Anakin stirred when something warm on top of him shifted. He'd curled up on his side on a cushion of some kind (it didn't feel like his usual bed) and the heavy thing lay draped across his arms and the side of his chest. There was something else warm pressed against his back and yet another against his leg. Was it the same thing... person? He frowned. He never slept near people. There were a couple of people in whose presence he could sleep, but they were few and far between.
He reached out with the Force and relaxed a little when he felt Ahsoka's Force signature. Then he sighed fondly. Hadn't they talked about this? When they were forced to share sleeping spaces and tents, she needed to try to be a little more conscientious about where her extremities ended up. It wouldn't be the first time he'd woken with an arm across his, or a foot very near his face. Although, now that he brought his sleepy mind to think about it, that didn't seem right. It had been a while since he and Ahsoka had shared a space, hadn't it? Come to think of it, he didn't often sleep so deeply that he had problems waking up.
That's when the warm spot by his back shifted too. Was Obi-wan here? That seemed very wrong too. Then who...?
He reached out and found a presence nowhere nearly as familiar as his old master's, but still one he knew. A youngling Zeltron and...
Wait... what?
His eyes snapped open. Surely enough, Ahsoka had somehow ended up with arms and legs akimbo as she sprawled on top of him. But he could also see another small form down by his knees.
It took a minute for his mind to catch up with him, but thankfully, it did so quickly. It flashed before his eyes in seconds: his trip to the past, speaking to Palpatine for the first time in years and then the nightmares and Ahsoka and her two friends... Blinking the fogginess out of his eyes, he finally realized how he was still surrounded by younglings, but not just the three he remembered from the previous night. No, at least seven more sat or knelt on the rugs splayed across the floor around him, struggling to begin their morning meditation. Most of them would periodically peek at him and giggle or chuckle quietly before attempting to go back to their exercises.
Anakin felt his cheeks warm and cursed his puberty-ridden body.
"Skyguy?" Ahsoka asked sleepily, rubbing her eyes and looking up at him.
"Umm," came Anakin's articulate answer. He fought down a mild panic as he felt the other two begin to sit up.
Thankfully, the crèche master seemed to notice them at that point and came to rescue him.
"Ah, good, I was just about to wake you. Why don't you three go get yourselves ready and join us back here. I can speak to you then."
The three sleepy children all nodded obediently and slid down off of the large cushion.
"Thanks, Skyguy," Ahsoka said happily, waving at him. The other two followed her lead before disappearing down the hall.
At that point, Anakin stood awkwardly before the crèche master, a human named Master Kobola. She just stared at him patiently, with one eyebrow raised.
"Um... I had a bad dream and Ahsoka may have sensed it and, er... sliced out of the Clawmouse crèche hall to come and comfort me."
Master Kobola's light brown eyes widened in surprise. "She sliced her way out of the crèche?"
Anakin rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly (Force, it had been years since he'd felt this shamefaced). "I may have... accidentally taught them how to slice minor locks a couple of weeks back. In my defense, I didn't think they'd actually remember anything! They're five!" Or younger.
He knew he wouldn't be getting out of this easily and had to keep reminding himself that whatever punishment he got, it would be a fitting punishment that he truly deserved, not the half-beatings that tended to be on the nicer end of the scale of what Palpatine had seen fit to give him. It had been a while since he'd really expected (or even thought about ) something like that, but again, meeting the Sith Master yesterday had apparently screwed over his subconscious.
Thankfully, and much to Anakin's relief, Master Kobola just rolled her eyes in fond exasperation and shook her head, making the short, red curls that around her face bounce. "Children are young and inexperienced, not stupid. You have to be very careful what you teach them, because they tend to be more observant than you realize.
"I could also ask what you were doing slicing the temple locks..." she said reprovingly.
Anakin felt his cheeks heat up again. Why did he have to return to the past just before puberty again? He was a former Jedi Knight who had fought a war, a former Sith Lord who had fought several wars and commanded armies, and he still got embarrassed by a scolding from a crèche master. What the kriff?
"I was just... practicing," he muttered.
The woman sighed and leaned down, putting a hand on his shoulder. "The locks are there for your safety, you know. Your crèche master needs to know where you are at all times to properly care for you. That especially applies to the younger ages."
"Yes ma'am," he said quietly, wondering how she'd gotten him to revert to his more childlike tendencies. Usually only his mother could really do that.
He quickly pushed that thought aside.
Master Kobola sighed, but still didn't sound angry or upset. "So what happened after that?"
