Trial
for the_little_owl
This fic is rated: PG-13
Fandom: Star Wars
Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, ofc
Timeline: during RotS
Summary: even the least likely of Padawans can be used by the Force
Warnings: the dreaded Original Female Character
Word Count: 1,798
Feedback: yes, please! Concrit welcomed.
Distribution: archiving, linking or remixing ok, just credit me and drop me a line!
Cross-Posted were_lemur, skywalker_days
My FanFic Masterlist
Disclaimer: George Lucas owns Star Wars. I own a 22-year-old pickup truck. I hope that Mr. Lucas will accept this story as the tribute to his genius it is, and not sue me for what little I have. No infringement is intended, no profit is being made.
She'd been walking through the Temple for what seemed like forever -- not the timelessness of the Force, but the eternity of an unpleasant task that would -- she hoped -- help make her a Jedi. Padawan Givera Mayak put one foot in front of the other, taking turns at random, trying to let the Force guide her.
That was her biggest weakness. She had lost track of the number of times Master Temmik had told her; "You think too much, Padawan." She was trying not to think about how much thinking she did; a difficult task. She wondered when Master Temmik would decide she was ready for the Trials, (or if she ever would be ready), and there she was again. Thinking too much.
She shook her head, annoyed. She could not-think for a few minutes, but then she would realize that she was not-thinking, which was a thought, and her brain kept going around and around. She wished she could go to the training rooms; it was easier not to think when she was doing something else.
Annoyed, she picked up the pace to nearly a jog, and tried again to let the Force guide her. But she suspected that she was just moving.
It was a moment before she realized that she was unconsciously following another fast-moving figure. It was Master Skywalker, and he looked like he was in a hurry. Or maybe he was meditating, too.
She shouldn't be wondering that. "Open myself to the will of the Force," she murmured.
Though if the Force wanted something done, wouldn't it have someone else do it? The Temple was full of actual Knights and Masters. Like Master Skywalker; her feet were still following him as he turned into the hangar bay. She felt her face go hot; what if he noticed, and thought she was following him?
He was obviously on Council business; as soon as he cleared the door, he broke into a run. She watched him leap into a speeder and take off.
She found herself beside another of the speeders. She wasn't actually thinking of following him, was she?
She should go back to her meditations. Keep walking, until she felt the Force again. Or until Master Temmik took pity on her and let her go to bed.
So why was she sitting in the cockpit of the speeder?
The whole Temple was locked down. If she left now, she'd have to explain everything when she got back. The best case was that she'd feel stupid. And what if Master Skywalker was on a covert mission, and she blew his cover?
You think too much, Padawan, she imagined Master Temmik's voice, you need to trust the Force She closed her eyes, and opened herself.
The speeder roared to life beneath her.
While she'd argued with herself, Master Skywalker had gotten a good lead on her, but she wasn't worried. It might have been her hands on the speeder's controls, but it was the Force that was doing the navigating.
She was only vaguely surprised when her destination came into view. She stared at the High Council Tower, her mind open.
She was already pushing her speeder into a dive, when one of the rooms fills with lighting. She saw something hurtle from the window and down; the thinking part of her mind was trying to calculate intercept vectors and gibbering words like terminal velocity but the part of her that was deep in the Force was acting, hands steady on the controls.
The speeder was nearly vertical, riding at the edge of control, when she reached the falling object. She pulled up on the control yoke, and a body slammed down into the passenger's seat. The weight knocked the speeder almost on its side, spinning it out of control. She fought for control and corrected course just before it hit the wall, and it was only then that she realized that it was Master Windu in the passenger's seat. For a moment lightning played across his features, but then it faded out.
"Master Windu, are you all right?" No answer. She eased the speeder to a halt, and knelt up in the seat. "Master Windu?"
As suddenly as it came, the calm of the Force was gone. Givera was terrified. "Master Windu, please wake up." She shook his shoulder lightly; his head lolled forward. Givera pressed her fingers against his neck, searching for a pulse. His skin felt cold. After what seemed like forever, she felt a weak pulse. It was even longer before she felt another one, and he still hadn't taken a breath.
"You can't die." The words were almost a sob. "You have to breathe."
Nothing.
She pressed her hand to his chest, reached into the Force, willing him to live. "Breathe!"
He sucked one wheezing breath and let it rattle out. Givera tilted his head back to make his breathing easier. His chest settled into a shallow, but steady, rise-and-fall; when she checked his pulse again it was regular. She ran her hands across his body, checking for any injury that could kill him before she got him back to the Temple.
