NationStates Jolt Archive

[This will mostly be concerning Coreworlds, though if you have a reason to be involved, feel free]

On the planet Konoha, all was not quiet in the forest. The dull thump of explosives disturbed the air and shoock the ground enough that sensors of the nearby city would easily detect that someone was out there and causing trouble.

A small greenish-brown shape lept from tree to tree, burst out of the underbrush into an immense clearing outside the city... several predators hot on it's trail. The being stopped short and ignited a yellow lightsaber, halving one of the creatures in an instant. It drew a blaster and killed two more while using it's saber to kill another. The remaining two decided to retreat.

The lightsaber flicked off and the blaster went back into the simple robes. The former Jedi Instructor made his way to the main gate of the city and waited. He was quite confident that the sudden appearence of the only Jedi Master to be a self-described 'gun-slinger' would garner some attention.

Any sensors around the gates would be alerting their operators that this one being was carrying five thermal detonators, several packets of explosives, four flash grenades, four blaster pistols, one sawed off blaster carbine, a lightsaber and several bladed weapons.

Master Banak did indeed know how to make an entrance.

BREEP BREEP BREEEP BREEEP!

Normally, a guy coming near the city sensors would only get a small beep at most and a Shinobi will be there to check if he is allowed to carry within the walls of Konohagekure. Not so with Banak.

Carrying such a huge array of weapons put up dozens of red flags, alerting the Hokage and the Emperor to the threat. It could be a terrorist or an Imperial agent, after all.

Black-cloaked men and women, all wearing masks, swooped down upon the pyromaniac Jedi Master. Many of them held lightsabers aloft, although Banak would notice pistols on a few of their belts. These men and women are the ANBU, the best of the best. Think Jedi and Ninja-trained SWAT/Secret Service/FBI combination policing force that does everything from black ops missions to guarding the Coredian leadership and you got an idea of who they are.

"Drop all your weapons and get down on the ground, now!" An officer bellowed.

Banak remained motionless as the troops dropped in around him. "How interesting... Jedi in armor? Weilding weapons other than the Force and a lightsaber? The irony of it all is..." He looked at the officer. "You there! Do not interuppt a Jedi Master when he is rambling on about nothing! Have you no respect for the Order?"

He tilted his head. It was obvious he was powerful enough in the Force to BE a master, though his alignment looked a stone's throw from being Dark Side. "My name is Jedi Master Banak, former instructor at the Yavin IV facility. I would speak with a Masaski. Now." He was speaking to the officer as if he was an initiate. Gutsy move, on his part... He was making no threatening moves, either through the Force or physically, though he was taking a close look at each one of them through the Force, as if scrutinizing them...

A Jedi Master? The collective question went out. A few probes in the Force and it was quickly determined that this Banak was quite strong in the Force, and quite grey as well, a few shades lighter than dark.

So of course, they decided to humor his request to see a Masaki and sent the word up the line to the Office of the Emperor. What better Masaki to see Banak than the Emperor himself?

=====

"Master Banak?" I asked incredulously as the ANBU guard reported to me. He was immediately unnerved by the grin that decided to sprout on my head. Damn. I haven't seen that crazy Jedi in 20 years!

I was thirteen, no older than Travis is now, when I learned how to inflict more damage than a lightsaber could with things like grenades. Not just Master Banak, but Master David Miles taught me much about the use of explosives, uses that proved to be life-saving when the Empire attacked.

Without a second to waste, I disappeared with a resounding *crack* of air displacement and reappeared at the city gates. Well, there he is, the little green pyro himself!

"Stand down." I ordered the ANBU and bowed to the Jedi Master. The ANBU did the same, more respectfully, and sheathed their weapons. "Master Banak. It has been quite some time since you last taught my class. Do you remember me?"

OOC: Of course, Daniel now looks like so: #1 reason why Katrina married him! (http://bishounen.info/duo/duo3.jpg)

Banak turned his head to look at the cracking sound. "Neat trick... too noisy though." And running around a forest chucking grenades at predators wasn't...

