Traitors To The Heart

Chapter 21: Deadly Experimentation

After spending a full two rotations resting up, Obi-Wan and his Padawan were cleared by Kix and Feral, the medics of the 501st and 212th, for battle. Obi-Wan went down to the surface, but Nova hitched a ride from Anakin on one of the gunships to his cruiser.

"Ahsoka has a new friend, you say?" Nova asked, feeling a song of jealousy in her heart. Anakin smirked at her as the gunships doors opened. The pair walked out together.

"You know, green isn't your best color, Nov." She didn't understand his allusion to jealousy, and assumed he was making the comment about the ugly green stain on her pale blue shirt.

"I know, but I have to wait to wash it because Obi-Wan has his robes in our laundromat right now." Anakin was confused until he finally found the stain. He chuckled at Nova's naivety.

"I meant don't be jealous. Besides, Bariss isn't half as fun as you." Instead of seeing the compliment, Nova couldn't get her mind around not being Ahsoka's best friend. They've spent nearly all of their time together since meeting.

"I'm not jealous! I just thought I was her best friend is all." Anakin rolled his eyes, but gently put his hand on her shoulder. She glanced up at him.

"Trust me when I say that you are, and that you have nothing to worry about." Anakin's reassurances meant little to her as Nova couldn't help building this up way bigger than it really was.

"If you say so." She cut the conversation short, marching ahead of Anakin through the hangar doors. She went into the lift and selected the bridge, not bothering to hold the door for Anakin. He had to rush inside when he saw the door close. He huffed, shaking his head on disbelief once the lift was shut and started going up.

"Trying to kill me again, I see." Nova and him shared a laugh. Anakin thought his joke was funny but Nova was laughing at the realization that they could finally joke about that. Last week when he said that very same thing, it was followed by hostility. Nova felt better when he playfully elbowed her in the shoulder. The lift doors opened and the pair joyfully walked onto the deck.

"Look at you, Master Mundi. Up and about already?" Anakin asked, his upbeat mood instantly spreading to the others on the bridge as well. Nova was still think about her precious friendship with Ahsoka, and how it could be at jeapordy because of this Bariss Offee that Anakin spoke of.

"Yes, Skywalker. I was more than ready to get back on the battlefield after so much time was spent in a bacta tank." Nova wondered for a moment why she didn't get a session in the bacta tank. Master Mundi did get banged up but she was almost blown up with the scarred tissue to prove it. Kid slapped some bacta patches on her and called it a day.

"I'm happy to see you looking chipper as well, Padawan Nova." She smiled and giggled slightly from the attention.

"Thank you, Master. You as well." Nova tried her best to use her manners like Obi-Wan taught her.

"Any idea where Obi-Wan is?" Anakin asked, casually talking to Nova as he sauntered up the small ramp to peer over the shoulder of a clone monitoring the weather patterns.

"He said he was going to pick up Master Luminara, then coming straight here." A moment later, Obi-Wan happened to walk through the bridge doors. He looked like a new man with rekindled ambition and hope, certainly contrasting the broken and bruised one Anakin last bid goodbye to.

"What's this? I didn't expect to find you up and about." Obi-Wan didn't see Anakin or Nova as they happily conversed int eh corner.

"It's as I told your apprentices, after enough time in a bacta tank, one longs for the mundane comfort of star charts." Mundi and Obi-Wan circled around to look out the Windu's the the world the Republic had just won over. Again.