Edges of the World

Interlude I

Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee was meditating.

Lately, she had been growing increasingly worried about the war, about what it was doing to everyone around her.

She tried to stay out of battles herself, instead devoting herself to studying the Order's past, but she and her Master kept being ordered back into the field.

She remembered that first battle on Geonosis. Being dropped into that arena, and how unaware she was then of what sort of costs were ahead of them, what sort of compromises.

If she was perfectly honest with herself, she hated the war.

Barriss mediated on the Force, and on her feelings about the war, and began to notice something, something alarming.

Everyone had known for years now that the Dark Side had grown stronger, that it cast a pallid haze over everything and made it hard to sense the difference between truth and lies, reality and delusion.

Yet in a startling moment of clarity Barriss saw that the Jedi Order itself had been plunged into the Dark, that with each passing day of war they strayed further and further from the Light.

It was too horrible to contemplate.

What could she do?

In most universes, Barriss kept this information to herself. Her fear of what the Order was becoming grew alongside her hate of the war, and in time these emotions caused her to fall.

Not in this one.

"Master? There is something I saw in my meditations that I need help understanding."

Luminara Unduli smiled at her Padawan as she emerged from the rooms adjoining her own. "I will help however I can Barriss. Let us meditate together, and you can show me the point of confusion in the Force."

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Telling the Council what she had found, what her Master had confirmed was truly there and was not just a figment of her imagination, was beyond intimidating.

Barriss stood in the center of the Council chamber, Master Unduli by her side, and had to actively force herself to speak. What if they did not take her concerns seriously? What if they acknowledged what was happening but kept acting as they had been regardless, no change, no way to correct that which was so very wrong.

"Padawan Offee, we thank you for bringing this grave matter to our attention. This is a very serious find, and if it bears out through our investigation, the entire Order will be in your debt." Master Windu looked troubled, felt troubled. She could sense his worry and was reassured that what she had discovered was not going to be dismissed.

Maybe... maybe now this horrid war could finally end?

It seemed far too good to be true.

As she left the Council chambers and made her way to the Archives - she hoped to spend the rest of the day lost in yet another historical record - she bumped into Ahsoka, who had been running down one of the temple's halls without looking where she was going.

The two teenagers regarded each other, neither aware of how important that day had been for both of their lives, how different their fates were now than they had been just hours earlier.

"Oof! Sorry Barriss, I really should pay more attention."

"That's alright Ahsoka. Where were you headed?"

Ahsoka gave her a wicked grin. It was clear the other Padawan was looking forward to where she had been going. "My Master is part of a team that is going to break into The Citadel. Don't tell anyone, but I'm going sneak onto the mission."