Thread: Mace Windu headaches, chapter three : Losses and changes
Mace was seriously considering tipping into the Dark Side himself and accomplishing Han Solo burning Temple prediction, if only to simplify dealing with fellow Jedi. The Temple, then the Senate, he thought, a small measure of reprieve in the arguing eight-hour long Council session. Maybe he should project? It would certainly distract the other Councilors from their latest petty debate. It was quite sad those had become the norm since Ach-To rediscovery, and had only increased after Padawan Kenobi return. The discovery of Ach-To and the questioning of the doctrine it led to unsurprisingly created some tensions in the Temple. Padawan Kenobi return with his unconventional opinions had been, in Mace mind, a moot point, but not for some new code zealots. How they came to blame everything on the padawan was most distasteful and a testimony of their lack of solving problem understanding. Anybody with a sliver of brain would know Han Solo was the one to blame. If not of willful sabotage, at least of voluntarily inflicting this mess upon them. Mace could acknowledge he was not himself wholly rational about Solo, but he did not go around impairing his former student progress in his education to avenge himself from those endless headaches the master managed to inflict from beyond the pyre.
Mace had to spend a disgruntling amount of time in the last years defending the padawan from the malcontent of fellow Councilors. Granted, the padawan was quite a heretic, but most of the cases he had to settle were genial misunderstandings or did not warrant to be brought before him. As a fervent believer of the new code himself, Mace would have preferred to blame the heretic, but for all Kenobi was a budding manipulator he was also often in his right or not alone to bear responsibility. The less said about Yan reactions to what he perceived as attacks against his padawan, the better. Since the Galidraan debacle the Makashi master had turned even more protective and his steadfast defense of his latest padawan had already been exemplary beforehand. Afterward Yan had been as clingy as the proud Jedi could ever be, encouraged by his padawan who still struggled with the attachment rule. Solo had not believed that rule to be that important, and revamped it into an attachment can hold you back from the Dark Side stance, which in Mace mind was utter madness. Attachment implied implication then concern and eventually fear of loss driving irrational, emotionally motived, actions which were neither as thought out nor as serene as should be, and therefore the Jedi was at risk to draw instinctively from the wrong side of the Force.
At least, the padawan managed to temper his second master after a few weeks of near-traumatic response into not drawing his lightsaber at Jedi appearing aggressive towards his padawan. If there was one thing Solo did well, it was to teach his padawan that lightsaber wasn't a be all and end all. It was a lesson some Jedi struggled with, and most of the time those did not reach the status of master. It was also not a problem Yan ever had before his liberation. Yan's, and the other Jedi imprisoned with him, state of mind in the early months following Galidraan had been a cruel reminder of the new disposition of the Senate about Jedi. It was not the first time the Jedi had been considered as tools of the Republic, but never before had they discarded so casually one of their envoys. If not for the desperate recklessness of the padawan, then Sifo-Dyas backing-up his involvement by throwing his own lot, and the unnatural alliance with a straight-faced, long-time enemy of them, they may have lost more Jedi in that mess. The state of their brethren when they were finally freed, and the accounts of their captivity bordered torture.
It incensed Mace and the Council in rare unanimity that a politician ever thought he could use Jedi as a mercenary force, blame all death on them and never be bothered himself by law when their brethren were held accountable. It incensed them more that the Republic they had faithfully served for thousands of years considered them acceptable scapegoats, sometimes less worthy of sentient treatment than non-Force-sensitive. Had they been less angry, they may not have taken the decision they made, but Knight Alyrilinilarlirnylanaril was on his second suicide attempt since he returned to the Temple, Master Lee'nock had submitted a transfer form to the Corps, Knight Fleril was tiptoeing the line between the Light Side and the Dark Side, and Yan wouldn't let his last padawan out of his sight for more than a few hours. And the others they had sent on this mission were dead, and the one who arranged for their death was sleeping without troubles until padawan Kenobi in a rare display of viciousness arranged his fall from grace.
Mace had a stern talking down with the padawan, but silently approved of the result, and his restrain because he only stripped the Galidraan governor of his position of power. It did nothing, however, to his contacts inside the Senate and embolden by the lack of retribution by the Republic, the governor appealed to the law, adding to the still-standing accusation against their brethren. The Republic eagerly complied. It was the last straw for the Council. In near a thousand years, the position of the Jedi Order towards the Republic had not evolved. In that time, the number of Jedi had decreased and the gap of influence between the two entities deepened. Nowadays, the Jedi lacked the numbers to push for a revision of their status, because without Republic protection they would be vulnerable to other entities, may it be the Hutt cartel, the growing Zygerrian slave empire or others. Moreover, part of their administration, most of their missions assignation were tied to the Senate. A thousand years back, it ensured a smooth collaboration. Now, it tied them to a government who would use them without a care.