He appraised the man in front of him. "Of course I know who you are. I've been on the rim for years, but your image has travelled far and wide." He looks at the ANBU and nodded in their direction. "Seems something I taught you sunk in... Glad to see I'm making the ancient Jedi rotate in their crypts." He chuckled. "Now, tell me young Emperor... would the Jedi Order have a place for a gunslinger like myself?"

I grinned. "Perhaps. Some of your teachings seem to have rubbed off on us. Besides, we're always glad to have another Jedi on our side."

Banak chuckled and tilted his head. "Even a Jedi that is as insane as I am said to be? You must be desperate indeed..." He steps towards Daniel and the smile slips. "And I have been more closely associated with the Sith than the Jedi, in recent years. A dirty business... but it had to be done. Perhaps we may speak somewhere where we cannot be overheard?"

I nodded. "All right. I'll take you somewhere more private."

With a snap of my fingers, a speeder arrived to take us anywhere we want. "The Mansion."

The speeder took the two of us to the Hokage Mansion, a large building situated just under the Mt. Rushmore-like cliff of previous Hokages, or leaders of Konoha. The current one is the fifth face, the woman known as Tsunade. Once there, I led Banak into the Mansion, down the main hall, took a left, and reached my office, a room full of various artifacts from all over the galaxy. There was a strange scroll sitting on one of the tables, open to a complicated jutsu I was reading about. Jutsus are basically spells which need not use the Force to work, although it amplifies the effects some. There was a picture of a couple pairs of hands in various positions. Those are handseals, used to execute the jutsu.

Anyway, so I led Master Banak into my office and set the synthesizer on 'standby' in case he wants anything.

"We're secure here." I told the Jedi Master. "Need anything before we begin?"

Banak looked around as he followed his former student through the mansion. He took a seat and looked at Daniel. "You remember Lord Barbarous, of course." The red cloaked Sith Lord that Daniel had met on Yavin years before. "I travelled with him, servering as a Marauder. I did very well, removing those elements of society that were stumbling blocks to him. Over 90% of them were various crime lords. There were a few innocents, but accidents happen."

He leans back in the seat that was too big for him. "Barbarous is dead... chucked out an airlock. Bad way to go." shakes his head. "I could hear him through the Force... he told me that of all three deaths he had visions of, this was the one he had dreaded." Shrugs.

"I remember that Sith. Not a nice way to go." I agreed. Met him once when he landed at Yavin. Had a nice talk that for once, didn't end in a duel. I also took another look at Banak. This guy skirts the edge of light and dark, and has even crossed the line a few times. That's not to say I haven't, but damn if he doesn't enjoy it!

"Well, I wonder how much news gets out there, but let me fill you in on some big events." I said. "The Empire's risen again, and to top it all, Palpatine's back and meaner than ever. He rose again a few years after you left, busted a few planets with a new Death Star, including our former capital Juria and basically did everything including eating babies. He did a number on me a few times too, and I have the scars to prove it. Still, we're alive, kicking and being a major pain in the ass for him and his cronies, my sister included. Ah, you haven't heard, I suspect. Fiona fell and now goes by Lady Nightshade, and now she's one of his favorite apprentices." I shook my head. "And if that's not all, my own kid Travis is somewhere within the Empire, my sister doing Force knows what to him. I hope that Masaki luck holds out, but with my sister around, it's gonna be tough for him to survive anywhere near intact..."

Banak nodded at him. "Palpatine... you have to give the man points for persistance. What is this? His fifteenth return?" Waves a hand. "Bah, he will fall. And then the Jedi will fall. And then the Sith will fall..." Shrugs.

