Chapter 3 - Unwelcome guest

Arana regained consciousness, "ugh" a painful grunt escaped her mouth.

What happened? Where am I? Were the first thoughts that crossed her mind. She felt as if she was hit by a star cruiser. Slowly she tried to open her eyes but she couldn't see, everything was dark and cold. Carefully she pushed herself to her side, her whole body was aching, she rolled on her back and tried to breath for a moment, it hurt. Arana took a deep breath and forced herself to sit up right, which she managed to do after a lot of grunting because of the pain. She felt her stomach which seemed to be alright, next she reached for her chest, her throat and eventually moved to her face. She carefully touched her chin, her cheeks, her nose and eventually her eyes, she brought her other hand to her face as well and touched it, she could feel her eyes and she knew she blinked, so why wasn't she able to see anything. Did she go blind? Was what went through Arana's mind for a moment, but she didn't believe so or she would remember. Did she? Carefully Arana looked around trying to see anything but she couldn't so she thought of something else.

Alright lets see if I can stand up. Arana thought to herself. She bend over and pushed herself up with her arms, with a lot of strength she managed to stand up but when she tried to walk the ground she stood on collapsed and she fell forwards and rolled over the edge. Arana wanted to scream but she didn't have the chance because she hit the ground almost face first. Arana cried out loud, it hurt a lot and luckily she landed on her shoulder first or she might had broken her neck. Tired and in pain Arana tried to get up one final time, with tears in her eyes she moved her arm in front of her so she could push herself up when suddenly her hand brushed against something smooth. Her heart skipped for a moment but she somehow recognized the smooth object, carefully she reached for it with her hand and when her hand was entirely on it she grabbed hold of it. A small burst of hope warmed her heart when she realized she had found her lightsaber, she smiled and cried a little at the same time, feeling relieved she had found something she knew belonged to her. With the lightsaber Arana found the strength to crawl up on her knees and arm, once she managed she sat back on her knees and pushed the lightsaber against her chest. She shivered for a moment. Would she dare activate her lightsaber to find out if she had become blind or not. Arana took a few deep breaths and breathed out for a couple of times before she slid her finger to the lightsaber switch. Her fingers were on the switch and with a last breath she flipped it on. In front of her eyes the green light was a sight to never forget, the lightsaber lit up a small part of the area and Arana shed tears of joy, knowing she hadn't gone blind. Arana moved the lightsaber down so she could see her body, no serious injuries which she could see, so apart from her entire body feeling bruised she was alright. Arana tried to turn around but her body hurt too much when she tried, so she was forced to stand up and look around for clues about what had happened to her. A bit shaky she managed to get on on foot and slowly she pushed herself to stand up, almost falling over a few times but in the end she stood on her feet, shaking like a string of grass in the wind, but she stood on her feet! Arana looked in the distance but it was pitch black, slowly with small steps she turned around to look where she had fallen down from and noticed a weird looking rock. As she drew closer she noticed it was no rock but a creature as she saw scales, Arana carefully walked around and noticed its head and suddenly she remembered the rancor attacks, she focused hard looked up. She had been fighting with this rancor, when suddenly the ground collapsed under their feet, taking them both down. Arana thought about Garm and Jaran who were still fighting when she fell and wondered if they were alright. She had a comlink so she could contact the others to let them know she was alright, the only problem was that she kind of lost her comlink. With a deep sigh Arana searched around the area where she and the rancor had fallen but with no results. If she was underground there might also be a way up, however if she ended up