~Nava's POV~
"Nava, this confounded tie defies the laws of life, liberty, and the universe in general!" Called a frustrated Obi-wan. Nava chuckled softly, straightening out her fitting dress, the red one Obi-wan had gotten her last week.
This meeting was important. Obi-wan was going to try and convince two other companies, smaller, yet profitable nonetheless, to join Thoth. Co in mutual earnings. With a success, they would generate a whole new type of revenue.
If only the poor man could learn to work his tie.
"Coming, darling," she responded, calmly. All of a sudden, out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed something blinking on her bedside table. It was her comm. Link, which she had not answered in months. She was not even sure it had rung once in three months.
Yet here it was, ringing, bleeping with that once familiar light. She stared at it a moment, unsure of why she was confused or surprised, and yet all too aware.
Nava considered ignoring it for an instant; after all, it could not be that urgent, could it? There were plenty of other Jedi the council could call in to travel to whatever battle-scarred planet they wished her on, for whatever force-forsaken reason.
They did not need her. Not now. She needed to be at this meeting with Obi-wan!
Nava picked it up. "Yes?" she asked, hesitantly, into the device. The feel of it was familiar to her fingers. "Nava!" Oh, good, it was only Padme. What was all that racket behind her? Were the twins at war?
"Padme, my friend, I haven't heard from you in months! How have you been? How are the twins? Anakin?" She pondered, relieved and pleasantly delighted to hear from her sister again.
"Um…That depends largely on your point of view!" Nava snorted; didn't she know how that was? "I hear you, dear friend. You sound winded, what are you doing?" She inquired. "Fighting Sith," A shiver went up Nava's spine.
"What?" She gasped. "Listen, Nava, somehow Vader found out we are here. He's attacking our town, almost every building is on fire, we have managed to keep them at bay for now, but we'd appreciate your help!" She said.
Nava stared at the comm. link a moment, uncomprehending. "Where's Anakin?" She demanded. "Right next to…Ugh!…Me! There are too many for us to take them alone!" Well, Nava highly doubted that.
After all, it was not as if Sidious would have sent out the entire Sith legion to capture them.
Besides, if she and Obi-wan ran in, then their cover would be blown as well…Nava did not favor the idea. "Er…There might be a slight problem with that plan, dear, me and Obi-wan are a bit busy at the moment…Padme, I'm sure he can handle it. Just tell him to listen to the force for once, it'll do wonders," she assured her.
Padme was silent moment. "Busy?" She asked, coldly now. Nava sighed. "An important business meeting. You'll be fine, Padme," she agreed, finishing. She glanced at Obi-wan, was he almost ready to go? They must not be too late, or else that would set a bad impression.
The next moment passed in silence before Padme spoke again, and when she did it was in a cold, angry hiss. "Did you just hear yourself, Jedi?" She spat. "Well, of course. I'm the one who said it," Nava pointed out bluntly. Padme scoffed, and then was gone.
Nava stared at the tiny device in her hand, missing that voice, which she had not heard in months. She missed all of them, really… She wondered, vaguely, why a pang of guilt followed Padme's abrupt hang up. Why did those words resonate in her mind? Why did she feel as if the force were asking her that question, instead of Padme?
What did it mean?
"Did you just hear yourself, Jedi?" Why would not she had heard herself? Nava had not spoken unthinkingly, nor carelessly. Anakin did not even know the edge of his power yet, that unbridled slope of winding fierceness. And Padme was more than capable of taking care of herself and Anakin, too, so why did Nava feel this insistent worry deep in her gut?
Why did she feel like a traitor?
"He's attacking our town, almost every building is on fire," That meant people, men, women, citizens, whose homes were aflame. Okay, that was bad, but couldn't Anakin still….?
"Did you just hear yourself, Jedi?" Why had Padme emphasized that word? She had emphasized it, had spat it out like it meant something more important than the rest of the words, as if Jedi meant something more than just a title, was more than a political claim…
Jedi. Jedi. She was a Jedi.
Nava suddenly gasped, lightly. Her lungs seemed to have stopped functioning; her heart skipped a fatal beat. Before her mind's eye flashed memories of people screaming, houses burning, children crying out or their lost parents, parents crying out for their lost children…She was a Jedi, pledged to protecting those people. And Anakin, Padme, they were fighting Sith, alone.
You are Jedi.
She was. Blast it all, she was. Nava had nearly-no, she had forgotten-that fact. She had forgotten what it meant to her, what it meant to others.
