[ Rex isn't certain if it has much to do with flowers - he heard something about crops? - but hell if he knows. Maybe Jedi grow their own crops! They've always seen absurd to Rex (and, frankly, to the rest of his men) and he's grown not to question their odd customs and ways. Either way, he can't exactly correct her. He's only going off of things that he's overheard and observed with very little that's been verified. ]
They don't have families. [ That, at least, he knows. ] Their family's the Order. That's what would make it so difficult to leave.
Well - when they're born, the Jedi take them. With permission of their parents, of course.
[ He's pretty sure, anyway. ]
If they want their child to be trained in the way of the Force, if they're Force-sensitive, they hand them over. Their parents are still out there. Doesn't make them family.
[ Blood binds. Rex believes that. But even he can understand that blood means little if you've never so much as met your kin. ]
[Vima looks at Rex askance. Not that she thinks he's lying; she would say he's the type to conceal, not dissemble. But seriously?]
If it happens that young, it'd be pretty hard to go back. But I've never heard of parents giving the Jedi their kids right after they've given birth.
I mean, it's not like the Force even shows itself until you're at least a few years old, not unless you've got a Jedi next door who can sense it. You've got to learn to walk before you can levitate.
[ Rex shrugs. ] Maybe they've found new ways of knowing when an infant's Force Sensitive. I wouldn't know. None of us are.
[ Nobody's ever heard of a Force-sensitive clone and, to them, the Force remains a mystic, mysterious presence, something that allows their Commanders and Generals to become a supernatural force on the battlefield and not much else. There are parts of it that Rex finds reassuring at times, in dark corners and during the dead of the night, but it broadly remains something he knows very little about and doesn't care to learn any more about. It's never going to be relevant to him. ]
I suppose that could happen after a few thousand years.
[So... no Jedi clones. Is that intentional, she wonders. There's really no way to predict where it will show itself. Oh, it tends to run in families; she's proof of that. But it's not a guarantee, and there are plenty of knights from planets that have never even heard the word Jedi.
But as he points out, maybe they've taught themselves how to manipulate it in the future. Vima almost thinks of it as a better understanding--but it's not. It would be the reverse.]
How many of you are there, anyway? Thousands? Millions?
Millions. If there were only thousands of us, the war would have been as good as lost. Our enemy outnumbers us even so.
[ It's easier to manufacture droids on a massive scale. Clones take more of everything - more resources, more time, more training, more money, more materials. But they're smarter than droids, better in a fight and, cheesy though it may be, you'll always fight better when you've got something to fight for. They do. ]
Even with the Jedi on our side. You're a remarkably rare bunch, statistically speaking.
[Geez, she'd thought she'd said that as a joke. Of course if the manpower shortage was that severe, it makes sense, but... good grief. That's still beyond what Vima had imagined.]
Wow. If you wanted to, you guys could populate your own planet. In fact, you should suggest that for when the war's over.
[...but the mention of Jedi puts another thought in her head.]
So do the Separatists have their own? Dark Jedi, that is.
A planet inhabited by us and us alone? [ Rex lips quirk. ] I don't think so.
[ As much as he loves his brothers, that sounds miserable. What he would want... what he'd want is for them to be able to disperse across the galaxy, doing what they need to do and what they want to do. Rex would stay in the military, of course, but there's not a chance in hell that they could run their own city with any measure of satisfaction.
The mentions of Dark Jedi, however, sobers him, expression settling into something grim and unpleasant. ]
The Separatists are led by the Sith. Surely they still exist in your time. I've always been led to believe that their way is an ancient one.
[Vima's expression sours, not altogether unlike Rex's.]
I was hoping that the Sith hadn't managed to hang on. Even though the Jedi are still there... you can never destroy a good idea, but you can't destroy a bad one either.
I guess they think that this time, they're definitely going to win, right?
Something like that. And they're willing to go to great lengths to do so. Killing children - [ all those infants still in their tanks, a mess of viscous liquid pooling with red upon the floors of Kamino ] - blackmailing different civilizations, interfering with independent planets' politics...
