(Part 1) - Chapter 1: Blue Shadow Virus
Plot: As the Blue Shadow Virus spreads on Naboo, people begin noticing a mysterious figure near the areas of the attacks. Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan are sent in to find the perpetrator; a child who's also the living bio host of the virus. And they may have no way of stopping her.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Obi-Wan grumbles.
"You always do," Anakin points out blithely.
"Are you sure this is something Jedi should be involved in?" Ahsoka asks, lightly elbowing his arm. Anakin glances down at her through the helmet of the protective suits they're all wearing. There's some... virus here, allegedly, and they had to come with proper protections, no matter how he might like to be walking around freely.
Not much different than spacewalking, only there's gravity.
"This is the type of thing Jedi would investigate all the time before the war."
"Random virus appearances? Really?" Ahsoka asks skeptically, and Anakin laughs.
"Perhaps not specifically, but I would say it is close enough," Anakin replies, "We are meant to protect the people, and considering the battle droids spotted on Naboo nearby, Padme suspects there may be some sort of Separatist involvement. A bioweapon, maybe. Be ready for anything."
"I always am," Ahsoka promises. She's not, but Anakin won't call her out on the obvious lie. "So, where do we start?" she chirps.
"The most recent area of outbreak," Obi-Wan replies, "Though I find it unlikely we will pinpoint anything obvious."
Anakin agrees, though he trusts Padme's judgment on this. It's definitely odd to have outbreaks as severe as what's been reported. Plus, the blue shadow virus has been unheard of for centuries. It wouldn't just reappear. There was a galactic-wide outbreak once, a long time ago, but since then... there's definitely something more going on.
"So, we just hope we find something random on the street side?" Ahsoka snips.
"Pretty much."
"Shouldn't we be looking for these battle droids?" Ahsoka objects.
"We don't have anywhere to start looking for those," Obi-Wan points out.
"If the Separatists have a concealed base here, they wouldn't send them into the city," Anakin agrees. The droid sightings have been very brief, mostly reported by the Gungan population near the waterways and fields beyond most settlements. "If we find nothing here, we can search the area where the droids were last spotted." But if they were able to get droids onto Naboo in the first place, they must be doing a very good job hiding this from any security.
The streets are mostly empty as they keep walking. Most of the population in this area are sick, and pretty much everyone else is staying indoors in the hopes of avoiding it spreading.
Somehow, Anakin thinks there's something far more complicated about this. It's too... easy. Nothing is ever this easy. It's more than a simple outbreak, and he can feel in the Force that something is... stirring. It's a disturbance, not one he's ever felt before. It centers around... something. It feels nearby. It feels powerful. Dangerous.
Something catches his eyes up ahead, suddenly. Someone is moving behind a row of small trees in front of one of the houses. It instantly strikes him as odd, though since the trees are little more than the bushes, whoever's passing by must be a child.
"Hey," Anakin calls, approaching.
The child freezes, still half behind one of the bushes. Now that he's circled around to the side, he can actually see her.
Her black hair is falling loosely down her shoulders, and she's dressed in a light blue dress, though surprisingly unfancy for someone on Naboo. To be fair, Anakin is used to Padme's style of dress, which is to say, very exotic. That doesn't mean all Nubians dress like that. The girl doesn't look like she could be older than ten.
A flicker of fear ripples into the Force, and Anakin hesitates, lingering back.
"Are you alright?" Ahsoka asks.
The wariness in her gaze only grows, and she very hesitantly nods.
"Are your parents around here?" Obi-Wan interjects, "You shouldn't be out alone right now."
"We can take you back home," Anakin offers. She really shouldn't be out here with no protective suit. They don't know what caused this, and the authorities said they notified everyone of that.
She takes a step back from them. "Um, I can find my own way back."
"Are you sure?" Ahsoka asks, "It's dangerous out here. We can come with you."
Anakin senses a flare of fear from the girl, right before the Force ripples in warning. The air around her looks like it's shifting, a faint blue mist fading in out of nowhere. Her eyes are sparkling a deep blue, and the mist around her starts swirling thicker before expanding outwards towards them.
"What's that?!" Ahsoka yelps, backing up.
The mist is only thickening, enveloping them, and it reminds Anakin abruptly of the rumors he's heard about clouds of the virus floating through the city, that dissipate before anyone can get a proper view of them. Padme told him the rumor didn't make any sense because the blue shadow virus isn't airborne.
But what he's seeing now indicates that these rumors are far more than just rumors. Even if this makes absolutely no sense. It's almost as though the virus is coming from the girl, and she's certainly not getting sick because of it.
They already would've caught it themselves, if they weren't wearing protective suits.
"Is that – ?" Ahsoka asks, eyes widening.
"From her?" Anakin finishes, "Yes." Even if he has no idea what's happening or how it's possible. A human can't produce a virus, and she's definitely a human.
Obi-Wan starts towards her, and the girl scrambles a step away from them. The virus mist around fades a little, mostly disappearing into the air around them, before she spins around and runs.
Anakin spares only a brief glance to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan before they give chase. Whoever she is, and whatever's going on here, they need answers.
She's trying to lose them, weaving her way in between the houses. She's fast, partly because she's so small, but having to chase people down is something they've all done on a regular basis. They split up, Ahsoka climbing onto the rooftops to track her from above since the Togruta is the most agile. The houses are close together enough that she can jump from one roof to the next.
