Chapter 18
"What did he mean Wrath found the force's weakness?" Bellan asks sounding terrified, after she and Terza had looked Obi-Wan over, everyone reconvened in the meeting room. Obi had been granted the option of rest but didn't think he could sleep right now anyway.
"I don't know, and the thing about The Force and sentient beings? Did that make sense to anyone?" Bant asks.
"Who the blasted hell was Tyranus?" Mic asks.
"That was the name I took up in the other timeline when I joined Sidious." Dooku tells him, "I apparently said something about it."
"Yes, you did, but not to me, to her. She who has been oddly silent." Obi-Wan says not looking away from Arlie who has not said a word, just sat in contemplative silence.
"We are talking about all of reality collapsing Arl, if you've got something to say, say it." Garen tells her.
"Oh come on, you don't really think Sidious can destroy the force can you?" Bant asks sarcastically.
"A bigger worry it is that go with it reality might." Yoda says sounding genuinely worried. "Have the answers we do not, need more information we do. Share you must." He tells Arl, everyone looks to her, she continues staring at the table silently thinking for a few moments as she bites her lip and repeatedly taps her fingers on the table one at a time.
"You're all focusing on the wrong part of the conversation. He gave us a timeline, we fix this in time and we do not have to worry about what may or may not come after." She tells them, "He said we had to bridge the gap, get both sides of the force working in tandem to help whoever this creator is."
"Yes, but how do we do that?" Tahl asks, Arl looks thoughtful.
"Not all Sith are bad, but they do all use the dark side. Perhaps we can use that."
"Are you suggesting we find ourselves some Sith that are not 'Dark Sith' and ask them for help?" Quin asks knowing they already have it but not wanting to give Dooku away.
"Well Arl has two on our side anyway." Mic points out, Qui-Gon looks at Dooku in alarm but Dooku is calm so he figures all is okay. Quinlan does not miss the interaction, after the conversation in the healer's wing last year, Quin's been keeping an eye on him. He's narrowed it down to two options, either Qui knows about Dooku and is afraid his former Master will be found out, or, he is also a Sith.
"I shall not even ask, even so, will that be enough? Two Sith is hardly a balance." Plo tells them, Arl looks up from the table for the first time.
"Then we train more." Dead silence.
"I'm sorry, what?" Shaak asks sharing everyone's thoughts.
"A lonely little girl, lost in a brand new world with powers no one could imagine. She did not want to be alone so she trained others to be like her and the Order of the Force was born. Greed and fear corrupted the peace and soon her beloved order split in three, the third sect died off quickly but the others grew strong. Only destruction can be while the order is split. One day it will be reunited, that is when I will return young one, to help it reunite. It must make its own mistakes if it is to learn from them." Arl quotes, Yoda looks in her eyes for a long moment before a proud smile breaks out on his face, she's no idea what that's about.
"What's that got to do with training Sith?"
"If we are to bridge the gap, we need to have enough of all three sects. We have three who can train others to be Sith."
"Three? We can't have mine teaching, he's a Dark Sith!" Obi-Wan tells her.
"Yes, I am aware of that, but we can ask him not to teach them to be."
"Oh, and he will listen, will he?" Tholme asks, "Quinlan remember a year ago when I said I'd get to know them before pronouncing them reckless?"
"Yep nope, you may have been right about that."
"He will listen." Obi tells them earning all eyes on him. "If someone gets in the way he'll kill them sure, but he's not going to turn on you guys."
"Why?" Mace asks.
"Honour, and love. He's still me and I am him. You guys are my kin and Sith or no Sith I would not ever turn against you guys. Just think of it as me with sketchy as fuck morals." No one even bothered with chastising his language.
"There are three sects, not two." Kit reminds them all.
"So, what is the third?"
"Force-magic." Garen says looking at Arl who nods, Mace suddenly remembers a conversation from three years ago.
"you're dealing with the only force-sensitive in the universe that hates the force and thus avoids use of it in a fight unless absolutely necessary."
"You're a Jedi master, how can you hate the force?" Mace asks incredulously as they exit the elevator.
