Chapter 16 - Yes, Meditation Can Be Helpful

Sulani was waiting outside the High Council chamber, Anakin and Ahsoka were currently in there to discuss Ahsoka's actions on Felucia the previous day. She had been confident that her group were pushing the enemy back, but in reality, they were being over run. She was arguing with both Anakin and Obi-Wan on the matter before Anakin put his foot down and ordered her onto the gunship that would get them to safety. To say Anakin was livid would be an understatement, and Sulani was disappointed in her, her inability to simply follow orders when they're given to her was going to get her or others killed. Sulani herself had not been there, thankfully she was able to be on Coruscant a little longer after Anakin's retreat was over. She doubted her own retreat was going to last much longer given recent developments with Ahsoka. She did not have to wait much longer outside before Ahsoka and Anakin came out.

Ahsoka looked appropriately chastised, but also a little put out, no doubt she is not happy about the punishment she has gotten from the Council. When Ahsoka saw Sulani, she looked down and Sulani could feel her shame. She realised without Sulani needing to say anything that she had disappointed her with her actions. Knowing this, Sulani did not bring up the incident, but she turned to Anakin, "So?"

"She's on archive guard duty for a time, I'm taking her to see Madame Nu to find out how that will be carried out," he explains, facing Sulani but side-eyeing his Padawan.

Now Sulani understood why Ahsoka looked so unhappy about the results, guard duty was not the action packed life she had now become used to, not to mention, Ahsoka and archives were not a usual match. "I see," she says, "I guess I'll come with you."

Ahsoka flinched at this, then made eye contact with Sulani, what she saw made her flinch again and look back towards the ground. It must hurt her to realise that she had not only disappointed her Master, but her Guardian Mother as well.

They entered the archives to see Madame Jocasta Nu looking through some data, as she was always doing. Ahsoka finally took this opportunity to speak, "I'm sorry I let you down," she says to Anakin.

"I know," he says softly, "I was a Padawan not that long ago."

Which, now that Sulani thought about it, was barely even a year ago. It was hard to believe the clone wars had been going on for so long, and that Anakin had been a Jedi Knight almost as long. The time was flying, and yet they were no closer to ending the war. Sulani pulled herself out of her thoughts as they got closer to Madame Nu and Anakin greeted her, "Madame Jocasta Nu, this is Ahsoka Tano. She is to be your new security officer."

"Hello, Madame," Ahsoka greeted, her smile tight.

"So good to meet you," Madame Nu replies.

Anakin turns to leave Ahsoka in her capable hands, and Sulani gives her one encouraging look despite her disappointment before joining him. She could just hear Madame Nu suggesting to show Ahsoka around before her and Anakin were leaving the archives. Sulani was ready to head to her quarters, and her younglings, when Anakin called her back, "Mother, do you have a second?"

"What is it Anakin?" she asked as she turned back to face him.

"When we were before the Council," he began, "I blamed myself for letting her have more freedom than she was ready for. She is so talented, that I sometimes forget her age. Am I giving her too much free rein? Sometimes I wonder."

"Oh Anakin," she said, grabbing for one of his hands with both of her own, "You can't expect things to always go the way you want when you start letting go of some of the reins with your Padawan. The amount of times Obi-Wan wasn't sure about what to do with you, well I lost count. Anakin, there's no right way or wrong way in training your apprentice. You do you and worry about the consequences if and when they appear. If you feel that letting Ahsoka lead this one mission here or there is the best course, then let her. Just always be prepared for something to go wrong, because those situations are bound to happen even when she becomes a Jedi Knight in her own right, taking missions alongside you years from now. Doubt in your decisions as her Master, that is when things become the wrong path."

