Chapter 59: Come the Gathering Rain (Part 4)

Siri sits in the middle of a training room, alone save for Dooku watching her at a distance, the prerequisite for allowing her to fiddle with her lightsaber.

She sits with her lightsaber partially dismantled, Bane's Heart set aside, and the other, bled kyber crystal rolling between her fingers. She stares down at it idly, considering it. She had wanted something to distract her from... from thoughts of Skywalker, and the memory of her sudden discomfort at the bled kyber during her trouncing of Vosa had been her escape. Still, this was something she felt was important. A kyber's screams had not affected her for years, if she had been in a serious fight, a sudden pause or startlement because of it could have killed her.

She ought to just use two synthetics if she's honest, but...

She rolls the bled kyber between her fingers again. The Force wasn't being subtle at the moment. She felt... little nudges, like someone was poking the back of her head, and then looking pointedly at the kyber crystal. She just has no idea why. Asking the Force resulted in another same nudge, demanding of the Dark Side just made it laugh at her. So, if she wasn't supposed to replace the crystal, what was she to do with it? It was... kind of useless to her now if she's honest. Its bled, not bonded to her, and while she's still darker than most, she's not technically fallen at the moment, she can't just smother it easily with the Dark Side, not for long unless she lets it through the gates and re-embraces it.

She frowns thoughtfully. Can she bond to a bled crystal? No, she doesn't think so. Bend it to her will, of course, all Sith do. But... its not quite the same as having a kyber crystal in-tune with her. She can't just unbleed it...

Can she?

Even if she could, she'd have no idea how. She's never heard of it being done before. To her knowledge, bled kyber are either stored securely in the vault in the archives, or destroyed to release them from their suffering...

She hums to herself in consideration, an idea forming. Well, a few actually now that she sits here and contemplates the possibility of it. A Light force user maybe could do something to soothe the pain of the crystal, maybe 'heal' it. A darksider obviously couldn't really do that. Not in the same manner anyway. She thinks of her duel with Windu a long while back, how he took her darkness and used it against her. So if she just took its darkness into herself...

So she reaches into the kyber crystal through the Force...

Gathers the dark from it...

She pulls...

She gasps and bends over, clutching her stomach and slamming her forehead into the floor as -pain-fear-suffering-agony-torment- flows into her from the kyber. So many years of darkness embedded in it, incoherent flashes of memory from her own time using it, and all the way back from when Zannah herself wielded the lightsaber and subjugated it. Even more distant was a hushed gray outline of who it had originally bonded to, someone she couldn't make out. Siri takes a ragged breath, gritting her teeth, and pushes herself to sit up.

"Tachi, what did you just do?" says Dooku, voice hushed, "The kyber..."

Siri blinked and looked down at the crystal that had clattered from her grip.

It had shifted from blood-red to orange.

She slowly picks up the crystal, ignoring Dooku, and carefully pokes it with the Force. Its hesitation is very much clear: she had been a darksider that had used it such. But, she had also just taken away its pain. She doesn't force it, but she doesn't lie either: She tells it she will never try to bleed it, but it is likely she will use the Dark Side, that she will use anger and pain and fear as sources of power, but she will never intentionally force it upon the kyber. It hesitates only for a moment longer before it reaches out, and she reaches back, binding them together.

She...

She had missed this.

Had missed having a willing kyber.

Bane's Heart was a unique, special, powerful crystal, but it was synthetic.

It didn't sing like this in her mind.

She glanced down at her disassembled lightsaber for a moment, before she shook her head. That Lightsaber had belonged to Zannah, belong to Siri as Sidious's apprentice. She still considered herself a Sith, but... she wasn't the same as before. She had been shifting slowly since she had come here, she could acknowledge and admit it, and what Skywalker had done to her... followed up with what she learned about Zannah...

She's ready to move on.

She wanted to be something new, something better.

It was time to start making that a reality.

"Call Obi-Wan and ask him to bring my old lightsaber, and some spare parts," said Siri, "I think its time I made a new one."

Dooku considers her for a moment before doing so.

Its not hard, once Kenobi brings it, to re-attune herself to her original kyber crystal. It clearly recognizes her, humming with a faint happiness to be held by her again. Yet... there is an old stain in it, a darkness, a wound from when Master Gallia died and Siri fell. Thankfully not enough to have bled it, but Siri pulls that darkness out all the same, taking it into herself and briefly re-living her fall.

