"It's a bad idea in the general case to ignore expert advice, yes.

"I do think that the specifics of this matter - to wit, that I am trying to proof myself against the dangers and being told that I am not allowed to do so because the dangers exist - are worth taking into account, Master Windu.

"Not to mention that all the Temple yet tells me of the Darkness is that I will know it when I see it.  And that clearly, there is either a flaw in what the Temple has taught me, or a flaw in my own vision, if I can look at what few scraps of surer knowledge that I have, and -"

She holds up a 'one moment please' hand gesture.

"I owe you an explanation of my thoughts that is not simply an unordered ramble.  Let me write this down.  Or up, or - whatever.  Or at least...

"Really, I can probably turn what I already have into several essays, on various subjects.  But right now I'm thinking about...why Light and Dark, and whether, whither, and how they are distinguished from Jedi and Sith.  Because the Sith Code itself is a cry for help.  For freedom from suffering.  And that they have chosen to wield a tool that is unsuited to the task is -

"It was never truly their choice to do so, if Master Yoda's claims are to be believed upon this subject, and I think in this matter I do give him some credence - the Dark Side is inherently corruptive and addicting.  I know exactly what could have broken me, had the wrong voice come a-tempting.

"And it's all the Sith have ever known, Master Windu.

"They are enslaved.

"Were ever enslaved, since first the Force was brought to them, as far as I understand it - from the very first uses of the Force the species that lent their name to the philosophy, saw!

"And my soul cries out to see it!

"They cry to the Force itself for freedom!  The very same thing I bet my life on!  But they ask only the slaving scum that has placed them in their chains!

"So I am -

"Trying to find the tools that I need to free them.

"Because slavery is an abomination, under universally recognized standards of sapient conduct in this galaxy.

"Because it's the right thing to do.

"Because even the Order today bears fetters beneath its robes, no matter that the Senate that holds them has let them slacken.  Which is not to say that I do not immensely appreciate what the Senate has already done of late - but I don't think that we ever should have agreed to the Ruusan Reforms as stated.  The Jedi Lords may have been an abomination, and they rightly deserved to be abolished - but so is the subordination of the Force's will to government policy.

"And the will of the Force...

"It is to connect, and to exalt - to uplift and defend - to promote the most life for the most people.

"But I worry that lost sight of this we have.

"Have I mentioned to you the constant disdain I hear, around this Temple, when the Jedi Service Corps, especially the Agricorps, are mentioned?

"That's a huge karking problem, Master Windu, because they are by far the biggest impact we have upon the galaxy!

"They are by far our strongest connection to it, as well.

"And even that stands intensely attenuated!

"Tell me a relief organization that the Jedi Order regularly works alongside, to maximize our effectiveness per Jedi.

"I'll save you the trouble and tell you that as far as I know we don't have any.

"Working alone is not the way of the Light, it is the way of the Darkness.

"And yet the Order isolates itself on Coruscant and wilfully blinds its eyes if the Senate asks nicely!

"That that is possible is a big karking problem!

"And - it's that, that I think we must do something about.  To restore balance to the Force.

"Not a break with the Republic, Force no - but - a redefinition.  A call to charity's arms, beyond millennia-ossified politics.

"We must free the Force from grasping, controlling hands, before the Force can free us.  That is - the center.  The point about which the galaxy pivots.  And that's why I went looking into the philosophy of Sith.

"Not because I will ever think that the Darkness could do 'the right thing', but because the Order serves so poorly in the ultimate ascent of the Light.  And in the twisted, Dark reflection of the Order's beliefs, we might more clearly see their flaws, as well as our own.

"We may have begun to pull the veils from our eyes, but -

"I am called to serve, Master Windu, not to cut.  And yet cutting is the Temple's ultimate cause!"

Windu stays silent for a while.

"If you want to help the galaxy," he eventually says, "you're not going to be able to do so by fighting with its government."

