Having been sent out by the Chancellor moments after the beginning of the Senate meeting he thought he'd been ordered to attend, Macavity had ended the war. He'd found the last of the separatist leaders on Mustafar and cut them down.
Now he stood by the landing platform, watching as what looked like a Naboo fighter came down, having caught it on the scanners of the place ages ago.
Victoria waited until the ship landed before slipping from her hiding place and moving to lower the ramp, making her careful way down it. She stopped at the bottom when she saw Macavity.
The taller drew back slightly at that in surprise. "Vic? What the hell are you doing here?"
In the cockpit of the ship, Mistoffelees was still making sure everything was shut down, before he frowned at the readouts. "Why is the ra-... oh hell," he muttered, already out of the seat and moving.
"I was worried about you, Mac. I heard you'd left." Her voice was quiet.
Coricopat frowned at the readings, before his brain processed it as well and he followed close on Misto's heels.
"Then how the hell did you find me out here?" Macavity asked, feeling something curl deep in his stomach. "You should be home, safe, and resting."
"Safe? You think Coruscant is safe right now?" She shook her head, not answering his other question until she could find some way to do so.
He opened his mouth to reply and snapped it shut when Mistoffelees came around the side of the ramp, stopping when he was actually confronted with Victoria. "What is this?" Macavity demanded, voice going low.
Vic glanced at Misto, freezing as Cori came into sight as well, "I...It's their ship, Mac..."
"We just want to talk," Mistoffelees said, eyes going to Coricopat as if demanding he abide by that.
"Talk? How'd you even find me here?"
"Guesswork," Mistoffelees replied. "Based off about fifty visions of the past three or four months or so."
Macavity let out a harsh laugh. "I thought your visions only had to do with death? Here to kill me?"
"No," Mistoffelees replied, voice quick. "They have to do with danger, tipping points. We just want to know what's going on."
Coricopat spoke quietly, "Really, Macavity. We're just here to talk. To find out what's going on."
Macavity looked between them. "The wars over. Was that your tipping point?"
"Possibly," Mistoffelees hedged.
"Then what do you want to talk about, huh?"
"What you're doing out here might be a start," Coricopat responded.
"I already told you," Macavity said, though it had been in a roundabout way. "Ending the war. The last of the separatist leaders are dead."
Victoria's blue eyes widened, "Y-you..."
He frowned at her. "It's war. It's a war that's over, but what do you think we've spent the last several years doing, us generals?"
"Not assassinations, for one." Coricopat spoke, his tone managing barely to avoid being sharp.
Macavity arched a brow. "What makes killing someone off a battlefield worse than killing hundreds of people on it? It's still death, and at least these had some meaning to it."
Victoria looked away.
Coricopat's jaw tensed, "And the youngling in the Temple? Did that have some meaning to it?"
Macavity crossed his arms over his chest. "The Jedi really have gotten into the habit of being judge and jury, haven't they? I don't actually have to explain myself to you."
Vic took a step back, "A-a youngling?"
Cori's grey eyes were like flint, as he snapped, "If you don't want me making my own conclusions then explain."
"The... Jedi were plotting against the Chancellor," he started and clearly didn't believe the excuse himself.
"A child, Macavity!" Coricopat's temper was rising at a rapid rate.
"What the hell do you expect from me?" Macavity all but roared back.
Mistoffelees stepped between them, putting a hand on Coricopat's chest. "Wait. Why, Mac? What would make you do something like that?" Coricopat took a breath, trying to calm himself at least somewhat. He glanced toward Victoria whose gaze was once again fixed on Macavity in horror.
Macavity's expression closed off, and he looked over to Victoria, stomach twisting hard when he saw her expression. "Vic..."
She shook her head slowly, "Why? Why, Mac?"
"I..." he floundered for a moment. "The war needed to end, it had to and... he said he could help."
"S-so it's true? Y-you actually did that?" Her voice was small.
"I..." he flinched slightly. "Yes, of course it is."
She backed a step "How could you?"
"How could I not? Don't you see, I was doing it for you!"
"F-for..." She paled, shaking her head, "No. Y-you can't have..."
He flinched back again, Mistoffelees looking between the pair and back to Coricopat. "Vic..." Macavity tried to coax her.
"What?" She replied, taking another step back, "What do you think you can possibly say, Macavity?"
"The war's over," he said. "Didn't you want peace? Besides, I might have found a way to save you."