Anakin circles around ahead, the direction the Force is nudging him. The girl darts around the corner of the house Anakin circled moments later, nearly running right into him. She stumbles back a step with a yelp, spinning around to run in the opposite direction, except Obi-Wan right behind her now, and Ahsoka jumps down from the roof next to them.
The girl looks up at them, eyes wide, fear pouring into the Force.
Training a child this young to be an assassin is hardly something the Separatists wouldn't do, but she doesn't feel like one. Or look like one. Her emotions are too open, and she doesn't appear to be very prepared for what to do in the instance that she's captured.
Anakin doesn't even understand how what she's doing is possible. It's not a Force-ability, and he has so many questions about it. Questions they can hopefully get the answers to later, at least. Whatever exactly it is that she's doing, it's important, and not something they came equipped for.
"Who are you?" Anakin asks, not that he expects she's going to answer.
The girl says nothing, gaze darting around like she's hoping for a chance to run – but she can obviously tell she doesn't have the chance to make it far.
"Are you the one who's caused all of this?" Ahsoka demands, gesturing to the empty streets surrounding them.
She still doesn't answer, but he senses a flicker of guilt in the Force.
"We need to take her somewhere we can sort this out," Obi-Wan decides, arms crossed.
Talking in the middle of the street certainly isn't an ideal place. Especially not since she's unquestionably working for the Separatists, and she's definitely not alone here. Someone gave her orders on what to do. Probably, her presence has some connection to these battle droids that have been spotted.
They need to find out what's going on.
**w**
Anakin doesn't think holding her anywhere on the planet is a good idea, but they take her to a government facility anyway, in a failed attempt to talk to her. She hasn't made any effort to escape, but Anakin has the impression it's because she genuinely doesn't know how. He doesn't think she was trained for fighting, even if she has... whatever ability it is she's using.
"What's your name?" Obi-Wan asks her.
The girl shifts a little, eyes darting between them. She doesn't look as though she's about to lash out, but Anakin is still on guard. "Bessie," she answers finally with an almost ridiculous level of hesitation.
That's not a Nubian name. "Where are you from?" Anakin queries, "You're not from here, are you?"
"Naboo," Bessie replies. Her voice is a little too devoid of the emotions that he feels in the Force for his liking. Who raised her? She seems very young.
"Your name is not Nubian," Obi-Wan replies, studying her, "And if you are from this planet, why are you attacking it?"
She hesitates again, guilt flickering into the Force. "Because."
"Because what?" Ahsoka demands, leaning forward a bit.
She starts at them stubbornly, not answering.
"People are dying from that virus," Anakin says. It's blunt, but right now, that's what they have to be, and it's the truth.
If that outbreak was this girl's fault, they need her help to make it right, and the people she killed deserve justice. They need to know who she is and where she came from. There's too much uncertainty and too many things that don't make sense for there to be anything but Separatist or Sith involvement.
Somebody must've turned her into a lab rat, and she didn't deserve that, either.
"Who told you to do this?" Anakin demands, "I do not believe you would do this of your own."
"My – my Grandpa," Bessie answers, kicking at the floor. She's small enough that her feet hardly touch the floor from the chair she's sitting in.
"Who is your grandfather?" Obi-Wan inquires.
"Grandpa Sidious," she answers, and Anakin's heart skips a beat. He glances up at Obi-Wan, worry coiling up inside him. Obi-Wan had mentioned Sidious. Dooku had said Sidious was a Sith Lord in control of the Senate, and the Jedi haven't put nearly as much attention on that as they probably should have, but Anakin thinks about it all the time. If it's his destiny to destroy the Sith – which still stubbornly remains something he never wants to think about – he needs to find them, first. They have to find the Sith, and if Bessie knows something about him, they need to know that, too.
That's as important as finding out how she's doing whatever she is.
"Can you tell us anything more about this... Sidious?" Obi-Wan requests.
"Uh..." She says, trailing off, frowning. "He wears a hood. I've never seen his face, but he's really nice."
Anakin could have questioned whether they were the same, but from what she's describing, that could easily be a Sith. It could be the person they're looking for, which is disturbing. If the Sith have direct involvement with this, then... And why is she calling him her grandfather?
"Yellow eyes?" Ahsoka asks.
Bessie's eyes widen a bit, and she dips her head in a nod. "What do you want with him?" she asks, and Anakin can feel her worry, her fear. She cares about him.
"He's a Sith," Obi-Wan responds, expression tightening.
Bessie makes a face. "What's that?"
It's not really surprising that she doesn't know who he is. She's just a tool to him, Anakin can guess that much.
"They use the Force like the Jedi, but they do it for their own selfish interests. All they care for is greater power for themselves," Obi-Wan replies.
"My Grandpa doesn't do that," Bessie argues, distinctly unhappy. "You don't know him!"
"But we do know the Sith," Obi-Wan replies firmly, "And you can tell as much, too, from the orders he apparently gave you. You're going to wipe out the entire city."
"I won't let you hurt him!" Bessie snaps back, "He's the only family I have!"
Ahsoka lightly nudges Anakin's arm, and he turns to her, stepping back to address whatever his padawan's concern is a bit more privately.