"It's not like the Jedi are the only ones out there that tries to help people. But the results that we achieve are often stronger, more effective, longer-lasting, than what individuals are able to achieve, and it's because - there's a sense of legitimacy that comes with being a servant of the Republic. And I don't just mean people see us as more legitimate, I mean that the things we do have a stronger reason behind them than our individual desires. If you decide, like the Sith, that you want to go out and make some particular change to the galaxy, that you think it'll have good effects, then you can try to do that on your own, sure. And then the next person with a bright idea will come up with their own way to reform the galaxy, and if it involves taking apart what you made, if it works directly in opposition to that and cancels out whatever you thought was best, well, that's the cost of progress to them. Two people can both be doing whatever they think is best, and the trouble is that they each think the other person's wrong, and so all they accomplish is wasting resources trying to tug fate back and forth for a few moments. Or ten people, or ten trillion."

"Nobody's claiming the Republic is the greatest source of moral authority in the galaxy. But it's the most recognizable authority, a point to fall back on that has more objectivity than the endless process of people following their own fragments of plans. Democracy is responsible for that; it gives people a way to build something up from their own opinions and learn how to follow the will of all the galaxy's people. And sure, there are plenty of ways the Republic is skewed, or inefficient, when it comes to representing what the people want, but it's still better than nothing. A lot better than nothing, a lot better than a galaxy that's half Sith fighting Jedi and half Jedi fighting Sith."

"And you're not appreciating the value in having a single entity you can turn to for a goal, the value of being able to ask 'what do the people want' instead of 'what do I think would be best for them.' For all I know, maybe you do know better than the Senate, but the trouble is that Count Dooku also thinks he knows better than the Senate, and Jango Fett probably thinks he knows better than the Senate, and trillions of other people think they know better than the Senate. And even if every single one of them did each have a plan that would work better than the way the Republic is doing it now - which most of them don't, to be clear, but if they did - it still wouldn't mean anything, because their plans wouldn't work with each other. Do you want the galaxy to be a place where everyone tries to do whatever comes to mind to them, or a place where we can all work together towards the common goal of everyone? - yes, work together slowly and inefficiently, at times, but at least we have a way to work together at all!"

"You've mentioned slavery, and drought, and other things like that, as major problems that the galaxy needs to solve. I'm sure you see it as - everything's bad, we need radical change, we need to set up something different, and fix it as soon as possible. I'd say it's the exact opposite. It's been bad, but it's been a lot better than it could be, than it might become soon. We've had an era of stability and unity ever since Ruusan, and suddenly Dooku and the others come along and start what's pretty much a civil war. The Confederacy's now seen as an alternative to the Republic, and it's not even like it's going to stay two sides for long. The Confederacy claims to be all about individual groups splintering off to follow their own laws; it won't be long until even it splits apart into two or three groups of its own. We're losing the ability to have a clear representative. If this continues, if we don't get the government back together, there won't be a voice of the people, there won't be a way to follow what the galaxy as a whole wants, because there won't be a galaxy as a whole."

"And so now at a time when our first priority should be to fix the divide that's growing worse and worse every day, you think the best way to make things better is even more division. If we break away from the Senate, or even if we stay with them in name but stop following their orders, that takes away the Republic's legitimacy, not to mention our own. It takes away our ability to say 'yes, this is what the Jedi and the Senate and the peoples of all of these different planets have agreed to do' and instead just fractures us into smaller and smaller groups. There'd be the Republic on one side, and the Separatists on another, and the Jedi on another. Sure, maybe if we do that, then we can free a few more slaves in the short term. But that doesn't matter at all if it means the galaxy loses any semblance of a united government for the next couple millennia; you really think that planets with no law and order are going to have less slavery?"

"The Republic's very far from perfect, but it's all we have. The Jedi don't have a better option for helping the people of the galaxy, than just doing what their representative tells us to do."

"So. The Sith. Who you have been reading the works of. The Sith are, fundamentally, the people who think they're better at figuring out what's right than the Jedi, or Republic, or even the Force itself. Their ideology is about individuals trying to calculate what they think is the best path, and then doing that regardless of how many people get sacrificed along the way. It's not surprising, then, that no Sith ever manage to work well together. That whenever they try to form alliances, they always end up betraying each other, and destroying each other's plans in the process."

