Chapter 95: Shooting One’s Shot

A/N: Reminder that Chapter 97 will be the last chapter of this story! 2 more remain!

Tylo shoots his shot. He probably should have known though.

-x-X-x-

Fuck it. As they all lay down to cuddle with one another, Tylo decides to broach the subject.

“… So as you ladies already know, I’m apparently the Mandalore now…”

Annie snorts and Padme chuckles.

Only you, Tylo.

Still blows my mind.

Looking between them, Tylo smiles hesitantly.

“I’m also apparently the new leader of a Mandalorian Clan. Clan Vondin. And I guess… I was wondering if you both might want to join it officially… and stay here with me. On Mandalore.”

That gets startled reactions from the two women. Annie blinks while Padme jolts, though their inner thoughts couldn’t be further apart.

Was there ever any question?

Ah… I don’t know if that will work out…

The tonal whiplash sends him through a loop and Annie smirks.

“Did you think I was going back to the Jedi, Tylo? Of course I’m staying with you.”

“W-What?! Annie, I’m not sure if that’s the best idea… at least at first. The Jedi Order is going to want some sort of explanation. Also, I’m not sure I can give up my position as Senator of Naboo any time soon…”

Tylo glances between the two women as they both look at each other for a long moment, each thinking some variation of ‘she’s serious isn’t she?’ in a tone of disbelief in their minds.

Finally, Annie shrugs.

“If the Order wants an explanation, they can either holocall or send someone here to interview us, I figure. Personally, I gave up on being a Jedi the moment Tylo convinced me not to commit suicide. Besides… after what we just did together and what resulted of it, I’m not sure I trust them with my person.”

… What? Tylo and Padme share a look at that, with Annie growing smugger and smugger.

Heh, they don’t know. But then of course they don’t~

“Can’t you feel it, Tylo? Here, let me help you.”

Annie takes Tylo’s hands in her own, clasping them tightly. A moment later, a wave of Light Side energy washes over him, causing Tylo to stiffen and his eyes to widen as Annie shares a Force Vision with him. It bounces from scene to scene, the first one of her pregnant, the next of her having given birth to… to twins, and more of them growing up, being kids, becoming adults… Tylo’s jaw drops open and he stares at Annie in shock.

Since when could she do THAT?!

As if she was the one reading HIS mind for one, Annie leans back, still smug as can be.

“Foresight… I think, all things considered, that the Sith have been shrouding the Force in Darkness for so long that the Jedi have forgotten that Foresight is even a thing. But with Palpatine gone and my Force Signature cleansed, it’s so easy to look out ahead and see the possibilities. But there’s one thing Foresight shows me that isn’t a possibility, but a near-certainty at this point. I may not be pregnant yet, but I will become pregnant shortly off of that last session.”

Tylo, having to take a moment to process both Annie’s words and the vision, lets out a small laugh of disbelief.

“… Twins. You’re going to have twins.”

Padme gasps at that, even as Annie grins and nods.

“Oh Annie! That’s wonderful!”

“Mmhmm. So now you see… I’m not going back to the Order. I’m not going to let them tell me what to do with my body, and I’m not going to let them take my children either. I let them take me from my mother and nearly lost her as a result. That’s why… I think my time in the Jedi Order is just as over as yours is, Tylo. And so… I’m happy to join Clan Vondin and take up the name Annie Vondin from now on.”

Maybe Annie Vondin-Skywalker. Just to continue to honor my mother and my roots. But we can discuss that later.

Grinning, Tylo pulls Annie into a hug… and then does the same with Padme for good measure.

“I’m happy to have you, Annie. And Padme… whatever you need to do, you do it. We’ll be here for you, whether you’re bouncing back and forth as Senator of Naboo, or want to retire and come join us, alright?”

Padme hesitates for a moment before slowly nodding.

There’s still so much to do…

“There’s still so much to do. Not least of all is ensuring the clones get their freedom and repayment for their sacrifices. But… I think one day, once the galaxy is a little quieter, I’d like that… retirement.”

