part 2 - Star Wars fanfics I like

"Corrupted!" She waved a small disrupter in her bracelet at him, "It's wired for the senate cams, as soon as we stepped into the senate building they stopped recording. Honestly, I'm not an amateur, it took a year for Fox to even know I was doing this, and I had to tell him."

"Oh force," Cody groaned. "No wonder Fox is stressed. You're worse than Kenobi."

She glared at him, "I'm worse than Vos , thank you very much. Did you know I got Master Windu to run away last week when he walked into a room I was in? Even Vos can't do that."

"That isn't a good thing."

"I doubt I'm going to live to thirteen. Until then, I'm still breathing and I've decided to make that everyone else's problem."

"Thirteen? Why thirteen?" Cody frowned, "You're not one of the vode, kid, you're not even on the front."

A sadness appeared on her face. Joking about her inevitable death was always responded with eye-rolls or questions about her mental stability, it was much rarer for someone to think she was being serious. The Guard's commanders all knew that she was being truthful, and they all didn't talk about how it would most likely be them who would end her life. They just accepted it with a sad hug.

"Visions. I'm strong with them." She lied, shrugging off his concern. "Come on, Fox should be down the next hallway."

She grabbed his hand and dragged him the rest of the way, ignoring his uncomfortable silence.

"Fox'buir!" She shouted and let go the second she spotted the older man, taking a running leap and wrapping her arms around his neck. He barely faltered, one arm wrapping around her thighs to support her and the other stabilizing himself against the wall.

"Ad'ika, how many times have I told you not to run in the Senate hallways?" He chastised gently, his grumpy visage softened for a second.

"Sorry buir," She wrapped her legs around his waist and got comfortable.

"Hello Miss Maria," A different voice greeted, and she smiled.

"Hello, Senator Organa! How are you?"

Bail Organa had been talking to Fox before she interrupted but wasn't annoyed at her presence at all. He had a soft spot for children and would give her candies if he spotted her wandering the Senate halls.

"I am well, thank you. You look excited, did something happen?"

"One of the shinies let me choose their name! His name is Isaac and he found me wandering the streets. Also, I got to escort Commander Cody here."

"Wha- Cody?" Fox spluttered, finally realizing that his batchmate was there.

"Hello, Fox. Your ad is very hyperactive."

"Don't I know it," Fox muttered. "What are you doing here, Kote?"

Cody let out a slight wave of affection at the Mando'a name into the force. "In the Senate? Telling you that your shift is over. On Coruscant? I'm on shore leave and I want to spend it with my vod'ika."

Fox needed a few seconds to register exactly what Cody was saying, a sure sign that he's running only on caf and stress, so she took over.

"Come on, buir, end of shift means back to the station. Bye Senator Organa, have a nice day!" She wriggled out of Fox's grip and hopped to the ground, taking both commanders' hands and leading them back out.

"Goodbye Miss Maria, Commanders." The senator replied, looking amused.

"Maria, I can't just leave-" Fox protested once they got halfway down the hall.

"Yes you can, you just did." She said cheerfully, "Can I do your datawork today?"

"Will it get you to sit still and not cause trouble while I'm with Kote?"

"Yep! I won't run away or make problems, I promise!"

Cody looked perplexed. A ten-year-old wanting to do datawork?

Maria enjoyed doing the paperwork, but not for any normal reasons. By checking over Fox's paperwork, she got access to usually confidential files, especially considering that Palpatine had the habit of pushing his work onto Fox and having him forge his signatures on things such as bill proposals and financial statements. Maria was probably the most politically aware Jedi under 25, and she was slowly building a file called 'Fuck Palpatine, Here You Go Rebels, Use This For Propaganda.'

Fox knew about the file, but not the specifics. She couldn't have him meddling or telling Palpatine about it when his chip is online. It was pre-set to distribute to every major news publication and republican, neutral world, and separatist senator in the galaxy the second she pressed the button.

"Okay then." Fox ruffled her brown hair, ignoring her indignant cry. "So, Kote, how have you been?"

"Good. My general is driving me spare, he lost his lightsaber in the last battle and decided to go at Grievous with a vibroblade he had been stabbed with. Di'kutla Jetii. You?"

"If I have to attend one more senate gala I am going to eat my own blaster."

"So the usual?"

"Yes."

Notes:

Maria: "This is Isaac, he is my emotional support shiny"

Fox: "If I let you keep him will you stop running away to the lower levels?"

Maria: "Only if I get more shiny brothers that I can name"

Fox: "Deal"

Cody: "Wha-what the fuck?"

Chapter 8: Uno and Glitter; the making and breaking of relationshipsSummary:

Twilight Vampires: Can't escape em

Notes:

Sorry this is overdue, my grandpa died and I worked Black Friday in retail when I was gonna upload :/

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Draw four," Isaac said as he put down his card. "Switch to blue."

"I'm going to boil your teeth and drink it as my tea," Maria threatened as she picked up four cards from the stack.

"Uno reverse!" Cal put down his card, and she looked at him with abject betrayal.

"You who I call brother! How could you have come to hate me so?" She cried, dramatically throwing her hand against her forehead and fake swooning. She picked up another card, having no blue in her hand.

"Skip!" Isaac said cheerfully, putting down the card.

Cal looked on smugly as she was forced to pick up yet another card.

"The both of you can go kriff yourselves," She hissed angrily. Her hand contained eighteen cards, no power-ups other than a green +2 she was saving, and she was tempted to put it down and start throwing hands.

"What is going on here?" Fox demanded as he walked into the station to find twice the usual amount of Jedi initiates and a trooper playing babysitter.

"We're playing Uno, and I'm on the verge of ending a years-long friendship with my little brother." She grumbled.

"Why is there another Jetii cadet in my station?" Fox was trying to massage his temples through his helmet.

"Oh! I was talking with the force when it told me that the 212th and 501st were on Umbara and that Master Krell was heading there, and I couldn't have that. So I headed here to intercept him with a message alerting him he's being court-martialed for treason and another message to the council saying that an internal senate investigation came up with him being suspect for seppie sympathy since he has the highest casualty count in the entire GAR. Cal came with me because he overheard a bit of the force's conversation using his psychometry- OH MOTHERFUCKER! CAL, YOU LITTLE CHEAT!" She cut herself off with a shout, realizing that Cal was playing cards without his gloves and was seeing all her moves through the force.

Cal was sniggering and hid behind Isaac, forcing him to be his human shield as she dove at him, resorting to fists.

Fox caught her mid-air. "Maria. Focus. Who is Master Krell and why was it so important that you had to impersonate the senate?"

"Master Krell is a traitor, he was planning on decimating the 501st and 212th as a gift for Count Dooku because he wants to be a sith. He thinks the vode are all flesh-droids and he's a monster! Sure, it's a bit messy and if they look at from where the messages came from for too long they'll realize that it was a third-party and not actually from the senate, but I'm banking on the fact that Krell will panic and reveal his hand when he gets the message. He might go on a murderous rampage, but in the end, this will save hundreds of lives."

Fox sighed. "Okay then, ad'ika. Initiate Kestis, please don't cheat when playing cards. Isaac, are you babysitting or playing with them?"

"Uh, both, sir?"

"Very well, carry on." He turned on his heel and walked away.

"He looks stressed," Cal said, a bit worried. "Like Caleb."

Caleb was terribly stressed whenever they managed to get into contact with him. Two years into the war, and Caleb has been a padawan for six of those months meant that he was tired, grieving, and angry. It can't be easy being on the battlefield, especially for a young force-sensitive who can't still shield out death completely. Still, Caleb answered all their comms with an aching fondness and a wish to return home.

