them together.
Even people aloof, such as herself or Asajj or Quin, were still a part of the whole in ways that were hard to describe.
The Jedi did not love.
But what greater love was there in the entire universe more wondrous than a selfless love? To follow a hard path so others might live better? Why was it wrong to teach their children to listen before acting out, to love each other without possession, to be more than friends but to be brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, fathers and mothers, grandparents and mentors to many, to all who would let them.
What connected them together was the Force, and what connected them to the galaxy was also the Force. In learning to be a part of the Force, in pursuing a selfless life, in pursuing a life of compassion, there was no one who ought to love more than a Jedi.
Because the Jedi were taught to love all life, no matter how complex, no matter how simple.
The Jedi weren't perfect, the Jedi failed and made mistakes, but Rey had been born in a world of love, beneath the rich jungle trees of Naboo, and she had been sold into actaul slavery, betrayed by her own blood.
She had been utterly and completely alone but for a master who had granted her freedom only so he could feed her less, only so he could profit more by keeping a worker alive to draw in an income.
The man whose body she walked in now, his boots clinking on the floors as they passed body after body of her people, didn't understand.
He thought that family was blood, he thought that love was marked by grand gestures and declarations.
He didn't understand that love was in the little things. Love was in the person facing the unknown and horrid by your side. Love was in the people who chastised you because they didn't want to see you hurt. Love was in the eyes of the people who trusted you to keep them safe, love was in the hearts of the people who believed that you could make the galaxy a better place.
Rey tore herself from this broken man's mind, from the delusions he had been warped into believing, from the Darkness that had offered him power to 'right the wrongs of the galaxy' and in turn had made him a slave.
She came to, still on the Council's floor screaming in both despair and rage, the memory of the younglings…
She screamed, and kept screaming as if by that act alone she could drive away the sensations, the vision, expel it with sound and the feel of her throat and lungs tearing.
But she hardly noticed the physical pain.
"Rey!" Master Jinn yelled over her, his big hands holding her head stable as he looked down.
Maul was clutching her hand, "It's over, it's over. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
Rey sucked in breath, had Maul just apologized to her. That was enough to get her to try a centre herself, even if the Force was trying to torture her.
Obi-Wan touched her cheek, "Rey, breathe."
Exhaling, she sucked in another breath, but her reprieve was short lived as the memories came back again.
Sors staggering back a step as her blade ignited.
She would never forget that moment.
Master Jinn tried to wipe away her tears, but the tears just came faster.
"What did you see?" Sifo-Dyas asked, standing over Master Jinn's shoulder.
She didn't know how to say it, she didn't want to bring life to this memory even as the Force seemed to urge her forward.
Maul squeezed her hand.
But it was Yoda who came up to her between Obi-Wan and Master Jinn, who laid a clawed hand on her shoulder. Master Yoda asked, "Tell us, you must, Padawan. Reason we are all here, there is."
Rey met those green eyes and knew she was about to break his heart, "Sors Bandeam."
Yoda's eyes widened, "A babe, he is. Brought to the Temple only this morning he was."
Maul's hand tightened on hers. Maul had been with her this morning and he had been less than impressed with the babes, but even he had been surprisingly polite to Master Ali-Alann.
Rey started with the mundane, "He was older, maybe six or seven years of age. He was healthy and he was brave."
Yoda nodded, "Doing what, was he?"
"He and a group of younglings were hiding in the Council room, the Temple was being attacked," she said, pain lancing through her heart at what had been done to her people.
Master Jinn smoothed a hand over her forehead, "It's okay Padawan, if it is a vision of the future it can be averted. The future is never certain."
Her tears spilled faster as she remembered the future she was from, "But it did happen, all the Jedi died. The younglings…" she looked at Yoda, "were not spared. Sors addressed his killer as Master, he asked him for help and he killed them, he killed them all."
Everyone fell quiet, Obi-Wan was too pale as he asked weakly, "But why?"
"Because he thought the Jedi did not love."
"She needs a medic," Maul said.
Sifo-Dyas, however, asked, "I'm sorry, what do you mean 'it did happen'?"
Master Jinn shared a look with Obi-Wan.
Master Yoda seemed to have other concerns, however, because he had reached a decision. "Unsafe the Temple is. Shown us the Force has. Treat this as an attack we must."
Mace said, "But if the child is years older then-"
"No," Master Yoda said with finality, "agreed to move the Order we have. Wait years for our enemies to destroy us we will not. Act now we must. Hasty, I thought this was, but to the Force, not fast enough, is hasty."
"Master Maul," Mace said, "and Kit, take Rey to the healers."
Master Jinn began to move as Maul carefully lifted her into his arms. She curled into his chest, baring her face in his robes, breathing in the smell of him.
She both wanted to see Sors and never let herself near the younglings again.
She was glad that she was truly too weak to make a choice one way or the other.
"Qui-Gon, wait, you and Obi-Wan know more than you're saying," Mace called them back.
Maul didn't slow his stride, and Master Fisto kept pace with him, her saber staff in his hand.
