Satine was torn from freshly acquired sleep by a piercing alarm that distorted her equilibrium, robbing her of coherent thought. Still, she found a way to her feet within seconds, jumping at the unbidden, chaotic entrance of her Jedi protectors. Something had to have gone terribly wrong and the Duchess immediately cast her eyes upon the aspiring knight to confirm her concern. His pale blue eyes bluntly revealed some stupefaction, yet she was hopeful to find them unflinching, tethered by some intangible focus.
Alas, it was the master who spoke, his volume level despite the urgency of his tone. "Duchess Satine, it seems the cruiser is about to be boarded. We need you to follow us." He collected a case she'd been asked to pack, for such an emergency, it seemed.
Her gaze quickly found the time projected on the wall as she nodded, feeling her jumbled thoughts stutter across her expression, calculating that she merely had three hours of sleep since sending a holo off to Bo before retiring. "Is this the infamous Jedi tranquility I've heard so much about or am I meant to somehow believe this is going according to plan?"
It was Obi-wan who spoke. "Not our plan surely, Duchess." He nodded, finally seeming to take in her less-than-regal appearance. She stood taller on instinct, wishing to exude her usual reverence, though her tired mind pulsed under the strain. "Merely a contingency we are forced to rely on."
Satine barely had a moment to note a reluctance in the knightly padawan before they followed his master who led the way. As the cruiser diverged towards the two mid-size escape pods and the salon pod, the older of the two Jedi addressed the younger. "You know the plan." He handed the package to Obi-wan and turned back to her. "I will keep in contact, Duchess Kryze. I hope our rendezvous will be soon and promise to do my best to insure that it is." Quickly, the master split down the other path.
"I beg your pardon?" She practically balked.
The young man looked at her with some indecipherable restraint clouding the aim of his gaze. "This way, Duchess-" He cleared his throat, his hand guiding her. "Kryze, towards the salon pod."
She felt compelled to follow, implicitly trusting that the best scenario included his dependable protection. Without hesitation, she hastened in that direction, feeling him right behind.
The salon pod seemed excessively large between the company of two and Satine hardly had the chance to acknowledge the vacant space before Obi quickly disabled a small rectangular protrusion. Rushing to the pilot's seat, he exhaled deeply. "I would recommend strapping in, Duchess. We don't have much time."
"Before?" She asked, running to the seat beside him, hoping they required only one pilot.
It appeared to be the case as he immediately powered up the transport, detaching within a few seconds. "Before our astromech navigator, who shut-off the bridge, sets in hyperspace coordinates."
Wondering after the rest of their party, she sighed in relief to see the two escape pods eject. "I'm not sure I understand the plan." Satine noticed more packed cases, discreetly hidden under the conference table.
The padawan seemed to find their desired placement before setting them to lightspeed. Hesitantly, he met her gaze while their periphery soaked them in familiar cerulean swirls as time and space became distorted around them. He cleared his throat, and she knew it wasn't some illogical paranoia of hers that hinted at his unease. "The Anomalous has been entirely evacuated by all sentients, while droids pilot the cruiser through hyperspace to rendezvous at Coruscant with ready Republic officers." Satine made out the slightest narrowing of his lids as he continued. "Until we have the culprits in custody, I am meant to oversee your protection."
"If Anomalous is on a direct course for Coruscant with no remaining pods, why split up?"
Obi-wan exhaled warily. "Master Jinn is hopeful, but cautious. If all goes well, we should be on our way to Sundari in no less three Mandalorian rotations."
"And if it does not?" Satine felt tension strain itself in her stomach like an overstretched coil.
He offered her a sympathetic lift of his brows. "He instructed that we wait until it does."
She exhaled, feeling the effects of whiplash catch her up to speed, causing worry to wrinkle her brow. "Wait where?"
Obi-wan's soft eyes revealed uncertainty before he looked back to the uncannily similar configuration of ever-changing blue hues that led the way. "An undisclosed location yet to be determined."
She refused to believe him caught unprepared. "Why is that?"
For a fraction of a second, hesitation lingered in his distracted gaze. "So, our location would not be exposed. Master Jinn didn't want it announced, should the Anomalous be boarded and security monitored."
