Once More Unto the Breach

[Strunkriidiisk]

@Insufficient Dakka

Your active systems spark into life. Where are you? The last you remember, you were on that forest moon, Endor, at the celebration of the Empire's defeat.

You're in a dark alcove, evidently an astromech storage cubby, based on the shape and the charging hardware plugged into your chassis. You quickly run a check, interfacing with the systems around you through the convenient hard connection.

Starship. Nubian J-Type 327, modified - Naboo Royal Transport, Serial number...

You let loose a confused, inarticulate burst of chatter - the equivalent in Basic would be something like "Huh?"

Systems Check...

No memory core corruption detected.

No chassis damage detected.

All systems nominal.

You can't help but feel that it's impossible, despite what your systems and the ship's own are reporting. This ship... you hadn't been on this ship in thirty-two standard years. How is this possible?

@Oh I am slain!

You awaken with a cry, sitting bolt upright, hands - Force, your hands, how are they suddenly back? - flying to your throat reflexively. No damage there, no burn; you look down at your arms, and yank back the sleeves of the sleeping tunic you're wearing. Normal, unblemished - albeit weathered with age - skin, no injury there either, and no scarring. There's not one of the near-imperceptible seams that synth-skin-covered prosthetics leave, nor any quiet whirring of servos. You are whole, somehow.

The last you remember was the briefest moment of heat and pain as the Skywalker boy gave in to his hate and executed you. How are you alive? You look about the room, and what you see surprises you. The quarters are sparse, containing little more than a chair and desk aside from the simple bed you are sitting on, and the construction is simple, smooth stone, painted an inoffensive beige colour. You know this room, though the memory is more than a decade distant. Your quarters at the Jedi Temple, when you were still a member of the Order.

How?

@lancelot

You come to amidst piles of semi-organized junk, from old chronos to swoop bike parts, a ratty broom in hand. There's sand and dust everywhere, and you take in the white-tan of the rough-surfaced walls. Tatooine.

Everything seems... bigger. You register that you actually feel something in your hands for the first time in twenty years, and look down at them.

Actual flesh-and-blood hands, rough and callused on the palms, not prosthetics sheathed in metal and black polymers. Your breath quickens despite itself, and some small part of your mind idly notes that you haven't breathed this easily in decades.

"Boy!" snaps a distantly familiar, despised voice. You turn, sensing Watto through the Force before you see the pudgy Toydarian looming, wings beating madly to give him extra height.

What is this?

@Estro

You snap into consciousness, feeling a nostalgic pressure of Force signatures all round you. You open your eyes and glance around in surprise. You are in the Temple, and you feel the presences of the Order everywhere - presences you had felt cruelly snuffed out like candle flames so many years ago. You wonder if this was some sort of afterlife. The last you remember, you were in your hut on Dagobah with Luke, feeling your life fade away.

What is going on?

@UbeOne

You snap into consciousness. You open your eyes and glance around in surprise. You are in the Temple; how? The last you remember, Skywalker had betrayed you for the Force-damned Sith and his lies, and you found yourself hurled out of a window, crippled by plasma-shocks, and then there was a sudden impact and oblivion.

What?

@Alpha Zerg

You snap into consciousness. You open your eyes and glance around in surprise. You are in the Temple; how? The last thing you remember was the burn of a lightsaber from that Force-damned Sith, Palpatine. How?

 

[Oh I am slain!]

You awaken with a cry, sitting bolt upright, hands - Force, your hands, how are they suddenly back? - flying to your throat reflexively. No damage there, no burn; you look down at your arms, and yank back the sleeves of the sleeping tunic you're wearing. Normal, unblemished - albeit weathered with age - skin, no injury there either, and no scarring. There's not one of the near-imperceptible seams that synth-skin-covered prosthetics leave, nor any quiet whirring of servos. You are whole, somehow.

The last you remember was the briefest moment of heat and pain as the Skywalker boy gave in to his hate and executed you. How are you alive? You look about the room, and what you see surprises you. The quarters are sparse, containing little more than a chair and desk aside from the simple bed you are sitting on, and the construction is simple, smooth stone, painted an inoffensive beige colour. You know this room, though the memory is more than a decade distant. Your quarters at the Jedi Temple, when you were still a member of the Order.

Click to shrink...

---

---

- Dooku -​

This...this is quite the detailed illusion. Has his mind been preserved in some way, after the death of his body?

This may be difficult to escape. Should he escape? Neither allies nor enemies ought to be able to illustrate such an accurate image of his former Temple room, so his own mind may be compromised.

Dooku slowly breathes in and out as he assumes a meditative sitting pose. Perhaps a probing of the Force can reveal what his tricked--missing?--external senses cannot. He begins using that most basic of skills, Force Sensing, but with the strength of decades of experience. Methodically, he prepares to acquire some answers. Where is he? Do his force abilities still function as normal in this illusion? What guidance can the Force provide to illuminate his situation?

---

---

 

[UbeOne]

You snap into consciousness. You open your eyes and glance around in surprise. You are in the Temple; how? The last you remember, Skywalker had betrayed you for the Force-damned Sith and his lies, and you found yourself hurled out of a window, crippled by plasma-shocks, and then there was a sudden impact and oblivion.

What?

Click to shrink...

Awakening
Name: Mace Windu
Location: Jedi Temple?
Status: Disoriented

I opened my eyes to find myself... In my quarters? In the Temple? And I still have both hands? What?

Just moments before, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker betrayed me, choosing to aid Darth Sidious, believing in the Sith Lord's lies. It may not be completely his fault, however, since I was rather metaphorically blind in hindsight.

While I was fighting the Chancellor, using Vaapad to counter his use of the Dark Side, I focused on finding and later on exploiting his shatterpoints. I discovered two of them: his trust in Skywalker, and his involvement in many terrible things to come. Considering that he had control of the Senate and the Courts, he was likely aiming to become an Emperor of an Empire or something. As such, I could not let him live, for he threatened the very survival of the Republic, the bastion of galactic peace and civilization.