"It brought me back here because it wants to be saved and I have no interest in saving it. All I want to do is save my family, and fix the order. The fact that that may also save all of reality has no bearing on my decision to do so. I'd have rather it just let me die honestly."
"You knew." Mace says looking at her, "You've known all along, about the threat to the force. That all of reality is in danger." Everyone seems confused at him. "'It brought me back here because it wants to be saved.' You also said that doing so would save reality." All look to her, she debates for a moment before something seems to change in her and she seems far older, they could truly see her age in that moment, and wisdom beyond even that.
"Has everyone in here heard of force-seers?" Everyone nods.
"Please tell me you are not one." Kit requests not wanting the extra complication, she shakes her head.
"I am not. Once upon a time I was kidnapped by who I thought were pirates. While locked in a tiny room, a circle of swirling blue light appeared in front of me and I stepped through. There I met a force-seer. She trained me to use force-magic, taught me many things about the true nature of reality and much about the force as well. I asked once where she learnt how to do this since she said the practice had died out. The force had taught her, had told her that one day the Jedi would need to learn to do it, that it would save reality. She realised that the Jedi of her time would not learn and trusted me with the job of making the Jedi ready to evolve so that when the time came, they would be willing to learn." She tells them, Arl is pretty sure she never even told anyone that in the other timeline.
"And you are just now telling us this?" Qui-Gon asks incredulously.
"Bad stuff happened in the other timeline, I did not trust your ability to look past it and focus on what is actually important. This will stop the Sith which will save the force and therefore reality, if we focus on the final part we will miss the first."
"I suppose we have a habit of looking at the bigger picture and forgetting to break it down." Tahl admits, Arl looks at her.
"I am forgetting something." She says suddenly looking at the table, then to Obi. "What am I forgetting?" he looks confused. "No really, I've done the same thing, focused on the big issue and forgotten little things along the way." Obi-Wan looks around the room before his gaze lands on Micah and remains for a few moments with a puzzling look before turning back to Arl.
"Yinchorr, it should have been a month ago."
"You mean the thwarted uprising?" Depa questions, Obi nods.
"Thwarted?" Arl asks surprised.
"Well, Qui-Gon was busy with this so we sent another team, they handled negotiations and stopped war."
"Well thank fuck for that." Obi-Wan tells them. "And we still have two years before Naboo. Okay so back to the training Sith thing. We've three who can do that, one who can train in force-magic…"
"The third sect could not have just used force-magic. There had to be more to it. Sith and Jedi did not see a use for it and it died out but there had to be more to the break off of those people." Arl says, Obi-Wan groans.
"You have spent thirty years studying this Arleia, how have you not worked this out?"
"Obi-Wan we have almost no record of that time, without speaking to someone who has lived it, there is little more I can do."
"So let's do that then." Mic says.
"Mic, you do know this was thousands of years ago yes?" Tahl asks, Mic rolls his eyes.
"Yes, you do know the force is older yes? We are Jedi, we confer with the force all the time." He says with a pointed look to Arl who shakes her head.
"No. I know what you are thinking, and no."
"We need to bridge the gap between all three if we want to stop Wrath."
"We will just have to find another way."
"What are you two talking about?" Saesee asks annoyed.
"The force-seer I mentioned."
"Oh, you said she was from the future yes?"
"Yes, so she is a child now and I will not bring a child into this and make her a possible target for the Dark Sith. I've seen to many murdered as is."
"What do you suggest then?" Mic asks frustratedly, she falls silent.
"Well… we know time travel is possible…" Xanatos says slowly, not 100% sure where he is going with this.
"Are you suggesting we go back thousands of years to find out what happened to the order of the force so that we can fix it because I started this off thinking you are crazy but now that I've said it aloud it actually makes sense." Depa tells them.
"Except for the part where we do not know how to travel through time." Mace points out.
"Well that is actually a relatively simple concept." Arl tells them. "Time does not exist, it is merely a case of leaving reality and returning to a different point."
"Oh, and how exactly does one leave reality?" Dooku asks sarcastically.
"The in-between." Garen says remembering things Arl has told him.
