if-inconvenient-come-anyways - I'm glad you enjoy reviewing the chapters, it is always great to get feeback. Follows and Favourites are great, but they are just numbers, whereas when you write something it is something I can interact with. So please do keep reviewing! Sascha is certainly five creds richer (spend them wisely!). Sascha certainly has gotten himself into a spot of trouble. How much trouble is he in...well we'll see this chapter.

Lord Darth Yoda - For perspective on Sascha's age - I'm actually older than Aurine and Aurine is ~10 years older than Sascha. So it's certainly fun to break out the 'oh yeah, I remember being sixteen, I was an idiot' self-reflection. And I think it's important because Sascha is generally wise and mature beyond his years. But he isn't immune to the 'woe is me, I'm a teenager' disease. Some of your guesses are extraordinarily good, as usual. As for wanting to see Aurine kick butt - I think we are of the same mind, one of my internal nicknames for Aurine is 'Tiger Mom.' I certainly don't think she's the type of person that you want to antagonize. And I think taking her Padawan is bound to very much antagonize her (to say the least).

ColdOnePaul - Someone is going to certainly claim credit for it! Thanks for the review!

A/N - Back to our regular chapter length for this one. I also managed to delete an entire chapter as it became superfluous after I condensed the plot. Felt really satisfying to hit that delete button, as I felt the chapter in question was mostly 'dead air.' Now you don't have to read it! And we get to the better chapters more quickly! Huzzah!

Anyways, Please enjoy the next chapter! As always your reviews, follows and favourites are deeply appreciated.


Chapter 28: Reaction

As Aurine Brynar entered the Trav'starn Museum of Natural History at precisely the appointed hour, she half expected her danger sense to flare immediately. The fact that it didn't made her instantly wary. It seemed obvious that Weliss would try to use some sort of trap to ensnare her, but as she walked deeper into the museum, the fact that she was walking around the museum without any premonitions of danger from the Force made her wonder if she had misjudged the thief. It also bothered her to note that when she extended her senses in the Force, she could not find another being in the museum. Weliss' appointed hour had come and gone without the thief appearing, which was something of a surprise to her, but was perhaps it was just a tactic. After all you don't surprise a Jedi Knight by telling her when and where you were going to appear, so she expected him to perhaps arrive fashionably late. Or not at all.

Fashionably late soon turned into good old fashioned late. As she combed the large museum and its floors of artifacts and displays she was beginning to think that Weliss might have lost heart despite his arrogant words earlier. Typical. She was not looking forward to spending more hours with the conceited Selan and her Bothan Intelligence task force that was clearly more interested in scoring political points and sniping at each other than actually finding the perpetrator of the thefts. It was no wonder that Sascha, Quelba, and his team had more success. Unlike Selan, Quelba seemed to be actually offended that anyone would dare steal these artifacts from Bothawui and had made it his person mission to hunt the culprits down. Quelba obviously didn't love the games that politics brought, and was primarily concerned with doing his job well.

Suddenly, she felt a flare of alarm from Sascha in the Force and instinctively she ignited her lightsaber in the empty room. Your Padawan is half a world away, she reminded herself as she turned her lightsaber off. She found herself a defensible position up against a nearby wall before opening herself up to the Force, intending to question her Padawan why he was alarmed. But, when she reached into the Force for him, he wasn't there.

An icy fist seemed to grab her heart, she had formed an almost instant connection with her Padawan and contacting him through the Force, even across half a world should not have been a problem, that she had failed to connect with him meant that something had terrible had happened to him. He wasn't dead, she would have felt that for sure, but going from alarmed to silent was not his typical behaviour to say the least.

When she realized what had likely happened, Aurine let out an explosive string of curses that were not fit for a Jedi Knight, or a gutter rat for that matter. She sprang down a flight of stairs intent on rushing to her Padawan as fast as possible. She decided that she was a complete and total idiot. Obviously Weliss merely wanted to divide her and Sascha and then attack the weaker Jedi, hoping to catch him by surprise, and apparently, he had been successful.

Some tactical genius you are Aurine Brynar, she raged at herself, if only she had let him stay with that squad of commandos that he wanted, he would have been surrounded by some of the finest troops on Bothawui. Instead, she had insisted that he be far away from her, lest he be inclined to come running to her rescue. All these decisions had clearly been disastrous; the only thing to do now was to see if she could find out what happened to him.

