"Alright Jaden, Rosh, Scenario: Spaceport, a cultist has a hostage and is using them for cover. He's almost to the nearest transport. You're twenty yards away. Whaddya do?" Kyle crossed his arms in silence. They were inside one of the many training rooms, this one with square platforms that rose out of the floor and one could never be sure of exactly when they would move. Kyle had instructed them to answer his made up scenarios -an exercise he long insisted on employing- as they crossed the room, jumping from platform to platform. He'd started them on opposite ends of the room facing each other.

Jaden had no time to apologize to Rosh. He hadn't been at breakfast that morning and only showed up to their training right as Kyle did. She felt extremely guilty for telling him to meet her on the roof, just to go and forget herself. She couldn't read his expression and decided to talk to him as soon as their session was over.

"Whaddya do?" Kyle asked again. "You've gotta be thinking as you move because out in the field, there will be moments when you have to make a snappy decision and you might actually be on the move."

"Quick question!" Rosh asked.

"No," said Kyle.

Rosh asked anyway. "What about our lightsabers?"

"You don't have 'em."

Rosh jumped shakily to the platform in front of him. "That's ridiculous! We're Jedi. I'd never forget my lightsaber." Jaden cringed at Rosh's tone and words. He was still very testy and had been getting more loose with his attitude around Kyle.

"But this time, you did," Kyle said, even his patience wearing thin. "You have to be ready for any situation, even the ones you swear you'll never find yourself in. Now, what do you do? And, you only have a blaster and the Force to rely on." Rosh and Jaden simultaneously jumped to the respective platforms in front of them.

"Shoot the hostage," Rosh answered. Jaden nearly lost her balance.

"What?" She and Kyle said in unison, they were so shocked, even the moving platforms seemed to stop for a moment.

"Yeah," Rosh said. "Takes 'em out of the equation. Go for an easy, non-fatal wound and the cultist doesn't get a chance to make it to the transport because now you'll have a clean shot at him."

Kyle rubbed his bearded chin. "Not what I would've expected, but creative. Though, we Jedi try our best not to harm innocent civilians. Jaden, how 'bout you?"

"Rely on the Force." She was nearly halfway across the room, practically side by side with Rosh. "Use it to trip him up, when he stumbles, he'll loosen his grip on the hostage. I can then pull them away to safety with the Force and take out the cultist with my blaster."

"Very interesting," Kyle observed. "What I'm doing is teaching you both about balance. Relying on the Force, yes, but also your weapons, skills, and intuition. It's something that's very hard to master and I know for a fact that you fail many times before you get it right, and even then, it'll never be perfect."

Rosh released an exasperated breath. "But as our master, isn't it your job to make sure we don't fail?"

Kyle raised his voice slightly, taking on a more stern tone. "My goal for you is for you to not fail one hundred percent of the time, but also not to succeed all the time. Failure is the best teacher. Luke once told me, 'Kyle, if you haven't failed at least three times in your first year of being a Jedi, then I would have done something wrong.' And I say the same to you. Your job isn't to fail all the time, or to be perfect. It's to find the balance between failure and success and do your best to stay in that place."

"But," Rosh said feebly, stopping to kneel for a short rest, a few platforms away from finishing. "I didn't come to this Academy to learn to fail."

"That's not what I'm saying, Rosh." Kyle's voice took on a gentler tone. "Don't be afraid of failure, Rosh. Fear is your worst enemy.

"And I don't mean failing like someone falling to the dark side or anything. Failure can be a mission gone wrong or a miscommunication. It's seeing if you can pick up the pieces afterwards and learn and adapt from it. If the two of you can use what I'm teaching you and apply it to whatever scenario you find yourselves in to get the best outcome you possibly can; if you can grow from your failures, and become better Jedi because of it, then I would have done my job as your master. Remember, every mission is a chance to learn more about being a Jedi. Sometimes you must fail in order to succeed. Success will exalt you, but failure will humble you."

Rosh and Jaden made the final leap to their finishing platforms and stood tall. Kyle clapped his hands slowly. "Good job! You both did that in record time…" They started to celebrate before he added, "...My mother's record time. Jan could do better than that. Let's try it again." He whirled his hand above his head, indicating that they should get ready. "Go! Okay you two, Scenario…"

As soon as they breaked for lunch, Jaden caught up with Rosh on the way to the dining hall.

