FicWad

They could have borrowed a speeder from the Palace and easily been at the Naberrie house within minutes; however, since the distance between the Theed Palace and the Naberrie home is not so very great and they don’t have any luggage to speak of (Obi-Wan having made sure that both formal and informal robes for him and Anakin would be packed and transported to Naboo in with their Padawan’s things), in the end they decide to walk instead. Bail’s sense of relief at the decision (which will delay both their arrival at the house and the time when he will have to experience the sense of unnatural and malevolent darkness surrounding Sola Naberrie again) surrounds him in an almost tangible aura, calming him so much that Obi-Wan (after a short, silent consultation with Anakin, who seems as concerned over their Padawan’s lingering uneasiness as Obi-Wan) asks him to fill them in on everything that has happened on Coruscant in their absence. Hoping that the request will help to steady Bail further, by distracting him from more immediate but also more personal concerns, Obi-Wan makes sure to press for details about what has been going on in the Senate and with the offered peace treaty from the Confederacy of Independent Systems and regarding plans both to rebuild in systems ravaged by the war as well as to essentially revamp the whole of the galactic government. Thus, mere minutes after leaving the Palace, their much calmer, much happier Padawan is chattering animatedly and contentedly about the many changes that already have been or are in the midst of being made to both the Senate and other governing bodies, the Constitution, and the various treaties and trade pacts and other such legally binding agreements that have previously been responsible for bringing so many of the disparate systems of the former Republic together, as allies. However, although they are careful to listen to Bail closely enough both to retain what he is reporting on and to ask an occasional probing question, within moments Obi-Wan and Anakin have also initiated a second, silent conversation, intent on sharing what little they know of Sola Naberrie and preparing themselves as best they can for whatever might be awaiting them at the Naberrie home.

Something here feels horribly off to me. I have a bad feeling about this, Obi-Wan. If Sola was indeed allied in some manner with the Sith – or if she knew that Palpatine was Sidious and was allied with him personally – then shouldn’t Master Dooku have known about it, and wouldn’t he have warned us?

It is entirely possible that Dooku would not know, though. Remember that Sidious was a Sith Lord, Anakin, not a Jedi Master. I’m quite sure that there were many things Sidious kept from his apprentice – beginning with the fact that he was draining the man of both his lifeforce and will, including the fact that he meant to replace Dooku with you as an apprentice before he allowed the Clone Wars to end, and quite possibly including the fact that he had recruited Sola Naberrie as a willing ally. If he only recruited her to secure her services as a sort of backup, in case his first plan for Padmé fell through for some reason, then it is entirely possible that no one would have known except for the Sith Lord and Sola herself. And it sounds to me as if he used Sola primarily in order to exert pressure on Padmé, so that she would be inclined to think in directions that he wished for her to think in, and as a possible final failsafe for dealing with her and any child she might have, should she have survived what he had planned for her, when he had succeeded in winning you to his side, so that he would be assured of a way to keep you.

But wouldn’t someone have sensed something before now, if she had truly turned traitor? Shouldn’t Padmé have felt it, when her sister turned on her?

I am not sure, Anakin. If Sola is indeed a traitor – and if she has been so since before the beginning of the Clone Wars, as seems to be indicated – and if she is anything near as good an actor as Palpatine was . . . I am not certain that anyone could have penetrated her shields, then, given that she is one of the absolute last beings anyone would naturally think to suspect of such double-dealings. I must admit to being at something of a loss, in this matter. My knowledge of Padmé’s sister is mostly secondhand. You’ve met her face-to-face before, though, haven’t you, Anakin? What was your impression of the woman?

I’m sorry, Master, but I only met Sola twice, and they were both relatively brief meetings that didn’t exactly occur under the best of circumstances. I was . . . worried about other things, and I just didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to her, either time. Although, come to think of it . . . Obi-Wan, can a person really seem to be extraordinarily strong and uniquely special and yet still strike you as utterly unremarkable and, well, maybe not small, not exactly, but just so completely uninterested in anything beyond such an extremely limited personal scope that she seems . . . I don’t know . . . uninteresting and insignificant? Because now that I think about it, my impressions of Sola Naberrie don’t make a lot of sense. On the one hand, she struck me as being very much like Padmé – strong-willed, passionate about her beliefs and opinions, fiercely loving and protective of those she thought of as family, and charismatic in a way that’s usually more common among Force-sensitives – but on the other hand she seemed . . . well, maybe not exactly flighty, but almost small-minded, in a way, because she was so obviously interested in no one and nothing beyond the scope of her family and her own little life. Sola didn’t seem to care anything about the Republic or even Naboo as a whole. She wanted Padmé out of the political realm because she wanted her sister settled down somewhere safe with some nice young man and she knew that it probably wouldn’t ever happen while Padmé remained active in either Nabooian politics or the Republic Senate and she was convinced that only having a family of her own would ever really make Padmé completely happy. She didn’t seem to care how important Padmé’s work was, either to Naboo or to the Republic, and to tell the truth I’m not entirely sure she even really notice how much Padmé loved politics and using negotiation and diplomacy to help other people. She just . . . knew what she knew and she wanted what she wanted and that was that. If that makes any kind of sense?

Obi-Wan frowns thoughtfully, considering the question, for a few silent moments. Bail, looking over at him and seeing the slight frown, begins to frown himself, questioningly, and Obi-Wan, to distract him, quickly asks aloud, "Do you think that sending the Jedi Bendu to help the most badly damaged worlds and sectors rebuild their infrastructure will be enough both to make those systems as self-sufficient as possible and to bind them to the rest of the galaxy with ties of friendship without encouraging them to look upon the Jedi Bendu as their saviors and the heros of the galaxy and somehow above the rest of the citizenry, or is there something else we should be doing to assure that all three things come to pass, Padawan?"

