The Force Always Says Yes [Star Wars]

[Simonbob]

The BEST Jedi Knight!

Even if he's only sorta a Jedi, and the Knight's thing's seperate.


And he's been teaching, so he's a Master!


The Force really think's he's the BEST Soap Opera, doesn't it.

 

[Hyenanon]

Chapter 67: The Happiest Moment​

There was no time to organize a 'proper' ceremony. More importantly, there was no time to educate Nerim on what exactly a 'proper' ceremony was supposed to be. He mainly picked up what he could through overhearing arguments between Aesha and Tetha, where they bickered about the proper order of events and position of guests and other various differences between their cultures.

Tetha crossed her arms and pouted at the breakfast table. "On Utapau, the bride descends down an elevator to the altar."

Aesha crossed her arms too in response. "What? Alone?"

"With a bridesmaid of course."

"That's silly. How does the groom get there?"

"...I don't know, he's just already there somehow."

Aesha rolled her eyes. "Makes no sense. They should walk in side by side. They're partners, after all."

Jianno spoke, her mouth still half-full of bacon. "This is a stupid amount of pretension for a wedding. Nerim's right, you're already married. Just sign the documents in a court or something to make it official."

"Absolutely not!" Both young women shouted in unison.

Jianno swallowed. "My parents got tied via text message and they've been together 27 years."

Nerim turned to Arwain. "Master? What's a traditional Jedi wedding like?"

Arwain smiled, but Tetha spoke first, raising her hand in confusion. "Uh, I'm sorry, what? Jedi wedding?"

"Jedi have been getting married for thousands of years," Arwain explained. "I mean, it's always been contentious. Usually only happens in times of war. But it's relatively recent that Fae cracked down on stopping it entirely. She didn't believe we could handle standard family structures and Jedi duties. It was probably informed by her species' mating habits, honestly. Jenet don't exactly mate for life or in nuclear families."

"So what's the ceremony like?" Tetha tilted her head curiously.

"Not all that different from the Mandalorian one, honestly. Albeit with a different reason. Jedi marriages were never accepted, they were just tolerated from time to time. Or maybe overlooked is the better word. During the Sith Wars, there was just a general cultural consensus you would pretend not to know they were married. So weddings tended to be pretty small and without great ceremony or guests. Usually you would find a hidden place and make your vows there, either just the two of them, or with a handful of their closest friends and relatives."

Nerim looked up in thought and smiled. "A hidden place sounds nice."

Tetha frowned at that. "Why do you want to hide it?"

"Well, it's just..." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I mean, it reminds me of our...first kiss," he ended the statement quietly.

She quickly stopped frowning, and hummed to herself, pleased.

Aesha rolled her eyes. "You just can't stay mad at him for more than a few seconds at a time, can you?"

"He does seem to have a way of saving himself at the last moment," Arwain chuckled. "I wish I had that talent."

___________________________________________________________________________________



The dressing room was empty and quiet aside from the soft rustling of fabrics as Arwain fastened Nerim's coat from behind. "Are you nervous?" She asked softly.

"Not really," he said honestly, looking into the mirror at himself. "Tetha seems to be really looking forward to this, so I just want to make it work for her. Aesha seems weirdly invested too."

"Weddings are one of the biggest events in the average person's life," Arwain explained, fussing over his hair. "You sure you're not nervous at all?"

He made a pensive expression. "Why would I be?"

"It's a big commitment."

"If it turns out poorly, we can just divorce."

Arwain stopped and laughed. "That's a very Jedi manner of thought. Don't ever let anyone else hear you say that."

He smiled. "But I don't think it will turn out poorly. I love her, dearly."

She looked into the mirror and caught his eyes in it with a motherly smile. "I wish I had your ability to hold onto things without being consumed by the fear of letting them go. I always end up abandoning anything I love," she said wistfully.

"Well, you love me, and you're not going to abandon me," he said happily.

"How can you be so sure?" She teased, pinching his cheek.

"You're my Master."

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Aw. My little Padawan. You're a much kinder Jedi than I. I have much to learn from you."

When they broke the hug, she turned him around, looking down at him proudly. Then there was a slight concern in her eye, and she spoke gently again. "Nerim, forever is a long time. Longer for some than others."

He raised an eyebrow. "Master?"

"Listen...I think now is the best time we're gonna get to talk about it. Like Fay, and Fae, and me, there's a potential that you could learn to be...Well, ageless. But I can't promise that—"

There was a knock at the door. Jianno poked her head in, helmet under her arm. Her new armor was freshly painted and shined, and in the most bizarre turn of events, she had a number of flowers in her hair. Apparently her clan did know to dress up for weddings, at least. "You two ready?"

Nerim turned to Arwain and smiled sadly. "Sorry Master, but I think this will have to wait," he said, gently grabbing her elbow and leading her towards the door. "I know you said this is the best time. But tomorrow will be the second best."

Arwain grinned and hooked her arm with his. "Ugh. They grow up so fast."

They exited the room, and Nerim was subjected to a blur of events that were, along with the dinner he attended at Tetha's mansion, among most stressful of his life. He knew he was bad at this sort of thing, so he brought to bear every ounce of his being into not screwing it up. In all honesty, it was probably the most desperate the Force had ever heard him plea. There were a number of choreographed movements that, to him, seemed labyrinthine in their complexity, even though he was assured the average wedding was significantly worse.

The room was small, yet grand and sunny, bathed in stained glass light from the wall of windows and a slight green glow from the botanical garden reflecting the light. It was a side room of the crown of the tree, meant for relaxation and recollection, and only held two benches to sit at along with lounging chairs and tables in the corners, which was surely enough.

There were very few guests; aside from Arwain and Jianno, the only others in attendance were Jarroa and his wife—given that he ordered the marriage in the first place, it was the least he could do. Aesha was helping Tetha prepare. Neither Pappino or Jethro had time to certify the wedding, and so their assistant Kiseti was presiding as a clerk in the corner, smiling silently at the proceedings.

Things momentarily cleared up for him when, after a short period, Tetha emerged, side by side with Aesha. She wore a beautiful dress which Aesha had somehow procured in less than 24 hours, but the first thing he noticed was her hair. She wore it down and long, which he never saw outside of when they were very alone. She was wearing the olethra hairpin.

Tetha approached him slowly and carefully, her hands clasped in front of her and her steps light, in a way that he realized was reminiscent of Aesha's own posture training he had seen long ago. When she approached him, she reached out to him. "How do I look?" She asked demurely. Her dress was bright red, with billowing sleeves and a skirt that nearly reached the floor. Gold embroidery decorated the chest and sleeves.

"I..." He took her hands in his, speechless for a moment. "...I can't believe I never imagined you in a dress until now," he laughed.

She looked at him, amused, trying to decide whether or not to be angry at that comment, while Arwain stepped beside the two of them to officiate the ceremony. She asked him to say a number of vows, which seemed redundant to him, but he repeated them and he meant it. Then she bid for them to kiss, which was surreal given the audience and the fact that the command came from a Jedi Master, but he rarely passed on such an opportunity. He and Tetha kissed, and when they broke she nearly bounced with joy, which caused a warm feeling in his chest. Aesha and her mother clapped excitedly.

For a moment, he realized that Tetha and Aesha must have had a similar conversation to him and Arwain before the ceremony. He wondered if she had any reservations. If she did, she had forgotten them, at least in this moment.

Nerim stood there smiling like a dope until he felt a strong blow to his shoulder. "Congrats, shrimp!" Jianno said happily.

Arwain placed a hand on Tetha's shoulder. "Now I can officially pawn him off on you. He's your problem now."

The newlyweds both laughed, and Aesha jumped up with a whirring of the servos in her feet and ran to the two of them, wrapping both in a hug, lifting one in each arm. "It's—it's like a beautiful play!" Her throat was tight.

"Excuse me!" Kiseti politely raised her hand. "Not to interrupt the celebrations, but I have to actually notarize this before it's legal. Could you please both sign this?"

She offered them a datapad, and Tetha signed it right away. Nerim read it. His brow furrowed. He spoke in Mandalorian, something like You've gotta be kidding with an extra word in there somewhere. Kiseti's eyes widened and she froze.

"W-what?" Tetha asked, suddenly quite anxious.

"I—I didn't fully understand what Jethro meant when he brought this up," Nerim said, rubbing his forehead in shock.

The room went quiet with anticipation, and Tetha threaded her hands together in an almost pleading fashion. "Nerim, darling...?"

He realized her discomfort, and quickly signed the document, causing Kiseti to smile nervously. He looked down in bewilderment for a moment, and then back up to Tetha. "Change your last name...Tetha Nerim?" He said, not quite believing it. "Really?"

The room remained quiet with disbelief, mainly in the fact that Nerim hadn't noticed until now, except for Arwain, who muttered "Oh my stars..."

"Nerim, you are so lucky you're cute," Tetha heaved a sigh of relief, "Because you are so dumb."

"Tetha Nerim!" Arwain gasped in shock. "I was having a vague vision of this moment years ago! This must be why I kept trying to come up with first names for you! Like Niman Nerim!"

"You're making fun of me," he glared at his Master. Aesha started the music, a smooth and charming disco beat that he was well aware was chosen to poke fun at his taste. And he did like it.

Arwain grinned. "Actually, you were the one who came up with Niman Nerim, weren't you?"

"I do not like being bullied."

Jianno wrapped her arms around each of their shoulders. "C'mon. Time for the party."

