Just as Tarys drifted off into thought, T7 approached Master Orgus. "T7 = salutes Master Orgus / T7 reconnaissance report = ready for delivery."

"Teeseven here was captured by the Flesh Raiders, Master. You'll want to see the holorecording he got," Tarys explained.

"Oh? Interesting. While I deal with the droid, go talk to Ranna. I think her people are ready to help us, thanks to you," the Master instructed.

"Will do."

As soon as he approached the matriarch's daughter, she came to speak to him herself. "Thank you, with the weapons and technology you brought from the Flesh Raiders, my people can defend themselves."

"Of course, it was the least I could do after you were ignored for so long," Tarys replied.

"I mean it. You risked your life to help us. My people haven't had a champion in some time," she continued.

"We Jedi have a duty to protect and defend. I'll do it now even if my order turned a blind eye to your need."

"And we promised to share in return for that duty," she replied as the Chief Scout joined the conversation.

"Scouts report that Flesh Raider forces are gathering in strength. They already control the mountains around us, and now they're invading the ruins of Kaleth. My men spotted them at the remains of an ancient shrine - close to your Jedi Temple," Moorint explained.

"Kaleth? Not even the Jedi have fully explored the ruins," Tarys pondered, glancing in Master Orgus' direction.

"Indeed, it used to be a great city of Force-users and its ruins hold powers we still don't understand," the Master said.

"The Raiders are looking for something there," Moorint informed.

"We can't let them find it, whatever it is. You need to drive them back immediately. I need to take the droid back to the council. You were right, the holo was important," Master Orgus said, placing a hand on Tarys' shoulder and eyeing him with steely resolve. "That hooded figure in the holo - I know his voice. The situation is worse than I thought. Listen, do whatever it takes to push them out of the ruins, I'll send reinforcements as soon as I can."

Master Orgus was generally an easygoing man so for him to become so serious… Something important must've happened. Tarys wasn't going to protest in the face of such a request.

"Yes, Master, I'll go right away."

Tarys had been to the Kalethi ruins once or twice before, he had no doubt Ishra spent a lot of time there though, in fact, it was possible she was there right now, given what her Master told her to do when they last saw each other. In any case, he wanted to use the journey as a chance to see if he could speak to Astraia, calling out to her in his mind.

"Oh, I can see how that can be surprising. Muffled but still loud as a shout ought to be. I take it now's a better time? Or are you still fighting toddlers?"

"No I beat them all, now I'm after the puppies," Tarys chuckled.

"At least give the children a proper burial!" Astraia complained.

"Yeah but that involves effort and respect for the dead, you know I can't have that."

"I don't know you well enough to definitively say that I do, that was very morbid."

"You started it! It was a weird joke to begin with." At least she could have understood it was her fault, surely.

"Agreed. Let's move on. Hey , now that you're here… I just wanted to talk to someone and the Jedi Padawan stuck in my head seemed as good as anyone, that okay?" she asked.

"Sure, not like I have any other Sith in my mind to speak with. What's up?"

"I just… I just wanted to vent."

This was… unusual, but unusual didn't mean she didn't deserve the chance, if she was just looking for a listening ear, Tarys could provide that - he hoped this wasn't some Sith manipulation tactic and he hoped, even more, he wouldn't fall for it.

"I feel like I'm just being used as a tool. And don't get me wrong, that's not the problem, I'm used to it by now but I never thought I'd have to assassinate a Darth for my master… and I think it's just so she has me as a scapegoat. I hope you realise by now that I'm no fan of killing, so being asked, no, told to kill someone just to fulfil my Master's political ambitions… It rubs me the wrong way," she bemoaned.

"There is so much there that I want to ask about, I don't mean to pry." Maybe 'just' a listening ear wouldn't work here.

"Go for it, I guess."

"What did you mean when you said you're used to being used? That sounds awful." It was almost definitely wrong of him to ask but his curiosity beat him.

"I guess I was looking forward to someone not knowing… Do you promise not to judge me if I tell you? I don't want another person looking down on me," she sounded hesitant.

"I don't want you to tell me anything you don't want to say, I'm fine not knowing, really. No matter what it is though, I wouldn't look down on you - not unless you're secretly a slavemaster or something."

