While the apprentices attempted to get the nav unit in working order, Aria voiced her concerns about the potential pitfalls that they could encounter at the Academy. He chuckled at her description of the temple guardian, sighing in mock nostalgic longing.
"Those were such fun times, weren't they? Hanging precariously from ledges and doing other death-defying stunts." Another chuckle came at Kytra's innocent assumption about how far the Sith would go to protect their secrets, adding to Aria's comments:
"What from what we've seen, the Sith and slash or the True Sith are VERY keen on making sure that only those who can jump through their deadly hoops without incident can have access to their secrets." He heard his wife's thought echo across their bond along with the anxiety that memories from Quensu brought. It had been a long time since he had thought about the beginning of their journey together(it HAD been around three years), but his wife's recollections brought back a few unpleasant memories of his own. If this Academy had any sort of defense system like the original True Sith temple on Quensu, they would have to be even more alert than they had been. Yerbol cast a glance down towards Aria, about to share his concern when Ethan told them that the nav unit had managed to get working.
"That's either a magnificent display of your ability with machines or a straight up miracle from the Force." Ethan bristled a bit, looking at his Master with miffed indigence.
"Maybe a bit of both would be more appropriate of a description?" The Champion smirked, searching for a retort when he felt a wet muzzle bump his hand, a question uttered from Taral.
"Indeed. I know you're not exactly the biggest fan of the planet, but we'll be off world soon. Before you know it..." He took a knee, scratching the hound behind the ear.
"You'll be back on Zinuthra hunting acolytes in no time." Taral snorted happily in reply, the party then exiting the ship with no mishaps(thankfully) and Ethan even managed to revive the nav unit one more time before pointing them in the direction just opposite of where they had started the descent into the valley. He could feel the apprentices chafing a bit at Aria's commands, so he added:
"We're on a world known for harboring massive Force signatures and played host to one of the worst war atrocities in known history. You'd better stay sharp. I'm not going back to the Council and telling them that we lost our apprentices because they were careless." Ethan's shoulders, visible from behind thanks to his position at pointman, sagged a bit as they plodded forward.

Good. Sag. Better than getting your head chopped off.

__

After climbing back up out of the valley, the party worked their way forward, snaking cautiously around fissures and cavernous openings that emitted the same noxiously colored gas that the valley featured. There were a handful of instances when Yerbol could just...feel something on the edge of his senses, but when he stopped and reached out to his surroundings, nothing was found. Taral too was a bit more cautious than normal, choosing to slink back from his mate's side and stay alongside the rear guard that Yerbol served as. It made the Champion feel slightly better that the hound felt something was off as well, even if they couldn't identify what(or who?) was causing ripples in the Force.

It wasn't long before their path once again was flanked by cliffside, although this didn't last as long as their initial exploration of the planet. Instead of being greeted by a valley, they were looking down at a winding path that went from gravely sheet of rock to faded, yet ornate marble colored white and light green, colors swirled in a semi-circular pattern that was also present on the facade of the visible structure. An opening into the building was also visible, yet as they drew ever closer, rubble and debris marred what would have been a breath-taking entrance hall. When the group arrived just within a few hundred feet of the entrance, Yerbol swayed backward, then-

So many came here for her. Did they, did you leave with what you sought?

Pause.

No. Left with more questions that were answered apart from her.

Understandable. She wa-

The two of them stood just beyond, faces betraying concern. They knew what was here.

And they were afraid.

His eyes opened to find the apprentices nervously staring at him, Kytra's whiskers trembling slightly.
"Did you see?" They exchanged looks with each other before Ethan spoke with a tremor in his voice:
"It was...it was Revan, wasn't it?" Yerbol nodded.
"Meetra, too." The name sounded so familiar, like conjuring up the memory of an old friend who he hadn't seen for just a bit too long.
"The visions are only going to get stronger as proceed further into the Academy." He took a moment to close his eyes, refocusing his mind, his energy to ensure that he could withstand the potential trials and visions that were to come. It was then he remembered how much he had expended in helping them get planet-side and was suddenly less inclined to try and take any more of a beating from the Force.

But what choice did they have? When was there ever a choice to stop?

Shaking his head, he nodded to Aria, telling her through this bond:
We stay strong and we stay together. Right?

The group paused once more as they observed the change in the path texture, Kytra’s jaw falling slack as she took in the crumpled ruins before her.
“Wow…this is, stunning.”
“Well, the Sith were nothing if not ostentatious.” Aria admitted with a wry grin, knowing she herself had once been just as guilty of that sin as any other Sith. Beside her, Chwuq rumbled uneasily, the spines on the Tuk'ata’s shoulders rattling to show her agitation as she looked down upon the building. Taral was still hanging around at the back beside Yerbol, but he seemed no less ill at ease than his mate.
“Boss… Answers, inside?” she asked slowly. The Champion nodded slowly.
“We hope so. Come on, let's get a closer look.”
Cautiously, the Qyaari made their way down the cliffside towards the building, their feet touching the smoother marble pathway before another flurry of visions appeared to affect all of them, although Yerbol got the brunt of it this time. Aria and the apprentices turned sharply in time to watch him teeter precariously backwards, only not falling to the floor due to Taral’s quick reaction of shoving his body weight back against the Champion to keep him upright. A few more moments passed and he opened his eyes again.
“Well, we know we're on the right track, at least.” Aria smiled thinly. “We should go further in, they clearly mean to show us something once we do.”

Yerbol reached towards her through their bond then, seeking reassurance of his own. Aria turned to smile faintly at her partner, reaching to take his hand and give it a reassuring squeeze.
Together. She echoed. Always. We can do this, we just have to find Revan and the Exile.

That would be no mean feat, of course. As always.

The group lingered for another few moments to allow Yerbol to recover, then carefully picked their way over the debris to make their way into the ruins. It was a relief to step under the archway and finally get away from the eerie, green lava substance that looked like it could eat the flesh off their bones.
Not that the interior fared any better. Aside from the dishevelled, ruined outer appearance of everything…the dull, burnished steel floors and walls, and the ghastly, blood red light fixtures adorned into both the floors and the walls - several of which had been cracked, likely in the last explosion - there was something else here, the Force moved strangely, almost…pulsating, like a heartbeat. A looming, powerful sense of dread, a pull that sucked them deeper in, pulling the Qyaari towards its very heart.

The antechamber veered sharply in both directions on either side of them, and Aria was the first to pause, looking from one direction to the next as she tried to determine which way they should go. Splitting up was out of the question, they-

This place is ancient, a relic that survived the destruction of Malachor. It was always here, far before the Mandalorian Wars. It draws death and hate to it, channels it.

Sounds like the Star Forge.

Perhaps. They built it, to protect their Empire from the Other Ones. We too, came here. Kreia was our leader. She believed this place would hold the power we needed-

Many Jedi have been drawn in to this place, and fallen-

Are you sure we should be here, Master? The Jedi would not approve.
They never do, Malak. But the power here…it will win us this war and save the galaxy.

You came to save the galaxy, Revan, and you couldn't even save yourself. What a failure you are.

Where is she, Sion? Where is Kreia?

Deeper. Into the heart.
“Into the heart.” Aria snapped back into the present to realise that she had been drifting away from the rest of the group towards the Eastern door, repeating the last phrase out loud. Yerbol’s jaw slackened as he looked at her, the Champion uttering softly:
“I heard that, too. In my last visions.”
“So, it must go further down somehow…but how do we get down there?” Kytra squeaked, wide eyed as she looked between their mentors.
“We'll just have to keep going.” Aria placed her palm flat onto the archway, jolting backwards with a yelp of surprise as another shock of energy jolted through her being.

