A/N: Are you all tired of this story?

Christina B (Did you get the link? I LOVE that archive... being there is like, my greatest dream.), Knight Queen (I'm glad you liked it. Hehe..), Tiamath (When I got your review, I seriously stared at it for like, five minutes trying to figure out why you were laughing. I'm still not completely sure. Maybe my own humor is a little subtle for me...;) So glad you're back! )


Title: Explanations, Reconciliation and Other "TION" Words

Naptime couldn't have come sooner, the two girls climbing into their beds without much protest. They hadn't been doing much of anything, besides following instructions and avoiding the other's eye. It made Obi-Wan want to scream. His crèche mates, his clan mates, his classmates – no one he knew acted like this! Bruck had been hostile to him, but he had been upfront about it. Bant had been his friend, and she had been upfront about it. These two girls hovered between the two, and they both waited for the other to strike first.

Qui-Gon led Obi-Wan out of their room, as the girls fell asleep, and into an observation lounge down the hallway. "Here, my young apprentice, we will address your concerns."

"I don't know where to start, Qui-Gon," said Obi-Wan, studying his hands, then looking out at the blackness of normal space as the starship used a normal engine to approach Floresa. "I guess I have a general uneasiness about them."

"They have great potential, Obi-Wan." By this statement, Obi-Wan knew there was much more to the story, but he waited patiently as Qui-Gon gathered his thoughts, studying his Padawan's face. "As you know, I brought both girls to be Initiates." Obi-Wan nodded, and a faint smile passed over his Master's lips. "Lilia has a long line of Jedi in her family; the family lore had passed down the signs in an infant through the ages. Maela's blood was tested at a young age for a routine check required by a militarized system of medicine. They were both under a year old when I brought them to the Temple."

"Why are they having problems, then?" interrupted Obi-Wan, surprised. "I mean, I'd think that attachments from before would be the most damaging to a Jedi education."

"Attachments are not forbidden in the simplest interpretations of the Jedi Code, Obi-Wan, and you know this just as well or better then I since you've become the scholar of the two of us." Obi-Wan looked away from his mentor, realizing his error, suddenly becoming highly interested in the triangular patterned carpet. "It is flaws within the Jedi system that have caused the flaws the Council now seeks to rectify. They are apparently severe enough that the Council of Training referred it to the High Council."

A myriad of emotions passed over Obi-Wan's face, with the talks of the flaws of the Jedi, but he tried to focus on what his Master was saying instead of the implications. "But referred what, Master?"

Qui-Gon's face sobered, reflecting the seriousness of the statements he had just made. He continued, despite the distasteful premise. "Have you been able to help Lilia?"

"No, not even with her math." Obi-Wan shook his head. "She seems to think that I would deliberately give her a wrong answer, or steer her astray."

"She does not trust," he said simply. "The Jedi allow young ones out of the crèche to start becoming familiar with mission logs, and most have no reason to. But she has become familiar with her aunt and great uncle's missions – and her great uncle was betrayed."

Obi-Wan became ashen. "What?"

"Master Younglas, may he be one with the Force, was on a mission to stop organized kidnapping and genocide on a rim world, when a conspiracy of circumstances as well as the 'good' intentions of the peasantry betrayed him and lead to his death." A great sadness tainted his voice. He could not scorn an entire people, Obi-Wan knew, but he could feel sorry for the way they had been led. "Lilia, while shielded from the majority of the details, is aware of the public's role in her Uncle's death and thus does not trust." Obi-Wan had no words. He had known that he could read mission logs from the time he turned eight, but he never had – and thus his own rude introduction into the galaxy at the hands of a Hutt. Though Obi-Wan's reverie, Qui-Gon continued. "Has Maela asked any uncomfortable questions?"

He focused on the task at hand with some difficulty, shaking off the remembrance of that trip to Bandomeer. A slow trickle of people were coming into the lounge to observe the planet as they approached. "She asked me if I thought she would make a good Padawan, yesterday." Qui-Gon waited for him to continue, to realize that he had more to tell. "It's such an uncomfortable question, because how can one know if an initiate will be chosen? I told her that she had qualities that I thought a Master would value in a Padawan, and she just smiled." He paused for a moment. "Then she said that I had handled the question well."

"Yes, part of your unease was probably due to her examination of your emotional reaction." Obi-Wan blanched. "According to the reports from her Masters, Maela has an extraordinary connection to the Living Force, causing her to be empathic to a large degree. But she has no idea how to contain it or to use it constructively."

"I don't want her in my head, Master," he said seriously, and began to rethink all of the encounters he had had with the small girl for as long as he had known her.

Qui-Gon smiled softly. "She is only eight-years-old, Padawan. I doubt her intrusions are all that elegant. If you find her there, tell her to stop." Obi-Wan relaxed slightly, realizing that he would not be caught unawares.

"Is that what caused the fight between the two of them?" He saw with sudden clarity the fight of the previous night.

"Yes. Maela told Lilia one of Lilia's emotions and extrapolated something from it that hit on one of Lilia's fears. She intimated that Lilia's family might not love her, a subject that she, I believe, is torn about. She is afraid that her family does not love her, because she is unsure if, as a Jedi, if she should love them. But Maela is strong enough in the Living Force that she probably could tell us what Master Yoda is feeling at a short distance. It makes her perceptions hard to ignore."

"And makes our work is cut out for us," Obi-Wan said sardonically. "How will becoming friends help them?"

"Lilia does not trust Maela's assertions, and thus Maela cannot hold that power over Lilia. But Maela has a great capacity for friendship, fiercely loyal, just as Lilia needs. They'll learn to trust one another, and correct the other's faults."

"How does Master Yoda think of these schemes?" said Obi-Wan in disbelief, holding his head in his uninjured hand.

