"Hey, Kano"
Before Anakin had time to digest this unsettling piece of information – the chalice, Palpatine's office? - his attention was drawn to a large Kiffar who stood in the opened cargo compartment of his approaching ship. The man didn't wait for the shuttle to land, instead he leapt right onto the landing platform, landing swiftly on his feet and gave Kenshin a solid fist bump to his shoulder. "Looking strong, man! How's temple life? Getting all the Coruscanti ladies?"
Kenshin rolled his eyes and replied "Your expertise in that matter is far greater than mine."
Anakin gave his Master a questioning look.
"And who are you?" the man asked, curiously eyeing Anakin.
"I'm Anakin Skywalker"
"The Chosen boy, huh? What are you doing, hanging out with the likes of Kano? Hold on, wait..." Realization dawned and he looked at Kenshin with a mix of incredulousness and amusement. "They made him your Padawan? Really? Holy shit, that's the best thing I heard in a while!" Vos exclaimed and burst out in a hearty laugh."Can't believe they let you teach" he added, still laughing. Kenshin's dry retort didn't tarry.
"They allowed you nerfherder to train Aayla and she survived. Not all hope is lost. Anakin, meet Quinlan Vos"
"Fair enough, K-dog. Anyway, you probably didn't call me just to show me your new pet."
Finally, Kenshin cracked a smile.
"Indeed not. Having Anakin and you meet is a risk I wouldn't take unnecessarily"
"Ey!" Anakin protested
Kenshin explained. "A lot has happened. Much of which doesn't make sense to me yet, but it might to your psychometric ass. We've found a holocron, an unidentified artefact and a Sith chalice."
"You're collecting even more trouble than usual, huh? I bet Coruscant has become a lot more interesting since you're back." Quinlan replied.
"That's one way to put it. Let's have a look at our collection of trouble. "
...
"What was that all about?" Anakin asked his Master as they walked back into the temple
"It's Quin, you'll get used to it" Kenshin shrugged his shoulders.
"No, I mean the Coruscanti ladies" Anakin grinned
"Oh, nothing..."
"He didn't tell you about his girlfriend, did he?" Quinlan chimed in
This was going into a direction Kenshin had no intention of exploring further and he made a mental note of punching Quinlan hard in the face some time later. Why had he even told the scoundrel that he had asked Kyra for help. Quin obviously had concluded something Kenshin wasn't even sure about himself.
"She's not a girlfriend. We just see each other, occasionally"
"To do what?" Anakin kept nagging and grinned knowingly.
"Are you saying you haven't had 'the talk' yet?" Quinlan inquired.
"No, Master Vos, I don't think I lack that particular knowledge" Anakin flashed a wide, mischievous grin.
"Ok, good, you had me worried for a second."
"Just shut up, both of you! If you worked your combat skills as much as your overactive imagination..."
"I can't speak for your apprentice, but as far as I am concerned, none of my partners has ever complained about my 'sword skills'" Quinlan commented.
"Force, help me!" Kenshin said. Anakin and Quinlan were both trouble. Anakin did his best – which wasn't much - at maintaining a minimum of composure. Observing the Kiffar so effortlessly unnerve his always so serious Master was formidable, he had to take notes.
"Tell me, Master, isn't 'it' against the code?"
"The code forbids attachments. Getting laid? Not so much" the Nantoan answered exasperatedly.
"True words, K-dog" Quinlan said, grinning from ear to ear. "Now he's talking. Hey, Chosen boy, ever seen his face that red? And I have arrived less than 10 minutes ago."
"In the name of all seven Corellian hells, are you two done anytime soon?" Kenshin protested and uttered a few more words in his native tongue. Expletives, if his tone was anything to go by.
"I can only imagine the nice things he just said." Quinlan complained jokingly "Skywalker, how do you put up with him all the time!"
"You mangy moof milker should ask how I put up with Skywalker! Or yourself as it is."
"Look at it that way: Anakin's probably Yoda's late revenge on you"
"Ey, what's that supposed to mean?" Anakin asked
"Oh, you don't know? The stunts Kenshin pulled off as a Padawan? He was quite a handful for poor old Yoda to handle. Still is, now that I think of it."
