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Kina Ha awoke the moment her alarm told her that most star systems would be awake. A decent amount of time had passed since she first rested on this bed. And she still had to drill her apprentice through the basics of each lightsaber combat form. His skill with Mikashi was great, and he showed potential for Ataru. While it has only been a week, but he would need practice if he was going to reach the basic level on the other four styles.

Fortunately, they had plenty of time. The dark army had not shown itself yet, and there was still plenty to be done on Kamino. They had time.

It was with that mindset that Kina Ha slipped on her robes and headed to the same training room used yesterday. Only to be met with an empty room.

Frowning, Kina Ha stepped inside the room. She was in the center when she admitted that it was completely barren. Which was not right. Zuko was often training long before she arrived. Her role as instructor often involved watching what he did and telling him to improve. She couldn't remember the last time she had to wait for him.

"Master Ha!"

SP quickly floated into the room. The droid was frantic.

"You must come at once. Something is wrong with your student.

Leaving her old thoughts aside, Kina Ha quickly rushed past SP and made her way to Zuko's quarters. It is there that she saw him still in his bed. Pale and shivering. His skin a paler shade than she was used to seeing.

"Zuko?"

"Ugh..."

Kina Ha was not often one to concern herself with things. She believed in the will of the Force, and the path that was laid out for living things. But her calm demeanor was not impenetrable. It was possible to find cracks to cause her stress.

Zuko was just the largest and most evident crack. Especially when he was wallowing in a bed, unable to get out.

"SP? What sort of sickness is this?" Kina Ha questioned the droid as she felt her student's forehead. It was cold. Zuko's skin was never cold. Even on Ilum, his skin had been able to produce its own source of heat. And through his half-opened eyes, Kina Ha could see that their golden color was dulled.

"I do not know Master Ha? I have never known the boy to get sick. Let alone so suddenly and severely."

Kina Ha's head lifted up at that word. "Severely?"

"His body temperature is dropping rapidly. You could likely tell by his loss of color. It is as if all heat is being ripped from his blood."

The Jedi master's eyes widened at the explanation. "How could this have happened?"

"I cannot answer that. All I can do is examine the effects his body is experiencing. His brain seems to be losing serotonin, and his body seems to be deficient in the D vitamin. Strange."

"What do you mean strange SP? What is strange?"

"Both of these effects are common for humans with sunlight deficiency. It is common on planets with shorter day cycles."

"Sunlight..." Kina Ha muttered to herself as she thought to herself why that could be important. She knew that Zuko had a strange power over fire. It was an ability she believed native to his people. An ability of control over fire that...

"Requires the sun."

The droids optics turned contemplative. "I beg your pardon Master Ha?"

"Prepare the ship immediately SP. We are going to the surface."

The droids' optics lit up. "The surface? Why so soon? I thought that..."

"You said yourself that his symptoms resemble sunlight deficiency. If that is the case, then we must rectify that by taking him to the sun."

"That is logical. But the surface of the world is covered in perpetual storms. We will not find the sun there."

"Then we will go outside the orbit of Kamino and take Zuko closer to the nearest star. Get the ship ready SP."

"Master Ha, I am not..."

"SP," Kina Ha said with a dangerously low tone entering her voice. "I am not asking you to prepare the ship. I am telling you to do it right now so that we may improve my padawan's health. Now go. Do it."

SP still had his doubts. But he valued being in a working condition more than he valued his own uncertainty."

"Right away master Ha. Give me a moment to turn everything on."

As the droid glided to the ship, Kina Ha used the Force to try and mitigate as much of Zuko's sickness as she could.

"Master?"

"Shush Zuko. I promise this condition of yours is only temporary. I am working on a solution at this moment. You will be alright."

Moving carefully, Kina Ha wrapped Zuko in his covers and lifted him from the bed. She tried not to press him too close, as her own natural body temperature was too low to be helpful to him. One of the side effects of being amphibious.

Moving quickly, she took Zuko to the ship that SP was firing up. The engine was running, and the thrusters only needed to be activated at this point. Walking carefully indie the ship, Kina Ha placed Zuko on one of the side benches, where she allowed him to rest.

"Move aside SP," Kina Ha said as she took the controls and pressed the button for the deck. The door to Kamino's ocean opened, allowing the water to submerged the room. Once the gate was opened fully, Kina Ha directed the ship outwards.

"I will pilot us outside the atmosphere. Keep an eye on my apprentice and tell me if anything happens."

"As you wish, Master Ha."

The medical droid instantly went to the human, making sure to scan him for any other abnormalities. He found no more. So all that was left was to wait for Kina Ha to take the ship further out.

It took time. More time than Kina Ha was comfortable with. But between fighting the crushing pressures of Kamino's waters, making sure the ship broke through the storm and then making sure the path through the stars did not interfere with any gravity fields.

But once that was over, all they could do was wait.

"This might help," Kina Ha said as she pressed a button on the controls. One that pulled the blinds from every window on the ship. So once they were close enough to Kamino's star, the light could come through easier.

Leaving the ship on autopilot, Kina Ha went to the bench to check on her padawan. The sunlight was starting to creep into his skin. With how close they were to the star, the color was starting to return to his skin at an almost rapid rate. And when he opened his eyes, the brighter color was returning.

"Master?"

"Hush Zuko. You should relax. And I- should apologize."

Zuko frowned. "Apologize? Why?"

"I did not realize the extent of your connection with stars. I did not know that being far away from the sun for too long would cause effects like this. If I had, I would never have kept you underwater for so long. That is a mistake I must take responsibility for."

