The preparations were made with as much haste as possible, students and overseers alike fully cognizant of the gravity that the ceremony possessed. This was the first memorial service for a Qyaari Elder, one of their own leaders. Most students hadn't really given thought to the notion that the Qyaari leadership was vulnerable, let alone subject to the same fate that all known sentient life had to face. It was sobering, humbling, jarring, even. Some students had to be calmed down throughout the process, reassured that although this was a somber occasion, it was also one for reflecting on how much of an impact Voldon had in bringing about the Academy halls that they walked casually through between classes, the peace that Force users had across the galaxy in choosing their own path to fulfillment and re-establishing order in the vacuum of chaos that Bracknell threw the galaxy gleefully into. Being part of the "comforting" task force was something Yerbol had gotten used to since his arrival back on Zinuthra, but mentioning past events as a reminder of how far the Qyaari had come thanks in part to Voldon was a sublime experience, one that prompted much reflection on his part as well while arranging flowers the way he was told to by someone who had more experience in creating aesthetically pleasing bouquets(which, not so coincidentally in his mind, were the women) or helping some of the media personnel who had arrived early figure out where the restrooms were(that was a fair question, seeing as the atrium where one first entered was a massive space that branched out in several different directions). Dwelling on how he and Aria had their entire realities at the time shattered into fragments and scattered across the galaxy was sobering indeed, but the fact that they managed to recover from that and be a part of something so great, so restorative thanks to the efforts that Voldon was a part of made the Champion massively grateful for what the former Batlemaster had sacrificed. Even after his death, his legacy would be one of the foundational building blocks that the Qyaari can use to move forward and grow. He had told Voldon's casket as much, hoping that where Voldon's "presence" was that he had heard what Yerbol had said and knew that the Champion meant every word of it.

When preparations were finally complete, Aliel gave them a "suggestion" to come greet the Chancellor, Matt agreeing:
"Cheriss' suggestion is a good one. Come on, you two." Yerbol snickered quietly, telling his spouse:
I've got to think that there's a reason for this, right? Maybe because we're the only two Champions in existence right now and we're sort of their "Special Forces" unit? Maybe they feel better with us around because we represent what the Order can become? Or maybe we're just eye candy so no one notices Matt's graying hair. If that's the case, then I'd say they've got it all wrong. If they want eye candy,
they might as well just leave me out of the picture. You're more than enough. He shot her a teasing glance alongside a gentle nudge as they proceeded towards the hangar, which currently had it's bay doors flung wide open to reveal the elegantly designed Z-Class ship that Saresh and the Alliance cabinet was emerging from along with several heavily armored and armed guards. The Qyaari and Alliance parties met at the hangar door threshold, Saresh offering a firm handshake to each of the Force users as she said somberly:
"I wish that my visit were on better terms."
"I agree, Chancellor, but we appreciate you and the Cabinet's presence all the same."
"Of course. The Alliance has lived up to it's name thanks to our relationship with the Qyaari. That's largely due to Voldon's presence with no disrespect meant to the other Elders, of course."
"None taken, Chancellor. There was a reason we all decided that Voldon would be the first Presiding Elder. He was the voice we needed. Calm, collected and firm when he needed to be. Although there were times I wish he had spoken just a bit more...' A few slightly awkward (according to Yerbol anyway) chuckles before Matt spoke again:
"The service begins in about an hour. Let's get you to where you need to be."

There were only so many seats in the garden, which forced many to resort to standing on the steps leading up towards the Academy facing the meditation garden. They were able to hear the sequence of events thanks to the earpiece slash microphone combination that those speaking received beforehand, sound traveling through miniature but powerful speakers planted in a circular pattern around the garden. The Elders, Alliance politicians and Champions were seated in two rows on a raised platform with Voldon's closed casket to the right hand side of the rows. Kira was nowhere to be found and when Yerbol asked Malu about where she was as they took their places, the Miraluka whispered:
"Not all of us can face the death of a loved one in such a public space." With Kira absent, the only two that spoke to the assembled audience were Matthew and the Chancellor, both of whom delivered short messages on the virtuous life that Voldon led and the impact that his actions will have on the future of the Qyaari. Matthew's address was well done, but it was almost hollow in comparison to the private ceremony held just a few hours earlier. He was happy the Elders had summoned them.

It was Saresh's address, however, that piqued Yerbol's interest; more specifically, it was a string of thoughts near the end:
"Although Voldon has passed on, his legacy will continue to remain an example of how we as a governing body should always be servants of the people, not overlords. To act in the best interests of those we have the pleasure of serving, not to destroy their wills. The Alliance will continue to act in conjunction with the Qyaari to ensure galactic peace, to make the galaxy a harmonious, stable place for all who call it home." This naturally led to a burst of applause from the audience, Yerbol included, yet the Champion could feel something...strange as she spoke. The words felt almost forced, as if she were putting on a strained performance than speaking what was actually on her mind. Maybe it was him projecting his old feelings of mistrust onto her that came from his reminiscing about the old "Alliance", but he would bring up his feelings to Aria in private to see if she felt the same.

Matthew concluded the service by summoning the pallbearers to carry Voldon's casket past the meditation garden to a shuttle waiting just a few hundred feet away where, according to Matthew, the casket would be flown to Ord Mantell and buried on a private plot of land that the former Battlemaster had purchased several years ago and swore that he would use one day as a place to retire and start up a small vegetable garden. This elicited a few chuckles from the audience, most of whom couldn't imagine a seasoned warrior of the Qyaari in a straw hat farming for bell peppers.

The pallbearers, who included Matthew and Yerbol along with two Alliance soldiers, trudged to the shuttle and loaded the coffin as the assembled audience began to disperse towards the Academy, an announcement made before the ceremony telling any who wanted to stay that there would be a meal in the dining hall. It seemed like most would take them up on that offer.
"Never thought I would see this day." Matt commented with a sad chortle, looking up at the departing shuttle for a lingering moment before examining the crowds moving slowly up the stone steps.
"Voldon's death?" Yerbol suggested, to which Matt shook his head.
"I knew that Voldon would go out in some sacrificial manner. He was too bold to go quietly in the night. No, I just..." He blew out a sigh.
"I just never thought in my heart of hearts that we could pull this off." He motioned at the Academy.
"We have a flourishing student body, Knights who are maturing into the Force so rapidly that I almost feel like I need to take a class from them and a government that doesn't want to enslave Force users. Satele would've been proud of what we've accomplished."
"I think so, too." Matt clapped a hand on the younger man's shoulder as he told him:
"We've got more work ahead of us though. This isn't the height of where the Qyaari could go, what the order can do; this is just the beginning."

Aria flashed her husband a playful look of her own as they approached the hangar. On the contrary, I disagree...you don’t give yourself enough credit, you’re very distracting at times. Any further banter was cut short as the Chancellor and her companions came to meet them. Each Qyaari present graciously shook the Chancellor’s hand and accepted her condolences for Voldon’s loss.
Sitting with the other Elders and Yerbol close to the front of the crowd afforded Aria an all around view of most of the funeral-goers. A considerable proportion of the Academy faculty were teary-eyed as they listened to Matthew and Saresh’s speeches, even Cheriss had shed a few tears (although the Elder was quick to swipe them away and sit in stony silence acting as if they had never existed), however her polite decline to speak any words in front of the media crew said enough. Saresh’s address had been impressive, and unsurprisingly drew an almost enthusiastic round of applause from the listeners in front of her. After which the official procession carried Voldon’s coffin away and the other guests dispersed. A few excused themselves and bid their farewells, but most seemed very eager to drift towards the repurposed dining hall and stay for a meal before thinking about their next destination. As Yerbol and Matthew bore Voldon’s coffin to the transport, Aria lingered behind in the garden to direct the guests to restrooms, the dining hall and the like. It wasn’t until that moment that the Champion truly began to appreciate just how well the Qyaari Academy had flourished over the years. To think, when they had first set themselves up on Zinuthra (a long-forgotten planet, back then) it had been nothing more than a pair of ramshackled buildings whose very walls had been falling apart from the inside out. Serenely, she reflected that her younger self had cynically written off the whole effort as nothing but an aid to her own survival, at the time. Building it up had taken a lot of co-operation and effort, but seeing its booming success in the gaggles of youngsters and Alliance cabinet members that milled to and fro before her had been well worth their efforts.

As the majority of the guests filtered into the dining hall, Aria noted that a few scattered groups of the student body remained. They clustered close together, mumbling and kicking pebbles about or pretending to admire the decor as if they weren’t entirely sure what to do with themselves. Aria hadn’t noticed Cheriss hovering in one of the back rows until the Dathomirian strolled up beside her, casting a glance towards the students.
“I’ll go talk to them, can’t have them wandering out here unsupervised...besides, a good meal will go a long way to help raise their spirits, I’m sure.”
“No, no...I got it.” Aria interjected, figuring she could do far worse, she thought she might try her hand at guiding the wayward younglings herself. Though she had been unsure at first, teaching had slowly grown on her since the first set of younglings had been brought to Zinuthra and she finally felt as if she was taking the role in full stride, rather than being coerced into something at the Elders’ behest. Cheriss paused as if considering this for a moment, before the Elder shrugged and turned to head inside with a small nod.
“Very well, then I will leave you to it.”

As soon as the Champion approached them and enquired the cause of their dawdling, the youngsters barraged her with a tyrade of frantic questions.
“What’s going to happen now?”
“We’re continuing our training, aren’t we?”
“You’re not going to send us back?”
“What do we do now?”
“Alright alright….all of you just CALM down!” Aria didn’t like having to raise her voice too much, but it became a necessity if less to shout AT them than to make her own words audible over their clamoring. When the wide-eyed children obediently clamped their mouths shut and stared up at her pleadingly, she followed up with: “Thank you. NOBODY needs to panic, alright? I promise every one of you that the Academy is NOT going anywhere. Zinuthra is, and always will be, the home to any Force user that wants to stay here.”
Annoyingly, she didn’t have to lean very far down to get to their eye level. “Now, I will be the first to say that there are very likely going to be disruptions to your class schedules for a while”- after all, Aria did not believe in beating around the bush and certainly filling their heads with false assurances would not help any of them at any rate -”until we’ve finished rearranging tutors around to accomodate for the...the change.” the Champion had to pause to clear the catch from her throat before finishing up with another smile. “But the Elders and the faculty will do everything that we can to ensure it doesn’t impact on your training in the long run.” she was pleased to see some of their faces brighten at her assurances (maybe she WAS getting the hang of this after all!).
“Now come on, all of you, Voldon wouldn’t want you moping around out here; get yourselves inside and fed or else I’ll have to send Cheriss out here to sort you out.”
The Champion’s good-natured threat caused the students to erupt into a chorus of squeals of “Oh no!”, before hastily scurrying for the nearest entrance lest they incur the Elder’s frigid wrath.

The dinner and resultant conversations passed by smoothly, by Aria’s standards. It wasn’t until the Champions had retired for the night and her husband had voiced his concerns to her that she gave any second thought to the Chancellor’s manner throughout the service. Aria was silent for a long time, her brow knitted in a contemplative frown, as she sifted through her own memories and tried to find anything that seemed as out of place as Yerbol had suggested.
“...I-I don’t know, honey…” she piped up eventually after a lengthy period of silence. She hated disagreeing with him so blatantly (and certainly didn’t want him to feel as if she thought his perspective was invalid), but she wasn’t quite sure how much merit they could put to the implied accusation. “Nothing seemed OFF, to me...scripted, sure, maybe.” Aria shrugged, falling back into the pillows on her side of the bed and staring at the ceiling. “But that’s not uncommon for big political figures...I dunno how much summit work you ever did with the Jedi but on Dromund Kaas it was pretty common for the diplomats to end up looking and sounding like robots. The Acolytes used to take bets you know, on how much of their words were their own.”

The Champion turned to lie on her side and face him, waving the last comment off. “But that’s not important. I’m not saying that...that whatever you think you saw or felt isn’t real just that....” the frown returned, man she was digging herself in deep here! “I don’t know, it didn’t seem like she meant anything bad by what she said? Maybe Saresh just wasn’t sure what to say, or she had a lot of things to say but didn’t know HOW and she needed a hand? Even Cheriss and Malu didn’t say anything else at the service.” neither, she noted silently, had they themselves...but then that was different, they had said their peace before the formal memorial had even started.

“Still, if it’s really bothering you I don’t suppose there’d be any harm in keeping an eye on her, right?”

The dinner itself was pleasant enough for the occasion, Matthew and Malu even floating among groups of students to not only comfort, but to tell rather funny stories about the image Voldon projected versus the one that was a bit less gruff, including a story about getting bearhugged by a Wookie on Nar Shaddaa. This was one that Yerbol would HAVE to ask about later, seeing as NONE of the Elders bothered mentioning this. Matt was the one who actually saw the incident, but the Champion could only assume that it was shared among the group of leaders with Voldon sitting there as grim as ever and Matt with the largest grin on his face. It struck him then that Matt and Voldon probably had the longest standing relationship between any of the Elders, seeing as both mentioned multiple times their combined efforts in several different instances and Voldon seemed to listen to Matt more than the others when things got heated in discussions that Yerbol and Aria were present at(Kira excluded). The Champion filed the observation away, deciding to talk to Matt about his relationship with the former Battlemaster later, instead focusing on the event at hand; after all, he was well aware that most would not just be watching the Elders, but the two Champions as well. It was odd feeling like his every action was scrutinized, every word potentially parsed for information about the inner workings of the Qyaari, but he supposed that when one had saved the galaxy as many times as they had, it was rather easy to be lifting up to almost celebrity status. Even he and Aria's WEDDING was broadcasted to the whole bloody Holonet as a "symbol of progress for all Force users". Not to say he wasn't grateful for the progress they had made(not to mention the little lady who went to bed with him every night), but to be so...publicily important was off-putting. He wondered how the Elders managed to make it all look so effortless. Maybe that was a class they missed at their former academies: how to not feel OR look like galactic pressure was weighing on you 101.
"Are you alright, Champion?" A Selkath Alliance diplomat who sat next to him inquired politely, the alien's normally narrow eyes even more narrow than normal.
"Yes...yes, my apologies, Ambassador. My mind was on...well, seemingly another planet."