Unfortunately, I forgot to account for one factor, the presence of Anakin himself, which was a grievous mistake on my part. I essentially had tunnel vision, and failed to sense his shatterpoint. The Sith must have seen it somehow and used it for his own ends, for what other reason would a good Jedi like Skywalker willingly aid a Sith anyway? He may not always be able to maintain calm and serenity, and he may have possible attachment issues, yet he was ultimately a defender of the light. He was even supposed to be the Chosen One, the person who was supposed to bring balance to the Force and banish the darkness. What happened? What went wrong? If only I can somehow go back in time...

The last things I remembered before finding myself in the Temple, somehow alive, were Anakin cutting off my sword hand, followed by Sidious blasting me into a world of pain via a barrage of Force Lightning, then being telekinetically thrown outside the office, plunging into certain death...

I should be dead then. Or rather, I should be one with the Force then, since there is no death. There is the Force. How am I alive then? With both hands at that? Or is this just what "being one with the Force" looks like? What's going on, really?

...The Force certainly works in mysterious ways. Perhaps I can find answers in it. So I chose to sit down, close my eyes, control my breathing, and meditate deeply into the Force, searching for answers and guidance, as well as a sense of the general situation...

 

[lancelot]

You come to amidst piles of semi-organized junk, from old chronos to swoop bike parts, a ratty broom in hand. There's sand and dust everywhere, and you take in the white-tan of the rough-surfaced walls. Tatooine.

Everything seems... bigger. You register that you actually feel something in your hands for the first time in twenty years, and look down at them.

Actual flesh-and-blood hands, rough and callused on the palms, not prosthetics sheathed in metal and black polymers. Your breath quickens despite itself, and some small part of your mind idly notes that you haven't breathed this easily in decades.

"Boy!" snaps a distantly familiar, despised voice. You turn, sensing Watto through the Force before you see the pudgy Toydarian looming, wings beating madly to give him extra height.

What is this?

Click to shrink...

For a moment just for a moment I instinctively reach out to pop the Toydarian head right off his body, and the force that felt like a river following my commands, now felt like an ocean. That more than anything shocks me out of my instincts before the force can truly gather. Instead I take a long deep breath, I could feel the force so I wasn't dead, my body was whole and young again, the people that I've lost flash behind my eyes. It was too good a to be true, but it wasn't something I could pass up a second chance. Watto was less than nothing after all I've been through so I turned to face him gave him up simple blank look and asked. "What is it Watto?"

 

[Estro]

You snap into consciousness, feeling a nostalgic pressure of Force signatures all round you. You open your eyes and glance around in surprise. You are in the Temple, and you feel the presences of the Order everywhere - presences you had felt cruelly snuffed out like candle flames so many years ago. You wonder if this was some sort of afterlife. The last you remember, you were in your hut on Dagobah with Luke, feeling your life fade away.

What is going on?

Click to shrink...

It appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, the temple back when the Jedi were in full bloom. I blinked my eyes, and delved into the force. A sea of minds were around him, once he reconised from ages past: Windu, Nu, Bouri. Tyvokka, the old wookie master was gone, which placed this in the 8 years before Naboo. Most of the other Masters, at full stretch, could feel all of the minds in the Headquarters, some extending perhaps a mile or so further. When I delved, I felt almost a billion people, each with there own desires and thoughts. I had not been idle in my exile, and my many years of meditation showed in my connection to the force.

No Illusion could create this, the sense of the force, the living bustle of a planet. It was, it seemed, the past remade new.

And if it was...

I finally opened my eyes, and called up the droid that kept my small meditation room clean as well as reminding me that I needed to eat. Its functions were limited, but it served to tell me the date: almost one year after the Great Resycronisation. To the day, it would be when Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-wan Kenobi were to meet with the trade federation. What ever put me here has put me just before everything happens. To see I can can do better the second time around? For it's own sick amusement? For it was certainly a thing now, for it to deposit me at this moment in time.

But there is no use in procrastinating. The force was darkening, and Palaptine was putting his last pawns into place before the game began. Before, I managed to almost beat you while I didn't know I was playing. Now... now things would be different.

But always first things first. As a general, whose name has been lost to time once said: Destroy the enemy within, before you face the enemy without.

"For my use have meeting room sixteen set up. Me there have dooku meet, for things to discuss with him, I have. And provided, ensure that qiiluran tea is."

I miss my tea. It couldn't grow on Dagohba due to the mists and high oxygen content in the atmosphere. And now the first time I drink it is with a budding Sith. Herh Herh Herh.

Just because Scientists can't prove one of the fundamental forces of the universe is Irony, doesn't meant that is it isn't.

 

[Alpha Zerg]

You snap into consciousness. You open your eyes and glance around in surprise. You are in the Temple; how? The last thing you remember was the burn of a lightsaber from that Force-damned Sith, Palpatine. How?

Click to shrink...

My quarters were just as spartan as I remembered them. I didn't spend too much time in them, anyway, but I had to make some idle observations while my mind shied away from the thought of my death.
The last thing that I remembered was Palpatine's saber flashing, and the more I think about it, I can only come up with two possible answers.

Either I received the most detailed force vision in recorded history, spanning years of my own life... Or the Force sent my being back to make things right. Either way, I realized that Palpatine must die, this time around. For a brief second I debated sharing this vision with the council immediately, but then, after a brief feeling of discomfort from the Force around me, I decided not to. Not yet. The council would take too long to decide, just as it had last time, and by the time they had made a decision... It would be too late. Again.

No. I would confide my vision only in Master Yoda. He would have the wisdom to help me plan the upcoming events...

Nobody has received a true vision from the Force since the Force became clouded by the Dark side. Not even Yoda himself. Something that I now recognized as Palpatine's doing.
I thought some further about the subject before my mind flashed to an image of a beautiful blue twi'lek face. What of Aayla?

What happened to Aayla and the rest of the Jedi Order after I was cut down? Yoda could not have beaten Palpatine on his own, and...
My stomach sank.

Somehow the Sith would have killed them all. Somehow - Aayla! My Aayla!

My mind burned with rage at the thought of her death. Then I realised that the Clone Wars had not yet started. The Seperatists were just a small movement that had not yet gotten the support of Count Dooku, and everything could be prevented.

'Calm.'

I needed to be calm. I could not let anger burn uncontrolled in my body. I needed - I breathed in and out, sitting up and crossing my legs from where I was on my bed - calm.

My head slowly cleared, but my rage did not dissipate. It subsided, yes, but thoughts of mine and Aayla's deaths, as well as what Palpatine would have done after killing me, made it so that I couldn't clear my rage completely.