"Rosh, hey, I'm so sorry I didn't meet you on the roof last night! Arta-Mess and Kalil asked to hangout and I lost track of time."

Rosh stopped to face her, his expression going from unreadable to nonchalant. "Hey it's okay." He waved a hand as if to add that it was nothing to be concerned about. "I was so tired that I fell asleep and didn't remember til this morning. Apology accepted."

Something in his tone didn't sound quite right, but Jaden, being clouded by her own feelings didn't think of it until much much later.

They sat with their fellow students from the shuttle and didn't speak another word about it.

The next morning, Rosh and Jaden sat silently at their usual table in the dining hall. Ever since their first day, they'd made a habit of sitting with everyone from their shuttle almost everyday, at least at one meal. Jaden was trying to wake up with the same sub par caf she drank every day now, but was determined at all costs to convince Ched to start ordering better stuff. Rosh, on the other hand, was wide awake as usual and drinking his heavily creamed and sweetened caf.

"So, your master has you both run through 'Scenarios' as your training to help with staying focused?" Arta-Mess was saying. "Tionne just has us read a lot." She shrugged, "guess I shouldn't expect less from a scholar."

"Kyle has us read too," Jaden said, "just not as much. He says he wants us to 'find the balance' in our training."

"Yeah, and fail," Rosh interjected. He'd been in a mood since their training the other day. Well, moodier than usual.

"Fail?" Jacyyn asked, an eyebrow raised.

"That's not all the context," Jaden said quietly and all eyes turned to her. It was much too early for this. Ignoring Rosh's stink eye, she slowly explained to the best of her ability what Kyle had taught them. There was a long silence. Jas, who this whole time had been mostly silent, spoke up.

"Your master is very wise to be teaching you this." He glanced around the table. "Not that all of our master's aren't doing a good job, I think they're teaching us a similar lesson except in different words. But Master Katarn-"

"Kyle," Rosh and Jaden said together, then looked at the other, embarrassed.

"He likes just being called Kyle," Jaden said, it didn't make the moment less awkward.

"-Kyle," Jas said, it sounded weird coming from him. "I guess it's straight and to the point." He shrugged.

"I'm not sure how I feel about failing," Goran spoke up, "I hate to think that that's something they're all expecting us to do."

"Me either," Jaccyn murmured.

"See what I mean?" Rosh said. "How can we be set up to succeed when they're setting us up to fail?"

"Rosh, you know that's not what Kyle was saying." Jaden started, but was interrupted by a sudden silence, the other students glancing over her shoulder. She didn't have to turn to see who it was. She already knew.

"And what was it that I wasn't saying?" She turned at the familiar voice.

Hands on his hips, just as I thought.

"We were discussing your lesson on failure and success, maybe you could explain it again better than we could. Everyone's curious about it." She barely met his eyes, but realized they weren't angry, they sparkled with humor.

"Well, that is a good lesson. Hard earned too, and while I'd love to teach it to all of you, I can't right now, but maybe talk to your masters about it, and maybe I'll stop by and give a short lecture on it."

"Or we could try switching masters for a while." Rosh suggested. Everyone seemed to tense at that and Jaden felt genuine concern, not only for his emotional state, but what kind of private confrontation he and Kyle were surely to have later. But Kyle didn't appear mad, he seemed to actually consider the idea.

"That might be an interesting experiment, but that will have to wait. Jaden, let's go, I'll need you down at the Raven's Claw in ten minutes. We're heading to Coronet to investigate some rumors of activity in the area that might be caused by the Disciples of Ragnos. I still have a few contacts in Coronet, so we'll hit a few of the local cantinas and see what crops up. We'll also be following up with some of the people who reported this so-called cult activity." Jaden nodded, and moved to get up.

"Coronet? That's the city on Corellia where I grew up," Rosh said suddenly. "Could I go instead? Please." He added. The whole table was quiet again.

"I'm sorry Rosh, but I've picked Jaden for this assignment. If you're homesick, we can arrange for you to go back for a visit when you have a break, okay?"

Rosh merely nodded. Under the table, Jaden barely glimpsed it but he was crushing the disposable cup he'd gotten caf and cream in.