[ Rex shakes his head. He has no love for the Sith. None of them do, after all that they've seen. He'd be glad to see the whole lot of them killed. He's heard vague rumblings that they were once Jedi, a force for all that is right and good, before something grew odd in them, twisted.
Apparently it has something to do with attachment.
Rex thinks that's a load of bantha shit. ]
Perhaps our times aren't so different after all. What's your experience with the lot of them?
[Vima nods soberly. It all sounds too familiar, all things that the Sith and their admirers have committed in her lifetime.]
I was young when the Great Sith Wars ended, but... they did the same. They could easily wipe out one planet to conquer another.
The worst was when Jedi fell. The old rulers of Onderon, the Krath, they were all Dark Side followers. They killed thousands, oppressed millions. But they didn't... [She struggles to find the right word.] They only cared about what they could see in front of them.
A Jedi serves the Republic--all of it, everywhere. And a fallen one will destroy it all, everywhere.
[ There is little Rex can do with knowledge a little closer to the source. He is a clone, a soldier, not a Jedi - the likes of him has no chance against a Sith. But he has contacts and resources and knows that if he can deliver something, anything to his generals, they may not believe him, but they won't discount his words out of turn.
After all, this sort of magical hoodoo is what Jedi are good at, what with their talk of premonitions and visions and dreams and feelings. Rex doesn't operate based on how he feels. He likes cold, hard facts, and there's a distinct chance that Vima may be able to provide those for him. ]
[Vima looks away. It's a natural question for Rex to ask. For him, the Sith are the present tense, a threat for him to face down, a weapon to deactivate. But it hasn't been so long for her since Ulic's death.
And though it was ten years ago, Ossus doesn't seem that far away either. She pulls her knees up to her chest, trying to view the memories with dispassionate fact.]
One of the Jedi who turned. He... turned back. Led us to Exar Kun's last stronghold.
My mother led the Jedi. They purged Kun's jungle moon with the power of the light.
[ Jedi talk about light and dark an awful lot. Rex doesn't understand it beyond the general implication that the light is good and that the dark is bad and that they discuss it as though it's more than a metaphor. At the very least, he doesn't think it will ever apply to him. Clones are fine occupying their shades of grey. ]
If I were to say that to a Jedi, would they understand what you mean by that? You lot have your own language.
I don't know. [because she doesn't, really.] It was the last resort, and once they started it kept going on its own. The whole moon practically burned to the ground.
[Likely, that was because Yavin IV had been steeped in the dark side. But it was a good thing they didn't have to try it on Onderon or some other populated world.]
It wasn't commonly known. I don't know how well records were--will be kept into your time either. They should look for Thon or Odan-Urr or Ood Bnar if they want to know more about it.
A last resort for your time, perhaps. I suspect we're at that point by now.
[ Any unnecessary destruction is... unfortunate. But the entire galaxy's at war. A single moon burning to the ground would be well worth peace - it's not as though moons aren't already burning to the ground as it is. ]
I don't know anything about the records they keep, but I'll be sure to tell them. Thank you. [ His lips quirk. ] Perhaps that's why we were brought together in the first place.
Hm... it could be. [why it would be her, and not her mother, is a question. one of several, really. and she's not altogether eager to participate in something that will immolate a celestial body, however dire the need.] But if someone's got some kind of device they can use to pull a Jedi from four thousand years ago to your today, maybe they could just go and keep the war from starting in the first place.
You believe we're here because of some sort of advanced technology?
[ He's surprised - and he looks it. That hadn't occurred to him. Nobody wanting to save anything would put together a clone and some Jedi Padawan in hopes that they'd figure it out. It just doesn't make sense. ]
In all honesty, I figured it was the Force. That tends to be what's to blame whenever things get... [ Strange? Illogical? Ending with people going missing for a split second only to have them return with claims they've been gone for days? ]
I've never heard of the Force moving anyone through time. If Jedi or Sith could do it, one of my mom's teachers would have mentioned.