"Shut it, Quin! I only learned from the best" Kenshin gave back, punching Quinlan in the chest which was followed by some legit rough-housing.
Anakin wondered how the uncouth, quirky Vos and the grim, reserved person he knew his Master as had become friends, but he already liked the tall Kiffar with his contageous grin and his wild dreadlocks standing in all directions.
******two months earlier, Coruscant, scientific district, Intergalactic Institute of Archaeology
A few more pages and she'd be finally done with the reports. Kyra loved her job, most projects were rather exciting. Especially when they involved searching for artefacts and working with a certain Jedi.
She remembered her very first field trip as an archaeologist, to the ancient ruins of a Force cult on a desolate, remote outer rim world. A Jedi knight had been assigned to support and protect the excursion. At first, she had found him pretty awkward. A bit grim, not very talkative and looking like the teenager that he was at the time, the young man didn't exactly live up to the image she had of Jedi knights. On planet however, he had proven a valuable asset - it had been him who had found not only the entrance to the temple ruins but also deciphered the Sith runes engraved in the walls, a skill none of the archaeologists had. Thank the Force he had also proven proficient in more forms of combat than Kyra could name which had saved their lives several times when smugglers attacked the makeshift excavations in the hope of relieving it of valuable artefacts. Kenshin and Kyra ended up becoming good friends and it was usually him who accompanied particularly dangerous excursions that required Jedi support.
She shook her head as if to shake the memories from her head and to refocus on her report. Sighing, she looked up from her data pad and jumped. Someone was in her office! Instinctively, she reached for the mini blaster hidden underneath her chair and put it back as she recognized the intruder.
"Kenshin! By the stars, you frightened the hell out of me! Can't you just use doors and knock at them, like normal people? How did you even get in here?"
"You left the window open." He replied with a small smile.
"Sneaky bastard! You certainly haven't changed much" she admonished, but smiled.
"Should I have?"
"I didn't complain, did I? You're a bit early. I'll just finish this report real quick, then I'm free. You up for a drink down at the skylight café?"
"Sure"
"As for your artefact, I'm afraid I have bad news. Well, I have no news, really. I ran it through every single decoder and scanner we have, but I couldn't identify the runes, not even their origin. If you ever find out what it is, make sure to fill me in. It could be from a culture we have never heard of before, possibly something completely unknown to science until now. And you found it on Vanquor, you said?"
"Yes. Altough I have a feeling it was just dropped there, originally coming from somewhere else. I have scoured through the entirety of the Jedi archives over and over again. Nothing."
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you more. Did the holocron you found reveal anything?"
"It speaks about some sort of key, that can create life or destroy the galaxy. It sounds like a prophecy text. Not very insightful. And it was written in the tongue of an old, extinct Nantoan culture"
"So you'll go back to your homeworld to find out more?"
"There is one last person who could possibly help me find answers. But he won't be available for the next two months. For now, all I can do is wait. I don't want to go back to Nanta just yet."
"Why not?"
"You know why." Kenshin said frustratedly.
"No, I don't. You told me about the rebellion. You helped your people get their freedom back. I see nothing wrong with that"
"I did things a Jedi shouldn't do. I don't want to be reminded of it."
"I don't think I'll ever understand that Jedi thing. You can't always run from your past, though. You're fast, but the past is usually faster."
******in the now, Coruscant, Jedi Temple, the Archives
They settled into a secluded corner of the archives and Kenshin briefed Quinlan how they had found the holocron and the artefact.
"Master, you've never told me what the holocron says. Could you decipher it?" Anakin wanted to know.
"Yes, and no. It seems to be a prophecy of some sort. I'm sure my translation is correct, but it's very odd."
Kenshin had written the words on a data pad and placed it, next to the holocron itself and the artefact, on the table for Quin and Anakin to read.
A key formed of three will create or destroy
all life of the galaxy entire
A child of the shadows and a child of light
Only combined their strength can seal the gateway of eternal darkness forever
"That certainly does sound weird. What does it mean?" Quinlan asked.
