Maya-202

Episode I

The Two-Prince War

Chapter VI

The Mysterious Exit

After a lengthy period of thought and a quick discussion, Aren had settled on the idea that Coruscant should be the best place to start retracing to find out what in the Force had happened to him – he was a Jedi, and he remembered a time when he was part of the Jedi Order before his memory loss. Thankfully, he still recalled that the Jedi Temple was on Coruscant, although it was a well-known fact anyway. Who knows, maybe that man he saw in the small fragments of the past still engrained in his head would be there. Artex had agreed it was a good plan. As soon as they had made the decision to go there, and after they had figured out all the controls of the stolen ship (that no doubt the Deep Beyond would be coming to take back very soon), they performed a jump into lightspeed, at last arriving in the space above Coruscant. He had forgotten how beautiful he thought it was – in fact, the first time he saw Coruscant, he didn't believe that a planet consisting entirely of one large city could ever look so… almost patterned with its glowing orange circles amongst the black on the planet's surface. "Well, this is a blast from the past. I haven't been here since the Battle above Coruscant where we, 'took' Chancellor Palpatine," Artex said, making sure to air-quote the word 'took'. Aren smiled at him sympathetically – he knew the droid felt guilty for what he had done during the Clone Wars, but he was making good choices now he was free of (the majority of) his original programming. "It's a blast from the past for me too, buddy," Aren put a hand softly on Artex's shoulder and patted it. "I lived here as a child. I don't remember my parents, though. I lived with a man who was my 'father-figure' of sorts, named Jude Dameron. Funnily enough, I don't remember tons of my childhood at all, I just… I dunno…. I just get this weird, sad, strange feeling whenever I think about it. I seem to recall Jude recognising my force abilities, but I was never allowed to become a Jedi – somebody, I don't know who, didn't want me to be… But then I came back, and joined the Jedi Order. Whoever didn't allow me in the first time clearly wasn't in control when I joined last year. I had a good first 7 months on the Jedi Order, but that's where my memories, for the most part, go blank…" Aren explained. This time, Artex put a droid hand on his shoulder, and comforted him with a 'That's very sad. But don't worry, we are here, and we will find out the answers to these mysteries! Roger Roger!" Aren chuckled, in a supportive way, and thanked the droid. Artex was right. It was time to forget about the past he knew and fill in the gaps of the past he didn't.

Coruscant was, as always, extremely busy. People meandered about all over the streets, and chatter alongside the noise of nearby speeder engines was the sound that polluted the city. Some citizens gave Artex a stare, but seeing him with a Jedi with a lightsaber on display probably nulled their earlier judgements and suspicions as to why a battle droid was roaming the streets. They caught a speeder Taxi to the Jedi Temple. Upon arrival, Aren was mesmerised – he had seen it before, but some structures seemed to have been rebuilt, and the entrance appeared to have been redecorated outside, for lack of a better term. Now, several red carpets donned the hallway floors, and the large pillars also now had several smaller, thinner sky blue pillars filling extra spaces in the corridor, dividing the opening into multiple paths that led into the temple. It was very busy too, well, busy for the temple at least. He didn't recognise many faces here now. Aren glanced around at the other Jedi, many of whom were younglings, looking as if they had just begun training for the day. Which reminded him, he still didn't have any idea what the time was, not that that was very important right now, but Aren liked to be aware of things, it gave him a comfort of sorts. Some of the younglings were practicing lifting objects telekinetically, whereas others were practicing lightsaber training, whilst (hopefully) making sure the safety mode was activated of course. In all honesty, he was quite impressed with the skills some of the younglings were displaying, some of which he remembered learning at a far older age than the students here. It didn't take much time before they reached the Jedi Council's Chambers – Aren hoped they weren't in a meeting now, as it would be rather awkward to just stroll in when they were in the middle of a discussion. The droid nodded at Aren as a 'good luck' gesture of types. Aren smiled at him, and the two walked into the room, not knowing what to really expect…

