Chapter 5
Mace takes her back to their quarters where they are quickly joined by Garen and Micah, the latter of which closes the door behind him. Arlie wastes no time in calming herself again, her fear may have been semi-real but she was also well versed in releasing such things into the force as she did now.
"So, what didn't you tell them?" Micah asks as they all sit down around the coffee table on the floor like they always do.
"Well, I brought up Sheev and Lorna not him, he killed Lorna as Sheev's sacrifice to earn his Sith name but I don't understand what he's using Sheev for. I'm pretty sure that his body couldn't hold him anymore, I don't know why but that's why he's possessing people. Why he chose Sheev and why he treats him like a separate being, I don't know either. Also, I threatened him pretty darkly, and he called me fallen, he shot a wave of darkness at me and was impressed when I allowed it to pass through me and melt away. Questioned why I don't fear him and engaged in an annoying game of attempting to have me figure everything out." Arlie explains, Garen looks confused while the other two look thoughtful.
"How is it that any of that made you come back to the light?" Garen asks, Arl smiles.
"It didn't, what did was me releasing my hatred or rather having it and my anger drain out of me when I realised that Vader and Sidious were all under his control and everything was on him. I thought it would just make me hate Wrath but it didn't. Anyways, then he said until next time and left Xan whose eyes turned blue and he collapsed. He hasn't woken since so I've no idea what he will be like when he does."
"At least now we know none of what happened was his fault except the initial falling." Mace says, Arlie smiles.
"Can we go see him?" Arlie asks followed by a yawn reminding her how tired and drained she feels, the council did not help that in the slightest. "Okay, nap first, then see him?" She requests, Mace nods and sends her off to bed.
It's a full twelve hours before she wakes again which leaves it at 3rd hour, Arlie sighs when she notices the time but gets up and gets dressed to sneak into the healer's wing anyway. When she gets there she checks on Dooku first who, according to his chart, regained consciousness but fell asleep again almost immediately thanks to the pain medication. Arl then searches for Xanatos, she finds him restrained to the bed and with a guard at the door. She uses the force as she has a few times before to make him believe what he is seeing is perfectly okay so that she can walk right past him, only stopping her influence on him when she is seated beside her friend who was strapped to the bed had yet to awaken. Despite the twelve hour nap, she falls asleep in her chair an hour later.
When she awakens again, she's leaning with her head on her arms which are folded on the bed in front of her, realising the vulnerable position she sits up quickly and sees blue eyes watching her.
"Xan?" Arlie asks hopefully.
"Hey Arlie." He replies softly, she smiles.
"It's good to see you Saviour." She tells him grabbing his still restrained hand, he holds her hand tightly.
"Don't, don't call me that." He stutters just as quietly as before, "I am nobody's saviour." He says looking away from her sadly.
"Xan what happened wasn't your fault, it was…wait, how much do you remember?" She asks, Xanatos looks back at her but won't meet her eye.
"Most things." He whispers brokenly. "Arlie, the things you said. What the hell was that?" He asks barely audible, Arlie is a little more focused on what his answer means for Sheev, he could remember everything that happened to Lorna and his children.
"I will explain Xan I promise, but so long as this…Sith…is still able to enter your mind, I can't take that risk." She tells his just as quietly, worried that even that is too much. Xanatos just nods resignedly, he figures that's the way it's going to be for a while to come. Deserved too.
"I'm so sorry Arlie, I didn't want to hurt you. I tried to stop it, why didn't you let me stop it?" He asks crying quietly.
"I have lost too many people that way Xan, and nearly myself too. I couldn't just watch you do it too, not when I could save you." She tells him running a hand through his hair, it was sad that she had to lean forward so much to do so, stupid nine-year-old body. (Gods, I'm turning fifty-one in a few months…) Arl suddenly thinks and then scolds herself for thinking of that right now.
"Can you? Can you save me?" he asks knowing that he isn't safe yet. Arl smiles at him.
"I suppose we will find out, but I am far too stubborn to ever give up."
"Arl, what he said about you being fallen, and what you said about knowing the dark side…was that true?" He asks, Arl smiles at him reassuringly.
"It was, I may use all aspects of the force but I am no longer fallen." Arlie tells him, he looks marginally afraid.
"You can't use the dark side Arls, it takes darkness to control."
