Part 1: Homecoming

Jaden flew over her home planet of Coruscant, the city lights twinkling in the dark night like stars. She landed her X-wing, the Far Wanderer, on a platform near the coordinates she'd received from Kyle. Across a long, wide bridge stood the office building that Lannik Racto was believed to conduct his illegal business in. Jaden hopped out of the cockpit, sizing up the building and its gigantic front door.

Get in, capture the crime lord, and contact the New Republic authorities as soon as you've got him, she thought, remembering Kyle's orders to her. Can't be that hard, right?

She carefully started across the bridge that led towards it. She was barely a quarter of the way over when the door opened and a bearded man with trimmed hair, dressed in fine clothes and wearing a permanent scowl on his face stepped out. He matched the description Kyle had given her of Racto right down to the scowl.

"Did you think you could just barge in here and take me into custody, Jedi?" He asked, clicking a button on a small device in his left hand. There was a sound of steady beeping.

Almost without thinking, Jaden turned and ran back towards her ship, jumping for cover, landing face down as the bridge blew up behind her. She stood up shakily, looking across the now wide chasm separating her from her quarry. Racto stared back, a triumphant smile on his face, then returned inside the building.

"Yes," Jaden said in answer to the scumbags question. "As a matter of fact, I did."

She brushed herself off and looked around to find another way to reach his headquarters. This platform she had landed on was more or less a private one, no access to the streets, just one way out. Up. But if Lannik Racto thought he was going to get away that easily, then he had another thing coming.

She shuffled behind the Far Wanderer to get a better look at the back of the platform. There, a nearby ledge leading around a building close to the streets. She held back a groan. She'd have to take the long way.

But I know these streets like I know the back of my hand. I've got this. Hopefully.

She made the leap to the ledge without harm and walked to the streets, pausing briefly before coming out to be sure her lightsaber was in full view hanging off her belt and peeking out from under the edge of her jacket. Kyle had always told her and Rosh that sometimes just the sight of a lightsaber was enough to make someone leave you alone, and she needed to get through the busy Coruscant streets quickly in case Racto was planning to run. But the streets were scarce of people at this time of evening, it was night, though not late and no holidays were on the horizon. People just wanted to be indoors and home, safe and comfortable. The main hustle and bustle of the city's noises were coming from the traffic above, below and alongside her. All kinds of ships and speeders alike were zooming through the lanes of organized chaos, weaving between the countless buildings and skyscrapers that made up Coruscant. Exactly the reason Jaden had never learned much flying skills until the Academy.

She felt she was going in more or less the right direction, checking her datapad, but found no other main entrances or access from the streets at all. It's not hopeless, not yet, maybe I can find a back alley or a short jump from a ledge. But the issue now was finding the building again from another angle and even her map of the city wasn't helping much, especially now that her datapad was running low on power.

"I thought I just charged this!" She groaned and put it back in the large interior pocket of her jacket and kept walking. She couldn't get upset, not here. She had to succeed, she had too.

She was making her way across a big square with a fountain that was very familiar to her. She was close to her uncle Orn's neighborhood where she grew up. Who knew this scumbag Racto lived so close to my own neighborhood?

"Jaden? Is that you?" She turned at the sound of the familiar voice. It was her uncle Orn. His grayish blonde hair, similar to hers, was becoming more gray and white with age. His face was hard and rough from years of work tinkering and welding as well as the fear from living under the Empire for two decades. He smiled big, the wrinkles and heaviness lifting a bit. Jaden felt such a relief that she ran the short distance and hugged him. Though he'd never been a very physically affectionate man, he did hug her back, however briefly before Jaden felt the need to let go.

"By the Force, what are you doing here uncle Orn?" She asked.

"I could say the same of you, my girl!" He said. "I was out buying some parts I need for a project I've been commissioned for by a wealthy businessman. I'd forgotten one of them and decided, 'it's a nice night, I might as well go out again, there are no stormtroopers to enforce curfew!'"

Jaden lowered her voice. "I've been sent here to hopefully capture a crime lord that's been operating in the area."

Orn became grave and lowered his voice as well. "Oh I think I know to whom you're referring and if you need it, I can show you the way to his office."

"You can?" She was shocked. "You know who Lann-" Orn shushed her, something she'd never really liked him doing when she was younger and particularly now that she was twenty. But she quieted, sensing the urgency.

"No, no questions, not yet," Orn carefully glanced around. "Let's go somewhere I know that'll be safe."

