'All legions have been checked for any hostile behaviour and of any symptoms that were similar to that of the attack. Everything is clear.'
Anakin stood with the members of the Jedi Council that weren't on missions off-world, as well as clone Captain Des. In the hallway outside the med bay, Master Windu, Master Kolar and Anakin gathered as the remaining Council in the Jedi Temple as they discussed the incident with Sol's legion captain. While Sol was being treated for her wounds, Anakin stood with his hands in the sleeves of his over robe and his mind running with questions that he yearned to have answered.
'This seemed to have been an isolated incident,' Captain Des said with his helmet underneath his arm. 'Whether this attack was intended to be for General Sol, I don't know, but as she was the only one in corridor at the time, we could assume that it was at random-'
'Impossible,' Anakin cut off the clone captain. 'Len has never shown any form of violence towards a Jedi in his entire time in the 501st. There were Jedi in the cafeteria where he was last seen, and there was no sign of an attack. It was not random. He sorted Sol out through the temple.'
'How do you know this, Skywalker?' Master Windu stopped Anakin and the two met eyes. While Master Windu looked at the younger man with a pointed look, Anakin struggled to keep his composure. Sol was in the med bay with two blaster wounds, and Windu dared to ask Anakin how he knew that Sol was personally attacked. He wanted nothing more than to leave the man unanswered, as he knew it would irritate him to no end. But Windu was still his superior, whether Anakin liked it or not.
'Isn't it obvious?' Anakin scoffed and gestured a hand to the door of the med bay. 'Len sought to kill Sol away from everyone else! This attack is similar to that of the one in the hanger! We should hold a meeting to find where this originated from as we did before!'
Master Kolar and Master Windu stood with their expressions unmoving. Captain Des had stepped away from the Jedi Masters where the tension grew thick and decided to enter the med bay to talk to his legion's general. Anakin barely noticed the departure of the clone captain and looked between the two Masters that were yet to show a willingness to investigate the attack. His head whipped between the two, desperate to find even an ounce of care for their fellow Jedi, but he saw close to nothing.
'Remember why you are on the Council, Anakin. Being the Chancellor's representative does not warrant an authority to call a meeting,' Master Windu said, his dark eyes boring into Anakin's with dislike. 'There will be no meeting. It was an isolated attack, and Council members are too busy with their missions to be pulled from their duties. All legions have been checked and Master Sol, I'm sure, is set to make a full recovery. That is the end of the discussion.'
Anakin was gob-smacked. Master Windu and Master Kolar turned away and headed down the hallway without entering the med bay and talking with Sol themselves. Anakin stood with his arms now slack by his sides and his jaw hanging open. He watched the Masters leave with such shock and anger that the light sconces on the walls shook from the strong feelings in the Force. The bulbs flickered and if someone had passed, they would have thought that a small tremor had occurred on Coruscant to cause such a disturbance in the temple hall.
How could they do this? How could they be so unbothered by the fact that another attack had happened within the Jedi Temple? The last attack had warranted for a trial, which had been mistakenly endured by Ahsoka, and the Order realised that the temple was no longer safe from separatist terrorism. But Master Windu didn't seem to think that the attack on one of the Jedi Masters of the Jedi Council was worthy of even a meeting. Why was Master Yoda not calling for a meeting at the news of his ex-Padawan's attack in the temple halls? Sol had been attacked by a clone; one of their own soldiers, and nothing was going to be done about it.
'Master Ani?'
The shaking of the wall sconces halted as Anakin turned to the door of the med bay. Stood in the arch of the entrance was R2-D2 with his lense-eye centred on the lonesome Jedi in the hallway. At the sight of his trusted droid, Anakin calmed his scrambled thoughts and slid past R2 to enter the med bay. Although the sconces stopped their quivering from the sheer anger in the Force, the redness in Anakin's Force signature lingered without his knowledge.
Sol's back was propped up by the raised, white bed. After a session in the bacta tank, Sol's wounds were wrapped in some white bandages to ensure the muscles would be held together while in their tender, healing state. With her bloodied and scorched robes still on, Sol looked up as Anakin entered with R2 in tow. The droid had left her presence to call his Master back into the room and proceeded to make his way around the bed to be on the other side of Sol.
