Chapter 8
"What do we do?" Shmi asks the two of them, yeah, Depa could definitely see the resemblance.
"Well, ideally we find him and gut him but since that isn't practical, at least for now, we are taking you back to Coruscant." Arlie explains, her mother looks disapproving, as does Depa.
"Arlie have I not taught you that violence is not the answer?" Arl fights the urge to roll her eyes and instead changes her stance.
"Ice to a Hothian." Depa mumbles excitedly, she had never seen Arlie do it on someone outside of the order, according to Mace it was quite extraordinary.
"Mother, I appreciate your idealistic thinking but sometimes there is little to no choice. If I can stop this…man…without killing him, I will. But he has threatened Anakin, so if I cannot, I will not hesitate to stop him using other means. This man is worse than Hego and I would not ever say that lightly, if the opportunity presents itself to solve this problem a little more permanently, there will be no hesitation, no second thoughts, I will stop this. You may believe that violence is not the answer but I know you will agree with me when I say that when Anakin's life is in danger, it becomes an option." Arl says playing on her mother's need to keep her son safe, it suddenly occurs to Arlie that she's manipulating her mother for no real reason…too late to turn back now.
"If it keeps him safe I would do anything Arleia, but I would do anything to keep you safe as well." It is sad that that did not even occur to Arlie. "You remember what happened the last time that man was in our lives, he is dangerous, if this person is truly worse than who knows what he is capable of. I am your Mother, Arlie, I do not want you anywhere near him. I love Anakin and want to keep him safe, but I think you have forgotten somehow that I want the same for you as well." Shmi responds.
"Huh, I thought I picked this up on a different planet but perhaps it's some 'logically argumentative gene' or something." Arlie says more to herself than anyone else but both present heard her. "Regardless of that mum, I am a Jedi. It is not always a safe job but it does mean me helping people and keeping them safe. Stopping this guy is not just about protecting you guys, so long as he is around, everyone is in danger. You taught me to help people, always, even if it means putting yourself out a bit more than you would like, you taught me not to be greedy. Why should I be safe if the rest of the galaxy can't be?" Arlie's mother sighs deeply and Arl knows she's won.
"It is hard to believe you are nine-years-old." She says to her daughter who smiles sadly.
"Yeah, I get that a lot."
"So, what happens after we reach Coruscant?"
"Well, my recommendation is that Anakin take the initiates test." Obi-Wan says carrying the child back out to them.
"What? Wait, why am I surprised, his sister is Arl Aa for gods sakes." Depa says muttering to herself, Arl smiles in her mind but focuses on Obi-Wan with a seriousness she picked up being a Jedi Master.
"No, you do not understand, his midichlorian count is over twenty thousand." Obi tells them both.
"Is that bad?" Ani asks looking afraid, Obi looks guilty at having frightened the child.
"No Ani, midichlorians are a part of your blood that Jedi use to determine force sensitive children from force null. You have to have a certain amount before you are considered for the crèche." Arlie explains.
"Oh, how many do you have?" The boy asks, Shmi turns to her curiously but after a beat, Obi and Depa do too after realising they don't know, Arl just shrugs.
"No idea, never been tested."
"How have you never been tested, you've been in the temple for how many years?" Depa asks incredulously but also attempting to trip her up. Everyone was convinced there was something funky going on with her and her experience. Dooku had led that charge though he never discussed it with anyone, around the time he stopped looking was around the time the nickname 'Master Aa' first left his mouth, Depa took that as more encouragement to find out what was up with her sister-padawan.
"Two, and do you remember how I showed my force sensitivity?"
"Apart from knowing everything about us that you should not know, which you still have not explained, you also made our dear Master afraid of ice." Arl chuckles knowing it wasn't quite accurate but he wasn't exactly fond of the substance.
"Wait, that really happened?" Obi asks confused, Arl nods, "What about the rumour that you used to be a pirate?" Arl bangs her head very purposefully against the wall of the hut.
