Chapter Twenty Six

Plagueis felt it, the Bando Gora had failed. The strange Light anomaly was still there, even as the effect was beginning to subsume itself into the Force overall. Like Yoda and the other Jedi, he had felt the Force shift, but unlike them, Plagueis still retained enough of a sense of what had been to know it had changed, and where that change had originated in a vague manner. But as time went on that feeling faded, and even his ability to sense the source of that change among the Force disappeared.

Now so much time had passed, the Sith Lord couldn't even be certain that his senses were telling the truth or that there had been a change in all. Now it was so diffuse the difference seemed almost minor, and Plagueis shrugged off his interest in it. I took my chance to remove what might be that source of light, and it failed. But the Bando Gora will take the fall for me, and since they were becoming a danger to my plans and the Outer Rim, that is all to the good in the long term anyway.

Shaking that thought off, Plagueis returned to something he could calculate, staring at the giant computer screen in front of him filled with myriad mathematical lines, including trans-dimensional, geo-metric and gravitic tabulations. No other mathematician in the universe not even a Jedi given would've been able to follow this, his finest work.

The Veil of the Dark Side. It was a mix of Sith Force power, engineering, and mathematics on a scale to cover the entire galaxy. The Veil's effect would be subtle at first, but insidious, until it crippled the Jedi in a way they would never see coming.

Needless to say it was very hard to put in place, and every piece of it, every magnifier for the Dark Side had to be in place. These were small pillars of Sith alchemy and engineering based upon work done in the first Great Sith war. But if even one was off, the Veil would not work. Not that it wouldn't work in that area, but that it wouldn't work at all, such was the complexity of this undertaking. No Sith faction had ever contemplated such a tactic, but he and his Master before him had worked on this for decades, building on what the Master before them had done, creating the amplifiers to spread their influence like a thin veil over the Force in its entirety.

There were limitations of course. The Wild Regions and the Expanse for example were outside of their reach, as were sections in the Outer and Mid Rims. There just wasn't enough information about gravity and the movement of the stellar bodies out there for them to calculate where to emplace the amplifiers, and even getting out there to correct that ignorance would take months. There were no trade routes out there, every jump would have to be calculated ahead of time, every move a step into the entirely unknown.

But that didn't matter. There were no powers out there strong enough or wise enough to impact their plans for the future. Only the Jedi and the Republic Senate truly mattered.

Of the Two, the Order was blinded by its own magnificence. The Order's greatest masters could barely even sense the rising tide, let alone even think that their ancient enemy might yet walk among the stars.

As for the Senate, they were already able to exert power and influence there. Another few years, and they would have practically every power in the Senate dancing to their tune, either known or unknown, a thing of calculation and subtle manipulation or outright control. Sidious was handling that, and doing a far more masterful job of it than Plagueis knew he himself could.

But this, the Veil, only Plagueis could do this. It is perhaps like being in love, or having a child you dote on, Plagueis thought as he turned once more to his work. The same sort of feeling, of pride and accomplishment I'd assume. Though, if my attempt to create a Vergence had worked I would have been able to actually compare the two. Plagueis shook his head, banishing the thought of that failure to concentrate on the task at hand.

The Veil would be his greatest achievement and no Jedi, no power of the Light would ever be able to match it, not now and not once the Veil was in place. Because when it was, the Jedi would never again be able to see the future. Nor would they ever be able to regain the ability to feel what was happening further away than their own Force powers could take them, the eddies of Force would stop responding to their call.

And then we will have our revenge. The Sith will rise, and when we do, it will be for all time.

Yet even as he worked on it Plagueis couldn't stop from wondering about this new Light anomaly, about what it could mean and where it had come from. Even as its presence began to diffuse so he couldn't pinpoint it again he wondered, and a part of him worried. But he never shared those worries with his apprentice, not now not ever. Sharing worries after all was not the Sith way.

OOOOOOO

"They wished to take the children and inculcate them into their death-worshiping cult." said Tholme disgustedly, throwing down the data pad he had used during his Force assisted interrogation of the few survivors of the attack. Sliding into their minds while they were asleep was easy, and almost painless to the individual, so was thus allowed in extreme circumstances like this one. "We just wiped out three entire chapters of their cult, but the order came from on high, and there are more out there, who knows what they might try in the future?"

"Lost Jedi we already have, in trying to shut them down." Yoda said frowning. "But shut them down we will, root and branch, burn them out we must."

