Rosario felt chilly, probably less because the air was suddenly colder, but because she became more aware again of her bodily sensations, which right now reflected her very anxious inner state. She hurriedly pulled up her trousers, slipped into her rather complicated top and arranged it, only to find that she had forgotten to put on her knickers. She held them in her hand for a moment, perplexed, then simply tied them to a belt loop on her trousers.
She slipped into her shoes, which fortunately did not have laces that needed tying, and finally picked up her lightsaber. There was something reassuring about taking hold of it again, and for a moment she considered keeping it in her hand. Then she heard Kyra call out her name and clipped it to her belt after all to advance towards the door to the corridor that she had come through - on the side of the operating room.
But before she could reach it, the other door behind her was suddenly flung open. She whirled around and saw a nurse and two people armed with blasters, apparently guards of some sort, storm in. "You, stop!" barked the nurse. Then, as if she had suddenly realised that she was merely talking to a cute Zeltron girl, she suddenly softened. "Girl, you better go outside." The nurse pointed at the door towards the waiting room, the one she had just come through.
Rosario just stood there, frozen, like a dear in the headlights. One of the guards stepped forward, grapped her shoulder and pulled her away from the door she was standing at. "Come on, girl", he said gruffly and impatiently.
"Don't touch me!" cried Rosario in protest. A buzzing sound filled the room, and a streak of yellow light flashed through the air. An arm fell to the ground. The man didn't cry out, he merely groaned, stumbling backwards. Everyone looked at him, stunned, including Rosario, who stood there, stooping, the deactivated lightsaber in her hand. Unlike Kyra's, her weapon was a fully functional lightsaber. Master Zylah had been quite resolute that
if she should ever be forced into a fight, she was not going to have her Padawan be handicapped. Perhaps Rosario's amicable nature gave her confidence that such a situation was unlikely to occur in the first place. Rosario hadn't know what to think about the choice, hadn't thought much of anything at all - she had felt her master's caring and wish to protect that, that was what was important.
She hadn't thought now, either - she had just reacted on an instinct. And now she had hurt a man very badly.
"You..." began the nurse. The other guard caught himself more quickly, raised his blaster and opened fire. Rosario twisted on a hunch, somehow moving her mid section out of the way of the bolt. Her yellow blade sprang into being again and she grasped it with both hands to hold it in front of her body. She was still not thinking, just letting her body move according to the urges she experienced. The second blaster bolt was caught by her lightsaber and deflected into the ceiling where it smashed the lighting, sending a shower of sparks down on them.
Rosario grasped the opportunity that was opened by the man hesitating for a moment to fire another shot, flung around, opened the door, and was just banging it shut behind herself when a blaster bolt burnt a hole in it.
She backed off from the door and risked an uncertain glance down the corridor. Her master's teaching about full awareness of the present moment hadn't
really sunk in - not in these moments, not with this amount of stress and anxiety that turned everything into a blur she couldn't see through. When she saw Kyra and her master only a few metres away, a wave of relief washed over her and she deactivated her lightsaber without a further thought to the threat that might still be looming behind the door.
Confused and dishevelled, she just stood there. She noticed she was ashamed, even though she hadn't yet figured out about what.
Kyra Perl
Judah Lesan Jr.
