Last Stand

Tomin's seen a fair bit of the Med Bay since they repaired it. Between her own injuries and checking in on others, notably Sirina and Maribri, she'd started to feel pretty at home in the space.

She arrives bearing a couple cups of caff, hoping Master Saubet was doing well enough today that she'd be drinking one of them.

"Tomin." Maribri smiles as her former padawan enters. The master is sitting up on a bench as a medical droid buzzes around her, occasionally poking different parts of the zabrak and beeping with interest.

She looks older than before the wear, with more lines on her face and she's clearly lost a lot of weight. But her eyes are alive as ever.

"They're just running my reflex tests, again. Won't just let an old woman be."
The droid beeps apologetically but keeps poking and checking her response to stimuli.

"Ohhh, is one of those for me? I knew I taught you right." The droid beeps again but seems to offer no disagreement.

She hands the steaming cup over. "It's no stimpack, but a bit of caff should perk the old reflexes right up, eh?" Standing out of the droid's way, she adds, "Got confirmation that no hide nor hair of Hanuel was found under the temple wreckage. Her training with some Jedi form was clear. How does someone go so wrong though? Teaming up with Mandalorians killing their way through the galaxy for _Glory_?"

Her master accepts the cup and wraps her hands around it with a sigh, enjoying the warmth.

"Better than a stim I'd say." She sips quietly, processing Tomin's question with her face set in its usual frown whenever Tomin would ask one of the big questions.

"She wanted to do something to help so much that eventually the doing became all she focused on. All of us, every Jedi, we have the potential to be like her. We fix our mind on a target so hard that we lose our way to it."

Maribri looks across at Tomin.

"I don't think it was about the glory. The way she explained it everyone, the Republic, the Jedi, the peacekeepers. We were just ossified, refusing to act. The Mandalorians were going to be a catalyst for change, with their power she could reshape entire worlds."

The droid pokes her again and she winces before fixing it with a glare, the small machine beeps apologetically and flies back to input some data at a nearby terminal.

"It is a debate as old as the Order on when we should, or can act, or rule, even. Perhaps we have lost sight of the path, so many have already left..."
She loses herself in thought.

There's a puzzled look on her face. "Some change is always going on, but reshaping whole worlds? What's even the point of that? Are some of them that awful?"

Her lips curl up at the apologetic beep. She recognized that glare, despite not 'seeing' it. Good to know it even worked on droids.

"I suppose I might feel the same if the Order stood back and watched right now as these Mandalorians overrun everything. But that's not what's happening."

"Hmmm? Some of them...yes. It's a vast galaxy after all. Some worlds I would not wish on my worst enemy. Not that a Jedi should have a worst enemy of course."
She sips her caff again.

"There are many in the Order who feel we should step back and let the war take its course. Then Revan said otherwise and we were split. And every time the Order splits..." she waves a hand in a motion signifying that fools would always be fools.

"At least I never have to worry about that being your fate, even if I see you're still wielding that blaster, hmmm? And now you used it to rescue your old Master, terribly embarrassing really."

"ehh, Zephrin did most of the rescuing there," she waves off the embarrassment. "But that fight showed me that I really do need to focus a bit more on my _other_ training. I knew that, really. A blaster's not enough. But it drove home that, even if I'm not likely to be the person tapped for diplomatic solutions, being able to do something with a lightsaber would be a good idea."

"How many times has the Order split?" She pauses, "and is that what this is? Those Mandalorians with lightsabers are still Jedi? Just...part of a new umm...branch?"

"That boy, he's a good sort." It was high praise indeed from her master who beckons Tomin over to her.

"Lend an old Jedi your arm, we should walk. This talk is not for those outside the order."
The medical droid beeps and warbles again.
"No,Doctor-Patient confidentiality won't cover it. Now go probe somebody else, I'm just old."

With a last boop the droid departs.

Tomin nods in agreement. Zephrin'd shown an ability to endure and keep swinging that she knew she didn't have...yet. Readily offering her arm, she prepares for a stroll through the newly repaired doorway to the somewhat repaired corridors.

