Chapter 4

"Frankly, I'm surprised it took this long for something of this sort to happen." Master Tiin said when they left Olin's quarters where the latter was still applying Bacta spray to a few cuts and bruises. "I would have expected it of Skywalker, but not of Olin."

Neither Mace Windu nor Master Yoda, the only other members of the High Council present on Weitun at the moment were inclined to disagree. For all the emotional maturity Skywalker had reached, some of the things that had apparently been said would have driven most fathers to violence.

"To be fair to Knight Olin, he was trying to break up the fight. That things escalated from there is only partly his fault."

"Try to find a non-violent solution he should have. Problems, he unwillingly created for us."

Master Yoda was right, and they all knew it.

"He meant well, and someone had to end that argument."

"The bigger problem those two are, yes. Do something about them, we must first."

"But what? If we let Olin off with a symbolic punishment it will be as if the Jedi were not equal before our judgement, whatever their ideas for the Order are."

"We have rigorously enforced our rules in the past. Why not now?"

"Hypocritical, it would be, Master Tiin. Free to follow the old ways, any Jedi is."

"But should they be allowed to attack others for following the new Code? If the followers of the old Code merely discussed it with others that would be one thing, but it seems that those the most dedicated tend to like what happened with Olin."

Yoda shook his head. "More to it, there is. Being too outspoken, those two are. Come into conflict with Olin before, they have."

He quickly related what had happened in front of the crystal cave.

No one spoke for a few moments as the Jedi High Council considered the affair.

"This has the chance to blow up into a major scandal."

"It already is one." Windu replied, nodding in the general direction of the town. "Oh for once the publicity is mostly positive towards us. Knight Olin coming to the couple's aid is seen as soundly positive by the general population, but it seems the... Orthodox faction within the Order is stronger than we thought. Now that Olin has more or less declared for the New Code some of them feel betrayed by him because he was supposed to be on their side, while some have, eloquently disguised of course all but accused the Council of manipulating events to our advantage."

It was obvious that the Jedi Master found this whole state of affairs highly distasteful, but everyone present knew that even from a brutally practical point of view the New Code was the way to go forward. One only had to look at the number of Force sensitive children born since the Code had been changed. And the very object of the whole discussion, the Skywalker twins were the best example. Both were exceptionally gifted, with Midichlorian counts as high as their father's and almost bound to be the trailblazers for a whole other kind of Jedi Knight. If they were anything like either of their parents, then woe to the Empire.

That didn't change the basic issue at hand.

"How the Order dealt with these things in the past can't help us. The suppression of dissenting thought is part of what led to us so easily falling pray to Sidious' deceptions. Yet at the same time what the Navy would call the chain of command must be maintained. What's more, those most innocent in all this are bound to be those that suffer the worst."

"So damned if we do, damned if we don't."

Windu sighed. "What we should do is discipline them for something that on the face of it has nothing to do with their beliefs. Frankly what they did is not worthy of a Jedi and they should be punished for 'Conduct unbecoming'. Of course this will only reinforce their righteousness in themselves and their closest friends but it should placate the moderates."

"Fire up the extremists, this will, yes. Know we cannot, how far they will go."

Yoda said nothing else, but all the Matters felt a shiver run down their spine.

"Schism."

Probably the only world other than 'Sith' to make every Master's skin crawl.

"Master Tiin, I doubt things have gone quite this far."

"A possibility it is. Frightening, yes, but possible."

Indeed, it was all too possible. It seemed like the incident had broken a dam. Hemmed in by the growing numbers of Jedi that followed the New Code, those that had so far refused to do so seemed to have latched onto any opportunity to make their displeasure known. Even though it had been only about half a standard day since the incident the 'discussion' and controversy generated by it was epic to behold. The conflict that had simmered under the surface for the last five years because of the constant threat to mere survival seemed to have broken to the fore. Even though no one had yet gone so far as to blame either of the elder Skywalkers for this and for the conflict the more intransigent had themselves created, it was only a matter of time.

Yoda knew that if that happen the dispute would escalate even further. While he did not believe Anakin Skywalker would act with violence or even do much to acknowledge his detractors any more than he'd done already he still was and always would be the symbol and 'cause' of the changes. Generally Anakin Skywalker was known as both the saviour of the Jedi Order and as the cause for the destruction of the old ways.

That the latter was for the most part true only made things worse. Not that the general public, Jedi and non-Jedi alike knew the whole story. Master Kenobi and Skywalker had both told the council much of it, even though Kenobi had outright stated that there were things it was best for no one else to be aware of, inferring that knowing too many details about the future was dangerous. The way he had put it, one day a Jedi might be confronted with a situation or a person he thought 'had' to end or act in a certain way, only for this to have unintended disastrous consequences.

At any rate, knowing what he would have done had he fallen to the Dark Side was at least part of the reason why Skywalker had changed so much and why he exerted himself so much on behalf of the order and why he avoided the public praise and acclaim that came his way because of it. It was the reason why he was so emotive towards the younglings, and why, if that was even possible, his fatherly love was even greater than Yoda would have thought possible.

Anakin Skywalker who had turned out to be a surprisingly generous man all on his own now that most of his days were no longer consumed with keeping a massive secret and obsessing over his visions of the future, saw much of what he did as deserved penance for the cruel and evil deeds of his Dark Side counterpart.