Thankfully his quip drew a quiet chuckle from her, "Sort of the opposite actually. I was born a slave. I was only taken to the Academy when an overseer found I was Force-sensitive," she sighed. "Everyone, from that overseer to other acolytes have looked down their noses at me for it ever since. So you can see how I'm accustomed to being used."

That was far worse than Tarys could have imagined.

"Awful doesn't cut it. I'm so sorry, no one should have to go through that." Tarys took a pause to sort through his thoughts. "That's sort of incredible actually, if you don't mind me saying."

"What do you mean?" her tone of voice betrayed her confusion.

"Well, you were born a slave and yet here you are, apprenticed to a Sith Lord and with the skill to fight against dozens of soldiers alongside a certain dashing Padawan and still come out of it not a terrible person - as far as I know, anyway."

Shit. Did he really just say dashing? Why in the name of the Force would he do that? Tarys felt the blood rushing to his cheeks as he rapidly flushed redder than a Sith's lightsaber.

"A girl tells you she grew up a slave and you somehow turned it into a way to compliment yourself? It would almost be impressive if I couldn't tell how embarrassed you are right now," She made sure to take a moment to chuckle. "I won't hold it against you, too much. That said, no one's ever put it that way, thanks - it means a lot."

Too much? What had he done?

"Can we please return to the original topic before I jump into a Flesh Raider's blaster just so this ends?"

"Flesh Raider?" she asked.

"I'll explain. Your turn first though," he promised.

"Of course, my dashing Padawan," she laughed, mockingly.

She was cruel, oh so cruel.

"So, assassinating a Darth." he tried to change the topic as fast as he could.

"Right."

"That's insane!"

"I know."

"And you have to do it?"

"Yes."

"That's horrible."

"I know." She took a pause before speaking again. "What about you? Tell me something happy. Are you doing any good for the galaxy yet?"

She emphasised the word 'good' as if he was only a child playing at being a hero, it was annoying to say the least.

"Yes, actually, I'm currently on the way to do more 'good' as we speak."

"Oh, how noble of you, O dashing Padawan."

"You're really milking it now."

"And it's worth every second."

"Can I please talk about the Flesh Raiders now?"

"I'd rather talk about how good looking you are, but sure."

"Can you not?" Tarys rolled his eyes.

"Oh I absolutely can not. I just won't not."

"You're relentless."

"Thank you." Ugh. She sounded so satisfied.

Just as he was going to tell her about how Flesh Raiders invaded Temple grounds it struck him that telling a Sith Acolyte about the Jedi's very home being attacked was likely not the best idea - no matter how trustworthy she seemed.

"Basically Flesh Raiders are these big, vicious and violent descendants of the Rakata native to Tython and they've been terrorising this Twi'lek village and I'm on the way to the next stop on my mission to stop them."

"Much more fulfilling than political assassination."

"Much," he agreed.

"The life of a Jedi sounds so simple."

"Then join it," Tarys offered immediately, if she turned away from the Sith he'd have no reason whatsoever to be wary of her, and the Order would gain a powerful new member.

"What?"

"I'm serious, name a planet, I'll meet you there and bring you back to Tython. The Order would take you in, we've done it before with people who delved far deeper in the dark side."

"No. I said it was simple, I didn't say it was for me. There's too many… limitations. Besides, I know most Sith aren't good people but that doesn't mean the code itself is bad. It's important to me."

He expected the rejection but the small part of him that hoped for acceptance was crestfallen, "What do you mean?"

"Well… the no attachments thing bothers me, obviously, and your entire life you're bound to serve your Council or your Chancellor or someone. It's just not what I want," she reflected.

"It's not like you're serving them against your will though, you're free to refuse missions and to pursue whatever you'd like. And the attachments rule is just there to make sure people don't fall to the dark side," he echoed the words of every Master he'd ever spoken to about the subject. "Besides, what do you want?"

"To be free, truly free. Tell me, do you know the Sith code?" she asked him.

"I don't," he confessed.

So she recited it, "Peace is a lie. There is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, power. Through power, victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me."

He'd never heard it before, Tarys expected something more… violent.

"I can see why it means a lot to you," he admitted.

"Slave girl likes freedom," she agreed.

"But peace is a lie?"

"Isn't it?"

"I don't think so."

