Chapter 82: Travel
Summary: Traveling, a peek at the new academy, and a bit of stress relief for poor Padmé...
Warning! Chapters 79-82 were all published back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!
Lemon Warning! This chapters contains a Lemon! It is clearly marked with -Lemon Starts Here- and -Lemon Ends Here- for those that wish to skip such things!
Chapter 82: Travel
Knight Errant – 72 Days Post Start of Hutt Crusade
"You know, I honestly expected more fighting on the ground, rather than to be heading back to Tythe so quickly."
Shaak Ti's voice was amused, rather than contentious, as she joined Aayla and Izuku at a table in the Officers' Mess. The two of them semi-regularly took some of their meals there, specifically to give a chance for their officer level people to approach them, though few ever actually took them up on the open offer. Shaak Ti was one of those few, though this time was an exception in that she didn't have her Padawan trailing along with her.
Something that made sense, as she'd thrown poor Asajj into the deep end. Specifically, by having her Padawan teach a daily class on basic Force abilities to those interested in taking their newly Awakened connections more seriously, but who were unable to go to Ossus and the new academy setting up there. People like Asora and Lieutenant Trotter were simply too critical to keeping the League running to spare them from active duty, and thus some alternative education had needed to be arranged in the form of rotating lectures by Shaak Ti, Izuku, Aayla, and Asajii. Along with whoever else they could rope into doing such at any given time.
Shaak didn't completely let her new Padawan drown, of course. She made sure to be present for at least half of the lessons the younger woman gave. But forcing Ventress to think about how her Force Powers worked well enough to teach them was proving an effective tool in smoothing out some of the younger woman's rough spots. The fact that Asajj, like most of the Jedi that had survived the assault on Tisht, had also gotten a small permanent power boost in the form of a more seamless connection to the Force, only made it a better idea. Teaching what she knew to others was giving the woman a chance to refine her own control with that new, stronger connection.
"Oh? An orbital drop to take on a Dark Tyrant wasn't enough for you? We could always throw you at a few worlds full of Hutts solo, if you want something more challenging~."
Aayla's retort drew a smirk from Shaak Ti, who shook her head.
"No thank you. I was hardly complaining about the quantity of the 'action,' as it were. I've just been surprised by how willing you both are to let the Jedi volunteers select where to help so freely. Not that I'm ungrateful for that fact, Asajj needs more exposure to soft skills than combat, so you letting her sit in on politics and military meetings has been perfect."
Izuku nodded at the thanks in Shaak's tone at that. He also, however, addressed the observation. It was one he had a strong opinion about, after all, even if it might not have been obvious. Well, to anyone but Aayla, who was already well aware.
"Not letting people who've trained all their lives to connect with a power that actively guides them to where they need to be, be where they feel they need to be? That's stupidity. I admit, more than anything else, their habit of trying to do that is what genuinely puzzles me the most about your Order's leadership. According to Aayla, they spend your entire youth telling you to 'listen to the Force' and let it guide you. Only to turn around and issue you missions, orders, and assignments like you were part of the military. A military that doesn't even exist, just to make it stranger."
Shaak Ti blinked, having paused with a forkful of steak halfway to her mouth. The hesitation at the unexpectedly firm statement was only momentary, as the fork resumed its journey, but she gave off a feeling of puzzlement as she slowly savored the bite. As she began cutting more of the juicy nerf steak she'd gotten from the mess, she hummed a bit and responded.
"I admit, I hadn't really taken the time to look at that from an outside point of view before. I doubt many Jedi ever do. In truth, I can even see where you might have something of a point. Wandering Jedi certainly exist and are often the most effective of us. Yet, I can also see some reasons why it is the way it is. Just for one piece of the equation, in example, not all Jedi are equally gifted with 'listening to the Force' and letting it guide them. I distinctly remember Aayla having some difficulty with that in the past, in fact."
As Shaak consumed more of her steak, Aayla didn't hesitate to nod, adding her own two credits.
"That's true. At least it was before meeting Izuku. Whose odd effect on the Force makes it easier. At the same time, I think my problem was partially a matter of instruction. Even Master Vos, as much of a radical as he was, rarely attempted to simply ask the Force where he should go and what he should do. Just a few sessions with Master Fay, even aside from Izuku's weirdness, helped me a lot in being able to feel where I would be needed. Though it does bring up another point, in that the Force often seems to be fine with not giving specific direction, so long as I'm doing a useful thing."
Shaak nodded along with that. Though she took a few more bites before speaking again.
"Precisely. While I think you may be on to something in a sense, Mr. Midoriya, in that the Order leans too heavily on structure, I suspect it grew naturally. Few enough true Masters survived the New Sith Wars, and to have any sort of broad effect on the recovering galaxy, those that remained to teach new generations had to band together to rebuild."
