Galen broke off from Soxe and Target when he saw Juno, he hugged her and then seized Kento up and hugged him too. The Jedi were welcoming yet fewer in number than Target expected/. As a boy Jack was told stories of magnificent robed men with coloured lightsabers who stood for peace and justice his Father was a great supporter of the Jedi yet Jack thought they were just a bedtime story or myth until he met Galen but he didn't think Galen to be a Jedi. Galen ruffled Kentos hair and then the family turned off into another room and vanished from sight.
"We don't bite you know?" Maris jeered
"Oh, er we... were just waiting for Marek we will try and stay out of your way."
"Your soldiers, aren't you?"
"Yes Ma'am, Alpha-Zero Unit General Target and Omega-Four Unit Bomb-bad Lieutenant Soxe." Target introduced.
"Naboo Soliders then I'm guessing?"
"Yes."
"Well I hope the war ends peacefully and soon. Please join us."
"Join you for.. What?"
"Evening meal."
"Oh, uh of course, sorry I forget the time difference between Coruscant and Naboo, Soxe, you hungry?"
"Mesa always hungrya!"
"C'mon then."
"Of course Sir, I remember my first day, I was shown around to my quarters and to where my unit will do drills." Cali lied.
"On your way."
"Thank you. Officer Knowles."
When Knowles was safely out of sight, Cali broke into a run but just before the Hangar doors a emotionless, unsympathetic voice stopped her.
"So you are leaving me again. On your way make sure to think of all I am to give you haste."
"Cye..."
"Leave."
"I don't want to."
"Then why are you here? Outside the Hangar Bay dressed to leave? After all, that disguise does not fool me, you are not a soldier, so obviously you have stolen something from me. Was that your purpose Cali? Was that the reason you came back? I believe it was."
"Cye, it's not like that."
"Then what is it?"
Cye blinked into focus before he stretched his hand out and flicked the Pad straight out of her boot. He called it to him before it fell and it shot straight into his hand.
"So, all you are is a thief? A liar? It is good to know, next time you crash my system take out the back up too." Cye said amusement on his face.
"Cye, this isn't what I am. I.. I need that Pad. Could I please have it back."
"All you had to do was ask."
Cye let the Pad lie flat on his palm and then eased it back to Cali's outstretched, sweaty palm.
"Thank you Cye."
"You will not find the man you are looking for on Kalak Cali."
"I don't care as long as I am as far from you as I can be."
"So, all the time we spent together, the nights, the meals, the talks of the Galaxy and the Empire, they were just games."
"Cye please don't."
"I can understand deception, I can understand anger, pain, love, happiness but not what you have done. You falsified a relationship to get data that I would have given if asked? Hmm, your not the person I loved. Go on lucky for you, your ship wasn't attached to the station when you sabotaged my station."
"Cye if I knew..."
"Knew what? That I loved you? That you kept me from being like my creator? That when I was a boy I wanted nothing more than a family but I knew I could never be a husband, boyfriend, partner or father. I deluded myself with hope, with love, I let one side take me and abandoned my neutrality for the delusion of family, a dream of grandeur."
"You tell me to leave yet you have so much to tell me Cye?"
"It would be best if you leave but you are just as hesitant as I when it comes to it."
"You hate the fact that for all your power you cannot prevent failure."
Cye removed his cloak, and threw his lightsaber hilts onto it before bundling it up and placing it against the bulkhead, he wore black robes with a brown under shirt and brown belt he then stepped away from them and stood straight in front of Cali.
"Failure is vital without failure one has no experience, without experience one has not lived." He said.
"Where has it got you Cye? Alone, on a cold metallic ball in space, no family to warm the place, no parents to care for you, no wedding ring, no room for children, the place isn't even habitable for a child and to top it all, you cannot have normal children, they grow to quickly, so you miss things, you missed Kallium, he doesn't know you and you do not know him is that what your dream of grandeur was? Alone, cold the face of evil to your own son? A son that refuses to be your heir?"
Cali threw her armour plate and helmet over towards Cye's bundle. She sighed and ran her hand down the side of Cye's sturn face.
"Where did we go wrong Cye? Was it when we met? When you killed my mother? When you became the Emperor or was it just the fact that you are what you were supposed to be." Cali asked.
"We didn't go wrong. We grew."