"Why. Does. This. Happen. Every. Time." She says accentuating each word with another bang of her head. "In any case, I have never been tested and so I have no idea."
"Why do you not find out? Clearly Mister Kenobi can do that." Shmi asks, Depa turns to Obi-Wan.
"Yes, how did you do that?" She asks thinking he'd have had to go to the ship.
"A while ago, Arlie found a way to link the ships midichlorian metre up to the comm." He explains, Depa nods now vaguely remembering that conversation.
"All right then let's find out?" Depa suggests, Arlie shrugs.
"Why not?" She says allowing her friend to take a blood sample and test it.
"We have to wait until we get back to the ship." He says after a moment confusing everyone. "You broke the scale, it just says error." He tells them after noticing the looks.
"Maybe I need to have another look at the connection when we get back, technology has never really been my thing but perhaps I'll see something wrong with it?"
"You thought it up in the first place." Depa tells her.
"Yeah, the idea, not the mechanics behind it."
"Do all Jedi teams get along this well?" Shmi asks incredulously at the display before her, Obi snickers while Depa and Arlie look suitably sheepish.
"We've been cooped up together on a small ship for two days, it's the first time Depa and I have spent a lot of time with each other outside of council sessions so…" Arlie begins to explain when Depa cuts in.
"So, I am not yet used to putting up with her." Depa says with a teasing smile, Arl rolls her eyes but the humorous smile on her face ruined the effect.
"That and they had the same Master before they were knighted, they both picked up a few of his habits so when they bicker they tend to do it in the same way which furthers the bickering." Obi-Wan explains, "Xan and I do the same thing I have discovered. Garen and Arlie too but to a lesser extent, probably because of Master Micah." The two girls nod in agreement at his assessment.
"I thought knighting took years? You said you had only been there for two years." Shmi says confused.
"I am a very quick learner." Depa holds back the derisive snort Arlie's words brought forth and held her tongue knowing this wasn't the time.
"I thought you were free?" Anakin says suspiciously, Arlie looks confused for a moment before it clicks, Depa and Obi continue to look confused.
"The Jedi use the word Master to mean teacher. See you starts out as an initiate in the crèche, then a Knight or Master will take you as their student and you become a padawan. When your Master believes you have learnt all you can from them they knight you, then eventually when the council decides you are ready, often after training your first padawan to knighthood, you obtain your mastery." Arlie explains.
"Miss Billaba called you Master Aa earlier."
"That is more of a nickname than anything, a good friend of mine, Master Dooku, was teasing me about being ahead of everyone and made the joke, calling me Master Aa. He continued it and when the others heard it, it started catching. Jedi can be massive gossips so despite the fact that this happened four days ago it has gotten around to probably the entire temple by this point." Arl says looking vaguely irritated though more at Jedi being gossips than the joke itself.
"See, as you have witnessed she is not like most kids her age, a lot of us frequently forget how old she is. Our former Master is the head of the order so when in council sessions she was in too. She's never really grasped the concept of padawans remaining quiet during them, most turned into some philosophical debate and honestly, we have actively asked her opinion on more than one occasion. The other Council Padawan too now that I think about it. In any case it is much easier and more intelligent to treat her as an equal than the underling her rank would suggest. When she goes into 'Master Aa' mode it really just means she's forgotten to use the 'Advanced but still a Padawan' façade entirely." Depa explains to Shmi and also to Anakin who is listening intently, wanting to know more about his sister.
"It's not a façade, it is literally what I am, well technically I'm newly knighted now but that is beside the point."
"Well, seeing as we are being freed, how about we eat all of the food we have and all get, well, proper sized meals I'd imagine." Shmi says with a slightly forced smile.
"I'll help." Arlie offers when Obi pulls her back.
"No, you won't, I will. We wish to eat Arlie, not be poisoned on a planet with no real medical care." He tells her, "Do not ever let her in the kitchen except to make tea." Obi warns her mother who laughs as he takes her by the elbow and the two walk off.
