Chapter 2 – Redemption begins
The master and padawan duo were on their way back to the temple. Fortunately they had no further problems with reporters. Luminara took a quick look around. She could see that several people were still giving Barriss dirty looks or that they looked at her with terror in their eyes. Barriss was doing her utmost best to keep a straight, neutral face, trying not to let the opinions of several strangers affect her resolve. "Good." Luminara thought to herself. "Regaining the trust of the masses won't be easy. At least she doing her best not to be demoralized by the opinions of others."
A ripple in the Force caused both of them to stop walking. They started looking around. They were standing in the middle of the street, a number of stores open still open and lots of people were still walking around. A couple of people gave a few odd looks at the two Jedi standing still in the middle of the walkway just looking around like they'd lost something.
"Did you sense that Barriss?" Luminara asked. Barriss nodded in return. "Yes Master, what was that? It didn't feel right." She replied. "Where did it come from?" She asked as she looked around, trying to find the origin of the disturbance. Suddenly a loud screaming was heard from the street just around the corner of their location. People started yelling and running out of the street, seeking shelter wherever they could. Luminara looked at her padawan. "Barriss! Let's go!" she said as she began running towards the corner. "Right behind you Master!" Barriss replied as she also started running.
As they turned around the corner they jumped on one of the kiosks to get an overview of the situation. A group of people were running out of a small restaurant on their left hand side, about halfway down the middle of the street. A group of 8 security droids were malfunctioning and had opened fire on the innocent bystanders. Thankfully their aim wasn't very good at the moment. "Protect the civilians!" Luminara ordered as they both jumped over the crowd. They landed in front of the restaurant and activated their lightsabers. They assumed a defense fighting stance, their green and blue blades shining brightly. The snapp-hiss of their weapons immediately attracted the malfunctioning droids who turned their fire towards the duo of Jedi. Blasterbolts were flying at them, their lightsabers swirling around to create a protective energy shield to prevent the bolts from harming the civilians hiding all around them. The pair of Jedi reflected the bolts towards the ground an back at the droids. Two of the droids went down after a number of reflected shots hit them.
A squadron of clone troopers arrived on the scene. "Troopers, shield and evacuate the civilians!" Luminara ordered them. "Yes General!" they replied and began to escort the civilians out of the area. Both Luminara and Barriss were still reflecting blasterbolts back at the droids. They were moving swiftly and gracefully as was characteristic from Luminara's fighting style. One of the remaining droids caught a bolt in the head and went down spinning and shooting. One stray bolt of the shutting down droid flew back into the restaurant. A small explosion lit up the place and everything quickly caught on fire.
A hysteric voice was heard from the crowd behind them. "MY BABY! MY BABY IS STILL INSIDE!" a woman in the crowd was screaming. Both Jedi were shocked as they heard it but didn't slip in their defense. "Barriss! I can handle these droids! Get in there and find that kid!" Luminara yelled at her padawan. "Alright Master! I'm on it!" She yelled back. She threw her lightsaber in the air, it's blue blade spinning. With a quick turn she threw of her cloak to prevent it from catching fire. She caught her lightsaber and dashed forward towards the droids, ducking under and dodging their shots. A quick spin of her body and one of the remaining droids went down without its head. Barriss dove into the restaurant, the droids were fortunately too focused on Luminara to worry about her. She used the Force to create an air pocket around her. The flames were spreading quickly through the store. Barriss moved to the center of the building. Closing her eyes, she focused of the Force to locate the girl. Through the Force she could feel a faint life energy. "There! The storage cabinet!" she thought to herself. Jumping over a few burning chairs she quickly made her way to the cabinet. A fast swing of her lightsaber and a small Force pull and the door flew off its hinges. Barriss looked inside. A young human girl with black hair was lying of the floor. Barriss was by her side in the blink of an eye. The girl was unconscious and had probably breathed in a lot of smoke. She picked the little girl up, being careful not to injure her, and started making her way outside. "Master I found her! She will need immediate medical attention!" she send a mental message to her master through their bond. "Paramedics have just arrived on the scene. We'll make short work of these droids!" Her master send back.
;-
After the message from Barriss, Luminara advanced towards the droids. The clone troopers had evacuated the civilians behind her so she was able to attack without having to worry about stray bolts hitting anyone. The security droids were designed to handle common thugs with simple weapons, not highly trained Jedi Masters armed with weapons that carved through their bodies like a hot knife through butter. A few rapid flurries of green energy and the remaining droids were scattered around the area. Luminara looked at the restaurant. The entire front of the place was one big wall of fire. She focused on the Force and created an opening in the flames in the doorframe.
;-
Barriss made her way back to the front of the restaurant, being careful to keep up her Force shield to prevent any further damage from coming to the young girl in her arms. She gasped as she reached the entrance to the place. One big wall of fire was raging at the entrance with no way through. She started looking around for another exit when all of a sudden an opening appeared within the flames. Not doubting a single moment she jumped through the flames.
Using a quick Force push Barriss was able to jump through the fire without it burning them. "Medic!" she immediately yelled. She made her way back from the burning restaurant and gently laid the girl on the ground. Two doctors rushed to her side. They began to use their scanners to analyze the girls health. The same hysteric screams were heard from the crowd. Luminara told the clones to keep the woman at a distance, she couldn't blame her for wanting to see her child but in this state she might hinder the medics and possibly harm her child.
