The days passed quietly. Metarie grew stronger in the Force under her Master's tutelage, quickly surpassing the goals set for her. Long days of hard work stretched in front of Metarie, and even the careful pride of accomplishment was no match for the seemingly endless days of learning.
One late afternoon when Metarie was feeling listless, Master Skywalker pulled the veil the girl had worn her first day on Tatooine from the pocket of her robe.
"Do you understand why I gave you this veil?" The Master asked, rubbing the cloth between her fingers.
Metarie shook her head, frustrated. Master Skywalker's view of the Force could be dissatisfying and elusive at times, something the girl felt strongly as she looked at the material her Master clutched. "I think I know why, but I don't fully understand it, Master," she said, confused. "When I wore that veil on my first day here, I was able to split my concentration and yet still use the Force clearly. The Force is power... a power for the Jedi to use. Why should we not use it, if it is available to us?"
Master Skywalker smiled, and not with her half-smile or her infamous subtle lip quirks. She smiled a full-fledged smile that seemed to take years from her aged face. "Another Jedi asked me that once," she said, looking at Metarie with equal parts humor and affection in her eyes. "And I told him this: the Force is both power and guidance. If you let power overwhelm you, you cannot listen to guidance. It was something he had known, of course, but he had, I believe, forgotten. There must be a balance to the Force... balance between power and guidance."
Metarie nodded at the serious words but felt that, perhaps, she still didn't understand her Master's message.
.
.
Her driver, Master Skywalker's rations runner, was scheduled to arrive after one month of Metarie being in her Master's company. She felt almost giddy at the thought of seeing another human and found herself watching and listening for any sign of his speeder across the desolate plain.
Urias, as Metarie had been told was his name, arrived right after they had finished their afternoon meal. He shouted a greeting at the doorway and entered, carrying in a large box of supplies which he readily sat near Metarie's feet. He nodded to her, giving a quick, playful grin before looking towards the Master. "Everything all right, ma'am? Any troubles? Anything you need from me?"
Master Skywalker shook her head and thanked Urias for his trouble in bringing the supplies out, then stood and walked towards her partitioned area, winking at him as she passed. "You let me know when you're ready for me to train, boy."
Urias groaned, and Metarie looked up in surprise. He caught her eye and again smiled his crooked smile, explaining, "She does that every time I'm here. I think she takes some sort of sadistic pleasure from it."
Metarie laughed and trailed Urias from the home as he exited. "She is a fine Master," she said, still smiling.
Urias smiled and reached out to tug on a loose lock of Metarie's dark hair. "And you are a fine apprentice," he answered, before quickly jumping into his speeder and taking off, leaving Metarie red-cheeked with shock.
When she went back inside, she was surprised to find Master Skywalker sitting at the table, and not partaking in her customary early afternoon rest. Metarie's face still burned red. The embarrassment was only made worse by the sense coming from her Master. Did the Master know the cause of her blush? The thought only forced her full cheeks to burn brighter.
"Uh... I'm surprised to find that Urias is Force sensitive," she said, making an effort to say anything at all.
Master Skywalker nodded. "Maybe not to your degree, but he does have potential."
Metarie wondered at that, cursing the fact that she was still blushing over a tug at her hair. She drew courage around her and asked her Master something she had wanted to ask for a long time. "Master, if I may. Why there are no holos of Grand Master Skywalker here?"
Master Skywalker looked up at her almost sharply, and Metarie regretted the question immediately.
However, the wizened Master merely looked down momentarily before again meeting Metarie's gaze. "I don't need holos to remember," she answered.
"Oh," was all Metarie could think to say, and she startled as the Master rose and walked behind her partition. The girl was embarrassed, her face flaming now for reason other than Urias's playful banter, and she wondered what her Master would be like when she woke from her nap.
The muffled sound of slippered feet approaching surprised Metarie and she looked up to find Master Skywalker standing next to her, holding a simple holocube. She held it out to Metarie who took it gingerly. Activating the button on the side, she gasped as holos of the Masters Skywalker appeared, playing one after the next. A whole lifetime flashed before Metarie's eyes - friendship, love, marriage, pregnancy, baby, parenthood, late adulthood, old age - followed by the gripping pain that Metarie herself felt as the cube's last spaces were empty slots.
Metarie stopped the cube on its second replay, pausing over the Masters' marriage holo and taking in the lovely image of the red-haired bride and the blue-eyed groom. She looked up into the face of her Master, noting the tight reign the older woman held on her emotions, evident in the set of her jaw. "Would you..." the girl began, hesitantly. "Would you do it all again?"
The aged Master's gnarled hands took the holocube and raised it, as the green eyes stared at the frozen image presented. "Yes," the woman answered, softly, finally. "Yes, I would. Only... I think I would have worn my hair down."
Surprised, Metarie laughed, glancing back to find that half-smile evident on her Master's face.
.
.
The next morning, after breakfast, Master Skywalker received a holocall from her son. "Young" Master Skywalker, as he was wont to be called, inquired after his mother's health and reported the news of the galaxy. He brought word of their family: Most notably that his son had built his first lightsaber, with a green blade, and that Master Solo-Fel's granddaughter had been restored to full health.
Metarie sat in her partitioned area during the call, giving the appearance of privacy even as she could hear every word spoken between aged mother and aging son. "Young" Master Skywalker was in his fifties, she knew, and as much as that thought surprised her, she imagined it outright shocked her usually unflappable Master.
"What about your apprentice, Mom? How is her training?" Ben Skywalker asked, and despite herself, Metarie listened closer.
"She does very well," Master Skywalker said, and pride bloomed throughout Metarie's spirit. Her Master continued speaking, dryly, "However, Ben, I'm surprised at you and Jaina. It took you two this long to send an apprentice to keep an eye on me?" She sniffed. "Was Cyrina even ill?"
Silence issued from the holocom, and Metarie suppressed a smirk. Trust the Master to see through the charade in spite of her advanced age.
Ben, pretending to be appalled, soothed his mother, stating that he and Jaina had done no such thing as sending an apprentice merely to keep an eye on her. After all, she had much to offer Metarie, he placated. The son continued to speak until his mother cut him off, lovingly ending the conversation with a gentle, yet firm, "Be gone with you, boy."
The call ended and Metarie heard the Master sigh, mumbling to herself, "That boy is too much like his father." Metarie imagined she was smiling, if forcibly, as she said it.
Late that afternoon, during their usual discussion of Jedi dogma, Master Skywalker raised the question of a Jedi's will versus the will of the Force. Were they the same, she wanted to know of her young student.
Metarie's first instinct was to answer 'yes', as a Jedi served the Force and therefore its will. Yet, a new thought made her hesitate. "What of the dark side, Master?" she asked instead.
"Yes," her Master answered, pleased. "What of the dark side?"
"When a Jedi serves only themselves or their own desires, they serve the dark side of the Force. Therefore, a Jedi's will is not necessarily the same as the Force's will."
"And a Jedi should never impose their will upon anyone," the Master said. "We, as Jedi, serve the will of the Force. The Force does not serve the will of the Jedi."
Master and student digested the words for a moment, silently.
"So, what about it, Master? Am I here by the will of the Force, or the will of Masters Solo-Fel and Skywalker?" Metarie spoke up, quirking her lips.
But instead of smiling, the elder stared at the girl before answering, "Perhaps both."