The Force Wills - Chapter 77 (Patreon)

From a distance Conqueror now looked like it was a denji hive of activity.

It was hovering in the shadow of the largest of Metellos’ moons, shielding it from obvious view and scans from the planet’s surface. It was a token effort made in secrecy at this point. There had been no hiding the dreadnought as it emerged into the system from the Nexus Route terminus point. Metellos was a system that had been colonized for 27 000 years at this point, home to 900 billion people and its detection and security infrastructure was substantial.

Six Venators and a dozen Gun Acclamators that had been rapidly dispatched from Coruscant within two hours of their arrival, which now formed an escort fleet around the Conqueror.

Anakin watched the dreadnought shrink on the viewscreen from his seat in the Nu-class military shuttle.

He was quite glad to finally leave after more than six days aboard in continuous hyper.

Dealing with the former prisoners of Lola Sayu and keeping them content as they were also reveling in their newfound freedom, not to mention keeping them from causing any mischief, had been a near continuous task. Quite a few had decided to indulge themselves and gotten drunk on the Glovan wine supply that had been discovered on board. It had even gotten to the point by day three of the voyage home that Anakin had put his foot down and ordered any alcoholic beverages sealed and under guard.

If that wasn’t bad enough, he also had to double the guard on Osi Sobeck’s cask, when Asarl - the wookiee from the Claatuvac Guild had led a small posse of prisoners on a revenge quest to kill the former warden of the Citadel.

That had been a fun time.

Only Ahsoka’s intervention had prevented stun bolts from flying.

He wasn’t exactly sure what she had done, besides using the Force to calm Asarl down and she had touched him on his massive hairy shoulder, but he couldn’t argue with the results.

All the former prisoners were now in Republic Intelligence custody aboard one of the nondescript Acclamators, undergoing a debrief and full scan for any surprises and brainwashing. Even Tarkin and Master Piell were getting the full Intel treatment.

The other subject of interest was naturally Conqueror itself, where Intel and a select group of high ranking and vetted scientists from KDY were exploring every inch of the dreadnought. All the Jedi on the mission had been given a long interview on the performance of the ship in combat.

Now after two days of debrief, scans and helping Intel manage the active Republic-loyal droids on board they were finally headed for Coruscant.

He glanced down the troop cabin of the shuttle and Ahsoka was seated in meditation on the floor in front of the six stasis casks carrying five former Jedi and a prison warden.

“Good to be going home finally,” Obi-Wan said with a wry knowing smile from his seat on the other side of the troop cabin.

Anakin folded his arms and gave his former master a raised eyebrow at the very mild teasing he sensed in those words.

“Yes it is.”

He shrugged off the stupid tiny doubt that Obi-Wan would open the can of worms of his true relationship to Padme at this point. Exposing that fact to Obi-Wan had been at the insistence of Ahsoka during their time in Mortis.

‘There is no better time than now. All cards on the table here, Skyguy. Trust me, there is no better ally we could have on the Council than him. He is in Fulcrum and while we practice compartmentalization as a rule, he needs to know this now.’

Why his secret marriage would be something that Obi-Wan needed to know was something that Ahsoka wasn’t elaborating on, to both of their frustration.

His former master’s initial reaction upon the news was what Ahsoka would call a true facepalm moment.

‘Oh Anakin… even after I warned you… why?’

‘I love her,’ he has said simply. It was the only thing that had entered his own head.

‘Not everyone is as blessed as you to be able to ignore their own feelings, Master Obi-Wan,’ Ahsoka had given Obi-Wan a pointed look as she spoke. ‘So what will you do now? Reveal it to the Council? They’ll have no choice but to expel Anakin from the Order. After all, how many other Jedi are there that have bitten the bolt and forsaken their feelings. The war has already strained the Order’s cohesion to a level not seen since the time of Revan. Yet, he is the Chosen One and they equally can’t afford to expel him as that would be threatening his ability to bring balance to the Force in the future. The Council would become deadlocked on the issue and they’ll be forced to sweep this under the rug anyway.’

‘How certain are you of that? Is this your foresight speaking?’

‘Yes.’

Anakin brought himself out of those memories with a sigh as he felt the shuttle enter hyperspace.

Naturally, in time Obi-Wan had come to accept the entire thing, but of course he never failed to utilize the odd opportunity to good-naturedly tease his former padawan.

‘I trust you will remember to keep your contraceptive implant up to date when we return?’ Obi-Wan had asked just a few days ago.

‘Of course I will,’ Anakin had spluttered, but gave his master a stink eye at having caught him off guard with the question.

He and Padme had quickly made the decision on the first days after their marriage that they couldn’t bring a child into the galaxy in its current condition. Not to mention the effect it would have on her life, personally and professionally. So she got herself a similar implant that would prevent conception.

He made a mental note to himself to remind Ahsoka to get her own implant updated. They only had a certain usage life and his own implant had long since expired and was sitting inert inside his own body.