___

When the dinner concluded and guests were in the process of leaving the hall(which was being tidied up by a combination of students and hired on help), Yerbol and Aria managed to sneak away up to their quarters where the former stripped himself of formal attire and faceplanted sloppily into their bed. After a few minutes, he could feel prodding in his side, the Champion finding his wife inquisitvely staring at him.
"So you picked up on what I was thinking during the ceremony, huh?" Yerbol explained his sentiments as best he could, telling Aria about the nagging feeling that Saresh was hiding something from them, that there was an almost ominious aura radiating from her. His wife offered some reassurances that made sense rationally, but didn't dispel his emotions entirely. When she mentioned keeping an eye on her, Yerbol nodded in agreement.
"I'd like to be wrong and just chalk this up to whatever...well, whatever I've been dealing with since Voss, but something just isn't sitting right with me." He placed a hand on Aria's arm, smiling as he continued:
"But let's not worry about that for right now, eh? I just want to lay here with you and sleep in. Remember when we could do that? You know, that one week in our entire relationship? I'm REALLY looking forward to not waking up with an alarm or a direct summons." A pleased sigh escaped his lips as he closed his eyes just for a moment, just to rela-

_____

Their holocomm unit buzzed obnoxiously, Yerbol suppressing the urge to throw said unit across the room and turn over, but the Champion knew that whatever was beckoning them out of slumber MUST have been important...somehow. Right? It had to be. He groaned, slamming the "receive" button on the device as he asked groggily:
"Who's asking for us this time?"
"I think we ought to see about demoting you if you're going to use this tone with me." Malu had lost some of her Imperial accent, but at times it shone through, lacing her voice with a kind of authority that would make any sit up a bit straighter. Thankfully there was a comedic lilt in her voice or Yerbol would have thought twice about ever sassing the former Lord ever again. Before Yerbol could respond, she added:
"We need you both in Chambers as soon as possible. There have been some developments that require your attention."

Developments?

____

The duo walked into the familiar meeting room and would have took their normal places in seats that were stationed near the center of the room that faced the middle of the semi-circle of seats the Elders sat in, but those seats were currently occupied.
"Good. Come alongside these two." Matt motioned for the Champions to come forward, Yerbol finding himself next to Kin, one of the trainers they had met before their deployment to Voss. His visage was a bit more solemn than their first meeting, but he looked up at the Champion with a sparkle that was unmistakably reflective of his regular personality. Next to him was Paix, Kin's partner both in training and(he assumed) romance based on their initial encounter.
"We brought Kin and Paix to put forth their final recommendations for something that we as a Council have been discussing for quite some time." The trainers stood up as Matt continued:
"This next missive that you both will be taking on might prove to be a fantastic learning opportunity for not only you, but Knights as well."
"Knights?"
"Indeed." Malu chimed in, leaning forward in her chair, elbows on her knees, one hand supporting her chin.
"Kin, Paix and Waylon have enough combined experience to provide more advanced training for Knights that have been identified by their instructors as having significant potential for the rank of Champion." Yerbol chuckled slightly.
"So you weren't kidding about the demotion?"
"Quite the opposite, my dears. We're not getting any younger and Voldon's passing made us all realize that there needed to be a succession plan in order for the Qyaari to continue to progress."
"What...what are you saying?"
"Don't worry, Yerbol: we're not going anywhere anytime soon, but some of us have come to terms with the reality of our current existence. We're short-staffed at the highest ranks of leadership. Acolytes, Apprentices and Knights are all fantastic, but we have our only two Champions taking on a workload that's unsustainable over time. We need more manpower and we are now going to start to build it through you two. From here on out, you will both be assigned an apprentice who has already been ordained the title of Knight and has shown exemplary leadership in both the field and the classroom."
"The two we recommend are going to blow you away. Trust me." Kin glanced at the Champions with a smirk as Paix added:
"They're ready. These two have shown their ability to rise to the rank of Champion, given that our initial Champions groom them willingly." A moment of silence passed before Yerbol offered:
"This is a massive responsibility that I'm...honestly, I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything as of yet. Kin, Paix, please leave us."
"Of course." Upon the duo's exit, Matthew spoke:
"You both are ready for this, have been ready for this. You two have spearheaded our efforts to make the galaxy a harmonious and peaceful place for all sentient life to call home. You might be young, but as we have all seen, youth sometimes doesn't equate to level of wisdom. Your experiences have created a kind of unshakable trust within all of us." He paused, then added:
"Do understand, however, that are you are now responsible for the training, development and overall success of another Force user. They will depend on you for guidance, leadership, wisdom and safety as they develop. It is a heavy responsibility, but we all believe you can bear it proudly." He motioned to the other Elders, giving them the opportunity to speak before he concluded:
"As you can see, we believe in you both. Stay true to your ideals and you'll do just fine. Ready to meet them?" Yerbol gulped down a ball of anxiety forming in his throat as he nodded, the door to the Council chambers sliding open to reveal two figures, one of whom was a auburn-haired, hazel eyed young man whose build was almost like Yerbol's except his shoulders and waist were broader. His crimson red, floor length robe glided across the floor as he walked alongside Yerbol, glancing at the Champion with an unreadable emotion before he turned his attention to the Elders.
"This is Ethan Pewsaa. He was a part of the first group of youngsters trained at the Academy and proved himself worthy of the title of Knight. Ethan has run several operations for us on Taris, Coruscant and even Nal Hutta. In short, he's a proven asset." The young man's cheeks blushed slightly.
"Thank you, Elder Carnagie. It's an honor."
"Indeed it is, to be trained underneath Yerbol Massani, Champion of the Qyaari, is an honor that none other have had. Always remember this."

Aria too, had been looking forward to sleeping in for once. But, as always, it seemed as if every Force in the known galaxy had a vendetta against the two Champions. As the communicator blared loudly and stirred them from their slumber, Aria grumbled audibly and muttered something that was likely a rather unsavory slur about where it should go in Twi’leki (that Malu hopefully had not heard!), as Yerbol answered the call his wife lifted her head reluctantly from the pillow, blinking blearily at him.
“This better be important, Malu.” she muttered in Basic, frowning sleepily as she listened to what the Elder had to say. At the jested threat of demotion, the Champion responded with a snort of her own:
“Please do, maybe then we’d ACTUALLY get to sleep, you know, like normal people do? That’d be REALLY nice.”
She had to admit it sounded ominous, though, and not likely something that could - or should - go ignored. With another protesting groan, Aria buried her face into her pillow once more, her muffled voice proclaiming:
“So much for not having an alarm in the morning, eh?”

________________________________

As they entered the meeting room, Aria had to take a steadying breath to calm her own rising nerves. Finding their usual places occupied (which had never happened before), she had to wonder what unholy terrors had been unleashed this time to require such an audience. She would be grateful to find, that it was far less horrifying than she had been expecting. Or perhaps horrifying in a different way. At the very least, it was the last thing Aria had been expecting to hear, and she certainly hadn’t been prepared for it. At first, she had wanted to laugh at the situation, guess Malu was being serious after all! But as the Miraluka continued explaining the Council’s purpose for summoning them to the Chamber, all sense of humour vanished. Unlike her husband, who managed to stammer out a few confused questions, Aria remained rooted to the spot and staring at the Elders in wide-eyed shock.
“S-Sorry?!” she eventually squeaked out, which drew a few amused chuckles from the older Force users in the room.
“Come on Aria, you could do to look a little less like a rabbit in the headlights, you’ve handled far worse than this before.” Cheriss chided good-naturedly. The Champion cleared her throat, shifting her weight from one foot to the other before she tried again in the hopes of voicing her thoughts in a more eloquent manner:
“I'm sorry, I just...wasn't expecting this, of all things. It's a...a big responsibility.”
“We know.” Ailel beamed back at the two dumbfounded Champions. “But we wouldn’t entrust you with a task we didn’t think you were ready for. I think you’ll find it to be rather rewarding once you get used to it.”
“Just give it a chance, that’s all we’re asking.”

“Of course, of course.” Aria nodded quickly, not wanting to refuse such an honour. Despite her apprehension of becoming the SOLE teacher to a budding Knight, she managed to put on a smile and a brave face, catching her husband’s eye with a sideward glance.
Y’know, I thought I’d have a few grey hairs before anyone ever started calling me “Master” anything! She commented dryly. As Kin and Paix made their exit, the Champion once again began to fidget uneasily as she listened to the Elder’s words of encouragement. They seemed to help quell her anxiety enough for Aria to stand calmly at attention in time to meet the two prospective Knights. Beside the chestnut-haired young man strode a much smaller alien, who while not TINY per se, for she easily had a foot of height on Aria, appeared rather small beside the human she kept pace with. As she stopped before the Champions and Elders, she stood with both front paws clasped together against her stomach, her head held high. Her fur was a striking shade of deep brown, appearing almost black had it not been for the light that caught on it and revealed its true shade, except for her underbelly and a small dot-shaped patch above each eyebrow which were cream in colour. Aria had never seen a Selonian before in her life, but she was well familiar with the species name from old texts she had come across during her time on Korriban. She thought, oddly, that she would have almost mistaken the youngster for a Cathar had it not been for the absence of a thick mane of hair and the longer muzzle. The Selonian’s large, amber eyes studied the other beings in the room with a kind of wary curiosity as she waited patiently for her turn to be introduced, her nose constantly twitching which may have indicated a nervous disposition at her current situation or may have been normal for the species, Aria had no idea herself.

As Matthew concluded his introduction of Ethan, Cheriss rose from her seat and indicated the ferret-like Knight. “And this is Kytra Llis, who joined us from one of the first refuge villages that the Alliance set up on Coruscant. She can be shy at times, but she’s observant and dependable with an eye for detail like no other, she’s kept her fellow Knights from walking into fatal traps on multiple missions from Ord Mantell to the further Outer Rim, all of the trainers here hold her in high regard and we’re sure she will not disappoint.”
Kytra’s ears wobbled under Cheriss’ praise, the Selonian’s robes swishing lightly as she dipped into a polite curtsy directed towards the Champions.
“It is an honour to meet you both...I look forward to training with you.”
“So do we.” Aria returned politely with a nod of her own. She felt a little bit as though the Elders were throwing them into hot water by assigning them apprentices without so much as a warning beforehand, but she appreciated the urgency of the situation: with Voldon gone the Qyaari leadership had been de-stabilised and she felt certain there would be populations across the galaxy that would doubt their capabilities as an Order overall. They would have to show them all that the Qyaari would continue to stand as strong as they ever had, and what better way to do that than to announce new Champions in training? And of course, it remained to be said that with two other Champions it would lighten the workload on Yerbol and herself marginally, which she appreciated more than she could put into words.
Kytra and Ethan, on first impression, seemed like a capable pair of young Force users, so how hard could it be?

In the silence that followed, the Elders exchanged glances and perhaps even non-verbal communications of a sort, before Cheriss spoke up once more.
“We would hate to rush you all off-world so quickly, but in the nature of trouble it waits for no-one, and there is something else we would like to discuss with you.”

Of course there is, when ISN’T there? Aria thought to herself with an odd sort of irony, but remained tight-lipped as she faced the Dathomirian.
“What sort of trouble?” the Champion enquired carefully, knowing it was futile to hope for something that could easily be solved.
“The Council feels that the vision we all shared on Voss could entail a warning of more threats to come. Centuries ago, Revan and Bastila disappeared from known space and we do not know what they may have found, but whatever it was it held enough importance to drive Manus, Soto and indeed perhaps even Bracknell himself, mad trying to find it.”

Please don’t ask us to go looking for it, please don’t ask us to go looking for it....
Unfortunately, Aria’s wordless pleas appeared to have no effect.
“Whatever this thing hidden on this unknown planet is, it MUST be found and destroyed or controlled before it further damages the galaxy as we know it.”
Shit. Why us? Why is it ALWAYS us?
“....Understood, but...where do you suggest we start?” Aria coughed. “The vision wasn’t exactly clear.”
“We believe,” Ailel continued where her counterpart had left off, “that another Jedi attempted to search for Revan and Bastila some years before. She may have left clues or a trail of some kind in the last place she was known to have travelled before she, too, disappeared.”
The more the Council spoke of their planned course of action, the heavier the air in the Chamber appeared to get, or perhaps it was simply Aria’s own emotions projecting this onto her environment. Regardless, the Champion felt her stomach turn uncomfortably before any Elder had even spoken the name of the planet.

“Malachor V.”
Aaaaannd they might as well ask us to shoot ourselves in the head.

