Book 2 of the 'Adventures of Arleia Skywalker/Forget Me Not' series. When Reality Is A Lie
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars
I am a mess, this much is true
My mind's clear enough to get me through
No matter what you're sill my master
Despite your age you still fight faster
It's one hell of a battle, but I'll see it through.
No matter how broken I get, I will save you.
I'm in love with the safety you project,
A chance to betray you I'll always reject.
The times I have hurt you I forever regret,
No matter what I know that you'd never forget.
My name is Arleia Skywalker…sometimes… I am seven years old…sort of…It's my job to save reality, to save my family...I failed once, I cannot fail again…you'll help me, won't you?...Just one thing…And don't ever forget it…Reality lies…
Chapter 1
"What the fuck?!" Arlie says as she realises she's seven again, as in again again. As in this is not the first time this happened, so she reiterates, "What the fuck?! No, you know what no, go fuck yourself! I am done, I'm done, reality can save itself and you, you stupid force, can go fuck yourself. I am not going to save you, we've seen how that turns out. So, one more time, go fuck yourself."
"Now is that necessary Arleia, the force doesn't really appreciate it." A familiar voice says from behind her, she whirls around.
"Madam Force-Seer?" Arlie asks surprised.
"Yes Arlie, it's me." She replies.
"Where the bloody hell have you been?! You leave me on Earth for ten years and then abandon me again through everything! NONE OF IT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HAD JUST LEFT ME ALONE!"
"Arlie, you said you'd help the Jedi be ready to evolve, they did but it took a war to get them there. You have another chance now, and before you yell at me again, it was not me that did this, that is not within my power."
"Then who did? I'd like to know whose ass to kick." Arlie says before taking a deep breath. "I tried, I spent thirty years trying."
"You know more now, know what you must do." She tells her young, sort of, charge.
"You know what's going to happen? Xanatos is going to come through that door. I could save him, but if I do Obi-Wan won't get a Master. My every choice will have consequences that I will not always be able to predict, what the fuck do you expect me to do!?" The wookiee smiled at her. "Who the bloody hell even are you?!"
"What you should have been doing for the last thirty years. Listen to your instincts, listen to the force, they are more alike than you like to think." Then she looks very serious, apparently completely ignoring Arlie's other question. "Arlie do you know why Yoda hated you so much?" Arlie shakes her head, "It's because he remembered you." Her Mentor tells her before disappearing.
"What the fuck?!"
It's only three days before Xanatos turns up this time.
"Um, hi, sorry I was not expecting a person in here." Arlie realises very quickly that it's going to be very annoying hearing things for the second time.
"Well that's probably because closets aren't meant to hold people." Arlie growls.
"This isn't a closet, it's a cell." Xanatos tells her, she looks confused.
"What?!" She asks as she steps out of the room and looks at it from the outside instead of melting it. "Why would they put me in a cell? I'm a slave I've spent my whole life learning the consequences of running." Arlie says confused.
"You're a slave?" Xanatos asks, Arlie smiles enjoying the chance to see him before everything went wrong.
"I was." Arlie replies offhandedly as she works through what she knows in her head. Unfortunately it was a short list, nothing. She turns her attention back to Xanatos and closely scrutinizes his force presence.
"I can feel that, what are you doing?!" Xanatos demands suspiciously.
"Trying to determine whether you are friend or foe. You know Jedi are supposed to have a modicum of serenity. You may wish to try it sometime, it may allow you to see your Master's perspective on things. If he sees you trying to do that he may be more inclined to see yours as well." She tells him, she decides to do whatever the fuck she wants as things happen, fuck the future and fuck reality.
"How do you know about that?" He asks angrily, she sighs as she regains her perfect composure, she may hate them all but she is still a trained Jedi Master.
"Well, with the trouble you seem to be having controlling your emotions, I can't imagine you get along well."
"…Fair point. I think you should come meet my Master." Xanatos tells her.