He guided his niece out of the square and down winding streets, going more or less away or towards Racto's building; she wasn't sure. In the space of nearly six months she'd been away from her home on Coruscant, and now she felt lost in it.

Like the back of my hand huh?

She'd gotten so distracted by how lost she was that she nearly ran into her uncle when he came to a stop in front of the most familiar place to her on the whole planet. She looked up at the neon sign that had some letters which weren't lit up. The Hyperspace Lane Cafe.

Welcome home, Jaden. She could smell the fresh caf.

"I remember you'd visit this place almost everyday," Uncle Orn said. "I've tried it a few times, not bad at all. Shall we?"

"Well… I don't have much time." She looked at her uncle's expectant face, remembering the years of food and shelter, and kindness yes, but not a lot of being there for her. Maybe it's time that changed. It can't hurt to meet him halfway and try. She nodded. "I have some time." She grinned and he opened the door for her. The cafe wasn't busy at all, there were a couple of locals she knew sitting around finishing their drinks; it had maybe an hour at most until closing time but she recognized all of the staff, they'd stayed the same.

"Jaden!" Several of them cried in unison when she entered. She blushed as they all crowded around her, asking questions and complimenting her new look and especially her lightsaber.

"So that's the lightsaber you made in your old uncle Orn's workshop that won you the spot in the Jedi Academy?" Sali, the owner and head waitress said in awe.

"Well, it didn't necessarily get me a spot there," Jaden started to say.

"How many Imperial's have you killed with it?" Asked Verra, the barista who had about five more years on her than Jaden. She tossed her long brown braid over her shoulder.

"Well…" Jaden said uncomfortably before uncle Orn clamped his hands on her shoulders and guided her to a more private corner of the cafe, telling everyone to leave her alone and let her answer one at a time. He insisted on their ordering first and turned to Jaden.

"My treat, for the local Jedi." He winked and Jaden ordered her usual in a large while Orn got a small decaf. "Or else there's no sleep for me tonight, but I suppose you're young and still have a lot of work to do?"

Jaden answered as many questions as she felt comfortable answering. "It was Uncle Orn who enrolled me at the Academy. He saw my potential after I built my saber and how my Force abilities had been growing, so it only made sense. And yes," she looked at Verra, "I have, uh, taken down many stormtroopers from the Remnant." Mixing her old life and her new one was as strange as it was awkward. They just didn't belong together somehow. Not after everything she'd been through.

"And what about your master, is he handsome?" Sali asked with a wink. Jaden laughed.

"Well, yes, but he's much older than me and he's also my master. Pretty sure the Jedi don't approve of those types of attachments. Not that I'd want to get involved with an authority figure like that…" She trailed off, this conversation was going in an awkward direction and she needed to change that, fast. "Anyway, my master is in a relationship." I think. She still couldn't prove Kyle and Jan were a couple, and she didn't like lying, but this was just what she needed to shut down any connotations these people might have about her and Kyle.

"But I'm sure they're not as stingy as they used to be when they were here on Coruscant?" Sali said emphatically.

"I guess not?" Jaden shrugged.

"Then is there someone you, you know, like?" Sali urged. The woman loved a good bit of gossip, especially of the romantic kind. Jaden couldn't help but tease her a little.

"Maybe." She played it coy even as uncle Orn raised an eyebrow. She ate it up, seeing how he'd never cared to know before whether or not she was into someone else. Nevertheless, she still felt heat rise in her cheeks as a brief memory of Rosh came to mind, when they were so close that they were barely touching. That'd happened a couple of times come to think of it. On the roof, on that rock on Blenjeel, even that small lift when they were practicing saber combat…

"And what's his name? C'mon, we need details!" Verra begged as she placed their drinks down in front of them. Jaden shook her head.

"Not until after my uncle and I have caught up on some business and I-," she took a sip of iced heaven, "-have had my caf. Ahhh, Verra, you are an artist."

"Thank you, good Jedi!" Verra swept herself into a curtsy and spun around to head back behind the counter to start cleaning up.

Jaden and Orn were finally left alone. She talked briefly about her training and being promoted to Apprentice, she asked him about the cult and if he'd heard anything, to which he said he had, but not anymore than the next person who was just trying to carve out a living in the galaxy.

"And Lannik Racto, what do you know about him?" Jaden brought her voice down to a whisper.

"I… well… He's the wealthy business man I was talking about," Uncle Orn admitted almost shamefully.

"What?!" Jaden whisper-shouted, causing Verra to look their way suspiciously, though she knew the barista could be trusted in a pinch.

