Kyah watched the doors close and felt a strong silence swallow the room as she turned back and hung her heavy head.
"Glad we are, to see you safely returned, Master Paladin." Yoda began and Kyah nodded a little.
"Thank you master." Her voice was barely audible as she spoke, twisting her hands in front of her.
"Tired, you must be, after your sleep, invaded has been. Hmm?" He added seeing the physical signs of exhaustion plain on her face and in her sinking posture. Kyah nodded again, not bothering to speak this time. "Get this over quickly, we should, so you may rest." He decided as his colleagues nodded.
"As I'm sure you've noticed, Senator Chuchi made a point of visiting us in person to plead your case." Mace Windu said, frustration clear in his voice. "And, though the Senate cannot influence decisions that this council makes about internal matters, we have taken her opinion under advisement." He added with a sigh.
"And the opinion of the Chancellor I'm told." Kyah added, glancing up and seeing Windu's anger boil just a little hotter,
"Yes." He admitted begrudgingly.
"What was his opinion, if I might ask?" Kyah held his gaze a moment longer, before looking back down, finding it too hard to maintain eye contact when he was so pointedly upset with her.
"The chancellor believes that the results your disobedience produced, shine a light on this council's blindness to the apparent possibility of success." Obi Wan spoke before Mace Windu could. "He thinks it was our mistake for underestimating you." the energy in the room shifted as those words hung in the air, "He also thinks we should let him throw you a parade to celebrate such an accomplishment." Obi Wan added as an afterthought, having to hide the smile on his face with a hand stroking over his moustache.
Kyah's eyes widened in dread, "Oh, please no." She said quietly, looking to Obi Wan, and there was scattered laugher from the council. Most of the members seemed far more relaxed than she would have expected, based on the energy in the room, though, now that she was in here, much of that seemed to be coming from a select few.
"This council agrees that your results were impressive." Mace Windu said, taking back control of the room, "But there is still the matter of your blatant disobedience." He spoke harshly towards her.
"Yes master." Kyah nodded, pulling at her sleeve and twisting it around her fingertip.
"You not only ignored a direct order, but actively fought against your own master in your desperation to go." Mace Windu said, his voice rising in anger as he spoke, "Had you simply come to us instead with the information you used to find young Skywalker, we might have been swayed in our decision and offered you reinforcements." He said and Kyah audibly scoffed without meaning to.
She immediately straightened herself out again once she realized what she'd done, but it was too late.
"Something funny?" Windu asked, leaning forward in his chair as his eyes narrowed.
"No Master." Kyah shook her head quickly.
"The floor is your's master Paladin. Please, enlighten us." he spoke harshly.
Kyah clenched her jaw and cursed her lack of control, "I just... respectfully master, you never would have given me the okay to go, and if I had come to you first, I never would have made it back to my ship." She shrugged, speaking honestly, if not a little insensitively.
"You know this with perfect certainty?" Mace Windu looked almost impressed by her audacity.
"Do you deny it?" She challenged him, surprising herself with her own boldness, as she looked up to meet his angered gaze, "If I had come to you after Ankain was taken and asked you to let me go after him with no real leads and very little chance of finding him, would you have let me go?" She asked and this time Windu scoffed.
"Do you hear yourself?" He shook his head, "Of course not. Why would we let you go poking around known Separatist hideouts in the hopes of eventually finding Skywalker, who could have been anywhere in the galaxy?" He raised his voice again.
Kyah shrugged, "Because where there is hope, there is always a chance." She said, using his own words against him.
Windu clenched his jaw as he sat back in his seat. "I think my successful mission is a very relevant example of that." Kyah added then heard Yoda giggle quietly as he looked beside him at the very frustrated Mace Windu.
"A good point, Master Paladin has made." Yoda said, and Windu only sighed.
"So, your defence for your disobedience is that we would not have accepted your hope as a feasible basis for a search party?" Master Plo asked, and Kyah felt her heart sink as she turned to face her former master for the first time and guilt flooded her mind.