"The Force always balances itself. Barbarous was many things... dangerous, corrupt, power-hungry... but he was not stupid or overly arrogant. He knew that the Sith could beat the Jedi... but that wiping them out would be a mistake. For whatever amount of damage is done to Jedi will be wrought on the Sith eventually. In my mind, he was more dangerous to the galaxy than Palpatine or Vader ever were. At the same time, I feel that he may be exactly the type of Sith we need in this galaxy... evil, but not stupid. Deadly, but not genocidal. He wanted the Jedi and Sith to glare at each other, perhaps even fight each other... but he wanted a balance. Too bad he tried to kill me... he might have made Dark Lord of the Sith one day and all this war would subside... into an era of of a cold-war through the Force."

Did he mention that he wasn't your average Jedi Master?

"You know, he said as much when I met him." I said. "And I often wondered what he would have been had he managed to reveal himself. Still, like you said, he's gone and so we must deal with the more bloodthirsty Sith."

Definitely has an interesting point of view on the galaxy as a whole...

Banak nods and smirks. "I have his fighter now... had to modify the seat, but that TIE Bomber is one bad ship. Haven't decided whether to repaint it or not... I sort of like the color red. And I would feel like I'm somehow... insulting a man that, though we differed on many issues, I respected."

He chuckles. "I would have buzzed the city, had I thought the chances of me getting shot down were low... I decided to hike here instead. Oh! You might want to have someone look over the forest. I think a couple of my thermal detonators started fires."

Something seemed odd about the little Master. Even for him... his mind seemed to be jumping from topic, rather than it's old laser sharp focus.

"They're cleaning that up as we speak. But..." I noticed something odd about him. "You seem different from the last time I knew you. What's up?"

Banak eyes Daniel for a moment, then sighs and slips to the floor. He walks around, looking at the various artifacts as he speaks. "I have spent much time with the Sith. With the Dark Side... that tends to cause slight changes in behavior, even in those that do not submit to it completely."

He turned and looked at Daniel for a long moment, before smiling in an odd way. "Some more than others."

I raised an eyebrow at that, and had a sneaking suspicion that Banak has gotten darker since last time. "If you'll elaborate..."

Banak eyes him in a different way. He hadn't figured it out yet. Was he naive? Most likely, when it comes to old friends.

Banak steps right up to him and stares up into his eyes. "Tell me, young Masaki... when you are in service to a Sith Lord and you kill said Sith Lord... what happens to you afterwards?"

He hoped that would spell it out for the young man.

Aha! Suspicions confirmed. I thought. "You took his place as a Sith Lord. In danger of being cliche, why am I not surprised?"

I had to say, this is one of those times that if I were a hardline Jedi, a duel would break out. Fortunately for the artifacts of my office, I wasn't a hardliner.

I chuckled darkly. "You know, this is the point where I should be calling the ANBU and duking it out with you. How things change. Since you revealed a deep, dark secret, I shall reveal one myself as well. I was in the service of the Empire for a short time, running a little organization known as the Black Order. While it didn't last long, I crossed the line a couple of times in trying to get in the enemy's good graces. I did manage to use it as a way to get people scot free and keep my part of Coreworlds from going under the Empire's grasp, but that won't really excuse me. Not to mention that I know another Sith Lord who isn't exactly a Jedi-killer: my old master Kartion. I haven't heard from him in a while, but I do know he carved himself a nice empire in Hutt Space."

The Point?

"We all have our dark moments. Some more than others." Here I kept a cold smile.

OOC: Tag for possible future involvement as:

1. I've had very recent business on Konoha;
2. I'll almost certainly have future business with Daniel;
3. CW is MSNing me right now and hints that said future business *might* be germane to this RP.

Banak nods his head all Yoda like. "Indeed. My faction is well hidden, save for myself. They will stay that way, until the time is right."

He listens to Daniel explain his past. "I always knew your destiny lay in a different path than most. That it would diverge so much is a bit surprising... though I suppose it is not so different than what the Skywalker's did." Shrugs and eyes him again. "Dark... light... just words. I use both sides to my advantage, as both hold teachings which bring wisdom, power and the fear of one's enemies. A very useful tool indeed, when weilded properly."

