NOTE: OMG i AM SO SORRY! xD I uploaded the file, checked back over it, and realized that not only had I failed to add lines and crap, but it was version 1.7 when it should be version 1.8. (not the actual numbers, but still. prior version.)

Ok, so anyone who can look this over without going "OMG NO LINES! YOU SUCK!" and realize I made a slight error, please do so. I didn't realize I was uploading the one without lines. xD Thanks.

If anyone thinks I am milking Maris for all she's worth. Yeah, I am.

The lesson learned here with Varus, is really one that is both off the top of my head, and yet not. To be fair, teaching a lesson like this, I wasn't sure how else to approach it. So if you think I approached it wrong, thats fair. I have skeptism myself. But then I am just skeptical about every single thing I do anyway, so its all good :P

Also, I uploaded edited versions of several chapters prior to this one. Some things may seem unedited, but their not. I am going back and editing, and I do have a beta reader. It just takes time to edit, time for her to read and edit, time for me to go in and make her suggested changes (all while brainstorming on whether or not her changes are valid)

and that tends to conflict with the schedule of me writing the future chapters and uploading. I am trying to upload every 4-5 days at this point, and also stay 20~ chapters ahead of all of you in the written chapters total. At this point, you guys are gaining on me, but I am all the way at chapter... uh... 36, with snippets from chapters even later than that. Like chapter 40-43.

Which, at this point, I think the whole story will end somewhere between chapter 42-45. Which chapter it ends on depends on how much I flesh out the final two or three episodes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even the clothes on my back.

Episode 6 - Preserving Dantooine Part 3/3

"Move it!" Mr. Captain yells.

The Mandaloriens don't just run down the stairs, they are jumping down entire flights. What's the rush? I know need to get down, but what's the problem?

The rest of us are barely keeping up. Not only are these Mandaloriens killing as fast as we can keep up, but they are running faster. If this is the sheer difference in our bodies, then I can see why everyone wants me to bulk up slightly.

"What's the rush?" I ask.

"We marked the first two points," He jumps down another seven steps at once and instantly turns to jump again. His squad is right on his heels. "Mandalore is not going to wait too much longer before he begins!"

So? Big deal. We don't have much time before he shoots the gate down and starts a fight.

Oh wait… That means the hostages will be the first place where shit goes down as far as Klasin is concerned.

Ok that's bad. We still have another fifteen flights of stairs to go.

I smile evilly at a thought. I grab the railing and fling myself over. "Cya when you get there!" Tree-Hugger tries to stop running, spin on a dime, and grab me before I fall, but alas… He only manages the first two.

Everyone watches as I vanish down all fifteen flights at once.

"Obi must have cursed me after I did that to him a couple times…" Tree-Hugger groans. He jumps onto the railing and falls down after me. Ahsoka is not far behind.

While I'm falling, I'm realizing partially how stupid this is. I could really hurt myself when I land. Unless I pull off something. I flash my mind through the technique, and pull up a Force Levitate.

It manages to work and I hover a few inches off the ground. I release it, and I fall with a light tap.

I pat myself on the back inside on managing to pull it off outside of practice and see a few Mandaloriens crouching against barricades against me. "Howdy boys" I say.

They look at me. I look at them. I raise a backwards lightsaber in one hand and concentrate Force energy in the other. Gun's raise. They don't even have time to pull the trigger before I send them all flying down the hall they were guarding.

Five credits says that's the way to the hostages.

"Varus!" Tree-Hugger lands besides me lightly on his feet. "We need to be subtle."

"They were here waiting. I didn't know they were here." I shrug. Ahsoka lands with us as well before bopping me on the back of the head. I flinch at the smack and glare at her out of the corner of my eye.

The doors open behind me (turns out we are in the main lobby of the complex) and Klasin guys flood in. "Well, now they know we are here." He tells me. He flips his hand and a wall panel rips itself out of the wall and moves in front of them to block the enemy fire. He keeps it up acting as a shield.

"Push it, Varus. Ahsoka, cover us."

Ahsoka instantly runs into the hall I just cleared to stop the enemy from hitting us from behind. I collect energy in my hand and Push the shield. It knocks over a group of enemies like a truck and imbeds itself into the doorway with a 'crash!'.

