Lord Darth Yoda - Yeah I think there's a certain...duality almost to some Jedi. Nara's sort of an Anakin parallel, but Nara gets to do things the 'right' way (and she was younger than Anakin when she left home.) As for the Masters...we are going to get to know what at least one of them sensed in this chapter. I think Sascha's response where he covers for Nara is more of a 'Sascha defending Nara' thing than any sort of teenage rebellion (though there's a hint of that too.)

Speechbubbleme- Thanks! I was hoping that people would enjoy learning Nara's backstory in a sort of unconventional way.

Mr. Insane - Man, for a series that doesn't exactly kill off a lot of heroes, you sure are paranoid about characters dying! But no, Nara's not going to fall in this chapter (because she doesn't appear :p). But she'll be asked to take up the sword at least one...last time

A/N - I've got nothing to add.

Anyways please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 51: Tiplee's Burden, Part One

The burden of a parent is to raise your child into adulthood, no matter the cost. A good parent is one that successfully guides their children in such a way that they feel protected but not sheltered. A child must make mistakes, but not mistakes so bad that they scar them for life.

Does that make us bad parents if we give up our son at the age of two? Have we abandoned our responsibilities to our son, to society at large?

I don't think I want to know the answer to that.

-Excerpt from 'My Son, the Jedi' by Donah and Robry Whitestar

Jedi Knight Tiplee sat in a quiet room in an Ubroran military base and meditated. She knew that she wouldn't be able to meditate for long, but she was going to take the free time she had managed to claw out to do something that she hadn't been able to do as much as she wanted. While she had never the most fastidious meditator, she was beginning to acutely feel the lack of time that she spent just relaxing with the Force. To be honest with herself, all she wanted was just one hour where she would not be assaulted by all the thoughts that were coming into her head. She wanted one hour where she didn't question herself, one hour where she didn't worry about her apprentice, one hour where she didn't worry about if she'd ever see her sister again.

She didn't get an hour of meditation. She maybe got fifteen minutes.

Tiplee had been emptying her mind of her various concerns when she felt an odd sensation in the Force. Immediately she tried to focus in on it, but as much as she tried, she could not hone in on it. Frowning, she ended her attempt at meditation and turned her attention to this mystery.

After a careful search, Tiplee got the sense that something was missing. It didn't take much investigation to determine that what was missing was the presence of her apprentice in the Force. She panicked for a moment, thinking that the most logical explanation for her missing Nara was that she had died. Still, she eliminated that possibility quickly. It was highly unlikely that Nara had passed away without her experiencing something more concrete through the Force. Their Master-Padawan bond was not the strongest, but it did exist.

Still, the knowledge that something had happened to Nara solidified something that had been bouncing around in her mind for a while.

She returned to her makeshift room in the barracks and started to pack.

It didn't take long to do so. She traveled light.

The hardest part of what she was going to do was going to be explaining herself to Aurine. Since the war on Ubrora had begun, Aurine had taken on more and more responsibilities, but as Tiplee had observed her, she was becoming less and less like a Jedi Knight and more like a military officer. The two roles were not compatible. It had taken her a long time to realize this, perhaps too long, but now that she had reached her conclusion, in her heart she knew it was the correct one. Now she just needed to convince Aurine of that.

Tiplee activated her comlink and dialed for Aurine. The human answered quickly, "What?"

"I need to talk to you," Tiplee said calmly.

"Now?" responded Aurine, incredulous.

"Yes," she replied firmly. "I'm in my room. Come see me."

"I'll be right there," Aurine replied.

A few moments later, Aurine opened the door to her room and stood strode inside with a purposeful stride, "Did you really need to interrupt me? I'm putting the last touches on our plan." In Tiplee's opinion, Aurine looked absolutely horrible. While Aurine was never the most fastidious person, and was generally dismissive of her general appearance, the war on Ubrora had taken that to the extreme. Aurine's hair had a greasy sheen to it, a sign that she hadn't showered in days, she had deep bags under her eyes and though the pupils themselves remained bright, Aurine looked more like a homeless person than a Jedi.

However, Tiplee kept her opinion to herself. "You will need to make some modifications to that plan, I'm afraid," she said.