A fellow Jedi and his family were in danger, her family, her blood. And she wanted to go to a meeting? What Jedi picked a stupid business meeting over saving people's lives?
The type who forgets what it is to touch the force, what it is to lead her troops. What it is to be a hero. To belong to the Jedi Order.
She did not belong here, among all the fancy finery and bumbling office attendants. She did belong in the role of billionaire's housewife.
This was not her destiny, the life the Force had picked for her to live. This was not who she was, no matter how wonderful the experience may seem. She was a Jedi. Jedi did not abandon their own.
It's time for me to go home.
The Jedi, she had forgotten…
"Anav?" She looked up, trembling, to see Obi-wan reappear from the bathroom, still struggling with his tie. That is not my name, not my real name. That is not my real name. I am Jedi general Nava Venerate, not Anav Aethra. I am a Jedi. I forgot that. I forgot who I am.
"Could you tie this for me?" Obi-wan requested at last, defeated by his own machinery. He flung up his hands and stood in front of her, blind eyes covered by contacts, not by the force, by contacts.
What normal people used, not Jedi. She stared at him, open-mouthed. Could he not sense Anakin's distress? Could he not feel the death rattling the force?
"What?" Obi-wan wondered, noticing that she had not done it yet. "Padme just called," Nava forced herself to say calmly. "The Sith have found them. They're destroying their town," the impulse to run and help was now so strong…She shifted legs with the intensity of it.
"She called for help," she finished. Obi-wan's brows scrunched, not in concern but confusion. "Where's Anakin?" he asked. "He's there, surrounded," she replied watching his face carefully.
Obi-wan chuckled softly. "This would not be the first time he is so," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "He can handle it, I'm sure. Now hurry, we promised to meet Tyrion there, remember?"
I remember, do you?
Nava took a step back, disgusted at him, at herself, at their foolish human minds. "Did you just hear yourself, Jedi?" she hissed, in the exact same tone Padme had used.
Obi-wan seemed startled by her vehemence. "Of course. I'm the one who said it," he pointed out, confusedly. He stared at her face directly, as if searching for the answers he could not see.
He caught on faster than she had. After one second, two seconds, three seconds of staring, his eyes widened. He inhaled sharply, and grabbed her arm in a clasp that left bruises.
"Nava," he said, slowly, processing what she had found out already. "Did I just say…?" She nodded, gulping in a dry throat. "While Anakin and Padme are….?" Another nod. "Because of some stupid business meeting….?" She sighed. "We both did," she said.
Obi-wan blinked at her, mouth agape, she could sense his disgust at himself. Then, by unspoken mutual need, they exploded into action. "Kriff it all to the hells, I've become my parents! Come, we must hurry!" he snapped, the rare curse betraying his true feelings of shame, as Nava was already hurrying to find her lightsaber.
Obi-wan snatched off his tie, used the force to pop out his contacts and shake his hair loose of its constricting gel. Scampering around like headless chickens, they prepared for battle.
~Lux's POV~
It was just…Just sitting there. Beeping, emitting a faint light, over and over urgently. Lux, though, had not answered it in he did not even know how long. Now, his unused comm. link sat before him on his desk, whilst he sat alone in his office. He studied it, and memories flitted in front of his mind of all the times he had used that comm. link…
No. That is not who I am anymore. Lux Bonteri is dead. I am a king, not a Jedi.
Lux answered it.
"Hello?" he said into the device, tentatively, afraid of whom might answer and what they wanted. "Lux!" He jumped at the brusque voice, only added to the roaring thunder of battle behind her.
"Padme?" He asked, surprised. He had not heard from her, or any of the others, in month, what did she want now? A rare thrill of excitement shot through him, for reasons he did not want to ponder. "Padme!" he repeated. "How have you been?" he asked.
Padme did not answer in the customary way.
"Lux, quick…Ani, look out!...We need your help. The Sith have found us. Anakin and I are outnumbered, they're burning down the town," his heart skipped a beat, but he remained externally calm. "Um," he rubbed the back of his neck, sheepishly, though she could not see the gesture.
"I'm a bit busy at the moment Padme," he glanced around at his office. He could not just leave. He had cadets to instruct, crime to stop, and a people to lead. He had a life to live now.
And it was not the life of a Jedi.
"I'm sure you two can handle it," he pointed out, trying to sound helpful and encouraging. He felt somewhat guilty for turning her down. Padme was not one to ask for help in any situation less than desperate, but she had Anakin, they could handle themselves.
