(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)
A/N: Mace to the face!
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Mace Windu has long struggled with attachment. He has always felt more strongly than he should. In the end, he had turned that weakness of his into a strength, creating Vaapad and rising to the rank of first Jedi Master and then High Council Member and finally Master of the Order in more recent years.
Of course, after the Battle of Geonosis, Mace Windu had returned the title ‘Master of the Order’ to Grandmaster Yoda, who had reluctantly taken it back. Mace’s failure on Geonosis, the amount of Jedi lives lost… had demanded nothing less.
However, it wasn’t simply because he’d led hundreds of Jedi to their deaths that he’d stepped down as Master of the Order immediately. No… it was because he’d felt himself Falling and knew it was only a matter of time. Inevitable, one might say.
And indeed, in the following months, Mace knew his Fall to the Dark Side had been completed. There had been no escaping it, no time for meditation, no room for attempting to return to the Light. To be fair… it wasn’t like he’d been completely in the Light to begin with.
Long had Mace felt the pull of the Dark Side. Long had he felt the pull of his emotions. Mace Windu did what no Jedi should… Mace Windu loved. He loved his apprentices like they were his own children. He loved the Jedi Order as his own family. And he loved the Republic as an institution, a shining example of what the galaxy could be.
He loved and in doing so, he found himself straddling the line, stepping one foot in the Dark Side at all times. Vaapad had been his answer to that problem, a way to fix things… but Mace had come to realize how temporary that fix was. Ultimately, the Dark Side was not to be trifled with. And by the time he’d realized his mistake, it was too late.
His love had become something darker… and in the process, Mace had become darker as well. However, he could not bring himself to let go. Not of the Order nor the Republic. And so even as he’d given Master Yoda back the title of Master of the Order, Mace had hidden his darkness and continued onwards.
It was always his intention to eventually come clean, of course. Once Dooku and his Master were defeated, once the Separatist threat was taken care of. He would admit the truth then and submit himself to the judgment of the Order. They would decide what to do with him, be it exile or euthanasia.
But now… now Mace knows it was not just him. Every member of the council… even Depa. Even Yoda.
And amidst them all, a self-proclaimed Sith Lord who had slain the Sith Master that plagued them, that had managed to worm his way into the Supreme Chancellor’s Office ten years ago.
Darth Vader stands before them, having just proclaimed something truly terrible… and reaches out in the Force. Mace stiffens up as do several other Jedi Masters, but none of them move to attack. He’s not sure why. Even now though, he can’t quite bring himself to act. He can’t trust himself to make the right decision.
Vader isn’t attacking them though. Instead, he pulls… and opens their eyes. Most of the Jedi High Council has long known that the Sith were responsible for the murkiness of the Force in recent years. The Dark Side drowned out the Light, twisting and corrupting certain things like precognition and other Force Powers that the Jedi Order has relied upon for thousands of years.
Their senses had been dulled, their ability to see the truth of things in the Force had been restricted. Ironically, falling to the Dark Side had given Mace some of these senses back, and ultimately served him well in the battles he’d taken part in recently. He suspects the same of the others on the Council as well.
However, only now does he learn the truth. He was still blind. They all were. Even having Fallen to the Dark Side, their senses had still been muted, just not quite as much. What had felt like a reprieve from the oppressive darkness clouding their abilities had been… barely anything at all.
This though, what Vader is doing now, is much more impactful. Mace’s perception expands dramatically and judging by the way many others, including Yoda, all stiffen up, the same can be said for them. Of course, Vader isn’t just doing this to help them… he’s doing this to show them all something.
For the first time, Mace truly registers just how powerful Anakin Skywalker is and has always been. It’s like realizing that the mountain you had lived upon for over a decade was actually a living thing, or that the trench you were traveling through along a deep seabed was actually the back ridges of a gargantuan creature.
Anakin Skywalker, or Darth Vader, is not just powerful in the Force… he IS the Force. And in this moment, he makes sure they all see what he wants them to see, forcing them to focus their attention on what he intended to show them.
