Chapter 18: Settling Debts
21 BBY, Coruscant
Fay walked into the Jedi Temple, still holding what was presumably Satele Shan’s Holocron, though she still had not opened it. And as she did, she kept the frown from showing as she took in the Temple.
She had not set foot in the Temple for centuries, but even then, she had recognised how different things were. Sure, Coruscant had always held a certain darkness to it, but that was sadly normal in a planet like this one, where corruption, crime, and poverty were rampant. Fay easily preferred planets with greenery, where she could feel the Force shine its light across every living creature living there, instead of an endless grey city. However, this was becoming quite terrible, for Coruscant now felt more akin to Nar Shaddaa than any other planet, and it showed her that things were dire indeed, but perhaps not as dire as the state of the temple.
There was a veil of darkness of a sort, clouding everything in the Temple. Sure, it was subtle, but she could still feel it, and she wondered how the High Council could have allowed this to happen. Force, the younglings… She could not imagine having them grow up in a place of such darkness.
At least, it seemed like the darkness was being dissipated, if a bit slowly, with the veil of darkness becoming imperceptibly thinner with every moment, meaning that the situation was handled, and that they would only need time for things to return to normal. However, she would admit that she had felt some amusement at the wide eyes on the faces of the many Jedi, knights, Padawans, and even Masters, when they saw and recognised her.
Still, she felt tense from the moment she set foot in the Temple, even in the High Council chambers.
Fay looked around and did not think that she recognised any of them, aside from Master Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi; thankfully, the latter had briefed her regarding the members of the Council. The full council had been assembled in person, which Fay found strange, especially during a war.
It was finally Master Yoda who spoke up, “Glad to see you again, we are, Master Fay. Welcome home.”
Fay bowed to him as well, “It is very good to see you as well, Master Yoda.”
A bald human, Mace Windu, if she remembered Obi-Wan briefing her during the trip to Coruscant, spoke up, “It is an honour to meet you, Master Fay, one that everyone in this room shares. And while we would all like to ask you of your time away from the Temple, we should first focus on the mission in Mustafar.”
“Very well,” Fay nodded, “I have my fair share of questions as well regarding the happenings of the Jedi Temple.”
She almost missed it, but she sensed small shifts of emotions across the members of the Council. There was a hint of apprehension, or perhaps it was simply guilt and shame, one that most had felt in that moment before letting it go into the Force.
Mace Windu was the one who asked her, “What can you tell us of your time in Mustafar?”
Fay shrugged and began, speaking of the Force leading her to the planet and meeting Obi-Wan Kenobi as he fought off Durge and Ventress, before taking a Lightsaber wound to the gut, and distracting them, to allow Obi-Wan to flee.
The Cerean, Master Mundi if she remembered correctly, interrupted her then, “Did you know then that the vial that Obi-Wan held was an empty?”
“Yes,” Fay answered immediately, “I gave him an empty vial and destroyed the one containing the swamp gas in one of the rivers of lava.”
That caused the entire council to shift and look at her severely, while Obi-Wan gave her a small, betrayed look. Mace Windu, on the other hand, looked at her incredulously and asked, “Can you explain why you did this?”
“Yes. It was the will of the Force.”
That was all she had said, because this was all that she needed to say. As a Jedi, they were meant to follow the will of the Force, and Fay had done this for longer than any member of this council, bar Master Yoda, had been alive.
Master Mundi commented with a frown, “The Chancellor will not be happy with this. He had already been concerned when we discovered the presence of swamp gas and asked for its capture so that it could be studied and for an antidote to be created.”
Fay simply shrugged at that answer, “The Force works in mysterious ways.”
She could feel Master Yoda’s amusement at that answer, as well as the slight irritation that the rest of the council felt at her answer. Thankfully, Obi-Wan decided not to push on the subject and asked, “Master Fay, when I last saw you, you were chased by Durge and Ventress. Would you share with the council what happened then?”
She nodded gladly, “Durge caused an explosion, and my Speeder crashed. I thankfully landed near the shores, and was confronted by my pursuers, seeking the vial of swamp gas. They were angered that the vial was empty, but before things could turn violent, a man arrived and helped me drive them off. He defeated Ventress with a Force Push and killed Durge.”