When the Selonian entered the room, Yerbol suppressed the urge to gawk, eyes trained ahead at the horizon visible through the one way reflective glass pane that served as a floor to ceiling window(in fact, the entire half-moon shaped exterior of the room featured the same kind of decor). He knew of Selonians, had read about them in a few codex entries on galactic species way back in his initial training on Tython, but to see one in person was disarming and slightly jarring if he was being honest. While fully sentient and renown for their intelligence, Yerbol still couldn't get over how much they looked like...well, ferrets. Not that he would voice this opinion aloud EVER nor share this observation with his wife who might object to her husband comparing her brand new apprentice to a household pet. Kytra's demeanor, however, pushed some of the Champion's juvenile thoughts aside. She radiated a solemn humility, a quality that he hoped would actualize into her permanent set of behaviors; if so, she would be a valuable asset. He wished he could read his apprentice as easily as he gleaned an impression from Kytra, but Ethan was proving to be difficult to gauge. To be fair, the young man had just taken a massive step in his life and might be processing all that was going on. Yerbol would pick his brain later. For now, though, the Elders had a mission for them that tied directly back to the vision they shared on Voss. The Champion stayed silent as he listened to the initial exchange between the Elders and Aria, doing all he could to not snicker at the comment Aria made about their status as the Qyaari's enforcers across the galaxy. Any thought of humor went out the window when Malu began to string together a chain of thought that would eventually end in an undesirable conclusion:
"Those clues are sparse, but I knew of one who was rumored to work with the Exile. She was..." In a rare show of anxiety, Malu's shoulders shuddered, the cloth around Malu's eyes nearly dislodging at the force of the vibration. Almost all the Elders sat up, Matthew nearly jumping to his feet as he asked:
"Malu, are you-"
"Fine, Matthew...fine. Her imprint on me even through studying is still strong. Far too strong for my liking." After adjusting the cloth to fit more snugly, she cleared her throat and continued:
"Darth Traya was a powerful force, one that I had the unpleasant experience of studying about while under the tutelage of my Master, who said that I should be familiar with those who have influenced the Sith. Traya was extremely powerful, but always attempting to undermine those she felt were inferior to her despite rank(a common enough trait among the Sith, but she was vicious). A report I managed to steal from Imperial intelligence sheds light on what we're discussing now. A certain party of Imperial scouts and Sith Acolytes were deployed to an ancient Sith burial site on Duxun. They were sent there to recover relics that were reportedly found by a Sith Lord and her followers, but when they arrived the Lord and acolytes were murdered, Traya and a 'broken man beyond any sort of healing' standing in the midst of the carnage. They dispatched of the party, although they spared the scouts. A curious decision." She shook her head, attempting to reconfigure her approach before continuing:
"At that burial site, there were old tomes and ancient recordings that talked about two academies located on the very fringes of space that housed even more teachings of the Sith. No doubt with what we know now, these academies were more than likely established by those Sith who escaped the carnage their more 'balanced' forefathers heaped upon them. With no way to identify where those academies were, they were forced to return the relics to Korriban. After scavenging a bit in the archives on Korriban(again in a section that I should not have been in), the rest of this convoluted tale emerges. It was only a few years later when news of her death reached our ears, reported by a wookie named Hanharr who came to the Sith academy proclaiming not only her death, but a reward for his report. Naturally he was tortured and confessed that he had stalked a woman named Meetra Surik(who we now know as the Exile, although this is a misnomer which I can address later) to Malachor five, which was where Traya's resting place was. As to how the Wookie got to Korriban, he swore that he used a salvaged shuttle to get off planet, which was difficult to believe thanks to the unstable atmosphere, but scouts were sent to Malachor anyhow to determine if Hanharr was telling the truth. No one ever heard back from them nor subsequent scouting parties. I personally inquired as to the status of these parties as I rose through the ranks of the Order only to be blunted by irritated Inquisitors who said I shouldn't be asking about such 'romanticized tales' or Imperial security claiming I didn't have the 'proper clearance'. Eventually I had to give up entirely on my pursuit...and you will have to pick up where I left off."
"So...you're sending us to Malachor five?"
"Indeed we are." Matthew quickly followed up on Malu's response:
"Covertly, might we add. The entire Malachor sector of the Outer Rim is off limits to almost anyone."
"Can't you just ask Chancellor Saresh for permission?" A few groans from the Elders were accompanied with Matt telling the party:
"She handed off responsibility of negotiating Outer Rim territory issues to Vice Chancellor Won, who has made it very clear that no one is to go the Malachor sector of the Outer rim due to instability."
"What does that mean?" The Elder shook his head.
"No clue. But that won't stop us. If Saresh finds out, we'll explain ourselves then. This matter is too important for us to neglect."
"Right then, so we head to Malachor and find out if there's any hint of where the Exile went. I would be content with leaving now except that, as Malu pointed out, Malachor's atmosphere is too hostile for ships to enter."
"We talked about that and we have an expert in navigating difficult planetary conditions who will be joining you. She'll be waiting for you in the hangar along with a bit of a larger vessel to accommodate for the increased passenger load...and your hounds, which I assume you'll be bringing." A smirk creased Matt's features as he allowed any of the other Elders to speak parting words before he closed the meeting:
"We trust she'll get you on and off the planet safely. Report in as much as possible, especially if you need to travel any deeper into Wild Space. May the Force be with all of you."

The more Malu spoke of Traya, the more Aria felt a sudden case of the shivers coming on. The Champion was too young to remember hearing any real mention of the Sith Lord’s deeds, but mere mention of the name still made her blood turn cold. This was only affirmed as the Miraluka continued with her tale.
“Sounds delightful.” the Champion scoffed. “Malevolent Force spirits and a creepy graveyard planet....pretty much a regular day at the office by now, isn’t it?” although from the way she crossed her arms over her chest tightly, it was clear to any of the people in the room that were well acquainted with Aria, that the snippish remark was her own way of covering up her fear. “So, I hate to be THAT person but what, exactly, are you going to tell the Chancellors when they notice both the Qyaari Champions are MIA?”
“That is a concern for the Council and not yourselves.” Cheriss interjected, a knowing smirk painted across her facial features. “We cannot plan for every eventuality but we CAN assure you that we have contingencies in place to hopefully avoid you being discovered.”
“I don’t suppose anyone would be brave enough to try and follow us even if they DID find out.” the Champion responded gruffly. “Well...I suppose there’s nothing else for it then, is there?”
A fair point, however, was made as to how exactly they would land on Malachor. If one thought Zinuthra’s atmosphere was taxing on a ship, then Malachor V’s weather patterns made the Qyaari homeworld look like a gentle summer breeze.
“Perhaps we should not terrify the prospective Champions out of their first assignment before they’ve even left.” Ailel chuckled softly as Kytra stood up straighter as the conversation wore on, though to the Selonian’s credit she made very little verbal protest to the proposed scheme, beyond a muffled squeak of alarm. Aria shot her new apprentice a reassuring smile.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. They actually make it sound a lot more dangerous than it turns out to be, half the time.” Of course, Aria could not be sure that this was true, but the last thing she wanted was to terrify the trainee Champions out of their wits before they’d even left Zinuthra in the first place. Kytra’s whiskers quivered dubiously as she mulled over the assurance, though thankfully she did not question it and offered a firm nod. As Matthew closed off the meeting, Cheriss spoke a few cautionary words of her own:
“Be careful, and don’t take unnecessary risks. We know you are more than capable of dealing with it, but none of the Elders can tell you what you may find out there. Remember your training, and good luck.”

With little else to say on the matter, the Champions and their students were dismissed from the Chamber, the two youngsters keeping pace with the Champions as they made their way down the hallway.
“So, are we leaving straight away?” Kytra asked at length, breaking the silence which had stretched out just long enough to begin feeling awkward.
“Well, maybe not IMMEDIATELY.” Aria protested, “But certainly as quickly as possible...if it’s enough to get the Elders this worried then it must be important.” she offered another smile. “I won’t lie to you; as Champions you’ll probably spend more time off Zinuthra than you ever did as Knights. But it will be worth it, when your training is finished you’ll be leaders that every Knight, Apprentice and Acolytes will look to for guidance and Yerbol and I will do everything that we can to help you prepare for that.” With that, she waved the two youngsters off. “So, er...why don’t you go ahead and get yourselves ready, and meet us back at the hangar in the next hour or so, okay?”
Kytra dipped into yet another obeisant curtsy, skittering away with a mumbled “Yes, Master” before disappearing from sight. After Ethan, too, had left them, Aria let out the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding in, an involuntary shudder passing through her.
“I am NEVER going to get used to that.” she chuckled nervously, turning her head to glance in Yerbol’s direction. “I mean, telling people what to do is one thing but having them depend on US solely for guidance and listening to everything we say? Please tell me I’m not the only one of the two of us that finds it REALLY weird?” she shook her head slightly, their pace slowed somewhat but not completely as she gave him a moment to voice any of his own thoughts on the subject before she followed up with:
“Come on, let’s go and find the dogs...cause I’ll be damned if we’re going to Malachor without backup.” there was certainly worse help to have at hand than a pair of Force-sensitive hounds who would rip apart anyone (or indeed, anything) unsavory on a simple command in order to protect their perceived pack leaders. It would likely be disconcerting for their apprentices, Aria assumed, but it wouldn’t help to have extra teeth on hand in a battle. Kytra and Ethan could get used to Chwuq and Taral on their own terms, what was most important was that at least the beasts no longer seemed compelled to attack anything on sight; in fact in most cases now they waited for a command before they made any move at all and in fact had even proved rather valuable in defending other Qyaari besides the Champions, when it suited them. They learned quickly and seemed to have picked up on which life forms they should consider allies. Hopefully, it shouldn’t be difficult to introduce Kytra and Ethan into that rubric.
____________________________________

As promised, within the hour their apprentices arrived at the hangar where Matthew had claimed their pilot would be waiting for them, slowing to a stop before the two Champions and the Sith hounds. Ethan eyed the Tuk’ata from head to toe, while the hairs on Kytra’s tail stood on end as she tilted her head in their direction with equal parts curiosity and apprehension.
“Do they bite?” she squeaked, her eyes not leaving the beasts as she shifted the small pack that she carried over one shoulder. The only other thing she appeared to have brought was the lightsaber strapped to her belt. She’d packed light, clearly expecting them to run into trouble of some sort. The Champion had to admire their courage, both apprentices had still returned to the hangar as ordered. There certainly wasn’t anything that had been said in the Chamber that implied they didn’t have a choice in the matter, if they were REALLY so against the mission they very well could have refused to join them. And yet, here they were.
“Only when I tell them to.” Aria smirked good-naturedly, patting Chwuq between the ears and earning a low rumble of approval from the beast. “Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you. They’re well trained and well-fed.”

“Uff! Uff Uff!” all four Force users turned sharply as Taral let out a warning bark, his ears shooting forward as he gazed intently at something, or someone, approaching the group from the other side of the hangar.

While Kytra had the bravery to speak, Ethan remained silent and stoic for the most part. Yerbol thought he could see a trace of relief flash across his new apprentice's face when they were dismissed to gather their belongings, but then again the boy's face was hard to read. The Champion resolved within himself to at least try to drum up a conversation and gather some notion of who he was supposed to develop for the foreseeable future. When his wife voiced her thoughts on their recent appointment, all he could do was chuckle half-heartedly, giving her right hand a gentle squeeze with his left as he told her:
"No, it's weird. We normally are the ones taking the orders and flitting across the galaxy with little to no supervision. I mean, yeah we were in the classroom for a while, but we only saw those kids for what, an hour at a time three times a week? And even then we were pulled out for missions 'critical to the saving of the galaxy'. I suppose sooner or later, though, we would need to take on these roles. Although..." He folded his arms across his chest, leaning against the wall to their right before continuing:
"Why do you think others haven't just been 'appointed' to the role of Champion? Surely the former Masters, Inquisitors, Warriors and other high ranking Force users would be more than qualified to make the jump to the rank of Champion. Of course, they didn't thwart three galaxy wide threats, but if that's going to be the criteria for getting to Champion, then there won't be very many other than us." He nodded at her suggestion about finding the hounds, walking alongside as he mused one final time:
"I wonder how many others the Council will deem worthy...and how many we'll have to train."

______

The hounds spooked Kytra, but all they gleaned from Ethan was(once again) a stiff glance before he cast his eyes on the ship that stood about fifty yards away. It was then that he chose to speak for the first time in their company apart from the Elders, a deep bass voice echoing off the durasteel walls:
"That's a beautiful ride." As if on cue, the hounds barked in alert, eyes cast towards the hangar bay doors that were sliding open. A lone figure sauntered towards them, the lighting in the hangar obstructed by the ship which in turn didn't allow them to see who the pilot was. This didn't stop Ethan from proclaiming:
"If this is your bird, hats off to you. A Commodore X-80 is top of the line."
"Maybe if you're lucky, I'll let you sit in the co-pilot's chair." Her voice alone prompted a small blush from Ethan, who looked down at the ground before a familiar red-head emerged from the shadow of the Commodore with a tight-lipped smirk across her face.
"I knew it!"She chuckled, walking to the party before planting a hand on Yerbol's cheek.
"I missed you too." The duo embraced for a brief moment before she turned to Aria and mirrored the gesture, muttering into the Champion's ear:
"Both of you." She released partially from the embrace, looking into Aria's eyes as she added:
"We can talk later, yeah? Matt was insistent we get off world as soon as possible." Her lips parted for a moment, but after a shake of the head and releasing fully from the embrace, she looked over both Kytra and Ethan for a moment, eyes narrowing briefly as she spoke:
"I'm Netanya Orso or Neta for short. These two...well, four including the dogs, are familiar with how I operate, but you two aren't, so here's what I expect when you set foot on my ship: you do what I ask you to do no matter how crazy or stupid it seems, you don't EVER sit in my chair and DON'T hit the escape pod button. Simple enough?" Ethan cleared his throat before asking quietly:
"Will you actually need a co-pilot?" She looked to Ethan with a half-smile.
"Show me you know your stuff and we'll see about how much you can help. Starting...now. My dear Champions don't know much about ships, so what can you tell them about the Commodore X-80 that they would need to know?"
"Right, right..." His face was turning crimson red, which seemed even deeper thanks to the reddish tint that the lighting of the hangar was bringing out. Thankfully his perceived anxiety didn't paralyze him from fulfilling Neta's request:
"The Commodore is one of the first privately produced slipspace military vehicles, originated by Corellia SpaceWorks during the last war between Empire and Republic. It has two hyperdrives supported by slipspace capacitors, located there-" He pointed at the four square shaped protrusions from the ship's elongated body.
"It has a durasteel and carbon outer shell with shield generators embedded all across the hull. Interiors can be customized as much as possible, so not much is out there on standard options." Neta nodded in approval, looking to the Champions with a smile.
"Boy is smart. Keep him around."
"I do know there are turrets normally embed-"
"I think we're good on the info session today, kiddo." She shot the now almost purple faced Ethan a teasing smile that prompted the apprentice to look sideways at his new partner, mumbling something along the lines of: "Well she asked so I answered."

Neta lowered the rear loading ramp that extended from the hull of the ship just underneath the engines that Ethan pointed out by tapping her index and middle fingertips together, prompting Yerbol to cock a brow in surprise.
"Not only is the ship much more spacious than ours(no offense to the old girl), but you can control it with just your fingertips?"
"Biometric feedback controls are all the rage in Alliance special operations. I'll spare you the details, but this stuff would have come in handy when I was in the field." As they went up the ramp, the Champion asked:
"Odd to see you back in the field again. Thought you wanted to settle down?" She was silent for a moment, a sigh then escaping her lips as she responded:
"Just couldn't stay out of it. Especially not when the newly appointed General Onsu who just so happened to be your former commanding officer makes you a financial offer that'll make sure your kids will be taken care of long after you're gone." Once they reached the top of the ramp, Yerbol was about to ask about the pair, but instead chose to comment on the gleaming finishing coat that the fortified interior ship walls had:
"To think that the Alliance would splurge on a ship like this."
"Not a splurge; more like a trial run. Onsu got word of how we used slipspace to get out to this sector of Wildspace way back when Bracknell was trying to commit genocide and was ticked that Garza didn't follow up on trying to use it for more official business. Of course, after her resignation when Bracknell was deposed and Onsu took over as acting General, he did what he could to hire out companies and...crap this is boring. Let's just say that the Alliance has been up to a lot in the past couple of years, this being one of the results." She SAID this was boring, but the gleam in her eye and the quick strides that led them up a set of stairs to the upper portion of the ship screamed the very opposite.
"And I'd say that this particular result is pretty stinkin awesome." Indeed it was stinkin awesome, seeing as the upper portion of the ship consisted of the same luminescent styled interior below except for the wide hallways that broke off at several junctures, Neta taking them through the crew quarters, a meeting room, a miniature mess hall and a combat "informational center" that stood near the very front of the ship just before getting to the captain's quarters and cockpit respectively(Neta informed them of how stupid it was to have the captain quarters so close to the cockpit, seeing as a stealth fighter would want to target the captain first to disorganize the crew before mounting a full on assault).
"No one is assigned to any particular bunk, so you all go off and choose your own place to lay your head. I'll get us up and into hyperspace. Should take at least a day before we reach the Malachor system, so you'll have time to settle in. I'll call us all together on our final approach to discuss details. Dismissed." The last word was uttered with a wide smile as she turned on her heel and strode towards the cockpit, a metal door sliding shut to obstruct any potential visitors(Ethan) from peering in.
"Right then. Aria and I will find our quarters before maybe sharing a meal with you two?"
"I haven't eaten anything since breakfast...and that was an hour ago."
"What did you eat to be this hungry already?"
"What I always do: three eggs, three pieces of toast and half a bantha steak." Yerbol's face contorted in feigned(somewhat) disgust.
"Who on earth is feeding you people bantha steak in the dining hall? We've never gotten that!"
"I uh...I have some shipped from home along with some money to make sure...the...cooks...give them..to me.." Ehthan cleared his throat before promptly leaving the conversation, prompting Yerbol to shout after him:
"I want in on this illicit smuggling ring!" He looked down at his wife, shaking his head.
"Kids these days. Bribing cooks. The nerve."