His right hand was gone at the wrist; she recognized the characteristic self-cauterization of a lightsaber wound.
He wouldn't bleed out. Any internal injuries could be taken care of at the Temple. And they'd be able to figure out was wrong with him. "Just hang on," she murmured. "We'll be there in a few minutes, somebody will know what to do -- "
"Speeder pilot!" a mechanical voice called. "You are in a restricted area. Move your speeder to the nearest horizontal surface and shut off your repulsors."
She almost did it; once they saw her credentials they'd let her go. But then she looked at Master Windu. Whoever had made him fall probably thought he was dead; she needed to get him back to the Temple before they found out otherwise. She knew better than to think that she could protect him against whoever had almost killed him.
She slammed the accelerator, and the speeder leapt forward.
"Speeder pilot. Surrender immediately, or face deadly force!"
She dodged around a slow-moving delivery vehicle. She needed cover, she needed to get back to the Temple ...
The security droids were still on her tail, but at least they were only gaining slowly. She took advantage of the straight course to strap Master Windu in.
Just in time. Her escape route narrowed to a thin crack between buildings. She twisted the speeder on its side and shot the gap.
The tiny security droids had no problems, of course.
She came out the other side -- but another droid was waiting for her. She found herself ducking a blaster bolt she hadn't even seen.
She gritted her teeth, and slammed into the droid. It let out an electronic squeal as it tumbled away. But that still left the original two.
She'd never lose them on her own. She craned her neck and saw the traffic lanes high above. She pulled back on the yoke put the speeder into an extreme climb. The engines whined in protest.
But she made it.
She burst up onto the traffic lane to a cacophony of honking, but managed to avoid a collision. She twisted her way into the lane, and matched speed. Blended into traffic. She was heading the wrong way, but she wanted to put some distance between herself and the security droids before heading back to the Temple.
After a few tense minutes, she set the autopilot to take the speeder back to the Temple, and turned back to Master Windu. He was breathing easily, now; his pulse was stronger. "Now would be a really good time for you to wake up," Givera told him, but he didn't respond.
They were almost back to the Temple, when he moaned in pain. Givera turned to see if he was waking up -- but then she felt it too.
Across the galaxy, Jedi were dying. And not just one or two -- all of them.
She saw, now, that the Jedi Temple was in flames. And she felt her training bond flicker out. "Master Temmik!" she screamed.
Sick rage threatened to engulf her. She'd never understood before how someone could fall to the Dark Side -- now she knew all too well. She could dive her speeder in, kill as many of her attackers as she could --
A flick of a switch turned the autopilot off. She set the speeder into a dive. There was nothing left --
Master Windu moaned again.
"No," she whispered.
She couldn't throw her life away -- not while she had one more duty. As long as Master Windu was alive, there was hope.
She pulled the speeder out of the dive. Just in time -- she'd been spotted. With sick horror, she realized that the Temple was crawling with clonetroopers. She was too low to overshoot; she had no choice but to turn; that gave them enough time to catch sight of her. Givera saw one of them bring his deece up to bear; it was all she could to evade the shot. But she managed, heading for the dubious safety of the open speeder lanes.
The deece's second shot fried the speeder's starboard repulsor.
The speeder started to plummet.
She was going to die. After everything, she was going to die.
"There is no death," Givera murmured, "there is the Force." She dove deep into it, preparing for the moment of impact. But instead, she felt her hands on the controls, turning the port repulsor on and off in quick bursts, keeping the speeder out of a deadly spin.
They crippled speeder dropped through the layers of the city; Givera looked around for somewhere to land. She nudged it forward -- but then the port repulsor gave out, too. The speeder, uncontrolled, hit a slanted roof, and slid, spinning on its belly. Givera clung to the steering yoke, screaming in primal terror. She saw the wall coming and squeezed her eyes shut --
The roof gave way and dropped the speeder a few more meters. It landed with a crunch of durasteel, slid to the side, and stopped.
Givera opened her eyes, and peeled her fingers from the control yoke. She had the horrible thought that when she looked at Master Windu he would be dead, impaled by wreckage, but his breathing was deep and even, his heartbeat strong. When she shook him gently, his eyelids fluttered once, but did not rise.
She would wait. Sooner or later, Master Windu would wake up. And he would know what to do. How to save what remained of the Jedi Order.
