LordDarthYoda- I was referring in a roundabout way to the Clone Wars animated cartoon, where (in a hilarious and awesome sequence), Mace Windu destroys like an entire droid army. If you haven't seen the Clone Wars animated cartoon, its an interesting watch, even though it is no longer canon. The Jedi in particular are hilariously OP. As for Lirri, we'll you'll get your answer in this chapter...

A/N - Posting late so nothing from me...

Anyways, all reviews, follows, and favourites are deeply appreciated as always.

Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 30: Conversation

"One has to admire the Jedi, and for one reason beyond any other. The have no qualms about putting themselves in danger, even when the odds against them are bleak. I wonder if an acceptable peace could be negotiated."

"Hah, who am I kidding! If I sued for peace, Vash Varless would have my head mounted on a spike."

-From the Journal of Pravin Ecalt, Eight days in to the Invasion of Ubrora

"Now," said Sascha Whitestar quietly. He and Nara jumped out from around the corner of the building they had been hiding behind, igniting their lightsabers. Five beige battle droids stared back at them. Had the droids been programmed to display surprise, he was sure that they would have appeared to be shocked. Unfortunately, those who programmed battle droids didn't appear to feel the need to program human emotions into a droid. Logical.

The droids, their battle programming kicking in, immediately spaced out and started firing at them. He and the Togruta next to him had no problems batting away such a measly amount of incoming fire, but they did not advance on them as they normally would have, had they been intent on dispatching them. That wasn't quite what they were doing here.

Behind them, a group of Ubroran resistance fighters sprang out from cover and opened fire on the droids, using the two Jedi as mobile shields. Despite the training that the Jedi had given their fellow resistance fighters, the Ubrorans were terrible shots. The adrenaline of battle made the nervous Ubrorans even worse than they had been on the firing range. Sascha was subtly moving out of the wayward shots of his allies, and off to his left, he felt Nara doing the same. Still, eventually a few shots from the Ubrorans found their targets, causing the furred creatures to whoop in excitement. Sascha would have told them to pipe down, had he not been concentrating intently on blocking the laser bolts from two directions.

After a frustratingly long period of time, eventually the Ubrorans behind him managed to subdue the droids with their inaccurate fire. Once the last droid was a smoking mess on the ground, the resistance fighters started celebrating excitedly, only Lirri seemed to hold herself back from the merriment. As the two Jedi watched the celebration, not at all amused, Sascha caught Nara's eye and she nodded. This had not only been a foray to get the Ubrorans some combat experience, they had also both wanted to know how well they had listened to some of the more detailed instructions they had given the resistance soldiers.

"Scatter protocol," he said with authority.

The scatter protocol was a fail safe that he and Nara had put in place. Had they come across a situation that was too dangerous, Sascha and Nara would stay and fight, allowing their charges to escape the peril. The Ubrorans were not supposed to stick together, but head off in random directions, meaning that if one Ubroran were being pursued, he or she would not lead them to more of their fellows. That way, even if disaster struck, some of the resistance would survive.

Upon hearing the words uttered, Lirri took off down the street, but the other Ubrorans looked around in confusion. One of them piped up, "We just destroyed those droids! We don't need the scatter protocol. That's for if we get in trouble!"

"Are you questioning us?" said Nara, her voice low, gravelly. In the evening light, Nara looked more threatening than usual, only the white markings on her face and her bright intelligent eyes seemed to emerge from underneath the hood of her cloak. The remaining Ubrorans decided that Nara wasn't kidding and immediately dispersed, running in different directions.

The two Padawans waited until everyone was out of sight, before they started off back towards Lirri's house at a leisurely pace, "Nara, I believe you've made our Ubroran allies afraid of you," he said lightheartedly.

"Yeah, well, they should be terrified of me."

"Really? Explain the logic to me."

"Sure," said the Togruta, pulling her cloak tighter around her, trying to keep her lekku dry from the rain and not exactly succeeding, "I'm the bad cop and you are the good cop."

"Uh huh… and when did I agree to this arrangement?"

Nara shrugged casually, keeping up her brisk pace, "There was nothing to agree to, you're the more compassionate, easygoing one. Me, I'm the scary looking alien with head-tails. I can tell that everyone is a little scared of me, and after doing some research, I know why."

"Wait, you did research?"

"I'm not brain dead Whitestar, I know how to look things up on my datapad."

"Of course, I just meant…" he trailed off, embarrassed that he had underestimated his friend again. "Sorry," he apologized.

Nara turned her head so that she was looking at him, and she smiled, "see, that's what I like about you Sascha, you make mistakes, but you always apologize for making them. Perhaps a Togruta should learn from your example."

"Or perhaps we should stop making mistakes altogether," he responded.

"Let's stay within the realm of what is possible," Nara jested lightly. "As I was saying, I did some research, and part of the reason that your average Ubroran is scared of me is that I bear a striking resemblance to a legendary creature from Ubroran legend. Of course the Gampethon was supposedly ten feet tall and breathed fire, but there is some resemblance."