I could picture it - if Aayla hadn't been killed immediately, she was probably sold to another slaver and-

I focused on the Force and let myself dissipate. It would not help to have my mind clouded by the Dark side when I started my day.

 

[Insufficient Dakka]

Your active systems spark into life. Where are you? The last you remember, you were on that forest moon, Endor, at the celebration of the Empire's defeat.

You're in a dark alcove, evidently an astromech storage cubby, based on the shape and the charging hardware plugged into your chassis. You quickly run a check, interfacing with the systems around you through the convenient hard connection.

Starship. Nubian J-Type 327, modified - Naboo Royal Transport, Serial number...

You let loose a confused, inarticulate burst of chatter - the equivalent in Basic would be something like "Huh?"

Systems Check...

No memory core corruption detected.

No chassis damage detected.

All systems nominal.

You can't help but feel that it's impossible, despite what your systems and the ship's own are reporting. This ship... you hadn't been on this ship in thirty-two standard years. How is this possible?

Click to shrink...

This couldn't be happening. Where were the others? R2'd be shocked if he just found out this ship were still in use, let alone actually on it. The first order of business would be detaching himself from the charging port, and then finding something to interface with to get more information. He shouldn't be in major need of emergency, and figuring out if he'd somehow had his memory altered without leaving a trace of it. He'd have to make sure he wasn't seen, too. If there were some fraction of The Empire left who had taken him he couldn't allow them to know he was searching about.

 

[Strunkriidiisk]

---

---

- Dooku -​

This...this is quite the detailed illusion. Has his mind been preserved in some way, after the death of his body?

This may be difficult to escape. Should he escape? Neither allies nor enemies ought to be able to illustrate such an accurate image of his former Temple room, so his own mind may be compromised.

Dooku slowly breathes in and out as he assumes a meditative sitting pose. Perhaps a probing of the Force can reveal what his tricked--missing?--external senses cannot. He begins using that most basic of skills, Force Sensing, but with the strength of decades of experience. Methodically, he prepares to acquire some answers. Where is he? Do his force abilities still function as normal in this illusion? What guidance can the Force provide to illuminate his situation?

---

---

Click to shrink...

From what you can tell, the presence of the Dark Side, while still adding its distinctive tinges to the all-encompassing energies of the Force, is much weakened from what it was during the war. Moreover, you feel that all of the Force signatures you can sense within the Temple are unique, and that several of them are from Jedi you know for a fact are years dead.

The future is... muddled, even worse than what you can remember it being... before? You aren't certain; this seems far too detailed for any sort of illusion. There aren't any noticeable inconsistencies.

You turn your mind over to your abilities. With the ease of long practice, you are able to lift your lightsaber from the desk and bring it to float in front of you. You concentrate, willing the hilt to dissect itself with surgical precision, then reassemble it with the same ease. You let the weapon drop, and catch it in hand, before holding up the other, empty one. Tiny arcs of plasma discharge between your fingers, flickering about in a hypnotic pattern across your hand. Satisfied that your abilities are functioning as they should, you allow the Force-spawned energy to fade.

There is a sudden interruption, a chime from the door, before a small ovoid messenger droid floats in.

"Master Dooku, Master Yoda wishes to speak with you in Meeting Room Sixteen."

Your old master wishes to speak with you? This is new. Perhaps this is an illusion, one of his creation. Is the Grandmaster truly capable of this sort of this sort of feat, though? And if he were, why not make use of it earlier in the war?

Perplexed, you none the less rise, dressing quickly and clipping your lightsaber to your belt, before exiting your quarters and starting toward the specified location.

Awakening
Name: Mace Windu
Location: Jedi Temple?
Status: Disoriented

I opened my eyes to find myself... In my quarters? In the Temple? And I still have both hands? What?

Just moments before, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker betrayed me, choosing to aid Darth Sidious, believing in the Sith Lord's lies. It may not be completely his fault, however, since I was rather metaphorically blind in hindsight.

While I was fighting the Chancellor, using Vaapad to counter his use of the Dark Side, I focused on finding and later on exploiting his shatterpoints. I discovered two of them: his trust in Skywalker, and his involvement in many terrible things to come. Considering that he had control of the Senate and the Courts, he was likely aiming to become an Emperor of an Empire or something. As such, I could not let him live, for he threatened the very survival of the Republic, the bastion of galactic peace and civilization.

Unfortunately, I forgot to account for one factor, the presence of Anakin himself, which was a grievous mistake on my part. I essentially had tunnel vision, and failed to sense his shatterpoint. The Sith must have seen it somehow and used it for his own ends, for what other reason would a good Jedi like Skywalker willingly aid a Sith anyway? He may not always be able to maintain calm and serenity, and he may have possible attachment issues, yet he was ultimately a defender of the light. He was even supposed to be the Chosen One, the person who was supposed to bring balance to the Force and banish the darkness. What happened? What went wrong? If only I can somehow go back in time...

The last things I remembered before finding myself in the Temple, somehow alive, were Anakin cutting off my sword hand, followed by Sidious blasting me into a world of pain via a barrage of Force Lightning, then being telekinetically thrown outside the office, plunging into certain death...

I should be dead then. Or rather, I should be one with the Force then, since there is no death. There is the Force. How am I alive then? With both hands at that? Or is this just what "being one with the Force" looks like? What's going on, really?

...The Force certainly works in mysterious ways. Perhaps I can find answers in it. So I chose to sit down, close my eyes, control my breathing, and meditate deeply into the Force, searching for answers and guidance, as well as a sense of the general situation...

Click to shrink...

The Force is clearer than you've felt it be in years. The fog of the Dark Side, once choking the simple purity of the energies of life, has lifted. It is still present, but for the moment everything feels much clearer.

In fact, everything feels as it did more than a decade ago, before Master Jinn brought the Skywalker boy before the Council for judgement.

...Wait. You feel a strange rhythm from a presence you immediately recognize as Yoda, and 'look' more carefully. His signature is wrong; you remember how all of the Jedi's signatures had changed over the war, twisted by the ongoing conflict. The Grandmaster feels as careworn as he did during those years, but just about everyone else doesn't. How?

