In very well lit room a few hours later, Jin Wan So'bal is sitting in a chair and looking rather bored as he stares out the large window that is the source of the light shining in. The room is very sparse in its design and furnishings, the usual grey and sandy brown tone gives the feeling of a drab lifestyle, one not devoted to comfort but rather a life of simplicity. To break his boredom, the Jedi Knight walks over to the very window to see the view of busy city. There is a concerned look upon his face the entire time, his return to the temple has brought him a questionable mind and seeks only to find out to what happened to his beloved old Jedi Master, Col Bin Daus. A sound of the chamber room doors open up from behind him and a frail looking Jedi comes walking in with a cane clutched in his hand.

"Welcome home Jin Wan...you must forgive my absence."

So'bal turns around and bows to the approaching old Jedi, "No apologies needed Master Zen'Tauk, I was told you were in a meeting of the council...I waited for you as instructed."

The old Jedi Master grinned at the respect of So'bal and sat down with him as they faced one another in opposite brown leather looking half moon chairs.

"You're journey has been long and dangerous I hear...." Zen'Tauk said to him.

"Master...forgive me, I must ask. My mind weighs heavily on the death of Daus."

The old Jedi leans back in his chair and sighs.

"A most regrettable event indeed. The council mourned of his loss."

So'bal leaned in closer to the Jedi Master and clasped his hands together as he spoke.

"How? How could a Jedi ask skilled as Daus end up dead? It defies all reason...was the senate informed of this?"

"Don't be absurd." The old man snipped. "If we informed the Republic Senate of what happened near the temple...all faith in our order would have been in question. It is better to shroud this murder from their eyes until we can solve the mystery around it. Till then...I forbid you to ever announce his passing to anyone outside these sacred walls. Understood?"

"Master Zen'Tauk!" Jin Wan raised his voice in protest. "I will not sit by and let a great man like that not to receive the proper Jedi burial. This is a secret we cannot hide from the public, they must be made aware of the new threat that has arisen!"

The old man taps his cane in anger, "Do not speak so harshly to me young one! The council has already agreed to this course of action and all Jedi and Padwans are sworn to up hold this or face the consequences."

"Which is?" Jin Wan asked.

"Expulsion and Disassociation!" Zen'Tauk shouted as he points to him. "Any Jedi that breaks this rule will be thrown out of this temple forever. Think of the chaos that would ensue if word of this tragic loss where to get out. Of all the attacks of the few Sith over the years, after we assured the Republic they were no longer any where in the galaxy, what where to happen if they found out we failed in that task?"

"They'd probably want to know why the Jedi made such an obvious oversight in their declaration to the Republic." Jin Wan states.

"Exactly my boy...exactly." The old man sighs out. "There are those in the senate that would love nothing better then see our order fail. It would mean that our trust and faith would be in question...they'd start to think we're no better then the Sith."

"Aren't we?" So'bal asks questionably as he rises out of his seat and looks down at the Jedi elder. "Look at the lengths we're going at to cover this up. There is doubt in this order, a doubt my former master warned you all about, but did any of you heed to his wisdom? No. Now he's dead...and with it all hope to save the Jedi."

Jin Wan walks back over to the window and stares out at the cityscape once again. Zen'Tauk continues to stare at the brazen young Jedi Knight and brings the end part of his wooden cane to his bottom lower lip in thought.

"These are truly unsettled times So'bal. But this must remain hidden for the good of all, until the Jedi unravels this mystery, we will continue to protect the Republic from any disruption of peace. You must believe me that Daus's death was a great personal loss to me, for he was a good friend and a good former student of mine. My feelings on this matter must remain in control or else whom ever is causing this rift in our order will use that pain to make things worst."

Jin Wan remains silent as he hears the old man speak, deep in his heart he knows that this is all wrong, that keeping Daus's death and the Sith attacks secret from the Republic goes against everything he was taught by his old master. Col Bin Daus always told him that 'Jedi are here to serve the Republic, not run it.', dare as he would to openly tell the senate of this deceit, it would mean the end for the Jedi. That is something he could not allow as well. Because in the end, that would mean the Sith had won.