"We're about the same age, right? We were born in the middle of one of the worst wars the galaxy has ever seen and even right now, there are smaller conflicts throughout space. I've heard people even call this the 'Cold War'. Just because there's a treaty doesn't mean there's peace. Hell, we only met because both our factions broke it. Our entire lives have been a war, what is peace, then, if not a lie?"

"An ideal. Something to strive for. No one says that anything less than perfect and permanent peace is a failure, it is just something we should work towards and if we never actually achieve it - then so be it, at least we will have tried. We will have gotten a bit closer and it will have been worth it." Only after saying that did Tarys realise that he had more or less paraphrased a passage from his mother's book, bringing a wide smile to his face. She was an insightful woman.

"I want to believe you, I do." She paused. "And maybe one day I will. The rule against attachments is still stupid, though. I don't think the Jedi realise what they're missing out on by denying themselves that."

Tarys suddenly felt jealous beyond reason, "And you do?"

There was a silence he hated that lasted far too long.

"No… I'd just like to at some point. I want to have a family, strange as it sounds. Maybe even children, give them what I never had."

Tarys breathed possibly the biggest sigh of relief he had ever breathed.

"A childhood?"

"Something like that. How did you know?"

"I've been thinking about it lately."

"Have you now? Tell me about it."

And so Tarys told her at length about his mother's books and how a part of him, no, how all of him wished that he'd met her and his father and just had a childhood - a normal one, anyway. They both lamented over seeing normal children with their parents and how such scenes always brought wistful smiles to their faces, to see others so happy was great but they would never feel what those children did. The Force chose them for a different life. It felt good, so good, to finally give voice and sound to those feelings. He'd always felt guilty, he was very fortunate to be raised among the Jedi but to have someone with whom he could share his regrets, privileged as they may be, was a greater comfort than he realised.

"So, five days in and having a Sith in my head and nope, not any less strange than the other four." Tarys reflected.

"It's different though. You can tell right?"

Not until she'd mentioned it but she was right, it was different.

"I can't feel your emotions anymore."

"Exactly, I can just hear your voice."

Tarys paused to think, "What changed?"

"I don't know, but if I were to venture a guess, I think the Force bond, how do I put this… stabilised. I don't think it's transmitting anything we don't want to go across - like emotions," Astraia theorised.

"That could make sense, remember the first night? I kept getting everything. Ever since we agreed to put the shields up it's been a lot better. Wait, that might be a better explanation. I think I still have my shields up a little bit - just habit, what about you?"

"The same, I think. Maybe the bond learned to work around our shields, so it's just normal telepathy, just across a ludicrous range."

"I think that's it, it's like what Master Satele and I have then. I can never tell what she's feeling and I think it's because she has her mental shields up but she can read my feelings whenever she wants too, probably because-"

"She's Satele bloody Shan, that's why," she finished for him.

"I was going to say because she's a better Force-user, but 'Satele bloody Shan' works too," Tarys said, doing his best to mock her accent only to raise Astraia's ire. "Sorry no time to listen, I just made it to the 'next stop', okay bye."

He raised his mental shields with a satisfied smile, lowering them again a few moments later once he was sure Astraia stopped trying to protest his admittedly perfect impression of her. As he stepped past a fallen stone pillar, Tarys considered the change in their bond. If they couldn't feel each other's emotions without willfully opening them up did that mean Astraia couldn't feel his jealousy when she mentioned attachments? He must've been overthinking the second-long pause she took for something more, then.

The Force bond was a confusing thing but what worried him was that if their hypothesis was correct then the Force could adapt the bond, so maybe at one point it could become resistant to their mental shields and open the floodgates again, whether they willed it or not. It made no sense though. When it first formed it was at its strongest - he could feel exactly what she was feeling and she could feel exactly what he was feeling, then suddenly that changed due to their mind shields? Granted they only put them up after they got tired of the bombardment of thoughts from the other but right then, as Tarys warily eyed the ancient defence droids that patrolled the area, his shields were lowered, as far as he always he kept them, and yet there was nothing, not a thought, word or feeling to be had - other than from himself, of course.

"Astraia?" He said sheepishly.

"Oh there you are, I wasn't done with you!"

"Okay, as funny as this is - and it is hilarious, I wanted to try something and to tell you before I probably start fighting again."