A staircase, spiralling ever lower, perhaps to the planet’s core…the pair descend, standing side by side before the large, ornate red dias. She flinches, clutching her head and gritting her teeth as she fights down the memories.

Back here again. Why here?

This is where it all began, my friend. It will lead us to the end.

Aria swallowed, wiping the sweat from her brow as she looked back at the trio. “Down. We have to go down.”
Kytra’s spine straightened, a barely audible gasp leaving the Selonian before she turned to Yerbol sharply and blurted out:
“It's a circle. A big circle, I just saw it. It doesn't matter which way we go around, it'll take us to the end. Like Master Aria says, down. Into the heart.”
The Champion huffed, taking a deep breath as she steeled herself.
“Here we go, then.”

The visions that struck them in the crimson lit rooms were much stronger than any of the others, a cacophony of memories slamming into them almost all at once. When the visions began, he had been standing upright, but after they ended the Champion found himself slumped against a nearby wall, lower back almost touching the ground. One message had continuously pounded through his mind and(as he found out just a few moments later), everyone elses minds. They were to keep plunging deeper into the Academy, into "the heart". The phrase itself was enough to make Yerbol question whether or not they should continue forward, seeing as "the heart" of something as sinister as this place could spell their untimely demises, but as he had reminded himself before they entered, choice was not a factor in this instance. The Force was pushing them towards what they had to face.

The party regrouped at the eastern door before pushing the obstruction aside. They descended a staircase, traversed through more hallways, found another staircase, more hallways. It was getting to be disorienting, Yerbol stopping on several occasions to gather his sense of direction. On these stops, he thought he could hear something faint whispering to him, beckoning him and the rest of the Qyaari further. When he strained to try and pick out the words, however, the voice stopped. Was this whisperer a part of the visions they were sporadically encountering? Or was it something more ominous? The temple on Quensu featured distortions of the Force, warping whatever imprints the Force had made upon the place into twisted reflections. Yerbol feared that the Academy might have the same potential, which spurred him forward. They needed to extract whatever information they could from this place and get off-world as fast as possible.

Thankfully it wasn't too long before the group travailed down one last staircase and found a massive chamber that at it's center had a circular dais with three semi circular spires planted at specific points along the platform. They could see that from the platform were three other paths that extended in each of the cardinal directions; however, it looked like the paths led straight into a sheet of rock. What might have been past the barriers would be a topic of speculation that Yerbol would be happy to indulge in when they were safely off world.
"This is it, isn't it? The heart." Ethan commented flatly as he walked forward in an almost magnetic pace towards the dais, the rest of the group following suit. When they reached the platform, Yerbol saw them so clearly. The two of them seated across from each other, legs crossed, eyes closed, hands in front of their hearts.
"Is that the Force trying to tell us something?" Ethan mumbled, eyes narrowing as he scrutinized the pair, who then quickly vanished.
"I think so. If these two meditated here, then we will probably have to do the same. With the four of us focusing our efforts together, we should be able to get the answers we seek."
"Wait, collective meditation? I didn't think that was a thing."
"It wasn't. Not for a long time, apparently. Ari and I have only done it with others a few times before." He scanned their surroundings one last time before he planted himself on the eastern edge of the platforms, legs crossing.
"Why don't we get taught this at the Academy?"
"Because, as Ari can tell you, collective meditation opens up your connection to the Force to the others in your party. You essentially leave yourself at your most vulnerable in order to pool your energy together. Some can exploit that connection." A brief memory of fighting Illesia in a cramped ambassador's office on Coruscant came and went.
"All you have to do is begin to meditate. As you sink deeper into meditation, you're going to feel yourself...stretch out, if that makes any sense at all. Don't fight it. It'll be uncomfortable at first, but then you'll acclimate." He shot a look at his wife before telling her through their bond:

The last time we did this we had the Elders with us and they pulled us out of a potentially lifelong coma. If you feel like we're even starting to slip into unknown territory, pull us out. I'll do the same.

The other members of the group took their positions, Yerbol waiting a moment before saying quietly:
"Close your eyes. Focus inward on your breathing. Nothing else. Breath. Just...brea..."

You WILL turn to the Dark Side, Revan! You were there once and you will do so again!

The Forge had corrupted her. Just like Malak. Needed to save her. Find out what this thing had done.

The deed was done...finally.

lehon

Left her behind for this. Our child will never know me.

But he will know that his father was a hero who fought for the good of the galaxy.

How noble.

lehon

They stood there together now, watching the map close itself up. Do you think someone will actually find this?

She smirked. I found you, didn't I?

The orb hung on the fringes of where they were going. Once unknown, now fully known, yet more now unknown than ever before. His hand gripped the yolk of their ship. He turned to them, shaking his head.

Do not follow, children. Do not follow unless you would see yourselves swallowed up by a darkness that even I cannot comprehend.

But we must.

Fools. The lot of you.
It was Lysa.
Her hair matted with blood, hole gaping from where she had been stabbed.
I threw my life away for less. Go. Leave.

No. I can't.

Brother, I beg of you, turn now. Save yourself. Leave them behind and go forward t...

Lehon

Yerbol gasped desperately, falling backwards onto the stone steps that he had used to reach the dais, lungs expanding and contracting at an almost superhuman pace. His breathing felt out of control, heart ready to burst out of his ribcage.

Stay focused, boy! Focused! Balance cannot thrive in chaos!

Slowly, his breathing began to slow, heart rate steadying.

"Lehon. We have to go...to.." As he sat up, he silently prayed that Aria was alright.

Aria swallowed the lump in her throat that formed as they approached the raised dais and the figures appeared to them. Having a hunch that the set of visions they received here would be the most brutal ones yet, the Champion made the wise decision to situate herself opposite Yerbol, with her back leaning against one of the spires for support as the apprentices arranged themselves on either side of their mentors and Yerbol began explaining the concept of shared meditation to them.
“It’s a very…personal exercise.” Aria supplemented as Yerbol prompted her into the conversation, “You have to have a lot of trust in the person you're meditating with… Or have nothing to hide.” with that encouragement to hand, Aria straightened her back and relaxed her shoulders, clasping her right hand over her heart and, when the other three looked at her in confusion, elaborated her reasoning behind the gesture: “If Revan and Meetra were both doing it, it must symbolise something. The Force might show us more if we mirror their postures exactly.”
The nodding seemed to ripple through her companions as they, too, shifted their positions and-

The visions flooded in almost instantly, one after the other, so clear and distinct that every detail, every word, came as if she had been standing right there when it had happened.
Revan turned to look at them, towards the end, speaking a single warning.
Do not follow, unless you would see yourself swallowed by a darkness even I cannot comprehend.

If you didn't want to be found, or followed, why leave a map? It seemed a fair observation to Aria, but it seemed to amuse him as he scoffed in retort.
Fools. The lot of you.

The next face she saw was entirely unexpected and hit her like a sucker punch to the gut. A face she thought she would never, ever see again.

She barely looked any different, each curl in her hair was immaculate as always, and meeting her dark gaze was like looking into a mirror. Only the grating timbre of her voice betrayed the mass hemorrhaging of her lungs which had taken her life.

Aria, you don't have to do this. Please. You can still turn back.