"I don't know. I've never put much stock in prophecies. You never know who wrote them and with which intention in mind. Force visions and prophecies paint one possible outcome, but you can never truly know what the future brings"
Quinlan touched both objects, remaining particularly long on the triangular artefact. It took a long while before he spoke.
"I see many things, but it seems incoherent. I see a battle. The person who carries the artefact runs from something. It's a woman. She seems to try and hide something, to save it. She enters a dungeon, deep underneath a complex of several stone buildings. Then she is caught and taken onto a starship. She's now on a planet where the sky is filled with lightning and heavy rain. It's night time but the sky is a strange shade of dark red. She fights someone, something gets taken from her and she flees. She steals a ship and travels to yet another planet. She seems to be in a temple and again hides something. There's another fight, the artefact drops to the ground, but this time she can get away. I'm amazed how much I can see. It's as if the woman tried to store her memories in that artefact for someone to find "
He went on to describe the buildings and surroundings of the first venue in more detail.
"That's what the structures looked like, and they were surrounded by dense subtrobical forrests. The buildings I saw were of a kind I've never seen before. I would say they resembled a temple of some sort"
"A Jedi temple" Kenshin said, pensively staring into empty space.
"A what?" Quin and Anakin asked in unison.
"You said you don't like sand. What about dense jungle? " Kenshin asked.
"Uhm, sounds great, Master. As long as there's no gundarks... but may I draw your attention to the fact that you're making zero sense right now?"
"The holocron was created by a tribe called the Dunari, now extinct, on my homeworld. That much we know. There is legends of an ancient Jedi temple having existed on my planet, millennia ago, at the same time the Dunari, the aforementioned extinct tribe, lived in a period of great prosperity. To find this temple, or the remnants of it, was the reason why my Master originally came to Nanta. What Quinlan just described to us, this can't be but that Jedi temple."
"Wizzard" Anakin commented.
"Your Master never found anything or left anything behind, I take it?"
"No. At least if she did, I have no knowledge of it. If you'll excuse me for a moment."
Kenshin stood up and left the table. He needed to be alone for a minute, the ideas starting to form in his mind gave him a headache. He recognized the second world the Kiffar had described with its dark red, lightning filled sky. A planet that was a focal point of the dark side of the Force.
"Where's he going?" Quinlan asked
"No idea. I've given up on trying to understand the guy"
"So, what's it like with K-dog as your Master ? Bet he's kicking your ass, but once he's done with you, you'll be kicking everyone else's, believe me!"
"Hm, I don't know"
"You don't look happy. You don't like him?"
"It's not that. I do. He's a good teacher. He's powerful and he makes an effort. That's more than I can say about most people. But he's really sealed up, you know? And we argue a lot. Actually, we do nothing but fight."
"He's a little rough around the edges. But hey, he wouldn't bother arguing with you if he didn't care about you. It's a sign that he gives a shit. Granted, he can be a bit of an idiot. He's been through a lot and he has a somewhat messed up way of coping with things. But he's a good person! If shit goes down, he's the one who'll give his life for you in an instant and there's little in this galaxy that's capable of stopping him. If there'd be one single person in the entire Jedi Order I had to put my trust into, it'd be him. Force, he has saved my ass more than once. Cut him some slack, he does like you."
"How would you know?"
"I've known him for long enough to know how to read him. Since the day he came to the temple when he was 13. Have a bit of patience, he'll open up eventually."
"Why do I have a feeling that Hoth will unfreeze before that happens"
"Before what happens?"
Anakin turned his head in surprise, he hadn't expected Kenshin to come back already.
"Never mind"
His Master gave him a doubtful look but didn't give a further reply.
Walking out of the archives, the trio was greeted by the two persons Kenshin wanted to see the least. Mace Windu – and Chancellor Palpatine. He murmured something about more business to attend to and quickly excused himself, dragging Quinlan with him.
"Anakin! "Palpatine exclaimed. "I had news you had been hurt, my son!"
"It's ok, I'm alright, Chancellor"
"I understand the service as a Jedi can be of dangerous nature, yet I must inquire, what has happened?"
The Padawan gave a short and slightly whitewashed synopsis of the scrap yard incidents.
"I admit, I had left the temple at night without permission and got assaulted, I was taken by surprise..."