"Alright, what is it?" She replied slowly and deliberately, as if she expected Tarys to make another joke.

"Let's try keeping our shields down, to the level we usually keep them and see if we can still speak to each other without the whole 'shouting into the Force' thing. That way we'll be able to tell if the bond has really changed. If it hasn't then we should be able to feel what the other's feeling."

"Done."

Tarys waited a few seconds and allowed the silence to settle before breaking it again, "Still there? Can you hear me?"

"Unfortunately. Looks like you were right, the bond's learned to work around our mental shields. I don't have to feel your smug satisfaction right now though so I consider this a win."

"And I don't have to feel yours. Really though, I feel like I'm going to be turning on my lightsaber real soon, the way these droids are looking at me, so I'll talk later, Bye for real this time."

"Goodbye, she said, to the galaxy's most dashing Padawan," she narrated herself.

Tarys clenched his jaw in annoyance before letting his frown dissolve into a reluctant smile. As irritating as she was, she was pretty funny - it was only that he just happened to be the butt of almost all her jokes. He brought his focus back to the task at hand. He'd gotten carried away talking to her during the almost hour-long trip to the Kalethi ruins. Tarys purposefully avoided the droids and ventured into a tunnel in the side of the valley where he saw the all too familiar pink hide of a Flesh Raider in his periphery.

He recognised the tunnel, Master Satele took him here early on in his apprenticeship for meditation. He didn't know there was a shrine on the other side of it. The fight that ensued with the Flesh Raider in the inside was a quick one, for all their newfound weaponry and technology, they were still too blinded by bloodlust to react in a way that was genuinely dangerous to him and more importantly, there were only three of them. The other end of the cavern opened into a clearing, at the end of which sat the ruined remains of an ancient shrine to… something - it was too far gone to be able to tell what the shrine was dedicated to.

"Jeehd-ay…" grumbled an armoured Flesh Raider that stood at the foot of the shrine.

"Did you… just call me Jedi?" Tarys was baffled. Raiders had never been able to be capable of speech.

Then he felt a strong push knocking him back into the ground.

A Force push.

Flesh Raiders could now use the Force. Just great. It didn't make sense though, as descendants of the Rakatans, they should've been cut off from the Force too as their ancestors had famously lost the ability to touch the Force many millennia ago.

Bouncing back onto his feet, Tarys saw the armoured Raider command its four allies to attack Tarys. And so it began. Tarys wanted to gauge the extent of the armoured one's Force abilities so he jumped into the air and struck the ground, creating a Force-fuelled shockwave that swept through the group of Flesh Raiders and knocked them out - all but the leader, it seemed.

Tarys waited and tried to draw out the Raider, daring it to use the full extent of its power but thankfully it seemed limited to Force Push. Once he learned to expect it, Tarys was able to counter with relative ease. As he caught his breath after laying the killing blow on the Flesh Raider, Master Bela Kiwiiks and her Padawan made her way to the shrine to join him.

"Master Orgus sent us, we came as quickly as we could," Master Bela began.

"It's a good thing you did. This Flesh Raider… he called me 'Jedi' and he could use the Force. Only on a basic level, but still, it's troubling," Tarys stated.

"I agree, if they're learning the ways of the Force, it won't be on the side of the light," the Master concurred.

"You sure made short work of this bunch, I heard you were good, but damn," the Togruta Master's Padawan said, pointing at the bodies of the Flesh Raiders.

"I tried not to kill them but with Flesh Raiders that's almost a futile effort," he confessed.

Even he'd heard of Padawan Kira Carsen. He didn't see her much, Padawans often didn't see their peers but even at three years his junior word had reached him about Master Kiwiiks' loudmouthed apprentice. It seemed she lived up to her reputation, even if she obviously meant no harm.

"This one carried a holocron. Strange. And it's thousands of years old by the looks of it too. Master Orgus was right, these natives are more advanced than we realised. They're learning how to fight us," Master Bela said, inspecting the glowing cube.

"And he thinks he knows who's behind it," said Tarys.

"I gathered as much, but he had no time to explain it before sending us here. Look, I wish we could stay and help you more but your Master ordered us to Coruscant on a special mission."

"All those bad feelings the Council's been having? She thinks Coruscant is the source," Kira chimed in.

