It turned out, to Jaune's dismay, that the Seps did have more auto cannons.
This fact had left the corporal leaning behind a wall with his Aura recovering from another set of blaster fire, waiting for the barrels to overheat and send the emergency shutdown signal to the weapons firing down the hall. The moment they did, Jaune whipped around the corner and shot the Seps. The underslung scatterblaster fired twice and the two Seps slumped and fell as the bolts burned into them.
Jaune calmly stepped over the blaster marred bodies, hitting the button to connect the trigger to the main blaster. Toeing open the door they had been guarding, Jaune's eyes widened and he dove to the side as the Sep firing team shot at him. Poking his gun through the door, Jaune blindly fired into the room.
There was a certain surreality to this. Single handedly fighting through a base of rebels like he was the main character of a Spruce Willis movie.
Everything had seemed surreal since Voss. The first few days had felt like a bad dream, nobody was quite sure what to do now that Ruby was gone… wasn't even sure they could do anything. Vito had given them a job through the Kessel Run, but Yang had been too busy drinking herself into a stupor.
Then Jaune had come back from arranging the payment for said job, a responsibility he had been wholly unprepared for, to find Pyrrha had taken some of their money and disappeared and she wasn't answering his attempts to call or message her.
Eventually, Weiss had left the Dragon, marched to the cantina Yang was drinking in and dragged her to the ship, called everyone to the main area. Once they were there, she had launched into a tongue lashing the likes of which Jaune had never gotten before, pointing out that sitting around feeling sorry for themselves was the exact opposite of what Ruby would have wanted. That she would have wanted them to do something with their lives.
Which led Jaune to where he was now. Fishing out a grenade and cooking it before throwing it into the room. After a second, there was an explosion and several screams as the frag grenade went off. Standing up and whipping out his blaster pistol, Jaune walked in and fired a stun shot at the one survivor.
Scanning the room, Jaune noticed how empty it was. Nothing except the door behind him and another in front of him. Walking over, Jaune looked down the stairs on the other side.
Looking back, Jaune walked down them. Ruby was a hero, so he would spend his life becoming the same.
Opening the door at the end of the staircase, Jaune raised his blaster as he caught sight of the people inside. One was a man leaning in front of a console, tapping rapidly as the round screen in front of him showed several red triangles moving around. The second was a black and green swathed figure pacing back and forth. Their walk reminded Jaune of Weiss, for some reason.
Suddenly, they stopped, turning to Jaune, "Commander, it appears your men let a Republic guest in."
"What?" The commander span around, grabbing his own rifle from his back as he turned to Jaune, "How did you get passed my men?"
"They must be dead," The hooded one said, "Unfortunate, but unsurprising. Command-"
The commander cut them off with roar, firing his blaster as he charged at Jaune. Jaune heard the woman behind him give a sigh as he rolled away from the commander, firing his own rifle as he came up into a crouch.
The commander reached down, touching the burning hole in his side before collapsing.
"Well," the woman lowered her hood, "That's disappointing. He would have been of so much more use alive."
She was a pretty woman in her mid twenties (Jaune assumed), with neck length blonde hair and bruised yellow eyes.
"Sorry," Jaune spat, pointing his blaster at her, "I wasn't going to lie down and die."
"I was talking about him," She said, "Stand aside."
"Yeah right," Jaune said, "Put your hands up. You're our prisoner."
"I am?" She sounded so amused, walking forward with a smirk, "I wouldn't agree."
"Stop!" Jaune said, "I will shoot if you don't!"
She didn't. Jaune gritted his teeth, pulling the trigger and watching the burst of blasterfire rocket between them.
A snap-hiss filled the air as a red lightsaber appeared in her hand, deflecting the bolts away casually.
Sith…
"Now, stand aside. There doesn't have to be any more dea-" she deflected several more bolts.
"Die!" Jaune snarled as he heard someone coming from behind him, drawing Mors.
The woman raised her hand, hoisting Jaune into the air and leaving him to struggle against the grip around his throat.
"Arc! Are you down there?" Jaune heard Horner call.
"Arc?" The woman said, "is that your name?"
"Shut," Jaune struggled out, "Up."
The woman swung the arm not holding Jaune up and part of the metal wall moved up, before swinging the arm holding Jaune, sending him flying away and through another part of the durasteel wall.