She had the Internal Control skills, combined with medical training, to regulate her own fertility through the Force, but it was good to always have the implant backing up things.

“So, how much of a frenzy will the media be in?” Anakin chuckled, bringing out his personal holocom and tapping on the device, which blossomed with light.

Obi-Wan scoffed as the holo began showing a news service, “We rode a captured CIS dreadnought seemingly unseen through a large chunk of the galaxy and Republic space. Then it just happened to appear right in Metellos’ backyard, a two hour trip from Coruscant. They’ll be speaking about it for weeks. COMPOR will make sure of it.”

“Only question then is whether someone will figure out we used a new hyper route to do it.”

“That conclusion is easy to draw, but will be downplayed.”

Anakin nodded and swiped his hand through the holo to change channel to another news service and sure enough there it was - a nice distant picture of the Conqueror as it arrived in high orbit of Metellos. The Nexus Route emergence was itself a million kilometers beyond the seventh planet of the system. Anakin was sure if he spent enough time with R2 and a dedicated navicomputer he could parse the likely coordinates, but for now, the secret of the route remained in the minds of Tarkin and Master Piell.

‘This is Esrann Lausho, with your early morning Coruscant news. Still no official word from the Grand Army on the details of how a Providence dreadnought made it all the way into the Core Worlds, but we have received confirmation from the Jedi Order that it is firmly under Republic military control and all droid units aboard are deactivated. Let’s now turn to our military affairs correspondent Jared Kuavo of Anaxes War College. Thank you for joining us, Jared.’

‘My pleasure Esrann.’

‘So I’m sure our viewers and most of the Core Worlds would just like to know, should we be worried?’

‘Certainly not. From all indications and independently verified scans from Metellos, the Navy has a substantial fleet now in escort around the dreadnought and there is a near constant stream of shuttles going between the ships. I think we can take the Jedi at their word when they say that no war droids are active aboard the dreadnought and that the GAR is firmly in control of it.’

‘Then the next question that comes to mind is just how was  this achieved?’

‘Now I must enter the realm of educated speculation. Clearly the Separatists wouldn’t just hand over one of their prized and heavily armed dreadnoughts to their enemies on a platter, so I must conclude we are witnessing the aftermath of a clandestine GAR operation that captured the ship. Naturally, they’re not about to announce details to us so we can spread it over the Holonet.’

‘Quite.’

‘Yet the practicalities and complexities of hyperspace travel, especially when you’re talking about a ship as large as a Providence does bring some intriguing notions and questions to mind. Why was this ship only spotted coming out of hyper at Metellos? The only other connection the system has is to the west in Norkronia. Yet I’m seeing nothing in that direction that indicates the ship was spotted further down that hyper route. Passing civilian ship traffic would’ve been screaming all over the Holonet that a Seperatist dreadnought was in that lane. It therefore can only be concluded that a new hyper route has been discovered.’

‘Intriguing indeed. We will just have to patiently wait and see…’

Anakin swiped the holo and gave Obi-Wan a lopsided knowing grin.

“So you think we’re going to use the Nexus Route any time soon?”

Obi-Wan stroked his beard in thought, “Doubtful. Much like the CIS, the majority of our strength is focused on the fronts. Most of the ships that responded here were emergency scrambled from the Coruscant Docks. It’d be a wonder if even half of them had full crews or were properly stocked. The fleet we’d need to strike a proper blow all the way to the heart of the enemy will take a long while to assemble, especially if the need for secrecy must be maintained.”

What was unspoken between them was the actual war behind the scenes. They both knew Palpatine would only order that fleet to assemble when he was ready to end the war on his terms.

Two hours of hyperspace followed along with nearly another hour to navigate through the extensive orbital and atmospheric traffic of Coruscant.

Ahsoka emerged from her meditation and even Obi-Wan sat near the viewer so that he could catch the first glimpse of the Jedi Temple after such a relatively long time.

Anakin immediately felt the gulf between them at that moment. He didn’t truly see the Temple as a home. It was just the place where he had been educated and trained. To him, home was wherever the people he cared about and loved were. Home was wherever Padme was.

The towering Jedi Temple soon swallowed up the view and the shuttle folded up its wings to land directly in the primary hangar bay on the upper levels of the main ziggurat.

The rear doors opened and the embarkation ramp extended.

Ahsoka handled the casks, using a remote to flip them over onto their repulsors and steer them.

Their greeting party was rather substantial.

Immediately stepping forward was Master Drallig, with six Jedi Temple Guardians trailing behind him. The imposing brown and gold ornamental robes, along with their white-gold masks always gave them a vaguely sinister appearance to Anakin’s eyes.

“Master Kenobi,” Drallig greeted with a bow.

“Master Drallig,” Obi-Wan returned it, then nodded at Ahsoka.

Drallig’s eyes twitched slightly at the padawan, who was still in full armor, as she stepped forward to hand over the remote to him. The disapproval was clear and Anakin fought his own amusement as he perceived Ahsoka’s indifference to it.

