Chapter 15: Fox apologises for his idiot daughterSummary:
hehehe
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
One good thing about Fox'buir is that while he let Maria do whatever she wanted, he put his foot down when she was injured and being irrational.
Or, at least, that is what Maria discovered.
Fox had her sit on his lap, where he could make sure she wouldn't bolt or try to climb into the ceiling to hide, and watched as Maria got all her inoculations updated, a general check-up given due to her habit of going places people haven't inhabited in literal millennia, and the dark ritual bullshit.
The last one she hated, mostly because she felt like a toddler having a bath. Don't want to do it beforehand, realise it's not so bad, don't want it to stop.
It felt nice , in a weird Force way that she hasn't felt in a year, back when her brothers were here to group meditate with her. She was coated in light, deep in the force where the outside currents of darkness and war couldn't reach her, and she felt so safe.
When she comes out of meditation, she was swaddled in a blanket and a senior padawan had some tea and biscuits for her, checking her vitals like a nurse while Che talks with Fox.
The twi'leki healer had a cup of caff in hand, splotchy dark green discoloration under her eyes and on her cheekbones– the twi'lek version of dark shadows under their eyes– with the air of general exhaustion. Fox, miraculously, had his helmet off. He doesn't like having it off anymore, not since the first time he lost time from the chip, he only takes it off when he's in the barracks or in his office, where the only people around are vode or Maria.
Strangely, it was the Kenobi and Windu sitting in the corner of her room that threw her off the most.
Kenobi felt like pure light, as always (that man truly was impossible to corrupt, Maul is so delusional). Windu felt like he was regretting mixing tequila and absinthe, which was a feeling that Maria has absolutely never felt before, no way. Their force signatures, where they met, felt so discordant, it was like that old meme with wolf called Moon Moon.
"Ew, tea." Maria blurted when the padawan, seeing she was awake, decided that the first thing she needed was a cuppa. Gross, she's not British.
"Initiate," Windu said in an exasperated sigh. He sounded like he wanted to give her a whole lecture but he had a lecture so this was her one and only warning to be quiet. Fair…
…and she had no major urge to be contrary just because, so she will allow it.
"Why are we having a party in my room?" Maria asked, waving off the padawan who tried once again to push the tea into her hands.
Che took the cup from the padawan's hands and firmly put it into Maria's. "Drink. It has electrolytes and you are dehydrated from crying."
She knelt down to shove a scanner into her face, "I cleared out all the Dark webs over your force presence, they were layered but not deep. Do you feel anything different?"
"The song is different."
"Song?" Master Che's lekku twitched in confusion, "What song?"
"The song the force sings," Maria clarified. "Y'know, like how it goes dun-dun-dun-dundun-dundun when something bad is going to happen? Or how it goes soft and quiet like a cat purring in the archives?" She hummed the Imperial March for good measure. "It's much less harried. Less like drums and more like… well I don't know many instruments, maybe a flute?"
"Ah," Understanding dawned. "You visualise the Force far more than the average Jedi. Music is how you see the cosmic force, isn't it?"
Maria shrugged, "Living, cosmic, it all is the same. Some is closer and warmer, like a hand on your shoulder or a coat, some is more distant and imprinted, like a song, and some is far and behind shields, like a painting across the Art Museum behind glass. It's all the Force, in the end."
"Fascinating," Kenobi muttered. "Almost like shatterpoints."
Kenobi shot Windu a significant look. Windu looked like he wanted more tequila.
"Wait, so her way at looking at Force osik is different from yours?" Buir asked before frowning, "Mar'ika, for the sake of my heart, can you not stand out for five minutes?"
Maria rolled her eyes, "It's not like I can control how I see the force! It just is , buir."
"Initiate Rosa-Cortez is correct," Master Windu pointed out. "The Force is, it can be interpreted, yes, but it is."
Fox was far too well disciplined to show exactly how much he understood that on his face, but Maria could fell it clearly through the force.
The weirdly louder, lighter force.
It wasn't her filter of the force that would make it so much lighter.
"Where's Anakin?" she asked.
Windu raised an eyebrow, " Knight Skywalker is recovering in his own room."
"And Master Kenobi is here, why ?" She pointed out, taking a sip out of her tea to be dramatic but immediately spitting it out. "Hot and gross."
Fox immediately surged forward with a napkin to wipe the tea she spit up, "Because everyone doubled over roughly an hour ago when they did the ritual on him and they get a headache when they're in the same room."
"There was… a lot of darkness released," Master Kenobi sounded tired, it was a mix of his fondness-exhasperation- An akin voice and his I'm-a-council-member-during-a-war voice. "He is much lighter now, but he needs to leave the meditation on his own, and his shields are partially down."
"You have a migraine and you don't want to show it," She translated what he did not say. "Want some tea for that?"
Master Che looked at her, unimpressed, when she offered the master her cup. "No, he does not. Drink, and do not spit it up. It's this or an IV."
She perked up and stuck her arm out, "Then stick me, buck-o!"
Fox sighed, long-sufferingly. "I'm sorry about her."
"Will she actually accept the IV?"
"Yes."
Master Che picked up her caff cup, "Then please insert the IV, Padawan Jedyt."
"Worse than Skywalker and Vos," Windu muttered.
Kenobi grinned, full of teeth and vindication, "Good luck."
"Huh?" Maria asked around a biscuit that Fox had managed to put in her mouth.
Windu grimaced, "This may not be the best time to discuss this, Initiate. You have had a trying day and–"
"And I don't like being left out of things," Maria finished. Her eyes narrowed, "I may like making jokes and I'm overemotional, but I'm not stupid."
"You are nearly thirteen, the traditional age for near-human species to graduate from initiate to padawan," Windu approached her, kneeling down to be level with her. "But you need a master to guide you. Initiate Rosa-Cortez, will you accept me as your Jedi Master?"
Notes:
I asked my friend if I leave cliffhanger and go sleep cause I have a 9am exam tomorrow and it is 10pm now, or write for another hour, and they said sleep so ig yall get shorter chap lol
I got the job from the interview last time btw, I just have to slowly phase out my previous job to put in my 2 weeks so I ain't working 3.
I also have a different Self-Insert Star Wars fic ongoing rn, but it's darker than Maria's. Check it out if yall want
Leave a comment or drop by my discord server: https://discord.gg/Et2pUb25F5
Chapter 16: No strings left hanging, like Maria climbing out a Wind-uSummary:
Maria's response
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Maria couldn't believe her ears.
"...But I don't need a Master," She said dumbly.