"Are you sure we need to be focusing on her?" Ahsoka asks in a loud whisper, "She might have the information we need, but if she's here, shouldn't there be more reinforcements in the area?"
"I don't know," Anakin confesses, "We already requested a full sweep of the city. No one's come back with anything suspicious yet."
"This is taking too long!" Ahsoka grumbles fiercely. She's frustrated, and Anakin is, too. "We don't have time."
People are dying, and Anakin hates waiting. He doesn't know how to wait. Everything always moves fast, too fast, and that's what he's used to. He doesn't want to have a long, drawn-out conversation with Bessie, either. They need answers, and they don't have time to be talked in circles again and again because she's being uncooperative. There's nothing else they can do, though, and he needs to reassure Ahsoka.
"I know," he promises, squeezing her shoulder, "But right now, she has no reason to believe she can trust us. I cannot imagine what the Sith have said to her." He's worried about that, too, and that's when another thought occurs to him. She's not Nubian by origin, but... something about her mind feels very young. There is something about this child that's very much not normal, and Anakin doesn't know what.
When he turns back, it's to see Bessie staring intently at them. She has a strange intensity in her eyes that fleetingly reminds him of Rex and Fives and some of the other clones, though it fades just as fast. "Are you family?" she asks, leaning forward.
Anakin freezes at the question. He has always thought of Ahsoka as – as family, though he's never thought to put a familial, common term on it. A master and padawan relationship isn't truly something that most people can understand. It's something... different. "Yes," he answers, "You could say we are."
She tilts her head a little, staring. "Are you her... father?" she guesses.
Anakin glances at Ahsoka again. "Brother," Ahsoka corrects, "I guess."
"Jedi do not have parents," Obi-Wan informs her flatly. "And neither does this conversation have any bearings on the situation at hand."
"You were born from a tube?" Bessie guesses and Anakin stares at her.
The clones have a joke about their lack of parents. They call it the Great Mother Jar. What Besse is saying reminds him so jarringly of the clones, and – they feel wrong, too. Their minds feel far younger than their bodies, maybe not quite the same way Bessie's does, but it is similar. "You were born in a lab," Anakin realizes, "You were raised in one."
Her expression scrunches in a way that would be almost adorable if Anakin weren't so worried about the threat she could pose, and the damage that she has already caused Naboo. "Yes?"
"A lab that's here on Naboo?"
"Why should I help you?" she demands.
"The people on this planet who you have been ordered to harm deserve it," Anakin tells her firmly, "They do not deserve to be pulled into the crossfire of a war. This is not a battlefield. What you're doing is destroying entire families. Entire lives."
"I don't want to hurt anyone," Bessie replies sullenly, "I just want a family, like everyone else."
"Tell us where to go," Anakin requests, "No one else needs to die here."
"I can take you there," Bessie finally agrees, "I just don't want my family to die, either."
No matter what she has done, Anakin can't help feeling bad for her. She's young, and she obviously has no idea what she's really doing. He can't imagine how she was raised – to be a literal weapon.
"Can you tell us how your... abilities or whatever work?" Ahsoka asks curiously, "We've never heard of something like that before. That's not a Force-ability, so what is it?"
"Grandpa said I was special," Bessie says, "And so did Dr. Vindi, but they never said what."
So, they know of two people she knows. Everything else is still a guess, though. They'll probably find out far more when they get there, assuming Bessie isn't leading them into a trap.
**w**
Getting her to take them to the opening is easy, aside from the part where she keeps taking off to stare at plants or chase butterflies. By the time they finally make it to the hatch, Obi-Wan looks thoroughly frustrated, and Anakin, admittedly, is low on patience, too. It isn't that he doesn't want to give her time, but they really don't have time. They need to figure out more about how this works, and they need to send someone in to find the cure for those already sick. The virus is lethal. People don't survive it.
"You can get us inside," Ahsoka says, as they approach what must be the opening, "They'll us all down if they see you, right?"
Bessie still doesn't seem very happy, but she approaches the... droid camera head that rises out of the ground to look around. Moments later, a hatch opens, leading down.
There are probably far more Separatist forces down there than they'll be able to handle alone, but if they're with Bessie, maybe they can fool the droids and take control of the bunker without too much of a battle. Either way, Anakin's not going to take chances. He sends a message to the clones to be ready to come in at a moment's notice if they need backup. They're hoping to avoid confrontation right now, but Anakin knows how things go, and it's never going to be that easy. They can try, though.
Two battle droids stand at the base of the ladder that leads up to the hatch. Rows of lights line the walls. It looks like it's well fortified, prepared to hold out against any attack. There's no way they built this without being caught – they must've repurposed some facility that already existed, which would mean the schematics for this structure must be somewhere if they're able to find them.
"Hi," Bessie says cheerfully, to the droids.
Hearing someone greeting them like that is jarring when Anakin's only refraining from attacking them on instinct to keep up their act as long as possible.
"Uhh... they aren't supposed to be here," one of the droids objects.
"They look like Jedi," another agrees.
Bessie's gaze darts between them and the droids, nervously. "I – They're friends," she supplies. "They need to see the doctor."
"Hold it," the droid objects, before she can move past, "We'll have to check with command."
Anakin Force throws both droids into the wall, rendering them inoperable. They don't need to leave lightsaber marks behind, but they don't have time to try fooling the droids either. They need to get moving before everyone in Theed dies.
