Okay, here's the sixth chapter to this story. I hope you like it!
Disclaimer: Dang it! Not again! All the characters don't belong to me, minus the ones I made up, yadda yadda yadda yadda yadda.
Dang it, Ani thought, doing her one hundred and fifth flip in the air. Couldn't keep my mouth shut, could I? As usual, I make the littlest mistakes, which result in the biggest consequences. Why I haven't ever patched them up, I have no idea. Dumb, dumb me. Wish I hadn't been chosen, no wait, don't wish that. At least now I have a chance to become a Jedi Knight, whereas I didn't have a chance before. She was doing flips for her Master, who ordered her to do one hundred and thirty of them. The reason: She had spoken to Master Unduli in the presence of her Master. Panting hard, she set out on her one hundred and sixth flip. Near her, her Master barked, "Keep them up, Padawan. Don't let your focus down. Come on! I've seen banthas do more flips in less time than what you're doing right now!"
"I'm…trying, Master," Ani panted, now on her one hundred and tenth flip.
"Well, you're going to have to do a lot better if you want to be as good as the Masters here in the Temple. No trying, do or do not. Don't forget Master Yoda's lessons, or I'll make you sit through more of his lectures! I can't believe you actually won second place in the Annual Lightsaber Tournament! You certainly don't do things very well, or very thoroughly. Well, I'm just going to have to make sure everything sticks with a little bit of…persuasion." Ani shuddered when she heard that word combined with that tone of voice. There was nothing she hated more in the galaxy than Master Pollo's form of persuasion, which could range from physical persuasion (beatings) to mental persuasion (Force suggestions). None of them appealed to her. Soon, she was done.
"Alright Padawan, you're done now." Ani complied by sitting on the floor, meditation position, waiting for her next orders. "Now, we spar." Drawing out her orange lightsaber, Kalla bowed to her Padawan, who drew out her deep blue lightsaber with a barely audible sigh and bowed back. Soon, they were doing katas well past Ani's age group, not that she didn't know that, but to argue would be futile, not to mention that it would also hurt, a lot. She parried and wove herself between lightsaber strokes, like she was taught, and using her flexible body as a weapon in of itself. When she got sliced in the leg by Kalla's lightsaber, she just closed her mind to the pain. She was numb to it. It didn't matter whether or not she survived or not. She didn't care. Soon, she let the lightsaber get knocked out of her grasp and force-pushed to the floor. Kalla stormed over to her, still holding her lit lightsaber.
"I thought," the lightsaber came flashing down, "I told you," raking through her upper arm, all the way through the right thigh and bottom leg, "to be on your guard all the time?"
"Yes Master. Sure. Whatever," Ani said dully, not aware of the pain. All she could do was berate herself for the rest of their session for not being good enough, nor being conscientious of the pain, for Master Pollo.
"Now," Kalla raked her lightsaber through the right leg one more time, "let that serve as a lesson to you: You're not good enough and you'll never be good enough. Now, stand up and practice more while I go back to our quarters."
"Yes Master," Ani repeated like a robot. Once her Master had gone out of the room and went down the hall to their rooms, she escaped to the hidden area in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. She knew she would be safe there, for a little while at least. As she lay inside their, using the Force to heal herself, she heard voices coming towards her. Her eyes widened, and she quickly moved back, not yet fully healed, to become one with the shadows. A moment later, the entrance parted, for two beings to silently glide on through and to close up the entrance. It was dark, except for the tiny slivers of moonlight shining through the cracks in the leaves and twigs and branches. She looked closer. One of the beings was Barriss Offee, she knew, but she could not tell at first who the other being was. As she looked closer, she wrinkled her brow in puzzlement. It was Master Luminara Unduli, but what was she doing here?
"Come on out, Initiate, we know you're there," Barriss said, grinning. Ani shyly peeked out from her corner, not completely healed of her injuries. Both women stared.
"I'm not hurt that bad!" Ani said, narrowing her eyes.
