Chapter Text
Padawan Wanda Maximoff sat with her legs crossed in front of her, a hand over each of her knees. She tried to breathe deeply as her Master had taught her, but her eyes remained open as she fought to push away the thought always present at the back of her mind.
Pietro is gone.
Even here, with the warmth of the Force around her, that truth was inescapable. It crashed over her like a violent wave until it left her gasping for breath.
It had been six months since it happened, and though the shock had worn off, what Wanda hadn’t been prepared for was the pervasive sorrow that would follow it. A wide gulf so deep that no matter what she did, she could never seem to fully breach.
But she had to try. Especially today.
“There's my Padawan.” Wanda looked up to see Master Tash walking toward her, a wry smile on her face. Her short red hair was loose and tussled from the sparring session she’d obviously returned from. It was only a few shades darker than Wanda’s flaming orange tresses (though hers, unlike her Master’s, were the result of a carefully concocted blend from a Coruscant salon).
Wanda smiled as convincingly as she could as Tash came to a stop in front of her. “Who did you humble in the training room today, Master?”
Tash laughed. “Master Rosh, but don’t underestimate him. He has a few tricks of his own. I’d say it was an equal humbling.”
Wanda raised an eyebrow. Master Rosh was a member of the Council, and one of the strongest Force users in the entire order. To stand against him even for a minute of sparring was an impressive feat. But Master Tash was exactly that: impressive. There was a reason people called her the Black Widow outside the temple, where stories of the undercover Jedi who single handedly took down an entire hive of krykna circled even half a decade later.
Tash sat down on a circular mat across from Wanda, her eyes searching the troubled face of her Padawan. “How did meditating go today?”
Wanda suppressed a frown. She stood up and dusted off her robes. “Same as usual. But shouldn’t we be on our way out? We’ll be late to the hearing.”
“Hold on a minute,” Tash said, motioning for Wanda to sit back down. When she obliged, her Master smiled tightly. “I have some news.”
Wanda swallowed. The last time she’d heard those words, everything had changed.
She still remembered the moment. The way time seemed to slow down around her, the world at a standstill. She remembered the pain in her bones as she fell to her knees, and the many condolences of her fellow Jedi and the Council. But though everyone in the temple had acknowledged her brother’s passing as a terrible tragedy, they’d moved on not long after.
As a Jedi, she was expected to do the same. There was nothing wrong with mourning the dead, her Master had taught her. But with time, acceptance should follow.
Except that for Wanda, it never had.
“Don’t worry,” Master Tash said, clearly sensing her unease. “It isn’t bad news, only unexpected. The Council asked to speak with me a few hours ago. They’d like us to visit Lothal. There’s been a strange set of disturbances recently, and the Lothal Jedi could use some assistance to track them down.”
Wanda furrowed her brow. She’d been to Lothal with Master Tash only a year ago. They’d been sent on one of the strangest assignments in the Order’s history. An incredibly lifelike, human-shaped droid was discovered in the planet’s snow capped mountains, and the rumor was that it could wield the Force as well as any Jedi.
It was an impossibility, of course. Only sentient beings could be sensitive to the Force. But when she and Tash finally tracked down the droid, the entire Order had to reevaluate that theory. Because the droid—who went by the name Vision— was Force sensitive. He’d been promptly sent to the planet’s Jedi Temple for examination, and Wanda hadn’t heard anything about him since. But she couldn’t deny her curiosity over the matter, which still plagued her even after all these months.
A Force-sensitive droid. If the experience had taught the Order anything, it was not to take anything as certain.
“Do you think it has anything to do with Vision?” Wanda asked her Master, remembering the droid’s red skin and deep, warm eyes.
But Tash shook her head. “No. He is at the temple, but his origin remains a mystery. He still has no memory of anything, and his connection to the Force has only gotten stronger. Our assignment has nothing to do with him, however. We won’t be spending much time at the Temple at all.”
Which meant Wanda would probably have even less time for meditating. She couldn’t deny that part of her was relieved at the thought. Master Tash had insisted she use meditation to work through her grief over the loss of Pietro. But it had been pointless, a waste of energy and time more than anything. Better to stay busy. This new mission on Lothal would provide that opportunity.
“When do we leave?” Wanda asked, already envisioning Lothal’s sprawling plains.
“Right after the hearing.”
Wanda nodded. Three years as Master Tash’s Padawan had taught her that assignments could change in a matter of moments. But that was part of being a Jedi, and one of many reasons all her possessions fit easily into a single backpack.
Master Tash stood, and Wanda followed her out into the hallways of the Temple. The few Jedi they passed on their way to the Senate building nodded tersely at them in acknowledgement. The Jedi Temple was the most peaceful place in all of Coruscant, but today, something very near to tension plagued its wide halls.