No further words or ceremony were needed as Drallig and the Guardians fell in step beside each cask and escorted them out the hangar bay.

“Welcome back, Master Kenobi,” Yoda stepped forward, his gimer stick tapping with each step. Master Plo Koon and another master that Anakin had to take a moment to recognize was behind Yoda.

“It’s good to finally be back, Master,” Obi-Wan smiled mildly. “Master Agnook, rare to see you outside your tower of knowledge.”

“One must not be afraid to venture beyond when the opportunity for knowledge comes knocking,” the cathari master’s impressive teeth were revealed only briefly with a smile, his silver mane of hair rippling.

“I take it you’re here to escort myself, Ahsoka and Anakin to our new accommodations?”

“Indeed, Master Kenobi.”

“How long?”

“Two weeks.”

Anakin felt his stomach wanting to fall through the floor and a hot flash of anger surge through his mind, which he quickly mastered and passed through.

“So short?” Obi-Wan said wryly.

“Standard procedure, in this time, difficult to follow,” Yoda glanced at the cathar.

Obi-Wan folded his hands on his stomach, “Very well, lead the way, master.”

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The datapad fell onto her desk with a clatter, joining the many others strewn about on its surface. She rubbed her forehead, nursing a headache, barely taking in what was written on the device’s screen.

“I think with that adjustment we will have the Hosnian senator’s vote.”

She looked up into the ever stalwart face of Bail Organa on the other side of her desk.

Padme really wanted to know just how he could manage to just keep going and going through the endless tedium and not want to fall into a coma. They’d been vote hunting and going through bill amendments for the whole workday. It was well into the evening and Bail seemed just as fresh as when he’d started. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was gifted with the Force to manage such mental stamina.

“Good news then,” she said with a sigh. “That puts us over the line?”

Bail looked up from his own datapad, “Yes, but I think we need another five, just to be on the safe side.”

Padme nodded, “Just in case someone decides to be difficult at the last minute before the vote.”

“However,” Bail put away his datapad firmly. “I think that is a task for tomorrow, Padme.”

“We really should-”

“No,” Bail interrupted firmly. “The day is long over, we might as well be the last ones in the building at the moment.”

She rose to her feet, wincing at her legs protesting from being so suddenly used again after sitting for so long. “Very well. Good night, Bail.”

“To you as well, Padme.”

He exited her office with long strides and she turned, walking to the expansive window overlooking the Senate district lit with thousands of lights, the constantly moving, distant rivers of light representing lines of speeders, ships and vehicles.

“Mistress, shall I call for your speeder?” C3P-0 asked politely from the side of the room.

“Please do, 3P0,” she smiled at the golden droid, her gaze quickly returning to the endless cityscape exterior.

Her gaze traveled in the direction she knew the Jedi Temple was, as surely as she knew where her left hand was at the moment.

Ani was back… and Ashoka.

It happened quickly. She felt the familiar warmth of his presence directly behind her, his arms encapsulating from either side and his chin resting on her head. She basked in his presence and strength.

She knew she was still standing alone in her office, taking in the view outside her window.

Yet she was also now standing on the balcony of her estate on Naboo, only wearing one of his shirts. His arms around her, feeling the contour of every defined muscle pushing against her back.

What was going on?

“Relax Padme,” he rumbled, his voice directly in her left ear and his lips finding purchase on her neck. “You’re still in your office, but I pulled you into my mind.”

“So Ahsoka taught her little trick to you,” she said, her hands grasping his own as his palms found her lower abdomen and began caressing.

“Correct,” he breathed, his lips now kissing her ear. “By the Force, how I’ve missed you.”

She felt her heart want to both swell and melt in a very strange dichotomy. Then turned her head further left. Their lips met and the kiss deepened.

His hands moved down, before rising again, this time underneath the shirt. Leaving warm, burning pleasure in their wake wherever they moved.

She was pulled back and practically molded against his front.

At this point she had to break the kiss to get some air and breathed hard to regain equilibrium.

She felt his hard manhood nestled between her buttocks and his hands raised further to cup her breasts. She moaned as she felt him move further down, his knee spreading her legs apart, whilst her folds were teased.

“You’re very… eager,” she gasped.

His fingers teased her nipples.

“You haven’t seen me for weeks, Padme. I haven’t seen you for more than sixteen months.”

Her mind struggled with the concept, even as she was bombarded with more pleasure.

“What do you mean?”

She felt memories being pushed to her. It was too much at once to make sense of and even then she knew it would probably take multiple days for her to parse everything, but she sort of understood…

Mortis… outside of the Universe… in the Force… time… Celestials… a resolve to defeat a threat that was potentially even greater than the enemy…

She tried to imagine what it would be like to not see Anakin for the same amount of time and failed.