For a moment just for a moment I instinctively reach out to pop the Toydarian head right off his body, and the force that felt like a river following my commands, now felt like an ocean. That more than anything shocks me out of my instincts before the force can truly gather. Instead I take a long deep breath, I could feel the force so I wasn't dead, my body was whole and young again, the people that I've lost flash behind my eyes. It was too good a to be true, but it wasn't something I could pass up a second chance. Watto was less than nothing after all I've been through so I turned to face him gave him up simple blank look and asked. "What is it Watto?"

Click to shrink...

"Just get back to work, boy," the alien says gruffly. "Shop's not going to clean itself. Get to it and I might not make you stay too late." He then turns back around and flutters to the front of the shop, where you can hear him beginning his usual spiel to hawk his goods to everyone within earshot.

It appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, the temple back when the Jedi were in full bloom. I blinked my eyes, and delved into the force. A sea of minds were around him, once he reconised from ages past: Windu, Nu, Bouri. Tyvokka, the old wookie master was gone, which placed this in the 8 years before Naboo. Most of the other Masters, at full stretch, could feel all of the minds in the Headquarters, some extending perhaps a mile or so further. When I delved, I felt almost a billion people, each with there own desires and thoughts. I had not been idle in my exile, and my many years of meditation showed in my connection to the force.

No Illusion could create this, the sense of the force, the living bustle of a planet. It was, it seemed, the past remade new.

And if it was...

I finally opened my eyes, and called up the droid that kept my small meditation room clean as well as reminding me that I needed to eat. Its functions were limited, but it served to tell me the date: almost one year after the Great Resycronisation. To the day, it would be when Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-wan Kenobi were to meet with the trade federation. What ever put me here has put me just before everything happens. To see I can can do better the second time around? For it's own sick amusement? For it was certainly a thing now, for it to deposit me at this moment in time.

But there is no use in procrastinating. The force was darkening, and Palaptine was putting his last pawns into place before the game began. Before, I managed to almost beat you while I didn't know I was playing. Now... now things would be different.

But always first things first. As a general, whose name has been lost to time once said: Destroy the enemy within, before you face the enemy without.

"For my use have meeting room sixteen set up. Me there have dooku meet, for things to discuss with him, I have. And provided, ensure that qiiluran tea is."

I miss my tea. It couldn't grow on Dagohba due to the mists and high oxygen content in the atmosphere. And now the first time I drink it is with a budding Sith. Herh Herh Herh.

Just because Scientists can't prove one of the fundamental forces of the universe is Irony, doesn't meant that is it isn't.

Click to shrink...

You aren't waiting long before Dooku walks in. The Human sports a suspicious expression on his face, one that you are certain you'd never seen before whilst Dooku was still a member of the Temple. You take a thoughtful sip of your tea - wonderful tea, you hadn't even realized how much you'd missed it - and ponder what to say.

My quarters were just as spartan as I remembered them. I didn't spend too much time in them, anyway, but I had to make some idle observations while my mind shied away from the thought of my death.
The last thing that I remembered was Palpatine's saber flashing, and the more I think about it, I can only come up with two possible answers.

Either I received the most detailed force vision in recorded history, spanning years of my own life... Or the Force sent my being back to make things right. Either way, I realized that Palpatine must die, this time around. For a brief second I debated sharing this vision with the council immediately, but then, after a brief feeling of discomfort from the Force around me, I decided not to. Not yet. The council would take too long to decide, just as it had last time, and by the time they had made a decision... It would be too late. Again.

No. I would confide my vision only in Master Yoda. He would have the wisdom to help me plan the upcoming events...

Nobody has received a true vision from the Force since the Force became clouded by the Dark side. Not even Yoda himself. Something that I now recognized as Palpatine's doing.
I thought some further about the subject before my mind flashed to an image of a beautiful blue twi'lek face. What of Aayla?

What happened to Aayla and the rest of the Jedi Order after I was cut down? Yoda could not have beaten Palpatine on his own, and...
My stomach sank.

Somehow the Sith would have killed them all. Somehow - Aayla! My Aayla!

My mind burned with rage at the thought of her death. Then I realised that the Clone Wars had not yet started. The Seperatists were just a small movement that had not yet gotten the support of Count Dooku, and everything could be prevented.

'Calm.'

I needed to be calm. I could not let anger burn uncontrolled in my body. I needed - I breathed in and out, sitting up and crossing my legs from where I was on my bed - calm.

My head slowly cleared, but my rage did not dissipate. It subsided, yes, but thoughts of mine and Aayla's deaths, as well as what Palpatine would have done after killing me, made it so that I couldn't clear my rage completely.

I could picture it - if Aayla hadn't been killed immediately, she was probably sold to another slaver and-

I focused on the Force and let myself dissipate. It would not help to have my mind clouded by the Dark side when I started my day.

Click to shrink...

The gentle rhythms of the Force serve well to soothe your fury, even with the distinct pall of the Dark Side, comparatively weak compared to 'before' - then? That which would be? - but still unmistakably present.

You come back to yourself, feeling much better. You wonder what you ought to do.

This couldn't be happening. Where were the others? R2'd be shocked if he just found out this ship were still in use, let alone actually on it. The first order of business would be detaching himself from the charging port, and then finding something to interface with to get more information. He shouldn't be in major need of emergency, and figuring out if he'd somehow had his memory altered without leaving a trace of it. He'd have to make sure he wasn't seen, too. If there were some fraction of The Empire left who had taken him he couldn't allow them to know he was searching about.

Click to shrink...

It isn't but the work of a moment to decouple from the charging station, and you proceed quickly down to the hatch that separates the astromech compartment from the rest of the ship. A moment spent slicing into the control systems deactivates the lock on the hatch, and it slides open with a whisper. You roll out into the hallway. No organics present.

 

[UbeOne]

The Force is clearer than you've felt it be in years. The fog of the Dark Side, once choking the simple purity of the energies of life, has lifted. It is still present, but for the moment everything feels much clearer.

In fact, everything feels as it did more than a decade ago, before Master Jinn brought the Skywalker boy before the Council for judgement.

...Wait. You feel a strange rhythm from a presence you immediately recognize as Yoda, and 'look' more carefully. His signature is wrong; you remember how all of the Jedi's signatures had changed over the war, twisted by the ongoing conflict. The Grandmaster feels as careworn as he did during those years, but just about everyone else doesn't. How?