"Yeah," She agreed softly. "That's why we have to cheer them up whenever possible, got it? It's a very important job, getting them to smile."

"Yes ma'am!" Both Cal and Isaac nodded.

"Which is why I need your help getting my hands on a bucket of glitter."

"Ma'am?" Isaac asked, baffled.

"The chancellor is the reason he's so stressed, so I'm going to sneak into his office and throw glitter everywhere. He'll never know where it came from or why."

"Maybe instead of his office, you could break into his apartment and throw glitter on all his clothes and into his shampoo," Cal suggested, looking delighted at the thought of breaking and entering.

"Cal, this is why you're my favorite." She grinned madly.

"Maria, do you, by any chance, know why the chancellor showed up at the Senate meeting today to give his speech covered in glitter?"

"Maybe he's secretly a vampire," She managed to say with a straight face.

Fox was trying to keep from smiling but was obviously failing. "A vampire that sparkles?"

"Uh-huh, they're called Twilight Vampires, they sparkle in the sunlight instead of burning."

"Of course. Silly me."

They both lasted another beat of silence until they made eye contact and started laughing near hysterically. Whenever they managed to stop and take a breath, just a glance made them fall apart all over again. They sat there for what felt like hours, just giggling over the ridiculous mental image of the chancellor being forced to attend the senate covered in glitter because she got it on all his things.

"Come here ad'ika," Fox spread his arms so she could crawl into them. "Ner aran'ika. Thank you."

She hugged him as tightly as her small 11 year old body could. "Just want to make you smile, buir."

He smoothed her hair away from her face, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You always make me smile. Exposing all those politicians just because you don't like how they treat us, annoying Palpatine, even your little runaway attempts that I know aren't true attempts anymore."

"You know?" She blurted out, then flushed.

"Of course I know. You stopped looking annoyed when you get carried back ever since you met Isaac, I know you only go down to the midlevels to tease us now."

"Sorry," She ducked her head. "I know it stresses you to have me wandering around, but-"

"But you want to test your boundaries," He finished. At her questioning look, he elaborated. "Thorn and Stone sent me a parenting book after your third visit to the station. Jokes on them, I think it's a useful gift."

She snorted, "Want me to prank my tios' next?"

"Go for it, ad'ika," He ruffled her hair. "Just don't-"

"Get arrested! I know, I know!" She rolled her eyes, then shrieked at the fingers digging into her ribs.

"Brat," Fox said, tickling her.

"Buir! Buir please! Stop!" She gasped, giggling madly as she weakly batted at his hands.

When he finally relented, he had the biggest grin on his face. "Ni kyr'tayl gai sa'ad Maria Rosa-Cortez."

She froze, stunned. Everyone had teased and joked and insinuated, but for some reason, she never really thought that he would do the Gai Bal Manda with her. "Fox'Buir… Are you- Are you sure?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I wasn't," He told her, pulling her into a kedalbe kiss. "Ner adiik."

"Buir!" She tucked her head into his neck, clinging as tight as she could.

"I've got you, ad'ika," He soothed. "Ni ceta. I'm sorry I can't do anything more than love you."

'I'm sorry that I can't protect you from Sidious ' hangs unspoken between them.

"That's all I need from you," She replied.

Notes:

Maria, doing something ridiculous and presenting it to Fox like it's macaroni art: Do you like it?

Fox, choking back tears: I love it

Chapter 9: And the club is Jumping JumpingSummary:

Maria, while having a mental breakdown: This is fine :)

The clones watching her: Oh, honey,,, no,,,,,,

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Why did you warn me so late?!" She hissed at the force that warbled apologetically back at her.

She was attempting to stop the Temple Hangar Bombing, but the force only told her that it was time when she woke up that morning, so she was currently trying to cut several wires with only five minutes left.

Well, not actual wires. She could admit that she remembered absolutely nothing as to how the bombing was carried out, only that it killed several people and Barriss Offee was the one behind it all. The force was just nudging her to grab and place several disruptors around the hangar, as well as a strong EMP she had stuck under a ceiling tile. All this while wrapping the force around her so strongly to not be noticed by anyone inside the busy hangar.

A sudden shout of alarm wafted through the force, it practically screaming in her ear, and she threw herself into the nearest vent, pulling the grate closed with the force in one hand and slamming the 'ON' button for the disrupters.

A large buzz of all the datapad signals shorting at once and comms fuzzing and spitting. She can hear several people cry out and go on alert.

The EMP went off.

The hangar went dark, before a small blue explosion went off, washing the darkness in an eerie glow of malice.

One of the fighter jets caught fire, but nothing else. Troopers were shouting orders and the Jedi had their lightsabers ignited, all non-emergency personnel quickly evacuated. The bombing failed.

Yet Maria stared out through her safe spot inside the vent, horrified.

She felt it, the way the light had blinked out and the life disappeared into an empty spot in the force. The bomb had been a person. The EMP had caused the bombs to short out violently and catch fire. It was a suicide bombing. She just killed someone. She hadn't meant to, it wasn't supposed to go off at all.

' It was always going to happen,' The force crooned sadly in her ear. 'He was dead the second his wife fed him those nano-bombs. He would have never survived the surgery to remove them.'

"Fuck." She said, gripping her hair and resting her forehead against the cool metal floor of the vent. "Fuck! Why didn't you warn me earlier?"

' It was not certain until his wife made the choice. I warned you the second she did. There is no life, little one, without death.'

That was the Old Code, and while she objectively understood it, she also hated that she had to accept it.

"This is Offee's fault." She growled, pushing herself back through the vents so she could drop down into the hollow wall and exit into a nearby corridor. "She will be punished."

The force hummed in agreement. ' Ahsoka Tano will grow from this. This is her journey now.'

Maria pursed her lips, but nodded. "I support from the shadows, as I always do."

The force wrapped and settled around her shoulders, silently approving of her decision.

She watched as Ahsoka Tano walked away from the temple from her vantage point.

She hadn't wanted this to happen, but it was what was for the best. Ahsoka will be safe away from the temple, able to outlive the Empire and the other Jedi.

The Council was still trying to figure out who had planted the EMP and disrupters, wondering why they hadn't come out and revealed their involvement and knowledge, but Maria had no interest in glory. She's just here to help as many as she could and annoy Palpatine. Just that.

Just… trying to help.

She turned away from where Anakin Skywalker was left standing with the Silka Beads of what once was a padawan braid.

She moved silently away from the temple, following Ahsoka as she made her way through the city.

Ahsoka needs help. She had been a Jedi her entire life, and suddenly leaving a cult means no funds, no transport, and no future. If Maria timed it just right, she could reverse pickpocket the togruta and leave a few credit chips and a note of several safe abandoned homes in the midlevels.

She jumped down in an alleyway, before dragging her force presence down as much as possible. Twisting it so she seemed barely force-sensitive, just another street kid with their loud thoughts and flimsy shielding.

Maria ran out of her alley, giggling like a kid who was playing a game, she passed and knocked into Ahsoka, using the force to drop her gifts into her pocket, before disappearing out of sight before she could do anything more than complain.

She jumped down another level, landing gently with the force, she switched to her normal force-presence.

"Now to go find buir…" She muttered to herself.

Fox was probably still at the Station at this time of day, finishing the reports, and this went doubly so with the recent commotion of putting Jedi on trial.

She was halfway to the Station before she realised that the force had gone silent.

' Uh, force? Buddy? Bestie? Where'd you go?' She questioned, looking around the completely normal street.

The force didn't respond.

That's… unnerving. The force always responds. Even when she's reading Shakespeare's Macbeth while lounging upside down in one of the Sith Temple's Council Room thrones, the force is there to help her dramatize Lady Macbeth's monologue. Where did it go?