"I know, I know. I should've known it was too good to be true, all the secret meetings about the metal sculpture he'd commissioned, having me come by a secret way to his office to give him updates. I just… thought this was my chance to finally make it rich."

"Uncle," Jaden said firmly, "You have to tell me where his secret entrance is. He's been selling illegal assassin droids on the black market to the Remnant. What even is it that he's commissioned from you?"

Orn produced his own datapad and showed her a picture of his rough sketch. Jaden grew pale. "He… he told me he wanted a replica of some relic he'd lost the chance to purchase recently and wanted it to be as exact as I could make it. Jaden, Jaden are you alright?"

Jaden slowly nodded her head, still staring at her uncle's crude drawing of the scepter that she'd seen on her first day. What it was for, she and everyone else at the Academy still weren't sure, but if Racto was commissioning her uncle to weld and build an exact replica, that meant he was somehow directly involved with the cult. He'd probably even met with the leader and that's how he'd seen it. She looked up at her uncle.

"Uncle Orn, this is far more serious than I thought. Look, you have to show me where this secret entrance is. Please. I'll make sure you're well compensated by the New Republic and well protected." Orn shook his head.

"I don't care about all that, I just want this man stopped and you to be safe."

"I can't promise that I'll be safe, and besides, I think it's a little late for you to be worried about my safety." She hadn't meant to sound harsh, but that was how she felt after years of emotional distance. She stood up, ready to get going, her half finished iced caf still on the table. The bell above the door rang as three new customers entered.

"We're fixing to close!" Sali called from the back, but the newcomers didn't take the hint, they were young, still in their teens and looked like trouble. They sauntered over to the counter and started heckling Verra.

"C'mon sweetheart, how about a little caf for the road, huh?" Their leader said. He was tall, but gangly and had oily hair that fell in long locks over his face and down past his shoulders.

"Hey," Jaden stepped forward. "You heard Sali, it's closing time, we don't want trouble."

"Oh, 'we' don't, do we?" The guy said, his breath was putrid, even from a few feet away. He and his comrades slightly pulled their jackets back to reveal illegal blasters tucked away in old, worn holsters. Verra backed away, fear in her eyes, even Orn tensed up. Sali, who'd heard the commotion, came in from the back, eyes wide, a spoon in her hand. She froze as she took in the stand off.

Jaden cocked an eyebrow and pulled up the edge of her own jacket, exposing her lightsaber which swung lightly as if in a breeze from her hip. The thugs' eyes widened as they registered what it was and backed away.

"That, that's not real is it?" The leader asked, pointing at it.

"You wanna wait and find out?" Jaden asked calmly, trying to channel Kyle's ease at potentially volatile situations. The teenagers stepped back some more, a couple of them raising their hands.

"We don't want any trouble," one of them said in the back of the group.

"Me either, but that's your choice."

One by one, the troublesome teens backed out of the cafe, but before they closed the door, Jaden took several steps forward and said, "Now I don't want to hear of you boys ever making trouble here again, understand?" They all nodded and closed the door, then turned tail and ran down the street.

Everyone released a big sigh as if all the air had been let back into the room, then they cheered, coming up and patting her on the back. Jaden exchanged more pleasantries than she ever wanted to in her life, saying it was nothing and just something her master had taught her to do. She retrieved her half drunk cup and downed the rest of it before saying a quick and heartfelt goodbye, promising to visit again sometime soon.

As she and Orn walked down the street in the direction he'd indicated led to Racto's secret entrance, he beamed as he complimented her work. "I'm proud of you, you know," he said. "I still think of that day when I walked into my workshop and there you were, you had fallen asleep at my work bench and there was your lightsaber. You were shy about it but you showed it to me and…"

"And I remember you got freaked out by it," Jaden said dryly, remembering that day differently.

"I am sorry about that," Orn sighed, coming to a stop. "It's just… I'm a man of simple means, I've never aspired to greatness beyond myself. I'm not meant for that. I never was. But you. You were, I saw it the day you came to stay with me and your aunt Thisa. I got a really good look at it that day when you showed me your lightsaber. I was afraid I admit, how does one foster greatness in someone when they've never had it themselves? I'm sorry for letting you down, but I feel… I hope that sending you to the Academy was the best choice I made."

"It was Uncle," Jaden said finally, after considering his words. "And you shouldn't sell yourself short on greatness. You did what you could with me, and that's the most I could have ever asked for."

Orn shrugged and made some noise that was in between a huff and an "eh," and that was the most she could hope for from him. They walked the rest of the way in peaceful silence.

