There had been a lot of behind the scenes preparations for the Council meeting later, things like making sure the Empire could afford to keep a school up and running without outside support. The big details that made the little details possible. The Jedi must have known something was up thanks to the intense radio silence from Bastion after the Sith attack, so when she'd requested a meeting they'd agreed, but it only served to make things more tense until it actually happened.

So when Leia came to meet Jaina a few hours before she blew up her whole life, she already knew something was up. Jaina had also arranged to meet at a tapcafe out of the way- the same place she'd once formed Darkmeld, which meant she knew no one would care to pay attention. And maybe Jaina's expression counted as a red flag, because one they'd hugged and said hello, Leia says, "What's wrong?"

Jaina didn't blurt things out, but she was incapable of beating around the bush, so she was honest right out of the gate, even if she was honest quietly. "We're splitting from the Jedi."

Leia didn't say anything, but she looked a little stunned.

"You didn't see this coming?" Jaina asked.

"The thought had crossed my mind, but I didn't think you'd actually do it," Leia admitted.

"Yeah, well, I've been the last holdout. The kids don't want to be Jedi after this, we can't make them, it's possible they'd never trust the Council again. Jag doesn't see it as an even partnership if we're training kids to be Jedi without getting any help, Allana had to make a choice she didn't want to because she doesn't count on getting help out here even after this happened." The day Allana left for Shedu Maad had been a bit of a turning point for Jaina, wondering what the Jedi had become without Luke if people assumed nothing would change.

"And you don't want to leave?"

"It's not about what I want."

Leia fixed her with a look. "Jaina. Of course it's about what you want."

Jaina sighed, rubbing her face in frustration. "If this was about what I wanted, it'd have worked out the way we planned to start with. I want to know they have my back, our backs. But that's not going to happen, so now I'm left trying to figure out the next step, how my kids are going to grow up, figure out what the hell I even am now."

Leia frowned, and opened her mouth to ask a question, but Jaina waved it off. "Never mind. That's my own crisis to have."

"Sweetheart, you can't tell your mother you're having a crisis and then leave it at that," Leia told her.

It did occur to Jaina that she hadn't thought her mom would be this calm about it; Leia had sided against her in favor of the Jedi before and she hadn't been thrilled about the empress thing, which made Jaina wonder just what she was putting out there that would take precedence over "I'm splitting the family up and going against my whole life's worth of training."

And then she realized that was probably exactly what she was putting out there. Jaina didn't tend to broadcast her feelings even at her worst times, but she was terrible at subtlety.

"Hard to be Sword of the Jedi without the Jedi," she said.

"Since when has that ever stopped you?" Leia asked.

Jaina frowned. "What's that mean?"

"When was the last time you honestly cared about what the Jedi Council thought you should do?" Leia explained. "You've been who you are since long before you ever got a title, terrifying as that sometimes is. They didn't give you that title to begin with."

That was right. They hadn't.

And just like that, Jaina felt a weight lift. "How do you feel about this?"

"I don't know yet," Leia admitted. She and Han had been very clear that they hadn't been okay with how things had gone, considering it had put all their grandchildren at risk. It made Jaina hopeful that there wouldn't be a blowup. "I'll talk to your father before anything happens."

"Then are we okay?" she had to ask. "I can't imagine they'll be happy with you being visible on Bastion after this."

"We'll work it out," Leia said, and smiled. "I've been myself for a long time, too."

[NFB, NFI, etc.]