She watched as he took in her words, rolling them over in his head. She realised pretty quickly what the real issue was, there were many times when Ahsoka had been argumentative and disobedient, though never to this extent before. However, this is the first time she had been punished by the Council for it, the first time there has been consequences. Anakin was starting to doubt if letting her get away with so much was hindering her growth into a strong Jedi. He was totally forgetting about his own apprenticeship, clearly, or he would have realised that Obi-Wan was almost as allowing as Anakin is now. That being said, Anakin was looking stressed and she decided on something that might calm him, if only a little. "Anakin, why don't you join me?"

"Where are you going?" he asks, though he appears amenable to the idea.

"Back to my quarters, it is time for my younglings to meditate," she informs him, "I usually meditate with them, why don't you join us? I can only guess when it was the last time you actually took a moment to meditate and find some inner peace."

She could see the face he pulled at the thought of meditation, sitting still is not his forte, but he quickly realised she was probably right. "Okay, Mother, I'll join you."

When Anakin and Sulani entered the quarters she shared with her younglings, the three of them were already prepared to start. They were sitting on cushions by the large window, not yet meditating, clearly waiting for her. Their eyes quickly turn towards them when they hear the whoosh of the door and their eyes widen when they see who is standing beside her. The two youngest, at seven and nine years old, quickly stood and made their way towards them. Her oldest, at twelve, stood more slowly and came over as well. "It's Master Skywalker," the younger two shout happily.

"Hello everyone, yes, this is Master Skywalker, he would like to join us for meditation," she explains.

"Really?"

"Yes, really," she says with a chuckle, "Now introduce yourselves."

"Hello Master Skywalker," the nine year old starts off, "My name is Osula."

Anakin observed her, she was undoubtedly Rodian, her skin a bright shade of turquoise, "It's a pleasure to meet you Osula."

Osula stepped back a little as the little seven year old, a male Echani came closer, "I'm Kentas, Master Skywalker, you're way cooler in person."

"It's nice to meet you Kentas," he chuckles, "and thank you, I'm glad someone thinks I'm cool."

His last comment was said with a smug look towards Sulani who had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes, it would make a bad impression to her younglings. While the other two moved out of the way, the oldest came closer, and Anakin observed she was a Zabrak. An Iridonian one based on her pale complexion and she had her hair growing to her knees, which she had braided out of the way of her horns. Unlike the other two, she bowed to him in greeting, "It is a pleasure to finally meet you Master Skywalker, Older Sister Ahsoka has spoken highly of you," she says as she straightens herself, "My name is Anya."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well Anya," he replies, "I didn't realise Ahsoka had many nice things to say about me considering how hard I work her."

"No Master Skywalker," she says with a shake of her head, "She feels very privileged to be your apprentice and she appreciates everything you teach her. She may complain in the moment, but just know that she has never been happier than she is as your Padawan."

Sulani could see the positive effect Anya's words were having on his previous heavy mood and she realised that bringing him along had been the right choice. "Come young ones," she says, gesturing towards the cushions, "Someone get Master Skywalker a cushion and let us begin out meditation."

"Okay Mother," they say together, Anya off to get Anakin a cushion.

Sulani took her place in the middle of the window, and for the first time since Ahsoka became a Padawan, she had two on either side of her. Anya and Osula to her left, Anakin and Kentas to her right. Once everyone was seated and ready, she spoke again, "Alright, let's focus on our bodies this time, I want you to feel the flow of the Force inside you."

With that, they all started their meditation, Sulani watched them all for the moment. Anya was, as always, quick to get into a meditative state; meditation came easy for her. Osula was having more difficulty as Sulani could see the occasions where she frowned before her brow straightened again, her age was a factor in her difficulty and Sulani knew the time would come where Osula would be able to meditate with the same ease in which Anya did it. She moved her gaze towards Kentas, and sure enough, he was having difficulty even sitting still. His age would usually be part of the blame, but also his general restlessness as well. Today, however, the difficulty came in the form of one Anakin Skywalker.

