7.10.5

                                    

                                          
"How's your side feeling?" Anakin asked.
                          
"Better," she responded, massaging it. "Nothing a bit of bruise ointment won't fix, once I get back to my ship."
                          
"Yeah, that ship that you nearly shot me down with? I remember that one." He scowled, but only half-heartedly.
                          
She laughed again. "Oh yeah! Right, I forgot about that. And to be fair, I was never going to kill you."
                          
Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Sure you weren't."
                          
"I'm being serious. For some reason, Darth Sideous doesn't want you dead. Or at any rate, he doesn't want me to kill you. Can't say I'd enjoy it either."
                          
A smirk curved his mouth. "So you don't want to kill a Jedi, but you have it out for the Chancellor."
                          
"Hey, remember, I was a Jedi once, too. Maybe I wasn't Temple-trained, but I was a Padawan all the same."
                          
"I guess you weren't always a part of the Dark Side," Anakin mused. "You know, if you would stop ransacking our shipments and bases, the Jedi Council might think a little higher of you."
                          
The Inquisitor waved it off. "If I'm being honest, I couldn't care less about what the Council thinks. As I said, I did watch her trial. They aren't always right, although they're better than most."
                          
Anakin thought for a moment. Despite all of his ill will towards them, he knew the Sister was right. It was easier to admit it out here, away from them, than in the Temple. 
                          
"Who are you referring to by 'most'?" He questioned, and they started walking again, but at a casual pace towards the base Anakin had arrived at earlier. 
                          
"The Senates, both of them actually. I can't tell you how many Senate meetings I've had to sit through because Sideous ordered me to. I never had to do that for the Republic, as a Padawan, but I've had my fill of the Separatist Senate."
                          
"The Republic Senate isn't much better," Anakin told her, sniggering. "Believe me, I've sat through plenty of them."
                          
"Have you noticed that they clap, a lot?" The Sister started mimicking them, golf clapping daintily. "I wonder how their hands don't fall off."
                          
Anakin threw up his hands. "Thank you! I tried telling Obi-Wan that once, but he said that I was crazy! There's so much formality and grandiose speeches, I'm starting to think that politicians don't even realize it anymore."
                          
"I've given it a lot of thought, and I've decided that the Senates are at war because everyone else knew that it was easier to fight it out instead of trying to get them to agree. At least if you get shot, it's over with quickly, and not in five hours."
                          
Anakin laughed and the Sister joined in, chuckling at her own joke. They continued complaining about Senate meetings and many other things besides, when, about a kilometer from the base, Anakin noticed a glint hidden by the foliage.
                          
"My ship," the Sister explained. "I didn't want to park it in the city, so it's out here instead."
                          
"I get it," said Anakin. There wasn't a Separatist base near here, so she didn't have free parking as he did.
                          
He watched her walk up the ramp, before turning back to him and speaking one more time. "Just to be clear, this doesn't change anything," she confirmed, and he nodded.
                          
"Next time I see you, this didn't happen," he said. "No hard feelings, no strings attached."
                          
"None," replied the Inquisitor, and she smiled one last time. "As I said, you Jedi are a lot better when you're not swinging your lightsaber around."