[@Piercing Light]

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Luke had spent the intervening moments between Mara Jade's departure and the arrival of Kale through the Temples grand entrance pacing in a circle, "Trying to walk a trench into marble" As Han was fond of saying. Luke had been pacing a lot lately, between the recent fiasco and the day to day monotony of the back end aspects of the Jedi Order. If it wasn't paperwork authorizing the New Republic Navy to service the temples legions of droids, to requisitioning blankets and clothing to haggling over the Jedi Orders Budget! That last part one made Luke grumble. It was almost as if he needed a team of accountants, lawyers and an entire kriffing lobby to pressure the interim council to give him the things he needed. Part of him felt a pang of guilt over all the times he'd argued with Uncle Owen and aunt Beru over wanting to join the academy and dismissing their pleas of needing help on the farm as simply wanting him to remain on the farm, anchored to their life. Now that he had to actually manage something complex and unwieldy. "I wonder, did Yoda have to deal with all this?" Luke took a breath and reached out to rub his left shoulder, the muscles were spasming again and Luke allowed the force to flow through him to steady the twinging, aching micro convulsions seemed to be a byproduct of the power of the former and much deceased Dark Lord of the Sith. Doctors insisted it was a side effect the history books called "Force induced muscular atrophy" and that, the damage done to nerve endings and muscles by Sith empowered force Lightning was almost always fatal if not immediately treated and tended to leave survivors crippled and deformed. That Luke had only begun to feel the symptoms days after the event and that they were so minute was said to be a testament to his power in the force. But Luke didn't feel so strong, he was healing, another "medical miracle" but it was slow and he had moments of crippling agony and spasms in his back that hobbled him. -I owe Mara for helping me through it all- he thought.

It was then that the familiar presence of the only other Jedi Master in his new order filled his senses and he turned to Kale as he came in. Luke's hands were kept behind his back, doing his best to steady the muscle trembles in his shoulder. Kale's eyes were livid, but his posture was as restrained as he could manage under the circumstances and Luke slowly shook his head. What a fracas that had been, they'd been outmaneuvered, danced around and he had a feeling the triumphant entrance of Zsinj was more than just planned for the benefit of the Empire and the Republic. Of all the warlords, he seemed to be the most dangerous but he had no use for relics of the orders. Had he?


Luke offered Kale an conciliatory smile "Honestly, I could sense your frustration from the moment we existed hyperspace. If I was being honest with myself, I left the information out because I didn't exactly know just [i]how dangerous[/i] Holocrons could actually be. If I'd have known we would have gone together and I wouldn't have placed Aren in any kind of danger" Even now,when the boys dereliction and desertion was abundantly clear Luke was could only worry about him, his safety, his sanity, his soul. "I allowed Mon Mothma to pressure me into staying silent, as to her reasons" He cleared his throat and laughed at the thought "She thinks Garm Bel Iblis is looking to go rogue, him and Wedge are "too blood thirsty" she says..." There was an obvious tint of skepticism in that assessment even if he didn't fully disagree with it. "Mon Mothma is being too cautious, I agree but. They're both fundamentally wrong, if we push into Remnant space now its going to mean committing to [i]holding remnant space[/i] and while parties erupted across the upper levels of the planet at the news of the Emperors death, that doesn't mean those parties were pro Republic" Luke let that last bit hang in the air, two months ago they'd attempted to push into the outer rim. Both Mon Mothma and Iblis were in a rare moment of agreement advocated for liberating a few key sectors from  Imperial warlords only to find Tyber Zann had already beaten them too it and when Luke cautioned retreat they pushed forward and rebel troops were slaughtered by irate citizens who had no interest in returning to the rule of a Republic that ignored them for the better part of fifteen thousand years.

Not everything was as it seemed, not everywhere were they liberators and while much of the Rebellion came from "inner" worlds like Chandrilla and Corelia or Alsakan, much of the core was still old era elite and even the regular citizens might have looked favorably.


Which brought Luke to Kale's next point, he hadn't signed up to take orders from the Republic. None of them had, the Jedi served the force, but the Republic was the best bet to ensure that peace. "We need the Republic, almost as much as the Galaxy does. But you're right, you didn't sign up to deal with Republic entanglements...Neither did I if I was being honest" Damn Luke thought, he promised himself he would learn from the mistakes Yoda made, from the old order and here he was making some of them.


"I can't promise you, we won't have to deal with meddlesome politicians Kale, but I swear to you, I will never lie to you like that again" It was all he could do, he thought and then hold himself to that promise with the same implacability by which he held to the light. 


"I'm sorry this happened, I'm sorry we lost a student, I'm sorry lied to you" Even if it was a lie by omission, it was a lie nonetheless.

"If you can accept my apology, I'll need help tracking our wayward apprentice down" Luke reached his gloved hand up to cover his mouth, the servos of his artificial hands whirring as they tried to compensate for spasm that wracked his forearm and bicep. There were times, were Luke could almost see the hideous lightning and taste it in the air as if it threatened to return and strike him again. "I'm still playing catch up, growing up on a moisture farm in a backwater doesn't exactly prepare you for reforming an order of mystics, at least scholastically. I think that's the part that bothers me more than anything, even if I told you what it was, I probably would have acted like it wasn't a big deal because at the time [i]I had no idea what a holocron could do![/i]. That ignorance could have hurt you more than my silence...regardless, it won't happen again"


Luke went silent for a moment, allowing the force to soothe his being and to extend his senses through the amplification chamber. "How's Lehana doing?"

There were times Luke worried about Yavin, about the echoes, the ghosts here. But then he felt the light in his students and colleagues and those fears faded away.

-We belong here- he thought.

Not on Coruscant, maybe someday centuries from now when the Jedi numbered in the tens of thousands again...But now? Yavin IV with its mystery and its intrigue was where they would stay.

Perhaps the Republic should as well, but history would prove the folly of that suggestion.