Aurine blinked, surprised. "I spent the past few days slaving over these plans, and we agreed to them with the entire War Council last night, so do you mind telling me why I'm making changes to them?"

"I need to go to Bontha," she said plainly. "In fact we should go to Bontha."

Aurine's look of confusion only intensified, "Why?"

"Do you not feel that our Padawans are fading, second by second?"

Aurine turned away, pained, "They are playing their role admirably."

Tiplee wanted to go comfort Aurine, but it would send the wrong message right now, "Then I will go play my role too."

The blonde-haired human turned back around, her emotions in check again, for now. "You are playing your role," she said with barely concealed restraint, "You are going to help me liberate this planet from this crazed dictator."

Tiplee nodded, "I will do that. But first I will go to Bontha."

Aurine slammed a first into her thigh, "No, you won't. I need you here. I need you to follow the plan."

Tiplee paced, "You are not my commanding officer, Aurine. I am not a soldier that you can order around. I am your friend, and a Jedi Knight. My decisions are my own."

Aurine moved towards her and grabbed her shoulders, roughly, "Tiplee. Listen to me. I know Sascha and Nara are struggling, but they only need to hold out for another day and a half. Their strength is failing, but I believe they will last that long. They just need to be a distraction for a little while longer."

Gently, Tiplee removed Aurine's hands from her shoulders, "Aurine, you are speaking like someone who does not have access to the Force. Look into the Force for your Padawan. He is scared, he is tired. He wants his Master. He and Nara should be here with us."

"WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO WITH MY PADAWAN!" Aurine shouted. Aurine quieted momentarily, and spoke in an insistent tone, "I am trying to free an entire planet, Tiplee. The fate of my apprentice is just one life. How do I weigh that against the lives of all the other Ubrorans under my command? The lives of everyone on Ubrora?"

"You don't," Tiplee replied simply.

Aurine shook her head in confusion, "What?"

Tiplee knew that she would have to approach this subject carefully, "Aurine, my friend, you've turned into a military officer. Now I finally see the folly of letting you take all this responsibility. You've stopped being a Jedi Knight and have become a General. You cannot be both." Tiplee paced, "You are approaching your tasks like it is some sort of equation that can be solved. You are trying to figure out how many lives the lives of our Padawans are worth? Do you know what the answer is Aurine?"

Aurine paused, then shook her head.

"There isn't one. And merely asking the question is bad enough."

That answer didn't seem to satisfy her fellow Jedi Knight, "There has to be some sort of answer."

"Even if there is, it would not be relevant to us. We are Jedi. We don't follow the cold logic of mathematics, we follow the will of the Force."

Aurine snorted derisively, "That answer is completely unsatisfying. And far too philosophical. We are talking about real people here, Tiplee. A real planet. If we don't free Ubrora, we are talking about generations of Ubrorans being born into...I don't even know what Ubrora will become if we don't win."

Tiplee held a hand up placatingly, "I don't disagree with helping the Ubrorans free their planet, Aurine. It's just that we cannot afford to lose our principals to do it. A good Jedi would not leave their apprentice to die if they could stop it. We swore an oath to protect our apprentices. I do not intend to break my oath."

Aurine glanced downward, and brushed a hand through her disheveled hair, "It's not that I don't care about Sascha, or that I'm forswearing my oath as a Jedi, its just that I believe that the fate of the planet is more important than anyone's lives. Even mine. I can't let emotion colour my judgement, I need to make the right decision for Ubrora."

"No, Aurine, you are thinking about this all wrong," she said gently. "We cannot simply say that we must win, no matter the cost. That is not the Jedi way. Because that path will lead us to the dark side."

Aurine shook her head derisively, "Now you are going too far. I'm not going to the dark side. I'm protecting a planet!"

Tiplee refused to lose her calm, "I'm just saying, Aurine, that you must think about the logical conclusion of our path. Do we truly have no rules while fighting this conflict? You've already used deception when you lied to General Ecalt a few weeks ago. What will be the next piece of ourselves that we will throw away for the sake of 'winning?' We can win this war, but lose ourselves. Tell me then, have we really won?"

