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A Shift in the Force: Chapter Thirty-Nine: Catatonia
AN: Talk about a sudden turn of events last chapter. I really enjoyed writing Carina, but I'm super happy that Sabé's back, she's way more exciting, and there's a lot left to happen before book 2 is completed.
The past two weeks had been nothing more than aggravating for Talik. The first week Sabé had been in the bacta tank in an induced coma, at the beginning of the second week, the masters of the High Council had ordered her be brought out of it and listening to Sabé's screams was enough to enrage Talik.
"Put her back in," she barked to the Jedi Healers that were more like common orderlies in a med-center, her eyes dark and furious, making the young Jedi scramble to comply.
Sabé's screams subsided when she was submerged once more, her expression calming and her body relaxing as she was forced into a slumber once more.
The young Jedi scampered away quickly when they caught her glare.
The thin material she had been put into to cover her modesty hid very little, and it pained Talik more than it should've, mostly because it left her scars on display for all to see. Talik was familiar with her master's body enough to know that there were far too many scars that she couldn't recall seeing before.
Most were electrical burns, rough and red in rectangular patterns at her lower back and abdomen and Talik tried to avoid looking at them; they just made her irrationally angry.
"She's going to be all right," Anakin assured her when he stopped by to see how she was doing during lunch, with a tray of food for her, since she had taken meals every so often in order to keep an eye on her master.
"Are the masters done deliberating?" she asked as a reply and his lips thinned into a line.
There hadn't been an occasion in a few hundred years where a Jedi had turned to the Dark Side and then returned to the Light. There was much debate as to whether Sabé could still be considered a Jedi or if she should be expelled from the Order.
Those talks made Talik's hands ball into fists. She understood fully why Sabé had done what she did, and Taria had explained it far better than any of the masters could've. Korriban was seeping with the Dark Side, it was impossible for a Jedi to survive stepping foot on it, and Sabé had known that.
"No." Anakin shook his head, his padawan braid flying. "I think that's why they wanted Master Sabé conscious."
Talik gritted her teeth together, slamming the datapad down onto a table with frustration. "I'm going to go give them a piece of my mind," she declared furiously.
"Um, are you really sure that's a—" He fell abruptly silent at the glower Talik gave him.
So Talik strode out of the room, leaving her master to Anakin's capable hands. Her roiling thoughts must've showed on her face, because people moved out of her way as she moved forward.
"Padawan Shala," a voice said when she took the lift up the to the High Council Chamber, "you can't go in there, the masters are in session—!"
Talik ignored them, pressing the button that slid the doors open, stalking inside before she could be stopped.
"Padawan Shala," Mace Windu reproached, "this is a private meeting."
"You just had my mentally and physically damaged master removed from a bacta tank, which I have just had to return her to," Talik managed to force out with more calm than she would've thought possible. "Because she was in so much pain she was screaming like she was being murdered, which, given what the Order has put her through over the years, is a rather fair assessment."
The affront was rolling off them in waves and if it'd been more than a year ago, it would've bothered her more, but Talik had learned from Sabé never to give your enemies an inch, and in that moment, they certainly were her enemies.
"Sabé Amidala's mind cannot handle consciousness," Talik said with a clear throat and a clear mind, "just as her mind couldn't handle being in this temple when she was a child. I am her padawan and her healer and as such must speak as her advocate when she cannot. What you are trying to do is similar to the torture she's already experienced. Her body is taking in hardly any nutrients, by my estimate she won't last more than two weeks, which might be what you're going for."
"Speak plainly, Padawan Shala," Ki-Adi-Mundi said, his fingers interlocked in front of him and his eyes sharp; he didn't like the insults she was throwing around.
"'Anger, fear, aggression'," Talik could quote the words that Sabé had said she had learned from Yoda, " 'the Dark Side of the Force, are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.'"
Her eyes dared Yoda's and the Grandmaster heaved a heavy sigh.
"Feel we are abandoning Sabé, do you?" he queried and Talik glared.
"Isn't that what this debate is about? Whether or not she can still be considered a Jedi after what she's done? Which, I have to say, is pretty low, seeing as she went through the trouble of Falling to get a kriffing Sith Holocron." Talik's emotion choked her words slightly in her throat. Her master didn't deserve this, not after all that had happened.
She took in a sharp breath, trying to control how she felt, but she didn't think it was working very well. How many times had Sabé stood in this very room and burrowed her emotions deep down where they couldn't be seen? How many times had her tone never switched from calm and serene when she was roiling inside?
Talik had never wished she was more like her master than she did now.
"My master is an exceptional Jedi Shadow," she hissed out, "and she should be recognized for her accomplishments not demonized for them. And I would like to point out that several Jedi have returned from the Dark Side and have been pardoned for their crimes, Jedi who committed far worse crimes, so perhaps you should take that into account."
