So I've never written for a Gungan before so this will be… interesting. Wish me luck. Also, this is something of a short filler chapter before a lot of big stuff happens in the next one.
ScarletFishcake: Glad to be of service!
Guest from May 1st: Oh my god. Brute Force. I am so disappointed in myself.
Guest from May 2nd: Here it is!
TGP212th: I really like your name, so late is just fine^^ I'm glad that you appreciate it, I've been trying really hard on this story. Hence why I've taken so long with this chapter.
Tatsuki Vermilion: You are a frightening reviewer. None the less, I'm glad you feel that way. He is kind of a dick.
With the lights out it was easy for the girl to slip around the compound, out of sight and out of mind. The pirates were too busy scrambling to get the power back on to notice her.
She did not follow the trail of destruction that Dooku left.
Aliette was long beyond following that man anywhere. Once, she would have trailed at the edge of his robe, all bright eyes and eager smiles. Dooku and Komari were her saviors and she would have done anything for them, all they needed do was ask, or even imply that something would make them happy.
Those days were long passed.
She missed them sometimes. All the time. When the master swordsman would correct her stance, when the Padawan would trust her to block and dodge blows that should have been beyond her age.
She missed them.
Aliette pushed tears away from her eyes, wished she could use them to fill the space in her freshly broken heart. It was stupid. Komari had been dead for years, and Dooku a traitor for nearly as long. So why was this so much worse?
The girl walked through the compound, moving the Force around her in a way that she had always done. Wrapped herself in it like a cloak that let others perceptions slide off of her like water. This Force Cloak, so to speak, had kept her alive for so many years. So many long, frozen nights, so many burning frosted days. While others were licked with leather and wood she was running, unseen by others.
Invisible.
A gust of frost bitten thievery.
Sometimes, after Komari's death and Dooku's fall, she had considered leaving. When it was clear that she was never becoming a Padawan she had taken steps down the Temple path. She had almost left entirely.
It was fear that held her back. The terror of the streets and what awaited Aliette should she return to them.
Now she wondered if it had been something else. Something other than fear. Perhaps it had been the Force that stopped her steps. That turned her from the wide spread of Coruscant back to the winding halls of the Temple.
The Pantoran breathed in, letting the Force guide her once again, this time through the hall ways and to her Master. That was the past.
This time, she had a future.
Representative Binks was not what Aliette expected a politician to be like. He was chipper and overly excited, a bit like a child. One with a jinx put on him.
Aliette slipped away from a far flung limb he accidently sent towards her face in the middle of tripped across the passage of the ship they were using to escape. Skywalker caught him with practiced ease and sent him on his way. He was friendly, and apparently knew both Master Kenobi and Skywalker very well.
The familiarity with which he treated them was a reminder of all the years that the two humans had spent together.
Aliette hated herself for the knife it twisted in her chest.
Envy was not becoming for a Jedi.
"I'm not a Jedi yet." Why had she said that? What was the point in it? To claim a distance she knew to be true? To put a chasm between her and those she was so desperate to become one of?
It was the truth, as much as she disliked it.
Between their comradery of the Gungan and the new knowledge swimming around inside her head Aliette had pushed herself into a corner to stare out at the trio. The clones that Representative Binks had brought with him milled around their stolen transport, checking and double checking, collecting a myriad of weapons left behind by the pirates. She didn't have her lightsaber, so the Pantoran left a little blaster sitting by her seat.
She doubted she would ever use it.
"Ali!"
Gold eyes darted up to the aquatic creature before her, who was smiling brightly down at the girl.
"Representative Binks," she greeted politely, "Can I help you with something?" She didn't understand his need to give people nicknames. 'Obi', 'Ani', and now 'Ali'. They had barely met and he was already referring to her with more familiarity than her own Clan Mates ever had.
"Yousa should come 'in sit with the rest of us," he declared, pointing to her Master and Skywalker. Aliette looked between the three before she smiled a bit. It was nice to be included. Somehow it hadn't even occurred to her that she could intrude upon a reunion of old friends.