Aria considered his point regarding the Council not appointing some of the older Force users as Champions, chewing her lip for a moment while she processed how to word her answer. “Or maybe they thought about it, or even asked them, and said Inquisitors, Warriors, whatever...refused?” the Champion shrugged one shoulder. “Just seems...a waste for them not to ask, like you said. But what if none of them are up for it? You heard Cheriss,” her cheeks puffed out and she furrowed her eyebrows together in her best rendition of the Elder’s stone-faced visage. “ ‘I’m getting too old for this Bantha poodoo!’ ” a quick inspection of the hallway to ensure Cheriss hadn’t been around to hear it confirmed they were safe and Aria relaxed again. “Some of the Inquisitors aren’t exactly spring chickens either...Ashara and Viqi don’t seem like they intend to stay around for very long now that Manus is dealt with, and Vano might complain about being bored up in the archives a lot but she’s not as sharp a fighter as she was before she lost her eye, I think she’d rather stay out of the line of fire as it were. And as for Kira….” Aria doubted the Knight would be back in action for a very long time, after the events of Voldon’s passing.
“So, it makes sense that they’d rather turn to younger, more willing individuals for the job.”

As Yerbol mentioned thinking of the amount of future Champions they would have to train, an involuntary shudder passed through her.
“Oh, I hope it’s not TOO many….I’d like to get to forty at least before I start turning grey, eh?”

_______________________________________

The low light of the hangar obscured the pilot’s face, but the immediate reaction from the dogs prompted the conclusion that it was someone familiar by the way they leapt to their paws and bounced around them, tails lashing excitedly. When the woman spoke, it was clear exactly who she was and hearing it again brought a broad smile to Aria’s face.
“Get down, you bumbling buffoons, you’re going to trip her up!” the Tuk’ata grumbled softly but slunk back to give Neta room to approach and embrace the two Champions one after the other.
“It’s good to see you too, Neta.” she murmured, stepping back as the pilot released her, indicating both of the youngsters beside them respectively. “This is Ethan and Kytra, Neta is an old friend of ours.”
“U-Uhmm..” Kytra raised a paw nervously as her whiskers twitched at the red-head. “But..which one is your chair, ma’am?”
“Just stay out of the cockpit unless she calls you and you’ll be fine, Kytra.” Aria chuckled.

As Neta voiced her approval of Ethan’s knowledge about the ship, Aria couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows and give a slight nod of her own.
“Very impressive.” the Champion gave an appreciative whistle as her eyes passed over the Commodore, she might not have had much knowledge about ships and how they worked but she could appreciate a well-made one when she saw it. “Well, certainly looks like you landed something leaps and bounds above the Icebox.” the Champion gave a conspiratorial wink. “I won’t tell the old girl, I promise.”
Of course, she was just as surprised as her husband to see Netanya Orso back in the field, but unlike Yerbol chose not to voice it. It would seem it was somewhat of a sensitive topic, if the changes in her expression were anything to go by. Aria decided to shelve the topic for later, perhaps. She was rather glad (if a little surprised at the ease with which it was done) when the pilot lowered the ramp and led them into the interior of the ship. Aria listened to Neta’s explanations, frowning somewhat at her declaration that the politics had been “Boring”.
“If this is what came out of it, I’d hardly call it ‘boring’, Neta…” she muttered incredulously as the pilot walked them through the layout of the upper most level. “This isn’t a ship, it’s a freaking summer house with a hyperdrive.” the Champion shook her head in amazement, “Whatever their reasoning for it, I have to agree, this is amazing.”

Before they could bombard Neta with any more questions, they were dismissed and the door to the cockpit closed. Aria chuckled at Ethan’s complaint about being hungry before pointing out:
“Well you might have to get used to eating less, kid...you’ll be living on more space rations when you’re planet hopping; not always easy to store proper food.” Ethan’s face couldn’t have become more flushed if he tried, the apprentice abruptly excusing himself followed by Kytra who seemed no less eager to be loitering about and getting under the Champions’ feet. Aria turned to face her partner, her eyebrows disappearing into her hairline.
“Or maybe it’s just a guy thing? OR you’re upset because there might finally be somebody on this ship that can eat more than you, hmm?” she shot him a mischievous grin, nudging his stomach lightly and sauntering away down the hallway that Neta had indicated led to the crew’s quarters. “C’mon, let’s go check everything out. I’m sure you boys can survive without food for another hour or two.”

__________________

Finding a bunk of their own was relatively easy, the Commodore seemed to have ample room for the amount of passengers currently aboard and it wasn’t long before the Champions were settled in their own room, deciding to give the apprentices some time to settle down and gather their thoughts before they re-convened again. Aria perched on the end of the bed, tilting her head slightly.
“I wasn’t expecting to see Neta again...not that I’m not glad for it, but doesn’t it seem...a bit odd to you?” she asked her husband, wondering if he felt the same way. “I hope nothing bad happened…” despite not having a connection to the Force, Neta was still incredibly hard to read (without invading her privacy and delving into her thoughts uninvited, which was just….wrong). The Champion sighed, leaning back on her arms and tilting her head towards the ceiling. “Y’know….of all the dangerous places we’ve been to in the last few years, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t REALLY nervous about this one.” she admitted at length. “I’d even take going back in time and reliving that first visit to Quensu over going to Malachor V.” a pause, followed by a sideward glance and a plea of. “Do NOT tell those kids I’m scared, please? They’re going to expect us to be calm and stoic and...leaders. But I think we both know anything could happen over there….”
_____________

“Not that I would want to make it sound like the Council doesn’t know what they’re doing but…” Kytra piped up in the middle of their meal. The two apprentices sat across from the Champions, having fallen into a comfortable silence after exchanging a bit of small talk beforehand. Kytra seemed to be deep in thought before the Selonian spoke up to voice some of her concerns. “...Are you SURE it’s safe for us to even go anywhere near Malachor V? The...the system is restricted for a good reason, the magnetic fields there are very powerful and I heard there was a...a device there that could have even come from the Star Forge that drains Force power and pulls ships right out of the air!” her whiskers quivered uneasily, wide-eyed as she shrank back into her seat a little as Ethan shot her a look that implied he was questioning either her sanity or her nerve to question their superiors. “I-I’m sure you’re well prepared Master b-but it’s just...I...I read a lot.” the Selonian squeaked, covering her face with her paws.
“You have nothing to worry about, Kytra.” Aria reassured her student, exchanging a glance with Yerbol. “It might be dangerous but it’s something you’re going to have to learn to deal with, with our help. Yerbol and I won’t let anything happen to you, just make sure you stay close and don’t wander off and I don’t see why we’ll have any problems on that front.” the Champion cleared her throat and pushed her chair back as Neta’s bubbly voice crackled to life on the intercom unit, beckoning them to the briefing room for the chat she had mentioned earlier.
“Try not to overthink it, let’s go and see what Neta has to say. It’s best not to keep her waiting.”

"Ok, so that's where you're wrong: I'm not upset about having a younger guy who can eat more than me; it's the fact that I was excluded from getting steak. Bantha steak, mind you. If you remember from our days working on Taris, Bantha steak, when prepared properly, is probably one of the best cuts of meat in the known(and unknown galaxy)." When they found their lodgings, which consisted of a slightly larger room than what they had on their personal vessel with a double bed taking up most of their quarters. They did have a bathroom, although this wasn't located in their quarters but(to the Champion's annoyance) a few feet directly across from their room. Taking a shower and making his way back to their room without anyone seeing would be an interesting sub-plot for their latest adventure.
As he examined the air vents currently blowing sub-arctic temperatures, his wife brought up the stigma and subsequent fears about actually descending onto such an infamous planet.
“I’d agree with you there about Quensu. We at least were going into uncharted territory and had ignorance as an ally; because let me tell you, if I knew that we had to go through Sith trials that involved fighting a half-blind dragon looking thing, I might have decided to let the pint-sized Acolyte accompanying me to go through most of it.” He then quickly added:
“Of course, that was a long time ago and I OBVIOUSLY would go with you now. But, you remember how we were before…well, you know. Us.” He planted himself next to her on their presumed bed for the next few months, placing an arm around her shoulders and kissing her head.
“And ‘Us’ is how we’re going to get through this. We’re an unshakeable team, Ari. Even with kids following us around, I know we’ll do our very best to ensure that whatever peril, doom or apocalypse we encounter won’t threaten a soul…or at least, as few souls as possible.” He looked down at her with a small smile, placing a hand in hers.
“I love you. Always.”
Their initial discussions revolved around Ethan’s preoccupation with space, the apprentice revealing that from his youth spaceships fascinated him with a kind of “elegant rapture” that couldn’t be replicated by anything else he had seen in his life. It was nice to see the boy opening up, his shock of chestnut-reddish colored hair bobbing as he gestured with veracity about the “Killer Wing X” series of fighters and new developments in slipspace that were “galaxy busting”. There probably weren’t very many students at the academy who shared his passion, so venting them to authority figures who were sort of obligated to get to know them was the next best option. Not to say Yerbol wasn’t happy to see the exuberance; in fact, Yerbol asked him a few clarifying questions about ship hypercannons and differences in post-Republic warships. After all, the Champion had served with Republic forces during the last galactic war and picked up a few bits and pieces about military technology.
There was a slight pause in discussion as Ethan swallowed another helping of flashed-dried chicken breast, allowing Kytra to bring up the solemnity of their operation. Yerbol chuckled slightly as Aria explained that the Selonian would have get used to being in danger almost all the time.
“She’s right, you know. The rank of Champion seems to have a lot of grave implications attached to it, but it won’t feel as bad if you watch us as we work. Not to say that we’re the best warriors in the galaxy, but conquering three different and almost successive threats to the known universe has taught us a thing or two about how to deal with danger.” Ethan quickly responded with:
“We heard a lot about what you two did…have done. It’s kind of exciting to know that we might be able to do the same.” He nudged Kytra excitedly and accidentally with an elbow, the enthusiastic apprentice apologizing as his face flushed, looking back down at his chicken with fabricated focus.
“Hopefully you can be even better than us. That’s the whole point of this ‘training’ thing. We want you to exceed us. Our job wouldn’t be complete until that moment happens.”
“Alright, up to the CIC. Gotta tell you what we’re in for.” Yerbol gestured at the speaker above the diminutive mess hall with a smirk.
“Ari’s right. She was former special ops and apparently in that particular division, no one liked to wait for anyone else. Neta can get us through anything, though, so pay attention to what she tells you. Of course, that won’t be a problem for one of us.”
Another flushed face.
The combat information center, or CIC as it would be known for the rest of their journey, was found right before the cockpit, nestled in a square shaped room with a row of computer terminals opposite of the entrance and a pedestal in the center of the room that served as an interactive holographic display. Neta stood on the left hand side of the pedestal, chewing on her bottom lip as her eyes traced over the star map that was littered haphazardly with small white orbs that represented planets. When the force users entered, she pointed at an orb near the right hand edge of the map.
“That’s Malachor five. We’ve got to get through most of the system before we get in sight of the planet.”
“And why would that be a problem? I mean, other than us being forbidden to travel here?” Neta snorted a chuckle.
“Won might think that issuing a decree from above will suddenly change illicit activity, but we all know that people who want to scavenge, raid or use the system as a haven for smuggling cargo will do so despite a politician’s ‘order’.”
“So what you’re saying is that others call the Malachor system home? I thought the whole system was inhospitable.”
“Some planets are, but Alliance drones sent into the area have come back with snapshots of what appear to be ships and settlements on a handful of planets. Granted, they’re few and far between, but what better cover would there be than a ‘ghost’ system?”
“Think they’ll bother us?”
“I’m preparing for that. Once we get within a few clicks of dropping out of hyperspace, you all will man the turrets until we get to Malachor five. From there…” She sighed, pinching Malachor five on the map in order to zoom in on the pockmarked surface.
“See the floating bits here and here?” She pointed to randomly shaped objects that floated around the planet in random patterns.
“This is ALL debris. Chunks of moon, asteroid and ship all come together to form a clunky barrier. Combine these two debris belts with the extremely dense gravitational pull that’s exerted from the planet’s stratosphere-“
“We’d crash in lightseconds.” Ethan gulped out.
“Yup.” A smile crossed her face.
“But, I’ve got a way around that. The gravitational pull of most planets in the Malachor system go in patterns thanks to the wacky effect that the moons have on…well, I’ll save you the trouble of reciting all that stuff and tell you that there’s a short period of time where the pull will be reduced.”
“So we fly in when that period of time is active? Doesn’t sound too bad.”
“Sure. Except that no one has surface scans of the planet. We can assess gravitational pull based on the movement of the debris in the stratosphere, but that same debris blocks any ability for imagery from drones.”
“Going in blind.” Yerbol grimaced, placing a hand on the pedestal as he mused aloud:
“How much time do we have before we’re grounded?”
“Approximately seven minutes from the time we get within thirty five thousand feet…or at least that’s the best intel we have.” The Champion looked down to Ari and asked:
“Remember what we did on Quensu? Think we could pull that off again

“Believe me, it can be a daunting thing to think about. But it's important to remember that's why you have a partner. More often than not, once you're Champions you'll be working together. Looking out for each other.” Aria explained. “There'll be times where it's not easy, but your ability to be resourceful and work things out will get you through it. Hopefully, that's what we can teach you to do.”
“I hope so.” Kytra managed to smile, reassured by the Champions’ words and certainly helped in her own confidence by Ethan’s infectious excitement about their latest mission. The boy had a ridiculous amount of knowledge on ships and space-faring tech for his age which Aria had to admit was startling, though she would not say so out loud. Thankfully, before the conversation could go on for too much longer, Neta had summoned them to the CIC for debriefing.
“Why would anyone want to live in a system full of space junk anyways?” Kytra frowned uncertainly as she studied the projection Neta had called up in front of them. “Even if it WASN’T illegal.”
“People that don’t want to be found, clearly.” Ethan supplied, only backed up by Neta’s assertion that criminal activity was rife within this sector.
“So we’re not going to get through to five without a fight.” Aria sighed heavily. “Even if we’re not flying visible Alliance colours when we approach, I’m pretty sure they’d recognise an Alliance transponder code when they saw it; they’d blast us out of the sky before we got a chance to say ‘don’t shoot’!”
“I don’t know if I like the idea of shooting people first…” Kytra mumbled. “Seems a little, below the belt…”
“Either that or they’ll do the same to us.” Aria shrugged her shoulders. “We don’t have to blast them into chunks, just take out their guns if they start shooting, so we can get through.”
It only took one look at Neta’s dour expression to know that the smugglers, vagabonds and other assortment of miscreants would be the LEAST of their worries when they jumped out of hyperspace. “....Okay, Neta, what are we looking at?” the Champion asked, turning to face the former spec ops soldier. As the redhead zoomed in on the planet and indicated the floating chunks of vastly varying shapes and sizes that orbited the space around Malachor V, Aria grimaced silently. Kytra stood up straighter, her beady eyes fixated on the “debris”.
“...That’s a lot of debris….didn’t think it’d look this bad.” the Selonian admitted. “There’s got to be a way for us to get through it.”
“Not without knowing what the gravitational patterns are, and without surface scans…” Aria shook her head slowly. “The chances of us getting those aren’t looking good.”