The purple and orange crystals hum sadly with her at the wave of grief and pain that overtakes her. She closes her eyes for a long moment, jaw set, before she begins her work. Bane's Heart, the Lightsaber not the crystal, had worked, but it had been built for Zannah. It was shorter than most saberstaves, made for Zannah's small form; Siri... wasn't that small. While she could and had used it effectively, it had been more of a legacy hand-me-down, something made and taken as her own, than something she built herself.

Siri's saberstaff, made from pieces of both, from the Jedi and Sith she had used to be, is more normal length. She focuses on a tri-crystal build. Lightsabers can generally have up to three crystals, though usually only Jedi Guardians and Sith used more than one in their lightsabers. Saberstaves obviously needed two unless you wanted a shitty weak blade. Tri-crystal blades are more powerful, whether saberstaff or otherwise, a kind of lightsaber built during wartimes that will tear through metals a hell of a lot faster than normal. Nothing short of beskar'gam or something on that tier of metal will come even close to standing up to it. On the flip side, a tri-blade is actually capable of burning through a lightsaber's battery. Its more typical of a Jedi to die of old age before their batteries do in this day in age, not so much when the intensity of the blade is increased and used frequently.

She forms the lightsaber with the orange crystal socketed into the middle, her purple padawan kyber at one end, Bane's Heart on the other.

She finishes her blade, putting the pieces all together with the Force and stands up, holds it out in front of her, and activates it.

Purple light bursts out, hued more towards a muddy carmine than normal.

Siri nods to herself, and clips it to her belt.

For once, everything feels almost normal.

At least until Dooku holds out his hand for the saber.

Right, still on parole.

Dammit.

"So, I heard you made a new saber, purple huh?"

Siri glances up from her spot in the dinning halls, seeing Anakin moving to sit at her table...

"KHOOOOH PUUUHRR."

Siri went rigged, struggling to swallow back fear.

Evidently not fast enough as Anakin froze mid sitting down, a number of Jedi glancing her way.

"Uh... sorry for startling you?" said Anakin, unsure.

Siri forced the fear down, neatly ignoring both his comment and her own brief terror as if it never happened. "A new lightsaber was needed. Using a bled kyber as someone not exactly fallen anymore was... disruptive."

Anakin nods, sitting down and starts shoveling his face.

The entire time, a shadow, the masked titan stands behind him, staring down at her; Siri had never felt so small in her life.

"KHOOOOH PUUUHRR."

Siri swallows again.

Anakin swallows his food and glances up at her. "You okay Siri? You seem... weird."

"It's nothing."

"KHOOOOH PUUUHRR."

"Its nothing at all..."

She passes Anakin in the hallway the next day.

"Hey Siri," he says cheerfully.

"KHOOOOH PUUUHRR."

She doesn't reply, quickening her pace, the death head mask staring at her ominously the entire time.

"Has Siri said anything to you, Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan pauses drinking his tea, during a lineage gathering in the Jinn-Skywalker apartment. "About what, Anakin?"

The boy goes silent for a few minutes, uncomfortableness rippling off him, and not a small amount of loneliness. "She's been avoiding me recently, the last week."

Dooku huffed, unconcerned. "If we are being honest, grandpadawan, you spend far to much time with her as it is."

It was a thread that hadn't been dropped quite yet. Obi-Wan knew they still wanted to get Anakin away from Siri, but were conflicted with the danger of Sidious going after Anakin again. Baring them from seeing one another considering Anakin's flippant disregard for rules he didn't like wasn't likely to work, especially not without a stronger reason than 'we don't like the influence she has on you'. That was unlikely to go over well with Anakin, and cause even further distance between him, the Council, and the rest of the Jedi.

He was already far too disconnected from everyone outside their lineage, and one can't force him or others to be friends with one another.

Anakin shoots Dooku an annoyed look, but doesn't answer.

Yoda hums. "Heard in passing I have, of her avoidance."

The phrasing of that...

"Because avoiding, it is not," continued Yoda, "Commented others have to me, because fear it is, and told I am that unusual it is, to ever feel fear from Tachi."

Obi-Wan startled. "What? Why would she be afraid of Anakin? They've been... kind of friends for years now, she wasn't afraid of him even after he ripped her from the Dark Side."