Bessie yelps, running over to the droids. "You didn't hafta hurt them," she protests, eyes welling with tears, "They weren't doing anything."
...That was not the response he was expecting. He doesn't quite know how to react that she's about to cry over the droids he destroyed. But it makes sense – if she lived down here, they're probably the only beings of any kind that she knew other than this doctor and Sidious. "We can't be caught right now, Bessie," he replies, as gently as he can manage, when he can feel the death on the surface. They need to get moving. "People in the city are dying. We have to find a way to stop it."
Bessie still doesn't look happy, but she reluctantly steps away from the droids. "I might be able to make them better," she mumbles.
"You can do that?" Ahsoka demands, urgently.
She shrugs a shoulder. "I don't know. The virus is me. I could call it back to me, maybe. I've never tried."
How is that even possible? Now probably isn't the time to ask for those details, but Anakin can't begin to imagine how it would even work. She's definitely a lab rat because a human being can't be a living host for a virus. But if there's a chance this will work... "Then we need to try it," Anakin decides.
"You should've mentioned this earlier," Obi-Wan says shortly, "We could have dealt with that before coming down here. But now that we're here, it's too risky to leave or this... doctor might realize he's been compromised and use it as an opportunity to escape."
Anakin has to reluctantly agree, even if they need to get back up to the surface as soon as possible and cure everyone of the virus if Bessie can really do that. They'll have to get moving. "Can you take us to where the doctor is?"
"Roger roger," she mumbles, sullenly.
Ahsoka raises an eyemarking at the sheer oddity of the reply, and Anakin shrugs a shoulder. She certainly doesn't sound like she's trying to make fun of the droids the way the boys do – considering how she seems to care about them, Anakin rather doubts she'd do that – but he doesn't have the time to think about it right now.
They keep moving through the halls, but they don't get much further before Anakin suddenly hears the clanking sound of droids approaching. An alarm suddenly goes off a second later, right before a group of super battle droids round the corner.
Anakin pushes Bessie behind them instinctively, drawing his lightsaber barely in time to deflect the shots away as they start shooting. Obi-Wan and Ahsoka draw their own, fighting alongside him.
There are probably cameras that picked them up or they tripped an alarm somewhere, and he doesn't think it was one Bessie knows about it. She's too... naïve to intentionally walk them into that, he thinks, even if he knows better than to underestimate her just because of her age.
"Ahsoka, call in the boys," Anakin calls, as he sprints forward, slashing through the advancing super battle droids. They won't be able to handle all of them alone.
Ahsoka ducks back against the wall – where a wide-eyed, panicking Bessie is now taking shelter – to push the button on her comm. "Rex, we need you to come in," she yells over the shooting, "We're having a situation."
"So I can hear. We'll be there right away, Commander," Rex replies, before Ahsoka breaks the connection, and attacks the droids again.
The clones should hopefully have it easier coming in since all the droids are probably being sent to stop them right now.
They make it past the next blast door in the hall and Anakin stabs his lightsaber into the controls, closing it on the advancing droids. They'll get it open before long, but it'll give them a moment to get the rest of the way to the lab. There are a few droids guarding the hall that leads to it, but cutting through them quickly is easy enough.
Bessie is standing frozen in the middle of the hall, looking at the wreckage, when Anakin cuts through the last of the droids. And she's crying again.
He doesn't quite know how to approach someone being attached to battle droids, but he can still understand it. He would never let anyone hurt Artoo.
Anakin steps over to her, lightly touching her shoulder. She stares at his hand like she's unsure if she's supposed to be biting it, or what. Has she never been touched before? She doesn't seem to be expecting anything violent – it's just obviously a gesture no one's ever shown her before.
"Maybe we can reprogram some of them once this is over," he offers, finally.
Bessie looks up at him, hopefully. "Really?"
She's kind of adorable when he's not thinking about the fact that she nearly killed all of Naboo. It wasn't like it was her fault, though. It's what she was created to do, isn't it? "Yes, if we have the chance."
"I don't think you need to add battle droids to your droid collection, Anakin," Obi-Wan interjects.
"That gives me an idea," Anakin replies dryly,
"I don't want to know," he huffs.
"I do," Ahsoka chirps, stabbing her lightsabers into the door that leads to the lab, cutting a hole big enough for them to step through.
There's a group of battle droids right inside the door that instantly start shooting, but destroying them quickly is easy enough. A distance away, Anakin can hear explosions ringing out. The clones must be making their way through the facility now, and he needs to get out there to help them.
The doctor is standing by some of the machine control panels, and it only takes him a moment to realize that he's probably destroying whatever evidence they have down here.
"You're under arrest," Obi-Wan calls, stalking towards him, lightsaber raised.
The doctor steps back, raising his hands. "You are too late," he cackles, sounding entirely unconcerned. His gaze jumps back them, lingering momentarily on Bessie. "You are all going to dieeee," he says, gleefully.
Bessie's gaze is darting between them, eyes wide. She's worried about the doctor, and Anakin doesn't know how to feel about that. He created her as nothing more than an experiment, and he couldn't have been nice to her even if he was not awful to her either. But she doesn't know there's anything wrong with it, so of course she's attached to him.
"We know about her abilities, doctor," Anakin replies flatly, "And she won't be infecting anyone else."