Mother? What… H-How are you…?

Chasing Revan drove your father mad. Don't let that be your fate.
I HAVE to. It’s what I do!

You have a choice, sweetheart. You ALWAYS have a choice.

No, I don't. I never had a choice. Not since I first set foot on Korriban, and not now either.
She knew that with the utmost certainty. And regardless, if Yerbol made his mind up to go, she wasn't going to let him go alone.

Aria's face was entirely drained of colour as she snapped back to wakefulness. The others looked no better, Yerbol was shaking and breathing heavily, Kytra's fur was prickling and Ethan looked decidedly unsteady where he sat, hands braced against the marble floor.

“Lehon.” Aria finished as Yerbol seemed to have trouble formulating the sentence. Even though they had all seen the visions, the map, it seemed more final to say it out loud.
“But how do we GET there?” Ethan prompted, ever focused on the task at hand. He shakily rose to his feet once more and moved around the dais, searching for something that might give them the location of this mysterious planet. Kytra took a moment longer to recenter herself, clearly she too had been affected by whatever she had seen in the last part of the vision - it appeared they had each seen something different, something designed, perhaps, by Revan and Meetra, to shake their spirits and quail their determination to follow. The Selonian paused as she dusted herself off and frowned at her mentor.
“Master Aria, are you…crying?”
“NO!” Aria protested vehemently, palming the tears away quickly and hoping that Yerbol wouldn't see right through the tough girl act.

We have to focus. She reminded him firmly through the Force bond. Whatever any of us saw then, we CAN'T let it stop us from going after them.
_____________________________

The Qyaari now stood in the CIC on the Commodore, with the coordinates for Lehon (which had been tricky to find out, but with some help from the Elders and the combined effort of their own wits and the Zinuthra's library archives) plugged into the navcomputer courtesy of Ethan, and the autopilot engaged to allow them all to gather around the holoprojections of the Council of Elders.
“Oh, you're all alive.” Cheriss sounded both surprised and immensely relieved, “Good, good. What did you find?”
The Champions and their apprentices then proceeded to recount their experiences on Malachor, concluding with their current destination.
“Lehon?” Ailel repeated, tenting her hands together as she mused aloud: “Now there's a name I'd only ever seen in holocrons and data archives.”
“What’s the significance of this planet, Master Ailel?” Kytra leaned forward curiously as the Elder explained.
“It was the place where the...Dark Ones, built the Star Forge. Revan went there once, it's where Bastila fell to the Dark Side, corrupted by the essence of the machine.”

So that was what the vision had shown them.

“They must have left something else there for you, another Star Map, perhaps?”
“Or clues to these Dark Ones.” Aria suggested, her mouth pressed into a thin line. “The name alone doesn't give us much to go on… Dark what, Dark Side, dark skinned? It could be anything.”
A bleep from the Commodore’s cockpit drew their attention briefly. Neta excused herself from the room to return to the yolk and bring the ship down through the stratosphere. Moments later, her voice announced over the comm line.
“Well, we'll soon find out! Hold onto your hats, kiddos, looks like it might get bumpy again!”
“Take care… Don't- Unnecessary risks-”
“Revan… Always- Unpredictable, even as… Jedi-”
Cheriss and Ailel’s last warnings were at first broken up, as if the line had suddenly become very strained, before it went completely dead.
“That's comforting.” Aria snorted sarcastically, stumbling forward into the display table as the ship rocked once, then levelled out.

The landing wasn't quite as tricky as Malachor, but it certainly couldn't have been called smooth. The Qyaari stood warily before the viewport windows, surveying the landscape before them.
“Doesn't look so dangerous.” Kytra mumbled, her whiskers twitching as her bright eyes watched the roiling waves breaking on creamy white sand beaches. “Looks like a vacation planet.”
“We're not here to take a holiday.” Aria reminded her apprentice firmly, raising a hand to point at the large dome that jutted into view over the furthest hillside. Three large spires jutted out from each side, giving it an appearance almost similar to the dais they had sat on only hours earlier. “That looks ominous. I'd bet next month’s pay that that's where we should head.”
“The Dark Ones… You don't think they could be the True Sith, Masters?” Kytra suggested, craning her head upwards towards the Champions. “The buildings, they look the same, the shape, the circles, the spires.”
“I don't know.” Aria admitted, glancing to her partner for his input. “Appearances can be deceiving, and if they'd built the Star Forge I'm almost SURE there would still be more True Sith around today. Technology like that would've made them unstoppable.”

Their exit from Malachor five and by extension the entire system was almost as difficult as landing, but thankfully with their combined efforts(mostly Neta and Ethan), Neta found a way to get the Commodore within range for a tractor beam pull. This, of course, was difficult to pull off while the Commodore was moving AND accounting for the fact that their shuttle was a complete mess. One false telemetry calculation could have sent the shuttle plunging back down onto the surface or, worse yet, the Commodore's tractor beam frequency could get scrambled and by extension the entire magnetic field surrounding the ship. This would then lead to the Commodore crashing nose first into a mountainside. All of these details had been discussed over a comm unit that Ethan managed to piece together from parts of the old ship that they had discovered the planetary survey on(When Ethan was putting everything together, Yerbol made a silent observation to himself that it was all too convenient that the parts needed to formulate a rudimentary comm system capable of communicating through the dense atmospheric conditions of Malachor were ALL on the ship. He filed the thought away to discuss with Aria and the Elders later.) When the party found themselves back on the Commodore, Yerbol managed to breath out one sigh of relief as Neta chirped cheerily over the comms that their "big ol ship" had gotten some attention from pirates on nearby Malachor three, who were now heading their way. After more lurching, rolling, a few blasts from the turrets and Neta's profuse swearing, they jumped to hyperspace. All Yerbol could do afterward was sink deep into a couch situated on the lower deck and close his eyes, not hearing Ethan gushing over how "freaking awesome" Neta was at piloting a ship, Kytra's heart racing even after an hour after they had settled into hyperspace and Ari's conversations with Vano and the Elders about what they had found.

It had been about two hours before the Champion resurfaced above deck, a styrofoam cup of caf in his hand as he ambled into the CIC where the others were gathered.
"You finally decide to join us? Thought they were going to have to get to Lehon without you." A smirk crossed her features as she nodded towards the caf.
"There's bantha milk in the fridge. You miss it?" Yerbol grumbled something about not noticing details after harrowing escapes, sidling next to his wife, who informed him that they had changed course and were headed towards Lehon.

Great.

After some discussion with the Elders, Neta made her way back to the cockpit, telling her passengers to strap in for another bumpy entrance. While not AS rough as Malachor, Yerbol still felt like his heart would drop into his stomach several times and speculated that his organs might be in a different arrangement by the time their adventures on the farthest parts of the Outer Rim were over.

When they landed, Yerbol bristled slightly at Aria's tone towards Kytra, about ready to ask if she were alright before stowing it. He hadn't talked to her very much since they had left Malachor and she wasn't all that ready to disclose to him what she had seen in the meditation chamber at the Academy. Whatever it was had obviously left an indelible impression on her, something he would have to address sometime where they weren't on a planet where the Rakata had left weapons of mass destruction. When Kytra asked about the connection between the Rakata's architecture and the True Sith, Yerbol creased his chin with his right hand, commenting after Aria:
"It wouldn't be much of a surprise. If you didn't know this by now, the True Sith were apparently a very influential force on several races across the galaxy. We're still learning so much about what their lasting impact is."
"About to hit the loading ramp. Keep me updated, kids! I'd like to know if we need to make a quick exit." Ethan walked next to Yerbol as the loading ramp descended, asking quietly:
"How old is she?" Yerbol's brow shot up.
"That's not something you discuss with her."
"But she's calling us kids and she does-"
"Drop it before she hears you."
"Bu-"
"Trust. Me." End of discussion.