Jaune shook off the brief daze as the door shut. Planting his hand on the wall, he hissed as the metal cut him.
That had broken through his Aura. Shit. He would have definitely died if not for it.
"Arc!" Horner reached in, helping Jaune climb out without hurting himself, "What happened?"
"Sith," Jaune pointed a shaking arm at the hidden door, noticing that his jacket sleeve was in tatters, "Here."
"We'll report it to command once we take this offline," Horner said, "Rabi! Get over here, he's torn up bad!"
"I'm fine," Jaune said.
"We'll see if you say that once the adrenaline wears off," Horner pushed him down as Rabi went behind Jaune's back. A sharp tug and a burning spike of pain was immediately followed by a Kolto soaked rag.
"What was that?" Jaune asked, only for his eyes to widen as Horner took a bloody and jagged shard of metal from Rabi.
"Like I said, you're torn up pretty badly. We're doing first aid right now, but once our backup gets here, you're going in a tank."
"I don't need a tank," Jaune hissed as another shard was removed.
"Yes, you do. All Rabi's doing is closing the wound, you still have damage underneath. Spend the night in a tank and you'll be ready to head out in the morning. Consider it a reward for taking out an entire Sep base by yourself."
- X Weiss X-
Weiss tightened her arms around Yang's waist as she gunned the Bumblebee Mk. 2. Weiss didn't mind riding the speeder, she had actually learned how to herself, but Yang always pushed it too far.
"Can you slow down?" Weiss yelled.
"Where's the fun in that? Don't worry, we're almost there!"
Weiss tightened her grip further as Yang suddenly pitched them into a steep decent, aiming for the metal compound where they could make out quite a few Jedi moving around. On the grass, clutching blasters and vibroswords in massive hands, were aliens. Some wore scrapped metal in primitive armor, others a loincloth, and others still not even that.
One angled its head upwards, its eyestalks trained on them. As they landed, two robed Jedi approached, one casually igniting her double ended lightsaber and deflecting the shot from the creature. Seconds later, Weiss's blaster was in one hand, firing and hitting their attempted assailant.
"Hello," Weiss said politely.
"Hello," the one with her still ignited saber said, "Could you tell me who you are and why you are here?"
"Weiss Schnee and this," Weiss gestured to Yang, "is my partner, Yang Xiao Long. We offered to help with the Flesh Raiders."
"Ah," the woman inclined her head, "You're the other two Master Bakarn sent. I am Master Liv'trai. I must admit, you were not what I expected from the way your friend dresses."
Weiss glanced back at Yang. They were both wearing their 'work clothes'. A brown, ankle length long coat for Yang, her pants tucked into a pair of nerf leather boots, a white hip length, synthweave duster for Weiss.
"Where is Ren?" Weiss asked.
"Seeing to some wounded Padawans in here," Liv'trai pointed to a door to their left, "once you've spoken with him, report to Master Weller. He'll have something for you to do."
The Twi'lek turned away from them, a boulder rising with her hand and crashing into a pair of (presumably) Flesh Raiders.
Yang hung back, leaving Weiss to arrive at the room and find Ren hunched over a bed, wrapping a kolto soaked bandage around the leg of a boy a few years younger than Ruby. At Weiss's cough Ren looked back, raising one finger to his lips and, after making sure the bandage was firmly on, he stood. Halfway there, the boy grabbed his hand.
"Please," he said, "I was doing the trials with my friend, Saz. Is he alright?"
Ren's eyes moved to the corner of the room, and as Weiss followed them, she bit the inside of her cheek. There were a pair of bodies on the floor, white sheets pulled over them.
"You should rest," Ren said to the boy.
"Is Saz alright?"
"I- He's got shot. We're sending him back to the temple. You'll be able to do your trials when this is over."
"Oh," The boy flopped back, "I hope he's not too angry about missing this."
Ren nodded, walking towards Weiss. Once he was there, she dropped her voice, "Saz is dead?"
"I don't know for sure," Ren said, "They just pointed me to that room when I offered to help with the injured."
"But you think he is," Ren normally had a good intuition for these sorts of things.
"Yes."
Yang looked over as they came back, a slightly forced smile on her face, "Hey! Ready to go talk to that guy?"
Weiss nodded.
- X Yang X-
"So," Yang scowled as she leaned against the wall, "I hope you want us to go out there and shoot 'em?"