"Inevitable, a schism might be."

"That is the last thing we need. If we weaken the order now..."

"Suppose it goes that far. Can we just let them go? If they go back corewards they might lead the Empire to us."

"Leave they planet, they would not have to. Large, it is. Room for a second settlement it has."

"I believe it is too early to seriously discuss this." Master Tii replied, "what we need to do right now is to defuse the dispute."

Windu nodded in agreement. It was then that he had an idea. "Skywalker is about to leave on his mission, helpfully enough. We were going to send a junior knight with him as backup, but what if we sent Olin instead?"

"Certain you are, yes? Know you do, that like each other they do not."

"Frankly," Windu said bluntly, "they better make this work. If not for themselves then for the good of the Order and the Republic."

Ahsoka knelt down and hugged both of the twins goodbye.

"Do you really have to go, Soki? You only just came back." Luke asked, lips trembling and clearly close to crying.

"I wish I didn't but I have to, Luke. But I promise I'll be back soon."

It was true. She'd been back for less than a week, but the mission was important, so she'd accepted it instantly.

"Promise?" Leia asked, trying to put up the same fierce and fearless facial expression she'd clearly inherited from her mother.

Ahsoka glanced up to where the twin's parents were standing, and the three adults exchanged a smile.

"I promise, little one." she replied.

As usual, Leia bristled at being called 'little', but instead she hugged her aunt even tighter, closely followed by Luke. Eventually the twins let go and she rose to her feet. Anakin and Padmé scooped up one of their children each.

"Take care of yourself, Snips." Anakin said, taking in the person of his former Padawan, unwillingly comparing her to the young girl she'd been when they had first met. She was a strong, powerful Jedi and far more self-assured. She wore a non-standard dark red and grey Togruta flight suit of which she'd picked up the fabric extruder patterns during her mission to the colony, her lightsabre and modified DC-17 blaster strapped to her belt. Normally this would be joined by the backpack and chestguard that contained the suit's environmental systems and their controls respectively as well as the helmet she kept having to get refitted for her montrals, but she was taking the Mynock so they wouldn't be needed. She would still take them along in one of the storage bays, just in case.

He glanced over at Padmé who shared his amusement at their children's attachment to Ahsoka before looking back.

"You take care of yourself, Snips."

Ahsoka looked back at her former Master. The looks they exchanged were joined by something even deeper through their force bond.

"Of course I will. You know me. Goodbye."

Anakin only nodded, and Ahsoka turned on her heels, walked up the ramp into her shuttle and closed the hatch behind her. She sat down in the pilot's seat and began the system power up sequence, purposefully not looking towards where the Skywalkers were still standing.

"Mynock to Control, request permission to depart."

"Permission granted. Good luck out there, Commander."

She didn't believe in luck but appreciated the sentiment.

"Thank you. Mynock departing."

The Rho-Class shuttle engaged it's repulsor lifts, with Ahsoka taking care not to make the Skywalkers double over. She sent one last reinforcing thought towards Anakin, knowing that he would soon leave on his own mission before steering her shuttle out of the hangar and the atmosphere. Soon she had passed the fleet staging area and was into Hyperspace. Now at last she finally had the leisure to examine all the data the came with her orders.

It seemed that Republic Intelligence had only very limited information. The sector was one near the edge of Hutt space that had seen little fighting during the war, for the most part it had only been the occasional clash between a few patrols here and there. It was suspected that this was due to the relative proximity to Hutt space, with neither side wanting to antagonize the rulers of that section of the Galaxy. The system she was bound for was located just off the Pabol Sleheyron Run, near where where that Hyperspace route was joined by the Durkteel Loop. It would certainly explain the Imperial presence in spite of those factors, given that it was fairly close to Kashyyyk which was the Empire's preferred source for slave workers.

Though why did that Jedi not contact the Republic? She knew of a few cases where the being in question had forsaken the ways of the Force, and some where, initially at least, the Jedi in question had been unaware that the Order still existed, either through sheer isolation or because that Jedi had hidden him or herself so deeply in the Force that he/she simply could not sense the other Jedi any more. All things considered the Lightsabre she'd seen on the picture clearly indicated the latter, even though she wouldn't know for sure until she was there and had started her investigation. She glanced at the timer that showed her ETA for Corellia, the first hop of her journey. There she would refuel, then make her way across the Core Worlds in two more hops and then hopefully to her destination. Mynock was fast, but it would still be some time, so she settled down in meditation.

tbc

I've come to realize that at this stage Anakin is pretty much a blank slate for me to do with as I please. So much of how he was and what he did in the Prequels came out of his emotional problems and his unique family status that now that most of this isn't a factor any more.

Obi Wan knowing the gist of what would have happened in the original trilogy beyond what his canon counterpart saw/knew before his death is why I originally had him accompany Anakin to Tatooine. It would have included them revisiting a few of the locations and of course Obi Wan commenting on the atmosphere and crime rate of Mos Eisley. I might still do that at some point anyway, but as I started plotting this story in detail, Olin being the sidekick made more sense.

Also, and I may have said this before, but I always preferred Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan Kenobi, so the picture in my head and the way he acts and talks will always be based on his portrayal of the character. With all due respect for Sir Alec, he couldn't have pulled off the more upbeat, friendly and jokey character Obi Wan is TTL.