Everything Will Be Right

Chapter Five

Revan had dealt with problematic Hutts more than once in his lifetime. Now, he understood perfectly well that defining the entire Hutt race as a bunch of slugs with fetid breaths would be a terrible exaggeration, but at the same time, he had yet to find an exception to the rule. Somehow, if you were a Hutt, you also had horrible breath. Maybe it had something to do with their birthplace or maybe it was just how their body worked, but seriously, would it hurt them to eat a few kilos of mints?

As he mulled over the thought, he calmly disemboweled the Hutt in question. A Jedi really shouldn't be doing the killing unless provoked, and in fact, he had been extremely polite up to the point where the Hutt had pointed out how much of a profit he'd make in selling a lone Jedi utterly surrounded by the Hutt's troops.

When would the big bad mercenary or criminal organization leaders learn? You never, ever meet someone in person. Really, you can disarm the Jedi of the lightsaber, you can tell him to remove his armor, you can have him shackled and held bound in front of you, but at the end of the day, the Force will set the Jedi free.

"So," Revan remarked. "Someone was saying something about the Hutt cartel?" he asked most kindly the droid near him, who caught on quickly and stammered out a few coordinates. That was the reason Revan never hit a droid, especially a protocol or commercial droid.

They were the ones with the information on them, and with the restraining bolt removed, they were more than willing to comply with the information they had in their databanks.

When Revan stepped out of the large building, which was currently busy going up in flames, he felt honestly at peace with himself, a bright smile on his face, and the Force humming happily by his side.

"S-S-Stop!" Obi-Wan Kenobi blurted out panting, his hands to his knees as he caught his breath.

Revan turned his gaze to the apprentice, who had just then arrived in a rush from around the corner. Meanwhile, behind him, the building crumbled down in tall flames.

It was a desert planet and the building was made for the most part of stone and metals, but it still burned quite nicely. Really, the power of incendiary grenades was astonishing. And people thought that 'The Force' was neat?

They simply didn't have enough grenades.

"Yes, padawan?" Revan said.

"Y-You! Credit Stick!" Obi-Wan wheezed.

"Yes?" Revan blinked once, "What about it?"

"It's…where is it?"

"Oh, I handed it away to a needy looking beggar whose mouth reeked of booze," Revan said with a condescending tone. "Why do you ask?"

"That…That was the order's money," Obi-Wan said, gasping for air.

"I see," Revan said, and nodded, "Well, you'd better get to hunting beggars and acquire the money back."

"You have to pay for it," Obi-Wan said.

"I don't have any money on myself," Revan replied, "Unless you wish for me to sell one of my organs to the Hutt Cartel?" a piece of the building behind him crashed down on the street. "Or what remains of it, I reckon."

Obi-Wan bristled as he looked at the burning building uncomfortably. "You stole from the order; you have to answer for that crime, at least."

Revan shrugged, "I didn't use the money for a personal gain, and hence how is it stealing? Isn't the money of the order meant to be at the disposal of the Jedi in order to further their missions?"

"Was gifting money to the beggars your mission?" Obi-Wan asked. More of the building by their sides fell on the nearby streets, as the people looked and wondered how stone and brick could burn so brightly. The answer was plasma grenades, of course, Revan's solution to most of the galaxy's problems.

"No," Revan replied. "More like a side-quest, actually," he said. "But let me ask you something: was the action inherently good or evil?"

"You did charity," Obi-Wan said, "But the money wasn't yours. That's…somehow wrong, but it's also right. It's…"

"A conundrum," Revan acquiesced. "There isn't a clear cut right or wrong answer. It's not like I stole from paupers to give to other paupers. And the Jedi Order does give out the money for missions expecting it to be put to good use and charity isn't really a 'wrong' use of it."

"But the last one who was in need, you gave him money even if his breath reeked of alcohol," Obi-Wan pointed out.

Revan smiled. "So you caught me on that. Well, what's the problem?"

"He's not going to use the money to buy warm food, but have another drink at the nearest canteen," Obi-Wan said accusingly. "And you must have known that, since you purposefully told me his breath stank."

"Oh? And why would I do that?"