Outside the dining hall, she promised Kyle that she'd be down after she changed clothes.

After Jaden and Kyle left, everyone in the dining hall made excuses for places they had to be, classes and training they had to attend. And Rosh was left once again, alone.

"Then Jan punches the Weequay right in the-"

"…Can anyone hear me? We're under attack! Somebody's trying to take over the tram!"

It was raining heavily on Corellia when they arrived, thunder and lightning flashing intermittently. Kyle had been regaling Jaden with a story about one of his many adventures with Jan, most of them usually involved bar fights in which they were severely outnumbered - but always escaped. This particular one took place in a casino, but Jaden was half convinced that the vast majority of these stories weren't true, no matter how entertaining. Kyle had just gotten to the good part, when someone cut through on their coms. Kyle pushed a button on the controls, but the signal had disconnected.

"The message is coming from that cargo tram down below!"

Jaden strained to see it through the rainy haze but there it was, a tram running along two blue laser rail tracks. Hovering close by were several ships. Freelance mercenary ships. Jaden could barely make it out that the ships were dropping off people on the tram. The Raven's Claw moved in behind the last car.

"Kyle, those ships just dropped off a bunch of mercenaries onto that tram!"

"Hmm, that's definitely not good. Okay, let's divide and conquer, I'll take care of those ships if you're alright taking the tram!"

"Yes!" Jaden said without stopping to think twice. It wouldn't help in this case.

Commander Reev stood in front of the wall of security monitors, watching everything that was happening with meticulous interest.

He watched one screen closely in particular as it broadcasted exactly what was happening. He had to make sure they were doing things right. He looked at another screen that showed the back of the tram, the image causing him to freeze. There. A small ship that wasn't one of his hired vessels, lowered itself close to the tram, keeping an even speed with it. The cockpit opened up and a small figure, a young woman, leapt from that ship and onto the tram. A thin, shiny cylindrical tube swung from her belt, a flash of lightning reflected on its smooth surface. He gripped the comlink in his hand so hard he almost crushed it. No matter, he still had other tricks up his sleeve.

"Head towards the front and clear out each car." Jaden barely heard Kyle on her com over the roar of the wind and thunder and the movement of the tram. "Keep the enemy in front of you so you don't have to worry about your flank."

"Okay, I'll do that!" She yelled over the background noise, then pocketed her com. She pulled her hood over her head farther and secured it as best she could. So glad I thought to bring my water resistant jacket, she thought, remembering what Rosh had said about it raining often here. She wondered what he was up to.

Probably sulking in his room or working on his lightsaber.

She made her way around the side of the car. There were pallets of crates strapped down and she easily weaved her way through them as they provided the best cover. So far she hadn't come across any enemies.

"Hawk, do you read?" A voice said out of nowhere.

Jaden stopped cold. The voice had come from her right, on the other side of a pile of cargo. She inched closer and peaked around the corner. There stood a man, armed with an illegal blaster rifle holding a comlink close to his lip.

"I read ya John," answered the aforementioned Hawk.

"Meet me at station 6E."

"Copy that."

John moved forward and Jaden followed quietly behind him, checking to make sure no one else was with him. John walked to the front of the car where there was an enclosed control room of sorts. Beyond it, she saw as she moved stealthily around it, was an energy coupling connecting it to the next car. It hummed loudly with electricity, small spider veins of power crawling along it, signaling to Jaden, and anyone else who wanted to pass, to not touch it.

"How do I turn that off?" She whispered to herself frustratedly. She turned back and made her way back to the outside of the control room door. Inside, she could just make out the muffled voices of John and Hawk. It's just two of them. She looked around, there had been no one else, now was her chance and maybe she could turn off the electricity to the energy coupling. She burst through the door, catching the mercs by surprise, lightsaber on.

"Let's make this easy," Jaden said, looking from one man to the other. "Tell me what's going on here and turn off that coupling outside and we'll call it a day."

Of course, scum are not that smart and they opened fire. Jaden took them down and found the switch for the coupling. Two down, I have no idea how many to go.

Commander Reev stared at the monitor in disbelief. His plans were beginning to unravel and he couldn't have that. He turned to a control panel nearby and started punching different buttons. Once he had what he wanted, he pulled his comlink out of his pocket.