Part 2: To Catch a Crime Lord

"It's here." Orn stopped, gesturing to a crack between two buildings that neither Jaden, or anyone else would've noticed as important in a million years. Jaden looked at it skeptically.

"This is the way?"

"Yes, just follow it, take a right and there'll be a door. Usually, I give a password, but I'm not sure they'll open it to a Jedi."

"If it's all the same, I'd like to hear the password."

Her uncle shrugged. "It's Marka. Just that one word. I don't understand it, but it gives me the creeps."

Jaden felt a shiver run down her spine. This confirmed it. The scepter replica and the password. Lannik was definitely in league with the cult. She turned to her uncle.

"You need to go back home right now."

"But-"

"There's nothing you can do to help me now that you've shown me the way. I don't need you getting hurt in the crossfire. Get home safe and I'll send someone to be sure you're alright and compensated for your help."

"I don't want money, Jaden. I want you to be careful. I know I haven't seemed to care much, but… Well, I don't know, I just don't want to disappear completely from your life."

Jaden softened a bit. He's trying. She gave him a quick hug. "You won't, now get home. That's an order." They both smiled.

"You've grown up so much my girl." Uncle Orn shook his head, laughing to himself as he went on his way. Once he'd disappeared from sight, Jaden ducked down the alley.

"What's the password?" Hissed a voice through a slit in the door Uncle Orn had said she'd come to. Jaden was grateful that the guard behind the door couldn't see all of her, especially her lightsaber.

"Marka." She spat out and the guard slid the cover back over the slit. A moment later, the door opened.

"Hey, you're-" But the cultist who'd been stationed to guard the door never got past those two words as Jaden slammed into him and through the door. He hit the floor hard and passed out. Good, maybe the New Republic can question him later. She raced through a hallway that she guessed at one time was some kind of staff corridor. This way they wouldn't have to be seen by the clientele or the elites who rented office space. She took a wrong turn and ended up inside a large foyer that led to the giant front doors she'd been making her way towards not two hours ago.

"Hey! Jedi! Stop her!" Yelled a voice from behind. Up ahead, standing partially hidden behind one of the many pillars in the hall, a cultist stepped into the dim light and drew his red lightsaber into an offensive stance. Jaden came to a stop, looking at him briefly before turning to face the person behind her. He was also a cultist, but was surprisingly unarmed. This might be easier than I thought.

But the armed cultist didn't come forward to challenge her. She was suddenly pulled off her feet and dragged along the floor towards the armed cultist, like a Womp Rat to slaughter. She tried to get a good look at her executioner, he didn't seem to be the one dragging. The other cultist. The Force is his weapon!

She focused on the cultist behind her and as if seeing invisible strings before her eyes she cut them, but not with her saber. She pushed back with the Force against him, then she was up and running head long at the saber wielding cult member. She aimed a strike at him, and missed. The fight went on in this way with Jaden having to take the defensive just to stay alive. The Force only using cultist had come closer but stayed his distance. I have to find an opening, this is getting exhausting!

She blocked a blow from the red saber, and, glancing over at the unarmed cultist, flexed her fingers and sent him to the floor. The quick distraction offered just enough time for her to gain the advantage and slice into her enemy's exposed side, killing him. Then she turned on the other one, who'd gotten back to his feet. He tried tripping her, even attempting lightning which he'd clearly never tried before and was something Jaden was just learning to do. She bounced it back at him with her lightsaber but it was so weak that he was only slightly shocked. It weakened him enough though. Jaden didn't like the idea of killing an unarmed opponent, but with the Force as a weapon, was he technically unarmed? He tried sending another volley of lightning her way, which she tried sending back with a mighty Force push instead of her saber. The cultist cried out as he was sent flying backwards into the nearest pillar, snapping his neck.

Jaden left them there, adrenaline draining, feeling more tired after that fight. She was ready to end this by finding Racto and dragging that slimy scumbag to justice.

Jaden finally entered Racto's office after locating his private elevator, a very luxurious thing, even more so than the one in the Hutt's Palace on Nar Kreeta. She took in the grandeur of the large, square room and its furniture, its decor, her eyes resting on a strange statue in the opposite corner from where she'd stepped off the lift. It was the bust of a man wearing some odd headpiece that angled towards the sky in a wicked and crooked fashion. This strange crown reminded her of something that she couldn't quite place. To her left in front of a huge window that looked out on the city and wrapped around three quarters of the room, was a large desk with a comfortable looking chair. The scumbag was sitting in it. As she walked further into the room, Racto looked up from whatever work was on his desk, a look of shock, horror and anger all crossed his face. He stood up.

