Fixing Our Broken Pieces || The Bad Batch

Extra chapter: Our Stars

Anakin and Orla sat quietly in the grass patch beneath the fog under the stars. Yoda had requested the two to find a secure base for the Wookie planet so Yoda could safely visit frequently. It was the first time Orla had been assigned something for the war and the first time she had worked with the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.

The planet Kashyyyk was a forest-covered planet layered with fog that lurked on the ground so that anyone who walked across its forest would lose their feet in the mist. But it was the home planet to the tall, hairy warriors called the Wookies who thrived in the jungle environment.

Because Orla was a Jedi master and was briefed before Anakin by her own master Yoda it made sense to her that she was the one in charge and leading the assignment but Anakin's huge war hero ego thought otherwise. It had been a long day of splitting up and competing with each other. So far no one was winning, they still hadn't found a suitable base and they only had one more day until Yoda would schedule to send a ship back to pick them up.

They had not spoken a word that wasn't something to argue about throughout the entire trip. Orla was laying down, her back on the grass, feeling the force through the fog that surrounded the planet, and from that, she could feel any disturbances before they could occur. She looked up at the collections of stars and planets and felt the other hundred and thousands of people looking up at the same thing. Human connections through the force were what she felt was most special about the force, you don't need to be a Jedi to have it. Anakin used his eyes, standing and scanning around for anything remotely suspicious, his lightsaber gripped tightly in his mechanical hand. Orla never saw Anakin without his lightsaber close by, she thought he relied too much on it in battle. That the reason he takes such big risks confidently is that he believes he cannot be beaten without it. Orla on the other hand only takes out her lightsaber when it deems absolutely necessary a lot like her master who is only seen with his lightsaber when fighting, he doesn't flaunt it or hold so tightly onto it.

"Anakin, sit down," Orla urged him, sounding awfully like Obi-wan which caught Anakin off-guard.

"How can you know if something happens if you're taking a nap," he snapped back.

"As a Jedi, you should know I'm feeling my surroundings for danger you know there are more senses you can use than just your eyes. Use your sense of smell and you can smell the bonfire that some of the wookies set up for camp or the younglings picking berries in the forest. They don't have much in their basket because they keep eating them along the way. Go even deeper and you can feel the people from other planets looking up at the stars."

Anakin raised a brow in disbelief, Orla was one of the most connected Jedi to the force not fighting in the war definitely was a perk, and of course, being the padawan to the most wisest Jedi master out there. Anakin closed his eyes and tried to pick up what she was feeling, "I sense... fear, fear they won't receive protection from the Separatist. Fear of enslavement and of the future."

"Why so much of the negative? we know the Wookies are scared we don't need to feel that. Go further, why are they afraid of enslavement. See their memories not their feelings."

Anakin huffed, "I'm the chosen one I should know this."

Orla rolled her eyes and stood up, rubbing her hand up and down his back that made Anakin think of Padme who would do the same motion wherever Anakin was upset. "This is not a test. You put too much pressure on yourself, if you are the chosen one then the prophecy will come true on its own you can't force yourself into this false standard that just isn't needed. There's nowhere in the prophecy where it says you need to be a perfect Jedi."

"The council don't seem the think the same way. There's always pressure, the pressure to be perfect every single day, no mistakes. Because I'm Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight, the chosen one."

"Guess I know what that's like," she mumbled to herself, hoping he would pick up her voice. She obviously couldn't imagine the pressure to be the chosen one but she did understand the pressure to be perfect, especially for the Jedi council. She was the youngest person to become a Jedi master, she was the apprentice of grandmaster Yoda and she had the shadow of Dooku constantly lingering wherever she went. So sure, she knew a tad about pressure.

"How could you possibly know what that's like, you're one of the best Jedi in the order. You have the wisdom of Qui-Gon the knowledge of Yoda the power of Mace the skill of Obi-wan, you're everything a Jedi should be and I'm still stuck as a Jedi Knight."

So are a lot of Jedi Anakin, she wanted to say but she knew it wouldn't be helpful, she wasn't looking for an argument this time.

"You have a lot of friends Anakin; Obi-wan, your padawan Ahsoka, the clones, the Chancellor," and of course Padme but she didn't bring that up for a lot of reasons, "you have so many people who love and support you and who are always there for you. I don't have that, not a big group of people supporting me and praising me. Just my brother and while that's plenty and frankly I don't really need anyone else but I still get lonely. My master has moved on from my teaching, I don't really have any other guidance apart from my own and that's what the Jedi council expects."

"It's lonely as a Jedi master?" Anakin said, surprised. He couldn't imagine his life without his master Obi-Wan guiding him even if it was just a whisper of advice he didn't want to hear.

Orla looked back up at the stars, "When was the last time you looked up at stars?"

Anakin didn't understand the connection with his question but answered it anyway because maybe it might lead somewhere, "I don't know I might have glanced at some last night."

"No, like really looked at them, looked at them like there was no other thing in the universe than you and those stars."

"Umm," he smiled to himself a memory from his childhood sinking in, "Yeah, yeah I was with Qui-Gon and he was uh... looking at my cut and I was looking up at the planets and I told him I was gonna visit every one of them. I also once looked up and thought of my mother before and after she had passed."

"When we look at stars they give us the most hope because they remind us of the unknown and they also make us think of things that are too far from our reach." She said in a quiet voice, "I'm very sorry," about his mother and Anakin wasn't sure if many people apart from Padme said that to him in a way that he knew they truly meant it.

"Thank you, so it is lonely, you find yourself looking at the stars often?"

She nodded solemnly, "but there are some people in life that are my stars, they make me think about my dreams, they're my dreams and inspirations, and the people I speak to when I feel the most unlike myself. So maybe I feel lonely but truly I would rather have no one to love than to lose the person I love most in the world."

"You understand, you understand compassion?" Anakin asked not thinking about how stupid he must look with his eyes so wide and eager.

"I think it's essential for a Jedi, every person experiences love like it or not every Jedi becomes attached to something I could argue the majority of the Jedi are attached to this war but they see no problem but when it's a person then it's a big deal."

Anakin dramatically collapsed to lie down next to her and released a big sigh, "someone finally gets it, I'm not crazy."

She smiled warmly, "no you're not crazy for loving someone Anakin, you're human."

"Have you ever been in love?"

She took a moment to think "Me? No never, I'll probably be lonely forever."

"Why? What about your stars?" he gestured to the sky with his mechanical hand.

"Because I am a Jedi, even stars burn out Anakin."

Anakin couldn't find anything else to say, he didn't know what he would do if he ever lost Padme. How could the Order drill such a thought into Orla's mind that she would always end up alone because she was a Jedi because attachment was forbidden. How could she ever love anyone with the fear of attachment following her? Thankfully he would never have to worry about that with Padme.

He would love her for eternity.