"As you wish." She replies, she spends the short walk there debating how to proceed. Does she go with them to the Jedi? Or go completely off script? She could go free her mother and brother, or at least be on Tatooine to keep Anakin from the Jedi. Could train him herself so that he isn't dangerous to himself. She knew none of that would work. She could just go and straight up shoot Palpatine now and be done with it. She could go nuts and join the Sith…yeah no. She could tell the council the truth, they wouldn't believe her. She could tell Winni? Could she even face any of them? Her brother killed them all and she didn't stop him when she had the chance. Then she tried to murder him out of revenge for her brother and love. So many different options, she really hates the force, the universe, everything.
A face, a face she can't quite see, it's there, staring at her with sickly yellow eyes, it's climbing out of the in-between and it's angry.
'You knew this would happen!' Obi yells standing in the middle of the council chamber, he's looking directly at her as she sits in her council chair. 'You did nothing! Again!'
'I'm trying to save you dammit!' Dooku yells over the noise of a building falling down around them, 'I'd rather die than join you!' she yells back from under the pillar that's fallen on her.
'I loved you." Garen says as he holds her, his lightsaber through her chest, she can't breathe. Blood is pouring over her purple armour as Garen takes the baby from her pliable arms. Water begins rising around her as he walks away. Some part of her knows help isn't coming.
That face is haunting her, hunting her, it is her. 'You should never have come back!' She yells.
She jerks as she snaps back to reality just in time to keep from walking into Xan who has stopped walking. She hadn't thought of that dream since before the war started. The scary thing is, some of it happened. Not quite like that but what if it still would? She did end up in that room again, she ended up on the council, Obi yelled at her about doing nothing when she knew it would happen. Not to mention Darth Vader. She could keep it all from happening, couldn't she? The fact that she didn't again see the events that have now occurred, the room, the moment with Vader, suggests that the Force still thinks the others will, that scares her more than it should have given that she had been certain she'd given up on that feeling long ago.
"Padawan where have you been? We're leaving. Who is this?" Qui-Gon says, she stared at him for a second too long, it had been so many years.
"Um hi, I'm Arlie." She says dumbly before recovering her wits. "Sorry about holding him up, I was a prisoner here and Xanatos saved me." She explains.
"That's not what we are here for Padawan." Qui scolds while Xanatos looks at her and says "How do you know my name?" Arlie winces at both.
"Okay, not quite what I meant. These people kidnapped me and locked me up. Not so much a liberation as a rescue." She backtracks, Jinn looks mollified somewhat. "And you broadcast loudly." She tells Xanatos, it was true after all, his shields were abysmal. Maybe this would get him to fix it and he could get knighted.
"It is a sad day when a politician on Naboo notices your lack of sufficient shielding and still you haven't learnt your lesson." Jinn tells his Padawan earning an unimpressed look, Arlie hides hers well but steps up in front of him in full general mode.
"Perhaps if you attempted to teach this lesson instead of making him learn it alone, it would have been done years ago." She tells him.
"Arlie, I appreciate you trying to help me but he's right, if a force null can tell, it's pretty bad." Arlie thinks for a moment before her eyes widen a fraction, the only outward sign of her surprise.
"This force null politician, Sheev Palpatine?" She asks, he looks at her confused but nods slightly. (Force null.) She thinks, (FORCE NULL MY DAMNED ASS, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!) her shielding, luckily, is amazing and they hear nothing.
"Why?" Jinn asks suspiciously, dammit this was not going well, FUCK EVERYTHING, okay she really needed to meditate but dammit she watched the love of her god damned life murder by this stupid evil Sith that was once her brother, then spent god knows how long being tortured by him and now what? None of it has happened? Fucking fuck that!
(Okay deep breath Arls.) Dammit now she was thinking in the third fucking person, ARGHH. "Because I've been stuck in a tiny room, or, cell or whatever the fuck it was for a month." She says, dark and cold, so dark and cold. She didn't want to be alone again (BREATHE DAMMIT! Okay yelling doesn't help, fucking fuuuuck okay calm down, calm. Down. Arghh what do I do how do I calm, wait what was it?
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me happy, when skies are grey
you'll never know dear, how much I love you
please don't take my sunshine away.
Okay, now speak.) "My apologies, it's been a stressful few years." (Understatement of the fucking century.)
"How old are you?" Jinn asks, Arlie almost panics again before she remembers her mentor's words.
