MistiWhitesun: it's all right. I tend to do this when I don't get readers. :p

Their siblings haven't been talked about because this was the first chance I've got to talk about them. Their siblings are not with them at the moment, but you'll find out who they are in two chapters (I hope. I think it flew over my other readers, they really didn't say whether or not they understood).

There's more to Anakin's comment than meets the eye. ;)

PrincessKinky: Thanks! :D Here's your wish! :)


Chapter Ten

The Meeting

"Impatient?"

"Quite."

"The girl has no patience."

"Quote Yoda again and I'll patience you. Hard to believe you used to be some sheltered, know-it-all kid once."

Ken grinned under his helmet, but did not respond. Ladora was right, through. He had changed. Still considered a know-it-all by some, but no longer sheltered and with more experience than he had had when he left with Tygeris twenty years ago. He had changed physically as well. His brown hair turned blond when he lived on Tygarea. He doubted Luke and the others would recognize him.

But he was right, too. Ladora had no patience. It was obvious in the way she kept looking for the Vong atop the rock formation where they had arranged their ambush when they were supposed to be searching with the negative Force. She also kept fingering the built-in button and green designs on her silver, eight inch lightsaber as if expect the Vong to fly up to them at any moment, but she was not the only one being impatient.

On the rock formation opposite of Ladora and Ken's, Anakin was, too. Although he was asking Ladora questions on top of questions, which was not helping matters. "But even if we rid Abregado-rae of the Vong, they are going to send more. How do we keep the planet safe?"

"That's been taken care of. A Tyrigean team has been planting machines at the north poles of planets. The machines will insert Sambar juice in the atmosphere when activated, making the planet inhabitable to the Vong," explained Ladora, sounding more annoyed than ever.

"Wait. If the Tyrigeans are already involved, then why don't they send a fleet?"

"It has been 425 years since our last war," said Caiya. "It will be quite some time before a war fleet can be assembled."

"Oh. Fine, then. What are we doing after this?"

"Pick a Vong-occupied planet and target it. It'll throw them in a panic if we do it long enough," said Ladora.

Suddenly, Ken picked up a strong negative Force shadow heading toward them. He got up and peered over. They had passed over other groups of Vong because they were, in Ladora's words, "too small." This, however, seem to be a decent size bunch. "Hey, guys, something's coming."

Ladora joined Ken. He sensed her satisfaction upon seeing them. "Caiya, how many?" she asked.

Ken felt Caiya; more attuned than the rest of them were at the negative Force, reach out. "There are twenty of them."

"Sounds fair. Think so, La-umm I mean, Chaos?" said Ken.

"Yeah, really good odds," said Ladora, definitely excitement in her voice now. "Here they come. May the Force be with us."

"May our victory give strength to the Life-Being," said Caiya, quoting an old Tyrigean saying Ken had heard often while on Tygarea.

The Vong were nearing the rocks as Ladora and Ken got ready to pounce. When the first Vong entered the formation, the Shadow Jedi jumped and ignited their lightsabers on the way down. They landed directly in front of the Vong and attacked.


"Warrior, don't take on more Vong than the rest of us! They might suspect something," said Ladora as she sprayed crystals on a paralyzed Vong.

"It was not many," objected Caiya, calmly.

"Not many?" exclaimed Ken. "You took on eleven Vong while the rest of us had three each! That will attract some attention if it every got out."

"Exactly. Promise me you won't fight more Vong than the rest of us, Warrior, and I'll let you go all out near the end," said Ladora.

Caiya sighed. "As you wish."

Ladora went to find another Vong to crystallize, grateful that Caiya gave in. She did not mind her friend taking on so many (she would have liked to have done that herself), but realistically it would not look good. The last thing she needed were rumors of a 'Super Jedi' was attacking the Vong or them thinking a Tyrigean was among the Shadow Jedi.

Ladora looked down at the Vong she found. His eyes flashed hatred as she started to spray the crystals on him. Too bad you can't see my face, she thought. No chance to see my smile at your loss and dishonor…and your kind's eventual demise. Ladora covered the Vong's face in crystals.

She turned her back on him; he was no longer a concern to her. All the other Vong were crystallized. Everyone gathered around Ladora while she placed her gauntlets back on paralysis darts and called Rene on her helmet comm. "Are you at the Vong's stronghold?"

"Yes," replied Rene, nervously.

"Do you sense anyone there?"

"No."

"Then blow it up."

There was a pause, and then Rene's voice came back filled with concern, "I don't see how this will help. We don't have to…"

"Yes, we do. I want the Vong to think we did it and not let the Sambar destroy it later. Now do it!"

"Wait!"

Ladora turned to Anakin, infuriated that people were questioning the plan. "We can't back down. If we do, the effect on the Vong won't be as strong as we need it to be."

"That's fine. I understand that," he said, impatiently as if that was not his complaint in the first place, but more concerned with something else, "but look!" He pointed in the direction the previous Vong had gone in.

"So?"

"So? Don't you feel them?"

What is he talking about? She reached out and felt for the shadow of the Vong. She found it all right, but she also felt a strong positive Force presence there as well. "Stars, what are they doing here?"

"Maybe the reason we're here?" suggested Ken.

"It feels like they need help. We cannot possibly leave them like that. We must fight those Vong now," stated Caiya.

She's right. We can't fight them later like I had wanted. Oh, well. "All right, let's go." Anakin eagerly pushed his way forward. Ladora sighed and pulled him back. "But we have to maintain our cover of surprise."

