Star Wars - Darth Occlus (NotSummer)

It was just another routine briefing, and then the Force shifted, and her life was irrevocably changed.

light the spark

“You don’t need to take a company in, Anakin. Jesse and I can handle this.” Miyala crosses her arms, leaning back in her chair, smug in her ownership of the sole chair in the room as she argues with the younger Knight. “The two of us will get much further on our own.”

“Fine,” Skywalker says, his voice taut. He stares back down at the map of the planned invasion, and compromises. “If you can take out the scanners, then that leaves the 501st to back up the 212th. We won’t need to clear the way.”

“Is working with us truly such a hassle?” Obi-wan’s hologram is clearly amused, Cody’s less so.

Miyala interrupts before Anakin can reply and start an argument. “Jesse and I will take out the initial security so they can’t see you coming, Skywalker will lead pilots to clear out their air support, and Tano and Kenobi will lead the ground forces. We should rendezvous at the capitol, and Jesse and I should be able to cause our own chaos on the the way there after we take out their warning systems and communications.” Her gaze is hard, and her relaxed posture is a farce. She hates large battles, and hates the war.

Jesse stands behind her to her right. He’s been assigned to be her partner, and he’s not in this briefing room as a member of the 501st. Kenobi agrees, and his hologram cuts out.

Which is lucky, because not even half a minute later, as Anakin and Tano bicker, the Force shifts. A new presence appears in the room, and Miyala sits up in her chair. Anakin and Ahsoka break off from their sniping to stare at Miyala. Jesse, Rex, and Ross look quizzical, their eyes darting between the Jedi.

Miyala has to stop her hands from drifting to her stomach and giving herself away, but Anakin and Ahsoka are strangers to subtlety, and their eyes are laser focused on her midsection. “I thought, Anakin says slowly, “you were being careful.”

She barely hears him, counting dates in her head, and she inhales sharply. She had forgotten to get her shot, had lost track of the date, and now the consequences were here.

Not unwanted consequences: just untimely.

“Apparently not careful enough.” Her voice is soft, nearly a whisper, and she sits back. Jesse is nearly vibrating next to her, and while Anakin understands and knows, the others don’t. From the look in Ahsoka’s eyes though, she’s close to figuring it out.

“Who were you sleeping with,” the sixteen year old girl asks, her face a mix of disapproval and curiosity.

This is why Miyala has stayed away from the Jedi. She stares down the young Padawan, who averts her eyes. “Sorry.” It’s too late. Rex and Ross and Jesse are all radiating shock and realization and trepidation into the Force. Jesse, though, is radiating quiet delight and pride and affection and a hell of a lot more fear.

Miyala closes her eyes. “Padawan, do learn to keep your mouth shut. Skywalker, teach your apprentice the importance of subtlety.” She grits her teeth, and opens her eyes again, standing up. “The consequences of not keeping your mouth shut about this could result in severe consequences. _ Do you understand, Padawan _ ?”

“Yes, Master,” she stammers out. Her shoulders hunch, and she’s clearly chastising herself, so Miyala stalked out, her robes billowing behind her. “With me, trooper,” she snaps at Jesse, hoping to the Force and all the deities of her people that her tone throws Tano and Rex off about the identity of the father. Ross gives her a look as she leaves, and she knows full well she’ll be facing an interrogation from her friend later on.

There’s a pause before Jesse follows her, and she doesn’t look back, but the suspicion fades, so she assumes he was also working to throw them off. He knows the stakes. The Jedi Council and the GAR would come down hard on a clone trooper who got a Jedi pregnant, let alone one who was just in a relationship with a Jedi. She’s been terrified of the possibility since they began their relationship on Vierna II.

They’re silent until they get to the Occlus within the hanger. The minute the airlock door closes and they're alone on her ship he’s right in front of her, his hands on her cheeks practically forcing her to look up at him. “Are you pregnant?” His tone is wild, desperate, longing.

“Yes.” His hands fall away from her face, and she stares down at the ground, expecting something. What she expects, she doesn’t know. Recrimination, maybe. What she doesn’t expect is for him to wrap his arms around her and twirl her around the central hold. “I know the time isn’t ideal,” he says, setting her down, searching her eyes with his own, “But we talked, about a future, about kids. I want this. With you. It just moves things forward.”

She leans into his chest, using the Force to nudge the tiny presence within her. It’s not aware enough to feel or even react, but she can see the shifts in time and the world and fate. Their child affects things, even now.

Their child.

“I know,” she says. “I want it too, just-.” She shrugs. She steps away, pulling him onto the overstuffed couch shoved into the _ Occlus _ ’ hold. “A child.”

She doesn't feel prepared. While she did want kids, she knows Jesse has been far more enthusiastic than her. And now the difference in enthusiasm feels like a gorge between them. She scoots to sit on his lap after he sits down, her eyes tracing the planes of his face.

His eyes are soft, even though tinged with anxiety for her, for the future, for them, for himself.

“I just thought we’d have more time, with just us. Kids… Kids are a big deal. How are we going to even keep them safe? I’m a J-Jedi, and you’re an ARC, what do we know about… I don’t know, domestic?” She stutters over the word Jedi. It doesn’t really suit her anymore. It hasn’t, not for a while, she supposes. She just… hasn’t faced it. She supposes she’ll have to now.

The Jedi won’t get their child, which means she now stands in direct opposition to the Council’s will.