"No Xan, it takes a true lack of fear and a lot of aggression. Aggressive doesn't always mean bad." She says glad they were already talking quietly, it would be bad if this were overheard. "Xan, they are going to question you at some point. I am begging you, tell them it's all a bit fuzzy, you only remember bits and pieces. Whatever you like so long as it doesn't implicate me, they know of the Sith and Sheev and his wife and most things. I will bring you fully into the loop when we strengthen your shields a whole bunch which I will help you do as soon as they are done with you." Arlie tells him sensing Yoda and Mace walking toward them. Xan nods.
"I'll hold you to that." He replies with a smile, Arlie smiles teary eyed as it fully hits her that she did it, she saved Xan and she exposed the Sith in a way that the council believes her. "Masters, I'd bow but…" Xan says wiggly his hands with an obviously forced joking smile, Arl turns to see Mace and Yoda at the door along with a bewildered guard.
"I apologise for that but I'm sure you can understand our wariness." Mace replies looking genuinely regretful.
"Not everyday the Sith take control of someone's mind I suppose." Xan says in the quiet and broken voice he had used before as he looks to the floor beside them rather than look at any of them.
"Remember you do?" Yoda asks with an accepting look on his face, Xan knew that he was not blamed for his actions and felt immense gratitude for Arlie telling them as much of the truth as she could.
"Not everything, it's all kind of, fuzzy." He says with a look of intense concentration. "I remember feeling very cold and I remember Darth Wrath whispering in my head." He shivers at the memory.
"When did the whispering start?" Mace asks with a frown as Arl tightens her hold on Xan's hand in support.
"A couple of weeks after we met Arlie, I think." Xan says surprising even Arlie.
"Sense it makes if his target you are." Yoda says looking briefly to Arl who is hit with a sudden onslaught of guilt that had her looking to the ground, Mace's hand comes to rest on her shoulder. "Meant to fault you I did not, control this you could not have so unnecessary your guilt is." Yoda tells her as he climbs into her lap, Arl wraps an arm around him to hug him and to keep him from falling. "Remember anything else, do you?" he asks Xan.
"I remember getting control back a few times but never for long, the longest was when I tried to, well, on the catwalks when Arlie yelled at me. He told me that I was helping him build his legacy and that you were the key to his real goal." Xan says looking to Arlie.
"Of controlling all aspects of the force?" She asks him surprised when he shakes his head.
"No, that's just another stepping stone. He wants to kill his Master but he's not strong enough, controlling you will make him so, he also said something about cruel irony for you to be the one to kill Darth Plagueis."
"What, why?" Arl asks as Mace mutters under his breath, "Of course there's another kriffing Sith." Which amuses Arl slightly since her colourful language is catching on.
"I don't know, apparently you're important to him. Important enough that he stopped Sithing a while ago and then started again which is why Wrath wants to kill him. He's going to use you and Sidious to do it." Xanatos tells them.
"Okay so Sidious is Sheev Palpatine, who are Wrath and Plagueis?" Mace asks rubbing his hands over half his face before catching himself and dropping them, Arl would have smirked had she not been so keen to hear Xan's answer.
"He didn't tell me but I, vaguely, remember him ranting to Maul about it when I was in his hideout, which before you ask, I don't remember where it is." Xan says and Arlie can tell he really doesn't.
"Okay then what was he ranting to Maul about?" Arlie asks.
"He said something about his Master retiring a few years ago, around the time his previous apprentice killed him, which made no sense to me, then he came back two years later really angry. He realised my mast…um, Darth Wrath had survived his Apprentice's attack somehow and tried to kill him again. Except Maul helped Wrath or Sidious, I don't know it's the same body, to take him down but they couldn't kill him or he got free, I'm not really clear on that. Anyway, while complaining to Maul about this he said a name but I'm not sure if it was Maul's of Plagueis'." Xanatos tells them hating himself for the near slip of the word 'Master'. A year and a half had given him a habit he could lose now and it still be too late for his comfort.
"What name?" Mace asks trying to be patient with the clearly traumatised twenty-year-old.
"Hego Damask." Arl's heart stopped, her breathing stopped, the blood drained from her face.
"No." She whispers caught between a mix of horror, total terror, and complete dread before she passes out from the greatest amount of fear she had felt since the last time she'd heard that name.
"Arlie!" Mace calls worriedly as he catches his unconscious Padawan and the tiny Master that had been on her lap. "Who the hell is Hego Damask?" He asks as he lays his Padawan on the empty medical bed beside Xanatos'.
"Heard of him I have not, look into it we must." Yoda says his serenity broken by fear and worry.
A few hours later Arl wakes up to see Garen sitting next to her playing what looked like poker against Qui-Gon who appeared to be receiving help from Xanatos, and losing.