__

Lehon was indeed a gorgeous world. Crystalline blue sky stretching out into infinity, verdant stretches of grassy plain complemented by softly rolling hills and thick variants of trees completing the paradise-like landscape. Unfortunately, the party found remnants of those who had gone before, marring the unspoiled wilderness. Frayed backpacks, dried up waterskins, bones scattered across paths, warped pieces of metal that had been so rusted and decayed that one couldn't begin to speculate what purpose it had served. They had found these sights on the path they followed which led in a generally upward direction until they had reached a level plain. Directly opposite of where they stood was the temple they saw from the viewports just an hour earlier, except this time it was much more...towering. Intimidating almost.
"Keep your guard up. This screams of a trap." Ethan complied with the directive, saber in hand in an attempt to mirror his master's stance as they cautiously moved ahead. To Yerbol's surprise, nothing came at them. No fiercesome Force dragons, no shadowy assassins, no bat/dragon/demon thing. It was quiet.

And unnerving.

When they reached the foot of the temple, they were greeted with a solid copper door which was grooved with etchings in a pattern that Yerbol couldn't make sense of. What he COULD make sense of was the object that stood in front of them. It was a triangular shaped piece of metal that, when they drew closer, unfolded, revealing a center pedestal that the three segments were protecting. The Champion's heart began to skip a beat or two as a map was projected, coordinates and trajectories forming an intricate web.
"This is-" He sunk to his knees, eyes rolling into the back of his skull as-

The last of the droids fell. Who are they?

Hunters. Scouts. They have been pursuing me ever since I have been pursuing them.

Oddly circular, but makes sense. Why is this the first time I've seen them?

Maybe they were watching, waiting to see what would we do. Probably didn't expect me to take someone along.

Fair. The duo walked to the foot of the temple. He moved the object to the base.

Why leave it here? Doesn't seem right for it to be out in the open on this planet...of all planets.

Couldn't leave it in Core space. Whoever finds this will have faced Malachor and survived. Those are who we need to help us.

You expect we'll need help?

I expect we'll need saviors.

Yerbol's sight returned, yet he fell to his hands, Ethan coming alongside and attempting to help the Champion up only to be waved off.
"This is it." He choked out, on one knee.
"Have to figure...figure out where they went from this." The visions were taking a toll on him and he bloody well knew it. Exertion of this magnitude was going to break him eventually and he knew he would have to confess this to Aria sooner rather than later.

Despite Aria's earlier scolding when Kytra had brought it up, the Champion couldn't help but take in the gorgeous landscape with silent appreciation as they made their way up and over the rise. Even the Tuk'ata seemed to be enjoying themselves, trotting ahead of the group with their tails arched high over their backs as they nosed curiously through the detritus that was scattered all about the surface of the pathways. The grisly artefacts didn't bother Aria, of course, she had seen FAR worse in Korriban and in their adventures since then (a brief flash of the disembodied, castrated corpses Illesia had left for them in the sewers on Nar Shaddaa sprang into her mind’s eye).

Kytra, on the other hand, nearly fainted as Chwuq flounced back towards the Qyaari with a humanoid skull clasped in her teeth. Aria abruptly stepped between the hound and her apprentice, perching her hands on her hips as she stared at Chwuq and ordered firmly. “Drop it. NOW.” while Kytra turned her back and hid her face in her paws.

The Tuk'ata needed little encouragement, plopping the skull down at her master’s feet almost as soon as the words had been spoken, as if she were trying to prove a point.
“Others…Come. Here.” she rumbled, struggling to articulate the warning, though she pawed at the skull insistently. “Not safe. Go…home, now?”
That didn't inspire confidence. Even the dogs were nervous of their path. And yet…

“No, we can't go home.” Aria sighed, scratching behind Chwuq’s ears soothingly. “We're so close now, we HAVE to find them.”
Chwuq snorted in distaste, shaking her fur out though she made no further protest as Kytra managed to compose herself and turned back.
“I'm alright, sorry Master, I was just caught off guard, it won't happen again.”
Aria had to give her credit, even if she WAS still the most skittish of the four of them, she hadn't thrown up this time and that was a marked improvement.
Neither of the pair made a protest as Yerbol suggested they kept their guard up on their approach, each drawing a saber as they fell in with the two men. Chwuq and Taral assumed their positions at the front and rear of the group once more, and the Qyaari crept warily towards the temple.

Being met by solid copper doors which were shut fast was certainly very suspicious. However, that didn't draw their immediate attention as the pedestal that was standing in front of it opened up to reveal the contents within.
Aria felt a lump form in her throat as the holocron flickered to life, the tiny, bright points that marked out each planet appearing first, and one by one dotted lines formed to connect them to one another in a confusing jumble.
“What…Is that?” Kytra breathed, the map coordinates mirrored in her irises as she stared at it in awe.
Before Yerbol could finish his answer, however, the Champion’s legs buckled underneath him as, she assumed, another vision overlook him. Thankfully, this time Aria was close enough to catch him and gently lower him onto his knees before he hit his head on the foot of the pedestal. She gently supported her partner through the entirety of the ordeal, her heart clenching uncomfortably as she watched his eyes flickering back and forth at unnatural speed. Was this what she'd looked like when this happened to her? No wonder he'd looked so worried when she came back to.

Words could not describe her relief when Yerbol’s eyes opened once again. Aria had prepared to firmly push him back down and insist that he take a moment to recover, yet the Champion seemed far weaker this time, his body falling forward despite her best efforts to help him stay upright.
“Woah, easy, baby, easy…” Aria frowned worriedly, but stepped back to allow him to rise on his own as he waved them off.

Something was off, she could tell. But was now the time, or the place, to bring it up? Would there EVER be a time or a place? She pushed it aside for now. Figure out where we have to go, then while we're en route maybe you can get him to talk, she decided.

“Alright.” she spoke out loud as Taral whimpered anxiously and shoved his muzzle under Yerbol’s arm, settling into a semi-content purr as the Champion weakly patted his nose to reassure him. “So, we have a Star Map, that's a start.” when she was confident Yerbol wouldn't require her to catch him again, Aria rose to her feet and approached the map, her jaw slackening momentarily as she realised how densely packed the coordinates were. There were so many….
“How are we EVER going to narrow it down from…this?” Kytra gestured helplessly at the map, circling it restlessly as she frowned at it from each new angle, hoping it would somehow grant an epiphany of sorts.
Aria joined the Selonian, her finger pointing out each of the planets as she spoke their names. “Well, we can discard all of these planets on the fringes of the Outer Rim and Hutt Space: Ilum, Makeb, Oricon, Rishi, Yavin Four…they might have gone there once, but I doubt it was before they came to Lehon, which, from the coordinates Vano sent us, would be… Here.”
That only ruled out about seven points however, and still left them with HUNDREDS to sort through. Aria's jaw slackened as she processed this, shaking her head and moving past the pedestal to examine the door behind it.