"I have no defence for my disobedience master." Kyah admitted, "I knew that I must go, and I knew you would not let me." She said plainly, "But, I will defend my choice by saying it was the right thing to do." She added firmly as, perhaps for the first time, she truly believed that she did not deserve this punishment. "As Jedi, if we can not trust our hope to guide us in the right direction, even when the odds seem impossible, are we Jedi at all." She asked and looked around the room at the wide array of complicated expressions, "I did the right thing by disobeying this council." She decided, "Perhaps it wasn't the most strategic move, and perhaps the risk of failure was greater than the chance for reward-"
"Definitely." Mace Windu interrupted to correct her statement, and Kyah sighed as her eyes met his and she no longer felt guilt holding her back.
"Even still, I know that had I stayed and done nothing, Anakin would be dead, Dooku would still be at large, and I would never have forgiven my own complacency." She shrugged as she admitted what it all boiled down to.
"If you really view obedience to this council as complacency, then I don't think we have anything more to discus with you." Windu Declared.
"I think that anyone who talks to me about betraying my morals for the sake of obedience needs to remember that I am not a dog." Kyah snapped. "Nor am I a Padawan learner, and I was under the impression that this meant I would have the freedom to fight for what I believe in." she raised her voice just slightly.
"That doesn't mean you should fight against us." Windu shot back, matching her intensity.
"I will always fight to defend the lives of those around me. If you forbid me from doing that, then you leave me no choice master." She said in desperation for him to understand.
"That is a drastic oversimplification of the situation." Windu waved her off as he sat back in his seat.
Kyah sighed and shook her head slowly as tears formed in her eyes, "Here's an oversimplification for you; If it is the will of this council to confine me to this temple like a prisoner in my own home then I will have no home here." She said with absolute certainty, keeping her eyes fixed on Windu, "I have served under masters before who forced me to obey blindly. I refuse to ever live that way again." A tear fell from her eye and she quickly turned away, swiping it from her cheek as she took a deep, trembling breath, then her eyes settled on Master Plo. His brows were knitted together as he looked at her and moved his hand in front of him, lifting it slowly as he took a breath and lowering it in time with his exhale, reminding her as he use to, that she needed to take a moment to think and just breathe.
She took the advice, closing her eyes and taking in a shaky inhale as she forced herself to calm down and remain focused.
"In preparation for this trial, the council has been made aware of your history before joining the order." Mace Windu said and Kyah felt a stab of betrayal through her chest as she turned back to face him, lowering her eyes and fixing them on the faint blue glow of her cuffs.
"I was under the impression that my records were sealed from only a select few." She spoke barely above a whisper.
"No one outside of this room has seen them." Windu added, as if he was reassuring her of something.
"Who's decision was this?" She asked, her hands trembling harder as her nerves grew out of control.
"It was a joint decision made by the council." Windu explained.
"It would have been a tie vote had you waited for all our members to arrive." Obi Wan said bitterly and Windu sent him a warning look.
"It was decided that, to make an informed and fair decision, we needed to establish if insubordination was a pattern or an anomaly for you." He tried to explain.
"You have no right to judge me by who I was before I arrived here." She said with a low voice.
"It is all relevant to who you are today." Windu went on, but Kyah shook her head.
"I have trained under two of your finest Jedi Masters for the past five years to overcome my past and embrace the Jedi way." She said and took a moment to find the right words and not let her boiling anger spill over, "I believe that is exactly what I have demonstrated these past few days." Windu went to speak, but Yoda raised his hand and hushed him, looking curiously up at her.
"Explain, you should, Master Paladin." He nodded to her.
"I heard that a Jedi had been taken, and that I was forbidden to help them, but if I have learned anything from the Jedi I have studied under and served along side, it's that no matter the cost to one's self, it is always worth a fight to save a life. And, the first thing I did once clear, was call on the force for guidance." She said and saw the council members exchange curious looks, "That's the only reason I was able to find Skywalker. Mustafar was one name on a list of dozens of locations. Without the force leading me, I never would have made it there in time." She explained. "Once we arrived, I had many opportunities to take my revenge on Dooku and Ventress for all the pain they have caused, but it was never even an option in my mind." She sighed, looking around at the many faces of her lifelong heroes, "And at any point during the long journey back to Mandalore, I could have fled." She shrugged, "Turned tail and avoided this confrontation all together, but truth is I want to be here." She admitted, "A Jedi is all I've ever wanted to be, and I can't imagine myself anywhere else."
