CHAPTER TWO: IN THE FLESH
Alma awoke early the first day of her new calling. She spent a good hour in meditation, focusing on the force and letting go of her emotions. Feeling at ease for the moment, she dressed in her customary tunic, light shirt and leggings. She strapped on her gloves and attached her twin blue lightsabers to both sides of her belt. Her lightsabers were unique in that the hilt was longer than the norm, and a curved guard extended from the top of each hilt.
While strange to the other Jedi, Alma had based her lightsabers off the traditional weapons of her planet, Taksgar. A little planet just off the outer rim with a synchronous orbit, only part of the planet was even inhabitable. One half of the planet was constantly lit, while the other never saw sunlight. Less than half a million people lived on Taksgar, and most of them were very old and had never traveled off world. Anyone who had left Taksgar usually never came back.
Alma entered the business district of Coruscant. A bustling place, she took the hood of her robe down to get a better view. Business people and senators walked in groups or alone, chatting in a million different languages. She nearly bumped into a group of Rodians while admiring the architecture of the Galactic Senate Building.
Entering, she joined a line for admittance. She chuckled a little. Since she hadn't yet received a pass for entrance, the Jedi Knight had to wait in line behind tourists.
Alma finally received her pass for future use and was shown to the Chancellor's office by a Twi'leck secretary. "He'll be right in, he's in a meeting." She explained.
Alma entered the spacious room. Most of the room was empty, with a desk and chair in front of a gigantic window. There were two sofas and a table in between, but other than that the room had no furnishings. Alma sat on one of the sofas, looking around the room. After a few minutes, she stood up and went to look out the window, the temptation too great to pass up.
"Lovely, isn't it?" The voice of Chancellor Palpatine startled Alma a little, but she managed to hide it. She turned to face the Chancellor, who was wearing a smile. "You're the Jedi Knight Alma Twill? My, you're so young!"
Alma offered a stiff bow. "I was only just knighted recently."
"Oh, my apologies! Of course." Palpatine laughed. "I didn't imagine they'd send such a young lady."
"The Jedi Council feels that I can handle this responsibility, Chancellor." Alma replied, hoping it didn't sound rude.
At this point, a man in Jedi armor entered the room to stand behind the Chancellor. He absolutely radiated power. Alma was tall, at 5'11", but the few inches he had over her seemed to be four times as much. He looked at her with disinterest, until his eyes landed on her lightsabers. His eyes flashed, and he made brief eye contact with Alma.
"Well, I trust the Council's decisions in these sort of things." Palpatine swished his hand about in the air and turned to Anakin. "Ah, Anakin. Have you two met before?"
"I don't believe we have." Anakin replied cooly.
"Well, I'll let you two talk. Feel free to step into the hall." Palpatine headed to his desk, and Alma followed Anakin into the hallway. She was still unsure how to feel about the strange Chancellor. He seemed friendly enough. But why did Skywalker seem so hostile towards her?
No sooner did the door shut than Anakin began interrogating her in an angry whisper. "Why are you here? Are you reporting back to the council on me?" Anakin demanded.
Alma's brow furrowed. "What? I'm here to learn and assist you in protecting the Chancellor. Why are you so paranoid?"
Anakin pointed a warning finger. "You watch your mouth, padawan."
Alma's cheeks went red. "I'm a Jedi Knight. Now that's the same rank as you, so you can stop being so snippy."
Going by the look on his face, Alma supposed it'd been awhile since anyone had scolded him like that. Alma was young for a Jedi Knight, passing the trials in 8 years instead of the typical 10 or more, but she certainly didn't look like a padawan. This man was being rude for the sake of it. And what's more, he only looked a year or two older than her.
"Why don't we start over." She offered. "I'm Alma Twill, Jedi Knight. And you are?"
"Anakin Skywalker." He smirked. "I suppose you're alright." With this he turned and left the hallway, entering back into the Chancellor's office.
Exasperated, Alma rubbed her temples. What a strange man.
The next item of business was a Senate meeting. The Senate Chamber was huge. Thousands of senators met here, representing hundreds of worlds. Alma secretly hoped for a meeting. She had excelled in languages as a padawan learner, and would have enjoyed a chance to use them.
Anakin and Alma both joined this meeting, standing quietly in a pod behind the Chancellor and Vice Chair. Alma observed the precedings with a sort of quiet wonder while Anakin looked bored.
The Senate was voting on something trivial, a bill on tariffs to outlying planets. Alma inwardly smiled as she noticed the planets fighting to lower the tariffs included Taksgar. Since the planet was so small, they shared a seat in the Senate with two other small planets nearby.
The meeting ended with the bill being passed, but with enough amendments that both parties were pleased.
