Cute Little Clones

[Unna Hi Chaanu]

Unnan certainly was tired. She hadn't had a good night of sleep since she was at the academy. She closed her eyes as Ghitsa spoke. Unna knew the truth, but she understood why Jenna's mother would guard these secrets. Unna had no intent to expose any secrets, she merely wanted to understand. She needed this woman to know. Unna never used the Force in this way before, so she had to concentrate to conjur up the calm she needed to win Ghitsa over as a new friend.

Unna opened her eyes and met the gaze of Ghitsa. She placed a hand on the woman's shoulder and spoke in a soft, kind tone. "What darkness do you speak of, friend? I can tell that this is hard for you to talk about, but you can trust me. I care for both Lady Baku and your daughter, so I would never use their secrets to cause any kind of harm to them, or to you. I can tell it bothers you too. I know I am young, but I can listen and maybe even help."

[Akirapryde]

Ghitsa looked down for a moment, "he used to beat her. When she first arrived things were okay. We all thought things would be okay. We knew how he treated his late wives, but she was different. She was a Jedi. We thought he would not dare hurt her. But that would soon change as her spirit sought to help those who needed it the most here. Those like me."

She closed her eyes, "the people loved her right away. He used to joke that her face was worth half a million credits a month. But when she gave her first official speech. It was filled with hope and promise just like the one you witnessed. That night he was so angry with her, that he beat her. We, the staff heard her cries for help. She begged him to stop. But he beat her till late in to the hours."

She lifted her face eyes back to Unna's, "the next morning, she was so badly bruised. I was there bathing her. Each time the sponged touched her, she cringed in pain." She shook her head as if answering some unspoken question, "but he didn't touch her face. That pretty face that was worth so much to him. That was the first of so many. Each day passed, I watched that light in her eyes slowly vanish as the blight glitter of this city slowly turned to the horrors that were this Palace."

She looked down once more as she played with her fingers, "she wasn't the first wife he treated like that. But the Rebel attack on the Palace made sure that she would be the last." She started to choke with tears and grief as continued to speak. "In some sense, I think the Rebels did our Lady a great service in killing that horrible man and the monster his son would have grown in to."

[Unna Hi Chaanu]

Unna comforted Ghitsa by holding her hand. Unna herself thought she might also need to be comforted, but it seemed traumatic for Ghitsa to speak of. Who even knew if she had the opportunity to speak of it before. "I had no idea. The Lady has spoken to me about her husband and her son and sincerely seemed to love and mourn them. It is as if she felt the relationship was always good, but people often forget the misdeeds of the dead and cover their hindsight with rose colored glasses. She has even spoken about the day they died. It seemed to be traumatic to her and I sensed that she was being sincere. I hear that it took her over a year to reemerge to the people."

Unna looked to Ghitsa with a small glimmer of hope in her eye and asked, "Do you think now that she is free of the abuse and the council and administrator have been exposed, that she will reclaim who she once was?"

[Akirapryde]

Ghitsa nodded softly, "I have never know Lady Baku to be anything other than caring and forgiving. When the Jedi turned their back on her, she did everything she could to make her life here more than what it was. It was the reason why she and Jenna became so close. She lived in two separate worlds. During the day, she would have the Palace and us servant all to herself. During the night, he would return from his meetings or travels only to bring the nightmares back."

She shook a bit, "I remember when my husband, a Palace guard attempted to bring the nightmares to an end. Lord Baku had him and his followers severely punished for it." She looked up at Unna, "No one could protect her from this monster. So she found a way of protecting herself. She forced her mind to separate the two memories."

"Make no mistake young Jedi," Ghitsa said. "She loved the man she called husband. She loved her son, who was already was becoming a monster like his father. I remember finding her that fateful night. She seemed to lost, so confused. She cried out for her husband and son. I held her in my arms and she cried for them. As I held her, she cried out for them. Before that night, we all had long thought that his darkness had destroyed that sweet girl. But in that dark moment, the love and compassion that made her who she was rang out."

Rested a hand on Unna's lap, "It was if that horrible night washed away years of abuse and suffering and allowed her to return to the girl we all loved. Not the one we had pitied."

[Unna Hi Chaanu]

"I sincerely thank you for sharing this with me," Unna said, resting her hand atop Ghitsa's hand that was sitting upon her own lap. "What you told me gives me a better understanding of Lady Baku and how she could be so trusting by locking away the bad memories in a little box in the back of her mind. I fear that she is a little too trusting. It didn't take me long to gain her trust, but I am glad to have it. I have been able to keep an eye out and even tried to warn her that her new administrator was not genuine when he praised the transcript of her speech, but unfortunately she had a lot of faith that n either he, nor the city council, was up to no good. I'm hoping that now she will believe my observations in the future."

"I am glad that Jenna has the stories of young Lady Baku to look up to and now it seems that spark is returning to her."

[Akirapryde]

Ghitsa smiled and nodded, "Our Lady has always been of trusting in nature. But there was a time when we thought we lost her to despair and his darkness."

She paused a moment as she shifted in her sit, "but lately I have seen a change her. You brought that change out, this I am sure of. I don't know what brought you to Our Lady's side, but I am grateful for it."

Her eyes were filled with hope as she continued, "who you see today is the Lady Baku who first came to our world. You have brought hope for tomorrow back to us all." She laid a hand on Unna's knee, "we are all grateful but many of us fear the Council won't be so easily tamed."

[Unna Hi Chaanu]

Unna smiled as she listened to Ghitsa's compliments, happy to feel that she had influenced things for the better, but she still worried that the attacks on Lady Baku were not over. "Five of the council members have been arrested, but I still worry that the attacks and secrecy will not end so easily. I fear that the more progress that is made, the more danger she will be in. I will do my best to protect her."