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Chapter 2 –Escaping and Healing

4,000 Years Ago - Malachor V

"Thanks" James yelled to Mira as she hauled him inside the rapidly manoeuvring space craft. She looked very dishevelled, her hair and robes were covered with the dust from Malachor Vs surface and she appeared to have several cuts and bruises and to be favouring her left side.

"Any time" she replied as James resolved to ask about the fight that she had obviously been in later. "After all I cant have my bounty dieing on me, I'd never get to collect the credits" she said smiling as they headed to wards Atton in the cockpit. It was a running joke between the two friends as Mira, a former bounty hunter had tracked him down on Nar Shaddar and managed to capture him alive, not a feat that many accomplished but then she wasn't the best bounty hunter on Nar Shaddar for nothing. "Yeh well just remember that you have to turn yourself in two now" James replied as the passed the security room. After getting to know Mira during their gallivanting around the outer rim, and lets face it there wasn't much else to do in the day long trips between star systems in a vessel as small as the Ebon Hawk except get to know each other, James had not only discovered that she was force sensitive but had also managed to convince her to let him show her how to 'listen' to Nar Shaddar. Mira had, upon him suggesting that he train her to become a Jedi, joked that she would have to turn herself in for the credits. Inwardly James smiled as he remembered his entirely truthful response to that "Well as a Jedi, trust me, you'll always be short of credits"

The mechanical voice of the rust red assassin droid he had some how managed to acquire brought him back to the present as yet another small piece of debris impacted the ship "Statement: Pilot Meatbag could you possibly try NOT to hit every single one?" it was a statement of how hard Atton Rand, the Ebon Hawks best pilot, was having to concentrate on keeping them all in one piece that he didn't even respond to HK-47s insults.

James quickly took stock of the shear amount of debris they were flying though to escape the collapsing planet, or at least the bits he could see through the forward view port, and decided that Atton needed all the help that he could get. "Mira jump in the co-pilots seat and watch the sensors, try and warn Atton ahead of time of any large pieces of debris or denser pockets that are in our path. I'm heading to the turret"

James ran back down the corridor through the main communal area where Mical was clinging onto the hologram projection tank that dominated the middle of the room and to the ladder opposite the medical bay. Climbing up he quickly reached the double barrelled light laser turret that the Ebon Hawk had in the centre of its dorsal* hull for defence. He quickly rotated the turret and began blasting away at any piece of debris that the tactical sensor, located below the gun sights, said was heading at the ship. Unfortunately that was rather a lot of debris "Sithspit I thought there were alot of targets in that space battle over Onderon when Cornel Tobin attempted to keep us from landing, there has to be a hundred times the targets here. At least there not shooting back otherwise we'd be really screwed." At that moment the shield indicator entered the red and began making an ominous beeping sound warning that the shields were down to ~20% strength and wouldn't take many more hits. "Of course if we loose the shields before we get out of this debris cloud then it wont matter if their not shooting back, the next impact will pulverize us." Thankfully there seemed to be less and less targets allowing him to be far more accurate with his shooting and Atton far more effective in his dodging. The Ebon hawk finally cleared the debris field around the collapsing Malachor V with 2% shield strength remaining and several newly acquired large dents but otherwise unharmed.

"Thank the force" James whispered to himself and hit the intercom "Ok everybody we have lived through yet another of the galaxies attempts to kill us so we can all relax. Everyone can do what they feel needs doing but I'd like everyone at the holo tank in a couple of hours. I need to tell you all some things including what I have decided to do next and you need to know all the information and what I plan on doing before you decide if you want to come along. See you in a couple of hours."

