Bab 9: Rewarded and betrayed
The upper city of Coruscant made Tanden frown the whole time, he couldn't understand how a planet so advanced - although not as much as Earth back in his previous life - could be so trash!
They destroyed the flora and fauna to build an infinite city that covered the whole planet, the redistribution of resources was horrible and the rich literally stepped on the poor!
He wasn't a saint that thought that everyone should have the same kind of life or anything similar, but he still couldn't tolerate how the people of this planet were being forcefully repressed. He felt bad for not doing much for them in the time he spent training as a Jedi, but now that he was about to become free, he would start his plan to remove the criminals he hated so much.
However, he wouldn't be starting with coruscant, there was no way to do it, he lacked the resources, the people, and the necessary influence, in fact, he would be lying if he said he wasn't interested in contacting count Dooku.
From the moment Tanden was recruited till now, almost twelve years had passed, he was four years old at the time, and now he is two weeks away from becoming sixteen. During this time he managed to learn a lot about the way the Jedi operated, it was fairly easy to do spy work when you have access to almost everything.
He learned a lot about how corrupted the Jedi truly were, and he knew that sooner or later his interest would clash with theirs anyway.
"Sigh..." Tanden sighed as he waited for the elevator to take him and Anakin to the upper level of the senate office building.
He couldn't help but think about his future from that moment on, he never considered himself an ambitious man, he was quite straightforward when it came to his objectives, if his mission required something, he would go after that thing and get over it.
But ever since being reborn he started to notice how narrow his views of the world and himself were. It might be the life away from the army coupled with the teachings of the Jedi and his knowledge of the history of this galaxy, but... He was starting to feel that many people actually needed him, the poor souls tortured by those arrogant criminal syndicates, the Mandalorians before they destroy themselves, hell... he even felt that Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan needed him, and those prophetic dreams didn't help him in any way.
However, he was too alone, from the beginning till now he never truly adapted, Ahsoka was the first person who he actually cared for after his mother, she was the only one that didn't fear him, Anakin never looked down on him and was quite an interesting guy, the same goes for Obi-Wan and even his former master Plo, their interaction might have lasted too little time, but it was enough for him to understand the man's character.
He just didn't know what to do about them, he wanted them to see the truth about the Jedi and maybe even warn them about the dark days approaching that he and master Yaddle saw, but no matter how much he thought, no answer came to his mind, he knew quite well how difficult it would be to make them leave the order.
Shaking his head, he followed Anakin towards the reception hall, a human woman was sitting behind a desk and told them to wait for a moment while the chancellor finished his meeting with a few senators.
They didn't have to wait much as just a few minutes later Palpatine greeted them.
"Anakin, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"How are you doing excellency?"
"I'm doing well, thanks for asking, and this must be Padawan Tanden I presume." Palpatine turned to look at Tanden.
"I'm afraid this title was stripped from me, your Excellency," Tanden replied without avoiding eye contact.
"Oh, that's certainly something I wasn't aware of!" Palpatine shook his head and sighed, he seemed to be sad with the situation. "Please come inside, there's no need to keep standing here at the reception."
The two followed the Chancellor inside the room and they all took a sit.
"I heard you managed to capture a bounty hunter who was plotting something extremely dangerous against the Jedi, is that true? To think that a mere bounty hunter was the author of such a thing."
Anakin nodded. "I don't think he was the one behind it. I think someone much stronger was behind this, and this person might not be Count Dooku."
"Oh, and do you have any clues about who this person might be?"
"Not yet sir..."
"Don't worry, I'm sure you will discover sooner or later." Palpatine then turned to Tanden. "I also heard that you're the one responsible for the bounty hunter's capture, is that correct?"
Tanden nodded, as he looked at the man with a slight frown on his head. "That's correct, but the Jedi do not appreciate my actions it seems."
"You speak as if you weren't a Jedi..."
Tanden raised an eyebrow, that was spot on, he wasn't expecting the man to pay so much attention to his words, but it should have been expected... after all, he knew very well that politicians were cold-blooded creatures with eagle eyes, elephant ears, and a power to conspire that could make even the evilest of the gods to frown.
"I'll cut my ties with the order, and that's why I said it like that..." Tanden closed his eyes and sighed.
"Are you sure that's what you want to do, Tanden? There is no way to change this decision later." Anakin asked with some worry in his voice.
"Don't worry about this Anakin." Tanden shook his head. "My path would eventually take me out of the order anyway. I only ask you to take care of Ahsoka, I bet you already know about her... antics..."
Anakin laughed. "Don't worry, she is my Padawan, after all, it's my job to make sure that she doesn't kill herself."
Palpatine watched the two interacting, and the corner of his mouth raised a little, but not enough to make them notice.
"I see..." Palpatine then turned to look at Anakin. "Well, it was good talking to you Anakin, but I would like to speak with Tanden in private."
Anakin nodded and left the chancellor's office.
"Well, the Jedi can be a little troublesome I believe," Palpatine said, as he stood up and went to the back of the office, where one could see the panoramic view of Coruscant. "It wouldn't be the first time that they... make a mistake."
