"Oh no. Force save us, what has he done?"

Maya cannot bring hersel to even project her avatar, so distraught is she at the feelings coming from Ruusan.

"...The technique is called a 'thought bomb', which is a rather misleading name, being as it strongly affects Force-Sensitives alone, and it is not a technique I would use on the man who instigated its use here - not even were I rendered immune from its suicidal backlash by the will of the Force itself.  Its wave of rending soul from body emanates directly from the center of the ritual, you see, and does not spare the caster."

It is not a good sign for her own state that before she spoke, Darth Chataris pulled her mask over her face.

"It is, I think, and the Force agrees, a lesser form of the ritual used by Lord Vitiate, may he never return - also known as the Eternal Emperor - when he drained the Force from the world of Nathema into himself, leaving nothing but an empty Wound in the Force behind - and I must say that I am glad that even Darth Revan was reasonable enough - or perhaps simply despised the Emperor that much - that their holocron omitted pertinent details of what they knew of that when Bane came asking.  No-one should want to be responsible for the second coming of Valkorion.

"On the plus side, as it is not designed to do anything with the resulting Force energies it vacuums up, the aftermath of a thought bomb is not a Wound in the Force.

"On the minus side, that is because the aftermath is usually a Force Nexus, or something that is close enough to count, haunted by the tormented souls of the dead."

Her voice is dead.  Her presence is nulled.  She gave a muted recitation, not the passionate speech that Maya has come to know.  Even the more pointed elements of it are pale reflections of other times Maya has heard Ophelia's thoughts on similar subjects, drawn from force of habit rather than anything truly felt in the moment.

"...Even had I tried, I couldn't have stopped it.  And I tried, Force as my witness.

"At least that saved me from the moral dilemma of having to know whether I should have tried for real - for, even had I succeeded, I don't think it would have helped.  Even weighed against a thousand years of a thousand people in constant soul-deep torment...  Bane's line in hiding, the rest bound within the thought bomb's confines...

"There will always be those who choose cruelty over kindness, but now even this will be beyond them.  It is undoubtedly a net good that the Brotherhood of Darkness is now all-but-dead, even considering they're effectively being tortured.

"And yet, I cannot help but wish that there was some way to avert this inescapable utilitarian calculus, even as I act in accordance with it.  There is no way left to crash the runaway speeder that does no harm.  Only a choice of what harm to allow.  And I've not even had that.

"This is usually the point where I start ranting about Kreia, isn't it.  But...  Now is not the time.

"Now, I think, is a time for us to grieve the lack of a better way.  To grieve the bravery of the hundred Jedi who knew they would not stop what they knew was coming, and yet still tried.

"It has long since not been safe for me to mourn.  I hope you will forgive that I do not look the part."

Oh.

That is worse.

That is so much worse.

"I am so sorry, Ophelia. I know you tried, my friend."

Her presence reaches out to Ophelia's, trying to offer the comfort of sharing the burden, sharing the awareness of the cost, and just simple company when the galaxy seems dark.

There is a moment where she seems to not realize that this sentiment could possibly be aimed at her.

And then, the projection from her holocron devolves into static as everything she had shoved aside comes crashing back down onto her at once, her presence roiling with grief and no small amount of rage against the universe because it should not have had to come to this!

And yet.  The Force is not what made the Sith choose to become assholes.

...It is hard to believe that Kreia was wrong about the Force being some...  Dramatic playwright, casting its triumphs and tragedies out of real people without a care for their suffering, sometimes.  And yet, if it was, what could she possibly do?

So she believes that her choices matter.  That the Force can, that it must, care.

And then she is faced with this.

"Sometimes I wonder how far back I'd have to go, if I wanted to fix - all of this.

"I think it would be a long way."

Maya's presence wraps around Ophelia's in the spiritual equivalent of a fierce hug, grief and horror and empathy burning within her.

"Several millennia, likely. By the Force, I wish people were not so eager to burn each other for power."

Her voice hitches as she continues. "It is horrible, and I hope those lost rituals are never seen again. But though I may not be a seer, my friend, you are not alone in your quest to fix what we can. I will help however my skills allow."

"...you already have.  Simply to not be alone in this, anymore...

"While there are others I have trusted with parts of this mission, I could not be sure that I had earned their choice.  Not with why I knew I could trust them.

