Bly had never been to the Room of a Thousand Fountains.
In fact, before all of this force osik happened, he could count on one hand the number of times he had been to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. There was a war going on and that meant that the 327th Star Corps was more often than not jumping from one campaign to the next without more than a couple days to receive a resupply and fresh reinforcements from Kamino. When they got a momentary rotation away from the warfront, most of the time hadn't even been spent on Coruscant, instead going from one of the many fronts to guarding shipping lanes and what not.
On the rare occasion that the 327th Star Corps had in fact been rotated off the line and given shore leave on the capitol-planet, Bly had spent most of that time buried in a veritable mountain of flimsi-work. He was the Marshal Commander of the entire 327th Star Corps after all and more often than not, he had to assist Senior General Ry-Gaul in managing the Second Sector Army, and that usually ate at a chunk of his shore leave.
While his men would be able to go off and enjoy what free time they had, mostly spend at 79's, Bly had to catch up on missed work. General Secura would sometimes come and help as well, and Bly would wrangle some of his other fellow commanders whenever they had a flimsi-work session. He could almost hear Commander A'den grumbling about missing his free time.
Almost.
Through it all, he had only ever stepped foot into the Jedi Temple for mission debriefings that had to be done in person, due to the confidential nature of said missions. There wasn't any time for sightseeing as there was a war going on and they needed every man on the front to push back the droids.
Now, it seemed rather pointless, but that was due to his ability to take a step back and look it all over. Being thrown into the past made for a lot of retrospection. There wasn't a war going on here in this time and given the fact that Aayla was now four standard years old, they were Temple bound until she grew up. Thus, Bly and the nine other vode that had come with him, had nothing to do. Oh, there were still debriefings that they had with the Jedi Council, and there was also the whole stopping the war from happening. But there were still years before the Null-class Advanced Recon Commandos were put into production, and even more for the Alphas and the regular CC and CT class of clones.
Hells, he wasn't even sure if the Prime was even approached with the offer to be the template yet.
So, with all of that, Bly found himself in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, and a little Twi'lek who stubbornly refused to remain in the creche.
It had initially been decided that the little Rutian Twi'lek would be placed within the creche and an Initiate Clan just like every other youngling that was found. Apparently, this was how things were done, and Bly saw some similarities to the squads and batches that the Kaminoans used for the vode. Raising them together would foster better relations and help with unit cohesion, or it had for vode anyway. For the Jedi, not so much.
Quinlan Vos, and the damned kid wouldn't leave them alone since they had arrived at the Temple, informed Bly that the clan system was more of a way to sort younglings together. And by sort, he meant that they were just thrown in together at random. Not a very intuitive system in Bly's opinion, and he could almost hear Fox grumbling about the inefficiency of it all. Fox wasn't the Marshal Commander of the Coruscant Guard for nothing.
Aayla refused to go through that whole system again. Bly didn't know much about his general's time as a Jedi before she became his general, and the few times that she had talked about it were mostly around her padawan days. He knew nothing about what actually happened before that point and seeing as Aayla was still unable to speak Basic, he just had to deal with either a translator, or just agreeing to whatever she wanted.
The little Twi'lek also refused to let Bly or any of the other ARC Troopers keep their helmets on, and that meant that the translator programs that Bes had managed to get them were useless. Without their helmets, they weren't able to listen to the translations. They could have used their forearm-mounted-datapads, but reading off of it wasn't practical, and there was also the fact that it seemed that Aayla was still in the process of relearning how to read.
Bly looked down at the little Twi'lek in his lap as she… meditated? He assumed she was meditating. She was sitting with her legs crossed and her hands resting in her lap. He was fairly certain that her eyes were closed and that she wasn't sleeping. She was four years old after all, and he didn't know anyone who could sleep sitting up. No, that was a lie, he did know people who could sleep sitting up, and standing for that matter, but they weren't actually here.
He soon heard footsteps approaching over the soft sound of flowing water, and soon enough a voice joined the rather sedate pace of this person's gait.
"Commander."
Bly looked up as Sergeant Nix came over and took a seat in the grass across from them. He, like all the other ARC Troopers, was still in full armor. Some of them had stuck to the armor as a way to protect themselves, while others were falling back on regulations to deal with the situation. Bly had kept it on since he honestly felt more comfortable in the plastoid than anything else, and it was the most recognizable thing that Aayla had seen him in, so the gold and white plastoid remained on. Nix wore his own armor simply because he liked how it looked, and it showed in how the man had taken a large amount of his free time in styling the plastoid so that he looked like a walking art piece instead of a solider.
"Nix."
The three of them sat in companionable silence for some time. Aayla was simply mediating and doing it with the poise of someone who was far older than the body they currently inhabited. Being an adult stuck in a child's body couldn't be a fun experience no matter how you looked at it. Bly tried to meditate as well, he wasn't very good at it, but Aayla had dragged him to enough of her own sessions that he was passable at it. Nix soon shifted his seat so that he was laying down in the grass, resting his hands behind his head, eyes looking up at the ceiling and the lights that seemed almost like a real sun.
It was as peaceful as it was going to get, so of course, someone had to come and ruin it.
"Bly! Nix! Aayla!"