I'm not hurt that bad. "Then what do you call all those injuries on your leg and arms?" Luminara asked wryly. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw a particularly deep wound in the youngling's right leg.
"It's nothing," Ani tried to reassure them. In response, Luminara and Barriss went on either side of her, lifted her up, and started to carry her out of the alcove. "No, please don't take me out!" the youngling exclaimed, trying to twist out of both women's iron-like grip. "If my Master sees you at the door with me, she'll rip me apart! Let me stay here for just a little while; I swear I won't be a bother to you!" The two women paused, glanced at each other, and went back inside the alcove, making sure that the entrance was fully covered and blocked from any outside intrusion. Then they turned their attention fully to the problem that was at hand: helping to calm down the initiate and find out who or what had caused all those injuries.
"What's wrong, Ani," Barriss asked, doing a double-take as she examined the deep injuries.
"N-nothing Master Offee," Ani responded, trying to sneak out.
"Luminara, please hold Ani while I figure out what needs healing," Barriss directed, not taking 'no' for an answer. Sighing, Luminara took up the small initiate, and felt her skin tingle with contact. The initiate fit right inside her arms as easily as if she belonged there, and immediately curled up. At the back of her mind, she felt threads of a bond, that she did not want, start to form. Trying to put up her shields, she found that it only served for the bond to form faster, so she put them down, only to hear a very faint voice in the back of her head.
/My fault, it's all my fault, as usual. /
/No it isn't young one. / She felt the youngling tense in her arms.
"Done!" Barriss exclaimed. "Alright, you can go back to your quarters, Ani." Ani twisted herself out of Luminara's tight grip and stood. Luminara looked at her concerned. "Youngling, if you take another beating like that, you may not survive."
"It doesn't matter, Master Unduli," the girl said dully. "This is what I deserved. It doesn't hurt if you don't focus on the pain, and if you keep getting beat up like this, you eventually become numb to the pain, and it doesn't matter anymore whether or not you live or die. I deserved it. If I die, who cares? I'll probably deserve that too."
"Youngling – " Barriss began.
"No, Master Offee, I can't tell you who hurt me." Anger coursed through her; in an attempt to stop it, she spotted a little bit of glass lying on the ground. Using the Force, she called it to her hand and stuck it in her arm. Blood shot out and started to drip out of the wound. "There," she said, leaving the piece of glass stuck in her arm, "that should do."
"Ani," Luminara exclaimed, "look at what you did! You just stuck a piece of glass in your arm, and you say it doesn't hurt?!"
"It doesn't," Ani shrugged as Barriss pulled it out and used the Force to heal it.
"Do you do this a lot?" Barriss asked, careful to not sound accusatory.
"Yep." Barriss and Luminara looked at each other, shocked.
"Does your Master know?"
"She doesn't care, Master Unduli." All of a sudden, it dawned on Luminara.
"Is it your Master who beats you up?"
"No." The answer came way too quick for Luminara's liking.
"She does."
"Master Unduli – "
"She does, doesn't she?" When she saw the youngling start to shake with fear, she softened her voice. "Doesn't she?"
"Yes," Ani whispered softly, so softly that they had to strain their ears to hear it. She gulped. Without thinking, Luminara, took the girl's way too thin shoulders and gently hugged her. Barriss watched it with a secret smile: her former Master was connecting to the girl. This was going better than she had hoped for. Her brow furrowed. Now the hard part would be severing the relationship between Ani and her current Master. If she knew Kalla Pollo well, she wouldn't give up her Padawan for anything. They would have to catch Pollo in the act when she would beat up her Padawan, but how? A plan suddenly formed in her brain. After discussing it with Luminara and Ani, who agreed, they set around to making plans, so hopefully their plan to catch Pollo in the act would turn out for the good of all.
Would it, though? Barriss certainly hoped so, but in her experience, something nearly always went wrong. She still hoped that this would be a piece of cake.
Unfortunately, it was not so.
Review, please! tbc...