Strange.
A strange occurrence had happened, one that could of changed the way the Jedi see themselves but it did not.
The way they move about in the world, their interactions and their thoughts but this small incursion wouldn't change their ways. Not when many other things that had happened before did not and things in the future wont do so as well.
"Padawan Secura, come this way."
Aayla Secura had been brought into the Jedi Order a long time ago, well at least long for her considering she had been within the Order since near the beginning of her life. She was safely progressing and fully coming into her own abilities as a Padawan.
"Pay attention Padawan, a attack has just occurred on our temple and you have time to be in your thoughts?" Quinlan Vos, Aayla's master then says. "Focus."
Born 18 years prior to now she had been living quite the strange life as a Jedi. Many a times had she been arduously pushed to achieve her limits as she was not the most talented or outstanding of the Jedi but was very hard working.
She had an empathetic nature combined with intelligence and as she grew and kept those traits but had developed a streak for impulsive and mischievous behavior.
Confident, though not arrogant, in her abilities, she was becoming a good leader and a skilled tactician, she had also been progressing rather rapidly in becoming a Jedi Knight and from what she had been told, within a year or two she would be promoted.
"We may have some respite but I would urge you to not be reckless. We dont know when those droid could come again."
"Yes Master, I will pay attention."
A day had gone and passed by with no sound or any other interference coming to take place, no more droids relentlessly but sparsely attacking. Aayla had been practicing to further improve herself and had nearly been angered because of the interruption.
That same anger had gone away though as she had been tasked with her master to deal with some droids in another area. She did happen to overhear that some droids had also gone to the senate building, which was an interesting fact.
Supposedly a special droid had been destroyed in the process after Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Master Windu had gone after.
"Master, I dont believe any more droids are coming."
"Stay alert, you don't know what could happen."
The droids that had attacked the temple had just vanished, up and left leaving not a clue as to why it had happened, no connection could be traced, nothing.
The sporadically appeared all over causing very minimal damage and no one had been harmed, at least no one had died or been wounded or injured and would be able to heal within a few days. After a full day and a half everything had stopped.
It had been a few hours since and not much had happened which was starting to get boring to her because despite the training of a Jedi she was always impulsive.
Quinlan Vos spoke over the communicator. "Right we have to go now, it seems everything has settled down with no other movements. Some people will be invited to a meeting that will take place, it wont be a grand event but just to address the situation."
"Do we have to go as well?"
"Depends, you may go if you like but it isn't required." Quinlan then continues. "I am going to go see what everyone had discovered about this attack as it is quite the scale and the confidence the person would have would be troublesome."
"I think I will skip, I am not too interested right now." In spite of her impulsive nature she had calmed down enough ever since her 'incident' to not get involved in something that she not be involved with.
"I will go there now, see you some other time when we go on our next mission."
"Yes Master."
As Quinlan walks off Aayla decides that she needed some training and had heard that there were some pretty good training droids that could be used to polish her lightsaber combat. 'What was it? That Skywalker kid, what's his name again?'
While walking she happens upon two individuals who are younger then her. 'They appear to be younglings.'
"What are you two doing here?"
It was Barriss and her new small friend Ahsoka. "We were just heading to a training room." Ahsoka answered.
"Training huh?"
"Yeah, training." Barriss confirmed.
"Which room, and why are you guys out so suddenly? Aren't all of you younglings meant to be within the bunker area."
"Yes but thats over now, or so we have been told." Barriss replies.
Deciding to ask the question on her mind on the off chance these younglings know where the Skywalker kids training droids are at. "Do you guys know where I can find Skywalker, or his training droids?"
"Why?" Barriss responds defensively but it is hidden by her control over her emotions.
Raising an eyebrow Aayla then explains. "I wish to use his droids as I have heard they are top of the line and are capable of been used for intense saber training."
Barriss, lowering her guard because she now knows the very attractive looking Twi'lek is not looking for Anakin for 'other reasons.' "Well we are heading there just now, not many people have the honor of using them."
"I am of course Anakin's friend so he allows me to use the droids whenever I want." Barriss says in a subdued by prideful tone thinking she had one upped the older girl.
"Right..." Aayla responds confused but now knowing that these two are going to the droids she could just tag along. "Do you min-"
Aayla is interrupted by Ahsoka who had now decided to speak up. "Yes! Anakin is my friend as well and he will let me use the droids." The childish reply comes out.
Aayla having been interrupted doesn't mind the child's ramblings and continues. "As I was saying, do you mind if I can use the droids as well."
Hesitantly Barriss responds. "I dont know. I am unsure as you seem to not know Anakin and he doesn't like people touching his stuff without permission."
'Really? What's up Skywalker's ass?' Aayla then says. "Well, I am sure that he would be ok with letting a fellow Padawan, right?"
"Well, I guess he would be kind enough to help but for just anyone?" Barriss' voice slowly starts to fade of into the end as she continues talking.
"Great! Lead on then."
"Yeah, lets go!" Ahsoka also peaks in excitement.
Barriss decides to just go with the flow and would pass on all the responsibility if something goes wrong to the eldest here. Specifically Aayla, because Barriss was not against using deceptive tactics and had in fact been trying to train in this area as well.
She would take this ability to see if she could pull off a lie against Anakin, who is the greatest lie detector ever.
