"Master Torrinn!"

Torrinn slightly hears his name through a thick fog. Why did his head hurt so badly? It felt like a drunk wookie hammer-punched him after loosing a game of Sabacc.

"Hey get up! Master what happened?"

He remembered something now, his brother? Something about Kiirenna? Then it all came back.

Torrinn was still on the floor when he opened his eyes suddenly and saw that the world was horizontal, which just further confirmed that it really did happen. Torrinn sat up, fighting the massive head-pounding headache. He looked over at his apprentice Nearo Mundo.

Nearo is a very well-to-do Muun. He is wise for his age already, which isn't a surprise, and quite adept at using the force. This tall Muun, who was as tall as Torrinn already, was unusually good at force telekinesis. He once, as a joke on his friend Poman, raised Poman's master's speeder to the top of the Jedi temple. Poman was asked to retrieve the speeder only to find it missing. It was days before anyone found it; this joke would've been a major feat for any Jedi. Torrin never saw a Muun laugh so hard, it was contagious and now it's a story that is brought up for a laugh.

"We are going back to Ach-To, Nearo. I must talk to the council. My brother is alive." Torrinn said to the gaping, wide-eyed Muun.

The Jedi high council was established by three human Jedi and a Zabrak; Garron Jard, RajiVari, Cala Brin, and Ters Sendon. To accommodate the growing republic, the council grew to nine Masters. They were Masters Yanta, Twi Lek-Kiirenna Isoldro, the female Arkanian-Narra, the male Cathar-Zenpaw, and a human by the name of Ken Huyang Masu.

Master Masu notably earned his rank of master for his superior skills at building lightsabers. He loved building droids as well. He always labeled his builds with his middle name "Huyang", which was frowned upon by the other masters.

Torrinn could barely keep his composure as he waited for the ships' landing ramp to descend.

Nearo could tell that something was wrong and became concerned and asked, "Master, is your brother okay? Is Master Kiirenna?"

Always one to ask questions, Torrinn thought. "No, Nearo, they are not, and I feel our time is running out for my brother" Torrinn said as he ran out towards the temple, "Stay with the ship, and prepare hyper space calculations to Coruscant!"

Confused and somewhat disappointed that he was asked to stay, Nearo shrugged and went back into the ship.

With sweat beginning to appear from his glands, Torrinn climbed three stories and finally arrived at the council chamber at the top of the temple. He knew no one was inside but he hoped that the emergency beacon would work and summon the Masters.

The steel entrance slid away and Torrin immediately slammed his fist on the beacon to activate it. To his relief, one by one, holograms of Yanta, Ken, Narra, Zenpaw, Garron, Ters, RajiVari, and Cala began to illuminate from their devices positioned in a circle around the room.

Torrinn realized they were all waiting for him to speak as he stood there with his hand still against the beacon.

He stepped forward and nodded his head down

"Forgive me, Masters, if I have interrupted anything."

Torrinn raised his head and looked around, making eye contact with each of them as he continued, "I have grave word regarding my brother, who has contacted me".

Garron, was the first to speak and assured Torrinn,

"We all felt the disturbance in the force. The emergency beacon is there for those purposes and at least we know it works so, please continue".

Master Ken Masu looked dramatically shocked. He smiled, and in a sarcastic hurt tone he said, "I can make anything work with the force, Master Garron"

Garron frowned without looking away from Torrinn,

"Yes Ken, we know...Now please, Torrinn, what is the word from Akaois?"

For a moment Torrinn hesitated; the exchange Garron had with Ken reminded him of Akaois.

Ken and Akaois were good friends and Torrinn saw why his brother liked Ken.

Torrin looked down and began to explain what had happened while he was meditating. How the beacon came on, how Akaois sounded, and what he said. He looked up as he repeated his brothers words that Master Kiirenna was dead and said "He said that they killed her, that she fell, that they made him do something. My brother is very shaken, I've never scene him like this Masters. I know the threats he made are serious and forbidden to follow such emotions in the force."

Expecting more of a response, Torrinn saw that the masters seemed unsurprised at what he said.

For a very long minute everyone was silent. Then Masta Yanta spoke. She was very small, green skinned and also had long, pointed ears. She slowly blinked and said "Feel her death, in the force, we did..." Her ears folded like they were bowing slightly. She shut her eyes then looked at Torrinn and continued, "Assigned a secret mission Master Kirrenna and her former apprentice, they were. Knew the dangers, Kirrenna did but Akaois...knew not."

Torrinn's attention on Yanta was cautious. This was the first he heard of this. All Torrinn knew was what his brother had told him. Before they left Ach-To weeks ago. Torrin recalled that memory:

"Brother, Master Kiirenna and I have been assigned to go to Boroti-Edo! This is my first real mission, and I get to show how well she taught me,"

Akaois said with excitement while looking at Torrinn with adventure written all over his face. He had a broad smile that told Torrin Akaois is boasting.