Windu raised an eyebrow, "No?"
"I'm not going to be a Jedi," She said. "I don't want to be a Jedi."
"What do you want to be instead?" He asked.
She… doesn't know. She didn't think she'll get this far.
"A spy?" She said. She felt as confident with her answer as C3PO would be wandering the desert by himself. "Or a historian?"
"Both of which the Order would support you in being," He pointed out. "The Shadows and the EduCorps are funded by the Order."
"But I can't stay with the Order."
"Why?"
She looked at her buir, lost. "I have attachments? I misbehave all the time? I get called a heretic? I haven't attended lessons in a year?"
"Have you placed your father's life above everyone elses?"
"No, but–"
"But you were afraid?" Windu patiently took her argument apart. "I know. With a Master, you can work through that fear, have someone you can trust be able to support you, have the power to support you. The rest is not a problem, that is the point of having a Master: to have someone to support you as you learn and grow."
Maria felt cornered, "I don't want to leave buir behind."
"Mar'ika–" Fox tried to speak up, probably to push her towards becoming a padawan and abandoning him, but Windu looked at him and he faltered.
"You won't have to," Windu promised. "I highly doubt that any of the vode will wish to leave us Jedi once this war ends, and I know Depa has made space in her quarters for Grey to stay. You will grow like any child and leave home eventually, but it doesn't have to be today."
"But I don't want to die! " She burst out. "Jedi die ! That's what I've seen, over and over and over! The sith hunt every Jedi down and they die ! I'm supposed to die ."
At that, Fox does stand up and shush her, pulling her into a hug. "It's alright ad'ika. It'll be quick. Enjoy what you can."
Everyone's head whips to look at Fox in horror.
"You agree with her?" Kenobi asked, finally speaking up. "Her visions aren't set in stone, we are going to change it."
Fox couldn't look at him, but Maria could feel the slight stiffening of his muscles. "You can't. He has too much power."
The temperature of the room dropped.
"You know who the Sith lord is." Windu spoke. It wasn't a question.
For a moment, her buir flickers to that awful blankness in the Force. "Good soldiers follow orders."
Maria hates it, but she panicked, throwing herself away from him and smoothly sliding behind Windu, lightsaber out and lit. She wouldn't use it against her papa, would she? She's not sure.
Then Fox returns, and that self-loathing look was back on his face when he realised that the chip took over, but Maria doesn't go back to her bed.
It's too close to the end for her to trust anyone.
Yet she is here still.
"Papa?" Her voice is small.
Fox looked ashamed, "Sorry Mar'ika, I can't resist it."
Master Che, who had pushed her senior padawan nurse behind her in that terrible moment, cursed: "What the kriff was that?"
"Proof that Initiate Rosa-Cortez's visions are accurate," Windu told her. "All the vode have mind-control chips inserted in their brain, awaiting orders from the Sith to execute us all."
Master Che spewed several more swears, enough that Master Windu's hands twitched to cover Maria's ears.
"Call Healer Eerin," She told the padawan. "I'm too tired to safely do another surgery today, and this trooper is not leaving my infirmary until that chip is out. Go."
The padawan scampered off, looking scared.
Fox looked at Che helplessly.
"Decommissioning today?" He croaked.
"If by that you mean decommissioning that chip, yes." She sniffed. "Why wasn't I told of this the second you stepped into my Halls?"
"You were doing an extremely difficult ritual on the two other major problems?" Kenobi offered wryly, clearly using sarcasm to deal with his emotions.
She gave him a glare, "If I haven't dealt with enough Darkness that my hands are numb from the cold, I would be forcing you to take several shots right now. Don't we have to run a blood panel on you?"
Kenobi paled, and he started speedwalking to the door, "I should go check on Anakin! He should be getting well enough that I can meditate outside his door!"
Che watched him go, a slight aura of victory about her.
She turned back to Maria, "If you turn Master Windu down, and you wish to take the Healer track, come to me. Making Masters cower is half the job. A quarter is empathy, but that can be set aside if they're especially dumb."
Maria scowled at the reminder that she had masters asking about her becoming a padawan. "Why can't I not have a Master?"
Windu answered her, "Unfortunately, the vode do not have citizen status and as such Commander Fox cannot be your legal guardian. As an abandoned youngling, you have no family to take you, and you would be at the mercy of the Coruscanti Foster System. With your abilities, Initiate, many Seers have gone mad in the past because they cannot master their power. It is best that you have a Master."
Seeing the reluctance still on her face, he continued: "How about a deal? Once you have honed your abilities so they aren't harming you anymore, you can leave the Order. By 15, you can apply for emancipation and the Order would support you. If you don't want to be a Jedi, you can just leave. All I'll ask is that you call us for help if you need it."
Damn it all.
"If you ever call me insane and dismiss my visions, I'll leave," She promised. "I want the Sith gone."
"I swear not to betray your trust like that," Windu swore.
Maria looked at Fox, and, at his nod, she turned back to Windu. "I accept you, Master Windu, as my Jedi Master."
Notes:
HA I BET I COULD WRITE THIS WHOLE CHAPTER AND I FUCKING DID HA
Yeah, so, for everyone asking earlier why Maria didn't just pack and leave.... that's fucking child abandonment my dude. Maria is a child. The Jedi cannot just let their children run off. She has options, just none that include fucking off. ALSO FOX IS FINALLY GETTING HELP
Leave a comment or drop by my discord server: https://discord.gg/Et2pUb25F5
Chapter 17: Reminder: Therapy Exists and You Should Get SomeSummary:
Maria: I'm vibing
Windu: No, you're traumatised
Maria: >:/
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
There are many things to do when a Master takes a Padawan. There are also many things to do when you discover that a sith has been mind-controlling a commander, and your new padawan has been neglected for few years, and when said padawan is recovering from a dark cleansing sing and… well, there was a lot to be done.
And Maria was tired .
For the first time since the war began, she could relax, and it was exhausting. Relaxing is so very tiring, and she didn't know if she liked it.
Master Windu was constantly checking his comm, but he also didn't leave her side as they waited for Fox to get out of surgery.
He glanced at her once more as she turned over in the infirmary bed, kicking the blankets as she tried to occupy herself in getting comfortable without jostling her IV arm. She'd heard the Corries' medic once yell at a shiny that if he kept wriggling about like a di'kut then his IV would snap inside his arm. Now, she wasn't sure if that was just some lie to keep his vod'ika from running away, but it was a terrifying thought and she really doesn't want it to happen.
