Luke paid attention as Keiran made is way around the room. The Jedi Master dimly noticed his other students gather at the doorway while they examined the room. The despair that Gantoris had left in his wake was almost palpable. He let his mouth answer Keiran's questions without much interference from his mind until Keiran asked for a full lab work up of Gantoris's lightsaber.
Luke turned to him. "Only Gantoris and myself have touched it." He shook his head at his slow pupil. "If you opened yourself to the room you would know this as the truth." Luke turned to the students he could see outside the doorway. I must tell them something or they too will seek out this other master. "Beware the Darkside, my students. It has claimed another victim. Let us hope it's the last."
Sora was glad that T.K's youth meant he was a good deal smaller than the rest of the adults at the temple. As it was, the small boy was craning his neck to see what all the whispering was about.
"What'da'ya think happened Sora? Was it aliens trying to suck his brains out?" T.K. stood on the tips of his toes and started to bounce up and down. "No ones telling me anything or letting me see!"
Sora sensed Izzy moving closer. "I wouldn't bother Izzy. I don't think you're tall enough either."
"T.K, you need to go," said Izzy, his voice strangely flat.
"Nuh-uh. Sora said I could stay, right Sora?"
Sora looked at Izzy's pale face. "I think Izzy is worried about you seeing this." Izzy nodded slowly. "T.K, I want you to go wake the others and tell them something has happened. Stay with Matt, okay?"
T.K. nodded. "Okay Sora." He moved back towards the children's rooms.
Sora turned to Izzy. "What is so bad that he can't see it?"
"One of the students is dead. Burned from the inside out."
Sora put her hand to her mouth. "Oh my god! How horrible. I can see why you said T.K. should leave."
Izzy turned and started to walk away from the scene. "I should go find the others." He saw Sora look puzzled. "Tai and Joe came with me, but they couldn't cope. I think they're probably both vomiting somewhere."
Sora caught his arm. "How can you be so cold? A person is dead!"
"Because every time I touch one of you I wonder 'Is this the time I'm going to kill them by accidentally frying them?' After facing that for the past couple days the whole idea becomes numb." Izzy's hands twitched. Sora saw him make a conscious effort to stop. "For all I know, that may be one of you next time."
"Then stop doubting and learn." Sora let go of his arm. "We all don't understand why we can do what we do. That's why we're here, to make sure we don't hurt anyone."
Izzy wiped a sleeve across his eyes. "We should talk about this together. Everyone needs to know what has happened."
"He was dead? Cool!" T.K. almost leapt back to his feet.
"You're too young to see a corpse," cautioned his brother.
T.K. answered in the age-old tradition. "Aww Matt, can't I?"
"No." Matt turned to Izzy. "So what is so important that you had to disturb Tai's beauty sleep?"
"Hey!"
Izzy ignored Tai's outburst. "Gantoris, one of the students here was found dead in his room. He was burnt alive."
"Eww." Mimi wrinkled her nose.
"He was burnt too? Wow!"
Matt just glared at T.K.
Izzy continued. "My belief is that he was burnt from the inside."
Joe, looking distinctly green, nodded. "I agree. He still looked human, no fingers missing."
Tai leaned back. "So someone or something around here killed him?"
"Perhaps," said Matt. "Then again he could just've screwed up one of his exercises."
T.K. tugged at Matt's sleeve. "But Matt, Master Skywalker says that the Force likes living things."
"So it would be unlikely that it would let him burn himself?" asked Sora. She shrugged. "The only problem is that I didn't get anything strange from the room except that he was in pain."
"Yeah well burning tends to have that effect on humans," quipped Gomamon. Joe shot him a nasty glare. "What? It's true, isn't it?"
"So what now?" asked Sora. "We don't think Gantoris could've done this to himself, and I didn't get a sense of anyone else in his room."
Izzy frowned. "I think Keiran is the key. Master Skywalker said that Keiran could project energy like I can. It is possible that you didn't pick up his sense from the room because he was already there."
