Redemption of the Darkest

Malon

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Gareth Sode, former Dark Jedi, now returned to the light, strode down the halls of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. As he walked the hallowed halls, he passed by several Masters and Padawans training in their separate rooms. Peace abounded here, and he could feel the Force as strongly here as he ever could in the dark side nexuses he'd once basked in.

He stepped into the turbolift that would lead him to his judges. Once inside, he flipped the switch that would send him up and began to center his mind. The Jedi taught emotion, yet peace, so he tried to center himself on this. A swish, signifying the lift door had opened, broke his meditation. In front of him was a large circular room with twelve chairs seated in a perfect circle around the room's edges.

He exhaled and stepped forward until he was in the center of the room. Around him were many Jedi Masters, all seated in their respective chairs. At one time, Haar might have been here, seated amongst them too. The thought of that brought waves of guilt on him. He bowed respectfully to the Masters around him.

"I am here, Masters, to turn myself in for the murder of Jedi Master Haar four years ago. I have no excuses, but I wish to seek your forgiveness and perhaps learn to walk the path of the Jedi. I will accept any punishment you deem necessary." he said.

He realized, after he finished saying that, that he'd spoken quickly, as if nervous; no doubt something the Jedi would notice. He was, however, as truthful as he could be.
 

Will

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The darkness hiding behind the façade of repentance. The killer of a council member walked through the doors, stood before the council, and spoke his empty words. He may have lied to himself enough to convince himself that he held these words true. He would not trick Huang Karasu so easily.

Here, he came, wishing to walk the path of the Jedi, the path that Master Haar had walked. The path this man had killed Haar for.

Huang's voice was cold, flat, emotionless as he replied.


''Your punishment at the least should be imprisonment for your life. It befits your crime against our order. You kill a member of this council, and expect their peers to forgive you? You shall find no forgiveness from me.''


He sat back in his chair, letting the others speak.
 

Jiang Winters

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"Haar was our friend," Weisheng stated, "And no matter how dearly we miss him, we mustn't let our feelings over his murder cloud our judgement."

The white-furred feline leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows atop the armrests of his chair and interlacing his thick work-weathered fingers. "I can feel this man's guilt and his nervousness from here. It seems sincere enough to me, and let's not forget that there is the potential for change in all things - especially in the hearts of men. We'll have to take this slow and ensure that any judgement we pass is sound and just."

Despite the fact that he had vocalized his desire for a carefully measured and fair trial, he, to a point, agreed with Huang. The man before him was responsible for Haar's murder, and he deserved to be punished for his crime. The difficult part would be determining how he would be punished and how severely, or if he'd be punished at all. But first, the extent of his crime and the extent of his remorse and desire for redemption would have to be determined.

Gesturing towards Haar's killer, Sheng spoke again. "If you want us to pass judgement on you, you'll have to explain to us what you've done. You killed Haar, you admit freely to that - but why? Tell us your story, but first, tell us your name."
 

Ols

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Raphael narrowed his eyes at Huang's words. He was brash, far moreso than he had been before the younger man's sojourn. The past four years in this council chamber had been uncomfortable for Raphael. He found himself consistently outvoted, in the minority regarding his views on issues that had been pillars of what it was to be a Jedi. Although Raphael had for much of his life been considered, and even considered himself, to be one of the more progressive and liberal minded Jedi, he found his views were closer to the more conservative, traditional values than many of his council masters. It worried him.

"We are Jedi, Master Karasu," he said, a stern tone in his voice. To forgive even the most personal of crimes was their way, they could take no personal stance. Whether this man was responsible of killing a friend or a man they had never met before, it should impact their personal views of him, and less so their judgement. That was what a Jedi was. Impartial. Fair. Just. He continued, "We teach that we should at least listen to his testimony before condemning him to his fate."

The death of the great master Haar had washed sadness over Raphael. He remembered the instance with as much clarity as if it had been yesterday. He had been sad for his passing, and had celebrated his greatness in life. And he had made his peace with it. Revenge was not the Jedi way. This man had to atone for his crime, there was no doubt about that, but in doing so he should not have to be judged with bias and prejudice. His choice to come before the council showed true humility and regret. Even if the Jedi Council granted him absolution, living with the deed on his hands was his burden, and if he was beginning the steps towards his own atonement, then Raphael could not condemn that.

"Go on," he said to the man before them, "speak."
 

Malon

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Gareth nodded, took a deep breath, and spoke;

"I am Gareth Sode. I was born on the Outer Rim world of Odacer-Faustin. You probably don't want to hear much of my childhood so I'll just save the sob story and give you a summary. My parents weren't the most attentive people. I was basically kept around to do their dirty work. I discovered my Force sensitivity in a moment of great anger with them, and soon after, a few Dark Jedi came to our settlement. I didn't know what they wanted there, but I didn't care. I had to get off world, away from my parents, and start again.

"At this point, I'm a young adult. I got taken to Ando Prime for training, but it wasn't long after that that the leader of the Dark Jedi began his move to Conscio. I was one of the Acolytes put on a ship to go there. The Republic attacked Ando Prime soon after that. On Conscio, I discovered a fatal flaw of the Dark Jedi. They were too busy flexing their muscles at you and your Republic to focus on learning more about the dark side of the Force."
he chuckled at this point, somewhat to himself, "They'd even given up their standard training procedure. I saw this as weakness and left, forming an organization called the Second Order of Lettow, later renamed the Order of Xendor.