But who knows... maybe there is some kind of new Jedi technique for doing that? [in all honesty, she's not sure if what happened felt like the Force or not. It certainly can be mysterious, and definitely mystical. It could have been a Jedi, or it could have been a dark Jedi.
Not that Vima is presumptuous enough to think that pulling her out of history would topple the Republic, or anything. And it's true that if this was a deliberate act, it would be weird to leave her and Rex to their own devices.]
I don't suppose any of your generals talked about anything like this happening? You know... ever?
Not this specific case, no. But there was one mission in which they claimed that they had been missing for days when we had only lost contact with them for a moment. They blamed the disparity in time on the Force, and I saw no reason to dispute their claims. It's not quite moving backwards or forwards in time but time certainly hadn't been working properly for them.
[ Nor, he thinks, did it work in their favour. They returned to the ship looking harried and closed-off, having seen things that they did not wish to. Rex hadn't pushed the matter. It wasn't his place. ]
Does the Force have to be used by a Jedi or a Sith to make that sort of impact? Or can it do so on its own? You lot tend to refer to it as a living thing. Surely it can make its own calls.
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They don't have families. [ That, at least, he knows. ] Their family's the Order. That's what would make it so difficult to leave.
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Well, we don't just spring from holes in the ground. [or out of a clone tank] Where do you think new Jedi come from, anyway?
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[ He's pretty sure, anyway. ]
If they want their child to be trained in the way of the Force, if they're Force-sensitive, they hand them over. Their parents are still out there. Doesn't make them family.
[ Blood binds. Rex believes that. But even he can understand that blood means little if you've never so much as met your kin. ]
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If it happens that young, it'd be pretty hard to go back. But I've never heard of parents giving the Jedi their kids right after they've given birth.
I mean, it's not like the Force even shows itself until you're at least a few years old, not unless you've got a Jedi next door who can sense it. You've got to learn to walk before you can levitate.
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[ Nobody's ever heard of a Force-sensitive clone and, to them, the Force remains a mystic, mysterious presence, something that allows their Commanders and Generals to become a supernatural force on the battlefield and not much else. There are parts of it that Rex finds reassuring at times, in dark corners and during the dead of the night, but it broadly remains something he knows very little about and doesn't care to learn any more about. It's never going to be relevant to him. ]
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[So... no Jedi clones. Is that intentional, she wonders. There's really no way to predict where it will show itself. Oh, it tends to run in families; she's proof of that. But it's not a guarantee, and there are plenty of knights from planets that have never even heard the word Jedi.
But as he points out, maybe they've taught themselves how to manipulate it in the future. Vima almost thinks of it as a better understanding--but it's not. It would be the reverse.]
How many of you are there, anyway? Thousands? Millions?
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[ It's easier to manufacture droids on a massive scale. Clones take more of everything - more resources, more time, more training, more money, more materials. But they're smarter than droids, better in a fight and, cheesy though it may be, you'll always fight better when you've got something to fight for. They do. ]
Even with the Jedi on our side. You're a remarkably rare bunch, statistically speaking.
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[Geez, she'd thought she'd said that as a joke. Of course if the manpower shortage was that severe, it makes sense, but... good grief. That's still beyond what Vima had imagined.]
Wow. If you wanted to, you guys could populate your own planet. In fact, you should suggest that for when the war's over.
[...but the mention of Jedi puts another thought in her head.]
So do the Separatists have their own? Dark Jedi, that is.
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[ As much as he loves his brothers, that sounds miserable. What he would want... what he'd want is for them to be able to disperse across the galaxy, doing what they need to do and what they want to do. Rex would stay in the military, of course, but there's not a chance in hell that they could run their own city with any measure of satisfaction.
The mentions of Dark Jedi, however, sobers him, expression settling into something grim and unpleasant. ]
The Separatists are led by the Sith. Surely they still exist in your time. I've always been led to believe that their way is an ancient one.
no subject
[Vima's expression sours, not altogether unlike Rex's.]
I was hoping that the Sith hadn't managed to hang on. Even though the Jedi are still there... you can never destroy a good idea, but you can't destroy a bad one either.