Given the incredulity and the surprise that she felt in the Force, they had not expected Durge to have perished. After all, the bounty hunter was well-known to the Jedi, likely more so during a war.
Mace Windu frowned at that, “I was unaware of another Jedi being present on Mustafar. All of them were accounted for during the attack on the droid factories.”
“Oh, it was no Jedi. He introduced himself later as Harry Potter.”
The name alone almost seemed to still the entire room. They certainly had not expected Potter to have been involved in the affairs of Mustafar.
They all looked at one another, and Fay quickly surmised that they had some kind of experience with Harry Potter, though she did not know what it was. The man had been perfectly polite without a single hint of Dark Side use. Sure, he had been on the mischievous side, and used the Force slightly differently than she was used to, but that was hardly cause for the Jedi High Council, the protectors of the Republic, to be so wary.
It was Mace Windu who broke the silence that followed her revelation, “Harry Potter was on Mustafar?”
“Yes. As I said, he defeated Ventress and slew Durge.”
“With the Force,” Obi-Wan suggested.
“As I said, he sent the Darksider girl away with a Force Push, though he slew Durge with a blaster. It was strange; it seemed to slay him entirely. I do not know for sure, but I did sense the Force being used in the attack.”
For some reason, that caused the members of the Council to mutter amongst themselves, and she raised an eyebrow at that, and she saw many of them look away embarrassingly, before the Togruta, Shaak Ti, spoke up, “We had suspicions that Harry Potter was Force-sensitive, but not confirmation. This does explain how he has evaded our attempts at finding him at this moment.”
“He was evading the Sith as well. Asajj Ventress revealed that Count Dooku was looking for him… alive.”
Mace Windu continued, “That makes finding him all the more imperative. Master Fay, did he tell you what he sought to do on Mustafar?”
She shrugged at that, “I am sure that there was much that he left out. He arrived in the Old Republic crashed ship that Obi-Wan tracked me down to and was interested in an ancient droid. He disappeared just before Master Kenobi approached. The method is… unknown to me.”
Obi-Wan chuckled at that, “He has a tendency to do that, yes.”
Most of the council were not amused by his joke, though she saw Master Yoda chuckle loudly. She turned to the Grand Master of the Order and saw a small glint of mischief in his eyes that immediately made him wary.
Many Jedi who respected Yoda’s wisdom greatly forgot just how mischievous he was. She remembered in his younger years as something of a prankster. She remembered one of his many Padawans commiserating at remaining upside down for hours, thinking it to be some kind of training, only that it had been all of Yoda’s amusement.
Still, the Grand Master then spoke up, “A Holocron, you have with you, Master Fay.”
“Potter gave it to me, claiming that he had found it in an ancient, abandoned temple. I sensed no deception in his words and thus accepted it on behalf of the order. I believe that much of his understanding of the Force must have originated from it.”
It was then that Fay felt the Force urge her to activate the Holocron, and a part of her wished to hold a mischievous look of her own, for she had no doubt that most of the High Council would be stunned at the identity of the maker of this Holocron.
Fay finally channelled the Force through it and felt a sudden surge in the Force immediately after. She had sensed that the Holocron was not an ordinary one, and this was proof of that, for with the surge came a gigantic explosion of Light, one that she thought felt familiar in some way.
It reminded her of the worlds that were pure in the Force, worlds of greenery and nature, that she often meditated on occasionally, and it was akin to that, spreading across the Temple and moving deeper and deeper within.
There, she sensed that it had found something, and her eyes widened as she realised what it was: the Force Nexus beneath the Temple. Somehow, the Nexus seemed to resonate with the Holocron, or perhaps what she now realised was the giant Kyber Crystal that lay within it, and it released a giant pulse of Light that eradicated the veil of Darkness that shrouded the Temple. For a fraction of a second, she felt as if the Jedi Temple itself was glowing in the Force, and she closed her eyes to relish the pure sensation.