"Come on guys this is ridiculous. Garen do you remember the whole thing with the maps and roads and cars?" Arl asks him disbelievingly, he thinks for a moment before his eyes widen.
"We'd keep moving while you were gone. Even if you came back at the same point there would still be a version of us living out a life without you."
"Exactly. One does not travel through time on a whim."
"You've done it twice!" Mace replies, Arl shrugs.
"Not willingly. I did not expect that to happen either time."
"So we don't do it on a whim, we plan it and we plan it well. Down to the last detail." Depa says, Arl thinks for a moment, looking back to the table contemplatively before nodding slowly.
"Okay, here's how it is. I will go back with Dooku and Quinlan, but only after we've sat down with the Sith and come to an agreement on training. There is no point to fucking with timelines if you will not follow through with that."
"This is even assuming the two other Sith agree to help us, it would mean revealing themselves to people known for hunting them down after all." Eeth tells them.
"I'm sure we could convince at least one of them." Dooku tells everyone.
"If reality breaks so do they, neither would refuse to save their own skin at the very least." Qui-Gon adds, Arl smiles to herself.
"All we can do is ask. Arl, when you speak with them. Please take Dooku, I do not like the idea of you meeting with Sith on your own. Supposedly on our side or not, you know what the dark side can do." Mace says, Quinlan bites the inside of his cheek to keep from pissing himself laughing.
"The Chancellor has requested he sit in on future meetings, I agree with him that he being directly in the loop will only help our cause." Qui-Gon tells everyone who nods.
"Discuss the matter of us having a sit down with the Sith with him. It may not be the safest environment and we cannot allow him to be around such a major security threat. Yet since none of this is officially happening I suppose he should really be the one to make the decision." Mace replies.
They adjourn quickly after that. Arl, Dooku, and Qui-Gon agreed to meet later that night on the upper levels of the temple where no one would be at 1st hour. Arl arrives to see Qui-Gon already there.
"Dooku said he was going to bring Quinlan and Xan if it was okay with me, I figured they had the right to know first."
"And Obi doesn't?"
"Obi-Wan kissed me." Qui-Gon replies awkwardly, Arl smiles amused by his embarrassment.
"And you…?" The older Master ducks his head in shame.
"Panicked." Arl sighs, "I mean, I uh, care about him. A lot, but he's, a child. My Padawan, and it's inappropriate and…"
"And he's just turned eighteen so it's legal and you have knighted him so it breaks no rules."
"He doesn't know I am a Sith, he won't want to be with me after that." Qui-Gon says sadly. "Besides he's young, what would he want with an old man like me?"
"Okay for starters, you aren't that old. He is about to find out anyway though I really think you should rethink telling him beforehand. He loved you in the other timeline Qui, I know he and Ben are very different people, but Obi still has memories of that life. He isn't exactly as young as you'd think. He may not be fifty-four but he certainly is not your average eighteen-year-old. Why don't you let him decide for himself what he wants instead of not even giving him the option?"
"I hate it when you're right."
"I'm always right."
"And I always hate it."
The others arrive soon after, Xanatos stopping dead as soon as he entered the room.
"I should have seen that coming." He says looking at Qui-Gon, surprise and confusion mixed with hurt and acceptance.
"You didn't warn him?" Quin asks Dooku.
"I didn't warn you either."
"Yes, but I had worked it out."
"I did not know that."
"So basically, you're a dick."
"Okay, break it up. We can't be here too long." Arl tells the two of them, "Look I know what you both said during that meeting but are you actually willing to do this? Out yourselves to everyone?"
"Arl I found out some very disturbing information today that shocked me to my core, nothing will ever scare and disturb me more than that. I will be fine." Qui-Gon replies, Arl looks confused. "You do not. Want. To know."
"I mean now we all do." Quin says joining them where they are sitting on the floor, Xan and Dooku join him in doing so.
"Just something Ben did in the other timeline. It's…just…I mean…he slept with my Master." Qui-Gon says quickly, Arl's jaw drops, Dooku's eyes widen, Quinlan pisses himself laughing while Xan looks as disturbed as Qui-Gon.