In the back of her mind, she became aware of Yerbol’s idea as it came to him, turning her head to face her husband as he verbalised the train of thought.
“I don’t know....” she admitted. “Maybe?”
“Do what?” Kytra looked between the two Champions, her ears flattening against her head.
“When the Qyaari, before we BECAME the Qyaari in truth, first came into the region where Zinuthra and Quensu are found, we used the Force in order to manipulate the air eddys around the ship to get us to ground safely.” Aria explained. “Or else we would’ve never gotten through the electrical storms without ending up part of the planet’s mountain feature.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Kytra’s optimistic smile faded slowly as the Champion before her pinched the bridge of her nose and heaved a sigh, weighing their chances.
“The problem is that this ship is a lot bigger than the old one, and there are only four of us here. The amount of energy it’d take to move a ship this big could kill one of us.”
“Hrrrmm?” Chwuq’s head butted into the Champion’s hand, the tomb beast snuffling loudly as if to remind her of it’s presence on board. “...Okay, six of us.” Aria amended. “But even then, it’s a big risk...”
And their alternative was to be blown into space dust before they even touched the planet’s surface. Just another routine day in the not-so-office, of course.
“If we can’t move the ship, could we move the debris AROUND the ship?” Kytra suggested, her brow knitted together tightly.
“The risk would be much the same, reaching out through the ship’s hull to get a grip on it...either way, we’re not gonna touch the ground if we don’t shift SOMETHING around.” Aria huffed, clasping her hands together as she stared at the hologram and chewed her lip. “It’s just a question of which one is most likely to yield good results. If we focus and work together we should be able to pull it off.”

“In that case, if it’s alright Master I think I should like to retire until we get there. I’d like to meditate, get some practise in and make sure I’m ready.” Kytra requested.
“I can hardly refuse that.” Aria nodded in agreement. “Off you go, both of you. Neta will contact you through comms when the time comes.” when both the apprentices had been dismissed and the Champions were left with their pilot in the CIC, Aria turned to face the redhead once more.
“It really is good to see you again, Neta.” she managed a faint smile, “Although, and don’t take this the wrong way, I REALLY wasn’t expecting to see you out in the field again for, well...ever. Thought you’d be home, with the kids.” a worried frown creased the Champion’s expression. “Neta did...did something happen on Alderaan? I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but….?”

Yerbol stayed silent while the others discussed a possible plan of action, the Champion knowing that Aria was right: both options were risky, but then again, when wasn't something risky on any operation they had taken on? They'd figure it out, especially since they had just started on their journey towards the infamous Malachor system. The Force users and Neta have had to come up with more death defying stunts on shorter time limits.

It was Kytra's request for meditation that broke Yerbol's spell of quiet.
"Good thinking, Kytra. Meditation is a tool that we've learned to trust over the years. I'd suggest the same for you, Ethan." A frown briefly creased the boy's features, but it was quickly replaced by the familiar mask of stoicism and a nod before he walked off with Kytra. Yerbol was ready to comment about their apprentice's respective approaches to preparation before Aria engaged in a conversation with Neta, the former bringing up a good point. Why had Neta REALLY join up with the Alliance again? He thought she had made it very clear that she was out of doing perilous jobs for the sake of galactic peace for the rest of her days...although a particular comment Neta made at their wedding almost a year ago suddenly came back to the forefront of his mind. Hadn't she said something about a comeback? Or was he remembering things incorrectly? In either case, he would hear the response from the source after Aria had trailed off in an attempt to goad their pilot into speaking.
"I ah..." Neta looked down at the pedestal, right hand waving over a green panel that turned off the holographic display.
"I guess I just couldn't stay away." She looked at the duo with a sad half-smile, the normal sparkle in her near aqua colored eyes noticeably gone.
"Being on Alderaan with Vivi and Iris was wonderful, almost like a fairy tale...too much like one at times. Even had a prince charming for a few months." She stepped backwards a couple of feet, leaning against the only wall that wasn't blocked by computer terminals or other random bits of technology and shoving her hands into her pockets as she continued at a slightly lower decibel:
"Then it all just ended. My 'prince' got caught in the crossfire of rival gangs fighting over what little turf they had left on Nal Hutta and died on the spot. I thought...I guess I thought that he was going to give me my last piece of normalcy, you know? Hadn't felt that way since Vivi senior was around and to see a second chance at having even a fraction of what I once had get gunned down in a back alley was..." She blew out a sigh, back of her right hand wiping away a sliver of a tear before she continued:
"When I got the news, I was pissed. Furious, even. But after doing some thinking, I realized I wasn't mad JUST because Laird had died, but to know that I couldn't have done anything to stop it, that I was so removed from getting rid of all the gunk in the galaxy, was almost just as maddening. Maybe it was self-righteousness, the Force, I don't know, but right then I KNEW that I couldn't stand by and let anyone else experience that hopeless feeling of any chance of a normal life being taken away from them. So I reached out to Onsu, who I served with back in the days when the Republic and Imperials were at each others throats in the shadows thanks to whatever latest peace treaty had been enacted, and asked if I could be reinstated. He was thrilled, wanted to see me back in action right away. I ah..." She cleared her throat, wiping away yet another tear.
"I couldn't give him an answer until I talked to my kids, told them how I was feeling as best as I could without confusing them with 'adult' feelings. They were mad, confused, horribly sad that I was leaving, but I think somewhere deep down they knew it was bound to happen sooner or later, that Mom would have to leave again." Her hands curled into tightly clenched fists for a brief moment before they released.
"Onsu was great. Had the kids set up at a boarding school reserved for Alliance ambassadors kids on Alderaan, which, I gotta say, seemed to actually excite the kids a bit. Iris cried when I left, but you know what Vivi said to me? He goes up to me, puts his hand on my hip and channels his best senior impression: 'I know you'll come home, Mom. Just don't leave us waiting for too long.' and then walks off!" A hearty laugh.
"I don't know if I should be proud of him or saddened by the fact that he's shaping up to be a military type just like the two of us were...are." She placed a hand on her forehead, massaging her temples as she continued:
"So that was, what, a few months ago? Five? I think? Anyway, I ran a few minor operations in the Core Worlds when Onsu told me that I was specifically requested by the Qyaari Council of Elders for an operation just a couple of days ago. He wouldn't tell me what the operation was, but he did tell me that I would be perfect for the job."
"Something tells me that the Council and Onsu have a good working relationship." Yerbol commented, looking to Aria with a smirk before telling her:
"I think the Council, for all of it's disdain of politics, made a very powerful ally. Either that or Onsu really doesn't like Vice Chancellor Won." Neta chuckled before responding:
"Sweetie, NO ONE likes Won. He's arrogant, entitled, smug and every other synonym that describes a politician; but that also means that he knows how to turn on the charm when he needs to, which would explain why Saresh has him in charge of not just economic operations within the Core worlds, but military operations in some parts of the Outer rim."
"Sounds like he's running half of the Alliance."
"Acts like it, too." She shook her head, motioning to the ship.
"Although I can't fault him for his insistence on privatizing our manufacturing. When Coreilla was razed, the Republic lost most of it's ability to manufacture government issue weaponry, ships and armor. Won shifted the focus to the private sector and the quality of our tech shot up. More expensive, but the share that the Hutts decided to give us of their casino profits almost made up for the windfall." A smile had grown slowly on her face before she added:
"Aaand you guys don't care about any of this, do you?"
"Actually, it's fascinating. I'd love to hear more when we're not plunging into a forbidden star system."
"That's fair. Speaking of, you two want to tell me how we're going get down there?" The Champion pursed his lips, asking for Neta to turn on the map once more before speaking:
"I don't think we'll be able to muster the kind of power we'll need to move debris around the ship. Last time we tried something like this, we had former Jedi Masters and Sith Lords with us to help while in a smaller vessel. Now, it's us and two apprentices in the equivalent of a space yacht. We'll need to use something else."
"We could..." Neta giggled for a brief second before catching herself.
"Sorry, sorry, the thought of..." She took a deep breath before she added:
"No one has EVER done something like this before, BUT we could attempt a suicide jump."
"A...a what?"
"A suicide jump. I put you four in the shuttle situated just beneath the cockpit and drop you out of the bay JUST as I'm exiting hyperspace. My exit point would be plotted right above the debris field, which is where you'd navigate through the debris and THEN you can attempt your Force navigation trick once you get closer to the stratosphere." Not wanting to ask why the maneuver was called a 'suicide jump', Yerbol inquired:
"Ok, so even IF, IF, we managed to complete a never before done 'suicide jump', how would we get back up to you?"
"Well...we'll figure that out when we get there, won't we?" Grumbling something incoherent, Yerbol thought for a few moments before looking between his wife and their daring pilot, saying:
"In theory, this could work...much better than charging in with our entire ship." He looked to Aria.
"How do you feel about this?"

Aria chewed her lip silently as Neta recounted her story, the Champion finding herself at a loss for words. She couldn’t imagine the strength of will that the pilot possessed to keep herself going after losing yet another loved one in much the similar way as her first husband. “I’m sorry, Neta….But for what it’s worth, it sounds like your kids take after you too, they’ll be fine.” she offered a reassuring smile. “And I promise we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that you get back to them.”

As the topic at hand turned to how they would get down to the surface of Malachor V, however, the Champion fell momentarily silent as Yerbol asked for her opinion on Neta’s suggestion. In her mind’s eye, she saw brief flashes of memory: blaring alarm sirens, the scream of warped metal, sour kolto burning her lungs and eyes as she breathed it in, quickly pushing it away to keep her thoughts objective rather than overridden by her own fears. Still, the Champion faced Neta with a slight grimace to her features.
“No offence, Neta, but the callsign of this maneuver alone doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in its success.” she sighed, running a hand through her hair. “But I suppose it DOES have some merit to it, steering a little shuttle between the four of us would be close enough to the size of the ship we navigated before...so it WOULD be possible.” her frown turned back to Neta then. “But then what about YOU, Neta? How long can you dodge debris up here in this ship? Not to mention comms-wise we’d probably be radio silent, I doubt we could get ANY kind of signal through those electro fields, from the surface at least….Not that I doubt your abilities in any way Neta, but this isn’t Quensu, it’s a literal graveyard for hundreds of ships and planets. It’s not safe to hang around in, and who knows what we’ll find down there.” a pause, then: “I don’t like it. At all. But I don’t suppose we have much of a choice at all if we want to find out what happened to Revan and Bastila. This is our best shot at getting down there to check it out.”
Clearing her throat, the Champion shuffled her feet. “But if you don’t mind, I think I might take up Kytra’s suggestion myself, I’ve got to clear my head before we drop out of hyperspace, if we’re REALLY going to pull this off.”

_________________________________

The shuttle that Neta’s ship was equipped with was far more high-tech and sturdy than the rickety old thing which the Qyaari had first boarded on their journey to Zinuthra in the company of Roan and the others, and that in itself was reassuring.
“So...how does this work again?” Kytra mumbled as she strapped herself into her seat. The interior was somewhat cramped, with two full grown men, two Sith hounds about the size of a grown man apiece and a slightly smaller human and Selonian cramped into the smaller corners (by their own suggestions, since they could fit more comfortably than either of the men).
“When Neta drops the shuttle after we come out of hyperspace, we should be able to clear the worst of the debris field so that we can use the Force to push and pull the shuttle through the eddy currents of the stratosphere.” Aria explained as she settled into her own seat, both hounds close by. She turned towards her husband, asking:
“Do you think you’d be able to throw a shield around the shuttle, like we did last time? Then the rest of us could help you maintain it. That would mean we’d have a bit more leeway for stray debris bumping into us, we don’t want to damage this thing if we can help it, we might need it to get back up again.”
“Are you sure we’ll make it all the way to the ground?” Kytra squeaked, her whiskers quivering in anxiety.
“Ninety nine percent confident.” the Champion nodded her head, “We managed it before. Of course, there’s no way to GUARANTEE it but the calmer your thoughts while you’re trying to work, Kytra, the easier it will be.”
“That’s easy for you to say, YOU’RE not afraid of anything!” Aria wanted to scoff at the rife inaccuracy of that comment, but felt that doing so would be rather unhelpful, the last thing they needed was to be making the youngsters any more nervous than they already were. Instead, she simply chuckled and shook her head.
“I know it’s easy to say and difficult to do, but just try to keep your head on straight, okay? If it helps, try not to think of this as the “life or death” situation and try to think of it as just another classroom meditation drill.”
“With chunks of asteroid and space debris bumping into the windows every few seconds?!”
“Close your eyes and plug your ears, then.” Aria retorted calmly. “Trust me, you don’t NEED to see anything to be able to do this, you only need to feel the currents within the Force, and you can do that without concentrating so much on what it IS that you’re moving.”
Kytra fell quiet, the contemplative frown on her face a telltale sign that she was considering her Master’s instructions and logically trying to analyse their likelihood of success. The Selonian finally lifted her head again and glanced across at Ethan.
“Do you think we can do it?”