She took another bite, but Izuku and Aayla remained silent, enjoying their own meals. They could feel she was working out the best way to explain something she'd never had to think so directly on before.
"Over time, and with greater connection to the Republic's halls of power, I suspect it became a simple matter of momentum. One that few consider from an outside perspective. In truth, I believe that the current stirring up of the Order was likely badly needed, as it has caused many to do just that, if not quite so directly. Stirring the pot has revealed stagnation, encouraging many Jedi to start acting on their feelings from the Force, instead of merely accepting assignments. How that will work out in the end, I don't know, but I think it is likely to be a good thing, overall."
Aayla nodded instantly and firmly, her own feelings on that subject coming over the bond to Izuku with startling strength. Humming, and hoping they just might be right, he decided to shift the subject to something lighter.
"Well, we can always hope for the best. While we wait to see, though, how do the two of you feel about Bunny Girl suits? Asora has been campaigning hard for me to pull a prank on our ambassador, as a way to 'lighten things up.' I think she just wants to see Padmé's brain crash again like it did the first time she encountered Asora. I admit, it made for a rather effective and harmless way of putting her off balance during that initial meeting."
He was joking, of course, intentionally injecting a humorous inflection on the words. A moment later, he realized he might have made a tactical error, as he felt Aayla light up with a surprising amount of fire at the idea.
"Oh, we should absolutely do that! Mei mentioned she had a body-armor version, which we can tell the Senator is a new uniform we're considering for female Jedi! I bet we can throw her so off-balance that we can slip in all the hints we need about the TF and she won't even process them until she leaves!"
Yes. Definitely a tactical error. That was an unholy level of glee Aayla was putting out. Worse, Shaak Ti seemed intrigued rather than off-put.
"Ah, this would be that delightful uniform variant Asora wears when she's not being formal? I admit, it looks rather fetching, though I've never seen anything quite like it. It might be a touch revealing, I admit, but it's rather adorable. My Padawan would look quite cute in one…"
Izuku froze. Oh no. Asajj Ventress was every bit the chaos gremlin Mei, Aayla, and Asora were. Hopefully his joke hadn't just set up events for a galactic scale incident of the type memes were made of. Sure, the galactic scale hypernet was too primitive for a meme culture, really. But the more robust League internet was already developing one, and many planets certainly had their own equivalent on their local nets from what he'd seen.
On the other hand, he might get to see Shaak Ti in one of those outfits. Asajj, too. Shaak was right in that the mental picture of her in one was somehow adorable, despite the fact Asajj was a beautiful woman in her own right. Well, it would work out one way or another, surely?
Yes.
The Force worked in mysterious ways, after all.
He would just embrace that certainty and risk Jedi in Bunny Suits. Even knowing that his decision making was likely being affected by Aayla's enthusiasm for the idea, he decided to just let nature run its course. As the Force obviously intended. Why he got the distant impression that the Living Force he mostly connected through via Aayla actually was a little weirdly enthused by the idea, he had no idea…
... ... ...
Ossus – 75 Days Post Start of Hutt Crusade
Kalda Ra was beginning to wonder if, perhaps, she should write a book about her life. The wild swings it had taken, in fortune and overall direction alike, could not be normal, after all. Even if she was surrounded by at least a few people who could relate, she remembered enough of her youth in the Core that she suspected the story might just be riveting entertainment for the safer worlds there. Then again, she also remembered being critical of such stories that seemed too impossibly fantastical. Novels and holodramas alike that a younger her had given scathing reviews for being 'not realistic.'
Yeah, actually, she could practically hear the critical reviews.
Born on the rather boring world of Metellos, overpopulated and human-dominated, a twelve-year-old Kalda Ra had initially been quite pleased when her mother and father had decided to move to a Mid-Rim world. They had gotten an offer which would have been a far better opportunity for a Togruta family. These days, she couldn't even remember the name of the world that had been looking for skilled colonists. In part because she'd never arrived there. Their ship had been ambushed and hijacked by pirates, her father killed, and herself and her mother split up. The pirates had sold her mother into slavery, but their leader had been a very odd and erratic sort that had no issue at all selling slaves in general, yet refused to do so with children.
The result had been Kalda ending up in the hands of a very sketchy 'foster system' on Drukenwall. Another overcrowded world, it was worse in every way than Metellos, and not just because she'd lost her parents. It was a corporate world, with a 'foster system' that had been very deliberately designed to funnel a stream of poor and unskilled work into companies like Blastech. It was, in reality, not too different a fate from worker slaves. Which still would have been better than what actually happened to Kalda once she got old enough.