Listen to your instincts, listen to the force
"Seven." She replies calmly, he looks surprised.
"Perhaps you should return to Coruscant with us." Arlie smiles at him.
"Somehow I knew you'd say that." She replies, "Fine, I'm not exactly going to stay here, now am I?" Xanatos smiles at her, apparently warming up to her.
On the ship, they start having the same argument as before, she sighs to herself and drops her head into her hands.
"Let me guess, you have something to say about this as well." Qui-Gon states sounding more sarcastic than she thinks she's ever heard him.
"I was considering that perhaps you two just weren't a good pairing. You have the potential to be an exceptional teacher, and you a strong and kind Jedi Master, but you're blocking each other's success." She says looking to them both in turn, it was something no one had considered before, but was the simplest answer. "Food for thought." She replies before heading out of the cockpit and finding a place to sit down and meditate.
A few hours later they arrive on Coruscant, Jinn takes them straight to the council chamber as he had the first time. (The first time, does that even make sense? I've got to remember everything my mentor told me when she first trained me, that time is a matter of perception. I could consider this my second, or third technically, life. The second time I've gone through these events, or look at it as the first given that before didn't happen. But if time doesn't exist how can everything be repeating the same way? What is more confusing is my Mentor saying she doesn't have the ability to do this, it's a relatively simple concept. I'm 90% sure I could have done this. But then who else has knowledge enough of the in-between to make the jump? And also, if time doesn't exist, then how can speed? That's literally just distance over time. And what about time dilation around strong gravity distortions like black holes?)
Just as before, or whatever, Qui stands in the centre of the room with Xan to his right and slightly behind. For her part, Arlie just leans against the doorway not sure she wants to properly enter the room she watched her Vader slaughter children in. She really hates every single person in this room, she wasn't sure when her hatred extended to her Masters, but she'd get over that. That being said, she was so happy to see them again, she'd seen so many slaughtered at the hand of her bro…no Vader, nothing would undo that, but maybe this would help her heal. (Or possibly do the opposite.) She thinks to herself as she looks over every council member, picking up a great many things she hadn't noticed the first time she met them thirty years ago. Now that she's looking at him specifically, Arlie can see a flash of recognition in Yoda's eyes followed by some nostalgic sadness. (What the fuck is that about?) she thinks deciding puzzling it out should be a high priority of hers.
"Master Jinn, you seem to have picked up a passenger, who might this be?" Mace asks, yep she's broken again. The most important person in her many lives and he doesn't remember her.
"This is Arlie, she was on board the Trade Federation's freighter." Qui tells them, Arlie freezes (The Trade Federation…?)
"Xanatos fell five weeks after he found Arl, Qui-Gon dies just after finding Anakin, Dooku gets forced into some precarious position with them and Palpatine's new target is Anakin. Not to mention Anakin's Master is his son and you just happen to be the padawan of his brother." Bellan says looking at Arlie for the last part.
"But I'm nobody? I'm just a slave." Arlie says when everyone looks at her with calculating gazes.
"You're a lot more than that Arl, you're the first person in a thousand years give or take a few hundred, that had been trained to use force-magic. You said it wasn't light or dark right? Maybe it's a threat to whatever he is doing which makes you a threat. If he is targeting you he seems to be corrupting or taking everything important to you, trying to leave you alone. I think he wants you on his side."
(Oh crap.)
"I think you'll make a good apprentice."
(They were right, he saw me melt that room. That's why he was after me. It was me all along, my fault.)
"Bring her here you should not have." Yoda tells Qui-Gon, Arlie resists the urge to roll her eyes.
"I believe you should give her the initiates test, she is no force null, and she knows much of the Jedi." Qui replies.
"She is also right here and not appreciating you speaking of her as though she cannot hear you Master Jinn, Master Yoda." She tells them not breaking her composure but still managing to seem annoyed, all look shocked. She needed to stay, she needed Mace. Arlie walks forward and towards her target as she keeps herself from second guessing what she was doing. "Hello, my name is Arl Aa, and you are?" She asks as she holds out her hand for Mace to take. She's not certain why she gave that name, she was sure she'd never use it again. Perhaps it was a sign that she needed to embrace the ways of the Jedi from the beginning, or be Master Aa again and not some dumb Padawan.