walking in the wrong direction she might get lost forever. Arana found a rock and sat down for a moment to think what her next move would be. She didn't have a lot of ideas but she figured that finding some sort of cave edge would be her first step, since walking around with nothing around you felt terrifying. When Arana had found the cave wall she followed it until she reached the smooth wall of a building, stunned for a moment she looked at the wall and around to see if there was any sign of life, she even called out but once she received no response she figured it was time to move on. With her lightsaber she carved an A with a V through it into the wall followed with an arrow pointing into the direction she went, this way she could remember where she came from and if Garm or any of the Scrounger crew members came across it they knew she was here and what direction she went. Slowly Arana moved along the wall, which seemed to be never ending, until she came across what seemed to be a door. After a closer look she noticed a control panel, which made her wonder if the Rakata actually lived underground, it sure would make more sense why they didn't come across any technology. The control panel, how advanced it might have been in their old days, now seemed rather outdated, however the door still faced to be a challenge. Apart from an ancient language on the control pads, Arana still had the problem of having no power to even try the controls, leaving her with not much of a choice than to use her lightsaber to cut the door open. Carefully Arana pushed the lightsaber against the door and slowly it sank into the doors, melting right through the material creating a hole into it. It took a very long time to cut the door and once it was cut she had to pry it open wide enough for her to pass through it. Tired in body and spirit Arana forced herself to give it her everything to open the door, which was no easy feat as it could be compared to pushing a giant bolder up a hill. In the end Arana had decided to cut the door and made a hole large enough for her to pass through, once she was on the other side she took a moment to rest. When she had regained some of her strength Arana continued her way further inside. There was no sign of caving left once she had gone through the door, everything was build in the ancient Rakata style, at least she thought it was a Rakata style, she had never actually seen or heard from the Rakata Prime let stand knew the Rakata existed. As she moved through a long hall way her foot stepped on something which she felt disappear into the ground. Arana's heart beat in her throat for a moment when she realized she triggered something she probably shouldn't have. It was a total surprise for her when suddenly everything got lit up and she was able to see without the light of her lightsaber. While being amazed by the fact there was still some form of power after thousands of years, her amazement was for a short while when she heard engine's power up followed by a defense mechanism that activated by itself. Small turrets appeared out of the ceiling and locked their little barrels on her and before she knew they fired at her like a small army. Just in time Arana managed to dodge behind some weird looking statue, probably something that resembled a Rakata or at least was resembling before the turrets blasted it to pieces. They fired pretty fast for ancient old weaponry, whoever made these sure knew how to build his things. Arana tried to look around the statue but almost got hit by a laser, she was stuck behind this statue and the bad part was the statue was decreasing in size so fast that she didn't have much time to think about her next step. As the edges grew closer and the lasers almost hit her, Arana did something she never expected herself to do. She rolled away from the statue to the center of the hall way and started to reflect the lasers with her lightsaber. In stories she heard that Jedi used this trick but in reality it was a lot harder. Some of the lasers cut the edge of her skin but she managed to evade and reflect the lethal ones, which was all that mattered in order to survive. Turret after turrets she managed to take down, slow and steady were the key of coming through it alive. Once she passed the lasers a line of small droids awaited her.

