3rd Person

A philanthropist born into wealth may improve lives, but ultimately remains blind to the plight of those beneath them.

Meanwhile, the do-gooder who escapes the clutches of poverty is always doomed to fail.

Despite short-lived success, their efforts inevitably fuse with the galaxy's vast lattice of genetic wealth and excess.

Because the knowledge, the understanding of that suffering... dies with them.

https://youtu.be/ZUlAytznxn4

Adi POV

"Badum... Badum... Badum..."

I awoke to a tarry, viscous dread clogging my veins.

Stiffening my heartbeat... quickening my pulse.

Created from compressed slate and slab, the planet's gravity was so, so heavy...

For the first time in so long, I found it difficult to rise out of bed. Shackled by shadows of my emotions, I merely lay there for a long while...

Sinking into my unease. My own... powerlessness.

Powerless. A word to define a life.

That's how it had always been, hadn't it?

My life, my calling...

...My ...master.

And so I encased myself in an empty facade.

For all my might, my Jedi arts and accolades...

How many times had I been forced to stare into a child's bright eyes, and tell them I could not help?

That I, the mythical, heroic Jedi Master would not be saving them?

...Every inaction justified by some vague alteration of 'it has to be this way.'

With a staggered reluctance, I rose out of bed, my tired, half-opened gaze settling on the scattered components of my lightsaber at the foot of my bed.

Shakily, I raised a hand, and the chaotic nebula converged into a single, silver hilt.

I rolled the weapon across my palm...

Studied its contours, the tiniest of dents...

In my all my tenure as a master of the council, just how many fragments of shattered hope had I scattered across the cosmos?

I slowly treaded into the hut's main room.

"BADUM! --------..."

"Tughh!" I cried out.

Suddenly, my heart had gone silent, and my steps faltered.

"Badum! Badum!"

Yet there it was, marching forward all the same. Just as it always had.

Still, everything felt abnormal.

Then again, I couldn't recall the last time I even felt normal.

Whatever normal was.

"Huff! Huff! Huff!"

I was dragged out of my stupor by the sight of my padawan training over in the corner.

Churning out handstand pushups as if his life depended on it.

...Continuing.

Pressing on.

"Badum! Badum... Badum..."

Gradually, my wavering heartbeat faded into the maw of the cosmos, and I was left with footfalls.

"Tap... Tap... Tap..."

....................

"I insist we leave for Serenno as soon as possible!" the emissary asserted, furrowing her brow. "Did you not receive Count Dooku's transmission?"

Her security loomed over her, a collection of human and humanoid species.

Some scaly, some furry.

Strapped with an assortment of weaponry, of which blasters were the least abnormal.

...Bounty hunters.

Certainly eager to defend her conviction.

"I received it." I responded curtly, expressionless. "Yet there is still much of Nugoll to see."

"I thought Jedi were already familiar with the mundane." the emissary sighed. "What is it you wish to see?"

"The mines." I stated, to her horror.

I turned my head before she could voice her dissent.

Putting the Emissary behind me, I motioned for Burst and (y/n) to follow me up the shuttle's landing ramp.

Only... my apprentice stopped, his boot hovering just above the plated durasteel.

We locked gazes.

I raised an eyebrow, facing a dreaded truth I already knew.

"Aahhh..."

He sighed, and his pupils emptied into focus.

https://youtu.be/RD_h3Ww-sP4

Adi POV

"Almost looks like a speeder from up here, eh?" Burst grunted from beside me in the cockpit.

The shuttle flew over the seas of colored sediments, and I was forced to watch the hunger I'd set upon the sands.

A ravenous jaw plant I'd cultivated myself, one that had left his roots behind.

'You two take the flight. Master, I'll catch up.'

So he'd said.

(y/n) swerved and glided across the landscape, keeping pace beside the shadow of the spacecraft.

An unimaginable feat of speed, but more impressively, endurance. An exponential increase since the fateful encounter with Grievous.

The hot, sticky unease within me thickened, fusing to the walls of my blood vessels.

...Amongst the many constellations I had watched dim, flicker, and die...

My one change of heart... my singular rebellion, a star forged from the shards of long-dead aspirations.

I gave him expectation, guided him toward his goal...

Advised him against excess, of course I did, I tried... and yet his path never seemed to end.

Even after ascending the astral staircase, gazing upon the starry sands of Mortis, he yearned for a world beyond.

Below us, the vibrant sands gradually melded into empty white, and (y/n)'s pace quickened.

