"aaaa" - talking through a holocomunicator or comlink. aaaa - inner thoughts and Force Visions. 'aaaa' - talking through a bond.

AN: Thank you princesselsaamidala22 for your review of the last chapter.

Yes, Barriss and Rosella are getting along pretty well.

I hope everyone likes this week's interlude. This was based on a chapter that was written for the fanfic Gentle Repose by GirlwithCurls98.

Also, I want to thank everyone who has been reading this story. It has now reached over 2,820 views!

While Anakin, Obi-Wan, and their troops, along with Jedi Master Adi Gallia, head off to rescue fellow Jedi Master Eeth Koth, who has been captured by General Grievous, Rosella is told to stay behind as she needs to keep up with her lightsaber classes.

EDIT: I decided to add a little more to this as I didn't like how I ended it.

09/02/22: Edited this interlude again because I didn't like how the conversation between Anakin and Rosella went even though there was no dialogue.

Don't forget to leave me a review.

Interlude: Staying Behind at the Temple

Three days after the Padawans had returned to the Temple from the Ord Cestus medical station and were cleared to return to the field by Chief Healer Vokara Che, both girls were summoned to one of the many briefing rooms. As Rosella and Barriss entered the room and headed down the steps, they saw that Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace and Yoda, who had been joined by a few other Jedi as well as some of the council members via hologram, including Luminara, were gathered around the hologram projector as a pre-recorded message played for everyone in the room.

They quickly joined a small group of younglings, who were there under the supervision of Jedi Master Terra Sinube and had been getting a lesson from both Master Windu and Master Yoda on what the room was used for when the message came in. Rosella, who had been standing behind two of the kids, immediately comforted them when they turned to face her after witnessing the horrible form of torture that Jedi Master Eeth Koth had gone through.

After making sure that the kids weren't watching the transmission, she raised her head and nearly glared at the hologram. Once it was over, she bent her head again and continued to comfort the kids while lively conversations broke out between all the adults in the room.

Master Yoda shifted his gaze towards the ground. "Hmm," he said. Then he turned towards the small group. "Away with the padawans and younglings. Much there is to discuss."

Rosella, who spared a quick glance at Master Yoda, gave him a single nod in lieu of a formal bow. Then, after the kids had let go of her waist, she placed her hands on their backs and led them toward the stairs. Once they were outside, Master Sinube took the kids from her and thanked the young Padawan for what she had done.

The teenager nodded in response, before turning around and running down the hall to catch up with Barriss, who had gone ahead without her. While they were walking towards the turbolift at the end of the hall, Rosella shifted her eyes over to her friend and saw that the older padawan seemed to be thinking about something.

The younger girl didn't want to seem rude, so she kept her observations to herself as they both got in the lift when it arrived.

"Rosella," Barriss said, as the lift began its descent to the main area of the temple. She wanted to fill the silence with something, anything really, that would help get her mind off of the events of Geonosis and the incident with the worms. If she allowed herself to think about what had happened with the droid foundry, she could still hear the roar of the explosion and feel the phantom threat of suffocating to death as she and Rosella had almost run out of air after having been buried underneath the rubble from the collapsed building. "I suppose I should be thanking you. You've saved my life for the second time now. While I am glad that our mission to the medical station was successful, I'm even more thankful that all of the affected troopers were able to make a full recovery."

"You're welcome Barriss," Rosella responded. "I should also be thanking you. If you hadn't memorized all those tunnels beneath the foundry, then we would have been discovered and possibly killed by the Geonosians."

Once the lift arrived at its destination, the doors opened and both girls got off, skirting around another pair of Jedi who were heading into it.

Then Rosella saw her father, who was waving to her as he stood near one of the lifts on the opposite side of the foyer that would take him to one of the hangers. "Excuse me for a moment," she said.

"Of course," Barriss responded.

As soon as the teenager had made her way over to where Anakin was standing, he told her that she wouldn't be accompanying him on the mission that he had volunteered to undertake because it was going to be dangerous. Then he reminded her that she had a lightsaber combat class later that day that she needed to attend.