"That should hold them back." He says.

Mr. Captain and his squad arrive a minute or two later and don't even give us the privilege of a "Nice going!" or "How are you?" before they are running down the hall that I, myself, cleared.

Rude.

We follow them down and before long we are ambling over bodies they cleared. At the end of the hall is a large shut door. We stop in front of it.

I take it the hostages are on the other side.

"This was surprised to be a surprise attack." Mr. captain turns his helmet sharply at me for a moment before turning back. "But now… they are prepared."

"We can get through this." Tree-Hugger says confidentially.

"How long?"

"Not long. Both of you, with me." Tree-Hugger flares his saber on and stabs it into the door. Ahsoka and I do the same right beside him. I've never done this, but I watch him closely and do as he does. He twists and turns the saber slightly to push it in further and further. The door glows yellowish-red hot around us and the area we are stabbing gives way after a few seconds and melts. Ahsoka works her blades close together and the door melts faster in the process. A hole appears. Slowly it expands enough for us to see through it just a tiny bit.

There are definitely hostages inside.

A large hunk of the door gives way to the intense heat and cutting, and Tree-Hugger cuts off a hunk of it enough for us to step through. Ahsoka climbs in first, being the smallest, and I do a moment later as the hole continues to expand. I have my saber up and ready, twisted backwards in my hand, and look around. Tree-Hugger climbs in behind us, then the Ordo boys one at a time.

Before us is a large group of hostages. Thousands. The entire basement is filled with people on the ground. It looks like an entire warehouse floor is just chocked full of everybody they could get in here. In front of all of them is a woman being held up by the neck while directly behind her is the man holding her up like a shield. He has her pinned to his body and a gun at her head.

She looks really old, but not too old. She also is highly manicured, yet isn't showing much of any fear. It's hard to tell, but my gut tells me she is a person of authority.

"Let her go, vermin." Mr. Captain orders. He has his gun poised.

"I think not. You all leave, now, or she dies!" The bastard returns.

Around the room I note a couple of Klasin boys aiming at us from the sides. We are effectively surrounded and a hostage is being threatened.

"I warned you! I warned you bastards not to come! But now people are going to die, one. By. One."

"That's fine." Mr. captain says.

I turn on him in surprise, as well as Ahsoka, I mean… aren't we here to save these people? But Tree-Hugger just calmly carries on. He is standing to the side ready to block enemy fire at a moment's notice. He doesn't say a word, so I'm guessing I should too. I really really want to yell, but the people are starting at us desperately. They expect us to save them. They expect us to do something.

For once… everything I do matters, truly matters.

Oh yea… we're dead.

Mr. Captain shrugs. "Go ahead. Shoot the woman. Then I will have no reason anymore not to kill you. If anything, you would be giving me an excuse just to parade your carcass through the streets. So go ahead, make my day."

The hostage-bastard flinches and twitches with the woman in his arms fearfully, but then he hardens his jaw and glares at us angrily. "Not if we kill you first."

"Varus," Tree-Hugger whispers. "Levitate all of the Klasin guns into the air. Snips, wait until you see Varus manage to do it successfully then back him up, we don't want to mess up the timing."

She nods, and I reach out slowly, ever so slowly, inch by inch, and reach out with the Force. I can feel the guns in my hands, a good ten of them. So far I've manage to levitate single objects, but so many at once? This takes a little focus.

"Ha!" Mr. Captain mocks, his gun hasn't moved an inch. "Kill me? You trash can't hit anything! Is it any wonder you HAVE to resort to such pathetic lows?!"

The bastard grits his teeth, balancing between anger and fear. He could kill the hostage in his hands, but doing so would be his death just as much. The Ordo's almost want him to do it just to give them an excuse to kill him.

Cruel and crude, but effective. He doesn't WANT to kill the hostages now.

I grab the guns with my mind and levitate them just out of their reach. As soon as the guns start moving, Ahsoka helps to get the ones I didn't grab. (Which were most of them.)

Instantly a wave of fear and confusion erupts amongst the enemy and the hostage-bastard looks both ways to see his men no longer have anything to use. Girly whispers to me to take up the guns for her, and she releases a second or two later. I manage to catch them all in time with my power and keep up high in the air. The enemy soldiers put their hands up in surrender.

