USH'S STAR WARS GAME- CAMPAIGN II EPISODE IV (JEDI)- Purity

"Oh, what does it matter what I say to that? What will you care, hmm? Already made up your mind. Come here to stop me, so you say? Put yourselves in the shoes of the white knights, haven't you? How's the view from up there?"

"Very grim and uncertain," Jelena replies. "Knock it off, Gallagher! I know you, you aren't a cold-blooded murderer. You are a dedicated Knight and a good soul. The path you just explained is not one that you can possibly entertain; it is impossible. Turn off the lightsaber and come with us. Let this man go."

"And my sister? Doesn't she matter now?"

Roan Steps forward, moving toward Gallagher. This scene has run through his head more than once. He remembers his vision, and knows he needs to tread carefully. The words about Zetion stung, but he was there, not Gallagher, not Sienar. Although he does wonder how Sienar knew about that.

"Your sister will always matter Gallagher. But that is not why we are here. Sienar died because he had to, he knew that. The Dark Side only begets destruction. Sienar sought to destroy all that was around him, as much as possible. What you are suggesting is the same. Only destruction will come from your ends. You will begin this cycle, hoping that it solves the famine, but it doesn't, but you don't care at that point. You have given in to your hatred, you are playing Sienars game, and you destroy all around you, as much as you can. You become EXACTLY LIKE HIM. Don't do that! Only through balance can we undo what he has done. Sienar was blinded by his rage, we are not! We can fix this! We Will!"

I think his point was more that Andro said he was here because of the death of Gallagher's sister- he wants to bring him in for it. The sudden change to "nvm, come with us" is a shift from that. This sister thing needs resolving.

"No we can't, Roan," he says, simply.

I need to have a quick aside with Andro...

"I don't know what you heard, or where you heard of it, but you can't just be yelling at him for supposedly killing his sister. He is teetering on the dark side. We need to bring him back to the light first, and then we can deal with that issue. If you push him now, he will fall, and I will not let that happen. Your impulsiveness must be kept in check. Your rush to conclusions and to actions have almost brought about disaster more than once."

No opportunity for private asides here!

"Are you really going to come at me for killing my sister when you have just killed a dying man yourselves to get here?"

"I am not even sure what happened with your sister. Please tell me."

"And you know why you are not sure? Before you came after me... before you blundered straight into what Sienar wanted... did you stop to check, at any point, a single thing to do with the events around my sister's disappearance? Did that OCCUR to you? Just ONCE?"

"No, I did not. However, despite what they may say, I am in charge of this investigation, and I am NOT coming after you. I am not going to arrest you, or anything. I just want to know what happened."

"if you aren't here for ME, then what are you doing here at all? What did you think you were going to achieve? Were you thinking at all? Why do you have your sabres? Why did they let you bring them in? What possible reason could you have to be here, now, if it was not to come for me? Gah! We are all idiots and fools! No wonder the Republic is falling apart!"

"I did not mean it that way. We came to rescue you. Not punish you. Don't you see? This was all Sienar's plan! He is still pulling the strings! Lets not give in. He was wrong about us. We can talk about this. We can discuss your sister without coming to violence."

"So this IS about me. So you tought you'd rescue me... but you don't even know what you were trying to rescue me FROM. You don't know anything of what happened. You have no idea what is going on with me, what happened with me, and no idea how to contend with Sienar... but you thought you could 'rescue' me? If I was in danger, I never would have gone with him, would I? Or I would have signalled you. I was RELYING on you to be smart! So the only thing left is that you wanted to save me from myself. About which you made the effort to learn... nothing. Good job. Because now Sienar has died in exactly the way that he wanted, and my one that I thought was my friend has concluded I am a murderer without a second thought.

"Aren't you murderers, then? You killed Sienar!"

"He would have killed us had we not fought him," Jelena says. "We came to arrest Kathya and were met with battle droids; we came to retrieve you from his clutches and he met us with blade and trickery. Yes, we played into his hands, but it was hardly the murder of an unarmed and defenseless man."

"No he wouldn't," says Gallagher. "He wanted you to make the aggressive move. He would never have struck first at you. You didn't need to kill him to get Kathya. And as I said, I didn't need 'rescuing'. I just needed you to understand.

"And nor was the death of my sister. And that's the bit you never thought about. You don't even know any of it, do you?"

"I am afraid our research into the matter was less than it should have been," Jelena says. "All we know is that you were your sister's killer..."

(Damn my schedule anyhow. Here's the part I've been waiting for, and I haven't been near a computer in over 6 hours.)

Andro feels his cheeks flush at Roan's words to him. Hadn't he just told Roan he got his info from the Temple? They're looking more like fools all the time. But bickering in front of Gallagher would only unbalance the situation even more. Throwing a stern look at Roan, Andro steps between him and Gallagher.

"Enough." He turns to Gallagher, holstering his saber, and walks slowly forward. "Gallagher, I am your friend, even now. I'm not the one who's accusing you, someone else has already done that; I've said his name already. I'm here to question you. I couldn't imagine the Gallagher I worked with at the Tranquil Repose, who taught me a valuable lesson about balance, could do what your accuser claims. But this Gallagher I see here now is not the same one I knew before. Was it all a ruse? Have you deceived me like Seinar did on Spiridos? Have you deceived the entire order? But to your question, you're right, I don't have all the facts, so I'm here to ask.