Listen to your instincts, listen to the force
(Right, I can do that.)
"You know of me but not of him?" Qui-Gon asks confusedly.
"No, Xan was thinking of the two of you, he has not yet thought of, ah Mace Windu, head of the order." Arlie says even as Xanatos thinks of Mace, it's a good cover but she feels marginally guilty for getting him in trouble. "Xanatos, do me a favour, picture a wall being built, the bricks being laid higher and higher, many walls surrounding a single area with you inside it. Many layers getting stronger and stronger protecting you from all outside forces." Arl says pleased when he does as she says.
"Why?" He asks.
"She's just taught you to shield your mind." Micah tells him.
"It's that simple?" He asks looking at his Master like he's nuts.
"It would not have been compatible for me, I suppose I never thought of it like that, my apologies Padawan." Qui-Gon says truly meaning it, he was beginning to think perhaps the child was right and they were a bad pairing.
"Impressive." Mace says grabbing the hand she was still partially holding out and shaking it. She feels the training bond be created and snap into place like it was always supposed to be there.
"That was a force created training bond, my gods I've never witnessed the creation of one before." Depa says awe in her voice, Arlie's got to say, it's a lot nicer going through all this when she knows who they are as they speak.
"Miss Aa, would you do me the honour of joining the Jedi Order and becoming my Padawan?" Master Windu asks shocking all occupants of the room.
"Mace she's far too old." Micah says, Arl now fully recognises the teasing in his voice and sighs when she realises she's going to have to get them back together. She thinks she understands better now why Yoda meddles so much, it's hard not to when she knows they would be happier.
"It's force-willed Micah, we follow the will of the force." Master Windu shoots back, Mic raises his hands in the universal I surrender position, but Arlie can see the mirth lighting up his eyes.
"The honour would be all mine Master Windu." She replies now knowing the correct response, he looks confused but pleased as she says the traditional line.
"Well at least you won't be starting from scratch Master Windu, she clearly already has an understanding of the force." Qui tells him.
"But control it can she?" Yoda asks inquisitively and a modicum of condescension.
"Control it she can and show you she will when stop speaking as though she is not here you do." Arlie replies with a kind smile, Yoda glares at her, she just keeps smiling even as she moves to stand beside Jinn once more. Micah barely covers the smile and laugh with a cough into his hands, she meets his eyes delighted by the amused twinkle in them. She notices Qui-Gon tense beside her and sees the miffed look on Xanatos' face and realises they are arguing through the training bond, typical. She glances at Xanatos motioning with her head to Qui with an expectant look on her face. He takes a deep breath, she assumes he apologises because whatever he says throws Qui-Gon off so much that he actually looks surprised.
"Something you'd like to share with the rest of us?" Adi asks.
"No Masters, I believe we will be all right." Qui-Gon says with a small smile, some tension that had been on everyone's, including her, shoulders is instantly lifted as though they had all been waiting for him to say it. It was clear no one had missed the double meaning. By some odd instinct she locks eyes with Yoda who looks appreciative as if knowing she had something to do with it, she smiles and nods to him, he smiles back.
"Something to show us I believe you do, proceed you may if wish to you do." Arl smiles kindly since he asked instead of ordered, she wonders what was so different so far that he had changed his entire approach to her. Deciding not to drown everyone this time she smiles coming up with an idea. She moves her hands in a certain intricate fashion before pushing the force through to follow her will, it was odd, she's only just realised how little she used this ability over the years. Suddenly the room's walls, floor, ceiling and chairs are all ice but the people are untouched. She puts skates on the bottom of Xanatos' feet and her own, he nearly falls but she uses force-magic to keep him upright before dragging him around the ice, she makes snow fall as she helps him skate around the room Micah is smiling and laughing, in fact everyone looks rather happy and Xan looks terrified but ecstatic. Arl spares a thought and a hand to putting skates on everyone else's shoes giving them the option, Micah drags Mace up as he attempts to skate, Mace doesn't look happy with the idea but humours him.