Satine watched him for a second, with the undeniable logic that if the Jedi had believed the insurgents capable of manipulating the cruiser's internal defense system, then such a proposed scenario alone was proof that a chance remained for their culprits to avoid apprehension through further tampering; a fragment of the truth seemed to be withheld from the Duchess, but she accepted his explanation with a brief nod. "Even with our transponder disabled, he wanted somewhere removed from the Outer Rim."
Of that, Satine couldn't entirely concede. "I won't leave Mandalore behind."
All patient sympathy seemed to evaporate from his disposition. "With all due respect, Duchess Satine, we were instructed to create some distance from our last location."
"With all due respect, Padawan Obi-wan, I have witnessed too many greedy, political ploys for power to abandon my home or my people."
His earlier unease seemed distracted from behind his expression as she sensed his attentive gaze calculating the likelihood of her acquiescence. Within a minute, he appeared discouraged from such hope, ready for the argument to ensue. "Continuing down the intended path of your campaign directly contradicts the directives my master requested in the event of this outcome. We can't stay in the system."
"Fine." Satine nodded abruptly. "I can compromise to such extent, but not beyond." She pulled his attention to the resolute demand in her stare. "I won't travel out of the sector. If I abandon this ground because of this opposition, then I am the spineless leader my opposition accuses me of being." Even if not a single sentient in the galaxy discovered such transgression, she would know and that was enough. "I refuse to validate their slanderous presumptions."
"Or my own optimistic ones, so it would seem." He offered with a snarky disposition; a kind of catharsis influencing his demeanor, as though he not only found the argument to be inevitable, but almost welcome within the specific circumstances.
They pulled out of hyperspace in less than a minute and Satine needed a moment to grasp her bearings, as she struggled to identify the system they had landed in as he began scanning the astronomical objects around them. With concise irritability, he selected their destination, maneuvering the transport.
The Duchess didn't want to be critical, still she couldn't help but think their descent practically perilous as it dangerously lacked both grace and precision. She was unable to hush her still reeling nerves, which had yet to process the narrow escape of their commandeered cruiser, bewilderment rushed to the forefront of her focus as she tightened her vision towards the burnt orange, cloudy orb they approached. "Where are we?"
"A moon in the Draboon system." He barked back as they entered its atmosphere, seeming to lose his hold on their landing.
Satine was thankful to have her stubborn wish met but soured to think they had left her home system behind. "So, we haven't left the sector." She confirmed over the proximity alarm that started to blare.
He hurriedly steered them away from what she could barely make out to be a mountainous rock that was hardly visible through the thick fog that nearly obscured the moon beneath them. "Just as her Majesty commanded!" Obi-wan sneered as the stress of the current situation short-circuited any sense of propriety he had once seemed to possess.
Satine lost her opportunity to retort as their pod squish-landed, a dark liquid cascading down their viewport. "Did we hit something?" She asked, equally confused and horrified at the prospect.
He shook his head. "Not likely. According to Republic record, there is no listed native sentient species."
"And non-sentient?" She asked.
"We didn't hit something." He asserted, before meekly continuing. "We merely landed in something."
"That doesn't necessarily inspire confidence."
"Which might be concerning if you didn't already possess a staggering surplus of it." He threw back, a shining levity passing behind his eyes.
She narrowed her own, more with humor than hostility, briefly feeling her uncertain anxiety diminish. Despite the palpable tension teeming from the padawan, she experienced a delicious rush of relief at her internal acknowledgment of their escape and survival. "Would you like me to donate some, seeing as you appear to be experiencing a concerning deficiency?" She bluntly offered with a blatant smirk.
Obi-wan scoffed. "I wouldn't know what to do with the concentrated variety that you seem to possess."
"Perhaps work on your landing?" She teased before standing up to examine the larger salon pod. "Why didn't we take one of the escape pods? The whole crew would've been able to fit in here."
He rose from his seat at the controls, heading towards the exit ramp. "Master Jinn worried at how long we might be expected to wait for confirmation of the insurgents capture and assumed we'd have to rely on this transport for shelter in the meantime." He lowered the ramp, exiting cautiously. She followed carefully, maintaining a practical distance.
There wasn't much to be seen in the hanging wispy fog surrounding them, beyond some massive, craterous umber boulders. Obi-wan turned his attention to the other side of the transport, his boots stepping into ankle-high slickness. "What have we landed in?"
