Chapter 3

The transport was hot, sticky and smelled as if a Rancor had thrown up inside of it. The children screamed and wailed as their parents did what parents do best and completely ignored them, loud laughs came from the group of teenage travelers sitting in the farthest corner from the doors, trying to hide the small amount of death sticks they had smuggled on board. The women cast covert looks to the men inviting them to come exchange words with them that held the promise of exchanging more than words. Even with all the noises and distractions raging around him Kento cold barely register it, only hearing silence and the unkind words, played over and over in his mind, he had shouted at the one person in the galaxy who brought him enough happiness that he was often lost for words.

Kento sat virtually motionless as he rubbed his chest feeling the ring beneath the black worn cloth, he mistook as being a real shirt, and his heart plummeted. Running in every direction of the base, checking each and every single room, he hadn't been able to find Mallie in the short time before their deployment. Instead he found her ring lying in sorrow, alone and cold, it did not hold any of her warmth. He missed her. He bent over and started playing with his green saber crystal, trying to cause some type of distraction, his rough calloused hands felt the smooth sides of his crystal . His mind wandered back to his wife, instead of away from her, to a time before they were married. Her hair had been much shorter back then, and his manners towards her had been at their worst. He had tried to trade his crystal with Mallie's blue one, for he liked the hue it cast and was too lazy to go find his own blue one, but she playfully rejected the offer teasing him about his choice in saber colors. At the time he took this as a sign she wasn't interested in him but looking back later he learned that he simply didn't know when a woman was flirting with him. His mouth twitched into a small smile but returned to it's previous frown as he instantly remembered her absence.

The youthful man sitting to Kento's right noticed his quietness and spastic emotional face movements. After knowing Kento for so many year, he was still a mystery, even to Galen sometimes. Galen leaned back in his chair. The transport seemed especially over crowded to him today, but he generally enjoyed watching the lives of other people. Sometimes he lived vicariously through watching people, they were unburdened by the life of a jedi, and while he usually spent time eying the women today he was just too preoccupied by his friend's strange behavior so he had to strain his eyes away from the silky skin of the females onboard. Galen placed both his hands behind his sandy disheveled hair, looked to the ceiling and closed his silver eyes taking a deep breath in before saying,

"Marek, you're killing me today". Galen opened his eyes and ran his right hand through his hair one more time. While he would never admit this aloud Galen actually did care about his appearance, so he smoothed his hair back once more. Galen turned to face Kento. Kento, to Galen, had changed over the years. Both he and Galen had trained together in the temple as children, gone on countless missions together with their respective masters and both shared the same passion for war, well at least one of them still had that raging passion; Kento's of late seemed to be more like a dwindling flame. Regardless of losing that passion Galen still considered Kento a brother more than anything else. Kento sighed inwardly ignoring Galen's curious stare and obvious attempt to elicit a response from him. Galen scanned the transport again seeing if he had overlooked any of the females within his vicinity when he noticed one female that was not within sight.

"Wasn't Mallie, supposed to be on this transport with the rest us?" said Galen, raising an eyebrow turning to face Kento again. Kento furrowed his brow. Sometimes Kento guessed that Galen knew his secret, yet never said anything about it. Strangely enough this didn't bother him in fact Kento thought, it might be refreshing for someone to know and Galen was as trustworthy as they came. Galen had always stood beside him and wouldn't turn him in even if he wanted to. Kento didn't respond so Galen tried his best at stimulating a conversation, teasing him that it must be Kento's old age of twenty six that caused his odd silence, but gave up shortly as Kento just sat glumly beside him.

"I guess she's on another transport," Kento replied coldly to a question that was asked a life time ago. Galen's lips pursed together but didn't let Kento see. Kento suddenly felt tired and rubbed his eyes, as Galen opened his mouth eager to have a conversation with his friend but Kento was way ahead of him stopping this train of thought in its tracks, "Galen, please. I'm not in the mood to talk today."

"Okay, fine" Galen threw up his hands defensively while his eyes traveled to a pair of very lovely Twi'lek twins walking by who were giggling uncontrollably after Galen winked at them. At least, thought Galen there will be some kind of entertainment on this voyage as he rose from his seat trailing after the twins. He changed his mind however as they sat down by a very strong looking Twi'lek male whose fist seemed to hold a power that could possibly kill him. Twenty-four was a nice age to be but he would like to see twenty-five so he made his way back to his seat sulking but still watching the twins out of the corners of his eyes.

After several hours of silence between the two, one awkward encounter with a rather rude Rodain, they finally arrived at their new destination. It wasn't their final one just a quick stop before they headed to the final one. It was merely a stop to talk to the council members and discuss the recent events regarding Palpatine's abduction, that was causing problems for everyone within the order. Kento sat up quickly, eager to stretch his legs, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Galen held him firmly in his chair. Even though Galen was often thought to be the "fun one" between the two of them he had his moments of maturity and wisdom that was often overlooked by the older members of the order. With a firm voice Galen cautioned his friend,

"Don't be distracted Kento, we're in a war." He let go of Kento's shoulder, lifted his own hood and made his own way off the ship and onto the platform.

Kento refocused his mind. Galen was right, besides pushing your emotions behind you was the Jedi way and apparently the only way Kento had currently. He restated the code within his mind after all her needed something to hold to right now. Kento straightened up and exited the ship into the sea of passengers whose lives seemed much less complicated than his own at this moment.

Another chapter. Please excuse the shortness of my chapters of late I will come back and add more. I don't know much about the Star Wars universe so if there is anything out of place please let me know! Reviews are always welcome, please enjoy and I don't own anything.