"Didn't realize the Order had much argument about this war. Not sure I'd have been able to stand off and just watch things happen..."

Maribri grasps Tomin's arm tightly and uses it for support as the two Jedi exit the medbay. The corridors might be somewhat haphazard (and more than a few ended abruptly) but the ship was above with energy this time of day.

"Thankfully we're far enough out here that all the politicking and the arguing of the council is muted. But ever since the raids started they've been debating about what our response should be. Eventually when the war was declared they outright forbid the Order from intervening. That upset a lot of people."

Maribri continues heading down the corridor, seemingly to be unerringly heading for an exit.

"About a year ago a group of Jedi thinking of joining went to the planet of Cathar which the Neo-Crusaders had just conquered. They'd heard some rumours. Council sent a team after them."
Her grip tightens slightly on Tomin's arm.

"They found the Mandalorians had killed everyone, combatants and non-combatants alike. It was a slaughter...that group swore it would do whatever was required to defeat the Crusaders. Their leader was Revan and they became the Revanchists. Way I hear it they told the Council team where they could stick their lightsabers. Order's been split ever since, seems like every day another young Jedi is often to join Revan and fight the war."

She nods, jaw tightening. "Yeah, heard about the massacre. Reason folks really, really are set on fighting the invasion here. For all the grumbling about the Republic butting in, haven't heard a lot of folks saying things would settle if we just handed it all over to them." She pauses. "OK, some...but not a lot. Some people just will not believe what's not demonstrated right in front of them."

There's a pause, and a tension easy to feel through her arm. "I know we're to step aside from attachments to better listen to the Force, but there's no way that allowing that to sweep across entire worlds is right. If the Force just wants us to...to be witnesses... I don't know that I've ever felt guided to that, you know?"

"Well that's because you've got your head screwed on straight. Well, most of the time anyway."

They reach an exterior door and Maribri waves her hand. Cool clean air races in as it slides open.

"Ahh. I do love this planet sometimes. Even if it's got more than its share of nitwits...anyway, yes, the council's decision. I'm sure they got their reasons. But I've always felt that choosing not to act is an act itself. Seems Revan felt the same. But that gets folks nervous. Every split almost always end in conflict, death, Jedi falling to the dark side."

She starts heading out of the ship, wrapping her robe around herself.

"You've seen the Mandalorian Knights yourself. People fear that's what could happen to the Revanchists."

"Could see that. Once you decide the ends justify the means, stuff flies right off the cliff." She grins, "Are we really higher than average on our nitwit quota here?" Steering to keep herself between Maribri and the brunt of the breeze, she's quiet a minute, thinking about the larger thing.

"Seems a bit like dealing with the briarwolves getting into a flock. They can really mess things up fast. Nothing wrong with setting traps or keeping watch at night to shoot them. But deciding to wipe out all the wolves on the planet and then move on to the other predators...well that's out of line, right? But we don't keep folks from doing those first things just because they might flip out and go farther."

She shakes her head. "Gotta be a spot between crazed zealots and fearful inaction. Is it because we *can* fall to the dark side that inaction feels like a better choice?

"Anyone can fall to the dark side Tomin. Don't forget that. It might be a bit more dramatic if you or were to to embrace the dark. But anger, envy, lust and greed can consume anyone."

She sighs with appreciation as Tomin blocks the wind, seemingly scanning the horizon.

"There's nothing wrong with your analogy though. Imagine if you told all the other farmers they weren't allowed to do anything about them briarwolves? Well, someone is gonna do something eventually. But now they're gonna have to do it in secret, or they're gonna have to do something big. Just makes it more dangerous."

She's silent for a few moments before sighing quietly.
"Truth be told, sometimes even I'm not sure of what the answer is. The Council aren't all fools, they'd have reasons for acting as they have, maybe even good ones. I'm just old, I don't know everything."
She turns slowly and rests a hand on Tomin's shoulder.

"But what I do know is that I'm proud of you. You're asking the right questions. You're doing the right things. Whatever answers you find, don't lose that, you hear? I'm not gonna go collapse a temple on you if you need to be knocked back onto the right path."

