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Encounter

Chapter 29

Truth and Reason

It's beenfive months since the fight happened between Serenity and the three girls. Ever since that day, the three girls didn't bother Serenity at all anymore. Fox and Falco were still teaching at the school, but there have been things that Fox had to leave for. Also, Yugi and his friend been invited by Fox and Falco to come along with them over the week they have off of school to Duelist Kingdom to get a break in the nice May weather.

"You serious?" Joey asked. "You're telling me that we're going to Duelist Kingdom again?"

"Yeah," Yugi said. "I don't know why he'd let us go with, but I guess it's better than having to stay here."

"So, are we all going?" Tristan asked.

"Yeah, we're all going," Yugi responded. "Fox said that the trip's been paid for by the military."

"Why would they do that?" Téa asked.

"My guess is that he wants us to be somewhere away from here for a little while," Serenity assumed.

"I'll go with Serenity's guess," Bakura said.

The next day rolled around as they all got to the deck. Yugi, Joey, Téa, Serenity, Tristan, Duke, Mai, Bakura, Seto, and Mokuba were all present there as they stood in front of the yacht that Fox and Falco rented. The yacht itself is larger than normal yachts, which this particular one is meant to fit about15 people in it. Fox and Falco were already prepared to leave with them in the boat. Serenity saw that Fox was alone on the deck and wanted to ask him something.

"Fox, can I ask you something?" Serenity asked.

"Sure, go ahead," Fox complied.

"Um…I know this question hasn't come up in a while…but…can you tell me what happened to my mother?"

Fox stood there, remembering the report he got after the shuttle arrived at the spaceport on Coruscant. Fox turned around, looking at Serenity with a worried face.

"Your mother…she died during the flight," Fox said.

Nothing came across Serenity except for a little grief as she heard that. She knew something like that would happen, but she's sure there's more to it.

"Serenity, don't think that she killed herself. She mysteriously died during the trip over."

"No poison in her?"

"No. The researchers at Coruscant were taking an autopsy on her and found no poison in her blood. Nothing seemed to disturb her heart either. It's as if she died of old age."

Serenity stood there, thinking about something. She knows that her mother wasn't that old, nor was it that her mother would do such a thing. Fox looked back to the control panels on the dash board and began to talk again.

"Let's just drop that and enjoy our trip, shall we?" Fox suggested.

"Sure." Serenity said.

Fox heard the sound of Falco's voice, telling him that he's done in the lower decks. He started the engines to the yacht and began to ride off to Duelist Kingdom. As Serenity left,Fox began to think to himself, thinking that it's what he thinks caused her death.

"If it was him, then I must do everything I can to end his reign of terror."

As they got there, Fox and Falco were leading the group as they were finding the perfect spot to camp out at. Fox and Falco were carrying most of the equipment since the group wouldn't be able to hold even half of it. Fox and Falco found the perfect spot where there's an open area within the forest. There was also a cliff that was about 50 feet from their standpoint where they could go over and look out at the ocean. Everyone in the group began to help build the military tent that they were given to use, which is commonly used to house about 12 people in it. The problem was that they weren't given enough beds for everyone, making that the hard part. Fox finally finished setting up the wooden fold door as the others finally finished setting up the lofts. Fox looked to see 5 lofts, a total of 10 beds. The thing is that one loft is smaller than the rest of the lofts around. Fox looked over to the group and wanted to know something.

"Okay, Falco and I already took the smaller loft since we figured that pretty much most of you would want to sleep in larger beds," Fox explained. "They all can fit a max of two for two small people like Mokuba and Yugi, but I don't know about the rest of you.

"Mokuba and I are going to take one of the beds, okay?" Seto demanded.

"That's fine with us," Falco said.

"Does…someone else want to pair up with someone?" Fox asked.

Everyone else stood there, assuming that at least one person wants to pair up with someone. Fox stood there without a word, waiting for everyone.

"Okay…I assume then you all want to sleep alone?" Fox assumed.

Everyone shook their head yes, seeing that they all do want to sleep in a bunk of their own.

"Okay…then that means that one of you will have to take the uncomfortable single bed," Falco said.

"Couldn't one of you take it?" Joey asked.

"No," Fox and Falco said in unison.