It was the will of the Force.
This fic is rated: PG-13
Fandom: Star Wars
Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, ofc
Timeline: during RotS
Summary: even the least likely of Padawans can be used by the Force
Warnings: the dreaded Original Female Character
Word Count: 1,798
Feedback: yes, please! Concrit welcomed.
Distribution: archiving, linking or remixing ok, just credit me and drop me a line!
Cross-Posted were_lemur, skywalker_days
My FanFic Masterlist
Disclaimer: George Lucas owns Star Wars. I own a 22-year-old pickup truck. I hope that Mr. Lucas will accept this story as the tribute to his genius it is, and not sue me for what little I have. No infringement is intended, no profit is being made.
She'd been walking through the Temple for what seemed like forever -- not the timelessness of the Force, but the eternity of an unpleasant task that would -- she hoped -- help make her a Jedi. Padawan Givera Mayak put one foot in front of the other, taking turns at random, trying to let the Force guide her.
That was her biggest weakness. She had lost track of the number of times Master Temmik had told her; "You think too much, Padawan." She was trying not to think about how much thinking she did; a difficult task. She wondered when Master Temmik would decide she was ready for the Trials, (or if she ever would be ready), and there she was again. Thinking too much.
She shook her head, annoyed. She could not-think for a few minutes, but then she would realize that she was not-thinking, which was a thought, and her brain kept going around and around. She wished she could go to the training rooms; it was easier not to think when she was doing something else.
Annoyed, she picked up the pace to nearly a jog, and tried again to let the Force guide her. But she suspected that she was just moving.
It was a moment before she realized that she was unconsciously following another fast-moving figure. It was Master Skywalker, and he looked like he was in a hurry. Or maybe he was meditating, too.
She shouldn't be wondering that. "Open myself to the will of the Force," she murmured.
Though if the Force wanted something done, wouldn't it have someone else do it? The Temple was full of actual Knights and Masters. Like Master Skywalker; her feet were still following him as he turned into the hangar bay. She felt her face go hot; what if he noticed, and thought she was following him?
He was obviously on Council business; as soon as he cleared the door, he broke into a run. She watched him leap into a speeder and take off.
She found herself beside another of the speeders. She wasn't actually thinking of following him, was she?
She should go back to her meditations. Keep walking, until she felt the Force again. Or until Master Temmik took pity on her and let her go to bed.
So why was she sitting in the cockpit of the speeder?
The whole Temple was locked down. If she left now, she'd have to explain everything when she got back. The best case was that she'd feel stupid. And what if Master Skywalker was on a covert mission, and she blew his cover?
You think too much, Padawan, she imagined Master Temmik's voice, you need to trust the Force She closed her eyes, and opened herself.
The speeder roared to life beneath her.
While she'd argued with herself, Master Skywalker had gotten a good lead on her, but she wasn't worried. It might have been her hands on the speeder's controls, but it was the Force that was doing the navigating.
She was only vaguely surprised when her destination came into view. She stared at the High Council Tower, her mind open.
She was already pushing her speeder into a dive, when one of the rooms fills with lighting. She saw something hurtle from the window and down; the thinking part of her mind was trying to calculate intercept vectors and gibbering words like terminal velocity but the part of her that was deep in the Force was acting, hands steady on the controls.
The speeder was nearly vertical, riding at the edge of control, when she reached the falling object. She pulled up on the control yoke, and a body slammed down into the passenger's seat. The weight knocked the speeder almost on its side, spinning it out of control. She fought for control and corrected course just before it hit the wall, and it was only then that she realized that it was Master Windu in the passenger's seat. For a moment lightning played across his features, but then it faded out.
"Master Windu, are you all right?" No answer. She eased the speeder to a halt, and knelt up in the seat. "Master Windu?"
As suddenly as it came, the calm of the Force was gone. Givera was terrified. "Master Windu, please wake up." She shook his shoulder lightly; his head lolled forward. Givera pressed her fingers against his neck, searching for a pulse. His skin felt cold. After what seemed like forever, she felt a weak pulse. It was even longer before she felt another one, and he still hadn't taken a breath.
"You can't die." The words were almost a sob. "You have to breathe."
Nothing.
She pressed her hand to his chest, reached into the Force, willing him to live. "Breathe!"
He sucked one wheezing breath and let it rattle out. Givera tilted his head back to make his breathing easier. His chest settled into a shallow, but steady, rise-and-fall; when she checked his pulse again it was regular. She ran her hands across his body, checking for any injury that could kill him before she got him back to the Temple.