"Shouldn't your Master pay greater attention to your whereabouts? I disapprove of you breaking rules, of course, but your superiors surely should take their duty more seriously, shouldn't they!" Palpatine said with a note of disdain.
"Your excellency, you are right in scolding me about my disobedience, but if it weren't for my Master, I would not be talking to you now, your excellency. It was him who saved my life!"
"Well, I am very glad your Master is at least a man of martial proficiency as it seems."
"Allow me one question, Chancellor" Mace Windu spoke up. "During this incidence, Padawan Skywalker found an object, a chalice. A Sith chalice, and it closely resembled a vase, a piece of decoration in your office as Anakin had reported. Can you make sense of this?"
"I'm afraid I have to ask you to explain: what is a Sith chalice?" an astonished Palpatine asked.
"An object used by the Sith for ritual purposes. The possession of such dark side artefacts is formally forbidden, since they can be potentially dangerous." Windu explained.
"I had a few pieces of art stolen from my office recently, some of which have a certain financial value. Cleaning personnel turned out to be the culprit – about time we replace them with droids. Said vase, I believe to know which piece you speak of, had once been offered to me by a representative of the planet of Eriadu as a traditional art piece from their world. Of course I understand nothing about the Force, but had I been aware of this, I would have notified your graces of this immediately. I had thought it to be a simply decorative piece of ceremonial value, and the case of theft not of an importance that would require Jedi attention."
When Anakin later recounted the scene to Kenshin, his eyes seemed to take on an even darker shade than they already were.
"Stolen artworks. Of course!" Kenshin said, his voice icily calm. He couldn't prove it, not yet. But he felt there was more to it than the Chancellor was letting on. Something felt not right about the former senator of Naboo. Sooner or later he would find out what it was. But for now, other mysteries were waiting in the depths of the jungle of a remote world at the edge of the known galaxy. Nanta.
Nothing, absolutely nothing in the hangars would slip past Anakin's attention. The hangars were his favourite spot in the entire Jedi temple, his sanctuary in a place he didn't like all that much to begin with. This was where he spent most of his free time, to the delight of the mechanics who were more than happy about his skilled helping hands. So, of course he had spotted (and admired) the ship, stored in a dimly lit back corner, a while ago. It was a heavily modified ARC 170 fighter. It didn't bear any markings, not of the Jedi Order at least, and the hull was painted in a matte, dull, dark grey. It was not a type of starfighter the Order usually used, and very few Jedi had a personal ship at their disposal. None of the mechanics could or would tell him more, other than that it belonged to one of the Jedi Masters. He now knew which one.
An excitedly beeping astromech with a grey and purple paintjob hurtled around the ship and started going in circles around Kenshin.
"This is your ship...!?" Anakin said.
"Yes. And that bucket of bolts here is R5, who's about to get his circuits blown if he doesn't stop driving me nuts. R5, stop this! Yeah, I'm glad to see you too!"
The droid then gently rolled against Anakin's leg, taking his circus up a notch. He couldn't help but smile and patted the droid gently on its head.
"He likes you" Kenshin said.
"Never seen such modifications before." the Padawan said admiringly, his eyes wandering about the hull.
"Altered hyperdrive, enhanced close range engines and a beyond state-of-the-art cloaking device. No known scanning system can detect this ship"
"Wizzard! But tell me, Master, how exactly does a Jedi aquire their own, personal ARC fighter? "
"It belonged to an unfortunate bounty hunter, who happened to perish on his last hunt. His target was a statesman I was assigned to protect. When he went in for the kill, I did my job, and even did so without killing said bounty hunter but the guards were a little too eager to do theirs. His ship was left with no one to claim it and I needed a way to get off planet anyways, to pursue his ordering party. Eventually, I had said upgrades done. Being able to keep a low profile can come in handy."
"You sure are practically-minded, Master. I can fly, right? Pleeeeeaaaase!"