'That didn't sound like it went well,' Sol mumbled, eyeing Anakin's troubled eyes and tight lips. She heard the interaction with a call to the Force, allowing her to hear Master Windu's rejection for a Council meeting. Sol resisted the urge to admit that she was disappointed at the Master's dismissal, but she understood that there weren't enough Masters present in the temple to hold an emergency meeting. The war was still raging on faraway planets, and as much as it hurt Sol, she knew that they were too busy for the news of her attack
'Don't worry about it...' Anakin said, trying to appear nonchalant as he lowered himself down onto the edge of Sol's bed. 'How are you feeling?'
'Okay...' Sol knew that he was trying to shift the attention onto her. 'Some aches and I could do with a day's worth of sleep, but everything has started to heal besides the bruises.'
Sol lifted the arm that was attached to her injured shoulder and gestured to the bandages that peaked out from underneath her robes. When the Jedi medic bandaged her collarbone and shoulder, Sol had no choice but to pull on her usual attire. At the sight of the dried blood and blackened burns, she was dying to change into some clean clothes. Whether it was Jedi robes or her casual wear, Sol didn't like to be reminded of the moment where she had stared down the barrel of a clone's blaster. The blackened material with blood stains was uncomfortable, but at the sight of Anakin's frustrated expression, Sol pushed her discomfort aside for the time being.
'Isolated event, huh?' Sol decided to say after some silence. 'And they think it was random?'
'It couldn't have been random. Why would Len leave the cafeteria to find a Jedi when there was a room full of them? The 501st said he just got up and left halfway through lunch. I don't understand how Windu can believe this was random. And to not even investigate!'
'Ani, it doesn't matter-'
'Of course, it matters, Solaris! Look at you!'
Anakin stood from the bed and gestured to its occupant. With her complexion still pale and her violet eyes even paler, Sol looked dreadful. The bacta tank only heals physical wounds, and even though Sol's shoulder and collarbone were on the mend, the shock and trauma from the attack was still draining Sol's energy. She was thankful for the bed's propped up frame as holding her head up strained her neck, and her stretched out legs ached as they lay unmoving on the white sheets. She didn't want to admit it to Anakin, but he knew that she was in a painful and sorry state.
'It's ridiculous! Not only should this not have happened in the temple halls, but it should be treated as terrorism!' Anakin cried and Sol winced at the mention. 'This is exactly what the Chancellor was worried about! The Council are so concerned with what's going on throughout the galaxy, that they're not monitoring what's going on right here! This is happening right under the Council's noses, and they're not doing-'
The sound of a door closing made Anakin and Sol turn their heads to the corner of the room. Standing in the doorway that lead to a separate room of the med bay was the medical droid, the Jedi medic, and Captain Des. While the medical droid wasn't able to process human emotions, the medic and clone stood with awkward expressions as they sensed the tension from Anakin's rant. Captain Des' hand raised to scratch at his eyebrow to busy himself and the droid rolled to put the reports of Sol's condition on the counter that wrapped around the room.
'How are you feeling, Sol?' the Jedi medic questioned as he stepped around the clone captain. The medic glanced at Anakin, who remained at the foot of the bed with half a rant still in his mouth, and waited for Sol's response.
'I'm okay. I'm quite tired, actually,' Sol was thankful for their entrance and attempted to smile at the medic.
'That's expected. You'll be excused for the rest of the day to recover. If you feel like you'll need longer to rest, don't hesitate to let the Council know-'
'The Council won't be alerted of anything,' Anakin butted in. 'I'll make sure she takes the rest days she needs.'
Sol wanted to throw her face into her hands at how obvious Anakin sounded. She was glad that it was only a medic and Captain Des in the room (besides the droids), but it still made Sol's face flush and made small splotches of red appear on her pasty cheeks. She peaked up at the medic, hoping that he didn't find it strange that Anakin was advocating for her so adamantly, and saw that the man was mostly intimidated by Anakin's intense stare. The medic looked at Sol with an unsure smile and nodded with a shaky movement of his head.
'I'll leave 2-1B to deliver your report,' the medic said to Sol before he headed for the door to the next room. Anakin burned a hole into his robbed back while Captain Des stepped forward to put a comforting hand on his general's shoulder.