Jaden leapt to the next car and was greeted by a few mercs that weren't too hard to handle. Then she walked up a ramp that led to the roof of the car. If she'd thought she would be able to see better from this position, she was dead wrong. The wind blasted her hood back from her head, whipping her hair around her face. The rain plastered it in various places, making it even more difficult to see. She pushed the most troublesome pieces of hair out of the way. As she stood, squinting and trying to see with the Force, her comlink beeped. Dank farrik, Kyle can probably see me loitering like an idiot! She started forward again, bringing the com to her lips.

"I know, Kyle, I know, I'm moving!"

"Who's Kyle?"

Jaden froze. Even if it was a joke Kyle had decided to play on her, she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt, that was not Kyle's voice.

"Who are you?" She growled.

"Just a concerned citizen who's worried about a Jedi doing who knows what on a public tram." His voice was cool and collective, sounding older.

"Ahh," Jaden said, regaining her composure. "So you're the one behind this and you don't like that I'm spoiling your plans, well don't worry, I've spoiled another scumbag's plans before." She was bragging a little too much and she knew it.

"Oh isn't that nice, I don't care!" The voice paused, Jaden thought she heard it muffled, as if he'd put his hand over the com so that she couldn't hear what he said. But she did. She caught the last words: "When ready," then his voice was clear again, talking to her, "Goodbye Jedi!"

Jaden knew instantly she'd made a mistake, she'd allowed him to distract her. In the distance, she heard the sound of a blaster of some kind firing, knowing that whatever it was, it was aimed at her, and it was lethal.

She dropped to the ground just as the reddish orange blast passed over her. She looked up, she couldn't see the sniper. She'd been lucky, but he could probably still snipe her on the ground. She whipped out her saber, the next blast came and this time she was ready. It was strong, but she stood her ground and deflected it back. A moment later she heard the almost comical cry of a Rodian.

"Touche." Came the mysterious voice of the mastermind from her com.

She ignored it and contacted Kyle. Before he could say a word, she just said, "Ruby Bliels." On the other end Kyle flipped a switch, knowing exactly what she meant. It was their established codeword in case their coms were compromised. She switched her com to the new frequency on her end.

"What's going on Jaden?" Kyle's voice soothed her raw nerves and she told him what happened.

"I don't know but I have a feeling that it's some higher up Imperial that's pulling the strings on this operation. I know we're supposed to be looking into these rumors about the cult but I think it's just Imperial driven here, same as on Bakura."

"I don't doubt you there kid, just keep your eyes out, you never know until you know."

She leapt onto the next tram car, no enemy in sight, except the dead Rodian sniper and his illegal blaster.

"Is this another one of your lessons?" She asked, smiling.

"Maybe, if that helps you get through this mission." He was silent for a moment, then, "Okay Jaden, Scenario: You're in a casino and your contact has just been poisoned, but he hasn't drunk anything…"

Jaden made it through two more cars, thankfully only running into a handful of mercs altogether. This next car she'd entered, she was sure it was her fifth or sixth car.

How many cars are there? She wondered.

There were more stacks of crates, but other things as well. On one wall was an enclosed space, a small room that was protected by a blue forcefield. She approached it, trying to see what was on the other side.

"How can I get through here?" She felt like it was important, glancing side to side, she saw the power conduits that powered the forcefield. Taking several generous steps back, she pulled out her blaster pistol and fired point blank at each of the conduits in turn. They sparked and sputtered like a dying ember and then the forcefield powered down.

Jaden entered the room, more like a storage closet than anything, and was shocked by what she saw. Guns, tripmines, thermal detonators, crates marked with explosives, and blasters of all shapes and sizes cluttered the room. Her eyes widened as she took in each item.

"Uh, Kyle, I found a munitions car and there's A LOT here!" She said into her com, which she'd strapped to the front of her jacket so as to keep in touch continually.

"That's not good," he answered. "Just keep going and try to stop that tram. If you can take out everyone trying to take it over and slow it down, we'll get the authorities on board to take care of it."

"Okay." Jaden glanced up and, noticing there was a skylight above her, she climbed up the highest stack of boxes, carefully lifted the window open.

Suddenly she was startled by the sound of a ship whooshing by overhead, firing on another one nearby. It was Kyle.