"Why?" Mai asked.

"Because the smaller beds are worse, and I'm sure you want to be comfortable when you sleep," Fox said.

Falco pulled the bed out and set it up quickly as the bed seemed to be like the others. The difference is that this bed had thinner sheets and it was a bit smaller in size than the other lofts, but bigger than the smallest.

"Who's taking the bed?" Falco called.

Everyone else began to take their beds, leaving Serenity, Tristan, and Duke standing. One loft remained as everyone stood there. Serenity began to walk not for the loft, but for the other bed. Fox wasn't sure about why Serenity was going to take the other bed.

"Serenity, are you sure?" Fox asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Serenity said.

Serenity set her bag on the bed and began to sit on the hard mattress. Serenity didn't care if it was hard or not, but at least she got to sleep on something. Joey went next to her and wanted to know if she was okay with this.

"Serenity, will you be fine with this bed?" Joey asked.

"Joey, I'll be fine. I have to learn how to adjust if I want to survive," Serenity said.

Fox looked over after hearing her say that. Something in the tone of her voice seemed to take his attention.

"That's odd. I've never heard her so determined to try new things before. Maybe it was Lisa's influence that's getting her to do this."

Night came as everyoneis sleepingin their bunks. Fox and Falco took the end one nearest to the side, then it's Yugi and Téa, Joey and Mai, Tristan and Duke, Seto and Mokuba and Bakura. Serenity was trying to sleep on the single bunk. The only reason why she couldn't was because of how cold it was as well as how she doesn't have a life possession of hers with her. The only reason why is because she doesn't want to take out her teddy bear and blanket so that she would be embarrassed for that in the morning. Only Joey knows of this, which he seems fine with it. The covers she's using didn't help her at all to keep warm, but she had to learn how to take this.

She heard someone get up, but she didn't want anyone to know that she was still awake. It's hard for her to do that since she was shivering from the cold air around her. Before she knew it, she felt something heavier begin to drape her as she was lying on the bed. She looked up to see Falco giving her a few covers for her to use while she slept. She was about to drift off to sleep until something caught her eye. She saw Falco standing there with his arm half outstretched. As he had it outstretched, Falco's staff began to float to him, just like how Fox would do that with the Force and his lightsaber. Fox was already leaving for the outdoors with his lightsaber at hand as Falco followed. Serenity got up quietly and tried to sneak outside to check on the two to see what was going on. She managed to open the door quietly and sneak out to see that the two were standing halfway to the cliff. They both stood there, facing the view of the ocean. Serenity began to proceed to them until Falco turned around to see Serenity behind them. Fox turned his head a little to see Serenity standing there with a blank stare, but there's something else he can see in Serenity's eyes that he recognizes.

"Serenity…what's wrong?" Fox asked.

"…Does Falco…have Force powers?" Serenity asked.

"You saw me use the Force to get my staff?" Falco questioned.

"Yes."

"I see…just don't tell anyone else about that."

"Okay."

Serenity was about to go in, but something stopped her from going in. She turned around at the sound of Fox's voice, calling out for her.

"Serenity…I need to tell you something very important," Fox said.

"What is it?" Serenity asked.

Serenity proceeded to Fox and sat down as Fox and Falco did. She was sitting on the ground with her legs to the side of her while Fox and Falco sat in the cross legged position.

"Serenity…there's a reason why I brought you all along," Fox began. "I brought you all here because of reported deaths on Duelist Kingdom."

Someone spoke up behind them. "What about these deaths?"

Fox looked up to see what he thought was Yugi, but the difference is the tone in his voice and his size. He knew it had to be the alter ego not only by that, but by the aura that surrounds him.

"So…are you the alter ego of Yugi?" Fox asked.

"In a way, yes, but I am well known as Yami."

"I see…so you're the one that I've been sensing around here for some time."

"You seem to have strange powers which I've never seen. From what Yugi told me, you're a warrior that's known as a Jedi."

"We're not really warriors," Falco said. "We're more like defenders than fighters."

"So…you mentioned something about unknown deaths, right?" Yami asked.

"Yeah, I did," Fox answered.

"Tell me, are they caused by the removal of the soul?"

"In a way, yes."

"Did you take Maximillion Pegasus into account?"