He tilts his head. "I would rather that the rest of the Order not know of my leanings. I can cover my actions with the veil of being the Master Gunslinger that was never quite right in the head... And I will make every effort not to cause undue harm to Jedi. If they interfere in my plans too much though, I will be forced to... 'persuade' them to let the matter drop." Probably means he would kill them. Some torture would be handed out, though. Jedi could withstand that easily enough, though and Banak knew it. "A little pain and suffering can teach a Jedi much. I will attempt to deal with Jedi in a way that does not leave them permanently damaged."

Banak nods his head all Yoda like. "Indeed. My faction is well hidden, save for myself. They will stay that way, until the time is right."

He listens to Daniel explain his past. "I always knew your destiny lay in a different path than most. That it would diverge so much is a bit surprising... though I suppose it is not so different than what the Skywalker's did." Shrugs and eyes him again. "Dark... light... just words. I use both sides to my advantage, as both hold teachings which bring wisdom, power and the fear of one's enemies. A very useful tool indeed, when weilded properly."
I nodded with a wan smile. "Yeah. I would say that we'd all be considered crazy Jolee Bindo clones in the Old Order. A few teachings considered dark has permeated the Order as well."

He tilts his head. "I would rather that the rest of the Order not know of my leanings. I can cover my actions with the veil of being the Master Gunslinger that was never quite right in the head... And I will make every effort not to cause undue harm to Jedi. If they interfere in my plans too much though, I will be forced to... 'persuade' them to let the matter drop." Probably means he would kill them. Some torture would be handed out, though. Jedi could withstand that easily enough, though and Banak knew it. "A little pain and suffering can teach a Jedi much. I will attempt to deal with Jedi in a way that does not leave them permanently damaged."
"Well, in the interests of preventing things like that from happening, I'll make every effort to keep the objections down. Still, I do suggest you report to the Council on your dealings since you left." I said. "If it slips out somehow, Tsunade would understand your leanings, possibly Lowbacca, but I'm sure you're going to be outvoted if you do reveal your....past. Still, we have taken in Dark Jedi (and traitors) before, so there's precedent, but certainly a Sith Lord is a new and unsettling precedent."

Banak chuckles. "Yes... I suppose they would be unsettled by th epresence of a Sith Lord in front of them. Even more so when I would rather debate ethics and philosophy than attack them. Though slapping a couple of the older members across the back of the head would feel good."

He looks at some more of the artifacts. "I will go before them and will tell them what they need to know. If you would have them assemble, I am ready to meet with them now."

Banak chuckles. "Yes... I suppose they would be unsettled by th epresence of a Sith Lord in front of them. Even more so when I would rather debate ethics and philosophy than attack them. Though slapping a couple of the older members across the back of the head would feel good."
I grin. "Yeah, I can think of a few that needs an attitude adjustment."

He looks at some more of the artifacts. "I will go before them and will tell them what they need to know. If you would have them assemble, I am ready to meet with them now."
I nodded and wrote a couple of notes on pieces of flimsiplast. Then I turned them into paper airplanes and they flew out of the office*. "They should be arriving within ten minutes. The Council Chamber is this way."

I headed out of the office, took a left, took a right, and took another left before I headed to a wide room with a circular center. Half the seats have a faint Force presence and the other half seem empty. It's a sign of how bad the war's really going as even the High Council Members have suffered losses. As it stands now, the Council has Master Harry Blayden, Master Emily Rydo, Master Armas Elendil, Master Lowbacca, Hokage Tsunade, King Sarinon and me. On the bright side, we just sent advertisements for the Council position and started taking applications. One of them happened to be a soon-to-be former Prime Minister, Jacob Whitfield. Another one, and I hope she takes it, will be Master Izumi Curtis. I need to send my twin brothers on the mission to find her in the first place.

Within ten minutes, the pops of air displacement or the crackle of holograms could be heard as the Council members arrived. Harry is the head of the Academy. Emily handles Commerce and Labor. Elendil, the Elf is in charge of the Diplomatic Corps and is the headmaster of the Order itself. Lowbacca the Wookiee is the Minister of Defense. Tsunade handles Intelligence and Special Ops and rules the Konoha Sector. Sarinon the Dragon deals with Milky Way affairs and rules the Issus Sector. And of course, there's me, who leads the Rebel Alliance against the Empire, and I rule the other Coredian sectors.