"I will see to hunting them down," Tholme said coldly. "My padawan and I are now free to take up missions once more with you, Master Fay, T'Ra and Micah here. Though I would prefer some aid as well if there are any Guardians or Sentinels to spare?"

"Three teams assigned to this will be. A mistake we made, hrhrhrm, underestimating the Bando Gora before, do so again we will not." Yoda mused. "A team of five assigned to finding the Bando Gora, under your command they will be. Other two teams, called in on targets they will be."

"Very good master Yoda," said Tholme rubbing at one eyebrow. It'd been a very long day even for a Jedi. "However, we now need to talk about Harry and our plans for him and Lily here going forward."

"It's been obvious from the beginning that you are just as interested in tying my son to you and learning from us as helping us Master Tholme," Lily said tartly, leaning back where she was hovering over a chair, glaring now at the older man.

She didn't like being away from Harry in his current state, but since she could always find him, and he was in no shape to get into further trouble she was alright with leaving him in the medical bay. Besides that, Lily had felt she needed to listen in on this conversation, and it turned out to have been an excellent idea. "I've not said anything yet because you did actually help us. Moreover Harry's made a lot of friends here, and I think he and I have done some good teaching the rest of your younglings."

Her emerald gaze hardened noticeably as she went on, and there actually seemed to be a bit of a chill in the air too. "But there is a lot about the Jedi Order that I don't like, I've seen a lot I do like admittedly, but that is outweighed by the several giant elephants in the room when I think of my son's future within the Order, the oaths you all take, the lack of emotions you seem to force upon your people more and more as their training goes on. I have a lot of questions I need the answer to right now, if my son and I are to continue to interact with the Jedi Order."

Yoda frowned thoughtfully as he stared at the tall and, according to the human Masters, beautiful Force Ghost. It was strange to think that she was the mother of one of the youngsters, and also apparently the one who had apparently made that magnificent Light side apparition he had seen when he arrived to aid the younglings. Moreover, she represented an entirely new and strange faction of Force users, whose abilities were beyond anything he had ever heard of.

As old as he was, Yoda had become unused to thinking about there being so much he didn't know, yet he was honest enough to acknowledge that was the case here. And, judging by how the younglings had acted around her, she wasn't exactly a bad influence either, certainly they had all become attached to her at any rate. That, and the help she had given them all during that moment of crisis when the pirate ships had begun to detonate had won his respect.

So Yoda did not respond in like kind to Lily's confrontational manner realizing that came from worry for her son, and perhaps a lingering sense of loss from the younglings that she had taught who were no longer among the living. Yoda could all too easily understand that feeling.

"Ask your questions," he said, closing his eyes as he took up a position that Lily recognized as sitting Indian style. "Questions, ask our own we will. Take turns we should, hrhrhrm."

Lily nodded, looking down at the diminutive alien with more respect than before. When she spoke, her confrontational tone was gone, making her listeners realize that might have been a sort of test for them, or perhaps not so much a test on her part as accidental like Yoda had supposed.

"Thank you. I suppose from my perspective, the Order is a very odd and not quite even dichotomy." Tholme made a noise, and Lily chuckled quietly, her eye, flicking over to him. "I've been looking up words to use in this conversation for a while now trust me. To'neen was a help there."

Her smile faded as she remembered that To'neen had died during the attack, but she pushed that aside concentrating on the here and now. "I like most of the Jedi I've met. I know that that whole there is 'no emotion there is only the Force' crap is just that. You Jedi can feel emotions, you even act on them, but you refuse to acknowledge them as an institution, and your whole stance on attachment and family bothers me a lot. I'm just wondering why your Order is the way it is."

Yoda actually chuckled, a gargling sort of sound. "Great secret that is, yes. Control, the key is. Anger, fear, aggression the Dark Side are they. Powerful emotions they are, control the key always is. Anger I have felt oh yes, grief, yes that too. Ancient am I, trained hundreds of Jedi. Grief an old friend it is."

Yoda shook his head, looking like an old tree, ancient and gnarled from too many winters. "But reaching out to the Force, a Jedi cannot do while feeling those emotions. Abstaining from emotion works better than confronting or controlling for many."

"That leaves you open to those emotions when you cannot 'abstain' from them." Lily said shaking her head. "It's a short sighted and very, to my mind, stupid approach. But worse to me is that you don't allow for marriages or attachments."

"Attachments to each other we allow," Yoda prefabricated, not truly understanding where she was coming from or rather why this was such a problem.