Rosella nodded, watched as he left and then turned around, walking back over to her friend. "Let's head to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, Barriss," she said. "I think that the peaceful atmosphere will do us some good after what we just saw."

The older girl nodded.

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Once they had gotten comfortable underneath a large willow tree, near one of the many streams that flowed into a small pond, Rosella and Barriss just sat there, enjoying the sounds of the water running by and the birds as they chirped and flew from tree to tree.

Barriss sighed softly as she finished her meditation. Something was tugging at her, preventing her from moving past the events that had taken place just a few days ago. "There's something I need to know," she said, turning towards the younger girl.

"What is it Barriss?" Rosella asked, hearing the rather urgent tone that had slipped into her friend's voice.

The Mirialan thought about how to best phrase her question and then asked, "If there had been no other choice, would you have granted my request and killed me aboard the medical frigate?"

Rosella turned away and thought long and hard about her answer. After a while, she looked at her friend and gave her a faint smile. "Yes, I would have, because I knew at that exact moment, you were willing to sacrifice yourself in order to keep everyone on the ship and the medical station safe," she replied. "But I'm glad that it didn't come to that." Then another thought popped into her head. "Master Jinn has always told me to always keep my focus on the here and now. After I sent the warning to Master Fisto, he told me to bring the frigate in so that the worms could be analyzed. That was when my focus shifted from stopping the ship to finding a way to keep everyone who was onboard safe. Then I got in contact with my master. He helped me figure out that the worms couldn't stand the cold."

"But what if you hadn't been able to figure that out in time?" Barriss protested, a small amount of fear in her voice. "Then what would you have done?"

"I would have found another way to free you and the rest of the troopers from the worm's control without harming any of you," Rosella replied, a fierce amount of determination in her voice. "Master Skywalker has taught me that there is always another way to solve a problem."

Barriss nodded, showing that she accepted both answers that Rosella had given her. She was a little confused about something else and asked, "How can you form attachments to other people and not let your emotions overwhelm you?"

Rosella remembered part of her conversation that she had with her father aboard the medical station and decided to expand on it. "Caring for other people and wanting to make sure they're alright is not the same as attachment," she responded. "We, as Jedi, are called to be compassionate. But we can't do that unless we actually care about whomever we're helping. There will come a time when we have to be able to let go of the attachments that we've made with others. The galaxy around us is constantly changing and evolving. We are allowed to love, but we just can't become too attached to the point where we want to keep that person alive and out of danger." Then she smiled and nudged her friend, hoping that the older girl understood what she was trying to tell her. "I get that showing emotion is not for everyone, but hey, at least we get to make friends."

Now that the rule regarding attachments had been changed, most of the Jedi were still figuring out where to draw the line between forging a genuine connection with someone and forming an emotional attachment. According to Anakin, those attachments were one of the only ways that the Order was going to get through the war. The other way was by completely trusting the clones who had been fighting alongside the Jedi for nearly a year, and knowing that they would come and help because they wanted to, not because it was what they had been bred for.

Rosella did agree with her father, although she was acutely aware of just how dangerous some attachments could become if they weren't carefully tended to. Some of the emotions that she felt on a good day tended to be just as intense as the ones that she felt when things were going bad, and there was no such thing as a guarantee which ones were going to be felt on any given day of the week. She did like the older padawan as she was everything that Rosella hoped she might be one day, minus all the formalities.

Barriss took a few minutes to think about what Rosella had just told her. While their Masters and their styles of teaching might be different, if she were to take away all the principles of what it truly meant to be a Jedi, then she was easily able to see that Rosella was offering her something that she wouldn't have been able to accept if she had died aboard the frigate. That something was kindness and Barriss was not one to turn away such a gift when it was being offered to her freely. "Yes," she replied, smiling at the younger girl. "We get to have friends."

After spending another hour just sitting by the stream and chatting, the girls got up and headed to the mess hall for lunch.