"Reception," Arwain corrected.

"You're about to receive my foot up your ass," Jianno grumbled, moving over to the table holding the booze. "Nerim, got some fresh tihaar from the clan!"

"Oh!" Nerim lit up. She had been telling him for years how much she missed that particular drink, and it sounded delicious. Then he looked to Tetha, and re-centered himself. "Well, just a taste. I don't want to get drunk on my wedding day."

Jianno froze and turned to him slowly. "The hell are you people's weddings for?"

Tetha giggled and linked her arm with his. "It's a reception, you're allowed to drink a little. A little!"

Behind them, Kiseti began slinking away with her datapad. "Well, now that my job's over, I wish you a happy reception and a fulfilling married life!"

"Hey!" Nerim turned. "You're allowed to stay for the party, y'know. You sat through the entire ceremony, some snacks and drinks are the least we could offer."

"Oh!" She stopped, blinking in surprise. She looked between the faces in the room, all of which seemed rather welcoming, and then she readjusted her glasses."W-well..." She nervously smiled. "I mean, snacks wouldn't hurt."

Tetha took her hand with her other arm, leading the both of them as the room began to chatter and celebrate. "If you don't mind my asking, why the glasses?" She asked. "No judgment. I used to wear them, too, before I could rely on the Force."

"Oh," Kiseti self-consciously pushed her glasses up again. "Well, um, it's just that my eyes aren't so good. I mean, I know there's surgeries and cybernetics, but I just don't believe in that kind of thing. N-no offense! Not that there's anything wrong with it," she clarified quickly, looking in Aesha's direction.

Aesha overheard, and raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?" She asked skeptically.

"Well it's just—Mm," Kiseti placed her hands together and up to her mouth, trying to find the best way to word it. "Well, I'm from Coruschal originally, and it's—it can be a cutthroat place sometimes. You know, as a young girl growing up there, you're pushed to get a lot of cosmetic surgeries and cybernetic enhancements to keep up. And I just, you know, if I started, when would I ever stop? So I told myself I would never do that, unless I absolutely needed it to function normally. Glasses are good enough for my eyes. Missing legs would be a different story."

"Oh." Aesha mulled the information over in her head, and smiled affably. "Well, that's respectable."

"Y-yeah. Sorry," Kiseti heaved a sigh of relief. "Stars," she took off her glasses and rubbed her eye tiredly, "I just can't stop putting my foot in my mouth."

"Bad choice of idiom," Nerim whispered.

Kiseti went rigid. "Um! Um! I mean—!"

"Aesha!" Jarroa approached and placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder, a cocktail in one hand. "When are you getting married?"

She scowled up at him. "Watch it. You're about to lose your wife."

"Wha—" He shook his head in confusion, and turned to see his wife dancing in the center of the room with Arwain. He looked back down at his daughter, unamused. "Your mother is perfectly capable of dancing with Master Arwain in a platonic manner."

Jianno took a long drink of the rather explosive smelling tihaar. "It's...it's not as easy as you'd think," she mumbled.

 

[TroubleFait]

Nerim turned to Arwain and smiled sadly. "Sorry Master, but I think this will have to wait," he said, gently grabbing her elbow and leading her towards the door. "I know you said this is the best time. But tomorrow will be the second best."

Click to shrink...

Oh my god this is such a death flag, why are you doing this to us

I didn't realise it's been years since the start of their adventure. Everything seemed to happen so fast.

Now that immortality might be on the table, this means they Nerim might not be so far from the SW canon events. Intriguing. Or he might choose to keep his natural lifespan. Nerim seems like the guy to live in the moment. If he does choose immortality, this opens several questions in regard to his relationship with Tetha. Would she also be immortal? If she is, are they to be married forever-forever? What about their kids?

 

[Crazy7809]

What about their kids?

Click to shrink...

Can they even have kids? IIRC Star Wars has wierd limits on what species can interbreed. I know a decent chunk of races are simply human varients but there's often enough drift that they can't have children.

 

[Hyenanon]

Can they even have kids? IIRC Star Wars has wierd limits on what species can interbreed. I know a decent chunk of races are simply human varients but there's often enough drift that they can't have children.

Click to shrink...

Well, Tetha said she thinks they can't. She is a bioengineered lifeform though, so who knows...

 

[Simonbob]

"Wait. So, we're depending on your tesimony for the court case, and you married the Sith in question?!"

 

[Hyenanon]

"Wait. So, we're depending on your tesimony for the court case, and you married the Sith in question?!"

Click to shrink...

"Your Honor, I CAN FIX HER"

 

[TroubleFait]

"Your Honor, I CAN FIX HER"

Click to shrink...

Hearing this, Tetha swoons with a loving gaze towards him, witnessed by the judge and the jury. This ultimately helps their case.

 

[Hyenanon]

Chapter 68: The Courts Take Even Longer​

As they descended upon the so-called "plains of Coruscant", where thousands of skyscrapers were leveled out by regulation at the same height, Tetha pressed her hands to the glass and looked out with mouth wide open. In the distance was the Jedi Temple and Senate building, along with hundreds of other towers and blocky constructs sparkling silver against the cerulean blue sky. But where they were going was a great plain of what seemed to be featureless, smooth cubes, with a grand fairy tale castle and its spires at the center, made of glass and platinum.

"That's the Galactic Court," Nerim pointed to the castle. Then to the Jedi Temple on the horizon. "Unfortunately, we're in the same hemisphere as that."

Tetha laughed in disbelief. "I just...I can't believe how big this city is. This planet! I can...feel it. Trillions of souls..."

He smiled and wrapped an arm around her waist. "When you get accustomed to it, you can hear them echoing from anywhere in the Galaxy. They make a lot of racket here."

They had all set out quite early to ensure they arrived in time. Despite that, a sublight drive malfunction and a litany of unexpected traffic jams stemming from at least two incidents with an orbital garbage accelerator threatened to have them be late. Still, they had a few hours. Just enough to sit around and wait for their trial at the courthouse.

When they landed, Nerim exited, and was immediately transported back to his childhood. The metallic smell of the air was something he had forgotten, but immediately created a strange fuzzy sensation in his memory, as if he were connected to every time in the past he had stepped outside here. There were traces of ozone and gaps where the noble gasses like neon and argon swirled around them, hints of humidity from the sweat and acrid smoke rising up from the endless alleys below, and the somehow omnipresent smell of street food that permeated all outdoors spaces on Coruscant.

He could imagine how it was unpleasant for most newcomers. He didn't even really have anything to say in defense of it, other than to question what exactly one expected of the biggest city in the universe. There was no trace of garbage or sewage, and that alone was a feat comparable to that of gods, in his opinion.

It certainly took a little of the shine out of Tetha's eyes, as she scrunched her nose in response to the first lungful. Aesha and Jarroa looked positively nauseated, coming from the dry floral air of Cathar. He smirked. "Welcome to Galactic City. The air quality is better inside."

"Does it always smell like this?" Aesha asked dismally.

He took a deep breath, and frowned. He looked to Arwain, who nodded in agreement with his silent observation. "More ozone than usual," she said. "I wonder if the atmospheric recyclers are undergoing maintenance again."

They shuffled into the gigantic building, through a gauntlet of security checkpoints. They had left their lightsabers at home, and Mandalorians had a religious exception that allowed them to retain their armor, although the guards did grumble about Jianno's crushgaunts. Then they moved between endless crowds of mostly somber and straight-laced academics of all races. The turbolifts were in constant use, but it didn't take them too long to get aboard. They were going straight to the top of the main tower; it was apparently considered quite a large case, as such things went. They got in. Aside from the four Force Users, only Jarroa, Jianno, and the three lawyers attended.

Jarroa's wife remained on Cathar to deal with matters there, despite her protestations. He also vaguely recalled being told long ago it was considered a sign of hostility for a Cathar tribal elder to arrive in a foreign land without his family around him. Meanwhile, Cadron seemed happy to send Jianno to the bureaucratic capital in his stead—although she vociferously threatened him to not mess up anything in her absence.

When they exited in the antechamber before the courtroom proper, Nerim's eyes were immediately drawn to a particular corner, where five Jedi sat in meditative position. Two, Nerim had never seen before, and he instantly could tell they were members of the Service Corps. Then on the opposite end was the Knight Haaka Mahn, as well as Master Jahl Vocta, the Anomid from the Council. Between the four others, a Human girl sat stiffly with her eyes closed.

Immediately, Nerim felt a surge of anger in Aesha. Tetha caught onto it, and then her eyes found the Human girl, and he felt the anger rise in her too. "Is that her?" She asked.

The girl's eyes opened, and locked onto Nerim's. He pointed and spoke calmly. "Yeah, that's uh..." He put his hand to his chin and thought for a moment. "Chey-Linn," he snapped his fingers.

Chey-Linn's eyes narrowed for a moment, and then closed again. He felt Haaka Mahn's presence reach out to her, bid her to stay placid. Suddenly, he realized something wasn't missing from her. He looked down. A new lightsaber hilt hung at her belt. He saw her smirk, just slightly as he realization hit him.

"They took her off probation," he muttered to himself.

Arwain furrowed her brow. "What? But Fae said her status was contingent on the trial."

"The moment she died, they took her off probation."

Suddenly a third pillar of anger erupted beside him. All of the Jedi opened their eyes at that. There was something else in the air, too. A sort of sadistic glee, but Nerim couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. And he felt a kind of...sorrow. That, he realized, was coming from himself.