Yes, the clones weighed heavily on Tylo’s mind as well. Perhaps, given the templates had all been Mandalorians and he was now Mandalore, it was time to start throwing his weight around a little more. He could also use Janga, Bo-Katan, and Rook to weigh in as well on where the clones should be allowed to go. Mandalore, at least, would always be a home to any member of the Clone Army who wanted to move here. Tylo would make sure of it.

That said, even if he was getting what he wanted and then some when it came to Annie sticking around… he did have to wonder how the Jedi were likely to react to all of this, when all was said and done…

-x-X-x-

“I do not see why this is up for debate! Knight Vondin flagrantly disobeyed direct orders to return to Coruscant in order to abscond with Knight Skywalker to Mandalorian Space where he has performed a coup on the rightful ruler of the Mandalorian Sector! Can we really be seen to let such a thing happen, especially at a time like this?!”

Aayla Secura was not a member of the Jedi High Council. In fact, she had only been promoted to the rank of Jedi Master less than a year ago, back at the start of the Clone Wars. However, the fight with Palpatine had not been without cost. When Master Obi-Wan Kenobi had brought their proof to Coruscant, every single sitting High Council member on the planet had gone as one to arrest the Sith Lord Darth Sidious.

… Half had died, and several more had been maimed. Kenobi himself had lost an arm for his troubles, and Master Windu had lost an eye.

That said, with the Jedi High Council at its lowest strength in ages, and the Jedi Order in similarly dire straits, a number of Jedi Masters had been brought in to offer their own perspectives and opinions. They had NOT been promoted to the rank of Councilmembers as of yet but were still tasked with filling the empty seats for the time being.

It said a lot about how much damage Sidious had managed to do to the Jedi Order in a very short amount of time that Aayla was one of the Jedi Masters called to sit in on these somewhat heated meetings. As previously mentioned, she was quite new to the rank of Master… and yet, there weren’t that many Masters left these days, not after how many died during the Battle for Geonosis, and then in the months since.

Now that they knew the Supreme Chancellor was a Sith Lord all along, and indeed the Sith Master himself, it made a lot more sense. Sidious had sent so many of them to their deaths, arranging for their best and brightest to fall in battle over and over again right under their noses.

All things considered, the Jedi Master currently talking about Tylo had a point when one took into account the amount of damage that they’d unknowingly let Sidious do. However, that didn’t mean Aayla was any happier to hear them besmirching Tylo’s good name. Still, she was nothing if not a Jedi, and so she takes her negative emotions and feeds them into the Force… something a number of the Masters in the Council Room should have taken notice of and tried to do themselves instead of letting their anxiety fester more and more.

Aayla’s quiet meditation does not go unnoticed, however. Grandmaster Yoda suddenly speaks up, the old Jedi not visibly injured in the same way Kenobi and Windu are, but nevertheless wearier than any have ever seen him.

“Master Secura. Thoughts, you must have. Your Padawan, Knight Vondin was. Hours now, we have been speaking about the situation in the Mandalorian Sector. What say you, hm?”

As all eyes turn towards Aayla, she lets out a low breath and rises from her chair, moving to the center of the room. There’s a shuffling from the others in the Council Room at this, seeing as nobody else had stood before talking yet throughout this meeting.

“Grandmaster… Masters… Tylo Vondin is no longer a member of the Jedi Order.”

There’s a general bristling at that, but Yoda holds up a single small green hand before anyone can interject and gestures for Aayla to continue after a moment.

“I felt him sever his ties to the Order myself. I felt him sever his ties to me. As you all know, I have been in contact with him since. Everyone in this room knows his reasons for what he did.”

Again, there are other Jedi Masters who clearly want to debate the point again for the umpteenth time, eager to relitigate Tylo’s professed reasoning over and over again. But Master Yoda’s presence stops them this time around.

“In the end, it doesn’t matter whether he was telling the truth or not. What matters are the facts. First and foremost… without my former Padawan’s help, I would never have uncovered Darth Sidious’ true identity, nor the Sith’s plan to use the Clone Army to destroy the Jedi Order. In fact, it is more accurate to say I helped him in this task, and that all of us in this room have Tylo Vondin to thank for our lives and the continued existence of the Order.”

