Chapter 9

Rye and Erickson reached their end of the complex as Calista and her soldiers were holding off the stormtroopers. Erickson wasn't exactly taking the situation well, as he hadn't dealt with anything like this before. Rye was used to danger, but not at this scale, for neither he nor Erickson had their lightsabers. Erickson could still hear blaster-fire ringing in his ears as screams of danger; Rye, focused yet somewhat shaken, was nostalgic, but not in a good way.

They reached the door to the platform with their ship, only to find Calista and five soldiers running the same way.

"Well what are the odds?" Rye said to himself.

"No one cares about the odds." Erickson whispered to him.

"Well they almost advanced on us, but we got the lead and escaped them. This the right platform?" Calista asked.

"Yes, let's hurry." Rye said, motioning to the ship and opening the door and running out, followed by the rest.

Halfway across the bridge, they heard footsteps, turned and saw stormtroopers. The stormtroopers immediately started shooting and Calista's guards boldly stepped in front of the Jedi and Lieutenant-Governor, activated their shields and blocked all the fire they could.

"Get your stuff! Hurry!" Calista commanded the Jedi, and they scurried onboard.

Rye and Erickson looked all over the ship for their lightsabers, but didn't find them anywhere.

"Where are they?" Rye asked, starting to get annoyed.

"Um. I... may have actually left them at the base." Erickson replied.

...

Rye was not at all pleased, and not very patient to get the current situation over with.

"I should've known. You always forget something. You know I only like to use the force only when absolutely necessary." Rye said.

"Yep." Erickson said, not phased at all.

"Let's get this over with." Rye said, heading back outside. There they saw only two remaining guards in front of Calista, and three dead guards down on the ground. Thinking they had the advantage, the growing number of stormtroopers charged at the Republic group. But that's where they made the wrong move. As the troopers started charging, Rye and Erickson reached their hands out and used all their force-energy they could without tapping into the dark side via fear and anger.

The stormtroopers were frozen in place, then started escalating into the air, then they were thrown into the water to drown. Rye picked up a body of a dead stormtrooper and pulled him onto the ship. Erickson questioningly stared at the body, then at Rye.

"I want to know about the suit." Rye said, Erickson's questioning look obvious to him.

"Ah." Erickson replied. Then Calista and her two remaining guards entered the ship.

"Well there's no doubt an army was in development." Calista said.

"And there's always someone behind it." Rye added.

"But if the army was evacuated, where were the ships the whole time? Were they picked up? If so, then how many ships were there?" Erickson asked. A moment of thought passed among the group.

"We've got to get to the bottom of this. We have to contact our team." Rye said.

" 'Marek' as in Galen Marek, the myth?" Jo asked Jiro.

"My father is no myth. He prefers to keep a low profile, due to his past travels and experiences, which would make him a big deal to the First Order." Jiro replied.

"Outdated information you have there. The First Order is dead." Aang said, earning a curious look from Jiro.

"When?" Jiro asked.

"A few years ago." Aang replied.

"Were you and your brother with the Resistance?" Exar asked, but no reply appeared, just Jiro walking outside the tent.

"Forgive my brother, he went through all kinds of bantha crap being here. We were in the Resistance. But during his mission here, his head got hit hard. He can't remember his original mission, and we ended up living here with the Tuskens." Galek spoke up.

"You don't remember the mission either?" Jo asked.

"No. The mission was his alone. He just decided to take me along, but he didn't fill me in on the details." Galek explained.

'Well we're on a mission, one involving galaxy-threatening, and we want to complete it rather than get ourselves brainwashed." Jo said.

"You're Jedi?" Galek asked.

"Yep. But our mission is classified. We really need to get going." Aang said.

"That's gonna be hard. Jiro has gotten slightly, 'unbalanced', over the years, and living with these guys, he's changed and added a few things to their way of living." Galek said.

"Like what?" Exar asked, concerned and suspicious.

Just then, Jiro appeared back in the tent. And something was clearly on his mind. The Jedi turned to him, wondering what fate awaited them. "The council has decided for them to participate in the arena." He said.

"Council? This is getting weirder." Jo mumbled.

"The arena? That's crazy! Jiro, we don' know anything about them." Galek exclaimed.

"We know enough." Jiro said, holding up three datapads with Republic 'wanted' warrants with the faces of the Jedi trio on them. The Jedi gasped. Galek turned and looked at the Jedi. "Are you Jedi?" He asked.