Pappino leaned down and smiled pleasantly. "It's no surprise the Jedi took her side, we already knew they were showing up here in her defense. More fodder for the oral arguments."

Jethro straightened his clothes out. "Trust me, nothing good ever comes from mean mugging your opposition before walking in the doors."

Nerim nodded slowly. "Right. Let's just sit back and wait for the Justices to arrive," he said, collapsing into a soft round-backed chair with bright red leather cushions. It was comfortable, and felt cool to the touch, which pleased him after so many weeks of Cathar summer. He had trust in the law, and the Force, and most of all that the Jedi in front of him would not miss an opportunity to bungle this if they possibly could. So he relaxed, and as he did so, his compatriots did as well.

The wait was long and boring, and none of them felt very comfortable having a conversation in front of the eerily quiet Jedi. After a while, the apportioned time came, and they funneled into the courtroom. It was spacious and round, with a high ceiling and transparasteel walls that emphasized transparency and clarity in the legal system, so the architecture told him. The interior had alabaster furnishings, soft white benches and tables with low reflectivity surfaces to prevent glares from the open windows, and stark Republic red cushions to contrast. The Cathar group sat to the left, and the Jedi Order to the right. The judge's bench was tall and curved inwards, so that all twelve seats could look to the center.

In attendance were only five of the twelve Justices. But it was quite rare for more than three to show up in the first place, and almost unheard of for a majority. They were busy people, and the Galaxy produced many cases. Jethro had already given him a short rundown on each of them.

To the far left, sitting three seats away from her closest fellow Justice, was Thagrit, a Neimoidian who was infamously obstructionist to the Republic's governance as a whole—rumored to have been bought out by the megacorporations, but seemed to spite the central government for fun just as often. Jethro theorized she was actually driven by ego, and said she was probably in the bag the moment she heard the Jedi Order were their opposition.

Next, sitting side by side, were a towering old Ithorian named Rouhh, and a cantankerous old Squib named Ickstalitoweatiuhwe (who, thankfully, graciously allowed people to refer to him as Justice Icks for shorthand). They were both wild cards without particular political affiliation, but almost always came to exact opposite conclusions on everything. Getting both of the old men on a panel of three was a common strategy, as they would usually cancel each other out, putting everything on the third Justice.

Two seats down from them sat Justice Widdimur, who to all the world looked like some sort of rabbit or lemur in both size and stature. She was a Kushiban, a small quadrupedal species which, like Saarkanians, changed their fur color in response to their emotions, although the colors they used were different, and their fur defaulted to a grayish white. She was a widely renowned figure, and according to Jethro, respected clean, concise, and unemotional argumentation.

Finally, two seats down from her, presided Chief Justice Scoralecta. She was a Frozian, a tall and gangly mammalian species with bizarre limbs that had an extra place of articulation each, leading to two elbows per arm, and two knees per leg. She had light brown fur and a stern expression, and uniquely her robe instead of pure black was cut by a bright blue azure sash around her waist, the same as the Supreme Chancellor, and signified that she was on par with that rank. Or at least theoretically, if the Chancellor had had any real power at all. Jethro had told them she would be the hardest sell, as a lifelong admirer of the Jedi Order.

Also attending were a number of assistants, stenographers, and what Nerim belatedly realized was a small media crew in the corner, with tiny remote camera droids ready to float for prime angles. He rolled his eyes. They were quiet, at least—in part because they were flanked on either side by one of the eight Republic Commandos who acted as bailiffs in the court, one of the few military units to survive the Ruusan Reformations, considered small enough to not break the ban on expeditionary forces. He noted their bright blue armor was of archaic Mandalorian design, albeit not made of beskar.

Nerim sat back and observed the room's inhabitants and the procession of events, with half-understanding of what was even going on as the Justices and lawyers spoke to one another, although in truth it didn't seem like much at all was happening. They were primarily just logging information, ensuring that they did in fact have access to everything submitted to discovery. He took the time to meditate, and an hour passed by without much of consequence.

Suddenly his eyes opened, and looked towards the Jedi Serviceman who was acting as the Order's lawyer. He was a Human, tall with straight black hair slicked back and piercing blue eyes. He stood before the Justices, tapped at his datapad, and pointed towards Nerim. "And we can confirm that the man I am pointing at is Mr. Nerim, form—"

Jethro leapt out of his seat. "Objection!"

"Excuse me?" The Chief Justice asked with a steely voice and cocked eyebrow.

Jethro waddled out from around the desk, which was considerably taller than him, towards the middle of the room where he could be seen easier. "As a Knight of Cathar, his proper honorific is Sir. He is Sir Nerim, and the other party will respect court decorum by referring to him as such."

The Jedi Serviceman looked down to Jethro Geiger with a disapproving expression. "Ah. Well, you see, we must object to that as well. It is a misleading title and will color the case."

Thagrit scoffed. "How so? Explain yourself, Mr. Ya-Ban," she demanded, her voice scratchy.

The Jedi Serviceman, apparently Ya-Ban, spoke to the Justices as a whole. "Nerim is an Exile from the Order, and exiled as a Padawan at that. He is not, nor was he ever a Jedi Knight. Seeing as this case deals with the nature of the Jedi and Sith, and confusion surrounding the strict definitions of these matters, and that the defendants' strategy is to confuse the matter further, and that the defendants maintain Nerim to be a sort of Jedi, and that Nerim himself is central to the events that occurred on Cathar which we are putting on trial, I believe that referring to him as a Knight will only confuse matters, and furthermore, we must remember that fraudulent claims of Knighthood are—"

Ya-Ban's exceptionally long sentence was interrupted by Jethro. "And now you presume to dictate to Cathar what military ranks they can assign?! The Jedi Order did not invent the term knight, nor do they have exclusive rights to it!"

Thagrit shook her head sternly. "This is a farcical overreach, Mr. Ya-Ban."

"I'm inclined to agree," Widdimur spoke softly, with a high pitched tone and occasional squeaks. "We are quite capable of differentiating the Knighthoods."

Justice Rouhh hummed deeply and resonantly in thought. "We must consider that the Cathar Knighthood, if my memory serves me, descends directly from the Revanchist period of their history. It is innately tied to the Jedi Knighthood, regardless of the intervening secular usage of the term. One could argue that by nature it is a fraudulent institution, but that matter is not before us today, and so I would suggest that we find a way to neither legitimize nor illegitimize it in our record."

"Okay. And when was the last time a Jedi ever used the honorific 'sir'?" Justice Icks raised his hands, speaking with a harsh tone. "Go back a few dozen centuries, maybe you'll find one, but traditionally they're always referred to as Master Jedi. The mere honorific sir will never cause a good faith actor to interpret him as a member of the Jedi Order, and that's the matter before us, so that's what we should reason off of."

Scoralecta carefully looked over the other Justices, and then to the lawyers. "We'll let the objection stand. He will be entered into the record as Sir Nerim. Please refer to him as such for decorum, from now on."

"Of course, Your Honor," Ya-Ban nodded gracefully. Jethro turned to move back to the desk, winking, and Ya-Ban continued down his list. "And we can confirm that Miss Taranni—"

"Objection!" Jethro whipped around.

"Okay," Scoralecta sighed. "Let's hear it."

"It's a simple one," Jethro quickly deescalated, speaking calmly. "Her legal name is not Meetra Taranni anymore, nor is her proper honorific 'Miss'. Following her marriage and exit from the witness protection program, she is now Tetha Nerim. It's in her record."

The room went quiet as both the Justices and Jedi stared in shock. "Marriage?" The Chief Justice's beady eyes narrowed further, the ridge of fur that went from her brow to the tip of her ears making her seem exaggeratedly stern.

"The two were wed recently."

"How recently?"

"About three weeks ago, in a ceremony on Cathar."

Nerim sensed a small pang of panic from the Jedi Order's half of the room, and noticed Tetha grinning smugly. He followed her eyes to their destination, where he saw Chey-Linn staring at them, jaw dropped. That made him smile, too.

"That's—this is a sham!" The second Jedi Serviceman said from behind their desk.

"Excuse me," Pappino spoke for the first time, standing up to his full height—absolutely towering over even the judges on their elevated thrones. "When did Nerim and Tetha meet, exactly, and was it in fact an entire Standard year before he ever stepped foot on Cathar? I'll answer, yes, it was. And were they romantically inclined from this early period? I doubt very much that the Jedi will argue against that, considering that was one of their reasons for exiling him. So how exactly is it unexpected for them to marry? Raising objection to this is ridiculous on its face—obstructionist, even!"

"And casting aspersions on their marriage is highly offensive and against court decorum!" Jethro added.

Justice Rouhh's large dull green eyes scanned the holographic displays in front of him, and he nodded. "Their marriage is on record, as is her name change."

Justice Widdimur licked her paw and rubbed it against her cheek. "The timeline is airtight. No colorable argument can be made that the sole reason for this marriage is obstruction of justice. The matter is settled."

Ya-Ban sighed shortly through his nose. "Right. Then let's continue. We can confirm that Mrs. Nerim—"

"Objection!" Jethro had barely started climbing into his seat again.

Justice Icks placed a hand to his forehead. "Here we go..."

"She is also a Knight of Cathar!"

"And what is the proper honorific for a female Knight of Cathar?" Widdimur asked with placid sincerity.

"It is also Sir."

Thagrit cackled.

"You're pushing it, Mr. Geiger," the Chief Justice warned.