Oh you got to be kidding me! Arana thought to herself but she knew there was no turning back now, she had to push forward and find what was at the end of it all. After beating all the droids Arana sat down against one of the statues, resting her aching body and her drained mind. A new door was at the end of all the fighting and she wasn't sure if she was ready to face what lay behind it. Suddenly she heard the sound of something heading her way echo through the hallway. Arana crawled behind the statue to hide from sight. She couldn't possible fight much longer she needed more time to recover but now something came from the way she had come.

Was this a trap? Have I been too reckless by trying to move forward that I forgot my only escape route? Arana thought breathing heavily, waiting for the moment she would get discovered. The sound grew louder and she knew there was no other way than to face it on her terms. As long as possible Arana waited and when she felt like she would be discovered any second she used all her strength to get up to her feet and attack right away.

"Raarghhhh" Arana shouted coming out of her hiding running up to the thing that was several feet away. With her lightsaber raised above her head with both hands she leaped forward ready to strike, when she heard a familiar panic beeps she broke off her attack just in time before slicing through her target.

Scruffy! Arana thought when her Sith probe droid had found her! She sighed with relief she didn't cut her little friend in two. Scruffy still a little startled from the encounter beeped that he was happy to see her alive. Arana deactivated the lightsaber for the first time since she activated it and hugged her little friend.

"What are you doing here!" Arana asked confused after releasing Scruffy from a long hug.

"How did you find me?" Arana asked curious. Scruffy beeped and biped to her explaining how he got here.

"Oh so Garm send you to look for me and you found my marks on the walls and followed the trail." Arana said summing it all up. With some confirming beeps Scruffy confirmed.

"So what about Garm and Jaran? Are they coming as well?" Arana asked hopeful. Scruffy beeped very slow, meaning they weren't with him.

"But if they are not here? Where are they? Are they still fighting the Rancor's? Are they alright." Arana asked having so many questions. Scruffy flew up and projected a hologram on the floor. Arana sat down and watched a message left by Garm.

"Arana I know you are still alive, you are the thoroughest kid I know, well young woman that is actually, anyway I send Scruffy to find you and stay with you in case you needed help.." Garm said while shooting in the distance. "Scruffy tell her we are heading back to the Scrounger and will come looking for her once we have the right equipment to come down and have proper tools to deal with these damned rancor!" Garm said blasting one of the rancor through his eye socked after it was stunned by Jaran with the electrostaff. "Now go find her!" was the last thing Garm said before he tossed Scruffy down the hole and ran away with Jaran who was shouting they had to leave. After the message he beeped and played her a voice message.

"Well done Scruffy, that mark was left by Arana, a sign that she is as resourceful as ever. Jaran has been bitten by something and is unable to walk on his own, I'm helping him move but those damn rancor are starting to catch up. We are almost at the Scrounger as I can hear gunfire from our cannons, Guess we crashed on the wrong planet after all, damned jungle! Report back to me when you found Arana we will try to reach the Scrounger and will let you know once we are heading your way, Garm out." The message said hat they would report back but they hadn't so Arana assumed they weren't able to get away yet, but they almost made it back to the Scrounger with their last message so Arana was certain they did make it back. All she had to do now was send them a message that she was ok and they could sort out later how to get back to them. After Arana recorded a message she asked Scruffy to send it to Garm and the others, Scruffy popped his little antenna and tried to send it. Suddenly scruffy beeped in confusion.

"What is it? Did you send the message?" Arana asked trying to figure out what Scruffy was saying, who replied with his usual beeping.

"Wait what you can't connect to their data?" She asked shocked looking at Scruffy and than around her. They were inside this facility filled with traps, so the chances were any form of communication was blocked off. Arana put an arm against her belly and leaned her elbow in her hand while putting the knuckles from her other hand against her head in an attempt to calm down and come up with a plan. Softly her knuckle tabbed against her forehead while she was thinking. They could go all the way back into the cave but that would cost a lot of time, if she could disable the communication block they wouldn't need to go all the way back. The only problem was that if she didn't want to move back she had to move forward, which meant opening the door. Arana put her hands in her side and sighed before getting up to her feet.

"Alright I'm going to open that door, stay with me Scruffy because I have no idea what will be waiting for us on the other side." Arana said moving in front of the door. Scruffy floated next to her and gave a single beep. With a last deep breath Arana started to push the door open, slowly it slid open until it was wide enough for her and Scruffy to enter. They entered a room filled with technology from decades ago, parts of droids, weapons and what not were hanging and laying around on tables, floors and walls. In awe Arana looked around the massive room, her lightsaber at the ready in case of new attacks.

"Can you record this Scruffy? I'm sure Garm and the others would be interested to see this." Arana said while brushing over the table leaving a trail in the dust. They looked around until they reached the other side where another door was located, only this door was already half open. With squinting eyes Arana studied it but she noticed there was dust on the floor and if someone had entered it would have left a trail, so she felt somewhat more at ease knowing that. Carefully she peeked around the corner, the light were off in this room making it very ominous. She activated her lightsaber and stepped inside with Scruffy right behind her.