A sigh mixed in with guttural cough on the other side of the line. "Did you just hear yourself, Lux Bonteri?" Padme demanded; her tone full of disgust which, despite him being a grown man now, made his face burn in reddened shame.
Then the line went dead, leaving Lux in frozen silence. He missed the voice, he missed all of their voices, and them, in particular. He had not before realized how much. The yearning only began now, deep in his gut. It made him feel so desperately alone here.
Lux sighed and sat back, fidgeting with the feeling of guilt he held, the first among his customary emptiness. Drumming his fingers on the table, he tried to banish the thought.
"They're burning the town," of course they were. They were Sith, after all, burning things was their natural talent …
They have been in tight spots before. They can handle themselves just fine. She was only panicking, he thought, stubbornly. But what about Luke and Leia, are they safe?
"Lux-Lux! Where ya been?" Lux groaned and shook his head. "That's not my name," he mumbled irritably. "You were born to be Lux Bonteri," Now his father was in his head too? Why him?
"People that, for now; have nothing at all to do with you, dear. Now drink your tea."
"…Besides, just as we are not normal parents, never will Lux be just another normal little boy. He is more."
These memories, inspired by a rebellious and truth-seeking mind made Lux bury his head in his hands. He was an idiot, an negligent, discreditable, sucker of a king….
Maybe that's why I don't belong in the role of a king, he thought, begrudgingly. Perhaps his father had been right. Perhaps… No, he was not a king. He was a Jedi. A hero.
He had to be, he would not be doing this for any other reason. He would not be who he was without the Jedi. He already had a family. A place. And he was going back to it.
He was going home.
Taking all of these things into account, and grumbling about how stupid he was for not seeing it before, he rummaged through the bottom drawer of his desk. A second later; he pulled out his old blaster, staring at the patina slicking the surface.
Then he headed out the door.
~Ahsoka's POV~
"Air Raid, yo, this thingamawinger's been ringing fo ya!" Ahsoka turned from staring at the multiple men demonstrating the various ways to smoke some sort of drug and towards the voice.
She raised an eyebrow, shocked, when she noticed the device in his hands. It was her comm. link, which was emitting a red light whilst it bleeped insistently.
She scowled; it had not made so much as a peep for months. Or, Ahsoka assumed it had not. She had not checked it in months would be more accurate to say. "Well, then give it to me idiot! What are you doin touchin my blasted stuff?" She demanded, snatching it away from grubby, calloused hands.
"Hey! I only heared it ringin and thought…." Ahsoka waved his explanation away rudely. "Whatever. Get out of here, all of yiz!" She yelled.
Daring not to contradict her for fear of incurring her wrath, the room was suddenly emptied, grumbling notwithstanding. They were afraid of her. They were afraid. Ahsoka knew, deep down, that pleasure should not be what she felt at this thought.
Turning the tiny machinery in her hands, marveling at the shiny, professional exterior, Ahsoka debated whether she should answer it. Who would be on the other side?
What would they want? Could she…Should she even answer this, the tool once used by Ahsoka Tano, the Jedi Knight? She felt as if her touch, with bloodstained hands, would desecrate the Jedi apparatus.
In the end, curiosity got the better of her.
"Yes?" She squeaked, her throat suddenly parched. "Ahsoka?" Padme's exhausted and frantic voice demanded. Ahsoka recoiled. "Padme?" She responded.
"Good. Listen, Ahsoka, somehow Vader found out we are here. He's attacking our town, almost every building is on fire, we have managed to keep them at bay for now, but we'd appreciate your help!" Padme stuttered out quickly, not taking time to deliberate.
"What?" Ahsoka demanded; confusion and disbelief wrapping their tentacles about her brain. "Where's Anakin?" She asked.
"Outnumbered. Why? Do you have something better to do too?" Padme replied, acidly. Ahsoka was taken aback at the tone of her voice. Not even two seconds into the call yet and she was flabbergasted. Padme and Anakin, Intrepid too, seemed to have that ability.
Or, they had, once…Force, Ahsoka missed them, in some secluded place in her heart she did. She felt so alone sometimes… I never felt alone with them.
"Don't take it that way, but I am in the middle of something…" She began, glancing round the empty room, hoping there were no probing ears on the other side of an untrustworthy door. The middle of stopping the drug Empire here once and for all, she thought.
"Fine!" Padme snapped, cutting her off. "Whatever. I can't believe this. Did you just hear yourself, Jedi?" Rather than listen to Ahsoka's comeback, Padme hung up abruptly.