"Let us forget this until later." Zen'Tauk says to him as he rises out of the chair. "For now the council must meet this new Padwan of yours. Tell me So'bal...is he as the council has foreseen him to be?"

Jin Wan turns around as he tries to put aside his mistrust, "He is...unique Master Zen'Tauk. But he does possess a great strength in the force as you have all predicted, I myself have seen this to be true. Right now he's taking a tour of the Padwan learning center, I told him I would join him after our meeting."

"You have fulfilled your mission perfectly Jin Wan So'bal, I must admit I had my doubts about you...I'm glad to see I can still be pleasantly surprised. Please bring him to the council room at once." Zen'Tauk smiles to him.

The old Jedi Master slowly walks out of the room as the doors slide open for him. Watching the elder leave, Jin Wan bows to him and then rises back up as the large engraved brown-grey doors close. Stroking his chin in thought, the Jedi speaks aloud to the man, even though he has already left.

"At once Master Zen'Tauk...I look forward to it."

••••••••••••••••••••••••

Down with in the temple, Yoda and Tinara are wandering about the large room that interconnects to the various training rooms. The red carpeting and spacious round interior curves their walking pattern as they take a peek into each doorway they come too. The smiling face of the youthful green creature causes Tinara to also smile as she watches him look with joy. The sounds of children laughing, teachers preaching to the students of the force and the occasional sound of lightsabers clashing echoes throughout the room they're standing in. Yoda stops at one of the class entrances and notices the children about his age all wearing white cap like helmets with eye shields.

"That's it my young ones..." The female teacher's voice says somewhere in the room. "Feel the force and let the sword come to your hand. Focus with your minds and not your eyes..."

As Tinara and Yoda watched, the children slowly made the lightsabers in front of each of them lift up as they used the force. One of the children, a squid faced alien child, struggled to focus on his sword and soon found that it leapt well beyond his hand and right into the back of the female teacher's head. The woman was humanoid, slightly gray in hair color, but still beautiful in her appearance. The blow to her head from the boy's sword made her shout with pain and rubbed it firmly. The children all laughed at the incident as they could sense the mishap occur. She picked the lightsaber off of the floor where it had dropped and turned to look at the student.

"Kezzle Mon Dobbie! Control your emotions!"

The squid Padwan shuffled his foot in embarrassment and gave her a somber look.

"Sowry Master Lan Wan Orisis...I didn't mean for it to happen."

She walked over and handed it to him, "You need to remember that your hand is where you want this to come too...and not to the back of my head. Right?"

The little squid alien snickered as he saw her wink with humor. Yoda even giggled as the bumbling Padwan looked over in his direction, once the laughing died down, the students tried the Jedi trick again with a more serious attempt this time round. Tinara was impressed by the children, never had she witnessed such Jedi behavior in kids this young. She looked at them all raising the swords again and shook her head in disbelief.

"Amazing. Can you do that sort of thing too Yoda? Yoda?"

She looks around her as she notices the small boy is now gone from her side. She ventures back out into the large round room to see where he has gone too and discovers him near another doorway on the far side. Yoda looks mesmerized by something as she approaches behind him; a dazzle of lights and sounds of lightsabers clashing with laser fire seems to even get her attention as she gazes in with him. The room is full of much older Padwans, in their late teenage years; all are watching one human Caucasian boy with dark chestnut brown hair battle a small round object. The device hovers and floats in the air as it quickly moves all around the teenager with lightening speed. The grey ball, with protruding miniature laser cannons, fires away at him from every angle. The brown haired boy flips his body around gracefully and uses his sword to repel the incoming fire the probe unleashes at him. It seems impossible that he could react so quickly to such rapid attacks, but Tinara is even more impressed with this kid then the ones she had witnessed before.

Clearly the teenager was not beginning to show off to the rest in the class as he soon twirled his lightsaber in his hand like a showman. The lasers continued to deflect from his skilled counterstrikes and soon he finished the probe with one last swing sending the energy blast back at the test droid. The machine shut down and hovered in silence. The class clapped at his performance and he bowed to them all as he smiled with delight. The trainer in the corner of the room was the only one not clapping at his typical adolescent behavior, the camel-faced looking instructor had long white hair and a long white narrow beard the came down just below his chest. He was slender, but the overly large brown Jedi robes gave him the appearance of being bulky. Instead of clapping, the old Jedi teacher was shaking his head in disappointment.