Click to shrink...

Anomaly
Name: Mace Windu
Location: Personal Quarters, Jedi Temple
Status: Confused

I came out of my meditation with more questions than answers. What is going on here? Why does everything feel much lighter and clearer, like the time before Anakin came in? Before the veil of the Dark Side was dropped on us? And then there's Master Yoda. It's as if he fought through the Clone Wars, unlike everyone else. How anachronistic. Why is that so? ...Did I somehow travel to the past or something? Is it possible that Master Yoda is in the same situation as me? The Force is capable of many things, but time travel? ...Then again, despite the Order existing for a millennium or so, the Force is as mysterious as ever to us Jedi. There is still much to learn...

*Sigh* When it comes to pondering on matters of the Force, Master Yoda is infinitely wiser than me on that front. Perhaps I could seek his wisdom regarding my situation, and ask for guidance on what is going on and on what to do, or at least work together with him on that task, since I'm not quite sure what to make of all this. Things just don't add up...

To that end, I made sure that I was dressed in my Jedi robes, with my lightsaber at my side, then proceeded to step out of my quarters and walk towards Master Yoda, using my Force senses to seek him out...

 

[Oh I am slain!]

Perplexed, you none the less rise, dressing quickly and clipping your lightsaber to your belt, before exiting your quarters and starting toward the specified location.

Click to shrink...

You aren't waiting long before Dooku walks in. The Human sports a suspicious expression on his face, one that you are certain you'd never seen before whilst Dooku was still a member of the Temple. You take a thoughtful sip of your tea - wonderful tea, you hadn't even realized how much you'd missed it - and ponder what to say.

Click to shrink...

---

---

- Dooku -​

Dooku glides into the room and marvels at the sight. How long has it been since he last met Master Yoda in such casual circumstances?

Is Yoda responsible for all this? Is he merely a figment of imagination? Or is Dooku somehow back in the past? The Force works in mysterious ways, after all.

In all cases, Dooku calculates that it would safest to maintain both outer and inner serenity. Yoda would be one of the few who could see past his physical demeanor. And since he has no hint of the meeting's topic, it would be safest to let Yoda speak first.

But before that, there's an urgent matter. What is that terrible smell, wafting from Yoda's cup of tea? Does he have no sense of taste nor smell?

Fortunately, Dooku spots a jar of ceremony-grade Sapir tea leaves residing on the side table. Long has it been since Dooku last savored Sapir tea. And more importantly, when brewed, it provides a full, floral, slightly sweet aroma that can displace unpleasant stenches. Dooku gives Yoda a slight nod before meticulously making a cup of tea for himself, allowing the soothing scent of the new tea to wash through the room.

---

---

 

[Estro]

Perplexed, you none the less rise, dressing quickly and clipping your lightsaber to your belt, before exiting your quarters and starting toward the specified location.

Click to shrink...

You aren't waiting long before Dooku walks in. The Human sports a suspicious expression on his face, one that you are certain you'd never seen before whilst Dooku was still a member of the Temple. You take a thoughtful sip of your tea - wonderful tea, you hadn't even realized how much you'd missed it - and ponder what to say.

Click to shrink...

Fortunately, Dooku spots a jar of ceremony-grade Sapir tea leaves residing on the side table. Long has it been since Dooku last savored Sapir tea. And more importantly, when brewed, it provides a full, floral, slightly sweet aroma that can displace unpleasant stenches. Dooku gives Yoda a slight nod before meticulously making a cup of tea for himself, allowing the soothing scent of the new tea to wash through the room.

Click to shrink...

I wait for Dooku to finish making himself a cup of Sapir tea, his faveourtie blend, and sit down. Once he had and was enjoying the sweet taste and slightly spasmolyic effects of that tea, I delved into the force. He was not as I expected him. His body was younger than when the last met, and was certainly less tainted by the dark side. His mind, however, was battle worn and tired – which should not be the case, no war had happened since Tyvokka died. Hmmmmmm.

"Shown me images far into the future, the force has. And there I saw you, your actions the future balanced atop. Me dooku tell, the dark side have, what appeal does. Matter not, it does. Long in reign has the light, so grow must darkness to counter. For approaches the prophecy does. What say you hmmmm?"

This was really excellent tea.

 

[lancelot]

"Just get back to work, boy," the alien says gruffly. "Shop's not going to clean itself. Get to it and I might not make you stay too late." He then turns back around and flutters to the front of the shop, where you can hear him beginning his usual spiel to hawk his goods to everyone within earshot.

Click to shrink...

As the droids got about their work Anakin found in out of the way spots to meditate. An old hand at such he found himself dropping into the force by instinct alone, what is found brought both frustration and hope. His body was no longer tainted by years and years of use of the dark side without restraint before he learn to control his emotions. That helped a great deal and so does the memory of his son, that Luke believed in him suddenly so completely... He could not betray that trust, would not.

However he was not the boy that Padme would one day fall in love with. But he could find a middle ground, the memories of his childhood we're somehow strong and fresh that part of him was no longer faded. To become something closer to the man Padme loves, and as a father worthy of a son's faith he would change himself if only a little. Memories and personality of the young boy named Anakin Skywalker we pulled closer to the surface, they did not become a shell to hide behind instead they fused themselves to a man full of regrets, pain, and resolve.

Sometime later something new opened its eyes in that little junkyard, a greater focus, a long lost optimism, and peerless resolve drove Anakin now. Focusing on one of his largest regrets as he glanced around at the various junk a plan formed. After keeping an eye on the force presences around him, Anakin picked up a data pad next to him and started creating a simple but robust design even as pieces around the junkyard tore themselves free and made their way to him, attaching and fusing in various ways. It would have a compatible range to most blaster rifles, cheap to build and maintain, effective even though droid sized shield generators, and could take the kind of beating you to expect on a battlefield. It would be a design needed in the days to come, however he was honest with himself enough to admit that was only a bonus to the fact that it would single handedly pay for the freedom of his mother and that was far more important.

