Chapter 6: Start of the Red Pill
Baylan now found himself meditating out by the Force Tree, in the courtyard just beyond the walls of the Jedi Temple. While there was little chance that his inner musings would be interrupted by friends – Gellayria was away with Master Wessiri on a mission – Baylan nonetheless tensed at the presence he felt in the Force: that of his own Master.
Master Tapal was seated at his Padawan learner's side, taking his apprentice through the lessons in connecting to the Force, immersing oneself in it, that he and Baylan had studied together since the lad was 13.
Master Jaro Tapal was a powerful Jedi indeed, to somehow be present himself in the Force while also probing – indeed, to Baylan, it felt more like invading – the mind of his student. Baylan bristled and attempted to close off his thoughts, which had been swirling like a tempest in the days ever since Master Qui-Gon Jinn and fellow Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi had brought the boy believed to be the Chosen One to the Temple and the High Council, asking that he be trained in defiance of all age restrictions.
Though, really, the excitement, and its subsequent assault on Baylan's concentration, had begun weeks earlier, when the Trade Federation had instituted a blockade around Naboo, one of the Republic's most crucial planets. With each passing news development – the Queen of the planet escaping, the dispatching and involvement of two respected Jedi by order of the Supreme Chancellor himself – war had felt within the realm of possibility, even in the offing. Though Baylan considered himself a strict and devoted originalist when it came to the boundaries of the Jedi Order's original mission – they were peacekeepers, not soldiers – he nevertheless could not help but feel a thrilling exhilaration at the thought of hostilities.
Master Dooku certainly seemed agitated in the best possible way by the "bold move" he said the Trade Federation had struck. He had encouraged Master Tapal's young and impressionable Padawan learner to read the holopapers, study up on the issues.
"The Republic has grown detached from its people, young Skoll," Master Dooku had lectured. "Trade systems have been implemented that benefit the rich and powerful here on Coruscant. People such as those who sit in the Senate. People like the Naboo. When the people feel forgotten and left behind, from time to time, they must rise up and do something worth remembering, to remind our leaders just who they were elected to serve, and who they should be serving."
He made it all sound so reasonable, Master Dooku.
"…. You are undisciplined in your thoughts, my very young apprentice." The deep baritone voice of Baylan's Master cut through the haze of his ponderings. "Something is troubling you…."
Baylan gave up in keeping his mental barriers – such as they were – up. With how Master Tapal could read him through the Force, his mind may as well have been an open Jedi holocron. "Master….. Is what the Trade Federation did right?"
Master Tapal furrowed his brow and dipped his head as he hunched forward. Baylan appreciated and even admired how thoughtful his Master was. Even so, he should have been less surprised than he was by how, when Jaro finally did speak, his answer was clear and adamant.
"No. While it cannot be helped that many life-forms act with emotion while holding genuine grievances, the manner in which the Trade Federation, and by extension the so-called Confederacy of Independent Systems, is patently illegal. Violence in pursuit of a political aim is never justified, Baylan, no matter how worthy one might view the cause. Unfortunately for the Trade Federation and the CIS, their cause is patently unworthy. Secession from the Republic was declared to be unconstitutional millennia ago."
"Will systems secede, Master?"
Master Tapal straightened, shuffling a little to better ease himself, preparing to sink back into meditation. "The future is always clouded, or so Grandmaster Yoda says. Don't concern yourself with what is or may yet to be, Baylan. Be mindful of the present moment. Be present and open to the Living Force."
Baylan nodded dutifully. "Yes, Master."
There was a long stretch of tranquil quiet. Then:
"Master?"
"Yes, my young apprentice?" Baylan could almost hear the patient sigh in Jaro's voice. It was more indulgent than the Lasat usually was with him.
"Is Master Dooku a Separatist?"
Another long pause. "Master Dooku has his own political views. He has…. strong will and a keen independence of thought – much of which he passed down to his apprentice, who it would appear in turn passed that headstrong tendency down to his Padawan after him."
"Master Jinn and Padawan Kenobi," Baylan guessed.
"Mm-hmm," Jaro nodded, eyes lightly closed.
Baylan almost expected for Master Tapal to say more about Master Dooku and his influence, but none came. While by no means forbidden, it was generally frowned upon amidst the upper ranks of the Jedi for one Master to unduly influence a Padawan learner who was not his or her own apprentice. An exception, of course, would be if a Padawan or youngling Initiate were given an order from a Knight of Master seated on the Jedi High Council. If such an elder gave you an order, you followed it, without question.