The opportunity to pilot a top-notch starfighter like this didn't present itself very often and Anakin made sure to make the most of the ship's capabilities. He was the best star pilot in the galaxy after all! Violating all written and non-written air traffic regulations on their way out of Coruscants athmosphere, he performed a number of literally breathtaking stunts. Ruefully, he reminisced about Master Atal who would have heavily protested and scolded him to no end for this way of flying. Admittedly the moves he put the ARC 170 through to test its limits would have driven most beings to a quick reunion with the contents of their stomach. Kenshin on the other hand seemed completely unfazed. "You clearly know what you're doing." was his only, dry comment. Despite the off the charts performance of the Kage, as was the ship's name, and Anakin's more than progressive flying, it took them two entire standard days in hyperspace and then some to reach the planet.
This time, Anakin had actually made the effort to look up information in the archives. It was unlike him to voluntaringly set a foot in the archives, but he was too curious what kind of planet Nanta was. However, he had found - nothing. Even Madame Nu hadn't been able to dig up anything. This was more than strange, there was nothing that couldn't be found in the Jedi archives. While in hyperspace, he brought it to Kenshin's attention and his Master indeed had an explanation why nothing about his homeworld was written down in the libraries.
"I've deleted it!"
"You did what? How? Why? Are you even allowed to do that?"
"Of course not! But I have to protect my people. The less known the existence of my planet is, the better. Even the Jedi archives can be hijacked, so I erased everything."
"I'd call that crazy paranoid!"
"Maybe. Nanta had very few interferences with off-worlders - the last one nearly left it destroyed."
He didn't go into further detail as to what had happened or why. From what else Kenshin reported, Nanta was a real backwater slughole. Only one small space port in the planet capital, no industrial centers, basic level of technology, sparsely populated. A great part of the population didn't even speak galactic basic. By now, Anakin understood a little Nantoa, although it was mostly the profanities Kenshin had the habit of making extensive use of, whenever it was or wasn't appropriate. The Padawan regretted not having actually learned the language, but they probably wouldn't spend much time near people anyway. They were off to a treasure hunt in the vast wilderness of the planet, looking for the ruins of a Jedi temple of unknown location. The Dunari, the civilization having created the holocron, had lived in peace with those Jedi, until some mysterious calamity had wiped them out, along with the Jedi. Anakin wondered what it was.
"And there is no gundarks on Nanta." Kenshin completed his lecture.
"I'm relieved to hear that!"
"What, I thought you like them!" the Master said while keeping a straight, stern face for a few moments before a small smile told Anakin that the other Jedi was teasing him.
Kenshin's sparse briefing had definitely not prepared Anakin for the overwhelming view that unfolded before his eyes as they entered the atmosphere and approached Karimaoru, the planet's capital. It didn't deserve the term city in terms of size, but it was the largest settlement the planet had. What he saw reminded him vaguely of Naboo, only that Nanta looked wilder, untamed, less civilized maybe. It was mesmerizing and breathtakingly beautiful. Lush green as far as the eye could see, mild warm air, colourful birds flying and singing, the place was humming with life. And there was so much water! An ocean gently pushed its waves against the shore, a broad river delta plummeting into it, embracing the city harmonically embedded onto the hills between. At its center, there was a small palace built onto the top of the largest hill, and scattered around were hundreds, if not thousands of stone buildings and a maze of streets forming the actual town. In the distance, more green, forests and mountains forming fascinating, intricate lines against the sky. The space port was tiny, only a handful of small space freighters docking on a few landing pads. Customs and air control consisted of one person, a man even shorter than Kenshin and with the same pitch black hair, who gave the Jedi Master the joyful and warm welcome one would greet a long lost family member with. The Padawan didn't understand a word of their conversation but he took it they knew each other. Only one thing attracted his attention. The man called Kenshin not by his name, but Yashkaru.
The center of Karimaoru was situated so close to the spaceport that they could walk. Kenshin had said something about getting a means of transport to travel to the monastery where he had grown up. If there was anything, any hints as to where the ancient Jedi could be, if Kenshin's Master had found any leads, she would have left whatever she had documented with the monks. According to Kenshin's report, they were an Order of warrior monks, not unlike the original Jedi, pursuing a spiritual life in the back country and practising their martial arts not only as a way of defense, but much more as a way to train the mind. They called themselves Hogosha, and the ways of combat were their way of expressing their soul.
