Previously: THEY GOT OFF TELOS!
"Ahh yes. The wonderful memories of Coruscant." I muttered sarcastically.
"Yeah. I bet." Aurali laughed, nudging me with her elbow.
"What do you mean?" Atton asked cluelessly.
"You wouldn't get it even if I explained it to you." Aurali said, patting him on the shoulder.
"Well, I do believe we should be moving on." Bao-Dur said in his ever-calming voice. I gave silent agreement and continued to walk on. We continued walking until we reached the door to the Enclave.
"Heeeeeey. Remember when you threw a naked holo of a 'certain' Master into the middle of a horde of fangirls?" Aurali shouted, and then began to roll on the floor laughing. Then she, being the idiot that she is, started choking on air. I shot her a dirty look and didn't even bother to help her as I talked to the soldiers guarding the door. After some persuasion with a hint of the Force I had quickly gotten them to let us. I walked back over to where Aurali had recovered from her laughing slash choking fit.
"Alright, we are clear."
"Yay! Attoooooooon! Come help me up please!"
"Why can't you get up yourself?" He muttered.
"I'll make it worth your wildest dreams." She grinned, winking at him suggestively.
"Could you two stop for at least two seconds?" I shouted, aggravation dripping from my voice.
"General, calm down. They always have their hands all over each other." Bao-Dur whispered so only I could hear it, and I gave a small giggle.
"What was that?" She hollered, jumping up.
"Nothing. Nothing at all." I said innocently.
"Just remember! I can get inside your head and figure it out myself!" Atton flinched when she said this. I peered at him quickly, but shook my head and ignored it. Atton could keep his secrets.
"Well, we should remember the layout okay, and if we have to we can use the droid." I said, trying to change the subject in my head.
"We'll remember. Don't worry." Aurali said, and we took the elevator down. We stepped out and we looked around, memories washing over us.
"Wow, it has been so long since I was here." Aurali commented. I agreed with her in my head. It had been who knows how long.
"Well, where are these supplies you talked about?" Atton asked, and I shook my head.
"Aura, you want to lead the way?"
"Not really." She muttered under her breath, but she led us through the halls. We stopped every once in awhile to inspect a familiar room or look at a certain landmark at where something had happened.
Eventually we had wandered so far into the temple that Aurali and I both smirked when we saw a door. Atton gave us a confused look and we both just shook our heads. I nodded to Aurali who approached the panel by the door and she easily sliced the lock.
"You think the Jedi would have learned to put better locks on their doors when they had Padawans like us running around." I noted as the door slid open to great us with the sight of several lockers pushed up against the wall and other containers lying about.
"Welcome to the armory. Aura, Rev, Mal, and I raided this place a couple of times." I explained as we stepped inside. Aurali was approaching one of the closest lockers when we all heard the distinct sound of stealth generators deactivating.
My lightsabers flew to my hands as the Sith assassins appeared from seemingly thin air. They attacked immediately and soon our weapons and their quarterstaffs were clashing. After a good amount of time fighting them the last one hit the ground with a bloody thump!
"What are the kriffing Sith doing here?" I demanded as I turned over slightly, trying to heal a slash across my back. Aurali reached me first and she healed the wound as gently as possible while she answered.
"I don't know. They were stealthed, so maybe they snuck past the Republic guards." Aurali theorized as she finished. I stretched lightly and smiled at her as my thanks as we began to raid the lockers and containers.
We cheered as we saw the numerous robes and lightsabers that were still left in there. We were defenseless no more! We were even more joyful when we discovered the lightsaber upgrades. We both instantly flew to the workbench in the room and began working on our dual lightsabers. We were both totally zoned out until Atton and Bao tapped us on the shoulder.
"Umm, can we go now? You've been at that for ages!" Atton complained and Aurali rolled her eyes at him. She looked over at me and I nodded. We both stepped away from the workbench and took the lead again.
As we were passing what looked like a seemingly normal door, I froze as a horrible sensation came over me. Aurali froze at the same time as I did and we slowly turned to face the door. Dark energy came flowing out of the room and I shivered from the unexpected cold.
"I feel it too." Aurali answered my unspoken question. Aurali carefully sliced open the door to be greeted by the sight of…a computer? I shrugged slightly and walked over to it, turning it on. After several failed attempts to slice the terminal I cursed and kicked it.
