Chapter 2: The Proposal

"You can't do this. You can't kill me." The voice was filled with arrogance, which ignited a fire of hatred in Elwood's mind.

Heat. He was sweating like a pig, but an icy chill ran down his spine and quickly spread through his body. Fear. Someone was in grave danger of being killed. Resolve. Nothing would stop him now—he had never before undertaken such a vital task, and was not about to fail. Kill the enemy, or die trying. Division. To kill the enemy would mean destroying himself. This was not the way it was supposed to be. He must stop it. He must…

Elwood awoke suddenly, gasping for breath. For a brief moment, he was unsure of where he was. The sound of Nayr snoring nearby reminded him that he'd been sleeping in main hold of the Eagle rather than his usual sleeping quarters; he'd let the ex-slave women borrow his, as had Nayr. He couldn't go back to sleep with Nayr snoring so loudly, and he knew he would be more likely to survive waking a sleeping rancor than his brother. With these things in mind, he went to the cockpit to contemplate his dream and its consequences. However, he found that by the time he reached the cockpit, all he remembered was the fear. His dreams always left him quickly when he woke up, leaving little if any time for thinking about them.

A beeping alarm told him that they were approaching Coruscant. He cut into sub-light engines and, as the white parallel lines that were stars became dots, the large, whitish-silvery planet appeared before him.

"Well, here we are," said a familiar voice behind him.

Elwood was startled, and as he turned around to see Nayr standing there squinting, he tried to hide a sheepish grin. He didn't think the alarm had been loud enough to wake anyone, but then again he supposed that if it hadn't been and he hadn't had his nightmare to wake him up, they might have crashed straight into the planet. Needless to say, this would have been a rather undesirable outcome. "Yep," he finally answered. "Here we are."

A little over an hour later, the brothers stepped out of an air taxi and onto the grounds of the Jedi Temple. Nayr was sure that others—such as his brother, who he saw staring in awe at the gigantic edifice—must think it was a magnificent piece of art that symbolized the altruistic goals of the Jedi, but to him it was just a building. He was all business.

"Hello, and welcome to the Jedi Temple," a young female Jedi greeted them. "What is your business here?"

"We need to talk with the Jedi Council. We have a proposal for them that would benefit all of us," Nayr told her.

"Do you have some form of identification, or…?" she asked.

"Why are you worried? They're Jedi Masters. They'll know if I'm up to anything, and they could kill me before I could even pull out a blaster," the smuggler assured her.

"That is true. However, I sense that the Force is very strong in you as well. How am I to know you aren't Sith Assassins?" she questioned.

"Are the Sith really stupid enough to try and take on twelve Jedi Masters with two assassins?" Nayr asked.

"Maybe not, but you could have reinforcements coming in from other entrances…"

"Does everybody get this kinda shake-down when they get let in? If I am strong in the Force, as you say, and I really do want to help, and you end up being the one to push me away, do you think your Jedi Masters are gonna be happy?" Nayr nearly shouted.

Noticeably shaken, the Jedi woman pointed and said, "The Council Chamber is at the top of that pillar. I'll notify them that you're coming."

Nayr thanked her, and then headed into the elevator with Elwood following close behind. A short while later, they stood before the Jedi Council. "Greetings, great Jedi." Nayr gave a bow, and Elwood, realizing he should do the same, followed suit.

"Says the Force, 'Led I,'" responded one member of the Council. He was a short, brown-skinned, long-eared life-form with three-fingered hands, and thin white hair growing on the many ridges on his head. This was Jedi Grand Master Toiew Weoriu, who was a little over 900 years old and had a penchant for rhymes. The New Sith Wars had been going on throughout his entire life.

Judging by the confused frowns on their faces, the cryptic response must have utterly confounded the brothers. "The Force has led you here," another Council member explained. This was a Zabrak male, with horns on his head where hair would be on a human. His name was Au-Riao Ahkeoathe.

"So it would seem," Elwood agreed.

"Well, first, let's introduce ourselves. I'm Nayr Rouge, and this is my brother Elwood. We've lived on the Outer Rim for our whole lives, and for several years now we've worked as smugglers for a crime lord." He paused for a moment before continuing. "But lately, we've been unsatisfied with it. It's missing something. And besides, we don't want our stories to just disappear into nothingness when we die. We want to be remembered. We want to have stood for something. So here's the deal: you train us in the ways of the Force, and we'll help you by getting support for the Republic from the Outer Rim's gangsters, possibly turning the tide of the war with their resources."

"And how do you plan to do that?" asked Ahkeoathe.

"We would tell them that if they agree to help the Republic, they will be recognized as a legitimate business and allowed to continue with what they're doing," Nayr told him.

Ahkeoathe nodded. "We'll have to discuss this at length in private. Feel free to explore the temple while we talk, and if it takes more than a day, you can sleep in the dormitories."

"Thank you." Nayr and Elwood bowed, and then left.

The brothers explored the temple a bit before sunset, and then went to the dormitories and slept. The next morning, the Jedi woman who'd greeted them before told them that the Council had reached a decision, and that they were to go up to the Council chamber.

"We have decided to train you," Ahkeoathe told them. "We need all the help we can get. Many Jedi fall in battle, and many more are captured and converted to the evil ways of the Sith. But you must be prepared; the training alone will probably be the biggest challenge of your life so far."

"Indeed," added Toiew, "the paths you walk, difficult are."