"Ha ha ha ha! Too easy!" He cried over their coms, probably not realizing his talk button was on. Jaden held back a laugh, settling for a big cheesy grin and kept going.

She'd barely made the jump to the next car, when she saw it. A dark silhouette against the flashes of lightning.

A cultist. His lightsaber glowed red, illuminating his form even more.

"Uh Kyle,"

"Yes Jaden?"

"I think I found our connection with the Cult of Ragnos."

"Really where-?" Kyle cut short his remark because he'd doubled back in the Raven's Claw and had seen the glow of the red lightsaber. "Oh, listen kid I'm not down there to help you right now but just know that you can do this, you've done it before so I believe you can now. Be careful, remember your surroundings and how the elements affect what's around you. I'll see you on the other side. You've got four more cars to go."

All was silent, the cultist hadn't moved.

"How polite of you to wait for me to finish my conversation," she shouted to the cultist as she slowly walked towards him.

He nodded. "Every Jedi should be filled with hope from their master before they die, bringing about the greatest shame and disappointment on their head. It's a fun tradition."

"Lucky for you my master isn't traditional, nor does he like being called 'Master!'"

"Then maybe you'd both be better suited for the dark side."

"Not a viable option. For either of us."

Purple met red and their fight began, the rain hissing off their hot lightsaber blades. They were close now, neck in neck, neither giving the other an opening to strike an exposed area. Jaden waited until they were less than a foot away from the edge. The cultist believed he was winning and made a bold swing, which Jaden suddenly grabbed his hilt with her right hand, the cultist let go with one hand and grabbed her saber hilt. She had anticipated this. She maneuvered them around so that his back was to the open air near the edge and yanked her saber from his grip. With all her might, she pushed him away from her. His saber came out of his hold and he went flying over the edge. Jaden stood there a moment, looking down at the glowing crimson brilliance in her right hand, a strange hum of power calling out to her, an echo, a flash of an audible memory, the screaming in her mind at the Massassi Temple. For a single, solitary moment, the red saber felt good in her grasp, better than her homemade one which seemed like sloppy work in comparison.

Then she snapped out of it, and threw the enemy's lightsaber over the edge without a second thought.

Jaden finally landed on the tenth car, the last one before the engine; it seemed to be split up by two rooms, one in front of the other. Just as she had nearly made it halfway through the first room, her comlink beeped. Wary it might not be Kyle, she slowly pressed the button.

"Do you think if you take out every mercenary on the tram, it'll make a difference?"

The Imperial. The Mastermind. He'd hacked their frequency again.

"Bastard," she muttered.

"I heard that," he said. "Now listen up, Jedi. Did you seriously think I'd be unprepared for anything that came my way? Did you? I've been planning this operation for months, probably way longer than you've been at the Academy."

He may be right on that one.

"And if you think you can ruin a man's life by messing with his work then you've got serious blinders on to the galaxy kid."

Kid? Seriously?

"I've got a big promotion coming up and Ol' Reev is about to get everything that's due him, at my age you have to think ahead." Jaden was tired of hearing him talk. She decided to try a different tactic of threatening.

"When my master and I find you-" Reev cut her off.

"Here's a Scenario for you hotshot: There's a bomb on the tram, once this tram enters a heavily populated area, it blows up. You're still several clicks away from its target. Whaddya do?"

Jaden had frozen. Her face paled. He'd been listening to her and Kyle the entire time. He'd hacked their frequency and heard all their plans. Everything. And now she was going to die and thousands of people with her.

"Whaddya do?" Reev asked again, this time more harshly. She swallowed slowly, and took a shaky breath in. She racked her brain, she'd been in every tram car, she hadn't seen anything closely resembling a bomb. She decided to play along.

"I'd wanna know which car it was in." She said, hoping her voice sounded stronger than she felt.

"Ha! Very good. There are rules Jaden." His first use of her name sent shivers down her spine. "Stop killing all my men. If you so much as kill one more, I will detonate the bomb."

"But aren't you gonna kill them anyway, when the bomb explodes?" Jaden thought his logic was more than flawed, it was insane.

