Chapter One
The Jedi Temple on Atarashi'ie, Two Days Later
Riko Nai-Jal was alone, abandoned by his mentors, and forced to handle a delicate, crucial operation that would affect the future of the Jedi Order. Teaching younglings for an hour.
His master, Bao-Sklar Pierce, was scheduled to teach combat techniques to a small class of advanced students, and had invited Riko to help him. Riko had been surprised by this: Bao's duties as the leader of the Jedi Council made it difficult to find time for him to even teach Riko, much less a class of students. Still, Bao had apparently found the time, and Riko would assist him.
Riko and 9R-0 – a custom droid nicknamed "Niner" – had made it to the sparring room. A beat passed before a group of six students entered. All of them were young – Riko guessed their ages to be between eleven and thirteen – and dressed in simple, loose sparring clothes.
"Hi people!" Niner said cheeringly. He was a little, white-painted, humanoid droid with an ovular head, large green eyes which gave him a constant expression of curiosity, and a large treaded wheel in place of legs. Riko had built Niner himself and, over the years, had come to think of the little droid as his brother.
"Greetings, initiates." Though Riko kept his body language formal, he felt self-conscious about the appearance he displayed. Though he was still a skinny fifteen year old, he was also an experienced Jedi padawan and needed to present such an image. He resisted the urge to brush his finger against the small lump of scar tissue on his lip: the remnant of an injury he had received from a Mandalorian fist almost a year ago.
"Where's Master Pierce?" One child, a teenage indigo-skinned Twi-lek, asked.
Riko wasn't sure. Bao had given no indication that he would be late. Nothing felt amiss.
"I'm sure Master Pierce will be here soon," Riko responded. A minute passed while Riko and the students glanced around the room and at each other in silence. After two minutes, some of the students started to whisper amongst themselves. By the third minute, one of the apprentices spoke up.
"He's late," a wide-eyed Zabrak girl with green facial tattoos said sourly.
Riko was certain something was different. Whether accidentally or deliberately, Bao wasn't coming. Riko suspected it was for the latter reason.
"Actually," Riko realized, "I think I'm supposed to teach this lesson."
"You?" a dark-skinned human girl with magenta beads in her kinky hair asked sharply, "You're teaching us?"
The barb hurt, but Riko decided to take it as a challenge.
"Yes," Riko said calmly, "I will be your instructor today."
He held no doubts: Bao would absolutely spring a lesson like this on him. Riko decided to roll with it.
"I'm Riko Nai-Jal," he continued, "Master Pierce's padawan."
His words brought out a range of reactions from the students: one was similarly formal, another was stifling a giggle, and the other few seemed almost awed.
A Bith child whispered something in Bocce. Riko knew very little of the language, but he did recognize the word "Nomads," and knew its connotation. The youngling was referring to the heroic nickname that had been given to the members of the Wild Nomad's crew. Riko was initially flattered, which made him feel conflicted; Jedi weren't supposed to have egos. Plus, the moniker was a little tacky.
"Hi there, Padawan Nai-Jal," a cyan-skinned Togruta with a white-gold headband said with a barely concealed smile, "I'm Shorun."
"Hi Shorun," Riko awkwardly smiled back. He realized that they'd already heard of him. He was Bao's apprentice, had partaken in the mission to uncover Tau Skywalker, and had helped free Jedi prisoners from the ruined Temple on Coruscant. This realization only made him more anxious about the image he presented. It took a great effort to slow his breathing and keep his body language calm while his mind raced.
"First, tell me your names," Riko requested, "Then we will begin."
"I'm Dalor," the Twi-lek child announced.
"Shorun Nagij," the Togruta child spoke with formality, though they couldn't keep their mouth from curling up in a smile they failed to suppress.
"My name is Arece Darra," the human girl introduced herself with a bold flourish.
"I'm Buruk," the Zabrak girl announced with an excited smile.
The two Bith – speaking in Bocce – introduced themselves as Qala and Xai Molax (Riko guessed they were siblings or cousins).
"Okay," Riko announced, "Today, I have a challenge for you all."
He gestured to the two lightsabers hanging from his belt. One was a gift: sleek and engraved, with a cylindrical pommel that sprouted a vivid cyan blade. The other was a hodgepodge of spare parts and hidden tricks: this he had built himself as a fledgling padawan, when he was not much older than the younglings before him.