Bail’s concerned expression immediately transforms into one of careful consideration, and, after several long moments of thought, he begins to speak again, so wrapped up in his thoughts on the subject that he has to be herded out of the flight path of a hovercar wanting to turn past them by a slightly exasperated Artoo, who rolls up alongside Bail and issues several short beeps at him while all but nudging into his side until he finally moves out of the way, still obliviously chattering away the entire while.

In a rare gesture of appreciation, Obi-Wan reaches out to lay a hand gently atop the little astromech’s rounded dome for a few seconds, taking the time to smile down at him and quiet the still querulously beeping droid before he turns his attention back to Anakin’s question. Then, as silently as before, he admits, I don’t know, Anakin. It seems more likely that your contradictory impression is inspired more by your low opinion of Sola’s priorities and your correspondingly high opinion of Padmé’s goals than by anything truly out of balance or suspiciously inconsistent in Sola’s character.

But that’s just it! I didn’t even realize most of the things I just told you about, about how Sola was either behaving inconsistently for someone who by all accounts should’ve been close enough to Padmé to know all about Padmé’s desire to help other beings and understand that she needed that in her life, to truly be happy – and if Sola really cared so much for her family, then she should have wanted Padmé to have what would truly make her happy, not what Sola thought should make her happy – or else she was simply being entirely callous towards Padmé’s wants and needs when she was pressing her to get out of politics and settle down somewhere and start a family. It hadn’t even occurred to me, before, because Padmé led me to believe that she was upset with Sola and the rest of her family for trying to make her choose one kind of life over the other when Padmé didn’t think that she should have to. But if Padmé thought that she should be able to have both things – and from what I’ve heard lately about Naboo customs, what with the way that they have contractual arrangements for different kinds of marriages and alliances, some of which only last for so long, and the way that children are always considered to belong to their mother, first, I’d say that it should be possible for a Nabooian lady who’s involved in politics and too busy for dating or romance to remain active in politics and still be able to start a family, just by allying with someone who’s deemed suitable long enough to get with child – then Sola’s one or the other with nothing in between possible attitude doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. And that makes it, and her motivations for pressuring Padmé in the first place, suspect.

Hmm. Perhaps so. Would any of your other impressions of the woman back that up?

Anakin nearly forgets himself enough to shrug before a soft beep from Artoo draws his eyes away from Obi-Wan and back to the reality of where and in what company they are. Carefully schooling his expression back to neutral thoughtfulness in case Bail should happen to look at him, he tells Obi-Wan again, I’m really not sure. To tell the truth, their mother made more of an impression on me the one time I met her than Sola ever did.

Why? In what way?

Again, Anakin has to keep himself from shrugging in response. After a couple moments of consideration, he finally allows himself a bit of a sigh and then admits, Sola just looked so much like Padmé that she didn’t register to me as anything but Padmé’s sister, Master. She seemed strong-willed and sure of herself, but it was like looking at another Padmé, an older Padmé who had taken another lifepath. Jobal Naberrie doesn’t look as much like Padmé as Sola does – at least not in my eyes – and, though she struck me as being strong-willed as well, she also struck me as very matronly and openly loving and warm. Jobal Naberrie reminded me of my own mother, Obi-Wan, so much that I saw Shmi in her as much as if not more than I saw anything of Padmé in her. Sola wasn’t like that. Or at least she didn’t strike me the same way. I know she’s a mother of two, but Sola just didn’t strike me as being very matronly at all. She looks as much like Padmé as, say, her handmaidens Moteé or Dormé would if they were a handful of years or so older than Padmé. She struck me as an older and perhaps ever so slightly more careworn, sharper-featured, somewhat taller version of Padmé, and that was about it. I looked at her and I saw Padmé.

And yet you also say that Sola Naberrie struck you as someone insignificant and small, which are not words that I would ever use to describe Milady Amidala. I believe you are right: there is a contradiction there, Anakin, and that concerns me. Sidious must have made a study out of making himself appear innocuous while at the same time also retaining an aura of strength and charisma, to have tricked so many beings, for so many decades, into seeing nothing but Palpatine when they looked at him. If Sola was indeed allied with him, it may be from following his teachings that the contradiction you’ve sensed arose. And if she is strong enough in the Force to have learned how to mask her presence and her intent –

But Padmé wasn’t strong in the Force! Anakin can’t quite keep himself from protesting, even though he’s interrupting an argument that supports his own unease over the situation with Sola Naberrie and is starting to make an almost frightening amount of sense.

Patiently, Obi-Wan replies by pointing out, But that doesn’t mean that Sola can’t be, Anakin. You remember Lorana Jinzler, don’t you?

Master C’baoth’s former Padawan, the one who went with him on the Outbound Flight Project? Of course I remember her, Master! She reminded me a lot of you – quick to help others, able to almost effortlessly convince all sorts of people to get along with one another, and very quiet and unassuming, on the surface, but also extremely strong-willed and both skilled with and powerful in the ways of the Force. I know you weren’t entirely comfortable around her former Master, but Knight Jinzler struck me as an extremely intelligent and very good person, and I liked her. She seemed a little . . . hesitant, maybe, or a little but unsure of herself, at first, but she wanted so much to please Master C’baoth and to keep everyone on the Outbound Flight Project happy enough for things to be peaceful that I’m sure the Project will have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams by now, if only because she’s there on those Dreadnaughts. I don’t think I could ever forget her. She’s just too much like you, when I first met you, to ever really be forgettable.

Obi-Wan’s response reveals that he is clearly both startled by the comparison and a little bit embarrassed by the implied praise towards himself. Obviously flustered, he ducks his head down slightly and only just barely manages not to stumble as he replies, Ah. Well. Be that as it may, Lorana was the only one to show sufficient Force-sensitivity in her family to qualify for Jedi training. Neither her parents nor any of her three siblings revealed any Force-sensitivity to speak of, when they took the Order’s standard tests, and yet Lorana became a Jedi Knight. It could be the same with Sola and the rest of her family. Or it might simply be that one of their parents is more Force-sensitive than the other and this increased Force-sensitivity passed on to Sola alone, skipping over Padmé. Did Sola seem to resemble one parent more than the other?