"You can go to sleep, Padawan, the commander will be under for another few hours still." He told her, ready for her to give in.
"Can't," She whined. "The room's too big and too busy. I always sleep in the lower floors, they have some really comfy reading nooks, sometimes I'm in the creche room that my clan had. Nobody ever sticks their head in to check my blood pressure in there."
Master Windu seemed to consider that silently, "Well, I have the quartermaster and the cleaning droids emptying out my padawan rooms, so you will have a smaller room soon. Most of your fellow padawans tend to complain that they are too small, in fact."
"I've slept in a Corrie supply closet before, if anything, most things can't be small enough for me," The Temple was huge and empty, and the force sang the prettiest in the smallest corners. There's little reading nooks where the echo of a padawan's humming as they studied lingered for centuries, and those were the safest and nicest place to sleep.
He squinted at that, tapped something into his comm, looked like he was confirming something, then nodded. "I requested that the closet in your room have a lock added to it."
"Wait," Her eyes gleamed in delight and disbelief, "I can sleep in the closet?"
"If that makes you more comfortable," He settled further into his seat. "Depa had the tendency to sleep in the bathtub in her later padawan years. If there's no harm to it, I don't see why not."
Okay, so, maybe Windu wasn't the worst choice for a master. But still…
"And this will be my room?" She had to double-check. "I don't have to give it up?"
There was a frown on his face, but the force around him was light and comforting, like spicy soup. Delicious and warm and bites back. "Not until you wish to, I have no intentions of taking any more padawans after you, and force knows Depa stayed in that room until she decided to take her own padawan. If you only stay until your fifteen, or you stay for fifteen years after you're knighted, it's up to you."
"Oh," That does sound nice. She shuffled down under her blankets, until only her IV arm is out, and her nose, burrowing into a comfier position. "I need to grab my things then."
"Do you want to do that yourself or would you like me to grab a bored padawan to do it?"
"I don't think you'd want to send a padawan down into the Sith Temple below."
Windu's eye twitched, but his force presence stayed like soup. "I don't think I would like anyone but seasoned council members there."
"I can lead the way!" She protested, picking up his implication that she was staying up here. "It's not like Madam Debois or the undead guard will let you in without me!"
Master Che frowned at the door, coming in at the absolutely worst time. "The undead?"
Does she care enough to give context? Maybe. "The undead guard who only allows you to enter the Sith Temple under our temple by answering his riddle, and if you fail, he cuts your head off."
Both adults stared at her for a good long moment.
"Should I–?" Master Che began.
"Call Nu." Master Windu confirmed. "And a mindhealer."
Wow, they're calling the archivist and a therapist… that's probably not a good thing.
"I'm not crazy," She's never sat up so quickly in her life, even with one immobile arm. "The undead guard exists!"
"We know that," Her master was quick to reassure her, the waves of soupy-force lapping softly at her, like a hot cocoa on a winter's day. "However, there is other concerns about you seeing such a force apparition."
She scowled, "Like what?"
Her tone was absolutely not polite.
"Padawan," Master Che was using her gentle healer voice, and her force presence dimmed as if she was calling all her emotions except her calm back into her body. "Do you understand what trauma is?"
"I'm twelve, not two."
" Padawan! " There was a sting to Master Windu's voice, cold hard steel that rings high like a triangle in a symphony.
She refused to hunch over, "I'm not going to be treated like a stupid baby. Just because I'm not on the frontlines doesn't mean that I haven't fought my own battles."
"We can understand that, but only if you talk to us," Windu was stern. "Talking to us means respect."
"Padawan, as I am not your master, I do not know the gaps in your knowledge, and I am sure you know you have some. I do need to ask these questions," Che pointed out, lekku as serene as her face. "So, do you know what trauma is?"
Mulishly, she muttered a "Yes."
"Do you understand the living in a constant expectation that you are in danger and may die with any wrong move is traumatic?"
She shuffled, "If I know it's traumatic and I don't care if I die, then it's not traumatic, right?"
Che's lekku twitched, "Unfortunately, Padawan, that's not how trauma works."
"Are you sure?"
Master Windu's force presence warmed back up, like soup in a microwave.
Maria might be a bit hungry.
"We're quite sure. The mindhealer we've summoned will agree," Windu seemed amused by her immediate pout.
"Do I have to see them alone, though?" She had to double check. She doesn't like new people, and Fox doesn't like her being alone with aruetii , and does bite when told to talk about her feelings. Caleb can confirm this. "Can Fox'buir come too?"
"Anyone you want," Windu promised. "As long as you understand that others have their own traumas to talk about and can't go to all your sessions. You have to work on talking to the healer yourself."
"Fine," She sighed. "Can I go down to the Sith Temple again though? I need to say goodbye to Madam DeBois."
"Who is Madam DeBois?" Master Che frowned, "Do I have to perform another dark cleansing?"
"No, she's a holocron that only speaks Proto-Basic," Maria answered, which she felt like was a very helpful response.
"Do you speak Proto-Basic?"
"It's my mother tongue."
Windu sighed and pulled out his comm again, "Jocasta is either going to love you or hate you."
"I suspect the same," Maria nodded seriously.
Che shook her head, "Congrats on your padawanship, Padawan Rosa-Cortez, but I would like to warn you that Mace is already bald and thus you cannot turn him grey with stress, so please do not attempt it."
She burst into giggles at her master's embarrassed bark of " Vokara !"
There is a lot to be done, but she guesses that she's okay with that.
Notes:
Did you guys know that this fanfic has spanned my entire time at Uni? I wrote the first chapter back in my first week. This is my last week, with my graduation in September (if all goes right with exams), and I am still updating this fic. Absolutely insane.
Anyway, guess who is procrastinating their psych assignment? Me and Maria!
Leave a comment and drop by my fanfic writing discord server: https://discord.gg/Et2pUb25F5
Chapter 18: We're going on a trip in our favourite rocket shipSummary:
Maria tries to play Indiana Jones, Jocasta Nu wants this kid as an archivist, and Kit Fisto is scared of zombies
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"I don't like this," Master Fisto announced to the group.
Master Nu raised an eyebrow at him, "I would be greatly suprised if you did like it, considering it is a Sith temple."
Should Maria be going down into the old temple again? Probably not. Was she anyways? Yes, after several hours of arguing round in circles with her Master. Fox, once he had woken up and realised he can now talk about the force without getting a migraine, played the permissive parent immediately and said Maria could go as long as he was with her. That brought Master Windu into a stalemate, which turned into him being overruled when Master Nu found out that Maria had allowed a part Madam DeBois to be in her archives and demanded that she show her where the original holocron was.