"At first my goal was to train others; to best the Dark Jedi that I found so flawed. I made an alliance with an so-called "gray Jedi order" called the Luminado Mercenaries and together with them, I continued my own dark side training. To finish my training, I was told to pick out an enemy target of substantial skill and kill it."
he paused, the memories of that dark day swarming back to his head. "I didn't choose Haar, I chose a former Jedi Knight, and former Ospion Guardian, Taecelle Selena.

"I went to Taris to confront her. Right before I struck the final blow, Haar arrived. What he was doing there, I have no clue. He defended her, and and I fought back. I mortally wounded him and Taecelle rejoined the fight, managing to push me away. I suppose Haar died soon after that. That was at the end of the First Hutt War. During the next four years, I layed low and continued training in the ways of the dark side. During that time, I met a woman. She was incredible from the moment I saw her. At first we were just discussing business; a bounty on Taecelle's head.

"However, during a second meeting with her, I realized I'd fallen in love. We spoke of our pasts, found out a lot about each other. Well, long story short, we found out that we'd met in a mission between our two factions on the planet of Hoth and that she'd..."
he paused again. "...that's she'd bore my children. I'd already been doubting myself, my choices. That did it. I knew that with a family, I couldn't keep living my life this way. A side mission before this, where I'd witness the true unspeakable horror of the dark side had set me on this path, showed me what atrocity I'd done on Taris, and this event had finished it. I forsook the dark side and here I am."

As he finished his story, he looked back up to the Jedi around him, "I'm not saying I deserve forgiveness from you Jedi. If anything, I deserve to be put in a prison and left to rot for the rest of my life, but I knew, no matter what, I had to face the Jedi. I had to atone for my crime. I had to let the ones I'd hurt by killing Haar know that I was sorry, even if 'sorry' couldn't bring him back."
 

Will

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((Sorry, I thought there were going to be more Council members here.))

Huang closed his eyes, sighing.

''I apologise, masters. The incident has always been a sore spot for me. I let emotion get the better of me...''

He paused. That had never happened before. Emotion had never gotten the better of him in the council chambers. He would have to sort this later. A breach in his stony exterior was rare, but understandable considering his personal situation, finding about a whole new family he was part of. He had to focus. Something he had always been good at.

He remained still as he listened to the testimony. The childhood sickeningly mirrored his own. A glimpse of the path he could have taken, perhaps?


''You wholly admit plumbing the depths of darkness, Sode. Do you truly believe you have climbed from that pit? Do you think you can climb into the light. It needs more than thinking you can. You have to know. If you believe you can redeem yourself, there may be hope. Importantly, I want to know why you turned to darkness, and what caused the love for this... Selena to bloom.''

He leant back in his chair, regarding the individual before them, his cold, expressionless face giving away nothing.
 

Malon

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Gareth listened to Huang carefully. Something told him that Huang could understand him, but he quickly swept this aside and considered the question Huang posed to him.

"At first, it was just her personality. She was a generally caring person, despite the nature of her work. When I first met her, she put the lives of her comrades above even her own, and when she fell ill on the mission, she told us just to leave her and do what we could to get to the transports. She knew it'd be weeks before other transports arrived, and she didn't want to hold us back. Even so, I refused to leave her like she refused to leave us on the battlefield.

"When I met her for the second time, it was like she hadn't changed at all. She was still the same person, but now she had children. I was in the business of hiring a bounty hunter, which she was by this time, but through the Force I could tell she was defensive about something. Eventually, through the intervention of a very, very obnoxious man, I learned she had children. Like a good mother she flared up to defend them, from him and myself.

"Later on, we would go onto find out that they were my children, conceived during the mission to Hoth. Every time I'm with her, she puts the needs of those she cares for above her own. She is also very beautiful. I couldn't help but fall in love."
he explained.

"So yes, Master, I believe I can redeem myself. I must redeem myself. For her, and for my children."
 

Ols

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"If you speak truthfully," Raphael said, "then it would seem that redemption for yourself is not why you are here. You are already on that path, and can only walk it through your own efforts. You do not need the Jedi council to hold your hand through it."

He paused a second contemplating his next words, "It seems more that you have come for absolution. To show that you are truly sorry for what you have done," in itself that statement was evidence of the man's true desire to make things right, "you have greatly erred. But your apology is sincere, I can find it in myself to accept that apology. As long as you recognise it does not absolve you. If you wanted to absolve yourself in the eyes of the vindictive, you should have given yourself up to the Republic police, let them shove you in a jail cell to fester with your guilt. "

"You have committed this and other such deeds, and although you may regret them now, they cannot be taken back. You will have to live every day knowing the sadness and pain you have caused. If living with those you love is enough to set you on this path, then let them stay your hand. Let go of what took you down the dark path, the power and terror that caused your crimes. Let go of it for them."
 

Will

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((Imma just skip over Hakim))

Huang waited for Raphael to finish. His fellow Council member had always had a way with words, eloquent. Huang's own views were summed up by his words. The talk of children struck home with Huang, hiding his own children from the order. He kept this out of his judgement, however, remaining objective.

''I agree with Master Celestis. There seems to be hope for you, but you will not find absolution here. Your crimes will always stay with you, throughout your life. You will have to be vigilant to hope that the guilt and sorrow does not fester into darkness.''
 
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