"When?" Arl asks unable to comprehend what she is hearing.
"During the war." Arl is halfway between angry and so very confused and just what the bleeding fuck.
"He slept with the leader of the Separatist Army." She says slowly, "To be clear…consensually?"
"Arlie!" Dooku yells horrified before remembering they aren't actually meant to be there and quieting himself, "I don't care what version of me we are talking about, I'd never…do that."
"Yes, but would you ever fuck Obi-Wan?"
"Gods no…oh I see your point now."
"Master, to be clear, please do not ever have sex with my former Padawan."
"I would not ever." Dooku tells him honestly.
"I was under the impression you were into girls anyway." Quinlan says surprised.
"How is that what you are focusing on?" Xan asks incredulously making Quin laugh again.
"Not that it is any of your business but I am. Other me was clearly very confused about a lot of things and just…no." Dooku says looking disturbed, Arlie laughs at it.
"You pout when your disgruntled." She tells him.
"I do not."
"You do, you spent half our time imprisoned on Telos IV pouting at the audacity of it all." Quinlan reminds him laughing before stopping, "Oops."
"Three seconds." Arl says dangerously, Quin gets the point and starts talking quickly.
"That was the memory I got trapped in in Maul's mind. I saw everything that happened from his perspective, my own memories slowly came back to me after that." Quin says, Arl looks murderous, Dooku is not impressed but his face softens quickly.
"You nearly killed yourself trying to get away from the memory of it." Dooku says quietly, Quin nods suddenly looking terrified. "We will deal with this later. I am on board, it is long past time I stopped hiding. However, if you decide not to, my Apprentice, I will not mention you." Dooku tells Qui-Gon.
"That is so creepy to hear." Xanatos says as a shudder runs through him, "Sorry just the last time I heard someone call someone that was Wrath speaking through me to Arl."
"Yep I can see how that would be an uncomfortable memory." Quin says.
"I am in, some things are more important than us, all of reality, definitely one of those things."
"Obi-Wan is going to kill you Dooku. I mean he'll be pissed as fuck at Qui-Gon but I mean he will actually attempt to murder you again." Quin points out.
"I will be taking everyone's lightsabers at the beginning of the meeting, never fear. None will be dying tomorrow." Arlie promises.
"All right then, tomorrow the order finds out that Sith have been hiding in it for hundreds of years since Dooku joined." Xan says earning a hit on the back of the head from his former Master.
"I am not that bloody old."
"I mean…" Qui-Gon begins to say before Dooku hits him too.
"So violent, how did no one pick up on this before?" Quin jokes, they debate a lot about the codes, Quin is mildly disapproving of Dooku's sithliness but at the end of it, they are still partners.
"Have you seen Yoda?" Dooku deadpans, everyone laughs at that for a moment.
They all leave soon, knowing that after tomorrow, everything would change…although technically it's later the same day…
The next morning (or really later that same morning) Garen, Mace, and Micah wake to Arl drinking tea. She knew she'd have to get up early anyway, given the time when she got back she decided it was not worth going to bed at all.
"So, I had an interesting conversation with Tahl yesterday." Mic tells the others over breakfast.
"Oh?" Mace asks from beside him curious to where this is going, he had seemed rather distracted all night and kept tossing and turning in his sleep.
"She told me she had a problem, that she'd realised something about Dooku and Qui-Gon was going to hate her for it." Arl holds her breath at the words. They were finding out today anyway but it would all go down much better if everyone heard it from them instead of finding out on their own as Quin and Xan had. "She has a crush on him."
"On Qui-Gon? Coz I think Obi-Wan's got dibs there." Garen asks before he caught on, "Oh my gods, Master Tahl has feelings for Dooku?"
"This is high school on Earth all over again." Arleia complains dropping her head into her hands.
"So, what's she going to do?" Mace asks, everyone thought he was so stoic and detached, but he was a major gossip, the man knew most things going on in the temple, so whenever he found something he didn't, he had to know more.
"She wants to talk to Qui-Gon about it before anything else, he's one of her best friends so she thinks he deserves it. I certainly agreed with her."