"We are not having two Sir Nerims in the same case," Icks said wearily. "Can we make the standard exception to refer to them by their first names?"

Jethro Geiger threaded his chubby fingers together. "The husband Sir Nerim does not have a first name."

"You've gotta be fucking kidding."

"The Jedi Order did not deign to give him a first name when they...requisitioned him from his parents moments after his birth."

All eyes turned to the Jedi Serviceman, who nervously swallowed.

 

[SirRolandTheFrank]

I see that the Cathar legal team is most proficient in the Dark Side of Lawyering and it's great. Tftc.

 

[Nomad-117]

Oh dear, this is gonna be fun.
The Jedi better hope that there aren't any cameras to live broadcast this whole trial. As it stands now it doesn't matter if they win or lose, their reputation will no doubt take a massive hit.

 

[TroubleFait]

"You've gotta be fucking kidding."

"The Jedi Order did not deign to give him a first name when they...requisitioned him from his parents moments after his birth."

All eyes turned to the Jedi Serviceman, who nervously swallowed.

Click to shrink...

Okay, I cackled.

At first I thought Jethro's whole plan to drown them in objections was imbecilic and counterproductive*. But it was all to lead us to this glorious moment, where the Justices' guards were down when he drops this bomb!

The Jedi better hope that there aren't any cameras to live broadcast this whole trial. As it stands now it doesn't matter if they win or lose, their reputation will no doubt take a massive hit.

Click to shrink...

That hope is dead:

Also attending were a number of assistants, stenographers, and what Nerim belatedly realized was a small media crew in the corner, with tiny remote camera droids ready to float for prime angles.

Click to shrink...

 

[waffelmeister]

Operation: Dumpster Fire is going well, it seems.

 

[Hyenanon]

As it stands now it doesn't matter if they win or lose, their reputation will no doubt take a massive hit.

Click to shrink...

Definitely an important aspect of this case, perhaps the most important in the eyes of some...

 

[Selias]

Oh boy. The public's not gonna like that. Not only did they take him before his parents could name him, but they didn't bother naming him themselves. I had forgotten about that.

 

[Nomad-117]

That hope is dead:

Click to shrink...

Ah, overread that because I am silly.

Well... RIP.

Definitely an important aspect of this case, perhaps the most important in the eyes of some...

Click to shrink...

The Sith are pulling up chairs, popcorn in hand and watch this stuff while cackling. They didn't even have to do anything. All they had to do was let the Jedi be themselves.

 

[drunkenBavarian]

I see that the Cathar legal team is most proficient in the Dark Side of Lawyering and it's great. Tftc.

Click to shrink...

I always knew that legalese was a form of Dun Möch!

 

[Hyenanon]

Chapter 69: Niceties​

After a long day, the court adjourned. The case hadn't even really started yet, but six hours of clerical work had made it ready to start tomorrow. The Justices shuffled into their own private turbolift, and the media quickly scampered outside, seeing as they weren't allowed to actively badger anyone while inside the courthouse.

Nerim stretched his arms out and stood up, more than ready to leave. As he turned and moved towards the aisle to exit, he nearly ran into Chey-Linn, who was making the same movement. They both stopped and held each other's gaze. At the same time, Kiseti accidentally knocked over her glass of water, catching everyone else's attention with the clattering and a girlish squeak of despair as it spread towards her datapad.

Chey-Linn looked at Nerim, disgusted, like she had nearly stepped on a roach by accident. "Married," she spat out. "None of your vows meant anything to you, did they?"

Aesha was right, he realized. They really did think they still owned him. "I don't belong to you," he said coldly.

"If you broke your vows as a Jedi so easily, I doubt the vows of marriage will last," she replied, just as icily.

He felt that aura of sadistic glee again, and he didn't like it. It was something dangerously adjacent to the visceral catharsis he felt, killing Vena Riila. It was, without a doubt, the Dark. The desire to fight left him, and he decided he just wanted this interaction to end as soon as possible. He wordlessly stepped back and gestured for her to go first, and she raised her chin and strode down the aisle away from him. Behind her went Haaka Mahn, who looked at him cautiously but did not speak.

As he did so, Arwain placed a hand on his shoulder. "Student?" She asked.

"It doesn't matter," he sighed. "Our paths don't have to cross. No reason to force it."

She smiled and pat him on the back. Then she leaned in and whispered conspiratorially. "Hey. You and Tetha are going out tonight, right?"

"Yeah?" He whispered back.

"Figured out where yet?" She asked. He shook his head.

___________________________________________________________________________________



Rather than any establishment in specific, Arwain had suggested a particular skybridge a few hundred levels down. One could look directly up and just barely see sunshine during the day, so it technically wasn't part of the Undercity, but it was certainly on the border. The couple hours they spent there, wandering from place to place, had been positively therapeutic.

Nerim leaned his back against the railing and enjoyed his small cup of ice cream, while Tetha placed her hands against the railing and leaned over it, looking out upon the endless glittering lights of the biggest city that ever was. An airbarge that was larger than any building she had ever seen on Utapau drifted in the open space between megastructures, surrounded in turbulent shimmering air and twinkling lights. There were distant hums of airspeeders and the whistling of wind as it snaked through the buildings and around the bridges, and a constant stream of people going about their business behind them, walking the bridge that crossed these gargantuan spaces.

"It's...beautiful," she said in awe, the endless cacophony of lights and colors playing out across her face, sparkling in her hairpin. The air was wet and cold, predominately blowing up from below where the atmospheric maintenance had allowed more weather than usual to gather, buffeting up strands of her hair around her.

"Yeah, it wasn't a bad idea to come here," Nerim agreed happily. "Arwain told me that Fae used to take her here for her birthday."

"It's...It's just so..." She looked out in the gap as the barge passed. The alleyway between the buildings went on for nearly a hundred miles, clouds gathered in the corridor below, distance disappearing into infinity above, and an endlessly inviting path of air and gleaming gold lights ahead—almost as if one could step right off the railing and walk through the open space. Just existing in Coruscant made one feel like they were flying.

"It's hard to believe, but," he pointed upwards to the sky, "When Fae was our age, this level was the surface."

"Wh—but—" She turned to him, confused. "How is the Jedi Temple still on the surface, then? Is...is the Temple from her childhood just the new basement or something?"

He swallowed a spoonful of ice cream. "It's a really complicated process, actually. For historical buildings that need sky access, they usually amputate the structure at the 'historically appropriate' point, put it on a gargantuan repulsorlift for a year or so, and hoist it up in the air while they build a new layer inbetween it and where it used to connect."

"Is...is that a joke, or is that real...?"

"No, it's real," he chuckled. "I mean, they don't do it every time. There are actually a bunch of historical Temples buried underneath the current ziggurat. It's just been a while."

"What goes on in there?" She asked, amazed.

He shrugged. "Generally nothing, I think. There's at least a couple dozen old Temples below the current one, there's not enough Jedi out there to occupy them all the time—and nobody wants to, since it's far away from training facilities or sky access. Nobody except some hermits, I guess. But the Order discourages hiding away down there. Jedi who do tend to go a little kooky."

Her eyes sparkled in the city lights as she looked on in wonder. "How many levels down there, unused? Unmonitored?"

"Well, Coruscant is about five thousand one hundred and twelve levels, depending on how you define a level. But that's a little misleading. The Temple is actually built over what used to be the tallest mountain on the planet. It only goes a few hundred layers down."

"Below where we are now?"

He thought for a moment, operating more on feeling than knowledge. "Yeah, I think the Temple goes a little bit lower than where we are now. We're below the peak of the mountain, though. That's a couple levels up." He finished his ice cream and tossed the cup into a trash bin, and then took a deep breath. "Not that any of it matters to me now, I guess."

She frowned, and moved closer to him. "I'm sorry. I...Even though I didn't really like Utapau, sometimes I still miss it."

He looked to her, unsure how to express himself. And then he moved closer still, wrapping his arms around her. Her eyes sparkled in anticipation, and he kissed her.

After a moment of enjoyment, she playfully pushed him out of the kiss. "Nerim!" She chided, pretending like she had resisted the whole time.

"What? You're my wife," He laughed. She blushed. She always did when he used that word.

"Well, yes, but control yourself when people are watch—..." She stopped, suddenly realizing what she just said.

"We're being watched," he agreed, suddenly aware of it now too. He couldn't tell much from the feeling, only that they were being watched, and it was dangerous. How long, he couldn't tell. Hostile? Possibly, but maybe not. The Force just told him that he should be careful. They were still in their court clothes, him in his rank and file military uniform modified to represent the Knighthood of Cathar, and her in a black and gold truncated qipao and pants. He wondered if they were being sized up to be robbed. "Does it feel hostile to you?"

She shook her head. "Not really. It gives me a weird sense of deja vu, actually."

"It seems very familiar to me, too, but it's definitely bad." He frowned, letting go of her with one arm and keeping the other around her shoulders. "Why do I keep getting bad feelings?"

"Maybe they're not watching us, they're watching you," she reasoned, disturbed by the implication.

Before Nerim could respond, a voice squeaked in triumph from the crowd. "There he is!"

Nerim turned. A short Jenet woman with a brown cap and a dress shirt and suspenders ran up to the two of them, datapad in hand and a hovering camera droid over her shoulder. "Sir Nerim, a moment of your time, please!" She stuck her hand out enthusiastically in introduction. "Laura Lie, CoCo District Edition, Jedi Watch Reporter at your service, and that's no lie!"