Once a dying desperation, now an immortal obsession.

Had I failed him? Failed him like...

...

Or...

No.

...

There was never a clear answer.

Still... one thing was clear.

He was my only hope.

My only chance.

https://youtu.be/6gSsE9D3Cnc

(y/n) POV

Nothingness.

Nothing but barren, moist slate and muddy, ashen dust. A drenched floor that stretched out for kilometers.

Clusters of cold, unfeeling graves littered the edge of the lifeless landscape, each the tomb of plundered hopes and forgotten legacy.

The few openings to the planet's crust had been drowned in gurgling, acidic pools, disintegrating the wails of the departed before they could ever reach the surface.

"Pew!" "Pew!"

Immersed in the wet wasteland, Burst and I set our scopes on the makeshift targets we'd scattered around the area.

The rounds echoed across the plains, distant obelisks swallowing the blaster's screams.

"Why do you even want this?" Burst asked suddenly, leaning his blaster over his shoulder. "You were just getting good with the saber."

"It's... just a useful skill. It's not like I see myself using one too often." I muttered seriously, instinctively gripping the lightsaber at my belt even as I steadied my shooting hand. "And I'm still a long way from good."

'I'm not too bad with a lightsaber.'

I wondered when I'd be able to say that without lying.

Of course the forms made sense. Their ideal applications, the theory behind each movement... everything had clicked after just one or two reviews of a holocron.

Executing, however, perfecting my movements...

I still had a long way to go.

...How long? Ten years?

I scowled.

...A hundred?

"So what?" the hardened soldier grunted.

"So what?!" I barked back, squinting hard at Burst. "So I finally reach my goal, so I finally become..."

"Who cares about being good? With a blade or blaster." he scoffed, ranting over me. "You think then things will get easier? That everything will suddenly feel right?"

"Pew! Pew! Pew!"

Three shots, three scorchmarks branded into the metal target, all dead center.

All perfect.

And yet, Burst shook his head, as if he'd hoped for any other outcome.

"Ahhh..."

A sigh, and a pleading look that briefly shook my resolve.

"Kid, take it from me. Being good... it doesn't feel good."

"It's not the same." I sighed, denial flushing through my body. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bring your mind there."

We stood in silence, the wet dust compacting into rock beneath our feet.

"Sorry. No, I did it myself. To tell you the truth, my mind's always there." Burst rambled. "...It's not your fault."

He sighed, smacking his helmet a few times before reaching down to grip my wrist.

"Let's focus on the work at hand."

He elevated my arm slightly, tested my stability with a strong shake.

"The blaster emits a plasma, just like your magic sword... both are an extension of yourself, but this one's a bit different."

He laughed for a second, then drowned himself in a grimace.

"If you do decide to clamp down... let the bolt fly from the barrel... be sure of it."

I stared into his eyes, and an judgement stared back.

"Because you can't take it back."

"Maybe I should stick with the saber." I responded, clamping tighter on the blaster's grip as I holstered it.

Burst chuckled again then sighed.

"Your Jedi weapon can be used for defense, this one... not so much. It's pretty much instant."

Suddenly, he flicked his blaster to the stun setting, pointing it to my chest.

I tensed up.

Was this a test?

"If it looks like a fire fight's about to flare up, are you willing to be the guy who keeps the gun at his belt?" he pushed further, squinting. "We all like to say we're that guy, but well... look at us."

As Burst droned on, my hand crept closer to the blaster at my belt.

"Look at who gets to live, and who gets left behind. We can't help what we are."

Suddenly, I quickdrew the weapon, and Burst's pupils vanished into an empty void.

"Bewwzzzt!"

"Thump!"

With a flash of blue light, numbness flickered through my muscles, and I fell back into blackness.

Burst POV

'Sorry, sorry, sorry... SORRY!' I screamed internally.

"Aghhh, sorry kid, you scared me." I muttered painfully, crouching down to dust him off. "Should be fine in an hour or two."

"Bzzzttt..."

I clenched a fist in shock, watching in shock as commander (l/n)'s armored chest spark with blue electricity.

Suddenly, his eyelids flickered for a second.

'Ah, maybe only a few minutes...'

As for who was more stunned between the two of us, I wasn't sure.

But really, there was no reason to be surprised.

'You can't help what you are.'

The nightmare festered behind my inhibited face, whispering dark truths I already knew.

"Burst, only I am required to discipline my student."

My chest buckled, jolting with shame.