Through the opaque cover, he looked to be pushing around some floating bits of dead plant matter within the dark, viscous liquid. "It seems we've just barely slid into a bog."
"Lovely." She knew it was polite to mask the derision in her tone but found herself incapable. "Can you see how far it stretches?"
"No," Obi-wan looked back to Satine standing before the transport. "Though I'm sure it's not very far. Still, I'd wager settling in the other direction to be wiser." He wasn't sure if he wanted to press the risk of blindly flying out for such a small distance.
Obi assured himself that it was just such reasoning that made his decision and absolutely not that it briefly dawned on him how the monarch might finally be impressed. He pushed the thought down, pulling his eyes from her before closing them. With outstretched hands, he exhaled, sensing the Force threading through his blood, feeding off the living matter around them.
Satine watched him with a confused levity, until the salon pod began to rise from the muck. Her humor morphed into awe as the large transport appeared to float up and off. Only when she saw the engraved effort etched between Obi-wan's brow did she comprehend that he was the cause. Finally, it landed gently more than 20 meters away. It was impossible to dilute her mirific expression as she looked over him. "An impressive feat, Obi." She smirked as she approached.
His eyes lit up as he grinned, unintentionally appearing his age. She would've found such animation endearing, perhaps even handsome, if her thoughts had not been interrupted by an unsettling sound. Her instincts identified it as a swarm before her eyes could locate the cause.
From the murky deposits of the bog, several dozen, half-meter long brown arthropods with red-tinted eyes and six legs speedily swam towards the two, scuttling once their appendages touched solid ground.
"What," He tensed, face turning pale as his strength waned from such exertion, slack filling his stance. "Are those?"
"Venom-mites." Her eyes widened as she pulled on his sleeve, making a run for the transport.
Obi-wan's desire to preserve the captivation in her eyes provoked him to exhaust himself even further, touching the Force to shove the creatures from them. "A minor obstacle surely." He tried optimistically.
"Their bite is fatal." She pulled him harder.
Obi-wan couldn't risk her safety to secure his favor, so he ignored his metaphysical fatigue, summoning the receding resilience of his flesh, as he gathered the Duchess in his now aching arms, sprinting for the salon pod. It was a great relief to him that he had left the ramp extended. Turning his head to judge their accrued distance from the skittering pursuers, he stumbled over a boulder the height of his knees, causing Satine to sprawl from his grasp.
Grunting from her fall, she refused to acknowledge the shallow though stinging gash across her palm before reaching out, gripping around Obi-wan's forearm. "Goodness, Obi." She gracelessly yanked him to her, and they tottered up the ramp, shutting it just in time.
Excitement flashed behind her brilliant eyes as she appraised his drained disposition. "I understand your knightly ambitions, but didn't needless chivalry complicate escape?"
Obi-wan was too weary to blush at his literal misstep. "Merely doing my duty." He asserted with the full scope of his energy.
She watched the color fall from his face and quickly decided to support his stance as she hobbled to the table. "Is not your strength vital to fulfill it?" She sighed, genuine concern seeping through her frustrated cadence. "You shouldn't push yourself so much. I can run, I would've helped if I understood your limits." Leaning him against the padded booth's bench, she watched him sit back with wary eyes.
He felt warmth to elicit her genuine compassion, an embarrassed grin yanking at his face. "How many do you know who would willingly divulge such intimate information of themself?" Quickly, he continued. "Do you doubt my abilities, Duchess?" He focused on effortlessly exuding a practiced carelessness.
Satine narrowed her eyes, but a reluctant smirk tugged at her mouth. "Not nearly as much as you seem to deny your limitations."
"I'm flummoxed to discover such a word exists in your vocabulary." He aimed for a teasing tone as his stability began to return.
"It does and a familiar one it is, though it seems to be glaringly absent from your sense." She wanted to laugh at the true depth of her knowledge of such a topic. No one could comprehend limitations better than a pacifistic politician, especially one who governed the ultimate warrior race.
It seemed too long a thread to pull at, so she revisited her complaint. "How do you suggest I entrust my safety to someone whose sense of duty is prioritized over efficiency?" She could see chagrin distort his features.
He nodded reluctantly, unable to admit how heavy his mission weighed on him now that he was the sole safeguard over her wellbeing. "A rare occurrence, I can assure you, Duchess."
