Luke Skywalker was having a rather relaxing evening in his quarters.
He was kicked back on his couch with a glass of Adamantine II in his hand and The Pink Bantha 2 had just started on the holo-tv. Oh he was really relaxed.
…That is until Shyma barged in (that's what he got for giving her a spare pass key) looking extremely unhappy.
She flopped down onto the couch next to Luke, who put down his drink onto the coffee table in front of him and eyed her left arm carefully. Her bandaged upper left arm, to be specific.
"Hey kiddo-what happened there? Is that a burn? Oh I'm gonna kriffing murder whoever did this to you" Luke's greeting quickly turned into a threatening growl.
"I wouldn't do that if I where you…unless you wish to assassinate your best friend of course…" Shyma smirked.
Luke's eyes widened "Tommy did that?! He…why the hell would he…."
"He wanted to test my skills" Shyma began "I was supposed to strike him two times with my training saber. I accidentally hit him 3 times and the he burned me. And since-"
"And since he has a real lightsaber, it inflicted much more damage than you did…" Luke muttered looking away.
"Yeah…" Shyma whispered.
"Have you visited the healers yet?" Luke asked turning to face the padawan again.
"Yeah, no thanks to my master" Shyma smirked.
"Tommy didn't take you?" Luke raised a brow.
"Seriously Luke. He burned a hole through my arm. What makes you think he was in any mood to take me to the healers?" Shyma scowled.
Luke sighed "Where is Tommy now?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know?! I've been trying to avoid him all day!" Shyma growled.
"Feel through the bond" Luke instructed.
"What kriffing bond?! Seriously Luke! There is not connection between us! We hate each other and probably regret being in this apprenticeship already!" Shyma half yelled.
"So you don't know where he is?" Luke ventured.
Shyma gave an extremely irritated sigh "He's at home."
"See! Connection!" Luke pointed out.
Shyma sighed again "Can I stay here tonight?"
"Sure, if Tommy's ok with it" Luke shrugged picking up his glass of Adamantine once again.
"Please, he probably won't even notice if I didn't come home tonight. That or he'll figure I'm here" Shyma rolled her eyes.
"You know it is right next door, he probably can sense you from here. I mean your living room is like right-there" Luke said pointing to the wall behind him.
"Yeah, yeah let him sense all he wants, just as long as I can't see him and he can't see me" Shyma muttered.
"Ok, then" Luke sighed "I'm not going to let this perfectly good movie go to waste so lets finish it and then we'll call it a night."
Shyma nodded and scooted closer to the knight. He put a protective arm around her shoulder and resumed the watching of The Pink Bantha 2.
Of course the plan of finishing the movie and calling it a night never worked out due to their falling asleep in the middle of the movie…but neither where conscious to care.
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When Shyma returned home the next morning (only because Luke kicked her out telling her she had to face him sometime….and then told Ferus, Michael and Dave not to let her in) she found her master at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal.
She frowned at the sight of him with breakfast at 10:00 am. He didn't look too good either. She eyed his bandaged left arm and vaguely wondered if a tornado has run through the house while she was next door.
"You where with Luke last night" his low hoarse voice snapped Shyma out of her thoughts. She looked up at him from the doorway of the kitchen and saw him still poking around at his cereal.
"Thanks for letting me know…" she replied rolling her eyes.
"Attitude" Tommy deadpanned. The words came out of his mouth with so little emotion that it almost bothered his padawan. As though it didn't even matter anymore.
And then Shyma felt a bit irritated. Even when he looked like he was dying he had to point out a single remark. He couldn't let it slide just once?
"Yeah well-" But her retort was cut short by a violent fit of coughs that came from the man in front of her. It took Shyma a moment to realize who it was coming from but once she did, she barely suppressed a smirk
Aww, is the great Knight Kenobi showing signs of weakness? Force…jerk.
"We are on 2 weeks leave. We are free to do whatever we please but at the moment I am incapable of beginning your formal training so you are dismissed. You are free to spend the rest of the day however you please" Tommy continued softly.