As she exited the museum in some haste, her comlink rang. She didn't bother to check the number, she just answered, "If your name isn't Jedi Master Yoda, I'm hanging up."

A dry chuckle answered her, "Would it suffice if I talked like him? Okay. A message for you, I have. Have your Padawan, I do."

Aurine's eyes widened and she skidded to a stop, "Weliss? How did you get my comlink number..."

Weliss chuckled again, "Yes I suppose that is the most important thing to discuss. Certainly not the state of your Padawan. He's fine by the way. A little unconscious, maybe a minor concussion, but you know...still alive."

Aurine was not exactly relieved to hear that. A further, perhaps more important question was how Weliss managed to defeat her Padawan. While Sascha wasn't a master of combat, he was still a trained Jedi, and Jedi never went down easy. "I want my Padawan back. What do you want from me?"

"Oh, I don't know yet," Weliss said casually, "This is a social call, a courtesy call. After all it would be downright rude if I took something from you and didn't say something. That's not a courtesy a Jedi like you would understand. You Jedi just take."

"If you have a grievance against the Jedi, then take it up with me. My apprentice is innocent," she said, a note of desperation coming into her voice.

"Oh don't worry, I don't actually want to harm your slave, er, apprentice. I don't go out of my way to harm people, you see."

Aurine blinked, what was even happening in this conversation? "There is no way this ends well for you, Weliss. I can place one call and have Bothawui be swarming with Jedi Knights. We take the kidnapping of one of our own very seriously."

"Ah, good point," said Weliss. "How about this then – if you contact the Jedi Temple, I'll kill your apprentice."

"You have no way of knowing if I contacted the Temple," she retorted.

Weliss snorted, "You haven't been paying much attention have you? I didn't think they let dullards become Jedi Knights. Guess I was wrong. I'll know if you contact the Jedi Temple. Trust me on that. You don't want to take that risk."

Aurine clutched at her comlink, feeling her hands become clammy, "What do you even want Weliss?"

"Revenge."

The comlink went dead.

Aurine was halfway through throwing the comlink to the ground and smashing it into a thousand tiny pieces, when she realized that she would need to use that comlink right now. She started prioritizing what needed to be done. The first thing she needed to was to contact Quelba and Selan and tell them that things had gone horribly awry. The next thing she needed to do was to find a way to contact the Jedi Temple, without Weliss knowing.

And the last thing she needed to do was get her Padawan back.

Even if it was the last thing she ever did.

Clenching her comlink in her right hand, she dialed for Quelba, deciding that she'd rather talk to him than then Selan. The Bothan answered quickly, "Do you have Weliss in custody?"

She grimaced, "Not quite. He's taken Sascha hostage."

"What!"

"Could you kindly figure out how that happened?" she said through gritted teeth.

"Of course, Master Jedi. I'll do so immediately."

"Call me when you have an answer. And send someone to pick me up from the Museum."

"Copy."

Aurine clicked her comlink off and racked her brain for any idea how to complete her second task, which was to inform the Jedi Temple of what had happened in this mission, without sending a transmission to the Temple itself. While she wasn't entirely sure that she believed that Weliss had a way to detect if she sent a transmission to the Temple, she was damn sure not going to take that risk, with Sascha's life potentially on the line.

"Think Brynar, think," she commanded himself.

While there was a small part of her that told her that she didn't necessarily need to report what had happened to the Jedi Temple, every other part of her brain told her that this situation was becoming bigger than just her. The question was how she could do that. She didn't exactly have any non-Jedi friends on Coruscant that she could ask to relay a message.

But Sascha did...

As Sascha's Master she had access to all of the files that he kept on his datapad and comlink. Generally speaking, she didn't bother using that access. She had no desire to spy on her apprentice and no need to do so. The one exception she had made was that she had read the conversations that Sascha shared with Ezah, the young Twi'lek singer. It had made her feel like a bit of a voyeur, and she really didn't care what was happening between them, she just wanted to know what, if anything was happening. She hadn't have needed to worry. While Ezah flirted with Sascha in her messages at first, it was clear that Sascha had no interest in the Twi'lek. She had read bits and pieces of their conversation, became bored quickly and stopped reading. It was just two teenagers from wildly different backgrounds chatting back and forth.