"Master Yoda," Tholme said slowly, looking between the diminutive alien and Lily, wondering where this was going to go, "She is speaking of acquaintances beyond friendship, love I believe."

"Yes," Lily said sharply. "By your own rules, I would never have been able to marry I would've never been able to love and have my child, I would not be able to love him because that is an attachment."

"Split loyalties, cause tension they do. Jedi Lords, loyal to their planets they were over the Republic, conflict this caused, conflict leading to death and the Dark side. Personal attachment, to jealousy it leads, then leads to the Dark Side. Over the years, fallen to that have several Jedi." Yoda said bluntly.

"A group of Jedi, fell to that kind of thing when I was young. Involved in a triple relationship, the woman leading on the two men. Another girl, unrequited feelings for one of the men she had. Fell to the Dark Side they all did. A lot of damage did they before they were brought down, by me and others. Other single instances of Jedi falling to the Dark Side because of jealousy or lust there have been."

Yoda shrugged. "The Ruusan Reformation, right it was to forbid attachments, marriages and such like."

"I have a major problem that. It makes no sense to me it isn't such a simple equation as you paint it. And I believe that if a Jedi was able to acknowledge that they were in a relationship openly, their other spouse could keep them on the straight and narrow.

"As for split loyalties, here is another major issue I have with the Order." Lily said, her emerald eyes narrowing dangerously, a sign that would've sent any of the Marauders, or indeed anyone who knew her at all back on Earth running for cover. Lily's anger was not like that of most redheads. She never burned hot and fiery, she was cold and controlled and all the more terrifying for that. "You… take... children… from… their… families."

"Of course," Tholme said, frowning as he tried to work out where Lily was going with this. "Learning to be a Jedi takes a lifetime, the younger we find a child, the better for them."

"You take people children from their families! And what if a family refuses to hand the child over?" Lily went on inexorably. "I understanding many worlds, that having a Jedi could be seen as a great honor, but is it such a great honor that it makes up for them missing the love of a family, of knowing your parents, knowing your heritage, where you came from, your world? I have talked to some of the children here, and though many of them don't know it, at least five of them seem to have been taken by force!"

Yoda's ears drooped, and he looked at Tholme who shrugged. "I'm sorry Master, I don't know anything about that. You'd have to talk to the Jedi who brought them in."

"Thanks to my own special circumstances I was forced to miss out on the first eleven years of my son's life. I know how painful that is, how it cuts at you, never seeing your son or daughter again. And if you had tried to take my son from me, I would have done anything I could to stop you. How many parents have fought to keep their children? How much fear and hate are you spreading by taking children from their families like that?"

"An honor to be a Jedi it is." Yoda said, but there was no conviction in his tone, and he looked away. He knew that sometimes in the Outer Rim parents did object, and were overruled if the Jedi who found the child thought he or she was strong in the Force. He had never considered however how bad that could look from the other person's point of view, not being at home with the idea that such things as family and loved ones mattered to an individual. His people did not reproduce in that manner, and barely had anything resembling clans, let alone families.

"Indeed, it is not like that." Tholme said, though he too was looking somewhat thoughtful.

"How do you know!?" Lily roared suddenly causing Tholme to jerk backwards his eyes widening as Lily's hair seemed to move in an unseen wind. Yoda however weathered the storm of the Force Ghost's anger, feeling no reaction from the Force around them which was interesting.

It also could be simply because the Force Ghost didn't have much power at the moment, but Yoda didn't know whether or not that was the case and assuming it would have been foolish.

"Understand your anger I cannot" Yoda said finally. "Family, attachments based off physical love, nothing to me these things are. Human I am not."

"She's right Master," Micah's voice said from the doorway, and he moved in to join the discussion, sitting down on the floor as if he was a youngling again. "I have been on such trips, I know that the Jedi are just as much reviled as we are respected on many worlds for that policy and others. You know I've had discussions with the Council of First Knowledge about this before."

Yoda frowned at that but slowly nodded. "Bow to your knowledge on this topic I will. Beyond my understanding family is, the Order, everything is to me."

"The Order is mother, the Order is father," Lily said shivering and calming down slightly. "And what if the Order is wrong? You Jedi seem to equate the Dark Side as wrong and yourselves as always holding the moral high ground. But I cannot imagine a darker or more evil act then taking someone's child away from them when they don't want to let him or her go. And if you let yourselves do that by convincing yourself it's the right thing to do, what else have you allowed yourselves to do or be talked into over the years?"

The Jedi looked at one another, unable to really respond to that at the moment.

