Kina presses her face into her hands.  "That's kriffed up."

"I can only hope that their constituents will listen to sentiments so obvious a child sees them."  And Kina Skywalker laughs, darkly, wryly, sarcastically, because she hopes, but can't bring herself to expect.  "Really, in the wake of this, I'm hoping that most of the Senate gets thrown out of office for being so blatantly corrupt.  There's enough bribery just in Palpatine's Senatorial records, as provided by the Queen of Naboo, to take down quite a few prominent members already.  Let alone anything else he's done that was kept elsewhere."

"Thrown out by who? I doubt we can actively override a majority of the Senate. I hope to delay voting for weeks, months if necessary, to break the vote down into component pieces in hopes that we can arrange bargains, and give them time to calm down and consider specific consequences. And yes, if we give the constituents time to speak, they can sway enough of the Senators. I doubt we'll be able to entirely prevent Count Dooku's movement from taking hold. But hopefully we can at least steer most of the galaxy in a better direction."

"We are not going to involve you in this in any way. I will handle the speeches - no, actually, I lost the election, officially, and that's not a good image for a leader, so I'll find someone else to be a more appealing public face. If you have any comments to make, make them to me, not to the Senate."

"...By the judicial system, for having done rather a lot of crimes.  Or is that as hopelessly corrupt as the Senate itself presently is?  ...And yes, definitely no involving me further in this mess.  Ugh."

Antilles smiles, despite everything. "I'm still glad to have met you, Miss Skywalker. It's refreshing to find someone whose only flaw is being too honest."

He leaves, since he does have quite a bit of work to handle.

"May the Force be with you, Senator Antilles, and hopefully also the Chancellorship."

Kina has many things to handle as well; tracking down the droid control computer, for one, and containing the mind-controlling lightsaber she's not letting out of her sight.  (And berating herself for missing that Jango grazed 'Mas Amedda', when she hears of the dead Jedi Masters.)  And where did Jango go, anyway?

Dooku isn't presently available to chat with Kina. He's busy calling Darth Plagueis, and telling him that of course they're still friends. What? No, Dooku won't kill him! As long as he doesn't mess with any of Dooku's plans! Get back to work on your blood samples.

She is able to find Windu at the Jedi Temple, who's locked up Jango, and for good measure the Clawdite's body. "What is it this time, Skywalker?"

Well, Kina can wait on that.  Or call Dooku's office.

Presumably he has an office.

Still, she's more interested in following the money right now, rather than the Count.  Because she is quite interested in visiting Darth Plagueis's laboratory, and performing a research safety audit.

Once she's either picked up or failed to trace the droids' signal, she asks Master Windu "What should I do with this?  Kriffing mind control focus..."  (The lightsaber has not left her sight since she first saw it, though it is now concealed from plain view, and furthermore handled secondhand.)

Windu points out a notification that yes, she's tracing the droids' signal, to a ship above the planet! While she's looking at that, he picks up a boulder with the Force and slams it as hard as he can into the lightsaber, crushing it.

"Are you out of your damn mind?! Oh, yes, you're not putting your hands on it, how careful of you. Instead you just carry it by reaching through the Force, which happens to be the channel it strikes through! I really hope no one activated that while you had it with you. We already had a close enough call with Yoda!"

(Windu may be slightly pissed off due to the four dead friends.)

Kina flinches.

"I was, after the initial push, touching it at a remove, but yes, that was - rather ill-advised.  Thank you for catching it.  ...To whom do I direct 'impound that ship'?"

"I'll contact the Republic's forces, but I'm not all that confident they'll be able to catch it."

"Also, you are not speaking with Dooku until we settle all of this. He's the leader of an active rebellion against the Republic."

"...If he tries to preserve the Trade Federation, then yes, he most certainly would be."

"Right. The Council will be collaborating with any Senators we can to handle this mess. I know better than to tell you to stay out of it, but at the very least don't do anything without talking to someone first."

"Trust me, I'm not cut out for direct political action.  I'd start with Senator Antilles."

Windu nods and leaves.