"I am prepared to accept whatever difficulties await me," Elwood stated boldly.

"I am also," Nayr put in.

"Then we have no time to lose."

The brothers were both given the title of Apprentice, since they couldn't be Padawans yet and they weren't exactly Younglings, either. Over the next year, Nayr and Elwood discovered their latent powers. Elwood had a strong affinity for lightsabers; he was considering pursuing a two-weapon style, but in the end it proved too challenging. Nayr was more talented at using the Force to enhance his persuasive abilities. When the two sparred with training lightsabers, Nayr's martial abilities were outmatched by Elwood's, but Nayr could convince any weak-minded individual to do his bidding with relative ease. Elwood spent a great deal of time honing his combat skills, and thus had little time to improve his abilities in the Force or other skills. In short, they complemented each other quite well, as always.

Each constructed his own lightsaber. Elwood used a standard green lightsaber. When he'd made it, he'd dismantled a vibroblade and used the cortosis weave of its blade to make a hand guard, which he mounted around the grip of his weapon as a hand guard to better protect against the Sith. At least, that was what he said. In reality, it was as much that as that he thought it would look cool. In addition, he'd used bronzium plating on most of the outside, giving it an orangey sheen. Nayr had constructed a yellow-bladed lightsaber with no self-expressing modifications. It was functional, and that was enough for him.

At the end of this year, the Council declared that each had risen to the rank of Padawan, and then gave them a mission: they were to go to Iridonia and rescue Ajecina Gnech, a powerful Jedi Knight who had been captured in the recent Battle of Iridonia, in which the Jedi had attempted and failed to liberate the planet from Sith control. This promised to be a dangerous mission, and they were not expected to do it alone; they would have help from Nadro Zeesfo, a recently-promoted Jedi Knight, and Eroka Kaineipok, a Republic war heroine.

Before heading to Iridonia to carry out the mission, the brothers set up a meeting with their two new allies one afternoon at the Public Center of the Jedi Temple. Presently the brothers sat with Nadro; Eroka had yet to show up.

"So you're the smugglers everyone keeps talking about," Nadro stated, a hint of criticism in his voice.

"Well, not anymore," Elwood replied. "We're kind of past that. We're done with it."

"We're trying to help you and your stagnant Republic," Nayr retorted, "though I don't know why we're trying."

"Nayr, please… Let's not be arguing," Elwood pleaded. "We need to get along. We need to trust each other if we're gonna work together."

"I guess you're right," Nayr sighed. "Sorry about that."

"Hey, don't worry," Nadro reassured him. "I was overly critical. I'm the one who should be apologizing."

"It's all right," Nayr told him. "So, you play pazaak?" Elwood groaned and placed his hand on his forehead at the mention of the card game.

"Actually, I do," Nadro answered, albeit with some surprise and embarrassment. "But I don't really gamble. For me, it's kind of a pass-the-time thing. Plus, it helps get people talking that know useful things on missions. Why, do you want to play?"

"No, not right now. Maybe on the ship. You play anything else?"

"Firepath, on occasion."

If Nayr had been consuming any kind of food or beverage, he would have choked on it. "Firepath!? You, a Jedi? …I'm impressed."

"We're all Jedi here," Elwood reminded his brother.

At about that time, an airspeeder stopped near them. Two humans were in it, and both of very interesting appearance. One was a man with a forest of wildly curly hair on his head, and the other was a petit woman dressed in green clothes and carrying a blaster rifle across her back. Her blonde hair covered her ears and some of her neck, but did not quite reach her shoulders.

"You know, Eroka, I'm kinda worried," the man said. "What if they see you? They'll be like 'Oh, shoot! There's a sniper! Ahhh! Kill her!' And if you were to die…that would be really bad."

"I know. I'll be careful. I'll come back alive, I promise." The couple kissed for several seconds. All three Jedi, seeing this, felt a slight twinge of jealousy, but it was a mild feeling that faded quickly. Following this, she exited the vehicle with a "'Bye!" to which the man replied with the same, and then flew away in his airspeeder.

"Hey, guys! I'm Eroka! What's going on?" she greeted the group jovially.

"Well, we were talking about games we play, actually…" Nadro told her.

"I play lots of games," she grinned. "Pazaak, dejarik, cesa…pretty much everything."

"Awesome," Nayr smiled.

Elwood tried his best to put on a polite smile, but somehow fake smiles didn't work for him. He thought about saying, 'Well, why don't we get started on more important things, like the mission? We'll have plenty of time to talk en route.' However, before the words came out of his mouth, he remembered that they'd set up this meeting specifically to get to know the two new crew members. He ended up just adding, "I guess."

For a few hours, the foursome sat and talked, eventually ate dinner together, and they all grew to be good friends quickly. When it grew dark, the brothers took Nadro and Eroka to the Eagle.

"What a piece of junk!" a horrified Nadro whined.

"Aww, come on now, be nice. Appearances can be deceiving. I made a lot of special modifications myself," Elwood answered defensively. "But, it's kinda late, so let's just get onboard, get on our way, and get some sleep."

"Sounds okay to me," Eroka agreed.

So they did just that. What used to be Elwood's quarters became the all female sleeping area, which Eroka would have all to herself until Ajecina's rescue had been completed, and what used to be Nayr's became the all male sleeping area, which got quite crowded; however, as they all somehow knew, the worst was yet to come.