His hands let go of her, but only to grab hold of the shirt and pull it up off her. In a flash his hands were back on her breasts, before she felt his manhood push its way inside her.

They made love on that ‘balcony’, yet she was still in her office.

Her mind cast aside impossibility and rationality.

There was only the two of them in that moment.

That was all that mattered.

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The two weeks in scientific isolation was everything I had expected it to be.

Boring, monotonous and I was very tempted to use the Darksaber on the next scientist that wanted just one more sample of my blood, skin or other bits to run another test, just in case that one showed something else that would crack open the ‘mystery’. The interviews were probably the worst. Where the Jedi scientists and some external consultants that had been called in asked questions, based on the data that the Emissary’s sensors had brought back.

All three of us were essentially confined into small austere apartments that had been reopened on a lower level of the Jedi Temple that rarely saw any use. There was after all only so many active Jedi based out of the Coruscant temple or living in it and the floor space available was truly stupendous when you actually stopped to think about it.

The amount of sensors and surveillance emplaced in the spaces made me truly feel like a lab rat. I also couldn’t help but feel I was getting extra attention because I was the youngest and had spent a chunk of my adolescence in proximity to the interstellar Celestial artifact. The effects of such a prolonged stay in the Mortis realm were subtle and Bendu had been clear about what would happen to us.

That all three of us were stronger in the Force would be obvious to any Jedi who knew us well, though in Anakin’s case it was a somewhat pointless observation.

We also knew we were keenly under observation by Palpatine at the moment.

It wouldn’t surprise me if every report and observation made by the scientists would soon cross his desk. Anything that threatened to change his game had to be studied and understood, to see if any adjustments had to be made or elements removed.

Due to this, we couldn’t make it appear that nothing had changed. That would be doubly suspicious to him. Therefore we had to meet his expectations somewhat. If we had indeed spent almost sixteen months outside of the normal flow of time, there had to be some change or anomaly, so we showed exactly what they expected to see - growth, refinement, the aftermath of intense training of a Jedi who was returning to war.

On the fourteenth day of isolation, I started glaring at the scientists, Jedi or not.

When I perceived that there was a gaggle of scientists wanting to take ‘just one last sample’ from me, I put my foot down.

I was very tempted to short out every sensor in the room, but settled for simply mangling the runners of the front door so that it couldn’t open.

The Jedi contingent tried to use the Force to straighten the runners again, but I just mangled them again immediately.

I didn’t feel like getting in a Control telekinesis battle over this, so I weaved a subtle web of Battle Meditation over them all.

The non-Jedi immediately gave up and left, whilst the Jedi scientists naturally persevered for longer. None of them were masters and didn’t recognize what was happening or why they suddenly felt so despondent and discouraged.

Then I sensed Master Agnook approaching and threw my hands up in exasperation.

“For frak’s sake,” I grumbled and stood up from my meditation cushion.

I climbed into my combat boots, put on my belt and double checked that my Hapan top and brown pants were in a presentable state. My lightsabers soared through the air to clip themselves to my waist and I headed for the door.

I used the few seconds it took to reach it, to straighten the door back to normal functionality, just in time for Master Agnook to open it.

The old cathar gave me one of his supremely stern expressions, which when coming from a species that was effectively a humanoid lion, would send almost anyone running for the hills.

“Padawan Tano, I hear and sense you’re giving my people some trouble.”

“Yes, I’ve been the soul of cooperation to be poked and prodded for two weeks, but that time has passed and you’ll get no more. I’ll not be indulging their ‘last minute’ requests.”

He gave me an inscrutable look as only a Jedi Master could, but I stood resolute and firm.

He tested me for nearly seven long minutes in that resolution before he finally smiled, showing off prominent canine teeth.

“Very well, padawan. I will talk to them. I’ve been somewhat indulging them because this is related to the Celestials, but I think enough is enough. There is no more real data to be gathered and they can move on to the analysis stage.”

“Thank you, master,” I bowed appropriately.

He stepped aside and let me pass.

“One more thing, padawan. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t use Battle Meditation on my staff in the future. Just a thing to keep in mind.”

I nodded and found nearly a dozen of the Jedi scientists outside giving me serene poker faces, but I could tell they were all the equivalent of children pouting at being denied their cookies.

I breezed past them and had to restrain a snort of amusement. One of them, a male mirilian, had rather appreciated the curve of my butt as I had passed him. It was only a moment, but it had slipped past his guard enough that I had picked up on it.

Only when I was finally in the nearest turbolift and heading back up to the more occupied levels of the temple did I allow a full blown laugh to escape me.

My first destination was the Room of a Thousand Fountains.

I hadn’t experienced proper, unspoiled nature in so long and the artificial ecology of the Room would have to do.

I breathed in the humid, cool air with an earthy tang and just began a leisurely walk along the paths, even taking off my boots just to feel somewhat in contact with the soft earth beneath my bare feet. I tried my best to fool myself that I was actually walking in nature…

Either I needed to get on the first ship to Naboo or I hoped my next assignment was to a world with a proper ecology.