"There are three ways this can end now." Tree-Hugger tells him. He lowers his saber a bit and extends his other hand. "Surrender to me, I take you to Coruscant, and be charged with warmongering and murder with a defense attorney. Or surrender to our friends here and get their version of justice."

"And the third option?"

"I let him blow your brains out. Which, if I am correct, is also their form of justice."

"I like the way you think, Jedi." Mr. Captain chuckles.

"Or we take the fourth option." A new voice says behind us.

I can't turn to look to the new arrival with my focus on the weapons, but judging from the waves of tension it's not good. Is it a hostile?

"No one move." Tree-Hugger commands us.

Oh, shit! I keep the guns up, and the enemy is suddenly looking relieved. Ok, seriously, what's going on?

"Aww! Izthark!" Hostage-bastard says happily. "Good of you to join us, what's the four-"

In the back of my mind I see things happen suddenly. It's like I'm seeing two things at once. On one hand I see myself continuing to lift up guns. On the second hand I see us all falling to the ground under an explosion. An explosion erupts on a higher level with such force the walls shake and I fall to my hands and knees; and a small laser beam pierces hostage-bastard's face and his entire body disintegrates.

The sound of gun fire immediately causes the Ordo boys to react by mowing down the enemy around us, the hostages scream in horror and panic, and Tree-Hugger turns his saber onto the Izthark man.

"I suggest we run." The intruder informs us. He lowers his gun and runs past us like we weren't just a threat to him and he hadn't just turned a hostage situation on its head.

The walls shake further, the explosions grow louder by the second, and a billow of flame erupts from the hole in the wall. Tree-Hugger extends the Force out and keeps the entire warehouse from being overwhelmed in the inferno, but the shaking walls are developing cracks and the ground is shaking so hard we can barely stand.

"Varus! Push up on the ceiling! Snips, get them out of here!"

"Aye!" She says and everyone is suddenly running around in a madhouse. In the distance is a doorway heading down, but it will take time for them to get in and- Never mind. Mr. Captain blew the door open with a grenade.

I generate Force Energy in my hands and about fire when Tree-Hugger tells me, "Hold! Not yet!"

I continue generating power and the shaking continues to grow worse steadily by the second. The sound of the explosion is practically on top of us and he is continuing to keep the fire back. The power in my hands continues to build and a high pitched whistle emits from between my fingers. "Hooooold!" He commands. The hair on my neck turns up violently like electricity is pouring through me. "… NOW!"

He bursts out a Force Push in two directions, one into the hallway and on into the ceiling at the same time I do. Mine is now a good twenty times larger than his and it meets a ceiling that is falling on top of us. The two forces meet and for a moment it seems we won, but the impact only makes an explosion of its own as the ceiling above us crumbles to dust and fire and everything falls on us and- THAT IS 100 STORIES COMING DOWN ON OUR HEADS!

I don't know what the hell Tree-Hugger is saying, but what I do know is that shit is seriously going down, in the literal sense. I force out another wave of Force Energy, after another, after another. Each becomes progressively larger as I get into the rhythm of pulling it out easier. I pull more and more of the Force each time I pull on it, and the explosion is momentarily being kept back.

Suddenly everything goes still as the ceiling splits in two directions. Whatever was falling us has been swept to either side and the fire is no longer erupting. Tree-Hugger and I lower her hands, exhausted, and smoke instantly fills the room where we had been churning out wave after wave of energy. It fills my lungs and chokes me. I fall to the ground and throw up, but the smoke fills my nostrils and lungs and stomach. Strong arms grab my waist, pick me off the ground, and sprint down to the lower basements.

The smoke gives way to clean air and I am unceremoniously dropped. I throw up some more and choke out huge plumes of smoke from my stomach and lungs.

It doesn't just taste like shit, it BURNS. My heart feels like it's on fire, my eyes are burning like hot coals, water is pouring out of my eyes, and it feels like my lungs and nostrils are clogged with boiling sand. I can't see at all.

After throwing up, I manage a good gasp of air and clear my head. Someone puts a wet cloth in my hands and I wipe my eyes and mouth with it. I cough up smoke violently some more, and after gasping for breath a minute, I feel alive.