The Jedi stopped his pacing, turning to them, "I'm sorry?"
"The uglies," Yang thrust a thumb at the exit next to her and ignoring Weiss pinching her, "You want them dead, right?"
"'Uglies'? Do you mean the Flesh Raiders?"
"What else could I be talking about?" Yang said, "Now, do you want us to shoot them?"
"Yang," Weiss sighed warningly, "I'm sorry. I don't know what got into her. Is there anything we can do to help?"
"Yes," the Jedi nodded, "I have several things I need done out there, if you're willing to risk it."
"Any pay?" Yang asked halfheartedly.
Weller opened his mouth, before seeming to realize Yang's heart wasn't really into the request for pay, "I'm sure the Jedi Council can give you some sort of compensation."
"Then we're ready for those tasks," Ren said.
"I need all three of you to clear out as many Flesh Raiders as you can. There was a group of Padawans training with their Masters, Avitla, Mennaus, and Jerridan. They aren't cleared for combat."
"You think they're dead?" Yang pushed off the wall.
"No. Three non-combatants away from the rest of us... The Flesh Raiders have most likely captured them. They aren't the pickiest eaters, but they won't reject the chance of fresh meat."
"I'll do that one," Yang said grimly.
"The other is… well, it's the more dangerous of the two. There is a cave we think the Flesh Raiders are using to get through. I wouldn't ask, but a Padawan went in, ignoring orders. You all clearly have some skill with combat, so…"
"I'll do it," Weiss said, "send the co-ords to my datapad."
"Yes, and I'll send the last known location of those Padawans to you-"
"While you're at it," Ren said, "I'm supposed to be recovering the holographic projectors of the four founders for Master Yuon, could you send me the coordinates for them?"
"I didn't know Yuon had taken on another Padawan," Weller started to type, "I'll send them to you."
"I'm not her Padawan," Ren said.
"You aren't?" Weller trailed off with a noise, "Strange, I would have thought… anyways, I'm sending them now."
All three datapads went off, the map of Tython marked.
"Come on," Weiss said, walking out the door, "We should get to work."
"Catch you on the other side?" Yang said, holding up her arm.
"Of course," Weiss said, lightly bumping her own arm against the side of Yang's.
"Great," Yang said, spinning around and walking backwards so she could continue talking to Weiss, "Don't worry about me, I'll be back so quick you won't have time to miss me!"
"So you'll be taking an eternity then?" Weiss shot back with a small, warm smile.
Yang was really happy with the progress she had made breaking through Weiss's shell. It was, in some ways, even thicker than the one Blake had put up. Unlike the Faunus, who had slipped into her shell over the course of her time with the White Fang and her disastrous relationship with that guy she had to introduce to Ember Celica when they got back to Remnant (though she was willing to bet she would have to wait in line), Weiss's shell had formed from childhood.
"Then who'd get you off this rock?" Yang shot back, "I'm the one who knows how to pilot the ship!"
Weiss didn't answer, just shook her head and laughed. She drew Myrtenaster in her left hand, drawing the blaster in the other, jumping over the barricade and firing at the closest Flesh Raider.
Yang deployed Ember Celica, stretching as she walked towards a large Flesh Raider wearing spiked armor. He was busy holding a Padawan by the throat, laughing.
Leaving him open to the kidney punch Yang unleashed, the scatter gauntlet going off and burning a hole into his side. Yang ducked under the attempted retaliation with his vibrosword, swinging up, Yang watched his jaw shatter from the combination of her strength and the plasma that followed.
Yang smirked at the Padawan, "Get over there, kiddo. Leave this to the professionals."
Then she finished the Flesh Raider off with a right hook to the temple.
- X Weiss X-
Weiss dodged the clumsy swing easily, running the Flesh Raider through. Removing Myrtenaster, Weiss span, firing several times and quietly watching three Flesh Raiders collapse.
Dodging another attack, Weiss stabbed one Flesh Raider while pointing her blaster at another and firing. At that point, the revolver mechanism automatically rotated over to the next chamber.
This had the benefit of letting the blaster, which was one of the models favored as a spare by game hunters, cool down the powerpack as she continued to fight. Each of the five were larger than the standard so each shot could be stronger, but it added more heat.