We sat down at our respective seats and I began. "Thank you for seeing me on short notice. I have called you here because one of our own has returned: Jedi Master Banak."

Murmurs of surprise broke out among the Council.

"I am pleased to see that you have survived." Tsunade smiled. "I understand you have much to tell us."

*Cookie for reference.

Banak watched them arrive as he stood in the center of the room. "Indeed... I have been away fro many years doing things that were distasteful at times, to ensure that there will be a stable galaxy in generations to come."

He eyes a few of the ones that had disliked him years before because of his affinity for teaching padawans the value of firearms training. He went on after a moment. "I have gathered several dozen of the best force users I could find, bith Jedi and Sith and have gathered them on an unmarked system in the Outer Rim. There I have formed these sentients into more than future Masters and Lords and have turned them into teachers and warriors for a greater purpose. Building a generation of Force users that do not bow down to either side of the Force. They learn from both sides and use both to their advantage without slipping into the grip of either side. It requires much more intense training of the mind to achieve such a state and... it is difficult to keep the aprrentices from falling to either side.

"I am the second Headmaster of the academy. The first was Lord Barbarous, a Sith Lord that I am sure you all are aware of. I assisted him in his plans to build this academy. He and I shared the same goal... to bring a balance to the Force that will not reduce the numbers of Jedi and Sith to a handful each. I was forced to kill Barbarous after he attempted to kill me. He thought I was going to betray him. Now I have taken over the Academy and... his mantle as a Sith Lord. That name is merely a name. As is my use of Jedi Master. If I were to stand before a group of true Sith Lords, they would scoff at my use of such a title. As you will no doubt scoff at my use of the title Master Jedi. My teachings cannot be taught properly if I am bound to either the Jedi or Sith Orders. I have accepted both titles as a living embodiment of one who walks both paths. Who does so with great effort, for the cause of saving the galaxy from itself."

Throughout the whole speech, he spoke with passion and wisdom, leaving no doubt that he was being sincere. He did not even block any scans of his mind through the Force, except for a certain part of his mind concerning the location, name and complement of the academy. "I suppose this is the part of the discussion where you all start to get outraged at me and demand I be punished or exiled or something like that." A small smirk plays over his features.

The Council's emotions rolled through the area, everything from shock to anger, and even a hint of intruge and curiosity.

"How, how could you stand before us and say such things?!" Master Blayden spluttered. "You say you're a Jedi Master and yet you took the mantle of a Sith Lord! You cannot be both!"

"Calm yourself before you blow a gasket, Harry." Tsunade replied sharply. "His words have merit, and it's not as if the Jedi themselves haven't done things that are meant to remain secret."

"I maintain that we must and should be above such matters." Emily Rydo bounced back. "One who has walked in the dark...I am astonished that we allow one such as him to stand before us."

"<I disagree. There are many who walk in the darkness and yet their loyalty remains with us.>" Lowbacca said glancing at Tsunade. He means the shinobi, considered tools of the state by some. Then he looked at me. "<And there are those who walk the line between light and dark and still remain strong.>"

Elendil nodded, remaining quiet.

"And there are those who fall to darkness and never return." Harry snapped. "I move for Banak to be exiled back to wherever he comes from."

"Now, now. Let's not be hasty, Master Blayden." I said. "We've taken in people much like Banak. Former Dark Jedi, missing-nin, traitors and such."

"But not a Sith Lord!" Harry shot back. "Honestly, it tells me our standards are slipping!"

"Well, if it helps, I would suggest a probationary period, complete with a fellow to sit on his shoulder, so to speak." Elendil spoke at last. "Would that help, Master Blayden, Rydo?"

"Hmph. Very well." Blayden said curtly.