I’m sorry, but I couldn’t really say so with any real certainty, although I am tempted to say that she takes after her father – or at least her father’s side of the family – more than her mother. If I knew what Ruwee Naberrie’s parents had looked like, I’d feel a lot safer about claiming that, though. Still, she definitely has her father’s blue eyes, rather than the brown eyes Jobal passed on to Padmé. Sola’s also taller than her mother, and, even though Padmé was also a little bit taller than Jobal, Sola’s also taller than Padmé was, which to me seems to indicate that Sola gets the extra height from Ruwee’s side of the family. Also, there’s the fact that, if one of the parents is more Force-sensitive than the other, it makes the most sense for it to be Ruwee Naberrie who has an affinity for the Force. If it were Jobal Thule Naberrie who were Force-sensitive, then it would make sense for Ryoo Thule to also have a higher than normal Force-sensitivity. But since our Padawan didn’t seem to sense anything like the kind of potential strength that would surround two related Force-sensitives when the Naberries and Ryoo Thule greeted him, it makes more sense if Ruwee Naberrie were actually the only one with potential strength in the Force. I know Bail’s still unused to the Force, but he seems to be sensitive to concentrations of Force-energy and Force-potential. I think he would have sensed it, if Jobal and Ryoo were both strong in the Force. But from what he told us, Ruwee Naberrie was very quiet and held himself back from most of the conversation that they had. If he were only a little bit strong in the Force and if he’d never really used the Force for much of anything, his presence in the Force wouldn’t make much of a ripple, and Bail could have missed him entirely.

I’ve seen a holo of Ruwee Naberrie’s mother, Winama. She was a fairly tall, slender woman with bright blue eyes, a delicate and sharp-featured, almost triangularly-shaped face, and, though her hair was mostly silver in the holo, from the color of her eyebrows and the dark patches still peppering her hair, I feel it’s safe to say her hair was originally at least as dark as Padmé’s. Your description of Sola Naberrie reminds me of Winama Naberrie, Anakin, so it’s likely that you’re right about Sola taking after her father’s side of the family. I think you may also be right about it being the Naberrie bloodline that carries at least some sort of measurable Force-sensitivity, since we know that Padmé wasn’t Force-sensitive and she seems to have taken more after the Thule side of the family.

What I don’t understand is what could have made Sola turn on her sister and her people, like she has to have if she’s been a willing ally to Sidious. Padmé loved her sister and she cared a lot about what Sola thought and what she wanted, even though she didn’t really agree with Sola’s opinion about her needing to get out of politics completely so that she could settle down and start a family of her own. She adored Sola’s two little girls and spoiled them rotten, and her fame, as both the Queen who won Naboo back from the Trade Federation and one of the most highly respected Senators of the Galactic Republic, would have helped open doors for Sola’s family – especially her husband, Darred Janren – that otherwise might have remained closed. I’m sure the plans for the city Keiana Apailana told us about never would’ve gotten out of the classroom, much less been used as the actual model for a whole new city, if not for the Naberrie name. So why would Sola turn on Padmé? I just don’t understand it. Padmé was a good person who usually cared a lot more about the happiness of others than she did her own well-being. Everyone with half a brain and even a bit of a working conscience knew that, and they all loved her for it. She would’ve done anything for those she loved, especially for her family. Sola has to have known that. So why would she even be tempted to turn against Padmé, much less actually become a traitor not only to her family but to her planet and to the Republic itself?

In answer, Anakin at first receives only a faint, confused impression of Padmé as a very young Queen, in such a state as he had never seen her. Three-fourths of the way out of one of her formal regal costumes – with her hair still up in an elaborate mass of bejewelled and intricate braids painstakingly formed into the stylized patterns of old-fashioned knotwork and other such abstract motifs and her traditional white paint and red beauty marks and Scar of Remembrance not as yet removed (though they are not, by any stretch of the imagination, untouched), though she is clad only in a faintly iridescent elaborate shell spider silk underdress of oddly pale pearl grey (one that reminds Anakin so much of a not quite lavender colored steel-blue nightgown he can remember Padmé wearing – an elaborate, waistless, sleeveless nightdress with a waterfall of loose, flowing material at the back, in a train meant to echo the effect of a pair of folded satiny wings, secured to the body only by several extremely thin straps across the shoulders, with other similar but off-the-shoulder straps and decorative chains of pearls attached in front to a palely iridescent aurodium broach, its design a variation on the stylized Nabooian waterlily that has come to symbolize Padmé Amidala herself as well as her reign as Queen as Naboo – that for a moment his thoughts and heart stutter to a shocked and painful stop) – she is openly grieving, in a way that Anakin had never been allowed to see, her eyes streaming constantly and her face so streaked with tears that tracks of unpainted skin run down her face and smears of red and white paint have run down her neck and gathered in the hollows of her neck and collarbones. And this time, Anakin can’t keep himself from physically responding. His head immediately snaps around towards Obi-Wan, and only the fact that Bail is currently looking away from both of them (his attention momentarily captured by the beauty of the sky above, starting to gain a rosy hue and color with the approaching sunset) keeps them from having their private conversation discovered by their Padawan. Before he can do anything else that might give them away – much less even begin to form a coherent response – Artoo glides past him, beeping reprovingly and startling him enough to at least be looking in the proper direction when Bail’s attention returns to his Masters. A heartbeat later, Obi-Wan admits, with an ominously sick feel to his words, I believe I may know the answer to that.

But –

You remember how Bail told us that Sola insisted she was supposed to be "rewarded for her sacrifices with the task of raising the instrument of her sister’s downfall into a suitable heir for the glorious Empire that would arise from the ashes of the old Republic to spread across all of the known galaxy," when she was raving about Padmé’s death?

Yes, but what – ?

