AUTHOR'S NOTE:Thanks to all four reviewers! Gamorrean princess--double thanks for beta-ing again. Tinuviel Undomiel, Darkness1, shanesnest, thanks for dropping by! Hope you guys like this next chapter...no worries, it'll get better...

EDIT: Damn editor ate my triple asterisks!

CHAPTER TWO: DARK THOUGHTS, DARK SCARS

The gardens of Yavin had always been a source of peace for Jaden.

Born and raised on the lower levels of the city world of Coruscant, the sight of so many living plants was truly amazing to her. In the past, after missions and as soon as she'd checked out of the medbay, she had always gone to the gardens.

That was where she went after Vjun.

There was a little grotto, just beyond a pool of clear water, where two benches sat, facing one another. Vines and flowers of all sorts trailed invitingly around the niche. A little tree stood at the opening.

As soon as the medbay technician had pronounced her physically well, she had checked herself out of there and made her way into the gardens.

She sat on one of the benches, pulling one knee up to her chest. The movement awoke fresh aches and pains in her abused body, but she ignored them, staring out across the heavy blanket of green.

It should have been raining. That would have been appropriate. Jaden sighed. Sometimes, the weather had no sense of dramatic narration.

The air was heavy with the moisture of the latest rain, though, and droplets still lingered on the flowers and leaves of the plants. Twilight reigned, and many of the flowers were closed.

Without meaning to, she brushed gentle fingers across her latest scar. She'd healed it herself, in the middle of battle. It was hardly surprising that it should scar. She supposed she ought to be grateful it had healed correctly at all.

She had other scars, after all. Mostly acquired after arriving at the Academy. The three parallel markings on her left leg, where a Rancor had attempted to maul her. A thin line across her midriff where some joker had tried to slice her with a knife. A thicker, lumpier line where a Reborn's saberstaff had cut down across her shoulder. Countless tiny nicks and round pale marks from blasters and stunsticks.

She had other scars. Why did this one matter any more than any of the others?

Her hand dropped to her side. Where her lightsaber no longer hung from her belt. She sighed. She had been mildly surprised—mildly because she'd used up her store of shock for the day—that the Masters hadn't been more irritated over the loss of her weapon. After all, in the training, they'd gone on and on about how a Jedi's weapon was an extension of the Jedi herself…

She bowed her head, grimacing. She'd liked the damn thing!

With a sigh, she blanked her mind in preparation for meditation. Or tried to. Meditation had never been her strong suit, and she was unable to push all thought and emotion from her mind…especially not now…

She drew up her other leg, resting her forehead on her knees. She was so tired…but she didn't want to fall asleep. She knew what she would see behind her eyes. And she didn't need to see it, over and over again, didn't need to relive the shameful satisfaction at making him hurt.

"Are you all right?"

Jaden squeaked, caught completely off-guard. She jerked sideways, almost falling off her bench. She flailed out with one hand, catching herself on the wall, steadying herself. She took a few deep breaths. After a moment, she looked up.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, in direct contradiction to the evidence.

Kyle tipped his head to the side, a skeptical expression on his face. But he didn't say anything. He took a seat on the other bench, resting his elbows on his thighs. Watching her.

She settled herself back onto the bench, though she wanted more than anything else to run, run like hell. She didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to remember it. Anger and frustration rose in her chest, blocking her throat painfully.

"A little jumpy?"

Jaden shot him a baleful glare. "I was thinking," she said lamely.

Kyle shifted, watching her, a little uncomfortable. "Skywalker wants you promoted to Knight."

She quirked an eyebrow. "This is a joke, right? There's no way—Force, I was surprised I wasn't expelled from the Order right then and there!" Face it, Korr. You wanted to be expelled. You wanted to be free to take revenge…

He shook his head. "Kid, when you got here, you had a lightsaber and a lot of potential. Now, you…you're a Jedi. A damn good one, too." He pinned her with a concerned look. "We've all been where you are now, Jaden."

Don't patronize me!

She didn't say anything, only shook her head.

She heard a quiet sigh. "Just…just don't let it take you over. Don't do anything you'll regret later, okay?"

Too late. She nodded wordlessly, not looking at him.

A long, awkward, wordless pause stretched between them. She heard the rustle of cloth and the creak of leather as he shifted position uncomfortably. "Have you thought about a new 'saber?" he asked finally.

She looked up. "Not really," she replied, wondering what he was getting at. "I mean, I only lost mine a few hours ago."