Anakin swallowed, reminding himself that he'd done far worse than teaching kids to slice a simple door before he continued. "Well, I brought her back here, where her friends were waiting for her. She'd apparently had a nightmare too because she seemed worried asked me to stay for a little bit. I didn't want to take her to her room if I was staying..."
She nodded, "That would have been inappropriate. You made a good call."
He forced himself to smile at her. "I... guess we just fell asleep after that."
"Yes," she replied, sounding more amused than anything. "Well, I'd prefer you didn't make this a habit, and I'm going to be speaking to both your crèche master and the crèche council. We'll likely change the codes and upgrade the security on the doors. Please don't teach the children how to slice this one."
"Yes, ma'am." Anakin nodded, hoping it didn't look like he'd complied too hurriedly. At least she had no delusion that it would work on him.
She smiled before reaching up and ruffling his hair. Still embarrassed, he let her (what else was he supposed to do, break her arm? Yes, that would go over wonderfully). Then she straightened.
"Now, it's likely time that you get back to your floor before you get into more trouble."
Anakin was only too happy to comply. The sooner he got out of there the better. So he nodded, bowed to the woman and walked as regally as he could out of the room to hide any more of his ridiculous embarrassment that he still could not explain.
Part of him wanted to ask Girth or Master Xio about it... but most of him just wanted to forget it ever happened. This wasn't a big deal, and he kind of wanted to keep it private anyway, both for the embarrassment he could save and the memory in general.
After all, he hadn't woken feeling that well rested in a very long time.
xXx
Yoda watched the young pair of Jedi presenting their findings to the Jedi Council. It had only been a couple of weeks since they had been assigned their task, and they had already put together a rather worrying presentation.
It started with a general survey that the presenting knights had asked a couple of worlds to put on their census reports and some holoweb commercials. The questions had been mostly about the Jedi and what the people of each world thought of them. The results were... not what the Jedi had expected.
Most Non-Jedi seemed to think of the Jedi as either a religion with too much favored bias from the Senate, or an elite class of warriors (or a strange, somewhat nebulous combination thereof) on the Senate/Republic/Chancellor's payroll. A much smaller portion of those who had taken the test saw them as what they were: a peace-keeping order. Very few had actually met Jedi, and most of the survey takers seemed to think that they likely never would (at least, that was the implication the presenters took from the results).
The conclusion Yoda had drawn was that the Jedi were indeed far too removed from the public they were supposed to serve. Both of the presenting Jedi were in agreement on that as well, to an extent. Their structured arguments revolved more around whether they should change that fact or not.
On the one hand, the results stated that Jedi support was on the decline. Jedi needed their sanctuary and refuge from an increasingly more hostile universe. Inevitably, duty would call for them brave the world outside the temple, but keeping the Order apart from the rest of the galaxy did offer that refuge. Also, there were only so many Jedi. Approximately one to every million sapients in the Galaxy were born with force-sensitivity, in general terms, and not all of them (not even half of them) ended up joining the Order at all. Then the age limit and the corps took even more away (although the Order still counted them as Jedi, and it was likely the people who met them did as well) so at any given point, there simply weren't enough Jedi to really begin intense new projects and initiatives. Even working out the logistics of somehow trying to meet the public at large would be difficult to say the least.
And yet, as the current Jedi presenter, Knight Ranhoran, outright argued that they had to do something. Jedi, as they currently were, could not understand the public without ever interacting with them, and thus, the public could not understand Jedi. By extension, they also couldn't truly trust Jedi and based their knowledge of the Order on ancient legends or holovids that most likely weren't even remotely accurate to begin with. The Galaxy's population just didn't know anything concrete or true about them. And people tend to fear what they do not understand.
It was Knight Ranhoran's opinion that they should try and get some true information out to the galaxy; make some documentaries about the Jedi, give some interviews, have padawans give presentations to local schools. He argued that they needed to let the universe see and understand more of what went on in a Jedi's life. They could do so without giving away too many hints on how to infiltrate the Jedi temple or spot Jedi on missions.
The argument to this, of course, centered around how that would be giving information to people who could potentially damage the Jedi Order. People who could read in between the lines and who could parse together a great deal of information on simple hints and an in-depth analysis.
But was that worth the risks that came of being so removed from the Galaxy? Was that defense their best defense? And was it truly that difficult to work around or find solutions to? It was true that many cultures still looked favorably on the Order, but there were far more cultures who were openly neutral or critical of the Jedi – sometimes to a point of outright hatred – than anyone had expected. There wasn't a way to really avoid offending someone in diplomatic situations, but Yoda didn't think anyone had realized just how many worlds had developed negative opinions about the Order. The Grandmaster only knew because he'd seen the unfiltered results. He'd given the two Jedi who had been tasked with filtering and taking out the useless or "trolling" (the connotation still made him a little grumpy) comments out two weeks of vacation to recuperate. He hoped it was enough.