The capital? It had been a while since Tarys had been back to his homeworld but if all of this led back there, then he wanted to be there too. Maybe he could convince Master Satele to let him go after this mission.

"I'm sorry to leave you but thankfully the danger has passed. Place these surveillance monitors around Kaleth before you head back, thank you," instructed the Master, handing him a handful of small cameras.

Tarys had been hoping to return to Kalikori village and see what Master Orgus had figured out, but it looked like he had to spend a few more minutes in Kaleth before he could do so.

Running around the ruins was somewhat cathartic, and to make his task all the easier he came across Ishra, as he thought he might.

"Tarys, you will not believe what's been happening, this is unreal," she enthused, excitement clear in her eyes, "I've found the hilt of the first lightsaber, the first lightsaber ever built! And I'm chasing the ghost of one of the founders of the Order, Rajivari, remember him? The one that betrayed the Order and the Council and now I'm on my way to find the Fount of Rajivari."

"Isn't that meant to be just a story?" Tarys questioned.

"Nope, it's real. All of it. I couldn't believe it either."

"You've had quite the adventure," Tarys laughed.

"Yeah, but this Twi'lek from the village is out to destroy the Order because we didn't protect them against the Flesh Raiders. He's dangerous, Rajivari turned him to the dark side. It's going to be hard beating him. Master Yuon told me that you were dealing with the Flesh Raiders. Quite the challenge, how's that going?" Ishra asked.

"It's been tough, nothing quite like opening up six-year-old wounds from my Trials is there?" Tarys began sarcastically, then spending the better part of an hour relaying everything that had happened to far to his friend and exchanging stories about rather annoying Flesh Raiders.

"Well then, we both have our work cut out for us then don't we?" She said, looking up into the clear blue sky. "Look at us."

"We're doing it, aren't we?" Tarys said, joining her. "We're becoming Jedi."

"We are," she replied, smiling broadly, as was her custom. "We're making a difference."

It was true. From the looks of it, both of their current tasks were important to the Order and had real consequences. On every other mission Tarys had ever undertaken, Master Satele had always been there to clean up his mess, or the messes he made didn't even matter because the mission was so trivial, but here, on Tython of all places, he had a real responsibility to succeed. People were counting on him.

And I'll fail. He realised he had lied to himself, there was one other time, one other mission where it truly up to him to protect someone, the mess was his to fix and he failed.

Tarys failed at protecting someone, at being a Jedi. Tarys took deep, sequential breaths to calm himself before his mind drifted off any further into memories that were best kept locked.

The two parted ways. They had spent too long chatting as it was and they had just established the importance of their missions, so Tarys made his way back to the Matriarch's home in the Twi'lek settlement and met with Master Orgus. By now, he'd travelled these routes back and forth so often that they were practically ingrained in his mind.

The Padawan walked into to find Master Orgus working on Teeseven, "Master Kiwiiks told me what you found in Kaleth, incredible. I never thought a Flesh Raider could touch the Force." The Master stood to meet his eyes. "She thought he was learning from that holocron. I wish that were true. Remember how Callef's lightsaber seemed familiar? It belonged to Bengel Morr… my old Padawan - and the masked figure in the holo."

"Your old Padawan? I don't remember you ever having one, Master," Tarys questioned, confused.

"You wouldn't. He was in the Coruscant Temple when the Sith attacked." The Master's face grew sombre, it must've pained him to know that his former Padawan was now working to destroy his order. "Bengel was strong in the Force… and the most gentle being I've ever known. For him to turn against us - he must be stopped," he finished, with renewed conviction in his voice.

Ranna then joined them, sadness across her face too. It seemed joy was in short supply that day. "Apologies for keeping you waiting. Our people's Matriarch - my mother - is dying."

Ranna seemed to try to swallow her grief and act strong in the face of sorrow - an act Tarys was more than familiar with. He had never known his parents before they died but Ranna did, she deserved to spend her mother's last moments with her - this could wait.

"Go to her, you should be at her side, Ranna," suggested Tarys, giving her a sympathetic smile.

"You're kind, but my mother wants me here," Ranna shook her head as if she were telling that to herself rather than to him. "Anyway, our scouts have identified a Raider command base in the mountains."

"Then that's where we need to be," Master Orgus said, looking at Tarys.

"It has an energy shield though, powered by a generator in another place entirely," she said pointing at a location on a holomap she'd brought up.