Looking behind her, Weiss confirmed that she was fully in the cave, and that no one was behind her, before closing her eyes. In front of her, a glyph sprang to life. She heard a familiar growl as something nudged her hand.
Looking down at the pair of Beowolves, Weiss smiled down at them both for the support they gave and what they symbolized. That she was a Schnee, not the twisted mockery of the name Whitley was no doubt continuing in their father's image, but what it should have been.
Weiss was the first to admit she probably had the least amount of interest in finding Remnant. She was all but certain that Whitley or her father would immediately try to marry her off so she couldn't contest his claim as heir (hypocritically) and she was happy with her friends.
Well, would be happy when they were all back together.
It also symbolized her freedom from her father's influence. No longer was she bound by her supply of Dust, now only her Aura, her power, was what mattered.
Yes, she missed Klein and Winter, but compared to being free of her father's attempts to control her, it was a small price to pay.
Weiss rounded the first bend in the cave, casually throwing up a glyph to deflect the two blaster shots. Dropping it, Weiss launch her beowolves at the Flesh Raiders, watching them be savaged with ease.
Walking to meet with her summons, Weiss casually repeated this twice more, summoning another Beowolf when one died, before she reached a large cavern that led to another pass. Setting her Grimm on the few Flesh Raiders standing about, Weiss rushed to the other side, where she saw a man standing over a bith curled up on the ground.
"Why are you doing this?" the bith asked, "You are Jedi! Why kill me?"
"Because the order is weak and must evolve, and yo-"
"Leave him alone!" Weiss called, drawing the man's attention, "Step away from him slowly."
"You are… you are no Jedi. But you are dangerous, you killed my men."
"He leads the Flesh Raiders that are attacking us!"
"This isn't an attack, it's a cleansing. If the Jedi were still worthy of their position, this attack should have been easily rebuked."
"Because attacking people in the middle of training is a sign of strength," Weiss said dryly, "It's over. Even if you managed to kill me and the bith, you would just lose when they send someone who is actually trained."
"The Order is weak and corrupt!" The man rambled, drawing a Lightsaber and igniting it, "Join us! Within the new Order, you would be a Master!"
"I'm not a Jedi remember?" Weiss said, stowing her blaster and creating a glyph in the palm of her hand, "And I won't help you."
"Then you will die!" The man swung his saber in a heavy overhand blow… only for Weiss to catch it with her glyph and stab him with Myrtenaster, the vibroraiper humming as it agitated the new wound.
The man shut off his Lightsaber, the hilt sailing past her guard before he ignited it again. Weiss flinched as her coat smoked lightly from the blow.
Before she could respond the man threw out one hand, sending Weiss flying away. Flipping in mid air, Weiss landed easily and prepared for his next move.
His saber flew through the air, only for Weiss to deflect it easily. The man yanked it back, leaping for her with it in hand.
"What are these things?" The man growled, "They're like no ability with the Force I've ever seen!"
"You must have a bad memory," Weiss said, the glyph on her hand turning black and blasing his arms back. Moving as quickly as she could, Weiss stabbed the man through the gut, "I am not a Jedi!"
The man's eyes widened, as the tried to bring his saber down. Weiss summoned her Knight's arm, catching and crushing her opponent's wrists until he dropped his saber into her waiting palm. Shutting it off, Weiss dismissed her Knight's arm.
"Amazing! I thought we were both dead! What was that thing you did?" The bith asked excitedly, "and how did you ignore that Lightsaber strike?"
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention that to anyone," Weiss said, stowing the Lightsaber away and turning off Myrtenaster as she approached him.
"I won't! But now we need to-"
"What's going on here?" Weiss turned with the bith as man with a grey crewcut a heavily lined face and brown eyes jogged up.
"This Jedi attacked us, Master Orgus. He was sick… confused."
"Thank the Force you're both safe," Orgus said, leaning down an checking the man, "Whoever he was, he wasn't a Jedi. Not one of ours, at least."
"He was leading the attack," Weiss said, "He called the Flesh Raiders his soldiers."
"I knew they weren't mindless beasts," Orgus said, "I warned the Council for years! You beat these Flesh Raiders and this man with nothing but a rapier and a blaster, impressive."
"This isn't my first fight," Weiss said.
"Still, quite impressive. If you were a initiate I would take you as a Padawan. We've won this battle, but I'm going to make sure the Flesh Raiders can't use this tunnel again."
