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[ he had never been patient. never knew how to show restraint at the proper times. his actions are fuelled by his emotions. he knew it was part of the reason why they would always pair him and his former master together, until the jedi ranks grew too few. someone had to watch out for skywalker, the chosen one.

someone had to make sure he doesn't given in to his heart's ruling.

but he's been trying; he's getting better at it with time.

anakin gave it a day - a day of sensing her in the force, weak then hidden. the moment she hid herself in the force, his eyes snapped open and he moved. never let it be said that he didn't have patience.

he thought about going to ahsoka first, making sure she's okay. or padme, or even obi-wan. but these thoughts passed quickly. anakin moves slowly and calmly through the city. she might be hiding in the force, but he'll find her. ]

[ she should have stayed on the golden. barriss had just been needing air, a change of scenery, to not feel holed up in her bunk, and now it's dangerously close to getting her in trouble. wandering planetside and trying to avoid being touched by overly-hospitable locals, she doesn't sense anakin until he's close. too close.

even though she's swapped out her usual hood and cape for a large black scarf, barriss is still plenty visible to eyes. which means she simply has to get through this crowd and avoid anakin's line of sight, until a brief commotion at nearby stalls has a local bumping into her and her reaching out instinctively to right them.

when barriss turns around again, anakin is there. she doesn't acknowledge him, just ducks her head and turns to go, but she knows how futile it is. he's seen her face. and this is not a conversation she wants to have. ]

[ his lip curls and his eyes narrow. there she is. in the flesh. she thought she could hide from him. it's a laughable effort.

she turns and he follows. he can anticipate her direction a bit easier now, or it was for a moment. she is quick, seamless in the way she moves. but chasing and tracking another jedi - another jedi trying to hide - isn't new to him. wren honoran taught him that much.

the chase is brief. in the force, he burns and looms like a shadow behind her. she is at a distance when he calls her. ]

Barriss Offee.

Edited 2016-07-24 01:42 (UTC)

[ sensing him so close, so daunting, it's all barriss can do to weave a path away at all. but it becomes apparent far too soon that she's not going to be able to lose him and she has to work to keep the spike of anger down. she's already had it out with ahsoka, she doesn't want to do this, too.

when he calls her name, she stops, looking around her for available weapons before she realizes just how prepared to fight him she is. but she's known anakin for years: sometimes you can't stop him from fighting.

she notes a few items and then turns, still an emotionless void in the force, but her face stubbornly set now. ]

I have nothing to say to you, Skywalker.

[ he snorts, his teeth clench tighter and his fists mirrors it. obi-wan had said she knows nothing but why - why is she running. does she already know? he smirks, mock sincerity. ]

Oh, but I do. I thought we were friends, Barriss.

[ anakin then relax his shoulders and release his fists from their hold. his head tilts and regards her with a look one would do a seedy port scum. every gesture he makes right now is a show of arrogance. he relaxes because he wants her to know that he could easily catch her again, fight her off even if he's not prepared.

and he wants barriss to know that. that and he has the power to do more if he puts in more effort. ]

Though I suppose someone has already told you what you've done. That's why you ran when you saw me.

Edited (fix) 2016-07-25 03:19 (UTC)

[ it wasn't running, but she doesn't win anything by arguing that. she can't win anything at all here, but barriss can stand her ground, even if it's just out of sheer stubbornness. ]

Yes, I know what I'll do. I know what becomes of me. And Ahsoka... the Jedi, the Republic. [ palpatine, she doesn't add, because she knows that anakin gets along with him and she doesn't want to know whose side he would be on. it's bad enough she finds herself agreeing with a senator, a sith lord. she doesn't want to know the republic's great hero, ahsoka's mentor, does too. ] And that is exactly why I don't want to talk about it.

[ he doesn't talk about ahsoka. it's too close to him and he knows he would snap quicker, lose the upper hand quicker if he does. ]

Then you know. [ he paused and took a step closer. ] That I lived through your betrayal. I saw friends of the Jedi die. Because of you. I heard you lie right in my face and I saw you holding red lightsabers thinking you can somehow escape.

You don't, Barriss. And Master Unduli heard the news while she was in front lines. Do you even think about how she feels? How disappointed she is in you?

Edited 2016-07-28 02:07 (UTC)

Why should I care what she feels?

[ if she's lied already, she might as well lie again. it's not something he can sense in the force, of course, but barriss knows she's known anakin too long for him to believe such a blatant lie. hearing herself say it just makes her feel better. ]

If Luminara didn't want a disappointment for a student, she should have done something to make me a better one. She should have stopped teaching me how to kill people. She shouldn't have abandoned me. [ that isn't a lie, at least. ] If I had to take matters into my own hands in order to be heard, so be it.