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A few hours after lunch, Rosella attended her class that had been scheduled that afternoon on the third form of lightsaber combat, Soresu. Even though she had already received a good foundation on the form, thanks to the copious amount of time that her Uncle had spent instructing her, when he wasn't busy training Ahsoka or attending numerous Council meetings, on what the form was and how to properly go about using it, she knew that it was still a good idea to keep up with her classes as there was always a new maneuver or something else to learn.

After warming up with some stretches and going through the lesson that Master Cin Drallig had prepared, he asked for two volunteers to spar with each other as he wanted to see if they had improved since their last class.

"I'll take this chance to show off my skills, Master," one of the students said as he stepped forward. "I've been practicing since our last class together and I'm hoping to beat either Master Skywalker or Master Kenobi in a duel one day."

His name was Max and he happened to be one of the older Initiates who hadn't been chosen as a Padawan yet. Some of the Masters and Knights who had seen him participate in the annual Apprentice Tournament that had been held earlier that year said that he was a good kid, but happened to be a little cocky.

"Alright," Master Drallig responded. Then he looked at the small group of students. "Padawan Ngaire, why don't you spar against Max?"

"I would be happy to, Master Drallig," Rosella replied as she stepped forward.

"I'm going up against her?" Max asked, unable to keep the surprised tone out of his voice. "This will be so easy. None of us have seen her around ever since she was assigned to be a padawan."

"Do you really think that I'm going to go easy on you just because I've missed a few classes?" The teenager asked as she unhooked her lightsaber from her belt and made sure that her blade was set to its training mode.

"I think that I'm going to have an easy time beating you since I'm sure that you haven't trained at all, with all the missions that you've gone on," Max responded in a smug voice from across the room as he took his own lightsaber off his belt and made sure that it was set to the same mode.

"Padawan Ngaire, you will be using Soresu for this duel," Master Drallig told her. Then he turned around to face Max. "Initiate Bougill, you will be using Shii-Cho."

Both students nodded and ignited their lightsabers.

Rosella mirrored the same pose that Obi-Wan had taught her when they had been going through the beginning movements of Soresu while Max got into the opening stance that was used for Shii-Cho.

When Master Drallig nodded, the match began.

Rosella smirked as Max ran towards her, preparing to strike her on the right side of her left leg. Letting herself sink into a light meditation trance, she let the Force guide her hand as she quickly blocked his blade. Then after blocking a few more strikes from her opponent, she switched up her movements and went on the offensive using a few of the advanced moves that she had learned from Obi-Wan during one of the many lessons that she had gotten from him. Within a few minutes, the duel was over as the blond-haired girl had been able to knock Max's lightsaber out of his hand and point her own at his neck.

"Well done, both of you," Master Drallig said. Then he turned to Rosella. "That was some excellent footwork, Padawan Ngaire."

"Thank you, Master," Rosella replied as she backed away, twirled her lightsaber, deactivated it and hooked the hilt back onto her belt. Then she took a step forward and held out her hand to help Max to his feet. She wasn't all that surprised when he knocked her hand away and got up by himself. As she walked back over to her fellow classmates, she could feel the mean stare that he was shooting at her for earning the praise that should have been his, but chose to ignore it. She had been getting those same kinds of looks from some of the other students in a few of her general education classes but chose to ignore them as well.

Once the class was over, Rosella left the training room and headed to the archives since she needed to study for her upcoming test in her Galactic History class. After studying for two hours, she got up from her terminal, returned the data cards that she had been using, and left, heading to the mess hall for dinner.

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As soon as she had her tray of food in her hands, she turned and looked around the crowded hall for a table to sit at. Then she spotted Tabitha who was sitting with Alex and decided to go over and join them.

Alex, who had looked up from his plate of mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli, saw Rosella and smiled. "Hey, Rosella!" He called, waving at her. "Come join us!"

The teenager smiled and made her way through the crowd to their table. "Hey guys," she said as she placed her tray on the table and sat beside Tabitha.