Her fellow Jedi Knight seemed to take her arguments seriously for the first time, "I still say the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Even our needs," she said, but to Tiplee her voice lacked conviction.

Tiplee knew that she needed to drive her point home by taking this from the theoretical to the practical. "Let me ask you a question. If it would guarantee the freedom of Ubrora, would you kill your own apprentice?"

The blonde-haired Jedi Knight looked shaken. She turned away from her, took a few shambling steps before sinking to her knees. Quietly, Tiplee moved to her side. Aurine's face was a mask of pain and sadness, "I wouldn't," she said with conviction, "but...I considered it for a split-second. I considered it." Aurine shuddered violently, "What have I become?"

Tiplee spoke gently, "You are a woman whose sense of compassion and justice has overridden her training. You must know Aurine that all of this is simply motivated by a desire to help. But you've become emotionally attached...to the fate of the planet. You need to let go. The fate of Ubrora does not solely rest on your shoulders"

Shakily, Aurine rose to her feet, "Yes...I see that now." Her friend looked away, eyes unfocused, "I suppose I reacted this way because I never had time to stop and think about what I was doing. I was always moving from one crisis to another, and I thought that I had to handle each one personally."

Tiplee reached out and softly grabbed her friend's shoulder, "I was doing the same thing that you were, Aurine. We both got caught up in trying to help we forgot to ask if we should help, and what our limits should be as Jedi Knights."

"We should still be helping," Aurine said quietly.

Tiplee nodded sharply, "Absolutely. Jedi defend those that cannot defend themselves. But that includes our Padawans," she said pointedly. While Tiplee was pleased to see that Aurine had quickly seen her side of the argument, she had no intention of being delayed here. She was leaving for Bontha, and soon.

"The problem is, Tiplee, that if I step down as leader of the Ubroran Defence Force, there is no one that can replace me. No one is even remotely qualified."

Tiplee let a small smile play on her face, she had anticipated this. "We have a replacement for you. His name is Pravin Ecalt."

"Pravin?" exclaimed Aurine.

"Yes. He is an actual military officer, you know."

"Can we really trust him?"

Tiplee shrugged, "We already have made our grand plan based on him telling the truth. If he has deceived us, we really don't have much more to lose by trusting him further."

Aurine shrugged, "I guess that is true." The human glanced around the empty room, "I suppose there won't be a better time to tell him the news."

Tiplee stamped a foot on the floor impatiently, "Aurine, we have to go now, or have you failed to notice that Nara has almost completely faded from the Force?"

Aurine, stubborn as a bantha, refused to budge, "You can take five minutes to have a conversation with Pravin where we give him control of the armed forces of an entire planet."

Tiplee would have preferred to be already out the door and on her way to Bontha, but she supposed that five minutes probably wouldn't make a difference either way, since it would take her most of the night to get to Bontha anyway.

Aurine and Tiplee walked through the base and found Pravin Ecalt in his usual place in the medbay, engrossed in his datapad. While the Jedi had offered Pravin full run of the base and even offered to let him leave, the human had steadfastly stayed in place, operating as an advisor of sorts. The Pravin Ecalt of today looked a lot better than the Pravin they had rescued from those two Mandalorians. There was an energy to the older man, and a sense of relief that he was finally doing the right thing.

When the former general spotted the two Jedi, Pravin sprang up from the bed he had been sitting on and snapped into a sharp salute. Then, realizing that the Jedi probably weren't sticklers for military procedure, he smiled sheepishly, "Old habits die hard, I'm afraid."

"Hello Pravin," said Aurine, "Are you ready for a promotion?"

Pravin Ecalt eyed the two Jedi warily, "I wasn't aware I was up for a promotion."

"We've decided that we need a change in leadership," said Aurine.

"We'd like you to lead Ubrora's defence, Pravin," she added.

"What!" Pravin paused, "Surely you must be joking."

"No. We are not," said Aurine. "I am a Jedi Knight. I cannot be a General as well. You however, are a military officer of vast experience."

"But I was in charge of the invasion forces," protested Pravin.

"And now you aren't," Tiplee said.

"Now is the time to make up for what you've done. We need you, Pravin," said Aurine. "Help us."