"That was the worst display of skill I've ever seen." The camel-faced Jedi announces loudly to him. "Such foolish nonsense and sloppy reaction is no way for a Jedi to behave."

Tinara was shocked by his words. Sloppy behavior? It didn't look that way to her at all, perhaps in their eyes it was nothing to be too impressed by, but there would be many non-Jedi observers who would think this to be outstanding. Training here must be very hard indeed if they have overly critical instructors like this, she patted Yoda on the head as she looked down at him and wondered if this is the sort of harsh talk he would receive as well.

"But...but Master Oberon Sa-hee, I achieved total victory over the probe. My skill was better then last time." The young brown haired Padwan gulped.

"HA!" Oberon Sa-hee shouted. "Better yes...but total victory you did not achieve. This probe is only practically damaged...you must never hesitate and completely disable the device."

The boy laughs at his instructor, "Oh come on...look it's not even operating anymore."

The probe suddenly turns on again and sends a few rapid shots to the boy as he has back turned away at it. The shots where not powerful enough to do any sort of damage, a quick stinging pain and some slight bruising on the skin is all this training tool is able to inflict on them. The boy yelped as he felt the many shots strike him from behind and fell to the floor from the impact. All of the Padwans end their claps and now recoil in shock as they see their fellow student fall in defeat. Sa-hee stood over him and looked down as the probe deactivated and hovered quietly again.

"Just because something appears to be dead doesn't necessarily make it so. The probe is able to absorb the power from laser fire, if you had struck it down with your sword you would have totally destroyed it before it had the chance to recharge again. Had you used the force properly, you would have felt it's operating system, the surge of the power matrix inside and discovered it's hidden secret. But once again you failed to use the force to help guide your actions."

The young teenager stood up and bowed, "I am sorry Master. I was...I was..."

"You were acting foolish. But..." The Jedi instructor nodded with a grin. "There is hope for you Padwan Nevari. I was young once too...so I know you'd like to show off to your friends. You'll soon learn that only the serious minded will ever truly master the force well. So make that your commitment instead of acting the imbecile, hm?"

The boy smiled back and bowed, "Yes Master Oberon!"

"That goes for all of you as well...focus and commitment..."

The other teenaged Padwans nodded and repeated the instructor's words; they all knew that he was right and that his wisdom was to be respected.

"Who are you?" Oberon now speaks to Tinara standing at the doorway. "No outsiders are supposed to be in the temple!"

"Oh...ah...well ya see..." Tinara flutters as she tires to make an excuse.

"With me she is!" Yoda shouts up at him.

The instructor walks over to him and crouches down to his level.

"Oh...and have we lost our ability in manners? Introductions please."

"Yoda I am and good friend Tinara, this is." The small boy says to him with a stubborn tone.

Oberon Sa-hee nods slightly and raises his hand out, "How do you do Padwan Yoda...I am Oberon Sa-hee and this is my class of Padwan learners of the Tenth level."

Yoda smiles and nods to the others looking. Tinara also waves slightly and grins with embarrassment as they stick out like a sore thumb. The teenagers giggle at the two and begin to whisper to one another as they point at Yoda.

"Sorry to interrupt you class...but uh...lil' Yoda here was interested in watching you." Tinara says to Oberon.

"I see." The instructor says as he stands up. "Well then, I suppose you think you can skip ahead of the other children and become a tenth level Padwan, hm? Those that graduate from this go with their Masters to train for Jedi Knighthood."

Yoda walks into the room and turns back to the instructor, "Then Jedi will I be."

Tinara and Oberon look at one another snickering at his behavior, with such arrogance in his steps, Sa-hee is willing to put the child through the small test of his skill. The Jedi instructor hands him a lightsaber and walks over to his corner to watch.

"Very well, young Master Yoda. Switch on your sword and begin. Let us see how far your training has come."