If this is the Force's way of saying I'm lucky… yea… the feelings mutual.

We are now on a lower closed off basement. The hostages are continuing to descend further and further through a doorway, but for the moment it is reasonably calm. They realize they are saved from Mandaloriens and, my personal favorite, fire and brimstone and five hundred tons of stone; but the shock of the last five minutes are written all over their face. The Ordo boys are being gentle and pushing them along like the silent dumb sheep their composure has turned into. Ahsoka is standing in the doorway holding some kind of bubble up against the smoke, and Tree-Hugger is on the ground beside me.

"You look like shit." I say.

He starts to chuckle but only winds up coughing hoarsely. When he can finally breathe, he says sarcastically, "You could enter a beauty pageant, my dear Padawan."

"Oh, hell no. I ain't entering one of them. I'm keeping this 'gorgeous' to myself." I groan.

He looks up at me. I look at him. His hair is black with sot, his face is black and parched, his eyes are red and watery, he is throwing up and coughing up smoke violently, and he is shaking like a leaf. Odds are I look the same.

Ahsoka laughs next to us. The adrenaline and last ten minutes fall apart on us and we all wind up in a fit of laughter.

We survived this. We saved the hostages. Even when the Force decided to dump an entire space elevator down on my head, we did it.

I lean back against the wall and let exhaustion take me. It's not so bad that I fall unconscious, but I feel… empty. Like my body is running on fumes. I'm cold, lonely, empty of life and energy, but in a way that feels foreign. I feel… content.

"You know…" Ahsoka says. She is the only one who can talk without throwing up among us. "That's the first time I've ever heard you laugh…"

Really? I've never felt like I had a reason to laugh. I've never been relaxed enough with everything's that's been going on. First I lose my mind and then I gain another that I don't want. It has been unsettling. But there is just something about a simple mission that is strangely… normal. Even when all hell is breaking loose. I just want to take a breather and laugh with friends for probably the first time that… I can… remember…

Friends… Are they my friends? One is my Master and the other is a fellow Padawan under the same Master. But does that make them friends?

Wish it does. I could ask them… but what if they say no? What if they tell me I'm stupid and foolish and weak? No, no! Toughen up, Varus. They are professionals. One of the rules Tree-Hugger has been telling me is that Jedi do not have attachments.

The same Tree-Hugger who lost one and went mad for a moment…

The only Tree-Hugger who seems to actually understand me…

"It was nice." Tree-Hugger confirms after a long extended pause where we just enjoy the incredible concept people call BREATHING! "You should do it more."

"Yea, well. Then no one would take me seriously." I groan.

He chuckles and turns to me from where we are both sitting against the wall. "Both of you. If all three of us hadn't done our parts, people would have died, but no one did."

"Short of the bad guy." Ahsoka says happily.

"Right, short of him. Varus, do not doubt yourself so much. That's your weakness. You did well. Do not doubt that. You deserve a moment or two to just be yourself." He smiles and closes his eyes to relax.

I wish I could say something refined or awesome or incredibly or manly, but my body disobeys me. I can't stop crying, and I can't tell why anymore. All I can do is sit there feeling like shit. Yet, I'm the happiest I ever remember being.

Juidwe Ordo kept his gun poised on the Klasin intruder and waved him over to the corner. The man, named Izthark, bowed his head in submission and sat on the ground without any resistance. He had turned his gun in to the his captor and made no move to take it back, nor pull out a pistol Juidwe knew he had on his person.

The Jedi girl walked up and asked, "Who is he?"

Juidwe looked at her in disbelief, although it couldn't be seen through his helmet. "I don't take orders from you, little Jedi."

"The smoke stopped pushing against me. I lodged a panel in the hole just in case and my Master and fellow Padawan fell asleep. With them out of commission, that makes me in charge."

"You're a child."

"I may not have the experience to truly be worthy of the rank the Republic has dumped on me, but do consider me the only one awake who can speak for Republic interests."

Juidwe sighed but nodded. Despite his gruff retort, he understood the chain of command. Such things were normal on a battlefield, whether it was from being shot dead or falling asleep. "His name is Izthark Klasin, enemy captain of the Klasin clan."