"It's not that bad," Maria spoke up from where she was sandwhiched between her Master and Buir. Windu walked in front of her with one hand holding hers and one hand on his saber, and Fox walked one step behind her with one hand on her shoulder and one hand on his blaster. Master Che had given them both very strict instructions on keeping her from running off and touching anything dark. "Isn't it quiet down here? The force doesn't echo with pain and life like upstairs."
More than one look of concern was sent her way, but none of them could deny that.
"The last time the Old Temple was entered was at least 300 years ago," Master Kenobi agreed with her. "The dakness here has gone cold."
"Isn't the dark usually cold?" Fox asked. He didn't have much practise with the differences and philosophies of the force, but, then again, neither did Maria. She just described what she physically felt.
Master Nu shook her head, "The dark side of the force can be many sensations, as long as those are uncomfortable. The dark does not want peace, it wants anger and fear and pain. Some darksiders feel like ice and some like boiling steam, and their imprints get left behind, like footsteps in the sand. The cold here is more… neutral. Like half-melted ice in a cup of water rather than a blizzard."
"Like an empty bed in winter," Maria agreed. "And you have to warm it up."
"Except we are not 'warming up' the temple," Master Windu said wryly. "We are examining the threat level of an unchecked Sith temple sitting underneath our Jedi temple has on our Order, and removing my Padawan's belongings from here."
"And hopefully avoiding all the zombies down here," Master Fisto added.
Their group was eclectic, but efficient. Master Fisto had volunteered to join them in learning about the temple because, and Maria is quoting here, it 'sounds like an adventure from the holos'. She would like to have it noted on record that multiple masters had rolled their eyes at him, but considering that he was a brilliant duelist and blindingly Light in a way that was only beaten by Kenobi, Koon, and Yoda, he was approved to go down. Kenobi was just here because Skywalker had turned to him and said that if he was missing out on seeing a real zombie, then Kenobi had to go in his place, and 'Sith Lords are our specialty, Master!' and it turns out that Kenobi was a pushover when it comes to Skywalker.
"The zombies are unavoidable," Maria reminded him. "They guard the entrance."
"Yes, but they won't move, right?" Fisto checked. For a guy who volunteered to be here, he was awfully jumpy about the zombies.
"Sure," Maria lied.
Fox'buir's thumb twitched on her shoulder, well aware of her tells. He didn't tell her off though, so she should be fine to continue to lull Master Fisto into a false sense of security before totally and utterly freaking him out.
With lightsabers out and on, then proceeded forward. Every once in a while, they rounded a corner and the collection of sabers twitched upwards at the encounter with a new weird statue, but they quickly lowered.
Master Windu's saber flew up in a protective vapaad stance before lowering once they nearly walked into the statue of Darth Brosis torturing Master Sikhil. Master Kenobi pulled a face, "They had terrible taste in interior design."
Master Nu responded by peering closer at the inscription at the bottom of the statue, cam recorder out to preserve the plaque for later translation. "Fascinating."
"That's Darth Brosis," Maria piped up. "He's known as the Padawan-Hunter. His belt was made out of padawan braids, over a hundred of them, he prided himself on making younglings feel pain and hopelessness by killing their masters in front of them. His master was Darth Jenisis and his apprentices were Darth Skelosi the Armoured and Darth Tala the Red-Skinned. His apprentices hunted with him, Skelosi took the padawan's bones to make into their armor, and Tala bathed in their blood. When they went after Master Sikhil and her Padawan, she killed his two apprentices and then helped her Padawan escape. Her padawan didn't know what happened after that, but he heard his master be tortured for hours through the force. By the time other knights came to save her, Master Sikhil was dead, but so was the Sith, every injury she had, so did he. They never figured out what happened, but Master Sikhil became a martyr."
The masters all looked disturbed at her impromptu lecture. Except Master Nu.
"What year was this?" She asked, curiosity dancing in her eyes.
"Some six thousand years ago?" Maria wasn't sure, "The calender keeps changing and the languages too, but it was at the start of the Third Sith War."
"Third?" Master Windu echoed, looking down at her. "We have records of the first war being five thousand years ago."
"The Great Hyperspace War? Nah, it was, like, the first war fought on an intergalactic stage, but not the first Jedi vs Sith conflict. The First Sith War was when the Dark Jedi returned to Coruscant with the Sith Army some eight thousand years ago and conquered the original Temple to the Force, aka the one we're standing on top of, and the Jedi were driven out. The Second Sith War was 500 years after that, when the Taung and the Zhell waged war for the main inheritance of Coruscant, and the Sith and Jedi took sides, and then eventually, the Jedi and Taung failed and left the planet entirely. The Third Sith War is when the Jedi led a charge to retake the Temple of the Force, won by killing everyone inside, but then got hunted by the Sith every time they left their temples because now that the Sith were decentralized, they were harder to fight. The Fourth Sith War is the Great Hyperspace War."
Master Nu looked absolutely delighted to be informed that her entire understanding of the Sith Wars were wrong. "And this is all in their archives? Padawan Rosa-Cortez, have you ever thought about becoming an archivist?"
She shrugged, "Maybe? The war needs to end first before I think of the future."
That's a lie, she's always thinking of the future, but she also tries very hard to ignore her own.
"Anyway," She sing-songed, "The entrance is behind Creepy Darth Broski."
"Brosis or Broski?" Fisto frowned, tentacles twitching in confusion.
"Brosis, but Bro-ski if I'm feeling petty," She's not explaining the venn diagram that is surfer, frat, and stoner slang and how 'broski' sat weirdly in the intersection. "I have nicknames for many Sith lords… which I realize now that I say that aloud is not a normal thing to say."
Fisto smiled at her, "Well, as long as you're aware!"
She smiled back at him. He was nice, she liked him. Which was awfully simplistic and childish of her, but she did suppose that she was a child who liked simple things.
"This door?" Her Master checked as they stood before the great doors.
"Yep!"
And they swept open at her word, the stench of decay and suffering of a long, slow death making several of them cough. Fox couldn't sense the sickly way the force felt, but even he was tense as he saw the mummified bodies.
Maria grinned, "Morning Greg!"
The undead guard's head moved to stare at her, " Maria. You return once more. "
Master Fisto jumped a foot into the air and started swearing violently.
"You said they didn't move!" Kenobi had backed up several steps, standing in a classic Soresu opening.