"That's between me and me alone, and they signed up for this, besides, they had signed up for a different plan, before you showed up. But since I know that you'll do anything to keep that bomb from going off, I guess you'll just have to play by my rules. So where was I? Yes! You can't kill anyone. Second, if you want to disarm the bomb, I'll give you one chance, but you cannot use your hands."

That's unfair, what does he expect me to do?

"Now, I'll call back soon but I'm sure you need to get going, I've stalled you long enough."

"Sithspit!" Jaden turned off her com and shoved it in her pocket, and raced through the next door.

She stopped short. In front of her was the bomb. She knew what it was because it was the same model she'd disarmed on Bakura. The next thing she noticed was a cultist, who, to be fair, leapt out of nowhere at her. Jaden's lightsaber came out and on in a matter of seconds. She wasn't sure if it was the Force or pure luck, though at this point she was beginning to view luck as a mere superstition, she was able to cut the cultist's saber hand clean off, then destroy his lightsaber before he could try and grab it with his other hand. He kept coming at her, using the Force to try and trip her up.

These Disciples have a big pain tolerance. He finally fell to his knees, his adrenaline starting to wear off. He groaned as the pain started to take over.

"Stay down, and stay quiet," she told him.

"Aren't you going to kill me?" He hissed in a pained voice.

"Not the Jedi way," Jaden said. "You're disarmed, just like how this bomb is about to be. But since I can't have you trying to stop me." She struck him on the head with the hilt of her saber and he crumbled to the floor, unconscious.

She noticed the camera for the first time. She could take it out, but who knew what Reev would do. She decided to risk it and called Kyle, it couldn't be any worse than before. Could it?

"Kyle! There's a bomb on the tram!"

"Disarm it, quickly! You're about to enter a heavily populated area!"

"But, Kyle, he knows!"

"Who knows?"

"The guy behind it! He's listening to our frequency!"

Kyle didn't reprimand her for speaking freely. He knew in the tone of her voice that no frequency was safe at this point. "What did he say to you?"

"He gave me a bunch of rules, one was that I couldn't kill anymore of his men, I found a way around it. And the second one is that I can try to disarm the bomb but I can't use my hands!"

There was a long pause in which Jaden could hear as well as feel, her heart hammering against her chest. Her eyes stayed glued on the bomb, anticipating its explosion at any second. "Then don't use your hands." Kyle simply answered. Jaden looked back at the bomb in frustration. What does he expect me to do, use my mouth? My feet? The For- Wait a second! Jaden smacked her forehead with her palm.

Biting back self-deprecating remarks towards herself for not thinking of the solution sooner, she pinned her com back to her chest, and quickly settled down on the floor. She closed her eyes and pictured the bomb in her mind, and, through the Force, used the invisible hands of her mind to quickly, but efficiently move the various parts of the bomb until… Click. She opened her eyes. She'd done it! She'd disarmed it! She smiled big. You seem to have forgotten about the Force there Reev!

"That wasn't so bad! Okay, mission accomplished!" She leapt up and almost lost her balance as the tram suddenly jolted forward as if someone had just hit the accelerator to full throttle.

"Bad news Jaden," she heard Kyle's voice from her com. "The tram is speeding up! I think they're going to ram it into the station! You have to get to the control room and stop that train!"

That was it. Reev's back up plan. If he couldn't kill thousands, he'd settle for hundreds and still get paid to do it. What he'd said about the mercs and cultists joining because they didn't know the full plan made her think real hard. What was the plan they signed up for? She thought as she ran through the exit. It was pouring rain harder and harder and the wind was a menace. She had to concentrate with the Force to keep from being knocked off. What if these thugs got on the train because they thought they would be getting off at the station? And if they did, they wouldn't be afraid of the bomb. They would just get off the tram after it made it to its destination safely or they could be lifted off by their own ships and then… Then the bomb would blow up at the station.

But clearly Reev didn't care for any sentient life forms but himself. They were merely pawns in all this.

She made a leap for it and landed just barely, but slipped. As she fell over the edge, she grasped it as hard as she could, trying not to panic. For several precarious moments, she dangled there, trying to lift herself up. There were no footholds to speak of. A mercenary, stationed inside the engine, peeked outside as part of his patrolling duties and spotted her struggling on the edge.

"Well what do we have here?" He said.

Dank farrik.