"Thank you," she demurred as she moved from the corner to sit across from the pair of Jedi. Representative Binks nearly took her head off when he dropped in next to her with a great deal less grace than the Pantoran had.
"You have been very quiet since we left," her Master observed, "Is everything alright?"
Aliette twirled her braid around idly, thinking over her answer before she gave it. She had forgotten that with their Bond Master Kenobi had most likely sensed most of her unease and anxiety, her confliction. With her mind shifting to that she left the feeling of their Bond flow over her.
Worry.
Guilt turned in her chest and the girl bowed her head. She had been so caught up in herself that she hadn't even noticed her Master's Concern for her.
"I am fine, Master. I was caught up with everything that happened. This was first time I've seen Dooku since he left the order," she explained.
"That's right," her Master stroked his beard absently, "He was the one that delivered you to the temple, wasn't he?" His observation startled her. She hadn't known that he paid that much attention when she was young. She remembered him, and Qui Gon, if only because the latter was around Dooku and Komari most of the time.
With Skywalker scrutinizing her Aliette nodded.
"Yes. He and Komari found me on Pantora when I was young," she confirmed. She tugged on her braid again. Did he know that Komari had Fallen? Did anyone?
Were she and Dooku alone in that knowledge?
"Dooku brought you?" There was a good amount of disbelief in Skywalker's voice. Aliette frowned at him. She still stung with betrayal but there was a part of her that demanded she defend the kindness that had saved her life.
"There was a time when Dooku was a member of the Order, Master Skywalker. He hasn't always been so…"
"Crazy? Evil?" Skywalker prompted.
Aliette pursed her lips. "Disillusioned."
Master Kenobi piped up, "He is the one that trained my own Master Qui Gon. If not for that, Anakin, not one of us would be Jedi today."
The younger human didn't seem entirely convinced, but he let it go with a grunt and a shrug, typical of his species. Or so Aliette had observed from many years watching and caring for them. Human Males were strange. They acted as if they felt little, yet their Center's were as open as any other to Pantorans. The only exception Aliette had ever found to this rule was Dooku himself, and that was only during their last encounter.
"Before she was denied Knighthood," Aliette heard herself speak once more, "Komari offered to be my Master when she lost her Braid."
Anakin looked puzzled. "Why was she denied?" he questioned.
"Komari was," Again she searched for the right word, "Passionate. In ways that the Order finds unacceptable. She was Battle Hungry, and driven by Love. The Council could not allow her to join the ranks of Knights." Aliette carefully masked whatever bitterness she might have felt towards the decision. It was not hers to make. The Council had done what was best. They always did.
"Because she loved?" There was something Incredulous in Skywalker. Aliette couldn't imagine why he was like that. He was a Jedi Knight, full and truly. He should know the rules better than anyone else in the galaxy.
"Was In Love," she corrected lightly.
"With Dooku himself, if I'm not mistaken," her own Master added.
Skywalkers face twisted with disgust. After what she had learned that day, Aliette no longer blamed him. She was conflicted. Angry and Hurt. She needed time to process this.
Time that it seemed that they did not have.
Master Kenobi's comm link went off, flashing brightly before he answered it with an inquiring, "Kenobi."
The voice of Master Mace Windu echoed across lightyears to their ears.
"Return to the Temple. We have another missions for you and your students."
Aliette exchanged a befuddled glance with Skywalker. Nothing about that sounded Enjoyable.
Skywalker and Kenobi looked like their heads had been swallowed by a giant ball of fur.
Aliette stood with her squad, between Jester and Chopper, trying not to laugh at their new fur coats. Even the Clones looked less ridiculous than the pair of them, in heat suits and long masks that extended from their new helmets in a sort of hood.
Out of all of them Aliette was least heavily dressed. She had traded her shirt for pants, donned cloves, and pulled on a cloak that barely brushed her elbows. She was built for the cold, and had no need for multiple layers in the environment they were about to enter.
The environment of the transport ship was something else entirely. She thought she would die if she stayed there for even another minute.