"Formerly, captain." Izthark corrected him. He raised his hands, stopped to show he wasn't making any moves, and removed his helmet. He had a bad eye on his left and a scar running across it, and otherwise looked gruff as a grizzly. "I left the moment I started executing my fellow captains this morning."

"Why did you do that?" Ahsoka asked.

"Rules of Honor, Jedi."

"And that means what to me?"

"It is Mandalorian law." Juidwe informed her. "He killed his brothers as their punishment, and have orphaned himself from the clan."

"Correct." Izthark said.

"Ok, I'm lost." Ahsoka muttered.

Both of the Mando'a men looked to her, then each other again. Juidwe said, "Just accept it. Justice was done. His honor was kept, and yours. Do you intend to go rogue or join another clan?"

"Please…" The prisoner rolled his eyes. "What makes you think any clan will accept an ex-Klasin? Even though I have now killed every single officer of my clan today, my family's sins will follow me to my grave."

Ahsoka cut herself in, "We could have killed you, you know. You shouldn't have snuck up on us like that."

He scoffed. "Honey, let me tell you something about illegal weapons. Jedi have a large say so in what is legal and what is not. Do you know one of the first requirements?" Ahsoka shook her head. "That a lightsaber must be able to block it. My gun is illegal. Put it together. Besides, your master left me such a good opportunity to throw a one-liner I couldn't help myself." He finishes with a predatory grin.

Ahsoka flinched as realization hit her. The gun that vaporized the Klasin man from before down to the molecular level would have killed her, her Master, her… friend, Varus, if he wanted to. Nothing could have stopped it.

Judwie Ordo said, "Izthark, you are relieved of the dishonor and crimes of the Klasin clan. Once we are safe I will explain everything to Mandalore, and whether you choose to join another clan, become an Honor Hunter, or a rogue, will be up to you."

"Thank you."

"Now, I think it best to head further underground." The Ordo clansmen noted. "Everyone is through the passage, and the planetary bombardment should begin… oh… right about now."

Ahsoka gasped and ran to wake up her team. "Oh, no! I forgot! Why didn't you say anything!?"

"Just did. Best get a move on, little Jedi." He grabbed Izthark by the arm and helped him up clumsily. The man was tied up.

Ahsoka nudged Anakin awake and slapped Varus.

Mandalore watched as the fighting went on. It had been a good ten minutes now. His patience, while lasting, was growing thin. He did not know of the Jedi's progress. While he had given them substantial time to reach the hostages and bring them down into the lower levels. If they were anywhere near the surface the explosions would kill them immediately. If they were above the fifth level basement, if not the twentieth, then the radiation would do it just as well. Luckily, most starports had an underground bunker for their travelers to rush to for occasions just as this one. It was part of the Republic beurocratic bull and regulation that he happened to find useful just this once.

The containment had gone well. Fifteen percent of Klasin had surrendered to his mercy before the battle started, and the rest were being contained to within the confides of it. Judging from the way they were resisting without any coordination or order, it was safe to say their leaders were gone.

Which… was odd. He had not sent any assassins. Nor was it the assignment of the Jedi and Judwie Ordo to kill them. Their objective was the hostages that kept his hands tied behind his back.

Conclusion? One, the cowards had fled with their tails in between their knees or were hiding under a desk like 'nobles'. If this is so then they were judging themselves. Anyone could kill them on sight at this point and it wouldn't be murder. It would be execution. While he's at it, he might just reward the random person for killing them. Two, they had turned on each other. Convenient. It also would be a chance for the one who was redeeming himself to be returned to the fold. Three, they had all died in the first wave when his artillery hit the city skyscrapers and sent them crashing down. Also convenient.

One thing he liked about being a Mandalorian was how little paperwork there was. He had been with the Republic for about a month under Revan once. He hated it. So much paperwork! His solution usually was just to write the person's name, draw a skull, and stab the paper. It got the point across just fine and earned a laugh from Revan.

Carth and Bastilla disapproved, but then he didn't much care. They were nice as Republic people went, and he found them honorable warriors from his time among them, but in the end of the day he didn't much give two hoots if they disapproved of his methods.

Guess what Republic? He was Mandalorian! He tended to get the point across without the need to spend hours wasting words and endless piles of stupid paperwork. (And the arguing! If someone was being an idiot just say so!)