"I lied," She answered cheerfully, wishing she had recorded this. "Unfortunately, Greg, this is the last time. My Master says exploring Sith Temples is bad for my health."
" The darkness impairs and harms all, young Padawan. It is made to rot you from the inside out," Greg replied. " This is a temple to our greatest shame. "
"I'm stronger than rot," Maria doesn't give a shit. "One time I ate mold and only got a little bit sick. Caleb and Cal owed me five credits each ."
"We," Master Windu spoke up. "Will address that later , Padawan. For now, we would just like to pass."
Oops. She feels like the eating mold thing might not be funny to the adults, and, in fact, highly concerning. She was nine though, so she thinks she should get a pass.
" Do you seek the power of darkness?" Greg demanded from Windu.
"No," Windu wasn't into that bullshit. "We seek to learn from the past to guide our future."
" And if the past holds only darkness? "
"Then we will learn from our mistakes."
Greg inclines his head as the door behind him swishes open, " Then, you may pass, but beware! Should you give into temptation– "
"–Then we will never leave, we know, we know . You don't have to repeat that every time someone passes through, Greg, it's implied." Maria rolled her eyes. "Now to the archives! We'll take the elevator because going down to level 213 is going to be killer on your calves, trust me I–"
Master Windu stopped her with a hand on her chest, "Where do you think you're going?"
"To the Sith Archives? Is that a trick question?" She looked at him quizzedly and tried to push past.
"No, you don't." He stopped her once again, "You are returning to the Jedi Temple. We agreed that you would show us the way to the Sith Temple, I never agreed to you going into it. It's too dangerous and you are still recovering."
That's not fair! She barely shivers anymore at the bone-deep chill of the dark. She's only wearing two layers today!
She tells them as much, but absolutely none of them are sympathetic to her plight.
"We can find our way down to the archives ourselves," Master Nu said kindly. "And I will bring you plenty of work to assist me in translating. But I do need you alive and untainted by the dark to do so."
Maria looked up at Fox'buir to see if she could get a little bit of backup here, but promptly pouted when she saw the tilt of his visor. Stupid clone training to always obey the jedi commands. He's her dad! …And Master Windu is her master, which means he gives her rules and other stupid stuff.
"Fine," She crossed her arms. "But can you bring up a copy of Seis ov Krowz and Che Lurde ov Che Rengz? I was in the middle of reading them, they should be on the blue table."
"That is acceptable," Master Windu agreed. "As long as Master Nu checks them first."
"Okay," She dropped her arms, ready to totally meander her way back up and take as many side streets as possible. "Lemme just hug Greg goodbye first and I–"
Several people yell at her to not hug the corpse, and Fox'buir is quicker than all of them at just picking her up to stop her from doing it.
"I'll take her back, General," He said, hefting her up and over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes as she squawked about 'the indignity' and how she 'wasn't some stray sheep' that he was completely ignoring. "I heard Master Che's say she needed to be checked out straight afterwards."
Maria slumped, giving up. "Can I hang out with Anakin afterward? He's cool."
Obi-Wan was clearly trying and failing to hide his smile behind his hand, "I'm sure my padawan would enjoy your company."
Which he did, by the way. Anakin and her were having a great time hanging out as she quizzed him about all the cool and wonderfulness that is Padme Amidala; he was very happy to gush about his wife to her.
That is, until Master Nu came with a manic gleam in her eye as she pulled out a thick paper book written in Middle Basic and started asking Anakin several strange questions while Masters Kenobi, Yoda, and Windu tried to calm her down and make her share some context.
"I'm sorry," Anakin finally demanded as he lifted up his mech hand for silence, which Master Che looked thankful for. Nobody wanted a manic archivist set loose in the medical wing. "But why are you asking about my mother?"
"I think I found the original writings of the prophecy of the Chosen One!" Master Nu gushed.
Maria gave her a befuddled look as she stared at the book that was pushed in their faces, "Master, that's a copy of the Bible."
Notes:
Maria: look it's the place where I hid from my problems!
Windu: and where do you think you're going?
Maria: to... hide from my problems?
Windu: Absolutely not, go back to healing you gremlin
Maria: Noooooooo!
Maria would hug a corpse and eat mold, and this is now Windu's problem child. He wants her anyway. She also knows way too much Sith history. Nu wants her anyway. I see Kit Fisto as a surfer heartthrob who likes adrenaline rushes and bad action movies. We all have a crush on him anyway.
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Chapter 19: The Sith Fuck Things Up For EveryoneSummary:
Maria: Would you still love me if I committed treason
Windu, with the patience of a saint: Yes, padawan, I would
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
After a good hour of convincing Master Nu that, no, the Bible is not the original prophecy, it's just a collection of stories by a bunch of prophets, Maria was allowed to leave the halls that stank permanently of illness and cleaning materials.
Master Windu even gave her the code to their rooms, allowing her to set things up. Maria was given her retrieved things from the Sith Temple, with only a small handful of them being quarantined. Sure, she had lost her weird metal sith sphere with what looked like Gallifreyan circles etched onto it, and she had lost what she was pretty sure had been some dead sith acolyte's krayt hide jacket which may or may not have had some spice dust on it from a failed Cassandra adventure a few months ago, but her more normal items had been saved.
Fox'buir had also been told that he had a spare room in their living space, but the clone commander had firmly but anxiously said that he would like to return to the Corrie barracks to start sending his men to the medics and healers and that he would think about it afterward, and Maria had to let him go. She didn't like it; she hated being away from him, even if sometimes being around him was even scarier.
Frustrated, she put her books away on her shelf.
Three days ago, the galaxy was on a completely different path, but now there's light and hope and good stuff. They still haven't defeated Palpatine, but she's not telling them shit until her clones are free. She'll keep the Sith identity hostage forever if she needs to; Anakin was free from his creepy grooming hands, it's not like they have to fear him anymore. She could probably kill Palpatine herself now, grab a slugthrower and crawl through the Senate Rotunda's vents, but there's still the chance that he'll trigger Order 66 or 69 or whatever other numbers exist.
Her copy of Che Hobbit was pushed to the back of her shelf with probably a bit too much force.
Her Master knocked on her door, his voice drifting through the wall through the mini-speaker system she's pretty sure is a new addition. "Padawan, may I enter?"
With a bit of frivolous use of the force (AKA, sending a stray thought of an open door towards the force with the question of ' bestie can you please? '), the door wooshed open behind her as she continued to push her books into the shelf.
She heard Master Windu take one step into the room, and then immediately step back and away with a muffled curse.