"What are we doing?" Xanatos yells over the sound of laughing and falling councillors.
"Ice skating! You've never been?" She asks, he shakes his head. She looks around and sees everyone looking surprised at their feet and realises none of them have even heard of it. She's just introduced ice skating to this universe. Then Arlie saw something she thought she'd never see, Yarael smiled.
"I think that may be enough Padawan Aa." Yarael says though he looks happy. She nods, guiding Xanatos back to his master, Arl then goes and shows her Masters how to skate back, Mace picks it up easily while he and Arl end up dragging Micah back. Then she unfreezes the room and the skates, stops the snow, melts it all and then dries it until it's as though nothing happened.
(Much better than rain.) She thinks happily.
"Well, I'd say that's demonstration enough, Qui-Gon would you please give your report on your actual mission?" Saesee requests, it was more of a compliment than she's heard from him before.
"Of course Master, The Trade Federation do not seem fond of the Jedi and refused." He replies succinctly.
"Troubling this is but expected. Another way we will find." Yoda announces, soon after they are all dismissed, she follows Mace back to their quarters, it's rather odd to see it without all the knick knacks Mic and Arlie had forced upon Mace but she'll fix it she's sure. Arlie's suddenly caught by the horrible thought that she's now actively lying to her Master again except now she cares and knows she can trust him. Now she's angry again,
(I fucking hate the force, why would it do this? What possible purpose could this have? You'd think I'd fucked up so spectacularly last time that it would have found something else to save it.)
"Are you all right Padawan?" Mace asks, Arl realises she's scowling and breathes her anger out into the force, she hates doing it but the force can suffer, she breathes out that as well.
"Quite, thank you." She replies, he looks her over.
"Most initiates your age do not have that kind of control over their emotions and they've usually been here for years, it's rather impressive." He tells her, she smiles at him.
"Master if I truly had control of my emotions I'd have had no need to release them into the force." She replies, he looks even more impressed. She supposes she is acting like a forty-eight-year-old Jedi Master and High General rather than a seven-year-old padawan with no Jedi experience.
"Where did you learn how to do any of this? And what was that back there?" she suppresses a sigh as she thinks carefully about what to say, she stands with her hands clasped in front of her, back straight and looking confident and in control.
"I learnt from a wookiee, I believe she was a Jedi at some point though I'm not sure when. I'm afraid I have no more information about her than that." (Besides she's a force-seer but you don't need to know that) "That was Force-Magic. It's a technique that's been out of practice for about a thousand years, you see a very long time ago there were no Jedi or Sith. It was just a group of people who knew how to listen to the force and I've no idea what they called themselves. Anyway, eventually the group splintered and became the Jedi and the Sith, neither side decided to keep using and teaching Force-Magic because they both believed it of neither the light nor dark side of the force and so it's techniques were lost to the centuries." She explains, he looks thoughtful.
"How do you know this? And how did this wookiee learn it then?" He asks though he does not look to be in denial about anything she's said.
"A lot of research, and I'm not sure. My mentor told me that the force had taught her but I don't know if she meant that literally, nothing I've learnt would show that to be possible but I'm not one to rule things out without definitive proof of its impossibility."
"A wise philosophy." Mace tells her. Micah comes over while Mace is giving Arlie her padawan braid, yet another thing happening differently this time.
"You guys realise you left the door open, right?" Micah asks after just walking in.
"I did not notice." Mace replies honestly as Arlie tries not to laugh.
"So, Arlie, right?" Micah asks as he plops down onto the floor beside her, she's sitting by her Masters feet as he's on the couch so that he could make the braid.
"Yes, Master Giiett." She replies suppressing a smile when they both looked shock at her use of his name.
"All right we'll come back to that, I have a far more important question. Where did you learn to run on ice?" He asks Arlie smiles at his antics carefully shielding away the rush of affection she felt for the man.
"My owners once took me to Hoth, it's common practice there." She answers with the first thing that came to mind. She was certainly being more open this time but they would not yet believe her if she told them of Earth.
"You were a slave?" Micah asks looking a little disturbed but she knows him well enough to know it's the practice of slavery he's disgusted by, not slaves themselves.
