By the time Pah-Rei Wenpa awoke, the sun of Hoth had set and nightfall had settled the planet. If it were not because the two sat in the exhaust vent of the heating system, they would have froze stiff from the cold. She looked to her master, Riv-Lyn Veers, and by the deep trance he was in she could tell that his meditation period was far from over. Slowly she rose to her feet and looked down the darkened cavern that led deeper into the Flaming Rancor base.

She undid her belt to her tunic and threw it to the ground and slowly pulled apart her tunic. After throwing it to the dirt ground, she smoothed out a crease in her combat attire top and used the Force to pull her lightsaber into the palm of her hand. After knotting her hair into her combat bun, she slowly made her way through the dark, natural corridor. With the hilt of her blade clipped on her thin custom combat belt, she felt along the wall to find her way through the cave. She could see a light source ahead, so she decided to slow to a tiptoeing pace.

Once in an open cavern full of ground infested stalagmites and ceiling infested stalactites with an artificial light source illuminating the entire room, she stopped to survey at the sight in awe. Across from her was a large door that was several shades of gray with an emblem of a bipedal beast with flames protruding from its back on it. She swallowed hard as she neared the door, not breaking her gaze at the emblem of the Flaming Rancors. Once she arrived before the massive door, she realized there were no access controls to open it. She looked around her to find a switch, a button, or anything that would unseal the door that led to the base.

As she searched, she grew wearily cold. The tiny hairs on her neck and arms raised as the chill grew to a heavy coldness. It was a sign of danger. She turned her head left and then right, but she was the only person in the room. She looked back to the door and ran her open palmed hand along the cold metal that it was composed of. An extremely loud sound erupted behind her, forcing her to spin to see that the heat vent had opened allowing a much stronger gust of air to exit the base.

Swallowing hard and trying to steady her trembling body, she turned to examine the door further. If it were not for the loud sound of the heat exiting the vent, she would have been able to hear the metal clicking against rock that was approaching her. Completely perplexed by the door, she did not realize she was not alone in the room until a croaking, robotic voice sounded, "Halt! State your presence here."

She slowly turned to see an entire regiment of eighty red-shouldered security battle droids led by a single yellow-headed officer. She swallowed hard and backed up against the door, trying to think of a possible solution as to get out of there alive. She had never faced off this many opponents on her own, but she knew that a solution would present itself. She could feel a lump rise in her throat as she realized she did not have one, and there was no way she could win by fighting.

The yellow colored officer trained its blaster rifle on Pah-Rei Wenpa's head and repeated himself and Pah-Rei finally let words out of her mouth, "I am here to negotiate with your master. I am a high officer of the black sun and am willing to supply him with more Destroyer Droids."

The officer's head went down as it computed her explanation and slowly said, "Negotiations… does not compute, you're under arrest!"

She ducked a shower of red blaster bolts slammed into the blast door she stood up against and ripped her lightsaber from her belt. So much for her being taken alive. As more and more droids took aim at her, she realized she was outnumbered and the chances of her survival, even with the Force as her ally, were grim. Still, she would not die in the hands of this terrorist group with out a fight.

Thumbing the black activator switch on the upper part of the hilt of her lightsaber, she dived from the countless amount of blaster bolts that slammed into the cave wall that was behind from where she stood. Relying on her physical skill to run from the attacks, she relied on the Force to guide the yellow blade of her lightsaber to deflect the laser bolts back to their origin.

"Kill her!" the officer yelled to its troops as it fired two more bolts at her before she returned them straight back into it, separating its head from the neck with molten orange metal at the ends of each.

"Roger, roger!" the droids said mindlessly to the now heap of metal that was once their commanding officer. Pah-Rei surveyed her surroundings to find an environmental factor that would aid in her fight. As she swung the blade in a flashing blur of yellow in order to deflect any blaster bolts that threatened to take her life, she noticed a large heap of rocks that had fallen from the ceiling in the corner.