Sola Naberrie lost her first two children to miscarriages. The first child – a boy – died when she went into premature labor, just under six standard months into her term and a little over a month after the crisis on Naboo with the Trade Federation’s droid armies had been resolved. She lost her second child – a girl – about halfway through her pregnancy, when she miscarried after being wounded in an attempt on Padmé Amidala’s life, during the election proceedings that ended up granting Padmé a second term on the throne. It’s why she named the two children she did have as she did – Ryoo for the elder and Pooja for the younger – instead of following the old custom where first-born girls are given names that end in the traditional -a/ while the names of second-born girls end in -é except for when a boy has been born before them, in which case that final -é must be changed to another vowel besides either -a or any form of /-e/, whether accented or not. Padmé told me all about these naming customs, once, when I asked about the prevalence of women on Naboo whose names end in what sounds like an /-a/, whether they’re actually spelled that way or not. There are similar traditions regarding first- through third-born male children as well and special rules for children who are born as either identical or fraternal twins or triplets, but she didn’t tell me those, other than to mention that first-born sons are always given names that end in some form of /-e. There used to be customs regarding third- and fourth-born girls and so on, down the line, but apparently they were deliberately dropped from widespread cultural use around twelve hundred years after Naboo’s colonization by Grizmallt. The human population suffered from what is believed to be some form of a hive virus that targeted human reproductive systems. Something like a quarter of the population that survived the high fevers was rendered entirely sterile, and over two-thirds of the remaining population suffered from greatly reduced fertility. According to Padmé, it’s only been in the last few hundred years that it’s begun to become more normal for human Nabooian families to have more than two or three children and to have those children naturally be their own. Most Nabooian parents don’t adhere so closely to the naming customs that they follow the traditional rules with all of their children, including those who are lost to miscarriages or other misfortunes that result in other than live births, but Sola apparently felt the loss of those first two children enough to give the two who survived names that reflected those losses. Ryoo was named so that those who are familiar with the naming customs will recognize the fact that she would have been Sola’s third child and her second girl, and I would assume that Pooja’s name was also chosen to reflect the fact that she would have been Sola’s fourth child and third girl.

But those losses weren’t Padmé’s fault! She loved her family! She would have been devastated if anything had ever happened to any of her relatives!

True enough. The loss of Sola’s first child nearly broke her. Padmé blamed herself. You wouldn’t know this, Anakin, because she disliked speaking of it, afterwards, but she was actually on Coruscant, making a report to the Senate about the amount of damage that had been inflicted on Naboo and its peoples by the Trade Federation’s blockade and invasion, when Sola went into premature labor and lost the child, and the news nearly destroyed her. I know because one of the first things she did was to ask for me. You had begged me for permission to join a mixed class of initiates and first-year Padawans that was being taken to Alderaan on a gathering expedition, searching out medicinal plants for the Healers and new cuttings and seedlings for the Temple gardens. Do you remember that trip, Anakin? You were gone for three days and I wasn’t allowed to go with you because I’m not a trained Healer. I hadn’t wanted to let you go, but your heart was set was on it, and Bant was going, and Bail, who was in residence on Alderaan at the time, had promised me that he’d visit the Jedi chapterhouse outside Aldera, to make sure that the visit was going smoothly, so in the end I allowed you to go. It was a good thing that I did – or at least it seemed so, at the time. I received a holocomm from Padmé and Sabé early in the afternoon after you had departed, with the others, and I spent most of the next two and a half days with Padmé, trying to help her. I barely made it back to the Temple in time to meet you, when you returned. Padmé was utterly inconsolable, at first. She came very close to resigning her position as Queen, as an act of penitence, in those first few days after learning about Sola’s loss. She actually did try to abdicate the throne, after her sister’s second miscarriage, but Sola wouldn’t let her go through with it. Afterwards, Padmé told me that Sola had told her that she didn’t trust anyone else to find the ones responsible for the attack and see to it that they were brought to justice. She honestly thought that she owed it to her sister to remain Queen, at least until those responsible for the attack could be found and brought to justice. But she refused to allow the people to alter Naboo’s laws so that she could be asked to serve a third term. I think a part of her was afraid that, if she continued on as Queen, another tragedy would strike at her family.

But then why –

Justice is not vengeance. And the Trade Federation was never truly punished, much less made to suffer, for what they did to Naboo.

But how could she remain a willing ally of Sidious if what she wanted was vengeance for her lost children? Sidious and his alter-ego, Palpatine, were most responsible for keeping organizations like the Trade Federation from receiving either justice or punishment for their illegal activities, and if she knew Palpatine and Sidious were one and the same then how could she possibly justify –

But that’s just it, Anakin. If Sola truly has been a willing ally of the Sith, she would not need to be able to rationally justify her actions. She would need nothing but her anger and pain, her hatred and her thirst for revenge, to drive her. Rational thought would have very little, if anything at all, to do with either her thoughts or actions – including the decision to become a willing traitor, by allying herself with Sidious. If that is, indeed, what happened.

But if she were that upset, then shouldn’t someone – her husband, at least, if not Padmé – have sensed how badly she was floundering, and done something to stop her or save her?

The answer is in the question. If Sola is as much like Padmé as you have said, she would have willingly allowed no one to see her pain. And those who were nearest to her could not have sensed any change in her, since none of them are both sufficiently sensitive and trained enough in the Force to be able to feel the truth at the heart of her, no matter how many shields or how strong a facade of calm or acceptance Sola might put up around herself. As the former Senator of Naboo and the Chommell Sector and, at least supposedly, a natural-born, property-holding citizen of Naboo, Sidious often visited Naboo and even more often gave advice via holocomm to Queen Amidala in his guise as Palpatine. He could have easily been the first one strong enough in the Force to sense the change in Sola to come into contact with her after she lost her second child. And if he had already taken the time to win her admiration and friendship, by cultivating her goodwill and respect, in his Palpatine role, it would have been relatively easy for someone as patient and as clever in his ability to manipulate others as Sidious was for him to gradually get her to open up to him, thus winning her over so thoroughly that he would secure her loyalty so absolutely that he would eventually be able to reveal himself to her as Sidious without her feeling the need to turn on him. All he would have needed to do to win her over to his side would be to play on her weakness, using both her anger and pain as well as her sense of isolation from her family because of her unwillingness to truly share of her pain and anger, to make her believe that only he truly understood and that therefore only he were worthy of both her devotion and her aid. If that’s essentially how and why it happened, then we might be able to save her, still. Otherwise . . . it may not be possible to reach her any longer.