"If that's the will of the Council." Rydo replied, although we could clearly see that she's not too happy either.

"Very well." I said. "Master Banak. Will you accept a probationary period of not more than thirty days, with a charge that we choose, to 'assist' you?"

"Make it ninety days." Blayden huffed.

"Oh, all right. 90 days then." I replied.

OOC: CW, Whitfield on the Council yet as of the time of this RP? If so, I have business here all of a sudden...

Banak remained the pillar of silence as they all discussed things as if he was not there. Standard procedure for the Council, he knew.

He tilted his head at the question posed to him. "Obviously you did not understand what I was telling you. Not surprising, yet dissappointing. The only one here that I thought did understand is the young Emperor here. And yet even he speaks in line with the rest of you."

Banak sighed and looked at each one in turn, speaking softly. "I am not a Sith Lord. I am not a Jedi Master. I am both and I am niether. I hold both titles but I do not follow either path. I am Banak. And that is who I must remain."

He straightens his robes. "I am not here to rejoin the Jedi Order. I find it to be an Order that denies itself strength because it fears everything Dark. The Dark Side is dangerous... it can consume one's very being, if one is not careful... yet I have learned it's teachings for nealy ten years and I am only slightly darker than I was before I left the Yavin IV academy.

"I am here to propose to you an alliance between my Order and yours. They can co-exist peacefully. One of light, the other of gray. Glaring at each other across the galaxy, but both wise enough to realize that whatever blow that one strikes against the other will be taken against it, as the Force balances itself. Look at what happened to the Old Order. They wiped the Sith out, save for a handful. The Force balanced itself... and the Jedi nearly died out. I propose a cold war of the Force. Keep the peace in the galaxy. Allow those not touched by the force to live tehir lives without fear of Sith and Jedi warships invading their lives with immense battles. It is time for this idiocy to end. And it will, within my lifetime. That I swear to you. I would like to do it with your help. I can do it without it, but it will be much harder."

OOC: Per IM with CW:

Daniel Masaki, The Lightning Emperor/Lady Nightshade, Empress of Tenetia says:
Hey. I got your question.
EWT [NS]/North Prussia [CN]/HailandKill [AE] says:
answer?
Daniel Masaki, The Lightning Emperor/Lady Nightshade, Empress of Tenetia says:
I would have to say...yes.
EWT [NS]/North Prussia [CN]/HailandKill [AE] says:
k.
Daniel Masaki, The Lightning Emperor/Lady Nightshade, Empress of Tenetia says:
It would definitely have to be after the elections since Daniel's back home.

I am entering this thread, as Jedi Master Jacob Whitfield, former Prime Minister of EWT, is on the Council. (CW and I had agreed OOC that Whitfield would get on, after he finished his PM term, and right now, I'm counting ballots. Fluid time FTW.)

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There was one member of the Jedi Council who remained quiet throughout the whole exchange, simply listening as the members of the Council debated, almost reflexively, the notion of Banak's proposal. He was the newest member of the Council, yet paradoxically, the oldest mortal on it (Elendil, being an Elf, was older, but Elves were not mortal, at least not insofar as aging was concerned). Yet he had had plenty of experience in such...debates, having served for some twenty years in the Evil Woody Thoughts Parliament and the following eight as Prime Minister, before discovering his Force-sensitivity, whereupon he retired from politics until...circumstances had required the services of an interim Prime Minister.

Unlike Palpatine, however, the circumstances were not of his making, he had returned to Woodian politics somewhat unwillingly and for the express reason to restore some sense of stability and normalcy in a country ravaged by a Sith-induced civil war that had killed a third of said country's population, and had yielded power when the nation was able to stand up and revive its cherished polity, only a month ago.

His interim term had been a year, two months, and about two weeks. For defeating a Sith who slurped the strength of the Force from the planet of White Diamond itself (and a Force-amplifying planet at that), and who might have defeated even Daniel Masaki had Whitfield failed, and for reconstructing his nation so quickly, Master Jacob Whitfield had been offered a seat on the Jedi Council, and here he was.