She could make no more sense of the carvings upon it than her husband, of course, but that didn't mean that the door couldn't, in theory, be opened. After all, the young Champions had once moved an entire stone slab out of the opposite wall in order to form a bridge that they could cross, how was a door any different?
She exhaled softly, closed her eyes, and extended her hands at the same time as she did her senses, and attempted to heave the door open by force. Kytra quickly figured out her Master’s plan and joined her, as did the two Sith Hounds, although it seemed to make no difference.

Karking. Copper. THAT'S how this was different.

Five minutes later, Kytra was leaning heavily against the left hand panel and Aria was breathing heavily as she swiped the sweaty hair out of her eyes.
“Stuck!” both Tuk'ata chittered in unison, the Champion rolling her eyes as she drawled sarcastically.
“How VERY astute of you, I hadn't noticed.” an exasperated huff left her, turning back to Ethan and Yerbol. “Its solid copper, it’s not budging… But there could be clues in there that could help us triangulate some of these coordinates and narrow the list down.” she gestured back to the Star Map, “OOOOOOOR, we can take it back to the ship, see if we can get Vano back on the line and let the archive computers do it for us. But who knows if we can get a signal through to Zinuthra from here, the Elders got cut off right as we landed…”

Truthfully, she had no idea how to open this blasted door and Aria wasn't so sure she wanted to ask Yerbol to help them, he seemed unsettlingly weak all of a sudden and the last thing they needed was the other Champion collapsing on them.

The star map was indeed different than the others they had encountered. With a massive web of lines connecting to various planets all over the known galaxy, it was a wonder that Revan and Meetra thought anyone would be able to decipher where they went, let alone Force users who weren't expert slicers or navigational data experts. He admired Kytra's ability to sift through some of the more relevant points, but again, none of them could crack what was left for them unless they had some type of assistance.
"I'm hoping they didn't actually use that as their nav unit...cause they would have crashed a lot." Ethan commented mainly to himself, brow furrowed in confused concentration as he vainly tried to put the pieces together.
"Save yourself the trouble, Ethan. We'll have to get this back to people who can help." Yerbol had stood up fully now thanks to Taral's help, senses that were once clouded almost back to normally functioning levels. Speaking of trouble, his wife had spun around now after unsuccessful attempts at opening the door to the temple, laying out the options they had. The Champion thought for a moment, then had a suspicion, eyes narrowing as he examined the obstruction.
"I just have this feeling..." Memories of him standing here, at this spot, arms outstretched, came to him. He knew these weren't his own recollections, but mirrored what memory told him to do. He extended his arms and she stood next to him, they channeled their energy and she-

Oh.

"I know what we need to do. Ari, stand here." He motioned to the space next to him before telling her:
"Stretch out your arms towards the door and focus on our bond." That was it. They had never thought about a bond forming between them, separated by time, yet united by a singular purpose. It was difficult to manage two bonds at the sa-

No. Had to focus on his reality. Now.

"Just...focus..." He closed his eyes, reaching out to the link they shared and settling whatever energy he hadn't consumed on the unity that the bond brought, the harmony, the balance...

All Ethan could muster was a very quiet "wow" as a shimmering crimson light appeared around the edge of the doorway, lingering for a few moments before it disappeared, the door then sliding open with no more than a few groans of protest at being locked in one position for presumably hundreds of years. When Yerbol's eyes opened, he looked to Aria with a small smile.

Did you feel what just happened? His memories were mine for a few seconds. It was...well, we can address it later.

It sounded like they would have a LOT to discuss when they weren't around their apprentices, who were treading warily to the now opened temple doorway.
"How did you know what to do? Was it a Force sensitive switch or mechanism?"
"In a sense. Revan and Meetra had a Force bond. They divested some of the energy from their bond into locking this door."
"What..." Ethan shook his head.
"How is that even possible? I didn't even think Force bonds could be used that way...or even be formed."
"The Force can surprise you, Ethan. Trust me." Yerbol simply commented, shooting Aria a knowing smile as the party moved through the threshold and into a dull square-shaped room that had three doors, one in each direction minus south.
"I'm assuming that the other doors were locked in thi-" As he stepped forward, the door opposite from their position slid away to show a ramp that led upwards. The couple tried unlocking the other doors in the same way they had entered the temple, but to no avail. Thankfully Ethan had used that time to download the navigation information they would need and rejoined the party right as they proceeded up the ramp. The second floor was similar in nature, reaching another square shaped room with only one door that led to another ramp. A few minutes of trekking through the temple provided them with their prize of reaching the rooftop, Lehon's tropical landscape exploding with color even more so from the higher vantage point they now possessed. Although it was beautiful, they had gathered no clues as to where Revan and Meetra were going. But Ethan did stumble onto something rather useful:
"A computer terminal? Up here?" Ethan had wandered to the upper right hand corner of the rooftop and found a terminal whose screen flashed a bright blue with commands in Basic.
"Transmit...receive...upload...guys, this is a working comm terminal. How..." He shook his head as he sighed, pulling out the nav unit.
"Kytra and I should get used to this, right? Curveballs like a modern computer terminal on an ancient temple rooftop and fighting giant invisible Force dragons that can eat you alive?" Yerbol nodded.
"Great. Just great." He grumbled a few more inaudible sentences before punching in the Commodore's hailing signal, which then brought a miniature projection of Neta from a small hole located on the right hand side of terminal's edge.
"Coming in clear, kids! How...should I ask?"
"No." Yerbol added instructions to Ethan's despondent comment:
"We found some nav data that needs to get sorted out as fast as possible. If we forward it to you, can you get it to the Council?"
"Once we get back into orbit, sure! Can't you just send it from the terminal you're on, though?"
"Don't know if it has that kind of range. Better safe than sorry."
"Fair enough. Get your arses back on board and we'll get this sorted out." A few keystrokes later, data was sent and terminal shut off, leaving a very anticlimactic feel to their visit to one of the more legendary places in the galaxy...and maybe that's what Revan and Meetra intended. Assuming that whoever was after them had made it this far, then they probably weren't interested in obtaining old Rakatan secrets for their own personal gain.
"Unless either of you ladies object, I think it's back to the ship for us."

“It's no good, Ethan.” Aria muttered to the apprentice as he attempted to crack the coordinates. “There's too much information there, your brain would explode before you got anywhere.” She turned back to her partner as Yerbol beckoned her to stand beside him, frowning in bewilderment at first.
“How is that going to help, Kytra and I already tried-” her protest died down, however, once he mentioned the bond and she slowly began to grasp what it was that he was suggesting. “OHH!” Aria nodded in understanding and extended her hands out alongside Yerbol’s, closing her eyes. “I see. Alright.” focusing in on the thread between them, Aria poured her own energy into it, held her attention on nothing else but the steady flow of power between them. When she opened her eyes, the door had vanished and the Champion couldn't help the triumphant grin that spread through her features.
I don't know. She admitted in answer to his query, I felt SOMETHING there but whatever it was, I think you got a clearer picture than I did.

Yet another one to add to the pile, she thought wryly as they entered the temple.

Stairs. So many stairs.
In fact, by the time they reached the top, Aria was reasonably certain that she NEVER wanted to see another staircase for the rest of her life. Ethan’s discovery of the information terminal cut through the Champion’s attempts to catch her breath back.
She chuckled at his remark, patting the boy on the back as she too, nodded.
“This is a regular day at the office for a Champion, I'm sorry to tell you both.”
As Ethan tapped away at the keys, Kytra offered a chuckle of her own, and, jokingly queried:
“Is it too late for me to say I've changed my mind and I want to go home?”
“ ‘Fraid so, kid.”