"Master Yoda and I have said it before, and it's not like you've listened so far, but just to repeat it one more time: you are not the first person to think you could fix all the problems of the galaxy. You are not even the millionth. Over and over, every Sith starts the same way. They read up on the dark side, realize it's a source of power, do a quick calculation and conclude that it's worth the risk just to take a small dive into the dark side in order to accomplish a greater goal. And then two years later they are slaughtering billions of people as part of their quest to take over the galaxy, which at best ends in the failure and death of them and everyone associated with their movement."

"Yes, I know you're saying you want to read about the dark side so that you can protect yourself from it. Funnily enough, that's not an unusual way for it to all start, either. If you want to keep yourself safe from the dark side, your best way to do that is by staying away from it. We've told you about what to watch out for, and if you still have questions about how the dark side tries to tempt people, you can stick to Jedi sources that were not specifically made by an entity that's trying to corrupt you."

"We are trying to help you stay safe. The Sith are doing the opposite. Please remember that before doing something we warned you was not safe."

"...Master Windu...The will of the Republic is not the will of the Force.  The will of the people is hardly the will of the Senate, either - or it wasn't, at least.  I do hold out some hope that the dramatic revelation of a Sith Lord in their chambers served a purpose.  I am not arguing that we should cut ties to the Republic.  I am, however, desperately concerned by the way they can tell us to jump and Jedi policy is only ever to ask how high.

"Would you work for the Hutts, if they were a source of stability and order?  I know we put a stop to most of them, but -

"Tatooine festered for so long because people compromised themselves in the name of --

"I cannot even call it peace.

"Perhaps such a thing exists, but we can't see it without allowing ourselves to go and look.  And on Tatooine, the only thing my mother could do to protect me was to close my eyes, and I am sick and tired of being alternately a helpless child and a threat as if I have not been staring into the midday suns of pain and suffering ever since I was old enough to think!

"I made a choice to reject the work of suffering.  To be kind despite the worst possible privations.

"And I will make it, again, and again, and again, until the end of time itself if need be.  Because that is the central lie of the Dark Side.  That you have no choice.  That the cost of the pain you'll cause could ever be worth it.  That caring is a curse.  And I know how to recognize a slaver when I see one.

"I'm not sure if you do.

"I'm near certain that Yoda doesn't.

"And there is one thing I know that makes me certain that the Dark Side will not hold me: I would rather tear my own heart out with my bare hands, than become a slave again.

"While the presently extant Siths' obsession with the Dark Side is inherently stupid and self-defeating, given everything we know about how and why it exists, that doesn't mean that all the things a Sith has ever said are automatically wrong.

"The Dark Side may dominate its users' destinies - but they are still, for the most part, people.  Palpatine notwithstanding.  They deserve to be treated like people.  Not like - some sort of metaphysically corrosive poison, wearing a person-shaped suit.  Do you remember what brought me to Dooku's attention?  I saw that he wasn't alright, and I tried to help him with his pain.  Why was I the only person that could?  Why was I the only person that did?

"Why do I feel more and more like I have traded one set of chains for another?

"Not that I have any better options, but you shouldn't have lied to me, if the Jedi aren't free.  If they have chained themselves to something they consider more important than the most good for the most people."

She turns the kyber crystal of Qui-Gon Jinn over and over in her hands, entangling her fingers in the silvered chain it hangs from.

Somehow, it smells of petrichor.

"Because the thing is, it took so much effort it should not have had to, to do anything about the Sith in the Senate.

"And, yes, the situation won't be that bad again in my lifetime - but robust this solution is not.

"Which is why the Order needs to disentangle itself from being the Republic's private army, and why I keep thinking that Jedi should preferentially use shields, rather than swords.

"That if the galaxy is going to fragment and burst at the seams - and frankly, given the status of Jedi as a myth on the Outer Rim, it already has - that it is our job not to do what the government wants, but to help the people figure out what they want and what they need - then realize their dreams."