And with that said, she strode out of the room, tension rolling in her shoulders.
Aayla's eyes were red and her hands gripping her arms where they were crossed, focusing intently on the woman suspended in the bacta tank before her. She didn't know how to feel about the whole thing.
If Sabé had been fully conscious and cognizant, she probably would've ranted, maybe even screamed.
Look at what I did for the Dark Jedi Volfe Karkko! Look at the damage the Dark Side did to me! Didn't you even think of that when you Fell, Sabé?
"You look angry."
The voice was metallic and very matter-of-fact, forcing Aayla to tear her eyes from her friend's slumbering body to the hulking black security droid that was resting against the opposite wall.
Jay-Seven, as Obi-Wan had said Carina had called him, was particularly resilient, as droids went, and Aayla rather thought that Sabé had a nasty habit of picking up droids with a loyalty complex. The Jedi could hardly part the droid from Sabé's side, much like Arthree, the only difference was that Arthree had a limited battery that he'd foolishly worn down, whereas a security droid could go for months without having to plug themselves into something to recharge.
And the droid maintained the mandate that should his mistress perish, he would begin a massacre of Jedi.
Carina certainly hadn't fooled around, but, retrospectively, Aayla could appreciate her tenacity, albeit murderous tendencies.
If you go down, take as many with you as you can seemed to have been her philosophy.
Aayla wondered who she'd gotten that from.
"My friend almost got herself killed, of course I'm angry," she said, her words coming out thicker than usual.
The droid tilted its head, the optical lights fixing on her in a way that she couldn't help but find eerie.
"Would it have been easier if she was dead?" Jay-Seven asked in much a bland tone that made Aayla start and twist violently.
"Of course not," she refuted, thinking of the little girl who'd awoken with terrible nightmare, of the girl that had worn an outfit almost identical to Aayla's for years when Aayla hadn't been confident to do it by herself, of the girl who had seen people stare at her silver-plated arm and felt so self-conscious that she always hid it under a glove when she left the Temple, of the girl who had a designated spot in the Archives and who questioned every belief of the Jedi, of the woman who poured her heart and soul into her missions as Jedi Shadow. "That would be worse."
"But you're angry about what she's done," Jay-Seven pointed out and she frowned at it.
"Do you always speak like this?" she asked instead.
"Carina believed she 'scrambled my circuits' when she reprogrammed me," Jay-Seven intoned without inflection.
Aayla hummed in understanding. "I think she went about it the wrong way," she said finally, "and I don't approve, but she's made more sacrifices than I would've ever thought to." Her eyes softened as she looked over her friend.
She brought a hand up to rest on the surface of the bacta tank, leaning her forehead against it.
You deserve peace of mind and spirit, my friend.
Whoever was in charge of filtering Queen Amidala's comm-channel ought to have been fired, because Talik had been sending messages for the past two weeks to get Padmé's attention concerning the condition of her elder sister, and it was to little avail.
Talik rubbed at her brow in aggravation. What would Sabé have done?
What was that thing she'd said when Talik had seen her looking over schematics of a building she'd never seen before?
"There's always another way in."
So Talik punched in a different comm-channel frequency.
Yané was generally not apart from Queen Amidala's side for an extended period of time, seeing as she was her decoy in the case of crisis, but Padmé had only used her a few times since the Trade Federation Crisis, for which both of them were glad, because if there was one thing the people of Naboo deserved, it was peace.
But today she'd been assisting in the training of handmaidens with the potential to replace her and her fellows when the queen after Padmé was named, though that wouldn't be yet for a few more years.
The hem of her lavender and blue blended dress was kicked up slightly with her hurried steps as she moved throughout the palace, searching for the queen.
It had been a surprise to receive a personal call from Talik, the young Twi'lek who was apprenticed to Padmé's sister. She'd grown since the last time Yané had seen her, but then, that had been years ago. She had been surprised to see that the Jedi Padawan looked less like a Jedi and more like a freedom fighter with a dark jumpsuit and a blaster at one hip, but she didn't comment on it when she heard what she had to say.
At last, Yané came through a side entrance into the royal throne room. She could see Rabé and Eirtaé standing behind Padmé's throne with their hoods up, in the background but present as Padmé listened to the complaint of one of her representatives.
Personally, Yané thought she'd do a better job as representative, but that was an entirely different matter.
Yané gave a polite bow, enough to garner the queen's attention before moving forward in order to whisper into her ear in a manner that kept others from seeing what she was saying.
"Your Majesty, Talik Shala has been trying to get in contact with you for the past two weeks," she murmured and it was with remarkable strain that Padmé's surprise didn't show. "She says she needs to speak with you as soon as possible."