____________________

The Qyaari returned to the Commodore after it became clear that the temple would offer them no further clues (all the doors were shut tight and refused to open no matter how they were approached). Ethan and Kytra delivered the map data to Neta so that she could upload the trajectories to their navcomputer, then left it with Aria so she could contact the Elders once they had broken through Lehon’s atmosphere and disappeared to their quarters to decompress in their own way.

Presently, Aria was lounging on a backwards-facing chair at the holoterminal in the Commodore’s CIC, leaning forward to perch her chin on the backrest as she conversed with the half-sized hologram of Vano that was projecting from the device. The Mirialan looked less than amused by her adopted sister’s latest request as she tapped away at the streams of data that the group had sent through to her.
“...Do you want me to pick a needle out of a haystack for you while I'm at it, Ari?” she groused. “Karkin’ hell, what did you find up there, a bloody NAVCOMPUTER?”
“I know, I know… Somehow they fit this all into one holocron.” the Champion winced sympathetically. “So, can you crack it and find out where they went, or not?”
The Qyaari Lorekeeper whistled through her teeth, falling silent for a moment as she glanced over her terminal screens once more.
“I COULD decipher it, but it's not gonna happen overnight. I'm going to need a few days.”
“That's fair.” Aria nodded, informing Vano that Neta and Ethan had plotted a course for Alderaan and the Qyaari could wait it out there until she could send them the data they needed.
“This is almost like old times, isn't it?” the Mirialan grinned, shaking her head in amusement. “You charging off into certain death and me sitting here trying to save your reckless ass from being turned into space dust. Only thing missing is the batshit crazy Sith Lord breathing down my neck every ten minutes.”
Aria quirked a brow, retorting with.
“That's not a nice thing to say about my dad, is it?”
Both shared a laugh for a moment before the Lorekeeper disconnected the line so as to focus better on her task. The humour dissipated from the Champion’s thoughts as quickly as the hologram did, her attention returning to Yerbol and the conversations they had both been putting off since Malachor.
Where did she start?

She hesitated outside the door of their designated quarters, sensing her partner’s presence on the other side, not because she deliberately wanted to hide from him but rather she wanted to try and collect her thoughts better before opening her mouth. When she was confident enough, she tapped the access panel and stepped through the door and crossed the room to settle on the edge of the bed. She didn't want to seem like she was trying to jump down his throat by immediately flinging a barrage of questions at him, so instead chose to remain silent for the moment. Taral lifted his head, settled down on the floor beside the bed, and the Champion stooped down to pat him on the head before removing her shoes as Yerbol glanced sideways at her from whatever it was he had been doing.

Part of her hoped Yerbol might speak to fill the silence first.

But they had promised to talk about things, she reminded herself, and worked up the courage to clear her throat and smile faintly back at him, mumbling.
“Do you…want to talk about what happened out there, or…?” she trailed off, giving him a moment to collect his thoughts and direct the conversation in a way he'd be most comfortable with first.

When they had returned to the ship and ascended out of Lehon’s atmosphere, Neta was given a brief glimpse of the star map coordinates. The party watched the former spec ops officer facial expressions morph from wildly confused to hopefully expectant and then finally to utter frustration.
“I have NEVER seen a map this convoluted. This has more crap all over it than a Republic senate memo!” Hearing her say the word ‘Republic’ was a bit jarring to the Champion, but the analogy was made all the same. If NETA couldn’t figure out what was going on, then they would need expert help. They had conferred with the Elders briefly after Neta’s exasperated encounter with the data, although only Matthew and Aliel were available for the call. Both champions recounted their experience on Lehon before offering to send the nav data to Zinuthra for decoding.
“A wise idea. We’ll send it to Vano and the Alliance intelligence team here to see if they can work something out.” With a request to keep them updated, the Elders signed off, leaving Yerbol wondering why the others weren’t available, especially considering the gravity of their mission.

Neta had interrupted his chain of thought by telling the party that they would need to refuel and stock up on any other supplies before they “visited another crazy planet”, Alderaan being the closest major port of call that could accommodate a ship as large (and as classified) as the Commodore. Ethan seemed enthused about the idea, although he left the cockpit rather quickly after setting course, not informing anyone of what he was bound to do; and if Yerbol were being quite honest, he didn’t care what Ethan was going to do with his time. The young man had earned some privacy, as did the Champions, which was why Yerbol found himself sitting in their quarters, pawing through the latest virtual gaming news. In these scant moments, he felt his age, which was a refreshing feeling. Most twenty five year olds weren’t galactic peacekeepers.

He heard their door open, looking up to find his wife seated at the edge of the bed.
“Hey there.” He smiled briefly before returning to his datapad. A moment later, she asked if he had wanted to talk.

Right. They needed to do that.

“Yeah…just give me a sec.” Yerbol planted the data pad on a nearby chair before rubbing his face with his hands, eyes looking to the ceiling for a moment tor two before he spoke:
“I guess, where do we start? The visions at Malachor? That might be a good place.” He drew his knees closer to his body.
“I have never in the entirety of my brief existence felt something that…heavy, you know? That pressing. Like the entire weight of the galaxy was resting on our shoulders and we couldn’t remove it. Maybe that was what Revan and Meetra felt.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he continued:
“I don’t know how they lived like that. Carrying that kind of burden for just a short while through visions was exhausting enough, let alone always knowing that you were one of the only people to know of a threat so terrifying that it would prompt most of the galaxy to fold in on itself and assume a fetal position.” He inched a bit closer to Aria.
“But it wasn’t just that weight, it was…like the Force itself became a burden, as if my connection to it was causing me to lose focus. So many times on Malachor and even Lehon I just wanted to be FREE of it. Not just the responsibilities we have(I know I complain about those), but the Force as a whole.” Casting an exhausted look at his partner, he added:
“Now I know why some people try to hide their Force sensitivities. Because once you train yourself to it, then what do you become? A tool of the Force, something that can be used to enforce balance rather than an individual who can explore their identity and the galaxy as a whole.There are no consequences for someone who doesn’t use the Force if they, say, have negative feelings towards someone or something. They’re not ‘corrupted’ by the ‘dark side’ or ‘out of balance’; they’re just kinda pissy that day or that week and then they can move on.” He chuckled slightly, taking one of her hands.
“That’s not to say I want to walk around angry at everyone.” He then asked:
“Does any of this make sense? How are you feeling after all…this?”

Aria listened somberly as Yerbol spoke about his concerns and thoughts, smirking wryly as he mentioned the wish to keep their Force sensitivities hidden. “I can understand that, I suppose…it is more difficult for us…when you have that much raw power inside of you its almost impossible not to let it do too much damage if you lose control of it for just a moment.” she chuckled guiltily and shook her head, offering: “We won't talk about how many of my mother's light bulbs I smashed every time I threw a temper tantrum, or the boys I put in the hospital because I threw them across the plaza like ragdolls (although, in my defence they shouldn't have called me a demon, they were asking for it).”
As he protested about not wanting to be angry all the time, she responded with a perfectly reasonable alternative. “Maybe, but there's no harm in beating the crap out of a training dummy to get it out of your system. It's what we did at the Academy.”