"Because you're testing me. So, there are times when doing charity is right, but you also need to be sure the one you're doing charity to is going to actually benefit from it?"

"Interesting. Shouldn't you rather consider the fact that the actual question is whether to trust someone who failed before?"

Obi-Wan frowned. "What are you trying to say?"

"The man's breath stank of alcohol, most certainly, and yet he asked me for money to buy warm food. Now, just because he fell to the bottle before, does it mean he is any less worthy of charity now? Is he an 'inferior' pauper because he put the money he had to bad use, or is he as deserving as the other paupers?"

Obi-Wan inclined his head to the side. The building near them stopped burning, and started smoking.

"As a Jedi…we must render aid to others," Obi-Wan said. "It would be arrogant to presume he will buy more alcohol. It would be needless meddling to read his mind to find out the truth. Certainly then, the answer is…to render aid to him?"

"Trick question," Revan replied with a shrug. "Now, concerning the burning building by our side…"

Obi-Wan blinked. "Pardon me, master, but I do not understand? Did I answer correctly, or…"

"Well, do you think you answered correctly?" Revan retorted.

"I…suppose saying yes would mean I am arrogant or overconfident, but at the same time answering no would mean I tried, and as Master Yoda says, there is no 'try', so…"

Revan sighed and moved a hand in dismissal, the same motion that made a surviving Hutt cartel member end up disarmed, the blaster rifle flying in the air and ending up inside the still smoking building.

"You are overcomplicating things. While this doesn't surprise me, the key point is that I could have done the job easily if I had given the money to an organization entrusted with the wellbeing of the many. I should have donated the money to a canteen that serves the poor, for example, rather than give the money to the poor themselves. Aid the community, not the individual."

"But you asked me," Obi-Wan began, only for Revan to interrupt him.

"What I asked you was if the action was inherently good or evil, and the answer to that was that the action was inherently dumb." Revan nodded sagely. "There isn't good or evil, Padawan. There's being dumb about things, and there's being smart about them."

Obi-Wan bristled. "As a Master, I should honor you, but as a person, you're making it terribly difficult."

"Uh-uh," Revan acquiesced. "And? You need to lighten up and be less uptight Jedi, more 'Good Person'."

"Are you implying a Jedi and a good person aren't the same thing?" Obi-Wan asked as Revan shrugged, turned, and began to walk away.

"Kill a hundred to save a thousand is perfectly fine in the Jedi code's books," Revan remarked as Obi-Wan walked by his side. "Save the many, sacrifice the few. There is no doubt, and that means that if you're right, all's fine, but if you're wrong, you don't get to try again. You should doubt stuff; it's by questioning ourselves that we find answers. You should not let doubt control you, now that's a better way of phrasing it."

Revan whistled. "You shouldn't ignore your emotions, you should accept them. You shouldn't forget, but understand. Frankly, your order's too rigid, and when something's too rigid, instead of bending, it breaks when enough force is applied."

Chuckling to himself because of some inside joke, Revan crossed both of his arms in front of him, letting his hands disappear into the sleeves of his robe.

"Did…Did I fail then?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Do you think you failed?" Revan remarked. "You're a good man, Obi-Wan. Even if you'd be a poor Jedi, as long as you're a good man, it doesn't matter. First is what type of man we are, and then comes the Jedi. To be a Jedi before being a man, now that's what is wrong."

"You are one annoying master," Obi-Wan remarked in a whisper.

"And you are one annoying padawan," Revan acquiesced. "But I'm used to your type. Now, let's go and get Anakin Skywalker's mother from Watto's shop."

"You convinced the Toydarian?" Obi-Wan said. "Master Qui-Gon tried, but-"

"I have my means," Revan said. "And the burning building was part of it."

Obi-Wan blinked. "You…burned down that building? I thought it-"

"Oh, so that's why you didn't mention anything about it. What, you thought it was natural for it to burn?"

"It…It didn't feel wrong to watch it burn," Obi-Wan said.

"Yeah, the days around here are positively chilly," Revan dryly replied with his voice filled with sarcasm.

Without another word said, both Jedi continued their walk.

As if it was the most natural thing in the world.

As if nothing was wrong.

Author's notes

…

Nothing is wrong with Plasma Grenades. Isn't that right?