She gripped her injured hand firmly, her eyes tightening on him with skepticism. "I sincerely doubt the truth in such a promise." She accused with begrudging humor, her poised brows lifting as his posture straightened.
Obi-wan grinned antagonistically. "I'd hardly consider a politician to be an authority on the topic of honesty."
Satine smirked to see self-satisfied humor swim in his eyes. "Nor a Padawan on self-restraint, it seems." She shot back playfully.
He nodded, something simmering in his gaze as he closely watched her. "So, it does."
She ignored the clench in her stomach, watching his soft eyes as she reminded him of his earlier words. "Did you not mean it when you said you believed me capable?"
Obi-wan felt guilt hit him, for though her eyes were still sharp, there was a sadness behind them that seemed bothered by the possibility. His desire to look impressive before her seemed pointless if it made her think he doubted her. With a level voice that seemed to burn as it left his throat, he sought to clarify. "It wasn't your capability that I was questioning." He sighed, feeling the need to look away, but wanting to acknowledge his self-doubt. "It was my own."
Satine's eyes brightened and the padawan correctly assumed she had probably wondered as much. "I don't wish to tease you, but I'm rather surprised to see pride peeking from behind that humble face of yours."
Obi-wan laughed and the knot of his brow came loose, now allowing Satine the time to judge the expression as indeed, handsome. "I'd rather not own up to my unsuccessful attempt at it."
Her melodic tone softened. "Why ever not? You have the countenance for it." She reminded, smirking to see his face unashamed, pushing a little farther, in hopes that she could see him just the slightest bit bashful. "It suits you."
Obi-wan was pleased but did little to let it show on his face. "It won't get me very far back on Coruscant." In many ways, he knew such a statement to be true.
Satine shook her head with a light exhale. "But it could out here." Purposefully pulling the warmth from her eyes, she escaped the fluttering feeling in her chest. "At the very least I know that our enemy possesses it. Pride in the right place, at the right time for the right cause can mean all the difference." She regarded him with fair appraising eyes. "You are the current authority of this mission, which yes, means I depend on you, but also that it's your responsibility to utilize the full capacity of strength made available to you, which in this case, happens to be me."
He nodded, knowing she was right. If Qui-Gon had never expected or asked anything from him, then they would not work at full efficiency. Even though this last-ditch effort was meant to be temporary, he was understaffed with her protection detail and had his own limits to consider, otherwise they both could perish. "So, I must be proud, but not too proud to ask you for help?" His inflection pointed at the slight contradiction in his inquiry. "I confess I have little experience navigating such authority."
Satine nodded knowingly. "Pride is a temperamental thing to balance, and it brings more distance than most are willing to endure. It is the burden of leadership." She forced herself to sound untouched, wanting to alter her tone to offer encouragement. "I have no doubt that you are beyond capable of successfully bearing such an undertaking." She allowed herself the slightest of teases. "Just next time, let me run for myself."
He laughed with her. "That really does seem like the least I could do."
Satine offered him a full canteen of water. "I want to check in on our position. You might feel better if you hydrate."
Obi-wan bobbed his head in agreement, feeling relieved at his decision to be honest with her. Though he wasn't too fatigued, he preferred waiting to stand until he had regained his equilibrium.
The Duchess returned to the helm of their transport, noting the distance they had traveled, more than doubling the space from Sundari. She opened her palm to examine the cut on her hand. It wasn't a troublesome concern, it would be fine with some bacta, yet a determined piece of her couldn't allow such treatment, as she considered it an acknowledgement of the risk he had taken, and even further, a reminder for their deepened understanding of one another. She shook her head, deciding to clean and allow it to heal naturally. After all, healed scars often marked the most important lessons.
Although the venom-mites quickly tired with the transport, Obi-wan thought it best to refrain from journeying out, despite Satine's assurance that they had merely garnered attention after no doubt disturbing the nest. However, by the end of the third day, the tension while waiting for contact seemed to gnaw at them both.
Satine felt restless, her thoughts and worries no longer preoccupied with the busy schedule she had become accustomed to, pushing her to ruminate on topics she didn't want to entertain.
Obi-wan was easily convinced, similarly feeling the confinement wane on his comfort, as though the recycled air was no longer fresh enough to not carry her pleasant scent into each breath of his. The promise of escape was welcome and though he appreciated the remoteness of their location, he needed to gauge if it was too isolated or too dangerous a place for them to be, should they not be contacted within the next rotation.