Kyle watched as he kept up in the Revan's Claw. He couldn't shoot the merc down, the guns on his ship were too powerful and he didn't want to risk blowing up the tram, or Jaden. He felt helpless, and wondered if he should have taken the tram instead.

"No," he whispered. "I trust you." He decided to help her the only way he knew.

He gave her a lift.

"Woooaaaaaahhhhh!" Jaden yelled as she was suddenly lifted into the air by an unseen force and placed safely on the back platform of the tram's engine car. The merc in front of her was so shocked that she had the upper hand and pulled his blaster away from him. She rushed him and slammed his head against the wall. He crumpled like paper and was on the floor, alive, but fast asleep. She wasn't going to take any chances killing them.

Inside, the control room looked empty, but that wasn't what she sensed.

"Die Jedi!" A voice somewhere above her yelled. Turning, she barely had time to bring up her lit saber before he brought his down on hers. There was no one else in the room, he was her last obstacle between her and potentially hundreds of deaths.

"You know he's just going to kill you anyway!" Jaden said.

"Who?" Growled the cultist.

"Reev, he's been taunting me, he doesn't care about you or anyone else, he plans on ramming this tram into the station with or without you on it!"

Their sabers locked and the cultist's eyes flashed with doubt.

"But… We had a plan!"

"Plan's changed," groaned Jaden, he was very strong. "If you help me stop this tram, you can make it out of this alive and I'll make sure you're well treated!"

"Oh, yeah right! And be a prisoner of the New Republic, I don't think so!" The cultist's red rimmed yellow eyes flashed, not with anger, but fear.

Jaden tried a different tactic. When their sabers locked again, she sought his eye contact. She found it, and held it.

"Hey, I'm scared too. And I have a feeling that you don't want to be here any more than I do. Let's make sure we both get out of this alive, and not let anyone else die in the process."

There was a long pause, a dangerously prolonged moment where Jaden watched her opponent's eyes. Those frightening yellow orbs were like the eyes of a monster. The cultist blinked, and as if by some miracle, they softened, their color diminishing to something similar to hazel. Her opponent stepped back and extinguished his lightsaber, holding it out to Jaden.

He sighed heavily. "Please, just get me out of here alive."

Jaden blinked, then swiftly took his saber and cut it in half just in case he changed his mind.

"I will. I promise, but I'll need your help first. What's your name by the way?" She asked and the cutlist removed the mask covering his mouth as well as the wrappings around his head. He had short black hair that fell in waves halfway to his shoulders.

"Devvyn," he replied. Jaden nodded and put a hand to her chest.

"I'm Jaden. Now Devvyn, please, I need your help stopping this tram." Without a word, Devvyn started towards the controls. Jaden followed close behind, saber poised defensively. But Devvyn was true to his word. He pulled a lever and pressed a sequence of buttons and the tram started to slow down. He backed away from the controls and Jaden heaved a sigh of relief.

"That was too close! Thank you, Devvyn. You made the right choice." He actually smiled at her, something nice and genuine. He didn't really want to be on the dark side did he?

"Great work Jaden!" Kyle said over coms. "I took out those ships so I think we're in the clear now."

"Awesome Kyle, I've got a cultist here that's agreed to come willingly."

"Traitor." It wasn't Kyle's voice this time. Jaden looked up at Devvyn and screamed.

His face and body convulsed as blue veins of electricity spread across him. He groaned painfully. It was like a vision of the captain back on Bakura all over again. Suicide shockers, it had to be, except she knew that Devvyn wasn't the one who'd triggered them. He barely made a sound as his body slumped to the floor.

"Come on Jaden, you should know by now what the Empire does to traitors," Reev said. "Normally we implant the shockers in just our officers but for this mission, I wanted to be especially prepared. Oh, and good luck trying to help the other one you maimed back in the other car."

Jaden fought back tears of rage. "You bas-"

"I know I know, I'm a worthless bastard and I don't care. You're right. At my age you've got to learn to look out for yourself. You see it's the principle of-" Jaden had heard enough, throwing her comlink down to the ground, she crushed it to bits under her heel.

"Excellent work on the tram. It's lucky you two showed up when you did. If that tram exploded in the city, it could've killed thousands of people." Luke's face glowed faintly from the screen of Kyle's datapad in the dark cockpit in the silence of space outside of Corellia's atmosphere.