"I um…" Garen says, Arl is pretty sure they were supposed to be teaching him to play not torturing him.
"Raise 'em twenty." Arl tells him, a risky move especially since she doesn't know how the rest of the game has gone, but that's why it's called a bluff. Garen listens to her without hesitation which makes her all warm and fuzzy inside. Xan and Qui hesitate before they fold.
"Yay! Thanks Arls, that's the first game I've won, I still don't know how to play. Anyway, how are you feeling?" Garen asks, with a worried smile, Arl looks over and sees Xan unshackled.
"Pretty good, wait what happened?" Arl says, her relief at Xan being freed overshadowed by her inability to remember why she had been unconscious.
"You passed out when we got an identity of either Darth Maul or Darth Plagueis." Qui tells her, she frowns as she thinks hard on that and then remembers, she pales again.
"Are you going to pass out again?" Garen asks moving to hold her up.
"No, just, um, fuck." She says ineloquently.
"The queen of class you are." Garen tells her, she laughs and by the way he smiles she knows that was his intention. What made her even happier was the lack of scowl from Xan at the interaction, then Obi came into the room.
"Master, I've been looking everywhere fo…Xanatos?" Obi-Wan says looking to the man on the bed.
"Hello Brother-Padawan." Xanatos says, Obi smiles and walks over to hug him.
"I am glad you are home." Obi tells him, he pats Obi's hair and smiles.
"Me too."
"Why were you looking for me Padawan?" Qui asks curiously, Obi turns back to him.
"We are meant to meet Arlie for another sparring lesson. But she's also here and in a medbed, are you okay?" Obi-Wan says spotting her.
"You need to take in your surroundings Padawan." Qui reminds him, Obi-Wan smiles sheepishly.
"I'm okay Little Obi, Xan any idea when you are being released?" She asks as a plan comes to mind, she feels a flash of guilt at Obi-Wan's frozen expression from what she called him, he snaps out of it quickly though for which she is glad.
"Actually, I was already, about forty minutes ago. Once each member of the council had helped me add their own personal twist to my mental shielding and then all attempted to enter my mind and failed, they decided I could leave so long as I stayed in the temple." He replies with a relieved smile, he seems to be doing better but Arlie thinks it's less to do with dealing with what happened and more to do with his mind being safe again. At least they think it's safe.
"Mind if I test?" Arl asks it being clear that if he says no, she won't, he nods though. Arl then attempts to enter his mind, actually tries for twenty minutes before she succeeds, he easily builds his walls back up and kicks her out though, especially since she didn't try to stay. "Pretty good, just so long as you tell someone the second you feel anyone trying to do that." She tells him he nods but apparently her approval relaxed him greatly, and the others. "Well, how about we all go to the training salle and you two can either watch me beat the crap out of them or join in and I can beat the crap out of all four of you?"
"You are aware that you haven't been cleared, yeah?" Garen asks knowing it won't make a difference.
"Physically I am fine and I'm not going to pass out again. I am however going to leave this room and beat the crap out of something, would you prefer it were you guys under training circumstances or some poor unsuspecting sod out there?" Arl asks, Garen rolls his eyes as Obi facepalms.
"I have to admit, I'm curious how well you can actually fight, I know you were holding back before when, well, you know." Xan says his smile fading for a second before coming back only looking a little forced. He clearly wasn't okay, but that's why she wants to distract him.
"If I went all out on any one of you you'd be down in less than a second." She replies honestly, they all appear to take it as a challenge.
"What about all four of us?" Qui-Gon asks, she smirks.
"You and three undertrained Padawans?" she asks, he seems to concede her point.
"New plan, we are going to go into that training salle, find the best fighters in there and get them all to fight her at the same time." Garen declares.
"Is that not over kill?" Xanatos questions, then shakes his head. "I take it back, it's Arlie, let's go." Xan says.
They head to the training salle and find Mace, Micah and Dooku watching some initiates that Yoda is instructing. They also see Knight Vos and Master Billaba sparring, along with Bant and Reeft attempting to teach Bellan some self-defence, since it really wasn't her strong suit, and Tahl watching them.
"How's Dooku doing?" Arl asks as they stand in the doorway as they scout the place out.
"Full recovery." Qui-Gon replies.
"Brilliant. Garen you get our Masters, Obi-Wan, you get Bant, Reeft, Bellan, and Tahl. I'll get my sister-Padawan, and Qui-Gon, attempt to entice Yoda to join in and make it a demonstration for the initiates in how to drop a bunch of trained Jedi on their asses." They all nod and split up.
