Chapter Text
Mace Windu was not often troubled so deeply by his predictions showing to be both true and false. Kalii’s brother had indeed turned to the darkside and joined the Sith. However, the girl had not followed her brother into his descent like he warned she would. She remained… but she was changed.
The girl who stood before them now was different from the girl that left them a scant two years ago in many ways. Emotions still whirling around her without restraint, grief and sadness not tainting her and overwhelming… they merely were. She wasn’t as bright as before, her face kept in a neutral expression rather than her normal half smile. She was harder in form, wearing Mandalorian pieces of armor, Fett’s sigil proud and open on her shoulder. A blaster and vibroblade were on her belt alongside the lightsaber she had built under Nayc’s tutelage.
But the most startling change to the girl was not the outward changes, it was the darkness they sensed in her so long ago, the unseen threat they did not know the cause of… She had… embraced it. It was there, no longer shoved behind her bright personality, but intertwined with it, disturbingly prominent. Mirrored in her black core magenta blade.
She had been released from the medical ward barely an hour before this, and yet here she stood, unassisted and fully armed. On Geonosis she had lept to the Jedi’s defense and stood firm, protecting Kenobi and Skywalker even as she dueled her own brother.
“How did you come to be on the planet in the first place?” The question was curt and without accusation.
They could not officially reprimand her for her consistent rebellion against the Order, but they did not have to be overly gentle in their request for more information on the events on Geonosis.
“I was on Tatooine with Anakin and Senator Amidala when they received a distress call from Ben, and I went with them to help.” The girl answered as she stood in the center of the Council room, her expression composed and her presence in the force smooth and accepting. He could see the shatterpoints of fate over her, connecting her to Anakin, Obi-wan, Fett and off into the distance to others; this was a momentous moment in fate, and he wasn’t sure exactly how their decision here would affect it.
“Bringing the Sith with you?” Master Mundi asked neutrally.
Kalii fixed him with a flat look, stern... much like her father. “He is not a Sith. My brother is… angry, but has always helped me.”
“How did the two of you become separated?”
“I was working on hacking into the central console when Count Dooku found us. He told me that Obi-Wan and Anakin had been captured, and I wanted to go help them. Nayc didn't want to, he is not… fond of Jedi, and we argued, but he agreed to hold Count Dooku off so I could go after them.” She looked down, the first emotion to cross her face since entering the room. “I- maybe I shouldn’t have left him… but I did what I thought was right.”
Always what she ‘thought was right’; not once had she wavered or said she was wrong.
“You think the outcome might have been different if you had not left him?”
“I believe… Dooku may have twisted what I was trying to do, what was happening, like I was being manipulated by… you all. However it ended… I believe Nayc still wanted to protect me.” She answered softly, though with conviction in every syllable.
“Your injuries suggest otherwise.”
She fixed them with another flat expression. “I’ve seen what he can do. He… was holding back… As I was. If he was trying to kill me, only one of us would have left that hanger.”
If she truly believed that, which it seemed she did, that was a troubling thing. She was trained by Plo Koon and Jango Fett himself and was a skilled duelist in her own right, if her brother had injured her this severely while holding back… while she held back. How much were these two willing to sacrifice while still hurting the other?
“Spare you, he did.” Yoda hummed in absent agreement. “Angry, he was, but still he spared you.”
“You sensed this?”
Yoda shot him a look he couldn’t interpret before closing his eyes. “Angry, he was. Ask him to stop, she did.” He gestured towards Kalii as proof that she was still here, breathing.
“There is good in him.” The girl spoke with that same unwavering conviction.
“You would still place a vague hope in this after everything?” Windu barely contained his disbelief.
The fact that she could believe that while still having to endure daily bacta treatments from injuries he had given her, that she could state that so firmly when he had left her to go with Count Dooku, Mace Windu was troubled.
“If we do not have hope, what use is there in even trying to make a difference?”
