Faded Trust: Mace Windu

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

"Faded Trust: Mace Windu"
by Christine Anderson

They don't trust the Jedi anymore.

I've known it since that nightmare mission to Haruun Kal, since I went home again. If I were being truly honest- and I suppose, here, at least, I had better be- If I were being truly honest, I'd have to say that I've known it for a long time now.

I just can't quite seem to accept it.

A lot has changed from the days of my childhood in the Jedi Temple- the galaxy is different now. But I find it inconceivable that things could have changed so much.

On Haruun Kal, people I tried to help recoiled in disgust when I drew my lightsaber, and their children cursed Jedi for having killed their hero, a bounty hunter called Jango Fett.

They cursed me, though they had no way of knowing that.

I let the children think I was a bounty hunter. If they had known I was a Jedi, they would never have trusted me.

They felt betrayed when they learned the truth, of course. I was sorry for that, but I needed their trust to save their lives.

Not that it mattered much in the end. They no longer trusted me, their parents didn't trust me, and...

Someone I had trusted, my apprentice, my heart's daughter, fell to the warm darkness of the jungle-

I trusted she would come back. I trusted that no matter how far she had fallen, she would find her way back. I trusted that she would not allow...

Would not allow...

She did.

Maybe the galaxy has good reason, these days, to no longer trust in the Jedi.