She looked over to Mace Windu and clenched her jaw as she considered wether she was brave enough to speak these next words, but in her heart she knew she must, "When I was young," she felt emotion welling in her throat and tried to swallow it away, "The eldest girl in my cell block used to tell us stories about the Jedi. Brave heroes from far away who travelled the galaxy righting injustice everywhere they went." She sighed, "After she died I went on telling her stories to the younger girls, making sure that they passed them on so that every child in that accursed place had something to hold onto. Hope beyond hope that these Paladins of Light would come for us one day. I myself never thought it would happen. And with every child I saw lost to starvation, brutality or sold into a life of servitude, my hope dimmed, until one day a fresh face was brought to my block, replacing one of my very closest friends. The loss of her had broken me. I had decided that was it: No more hope, no more heroics. I was finished with it. All of it." Her lip trembled slightly at the memory, "But in that moment of absolute despair, the new little girl, she couldn't have been more than seven at the time, sat against the bars between our cells and started to tell me a story about these impossible heroes from far away, called the Jedi." Kyah had to stop and take a breath, closing her eyes so she could force herself to finish without seeing the faces of the council, "The stories that I had told so many years before had stuck around long after I had given up hope, and come back around just when I needed them." She concluded, "It wasn't more than a month later when a Jedi cruiser came soaring in over our prisons." She cracked a smile, opening her eyes as she said, "You should have seen our faces when-" her voice dropped as she looked out across the sea of emotion surrounding her.
A handful of the council members were swiping away tears, Obi Wan being one, but the rest were equally moved by her story. Even Windu was left speechless in his seat as he held his hand over his mouth and concern creased his brow.
Kyah started to wonder if she'd made the right choice by sharing, "My point is, masters. My expectations for the Jedi and what they stood for were higher than you could believe, but still you held up to them." She looked around at the many faces she had studied under throughout her tutelage, landing finally on Master Plo, "Everything you taught me about what it meant to be a Jedi... it was exactly what I needed to hear. What I needed to believe in." She struggled for the right words, "I was going to become this ideal that I had created in my head. And, for nearly three years now, I have done exactly what I set out to do. I have dissolved crime organizations from within, stopped attacks before they happened, uncovered the locations of separatist cells all across the galaxy, and I did so largely unsupervised." She sighed, "So, up until very recently, I had never seen this other side of the Jedi tangled together with the republic." She said and saw Windu's expression hardening. "What we have become is not what we once stood for." She shook her head, "This new generation of Jedi; my generation, has not been raised as you were; to be peacekeepers above all else. We were born into a galaxy at war and raised within it to be generals and soldiers," she sighed, "So when it came down to following orders or saving the life of my friend, I felt my training as a General forbade me from going after him, but my training as a Jedi demanded I go." She explained and a deafening silence swallowed the room. "At the end of the day, I would rather be a peacekeeper than a soldier. I want to be the kind of Jedi who's stories live on long after I am gone."
Kyah looked around from face to face, but few would meet her eye, and those who did held expressions of hurt and frustration she couldn't quite understand.
"Much to think about, you have given us, Master Paladin." Yoda said in a somber voice, devoid of all his normal curiosity and humour, "Leave us now, you may, to discus and make our decision." He said.
Kyah hesitated, looking to Obi Wan for direction and he nodded calmly to her, so Kyah bowed and turned to go, when Mace Windu halted her steps.
"Before you go," he spoke quietly and tapped a control on his com unit.
Within seconds the doors to the council room opened and Kyah looked up in shock as Fox walked towards her pointedly.
