Star Wars: A New Dawn

"Not implying you should have one, just asking if you did." Ford said.

"So what, exactly, do apprentices do? I, uh, kinda skipped that whole lecture."

"They learn." Ford said.

"Two word answer. I suppose I deserve that," Jaxie says. "Well, thanks for the soup."

"Not a problem at all." Ford said taking a spoonful of his soup and eating it.

Qui Gon laughed from his corner shaking his head

"Something funny Qui-Gon?" Ford asked sitting back.

"Your attempt at finding another sucker to indoctrinate"

"Hey, I'm nobody's sucker," Jaxie says. She pauses and glances back at Qui Gon. "What do you mean 'indoctrinate'?"

"I was sent to retrieve and item for my master. It did not go as planned, suffice to say."

Ford shook his head. "He believes that the Jedi are just useless and corrupt. He likes to blame us for the Empire's rise and the chaos that was wrought when the rebellion defeated them at Endor. It's our fault the Republic's fault the Mandalorians attacked. In his eyes I'm just trying to bring you into our fold to meet some recruitment quota."

"Maybe I should make myself a little more clear about that. There were people outside of the Jedi Council that tried repeatedly to warn them about Palpatine but none of them listened because don't you know that if there was a threat the Force would warn them. And don't try to tell me that the dark side clouded their vision, that's bull shit. Anakin was so enamored of the emperor that he refused to listen to any negative talk about the man and we all know how that turned out. The Jedi will try to tell you that all emotions are bad and can lead to the dark side so it is best to avoid them at all cost or at the very least keep them contained and controlled."

"In the old order that was true." Ford said. "Luke has a wife, so clearly not all emotions are banned from his Order. As for Palpatine, he did cloud their vision and made it more difficult to figure out who he was, when they did they tried to stop him but we know how that worked out, Order 66."

"THat may be but it doesn't explain why they ignored the warnings from those not clouded by him, like the Naboo Princess or Senator Organa. Things might be different now but the Jedi still think they are the ultimate authority on keeping the peace and all that."

Ford sighed and shook his head. "No, we don't. We offer our help but the Republic government maintains the peace, if they request for Jedi help we help, if they want to send in troops they send in troops. If Organa and Amidala had known they wouldn't have bothered with the Delegation of 2000 to try and diplomatically solve things."

"More bull shit they're feeding you" Qui Gon said

"It's documented." Ford said. "Look up the Delegation of 2000, it was pretty much the founding of the Alliance to Restore the Republic."

"Keep believing what they feed you. I've been out here dealing with problems they cause while you've just been following orders blindly doing whatever they tell you."

"From what I've seen all you've done is blame the Republic and Jedi for everything wrong in the entire galaxy. I'm not saying the Republic is perfect of that the Jedi are infallible but we're doing what we can, or would you rather us sit back and let the Mandalorians honor kill everyone or the Imperials stamp out every freedom in the galaxy?"

"THat might be better"

Ford shook his head and stood up. "Then I'll drop you off at Mandalore or Bastion and you can get honor killed or enlist in the Imperial Army, whichever you want." He headed towards the door. "Help yourself to the soup." He said on his way out.

"Yeah, you do that."

Ford headed into his quarters turning on the Holonet seeing reports on the Mandalorians continuing crusade.

Qui Gon headed back to his quarters

Jaxie sits alone at the table, having been caught in the middle of all that. She looks down at her bowl and gets up from the table, walking off to go practice some more.