Shyma raised a brow. For a minute she wondered how he could talk so perfectly on instinct. It was crazy!
And then her expression softened upon hearing his tone of voice. Something was seriously wrong. She could feel it.
And just when she was about to ask him if he was ok, he spoke "Go"
Shyma, slightly infuriated and slightly hurt by the casual dismissal, turned around and walked out.
If he wanted to push her away then so be it. She had people who cared more.
Well , he did too…barely.
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"Oh come on, cheer up, he's like that with all of us. You'll get used to his cold indifference …eventually…" Lou told the young girl in front of him in the most unconvincing way one could imagine.
After Shyma had walked out on Tommy, she went over to Lou's place (having found a loophole in what Luke had told her, Lou was not on the list of people that wouldn't let her in) where Luke just happened to be lounging as well. When she explained to them what happened, they decided to bring her over to Dex's for a talk.
"Lou, that was the most terrible attempt at words of comfort I have ever heard" Luke said slowly turning to face his friend.
"Well I'm sorry! You try helping a little girl with a man that breathes, eats, trains and gets dragged around by his hyperactive friends!" Lou half yelled.
Shyma just had to smile at that. Just the hilarity in Lou's voice was enough to make anyone crack up.
Luke sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Here's your drinks, Chewie!" Dex's voice came from behind the counter.
"Thanks Dex" Lou said as he used the force to bring the three glasses of Rataakan Root Beer over to the table.
"You know maybe this was a mistake. Maybe I shouldn't have pushed them into this apprenticeship" Luke muttered running a finger along the edge of his glass.
"No it's not Luke! You said it yourself! No one starts out good. They learn" Lou replied.
"Yeah, we all saw Tommy's reaction to that piece of advice" Luke smirked.
Shyma raised a brow having no idea what the two knights where talking about.
"Never mind, I'll talk to Tommy and see what I can do" Luke said upon seeing the padawan's expression.
Just then, Luke's comm. link sounded. He reached into his belt and brought it to his mouth:
"Skywalker"
"Yo, Luke, Yoda wants us" came the voice of Adam.
"Me and you?" Luke responded.
"Me, you, Lou, Dave, Ferry, Mike and Tom"
"Why the heck does he want all of us?"
"I have no idea but your gonna get some serious beatings with the gimmer stick of a certain little devil of a troll of you don't show up to the council's chambers in the next 5 minutes"
"Alright. I'll see you there then"
"'Kay"
"Skywalker out"
Luke ended the transmission and stowed his comm. back to his belt.
"Well, you heard him. To the council's chambers. Shyma, I'll drop you off at Maria's place, alright?" Luke said turning to his two companions.
"You're gonna leave her with Perna?" Lou asked.
But before Luke could reply Shyma spoke up "Yeah and then maybe I'll have a real master for about an hour and a half."
Lou's smiled as he rolled his eyes.
"Come on then" Luke said standing up and throwing a few credits onto the table.
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"Master, you called for us?" Ferus said as he and his six companions entered the council chambers.
"Call you I did" Yoda confirmed as the seven knights bowed. Once they straightened up, Yoda continued.
"Call you to assign you to a mission I did" he said. As expected all seven knights raised a brow with one question. What mission could possibly need seven of the Coroscanti Temple's best Jedi?
"As know you do, that at war the planets of Djurmo and Telerath have been in, for decades now. Never caused destruction out of their own worlds have they. So concerned we where not" Yoda informed.
"Recently though, Djurmo and Telerath have began recruiting and taking over other planets to enforce their war" Master Windu continued "So far several systems have already been conquered. Iseno, Dareep, Simaril, Adari, Pengalan IV and Mindor are just a few of these planets. A few days ago the king of Vurdon Ka contacted us asking that we stop this before it reaches their planet. Seeing that Vurdon Ka is only 3 systems away from Pengalan IV, we don't have much time before either Djurmo or Telerath reaches for it."