Much to Aren's surprise, the council meeting chambers were empty at first, but the Jedi and the Droid soon sensed another prescence creep up behind them – it was an energy familiar to Aren, but one he hadn't felt for a while. Before he could ask, the woman that had just entered spoke. "Aren? Is that you?" Grand Mistress Rey asked. Aren and Artex spun around with pace. Over time, Rey's hair had changed from the short brown silk that she had worn in a bun to a graceful, long flowing waterfall of silver that reached her waist. The Grand Mistress was a lot older now, but her Jedi abilities were still as sharp as they were in her youth. "Grand Mistress Rey," Aren bowed before her in politeness, and the Grand Mistress did so back, a gesture that signified a formal but kind greeting. Artex also attempted to bow, though his droid parts were a bit stiff so he took a second. Rey acknowledged the droid's company with another bow, and noted that he was nice and not very hostile for a battle droid. "So, my friend. What are you doing here? Are you planning to rejoin the Jedi Order?" Rey questioned with interest. 'Rejoin the Jedi Order?' Aren repeated back to himself in his mind. So he must have left. "Yeah… actually I need to ask something, and it might sound very… odd at first…" he informed Rey. She told him to go ahead, and reminded him that the Jedi are not meant to pass judgement, no matter how strange it appeared at first. "Thank you. Here goes… I… I have some sort of amnesia. You see, about 22 hours ago, I woke up in the Deep Beyond, and I couldn't remember anything from the last 6 months. Artex here was beside me when I awoke. Anyway we escaped, I won't go into the details but after I remembered I was a Jedi, we thought coming here might at least give us some clue as to what has happened," Aren explained. "Is there anything you might know about how in the Force I ended up like this?" he added. Rey paused for a moment, and then she shook her head. "I can't tell you too much, because I don't know what has happened to you, sorry. What I can say is that around 5 months ago you mysteriously left the Jedi Order – you didn't even give a proper reason. We respected your decision, and allow you to leave, but it did come off as a little random, if you don't mind me saying so. You had been thriving in the Order not long before you quit, so we, the Council, were a bit confused," Rey said with an expression of slight bewilderment still on her face. Aren pondered this for a minute. He couldn't actually remember leaving the Jedi Order, so he concluded that something quite important must have happened for him to spontaneously up and leave the Order, which could possibly be linked to his memory loss. Whilst there was always a chance that his amnesia had been caused by an accident, something in the Force suggested that there was more to this than him having a physical injury causing it. He had wondered if he had simply fallen from a ship onto the ground of the Deep Beyond, and maybe hit his head, but he didn't feel any physical pain if so, and the fact that the Force implied that something sinister was at play here made him think that this was due to someone else's actions, that had somehow erased his memories. "That's… that's at least a good clue as to what happened to me. Thank you, Grand Mistress Rey, very much for this information. I think I have an idea as to a possible cause of this memory loss," Aren told her politely.

"You're welcome, Sir Aren. And if you ever want to rejoin the Jedi Order, please come and ask. I will see what we can do," Rey promised. With that, Aren and his droid friend left the meeting room, and went back into the Temple.

Once the pair were back outside the Jedi Temple, Artex asked "So, you said you have an idea. Can I ask what it is?" Aren had heard of Force Warlocks, and something he had caught once in a conversation was their practice of 'Memory Tampering'. This was something only a Dark Side Warlock could use – it was a sneaky, sly incantation that caused the removal of a specified 'chunk' of one's memory from a selected target. He wasn't too sure how it worked, but he knew that these were the basic principles behind it. Aren felt a little stupid for not thinking of that possibility earlier, but he reminded himself that a lot had occurred in the past day for him, so really, he didn't need to feel idiotic for this. Not to mention, he had a form of amnesia, and even the things he was able to recall took a moment to really appear in his mind. He told Artex about his new theory, and Artex thought it may be a good shout. However, neither of them were sure as to where to go to next to follow this up. For now though, they focused on getting back to their ship. The Deep Beyond police would probably be waiting for them right outside their stolen ship. Although Aren wanted to find out what had happened to him quickly, and stealing a freighter was the only solution at that time (as the Baaneraxx didn't speak in Basic so unfortunately he couldn't just ask them if they had seen how he ended up there), he hated the thought of fighting others who wanted to maintain peace in the galaxy. The pair didn't have any choice really, unless someone nearby could translate Baaneraxxi to Basic and vice versa, but that was unlikely.

After a ten-minute taxi ride, the two ended up at the landing pad, however there were, strangely, no Baaneraxx present. There was another ship that was positioned next to theirs – this ship was much larger than their stolen Tranqu-freighter, but not as humongous as a dreadnought. The ship didn't appear as one from the Deep Beyond, as they were a dark orange colour, hence it was unexpected that any Baaneraxx would emerge from it. This was a greyish-purple shade - it was more than likely just the ship of a resident or a tourist or something. Aren and Artex strolled towards their ship, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, just in case any police officers of the DB did turn up.

The second the pair had reached their transport, the doors to the ship next to them opened up. Artex started panicking, and tried to fumble into the cockpit as fast as he can, not knowing what was about to come out of the open doors. Aren was anxious for a split-second, but he calmed himself by forcing himself to believe it was plain coincidence that the doors opened up the moment they had arrived there. But all of a sudden, something rolled out of the doors – it was curled up into a ball, and it was painted black, with two purple symbols on what appeared to be its head. The creature unfurled, stretching up to reveal its three legs, three red pieces that looked like its eyes, and two twin blaster cannons. Artex realised what it was after it had uncurled. "Hey! I haven't seen you guys in forever! I mean, I know you were also in the museum, but you were in a separate exhibit to me! Did you escape or did some little kid mess around and end up throwing you out of the window too?" the B1 asked enthusiastically. Instead of an actual reply, he and the Jedi were met with two fires of the other droid's blaster cannons. Artex yelped in his squeaky droid voice. "You know this guy?!" Aren said in a worried tone, whilst taking cover behind a box on the landing platform.

"He's a Droideka – these guys used to be part of our Separatist Army, I don't know why he's firing at a fellow Battle Droid!" he yelled in fear, whilst the Droideka continued blasting the containers the two were now hidden behind. "Must. Destroy. Jedi and any accomplices with him. Roger Roger," the Droideka recited his orders monosyllabically. Citizens in the neighbouring street were screaming in terror at the sound of the blasterfire and running away. Aren took his lightsaber out, revealing its star-like yellow glowing blade. The Droideka put up its energy shield. "Hopefully those people that are running away are also calling the police at the same time!" Artex joked, all the while being completely serious as well. Its bolts kept battering the boxes that were in a pile, taking them down gradually one by one. Eventually, their defense would be blown, and they would have to face the Droideka themselves. "Ok I think I have a plan – follow my lead" Aren instructed the B1.

"Roger Roger!", Artex said.

Aren swiftly, but carefully, lifted himself up from the ground where he sat behind the boxes, revealing himself to the Droideka. It immediately started blasting at him, which didn't surprise anyone. Some people next to the landing platform were still watching in horror at the ongoing attack. Aren managed to deflect many of the blaster shots with his saber, but he knew he couldn't stop it forever. Luckily, Artex was here to help, and he played an important role in their little plan. The B1 picked up a few small rocks that Aren had forced-lifted from the ground earlier, and ran quickly around the edges of the circular landing platform. The droideka caught sight of him, but was more focused on getting the Jedi first before taking any of his friends down. However, Artex proceeded to throw the small rocks at the energy shield of the droideka. If droids had emotions, this would have appeared to have made the droideka very irritated. Because of this, it then decided to take down the Jedi's helper to allow him to concentrate on exterminating the Jedi without any annoying distractions. The droid's faulty programming to do this played right into their plan. It began firing at Artex, who threw the last rock he still had at it then started running away screaming once all of his 'ammo' was gone. Aren decided he was going to purchase a blaster, stun gun, tranquiliser or a weapon of any sort after this was done for Artex, as he had a funny feeling that this would not be the last confrontation the two would face during this adventure. Now the droideka's attention had been temporarily shifted to shooting at his fellow battle droid, Aren moved inside and infiltrated the energy shield behind the droideka. The droideka turned around and got in one shot which Aren deflected again, and was about to roll away but Aren managed to slash it with his lightsaber. It stopped moving and flopped down on the ground, its shield immediately being dismantled as a result. Artex clapped and cheered that they had done it. Aren gave him a charming smile, and was about to clamber on to the ship the droideka had emerged from, but as soon as they had defeated it, the ship speedily took off. "Dammit…" Aren cursed as it lifted into the air. The friendly battle droid wandered over and offered a 'high-five' of types. Aren gave him an almost-confused but amused look, to which the droid replied "What? I heard its something you humans do…" Aren high-fived him back. He felt strange when he did this. As much as he didn't want to say he was antisocial, he had always been quite avoiding of friendships with other humans. He had rarely ever 'high-fived' people (as much as he found it cringeworthy anyway), but he felt comfortable enough to do it with this battle droid. In fact, the pair seemed to be getting along quite well. The droid quietly celebrated the fact he managed to get the Jedi to high-five him, and then asked "So… what now?" in curiosity.

"I think we should head to the Uscru District, and find some shady place to get you a weapon. I think there is more to this then it seems, unless I coincidentally happened to lose my memory and be attacked right next to our ship all on the same day. But I think the chance of that is lower than the possibility that this was planned… Besides, now the Coruscant police will probably be coming here and they will probably receive information from the Deep Beyond that we stole one of their freighters, so we had better get out of here." the Jedi mused.

"Roger Roger!" the droid exclaimed.