"But at what cost?"
He scowled and shrugged. "Does it matter?"
"Yes! It very much matters!" she replied. Macavity folded his arms and drew back within himself, looking at her, hurt. "Did you never even think to ask me? To talk to me about this? I don't want it."
"You thought I could sit back and let you die?" Macavity demanded, Mistoffelees edging slightly off the ramp of the ship.
"So you what, sold your soul?"
"Is that what this is?" Macavity demanded.
"I don't know what it is!" She cried, "You've killed people in cold blood. You accuse Coricopat of playing Judge and Jury, but what about you? You're no better!"
"Why does killing in cold blood make it worse than ever killing them at all!" Macavity flared. Mistoffelees shifted again, frowning still as he all but felt the rage and pain.
"A child, Macavity!" The queen snapped, "The separatists are another thing entirely, though they deserved a trial, but you killed a child."
"How many other children do you think would have died if the war continued?" Macavity demanded in return. For a moment Mistoffelees almost mentioned the children Macavity had saved from the purge but... he didn't agree with Macavity either and supporting his argument was too much.
"How many would you have killed?" She shot back.
Coricopat opened his mouth to intervene, but stopped himself, falling silent to watch the two, at the ready should it come to that.
"How many would it take?" he growled back.
Victoria shook her head, taking another step back, her foot hitting the bottom of the ramp, "This isn't you..."
"Who the hell am I then?" he all but demanded.
"I-I don't know. I thought I did, but I don't."
"What?" he asked, voice falling and rage welling up.
"I thought you were better than this, Macavity. I still do, but if you won't see it there's no hope."
"No hope?" Macavity growled and Mistoffelees felt the pit of his own stomach drop.
"You've murdered your fellow Jedi, killed the separatists in cold blood, and the only justification you can give me that isn't out right lunacy is that you did it because you thought you could save one life?" She shook her head, "I'm not worth that. You should have come to me."
"And done what?" Macavity demanded. "You reject me and bring a Jedi after me? Is that it?"
"No! I...I didn't."
"Then what do call this?" he demanded, tossing out the force and catching Mistoffelees off balance, sending him tumbling back. Coricopat stumbled, but caught Mistoffelees before he could fall all the way.
Victoria barely caught her balance, "They didn't know I was aboard until we arrived."
"Oh so the Jedi just decided to come after me on their own?"
"I'm hardly Jedi," Mistoffelees protested.
"I came to talk, Macavity," Coricopat murmured.
"Like hell you did," he growled.
"They did, Mac. They came to talk, to settle this peacefully." Victoria spoke softly.
"You expect me to trust any of you?" Mac growled.
"If you can't trust us who can you trust?" Cori asked.
"The Chancellor," Macavity replied.
Victoria gasped slightly, "Him? Why?"
"He's our leader," Macavity started.
"He's a Sith Lord," Mistoffelees replied. "That automatically implies evil."
"From your point of view," Macavity snapped.
"No, Macavity." Victoria shook her head, "The Sith are a blight. They only seek power, not freedom."
"You don't know that," Macavity insisted.
"It's pretty obvious," Mistoffelees shot back. "Have you seen his track record at the Senate? It's obvious he's just been looking for an excuse to come to power!"
"History shows it," she responded.
Coricopat sighed, "You know all of this, Macavity."
"History is wrong then," Macavity told them all.
"There's a reason it's called the Dark Side, Macavity," his partner murmured.
"Who's afraid of the dark then?" Macavity demanded, shaking his head. "You know what? I'm done with this." He turned to head back toward his own fighter.
Victoria moved forward again, "Macavity, wait! Where are you going?"
"What, so you can follow me?"
"If you won't answer me that then at least tell me what you're going to do?" Victoria pleaded.
"Go home and celebrate a victory," he snapped.
"A victory? Macavity, this isn't a victory, it's a massacre," she replied.
"Stop it!" he roared, shoving out with the force again, catching Victoria.
She stumbled back off-balanced and falling. Her head hit the surface of the landing pad and she blinked, trying to clear her vision which was rapidly darkening at the edges.
Mistoffelees stumbled, on the edge of whatever push Macavity had sent out. "Are you insane?" he demanded, taking a step toward Victoria to make sure she was alright. Growling, anger controlling him, Macavity lifted the Senator from the ground with the force, tightening around his throat.
Coricopat moved swiftly at that, his lightsaber out as he moved past Mistoffelees toward Macavity, "Let him go, Mac."