My feet carried me to my favorite spot, a small waterfall with a nice pool at its base that ran off into a meandering stream. I sat on the edge and put my feet into the cool water, then hugged my legs and rested my head on my knees.

I was suddenly so content and at peace in that moment, I almost fell straight into a meditation right there.

That peace was disturbed a few minutes later by a presence I sensed coming closer above me, at the top of the small waterfall.

I sensed no intent or perception from the… young male human Jedi adept? He hadn’t even spotted me down here.

He was a bundle of raw nerves and excitement, but there was an undercurrent of fear and frustration.

Next I sensed a remote being activated and then heard the snap of a lightsaber igniting.

A rather odd place to practice deflection. It wasn’t unheard of, especially when you wanted to simulate it in a more natural environment. It was just polite to make sure no one else would be hit with a stray bolt.

I looked up to see my visitor using the Force to hover a thin log across the small waterfall and clearly he intended to use it as a balance exercise whilst fending off bolts from the single remote.

How cute.

Made doubly so by how the adept had puffy cheeks that were just begging to be pinched. Then I spotted that he had a padawan braid in his short red hair… oops. Well, there was no set age really when you became padawan - it entirely depended on your own personal development in the Force.

He got on the log and after a bit of wobbliness managed to settle into a reasonable stance. Then he tapped the control of the remote he kept on the belt of his light beige tunic.

The small remote sphere began hissing around him in a seemingly random pattern but I immediately recognized it as the ‘medium’ difficulty setting for that particular model.

The padawan kept his balance admirably as he kept turning to keep his front facing the remote, but he was making life difficult for himself.

The first yellow stun bolt was fired and in a well timed slash of the padawan’s blue blade, he deflected it into the water at his feet.

Another two bolts in quick succession followed the same path.

The next one was off by a few millimeters and the bolt was sent streaking upward to spend itself harmlessly on the holographic ceiling.

Frustration bubbled and frothed from the padawan at his own perceived failure, but he had no time to indulge in it as he deflected two bolts in rapid succession into the water.

Ah ha, so that’s what the exercise is actually about, I thought.

I spent the next two minutes observing and making mental notes of mistakes and issues. Then I smirked as my Prescience warned me along the current probability line. Not that I really needed any foresight for this eventuality.

The Darksaber hovered off my belt and its blade burst into being with the crystalline electric hum so unique to it, before it spun above my head to intercept the training bolt that would’ve hit me on my right montral.

The padawan was suddenly confronted with the bolts coming at him from me and the remote.

He managed to overcome his surprise just enough that he blocked the bolt from the remote, but he couldn’t bring the blade around in time for a proper deflection from such an odd low angle.

It caught him right in left knee and promptly made his efforts at balance on the log ten times more difficult.

“Whoah!”

He turned off his lightsaber immediately as his arms flailed.

Unfortunately, his remote had no mercy and simply sent another bolt that nailed him right in the chest and knocked the wind out of him.

His cry of pain and frustration was swallowed by the water as he fell head first into the stream.

I grabbed the Darksaber out of the air above me and let its blade extinguish, then stood, dusting some grass off my butt before embracing the Force into a leap that carried me to the top of the waterfall.

At this point the very soggy padawan was crawling out of the water sputtering and rubbing his face to clear it, not to mention spitting the water that had gotten into his mouth. He was so preoccupied with his physical situation he still hadn’t sensed me standing nearby.

I stepped closer to enter his field of vision and finally he spotted my bare feet.

He froze and finally I felt his awareness through the Force spike as he augmented his senses to encompass a reasonable area around us.

“Better late than never, padawan,” I said with a mild grin. He looked up, taking me in before I saw the light of recognition in his eyes. “Though that doesn’t apply in all circumstances.”

He braced himself on the ground and hopped onto his feet, hooked his lightsaber to his belt and began squeezing the water out of his brown outer tunic.

“I guess,” he said thoughtfully, his eyes now staring off to the side, but then he spotted the hilt of the Darksaber in my hand. “Wait… you sent the bolt back at me?”

“Yes,” I shrugged nonchalantly.

For the briefest of moments he wanted to explode with righteous indignation and even anger. He got it under control rather admirably.

“Why?” he asked, with a forceful calm.

I folded my arms and his eyes dipped for a moment. “That should be obvious, padawan.”

His lips thinned in irritation, but he nevertheless engaged his brain despite my little effort to distract him. He looked down at my bare feet, then off to the side… tracing my footsteps.

“You were at the bottom of the fall… you couldn’t have dodged it?” He was now wrenching his soggy pants.

“I suppose I could have,” I admitted.

“Then why didn’t you?”

“Perhaps I was just annoyed at having my peaceful morning interrupted,” I said, though I was suddenly struck with the notion that spending so much time with Obi-Wan and Bendu over the past year had really influenced me quite a lot. I would’ve been much more direct with the padawan before Mortis.