Hesitantly (and determinedly not frowning), Anakin replies by pointing out, I don’t know, Obi-Wan. I don’t get the feeling that her family really wants us to "save" her. I think they want us to get the truth out of her in a coherent enough fashion that they can record it and either use it to press charges against her or as evidence to make her – what was that word Bail kept using? /Strep/-something-or-other?

Anakin’s uncertainty and obviously growing unease prompts Obi-Wan to immediately fall back to an old and oddly comforting pattern of speech, relaying information to him rather like a lecturing schoolmaster might and dryly pointing out some of the gaps still remaining in Anakin’s knowledge-base while at the same time wryly acknowledging some area or skill where Anakin does excel, in that way also bolstering his self-confidence, if only in the hopes that the comparison might prompt Anakin to wish to excel as much in the first area as he already does in the second. Many of their little talks, as Master and Padawan, had followed or been a variation upon this pattern, and the familiarity calms and reassures Anakin sufficiently that he is able both to listen to the words and to hear them, and the thoughts behind them, clearly enough to at least start to push past his own deepening anxiety. That would be /streppoch/, Anakin. "One who has been forsworn and cast off by family for deeds too foul to name," as the Nabooians term it. I believe that the comparable Alderaanian term is /strìosach/, or "one who has sold all – including oneself – for an unjust cause and been justly forsworn for the deed," and that in Chandrilan it is /stríovach/, or "accursed: one who has been forsworn for treachery and evil," while in Grizmalltian it is /strevvach/, or "outcast: one who has willingly betrayed all and been forsworn for it." Hence, /kàil’strìosaim/, in Alderaanian; /cáel’stríovain in Chandrilan; khael-strevvaim in Grizmalltian; and khiel-streppain in Nabooian: "one who has been legally declared a blood-traitor, cast off by kith and kin and forsworn by their world or nation for evil deeds of treachery and betrayal." If language and culture lessons had been as able to hold the whole of you attention as lessons in applied mechanics could, you would know this already./

Anakin almost laughs as he retorts, Sorry, Obi-Wan. Mechanics just /are more interesting than other languages. Besides, when it comes to communication, knowing non-human languages tend to be a lot more practical, at least most of the time, than familiarity with mostly obsolete non-Basic dialects, especially when most of those non-Basic dialects tend to be reserved either solely for sources of colorful local curses or else are used only by the aristocracy or some form of elite priesthood. There just aren’t that many worlds that we know of that have human or near-human settlers who’ve managed to keep any dialect of their own intact as a living, working language. Most planetary populations gave up their dialects in favor of Basic when the Republic was still just a small alliance of worlds in the Core. And besides, it sounds to me like those are all variations on the same root word. Once you know the meaning of the root word – "blood-traitor," as I believe you and Bail have both said? – you can guess at the meanings of all the others and be assured of being at least mostly right. Anyway, it won’t matter what they call it on Alderaan or Chandrila or Grizmallt or even here on Naboo if there isn’t enough evidence to prove that Sola really has turned on her family and been an ally of Sidious, now will it?/

In response, Obi-Wan waits until Bail looks away from them towards the now brilliantly colored but beginning to darken sky again before he risks sending a quick and obviously pleased grin in Anakin’s direction. That’s true enough, love. We want to enter into this prepared, but not with our minds already made up. If the Naberries and Ryoo Thule and Darred Janren wish for us to render a judgement, then Sola Naberrie is going to have to prove herself suspect enough to warrant the investigation. Agreed?

Agreed. And we should probably turn all of our attention back to Bail, before he notices something. He may be new to the ways of the Force, but he’s smart and he’s observant. He’ll catch us out, if we’re not careful, and then all that effort towards reassurance and calm and trust will be out the airlock.

An impression of half genuinely amused and half sardonic laughter greets that particular observation. And Force forfend you should have to go through all that again, when the first time through should be good enough for anyone, eh? /Another impression of laughter follows, and then something that feels like a head-shake, followed by a more serious, No, don’t protest, Anakin, that’s quite alright. I understand. You never were very close to Bail, and you’ve had to go from calling me Master – and not being asked to avoid it, since I was still teaching you, at the time, and our partnership was based more on our past Master-Padawan bond, then, than anything else – to being called Master by another in a very short period of time. There wasn’t much time, before, for a lot of thought as to how awkward this would be, for you. I am sorry for that. But we should all have more time, later, to become more used to each other. And in the meantime it’s probably better not to push too quickly for more trust or closeness than any of us feels comfortable with offering freely. Things like this – asking him about what he’s seen and what he heard about what’s happened on Coruscant, in our absence, and trusting him to tell us everything we need to know – will help. And you’re right. We’ve managed to reassure him that he is still our Padawan and that we do want him in our lives, and it would be a shame to throw that calmness and renewed sense of trust away./