"And now, there is someone else who has chosen to walk the path I am following for a while, because they think it is a good one.

"It is...  A relief I did not know I needed, to have found myself lost before I could begin, but supported anyway."

There is not a moment where Ophelia's presence stops feeling that grief.  But the weight of it feels less a burden, as her own presence wraps itself in curling eddies around Maya's hug, returning the sentiment.

Maya knows there will be no shortage of grief in the centuries ahead.

Friendship helps, however.

"I am grateful for the chance to be involved in this, Ophelia. For all that the method it happened is the most horrifying I have ever sensed, the reduction of the forces of darkness from over a thousand to two will save uncountable lives. If we can help those young Jedi we saw in the vision end the Sith Master you saw, then perhaps the tide of darkness can finally end, at least for an age. This is likely the most important thing I have ever or will ever do."

"That it will be.

"I just...

"I wish it hadn't had to start like this."

"So do I, my friend," Maya replies sadly. "So do I."

REPUBLIC HERALD BULLETIN — 2653 ATC

Jedi Armies Should Disband, says Jedi High Council

"It is beyond evident that with the annihilation of the Brotherhood of Darkness, that we have no more need of the Army of Light," says the official statement from the Coruscant Temple.  "This Council supports the measures laid out by Supreme Chancellor Valorum and the Galactic Senate."

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Ruusan Reforms: What You Need To Know

The Ruusan Reforms, so named in honor of the planet where the last gasp of the Sith Empire fell, may sound complicated and concerning to the average citizen.  But they're a simple realignment of government, to the needs of the people, and this explainer should leave you ready to tell your friends.

[read more]

Janica P'sloyq Hits Top Of Charts

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It is some months later. Maya scowls, her projection pacing. "Centralizing the Order on Coruscant is a mistake. They will lose so much diversity of perspective, so much room for growth and nuance in our understanding of the Force. Training children from birth has the same problem. I do not like this, Ophelia."

"Neither do I.  At least the Temple on Corellia is doing something reasonable and not abolishing itself for this mess - and you know things are upside-down when it's Corellia being reasonable.  But I almost mislike that the Jedi have been forced to give up their right to wear armor more, because there's no way they won't be seeing combat even under the Judiciary.  Abolishing the command of the Army of Light is one thing.  Abolishing the ability for the Jedi to defend themselves appropriately when there is no way they won't be held to the Army's standards is another.  Or perhaps I've spent too much time around Mandalorians."

"...Even the Sith didn't start training children, when the orthodoxy needs to indoctrinate much more strongly - though perhaps that is because 'small children wielding the power of the Dark Side with a small child's characteristic lack of restraint' is an idea that should scare anyone with sense.  I don't think that starting some training earlier in life would be bad, but with it being centralized to Coruscant...  Absolutely not.  And then there's the Dark Force Nexus in their basement!  They haven't fixed the blasted thing in the past two thousand years!  I checked!"

"And that's all to say nothing of the things we know are still after them that the Republic doesn't.  But no, the High Council needs to save face or something.  The Force isn't telling me much.  ...Stars, I can only hope it's an or something and not petty politics."

"If the Jedi Order has been forcibly subordinated to a will other than the Will of the Force because the High Council on Coruscant was embarrassed by their missteps with Skere Kaan...

"I'm out of ideas to change anything, here, short of vigilante graffiti campaigns, and that more out of petty satisfaction than any belief it will change the politics.  There's too many corporate interests that are heavily invested in making the Jedi have to jump through extra hoops before they can be brought to task for sapient rights violations, if nothing else."

Maya nods sharply. "This will hamstring the Order. Their ability to act will be gutted, as will their ability to adapt and grow. It is enough to make me wonder if this Bane you spoke of has agents in the Senate."

"I have no doubt that if he doesn't, he will, soon enough.  Why did Valorum put his name on this?  Is his family cursed?  The Chancellor we come back to is a Valorum!"

"The one in office during the initial rise of the spectacularly horrifying Sith Lord we are helping the future fight? Void take us, something is wrong in that family."

"If there is, I've not yet found out what."

"We may never know. Honestly, I am unsure if I wish to even find out. Regardless, this means we must redouble our artifact collection plans. A withering Jedi Order will not be able to safely contain anything truly dangerous, and will not be able to spare as many Jedi to search for lost artifacts."

"That, at least, I have been preparing for for quite a while."