"Control the bloodlust Ty! Why can't you get the door open?" Aurali asked and I turned to face her with a scowl.
"We don't have the proper security access to get the door open. Only members of the Council can open the door." I explained as I glared at the terminal like that would do anything.
"Don't you still have Kavar's codes or something?" Aurali demanded and I switched my glare to her.
"Those were room codes idiot! He didn't give me access to everything in the fracking academies!" I replied angrily. Bao's hands landed on my shoulder and I feel the calming waves from him. I took a deep breath and looked back at Aurali. "We have to go into the Council chambers to get the access codes." I explained hesitantly. I knew I was right to do so when I saw Aurali's reaction.
"You can go in there! I think I'm going to bust open the armory door here!" Aurali responded as she activated her cyan lightsaber. I pushed her back onto the floor with a single thought and she glared at me as she stood back up.
"What was that for?"
"We're in a Jedi Temple. I think they would make the doors out of a material that would be insanely hard to pierce with even a lightsaber." I explained and she sighed.
"I'm gonna go wait on the ship. Have fun!" Aurali said with a small wave as she turned away from me.
"Aurali Adrics, get back here!" I commanded, pulling her to me. "I am not going in there by myself and you know that! I need you with me!" I hissed and she gave another sigh of annoyance.
"Fine fine, I'll go with you. I'm not to be held responsible for any of my actions though!" Aurali disclaimed loudly. I rolled my eyes out of here as we left the computer room and we traveled back to where we both knew the chambers were.
Everyone was surprisingly silent as we traveled through the empty halls. I knew why Aurali and I were. After all, we were about to face one of the worst memories in our past. Atton and Bao were a mystery however. I shook my head to clear myself of these thoughts as we stopped outside the door that lead to the elevator. Aurali sliced open the door again and it slid open with the familiar hiss.
After a moment's hesitation we all stepped inside the elevator and we waited as we began our little trip. Even though I knew it shouldn't take that long, it seemed like it was taking just as long as it had on the day of our exile.
"Aura," Tyla started, catching her friend's attention, "I'm not so sure about this anymore." She finished softly, suddenly finding the small crack in the wall to be very interesting. Aurali, in a rare moment of true compassion for her troubled friend, made her look up at her hazel eyes.
"Ty, I know this won't be easy. But you needed to come here for closure, and I'm not letting you skip out on that. Show them everything they were wrong about in there!" Aurali commanded, and Tyla let a small smile pull on the corner of her lips.
"Maybe. I'm glad you're here Aura." Tyla admitted and Aurali laughed slightly.
"Don't get all emotional on me now Ty. There's still a lot more that needs to be done." Aurali commented and Tyla nodded. Aurali was right of course. Their journey wasn't over here, and they had to keep fighting on. Silence once again filled the small room as they continued.
I shook myself out of the memory as the elevator stopped suddenly. We stepped outside to be greeted by the same long hall that ended in those familiar doors. Nothing seemed to have changed at all since way back then. Neither one of us wanted to go first. I took a breath and walked forward, allowing the door to slip open.
We both stepped in and memories unwanted attempted to make themselves known. I growled deep in my throat and tried to make them fade away. They receded slightly, but they were still there, swirling under the surface. I looked around the room and the first thing that caught my eyes was the center stone that stood proudly in the middle of the room.
I stopped in front of it and ran my hand across it, tracing the marks that our lightsabers had made long ago. They were still there and fresh, like it had all happened yesterday. Aurali came up behind me and she smiled at me.
"You know Vrook deserved it." Was all she said and I knew what she was talking about. I laughed lightly at the memory of his facial expression when Aurali had made the obscene gesture she had. I glanced down at the lightsaber in my left hand and back up at the mark. Well, I guess it was a good thing that there was no way anybody would forget us.
We drifted past the center stone and to the ring of chairs that had once been filled with Jedi. Aurali made a noise in her throat as she spotted one of the chairs and I turned around in surprise. The next thing I saw was that she had jumped onto the chair that had once been Vash's. She held onto that thing like it was her last lifeline in this psychotic world.
