Jedi Insurgency 241

Chasing after the retreating Palpatine, Mace Windu & Plo Koon had run into the depths of the Senate building, and were in hot pursuit. 

Every few seconds, the entire structure groaned like a wounded beast. Dust sifted from the ceiling in pale streams, and it felt like the entire building might collapse on top of them at any second. Somewhere above them, the duel between Darth Vader and Revan was tearing apart this ancient architecture that had stood for millenia. 

‘Good.’ Windu thought to himself. 

He only wished he could be the one to tear that hall full of sanctimonious Womp Rats apart with his own two fists. Looking down at his recently regrown limb, he flexed his fingers, then blinked his eye, humming in appreciation. Windu had felt it. A Shatterpoint so narrow, so improbable, he knew he could survive up until today, but the odds were practically impossible. Revan, that masked man, was a mystery. One outside his glimpses of what could be. However, he didn't need to know much about this comrade in arms to know that they were both against the same evil. 

Whilst he was brooding over his thoughts, Windu passed by a narrow viewport overlooking the lower industrial levels of the Senate District. Emergency lights bathed the chamber in crimson, reflecting off his worn robes, and long white dreads. 

On first glance, he looked like your average homeless. But looking closer, one could see that his skin had a nearly luminescent glow to it. Revan's act of healing had largely reduced the damage Palpatine had dealt, and the Jedi Master once more had a new lease on life. 

Where once upon a time his months of imprisonment spent beneath the Imperial Palace had hollowed him out. Where his white dreadlocks hung unevenly around his shoulders, and dark circles lingered beneath his eyes. How the Empire's chemicals flooded his body with agony in carefully measured doses designed to keep him alive while breaking him apart piece by piece…

He now stood tall. That bitter struggle for survival, those hours when he forgot who he was due to the pain…it was all for today. For revenge, but perhaps more importantly, a new beginning. Not only for himself, but for the Jedi as a whole. 

Whilst Windu was reflecting upon himself, Plo Koon watched him quietly from his side within the hallway as they ran. Slicing through a clone trooper with his blue blade, and deflecting another shot, his body practically moved on autopilot as he glanced at his long time colleague in concern. Approaching a sky bridge full of troopers, a handful of AT-TEs, and even a few new AT-STs, Plo furrowed his brow at this trivial annoyance. 

The Kel Dor's goggles reflected the flickering emergency lights as he folded his hands into his sleeves, violently bowling over several hundreds of enemy combatants, and vehicles, the entire unit vanished, screaming over the side of the skybridge as they went. 

During this action, another violent tremor shook the corridor. It was clear that the duel up above was increasing in intensity. 

Windu exhaled slowly, then glanced at Plo. 

“Revan pushes him hard.” 

Plo inclined his head slightly. “Skywalker has become something unusual. I have never felt so much malice from a machine before. Not even Grievous could match this level of hatred.” 

A humorless smile spread across Windu’s face. 

“That’s one way to describe it.”

For a moment, silence settled between them as thoughts of Anakin unconsciously came to mind. The silence of the two old Jedi was full of reflection, and perhaps a tinge of bitterness. No one knew better than them how events had progressed up until today. Their surety, their arrogance, perhaps only Master Yoda could share more blame than them, but in their heart of hearts, both Windu & Plo knew that if they were stronger…no, wiser, that this current reality never would have happened. 

“Do you trust him?” Plo eventually asked, changing the subject. 

Windu’s expression hardened immediately.

“Revan?”

“Yes.”

Mace looked up the sky bridge, up towards the Senate rotunda. 

Far off in the skyline, flashes of crimson and blue illuminated the clouds above the Senate tower. The battle looked like a storm had visited Coruscant, and was tearing everything apart in its path. 

“I trust his resolve to fight against the Sith. But I'll reserve my judgement until I speak with him face to face, man to man, Jedi to Jedi.” Windu rubbed his regrown fingers together, and stated each word with growing resolve. 

Plo remained thoughtful, tilting his head as he cut through a blast door. Molten durasteel pooled near his boots, only for him to kick the door open with a mighty crash. Thousands of troopers were waiting on the other side, and began to unleash a deluge of blaster bolts. 

“He freed you, you know. I do not know if you are aware, but he warned us that day. A transmission of his clued every Jedi out on campaign that the clones would betray us. Revan saved many lives that day.” Plo idly commented as he jumped into the action, his lightsaber spinning at impossible speeds as it deflected everything in his path. 

“My only source of news when I first recovered months ago was Imperial propaganda. From what I heard, he's quite the terrorist.” Windu sternly stated, yet amusement flashed in his eyes. 

Wielding his purple lightsaber, his white dreads floated behind him as he dashed through the battalion. Every second, a dozen clones lost their limbs, heads, or torsos as a super hot beam of death cut through them with ease. 

Plo Koon gave the faintest nod at that.

“Fair enough. You should see the footage of your own trial. Perhaps you and Revan have more in common than you might think.” Plo said with amusement as he watched Windu violently demolish hundreds of enemy combatants like it was childsplay. 

Windu deflected an AT-TE's cannon shot back at it, causing a massive explosion. He then quickly retracted his wrist, executing a [Force Pull]. The six legged blown out vehicle shrieked with metal on metal as it slid across the large hallway they found themselves in. It collided with dozens of well entrenched troopers, completely collapsing their positions. 