Padmé's eyes cut to her and she gave a small nod that was almost impossible to manage with her large headdress, but Yané stepped back all the same to allow Padmé to come up with an excuse to adjourn the meeting and immediately comm the young Jedi padawan once the room had been sufficiently cleared of personnel, leaving only Padmé's handmaidens and the head of security.
Talik's expression was aggravated when she appeared on the large image-caster that was centered in the floor, but at least she remembered her tongue; family were the only ones who could get away with calling her Padmé when she was in her royal garb.
"Queen Amidala, I apologize for taking so long to inform you, but I was unfortunately rerouted by some incompetent communications officer," Talik said, annoyance clear in the tone that was made from static.
"Yané says you have news," Padmé said regally in the accent she had based off Sabé's own. "Have you found her?"
"Well…" Talik trailed off uncomfortably. "She had turned to the Sith when Obi-Wan and Anakin crossed paths with her, she was using the name Darth Carina."
This time Padmé couldn't hide the widening of her eyes, and Talik continued quickly.
"Its fine now, though, because we've got her back, she's Sabé again, at least, we think she is," Talik stumbled over her words before clearing her throat, "that's why I'm calling. We've had Sabé in a bacta tank for the past two weeks but she's only getting worse."
Padmé's hands tightened over the arm rests of her round-shaped throne, a muscle jumping in her jaw.
"When she reverted back to who she was before –I'm sorry if this is a bit complicated to understand, but it will probably be better to tell you everything in person– she kind of…ripped herself open mentally. It destroyed her mental shields, left a hole in the wall too, but I think she might've told you about when she was younger and it felt like the Force was hammering at her head?"
Padmé nodded slowly, still stunned at Talik's words. "She mentioned it once."
"Well, she's about at what her shields were then, only its much worse," Talik explained grimly, "the masters tried to bring her out of the bacta to interrogate her about her time as Carina and—" Talik gave a noticeable wince. "Let's just say it caused her so much pain that she was screaming like she was being murdered."
Padmé flinched. The idea of hearing such a sound from Sabé was horrifying enough; Sabé who was the strongest of the Naberrie sisters and possibly the wisest.
"Sabé always said that Naboo was a place strong in the natural Force," Talik continued, "I don't think she'll last much longer on the planet. If you have access to a bacta tank and are willing, I'd like to get her off Coruscant as soon as possible."
"Of course," Padmé said swiftly. "I'll make contact when I've made the plans."
Talik gave a polite bow and the connection fizzled out.
Bacta tanks were expensive, but it wasn't as though Padmé didn't have access to one as the Queen of Naboo.
She didn't notice how oddly calculating Quarsh Panaka's eyes were as he contemplated informed Chancellor Palpatine of that development, as Panaka had maintained his loyalty to the former senator of Naboo. It was the kind of information that he would undoubtedly find intriguing.
Obi-Wan's thoughts were a mess about the whole thing. His feelings towards Sabé had begun to grow prominently back when she'd first disappeared that he'd been vaguely startled at how attracted he'd been to Carina, but Carina was Sabé, after all.
And there had been moments, brief moments when he'd seen Sabé within the persona she'd created.
He was growing to love Sabé Amidala, far stronger than his love for Cerasi or Siri or even Satine, and he wasn't entirely sure he knew what to do about that.
Sabé's beliefs, it seemed, had rubbed off on him.
How many times had he listened to her and Anakin debate about the rule concerning no attachments? How long had Sabé been testing her theory on love?
That kiss on Alderaan…it was something more, Obi-Wan could tell. He'd known she'd kissed others before, she wasn't as shy about it as she had been years ago, but those kisses had never seemed to mean much in particular.
But Sabé had made it so complicated, avoiding him after the incident, and then disappearing and being considered dead, and then coming back as the Sith Darth Carina.
Darth Carina who had saved his life when she didn't even need to try, when it would've been better for her to cut and run.
Obi-Wan had dedicated his life to the Code of the Jedi for so long, and Sabé…Sabé had always questioned it. He knew there must've been a time when she fully believed in it, but now even he couldn't begin to fathom when that was.
He looked at her now, floating in the bacta tank, her eyes moving furiously under her eyelids. He took a few steps closer, watching how the underlying tension in her shoulders seemed to ease merely at his presence.
"She loves you, you know," Kit mentioned and Obi-Wan turned to see the Nautoloan standing there, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked better than he had since he'd found out about Sabé 'death' and when she'd been revealed to be a Sith. "And she'd probably kill me for telling you, but I think you've begun to realize it too."
His large eyes were knowing.
There were so many things Obi-Wan wanted to ask, wanted to say.
Instead he asked: "How long?"
"I'm not really sure," Kit said, moving closer to consider his friend. "Years, undoubtedly, so I say she's proving her theory that Jedi can form attachments quite well, don't you?"
It was one of the few times that Obi-Wan actually found himself thrown off.