The doctor looks momentarily startled, even if it fades quickly.
Bessie avoids his gaze entirely.
"Someone needs to watch the doctor," Anakin says. And Bessie, but that goes without saying. "I'll go help the boys."
They still have a battle to win. They won't be able to figure out the extent of the operation here or anything more about Bessie's abilities until they're in complete control of the facility.
**w**
Anakin manages to keep precisely one battle droid still intact by the end of the battle.
He would've saved more, but frankly saving the clones' lives and ending the battle faster so they can get back up to the surface is far more important.
"What are we going to do with that?" Rex asks dubiously, eyeing the now deactivated droid.
"Keep it intact. I'll reprogram it later. There's someone who wants it," Anakin replies, mildly amused.
"I can't believe you, Skyguy," Ahsoka snips.
"If we reprogrammed more of these and put them under Artoo's command, imagine what we could infiltrate," Anakin points out.
"It... could work," Rex agrees, "But I don't think I'd trust these even if they were working for us."
"That's why I'd put Artoo in command." Anakin entirely relates to the mere sight of battle droids instantly screaming enemy. "Keep things secure, Rex. We'll search the facility."
Dr. Vindi and Bessie are still in the lab when Anakin gets back there with Ahsoka. They send the doctor out with the clones, to take him up to the surface for Nubian forces to deal with, before Anakin heads to the controls to see what data he can find.
It's all been destroyed as expected.
But there has to be some kind of evidence left in the facility.
"Can you show us around?" Anakin asks, turning to Bessie.
She hesitates. "I can take you to my room. I don't go too many places."
"Haven't you been here for at least ten years?" Ahsoka objects.
She frowns. "Years? It's only been a few months."
A few months? Did they keep her in her jar that long? It would explain why her mind feels so childish, even younger than ten, though she's physically that old. "You were... born only a couple of months ago?" Anakin clarifies.
Bessie nods, completely oblivious that there's anything strange about that. "It was weird."
She remembers being born. Yes, that would be beyond 'weird'.
"Just show us around," Obi-Wan requests finally.
"Roger roger," she chirps, and Ahsoka snorts. She was raised by droids, though, so it's not surprising she talks like them. It is a little funny, even if it really, really shouldn't be.
"What?" Bessie asks, confused.
"Usually only droids use that expression," Ahsoka replies, still amused.
She just seems confused but leads the way. Her room is a tiny area connected to the main lab that only has a bed and 'fresher in it. Not that Anakin expected anything more elaborate. She was nothing more than an experiment to them.
She claims to have spent most of her time here, in the lab, or the hallway right outside with the droids.
Everything else in the facility, they'll have to explore on their own. There are rooms with various lab equipment, but what really catches his attention is... a different room entirely.
Just from standing in the doorway, he can see that it's filled with hundreds of jars. Anakin's never been to the place on Kamino where they keep all the unborn clones, but he imagines that it looks similar.
But what really catches his attention is that the jars aren't all empty. There are people in them still, girls who look much like Bessie, though the fogged-over glass prevents a detailed look. She wasn't the first experiment, was she? She was just the first success, the only one they allowed to be born.
All of the jars have labels on them, numbers. The same way the clones do.
Bessie is staring at them. "Are they like me?" she asks.
"Yes." Except, they're all dead. The Force is entirely quiet around them. Vinid must've killed them when he realized they weren't going to have the abilities he wanted, but their bodies were still preserved. Probably to be studied. "But they are... not alive."
The fact that they all look identical to Bessie is a little unsettling. They must be clones of someone. He thought that was a technology only the Kaminoans were equipped with. Vindi could've learned of course, but it's still concerning to know that the Separatists were able to pull off something like this in the first place.
Bessie's gaze whips to him. "What?"
"Dr. Vindi must have found them useless," Obi-Wan replies, "He obviously had them killed."
She runs over to the closest jar, hands pressed against the glass. "All of t-them?"
"Looks like it," Ahsoka responds, expression darkening.
Anakin actually is expecting it this time when Bessie starts crying again. She apparently has hundreds of sisters who are all dead. How couldn't she be upset by that?
Ahsoka finally pulls her away from the jar, but she shakes her grip off, running over the room before any of them can stop her. Probably, she just needs a moment to process this but they can't risk losing her in the facility, so Anakin scrambles to catch up with her.
She's stomping back into the lab where the clones are keeping an eye on Dr. Vindi when he does.
"You s-said I was the only one!" she yells through her tears.
"You were the last test. The only one perfected, B-001," he replies, flippantly. She has a number. Of course she does, though. Who named her? Anakin doubts she named herself. It's not the kind of name she could've thought of on her own, and if she was raised entirely in isolation, she wouldn't even have a reason to know what names are unless someone named her.
"You killed them! My – my family."
"They were experiments. Not superior life forms. You were specifically designed to implement the return of the infamous Blue Shadow virus. You were to give it life once again."
Bessie glares at him. "You didn't have to hurt them because they weren't like me."
"We have no resources to waste on such production," he argues, entirely unconcerned.
"You're mean!" she shouts and stomps out.
She wipes her eyes on her sleeve, looking up at him when Anakin catches up with her in the hallway. "I just want a family like everyone else," she says, miserably, "Why'd he hafta k-kill them?"