"Yes, before pirates, well apparently it was actually the trade federation, boarded our ship and kidnapped me. Actually, I suppose given they illegally boarded the ship and took the owner's property, that is piracy." She muses still rather disturbed in the trade federation's involvement though she covers it easily.
"Why would they take you?" Mace asks, Arl ponders this for a moment as her Master lowers himself onto the floor beside her having finished her braid.
"I'm unsure honestly, I suppose it may have something to do with my father, or maybe they just hated my owners, perhaps they fucked with the federation at some point. I've never had a run in with them until they attacked, I'm from Tatooine you see, even they don't go there."
"Language padawan."
"Sorry, would you prefer Huttese? Old Nubian perhaps?" Micah looks amused her Master looks terrified, it takes her a moment to realise how much she screwed up. (Old Nubian, oh I done fucked.)
Micah ends up crashing on the couch that night, in the morning there was no council meeting, since yesterday's hadn't been cut short, so after breakfast Mace takes her straight to the salle. Arlie looks around and sees more than a few people she had watched die, had sent to their deaths, people Vader killed, and a few that had fallen and killed others. She's a general dammit, she will not be beaten by old ghosts no matter how lively they now are. She sees Quinlan Vos with a Padawan Braid, that's weird, fighting his Master. She winces as he goes down.
"If he'd followed through with that last swing he'd have won that." She says as Mace stands next to her earning her a puzzled look.
"Fight me." He says holding out a lightsaber she knows he built for her, she smiles and accepts it this time. She hadn't seen the blade in years, lost it when Garen decided flying like a fucking insane person over Mon Calamari was a good idea.
She waits until he attacks sliding between his legs pulling them both as she does, he falls face first and she hears a snap she thinks is his nose.
"Ow." He complains as he sits up, yeah there's a lot of blood.
"Sorry Master." She says before using force-magic to heal his nose floats over a towel from the rack on the wall and giving it to him to clean the blood away.
"That's frivolous use of the force Padawan, but thank you. You should consider going into healing." He tells her after wiping away the blood.
"Is that just because you don't want to get beaten again?" she asks sweetly with an innocent smile, his eyes light up at the challenge presented.
"Let's go again."
They spar for a few hours, Mace ending up on his ass several times. "All right, I yield." He finally says, she lets him out of the hold she had him in and helps him up.
"Most impressive young Padawan, when my former Padawan told me of Mace's newest student I almost didn't believe he went against protocol, but now I see why." Dooku says, she looks at the chrono and realise they are indeed back at the time they would have finished their first fight had they had their council meeting. She sees Qui-Gon looking impressed and Xanatos smiling at her looking far less drained than he did the last time.
"How kind of you, I'm Padawan Aa, pleasure to make your acquaintance." She tells him bowing the perfect distance that all Padawan's seemed to think you learn upon obtaining your mastery when really, it's just habit after so many years. Not that she would ever tell a Padawan that, (Great now I miss Quilo.) she thinks sadly.
"Master Dooku, and the pleasure is mine." He replies with a smile that no longer set her on edge, though she felt the cold feeling she always had around the man. It was nothing like the moment he told her he had murdered Xan.
(No, I am not thinking about this right now.) she scolds herself.
"I came down here to assess my Grand-Padawan's skills, would the two of you care to join us?" Dooku offered, Arlie sees the assessing look in his eyes and ponders for a moment if it was more than her skills with a lightsaber he was judging. She nods slightly when Mace looks to her to check if she wanted to, Arl didn't realise it the first time round but here, he was granting her a kindness that most Master's would not have. Stupid fucking Jedi.
"We would like that Master Dooku, that is, if Master Jinn doesn't object?" Master Windu answers, Arl looks at her Master before looking pointedly at Xan and back again with a pleading look in her eyes, begging him to trust her on this. "And if Padawan Xanatos doesn't mind of course, he is after all, the one being assessed." Mace adds receiving a startled look from the three Jedi present.
"Xanatos?" Master Jinn asked looking at his Padawan who seemed floored by the concept of his opinion being taken into account.
