Chapter 10

Having decided to make a little detour to Jakeen, despite the Jedi Council's specific orders, Anakin and Hiccup fly into the cloudy atmosphere of the green, forest filled planet. Hiccup had kept his arms crossed in his seat of the Twilight as Anakin steered the ship.

Anakin looks over to Hiccup and comments, "Will you lighten up?"

Hiccup sighs. "I will once we get to doing the thing that we were specifically told to do. I'm surprised that I haven't tried to contact the council by now."

Anakin replies, "Yeah, don't think we can get a signal to Courscant by this point. Look, if you want to stay on the ship while I go treasure hunt, that's on you."

Hiccup sighs deeply. "How do you even know where we're going?"

Anakin puts the ship on Autopilot and replies as he picks up the Jedi Scope. "Observe, my dear Hiccup." He slips his lightsaber into the extended end of the cylinder and activates it, making a blue flash appear on the other end that showed a map of the planet. "I did some calculations earlier and it looks like there's a large indent on the side of this mountain towards the north pole." He turns the Jedi Scope, showing that same cave but with a shining light inside. "That appears to be whatever is in the cave."

Hiccup nods to that. "Cool, now I know where I'm going to have my grave dug."

Anakin deactivates the scope and detaches his saber. "Have I ever told you that you sound just like Obi-Wan, only without the accent?"

Hiccup shrugs. "I can see it." Artoo then makes a few beeps of concern. "Tell me about it." Hiccup replies.

Anakin has Artoo steer the ship to the coordinates that were given and they soon find some large mountains towards the northern most area of the planet. In the face of one of those mountains sat a very large crack, as shown by the Jedi Scope, which didn't have any sort of platform so Hiccup had Artoo fly the rear of the ship over to just in front the crack, to which the door opens and Hiccup and Anakin get out and step into the crack.

Once there, both Hiccup and Anakin came face to face with…a stone wall. "Oh great." Hiccup comments. "We came all the way out here to see a dead end."

Anakin give Hiccup a side eye. "Still not used to having The Force with you, I see." He closes his eyes and, using his mind, scans the wall until he senses a bunch of symbols. "Interesting…Hiccup, load up the Scope and see if you can find any sort of symbols."

Figuring there wasn't much else he could do in that moment, Hiccup pulls out the Jedi Scope and inserts his black hilted lightsaber into the end of the Scope before activating it and sending out a purple light that showed the same light in the cave, but with three small symbols underneath. "Uh, yeah, I see it."

Anakin nods. "What are they?"

Hiccup replies, "There's three. From left to right, there's a triangle with circles on both sides, a shield with a line through it and a line clashing into another line towards the bottom." Anakin spots all three symbols listed on the wall.

"Perfect." Anakin replies, so he goes to the spots where the symbols shown and Force Pushes on them in the order mentioned, causing the wall to shake as it began moving upward, revealing a cave inside. Anakin replies, "Well, looks like this won't be for nothing after all." Hiccup hated that Anakin was right, but had no choice but to follow him inside the cave.

Once inside, Hiccup comments, "Huh, you feel that?"

Anakin nods. "Yeah, I do. The Force is strong with this place. Probably means that whatever inside is just that valuable to Jedi." Once that was said, the two of them continue to walk through the cave.

Meanwhile, back on the city planet of Courscant, the Jedi Council were having a small discussion when a call from a Clone Trooper, who appeared to be holding his right arm tight, saying, "Sorry to interrupt, sir, but-" an explosion happens just behind him. "We're in need of immediate assistance on Alderaan! Our commander is shot, several men are dead, and the enemy just seems to be coming out of nowhere!"

Mace then asks, "What about General Skywalker and Padawan Haddock? We sent them there to investigate."

The clone shakes his head. "I-I haven't seen either of them since my fleet arrived! We can't even pick up their ship on our radar!"

Mace's eyes widen. "…WHAT?!"

The clone replies just after another explosion, "It's true, sir. We're not even sure if they are on this planet."

It didn't take Mace or any of the other Jedi long at all to figure out where Anakin might have gone to. Obi-Wan, who was there via hologram since he was currently on his way to another mission assigned soon after Anakin left, replies, "Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can, just hang tight."

The clone replies, "Will do, sir. Thank you." With that, the transmission ends.

There was a pause as the Jedi come to realize what just happened. Mace looks over to Obi-Wan and says, "We WILL be discussing this later." Obi-Wan nods before his hologram fades.

Back on Jakeen, Anakin and Hiccup move through the cave, which seemed to be more of a tunnel, finding many paintings similar to the images that appeared on the Jedi Scope along the walls, many of which seemed to show Jedi with a lightsaber hovering just in front of them.

Since it was quite dark, both Anakin and Hiccup kept their sabers on as they explore the cave. Hiccup then shivers a bit. "Sure is cold."

Anakin smirks, "Funny, where I grew up we would pray for any sort of cold."

Hiccup replies, "Oh, cool. Perhaps that's where you'll be heading once the Council find out where we are."

Anakin rolls his eyes. "You're still hung up about that? Look, for all we know there could be nothing going on over at Alderaan."

Then, out of nowhere, a light appears at the end of the tunnel. Going through an arch, the two of them found themselves in a somewhat empty room with a single chest of some kind sitting in the middle. Anakin comments, "Hiccup, I'd say we hit the jackpot."

Hiccup looks around the room. "Hmm, feels like there should be a trap of some kind."

Anakin nods back. "Just what I was thinking. Well, luckily there is one way to get whatever's in that chest." He holds out his hand and concentrates on the chest, however, after standing there for half a minute, nothing happens to the chest. Anakin looks down to his hand then holds it back out, finding nothing happening again.