Tanden stood up and went to the back of the office as well. His eyes wandered around the city, for a moment, his mind was devoid of thoughts, all that remained was the vision in front of him.
"I'm no politician M.r. Palpatine." Tanden's eyes turned to him, "Nor do I care about Coruscant itself or its government, I know a lot about the history of the galactic republic, enough to say that this wretched place is no different than the old Sith Empire."
Palpatine watched as Tanden turned his back to him and slowly walked around the room, touching the statues and other ancient objects around the place.
"Perhaps, you could even say that I'm beyond any of the so-called Jedi Consulars when it comes to knowledge of history itself, and that makes me wonder where did you manage to acquire such... historical items." Tanden looked at the man once more, only to frown seeing him smiling.
"Ah, so you have a good eye for antiques, they are all remnants of times of war thousands of years ago, when this planet was partially or fully conquered by the Sith." Palpatine's answer was as natural as it could be, Tanden couldn't even see anything that seemed to be a lie. "Art should never be condemned even if it comes from the ones who were once our enemies.
"But enough of that, you said you aren't a politician, and I understand this very well. The reason I wanted to speak with you is to make a deal."
"A deal?"
Palpatine nodded, he took out a bag and threw it at him. "There was a reward on Cad Bane's head of twenty thousand, you can keep the credits, if had to go through the formal means and first send it to the Jedi I'm sure they would have... confiscated 90% of your reward.
"The Jedi aren't as effective as they should, perhaps you could even call them a useless bunch. You on the other hand... I read the reports, you seem to be quite prepared for that situation, even more so than the other generals."
Hearing this Tanden frowned, he did no report so where could this information have come from? Besides, to recognize his skills from reading a technical report, Palpatine himself probably isn't such a pacific man as he paints himself to be.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
This was something that every soldier was taught during their short training on Earth, every single one of them was encouraged to study anything they could about their enemies, and always have a good grasp of what they were capable of. That's why he knew more or less how the enemy ship worked, where to search, and how to get to where he needed in little to no time.
And Palpatine seemed to be a man who knew the core concept of such a thing, although Tanden doubted that there was a Sun Tzu in this galaxy.
"Get to the point old man, I'm not here to hear riddles, am I?"
"Hahaha!" Palpatine laughed. "Indeed, you aren't. I don't know what are your plans for the future, but let us keep in contact, since you're a Mandalorian I'm pretty sure you can understand my reasons for asking this."
Seeing that fake smile on the man's face, Tanden shrugged, and after giving him his contact information he left the place without even looking back, he was pretty sure that this snake was planning something, but he couldn't tell what his objectives were.
After leaving the senate building, Tanden went directly to the Jedi temple, however, once he arrived a group of temple guards surrounded him.
"What's the meaning of this?" Tanden asked.
One man came out of the crowd, it was Cin Drallig.
"I'm sorry Tanden, but those are my orders, please do not resist, let us not make this worse."
"Why are you arresting me?"
"The council demands your presence, you will be expelled from the order..."
"Why!?" Tanden couldn't understand, one thing is leaving the order by your own choice, another is being expelled. He would be made an enemy of the Jedi if that was the case!
"I do not know..."
The temple guards all had their lightsabers pointing at him, Tanden slowly lowered his hand putting him in a position to take his lightsaber if necessary.
But before he could do something, one of the temple guards attacked his back making him fall to the ground. His luck was that he was still wearing his armor, feeling the hot sensation on his back, he looked through the legs of the temple guard in front of him, time seemed to freeze for a moment as his favorite ability, the force speed was unconsciously activated, his pupils focused on the spot 15 meters ahead.
Slowly, his surroundings seemed to stretch and became a blur extremely hard to distinguish. The temple guards who were prepared to place handcuffs on him couldn't believe their eyes when his figure seemingly vanished from the ground.
Cin Drallig was the only one that noticed him reappearing already inside the temple in a blink of an eye.
"Stop him!" He shouted, making the temple guards turn and run towards him.
Outside the temple, the people noticed the situation and started whispering to each other, wondering what could be happening.
But one man, wearing the uniform of the republic army smiled seeing this and activated his holo communicator.
"It's done, your excellency, the boy's ties with the Jedi were surely severed now."
A man wearing dark robes with a hood that covered his face laughed slightly, "Good, call your men, and prepare to rescue the boy, do not fail me Bavris, you will be made a General if you succeed. This boy will play an important role in the future, he and Starkiller shaw become my mightiest weapons when the time comes hehe!"
In a dark room somewhere in the senate building, the man wearing dark robes held an amulet attached to some sort of purple crystal in the shape of a Dodecahedron, in front of him some sort of purple and blue lightning cloud gave shape to a vision where two individuals fought together to defeat a man wearing a black suit of armor with three robotic limbs. One was clearly Tanden in a different version of his current armor, as for the other, he was a boy with shaved brown hair and eyes wearing a Sith robe with light armor plates and black cape.
However, the vision was unstable and sometimes showed a different image, although too clouded to be recognized, where someone was pierced in the chest by an ancient white Broadsaber infused with the force and somehow similar to Tanden's Durandal.
— Bab baru akan segera rilis — Tulis ulasan
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone