Chapter Three

Aayla smiles to herself as Shaak Ti's memories join those of the rest of the hive. Almost immediately she starts to send scouts to each of the planets that Shaak has visited, but the rest of the hive haven't. As she reaches Kashyyyk she pauses.

"Ulli."

Ulli appears in a flash of fire, "Yes my queen?"

Aayla sighs, "Ulli, please call me Aayla or Master Secura. You may be part of my hive, but you are no longer a slave."

Ulli smiles, "Yes my queen. You called for me?"

Aayla quickly masters her annoyance before saying, "I did, I am sending scouts to the worlds that Shaak Ti has visited so that they are not lost to us if she moves on. However, while she has visited the world of Kashyyyk, it was only a brief visit each time. I would like you to take a couple of hive members you trust, and make your way there. There are stories about the surface of the planet once you get deep into the forest. I'd like to find out if they're true. But you are not to put yourself at risk, as you are not replaceable."

Ulli's lekku twitch as she says, "There are many more twi'lek slaves out there for you to rescue."

Aayla gently touches Ulli's cheek with the back of her hand, "That may be true, but none of them are you. They don't have your experiences or personality. Never make the mistake of thinking that you are replaceable. You are not, as you are the only one of you there is or ever will be."

Ulli looks down, "I understand master Jedi."

Aayla shakes her head with a smile, "You don't, not yet." When Ulli looks up sharply, Aayla laughs, "Ulli, you forgot you're a member of my hive. Your mind is as open to me as mine is to you."

Ulli's skin darkens and a well suppressed flinch passes through her body, "I'm sorry."

"Ulli, there's nothing for you to be sorry for. I've seen you working with the ex-slaves that are dead inside. Helping them to find the tiniest pieces of themselves. Take pride in that fact, and look at how many other hive members have tried to do the same thing."

"I didn't think Jedi were allowed to feel pride."

Aayla finds herself shaking her head again as her own lekku twitch in annoyance, "That's a common misconception. We're not droids, we're living breathing people like everyone else. We feel the same things that you do, however we are taught to let our emotions go as the fleeting things they are. I was proud of creating my lightsaber, but I didn't hold onto that pride and allow it to turn into arrogance. Same as I've been proud of many of the things I've done in the past. But just because I did them then, doesn't mean that I will automatically be as successful now. Now, do you think you can do what I asked you to do on Kashyyyk, or should I seek out someone else?"

Ulli nods, "I can do it. May I take the spells with me?"

Aayla shrugs, "As long as you're not taking from our ability to clean the poison from the planet, take what you want."

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Ulli appears in an out of the way corridor already covered by elvish invisibility. Once she's sure the area is currently unobserved, Amaas Gillayi, a Lothalite human slave, that was trained in scouting; along with Su'vanth, a Lethan Twi'lek, who was spared much of the… degrading aspects of slavery due to her rarity; both appear in pillars of fire.

All three of them glance at one another before replacing the invisibility with a simple desire to not be noticed. After that they cautiously follow the route that Shaak Ti once took out of the spaceport. Fortunately, there haven't been any major changes to the port, apart from the inclusion of a wall and checkpoint around the whole area. A checkpoint that seems more concerned with keeping people out rather than in.

A few hours later, all three of them are completely lost and suffering from the fact that nobody in their hive can understand wookies, despite the reverse not being true. Still, they persevere.

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A few days after she last saw her master, Ekria sits back in her seat with tears streaming from her eyes, and mild burns from the vaporised parts of her clothes as she was short by blasters only a few hours ago. [See the webcomic Evasive Action on the Star Wars expanded universe timeline]

Lifting up her comm device, she taps an icon to start a recording.

"It's only natural, I suppose, that here at the end of things… The mind returns to the beginnings. Or at least the beginning of the end. In my 17 standard years, I've known so much death. I go now to bury the last Jedi I will ever know. Everyone I knew growing up is no more. I guess that's even true of my master, as she didn't appear when I left Coruscant."

Aayla puts a frown into her voice as she appears behind Ekria, "In my defense, you did decide to follow Darth Vader, or should I say Anakin Skywalker."

Ekria spins her chair around, "Master, you're here! When did you get here?"

Aayla shrugs, "About a minute ago, when you started to relax after your second jump."

"Why didn't you come before that, I needed you."

Aayla smiles patiently, "Why didn't you come to me? I told you how. Hello Drake, you can put the blaster down."

Behind her Drake Lo'gaan doesn't lower the blaster, even though he steps fully into the doorway, "How did you get onto the ship?"

Aayla disappears with a soft pop, only to appear behind Drake as she takes the blaster from his good hand, "I teleported."

Ekria shouts, "Drake, it's ok, she is my master. I can feel it."

Aayla nods as Drake relaxes imperceptibly, "Padawan, you haven't answered my question yet."

Ekria shrinks slightly at the slight tone of censure in Aayla's voice. Quietly she answers, "I had to save Drake, and I didn't know where he was being taken."

"What happened to your hideout after I left last time?"

Ekria opens her mouth to say something, and then closes it again. A few seconds later she quietly says, "The entire place was swarming with clones minutes after I evacuated."

"How does that answer your original complaint?"

Ekria turns her chair around, and lifts her feet as she stares out into hyperspace with a pout on her face.

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As her padawan begins to sulk, Aayla smiles sadly as she can see that Ekria's quick mind has already answered the question, and the sulk is because she doesn't like the answer.

She's brought out of her thoughts when Drake turns around and looks at her accusingly, "We saw you die."

Aayla sighs and walks into the communal area of the ship, "The same could be said about you. Yet, here you stand."

Drake follows her as he shakes his head, "That's different, Ekria planned it that way. Why didn't you let anyone else know?"

As she takes a seat, Aayla says, "Let me ask you a question. Do you believe I'd have kept it secret from Ekria if I'd known what was going to happen?"

Drake steps backward at the question, before he considers it. Finally, he nods to himself, "I think it's possible you would have. I don't think you'd have hidden it from the other masters though."

Aayla shakes her head sadly, "If I'd had any knowledge that the clones were going to turn on us I'd have tried to get word out, even if it cost me my life. Master Ti was in the temple when Skywalker betrayed us. Two classes of children were slaughtered before anyone could slow him down long enough to evacuate the other children. Thousands of Jedi were cut down in battle by their own troops, and we felt it all."

Drake sits down on the other side of the small table, "You're not trying to sell me ox musk are you."

Aayla shakes her head, "No, I lost myself for the second time in my life, after I swore it would never happen again." She raises her head, "Ask Ekria after she stops sulking, I don't really want to relive it again."

Drake sighs, "What happens now?"

"I go back to my hive on Felucia, and once you've buried Zonder Ekria will continue to learn from me. Whether on Felucia, or somewhere else."

"I meant, what about me?"

"What do you want to do?"

"I, don't know. I tried working for the empire for an honest wage, but I couldn't let them… Apart from that, being a Jedi was everything until…"

Aayla nods, and covers Drakes hand with her own, "I know, I know everything that Ekria knows. You should never have been in the position you have been. None of the padawan's should. Over the entire period you're a padawan, you should only be going on three or four missions a year. As they are there to help you put what you're learning into practice."

Aayla watches as Drake absorbs that information. As his eyes rise again, she says, "For your future, you need to make a large choice. Do you want the Force to be part of it or not. Beyond that, after you've given Zonder his last rites, there are numerous things you could do. A few of which could be, taking this freighter and using it to make money somehow. Picking a populated planet, and getting a standard education and ID, before living like everyone else. You could join a mercenary group, or become a bounty hunter. You could travel to one of the worlds that seceded from the Republic when it became the Empire, and join their defense fleet. Bearing in mind that my hive is strictly girls only; you could join my hive and continue to learn about the Force. Or you could ask Ekria to help you look at one of the hundreds of options available to you now."

As Drake's eyes go distant Aayla pops back to the cockpit and takes the co-pilots chair. After a minute, Ekria says without any heat, "I hate you, you know that."

Aayla nods, "I do."

"Why didn't you ask me?"

"You already know why."

"I want to hear it from you."

"I lost myself again. When I died I wasn't aware of what just happened, I just rolled for cover and then ran. Then the other deaths started to echo through the force at the same time I started processing what had just happened to me, so I withdrew from the world. Queen, she thought I was the previous queen and so she acted on instinct and our oldest memories. A day or so before Shaak Ti arrived, Queen noticed that our padawan bond was decaying, and assumed you were already a hive member that joined through unconventional means. She also assumed that the decaying bond was because you were dying, so she sent a couple of scouts with a face hugger while you were asleep and brought you into the hive properly. While I wouldn't have done it the same way, if I'd been aware, I would have contacted you, maybe sent Ulli instead of coming in person. I hope you'd have been willing to join my hive, but I'd have accepted it if you didn't."

"You're a bantha poodoo."

Aayla bursts out laughing, "Where did that come from?"

"Skywalker used to say it when he was a padawan."

"I am sorry you know. That you've been forced into continuing to learn about the force in some way."

Ekria sighs, "I don't really hate you. It's just, why couldn't you have found the bond a few weeks ago?"

"It's going to sound cliche, but the force works in mysterious ways. I only came back to myself when I sensed Shaak Ti. What if she came to Felucia in a few years time? Would I have been more Queen than me?"

"I don't want to go back to Felucia."

"Fair, I can teach you from anywhere now. Do you know what you want to do?"

Ekria shakes her head, "No, I had some ideas, but I'm going to have to keep moving now."

"Swims is experimenting with wands, you could get components from other planets."

Ekria shakes her head, "Why me? Why not go yourself?"

"Because I can't stay on a ship that long. Maybe one day we'll be able to capture a large enough ship that we can have the entire nest on board. Even if we got that tomorrow, I'd still need to finish clearing the poison from Felucia."

"Would you help me be a smuggler?"

"Of course, as long as you stay true to the Jedi ideals."

Ekria laughs, "Fat chance of that ever changing. You need to go, don't you."

Aayla nods, "You're only around 20 minutes away from Corellia now."