Authors Note: Another day another chapter... Well... it was delayed due to me being an idiot... but you don't need to know that.

Chapter Three

Fated Meetings

Date: 3967 BBY

Sylves watched the class from her perch on a balcony at the Temple. She had recently returned from a mission in the outer rim worlds that bordered Republic Space. A few Refugee's had made it to the temple and spoke of a conquering army of Mandalorian's growing ever closer. The council was debating the validity of such a claim. She had merely been one of the Jedi masters and knights dispatched to see what was going on. With her report given to the council she had been dismissed.

Though the revelations she had gained had been disturbing she was not going to allow them to affect her. Instead she was watching the boy, Fayt's progress. It had been just over three years since he turned up in that dark alley, yet he had excelled to the top of his clan in nearly every class. He would soon get a real training sword and learn to fight with it. However, he had already proven himself in hand to hand against his peers as well as some of his immediate elders. A few of the moves he used were noted and certain masters came to watch him every time.

"Watching the boy again, Sylves?" the voice of a master she knew well echoed from behind her.

"He intrigues me to no end Dorak, and I gain great enjoyment in watching him grow." She had seen him during her report. Here on one of his visits from the Dantooine Enclave. He had brought the Padawan he was training at the time. A young girl, and if Sylves recalled correctly she should be nearly twenty. She was a rare case, a Padawan that had been passed from one master to the next while she drank up knowledge. An interesting girl… Sylvestra wanted to introduce Fayt to the girl at least once. Hopefully, that would occur this day.

"Your, interest has been the topic of conversation in the council chambers many a time. No less today when you proposed to take the boy off world to a crystal cave." The man's gaze moved from the boy as did hers and their 'eyes' locked. "Your request is allowed. Your arguments… held credence, though I fear it may trigger further such requests. I had hoped to question the boy as I usually do. He is an enigma to many of us. Wisdom beyond his years and an affinity to the force that is frightfully stronger than a great many I have seen in my life time."

"Yet your current padawan seems to be the strongest in recent history. She already matches knights in her ability. The boy that is always with her, her virtual shadow, also shows great promise and ability. " She paused and looked back at the class below. "I fear that something is going to happen soon Dorak. I feel that… a darkness is coming; that so many strong in the force should appear at the same time."

"The boy's appearance still has many Masters on edge after three years Sylves. Such a powerful swirling of both dark and light force energies so close to the Temple. Many are still against you taking the boy away from their ever watchful eyes. Vrook is highly opposed and is vehemently defending his position to keep the boy here as we speak."

She nodded in ascent to the comment and the man turned to leave. "We will be leaving tomorrow Dorak," she said then heard the man pause for a few moments as if to speak to her once again. However, he merely started walking again. She was going to get Fayt off world before that the old tyrant convinced enough people to keep the boy on world until he was Vandar's age.

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The next day Sylves had personally gone to wake the raven haired Initiate. Fayt was beyond elated to hear the news, and seeing his joy she couldn't help but feel it as well. He had probably heard whispers by then of what was to come. Fayt had passed all the previous tests set before him as if they were the simplest of things. He had drawn a fellow clan initiate out of his silent shell, and was a leader amongst his small group; the children looked up to him. Their Handler even told of how the children would at times go to the other boy for advice on curriculum rather than her.

The construction of his own lightsaber was the next step; one that a child such as him should be doing in the safety of the Temple, the academy, or the Enclave on Dantooine. Even she agreed with that, however, there was a pull that told her to take him to a world she knew of. A crystal cave she had been to in the past. It was the guidance of the force, Sylvestra was sure of that. She had 'fought' hard to gain the right to take the boy, and she had no intention of letting that slip by.

The raven haired child reached up and brushed some of that hair from his face while pulling on his boots. She was going to clear her throat when he spoke. "I am almost ready Master Mir." The boy said as he turned to face her, that smile still on his face. She could not help but return it and give a slight nod. His mood always seemed to affect those around him.

Her mind wandered off as she contemplated this fact. It was one of the conversations that surrounded the boy, and one of the topics certain Masters 'feared'. For should the boy fall, how would this effect those closest to him?

"ter Mir… Master Mir?" Fayt stood before her with a quizzical look on his face. She must have been to engrossed in her own thoughts. She had not noticed he was ready, nor how long he had been there… let alone speaking to her.