Zuko shuffled his body into a more comfortable position on the bench. "It's not all your fault. I didn't know either."

Kina Ha sighed. Her hand unconsciously went down to rub his head. "That may be so. But it is hardly an excuse for jeopardizing your health like that. I promise Zuko, I will be more cautious going forward."

Nodding, Zuko tried to relax the way his master suggested. His eyes darted outside the ship's window. That was where he noticed something.

"Master? What's that? Why are there ships flying away?"

Confused, Kina Ha turned her head to look outside the ship's window. What she saw both surprised and disturbed her.

Many ships, a fleet of them, were flying outside of Kamino's orbit. Many of the ships had their weapons primed.

Kina Ha knew that it couldn't be her people piloting those ships. Aside from some traders and herself, her people had no interest in going outside of their world. They viewed other lifeforms as inferior to them and would not willingly meet them unless something tragic occurred. And in all the time Kina Ha had been on the planet, she did not sense any disaster being immanent. Which meant only one thing.

This exodus from Kamino had to be from the clone army she had learned of. They were going to meet something in large numbers.

"Master?"

Kina Ha looked down at her shorter padawan.

"I assume that it is the clone army leaving the planet. My own people would have no interest to leave Kamino. But I cannot think of any reason why they would leave at this moment."

"You don't suppose we could go and ask anyone? Do you?" Zuko asked. Kina Ha appreciated his optimism.

"I could try to ask. But the likelihood of my receiving an answer is low. I will either be told not to interfere in the business of proper Kaminoans, or I will not even be acknowledged. Neither of which are situations I look forward to."

"Oh. So what do we do?"

Kina Ha sighed. "For now, all we can do is exercise patience. The answers should reveal themselves with time."

A Week Later...

"Master Ha?"

"SP? What is it?"

"I am afraid I have received a transmission. It is from Curoscant."

"Curoscant? Anyone in particular?"

"The Jedi Council. It is a message for all Jedi, they say."

Kina Ha frowned when she heard SP. The Jedi Order's home planet had not contacted her in centuries. And she had not sought them out either. To be frank, she wasn't even sure who the council. Yoda was obvious, the grandmaster was nearly as old as she was. Perhaps Yaddle as well, but she wasn't as sure about her.

"Zuko. Halt your exercise. This may be important."

The padawan walked away from the training droid and retracted his lightsaber. "What is it, master?"

"A message from the Jedi council. If they are contacting me directly, then this must be important."

Zuko watched with curiosity as SP bought for the holovid. He had never actually met any of the Jedi from Curoscant. His master had told him stories, but she told him to wait before they went there. Something about surprising the council.

Once SP had the hologram pulled up, both Kina Ha and Zuko were face-to-face with a short pointy-eared being.

"A message this is, for all Jedi in the galaxy. Grave news, I bring."

"Who's that?" Zuko asked.

"That is Yoda, Zuko. He is the grandmaster of the Jedi order."

Zuko's eyes widened as he looked down at the short creature in front of him. It was hard to believe that such a small being was capable of being the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy. But one of his master's teachings was to expect the unexpected, so perhaps he should get used to the fact.

The hologram continued.

"The threat of the Outer Rim and the Federation, only grown it has. Upon the Republic and the Jedi, war now is."

Both Zuko and Kina Ha were taken aback by this news. The Republic and the Jedi, both institutions dedicated to peace, were now at war?

"Master, what's going on?"

"I- I do not know Zuko. We must listen."

"On the world of Kamino, a clone army has been prepared for the Jedi. Use this army we must, to defeat the Separatist threat to peace. The Sith as well, we must defeat."

A new image appeared in place of Yoda. This time it was a human male. An older one with gray hair and a gray beard. He wore the attire of nobility, and he carried a lightsaber of ruby red.

"Count Dooku. A Jedi, formerly. Now a Sith. An enemy to the Republic and the light side, he is. Defeated, he must be, to restore peace to this galaxy."

Yoda sighed as he prepared the final piece of his speech.

"Rising over the Republic and the Jedi, a dark shadow is. Faith in the light, we must not lose. Fight this war, we must do. All Jedi who serve the light, come to Curoscant to convince, we must. And cautious, we must be."

The hologram ended after that. Leaving both Zuko and Kina Ha with a dilemma to deal with.

"Master? What do we do?"

Kina Ha wasn't sure. Fighting in a war was not something she had ever trained for. In all her centuries of living, she had sought ways to solve dilemmas peacefully. The way her own Jedi master had taught her.

She also had issues with the way the Jedi themselves seemed to be participating in the war. There was a reason she distanced herself from the politics of the Republic. The corruption of the senate had the potential to seep into the council of the Jedi. And it seemed possible that it had now happened.

But the entire Jedi order was being recalled to Curoscant. And it was not an order she could so easily refuse.

"We are going to Curoscant, Zuko. We will have to if we wish to discover what is truly occurring in the galaxy."

This is where I will stop for now. I know this chapter is a little shorter than the previous ones. There is a reason for that.

The next chapter will see Zuko finally experiencing Curoscant. I'm looking forward to how he reacts to the rest of the Jedi Order, especially since they act very different from how Kina Ha treats him. Though it will be interesting to see him interact with the other padawans.

There is one, in particular, I am looking forward to seeing him meet. And because of that, the next chapter will probably be the longest I have written so far. I hope so, anyway.

Anyway, please leave reviews, tell me what you think, and I will see you all next time.

Bye!