Yerbol agreed with his wife's suggestion, the duo retreating to their room to meditate in peace. Their shared meditation technique was still something that they were continually improving on, but the calm that he felt now as opposed to when they first started it was serene. Of course, when they first started sharing their minds, they were far from married(or even in love) at that point, so both were keeping their guard up. Now, with no secrets between them, the process flowed much smoother. They had stayed in meditation until Neta broke them out of their trance with a blaring command to get to the shuttle and "strap in for a wild one!", which of course didn't do any favors for comforting their apprentices; however, Ethan seemed to be taking his first venture as apprentice rather well. His hands trembled ever so slightly as he slid into the pilot's chair upon Yerbol's request, nodding at Aria's question before responding:
"The three of us can focus on making sure the barrier stays around the ship as Ethan guides us through the debris...isn't that right, Ethan?" There was a moment of pause before Ethan answered with a slight wobble in his voice:
"R..right. We'll get through this. This shuttle has got all the bells and whistles it needs to get us through the field in one piece." His answer grew more confident in tone as he spoke, Yerbol noting that Ethan was already getting comfortable with the idea of a potentially suicidal operation, albeit he hadn't actually been deployed yet. If the young man kept up that confidence, he would be just fine.

Yerbol strapped into a seat closest to the rear of the shuttle, eyes closing slowly, perception reaching outward into the vast currents of the Force. It pleased him to feel his grasp on the Force energy around him wasn't as loose as it was just a couple of days ago. Maybe being out in the field again was just what he needed or-

"Drop coming in two minutes, kiddos! Bay doors open from below, I drop you and then I'll pull out to a safe distance! Assuming I can't stay in radio contact, I'll be in a holding pattern until I catch word from you...or I get impatient and try to get down there myself. Whichever comes first." The pilot was silent for a moment before she said at a much lower decibel level:
"This risk you all are taking...I pray to whatever god is out there that this is worth it. Drop in one minute!"
"Ethan-"
"Engine power coming online. Primary and secondary thrusters activated...nav on!"
"Thirty seconds!"

Harmony with the Force. That is your calm.

"Drop...now!"

The Champion felt like his innards contorted in several painful and unusual directions as the vessel left hyperspace and simultaneously dropped their shuttle into Malachor V's orbit, Ethan letting out a steady stream of curses as he slammed several buttons on the control panel in front to stabilize the thrusters, the viewport alarmingly filled with all sorts of floating debris that Ethan dodged by swiftly throttling downward, looping around shattered remains before he asked in a piercing shout:
"DO WE HAVE SOMETHING AROUND US?! BECAUSE THINGS ARE ONLY LOOKING WOR-OH COME ON!" The left side of the shuttle was rocked by a chunk of asteroid, Ethan compensating by rolling the shuttle to the right and down again, their speed accelerating vehemently towards the planet's surface. Yerbol didn't respond to his apprentice's harried query, instead focusing on balancing his own Force energy with the chaos around him, channeling the turbulent waves of power into a translucent sphere around the shuttle just in time to deflect an intact turret that somehow managed to survive Malachor's atmosphere. The deflection prompted a shooting pain to careen down his right side, distracting his focus. That hadn't happened the first time they did this. Why woul-

Another collision saw acute pain run down the Champion's spine, his teeth grinding together as he refocused.
"Entering the stratosphere now! Gonna need stabilization!" Yerbol was counting on Aria and Kytra to keep their ship from plunging into the rocky surface below, even more so when the shuttle began to vibrate menacingly.
"Electrical storm! Son of a bantha feeder...HOLD ON!" Bolts of lightning jammed against the barrier, some of the currents seeming to run through the shuttle's surface into the Champion's body.
"Twenty thousand feet! Storm is dissipating...need a landing zone, need a FREAKING LANDING ZONE!" As they flew out of the remains of the storm, Ethan triumphantly shouted:
"THERE! A CLEARING! GOING IN FOR A LANDING! GONNA BE SOME SHARP TURNS!" As they would find out later, the clearing that Ethan spotted from so far above was marked by the shuttle's nav computer, which also warned that it was located between two mountainous peaks that provided little room for their shuttle to squeeze into. It would explain the stomach churning rolls, turns and profuse swearing.

"ONE HUNDRED FEET! CLOSING IN ON...NOW!" The bottom of the shuttle collided with the ground, skidding several hundred feet across the desolate grey landscape punctuated by jagged mountain peaks and lightning jutting across the horizon. When the shuttle came to a halt, Yerbol slumped forward in his chair, eyes still closed.
"We did it...we did it!" Ethan undid his safety harness, looking back at the retinue with a grin.
"WE DID IT!" The triumphant cry was what snapped Yerbol back to consciousness, eyelids crawling open, hands vibrating as he fumbled with his harness. He tried to voice his frustration aloud, but couldn't thanks to his throat feeling like it had been sanded down to almost non-existent. Instead, he reached out through he and Aria's bond, asking meekly:

Ari...could you ...help me with this?

"Wait, is Yerbol ok?"

Kytra was no less eager for their impending drop than Ethan was, the Selonian’s paws trembling as she situated herself in a seat across from the two Champions.
“I-I don’t know about this!” she squeaked as Neta’s voice warned them of thirty seconds left to prepare. “Can’t I stay with Neta?”
“No.” Aria shook her head firmly, stifling a chuckle of amusement. “You’ll never learn anything if you spend all your time hiding on the ship. Relax, we can do this.” as her apprentice took some calming breaths, Aria addressed their pilot instead. “Hey Neta....you be careful up here, okay? It’s no good if none of us get back to Zinuthra. Don’t do anything stupid.” this time, she couldn’t help but bark a short laugh, this was all so backwards - usually, Neta was the one telling HER to be careful, but somehow she had a feeling Neta would be in just as much (if not more) danger up here amongst the flying debris, as they would be on the planet’s surface. Before she could wait for an answer from Neta, however, the pilot announced the drop and Aria’s gut twisted uncomfortably as she was overcome with the sensation of free-falling at high speed.

Here we go. There was no time for theorising and analysis now, this was it. Now or never. The Champion drew in a deep breath to steady herself, shutting her own eyes so she could better focus on the task at hand as Yerbol extended a shield barrier around the craft. The maneuvers which Ethan had to perform in order to prevent them from being bumped out of space before they even hit the atmosphere were enough to turn her guts inside out, but somehow - whether it was adrenaline or meditation in the Force or a combination of both, she kept her head on straight and extended her senses outwards, finding the individual eddy currents that surrounded them. A gentle push outwards here, a pull inwards there...this required a lot more finesse than the shuttle over Quensu had and she was grateful for more experience this time around which allowed her to work despite the constant pitching and rolling of the ship around them as Ethan tried to avoid the flying projectiles. She heard Kytra squeak opposite her as they plummeted rapidly towards the surface, gritting her teeth as the ship slipped slightly when the apprentice lost her focus.

The residual pain that radiated down her spine was completely unexpected and powerful enough to jolt the Champion’s eyes open in shock. She knew that what she felt through their bond was only a fraction of the agony her partner was feeling, and yet it was still enough to distract her focus from her work. The ship wobbled violently as they plunged nose-first into the electrical storm, and if Ethan’s cursing was anything to go by, they were heading for a collision course with the surface if she didn’t do SOMETHING. It had been a long time since she had blocked him out of her mind, and under any other circumstances she would abhor the thought, but if she didn’t shut this pain out they’d crash...sure as Bantha poodoo. Thankfully, throwing up a temporary barrier worked well enough to allow her to grab back control of their careening transport before it was too late, the nose pulled level as electricity crackled over the shield around them. Aria gritted her teeth, dispersing some Force lightning across the barrier in an attempt to deflect the worst of the electricity as Ethan frantically searched for a landing zone.
“Just land SOMEWHERE! It doesn’t matter at this point, just get us out of the damn sky!!!” Aria’s hands clenched into fists as she tried to keep the ship on a steady course, but found her grip steadily slipping without any assistance. “KYTRA, I NEED YOU TO HELP ME KID, COME ON!”
“SORRY, I’M SORRY!” Kytra squealed in apology, thankfully snapping out of whatever fear-induced stupor had previously been held over her as at that point, the weight of the transport lessened and it no longer felt as if Aria were trying to maneuver it completely by herself. Mere seconds after Ethan announced the one-hundred feet mark, the bang as the shuttle collided with the surface rang all through the compartment, forcing the last breath from the Champion’s lungs as she was thrown forward, then back again in quick succession. Something in her neck cracked unnaturally and Aria swore loudly as the spacecraft ground to a screeching stop.

As Ethan and Kytra gave a few celebratory cheers (which looked quite comical, considering that Kytra’s fur was standing on end due to the violent descent they had just made, giving her the appearance of a giant, brown puffball that waved its tiny appendages through the air while whooping triumphantly), Aria brought a hand up to rub the back of her neck in the hopes that the worst of the pain would subside in doing so.
Yerbol’s question jolted her back into focus, the Champion immediately unstrapping herself and twisting in her seat to face her partner.
“Hey, is Yerbol okay?” she glanced over her shoulder at Ethan and Kytra as he inquired after their other teacher, managing what she hoped was an encouraging smile.
“He’ll be fine, he just needs a minute.” though the slight crack in her voice as she spoke betrayed her lack of certainty, “Ethan, why don’t you take Kytra and have a look around the area...see if there’s a way for us to get out of this clearing without a transport, or a compound or something nearby that we can aim for. DON’T go too far, and if you see anything remotely suspicious, DO NOT engage and come straight back, alright?”
“Yes, Master!” the Selonian saluted, quickly ducking out of the doorway and disappearing from sight. Ethan was less quick to obey, lingering to throw concerned glances in his mentor’s direction until Aria shot him a withering glare that sent him hurrying after Kytra. Sending them away and giving them something to occupy their thoughts seemed like a good way forward until she was sure what was wrong with Yerbol, there was no use frightening them any more than they already were. They had a long way to go still.

With the two youngsters out of earshot, she knelt beside him and helped him free of the harness, gently cupping his face in her hands as the questions rushed out in a single breath, almost melding into one she spoke so fast.
“Are you okay, what was that, what happened?!” she huffed out a sharp breath, leaning forward to touch her forehead to his as she funnelled some of her own energy through their bond, just enough to give him some of his strength back. “Can you stand? We should try and get you outside, into the air...it’s probably not ‘fresh’ air, but it’ll be better than in here.” a wry smirk twitched across the Champion’s features as she planted a quick kiss to his lips and stepped back, offering him her hand to help him up. “Take it easy, okay? I don’t want you collapsing on me.” they made their way slowly out of the crashed shuttle and stepped out onto a charred, black landscape that was barren as far as the eye could see. Not a single sprig of vegetation was present, in fact the “clearing” which Ethan had thought they were put down in turned out to be a flat outcrop of ground surrounded by gargantuan-sized cliffs that jutted up several hundred feet into the air and formed an almost bowl shape around them. Kytra and Ethan were easily visible as small specks in the distance, steadily growing into more recognisable persons as they made their way back over to report their findings.
“It looks like this is just a big valley.” Ethan mumbled, shifting his weight nervously.
“There’s a pathway dead ahead that looks like it heads up and out.” Kytra explained. “But till we get up there it’ll be hard to tell...can’t see anything over these cliffs.” the Selonian’s fur had settled down since the crash, but had not laid completely flat and still prickled with unease as she looked between the two Champions. “I don’t like this place, Masters, it feels….twisted.”

Aria could not berate her apprentice for her trepidation. She could feel it herself, the cloying presence of evil wreathed around every rock and crack in the earth. As if to re-inforce their fears, a bright green bolt of electricity suddenly knifed through the murky sky above their heads, tinting everything in an eerie, green light for a few moments before it faded away again. Seconds later, the clap of sound detonated like a shot from a rifle, so loudly that it almost felt as if it permeated through the floor and into their bones.
This planet had more Dark Side energy than Korriban and Dromund Kaas had ever had put together. The feeling of destruction and loss that dominated here was worse than anything the Qyaari scouting party had ever experienced in their lives.
“Neither do I, Kytra. But we don’t exactly have a choice.”

When she unstrapped him from the ship's webbing and personal harness, he wanted to fall flat onto his stomach and reside on the shuttle for the duration of their mission on Malachor, but Aria provided enough of a jolt to his system that managed to restore some of his senses back to working condition. His eyes, which had closed upon their foreheads touching, opened to find her dark irises searching his for answers. Goodness her eyes were beautiful. One of her best features, albeit she wouldn't find satisfactory responses to her questions in his gaze. He was hard pressed to find answers himself.
"I don't know." He shook his head, hands bracing against the seat right as Aria suggested that they get him outside into something that wasn't a pressurized tube. The Champion chuckled, nodding.
"Fair enough. It'll be nice to stand on solid ground rather than feel like our insides are being contorted." He looked up just as she smirked, kissing him before offering a hand up.
"I ought to be in a state like this more often if it means I get that response." He took her hand, using a combination of Force, momentum and physical strength to get to standing. The Champion nearly tumbled forward, but a steadying brace from Aria helped him regain some of his composure. Not wanting to lose the moment, he looked down at her before adding:
"If a kiss is equated to being nearly incapacitated, then what would other...activities require?" Expecting a hearty slap on the chest, Yerbol quickly offered:
"Hey, I'm entitled to a crack or two. We're on a desolate rock renown for bloodshed and death. Might as well get them in now."

The clearing that Ethan had managed to land the ship in had no flora or fauna, instead featuring grey, barren landscape that stretched outward into massive mountainous peaks that jutted sharply into the atmosphere. Surprisingly, Yerbol saw that Ethan and Kytra were walking towards them without any delay or side effects of the extreme gravitational pull that so obviously would have killed them in their arriving shuttle. How did the planet manage to sustain such harsh gravitational conditions for ships, yet not affect those who set foot on it's surface? Something to file away for another time, seeing as Kytra and Ethan came with a report of a path that led up past the mountains. Yerbol nodded at Kytra's observation, speaking after the crackle of green energy surged above them:
"When you go to a place that has chaos and violence steeped into it, the Force will twist itself to fit the landscape." Thoughts of Illesia's tomb on Quensu and the creatures he and Aria fought in the tombs Renso had them train in came to mind, the Champion banishing the temptation to ruminate on the past before standing upright on his own.