The wave of Light continued to traverse all across Coruscant, removing some of its darkness, but it was then that she frowned when she felt it reach what she remembered to be the Senate building. The building almost recoiled, as if it was filled with complete darkness, and she felt a surge of it attacking it back, before disappearing completely. She sensed that it was not gone, only hidden, and frowned at that realisation. She noticed that a few Masters had done the same, namely Masters Yoda and Windu, while the rest seemed to relish in the Temple’s newfound Light, as if breathing anew.
It was then that she remembered a small detail, a memory of Harry Potter telling her that he had something in mind to pay back the one who had put the bounty on his head, including the glint of amusement in his eyes. She also remembered the small surge in the Force as he gave her the Holocron in the first place.
With this came a realisation. He had done this. Somehow, Harry Potter had arranged for the Holocron to connect to the Force Nexus to dispel the Dark, all to pay back the man who had sent a bounty on his head, the man who was likely a Sith and was in the Senate.
The realisation that there was a Sith in the heart of the Republic was not one that she liked, but that was something that the Order would need to deal with, and that included navigating the complexities of Senatorial politics to stop them. Truthfully, Fay wanted no part of that, but she would help if the Force willed her to.
Still, the idea that Potter had done this out of pettiness instead of to help the Jedi Order made her chuckle, despite how horrible it was. No wonder that the Force had urged her not to activate the Holocron and told her to trust it.
It was then that, finally, a hologram appeared of a woman who spoke up loudly, “I am Grand Master Satele Shan of the Jedi Order. If you are viewing this recording, then you have discovered one of the repositories of Jedi knowledge.” Then her eyes looked around and softened, “So, it seems that Harry Potter had done as he had promised. If I am not mistaken, you must be the Jedi High Council on Coruscant.”
Fay saw every other member in the High Council gape at the former Grand Master of the Jedi Order. She could easily discern that the Hologram acted much less… robotically than the usual guardians programmed to protect the knowledge within Holocrons. It was almost… sentient.
She felt quite excited and wary for a moment, but decided to answer her query: “He entrusted you with me, knowing that I will bring you to the Temple.”
The hologram nodded, seemingly relaxing, before frowning slightly, “I apologise for the commotion that I have caused. For some reason, much of the energy within the Kyber Crystal within this Holocron was released upon my activation. Still, circumstances aside, I am glad to be amongst the Jedi Order once more, and I look forward to helping you all, just as my creator intended.”
That made sense, given what she had sensed. The Holocron must have resided near a Force Nexus that was very strong in the Light, and its energy resonated with the one on Coruscant, and thus made him act similarly.
It was then that finally, Mace Windu regained his wits, and asked, “We are honoured to have you amongst us, Master Shan. As for your activation, it was quite… eventful. It seems that your Kyber Crystal must have strongly attuned itself with the Force where you had been previously. Might I ask where that was, Master Shan?”
Fay nodded at the man’s foresight; after all, a Force Nexus that was this powerful was not to be dismissed, and the Hologram nodded, “I was previously left in the Jedi Temple on Tython.”
Tython, the home world of the Jedi Order, a planet which all that remained of it was myths and tales. Fay spent centuries travelling the galaxy, and yet, she had found no signs of it. She had looked, in her youth, like many other adventurous Jedi, but none of them succeeded.
To think that Harry Potter did, of all people. Oh, how she was tempted to track him down, if only to get the route to Tython from him. Force, why had she not pressed him on where exactly he found the Holocron? He had told her about it being a temple too.
Just as Fay expected, pandemonium followed the Holocron’s reveal, and while the council members ‘debated’ amongst themselves, a thought occurred to her.
Tython was the ancient home world of the Jedi Order, home to many old temples, and likely many forgotten artefacts, other than Satele Shan’s Holocron that Harry Potter must have encountered. This brought her to this question: what happened to all these artefacts?
Fay suddenly suspected that Harry Potter had omitted several details from his account of events.
A great many details.
AN: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. As I said before, I’m still getting the hang of writing a Star Wars story, so bear with me if anything feels off.
I did tell you that I had something cool planned with the Holocron, and Harry deciding to get back at Palpatine for putting a bounty on his head, mostly by messing with what he put together in Tython and what he learned with Satele. This will have consequences in the long run, which I’m pretty excited to explore.
As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this chapter depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.