Huh?
She picked up her head just in time to see her Master nearly bump into the doorframe as he quickly backed away from her with his eyes closed.
"Master?" She asked, "Are you okay?"
"Padawan," His voice was tight. "You have a very big shatterpoint on you right now, and I'm going to have to ask you to stay on the other side of the room. It's giving me a migraine to look at you."
"Oh," She deflated. Of course he couldn't look at her. Nobody likes her when she's spouting off visions, of course he doesn't want to be near her either. "I know I'm not the prettiest princess, but ouch , Master!" She joked.
Master Windu lowered himself down onto the couch, facing away from her. "It's merely temporary, Padawan, just until your shatterpoint breaks. You always have too many on you."
"Is this why you always avoid me?" She has had a long history of having Master Windu immediately walk out of any room she walked into, with a rare few exceptions.
"You're always caught up in a thousand important decisions," He rubbed at his temples. "Knight Vos says that touching you is like touching a bomb trigger."
"Well," That does make sense now that she thought about it. "I do get a lot of senators arrested, and there is the treason. I guess those have ripples."
Master Windu froze, "You do what?"
She was immediately on the defensive, "If the force gives me the tools to protect innocents, then I have to. I know that they do bad things, so I bug them and steal their info and then give it to journalists and the guards and they get arrested. It's a good thing."
Master Windu sighed very deeply. "We thought we had a Seppie Spy."
"Oops."
The Korun Jedi buried his face in his hands, "Is the reason that you have a shatterpoint on you because you are thinking about arresting another senator?"
"Sorta," She shrugged, sitting down on the floor. "It's treason."
"Of what kind? Perhaps we can work through this shatterpoint together?"
She dragged her finger through the carpet on the floor, "I don't know if I should tell you who the Sith is."
"What?" The alarm in his voice was pretty clear, same with the way that his eyes flew open and searching her only to just slam shut. He laid back down with a groan.
She shrugged, watching his reaction with wide eyes. "A lot of Masters die fighting him."
"Skywalker lost a limb," Windu recalled.
"More like three limbs. The Sith wants him as his apprentice, and the pain and suffering made him more, I dunno, easy for the dark to grab onto him?" Maria returned to drawing figures on the carpet. The rebel alliance symbol was easy enough to copy, over and over and over. "You died too."
There was a soft sigh, "The future is always in motion, Maria."
"But a lot of things are fixed too," She scowled at the floor. "Only the force knows what will happen."
"And have you thought about asking the force what you should do?"
"Yes," She lied. She doesn't know if she wants to know what the future will be. She's been very prepared to die for a very long time.
"And you haven't meditated in it. Why?"
"Isn't it my choice?" She was getting irritated by all the questions, "The force can't tell me what to do."
The force seemed to almost curl away from her like a cat dejected when you refused to pet it after it tried to sit on your face and suffocate you in your sleep.
"So the force can't tell you what to do, but it can dictate our future?" She could almost hear the raised eyebrow in his voice.
"I don't know!" She slammed her palms onto the carpet, and, when it refused to give her a decent enough sound, she slammed her whole body down. "Why are you asking stupid questions and not getting mad at me? You're supposed to be angry that I don't want to tell you who the Sith is!"
"Am I?" He remained completely calm. "Why?"
"Because I'm supposed to be helping the Jedi!"
"And who are you helping if you don't tell us?"
"The Vode !" She throws it into his face, her features screwed up in frustration at the way that he was ignoring the whole situation of the vode. She has to protect the clones because then she protects the Jedi. She has to.
"And how are you protecting the vode?" He keeps talking calmly.
"Because the Sith will activate their chips!" She spat out, "And then they'll be forced to kill all the jedi! It won't happen if nobody goes after the sith master and the war just keeps going."
And that's the crux of the matter, isn't it? She knows about the Clone Wars and the Revenge of the Sith, but she doesn't know what happens next. It was fine when they didn't listen to her, speaking the truth had no consequences, but now it does.
"That is quite the choice," Master Windu agrees with her. "You don't know what the best way is to protect everyone. It is the type of decision even us council members have trouble with."
Maria stared at the ceiling of their rooms, a few short feet away from her Master, who was sitting in the same position. "So what do I do?"
He's the Master. He's supposed to have the answer.
"What does the force tell you to do?"
The force seems to paw at her face like a puppy wanting attention.
"It wants me to tell you."
"Will you?"
She hugged herself, "Do you promise to wait until all the clones are dechipped?"
"I do," Master Windu spoke with the weight of the force. His voice wasn't tainted with pain anymore, and she's pretty sure that he's looking at her now. "I promise that the council won't act until the clones and jedi are safe."
Maria heard the tinkling of glass.
"The Sith Lord is Chancellor Sheev Palpatine."
When she looked over, Master Windu had his eyes closed. "I see."
She slowly stood up, "I can also tell you that it's a bad idea to attack him or arrest him in private, but also you should have Senator Amidala within the guardianship of the jedi while you do so."
A wry smile twitched in his lips as he opened his eyes, "Perhaps with Skywalker in the medical halls?"
She couldn't help her snort, "Those two are so not subtle."
But her words came out muffled, as if from underwater. When she looked at her Master, he was frowning at her, mouth moving soundlessly.
The force was silent.
No. No, no, nononono–
In pure fear and panic, she lunged for her Master, desperate to grab something to anchor her to this time and moment in space.
Her hands reached out for his…
…and she fell forward into empty space.
The room was dark and empty, and she was alone once more.
Notes:
hehehehehehhehehe
I have an exam tomorrow that decides whether or not I graduate and I am not done studying and it's in T-minus 12 hours :(((
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Chapter 20: Revenge of the ForceSummary:
Force-appointed Time Out
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Is there something so disconcerting as when you come home after a long trip and your room is dark and dusty like the echo of the dead? Imagine if it happened in the blink of an eye.
Maria laid on her stomach on the floor, frozen with the realisation that she'd been stolen once again.
And then she screamed.
Maria screamed and cried and slammed her body on the ground as she realised that she had been taken away from where she had felt safe. She was supposed to be safe now.
But the room was empty.
What had happened in the time since she'd been gone? It's clearly been at least days, but how many? A week? A month? A year? Decades?
"I hate you!" She yelled at the force, "I hate you, I hate you, I HATE YOU!"
The force growled and grumbled at her, standing judgmentally out of reach.
What was this? Trick her into telling the Masters into how to fight Sidious, and then take her away so she couldn't help them? What if Master Windu didn't listen to her? What if they didn't help the vode first? What if they're all dead?
