Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.

Chapter 2: Raiding the Archives

The lightsabers crackled and sparked upon the saber clash. Jaylar Aranos stepped forward, forcing his opponent backward. Three quick, powerful katas later, the opponent was down with bruises on his legs, chest, and neck.

"Winner: Jaylar." boomed the mechanical voice from the judge's box. Jaylar stepped backward, saluted the Masters and left the arena. The crowd of apprentices, Padawans, Knights, and Masters broke into applause.

Jaylar smiled to himself. This was the fifth duel in a row that he had completely dominated in. This time of year was the favorite for Jedi Padawans and apprentices, where they would face off in tournaments consisting of lightsaber duels, Force power displays, and several other less interesting categories. So far, he was the reigning champion in lightsaber and Force duels.

Jaylar Aranos had been accepted to the Jedi Order at a very young age, as all Jedi were, but his was an unusual case. He had arrived to the temple carried by an old woman, who had been a Jedi herself. She had found him in a small spacecraft that had crash-landed on the planet she was living on, and had sensed the Force potential inside of him. At least, that was what she had told the Masters. She then died shortly after arrived; without even saying her name. Her last words were mumbled, but the Masters thought it had sounded like "He… is… the Raven." Which had meant absolutely nothing to them.

Jaylar was a fast learner, absorbing lessons faster than the teachers could teach them. He showed his first display of Force power at age four, where he had levitated a vid file from the Archives when he could not reach it.

Charismatic, good-looking, and powerful, Jaylar formed a close-knit group of friends around him. However, for some strange reason, he devoted free time to meditation and experimenting with the Force, rather than having fun with those friends.

His closest friends were Kara Jarel and Taxer "Lend me money" Shafin. Kara was a tall, though shorter than Jaylar, dark-hair slim girl from Naboo who loved pranks and romance films. Teachers called her a walking contradiction. Taxer was a blond "annoyance", as the Masters called him, from Alderaan who always lost money from gambling, but was a genius when it came to fights and technology. Together, the three of them pranked the Masters, amazed the teachers, and generally made life interesting around the Jedi Temple.

It had been seven years since the death of a prestigious master, Qui-Gon Jinn. Since then, less Masters had been willing to take on Padawans, and so the Council moved the Age of Rejection, as Kara had named it, to sixteen instead of thirteen. All three members of the group were now fifteen, and so they were getting worried that they would not get accepted.

"Jay! Hey, JAY! Get over here!" Taxer was yelling from across the room. Jay (as I will call him now) grinned and ran down the hallway to where Tax and Kara were standing.

"Sweet fight, man! Kara, you owe me fifty credits." Kara had run up and jumped on Jay, hugging him and sending him to the floor.

"OFF, Kara! Ow! Hey- you bet against me?" Jay gasped in mock surprise.

"No, Jaybird, I bet that you would finish the match in less than fifty seconds. But no, you had to toy with him for a full minute!" Kara's personal nickname for Jay was Jaybird ever since he had found a dying bluejay on Naboo and nursed it back to health.

"What can I say? It was fun." Jay grinned.

Taxer stepped in. "Come on, you two. I got free tickets to Josh's Steakhouse for helping him out last week. Let's go celebrate! I'll buy."

"Yeah, sure. With our financial help, Taxman." Kara said sarcastically. "Have you ever been able to buy something with money that you actually earned?"

"Um… Well… Let me get back to you on that, Kara." Tax turned to Jay. 'Well? What does our champ say?"

"Let me get some stuff from the Archives first, and we need about ten minutes to get dressed, forty minutes for Kara-OW! Ten minutes to sneak out and fifty for a dinner. That sound good?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "FYI, I only need thirty minutes. But that does sound good."

"Not planning to sneak off, I hope?" asked a deep amused voice behind them.

Jay turned around smiling. "Master Windu, we are at your immediate disposal. Would we sneak out like that?" His face was the perfect picture of childlike innocence.

Mace Windu actually laughed. Jay, Tax, and Kara were favorites of his. "How many times have I caught you out after dark?"

"Um, about seventeen and a half times." Jay said seriously. Tax snickered, while Kara played along.

"Seventeen and a half? How do you get a half of a time, Jaybird?" Mace smirked at the nickname.

"My dear Kara, Master Windu caught us after we came back from sneaking out one night. Don't you remember the firework incident?"

"Of course I- SHIT! Jay! Ho could you say that in front of a Master? The Senate still hasn't recovered from that!"

Mace was grinning at the interplay between the Padawans. Obi-Wan Kenobi and his apprentice Anakin Skywalker walked up during the firework remark.