"Can you light up so we can have a better look at the room? Arana asked Scruffy, who turned his lights on, shining into the distance revealing some kind of research lab.

"Scruffy can you turn on the rooms lighting?" Arana asked her droid while walking to some of the tables. With a beep Scruffy went on his way looking for a way to turn on the lights, while he was looking Arana used her lightsaber to light up the table. A lot of papers had been burned or damaged over time, as she tried to pick some pages up they crumbled in her hands. When she tried to pick up a book it turned into dust and she had to shield her mouth and eyes for a moment. With a few coughs due to the dust she walked backwards bumping into a locker. As she bumped into it the door fell out of the base, Arana dodged it and with a loud noise it came down on the floor sending even more dust flying. After the dust had cleared up she looked at the locker, which turned out to be some kind of secret door. As she as peering into the darkness of the lockers passage she could hear a surge of power and the lights turned on.

Great Scruffy managed to turn the power on. Arana thought smiling, glad to have her friend with her. Now that she was finally able to see more she was ready to explore that locker. As Scruffy returned Arana beckoned him to follow her as she went through the locker. When Scruffy had turned the lights on, a room in the distance had been powered up at the end of the long dark passage on the other side of the locker. With her lightsaber up, shielding her if she needed to defend herself Arana walked through the narrow passage. When she stepped through the final bit into the room where the light came from she was almost blinded. The light, extremely bright, reflected through the room like sunlight on water. As her eyes adjusted to the bright light she noticed the room was as white as snow, so smooth and clean like time hadn't touched it at all. Amazed by the view Arana followed a path lit by beams of light of pure white, it made her feel at ease and in a certain way soothed her aching body and tired mind. What ever this was it was something she had never seen or heard of before. The path lead her to a spheric chamber with a giant pillar in the center of it. As she approached the pillar she noticed someone was sitting against it. Her heart was starting to beat faster and with her lightsaber drawn she moved towards whoever sat there, until she noticed it were only the remains of that person. Arana turned her lightsaber off and looked at the corpse.

From all the places this certainly was a peaceful place to pass to the next life. Arana thought looking around the spheric room until she stopped at the pillar. She walked around studying the strange pillar until she got to the copse again. The pillar had a strange triangular hole on this side, Arana brushed a finger around the hole and figured it was some fort of lock. She looked at the corpse again studying it more closely until she noticed his hands were closed together.

"Hmm, what are you holding?" Arana asked reaching for his hands to find out. As she opened the hands a white crystal like pyramid was in his hands. She took it out of his hands and studied it.

Could this be the key that fits into that pillar? Arana thought looking at the pillar again.

He clearly was trying to hide this for some reason but why hide the key near the lock? Her thoughts were puzzled at the illogical choice to hide so close to the lock

"Unless? You tried to unlock it with the key and it didn't work!" Arana mumbled to herself.

"But what good is a key if the lock doesn't open once you use it?" She added trying to figure it out.

What is it you tried to unlock? Arana thought looking at the key in her hand and the lock it was suppose to go into. Slowly she walked forwards with the key in her hand aiming for the lock, Arana heard Scruffy beeping in the background but she had to know what would happen if she opened the lock. Closer and closer her hand came when suddenly like a magnet the key was drawn into the lock by its own. "Wait what?" Arana said surprised by the unexpected moment. The moment the key entered the lock electricity came from the walls and were sucked into the top of the pillar, Arana did a few steps back not sure if this was what she wanted, Scruffy beeped in fear and tried to fly away but was struck by a bolt of lightning and crashed into the floor.

"No Scruffy!" Arana shouted reaching for her friend but another bolt of lightning shot down and without thinking she activated her lightsaber, which absorbed the lightning. Arana's heart was pounding faster and she thought to herself what she had done but as soon as it all began it ended just as fast. The lightning had stopped so did all the lights as well, with only her lightsaber Arana carefully moved to Scruffy, who, luckily rebooted himself. Relieved he hadn't suffered any serious damage, she couldn't help but think what she had activated.