The room is so empty.
Maria hated the force. She hated being a Jedi and she hated living in GFFA and she hated everything.
Was it even the force who had encouraged her to talk to Master Windu or was that the Dark? Was it the Dark the entire time, encouraging her to make friends who will die and kill and hurt? Could she even trust the force at all or was it a trick?
What if she can't trust herself either to– ow!
Maria yelped out loud at the datapad that smacked her on the back of her head.
What the actual fuck force?
And the datapad was going off like Grindr notifications at a renaissance faire, silently staying lit from the constantly influx of messages. This was Maria's own personal pad, the one she used for Cassandra and her shadow-activism work. News sites were tripping over themselves to be the one with the latest update on the breaking news of…
Maria dropped her pad.
Reaching out into the force in a reckless move of shoving her shields down and throwing herself into it's endless waves, she skimmed her presence in the intangible breeze that flowed across the stars. Like a branch reaching its roots and its branches and its leaves up to the sky above, tangling with mangled ancient constellations, so too does Maria reach for all the bonds she has made over her lifetime. To guards and vode, to Cal and Caleb, to Masters Windu and the Council, to Knight Skywalker and the many others she has met, she tugs on the tiny clinging webs of bonds that she had a terrible habit of connecting onto anyone her lonely self has met.
And they tug back, consciously and unconsciously, varying emotions at her un-Jedi-like display of a child demanding attention and comfort.
Or very Jedi-like, she thinks as her Master wraps his presence back around her like a hug, confusion and concern and worry for her echoing across the bond.
And, oh, how the force sang with hope. A melody of Twin Suns was plucked across her bonds like they were guitar strings, comfort and hope surging back at her.
And her bonds were closer than she thought.
Maria dropped the pinging pad declaring the death of Dark Lord Palpatine and ran out of her room.
Boosting herself with the force, allowing herself to trust the intangible power in a way she doesn't think she's ever done before, her boots barely appear to be hitting the floor before her body is sent back up into the air. She sprints through corridors, spinning around corners with simultaneously little and too-much control, and springs over the long stairwells with the grace of a drunk ballerina.
Multiple masters shout at her commands to slow down or stop, twitchy knights flinch away at her careening, and padawans go scattering at her purposeful strides.
She had a goal in mind, and nobody had ever been able to stop the unstoppable force that was Maria Rosa-Cortez.
Except, perhaps, the unmovable object that was Mace Windu.
"Master!" Maria cried out as she slammed the doors of the medical wing open.
Master Che, helping Buir help her clearly injured Master be lowered down into a cot, spun around with the clear look of a displeased adult about to snap at a youngling to calm down and walk before her face morphed into one of disbelief. "Padawan Maria?!"
She wasn't the only one, and with Buir's head snapping up in shock, poor Windu had nobody to help him and he fell back onto the cot. A good thing too, because Maria was soon tackling him, shaking.
"Padawan," Master Windu said warmly, slowly, with the cadence of an injured man. "You're back."
"Where did you go?" Demanded Master Fisto, multiple tentacles shorter and looking at her like she might be another force zombie. "You've been missing for two months!"
At that, Maria burst into tears.
"Shh, ad'ika," Fox'buir was immediately there to pry her off her Master and hug her. She was far too big now to be carried by him like a little girl, she's nearly a teenager now, but she doesn't fight him. "Was it the force again?"
"I didn't wanna go!" She rubs at her eyes, "You're hurt and I was gone!"
Master Windu looked particularly unconcerned for a man that was missing half an arm, a cauterised wound of missing space from his forearm down. "I'm fine, padawan, see? The Force just wanted to keep you safe."
The force rings with truth, a purr of pleased power, happy that the Master agreed with it.
"It flung me through time again!" She sniffled, "I could've lost millennia again!"
"Again?" Master Che muttered.
"Millennia?" Master Fisto scooted away from her.
"Through time?" Master Kenobi leaned forward, hand going up to stroke at his half-burnt off beard. "Padawan Rosa-Cortez, have you encountered Force Nexuses?"
"Yes!" She was shaking again, tears welling up further. "It keeps flinging me around every time I try to help with something important! It doesn't want me to help!"
"Or it doesn't want you to do it yourself," Fox'buir tentatively pointed out. "Maria…when we didn't know where you went, we mobilised and looked for you, and then we worked on taking the Sith down ourselves. We're trained for this, and you're an adiik. It's not your job to deal with everything, it's ours. You're only job is to be an ad, to have fun, and tell us if we're being di'kut's by not listening to you."
"That's far more anthromorphised than any way we understand the Force," Master Windu said, slightly pale but very determined to not look like he's in pain. "But your buir is right. It was time we did our part."
Maria's sniffles died down, "But what's my part now?"
Master Mace's lips twitched upwards ever so slightly, "How about you come sit with me while Vokara looks at my arm and we can work that out together?"
Maria winced as she looked at his stump again. It looked pretty ugly. "Will you tell me how you killed Palpatine?"
"That was your buir, actually," Master Mace replied. "I just placed him under arrest. Come on, I know you want to read the official report, you can help me draft it."
And she did.
She sat with him as he was prepped for a bacta dip, and wrote down all the notes for a proper report for later, and heard how they stopped the Sith and how Palpatine was well and truly dead.
And then the next day, she got to hear how the Republic is calling for a ceasefire, and how Senator Organa is now Chancellor, and how Master Kenobi had to make a speech in the senate.
Later, she watched the war be declared over. She saw her friends come home in giant war ships, tired and older and so very happy to see her again. She saw her buir and her million uncles be declared citizens.
She got to help her Master fit a new prosthetic, and meet Senator Amidala's babies, and get her first bead on her padawan braid.
Maria Rosa-Cortez helped save the galaxy, but she didn't do it herself, she trusted the force and loved it, and she got to enjoy the rest of her life with her friends and family, because she was never alone again.
Notes:
Maria's whole story was for her to learn that she doesn't have to do it herself and she needs to trust others, and when the Force worries about her, it gives her a Force Nexus Time Out! Don't worry, the lesson got into her head this time : )
I've finished exams and nearly this fic! Epilogue is almost done ❤️
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Side-note: Izzy was unable to upload this update herself because Archive went down here, so hello, I'm her beloved Mila (@mariemiel), feel free to direct any formatting complaints to me because they're probably my fault. Same goes for any tense issues, because normally I proof-read them for Iz before she posts but I simply do not have the braincells. Enjoy!