A silence fell over the Council that was broken after several moments by Yoda humming. “Grown, you have. Wisdom and skill, you show.” After a pause he continued. “A lightsaber, you have obtained.”
Kalii nodded silently.
“The Jedi Code, have you accepted?” He asked.
“No more than it has accepted me.” She said with a tight, downward twist of her mouth. Mace Windu could not sense any bitterness from her over the fact, despite it being displayed in her words and expression.
“Master Vos reported that you built the lightsaber under your brother’s instruction.” Master Shaak Ti stated.
“I built my lightsaber to complete my training, yes. But I am Mandalorian, not Jedi. My husband and son are Jedi, and my Father and brothers are Mandalorian.” She accompanied this statement by subtly straightening her posture in pride, despite the pain it must cause her still fragile ribs.
“You say that he is not Sith and you are not Jedi, then what training were you completing?” Master Saesee Tinn asked.
“There are more paths than two.” Kalii said in her soft, stern tone. “Building my lightsaber was a sign that I could trust the Living Force.”
He remembered Qui Gon Jinn’s insistence about the Living Force. His beliefs were dangerous. It was why they were in this situation in the first place. To hear Kalii, who never once knew or spoke to Kenobi’s former master, speak the same words as Qui-Gon… it unsettled him.
“Do you think your brother follows this ‘Living Force’?”
Kalii’s eyes fluttered shut for a brief moment in pain. “In his own way.”
“If he followed this path you speak of and fell to the dark side, then how can you be sure you will not do the same?”
Kalii tilted her head back to look up at the ceiling in thought. “Fear will only make a fall more likely. So I cannot fear it. Caution, perhaps. My brother… led a very painful life. It made him angry and scared.” She sighed softly. “I was also angry, but I buried it so deep I hoped no one would see. I was found by Quinlan, and brought here. Who can know if I would have been in his position if that had not happened? I just… have to do what I think is right, and be vigilant.” Her eyes then turned away from the ceiling onto him… knowing and unyielding. “As you are, Windu. Vaapad dances on the edge, does it not?”
It did. And it was again unsettling that she knew of this, as she had not received any training or teaching from the Order. Anything she had learned either came from Kenobi or Skywalker, who did not really know of Vaapad, or from her brother. He dipped his chin in a slight nod of agreement. He was in no position to pick apart her statement.
The Council seemed speechless.
She was as defiant as ever. Her eyes flicked over the gathered council before she shifted her feet slightly apart into a casual stance that her father had also used when he had stood in her place and threatened them. “But my personal philosophy isn’t really why we are here, I think. I’ve given my report on Geonosis. Is there anything pertinent you need to know for the coming war?”
It was a verbal slap in the face. She was saying that she believed they had no authority to judge her, that she was not a Jedi and thus not under their command. She was firmly and pointedly placing herself with the Mandalorians with just a few sentences.
There was a long silence before Master Shaak Ti spoke. “How much of a threat to the Republic do you think your brother will be?”
Her jaw clenched. “I cannot say for sure. He views the Jedi Order and the Republic as corrupt and apathetic things that are worse than useless for helping people. Inaction is violence in his eyes, and I cannot say how that will come into play in the coming days.”
It was censure and information both.
Yoda’s ancient eyes remained intent on the girl. “Think on this, we will. Leave, you may, Kalii Fett.”
The girl inclined her head slightly and turned to leave and… then she stilled, stopping as she reached for the lift controls. And Windu felt a shift… a point shatter on the Force and reform as she turned back to them, a decision made.
“I know what you all want to hear, but I’m not going to apologize to you.” She said. Though her words were quiet, they rang with conviction. “I can not and will never apologize for doing what I believe to be the right thing. Just because my actions did not reap the desired rewards does not make my convictions to not be true and just. You may not agree… or even understand, but I will not apologize for morals, values and ideals.”
And the Force shattered and reformed. Again… and Windu watched the girl enter the lift.