78 Chapter 75: Resignation

Standing in my Jedi battle armor I stood with Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Padme, captain Panaka, and several others.

Our group waiting for the chancellor and Jedi High council to arrive.

For just a short while ago they contacted Naboo and informed us they had arrived in system.

Now here we are.

Just a bit more time passed before I could see several vessels descending towards the landing platform our group was waiting at.

Once they landed they opened.

The high council and Palpatine disenmbarking from the first two vessels.

The latter being surrounded by a contingent from the Senate Guard.

Not that he needs.

Plus the Senate Guard wouldn't even be able to protect Palpatine from a wet paper bag.

I've looked into them and most members of the guard are either rich kids pretending to be soldiers, or those who got into the guard through their connections and loyalties to various factions within the Senate.

Sure, there are a few in the Senate Guard who actually take and do their job seriously.

But they are few and far between.

As Palpatine and the high council approached us I could sense the latter's shock and disapproval at my battle armor.

Yet since I am about to leave the order I don't give two shits about their disapproval, so they can be mad all they want.

I don't have room in my mind to even think about their anger.

Reaching us Palpatine put a big and kind smile on his face.

How this bastard is able to do something like that so easily will truly amaze me.

I'm sure if being a Sith Lord didn't work out he would've had an amazing career as an actor.

Since his performances are always spot on.

"Greetings to you all." Palpatine spoke.

"Greetings chancellor." Padme spoke.

"Yes, greetings sir, and congratulations on your appointment." I told him.

Which I really mean.

Palpatine better enjoy his time as chancellor for it will be the last position of power he ever holds if I have anything to say about it.

"Thank you, thank you both." Palpatine said. "It truly came as a shock to me when I won, but I guess life is funny like that at times."

"I couldn't agree more." I added. I then turned my head to the Jedi High Council who arrived. "Master's."

"Knight Sunrider." Windu spoke.

His face a stoic mask like usual, but the feelings I am sensing from him through the Force are anything but.

The dark-skinned Jedi master being the member of the high council who has the highest disapproval of my current attire.

But again, not my problem.

Oh and suprisingly master Yoda has one of the lowest feelings of disapproval about my battle armor I am sensing from the council.

Then again the little green grand master was always a bit more flexible with Jedi rules in certain circumstances than others.

Anyway.

Our groups exchanged a few more pleasantries.

Then Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and I began escorting the Jedi High Council to Maul's body.

While old Palpatine went off with Padme and her people.

Leading the high council to a storage room Padme had do generously lent us to store the crate with Maul's body in, we arrived in no time.

Once we did I opened the crate and presented Maul's body, along with his lightsaber which I stored with the Sith's body, to the high council.

"Ladies and gentle Jedi, I present to you the Sith I killed." I said.

"So, the Sith have truly returned." Master Plo Koon spoke.

"To think they could've done so without us realizing." Eeth Koth spoke.

"Well it has happened before master Koth. Like when the Sith Empire returned centuries ago after we Jedi and the Republic thought them gone for good. Which kicked off the 'Great Galactic War'." I spoke.

"You are correct knight Sunrider." Windu spoke. "Now then, perhaps you would like to explain to the council what you are wearing?"

"I'd thought it be obvious master Windu. I am wearing Jedi battle armor." I said. Removing my helmet and placing it under my left arm. "Problem?"

"You know it is a problem knight Sunrider." Master Tiin spoke. "For we Jedi do not wear armor."

"Correction master Tiin, we Jedi do not wear armor anymore. But for our predecessors within the order battle armor was commonplace for every major conflict they participated in. From the Pius Dea Crusades, to the Great Galactic War, to even more recently during the New Sith Wars." I explained. "Which is why I wear my armor with pride. To honor those Jedi who came before us."

Which is the absolute truth.

"What you say is true knight Sunrider, and while I do admire your sense of honor to the Jedi of the past, the fact remains your armor violates the rules of today's order. So you will remove it." Windu spoke.

"No." I immediately replied.

"Excuse me?" Windu asked.

"You heard me, I said no. I am not going to give up my Jedi battle armor." I spoke.

"You mean to go against this council?" Master Mundi asked me.