James climbed down the ladder and walked to the galactic map displayed at the back of the cockpit before staring at it for a while. "So where are we heading?" Atton had slipped out of the pilots seat and sneaked up behind him without him noticing. As he jumped and turned around to face the pretty brown eyed pilot he wondered why he was surprised by this. After serving in the Mandalorian wars and defecting with Revan Atton had been trained as a Jedi killer, this of course meant that he could sneak up unnoticed if he wanted to. That informant on Nar Shaddar had done a surprising favour for James when telling him that Atton had been on the smugglers moon before under a different name. After thinking it over for several days on their journey from Nar Shaddar to Dantooine James had decided to confront Atton about it. After all, at that stage, Atton had been showing signs that he was reluctant about staying and James hoped that confronting him would either force him to leave, not desirable but better than having a man who doesn't want to be there guarding your back, or force whatever was bothering him out into the open. Whoa boy had it worked. The revelations Atton came out with were shocking but James felt better about having asked, carrying around that you had captured, tortured and killed Jedi and then had one give their life to stop the Sith finding out you were force sensitive and doing the same to you had to have been nearly impossible for him. " I would have probably gone insane" James thought.

He smiled though at the memory of him and Atton out on the Dantooine plains after they had saved Koonda. It was just the two of them as James had raided the cargo hold for some food, avoiding Brianna had been quite a task when doing that, and asked Atton to accompany him out onto the plains. He nearly laughed when he remembered the look on Atton's face when he'd brought out his improvised 'picnic' Atton had thought that he'd been about to ask him out on a date and when James had said "Atton I have something important to ask you" the look of mad panic had nearly made him burst out laughing. In fact when he asked Atton if, since he was force sensitive, he would like to be trained as a Jedi the way he had practically collapsed with relief had James literally rolling around on the floor laughing. Atton had seen the funny side eventually.

"Your thinking about when you asked if I wanted you to train me aren't you" Atton said as he flicked his light brown hair out of his eyes. "How can you tell?" James replied still grinning. "Oh the incredibly evil smile gave it away" Atton said attempting to keep a straight face as his eyes danced with laughter. "Well you have to admit the look on your face was pretty funny." "Yeh it probably was but then I had an excuse, up until that point I was trying desperately to think of a way to tell the extremely heavily armed and skilled Jedi Sentinel that I didn't want to date him without causing him to go on a homicidal rampage, throw me off the ship or dissolve into tears" "well you failed then didn't you 'cause I ended up crying with laughter" Atton grinned before turning back to the galactic map "So where are we heading o'fearless leader?" "You may not want to follow me this time my friend" James said looking pensive "After all I am going to attempt to create a new government in the unknown regions and right now it consists of just me." "Make that both of us" Atton replied putting an arm around his friends shoulders "If anyone can create a new government from nothing you can. After all you've had enough practice at saving and destroying them to know what to avoid." "Perhaps but this time it will probably take the rest of my life and their could still be nothing but broken dreams at the end" "All the more reason for me to be their with you, your entirely to sensitive" James punched him on the shoulder "I'm serious though Atton. The chances of me pulling this off are so remote its not worth calculating. You could stay here, reinvent yourself again, find a nice girl and settle down mumph" Atton had put his hand over James's mouth to stop him babbling and turned to face him placing his hands on his friends shoulders.

As cocky as he acted Atton felt that right now he needed to show the sensitivity that he would usually deny all knowledge of or else James would convince himself that Atton was better off without him and leave him behind as he went off on yet another of his mad quests and probably got himself killed. "James you are my best friend. You are the first friend I have had since before I joined the Republic Army, you're the only one in the galaxy that I've told about my past, you've forgiven me for killing your fellow Jedi and you've trained me in the ways of the force and if all of that wasn't enough you still want me around now that you no longer need every blaster you can get your hands on. No one has ever done that for me, but then I shouldn't be surprised, you have inscribed 'loyalty unto death' into your lightsaber. How could I not want to travel with you? Besides without me who would vet your potential boyfriends?