"So, if you two had the same Master, does that mean you were taught together?" Anakin asks showing the intelligence Arlie knew he possessed.
"No, Depa was knighted long before I arrived." Arlie explains.
"What it does mean is that we are, what Jedi call, sister-padawans." Depa adds.
"Padans who got the same Master, like Arlie and I got the same Mum?"
"Padawans, and Arlie and I have the same mum, but yes just like that." Arlie says correcting his Basic, she knows it is not his first language since Shmi made sure he would understand Huttese and Toydarian first so she wanted to help him with it. Given that he has likely only been focusing on Basic for a year or two she thinks he is doing remarkably well.
"So, you have a Jedi sister and a Kin brother?" He asks nibbling on the end of his thumb as his face is scrunched up in thought. He leads them over to the dining room table and sits on Depa's lap, she smiles warmly at him. Arlie, out of habit, sits on the actual table with her legs crossed.
"Arleia Skywalker if I walk out there and you are on the table that we eat at again I am not going to be impressed." Shmi calls from the kitchen, Arl looks sheepish as she slides off of the table and onto a chair.
"I swear she has table sitting radar or something." Arlie says irritably.
"She got that with droid parts on the table too." Anakin tells her in a loud whisper.
"Must be a novelty for you Arlie, sitting on a chair instead of the table or floor." Depa says mockingly, Anakin laughs at her, Arlie huffs.
"Okay, where I grew up it was my brother that started that habit so blame him." Arlie says automatically.
"I didn't do nothing." Anakin says looking affronted.
"Different brother." Arlie says wincing as she notices her slip, Depa looks far too satisfied.
"Jedi brother?"
"No, though I have one of those too. I was taken in by a family at one point and had two brothers there, a baby named Sonny and an older brother named Trick. Well his name was Patrick but I give everyone nicknames so yeah." Arlie explains.
"So, what you are saying is, you got sold from your mother, spent two years flying around the outer rim, was kidnapped by the trade federation and then saved, but apparently somewhere in there you were both trained to use the force and raised by a loving family?" Depa asks looking extremely smug.
"Yes, that's what I am saying." Arlie replies straight-faced, it wasn't inaccurate at all and she knew the force would show her telling the truth. Depa saw this and it confused her greatly but she tucked it into the back of her mind for later examination.
"If I work this out and tell you what I think, will you tell me if I am right?" Depa asks curiously.
"There is nothing to work out, but when you accept that and tell me, I will tell you you are right." Arlie replies, Depa nods understanding that she will tell Depa when she gets it.
"Does that go for everyone? Because I will make this a race with money in a pool and everything." Depa swears looking far too serious, Arlie just laughs at her.
"Best start the clock then." She replies, Depa smiles, so does Anakin.
"Oh, I wanna play too." He says, Depa decides the mind of a child may work in her favour, far more likely to think of scenarios she's subconsciously ruled out as impossible.
"Want to be on a team?" Depa asks, Anakin nods happily. "Okay so what we know is, she is somehow trained as well as, if not better than a proper Jedi Master, but we did not train her. She seems like an adult sometimes but is a child. She knows things about everyone that she has no way of knowing and she is far too used to being listened to for an average Jedi. Also, she has apparently been raised by a family somewhere when there is no time for that to have happened. And she knows a lot about the evil we are currently facing even though it was supposedly extinct for thousands of years."
"I am confused." Anakin replies after a few moments of intense thinking, Depa laughs.
"Yeah, me too. But we will work it out. Oh and Arlie, anyone who already knows the answer cannot participate in the game. No Dooku, no Mace, no Micah, no Garen. No whoever else who may know." Depa says, Arl rolls her eyes.
"Sure, yeah, no including the people who already know nothing is amiss."
"I'm not sure I appreciate the snark going on in here Arlie, it is unbecoming." Shmi says as she and Obi carry out food.
