Fall of the Jedi

Chapter 15

When Kira opens her eyes, she is not in her room, laying on her mat. Instead, she is in a dark, damp chamber with wisps of the Force flowing around her in white, swirling mist. The air is thick with tension and uncertainty. She lets in a deep, soothing breath and closes her eyes in an attempt to clear her mind.

When her iced eyes reopen, the mist has faded revealing a road to which she stood in the middle. Two paths lay before her.

On the left, the darkness fades to the familiar halls of the Jedi Temple, the home she has known all her life but they now lay empty and cold. Kira begins moving towards the Temple, walking through those familiar halls. As she walks, she hears whispers and fleeting shadows of her fellow Jedi. Their faces turned away in disgust as she passed.

Failure. She hears. Liar.

Hunter.

Killer.

Scum.

All words the Jedi had long since associated with the warrior people of Mandalore. The words shake Kira but she continues on.

Not one of us.

She should be sent to the Agri-Corpes.

I can't believe she failed her master like that.

The whispers of her fellow Jedi fill her ears, tears burn in her eyes as she continues on, trying to ignore the words that burn her.

Before long, she comes to the Council Chamber. The doors open with a whoosh, in the center stands the tall, dark-skinned Mace Windu with his back to her, his hand clasped around his opposite wrist behind his back. His dark cloak around his shoulders, but not over his head.

"Master," Kira called out, her voice trembling more than she expected. "I need your guidance."

Mace turns his head to the side but does not face her. His expression was stern and unreadable, in a way that was beyond his typical disappointment in her failing a sparring match. This was a disappointment so great she felt her heart burn with failure.

"You have strayed too far from the Jedi path," He said, finally turning to face her fully. Your attachments have clouded your judgment."

"Mace-"

"Do not deny it, Girl." He cut her off, his voice deep and stern, pointing an accusing finger in her face, "Your attachments to your heritage, your Mandalorian blood. I know. I have always known."

"How?" She asks, "Tell me."

Mace folds his arms across his chest. "No." He said. "Knowing as much as you have has already corrupted you this much. We do not keep the histories of our Jedi a secret unless their histories are forbidden."

"What are you saying?" She asked.

"You would not have been allowed if they had known." He said. "No one truly knows, only me and now you."

Kira's head shook with confusion. "I do not understand, Mace." She cried. "You have to make me understand."

There was a long silence as Mace seemed to battle the words that threatened to fall from his lips. "There was only one way and I had to make that choice for you."

Kira's mouth pursed into a line as tears welled up in her eyes, the words were too vague and the frustration too great.

"How can I be both?" She pleads in frustrated cries with a fist to her heart as she stumbles her way to stand before him. "I don't know everything, I don't know how I came to be with the Jedi but I know that my blood is of Mandalore but the blood of a Jedi also runs through my veins. I need to know, Mace. I have to know."