"Thanks, Luke, we couldn't have done it without each other, although Jaden did pretty well on her own."

"Thanks to you for guiding me every step of the way." She put in. Kyle shrugged in surrender.

"You also put my teaching to good use, and were excellent at fast paced decision making. Well done."

"Well done, both of you," Luke said. "We'll also be looking into this Reev character you told us about Jaden. We'll get to the bottom of it and beef up our frequency security. Also, did you manage to take any of the mercenaries or cultists prisoner?"

It was dead quiet for several seconds before Kyle answered. "Well, Jaden had to kill many of them in self defense, and when Reev gave her a 'no kill' rule, she knocked several out, even cut off one of the cultist's hands, but when we went back through the tram with the authorities…" Kyle took a long breath and let it out.

"They were already dead." Luke finished.

"Yeah, Reev meant it when he said he'd thought everything through. He didn't want anyone being questioned."

"That's terrible, our only hope is to find him and bring him to justice, you don't think he has a Lullaby implanted for himself, do you?"

"No," answered Jaden. "He cares too much about his own skin. It's his lackeys you have to worry about."

"Then we'll keep that in mind. I'll see you both back at the Academy." It was quiet for a long time after Luke signed off.

"Well, that about does it, let's head back," Kyle said, getting ready to make the jump to hyperspace, then looked over at Jaden. "Something wrong?"

Jaden didn't want to cry, she breathed deep to steady her emotions. "That cultist I told you about? Devvyn? I did it Kyle, I had helped him, his eyes changed and he helped me stop the tram, but Reev killed him anyway. Was it even worth saving him in the first place?"

"Yes Jaden, no matter what happened, it was worth it. He's one with the Force now, and that's the best some can hope for in most scenarios."

Jaden shook her head slightly. "To think, if Reev hadn't given me those rules, I would've had to kill Devvyn in self defense, and he would've been lost."

Kyle rested a hand on her arm and squeezed gently. "'If' is a very harmful word to a Jedi. To anyone. It wasn't that scenario today."

"But what if it's the scenario tomorrow?"

"Ah, you said 'if' again, and tomorrow is not our concern. Let's both focus on now, today is all we can handle most of the time. So let's not complicate it more, huh?"

Jaden blinked back her tears that threatened to spill over. "Okay," she whispered. She busied herself with using a bit of spare cloth Kyle had lent her to try and dry off her hair. But it was a hopeless task, it didn't help that she'd already dripped all over the Raven Claw's seats with her wet clothes as well.

Sighing with resignation, Jaden wrapped the cloth around her damp head and leaned back against the headrest. Closing her eyes didn't help much, sleep wouldn't come, not with the image of Devvyn being electrocuted flashing through her mind. Nevertheless she still sought the peace of the Force, no matter how elusive it seemed. And with that, they flew back to the Academy in silence.

Reev wasn't happy, but at least they hadn't been compromised. For the past several hours since his mission's failure, he'd been drawing up another plan, this time foolproof, or at least, Jedi-proof. The door behind him opened and he turned to see that bratty little red Twi'lek that was always lurking around and looking over his shoulder, micromanaging him like she even had the same kind of genius he possessed. She had two stormtroopers flanking her.

"You've failed us, Commander Reev," she said, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised.

Insolent little-

"I can assure you it was a small mishap in the grand scheme of things. And besides, the important thing is that no one was compromised." Reev put on a fake winning smile. The Twi'lek was not amused.

"But yet you still stand before me, empty handed. Another plan failed."

"With another, more detailed plan already started." Reev tried to stay calm. He hated this Twi'lek more than anything, besides her master, but if he wanted to have any shot of a promotion, or another six months of life, he had to placate her somehow.

"You worked under Darth Vader's command, did you not?"

"Yes," Reev said through gritted teeth. The Twi'lek seemed to consider this a moment.

"Then I'm going to do what he failed to do in the first place."

If anyone happened to be passing Reev's door at that moment, they would have heard the ignition of a lightsaber, Reev's final, pathetic yelp, and the Twi'lek ordering her handlers to "take this trash out immediately." And hopefully, if anyone did pass by that door and heard all of this, they'd have the sense to keep going and get as far away from there as possible.