The streets were crowded, but the atmosphere Anakin sensed was relaxed, nearly cheerful and he found he was enjoying himself just wandering along, thinking of nothing in particular, listening to the chitchat around him that had an unfamiliar but melodic rhythm to it. He liked the sound even though he didn't understand what people were saying. What a vast difference to the nearly hostile ambiance of Mos Espa or the stressful hustle he had felt in other places. Especially Coruscant...Coruscant was yet another story. Anakin could see why Kenshin, coming from a place that seemed so full of harmony like this, didn't like the galaxy's capital. His Master had is hood pulled over his head despite the air being comfortably warm, as if to hide. It was by far not the first time he found Kenshin's behaviour odd and out of place, so he didn't think much of it.
His thoughts wandering, the Padawan's feet carried him across a wide plaza, his eyes captured by an intriguingly strange monument. It was a large sculpture carved out of white stone, showing a beautifully detailed dragon-like beast and a bird, holding onto a sword with a curved blade in their claws. Then it struck him. The dragon looked exactly like the demon he had seen in this strange dream, the creature that had protected him. He tried to read the writing at the bottom of the monument. To his surprise, Anakin found the inscription to be in both Nantoan characters and Basic, written in aurebesh letters.
We fought with blood
We live in freedom
Our swords the bearers of independence
Guided by the light of hope
Another surprising detail was carved into the stone. A list of names, apparently, and Kenshin's name was amongst the first three on the list. What could possibly be the meaning of this? What was this all about, what did the inscription mean, why was his Master's name listed on a public monument in the planet's capital? Question after question popped up in Anakin's head and he jerked up. Kenshin! Letting his feet carry him, he hadn't paid attention and, of course, not followed where his Master might have gone to. Where the blazes was he! The teenager bit back a curse. Great! Not even an hour on planet and he had gotten lost already! He was in a place completely new to him, looking for a person he couldn't sense in the Force and, not speaking the language, he could probably not ask anybody if they had possibly seen a Jedi. People wouldn't understand him. Anakin started to frantically scan the place and moved. Whereever his gundark of a Master had disappeared to, he had to find him! He was obviously giving off the sense of being lost. Soon, a boy, who seemed a bit younger than himself, approached and spoke. Anakin gestured that he didn't understand and decided to try his luck and ask in Basic if he had seen a Jedi.
"Jedai? Jedai...Jedai..."he said pensively..."Yashkaru?"
"No, no, his name is Kenshin. Kenshin Kano" he tried. The chances that a random teenager would happen to know who or where his Master was, were very very slim. The boy wrinkled his forehead, contemplating for a moment, and then took his hand and dragged him along until they joined a group of young people. He spoke to a girl, a few years older, and turned back to Anakin.
"You a Jedi?" she adressed the padawan.
"Yes. And I've gotten lost. Have you seen.."
"Another Jedi? No, but there is only one Jedi who would come to this planet. Come!" the young woman said and gestured for Anakin to follow her.
"Who or what is Yashkaru?" Anakin wanted to know.
"His name."
"But his name is Kenshin."
"We call him Yashkaru."
A very short walk later, they found Kenshin standing in the gate to what seemed to be a workshop, talking to another man. Oily parts were scattered around, along with shinier, newer ones, a place quite to Anakin's liking. Two fuelled up speeder bikes were waiting outside the shop.
"There you are. Wondered where you went" his Master casually greeted him.
"Just had a look around." Anakin replied, raising his eyebrows. He'd been gone, lost, and this freak wasn't even bothered?
"Thank you" he turned to the girl."How did you know where to find him?" he asked. The girl smiled and said "Force told me. You Jedai use it, no?" She laughed and ran away, back to her friends.
"Ready?" Kenshin asked
"Sure. Master, how come people around here seem to know you? How did this girl know you or know how to find you, and why is your name written on a monument in the capital city of your home planet?"
"What do you mean?"
"On that large plaza where I got lost, there's a monument and your name is on it."
"My name is very common on this world. Whoever they refer to, it's not me." He replied evasively.
"What about the girl? How did she know you? And what does Yashkaru mean?