"How did you get up here?" He said in disbelief. "No matter. If it's trouble you're looking for, you came to the right place, Jedi!" He pressed a button on his desk and down came a hollow rectangular box made of metal, some kind of protection barrier Jaden reckoned, over the small area around his desk. Directly in front of the desk, a panel in the wall opened revealing four droids, all armed, that activated as soon as the panel opened. Oh Sithspit.

One of the droids stepped forward, around each of them a round, blue force field glowed and they all carried blasters. Jaden felt the weariness of her previous fight but knew that to succeed in this mission, she had to keep fighting. Then an idea struck her. She extended her hands and breathed.

"Come on, come on!" At first there were indiscernible sparks, then, as she stared down the assassin droids, the lightning that she tried to harvest came to fruition and cracked from her fingers and into their shields, disabling them, for how long, she didn't know, but she wasn't about to find out. Racing forward she dodged their blaster fire, sliding under one while simultaneously slicing straight through it with her lightsaber. The other three followed suit and were nothing more than piles of scrap metal. Very expensive piles of scrap metal. Breathing heavily, she stood up straight and glared at the bunker over Racto's desk, then had another, more brilliant idea than her destruction of the assassin droids.

Lannik Racto raised the bunker after several minutes of silence. His droids had done their job, they'd killed the Jedi. He thought with glee how'd he'd display her lightsaber on his desk for all to see, and fear. He rubbed his hands, excited to pry that lightsaber from that meddling Jedi's cold, dead fingers.

"That'll teach a Jedi to break into…-" Purple light engulfed his vision. To his immediate right was the petite figure of the Jedi. And the blade of her lightsaber was being held inches from his neck by her very much warm and alive fingers. He caught sight of the parts of his beloved droids littering the floor in front of his desk.

"Now," Jaden said coolly, "let's talk about these assassin droids."

Racto slowly looked up at her, the warm, buzzing blade an ever present threat.

"Ummm… Okay." He relented, grumbling. The lightsaber came slightly closer.

"Where is your factory?" Jaden pressed.

Racto spoke frantically, all pretense gone. "Hidden on Nar Shaddaa. If you don't hurt me, I'll tell you where it is."

Jaden pulled her saber away from his throat, but didn't turn it off; she let him lean forward to pick up his datapad that lay on top of his desk. He looked back at Jaden, a worried frown stretched over his face. She grabbed him roughly by the arm to lead him to the elevator.

"You're coming with me."

Jaden was forever thankful to her uncle who called the New Republic guards. They met her with the captive Racto at the entrance to the narrow alley. Unfortunately, the cultist she'd knocked out earlier had slipped away, disappearing somewhere into the impossible maze of Coruscant's backstreets. They helped her escort the pathetic crime lord into custody and, with her present, got him to squeal on everything. Based on the information they got from Racto, New Republic agents soon raided the droid factory on Nar Shaddaa and shut it down.

When she returned to the Academy, Kyle was actually there to welcome her and clap her on the back for a job well done.

"This is good, this is very good," he said. "You also mentioned that some New Republic agents went back and took inventory of everything on display in his office?"

"Yep, I asked them too, I had a hunch, there was this statue there you see and, well, I had a feeling about it."

"Good, following a hunch could mean the difference of learning more about this cult than we thought. Do you have the list yet?"

"They just sent it over, now that my datapad is charged I can review it. Oh, and before I forget, the New Republic agents mentioned that on the manifests for each of these items that have been delivered to Racto over the past several months, they were smuggled in by the same team of three smugglers." Jaden looked up from her datapad, smiling. A knowing grin broke out onto Kyle's face as well, his apprentice continued. "We're ninety-nine percent sure it's the smugglers from R5's recording! They had been hired to smuggle stuff for Racto by Alora."

"Then that means he hasn't been a connoisseur of dark side paraphilia for long," Kyle mused.

"Not at all, I think he was bought by the cult not long before the shuttle crash and he decided to jump fully onboard with the whole 'cult' thing. Maybe as part of his 'payment.' And as for the smugglers, the agents have no leads on them yet, but have our full cooperation to be on the lookout for them. I even had Artoo send them the recording."

"Well done." Kyle sat back in his seat and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, well let's see what all Racto had collected in such a short amount of time."