The Council had been aware of that situation for hundreds years, but never did anything to change it. Never before had the need been so pressing that all the Council fell in agreement. Change was needed, and while the form of those changes was very much in debate, actions were taken. The theological controversies that were drawing them apart were put on the side for a time while they reformed the mission assignation process. They could not, and did not want to cut their relation with the Republic, but neither did they want to be discardable tools. Solo and Sifo-Dyas visions were brought back on the discussion, and the warning Solo had given, that their foreseen downfall came from having been blind puppets. It spurred them further than Mace had ever been able to lead them beforehand.
It did not come without hurdle, and interminable sessions ended more often by frayed tempers than resolution. But they were all reasonable enough to agree on a minimum. None wanted to bear responsibility of a schism, all acknowledged something needed to be done, that the status quo was no longer an acceptable state. So, eventually, they settled on far less dramatic resolutions than those suggested in endless meetings, but still revolutionary in regard of the unchanged stance dating back from the Ruusan Reformation. A list of friendly systems and long-time warm relations was established, in and out of Republic space. Jedi sent in nearby sectors veered off course to discuss the new mission attribution system with rulers and envoys.
Then, once that first step was taken, reforms progressed further. They needed to ascertain the missions given were not traps, hence to organize a control. They needed trusted informers. They needed more manpower than they currently have, a substitute for the Senate administration they could no longer trust. They opened negotiations with the Corps. They had their own missions, but they were also more numerous than Temple Jedi and spread across the galaxy. They could send back insight about sectors they had long inhabited whereas Temple Jedi only passed through. It was not a perfect system and many more meetings with the Corps head structures would be needed, but the loose links between Temple Jedi and Corps Jedi could be strengthened. Both could beneficiate from a closer relation in their missions.
Then, slowly, their reforms percolated further. Eight years after Galidraan, other Temples joined their endeavors, Corellia the first of them. It was a fairly long process, as the list was an extensive one and those missions pilled on the top of those the Senate gave. Mutual incomprehension with Corps Jedi and other Temples Jedi slowed the negotiations, because they were all used to the status quo and many did not saw the need to change. Which posed the question where the karking hells did Solo came from, because Corellia was not aware Sith were still around, and most were dubious of Coruscant claims on the subject. At least, they were until the Naboo negotiation which ended with a dead Sith Apprentice, or a very good imitation. With some chagrin, Mace constated that other Temples were very much more practical and prone to admit proof than Coruscanti Jedi.
But then, even Coruscanti had acknowledged the truth when Padawan Kenobi fell over screaming during a battle meditation lesson. Dolor had slipped past his shields, along with desperation and fierce survival instinct. None of them emotions Padawan Kenobi was used to feel from his master, not since Galidraan three years and a half prior. But nevertheless emotions he had felt once and who had, at the time, not made a gibbering mess of him, unlike this instance. It was Yan who had punctured through his padawan shields, Kenobi had ascertained afterward, and not his attacker. Yan who had sent a warning and a mayday, and only a brief inkling of what he had felt in his last moments. That inkling had been enough to send his padawan reeling, babbling of Sith and location, to the shock of his students. One of them quickly reached Mace who gathered a team post-hast and rushed to the location Kenobi was frantically telling again and again until he was sedated.
Five Jedi lightsaber drawn on Coruscant created quite a stir in the holonew. Neither the Mikkan twin sisters Tiplee and Tiplar, nor Kit Fisto, Luminara or Eeth Koth waited for Sifo-Dyas to pull down the ship before jumping to the site. Mace had not waited either, sensing the Dark Side near, a blurred viscous infection clinging on the structure before him, retching and spasming and wholly disgusting. Behind the barely holding shield who had dissimulated his presence before they came close enough, there was a being more malevolent and powerful than any Dark Sider Mace had ever come across. He wavered slightly when the shatterpoint broke in a thousand pieces, a myriad of possibilities ended, then a cry, and the screaming out in the Force of Tiplar. He ran in the deserted building of the Work district, and came across Tiplar holding the brightless form of her twin. Gone. Because Mace had rushed without a plan, had not taken the time to tell the two Knights that fight would be too dangerous for them.
They came too late to save Yan, whom they only found the broken form, but quick enough the Sith fled before them without having the time to delete the footage from local surveillance feed. Reviewing it had chilled the Council, because Yan had always been a good dueler. In any competition he had entered in the last twenty years, he always scored amongst the three top spots. Lately, he had started developing a bastardized style along with battle meditation and had only become more dangerous an opponent from that, able to sustain a fight with Yoda who regularly cleaned dueler champions from any budding arrogance. All that skill had served Yan nothing when he was faced with a Sith.