The midlevel street was mostly empty, only two scantily clad twi'lek women standing at the corner and one very drunk kiffar stumbling his way down the street. Nothing out of place.

She tentatively took another step and reached out in the force…

...And blinked up at the sudden shift.

She had fallen onto the floor, and the artificial sky was pitch black, as if it was the middle of the night cycle and not just the evening. The two women weren't there anymore, neither was the kiffar, but instead, there was a group of rowdy teens. In a millisecond, time had passed far quicker than it should have.

"No." The word was torn out of her mouth before she even registered it.

Time had moved forward, just like last time. She had accidentally walked through another Force Nexus. She has no idea how long she'd been gone. Is this even Coruscant or is it the Imperial Centre?

Her breathing began to speed up, panic overwhelming her. Is her family even alive?

The force, barely there and half muted from her own anxiety, tried to embrace her and calm her down.

' Alive. Sorry. Safe. '

She was trembling, eyes tracking every little detail on the street in a desperate attempt to spot any little indication of what day it was. What year it was.

Nothing. She didn't- She couldn't-

She had to find her family. She had to go find her buir.

Maria took off running in the direction she knew that the Trooper Barracks were. She had never entered them before, but she knew that's where the Vode spent their nights on Coruscant.

She didn't even care that she was crying and bringing attention to herself, she just wanted her buir.

The Trooper Barracks were filled and busy, with men guarding the outside. It was a massive warehouse structure, not much space for personalization and basically filled with just rows upon rows of bunks. But the sight of it filled Maria with such relief.

She ran straight at the front doors, not slowing down for a second, the instinct to just find her buir overwhelming.

Before she could get further than a few steps inside, with the outside guards yelping at her sprinting right past them, she got scooped up and stopped.

She screamed, wriggling madly and clawing angrily at them, sobbing like a baby. "No no no no no!"

"Woah! Ad'ika, Maria, calm down!" The trooper who grabbed her said. It was Lieutenant Dan, one of the Corrie Guard troopers she had named herself.

"No no no! Please!" She screamed, raggedly. "Let go! Please!"

The men inside were all waking up with some grumbling, and a few were startled enough that they grabbed their blasters.

She started panicking harder, the thought of blank faces and puppet strings filling her mind. The toneless way her buir says the words 'good soldiers follow orders.'

"Buir! Buir!" She sobbed, kicking out.

"Kriff! Fox!" Lieutenant Dan hollered, grappling with her so she didn't go tumbling to the floor.

"Maria! Let her go!" Fox appeared, worried and in his pyjamas.

The second that the arms holding her back were gone, she threw herself at him, tucking her face into the side of his neck and crying loudly.

"Shh, it's okay ad'ika. I'm here." He rubbed her back soothingly, "I'm not going anywhere. You're safe."

"I thought you were gone," She whimpered into his hug. "The force went quiet and I lost time."

"I'm right here," He repeated firmly. "It's Centaxday, 21st of Yelona 980. I saw you a five-day ago. I'm here. The force didn't take you."

She shuddered. She lost a day.

"Come on, you can sleep with me tonight," He said, picking her up and carrying her back to his bunk. "Everything will be better by morning."

---

"Wait, Fox actually adopted a baby Jedi? That wasn't a joke?" Wolffe asked, confused.

"That was so cute," Ponds whispered from behind his hand that was covering his mouth. "Worrying, but adorable. Our Fox'ika is a buir!"

Cody was equal parts concerned and tired. "Yes, Wolffe, that's his daughter, Initiate Maria. I'm more focused on her screaming the damn barracks down to get to him, even Jetii cadets know better than to do that."

"Oh, Maria is a heretic," Thorn said, appearing from behind them and making a tired Wolffe swear. "She thinks that 'no emotions' is stupid and psychologically damaging. She's still way more emotionally mature than a kid her age should be, but nowhere near what a Jedi should be."

"Do you know what happened to her to get her to throw a tantrum like that?" Rex spoke up, exhausted from the past week.

"A vision, probably." Thorn said grimly, "She's pretty strong with that kind of force-osik. And we're in a war and the force doesn't mince its words. From the way she wanted Fox, I'm guessing she saw him die and it scared her enough to send her running to find him."

"She knows when he's going to die? Jedi can do that?" Wolffe looked worriedly at the direction the father-daughter pair had gone. Fox was the youngest of their batch, the last decanted, and the smallest, having always been skinnier than his brothers.

"Some Jedi can, and it's really vague and terrifying." Rex answered, "Apparently my General saw his mother die through visions for a month before she actually died. And my commander… my old commander… she saw a handful of assassination attempts that she was able to stop."

They all took a moment to let that thought sink in.

Cody spoke first, "Thorn-"

"Don't Cody. Her visions are almost always certainties. I know she'll try her best to protect him, the little aran'ika, but she's still an ad." Thorn sighed tiredly, "And she's certain that she'll die before him."

"How old is she?" Wolffe said roughly, the stark reality of helplessness dawning on them all.

"She turns twelve by the end of the month."

"Force save us all," Rex said solemnly.

Notes:

Hey, uh, I'm back? A commenter (DandelionFlowers) left this amazing super long comment that I adored and wish that I had the mental energy to reply to, but they inspired me to try to continue posting this. This is cobbled together from some of the chapter outlines I had saved and some of the chunks have been prewritten since the first chapter, so the writing styles are kinda off, sorry about that! I'll try to finish the next chapter too, since it's about half-written, and try to find my notes on what was supposed to happen in it.

Leave a comment! They're super encouraging!

Chapter 10: Now Concept: Consequences To My Actions!Summary:

Maria: Okay what if I throw myself headfirst into nihilism and depression?

Windu: How about you don't?

Notes:

what's this? an update? after *checks calender* 12 months? It's more likely than you think.

How many times do I have to reply to comments saying that I don't abandon works, I just put them down until the hyperfixation returns?

I left an end notes to explain shit, read that please, I don't want to deal with 'update again' and 'where were you' comments

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Miss Maria, perhaps you have forgotten, but this is still a Sith Temple and you are a child." Madame Debois stated.

"And?" Maria asked as she flipped through a copy of The Lord Of The Rings in the terrible Proto-Basic that forced her to read everything aloud to understand.

"The darkness corrupts, even passively. You cannot keep coming down here to hide. From what I can estimate, you spend the majority of your time either in my archives or with your father, and rarely any time properly in your Jedi Temple. Have you even been attending your classes?"

She shrugged, "Cal and Caleb are padawans now, none of the other initiates my age talk to me, and I'm the only one left in my creche clan. I was the youngest, and now I'm 12 without any masters expressing any interest in me. What's the point in continuing lessons? I'll be dead soon anyway, there's six months left of the war."

"So you resign yourself to death."

"What else am I supposed to do?" She replied, eyes stubbornly fixed on the page in front of her. "I'm twelve. You want me to kill a sith lord?"

"Do not go gentle into that good night. I've helped and taught you how to expose several corruptions, how to save oppressed lives, but to save your own life, you refuse. To save others' lives, you refuse. Why?" She pressed.

"It will usher in a new age of Jedi. The corruption of the Republic will be burnt down and rebuilt. I die so others may live."

"You die and you condemn your father to die. All of those you claim to be family will die. They are out there, suffering, and you have the chance to stop it."

"And then what? So I kill the chancellor, then what? The senate will still be corrupted. The Vode will still be chipped slaves. The Jedi will still be brainwashed drones puppeted by the senate. I kill one man, who benefits? Who will be the next corrupt man to take his place? A throne is always sat on."

Madame Debois glared down at her, "A throne can be melted and destroyed. Kill him, expose the truth about all those things, live to love your family."