Anakin manages not to roll his eyes only because Bail is looking at him. Alright then. Agreed. But you’re the one who needs to hush now, then, if you don’t want him to start getting suspicious. Me, I’m going to ask him another question. I like some of the points that got brought up in his conversations with Senator Mon Mothma, and I, for one, want to know more about what she – and, by extension, the other Consuls – are going to be expecting of us. Then, suiting action to words, Anakin narrows his eyes at Bail in consideration and quietly remarks, "One of the reasons why the old Republic fell prey to the kind of corruption and manipulation that killed it is because the sentient beings thought that they could have their candied jewel-fruit and eat it too. At the end of the New Sith Wars – which I suppose I should call the Light and Darkness War instead, since we know that all of the Sith weren’t quite destroyed in the Seventh Battle of Ruusan, after all – the Galactic Republic restructured itself to shift some power away from the Supreme Chancellor and into the Senate, and the politicians who gained power because of that used the lingering fear and leftover pain and anger from that long conflict to pressure a much-reduced Jedi Order into restructure itself, as well. In addition to certain other damaging changes, the Jedi were made to give up their battle armor and renounce all claim to their military ranks, including dissolving their forces in branches of the Republic military, disbanding their private infantry and naval forces, and placing themselves under the direct supervision of the Supreme Chancellor and the Judicial Department. In effect, the so-called Ruusan Reformations stripped the Republic of its armed might – supposedly to keep the Jedi from ever becoming a conquering force within the galaxy, as the Sith had been – and yet it also put the burden of protecting the sentient beings of the Republic squarely upon the shoulders of the Jedi, for at the same time both the size and the legal powers of the Judicial Department was cut back by so great a margin that the Judicial Forces effectively no longer had either the strength or the ability to enforce their own laws or rulings, not without some other power there to backup and help carry out their will. So while the various beings of the galaxy were, on the one hand, stripping the Jedi Order of most of its power and resources to protect the citizens and territories of the Republic outright, they were also setting the Jedi up as essentially their sole line of defense and protection. Or in other words, they were making it so that the Jedi had to play at being gods to protect them instead of just giving them the resources and backing necessary to help the sentient beings of the Republic learn how to keep themselves safe. Which essentially set the Jedi up to act as the perfect fall guys for anything that might ever go wrong in the known galaxy ever again, since they were the heroes and protectors of the Republic and would therefore be assumed to be able to handle any and every thing that might ever get thrown at them. So. My question for you, Padawan, is this: do you honestly think that the path the Grand Masters intend for the Jedi Bendu to tread and the role that Senator and junior Consul Mon Mothma seems to expect the New Jedi Bendu Order to play in the new galactic government will be able to avoid leading us back into this same pitfall?"

Although Bail Organa is already much more animated than either Anakin or Obi-Wan has seen him be since the aftermath of their cleansing of the Force, when he first became their Padwan, his eyes alight with such fervor at that question and his presence in the Force suddenly burns with such a white-hot intensity of purpose and belief that Anakin abruptly finds himself blinking, as if needing to deal with the effect of a sudden dazzle of sunlight. Obi-Wan, smiling openly as he moves even closer to Anakin – close enough to unobtrusively reach for and snag his right hand in Obi-Wan’s left – floods their bond with warmth and appreciation, but refrains from saying or doing anything else, besides giving Anakin’s hand a squeeze. Instead, quietly, attentively, the two Jedi Bendu Masters simply hold on to each other’s hand, and continue on their way, listening to their Padawan speak with both obvious passion and moving eloquence on both the need to avoid just such a trap and the steps that he and Mon Mothma and the Grand Masters (with some help from the notes Obi-Wan left on that datapad for Bail) have already concluded will need to be taken in order to safely circumnavigate that particular pitfall, hopefully once and for all . . .

No longer needing to spare the concentration necessary to control their expressions and actions, now that their silent conversation is well and truly finished, Anakin and Obi-Wan can and do finally look around themselves and truly see and admire the lovely city surrounding them, rather then simply registering whatever is necessary to continue moving through it unscathed. Now, they can and do take the time to notice how they are moving through a scene of simplicity and uncomplicated beauty, of young children playing while their elders either sit quietly under the now setting sun, lounging in its lingering warmth and gazing contentedly up at the brilliantly hued sky, or else gossip animatedly across neatly trimmed hedgerows while groups of brightly chattering, mostly teenagers and young adults move purposefully, though somehow without truly seeming to hurry, along the pleasantly tree-shaded sidewalks. It is a scene of absolute normalcy for a peaceful Naboo, but it unlike anything that either Anakin or Obi-Wan have witnessed or experienced in years, and it acts like a balm upon their souls. Though the sun is near to being well and truly set by the time they arrive on the street where the Naberrie home – a simple but tasteful structure of warm, pale golden stone, surrounded, like everything on Naboo, by flowers and vines and hedges – there is still more than enough light to see by, the sky above washed with jewel-bright bands of flame-touched coronas, crimson and scarlet and orange mixed with bright pink and deep rose and shading into cooler bands of lavender and violet just starting to shade towards the deeper blues and darker indigos of true twilight. Filled with a deeply abiding sense of peace, the two men find themselves coming to a stop about midway across the hedge-enclosed lawn, faces turned up towards both the lovely and inviting house and the even more beautiful skyline stretching up into infinity beyond its gently rounded rooftop.

Not noticing that they have stopped, at first, their still talking Padawan continues across the yard towards the door, coming to halt a about half a dozen meters beyond them when, after reaching the end of his statement, he looks around his shoulder to gauge their reaction and finds his Masters several paces behind him. Bail is just starting to frown quizzically at them when the home’s front door opens and two young girls with dark brown hair slip out. The younger of the two girls – a child of perhaps six or six and a half years of age, with naturally wildly curling dark brown hair and even darker brown eyes who looks so much like a younger and slightly rounder-faced version of Padmé that it is immediately obvious that this is the youngest of Sola Naberrie’s children – just looks out at them for a few moments, silently and solemnly, before she finally catches sight of Artoo, rolling hurriedly up the walkway towards the house. Then, abandoning her seriousness, she lets out a relieved, happy cry of, "Artoo!" before hurtling down from the house (so quickly that the lavender lace and indigo Dramassian silk skirts of her formal dress fly up around her knees as she dashes wildly forward) to the little droid, who rocks back and forth excitedly and beeps at her eagerly, clearly just as pleased to see her as she is to see him.