She was in luck. The ship came to a shuddering stop as it docked on the Pantoran cruiser, trembling briefly before the lights brightened and the door peeled itself apart. Her Master took the lead, followed by former apprentice. Aliette came out third, her troops trailing behind her.
She wished that Ahsoka had come along, but the young Padawan had lessons at the Temple that she needed attend. There was no doubt that the Togruta would have loved to go on a mission, all four of them together. She was wild and fee, a snow flake in the wind.
If snowflakes would tear an entire battalion of droids apart on their own.
Aliette smiled fondly at the thought before smoothing her features and rolling her shoulders back, lifting her chin to try and look more Self-Assured than she felt right then. This would be the first time she saw another Pantoran since joining the Order.
She was not the only one to be a Member, to be sure. There was Tatsu Chichu, a few years younger than she, and Ifor Sosari and Tegan Chichu, both full Knights of the Order in charge of their own troops. The Clan Chichu had proven itself strong in Force Adepts.
In all truth it was a surprise that there was not more Pantoran's that were within their ranks. All held a natural, low level Force Sensitivity that connected them and was the source of Centers and the culture that revolved around them.
Aliette supposed she was lucky such was not the case. Or she would have had much more difficulty avoiding her People.
Jester fell in closer to her side, close enough that she and only she would hear when he spoke.
"Is something the matter Commander?" he quizzed.
Aliette pursed her lips and looked around at the blue faces around them, marked up with yellow all.
"We shall see. "
The clones fell back as the Jedi and Padawan neared a congregation of straight backed Pantoran's. Two of them were of the Guard, their yellow Marking them to be Brothers of the Ceri. Another was a female, no taller than Aliette herself, of Clan Chuchi.
The tall man in front wore Pride as a cloak, along with the one that swept that back of his boots. There was no mistaking the man who had been Chairmen since before she was born.
Chi Cho, head of the Clan Cho, son of the Ceri, looked down his nose at her Master when he introduced himself. Aliette had to fight to hold her Center of Tranquility over an undercurrent of Defense. She could feel her men shift behind her. Whether they were picking up on her feelings or felt similarly the need to step in was unknown.
"You are the ones the Order sent to us?" he demanded, every inch in command. There was too much Aggression in him for Aliette to feel at all at Ease.
The Lady Chuchi peered around him, towards the new comers. Her Center spoke clearly. There was Peace alongside a sliver of Uncertainty. She seemed, if not Timid, at least Cowed by the Chairman. Aliette did not blame her all.
"We are," Master Kenobi agreed, "I am Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi, this is Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, and my own Padawan, Aliette Ansa."
All eyes snapped to her. The soldiers remained totally straight, their posture betraying nothing. Only Duty and Focus held on to them. Chuchi shifted to Curious.
Chi Cho's haughty Chutzpah only grew at his shoulders drew together.
"Uwane Tunhara, tsi khezu chen bek. Aliette," he bit the words out at her, pushing her eyes lower. Confusion rolled across the humans around them, accompanied by Chuchi's own Surprise.
"Hey," Skywalker cut in, "What was that?" he demanded. The metal tapping of C3PO alerted Aliette to the droid hurrying behind them off the ship. He had been squashed in a corner before, and absent when the humans could have used him. She appreciated it now. They didn't need to worry about this.
"Nothing of your concern," the Chairman declared. "We have more pressing matters to attend to than the company Jedi keep."
"Aliette is my Padawan. My student. She is as much as Jedi as we are."
Gold eyes snapped to her Master from all sides. She had never heard him defend her so readily before. It brought warms through her, lifting her mouth and her chin from where it had begun to lower. He may not know what he was defending her against, but he was still her Master.
"Thank you, Master," she touched his elbow, "But the Chairman is right. We are here for a reason."
She had only fed his power, she knew, but it wasn't as though anything she did would change how he thought of her. When he pushed passed them to the transport she was quick to get out of his, and his parties, way. She had no intention of letting him get an elbow anywhere near her bare cheeks.
Her, or any of the others.
The two humans Jedi were still frowning when they followed after, Aliette on their heels. It made her feel good to know that they cared. Almost made up for the reminder of what she was.
Standing above her place.