"The guy I got the speeder bikes from is an old friend of mine. The girl is his cousin and Yashkaru is just a nickname. Doesn't mean anything"
Anakin had a strong feeling that that was only half the truth, if at all. They mounted the speeder bikes, their journey began. For the following hours, Kenshin wasn't very talkative, but that was nothing new. Following the semblance of a dirt road, civilization soon gave way to grassy plains and increasingly thick jungle. Nearly the entire day had passed, the territory becoming more and more mountainous, and the sun was about to set when they neared a village. A few faint lights illuminated a group of houses in the near distance. Underneath the trees, glow worms, emitting a beautiful pale green light, performed their gentle dances. The two Jedi slowed down their vehicles. A few leaves in a tree rustled and before he knew it, a dark clad, hooded figure had abruptly kicked Kenshin off his transport and held him in a lock, holding a knife to his throat.
"Welcome back, bastard!" a female voice said in Basic.
Anakin instantly flashed his lightsaber, but Kenshin raised a hand and said "It's ok. Just a welcoming ceremony"
The woman released Kenshin and lifted her hood. She, too, had sleek, black hair that was openly falling down her back and dark brown eyes. She wasn't much older than his Master, although a little taller.
"So, you've finally cared to show up again. We were beginning to think you've forgotten us completely!"
"Good to see you, too!" Kenshin replied.
She suddenly smiled, dropped her knife and threw her arms around Kenshin and squeezed him tightly before she let go again.
"Good to have you back, idiot. And you must be Anakin" she then said, turning to the Padawan. Anakin nodded, a bit dumbfounded.
"I'm Aiko. Welcome to Wataro". She introduced herself
"This is the village near the monastery. Aiko and me grew up together, she is basically my big sister" Kenshin explained, seeing Anakin's questioning look.
"And yet you couldn't be bothered to show up for four entire years and all we got was a holo message once in a while!" Aiko complained.
"I had my reasons."
"Reasons? You mean excuses. At least you're back now. Come, Miho and Hisao are waiting. You don't know how much they're looking forward to seeing you again, even though you're a jerk."
The young woman took them to a house, although it was more of a hut, where an elderly couple awaited them. They were given a warm welcome and, much to Anakin's delight, a tasty meal. Aiko's parents barely spoke any basic so Anakin didn't understand most of the conversation. He realized though that he could sense a lot in the Force, as if part of their communication was non verbal. He sensed that they had a connection to Kenshin, like parents to a child, and that they loved him like they'd love a son. And that they had missed him a lot. He wished he could just ask his Master about it, but knowing Kenshin, he probably wouldn't talk about it. Anakin felt bewildered. His Master had told him he had been a foundling, an orphan, but these people behaved like he was family to them. This was the kind of family Anakin had often wished he'd had. How could one not come back to their home planet if they had exactly that, a home, a family? Once he'd be a knight and not under watch at all times, he'd be on Tatooine the first chance he'd get to see his mom – to finally free her! Perceiving everyone around him in the Force, once more he wondered why he couldn't sense his Master's presence. He could sense Aiko, and with a slightly weaker intensity also the old woman and the man. Kenshin had explained that most humans on Nanta could touch the Force, at least to a certain degree.
The old woman smiled at Anakin. Even without words, these people managed to make him feel welcome in this house. It was a simple but beautiful, peaceful place. A sudden feeling of sadness overcame him. The last time he had felt that way, so warm, welcome and comfortable, was in an equally simple hut on Tatooine, with his mother. He thanked the woman with a grateful nod for refilling his bowl and stared into the flames as he ate.
"Are you ok?"
Surprised, Anakin looked up. Kenshin looked at him, and he seemed worried. The older Jedi had sensed his sadness.
"Uhm, yes, Master. I'm alright"
Anakin could see that Kenshin didn't believe him, but he couldn't talk about his mother. At the temple, he had been chastised every time he spoke about her, no matter who he talked to would admonish how attachments were not allowed. Kenshin was different, by far not as harsh and cold, but the teenager could still not imagine he would understand.