She backed back further and further, but realized she was soon going to back into a wall. Summoning all of her powers of the Force, she leapt up and placed her two feet on the wall and began to run across the vertical surface for several feet. Performing a cartwheel off of it, she threw her weapon at the droids whose backs were still turned to the direction she had stood just seconds ago. Guiding the blade in a wide arc with her telekinetic Force powers, she saw that it separated over twenty of them by the waist before it returned to the palm of her hand.

By this time, her powers were dwindling and she barely had any strength in her left to continue her resistance. Out of breath, she decided to finish as many droids off as she could. Ducking further laser bolts and performing a forward roll away from yet even more blaster bolts, she found herself trapped between a wall and the fire from the droids. Using her Force powers to do a triple summersault in the air above them while jabbing down at them at point blank range, she managed to score a half dozen more droids. When she landed, she observed there were only forty more left, but she was on the brink of collapsing.

Now was her time to act. Lowering her blade, which she held loosely in her left hand, she moved the rocks in the corner mentally with the guidance of an open palmed right hand into a mass of droids that were closing in on her. She scored twenty more and left only twenty droids standing. Gritting her teeth together, she realized she could no longer even stand.

Landing into a crouching position with her weapon raised up, she continued to deflect most of the bolts that came to her back to the droids. There was no longer even time to count the droids. Survival was the only thing on her mind. It still was not enough. A lucky shot from one of the droids caught her in the thigh and she let go of her lightsaber to clutch the burn forming on her leg.

Through squinting eyes and forming tears, Pah-Rei saw a sudden burst of orange light that flashed endlessly against all of the red bolts until the last droid collapsed into a pile of useless metal and wires. Gasping for air that she had lost during combat, she saw Riv-Lyn let the orange blade of his lightsaber back into its black and silver colored hilt. He put it back onto his belt and crouched down beside her and began sternly reprimanding her, "Just what do you think you were doing? You almost got yourself killed! Did I not tell you to stay by me until I was finished?"

She began to cry softly partly because of her wound, but more over because of the scolding from her master. She could not blame him, however, because she had heard about the fall of his previous Padawan Apprentice, Que-Von Towlki. She whimpered, "I am sorry, Master. I will not do it again, I promise I will never disobey your orders again."

He shot her a look of authority, "You better not! Just what did you think you were going to accomplish on your own?"

She turned away from him, "I do not know. I am sorry, Master."

Riv-Lyn was not satisfied with that answer, "That does not change the fact of the matter that I almost lost another apprentice! Does it? No, I did not think you thought so either!"

She did not even look at him. She was ashamed of herself. She felt his hands touch her leg and slowly touch the burn. She cringed at the feeling of flesh touching her wound and hissed through clenched teeth, "That hurts!"

He ripped the black fabric of her pants open and reached behind him on his belt for his med kit and took out the contents. Pah-Rei observed this with her cool gray eyes and wiped the tears growing in them away with the back of her hand. The white medical powder poured over the bloody opening in her leg and she recoiled even further back, "Why can you not just use the Force on it?"

Riv-Lyn looked at her sternly, "Because, young Padawan, we use the Force for knowledge and defense and as a last resort, medical attention and mind tricks. We are supplied with medical kits to use them and not resort to using the Force for our every need. Do I make my self clear?"

She swallowed hard and nodded as he continued to treat her burn. After Riv- Lyn was completed, he brushed excess powder off of her clean shaven leg and handed her robes and gear to her saying in a calm voice, "Not all Jedi are perfect, Pah-Rei. Our emotions get the best of us, just as I just yelled at you. I apologize for doing so, but remember that I did it because I care for you. You are twelve years old, almost thirteen. I would think of you then as a mature adult."

Pah-Rei grabbed a hold of her lightsaber that lain several feet away and interrupted Riv-Lyn, "But if I keep up foolish misdeeds like this up, you will lose your respect for me and we could not continue our relationship together as friends. Yes, Master, I understand. Nei-Opo has quoted many of Master Averon's lectures to me before."