"Oh you mean the same council who did absolutely nothing while the Trade Federation occupied Naboo and starved its people." I spoke. "If you are asking me if I am defying them, then my answer is a big fat yes."

"Knight Sunrider, watch yourself." Master Poof spoke.

"No thanks master Poof, I'm good." I replied.

When I did Poof got this look like I slapped him across the face.

"Defiance I sense in you knight Sunrider. Disappointment as well." Master Yoda spoke. "Troubled you are."

"Yes master Yoda I am troubled. Troubled by how far the Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen." I said.

"Be careful with the next words out of your mouth boy." Master Piell told me.

I chuckled at his words. "Really, a threat master Piell. That's not the Jedi way. No the Jedi way is to suppress all emotion and then be compassionate to the feelings of others. One of the worst contradictions of you ask me. For how can we understand others feelings if we don't understand our own?"

"You know why it is that way knight Sunrider." Windu said.

"Oh yes, the dark-side. Because if we Jedi feel we'll fall to the dark-side." I spoke dramatically. "Yeah, that's Bantha Dung." I spoke. "For many Jedi over the centuries have been in touch with their feelings and many of them never fell to the dark-side. The same with forming attachments and having families. Because some of the greatest Jedi in our order did not follow those rules and they turned out fine. Revan and Bastila Shan, along with the Jedi Lord's of the New Sith War era. Hell my own ancestor Nomi Sunrider is a giant middle finger to your so-called rules. For all of you seem to forget Nomi had a family, and was an adult when she began her Jedi training, and yet despite her breaking your rules she is renowned as one of the greatest Jedi Grand Masters the order has ever seen." I spoke passionately. "You know maybe more Jedi wouldn't fall of they actually learned to embrace their emotions like normal people. Because we Jedi are people. Yet the order has seem to forgotten that."

"We have not forgotten." Master Yaddle spoke.

"We have master Yaddle." I said. "We have. Once we Jedi were spread out across the entire galaxy in legions. Now we are a mere 10,000 strong. A drop in the bucket compared to in the past. We sit in our temple on Coruscant and keep our distance from the people our order is meant to protect, the common folk. Do you all know the average Republic citizen has never met a Jedi? And those that do meet us end up fearing us. For they know of us, but do not know us. Then again we Jedi caused that ourselves in a way, when in our brilliance we decided to scrub public records and databases of much of our history for it was intertwined with the Sith's. All because we wanted to make people forget them. Well we did a good job of that. Even more so than us Jedi people do not know of the Sith. Which is likely how they returned without us knowing. Who knows, they might not have ever been gone at all. It's in the Sith's playbook to hide and wait, so they could've been doing the same thing for the past 1,000 years. Waiting for there chance to strike. Which if they did to the current galaxy like they have so many times in the past they would conquer us in an instant. All thanks to those foolish Ruusan Reformation's."

"The Reformation's were not foolish. They helped bring order and stability to the galaxy." Master Billaba said.

"No, they were foolish." I retorted. "The Reformation's were a horrible shortsighted way to help the galaxy recover from war. The people who created them forgetting something very important."

"And what is that?" Master Yaddle asked me.

"That war will never disappear." I replied. "It will always be there. Yet instead of accpeting this the Republic and we Jedi at the time simply threw away their weapons and chose to ignore reality. Us Jedi in particular got really screwed by the Reformation's. For it caused us to give up a large part of our history. All to sate the fears of people we fought, bled, and died for time and time again. Truly horrible. Now here we are, not even a shadow of our past selves. Not even able to help members of the Republic when they need it. Like Naboo did. They needed help, they needed protectors, they needed us Jedi! Yet we were unable, no we chose not to act. Instead choosing to wait for the Senate to give us marching orders. A body that has become so corrupt I cannot even believe the Republic is still standing."

"Knight Sunrider, that is enough!" Windu shouted. "Cease and desist this kind of talk right now. You are a Jedi of the Republic. But continue any further and that may no longer be the case."

"You need not worry master Windu. For before I decided to make this speech I already decided on something else. My resignation from the order." I said.

"What?" Gallia asked.

"Yes, you all heard me right. I resign from the Jedi Order." I said.

Feeling like a weight was just lifted off my shoulders.

Now I feel like the skies the limit.