The second girl – an older and much taller child, easily at nine years of age, with lighter, almost chestnut colored, straight, long hair, a fragile oval face already graced with startlingly sharp cheekbones, a small but full and almost perfectly bow-shaped mouth, and eyes so huge and dark that they almost appear to be black – unlike her young sister, remains wrapped in an air of quiet solemnity as she walks unhurriedly but purposefully out to meet them, nodding gravely at Bail Organa as she moves past him and allowing her right hand to drift caressingly but briefly across Artoo’s polished dome as she continues across the lawn towards the two Jedi Bendu. Coming to a stop two long steps (or one truncated stride, for either of the two men) in front of them, Ryoo Naberrie takes hold of her deep amethyst-hued septsilk skirts, and sweeps them a deep, formal curtsey, bending so low that she seems in imminent danger of toppling herself over, though in the end she makes the motion just as smoothly and gracefully as a seasoned courtier or a trained dancer might have. "Jedi Master Skywalker. Master Bendu Kenobi. Beannachtas an bàingeal dhuit, Athros. /White your world, Masters: blessings of the Light upon you both. My /mâthair’uir has gone into the Light: soréidh aing beannachtas dhìth. Bydd i ti ddychgwelyd. We will all meet again, in the Light, and so I say both blessings and farewell to mór Padmé Amidala. I cannot say that my grief is the same as your own, but I can and I do share in your grief, Master Kenobi, who was her cariad o’nhgariad /and /fíor grá-mór/, just as I also share in your grief, Master Skywalker, who was her /far-charach and fíor ainghariad cariodal. Please, come in, and be welcome in our home! Muríos fàilte a ar n’dachaidh. My aithár and the rest of my teaclach are all waiting for you, inside."

Anakin is too stunned too respond with more than a deep nod of his head in response. Ryoo Naberrie, eldest living daughter of Sola Naberrie and Darred Janren, looks and sounds so much like the vision of his own daughter with Padmé, as passed along to him by Obi-Wan, from his far-sight visions, that his heart seizes painfully in his chest and the breath catches in his throat as though from a sudden heavy blow. The agony of loss is so abrupt and unexpectedly all-encompassing that it is all he can do to keep himself from either crying out in pain or turning away from the child so that he will not be reminded of what he has lost (though Anakin knows, in his heart of hearts, that if he had to make the choice again, he would sacrifice the chance of ever having or knowing any children of his own, if only to keep from inflicting the horror of Darth Vader on the galaxy . . . and on Obi-Wan). So Obi-Wan is the one who recognizes the first sign that Sola Naberrie is, indeed, far more than she has seemed to be.

Pooja Naberrie, bending over Artoo and straining to hug him with her small arms, is just an ordinary child, in the Force. Obi-Wan can tell, even without reaching out to her, that she has just as little Force-sensitivity as her /mâthair’uir/, her aunt Padmé, has possessed. Ryoo Naberrie, on the other hand –

– Ryoo blazes like wildfire, in the Force. Her potential shines like the light of a small but steadily burning bright star. Judging from the effect she has on the Force, she is easily powerful enough to have been a Jedi. In fact, judging from the swirls in the Force around her, the way she seems to pull its energies in towards her entirely naturally, without having any real idea of what it is that she’s doing, Obi-Wan would guess that she’s probably at least potentially as powerful as someone like Knight Offee or Master Unduli. She doesn’t strike him as being as strong in the Force as their Padawan, Bail, is – Bail’s potential is so great that even when the taint had still been present upon the Force he had shone like the sun, and if Ryoo were anywhere near as strong as that then Anakin should have been able to sense her in the Force when he escorted Padmé back to Naboo, before the outbreak of the Clone Wars – but she is easily strong enough that she would outshine some of the weaker Padawans and Knights he has known. If her mother is as strong in the Force as Ryoo, then she has the potential to be at least as dangerous an enemy to the Jedi Bendu as Darth Maul once was to the Jedi. And if Sola has been in league with the Sith and if she were to one day attempt to resurrect the Sith name – even if she would necessarily be forced to do so without a vast majority of the lore and training that would have accompanied a Sith who truly was of Darth Bane’s line – by choosing to teach her daughter in the methods that have for so long erroneously been called by the name of the Dark Side, ways of using power that, in truth, are a perversion and a warping of the Force’s very nature . . . Obi-Wan feels the urge to shiver with dread, at the thought, and his stomach curdles sickly within him. He does not need any knowledge of the many different possible probable future pathways, as revealed by Force-assisted far-sight, to know that this could be a very bad thing, indeed.

Feeling oddly as though he has stepped out of a familiar room into what should be an equally familiar hallway and instead found himself balancing precariously at the top of a long, steep stairwell, Obi-Wan finds himself moving to go down on his knees without an recollection of having made the decision to do so. Since it does make a certain amount of sense to approach the child more on her own level, though, he allows himself to finish the motion, mentally side-stepping from his own surprise and anxiety and moving more deeply into the Force’s embrace, willing to do whatever it may be that the Force most wishes of him, in this moment (though he hopes, in a distant corner of his mind, that it will be something that will allow them to entirely sidestep the calamitous possible future that he can so clearly imagine, even without the Force’s assistance). He is surprised to find his eyes on a level with Ryoo’s when he has come to rest (she is already such a tall child that he would have expected to find himself looking up at her, if only a little), but his voice is calmly matter-of-fact as he looks at her and says, "Ryoo Naberrie, daughter of Darred Janren and eldest living niece of Padmé Amidala."

Any response other than an acknowledge of her welcome and their obedient acceptance of her invitation to come inside the house clearly was not in the script, for young Ryoo. Blinking at him, startled and confused and beginning to be a little wary now, she nevertheless hesitantly nods an acknowledgment, even though his statement had not been meant as a question, before asking, "Yes, Master Bendu Kenobi?"

"Has no one ever told you that you are strong in the Force, young one?"

Her composure breaks momentarily, then. She gapes at him, mouth hanging open, clearly stunned. Hands rising up from their lax position at her sides to twist themselves together, in a gesture that appears half pleading and half frantic worry, she breathes an incredulous, "No!"