Finally Yoda sighed and nodded his head. "Raise a difficult question you have," he said formally. "Comprehending this issue, difficult will be. Hrhrhrm, look into it we will. Say you are right or wrong I cannot at this moment."

Lily frowned. "I don't like that answer, and that's strike two Master Yoda."

"Strike?" he asked, not understanding the euphemism.

"Nevermind, it's just a saying based on a game back on my world." Lily grimaced.

"My turn to question you now, it is," Yoda said with faint smile. "Refer to the Force as magic you do. Things Tholme describes your son doing, beyond any story I have ever heard. So, between a magic user, and a Jedi how different ate they?"

"I've been giving that some thought, and I think I know the basic differences." Lily said shrugged. "Of course, any such conclusion is subject to new datum."

"Understood this is," Yoda said waving his hand. "Thoughts only are what I would like this moment."

Lily nodded, looking pensive, then began. "I was at first bemused by how much 'magic' was in the air on Ryloth, then as we travelled, I realized that level of magical potential was the norm here. Back home such levels of latent, or background magical power was only found in very few places. The rest of the planet didn't have that much latent magic naturally. Wizards and witches however could power spells with the magic inherent in their bodies, and use it to change the world around them or their own bodies. This gave rise to a lot more esoteric and specialized abilities than you Jedi or your Dark equivalents ever developed."

"Examples? I'm sorry, but I've not talked to Tholme about this yet." Micah asked intently.

"You have nothing like our runes, potions or transfiguration. I trust I don't have to describe what those words mean? Potions I'll admit are kind of a wash given the tech and healing skills you lot have. Your actual healing spells…" Lily shook her head ruefully. "I watched you all at work on the kids, and you can do a lot more with healing than I ever saw on my planet. But there are a few potions that I doubt even your powers could replicate. I know of potions which can make people lucky for short amounts of time, put them into a dreamless sleep, a sort of stasis until given the antidote, and others."

"And let's not go into runes," Tholme interrupted, shaking his head ruefully. "I've already mentioned how interested I am in them before."

"Oh yes," Lily said with a laugh. "I'm not exactly a Rune Master, I was more of a charms mistress than anything else, but I was quite good at crafting new spells. That was my main line of research after I left school, when I wasn't fighting in the war anyway."

Of course, that was based more around finding arithmantic formulae and the movements and words to create the needed outcome, not simply trying to imagine the outcome without the intervening steps like my son. God I hope he's alright, I know Fay said he was, but still… Lily thought, first amused then seguing into worry.

Across form Lily, Yoda's eyes flicked over to Tholme instantly at the word war and Tholme nodded his head. "We have talked about that before Lily and I. Her war was a guerrilla campaign between two forces both of which had partisans in the government among a community that refused to fight for itself for some reason. There are several points which don't really have an equivalent to any such war I've studied, but in the main I would say it was a fight between a force fighting for Order and another under a Dark Lord, their equivalent of a Sith, fighting to conquer both Force users and the rest of their world. We will have to go over that in detail later, since I'm not certain that doing so now would add anything to this discussion."

"True, and as for transfiguration, you all saw the things my son could do." Lily said with a kind of bleak pride in her face and tone as she came back to the here and now. "The ability to change a thing to another, matching what your mind can imagine. Creating solid objects out of the air through use of the Force on a specific area. There were even witches and wizards who could learn how to change their bodies into animals and back. My transfiguration teacher when I was at Hogwarts could change into a cat."

"That came through in your native language, Hogwarts?" Micah asked weakly, staring in shock at the other masters. They weren't about to call Lily a liar, but the idea of someone changing his or her own body like that via the Force was beyond anything any of them had heard of.

"Er, yes, that would be a merging of two words, um an animal that looks like a Gamorean, which would be 'hog'. And then add to that the word warts."

Micah blinked, furrowing his brow as his lips quirked into a wry smile and Lily chuckled, shaking her head. "Don't look at me, I didn't name it!"

Then she went on more seriously. "In any event that is one area that you simply have no equivalent of. And then of course there are the combat related magics, many of which also have no Force-based equivalent. Do you need any more specific examples?"

When the trio shook their heads Lily carefully hid her relief and went back to the original topic. "On the other hand, the Force as you put it is not only more prevalent, it is also denser, harder to use toward a specific goal than the magic back home. Think of it as the difference between shaping wet, malleable clay and hardened brick, and a person needing to visualize the change they are working on."