"Oh brother..." Tetha muttered, inching away until she was out of the shot.

Nerim politely shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Lie. But what could you want from me?"

"Answers, Sir Nerim!" She shook his hand frenetically. "First off, and apologies for the crass question, but could you please shed some light on your exile? Why did the Order cast you out? Was it related to Grand Master Fae Coven's mysterious passing, may she rest in peace?"

He blinked. He supposed he hadn't considered it before, but while the Jedi Council meetings were recorded, they were not available for the general public to peruse. Only the Jedi themselves had access to that footage, along with the Senate or Judiciary if they made inquiries. Given that the Order never made comments on such matters, he supposed there was no information out there on his exile. "Er, well, not officially," he shrugged. "I was told it was due primarily to the events on Cathar."

"Do you think they were lying? Is there a power struggle occurring within the Jedi Order during this unprecedented time of change?" She asked excitedly, her nose twitching.

"I think they had a lot on their minds, and it's their job to think about things holistically, so it seems impossible to me that Fae's passing had nothing to do with it," he answered carefully. He thought about the second question for a moment, and then said "I would rather not comment on the Order's restructuring, as I don't know enough about the matter."

"So the High Council's workings are opaque even to former members of the Order?"

"It's opaque to everyone," he quipped resentfully.

"I see!" She tapped at her datapad, causing the camera droid to lower in and rotate for a better shot. "This lack of transparency is exactly why our division of the Edition was founded! In regards to this matter, do you feel your exile was unjust?"

"I wasn't exactly a model Jedi, but given that they held my trial in absentia, I never had a chance to understand their reasoning."

"In absentia?!" Her eyes widened, mouth slightly open, exposing her buck teeth. "Is this why your former Master, Arwain Ash-Kan, resigned and became the first Lost Master in over three hundred years?"

"She's still my Master," he corrected, pointing to his Padawan braid. He had never gotten rid of it, except for briefly unbraiding it while undercover on Boonta.

"So I see, so I see! Do you still consider yourself a Jedi?"

He thought about it for a long moment, feeling the Force flow through him as though it too were curious to his answer. "I think there's no other word for what I am. If a man were raised from birth as a Mandalorian, he would still be a Mandalorian, even if he were banished from his clan. If a man was born on Corellia, he would still be a Corellian, even if he was banished. You can't take that from them, because it's their culture. I was raised from birth as a Jedi, and I think it's time to stop tip-toeing around the issue. It is not within their power to unilaterally rescind that or commandeer my identity. I'm not a member of the Order, but I am a Jedi."

Laura Lie's eyes widened to dinner plates, and even Nerim's weak grasp of telepathy picked up on the word that shot through her mind like a snap to hyperspace. Jackpot.

 

[Simonbob]

Nerim, you show us all, just why the Force considers you to be it's best soap opera.


The Order's going to lose the ploz!

 

[fcayama]

Oh my god. This story is so good.

Though I dont think this will go well for nerim in the trial thingy. But it will be a teensy tiny loss in the court of Law and basically a flawless Victory in the court of public opinion

 

[TroubleFait]

He felt that aura of sadistic glee again, and he didn't like it. It was something dangerously adjacent to the visceral catharsis he felt, killing Vena Riila. It was, without a doubt, the Dark. The desire to fight left him, and he decided he just wanted this interaction to end as soon as possible. He wordlessly stepped back and gestured for her to go first, and she raised her chin and strode down the aisle away from him. Behind her went Haaka Mahn, who looked at him cautiously but did not speak.

Click to shrink...

This is truly maddening. She learnt nothing from her mistake because the Order, and her Master, keep enabling her. How can they not see this?

 

[wschottkey]

This is truly maddening. She learnt nothing from her mistake because the Order, and her Master, keep enabling her. How can they not see this?

Click to shrink...

It's not Chey-Linn that is the source of the glee! Kiseti is a Sith!

She perfectly engineered this confrontation by distracting everyone else!

Who else would be the mysterious source of glee in the previous chapter? Chey-Linn is not really capable enough to obfuscate the source of that feeling if it were her.

The true reason Kiseti doesn't want cybernetics is because they can dilute connection to the Force!

 

[Hyenanon]

This is truly maddening. She learnt nothing from her mistake because the Order, and her Master, keep enabling her. How can they not see this?

Click to shrink...

Chey-Linn's been put in a real tough situation throughout this fic. It would've been easy to tell the events as a story from her perspective; cheated out of a win at the tournament by a kid--an older kid, given that he's so obviously a bad egg that no master wants to take him, who beat her in a tournament she deserved to win with the advantage of his age, size, and dirty tricks. Picked up at the last second by an irresponsible gray Jedi known for experimenting with the Dark Side, who herself was nearly exiled in her own youth. When they finally met again out in the field, he basically doesn't help at all to locate the Sith Temple, and then spends much of the time they're trapped in there antagonizing her, before interfacing with some sort of heretical religious activity and the local nexus in the Force. Then interferes with her mission, trying his best to upset her, and interjects into her arrest and engages her in a lightsaber duel where he tries to straight up murder her, and just before she wins, he taps into that same Dark energy from the Sith Temple, and destroys her lightsaber and knocks out some of her teeth.

Then somehow she's on probation while the ancient out of touch Grand Master considers whether or not to exile her, and then some time later she gets the news that said Grand Master died under suspicious circumstances while out with those damn "gray" Jedi. In the end she can't even really get back at him. It's not like she can just start a lightsaber duel for revenge, and even if she wins the case on all counts, it's Aesha's ass on the line, not Nerim's. She just has to endure this stressful court case where, again, five old non-Force-Sensitives hum and haw about whether to punish her or not. And the worst part is, if she wins, everything just goes back to the normal, but if she loses, she loses everything.

Honestly, she's under a lot of stress, and her doormat master isn't nearly as good as Nerim's. It'd be enough to make anyone question their faith. Her position is precarious.

It's not Chey-Linn that is the source of the glee! Kiseti is a Sith!

She perfectly engineered this confrontation by distracting everyone else!

Who else would be the mysterious source of glee in the previous chapter? Chey-Linn is not really capable enough to obfuscate the source of that feeling if it were her.

The true reason Kiseti doesn't want cybernetics is because they can dilute connection to the Force!

Click to shrink...

Very interesting speculation, however, I am offended you're not considering the potential of Darth Jethro Geiger. We've never seen an Orotolan Sith Lord before but can you imagine the duel between one of them little blue elephants and Yoda? Cinema.

 

[Grimmouse197]

He should go to same route that the. Using force made easy fanfic did. Lol

 

[TroubleFait]

It'd be enough to make anyone question their faith.

Click to shrink...

Something I can't help but notice during your entire explanation and during the entire story is that she doesn't question herself. She remains firmly rooted in her own perspective. This is unfortunately a fault many people suffer from.

And I knew it before, but it become even more obvious with your summary: she's jealous. Oh, it's a perfectly understandable jealousy. She must abide by the rules, while Nerim the loser does not. Exceptions are made for him all the time. Now finally he got what he deserves and was banished from the Order.

It's perfectly understandable for anyone not trying to be particularly wise to feel this way. But she's a Jedi. She has a responsibility to be better than that.

 

[Hyenanon]

Chapter 70: I'd Be More Concerned About Her​

Kiseti vocalized wordless pain under her breath, rubbing her head as they ascended the turbolift. She had slightly visible bags under her eyes.

"Yeah, Mr. Nerim here is to thank for that," Jethro muttered. "Really, kid, you're making this harder than it needs to be."

"That's Sir Nerim," Jianno corrected coldly.

"Oh, relax," Pappino waved his hands. "Everyone and their droid was already calling him a Jedi. How much does this change, really?"

Jethro sighed, like a slowly deflating balloon through a kazoo. "Yeah, you're right..."

"Sorry," Nerim frowned.

Arwain tutted. "Don't ever apologize for anything, Student."

"Just try not to antagonize them any more," Jethro said, dabbing his forehead with a handkerchief. "At least not yet."

"I thought I was doing well at that..." Nerim said sadly.

"You are," Aesha scoffed. "If I were you, I—" She stopped as Jarroa glared at her, and she sighed heavily. "I would stand prim and proper and say no comment. But I would want to say a lot of bad things."

The door opened, and they entered the antechamber again, with all five Jedi already silently waiting, lined up in seiza against the same wall. Aesha made a rude gesture, and Master Vocta opened one eye. She held it long enough to make sure he got a good look, and dropped it before Jarroa turned around.

Nerim and Tetha quietly sat together while waiting, and then quietly sat together once the Justices arrived and the trial began. Nobody mentioned the interview, or Nerim in general for quite some time, as both teams primarily laid out the elements of the case and the parts of the timeline they disagreed with each other on. He was mostly content to wait, but as he did so, his mind kept wandering to that strange feeling. He looked outside. It was a little foggy. It was never supposed to be foggy on Coruscant, but it happened from time to time during infrastructural maintenance.

The topic of the trial came to the Revanchists, and as each side laid out their case and were interrogated by the Justices, he felt a sense of strong disagreement coming from one of the Force Sensitives in the room: Disagreement with both cases made. It piqued his interest. No one from his side should have that feeling; Tetha and Aesha disagreed on some particulars, but Tetha was not strongly invested in it. Arwain's views, so he thought, actually informed a large part of their argument. In that case, did one of the Jedi Order feel that they were arguing in bad faith?