Jaden skimmed the list of items on her screen taken from the two display cases that had lined the space on either side of Racto's desk between it and the great windows. "Here, the first item is what I'd first noticed. Turns out it's no ordinary bust. It's a bust of the head of Marka Ragnos, dating back a thousand years or so." She paused, scrutinizing the image, trying to remember what it was that it reminded her of; it tickled at the back of her brain until it became an itch, but still she couldn't quite place it. She decided to move on. "There was a stuffed ysalamir…" She struggled to pronounce the word correctly.

"That's a lizard that's known to create a Force repellant bubble around itself." Kyle put in.

Jaden nodded and moved on to the next item, its name also difficult to say. "Several vornskr statues…"

"The vornskr are beasts that can hunt using the Force, they come from the same planet as the ysalamir, hence why they could repel the Force." Kyle rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "Seems like Racto was a connoisseur of artifacts pertaining to the Force as well, not just dark side items. Anything else on that list?"

"Yeah, just a small display of…" Jaden squinted at the name. "Artusian crystals? It says they're similar to lightsaber crystals, but they're this pale green color. Never heard of them honestly. You?" She glanced up at Kyle but her master's face had gone pale. "Kyle? Are you okay?"

He didn't respond, he looked lost in a dream, a dark look in his face.

What could those crystals possibly possess that they've made him turn so white and look so haunted?

"Master?" Jaden tried, thinking how it was almost silly that she wasn't the only one keeping secrets and hidden wounds to herself.

"What?" Kyle finally seemed to awaken. "Yeah, yes, I'm fine. Just need some rest. And you too. It's been a long day." He didn't even seem to notice that she'd used his official title or care as he stood stiffly and began to walk out of the conference room they'd settled in. He stopped when he got to the door and turned, one hand on the doorframe.

"By the way, how was it? Visiting with your Uncle?"

"It was… Fine," Jaden said. She'd never really talked about him to Kyle before. "We're not that close but I think the visit did us some good."

"Good." Kyle nodded, as if satisfied with her answer and made to turn around again, but something about her and her uncle's conversation brought a different memory to light. It was first day on the Academy shuttle all over again:

"So, where'd you get that lightsaber?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story. I found myself on-"

"Kyle, wait," she spoke up. Her master, weary though he was, looked back at her, perplexed, searching her face for some unknown problem before she even told him what it was.

A couple of students getting in some late night studying passed by the open door, one or two glanced their way before continuing down the hall. Jaden waited until she couldn't hear their footsteps.

"Can we go somewhere a little more private? I have something important to tell you. Something I've been holding onto."

Kyle nodded and smiled. "Thought you'd never ask, but first, let me grab us something to eat and drink, I'll meet you up at your 'secret thinking spot.'" And he winked at her.

Jaden sat on the roof of the Academy, legs crossed, looking out at the silhouettes of the trees against the dark horizon dotted with millions of stars. A small noise behind her caused her to turn and then get up to help Kyle, who carried two steaming cups of caf and a bag of presumably scraps from the kitchen leftover from the dinner she didn't get to eat. Her stomach growled.

"Why don't you use the Force to help carry things?" She asked, giggling at Kyle's full arms.

"You know what kid? I just don't think to do that." They both laughed as they settled down on the smooth rock surface of the Academy's peak. Jaden tore into her half of a sandwich Kyle had brought as he sipped his hot drink in silence, waiting patiently for her to start her story.

"So, how'd you know I had something important to tell you?" She asked.

"I sensed it."

"Really? I was starting to wonder if all the master's could sense our thoughts or emotions." She wandered around a mouthful of food.

"Oh we can sense your emotions, but we don't always recognize them as yours, sometimes we might think it's our own emotions or frustrations or whatever feeling may be flowing around the individual students. It's only when we quiet our minds and recognize that it's not us, when we can accurately pinpoint where the stray emotion is coming from. It takes a lot of practice and we, yes even we masters, can get it wrong a lot." Kyle shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich. "Now, enough about Force sensing, what is it you wanted to tell me?"

Jaden instantly felt guilty for dragging him up here and keeping him up late when he should be sleeping and getting ready to search for Rosh some more. Then she wondered if Kyle could sense what she was feeling at this moment. The big goofy grin plastered on his face told her that he could and she smiled awkwardly.

"Where to begin?" She said, but Kyle remained silent, only giving a brief gesture of the hand as if to say, 'go on.'

"When I was visiting with my uncle, he told me how proud he was of me, how, though he didn't show it at the time, he was amazed at how I'd built a lightsaber in his workshop. It just got me thinking how… How I've never told anyone how I got my lightsaber. Rosh was the only one who asked me, on the shuttle, and I was actually gonna tell him. That's when we crashed."