Orgus walked towards where the cave narrowed out, raising one hand. Weiss braced herself as the entire cave shook. Orgus swung it down, the tunnel collapsing with it.
"That's impressive," Weiss said.
Orgus laughed, "Well, old age is good for one thing, at least. You should return to the temple, the Council will like to speak with you at some point no doubt about what happened here. Can I get your name?"
"Weiss Schnee," Weiss introduced herself, "Should I really be returning to the temple? There must still be Flesh Raiders in the area."
"That's very kind of you, Weiss, but it isn't necessary. We have Jedi Knights mopping up the last of them now. You've already made us look bad enough today," there was no real heat to it, Orgus seemed more amused at the concept than anything, "let us at least handle this."
"It was nice meeting you, Master Orgus," Weiss said.
"I have a feeling we'll see each other again, Weiss. I'm heading back to the temple myself, I have much to meditate on."
- X Yang X-
Yang shot through two more of the Flesh Raiders, marching to the set of cages around the campfire. In each were padawans in a variety of states. Some were curled up into balls, others meditating quietly, "Any of you Avitla, Mennaus, or Jerridan?"
They all shook their heads, causing Yang to sigh. Pulling back her arms, she shot the primitive locks off each, "Alright, get going."
"I…" One Padawan wearing a blindfold stopped, "I sensed them that way," she pointed across the river.
"Thanks," Yang patted her on the shoulder, "You'll be alright?"
"I," she reached down, grabbing a metal rod from the back of Flesh Raider. Hitting a button, the pincer shaped ends sparked, "I should be fine. Thank you!"
"You're welcome," Yang called behind her, before turning and trudging down into the river, "I hope she's right-"
Yang blinked as something sharp impacted with the back of her head. Turning, her eyes widened to see a Flesh Raider standing there, looking equally shocked… through a rain of golden hair.
Oh that piece of shit!
The Flesh Raider seemed to realize just how much of a mistake it had made, spinning and attempting to run. Yang grabbed his arms, driving her knee into his side. Swinging a fist down, another scatterblast shattered the Flesh Raider's knee.
The Flesh Raider babbled something in his language, clawing at the muddy bank as Yang landed on him and delivered a punch right to the back of his skull. He spasmed briefly before sagging forward. Dead.
Yang stood reaching up to touch her ruined hair. It would take months to regrow that. Yang aimed a kick at the dead Flesh Raider's side.
Climbing up the other end, she found four Flesh Raiders aiming blasters at her, "You really want to try that?"
They did.
Yang soaked up the blaster bolts, before letting loose. Yang elbowed one in the face, spinning and shooting one in the gut, grabbed the next one's arm and drove her elbow into with a nasty crack, and grabbed the next by the shoulders and crashed their skull into her's.
Yang fired four shots, putting them each out of her misery.
"Hey!" Yang looked up, seeing a darked skinned woman leaning over the cliff, "Are you with the Temple?"
"Yeah."
"Thank the Force! Listen, I'm Avitla, my friend is hurt-"
"Give me a second, I'll be up there," Yang wrapped one hand around a stone on the cliff.
"No, listen! Do you have a distress beacon?"
"Why, is someone hurt?"
"One of the Flesh Raiders shot Jerridan. Throw the beacon up here, we'll radio for support. You should deal with that camp over there," Alvitla pointed to a camp in the distance, "They captured a bunch of other Padawans and I think one of their leaders is there. You go deal with them!"
"You sure?"
"Yeah," Alvitla nodded, "We have out training sabers if anything goes wrong."
"Ok," Yang chucked it at Alvitla, who caught it.
"Good luck!" She called.
Yang reached the camp very quickly, staring at the twenty Flesh Raiders standing about. They all stared back.
That's when the fight started.
Yang didn't wait for them to get within range, firing and killing half as they charged at her. Once the rest group reached her, Yang started dodging, letting them hit each other as she occasionally took shots.
Damn, these ones weren't smart.
"Jee-dai," Yang looked back at the one who stepped out, holding a pair of vibroblades, "Jee-dai kill. Me kill Jee-dai."
"I don't need to be a Jedi to kick your ass, Ugly."
The Flesh Raider roared, charging at her with his vibroblades held out behind him. Yang fired twice, watching him take the hits without flinching as he barreled towards her.