His right hand was gone at the wrist; she recognized the characteristic self-cauterization of a lightsaber wound.
He wouldn't bleed out. Any internal injuries could be taken care of at the Temple. And they'd be able to figure out was wrong with him. "Just hang on," she murmured. "We'll be there in a few minutes, somebody will know what to do -- "
"Speeder pilot!" a mechanical voice called. "You are in a restricted area. Move your speeder to the nearest horizontal surface and shut off your repulsors."
She almost did it; once they saw her credentials they'd let her go. But then she looked at Master Windu. Whoever had made him fall probably thought he was dead; she needed to get him back to the Temple before they found out otherwise. She knew better than to think that she could protect him against whoever had almost killed him.
She slammed the accelerator, and the speeder leapt forward.
"Speeder pilot. Surrender immediately, or face deadly force!"
She dodged around a slow-moving delivery vehicle. She needed cover, she needed to get back to the Temple ...
The security droids were still on her tail, but at least they were only gaining slowly. She took advantage of the straight course to strap Master Windu in.
Just in time. Her escape route narrowed to a thin crack between buildings. She twisted the speeder on its side and shot the gap.
The tiny security droids had no problems, of course.
She came out the other side -- but another droid was waiting for her. She found herself ducking a blaster bolt she hadn't even seen.
She gritted her teeth, and slammed into the droid. It let out an electronic squeal as it tumbled away. But that still left the original two.
She'd never lose them on her own. She craned her neck and saw the traffic lanes high above. She pulled back on the yoke put the speeder into an extreme climb. The engines whined in protest.
But she made it.
She burst up onto the traffic lane to a cacophony of honking, but managed to avoid a collision. She twisted her way into the lane, and matched speed. Blended into traffic. She was heading the wrong way, but she wanted to put some distance between herself and the security droids before heading back to the Temple.
After a few tense minutes, she set the autopilot to take the speeder back to the Temple, and turned back to Master Windu. He was breathing easily, now; his pulse was stronger. "Now would be a really good time for you to wake up," Givera told him, but he didn't respond.
They were almost back to the Temple, when he moaned in pain. Givera turned to see if he was waking up -- but then she felt it too.
Across the galaxy, Jedi were dying. And not just one or two -- all of them.
She saw, now, that the Jedi Temple was in flames. And she felt her training bond flicker out. "Master Temmik!" she screamed.
Sick rage threatened to engulf her. She'd never understood before how someone could fall to the Dark Side -- now she knew all too well. She could dive her speeder in, kill as many of her attackers as she could --
A flick of a switch turned the autopilot off. She set the speeder into a dive. There was nothing left --
Master Windu moaned again.
"No," she whispered.
She couldn't throw her life away -- not while she had one more duty. As long as Master Windu was alive, there was hope.
She pulled the speeder out of the dive. Just in time -- she'd been spotted. With sick horror, she realized that the Temple was crawling with clonetroopers. She was too low to overshoot; she had no choice but to turn; that gave them enough time to catch sight of her. Givera saw one of them bring his deece up to bear; it was all she could to evade the shot. But she managed, heading for the dubious safety of the open speeder lanes.
The deece's second shot fried the speeder's starboard repulsor.
The speeder started to plummet.
She was going to die. After everything, she was going to die.
"There is no death," Givera murmured, "there is the Force." She dove deep into it, preparing for the moment of impact. But instead, she felt her hands on the controls, turning the port repulsor on and off in quick bursts, keeping the speeder out of a deadly spin.
They crippled speeder dropped through the layers of the city; Givera looked around for somewhere to land. She nudged it forward -- but then the port repulsor gave out, too. The speeder, uncontrolled, hit a slanted roof, and slid, spinning on its belly. Givera clung to the steering yoke, screaming in primal terror. She saw the wall coming and squeezed her eyes shut --
The roof gave way and dropped the speeder a few more meters. It landed with a crunch of durasteel, slid to the side, and stopped.
Givera opened her eyes, and peeled her fingers from the control yoke. She had the horrible thought that when she looked at Master Windu he would be dead, impaled by wreckage, but his breathing was deep and even, his heartbeat strong. When she shook him gently, his eyelids fluttered once, but did not rise.
She would wait. Sooner or later, Master Windu would wake up. And he would know what to do. How to save what remained of the Jedi Order.
It was the will of the Force.