Disclaimer: I don't own SW otherwise the abomination that is the Sequels would never have existed and Vader would be acknowledged as the genocidal psycho he was and not 'redeemed' and forgiven for the murder of hundreds of thousands of people just because he died saving his son, or Dai Bendu (kudos to aroaccejoot, ghostwriterofthemachine and loosingletters for their hard work in creating it, that takes a lot of work and dedication).

Posted 10-11-2023

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Chapter Seven

Rescuing the Huttlet

Leia had to fight her way up through the monastery, battle bots attacking her on all sides. But she was skilled and the Force was with her, and so she still managed to keep at a sprint all the way up to the top level. There she found her men and her (still unofficial according to Order tradition, Leia would have to remember to do the Ceremony once this mission was over) Padawan struggling to hold off the droids long enough to climb up through the hole to the roof.

Leia surveyed the situation at glance, and came to a stop. She disengaged her lightsabre and took a deep breath to calm and centre herself, ignoring the battle bots turning to fire on her. Size matters not, a voice that sounded unmistakably like Yoda whispered in her mind. Your limits, created by your mind are. Nothing impossible, with the Force is.

She raised her hand and deflected the energy bolts back on their source, then concentrated on the droids' inner workings, imagining them all turning off. And, because the Force was with her, they did.

"Wow, Master," Ahsoka whispered as Leia opened her eyes again. "That was amazing. Will you show me how to do it?"

"Of course, Padawan," Leia agreed tiredly, because it might not be impossible, but it was still tough on the mind. "But later. Right now, we have a deadline to meet."

"Right, about that, Master," Ahsoka bit her lip and Leia sent her a sharp look. "I think something's wrong with Stinky. He doesn't look good."

Leia strode over and studied the Huttlet without touching him. Her lips flattened in unhappiness at the strange orange-cast to his slimy skin and his wheezy breath.

"We'll get him checked out on the ship," she said curtly. Her comm beeped with an alert. "Perfect timing. Our ride is here. Let's get moving."

As it turned out, the Huttlet had the beginnings of some sort of bacterial infection, one easily dealt with by a dose of antibiotics. He was back to normal by the time they came into orbit by Tattooine. Leia stared down at the planet she'd been born on, the planet she been beaten and starved and loved on, and shuddered at the memories. Oh, she had good memories too. Memories of Kitser and Alesa, and her mother, and the Grandmothers and their tales. But somehow the pain always seemed to stand out more than the laughter.

The guilt over leaving them to rot in their chains even if being a Jedi was slavery with a different face, didn't help.

"Right!" Leia said briskly, spinning away from the window. "Ahsoka and I will go alone to give back the child. I don't want to provoke Jabba by bringing a squad of troopers. Ahsoka, be prepared to fight our way to the palace. The Separatists took the Huttlet for a reason, they won't give him back as easily as that."

"That was easy?" Ahsoka whispered disbelievingly.

Leia gave her a grim smile. "Oh, my Padawan, how young you are yet," she sighed.

When they made landfall, Leia sent Ahsoka ahead on a roundabout route in a speeder with the baby hidden in a backpack, her own pack stuffed with sandy rocks to make it bulge like there's a baby Hutt inside. Then she took the more direct route by foot, hoping to the Force that the Separatists wouldn't believe Leia would entrust a brand-new apprentice with such a dangerous and important task.

But Leia had faith in her Padawan, even if she was young and new to missions. She trusted the Force would guide her and that Ahsoka would follow her feelings.

She was halfway to Jabba's palace when she met Ventress. She spotted and felt the woman waiting for her, and took her time reaching her, guzzling some water from her flask as she walked.

"Well met, Countess Ventress," Leia drawled as she came to a stop before her. She suppressed her anger for the woman who had kidnapped and tortured her Jaieh for three weeks. Force, thinking of Jabiim was a terrible idea. She exhaled the emotions and memories in a practiced motion. "How are you this fine day? What do you think of Tattooine? Personally, I was never fond of it. The Hutts seem like your sort of people, though."

Ventress glared at her venomously. "Spare me the jests, Skywalker," she spat viciously. "Where is the Hutt?"

"Why do you want him?" Leia wondered casually. "I would never have thought that you had a desire for children. Then are more legal ways to adopt a child than kidnapping if you're not willing to go the natural route, you know."

Dear Force, Leia had been spending way too much time around Obi-Wan if she was joking with enemies like this.

Ventress growled and drew her lightsabres. Leia removed her backpack and threw it aside, igniting her own weapon in response.

"You will regret interfering in my Master's plans, Skywalker!" Ventress hissed, lunging at her.