"The king has asked that we send out best Jedi to try and negotiate with the rulers of Djurmo and Telerath and find a solution to this problem before they are taken over" Master Plo-Koon picked up "That is where we are sending you seven. To fix this mess and end a war that's been raging for almost a hundred years now" Plo paused and looked at the knights for a moment before continuing "We have arranged for the king of Djurmo and Telerath to meet at Vurdon Ka for the negotiations, the price being that if the negotiations are not successful then we will leave them alone. If this mission is a success though, Vurdon Ka has promised their allegiance to the Republic. And if all negotiations go well then Djurmo and Telerath should be entered into the Republic as well, to ensure they remain on the same side."
"You seven will be sent out to Vurdon Ka where the negotiations will take place" Master Ki-Adi Mundi spoke up "Your starship will leave at 10, tomorrow morning. Any questions?"
All eyes turned to the knights who remained silent for a moment. And then Ferus spoke "Wait, wait, wait…why on Coroscant is Tommy coming with us?"
Almost everyone in the room raised a brow.
"He just got assigned a padawan! I thought he was on a 2 week leave!" Ferus pointed out.
"He's right masters. He's supposed to spend these 2 weeks with his padawan" Luke agreed.
"That and he doesn't feel too good" Lou added.
"Doesn't look too good either" Michael contributed.
"Nope, not at all" Dave nodded.
"No where near well enough to come with us" Adam kicked in.
Tommy turned to his friends in a slow, frightening manner. Then shot them an expression that said "I don't know what you lot are up to but once I do I am going to personally wring your necks."
The 'lot' just grinned sheepishly.
"You can't go without 'The Negotiator'" Plo Koon said.
"The negotiator of 'I'm gonna fucking murder you if you don't listen to me'…" Dave muttered under his breath.
"Excuse me?" Plo furrowed his brows.
"Nothing" Dave said quickly.
"Thomas is exceptionally skilled amongst you seven. He has to go!" Ki-Adi Mundi said ignoring Dave's interruption.
"He's right. If there's one person who can help this situation then it's Tommy" Mace nodded. If it where a less serious situation, the other six would be offended but there was no time for that now. They where all trying for the same thing. And that was build up the Kenobi/Lupin apprenticeship….but that wasn't going to happen if Tommy was away on some mission for force knows how long.
All eyes turned to Yoda who was the only one that hadn't spoken yet. The troll's eyes where closed. As if he where deep in thought.
"What say do you my padawan?" he said addressing his former apprentice.
"I can go master. I am well…enough for this mission. My apprentice can wait. War in the core worlds is far more important than the beginning of simple training" Tommy replied. His friends' faces visibly fell upon hearing his response.
"Gone you may be, for over a year for this" Yoda said slowly.
"My answer remains the same master" Tommy said in a monotone voice.
"Then go you will not"
Tommy's eyes actually widened a great deal at the sound of the reply "Wh-why not?!"
"Because if willing to leave your apprentice for a mission you are, then breaking one of your apprenticeship vows you are. Put your padawan before everything else you must. And if devote yourself to that simple matter you cannot, then ready to devote yourself to something like this you are not" Yoda scolded his former padawan.
The other six knights snickered at the no-win situation their friend was stuck in. Something he very much deserved after so many years.
Tommy sighed deeply "Yes master."
"Well then. Dismissed you are" Yoda said waving a hand towards the door.
"Yes master" Tommy bowed as he headed for the door. But not before glaring at his friends, (who remained to listen to the rest of the mission briefing) one last time
"Yo Tom!" Luke's call stopped Tommy just before he left. He stopped but didn't turn.
"Do us a favor and pick up your apprentice from Perna's place on your way home, eh?" Luke continued.
Instead of replying, Tommy simply strode out and headed for Maria's quarters.
He couldn't believe Luke had made such a direct assault on his pride.....again
How dare he imply they where doing the job of being Shyma's master for him?
They weren't of course!
….Where they?
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