A wince. Slight, and well-masked, but a wince. She took a small amount of pleasure in forcing a reaction from her Master.

"Well, it's something you ought to think about. We always have plenty of missions for a Knight of the Order. And it'd look a little silly for a Knight to be running around without a lightsaber."

She stared at her hands. A Knight?

"You could make a pair of 'sabers," Kyle went on, oblivious to her internal dialogue. "Or a saberstaff…or just a lightsaber." He shrugged. "That's what most Jedi seem to prefer."

"I want a staff," Jaden heard herself say. She blinked.

Of course, she'd fought saberstaff wielders. She knew they went down just like anyone else against a competent opponent. But there was something about the weapon that she…liked. Of course, her old lightsaber had worked well enough…but it was gone now. A saberstaff would work just as well…if not better.

Kyle seemed a little nonplused by her sudden decision, but he nodded. "Okay. It's been a while since anyone made a 'staff, but I bet Master Vao could help you out."

Master Trian Vao was a Twi'lek, and very much into weaponry. Any sort, any time-period. Master Vao and Apprentice Korr had sparred together many times, sharing an enjoyment of the sport.

Jaden nodded. "Yes."

Another awkward silence. Kyle made as if to get to his feet, then stopped. "Jaden…"

She looked up, knowing her face would be perfectly blank. "Yes?"

He hesitated. "Be careful," he said finally. And left.

"We received word from a freighter captain that there are members of the cult at the spaceport on Tanaab," Master Skywalker said.

He stood, as usual, before the high windows of his main meditation chamber. Jaden stood on the steps, face smooth and blank, a new lightstaff clipped to her belt. Kyle watched her from the corner, a slightly worried expression on his face. Contrary to the expression on her face, he could vaguely sense a whole maelstrom of emotion, just under the surface.

"Head over there and find out what they are doing there," Skywalker continued. He, too, watched the young Knight.

She nodded. "I understand."

The spaceport on Tanaab resounded to the harsh staticky echo of lightsaber on lightsaber. Jaden's boot caught a dark Jedi in the stomach, sending him staggering back and breaking the 'saberlock. She whirled, a neatly-timed backhand cut from her orange saberstaff severing his neck.

It also resounded to the extremely unsubtle sounds of a mutated Rancor crashing along the hallway. Jaden heard it—how could she not?—and bull-rushed the other cultist, sending him flying.

Then she ran. She'd seen what the huge thing could do to dark Jedi, to packing crates, to starships, merely by blundering about! And she, through some unlucky twist of fate, was its primary target.

She jumped, catching the edge of a packing crate with hands that were already bruised and bleeding from earlier mistreatment. She pulled herself up and kept running, jumping from crate to crate and finally to a walkway above. There was a door. It was locked.

Jaden swore. Figures…every time I'm in a hurry…

She cut the lock out of the door with a few quick slices, her lightstaff protesting the unorthodox use, and cast the door aside. Thank the Force! A control room!

She could see through the transparisteel panel, the impossibly huge creature drawing closer, pausing only to make a short snack of the cultists she'd shoved aside. There was a conveyer belt…and a crate…

Jaden glanced over the controls. She smiled. It wasn't a particularly pleasant expression.

"We've received word from the Chandrilans that some cultists have broken into an ancient tomb that is supposedly the burial site of a Jedi Knight. Hurry there and stop them from siphoning Force power."

Jaden nodded. "I get it. When do I leave?"

Chandrila, Jaden mused, must once have been a truly beautiful place. Almost surreal in its serenity. But now, infested with dark Jedi, rotten and crumbling, it was a poor imitation of whatever it might have been once.

Her orange lightstaff contrasted sickeningly with the predominantly blue lighting of the twilight tomb.

A savage left-handed slash forced a cultist to stagger back, clutching at his arm. He stumbled back one step too far, and, with a startled yelp, fell into the dark chasm in which the tomb was located.

"So long," Jaden muttered, stepping forward to the tomb's entrance. The aura, the sense of pure holiness inundated the place, made it hard for Jaden to breathe.

It reproached her silently.

She hesitated on the threshold. She didn't want to go any further, didn't want the oppressive feeling of light weighing down on her. She didn't want the light, didn't want it to burn away the shadows that surrounded her now.

Her orders were to make sure that the cultists didn't take the Force power from the tomb. They hadn't done so yet—the crawling of her skin was testament enough to that. She took a step back and a deep breath.