I think I got it from here. Thank you. And yes, I'll tell you if I'm feeling weak again. And yes, I love you too.

The Champion shot his partner a quick wink, Ethan asking:
"Yerbol, is your eye alright?" A snort of a chuckle.
"Yeah, I'm good. Come on, the quicker we find out where Revan and the Exile went, the faster we can get off this forsaken rock."

The path that the apprentices found led upward, flanked between the mountains. As they trekked upward, the rockface walls receded to the point where the party could look back and spy the shuttle they arrived on in the distance. While they were far, one could still make out trails of smoke coming up from the vehicle.
"Guess I'll have to do some work on it before we set off again." Ethan commented, looking to the masters with apologetic intent.
"You got us down here, Ethan. I'm confident you'll get us up again...if for no other reason than to impress our pilot." Ethan blushed, turning his head from the shuttle to the now level path that snaked around pillars of rock and basalt rising from chasms that featured viridian-like magma oozing from the planet's core, undulating beneath the surface.
"Qyaari training tip of the day: don't fall into those." Ethan chuckled slightly at his master's jest, the smile that formed from the laughter disappearing the moment that the Qyaari found themselves looking down at where the sloping path took them.
"So many directions." Yerbol quietly commented, looking over the snaking, branching paths below that ran into each other so many times that it was nigh impossible to determine where the beginning or end of the paths were; however, in the distance, they could see that there was indeed a path that led over yet another set of mountainous peaks. To the east lay the tail end of what looked like a Republic cruiser, the trademark tail fin rising above the maze. The west had no such marker.
"Should we split up?" Ethan offered, Yerbol shaking his head in protest.
"No chance in a place like this. We stay together and head to that cruiser. Hopefully we can salvage something from the wreck that might give us a clue where to look for Revan."

Down below, shimmering shapes slithered, heads tilted up towards the newcomers. Stomaches roared with hunger, with the desire to rend bone from flesh. Finally.

Aria raised her arm as if to hit him in retort for his cheeky comment, but then froze in mid-air as if thinking better of the gesture, given his current fragile state.
“It’s not funny, Bol. I was really worried about you.” she shot back at him, . They wasted no time in beginning the trek up the cliffside, though the party did stop very briefly to look down at the damaged transport. As Ethan apologised for the state the landing had left it in, Yerbol was quick to reassure his apprentice that he had done the right thing, and Aria supplemented it with a nod of her own, telling the boy:
“You’ve nothing to apologise for, Ethan. A ship can be fixed, getting one of us killed can’t. What’s most important is you got us down all in one piece, we can fix the ship one way or another.”
“Why is it green?” Kytra muttered as she too, studied the magma with trepidation. “That can’t be normal…”
“Dark side energy, possibly, or some other kind of mineral in the rocks.” Aria shrugged. “We may never know, and I wouldn’t advise leaning in to get a closer look.”

They all fell abruptly silent as they came to the top of the rise and found themselves staring at a labyrinth of likely-impassable pathways.
“Oh, for Force sake.”
“It could take us days to figure that out…”
Ethan’s suggestion of splitting up, unsurprisingly, did not go down well with either of the Champions.
“No.” Aria protested just as quickly, but fell silent as her partner continued his train of thought and put forward a plan of action. “Yerbol’s right, it’s too dangerous. Force knows what could be waiting for us in there, and we may never find each other again. We’ll have to stick together and hope that there’s some kind of clue to guide us onto the right path to the other side.”
After some time spent squinting at the snaking pathways, pointing and deciding just which one was most likely to take them to their end goal, the Qyaari began to pick their way back down the other side of the slope, completely unawares of the danger they were about to walk right into.

Nothing at all had seemed out of the ordinary (aside from the obvious death and decay which seemed the norm for the place) which might have warned them that they were being followed. If it hadn't been for Chwuq’s vigilant watch at the tail end of the group, they may not have realised until it was too late. Aria stopped as the Tuk’ata gave a warning snarl, turning to glance behind them, the Champion frowned as she spotted the brief ripple of energy, not unlike that which was produced by a stealth field generator. Her heart dropped into her stomach. There was only one thing which could cause that kind of a disturbance on a planet like Malachor, and it was NOT here to make friends.

“RUN! MOVE, NOW!!” The Champion barked, too late as the air in front of Kytra and Ethan began to shimmer too. Seconds later, the ripples ceased and in their place there materialised the obsidian-scaled form of a lizard...perhaps more accurately described as a dragon from its size alone. It was easily seven feet long from head to tail, and at least half that height, thereby towering over most of the Qyaari in front of it. The beast’s cavernous jaws gaped to reveal seemingly-endless rows of serrated teeth that could have snapped Kytra clean in half, had the Selonian not heard her mentor’s warning. She froze in time to see the creature looming towards her, screamed, and leapt several feet into the air, her spine contorting at an angle unnatural for any human so her hindquarters sailed clear of the bite before the Dark side dragon could grab her. It landed snout-first in the peat instead, spitting in fury as it wheeled around for a second offence.
“SCREEEEEE!!” Chwuq let out a piercing shriek of her own as she leapt between Yerbol and the second beast, her teeth bared in a challenging snarl as the pair of Sith beasts squared up to their attackers.
“WHAT IN FORCE IS THAT THING?!” Kytra shouted, rebounding off a ledge above the lizard’s head and landing with her back to Ethan’s.
“Hssiss!” Aria grunted as she dodged a tail swipe, calling her lightsabers to hand and spinning them into an attacking position as she darted forward to help her partner. “History lesson later, when we’re not about to be EATEN BY ONE! Stay clear of the head and the tail and aim for the underside where the scales are thinnest, DO NOT let them bite you!!”

Kytra nodded, gripping her own weapon tightly as she and Ethan jumped and dodged one attack after another. The Hssiss were large and clearly very powerful, their senses and bloodlust sharpened by centuries of starvation, they were desperate to feed at any cost. Kytra almost lost a few whiskers to an unexpected swipe from the Hssiss’ paw, had Ethan not brought his blade down to deflect the blow in time. Aria was sent flying into the cliffside courtesy of the second beast’s tail as she faltered briefly to check on the youngsters. As it reared up to try and bring its full weight down on her, Yerbol’s lightsaber flew through the air and clipped it across the underbelly, sending it tumbling back down to the ground. Aria scrambled to her feet and put her own lightsaber through its eye socket for good measure as Yerbol’s returned to his hand. Kytra and Ethan were managing to hold their ground reasonably well, but struggling to land any substantial blows against the lizard’s thick hide. Kytra tried employing a similar technique by leaping up onto its head while Ethan distracted it by feigning attacks on its legs, but the Hssiss shook the lightweight Selonian off before she could land a blow anywhere near its eyes, as if she were nothing more than a piece of paper thrown at it.

A sharp whistle from Aria rallied the two Sith hounds to join the apprentices, their well-muscled shoulders finding them better purchase on the larger creature as they leapt onto its back from both sides and each grabbed one of its long, curved horns in their teeth. The lizard became so preoccupied with dislodging the Tuk’ata from its face that it seemed to disregard the Qyaari it had originally been hunting (though Kytra was almost squashed by its flailing feet as Ethan and Yerbol launched another offensive and finally managed to bring it down). Aria leaned down to help Kytra to her feet once more, the apprentice pausing briefly to pat herself down as if ensuring that all of her appendages were in fact, still attached.
“Are you alright, Kytra?”
“Y-Yeah. I think so. Thank you.” she nodded, peering at the exposed fin of the ship, much closer now than it had been. “We should get out of here before more of them show up, right…?”
“Agreed. The sooner the better, we don’t want to get caught in the tight corners of that ship and be surrounded by them...they feed on Force sensitives, so believe me, any others around here WILL be looking for us, so we’d better move fast.” Aria warned, patting her apprentice gently on the shoulder before she turned to forge onwards, clearly in a hurry to move on before more Hssiss showed up.

After some deliberation, the party set out on a course towards the fallen cruiser, Yerbol silently hoping that whatever wreckage had made it to the planet's surface was going to be helpful in giving them some direction; after all, Revan and the Exile HAD to have known where to go. Those two more than likely left a strong imprint in the Force, so even if they hadn't gone anywhere near the fallen ship, there would at least be a slight indication of where the duo had gone to...or maybe it was just vain hope. Of course, Yerbol reminded himself with an internal chuckle, "vain hope" was mostly what he and Aria had relied on to get to where they stood now. Hopefully their apprentices would realize the power of hope in their own battles, which wou-

The Champion was shaken from his silent ruminations when Taral bumped his leg, the hound sniffing vigorously around yet another unsightly chasm emitting otherworldly light. While Yerbol would have normally dismissed the beast's perusing, he had been around both of them long enough to know when they believed something was off.
"Smell anything? Well, other than the faint stench of old death." Taral continued to sniff for a few more moments before looking back at Chwuq, his stance lowering into an attack position, massive paws digging into the ground as he let out a menacing growl.
"What the..." Yerbol allowed the now visible dragon to finish the sentence for him, said creature letting out a roar of challenge as it began to careen towards the party at an an alarming speed for something so large. Another flanked the party, seeking to join it's companion in tearing the intruders to pieces, one coming very close to succeeding if Kytra hadn't dodged so quickly.
"Yerbol?! Orders?!!"
"KEEP IT OFF BALANCE!!! I'LL GET IT ON IT'S BACK!" As Kytra and Ethan attempted to keep the attention of the beast on them, Yerbol channeled whatever Force energy he could into his arms, then letting said energy out through his hands. The dragon toppled onto it's side for a few moments, giving the trio just enough time to jam their sabers into it's exposed underside, prompting a massive howl to echo through the maze, the beast's body undulating in a few final throes of agony before it ceased.
"YEAH! WHAT NOW?!"
"ETHAN, FOR FORCE'S SAKE, FOCUS!" The other attacker had been haranguing Aria, but now seemed content to have the entire party to try and slaughter. With a few deft movements and close calls along with hound reinforcement, the second creature fell to the ground, gargantuan body heaving a few last breaths before it's existence ended. Aria's description of the creatures made Yerbol think of some of the more fearsome creatures he had read about in the archives on Tython, making a mental note to ask his spouse about what exactly had almost ended their lives prematurely later. For now, they would continue to plod along in an eastward(relatively) direction, the cruiser's upended tail fin thankfully getting closer. There wasn't very much discussion among the group, although several minutes after the fight, Ethan came alongside Yerbol and muttered:
"Didn't mean to lose focus." The Champion let out a small laugh.
"I don't blame you for losing it. This is your first field action with us and you just killed a dragon. I probably would have done the same if I were in your shoes a few years ago." Ethan mirrored his master's reaction, carefully avoiding the edge of a pit before responding:
"I mean, I've been out in the field before with Alliance troops and other Qyaari, but this...this is on a whole other level." Silence for a few moments.
"How did you and Aria do it?"
"Do what?"
"Stay focused? You guys were responsible for helping kill Bracknell, destroy the Xiis AND take down Manus Vo. That's a resume that calls for a ton of times where you could have lost your way."
"I almost did and so did Aria. What we've figured out is that staying in tune with the Force and each other is the only way we can get through the things we seem to gravitate towards."
"So suicide missions?"
"That and the occasional dispute that arises when neither one of us can figure out whose turn it is to cook." The dialogue between the two was interrupted by the looming shadow of the wrecked ship, Yerbol briefly looking up before his eyes caught the makeshift opening ahead of them.
"That looks unnaturally convenient." The circular shaped hole in the hull looked like it had been carved perfectly by a plasma torch of the highest power, leading straight into what appeared to be a hallway of the ship. Yerbol drew closer to the opening, peering at the seemingly never-ending darkness of the hall. His right hand rested on the outer edge of the opening for balance, which then-

She was standing here. He was here too, General. General. She knew he was here.

The future, Meetra, the future. Not the past.

She wanted to kill them. All of them. He wouldn't let her, thankful for his guidance.

Wound was still open. He would help. She was more then family now.

His saber ignited and-

"Yerbol?" The Champion's eyes opened. He was standing right where he remembered, although his right hand was bleeding from shards of metal that had pierced him thanks to the deathly tight grip he had on the ship.
"They were here." He looked to Aria, nodding towards the interior of the ship.
"We need to get in there." He took a moment to regain his composure, then stepped inside the hallway. As his feet connected with the floor of the ship, he could feel a surge of...something flow through and against him, putting up a very light resistance, like walking from the shore into a frothing ocean.
"What was that?" Ethan asked with a slight quake in his voice.
"Strong traces of who came here before us."
"R...revan?"
"Yes." Drawing on the Force to illuminate his hands was effortless, the normally dim blue light shining fiercely to reveal shattered machinery, unrecognizable debris and a way forward. They strode a few meters deeper into the wreckage when-

Where was she?

Further. The academy. Here?

No, not here. Further. Deeper into the heart.

Why here?

To remember. To forget.

His upper body trembled, leaning against the left hand side of the hall. He spoke with full confidence:
"We'll get the direction we need, but...but we need to keep going. Meetra was here to do something else before moving on to the Academy." The words tumbling out of his mouth felt foreign, yet so very natural.

It's like they're speaking to me, passing their thoughts on...do you feel the same?

The Qyaari forged onwards to cover the remaining distance into the ship, thankfully encountering no more Hssiss or other hostiles on the way. They would meet challenges of an entirely new kind, however, upon arriving there. As Yerbol had done, Aria felt an odd surge of energy upon touching the surface of the ship. Like a jolt of electricity down her spine, she heard Kytra squeak under her breath behind her and surmised that the others must have felt a similar sensation too, even the Tuk’ata seemed to feel something; the crests on Chwuq’s shoulders rattled as she let out an uneasy hiss, her mate rumbling in response as he stepped closer to her. And then the visions started, like rapid flashes through her peripheral memory and yet so sharp and clear at the same time… these memories that were not Aria’s own and yet so, familiar:

Don't do this. Please. You can't leave now.

I'm sorry, Bastila. I have to, I need to know what these visions mean…

…. Why here? There is nothing but death in this place.

This is but a landmark. The edge of the Empire that once ruled this galaxy.

Not here. It’s not here, can’t find it.

You already know where to go, you are wasting time on this ridiculous search. There is a greater threat you have to face, Revan-

I must go alone. If others will come, the Force will guide them to me…

Revan? I know you were here, where did you go? It’s over, the Generator, it’s finished…

This isn’t over. It is only just beginning. The Rakata-

There were no physical footprints present on the metal floor of the ship, and yet she could almost FEEL the indentations beneath her feet as this strange surge of energy pulled her in towards the interior of the ship.