Out they ventured, noticing how much the fog had diminished. The bog stretched a surprising distance and the padawan felt slight redemption for the choice he had made in placing the salon pod. Satine nodded beside him.
"I told you." She turned her gaze to the currently undisturbed wetland that housed their not-so-welcome-party.
"You said their bite was fatal." He reminded her.
She conceded that point with a nod. "True, but they only attack when threatened. Once I saw them headed for us, I knew escape was our only chance."
"Not our only, though clearly our best." Obi couldn't help but assert his certainty that they still stood a chance.
She watched him for a second. "With the ability to outrun them, despite our chances there was really only one choice."
"We weren't incapable." He asserted.
She nodded with recognition. "Not in the way you mean, with action, but with intent," Shaking her head, she exhaled. "Sentient or not, those creatures are only a threat to you and I once they perceive us to be one. On such an occasion, I'll admit that diplomacy is not technically possible with verbal communication, yet mutual respect can still be agreed upon by simply permitting one another attainable accommodations. They can have their swamp." She walked in the other direction, comforted by the all-encompassing quiet that greeted them.
Obi-wan shook his head, a ghost of a laugh prodding at his expression. "There's not much of trees in there. Those venom-mites seem to feed off the detritus within the bog."
Satine allowed the distinction to root itself in her thoughts, always keen to learn something new. "Even more reason to leave them be. What a service they provide in this almost barren and fragile ecosystem."
He grinned, charmed by the sincerity of her words, feeling himself confronted by an internal quagmire similar to the one they'd already yielded to the natives. Still, he was compelled to question. "What if we had no shelter to escape to? If running had not been an option."
She shrugged, acknowledging the blaster the padawan seemed to forget was attached to his guard uniform. "If need be, we might've stunned them, until we had the chance to create some distance."
His head turned back and forth, a confusion in his voice. "Are you always able to avoid a fight?"
Satine huffed, looking out to the setting horizon. She wanted to find it beautiful, striding across a globe aflame, like some bloody, burning sunset, but it felt too familiar in the worst of ways. "Are you always searching for the merit in one?"
Obi-wan felt the heart of his argument nag at him from within. "One hardly needs to search when the occasion calls for it."
The statement hung in the air as a brief, unexplained thesis and though the monarch's beliefs were beyond stubborn, she offered a lift of her brow to allow him the space to support his words.
It was enough invitation, so Obi continued. "Consider our escape from Anomalous. If we had been aboard a different cruiser, if the docking ramp had been a bit closer to the escape pods, if we had no choice but to fight. What then?"
"Fight? Perhaps. Stun? Temporarily. But kill, injure?" She shook her head. "No, there is always a way around violence."
He met her eyes, softening his tone, to convey that desperation could always creep up and expect more than some might be able to give. "It is through our willingness to fight these battles that we prove our strength and bravery, as well as our commitment to a cause." He stood tall, wanting to exude the undeniable certainty that was expected of all Jedi.
Satine scrutinized his proud stance and she seemed to swallow a sigh before beginning. "It seems we view our virtues differently then." Only his eyes faltered inside his expression as she continued. Her own lightened as she sighed, though her voice stayed bold and unwavering. "I have seen strength in hours of debate and compromise in policy, proving dedication to solutions, not battles. I have witnessed more courage in the meekest voices crying out for the greatest of change. And I have known more bravery in the act of personal sacrifice than hand-to-hand combat."
He wanted to know more, to understand what she could hold so dearly that the loss of it would affect her so greatly. "So, you would sacrifice yourself for this dream?"
Satine eyed him with a sharpness that felt like a challenge. "If this future meant my life, it is a price I'd pay for my people." She offered a resolute smirk. "As ironic a trade that would be."
Her eyes lacked any doubt and it made him sure that she meant every word. "Yet you won't fight for it?"
"Why should I?" She shot back, halting her steps. "Why should I have to bloody my hands and taint my intentions to quench someone else's thirst for violence? Why should I abandon my principles to prove my commitment to this cause? What would that make me? What are we without our morals?" Her eyes tightened on him. "What are Jedi without their code?"
Mesmerized by her crystal gaze, he didn't have the chance to ruminate on just how long he'd been asking himself that same question before she argued even further.