"Did he ever ask you again?"

"No. I think after that day on the training grounds he got scared and didn't want to push his luck with me since I was so angry with him at the time and… and he never asked again."

"And you would like to tell someone now?"

"Yes, I would."

"How did you get your lightsaber?"

"I found myself on a walk through Monument Plaza, they were having a market there. Lots of vendors, but Uncle Orn had sent me to a different area of town with a list of parts to get for his shop. I don't know why I walked that way but… Then I heard it. A voice. But not a voice with words, a voice with… I don't know. It almost sounded like music to my mind. I'd been sensitive to the Force since birth, but my Uncle and Aunt had made sure I'd suppressed it as we were still under Imperial rule until I was ten. I hadn't done much with my gift and I thought the Force was dangerous. Until I heard that voice. It seemed to tell me that everything in the Force was safe and beautiful, like I'd been scared of the dark all my life and finally someone had turned on a light. I was safe, I knew I was safe, for the first time ever.

"I followed the sound of that voice past many stalls, knowing I had to find the source of it. I came to the outermost stall, it was bursting at the seams with all kinds of fabrics and jewelry and colors. And, on the counter, the vendor had placed a little bowl that she'd filled with all sorts of bits of broken jewelry and other junk and nicknacks. I was drawn to it and started digging through it as casually as I could, but I remember this kind smile on the vendor's face as if… as if she knew. I still wonder who she was." Jaden shook her head.

"I got to the bottom of the tangle of metal and jewels and found it. A small, clear crystal, wrapped in copper wire, hanging from a copper chain.

"'That's a special one, that is.' The old lady told me. 'The same kind used in Jedi laser swords they are.'

"'How much?' I asked without thinking.

"'As long as you promise you'll follow the Force, I've no use for payment,' she told me.

"And again, without thinking, I said 'yes.' I felt like I was in a trance and when I took the crystal and turned around, I woke up and remembered I had to do some shopping for Uncle Orn. I looked down at the little necklace in my hand and turned to talk to the vendor again, feeling like it was wrong to take something for free even though she'd encouraged it. But when I looked behind me, the stall was gone.

"I searched every inch of that square but the mysterious vendor was nowhere to be found. So, I put on the necklace and went off to finish my uncle's errand." Jaden paused to take a swig of her caf. Kyle was quiet and patient as ever.

"I went back to my Uncle's and that was that. I wore the necklace to bed because it felt like a good luck charm almost, I liked the feeling of it, the sense of safety it brought me. That night, and I can't rightly remember, though it was like a vivid dream that stays with you even after you wake up; I got up sometime during the night and went down to my uncle's workshop.

"I just started grabbing pieces and parts of things, tools and metals. I warmed up the small forge my uncle has and just started… Building. I worked who knows how long far into the night. When the sun rose uncle Orn found me, fast asleep at one of his workbenches, my lightsaber…" She pulled the handmade hilt from her belt, "-This lightsaber lay beside me. Orn was speechless, he didn't know what to say at first. I was afraid that he'd be angry at me for using his tools and materials, but he wasn't. He asked me if it worked. It did. I remember the way I felt the first time I saw that violet blade appear as if out of thin air. I felt free. I felt like me for the first time in my life, like something that I'd been missing… finally fell into place.

"But I saw the fear in his eyes, the way he pressed me for the whole story, I'd thought it'd all been a dream, but it was real. I'd actually done it. He was scared, not that someone would come looking to kill me, but of me, of what I could do." She took a deep breath. "He came to me a few days later saying that he'd reached out to Master Skywalker and enrolled me at the Academy, saying that my gifts would be put to good use here. I was upset but didn't push it, I figured getting to learn more about my abilities and seeing the galaxy wouldn't be so bad. And now, I guess I understand that he didn't mean any harm, he just didn't know what to do with me and thought that maybe you all would." She looked Kyle in the eye, smiling wryly. "Do you?"

Kyle chuckled, shaking his head. "Not all the time, but those who've got a firm grasp on their power in the Force do have a clearer vision of what a young Force user needs. But not a perfect one." He gazed up at the stars, his face seemingly free of all the stress she'd seen there earlier.

"Joining the Academy is the best decision I've ever made in my life," she said. Kyle didn't respond, he didn't need to. He and Jaden let it sink in between them for the moment.

"I'm glad you joined too," he agreed.

"I wonder if Rosh feels the same." Ever since she'd been told of his capture, she feared for his life, his soul, his allegiance to the light. Kyle didn't reply immediately, but simply dipped his head.