Barriss sat by the girl as the two doctors completed their scan. They looked at each other and shook 'no'. "What's wrong?" Barriss asked concerned. One of the two answered her: "She's breathed in too much smoke and it has poisoned her lungs. I'm afraid she won't recover." Barriss was shocked and checked the girl's pulse. It was still there but it was getting weaker at a startling rate. "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do in time." The other doctor added. They wanted to move the girl but Barriss stopped them. "No! There's still something I can try." She said. The doctors stepped back a bit to give her some space. She placed her one of her hands on the middle of the girl's body, the other on her forehead. Closing her eyes she prepared to call on the Force one more.
A large crowd had gathered now to see what was going on. Everyone was staring at the all too familiar Jedi padawan kneeling besides a dying girl. Angry yelling was heard in the crowd. "What did you do Jedi?!", "I wouldn't be surprised if she's behind this!", "She's a criminal! She should be locked up!". All kinds of angry remarks and insults were being yelled at Barriss. Luminara tried to calm the crowd and tell them that Barriss had had nothing to do with this. The crowd wouldn't have any of it and kept yelling.
All of the anger flowing around her wasn't exactly positive for Barriss' concentration. So much negative energy was boiling that she couldn't focus the Force to channel her healing abilities. She could sense the girl's life force growing weaker by the second. "CAN ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO SAVE A LIFE OVER HERE!" she snapped at the crowd, eyeing them angrily. Everyone went silent immediately. "Thank you!" Barriss said. Her gaze caught a few other young kids in the crowd, the little girl's friends probably. One of them was holding a ball. Seeing the young kid with the ball rushed back a memory in her head.
;-
A young Mirialan, herself, running through the halls of the Temple, chasing a ball that kept rolling away. All of a sudden the girl stopped running and looked at the ball that kept going further away. She held up her hands and the ball suddenly began rolling in the complete opposite direction, towards her. When the ball reached her she picked it up. She looked to her side and saw Master Yoda smiling and nodding approvingly.
;-
She closed her eyes, feeling very calm all of a sudden, the Force was with her. She concentrated and focused the energy through her hands into the girl's body.
Everyone in the crowd was looking silently at Barriss. They were having trouble understanding what they were seeing. The medics were about to declare the situation for the little girl helpless when the Jedi stopped them. Right now she was sitting next to the girl, her eyes closed and her hands were glowing a strange blue colour.
Barriss focused the energies of the Force through her hands into the girl's body. She could sense her energy. The medics had been right, the girl's lungs were damaged from the smoke. Normal medication would not help in this case, the damage was to severe and there wouldn't be enough time to start the treatment. Thankfully, the Force is not a common medicine. Healing sickness and poison is something she was always good at thanks to healing abilities she had been born with. Barriss was able to 'see' inside the girl's lungs, the smoke had done quite a bit of damage. She guided the Force through her system, it's healing powers slowly restoring the damaged tissue. She kept her concentration up, slowly working through the girl's lungs, healing the damage. As her lungs were starting to clear, Barriss could sense the girl's life force grow stronger again. Her heartbeat was increasing and her breathing became more regular.
To Barriss it felt like a few hours had passed, but in reality only about fifteen minutes had passed. She opened her eyes and looked down at the girl. Her breathing was completely back to normal and her skin wasn't as pale anymore. Barriss let out a heavy sigh and rested her hands on her knees. She smiled, it had taken a lot of energy out of her but at least the little girl was going to be fine. "Remarkable!" one of the medics said as the loaded the girl on a stretcher to bring her to a nearby hospital to recover.
Barriss stood up, breathing heavily, as the medics brought the girl to the ambulance. A small round of applause was heard. It grew louder as more people began to cheer. Barriss stood a little shakily, drained from the healing. All of a sudden she felt something clamping around her. It got difficult to breathe. It took her a second to realize that she was being hugged by someone. "Hugged very tightly…" she thought. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" the woman said. Barriss quickly realized that this was the girl's mother. "Don't mention it, I was glad to help." Barriss said with a smile as the woman let her go again. The woman ran to the ambulance to go with her child.
"Are you alright Barriss?" Luminara asked as she stood next to her padawan. Barriss looked at her and smiled. "I'm fine Master, I'm just a little tired." She said, a hint of drowsiness in her voice. Luminara smiled back at her. "You did great Barriss." Barriss simply nodded a little sleepily. Luminara chuckled a little. She then turned towards one of the clone troopers. "Trooper, can you give us a ride back to the temple?" The clone gave a quick salute and replied: "Yes general, we'll get one of our speeders for you." Thank you trooper." Luminara said.
A few minutes later they were both in the speeder on their way back to the Temple. Luminara smiled as she looked at her padawan. Barriss sat beside her looking as if she could fall asleep at any moment. "I'm sorry I snapped back there Master." She said in a soft voice. Luminara looked a bit surprised at what she just said. She smiled comfortingly at her padawan. "Don't worry Barriss, I don't blame you for losing your cool. Those people were being very irrational. What really matters is that we were able to save everyone, including that little girl." Luminara put her arm around Barriss' shoulder. "You did great today Barriss, I'm very proud of you." She said. Barriss smiled at her Master. Starting over was going to be difficult, but at least she wasn't alone.
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And that's the second chapter. A bit of chaos and a beginning towards redemption.
The flashback is from the Medstar books, written by Micheal Reaves and Steve Perry. In these books it's described how this memory always comes back to Barriss when she's about the use the Force for something like this. I thought it fit nicely in my story as well.