Having returned from her quiet meditation, the blue-eyed general stared me down in all my guilty glory.

"Forgive me, General, I just...." I started.

"I am not the one to ask for forgiveness." she remarked distantly, summoning two stone seats for each of us. "Nor am I the one to cast judgement."

"That's... not the attitude I remember." I chuckled, gritting my teeth as I sat begrudgingly beside her. "You said you'd court-martial me."

"An empty threat." she remarked, expressionless. "I hoped it would help you find your way. Perhaps I succeeded."

"You got lucky." I laughed, genuinely this time. Yet my expression hardened again when I spotted a weathered gravestone to our west. "Which is more than I can say for these poor souls."

"So much needless suffering." she agreed.

"Needless death." I shot back.

"In death, they returned to the force, freed from the greed of their masters to bring new life to the galaxy..." she insisted, albeit with her tone wavering slightly. "What greater need is there?"

"Come on, you're talking past me and you know it." I grunted. "It's not that they died, it's how. Who would want to be buried here?"

"Perhaps... and the Jedi... what power have we to stop it? Power to defend? No." she trailed off, her blue oceans drilling into the ashen ground. "Power to watch. Power to approve. Power to facilitate."

"I guess we have that in common." I sighed, removing my helmet to talk to her face to face. "Still, are you really okay leaving it like this? Buried under the remnant of your regrets?"

"I..." she trailed off blankly, abandoned of her usual focus. "Evidently, the emissary has no desire to let me collect myself."

"Maybe I can't speak for you, but it just... it just makes my blood BOIL!" I lashed out, leaping to my feet and punting my helmet across the sands. "To be made powerless, made tools, nobody knows that better than-"

A firm hand gripped my armor.

"You're not." she stated, glaring into my soul. "You are not a tool. You are a person, and your name is Burst."

I couldn't argue with her, even if everything within me said it was a lie.

Reluctantly, I sat down, my hands still shaking.

"General, I can't speak for these lost souls either, but I think... I don't think they'd have wanted to go out the way they did."

"Most of us don't choose how it happens." she remarked.

"Still, when you're sucked into the abyss, I want to see you fight it." I insisted, pleading to her reluctance. "And the force...? What's there to worry about. When it's time, the force will take you."

(y/n) POV

"Ugghhh..."

I rubbed my head, giving Burst a nasty side-eye as I stumbled down the shuttle's landing ramp.

For obvious reasons, I'd been unable to make the run back.

"Emissary Samira." my master called ahead of me.

My footfalls screeched to a halt just before I crashed into her... the leader of Nugoll, in all her silky drapes and precious metals.

As for her love for her people, I'm sure that was buried somewhere in the mud.

Irisella surfaced to my mind for a moment.

Really, in the end... what did any of this have to do with me? Whether it mattered to me or not... if my master couldn't fix any of this, what could I do?

"Finally, you've returned." Samira sighed with contempt, twirling a blue earring. "Now can we leave this behind us?"

To her dismay, something else had captivated my master.

"Is that...?" Master Gallia inquired softly, squinting over at the cathedral in the center of the town.

A few early risers populated the rows of benches arranged around the garden, their vision clouded with a suffocating layer of fog.

"Oh, the ritual...?" Samira remarked, monotone. "They bring it to the surface every third Benduday of the month."

'It...' I repeated internally, squinting at a submerged, weathered stone as I gauged its significance.

A moment passed.

'...The Originator's sacred mantle...!?'

https://youtu.be/WV096Y6uOrY

I briefly shot the emissary a sideye, and my guess lingered over the ritual's audience, exalted as truth by the awestruck, wide-eyed children in attendance.

Sure enough, as my master and I wandered closer, a few momentary gaps in the mist further revealed the hunch to be accurate.

The empty seats painted a picture so vivid I nearly remembered a past I'd never seen, a lively, hallowed ceremony... an eager mass spilling over the sides of the amphitheater...

Reinforcing their bond with the planet, cherishing it...

The thought made reality emptier, the empty seats emptier.

There were only three families present, maybe two old-timers... their view half-obscured by smog.

A hollow silence between.

Where believers once sat, a lifeless, forsaken faith remained.

One lone minister lowered two rusted metal prongs into the pool, slowly lifting the rock with all his strength until it broke the surface...

Yet, as the mantle broke the surface, a cloud of mist descended to mask our view.

Even with my sight obscured, I felt it...

Dismay... disappointed children...

My master felt it too. Wonder suffocated in an instant.