"Hey! Your mom was a bantha!" she yelled. Her voice echoed impressively off the high pale stone walls of the tomb.

She waited a moment for cultists to emerge from the woodwork. Then she shrugged and ignited one blade of her lightstaff. The place was a structural nightmare already. It wouldn't take much to ensure that no one set foot in the tomb ever again…

When it was done, she turned and walked away, feeling her eyes sting with unaccustomed tears.

Kyle folded his arms across his chest. "Since Rosh never completed his mission at Byss, we still need to determine if Tavion managed to siphon Force energy from the remains of the planet."

His one-time apprentice quirked an eyebrow. "You're kidding. Surely the mere fact that that was where he was caught tells us they managed to get the Force stuff…"

"The Emperor spent a lot of his time there, so it would be a huge source of power," Master Skywalker said quietly. "If it has been taken, we will have an idea of just how powerful Tavion is."

Jaden sighed and ducked her head, hiding her expression.

"I'll be going with you on this one," Kyle said in what he hoped was a firm, unequivocal voice. "This is where Rosh vanished, and we're not sure exactly what to expect."

For a moment, he caught her glance. It was so…full of malice and anger…so… dark…that it took his breath away. Then the mask fell back over her face. She nodded.

"Okay. I understand."

He was watching her carefully on this one, Jaden knew. And, so close, it was hard for her to disguise the change effectively. So she took refuge in silence, removing herself from the Force as far as she was able and speaking as little as she could get away with.

She wasn't sure how much she'd been able to fool him. When the time came for her to deal with the TIEs...

The Force terrified her. She hadn't so much as thought about touching it since the disaster on Vjun. And she was a terrible shot without it. It had taken her an inordinate time to shoot down the approaching TIEs, and by the time they were neutralized her hands were shaking.

She wasn't sure how much he'd noticed, how much he'd put together. Hell, she wasn't completely sure what was happening to her herself.

"Information has surfaced about a large stockpile of old weapons hidden in the wastes of Ord Mantell," Master Skywalker said, glancing at a datapad in his hand. "Destroy the stockpiles so they don't fall into the wrong hands. Records from the time of the Rebellion indicate that there should be seven caches hidden in the ruined city."

Jaden nodded. She didn't meet his gaze, instead looking down at her hands, clenched in her lap. Kyle was bad enough to dodge without having to worry about Master Skywalker as well. "I can handle that."

She could feel his eyes on her, concerned. "Kyle is off on another mission, or I would ask him to accompany you."

"I can do this alone, just fine," she reiterated. "Don't worry."

She felt his eyes on her still as she left the room.

Sweat ran down her forehead. She was running, flat out. Seven caches were successfully neutralized. One extremely irritating and dangerous bounty hunter was not.

She leapt up, landing solidly on the wing of her Z-95 Headhunter, saberstaff up before her, ready to deflect anything thrown at her.

Boba Fett rained down a veritable hail of red darts at her. Her movements were neat and graceful, conservative of motion, but getting the job done. Every single bolt hit her staff and ricocheted off back towards him.

With a roar, he ignited the rocket pack and flew away, avoiding her defensive attack. Her eyes narrowed.

Both attack and defense sped up. Jaden pivoted slowly, trying to hit him. The bounty hunter was able to dodge each and every hit, though. Her lips peeled back in a snarl unconsciously.

Stay still, dammit!

She freed one hand from her furious defense, almost without thinking. Stop moving!

The Force flew through her, easy and light as a feather, a rush of power as intoxicating as strong liquor. Her free hand clenched into a fist…

"So now I guess we have an enemy in common, heh," Kyle chuckled. At least most of her anger seemed to have blown over now.

Jaden smiled. "I guess we do, at that." Boba Fett had gotten away, but she'd scared him bad enough to let her go without bothering her more.

"How are you feeling?" he asked cautiously.

She shrugged. "Fine. I got a full night's sleep last night, for a change. The medtech gave me a clean bill of health last night after Ord Mantell. I'm…fine," she lied. Her stomach was churning uneasily, and she felt supremely uncomfortable, just walking around the Academy. It was strange, almost as though the place itself was repudiating her.

He noted the pause. "Well, that's good. Skywalker's planning the assault on Korriban."

Jaden spun. "Really? When?"

"Soon. But you and I aren't going to Korriban…not at first, anyway. We're making a short detour to Taspir III."

She frowned. "The moon? Why? I don't get it."

"We've received a message from Rosh."