"Master Billaba, Knight Vos." Arl says, they stop sparring and turn to her, she bows in greeting and they bow in return. "Master Jinn, Padawans Muln, Kenobi, Xanatos, and I were wondering if you'd like to join a sparring exercise we are trying out." She asks smiling innocently at them.
"I know that look dear sister-padawan, it means trouble. Count me in." Depa says ruffling her hair. Arl and Depa had never really bonded as sister-padawans, Arl hopes they can now.
"I'm in too." Vos says so they head over. Everyone accepted the challenge though everyone was sure to check on Dooku, Xanatos, and Arlie before hand which annoyed all three.
"Padawan are you sur…" Mace begins to ask again before she grabs his hand and flips him onto the ground, "Okay, you're sure." He says sounding winded as Arl helps him back up. "So, what is this training exercise?" Apparently, they had all used the same excuse which amused all five of them when they realised.
"We are all going to fight Arlie." Obi-Wan says, several of them look shocked at the notion while Mace and Micah looks mildly scared.
"Nope, I'm out. I do not need that level of embarrassment." Micah says, he had never sparred with her, too afraid to lose.
"I mean, with all of us against her?" Mace asks though he seemed unsure, that set the others off to the fact that this was not a joke.
"Participate I will, a good lesson for the initiates this will be no matter the ending." Yoda tells them walking into the large open area behind them. Slowly they all agree before they are in a circle around Arlie with plenty of room to fight.
"I feel ridiculous having us all face down a nine-year-old but I've heard stories from My Master so I'm also slightly afraid." Depa tells them laughing a bit, they all nod in agreement.
"Xanatos, you've fought her most recently, what should we be expecting?" Vos asks, the other freeze at the question unsure how it will be taken but knowing Vos isn't trying to be cruel. Xanatos shrinks into himself a little before hesitating and then standing tall again.
"We should expect to get our asses handed to us." He replies honestly earning a few laughs, the initiates watch them all transfixed.
"Rules?" Arl asks.
"Lightsabers on training level, no severe injury and no death." Mace replies knowing that permanent and severe mean different things since Arl can heal most injuries. Arl looks the ground as she enters a fighting stance and breathes in deeply, as she breathes out her mind stretches into the force before coming back into herself but leaving her awareness open, she looks up and smiles as she ignites her lightsaber. Then the fight begins.
Arl easily takes Obi, Bant, Reeft, Tahl, and Bellan out of the match. Next, she flipped Quinlan over her back, he did not get back up again but they knew he was alive, she spared a second to heal him before jumping back into the fray. Depa, Qui, Xanatos, Micah, Yoda, and Mace exchange looks, these six had fought together before and were much better at working in tandem, Arl took Depa and Qui out simultaneously before getting Mace to accidentally take Micah out who brought Dooku down with him. Xanatos was out next though everyone was impressed with how long he had lasted. Then Mace was thrown into the wall. Yoda paused the match to give Arl a chance to heal him before the two had a showdown.
Everyone in the salle was watching by this point, not just the initiates though they looked positively gleeful.
Yoda and Arl circled each other for a while before Yoda jumped forward, then they were fighting again. Arlie had sparred with Yoda many times in the past thirty years, but this Yoda had never sparred with her. Still it looked like a dance performed extremely fast, if not for the force, none would be able to keep up with the fight. They fought for a mere ten minutes before Arlie had Yoda on the ground with both of their light sabers crossed over his throat, he yields. Arl was quickly swarmed by excited initiates who only dissipated after Arlie promised to come down to the crèche that evening to tell them all stories.
"Most impressive young one." Depa tells her reminding Arl of Quilo, but for once she isn't sad, instead excited at the prospect of getting to meet the girl again one day.
"Thank you Master Billaba." Depa shakes her head.
"You are my sister-padawan, you may call me Depa outside of official situations." She tells Arl who smiles widely.
"So out of curiosity, when are you knighting her?" Vos asks Mace who smiles proudly while Mic laughs.
"How about when she's not nine-years-old." Tahl inputs.
"A measure of skill and discipline being knighted is, a factor age should not be. When a padawan I was, knighted at thirteen my Master had been." Yoda tells them with a smile brought forth by reminiscing.
"What was your Master like?" One of the initiates from Yoda's class asks.
"Kind she was and stubborn, taught me to be stubborn she did, worse she was. Created the order she did, longer than she should have she lived." Yoda tells them, everyone's eyes go wide.
"Your Master created the order?" Quinlan asks awestruck.