"I want you to take my lightsabers from my belt." He grabbed his primary saber as he spoke. He flicked a hidden switch on the hilt, triggering the saber's safety mode – a feature he had added himself after the lightsaber had been captured by a bounty hunter on Courkrus.
"Don't worry, they can't be activated," Riko repeated the process with his backup saber.
"You'll be facing me and Niner," he added, "If I knock you to the floor, or Niner hits you with a sting bolt, it's over."
"Oh, and I'll be blindfolded," he produced a strip of cloth from his belt.
He then stood tall and examined the crowd before him.
"Who wants to go first?"
He noticed that Arece seemed particularly confident.
"Do you want to go first, Arece?"
"Sure," Arece stepped forward and placed herself into a ready stance, ready to sprint forward at any moment. In contrast to the other students who had placed their training sabers on the ground, Arece's still hung at her belt. Riko did nothing to change his own body language, instead standing almost still, choosing to keep his stance as casual as he could.
He covered his eyes with the blindfold and let the Force spill into him as he submerged into it, letting his awareness spread beyond the limitations of his body and outward. It was a calming, invigorating wave, coming from within as much as without. It was the wellspring from and of life, flowing outward to link those who touched it to the universe. Long ago, he had slowly realized that the key to connecting with the Force was trust: to trust oneself to work within it, and to trust it to guide him where he needed to be. It had taken years of training and experience, but Riko had found that trust, in himself and the gift he could connect to.
The calm broke as Arece sprinted towards Riko with lightning-speed, evading Niner's sting bolts as her hand reached outward towards Riko's belt. Riko raised a hand to block, Arece batted it aside and reached again with her other hand to grab his ornamental saber. Her hand met only air, as Riko swept to the side and let her momentum carry her past him. She charged towards him again in an evasive pattern which Riko realized was meant to confuse him and evade Niner. This time, Riko stood his ground, and again Arece's hand gripped nothing as he deflected her jabs with parries and counters until the two broke apart.
"You're making a good effort, Arece," Riko said, "However, you're relying too much on basic movements. I've been trained in them, as well. You'll need to try something els..woah!"
Arece didn't let him finish, diving to his left and attempting to sweep his leg. Riko was able to shift his stance and evade, but barely.
"Yeah, like that," Riko encouraged. Arece grinned, shifting her stance to strike once more.
"Follow your opponent," he continued as Arece dove towards him again, "Flow with their movements, until you find an opening and strike!"
His actions matched his words, and soon he parried Arece's grip, redirected her charge away from him, and pushed her back with his other hand, causing her to slip. In the precious seconds it took for her to regain her balance, Niner's sting bolt sent her tumbling to the ground, seething.
Riko removed the blindfold and looked at Arece.
"Overconfidence can make you reckless," Riko advised, "It can also hurt your connection to the Force."
"Got it," Arece sighed, humbled, slowly lifting herself off the ground.
"Need a hand?" Riko asked, extending his.
"I…I got it," Arece tried to hide her frustration. Moving herself back to her feet, she turned towards the other students, silently pondering.
"If you're looking to the others for help, feel free," Riko made a guess at her intentions, "You're only stronger together."
Arece nodded, smiling. Riko felt proud that he had guessed right.
"Come on, Buruk!" Arece said, "Dalor, let's take him!"
Riko put his blindfold back on and fell into the familiar flow of the Force. The three children moved to separate corners of the room, circling him. Through the Force, he perceived their stances: Arece was focused and watchful, Buruk was calm and patient, and Dalor was energetic, ready to break into a charge at any time. Riko let the three come at him.
Dalor came first. Riko grabbed his arm and shoulder and redirected his momentum to collide with Arece. The two younglings impacted, and in the few seconds it took for them to disentangle their bodies, Niner's sting bolts sent them to the floor, wincing. Riko deflected Buruk's strikes and jabs with parries and blocks, until a hole appeared in her defense and he pushed her to the ground.
"Stop!" Riko declared, removing the blindfold, "Take a moment to think." He said this as much to himself as he did to the students.
As they moved to their feet, groaning and wincing, Riko reflected on their tactics, the reason why they had failed. It took him a moment to figure it out.
"Why didn't that work?" Riko restrained the impulse to just tell them.
'You're just better," Buruk said.
"I've seen much more powerful Jedi be taken down by opponents with far less experience," Riko replied, "And there were three of you."
A moment passed before Dalor raised his hand. Riko called on him.
"I charged into my attack head on," Dalor explained, "You just zipped right past me."