"Yeah, I guess it's easy to consider folks who aren't strong in the Force falling as...well Monday. Normal corrupt politicians and murderers. Jedi falling makes more dramatic villians." She's quiet a moment, putting the analogy together with the idea of what she'd likely feel like if forced to hide her assistance here. "Sneaking around just adds to the weight of guilt and fear...no wonder more folks fall in a split like that."

There's a crooked grin at Maribri's praise. "Ah stop sounding like you're expecting to pass into the Force any day now. We don't have any more temples to knock down for dramatic rescues." Though she does 'look' a bit more closely at the convalescing Master before her. She did question her decision to walk out like this, but she was a bit concerned.

"But...thanks. It's good to hear. With all the fighting, and this fight using my blaster more than my observation skills, I know it'd be easier to slip than in other times."

"Much harder to slip if you know you can fall. It's just sensible to be worried."
She turns and raises an eyebrow at Tomin.

"Don't be giving me that look, you'll end up like the medical droids. Sure I was technically dead for most of a day, but being a Jedi isn't about technicalities. Besides, any healer worth their salt knows how to fake their own death. Figured it was the one thing Haneul wouldn't expect. She was so angry at the Order for doing nothing, and what's more nothing than seeming to just...die?"

She rolls her shoulders and grunts.
"Leaves you damn stiff though."

"Never going to manage that concerned beep like the droids, don't worry." She offers a grin. "But...so you were...well, technically," she rolls the word with aural air quotes, "dead? I guess that's a good ways along in studying the Force? Does seem like a pretty unexpected trick though. Glad we found her before anything worse happened."

"Do you know where Haneul came from? I'm starting to get the feeling that...even among Jedi, where you're from matters some to how you keep on. Like, yes, the Force offers a whole different view of things." She half grins, waving her fingers in front of her blank leather mask. "But I'm starting to see that even then we carry our Rim vs. Core and country vs. city roots with us."

"My heart stopped beating, my lungs stopped breathing by most definitions that would count. But the force can be used, with care, to...keep the lights on, I suppose. But it is taxing. I need some time to recover."

She sniffs, managing not to smile too broadly as Tomin waves her fingers back and force.
"But I do want to be out there, helping. Perhaps they can wheel me next to people in need and I can lean over from my medbed to theirs? Otherwise I do not know how the droids shall cope with me."

Tomin's question has her thinking.
"Mid-Rim, I think. She was taken in very young. From our records she was a serviceable student, nothing exceptional but nothing lacking either. Her teachers all noted that she had drive though, wanted to get things done. She could be quite harsh with herself in that regard. At the time that was regarded as a quirk rather than a flaw. Once she passed her trials she went on an extended pilgrimage."

Tomin nods, not nearly strong enough in the force to even conceptualize how that would work. "It does sound rough." There's a small smile at the thought of wheeling her around to the other patients. "Imagine some of the other folks who need time to recover are going stir crazy too, they may as well put you together to at least complain about it to one another."

"At the end there. I think Zephrin was getting through to her...some kind of reaction at least. Didn't keep her from pulling the temple down the rest of the way." There's a moment to shape the next thought into words "If she's that hard on herself...what would she do if she even started to let herself think she'd been wrong? After all these worlds and all the death these Neo-Crusaders have caused, at least partly with her help, that seems...crushing."

"Can only wonder what she ran into out there." Tomin 'looks' up, focused well beyond the sterile ceiling. "Good lesson to remember when I get called away from this bit of the galaxy."

"Hmmmm. Maybe she'd double down, convince herself it was all worth it, but she just had to try harder...or maybe she might snap out of it and try to make things right. Either way, it would be crushing."
She raises an eyebrow.
"...I hope that wasn't a play on her being crushed by the temple, although that was suitably symbolic."

Joining her pupil in casting her gaze upwards into the bright clear blue sky.
"Maybe she found something good? Or something bad? Or maybe she found nothing at all? Any of those at the wrong time for the wrong person..."