Luminara was sitting by her unmoving padawan as Barriss tended to her injuries, making sure to check every square inch for any kind of cut, scrape, or burn. She sighed mentally, grasping Ani's hand in hers tightly, as tightly as she could without squeezing the bandage on her right hand too much as she ran over everything that had happened in the past couple days.
Let's see, she thought mentally, organizing her thoughts in an efficient manner, very much like her. I met Ani at the training salle; I went to dinner with her Master-former master- later that very day; Barriss and I found her in the secret room in the Room of A Thousand Fountains; we then went on that chase to claim her; and after a very grueling battle with Pollo, we finally got her back. She smiled as she gazed down at the tiny, sleeping form of the apprentice as she slept, oblivious to the meds, bandages, and the pain. And I have a new padawan, thanks to Yoda's meddling! The teenage girl stirred and moaned something unintelligible. She smiled.
"Padawan, it's alright; you can go back to sleep now," she said, accenting her words with a sleep-suggestion. Ani looked up to meet her master's deep blue eyes, shimmering with reassurance. Comforted, she quickly drifted back to sleep.
Master's here, so I have no reason to be afraid, she thought. Suddenly, fear pierced her heart, and dozens of questions sprang into her mind. What if she's going to hurt me? What if she's going to betray me, like Master Pollo did? What if she's going to torture me like my former master? What if –
/Padawan/ a sweet-sounding voice drifted over their newly constructed bond. /Sleep. We will be in our new quarters once you are healed and well rested./ Something akin to a chuckle sounded out, and she felt a little better.
/My little one/ and she knew it was her new master /do not worry. Sleep. I will be here when you wake up/. Something about that message, and the voice comforted Ani. She smiled and relaxed.
/I will, my master/ she sent back, inwardly grinning.
/I know/ came her master's voice again. She smiled once more, closed her eyes, and fell into the darkness that now surrounded her brain, the silent blackness of sleep where there are no dreams. Just rest.
Luminara sat across from her padawan and the healer, oblivious to the glow of the sunset setting over all of Coruscant that filtered through the window across the two of them. Ani had been brought back to full physical recovery, and was being released. One of the mind healers was informing Ani what she would be expected to do on her own and when the sessions would be, all information Luminara already knew. While waiting for the healers to finish going over the routine with her padawan, she was greeted by her former master, one of the Council members. She had a good guess as to what he was going to say.
"I didn't want to do this, Luminara," after pulling her aside, Mace Windu informed her quietly, "but I had no choice. The Council has requested that you both testify tomorrow in order to have a full and complete record of the incident as soon as possible. The faster we do this, the quicker she's in our observation cell versus the Coruscanti maximum security prison."
"I take it word got out about her actions then?" she asked. Surprisingly, he shook his head.
"We have not gotten any usual responses, communiqués, or the like since she went rogue and since we captured her. It probably is related to the fact that most of her activities were confined within the Temple and were relatively tame." Compared to Xanatos the ex-Jedi, Bane the bounty hunter… Yeah, considering what they had gone through before, it did all seem rather tame now. Psychological damage took longer to heal, though.
"That is well." She breathed in, and then out before continuing. "With all due respect, Mace, I don't want her to testify, at least not this soon. She's not fully prepared. She needs more time to heal." More time to really begin to put in the past what she had gone through.
"You know I don't disagree with that, Luminara," he said, adding, "but this is more than about your padawan. The Council wants to use this in order to attempt to piece together what happened to her, what caused Pollo to go to the dark side, and officially record the injuries her former padawan sustained. They've determined to use the recording of this in order to help other Jedi struggling with the toll the war has taken on them. Mind and soul healers will be using this to prepare themselves to study her in order to not just heal her but also other Jedi who similarly struggle. Hopefully, this means that we can detect the problem earlier, hopefully to direct future counseling and meditative sessions with our fellow Jedi." The Jedi Master took a close look at her former master, seeing for the first time the bags under his eyes, and sensing his exhausted acceptance of their comrades lost, whether physically or spiritually, since the war began. As much as she struggled with wanting to keep her padawan safe, it wouldn't – and shouldn't – be an expected consistency. Besides, the odds were better to get it over sooner than later.
"We will be there, as you ask," she responded. "One request: May I be the one to break it to her?" Her former master nodded and, in a rare display of sympathy, briefly clasped her shoulder before moving towards the door. She watched his exit, afterward directing her gaze back over to where her padawan stood. The healer was now gone, having finished whatever he had left to communicate and to give the two some privacy. All Jedi knew how to read the emotional currents and the directions they took, and how to respond appropriately. Healers tended to be some of the best when it came to reading those currents. Ani slowly began to walk towards her, wariness now in her gaze. It really wasn't fair, Luminara thought with a sigh. Yet the trial of Kalla Pollo would begin the morrow, and both were being called upon to testify.
They would deal with it as Jedi. However, they would endure it together, as Master and Padawan.