'Get well, General. We'll be waiting for our next mission once you've regained your strength,' Des said and Sol smiled genuinely.
'Thank you, Des.'
The clone captain nodded to his general before he turned to head out of the med bay. As he went to pass Anakin, the Jedi stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. While the medical droid rolled over to Sol's bedside with her report in hand, Captain Des gave Anakin a raised eyebrow as he quietly said,
'Can I speak to you outside, Captain?'
'Of course, General Skywalker.'
Anakin gave Sol a look to say that he would be back shortly, and R2 beeped that he would wait with her until he returned. Captain Des and the Jedi stepped out of the med bay with Sol watching them leave, before the door slid shut and Sol's shoulders sagged. Anakin sensed Sol's disappointment at their departure and knew that she wanted to be included in the discussion, but Anakin was only after some extra information about the attack, and he would relay it to her if she desired to know the details.
Once they were out in the hallway, Des turned to Anakin with an inquisitive stare. He was worried about his general and had rushed to the med bay when the word had spread that she had been attacked by a clone. But from Skywalker's solid face and the stern tone he used when asking to see him privately, Captain Des knew that the Jedi was about to ask for things that the clone couldn't answer.
'I'm asking you this as a clone, Captain,' Anakin started with glances in both directions of the hallway. 'Is there any way to interfere with a clone's directive?'
'Not that I'm aware of, General,' Captain Des said, shaking his head truthfully. 'We're not droids, sir. When the Order called for our creation, our make-up was left to the Jedi who came to Kamino.'
Why was it that the clone from the 501st just suddenly decided to find and eliminate Sol while in the Jedi Temple? Anakin was sure that the clone had been influenced to commit the attack and judging by the information given by the 501st in the cafeteria, it appeared that Len spontaneously left without a word given on his reasoning. He had to have been told to commit the crime by someone, but Anakin didn't know if the clone knew what he was doing, just like how the bomb in temple's hanger occurred. Or was it that the clone was fully aware of his actions, and his original directives of serving the Jedi Order, had been over-written by something or someone?
'I'm sorry that I couldn't be of more help, sir,' Captain Des bowed his head in shame. 'I do believe that General Sol was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perhaps when she recovers, this can be further investigated.'
With a respectful bow, Captain Des took his leave down the corridor. Anakin was alone again in the temple's hallway, and he was going to take the time to think about the recent events. He turned his head to the ceiling-to-floor windows to think about whether he should tell the Chancellor about Sol's attack, when the door of the med bay opened. Anakin expected to hear R2's beeps about Sol's reports and that he could re-enter the med bay, but he was surprised to see Sol stood with his blue and silver droid.
'I've been discharged,' Sol announced, a small smile on her tired face. 'A day's rest has been signed off and anymore can be added if I feel like I need more.'
'That's it?' Anakin blinked in surprise. 'No more tests?'
'No. The medical droid said it should be healed by the end of this week, right, Artoo?'
The droid whistled in agreement. Anakin looked at R2 and Sol with slight confusion, before looking over Sol's shoulder into the med bay. The medical droid could be seen folding the white sheet of the bed to prepare for the next patient. Anakin thought that the droid would dispense some medicine for Sol and run through some exercises to ensure Sol's muscles healed correctly, but Sol had been discharged within minutes of being delivered the reports.
'Can we go to Padme's? I want to get some sleep,' Sol brought Anakin's attention back to her. His gaze shifted from the medical droid that stiffly straightened its back to incinerate the old sheets, and Anakin felt a smile grow at the sight of Sol's half-lidded eyes and tired blinks.
'Sure. I'll drive.'
'I hoped you would.'
R2 wheeled out of the med bay doorway and Anakin turned to join him. As R2 relayed some of the report's information to his master, Sol waited before she followed. The hole that was burning in her chest was threatening to climb up her throat and the drowsiness didn't help the weakness that grew in Sol's legs. She watched Anakin and R2 head down the hall, and her shoulders rose and fell from a deep, shaky sigh. Sol's eyes swam with tears and a sob threatened to leave her lips, but she knew she couldn't let it escape while in the temple.
With a quick wipe of her eyes and a sniffle of her nose, Sol followed Anakin and R2 with her head held high and with a yearning to sob to Padme.