Bly internally groaned as Quinlan Vos came bounding over to the three of them. The padawan had a smile on his face and a skip in his step, both which were eerily similar to his older counterpart. The kid hadn't left Bly alone for even a day, and as this was the week anniversary of their arrival to the Jedi Temple, Quinlan was bound to do something about it.
He had already heard rumors from Bes about a celebration being planned.
He also heard that said planning of the celebration was then stopped by Mace Windu.
Bly had to remember to thank the man when he next saw him.
"Quinlan, what do you need?" Bly said as he looked at the thirteen-year-old padawan.
"I can't visit you guys without needing something?" Quinlan asked as he plopped down in the grass next to Nix, the other ARC Trooper sparing only a glance at the Kiffar before going back to his ceiling gazing. Aayla didn't stir from her meditation at all, and that left Bly to deal with the kid.
"I know you too well to believe something like that, so, what do you want?"
"You're no fun Bly." Quinlan pouted, but Bly was unfazed by it, and the Kiffar quickly switched tactics.
"He's the commander, it's just part of the training." Nix said, his eyes now closed to the world.
"I would write you up on a demerit for that, but there's no one to submit it to." Bly said and got a chuckle out of the other ARC Trooper.
"You could always give it to the council." Quinlan offered.
"They don't have any authority over us." Nix said.
"Since we're guests," Bly said and emphasized the word guests. "they technically do have authority over us. So if I were to submit that demerit to them, they could punish you for it."
"But you won't, because of all the force osik going on, the last thing you want right now is more flimsi-work."
"Unfortunately, that is also correct."
"I'm actually here to ask you for some help." Quinlan said.
"If it's about a certain essay, then my answer is no." Bly said.
Why the Jedi High Council thought that making everyone learn about the Mandalorian Wars right now was a good idea, he would never know. The fact that almost everyone in this place saw Bly and his vode as Mandalorians didn't help. They had already been getting odd looks before that assignment had gone out, and now Bly had to deal with almost constant staring from at least one padawan or initiate at all times. Being the center of attention wasn't as great as he thought it would be.
"Not that, but if we could circle back to that conversation later that would be great. I'm talking about Obi-Wan."
"Don't forget about Kenobi's friend." Nix pointed out.
"Chun is not Obi-Wan's friend." Quinlan said. "I don't know what he's doing following Obi around, and I don't know why Obi lets him do it. There's something going on there and I don't like it, but I digress, I need your help concerning my friend."
"We're not Jedi, Quinlan. So how can we help you with Kenobi's Jedi problem?" Bly asked.
"You know some would argue against what you just said." Quinlan pointedly glanced down at the lightsaber still attached to Bly's utility belt.
Aayla refused to part with the damned thing and had shouted her new favorite word during that particular council meeting until everyone had agreed to let Bly keep it. Who knew a four-year-old Twi'lek girl screaming the word "NO!" would be able to make the Jedi High Council fold like a stack of playing cards? Bly certainly didn't. So, that left him with having to hold on to the lightsaber until Aayla got old enough to actually carry it herself, which would take years, so on his utility belt it stayed.
"I'm no Jedi." Bly said.
"But you know the future, so you can help." Quinlan pointed out.
"I only met General Kenobi a few times, and I never talked with the man about his personal life."
"Not even a little?"
"No."
"It was war kid." Nix said. "We mostly focused on not dying, and the 327th and the 212th didn't really participate in many campaigns together."
"And it doesn't even seem like Kenobi wants to be chosen. From what I've heard he's really committed to this AgriCorps." Bly said.
"But you said he was a Jedi Master in the future! So, he has to be one." Quinlan said.
Aayla huffed from her seat in Bly's lap and muttered something in Ryl that none of them understood.
"Seems like the general disagrees." Nix said.
Aayla audibly babbled off something in Ryl that none of them could understand.
"Whatever you say general." Nix said and flashed a grin.
Aayla huffed at that and turned in her seat so that she was looking up at Bly. She patted at his hand and then raised her arms up in the universal sign of wanting to be carried. It seemed that meditation time was over.
"You know you're too old for this?" Bly said as he lifted Aayla off of his lap and then stood up. The little Twi'lek only grinned up at him as Bly picked her up and settled her on his hip. But that didn't seem to be her objective, and with some scrambling and grunting, Bly soon found himself with a passenger on his shoulders, two little hands gripping his head and the hair that was starting to grow out.
He'd need a haircut soon.
"That's certainly a non-regulation maneuver." Nix commented as he stood up.
"Where are you all going?" Quinlan asked as he too stood up.
"No idea. General?" Nix said as he brushed off some grass that clung to his armor, his blasters and helmet dangling from where they were holstered and clipped to his utility belt.
Aayla simply stuck her tongue out at the ARC Trooper and Bly made the executive decision to lead them towards the mess hall.
"So, are we going to talk to Obi about being a Jedi?" Quinlan asked.
"Sure, just right after we eat." Bly said.
"Eat!" Aayla said.
"Aha! That's another word of Basic she's learned." Nix said and held up a hand and started counting them off on his fingers. "Bly, no, and now eat."
Bly simply chuckled to himself as their little group made their way through the hallways of the Jedi Temple. They must have made a truly curious sight for all the looks they were getting, but that was expected at this point. Two mandalorians, a Twi'lek youngling, and a Kiffar padawan.
Sounded like the start to a bawdy joke.