"Yes!" Aang replied, "Those are fake. We've done nothing wrong against the Republic. We were sent here by the order of Jedi Rye and Erickson-"
"STOP!" Everyone was silent after Jiro's shout. Jiro kneeled down in front of Aang and stared withh some animus clear in his eyes.

"On... who's order?" Jiro asked.

"Jedi Masters Rye and Erickson." Aang replied. Jiro stood back up and, with some gibberish language the Jedi didn't know, called in three Tusken Guards, who stood them up and took them away.

"Take them to our prison until 0900 tomorrow, then they'll be taken to compete." Jiro said insanely before the guards and Jedi disappeared from his sight. "Then they'll never see the light of day again."

Meanwhile in another tent, some other guards were protecting the Jedi's supplies they had taken most of. The guards then heard a beeping sound coming from a small pocket-bag. They both turned to the bag, then one grabbed it and opened it. They saw a round hologram projector, and it definitely was the source of the beeping. The one holding it ran to report to Jiro. As he got to him, he found Jiro having a slowly heating argument with his brother. He let out a Tusken roar, getting their attenton. Jiro and Galek turned and saw the disc he was holding. Jiro took it and observed it.

"Outside communication." Jiro said, then he allowed the communication to go through. And there, he saw none other than Rye and Erickson, who were obviously shocked at the sight.

"Rye and Erickson. How long has it been?" Jiro asked with gritted teeth.

"Too long Jiro. You'll be glad to hear we haven't found your father yet. What have you done with our team?" Rye replied with not as much venom in his spirit.

"They're locked up. They're participating in a big arena battle tomorrow at 0915, here in the Jundland Wastes. I'm sure you won't want to miss the death of your oh-so-special team." Jiro said.

"Is this an invite?" Rye asked.

"Certainly. Afterwards, why don't you and I go at it once more?" Jiro asked.

"Becasue I am much more powerful than you are. If I fight you, I will end our little conflict." Rye said.

"I take it it's a challenge then? To save your team?" Jiro asked.

"If you want it to be." Rye said.

"Make it 0930 then." Jiro said.

"Don't underestimate us." Rye said right before ending the transmission.

"I'll get our militia ready." Galek said.

"Good. Be thorough. This is the showdown we've been waiting for."

"Don't underestimate us." Rye said right before ending the transmission.

...

"What was that? I've never seen you like that before?" Erickson said.

"You have." Rye corrected, staring forward at Coruscant. Erickson nodded in remembrance.

Noticing Rye and Erickson had some bad blood with the sand-person, Calista softly asked, "Who exactly was that?"

"Jiro. Brother of Galek. Both are sons of legend and myth, Galen Marek. The Starkiller." Rye replied.

"You knew Galen Marek?" Calista asked with complete surprise.

"Yes. He grew up as a secret pawn of the First Order. He was betrayed by his master,"

"Snoke?"

"Kind of. The First Order had a secret sith organization absolutelt no one knew about. Not until the fabled Shadowspawn betrayed Galen. Afterwards, Galen exposed them and put an end to the organization shortly after the end of the First Order." Rye explained.

"And about Jiro?" Calista pushed on, getting more curious.

"After that, Galen settled into the Republic and hoped to make the galaxy a safer place. He got married and started a corporation to invent new things. His children grew, and along with them, their interest in Galen's business. One of Galen's projects went awry and it created chaos. No one died, as far as we know, but Galen disappeared and the Republic has been after him ever since. As for his kids, they took his side and defended him whenever any arguments -of which was debated about if Galen was safe or not- came around." Rye explained.

"And I suppose you didn't take his side?" Calista inquired.

"More than that. After Galen disappeared... well, someone had to take his kids in." Rye said.

"What of their mother?" Calista asked.

Rye and Erickson sat, silenced. They hadn't thought of Galen's wife. In fact, they hardly knew her. They didn't know any necessary information. Rye thought that could be a valid reason.

"I don't really know anything about her." Rye replied.

"What about her name?" Calista pushed on.

...

"Juno Eclipse. That's pretty much all we know." Erickson said.

"Well that narrows it down enough." Calista said. Just then, they entered Coruscant's atmosphere. They descendeed down to the surface next to the Senate building, where a welcoming committee awaited them. Rye, Erickson, Calista, and the two remaining guards exited the shuttle and were greeted.

"Lieutenant-Governor." The head of the committee bowed.

"Sir." Calista replied. "My two remaining men may need some medical attention, take care of them. These two Jedi and I will open our case to the Senate. The sith are out there."