Timeframe: Two days after Derran's Trial
Setting: Jedi Temple – Inner Reflection Sphere
The Walk Alone
Seris entered the trial alone, clad in gray Initiate robes.
No lightsaber. No tools. No questions asked.
Just a soft wind, echoing through the Inner Reflection Sphere—a meditation chamber rarely used, deep beneath the Temple, carved from crystalized kyber fragments. The light inside refracted endlessly, creating illusions of infinity.
At the center was a simple meditation mat, floating inches above a glassy pool.
She stepped forward and sat.
Her breath slowed.
The chamber dimmed.
And the trial began.
The Mirror Self
At first, Seris was alone.
Then… across the pool from her… a figure appeared.
Not a Sith. Not a monster.
Herself.
But different.
This Seris wore a sharp black tunic. Her posture was perfect. Her face, still—but colder. Her eyes gleamed like burning coals, not curiosity. Power radiated off her.
"You waste your talent," the shadow-Seris said. "Helping others. Teaching the ones who'll fall behind anyway."
Real Seris didn't flinch.
"I've made others better. That's strength."
"Is it?" the other asked. "What happens when they fall? When Cain leaves you behind—when Barriss chooses peace over you—when Anakin becomes something else?"
Real Seris lowered her head slightly, acknowledging the thoughts she'd kept buried.
"I used to believe I had to be the best," she admitted.
The reflection smirked. "You still do."
"But now I know better," she said quietly. "Now I want to be the best for them, not above them."
The reflection's expression faltered.
The Temptation
The mirrored Seris stood now, pacing around the circle. The water didn't ripple under her feet.
"Imagine what you could do," she whispered. "You and Cain—if you stopped waiting for the Council's permission. You already know he's different. So are you. Together, you could burn away all the rot in the Order."
The image shifted behind the shadow—Cain, older, eyes golden, standing at her side, a double-bladed saber in his hand.
Seris's breath caught.
"…You want that," the mirror said.
Seris stood slowly. Her voice trembled—not with fear, but truth.
"I've thought about it."
The chamber pulsed.
"I've dreamed about it."
Light bent around her shoulders.
"But love without control is obsession. Strength without wisdom is collapse."
She stepped forward.
"And I love him enough not to let myself become something he'd have to stop."
The Breakthrough
The mirrored Seris hissed—and lunged.
But the moment she touched real Seris…
…she vanished.
The chamber glowed softly with warm light.
The pool calmed.
Seris remained standing—heart pounding, eyes wide, breath caught—but smiling.
The Council Reflects
In the hidden observation room, Masters Shaak Ti, Yaddle, Gallia, Plo Koon, Fay, and Windu observed.
"She confronted her shadow," Gallia murmured. "And listened, before rejecting it."
Windu nodded. "She did not deny the path. She turned it down knowingly. That is the difference between repression and control."
Shaak Ti added, "Her fire is no longer rage—it is resolve."
Yaddle hummed. "A Knight's soul, she has. But not alone, she walks."
Plo Koon finished: "Her strength only exists because of the others she walks beside. That, too, is wisdom."
The Reunion
Later that evening, Seris entered the Initiates' private garden where the others waited.
Barriss stood and hugged her first. "Well?"
Seris smiled. "I stared down the version of me who thinks I should burn the galaxy down."
"And?" Derran asked.
"I left her behind."
Anakin grinned. "Good. We like this version better."
Cain, sitting quietly under the garden tree, looked at her and nodded.
"Now you're ready."