"Know why, I do not," said Yoda, glancing at Anakin, "Know do you?"

"No! I haven't done anything to her," said Anakin, scowling and personally offended as he always is to anything he deems a slight or an accusation, "I mean... I called her out on her bullshit, kind of, when the Council was interrogating the Holocron, but nothing to deserve this."

"Have you tried simply asking her?" asked Qui-Gon with a knowing tone.

"Maybe if she's stay in the same room as me for more than thirty seconds," grumbled Anakin.

"I say let it lay," sniffed Dooku, "She'll get over herself eventually."

"Hmph, thought I did that approved you did of her recent efforts?" poked Yoda.

Dooku scoffed. "Perhaps if she didn't dance around whatever she did with the Kyber Crystal and gave a straight answer..."

"Avoidance is a skill of hers," mused Obi-Wan.

"She's not the only one," grumbled Anakin, glancing briefly at his master before earning a look of reproach from Dooku and Qui-Gon, and a pointed question from the latter, "Have you started on your history assignment yet Anakin?"

The boy scowls a little bit. "No."

"Then do so."

Obi-Wan is... uneasy, to see an almost dark look shot at Qui-Gon once Anakin reaches the door to his room before entering it. Obi-Wan slowly looks at Qui-Gon and raises an eyebrow. Qui-Gon pointedly ignores it, sipping his tea. Jinzler, thankfully, hasn't the tact to dance around a subject yet, and just bluntly asks, not to offend, but out of concern.

"Is... everything alright?"

A pinched look crosses Qui-Gon's face. "A Jedi must learn to let go, Anakin is... struggling to learn that lesson, a leftover from his past before he joined the temple. We have... disagreed on it a few times."

Translation: Argued. Likely yelled.

"Mmm?" posed Yoda, curious.

Qui-Gon merely shook his head. "Its nothing Master, I have it handled."

Obi-Wan is dubious, but its not his place to interfere unless it gets truly bad. So, he settles into his cushion and doesn't comment. All the while he keeps an eye on his former Master. For all the serenity he seems to air around him, the subtle purse of his lips, tenseness of his shoulder, and furrowing of his eyes give away hints of stress. He catches Qui-Gon's faint look towards Anakin's room as the man goes to refill the tea pot, concern and frustration briefly visible on his face. For all the man harps on Anakin's struggles, it doesn't mean he isn't worried.

He's just always had difficulty showing it at times, especially bumbling into things and chalking it up to the will of the Force. If Obi-Wan hadn't been so willing to go along with Qui-Gon antics when he announced taking Anakin as his padawan... well... Obi-Wan could have easily imagined getting deeply hurt and offended for being technically repudiated infront of the council even if Jinn hadn't meant it as such. That could have become a very nasty mess if the Council hadn't taken his time with Siri as part of his trials, as much as Siri had freaked over it he is somewhat grateful, even if he had never meant it to hurt her.

Speaking of which, his eyes linger on Qui-Gon's, the way his master is looking through the walls distantly, off in Siri's direction if Obi-Wan had to guess. So Obi-Wan merely gives his master a knowing look, smiling and sipping on his tea...

Its not surprising, that Qui-Gon eventually shows up, that Supernova would whine about her and someone would come to prod her about it. Coin flip said it was either him or Obi-Wan. Jinn stands in the doorway, regarding her, but she doesn't really invite him in, because frankly, she doesn't want to talk to him or to any other Jedi at the moment. Not when their actions would help bring about that Dark Titan. It would be ignorant to place all the blame on them, Sidious would likely take a large chunk, as would Anakin's own choices, but...

Anakin Skywalker would have likely been happier if he and his mother had been freed and dropped off on some unknown planet to live out their rest of their days. He should never have been taken in as a Jedi. Nor should he be a Sith if she's honest. He could be forced into a mold, but she has doubts, he has traits (weaknesses Sidious would call), some that Siri herself has, others... well...

He had asked her once what she wanted out of her life; no Jedi, no Sith, no Force. Perhaps he ought to have asked himself that question.

"Has Anakin done something to offend you?" posed Qui-Gon.

"Not in particular."

"I see," said Qui-Gon, frowning, "Then why are you avoiding him?"

Siri goes silent.