Long, interminable minutes with the outcome already in mind, because the Jedi that entered the footage was not the proud dueler Mace had known, nor the traumatized man holding to his commitment he had become after Galidraan. It was a fleeing prey realizing themself to be cornered who had stood their last stand. His foe using a lightsaber style with only some similiarity to Mace's Vaapad, but whom Yan had evidently recognized enough he could counter, anticipate. It was not, in itself, astonishing. Lightsaber styles evolved and it had been long since they had encountered the Sith. Yan himself had been a fencing master, and always talented at on the fly reading a fighter. But he had no counter for the lightning. His parry insufficient to protect him, encasing in a cocoon of electricity, losing ground until folding on himself, his clothes alight by sparks. It was then he must have reached for his padawan, convulsing under the lightning, having abandoned his defensive stance for the sake of putting the fire out.
Mace closed his eyes, unwilling to remember the soundless scream on his former brother twisted face. A Force Storm, Jocasta had told him weeks later, while padawan Kenobi was clinging on Sifo-Dyas. A Sith technic unheard in a thousand years at least against whom they had no defense. A technic able to shatter a shield, wrack the muscles with tremors, light up clothes and hair, puncture an eye. A technic wielded by a being who would rather put out the flames, pluck the other eye out and starts skinning his prey with lightsaber heat than just let them die. The price of having killed its apprentice on Naboo. Mace forcefully opened his eyes to stare unblinkingly at Coruscant skyline. Coruscant, formerly their haven and which now hosted Sith liable to hunt them on the Temple doorsteps and politicians throwing them without a care.
He glanced towards his fellow Councilors, finding Plo Koon sympathetic eyes across the arguing room. He would be far from the only one to get lost in horrified remembrance these days. None had expected the footage when first projected, the deliberate malice into letting Yan come a few blocks away from the Temple before crushing his hopes. Mace sighed, then raised all his height "I vote we confer the rank of Knight to Obi-Wan Kenobi". Some Councilors muttered and one voiced "Shouldn't we instead acknowledge Master Dyas status as his current teacher? Padawan Kenobi has much to learn about the philosophy of our Order and is as of now too distraught to stand his trials." The Council stance against Padawan Kenobi was an endless headache of Mace and one he welcomed gratefully, because it had the great value of being a known entity in the current turmoil. "I have nothing to teach Obi-Wan that he cannot sought out as a Knight seeking help for his visions" Sifo-Dyas voiced in a soft tone "and I admit a personal reluctance at stepping into the role of a friend whose pyre we lighted less than a month ago. Obi-Wan Kenobi is in turmoil, it is true, but one he is dealing with and a trial he has already triumphed once in the past. I have faith he will similarly prove himself this time". Master Yoda threw his weight behind his proposal "Two masters already, lost padawan Kenobi, had. A third, not necessary is. Ready the padawan is. Set on his path he is, and change his mind, no master will".
The debate of Padawan Kenobi knighting had already been broached six months past, after the successful slaying of the first Sith in a thousand years. Kenobi had dealt the blow while the apprentice was busy fending Yan mastery and it had worried some Councilors. Sith slaying was a Sith custom and so they put the subject on hold, despite Kenobi being of an age where a knighting could be expected without such circumstances. He was now closer of his twenty-fourth birthday than his twenty-third and the situation was becoming ridiculous. "I further motion the head prophet to travel to Ach-To, to consult the Force in light of the recent development" Sifo-Dyas said in the middle of the mutters. The Council bowed to this suggestion, and Padawan Kenobi trials were decided in the wake of the greater interest of the Order. For years Sifo-Dyas had tried to pierce the Veil and share Solo foresight. All his efforts were vain and the Council well aware of his difficulties, for all they did not know their full extent. A Sith daring to torture one of their own less than a mile away from the Temple warranted better certainty about their enemy.
Mace remembered Sifo-Dyas warmly entrusting Obi-Wan the keys of his quarters in his absence, and the assurance he would always be welcome may it be for advice or companionship. The morning light had framed his figure as he bided the Force guidance to the soon to be Knight for his trial, and both Obi-Wan and Mace had wished him a safe journey. It was the last Mace had seen of him, because once the Councilor took air, he vanished. Months later the Shadows had found the wreckage of his ship, no body inside, but a clear ambush, and the nature of the destruction around the site was nearly a signature. Another of their own, victim of the Sith. Then, before the year was over, it was Jinn, and Mace bitterly regretted the angry words they had parted on.