The conclusions had been sobering and made the future Anakin and Siri had described far more believable than it had seemed before.
Once the two knights had finished presenting what they'd uncovered as well as their arguments, they both bowed and stood silently, waiting to answer questions. A couple of masters spoke up, but Yoda didn't listen closely, too focused on closing his eyes and asking the Force.
The cloudiness that had been popping up lately came with the otherwise warm, familiar sensation, making Yoda frown. But he still got a positive sense from it regarding this topic. He wondered if everyone else would.
"Discuss this topic, we will," Yoda finally said once a long enough pause in the noise registered.
Beside him, Mace nodded at the two presenters. "Thank you for reporting your findings today. You may leave now."
Both of the knights bowed again before retreating, leaving the Council in silence.
Once the large doors closed, the debate began.
"They bring up some very good points," Plo Koon said softly.
"Indeed," Ki-Adi-Mundi agreed. "But the question does come down to this: Do we give up our secrets for a chance to connect with the people of the galaxy?"
"Why give up our best form of defense?" Oppo Rancisis asked. "Because our enemies do not know of our ways, they cannot corrupt or pervert them."
Yoda frowned at him. "Many enemies, have we?"
"According to the presentation we just witnessed, Yes," Eeth Koth commented, looking troubled. Beside him, Saesee Tiin nodded calmly.
Oppo Rancisis decided to take up the argument again. "I may not agree personally that the Sith have returned, but that does not mean we should throw caution to the wind. We lose too many Jedi on missions as it is. Giving criminals a view into our culture..." he faded off, shaking his head.
"We can still share more about the Jedi without completely cutting ourselves off from the people," the surprising voice of Evan Piell objected. Yoda and Yaddle hadn't expected he would be initially for this change when they'd discussed it earlier. "And we are not anonymous enough to truly hide behind secrecy. People will simply make up stories about Jedi based on rumors, which can – and have – led to disastrous effects and opinions. I know I am not the only one who has run across a citizen ignorant of our ways who has already judged the Order and made my mission that much harder. We have already lost many to that pitfall."
"The more knowledge enemies have of us, the more likely it is they will find weaknesses to exploit," Saesee Tiin insisted.
"Our duty is to the people of the Republic," Oppo added on. "But do we not have a duty to protect our younglings and our way of life – those traditions laid down by the Jedi of Old – also?"
"But is cutting ourselves off from everyone else the way to protect them? And even then, there are ways we could overcome or work around that," Yaerel Poof commented, tipping his head a little. With his long neck, the position made him look strange, as it always did. He seemed to enjoy making people a little uncomfortable, in good fun of course. His eccentricities had become so common place that most of the Council brushed it off, but some of the newer members still gave him wary looks.
"Who has the time to figure out how to work around it?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked.
"It does sound like it would take up a lot of time," Adi-Gallia said, although she looked more troubled than Eeth Koth.
"The small suggestions, we could try. Difficult, it would not be," Yaddle said.
"I don't think this issue can be resolved by a couple of presentations and a documentary, even if their ideas are a good start," Evan commented.
"The Jedi have thrived for a thousand years as we are now. There are reasons we do as we do," Oppo insisted.
"Know them, do you?" Yaddle asked.
That stopped him short. "Master Yaddle?"
"Know all the reasons for all of the rules, do you? Made from times of old, many of them were. Different times, they were." Yoda couldn't help but agree with that. Sometimes, it all felt the same, but sometimes the different periods were so distinct it was difficult to mentally place them on the same world or in the universe at the same times.
"That doesn't stop the fact that these rules have worked," Mace said, seeming a little surprised at Yaddle's comment, but regaining his what little composure he'd lost quickly. "The code has guided us for so long. Why should it stop working?"
"Hmm, change, everything does," Yoda spoke up, resting his head on the top of his gimmer stick. "Stop change, we cannot. Only direct it."
"This is changing the Jedi way, and I cannot approve," Oppo said firmly.
Yoda frowned. He'd known that Oppo Rancisis and Saesee Tiin would likely be the most difficult to sway. And honestly, he knew that they'd have to come up with some sort of compromise before either one of them would approve of it. They were both traditionalists and would need time to see any benefits. Unfortunately, benefits from something like this would likely not be seen for years if not decades.
Perhaps it was time to bring the deeper matter up then.
Yoda frowned at him, and then at the Council in general. Before anyone could speak, he tapped his gimmer stick. It wasn't loud, but it did stop some more comments for a moment.