"Again, the Republic is far from perfect, but it stands for what the people want. Maybe that gets diluted, with all of the corrupt Senators and all, but you're not recognizing the importance of having anything at all that has a higher authority than your own guesses as to what's best. What do you want to do, go poll people on every planet on what changes they want us to make? We already have that, and it's called voting."

"And even if you are trying to defy the Republic, you think the Sith have something to teach you? The worst wars that ever happened to this galaxy were caused by Sith trying to break away from the central government and set up their own new order. If you wanted the Jedi to... I don't know, tell the Senate we don't care what they say, we're cutting back the Knights and expanding the AgriCorps whether they like it or not - that would be bad enough, but what do the Sith have to do with that?"

"...The Force, Master Windu, do you listen to it!"

"Excuse me.  I'll come back to that in a moment.

"I say to you that the pretense that the Senate is actually democratic is the greatest lie I've ever been told.

"And not because of the corruption, no.

"It's just too impossibly big to allow anyone to be represented equitably.

"Just look at the way that - for a median example - the entire Chommel Sector's political representation rests in the hands of one planet thereof.  Not even to start discussing the Outer Rim Territories, non-voting Senators, the way there are some Senate seats still reserved for individual planets -

"And does the Galactic Senate spend so much time micromanaging any other charitable organization as they do the Jedi Order, Master Windu?"

"I am not trying to defy the Republic.  I'm trying to propose ways for it to not be a horrifying disaster masquerading as a functioning central government.

"But that has nothing to do with the Sith.  Not in any practical sense, at least, though I would be lying if I didn't say I haven't been thinking about all this because of similar underlying causes.

"The Sith project is ultimately an attempt to redeem Count Dooku.  To turn him to the Light from the Darkness that he's wrapped around himself like a veil.  Perhaps even, sands take me, the other idiot.  He needs to understand research ethics, and why they matter, but he's not wrong to - pursue the idea that people should have as much fulfilling life as the combined efforts of galactic civilization can buy them.  Even if he's pursued it from a place of fear.  A place of suffering.  ...We're supposed to build, Master Windu.  And even if the rest of the parts are complete and utter junk, sometimes you find the most surprising things to repurpose in the abomination against mechanics and maintenance that fall from the sky into your junkyard.  Metaphorically speaking.

"All I can say is - The Force thinks that caring about people, as more than just an abstract mass, matters.

"Are you saying you can't perceive that?"

"I can perceive that, yes. I also know that the Force speaks rarely, and doesn't usually give specific answers to every question we have about how to help people."

"The Senate's big, and it's not perfectly proportionally balanced. But there are plenty of smaller committees to handle individual regions and areas. Every planet has a say in the vast majority of the legislation that affects them individually. The highest level of the Galactic Senate handles the issues that are on a much bigger level than individual planets or systems or sectors, galactic trade and interplanetary wars and things that affect the galaxy as a whole. If Chommel Minor doesn't have much of a say in the biggest issues in the galaxy, well, that's because they've only got about a trillionth of the galaxy's population. And considering that there are only about fifty thousand people in the Order - most of which aren't anywhere near the level of ability of a full Jedi Knight - it is physically impossible for us to help every star system. We have to focus on a larger scale, and that's where the Republic matters most."

"I think Dooku's beyond redemption. We've tried talking to him, Qui-Gon's tried, I know you think you have a better shot at it than us because of your experiences, but it's not worth the risk that he turns you, which, again, is what usually happens in this kind of situation."

"And even if you are going to talk to Dooku again some day, which I'm somewhat surrendered to, what with the prophecy and all - it shouldn't be so soon. You still have more to learn about the Force; just because you started further ahead than anyone else doesn't mean you can't grow just as far! I'd be a lot less worried about Dooku's chances of corrupting a thirty-year-old Jedi Master Kina."

"...I don't think I have quite that much time, Master Windu, and if those regional organizations exist I'm going to need to know where you're finding your information on them.  And there are existing failures of that system, too, because Queen Amidala didn't have, or believe herself to have - and she's not going to miss options like that - any recourse but to petition the Senate itself for relief, rather than asking for Chommel Minor's assistance in their mutual defense against a blatant act of war!  You were there for that!"