Still considering what he was about to get into he also put together a much higher quality ion pistol, to replace the old and bulky refurbished ion rifle of years past. By the time it was done one of the suns were starting to set, and the droids had finished their work, well his work. Hiding the rifle in the design pad where Watto would never look for it, and stuffing the ion pistol in the back of his belt under his shirt he took a long deep breath, and clamped down very very hard on his emotions. The last thing anybody needed was for Anakin Skywalker to have an emotional breakdown when he saw his mother again for the first time in years / hours.

 

[Alpha Zerg]

I settled back onto my bed, my legs crossed, and reopened my eyes. My chronometer let me know that only half an hour had passed since I had begun meditating, but I needed to start the day. Getting up, I reached out my hand and Pulled my robes and lightsaber to me, slipping my arms through the sleeves and clipping the lightsaber to my waist while standing.

I walked to my small bathroom, grabbed the ultrasound cleaner and swiped it over my teeth. Then I left my quarters for the cafeteria, a smile growing on my face. The future could wait - I was hungry.

 

[Insufficient Dakka]

It isn't but the work of a moment to decouple from the charging station, and you proceed quickly down to the hatch that separates the astromech compartment from the rest of the ship. A moment spent slicing into the control systems deactivates the lock on the hatch, and it slides open with a whisper. You roll out into the hallway. No organics present.

Click to shrink...

A miniscule amount of time was spent making sure the shock arm was operational, before making way to somewhere he could more easily access the ship's data.

R2 still couldn't help but worry over who could have taken him here. Were there Imperial spies after the rebellion who had taken the droid? If so, why? Sure, he was integral to the empire being overthrown, but he wasn't exactly needed for the rebuilding effort that another similar droid couldn't do. Not that he was a typical droid, oh no, he had proven he was still better than average. It's just that what he was better at wasn't exactly what was needed at the moment. So the question was, why take him? Had the others been taken too? That he could understand, since they'd be much more needed immediately after the rebellion. Perhaps they'd taken him by chance when abducting another, and that's why he was put under such light security? It had to be. If that was the case they'd probably be on the same ship, too. Well, looks like it was time to find whoever had been taken with him and save them. It always was up to him, wasn't it?

 

[Oh I am slain!]

I wait for Dooku to finish making himself a cup of Sapir tea, his faveourtie blend, and sit down. Once he had and was enjoying the sweet taste and slightly spasmolyic effects of that tea, I delved into the force. He was not as I expected him. His body was younger than when the last met, and was certainly less tainted by the dark side. His mind, however, was battle worn and tired – which should not be the case, no war had happened since Tyvokka died. Hmmmmmm.

"Shown me images far into the future, the force has. And there I saw you, your actions the future balanced atop. Me dooku tell, the dark side have, what appeal does. Matter not, it does. Long in reign has the light, so grow must darkness to counter. For approaches the prophecy does. What say you hmmmm?"

This was really excellent tea.

Click to shrink...

---

---

- Dooku -​

What was he to say? How was he to react? His mind raced as he tried to recall what Yoda could have been talking about so long ago. And indeed, he was now growing more sure that he indeed was in the past as the Force around him continued to murmur.

Dooku allowed a slight frown to cross his face. He brought his rich, deeply cultured baritone voice to bear. "Yoda, could you show me the images? There is a growing darkness in the galaxy that has troubled me of late. It seems to fester at the heart of the Republic."

---

---

 

[Estro]

---

---

- Dooku -

What was he to say? How was he to react? His mind raced as he tried to recall what Yoda could have been talking about so long ago. And indeed, he was now growing more sure that he indeed was in the past as the Force around him continued to murmur.

Dooku allowed a slight frown to cross his face. He brought his rich, deeply cultured baritone voice to bear. "Yoda, could you show me the images? There is a growing darkness in the galaxy that has troubled me of late. It seems to fester at the heart of the Republic."

---

---

Click to shrink...

The heart of the republic? The could only be chancellor Valorum. Who, in the previous past, would be ousted in favour of Palpatine, the sith. Was Dooku trying to have his master placed upon the Chancellor's seat so early? True, Valorum was not the most competent of chancellors, but in my long years I have seen many worse.

How best to... Ahh, yes. I reached into the force, projecting images into Dooku's mind. Usually, skill such as mine would put my memories into Dooku's mind as crisp as if he had seen them not one second ago. But I downplayed my skill, and they were placed as if by a Padewan:blurred, colours muted, some objects rendered only as silhouettes. They were frames of the war, of thousands of droids and clones in battle; of Dooku fighting Obi-wan, both combatants almost unrecognisable; of the plans of the Death Star; of Palpatine, his face distorted by the malignant energies of force lightning; of what Anakin would become, Darth Vader.

"Worry me, these visions do. Flows the dark side does, these visions. But spoken with at length I Valorum have. He may be weak in the force, but weak in the light, he is, not the dark. Be said for you the same could not, my old student. Your actions was that holocrom of half a century ago truly not, hmm? At this stage it matters not. Do you trust your old master not, the years forced us apart! To me speak, dooku! To me speak, and listen will I."

Dooku took another sip of that god-awful tea before answering. How could any being stand something so sickly and sweet?

 

[Alpha Zerg]

Breakfast was a quick meal, as were most other meals from the cafeteria, but this one was surprisingly quick. I could not deny the feeling of anxiety growing in my belly, even as I attempted to. I finished up my eggs and got up, putting my tray down on a counter before striding towards Master Yoda's room quickly.

The halls were strangely empty at that moment, each of my footsteps echoing with the knell of destiny.

... Mabye that was just my imagination. A frown found itself onto my face. What if Yoda denied my vision? Would I have to take things into my own hands?

For a moment I was undecided, but the truth struck me: if Yoda, for some reason or other, decided to deny what I knew was true to the very core of my being... I was prepared to leave the Order to see my Force given duty completed.

Luckily Master Yoda was a very wise being, and I doubted that he would dismiss my claims out of hand.

I looked at my surroundings and noticed that I was standing outside of Yoda's personal chambers.
"I guess it's now or never." I mumbled to myself, raising my hand.