"Let's get going." the Emissary grunted, losing her patience and waving us to move on.

I followed reluctantly, my master taking even longer than me to turn her back.

"Tap..."

"Tap..."

"Tap..."

Our footfalls grew fainter... with one pair curiously absent.

I turned again...

My master lingered, her arms at her side...her fingers twitching.

The misty fog swirling around her...

Within her.

...And at once, her palms soared to the horizon, rending the heavens.

A mighty shockwave ruptured the mist, shredding it into small vortexes that whispered throughout the village.

As she channeled the force, clarity returned to the cathedral.

The attendees turned their heads in an instant, each of them now witness to the mystic powers of a Jedi Master.

...The youngest among them starstruck, their pupils full of newfound wonder.

And among the now visible families...

"Mother..." my master choked under her breath, bowing her head to a woman I'd never seen.

Her mother sat alongside what looked to be her eldest son, along with several child siblings.

The awe had similarly been inbued into her stunned expression, yet somehow...

There was a distance to it.

An unfamiliar sorrow.

With no further excuses to delay our departure, Master Gallia reluctantly called Hunter over the shuttle's holoprojector, ordering him to fly down to the surface with a second transport for Emissary Samira and her entourage.

Only, as Nugoll's leader gathered her things, organized her assistants... a crowd started to form around us.

The old, the young... supporters of the republic, supporters of the separatists, and those who merely wishes to stoke the flames.

"YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR US!"

"GOING SOMEWHERE?! ANOTHER CROSS GALAXY VACATION?"

With no rocks to throw, mudballs were substituted, with the large reptilian guard using his body to shield the emissary from the mucky barrage.

"HEY BIG GUY, I'LL GIVE YOU EVERY CREDIT TO MY NAME IF YOU SHOOT THAT BITCH!"

Despite her election, she simply had no friends here.

"THIS ISN'T WHAT I VOTED FOR, I NEVER ASKED TO BE SOLD OFF!"

Then again, I had no idea when the last election took place.

Despite the budding riot that surrounded her, the emissary appeared calm... though her hands started quivering just slightly.

"Oh, I'm looking forward to mingling with Senator Ramrigarta again... will the glasses be garnished with Corellian core salt like last time?" she remarked casually to her guard shielding her.

"This is gonna cost you extra." the henchman growled as a mudball exploded just below his eye.

"Get over yourself, I saw it all back in my mercenary days." she sighed, perking up as Hunter's shuttle broke through the clouds above us.

As I weaved around projectile after projectile of mud, my master did the same beside me, a deep shame now palpable on her face.

And Burst...

Staring down the crowd at the front of our group. Burst made no effort to defend himself from the storm of sludge.

He simply stood there, as still as a statue as bullet after bullet of mud struck his armor.

Wherever he was, their hatred made no difference.

3rd Person

The Jedi shuttle, along with the emissary's transport, disappeared into the fog as quickly as they had appeared, yet the unrest continued.

"BRING HER BACK!"

"BRING HER BACK!"

"BRING HER BACK!"

With their common enemy gone, the republic loyalists turned on the separatist loyalists, with multiple melees breaking out in the muddy streets.

Meanwhile, Adi's mother stared at the misty horizon, her son frowning beside her.

"I would've done anything I could have to keep our system neutral." she called into the eternal fog.

"But the war came crashing down, our supply lines collapsed...

Strapped for food, strapped for the time to get it. ...of course, I couldn't go to the Republic for help.

And the Separatists did what they do best... present themselves as the alternative."

"You could've told her." her son sighed simply. "You left so much in the air."

"She's on her own path now." she responded painfully, her voice cracking. "I'm sure a Jedi needs to stay resolute."

Tears gradually slid down the mother's cheeks.

"I can't begin to enter her world."

(y/n) POV

Contrary to our previous intergalactic travels, the voyage through hyperspace was a blur this time.

Everything about the mission had been the same, really. Rushing through the bullet points, hardly any time to process the situation...

"The galaxy will try to move you along..." I muttered to myself, echoing the words of another.

"Huh? You start smoking or something?" Burst blurted out, perplexed. "I'm trying to play a game here!"

I deployed my final move, and my rook slid down the holographic board, colliding with one of Burst's pawns and removing it from the game.

"Checkmate." I breathed, shocked at the swift conclusion I'd brought.

Burst smirked.

"Not quite."

I glanced frantically at the board, trying to gauge what would make him deny my victory.

Nothing.

"It looks fracking quite to me!" I sputtered. "I have you in check...!"