That was because today, the eyes of the entire Republic were on the Jedi Order.
Two weeks ago, a Jedi task force sent to Ryloth failed to stop a massive hostage situation in the planet’s palace. Well-intentioned as the Jedi’s actions had been, their failure to resolve the matter had led to the loss of several dozen lives, including that of Ryloth’s beloved queen. Outrage in the planet against the Jedi had been swift, and members of the Senate who already distrusted the Order had jumped at the chance to question their efficacy.
The motion up for debate on the Senate floor today was the Order’s ability to exist outside of the Republic’s jurisdiction. Though everything the Order did was for the good of the galaxy, they had always functioned as an independent entity, led by the will of the Force instead of political strategies. But the incident at Ryloth threatened to jeopardize that freedom. Members of the Senate wanted to hold the Order accountable and monitor their actions more closely than before.
It was a topic Wanda’s fellow Padawans discussed in hushed tones, some laced with outrage. Master Tash was close to the Council, and though she’d never said so outright, Wanda had gathered enough to know it wasn’t only Padawans and Jedi Knights who were frustrated by the Chancellor’s willingness to openly debate the matter. But the Masters of the Council were Masters for a reason. They trusted the will of the Force, and they anticipated today’s hearing with a level of acceptance that Wanda could only imagine possessing.
Most Jedi would watch the debate in the Senate via Holonet like the rest of Coruscant’s residents. But because Master Tash was close with the Council, she’d been granted two seats so she and her Padawan could witness the proceedings in person.
Wanda would be one of only a few Padawans in the room. She knew she should feel honored, but everything about the past few months had left her scattered and distracted, unable to fully contemplate what today’s decision might mean for the Order at large.
As soon as they arrived at the building, Wanda spotted Master Stark, the Council member who would speak to the Senate on behalf of the Council, standing before a group of senators. A small droid hovered beside him, its red paint a beacon of brightness in the otherwise muted Senate halls. Unlike most Council members, Master Stark seemed to always have a droid hovering nearby. He delegated his work to them meticulously, but thanks to Master Tash, Wanda knew he kept the droids close mostly because he was fond of them. He’d custom built several before he joined the Council and became too busy to indulge in the habit.
Now, one of those droids spotted Tash and Wanda. It alerted his master of their presence, and as the Jedi approached, Master Stark excused himself from the group of senators before him.
“Tash,” Stark said, nodding as they reached him. “Thank you for being here.”
“Thank you for asking me to,” Tash replied. Her tone was formal, but the easy smile on both her and Master Stark’s faces hinted at the longstanding friendship between the two.
Wanda wasn’t sure how Tash did it. She was friends with at least half the members on the Council, yet took their orders as seriously and without question as any other, less prominent Jedi knight might. She didn’t even seem interested in joining the Council someday, content to be sent on missions along with her Padawan wherever the Council required.
Perhaps that was exactly it, Wanda thought as she followed the older Jedi down the crowded hallway. Tash was the sort of Jedi that would be underutilized if she took a seat on the Council. She might be based in Coruscant, but she belonged in the galaxy at large, where her many talents could remain available for anyone who needed them.
The Jedi finally came to a stop in front of a repulsor pod. Below it lay the massive gray bowl that was the Galactic senate, thousands of repulsor pods containing senators from the many worlds represented by the Republic.
This pod seemed to belong to the Jedi, but was currently occupied only by Master Rosh. He stood at the edge in silence, his cream-colored robes pristine and hair perfectly in place despite the fact that he’d been sparring with Tash in the temple moments earlier.
When Tash and Wanda stepped into the pod, he turned to face them. But the smile on his face barely touched his eyes.
“Perhaps I went too easy on you,” Tash said, quirking an eyebrow as she studied Rosh’s expression. “You don’t look like that sparring session helped you clear your head at all.”
“It helped plenty,” Rosh said. He walked toward Tash, then nodded at Wanda. “Padawan Wanda. I’m glad you’re here. I trust your Master already informed you about your new mission on Lothal. I hope you don’t regret leaving Coruscant too much.”
“Of course not,” Wanda said. She was more than ready for a bit of distance from the crowded planet. It had brought her nothing but pain for too long. “I enjoyed our time on Lothal last year.”
“Nothing like tracking a Force-sensitive droid to make a place memorable,” Tash said, smirking at her Padawan.
Master Rosh sighed. “Yet another mystery whose answer eludes the Order. If we didn’t have enough to concern ourselves with here on Coruscant, I would have asked Lothal to transfer Vision to the Temple here instead. Perhaps we would have some answers by now.”
