He watched. His still demeanor betrayed nothing of the turmoil within. But she knew him, and she knew the Force. What writhed beneath the surface was no secret to Ryl, even if its cause yet remained a mystery.

She approached, raising a hand but stopping short of placing it on him. Anger pulsed from Warne like an aura. "What's happened?" the Jedi asked, something like alarm stirring within her.

Her hesitation incensed him further. Warne's eyes narrowed with cruel skepticism, "You don't know?"

"Should I?"

"Doesn't the Council tell you everything?"

The vehemence in his tone left her taken aback. It was as if she'd betrayed him somehow. "Calm yourself, my friend. Anger clouds your reason."

"My reason." He hissed, lurching away from the wall, brushing past her harshly. She watched him stalk across the room, turn again to face her, and Ryllivan felt pain as though struck.

Fear. Fury. Frustration. The Darkness he had struggled all his life to suppress now burned for release. "Master Rendow has been expelled from the Order."

"… You're serious? Warne-"

"They tell me he's dangerous. They tell me he's betrayed the Jedi code. But they won't say how. I'm just supposed to accept it, as if I didn't know him at all. As if he wasn't my mentor."

The shock on her face should have been enough to allay his paranoia. No. She hadn't known about this at all. But his expression only darkened. Tremors of black emotion radiated off Warne all the more fiercely.

Ryl disregarded the threat and moved forward, reaching out. She could not bear to have her only friend look at her in such away, no more than she could comprehend the gap that had suddenly appeared between them. "Let me help you. Search your feelings, Warne. Search mine. Let me help."

A gentle touch, light as a soft breeze, and yet he grew taut and tense at the contact. With strain, he tore his gaze away. "I will not betray my master."

"If the Council has expelled him, the fault is-"

"What do they know?" He snapped back, with such ferocity that Ryl removed her hand. "He's more kin to me than my own father! Rendow is a good man. A great Jedi. Whatever they think he's done, it's a lie!"

The truth in this, Ryllivan could not be sure. Warne was as headstrong and temperamental as they day they had been taken up from Coruscant's undercity. A good mentor would have discouraged such things. Warne had grown more cunning, more calculated – but no less proud.

He spoke again, less to her, more to himself. "They mistrust me. They think he's tainted me somehow."

"Patience, Warne. There must be more than we unders-"

"How long will you make excuses for them?" He interrupted, movements jagged.

Almost instinctively, she sought comfort in the Force. The clarity of mind that came with true peace would give her the words she needed, surely. "Have you no faith in the Council at all?"

His gaze was hard. "No."

There was an air of finality in this moment. Watch him. The Council had warned her. For this? Where came the secret?

Something had shifted. This was not the man she knew.

"Have you no faith in me?" She tried, peace of mind beginning to crack as she realized her friend was not simply at the brink, he was prepared to jump.

This query gave him pause, and she dared to hope. Warne shook his head. "I don't know who I can trust. I have questions nobody will answer. Doubts I am being told to bury instead of confront. I thought-" He stepped forward very suddenly, closing the distance between them, and then Warne seemed to check himself.

Ryllivan held her ground, sensing a new confliction rise inside her compatriot. "…Why did you come here, if you didn't think you could trust me?"

He stared, searched, then turned away again sharply. A heavy pause filled the empty space. Finally he said, quietly, "You were never afraid. Even when things were at their worst, you never stopped believing in a way out, did you?"

It took her a moment to comprehend, so suddenly had Warne changed the subject. "I was afraid of you." She replied with a forced smile, hoping the quip might lighten the mood. They were both Jedi now. What sway had those old fears now?

His eyes flashed, and Ryl had less than a fraction of a second to register before Warne's mouth was on hers. Shock sent her rigid as he pressed against her with a fervor utterly unanticipated.

Ryllivan grasped his arms like a lifeline, feeling herself grow weak. His emotion was overpowering. Something inside Ryllivan stirred too, a passion she had never before allowed to break the surface.

And then Warne pulled away, ending the contact as suddenly as it had been initiated. She felt drained by the sudden lack of presence. This was wrong! A violation of the Code – a path to the Dark Side…

He was gone, before she could think of what to say, or even fully comprehend what had happened. Ryllivan could still feel his lips, the desire she knew she must suppress, yet lacked the strength to tame now that it had awakened.

"Warne!" Heedless, she ran to the door, but Warne had passed beyond sight, beyond feeling. She was alone.

How could she have known then, that the next time they would meet, it would be as foes? That on a distant planet, in a distant future, Warne with his red saber would decide her doom?