She closed her eyes against the moving archways above them and asked, "Did he mean it, Kit, will the Jedi leave Coruscant?"
Kit's deep voice was a comfort as he said, "The Council was already in agreement, and I have never heard Master Yoda call an attack an emergency before, not like that. I think we will be moving sooner than any of us could think."
"Sidious will be pissed," Maul said, "Serreno is easy enough to hit with a small raiding party but if the entire Jedi Order was recentred there and properly defended it, then it would be nearly impossible to hit. Unlike Coruscant, the Jedi Order would have complete control over the system, and Serreno has no underworld or great gatherings of politicians. It is a system with more trees than criminals. Additionally, the Jedi have more allies in the Outer Rims if only they made the effort to reach them."
Rey sighed, letting Maul's voice take her mind off the nightmares threatening to drown her. She knew that Maul knew she was listening as he spoke more openly with Kit than she had ever heard speak to anyone but her before.
But then he was doing it for her.
And she loved him for it.
Mace was more agitated than he could remember being in years. Watching Rey have vision threw him back to the moment he had first tried to impress her by letting her use his lightsaber.
Only for her to have a seizure brought on by psychometry.
But this was worse. She had woken from that vision with a smile, telling him how interesting Shatterpoint was.
And today, he had seen the everything shatter as Rey woke screaming, her voice cutting through what Mace had always considered one of the safest places in the galaxy. He felt cold.
A Master had killed their younglings?
Mace knew why Yoda had sent Kit away. Kit hadn't fully recovered from what had been done to his old Padawan nor what she had been driven to do.
But killing younglings?
He knew, he had seen, terrible things done throughout the galaxy, yet thinking that someone would target their young in mass?
All the Jedi died.
Rey had said it as fact and Qui-Gon, Maul, and Obi-Wan were the only ones not startled by the statement.
Mace looked at his old Master. Yoda stood hunched, gripping his gimmer stick, his eyes squeezed shut, and Mace saw the galaxy shattering around the small being.
The Jedi would leave Coruscant, and the galaxy would never be the same, the Republic itself would crumble in their wake.
The question was, what would come of the power vacuum they left? And how would they be received in the Outer Rim? Would they become a mere religious group that could help only a small sphere?
Was that such a bad thing?
He butted heads with Qui-Gon more often than not, but Qui-Gon was perhaps one of the only Masters who truly abided by the Living Force rather than the Unifying Force.
How Yoda had taught him, how most Jedi were taught, was that the Force bound everything together, that the Force was both the material and the immaterial, the past and the future, that as free as they were, they were meant to surrender their individual desires to better serve a galaxy always on the cusp of finding balance and descending into chaos.
Yet the teachings of the Living Force were different, what was taught by the monks on Jedha were different, and giving Qui-Gon a larger voice on the Council had shown them all how different. How different even Qui-Gon's views were from Dooku's. Of those on the Council, it was Plo and Kit who related most strongly. Unsurprising, really, they were two of the most empathic beings Mace had ever met.
The Living Force taught that the Force was truly sentient and that each and every lifeform and the galaxy gave and took from the Cosmic Energy that was the Force. To follow the Unifying Force, one had to be clear headed, an open mind to all possibilities, to follow the Living Force one needed to have an open heart, to be always present rather than letting one's choices be overly informed by the future or the past but reacting to the present.
Mace thought it was a risky business, it opened you up to manipulation and could lead to impulsive decisions that had far too high possibilities of blowing up in one's face.
But Qui-Gon would argue that if one was truly acting with the Force, then risks were medicated, and that waiting too long to react allowed for opportunities to change bad things from happening to slip by.
Yoda seemed to have decided that a threat to their younglings was too big a threat to meditate on.
Mace found himself in agreement.
But that didn't make him less suspicious of Qui-Gon withholding information.
And on that too, the Council also seemed to be in agreement on.
Depa pressed the point, "Jinn, what have you neglected to tell us?"
Qui-Gon turned from the door Rey had departed from it and his face was blank, "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."
Obi-Wan shook his head at his Master in amusement.
Sifo-Dyas was looking between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Dooku and said, "They are definitely hiding something. Why did Rey say that and I quote, 'But it did happen, all the Jedi died.'"
Qui-Gon cleared his throat, "I told you that she was a time traveller, correct?"
Silence.
Yoda squinted up at the tall maverick, "Tell us, you did not."
Qui-Gon looked thoughtful, "Really, I'm sure I must have mentioned it."
Mace stepped up to the man and glaring into those falsely innocent midnight blue eyes, he nearly spat, "The hell you did."
Qui-Gon almost smiled as he folded his arms in his sleeves, "No, I must have told you, that seems like too big a thing to simply slip my mind."
Mace closed his eyes and said with real feeling, "Jinn, you motherfucker."
AN: I had this chapter plotted since chapter 3. I am so happy to finally be able to write it fully and share it with you all. Thoughts, reactions, puppies, or feedback, pretty please?