Chapter 1

Exar wrapped bandages around his new mechanical right arm, moving his fingers around and making sure it was completely functional. He spread his fingers out, clenched his fist, then brought his fingers up one by one. 'One more thing.' He thought. He looked over to a drawer -containing a blanket- along the wall, and used the force with his left hand to open it. He then outstretched his right arm, closed his eyes, and tried lifting the blanket out. It was barely lifting out. He looked up at it, got a little frustrated, and tried harder. He grit his teeth and, all of a sudden, started sweating.

SLICE

BOOM

The memories of the fight with Erk suddenly flashed in his head. He lost focused and dropped the blanket from the air. He swept his hand up to his new cybernetic right eye, regaining the feeling of losing his real one. He jerked up and looked around, the light seeming to dim in every corner. His skin crawled at every sound he heard, whether it was electricity buzzing through the lights on the ceiling, or the air conditioner acting up.

The med-bay door opened, and Exar jumped out of his skin, activated his lightsaber, and pointed it at the intruder.

"Woah, calm down." Aang spoke up, throwing two hands in the air.

Exar deactivated his lightsaber and put it back on his belt. "What?" He asked, knowing there was probably a reason for his presence.

"You doing alright? You seem a little frightened." Aang asked, sitting down.

"The fight left its scars on all of us. At least I'm sure. You got out okay." Exar said, mixing a sarcastic and serious tone, while gesturing towards him.

"Not completely. That magik ball he threw at me gave me quite a concussion. It's died down a little since the-"

"Hold on, what? He hit you with a magik ball?" Exar recoiled.

"Yeah, I-"

"Heceowa hit me with one, and temporarily turned me dark." Exar said a little cautiously.

"Are all magik balls the same?" Aang asked.

"No but I should make sure he didn't tack you with anything." Exar answered, standing in front of Aang. He placed both his hands on the side of Aang's head, 'around the brain'. He probed his brain for any dark-force concussion, and luckily sensed nothing.

"I didn't sense anything." Exar said.

"Anyway, um... Erk."

"What about him?"

"Why didn't you tell us about him?"

"I'm sure I told you that already."

"That, you did. But what I want to know is why you didn't tell us when you met us, or when we were assigned to find out about the sith."

Exar turned away to think about that. He recalled that time Aang pointed out, and remembered the events. "To be honest, I had a lost going on with me back then. I wanted to tell you guys, but the opportunity never came. When I thought about it, none of you guys were there, and I couldn't tell you, and when I might've been able to, I ended up forgetting about it."

"Well now that we have a decent amount of information about him, is there anything else about him we should know?"

Exar leaned against the pale white wall and pondered that for a moment. "Well, we know his powers. We know I knew him and knew..."

"What?" Aang started getting suspicious at the silence.

"He might not be alone. Back on the secret catacombs on Tatooine, uh-" Exar stuttered a little. "He wasn't the only one I knew. We, had friends."

"What kind of friends?" Aang asked with a monotone, and an unclear expression.

"Friends like him. They have similar powers, but, I don't know if they're alive still."

"Well Erk is still alive, and if they were friends, I'm sure Erk would ensure their safety."

"Well he would certainly try. After we completed our training in our first few years, there was a purge. Everyone was to evacuate, and everything was to be evacuated. That's why we barely saw anything when we visited."

"I assume you, Erk, and possibly those friends of his, are the only survivors of that purge?"

"Yes. We're the only ones." Exar answered, slightly distressed.

"Sorry for any losses."

"Thanks. I-" Exar's gaze moved upwards.

"What?" Aang asked, recognizing the body language.

"Loss."

"What is it?"

"Did we report everything on our mission to Dathomir II?"

"Is there something we forgot?"

"Most likely. It's very serious. Erk almost killed me, but some kind of wraith came along somehow and saved me."

"Though it doesn't make much sense to me, I'm inclined to agree that's serious."

"Soon, we're going to have to come clear with that. Maybe I'll tell the masters after a mission. You know, to get in the right setting."

"Good. Everything, uh, fully functional?" Aang asked, motioning twoards Exar's eye and arm.

"Uh, yeah." Exar replied, looking at his arm, "Though the force ain't strong with this one." He waved his arm around a little. "Speaking of fuctional-"

"Way ahead of you. The masters and Ephraim are waiting for us there." Aang interrupted, then saw Exar's expression as he did. "Sorry."

"Yeah. That's what I thought." Exar said with an exaggrated tough tone. "Is Jo stable?" He asked with a regular tone.

"Life is sustainable, but it may be hard keeping it that way once we remove him from the bacta tank." Aang replied.

"Well, we gotta do what we gotta do. And we gotta do it fast." Exar added as they entered the room where Jo was contained in a bacta tank. Seeing about half of him was quite unsettling, but knowing he was still alive was relieving.

"How is he?" Exar asked Ephraim.

"He's holding out." Ephraim worriedly replied.

"We ready for the procedure, master?" Exar then asked Rye.

"We are." Rye replied.

Jo was resting his back in a chair after proper medical procedures were done. He was fitted with a new, polished robotic half.