"Indeed," said Qui-Gon, with considerable thought. He paused for a moment, a peaceful moment where they could just enjoy the other's company as they had been unable to for weeks. Then he spoke. "Do you remember the question that Master Yoda asked you in the Council briefing before they gave us the chaperoning assignment?"

Obi-Wan looked into Qui-Gon's eyes in disbelief. "That's part of this too?"

"Do you remember?"

"He asked me who put the initiates on the path to become a Master."

"Yes, keep that in mind, Padawan. I believe you will discover that answer soon."


They had gone to their naps without much protest, but neither girl was asleep. Lilia was waiting for Maela's breath to even out and for her to stop rustling her sheets, but as the minutes dragged on Lilia was afraid that Master Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would come back before she had a chance to do what she had to. She reached into the pocket of her outer tunic and pulled out the small green figure that she had carried there since she had come into possession of it in the Temple two days before.

"Here," she said, lying on her chest and dangling her arm below the bunk so that Maela could reach up and take the toy. "I think you'd want Master Yoda back."

There was a rustling in the bed below as Lilia guessed Maela was twisting out of her covers to reach up and gently take the doll away from her fellow Initiate. "Thank you," she said softly. Lilia's chest clinched, Maela had thanked her for everything she had done all morning, but nothing got Maela talking. Qui-Gon had promised that Maela would start talking when Lilia had done the right thing.

"You didn't have to give him back," she continued, grabbing one of the support beams on the sleep couch and leaning out of the bed to see Lilia who was leaning over the edge and looking down. "I knew you had him, and I didn't think you'd hurt him."

"I would be afraid that someone had stolen him by now!" said Lilia in surprise.

"No, you were with me. If we had been in the Temple still, and if I hadn't seen you again yet, I might try to find you and talk to you again. But I wouldn't ask for him back." Maela put him in her pocket anyway. "Thank you for giving him back."

Lilia looked down at the younger girl and was marveling that she hadn't minded that she had kept the Yoda doll so long. They looked at each other for a long moment and then Lilia spoke again, hoping to keep this tenuous line of communication open. "Why do you make dolls anyway?"

"They help me meditate," she said, patting the bulge in her pocket that was Yoda.

"Yeah, I know," said Lilia. "But how'd you get the idea? No one else that I know of makes dolls."

Maela's eyes grew serious, and she studied Lilia. Lilia suppressed the urge to look away. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yeah," said Lilia, unflinchingly.

"You promise not to make fun of me?" she asked again seriously. "I don't want to show you if you're going to make fun of me."

"I won't make fun of you," Lilia promised. As soon as she had received assurances, Maela ducked back into the sleep couch to turn on the sheets so that her legs stuck out and she leaped to the floor, landing quietly as a Jedi should. Lilia moved towards the other end of her bed, better to watch Maela as she headed to her drawers. She pulled open the drawer that held the box of Master dolls, but instead liberated a much smaller box, in a similar design. She walked over to the bunk and held open the box to Lilia.

"Don't open it," she said when Lilia took it, and began climbing up the ladder to join Lilia in her sleep couch. Lilia wondered why she had trusted her not to open the box – it was so tempting. When Maela had settled herself, she reached to take the box back and set it on the bed in front of her folded legs. "I wanted to come up here since we got here, but you got this bunk," Maela explained, as she looked around.

Lilia wasn't to be stirred from her curiosity. "What's in the box?" she asked, gesturing towards the plain box.

"My mother made them," Maela said by way of explanation as she lifted the lid. She handed Lilia the first doll, a man in a uniform, starch white with gleaming buttons, the same size as most of the human Master dolls. She pulled out the next doll, a woman with a woolen dress, lined with fur, just slightly shorter than the other doll. And finally she pulled out a little girl doll – she recognized it as Maela, with short red hair and Jedi robes. "It's my family," she said.

"They're pretty," said Lilia. She meant it, the embroidery was amazing, and their clothes had the tiniest details. The little Maela doll even wore the same necklace as Maela did, but in a tiny, miniaturized size.

"My crèche Master let me keep them," said Maela. "Because they show me where I came from – look, my eyes are like my dad's, and my mouth is like my mom's." Maela was right; the dolls' features were mirrored in their doll-daughter. "But when I started having trouble concentrating at meditating, she got the idea to have me make dolls."

"Why'd you show me this?" asked Lilia. She didn't even want this girl learning about her family because she was about to meet them, and Maela was showing her miniature family portraits!

"Because, you asked. And because I don't think you'll tell anyone." Maela's voice dropped. "And because I hurt you and I hope you'll forgive me for real."

Lilia was silenced for a moment, afraid that Maela was going to cry. She thought about all the ways that she could forgive her, but couldn't find any that wouldn't prompt a hug or something. She gave up. "Do you think your mom could make a doll of me?"

Maela smiled and looked shyly up the other girl. "I could make a doll of you."

"But I've seen your dolls," said Lilia. "And your mom makes better ones." She hoped she was projecting a gentle teasing into her voice.

"We could ask her, but I don't know. I think I saw her when I was four, but I haven't seen her since. I hope she will." She slowly put the dolls back into the box, first herself, then her mother, and then her father.

"I hope so too," Lilia said, smiling.. "But if not, you could make one of me."

"I will," Maela promised. "I guess we really should take a nap."

"The sleep couch is big enough, you could stay here."

"No," said Maela. "I'd be afraid I'd fall off." She hitched her leg off the side of the bed and onto the rail below. Holding tightly, she swung her other leg over as well. "Can you hand me the box when I get to the bottom?"

"Yup," said Lilia, something bubbling within her that she decided to call happiness. She did not know if she could now fall asleep.