Fun fact: this was the original Chapter 1. Which pulled it off better?
3951 BBY
The Exile took comfort in the sounds around him that amounted to a sort of white noise. The untuned ticking of the hyperdrive, Bao-Dur's wielding, T3-M4's constant roving and the subtle thrum that can only be heard within a ship traveling in hyperspace pleasantly reverberated throughout the hull and as of late, provided him with the means to escape the riled dissonance of his thoughts. Though they were proving ineffective to drown his mind of these latest developments.
Aaron sat cross-legged in the starboard dormitory as he tried to meditate, again. The years that had passed since he last applied these techniques was being made apparent with the amount of time he continued to fruitlessly waste on the task.
The peace Aaron vainly sought after was being robbed of him by one thought that resounded in his skull like a whirring hoard of shyracks: the mission Atris had charged him with. The sheer magnitude of the endeavor continued to weigh like heavy gravity on his being. It was an immense undertaking—one he doubted he would succeed in. He needed to locate the remaining Jedi Masters, convince them to convene and succeed in this before the Sith reared their ugly heads again and pray, PRAY that the Council decided to act this time.
Aaron took another deep breath that simply added to the plethora he'd already spent on centering himself. The Masters had exiled themselves in light of events that took place after the Mandalorian Wars—id est, the Jedi Civil War that ensued after Revan declared herself Lord of the Sith. How—why did that happen? Aaron was sure peace would reign after the Mandalorian threat was gone. So sure... it was part of the reason why he left for the Outer Rim after the war; determined to live out the rest of his life in peaceful exile. Then, in a bizarre turn of events, he was now one of the last remaining Jedi known to be alive.
Well... technically, not having participated in the Jedi Knight investiture he never became a 'Jedi'. But for reasons he could not fathom the rest of known space had assumed otherwise. It was ridiculous. RIDICULOUS! There were now Sith chasing him across galaxies and Bounty Hunters tracking him from planet to planet; all under the false impression that he was still a member of the dying Order.
He ruefully shook his head. Ridiculous.
Aaron couldn't help but marvel at the extraordinary set of occurrences that brought him into his current situation. How he ended up on the Peragus mining asteroid, where he encountered Kreia in the morgue and Atton in a cell. How they almost didn't make it off the rock before the Sith set a conflagration that consumed the small system in a fiery inferno. Then landing on Telos and being wrongly incarcerated for Peragus's destruction. And finally their jailbreak to Telos's hazardous surface where they found an acquaintance of his, Bao-Dur, and traced their stolen ship towards Atris and her empty academy in the isolated tundra.
Aaron's thoughts began to tentatively shift towards another recent development relevant to Atris: her implanted stowaway.
The newest, and not necessarily wanted, addition to the Ebon Hawk crew was one of six sisters who tended Atris as ladies-in-waiting. They were all Echani—save her. Aaron had seen enough of their kind throughout the war to know the difference. The one who snuck aboard was only half. A human-hybrid. The pallor of her skin and blue eyes lent credence to that. He, admittedly, was curious as to why she apparently had a different parent than her half-sisters. Thinking more on the subject, it really wasn't any wonder why they had treated her so lowly at the time of his 'visit'.
With that in mind, maybe she was simply a runaway and her story about being here under Atris's guise was spurious. It wouldn't surprise him, and he couldn't contact Atris to know for sure anyhow. As long as the Handmaiden didn't get in the way he intended to tolerate her presence and her ambiguous intentions. Maybe she would prove to be an asset in their task; though on Onderon he failed to see how she would be of much help unless they engaged in combat—of which he had high doubts would happen considering the civility of the world. No. It was more than likely going to be a wild boma hunt. Searching an entire planet for one lone Jedi who didn't want to be found...
Master Kavar
Memories of the past flooded his mind and Aaron silently laughed to himself. Meditation was never his strong suit, but this was getting out of hand.
He would complete this task for Atris, for them. He owed the survivors that much. For having been right all along...
He took another deep breath and in a last ditch effort to tame his thoughts, recited part of the Jedi mantra.
There is no emotion...
There is peace.
And all he needed to do now was just breathe.