Baylan attempted to return to his meditation.
All at once, the rippling through the Force, as if a large presence in the Force was snuffed out and violently silenced, tore through him.
A life, once in the energy field and was no abruptly just…. gone.
Opening his eyes, Baylan gasped and doubled over, hunched forward over his crossed legs. Stealing a glance, he noted how Master Tapal had only noticeably flinched. His eyes had opened, and while Baylan could see how they were filled with pain, he sensed that the absence in the Force had not left the powerful Lasat debilitated to the point of being bent prone.
Jaro let out a long exhale through the flat, quashed slits set into his face that served for nostrils. "Master Qui-Gon Jinn is one with the Force now."
Baylan stared. A Jedi? A Master, killed?
"He has fallen in battle," Master Tapal intoned. "The Sith have announced themselves. I fear we must be wary, Padawan, for whatever is to come."
Baylan nodded, his resolve steely. He wrestled to tamp down his initial feeling at hearing of Master Jinn's death, and that was a desire for revenge. He felt Jaro brush up against him in the Force.
"Be assured, my apprentice, this has not gone unanswered."
Baylan uncrossed his legs. There would be no returning to meditation now. Glancing over to the Force Tree in the near distance, he spotted a tall and hale man in earthen Jedi robes approaching it.
It was Master Dooku, Baylan could feel his presence, and the young Padawan did the honorable thing and shied away, as much as he also felt an urge to comfort the kind and wise Master. Master Dooku was a fine leader, and a great warrior, who had now just lost his former apprentice. Baylan could hardly imagine what the elder Jedi was feeling. He hoped, come the day that he passed the trials to Knighthood and had a Padawan of his own, that he would never feel such grief of losing a student to death.
Another presence appeared in this courtyard, and Baylan recognized the diminutive figure of Master Yaddle, approaching Master Dooku. The latter was speaking, and though his voice was low and saturated by grief, his words nonetheless echoed through the Force and into Baylan's mind, where he listened, in spite of himself.
"I used to bring Qui-Gon here…. as a boy…. He was fascinated with this tree. Having been born here on Coruscant, he knew nothing like this."
"The Council is leaving for Naboo. The funeral is to be held there," Yaddle murmured.
"I doubt I will be pleasant company…"
This seemed to take Master Yaddle by surprise. "You hold them…. Accountable?"
Dooku turned away from the tree heavily. "Qui-Gon Jinn has become one with the Force. It is time to let him go…." He strode past Yaddle and into the Temple.
"And you can do this?"
Dooku hesitated. "What choice have I?" He barely spared a glance back at Yaddle who dithered and followed him into the Temple. Baylan sensed in her essence how she was forlorn yet also wary. He wondered what it meant.
The following day cycle, the members of the Jedi High Council returned from the funeral service for Master Qui-Gon Jinn held on Naboo. The independent Jedi Master had been given a Jedi's send-off, his corporeal body cremated on a pyre. In the Temple, Padawan learners and Knights stopped and openly whispered in the corridors, ogling their elders as they solemnly traipsed in from the unenviable task of burying one of their own who had been cut down in battle.
No one received more stares than the Padawan – now Knight – who was rumored to have avenged his Master and defeated the Sith acolyte: the first Jedi to engage and best a Sith Lord in over a thousand year cycles.
From where he stood near his friend Gellayria – just returned herself from her mission with her Master, Shaden Wessiri – Baylan studied Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. He seemed solemn, as though the weight of the Force rested on his young shoulders. He was only a handful of year cycles older than Baylan himself – perhaps mid-twenties.
Kenobi now strode down the halls in the direction of the Jedi High Council's chambers, guiding ahead of him a small boy; his hand resting on the lad's shoulder.
The Chosen One. The one who was prophesized to bring Balance. Merciful universe, had the Council submitted to training one so old? Perhaps permitting it to honor the life of a deceased Jedi Master? Baylan felt disconcertion course not only through himself, but also, it seemed, through the very Force itself.
Behind Knight Kenobi and his young charge came a floating coffin, containing the ashen remnants of Master Qui-Gon Jinn. These ashes were to be sealed with honors, in the crypt resting beneath the Jedi Temple.
As the casket passed by, Gellayria let out a sob and curled her body into Baylan's wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders and burying her face into his neck as she openly wept. Dazed himself, there was nothing for Baylan to do but hold her, rub her back and comfort her as best he could.