The Wolf Pack

Chapter 40

Master Plo Koon had been right. The Council had not been amused by the confrontational nature of her speech. Even though she had managed to make her point clear, Kriari's approach had been frowned upon and considered too emotional for a Jedi. Yes, changes would be made in the training process of clones, Master Shaak Ti had vowed to supervise it herself, but the stop in production of clones was much harder to deal with.

Master Yoda Told Kriari he would speak to the Chancellor about putting a motion forward in the senate, but he warned her that it would be in the hands of their democratic system to approve of it or not. Not only that, but they would also ask Senators Amidala and Organa to draft and present a new law under which Clones would be given full rights as citizens of the Galactic Republic.

Kriari wasn't vain enough to ask for anything else, she had pushed them all enough by exposing them to the Order. It would be her fellow Jedi's responsibility to keep pushing the council to do better. Peer pressure was a wonderful thing at times. She was also aware that her behaviour would not be overlooked by her superiors, and while she didn't expect to be thrown out of the Order, she knew some sort of punishment was due.

One did not call a councilman a coward and got away with it unscathed.

So Kriari was now stuck in the Temple tutoring younglings and trying not to worry too much about her friends in the battlefield. She still made sure to let them know how the meeting had unfolded and asked Wolffe to give her updates on the Pack whenever he had time. Which was once a week at five a.m. standard time on sundays.

She wanted to scream at how overworked they all were, not that she hadn't known already, but still. And here she was, being forced to have a slow, peaceful life within the confines of the Jedi Temple while the clones were dying for them in distant star systems.

But Kriari had learned to make the most of her circumstances a while ago, so she taught younglings about the Force, about lightsaber dueling and about the war. She wanted to make sure the next generation would know what the clones had done for them even when they grew up and there were no clones left to tell their own stories. Kriari had some clones host special talks on military strategy and regulations so that once they became padawans they would know how to behave properly when faced with their troops.

She told war stories a lot. Happy, scary, sad and confusing her stories had younglings sitting in silent wonder as they imagined brave warriors sailing across the galaxy to make it a better place. Kriari did her best so that the future commanders of the GAR were up to par with their troops and so they wouldn't feel underqualified like she had in the beginning.

She wanted to make sure they did better than she had, and that by knowing the circumstances around the GAR, they would be more considerate and understanding towards the clones. She knew she might be doing a little too much in the eyes of some members of the army -they weren't fragile enough to let a padawan's ignorance hurt them- but she felt she had to do something.

Kriari had also realized there was a limit to the trust she could put in the Jedi Order; they were too set in their ways to be able to do anything in an emergency. She understood why, but she wasn't willing to take any chances. So Kriari started making arrangements for herself and her friends. She realized that, if she were to part with the Order, she would have nothing left and no way to help the clones on the front lines. So Kriari taught younglings, and she started to build herself a life outside the temple.

In the lower levels of Coruscant, she made contacts, she made sure to buy and stock fully a safe house, as well as find herself a way out of the planet in case of an emergency. Thankfully, Kriari hadn't just made friends with clones throughout her life, and her contacts were more than happy to return the favors she had done.

Kriari didn't hide this from either of her masters, and even if neither of them agreed with her on her distrust for the Order as a whole, they didn't stop her from seeking her independence. They had both learned long ago that suppressing the self was not Kriari's path in the Force. On the contrary, they did their best to support her. Master Plo helped her navigate the underworld and taught her to be invisible even in plain sight, and Master Kenobi introduced her to his own contacts within the city so that she could build a network for herself once the time came.

During one of her rare days off, Kriari wandered down into the lower levels of the city planet. The shadiest part of town was her target, and over the month she had been stranded in Coruscant, she had made it a point to come by the place at least once a week. The receptionist at the tattoo parlor didn't even look up when the slide door closed behind her. He had been expecting her and was not about to stop smoking or reading the holonews for her.

It was better that way.

Kriari smirked under the hood of her poncho and walked towards the back lounge. The entire place was lit with neon signs and blue lights to make the ambiance a lot darker than it needed to be, but she supposed it added to the effect. Music rumbled throughout the place and the heavy base made the entire place feel like it was vibrating.

She liked the place very much, it was a breath of fresh air when it came to all the other places she had been to. Here it was still chaotic and loud, but not as violent or dangerous as the battlefield. She supposed it was the whole point of blasting music: the silence was too loud.

"You're early again..." The voice greeted her when she stepped into the las booth.

The figure of the tattoo artist was hunched over another client's arm, steadily moving the tattoo gun through the stencil like he had been doing it for years. When Kriari didn't answer, the low buzzing of the tattoo gun stopped and the man turned to his client.

"We're all done for the day, Jek. We'll get started on the shading next week."

The client looked over the line work for his design and smiled. He was missing a few teeth.

"Thanks, Pal. You always deliver the best."

The tattoo artist ran a hand through his curly, shoulder- length hair and chuckled.

"I do my best. Take care, Jek."

The client walked out of the booth and only when he was out of earshot did the tattoo artist turn to face Kriari.

"So... have you staged a coup d'etat with your youngling battalion yet?" He chuckled as he stood up and walked towards her on two prosthetic steel legs.

"Not yet, but most of them are starting to question their masters already, which is good. Independent thinking is necessary in an organization that big and that old."

"That was never a problem for you, was it, vod'ika?"

Kriari chuckled and started taking her poncho off so he could finally finish her tattoo.

"Not for a moment, Art".