“Looking… up to me?” Irtar said, as his eyebrow raised. He had never really thought before about who was watching. He was just doing what he thought he had to for battling the Sith and the Empire that supported them. The idea of others following his footsteps seemed both exciting and frightening.

“But really, who’d want to be like me? Heh. I think I almost gave Leia an aneurism those first days.” Irtar said with a slight laugh. “Honestly. Could hardly raise a pebble with the Force! Heck, still can’t do anything too impressive with the Force.”

Irtar scratched the back of his head as he blushed a bit. He still wasn’t really ready for the idea of being much of a leader. Yeah, he’d done some good on Sinsang but he was mainly having his hand guided by Chao. He was acting as nothing more than a symbol than an actual leader. And that didn’t really work in the Jedi who hadn’t the numbers to just have a symbol.

“And if you’re saying the old ways are dead, then they must really be gone for the Jedi… strange how fast things change now-a-days….” Irtar said quietly, suddenly skipping track to another line of thought. “So what’s the Order doing now-a-days? Not much news makes it to this side of the galaxy from Naboo.

Is Leia still missing? Is Silus still holed up? Come now. If you beat me into the bed you might as well occupy me while I’m in it!”

“Either that or move out of the way of the TV and hand me the remote.” Irtar said a snide smile.

Vodo chuckled and leaned back in his chair, finishing off his drink and looking over at Irtar, "As far as I know, Leia is gone forever. As is Silus. Who knows where they are..."

"I have gotten wind of something brewing at the Temple on Naboo. Apparently the Jedi are out in force there, under the direction of Dolash the Azguard. I was going to go there as soon as I was finished here."

Vodo shook his head and sighed, "I have a sinking feeling that this could be the end, Irtar. It might not become official until much later, but... I do not think the Jedi will never become relevant again. We are loosing our place in a Galaxy that has left us behind. As I said before, we are still stuck in the old ways, and I fear that something drastic will be needed in order to change things at the smallest levels."

Vodo stood up and walked to a nearby window. The sun was now setting, and the clouds caught enough sunlight to create a beautiful sunset. That golden light now rained down through the window, casting the Jedi Master in a strange orange glow.

"The Jedi Order is about to change forever. I can feel it. But I also feel I could be left behind. What need is there of a Jedi Master if there are no Jedi?"


He sighed heavily.

Irtar frowned slightly and took a bitter sigh. Was the reason Vodo had done what he did just out of some sad sense of feeling a purpose? To try and feel like he was worth something?

He couldn’t help but feel the slightest tinge of pity for the old Jedi. He had given himself to the Order and now it was nothing more than a shadow of what it was. After all, Vodo had seen the Jedi before the Purge. Before the fall of the New Republic. Before the ‘exile’ on Naboo.

“We’ll always need teachers. We padawans can’t just up and teach ourselves the Force.” Irtar said in a vane attempt to comfort the old Jedi. “And besides, you thumped me. That’s gotta be worth something against the Sith.”

A weak smile came to Irtar’s lips as he looked at the master and sighed again. He knew that it probably did nothing to pierce Vodo’s now darkened disposition.

“I guess the best that we can do is hold out and hope for the best. Hopefully it’ll be a change for the better at least….” Irtar muttered as he looked up at the ceiling.

“For better or worse, time marches onwards….”

---------------------

Irtar sat there, alone now that his master had left. Irtar’s mind stewed on the encounter. On his bitter defeat and of the bitter words of his master. He passed along his hand carefully a simple little object. Something that in the greater image of the universe was so insignificant and yet meant so much.

A simple pebble.

“If you understand you little stone, I understand it all….” Irtar muttered absent mindedly as he passed it between his fingers, his mind off in thought to those early days.

To Leia and that courtyard.

Irtar had spent all afternoon trying in vane to try and levitate something with the Force. She had taught him how to do it, but he just couldn’t seem to do it. And then she came with that simple pebble, something to try and keeps his mind occupied whenever the stresses of training got to him as to train his mind. That simple challenge and objective given to him.

To understand the pebble, is to understand the universe.

Or maybe it wasn’t to understand the pebble, but which is the right answer?

“Or maybe it’s the value of old wisdom in a modern world….”

The End?

((I’ve hoped you’ve enjoyed this little detour from the normal insanity of TRF. We now return you to your regularly scheduled OOC fleet debate.))