"We'll find him," he said matter of factly, standing up. "Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?"

Jaden shook her head though her mind raced with a myriad of other issues that poked at her heart. "I'm gonna stay here for a few more minutes if that's alright?"

"Yeah that's good, I'm giving you the day off tomorrow to rest, meditate or study or do whatever you'd like. You've earned it kid."

Once Kyle was gone, Jaden looked back up into the sparkling void of beauty that blinked at her from all sides. She squeezed her eyes tight shut and made a wish as if she were still a little girl sitting on her uncle's balcony, trying to spot a single star hidden in the glare of a million city lights.

"Rosh," she whispered. "If you're out there, if you can somehow hear me. I will see you again, and I pr-..." she choked on a light sob, cleared her throat and tried again. "And I promise, I will tell you how I got my lightsaber. I will, I promise, my dear friend I promise. And I will see you again. I promise."

Back in her room, she laid down to sleep, but it didn't come. She tossed and turned, thinking about everything they'd found in Racto's office, especially that bust of Ragnos' head. She sat up suddenly, inspired.

"Why didn't I think of this before?" She threw off the sheets, slipping on her only pair of shoes that were the closest thing to slippers, put on a loose fitting overshirt and made her way down to the Archives.

She swiftly made her way to the back, to the restricted section, punched in a special code Master Tionne had given and began her search. A librarian droid named BK-5 hovered nearby.

"May I offer any assistance, Apprentice Korr?"

"Yes, I need any and all material you can give me on Marka Ragnos, a Sith Lord that died about 5000 years ago?"

"Marka Ragnos, you say? I will see what I can find." The droid lifted up and away and began scouring the shelves. Jaden found a table and chair to sit at to make her homebase just as BK-5 came back with a single datacard.

"That's it?" Jaden asked, disappointed.

"This should suffice," the droid said. "We have histories dating back to the Golden Age of the Sith when Marka Ragnos was the Dark Lord of the Sith, all on this datacard. It's all we have but it should help you in your studies at least."

"Dark Lord of the Sith?" Jaden echoed.

"The ruler of all the Sith, a title held in high regard by one who is powerful enough to claim it. But I'm sure you'll learn all about it, happy reading." The droid floated out of sight and Jaden got to work inserting the card into a slot on the table. A holographic image page appeared and she began to read. Soon, it felt like all the information began to swirl around her head the further she got.

"Marka Ragnos ruled over the Sith for over a hundred years, successfully ensuring that there were no threats to his throne. In the year 5000 BBY, he died naturally, marking the end of the Sith Golden Age. It is said that his spirit rose to witness the dueling of two powerful Sith Lords who were fighting for the title of Dark Lord of the Sith and granted the title to one of them before the duel was complete, marking the other with the title of apprentice, the Right Hand of the Dark Lord.

"Many resurrection attempts have been made by various Sith Lords, all ending in failure, or the short term calling up of his spirit by Sith relics. The relics belonging to Ragnos have been presumably lost to the ages: A hand written epistle, believed to have been destroyed. A pair of gauntlets that pulsed with Dark Force power disappeared from his tomb sometime during the Jedi Civil War. And his greatest weapon, a Sith sword made with cortosis, hidden within the hollow shaft of his-"

"Wait, what?!" Jaden exclaimed. The datacard's entries ended there. "But, but how? Did someone erase part of the datacard?" She looked around, no one in sight. She called out as quietly as she could, "BK-5? BK-5?"

"Please, not so loud." The droid suddenly hovered before her eyes and took the datacard from her hands.

"But the card, someone erased important information from it! Is there any way to get it back?"

"That's impossible, no one would dare erase anything from my library. Unless…"

"Master Luke's records. Someone sliced into them when we were all in the jungle the day I and the other new students got here. You don't think that person erased part of this datacard too, do you?"

"It's possible, but I'll have to sort it out with Master Tionne, she's the head scholar. I'd suggest you get back to bed, Apprentice Korr, there's nothing else to be done tonight."

"But-" The droid was already flying out of sight. Jaden released a hot breath of air and banged her fist on the table. Nothing. With a smaller sigh she pushed herself up and out of the chair and went back upstairs to bed. She already had a theory of who the intruder from the day of the shuttle crash was. It was probably that sneaky little red Twi-lek Alora that I fought with on Hoth. She seems to be the type to do her master's dirty work.

But with any hope Tionne and BK-5 would find the answers. For now she would sleep, and in the morning, keep training so that when the time came, she'd be able to face whatever this cult threw her way, even if it was Ragnos himself.