"I hear Master Djinn Altis was interested in speaking with her at length about their rather controversial views," Kit added and Obi-Wan found he wasn't all that surprised.
Djinn Altis was more famous than Sabé concerning views that didn't directly align with what the Jedi Order believed. Some said his beliefs were too radical, but he'd attained the title of Master despite it all, so it was clear that the Jedi Order still found him useful.
But he had many views on the restriction of age on training Force-sensitives, the restriction of one padawan to one master in the stead of several to one master, which was the way things had been done at one point in time, and then there was the matter of attachment, which Djinn Altis believed should be encouraged, as long as they were kept in check.
Djinn Altis didn't live on Coruscant, though, he and his followers lived at the Jedi Enclave on Bespin, and they weren't completely made of Force-sensitive individuals, some were mere acolytes. But the Altisian Jedi, while being a splinter faction of the Jedi Order, still served the Republic, so it wasn't uncommon to see them from time to time.
Obi-Wan was surprised that Djinn Altis had heard of Sabé's views when he'd been off-planet for almost as long as she'd had them.
"That will be an interesting conversation," Obi-Wan said finally.
"Indeed," Kit said as another entered and both turned to look upon Kit's padawan, Nahdar Vebb entered, appearing surprised to see Obi-Wan there before turning to speak to his master.
"Master, there's a mission for us," he said and Obi-Wan thought he was going through a rather painstaking effort of avoiding looking at Sabé.
"I'll be there in a moment," Kit said easily, offering the young Mon Calamari a smile.
"I've heard Anakin and Talik complaining about his…disapproval of Sabé," Obi-Wan mentioned when the Padawan had gone.
"Yes," Kit murmured thoughtfully, "but then he's never really held a conversation with her." And then he clasped Obi-Wan's shoulder before following after and leaving Obi-Wan to his thoughts, thankful that Carina's security droid was keeping itself silent, almost seeming like it was shut down, but Obi-Wan could never be quite sure with the reprogrammed droid.
"What do you think?" Taria asked quietly of Maw as they walked through the Tower of First Knowledge. She had taken Sabé's seat on the Council during her absence, but they were not speaking of the Council of First Knowledge, they were speaking of something of importance only to the Jedi Shadows, and without Sabé present, they were the only two.
"I think," Maw said, just as quietly as another Jedi slid past them, intent on the datapad in their tentacles, "that when Sabé is fully cognizant I would very much like to speak to her regarding the title of Spymaster."
Taria gave a sharp intake of breath. Spymaster wasn't a title to take likely, particularly in the Jedi Order and even more so among the Jedi Shadows. Only Jedi Shadows could ever be given the opportunity to gain such a title and only for incredibly distinguished service. It was one that earned its bearer the rank of 'Master' when being addressed, even if they hadn't yet had their student pass to knighthood.
No Jedi Shadow had been a Spymaster in more than one hundred years, particularly since there were rarely any Jedi Shadows hardly at all and even fewer went to as great of lengths as Sabé had done so on every mission she had completed for the Jedi Shadows.
"Do you disagree?" Maw inquired, his heavy brow ridges seeming to deepen as he considered his companion, noticing the change in her breathing pattern.
"No," Taria said quickly, "I was just surprised…but if one deserved that title, it's her."
She didn't notice the look on his face, the dark anger that flashed in his eyes. Jedi Knight Maw had always been a rather selfish individual and being around the Dark Side for so long had corrupted his views.
If Sabé had access to a Sith Holocron…an undeniable thirst for power simmered in his blood.
Things were generally very quiet in the hangar bay of the Jedi Temple, the most action anyone there had seen was when transports came and left, not including when the Jedi-turned-Sith Carina had stormed inside carting Obi-Wan Kenobi half-conscious at her side.
So it was a bit of a surprise when a Nubian transport bearing the Queen of Naboo herself requested to dock for a matter of importance.
Shaptives, who'd been in charge at the current hour wasn't exactly sure if he could exactly refuse the Queen, so he allowed the ship to dock before sending out a message to the High Council, due to the most irregular arrival.
Of course, with a name like that, it was easy to tell why she'd arrived. Sabé Amidala was still known as the queen's eldest sister, and if rumors were to be believed, she had another sister who'd had a Force-sensitive daughter that had rejected the choice to have her child raised as a Jedi.
The ramp extended and a woman descended in a deep violet gown and a solemn expression on her painted face.
"I am Queen Amidala," the young woman said seriously as two handmaidens followed her wearing hoods to obscure their faces and a dark-skinned man in security uniform with a blaster at his hip. "I am here for my sister, Sabé Amidala."
AN: Dramatic, much? The next few chapters are going to be fun to write. And Obi-Wan doesn't know what to do now that he knows how he feels. It might be awhile before another update, so enjoy it!
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