*Knock.*
*Knock.*
*Knock.*

 

[UbeOne]

Dooku?
Name: Mace Windu
Location: En route to Meeting Room Sixteen, Jedi Temple
Status: Surprised

I walked at a brisk pace, and eventually reached Yoda's location, Meeting Room Sixteen. As I approached that area, I sensed another presence which was beside Yoda. Focusing on it, I realized that it was someone very familiar, someone who I once let go out of our former friendship, which resulted to the Clone Wars. It was Dooku, and he was just like Yoda. In other words, he also had the aura of a war veteran, not the Force signature of someone living in peaceful times. So Master Yoda was talking with a Sith? Didn't he recognize the danger? Why didn't anyone detect the presence of a Sith, right here in the Temple?

Oddly enough, however, Dooku had a vibe of a candle being lit in the darkness, not an all-consuming black void like what Darth Sidious had. Perhaps something had changed? I personally have a hard time believing that a Sith can sincerely return to the light, but then again, just as there are stories of Jedi falling into the darkness, there are also stories of redemption, of Dark Jedi coming back to the light, though there were not a lot of those. Who knows? Surely, Master Yoda knows what he is doing...

A confrontational method at this time would only serve to worsen things, so I opted to knock on the door instead. *Knock knock*

 

[Oh I am slain!]

How best to... Ahh, yes. I reached into the force, projecting images into Dooku's mind. Usually, skill such as mine would put my memories into Dooku's mind as crisp as if he had seen them not one second ago. But I downplayed my skill, and they were placed as if by a Padewan:blurred, colours muted, some objects rendered only as silhouettes. They were frames of the war, of thousands of droids and clones in battle; of Dooku fighting Obi-wan, both combatants almost unrecognisable; of the plans of the Death Star; of Palpatine, his face distorted by the malignant energies of force lightning; of what Anakin would become, Darth Vader.

"Worry me, these visions do. Flows the dark side does, these visions. But spoken with at length I Valorum have. He may be weak in the force, but weak in the light, he is, not the dark. Be said for you the same could not, my old student. Your actions was that holocrom of half a century ago truly not, hmm? At this stage it matters not. Do you trust your old master not, the years forced us apart! To me speak, dooku! To me speak, and listen will I."

Dooku took another sip of that god-awful tea before answering. How could any being stand something so sickly and sweet?

Click to shrink...

---

---

- Dooku -​

Dooku frowned harder.

Near the end of the images, did Yoda slip in a snide remark about Dooku's choice of tea? No, that was impossible. Yoda would surely be wise enough to understand that Sapir Tea was the superior tea.

As for the visions themselves, Dooku wondered at their haziness. But their accuracy was worrisome. What did Yoda know? And how?

Regardless, he now had to respond to Yoda. What could he say? At this point in the past--Dooku had decided to act as if he was indeed in the past due to the evidence--he had not yet begun his path to the Dark Side. Sure, he had already been disdainful of the corruption in The Republic and the stagnancy of the Jedi, but it wasn't until after Qui-Gon's death that he broke away from the Order. Yoda and the Council already had known of his dissatisfaction at this time. Do Yoda's visions mean that Yoda himself is a time traveler? Or is he merely having just that: visions?

Continuing his frown, Dooku replied, "These visions are concerning. I have recently received similar ones, though even vaguer than yours. Has a special event happened in the past few hours that would trigger these? And who said anything about Valorum? I sense that the corruption seeps through the entire central government of The Republic."

But before he could continue, someone approached the room. He felt Mace Windu's strong presence, but with a certain weariness and confusion. Another friend he missed.

There was a knock on the door. Dooku paused and nodded to Yoda. It was for him to decide how to welcome this visitor.

---

---

 

[Estro]

A confrontational method at this time would only serve to worsen things, so I opted to knock on the door instead. *Knock knock*

Click to shrink...

There was a knock on the door. Dooku paused and nodded to Yoda. It was for him to decide how to welcome this visitor

Click to shrink...

As I drained my first cup of Qiiluran tea - lovely place Qillura, must go there again. Perhaps I can see if any Gurlanin's wish to join the order? - Mace Windu approached the small meeting room. His presence in the force was as stoic as ever, but it was tinged with a long tiredness and a wariness not usually part of him.

As the door received three sharp knocks, Dooku looked at me and nodded. He wished for Windu to be part of the conversation? They were freinds if memory served, friends of the kind I haven't had since Tyvokka died. It was with a small gesture that the door opened, it's control panel depressed through the application of the force. Six hundred years ago it was a common training practice to put a potential Padewan in a room like this, with the button behind glass, and only when they could press the button would the be allowed.

Windu stepped to enter the room, then stopped when he realised how small it was. It would not be a comfortable place to discuss matters such as these when all of us were seated, so I rose relishing in the lack of back pain which had haunted me since the start of my exile. I got Luke to carry me around for more than one reason, herh herh herh.

"Too small for all of us, this room is. Follow me, for speak with no fear of interruption, I know a place we can. Discuss there, we can Windu."

I waited patiently for Mace to move out of the door way.

 

[UbeOne]

I waited patiently for Mace to move out of the door way.

Click to shrink...

Transferring Rooms
Name: Mace Windu
Location: Meeting Room 16, Jedi Temple
Status: Calm

Master Yoda had a point. A bigger yet still private location would be more suitable for our discussions. So I nodded, moved aside and followed the Grand Master as he led Dooku and I to wherever he chose...

 

[Estro]

Master Yoda had a point. A bigger yet still private location would be more suitable for our discussions. So I nodded, moved aside and followed the Grand Master as he led Dooku and I to wherever he chose...

Click to shrink...

Dooku and Windu followed me in what was almost an awkward silence. It was a fairly long trek to get to the room we were going too, and I left the others to speak freely.

The room in question was buried deep in the bowels of the building and was by my reckoning about six hundred years older than I am. Was. Were? Ehh, I couldn't care less about grammar.

It was not a large room, but it was a secure one, built during the new Sith wars as a hold out incase of an event like the sacking of Corusacnt. It was made of a neutronium-phrik alloy, rendering it immune of almost all scanners and all weapons up to and including some naval-class ones. Even a Lightsaber would only make a scratch before the battery wore out. In it was a small common room (which is all Dooku would see, as I couldn't take any chances with someone that had... Would?... fallen from grace), as well as a kitchen, water purification system, and a hydroponics garden.

It was on no maps, so that any invaders couldn't find the hold out room, and I only found it due to my exploration of the Temple in my many years. I showed it to the high council when the clone wars started, with the intent of getting it up and running again, so that if the worse happened we would have some survivors.