Oh Anakin was not trying to be a distraction, but Kentas kept peeking up at him from the corner of his vision. He would open his eye slightly to stare, but Anakin was not really helping either as he humoured the boy by winking every time he caught him looking. That being said, at least having Anakin here was keeping Kentas in place, and Anakin was viewing again what it was like at that innocent age. The age where the war was something far away and things like battles were part of the far away future. Sulani could tell, that despite not meditating properly, Anakin was finding a new level of peace he had not had for a while.

She decided to leave them be and closed her eyes, it was now her turn to meditate. In her relaxed mood, she almost forgot about her recent problems with meditating. She usually focused more in order to keep them at bay, but her slip up cost her in this moment.

"Why would you lie to me about something like this?" "Everyone knows how close we are, the reaction needed to be authentic." "It might not have been a good choice to keep it from him Obi-Wan." "It's too late, I think he's lost a little faith in me Su."

She quickly opened her eyes again, looked around and was thankful that it appeared Anakin and her younglings had not noticed her stiffen. She closed her eyes and thought to herself, it was not her usual fear-filled visions, it was something different. She actually remembered this one, the words that came to her. Unfortunately, her vision only included those voices, a mixture of hers, Anakin's and Obi-Wan's. From what she could tell, Obi-Wan does something and lies to Anakin about it, something bad enough that Anakin gets very upset. However, what it was, she had no idea and this worried her. She had been trying for ages to keep Obi-Wan and Anakin from drifting away from each other more than they already have. If what she saw happens, it might put a further strain on their relationships, something she would want to prevent. She can not even tell when these events might take place.

She decided it was not an immediate concern and allowed herself to calm. She took a quick peek at her charges and saw they were all still in meditation, so she let herself fall back into her consciousness.

A few hours later, after a painful farewell for Kentas, Anakin and Sulani found themselves in the briefing room with Master Yoda, Aayla Secura and Obi-Wan. "The setback at Felucia, has affected out efforts in the whole sector," Obi-Wan says. "It'll take weeks before we can…"

He is interrupted when Master Yoda grunts in pain, "Master Yoda, what is it?" Anakin asks as Sulani goes to help him stay standing.

"A disturbance in the Force," Master Yoda explains, "Intruders there will be in this temple."

Everyone in the rooms shares a look, who would dare break into the Jedi Temple?

Anakin, Sulani and Obi-Wan were walking the halls, unsure about how to proceed, "Where do we start looking for these intruders?" Anakin asks, "What could they be after?"

"I doubt they've come to hijack starfighters," Obi-Wan says.

"What can they get here they can't get anywhere else?" Anakin thinks to himself.

"Information," Obi-Wan reasons.

"The Jedi transmitter codes," Anakin concludes.

"Every piece of troop information, in one place."

"And it's all in the East Tower," Anakin says.

"The East Tower communications centre," Obi-Wan corrects.

"I'll head there right away," Anakin says.

"I'll monitor the perimeter defences from the central security station," Obi-Wan says in return.

The two of them quickly take off, but Sulani stays in her place. The conclusion that the two had come to was a sound one, but Sulani had a niggling suspicion something else was going on here. Yes, it is true that all troop information is something the Jedi had, but that could, realistically, be found on any one of the ships surrounding Coruscant. They would not be easy to get to, but they would still definitely be easier than the Jedi Temple filled with trained Jedi. Perhaps a walk around the Temple would help.

A/N: so here we have it part one of the stolen holocron arc, and this is where I tell you all that it is actually part one of four, so yeah, four chapters for this arc, hence why I'm going to space them out instead of all in one day. The aim is one a day until I've done them all.
Also, yes, we finally meet Sulani's younglings, because I began to realise that whoops, her role is as a Guardian Mother, meaning she raises a small group of children, yeah I should probably include them somewhere. So here they are. I also realised that, seeing as I'm mostly recreating the Clone Wars cartoon, a lot of what happens is something you all would have watched, so I'm trying to include as many scenes that aren't in the show and also make them from different locations by not having Sulani tag along every time. So as not to entirely bore you to death, haha. Anyway, I'll leave it here for now, next chappy tomorrow hopefully.
Seza, out