"Listen to ourselves, we should. Jedi, we are, yet ask the Force, we have not. Listen to the Force, we do not. Noticed, I have, that make decisions out of fear, we do."
A general sense of denial swept over the room. Disappointing. Not surprising, sadly. Honestly, if Yoda didn't have some of the future knowledge he did, he'd be in a similar boat... what a terrifying thought.
"Master Yoda, there is a difference between fear and wariness," Saesee Tiin objected.
Yoda turned and faced the iktochi with a hard stare. Did he honestly think the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order didn't know that? After a couple of seconds, Saesee shifted and looked away. Youngsters these days.
"Have you seen something, Master?" Plo Koon asked softly, speaking for the first time.
The old master sighed. "Yes. Clouded, the Force has been of late. But not completely. If continue as we have, the Jedi Order does, consumed by darkness we will be."
Silence met his words.
Then, finally, Mace spoke hesitantly. "You have... seen this?"
Yoda chose his words carefully. "By the will of the Force has this reached me." Technically true, as it was the will of the Force to send Anakin back in time.
"Do you know what this darkness is?" Eeth Koth asked.
Yes, he did. But he couldn't exactly say that aloud right now. Not if he wanted them to believe him... not if he wanted to save them all. Slow and steady, that would be how he had to present this.
Ugh, it had been centuries since he'd had to think something like that. Maybe he'd gotten soft in his old age? Or more complacent than even he'd realized?
Finally, he shook his head. "See that, I did not." Again, still true. He refused to outright lie to them.
The Council members all exchanged glances. "Nevertheless, keep that in mind, you should, when meditating on this, you are," Yoda finally said. "Wariness; a bad trait to have, it is not. Complacency is. Make decisions out of fear, we should not. Have faith in the Force, we should. Jedi, we are. Rely on ourselves – even our code – alone, we cannot."
No one answered him. He chose to take that as a good sign, even if he could only truly hope they were listening.
The future of the Order and all the Jedi in it depended on it.
xXx
Anakin couldn't help but be a bit frustrated when he found out that Siri had been called on a mission earlier that morning. She hadn't told him anything... not that she needed to, mind, neither one of them answered to the other, but still. He would have liked to have known.
She had left him a message though, so it could have been worse. And in all honesty, he was happy for her. He knew she hated just sitting around as much as he and Obi-wan did. In his younger years, he thought it was a Jedi thing. Now he just thought it was a sapient thing.
He spent the next couple of days going to class, racing and preparing for his next session with Girth, which would come the day before he would be returning to the Senate. At least he didn't have to go with a partner this time, as he had when he'd been assigned to Senators the first time. They'd decided against that with the second 'shuffling', and he couldn't help but be grateful. He had enough to worry about without deflecting Palpatine's manipulation on another youngling.
The day before he was supposed to see Girth, Anakin went to meet Siri as she returned, whole and hale, all of three days after she'd left. Part of him just wanted to be there for her (as she'd been for him), part of him wanted to show her the message he'd just received that morning, and still another part was desperate for a good sparring partner he could battle daily (although he did appreciate the break, as it looked like he'd been developing bad-habits from fighting only her – they'd have to fix that).
"I see you ran into no bad luck," he said as she disembarked from the transport ship that had been so kind as to drop her off directly at the Temple.
"Don't jinx it," she replied, aiming for a light smack on his head, which he ducked. "I haven't actually turned my report in yet. Just because I'm back at the temple doesn't mean nothing will happen. Especially with you around."
He appreciated the good-natured ribbing, even if she was only half joking.
"I'll walk with you to the Council chamber," he informed her as he fell into step beside her.
She raised an eyebrow as she looked down at him. "That's a bit unusual of you."
"It'll give me a chance to show you this," he replied casually, handing over his comm.
Warily, Siri took it and opened the file Anakin had brought up. At which point she froze, staring at the footage on screen. She could see smoke rising into the atmosphere of a dreary, hard-looking world she knew was Nar Shadda. Then it switched to footage of bodies inside the building and aurobesh scrolled across the scene, informing the viewers that the 'workers' once housed there had most definitely escaped. And while the leader of the company (a slavery ring, Anakin knew, even if the news didn't acknowledge it) had been confirmed dead, several of his officers seemed to have escaped as well.
It was a link that had been sent via comm, and the caption to the message read: "Ah, yes. Jedi believe in such peace. These are the people you're determined to defend?"
She sighed and handed the comm back to Anakin. "Jango?" she asked.
He nodded.
They walked on again, the only sound being the tapping of their feet against the floor for several seconds before Anakin spoke up.