He sounded like he was just explaining his actions instead of realizing the fault in them. Riko wasn't sure how to respond, but then one of the other students spoke up.
"That's it," Shorun replied, "You rushed into it - you didn't have time to change your momentum or adjust your angle."
"Huh," Dalor responded.
Shorun had made a good observation, but he hadn't gotten to the root of the problem. Riko called on Arece.
"I thought that with Dalor and Buruk you'd be overwhelmed," Arece said, "You weren't."
Arece was closer.
"I was too cautious," Buruk said when it was her turn, "I didn't take advantage of your distraction, and I didn't move to help you guys." a second passed before she added, "I waited until they were already defeated before coming for you."
"You've got it, Buruk," Riko smiled, "I charged. I thought. I didn't. The goal is just to take the sabers from me. You were all too focused on getting the sabers yourselves instead of supporting each other as a team."
Riko thought back to the beginnings of his training under Bao. Often, his master had improvised and adapted the lesson according to the strengths and weaknesses Riko displayed in the moment, sometimes teaching an entirely different lesson than he had initially intended.
At this moment, Riko realized that he had found the lesson of the day.
"Being a Jedi isn't about individual achievement," he said, "You're each skilled on your own, but you're stronger as one group. Remember, there is no chaos, there is harmony. Jedi need to find harmony in ourselves, and with each other."
"But we were following our instincts," Arece said, "Letting the Force guide us to catching your sabers."
"The Force is a powerful guide," Riko said, "But it doesn't guarantee victory. I let the Force guide my actions," he explained, "But the tactics I used to subdue you were ones I've learned through training and experience, the Force simply enhances my reflexes and timing. It's the same situation when I'm using my lightsaber, or repairing a droid. Those are skills I already have, the Force just amplifies them.
"Remember," Riko finished, "The Force may give you abilities and powers, but what you do with them comes from you. It's an amplification of who you are, light and dark."
The students spent a moment in silence, ruminating on Riko's advice. Then, Shorun the Togruta with the gold headpiece raised their hand.
"Yes," Riko called on them.
"Where'd you learn these moves?" Shorun asked, "Our instructors don't fight that way."
"My buir taught me," Riko explained, "He's an ex-Mandalorian."
"You were trained by Mandalorians?" Buruk asked.
"One," Riko explained, "Val Fett, he's one of my dads. He taught me how to fight Mandalorians, that's where a lot of these moves I'm using come from. Mandalorians developed them to fight Jedi."
"Well no wonder," Dalor declared, "You're too good for us to beat!"
"I wish that were true," Riko quipped, "How about we try again?"
He turned towards the other three students, the ones who hadn't sparred yet: Shorun the Togruta and the two Bith, Qala and Xai Molax. He considered having them spar against him while the first three students watched. However, a different approach would allow them all to practice the lesson he had just taught them.
"How about you all come at me at once?" Riko suggested, "And consider each other's strengths and weaknesses. You've all taken classes together before, you know what you each can do."
"Can we discuss a strategy first?" Xai asked in Sy Bisti. That language, Riko did know.
"No," Riko replied, "You have to be able to act when the situation demands it. You won't always have time to prepare, you'll have to improvise. Rely on the Force, but also on each other. The Force will guide you to your goal, so make sure you all have the same goal. Get my lightsabers, whether you do it yourself or not."
Riko placed his blindfold back on. He counted the beats as the students readied themselves for the next attempt, tensions forming and blood flowing in anticipation.
One. Two. Three. Four.
They charged. Just as before, each student struck from a different angle and with different approaches, but this time, there was a sense of coordination. As Riko dodged Dalor's shove, Arece's hand came within mere centimeters of the hilt on his belt. Xai leapt up to tackle him while Shorun and Buruk came at him from the left and right. And as Riko grabbed Xai and tackled her to the ground, Buruk was able to grab Riko's arm and fling him into Shorun's path. Shorun charged, their hands reaching for Riko's belt. Riko pushed Shorun back, and sensed the distinctive cylinder clutched in Shorun's hand, the rounded emitter marking it as his mom's lightsaber.