"Sorry Mum." Arlie replies looking down at the table.
"I am so glad you are coming back with us Lady Skywalker, many on the council would love lessons on how to do that." Obi tells Shmi grinning, Arl rolls her eyes, she'd been doing that a lot today. She was fifty years old and acting like a teenager, stupid nine-year-old body making it hard to control her emotions. The lack of meditation over the last few days probably did not help but she preferred to wait until she knew her family was safe. Depa thought that that was exactly why she should have meditated on the way to Tatooine but Arlie was used to running a war on little to no sleep or meditation, she'd be fine for a simple retrieval. She did not take her mother into account.
"You do not listen to your superiors?" Shmi questions her daughter admonishingly.
"Why should I listen to them when I know they are wrong? Or at the very least start a discussion about it. No decision should be made without someone making the arguments against it, that way it is fully thought through." Arlie replies.
"Hang on, that's what you have been doing? Playing devil's advocate even when you agree with us?" Depa asks surprised.
"Well I do not always disagree with you but if someone doesn't challenge you then you will stop seeing both sides. I am simply giving you more to think about and sometimes I change your mind and also my own, sometimes I don't agree with the decision you make even though I am the one that argued the point. But at least by that point I'll know you have made the decision because you agree with it and not because you haven't thought it through." Arlie tells them, they all seem stunned. "I just think that the Jedi Council make decisions of great importance that affect a great number of people who deserve a decision fully thought through."
"I see what you mean." Shmi tells Depa who nods, Arl withholds the eye roll this time. Pleasant conversation carries throughout dinner as Arlie makes a conscious effort to hold back her sarcastic tendencies. Two years ago it would not have been a problem but, despite them viewing her as an equal a lot of the time, people still often treated her as a child and as a result she feels she has regressed somewhat. She could not afford to.
That night Anakin shared a room with his mother while Obi-Wan and Arl shared his and Depa slept on the couch. Arlie spent the night meditating on the future as she sat on the small amount of floor in Anakin's room.
(Dooku is a Sith, but he hates Sidious, the real Sidious. So why did he join him in the future? Especially since he killed his Apprentice. Threats of people he cares for are my first thought but the war he waged put everyone at risk so it makes no sense. Dooku hasn't yet gotten himself into the situation that had him leaving the order, he said his usefulness would soon be at an end and he wanted to get out before he did more damage or there was blood on his hands or something. In any case, he must have been working against the order from inside it, but why? He outed himself as a Sith years later anyway so it can't have been that, unless it was and something changed in that time? Perhaps he found something in his research of the Sith? Wait, why was he researching the Sith…he is one. Maybe he wasn't and that was a cover for both his knowledge of them and also what he was really looking into. Anytime she asked about his research he told her of the Sith and he would help her with her research of the dark side but he never showed her his research. Except very briefly while looking into the Sith's code. Maybe the Sith's code changed over time like the Jedi code did, that would make sense. But he can't have been researching that for the decades he was supposedly researching the Sith. We do not know much about Sith history, many records have been lost to time or destroyed in the Sith war so he cannot have been looking into it for decades anyway, he'd have run out of material. The only reason I didn't in the decade or so that I looked into the dark side is because he gave me more. Maybe he started looking into something specific and nothing was there, maybe he started looking into the difference between the codes, where it started, how it changed. Maybe he found, nothing. Literally nothing. I did not come across anything except a very brief mention of the Grey Jedi code. I did not even learn the Sith code until Yoda said it during the war and then Sidious…anyway. But if that information has been lost it is very specific. So perhaps Dooku looked into how it was lost as well, but what could he have found?) Arl sighs in frustration before reinstating her meditative state, (I guess I have a new research project. Next topic.
Yinchorr, the battle is next year. If I start planning a battle strategy now, then I can present it to them before we fight and we can win without Micah nearly dying, before a lot of people die. I have a lot of experience with battles now and I know what the Yinchorri will do to certain things. Okay that's decided.