"I don't particularly like all the time he spends with you," begins Jinn, "But I am not blind to you being perhaps the only one he calls a friend outside of his lineage."

She doesn't answer.

"You avoiding him is hurting him."

"I'm aware," said Siri, scowling, "That I let it go on for so long is unbecoming of me, but... even Sith fear as much as they'd imply otherwise. Its just taking me awhile to get over myself."

Qui-Gon regards her, eyebrows furrowed. "You are scared of him, of Anakin, and its not because he is the Chosen One, you never cared about prophecy and fully believe you can circumvent being touched by it by refraining from being a part of the Veil of the Dark Side."

Siri stares back at him for a long moment. "He could become the greatest Jedi that ever lived, but have you truly considered Qui-Gon, that he could also become the greatest Sith that ever lived as well? That you Jedi are pushing him down that second path?"

He could be the greatest of either, but he shouldn't, he should be something... it lurks in the Force, but she just can't quite grasp it...

"How, exactly, are we doing that?" he demanded, eyes narrowing, "And I would have thought that is something a Sith would want."

"Anakin Skywalker turning to the Dark Side is the absolute last thing I want, Qui-Gon Jinn, I've said it before and I really mean it now," she snarled back, not able or even trying to keep the fear and anger out of her voice, "Only two there are, a Master, and an Apprentice. One to embody the power, the other to crave it. That is the way of the Rule of Two, a rule I have come to detest. If Anakin falls, I am dead no matter what I do. Whether Sidious kills me or has Anakin kill me to take my spot as the apprentice, or if I am the master and he eventually kills me."

Before he could respond, she pointed a finger at him. "And don't give me that bantha shit, I hear about it in passing in the halls when he's not bitching about it himself. You know exactly how the Jedi Order has been failing that child, but up until now, you had been doing an at least somewhat acceptable job and trying to mitigate the damage up until you deem that Shmi Skywalker is comparable to Xanatos's Father."

Jinn glares at her, shoulder's hunched defensively. "I have never compared his mother to that monster."

Siri's lips curled into a sneer. "Not aloud at least, but don't think I didn't sense exactly how you felt when you pushed us into your room awhile back and he mentioned his mother in his little rant. So let me ask, why exactly have you not bothered to free that woman, let her give a proper goodbye to her son, and sent her off to one of the various refugee programs or something of the like that blowhard goodie goodies like Organa run? Hmm?"

"Because you are afraid," she whispers, "You are afraid he will leave with her. You are afraid that like Xanatos, he will be pulled away from the Jedi Order by his parent, because you recognize that he is struggling and floundering here. That he is failing to connect with his supposed fellows, failing to identify with the Jedi, failing to learn or on the other end being failed to be taught, and that it is more inclined to make him want to leave. And just like Xanatos, you and the entire Jedi Order are failing to properly address the issues that boy has. But unlike Xanatos, who grew up to be an arrogant prick despite his normal Jedi upbringing, Skywalker was raised in slavery, in suffering, he has real problems from things that he either went through or witnessed that you Jedi are doing nothing about aside from saying 'Just let it go'."

"Has it ever kriffing occurred to you that that advice is terrible to anyone who wasn't indoctrinated from the ground up as a Jedi?" she demanded, "That you are demanding of him to leave behind the only person that ever loved him or that he loved to die in slavery?"

"We don't have the authority to...," began Qui-Gon.

Avoiding, avoiding, AVOIDING!

Why can the Jedi never confront and adapt?

Why?

"Don't give me that shit!" spat Siri, "You are Qui-Gon 'Maverick' Jinn, you do whatever the hell you want all the time and chalk it up to 'Will of the Force'. If you wanted to free her, you could, so could any Jedi here, and the Senate would never know, especially with the repeals to the Ruusan Reformation."

"You Jedi can pretend to be compassionate all you want," she said, voice hushing, dripping with icy venom, "But the truth is you don't care. You can nod your heads and say its unfortunate, but you'll brush it under the rug as unimportant and focus on what you think is more important, because compassion isn't the way of the Jedi, it used to be, but it's not anymore. It's been defiled, whether by the Sith, by the Jedi, by whoever."

She looks him dead in the eye. "Detachment has become the way of the Jedi, even if they don't realize it. Complacency and detachment. That's all the Galaxy sees, all those who haven't spent enough time near the right kind of Jedi to discover otherwise. Take for example Obi-Wan, how he acts, how he is, would be a massive shock to the common held view of the Jedi Order."