Ahsoka gawked at the comm. link, having not been treated with such rudeness since she became leader. Or, intentional rudeness anyway. She huffed and tucked the comm. link back into her pockets.
I can't help them, she decided. That isn't me anymore, not here. Besides, Anakin and Padme can handle themselves. Shaking her head, she started towards the door, only to have the force hit her with a memory.
"Don't you think it's just a bit wrong that we're stealing this ship?" She asked. Anakin's brow scrunched for the slightest moment. "Uh, no," he said after a moment's hesitation.
"We stole it from a slaver; he probably stole it from someone else. And that person probably stole it from another person, and it goes on all the way up to the first second this thing was stolen, brand new," he explained. Ahsoka put her hands on her hips. "We're still not going to tell Obi-wan, are we?" She asked with a smile.
"Or Padme. They're goody-two-shoes, Snips, they wouldn't understand," he agreed with a laugh. Ahsoka shook her head, though she still felt a prick of guilt at having stolen the ship. It wasn't the Jedi Way, however it was used for good.
Ahsoka felt something tug at the bottom of her dress. She looked down at a little human girl around five years old that had been one of the first to board the ship. She was twiddling her small, dirty fingers nervously.
Ahsoka smiled gently and knelt before her. "Yes, little one?" She asked of the same little one that looked bone tired and sucked of all innocence. Slavery got even more horrible, each time Ahsoka saw another example of it.
"I made you something," came the soft reply. "Did you?" Ahsoka asked. She nodded and looked down at the twine in her fingers. Shyly, the child handed it to Ahsoka.
It was a small circle made of some sort of wood hanging off of a gnarled, knotted twine, rope and ribbons all mixed together into one. It had several markings on it in Huttese.
She cocked her head, studying the smooth surface made by impressively agile and talented hands. "What does it say?" She asked softly, fascinated. She had never received such a gift. "Hero," the little girl replied. Ahsoka felt a smile curl at her mouth. This was why she loved being a Jedi. For moments like these ones; with the children.
She looked up. "Thank you," she whispered, holding her prize in front of her. "Will you keep it? To remember us by?" the child asked, a bit of girlish hope lighting her eyes. Ahsoka poked her belly, making her giggle. "I promise," she assured her. The little girl nodded and gave her a bright grin before rushing back into the bowels of the ship.
That had happened two years ago, On Tatooine, when she and Anakin had skipped out on a Rebel Council meeting to free slaves.
The deed a Jedi was privileged to do by definition. They came to serve. Ahsoka had forgotten what it was to serve people that way. She was serving, but…Somehow, she felt as if she were also betraying someone.
"Will you keep it? To remember us by?" That little girl she had saved, why did she come to mind? Why did those large, despondent green eyes come to mind? Green eyes, just like Intrepid. "…Did you just hear yourself, Jedi?" She had heard herself, alright, but what Padme meant, Ahsoka thought, was had she understood?
Had she understood what she had just said, what she had just implied? What that implication meant? What did it mean?
"That's right. You are a Jedi, Ahsoka. You've spent your whole life training against what you're about to do…Don't give up now," Lux. Lux, her friend, her brother. Her family.
Lux, Intrepid, Anakin, Obi-wan, Nava, Padme, Luke Leia, Rex, Cody. Her family. They needed her. Those people, they needed her, and the Sith, they needed her expertise in soul-healing, called lightsaber ambush. She was a Jedi, bound to give it.
She was Jedi, a Jedi. She was Ahsoka Tano.
"So what in the kriff am I doing here?" She gasped aloud, and without thinking more on the subject, raced from the room to find her twin sabers. She only hoped she would not arrive too late.
~Intrepid's POV~
"I love your eyes, you know," En-lai told her. Intrepid chuckled softly and looked back at him, grinning, playfully batting said eyes at him. En-lai rolled his eyes. Intrepid continued jumping from roof to roof of the market.
The venders below paid them no mind, only occasionally shook their heads. laughing. Intrepid smiled and turned her head to the artificial lights, which if one imagined them for awhile, you could pretend that they were as good as sunlight.
She would get sunlight one day, for en-lai. Intrepid wanted him to feel the warmth, the burning warmth that came from a real sun and not lights above a damaged city. All in due time, she supposed.
"Seriously, they're…They're so green. Like vuja fruit," he called after her, a pace behind. Intrepid snickered. "You're comparing my eyes to fruit?" She asked. "Hey, it's a sweet fruit, isn't it? Has not any ever said that to you before?" he asked. "No. My people do not pay attention to looks," she explained. She stopped, waiting for him to catch up.