"Please remove Master Paladin's restraints." He said and Kyah looked over her shoulder to see what might have been a look of apology on Windu's face, though she'd never know for sure because he would never say the words, "You are no longer under arrest, but you are still required to stay within the bounds of the city until your sentencing has been passed." He spoke sternly and just like that Kyah could see the old Windu come back.
She turned to Fox when she felt him take her hand, steadying it's trembling so he could use his key. As the cuffs fell away from her skin, she lifted her arms and ran her fingers over the sensitive skin where they had been. Kyah nodded to Fox and he returned the gesture as he stepped aside to let her pass.
Kyah looked back over her shoulder at the room full of the best of her order and she wondered if any of them could see what they had become, or if it had all been too gradual for them to even notice.
She walked out of the council room and exhaled a long, shaky breath when she heard the doors close behind her. She held her face in her hands, swiping away the tears that had dampened her cheeks as it started to sink in that she had just shared some of her most personal moments with all of her superiors.
She heard foot steps behind her and jumped a little as she spun to see Fox still standing behind her. He raised his hands in surrender when he saw how badly he'd startled her.
"Sorry." He mumbled as he brushed passed and Kyah watched him go out the door, just as Spinner and her boys filtered back into the waiting area.
"Hey, there's our girl!" Dozer cheered as he rushed forward with a big grin, moving to hug her until she crossed her arms over herself and he stopped, lowering his arms again as his smile faltered, but he recovered it quickly.
"How'd it go? Did they reach a decision?" Spinner asked as he stepped up beside Dozer, and one by one her troopers circled around her.
She shook her head, "I'm to stay within city limits until my sentencing is passed." She answered him quietly, forcing herself to keep it together just a little longer.
"How do you think it went?" Wingman pressed her and Kyah gave a half shrug as she sighed heavily.
"At this point, it could go either way." She admitted, "Though, if they allow me to remain in the order, I think it will be largely thanks to the chancellor for marching down here and making it very clear that the senate is behind me." She added and saw Spinner's eyes widen as the others looked to him in confusion.
"The chancellor was here?" He asked and Kyah nodded.
"I thought you knew." She tipped her head when Spinner shook his.
"We called Organa and spoke with a lady senator for a while, but I hadn't heard a thing about the chancellor." He explained.
Kyah nodded, "Chuchi was here as well, but I think the Chancellor's presence is what has the best chance of making a difference for me." She said.
"Well good." Dozer nodded but saw Kyah and Spinner's expressions remain troubled, "That is good right?" He asked with a little less confidence.
Spinner sighed and ran a hand over the back of his neck, "That depends." He met Kyah's eye, "If you're allowed to stay simply because the Senate strong armed the order, then can you live with the knowledge that your superiors would have preferred you be gone?" He asked and Kyah looked down for long moments considering his words as hurt struck her heart.
"I can live with it." She decided, "I know that this is where I can make the biggest difference in the world. I won't give that up simply on principal." She decided and could see Spinner's mind working away at something, though his expression remained unreadable, "Besides, I couldn't leave my boys behind." She shrugged and Spinner's expression hardened as he met her eyes again.
"You'd never have to." He assured her and Kyah's lips parted as a gasp escaped her lips, "If they banished you over this, we'd go too." He insisted and Kyah started to shake her head.
She was about to protest when Dozer spoke up, "Damn right." He insisted and Kyah looked his way to see no question on his face.
"Absolutely." Wingman said, as she met his eye and he gave her a wink.
"No question." Mouse and Cat said in unison
"Did you really think we would let you leave us behind?" Patch asked.
Kyah shrugged a little, before Volatile drew her attention, "There would be no Jedi who could replace you general." he insisted, "Not even close."
"Nope." Falcon shook his head, "You cant get rid of us that easy." He smiled and Kyah laughed a little as tears rimmed her eyes and she blinked rapidly to keep them at bay.
"I hope you all know, that I would never expect you to--" She tried to say, but Spinner shook his head.
"Shut up." He said with a teasing smile, "Course we know kid." He assured her and Kyah smiled.
"Alright then." She nodded, "That is a relief." She said and let out a shaky breath, "You have no idea how much it had been weighing on me." She shook her head and opened her arms, waving for them to come in.