"I'm not here to argue philosophy and your jaded biased perspective with you," she can practically hear his jaw clenching. "Contrary to your self-righteous ranting, I do care for my padawan, and I do not appreciate you implying otherwise. I care for what is best for him. He needs to learn to let go or it will destroy him one day."

"He can't Qui-Gon," she said, sighing, "It's not in his nature. He clings and clings and clings and never lets go of what he cherishes. You either work with that and adjust your lessons, or you can continue to try and force him to mold into the perfect little Jedi, your precious Chosen One, until something breaks because he can't fit."

"He is stronger than you think."

"Oh, he likely is," she agreed, "But anyone, no matter how strong, can break, and that boy is far to important to risk falling apart, especially when he's not that well put together to begin with."

Jinn narrows his eyes at her in warning.

"I call it as I see it, Jinn," said Siri flatly, "I like the brat, that doesn't mean I'm blind to his problems and how I could abuse them if I really wanted to, or how Sidious could and would. He's a potential ticking timebomb that you manhandled your way into getting accepted into your Order when he probably shouldn't have been. So, Jinn, its now on you and your Order to diffuse the bomb."

"And what, Tachi, would you have done? Cast him out of the Temple for your Sith Master to claim with the now vacant position of Sith Apprentice?" he snapped back.

"Give him the basic training so he doesn't hurt himself or others, free his mother, secretly put them into the Exploration Corps, call it a day," she said before admitting, "Of course, this is hindsight speaking after everything else, so, take that with a grain of salt. It would be the option initially less dangerous for your Order, and likely to make him happier. But, it does ignore that Sidious would try to hunt him the hell down and kill or convert him if you couldn't keep him hidden. Its not like he didn't shout 'Notice me everyone' when he blew up the control ship over Naboo."

"So you admit then, that here is the best and safest place for him."

"If that's how you choose to take it," she said, "But really, his fate was kind of sealed the moment he drew attention. He was safer as an unknown slave on Tatooine. But... if we're being honest, its likely that one way or another, he is fated to go against Sidious no matter what path he walks. This path at least gives him the tools to defend himself better than remaining a slave turned smuggler would have."

"...smuggler?" posed Qui-Gon, eyebrow raised.

"He won the Boonta Eve," she said dryly, "If the Hutts didn't purchase him to be a racing slave, there's no way he wouldn't have eventually won his freedom. He, admittedly, could have simply become a professional racer, but, well... he IS called Skywalker."

Qui-Gon huffed quietly. "He does like watching hyperspace far to much I suppose."

She smiled a little. "I imagine he does, having been stuck on that sand-trap all his life prior."

They both ease out of the hostility that had been building.

"I'm not going to say things couldn't have been handled better," said Qui-Gon, "The Council needed to know he was the Chosen One, but... that information could have been withheld from the Jedi at large, and potentially from him. To put less weight on his shoulders, and to not have him stand out so far from his peers that neither can cross the distance. Sometimes, I believe he feels like the Jedi Order is out to get him, when its not, we are here to support him in becoming the best he could be."

"The best he could be, or the best the Jedi Order believes he could be?"

Qui-Gon sighed. "Must you?"

"Well... yeah?" she answers cheekily, "Confrontations are what I do, what I live for. I do oh so love a good argument."

"An argument, or you spitting out your opinion as an inarguable fact?"

"By all means, prove me wrong," she taunted, "The Jedi want Skywalker to be something that he can't be, so he will never 'be the best he can be' by their standards."

"I'm not an example the model Jedi myself incase you weren't aware," posed Jinn.

"And I'm sure that you and your padawan will give the council collective strokes when you actively start missions," she said dryly, "But perhaps I didn't limit enough. We all have our own opinions on what the best Anakin could be would look like, and I guarantee that none of them match up. Being yanked back and forth between all of those expectations isn't good."

"Fair," he agreed.

They grew quiet for a awhile, Jinn lost in his own thoughts, before he sighed and shook his head, "Get over your fear and speak to him at some point, because even if its you, he needs a friend."

She scowled a little, grumbling, "I'll try."

"Do or do not."

"Do I look like a Jedi to you?"