Naboo. I have a few years left before then but Qui and Obi just are not learning things quick enough. I should have started sooner, then again, if my attempt to teach the healers force-magic healing is any indication, I may just be a terrible teacher. Quilo learnt how to run a war but I had little chance to teach her to be a Jedi, I fear it was that way for many padawans, a few it was all they knew. People like Ani had only been Knights during the war and would have been lost if it had ended differently and we had won. This is off topic. I am just going to have to join them when they go to Naboo and I will deal with Maul myself. Why was Maul there anyway, Sidious didn't need the blockade to succeed and all it did was reveal the Sith. Unless he was supposed to kill Qui-Gon, Xanatos wasn't his padawan the first time, sure controlling his grand-padawan would have been horrible but then killing his apprentice, that would be Wrath's revenge on Dooku. Given that he failed with Xanatos this time, Qui-Gon is still going to be a target for Maul then. Wait, what if Maul is just another one of Wrath's puppets?) Arlie opens her eyes and looks to the boy on the bed behind her, in a few years he'll be in love with his Master, and he will watch him die. (I know that pain, I won't let him feel it. God forgive me but puppet or not, I will kill Maul. It is not worth that risk.)
Arlie gets up and walks out the front door, wrapping her cloak around her tighter against the cold desert air. (When did I start deciding who lives and who dies?)
"And doesn't that make you feel like a god."
"No, because the minute I start thinking that I become the devil."
(The war, I can be honest with myself, that is when it started. My focus was once to save as many people as I can, somehow it devolved into win as many battles as I can. I was so deluded into thinking it was the same thing I have forgotten my humanity. No one deserves to die, but now I may be killing an innocent man who is suffering.) Arlie thinks as she looks over Mos Espa, or what she can see from up here anyway.
"You seem troubled Master Aa, I can sense it." Depa says coming to stand next to her, Arl smiles at her in the dark, she uses force magic to create a ball of light that floats between them illuminating them both.
"I shattered an illusion I was under, one of my own creation. Now I do not know what to do with the pieces." Arlie tells her, Depa nods thoughtfully as she looks forward.
"I was once under the illusion that my Master could not be hurt. He was the head of the order, the best fighter save for perhaps Yoda and Micah. I believed him untouchable, a god amongst men." Depa tells her, Arl smiles, remembering thinking the same of her Dad on Earth. The shattering of that illusion is why she never fell under the same one with her Master.
"What happened?" Arl asks, Depa sighs, leaning on her arms against the half wall lining the porch.
"He nearly died saving my life, was in a coma for a week. Several months of rehab during which I was assigned a Temporary Master. He came back on of course, took me back and we continued on as we had before except, now my illusion of him had been shattered and for a while I was very lost. Where did that leave me if my Master could not protect himself?" Depa explains, Arl listens intently, "In the end I spoke to Yoda. I said I knew he would try his best but how could my Master keep me safe when he himself had been hurt. Yoda said 'do or do not, there is no try. Hurt your Master was, uninjured you were. Be hurt, even die we all will, how we spend that time determines if a hero we are. Protect you he did, continue to he will.' I realised he was right but I also realised that I had to learn to protect myself too." Depa explains.
"When I was younger I was an arrogant prick, so cynical to the world I believed no one else was even trying to help anyone, least of all me. I got over that eventually but I never quite got over the habit of trying to solve everything on my own first. I forget sometimes that there are people who can help me." Arlie tells her, Depa doesn't even question the 'when I was younger' part. "At some point though I ended up being exactly what I feared everyone else doing, I stopped trying to help people, too caught up in the bigger picture to realise the effect my actions had on those I thought I was protecting. Now here I am, making a decision about a situation I thought I knew so very much about that I could not possibly be wrong. But there is so much I do not know, so much I did not care to."
"So, what are you going to do?" Depa asks her, Arl thinks deeply for a moment.
"All I've ever wanted is to help people."