"That's because it was a galactic issue. A war with the Trade Federation, which isn't based in the Chommel sector, can't be unilaterally decided by that sector, and besides, I don't think any other Chommel systems even have as much military force as Naboo."

"An big organization invading a small planet like that is rare. Most of the time, nobody starts a war because they know the Republic will intervene, and even if they do, it's usually a small conflict on one or two planets that can be resolved by the regional governments. The only reason the Trade Federation went so far was because they thought Palpatine was going to bail them out. If the Republic wasn't there, this sort of thing wouldn't be so rare."

"I know time is limited, with the Separatists getting stronger and all. But - okay, they're only at - what was it now, 22% of the galaxy? - and I think the Republic's at 68%. Pretty much every system in the Republic has already made a decision as to whether to leave or not; that 68%'s not going anywhere. And we've got another five years left in the current treaty before the neutral systems get to set up their own governments and decide which side to join. Dooku can't really do anything else until then. So you can at least wait four and a half years and take a look at the situation then, before you try and convince Dooku to stop all this."

"...I feel like you're missing the problem that the Trade Federation was ever allowed to have enough power over others to do that in the first place.  Dooku's solutions are profoundly warped by the Dark Side, but I don't think the CIS - as a reaction to the Republic's...to put it charitably, disastrous mismanagement of many things - is actually the problem.

"It needs to be easier to help people.  And there are ways I think it could be easier to help people.  Leaving aside the way that the Republic asks us to constantly save it, instead of trying to save itself.  I don't deny that the Republic needs our help, but it also should not have built itself atop reliance upon the Jedi if it was also going to bind them to the foundations.  ...Actually, perhaps I should tell you that story.  It...feels relevant to what we have been dealing with.  And why the CIS is not a villain, no matter whether Dooku turns out to be one in the end."

"Well, 'the CIS' isn't anything. The people in those systems, sure, they're not villains. The people in charge of the CIS are. Apart from Dooku himself, they're led almost entirely by the Trade Federation and a couple other corporations just like it. Nute Gunray and his crowd don't give a damn about helping people, and joining up with them isn't making anything better for anyone."

"...Dooku is wrong that the Dark Side can be turned to good ends, but - being supervised by the people who cared enough about systemic corruption to try and build a new system outside of the old and frankly broken one the Republic was, at the time the CIS formed...

"I can't say I can think of anyone better for the Nute Gunrays of the galaxy to be subject to, to be honest, as long as there is actual enforcement of anti-corruption and sophontarian laws.  It's probably a mess right now, but I think that - given time, it should turn out alright.  Given time and help, I think it might go well."

"There isn't enforcement of anti-corruption or - anything! Yes, a lot of the systems joining now are doing it for those reasons, but the main goal of its founders was to escape the law. And not just laws that were particularly corrupt, laws like 'you have to pay taxes' or 'you can't build your own private army and invade Naboo.' The system they're trying to set up isn't about helping people."

"Then why are the Jedi not mobilizing to assist in the sophontarian crisis of epic proportions that you are describing?  Just because it's not occurring in the Republic?  That would make us no more than the akk hounds of the Senate that some of the CIS say we are - and not without grounds to do so!  We have been complicit in injustice!  I checked!  But the thing is, Dooku didn't make the CIS in a day, even though I have to imagine he wasn't expecting to need to do it when he did it; Sheev trying to murder the entire Senate in what I can only call a fit of childish pique was, I think, a surprise to everyone involved.

"...What I'm really saying is, we need to be more proactive if we're going to try and solve all the galaxy's problems, Master Windu.  That, or admit we're hypocrites.  Because to truly be the font and foundation of compassion that we ought to be, we must act.  Not merely handwring about the existence of problems disapprovingly.  Constraining our outreach to the people who have sufficient sway to get a Senator involved is a horrifying betrayal of the principles of the Force itself."

"And how do you propose that we act? Beyond arguing with Dooku."