The men all laughed, and 'awed' teasingly as they closed the circle and wrapped her in a big group hug.
"Let's be honest, if I left, you'd last no more than week before starvation took you." Viper said and the others booed him harshly, shoving him out of the group as Kyah laughed.
There was a sudden giggling in the doorway and the crew all fell silent as they opened up the crushing hug to reveal Kyah in the middle of it.
Her eyes met Senator Chuchi's, seeing her smiling warmly towards the bundle of soldiers, crowded around their General.
"I must assume that these are finally your clone soldiers?" She asked and Kyah nodded as she looked up at her men with a proud smile.
"Yes, these are my boys." She said and the Senator walked into the overcrowded waiting room, as Kyah's men fell into formation behind her, forming tow tidy rows and folding their hands behind their backs, "Boys, this is Senator Chuchi of Pantora." She said and gestured to the lovely young woman, "She's the one who rallied the senate on my behalf." She explained quickly.
It was almost palpable, the excitement in the room thickening as her men each offered their most sincere gratitude to the Senator.
She laughed a little again as she looked across their faces, "It was my pleasure." She said and nodded to them, then her eyes landed on Spinner, his scarred face making him distinct amongst them, "I'm glad to see you all looking so much more relaxed now that you're together again." She said and Kyah glanced up at him, seeing Spin turn his face away from her as he cleared his throat.
She looked back over at the senator, "It is good." She agreed and nudged his shoulder pointedly as his face flushed slightly and he shook his head while keeping his eyes fixed on the floor in front of him.
"I think there are a few more people out her who would like to see you." Chuchi gestured over her shoulder and out into the hall, "Commander Fox asked the rest of us to leave the waiting area when the numbers continued to grow."
Kyah's brow furrowed as she looked past Chuchi and wondered how many people could possibly be out there. The senator stepped aside as Kyah walked passed her. She wasn't really sure what she was expecting, but it certainly wasn't this.
Her eyes widened as she looked out over nearly a hundred clones crowding the temple hall, painted in orange, blue, and grey.
"General Paladin!" One of the blue clones shouted, and suddenly they all turned to face her.
"Little General!" This time, one of the grey clones shouted as he shoved his helmet into his brother's arms and darted towards Kyah.
"Sinker!" She responded with equal enthusiasm as the clone collided with her at such a speed, the force of it would have knocked her over if not for his arms wrapping around her with equal strength.
"Let me in on that." Another of the grey clones said as he charged over and hugged her and his brother both.
"Oh, you had to make it weird didn't you." Sinker groaned as he shrugged out of the hug.
"It's only weird if you make it weird." The ginger clone shot back as he readjusted to hug Kyah properly.
She laughed as she smacked his back affectionately.
"Nope, pretty sue, it's just weird." Sinker shot back and folded his arms grumpily over his chest.
"Easy does it!" Kyah recognized Kix's panicked tones as he hurried over, pulling off his helmet and carefully unwrapping the grey clone's arms from around Kyah, "The general is still injured." He scolded.
"It's alright Kix. They meant well." Kyah soothed the medic as he carefully leaned down to inspect her bandaging.
"Did they though?" Wingman asked as he came out of the waiting room with the rest of Kyah's troop keeping close behind.
"Speaking of weird, what have you done to your hair Boost?" Dozer asked as he laughed and clapped a hand down on the clone's shoulder.
"What?" He asked in offence and ran a hand over his ginger dyed double mohawk, "Gotta do something to stand out from the rest of you ugly mugs."He shrugged as another member of his troop walked up behind him with no tattoos or extravagant hairstyle. Just a simple black buzzcut.
He smacked Sinker's helmet against his stomach, making him cough as he shook his head and looked over at Boost, "No, you don't." He said in disappointment and Boost rolled his eyes.
"Warthog." Kyah said. Her eyes were nearly closed as her cheeks lifted with her smile, "It is so good to see you." She said and clapped her hand into his, "All of you." She added and looked between them, nodding to the final grey clone who approached her.
"Comet." She said and he smiled as he nodded back.