Kina is going to go sleep for a week and hope the galaxy doesn't explode without her personal attention.

...Well, okay, first she should probably write down what the kriff happened, where she went wrong, where she could do better...

But she's just.  Done, right now.  That was absolutely terrifying.

Where's her mom?  She needs approximately all the hugs, yesterday.

Shmi is available, and has approximately all the hugs ready.

Oh, good.

"I really hope that there's nothing else about to explode soon, because that was already way too much for me to be handling.  I mean.  I did it, and I think I was probably the best option somehow - Jedi really can't sneak or do - operations or anything that's about getting into battles instead of individual fights - but...Today was really scary, mom."

"I know, Kina. For me, too. Maybe the Jedi can help you with this sort of thing? I'm sure they can teach you ways to help you keep yourself safe."

"You know you've already done so much. The Republic is changing, and someday soon, we might live in a galaxy that's better for everyone. I know there are still a lot of dangerous people out there, but you've made it this far, and I believe you'll be able to keep going. No one's going to explode my Kina."

Kina's mom gets a tight squeeze of a hug.  "Thank you.  I...really needed to hear that."

The next few weeks are blissfully uneventful.  Kina attends lessons, attends funerals - she feels some guilt over their deaths; she'd thought Amedda was spared as a co-conspirator but not identified the right conspiracy, then failed to communicate that...

She checks in with her friends.  Padmé, Obi-Wan, Bultar.

She sends a more official message to the Queen, thanking her for providing the key to blowing Palpatine's conspiracy wide open.

She tries to do normal things, like get excited about mechanics and reading so many new books, like mingle with the kids-her-age.

(That doesn't quite work; after everything she's done in the past few weeks, there's a gulf she doesn't really know how to cross.  She's jumpy.  She's weird.  She talks back in classes like the Masters are peers.  (And she's in weird classes, for that matter; they're all over the spectrum of Jedi coursework.))

She can't stop watching the holonet coverage of the attack on the Senate.  She feels responsible for it.

What happens to her, as time passes?

Not much. She speaks with the Council and Antilles a few times, but they mostly don't contact her of their own accord.

Events in the Senate are getting quite chaotic. No one has actually wanted to arrest Dooku, so he's going around trying to gather support for his Confederacy of Independent Systems. On the other side, many Senators are trying to keep the Republic exactly the way it is, including Teem, who is no longer excited about his potential under the rule of Sith. Antilles's faction, as usual, is trying to present themselves as somewhere in the middle, not ending the Republic, but reforming it, specifically by investigating bribery and raising military power. To stop citizens from worrying that the Republic will end up having too much power, they've chosen Senator Garm Bel Elbis as the public leader of their movement, who, like most of Corellia, favors limited government intervention in everyday life, but is most definitely ready to forcibly end atrocities at the level of slavery.

The people's beliefs, as Antilles had hoped, have had a strong influence on the political landscape. While most of the Senators would have either wanted to join Dooku or keep things as they are, their constituents have far different ideas, and most seem to side with Elbis's faction. The overwhelming majority is now prepared to override the Senate, and allow the voters of each planet to elect new representatives and directly determine whether to stay in the Republic. It's not perfect by Antilles's standards - there are still a few planets, such as Geonosis, whose people want nothing to do with the Republic, and will likely join the Confederacy - but they at least won't be able to control the galaxy as a whole.

Kina thinks this is about the best outcome she could have hoped for, politically speaking.  (And if Geonosis so hates the Republic, it shouldn't be forced at gunpoint to stay.)

Does anything happen in Kina's personal life?  There's not much she's had time for, given recent galactic events, but she is hoping that the connections she's made haven't since decayed.

She hasn't had many chances to spend time with anyone, with Obi-Wan still not in the best mood, Padmé on Naboo and incredibly busy, and the other kids not really relating with her very well, even Bultar. But Shmi's there with her, often watching and supporting her during her classes.

Shmi has been a little different recently, though. She's always there when Kina's training with the lightsaber, with that concerned look constantly on her face. It's not even the fear that Kina's getting hurt that's most visible. It's when she hits someone that Shmi winces.