"If it helps, he and his girlfriend broke up a few months ago so he's single." Arl says with a smile.
"Dooku had a girlfriend?" Garen asks surprised, she nods, "Damn."
"Well while we are on the subject of breaking our friends trust by spilling their secrets, Obi-Wan kissed Qui-Gon." Arl says deciding that acting like a teenager for a few moments would not be so bad.
"And?" Garen asks, he was way too invested in their relationship.
"And nothing, Qui panicked and came to me for advice."
"Why you? I'm his best friend!" Mic whines teasingly.
"Hey, I'm a good friend too! Besides, in a lot of ways I've known Obi the longest and am not in an, as of yet undefined while everyone is dying to know, relationship with his Uncle."
"Well good because if you were we'd have to have words." Micah tells her with a jokingly pointed look, she laughs, Mace sighs.
"You know Master, if you want that to stop, you could always just tell us what is going on with you guys." Garen says to Mace who glares half-heartedly at him. In truth, Arlie and Garen knew that their Masters were waiting for the order to be more stable before making anything official, but they all knew that as with many things lately, not being official does not mean it isn't happening.
Two hours later everyone is in the meeting room bright and early, including the Chancellor. They are waiting on Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan when Mace's comm beeps.
"Where are you two?" Mace asks immediately.
"What is the protocol for Sith personality taking over but with no intent of harming anyone?" Qui-Gon asks curiously and sounding a tad nervous, Arl facepalms…fuck propriety.
"This is probably the safest place to have him anyway, just bring him down here." Mace replies sounding tired despite it only being 8th hour. Ten minutes later the door opens and the two enter, Obi-Wan's hood up and gaze to the floor. Once the door was closed he pulled his hood down allowing all to see the Sithly yellow eyes. Dooku and Arlie exchanged nervous looks, knowing the likelihood of Obi-Wan murdering either he or Qui-Gon just went up tenfold.
"Obi-Wan, you look happy, had a good morning?" Arl says, he glares at her.
"Don't call me that." He tells her before sitting down.
"Actually we all should be, calling you by two names is not going to help the reintegration process Obi." Bellan tells him, he rolls his eyes uncaring.
"Who was your sacrifice?" Arl asks suddenly, he snorts.
"Anakin, did I never tell you what happened on Mustafar?" Arl shakes her head. "I cut off three of his limbs and left him burning to death. Sidious may have saved him but apparently it was enough."
"You did what to my brother?" She says voice deadly.
"I fought him after he murdered younglings." He replies without missing a beat, Arl backs off.
"Yes, I can see your point."
"Can we just get on with this?" Xanatos asks impatiently, he was quite nervous on how this would go, as time went on it got harder to hide that.
"First, everyone hand over your lightsabers." Arl says holding up a box, no one seemed inclined to do so. "Trust me." Arl requests of Mace, they had remade the pact after he had wanted an explanation when she caved after he said those words, and so he hands his lightsaber over.
"No hesitation." Seeing Mace do it made others as well.
"Obi-Wan." Arl requests.
"And if they attack?" Sohn asks testily, she looks him in the eyes calmly.
"I will be here, I still have my saber." He glares at her but hands it over. No one appeared happy with the situation at all.
"Okay now, Chancellor Valorum, I do not believe we have met. I am Knight Arl Aa. I just want to reassure you that you will be perfectly safe here no matter what happens."
"I have to say, making them relinquish their weapons is not the most comforting move." He tells her.
"A year ago, Arl sparred with everyone in this room except Terza, Eeth, Plo, Saesee, Shaak, Kit, Adi, and Tholme at once. She beat us all." Qui-Gon tells his friend.
"Now that is comforting." The man says with a smile. "Well then, bring in the Sith?"
They had not discussed how this reveal was going to go so Arl went with her instinct to be dramatic.
"Actually, they are already in here." Quinlan hides his snicker as Xan just shakes her head at her antics.
"I'm sorry what?" Obi-Wan says apparently having come back to himself at some point, everyone in the room was on edge.