His next question required a bit more thought to be put into her answer, so the Champion fell silent, turning her hand over in his grasp to intertwine their fingers in the meantime.
“I don't know if it makes sense COMPLETELY, I can't begin to make sense of what that feels like… Or WHY anyone - you, Revan, or Meetra - would feel that way,” she admitted slowly, huffing out a breath, “but I think I understand the premise.” she sank her teeth into her lip and paused again, then glanced up to meet his gaze warily.
“Honestly? I don't think I've ever been more scared of anything in my life.”
For Aria, that was a big admission.
“Not really of…where we might be going or- or going into the unknown because we've done THAT all before.” she clarified, holding up her free hand to indicate that she wasn't quite done with her explanation before he could interrupt her, “I'm scared of what might happen out there, and I'm scared for YOU.”
Don't cry. For the love of the Force Do. Not. Cry.
Thankfully her voice somehow managed to keep itself steady despite her worries, though it did drop considerably in pitch to just above a whisper. “The pain I felt from the bond when we were orbiting Malachor… I-I thought I was going to lose you right then and there. And that was only a FRACTION of what you were feeling, I can't…I can't even begin to imagine what that must have felt like for you, what any of this feels like, whatever it is.”

Aria scoffed in frustration, looking to him helplessly once more.
“And I don't know if its just me being a mother hen, but it almost feels like you're getting, weaker, since then. When we opened that door…it felt like I was putting more energy into it than you were, not because you weren't trying but because… I HAD more energy?” this time, she stared down at their hands instead, as if she was worried the observation might somehow offend him or make it seem as though she was belittling him. Which was the opposite of what she was trying to convey.
“And it HURTS me, emotionally, to know that you're struggling like that and I can't fix it for you. Because I have no better idea what in all the hells is happening than you do… And if you're already feeling that way now, what's going to happen when we do go out there?”
What if you die? She couldn't bring herself to say it out loud, but the worry was there, niggling at her thoughts like a hungry Mynock. What if I can't save you? What am I without you?

With a snort of wry laughter that caught in the back of her throat, Aria shook her shoulders out in a feeble attempt to physically shake all these anxiety-inducing possibilities from her brain.
“Maybe I've just been spending too much time thinking alone, but, we have NO idea what it is that we're going to find out there. Something so evil that Revan would choose to leave his wife and unborn child just to go out there and stop it? I doubt it's True Sith technology either, or anything made by them, or else Renso or the Archives we have would've given us some kind of heads up, and then…it's been decades, maybe even closer to a century now, since Revan and Meetra left and they NEVER came back, Force, Bol, maybe they're already karkin’ dead and no one in the known galaxy ever bloody knew! How strong will whatever this is be, if THEY couldn't stop it, how can WE?”

The Champion had to take another breath, this time falling silent as she realised she hadn't given her partner a chance to get a word in edgewise.
“I rambled again, didn't I… Shit. I'm sorry, I've got to stop doing that when I'm upset…” she apologised sincerely, leaning into his side. “I'll shut up and let you talk now.”

The Champion listened closely to what his spouse told him, scooting even closer to where they were sitting on the same side of the bed. Even though they had gone through harrowing circumstances before, Aria was right: this was terrifying. He wanted to assure her that they could push through this, but she shushed him with a hand and continued to tell him that her fears weren’t all about the operation they were undertaking. There were a few times when he had wanted to tell her that he WOULD get over this no matter what he had to do, but a small part of him laughed at the idea of “getting over” what was building. He chuckled at her apology, motioning for her to draw closer as he told her:
“I love hearing what you have to say. That’s how we became best friends in the first place, remember? Going on walks that lasted suspiciously way too long and people thinking we were…well, you know.” When she was next to him, he took the liberty of placing an arm around her shoulders, kissing her forehead as he gently leaned against her, their breathing and the low hum of the slip space drive the only audible sounds(well, the hounds too, but they breathed surprisingly quiet when they were asleep). In some strange way, this was the most peace they had earned in…what, since their honeymoon? Yerbol didn’t want to ruin the ambiance that had settled into their room, but he did want to address what Aria had confessed to him.
“I don’t know what we’re going to find out there, but if you think that I’m going anywhere, you are sorely mistaken.” The hand attached to the arm around her shoulders began to gently draw a circular pattern on her bare shoulder as he continued:
“And no, I’m not going to just ignore what’s happening to me. I need some kind of guidance.” A sigh.
“You know what’s weird? I kinda miss Renso in situations like these. You still hear him in your head every so often? I do. His voice was one that you don’t easily forget…or maybe it was just the profundity of his wisdom. Or both.” A question then came to his mind that he voiced aloud:
“I haven’t even mentioned this to the Elders, have I? Probably should. Who do you think would have the best insight to…this?” He motioned with his other hand in a nebulous motion, which ran parallel to how vague his “condition” was.
“I can reach out to them on Alderaan. Maybe whoever I talk to can give me some advice on how to handle this…exhaust.” He then added:
“You know that example about being angry wasn’t about me, right? That was more of an illustration to show that people who don’t have a connection to the Force don’t have to worry about massive consequences. I guess I’m just…” He paused, trying to search for a better word, but then settled on the one that first came to mind:
“Tired. But it’s more than that. Like I said before, it’s like the Force is becoming too much of a burden to handle and I just want to let go…of the Force! Not my life, mind you. I’m here as long as you’ll put up with me.” He looked down at her with a warm smile, free hand caressing her cheek.
“I love you, Ari. I promise you that whatever happens, I will always be there for you.” He could almost hear Roan’s silent nod of approval from the afterlife.
“But here I am, talking up a storm like you said you were earlier.” He leaned against the headboard, shifting his weight before resuming:
“How do you like being a Master so far? Not too bad, right? Your apprentice seems a bit more…teachable than mine.”

Aria snickered quietly herself at his mention of the long walks, a faint flush of colour appearing in her cheeks as she caught his eye again.
“In all fairness, we did also fall out of a tree and come back with all sorts of leaf litter in our hair, so it's not surprising Vano thought that; it wouldn't be the first time she’d caught me sneaking back to my room after…doing things I shouldn't have been doing.” she cleared her throat, settling herself comfortably into his arms before Yerbol thankfully changed the subject rather than pressing her for more details. His reassurances that he wouldn't be going anywhere did help, and she let off a quiet sigh that mirrored his own, a sad smile forming as she remembered the fallen True Sith. “I do, too, sometimes. Usually he's yelling at me when I'm about to do something stupid.” Aria’s smirk faltered as she pondered his question about the Elders.
“Definitely a good idea, as for who, well…” - another sigh - “if Voldon was alive, I would've said him. But since he isn't, I don't know, Cheriss, maybe?” the Champion gave a one-shouldered shrug, not wanting to move from her current position against him in order to fully commit to the gesture. “You remember she called that Force spirit down to help us in the temple on Voss? That must've been pretty tiring. I know it's not EXACTLY the same but I'm sure she has some techniques for dealing with it that might at least help a bit? Maybe Malu, too, she probably has a stronger connection to the Force than anyone cause of, Y'know, the creepy, weird no-eyes thing. Maybe she can help you, moderate the energy flow of your powers or something.”

She hadn't considered the less literal angle to his thoughts about anger, and her expression morphed from the initial concern she had felt at the start of his admission, to relief, and then fond amusement as she chuckled and leaned into his touch, promising: “Well, that's going to be a VERY long time, then. Maybe forever, if there really is someplace within the Force that we go when we die. And I mean that, I don't know what I'd do without you."