Sleep wasn't much of a relief. Whenever he remembered his mother, his home, thoughts and emotions formed an indistinct but unsettling blur in his head. He woke up and saw it was still dark. Dawn had not yet begun, but some birds were already filling the clear night time air with soothing, melodic sounds. Carefully he rose not to wake his Master who was still sound asleep next to him, and stepped onto the porch that offered a spectacular view of the valley opening up underneath the small settlement.
"Good morning. You're up early!" Aiko's melodic voice greeted him. "Good morning. Uhm, yes, I couldn't sleep anymore."
"Kenshin is still asleep I guess?"
Aiko handed him a cup with something hot in it, which he gladly accepted. The morning air was crisp and he felt a bit cold. It was caf, better caf than he had ever had before.
"Yeah, I rather don't wake him up. He tends to be even more grumpy than usual when I do that." Aiko chuckled. "I can see that. He's never been much of a morning person."
"So, you grew up together? You two seem to be close"
"Yes. He was training and living with the monks, and his Jedi Master, but spent most of his free time here with us in the village. As children, we would often play or hunt together, sometimes the monks would allow me to join their training and to study swordsmanship with them. He's like a brother to me. What are you to him? He only told me your name and that'd you be coming with him, but nothing more"
"I'm his Padawan"
"Oh. He never told me he had an apprentice!"
"He was assigned to train me only a few months ago. My previous master died. Then Grandmaster Yoda, the head of our Order, decided Kenshin should be my Master."
"Yoda is a small, green guy? Kenshin told me about him, he called him the green troll."
Anakin laughed "Yeah, that's about right. Hold on, what is that?"
The night was nearing dawn, but the mesmerizing glow worms, shedding their soft light, were still there. Dancing green points in the dark velvet of the night. Green points...and two purple ones, next to each other, that were not dancing, a lot larger than the green ones, and staring at him. While Anakin tried to figure out if he really saw what he saw, they disappeared.
"Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"There wore two purple points. Glowing, like the glow worms, and then they disappeared!"
"Oh that? That was a Yashkaru"
"A Yashkaru? I heard the word before, what is that? Down in the capital, in the space port, they used that word instead of Kenshin's name."
"The Yashkaru are animals that live around here. They're semi-sentient, and Force sensitive. For the most part, they're nocturnal, they're predatory creatures native to these jungles, hunting at night and at dawn. For the most part, they steer clear of humans but in a way, it seems Kenshin can communicate with them. They only attack humans when provoked, however if they do, they're lightning fast, powerful and very lethal. They'll easily have creatures three times their size killed before their prey knows it's dead. Yashkaru roughly translates to 'Force shadow'. In ancient times, they were believed to be demons or ghosts. In the resistance, people would soon call Kenshin Yashkaru. He was so fast, striking with deadly precision and he never got caught. It was as if he could completely blend in with the shadows and his surroundings, slip through and attack, no matter how tight the enemy defenses were."
"Resistance? The what?"
"He didn't tell you about the invasion? The rebellion?" Aiko asked incredulously.
*****Four and a half years earlier, Cato Neimoidia
A series of mysterious incidents had the system supervisors of the Trade Federation wonder what in the moons and stars had hit them. All three leaders of a division, tasked with an operation on a backwater world far in the outer rim, were dead. They had been found lifeless on the floor of their headquarter's offices. Nobody could tell who or what had killed them. They seemed to have been choked to death, but their necks bore no traces. All data hinting towards what exactly they had been tasked with had disappeared from the Trade Federation's systems. It was as if they had never existed. The detectives sent to investigate the mystery equally vanished, leaving no trace.
In the end, Nute Gunray had decided to drop the case. It was a meaningless backwater world anyway, the possible profits too small to be worth the extra effort. He didn't understand what his subordinates had even wanted on that world. There was another, far more important incident that troubled him. The Trade Federation and its system disposed of the highest, most complex security levels technically possible, even more sophisticated than the ones of the Intergalactic Banking Clan. Yet, they had been hijacked. A mysterious virus had befallen their systems, causing losses of several million credits before the issue could be rectified. He couldn't see a link between the two incidents, but once more, nobody had ever found out who or what exactly had caused this disaster. Not even traces. He didn't yet dare to ask his most powerful ally for help. Security measures would be increased as far as possible, and Gunray kept battling sleepless nights for a long time.