"But you gave up your king as well."

"Ah..." "Damn it!"

"Can't have the commander dying." Burst continued, frowning slightly. "Who will lead your troops in the aftermath?"

https://youtu.be/zvi_mromTR8

Burst POV

Serenno's emerald surface was covered in milky strands of white, visible from the hangar of the Absolute as General Gallia briefed us five clones with (y/n) beside her.

Having joined us after the excursion to Nugoll, our fleet orbited the planet, multiple CIS warships hovering just below ours.

I tightened my twin blasters at their holsters.

Of course, war was off the table today. Or so the general said.

In reality, it was always an option on the menu. I think the bad batch knew that as well.

"Dooku's security is the Nemoidian Royal Guard. Their skills are informed by scars and bloodshed, so no different from you. Viewing them as the usual programming is a fatal mistake."

"If I blow 'em up, what difference does it make?" Wrecker guffawed from the dark depths of his bulky helmet.

"Anticipating battle is an even greater mistake." General Gallia cautioned, giving the hulking ball of energy a side-eye. "You were chosen not for your demolitions expertise, but for your quick senses. Your ability to assess a situation quickly. To mitigate... defend... protect."

At the last few words, she glanced my way, her tone faltering again...

A reluctant touch of her hand to her lightsaber hilt wasn't lost on me either.

I could see that the gravity of the mission weighed on her state of mind, as it did for all of us. But one stone-faced soldier to another, she was showing so many more cracks than typical for her.

"Just stand still and look pretty." I affirmed plainly, earning a vexed snort from Crosshair, and an infantile groan from the big man himself.

As we boarded the Republic shuttle, Commander (l/n) followed in our wake...

That is, until he was locked into a stasis, his limbs fully petrified by the general.

"Not so fast. You'll be flying alongside me."

"I thought you wanted to save our starfighters from my 'aerial incompetence.'" (y/n) hummed as he struggled against the psychic binds.

She grinned.

"If you recall, I have a unit that deserves your capabilities."

(y/n) POV

"Vvvvvsssshhhh!"

The blue-tinted eta starfighter bucked and thrashed as I struggled to tame it, my hands scuttling frantically across the controls.

"Your flying is almost hideous as that hunk of scrap."

My face flushed as Master Gallia's voice entered the cockpit through the comms.

"One of these days I'd like to see you back up these feelings of air superiority." I grunted back as she flew past me in her sleek aethersprite.

"There will come a time for that." she chuckled back, descending deeper into the atmosphere with me struggling in her wake.

Eventually, I spotted Castle Serenno amongst the mountains, but surrounding it was something unexpected.

A massive spherical enclosure, appearing as simply a large transluscent bubble that fully enveloped the palace grounds.

Embedded all across the dome were massive, atmospheric fans, but whether they flushed air inside or outside the enclosure wasn't clear to me.

"Hey commander, any explanation for that dome?" Hunter inquired through the comms, as if on cue.

"I suppose it's to pressurize his estate... for comfort, or perhaps for sensitive species." Master Gallia responded thoughtfully. "Though Serenno's atmosphere is breathable, the air density is rather low."

We entered the bubble through a two-gate entrance, and soon the ominous castle's main landing pad came into view.

"This is where we part ways." Master Gallia spoke to Burst and the bad batch. "Emissary Samira, follow my apprentice and I."

"Best of luck, you two." Burst remarked, splitting the formation.

"At ease, trooper." I called back, following in my master's tailwind, the Emissary's shuttle flying behind.

Immediately succeeding our descent, we were met with an envoy of representatives as soon as our starfighters opened.

From the foggy veil of our cockpits, two Jedi emerged, our brown robes camouflaged among the old elegance of Castle Serenno.

Murmurs ensued, predictably.

"My friends, my friends!" a cry rang out.

Emissary Samira.

In no time at all, she was conversing with a group of well-dressed separatist leaders.

Suddenly, mood shifted.

The murmurs continued, but the gathered crowd suddenly parted ways, and one man's head rose above the rest.

"Tap..."

"Tap..."

"Tap..."

His boots clacked ominously as he descended toward us.

https://youtu.be/BTEPejgVJPI

A tall, dignified, imposing man, but not in any brutishly intimidating way.

If HK-74 was a hulking beam of tempered durasteel, this man was the piercing needle that crowned a skyscraper.

As slender as he was barbed.

Surrounded by nemoidian guards on all sides... shrouded in a shadowy, scarlet-speckled cloak, its folds nearly hovering just above the floor.