"Fire." He said.

His personal attended radioed to The Harbinger to begin and a few seconds later it was raining his own personal version of fire and brimstone.

That should get the point across just fine.

Our group of over a thousand people assembled on the massive elevator as tightly as we can. It is a tight fit. The elevator was designed for a small army. It would work. The problem was becoming speed. I don't know if we are going to make it.

The elevator will take us down seventy floors to the lower bunker, but the earthquakes are a bad sign. "This thing isn't moving fast enough!" Ahsoka whispers worriedly. Despite her best intentions, fear was erupting around us like a flood. The mob mentality is a living creature in its own rights. It is easily seen in my own eyes. They reek of terror and worry.

Tree-Hugger says nothing. The Mandaloriens just stand around patiently waiting.

The distancing ceiling grew red with radiation and power being pounded into it from the special bombardment. "If we hadn't left, we would be dead now." Anakin observed.

"Don't talk about our death so calmly!" I hiss.

"Is there anything we can do?" Ahsoka whispers.

Before Tree-Hugger could open his mouth to speak, I struck his hand up and pulled a metal plating out of the wall as we passed. I erect it up as a barrier, but the plating was only inches thick. It would be torn apart like paper. That will only go so far.

I'm going to need more.

"Varus." Tree-Hugger says, but I ignored him and pulled up a second, and slowly a third.

The world feels cold and distant. My vision is acting oddly, almost warped, but I press on. I pull up a number of more plates behind us. If the cannon fire penetrates the ceiling we will need every little bit to keep from being killed.

"Varus." He repeats firmly.

"Varus!" Anakin grabs my shoulders and stops me.

Now that I hesitate, I feel something. Every time I extended out with the Force, the Force only seemed to answer more and more readily, but my senses are acting up. It's odd… I feel empty and like I'm being drained of energy to the point I can barely stand. But the Force energy rushing through me replenishes me as I use it, only to leave me weakened just as quickly in its absence. The hole in my body widens with each use of the Force.

"So cold…" I murmur.

Anakin nods. "You feel empty don't you?"

I nod. He continues, "You pulled out enough power to keep five hundred stories from falling on our heads earlier. You are suffering from Force Addiction now, Varus. Stop using your power."

"But-"

"Stop. Using. The Force." Anakin commands. "Instead, trust in it, trust in us."

Trust them… Trust them? As much as I want to, was it Ahsoka keeping the tons and tons from falling on our head? Was it Tree-Hugger who stopped it? No. It was me. I had the power to do it. I have the power now!

But if this feeling is Force Addiction… then that will just kill me if I continue on. I'm already at my limit.

A hint of fear moved through the Padawan's eyes briefly before disappearing as fast as it appeared, but it was enough for Anakin to understand. Varus was still a Sith at heart. He trusted in himself. Trusting in others was… difficult to say the least.

"That goes for all of us." Anakin continues, specifically to Ahsoka. "We are nearing our limit of how far we can go without Force Addiction consuming us. Snips, you can keep going, but you don't have the raw power to do anything at this point that could prevent the radiation or cannon fire from killing us. We must simply trust in The Force."

"Alright." Ahsoka whispered in understanding.

"…" I say nothing, but also do nothing. Tree-Hugger nods. That seems enough for him.

The light above us grows brighter and brighter as the cannon fire bombardment looms closer through the layers of earth and stone above us.

Forget this… We're gonna die if I don't do something.

I scan briefly along the elevator and find where the gears are churning away. It is really a set of gears spinning that is causing our descent. Examining it, I can clearly see what I have to do.

"Varus!" Anakin barks. "What are you-"

I Push the gears. They spin faster under the increased pressure, and the elevator picks up speed so fast and so violently that we are thrown to the ground. I manage to resist it because I expected as much, and I use the lasting bit of willpower I have left to push as much power into the Push as possible.

A trip that would have taken ten minutes to descend took thirty seconds. A series of railings appeared alongside the elevator floor causing us to slow down on descent. The gears screeched. We managed to slow down enough to not be hurt by the landing. Without hesitating the Ordo soldiers shepherded the group to the door.

Job Well done if I do say so my-… uh oh.