"Master Windu, if I had the information I would need to begin to know how to do that on an institutional level, I'd be on the High Council.  That's not saying I couldn't learn most of it, but right now I am examining the machinery of state and noticing that the engine I've never seen before has a knock in it, not doing a full teardown on something I've had my hands on a million times before.  I do think that the Order's centralization of everything to Coruscant - notwithstanding the Corellian temple that apparently also exists, which is...its most notable trait, really, aside from something about allowing marriage - is a massive problem, though.  We need to be closer, both physically and spiritually, to the people who need the most help, rather than looking down into the depths from a lofty perch like this.  Certainly we are not Orn Free Taa, but - the Order has luxuries that many people in the galaxy lack, like consistent access to food, water, shelter - even air.  Here on Coruscant there are people who starve in the streets, or die of black lung.  And yet there is no Corps of engineers and logisticians whose remit is to fix those problems, unless you mean to tell me that the Agricorps are also responsible for food distribution and also, somehow, industrial safety, when the Force is a perfect tool for working on sensitive machinery.  I suppose the Explorer Corps does some safety work, because they operate ships - but it's hardly their job.

"If there is anything I am confident in proposing right now, it is that we need both a survey, investigator, or reporter corps of some sort, probably under the aegis of our diplomats, to gather firsthand intelligence of the state of the galaxy from the greatest and least of its peoples - without the bias of what is told to us by outside sources, or what we find when we lurk in the shadows; the Senate telling us things isn't some horrible problem, but we need to be able to verify that they themselves are neither misleading nor mislead, and I don't want to start on the question of Jedi Shadows because that's a whole 'nother mess - and that we need to recognize the people that already handle our infrastructure, both the physical devices and buildings and the immaterial logistics, and set them loose on the galaxy's, for its own good.  Because the way the galactic economy works...is that it mostly doesn't.  Resources flow into the Core from the periphery, and then they stop.  This is not how an economy ought to work, even according to the people who do economics for the Trade Federation."

"We do get firsthand experience. Jedi get sent all over the galaxy, even if Coruscant is the center of everything. And if you want to get more data with a... Survey Corps... well, we cannot actually summon people out of empty space. Some existing part of the Order, some of the very limited supply of Jedi that we have doing important things to help the galaxy, would have to abandon their current posts. And economics, and industry, and surveys - none of those have anything to do with the skills that the Jedi possess."

"None of those things have things to do with skills the Jedi knowingly cultivate as a service branch, Master Windu.  But possess?  I think there are plenty of Jedi who do have those skills.  I'd consider myself halfway qualified to be an engineer.  And, visiting somewhere is very different from living there.  I do think the position of Sector Watch is a good idea, but they shouldn't have to do all that alone.

"Not to mention that not every person the Order asks to work with them has to be Force-sensitive.  Certainly there are many things the Jedi do that are greatly aided by the Force - but there are equally many things that are or could be done by anyone, given the chance.  The Medi-corps run vaccine programs.  The Agricorps have plenty of things they do that don't need a Force-sensitive's personal attention, even if in many cases the Force can speed things along.  For that matter, why doesn't the Order have more droid staff?  I know C3PO is bumping around, he's a surprisingly good analyst these days and I think he spends more time in the library than I do - but we don't have any medic droids that I know of, and only a few astromechs.  Well, I suppose the Explorer Corps has more, but - we could use the help, in making it easier for Jedi to do what they are uniquely qualified to accomplish.  I have more than a few ideas I only need parts and data for."

"Well, things that don't require the Force don't really need to be done with the Jedi. The unique advantages of a Jedi come from the Force, even if they have other skills as well."

"Look, we're getting sidetracked. You can go ahead and - write up a list full of ideas for the Order that's what you want to do, I'll take a look at it - add explanations of where we would be getting the people and resources to carry out those ideas, while you're at it. But you're not involving yourself with Dooku or anything else to do with the Sith. Understood?"

"...Sir, if you think that whatever they're up to isn't eventually going to find me anyway, I think you may have forgotten that time what's-his-face, the biologist, stole my Padawan braid.  And that's not even mentioning Dooku.  They're interested in me.  But I will write up that list."