"I see you've got another trophy Little General." Warthog noted as he looked down at her bandaged arm, "How'd you earn this one?" He asked with a fond smile on his face as Kyah looked down at the wrapping, seeing some blood seeping through the white gauze.
"Piece of shrapnel through my arm." She said and looked back up to see the wolf pack hiss as they winced.
"And." Spinner added pointedly as he looked down at her with heavy disapproval.
Kyah met his eye before rolling her own, "And I cauterized it with my sabre." She admitted quietly.
"Again?" Wolf asked as he walked forwards and the other four stepped aside, "We've talked about this." He said and dropped his hands against his sides as he shook his head in disapproval.
"Have you?" Spinner said pointedly as his brows raised and he looked down at her with frustration plain on his face. "So have we."
"Alright, alright." She waved for them to wait, "Calm down dads. I'm sorry for acting impulsively." She said with a note of annoyance rather than apology.
"You don't sound sorry." Wolf said as his brows pulled down and he crossed his arms.
"She doesn't does she?" Spinner shook his head.
Kyah groaned as she ran a hand over her face, "This is exactly why I never introduced you two." She grumbled under her breath.
"Oh really?" Spinner scoffed and walked passed her, clapping a hand onto Wolff's shoulder, "I was going to head to the mess for a bite. Care to join me?" He asked and Wolff looked pointedly at Kyah as he nodded.
"Sounds good." He said and the two of them turned to head off, "The rest of you can clear out too. Let the general get some rest before you bombard her with questions and excitement." Wolff declared as he walked through the sea of waiting clones who howled in protest, until the Commander turned back and looked across them with an immovable expression and the hallway fell silent.
Warthog leaned down to Kyah and whispered, "How'd you split your knuckles?" He asked and Kyah smiled a little as she lifted her hand, turning it over to look at the scabbed and bruised surface.
"Punched a Sith apprentice." She whispered back and Warthog laughed in approval.
"What, did you lose you sabre out there?" He asked and laughed more until Kyah looked down to her empty belt and her face fell.
"No, it was confiscated when I was arrested." She said and anger bubbled up in the clone.
"It's not right." Sinker shook his head, "How they're treating you like a criminal after all you've done." He said.
"I did ignore direct orders." Kyah shrugged in defeat.
"And captured Count Dooku in the process." Boost added and Kyah again shrugged.
"Well done, by the way." Comet added and Kyah looked up to see his serious face, "You can't imagine how proud Wolff was to know you were the one to manage it, after all this time." he said and looked back the way his commander had gone.
Kyah remembered the day when Wolff came back form a mission with Master Plo, bandages wound around his head and a split straight through the visor of his helmet. She remembered how much she had wanted to take her revenge. "It was my pleasure." She said with a note of anger in her voice.
"I think that's enough shop talk for now boys."
Kyah felt a flutter of excitement in her chest as a familiar voice cut through her fog of anxiety and anger. She looked up to see Anakin approaching with Rex at his side.
He made a point of not meeting her eye just yet, addressing everyone formally while so many people still surrounded them.
"You'll scare away our dear Senator with all this talk of battle and injury." He said and glanced from the clones to the doorway of the waiting room where everyone turned to look, finding Senator Chuchi leaning against the frame with a nervous sort of expression on her face.
"I've seen my fair share of battle, if you'll recall Master Skywalker." she said and stepped out into the hallway, smiling as she approached Anakin.
He brushed passed Kyah, opening his arms to pull Chuchi into a tight hug as she laughed and he smiled.
Kyah felt an unfamiliar note of jealousy tugging at her and saw Anakin's eyes meet her's for a moment. She knew he'd felt her emotions just then and a blush dusted her cheeks as she looked away, crossing her arms around herself.
"How do you two know each other?" Wingman asked, his eyes on Kyah as well though he addressed Anakin and the Senator.
"Master Skywalker and Master Kenobi helped me through my very first mission as Senator of Pantora." She explained, "Though our most recent encounter was during an attack on the senate building itself, when he fearlessly defended myself and many other senators from ruthless pirates." She explained.