It was only a matter of time, Siri supposed, before Supernova cornered her, especially if Jinn gave him the go ahead.

She finds him hogging her couch early in the morning, glaring daggers at Rain's gatekeeper, who pointedly ignores him, floating/laying down midair as if she were the one lazing about on the couch.

"...still think you're a piece of work," said Anakin flatly to Rain.

"I'm sorry, we're you saying something?" asked Rain, "I can't hear you over the guttertrash pouring out of your mouth."

Anakin narrows his eyes at her, anger flaring, and Siri feels his attention focusing on the Holocron itself...

Siri does the intelligent thing and separates them, yanking Rain's holocron across the room with the Force and tossing it into her bedroom onto her bed. "Timeout Rain."

"Hey! I'm not actually a damn kid!"

Siri closes the door and twiddles her finger, shielding her room and cutting off Rain from the outside, her gatekeeper fizzling out.

"She's a real bitch," said Anakin flatly.

"Language Supernova."

He gives her an unimpressed look.

"Hey, you're the Jedi," she mocks, "Got to be all proper-like."

The look doesn't leave his face.

She rolls her eyes and turns to head for the fresher to shower. Better to stall and collect her thoughts...

"Siri."

"KHOOOOH PUUUHRR."

"Why are you afraid of me?"

She ignores him.

Except the fresher door stays firmly closed as Anakin's power grasps its frame.

Well then...

She turns to face him and twitches, the dark behemoth standing behind him, a shadow made manifest. Her eyes flicker above to meet the death mask, black lenses regarding her silently save for the repeated eerie breathing. Anakin follows her line of sight, glancing back, but seeing nothing, looking forward back at her, eyebrows furrowed. He doesn't speak though, waiting.

"I asked the Force something I shouldn't have," said Siri, "And I didn't like the answer."

"What did...?"

"Don't."

He blinked. "Don't what?"

"If you ask, you can't take back knowing, Skywalker," she answers flatly, "I'll get over myself eventually and figure it out, I just... need time to parse it."

He looked distinctly unpleased, and foolishly unafraid. He opens his mouth to speak...

"Anakin, please."

Now he looks unsettled. Was her taking that tone really that rare?

Actually... yeah, stupid question.

He slowly nods, and for once, he actually damn listens without bumbling in. "Okay..."

The dark titan behind him tilts its head at Siri, regarding her.

Anakin sighs. "So... aside from avoiding me, how have you been?"

She shrugs, forcing her gaze down away from the darkside apparition and onto Anakin. "Fine, poking Rain to try and play nice with others when we're not going at eachother."

Anakin scoffed. "You've had 'great' success."

"Brat."

"Its true, she's just as nasty as you were at first."

Siri raises an unimpressed eyebrow. "I'm still as nasty, you've just managed to move yourself off the 'insignificant-trash' list into 'favorite-brat' list, and most others aren't worth the effort."

He scoffs but grins at her.

"I 'suppose' I ought to be nice and ask how you're doing in turn," she drawls, sighing as if it takes her great effort to do so.

He huffs... and then frowns, trying to sink down into the couch. "...I'm fine."

"Really?" she posed, looking at how sullen he is.

The dark behemoth behind the couch crosses its arms at her.

Anakin doesn't answer.

Siri frowns for a long moment, considering if she should press or not. The Dark Titan is staring at her, waiting. Siri licks her lips, and decides that she's tired of being afraid of Skywalker. "Anakin, what's wrong?"

"..."

"Homework issues?"

"..."

"Got a girl ya like?"

"..."

"Issues with the other Jedi?"

"Mom," he muttered.

"Hmm?"

"Every time," he grits out with frustration, "Every time I ask about my people, about slavery, about my mom, its always the same stupid answers."

Siri goes still as the air starts to tremble, flickers of raw power seeping through the air. The Dark titan slowly uncrosses its arms, fists clenched. "...and what are those?"

"That its a 'unfortunate' reality of life, that there's not enough Jedi, that we serve the Republic or that its outside their jurisdiction, that it would start a war with the Hutts, that the Jedi have to focus on the bigger and more important picture," he spits out viciously, his presence flaring angrily in the Force, "That even if we did it without forcefully freeing anyone, not only is it illegal to purchase slaves, but it sets a precedent."

He bites out. "Yet apparently winning me in a pod-race bet and freeing me after is fine?"