I laughed at her behavior as I let my gaze shift to the other chairs in the room. Atris, the snowy ice queen. Zez-Kai Ell, Malak's master and one of the council that I trusted. Vrook, the pain in the ass that never left us alone. Vash, Aurali's master and one of the people I trusted deeply. And Kavar. My brain didn't even want to move on to that subject.
I turned so that I wasn't facing the chairs anymore and I turned to the computer that was standing by the door. How come I didn't remember that being there before? I shrugged and brushed the thought away as I looked over the computer. The codes weren't even that hard to get a hold of. They really needed to bump up security in this place. Once the codes were safely on my datapad I turned around expecting to see Aurali waiting for me. What I was not expecting to see was her still cuddling into the chair.
"Aura," I sighed, walking over to her. "We can't take a chair with us." I said with exasperation as I tried to pull her away from the piece of furniture. She only held onto it tighter.
"Yes we can! Watch me!" she declared. She was now attempting to pull the chair out of the room even though it was bolted into the floor. I rolled my eyes and turned to the two men in the room.
"Atton, Bao, pull Aura away from that thing. We can't keep it with us." I ordered and they were walking to Aurali when she turned on them with a fierce growl.
"You take this away from me, you die!" she yelled and they both turned to me.
"Fine fine, keep the damn chair." I allowed as I turned away from her and to the door.
"Yea! Atton, Bao, take the chair to the ship." Aurali commanded as I heard it be ripped out of the ground via Force powers. There was a grunt as they picked it up and carried it out of the room. We all piled back into the elevator with the chair as we came back to the main portion of the temple. The guys went back to the ship to put the chair in the cargo hold while Aurali and I wondered around to the places we hadn't revisited yet.
We explored for a bit, poking into doors and laughing at certain areas. At other spots we were both eerily silent and somber as some of our other memories weren't so happy. Aurali's mind was a total wall to me so I respectfully didn't try to dip into her memories. If she wanted me out, I would stay out. Eventually we ended up back where we had been before. The darkness of the energy made me want to be sick. I quickly put in the codes and the door slid open.
"It looks like a normal armory." Aurali stated as she looked inside. I rolled my eyes at her and pointed to the holocron in the corner.
"Except for the dark, glowing with darkness holocron." I countered sarcastically. Aurali shot me a look of contempt and we ventured into the room. I dug through the many containers in the room, shuddering as I felt the dark taint on many of the items. Aurali followed behind me, shoving the items in a spare pack as fast as she could. I froze when I saw one of the items in it though.
"Ty, you okay?" Aurali asked and I broke out of my miniature trance. I pulled the dark robes out. Aurali sucked in a small breath as Revan's robes fanned out in front of me. The dark material was backed, and in some places covered, with strong armor. I handed them to Aurali and she took a moment to inspect them before she out them in the pack.
Along with the robes were Revan and Malak's original lightsabers. The thought that they had to be held in the dark sided armory made me sick. Revan and Malak should have been honored as heroes, not as Lords of the Sith.
We finished exploring the many other crates in the room until we came across the dark holocron. I looked over at Aurali and within a second she had ignited her lightsabers and destroyed the artifact. Whatever knowledge had once been in there should never be learned. We quickly left that room and continued on until Aurali discovered one of the many computer rooms.
Aurali went to one of the computers and I went to another, messing around with it. She was better at computers than I was. I was mostly the demolitions person and one of the few people who could actually find them. Which was surprising considering how clueless I was. And Force knows that my cluelessness got me into some serious trouble sometimes…
"I just felt your thoughts go into some strange territory. Care to explain?" Aurali said, making me jump in surprise.
"It's nothing Aura. Can you get Atton over here? I need help with this console. It's being stubborn." I asked.
"You're thinking about something. What is it?" Aurali demanded, grabbing my shoulders. I pushed her off and she stumbled, turning around. When I pushed her though, I fell on the console and a holo showed up.
"What the…?" I yelled, quickly disabling the image. I looked down, desperately trying to delete the image.
"What?" Aurali asked, standing up and walking over to me.
"It's nothing! I swear that it was nothing!" I yelped, still trying to delete the image. "Damn it!" I yelled when I hit the encryption.