"Very well then, let us depart." She said and used the force to push the button that opened the door. She had liked to astonish the boy when he first arrived in that way. The fun died shortly after he discovered how she was doing it, a pity.

Their trip through the halls of the Academy moved them past many student, teachers, knights, and masters. Some stopped to speak briefly wishing the boy the best and that the force be with them both.

One Jedi Master however, had other ideas. She openly stopped the two of them in the hallway. Sylves could feel what was coming and wondered how the woman could think this was the best of times. Her other staunch enemy when it came to the boy, "Ahh, Atris you have come to see us off then?" She was cordial about it.

"No, I have come to try once more to get you to see sense." The Miralukan's force gaze glanced down to Fayt. The boy was rubbing his temple in thought. He had once told her that did so when 'a memory was triggered' in his head. How the encounter with the white haired woman could do such a thing she was unsure. "Why is it that you cannot see that this mission is folly? You seek to change a pivotal facet of the Jedi way. You would rather take the boy to some outer rim world to seek a crystal than have him speak with Dorak and be given one."

"As I stated to the High Council, I have every intention of letting the boy speak with Dorak upon our return so that he may continue in the same manner as any other Initiate. The force is at work in this action I take. I am being led along with Fayt to the –" the boy beside her wobbled on his feet slightly and her hand reached out to steady him. Atris's eyes locked onto this and was about to speak; however, Sylvestra did not give her the chance. "If you will excuse us Master Atris, we have to get to the Shuttle that will take us to my ship before it departs."

She could hear Atris speaking behind them, but ignored it. "Are you alright, Fayt? You seemed to be a bit off balance back there," she wanted to know. If the boy was unwell then she would delay their departure even if she did not wish to. The boy's health took priority for her, regardless of the feeling that was leading her.

"Sorry, Master Mir." He began and shook his head a bit, the raven hair waving around his head as his hand settled on his face. "I was just fighting the fog in my head and got dizzy from it." Yes, the boy had told her about the memory inhibiting 'fog'. Perhaps it was the amnesia and he had just given it a characteristic… or perhaps it was something more. She had found nothing in her search thus far for an answer, and the council 'did not like the implications'.

"What were you trying to remember?" She had tried to work with him on his memories before to no avail.

"I… feel as if I have seen Master Atris before… somewhere." The boy had perhaps tried too hard to delve into his own mind.

"Perhaps it was near the archives," She responded as they continued forward at a sedated pace.

"No… this was the first time I have met her. It was… something else Master Mir." A puzzling development, but not one the boy seemed able to wrap his mind around.

With the small 'conversation' Atris had had with the two of them, and the lingering after effects on her current charge, it took longer than anticipated to reach their destination. She had hoped to surprise the boy with a meeting. However, things were not to go her way, yet again.

As they walked through a final door Fayt stopped dead in his tracks. He wobbled slightly on his feet then stood straight up cerulean eyes wide as fear spread across his facial features. She hastily looked around trying to find its source, but snapped back to him when words began to tumbled from the boy's mouth.

"The bringer of the Light and Dark… As the double edged sword ascends to fame and glory, light is shed across the darkening galaxy. When the hero returns a tyrant the sword falls allowing the Darkness to consume the light." The boy fell against her and she hastily steadied him. Sylvestra's arms kept him aloft for the next few moments until he 'woke' from the stupor he appeared to be in.

Her mental gaze immediately moved to the teenage girl talking heatedly to a boy of similar age by the large door across the way. The very two that she had wished to introduce Fayt too, Re'vira and Alek. The boy's words rang like an enormous bell in her head. A struggle immediately erupted inside of her on whether to inform the High Council of this, or keep it to herself.

Would they brush it off as a mere rambling? It was most likely. Many of the high Council thought Re'vira could do no wrong. Most of Fayt's 'faults' were shared by Re'vira, and yet the two of them were looked at in such different forms that it was like cold and hot. The High Councils prejudices were one of the many things she had found she disliked about them.

The child's voice pulled her back to reality, "Master Mir?" A slight tug on her sleeve and she glanced down at him with a smile. All sense of fear or that anything had happened at all was gone from the boy. It wasn't a force vision… perhaps something less… or something more.

"Let us continue, Fayt. The shuttle is to depart soon," she said before pulling him along gently beside her. The meeting between the three would have to wait for another day. She decided that it was most assuredly for the best to keep Fayt from the pair for now.