Again sorry that this is so short! I should be writing some longer chapters when my dissertation is finished!

Gem

Chapter 3: Two Jedi in one night? What are the odds?!

Cam heaved a sigh of relief as she finally reached docking bay nineteen and the Wild Ride. The familiar lights winked and she found herself running as fast as she could towards it. The ship had a sleek chrome surface, which looked like one massive mirror giving away that it was a Nubian freighter. It's slick surface swooped and curved gracefully to create a work of art in itself but the most startlingly beautiful thing about the horizontal tear drop shaped ship was the wings which stretched out like a bird's and shone in the same chrome but were tinged with all of the colours of the human spectrum. Cam slowed as she came to the bottom of the ramp. That was odd! Her father was always careful about locking his ship up tight. She drew her blaster and crept inside moving slowly so that she made no sound. She paused outside the cockpit and pressed her ear up against the cold metal of the door. A familiar, low, purring voice floated to her through the door that made Cam's skin crawl and her blood run cold. She held her breath and stood trembling in her spot.

" . . . Yes. Droga wants all of you alive unfortunately. I am afraid I gave your dear daughter quite a scare back there. I do believe she thought that I was going to kill her!" a cold laugh followed and then he continued to talk. "We'll just wait for her to come waltzing in here and then off we go back to Nal Hutta! Isn't that nice? The place where your wife died!"

Cam tasted bile and fought back the urge to retch. Nal Hutta. She wished the place would just detonate! She doubled over and forced her eyes closed so tightly that a headache pounded behind her eyes. She closed them so tightly that bright dots danced in the blackness of her eyelids.

She couldn't do anything! Her family would be transported back into the clutches of Droga the Hutt and they would die! Her eyes snapped open at that thought. No, she wouldn't go back to Nal Hutta! She couldn't!

A deep routed emotion stirred inside her chest and she tossed off her cape and set her blaster to kill. She'd have this out now! No more looking over her shoulder, no more fearing to turn the next corner! Cam took a deep breath and drew her vibro-blade, turning it on and grasping it tightly in her left hand like a small dagger. She kicked out at the button to open the door and it slid open causing the occupants of the cockpit to whirl around stare at her. She held her blaster aimed directly at the hooded figures head as she hastily took in the scene. Her father sat with vibro-cuffs around his wrists and ankles while her brother was chained to the co-pilot's seat. On the floor, merely stunned she hoped, where the bodies of the female Wookiee, female Twi'lekk and the male Toydarian that constituted her father's crew.

She frowned, feeling the anger and concern swell within her and pressed the muzzle of her blaster hard against her tormentor's cloth covered skull.

"Alright, Sith-Face! Move and I get to paint this cockpit with your brains!"

-ooooo-

"Shut up!" Kyp growled again and again Miko dissolved into laughter.

"Admit it! You were taken with her!"

"Did I just say 'Shut up'? I think I did! So do it already!"

Miko sniggered as they turned to enter the docking bay that Cam had told Rant that the Wild Ride was harboured in but his laughter died on his lips at the sight that greeted them. Both Jedi reached for their lightsabres.

Camilly Freelancer sprawled on her stomach and spat a mouthful of blood onto the metallic ground. She ran the back of her hand over her chin streaking the blood further across her face before pulling herself, with great effort, to her feet. She swayed slightly as she turned to face her opponent with a courage that was foolish but no less inspiring.

"Sith, that's the being I was telling you about!" Kyp hissed as the cloaked creature moved closer to Cam.

Miko unclipped his lightsabre and made to step forwards, but when Kyp made no move to follow him he turned a questioning gaze upon his master.

"You're not going to help her?" he asked incredulously.

"She's a slave trader!" Kyp growled, though Miko could feel that his emotions where in turmoil. "Probably this being wants to bring her to justice like we do!"

Miko turned to watch as the grey hooded alien caught a punch that Cam swung at him and plunged his claws deep into her shoulder. Her cry of pain was enough to bring tears to Miko's eye and echoed about the docking bay. Miko glanced back at Kyp with anger in his face.

"Then why did you save her before?!" he hissed dangerously. Again Kyp didn't move or speak and Miko growled. "Slave trader or not, no one deserves such a brutal handling!"

He turned and ignited his lightsabre, a shining green shaft of pure light that hummed slightly as he moved swiftly towards the girl and her attacker. His master was so full of the fierce conviction that all smugglers needed to be stopped. Whether that meant imprisoning them or killing them didn't matter and Miko had a niggling fear in the back of his conscience that this was all vaguely nearing Darkside status. He had pushed that thought down each time it surfaced but it was still there and wouldn't leave. He didn't dare let it become more than a niggling at the back of his awareness though, because if he did it would throw doubt upon Kyp and Kyp's spirit was so full of passion about this that Miko didn't have the heart to take it away from him. Sure, he knew that this also brought him perilously close to the boundaries of light but he simply couldn't break Kyp's resolve. However, this time Miko couldn't stand by and watch. He couldn't watch her die something in the Force told him it was his time to make a move and he acted on his impulses. Surely Kyp couldn't stand by and watch such atrocity take place. Miko heard the snap-hiss of Kyp's blade a nanosecond after his own and gave a mental sigh of relief. It seemed his master's conscience had gotten the better of him this time.