Anakin turned to her, putting his hands on his hips and started tapping his foot. "Well?" he asked. His voice sounded like he was nearly a breaking point.

Behind her helmet, Ladora smiled. She opened one of her belt pouches. She had hoped to use the four small white disks on some mission. Now she had her chance. She threw the disks on the ground and stepped on the one nearest to her. The disk spread out, becoming longer, but more oval shape. When it was done, she got on it and turned her foot sideways, activating it. The 'disk' rose in the air, taking Ladora with it. She turned and looked down. "Well, step on it!"

Soon, they were all in the air, floating on the oval boards. "Whoa, what are these things?" asked Anakin.

"I call them Skyboards," answered Ladora. "They'll help us get to where the Vong are without them seeing us. Just use you feet to control the direction you want to go in. The repulsors will do the rest. Let's go." She aimed forward toward the negative shadow. They had to move quickly, it was unclear how much time they had.

Ladora slowed the board to a complete stop as they reached the area the fight was in. She looked at Anakin to see his response. She could feel his concern in the Force. Don't do anything stupid, Anakin. "Caiya, lower your negative bubble so only pure light can be felt, all right?" She did not wait for an answer. She stepped off her board and it retracted back to its ordinal shape. She grabbed the board, placed it back in her belt and fell to the ground. Her blade was already ignited and it found its way into the Vong's shoulder.


Luke had thought it was over. The simple mission of finding a suitable base had gone wrong. The Vong had come here, too, and had outnumbered Luke and his friends. He had thought there was no escape this time. Then something strange happened. A silver blade came ripping through the Vong he had been fighting.

He broke off. The Vong turned, forgetting Luke for the moment, to see who had attacked him. Luke heard the attacks behind him stop as well. Everyone, Vong and human, seemed to be transfixed at the sight before them.

Four humanoids stood in attack stance. All were holding lightsabers. The attacked Vong started forward, clearly looking for revenge, but fell halfway in the attempt. As the creature tried to get up, the holder of the silver lightsaber stabbed him in the arm. The Vong stilled, but was still alive as his chest moved up and down. A cry of outrage was rose up and the Vong behind Luke ran forward to engage the mysterious warriors. The four branched out.

Luke raised his lightsaber to start the fight again, but he stopped. The tactics these newcomers were using were alarming him. The first wielded a gold lightsaber and was male. He was wearing a gold-brown flightsuit and helmet with a visor over his face. He was defending against a Vong when another came from behind him. He moved out of the way and the Vong ran into each other. The gold one stabbed the two at the same time, and then stabbed them again higher up on their bodies. They fell; clearly alive, but for some reason, not moving.

Still feeling shocked, Luke turned to look at the others. The one with the yellow lightsaber wearing an outfit resembling a body and a cat-like helmet was not much better. In fact, she was worse. She attacked the Vong outright, sometimes not even waiting for them to attempt to strike her. So many were falling under her blade, but all alive.

In the many years of living with war, he had never seen anything like this. At least not by his side. The strange thing was that all he was feeling from them was pure light! Luke turned his back on those two and focused on the dark blue male. His fighting style was better; he fought the Vong and waited for an opening before thrusting the blade into them. But it unnerved Luke for the boy to leave the Vong lying there in pain, even if they were the enemy. And then there was that mask.

"Luke! Look out!" He heard Leia's scream, but it was far too late. The silver warrior had already collided into him. They both fell to the ground and a staggering Vong, blood flowing from his wounds, prepared to strike. Luke reached for his lightsaber, but could not find it. The silver warrior reached for hers in front of them, but the Vong rammed his staff down, crushing the weapon.

She raised her arm, her hand in a tight fist, but nothing happened. She looked at her wrist, hit it and raised it again. Nothing. Luke looked around for his weapon. When he could not find it, he started to look for some object that might prolong the Vong's attack.

The Vong groaned. They both looked up to see a blue blade sticking out of the body. Mara? But no, the Vong fell to reveal the blue warrior. He reached out his hand to help the silver one up, but she ignored him and got up on her own. Blue did not seem to be annoyed by that. He reached out his hand to Luke. He accepted it, but a tingle ran through his body. What was that?

"Are you all right, Luke?" asked Mara. She picked up his lightsaber, which had rolled out of his reach, and gave it back to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," answered Luke as he clipped the saber to his belt. The mysterious warriors were now spraying something that looked like crystal on the Vong from their wrists. "Who are they?"

His wife gave him a disbelieving expression. "If I knew, farmboy, I would have explained to these kids the proper way to fight," replied Mara.

"It's like they appeared out of nowhere," said Jaina, looking at the sky as if trying to find a ship of some kind that might have transported their rescuers.

They stood there watching these 'Jedi' (if they could be called that) work. A few minutes later, the warriors stopped in front of them. "All right, who are you, kids? What are you doing and how in the blazes did you do all that?" demanded Han, waving his arm around at the crystal-encased Vong. Luke would have smiled at Han's behavior if the situation were not so serious.

The warriors looked at one another. Then Silver reached for something in her belt and placed it in Luke's hand. Everyone leaned forward to look at it. "What is it?" asked Jaina.

"It's an envelope," said Luke, confused. He opened it and out fell a datacard.

"Hey!" said Leia. "Look. They're leaving."

He looked up. The warriors were disappearing around a rock. All except one, the dark blue one. The one with that faceless mask.


Next chapter is the last one for part one. Then it's part two and more of Luke and the others. :D