"You're an archivist! A holocron! Why do you even care?" Maria snapped, thumping the book down on the table and rising to her feet.

"Exactly child, I am an archivist holocron. Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it, and my job is to educate the next generation. Earth was ruined by those who were complacent in the face of evil. I do not want this to happen again." Madame Debois said firmly yet kindly.

Maria deflated, flopping down to sit on the chair again. "I don't want to be a Jedi. I like creating chaos, not order."

"With great power comes great responsibility."

She looked up, incredulous, "Did you just quote fucking Spider-Man at me?"

Madame Debois smirked, "It's a classic."

"My life is a goddamn spice dream," She muttered as she dropped her head into her hands. "Fine! I'm leaving! I'm gonna go visit my buir and tios. I'll even try to interact with a Master if I pass one. Happy?"

"Very. Shoo now," She waved her hands to usher her out. "I want to explore the Jedi Archives more tonight, and I can't do that with you in here."

Madame Debois liked it when Maria left her Holocron hooked up to the main Jedi Archives overnight, and since Maria has yet to get caught doing so by Madame Nu, she didn't mind the action. It made the old archivist happy, so who was she to complain?

Maria swung her legs up and stood, grabbing the Holocron grumpily as she left the room. With every level she climbed, she busied herself with shaking off the oily heaviness that was the dark.

Madame Debois wasn't wrong in the way that she had described the darkness corrupting. The first time Maria had come down here, shaking it off was as easy as shedding a jacket. Then, it was like a heavy blanket. Now, after hiding in the dark for over a year, it was like there were spiderwebs everywhere, they were in her hair and in the laces of her boots, far too difficult to get out with a simple sweep of the hand.

Some of it was still clinging to her in small threads when she broke the surface level and into the sunlight where the rest of the Jedi lived. She stopped trying to pull at those threads as she exited the elevator; it wasn't like anyone would notice them. Her best friends were in space, her creche master has all but been reassigned a new clan of babies, she hadn't signed up for any new classes for this year, and any passing master were likely fresh from the front or the senate– both locations which tended to be soaked in darkness.

She ducked into the archives quickly and left just as swiftly, not even drawing a single eye as she passed, leaving the Holocron in an out-of-the-way shelf.

It was only when she reached the landing platforms that was she actually looked at by someone.

And by that, she means that she got scruffed like a tooka while about to steal a hoverbike with a strict bark of "Initiate Cortez!"

Blinking lazily up at the angry Korun master holding her, she replied with a bland, "Master Windu."

"What do you think you're doing?" The man was rather unimpressed, wearing an expression that most would assume would only be reserved for Knight Vos or Knight Skywalker when either of the two was up to something particularly foolish.

That exact expression might be why Skywalker and Kenobi, who he had been in the middle of a conversation with, were looking at them with such startled faces.

"Stealing a bike," She replied, swinging her feet in the empty air. "Going to visit my dad."

That threw him off a bit, "Your what ?"

"My dad. Father. Parent. Papa. Buir."

Windu seemed to be doing the math in his head, "You don't have a father, Initiate. What are you talking about?"

"No, that's Knight Skywalker," She pointed at the Jedi behind them. "I got adopted. Caleb made a whole drama about me breaking the Jedi code. I told him to get stuffed."

"Who adopted–? When–? What ?!"

Wow. It's a true Force-given miracle. She made Mace Windu, Master of the Jedi Order, lose his cool. She's going down in the history books.

"Youngling, who is supposed to be looking after you?" Master Kenobi interrupted, looking concerned. "Did you meet your adopted father outside of the temple? Did you have a master with you then?"

"No one, yes, no." She listed in order. "Can I please go? Knight Skywalker feels like he just had a therapy session with a sith lord and it's icky."

She wasn't lying, he really did. Worse than the stale darkness below the temple, Skywalker had active– living – webs of darkness wrapped around his massive bright force presence and it made Maria shrink into her own signature in the force, pulling her light around her like a fur mink coat around her shoulders.

Skywalker made a sound of offended protest, "Says the kid who just admitted to breaking the Jedi code."

"Not like I want to be a Jedi," She shot back, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Sorry, go back, what do you mean there's no one looking after you?" Master Kenobi looked really worried, which she does suppose is fair when a kid admits to child neglect to you with a blase attitude.

"Isn't Master Gigom your creche master?" Windu demanded.

"Xe got reassigned to a new clan. Xe checks on me every once in a while to see if I've moved out of my rooms and got picked as a padawan, but I'm not really xer responsibility anymore," She shrugged. "The guard looks after me if I'm out of the temple. I'm fine."

"That is not fine," Windu looked horrified. She understands why, but considering she watched an initiate younger than her get picked as a padawan and get taken to the front lines, she thinks it's a bit out of place.

"The guard? Like the vode?" Skywalker asks.

"Yes, Fox'buir says that I'm to be watched so I don't get kidnapped again." She kicked her feet idly again. "Can you put me down? I'm going to start biting if you don't."

Master Windu, aware enough that her threats are never empty, dropped her. Skywalker, who has no survival instincts, pinned her with his mech hand on her shoulder.

"Commander Fox adopted you?" Kenobi asked, curious.

"How have you fallen so far through the cracks?" Windu said, horrified.

"Do you get kidnapped often?" Skywalker wondered, amused.

Maria replied by clamping her teeth around his fake-ass leather glove, which tasted awful and didn't even twitch at the pressure.

"I'm comming the Council of Reassignment," Windu declared, pulling out his comm. "We need to assign you to a master and figure this out. Skywalker, don't lose her."

Skywalker looked at where she was attempting to gnaw through his metal arm and raised an eyebrow, "I think we'll be fine."

She aimed a kick at his shin, but he dodged it easily.

"Your other arm is going to be cut off," She informed him, grumpily. "I hope you enjoy having prosthetics."

Windu's eyes snapped back onto her, "Is that a vision?"

"No," She said sarcastically. "It's a dismemberment."

"Are you prone to visions?" Master Kenobi asked sympathetically.

"Are you prone to–" She began to snipe back with something rude enough to probably get him to censor her. Luckily (or unluckily if you were Anakin Skywalker hoping to see your master get insulted by a youngling), Master Windu interrupted her with a very sharp: " Initiate! "

She huffed and crossed her arms.

If she was being honest, it was kind of refreshing to get yelled at and punished for something she'd done. Fox tries, but she'd be lying if she didn't acknowledge the power imbalance in their father-daughter relationship, especially since Fox was hesitant to ever truly punish her for acting out and becoming like those that punish him for any minor infraction. Madame Debois could, at most, snap at her; this led to small snark battles between the two temporally-displaced nerds which meant that any actual censure was waylaid. Creche Master Gigom had never actually even attempted to follow through on any of the punishments xey'd assigned her. Maria had, in her time living on Coruscant, never really encountered the meaning of the word 'no'.

Reasonably, she had become a bit of a brat for it. Even if she was valid for her moodiness and moments of acting out, she had managed to actually encounter a master's limit for tolerating her bitchiness.

"You will not disrespect a master in such a way!" Windu struck down on her, making her bluster and pout as she undertook an unexpected scolding. "You are a Jedi Initiate and you will act like it!"

She resisted rolling her eyes as she mumbled a vague apology.

"Now, you will answer our questions respectfully and fully, do you understand me?"

"Yes, Master Windu," She averted her eyes from the displeased Korun.

"Now, did you have a vision about Knight Skywalker losing another limb?"

"Yes," She answered plainly. She looked up at the knight, craning her neck to try and look him in the eyes. "You should avoid the Sith Master. It's bad for your health."