"Cye, I loved you but I need to help those who deserve it. You are someone I can't understand, I can't be like you. I wasn't made to be a murderer, I was born to be a daughter to my parents, they didn't want anything from me, but your creator wanted too much from you. He asked the impossible ad you gave it to him like a son tries to please his father. I cannot stay."
"I know." Cye said as he gently took Cali's hand from his face and let it fall to her side.
"You can never be my partner not as long as their is an Empire for you to control."
Cali pulled away, gathered her things and headed into the Hangar.
Kallium and Shaak Ti had arrived on Shilli three months ago and yet they hadn't found what or who they were looking for.
"Master, it has been months, surely today will not be any different to yesterday or the months before."
"I can sense her Kallium, she is not far."
"She left the Order Master, why aren't we leaving her alone? Will she really want to see you?"
"Yes, I believe she will."
They walked for what seemed to be miles, before they reached a small village, filled with Togrutas, Kallium felt out of place by the sear volume of them before he was snapped out of his thought by his Master who pulled him into a tiny house-like structure.
"Does, Ahsoka Tano live here?" Shaak Ti asked the woman who sat to a desk writing something. She was lean, thin and her skin was bright orange her eyes were blue and her clothing was short and ragged.
"Depends on who wants to know." The woman said as she stood up and turned to the Jedi Master and her Padwan. "Master Ti!?"
"Ah yes Ahsoka."
"You survived?!"
"Yes, few of us did, I see you did too."
"I was never a Jedi, only a padwan."
"That was our fault not your own."
"I know! The Jedi left me when I was completely innocent because of bureaucracy." Ashoka said bitterly.
"That is not why I am here."
"Then why are you here?"
"To ask you to return to the Temple."
"Return to the Temple? Where my Master was murdered? Where I would have died too?"
"Your Master was Anakin wasn't it?" Kallium asked.
"Yes, Anakin Skywalker, the chosen one, who died in the purge."
"Master, tell her what you told me." Kallium almost demanded.
"Not now."
"Why not?"
"She is not ready to know that yet."
"Ready to know what Master Ti?"
Juno went into labour in the early hours, Galen was so excited until gunshots rang threw the temple when the baby was born.
"Quick into the back!" Maris shouted.
"Admiral, their Imperials!" Jack shouted.
"Babe, go with Maris take the boys, I will head them off."
"No Gal stay with us." Juno answered
"I can't not unless you are safe."
"Galen, I love you."
"I love you too."
Galen rushed to Target and Soxe he duced behind debris with them as Kota who had returned earlier raced over and into the fray. Galen ignited his lightsaber told the men to keep in cover then joined Kota in the battle.
"Boy, I see your still kickin'."
"Yeah Kota, Of course I am, I count thirty."
"I count twenty seven." Kota said as he took down three Imperials.
"We can't hold them back!"
"To the caved in wall!"
"On three?"
"Now!"
"Cali, wait." Cye called after her.
"Cye, there is nothing more to say."
"If I was not the Emperor, would you love me?"
Ahsoka packed her things, three sets of clothes and two pairs of shoes.
"The Jedi, survived all this time, resilient are we not?" Ahsoka said to Shaak Ti's and Kallium's surprise.
"Your coming to the Temple with us!?" Kallium asked hopefully.
"Yes, but it doesn't mean I'm staying."
"Fair enough you are a adult now, you can make your choices as you see fit." Master Ti said.
"Did Master Plo survive?" Ahsoka said unexpectedly.
"No, he didn't he was shot down by his troops. I'm sorry Ahsoka."
"He was a good man, a great man. We had better leave, I sense Imperial officers."
"Imperials? You can sense them still?" Kallium asked.
"I may have stopped being a Jedi but that doesn't mean that I stopped feeling the force around me."
"Is it definitely Imperial's?"
"Not definitely, I sense danger Master Ti, a great danger."
"Then we must leave. Come Kallium gather Ahsoka's things with her and we will be away."
"I've got everything I own, everything else is Huars."
"Huar?" Shaak Ti asked.
"Yes my friend, we were... close for a time but we left it as a friendship. I have never truly been able to be in a relationship, I guess being a Jedi takes its toll."
Fires blazed within the temple walls, bodies lay unnamed and in armour, a man cried over another man's body, the blaster hole in the dead man's chest seemed to get worse every time the man looked at it. His sobs would worsen then lessen but it was obvious that the Gungan standing beside them was also effected by the mans death...