It's beyond sickening – there were hundreds of them there, but that they would do something like that hardly surprises him. He's seen people do things far worse all the time. That doesn't change the fact that all her sisters are dead and she literally has no one. Anakin doesn't know what's going to happen to her either after this. Technically, she's a prisoner of war since she's a Separatist – her choice or not – which means her fate is going to be up to the Senate.
Considering the kind of destruction she's capable of, he... doesn't know what they're going to plan on doing to her. She's just a child and she doesn't deserve to be hurt because of the conflict in the galaxy, but he doesn't know if that's going to matter to the Senate.
Anakin crouches in front of her, so they're closer to eye level. Qui-Gon always used to do that for him. So did his mother. "That is what people like Dr. Vindi do. He was only creating them to perfect this... virus. That was all he needed." And he certainly didn't do it for her, and she needs to accept that eventually. Continuing to careabout him when he just sees her as a thing is only going to make it much harder. "You do deserve a family, Bessie, and we'll try to find you one." War orphans are adopted all the time, and that's probably what she needs too. He just doesn't know what the Senate is going to say to that.
"How do you find one?" she asks, sniffling, "Don't you either have or you don't?"
"No. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan are... my family," he replies. "But I met them later. We aren't related." He'd call Ahsoka his sister but he's also taking care of her the way his mother did him, so he doesn't even know. And Obi-Wan is... his father, even if he can never call either of them openly.
She doesn't look any happier, but Obi-Wan approaches, interrupting their conversation. "How did you contact this... Sidious?" he asks.
Now really isn't a good state to get her to answer anything, but they do need answers.
"The doctor gave me the comm," she replies, sullenly.
Then there's no way for them to try tracing back who Sidious is. Even if they could call him – assuming he would actually answer unsuspectingly – that doesn't mean it would tell them anything about who it is. Anakin doubts the Sith would be using a comm they could trace back to his location.
"We should get up to the surface," he decides, finally. The people up there have been waiting long enough.
They take Bessie to the outside of the nearest hospital. She closes her eyes, and Anakin stands back, watching. He can feel the way the Force is moving weirdly around her. She's not actuallyusing the Force, but she's still interacting with life around her in a way that shouldn't even be possible.
A faint blue mist is slowly starting to form by the windows of the nearby buildings, and it's slowly flowing back to her. It's hardly visible except where it's concentrating around her. She's absorbing it again.
It's... working.
That's – that's good. Bessie said she might be able to, but Anakin certainly wasn't counting on it to work. Trying to get enough of a cure for everyone who got sick would be very, very difficult, and it's far from practical. More than likely, many would die.
They have to keep moving through the city, so she's close enough to call the virus back to her without entirely exhausting herself. It takes time – and it must be the strangest sight for anyone who's watching – but they finally make it all the way through the city.
Bessie looks exhausted by the time they're done. "I got it all," she says, though she looks like she's about to fall asleep.
"Then we should be getting back to Coruscant," Obi-Wan decides.
And then they'll have to wait and see what the Senate wants to do with Bessie.
**w**
The Jedi take her up to space, and Bessie sticks as close to the viewport as she can, watching wide-eyed as they jump into what Anakin calls hyperspace. It's beautiful. She's only a few months old, and Grandpa Sidious said she was too young to leave the planet, even if there was an entire galaxy for her to see someday.
He said she could leave Naboo, even if she'd hardly seen the planet at all, once her mission was done, and she was so excited about it.
It was hard to watch people dying, though. Those people had families, even if Grandpa said they were bad. They were worried about each other.
She wishes someone was worried about her.
Anakin is talking to someone in white and blue armor. There's a lot of them here, and they look identical. It's creepy.
She's occupied staring out the window enough that she almost doesn't notice it when they approach her.
"Bessie?" Anakin asks, and she turns around, freezing. "This is Rex. My Captain," he introduces.
"What's that?" she inquires, staring up at him when he takes his helmet off – he looks basically just like the others, except his hair is blond. That's weird. Do humans come in all shapes and colors? She thought their hair was just dark until she saw Anakin.
"It's a military rank," Anakin replies, and that doesn't answer a lot, but she still knows a tiny bit about those. Doesn't understand them, exactly, and Bessie doesn't know how that's important.
"Okay," she says because she thinks she's supposed to say something. Maybe? Everything is so strange now that she's not inside the bunker anymore. She hopes Grandpa Sidious won't be angry or disappointed in her. He's always so nice. She doesn't want him to be upset or hurt.
Something about Rex's face looks like it's permanently shaped as a scowl. It's creepy.
"The General kept a droid for you," Rex tells her. He sounds creepy, too.
Wait, Anakin saved one of the droids?
She'd ask, but he's creepy so she just nods.
"Why don't you come to my quarters and I'll show you?" Anakin interjects, amused.
She's more than grateful to have an excuse to be away from so many strange people, so she follows Anakin – and Ahsoka who joins up with them – as they go to another part of the ship. The hallways are entirely losing her, and she almost misses being back home in that bunker, even if she's curious to see so many new things.
"You okay?" Ahsoka inquires, eyeing her strangely when she edges closer to them the next time one of these soldiers passes by.
"Do they all scowl all the time?" Bessie asks.
Anakin laughs. "That's how they look. Don't let it scare you."
"They're not always grumpy even if it looks like it," Ahsoka replies, amused.