Yang fired down, using it to fly behind him and shoot him twice more. He just span, swinging for her neck. Jumping, Yang flipped, grabbing his eyestalkes and using them to throw him.
He crashed into the ground, and Yang fired several blaster bolts into his head just to be safe.
Yang turned, walking towards the next camp as she saw several transports flying towards others.
- X Ren X-
Ren planted Stormflower into a Flesh Raider's throat, throwing it over the edge of the bridge as he approached the holoterminal it had been focused on. Pressing the activation button, Ren stepped back.
Standing the the blue light was a mutton chopped man wearing Jedi robes, "Activation protocol begins. After the long silence, someone comes. I am Garon Jard, millennia ago, I help found our order."
"Hello, Master Jard," Ren bowed his head, "I've never seen a hologram quite so lifelike."
"We needed to be able to pass on our knowledge. I dedicated our order to peace, to ending war across the galaxy. Fighting only in self defense. It is the very basis of civilization."
"What about those who cannot help themselves? Shouldn't the Jedi defend them to?"
"We should, but we should do so with knowledge of the mark we leave. Death sends echoes through the Living Force. I hope that you will assist in making sure our order remains dedicated to peace."
"I'm not a Jedi," Ren said.
"But you could be," the comment was calmly stated, "Activation protocol complete. Go well."
The hologram shut off as the rest of the control board lit up. Hitting the button to eject Jard's projector, Ren put it away.
Looking up at the the pair of approaching Flesh Raiders, Ren fired Stormflower at one, pulling his empty hand back.
Drilling it into the second, Ren blinked as the Flesh Raider flew back. Taking a moment to line up his shot, Ren fired at the Flesh Raider and made his way to the next terminal.
"Activation protocol begins," the next master was a woman with her hair tied back, "Ah, another has come to listen. I am Cala Brin, and when our order was founded, I said we should dedicate ourselves to justice. True justice must not be blinded by emotions. Fear, anger, hatred. We must put our emotions aside so we can see the truth without favor."
"But what about positive emotions? Joy, love and mercy?"
"They all leave you blind. You should put them aside too. And that has served us well, we are impartial and trusted because of it."
But at the cost of connections? Without emotions they had to appear to be beyond aloof, "I am sorry, Master Brin. I can't agree with you on that. Divorcing ourselves from emotions can leave us just as blind."
"Rajivari thought much the same," Cala said, "Activation protocol complete."
Ren removed the next, heading to the third. The hologram for this one was a male zabrak with his head pulled up.
"Activation protocol begins," he started, "A new Jedi comes to learn. Excellent. I am Ters Sendon. Keeper of history, a founder and chronicler of the Jedi. It was my hope that we would become guardians of knowledge and secrets. We would safeguard the wisdom of the galaxy."
"That sounds like an interesting journey. I'm actually here rescuing your projector from an attack."
"I am glad to hear that, Lie Ren. My journey took me across many worlds. There, I learned, heard and dreamed from each culture there. That is what the Jedi should do, dispel ignorance. Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force."
"I'm sorry. What does that have to do with the rest?"
"You will know one day, Ren," the hologram said, "It will be your duty to understand cultures and bring that understanding to others. Activation protocol complete. Go well."
The hologram turned off, allowing Ren to get the third. When he arrived at the fourth, he frowned. This had been opened…
Someone had pried the holographic projector from its spot. Pulling out his holocomunicator, Ren waited for the droid to appear, "Hello! I can direct you to-"
"I need Master Yuon Par. Tell her it's Lie Ren.
"I will attempt to contact her… she will take your call."
"Master Yuon, there's a problem. One of the holoprojectors has been stolen."
"Stolen? Strange, the Flesh Raiders do not steal, they destroy. I will have to look into this. Meet me at the temple. And please P- Ren, be careful. If someone did steal it, they might attack you for the rest."
"I'll see you there," Ren said.
It took another hour to reach Yuon's chambers. As he stepped, Ren noticed Qyzen was there, "Master Yuon. I've returned. Hello, Qyzen."
"Little Hunter. Yuon tell me you have helped her. My thanks."
"Let me see the projectors, Ren," Yuon took the bag, taking them out and listing the names, "Jard, Brin, Sendon… it is just as I feared."
"Why? Who was the last one?"