James Koren, Jedi Exile, Jedi General, slayer of three Sith Lords and veteran of more battles than could be counted would deny until his dying day that he had tears in his eyes. After being abandoned by Revan and the Jedi he followed to war, exiled by the council when he returned and shunned by everyone he had ever known Atton's declaration meant more to him than his friend would ever realize. "He's probably thinking the same thing but in reverse" James thought "By the force we make a right pair. Pair? The whole dam ships filled with enough mental problems and abandonment issues to keep a whole psychiatric hospital busy for decades!" But as much as the rest of the crew were his friends as well he and Atton had a forged a special bond. Both had abandoned everything they knew to fight for what they believed was right, both had been betrayed by the side they had chosen. Already the master and apprentice force bond was forming after only a few moths of Atton being his student. Just then Atton's last sentence registered "Oh no. He's not getting away with that!" "But Atton" James said trying to keep his grin under control "I wont have any potential boyfriends, they'll all think I'm taken" "No one ever questions me about my sexuality" Atton proclaimed proudly "That's 'cause they all just assume your gay" James replied before taking off down the corridor with Atton in hot pursuit.

1 hour later

Despite wishing that he could act childish and irresponsible with Atton for a bit longer Jedi Watchman James Koren was standing at the Ebon Hawks coffee machine and trying to put himself in a more serious frame of mind. Acting like a teenager had really helped to relieve some of the tension that had built up over the months spent flying and fighting all around the galaxy with Sith assassins leaping out of every ally and around every corner. However with Kreia gone he was now sole master of five Jedi apprentices and all the responsibility that he had signed up for when offering to teach them all he knew and right now one of them needed their master, not James acting like the child the Jedi had never allowed him to be. Having made his own sweet latté and a mocha he walked across to the weapons storage hold that Mira had claimed as her space during the day. Unusually the door was closed. "Mira, can I come it?" the door swiftly opened, then closed behind him.

James handed Mira her favorate drink, a sugared mocha, and joined her in sitting cross legged on the floor

"So did Atton get tired of chasing you? Mira asked with just a little laughter in her voice

"Well at least she's not completely withdrawn or angry at me for acting like a child with Atton for an hour before coming to see her. Of course If I hadn't then I'd probably be so wound up and stressed that I'd be no use at all." "You know Atton" James replied "He's powerful but no stamina" "Oh? I' didn't think that you had such an… intimate… knowledge of him" Mira said with a small mischievous smile on her lips. James decided to play along a little "I don't though its not for lack of trying" Mira giggled.

"Unfortunately" James thought "as much fun as this banter is I am going to have to ask her what happened. Even though our master/apprentice bond is not nearly as developed as mine and Atton's I can still tell something significant has happened. Good or bad she needs the support of her teacher and her friend." "So you were the only one thrown from the ship in the crash?"

Mira's expression darkened but she did not avoid the question. "Yes though I'm not sure how it happened. I regained consciousness in a chasm a little away from the Ebon Hawk. When I felt the rest of the crew were all alive I was about to head back when I felt you entering the Trayus academy, I tried to follow and give you a hand but Hanharr intercepted me on the way." James was currently reciting every curse he'd every learnt in his head "How did that psychopathic killing machine survive?" he thought. "Apparently he doesn't know how to stay dead" he said aloud "I know" his young Jedi Sentinel apprentice replied. "We fought obviously and I won, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here, but at the end…I'd wounded him so severely that he couldn't fight back anymore but it wasn't a killing blow. It wasn't like before with the mines, below the Nar Shaddar docks this time he was begging me to kill him, swearing that if I did not he'd never stop hunting me until I was dead by his hand." James reached out physically to take his friends hand and sent waves of calming energy through their force bond to her. "I didn't know what to do. Every instinct I have was telling me to kill him. Everything you have taught me said to let him live. In the end, I just did what I felt was right. I couldn't kill a helpless opponent, even if it meant that he'd keep hunting me." Mira leaned into his chest and started to cry. James was the only one whom she ever let see beneath her tough attitude heavy bounty hunter exterior and he wasn't going to let her down. "I'm very proud of you Mira" he whispered " No one would have blamed you if you'd killed him. But even though you could have killed him and never let anyone know you still refused harm someone who couldn't fight back. This is why you are a good person, my student, and my friend." The Jedi Exile fell silent as he held the crying bounty hunter. They would remain that way for a long time.

Ships hulls are: Forward = Front

Aft = Back

Port = Left side

Starboard = Right side

Dorsal = Top

Ventral = Bottom

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