But that meant that she had Ezah's comlink frequency...

Aurine had no idea what time it was on Coruscant, but she hit a few buttons on her comlink, which would allow her to dial from Sascha's number and not hers, and then dialed.

A female voice answered after a few rings, "Hey Sascha. What's up? Calling me long distance, I see."

"This isn't Sascha, this is Sascha's Master, Aurine Brynar."

Aurine could hear the young Twi'lek's surprise, "Um...what?"

The Jedi Knight spoke in a clear, emphatic tone, "I need you to do something very important for me, something important for me and Sascha."

"I'm not sure what I could possibly do..." said Ezah.

She cut the Twi'lek off, "Ezah, I need you to go to the Jedi Temple and deliver a message for me."

"Excuse me, WHAT! I can't exactly waltz into the Jedi Temple, I'm pretty sure someone will know I'm not a Jedi. Listen, Master Jedi, I'm sure you can find someone else to do this, I have to be on stage in like two hours and I need to do my vocal warm-up."

"Ezah. Sascha has been taken hostage," she said quietly. Saying it out loud made that thought actually sink in. She had let her apprentice, a young man she had sworn to raise to the rank of Jedi Knight, be captured and taken hostage by Weliss. Unbidden, a memory returned to her. Tyra Harker, telling her to take good care of 'her' Sascha. She remembered that she had pledged that she would see him become a Jedi Knight. And now, here she was, Sascha was gone and she had no idea where he was. A thousand different swear words came to mind. None of them seemed to have the appropriate gravitas.

"I'll do whatever you need," said Ezah, gently startling Aurine out of her reverie.

"Okay. I need you to go to the Jedi Temple, there is a place where the civilian workers enter the Temple. Once you get there, they'll ask for your passcard, you obviously don't have one. Talk to one of the Temple Guards, they'll be the masked Jedi overseeing the whole thing. Tell them that you have a message from Jedi Knight Aurine Brynar. Tell them the code is 'Aurek-Bantha-Hydro-Delta-Opera-Sarlacc-one-nine- nine-nine.' Write it down if you have to. Are you recording this message?"

"I think I record messages by default," said Ezah.

"Make sure. You can give them this recording too."

"Okay. So, I give them this code and then what?"

"Tell them you need to speak to Coleman Trebor. If he is not there, speak to Luminara Unduli. If she isn't around ask for Obi-Wan Kenobi. If none of them are there just speak to any Jedi that will listen to you."

"All right," said Ezah, "What then? Tell them Sascha has been taken hostage? Where planet are you on?"

"The Jedi you speak to will know where we are," she reassured Ezah. "Tell them that Sascha has captured by the person involved with the thefts on the planet. Tell them that the thief is specifically targeting the Jedi Order, and appears to be attempting to settle some sort of grudge. Tell them that I am requesting assistance."

A couple of beats passed, "Got it. Anything else?" inquired Ezah.

"Yes, the most important part." Aurine took a deep breath, "Tell them that the Temple's communications may have been compromised. Tell them that the Temple is not in any way to send me a message. I don't even want them to route a message back to me through you. This is the first and last message I'm sending to them. Assume that my communications are being monitored."

"I suppose this is too late to ask if this is an elaborate prank," said Ezah.

"I'm deadly serious, Ms. Resel."

The Twi'lek sighed, "I was afraid you were going to say that."

Aurine rubbed her temple with her free hand, "Look, I know this came out of the blue and its probably at an inconvenient time for you..."

This time Ezah cut her off, "You don't have to sell me, Master Jedi. My friend is in trouble and I can help. So I will. Even if it scares the heck out of me to go marching into the Jedi Temple, a place I don't belong. Sascha is a good person, and we need to keep as many good people alive in the galaxy as we can."

There were almost tears in Aurine's eyes, "Thank you, Ms. Resel."

"Don't worry about it," said Ezah. "Besides, I'm going to make my understudy really happy." The Twi'lek paused, "Just have Sascha message me, whenever all this is done, okay?"

"I will," she promised. "May the Force be with you, Ezah Resel."

"May the Force be with you, Aurine Brynar. Don't worry, I'll deliver your message. Whatever it takes." The Twi'lek signed off.