Ya-Ban tapped his datapad for emphasis. "The fact remains that immediately upon causing a schism in the Order, Revan began tapping into the Dark Side. There is little that is more universally characteristic of the Sith. The very origin of their religion is from one such event."

"Poppycock," Pappino scoffed. "The Sith religion, as well documented, predates any contact with Jedi. The Jedi exiles you refer to learned it from the natives. Now a great deal of syncretism occurred, sure, no one's denying that they became quite closely related for the vast majority of the Sith Order's history, but not every Bimm Bith and Wookiee that walks out on the Order is immediately a Sith. There's a lineage there."

Justice Rouhh spoke with a deep, booming voice. "Are there any documented usages of the term Darth for Revan prior to their arrival on Cathar?"

"Not even remotely," Arwain answered, as the resident expert. "Revan was universally recognized as a Jedi Knight. Prior to the Revanchists' arrival at Cathar, the word 'Revan' had never even been used; that was a pseudonym adopted when they discovered the aftermath of the genocide. The first time Revan and Malak claimed the title Darth was at least four years later."

"But," the second Jedi Serviceman, a owl-like Mriss named Lohwan, countered. "It was well known that they fell to the Dark years prior to that proclamation. Are we to believe that they fell to the Dark, and yet were not Sith, but later were coincidentally converted to the Sith religion?"

"There is nothing approaching a consensus that Darth Revan existed prior not only to the Sith proclamation, but prior to Revan as a term existing," Arwain flatly denied the argument.

"But the Temple didn't spring out of the ground when Revan set foot on the planet, nor did it stop existing immediately thereafter. It was in use throughout the Mandalorian Wars, potentially beyond the Sith proclamation as well. Even if Revan wasn't leading a Sith Order the moment construction was started, they likely were Sith by the time it ended."

"That's enough, we're going in circles," Justice Widdimur stated softly. "It seems plausible to me that the Revanchist Temple might have contained Sith artifacts, and so I vote we should proceed with examination of the artifacts themselves."

Rouhh spoke. "More than plausible, I would say probable."

"I concur," Scoralecta nodded.

"The case isn't getting thrown out here," Icks shrugged.

"I find Dr. Ash-Kan's arguments compelling, but not disqualifying," Thagrit admitted.

The Chief Justice readjusted in her chair. "Let's take a ten minute break before we continue."

"Of course, Your Honor," Pappino said amenably, and both the Justices and various observers began shuffling out of the room.

Arwain approached their table. "Sorry," she shrugged.

"We didn't expect to win there," Jethro said, going through his briefcase. "Just sowing doubt."

"I'm surprised the Jedi Order hasn't revoked her doctorate out of spite," Kiseti laughed nervously.

"They probably thought of it, but I think most of the Justices would take that very poorly."

Jarroa turned to the lawyers. "How do you estimate the case has gone so far?"

"Pretty well," Jethro said confidently. "Thagrit is itching to dismiss their case and tackle the counterclaim, as predicted. Widdimur is more amenable to our arguments than predicted, which is nice. Rouhh is slowly coming down harder on us, which means Icks is moving closer to our favor. Scoralecta is keeping her cards close to her chest, which is normal, but I think she's winnable. Maybe moreso than Rouhh, at this point."

Pappino gave a friendly grin. "I feel confident in predicting a 3-2 on our defense. Maybe even 4-1!"

Jarroa nodded slowly. "I would bet 3-2. Scoralecta is a good Chief. She lets the younger Justices speak first, so she doesn't have to argue with them as much. She hides her bias. But I can see it in her eyes."

"Well let's hope we can get Widdimur, then," Jethro said absently while checking one of his datapads.

Nerim stood up and straightened his shirt out. "I'll take this opportunity to go to the washroom."

"Don't get lost in the stall," Arwain winked. Nerim rolled his eyes, and moved to exit the room, walking past the table of the Jedi Order. Chey-Linn fastidiously kept her gaze glued to the table in front of her, not watching him pass—not with her eyes.

The walk wasn't too long. The bathrooms on this floor were, predictably, quite empty. Although to his surprise, they seemed to be somewhat out of date in maintenance. A pipe on the wall knocked and shuddered regularly, and one of the stalls was marked out of order. Still, it was clean. He took a few moments to look at himself in the mirror, and wonder about the mistakes he might have made. Then he closed his eyes, breathed out, and stepped away.

Once he had finished his business, he returned to the courtroom. One of the Commandos opened the grand doors for him, and when he entered, he suddenly came to a stop. He sensed a presence that he had not felt in some time. His eyes zeroed in on the new Jedi Grand Master, who was standing on a chair and speaking quietly into Master Vocta's ear.

Nerim moved forward as nonchalantly as he could, but there was no getting around the fact that his path would take him next to Yoda. He carefully navigated the corner, only to hear Yoda's voice. "Ah. Young Nerim. Some time, it has been."

He slowly turned around. "Yeah, it's been some time alright," he agreed.

Yoda looked at him for some time, staring into his eyes with an appraising gaze. Then he spoke. "Not so young, anymore. Sir Nerim, I should say. My apologies."

Nerim waved his hand forgivingly. "Don't worry about it," he said, trying not to ask why the new Grand Master was hanging around.

"Busy, you have been."

"I take days off."

"Trained in the Force, your companions are."

"Right back at ya."

Yoda exhaled sharply, a small smirk forming on his face. Then it melted. "Beware, Sir Nerim. The Dark is always lurking."

"Not always," Nerim looked over Yoda's shoulder, to Chey-Linn. "Often it seems to hang out in the open."

Yoda slowly nodded, and then looked to the Justices' turbolift. "Out of here, I must get. Talk my ear off, Widdimur will," he grumbled, hopping off the chair and hobbling away. The moment the doors closed behind him, the turbolift opened up and the Justices emerged. Nerim went back to his seat.

Jianno leaned in. "The hell is the frog doing here?"

"I'm not sure," Nerim admitted.

"Checking consensus," Arwain guessed exasperatedly. "It's all the Council Masters do."

"He looked..." Nerim thought aloud to himself. "He looked like he had a bad feeling."

The Justices all found their seats, and Scoralecta spoke. "Alright. Let's begin."

Nerim sat quietly while they argued over the training manual for another two hours. It seemed to highly correlate with orthodox training manuals of the time; Arwain even speculated it was largely a copy from the Coruscant Temple by a local, scribed as a meditative exercise rather than intended as a new manual for Revanchists in particular, seeing as it lacked many of the particularities of later Revanchist combat styles. There was no clear, easily definable Sith-only traits, such as instruction in forbidden Force powers, although there were forbidden lightsaber techniques. Still, the book contained only techniques, practically no philosophy or religious text. Inconclusive.

However, that being argued, it was then successfully argued that it was therefore clearly of the Revanchist period, likely a year or two after the Temple's founding, when, it was speculated, Revan may have already secretly become a Sith.

Then came an argument as to when and why Revan became a Sith, which the Jedi Servicemen quickly backed off from when Arwain demonstrated her knowledge of the period. The truth is, just like no one knew Revan's birth name, no one knew when or why Revan turned Sith—which was part of the speculation as to whether he ever genuinely did or not.

The conversation ended on Arwain opining that even Revan's gender was suspect, as bizarrely a small but persistent minority of contemporary records referred to 'him' quite confidently as a woman, including rather infamously in the poetry of a Cathar Jedi named Juhani, which was highly amorous and, according to Arwain, very high quality. Arwain theorized that the broader confusion was because Revan wore a female Mandalorian's armor, used a pink or violet blade, and didn't talk much. Revan also usually spoke with a mumble and often played pranks and enjoyed allowing lies about him or herself to spread, according to contemporary Jedi exile-turned-Master Meetra Surik—who also, infuriatingly, never specified Revan's gender in any of her writings or recordings. She was apparently in on what had become a running joke by then. Eventually the Justices shut down her tangent.

Not knowing when Revan became a Sith gave the prosecution plausibility, which allowed the trial to continue, but for a crime they needed proof. They brought up Aesha's lightsaber, which had mysteriously gone missing in the intervening time, and that spiraled out into a greater argument about the sequence of events on Cathar. Eventually the Justices got tired of the runaround, demanded a more structured argument be made tomorrow, and declared an end to the session.

By the time they had made it to their hotel, Nerim was exhausted. He immediately collapsed onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

Tetha sat next to him, stroking his hair. "I think it'll be witness grilling time, tomorrow."

"Yeah, probably," Nerim agreed. "How many more days could this phase of the trial last?"

"I feel like the Order hasn't brought out their big arguments, yet. They were caught offguard by Arwain—Sorry, Doctor Arwain—acting as an expert witness, and us not being able to snitch on each other. But Jethro says they were probably banking on witness grilling and semantics on the definition of Sith, and they're reorganizing a plan on how to do that."

"I feel like Widdimur is a leaf in the wind. She has no personal opinions on what the Dark Side is or what Sith are, and she's not interested in forming any. She just wants a definition she can apply from an authoritative source—which means the Jedi Order. How could we possibly get around that?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "Icks is really impatient, though. He keeps prodding the lawyers to hurry up, which makes them sloppy, which makes Widdimur think less of them. Maybe if we just let Ya-Ban hang himself...?"

"Every time he speaks, Rouhh agrees with him. Seems like he's actually well-read enough to know what he's agreeing to, even."

Tetha let down her hair, and then laid next to Nerim. "Whatever. We're not the lawyers here. Let's let them worry about it," she said, placing a hand to his cheek.

