Tharen P.O.V.
I let Ranna sleep on my shoulder for a few minutes until I was sure she wouldn't wake up, then I slipped away, leaving my jacket for her as a pillow. I silently entered the cockpit and stood behind Saras. I was slightly comforted by the sight of the blue lights whisping around the ship and the stars flying past us.
"Dain, could you give Tharen and I a moment?" Ordered Saras in a whisper. Dain nodded and left the cockpit before Saras sealed the door. "How is Ranna doing?"
"She's had worse." I said flatly, hoping to avoid talking about Ranna.
"Somethings bothering you. What's wrong?" Her tone was serious but she was certainly concerened. I noticed she was still adjusting the hyperspace cordinates.
"Where are we going?" I dodged.
"I will tell you after you tell me what's wrong." She coaxed. "I think you and Ranna will find this very interesting."
I sighed. "What Ranna did was wrong." I admitted. "She killed him, I thought I had tought her better..."
"That's what has you so gloomy?" She chuckled. "That Commando tried to kill you! You should be back there thanking her!" I didn't understand how she was able to be so calm about it.
"Saras, she choked the man to death!"
"After he shot her and was going to kill us all!" She explained. "The Revanites have this code: if someone tries to kill you, gut them before they gut you."
"Thats not our way." I ignored her blatent disrespect for jedi philosophy. "She could have let him live..."
"Is that what you believe or what you've been tought to believe." She sighed and looked at me. "You know all those history books you used to read? How many soldiers and gangsters did Meetra Surik have to fight when she was gathering the ancient council? If she let any of them live, do you know what would have happened? They would attack her again." She looked at me and knew that I was done with the subject. "We will be arriving at Echan within the next few hours."
"The Echani home world? Isn't that a little dangerous? They don't exactly trust Jedi." I asked.
"Its no more dangerous than landing on a repub- I mean 'empire' world like Naboo. Atleast this planet was nutral during the war." Saras explained. "And its the closest place that has a Revanite encampment." She unlocked the door behind us so that we could see Dain and Ranna sleeping. "You had better hope Ranna likes hand-to-hand combat, otherwise she's going to have a heard time talking to her own people."
~~~•••~~~
We exited hyper space a six hours later. Echan was a planet at a distant orbit from it's star, just inside the habitable zone. The planet was covered in snowy mountains and flat ice plains. The ocean that separated each of the continents was a calming azure. The second Ranna stumbled into the cockpit, Saras pointed out a small city at the base of a small mountain chain near the northern coast as she pointed our shuttle toward it.
"Do you know where we are?" She smiled to my student.
Ranna blinked the sleep out of her eyes and looked out the viewscreen. "Hoth?" She settled to sitting on the floor next to my seat.
"Do you remeber much about your homeworld?" Asked Saras.
It had taken me two years before Ranna had trusted me enough to explain her story, so I didn't expect her to say much. Her father had been a fisherman in the southern area of the planet and her mother had been a teacher at a music school. When riots broke out on the planet, her human father had been killed when his boat was stolen. Her mother died a short time later when the riots burned down the school. That was how Master Yarlen had found Ranna, she had been left in the care of her aunt until she was three when they found out she was force sensitive.
"Echan..." She sighed.
"You don't sound too happy about it?" Noticed Saras. "I figured that you would be happy."
I sensed Ranna starting to grow irratated. "Well, what are you waiting for? Bring us in for a landing." I requested before Ranna could say anything. "Etch, come with me." I stood up and led her to the crew cabin and rushed Dain back into the cockpit. "Okay, what's wrong? You've been a little off since we escaped the prison."
"Everything!" She blurt. "First, you were shot by clone troopers, then I find out that Saras is back! After that all our friends are killed in the temple, then we robbed the temple." I could feel how sad she was, nobody should have to experience what she had experienced in one day. "Then I get shot, you almost get Killed again! And I strangle a man to death!" I feel the shuttle hit atmosphere and we brace against the railing. "This is the final straw, I'm going crazy, Echan... bloody, frozen Echan. Just punch me in the face now while you are at it!" I chuckled and pulled her into a hug. "What's so funny?!"
"Don't you think you are being a little dramatic?" I answered. "I know things are hard, and I get it but you are letting your feeling get to your head, we'll be safe here."
"You are one to talk! You are so head over heels for Saras that you aren't thinking for yourself, every time she has an idea, you follow her blindly, you do remember this is the same woman who disapeared for four years! The only reason she came back is because she needed something! We should have left them back onCoruscant!"