"Does Initiate Skywalker know about your history with your past padawans, Master Jinn, or did you expect the Council would forget Knight Feemor and Xanathos?" Mace had asked, with more anger than necessary. Young Skywalker had cringed at the tone but outside of a twitch at the mention of each of his former students, Jinn had stayed stalwart. "Mayhap, have you refrained to inform him you were forbidden from taking a third padawan after the first killed himself due to your treatment of him, the second became a Jedi killer and you let an Initiate you were the guardian of at the mercy of Hutts and Dark Siders?" Initiate Skywalker inched away from Jinn at the last one, suddenly seeming to reconsider accepting the offer Jinn should not have formulated. "And you must be aware, Master Windu, that Anakin is to be formed. It is crucial for the future" Jinn replied with fluctuation in his tone and Force signature showing Mace had struck true and hard. "I know as a sure thing Knight Kenobi is merely settling in his new status before extending his own offer and if, for some reason as-yet unknown, he was unable to do so, Initiate Skywalker has over two years left to find another master. I would see you on a talk on this subject, Master Jinn".
Jinn had nodded and stiffly walked away. "I shouldn't have said that, Initiate, much less with an audience. I hope such stories does not become commonly known amongst your peers" Mace had said, turning toward the Initiate. "Yes, sir" answered immediately the boy then asked "You meant it, though? The thing with the Hutts and his padawans" with already more curiosity than fear. He had seen more of Initiate Skywalker in the past year than he did any Initiate, trying to cross the facts between his stories and his mother's. That and the Initiate seemed to be of an opinion that Mace being his stepfather had more meaning than a complex administrative problem which he lacked the time to deal with properly. Mace had considered then decided to give context to his disclosure. "Master Jinn had two padawans to which he transmitted his own issue with attachment". The Initiate had frowned "But isn't it good to care about others? I mean, how are we supposed to protect people if we don't care about them?" It had been Mace turn to frown, because that lesson should have been learnt months ago, even accounting the catching up Initiate Skywalker had to do. "I know you can't love them or anything" the Initiate had hurried "but shouldn't we just care a bit?"
"Jedi should, naturally, be mindful of other beings feelings and, as much as possible, thrive for the most consensual and beneficial settlement for all parties" Mace had answered "but there is, however, something like too much caring. If care get in the way of your duty as a Jedi, then it is toxic and can even be damageable for other people. In Jinn case, he developed a great complicity with his first padawan Knight Feemor, and an even greater love for his second padawan, Xanathos. So much he failed in his duty to raise him as a Jedi. Xanathos chose his biological family and rich over the Order, going as far as killing other Jedi when they opposed his ambition. He was a Dark Jedi who did not hesitate to dabble in slavery" he had added, seeing the Initiate was not reacting adequately at his explanation. Maybe choosing his family appeared as a natural choice for a boy raised by his mother, had thought Mace, though he would have been unable to be certain for he himself had only briefly met his father, a gruff man he exchanged scant words with.
Skywalker face had lit up with outrage at the mention of slavery, like Mace had suspected he would. "To protect people who had no way to defend themselves against a trained Force sensitive, Master Jinn should have stopped him at the first offense. It would have saved the galaxy much grief. But because he loved his padawan he did not, and in his grief he lashed out against other Jedi, namely Knight Feemor" Mace had posed, thinking how to formulate his point to a boy who may not see a problem with the following "You must know that for a Force-sensitive emotions are less manageable than a non-Force-sensitive. We project our emotions in the Force, and the Force answer us with the same emotions. Only, because we are no longer the one emitting emotion, we are blindsided by the potence of them or the moment they echo back. And if you accumulate a backlog it can come back at the worst moment. It is why the Jedi Order has a stance on non-attachment. So we would not be a risk for others or for ourselves. To be detached from a situation and from others to a degree allow us to better protect them and do our duty. Master Jinn had neglected this rule when he taught both of his padawans. So, when his backlog anger struck he lashed out verbally against Knight Feemor. Knight Feemor was unable to release his misery into the Force due to the attachment clouding his ability to connect and accumulated a backlog. He killed himself six years after, on the verge of falling to the Dark Side."
"So we try to care very little so we don't become a danger to others" Initiate Skywalker had summed, his face scrunched in thoughts. "Amongst other reasons, yes" Mace had approved. "But shouldn't I, say, help master Jinn so he does not take too much backlog?" "It is not your place, Initiate, though I commend the intention. I will have a talk with Master Jinn to apologize for my words. I should never have formulated them with the intent to hurt". They did have a talk, but Mace was well aware no talk could erase the hurt he had inflicted. He had pushed at angles he knew Jinn must have often reflected himself and while it had been the only way to stop Jinn on his tracks, stubborn as he was, it was no justification. And then, Jinn vanished on a mission, with enough clues to ascertain who was the source of his disappearance. And Mace grieved the third Jedi lost to the Sith.