"That was you, Jay?!" Anakin spoke up. He was a year older than Jay, now sixteen, and occasionally helped out with pranks.

Jay looked around dramatically. "Well, my friends, it seems we have been caught. I confess- at 2150 hours two months ago, us three snuck into the Senatorial Chamber and set off two hundred pounds of fireworks; most of them illegally made in Naboo. Cost me most of my savings."

"And mine, Jaybird."

"Don't forget me, Jayman."

Obi-Wan spoke. "I seem to remember you coming to me, Jaylar, and asking for a sizeable loan around two months ago. Was that in any way related?" Now Mace was almost doubled over laughing.

"I don't know, Master Kenobi. Was it? I think the guy I knew who supplied the fireworks was very suspicious of the amount given to him. He seemed to think that Jedi or a very rich Senator was buying the fireworks for a birthday party."

"Yeah, one hell of a birthday party." Tax chimed in.

"Jaybird, the Archive closes in twenty minutes. You'd better hurry. Besides, I need to change."

Jay bowed to the Masters, then pulled a carved bluejay out of Tax's tunic pocket and sealed it to the wall, pressing a few spots on the tail. Kara, Anakin, and Tax took one look and fled down the corridor. The masters recognized the carving and also ran, following Jay.

Twenty seconds later, around the Jedi Temple fifty stink grenades exploded simultaneously.

Also simultaneously, there was a roar of rage from the poor victims of the prank; mostly Masters: "JAYLARRRRRRRRRR!"

Jay walked in through the Archive doors, winking at the receptionist, who blushed. She was fairly new and was not a Jedi, so Jay could do that kind of thing without getting in trouble. He pulled out a card and inserted it into the lift that would take him to his chosen section. Jay stepped in and waited for the doors to close.

Stepping out at the floor containing the writings of the ancient Jedi, Jay pulled out his card and stored it in a pocket. Walking through the room, he reverently took a few books and datapads off the shelves, dusted them off, and put them back.

Jay had found this room when he was eleven years old. He had stumbled into the lift, which automatically closed. He had pressed a series of buttons, completely random, trying to get out, but instead the lift went down, farther down past the normal floors. The doors had opened at this room, and Jay had curiously started reading through the books and datapads.

These writings and thoughts had come from Jedi who lived long, long ago. Their complete knowledge was stored here, in this small, 20 by 20 meter room. Jay had come here every day after that; taking books back to his quarters and reading them.

Today, Jay was looking for books from about three to four thousand years old. He had a huge project coming up and wanted to do something about the Jedi from that time period.

As Jay walked along, he ran into a low-lying table, causing him to trip and fall down onto his belly.

"OUCH! Kriffin' table." Jay muttered. As he started to get up, he noticed a seam on the ground. Interested, he ran his fingernails in the seam until he came to an opening. Jay lifted it up, grunting at the weight of the stone slab.

Inside was a small rectangular box, untouched by the elements nor worn down by age. On the box was an imprint of two lightsabers over a raven's head, the beak dripping blood.

"Holy Force, a Bloodraven…" Jay murmured. The Bloodraven, according to his history teacher, was the symbol of a Mandolorian clan, later used by the Dark Lord Revan as his symbol by adding two lightsabers above the beak.

Opening the box, Jay found several things: some Republic currency along with other, unknown types of money; a weapon that looked like a blaster with a label of "Smith & Wesson", a small, silver, square object with a screen and symbols on one side, and a journal marked "The personal journal of Revan: Jedi Knight, Dark Lord of the Sith, Bloodraven, and Mandalore."

Holy shit. Jay sat there for a moment. He- he- had in his hands the personal journal of Darth Revan, along with these other things. What should he do?

After a few moments of thinking, Jay made up his mind. He would not show this to the Council. He would take this box, and all its contents, and hide them in his room. There, he would have plenty of time to explore the box.

Pulling a bag out of a cupboard he had installed a few years back, Jay closed the box, put it in the bag, and used the Force to put a web of secrecy around the bag. A useful trick he had learned from Master Windu. He stood up, walked to the lift, got in, and left the room.

He failed to notice a small device in the hole where the box had been light up and start whirring. Ten seconds later, a message appeared on the device: SIGNAL SENT TO TER-SAT. ACTIVATING LAB 1.

Millions of light-years away, a satellite swivels toward a certain planet. Its orders programmed, the satellite started relaying data to a lab on the planet's surface. Data containing fingerprints, retinal scan results and Force Aura on one individual.

A.N. Brownies to anyone who can guess what TER-SAT stands for. Yes, I realize that I have made Mace Windu a bit Out of Character, but what the story needs, the story gets. Now, which is your favorite OC so far? Let me know in your REVIEWS.