Afterglow | The Clone Wars

56 | Revenge

Although around her the dusty shipping dock buzzed with smugglers and questionable, hooded individuals that were either loading or unloading their vessels, she still managed to lose herself in the enigma of her thoughts as she twirled the pebble in the air with her fingers. Nobody seemed to notice as she stood at the edge of the platform near a scrappy ship with a scarf pulled up to her nose, aimlessly allowing for a small rock to levitate by means of the force.

It went to show just how unobservant the people of this galaxy truly are. A Jedi was in their midst. Republic-serving, saber-wielding beings that tend to get a bad rap in these parts. Half of the civilians in the galaxy deny their existence, not having seen one with their own eyes. Others more fortunate, although that label is up for debate, have come in contact with them. However not just only them, but they've come in contact with their war as well.

Whenever a Jedi goes, war is never far behind. With war, comes destruction. Not even the most skilled and considerate Jedi can prohibit the toll that the Clone War has taken on the inhabitants of the galaxy. Dakota sees it in the poverty of the lower-class, in the eyes of frightened children, and in the tone of the people. Good citizens are forced to resort to piracy and deception in order to survive.

She sits high and mighty at the Temple, while children lay starving in the streets. It shook her to the core. Her eyes followed the pebble as it swirled.

"I've heard many times from many people that you're peacekeepers-" Rex's voice echoed in her mind. She pressed her lips together tightly "-yet you're acting Generals in the Grand Army of the Republic?"

"That's what we were meant to be" she had told him.

Becoming an army general went against everything that she was taught as a youngling. The masters said that it was the will of the force, for the sake and the well-being of the Republic. It's people needed Jedi to protect them from the separatists.

Jedi were suppose to be neutral. That's how it always was. Their only sworn enemy was the darkness that the evil side of the force brought, not the other end of the political spectrum.

Ventress before was her enemy, a sith apprentice and a separatist, yet she pulled her free from the jaws of death and restored her to life. That action tarnished Dakota's preconceptions of who the enemy was and who they could be.

It left her wondering just who the Republic was fighting against. If the other side have soul's as well, if they have compassion and reason just as she does, then... does that mean she's fighting herself?

The moment she left Kalevala with Master Windu, her war began. Now it was drawing to a close, and the resolution is her final decision. Return to what she knows, or depart for the unknown? The opportunity has presented itself. It's now or never. All that she knew before believes her to be dead.