Joe frowned in turn. "You think that Keiran managed to send energy into him somehow?"
Tai shook his head. "I don't think he's that sort of person." He thought for a moment. "Sora, can you keep a close 'eye' on him in our training session later today. Maybe that'll give us a clue." He turned to Izzy. "Can you crack their mainframe?"
Izzy nodded. "As easy as integration by substitution."
"I'll take that as a yes," joked Tai, "Cause I didn't understand that at all." He paused to get back on track. "Izzy, you're job is to follow up on this idea that Keiran isn't Keiran. We need to know if he's on our side or not."
Izzy nodded. "Affirmative. I'll grab everyone else's profiles as well."
"Good. Matt, your job is to work with me to push their buttons. Make Sora's job easier." Tai grinned at Matt. "We seemed to annoy him today without much effort, let's see what happens if we work at it."
"This'll be fun," quipped Matt.
"And I have a job for you digimon too," continued Tai. "I want you to look all over this temple and the surrounding area over the next few weeks. Arrange it so only one or two of you are missing at a time, that way we can cover for you."
"Don't worry Tai," piped in Agumon. "We'll make sure no one ever notices that we've gone."
Tai grinned. "And now I've finished my lecture, I vote we go get some shut eye for a few hours."
"Seconded," agreed Joe. "Piximon was never as bad as these people. See you all at sunrise for Master Skywalker's lesson." He got up and left with Gomamon.
"Me too," agreed Mimi. "These sleepless nights do nothing for my complexion." She, Sora, Biyomon and Palmon left.
Matt glared at Izzy. "Shoo! T.K. needs his sleep."
"Okay, okay," protested Izzy. "I'm going."
Tai tried to stifle a yawn. "Day break is too early to do this."
Luke sighed. "We do this early because you have so much to learn. It will get easier I promise."
"Can I at least get a lie in on Sunday?" whined Mimi.
Luke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "You need to learn this now before your test comes."
"Test?" Joe looked panicked. "No one said anything about a test!"
"Relax Joe," replied Izzy. "Master Skywalker was merely referring to our inevitable battle with Myotismon."
Luke decided to start the lesson. "So far you have merely tried to feel the Force. Today we are going to see if you can use it." He sat and motioned for the others to do the same. "Since you are all good friends, I want you to use the Force to play a game. I will send a phrase to T.K., who will send it to Matt, who will send it to Tai, and on round the circle until it comes back to me. The idea is to use the Force as a means of telepathy." He looked around the circle. "You all understand?" He received seven nods from the children. "Okay." He shut his eyes and spread his mind out. He found T.K. quickly. The young boy's mind was open to him, like warm sunshine. He gently said 'Do, or do not. There is no try.' T.K. repeated it back, then broke contact. Luke followed T.K. round to his brother.
Matt? tried T.K. Matt, this feels weird.
Feels weird to me too T.K, replied Matt. But just
think if we learn to do this right, we can stay up all night talking and Mom
won't catch us!
Really Matt? asked T.K. How cool! Mister Skywalker
gave me a really weird phase to pass on. He said 'Do or do not. There is no
try.' That make any sense to you Matt.
Not a lot, conceded his brother. I should go and
pass this on to Tai. You be okay by you self?
Sure! I'm gonna see if I can talk to Patamon the same
way!
Matt smiled inwardly at T.K's enthusiasm. Have fun T.K.
Interesting, thought Luke. Matt is ice and fire together. If any of these children could be turned, it would be him. He moved on to listen to Tai.
Tai? tried Matt.
M…… responded Tai.
Matt tried to strengthen the connection further. Tai? You
there?
Tai's 'voice' sounded faint and far away. Matt? I can
barely hear you.
You and me both, responded Matt. Faulty wiring?
Very funny. So what's this phrase then?
Do or do not. There is no try.
There is no Tai?