"Those always searching for battles to fight, will be sure to find them." She sighed. "I want nothing more than for my people to flourish, not conquer." She stood straighter, continuing her full strides again. "If that makes me a traitor to my heritage then so be it. I'd rather insure our future than cling to our past."
"By thinking so, do you not mock your own ancestry?" It couldn't be so simple for her to invalidate all the combat he had seen, so he clung to fragments in their argument.
"How do you fare, Padawan, to the ways of your people?"
Something in her voice gave him the sensation of being purposefully led, still he formed a reply. "For millennia, the Jedi-"
"I don't mean the Jedi, Padawan Kenobi." She interrupted with intention. "How do you compare to the ideals and principles of your own ancestry, on your own homeworld?"
"I would not know." He admitted, thinking of Stewjon, the world he knew the least about, despite some images that only the farthest reaches of his memory could recall. "My allegiance binds me to the Order."
"So perhaps it is possible to forego loyalty to blood in pursuit of something stronger?" It was how she'd been living her life since the loss of her father and the damage she had once brought to their name, blameless as she had actually been. Without fail, choices had to be made.
Yet again, Obi-wan felt as though she had honed-in on the fault of his argument, exposing his own biases and subsequent hypocrisy. Shaking his head, he smirked, amazement barely concealing itself in his voice. "You always sound so sure."
"Are you not?" She looked up at the blackening sky, making the conscious decision to turn back to the shuttle and almost smirked to see the obliviousness of his expression as he followed her back without a word, while she skewed her argument in terms he might be more able to think on. "If the Force truly is a part of every living thing, the glue of our galaxy, then it is a great deal responsible for the current state of things."
"How do you figure?" Obi asked, surprised by her gall.
"The Force contributed to my experiences, presenting a unique vantage point; it even allowed us to destroy life on our own planets."
"That happened because of Mandalorian neglect." He argued.
Something about the wiry edge of his rebuttal very nearly triggered a hostile tone from Satine, but she exhaled her irritation before replying. "Yes, it did, yet somehow, we survived and for some reason, most likely arrogance, we stayed in our decaying system of the galaxy. We have been staring at the very evidence of our downfall and refused to reflect. We have let every opportunity for progress pass us by. We've had dozens of leaders encourage us down a path of destruction and we never learned." She shook her head. "Do not the Jedi perceive all living things to be part of the Force?"
"Of course." He could feel it as an undeniable truth.
"Then why is it far-fetched to believe in some purpose finding the best possible moment in time, offering the inspiration to make the galaxy a better, more peaceful place?" She inquired as they came upon the transport.
His arguments always seemed to dissolve when faced with the fiery passion of her logic, still the aspiring knight considered himself subject to the need of maintaining such disadvantage. To bother with the pretense of distracting his focus, he worked at starting a fire as she continued.
"Is that not what you do? Isn't it the very purpose of the Jedi Order? Are you not Peacekeepers?"
Her final question aroused a line of defense in his thoughts, so he quickly deflected his own confusion, sitting down with his eyes on the task before him. "So, you express esteem for your kind, but place allegiance in new ideals. Did you so easily sever the connection towards your clan?"
The patented arrogance in her eyes made it clear that she caught the intentional way he'd bypassed her inquiries as she slowly sat across from him. Despite Satine's urge to turn his words against him, she thought for a moment and seemed to persuade her own honesty.
"No, not entirely." She shook her head. "Much to my chief of staff's dismay, I have re-established communication with my sister."
Obi-wan internally inquired if this was the quaesitum that had eluded him for months, as he succeeded in building their fire. "Why would Dinul disapprove?"
"I suspect he considers us too different." Satine couldn't help but agree in some ways as she continued with a nod. "We are the products of our upbringing."
"Did you not share the same parents? Shouldn't that similarity unify your experiences?"
Satine had to remind herself of the Jedi's vastly distinct background. He truly did not comprehend the complexities in a sibling relationship and even less so, the often-strained dynamic between a parent and their child. She calmly whipped her head back-and-forth. "Different things were expected from us, so we grew down contrasting paths." She shrugged and looked to the crackling fire, thankful for the way it punctuated the silence as she thought.