"You sure you couldn't just...evolve into one of those things for a few days? We could use a ten foot tall fire-breathing creature about now."

"Sure, just let me go into a cocoon for a few days and I'll emerge as a creature double my size," Nara said sarcastically. "All Togrutas can do it."

Sascha laughed softly in the rain. There was something about Nara playing along with his absurd jokes that remained fun, even in these trying times. "I'll have to look up that creature when we get back to Lirri's." He had always been fascinated by local legends and it would make a good distraction for an hour or so.

The two Jedi continued walking in the pouring rain. Nara finally broke the silence, "Are you ready to tell Lirri that she could have been a Jedi?"

"I don't know about this idea Nara, I know Master Brynar said it was okay, but this is a huge thing to tell someone, I'm not sure how she'll take it. She's our best fighter, but she's wild. Not exactly Jedi material."

"Do you trust me?"

"Is water wet?"

Nara smiled, "Well, you know on some worlds, the water…"

Sascha threw his hands up in exasperation, "Solah! I submit, Nara. Let's just get out of this accursed rain."

The Jedi found their way to Lirri's house, which was located in a quiet area of the suburbs, where they dried off and waited for Lirri to get back home. Her home was now one of the many that the resistance had co-opted, and it housed the unofficial leader of the fighters in Lirri, the non-fighters in Arslan, and the two Jedi. He was the only one who didn't have a room to himself, but he was currently using a couch in the living room as his bed. One nice thing about being used to sleeping on a barely padded bedroll, was that he didn't find it difficult to fall asleep in less than ideal situations.

When Lirri got home, she stripped off her raincoat and joined the Jedi in the living room. Nara had prepared some warm tea, and she handed a cup to the Ubroran who accepted it gratefully. "So, how'd we do out there?" Lirri asked.

"Could have been better, could have been much, much worse. You and the others will improve quickly," he responded.

"I didn't like how the others didn't respond to your orders," said Lirri. "I'll have a word with everyone. We have to realize that you are the experienced ones in these things, and you are only trying to keep us safe."

"That would be appreciated," he said.

"We actually have something we'd like to talk to you about, Lirri," said Nara.

The Ubroran looked confused for a minute, "Is this going to be about my dad, because I'm not going to…"

"No, Lirri, this is about you," Nara cut off the Ubroran. "Do you remember when we told you that to become a Jedi you had to be born with something called Force-sensitivity?" Lirri nodded and the Togruta continued, "Well, we aren't allowed to say this before, but we can now. Lirri, you are Force-sensitive. You could have been a Jedi."

Lirri blinked a couple of times, looked back and forth between he and Nara, and then she shook her head in confusion, "I'm sorry, what?"

"You have the same talent that saw us get recruited by the Jedi Order, Lirri," he said.

"That's impossible," said Lirri, rising from her seat, "I can't lift objects with my mind, or fight like you can, or do any of the hundred impossible things I've seen you do since you came here."

Lirri seemed agitated so Sascha tried to calm her down, speaking in a slow, calm tone of voice, "We've had years of training that allowed us to do that, Lirri. It's one of the reasons we are taken from our parents at such a young age, because it takes a long time to learn to control our powers."

Lirri sat heavily on her chair, eyes towards the floor, rainwater dripping off her snout and onto the table, "I still don't believe you."

Nara looked at him helplessly. How were they going to convince Lirri that she was what they said she was? The Togruta then startled briefly, as if she was remembering something that she had forgotten, "Lirri have you ever had a dream that felt so real, it felt like you were actually living it?"

The Ubroran looked up, shock in her expression, "How could you know that! For years I had doctors and psychiatrists tell me that it was nothing but the delusions of a young mind."

Nara shook her head, "Those were visions, Lirri. Some Jedi get them, including me."

"Are…they of the future?" Lirri asked with a quaver, suddenly scared.

"A possible future," he said placatingly, "We are told that the future is always in motion. What you may have seen could be the future, or it could easily not be. Once, I had a vision during a meditation session, and I knew that a week from now, Bantha nuggets would be on the menu in the refectory. It turned out I was right." He held his hands out, "Pretty minor thing to have a vision over, right? But I've had other visions that never came to pass."

The Ubroran slumped into her chair, "That's a relief…see I had this dream, not long after we met, and much of it has come to pass. I was fighting, everyone around me was sad, the city was on fire in places, and I just felt helpless, like I was fighting but I had already lost. The vision, or dream, or whatever it was didn't last long, but…I can still remember it clearly."

"Is that why you've been acting so different lately?" Nara prodded lightly.

"Yes," Lirri replied, sniffing and wiping her nose, "I thought that if I became the best fighter possible, that maybe I could change what was happening. I also thought that because I knew so many of my…friends were doomed, that it would be best if I didn't try to befriend them, that it would be easier to deal with their deaths."

Lirri's eyes brightened, "But we can change all that now, you can train me to be like you two. Maybe I won't have a lightsaber, but if I can fight anything like a Jedi, that would help inordinately!"

