Chapter 83: ED : Chapter 81: Plan Advances II
Pressed for time, I simply asked for an explanation, rather than try and work it out for myself. "Would you care to explain the reason for this sudden decision?"
With a small shrug, and her arms crossed over her chest, she quietly answered "When you talk to me, your manner is like Master Honoran's. Which is weird, because the two of you couldn't seem more different."
...
I waited for her to elaborate, and was rewarded with "You make it clear you have high expectations for me, but also that you're confident I can meet those expectations with enough effort. You seem to believe in me, and that makes all the difference."
At a loss for words for a few moments, I finally found myself smiling, as I replied "Well, then, Padawan Tano, let's go see Caretaker Vilbum. The way he tells it, issuing the necessaries for an apprentice's braid is the best part of being the Academy's head."
I was about to begin explaining that her first task as my apprentice would be to camp out in the Archives while running a VI I'd written to try and locate one or more of the Ghost Prison fugitives, when a wave of sheer wrongness overtook me before I could finish fashioning that intention into words.
It was such a sharply visceral instant of intuition, I didn't even consider second-guessing the experience.
Changing the plan entirely on the fly, I answered Ahsoka's concerned look at the too long hesitation after my last statement with a confident smile, then continued by saying "Afterwards, you'll need to collect your things with some haste, because we have a Senator to protect."
The uneasy queasiness caused by the prospect of taking her into the path of Nikkos Tyris began to become something akin to dread, when I noticed the Shatterpoint surrounding her hadn't resolved itself as I'd anticipated it would once she either accepted or rejected the offer to become my apprentice.
For all my lessons with Master Windu, I could discern nothing beyond a subtle loosening of the cold knot in my chest when I'd resolved to take her along on my present mission.
Something which could just as easily be a projection of my belief the young Togruta would be safer in my company, as a genuine insight derived from the Force-phenomena.
Following my excited new apprentice from the room in search of the kindly Baragwin Jedi Master, I hid my disquiet behind the discipline learned through years of maintaining a Thought Shield day and night. It was Ahsoka's moment, and nothing would be served by marring it with nebulous fears which could not be determined to possess the slightest substance.
Still, I couldn't help but wonder at the now fairly lengthy chain of bad feelings and grim intuitions I'd had since returning to Coruscant.
There was nothing I could grasp and drag into the light to be examined, but neither could I dismiss what I'd felt, however amorphous those feelings were. It was a maddeningly frustrating situation to be in, but I could think of no more productive path than the one I was already treading.
...
I was waiting for Ahsoka to return with her belongings, when a young female Cathar rounded a corner and began running toward my position near the gate.
Noticing the Padawan braid woven into tall, lean teen's burnished bronze-colored mane, I felt a spark of interest, because as a rule, apprentices were considered to be above running messages throughout the Temple.
That was a task generally left to the older Initiates, unless it was something important.
Only then did I remember my former Master's disquiet, and her eagerness to return to the Temple due to the vision she'd had while waiting for our contingent to make our escape from the surface of Cato Neimoidia.
In the aftermath of the attempt on Padme's life, the Dark Sider assassin's assault upon my mind, being subsequently grilled by the High Council, and my worries concerning Ahsoka, I'd become oblivious to Dark Woman's continued absence.
Now, seized by guilt that I'd actually forgotten all about her concerns, I looked on the messenger's approach with more than a little apprehension.
Had my inattentiveness brought someone I cared for deeply to grief?
"Knight Skywalker! There you are!" The young feline-featured apprentice called out. Turning my back to the Temple's main gate in order to meet the young apprentice, I couldn't help but notice her gasping, nearly out of breath state meant the Cathar had been running flat-out for some time to catch up with me.
When she finally stopped short a half pace from me, I waited patiently for the teen to catch her breath, rather than inquire after whatever message she carried immediately.
"Take a minute to collect yourself, Padawan. That must have been quite the run" I remarked with all the kindness I could muster while wrestling with self-recriminations.
A bare minute later, a flimsi was being thrust into my hands, with the explanation "Master Dark Woman left strict instructions her message shouldn't be delivered until an hour after midday, but when I asked around after finding you weren't in your quarters or the refectory, I was told you'd gone to the Academy.
When I got there, I found you'd already been and gone, but I ran into Master Koon on my way back.
Since he'd already divined the general location of your Force-presence, he was kind enough to point me in the right direction. I sprinted all the way here, trying to catch you before you left, but he should only be a couple of minutes behind me."
I removed the piece of flimsi from its opaque privacy-sheath, and, marveling at how fast word of anything interesting traveled in the Temple, very deliberately suppressed the urge to wince at the news the generally friendly Jedi Master was headed my way.
It was only now occurring to me it would have been considerably more diplomatic to broach the subject of my taking Ahsoka as an apprentice with him before I approached her.
It was one concern too many, at that moment. I was forgetting things, and allowing details to slip my mind. Standing there with the exposed flimsi in my hand, I thought one thing was clear. "I have to do better, be better, than this."
Inclining my head to the young Cathar, I thanked her for delivering the message, then paused. Indecision momentarily pinning me in place, until I suppressed the impulse to sigh aloud. Recognizing the futility of trying to duck the Kel Dor Jedi Master.
"Master Koon can find me just as easily when I return for Seraph in a little while, so I may as well get this over with. Besides, I might be worrying over nothing. I misjudged Master Honoran's reaction completely, and I might be doing the same thing, here.
If worse comes to worst, I can always plead a need to relieve Master Jinn as soon as possible." My silent considerations persuaded me I needed to remain and face up to my decision now rather than later.
Rather than continue to focus on an immediate future beyond my control, I turned my attention back to the present, and began reading the message my Master had left for me.
Anakin,
Gone to prevent the disaster I have foreseen, if possible.
Under no circumstances are you to follow me.
Take Seraph, that droid of yours, and your new apprentice. (Of course she said yes)
Protect the Senator, leave immediately. Confident you can stop the assassin(s).
Do not return to Coruscant in the next 48-72 hours.
Destroy this flimsi after reading!
May the Force be with you, always,
Dark Woman
My teacher's words intensified the chill I'd been feeling, yet still no knowledge of what this "disaster" could be sprung to mind.
I remembered my Master telling me about a crazy Nightsister trying to use some piece of alien super-tech to destroy Coruscant, but that was more than a decade ago, and the weapon had been destroyed in the attempt.
Other than that, I was drawing a complete blank on potential existential threats to the Republic's capitol. My ignorance gnawed at me, but what could I do?
Crushing the flimsi into a highly compressed wad of silicates and binding agents, I did the only thing I could.
I continued to wait right where I was. I waited for Ahsoka, and Plo Koon, but most of all, I waited to react until I'd reclaimed my center and I could make a decision untainted by the sickening guilt that was irrationally weighing me down.
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