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				[u][i][b][color=0054a6]Yavin IV:[/color] [color=ec008c][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld6fAO4idaI]Master's Council, filtration of realpolitik.[/url][/color] 
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As Kale walked through the temple with his padawan he noticed a change in her demeanor, one he saw often. "Something interesting about the floor, Lahana?" He said. She blinked and looked at him.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking, we really are about to go to war, aren't we?" She asked. "I guess there's nothing we can do to stop it."

"I'd like to say we can but... That's right. The pieces falling into place are too obvious. But we'll get through this." Kale said as he entered the reception chamber. There was Luke waiting for him, as he said. "Master Luke. He greeted with a slight head nod. "I trust you have felt it as well? An ominous premonition if there ever was one."


The Skywalker Youth sat in the center, his eyes were closed but his vision spanned the length of the chamber. He was starting to come here so often Mara joked that he should move in, but it made the ability to sense things over vast distances easier. And it took every ounce of focus he even amplified by the chamber to crack the veil of one of the two "blind spots" in the force. He'd cracked it ever so lightly when Kale and Lahana entered. Their talk about war, grounding him and shaking him out of his drive to see that which made no sense to him. "We've been at war for a while haven't?" Luke asked, his tone chiding them. Jedi weren't supposed to look for a fight, only finish them. Though it seemed as if his reprimanding tone wasn't directed at Master nor apprentice but at the alliance itself. "I'm not a big student of history, which is embarrassing, I really should be given what we're trying to do" he admitted, life on Tatooine was life spent focusing on farming, if your education wasn't in useful things then you were either water rich or wasting your time. "But the Republic was founded twenty five thousand years ago, it took almost eleven thousand years for it to unite much of the inner rim and core and another nine thousand to unite the rest of the galaxy. At least that's what I remember, we may be pursuing Galactic unity wrong. You're right, war is coming, something feral harnessed the light in a way I didn't think was possible and then there's Jerec whose power is now as great as my father's" Luke admitted that, it meant any confrontation between him and the blind former Darksider was going to be a toss up on the best of days. "Everyone wants to focus on the Remnant, but the danger I sense is other territories, it's a mistake to pursue our traditional enemy now when we have so many newer, smarter enemies"

Of course, the choice was not theirs to make.
"Welcome back from your journey Lahana, Kale, I trust it was productive if you're coming here in a bad mood" He offered a smile, but the light shimmered eerily over the runes and Luke thought he could hear a whisper in the dark. Tasaia was right, the spirits here were reacting to the storm in the force, feeding off it.



Kale let out a tired huff of air. "Yeah, I'll just cut to the chase. The holocron we're after is Sith. Rouge Squadron just confirmed it. On top of that fanatical imperials attacked that Star Destroyer turned entertainment district, disabling it's primary weapon. But honestly, the holocron has me worried. The right hands, the wrong hands, whoever has it, nothing good will come of it."


"You sure it was fanatical imperials?" Luke asked with a frown, though his eyes didn't reveal any skepticism. He agreed, but Republic intel was making a lot of noise about it being the handiwork of Tyber Zaan while the smuggler King Talon Karrde and the ships Captain seemed to think the New Republic itself did it. Which all smacked of a frame job, so he didn't doubt it. Especially when some claimed General Veers had been on the Venture. The confirmation that it was indeed a genuine Sith holocron made him raise an eyebrow, the voices hissing throughout the room seemed to grow in intensity. "So we were right, what I sent Aren to retrieve" the man shook his head. "Do you know anything else about the nature of this relic? More importantly, where our errant Padawan is?"

There were other things to discuss, Kale was right, war was coming whether they wished for it or not.


"Aren..." It was difficult to bring himself to say what he had to, as if speaking it would will it to be. "I've heard he's somewhere in Zsinj's territory. Though with the knowledge that the holocron is Sith... There's a reason we haven't heard anything from him, why he isn't being used as a bargaining chip, why I can no longer feel his existence through the force. This is only conjecture, but whatever is inside that holocron, whoever, Aren may be used as a vessel for it."


Luke's eyes flickered around the room as the whispers came close to growing into mocking laughter before they were silenced just as swiftly. "I believe you, Kale the Sith of old were a different sort compared to the ones I faced. They're more primitive, true but far stronger and more savage. Palpatine was the product of a millennia learning to hide in the shadows to strike, the being that may be within the Holocron was used to be out in the sun. But I'm not willing to rule out Aren yet, we may not have completely lost our padawan" Here Luke reached out to lay his hand on the runes. "I had a vision of blood on the forest floor of Endor, of heads on pikes, of a lost sister returning to the light in the shadow of a great serpent. I saw a stag sneering while two old stones broke themselves." Luke let out a laugh "I really hate it when the force sends me allegory instead of cold hard fact...But I think you're right. We're heading to war and it will be soon"



"Yeah..." Kale narrowed his eyes and looked around the room. "We need to come up with a plan of... action- So are we ignoring the voices in this room?" 