Tabitha placed her cup down on the table and smiled at her long-time friend. "How are you?" She asked. "We haven't seen you since your party."

"I'm doing alright," Rosella replied. "I'm sorry that I haven't had any free time to hang out with you guys. I've been busy with my lightsaber classes and studying for all my other classes in-between missions and stuff."

"Hey, it's alright," Alex responded. "As long as we get to see each other when we're at the Temple, then that's good enough for me. Got any cool stories to tell us about any of your latest missions?"

Rosella merely smirked. "I might have a few," she said. "Unless you don't find fighting against a bunch of Geonosian warriors cool and exciting."

"You were on Geonosis with Master Kenobi and Master Skywalker?" Alex asked, a look of awe on his face.

"Yup," Rosella said. Then she glanced at her plate and took a bite of her dinner. When she looked up, she saw both Alex and Tabitha looking at her as if they were waiting for her to tell them all about it. "You actually want to hear me talk about it?"

"Only if you want to," Tabitha told her as she placed her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"I think I should," Rosella said, a soft smile appearing on her face. "The only other person who I've talked about this with is Barriss. She was the other padawan who was with me on Geonosis."

After telling them about how she, Anakin and their men had been shot out of the sky and had to bring down an entire wall that was covered in guns and battle droids in order to get to Master Kenobi, who had been injured after getting shot down as well, she launched into her own version of what had happened in the droid foundry and how she had been forced to take on an entire ship full of mind-controlled troopers by herself after Barriss had been taken over by one of the worms.

When she had finished speaking, the table was silent for a few minutes. Then that silence was broken as Rosella glanced back at her plate and continued eating. Alex and Tabitha glanced at each other, then over at their friend.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Tabitha asked gently. "That was a lot for you to go through in just a few days."

The fourteen-year-old quietly sighed and put her fork down. "Honestly, I still have the occasional nightmare of being trapped in that tank, buried under all that rubble," she quietly admitted. Glancing up, she saw the look of concern on Tabitha's face. "Hey, I know you're worried about me, but I'm fine." Reaching for her cup, she took a drink of water, then placed the cup back on the table.

Alex was about to say something when his wrist comm beeped. "Ugh, I have to go," he said, getting up with his nearly-empty tray in hand. "I'm covering for one of the night-shift workers down in the crèche and I'm pretty sure those younglings are not going to be in bed by the time I get there."

Rosella giggled. "Good luck," she said. "I have a feeling that you'll need it."

"Thanks," Alex responded. Then he left, quickly disappearing into the crowd.

Rosella finished her food and got up, picking up her tray. "Don't you have somewhere to be?" She asked as she glanced at her friend, who was still sitting at the table.

"Yeah," Tabitha replied as she placed her fork down on her plate and got up. "I've got to get back to the Halls of Healing. That back room isn't going to stock itself."

Once her friend had picked up her tray, both girls made their way to the line and dropped them off. After making it through the crowd and arriving outside, they gave each other a hug.

"Take care of yourself out there. I don't want to have to see you or your father in one of the rooms in the ward," Tabitha told her.

Rosella giggled. "I'll do my best," she said and then waved goodbye to her friend as she headed to her apartment.

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Stepping through the entryway, Rosella turned on the lights as the door slid shut behind her. She softly sighed as she walked over to the living room and dragged out her meditation pillow. Climbing on top of it, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she let the Force flow through her. Once she had cleared her mind of all the things that she had seen and done on and above the dusty planet, she withdrew from the Force and opened her eyes. Getting off her pillow, she yawned and knew that it was time for her to get to bed.

After putting it away, she turned off the lights in the living room. Then she headed to her room and changed into her sleepwear. Quickly making her way to the refresher, she brushed her teeth and returned to her room. As soon as she climbed into bed, she smiled upon sensing that her father and Uncle had just landed at the Temple. Knowing that she was going to hear all about their mission tomorrow, she turned off her bedroom light and drifted off to sleep.