"I did not become a Sith after the war started, it was long before that I'm afraid." Dooku admits, several people subconsciously try to move away. Obi-Wan's eyes glow yellow despite him still being in control, then Dooku's hand went to his throat as he struggled to breath, Arl picked up the datapad on the table beside her and threw it at Obi-Wan who stopped force-choking Dooku as he caught it.
"That was my datapad." Garen says unimpressed, she called it back with the force, "Thank you."
"How is your fucking datapad what you are focusing on right now?" Obi-Wan growls.
"Language padawan." Qui-Gon tells him as Garen says, "I guessed it already." Obi turned on his former Master, Arl thinks maybe chastising his language right now possibly hadn't been Qui-Gon's wisest decision.
"Did you know?!" Qui ducks his head in shame, "This was that damn secret? Your Master is a fucking Sith Lord?!" Qui-Gon shakes his head.
"No, the secret was that I am too." The room was silent as everyone processed the information.
"Well that one I did not guess, say anyone notice the other two people in here not looking surprised?" Garen asks.
"Yep." Obi says through gritted teeth.
"So, let me get this straight, there have been two Sith in the Jedi temple and no one noticed? How long?" Valorum asks the two men.
"Since I was a twenty." Dooku tells him calmly.
"Why the fuck did you randomly decide one day, 'hey you know that code I've sworn my entire life to uphold? Nah fuck it, Imma just go commit blasphemy under everyone's noses and laugh when they don't see it. Oh and, I'm going to take a promising initiate and make him something dark and twisted as well?'"
"Well obviously that is not how it happened Knight Kenobi."
"Is Xan a Sith too? Are you training him to be one?"
"Hey! Back off Kenobi. I am not a Sith but may I remind you how many people these two have saved? How many times Master Qui-Gon has saved you? The amount of times they've been better Jedi than any of us?" Xanatos says in defence.
"That last one is really not a compliment Padawan." Dooku says wincing slightly, Xan looks sheepish.
"A better person then."
"I don't know, Dooku still seems like a sarcastic ass to me no matter which way you look at it." Quin says hoping to lighten the mood, it does not work.
"This is good news the way I see it." The Chancellor tells them, "I believe we were all concerned about bringing Sith in and having them teach when they were strangers we couldn't trust. Now we know that we can trust them, that they are on our side and hold the same ideals that we do."
"Not ideals but morals yes." Qui-Gon amends, Obi-Wan suddenly thinks of something.
"But, Maul killed you?"
"Yes, that would have been the second part of Sidious' revenge against me I'm afraid. The first part being his manipulation of Xan." Dooku tells him.
"And why does Sidious want revenge on you?" Mic asks.
"You killed him." Mace says, everything falls into place for the others as well.
"Quinlan, I approve." Tholme says looking at Dooku.
"I'm sorry you what now?" Quin asks confused, of all the things to convince his former Master, this does?
"I was concerned about them needlessly putting you in danger and leaving you to fend for yourself. Well one of them has lied to everyone to protect a Sith because he was more important than the code and the other killed a man to protect a child he did not know and went into the mind of people who wanted him dead to save Xanatos. The killing I may not agree with but from his perspective it would have been perfectly reasonable. My point is you've found yourself more or less under the protection of two people who will go to great lengths in order to keep you and everyone around them safe. I won't argue with that one, even if I do not approve of some life choices." He explains, Dooku nods gratefully at him which he returns.
"Okay, Arl, Quinlan, Xan, how long have you guys known?" Tahl asks hiding the hurt she feels at one of her best friends having been lying to her for years.
"I found out when we went into the mindscape." Quin says.
"Wrath spilled the beans when he called him his apprentice in the mindscape." Xanatos says, Dooku's expression darkens slightly at the memory.
"You aren't though, right?" Garen checks.
"No, I am not." Dooku replies, "I have not been for a very long time." Garen nods happy with the answer if not the situation.
"I've known since the day I beat you all in the sparring match."
"Nearly a year and a half." Obi-Wan says angrily before he looks at his former Master and the yellow bleeds out of his eyes. "I suppose I have one comfort you did not when you got thrown the curveball that is Ben's memories." Obi says, Qui-Gon raises an eyebrow. "You're still the same man you were yesterday."