I guess they think that this time, they're definitely going to win, right?
no subject
[ Rex shakes his head. He has no love for the Sith. None of them do, after all that they've seen. He'd be glad to see the whole lot of them killed. He's heard vague rumblings that they were once Jedi, a force for all that is right and good, before something grew odd in them, twisted.
Apparently it has something to do with attachment.
Rex thinks that's a load of bantha shit. ]
Perhaps our times aren't so different after all. What's your experience with the lot of them?
no subject
I was young when the Great Sith Wars ended, but... they did the same. They could easily wipe out one planet to conquer another.
The worst was when Jedi fell. The old rulers of Onderon, the Krath, they were all Dark Side followers. They killed thousands, oppressed millions. But they didn't... [She struggles to find the right word.] They only cared about what they could see in front of them.
A Jedi serves the Republic--all of it, everywhere. And a fallen one will destroy it all, everywhere.
no subject
[ There is little Rex can do with knowledge a little closer to the source. He is a clone, a soldier, not a Jedi - the likes of him has no chance against a Sith. But he has contacts and resources and knows that if he can deliver something, anything to his generals, they may not believe him, but they won't discount his words out of turn.
After all, this sort of magical hoodoo is what Jedi are good at, what with their talk of premonitions and visions and dreams and feelings. Rex doesn't operate based on how he feels. He likes cold, hard facts, and there's a distinct chance that Vima may be able to provide those for him. ]
How?
no subject
And though it was ten years ago, Ossus doesn't seem that far away either. She pulls her knees up to her chest, trying to view the memories with dispassionate fact.]
One of the Jedi who turned. He... turned back. Led us to Exar Kun's last stronghold.
My mother led the Jedi. They purged Kun's jungle moon with the power of the light.
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[ Jedi talk about light and dark an awful lot. Rex doesn't understand it beyond the general implication that the light is good and that the dark is bad and that they discuss it as though it's more than a metaphor. At the very least, he doesn't think it will ever apply to him. Clones are fine occupying their shades of grey. ]
If I were to say that to a Jedi, would they understand what you mean by that? You lot have your own language.
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[Likely, that was because Yavin IV had been steeped in the dark side. But it was a good thing they didn't have to try it on Onderon or some other populated world.]
It wasn't commonly known. I don't know how well records were--will be kept into your time either. They should look for Thon or Odan-Urr or Ood Bnar if they want to know more about it.
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[ Any unnecessary destruction is... unfortunate. But the entire galaxy's at war. A single moon burning to the ground would be well worth peace - it's not as though moons aren't already burning to the ground as it is. ]
I don't know anything about the records they keep, but I'll be sure to tell them. Thank you. [ His lips quirk. ] Perhaps that's why we were brought together in the first place.
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[ He's surprised - and he looks it. That hadn't occurred to him. Nobody wanting to save anything would put together a clone and some Jedi Padawan in hopes that they'd figure it out. It just doesn't make sense. ]
In all honesty, I figured it was the Force. That tends to be what's to blame whenever things get... [ Strange? Illogical? Ending with people going missing for a split second only to have them return with claims they've been gone for days? ]
Mystical.
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But who knows... maybe there is some kind of new Jedi technique for doing that? [in all honesty, she's not sure if what happened felt like the Force or not. It certainly can be mysterious, and definitely mystical. It could have been a Jedi, or it could have been a dark Jedi.
Not that Vima is presumptuous enough to think that pulling her out of history would topple the Republic, or anything. And it's true that if this was a deliberate act, it would be weird to leave her and Rex to their own devices.]
I don't suppose any of your generals talked about anything like this happening? You know... ever?
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[ Nor, he thinks, did it work in their favour. They returned to the ship looking harried and closed-off, having seen things that they did not wish to. Rex hadn't pushed the matter. It wasn't his place. ]
Does the Force have to be used by a Jedi or a Sith to make that sort of impact? Or can it do so on its own? You lot tend to refer to it as a living thing. Surely it can make its own calls.