He scowled, “So you thought that causing me to fail would be your revenge for that?”

“Revenge is a rather strong word to use for my intent in sending that shot back to you, instead of simply deflecting it up to the ceiling or to the side. Had I done so you would’ve continued in your exercise and perhaps another bolt would’ve flown towards someone else. Someone who would be far worse - perhaps Master Tiin as he walks by on his morning constitutional,” I gestured towards a nearby footpath just as the iktotchi Jedi master in question rounded the corner.

The padawan’s eyes widened in fear as he caught sight of the master.

Tiin also caught sight of us and his eerie yellow eyes narrowed in suspicion as he walked past. I clipped the Darksaber back on my belt and gave the master a polite smile and bowed, projecting with my body language, ‘No need to intervene, everything under control, master.’  He paused at seeing that and gave both of us an evaluating stare, before simply resuming his walk.

The padawan now looked at me with amazement, “How… how did you…?”

“I know many of the Council, well enough to sense their identities when they’re within fifteen meters of me. I can also tell there are two more people around us within that radius. Do you see what I’m trying to tell you?”

He bit his bottom lip and dropped his gaze to the ground at my feet. “I didn’t keep enough awareness of my surroundings. I got so focused on getting this exercise done that I lost sight… I didn’t even think…”

He took a deep breath to release the anger he was building up against himself. Then he bowed to me, “I apologize, Padawan Tano.”

“Apology accepted, padawan…?” I smiled at him kindly.

“Kestis.”

I made sure to keep firm control of my own astonishment. I mentally reviewed that youthful face that was barely twelve or thirteen years old. Of course there was a distinct difference between a relatively ancient memory of a poorly rendered face and then seeing the real thing up close.

“Pleasure to meet you, Kestis. So, the exercise, something your master gave you?”

“Well, not precisely, more like my own variation of the exercise.”

“I see, so deflection whilst maintaining balance, but you added the complication of an unstable surface and always deflecting the shots back into the water?”

“Yes,” he smiled with an eager enthusiasm. “I can handle five remotes at once normally with a high difficulty setting, so I wanted to challenge myself and…” he broke eye contact again and stared at the ground. “I wanted to impress, Master Tapal. He just formally took me on as his padawan learner and we’re going out to the front soon.”

“Don’t let me stop you then,” I shrugged and took a few steps back before sitting down on the grass, folding my legs under me.

Cal Kestis looked at me in brief confusion. “You want to watch?”

“I’ve had an exceedingly boring few weeks in isolation, offering you some constructive advice and even helping is just what I need at the moment. Go on.”

“I’m sopping wet.”

“Do you think that the battlefields on the Outer Rim have perfect weather, Kestis? If you’re going to keep wearing traditional Jedi attire, you need to learn to perform even when you’re waterlogged.” I shooed him towards the stream.

He nodded in compliance and stepped out onto the log.

His balance was very good and was only challenged when the log began wobbling with the shifting weight. He took a moment to settle into an equilibrium, before igniting his blue blade and resetting the remote droid to resume its attack.

The remote shifted to his left, gliding and twirling before abruptly shooting a yellow bolt targeting Cal’s face.

A twirl of his blade deflected it away and it was sent shooting upward into the distant invisible ceiling.

Another shot, and this one he managed to bring down into the water.

His legs wobbled as he turned around on the log to keep facing the remote.

“Keep your orientation, use a rear reverse twirl to deflect shots to your back!” I called out.

He didn’t reply at first, deflecting another shot. “Fine,” he replied with gritted teeth.

The remote zoomed around him, shooting once to his chest, then flew around and attacked his back.

He twirled his blade behind his back, but flubbed the timing and angle.

The bolt whizzed into the grass three meters to my right and left a slightly sizzling hole.

The exercise continued and it was clear that attacks to his back gave him trouble, combined with the fact that he struggled with that rear reverse twirl. How could he manage to fend off five remotes simultaneously with such a weakness? Was that grandstanding? Perhaps it was dodging and prescient positioning? Or was his constantly shifting balance complicating matters?

In a flash I had my Darksaber active and deflected a blast that would’ve hit me right on the nose.

I sent it harmlessly into the water.

“Kriff! Sorry!”

He was distracted for a moment by the sight of my black and white blade.

“Ouch!”

The remote had nailed him on the butt and he desperately fended off three rapid shots, with an impressive single sweep of his blade. Two bolts ended their existence in the water, whilst the third sparked against the nearby path.

For another ten minutes he kept going, doggedly working on getting that rear deflection problem sorted out.

To spice things up further for him, I reached out with the Force, snagged the remote and took control entirely of the simple machine with technometry.

The remote went one way, then suddenly jerked diagonally and spat a bolt right at his stomach, face and chest, before zipping right over him and attacking the back of his head.

“Kriff!”

He fended off all the body shots, but was forced to duck the last shot.