Yoda nodded, his eyes closed as he took that analogy to the logical conclusion. "Person who works with clay, imagination and fine control they will build when creating, but little strength. Person who works with brick, strong they will be, but unable to mold his creation. Believe it is possible in the first place, they might not."

Lily nodded. "Exactly. Many of the younglings have begun to learn a few of my people's simple charms, changing the color of one thing to another or transfiguring similar items from one to another. But the mental requirements to do even those simple things here in this universe are taxing on them at first. Several times I've seen the students have trouble staying awake after succeeding in a given task."

Tholme decided to interject at this point. "I've attempted to learn a few of the small scale 'spells' before this. I have had very little luck, though I was I able to change my hair color for a few moments. I think the problem is about 80% mental, and the rest the actual power requirement. Once your mind is able to imagine it, it becomes far easier."

Lily smiled over at Tholme, nodding her head. "Yes. Once they have accomplished it once, doing so again is far easier.. Their minds become accustomed to believing they can do it, and thus they are able to control their powers to the specific end far more easily."

"But because of the nature of what you call the Force here, I think that the Jedi are more powerful individually than most wizards, but that difference isn't as wide as I first assumed. I also think because of your early training in reaching out as you put it to the Force, you don't need or ever came to rely on the handicap most wizards have: focuses."

After explaining what she meant by focuses Lily went on speaking clinically. "Thus in the main, I think a Jedi would have a leg up against a normal wizard. Not, mind you, against someone like the Dark Lord who targeted my family who could match you power for power and keep the range open easily, attacking you in ways you simply could not respond to. Moreover, you are also killing yourselves off."

She looked at their shocked expressions and laughed coldly. "Really? None of you have figured that out? Master Tholme, how many Jedi are there, just a round number."

"A little below 13,000 all told. We are of course scattered around the galaxy which makes it almost impossible to keep an accurate count."

"Britain, the country on the world Harry and I come from, was one of the smaller countries on our world, both in terms of its non-magical population and it's magical. But in that country alone there are at least 13,000 magicals, something like seven or 8% of the total population I think, though I could be wrong on the percentage, I've never seen the actual data, just the number being quoted and with wizards, anyway let's forget that for now." Lily waved her hand, unwilling to go into how introverted the Wizarding World was right now. "That percentage can be assumed in other countries which had magical communities. The largest magical community I know of was in China, 146,000 or so."

For a moment the Jedi Masters were silent, simply staring at her unable to comprehend a single planet with that many Force users. But Lily went on, making certain they understood her position. "And the vast majority of those magic users could trace their ancestry to other magic users. Oh, there were many, hundreds, possibly thousands of men and women who couldn't. But more often than not, non-magicals still had an ancestor or relative that was magical somewhere in their family tree. I'm not saying that would be the way magic, or the Force, is passed on here, and certainly not for every race. But it is definitely a factor for humans and humanoids."

Yoda frowned. "Know of course we do that the children of Force users, often call on the Force themselves they can. But impacting our numbers that much, it does?"

"It's always hard to see the forest when you're standing in it," Lily said almost compassionately. Knowing that his people didn't reproduce that way, the fact that Yoda had missed it was sort of understandable. The fact that human Masters on the other hand had missed it was simply stupid in her opinion.

"Now it's my turn again. You mentioned the Ruusan Reformation, what is that, and why is it still in place?"

Yoda replied while Tholme and Giiett fell silent, each with their own thoughts. He told Lily about the New Sith Wars, about how many Jedi had fallen to the Dark Side. He elucidated many points there, and convinced Lily that there was definitely more of a corrosive, corrupting element to a Force user even feeling anger and hate than there had been on Earth.

On Earth Dark spells could impact the soul, but feeling the emotions could not, it was the equivalent of reaching out to the Force through the emotion and just feeling it. But here, a Jedi simply feeling anger without controlling it would quickly lose the ability to feel anything else. And even falling once could make a Jedi act out in a way he never would have otherwise. Fear was just as corrosive, only somewhat more subtle about it.

The Sith could control their emotions to a certain degree, but even the most powerful and most controlled of them could not keep their thoughts from turning what could only be termed evil. Betrayal and a lust for power marked Dark Side users just as much as an end justifying the means frame of mind.

Lily couldn't say if betrayal had been the case on Earth among the Death Eaters themselves. On Earth there had only ever been one Dark Lord at a time with lots of underlings none of whom had the power necessary to challenge their Lord. Of course betrayal was one of the most dangerous weapons Dark wizards used against their enemies, else her husband and she would both be among the living, so perhaps it evened out. A lust for power and a willingness to use any means to achieve their ends certainly marked most Dark Lords she'd ever read about.