He smiled for a moment, but then returned to his pensive expression. "I've been sensing the Dark Side, lately."

She frowned. "Has it been calling to you?"

"No. It's just been...there. Observing."

She laid back and looked at the ceiling with him, also in thought. "I can't shake this feeling of deja vu."

 

[TroubleFait]

Had some thoughts about the prior chapter:

He couldn't tell much from the feeling, only that they were being watched, and it was dangerous. ... "Does it feel hostile to you?"

She shook her head. "Not really. It gives me a weird sense of deja vu, actually."

"It seems very familiar to me, too, but it's definitely bad." He frowned, letting go of her with one arm and keeping the other around her shoulders. "Why do I keep getting bad feelings?"

Click to shrink...

Before getting interviewed, Nerim got a bad feeling. Of danger. He then proceeds to talk to the journalist. I got anxious about the effects his talk would have.

It was mentioned earlier how Jedi as a rule do not talk to journalists. Even those who left the Order, I think? More fuel to the flames of Chey-Linn's animosity. Even banished, Nerim the loser continues to flaunt the rules!

I know you got us used to Nerim having a good judgement, and him trusting his feelings and making things go right. But did he follow the right feelings, this time?

"So the High Council's workings are opaque even to former members of the Order?"

"It's opaque to everyone," he quipped resentfully.

Click to shrink...

Was resentment the right feeling to listen to, my boy?

---

Now that I've read the last chapter, there's something else going on…

He smiled for a moment, but then returned to his pensive expression. "I've been sensing the Dark Side, lately."

She frowned. "Has it been calling to you?"

"No. It's just been...there. Observing."

She laid back and looked at the ceiling with him, also in thought. "I can't shake this feeling of deja vu."

Click to shrink...

Do we… remember what happened to Machina?

And looking back between chapter 69 and 70, the deja vu might prove very relevant!

 

[Hyenanon]

I know you got us used to Nerim having a good judgement, and him trusting his feelings and making things go right. But did he follow the right feelings, this time?

Was resentment the right feeling to listen to, my boy?

Click to shrink...

On one hand, resentment is probably the correct feeling to have, and perhaps the Republic does deserve more communication and transparency from Jedi than simple stonewalled silence.

On the other hand, resentment is probably not the correct feeling to act on, and simply undermining trust in the Jedi without a clear path to regain that trust is destabilizing to the Republic, which had experienced a near-millennia long golden age as a result of their partnership.

And on the third hand, Nerim probably should have always been more careful around a Jenet reporter named Laura Lie.

Now that I've read the last chapter, there's something else going on…

Do we… remember what happened to Machina?

Click to shrink...

Arwain did briefly mention a strange amount of resistance from said holocron. She got very little useful information from it...

chapter 69

Click to shrink...

hehehehe, been waiting to use that particular Obi-Wan quote on this chapter for quite some time

 

[Hyenanon]

Chapter 71: Lies The Jedi Have Created​

Nerim was brought out of his early-morning stupor in the courtroom when Kiseti tapped him on the shoulder and whispered. "Um, excuse me, Sir Nerim?"

"Huh?" He rubbed his eyes.

She readjusted her glasses. Jethro was arguing in the center over procedure, and Pappino was in the bathroom after a disagreement with local food. "Witness questioning is about to start. I imagine it will begin with Chey-Linn, Haaka, and then Aesha, but just in case, remember to be aggressive."

"What?" He asked, blinking himself awake. "Jethro told me the opposite."

She tilted her head, one ear up. "Huh? When?"

"Yesterday."

"Oh. Well, that was yesterday," she said, tapping at her datapad. "Right now our strategy revolves around muddying the waters. Since you already claimed to be a Jedi on camera, we might as well stick with that for now. Have you looked at the witness list?"

"No," he replied blankly. He had decided to take Tetha's advice and let the lawyers worry about procedure, and he frankly had no idea what the rest of the schedule looked like. He had spent the last evening watching the bolo-ball game. The Saarkanian Sharks were going to finals in the Galactic Cup.

"Hm. Well, we'll be trying to shore up your credentials, really make you look rock solid! Since the Jedi will be trying to attack your trustworthiness and call you fallen, that is," She said, showing him a bullet point list that it was too early to read. "Basically, just try not to undermine yourself. Don't speculate or use terms like 'I'm not sure', stick to things you do know, and don't say things like 'That's debatable', just say 'You are wrong', stuff like that."

"I'll try my best," he yawned.

"Remember, the two most important things are that you can't let them connect any of us to the Sith, and you have to make Chey-Linn look like she's the Dark Jedi," Kiseti whispered, looking down at her notes and then back up to him. "Oh, also, don't lie."

"Some would call me pathologically honest."

"All that settled," Ya-Ban spoke, adjusting his robes' sleeves, "I call to the stand Chey-Linn."

Chey-Linn gracefully stood up and moved towards the stand. Despite the morning hour, the fog had only grown heavier, and it was silvery and sunless in the chamber. She swore her oath and sat down upon the chair, as Ya-Ban paced and ran through the argument in his head. Then he spoke again.

"Miss Sunrider," the lawyer began.

"Oh," Nerim blinked. "I always forget her surname. Weird one."

Kiseti gave him a strange look. "You really didn't look at any of our materials. Did no one prepare you?"

Ya-Ban continued. "Why were you originally sent to Cathar?"

"My Master, Haaka Mahn, and I were tasked with tracing the origin of Sith artifacts that had been discovered recently."

"And they were confirmed Sith artifacts discovered recently?"

"Yes," Chey-Linn affirmed. "I seem to recall former Jedi Arwain Ash-Kan submitting a Sith Holocron to the archives from one such finding. Undoubtedly."

"And the Order believed Cathar to be a likely origin?"

"Yes, that is why they sent us there."

Jethro wiped his forehead with a handkerchief at the other end of the table. "This is where it gets rough for us..."

Justice Widdimur interrupted. "When you say the Order believed Cathar to be a likely origin, what body exactly within the Order are you speaking of?"

"The High Council, Your Honor," Chey-Linn clarified. "They had assigned us the mission under that auspice."

"Indeed," Ya-Ban nodded, continuing to pace. "And the two at-the-time Jedi Arwain Ash-Kan and Nerim, along with their Mandalorian companion Jianno, arrived shortly afterwards?"

"Yes, within a few hours."

"And they arrived to do what?"

"They were also assigned the same mission as us. Arwain and Nerim, that is. Jianno was brought on Arwain's whim."

Jianno placed the tips of her fingers to the chin of her helmet and flicked them out in a rude gesture. Scoralecta's long arms unraveled and she grabbed her gavel, slamming it down. "Order! You will contain yourself, Ms. Jianno."

After a moment, Ya-Ban continued. "As we were saying, Arwain and Nerim were assigned the same mission. Is it fair to say that four Jedi on one such mission is unusual?"

"Yes," Chey-Linn answered.

"And is it fair to say that meant that the Order placed a high degree of importance on this mission?"

"Yes."

"And thus, a high degree of confidence in their belief of the presence of Sith artifacts..." Ya-Ban stated, placing a hand to his chin in recollection. "And when you all arrived, what were your actions?"

"First, we meditated. Then, Haaka, Arwain, and I spent some time attempting to narrow down our search parameters to survey for Sith sites. Nerim and Aesha absconded together for a long time, I do not know where."

Tetha's eye twitched at that, and Nerim felt a sense of...excited anticipation rise from the room.

"Arwain was explicitly attempting to locate a Sith site?" Ya-Ban asked.

"Yes."

"And when did you next see Nerim or Aesha?"

"Only the next morning, when Aesha led us to an airspeeder bay."

"Do you have any idea what they were doing during that intervening time?"

"No, but I imagine they spent much of the night together, as they were both sleep deprived."

That sense of sadistic glee increased. Tetha's eye twitched again, and she silently mouthed the words that little bitch. Jarroa raised an eyebrow to Aesha, who shook her head vigorously.

Nerim raised his hands defensively to Tetha. "I didn't—!" He whispered loudly

"I know, Nerim," Tetha sighed and whispered back. "You were obviously a virgin when I got to you."

Arwain paused and turned to the two of them, astonished. "Wait, did Nerim just pick up on an innuendo?"

Ya-Ban held his hands together in a scholar's cradle. "And after these events, you found a hidden Temple. Using the best of your Jedi abilities at the time, did this Temple come across as Dark Sided to you?"

"Very. There was a nexus of Dark energies within, and it was covered with engravings venerating a Sith Lord."

"And was it recently disturbed, by people other than your expedition?"

"Yes."

"Both of these observations made about the Temple, were they shared at the time by your Master?"

"Yes."

"And were they shared by Nerim?" He asked. Nerim noticed he oddly omitted Arwain, the Sith expert in the room who was also there.

"He claimed that the energies were not Dark Sided, but did not claim they were of the Light either. He claimed not to know if it was of Sith origin or not."

"And after several grueling days trapped in the Temple, did Nerim attempt to utilize the Dark energ—"

"Objection!" Kiseti stood up. The rest of the table looked at her, surprised. Even Jethro.

None of the Justices, apparently engrossed in the story, seemed too happy for Kiseti to interrupt. "What is the objection, Miss Kara?" Chief Justice Scoralecta asked.

"They are continuing to omit Sir Nerim's proper honorific in an attempt to disrespect him and distort his appearance!" Kiseti said firmly. "I can understand the witness using more casual language, but it is unacceptable for Mr. Ya-Ban to continue to do so, especially after our earlier discussion."