Was it possibly a key to shut down all power in the facility? Arana thought but when she noticed the key was still glowing she wondered if all the energy had been absorbed into it. Before she could find out the pillar lit up almost instantly like a massive beam of light, followed with a blinding flash lighting the entire room. When Arana opened her eyes again all the power had turned on again and the pillar started make a strange sound. With her lightsaber drawn she watched the pillar open up and once it had opened up she saw.. A Human? No it looked mechanical, a humanoid droid? Arana wasn't sure what it was, it looked like a human but it was actually a droid hanging in a beam of light. Suddenly the mechanical eyes activated and it stepped out of the levitating beam onto the ground. This droid was all white and golden with dark wiring like veins running through his design, his face was hidden behind a smooth mask only with holes to reveal his orange eyes. The droid looked at his hands and moved them, only when Scruffy beeped when he had fully rebooted did the droid look in their way. What happened after went so fast that Arana had barely any time to get her lightsaber up before the droid would have decapitated her. Arana pushed him back and jumped backwards, taking her lightsaber with both hands, holding it up to protect her. This droid had drawn a white lightsaber which was hanging on his side. Arana notice he had another one hanging on his other side and he clearly knew how to use them. She took a deep breath and watched the droid study her before he put deactivated his lightsaber and started to walk towards her.

"I'm sorry master, I didn't mean to attack you, my systems feel a little unstable after being awakened from my sleep." The droid said taking his other lightsaber and kneeling in front of Arana to present his weapons to her. Speechless and confused Arana had no idea what to do but she knew this droid could be extremely dangerous if he would attack her again.

"I will have to take your lightsabers for the time being, until you have recovered your more stable." Arana said carefully reaching for the two lightsabers.

"An excellent choice, as to be expected from a Jedi master." The droid said still kneeling down in front of her. Arana put the lightsabers in her pocket belt and took a step back again. After a while she figured he was waiting for her orders.

"You may rise, uhm.." Arana hesitated since she didn't know his name, but the droid stood up and put his hands on his back.

"My name is Harukea, I was created by a man who told me I was their last connection with the force and that if I wanted to learn more about the world I had to seek out a Jedi master if I was to be awakened." Harukea said introducing himself and explaining his reasons. Arana felt a bit dizzy from all the events that had happened in such a short time, that she lost her balance for a moment. Harukea was fast and held her up by supporting her arm.

"Are you alright master, you don't look so well and I hardly sense any force from within you." Harukea asked releasing her when she had found her balance again. A little scared of what this droid could do, Arana decided to play along, at least for now until she was reunited with Garm and the others.

"Yes, sorry it has been a crazy day, we have been attacked all day long and I'm just exhausted, thats all." Arana replied thinking about what to do next.

What if this droid found out she wasn't a master? Heck! Not even a Jedi at all! Would he attack her knowing that she was exhausted? Arana thought to herself.

"Are these attackers still around?" Harukea asked curious.

"Uhm I don't think so, some maybe but I think the others are dealing with them right now." Arana explained trying not to give a lot of personal information.

"I see, sorry master but I have one more question if you would be so kind?" Harukea asked politely.

"What do you want to know?" Arana asked afraid he finally figured out she wasn't a Jedi.

"I would like to know your name, so that I can properly address you, my master." Harukea asked waiting for her response. Arana didn't know why but without hesitation she told him her name.

"My name is Arana, Arana Vakrii." Her heart was beating a little faster as she waited for his response.

"Arana Vakrii, I am pleased to meet you, now let us reunite you with your allies." Harukea said while walking passed her towards the way out.

"Allow me to lead the way, I will make sure you will soon be among your allies, Master Vakrii" Harukea said and before Arana knew it, she was following him without questioning, mainly because the only thing that was on her mind now were the following words.

Master Vakrii.