[]
"And what, pray tell gave you the impression it was fine for you to just leave the temple?" Mace straight out of the gate questions.
"Well-" Anakin begins only to be interrupted by another.
Qui-Gon then speaks up. "No matter the reason, as long as it proper and is not something silly then we could make this pass with not too much punishment."
"You see-" Anakin gets interrupted again.
"There is no excuse for your absence in this great time of need, we could of used your help here Padawan Skywalker." Mace continues in a strict tone.
'Are these two really playing good cop, bad cop with me right now?'
"Anakin, it is ok if you were out and about as long as it was something to do with the Jedi I would be ok with it." Qui-Gon states.
"I think not, Qui-Gon. I think the boy needs to be punished and what better punishment then being confined to the temple."
Anakin had not been confined to the temple despite his status and was allowed to enjoy everything that was Coruscant as long as he kept up with the trainings, physical and mental tests they had him do.
This was the only way he was able to start preparing for everything that had happened and the only way for him to do more things in the future, if he was allowed some freedom and was not monitored from dawn to dusk, dusk to dawn.
"Master Qui-Gon, Master Windu, I went off planet-"
"Off planet? So you were not even on Coruscant." Mace lifts an eyebrow.
"Yes. I went off planet because I wanted to see my mother and-"
"See your mother? Anakin, remember attachments are forbidden within the Jedi and are not apart of the code." Qui-Gon states.
"If you two would let me finish." Anakin says with some heat.
Silence ensues as Qui-Gon and Mace decide to stop messing around with him. "Now if you two are done being trolls, I would like to properly explain myself."
"Go on." Mace gestures for Anakin to continue.
"I was going to my mother to get her off of the planet she was on for her safety but it is not only for that reason I went back to my origin." Anakin stops for dramatic effect. "I went back to help the slaves."
"Help the slaves?"
"Yes, I had promised, no made a promise to people that I would help them overcome their terrible situation." Anakin says explaining the suffering of the slaves. "Not only had I promised to help them, I was full of intent to fulfill that promise."
"That was reckless of you, and you should not have done so without informing anyone." Qui-Gon says.
"That may be true but I had the feeling no one would let me go there."
"That is true, but now tell us the results of your actions." Mace asks, both him and Qui-Gon forgetting about the other reason Anakin had gone to Tatooine for.
"I did nothing much but help set up some technology that would send out a pulse to destroy and deactivate the slave chips implanted into the slaves." Anakin then continues. "After that I just sat back, or to be more specific left knowing that I should not stay any longer."
Mace hums to himself as he contemplates what shall be done about how Anakin had disobeyed the simple rules put in place by those superior to him.
"For now, I think some confinement to only the temple for the next month will do." Qui-Gon speaks up about his decision starting the punishment off as low as possible because he is currently the metaphorical 'good cop.'
"No, I believe it should be longer than that. Maybe we should extend the amount of time Anakin has to spend before he can become an official Padawan. No missions and no opportunities to advance until we decide otherwise." Mace says in a teasing tone different from his usual demeanor.
"That does seem like a good decision but to restrict him that much may hinder his progress. You have noticed that we are nearing the amount of things we can teach him just by staying here on Coruscant." Qui-Gon interjects.
As they continue talking Anakin has to listen to their spiel over what should be done, the permissions that must be granted, the Jedi code, the what to do and what not to do's. After a while his punishment is that he would be confined to the Jedi temple for 3 months.
Other things were added on as well, that he would need to interreact more with those his age and join in on some of the lessons for younglings. He would have to go so far as become a sort of teaching assistant within those classes.
"I have to look after some kids?"
"After we have decided that you have done a good job as an assistant you will then be given the duties of a teacher." Mace says.
"That is right, young one. You will have to be an assistant teacher and in the future teach younglings within certain lessons." Qui-Gon continues.
Anakin thinks over the punishment and decides to accept as other options will simply hinder his path and it would not be bad to be able to influence the next few generations of Jedi. This will give him an in with the development of them.
To slowly change their ways as with children education is important in shaping their beliefs. By becoming a teacher at least until he starts to do his first missions would it enable Anakin to sway the younglings so when they are inevitably saved after the fall of the Jedi it would be easier undoing the brainwashing they do.
'Thank you my masters for this golden opportunity.' Anakin thinks to himself before saying. "I think I will accept."
"Good."
"You will be given information later on about your assignment and the students you will be teaching in the future." Mace leaves the room but Qui-Gon stays behind.
"I will have to inform the council of your actions. Although the punishment was left to Master Windu and I that doesn't change the fact your actions will go unrecognized."
"I know but I had felt it was right." Anakin pauses for dramatic effect. "For the people on Tatooine, for myself and for the betterment of everyone. Like you have said Master, the 'Living Force' is present within everything that is alive."
"It is what connects us to the greater Cosmic Force and through this was I able to see that without me going there, the people would suffer more."
"I am proud of you but at the same time your actions have consequences. The light side of the Force is absolute selflessness and to embody this you have done just that, give yourself to others without a forethought for yourself."
'Not that true but I did do this for more than myself.'
"Because of this, the punishment was not as severe and Master Windu will smooth things over with the others, for now you should go."
"Yes Master. Thank you again."
"It is no problem, go on now. I am sure you will be curious about what has happened in your absence."
"Something has happened?" Anakin questions knowing full well what had occurred.
"Yes, some interesting events have taken place."