Lahana tilted her head and followed her master's eyes, she didn't hear anything.


"We are for the present" Luke said, offering him a sympathetic smile. "If I'm being honest, I've been hearing them for a month. They're not just in this room, they're everywhere. Thousands of them, but that one? The one you just heard, is the strongest. If I'm being honest with myself, the voice is an echo of a power I can't really put my head around..He..At least I think it was a he. Was probably stronger than the Emperor in life, Jedi forced him to commit suicide, he hates me for that. But he's also bound here" Luke didn't even think he could imagine a Jedi powerful enough to make a monster like the one he sensed behind the chains consider suicide as a better alternative. Though the name Sunrider kept popping into his head. "A force user from another sect offered to join us, she says she may have some idea on how to address the Spirits. But its a nerve wracking prospect, I don't even like trying to heal damaged minds I can't even imagine the risks involved in dealing with souls"

Luke grinned at Lahana "You've never been touched by the more ethereal aspects of the force have you?" he let out a good natured laugh, she was blessed in that sense.  "They're not a threat to us directly, but they can make the wildlife here hostile, whatever storm is coming our way is causing them a lot of pain, but it's also allowing them more..I guess wiggle room around their chains is the right phrase?"


"I guess it's more like I can't. The uh, not so physical parts of the force are hard for me to get." Lahana said., still straining to hear the voices the two masters were talking about. The mention of wild beasts only made her realize that she was getting hungry. It was a shame she wasn't allowed to go hunting in the wild anymore.

Kale meanwhile rubbed his temples before rolling his shoulders and adjusting his focus. "There's a lot on our table then if malevolent spirits in the temple are the least of our worries. So, if Endor is to be where there will be bloodshed, how should we act? I don't very much enjoy the idea of acting as a simple soldier for the Republic, but what must be must be done."


"Our duty is as peacekeepers, the Jedi originally worked in tandem with the Judicial fleets in the old Republic. They commanded armies in wars only when those wars threatened to overrun the entire galaxy" Luke responded, his eyes narrowing in thought, it wasn't quite an answer but it had been the closest he could get to one. He too shared dislike at the idea of acting as part of the Republic military, yet when the enemies were malevolent force users. "The galaxy was already overrun before either of us were born, The Republic controls a few thousand systems on its better day and I honestly don't know if its our duty to help them expand beyond that. We should be minding the story, not looking to set up an expansion. But at the same time, if trouble comes to Endor it's a big deal" Endor was special, it had been where the Emperor fell, where his father died, where the alliance militia finally became a proper navy when it defeated the Imperial armada at Endor. To fail to properly respond there, might invite calamity. "But at the same time, what happens if we drop the ball at Endor?" he asked before eying Lahana. "Some force users are meant to draw the force inward, to use it as a source of strength. But for what its worth I'm glad you have trouble with it, I worry about these things influencing some of your peers if they manage to grow strong enough to get louder"


"What will happen? That's an interesting question." Kale turned to his padawan. "Lahana, do you know why we will be fighting for Endor?"

Lahana stopped trying to hear ghosts and looked to her master. She squinted her eyes and cupped her chin in thought. "That's the forest planet with the annoying furballs, right? Does the Empire need a lot of wood or something?" She glanced to Luke. "You said it's a big deal, I'm guessing there's something important there?"

"Not something exactly, but an important event." Kale said. Lahana nodded, listening. "The death of Darth Vader, of The Emperor." Lahana nodded. "It has a lot of meaning to the Rebel Alliance as a historic victory against tyranny." 

"Okay?" Lahana nodded once more, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Kale looked to Luke. 

"Perhaps you could enlighten her, it isn't the most intuitive reason."