"That was the Nar Shadda mission you were supposed to go on, wasn't it." He recognized the face of the dead slaver as he and Obi-wan had accidentally stumbled into Siri's mission the first time around. Siri nodded and Anakin looked back at the image again. "Is... that Master Billaba's M.O. too?"
Siri didn't really want to say yes, he could tell. "Well," she said slowly, "it's not exactly outside of her M.O. Remember what I said about her blending in?"
Anakin blinked at her and then looked back at the footage. "This is her 'blending in'?"
"What's the official story?" Siri asked. She must have missed some of the scrolling info. To be fair, it changed to Huttese about half-way through.
"A technical malfunction with some unspecified equipment – I'm pretty sure it was the slave collars from what I was able to pick up through the subtext – and a revolt from the factory... 'workers'."
"Sounds like the government of Nar Shadda's really trying to cover it up."
"That's what they did the first time with us too."
"True."
"But there was a lot of collateral damage. It's all over the news stations out there, even if they don't seem to know who started it." Although Jango did. How many other people did? And what kind of repercussions would this have? If this was the work of a Council member... "Tell me again what the difference between Jedi and Sith are?"
Siri sighed. "Depa... has a pretty simple outlook in that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. She's good at what she does, tries to follow the letter of the law, goes out of her way to avoid collateral damage, and she's pretty phenomenal at finding loopholes to exploit, but if she cannot see any work around, she'll most likely strive to eliminate the threat where someone else would most likely wait for something better to present itself... like I did."
Well... this was certainly painting the Jedi in an... interesting light. Somehow, he doubted Depa Billaba was the only one who didn't quite fit the Jedi mold Anakin had thought everyone else in the Temple had the first time around. He actually seemed to fit into the Temple a lot better than he'd initially thought... at least now. And how sad was that?
"Pragmatic," he commented. "If a little impatient."
Siri nodded, although she didn't look like she approved. "I really hate to say that I don't know if I disagree, although I think that's the soldier in me coming out. "
Anakin stopped and watched her walk on for a couple of minutes, surprised. "You don't know if you disagree with her?"
The older woman shrugged. "I get why she doesn't just wait once she's exhausted everything else she can think of. In the clone wars, waiting for a better opening would get someone killed nine times out of ten. I suppose it's a matter of opinion what that remaining one time would be."
"True, but I must still admit that I did not expect that from you."
Siri paused and turned to him as he began to walk again and then fell into step beside him when he caught up. "Well, think about it. I chose the long-term infiltration the first time. I did whatever I could, helped everyone I could as much as I could get away with, but didn't really act against him until I was in a better position…and then the circumstances made me. That took me years to do. How many slaves did she stop from getting processed by acting now? From even being captured? All because she was willing to take out who she needed to as soon as she possibly could. I don't feel like my infiltration actually helped any more in the end. It may have actually made the situation worse."
The former Sith snorted. "I never said I disagreed with you. Or her."
"I... think that actually scares me."
"Good. It probably should."
She glanced over at Anakin. "I didn't see any evidence of a lightsaber. How does Jango know it's a Jedi who infiltrated the slavery ring?"
Anakin shook his head. "I could never figure out all of his contacts."
That surprised the taller blonde. "Even as the second in command of the Galactic Empire?"
He shot her a pointed look. "There's a reason I wanted to hire this particular man."
Siri whistled, long and low and obviously impressed despite herself.
"So, nothing else from him then?" she asked.
Anakin shook his head.
"Kriff," Siri muttered. Anakin nodded in agreement. It looked like they'd be playing the waiting game... and any contact with Jango would likely come from the bounty hunter or be met with... resistance.
Anakin hated games and he hated waiting, but most of all, he hated that he didn't really have a choice about what to do about Jango at this point.
"When I'm done with my report, would you like to head to the training salles? You look like you could use a good spar." Siri's voice broke through his darkening thoughts, drawing him back to reality.
"Force, please," Anakin responded, not caring that he may have sounded a little desperate and more than a little relieved.
Siri shot him a smile. It wavered a little, but he appreciated the effort. "Alright. Then, on to the Council Chamber. The sooner I get this over with, the better."
"Agreed," Anakin replied.
xXx
AN: Some people have commented that Anakin isn't seeing many changes in the Jedi Order. Truthfully, he probably won't for a bit. Once the Council starts pulling heads and sticks out of backsides, that may start to change, but until then... What is done in the Council Room stays in the Council Room.
I would like to thank a couple of people for this: Carradee, Quathis and Everyone who has read this story up to this point. Seriously, thank you. You guys keep me going. So, to you, dear reader, a chapter much sooner than some others. I hope to be a bit more regular for the next few chapters at least. :)