"I really, really won't," Leia said dryly, blocking both strikes at once. She didn't really pay attention to most of Ventress' ranting throughout the duel, however, as holding off a Jar'Kai practitioner is a lot harder than fighting one blade, especially on your own. She incorporated some Niman telekinesis in the fight because she'd never been a purist and it was needed.

She managed to knock one of Ventress' lightsabre away and had her on the defensive when a Separatist ship came swooping down and the Sii jumped aboard with a hateful scowl at Leia and a gesture to summon her second weapon.

Leia let her go and began hurrying on towards the 'palace'. There wasn't long left now before Jabba's deadline. She could only pray that the Force aided her Padawan in reaching the Hutts' Castle in time.

She arrived, sweaty and panting, and took a moment to straighten her robes (and perhaps part of it was bracing herself to face, and speak politely to, the worst of the Depurs) and fix her hair as best she could despite the heat. Then she strode gracefully up to the doors and knocked. A Nikto opened it, looking her up and down with a sneer.

"I am Jedi Knight Leia Skywalker," Leia said calmly, her stomach twisting in anger she forced herself to let go of at the sight of his sneer worsening when she gave her slave surname. She wasn't ashamed of it. She was a descendant of slaves who had survived and endured some of the worst conditions in the galaxy. She was not ashamed of that ancestry. She had no reason to be. On the contrary, it was a source of pride to know they had proudly endured such suffering.

But she did resent that they'd been forced into those conditions, by beings just like the ones in front of her, looking at down at her like she was less than them.

She held her head high, let none of her turmoil touch her expression or her Force presence, and breathed.

She was taken to the 'throne room', where Jabba's bulk covered a dais. There were a dozen Nikto and twice that many slaves dotted around the hall. Leia clung to her calm with both hands, relieved by the Force's warmth, wrapping around her like a blanket in assurance that one day, eventually, these slaves would be free.

"The Great and Mighty Jabba asks who dares to enter his illustrious presence?" Jabba's translator droid asked her.

Leia replied in fluent Huttese, surprising Jabba from his slimy and ugly presence's reaction. "Greetings, Mighty Jabba. I am Jedi Leia Skywalker. With my student, we have saved your noble son, and my Padawan currently is on her way here with him."

She hoped.

"Where are the heads of Rotta's kidnappers?" Jabba snarled at her. "I demanded their heads!"

"Your son was taken by Separatist droids, as some form of plot," Leia explained calmly. "The mastermind escaped, but I assure you that Ventress' capture is our top priority."

"Do you have proof?" Jabba demanded. "Because Ventress claims that you were the kidnappers. And you have yet to actually return Rotta."

"I do have proof," Leia acknowledged, pulling out a recording device she'd had on throughout the invasion of the monastery and handing it to a nearby Nikto. "As for Rotta..." She trailed off and gestured at the doors, which flew open to reveal Ahsoka and a few Niktos, Rotta nestled happily (and healthily, much to Leia's relief) in the Padawan's arms.

"Rotta!" Jabba exclaimed in relieved happiness. Leia was mildly surprised to realize that he did, in fact, love his son. As much as someone so twisted and cruel could love anyone other than themselves, at least.

"Lord Jabba, we have upheld our part of the deal," Leia said once the Hutt held his son in his arms. "Can we count on you to uphold yours?"

"Yes," he agreed curtly. "You may. Now be gone from my planet."

Gladly, Leia thought bitterly as she twisted on her heel and ushered her exhausted, dehydrated and hungry Padawan out of the palace.

"Come along, Padawan mine," she said tiredly. "The mission is over now. We're almost to the ship, and then we can rest."

"Yes, Master," Ahsoka sighed.

"Good work, you have done, Knight Skywalker," Jaieh Yoda told her a few hours later, after she and Ahsoka had gotten back to their Star Destroyer and given their report to the co-Heads of the High Council. And Chancellor Palpatine. "And you, Padawan Tano."

"Indeed," Palpatine said with that friendly smile that had always made the hair on the back of Leia's neck stand upright, even before he started Requesting her when she was fourteen. "You have given us a great advantage in the war, Knight Skywalker. We will now be able to move troops throughout the galaxy."

"We come to serve, Chancellor," Leia replied with a sharp bow, the lowest she could get away with giving to the leader of the Galactic Republic. "Is there anything else? My Padawan and I have had a long few days. We need to rest and recover."

"Yes, and that's not even counting the rest of your deployment on Christophsis," Jaieh Windu nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately, there is little time for you to rest. We have new orders for you. You're to move onto the Bith system and make contact with Master Koon's fleet. He is tracking down rumours of the Separatists' new superweapon. We need you to protect the staging area while he does so."

Leia bowed again. "We will set the coordinates immediately, Master," she promised. "May the Force go with you all."