Here the Council was, arguing amongst itself along what Whitfield, in all his political experience, perceived to be partisan lines. It was always a matter of traditional-hardliners versus the "whatever it takes to defeat the Empire" crowd. The Council might not officially have political parties, but Whitfield was certain they existed unofficially.

The eighty-something Jedi Master considered himself something of a traditionalist. Not along the vein of monarchy, mind you (he came from a wholly democratic nation, after all), but along the old traditions of the Order.

He had seen people wholly enslaved to Sith Lords, in the sense that the Nazgûl had been enslaved to Sauron in Elven mythology of old. Forced to do things that only the darkest of the Sith would do...not only making war upon the Jedi, but making war for the sheer entertainment of the Sith Lord. Master Whitfield had peered into the minds of some of these people, and what he had seen would definitely remind Banak of the days when he was deepest in the Dark Side, if not exceed them. So parallel was the comparison between what Whitfield had seen and the Nazgûl/Sauron analogy of lore that those who had experienced such enslavement were sometimes called "Sith Wraiths," an adaptation of "Ringwraith."

Yet he had seen these Sith Wraiths reclaimed from darkness. He had taken part in that. One of them was his apprentice, and he would take his Jedi Trials soon.

He had seen such apprentice disarm another lightsaber-wielding Sith Wraith, unarmed, with only his hands to fight with, and moreover, with only a few days worth of the most informal Force-training. For his apprentice was a colonel in the Woodian military, and had learned other methods of fighting *well* before he had learned of the Force, and he had employed them. Moreover, he had seen such apprentice take up the lightsaber of his disarmed opponent and throw it like a javelin--straight into the head of another Wraith whom one Taylor Masaki had been fighting, some twenty or so meters away. The accuracy of that strike had been just as much marksmanship training as it had been the Force, Whitfield knew. Therefore, the elderly Master recognized the value in Banak's claim that Jedi must know how to fight outside of reliance upon the Force.

He was himself a practitioner of a dual-lightsaber adaptation of Trákata, whereby he used one lightsaber in one hand for conventional fighting, and kept the other unignited for Trákata-style strikes. Most would consider it a darker form of lightsaber combat.

An interesting proposal on the part of Banak, to say the least. The Jedi Master was in no mood to dismiss Banak's idea out of hand on ideologically-based grounds...yet there were other concerns.

Finally, after a long while of contemplation, he rose to inquire of Banak. "A peace between Jedi and Sith, you say? And on whose authority do you propose this? Will the Sith agree? An imposition of such 'peace' may very well turn out as bloody as the wars that have occurred for millenia."

Banak turned and faced the man who had spoken. "Did I say peace with the Sith? No. I said peace between your Order and my Order. The Sith will always be a problem. Together our Orders can keep them in check. Obviously you cannot do this alone, considering what the young Emperor here has told me of Palpatine's return.

"Would you reject my help simply because I do not follow what you tell me to do? I would be deeply dissappointed if you did. Because that would force me to strike a new balance in the Force. One where the Jedi and the Sith Orders will fall and a new Order will rise. Mine. Where the Dark and the Light stand side by side, protecting the galaxy from those like yourself and Palpatine. Palpatine destroys and enjoys destroying. You destroy without ever knowing it."

So, he was not sent by someone else, Master Whitfield thought to himself. He comes on his own authority, and proposes to raise a third Order, somewhere between Light and Dark, to do this...

...Still...he himself sounds like Palpatine Light. "A new Order shall rise. Mine," he says. Possessive is he. Incredibly possessive.

And arrogant. But many in this chamber have that same fault.

He proposes to impose regulation of the Sith. Which they will not accept. Which means that there will still be war, only the combatants change...

He had been more predisposed to side with Banak *before* his reply to the question. At least he had answered it.

As it was, he simply said "Thank you," and considered his response as he left the rest of the Council to consider it as well.

Quiet was he, not revealing his thoughts. He would raise his thoughts in the debate if so moved, but not now.