My hand flashed to my waist... just as I saw the silvery hilt at his.

The same crooked, mangled hilt I'd heard described countless times.

With the elegance of Makashi woven into every stride, the CIS's head of state approached until he stood before us.

"Master Gallia, I'm glad we can meet in a rare moment of calm." he stated, addressing my master with a slight smile hidden in his pearly beard.

"Dooku...!" Master Gallia sputtered, her gaze narrowing. "Spare me your-"

In a split second, his smile sharpened into a frown.

"You ought to be glad as well."

Silence struck the crowd.

My fingers crept farther down my cloak.

The count's cutting stare flicked to my hand, to which I relinquished the grip on my saber almost instantly.

Satisfied, Dooku's attention returned to my master.

"Shocked that a host would greet his guests?" he mused pompously. "Then again, Jedi etiquette has suffered significant degredation over the last two decades..."

"Not all receive the birthright of luxury and status." Master Gallia bit back, waving toward the jewel coated decor. "Jedi certainly don't concern themselves with such things."

"Evidently." he chuckled. "For after all, the Jedi Palace is but a humble dwelling, hidden within the iron depths of Coruscant..."

"Hmph...!"

I couldn't help but snort at the stinging sarcasm, silencing myself soon after.

Sneaking a shaky glance at me, my master bit her lip.

"(y/n) (l/n), is it?" the count questioned, his piercing gaze settling on me.

"Yes." I responded frankly, unsure of how to approach the interaction.

After all, every strand of muscle in my body had tensed the moment Dooku entered the chamber.

Every fiber screaming that same word...

'Danger!'

"Grievous spoke very highly of you." Dooku eventually responded, his blank stare analyzing my entire being. "...I believe that will be the only time I ever say that to a Jedi."

"I never asked for his acknowledgement." I responded instinctively, guarding against the honed blade of his gaze. "...And I'm not looking to receive yours."

Dooku lazily raised an eyebrow, his momentary interest waning.

Swiftly, he turned back to my master.

"Adi... you took on an apprentice while sitting on the council. ...Curious, isn't it?"

"Curious how?" she snapped back unconvincingly.

"Perhaps I believed you embraced the mentor role only for its practicalities..." the count nodded cryptically. "Much like your old master..."

My master paused, her solemn face giving way to a skewed unease.

"Maybe at one time, but I had a vision... glimpsed something I thought I'd gone blind to." she rebutted, finding her pride once more. "Untapped potential. Much like Qui-Gon with Skywalker."

Dooku's face fell into grief for a brief moment, but my master continued.

"Or Yoda with you..."

At the grand master's mention, Dooku's gaze narrowed, albeit still with a faint sentimental quality.

"Ah yes, Yoda..." he murmured. "I remember how fascinating my master was in my youth. His words cryptic and grave, with the rare laugh silencing a room of seasoned Jedi, each of them unsure of how to react. So unorthodox..."

A hollow pause followed, and the count's eyes burned briefly with a yellow rage.

"And yet his views are as backwards as his speech."

Dooku paced back and forth, ominously circling the two of us.

"Backwards and weary, drained of any interest or urgency, but we live in the present... I hope. So, in light of that..."

He turned, smiling as he looked between Master Gallia and I.

"Adi Gallia... (y/n) (l/n)...

I would very much like to discuss the future with the both of you."

https://youtu.be/1CGMk_roNaE

Adi POV

It was difficult to hide the satisfaction in my tone when I contacted the council to inform them of several additional terms I'd secured for Nugoll.

The removal of hundreds of republic military and mining units would be a long, arduous process, one I had facilitated independently of the transfer of Nugoll.

Still, it was something. I saw it as a small victory within a hopeless scenario.

Master Windu hardly reciprocated.

"Your mission is to facilate the peaceful transfer of Nugoll." he voiced, his dark, holographic eyebrows creasing sternly. "Not further negotiations. Everything has been decided."

"Surely what I did was just, no?" I replied with a slight insistence, nervously flicking at a head tendril.

"That may be, but you know as well as I do how measured we must be. We must be peacekeepers, and nothing more"

"That line vanished on Geonosis."

Master Yoda hid his personal feelings well. I'd scarcely seen him comment on anything involving Dooku.

Perhaps, like me, he was experiencing an inability to separate them from the matter at hand.

Our hands were tied, our wrists shackled...

Our heads forced down, forced to look away from injustice to avoid political backlash...