My master's face had lost all mirth and understanding. His composure was hard and coldly angry. "Follow me." He said. He spun on his heel and entered the bunker behind the group flooding inside. Ahsoka followed him speedily.

I had seen her angry before, when she slapped me for thinking her a slut. This is now the second time she has been mad. Albeit it is much more subdued, it still irks me.

We enter the bunker and Judwie closes the door behind us. "This should keep us covered. Jedi, see if you can get the people to calm down. We will check the bunker for weak points."

"Give us one minute." Tree-Hugger responds with heavy authority. His eyes do not leave me. When everyone is out of earshot, Tree-Hugger closes his eyes, pinches his nose, and breathes in and out slowly.

Somehow, seeing this calm man force himself to remain calm is more terrifying than all of the nightmares I've had of the dark robed man.

"Ahsoka Tano." He begins. "Nothing I have to say here is related to you. You may go off and do something, or stay and learn something indirectly."

She remains. I flinch as he opens his eyes and I can see the empty calmness, the calculation behind them. His back is straighter than I have ever seen. He has always been full of life and energy and knowledge. He loves to tinker, he is just as unruly as Ahsoka and myself in our off-hours.

All of that is gone. "Alright. Varus. We are all adults here… So I want you to tell me exactly what it was you just did wrong."

"I don't think I did." I respond. Call me arrogant, but I did what I had to do. Also his change of tone goes me over the wrong way. Not unlike that blasted Baldy and Psycho-Bunny.

"Exactly."

"… What?"

"Varus, you have a lot of power. You may be as strong as myself, if not stronger in a raw way… I'm not going to preach, but I will say this simple. You. Didn't. Think." He stresses heavily. "I put up with a lot from you, and I have come to accept certain… things. You have a mouth. You have a habit for getting on people's bad side very quickly. But the one thing I cannot tolerate, and never will, is when you. Do. Not. think."

Every word hits me like a hammer. He isn't yelling. He isn't preaching. He is being as I know him to be. Straight forward, right to the point, and calm.

"You didn't think about how even right now you are barely able to stand! You did not think that sending a flooring with a thousand people standing on it from two miles per hour to SIXTY in two seconds flat might injure someone! You did not think that we could have crashed into the floor with, I'm guessing, forty-percent of us being crippled or killed in the crash! You did not think about how Force Addiction can KILL you!"

He pauses a moment and I cannot lift my head. He's right, I didn't think. But… no. I didn't think. I didn't see past my immediate need to get us the heck outta there.

"I get why you did it." His eyes have a hint of understanding again, but he is still having to lecture me. Its… comforting that he isn't stone cold and angry. "You consider yourself stronger than us in power because I had you save us that first time, so you tried to save us. But Varus, something you have to remember: We are not islands. More than that, we are CONTINENTS!"

"What?" I ask. I don't get it.

" Uh- 'A person is not an island' means we are not isolated from each other. Our actions affect each other. Varus, we are Jedi. We employ the Force. We are linked with every living thing in existence at our core. Our actions do not just affect ourselves, and not just the people around us, we effect entire planets! Your power is huge, which means your influence is just as large! But besides that… what is your other mistakes?"

"I didn't trust…" Easy to guess. He said to, and I clearly didn't.

"That's right. You didn't trust, you didn't listen, but most of all, you didn't think… Now, Varus. Here is what I want you to do." He motioned to the masses behind him. "I want you to look every person in the eye and know you almost killed them."

The people are frightened. They are scared and miserable and hungry, but most of all there is an empty void in their eyes. I don't know how long they have been stuck here under the thumb of people who have made them think they will die at any moment. Their past terror, they gave up. They are just moving like sheep.

I don't want to. Their empty eyes fill me with terror I only see from my nightmares, but Master Skywalker gave me an order. I failed, this is my punishment.

"Failure…" A hollow voice tells me. The voice sounds empty of all life. In my mind I see the dark robed man reach out and suck all joy out of my life…

I shake my head. Damn nightmares! Revan was messed up in the head!

"Varus?" Tree-Hugger asks me.

I flinch and shake myself out of my thoughts. Tree-Hugger is back to how I know him. Concerned, understanding, life in his eyes.

