While having a movie marathon two weeks ago, of a certain series which you will be quick to figure out haha, this bunny bit me. I tried to keep to the KA movie plot as much as possible, but some things had to be changed because of the AU environment…and just for the sake of fun. I hope you like it, now that school is out I do have some stories that I'll be able to post more. And get back to working on King. Enjoy.

Order of Knights

Chapter 1 – A Recent Scar

The door slid open and there was no sound as the man walked to the center of the round room, surrounded by chairs which were occupied by various beings, wearing the same type of clothing as the man. The only difference was the slightly reddish brown hue of his cloak. He took down his hood, revealing his dark hair and calm grey eyes. A recent scar trailed down from the bridge of his nose diagonal across his cheek. The man bowed, "Masters."

Jedi Master Mace Windu leaned forward slightly in his Council chair, folding his hands with his elbows set on his knees, "The senate has asked us to look into the violence erupting in the Arkanis sector. The Republic has a few outposts on various planets in this sector, they're being attacked regularly. Any attempt to reason with or stop the resistance has failed. The Council has determined that you, Master Castus, are to see to the defense of the outposts and halt to hostilities there"

"Take the others, you are. Worked with them before, you have. More than one is required, this situation to handle," the diminutive Master Yoda explained further.

Arthur Castus knew of whom the old Master spoke. They were his friends; since they were all Padawans and even young initiates. And they had worked before. Now they were all knights – or rather, most of them were. Some things had changed since then. Arthur bowed his head slightly, "I understand, Master."

"Danger we sense in this. That is why you it is we send," Yoda continued.

"Keep in contact with the Council, especially as new light is shed on the situation. All of you will leave tomorrow," Mace added. Arthur nodded wordlessly. The Master smiled, "May the Force be with all of you."

"May the Force be with you as well," Arthur said softly and bowed again before leaving, his reddish brown cloak sweeping around his feet.

Ki-Adi-Mundi, one of the few Jedi Knights on the Council, sighed as the doors slid shut. "Is it really wise to send him on a mission now? Especially with Lancelot Duluk," questioned another of the Masters, Adi Gallia.

Yoda looked over to her with his large green eyes, "Ready now, he is. Recovered from his battle."

Adi shook her head, "What of his mental recovery, have the Soul Healers-…"

"The best way for Artorius to heal is to go back on a mission, and be the knight he has become," Ki-Adi-Mundi said diplomatically. "And Lancelot was accepted into this Order again by this Council, he will prove himself."

Arthur sighed as he entered his small apartment in the living quarters of the Jedi Temple. It was smaller than most living spaces in the galaxy, but suited his purposes. In fact, it was actually larger than he needed now. For a few moments, Arthur stood in the main room, looking into the doorway of the dark room to the left. He couldn't see inside, but he knew by heart the holopics on the wall of his old Master's room. Seven months ago he would have expected Peris Brond to come out and greet him. Not anymore.

As he entered into his own sleeping quarters on the right, he reached up to run a hand through his hair. It was longer now, not in the short crop that Padawans had. And his braid was gone, that was perhaps the most significant change. Arthur looked up on the wall above his sleepcouch. Only two holopics remained; one of him and his friends and the other of him and Lancelot, when they were Padawans, nearly two years ago. He realized he hadn't seen any of them in eight months, not since before everything changed.

It was right to say that everything changed too, since most people would look at it as a loss and simply say that it was in his mind, and he had to move on. But that wasn't it, the changes were physical as well. The absence of his Padawan braid without ever facing the trials. No, Arthur Castus had faced his own trial, and passed it only by living.

He sat on the sleepcouch for a moment next to the box there and took off his boots, still looking up at the wall where the rest of his holopics had been that were now in the box. Hesitating a moment, Arthur looked down at his feet for the first time since everything had happened. He pulled up the left leg of his pants a little ways, exposing more of the artificial robotic limb that took place of what had been there. Pain welled up again inside and betrayal…anger. Arthur shook his head, no he couldn't take this path, he wouldn't do this. Calm, peace. Closing his eyes, he sat in silence for a few moments before getting up to call the others on the comlink.

Lancelot Duluk waited on the docking platform where the two ships they would take were waiting. Eight of them would leave for the Arkanis system, specifically the planet Centaris. But it wasn't the mission that had Lance a little on edge. It was seeing his best friend after more than half a year. No one could have gone through what happened to him and come out of it the same. Lance was already aware of the physical damage, but no one had seen it emotionally.

So he waited for them quietly, watching with his dark brown eyes. He could sense when Arthur was coming; it was something Lance had always been very attuned to since they were initiates together. In fact, they had known each other the entire time they had been at the Temple…except when Lance had been gone. It seemed very strange that both of them had had things out of their own control nearly keep them from continuing in the Jedi Order and become knighted.

Ten years ago, the curly haired knight had been captured and sold into the spice mines on Berea as a slave. A Force collar could provide a lot of restraint to a Jedi, especially one still in training. It took six years before he was found and rescued. The Council was reluctant to let him continue as a Padawan leaner because of the increased risk of temptation of the Dark side, but since it was not of his own making, they consented and only this year, like Arthur, he was knighted.

Lance was interrupted from his thoughts when a familiar presence entered his mind. He smiled, seeing the cloaked figure of his friend walking towards him. "Arthur," Lance said, reaching a hand out to the other man who took it.

"Lance, it has been too long, I apologize," Arthur said humbly. The light that had always been in his grey eyes had faded some, but it was still there.

"You don't need to apologize, I understand you know. Mostly anyway," the other smiled and paused for a moment before pulling his friend into a hug.

Arthur laughed, it had been the first time for a long time that he had. Leave it to Lance to start bringing him back to his old self. If he could have, he would have seen his friend sooner, but at the time, he needed to be able to handle it himself. He wanted to protect the man he had always viewed as a younger brother from what had happened to him. In many ways, especially for a Jedi, being a slave was not worse than what had happened seven months ago. And for a few moments, Arthur was able to put it behind him.

All of the others knew what had happened too – likely by now the entire Temple did, it didn't happen often, but when it did everyone knew. But despite that, they all looked to Artorius Castus for leadership as they had in the past. Jedi normally didn't work in teams, except Master and Padawan, but these men did. They were grown up now, Dag and Gawain even had Padawans of their own; Lucan and Galahad respectively. Eight of them left for the Arkanis system that morning.