Forced to abandon the abandoned, and forced to solely converse with those who were above it all.

Wealthy diplomats, corporate agents...

Casting the wishes of the people into the shadows, forsaken hope left to writhe and fester helplessly, only for false saviors like Dooku to further contort the resulting resentment.

I recalled the emissary's glee at the banquet, as if she'd finally received another taste of the finest the galaxy had to offer...

It stirred a long lost loathing within the vault of my chest.

Wanting to wash myself of internal conflict, I ventured into a private bathing chamber.

Even the count's bathwater reeked of silver and gemstones.

Dazzling, like liquid kyber.

Above struggle, above frantic glances at the time.

So far removed sweat and grime, yet no amount of lavish Corellian salt soap could mask the stench.

Irisella's forsaken shadow came to mind.

An entire tainted sea, all to myself.

The water's warm embrace gradually gave way to the cold memory of my youth.

Of my prison.

When did I forget? When did I begin to care so much? Or perhaps there was never a moment...

Perhaps I was like that from the beginning.

...As I grew older, I even sought the silkiest of brown robes.

Not so different from the emissary.

How could diplomacy be so hollow...?

The weight of decision crushing my chest...

So much hung in the balance...

Burst's peace... my pupil's learning... the will of Nugoll's people...

I grabbed a towel and left the bathing chambers.

Dooku was waiting.

(y/n) and I convened within a large, haunting chamber the count had described.

Within the shadowy, portrait-branded walls sat a long table.

Around it, a flock of more than fifty empty chairs.

"Welcome." Dooku called out, his voice echoing around poisoned luxury. "This will be the site of the negotiations."

The black-robed Sith appeared to catch (y/n)'s gaze lingering on the ornate, vacant chairs.

"You'll find the current dissent no less deafening than tomorrow's assembly." Dooku grinned, his tone ringing of fate.

"And you find that amusing?" I scoffed, already beaten down by inevitability. "To hold so many worlds in your hand, each one devoid of any say?"

"Insulting. You were young, but you weren't that young to miss my tenure." Dooku glared. "Whether it be the Trade Federation's endless pursuit of profits, or the Nugoll Emissary's fixation on luxury spirits, I find it all vile."

"And yet you ally yourself with those parasites." I pressed, already knowing how he'd spin my words against me.

"And live in such excess." my apprentice added on, earning an irritated grimace from Dooku.

He was still gauging something within (y/n), I sensed it.

"The Jedi have lived and joined with filth for longer than I've been alive." he scoffed, shaking his head. "And furthermore, to respond to your second accusation from earlier..."

Count Dooku's gaze flashed yellow for a brief moment.

"Master Windu knows something about that, doesn't he? Coveting the helpless young for his own gain?"

I shivered at the mention, cold surging through my bones.

Count Dooku and I conversed for a long while, with the Sith discussing his plans for the future, after the war...

"Once the war is won, the galaxy can heal. Far more than it has been allowed to under Republic rule."

"You can start by taking down the factories. Geonosis first, maybe?" (y/n) chimed in.

https://youtu.be/uGy45tGyDCA

Setting his gaze on my apprentice once more, Dooku's frown exploded into a timeless loathing.

"Silence, Boy." he snarled. "You may have gained the General's respect, but you've earned no such thing from me."

"Like I said, I wasn't looking to-" (y/n) started, but the count wasn't finished.

"I see through your facade." he accused, his stare boring into the shadows of (y/n)'s hood. "Though you occasionally comment, perhaps voice a half-hearted view... these matters are never at the front of your mind, are they?"

"I seek power to save the galaxy." Dooku continued. "You seek power to satisfy yourself."

"Oh? So does that make me a Sith?" (y/n) fired back, despite being visibly shaken.

"No. Isolating yourself status... distancing yourself from the shadow of evil... it's perfectly clear." Dooku laughed, turning around in disgust. "You take after your master's master."

https://youtu.be/Xp6dMCyCB4s

Too irritated to continue, Count Dooku had promptly sent us away.

(y/n) had disappeared whilst I reluctantly mingled further with several of the representatives as night fully descended upon Serenno.

On the path to my sleeping chambers, I spotted a familiar set of brown robes perched on one of the palace's ornate balconies.

Enveloped in empty focus, (y/n) stared into the abyss of night.

'Ah, of course...'

Finally given the chance to engage in diplomacy, the circumstances nonwithstanding, my hope had been to show (y/n) a Jedi's tact.

