Sorry to take so long getting this chapter up, I've been really busy.

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The Last Defender

By Lyda Mae (RavenDove) Huff

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Chapter Seven: Where The Force Breaths Silent

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Luke and Fenice crossed the lavender grass savanna on which they had set down the Markiea without a word. This was an uninhabited part of Dantooine, and neither wished to disturb the silence. The woods were their goal, according to the scrolls they would find a cliff on the other side after a clearing.

"I know this may sound strange," Fenice said softly to Luke as they entered the woods, "but I feel something here."

"Like an after image of pain?" Luke asked.

"Do you feel it too?"

"Something happened here long ago," Luke replied, "I don't know what but it feels like the Gamronel did."

"The way it lured us out to face it." Fenice knotted her brow. "Gam'nead must have been here."

"That would seem to go along with everything we've learned so far." Luke half shrugged.

"It's like we're following the ghosts of those she hurt." Fenice frowned.

Luke looked back at her, "Perhaps they are the key to undoing what was done."

"I'm sure they have something to do with it." Fenice said as she took the lead. "They need rest like the victims of the Gamronel."

They had only walked an hour when the trees began to thin. The cliff was there alright, but between the woods and the cliff stood several monuments of rock and wood.

"Graves?" Fenice asked already knowing they were.

Luke nodded, "I can't feel anything here."

Fenice half turned back to him, "Where the Force breathes silent."

They both headed toward the cliff, careful not to disturb anything of the ancient grave site. They found a place where the cliff made a kind of grotto.

In the bushes at the cliff base Luke found something familiar. "Ysalarimi," he pointed to a gray-brown lizard, "smaller than the ones on Myrkr, probably mutated to live off those shrubs."

"Why is that important?" Fenice asked naively.

"Ysalarimi push back the Force," he explained, "they create bubbles where the Force dose not exist."

Fenice smiled understanding, "I take it you've met up with our hairy little friend before."

"I have," Luke admitted, "let's just say the circumstances left something to be desired." He couldn't help remembering his stay on Myrkr as Talon Karrde's prisoner, and how he'd first met Mara Jade.

Fenice knew better then to pry. She looked at the cliff face, studying it. She wondered if she should mention he'd been favoring his right leg since they'd fallen out the chute in the fire pits. He didn't complain, but living around healers as long as she had. The half-Aran knew what it could mean.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Luke asked her.

"That." Fenice said pointing to a ledge twenty meters off the ground.

"Now how are we suppose to get there?" Luke asked, not wanting to know the answer.

"We don't," Fenice said taking off her cloak, "I do." She handed the cloak to Luke, "There are some things I must do myself." With that she began to scramble up the cliff.

Luke watched her climb. Fenice was fast and agile as she made her way up a crack in the cliff face. Luke was surprised she made her way to the ledge so quickly. She signaled from the perch and disappeared as she knelt to reach whatever was up there. All of a sudden the rock gave way beneath her. Luke jumped back to avoid the falling debris, unable to help Fenice. The Defender went into a tumble in mid-air. She hit the ground and rolled on into the graveyard doing about ten somersaults then sat up slowly.

She pointed to Luke as he scrambled to her side, "Now that one I was expecting."

Luke knelt beside her to see if anything was broken, "Why were you expecting it?"

"The ledge was rigged." she said as she stood and brushed herself off.

"Are you alright?" Luke asked.

"Just fine," she shrugged, "all things considered." Fenice picked up he cloak from where it had been dropped.

"How did you do that?" Luke asked curiously.

"Since the Aran Force link was torn the Tein'kal training has concentrated less on the meta-physical and more on the physical." she explained. "I learned to fall out of a binkoni tree and not get killed by the time I was ten. It's all in avoiding the sudden stop at the bottom."

Luke could see that, "That's why you set yourself up to start tumbling."

"Exactly," Fenice beamed, "There are stories of Tein'kal surviving speeder crashes by rolling on past the crash to slow their momentum. I once saw Defender Evaders avoid being hit by rolling over the hood of a speeder when I was very little."

"What happened to Defender Evaders?" Luke wondered.

"They say he was the last victim of the Gamronel." Fenice said sadly. "He was my teacher. He disappeared when I was eleven."

Luke understood, he'd been there when Master Yoda died.

"Defender Evaders had tough Eamar and I most of what he knew." Fenice continued. "I'm called Defender by virtue of age. He didn't live long enough to declare me a Defender in the town square, and Markiea was executed before I reached the age of adulthood."