"That's almost three klicks away from the camp - we'll need to split up for this, Padawan. You up for knocking out the power generator?" asked the Master.

"Of course, Master. I'll get a head start so you're not left waiting at the base," Tarys confirmed.

And so Tarys was on the road once more, following a waypoint placed on his own holomap. The Raiders had gotten frighteningly organised, he didn't want to think so, but could Orgus Din's former Padawan really be an existential threat to the Jedi on Tython? If he was, then there was the weight of the galaxy on Tarys' shoulders. The Padawan's stomach sank as he contemplated the significance of his role. He'd promised his Master that he would do this - that he would take on the Flesh Raiders. But could he? No. Tarys was a poor excuse for a Jedi, he couldn't protect others - he was kidding himself if he believed he could.

And yet, he had made a promise and Jedi don't break promises.

He had to try, no matter what. No matter the insurmountable likelihood of his failure, he had to try. The people he cared about: his family, the Jedi, were at stake. The rule against attachments is still stupid, though. He thought about Astraia's words to him. He couldn't lie to himself again, he had attachments - ones he cared deeply about and ones that made him the poor excuse for a Jedi he was. It's to make sure people don't fall to the dark side. He'd told her as such but did he even believe that? Someone could have attachments and not fall to the dark side right? He wanted to believe that.

Tarys didn't like how many lives he took off late. He'd killed too many beings. He wondered if he could've found a different way, a better way to accomplish what he needed to, getting the weapons for the Kalikori Twi'leks and now, as he destroyed the power generator for the energy shield, standing above half a dozen dead Flesh Raiders. If nothing else though, he was glad there was no blood.

Then, the holoprojector attached to the power generator's console lit up, producing the blue image of a Nautolan, one who wore torn and frankly threadbare Jedi robes.

"Hmm. You must be the Padawan who slaughters my people. Your misguided attacks change nothing. Your time is over," he declared.

This had to be Bengel Morr. Tarys found it strange that he had kept and even wore old Jedi robes that basically amounted to rags. Maybe, in his own broken way Master Orgus' former apprentice did care for the Order.

"Master Orgus is looking for you, Bengel," Tarys informed him.

"Orgus won't find me. I'll find him," he threatened. "You executed my apprentice, Callef. I can feel his death on you. I spent years training him. He was a good man, a principled man. Are you proud of yourself?" Morr's void-like eyes were trained on Tarys' very soul.

He didn't want to believe that he did. Tarys wanted to believe that Callef's death was inevitable - he refused to surrender. But no, that was wrong. Of course, he did. Tarys executed a fallen Padawan when he should've brought him back to the light.

"Of course I'm not proud. I never wanted to kill him, you have to believe me," he pled, more to himself than to Morr but he pled all the same.

"You had the choice not to. You could've surrendered to the inevitable. Mark my words, every weak-willed so-called 'Jedi' on Tython is going to die and from their sacrifice, I will bring forth a new Order, one that can withstand the Siths' advances that your Order refuses to fight," Morr spat.

The man was in pain. To Tarys, it seemed that he did care for the Jedi - he simply had a twisted vision for what they should be. He hadn't given in to the dark the same way Sith did. He truly saw his cause as righteous.

"Don't give in to hatred Bengel. Let us help you," Tarys said, offering his hand to the hologram, despite his inability to touch it.

"Help me become a coward like you? I am the only true Jedi left in the galaxy. Enjoy this victory, impostor, it'll be your last," Morr answered as his projection fizzled away.

The Padawan couldn't help but feel bad for Bengel Morr as he marched back to Kalikori village, dejected. He wasn't facing some monster bent on destroying his Order, just the shell of a man who just wished to fight back against the Empire. In his mind it made sense. Bengel had disappeared during the Sacking of Coruscant. He must've seen many of his closest friends and teachers perish in the assault and afterwards the Temple wasn't even rebuilt. Even now, a decade after the fact, the bastion of the Jedi still sat in ruins, a sad memory for all who passed its walls.

Bengel Morr was wrong, there was no doubt about that but still… He meant well in his own mind. Maybe Tarys could succeed with Bengel as he had failed with Callef - maybe he could bring the fallen Jedi back to the light to fight on the side of the Order he clearly cared about.