After all, no one cared about little people on a world like that, and it had been hilariously easy for the 'foster facility' to quietly drug Kalda in the night once she got 'old enough.' They'd arranged for her to 'vanish' into a brothel just days before her own hard work would have qualified her for at least a technical education that would have improve her lot in life. A pleasure slave in all but name had, eventually, gotten the name too when she'd blossomed into every bit of her mother's beauty and been quietly sold by the brothel to a client who had a thing for Togrutans. That had nearly been the last straw for her fraying sanity, Kalda just about broken entirely…when the Shattered Shackle had intercepted her new owner's ship in a sting operation.
Kalda had been twenty, at that point, and in rough mental shape even if physically mostly fine. The Shackles had been operating long enough to have connections at that point, though, and she'd found herself in extremely good hands at a charity on Naboo. It had taken two long years to put herself back together, and another two to make a new life for herself. She was no fighter, but she did have a talent for organizing things, and had wanted to make a difference in the galaxy. To pay forward the good fortune that had granted her a second shot at life.
Which is how she'd ended up as a quartermaster's assistant aboard one of the Volitions that had assaulted Tisht. There to have yet another wild swing of fortune as her mind was awoken to the Force. A literally transcendent experience that had done nearly as much to heal the remaining scars on her heart as two years of therapy had. An experience that had left her with an awareness of the Force that the Jedi who helped them through the aftermath had been startled by.
Apparently, she couldn't even do 'normal' when it came to something as utterly abnormal as a neigh-impossible Force Awakening.
Not that she cared at this point. The Force was…incredible. Comforting, warm, yet vast and confusing. Touching it wasn't a religious experience. Not for her. No, for Kalda it was like…like reaching out to an old friend, clasping their hand and feeling the reassuring weight of their presence. Only more than that, too. Assurance that the friend cared, that she too had a part to play, big or small. She'd been the first to volunteer when they'd asked who was interested in learning more about the Force, and was genuinely baffled by those who had shrugged and settled for mere parlor tricks.
All of which eventually culminated in what she was seeing now. The beautifully carved valley, lined with statues both ancient and new, all singing songs in the Force of both old hurts and hopeful new beginnings. Like the entire story of Kalda's own life, only deeper and far more potent, written on a galactic scale by a composer that was, in a way, nature itself. Her new home, for now, possibly even for longer than now given how it resonated with her soul. Classes had yet to start, with students still getting all their things squared away and familiarizing themselves with the routines needed for somewhat more primitive living than most had been used to. Somehow, it felt like she was always supposed to have been here…
Kalda Ra was looking forward to what she would learn, here at the Ossus Academy.
... ... ...
Diplomatic Yacht – En Route to Tythe
Padmé's moan was almost lewd as Sabé worked the muscles of her back. Tight with tension, the release as her oldest and closest handmaiden worked to undo the painful knots was a sort of relief she'd rarely felt duplicated. Her best friend, who was at times a bit more than that, had picked up massage skills during Padmé's second term as Queen. The first one had been stressful as all hell for all of them, leaving both her and her handmaidens too busy putting out fires to think about other things. The second had been…better. That was when Eirtaé had found the time to really get into engineering, and Sabé had decided to pick up a random mix of skills.
Some, like a far more advanced set of training in espionage and security against the same, were practical and invaluable. Others, like squeezing in several proper trainings in massage techniques from professionals, were far more seemingly frivolous…but honestly just as invaluable as far as Padmé and the other handmaidens were concerned. Honestly, she was good enough at it that none of them even really minded that Sabé was far from 'professional' in where her hands drifted.
She never took it farther than any of the other girls were comfortable with, but she certainly rode the line and pushed as far as she could get away with for each of them. With their newest two handmaidens, that wasn't very far. A grope or two of a panty-covered butt or stroking of some side-boob. Neither of them were into girls, but they'd cheerfully put up with that much in exchange for Sabé's utterly magical hands working out their stress knots and training bruises. Eirtaé was what Sabé had called 'conditionally bisexual' at one point. Basically, if you caught her in the right mood and got her horny enough, she'd bat for either team and not regret it even a little in the morning.
Padmé herself was just flat out bisexual. Or at least some flavor of not-entirely-straight that she didn't really have enough experience to properly quantify. Sabé thought she was demisexual, which Padmé could honestly see, but wasn't sure if it was entirely accurate. She could certainly appreciate someone who was good looking but not connected to her on an emotional level, even if she admittedly rarely lusted after such. She honestly wasn't quite sure what it all meant, lacking enough context to have really sorted it out. Not that it was a major priority or focus of her life, to be honest.