Miko focused his attention back onto the struggling forms before him, the girl, Cam, now forced to the ground clutching her shoulder. The shadowy figure turned to see the two Jedi lunging towards him and Cam took her chance, plunging her vibro-blade deep into the alien's booted foot. A screech of agony resounded around the hangar as the cloaked alien back-handed Cam across her face sending her sprawling once again, spluttering more blood onto the metal ground.

"You filthy little piece of Hutt fodder! You're worth less than the scum that owns you!" he howled and Cam cowered before him expecting the final death blow. However, her hunter turned and fled back into the Wild Ride as Miko neared. "I have you're little family, Freelancer and if you want them you'll come to Nal Hutta!"

"You only want that to save yourself the trouble of catching me!" she yelled back, struggling to her feet. Miko reached her and tossed his lightsabre to the ground to take her in his arms and stop her from falling or going after the alien.

The being laughed. "Perhaps. You shall never know unless you come. And if you don't…" he paused dramatically and flourished his clawed, three fingered hand before him. "…they will die!"

Cam struggled against Miko as the ramp of her father's ship lifted and the hatched closed, blocking the chilling laughter from her ears. Slowly the ship powered up and lifted off, causing both Miko and Cam to duck out of its path. She struggled fiercely in his grasp until the ship was out of sight, only then did she allow him to hold her close and herself to sob onto his shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay." Miko soothed rubbing her back to pacify the sobs that shook her frame. "We'll get them back!"

Cam looked up and into his dark eyes. "I don't even know who you are." She stated but didn't pull from his embrace. She put her head back onto his chest and allowed him to continue to sooth her with his voice and hands that made long even strokes up and down her back.

"I'm a Jedi." He replied and Cam gave a small, humourless laugh.

"Wow. Two Jedi in one night! What are the odds?"

-ooooo-

Kyp had stopped mid-pelt as Miko had reached Cam's side first and pulled her into his arms. Kyp deactivated his lightsabre and remained silent as he observed the exchange of words between Cam and her attacker. There was no doubt that he was a bounty hunter, and a good one by the looks of him and the way he made Cam shake in fear.

The ship lifted off seconds later and Kyp turned to watch it disappear into the upper reaches of the atmosphere and then escape into the cold clutches of space. Kyp didn't know who had been on board the ship, probably Cam's father and brother and the rest of her crew. He sighed and was about to ask if she knew where they were being taken to, but he stopped short when he heard Miko talking in low soothing tones. He turned back and cast his gaze warily over his apprentice as he comforted Camilly Freelancer.

An emotion so foreign to Kyp stirred deep within him and it took a good few moments for him to place it. Jealousy.

That should be you there. Comforting her. A small cold voice said in his head. You want to be there! Miko hasn't even met her before! It should be your arms she's in not his!

Kyp brushed those thoughts from his head yet the deep feeling of envy was harder to shake.

"Wow." He heard her mutter, drawing his attention directly back to her. "Two Jedi in one night! What are the odds?"

Kyp leapt at the chance to intervene and insert himself back into her knowledge. He cleared his throat causing both Cam and Miko to look up at him and realise that he was there.

"The odds are quite high, actually, considering the increasing number of force-sensitives being trained now-a-days." Kyp replied to her rhetorical question, hoping that his comment would bring some much needed levity to the dark, oppressive hangar and her attention from Miko onto him.

For a split second Cam's mouth twitched at the corner into a small smirk of amusement and recognition of him. Then she pulled back from Miko's protective embrace and looked down at herself. Her left shoulder was divided by three seven inch long and half inch wide lacerations that continued to bleed down her tanned arm and she stood favouring her right leg, its ankle having already swollen to twice its normal size. Smaller cuts and bruises peppered her body and her lower lip sported a central, vertical split that had opened from the last blow that the bounty hunter had dealt her.

"I'm a bit of a mess." She observed with a grim laugh. "I need some bacta patches or something."

She looked to Miko and Kyp again felt a pang of jealousy though he stamped it down quickly.

"Can a couple of Jedi help me out?"

Kyp gave her a lopsided grin and Miko placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Of course. It is our oath." They replied in unison, glancing at each other as they spoke. Each saw the competition that sparked in the other's eyes, though neither wanted to acknowledge it. Miko smiled at Kyp and the Jedi Master fought to fix a mirroring expression onto his own face.

"Come on." Kyp said, breaking the silence that had fallen between them. He clipped his lightsabre back onto his belt. "Let's get her to the nearest med-bay."

Kyp forced himself to turn away as Miko offered a supporting shoulder for Cam to cling to and curled his arm about her waist.

"Thanks." She replied and Kyp could hear the blush in her voice, her shy gratitude focused entirely on Miko as he took her weight on his shoulders.

"No problem!"

She's attracted to him! The cold voice returned, seeping into his thoughts like a mist. If you don't do something and do it fast he'll steal her out from under your nose!

Kyp gritted his teeth and again pushed the voice from his mind, instead concerning himself with locating the nearest med-bay fast and keeping several feet ahead of Cam and Miko who was still comforting her quietly.

-ooooo-

Poor ol' Kyp! Aren't I mean to him?! Hope you liked it as much as i enjoyed writing it!