I am so glad I have him as Master instead of these nightmare freaks. "I'll go." I say.

I enter the crowd and despite how difficult it is to actually look people in the eye, I note each and every one I walk by. I see their terror. I see their fear. I see their emptiness. But… there is something growing in them.

They see me as a Jedi, someone who helped saved them from Klasin. I see hope.

The Padawan worked frantically at the binds holding her hands tied backwards around the tree. Her master fought with all of the elegance, patience, and fluidity expected of her. Azhaak Ti bobbed and weaved. Her style was one where one attack or block flowed into another.

The energy she employed flowed like water. Not an ounce of energy, not a drop of sweat, not a single calorie was wasted in her movements because it only moved into another seamlessly. Slowly her pace with her young attacker picked up. Her momentum only climbed as her style gained momentum. It was a dangerous style, comparable to an ocean. The energy of an ocean only collects and rolls over itself until eventually you have a full blown tidal wave drowning you.

She never rested, because she didn't need to. Most fighters have to rest. They eventually slow, they eventually run out of breathe and in the end they feel like they are drowning when their lungs ache.

Maris had never seen her Master have a difficult time. Never a difficulty. This enemy though, was unlike anything she had ever seen. Which was partially why she was so desperate to help her Master.

Her Master's flow was constantly being broken by this young man. His style was everything she could never expect, never predict. He was comparable to lightning. He flashed in and out, and the explosion would leave her momentarily blinded as she tried to predict his next move, only to be surprised by one from another place. He struck with power. He moved jerkily, from left to right to back to right to forward to down to… So easily that he would almost disappear entirely from your sight. Trying to just keep your eye on him was like trying to track the flow of lightning.

'Course, lightning was predictable in as much as you could know where it would strike. In this case, it was always her master.

Her Master Azhaak Ti, who's flow was broken time and time again when she couldn't predict him.

Her Master, who was being pushed on the defensive.

Her Master, who's head rolled across the green ground to stare her in the eyes.

Something most people don't know: you live for eight seconds after being beheaded.

Maris had to watch for eight hundred-year-seconds as the beautiful, caring, patient eyes dimmed. A secret she had with her master was: Her master sometimes let loose with her and they did crazy things for fun, but always with restraint. Just like water, there was high tide and low.

Her Master's eyes stared into hers. The boy's red eyes turned to her, and found her wanting.

Maris woke up screaming. She jumped away from the ghosts and just as quickly found them dissipating. On the ground before her was a shattered vase with a plastic plant. (Ahsoka didn't want to get a plant only to find it dead when she returned. Maris admired the practicality.)

His red eyes, filled with hatred.

Maris flinched at the sight and fell to the ground. Her chest was heavy, she was wet with tears and her head-horns were aching. She had already been crying. She had already been weeping. She thought she would be past the point of tears now, but they just couldn't stop coming. If her heart didn't feel like it was filled with red-hot-smoke, clogging every artery, she might find it oddly funny how her body couldn't seem to run out of water.

His red eyes, finding her too weak to bother with.

She jumped up, grabbed the broom, and hurriedly put everything together as best she could. She was clumsy from being unable to see properly through her tears, but she would manage fine. She wasn't so weak as to be unable to take care of herself, and keep her friend's place tidy.

His brownish-green eyes, so filled with ignorance.

She scooped it all away and tossed it into the trash shoot. Her hand hurt slightly, and there was a cut. So she took it to the bathroom to be cleaned.

She looked up into the mirror and flinched at her red eyes. She blinked and they were her Master's eyes. She closed her eyes firmly, forced herself to breathe in and out slowly. Count to four. Breathe in. Count to four. Breathe out. Her eyes were normal.

The Sith-boy was classified.

The Sith-boy was 'working' with the Jedi. As if... Sith always betrayed each other. They always betray their ally's, their teachers, their students, everybody. It was written into their very code, their teachings, their ways of being, and in the end it was how they were. It was something Azhaak Ti made sure Maris understood. Jedi do not betray, Sith do.

Jedi do not betray… But neither do Jedi work with Sith.

Which they were.

She put herself down on the sink and cried. What was the dream, and what was reality? It was all becoming so hard to tell, but Azhaak Ti would have known.

Azhaak Ti always knew.

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