"I have no objection Master." Xanatos replies giving Master Windu and Master Jinn a very grateful look. And so, they watched as Xanatos and Master Jinn sparred. After the match, Master Dooku gave his observations to both student and teacher as did Master Windu.
"Why not have Miss Skywalker give you advice on listening to the force during a fight?" Master Dooku suggested of Xanatos who looked uncomfortable.
"One would think the Master training him could handle that." Arlie says immediately, Qui-Gon and Mace give her an unhappy glare, she inwardly sighs. "What I mean to say is, perhaps if Xan were to tell Master Jinn the parts of his training he doesn't understand, then Master Jinn could find someone that could try a different method of teaching in order to help Xanatos learn. I have been here for less than a day and am by no means qualified to tutor a Senior Padawan." Arlie tells them all trying for her diplomatic voice. Slightly harder to do with a whiny seven-year-old's voice.
"Should not Master Jinn be capable of training his own Padawan?" Dooku challenges, Arlie gives him a patient smile, the one she used when explaining complicated tactical concepts to Quilo.
"Of course, but is it not more important that Master Jinn put what is best for his Padawan's future ahead of his own desire to train his Padawan alone?" She responds keeping her face neutral and unchallenging. When she was truly younger, she would have loved the chance to banter with the man, but she was no longer an obnoxious and cynical seventeen-year-old. She would rise above such childish nonsense, at least for now.
"Quite." Was Dooku's reply. "I've also noted that your skills in shielding are much improved dear Padawan of my Padawan." He tells Xanatos whose head ducks slightly.
"Thank you Grand-Master, Padawan Aa helped me with that actually." Xan says, Arl could have kicked him in that moment. Could he not just let his Grand-Master have confidence in his capabilities.
"Not qualified, hmm?" Dooku says rising an eyebrow in challenge, Arl won the battle to keep from rolling her eyes, marginally.
"Well there is only so much instruction one can give before it becomes the responsibility of the student to put it into practice, a truly great accomplishment of yours Xan, especially given how long you have struggled with it." Arl replies smiling at the man who was once her saviour, she shielded well so that no one would feel it as her heart hurt in a way it hadn't for years.
"Indeed, surely a recognition of your accomplishments is in order Grand-Padawan, perhaps dinner in the commissary. Master Windu, I'd be delighted if you and your Padawan would accompany us, given the help your youngling gave our dear Xan." Dooku says with a proud smile on his face. If there was one thing Arlie had learnt about her long ago friend, it's that he won't see anything but more lessons to learn until someone forces him to look back on what has already been achieved.
"That sounds like a fantastic idea, Master Windu?" Qui-Gon asks jumping onto the idea if only to give his Padawan the support from Dooku that he was never gifted with.
"Assuming the Padawans have no objections we'd be delighted." Winni replies, Arl and Xan exchange happy looks before agreeing enthusiastically.
A few hours later they were in the commissary enjoying themselves just as they had last time. Arl could admit she was already sick of the quoting, however it was more than worth it to have this again. Arlie must have said something drastically different because instead of merely being proud of Xanatos, Dooku was actively giving him advice about his training that Xanatos could truly understand in a way he just couldn't with Qui-Gon, yet more evidence that they weren't a good pair to start with.
"I must say Padawan your vocabulary and general understanding of things is quite advanced for a seven-year-old." Dooku says during their meal after their laughter died down from an old joke Mace had told, they had gotten several bewildered looks from that. Arlie thinks that happened last time as well but now understands it is from Dooku and Mace laughing at all, not to mention with Xanatos and Qui-Gon. Arlie also thinks Dooku said this last time, but with something about pirates raising her, she was extremely glad that hadn't gotten around again, she still wanted to kill Garen for that.
(Except I can't because some indeterminate amount of time ago he was slaughtered in front of me by the evil Sith that was once my brother. Nope, don't do this to yourself Arls, breathe out the anger. And answer Dooku, if you wait much longer you'll sound like a kriffing crazy person!) "I grew up surrounded by very intelligent people." Arlie replies, Mace looks at her oddly. (Right he knows about Tatooine, redirect REDIRECT!) "Okay, person, my mother was a very well spoken woman." She tells them.