"You're taking her vision seriously?" Skywalker asked the older master. "Shouldn't you be focusing on telling her to stay in 'the here and now' and that the future is 'always in motion'?"

"I would," Windu acknowledged. "If her visions haven't warned me about Boba Fett and a crew of bounty hunters attempting to kill me. Several lives had been saved because of her warning. She also saved my Depa and her Caleb by warning them of Separatist activity that intelligence had no idea about; they would have been ambushed."

"Truly?" Kenobi looked at her curiously, stroking his beard.

"You listened ?" Maria couldn't help but gape. Then, another thought hit her. "Wait, you don't think I'm crazy?"

Windu frowned, "Who told you that?"

"Several masters, Master Gigom, Master Yoda, Masters Tiplee and Tiplar, Master Che, most initiates, a few padawans, Knight Ignos, Barriss Offee, Master Yaddle, Knight–"

" Excuse me ?"

She gave him a very deadpan, tired look. "I've been trying to warn anyone who sat still long enough for me to approach them. Nobody has ever listened to me when I tell them what is going to happen."

"You're having visions that often?" Kenobi shared a look with Windu, concern radiating in the force.

Skywalker was on a different thought path, "Why has nobody ever listened to you?"

Feeling petty and a tad exhausted, she asked him the exact same thing back: "Why has nobody ever listened to you when you were dreaming of your mother being killed by Tuskens?"

His mech hand spasmed around her shoulder, his shock and horror of her knowledge read plainly in his face and force signature.

"Because nobody wants to acknowledge that the galaxy is a terrible place and that bad things can happen to everyone, even if the force is speaking directly to them. It's easier to blame it on anxiety and emotions."

Windu stepped forward, "I think we should take this to the High Council."

"They won't listen," She was resigned to that fact.

"We'll see," Windu replied.

Notes:

IM ALIVE!

lmao, it's been literally a year since I updated this and also like 4 months since I updated any of my fics but I've had A Time lmao. My city got 2 States of Emergency in Jan/Feb due to flooding and storms where people died (I worked retail both days and nearly got stranded in the rising floods lol), then had Surgery mid-Feb (still bleeding a bit ✌️ ), had a break up (least emotional of all those lmao), and I got a positive COVID test this morning, yay!

I got back into Star Wars by complete accident (it was a Prequel edit of the ROTS novelisation opening overlaid to Mary On A Cross on TikTok that made me cry) and so, like I always promise, I have returned to my NOT ABANDONED old fic! TBH I don't really remember where I was going with this, and the only notes that I could find were already written or was the actual planned ending, which, uh, was literally just the words "Maria kills Palpatine with a slugthrower and Fox is Not Happy" and I don't have any context at all to this plan other than the probably very noticeable switch in quality quarterway through this chapter where I left off 12 months ago and just picked back up with no edits. sorry not sorry.

Uh, my writing style and personal preference in storytelling has changed, I'd apologise but that's just what growth is.

Bon appetite

Chapter 11: what the FUCK, council?Summary:

Emotions? In my crack fic? It's more likely than you think :)

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Maria was duly unimpressed by the High Council.

It's not her fault! She has explored the Senate, the Old Temple, and calls a Sith Temple her second home. She has seen the Clone Barracks filled with row after row of a million identical men all giving a paradoxical danger - safety in the force. There, the force sings. And sure, it wasn't always a nice song, but it was a song all the same.

The Sith Temple felt like someone was playing 'In the Halls of the Mountain King' on loop, and the Senate felt like you were a retail worker listening to 'All I want for Christmas' on loop while occasionally someone threw in either 'Megalovania' or 'Pumped up kicks' to inform you that some shithead did something particularly evil without any sense of finesse or order to their chaos. The Clone Barracks felt like a sad yet determined song which she would tentatively label 'Zombie' by the Cranberries. The Old Temple had a finesse of ancient nobility, abandoned and left to crumble, like walking through the Pyramids, the Roman Baths, the Greek Acropolis, the Palace of Versailles. It sang 'Once Upon a December' mournfully yet dignified.

The modern Jedi Temple, at its happiest, felt like you were walking the snowy streets on Christmas eve, overhearing church bells ring and someone singing Hallalujah, and while you may have been an atheist yourself, you can't deny that other's happiness made you feel content. Now, during wartime, it felt sadder yet empathic, sounding like overhearing your best friend listen to Mitski on loop and you want to beg for them to throw in some Hozier. The council, though they tried to express something close to 'Ode to Joy', their Mozart was flat and needed tuning, falling closer to the main Star Wars theme: beautiful and serious and coherent, but promising a pain and sorrow in the galaxy, with an inevitable sound of the Imperial March.

Maria probably listens to too much music, but it was the only way she could describe what these places felt like in the force to a non-force sensitive.

Some days, she wishes for a simple 'Binary Suns'or 'New Hope' tune.

She can tell she's not getting that here today.

"Master Windu," Master Yoda greets. "Called a meeting, you have."

"Yes," Windu puts his hands on her shoulders, moving her from out from under Skywalker's hold and into the limelight. "I have several points to bring up with the council concerning Initiate Rosa-Cortez."

Maria opened her mouth to correct him on her name and– Wait. Did he get her name right?

She didn't know that Jedi knew how to do that. Huh.

She could see Master Koon cock his head to the side and give the softest little wave of comfort towards her through the force, something that she appreciated greatly. She's never really interacted with the Kel Dor before, other than a quick greeting or two when he dropped off new younglings he'd find on a Search, that and the time she distracted him while Caleb raided his room for the pink cookies he gives to the really little younglings. She was only 8 back then, and she had ambushed him to ask questions on why he wears his mask and other details of Kel Dor physiology. Master Koon was so nice and patient, she feels like she should have tried warning him, but, genuinely, she forgets to attempt it with every adult she passes by.

"Familiar, I am, with Initiate Cortez, yes," Yoda replied in that really irritating way of his. Honestly, it was only cool to hear for the first few times she had heard it, then it just slowly evolved into her wishing to hit the annoying green frog over the head with a grammar textbook and stick his face into the chapter about syntax. "Many fears, she has."

Excuse me?

"Do I look afraid to you?" She blurted before Master WIndu could try and shut her up.

"Great fear, I sense in you. Hide it, you do not."

"I'm not afraid, you senile frog! I'm tired!"

"Initiate!" Master Rancis scolded from his holo-form. "Apologise to the grandmaster!"

Maria rolled her eyes, "Why should I do that?"

"Initiate," Kenobi said with the clear patience of someone who raised Skywalker. "Last time I checked, calling someone a 'senile frog' is an insult."

"And last time I checked, refusing to call someone by their name and dismissing them is an insult and a clear gross display of the lack of impartiality of this council! Or did nobody else notice that Master Windu came to raise several points about my well-being and the grandmaster of this Order immediately turned it around to victim-blame me for being afraid? Are you kidding me?"

She couldn't lie, she was furious at being treated like this.

She couldn't tell what was worse, that she could see that some masters had noticed immediately what Yoda had done, the ones who had noticed it but stayed silent, or the ones who straight up didn't see it at all. Masters Koon, Allie, and Skywalker tended to be leaning more to the former camp, while Kenobi and Mundi were in the middle, and Tiin and Kolar were obviously being led around by the nose by Yoda. It was infuriating.

But Master Windu was ignoring all of that to kneel down in front of her and try to get her to breathe.

A ridiculous thing, honestly, she's being doing it her whole life, why wouldn't she be breathing?

Oh.

She wasn't breathing. She was hyperventilating.

"Initiate, you have to breathe. Maria, release it into the force."

Release it into the force? No, no she can't, these are her emotions, her feelings, her thoughts, her soul . She can't let them go.