Siri raises both eyebrows, she hadn't known that. "Skywalker, if the full details surrounding your... 'freedom' we're known publicly, there is a decent chance Jinn would be in a bit of trouble. Not to mention they brought you into a war zone when you were nine."

"I blew up the droid ship!"

"You did," agreed Siri, "I distinctly remember feeling your glee while I was dueling Jinn and Obi-Wan, it kind of distracted us for a little bit. It still doesn't mean you should have been put in that situation to begin with, ethically speaking."

"...you're speaking about ethics?"

"Shut up Supernova," she snaps without heat.

He smiled a little before he closed his eyes and sighed. "I said I'd become a Jedi and go back and free everyone... but that's not going to happen, is it?"

Siri said nothing.

"People say the Republic's been around for a thousand years, like the Old Republic before it didn't even exist. The Old Republic was around for almost twenty-five thousand years," said Anakin bitterly, "The Hutts have been around longer, likely with slaves all the while. No one has cared enough the entire time to put an end to it. The only time the Republic really gets involved with putting down systematic slavery is if it happens openly in their own borders, or slavers get caught doing it. Otherwise its just putting out small little fires here and there."

Disgust crossed his face. "And like you revealed in that senate questioning thing, some of the senators are even slavers, or profit off it."

The Dark Titan behind him seems to grow darker, more menacing.

"But nobody cares," he says bitterly, "Ya wanna know what the worst answer I get to my question is? Its that 'I need to let go'. That its somehow my fault, a failing, that I care about my mom, my friends, about everyone else suffering back home."

Oh he's boiling now, his presence...

"It's... it's just... even if its not everyone..."

It feels like something's about to burst...

"Why!" Anakin shouts, and the air trembles with his frustration and anger, "Why wont they free my mom?!"

He looks helpless for a moment. "Whenever I speak of home or mom Qui-Gon changes the subject! Why does he think she's bad? He's met her! My mom is the nicest person ever!"

Siri stares down at Skywalker's trembling form, his emotional turmoil palpable in the air, distorting the Force around them. She instinctively traps the reverberations in the Force, confining them to the room to not alert anyone; the boy has enough problems here without the Jedi Masters coming down on him for having an emotional fit. A righteous one even. She stares down at that vulnerable, scared, and angry child, and is aware of the potential, the danger of this moment. He is hurt, he is angry, he is seeking out her for a reason why.

She's never had real practice turning someone before, yet even she can see how laughably easy it would be to start Anakin down the dark path right here, right now. Can see the vulnerability the Jedi have left in their so called Chosen One. Those idiots, if Anakin were having this exact conversation with Sidious, it would be over. Everything would be lost. If not right then with Sidious turning and claiming the boy, then further down the road with the seeds burrowed, fertilized, and sprouting all throughout him in one single session.

The Jedi are going to ruin him.

This was so easy to prevent, just free the damn woman, let Skywalker say goodbye, and send her off to a refugee movement or something. Then, they've solved, or at least soothed, one of the greatest points of contention with the boy. But of course, politics and code get in the way of that. More to be their code, since a single Shadow could easily solve the problem and no one would be the wiser.

It would be so easy to twist this.

To twist him.

Its a struggle to not give in to the dark hound outside the gates, muzzle pressed through the bars, whimpering for her to spread its influence...

"I can't say anything you haven't already heard Anakin," she says quietly, "Aside from the occasional few goodie goodie blow-hard senators, the Republic has never cared enough about the Outer Rim. They're always Core Focused, always been that way, always will be. They will never fight a war to end slavery outside their territory. The Jedi cracked down on the Zygerrians well before our time only because in their arrogance, the Zygerrians started openly enslaving from Republic worlds. It had gone on for thousands of years prior with the Republic not caring until it became too big to ignore. They touted is as a great 'Anti-Slavery Campaign' in the Outer Rim, but really, its because their people would have been rioting and baying for blood in the streets if nothing was done to keep them safe. They never really touched the Hutts to my knowledge."

Anakin grits his teeth. "That's nothing I didn't already read and figure out on my own."