Pravin Ecalt looked past the two Jedi, his eyes distant. "I love the idea of the military. I like the grandeur, the camaraderie between soldiers, the precision of a well trained military unit. I hate war. I hate...loss. I was able to avoid it for the past few years because my command was almost entirely all droids, and no one sheds any tears if droid seven-one-six-two-D has been deactivated. I'm not sure that I want real flesh and blood soldiers at my command. It's a responsibility I've long avoided."

Aurine knelt and put a hand on Pravin's shoulder, "Pravin we are trusting you because we need that sort of emotionally balanced leadership. We know that you will put the lives of your troops first."

"Are you saying you didn't?"

"I did," said Aurine, "But it has been pointed out to me recently, that I've lost sight of who I am and who I need to be." Aurine poked Pravin in the chest, "But you are the only person on the planet with the training, experience and temperament to do this job."

"I am?"

"Is it really that hard to believe?" said Tiplee.

"Everything since this invasion has started has felt hard to believe," said Pravin. He straightened, "But I feel that I must attempt to make up for my…mistake in aiding and abetting this invasion. So if you are giving me this assignment, and telling me I'm the only person that can do it, then I have no choice but to accept."

That was roughly the response that Tiplee had expected from Pravin. The man was a true soldier, and if given command by someone who outranked him, he would fall in line. Pravin was a simple man, a good man, no doubt, but a simple one.

The two Jedi snapped into a sharp salute, "Congratulations, General Ecalt."

The newly minted General stood and accepted their salute, "Thank you, for this faith you are putting in me. I won't let you down."

"We know that you will not, General Ecalt," said Tiplee.

Pravin smiled slightly, "I don't suppose that I could ask for a uniform to denote my rank?"

Aurine shook her head, "I'm afraid all our resources went into fighting the war, not making uniforms."

"Ah, a pity."

There was one last thing that they needed to bring up with Pravin. She gestured to Aurine, "Transmit the plan to Pravin."

While Aurine searched her datapad for the file to send to Pravin, the new General looked confused, "Plan?"

Aurine made a flippant gesture, "Oh you know, a plan to end the war, smash Vash Varless and his stooge, Coren Vox, freeing the planet and writing all of our names into history."

"Has this plan already been put into motion?"

"You started it Pravin. Now you are going to get to finish it."

Pravin looked down at his beeping datapad, "May I have a moment to look at it?"

"Of course. It's your plan now, General Ecalt."

Aurine and Tiplee gave Pravin space and returned twenty minutes later. General Ecalt was taking notes on a pad of flimsi and looking rather thoughtful. "So Pravin, what do you think?"

He hesitated for a moment, "It is certainly a bold plan, thought it does seem tactically sound. Not without a fair number of risks perhaps, but it is about as good of a chance to end this occupation as is possible."

"And do you think you can lead such a plan?" Tiplee asked.

"I can." Pravin glanced down at his notes, "I've already outlined some changes that I'd like to make. With you permission, of course," he added."

Tiplee waved her hand, "You don't need our permission. This is your plan."

"Thank you, Master Jedi. I won't let you down."

Aurine bowed her head, "All of the Ubroran army's resources are yours. If anyone gives you trouble. Let me know."

"Of course, Master Jedi." Pravin buried his head into his datapad and started inputting changes.

She and Aurine quietly slipped back to her room. But when they came to Aurine's room, she stopped. "Aurine? Aren't you going to pack?"

Her friend closed her eyes, "No. You...go to Bontha. I'm going to stay here and think about things. Maybe help Pravin a bit. He'll need the help, I think."

"Aurine..."

"No. My mind is made up. My place is here."

There was a sense of determination around Aurine again, and Tiplee knew that there was no way that she could convince Aurine to come with her. Even the knowledge that her apprentice was in trouble couldn't sway Aurine, and she was sure that her friend had fonder feelings towards Sascha than her. She laid a hand softly on Aurine's shoulder, "Please give me a message I can deliver to Sascha."

Aurine nodded, "I'll send my message to your datapad. Please deliver it to him. And protect him if he needs it."

"I will."

Aurine bowed graciously to her, "May the Force be with you. I'll see you in a few days."

"May the Force be with you, my friend."