Her words ring with sincerity in the Force, and yet, there are still Masters who wish to denounce those words. They don’t, but they want to.

“Secondly, Tylo Vondin did not seek the title of Mandalore, nor did he aim to become ruler of the Mandalorian Sector. This too, is the truth. There is no coup. Duchess Satine Kryze has voiced her unreserved support for Tylo Vondin and put all of her backing behind him. He has usurped nothing, but rather had the position forced upon him by unfortunate circumstances. That said, as he is no longer a member of this Order and the Mandalorian Sector is not a member of the Republic… he falls outside of our jurisdiction.”

This time, some of the other Masters do try to talk… but Yoda silences them again with a particularly loud ‘harumph!’. There’s a lot that certain Jedi in the room want to say about ‘jurisdiction’ from what Aayla can tell, but Master Yoda can tell she’s not done talking.

“Thirdly, Tylo made the right call in going to Knight Skywalker and taking her to Mandalore. Debate on whether she would have been better served here at the Temple all you want, but his results speak for themselves.”

Aayla sweeps her gaze across the room for a moment before continuing.

“Darth Sidious had managed to put a dead man’s trigger in Knight Skywalker’s mind that made every effort to drive her insane and deep into the Dark Side of the Force, while ordering her to kill all Jedi. If she had been brought to the Temple in such a state, it might have been a massacre. Instead, Tylo Vondin was able to cleanse Knight Skywalker’s Force Signature, removing the Dark Side Taint forced upon her. The Dark Side has never been weaker. The tapestry of the Force has never been brighter. These things are undeniable.”

There’s some awkward shifting at that, because they know Aayla is right. They might not agree with Tylo’s methods, but the results were entirely impossible to ignore. Tylo had done the impossible, done what even Master Yoda had always said couldn’t be done.

Once touched by the Dark Side, forever would it dominate your destiny. That was something Master Yoda loved to say when warning young Jedi away from Darkness. And yet, Tylo had proved him wrong.

Aayla privately thinks that’s why so many of the Masters in this room are upset, really. But that doesn’t matter to her because…

“I have a recommendation to make to the Council, if they would hear it.”

She directs those words at Yoda in particular, and after a moment the Grandmaster hums and nods, gesturing for Aayla to proceed.

“I believe, rather than treating Tylo Vondin as a criminal to be apprehended, we treat him as the ally he is. He might not be a Jedi anymore, but he will always be a friend to the Order… unless we make him our enemy. That’s why I propose to the members of the High Council that I be allowed to put together a diplomatic team that will travel to the Mandalorian Sector and make inroads with this new Mandalore.”

“What?! Preposterous! You can’t-!”

C-CLACK!

Silence falls in the Council Chamber as the bottom of Master Yoda’s walking stick hits the floor and the sound resonates through the room, causing everyone to go still. Aayla withholds the urge to smile.

See, for the last several hours, the actual remaining members of the Jedi High Council, from Master Yoda, to Master Windu, to Master Kenobi and even Master Shaak Ti... had been rather quiet. Outside of asking questions where it was most prudent, they hadn’t voiced a single opinion, even as all of the Jedi Masters who were not actual Council Members had gone around in circles for hours and hours.

Aayla suspected it was some sort of test to see which of the Masters who had been brought into this room to fill vacant seats during this unprecedented time might actually fill those seats permanently. But she didn’t really care either way, because she wasn’t here to become a member of the Jedi High Council.

She’d directed her proposal at the actual Council Members on purpose… because at the end of the day, THEY were the ones with the actual power to grant her what she most wanted.

Not that it mattered if they didn’t, of course. Aayla had stood and moved to the center of the room for a reason, after all. If her proposal was not approved, then her next step would be removing her Jedi Robes and lightsaber and resigning from her post as Master of the Jedi Order effective immediately.

Tylo Vondin’s departure from the Order did not increase the number of the Lost Twenty… but if her hand was forced, Aayla would make it the Lost Twenty-One in short order.

[ ] The Jedi High Council disagrees, forcing Aayla to resign - 13%

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