TPF Chapter 16

Enthea recognizes the hospital wing of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She’s visited it before, but never as a patient.

Mace Windu looms over her in the quiet room.

“Enthea,” he says.

She is suddenly wide awake. Enthea sits up, feeling a sharp pain in her head where Blu hit her. She winces and looks over and down to see Master Yoda beside her bed, leaning on his cane and frowning up at her.

“Masters,” she replies, trying to gather her thoughts.

“What happened, Enthea? I found you in the sand, just outside the blast radius. How did you get there?” Master Windu asks.

“I don’t remember,” she replies. “Ryoke must have brought me up…”

“From where, brought you?” Master Yoda asks.

“The chamber under the temple. I followed the bounty hunter there,” Enthea says, rubbing her head and trying to master the ache behind her eyes.

The two Jedi Masters exchange a look.

“That’s where they must have planted the charges. But I don’t think Ryoke saved you, Enthea.” Master Windu hesitates, his expression stony. “She was killed by the Sith. Why would the Bounty Hunter save you?”

Enthea is frozen. Thoughts cascade, but don’t go anywhere. She blinks, staring at the wall.

“I—I don’t know,” she lies.

“Sorry, we are,” Master Yoda says. “A mistake it was, to send the two of you alone.”

“Yes. We’ve underestimated this Togruta too much already. It won’t happen again,” Master Windu says grimly. “This is my failing, Enthea. Not yours. Did you and Ryoke learn anything since she contacted me?”

“The Sith…” Enthea begins, then trails off. “Ryoke is dead?”

“Yes, Enthea. What about the Sith?”

“There were carvings in the temple. They showed someone doing something, as though one person could affect everyone somehow. I don’t know. We didn’t fully understand it.” Frustrated and miserable, Enthea shakes her head. That just makes it hurt more. “Ryoke thought it had something to do with the **** Wars. Ideology. That the temple predated the Jedi and that their beliefs came from a place before the light and the dark, when there was only the one.”

“Wise for her years, Ryoke was,” Master Yoda says sadly.

“I only saw it for a moment, but when she was fighting the Togruta, she seemed distracted. Enthea, do you know why that might have been?” Master Windu asks, gazing at her directly.

A jolt of panic shoots through Enthea’s chest. Wide-eyed, she looks up at him and shakes her head.

The Jedi Master sighs. “She’ll be missed.”

( T P F )

Laki’s gone. She off to do something mysterious. Silvi seems used to her Master not telling her anything, but Blu doesn’t like it. The only **** aboard this ship is in one of the meeting rooms that overlooks the bays full of droids. Right now, everything is powered down and still. It’s like a ghost ship.

Blu’s face is reflected in the window as she sips her drink, thinking of that little Jedi.

Laki doesn’t need to know that Blu didn’t kill her. And Blu doesn’t have to apologize for saving her; she was just returning the favor. Her teeth grind and her fingers grip the glass painfully. She takes another big swallow. The **** hits hard, but not hard enough.

Blu has no love for the Jedi, but she very clearly remembers what happened with that one… the time that led to all of this. That Jedi wasn’t evil; she was just innocent and horny.

Laki has insisted that she isn’t trying to destroy anything, only to change it.

Blu looks at the half-empty bottle, then angrily stalks into the hallway, going to the elevator. A moment later she’s outside Silvi’s door. She hits the button with her fist, and the door hisses open.

Silvi sits cross-legged on a mat in the center of her room in the black smock and leggings that she wears under her robes. Her eyes are closed.

“You can come in,” she says bemusedly after Blu has already stomped inside.

“What’s Laki really up to?”

“My master?” Silvi replies without opening her eyes. “To make the Galaxy whole again.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll see.”

Blu grinds her teeth harder.

“Don’t worry,” Silvi murmurs smugly. “I won’t tell her that you have a soft spot for that Jedi.”

“What are you talking about?”

Silvi opens one eye and just gives Blu a look. Blu seethes. Silvi laughs quietly.

“Tell me,” she asks quietly, getting gracefully to her feet. “Can such a little Jedi satisfy you? Oh!” she squeaks, grinning as Blu shoves her roughly against the wall.

They’re face-to-face. Silvi is placid and Blu is furious. They stare. Blu is not willing to blink first, and Silvi won’t either.

Blu rips Silvi’s smock open, revealing the white cloth that the Togruta uses to bind up her chest. Without taking her eyes off Silvi’s, Blu pulls that off and grabs one of Silvi’s big, soft, white breasts. She squeezes it hard.

Silvi smirks at her.

“Cute,” she says, reaching with one finger as though to stroke a lock of Blu’s hair.

Blu shuts her up with a hard, angry kiss. Silvi pulls her in and returns it. There wasn’t much kissing when they first hooked up, weeks and weeks ago on Blu’s ship.

Now, Blu gets to learn that Togrutas have long, muscular tongues as Silvi’s snakes into her mouth.

Blu breaks the kiss and keeps Silvi pinned to the wall, giving her a fierce hickey on her white neck. Let her explain that to Laki. Silvi moans, then catches Blu’s eye again.

“Tell me what the Jedi did to you,” she says.