Bessie doesn't believe them, but she doesn't comment.
They reach Anakin's quarters – what a strange word – not long later. The room is huge for him to have it all to himself. Then again, the doctor's room was huge too, and he had all sorts of things he never wanted her to touch. Maybe it's just an adult thing to have big spaces to themselves because Anakin must be so old by now.
There's what she thinks is a bed in here, and a bunch of datapads, and some strange machines that she decides she probably shouldn't touch. She doesn't want to annoy Anakin after he took her aboard the ship in the first place. She hurt people. She thought he would be more angry about that. She's angry about it. It was so sad, and Bessie really didn't like how it made her feel.
She doesn't know how many people died from what she did before she pulled the virus out of them. Diedjust like all her sisters who Dr. Vindi killed. She still wants to cry thinking about them, and it makes her want to cry even more thinking about how many people probably still feel like that back on Naboo.
But then she spots the battle lying by some of the machines and runs over to it.
"I'll have to finish reprogramming it," Anakin says, settling on the floor next to it.
"What does that mean?"
He's doing something to its head now that she doesn't follow, but it looks painful. At least the droid is sleeping.
"Rewriting its mind so it won't think we're enemies," Ahsoka supplies, sitting next to Anakin and leaning closer to help him.
She wishes she knew someone that well. Someone who wasn't wayyyyyy older than her like Grandpa Sidious, anyway.
"We should probably repaint this with 501st colors," Ahsoka suggests dryly, "To mark it as one of us."
"You and Bessie can get it while I finish up," Anakin suggests.
"Sure," Ahsoka agrees, standing, "Come on, Bessie."
She follows her back into the hall, even if she really doesn't want to venture into Everybody's-Scowling zone. But they're able to get back to Anakin's quarters safely without anyone paying them much attention.
"It's all done," Anakin tells them when they get back. The droid is half sitting up, but it's still asleep. "I don't believe it will hold still long enough to paint if we turn it back on."
She's a little impatient to just do it, but he's probably right. She's distracted anyway the moment Ahsoka opens the paint cans.
She's never seen anything quite so weird before. It smells strange, too. She reaches for one of the buckets to stick her hand in.
"Don't eat it," Anakin warns her firmly, though he sounds like he finds it amusing, "This is poisonous for humans."
"Then why's it on the walls? And on their clothes?"
"The clones don't eat their armor," Ahsoka replies, and she looks like she's fighting a smile.
"But they still touch it," she objects.
"That's different than eating it," Ahsoka replies, catching her hand before she dunks it in the paint bucket to see what it feels like. What? Why can't she at least touch it? "It'll be neater if we use the brushes."
Fine.
She snatches up one of the brushes, sticking it in the paint bucket instead, and she and Ahsoka get to work.
Anakin goes over to his desk and starts doing something that looks very boring, so Bessie turns her attention back to the droid.
The droid is entirely white now, with blue markings on its head and arms, and legs.
And the random blue fingerprints on part of it aren't that obvious even if Ahsoka insists otherwise.
Bessie excitedly pushes the power button on the droid, and it powers up.
"Uhh..." the droid trails off, looking around.
"Hi," she chirps, grabbing its hand, even if it's metal, "I rescued you."
"Rescued me?" it repeats.
She nods. "Do you want a name?"
"A name?" it echoes, "Uhh, I'm already the commander."
Ahsoka snorts. "Then we'll have to find some droid troops for you to command."
"You can still have a name," Bessie objects. Grandpa Sidious gave her one and said it was important, even if the doctor always called her what her label was. She doesn't really understand what the differences are, though. "What about Roger?"
"I think that's perfect," Ahsoka snickers, at the droid's totally bewildered expression.
**w**
Anakin goes to see Padme as soon as they're back on Coruscant. Bessie's going to need someone to represent her, and there's no one better. Especially since Padme was directly involved in the situation in the first place, and it was Naboo that was attacked.
She listens quietly while he explains the situation to her. "I can't believe the Separatists would turn a child into a weapon like that," she says, clearly appalled.
"I don't know what the Senate will want to do about it," Anakin replies. That's what he's most... worried about because Bessie could easily wipe out entire planets if she wanted to. That's not something any of them will take lightly.
"Probably not well," Padme admits, sighing, "But by Nubian law, she should be a Nubian citizen since she was born on Naboo, even if it wasn't natural. If I can get her rights there, I probably can get her to be treated as any war refugee would be."
"Yes," Anakin agrees, "But whatever happens to her, we do need to make sure the Sith can't reach her again." Bessie is too young to be able to resist a Sith like that, especially when it's one she trusts and sees as family. It would not go well if he was able to get ahold of her again. Which means... it would be safest if she could be kept somewhere they could protect her.
"If I'm going to speak in her defense, I should probably speak with her in person if that's possible," Padme muses.
"She's sometimes shy around people, but it should not be a problem."
Bessie is fascinated by everything on the fly through the city to the Senate building. Maybe it's just her age, but it reminds Anakin a little of himself when he first came here. The only person he had then was Qui-Gon, and then he lost him too. She doesn't have anyone either. Hopefully, whatever happens with her trial, she'll be given to a family who can give her the life she deserves.
"Why do you have so much hair?" Bessie blurts out, staring wide-eyed at Padme's headpiece.
