Chapter 1

I looked at the stone and reached out in the force. Nothing happened. I looked up, hoping that no one saw my failure and grimaced as I looked at the stone again. I thought "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST GET UP AND MOVE?!" Frustrated, I dropped my gaze and began tapping on my thigh. As I tapped, the stone lifted off of the table and launched its self at the wall. I looked up and gasped. The instructor looked around, trying to see who had thrown the stone. I blocked her view of my empty desk with my hand and pretended to concentrate on the stone that was no longer there. I looked up again and found him staring at my best friend, Leni'sema. I smirked and reached out to Leni in the Force, causing her to start. She looked up and noticed Master Ben Skywalker staring at her. She turned her head in my direction and gave me a dirty look. I smiled and made a heart with my small hands. She scowled and shook her head, causing her pale blue lekku to rock methodically back and forth, brushing her thin neck as they moved. I grinned. Master Skywalker was smiling too, though, neither of us noticed.

After our lesson, Leni and I headed to the dining hall for the midday meal break. As soon as we entered the hall, a wave of danger sense rolled up my spine. I looked around for the source of the unease, but found none. I shrugged it off and got in line for food. I turned to look at Leni and noticed that she was staring at one of the Jedi Knights that had been put on "Food Duty". Her gaze shifted to me and she smiled. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing. Everything is fine. Why do you ask, Briki?" was Leni's response.

It was too simple for Leni. If it had been anyone else, I might have overlooked it, but I knew Leni and she was more complex than that. I grabbed the loose arm of her robe and pulled her close. I leaned even closer to her and whispered, "Leni, what the black empty void did you sense?"

"I'll tell you later. Drop it for now," she replied, semi-reluctantly.

By the time "later" arrived, my mind was racing with the worst possible scenarios. Leni pulled me into an empty corridor and whispered, "Sith," as if it were a curse. The unnatural sound of the word on her tongue frightened me. Again, I felt the wave of danger sense and spun on my heel to find Kandra Dailie, the Jedi that Leni had been staring at while we were in line for food. I smiled at Kandra. Leni shot a wary glance at her. I jabbed her in the ribs with my elbow and she smiled and nodded. "Hello Kandra. How are you?" I asked.

"Fine and you?" Kandra replied smoothly, ignoring Leni's wary gaze.

"Fine we-"my sentence was cut off when Leni interrupted with, "We have to get to class. Maybe we can talk later."

I waved at Kandra and made a face that, I hoped, conveyed apology as Leni pulled me down the hallway, towards our next class.

That night, I sat in bed, unable to sleep. I began to think about Kandra and the single word Leni had whispered in the corridor earlier. Kandra was the most beautiful Padawan girl. Her hair was long and dark. She often wore it in a braid that reached over half way down her back. When she moved, the braid swung back and forth, often swinging over one of her thin shoulders. Not only was Kandra beautiful, but she was also extremely nice. Kandra was most definitely not a Sith. Why would Leni imply that? It was rude, and if there was one word that Leni was not, it was rude. That meant that either Leni really believed that Kandra was a Sith, or she was going crazy.

I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up to the sound of alarms ringing through the hallway outside of my room. I quickly dressed and ran into the hallway to see what was happening. I was shoved down the hallway as hundreds of Padawans and frightened-looking Younglings rushed towards the main hall. I was able to hook my finger around my brother, Sayaar'kemi's loose sleeve. His blue lekku twitched in surprise and he spun to face me. I pulled him into a small corridor leading off of the main hallway, and asked what was going on. His only response was a small shake of his head and a look that said 'I'm sorry.' I grimaced and followed him back into the flow of beings, all headed for the main hall.

We had been standing in the main hall for at least twenty minutes when the sirens stopped. I leaned over to Leni and whispered, "Why did the alarms stop?"

She smirked and whispered, "Thanks for asking the obvious question, Briki."

I scowled and walked over to Master Skywalker. His response was much more helpful. He told me that someone had set off a thermal detonator in the Archives and stolen a ship to escape. I thanked him and slowly, cautiously walked towards Leni. I was thinking as I walked. Who would want to damage or destroy Jedi archives? Maybe the bomber wanted to escape, and, because the archives and hangar are so far apart, set off the detonator to distract the Jedi from the unscheduled departure of a ship. If it had been a large ship, it would make sense, but no one would question a small ship departing the Jedi temple and so why distract the Jedi? Maybe the bomber-

My train of thought was cut off as a laser barrage came out of nowhere and destroyed one of the large viewports in the main hall. Laser fire came hurtling through the broken viewport. The air smelled of superheated metal as the fire hit the back wall of the large room. Through the commotion of people rushing to get out, I heard Leni, Sayaar, and Jacmi, Sayaar's best friend, calling my name. I ran to them and began pushing through the crowd to leave when Leni grabbed my arm. I spun on my heel and saw that Jacmi and Sayaar were pushing through the crowd, but not towards the exit, towards the viewport! I ran after them, shoving through the panicked crowd of Jedi, with Leni close behind. Jacmi pulled Sayaar to a stop when he saw Leni and I chasing them. Within seconds, I reached them. All that anyone said was "JUMP!"

I jumped, and was surprised when my feet soon found a solid surface. I crouched and used the force to anchor myself in place on the rectangular shape of the Stealth X's wing. The cockpit was airtight and the pilot was probably leaving Courscant, which meant that we would be forced to jump off, or die in the vacuum of space, or…

I signaled to Leni to ignite her lightsaber. I plunged the tip of my lightsaber into the transparasteel. The cockpit was no longer airtight. I looked down into the face of the pilot, and found myself looking into the eyes of Kandra Dailie. "KANDRA?!" four voices said the name at once, all sounding confused and slightly angry.

Leni looked up from Kandra's angry eyes and said "Now is probably a bad time, but I told you so, Briki."

"Yeah. Bad timing," I shot back.

That was when the Stealth X began to spin and twitch beneath our feet. None of us realized that Kandra was trying to throw us off until it was too late. I felt my feet fly out from beneath me and I fell backwards, into the forest of skyscrapers and speeders.