"I am going to do what I should have been doing all along. Protect those that cannot protect themselves." Arlie says, Depa looks proud, "Depa, the thing about sentient beings is, every one of them has a weakness but, sometimes those weaknesses can make themselves a strength." Arlie tells her with a smile before wandering back inside and finally going to sleep.
The next day Arlie and Depa went to Watto's shop, they had a plan that Depa would pretend not to speak Basic so even though she was the one buying the slaves, Arlie would do all the talking. That way Watto wouldn't think he was actually bartering with a nine-year-old and Depa didn't have to suddenly learn how to barter for slaves on Tatooine. Meanwhile Depa and Arlie would converse in her native language, the language of the Chalactan people.
When they enter, Depa immediately gives a Chalactan morning greeting of respect which Arlie translates into Toydarian.
"What do you want?" Watto asks, also in Toydarian, not liking off-worlders.
"This is Master Billaba of the Jedi Order. You have two slaves that she wishes to buy off you." Arlie tells him.
"Thought the Jedi Order didn't engage in slavery." Watto says suspiciously, Arl gives a disarming smile.
"I assure you, our intention is to free them not further their slavery." Arlie tells him, he glares at her.
"Two slaves will be pricy, how you gonna pay for it? And no Republic Credits, they're worthless out here." He says, she tells Depa what he said in Chalactan so that she can keep up with the conversation since she does not speak Toydarian.
"Are you sure we have enough for this?" Depa asks Arl nods to her knowing to Watto it would appear that she is nodding in understanding of the instructions she's been given.
"We have wuipui, enough for the two slaves." Arl replies switching back to Toydarian.
"Whaddya want with my slaves anyway?" Watto asks not looking happy at the prospect of selling them.
"I will pay you extra to not ask questions and even more to leave Master Billaba's name out of it should anyone come asking questions. Feel free to dob in the order but leave her out of it." Arl says bouncing the credit pouch in her hand so that he could hear the rattle.
"She is not really the one negotiating here is she huh?" Watto asks, Arlie stays outwardly calm but inside she curses herself, rookie slip. "It's alright, I recognise you. Shmi's daughter, of course you want to free them. I'm a family man, not unreasonable, shall we say, 20'000 wuipui?" Arlie scoffs.
"15'000, they're both overworked and the boy's growth may have been stunted from malnutrition." Arlie says immediately going into barter mode, he looks a little shocked at the callousness of her words about her own family but also oddly impressed.
"He's a bright boy, talented mechanic, 18'000."
"18'000 and the parts he's no doubt had his eye on for the damn protocol droid." Arlie counters, Watto thinks it over.
"The boy has his eye on everything, three high value parts or six low value parts." He suggests. Arl raises an eyebrow, "And he can have the power source he wants." Arl holds out a hand and shakes his.
"Deal." She says and hands over the money getting the transmitters for the two in return. "Master Billaba will bring Anakin in to choose his parts." Arlie says before turning and walking out.
"How'd we do?" Depa asks when they are a sufficient distance away, Arl smiles brightly.
"They are free, Anakin has some parts of his choosing and we have 7'000 wuipui left over."
"Well colour me impressed." Depa replies with a laugh. When they get back Shmi and Obi-Wan have packed the meagre belongings and Anakin has gotten threepio transportable.
"All right, Mum, Obi and I are going to help move this stuff to the ship while Anakin and Depa go to pick up his new parts from Watto. You get either three high value parts or six low value parts plus the power source you want for C3PO." Arlie tells her, Shmi looks shocked while Anakin's eyes widen.
"Wizard! Come on Obi." He says dragging the older boy along behind him.
An hour later they were on their way back to Coruscant, Anakin was explaining the different parts he had gotten to Arlie as Depa and Shmi watch from a safe distance.
"Does she ever act her age?" Shmi asks watching Arlie listening to Anakin with an indulgent smile.
"To be honest Lady Skywalker, I'm not sure that she isn't." Depa replies.