thejoker122 - Nara definitely has a point about the cameras. I don't think she'll ever enjoy them...I don't think any of the Jedi will. Negotiations aren't going too well, but we'll have to see if our intrepid Padawans can do anything about that...

Bodare2 - I mean if you met a Jedi for the first time and they were like 'Yeah, we are going to need to have the legal right to take your children' you'd probably be a bit wary. The rest of the galaxy has had a lot of time to learn about the Jedi. The Ubrorans...not so much.

A/N - I've got nothing.

Please enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 19: I am a Jedi, AMA

"I'm not sure if this plan of yours is completely genius, or totally idiotic, Nara."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sascha."

"Well, I'm leaning towards genius but…"

On cue, Nara reacted with a sharp punch that caught him lightly on the shoulder. Wincing dramatically, he bowed obsequiously low, "I mean, I'm sure it's genius, your Togrutaness."

Nara smiled, flashing her sharp teeth, "Better."

It was a day later, and the two Padawans had been given the day off from observing the negotiations to execute Nara's plan. It had been Nara's idea to try to get the Ubrorans to know the Jedi better, so it had been up to her to find a way to do so. The Togruta had been up to the challenge, and after a brief discussion with their Masters, they had approved Nara's plan.

Nara had logged on to one of the most popular social media websites on Ubrora, and declared that they would answer any question submitted to them. Ubrorans had submitted questions all day to a central site, which then determined which questions were the most popular, and now for the foreseeable future, he and Nara were going to answer them while broadcasting live. They had chosen to set up a camera in one of the spare rooms, taking one of the cameras that had been delivered to the house and placing it so that he and Nara could sit comfortably beside each other but have enough room to move about and still stay within the camera's lens.

After double checking everything for what was probably the seventeenth time, he finally decided that their set up was functional, if certainly not perfect, "Ready?" he asked Nara.

"Ready as I'll ever be to answer questions from random strangers," Nara quipped.

Sascha pressed a button on his datapad, and a countdown appeared, counting backward from ten. As it ended, he could see the camera's light turn from red to green, indicating that the camera was in use. They were now broadcasting this stream so that any Ubroran who wanted to could watch. It was not something he ever thought he'd experience on this mission. Or ever.

Nara smiled and waved to the camera, "Hi everyone and welcome to our 'Ask us anything' broadcast, where you submitted the questions and now we will answer them." She pressed a button on her datapad, "The first question is: are you both single?"

Nara made a face, while he suppressed a laugh, "Both Sascha and I are single," she replied, "Jedi as a rule do not have relationships. A Jedi rejects attachment and is loyal only to the Jedi Order and the Force."

Sascha knew that although Nara had spoken correctly, it was not likely to be an answer that was to be well received by the public of Ubrora. Deciding that the best thing to do was to forge ahead, he read the next question, "What is it like being a Jedi?"

"It's pretty neat," Nara replied, "I get to see so many different worlds and make a difference in the lives of ordinary people, I can't even imagine being anything else besides a Jedi. Our lives are extraordinary and I feel privileged to lead it."

"Maybe you could be more specific," he prodded.

Nara nodded along, "It's just a hard question to answer because every day could be so different, here we are helping negotiate a treaty, but the next mission I get I could be trying to find an outlaw or delivering goods to a planet that needs them."

Sascha still thought that there was some things that Nara could elaborate on, "Why don't you tell us about how the Jedi work with local governments to solve problems." Part of the problem that Sascha thought that the Ubrorans seemed to have with the Jedi is that they seemed to operate without oversight and that they were superior to the local officials on planet. He hoped to point out that the Jedi usually worked with the local governments to help solve their problems.

Nara seemed to catch on quickly, "Sure. Usually when Jedi go on missions we do so at the request of a planetary government. We Jedi are kind of like...problem solvers. We get called in when there is a situation that is too dangerous to handle or a situation where the help of an outsider is needed."

Sascha nodded at his friend, "There is a great diversity in the missions a Jedi is asked to undertake. The Jedi serve the worlds of the Republic, bringing peace, order, and justice across the galaxy." We try, at least, Sascha thought.

Nara glanced down to read the next question, "Do you like your Masters?"

"I'll take that one first," he said. "Yes, I have the deepest respect and fondness for my Master. You have to understand that we are not assigned to Masters as young Jedi, a Master has to choose you to be their apprentice. So, Master Brynar had the pick of any Jedi Initiate in the Temple, yet she picked me. That's the kind of debt that you can never repay. She's also taught me so much, helped me when I was down and out, and perhaps most importantly, she never gave up on me." There were tears forming in his eyes, but he didn't mind, "So, yes, I like my Master very much, I wouldn't trade her for any other Jedi in the galaxy."

Nara shifted in her seated position, "Not sure how I can follow that, but I'll just say that I started off kind of lukewarm with Master Tiplee, but as we've spent more time together I've grown to enjoy the time that I spend with her. I'm honored to call her my Master. She's strong and wise and I can only hope that one day I'll be the same."