Watching the education exchange between Lahana and her master Luke smiled, in many ways it reminded him of the glimpses he caught of Qui Gon Jin and Obiwan. Yoda had been a harsh task master, but Luke could hardly complain. Ben taught him by instruction, discussion and experience, Yoda by relentlessly drilling him and letting him figure out on his own why a thing worked after it had been hammered into his head long enough. Kale, seemed to be more in line with the style of the more gray Jin and his student. Lamplights flickered, something hissed and Luke smirked, it was being ignored now and it didn't like being ignored. Somehow that comforted him and made it seem more grounded in flesh and perhaps more petty and less abstract and omnipresent. "Endor doesn't have much strategic value, except that the hyperlanes around it, mean that if war with Zsinj or Tyber Zaan came tomorrow we could quickly turn that sector into a refueling, repair and rallying point. But militarily there are far better planets to do that with. Endor is important because symbolism matters, we lost Yavin after we destroyed the first Deathstar. The Empire hunted us relentlessly and our loss of the moon over which the power of the Empire met its end made it look like a fluke. Basically, we lost members, worlds that were once pro Republic showed us the door, militias that were supposed to reinforce us began to fight us just as viscously as they fought the Empire. Senator Iblis even threatened war with us when he ran his own faction of rebel systems." Luke paced the room, he imagined the loss of Yavin had done much of the same for the Sith cause, shattered them morally and spiritually more than it shattered them physically.


"The Alliance, well the New Republic now, is overextended. Thousands of systems have joined us, all of them expect mutual defense against warlords, pirates, gangsters and the major renegade powers. The Imperial remnant especially, but only a few hundred systems have actually pledged military support and out of them only one hundred are contributing anything except money to the Navy. The rest are just waiting it out, to see if they can extort us for more benefits, subsidies or protection, or they're waiting to see if we can deliver on our promise to bring peace. Losing Endor, would make us look like we're all talk." Turning to the pair Luke gestured to walls "They're thinking the same way these dad guys are..Basically"

At that he laughed. "Regardless, attacking Endor wouldn't be easy, The Imperial remnant stands the most to gain from making us look bad but Endor is way outside their supply lines. It would be a serious risk, whoever did it would have to rely on luck and they would need to commit something like a quarter of a million Storm Troopers and at least four times that number in regular army, it would need a fleet of hundreds of ships. It would be an undertaking that would open them up to attack from their own enemies...Unless" a gloved hand touched his chin.."Well..No..that isn't possible" 

Taking the subject back to why a loss at Endor would be catastrophic Luke continued "So you see why Kale is so nervous Lahana? There are plenty of more logical targets..but logic sadly doesn't always apply to war or politics"



There was another aspect that Luke left out. One that he'd danced around in silent contemplation before sighing and added with a tired smile "Lord Vader was my father, he was a Jedi of the clone wars a hero even, named Anakin Skywalker. He fell..he..chose to become a servant of the Sith, eventually he began to regret it all. The Jedi, the Knight in him broke forth at the end. The Emperor he..He was torturing me to death because I refused to kill my own father. Sith Lightning is..terrible, its a power so dark its like being drowned in the darkside. I still have muscle spasms...The power of the Emperor was way more than I could have imagined, it was all I could do to hold on. My father..Knight Skywalker grabbed the Emperor, I beat him...I cut one one of his hands, for a second I hate him..." Luke's tone seemed filled with guilt...As if that moment's savagery still horrified him, even if Darth Vader was a mass murdering tyrant."I risked it all, the entire rebellion on the goodness in him that might not have existed anymore. If I had failed, The Emperor with his battle meditation would have ground the Rebellion to dust, but there was I lay helpless, spasming in agony , my father remembered who he was and with the last of his strength hurled the Emperor down a reactor shaft" Luke left out the part where the Emperor turned all of his terrible power on Vader, how his life support system began to fail as his father's lungs incinerated and his flesh crackled. How the backlash of darkside energies released when the Emperors burn incinerated ravaged both their bodies and Luke was still recovering from that.

"Endor is important to us too Lahana, the last Jedi of the Old Order died saving the first Jedi of the New in the skies above Endor. He died so that we could live"


"I see... So it means a lot to you specifically." Lahana pressed in her knuckles, Her joints popping as her expression turned sour. All of the reasons she'd been forced to fight as a slave surfaced in her mind. The people she'd killed for reasons she either didn't understand or refused to confront. She'd spent so long killing for the whims of people that apparently knew better than her. 

"So, people are going to die just to satisfy a few's arbitrary emotions. The Republic's pride, the Empire's wrath and greed... Your lingering regret." She grit her teeth and moved her right hand to the scarred part of her face, under her hair. It stung, as if the memory of how it happened was enough to bring her back to the moment. "I'm sick of this..."