The Jedi Order. It takes Mace’s breath away when he finally realizes what he’s looking at. Not in a good way. For all that emotions have long been his weakness, Mace Windu is not a man prone to tears. However… the tears fall now as he stares and sees what has become of them. Not just the Council as Vader had said… but all of them. Every single Jedi, from the Initiates to the Padawans to the Knights and Masters. All across the galaxy… they’ve all Fallen to the Dark Side.
Even the younglings still in their creches have already had their Force Presences tainted by the Dark. And how can they not when their Crechemasters, once and all, have failed in their own struggles against the Darkness?
There is not a single Jedi left in the entire galaxy with enough of the Light to save the younglings. It doesn’t matter if they excise every member of the Jedi High Council from the Order, because there’s nobody left to take their places. The Jedi Order, Mace’s great love… is already dead. It just doesn’t know it yet.
Vader pulls back after a moment, his powerful will no longer directing their attention. But the curtain… he leaves the curtain open. The shroud of darkness that has long dulled all of their senses… remains removed.
“That blinding was Sidious’ doing. But I see no reason to continue to blind you all to the truth. Not when you need to know what has happened so we can decide our next moves… together.”
Mace twitches at the word ‘together’. He’s trying to recruit them. A Sith Lord stands in the middle of the Jedi Council Chambers and is trying to recruit the entire High Council to his side. This, more than anything, should have prompted someone to stand up and push back… someone to fight. Probably Mace himself, no?
And yet, he remains seated. He remains still. His saber hilt remains at his waist, unlit. And all around the chamber, nobody else moves either. Even Master Yoda is silent.
Until finally, Obi-Wan Kenobi speaks up.
“What does the future look like for the Jedi Order? What future does it even have?”
Vader… shakes his head.
“The Jedi Order has no future. But the people within it do. We cannot go back. We cannot change course… instead, we must chart a new path with what we have. The Dark Side can be utilized for good… it can be brought to heel and used to create a better galaxy.”
“Impossible.”
Even as he rejects Vader’s words, Master Yoda’s voice is tired and weary in a way that Mace has never heard from him before.
“Evil, the Dark is. Corrupting… malicious this power is. Worse the galaxy will become, if we persist.”
But Vader stands his ground, looking at the nine hundred year old Grandmaster and… scoffing.
“Ridiculous. How can we possibly make the galaxy worse when it’s already gotten this bad?”
That sounds a ripple through the room, even as Vader looks around at them all.
“The Republic ate itself out from the inside with corruption long before this Order collapsed into the Dark Side. A hundred examples of situations like the Trade Federation’s blockade of Naboo being resolved in favor of the wrong side of the conflict. The Jedi did nothing and the galaxy grew darker and darker. Now you have the chance to do something. Not as Jedi, but as something new… something stronger.”
Yoda doesn’t respond this time, seeming shrunken in on himself. So Vader continues unabated.
“The Dark Side is an abyss. It is easy to fall forever and ever. It is easy for those with terrible intentions to abuse it for their own ends. But it is also a tool. A source of power that, when controlled and used in moderation, can be a boon to the galaxy.”
Vader’s eyes turn to Mace.
“Rather than hide yourself, how much more powerful will you be when you use Vaapad freely with the Dark Side of the Force fully empowering your actions? Instead of toeing the line or cringing away from the Darkness, you must embrace it… and dominate it.”
That…
Vader moves his eyes around the room, not even waiting for Mace to respond as he continues on.
“The Dark is not merely hatred. It is love and passion as well. It can be what we need it to be… so long as we work together to build each other up instead of tearing one another down.”
And then, Vader seems to almost go still, his massive presence in the Force sucking in on itself for a moment as he closes his eyes. In that instant he seems the most vulnerable, like anyone could lunge forward and strike him down if they wanted to.