Matt felt like smacking his forehead. Not Tai, TRY!
No try?
Yeah, that's it. Now go and talk dirty to Sora.
Hey! No fair reading my mind!
I wasn't doofus, I just know how your mind works.
Ah. Tai paused. Matt buddy? Would you forget I was
considering that?
Sure Tai. Now go tell Sora already!
Okay, okay! Tai broke contact.
Luke considered the children's leader. Tai may be prone
to anger and foolishness, but he would recognise the darkness too soon for my
master's purposes.
As soon as Tai broke contact with Matt he felt Sora connect
to him. Don't tell me you heard all of that.
Well you were shouting, explained Sora. It was
kinda hard to miss.
Still want me to talk dirty? Tai somehow managed to convey the idea of wiggling his eyebrows between them.
Tai, you're an idiot.
Why thank you Sora. I didn't know you cared.
Go talk to Matt. You both need the practice.
Sora broke contact with Tai and concentrated on Izzy. Izzy?
Sora? You there?
Sora winced. Although Izzy was not shouting like Tai and Matt had done she could see his mind working on many things at once.
Izzy, slow down. You're giving me a headache.
Sorry Sora. Izzy made a conscious effort to concentrate
only on her. Better?
Sora had an idea. Izzy, can you put it behind a wall or
something?
What are you talking about?
Everyone is very open, but you're closed in so tight,
like you're hiding yourself. Can you hide a bit more?
I'll try, conceded Izzy.
Sora found that slowly the 'background noise' of Izzy's mind
dropped away. Thank you Izzy.
And the phrase?
Do or do not. There is no try.
An interesting philosophy. Maybe I shall consider it in
more depth later.
Meanwhile Joe is waiting, reminded Sora.
The rest of the exercise passed without incident, except for Mimi screaming when Joe first made contact.
"Well," commented Luke. "I must say that you are all fast learners. Maybe we should try something more advanced."
"Like what?" asked Matt.
"The Force is not only passive," explained Luke. He gestured at a nearby rock, which rose off the ground. "It can be used to manipulate objects…"
Gatomon sat in a tree outside of Exar Kun's temple. But not his influence, she reminded herself. He's watching us all I suspect. She stretched lazily like her namesake, and then hopped to a higher branch. I should go to the main temple and watch those meddling children. She leapt gracefully from tree to tree, ignoring the various animals that inhabited the higher levels of the forest.
She found a tree with a wide branch at the edge of the clearing, downwind from the children and their digimon. As long as they don't see me, I can stay here indefinitely. She wished that she had been a viral Gatomon at times like these. The dark cat-digimon would have blended more easily into the background.
She watched as the youngest made several rocks bounce up and down. The other children applauded him.
Fools, she thought. They waste time with parlour
tricks while my master and his partner take more of the students daily. Soon he
shall move, then those foolish digimon will be on their own and easy pray.
Partners make you weak.
That's not true some small part of her said. A
partner helps in ways you cannot imagine.
Shut up, Gatomon told the voice sternly. I don't
want another beating from Myotismon for what I believe.
She watched as the children were lead away by one of the men dressed in green, their digimon following dutifully behind.
A part of her wished she could go with them too.
Authors notes: About time I finished this! Been busy with my A-levels and starting Uni (College to all you American folks). I'm still taking requests for characters (Audience shouts "We know!"). I'd like to take the opportunity to plug my new(ish) website, http://www.orangeandpurple.btinternet.co.uk
I know you all want me to hurry up, and I'd love to get beyond all this boring Yavin stuff and on to the battle between good and evil, but I have to give this a plot. Sorry. On the plus side, we know what T.K. can do now (Telekinesis if you weren't paying attention). Next chapter will be Joe and Mimi, stuff about Izzy AND if I feel like it, the beginning of trouble for the kids and Keiran.
As always, please review, you want to get a hold of me personally try fmb105@york.ac.uk