"Her second proudest accomplishment it would be." Yoda replies nodding.
"Would be?" Arl asks at the same time Garen asks, "What was the first?"
"What it will grow to become." Yoda replies which answered both questions.
"Master Yoda, there's a legend that the one who created the order, created the force. Master Penn says it's just a myth, is it?" An initiate asks.
"A good question that is, asked many times I have, been answered I have not. Spoke in riddles my Master often did, meddle she also did." He says sounding disgruntled by his Master's antics.
"Now we know who to blame for that." Arlie mutters earning her a swat from the gimmer stick. "I deserved that." She replies not even flinching.
"Well, as fun as this was, I must depart, Master Aa, walk with me?" Dooku asks, Arlie nods automatically without even noticing the name as she follows after him, she did not notice the confused looks on everyone's faces either.
"What's with the sudden departure? Got a hot date?" Arlie asks with a shit eating grin as they walk across the salle towards the door.
"As a matter of fact, I do." He replies, Arl literally jumps and claps as she squeals a little. "Shush. You're making a spectacle of yourself."
"Some things are worth it, spill, who, where'd you meet, what are they like, what are you doing, when did this happen, and why is this the first I'm hearing about it?" She asks in rapid fire before quickly intake breath, "Does Qui know?" Arl adds.
"It is the first you are hearing about it because we are trying to keep it under wraps, but it is our third date and I want to get her something but I do not know what and I have run out of time to think of something myself." He tells her, she smiles happily.
"A girl needs a name." Arlie tells him.
"Jocasta Nu." Dooku replies, Arlie stops him, pushing the two closer to the wall and out of the way of other Jedi in the hallway.
"You and Master Nu?" She asks, he nods nervously, "Squee." She replies high pitched but quiet.
"What does that even mean?" He asks incredulously, because really, squee?.
"I don't know, it's what the kids are doing these days, I picked it up from my pa…friend." Arlie finishes lamely, Dooku's eyes go wide.
"Were you about to say padawan? Kids these days? What?" Dooku asks, Arl shushes him and leads him through the temple until they get to empty classrooms.
"I said nothing of the sort, now can we get back to the problem at hand?"
"I was right when I said you are far older than you look." Dooku states, Arl facepalms knowing she wasn't getting out of this, she settles into her Jedi Master mode awaiting further questions. "Ah, there she is, Master Aa." He says noticing her shift in demeanour. "How?"
"You tell me?" She replies simply because it's fun to toy with him, it didn't occur to her she's doing the exact thing Wrath had done to her.
"Time travel? Body hopping?" he asks, she gives no indication. "Fine, time travel."
"Time does not exist enough for one to travel in Master Dooku." Arl replies, Dooku smiles, which, what the fuck? Is his face broken?
"So, how old are you?" He asks as he sits at the teaching master's table, Arl sits on the table.
"Let us play a game, an answer for an answer. You ask a question, I answer, then we switch. Until one of us runs out of questions." Arl proposes, he nods, "Fifty."
"Somehow that is both younger and older than I was expecting, your question?" He asks though he looks as though he's going to burst from the amount he has to ask.
"Do you know Darth Sidious?" She asks, he looks calculating for a moment, obviously surprised by the question.
"Yes." He replies, Arlie does not react, she pushes her feelings aside as she runs through the information she has forming all possible conclusions in order to best pick her next move. War time was useful for some things. "How old were you when you were knighted?"
"Thirteen…ish" She replies.
"Like Master Yoda's Master." Dooku says, Arl smiles.
"Apparently, are you working for or with or do you have any intention of ever working for or with Darth Sidious or Darth Wrath?" she asks.
"Who the devil is Darth Wrath?"
"It's my question Dooku."
"I am not nor do I intend to work for or with Darth Sidious, I do not know Darth Wrath and therefore cannot answer the question." Dooku replies, she nods happy with his answer. "Who is Darth Wrath?"
"Darth Plagueis apprentice." She replies coldly. "Do you have any intention of harming the Jedi Order or any Jedi inside it?"
"No, why do all your questions seem centred around a belief that I wish to cause harm?"
"Because you did. Where I come from you did."
"I joined Sidious?"
"My turn. How do you know Sidious?" Master Dooku looks down ashamed before looking back to her.
"He taught me to use the dark side of the force." Arl looks at him blank-faced as she had been this whole time. "How did you come back?"
"I do not know. I assume it was the force wanting me to save it but I do not know for sure. Are you a Sith?" Arl asks showing none of the hesitation she felt.
"Yes."