Aurine took a short second to admire the loyalty that her Padawan had inspired in a young woman that he'd only met once. And to think that she had only pushed for Sascha and Ezah to be together as a test for her Padawan. Maybe the Force worked in mysterious ways.

A speeder came rushing up, stopping at the foot of the stairs to the museum's front entrance, "Get in," said the familiar voice of Selan.

Aurine entered the speeder, "We need to go to…"

"I know," the female Bothan replied as she kicked the speeder into high gear, "Captain Den'arv contacted me, we have a shuttle waiting at the local spaceport to take us to Navshe'starn."

"Thanks, Selan."

"Not a problem, Master Jedi."

"Did Quelba tell you what happened?" she asked.

The Bothan shook her head, "No, he just said to pick you up here and get you to Navshe'starn as fast as possible."

Selan activated the speeder's siren and buzzed through the mostly comatose streets of Trav'starn at blistering speed.

What kind of speeder has a siren, wondered Aurine. Oh. "Where did you get a police speeder Selan?"

The Bothan flashed a feral grin, "I appropriated it from someone who needed it less."

Aurine activated her comlink and dialed Quelba Den'arv, and the Bothan Captain answered immediately, "Tell that you've figured something out," she said tersely.

"Here is what I know so far. Lieutenant Irys'lon detected a break-in at the Navshe'starn Museum of Bothan Art but could not see anyone on the security cams, Sascha was nearby he was sent him to check it out. We didn't think it would be anything more than an Ak disrupting the security sensors…and we wanted to give him something to do. We apologize if this was overstepping our authority regarding your Padawan. We only did as we thought best," said the subdued voice of Quelba.

Aurine bit her lip hard enough to almost draw blood, "We can save the recriminations for later, just tell me what happened to my Padawan!"

A momentary pause was enough to cause the icy hand that held her heart to squeeze even tighter. The tense voice of Quelba came back across the comlink "We have the recording from the museum's security feed, but it seems to have been damaged in some way…perhaps its easier to just show you."

Not understanding what possible reasons that the Bothan Captain could have for showing what happened to Sascha rather than tell her, she almost shouted at Quelba to just spill the whole story, instead she just pulled her datapad from her belt and played the video that had just been sent to her.

The video showed Sascha, clearly frustrated at something, walking out of a large atrium, when the lights went out and a black cloaked figure attacked him from above, almost taking the Padawan's head off with a powerful kick. Aurine frowned, that wasn't right, Sascha was hardly the type of Jedi to get caught unaware, he was cautious and not much of a risk taker, perhaps he was preoccupied, but still getting ambushed by a lone attacker didn't sit right with her.

Despite taking a punishing blow right on the jaw that would have felled most beings, Sascha used the momentum to spin himself around and in one smooth motion bring out his lightsaber and ignite it, dropping into a basic combat stance. His teal lightsaber and the emergency lighting of the room gave the room a dark ambience that cast shadows all over the Jedi and the hooded figure that was almost certainly Weliss. Sascha stepped cautiously towards the hooded figure when a large ornamental vase was lifted from behind the Padawan, and instead of sending it towards the intruder like Aurine thought would happen, it went hurtling towards Sascha, catching him unaware and breaking into a hundred pieces when it collided with the back of his head. Her Padawan dropped to his knees, lightsaber skittering away from him, still ignited.

Aurine blinked. Sascha couldn't have possibly hit himself with the vase. So that meant...

Oh Force.

The video continued on, showing Sascha woozily rising to his feet and attempting to recall his lightsaber to his hand. A second after the hilt smacked into his palm, it seemed like an invisible gust of wind pushed the Padawan and he flew backwards into a large pillar. He impacted with the pillar spine first and unable to stop his momentum; his head also collided with the pillar with sickening force. After the collision, he laid still, eyes closed in a little heap. As the video progressed, the black cloaked figure collected and disengaged Sascha's lightsaber and stood over him, as if contemplating what to do next. Then the figured turned to the camera, raised an arm and suddenly the video ended.

Aurine Brynar lost her equilibrium for a second, and if she hadn't been secured in the speeder, she probably would have fallen to her knees.