In a panic, she grabbed her emotions and pulled them even closer to herself, at first like one would wrap a coat, then tighter and tighter like she was trying to make a straightjacket turn into a second skin to turn into something beneath her skin. Her emotions were her own and they will live with her, lurking beneath her outer shell, like she has always done. But her emotions didn't seem to want to fit, not like they usually did, and roiled in discontent.

"Hey, kid," Skywalker was suddenly at her side, hands hovering, not quite touching but not quite to himself. "Those are an awful lot of emotions you have there."

What? No shit, Sherlock. Besides, you should be careful about throwing bricks in glasshouses, Señor-Slaughter-Skywalker.

"Do you think you could share some of that with me?"

Huh?

"I bet it's hard to keep your shields over your emotions when you're having so many, huh? I know I struggle with it, especially when the force is so loud here in Coruscant. The war and all your stress isn't helping, is it? It's harder when you don't have any force-sensitive around to share a bit with."

But they're her emotions. They– the council– have already told her that they don't care about her emotions, they don't care about all the hard work she's put in to try to warn them and help them. Her problems and her feelings are supposed to be hers , hers to hide away in her, and any leaking and sharing is frowned and ignored and told off on.

Cal and Caleb would help sometimes, but they dismissed her too. Fox would try his best, but he could never be there for her all the time like she needed because of his job and his lack of ability to lead her in the force. Her temple masters were always so busy and harried and just told her to meditate and release her emotions into the force but she didn't want to lose her emotions because that's all she has. All she has are her emotions, and without them, who is she? A sacrifice? A footnote in a story already written? A prophet and priestess cursed to never be listened to?

Cassandra knowing she will be slaughtered at the end of the story, yet watching the beginning unfold, seeing Paris come home with Helen and hoping that this time they'll listen but knowing they won't. Cassandra, hoping her brothers, Hector and Helenus– the compassionate warrior and the kind seer– will actually listen to her and not just indulge her. Cassandra, whose father loved her so, that in the end his devoted guarding of her, telling her to enter the temple of Athena and pray while he met the Greeks in his ill-fitting armour and her mother went to pray to Hera, died with his sword in hand. Cassandra, who was attacked in her temple, clinging and praying to the statue of her goddess, who could only avenge her years down the line with the revenge of a son.

Cassandra.

Across a hundred thousand years of history, Maria felt connected to a girl who shared her story. She wondered if Cassandra also brushed her hair knowing the futility of doing so when her head would not be connected to her body for long. She wondered if Cassandra also sang and danced by herself to smile in the only way she knew was truly fleeting and eternal. She wondered if Cassandra also asked herself about the use of the tears she cried and if they ever mattered. She wondered if Cassandra liked reading, liked playing cards, got fruit juice all over her fingers when she ate, took her father's blanket and pretended it was a cape, laughed and cried and was as human as her.

"Maria, please, trust me, trust the force, and share your emotions."

She wasn't Cassandra, she was Maria.

A sob hitched in her throat, and then she let go.

Anakin Skywalker might be the one who offered to share her emotions and lowered his shields so to receive them, but the entire council where there, were open to hear, and she would make them listen.

It was a rush to share every emotion, every memory, every thought and pain, all at once, making them listen to her grievances in a way they can't deny and then return to her, lighter at the burden shared.

She was four years old, scared and alone in a world that was alien to her, with not a single soul capable of communicating with, or understanding, her. She was four and she was accepted into a group that could not give her the extra attention she needed because of the overwhelmed master who did not know how to handle so many children with so many needs.

She was six, barely fully capable of Basic, and she learnt how to sneak away from her creche master to meditate in the Room of a Thousand Fountains by herself, but she was too scared to trust the force with her emotions and be calm like the masters– not when she felt her situation was not one to be calm towards– and instead promising to trust the force in everything else.

She was seven, a spark of silent rebellion every time she flashed her teeth, and Master Gigom stopped punishing her for skipping lessons because all xir attempts were futile, she was stubborn because she refused to give in.

She was seven, and she snuck out of the Temple to test her skills on corrupt politicians, trying to help the galaxy in the only way she knew would work, because she has been dismissed by every other adult in her life, adults who tell her to meditate on her anxieties but she refused to let go of her knowledge of genocide that brings anxiety.

She was nine and war began, and on the morning of Geonosis, before any knight, master, or padawan died, Maria had started screaming her lungs out. She went to every person that she could and tried to warn them that they were going to die, but they told her to calm down and trust the force, but couldn't they understand that she was trusting the force by trusting her knowledge?

She was ten, jaded and tired and rebellious, and found a kindred spirit, a fellow doomed soul, knowing of the darkness that awaited them all and equally unable to share their knowledge. She called that man father and she only asked that he closed his eyes when he killed her so he didn't have to see her corpse.

She was eleven, and she has realised that she can truly fade into the shadows and nobody will ever notice. She begins to drop her classes and wallow in her emotions more and more, scared that if she doesn't revisit every fact then she will forget.

She is twelve, and a ghost in the system. Once the order comes, they will only know to kill her because they know her, not because anyone else will know to look for her.

Every room she enters, she can feel the echoes of a Jedi's death. The council chamber cry tears that have not yet been shed. The creche is agony. The deeper into the temple, the harder it is to detect an undug grave, and so she chooses darkness over light.

Self-destruction as an act of desperation and self-preservation.

It is a cycle, a circle that nobody can see, not even she can fully comprehend that.

"Oh my."

Kenobi's words break her out of her uncontrolled meditation with the force.

"Failed you, this order has," Yoda said.

It was something incomprehensible.

"I understand," Skywalker said, slightly wrong-footed. "I don't want to forget my emotions either. But that hurts you… and I suppose it hurts me too."

He seemed to be blinking away more layers of the force than any other being in the room was doing so, dazed.

"Forget your emotions?" Kenobi echoed in confusion. "No. No, we'd never ask that of you, of either of you. What–?"

"I think," Master Windu said, voice strained as his eyes visibly reflected the millions of cracking spider-webs he saw burn like supernova. "That there have been some miscommunication and mishandling of incoming initiates."

"Forgetting and letting go is not what we preach," Mundi said. "Sharing the burden with the force, trusting it to take what you cannot carry at the moment, and returning to it later to meditate and feel, is what we preach."

"And I do believe that something is truly wrong in the creche if we are not capable of caring for every initiate as they need to be due to lack of resources." Koon spoke.

Are… are they apologising? To Maria ?

"But…" Her voice was small and her face was wet. "You didn't listen before. Nobody listens to me. Nobody cares."

Master Windu got his feet back under him from where he had fallen on his ass by her (vision? meditation? scream?) sharing. "We weren't able to listen before. Two different language were being spoken; we couldn't see what the force was trying to say because we were expecting it to speak the same language it always has. But we're listening now, and we care, we want to hear you translate it for us."

They… care?

"Tell us, Initiate Maria. The Sith, who are they?"

They're listening.

A new hope swelled in the force.

Notes:

ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER BABEY! Yeah, so, everyone who thought it was going one way, you're wrong, we're doing a 180 and taking the highway straight into the ocean.

I've been hinting (and explicitly saying) that Maria is an unreliable narrator and that the Jedi are the good guys, but not so many of you have been listening. This wasn't Maria becoming a padawan, that won't solve any of her problems. All she needed was someone to say that her emotions are valid, that the future isn't in stone, and they want to listen.

Anakin shows that yeah, miscommunication is a huge part of what dooms him. Windu is realizing exactly how they fucked up. Yoda gets told off but also he wasn't wrong at all in seeing what the problem was. Maria is emotional and she is controlled by her emotions, which isn't healthy, and she reaches out for help in fear more than anything else, so Yoda sees her being afraid as the main problem to work through. The Jedi are not willfully ignorant, merely confused by the cultural differences of psychology and language that both Maria and Anakin display.