The man got to his feet and offered her his hand. She grabbed a hold of it and he pulled her to her feet. She put on her robes and took note aloud, "I see that they have shut off the heat now that we are finished here. They must be monitoring our progress, is that a logical assumption, Master?"

Riv-Lyn looked around the room, "You are correct. That door is hiding something more than just a room to their base."

Pah-Rei looked over to it to see that a blast door sealed it, "That was not there earlier. I do not believe we can cut through it now, do you?"

Riv-Lyn shook his head, "There are several layers of durasteel blocking our path. Four blast doors sealed that entrance when I arrived."

Pah-Rei frowned, "Then perhaps we should find the controls. I have felt along that wall, but I can not seem to…"

"Here it is, Padawan," Riv-Lyn said pushing off the pointed tip of a false stalagmite and pointing to a blue holographic computer monitor, "Feel. Do not think. If you use the Force properly, all things are possible."

Pah-Rei observed as a series of menus popped up until a code was required to continue. She bit on her lip before she swore aloud and then turned to her master, "That door requires a confirmation code. We need to…"

She trailed off as she picked up the severed yellow trimmed head of the Battle Droid Officer and pried off the panel that accessed its command storage in the top of its face, just above its eyes. Mumbling words to herself, she finally ripped out the code-processing node with a trail of wires connecting it to its head. She tried ripping it out, but could not. She looked to Riv-Lyn, "I could use a little help here."

Riv-Lyn took out his lightsaber, let out its orange blade, and with quick precision he sliced the wires without leaving a single jagged edge. He put it away as he watched his apprentice speedily rip apart the piece of machinery and smile, "Got it! The code is GAA-1138!"

Riv-Lyn punched in the Aurebesh labeled buttons and a third menu popped up with the option to unseal all entry doors. He punched in the button and the two turned to see all five of the doors lift up to reveal an empty room filled with computer counsels and ten doors on the opposite wall. Slowly with great caution, the two walked in and looked around.

Splitting up in order to find the droid controlling counsel, the two each discovered that most of the systems were nonfunctioning or being routed there from another location. Pah-Rei was completely baffled when she saw that the droids were supposedly inactive and had been for several hours. "Master," she called to Riv-Lyn, "I have located the desired controls, but look at it."

After a moment for examination, Riv-Lyn felt the hair on his neck and arms slowly rise signaling danger was near by. Pah-Rei felt the same thing and after the two witnessed the blast doors seal off the entry they had just gone through. She whispered, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Riv-Lyn nodded, "I feel something more than just danger. It is quite odd. It is a presence of somebody, but for the life of me I cannot remember whom. It is as if all of my thoughts are being clouded by something…" He felt his stomach drop and he reached into his pocket.

Pah-Rei watched as Riv-Lyn urgently pulled out his comlink and spoke into it, "Radiant VIII, this is Jedi Master Veers, it is urgent that you boost my communications signal to Coruscant's Jedi Temple."

Pah-Rei pondered his actions, but when she could not think of what was so urgent. She asked, "What is wrong, Master?"

Riv-Lyn waved his hand at her to hush her up as the captain responded, "Of course, honored Jedi."

Yoda's voice sounded over the device's speakers, "Ahh, contact us soon do you Master Riv-Lyn. Troubles have you?"

"Yes, Master," Riv-Lyn frantically said; "We need immediate help. Send any available Jedi to assist us. There is not enough time to explain. May the Force be with you."

"Jedi being sent they are, Master Riv-Lyn. Debrief me you will later. May the Force be with you."

Riv-Lyn shut off the communicator and nodded while reassuring himself, "I know it is, Master Yoda. We are going to need it now more than ever."

"Master," Pah-Rei started again, "Why do we need more Jedi here? We are perfectly capable of handling the droids ourselves…"

Before she could finish her sentence nine of the ten doors, excluding the blast door sealed one, opened to reveal a massive line of Battle Droids, each one with its blaster drawn to its chest. Pah-Rei swallowed hard while removing her saber from her belt, "I have a very bad feeling about this."