This threat is greater than anything else we faced before. The Republic will fall, the Empire will fall.

It is time to let go of the past.

Revan knew the true war is not here… It is further, beyond the outer Rim.

He will need soldiers, Jedi and Sith both-

I have to follow him, alone. You must stay here and guide the others who may come after me-
“Master, are you alright?” Kytra’s concern cut sharply into the montage of thoughts, pulling the Champion back into the present where she took in a sharp breath. When had she ended up crouching on the floor? Her knees throbbed painfully from prolonged contact with the unforgiving surface.
“Fine… I’m fine, don't worry.” she croaked, staggering to her feet once again. As Yerbol reached out to her, Aria nodded her head in response.

I hear them too. Revan was here first, alone… The Exile came after, with others. And went after him. They left clues, in case anyone came looking for them...at least, that’s what it FEELS like?

“How do you know?” Kytra’s nose twitched. “What if this is all a trap?”
“We don't. Not until we go further.” the hallway glowed dimly in the blue light emitted from the orbs that floated off Yerbol’s palms, illuminating just enough for them to see the path ahead.
“If the Exile went this way, then maybe we should too.”
Does this place feel… heavy, to you? Not like the rest of the planet. Like… Like a weight, holding you back, almost.
“M-Maybe somebody should wait here to keep watch. What if more of those… Those dragon things show up?”
“We’d be safer if we stuck together.” Aria shook her head. “Yerbol’s right, we need to keep moving. There may be more clues about why the Exile came here.”
Regardless of the need to press forward, the Champion did pause after taking a few more steps into the hallway, casting about for something to pick up; she settled on a decently sized chunk of metal that may have been part of a door or a light fixture at one point in its lifetime, extended a hand to levitate it ahead of the Qyaari group, and cast it into the apparently-empty hallway.

The metal clunked softly as it connected with the floor. The Champion waited, holding her breath, for another minute, keeping her arm extended to keep Kytra and Ethan from bolting into a potential trap. No shimmers appeared in the air, no hisses could be heard (apart from those coming from the hounds at their heels), and no ravenous Hssiss appeared to bite them in half.
“Looks clear.” Aria murmured, and the group advanced slowly forwards, drawn by this bizarre, unknown instinct. Reaching the end of the hallway, they discovered that it branched off yet again. The right most passageway was long blocked with rocks and other debris, but behind the debris the Force users could sense a dark and foreboding energy emanating from it. Near the pile of debris lay the scattered remains of what looked like a small sensor probe, long since deactivated or perhaps destroyed in the explosion that collapsed the cavern.

As they stepped out into the small alcove, the whole ship seemed to morph around them, broken pieces flying back into place and melding into a functioning ship. Bridge consoles whirred and beeped as they maintained the Republic vessel’s flight.

A Zabrak stood beside her on the bridge, poised and ready at the console. Outside, Mandalorian and Republic ships both flew past, laser fire lit up the sky.

She said nothing, just nodded. That was it. All hell broke loose.

Everything was pulled into it, they had miscalculated...not supposed to be this powerful.
The ship was falling, too. Barely time to make the escape pods.

So many voices shouting.

Bao-Dur! Where are you?! I CAN’T FIND THE GENERAL!

General! … Surik! … Meetra! What the hell happened?!

MEETRA.

Revan. What have you done?!

THEY’RE DYING OUT THERE, JEDI ARE DYING OUT THERE-

This wasn't supposed to happen...Revan-

The Jedi Council. She’s standing before them. Atris glowers at her with far too much prejudice to be adhering to the precious Jedi Code they all so held on to.

You made the decision to follow Revan into battle, against the Council’s wishes. There is only one verdict we can give.

They didn’t need to. This was over. She had made her choice.
The saber ignites and stabs into the stone in the center of the room as the Masters stare at her-

The images hit Aria like a sucker punch to the gut, the Champion yelping and staggering forward before she managed to brace her hand against the stone. She gulped down a few lungfuls of air, feeling strangely disoriented as she tried to keep herself grounded in reality. She wondered if Yerbol felt the same thing, saw the same things she did.

We created this thing. I have to destroy it.

General, it’s too dangerous. You’d never get close enough before you died.

The sensor probe, alive and well, whizzes around the Zabrak’s head, beeping loudly.

He’s right. Let the droid do it, he’d make it.

No time to argue, I have to find her- Have to find Kreia-

Her legs felt like they were made of jelly. Just as Aria was afraid she was going to pass out, it stopped, when next Aria opened her eyes, she was staring at the blue-washed wreckage once again. Shakily, she turned her head to look for her partner, croaking out:
“This was it. This was...what helped them win the war…They came back looking for it. Revan couldn’t find it, but Meetra did.”

As they proceeded forward, a thick, heavy sense of dread seemed to envelop the dilapidated ship, so much so that more than once Yerbol had to steady himself against a nearby piece of wreckage or a miraculously intact wall. This earned him a few worried glances from both apprentices, which he deflected by pointing forward at Aria, who had taken the lead. Her first set of visions had gone by seemingly quick, Yerbol in the midst of examining what he thought to be a semi functioning nav console when Ethan and Kytra brought to his attention that Aria had stopped. Just as suddenly as she had stopped, she was back to their current reality, informing the party of what she saw. He cast a look at both apprentices before telling them quietly:
“If you start to…see things, just let the vision happen. No use in fighting the Force when it imparts knowledge of this magnitude.” A brief flicker of a tangential thought regarding how much he and Aria might have fought the Force came and went, refocusing his efforts on making sure the group wasn’t surprised with anything from the rear on their path of advancement.

After a few more minutes of rambling, they came to a dead end, albeit a massive one. The nearly cavernous sized chamber they found themselves in held warped machines, shattered terminals and fragments of stairways that more than likely would have led up to the tiered platform that stood on the opposite end of the chamber. The platform’s support beams were exposed from underneath, but somehow they looked solid enough to support their collective weight.
“A bridge.” Ethan mumbled, Yerbol nodding in agreement.
“If we can get up to what was probably the CIC, we can-“ Aria was on her knees, eyes rolled back into her skull.
“Ari?!” Kytra stood behind her master with uncertain anxiety, Ethan joining his fellow apprentice in case Aria fell back while Yerbol took to a knee, steadying his wife by gripping her shoulders with his hands. He stayed silent as her eyes closed, blinking at a near superhuman speed for what felt like an eternity. Finally, she broke out, Yerbol stopping her forward descent by embracing her upper body. As she regained her composure, she told the party what she saw.
“Something tells me that we might be able to get the info we need on the platform. Hopefully it’s not in the form of another vision.” He managed to stop himself from telling Aria to hang back while he and Ethan investigated the platform, knowing that she would have scoffed at the idea.
“You going to be ok?” He asked softly, brushing away a strand of hair that had fallen across her line of sight. Knowing that the answer would probably be a “yes”, he helped her to her feet, telling her through their bond:

Don’t play hero here. If you need a breather, let me know.

With his concern stated, the party found their way up to what Yerbol had referred to as the CIC or combat information center. As far as he knew, all combat ready starships held combat stratagems, nav logs and other relevant data at the CIC, which was normally located where the commanding officer would station themselves. A raised platform on the bridge seemed like a natural enough location for a CO to make their post, hence the assumption. The instinct paid off when they all stepped onto the platform and saw a circular shaped pedestal that glowed faintly with a hazy, starry blue aura that wrapped around the device.
“Let me.” Ethan impetuously stepped out in front before Yerbol could object, apprentice tracing his hand in a circular motion around the pedestal. The motion prompted the pedestal to retract a covering over the central part of the device, allowing for a shimmering projection to materialize, albeit faintly. There were slight glimmers that dotted the projection along with a sphere in the middle that featured several points tagged with labels.
“A scan of the planet post-Mandalorian wars.” Ethan commented with a near slack jaw, pointing at the various pockmarks that indicated craters, labels that were marked with fallen ship signatures and one other marker that was ominously affixed as: “Academy”.
“This map must have been used by Revan and the Exile when they came to Malachor. It would make no sense for Republic or Empire forces to scan a notoriously dead world for shipwrecks.”
“But then why would Revan and Meetra use this map in particular? That would assume that this wreck was here when they arrived and they had their own nav data that they uploaded to this console.” Yerbol’s question put a damper on Ethan’s theory, but didn’t discourage the apprentice from offering:
“Well…if the wreck WAS here when they arrived and they left this map behind, wouldn’t that imply that they left this-“
“For others.” Yerbol finished the sentence as a chill raced down his spine.
“The Hssiss were probably thought of as guardians by those two, seeing as they would be drawn to this site thanks to the strong imprint the Force had made here. They might have gambled that whoever they left this here for would not only be strong enough to kill the Hssiss, but find their way to this specific map.” There was another label that Yerbol hadn’t spotted upon first examining the map, this one simply stating: “Ship”.

So that was where they were.

The distance between “ship” and “academy” looked small enough, but there was no way to gauge the terrain types or actual distance they would need to traverse. They would need to either hope they were plodding along in the right direction or use a portable nav unit and hope it wouldn’t be completely scrambled by Malachor’s atmosphere. Yerbol informed the group of those two options before asking:
“Unless you guys have a better idea?”

The pain that accompanied the very last vision was, well, excruciating seemed woefully inadequate. It was akin to what they had experienced all those years before at the destruction of Korriban. The Champion could only grit her teeth against it as the entire ship seemed to splinter with the force that this device emitted, and every bone in her body, perhaps the very fiber of her being, even, was being pulled along for the ride. When she finally snapped back to wakefulness, she felt sick to her stomach and almost fell flat on her face when she tried to stand up again, had Yerbol not wrapped her into his arms until her shaking spine returned to its usual function. She managed to give him a watery smile, determined to push through it all. She'd be damned if she was going to wait back on the ship like a coward while they all threw themselves into potential danger head on.
“F-Fine…I'm g-good.” she croaked out, fighting down a wave of nausea by clearing her throat as Yerbol helped her to her feet. Chwuq and Taral crowded around her, snuffling worriedly.
“Boss, sick?”

I promise, I'll be fine. Thank you. I just need a minute to recover, you go, I'll catch up. She told her husband through their bond, waving the chittering hounds off and taking a shaky step forward.

Quicksand. Her legs felt like they were wading through quicksand.

As Yerbol and the apprentices made their way up to the CIC platform. Aria followed more gingerly, flailing around like the most undignified drunkard to ever exist and almost landing face first on the floor a further two times (but thankfully avoiding this by winding her fingers tightly into Chwuq’s offered scruff and letting the Tuk'ata support her weight momentarily) before she managed to regain her faculties enough to join them in the CIC.

“It makes sense…” the Champion nodded, half to herself, as Yerbol and the apprentices examined the maps that they had found, “Why else would they have post-war scans, there's NOTHING out here of value to anyone who wasn't looking for Revan, or anything to do with him.”
“What kind of…Academy would it be, though?” Kytra frowned in confusion. “Why would anyone put an academy on a dead world like this?”
“One way to find out.” Ethan pointed out with a shrug of his own as they looked towards the two older party members. “Looks close enough to get to from here, right?”

If only it had been so simple, as Yerbol was quick to point out moments later.
“Well, we won't get very far without a nav unit, will we?” Kytra’s nose twitched uneasily. “I'd certainly feel safer with one….”
“Assuming it WORKS.” Aria muttered. “Malachor’s atmosphere is highly electrified,” - as if on queue, another ripple of lightning tore through the sky overhead, the thunder clap sounding moments behind it - “we all saw what happened to the ship on the way down here. It’d likely trash a nav unit in under a minute.”
“Y-Yes, but…we would only need to know we were going in…in the GENERAL right direction, right?” the Selonian pointed out hesitantly, “That is to say… a building of the size that an Academy would have to be, would be visible from a distance, wouldn't it?”
The Champion turned towards the rest of their group, a thoughtful frown creasing her features.
“Kytra’s theory is a fair one…and we certainly won't get any further standing here and debating ‘what if’s. I think the best option we've got is to use a nav unit to get as decent of a heading as we can and then use THAT to try and find this Academy.” her finger traced along the imaginary pathway between the points “Ship” and “Academy”, following up with, “Though I doubt it'll be a straight line…that would be FAR too simple.”

Aria’s attention directed to Yerbol in particular next, and she prompted some further points for discussion, whilst Ethan and Kytra fiddled with the navigation device they had fished out of their supply packs and tried to calibrate it. “Do you remember Quensu? Even the STAIRS to get to the top were a test, then the ice demons, and that bat...dragon….thing.” she left out the part where she had almost fallen to her death because she hadn't figured out the puzzle, the apprentices didn't need to know THAT.
“Do you really think there'll be something that complicated in our way?” Kytra sounded wary, but not skeptical of the assessment. Aria could only shrug.
“If somebody saw fit to build some sort of establishment here, I would guess that they'd want to make sure anyone who found it was worthy of doing so.”
But then, that IS assuming this is a True Sith place, and not something left after they were already gone… She thought warily, allowing the sentiment to pass through the link she shared with her partner so that he would be aware of it, too.

They really had no idea what they were walking into. Again.
But they were older now, too. Wiser. Right?

Memories of Quensu rushed to the surface again, and the Champion rocked onto the balls of her feet impatiently. All of this back and forth over what to do was making her restless, if only they could just-
“G-Got it!” Ethan grunted several minutes later as the nav unit gave a complimentary beep and allowed him to input the coordinates to the “Academy”. The screen and the information it shared, seemed to flicker with static several times a minute, but it was some kind of direction and that was enough for Aria’s liking. Taral pushed his head into Yerbol’s palm, the Tuk'ata snuffling questioningly as he blinked up at the Champion.
“Go….there?”

“Stick together.” Aria reminded the youngsters as they backtracked (and, mercifully, she didn't experience any further visions on the way) to find their way back outside again. The group paused as they ducked out of the metal infrastructure to allow Ethan to tap on the glass of the navcomputer’s screen, muttering sour words of encouragement until it spat out a sensible direction which he could point out to the two Champions.
“It looks like its….that way.”
“Alright. Don't lose sight of each other, if the Force shows you something, speak up, if the dogs start making noises or trying to push you somewhere…listen to them, they can sense things too. They're usually right.”
She felt like she had repeated those very same words a thousand times, Kytra and Ethan were sick of hearing them, she was sure. But the thought of losing their apprentices on the first mission off world with them was more than terrifying.

Silently, she sent an apology up to her mother for all the times she had rolled her eyes at the woman's pedantic nagging. If this was half of what being a parent was like, she understood it all now…