"Tyla, what the hell are you talking about?" Aurali demanded, but I ignored her. Whoever put this encryption on here was a pro. I was having a hard time getting passed it. I struggled with the console more as Aurali got up. By this time, Atton and Bao-Dur had heard the commotion and had wandered in. The next thing I knew was that I was tackled by Aurali and she was shouting at Atton.
"Atton, disable that console and tell me what is on there!" Aurali commanded, and I looked up at Atton.
"You don't want to do that!"
"Don't try to persuade me Ty."
"I'm not, I swear! But you really do not want to see that holo!" I yelled back. When I said this, Aurali released me and gave me a look.
"Wait, are we talking about that holo? The one you threw?" Aurali asked, and I looked down slightly, biting my lower lip.
"Oh Force, it is! I can't believe that it's still here!" she laughed loudly, starting into yet another laughing fit. I rolled my eyes at her and pushed Atton away from the console.
"Go help your girlfriend." I muttered as I logged back on, still trying to delete the holo. Atton shot me a dirty look but he did as I said and helped Aurali to her feet. I finally managed to delete the stupid holo as Aurali recovered from her second laughing fit today. We then quickly left that room and continued walking through the halls.
"Hey guys, I recognize this room." I said, calling my party to me. They all walked up beside me and Aurali smirked at me.
"I'm sure you do." She teased, and I elbowed her lightly.
"Will you ever give that up?" I asked, and she raised an eyebrow. "Right, stupid question. Anyways, you care if I explore some?" I asked, and Aurali shrugged at me. I opened the door, surprised that my codes still worked. Atton appeared at my side and peered around the room.
"This wasn't your room was it?" he asked, and I shook my head no.
"Nope. Our main room was on Dantooine and I shared it with Aura and Revan." I explained distractedly. Atton gave me an incredulous look.
"Revan? Like Dark Lord of the Sith Revan?" he asked, and I looked at him strangely out of the corner of my eye.
"Yeah, Revan. She used to be one of our best friends. I've known her since I was four." I said, entering the room. I looked around and was content with the memories until I saw something that didn't match up.
"Hmm, what's this?" I asked, spotting an extra plasteel cylinder in the corner. I leaned over it, unlocked it, and was surprised to see two sets of robes and a datapad in there.
"Hey Aura, come check this out!" I shouted. Aurali came over a few seconds later as I threw the robes on the bed. I turned on the datapad and started reading.
"First off, if Aurali is reading this, give it to Tyla." I laughed and looked over at Aurali, who just shrugged. So I continued reading. "I know that you are back in known space, and I know that it is most likely that you are with Aurali. You two could never be apart for too long.
"Anyway, I knew that you would be coming to Coruscant at one point in time, if only to pick up supplies. I wasn't sure if you would come in here, but I took the risk. The blue robes are obviously for Aurali, and the light green robes are for you Ty. I think that these will help you on your journey, and you will find that they aren't exactly like normal Jedi robes. I figured you would like a break from that. I hope that your journey goes well." I finished reading and I looked up at Aurali.
"Well at least we know he still cares" Aurali stated, holding up her new robes and inspecting them.
"I have no clue why I deal with you." I muttered, grabbing the green "robes" from the bed. It looked more like a bodysuit to me. Aurali just gave me a cheeky smile.
"Because you love me" she declared, and I shook my head.
"I'm sure. So, you want to go change in the fresher?" I asked, pointing to the other door in the room. Aurali shot me a suspicious look, but went into the refresher anyway. I sighed and looked over at the gift.
It looked like to be a skintight body suit made of some very flexible material. I picked it up and squeezed it slightly. There was most defiantly some form of light armor within the material. The colors actually looked quite good together which surprised me since it was a light gray and light green. It looked to almost be the same color of my viridian lightsaber.
Leather belts were also with it and I was glad to see that these had actually pouches she could use to actually hold things. Thigh high boots were also part of the package and I took a moment to admire the shimmering green in the heels of them. I wonder how they did that…
I shrugged my shoulders slightly and quickly changed into the clothes and right as I put the necklace underneath, I took a moment to look back at the cylinder. Something shiny glinted at the bottom of it and I looked at it cautiously. Carefully using the Force to lift it out of the container and dropping it into my hand, my eyes grew huge as I stared.