"Master Rajivari," Yuon said, "He turned to the dark side. Betrayed the order he helped found."
"And his holoprojector is missing."
"Yes, he was immensely powerful and that holoprojector most likely holds his darkest secrets. I believe I know where it might be. Kalikori Village is an illegal Twi'lek settlement nearby. Many of the people there are poor and hungry."
"And a projector like that could fetch a lot of Credits."
"Yes. I'll need to make my way up there when we have a free moment."
"I'll help," Ren offered, "The longer we wait, the longer the thief has time to sell it or access its data."
"You've help enough, Ren. I'm sure your friends and you will be departing soon."
"Soon, but not yet. I can do this, at least."
"I- thank you, Padawan," Yuon said, "I will need to brief the Council on these matters alongside the loss of the Darksaber."
"Things are getting stolen from the order a lot lately."
"Unfortunately. Ren, give me your holocomunicator," Ren did so, letting Yuon fiddle with it for a moment, "There. I've programed my code in. Might you do the same for mine?"
"Yes," Ren took it, typing in the code and handing it back and turning away, "I will see you when I return- Ow!"
"Is something wrong?" Yuon asked, one hand in a fist.
"No, it just felt like something cut me. I'll return soon."
- X Ruby X -
Ruby didn't open her eyes as someone sat down next to her, focused on meditating. Through the Force, she could feel the rapidly becoming familiar existence of Pyrrha.
Sith meditation wasn't like other forms of meditation. Instead of clearing your mind, you were supposed to focus on the emotions within. Silently identifying each one and figuring out how to maximize it. The Dark Side was powered by raw emotion, using the Force to achieve those passions was normal.
"Did that fusioncutter do anything to deserve you tearing it apart like that?" Pyrrha asked.
Ruby gave a laugh, "Meditating, hush."
That's mediating? I think Ren would disagree."
"I like this version more," Ruby said, continuing to dismantle the fusioncutter in her hand, "It makes more sense."
It made more sense to get her thoughts in order like this. Ruby was a creature of emotion, she didn't like the idea of separating herself from them.
"What are you mediating about?"
She didn't like Harkun, she didn't like what Balak had said about Wyrd and Pyrrha. She was happy Pyrrha was next to her, excited about what they could do together.
But there was a feeling she wasn't used to. Something coiling in her gut when she was near Pyrrha, and she wasn't sure what it was.
"Trying to figure out something. Don't worry about it," Ruby opened her eyes, pushing the thoughts away. It wasn't really working with Pyrrha here, "How'd your training go?"
"Quite well," Pyrrha said, "It's a bit easier than I expected."
"That's what we'll your autobiography one day," Ruby teased, "'Pyrrha Nikos: It Was Easier Than I Expected'."
"What will we call yours then?"
"Dunno. We'll have plenty of time to think of a name."
"Yes," Pyrrha nodded, reaching out and taking the thoroughly dismembered fusioncutter, "I do have something I was hoping to ask you."
"Sure," Ruby nodded, "What?"
"A couple of the instructors mentioned the Sith Code. Do you know what that it?"
Ruby nodded, "'Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.'"
"I don't agree with that first part, but I understand the rest."
"I like the last bit most," Ruby said, dropping her voice to mumble to herself, "It already freed me twice."
"You're not normally the type for meditation," Pyrrha said, "What changed?"
"Sith meditation is more about focusing on your feelings," Ruby said, "You should try it at some point."
"I will," Pyrrha said, "When does dinner start?"
"Not for another hour. What do you want to do to kill time?"
"What is there to do?"
"Other than spar and meditate? We could go back to our room and watch some vids or buy a game from the store. There's also a bar somewhere in there we could hang out at."
Pyrrha stood, "It surprises me when you mention things like that. It's not the sort of thing I would expect from a Sith Academy. Let's spar for now, we can watch a vid or something after we eat."
"Why don't you expect it?" Ruby asked standing up and grabbing her vibroblade.
"The Empire doesn't seem the type to treat people well."
"They fly in enough water that we don't run out from offworld," Ruby said, "Selling games isn't that weird."
Pyrrha gave a shrug, holding Miló up while Ruby adjusted her hold on the vibroblade. Neither of them were in a lightsaber form, just a fun spar.
Ruby activated her Semblance, flying across the rooftop at Pyrrha.