"Then what do you expect me to say, Anakin?" she demanded, "I don't have some 'great mystery' answered secretly in my head. The Republic has always, and will always, be corrupt in some shape or form. Its the natural state of any government. Those with power will always abuse it in some way, shape, or form. The suffering and hardship of others half way across the galaxy does not matter to the general populace unless it directly affects them. Its just the way things are. If you want something done about slavery, Anakin, then you're going to have to do it yourself."

Anakin deflates. "I don't know how. Forget the slavers, how would I even start to deal with all the slave chips? Trying to free anyone or killing the slavers en-mass wouldn't stop someone from pressing a button and leaving no one left to save. I tried working on a scanner for them, but removing chips one at a time is never going to work, not before we'd be found out. I just..."

"I wish someone would help," he whispers, voice cracking.

She stares at him for a long moment. For all the faults the boy had, so easily goaded and offended and reckless, he had heart. That heart of his was too big, too many spots to stab, too many places to be wounded, so many places for the dark to seep in. That Supernova could so easily become a Black Hole...

"Ask me to help, when Sidious is dead and we wouldn't have him on our back," she offers, "And I'll go with you."

He startles. "What?"

There was so much to learn from the boy. So many answers that his power held deep within him...

"You'd have to leave the Order because they sure as hell wouldn't sponsor your efforts," she points out, "But... if you ever leave to go do something about slavery, I'll go with you."

He sates at her, wide eyed and speechless. The Dark Titan behind him ripples, and slowly, it fades away.

"Assuming we're both alive at that point that is," she muses, before letting a bit of sadism through, "It would be nice to kill slavers I don't have to worry feeling bad about."

Anakin blinks a few times, pulls back his stunned emotions, and snorts. "Way to ruin the moment Siri."

She grins at him. "I am who I am, Supernova."

He gives her a small smile, looking down for a moment before whispering, "Thank you."

"Still have to get there Anakin," she reminds him, "Now, stop hogging my couch you little shit!"

When Anakin eventually leaves, Siri sits alone on her couch, hands clasped together on her knees, head bowed. She stares blankly down at the floor for a long while, poking at the Force, trying to pry at the future, to see if they make it. If the pair of them will actually ever go on that little crusade, if anything will come from it...

All she feels from the Force is sadness.

Author's Note: Maybe 1 or two more chapters of this, before the next section, one more on Jinzler, then a bigger one on Rain . We're going on a field trip with the Rain one! It involves her past, can you guess where?

Review Responses: No one has correctly guessed the Cyborg yet :P.

Guest (1): It could become more, yes, but will it? If yes, how, if no, why? :D

Redshirt1453: Wait for next chapter for some Jinzler and Siri fun. Obi-Wan tries to defuse the embeded C'Baoth hate of the Sith by putting Jinzler and Siri in the same room. Guess how that's gonna turn out, lol.

M1dnight217: No, he doesn't as of this moment.

Nerdman3000: Unlike First and the Last, Rain certainly isn't endearing herself to him, lol. Zannah is likely to not have a physical body, I meant adult form as in the gatekeeper. As for your one-shot, go ahead, its not like I or anyone really has control of anything here. If we can make fanfiction of a story, then someone else can make fanfiction of a fanfiction. I don't personally mind, just give a nudge of where the idea came from so moar people come read this.

On that note I'm loosly aware that someone already did a spinoff of if Obi-Wan was captured with Siri, its on Ao3, dunno if its here, I haven't read much into it.

Connor Worsnop: Makin me blush over here.

Guest (2): Balanced, and Balancing the Force, are two separate things for me. One is a state of being, and one is an action.

I think I got asked this question awhile ago. Being Balanced, I personally lean towards you need 'both Light & Dark to be balanced', not necessarily as in using both Light and Dark, that's reserved for special beings, but as in you don't deny your opposite. I'm also somewhat fond of the #s approach, where there needs to be active users of both Light & Dark.

Balancing the Force is toppling those who have a enforced monopoly of their side of the Force. The Jedi lean towards this, but it IS the Sith who do this so much worse. The Veil of the Dark Side, and the attempted willing of the Force to be darker by the Sith, is what unbalanced the Force to begin with (if we go by the Plaguies Novel, which I am somewhat doing).

After all, the Sith never went away a thousand years prior, they were always there, so why wasn't born earlier if Anakin was meant to destroy them? Or even when the Jedai Order first split? Because no Sith had committed the madness Sidious and Plaguies had.

Everyone else: Thanks for the comments.