“I am glad you survived. That not all of us fell to Palpatine's treachery.” Windu declared. 

Although it came out sounding rough, Plo knew that deep down, Windu was a caring soul. That he merely had trouble distancing himself from that stern disposition of his. However, these last few months in prison seemed to have softened him somewhat. In his opinion, that was for the best. The way the Jedi Order operated in the past was flawed. It was time for change. 

“You were imprisoned. Tortured. Humiliated before the galaxy. Many would have surrendered themselves to bitterness.”

“I came close.” Mace admitted quietly.

The confession seemed to echo in the room as they fought the last dregs of the clone troopers, nearly ready to move onto the next sector, and confront Palpatine face to face. 

Plo Koon listened without judgment, merely giving his friend the space he needed to vent. 

“There were days, when I hated them all. The Senate. The clones. The Jedi Council. Skywalker.”

A flicker of pain crossed his face at that name.

“And myself most of all.”

Windu’s words came low and rough, his facial expression became a grimace. Not due to memories of the torture he experienced, but due to his own failures. 

“I saw the signs.” Windu said bitterly. “His arrogance, fear, rage. I wanted him to come to me, to confide in me his feelings. If I summoned him, it would be just another lecture, in one ear, out the other. The boy and I weren't friends, but I acknowledged him as a Jedi Knight. All it would take was an ounce of patience, and he would've been a Jedi Master the next day…” 

Plo remained silent.

“And what did we do?” Mace asked quietly. “We treated him like a weapon. Sending him to spy upon the man who treated him like a son…we tested Skywalker's character because we, I wanted to believe in him. How foolish of me.”

Another tremor rippled through the chamber due to the duel up above. Dust fell upon them once again, but Windu barely noticed as he was lost in the past.

“He trusted you once.” Plo said with melancholy. 

Mace gave a hollow laugh.

“Yes. He did, didn't he?” Windu let out a short, regret filled laugh. 

For a long moment, only the distant thunder of battle filled the corridor.

Then Windu straightened again.

Not as the old Mace Windu. Not as the cold war General of the Clone Wars. But as someone different. His long white dreads fell upon his back, and he stared at the purple glow of his new lightsaber. 

“I cannot undo what happened, but if we survive this...the Jedi Order must change.”

Plo Koon listened intently.

“We became too detached from the people we served. Too political. Too arrogant in our certainty. We trained children to suppress emotion instead of understanding it. And when they failed, we condemned them for being human.”

“As a practitioner of Vaapad, you would understand better than most what it means to call upon your darker emotions, my friend. I must confess, I have formed several attachments in my day. A handful of Force Bonds can go a long way in establishing group cohesion. It is my opinion that the bond between master & apprentice should not be so orthodox.” Plo Koon added his own two cents. 

“I will not allow us to make that mistake again…but I do not know where to start.” 

Plo Koon regarded him carefully.

“Revan is from a time before the Ruusan Accords, perhaps he may be of some assistance.” Plo suggested. 

“Perhaps. Time will tell.” Windu replied, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Plo's stance. 

Approaching the next door, they could both sense that Palpatine was at hand. The time for casual chitchat was over. Windu’s expression became grim once more.

“When we confront him, you must remain alert at all times.” Windu warned. 

Plo solemnly nodded, acknowledging the warning. 

“Sidious possesses the ability to conjure clouds of [Force Lightning], and can drain both your lifeforce, and the Force from you with a touch. His speed is extraordinary, his dueling skills no lesser than ours. Do not underestimate him as I had.” Windu said with great solemnity. 

Plo Koon folded his hands together calmly.

“Then we must deny him the opportunity to flee. This unexpected sealing of the Darkside Force Nexus is in our favor.”

A faint smile finally touched Windu’s face.

“There’s the Plo I remember.”

The Kel Dor inclined his head modestly.

“I meditated long upon the fall of the Order,” Plo said quietly. “I searched for clarity.”

“And did you find it?”

Plo looked toward the trembling ceiling above them.

“No.”

The answer was honest.

“But I found hope.”

Windu studied him carefully.

“The Force is still with us. The Jedi are wounded, but we are not extinct.”

Another distant shockwave thundered through the Senate. This time accompanied by a monstrous metallic shriek. For the briefest moment, both Jedi paused in their speech. 

A collision of titanic Force presences overhead.

Revan.

Vader.

Like two storms tearing at reality itself, their conflict had grown monstrous. 

Plo Koon exhaled slowly, and smiled behind his mask. He extended a hand covered in [Electrical Judgement] and then, executing a newfound ability he had discovered whilst meditating on the Force for the last six months, he tapped Windu. A faint, almost invisible electrical membrane covered the dark skinned Jedi Master, providing him with a Lightside attributed shield. 

“I shall defend you, and look to counter attack. With you at the vanguard, my friend, we will not lose.” Plo steadily stated. 

Windu closed his eyes, feeling upon the Shatterpoints in the universe, seeing what was most likely to occur, how he could bend the world towards his desired outcome. The odds were against them, he foresaw a great upheaval, but it wasn't entirely clear. Regardless of what may happen, they needed to take this fight. 

Turning to Plo Koon, Windu clamped a reassuring hand upon his friend's shoulder. 

“It's our turn now. Let's do this.” 

~~~~~~~

AN: Sry to move away from Corvus vs Vader. We have one more chapter of Windu x Plo vs Palpy, then back to that fight.