Untouchables.
Readers – take a chance on this story. It's been racking around my brain for a long time. It will get deeper, more connected to what we all are familiar etc…Yet it's a stand alone. So if you like that style – you won't be disappointed. Enjoy Felley's story…it's hers after all.
-Lighthope1
To start...
Finding out about Ahsoka's choice to leave the order left a void in my heart. Personally, all I wanted to know was what would happen to us next. This war had gone on for so long – remembering a time before the war seemed like a dream. Ahsoka had been my friend, a fellow Padawan learner, and Jedi. Darkness clouded our choices more than ever now. All of us had an unknown future.
But to tell this right …really right …I must start from the beginning.
-Chapter One-
This story begins with me. I am a padawan learner much like Ahsoka who was thrown into the chaos of the Clone Wars. My name is Felley Kiro and this is my story. I was born on the planet of Kiffu and found at an early age by Quinlan Vos. He took me back to the Jedi temple to be trained.
My force sensitive had a strong gift for healing. Yoda believed I should be placed under the guidance of the strict healer Jedi Vokara Che. The council believed she was the best choice for me. Vokara was harsh, blunt and often was infuriated by anyone who disrupted the healing of her patients. She had a kindness towards her patients that was not shown to others. Her bedside manner was less desirable and the older I became our disagreements deepened. Master Che heavily believed in the power of meditation and its healing properties.
Vokara seemed indifferent by my presence as her Padawan. It reflected in her training with me in the healing chambers and in the lab. I was far more gifted in the lab area over patients. Her values blurred in the ways of the force. Later on, I would find out she was a gray Jedi. Vokara strongly believing that regardless of what side of the war you were on you deserved to be saved. While we were in the business of saving lives, politics and the Jedi council chose who our patients were instead of her. In a time before the clone wars, Master Che had more freedom.
She sent me out to medical labs across the galaxy to find healing agents for the injured and to meet with Galaxy representatives for medical support for the Clone Wars. This is the un-talked about aspect of the war. Relationships were everything. This side of the war was not often seen however it was an essential backbone of everyone alive. These tasks seemed to border the line of diplomatic in nature, something that Chancellor Palpatine had a vested interested in.
When I was with Vokara, we focused on teachings in patience and body language. Our training sessions were intense, force centered and draining on my mental capacities. It was how Vokara had been trained and it made me long for my journeys away from her. Things might have been different if the clone wars were not happening.
Master Che did recognize that teaching was a privilege and something to be passed on. She might not have been the best candidate for it. She had lost a padawan to illness early in her Jedi years. There was a constant comparison to a ghost because of it.
I spent most of my time in the Outer Rim, while my master stayed at the temple on Coruscant. This was a very unconventional arrangement that left the high council in mixed objection. It was experimental. I was messing with many unknowns while focused on healing agents infused with the force. It was something very few people knew about beyond my Master. Nobody knew then if it would be a success.
My day to day was injured clones, tubes, and new healing agents sent to be tested on the wounded. My interactions with the war were often very removed. Rarely did I interact with healthy clones and the war front. However, as the war dragged on and the number of Jedi became fewer, I was called to the front lines by the council. Something that Master Che did not want.
Vokara resented the requests from the Jedi Council. She petitioned for me to be left to research. Out of desperation, she went to the extreme of getting Chancellor Palpatine involved. This escalated the request quite quickly in the worst timing. Much to his discouragement of removing me from my lab, the clone army came knocking. This was when I first met a healthy Clone. His name was Flanks and he was part of my escort to Coruscant.
Flanks gave me play by play updates and alerts to our arrival on the capital city planet.
As I looked out the window, I shook my head. I did not like this urban paradise. It looked artificial and dead unlike my homeworld of Kiffu.
"Padawan Kiro – we have started the landed sequence."
I nodded, "Thanks, Flanks. I appreciate the report."
Looking over at him, he had to only be a few years older than me. His knowledge of war and his need for individuality was startling. As the war went on, clones like Flanks were often the ones that ended up in my medical bays. Following orders was somehow harder for them It seemed like the clones got younger and younger on the deployment field. My eyes diverted from him to the planet in front of me. Cosecant was a cesspool
"Yes! Padawan Kiro," he said. "If you need anything, you know how to reach me."
I stood up waiting for the platform to drop and placed my satchel over my shoulder. I turned towards Flanks and gave him a giant grin. Three sets of eyes of the senate guard greeted me.
I walked down the ramp as a guard started talking. They were the Chancellor's police. This was an unexpected surprise.
"Welcome Padawan Kiro, Chancellor Palpatine has requested you to visit him before reporting to the Jedi council."
I sighed, adjusted my outfit and replied, "Well let's go boys. Don't want to keep the Chancellor waiting."
The Chancellor made me feel uneasy just with the thought of him. It was not darkness that I got from him but rather the feeling I could not identify.
As we walked the halls of the Senate, I kept my eyes alert for all escape routes. Flight or fight was my biggest weakness. The Chancellor was not the enemy but this meeting felt wrong. I put on my most political face and calm eyes.
As the doors whooshed open, the guards left my side to guard the door to the Chancellor's chamber. I watched the Chancellor turn from the windows to face me.
"Welcome, Padawan Kiro. I hope your journey was uneventful. Please come sit down."
I nodded, "Yes of course. Thank you, Chancellor."
I sat and looked down at my slightly shaking hands focusing on them till they stopped. I looked up into his deep focused gaze. It was jolting in feeling.
"So I hear from your master's report that your studies and discoveries with medicine and the force look hopeful."
"Yes, our lab with the help of local resources have made great gains for the future of the clone army and the republic. We have been able to really accelerate the healing process from some of the worst wounds. "
"Wonderful news to hear. My request for you to be sent back to the outer rim was denied. The Jedi Council believes that your isolation has not benefited you. However, from my observation, it seems like the opposite is true young one. You seem very strong and mindful. Tools that often Jedi do not completely grasp."
I smirked and made direct eye contact with him. "Chancellor, my elders do not exactly see it that way. They want to us to follow how everything has always been and always will be. My skills in the lab are far more valuable than on the war front. I consider myself falling in the in-between space. But I am only a padawan. Please forgive my candid thoughts – I am not often in the company of the political."
He smirked and leaned forward. "I would keep that thought to yourself Felley. Some would not find those welcoming words nor very Jedi like."
The lack of formality caught me off guard as I watched him walk closer and lean against the front of his desk with folded arms.
"It would be the best interest that you do not keep the Jedi Council waiting Padawan. Your future looks very bright young one. Let's keep this chat between us ah?"
I nodded, stood up and began walking towards the doors. "Thank you for your perspective."
He nodded, "See you again soon, Padawan Kiro."
The doors whooshed again and the guards nodded to me as I passed.
I comlink in Flanks – telling him of my movement to the Jedi temple.
As I reached the temple, my master's presence washed over me. Her raw emotions of frustration were running rampant in our connection within the force. That could only mean one thing, someone had died on her watch.
I walked to the medical facilities and found Vokara in the middle of an operation. She was in bright green robes, the lights glared down onto the body floating in the space between the ground and ceiling. She was surrounded by medical droids telling her that the being was gone. As I observed her willing the force to help save the padawan on the table I already knew the outcome. Unfortunately to the gifted in healing the knocking of death whispers to us.
As the medical droids closed in on the situation, my master turned away. Grief rippled to her core. She was usually able to contain her sadness but for some reason today was different. I could feel her grief wash over me as we locked eyes in the medical bay.
The look in her eyes said everything.
Something was very wrong here.
Very wrong.
