Anabeth: New Beginnings

Chapter 3 - Planning And Gossip

As Ana and Windu once again stepped through the doors of the Council chambers they still found Ahsoka, Padmè, Satine, Obi-wan, Anakin and the babies waiting for them. They quickly straightened up at the sight of Windu, scared of what conclusion he had come to. Windu had to hide an amused smile at the sight of the group.

"I think it's safe to say that if it were entirely up to me, neither of you would be facing any consequences right now. Unfortunately though, the rest of the Council has a say in this matter too. As there are rules and protocols I have to uphold here, I can, at least for the moment, offer you no better deal than the instruction that you two are going to have to take a little bit of a step back for a while.

More precisely, that means that while I am not stripping you of ranks, you have no say in the military for now, meaning, no more missions for the Republic. As for Jedi matters, I am keeping you on the Council, seen as I don't find your judgement to be impaird here.

However, Anakin, unless I should see a really good reason you are to stay on Coruscant and not take any missions until this issue is solved. As for Obi-wan, I believe you're too valuable on Mandalore to keep you here, but just so I can sell this descision to the rest of the Council, I'm going to make Ana the one in charge of the team instead of you. And once you get back, the same rules that apply to Anakin go for you.

As for me personally, I want to assure you that, contrary to what you may believe, I do not support the no attachment rule anymore. I know this is probably not very fair to you and your families right now, but I'd like to use this as an opportunity to make some changs to the order and get rid of that no attachment rule and hope to have your help" Windu said.

The whole room seemed surprised at Master Windu's unexpectetly kind reaction, except for Ana who was contently smiling at the scene. "Whatever it's going to take, you'll have our support" Obi-wan promised. "And speaking about support" Ahsoka cut in "while you were busy letting everyone meet the babies I've had the chance to exchange a few word with some of the Council members.

Some of what they said wasn't a clear statement on the matter, but I think we might have some more supporters in Master Fisto and Billaba. Plus I believe we're going to have some neutral points of view on the matter which should be easy enough to convince". "Thank you, Ahsoka" Anakin thanked her.

"So, does anyone have any plans for the rest of the day?" Ana asked, changing the topic. „I think Bo wanted to have a meeting together with all of you later concerning your role on Mandalore. Should I ask her to come here, or should we meet at my place?" Satine asked.

"I think your place will be fine. Would two hours from now work for you? We kind of have a few calls and preparations to make to get ours troops home" Windu replied. "Yes, that sounds great. I'll go ahead and inform Bo, I'll see you three later" Satine said, lookin at Windu, Obi-Wan And Ana.

"I'm going to have to head out too, Bail asked me to meet him. Which means, you are in charge of the babies for a few hours, Anakin" Padmè informed him, handing Luke to Ahsoka as she followed Satine and Grace out of the door.

"I'll help babysit" Ahsoka immediately offered to the slightly panicked looking Anakin. "Thanks, Snips. Let's go get the twins home" he replied, leaving with Ahsoka. "Guess it's the three of us working on getting everyone back then" Ana stated as they started moving toward the strategy room.

"But if we bring back the Kashyyk troups at the same time as the Felucia troups, then we don't have enough open docks for them" Ana pointed out, staring at the deployment map and their experimental return scedule in frustration.

"We'll have to rescedule Kashyyk then, otherwise Aayla won't be making it to Mandalore at all" Obi-Wan deducted. "Or, we just split Kashyyk into two groups. Half of them return with Felucia, and the other half we pull back two weeks later together with Christophsis. We migth even be able to squeeze one or two moon outposts into the Felucia wave then" Ana suggested.

"We'll do that then, the faster we leave Kashyyk, the better. Now, what about Ryloth? Because of the blockade that used to be in orbit, we don't have nearly enough ships there to transport everyone. Which fleets do we have to spare?" Windu moved on to the next problem.

"Well, Anakin's one abviously, but seen as he's out of the military for now, I think you might want to send Depa. Her fleet will be fully operational again tomorrow and by sending her, we'll have more open docks as well" Obi-Wan voiced an idea. "We'll do that then. I'll call her and tell to make the necessary preparations. In the mean time, Obi-Wan, you call Kashyyk and Felucia.

Tell Luminara to send half of her men back already and tell Aayla to get her whole fleet moving within the next five days. Oh, and Ana, can you go and tell Talin that he's temporarly going to Mandalore. It also wouldn't hurt if he tagged along to meet the Duchess and the Senator in a minute if he has time" Windu instructed. "On it" Ana confirmed, heading out of the door to search for Talin.

Knowing that her friend liked to hang out in the gardens at this time of the day, she headed there first, not surprised to find him sitting in the grass beneath a tree. "Ana, I didn't expect to see you today" he greeted her. "Well, today is your lucky day then. You've been temporarily placed on my mission until Aayla gets back" she replied.

"What mission? Where are we going?" Talin asked excitedly. "To Mandalore. The Sepratist agreed to holding the peace talks there and Bo-Katan managed to get the Jedi in as an additional neutral party as support" Ana explained. "Wait, why are you in charge of the mission then instead of Master Kenobi?" Talin was a little confused.

"You didn't hear it yet?" Ana asked a little surprised. "Heard what? I don't really hang out with people too much, remember?". "Fair point, but I would have assumed this one would have come to your attention by now. Come on, let's see how popular the gossip is already".

Ana practically dragged the confused Talin back inside the Temple, scanning the hallway to find exactly what she had been looking for, a small group of Jedi that seemed to be talking in ushered voices. "Mask your force presence, or his might get awkward" Ana instructed as she and Talin slowly snuck closer.

Once they were in hearing range, they stopped behind a pillar, listening to what the group was saying. "Senator Amidala, really?" one of them asked in slight disbelieve. "Not too surprising I'd say, whereever the Senator is, Skywalker isn't far behind" another one pointed out. "Fair point. But Master Kenobi and the former Duchess, no one saw that one coming" the first Jedi replied.

"Yeah, the last I heard, they liked to quarrel when out in public" a third person threw in. "Maybe it was just an act to throw everyone off. I mean, a child doesn't exactly support your theory of them being enemies" the second person once again reasoned. "Still, a Jedi and a Mandalorian. This is bound to be a scandal one way or another".

Talin seemed to have heard enough as he quickly dragged Ana to one of the smaller, empty hallways close by. "What did I just hear? Did they seriously use the words Duchess Satine, Master Kenobi and child together?". Talin looked more confused than anything, and Ana could clearly understand where he was coming from. "Yes" Ana simply confirmed.

"What in the name of the force is going on?" he asked, still in disbelieve. "To put it simply, the Jedi have a few new additions. Anakin and Padmè's twins, Luke and Leia, and Obi-Wan and Satine's daughter, Grace" Ana explained. "Wow. And they're all force sensitive?" Talin asked astonished. "Yep. Apparently force sensitivity is pretty easily passed on for humans" Ana confirmed.

"Interesting. So, like that group said, Amidala and Skywalker are quiet obvious when you think about it. But, Master Kenobi and Duchess Satine? I know Master Vos mentioned they always fought a lot". "It's actually Senator Satine now, but that's not important right now. All you really need to know is that they actually get along quiet splendidly. But you'll find that out soon enough, because we're going to their place for a briefing concerning the Mandalore missions" Ana explained "I'll let you read all the notes on our way there".