He cleared his eyes and read the next question, "Who is the better fighter, you or Nara?"

The Togruta grinned, "Allow me to demonstrate." Nara quickly hopped over and put him in a headlock, not anywhere near as tight as she would had they been practising unarmed combat, but it must have appeared tight to the viewer.

"Ack," he exclaimed. He quickly tapped on Nara's arm in surrender and she released the hold, "That wasn't nice, Nara."

"Aww, did I hurt you?"

"No, you messed up my hair." He made a show of meticulously getting his hair back in its proper place.

The Togruta rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the camera, "I'm better, but Sascha is good in his own right."

"Thanks for the backhanded compliment," he said, swatting her lightly on the arm.

"I'll read the next question," Nara declared, "What is it like not having parents?"

The Togruta couldn't conceal a sour look on her face that she quickly tried to repress, so Sascha decided to answer the question, "I wouldn't say that we don't have parents, as Jedi our biological parents don't factor in to our lives past when we are very young, but we have surrogates. My clanmates were my family and there were lots of older Jedi around to help us and be role models." He turned to his friend, "Anything to add?"

Nara mutely shook her head and looked away. Odd, Sascha thought.

Sascha decided that he had to cover up for that bit of awkwardness, "I don't have any memories of my parents and its not until we are older that we realize that we are, in effect, orphans. But just as some of you may think its odd to grow up without parents, in the Jedi Temple it would be odd to find anyone that had an actual memory of their parents. For obvious reasons, we don't talk about our biological families much."

He looked down at the next question, "Why are your lightsabers different colours?" He smiled at that question, he was pretty sure that most schoolchildren on Coruscant could answer that question. "Well, why don't we show you?"

He withdrew his lightsaber from his hip and held it in front of him, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Nara doing the same. He closed his eyes and concentrated on breaking the lightsaber into its component parts with the Force, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw the constituent parts of his lightsaber floating in front of his eyes. It looked just like the diagram that he had memorized as a young Initiate. From the floating parts, he plucked out his teal focusing crystal with his hand and then concentrated again, reconstructing his lightsaber with the Force, just lacking the focusing crystal that would have produced the blade.

It was a cool trick, but one he had been doing for a long time. The unglamorous part of having a lightsaber was the maintenance of said lightsaber. Each individual part had to be inspected to ensure that it was in peak condition, because having a damaged part could be disastrous. His Master had always been keen on lecturing him about keeping his lightsaber in tip top condition, and he'd made sure that it was – just reading one story of what happened when a lightsaber malfunctioned had been enough incentive for him.

Sascha and Nara held their crystals in their palm, they were both unremarkable looking to the common eye, yet as a Force sensitive stone from the caves of Illum, they were anything but ordinary, they were priceless. "These crystals give the blade their hue, they are special stones that we both have a connection to. This allows my lightsaber to be more than just a weapon, it is a part of my arm, a manifestation of my connection to the Force."

Nara spoke up, "Neither of us chose the colour of our blades, and I have to admit I'm jealous of Sascha's rare coloured lightsaber, usually lightsabers are blue or green, and occasionally yellow. I like my blue blade though."

"Teal is my favourite colour, so I was very happy to find that the crystal that I was connected to was that colour." He looked down towards his datapad to find the next question, but felt Nara prod him in the Force so he waited for her to speak up.

"I think some people will be interested in the story of how we find these crystals. As young Jedi we are taken to the sacred Jedi world of…well, I'm not sure I'm allowed to say what the name of the planet is, sorry. On this world we are taken to a cave to find our crystal that 'speaks' to us and us alone. I know that sounds hard to believe, but the crystal cave is meant to test a Jedi, and ensure that they are ready to take this next step in their training."

Nara swallowed hard before continuing, "I actually…failed, the first time I was brought to the crystal caves. I was younger than most when taken to the crystal caves, but because I was so talented an exception was made." Nara shook her head, sending her lekku swaying, "When I was young, I was so arrogant, I assumed that it would be so easy to find my crystal, I would just look into the Force and it would appear to me. Well, I spent hours in the cave, which was really cold, especially for a Togruta like me. I must have explored every inch of the cave, and seen a million different crystals, but none spoke to me. Eventually, I just got fed up, picked a green crystal that seemed to shine brightly and went back to the group. I assumed that the test was a trick – and that all you needed to do was pick a crystal because any of them would work."

"When I brought it back, the Masters asked to show them the crystals that we had found, and when it came my turn, I showed them my crystal. It was then that I truly saw it for what it was, it wasn't a crystal at all, it just a rock that had looked green in the cave. It was actually brown. I don't think I've ever been more embarrassed, the rest of the Jedi on the expedition made their lightsabers on their way back home, but I came back empty handed."

Sascha was trying hard to keep a neutral expression on his face, he had never heard this story from his friend, and could only imagine how traumatic it would have been to fail in such a public setting. He would have been an absolute wreck if he had failed to get a crystal from the caves on Illum. It was odd to think of Nara as failing, because Nara was strong in the Force. But maybe that didn't mean everything.