Chapter 21: Epilogue: 13 Years LaterSummary:
The End
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
"I do believe that is another trip to Illum," Cal said wryly as Maria's saber fell down the giant gaping blackness.
"Shut," Maria scowled at her best friend, "the fuck up."
Trips to Illum had become very regular as a padawan, with Master Mace complaining at length that he'd never seen someone lose so many lightsabers in his life. Maria would've been proud at beating Anakin's record of 26 trips, if she didn't have a habit of nearly drowning in the icy lakes. Her last crystal had been found at the bottom of one of the rushing rivers, and Buir had not been happy at her hypothermia. She'd always been shit at using the force to care for her own body, much better at sensing the world around her.
Except for the times that she almost walks off a cliff.
"I thought Jedi were supposed to be graceful?" Hera asked, looking at Maria in bafflement. She had been dragged into their adventure some five days ago with an incident involving a drunk Caleb, Cal stealing a BD droid, and Maria having a map.
Maria is terrible at reading maps, so they do tend to get her in plenty of trouble.
"She's an outlier," Caleb hauled her back by her collar, trying to act all smooth and strong in front of the green twi'lek. It was mostly working, only because Maria was a far bigger disaster than him and Cal was a little shit, and they made him look like the perfect suave Jedi in comparison.
"It's a Sith Temple!" She swatted his hand until he let her go. "It's always dark and gloomy and full of traps!"
"You are literally the leading archeologist on Sith Temples," Cal pointed out. "You lived in one for a year."
"It's not hard being the leading archeologist in a field of not even a hundred," Maria pointed out. "It's a restricted field of practical learning. My fellow researchers are mostly old archivists or even older republic academics. Jokes on them, though; I'm older than them all and passed the minimum age requirement easily."
"Because you were born at the dawn of the force," Cal replied.
"What?" Hera demanded.
"Shut up Maria– I promise we're normal jedi knights in our twenties, Hera, they're just– Cal I can see you signing 'grandma' at her!" Caleb was trying desperately to stay cool and not-weird in front of his crush, but unfortunately for him, his little siblings were often described as gremlins.
"I'm, like, 30 thousand years old," Maria cheekily smiled at Hera.
Hera went blank. "Is this normal for Jedi?"
"No," Cal answered.
"Oh… You look really young for age?"
"Don't encourage them!" Caleb whined. "Do you know how many legal loopholes she's jumped through with that? I do! I was helping with the paperwork! I got an honorary certification in Galactic Core Law because of it!"
"Oh look!" Maria pointed at the very tiny little inscription up at least 3 wookies tall up on the very cursed wall. "There it is!"
"How are we going to reach that?" Cal squinted up at it. Maria thinks that he might need glasses but he denies it, even if he can't see individual leaves on trees further than forty feet away ever since he got that concussion while brawling with Boba Fett over… something she doesn't even want to know about.
"Do you think you're little droid friend can climb that high?" She asked him.
"BD is a droid, not a spider." He gave her an incredulous look, clutching his little droid to his chest.
"Fine," She sighed and looked over to Caleb. "Think you can toss me that high?"
"Through the force all things are possible," He answered primly as he took a knee, ready to yeet her through the air. "But if you accidentally get cursed 'cause you touched the wall, I'm not the one explaining this kark up to Master Mace."
"That's fine, Cal can explain to Mace–" "Hey!" "–And you can have Fox'buir and Master Nu."
"On second thought," Caleb grunted out as he used the force to push her up into the air, "Dibs Master Mace."
"Ughhh," Cal groaned. "I'm too old to use the tooka eyes, it doesn't work anymore."
Hera tilted her head, her lekku twitching, "You got us out of getting arrested four hours ago by telling the officers that we're lost and not trespassing on purpose."
"Yeah but officers are dumb," Cal scrunched up his nose. "Uncle Fox is sharper than a vibroknife and Master Nu Supervised Maria joining the Archivists and her dissertation. I'll have more luck sticking my tongue down Boba's throat than keeping it unraveled in front of them. I stuttered the last time they cornered me to find out what prank we were planning. I never stutter."
Maria landed back on the ground, immediately squinting down at the picture she had taken of the etching. "Wait, no, I fucked that up it's super blurry. Throw me again."
"I'll throw you off a cliff," Caleb muttered.
"God, I wish you would," Maria snorted. "Unfortunately, we have a research paper on Sith Language and its Evolution alongside Holocrons due, and I have better grammar than both of you."
"Can I get thrown?" Cal asked.
Caleb and Maria looked at each other before shrugging. What's the worst that could happen?
Apparently, they could accidentally throw Cal's little BD alongside him and spend a good three hours trying to coax the droid to jump into their arms when they jumped up to try and rescue him from the little nook on the wall he got stuck on. Hera caught the entire thing on camera and despite their best bargaining (and blackmail) efforts, Master Nu was there to greet all four of them on the improper way of reaching archeological evidence. Fox'buir simply sent the viral holonet video to Mace so the other man could save it to the family album.
Maria would still like to point out that despite everything, she's still less of a disaster than Anakin Skywalker.
Notes:
wow omg it only took my entire fucking time at university and several hyperfixation cycles but I finally finished Maria's story!! Lmao I even got my graduation date and I'm working full-time! Maria has been my constant companion this entire time, but I think it's time for me to move on, I have many more stories I am more enthusiastic about and Maria's muse has run dry.
I had quite a few comments on the last chapter complaining about pacing issues and feeling like ending was 'rushed', and yeah, you might be right, but this is Star Wars so what were you expecting? Shakespeare? This fic was my excuse to joke around with the SI trope, time travel, and memes. Yeah my ending was rushed but I'm really tired, and I wanted to finish this story, and sure I could have spread it out over a few more chapters but I didn't want to and it served it's purpose by tying up all my loose ends. Look! I even got a fun little epilogue where I hint at everything that I didn't get to show properly.
If anyone wants to play around with Maria's story or this sandbox, just click the 'inspired by' and 'gift' buttons, pls.
Thank you so much to everyone who's been here since the beginning, it really means a lot to me. I'll see your names again in kudos lists and comments <3
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Notes:
I answer any and all comments you leave, am happy to discuss my ideas and plot with you, and I cherish every kudos you give!
Find me at @IzzyMRDB on all social media (Tumblr, Insta, Snap, Discord[#2881]) and start a conversation!
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Works inspired by this one:Maria vs The Jedi Cult Fan chapters/snips by LoyalLeoBladeEkie and the Nuisance of the Force by arsonistic_potato