"Or what?" Macavity snarled.
He answered with action rather than words, he wasn't going to risk the time that attempting to reason with Macavity could cost the Senator. He swept his lightsaber forward, intending to come just shy of the mark, give Macavity enough time to get his own weapon out.
It worked in that it got Mistoffelees dropped, but backfired in the fact that Macavity did get his weapon out, bringing it up in time to clash with Coricopat's.
o.o.o.
Yoda ushered his padawans into the Senator's penthouse, having landed the speeder right at the edge of the top platform. Jerrie stepped out of the shelter of the doorway, "Master Yoda?" His gaze swept over the small Jedi and the younglings in confusion.
"Told us to come, your Senator did," Yoda said, looking up at the captain of security.
"Misto sent y'?" He finally nodded, opening the door and letting them inside.
The Jedi master nodded. "Offered us help, he did."
"Well, if Misto did so, y' got my help as well. There's a couple a rooms where th' little uns can rest if they need to. You too, Master Jedi...if y' want that is."
"For your generosity, I thank you," Yoda said. "But plan I must."
The captain nodded slightly, "I'll go do a perimeter sweep." He slipped out quietly, nearly colliding with Pouncival Organa in the hall. "Senator!"
"Are they here?"
"Master Yoda an' some younglin's."
"Mistoffelees and Jedi Coricopat?"
Jerrie shook his head, "Should they be?"
"I was hoping so..." He slipped past he captain and into the penthouse.
Yoda glanced up. "Good to see you again, it is."
"And you, Master Yoda. Where are the others?"
"Went to find Macavity they did."
"Macavity? They located him? He's alive?" Pounce asked.
"Alive he is. Visions, apparently Mistoffelees has had of him," Yoda replied, sitting on Mistoffelees' couch.
"Visions?" Pounce looked confused.
"Very strong in the force, the Senator is. But when he came, too old to begin the training," Yoda said with a nod.
"Right. I do recall him mentioning that." Pounce looked around, "What of the Chancellor?"
"Asked to wait for their return he did," Yoda said as one of the younglings came out of the room they were curled up in.
"Master Yoda," the little boy said. "What are we gonna do?"
Pounce's expression softened at the sight of the child, but he waited to hear if the Master Jedi had an answer, for he knew he didn't.
"Wait and rest we will," the Master replied. "Try to sleep you must."
"Is there anything I can get for any of you, Master Yoda?" Pouncival murmured, he knew his way around the penthouse pretty well.
"Food, perhaps. Often, do you come here?"
The Senator nodded as he made his way to the kitchen to see what he could find, "Yes. Senator Mistoffelees has become a good friend over the last several years."
Yoda nodded. "Helpful that should be."
"Yes." He set to work on putting some food together, "The Chancellor has announced to the Senate that the entire thing was a Jedi plot. This is going to take ages to recover from." The brown-haired man's voice was subdued.
"Recover, we will," Yoda told him.
"Of course we have to get to a point to recover from first..."
Yoda arched a brow. "Suggest, what do you?"
"I'm not sure I can say that with any conclusiveness at this point. I agree that any confrontation with the Chancellor has to wait until you have some support, but we also can't work towards running damage control until the cause of that damage is removed."
"What believe you to be the cause?"
"The physical cause is a man playing on the fears of the people. The root cause though? There's an inherent distrust that runs through the Senate, and frankly through many of the star systems, of the Jedi. You're a law unto yourselves and extremely powerful. It frightens people."
Yoda frowned. "Thousands of years old our order is. The Republic, it's always served."
"I know that, you know that. Hell, I'm pretty sure everyone knows that, but that doesn't stop the distrust. Nor does it stop the fear. There's always a concern of 'what if'."
Yoda nodded finally. "More reassuring, perhaps we could be."
"Perhaps. At this point, that's the primary fear I've heard preyed upon, so that may be the one that we can work on remedying once we're able to."
"But first, the Chancellor we must deal with."
Pounce nodded, "Do you..." He drew a deep breath, "In all honesty, do you think we can succeed in this?"
The smaller Jedi frowned. "Four Jedi Master's he's killed. To his side, he's turned Macavity. Know, I do not."
"Then I pray Jedi Coricopat and Mistoffelees succeed."
"As do I."
Victoriousscarf would like to point out trying to write in Yoda's speech patterns can sometimes be quite annoying. But sorta fun too.