Oblivious to the stunned reaction from the Jedi Knight, Quelba prattled on, "As you can see the security equipment clearly had been tampered with, as there was obviously several more beings in the room, which would explain Sascha's erratic movements," said Quelba in a defeated tone of voice. "I'll get Iraek on it immediately, I want to know what was done to the security system."

Aurine knew that there was nothing wrong with the camera, Sascha had been attacked by a Force user, and the skill and ease to which he had been overwhelmed suggested one culprit more than any other. The Sith. With all the Jedi swarming the galaxy, perhaps they had finally stumbled upon the elusive 'second Sith.' It didn't have to necessarily be a Sith, Aurine supposed, it could have been another trained Force user, but a Force user with a grudge against the Jedi? Those were rare beings in the galaxy. Swallowing hard, she spoke into her comlink, "Captain Den'arv have you sent anyone into the museum?"

"There was a pair of police officers outside that tried to enter, they were rendered unconscious almost immediately, we were about to send in another team."

Aurine startled, "Do NOT in any circumstance send anyone into that museum, try to seal off the exits if you can but do not go in without me there."

She could hear the skepticism on the other end of the line, "As you wish Master Jedi," the Bothan replied dutifully.

When she arrived on the scene, Quelba was already in charge, order around people with shouted orders. When he saw her and Selan arrive, Quelba hurried over to her, "Master Jedi, I have a team of police officers ready to follow you into the museum."

"Then lets go."

Aurine jumped from the speeder and didn't wait to give any detailed instructions, she just raced up the steps and into the Navshe'starn Museum of Bothan Art. Quickly, she found the room where Sascha had fought his attacker. It was still a bit of a mess, obviously a fight had taken place. But there was no sign of Sascha or Weliss, just pieces of priceless ceramic vases lying scattershot across the floor.

Behind her, she heard Quelba shouting orders to the technicians as they set up their equipment. Aurine didn't need specialized equipment, she had the Force. She knelt down and concentrated, trying to glean some sort of insight from the Force.

Unfortunately for her, everything worked against her doing just that. Her mind was anything but calm. The scene was anything but calm, with other technicians, police officers and the rest of Quelba's team parading around the room. But still, she hoped that the Force would show her something considering the life of a Jedi was potentially on the line. But the Force was silent as a tomb.

Her conversation with the Force was interrupted by Selan tapping her lightly on the shoulder, "Master Jedi, could you please move? We need to bring in some equipment and you are sitting in the best spot."

"I'll move," she said resignedly. Aurine picked herself up and walked away from the spot where she had knelt. Almost immediately, a pair of Bothan technicians took over the space she had been occupying and went to work, pulling out expensive looking machinery and starting to fiddle with the nobs and levers on the device.

Aurine needed some time alone to clear her head. She knew that she would do nothing but impede the work of the technicians, and Quelba didn't need her to look over her shoulder. Aurine Brynar, Jedi Knight, was useless at the current moment. She was on a mission where she had failed at every turn and had lost the one being that she had sworn on her life to protect. She wasn't sure if she had ever had a lower point in her career.

"I need some air," she muttered to herself. She found the back exit to the Museum and pushed through the door. Then she sat at the top of the small steps, overlooking a back alleyway. It was not exactly a picturesque setting, but it would have to do.

She sat at the top of the stairs for a few long minutes, not even thinking. It was like her brain had overloaded and just went offline. But Aurine welcomed the peace of mind. Her weakness had always been leaping into action before thinking. What she wanted to do was to do something insane to draw Weliss' attention, but she was going to play the patient game. Because a true Jedi Knight did not let emotion guide her, even if every fibre of her being cried out for immediate action.

She heard the door open behind her. A Bothan sat next to her, "We'll find him, don't worry, Master Jedi," said Quelba.

"I made so many mistakes today. I played right into Weliss' hands. Now he has us right where he wants us. And its all my fault." To be totally honest, Aurine felt worthless, stupid and out of her depth. Three feelings she hadn't dealt with in a long time.

Quelba was a silent for a moment, "That is one way to think about it. The way to see it is that the past is the past and the future is what is important."

Aurine sighed and stood, "You are right Captain Den'arv. I'm going to get my Padawan back. Whatever it takes."

She wondered however, if Weliss did turn out to be a powerful Force user, if she would be strong enough to make the difference.