"A well spoken woman you have not seen since you were five…" Mace says confusedly, Arlie keeps her face carefully neutral when inside she wanted to throttle her former...no wait…current Master.
"It's a lot easier to survive in that kind of life if you are easily understood and know which words to say to avoid getting blown to pieces." Arlie tells him, which is true, and her Mother is good with words, it just isn't how Arlie learnt. She learnt through experience and having an English teacher as a Mother on Earth. Not that English and Basic are the same language, but there are more than enough similarities that she can twist words in Basic as well as she can in English, not to mention the languages and ways of speaking she has picked up throughout her life in this universe. And her Mentor had had a way with words.
"And what kind of life, may I ask, was that?" Dooku questions, Arlie spares a thankful look to both Jinn and Xan that they hadn't mentioned it without asking her, even though it would not have bothered her, it was just a nice gesture that she appreciated.
"I was a slave on Tatooine for two and a half years of my life. Then I spent almost two years travelling across many different outer rim planets with different owners and then a month, I think, on another ship after I was kidnapped." Arl says honestly but specifically leaving out the trade federation. She wants to somehow tell Dooku that at some point, see if his reaction will tell her if he is already involved with Sheev, however she couldn't now. Saying it so openly would cause political repercussions she did not want to be responsible for.
"That's only four and a half years, where were you the other three?" Dooku asks, to most people he would appear rude, the other three seem to have given up hoping he wouldn't be, but Arlie knew better. He wasn't being rude, he was reading her reactions to the conversation and judging its directions from that, she was also well aware that he knew she could tell and he knew she was doing the same.
"Where indeed?" She replies with a smirk, "The freighter I was born on. I can't remember the specifics of where we were but I believe we were planet hopping in an attempt to flee the Hutts. My owner at the time had fucked one of them over big time." She replies with a cruel smile, "For that he lost all the slaves he had had, given to Jabba as compensation and then sold off again, in the case of my mother and I, to a salesman on Tatooine." This was far more than she had ever told anyone in any lifetime, her Mother wasn't aware that she remembered so much, but that kind of thing is not easily forgotten, not even at three years old.
"What happened to him? The…freighter captain I mean?" Xanatos asks awkwardly avoiding the word 'owner' and interrupting Mace's reprimand of her language that was half-hearted at best given the topic.
"I've no idea actually. Still out there being the most vile thing I've ever come across. Useless waste of carbon if you ask me." Arlie mutters irately.
"I'm sure there are worst things that you'll meet Padawan." Mace tells her in a voice that says she should let go of such preconceptions.
(I once stood in a room with two Siths and the corpse of the dark Jedi that had once been my best friend. There is nothing worse than that man.) She thinks but out loud says "I suppose you are right Master. I just hope I never have to deal with him again." Mace nods acknowledging the point.
Later, Arlie finds herself looking out of the window with Xan beside her introducing her to the buildings they could see as he had many times before, the man really loves Coruscant and knows it all well. Knowing what he would say next she decides to say what she had never truly said before.
"Xan, I just want to say thank you, so very very much. Who knows where the hell I'd be by now if you hadn't rescued me. You could have left me there, so many things that could have gone differently and instead I am here in the best place I have ever been. I can never tell you how thankful I am to you for this chance you have given me, even if it wasn't your intention. So, thank you Xanatos, you're my saviour, you always will be." She tells him as tears fill her eyes for so many reasons, but above all, it's for exactly the reasons anyone watching them would expect, she almost feels seven-years-old for real. Xanatos wraps an arm around her shoulders as they gaze out of the window.
"I was just about to thank you as well actually. I have been trying to live up to some unrealistic expectation that no one truly had for me, it's been a day and already I am doing far better now that I have lost that misconception. So, I guess we are even, I brought you here, and you helped me stay." He tells her briefing looking down at her to smile, she smiles back.
"You'll make a wonderful Jedi knight Xanatos, you need to believe in yourself instead of relying on others to believe in you." She tells him snuggling into his side slightly.
"So my brother-padawan says." She smirks, marginally glad he can't see it.
"I'm sure Feemor does." She replies before walking away and back to their table leaving a bewildered senior Padawan behind.