"Lirri," he said calmly, "That's not why we told you that you were Force-sensitive, see Nara and I agree that…"

"You're not going to train me?" Lirri cut him off.

He shrugged helplessly, "We simply don't have the time or ability to do so. It would probably take years to even give you the groundwork to becoming a Jedi. Nara and I…we aren't teachers, or even full Jedi Knights, we are just rather young apprentices. "

Nara spoke up, "What we want from you is to wear clothes like ours, to be 'the first Ubroran Jedi.' It wouldn't even really be a lie, because you are like us, you are a child of the Force."

"You want me to be a propaganda tool," Lirri replied in a harsh tone.

Nara looked pained, but nodded. He spoke up, "We think that it would be helpful, that it might help inspire your fellow Ubrorans."

Lirri took a deep breath and then shook her head, "No. I won't go along with this plan."

He could sense Nara's disappointment, so to cover that, he nodded, "We aren't going to force you to do anything, and we are already thankful for how much you've helped us so far."

Suddenly Lirri was angry, and she rose from her seat and went into the kitchen. He looked over at Nara, who shrugged. Neither of them knew why their host had suddenly gotten so angry. Lirri returned, a moment later, a little more in control than she had been a minute ago, but still clearly upset, "How is it that you try to dictate the way that everyone lives! Do you do this everywhere you go? Does the rest of the Republic just bow to your wisdom whenever you show up?"

Nara stood, placing her tea cup carefully back on the table, "Lirri, we are just trying to do our best to keep Ubrora free from the madman that is invading, and yes, what we are doing to you is…cynical manipulation at best. But there is truth to it. You could have been a Jedi, Lirri. You could have been my sister."

Lirri stomped her foot on the floor angrily, almost causing Nara's cup of tea to fall off the table, "You are asking me to take on more risks, to make myself a bigger target. And you offer me nothing in return! What about what I want? Don't I get a say? I'm not a Jedi! I was barely dealing with fighting against these droids and now you tell me that I could have been a Jedi…it's too much, too much…."

Sascha recognized that Lirri was overwhelmed a split second before Nara did, so when the Ubroran went limp, it was him who slid on his knees to grab her as she fainted. Sascha glanced over Lirri worriedly, though he was pretty sure she had just been overwhelmed by the revelation that she was Force-sensitive, he briefly used the Force to make sure that she was okay.

Not long after she had fainted, Lirri's eyes fluttered open. "Sorry," she said, "It's just a lot to process." After a little bit, Lirri indicated that she was okay, and sat back in her chair and grabbed her tea, taking a cautious sip. Sascha tried not to notice that her hand was shaking.

The Jedi sat silently as Lirri collected herself. "I'm still not going along with this. It's not fair to me to put a big target on my back, and give me nothing in return."

"I agree," he said quietly, "We'll tell you some of what we know."

Nara visibly startled, "Sascha, Master Brynar said…"

He cut her off authoritatively, "Master Brynar can say what she likes, she's not here. We're Jedi. Jedi negotiate. I accept her terms."

Nara looked as if she had swallowed a particular bitter fruit, but in his mind, they hadn't had a choice. They needed to explore every option that they had to keep Ubrora free, and this was just one of them. Yes, he had defied his Master, but only because it was the right thing to do. He'd have to convince Nara of that, but he was sure that he could. And when Aurine confronted him about it? We'll he'd just have to see how much faith his Master really had in him.

"So, what are we waiting for? Let's get started! Teach me something." Lirri's enthusiasm was obvious, and she clearly hadn't noticed that Nara was far less gung-ho than she was.

"I think we should start with the Jedi code." He signaled Nara, and the Togruta reluctantly started reciting the Jedi Code, and he joined his voice with hers, "There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force."

Lirri, wide-eyed, absorbed the words that had been recited by Jedi for thousands of years. "Let me try…There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is…peace?"

"Serenity," corrected Nara.

"There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force." The Ubroran's eyes narrowed, "What does it mean there is no death? Do the Jedi believe in an afterlife?"

"Not as such," said Nara, "We are taught not to fear death, because when we die, we return to the Force."

He spoke up, "I've stared down my own death before, and just before I was going to die…I felt serenity unlike any other experience I've ever had. I think it was a gift from the Force."

Lirri absorbed their words soberly, "It feels like I have a lot to learn. I guess it's not as simple as teaching someone to just concentrate on lifting a rock and just doing it."

"We've trained since we were very, very young to do that Lirri."

"Okay, I understand. Maybe you could send me some files on Jedi history and training. I'd love to read some before bed."

He nodded, "I'll find some files to transfer to you, but we need to remain focused at the task at hand. And that task is to make sure that your planet."

"So more fighting tomorrow?"

"More fighting until the enemy runs out of droids," he said wearily.

"So it's going to be awhile." The two Jedi nodded, subdued at the idea of further fighting.

"Well at least the Force is with us," said the Ubroran perkily.

He and Nara shared a look, wondering if that would be enough.