(See the chapter on Archive of Our Own to see the picture to be seen here)

"Life is sustained. Limbs are fully functional, head's working properly. I think he's all good." Erickson said, relieving the team of their burden.

"I think we saved the readers' worry of losing me by adding the time skip a few spaces up." Jo said.

...

"Aaaaand his personality's still intact." Erickson added, looking at Ephraim.

"That's not how it works. Protocol droids are available if you want a less confusing being." Ephraim replied.

"You feeling okay, Jo?" Rye asked, bending down to face Jo.

...

"Yeah." Jo replied. He put his arms up and tried activating his lightwhips, but nothing appeared. He frowned and opened the two small, hard-to-see panels under his wrists and looked inside to see no crystals. "Where're my crystals?"

"Oh! Sorry. Forgot about that." Rye said, pulling a box from his cloak and handing it to Jo.

Jo opened the box and set it in front of him. He used the force to lift his orange crystals and set them in his arms. He then closed them and let out his lightwhips. "Yep. Fully functional." Then withdrew his lightwhips. He stood and stretched his arms and legs.

"Now, we have a meeting with the Lieutenant-Governor to attend." Rye said, motioning towards the door. "She'll be pleased to hear that we're alright."

The team exited the shuttle in Kashyyyk's forest and strolled their way to the base. Exar and Jo took a deep breath and remembered the feeling of being outside, as they hadn't been outside for over a day.

They entered the meeting room, to be greeted by Lieutenant Governor Calista Calfan and a personal entourage of Republic guards and one of the masters of the new Jedi Council.

"I must say that I'm pleased to see your team in such good shape. And in such little time." Calista greeted with a smile.

"That's why we're the best around, your honor." Aang joked.

"What was it you wanted to discuss?" Rye asked as he, Erickson, and Ephraim sat down.

"With the results of your team's mission to defeat the sith, Ephraim and I have talked to the Senate, and we've all agreed to make some, modifications, to the team."

The team leaders traded glances, then Rye asked, "What kind of modifications?"

"Because of the conditions the sith has left your team in, we have all been concerned with how much more they can accomplish. We're giving you a choice to either have your team replaced and have them work for the government, full-time. Or, ha, this is an obvious choice, add a supervisor to your Jedi. He will guide them on missions when you guys are elsewhere."

"Who is it you want to supervize?"

"My friend, and hopefully yours, Jedi Master Viran Fexive." Calista motioned to her Jedi guard.

"Nice to see you two, Rye and Erickson." Viran said. Jedi Master Viran was an adult male Jedi, average height and build. He had some light facial hair around his mouth and a pair of two scars under his right eye. He bore the traditional clothing of a Jedi, and wore his hood often.

"But along with this, your team is relieved from duty until further notice." Calista said.

"There's always a catch." Exar whispered.

"She said 'until further notice'." Aang replied. "It's good for us to recover."

"I've already recovered." Exar replied.

"Something you'd like to say?" Rye asked.

"Well, kinda. We're not incapable of anything right now." Exar said with a slightly raised voice.

"Don't do anything stupid." Aang said, putting his hands up.

"But there's nothing for us to do right now." Rye said.

Exar relaxed himself only slightly. He wasn't comfortable with that kind of situation happening. Blurting something out and having it turn out to sound foolish.

"Forgive him, he's kinda rough around the edges." Erickson said.

"Well we should be going into a more confidential topic now, Master Rye, would you?..." She motioned towards the team.

"Yes, your honor." Rye faced the team. "You guys just go relax for now."

The team nodded in response and started their way out the door. A Republic messanger came running through with a datapad, looking panicked. The team just let him through and kept going.

"What's going on?" Calista asked, standing up.

"We've received notification that a fleet is attacking the Capitol on Coruscant."

"What kind of fleet?" Calista asked, looking at the datapad.

"That's what's worrying everyone. It's... Imperial." The messanger said, making Aang stop cold in his tracks, followed by Jo and Exar.

"Imperial fleet?" Aang asked, now getting worried.

The leaders only turned to face them.

"Your honor, if I may?" Exar asked.

"You may."

"We're very experienced in dealing with forces like that. Let us go take care of it." Exar said.

"You guys still need to recover." Rye said.

"With all due respect, we are recovered, and need I remind you that I'm a veteran from the war of the rebellion against the Empire." Aang piped up.

"Several Jedi and the Republic against one fleet. It won't be that bad." Exar said.

"It'll be a walk in the park." Aang added.

"Mustn't be a very good park." Jo mumbled.

"I'm not against you, just take a fleet of ours and you three, and Viran will take care of it."

"Yes! We won't let you down." Exar said to the leaders with glee. The team went onto the landing platform and quickly hopped into their starfighters. They then noticed Viran's official government fighter parked next to theirs. It was similar to that of a Nimbus-Class V-Wing starfighter. It looked as though it had recently received a new paint job. The red and gray paint shined on the metal.

"I gotta say, I kinda like how they're going old-school." Aang said. Viran came by and hopped into his V-Wing and they all took off. Aang and Jo attached their fighters to Exar's and they jumped into hyperspace to Coruscant shortly after Viran made the jump himself.

"We're back in business." Exar said.