Some time later Tarys entered the matriarch's complex once again and found Ranna sitting, shoulders slumped, one a bench on the far side of the building's main hall.

"I shut down the energy shield. Has there been any word from Master Orgus?" Tarys said, approaching her. Hopefully, her sullen posture was just a result of the misfortune of the whole situation her village found itself in.

"No. My mother… she found peace during your absence. I'm now Matriarch," she answered as if saying her new title left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Oh. I'm so sorry Ranna," he tried to comfort her, taking a seat beside her. "You don't have to go through this alone, you know."

She forced a faint smile, "People who say Jedi have no feelings are wrong."

Tarys hoped those people were right, he hoped someone could have feelings and still be a Jedi; because if they couldn't, what was he? Impostor. That was what Bengel Morr had called him and what his mind immediately answered with. Maybe Morr was right about him. No, he told himself. Bengel Morr was a disillusioned dark Jedi, his opinions about what made a Jedi were irrelevant. That was what Tarys told himself, at least.

"You know, before he left, Master Orgus told me that Jedi believe 'There is no death, there is the Force,'" she said, quoting the tenet of the Code he knew well. "He said you believe our essence lives on when we die and merges with the Force. I hope that's true."

"So do I," Tarys agreed, laying his hand on her forearm.

In the warm silence that followed a female villager ran into the building, practically shouting at Ranna. "Matriarch! Flesh Raiders broke through our defences. They did something to our crop fields!" She announced, stopping to catch her breath. "They dropped strange machines in the soil. When a scout approached one, he collapsed with sickness. Once he crawled away he began to recover but there's many more machines still out there."

Biological warfare? Tarys assumed the machines carried some sort of toxin, an airborne spore or something of the sort. That was something he did not expect Bengel Morr to resort to. 'The only true Jedi left in the galaxy.' That's what he had called himself. No, Jedi respected life, in all forms, they killed only as a necessity and certainly not by using nature to destroy itself. Bengel Morr was no longer a Jedi - not even if he thought himself one.

"Ranna, tell your people to stay away from the fields. I'll get rid of these things," he told her, standing ready to leave the building. With Master Orgus still away, Tarys was the only one in the village qualified to deal with the new threat.

"Be careful. If the poison is too much, save yourself, Master Jedi."

"Please Matriarch, it's just Tarys," he emphasised her new title in an effort to let her know that despite what she might have thought, it did belong to her.

Stepping outside Tarys saw them immediately. A horde of Flesh Raiders trampled through the Twi'leks' fields like they were little more than barren ground and purple clouds of poison spread through the nearby air - inciting coughing from everyone nearby. When possible, Tarys did prefer not to be poisoned, but this time there was nothing that could be done about it, he was sure the Kalikori didn't have any filtered masks - else they would've used them by now and there was not enough time to go back to the Temple and collect one.

Tarys decided that not staying in one spot long enough to breathe any poison in was as good as plan as any, he would blink from one Raider to another as quickly as possible. This meant, however, that there was no room for mercy. Tarys had to act with lethal efficiency to avoid spending too long in the midst of a poison cloud. Oddly enough, Tarys noted, that the Flesh Raiders seemed unaffected by the poison - they must've been resistant to it. Bengel Morr had thought this out, making his choice of attack all the more despicable.

Ranna Tao'Ven had followed him outside and watched him assess the state of the fields. "Are you sure you can handle this? If you can't-"

"I'll manage," he interrupted her, time was of the essence.

Tarys blinked to the edge of the field, then again onto the back of one of the Flesh Raiders, holding his breath and slashing across its back with his now extended lightsaber as he jumped off, teleporting to the foot of the next one. Tarys relished the feeling of blinking from place to place at breakneck speeds, it made him feel alive - even if that was scant consolation for the lives of the Flesh Raiders he was taking. After seven years of practice, teleporting no longer the toll on his body it used to. It was safe to say now he could blink enough times to not worry about that being the cause of getting tired, assuming he was well rested beforehand, of course.

Lightsabers were fast, efficient and brutal weapons when they needed to be - like now, for instance. Aside from the odd few seconds Tarys took to stand in one of the few poison-free patches to catch his breath, he was able to defeat the Flesh Raiders quickly and within a minute of teleporting back and forth across the fields, almost half of the invaders lay dead on the ruined soil.