Torrinn raised his eye brow and poked fun,

"All she will see is boasting boy playing with a glowing stick if all you are exited for is that"

Akaois narrowed his eyes and threw his arm around Torrinn, "Ah, come on brother don't be jealous that I get to go on a mission with such a beautiful Jedi..." He pulled Torrinn in, head-locked him and gave him a noogie, "I'm sure you'd be excited to"

Torrinn pulled himself out his brothers grasp, laughing, and said "What the in the blazes was that! Let me geuss, another one of your Ken Masu's teachings! Humans are strange." Akaois laughed heartily at that.

Then the memory fades and Yanta is just beginning to speak again; her voice was lightly toned, croaky, and with the usual amount cracks and breaks.

"Extremely old and wrinkly" was how Akaois described her once to Torrinn's amused Padawan Nearo.

Nearo looked up to Akaois and always asked him to tell stories of his missions with Kiirenna. She and Akaois were responsible to search for and gather more star systems to the republic. Naturally, Akaois only told of the ones that went sour; he loved to act out and dramatise his stories to make Nearo laugh.

Yanta continued, "...during the republics voting month for the supreme chancellor, Jedi Knight Hacedo Bradok, sent to Boroti-Edo in secret, he was. Investigate the Verehre and any background of The Saishi, he did but, report back, he did not."

Master Cala Brin, a formidable light-saber duelist, for a human, spoke up. Her voice was a pleasant and welcome change for Torrinn. As she was speaking she transmitted information from a data pad she was holding. Her fingers moving fast as the center of the council room began to power up and show a hologram of the information.

Cala said, "Our motives were to find out more about this new planet and more about the culture of the Verehre. Information that is very little known and guarded by Hagesh Ruaghan."

She pressed more on her data pad and then a large image of him appeared in the center of the room. She continued, "We went to Hagesh, who is the high priest of the Saishi, and told him about Hecedo's mission. He was surprised that we would do such a thing in secret and advised us that the Verehre are very hostile to outsiders, something that we had suspected from the start. Hagesh explained to us that his species are hunters and will brutally kill other Verehre who stray into other Verehrian territories. Hagesh then removed a peace of the priest headgear that covered his lower mouth."

She did something else on the data-pad and the image changed.

Torrinn could've guessed that the Verehre were hostile in some fashion judging by the image of Hagesh Ruaghan that hovered in front of him. It wasn't so much the large black eyes with small red pupils that gave it away, rather, when the covering was removed, it was the jaws.

Torrin knew he'd be hovering his hand over his lightsaber if he ran into a uncovered Verehre alone during the night. Hagesh's jaw had four bone-like- chelicerae, two on each side of his face. They extended out, with a slimy appearance, and crossed together in front of his mouth, concealing it. Each of the bony-like appendages were jointed at the jaw, which allowed them to move out from his mouth and back in. Kind-of like how you would use a finger to call someone over to you. They had a sharp spike at the end that hooked inward like a barbed hook used for catching Burra fish. They concealed his mouth unless he spoke. When they moved out of the way you would catch glimpses of rows of very sharp teeth. Torrinn was taken back and thoroughly shocked by this alien...monster. Ken must have noticed Torrinns shock when he said, "Ha! You shoulda' been there! When Hagesh removed that cova'ring, Zenpaw's tail fur stood so fast, it could'a cada'pulted a ewok! It was like how'a cats tail gets really big when they get startled by a dog. Hehehah, he is Cathar I jus' didn't realize how much CAThar he was! Hahaha!" Ken laughed.

Zenpaw had the most serious stern look on his face. The Cathar were more like lions Torrin thought as he looked at Zenpaw. He Refused to look at Ken and replied forcefully, "THAT, is not what you saw Ken"

"Hmm, remember that I do, saw it too, I did" said Yanta amused, "Very large, your tail was".

Zenpaw's eyes widened, he was caught as he sputtered, "That's...not...wh-"

"Alright, let's get back to the point" interjected Garron, frustrated.

Ken and the others were holding back from laughing, all except for the frowning Cathar and Cala Brin.

Cala was still studying her data pad and when it got quiet, she pressed a few more keys and said, "As you can see Hagesh has a deep red skin color, a color that is unique only to the Saishi. The other Verehre, from the data sent back to us by Hacedo, have gray and brown toned skin. If you look closely at the joints of Hagesh's, for a lack of better words, fangs, you will see a bulge beneath the skin. He informed us that that houses venom that could temporarily subdue a mature rancor".

Torrinn was surprised and wondered about the other Verehre. He asked, "Did Hacedo send back any other information?"