[ she shouldn't have abandoned me.

it infuriates him. because it's the truth; he never liked luminara's careless detachment to her then-padawan and he never liked that about the order. and he has to remind himself, that it wasn't him; he never abandoned ahsoka, it wasn't his fault.

his fists raises and the anger spreads, makes his shoulders hunch and his features turn ugly. ]

You... [ he breathes but it's no use. anger is easier to deal with. he points at finger at her. it's close and nearly in her face. ] You are not the victim here, Barriss. You were taught many things and Luminara never taught you to betray everyone you knew. Or did you think intentionally framing someone who thought of you as a friend was part of the war we're trying to win!

Edited (ughahlfjadf) 2016-07-31 03:50 (UTC)

[ it's hard to tell if she's actually angry or not, when anakin is so close, so bright. barriss had thought she felt mostly empty, had wanted to keep it that way, but the last comment is what stings. she's already yelled this out with ahsoka, already laid her uncertain and frustrated guilt out, already received more from ahsoka in return than she deserved.

so she's not going to let anakin rake her through these coals. ]

It was never intentional. [ past tense. not for her, but it might as well be. everyone but her has already lived it, after all. she will be guilty, she is guilty. it doesn't matter.

barriss doesn't think when her hand snaps up, back of her fingers meeting anakin's to push it to the side. but it's not to earn back distance between them, it's to get herself closer, with as much height as she can, as close to his face as she's ever been to anyone's. she doesn't know how to wear anger and desperation like this. it's ugly on her, too, but she doesn't wear it quite as comfortably as anakin might. ]

Listen closely, Skywalker: There are a thousand monstrous things I would willingly do to make my point and not a single one of them would ever hurt Ahsoka.

[ he hiss ] But you will.

[ he's quick to reply and each word sounds harder and his voice an octave lower than normal. his scowl never leaves and his teeth shows more and more.

barriss doesn't get to say that - not because it hasn't happened to her yet, but because of the things that she had said already. she doesn't even bother looking guilty, shamed, repentant. that gives him confirmation of her intent and validation for his anger. ]

All you remind her of is your betrayal. The fact that you exist hurts her.

[ he knows ahsoka better than that, he knows she would be kinder and more receptive.

but he doesn't care right now. ]

[ that nearly stops her. because it's the sort of thing that would stop her, normally. her very existence causing anything directly has always been a source of dread for barriss, after all. she's needed so badly to be neat and perfect before now. but before she can inhale to concede defeat, she remembers ahsoka's words, her hug. the connection the planet had momentarily deepened between them.

come back to me, barriss.

she's trying. ]

You've spoken in the last few days? Because Ahsoka's the living person with the most right to judge me for what I'll do and she's told me her verdict already.

[ and it's here. it's alive. barriss still isn't sure what she feels about that. ]

[ there's a flicker of uncertainty that breaks him away from his anger. his eyes remain narrow but he breathes and he lifts his chin and looks down at her.

he sneers at her for assuming that he'd need to talk to her to know, that he doesn't know his own padawan well enough to know. ]

She wants her friend back. The question is if you are still the one she befriended or the one that took advantage of her friendship.

[ she rocks back on her heels with an exhale, his unspoken admission cooling whatever anger she felt. her expression returns to something simply stubborn. ]

You already know what answer you want to hear and you won't hear any other. [ she'd want herself away from ahsoka, too, given the circumstances. but ahsoka and her kindness are the closest things to not being alone barriss has right now and so long as it's allowed, she's keeping hold of that. ] It doesn't matter what I say to you.

[ there's a moment where he desperately wanted to just ask barriss for an honest answer. they live in such complicated lives in their world, that being away from it gives them -- has given him an opportunity to be honest in a way he couldn't have.

it gave him a hope that barris could also answer with truth. but he remembers what is at stake if he hopes too much and falls back to the absolute trust Jedi give each other. the trust ahsoka had employed in barriss that nearly sealed her fate.

with a growl, he reaches out and grabs her arm and his other arm raise as if to strike. ]

[ nearly as quick to react as he can be to move, barriss jerks her shoulder back to tug out of anakin's grasp. she knows how he fights well enough to know that just moving won't be enough, so the next thing she does is turn moving her arm into a gesture forward, both palms out as she pushes him back hard with the force.

it would enough to topple someone else, maybe send them flying into something, but she just needs him far enough away that he can't get a hit in. a guilty party she may be, but she will not let him decide her fate. ]

[ behind him, there are shouts and gasps of surprise as he is forcibly pushed back into both people and shops stands. he stands his ground though, and braced himself for it once he got his footing.

he doesn't glance back at the disturbed scene behind him, he looks up and she is gone. he can't find her in the force anymore; he finds himself nearly assaulted by the life force around them, made worst by the commotion they caused. everything is a solid hum and it's as if she was never here. there is only anakin and his evaporating haze of red. ]

Edited 2016-08-04 02:49 (UTC)

Try Catching Flootemon with your Communicator!

d; july 19

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spoilers he should have really talk to his former padawan

yeah maybe?

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