Tarys clutched his knees as he bent down to let fresh air enter his lungs again after an eternity of holding his breath.

Battle was a fast-paced thing and so, before Tarys could truly get his thoughts in order and realise the sheer scale of the threat he faced, he was already blinking to Raiders and back, trying to minimise the number of attacks it took to take down, no, kill, each of them. He was glad there was no blood.

As Tarys threw his lightsaber in order to kill the final Flesh Raider he was finally brought back to the present by the loud crackling of his left saber as it destabilised to resemble a collection of light blue lightning bolts, rather than the uniform plasma beam it usually took the form of. Again, Tarys had killed more than he wanted. His reflexes made him move before he realised what he did. It wasn't all his fault. Surely?

No, Tarys had no time to debate whether he did the right thing - he had to destroy the machines spewing out the poison. With the same precision and speed he employed to fight the Raiders, Tarys drove his sabers into each plate-like machine, causing them to stop working and finally, after a few seconds, ending the poisoning of the fields.

Tarys coughed out the last of the poison from his lungs, thankfully his tactic seemed to work and he'd only inhaled trace amounts of it - not enough to do any real harm to his body.

He returned to Ranna who had watched the entire encounter, seemingly never having taken her eyes off the fields her people ate from.

"I saw how you fought out there. What you did out there was more than brave - it was heroic," she told him, a grateful smile on her face.

"Please, heroic is a strong word, it doesn't apply to me," Tarys laughed lightly.

She shook her head, "Ever since you came here all you've done is risk your life to save us. Tell me, why would you face death again and again for people you barely know?"

"I can't stand by and do nothing when I know others are suffering - especially if it's because of neglect from my Order," Tarys explained.

"So many of my people mistrust the Jedi. I wish they could know you like I do," she said. "Here, please, take this as a token of our appreciation - I know it's not much but I hope it's enough."

Tarys waved his hand in front of him. "No please, knowing your people are safer for my actions is reward enough." He knew it was a cheesy line out of some fable but it was true - for the first time in a long time, the Padawan was proud of himself.

"I suppose I should go inform everyone the danger is over then. Thank you so much Tarys," she walked away.

Soon afterwards, he received a call from Master Orgus.

"Finally put the Flesh Raider base out of commission. How are things on your end?" Master Orgus asked.

"I spoke to Bengel Morr on the holo back at the cave, he's doing this all to destroy the Sith - he still believes himself a Jedi, Master," he informed.

"Then he's not Sith himself - good. If I can get to him, reason with him…" He drifted off. "You did good work Padawan, you deserve a break. Go back to the Temple for the night, I'm sure you miss your own bed."

"I will, thank you, Master." Tarys was extremely grateful for the reprieve he was granted. So much of the last few days had just been chasing down Flesh Raiders, an evening of quiet meditation seemed like bliss to him by comparison.

By the time Tarys had reached the Temple the sun was setting above the lake in front of the Jedi's home, creating a reflection in the water that always took Tarys' breath away. The universe was a beautiful thing. With that thought, Tarys decided to forego the meditation chamber and instead sat atop the same rock he and Ishra talked one just a few days prior, sitting with his legs crossed and closing his eyes.

Tarys focused on the chilly but pleasant breeze raising the hairs on his arms as he took breath after breath, in an attempt to become calm and centred. The feeling of the wind against his face was one he'd always loved, it made him feel like he was really part of the universe, the Living Force, even - as Master Satele was keen to put it. Killing the Flesh Raiders was necessary. At least that's what he told himself and in truth, he couldn't see any different paths to solving the issue at hand but part of him nagged - what if that was because he didn't want to find a different path? Could a better Jedi have found a better way to go about it? Ranna was thankful for his actions and he was glad, certainly, but did he deserve such gratitude? He wondered if Master Satele could have done something else in his position, if she could've saved Callef, the Padawan's death weighed heavily on his mind. Could Ishra have saved him? Probably. They're better.

That night, he had a nightmare.

I'm so so sorry for the lack of an update last week! The past two weeks have been beyond hectic and busy and just all around pretty crap so I didn't have much time to write or edit or anything. Thank goodness for my saint of a beta reader who still had a look at this chapter so it was presentable! I hope this chapter's unusual length makes up for a little of it.