So she couldn't argue that point. But the speed with which a person who felt uncontrolled anger could fall to the Dark Side here was worrisome. It made her glad her son didn't seem to feel anger like his father often had, a hot raging thing. The only times she had seen Harry even feel anger was when they realized how much slavery there was on Ryloth.

The diminutive Grand Master also convinced Lily that the political necessity of doing away with the Army of Light had been necessary. A kind despot was after all still a despot, and she was a firm believer in democracy as 'the best type of government yet found', a phrase which once explained cause the ancient Grand Master to chortle in laughter. But Yoda could notconvince her that forcing the Order to forbid marriages and such like had been just as necessary, and indeed he began to see her side of things after her revelation about the numbers of Force users on her planet.

From there Yoda asked for Lily to explain how she and Harry had come to be on Ryloth. At first she tried to hold back, but Yoda had been able to tell she was prevaricating, and drew out much of the truth from her. About the horcrux, the piece of a soul which had been in Harry's scar and about the way he had come to wishing himself somewhere safe so hard. She even told him about the moment in-between, interested in how the ancient alien would take it. Yoda even got out of Lily the reason why she, Harry and James had gone into hiding in the first place.

While Tholme and Giiett were now reeling from one surprise too many even for them, Yoda simply nodded, as if he had expected it all along. "Possible it is, a different dimension you come from. The talents you describe, known to us regardless of distance they would have been."

Further, Yoda knew the Force had changed, knew the future had changed, the ripples of that affect were all around them, within the young ones that interacted with Lily and Harry and even within the Jedi, and the warp and weave of the Unifying Force. Even if he didn't have anything to compare it to Yoda was certain of that and he knew that Harry's arrival was the reason behind it.

Meditating on it for a few moments Yoda reflected on whether or not Harry was the Chosen One of the Jedi prophecy as he might have been on his own planet, the one supposed to return balance to the Force. He had never really been a proponent of that idea, believing that the Force balanced itself, there was no point to trying to attribute any human understanding of that term on something so vast and powerful as the Unifying Force.

Yet the boy, here he is. The Force, some reason behind it, surely. That Force Construct, never seen the like have I, a thing of Light and fierce defense it was. Question their origins I can to a degree, but question their goodness I cannot.

"In any event, I refuse to let my son be in the Order if he has to take the Jedi Oath as it is administered today." Lily said, cutting into Yoda's thoughts and bringing the discussion back on track. "I will not let Harry cut off himself off from feelings like that, off from being a human rather than some simple conduit for the Force as you all think of it. And worse, from having a relationship in the future, that is part and parcel of being alive in my opinion."

The ancient Grand Master opened his eyes and nodded formally to the woman now hovering in the air above him. Other Jedi might have tried to force them to conform, might have questioned their story, but Yoda did not, and would not. He could no more believe these two were of the Dark than he could believe they were not here for some purpose. That Force construct which had sung to his senses of the Light told him the first, and Lily's tale told him the second. Harnessing the two of them for the Order might well lead to that balance the prophecy spoke of, it only in the Order itself rather than the Force.

"Agree I will," he said softly. "Trained in the Old Oath Harry will be, but away from the temple."

Tholme nodded as did Micah, but his mind was on something else. "Very few masters will understand why Harry is given special treatment, and he and Lily represent too much power for us to let the Senate know of their presence. Many Senators distrust Jedi, and if we can start using such powers we will seem even more fearsome to them. Your skills need to be kept away from the rest of the Order for now for the most part."

"Filter new skills into the rest of the Order slowly we must, a test bed this clan of younglings will be. Continue to train the children aboard this ship you will?" Lily nodded and Yoda went on. "Also compile notes you will about combat abilities which cross over. Taught they will to only students of your choosing."

"I'll agree to that." Lily said with a nod. "So long as my son is happy here, that is the only thing that matters to me. I like the other children here, but Harry is my priority."

"The needs of the many should outweigh the needs of the few," Tholme said, looking a little worried at how grim Lily sounded as Yoda cocked his head, examining Lily's ethereal face for a moment.

But Lily simply shook her head. "You are not a father, you are not a mother, you do not understand what it means to have watched Harry's life as I did and be unable to help. I'll admit my priorities are skewed, but I don't care."

Yoda continued to stare at her through slightly narrowed eyes, but he eventually nodded. "Agreed we have. Tasks we all have to do now, suggest we see to them, I do."