And an extra pat on the head for everyone who didn't let go of the Cassandra foreshadowing from chapter 1. It wasn't a big conspiracy like y'all were theorising, but it's still relevant <3

Leave a comment!

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Chapter 12: Maria dislikes logicSummary:

Windu: Maria, if you could stop lashing out, we can help you

Maria: Bitch, I am so emotional right now and you are asking QUESTIONS

Windu: To help you

Maria: ...sorry

Notes:

I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER FOR ALL MY FICS!!! https://discord.gg/Et2pUb25F5

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Maria was not a logical being.

She wouldn't deny that.

She wasn't logical. She was emotional. Reactive rather than proactive, even in the circumstances she now lived in. She liked books and dramas and baking, she liked glitter and pink and thinks that rhinos are unicorns. She got into slap-fights with her crechemates and imprinted on people like a baby duck. She liked seeing emotions flash on other people's faces when she said something reasonably unhinged and hearing her brothers giggle. She played with the Corries to make the shinies smile and see her buir relax, not because she wanted to play.

This action wasn't logical at all, but it also was purely logic.

"I've already told you that," She said. "If you haven't heard me the first hundred times, then it's too late now."

Master Windu's face made a weird spasm. He knew exactly who she said the sith is, so does Yoda and Depa, but she doubts the rest of the council does. "Too late now?"

"If I tell you, you will immediately go try and arrest him and die trying, at least one person in this room will have a mental breakdown, and his contingency plan will go into action killing us all."

Kit Fisto had a disturbed look on his face, "Which one of us did you see have that mental breakdown?"

Depa shot him a look through her holo form, "Kit, priorities."

"Oh, Skywalker cries," Maria said blithely. "But what else is new."

"Hey!"

"Initiate, you're deflecting," Kenobi stepped in before Skywalker dragged him into it.

How the hell did Skywalker get away with half the shit he did if Kenobi is like this?

Well, she gets away with a lot, so maybe the same way she does: bulldozing forward using the force as a blunt force object.

She crossed her arms, "Well, either way, you have more important things to focus on."

"The sith lord, not important, you believe?"

"I can probably kill him with hot cheeto dust," She said with way too much confidence. "However, we need to undo his web first."

"Right," Obi-Wan stroked his beard and did that one pose that was memed to hell and back. "How will we do that?"

"Well, first, we need to take the slave chips out of the clones," Maria said, then frowned. "Wait, Skywalker do you have yours out yet? I can't keep anything in order in my head."

That was true. She had a heart attack with the Zillo Beast because she thought it would happen near the end of the war, not the start, and had ended up stuck in a milkshake bar with two shinies in the mid-levels when the debris had trapped them in.

"Yes," Skywalker looked at her warily. "How did you know I had that? Why would you see that?"

She ignored him the second he confirmed he wasn't in active danger.

"The clones have slave chips ?!" Plo Koon immediately spoke over him, famous serenity defenestrated.

"Of course they do," Maria said. "Wait, have you guys investigated Darth Tyrannus making the order for the clones yet? Is that now or next month?"

"Last month," Master Ti said. "And I was informed that the inhibitor chips are to curb aggression."

"By Nala Se?" Maria rolled her eyes. "You know she's hiding a female clone from you? And murders several squadrons a month? I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her."

Master Ti closes her eyes and breathes deeply. "Thank you for this information."

She does not sound a bit happy to receive that information, but it's not in Maria's hands anymore.

"We need to confirm this with our healers," Master Tiin said. "Master Che should be able to find it if it is like you say."

Maria raised an eyebrow, "It's an invasive procedure. Master Che needs to do a Level 5 scan. The Kaminoans aren't playing at hiding this, or were you thinking that it's going to be easy to find like a Wookie in a cantina?"

" Rosa-Cortez ," Master Windu said with a warning voice. "Do not disrespect this council, or any Jedi Master, like you are doing. Just because you have more knowledge on this topic compared to us does not mean that you can act like this."

She shrank back immediately. Ouch . Sometimes she forgets that people hear her words, and when she gets stressed or frustrated, she does tend to lash out by being snarky. Caleb tells her it's a problem, and Cal tells her she can be mean sometimes, but she's used to most people brushing it off or ignoring her, so she doesn't tend to censor herself.

Or maybe she's just an asshole who's being rude to people who are processing something that she's had years to process, yet still gives her mental breakdowns over it.

She shuffled her feet, "Sorry Masters."

Master Tiin did not further chide her, instead giving her an empathetic smile. "We can understand why you are stressed, young one, just mind your words, yes? We can help you meditate on this once we have more answers on the more urgent information."

Oh. That's… nice of him. It didn't feel as condescending as when others offer to meditate with her when she was trying to warn them.

"Thanks," She mumbled.

"Are you certain you cannot share the sith lord's identity?" Master Kenobi tried. "It could greatly impact the end of the war."

"If you don't help the vode first, that identity could greatly impact all of our life spans," Maria snapped, then immediately winced. "Sorry. I– Sorry."

Windu gave her a stern look before sighing, "I agree with you, however. I remember who you said it was when you warned me about Boba Fett, and if it truly is them, then I fear simply arresting them could prove disastrous."

He immediately winced with his words, his fingers flying up to his temple.

"Master?" Depa looked at her master.

He waved her off, "I do believe the Force is agreeing with my statement."

"Agree, the Force does not. Be, the Force is."

Maria couldn't help but make a face at that, "Aren't you always saying that the Force guides? How can it guide but not agree?"

"Off topic," Kolar interrupted. "And that is covered in your lessons, initiate."

"I don't go to lessons," Maria shrugged. "But that is true, we are getting off topic."

Master Koon looked like he wanted to interrupt and ask more about her skipping lessons, but she kept talking.

"The Vode are your priority. Also maybe recalling Knight Vos from the field, infiltrating the Seppies with psychometry is a terrible idea, I hesitate to let Cal hold my lightsaber because of my visions and you sent him in there to feel horrible sith-y emotions. Also, Kuat is being allocated funds to build a giant planet-killer weapon. And Tarkin is executing prisoners of war and vode slated for decommissioning by torturing them to death. Also, I think that the Sith are maybe influencing some politicians, should we get Madame Che to check them over?"

And, the most important thing for her: "Can you stop my buir from getting possessed by the Sith?"

Several masters shared startled glances, looking more alarmed with every word that left her mouth.

Master Windu folded his fingers in front of his face, "Tell us everything, Initiate Maria, and I promise to do everything in my power to take care of it. This is not your battle anymore."

Notes:

Maria is rude and she never actually fixed that problem in herself because she felt like it didn't matter. In fact, a lot of her problems with social interaction comes from her fear and arrogance, and she is starting to notice that for the first time. The Vode don't really notice it because they're used to Jedi being these all-knowing beings, so when she says something that Jedi clock as fearful/arrogant, they just see a lightly creepy jedi child doing as jedi do.

I also have no idea who I want for her Jedi Master, or even if I want her to have one, maybe y'all could leave comments on it with merits of each one, plus you could join my new discord server to talk more directly to me!

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Chapter 13: Healing is bad for my blood pressureSummary:

Anakin is on babysitting duty and he's killing it!

…

Sorry, too soon?

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The Masters would take care of it.

That kept looping in her head as she got gently shuffled out of the room so that the Council could discuss classified information that would be impacted by what she told them.

Except… they took it out of her hands. The thing that she always had control over, is out of her control.

What is she supposed to do now?