“You mean we might have succeeded where the Lothal Jedi failed?” It was Master Stark who spoke now, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Careful, Master Rosh. We don’t want anyone to accuse the Council of favoritism among the temples.”
“I never used the word failed. The Lothal Temple has done its best, but they don’t have access to as many resources as we do. And not nearly as many Jedi.”
“Then perhaps the subject of Vision is one to be discussed at the next meeting,” Stark said. He glanced at the sea of senators before them. “Today we only have the entire galaxy to worry about.”
“No pressure,” Tash muttered. She placed a hand on Master Stark’s shoulder. “If anyone can convince the galaxy to trust in the Jedi, it’s you, Stark.”
“I appreciate the vote of confidence. Let’s hope it’s the Force speaking through you.” He winked, then stepped back into the hall and toward another pod that would lower him into the center of the Senate.
As soon as he was gone, Tash turned to Rosh. “Why aren’t you speaking to them too?”
A flicker of indecision passed across Master Rosh’s face. Wanda suspected he was contemplating how to best answer the question. “The Council decided only one Jedi should represent the Order today. Stark is more than equipped to handle it.”
“I don’t doubt that. Stark is close to the Chancellor. I imagine that’s part of the reason he was selected?”
Master Rosh nodded. “He believes the Chancellor has the Order’s best interest in mind.”
“But you don’t?”
Surprise flashed in Master Rosh’s blue eyes. His eyes flickered to Wanda, who stood silently behind her Master. “I believe all will be well in the end. And that you two had better sit down and make yourselves comfortable. I’ve sat in on enough Senate meetings to know they tend to drag on.”
“I’ve listened to you complain about enough of them to know you’re right,” Tash said. She took a seat on the bench at the back of the pod, and Wanda sat beside her. Master Rosh headed back to the front as Masters T’Challa and Thor stepped in, followed by Master Banner.
A flicker of surprise passed through Wanda when they were joined moments later by Jedi Knight Barton. He wasn’t a member of the Council, but it seemed he’d been invited to listen just like Tash had.
Wanda’s heart tightened when he joined them, taking a seat beside her Master. She could only think of Pietro every time she saw him. Could only picture her brother gunned down by blaster fire in view of his Master, his lightsaber sinking in the waters of Naboo where he’d lost it moments earlier.
Wanda swallowed, her throat thick.
Master Tash placed a hand on her shoulder but said nothing. She didn’t have to for Wanda to know she could sense her grief. So could Barton and every member of the Council on this pod, probably. Perhaps that was part of the reason they were sending her and Tash off-world. Perhaps they hoped the Lothal assignment would give her the space and time she needed to accept Pietro’s death the way everyone else had.
What they didn’t know was that deep down, Wanda wasn’t so sure it would. She wasn’t sure she would ever be over it, would ever find a way out of the neverending sea of grief that threatened to drown her whenever she thought of her brother.
She’d lived with him in their family home for only the first three years of her life, but of course she’d always known that Pietro was her brother. When their parents first discovered they were Force-sensitive twins, they were taken to the Jedi temple on Coruscant together. Rare as it was for siblings to grow up in the same temple, the Order had allowed it. Yet the Council had always been careful to keep them at a distance when they were younglings, until Pietro became a Padawan and transferred off-world with his Master.
But it didn’t matter how far apart the Order kept them—Wanda and Pietro were twins, and they always would be. Though they had grown distant over the years thanks to Pietro’s early assignment as a Padawan to Master Barton, Wanda could no more forget that Pietro was her brother than she could forget that she was destined to be a Jedi. She told herself what her Masters repeated over and over—all Jedi were her family, and no one’s life should mean more than another’s. Though close friendships developed and were even encouraged, attachment was something else. Something dangerous. But Wanda had been literally attached to Pietro from the womb. No matter what, he would always be her brother. None of the other Padawans Wanda knew could understand that.
Master Tash almost did. Though not related, she and Master Barton shared a close bond. Pure friendship formed from their shared missions on the planet Bakura when they were only Padawans. Their connection ran deep, which was why Wanda found it odd that each of them had ended up as Masters to her and Pietro. But though Tash and Barton were close, they didn’t spend much time together anymore. Their connection was one that couldn’t be severed by time or distance. Just like Wanda and Pietro’s.
The difference was, both of them were still alive.
The lights of the repulsor pods suddenly flashed, a warning that the meeting was about to begin. Wanda grit her teeth, pushing the thoughts of Pietro away for what felt like the thousandth time that day.
Perhaps the fate of the Order would distract her from her grief, if only for the afternoon.