"You are a Defender in the eyes of the Aran." Luke pointed out.

"You're right," Fenice admitted, "but in order for me to be able to teach another I must be declared. My sisters were declared Healers by Markiea. My mother could have declared me on my eighteenth birthday. My sisters can't declare me because they were never my teachers."

"Why are you telling me this?" Luke asked her.

"Because you can declare me." she said half pleading. "You aren't Tein'kal, but you are a Force user and my teacher." She turned away, "Before now I couldn't ask you."

Luke had known that Fenice would make his life interesting. "What do I have to do?"

"Teach me." she said as she turned back to face him. "When I've proven my worth to my people by finding the scrolls, they will celebrate. When they celebrate you stand and declare I've proven myself a Defender of the people. They would have declared me already if not for the technicalities I've mentioned."

"It's really that important."Luke stated knowingly.

"It's a right of passage," she said back, "but we must finish the task at hand first." She made her way back to the fallen rocks that had only minutes before been a ledge.

"Another marble box." Luke said pointing to the edge of the pile.

Fenice bent down, glad she'd taken a rest before continuing the search. "Indeed." she said as she picked a battered scroll case from the remains. "The ledge was rigged to give way when the box was tampered with, tiny explosive charges at week points. The rock had worn in places so I could see them. They were old enough I ran as much of a chance of them going of if I tried to defuse them as trying to open the box." She shrugged, "I tried to defuse them anyway, and got ready to fall if they blew."

"How long do you think they'd been up there?" Luke asked.

"No more than about fifty years, may never know who put them there." Fenice said starting back towards the Markiea.

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Fenice had spent a good part of the trip back to Coruscant working on the translation of the scroll. They had agreed to regroup on in Imperial City, where they may be able to find information on someone with a motive to booby trap the ledge. Somehow they doubted there would be a record of the incident, but perhaps record of someone who would have known about the scroll.

After Luke had shut down the freighter's systems he went back to find Fenice in the cargo hold. She looked up at him, "More of the puzzle." The Defender held up her data recorder showing half the octagon complete. "One who is Two. Of Two worlds, and Not."

"It's so simple." Luke pondered aloud.

"I think I know the answer, but I'd like to find the rest before I say anything." Fenice said as she gathered the scrolls.

"I wouldn't care to guess." Threepio stated.

Luke headed for the ramp, "I'm sure we'll figure it out when we've found the other scrolls."

Leia had somehow managed to greet her brother's ship alone, she'd stolen the moment somehow. Leia noticed as Luke came down the ramp he was limping. She could tell her brother was trying not to, but only marginally succeed. "What happened?" she asked with concern.

Before Luke could answer Fenice did. "He's been limping since I fell through the temple floor on Halgard, and he followed me down the chute that had developed underneath it." she bowed her head guiltily. "I didn't want to say anything..."

"But you think it should be looked at." Leia finished the thought with a raised eyebrow.

Luke glanced between the two women, "I don't have much of a choice now, do I."

Fenice nodded her head; knowing Leia would have him in front of a doctor or a med-droid before he could begin to appose it. She would be glad because the limp worried her.

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Too-Onebee looked up from the scanner, "The bone has refractured." The droid continued in a lecturing tone, "It was not permitted to finish healing properly. I'm afraid Master Skywalker that you will have to stay in the medical-wing for the next three days so I can be certain this will not happen again."

Luke got a look of forbodding on his face. He hated being under orders to stay put.

"Looks like you were right Fenice." Leia said to the half-Aran.

"No, just guilty." Fenice said swallowing a lump in her throat, then hurried out the door.

Leia looked after her, puzzled. "Why did she mean by that?"

"She was the one that caused the floor to collapse," Luke told his sister, "even though it was an accident. She was the one that cried out for help when we faced the Gamronel. The scrolls are her quest, and she's told me I'm not obligated to help her. I think she even blames herself for my X-wing troubles." Luke coughed knowing he couldn't go into more details where someone might overhear. "In short she sees me limping, and she feels it's all her fault."

"The crash was no more her fault than it is mine." Leia replied with surprise. "And you choose to help her. The floor was just an accident, how can she blame herself for that?"

Luke shook his head, "Mostly the way she was raised."

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Gam'nead chuckled to herself. This was only a minor delay. She would come, and Gam'nead would take pleasure in turning this little wretch's world inside out. She would be taught a lesson, and then she would destroy everything she loved. It would be so perfect. Gam'nead just smiled.

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