I next attacked his left side before sending the remote high overhead and shooting him as fast as the remote could cycle its capacitors, angling the shots randomly to his chest.

“What?”

His bafflement at the clearly much more difficult and improvised attack cost him as he got nailed right in the stomach.

I willed the remote to stop, then it zoomed straight into my waiting hand.

He looked at me with suspicion and then looked at the small blinking remote control on his belt. “You did that?”

I let the remote go so that it hovered above my palm, letting it zip back and forth in a figure eight infinity pattern to clearly show my control.

“The battlefield is a chaotic place, Kestis. A Separatist Repeater shoots much faster than that. I realize that is not part of the exercise, but you must beware falling into patterns. Five minutes is generally enough, at this point you should’ve added a second remote or at least changed the attack program.”

I relinquished control of the remote and threw it back to resume its current program.

He quickly tapped the controls to pause it, then stared at me. “What technique was that?”

“Technometry, a very useful thing in a war against droids.”

“Wait, you can just take control of droids through the Force?”

“It depends on the sophistication of the droid. It's also much more efficient to just blast or cut them to scrap. But we aren’t here to talk about me, up the difficulty, Kestis.”

He nodded, fiddled with the controls and restarted the remote.

Its speed through the air doubled and its attack patterns switched to include more odd angles.

It didn’t take long before he fell again into a rhythm of confident defense and I took telekinetic control of a small lump of mud near the stream’s edge, before shooting it at him.

He deflected a bolt before holding his left hand out in a palm, sending a quick Force Push to disperse my mud projectile.

“Good, but narrow your Push’s surface area, make it smaller, so you can be more efficient and won't tire out as easily. Droids don’t have stamina and vast numbers on a battlefield. B1s can carry grenades and commando droids will use them too.”

I continued throwing mud projectiles randomly at him, mixing it into the attack pattern of the remote.

By the ninth projectile he had his Force Push’s surface area cut in half, but by projectile number eleven he was tapped out and got splattered in the shoulder with mud.

“Boom, you’re dead and the clones you were defending are dead.”

His lightsaber switched off and he slapped his belt to switch off the remote before he leaned over with hands on knees, breathing hard. “Never… used… Push,” he gulped the air, “so much, in such a short time.”

“It’s not easy, but you won’t get better at it unless you push yourself to the limits of what you can do. Then go beyond that with the Force. Easier to live with the consequences of that, than dead.”

He nodded as I felt the Force surging inward, he switched the remote back on and resumed the training, clearly fighting now through his own self-perceived limits.

I pondered some other curveballs I could throw his way. Maybe some illusions? I carefully sent out a subtle probe with the Force, testing his mind and passive self-defenses to manipulation. It was a passive feature in all Force Sensitives really, to simply exist as you truly were. Your level of self-awareness and training would increase resistance to offensive uses of the Force to change or disturb that natural equilibrium.

I pushed my mental probe forward, finding purchase on the periphery strata of his mind. He was brimming with the Force and pulling it in to keep fueling his physical activity, which aided in opening him up to me.

Cal stepped back and forth, his lightsaber moving rapidly around his form. At this point his eyes had long since stopped being useful to guide his movement, yet they were still taking in what they saw. He was facing away from me, which was useful in selling my little distraction.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement on the water - a ripple.

The water to his left practically exploded as a BX commando droid surged out of it, its vibroblade already pointed forward, seeking to run him through.

His disbelief warred with his instincts - this was supposed to be the Jedi Temple, the safest place in the galaxy he could imagine, yet here was the enemy, seeking to kill him. A deep part of him also recognized that this couldn’t be true but there was no time to think.

He froze and the BX smashed into his side.

I simulated the hit with an indirect Force Push that sent him plunging into the stream.

He emerged spluttering and frantically checking his side for a wound, whilst also being confused as to where the BX commando had gone. He gasped and held up his blade, frantically scanning with his eyes and reaching out with the Force, fight or flight instinct was fully in control.  He had now defaulted to a personalized Shii-Cho stance… interesting.

“Why did you freeze?”

My voice snapped him out of it and he still hadn’t made any move to boot me out of his mind or even recognized that I was there.

Water splashed as he whirled to face me with a still lit lightsaber, his instincts were spot on at least. I met his eyes with expectation and waited for him to connect the dots.

He walked out of the water and after a very long few seconds, “The droid was you?” There was clear anger in his voice. It was unfortunately ruined by the fact that his voice was in that awkward adolescent stage where it had yet to properly break, coming out both deep and squeaky.

“Yes,” I said with a confused frown of my own. “Did you not take an illusion test when you got your padawan braid?”

“Illusion test?”

“Frakking kriff, irresponsible di’kuts, ” I grumbled with a scowl. “There is supposed to be a test where a Jedi Mindwalker fools your senses into some sort of combat scenario, not to mention a lightsaber duel with a simulated Sith opponent. I suppose those Mindwalkers are too busy now with the war and all the other demands it is making of the Order.”

