#laari

What lies did you the tell the Jedi Council to stop them from finding out about Relu and Merkara’s affair?

“You should ask me. My dear brother weaves intricate webs of deception from the safety of his neat little office, but I’m the one doing all the lying.” 

She flashes a polished smile at you. 

“I approached the Jedi Council with my favorite mask of sympathetic concern. I knew that they were getting suspicious of Relu’s absences, so I gave them an explanation that would satisfy them. I told them that their precious Barsen’thor suffered. That he never recovered from the draining effect of the shielding technique, never got over the role he had to play in the extermination of the Emperor’s Children. I made my voice tremble when I told them about the terrible nightmares that woke him every night. I made my eyes brim with tears when I said how I was the only one who knew the extent of his suffering because he didn’t want to bother anyone else. Poor Barsen’thor, he had saved so many, but no one was trying to save him!” 

She makes an exaggerated dramatic gasp and then bursts out laughing. 

“I wasn’t just making it all up, you know. Make a note ― the best lies are the ones that are based on the truth. The Council didn’t even doubt me. The masters of guilt tripping were successfully guilt tripped, some of them couldn’t even look me in the eye. They knew that they had sent an already traumatized young boy into the war, forced him to take the responsibility that was way too heavy for his shoulders, and never stopped pushing him. And I made them acknowledge it. I even made them grateful to me as I convinced them that I was helping Relu and fixing their mistakes. As far as I know, they never questioned him again. They just assumed that he was dealing with his personal issues whenever he ran off into the arms of his Sith.”

She looks at you with an expression of expectation. 

With a lot of help!

Merkara’s advisor, Liran, is a former Intelligence agent and he handles her communication with her allies in the Republic. He greatly disapproves when she starts an affair with Relu, but it’s not like he can do anything about it. So he teaches Merkara how to hide on neutral planets, how to search for surveillance in her environment, how to detect spies, and so on. 

Despite Liran’s best efforts, one person finds out about Relu and Merkara upon close investigation ― Ra’enar, the Emperor’s Wrath. He doesn’t know that they’re romantically involved, he just concludes that Merkara is colluding with an enemy. He’s about to go ahead and accuse her of treason in front of the Dark Council, but Vitiate interferes. Vitiate knows that Merkara transformed herself into a perfect vessel for Force spirits. He considers using her body in the future, so he does not only forbid his Wrath to touch her but also insists on ensuring her continued survival. Ra’enar isn’t happy about it, but he grudgingly follows the order. He keeps people out of Merkara’s business by intimidating the hell out of them. Messing with a Dark Councilor is dangerous enough, who would want to mess with a Dark Councilor and Lord Wrath? 

Relu gets some help on his side too, even though he has no idea. Laari, Liran’s sister, infiltrated the Jedi Order years ago and has been more or less in touch with her brother. Liran contacts her and asks to keep an eye on Relu because Relu might be Merkara’s most important ally and the key to ending the war. Laari thinks that Relu is dreadfully boring, but she goes along with this task. At one point the Jedi Council is about to discover Relu’s secret relationship, but Laari saves him just in time. 

They do! It happens when Fianya decides to defect to the Republic. She intends to tell Laari the entire truth because she’s tired of deceiving everyone, she wants to be honest with someone she cares about for the first time in her life. She expects that Laari would be disappointed in her. She doesn’t expect that Laari would laugh in her face, but that’s what happens. 

And they realize that they fell in love with each other’s cover identities. Their very real feelings are attached to beautifully portrayed fiction. It’s worse in Laari’s case because she has nothing in common with her cover identity, it’s an entirely different person. Jedi Master Xanaethe is dedicated and honorable, she cares about people a lot and is always willing to help. Imperial agent Laari is a pathological liar who betrays her friends, manipulates her brother, and messes with people’s heads. At least Fianya’s cover is intertwined with her real self because she was raised to be an infiltrator, it’s the only life she knows. Fianya can’t really tell where she ends and her second identity begins, but for Laari it’s like pulling a switch. 

I haven’t talked about it, but they have a weird thing going on!

They don’t meet until Relu becomes the Barsen’thor and attracts the attention of Laari’s boss. And if someone in the Order attracts the attention of Laari’s boss, she has to keep her eye on them. Still, she doesn’t want to get too close because she knows that Relu senses people through the Force very strongly. She’s afraid that he might see right through her cover identity, so she just watches him from afar and avoids direct contact.

About two years later, Liran contacts Laari and also asks about Relu. Merkara has just started working with Relu as her new reluctant ally, so Liran wants to know more about him. He doesn’t understand why someone like Relu would agree to work with a Sith, and he just doesn’t trust Force-users in general. Laari has to laugh at the second request to spy on Relu. She’s all “Why is everyone interested in him? He’s so boring. All he does is meditate, say cryptic philosophical stuff, and go on diplomatic missions.” But this time she’s more confident in her deception skills, so she starts to interact with Relu. And he’s still boring ― probably spends all of his free time in a confessional.

But when the Council almost finds out that Relu has a secret affair with a Sith, Laari helps him out. It goes like this

Relu: Aren’t you supposed to be judging me? Any Jedi would judge me. So why did you help me?

What Laari thinks: Because you’re useless to my brother if they kick you out of the Order. And, by the way, your Sith is my brother’s boss.

What Laari says: Call it Jedi Master solidarity. Besides, it’s funny, I thought that you’re incredibly boring. And here you are, banging a Dark Councilor when no one is looking. Consider me impressed.

Relu: And how do you know that she’s a Dark Councilor?

Laari: You mentioned it.

Relu: No, I didn’t.

Laari: Yes, you did.

Relu: *narrows his eyes suspiciously*

Relu meets Xala first, so they still get to become friends. But their friendship doesn’t go anywhere in this AU because then Relu has that painful experience with Merkara, and his reaction is basically: “So I develop one close relationship and this is what happens? I'm not doing that again.”