"I did, but I know that he's not the cause of those deaths," Fox said.

"Why?"

"A while back, I asked Yugi about what Pegasus can do. He told me that he can remove a person's soul, but his process doesn't require Force energy."

"And the difference?" Serenity asked.

"The difference is that Pegasus demonstrated his techniques on one of his bodyguards. I couldn't feel any Force energy in that, but I did feel a different energy similar to yours, Yami. Thankfully, he returned the soul to the body and showed me the bodies of the dead. When someone's dead, they're not supposed to be giving off any Force energy, but I felt some off of the dead."

"So…what does this have to do with it?" Yami questioned.

"…There's…a Force based creature that's been haunting people's dreams for a long time. He's known as the Dark Reaper."

"What of this Dark Reaper?" Serenity asked.

"The Dark Reaper was actually a machine at first during the Sith Wars 5000 years ago. The way that worked was that it absorbed the living Force out of all living objects. A Jedi known as Ulic Qel-Droma defeated the Dark Reaper and hid the pieces across the galaxy. It was then recreated again after the parts were found. Count Dooku restored the Dark Reaper to it's original form again and used the harvester to absorb the living Force. Thanks to the efforts of the Jedi by finding the grave of Ulic Qel-Droma, Anakin Skywalker was able to defeat the Dark Reaper once again. The downside is that because so much Force energy was absorbed in the two times, the Force energy that was absorbed was used in a last attempt to create a creature as the Dark Reaper, which is the one who haunts their dreams."

"So, this Dark Reaper is basically our Grim Reaper?" Serenity asked.

"Correct," Falco answered. "This is why we can assume that your mother died from the Dark Reaper."

"Is that what that mysterious death was from?" Serenity asked.

"Yeah, that's why we're here; that's why we wanted you here because of you and your friends' help, which is why I wanted to ask you this one thing, Serenity," Fox said.

"What?"

"…Are you willing to be trained as a Jedi?"

Serenity sat there in shock as her eyes shot wide open. She never thought that an opportunity like that would come up, but it's something that she might not get again.

"Why…yes! I would!" Serenity answered.

"Okay…we'll start tonight on the basics of combat."

A few hours has passed as Fox and Serenity were out farther away from the tent. They had to be far enough away so that the others wouldn't be able to hear the clash of lightsabers. Falco and Yami were standing off to the side as they were watching Fox and Serenity spar with lightsabers. From what Fox could observe while they both were sparring, he could see that there were enough flaws in her offensive tactics that could cause her death. The one thing that made up for that is how very well she did with defensive tactics. It's as if she took training before with this, but he knows that she hasn't taken any training whatsoever. Fox deactivated his lightsaber and stood there as Serenity did the same.

"Serenity, your offensive tactics aren't as well as what was to be expected, but they're not as bad either," Fox said. "However, your defensive tactics are extraordinary."

"Thanks," Serenity said. "I guess I'm not as bad as I thought. Just one thing though. Why did you ask me if I wanted to train to become a Jedi?"

Fox stood there for a moment, thinking of the right answer and the right words to put it in. He thought of something and began to answer Serenity's question.

"It's because of when you were trained by Lisa," Fox answered. "When Lisa was training you under the arts of Tae-Kwon-Do, she felt an aura of energy exhuming off of you. She knew that it was a strong feel in the Force, but she didn't have enough time to determine if you were to be trained or not."

"I see…then that means that Lisa knew all along, didn't she?" Serenity said.

"Possibly, yes, but I'm going to have to have you all ready by tomorrow afternoon."

"…Okay."

They all went back to the tent to get whatever rest they can get. It was already 2:00 in the morning as the night sky still shone its stars. Fox, Falco, Yami, and Serenity all snuck back into the tent and went back to their beds. Serenity got back under the covers as the extra warmth allowed her to sleep better. She then pulled her pink back pack out and pulled out her childhood treasures that she could never let go of. As she pulled out a teddy bear wrapped up with her baby blanket and kept it close to her, she began to feel more comfort. One thing still remained in her mind.

"If Lisa thought that I could become a Jedi, then I'll do my best to become a Jedi Knight. I'll do it in Lisa's name. And I'll even do it...to protect my friends."