Our way of weaving words, guiding worlds to peace through the art of rhetoric.

But there was no lesson here, nothing to combat his infinite focus. The day's teachings had yielded nothing.

Serenno was the same as Nugoll: a lightless void, plundered of starlight.

An empty horizon.

Emptiness, as far as the eye could see.

A veil, much like the treasure hoard of the count's palace.

A veil to hide a land of vacant hearts.

Was that our future?

Every day, the future Grievous sought seemed closer.

An empty, flaming husk of vengeance and wrath.

I clenched my fist, nails scraping skin.

'If that is my future, so be it... but his..."

"Ah, Master." (y/n) called slightly, noticing me.

With reluctant footfalls, I took his side against the silver railing.

"Master... ready? For tomorrow."

"There is nothing to be ready for. What's been decided is just that." I replied faintly into the night.

"But that's the hard part, right?" he muttered, shaking his head. "That's what scares you."

"You felt my fear?" I chuckled. "I'm more proud every day."

"No." he laughed back. "I just know you."

I frowned, and he frowned back.

"...Master, I've been wanting to know... why did you choose me?" he pressed. "What did you see? Aside from my resolve."

"I saw forgotten hopes." I called cryptically into night. "And the lost wisdom of the departed."

"Never a straight answer." he snorted, smirking briefly before settling in a pool of melancholy.

"I doubt I could speak the full truth to myself. Regardless, does it really matter?" I insisted. "You sought to be a Jedi. I gave you the means to that end."

Peering up into the misty veil, I strained to get a glimpse of the stars, but the brilliance was smeared and muted.

"And yet, I never told you, and you never asked..." I continued, my the trembling of my lip invisible in darkness. "What does it mean to be a Jedi?"

"To practice the code... live the way?" he responded, puzzled.

"And when it becomes inconvenient?" I pressed, desperate for an answer.

"That shouldn't change anything." he proclaimed, resolute. "Though, I wouldn't say I agree with all of the teachings. Moreso the general idea."

I raised an eyebrow, but had no right to test his virtue at the present.

"For example, I don't know if the code leaves room for visiting long-lost family." he smirked. "Not that it matters to me."

"Well, either way, I'd have broken that before." I responded cryptically, holding several tears within the vault of my chest.

...

......

.........

"Truthfully..." I started again, before catching myself.

'No, even now, I cannot...'

Even with clarity, I simply didn't possess the courage.

As I made my way to my sleeping quarters, I carried an unspoken truth.

https://youtu.be/ADrSVUl7_cc

I opened the emerald window halfway before laying on the scarlet, gold speckled bed.

My thoughts churned throughout the room, anxiety gripping my shoulders, holding me above the softness of red, silky slumber.

Torturing me under the eerie glow of green moonlight.

But eventually, my thoughts enveloped even the thick unease in my chest.

Despite the meager sleep I'd been rationed, the night still felt swift somehow... unsatisfactory even more so...

In the blink of an eye, I was torn away from my swirling thoughts...

And suddenly, we were marching through those old-fashioned hallways...

Approaching judgement.

(y/n) POV

"Tap... tap... tap..."

Each floor was a path.

Each pillar, a challenge.

Each hallowed window, a future, but not a destiny.

After all, I was no longer the type to rely on fate.

I relied on what was within, chased what lay before me.

Yet still, the scenery blurred together.

Burst POV

We found the bad batch outside the count's council chamber, already standing at their posts.

Next to them stood five nemoidian guards, each armed with more weaponry and munitions than I'd ever consider reasonable.

"No entry for them." the captain of the guard gruffly proclaimed, jabbing two fingers towards me and my brothers.

"You'd better count on it." I shot back.

I was ready to say more, but the commander promptly moved between me and my target.

"We'll call if the talks go south." he nodded.

General Gallia met my gaze, unease oozing from her irises.

"I'd say the line." I shrugged at them both. "But you can't force these things."

Adi POV

Heads turned as (y/n) and I strode into the grand chamber.

For the first time I'd ever noticed, my padawan's footfalls were heavier than mine, more firm.

Be it assurance or ignorance, his pace was more steady...

Imbued with a certainty I'd lost along the way.

"Welcome, noble Jedi." Dooku called from the end of the table. "We've been waiting for you."

With a flick of the count's fingers, two chairs swiveled around to face us, decorated in unfeeling jewels and precious metals.

Dooku locked eyes with me, and I faltered.

His silvery beard twisted as his mouth coiled itself into a smile.

"Let us begin."