"Well," Skywalker rocked on his heels as he looked at the council doors. "We should probably go to the Healing Halls."

Maria blinked, "What?"

"C'mon, you said that nobody has been taking care of you for the past… too many years, you're probably missing check ups and vaccinations," He said with a fake-ass smile. "I think it's best for you go to the healers before you get Corellian Flu."

She gave him a look, "You think? Don't you avoid the healers?"

His smile was less fake and more real, sharper, "Actually, that's my Master. I like the healers, it's amazing to have access to healthcare anytime. They can help treat my headaches and bruises, I don't have to pay, and then they thank me for coming."

Her nose twitched, "But I've had worse."

"So have I," He wriggled his prosthetic hand at her. "My mom told me if I have access to something, and there is no price, then I have to take full advantage of it. Treating a sprained ankle now means no aching feet for several years to come. It's important to catch something as soon as possible."

She eyed him, "What Master told you that you had to take me there?"

"None of them," He said. "Though all of them approved when I said I was going to watch you until they finish up, and if I'm not wrong, Healing Halls is the first place we take a youngling we find."

"I know. I've gone. They couldn't understand what language I was speaking or what planet I'm from. I hated it."

"Well maybe because your Searcher wasn't as cool as I am," He shrugged. "How about you take all your inoculations and I show you how I modded my droid? R2 has a new electric prod."

A good bribe if she was Cal, or even Caleb, but she wasn't.

"Can I meet Senator Amidala instead?"

"Huh?"

"You heard me."

"First of all, I'm trying to work with you here, kid, that means being polite," He gave her a look that she'd seen Caleb give her several times when she was being difficult. "Just because I like banter doesn't mean I like being made fun of. Secondly, what makes you think–" He cut off at her deadpan look.

He winced, "Seriously?"

"I don't know why someone so cool would marry you."

"I don't know either, she's way out of my league."

Maria couldn't help her grin, "Buir says that senators marry people that are pretty to show off."

"Oh is that all I have going for me?"

Maria pretended to think, "I suppose you're an okay pilot too."

"Ah, high praise from Intiate Maria who thinks the Council are bumbling idiots," He teased.

"Well if they listened before –"

"Then we wouldn't be in such deep poodoo," He sighed. "I know, I want them to listen to me too."

There was anger in his words. Grief.

She wonders if she sounds like that too.

"They're listening now," She said. "I think they'll listen to you now too."

His chuckle was bitter, "Thanks, kid."

He reached out to pat her head but she snapped her teeth at him, so he pulled away.

"Okay, okay!" He held his hands up in surrender. "No pats then, snappy snarker."

She narrowed her eyes at him, "I want a joyride too in exchange of tolerating that terrible title."

"You were already getting one to meet Padme, but okay."

She stopped to gape at him, before having to jog to keep up with his freakishly long legs. "You're more annoying than my visions told me you were."

"I've been told."

"You also pretend to be dumber than you are."

His lips twitched like he wanted to smirk, "No idea what you mean."

"Uh-huh, sure."

He ignored her in favor of immediately flagging down the senior padawan doing the intake forms at the Halls, "Padawan Cisci, Initiate Maria here needs a checkup and over a year of missed inoculations."

Padawan Cisci, a tall Pantorian girl, looked wary, "How did you miss a year of inoculations as an initiate?"

"You forget to cherish me," She joked. At their confused looks, she elaborated. "I ran away and nobody reported it."

Cisci turned a pale lilac color, her yellow markings standing out starkly. "There's neglect in the creche?"

"It's okay, Cisci," Anakin stepped in. "It's been reported and is currently being investigated, we just need her checked out and a report about it on file, alright?"

Cisci nodded quickly, "Should I get Master Che? She just finished a surgery, this needs to be written up by her, right?"

Anakin smiled that fake smile that is reassuring in a strange cocky way, "Yes, thank you padawan."

Cisci scampered to go find the head healer after pushing Maria to sit on an empty bed.

Maria swung her legs from where they dangled off the bed. "I don't like it here, a lot of people are in pain."

Anakin hummed, cocking his head, "On the front is worse, constantly. Here it feels like healing, trust, and relief."

That… was one way of looking at it.

"The war is why everything feels so dark," She said. "The sith makes it all worse."

His face darkened, "Yes. Not to worry, the Council will soon send my Master and I to go hunt down the Sith and the war will be over, you'll see."

"You trust yourself to do it?" Maria asked, fingers absentmindedly tracing her lightsaber on her hip.

Anakin looked at her, "Didn't you trust yourself?"

She shrugged and looked at her lap, "I thought I was going to die."

"Maybe I will," Anakin said, eyes sparkling with the sound of a secret being spoken. "But I trust that I'll die protecting the Jedi, and the Republic."

Maria opened her mouth, speechless. How can she say that he will, just not in the way he expects to? How can she break that trust in himself? Is… is this what he was thinking when he fell to the darkside?

"I–"

Master Che interrupted whatever she could've said, marching right on over.

"Initiate Cortez! You have been marked as missing 19 months of medical visits!" The fierce Twi'lek barked, "Where in the Force's name have you been hiding from all the junior padawans sent to fetch you?"

Oops.

"Under the temple," She replied, grabbing the subject change with both hands. "Near the Force Nexus."

That stopped her in her tracks, " what ."

"It's a bit icky down there but it's better than seeing… everything everywhere on the surface."

It was extremely difficult sometimes to just walk around the temple when she knew the days were counting down to it becoming a tomb.

"Icky?" Che echoed. "Are you describing the dark tainted nexus as icky?"

" Dark? " Anakin yelped.

"Yes?"

Che grabbed her comm, "Empty Hall Room 1977, prep for a Dark Cleansing."

Huh?

Che tucked her comm away and turned onto Maria. "Initiate, I need your permission to do a dark detecting ritual on you. If you've been affected by the darkside, as I suspect you are, we need to cleanse it from you as soon as possible."

Maria shrank back, "What? No! I'm fine!"

"I understand that you may feel like nothing is wrong, but I promise you there is." Master Che stressed, "It is very important that I check you over, but I cannot go past your shields without your permission."

"I don't want you past my shields!" Maria felt like hyperventilating. Master Che can't look into her head. She can't see what Maria has seen. What she has done.

"Hey, hey, hey," Anakin stepped closer to her and immediately had to dodge her kick. "Calm down Maria, it's not so bad. Could barely be considered invasive. I had to do it once, when I first joined the Jedi, it was fine."

Master Che looked between them, "How about I demonstrate the ritual on Knight Skywalker for you? Would you allow me to do it on you then?"

Maria looked at Anakin in fear, but he didn't even look a little panicked. He didn't have any fear of Che seeing his secrets.

"Fine," She finally said. "But I want to watch the entire time."

"That's quite alright," Che quickly agreed. "Skywalker, you remember what we did last time, yes? Start your meditation please."

Anakin gave Maria a quick grin before closing his eyes and sinking into the Force.

Master Che joined him a second later.

Scrutinising them through the force, using gentle tendrils with strong shielding, she felt no distress coming from either of them.

That is, until she felt Master Che suddenly recoil, pulling swiftly away from Anakin in horror.

Anakin's eyes fluttered open, "Master Che?"

The Master slowly, warily, didn't take her eyes off him as she brought her comm up to her mouth. "I need you prep Hall Room 1980 for a cleansing too."

Oh. She forgot that he was in the same boat as her.

Fuck.

Notes:

Thank you all for the great feedback on the last chapter about who Maria's master should be! I know who I am choosing! All I'll say right now is that it definitely isn't Anakin, let's say that those two together are a terrible feedback loop of their best and worst qualities.

Chapter 10 - part 2