Blurred Sides (COMPLETE)

7.15.3

The Council met near the end of the day, the Temple a good deal quieter than it had been of late. Multiple systems had requested Jedi and clone troopers present on these planets and nearly all of the Knights available had been sent to supports them, taking their Padawans as well if they had them. The Masters had been kept on Coruscant for one last meeting before they dealt with the chaos head-on.

They had with them the lightsaber, headdress, and sash of the Inquisitor. They had been cleaned and sanitized, but not before multiple DNA tests had been run. None of them had turned up with a match. Apparently Ahsoka Tano was not the Inquisitor.

"At the very least, I wish we could have thanked the Inquisitor before she left us," Shaak Ti remarked. "If it had not been for her, we would be in a much worse place than we are now, even with these reports of riots and confusion."

"Are you referring to the Jedi Order," teased Luminara, "or yourself, in particular?"

The Jedi chuckled, and Yoda spoke up.

"Unfortunate this is, that killed the Sister, Skywalker has," he mused, "but rest on this, we cannot. Given her life to bring down the Dark Lord, she has, and something that we have never been able to do, that is. Allow her the dignity of her choice, we must."

"It's true," Mace Windu confirmed. "None of us realized that, and we've been taking orders from him for years. The Inquisitor somehow gained enough of his trust to understand what he was doing, and then got close enough to kill him successfully. No one else can say that, not one."

Plo Koon interlaced his fingers under his chin. "It's a shame that she was not a Jedi. We could have used someone with her skills and courage. She must have been extremely brave in order to risk her life like that."

"She did lie in order to do so, though, and she did have to commit crimes in order to earn the trust of the Sith," Kit Fisto pointed out. "If someone did that in the Temple, without orders to, we would have expelled them. Perhaps it is best that she was not among our numbers. We would not be able to reward her properly, because of our code."

"And may I point out that we definitely have Jedi with her skills and courage," Obi-Wan Kenobi pointed out. "Most of the time, however, we tend to label it as recklessness. In years past, we have called people like the Sister a liability, rather than an asset."

"Yes, Skywalker is certainly reckless," Adi Gallia joked. "I do not need any reminders, thank you."

Another round of laugher quietly circulated around the Jedi Masters.

"Let the Inquisitor rest in honor, we will," decided Yoda. "Remember her sacrifice, we will, but more to do, there is. Much healing left to do, there is, in the Order, in the Senate, and in the galaxy. Begun to purify, the Inquisitor has but finished, her work is not."

"Then what should we do first?" Mace asked. "We have already sent out our forces as peacekeepers, that's a start."

"I imagine the first steps lie in the Senate itself," mused Obi-Wan, stroking his beard. "They will need to elect a new Chancellor, and that will take time."

Ki-Adi-Mundi interjected. "There have been many policies and laws passed that have increased the power of the Chancellor. Perhaps those need to be reviewed. I doubt all of them were necessary, or even on the behalf of the people."

Shaak's face fell as she realized something. "Perhaps the first one on that list would be the declaration of war on the Separatists," she said almost to herself. "If Palpatine was the one who waged war on the Separatists, but he was also the one leading them, his intentions cannot have been innocent. Do we know exactly why the war was declared?"