Chapter Text
“The Force is an arse. And it’s trying to apologise to you.”
You could hear a pin drop, and that expression finally made sense, Obi-Wan Kenobi mused as a wave of horrified silence sped across the refractory he was sitting in.
Well, it was a pretty heretical statement.
The robed figure – and was that armour under their robe? – dropped onto the bench across the table from him, pushing back their hood as they did so.
The dark haired, pale skinned woman, and he was 90% sure it was a human woman, grinned cheekily at him, “That weird guilty feeling in the back of your head? That’s the Force, trying to apologise. Haven’t you been taught to identify it yet?”
He shook his head, “No…”
“Well then, that’s it, for future reference. And since you weren’t getting the message, it sent me to explain.”
“I hope you weren’t doing anything important?” Did he know this woman? He didn’t recognise her and that was definitely armour under her robe. What Jedi wore armour in this day and age?
She waved a negligent hand, “Arguing with Bane about his interpretation of my holocron is something I can do any time. This is far more interesting.”
“If it’s your holocron, shouldn’t you know what it says?”
That got a vicious smirk from her and showed teeth maybe a little too pointed for pure human, as she leaned forward conspiratorially, “Between you and me, Bane isn’t the sharpest crayon in the box. I’m fairly sure he hasn’t put together who I am.”
“Oh…”
“So, apologies!” she straightened up abruptly and clapped her hand, revealing the edge of vambraces under her sleeves, “The Force put you through hell. That was a consequence of trying to change the trajectory of this dimension. Didn’t work, but now you’re in for a life time of pain and suffering for no good reason. So, it’s sorry and would rather like it if you didn’t follow that course.”
Some of the masters further up the table spluttered, but for some reason didn’t intervene and well… he could see Depa though the stranger for a moment.
“I’m sorry, but what are you?” It was a valid question, since the woman had just tuned transparent while she spoke.
The question didn’t bother her.
“I’m a Remnant. I was a Jedi a few thousand years back. When I died, I had enough personality, or stubbornness, that my… ghost remained coherent and whole in the Force. I’m a part of the Force, but I still exist at least partially as an individual.”
“Do many Jedi…”
She shook her head, resting her elbows on the table, “Nope”. She popped the ‘p’ in a very childlike manner.
“We get a lot of Shamans and similar hanging around for a few generations. Nightsisters stay as long as they can. Fallanassi usually only hang around for one generation. Jedi are pretty rare these last thousand years or so.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, I’m currently the only one and I’m just too… sure of myself to let go. Jedi teachings don’t really encourage individuality, or you know, a sense of self worth these days.”
“I… so what should I do?”
“Honestly kid? Your best option is quitting the order and heading out to the Outer Rim.”
“No!” he interrupted, “I want to be Jedi Knight. I’m meant to be a knight.”
The woman sighed and leaned back, “Yeah, and when the Force gave you that certainty it needed you to be knight, but free will is a thing and it needed more then just you to do what it wanted to make this work. Not enough did, so now, it doesn’t need you to be a knight and would rather prefer it if you weren’t.”
“Why? Am I… am I not good enough?”
He got a weird look for that question.
“I can do better. I’ll practise, I promise. I’ll get better at releasing my emotions…”
He didn’t know what expression was on his face but it made her scrub her eyes. He winced, that can’t have been comfortable with the gauntlets.
“Ok… inter-dimensional Force theory 101. Silverstein-Husain… who I understand every fifth word of…” she flashed him a grin. “The ‘the’s, ‘and’s and ‘it’s’ basically. But… here goes. Every decision you make…, every choice… there’s a different dimension where you made the other one. Go right instead of left and meet a different group of people. Have caf instead of tea and avoid food poisoning, or get poisoned.”
Another shrug. Whoever this woman is, she’s fond of shrugging.
“Whenever the same person, at the same time, in the same place in more then one dimension makes the same decision, they’re realities briefly merge and then part ways when the next decision separates them.”
Obi-Wan rubs his own forehead, “I’ve heard of this.”
She nods and continues, “Right now, more and more people are making the same choices, causing the dimensions to lie over each other instead of separating. This is causing something called a Nexus Event. The Force is trying to get every dimension it can out of the Event. But… free will is real and it can only influence so much before that turns into control which will just make the situation worse.”
“And me being a knight will make that much difference?”
“It might have. You’re a pivot point for this dimension.” She gave him a hard look, “One of more then a billion pivot points. It take more then one to change the galaxy’s direction. Had a few million sentients made the choice the Force wanted, you being a knight might have made a difference. They didn’t, so it wont’. Now it’s just damning you to a life of unnecessary pain and loss.”
He’s sceptical of that. The Force’s benevolent. It’s wouldn’t set out to hurt him.
The woman’s smile is sad, “The Force… we’re ants to it Obi-Wan. We can no more understand it’s existence, then an ant can understand ours. Yes, it would have set you on a path of suffering and hardship if it served the purpose. But it won’t and it has the luxury of changing your course, so it’s taking it.”
“And it’s saying I should leave the Jedi Order?”
She gives him a hard look, “Have you ever heard of Galidraan?”
“No. What is it?”
She hummed for a moment, contemplative, “If you want to help the Jedi, find Jango Fett and spend the rest of your live convincing him the Jedi are more then child-stealing, mass-murdering Republic attack dogs.”
“We are not…”
She waves her hand to stop him, “Doesn’t matter what you know the Jedi to be. It only matters what they’ve shown him they are. But getting him out of the mix will increase each individual’s chances of survival by about forty percent.”
“That’s ridiculous”
“He’s Mandalorian, real Mandalorian. The Jedi have forgot what that means.”
“What do you mean by individual?”
Her expression was… tired and sad and… resigned, “There is no longer any chance of saving the Jedi Order, Obi’ika, but with Jango Fett out of the mix, each individual person’s chance of survival is much higher.
“Look up Galidraan, Obi Wab Kenobi, and then find Jango Fett. That is the Force’s will.”