Hiccup comments, "I thought you were gifted with this sort of thing."

Anakin grumbles to that. "This place must be Force Locked, meaning we gotta go in with our wits and bodies alone. Alright, I'll go first."

Anakin looks around the room and to the ground, shining his blue bladed saber in all directions and finding no immediate threat, so he cautiously steps forward, keeping a high guard the whole time. He finds his way to the chest with no real issue.

Hiccup also kept his guard up, finding nothing coming at himself or Anakin through the entire time he was in the room. Anakin takes one deep breath before saying, "Well…here it goes." He unlatches the chest and opens it up, revealing what looked to be some kind of cylindrical shaped case that split into two parts.

He holds up the parts and comments, "Huh…well…that's something."

Hiccup asks, "What is it?"

Anakin replies, "I'm…not sure…but-" Just then, the walls began shaking as the cave seemed to collapse.

"And there's the trap. Let's go!" Hiccup yells as Anakin bolts out of the room. Anakin signals Artoo to have the ship ready, so Artoo steers the ship to where it was when it dropped the two of them off.

Hiccup and Anakin rush through the tunnel, dodging debris and falling rocks as they went, quickly getting back to the entrance of the tunnel where The Twilight was waiting, so Hiccup and Anakin make a leap for it, get on the ship and the ship flies off.

Once back into space, the two Jedi sit down in their seats and let out deep sighs. "Well, that went about as expected." Anakin comments. "And we even got this." He holds up the case.

Hiccup nods. "So, you still don't know what it is?"

Anakin looks down to it. "No, but I think I recognize the material it's made of, beskar. It's a super durable material that's resistant to blaster bolts and even lightsaber blades, I believe the people of Mandalore use it to craft their armor. No idea why this thing would be made of it, though."

Hiccup stares at the cylindrical case and couldn't help but notice the size and shape of it, it appeared to be just slightly larger than…than… "I think I got it! Give it to me." Anakin nods and hands the case over.

Hiccup takes his lightsaber hilt off his belt and slips the case over it, finding it to be a perfect fit before he ignites the saber and brings up the purple blade. Hiccup then uses his ability to levitate the saber as he comments, "Ok, now try striking the hilt."

Anakin raises a brow. "You sure about that?"

Hiccup nods. "Just do it."

Anakin nods back and ignites his blue blade before gently waving it towards Hiccup's hilt, finding that doing so did nothing to the saber itself. "Whoa!"

Hiccup pulls his saber back and deactivates it. "This thing is like some kind of lightsaber armor."

Anakin deactivates his saber and replies, "No kidding. Could really help with that levitating saber ability of yours."

Hiccup then thinks for a moment, "Huh…if someone needed to build something like this…then maybe I'm not the first to figure out that ability."

Anakin shrugs. "Maybe. Maybe the Jedi Scope could tell us something about it. For now, though, I'd say be better be getting to Alderaan before-" Just then, however, a call came through on the intercom. Anakin picks it up and in a flash came Obi-Wan in a holographic form, looking as angry as ever. Realizing who it was, Anakin says, "Oh…hey Master…uh…"

Obi-Wan holds his hand up. "Save it, Anakin. The Council would like you to report to Courscant immediately." Anakin and Hiccup exchange glances as they fear what was about to happen.

"SUSPENDED?!" Anakin yells upon hearing the news of the Council after arriving back at Crouscant. "YOU'RE SUSPENDING ME FROM JEDI DUTIES?!"

Mace replies, "Bear in mind, it was not a unanimous decision." He gives Obi-Wan a side glance, making Obi-Wan glance down. Mace looks back to Anakin and replies, "However, given that you, once again, disobeyed direct orders from the Council and the fact that we had to clean up the mess you made by not even showing up to Alderaan, I'm afraid that we had no choice."

Anakin stammers a bit. "B-b-but what about the war? Don't we need as many Jedi as we can?"

Mace raises a brow. "Oh, so now you care about the war."

Yoda then comments, "been a delinquent for too long, You have, young Skywalker. face the consequences of your actions, You must."

Anakin stammers some more. "What about Ahsoka?"

Mace nods. "Yes, thank you for reminding me." He looks to the orange skinned Padawan, who had been standing to Anakin's left as she was called in. "Padawan Tano, during the course of this suspension, Master Kenobi will be taking you on as a temporary master, effective until the suspension is lifted."

Ahsoka looked to Obi-Wan, who was clearly less happy about this than she was, and bows to Mace. "I understand, Master."

Mace then says, "Now, Skywalker, during the course of this suspension, you will not go on any missions, you cannot leave Courscant, and you cannot access the Jedi Archives. Now then…" he holds out his hands. "Your lightsaber and the Jedi Scope."

Anakin could clearly see that there was no use in arguing this, so he wordlessly hands over his saber and the Jedi Scope before turning around and walking out of the Council room. Mace then looks to Hiccup and asks, "Anything you'd like to say, Padawan Haddock?"

Hiccup didn't want to get any further involved in this than he needed to, especially considering he wasn't exactly for abandoning the initial mission, so he simply replies, "…No."

Mace nods. "Then you may go."

Hiccup nods and walks out the door. Following Anakin, he could hear him audibly mumbling. "So unfair. After all that I've done for the council, this is the thanks I get." Hiccup wanted to say something to Anakin, but again, didn't want to make things worse so, since it was already dark, he decides to just head back to his apartment to attempt to sleep on all that just happened, though he had a feeling that that would be quite difficult.