No. There was no way. This couldn't possibly be that ring. I had been on Dantooine when I had given it back to him. There was no way he would have actually kept that ring for this long. But the more I looked at it, the more and more the reality sunk in.
The silver band was beautiful, diamonds lining the top to make it glitter. It was nothing fancy or extravagant, and I loved it just as much as I had back then. I had a reason though. It was my own wedding ring. I slipped off my left glove and slipped the finger on. It still fit perfectly. The cruel, cruel irony of this situation burned through me, and yet I still put the glove back on moments before Aurali came out wearing her robes. Well, he had been right when he said they weren't like normal Jedi robes.
"Nice." I commented, looking at Aurali.
Her robes were a dark blue mixed with a lighter blue. Gloves adorned her arms that rose above her elbows and boots a lot like my own, except blue, were also there. A single large leather belt wrapped around her, keeping the entire thing together while others wrapped around that one to give her room to hold things. She gave a little spin and smiled at me cheekily.
"I know. Besides, yours is tighter than mine. I'm surprised." She said, looking at me.
"What can I say? I have my moments." I replied, and she just shook her head lightly at me.
"Really, because I think it's because Kavar has his moments." She commented, and I choked slightly.
"Don't say that Aura."
"You know I'm never going to drop it Ty."
"I know, and I still don't know why I deal with you."
"Sometimes I don't either. How about we get out of here? We got everything we needed." Aurali suggested with a shrug and I agreed. We left that room to see Bao and Atton waiting for us outside. Atton took the chance to openly stare at Aurali and she gave him a look. Bao coughed lightly and I draped an arm around his shoulders.
"Sorry Bao, but he won't stop. Trust me, I've tried. I think they would die from flirt withdrawal if they stopped flirting for two minutes." I explained with a grin. Bao shook his head and gave Atton a look that clearly stated hurt-her-and-you-die. Atton didn't notice and I steered the tech away from the pair. We continued to walk like this for some time through the halls of the temple, discussing things that had happened since the war's end.
It was nice to just talk to him without worry. For once I didn't have to talk to him about how many estimated casualties the Mass Shadow Generator would cause or something about the war. We were just two friends catching up on time that we had lost. I didn't know where Atton and Aurali were at, but it was nice to forget about everything, even if it was only for a few moments. But for all I knew, these calm moments could be the last moments of my life.
"General-" Bao started, but I shot him a look. "Tyla, shouldn't we go find Atton and Aura? They've been gone for a good while." Bao asked and I shook my head with a barely visible smile.
"They could be arguing or making out for all I know. I know that you worry about her Bao, but let her be her own person. Let her enjoy the time she has with him, even if she is to oblivious to realize what she has. I know for a fact that she will hate herself forever if she doesn't take the chance she has now." I explained softly, removing my arm from his shoulders. Bao looked at me with caring eyes but he also looked slightly shocked.
"You're speaking as if you're going to die right now, like you've given up hope. What's going on?" he asked, forcing me to look at him.
"Bao, I've done so much in my life that I regret, and I've done things that I will never regret. But even still, the pain often, but not always, outweighs the good. And after all the pain I've been through, the only reasons I have to go on are Aura and you guys. I don't want Aura to suffer the same fate I have, so I let her do things even when I know that it's going to get her in trouble."
"As I'm sure we both know, Atton is nothing but trouble, but I know he will give Aura a reason to keep pushing on, to keep fighting. But more than anything, I believe that Atton may help her through the pain and help her keep standing in places that I've fallen." I finished softly, trying to force back the tears that wanted to fall.
Bao saw through my mask easily and pulled me into a fiercely protective hug, and I sank into it. I don't know how long we stood there like that, but it was enough time for me to put up a suitable enough mask that looked decent. I pulled away from Bao and shook my head.
"Thank you, but we need to keep moving. The sooner this is all over with, the sooner it's done." I stated somewhat darkly as I walked out of the temple and never looked back.
Coruscant layout and basic idea came for the Jedi Temple – Coruscant Mod. (Mostly. Some changes were applied.) Anything familiar belongs to LucasArts/Obsidian/Bioware. Tyla Moore belongs to Shadows of the Storm. Aurali Adrics belongs to Aurali Adrics.
Choices for the Right Reasons © Shadows of the Storm/Aurali Adrics