The sombre Togruta continued her story, "When I was allowed to go back to the crystal caves a second time, I was…scared that I wouldn't find my crystal and what that would mean for me, I almost didn't want to go in the cave at all. After a quick search, I found something that called to me, but when I grabbed it, I found that it was just a rock, not a crystal at all. I…kinda figured that it was a sign that I had no crystal that would speak to me, that I was a failure of a Jedi. I sulked back to Master Yoda, you Ubrorans don't know him, but he's the Grand Master of the Jedi Order."

"I came to him just balling my eyes out, I could barely see through my tears. Yoda just looked at me and asked, 'Why do you cry, little Jedi?' I told him that I went through the entire cave but this was the only thing that spoke to me, and it was just a rock. There was this little grin on his face that confused me so much and he said, 'Hmm? A crystal I see, young Jedi.' When I looked down in my hand was just this unremarkable looking brown rock. I told Master Yoda that it looked like a rock, and that it was just a plain, average brown rock."

"Yoda crinkled his nose at me, 'Talented, you are, young Jedi, but not everything should come so easy. Sometimes, work for your goal, you must.' I was so confused, but if Master Yoda said my stone was a crystal, who was I to disbelieve him? So, I sat and looked at the stone, I looked at it through the Force, and then eventually I realized what it was. I took a small tool from my belt and chipped away at this stone, but as I chipped through it, I saw that there was a blue crystal underneath the layer of stone that had encased it."

Nara smiled, clearly remembering that moment, "I had to work for my crystal, harder than most, but whenever I ignite my lightsaber, I remember that hard work turned a rock into a crystal. My crystal is a reminder that talent isn't everything."

Sascha waited a respectable amount of time before speaking, "I had to climb a cliff wall to get my crystal, so in a way, you could say that I worked harder to get mine." He half expected Nara to punch him, playfully of course, but Nara resisted his obvious bait, seeming more composed and serene than usual.

"Let's move on to another question…."

After another day at the negotiation table, and after Nara and Sascha had gone to sleep, Aurine and Tiplee sat together at the kitchen table to discuss the day's events, "The Padawan's little conference has gone over well, negotiations were much smoother today," said Tiplee. "It seems that they may have managed to humanize themselves and thus the Jedi Order in the eyes of the Ubrorans."

"You'll make a negotiator out of that Togruta yet," she responded.

Tiplee smirked, "Somehow I doubt that, she's too much of a warrior to ever enjoy being a diplomat. I think she learns from me, and I think she enjoys learning from me, but she's never going to be a patient negotiator. It's just not her." Tiplee paused, "However, I do think the Padawans deserve a reward for their ingenuity. I was thinking of sending them off to the air base to the south, we've decided on how we are categorizing their Starfighters, but there are many things to still check over and make sure that they are up to regulation. I'm sure Nara and Sascha could handle such a task, and getting to work together would be enough of a reward."

"And you don't want them here for the negotiations?"

"I think they've learned just about as much as they can about negotiating. I think we've bored them to tears enough – lets reward them."

"I don't like it Tiplee," she said.

Tiplee frowned, "Do you not trust your Padawan?"

"Of course, I trust him. I don't trust them being alone together."

"Ah, so it is my apprentice you do not trust," the Rishati responded, looking nonplussed.

She hesitated, "Not exactly, it's the combination of the two of them I don't trust."

Tiplee raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Sascha and Nara have a strong bond together, I think it makes perfect sense to pair them together. They've done everything that we've asked them to do, it only seems fair to reward them."

"Their bond is what scares me," she finally admitted. "They remind me of Tyra and Sascha, and we both know how that turned out."

Tiplee seemed very unimpressed by that argument, "And do you not think that your apprentice might have learned something from that experience? Do you think that he and Nara are both blind to that similarity?"

She felt her cheeks warming with a tinge of embarrassment. "I think he learned, yes. But he is still seventeen, and emotional in the way that young people often are."

Tiplee shrugged nonchalantly, "And Nara is almost the same age and likes to flirt. So what?"

"I…just…," she growled, "It was so difficult to see Sascha after he lost Tyra, I don't want to see him get hurt again."

"I understand that, truly I do. But you can't shelter him, as an apprentice he needs to go out there and make his mistakes, because now they can be corrected, but they can't when he's a Jedi Knight and he's on his own."

She blew out a long breath, sending some of her hair flying, "You are right of course. We'll send them on their way tomorrow so they can do some of the tedious work."

"After all, what else is a Padawan good for?"

That joke drew a smile from her, "You are indeed a wise Jedi Knight, Master Tiplee."

"You should probably tell that to the Ubrorans tomorrow."

Aurine smirked, "If they don't already know that, we are truly wasting our time here."

"Then let us hope that they continue to be amendable to bargaining tomorrow."

Aurine put her boots up on the table, drawing a bemused look from Tiplee, "For tomorrow is another day."