"And with you, Knight Skywalker," Windu and Yoda replied, while Palpatine gave them his best wishes (a voice in the back of Leia's mind scoffed at the prospect of the Chancellor wishing any Jedi well, but she ignored it with practiced ease) and the call ended.

Leia turned to her apprentice, who looked dead on her feet, and ushered her to Leia's room, where she sat Ahsoka down in front of her and took her hands.

"Padenji foh keelak chareu leo'ah foh. Leo'ah foh keelak Padawanir," Leia told the girl softly. Ahsoka lit up, stumbling to her feet to sketch a bow.

"Mimaya'ah foh keelak mipadenanal kat fehl. Leo'ah foh keelak Jaieh'ir," she said eagerly, the words almost slurring in their haste to come out, though their Force echo (for Dai Bendu was spoken both with words and with the Force) was normal, if excited.

Leia smiled gently and reached out to begin to braid the loose strands of Ahsoka's silka beads, said as she spoke "Jaieh, Padawan, Dai," she murmured each time she crossed a lock over the previous one. Eventually, she had finished the braid and the Braiding Ceremony was done. They stayed together for a while longer, just breathing, until Ahsoka began to fall asleep and Leia sent her to bed in the room next to hers, where Ahsoka would sleep.

Leia herself, after checking in with the bridge to ensure things were all running smoothly, went to her quarters, where she unrolled her meditation mat and settled herself in her preferred lotus-position. She closed her eyes and began to chant rhythmically in Dai Bendu, the words of the Code springing to her lips with the comfort and ease of years of repetition.

"Im tumi tamah soo'yth, ji xai enoah kai'an.
Im tumi tamah delahm, ji xai enoah leo'yth.
Im tumi tamah bexlyth, ji xai enoah maijah.
Im tumi tamah chiiuth, ji xai enoah aimato.
Im tumi tamah kerai'yth, ji xai enoah Dai."

And then, once she came to the end, she began again, from the top. She continued doing so until she was centred and at ease with herself, and she had examined, accepted and released all the painful, bitter emotions this mission and the Christophsis campaign had brought up for her. That was when she opened her eyes, got up, folded her mat, and went to Han's quarters, where she fell into a desperately needed sleep in the warm embrace of his arms.

"Right then, Padawan," Leia said, early the next morning as she faced Ahsoka in the cargo bay designated as the ship's training salle, shortly after first meal. "We are going to start with going through your Shii-Cho katas."

"Shii-Cho, really?" Ahsoka looked disappointed. "But that's for younglings!"

"Shii-Cho is the basic form because it is the Form from which all other Forms evolve," Leia replied calmly. "It should be instinctive to you, so that when all else fails, you can fall back on it as a defence. Besides, Jaieh Fisto uses that Form, and he is one of the Master Swordsmen of the Order. Don't worry, once you've gone through all your Shii-Cho katas without a mistake, we'll start going through the katas of the other Forms, to decide which two you prefer to use."

"Two?" Ahsoka frowned. "Most Jedi only specialize in one. Why have two, especially when you want Shii-Cho to be instinctual?"

"Because different Forms work best for different situations," Leia explained. "Shii-Cho is the Jedi's last resort, but I also learned both Makashi from my Jaieh's Tonjaieh, Jaieh Dooku, and Shien from Jaieh Piell, so I could fight both xari and blaster-wielders better."

"I see," Ahsoka said thoughtfully. "But why not use Djem So instead of Makashi? Both Djem So and Shien are variants of Form V, after all. Wouldn't it have been easier?"

"Makashi is what the Force guided me to," Leia told the young Togruta with a shrug. "Any more questions? Or shall we begin?"

"No, I'm ready to start, Jaieh," Ahsoka said excitedly.

"Good," Leia crossed her arms as she spoke. "Form I katas at half-speed, starting from the first kata. Go."

"Haj dai, Jaieh." Ahsoka began to go through the katas as Leia walked around her to get a good look at her stance, occasionally stopping the girl to correct a mistake or a wrongly-placed foot, at which point she had her Padawan start from the top.

It was a moment of peace in a galaxy on fire.

Dai Bendu:

Jaieh: Master (Teacher)

Im tumi...enoah Dai: The "There is no...there is..." variation of the Jedi Code

Padenji foh keelak chareu leo'ah foh. Leo'ah foh keelak Padawanir: I will teach you everything I know. I know you as (my) Padawan.

Mimaya'ah foh keelak mipadenanal kat fehl. Leo'ah foh keelak Jaieh'ir: I entrust you with my education. I know you as (my) Master.

Jaieh, Padawan, Dai: The Master, the Padawan and the Force

Haj dai: Yes (lit. Force wills)

Amatakka:

Depur: Master