Anakin laughs. Honestly, he can't begin to imagine why Padme puts so much time into her hair, but she wouldn't be her if she didn't.
Padme huffs out an amused breath. "It's a decorative hair piece, not all my hair," she replies, "I have to look presentable."
Bessie seems to have no idea what that means or why it's important. Not that they have time to focus on bonding right now. They have to be ready when the Senate is.
Considering the urgency of a bioweapon like this existing, the Senate prioritizes the matter for as soon as possible. Anakin comes to watch from the sidelines, along with the rest of the Council. Bessie looks entirely lost at what's even happening. She didn't understand a word even when he tried to explain it, and he kind of feels bad that she has to go through any of this, but there's nothing he can do.
"She was raised in an environment where she knew no better," Padme is saying, over the arguments of the other Senators, "The deaths that did result are not on her. They are on Dc. Vindi and the Separatists, and the doctor will be facing justice on Naboo. And in the end, she cured everyone else in Theed of the virus."
"People she infected to begin with," someone points out, clearly disgruntled.
"Whether or not it was orders doesn't change that her attacks were targeted against the civilian population, not even a military one," someone else agrees.
This really isn't a debate Bessie needs to hear, though Anakin doesn't know how much she can understand in the first place.
"We're speaking of a child who has been alive for mere months," Padme replies, flatly, "She cannot be held responsible for what those in charge taught her to do, especially not when, once she was rescued from them, she tried to help."
The debate continues on a little longer, though the Senate seems to be leaning towards Padme's view, for the most part.
"Even with the charges dropped, that doesn't answer for her fate," another Senator speaks, "She is still a bioweapon and too dangerous to be left in the civilian population. Her abilities are easy to be exploited."
"What she needs is a family, like all children. By Nubian law, she is a Nubian citizen," Padme replies.
"And what if the Separatists got ahold of her again and persuaded her to reinfect all of Naboo?"
Voices clamor on top of each other until the Vice Chancellor finally calls for quiet, so Palpatine has the chance to speak.
That's... unusual since generally he doesn't openly offer his opinion, but something like this is important. And it's not something Anakin thinks he can truly trust the Senate to make the right decision on. Not that he has much trust for the Senate ever.
"What this incident shows us is the true levels the Separatists will sink to in their efforts to destroy us," Palpatine begins. "This child is a victim of the Separatists as much as all of those on Naboo. She need not suffer for the crimes they are committing against humanity."
Bessie's gaze darts to him. Anakin can see her studying him intently, maybe because he's the first person to openly speak for her.
"However, I must agree with the Senate that allowing her adoption to merely anyone is still a risk. She must remain somewhere that the Republic will be able to give her protection from anyone else who might try to exploit her abilities."
That is why Anakin so often feels like Palpatine would be far more effective as a leader if the Senate wasn't always standing in his way. He can understand the... dangers of only one person having power, but it doesn't change that the Republic is irreparably broken the way it is now and something has to change. And he can't believe what he's fought for and served for so many years, and what he's watched so many of the clones die for is going to fall.
"What about leaving her under the care of the Jedi?" Padme proposes. "If something goes wrong, they will be able to handle it. She should be far more protected from Separatist influence there than anywhere else."
That... was an unexpected suggestion, but it is the most ideal given the circumstances.
The Senate debates it for a while, but eventually, they finally settle on the Jedi keeping a close eye on Bessie for the indefinite future, even though she will be given Nubian citizenship rights.
Which means, she isn't going to have anyone to take care of her. Not really. The Jedi will watch over her, but if what she wants is a family, she's not going to have that.
Even less than Anakin himself does, because she's not an actual Jedi.
Anakin goes to collect her once the Senate meeting finally disperses. She practically teleports to his side instantly, and he's slightly caught by surprise when she reaches up to hold his hand.
Finger, rather, because her hand is way too tiny.
"I didn't want to hurt anyone," she says, miserably, "I just did what they told me."
He squeezes her hand back, lightly. "I know."
"I thought you'd be madder."
"You didn't have anyone except the people who told you to do it." But probably, starting another conversation about Sidious isn't a good idea.
...What if he really is her grandfather? Anakin can't say he'd put it past the Sith to clone his child. Not that that has any bearing on the situation at hand.
"I... hoped the Senate would agree for you to be given to a family, but you will be cared for at the Temple. And you'll be safe."
"I don't wanna go anywhere else," Bessie says, looking up at him. She's always so open about her emotions, he's noticed. "You're the only one I know, other than Grandpa Sidious."
She wants to stay with him? It's not really surprising since he's the only one she's been around, but he doesn't know if he can really take care of her. Not as a parent, which is what she needs, even if he's been growing a bit fond of her. He already has to take care of Ahsoka, and he could split attention fine if it wasn't the middle of a war where he'd hardly be at the Temple, but...
Not that he could ever say no to someone wanting family, wanting him. especially when no one else is going to take care of her. He can at least offer to be around when he has the time. "I won't always be able to be at the Temple, but I'll see what I can arrange."
Bessie frowns. "Can't I go with you?"
"It'll be war, Bessie. It's not safe, and I don't think you want to fight the droids."
Her face falls. "Okay," she whines.
"But Roger will be with you, and I'll find someone else who can be."
He already has an idea of who can, if the Council agrees.
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