Gallagher, tell me, why did Zaland shoot you in the back? Why is he warning us now that we must destroy you?"

You very much did not get your information from the Temple, Andro.

"That you would even ask that," says Gallagher. "That you made no attempt to even TRY and put it all together. This... this is why Sienar won so easily.

"Zaland's brother. It started with Zaland's brother dying. He'd taught Zaland everything he knew. He was trhe finest Protector of all. The fastest drawm the quickest to react. He was impossible to surprise. But he was killed before he even drew his weapon. Only one person could have done that to him. The very person he had been assigned to protect.

"My sister was the one behind it all!. She was working WITH Brith. Or Sienar. Or whatever! Zolos died because he wanted a better Thespia than the one we have. He saw a world that no longer indulged in nothing but pleasure and riches, supported on the back of the exploitation and misery of others. And she killed him for it- and then she exploited me to try and cover it all up.

"But Sienar was already being 'neat'. Once he'd lured out the Hutts to take control of the Thespian drug trade, he'd arranged for all his his accomplices to be killed. Not himself, you understand. He never liked to do it himself. He used the Force and his understanding of people to make sure that everyone was in exactly the right place at the right time to kill off everyone else for him. He arranged it for me to kill my sister.

"She was armed, with the same weapon that killed Zolos.. She knew I had the answers then. She thought the plan was that Sienar was going to kill me, but my sabre was out and perhaps she thought I might kill him or her first. She didn't know I had no chance of killing him. I... I don't know. Sienar was taunting me, laughing. I'd only just found out what a fool I had been. In that moment of panicI struck out, and she was dead. Maybe she was going to strike if I didn't. Maybe not. Who can know?"

There is a pause.

"Zaland came too late to know what had happened before; he only saw my sabre pass through her. Sienar was already gone. No-one else saw him at all. He protects me now... half out of guilt for that.

"But didn't it occur to you that all this was already investigated? You think the Council didn't know? Took it upon yourself to be the arbitrator of all that is so, didn't you?

"This wasn't about ME. This was about revenge on Sienar. If your actions had been about me... you would have checked what happened."

(I got it from Ithrorn, whom I guess I assumed was at the Temple.)

"Gallagher, don't you see? You murdered your sister. By the very definitions we're been discussing this whole time, what you just described was murder. I don't know if he told you, but I lashed out at Seinar in his office, barely stopped myself in time. I could see he was behind all of this but I couldn't prove it, knew he would get away with it in the end, just as he seems to have done. He told me to kill him, that it was our only chance. I swung, but switched by blade off at the last moment. We're Jedi, we can't do that. I know Seinar's power at manipulation, how he can twist you mind. I almost sacrificed myself to the Dark Side to stop him.

You don't need to do that. If what you say is true, that the council knows all of this, thenyou're right: we're in no position to judge. But the things you were just speaking of, how to reverse Seinar's plan, you can't do that. None of us can, it's not our way. THe future is not set in stone, it's always in motion. I think we've all had that lesson at the Temple. Come with us. I'm sure we can find a way to ... if not stop his plan altogether, then to help mitigate some of the damage. We have to show the Republic what he really is, and what he's done. You, and especially the being you're intent on killing now are the last of the evidence. The last two people Seinar has set up to be destroyed. You cna prevent his final pieces from being set in place. Come with us."

!!! Ithrorn is on Spiridos! The Council specifically told you that they wouldn't give you any of those details.

"Have you seriously become so twisted that you would compare your succumbing to anger against an unarmed opponent goading you to kill him, to my sister holding a weapon in her hand that she had used before, about to strike me down? I killed my sister in self defence. And you call that murder? Damn you forever, Andro. It might have been possible- if I had been more than a Padawan, if my Master had not already been struck down, if I had known that Sienar had no intention of killing me him self... it MIGHT have been possible to bring her in alive. That's something I have got to live with. But she might have killed me as well,. Did you take Varm in alive? Mirani? Kathya? ANYONE who worked for Sienar? I thought you of all people would understand. if I COULD have taken her alive, I would. How dare you call that murder? How dare you accuse ME of murder, just because you are ashamed of your own shortcomings here? And you babble on about all the rest, even though you understand NOTHING! And I know more about this future than you do, Andro. And there's nothing you or I can do. I told Jelena because she asked what it would take."

The man on the ground seems to have overcome the terror he was in, and now stands. It is indeed the lawyer Tavers. He re-asserts his composure first of all, straightening his tie.

"Thought as much," he said. "Well. You'll pay for this... humiliation! All of you will pay!" he yells out, gesturing to all of you. Gallagher, now facing you, does not turn back to face Tavers; he just closes his eyes. "I'm going to rub this in you every day I can for the rest of your lives. I'm going to make sure you see every news report of every death that happens. And 'm going to show off how fabulously rich I'll become off the back of this committee. You'll all know! I'll make sure of it!"