One way or another, though, it did make her Sabé's favorite target, even if they didn't exactly spend every night enjoying each other's company. It was a far more sporadic thing than that, both of them leading hectic lives that often left one or both of them too drained to care about more than cuddling. Or even leaving them wanting complete silence and alone time that saw them not sharing a bed for even that much.
Given that they were a full day out of Coruscant, and still another day from Tythe despite the Hyperlanes? Well, Padmé wasn't shocked, and certainly not upset, when Sabé's hand shifted focus after she was already halfway to an incoherent puddle. An incoherent aroused puddle, since Sabé's hands had already been a bit 'overly friendly' and Padmé had known what was likely to happen. She might never initiate, being what Sabé claimed was a 'complete and total sub in the bedroom,' but she wasn't going to turn down a different sort of—
-Lemon Starts Here-
Padmé's moan this time wasn't just almost lewd. It was the real deal, as Sabé's teasing caress had found its way between her legs and pressed two fingers against the soaked panties that were all Padmé was wearing. The gentle rubbing against her sex from those fingers had whimpers and little quivers following the first moan, as she instinctively pushed back to get more friction. Sabé tutted at that, firmly smacking her ass, drawing a yelp-moan in response.
"None of that. Be a Good Girl and let me help you out, hmmm? I know you don't even masturbate, really, so you must be soooo pent up…"
Padmé blushed at the sly comment. It wasn't wrong. She had nothing against masturbation, it just felt…like a waste of time? She always ended up feeling guilty that she should have been doing something more productive. It was stupid and she knew it, knew that it was even sillier that the same waste of time feeling didn't haunt her at all so long as someone else was enjoying it…or enjoying her. Sabé had teased her that it was taking being a people pleaser a little too far, but she couldn't really help i—
She squeaked as Sabé abruptly tugged her thong aside and sunk two fingers into her pussy with no warning. Then she moaned as those fingers stirred and tapped instead of thrusting. She bucked despite wanting to be a Good Girl, as Sabé found that special place inside her sex that made her go wild. To her own frustration, she'd never been able to consistently hit the same sort of spot on Sabé, despite finding it by luck periodically. Her best friend could and often did hit it consistently on Padmé, just as she was doing now as she tapped it, then circled it with one finger, varying the pressure even as she pressed down to keep Padmé from moving much.
It was viciously powerful, and Padmé came quickly, her body clenching with a full-body release that seemed to only happen when Sabé found that spot. She keened, gasping as she recovered…then began moaning again almost immediately as Sabé switched to a gently thrusting motion.
Oh.
It was going to be one of those nights. The ones where Sabé tried to see if she could beat the record for number of times she'd made Padmé cum before passing out. It was heaven and hell both, and Padmé couldn't help but look forward to the times it tickled the other woman's fancy to try again. Even if she always felt a little disappointed that she usually didn't get a chance to make Sabé feel good too…
-Lemon Ends Here-
... ... ... ... ...
A/N 1: The longer the Bunny Girl running gag plays out, the more tempted I am to get up to proper mischief with it...
A/N 2: Kalda Ra is a bit more important than some of the other OCs I've scattered in. She's intended to be a set of eyes we can see inside the Ossus Academy with, as things progress there. Though, sooner or later, other major characters will visit Ossus again as well.
A/N 3: The lemon! So...this exists to make my life easier. Since the perverts that are my patrons decided by vote that they wanted both Padmé and Sabé in the harem, it simplifies things for me if they are, well, already involved with each other a bit. Not seriously, but enough to make it more natural to both join the same set of lovers. Technically, I could pull off both of them joining without that. But it would make things more complicated. Which, given that at least one more will likely be joining as well, makes me want to make my life a little easier. Hence the lemon...
Not that I'm expecting you lot guys and gals to complain :-p. The very fact so many people wanted them both in the Harem says a lot of you were probably already imagining scenes like this. Oh, and about Padmé being a sub? Yeah. Honestly, that's just about the only way I can see her canon relationship with Anakin having actually functioned. If she was as forceful in the bedroom as she is everywhere else, like 90% of what happened between them wouldn't have run the same course. Since she'd have told Anakin to 'heel boy!' and cut short his fall to Vader at like, a dozen different points.
A/N 4: Yeah, you probably know this bit by now. Once per release, I point out that I have a Page with Early Access content. In example, I just released chapters 83-87 of Displaced Hero there, adding just shy of another 16,500 words which will remain in Early Access until next month. Similarly, there are at least a few Early Access chapters there for ALL of my stories, though NONE of them are ever permanently paywalled. All fanfiction content I make ends up here (or on Fanfiction.net and Questionable Questing) eventually, as new content for each story is released. Typically, there are around 45,000-60,000 words of additional early access content for patrons. As well as chances to vote in polls that influence which stories are updated, pairings, and other such things.