"Azekel!" cried Jaster at the top of his lungs, his arms swinging his lightsaber through the chains barring him from his master; the Sith surrounding the Jedi pair darting back from the sudden explosion of light and sparks as the links to the heavy metal exploded under the bite of the blade.
"Get yourself the hell out of the chasm, Jaster!" Jakome shouted up at his apprentice, as Jaster saw the walls to the vertical tunnel vibrate and seem almost to buckle threateningly. The black robed Sith leapt forward to join the fray on the ledge below the Mandalorian as he again called to his master, this time too late.
"Jaster get out of the Chambers- Aaaaaaaah!" The Jedi Knight cried out a final warning as the darkened Sith drove home a fatal blow and the tunnel's walls gave way at the bottom of the chasm to an intolerable rush of heat gusting upwards.
"No!" Jaster heard his voice cry out, surprised at his rage and emotion and feeling dazed, helpless to escape the rush of lava into the volcano shaft; a few Sith were swallowed up with screams of pain and agony in the waves of rushing magma while the others leapt upwards, ledge by ledge, the black robed leader foremost among them, leaping steadily upwards towards Jaster's waiting blade on the edge; Jaster's waiting fury and hatred. The Sith leader laughed demonically as Jaster's anger grew, his hatred blinding his emotion of sadness over Azekel's death as the lava swallowed the Jedi corpse below and the onslaught came on, Jaster heard a noise behind him on the ledge, and turned to face an obscured but somehow familiar face. The blurry figure tried to speak, but Jaster felt only an aura of danger, and a blue lightsaber sparked to life from the figure's indistinct form.
"Jaster!" He heard a voice, echoing from somewhere far away, above and beyond the haze and heat of the chaotic scene. Jaster's vision tore suddenly away from his body as he stood poised over the chasm awaiting the Sith. The voice called to him again. His vision blurred, swinging far and away from the battle scene he knew must be raging between his body and the Sith far below, but the image of the sky melted away into a dull haze of light and then blinking darkness and a dull light from a form hovering close to his face. "Jaster?" the voice was Lena's, low and whispering in the semidarkness of Jaster's dormitory at the Jedi Academy. He suddenly remembered that he was resting for his journey in two days with Azekel in search of the Sith who'd attacked the base. He took a breath, trying to forget the vividness of the dream and succeeding as he gazed up at the Corellian girl's frightened but still beautiful face. He blinked, frowned and said groggily;
"I'm awake, now what is it?" He made to hush her quickly as she looked ready to cry out loud, and pointed urgently to the bunk above him, where his roommate no doubt slept soundly.
"So affectionate!" She whispered sarcastically, "But I've got to show you something outside! It's amazing!" Jaster groaned lazily, still heavy with sleep as Lena looked still anxiously up at the top bunk, where Renak Glibbs, Jaster's Rodian roommate shuffled grumpily under his sheets.
"Look, if you two want the room to yourselves I'll have to ask you to wait until tomorrow, alright?" Glibbs croaked in his high voice, "I'm not going to get up this late for you to have a little 'personal time'."
Lena sighed heavily in the dark room and looked up at the dozing Rodian with an impatient look.
"Get real, Renak; I want to show Jaster something outside! Come on you lazy Bantha! Let's go!" She pushed Mereel excitedly as he wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up, his only clothing a pair of worn and vibrantly red boxers Renak had generously given him when Jaster realized he had only two pairs of his own, and they had both been left on Glade 6 in a seedy off-port apartment he'd called home for a month before Jakome had found him. He stood up, stretching wearily.
"What time is it, woman?" He asked in slight agitation.
"Too late for a midnight smoke?" Renak's high voice asked before Lena could reply that she didn't much appreciate being referred to as 'woman'. The Mandalorian grinned as the girl made a nasty face to show what she thought of his developing habits.
"You'll smoke yourself to an early grave with those death sticks, you skinny green morons!" She warned them.
"Hey, only one of us is skinny and green in here!" Jaster shot back, pulling on a pair of Academy longs. Renak shrugged indifferently and turned back over in his bed.
"You'll soon be just as green if you keep up that smoking, Jaster, what if the masters found out?" Lena persisted as they walked out of the room and into the humid jungle night on the Academy Temple balcony.
"Never mind the Masters, they can take a long walk off a short plank into the Sarlaac for all I care at this hour; now what on the moons of Mictlin is so important out here?" He asked, trying to change the subject; then he froze, his eyes glued to the glowing night sky and the strange, wonderful colors it was radiating; lighting the night sky in an alien hue of greens, yellows, purples and reds. "What the hell?"
Lena was clutching his arm happily under the invisible, painted stars and her smile spread from ear to ear from the look of surprise on his face. She leaned her head lightly on his shoulder in what the Mandalorian thought was a dramatically romantic way.
"Isn't it romantic, Jaster?" She cooed, confirming his suspicions.
"I wouldn't know." He replied with a shrug, pretending to miss her point, "To tell you the truth, it kind of freaks me out. Why does it look like that?" The girl sighed heavily no doubt gave him a pretty sour look, but Jaster just wasn't awake enough to catch it.
"Jaster." She said, getting his attention, "It's romantic, okay? Let's not overanalyze the semi-annual Yavin 5 midnight planetary eclipse, alright?"
"Right." The Mandalorian got the point as he saw a glint in her eyes and she began to move her face closer to his, he closed his eyes and made to kiss her …
"Son of a Garbulok!" shouted a voice from behind them. It was Renak, who dropped his cigarette in surprise at the sight of the eerie light. "What the hell is that?" He asked, pointing in surprise to the sky. Lena's head dropped with a frustrated, very annoyed look and Jaster leapt away to grab his roommate and excitedly explain the phenomenon.
"I swear to the gods I'm going to kill both of you skinny green morons …" she growled as the two young men laughed and made obscene jokes about the possible source of the lights.
The sun rose high and bright the next dawn, and Jaster's eyes flittered open in the dim light of his dormitory. Lena's head lay across his chest as the two sat back on the small couch in his and Renak's room. The skinny Rodian lay sprawled across his own bunk, his gangly arm hanging down over the guardrail Jaster had constructed to keep the alien from rolling off the bunk for a third time. The Mandalorian blinked softly in the creeping light of the shaded window, feeling very happy and comfortable, and also a bit strange for it. For the first time in his life he thought he actually had friends; people that would rather he live than die. Two people here valued his company, and maybe, he thought further, with a little more grudging effort, three people, if Azekel could soon be included. The Jedi Knight had pulled him out of his one-way life of an underage mercenary and into a difficult and trying, but still amazing life of opportunity here at the Academy, and Jaster thought perhaps he should try a bit harder after all to make Jakome's life a little easier.
He thought about his situation for a moment longer, his mind still unwilling to accept 'friends' and the trust they entailed, but he decided that for now, under the unstressed circumstances, they were the closest things he had, he had ever had, to trustworthy and amiable companions; Renak had helped him, after some initial reluctance, to grow accustomed to the Academy and had since grown into quite an agreeable accomplice on many a misdeed late in the night. The Rodian had assisted the Mandalorian in a wide variety of pranks ranging from explosives in the library during studies to escaping the Academy grounds after midnight and exploring the ruins of the surrounding Yavin temples. Lena was especially driven to see Jaster succeed, and, despite her criticisms and constant worries, he was starting to grow very fond of her, as well.