blast! → the clone wars

i. early victories

⋆☆.* ✧✰ .✦⋆*☆

TARA STILL THOUGHT ABOUT IT SOMETIMES; while meditating early in the morning, while trying to sleep late at night, sometimes it would be at the back of her mind and sometimes it would haunt her. This, of course, was no surprise, not to her or to anyone else she would occasionally confide in, for they all seemed to have the same issue. A moment full of trauma and determination, loss and gain, endings and beginnings, a moment that would stay with them for all of time. It had been the moment that ignited the Clone Wars with the subtlety of an exploding bomb, the moment that had changed all of their lives forever.

As Tara meditated that morning, she could think of nothing but the Battle of Geonosis.

The grand corridor in the Jedi Temple had been mostly empty that early afternoon as Tara strolled through with her Padawan. She had always admired the building for its beauty, for it reminded her of a place one would find on planets like Naboo. It felt out of place in the high-tech city that was Coruscant, but that was one of the things she liked most about it.

"So when are we gonna get to the exciting part of training?" the boy questioned eagerly from her side, and Tara smiled to herself. Some Padawans were like she had been, quiet and patient and ready to learn, but others were, well...like Xen.
"You had to have already been in at least one fight by the time you were my age."

"Patience," she reminded him, and he promptly rolled his eyes, just as he always did whenever she advised him with that word.
"Fighting is only a very small part of being a Jedi." He mumbled something under his breath, which only brought his Master further amusement; he'd learn in time, she knew that. She nearly said something else, but her thoughts were interrupted as her comms flashed and beeped, signaling an incoming transmission. Tara slowed to a stop, Xen following in suit, and the image of Mace Windu soon appeared before her in a translucent blue. That was her first sign that something was wrong, as he looked worried—far more so than she had ever seen him. She decided there was no time for pleasantries.
"Master Windu. What's going on?"

"Master Kenobi followed the bounty hunter Jango Fett to Geonosis, where he found a factory fit for the creation of thousands of battle droids. He was attacked as he was contacting us, and I fear the worst. We need all hands on deck, I'm sending you the coordinates now."

"I'm on my way." The call ended immediately, and it was then that Tara thought of her Padawan. She faced him, looking down into his wide eyes.
"You are to stay here, do you understand?" Needless to say, that wasn't quite what he was hoping to hear.

"What?! But you heard Master Windu, he needs all hands on deck!"

"And you've barely started your training. You're far better off here, I promise. This is no time for thrill seeking, this could go horribly wrong."

"But I want to help! I can help! You said it yourself, I'm exceptionally talented for someone my age." Tara pondered it for a moment; she admired his desire to help, but most of all she knew damn well that he'd find a way to Geonosis regardless of what she said. There was really only one choice, no matter how much she hated it.

"Fine, but you will follow my orders to the letter, got it? I tell you to run, you get the hell out of there without a moment's hesitation." She spoke uncharacteristically firm, which helped him to understand the true seriousness of the situation. He nodded, and they were off to the hangar.

Tara's thoughts shifted to the battle, and that was what her mind always seemed to dwell on. It had been brutal—far worse than anything she had experienced in her twenty-seven years of existence. More droids filled the arena than she could have ever imagined, shooting mercilessly at the outnumbered Jedi. She recalled seeing her comrades falling left and right, hit by blast after blast after blast until they collided with the ground, void of all life. She had been terrified, but not necessarily for herself; she hadn't allowed her thoughts to dwell past the safety of her Padawan and the several other Jedi that fought by her side. Her priority was keeping them safe, then maybe she could worry about herself.