Riko would have cheered them, but dodging Qala's attempt to sweep his leg required his full concentration. He kept shifting his stance and position, refusing to let Qala's hand come within a foot of his other hilt. Arece, Dalor, and Buruk charged him at the same time, Dalor attempting to push Riko towards Buruk. Riko evaded Dalor's shove, attempting to let his opponent's momentum carry him away, but as he passed, Dalor extended his hand to drag Riko with him, his grasping fingers mere micrometers from Riko's sleeve. Riko dodged to the side to evade Dalor, Buruk and Qala charged him from two separate angles, almost closing him in. Riko narrowly wove through them both, and Arece charged: Riko recognized from her movements that she would attempt to grab at his hilt again.
What he did not expect was Arece to suddenly leap up, her arms extended. Instead of her tight, precise jabs or handwork, she jumped forward and grabbed Riko, letting the weight and momentum of her body drag them both to the floor. As Arece and Riko tumbled to the ground, Buruk grabbed Riko's lightsaber from his belt and held it into the air.
"We did it!" Arece yelled. This time, she extended her hand to help Riko up. Riko removed his blindfold to see that Arece was smiling with glee.
"Nice work!" Riko met her smile with his own. The students all moved to their feet, wincing at bruises and rubbing aching limbs, but their collective joy and pride in their accomplishment beamed throughout the Force.
"Well done, all of you!" Riko said, "You all listened to each other. You recognized your own strengths and weaknesses, and worked together. More than that, you adapted, trying things I didn't expect from each of you individually.
"These are necessary skills out there, when you become a Jedi," Riko's tone lost a bit of its joy and turned slightly more solemn as he looked at the faces of these young students. "Always remember that."
Riko realized that these students were only a couple of years younger than he and Jade had been when they had embarked on their first mission. It was likely that these younglings would soon have to use his lessons in battle against…other Jedi.
Shorun raised their hand. Riko called on them.
"Can I borrow this?" Shorun gestured to the lightsaber in their hand.
"No," Riko said calmly, "Please return my lightsabers to me before you go, okay?"
"Okay," Shorun sighed. They and Buruk handed Riko's sabers back to him. As he affixed them to his belt, Riko mused on the fact that the students would soon construct their first blades.
"Bye now!" Niner waved as the students started to leave.
"May the Force be with you all," Riko said.
"That was fun," Niner remarked, "Why is Bao not here, though?"
"I'm sure he had a reason," Riko speculated, "He probably set me up to teach this on my own."
Niner's eyes flickered as he mused over Riko's words.
"That seems right," he concluded.
Suddenly, the door opened again and a tall, reedy old man stepped through, leaning on his amber-colored yorik coral staff. His graceful gait, gray root-like hair, barklike skin, and iridescent eyes evoked a tree, and he smiled with fatherly affection.
"Regardless of his reasons," Kali'sto mused, "he brought out the best in you, Riko."
"Did you see the lesson, Dad?" The old man's arrival brought a wide smile to Riko's face.
"I did," Kali'sto remarked, "I decided to just watch and let you work on your own. You did well."
"I thought back to the ways Bao and Jade used to teach me," Within Riko, nostalgia, longing, and old aches mixed into was previously just joy and pride. "A lot of what I just did came from them both."
Jade Skywalker had been Riko's… best friend? Lover? Words didn't fully encapsulate what Jade had been for Riko. She was an explorer, an adventurer. The most empathetic person Riko knew, with infectious energy.
Slowly, he had found acceptance, though there were still times when his joy or thrill in a moment was tempered by Jade's absence. With almost every major event that happened to him, sooner or later, he realized he wanted to tell Jade about it, and then remembered that she was still gone.
He didn't know when she would come back; he wasn't sure she ever would. Jade had chosen to leave the path of the Jedi behind. Riko understood why she felt the need to do that, and was willing to endure her absence if it meant she found peace, wherever she was.
Still, he remembered her promise.
We'll find each other again. When we're ready.
"What'd I miss?" Pulled from his reverie, Riko looked up to see that Val Fett had joined them. Clad in Mandalorian armor colored black with orange and green highlights, he wore a helmet which sported a glowing yellow T-visor, and painted on its left side in scarlet hues was a long, bleeding gash. Many amongst the Jedi found him a little unsettling, yet Riko was only reassured.
'Riko just imparted some good lessons to these students," Kali'sto replied, "including some of your teachings."
"That's great." Val ruffled Riko's hair. "You've been learning well, ad'ike."
Riko was appreciative, yet he did have to force a full smile. Val's head tilted slightly in observation for a beat. Then his demeanor quickly shifted.
"Come on," Val replied, "Bao's summoned us to the war room. It's urgent."
Apparently, Bao's absence hadn't been intentional after all.