"They were bounty hunters." Anakin corrected as he leaned down to her, keeping his arm draped over her shoulders as her's remained firmly around his waist.
"Were they?" She asked in surprise.
"Mhm." Anakin nodded.
"They seemed very piratey." She shrugged.
"Definitely bounty hunters." Anakin shrugged.
"What's the difference?" She asked and Anakin opened then closed his mouth a few times in consideration.
"Bounty Hunters are skilled individuals who work for the highest bidder. Pirates work for no one but themselves." Kyah spoke with a note of bitterness that brought concern to both Anakin and Chuchi.
"I see." The senator nodded.
A moment of silence passed between them all before Chuchi cleared her throat, "Well I was hoping to discus our potential mission with you before tomorrow, but I can see now that I am asking too much of you." She said and stepped closer to Kyah, Anakin's arm slipping off her shoulder as he hung back.
"I am not cleared to leave the planet until my sentencing has passed." Kyah clarified, "Until then, it may be wise to search for a different Jedi to escort you, just in case." She suggested with an apologetic expression.
Chuchi shook her head, "Nonsense." She said, "The council will see reason, and after seeing this display of friendship," She gestured wide to the hallway which had been filled to the brim with clones. "I will have no other." She insisted.
Kyah smiled, exhaling as she relaxed a little more, "I do hope we will get to work together Senator." She spoke honestly and Chuchi returned her smile.
"Me too." She nodded, "Until then. Get some well earned rest Master Jedi." She said with a note of concern, then turned back and said her goodbyes to Kyah's troopers and Anakin before heading down the hallway towards the temple's exit.
Kyah watched her go, before her eyes drifted back to meet Anakin's where he stood across the hall from her. She wanted so badly to go to him. To be held by him, but it simply wasn't possible.
Suddenly Wingman cleared his throat and nodded for his brothers to head out. They each started to filter down the hall the way the other clones had gone.
"You going for food or bed first General?" Falcon asked and Kyah considered for a moment.
"Bed." She decided, "Scratch that. Shower first, then bed." She corrected and he nodded.
"We'll see you when you wake then." He nodded to her, then slung his arm over Rex's shoulders.
"Join us Captain. We'll show you who to talk to to score extra Nuna." He said as he guided the clone down the hall.
"I think my sergeant Hardcase must know of this person." He said as they disappeared around the corner, leaving only Anakin and Kyah.
Kyah looked down the hall and could see temple guards and various Jedi walking back and forth through the busy temple. She sighed, knowing that she could still not go to him.
"I tried to find you when I woke up." He spoke quietly and Kyah looked over to see heavy sadness on his face, "Then Rex told me what had happened and I was so angry." He admitted with a hint of shame and Kyah took a step closer to him before hesitating, "Of course, the next thing I heard was that the count had... I don't even know. Invaded your dreams?" He watched Kyah's face twist in sadness.
"Something like that." She nodded.
Anakin sighed, "Are you alright?" He asked, not knowing what else to say.
Kyah shrugged a little, then her lip started to tremble and she shook her head to say no when her voice would not come.
Anakin had to actively keep himself still, he desperately wanted to hold her. The feeling of fear and sadness radiated off of her endlessly as she struggled to get ahold of herself again, it was driving him insane.
"I am. I'm fine." She insisted as she rubbed her eyes and sniffled. She could see that he was absolutely not buying it, as his head tipped and heavy sympathy creased his brow, "I will be." She amended and offered a half shrug.
"I have to go in and give my report." Anakin gestured behind himself to the doorway and Kyah nodded.
"Will you come to my room after so we can actually talk?" She asked nervously and Anakin nodded eagerly.
"Yes please." He said and Kyah laughed a little, happy to see enthusiasm crack a smile on his somber face as well.
He turned to leave, when Kyah suddenly spoke up, "Ani?" She caught his attention and he turned back to face her, "I didn't mention my past with the witches, or my connection to Mustafar."She whisper to him and he nodded.
"Understood." He said and she smiled to him one last time before they parted ways.