We then made the mistake of deciding that Anakin should be one of the ones told about it. I presume that everyone inside was brutally murdered.

The odd thing, as we came within a hundred meters or so of the only entrance, was that although Dooku was looking bewildered at the area we were in (and more than slightly lost, I'd wager), Windu was acting as if he came here before. Which he hadn't, he was as surprised as the rest of the council when I showed them originally. Hmmmmm.

 

[UbeOne]

Dooku and Windu followed me in what was almost an awkward silence. It was a fairly long trek to get to the room we were going too, and I left the others to speak freely.

The room in question was buried deep in the bowels of the building and was by my reckoning about six hundred years older than I am. Was. Were? Ehh, I couldn't care less about grammar.

It was not a large room, but it was a secure one, built during the new Sith wars as a hold out incase of an event like the sacking of Corusacnt. It was made of a neutronium-phrik alloy, rendering it immune of almost all scanners and all weapons up to and including some naval-class ones. Even a Lightsaber would only make a scratch before the battery wore out. In it was a small common room (which is all Dooku would see, as I couldn't take any chances with someone that had... Would?... fallen from grace), as well as a kitchen, water purification system, and a hydroponics garden.

It was on no maps, so that any invaders couldn't find the hold out room, and I only found it due to my exploration of the Temple in my many years. I showed it to the high council when the clone wars started, with the intent of getting it up and running again, so that if the worse happened we would have some survivors.

We then made the mistake of deciding that Anakin should be one of the ones told about it. I presume that everyone inside was brutally murdered.

The odd thing, as we came within a hundred meters or so of the only entrance, was that although Dooku was looking bewildered at the area we were in (and more than slightly lost, I'd wager), Windu was acting as if he came here before. Which he hadn't, he was as surprised as the rest of the council when I showed them originally. Hmmmmm.

Click to shrink...

Testing the Waters
Name: Mace Windu
Location: En route to Safe Room, Jedi Temple
Status: 'This looks familiar...'

There wasn't much to talk about between Dooku and I at first as we followed Yoda to his chosen destination.

As we continued our trek, I felt that the rather long route we were following was familiar to me. I then reached out to the surroundings with the Force, and realized that Master Yoda was leading us to that safe room, which he showed us when the Clone Wars began.

He did sport a puzzled expression, however, when he looked back. Maybe he thought that he was showing me the place for the first time? Hmm...

...In the meantime, I thought of a plan that might be rather reckless. I considered the idea of testing the waters, of taking a leap of faith, of seeing whether my theory was true, that I wasn't the only time traveler (Dooku's presence confirmed that I was in the past), that Dooku and Yoda may have come from the future as well. If it is proven wrong, then I could just say that I had Force visions...

I decided to start with Dooku. Taking the risk, and speaking in a low voice, I asked him, "Do the words 'Tyranus', 'Separatists', and 'Clone Wars' mean anything to you?"

 

[Alpha Zerg]

Kit Fisto
Jedi Temple
Looking for Yoda

Five minutes after I had knocked on the door, I knocked again.

Five more minutes after that, I decided to check whether this was a tesr of my patience or not.

When I realised that it was not, as I could feel no presence of any kind inside the room, I felt like banging my head against the door in lieu of knocking.

"Fine." I growled and spread out my senses, "If that's how the rest of this day is going to go..."

I trailed off as I sunk deeped into the force, crossing my legs and going into a trance where I was standing. I was floating by then but... whatever. The Jedi Temple was huge.

No, let me rephrase that: The Jedi Temple was farkling gigantic. By the time I had searched through the entire Temple - above ground - I was getting frustrated. Luckily, being so deep into the Force, I work through it, but halfway though the second underground floor... My frustration spiked for a second, and my senses expanded, covering the entire floor, as well as the next few below that.

The shock of the sudden expansion of my senses jolted me out of my trance, and I fell to the floor with a thump.
'What... Was that?' I asked myself.

It could have been the dark side, but... I didn't feel angry. Or evil. I just felt... normal. As if my frustration had been spent on what I had just done, acting as a focusing lense for the Force...

I shook my head and focused on the task at hand: those brief moments of extraordinary force sensing had let me find Yoda. There were other presences with him as well, but I hadn't been able to identify them through the shock.

After picking myself up off of the floor, I began walking again.

---​

Yoda was on one of the lower floors, and it took me a while to reach him, but reach him I did. When I finally got to the door, I decided to not make the same mistake twice, and I spread my senses into the room.

Oh, it was just Mace and - was that Dooku!?

He felt nearly the same as he did before he became a Sith, but, now that I looked closer, there were slight changes. Underneath the Force masking that he seemed to be putting up, the was Darkness.

My hand came to rest on my lightsaber, and I looked deeper into Mace Windu and Yoda's auras. They were both aged, more weary, and had the airs of a recovering war veteran in their souls.

Now tremendously troubled than before, I hesitated slightly before raising my hand and knocking. My other hand was gripping my lightsaber firmly, and my frown was grim.

There was something amiss about this situation.

 

[Oh I am slain!]

---

---

- Dooku -​

The room in question was buried deep in the bowels of the building and was by my reckoning about six hundred years older than I am.
...
The odd thing, as we came within a hundred meters or so of the only entrance, was that although Dooku was looking bewildered at the area we were in (and more than slightly lost, I'd wager),

Click to shrink...

That wily creature! He was switching rooms just to make me abandon my tea! Two can play at that game. Dooku levitated the cup of tea beside me as we strided out of the room through the winding hallways.

Odd. Dooku knew that he had meandered through these lower halls many times during my decades here, but where was Yoda leading them? As they walked, Dooku carefully noted escape routes and useful environmental obstacles in case this was a trap.

His eyebrows quirked a bit when Yoda finally led them into what appeared to be a secret safe area in the depths of the Temple.

"Do the words 'Tyranus', 'Separatists', and 'Clone Wars' mean anything to you?"

Click to shrink...

Grace and understatement would serve him well here, Dooku concluded. Through his expressions, he communicated that he would take their concerns seriously and sincerely. He then calmly responded. "Mace, I presume this has to do with what Yoda shared with me earlier? It must be no coincidence that you two both have something unexpected to share, and that Yoda sought a more private location for our discussion."

Dooku looked at them expectantly.

---

---