"You are. I must assume that you were never tested, for anyone strong in the Force who had been looking would have been able to sense your potential. You are more than powerful enough to have been raised as a Jedi initiate, youngling."

"Am I – could I – is it still possible? That I might train as a Jedi, I mean?" Those last words come all at once, in a flood, while Ryoo clenches her small hands together so tightly that lines of white arc out across the back of her palms, originating from the points where the tips of her individual fingers are digging into the skin.

"As a Jedi? No, child. The old Order has passed away. But as a Jedi Bendu, as an initiate of the New Jedi Bendu Order, you would always be welcome. If your wish to join the New Jedi Bendu Order and either your father is willing to allow it or you are convinced enough that you should do so to be able to weather making a decision that would go against his will, then we would be glad to have you, youngling. We are starting a new chapterhouse on Naboo, in Dala City. Master Lo-Jad and Knight Sia-Lan Wezz have already worked out most of the details with Queen Apailana, and the establishment of the enclave has been approved both by the Grand Masters of the New Jedi Bendu Order and by the ruling body of Naboo. I believe that an announcement to that effect will be made and that testing for potential trainees will begin as soon as the mourning period has passed, for your mâthair’uir Padmé."

Ryoo’s presence in the Force blazes furiously bright with emotion, unadulterated joy and gratitude and pure relief flooding from her like streamers of sunlight, painting her in a corona of what feels like light and color and warmth, the sense of her in the Force suddenly more like that of a joyous rainbow or the aurora nimbus of color and flame around a rising sun instead of the colder, steady luminosity of colorless starlight. "I wish to join! Master – "

"It is not my permission you must seek, youngling. But if you wish for my blessing, then I will give it. And if you wish for my opinion, then I must tell you that I believe you will grow to be a great Jedi Bendu Knight, a veritable paladin of the Light," Obi-Wan assures her, smiling, and then opens his arms in time to catch her as she hurtles himself at him, her laughter as he catches her and then swings her up in his arms as he rises to his feet with one swift, easy motion so blatantly happy that he doesn’t even bother to try to keep from grinning, either at his former Padawan’s startled but thankful face or his new Padawan’s much more shocked expression. Instead, he simply returns the young girl’s hug (though somewhat more carefully, to avoid crushing her), and then, when her startlingly hard hold on him starts to ease, lets her slide back down to her feet, watching and grinning even more widely when she immediately throws herself at Anakin, catching him in an equally fierce hug.

"Aeshtaúr Skywalker, did you hear? I’m to be a Jedi Bendu!" Ryoo cries happily, her arms growing even tighter around Anakin.

Quick as thought, Anakin opens the bond, plaintively asking, /Obi-Wan? /Aeshtaúr? A little help, please?

Still think that non-human languages are more useful? Obi-Wan can’t help but ask back, not bothering to hide his amusement.

Ma-a-aster – !

Still so immeasurable pleased by Ryoo’s joy that even the whine entering Anakin’s mental voice can only serve to reinforce his quiet amusement, Obi-Wan gently replies, I believe that would be "uncle," Anakin. And she is, technically, your niece. That would be níthoghean.

Ah. Thank you. Anakin grins at him as, between one heartbeat and the next, the panicky look fades from his eyes and he declares, quickly enough that even another fully trained Jedi might not have noticed his initial almost infinitesimal hesitance, as he consulted with Obi-Wan, "I heard, níthoghean. It is wonderful news. You should go and tell Artoo and your sister. I’m sure they’ll both be thrilled to hear it," he adds, smiling as she immediately begins to wriggle to be let down, at which he immediately leans forward to carefully sit her back down on her feet, watching her with quiet wistfulness when Ryoo immediately dashes across the yard, making a beeline for her little sister and the droid.

Silently reaching out to place a hand on Anakin’s left shoulder, Obi-Wan quietly informs him, "They are untainted, whatever their mother has been involved in. Ryoo is certainly strong enough to become a skillful Knight. The littlest one is more like Padmé. If she takes after her in spirit as well, she may well go into politics. You can be proud of them, Anakin, even if you cannot publicly claim marriage-relation. And they are not your only family. Bail and I and the Grand Masters are as well, by choice and by willing bond."

"I know, Obi-Wan. It just . . . hurts. I wanted a family and Padmé had one that didn’t want her to be alone. It seemed to make sense, at the time. I know now that it didn’t, and that we were only substitutes to one another for what we both thought we could never have. I wouldn’t trade what I have with you now for anything in the universe, Obi-Wan. But I have regrets. And the loss of the children we almost had are the biggest ones. Those little girls are a gift from the Force. If Sola Naberrie has turned her back on them because she’d rather use the memory of the children she lost as an excuse to nurse her darker emotions, then I’m not sure if I’ll be able to help save her even if it might turn out to be possible. Maybe that’s selfish of me. But it’s the truth," Anakin admits, pitching his voice low so that it will not reach beyond Obi-Wan’s ears.

"Peace, Anakin. We would not be human if we did not have regrets. I have some of my own, as well. If the Force wills, then the Force will also provide. So if we have to, we’ll cross that bridge when we must by trusting in the will of the Force. All we need do now is accept Ryoo’s invitation to go into the house. The rest can wait," Obi-Wan replies equally quietly, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly and then lifting his head to smile at Bail, who is still standing several paces further into the yard, watching everything that has been happening and waiting patiently for his Masters to rejoin him and explain whatever he might need to know. "Our Padawan is waiting for us now, and so is the rest of your marriage-clan. Come along. The sooner we go in, the sooner this will be over with."

"True enough. Alright then. Let’s get this over with. Padmé wouldn’t want us to keep everyone waiting." Squaring his shoulders determinedly, Anakin continues across the lawn, towards Bail, the house, and the coming inevitable confrontation with Sola Naberrie, Obi-Wan keeping pace easily at his side.

***