Jethro nodded in surprised approval.

Scoralecta didn't immediately respond, but Justice Icks rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "For the love of all that is holy, can we stop descending into name arguments? The matter was settled, Mr. Ya-Ban. Address him properly."

Ya-Ban smiled tightly. "Right. Did Sir Nerim attempt to utilize the Dark Energies within the Temple?"

"Yes," Chey-Linn answered tersely.

"And while exiting through the secret passage, did your expedition in fact find a hair upon the ground, which belonged to Her Highness Princess Aesha, as confirmed with genetic testing?"

"That is correct."

"After all of this, the starvation, dehydration, lack of light or proper sleep, and interfacing with the Dark nexus, Nerim—Sir Nerim—appeared quite haggard from the experience, correct?"

"Yes. He slept fitfully and with nightmares for around an hour on the flight back."

"At this point," Ya-Ban said, "It is my understanding that your Master ordered you to monitor Princess Aesha from afar, as she was a possible flight risk. When this happened, Dr. Ash-Kan ordered Sir Nerim to monitor the Princess, but with no such compunction that it be done from afar. Then, Sir Nerim raced past you, leading to the Princess becoming aware of you both. Is that correct?"

"Yes," She said ruefully.

"Then, sensing the Dark object in her possession, you uncovered the Sith artifact, and placed Princess Aesha under arrest, only for her to violently resist said arrest by throwing you out of a window—at the top of the City Tree, mind you. Once you caught yourself and then climbed back up, Sir Nerim engaged you in combat, using both his lightsaber, and a second one of unidentified origin. Princess Aesha also took up his blade and engaged you, displaying some training in the weapon. Is all of that correct?"

"Without a doubt, yes."

He splayed his hands, addressing the Justices. "To me, this seems incontrovertible. Sir Nerim and Princess Aesha, already improperly acquainted and unaccounted for on the night of their arrival, acted in such a way that appears identical to how they would act if they were hiding Sith artifacts. Aesha's DNA was found in the Temple, the book was found in her room, a lightsaber appeared whose origin we cannot determine and whose ultimate whereabouts we have lost track of, and both opened hostilities and then engaged in trained lightsaber combat with Chey-Linn."

He turned and moved back to their table, and Kiseti took a deep breath, fussing over her hair. Then she stood up and began to move to the center. Jarroa leaned over to Jethro. "Doesn't Pappino normally do the witness examinations?" He asked.

Jethro nodded. "Sure, sure. Gotta give Kiseti a shot sometime, though."

"During a Supreme Court case?" Arwain asked.

"Everyone's gotta start somewhere. Besides, Pappino is still—"

"Miss Sunrider," Kiseti began, her voice strong. "Why were Master Arwain and Sir Nerim sent on the mission with you?"

Chey-Linn narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "I, uh, I don't..."

"Let me rephrase," Kiseti put her hands together. "Did the High Council believe they were uniquely qualified to undertake this case?"

"I'm not sure they were uniquely qualified—"

Kiseti interrupted. "Did the High Council believe they were uniquely qualified, yes or no."

"No," Chey-Linn answered impulsively.

"Do you really believe that is the case? When Master Arwain was known to be the foremost expert on alternative Force Orders, including but not limited to the Sith Order?"

"I—"

"And when Sir Nerim is the one who acquired the Sith Holocron you spoke of earlier and returned it to the Temple?" She added. "Of his own initiative, might I add."

"I'm not sure what the question is," Chey-Linn said, a little off-guard.

Kiseti readjusted her glasses and glared at the Padawan. "When you stated that the High Council did not believe that Master Arwain and Sir Nerim were uniquely qualified for this mission, were you lying? Yes or no."

Chey-Linn did not immediately respond, her mouth still open, but Ya-Ban jumped up instead. "Objection! This is a leading question based on speculation."

"Sustained. Miss Kara, tone it down," Scoralecta chided.

"Rubbish!" Thagrit scoffed. "The witness phase is based on testing their credibility, one is allowed to ask if they are lying."

"But only on questions that otherwise make sense," Widdimur reasoned. "The key factor here is that Miss Kara's questions rely on Miss Sunrider's speculation. It's not appropriate to push so hard on speculation. Sustain."

"That's quite alright," Kiseti said, straightening the bow on her collar. "Let me ask it this way, then. What did Master Arwain believe about the Temple? Did she at the time voice it to be a place of the Sith?"

Chey-Linn thought for a moment. "No."

"Did she voice her opinion on whether it was of Sith nature or not?"

"Yes."

"And her answer? Use exact words if you can recall."

Chey-Linn paused for a moment. Nerim could remember. Far from Sith. "I cannot recall exact words. But she said it was not."

"And what did she say on the matter of potential ambient Dark Side energies?"

"She said that it was not exactly Dark Sided."

"And do you have reason to believe that Master Arwain was at the time considered a foremost expert on the knowledge, by the Temple authorities?"

"Sh—"

"Yes or no."

"...Yes."

"So, in defiance of the foremost expert of the Sith, you continued to believe that your personal intuition as a fifteen year old trainee was superior?"

"My Master held the same opinion as me."

"And let us clarify, when you say my Master, you are using that word in a respectful and familiar sense, but when we refer to Master Arwain, we are referring to her rank, as conferred by the High Council."

Chey-Linn did not respond.

"And so your 'Master', who was really just a Knight, ordered you to monitor Princess Aesha. When he did so, did he explicitly order you to make no contact?"

"...He did do so," she answered.

"And much ado has been made of Sir Nerim's state at the time. Is it fair to say that you had eaten, drank, and slept no more than him in this intervening time, and that you too were spiritually strained by the nexus?" Kiseti leaned in towards the Padawan.

"Perhaps not to the same—"

"Oh? Did you have anything to eat in the time spent at the Temple?"

"...No."

"To drink?"

"No."

"Did you sleep better?"

"I was not precisely monitoring his sleep."

"But he did sleep on the ride back, and you did not, correct?"

"...Yes."

"And when you made contact with Princess Aesha regardless, did you raise your voice to them?"

"We—The interaction between us was heated."

"Did you raise your voice? Shout, even?"

Chey-Linn pursed her lips. A bead of sweat trailed down her neck.

Kiseti turned her palms up and looked to the Justices.

"You must answer," Widdimur prodded.

"I did," Chey-Linn admitted.

"Did you refer to her religious beliefs as primitive superstition?"

"I—"

"Yes or no," Kiseti glared.

"Yes."

"And were you the first to draw a weapon?"

"Yes."

"Were you the first to activate your lightsaber?"

"Only af—"

"Yes. Or. No." Kiseti gripped the wooden railing between them.

Chey-Linn's grip on her knees tightened. "Yes, but onl—"

"And when the local—"

"Only after they attacked me!" Chey-Linn continued pleadingly.

"Strike that from the record," Kiseti ordered the stenographer coldly.

Chief Justice Scoralecta pursed her lips. "You may only answer the questions you are asked, Miss Sunrider."

Chey-Linn grimaced, but nodded.

Nerim frowned. The questioning was excoriating. It almost hurt for him to watch. Not that Chey-Linn didn't deserve it. But something else was bothering him. He looked outside the transparasteel. Despite the sun rising higher, it only ever seemed to get darker as the clouds closed in.

Jarroa stroked his beard. "Very much not like Pappino."

"She seems to have the opposite style," Jethro agreed, intrigued.

Tetha leaned in to Nerim. "That's a scary facade."

"Is it?" He asked.

Kiseti continued. "And when you fought them, did you deliberately perform the mou kei forbidden strike, maiming Princess Aesha and cutting off both of her legs?"

Chey-Linn froze. "I—..."

"Your Highness," Kiseti turned to Aesha. "Could you please stand before the court for a moment? No talking necessary."

"Miss Kara..." Scoralecta warned.

"Let it stand," Justice Icks said. "Hah!" He laughed hoarsely.

Aesha stood, and walked to the center on her mechanical legs.

Kiseti pointed to them, and Chey-Linn looked away. "Look. Look at what you did," She ordered. Chey-Linn's eyes glanced over. "Is that justice?"

Chey-Linn did not answer.

"Do you feel like you maimed a Sith Lord right now?"

Nerim felt that sensation of shattering glass in the room. Chey-Linn's lip trembled.

"That will be all," Kiseti readjusted her glasses, and moved back to the table with Aesha

Scoralecta cleared her throat. "The, ah, court will adjourn for a ten—make that twenty minute break, before the next witness."

Chey-Linn dropped out of her seat and quickly walked towards the exit. Aesha sat next to Nerim and gave him a conflicted smile. "I know that shouldn't make me feel good, but it did," she admitted.

"Oh," Kiseti took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes, speaking in a smaller voice. "I think I went too hard, again. I really didn't mean to make her cry," she muttered, quite genuinely upset by it.

"That was perfect," Jarroa praised.

They chattered for a while, and when Nerim looked to the chronometer, he realized he still had another five minutes to wait. He stood up and moved to go to the bathroom. As he approached the door, Chey-Linn exited out the one next to it. Her eyes were red.

Nerim felt that Dark presence as they held each other's eyes, each deciding what to do about the situation. Then, Chey-Linn stormed past him, and the presence faded.

 

[Simonbob]

..... She's going to fall to the Dark in the Courtroom.

This case is going to go down in all sorts of record books.