Chapter 9 - Danger Around Every Corner

Master Hiaasen was in his lab at the Temple running diagnostic tests on the samples that he had collected two weeks ago when his Padawan entered the room.
"Have you found anything yet Master?" Kalus asked with a great deal of interest.
"I found an organism that seems to be alive but what it does is still a mystery to me. It is not reacting to any of the tests and seems to rely on a host for survival and reproduction," Master Hiaasen said with a quizzical look on his face.
"Any idea what it could be?" the Padawan asked.
"No idea at the moment," Master Hiaasen looked up from his work and realised that his student was deathly pale, had lost some weight and he also had dark circles under his eyes.
"Padawan, are you feeling ill?"
"I'm okay Master, just didn't get any sleep last night but other than that I'm fine," Kalus responded.
The Jedi Master put his hand to the teenager's forehead and removed it immediately; he was in complete shock.
"Padawan, you have a dangerously high fever. Come, we must get you to the Healers at once," the concerned man said as he almost dragged his student out of the room and towards the Medical Bay. Halfway there, Kalus Jikasto lost the ability to walk straight and couldn't hold his own weight which meant that his Master had to carry him the rest of the way. When he did reach the destination his Padawan was out cold, his breathing and heart rate had quickened dangerously. Several Jedi Healers rushed over to the pair and directed for the Jedi Master to place his student on a bed in isolation so that whatever the boy had would not spread. Jedi Healer Carla Merinda, who had taken care of him ever since he arrived at the Jedi Temple, was called to the room because she knew the boy's medical history and would be able to assist in what was happening. Master Hiaasen stood outside the room anxiously waiting and watching what was going on through the window. They were hooking Kalus up to all different types of life support equipment when all of a sudden the Padawan awoke and sat bolt upright. He started to look around with an extremely terrified look on his face mixed in with confusion as to what was happening.
It's alright Padawan. You need to rest. Master Hiaasen tried to reassure him through their bond but there was no response and he watched the boy become more frantic. The Jedi Master frowned and closed his eyes to try and see if he could enter Kalus's mind to calm him down with his presence but when he looked at the bonds he could access all of them except the bond he held with his Padawan. It was clouded in darkness and blocked any attempt of his to try and enter the other's head. Master Hiaasen's eyes snapped open in horror and tried to think if something like this had ever been recorded before but he came up with nothing.
"Master Hiaasen, could you take a seat please?" Carla said and he turned to see the Healer standing beside him. He looked at his Padawan to find him asleep again before sitting down and turning back to the Jedi Healer.
"What's happening to Kalus?" he asked in concern and worry.
Carla gave him a sad look, "There is something eating away at his body. We are going to run more tests to see if we can find anything else out but I've never seen anything like this before," she said and then she turned and walked away.

Three days had passed and the Medical Bay was full of children who were all vitally ill and were tied to life by only a thread. Healers rushed back and forth trying to help as many of the children as they could. Sadly though none of the children were reacting to their healing methods so the healers decided for the benefit of the children they would be put into a deep sleep to try and avoid them being in any more pain.
"Master Yoda, it's so good to see you," the Head Healer, Zarene Dilophago, greeted the Grand Master at the entrance.
"Good to see you too Master Dilophago but wish the circumstances were better I do," Master Yoda said as he followed her around to see all the children himself. It hurt the Jedi Grand Master to see all these children so sick, all of whom he knew well.

Meanwhile across the Galaxy, Anakin Skywalker was pacing back and forth nervously as they waited for the Padawans to find them. It had been two weeks and there had been no sign of the students which was starting to eat away at the Jedi Master.
"Anakin, relax. They will get here," Obi-wan said trying to reassure his best friend for what felt like the millionth time for the past week.
"They are taking too long. It's only a three-day journey to here from where we dropped them off," Anakin responded.
"Yes well we didn't tell them where they were which was your idea," Obi-wan replied.
Anakin Skywalker stopped pacing, closed his eyes which opened after a few minutes and then he stalked off into the forest.
"Anakin, where are you going?" Obi-wan called after him.
"What does it look like? I'm going to go find them," Anakin growled back.
Then he heard Obi-wan follow him through the trees, "Anakin, they need to do this on their own otherwise all of this would have been for nothing."
Then they came to the Ice Plains and stopped dead in their tracks, three boys were walking toward them, all freezing cold and covered in snow.
"Padawans, where are the others?" Obi-wan asked them as the students came closer.
"We sep-er-ated at th-the b-eg-in-ning," one of them responded while shivers wracked his entire body.
"That was not the point of the mission young one," Obi-wan said as he helped Anakin take them back to the camp.

Meanwhile, in the volcano ranges of the planet.
"Kyra, be careful!" Stret called to the girl who was about to be boiled alive. Kyra jumped back a step and avoided the hot steam that shot up out of the ground in front of her.
The Padawans were walking through Volcano Plains and one wrong move would mean death for one or all of them.
Raven led the group seeing as he had put his hand up immediately while Daly was right at the back to make sure everyone was okay. Ashlyn had started up the front of the group but she was now just in front of Daly. It was so dangerous in here that they had decided not to stop for breaks or nights; so far they had spent a week weaving between the sometimes mountainous lava bombs. All of a sudden Ashlyn felt her foot slip and next thing she knew she was hanging over a lake of pure lava.
MASTER! Ashlyn screamed through her bond as she slammed her eyes closed, afraid to open them and look at the predicament she had gotten herself into.
"ASH!" everyone yelled all at once as she held on for dear life.
Daly knelt down carefully on the edge and reached out for Ashlyn's hand, "Ash, take my hand," he ordered and Ashlyn opened her eyes to look up at him.
Ashlyn let go of the ground with one hand which she swung up to grab Daly's and tried to pull herself up while Daly lifted at the same time. Daly pulled Ashlyn towards him and they ended up chest to chest, Ashlyn leaned back and looked into his eyes.
"Are you okay?" he asked but when Ashlyn took a step away from him it was clear she wasn't fine.
Ashlyn hissed and then lifted her left foot off the ground to take the pressure off it, "Great sprained ankle."
Daly looked up to meet Raven's eyes, "What do we do?" he asked.
"Can you carry her?" Raven inquired.
"No, absolutely not. I'm fine," Ashlyn demanded as her cheeks started to blush slightly.
"No, you're not Ashlyn," Kyra argued.
"Ash," Daly said which Ashlyn responded to with eye contact, "Do you not trust me?" he asked.
Ashlyn groaned, "It's not that, I just don't need to be carried," she insisted.
"Try to walk then," Raven said in a sceptical tone.
Ashlyn took a deep breath and took a few steps before almost losing her balance again which caused everyone to step forward to catch her in case she slipped again.
"Okay that's it," Daly said, "Hop onto my back," he ordered
Ashlyn huffed in defeat and decided to just do what everyone was obviously so desperate for her to do because she was a danger to herself in this condition. She climbed onto Daly's back and put her arms around his neck to keep herself from falling off.

A/N: Tell me what you think of so far.

Ashlyn Dubreas.