"Ranna calm down, you aren't thinking clearly." I soothed. "Let's just see where they take us."
"And if its unsafe, or its a trap, we will leave and never come back?" I nodded. "Okay..." She sighed. "But please don't leave me alone, Dain keeps flirting with me."
"So?" I asked. "Most girls your age would-"
"I am a jedi, something you seemed to have forgotten is that we aren't allowed to form that sort of attachment! Also, he irritates me." She explained loudly. I almost laughed but I did promise to stay close to her and she agreed to calm down. A moment after, the shuttle landed.
~~~•••~~~
Saras was the first person down the shuttle's ramp, Dain followed her a few steps behind. Ranna had pulled her jacket's hood over her head, concealing her entire pale face. We had landed at the outskirts of the city we had seen from orbit. I could see towering skyscrapers several miles away.
The wind blew strongly as Saras led us deeper into the rocky hills at the base of an enormous mountain. Whe hiked in the cold for hours. The snow was up to our waists and the sun was about to set by the time Saras signalled for us to stop. "Tharen, Ranna. Drop your weapons." Ordered Saras as she pressed a button on her comlink.
I felt Ranna tense. "Why?" I asked. Even I was slightly nervous about her request.
"So that Baron Yural will open the enterance." She looked me in the eyes and I understood she was telling the truth. I dropped both my lightsabers and my blaster.
Ranna backed away from me slowly. "Master, you can't be serious! How do you know we won't be killed the moment we drop our weapons?" Her hand hovered shakily over her lightsaber. Her blaster burn must have been still taking its toll.
"Etch, you need to do as she asks."
"I don't tust her, not enough to drop the only means of protection I have." I could see her breath in the icy wind that blasted against her hood.
"Ranna, if Saras wanted to kill us, she would have left us in the temple, she wouldn't have saved us when we jumped out of the prison." I took a steady step toward her. "You don't have to trust her, you just need to trust me. You do trust me right?" I was now only a couple steps away.
"Of course I trust you, but you don't know if you are right to trust her either!" She psused for a moment and shivered. "We can still go, its not to late, we can leave and go hide somewhere away, somewhere the empire can't find us."
"Ranna, just drop your lightsaber, I'll make sure you get it back, after we get that wound taked care of." Promised Saras. "I would never allow either you or Tharen to be hurt."
Ranna looked at me. I could tell that all she wanted to do was leave. "Master... I... I don't know what's going on any more, all I want to do is for things to go back to the way they were, just the two of us."
"I know Ranna, but we can't do that. Not right now." I had my left hand on her shoulder and my right hand was covering her hand, preventing her from moving her lightsaber. "Now, I promise, I will keep you safe. Just like on Corelia." I nodded.
"Just like Corellia." She whispered back with a nod before letting her weapon fall into the snow.
Saras signaled Dain to collect our weapons before raising her Com-link again. "Baron Yural, the enterance is clear."
"Saras, Dain, welcome home. We need your acsess code before we can let you in." Explained an older man's voice over the com-link.
"Graysun, two, five, six. I have the holocron."
"Opening the doors." Answered the voice. A moment later, two large, snow covered doors slid open in the side of the mountainside. A warm light eminated from inside.
Dain, Ranna, and I followed Saras past the door and inside the bunker, then the doors slid shut behind us. The bunkers interior was a comfortable, warm temperature. Eight men in heavy armor with their blasters raised and pointed at us. At their center stood an older man with a shaved head. He was wearing a blood red tunic with black armor covering his shoulders and limbs.
"Saras, Dain, it's good to have you back. Flarn was starting to get worried because of the change in republic leadership." I realized he was the same man from Saras's com-link. "I understand you have the holocron?" Saras nodded, grabbed it out of her cloak and tossed it to him. "And guests? Are they Jedi that survived Coruscant?" Saras nodded again. "What are their names?" He was talking to Saras but I knew he wanted me to answer.
"I am Tharen." I answered politely. "This is Ranna Tovan, my Padawan." I motioned to Ranna, who was standing behind me.
"Good to meet you Tharen. Padawan Tovan." He ordered the soldiers to lower their weapons. "Dain, would you please take young Ranna to the med-bay so Tharen and i can talk buisness, poor thing looks like she's about to pass out."
Ranna looked to me hoping I would fulfill my promise to her. "If its alright with you, she'll stay with me."
He nodded and returned the holocron to Saras. "Take it to the librarian on level three. Tell them I will be there in an hour, I wish to talk to Tharen."