The hologram zoomed out and was replaced by a red hued planet. Then another image flickered over, showing a very mixed terrain that looked harsh in some places and yet beautiful in others. It had dense forests, rivers, reddish brown deserts, and mountains. The largest body of water, located at the south-pole, intended the planets only land mass. The waters had a reddish tint because of the color of the sand. Nala smoothly continued with a soothing voice, "Boroti-Edo is a medium sized planet far out on the outskirts of the outer-rim, it has a core that heats up the planet, and a thick ozone to keep the heat in. The result is a very hot and humid terrain. The Verehre live deep with long the forests where it is cooler."

She changes the image to show one of dense cities located in the center of a very large forest. Torrinn could see buildings and smaller huts. However one building in particular caught his eye. It was dead center of the city, black, and the shape of a scalene triangle; it rose high above anything else.

"This, Torrinn, is a Verehrian sacrificial temple." Master Ters Sendon. The calm Zabrak, Ters, continued as the hologram of the temple rotated, "Hagesh wouldn't give any information as to what happens inside, as it goes against their religion, but, our Jedi Hacedo Bradak's last transmission was located a standard hour outside of that temple, near that stream."

The hologram zoomed out and highlighted a stream that flowed out from beneath the temple, zigzagged for miles, getting larger until it opened up into a large river.

"Believed captured or killed, we do. This hologram, the last of his data transmissions, it is." said Yanta

"Yes" agreed Ters, "When we told Hagesh of that belief he didn't seem surprised at all. In fact, he said that if any of the Verehre found him they would take him to the temple and judge him. If they, found out that he was trying to get inside the temple, they would have justification to start a war with the Jedi. Hagesh called it a "cleansing" for tainting the temple or something like that."

"Allow us to go to his planet, to find Hacedo. Inform the other Saishi to grant us access, he did." The little green master said.

Ters continued to explain how they enlisted two Jedi, Master Kiirenna and her former apprentice, Jedi Knight, Akaois. They let them know of the dangers of the planet and that Hacedo may of been killed.

However, He explained to Torrinn that Kiirenna had a force vision of a Jedi in great danger surrounded by fanged Verehre, Ters repeated her words, "'in the vision, the dark side was like a thick cloud around the Jedi and seemingly coming from the temple.'"

Garron nodded and said, "She was more then happy to go and find out what happened and possibly save a war."

After listening, Torrinn recalled the memory with Akaois and Kiirenna before the mission:

Akaois still chuckling headed up into the ship. Kiireena looked at Torrinn and walked over to him and said quietly, " Torrinn, I don't know what could happen when we get to our destination. I've had a vision," She stopped and thought about her next words, "just keep connected with Akaois to help him if the vision comes to be. If I die, let him know that it was for peace." Torrinn gaped at her. She smiled and said, "We know what we are getting into, just trust in the force."

Now Torrinn understands why she said that once Ters and Garron told him of her vision. After a long, quiet moment Torrin said, "My brother is disfigured, in the way that only a Anzati would be if he drank the force life of another species. I'm certain he has used his proboscises." At that, the council became tense, Torrin looked around at them and said, "He said they made him do something, and that they would pay."

The Masters exchanged concerned and uneasy looks.

"The dark side, revenge is" said Yanto "Cause a war, he might"

"I know" said Torrinn with his head down "I tried to tell him"

"It is wise that you called so quickly Torrinn," said Garron, "We are sorry that this is such grave news for the council to meet here for the first time. We will need to talk to Hagesh again and inform him that Akaios is acting outside of the Jedi Order and may be a threat to the local Verehre. We hope you understand that we will need to send for his arrest. It is clear that He is seeking revenge, which we all know is forbidden and dangerous for a Jedi to pursue."

Garren added with sympathy,

"You should come back to Coruscant. If we capture and bring back Akaois, it might ease things if you were there."

"I already have my ship ready. Masters-" he thought about telling them of how Akaois force choked him and threw him into the wall but he decided it was pointless. "-May the force be with you" he finished .

With that, the council members nodded and returned the words and Torrin shut down the beacon and exited the council room. He was slow to go down the column of stairs and even slower walking distance to his ship. Torrinn tried to take in the peace and beauty of Ach-To but he couldn't. He tried to focus on the force that surrounded the tall, green and rocky island as he descended to his ship but he couldn't.

Torrinn was unsettled and only felt that something was amiss. He got into his ship and made his way to the cockpit, and found Nearo in midair, in meditation, levitating hisself.

"BANTHA!" yelled Torrinn. Nearo fell suddenly and smacked his head on the navigation system.

"Hey!" Nearo cried out as Torrinn strapped in chuckling.

Climbing into the seat next to him, rubbing his head, Nearo asked "To Coruscant now?"

Torrinn solemnly said "Yes, to Coruscant now."

Nearo sensed his master hadn't the energy to be asked any further questions but managed to still ask, "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

Torrinn just continued to navigate the ship, which rised and exited the atmosphere of Ach-To. Right before they went into hyperspace, Torrin said,

"I have a bad feeling about this too"