As the Senate left the Chamber, the Chancellor was approached by many senators and representatives. Most of them simply congratulated the Chancellor on another succesful compromise. Two representatives from Corellia were waiting to speak to the Chancellor.
Alma began to feel uneasy. Turning to Anakin, she dropped her voice to a low enough level that it would be unnoticeable by others. "Look at the besalisk senator." she murmured urgently. "He's unreasonably anxious."
"He's a new Senator. Last one was killed in a xenophobic attack. Wouldn't you be anxious?"
Alma wasn't entirely at ease, and so she kept an eye on the senator. He was talking to the human representative of Corellia. Palpatine began to move past the Correlians, and the besalisk began to reach for something in the bag hanging at his hip. Alma's left hand reached for one of her lightsabers. There- it was a gun! Alma's free hand reached out to grab the besalisk's upper right wrist and squeezed. The besalisk's wrist made a cracking noise as the hollow bones broke. The gun dropped to the floor as every eye in the chamber turned to look. There was silence for half a second, but then the pain registered in the besalisk and he struck out with his three remaining arms, giving a loud cry. One of the huge fists connected with Alma's right cheek with a hollow thud. She stumbled back a few steps.
The hall erupted into chaos. Anakin guided the Chancellor and several senators into a meeting room, locking the door.
Alma weaved through panicking politicians back to the besalisk, feeling both adrenaline and the force course through her. She took out her lightsabers, but kept the blades in the hilts. Instead, she used the guards to block the besilisk's blows. The guards were blunt, but he was smashing with enough force to leave welts in his own skin. Alma hoped the curved guards wouldn't bend.
Anakin ran beside her, his lightsaber fully drawn. "What are you doing?" She hissed. "Protect the Chancellor!"
"Palpatine's fine! Get up to his head." Anakin ordered.
"Don't hit him with the blade!" She ordered back, breaking into a run. She took a wide loop around the besalisk. He started to turn, but Anakin drew his attention again with a light burn to his knee. The burn was enough for the besalisk to lurch forward. Alma seized the opportunity to jump, feet forward. She kicked, and the besalisk stumbled. She twisted to land on her feet, crouching to regain her balance, and the the gigantic four armed alien fell.
Alma stood up and faced Anakin. "Good plan." She winced as she said it, feeling the pain of her jaw finally settling in.
"You got hit pretty hard." He observed. "Is it dislocated?"
She nodded, and supported it with her hand. She could feel it protruding forward.
"Here, I'll reset it." Anakin placed his thumbs on the underside of her jaw.
He's got a prosthesis under that. Alma realised, feeling the absence of flesh underneath his glove.
Anakin must have noticed Alma's reaction, because he quickly snapped her jaw back and drew back his hands. "There, better?"
Alma clenched her teeth, the nerves in her cheek and neck on fire. She raised a hand to her jaw and focused, using the age old Jedi healing techniques. It'd hold for a while, but she'd still check in with a med droid when she got back.
The guards finally arrived, and snapped two pairs of handcuffs on the still unconscious besalisk.
Anakin retrieved the Chancellor from the safe room he had left him in, and together they headed back to the office.
"Excellent work, my dear." The Chancellor congratulated her, seemingly unfazed by the situation. "Thanks to your quick actions, you've saved my life."
"I didn't expect a senator would strike out like that." Alma admitted.
The Chancellor frowned. "Ah, but worst threats come from those you trust. Senator Lun and I had met not two days ago. Now were you hurt at all, either of you?"
"Alma, what happened?"
Naturally, as soon as Alma had returned to the Jedi Temple, Samwin quickly learned of her injury. It was pointless to ask how she had found out, but Alma at least suspected the ever present youngling population reported to her.
"I stopped a Senator from Correlia that was going to shoot the Chancellor." Alma explained. She was sitting in the med bay,a med droid scanning her now slightly swollen cheek.
Samwin crossed her arms. "Alright, but why are you here?"
"Dislocated jaw." Alma admitted. "He didn't exactly want to be stopped."
"Must've been one strong senator." Samwin mused. "Look at these charts…"
The med droid waved her off, it's protocols not allowing for outside influence.
"He was a besalisk."
"You fought a besalisk?" Samwin clarified. "Alma, you were lucky to just get a dislocated jaw. He could have snapped you in half!"
"Well I wasn't alone, Master." Alma explained how Anakin had distracted the Senator, allowing for her to attack.
"That Skywalker." Samwin shook her head softly. "To be honest, Alma, he's lucky to have you."
Author's Note: Alriiiight there's pretty much all our cast. I tried my best to characterize Anakin and Palpatine. In a lot of stories authors go straight for the 'yep he's creepy' route, but I think Palpatine would certainly be better at seducing to the dark side than that. So there's charming grandpa Palpatine for you. As always, hit that review button and hit me up with any errors I may have made!
MTFBWY
-MontyBeth