"My lingering regret?" Luke shook his head, even if he did feel regret about the outcome of Endor, he never would have allowed anyone to die because of it, much less tens of thousands of soldiers, most of which were people he'd known for years. The thought sickened him but he kept his outward features calm, Lahana hadn't meant to accuse him of being a murderer by proxy and if she had, she wasn't thinking straight. "you're reading my emotions without context, and so you are projecting your own trauma and doubt onto them. Center yourself and focus, I regret that I lost composure, that in a moment of panic and anger I beat on a broken man, but I don't regret what happened at Endor, no one should. I certainly wouldn't ask you to die to soothe my conscience if I did, apprentice." Luke paused, allowing himself to reach into the force, to let the cool waters of the light help him calm his mind.

"Consider this, if we lose Endor, whether a few prideful or predatory politicians are moving us into harms way or not, They're actions will effect half a trillion sentients Would you have me refuse to participate because of their short sightedness? The Jedi aren't vigilantes we don't walk around dictating policy, all we can do is serve the light and the people of the Galaxy. What do you think will happen if hundreds of systems leave the Republic? Or if Borsk Fey'lya calls for a recall election of Garm Bel Iblis or worse? Chief of State Mothma and the alliance council which is already being attacked for not heading the provisional senate decides they won't permit a recall due to the state of war? What do you think will happen then? What do you think Zsinj or Tyber Zaan will do when they see the Republic in the middle of internal strife? Or Jerec? Have you ever faced a Dark sider Lahana? I have, he could potentially bring dozens of them with him"
"What do you think he'll do to slaves? To the defenseless of the Republic while we're dispersed, spread thin across a territory too large for us to manage as we are now? Do you want to see your fellow apprentices die before their time? Kale and Mara will fight, are you prepared to lose him? Or yourself?" Luke shook his head. "I don't like this anymore than you do, but whether we like it or not, perception can sometimes trump reality. So here we are, preparing to respond to a what if...that may not come, because the alternative is worse, but neither is ideal and we're tearing each other apart. Because of that which we can't control" Luke laughed, four years ago he'd have rolled his eyes and called himself a fool, he agreed with her, this wasn't right but things were what they were.

"To be Jedi is to serve, sometimes that means doing things we find idiotic because not doing them will cause something even dumber and more destructive to happen, your fury is understandable, but try not to accuse me of being no better than a Sith lord huh? Last I checked, we're all a family here."


"I'm not blaming you, Master Luke. You aren't the one that wants to attack a planet just to prove a point. And you aren't some politician playing games with people's lives." She looked at her master for a moment before looking back to Luke. "I don't know why I thought things would be that much different here. No matter where you go all they care about is power." She shook her head and lowered her shoulders. "I understand. I'll fight. It's the only thing I'm good at anyway."


"About power?" It was an oddly cynical take for one so young, granted she'd been a slave, but it seemed to be a bit of projection. He couldn't disagree with her though, this was about perception and morale but those weren't necessarily bad things either. "There's no shame in dying for an idea, the Republic is the Galaxy's best chance for protracted peace, even if it means we make peace with the empire." It was hard to ignore the Bantha in the room, that even the peace at any price faction wanted to take the core. Something Luke didn't believe they would be ready for, not in a long time. Conversely the old Republic used commerce and stability to assimilate as much as it used war, it was entirely possible within a century the remnant would end up needing to join the Republic as a member state. Isolated as it would invariably become as the larger more expansive powers began to deny them vital resources the massively populated core needed. "The inner rim and the core may be the wealthiest regions in the known universe, but they're also the most resource hungry, they haven't been able to feed themselves in tens of thousands of years. Most of the agriworlds are in our hands or in the hands of Tyber Zaan. I think, after this storm passes it may be prudent to just sit here and wait them out. Even if it takes a generation, Bartoff Hissa and his Jedi can't hold seventy trillion sentients in bondage by hoping the Zaan Consortium is nice enough not to extort them for food and water" No one on the council would like that answer though.

"Things are different here" Luke decided setting his robotic hand on Lahana's shoulder "Because if your master and I are right, I won't let you fight out there alone. No, I'll be right beside you come what may. I will bleed with you Lahana, as long as you help me keep the very dumb from ruining this galaxy?" he offered with a confident smile 



Lahana prepared to flinch as Luke set his metallic hand on her, but in spite of what she expected, she didn't. Maybe cold steel wasn't enough to set off her disinclination for physical touch. "You aren't the first to promise something like that. But you are the first Jedi master to promise it I guess."

"We can do much more after this war is over padawan. Until then, we must do all we can to prevent the Empire's rise." Kale said. Lahana simply nodded lethargically.

"Understood."