"My father's hope for reforming Mandalore was nowhere near as drastic as mine." Obi-wan nodded with transparent understanding. "At his core, he acknowledged the indispensable power of diplomacy, it's why he prioritized my education as his eldest, furthering my studies on Sundari – where I took my first university courses-" It was her short stay there that had awakened her passion for facilitating Mandalore's peaceful future. "He encouraged a voracious appetite in exercising intellect, so my understanding of galactic politics was broadened with my specialization and practice courses on Coruscant." She remembered the pride she had felt with his belief in her when she had been given the official duty in the Senate to implement what she had learned.
Obi-wan briefly wondered at the realization that they had narrowly missed each other, having been in a constant state of traveling off-world on missions with his master for quite a few years now. He quieted his curiosity at the steady, hypnotic strength in her voice.
"In the most pivotal years of my academic career, I was able to see a political process that didn't lean heavily on the preference of war as a solution. The mere concept of compromise instilled me with endless hope for all that could be gained."
Satine sighed to herself, melancholy invading her disposition. "While I was seeing the indescribable power behind establishing a dialogue, my sister remained on Kalevala being fed the tales of our warrior father as he continued on his True Mandalorian crusade." She shook her head in frustration. "Because of our different environments, we took away opposing interpretations for our father's ideals."
Finally, Satine met his eyes. "When he died in battle, she acted out from pain and I wore the blame." It was a simplification, but she didn't want to clog her recollection by elaborating on the vandalization her sister had committed. "Clan Kryze is my responsibility, so it only seemed right. It's why I hide our conversations from Zeke." She laughed, looking down. "He believes me too lenient, but the truth is I owe her."
"Why would you be indebted to her?" Obi-wan tried to comprehend the perplexity of familial attachment.
Satine hesitated, inhaling slowly before explaining. "My distaste for violence didn't start with my exposure to the New Mandalorian movement, but much earlier when we were children on Kalevala." Shamefully, she met his gaze. "One day, when we were little, I hurt her," She swallowed a tightness in her throat. "Quite badly."
The recollection made her squirm as if she was still haunted by it and remembering the regret, he'd seen pass behind her eyes more than once, Obi-wan was sure that she indeed, was.
"She was barely three and because she clung to some toy I wanted, I chose to assert my claim to it, pushing a shelf on top of her." Her face screwed up with discomfort, but she couldn't wipe the feeling away. "I knew that physical supremacy brought victory, but I didn't understand the depth of what violence meant."
Satine still remembered the bloody gash on the back of Bo's neck. It had been a vastly different and much scarier, liquid-dripping red than that of her little sister's soft amber hair. She would never forget how large the scar was, though Bo Katan had always preferred to wear her hair longer, saving the guilty party from the sight. Forcing a pained exhale, she continued. "I got her help as soon as I grasped the severity." She hadn't been punished or even blamed as she should've been.
Satine remembered grabbing her sister's hand as their medical droid applied the only remedy they had, a minimum strength bacta spray. "Once I discovered the aftermath of brutality, it horrified me. I knew from that moment on, that a warrior's victory would only ever fill me with remorse." That day had changed her permanently, solidifying the schism between the sisters' respective paths.
Sighing, she met his attentive gaze again. "I have no reservations about taking accountability for my actions, ignorant as they may have been, but I refuse to continue the custom of teaching Mandalorians that violence is an acceptable outlet for negative expression. Pacifism offers an incalculable potential for growth; it is a reminder that we are better than enforcing blind tradition."
Shame filled her expression, even surrounding the Force around them to such a degree that Obi-wan couldn't help but empathize with her pain. No longer was the aspiring knight determined to have her concede this argument now that he understood the extent of her motivation. Even though he was sure to have countless battles to fight in the future, he agreed that seeking out such violence only offered empty honor.
*A/N: Hello boys, girls and everyone in between. Because of the immovable beliefs of Duchess Satine, I always wondered if a traumatic experience is what spurred her determination for pacifism. I was intrigued by the notion of a child almost desensitized to violence in speech and environment, without being able to understand its real life implications due to inexperience.
There is also some truth to Satine's recollection of her education. In my research of Legends, it seemed her father did prioritize her studies by sending her to school on Coruscant. In my own addition, she also undergoes instruction on Sundari, as I believed she would spend some of her academic advancement within the political capital of their system. Anyway, I hope your enjoying it so far. Please R&R. Thanks so much. - Nikki