But of course, nobody does. And after a moment, his eyes snap open again, blazing orange with the power of the Dark Side as he speaks in a tone that seems to reverberate through the chamber.
“Emotion, yet Unity.
Ignorance, yet Knowledge.
Passion, yet Discipline.
Chaos, yet Domination.
Death, yet the Force.”
Mace’s breath catches in his throat. Five simple statements, and yet… they resonate with him in a way he can’t deny. Judging by the reactions around him, they resonate with many of the others as well.
Vader’s voice returns to normal as he gazes at all of them.
“These would be the precepts of our new order. Power in unity. Strength in knowledge. Might in discipline. Control in domination. The Force… will set us all free.”
Much to his own internal shame, Mace has never wanted anything more than he wants what the Sith Lord is offering. It would be the end of everything he loved. The Order. The Republic. And yet… and yet, it would also be the beginning of something new.
There’s a sort of anticipation building in the chamber now. Many of the Masters have been convinced by Vader’s words. They’re ready to agree. And those who are initially hesitant are only hesitant for one reason and one reason only.
Master Yoda.
The Order’s ancient Grandmaster sits in their midst as a final deterrent to unanimous agreement with Darth Vader’s proposal. Even Fallen like the rest of them, Master Yoda has been a part of the Order for nine hundred years. He has lived countless centuries in the Light Side of the Force and seen generations upon generations of Jedi walk through the hallowed halls beneath their feet.
And… Mace has to admit, the prospect of a Yoda who has Fallen to the Dark Side might have been set aside for the time being in the face of all of these other revelations, but it still terrifies him in a deeply primal way. If Yoda were to decide that every single one of them needed to be purged, Mace isn’t sure that they could stop him even with all of their combined might, even with all of Vader’s power.
Of course, you wouldn’t know the threat existed just from looking at the much diminished Grandmaster. Yoda sits in his chair as all eyes slowly gravitate to him, looking utterly lost and incredibly small. Finally… he lets out a low, weary sigh.
“Countenance this, I cannot. Join you, I cannot.”
Yoda hops down from his chair, his small, clawed feet landing on the floor of the silent Council Chamber with an audible clacking.
The tension ratchets up several degrees as Vader stiffens. Mace straightens as well, not sure what he will do if it comes to a fight. It says a lot about the Sith Lord’s persuasive talents that he’s even considering siding with him over Master Yoda, but it’s still something Mace is undecided on.
“… Fight you, I will not.”
Everyone blinks, even as the diminutive Grandmaster of the Jedi Order begins to hobble his way towards the doors.
“Into exile, I shall go. Punishment, I deserve for my failure.”
He gets to the doors before Vader calls out to him.
“Master Yoda!”
Mace finds himself torn, even as Yoda slowly turns back to regard the self-professed Sith Lord. On the one hand, he himself had wanted to call out to the ancient Grandmaster, to try and get him to stay. On the other hand, provoking a nine hundred year old Fallen Jedi Master when he was already leaving… seemed like it might be a bad idea. Especially with that glint in Yoda’s eye that said Vader better not push his luck.
But to everyone’s surprise… Darth Vader bows at the waist, a full ninety degree angle. And when he lifts himself back up, he simply nods.
“You might look into Dagobah as a potential location. Thank you for all you have done for the galaxy. We’ll take it from here.”
Master Yoda looks like he might say something more to that for just a moment… before finally just turning and leaving the chambers completely, no doubt to prepare for his departure.
Meanwhile, Vader looks back to everyone else. Nobody makes a move to leave. Nobody makes a move to fight either. When silence reigns, Mace finally lets out a sigh and breaks it.
“What next?”
Smiling, Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, tilts his head to the side.
“Simple. We help my wife finish establishing her new empire.”
Mace resists the urge to groan. Why does he already have a bad feeling about all of this?
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A/N: Remember to Vote, leave a Like, and let me know what you think!
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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15mepC2WVsM0c0Uk5nYWZHbUj956q1qA1GCLXtoHrEAk/edit?tab=t.0