“So you actually put that droid in my mind? It was fake.”

I sighed, “Yes Kestis, you can relax, there is no commando droid. I just hit you with a little Push.”

He let out a breath, disengaged his blade and the post-adrenaline shakes began. He stared at his hands and frantically began an internal battle to regain control of himself. I quashed any signs of sympathy from showing. Better this happen now on Coruscant, than on some distant battlefield, where the weakness could be deadly.

It took him a few minutes but eventually everything caught up with him and he took a few steps before almost collapsing to sit a few feet next to me.

“This is what it’s like?”

“To truly be in mortal peril and fight for your own life, yes. Your master is probably going to do something to prepare you for it before you find yourself on a battlefield, so I’ve stepped on his toes a bit.”

Despite himself, Cal snorted with a brief laugh. “Yes, not something anyone should do to a lasat.”

“Do you have word yet on when you’re going to deploy?”

His breath hitched slightly, “Three days. I’m leaving with Master Tapal on the Albedo Brave.”

With the number of Venators steadily increasing it was inevitable that finding unique names for them would become more and more difficult. That name was literally smashing two totally unrelated words together, just because it sounded somewhat catchy in Basic.

“He’s given you training and work to accomplish before then?”

“A ton of stuff,” he answered. “Master Tapal is… strict, to say the least.”

I nodded as I debated with myself on a course of action, if any, to take. Tapal was not a Jedi Master I wanted to make an ideological ‘enemy’ of. He sounded like he was in the orthodox camp but I wasn’t going to make assumptions here.

Frak it.

“I’ve not received orders yet,” I began, looking up into the simulated sky. Then tapped my comlink to send its ID code to his own. He looked down at his wrist with surprise as his device beeped with a contact request. “So for the next three days, if you ever need a sparring partner, any questions, advice from a fellow padawan who’s been where you’re going, don’t hesitate to reach out.”

I stood and brushed off my pants. He was so astonished that he just kept looking at me gobsmacked as I bowed.

“I’ll let you get back to it, Padawan Kestis.”

I gave him a friendly smile and waved, walking off into the deeper garden, searching for another meditation spot.

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“Sorry, I’m late.”

Anakin gave me an annoyed look, his eyes finding me across the massive holotank in the main  Communication Center of the Temple.

“Not a problem, Snips, our shuttle won’t be ready for another few hours anyway.”

“So where are we off to in the galaxy this time, Skyguy?” I asked, staring at both the planet and hyperspace sector map that was being displayed.

“We just got word, a few hours ago we broke through the Columex defense line. The Separatists have abandoned Arcan and have consolidated in the Lianna system.”

Just by looking at the hyper nav routes I knew that instantly opened Galidraan and Chandaar to attack.

I gave him a flat stare, “Skyguy, Lola Sayu is just half a day away. The Seppies have a nice unoccupied former security fleet just waiting to flank from that side.”

“Exactly, Intelligence indicates that they’ve moved that fleet to Galidraan. Clearly hoping we’ll take the bait and move forward into Lianna, where they’ll attack Arcan again and cut us off, to destroy our vanguard force.”

I folded my arms and smirked, “Do they really think we’re that stupid?”

“They’re leaving that option for us clearly.”

“Therefore they’re actually expecting us to turn left and attack Galidraan in full force, whilst consolidating our new forward position in Arcan.”

He stared at the sector map for a moment, “Yes, therefore we can expect Galidraan to be a trap. Perhaps reinforced with a full attack group.”

“There,” I pointed to a very small system a dozen light years south of Rhen Var on Galidraan’s rearward approach.

“Draukyze? What about it?”

“We attack Galidraan with a standard vanguard, giving them what they expect. In the meantime,” I stepped forward to start tapping on the holotank controls. A virtual Republic task group took the long way around, using the Salin Corridor, then turned back north using a minor route via Draukyze to bypass Rhen Var entirely, avoiding the listening posts there. That group then attacked Galidraan simultaneously as the vanguard force entered the system, closing the CIS fleet in vice. There was only one way they could retreat then - northward, the Mossak system.

Anakin stared at the simulation for a while before nodding. “It’s good in a broad sense. The key will then be making sure that Draukyze doesn’t send an alert. It might be a CIS backwater, but that doesn’t mean they have no communications. So we either get our Mandalorian Blades contingent to take it out in a special operation or we do it ourselves.”

“The Blades can do this in their sleep,” I nodded.

My eyes traced to the system that neighbored Mossak…

“Frak.”

“Something wrong, Snips?”

“No, just realized something, not important now.” I focused on the keys in front of me and began researching the Draukyze system.

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A/N: *di’kut (Mandalorian) - context dependant - idiot, jerk, moron, dumbass, etc.

First chapter of the new year. Hooray! Hope you've all survived the start of year chaos.

I plan for Fridays to generally be update days this year.

Enjoy the weekend! 

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