"You're joking. Everyone notices the appearance first," he gasped, finally catching up to her and grabbing her arm to balance himself. Intrepid laid a hand on his shoulder to help. "No," she contradicted.
"It is against their way," their way now, not hers. She was no longer Jedi. She had picked En-lai over their ways. En-lai snorted. "Against their way, so what? It's instinct," he said. "Not if you've been told your entire life that looks mean little to nothing," she said.
En-lai seemed to think on this. "So, you don't love me for how I look?" he asked. "No. I love you, not your appearance, though," she half way turned, winking at him over her shoulder. "That is a nice bonus," she observed. En-lai laughed, and she joined in when he ran over, scooping her into his arms for a long kiss.
Bleep! Bleep! Bleep!
Intrepid sat bolt upright with a gasp. Her hand shot into defensive position, and in a moment she was on her feet, eyes scanning the area.
Faint midday light filtered in through the cracks in the wooden door above. She was housed and hidden in a cellar; the cellar of the old woman who owned the blankets. That trade franchise still continued, with Margo none the wiser, Aziza had reported.
Intrepid sighed upon seeing no one there. She looked down; realizing she had overslept again. There seemed to be no need to stay awake without…No. She would not think of him. The past was gone; En-lai was a traitor. They were no more.
Her comm. link was still bleeping, without stopping.
Intrepid gazed at it, in the pile of clothes she had discarded the night before in order to make herself more comfortable. It became infuriatingly hot in the cellar at night, and the air was burnt and dry as Tatooine breezes.
Her comm. link had not rung in…A very long time. It seemed like a century now, before Courascant, before En-lai, before…Any of this.
She inhaled sharply. Her legs, not following her conscious direction, took he rover to it. Underneath a rock in the corner, the shine of her lightsaber gleamed at her. She had not touched it in nearly a year. Intrepid fingered her old tool in her hands, gazing at it awkwardly.
She felt as If she were holding an ancient artifact. She reached to the force, delicately, but it said nothing, only remained mockingly silent. It did not answer her questions. Quite by mistake, she had suddenly pushed the receiver.
The caller wasted no time in gasping out: "Intrepid!" The person in question jumped; the soft silence of the underground disturbed by Padme's loud voice, and the sound of fierce scrambling behind her.
"Padme?" Intrepid gasped. She had not heard a word from any of them since their arrival and separation. "Intrepid, hopefully you can at least… Ouch!...We need your help. The Sith have found us. Anakin and I are outnumbered, they're burning down the town," Padme explained hurriedly, sounding for all the world as if Intrepid were her last hope.
Intrepid glanced around. Leave the underground? That would be the direct approach of coming out and screaming: "here I am, I'm Jedi! I abandon everything I've been working for the past few months!" Intrepid had lost too much to be the one to yell that.
"I am sorry, Padme, but I can't," she said bluntly. "I have work to do," so much work to undo what I have done, the damage that has been wrought in my name. "I bet you do," Padme sighed, and she sounded so…So tired.
"I had hoped… Do you even hear yourselves, Jedi?" Then all went silent again. That final benediction weighing heavily on Intrepid's mind.
"Of course I heard it. I'm the one who said it," She murmured in defense. Intrepid traced the edge of her comm. link, surprised. She actually wanted to hear Padme's voice again…She had not realized how much she missed it. How much she missed them.
"Do you even hear yourselves, Jedi?" Padme had sounded very angry when she had said that? Had she spoken to the others? Where were the others, did they miss Intrepid?
She looked over at her lightsaber, gleaming pointedly at her from the dark. Guilt slowly began to chew her heart. She wished she could help but…But she just was not that person anymore.
You still carry the saber, if you were not that person, who are you to carry that weapon? To use your talent? Why are you trying to free the slaves at all?
Well, because she was a Jedi, of course, but still…
Jedi. Jedi. She was a Jedi.
Intrepid stared at her weapon, sitting in the dirt, as if she had been smacked. Her weapon- that weapon was her life- and it was in the dirt; how ironically metaphorical.
Intrepid dove to grab her lightsaber as if her life depended on it, which, she now realized cradling the thing, it did. The force swirled around the weapon, calling, enticing, beckoning, encouraging.
Intrepid looked up. Jedi protected and fought beside their own, they defended their family. Standing, she stared up at the cellar doors, shadows resting on her skin from the outside, as if explaining what her heart looked like. Intrepid intended to step back out into the light.
Grabbing her saber, she ran.
