Saga All Those Who Take the Sword--A Jedi Purges response to the Title Challenge

The Jedi were under siege, but no one on either side was willing to admit it.

The escalating tensions between the governing body of the Republic and the foundering Jedi Order had been recognized, but no action had been taken until the fiasco at Meutil VI.

It had been the work of half a dozen Knights and Masters. The moment had come when the clones that had grudingly been given positions of command or who had worked closely with the said Jedi had turned on their compatriots. Two of the Knights had fallen immediately, caught off guard, but the others had counted on the safe haven of nearby towns, splitting up so as to minimize the damages.

They had thought that the clones would have the compassion to not harm civilians, but they had obviously expected too much of drones spawned from the blood of a bounty hunter.

The numbers were staggering, since the clones had not only seen to the annihilation of every person in those towns, but had cut down a good number of the volunteer soldiers who had enlisted after the Battle of Geonosis.

Two Jedi had escaped, a Master named Liara Khe and Knight Anakin Skywalker.

They returned with heavy hearts, blamed by no one and everyone for the inability to hold evil at bay on that world. Khe, a mild-mannered Corellian who had a flair for diplomatic solutions, had been pitied and subjected to appropriate sympathy.

For the Chosen One, however, there was no such sympathy.

He had suffered serious injury on Meutil, but it was not the blaster wounds or the burns incurred from trying to rescue several children trapped in a burning hospital that had left him in a coma.

It was something like psychic shock, a sensory overload that left him unable to respond to anything. Khe had tended to him as best she could, but it was beyond her power to heal.

And in the meanwhile, the deaths of sixteen thousand four hundred seventy-nine innocent civilians and three hundred twenty-eight soldiers of the Republic at the hands of five hundred clones were attributed to the stupidity of a twenty-two-year-old Chosen renegade.

They ignored the fact that such things had happened on other worlds in recent times, that the clones seemed to have gone mad because they were turning against their compatriots in every instance.

"Would we expect anything less from the hero of Geonosis?" was the catchphrase of the day while the Chosen One lay comatose in the Healers' Wing.

His wife was off-world, seizing a rare moment of reprieve to attend the Naming of her first nephew, so there was little chance that she even knew the gravity of the situation.

It was common knowledge that he had chosen to follow in the footsteps of his spiritual grandfather, defying everything that was not immediately convenient for him and being spared the consequences by unknown means.

The consequences of Meutil, however, were unavoidable.

Within two days of the Chosen One's return, the night watch at the Temple reported a growing congregation of military craft and peace-keeping forces around the Temple. Concerned, the Council had sent emissaries to the blockade for an explanation.

A hard-faced man named Major Huka had explained the situation by shooting one of the emissaries through the throat for 'attempted escape.' The other, Master Yrin Llyr, was left alone. He had enough sense to not respond violently, had left his lightsaber inside in a gesture of good faith.

That good faith had cost him Knight Tara Lzari, the only apprentice he had ever trained to Knighthood.

Visibly shaken, but still rigidly duty-bound, Master Llyr had stood gore-spattered, the husk of his former Padawan draped over his arm, and demanded to know what they were allegedly trying to escape.

"The Jedi are a threat to the people of the Republic," Huka explained. "We are under orders..."

"By what authority?"

A datacard had been passed over with the calm of diplomacy, as though the Master were not suffering the loss of his surrogate daughter while six hundred blaster rifles were directed towards his broken heart. H

 

Yrin had returned to the Temple in silence and had resisted all attempts to remove Tara to the morgue. With his fallen child cradled in his arms, he had entered the Council chambers and laid her at their feet by way of explanation and accusation.

The message on the datacard had been brief, a declaration of house arrest for the inhabitants of the Jedi Temple on the charges of treason against the Republic.

That broke my heart! You have to continue this and soon!

 

Thanks. This is going to get really complicated. Yrin, Ana, Tara, Valin, and company are OCs from a story I wrote post-ep1 about two jedi knights who fall in love and have to go through the purges.

 

I'm with Chewie! There must be more to this one, and very, very soon! I loved it. The emotions were raw and complex, very angst-ridden. A lovely, lovely piece, but I expect nothing less!

 

Thanks, Vader. I aimed for it to be raw because raw emotion is so often the effect of something this unexpectedly catastrophic.

 

Really liked this entry for the What's in a name? challenge. Beautifully expressed emotions.

 

Thanks, SenatorHermione. I had one person go "oh, that's been done so many times I'm tired of it!" and I'm like, "well, did I do it the same as everyone else?" "No." "Well, then I don't care." And then to another person I was like "I was doing Padme miscarriages before they were cool. "

 

Really beautiful response to these challenges! Of course, we expect that from you.

 

Dang! This is so good! It's so sad, though. Poor Padme.

 

Speaking of challenges, the characters Ana and Yrin are also from another viggie that is on this board--Innocent Proven Guilty. Remember the lady that a 5-year-old turns in by accident and gets killed for being a Jedi? That's Ana.