Reluctantly, Aria moved away from him to allow her husband to comfortably adjust his position, snuggling back into his chest once he was properly situated. She laughed softly, more genuine this time, as she thought about Kytra and the Selonian’s somewhat over-eager desire to soak up any and all knowledge that she could, like a sponge. She steepled her fingers against his chest and perched her chin on them, raising an eyebrow down at her partner.

“Are you sure you got the worst one? It's not that she doesn't listen, but rather that I never knew one kid could ask SO MANY questions! Every time I try to teach her something, it's always ‘but how this’ and ‘but why that’ or ‘when can I learn how to do that’. Sometimes I wonder if she has an off switch.” the Champion’s nose scrunched up. “And she always looks at me like I've got the answers to EVERYTHING, it makes me feel…old.” she tilted her head curiously, trailing one hand up to card through his hair absently as she asked him about his own apprentice. “What about Ethan? Other than barely saying a word, which after Kytra doesn't seem like such a bad thing, he doesn't seem like trouble? Is it because he's all silent and broody? I thought you'd be used to that by now.”

He guffawed louder than he thought he would at her description of her inquisitive apprentice, the hounds looking up warily at the Champion before Taral snorted in displeasure from being woken up.
"Oh stop it. If you can't handle us having conversations, then you can sleep outside." Taral shook his flanks defiantly at the Champion as he settled into a prone position, eyes closing once more. Rolling his eyes, he turned back to his spouse to respond:
"Baby, don't you think you NEED someone to keep you on your toes? With her around, you'll become a master teacher in no time!" He laughed again, knowing full well that his partner probably wasn't pleased with his initial reaction, so he added:
"Ok, yeah, she asks a lot of questions, but wouldn't you rather have someone like that instead of someone making statements all the time? Kytra has a mind that seems to absorb knowledge at lightspeed; you can use that to your advantage. Keep answering her questions and soon she'll be a Champion herself. You know what that means, don't you? We won't have to flit around the galaxy at a whim when all we want to do is recline by a beach somewhere. Trust me, I would love to have Ethan be a bit more like Kytra: humble in his approach to learning." He began to run his fingers through Aria's hair out of habit as he continued:
"Ethan has so much skill with machines and can wield a saber well, but the problem is that he KNOWS he's good. Why do you think he wanted to sit up front with Neta(other than his obvious crush on her)? Why do you think he preemptively began to explore Malachor or tried to go on ahead of us when we were on Lehon? He's got an arrogance issue that needs to be addressed quickly." Knowing his assessment sounded a bit too harsh than he had intended, he attached an addendum:
"He's a good man at heart and I know that. He seems to genuinely want to be here, but I don't know if his reasons are entirely selfless. I'll have to make sure that I talk to him about what I've seen so far before we go off into...wherever." His eyes were half-closed now, a wide yawn coming far too easily.
"When was...the last time we got a good nights sleep, huh?" He groggily looked over at his partner, eyes opening to gaze right into her dark irises.
"I think, my dear, we owe it to ourselves to rest." A brief smirk crossed his features.
"I would suggest we do other things than rest, but I would feel slightly uncomfortable with those kind of activities when we have our apprentices onboard...and the dogs. And Neta. That'd be horrendously awkward." He drew her closer to him before planting a deep, long kiss on her lips, lingering for several moments before he muttered:
"We need to get a private suite somewhere. Somewhere...far..." His eyes were closing all the way now, arms still draped around his wife.
"far...away..."

___

Yerbol woke with a sudden jolt of energy, mind racing as he sat up in bed, looking frantically around the room for his saber. They had to get moving...
"Where?" He asked aloud, brow furrowing as he regained a sense of composure to find that he was still on the Commodore after having woken up from a solid ten hours of sleep(based on the chronometer mounted on the wall opposite of the door). Running a hand through his hair, he slowly planted his feet on the floor, laughing to himself. Even upon waking, his body was trained to think they were on a combat operation.

Yeah, they needed a break.

Thankfully, that break was announced over the comm system by Neta:
"Hey kids, on Alderaan now! Meet up in the CIC so we can talk about logistics." Logistics? Wanting to get clarification, the Champion rose and was ready to depart from the room when he looked down to find that he was dressed in shorts. And nothing else.
"That...would have been bad." Sighing, he donned a pair of pants and a t-shirt laying on a chair nearby before meeting with the others in the CIC, their apprentices looking rather cheery. Maybe they had gotten some rest as well. Neta looked the same: stupidly gorgeous. He would have to ask her how she managed to keep up appearances even after facing certain death multiple times.
"So, sitch update: Vano shot us a message saying that the coordinates were still being untangled and for us to sit tight. Can't think of a better place to be than here. We're in orbit now, but we'll be touching down at an Alliance hangar not too far from Aldera to refuel and supply up. Fair warning, though: I'll be AWOL until Vano gets back to us with some news. You'll have to make do without me for a while...which, I know, might be difficult, but you'll manage." Ethan opened his mouth, but Yerbol shot him a glare that prompted the apprentice to close it.
"Sounds good. Aldera has enough for us to keep busy in the meantime, I suppose."
"There IS a swoop track there, right?" Ethan asked expectantly, pumping a fist when Neta affirmed his suspicion.
"Don't go TOO far, both of you. We'll need to be on call."
"Right, right...but this is basically shore leave, right? Like, we're free to pursue whatever we want to do?"
"Pretty much...unless the other Champion has a problem with that?" He looked down to Ari with a smirk.

Edit: I have nooo idea how that bounced over into the IC section wtf RPGuild XD

Aria snickered in response to his comment about Ethan’s arrogance, purring teasingly. “More arrogant than I was when we first met?” when her partner didn't respond immediately, she grinned back at him and followed up with: “I'm sure you can get through to him, impart some of your humbleness to him or something. And maybe let me borrow some of your patience while you're at it.”
She tucked herself against him as he kissed her, mumbling something in tired agreement before she too, drifted into sleep.

___________________

Yerbol’s sudden jolt into wakefulness prompted a similar reaction from his spouse, the diminutive Champion sitting bolt upright as one of her sabers shot into her hand and activated, ready to strike against the perceived threat (her habit of sleeping with one tucked into her pillowcase at night had been a difficult one to curb, and she had yet to manage to do just that). After a few moments of blinking at one another in confusion, however, Aria deactivated the saber and threw herself back down onto the pillows as she howled with laughter and proclaimed:
“We… Work too much, Y'know that?!” as she wiped a tear of laughter out of the corner of her eye.

After a few more moments of silliness, including Yerbol almost leaving the room in his sleeping shorts and Aria cracking a jest about how she “saw no problem at all with his chosen attire”, they managed to get dressed and join their other companions in the CIC. The apprentices looked as well rested as Aria felt, and as her partner prompted her to voice any possible objections she may have, she waved them off with a jubilant grin.
“No, no, you two go on and get outta here for the day! Go have fun, that's what these stops are for!” she shot Ethan a stern look however, and uttered firmly. “But both of you keep a comlink to hand, alright? As soon as Vano pings that data through, we've got to get going.”
Kytra, of course, was not going to be a problem, the Selonian giving the Champions a complacent salute as she tucked a comlink into her ear and disappeared down the loading ramp, Aria had no doubt that her apprentice would be heading for the nearest library or some other similar establishment. Once Ethan had also taken his leave, the Champions headed off into the city themselves.
“I'd say we've earned a break of our own, hm?” Aria prompted, standing on her toes to press a playful kiss to his nose before she danced ahead a few steps, with both Sith hounds in tow. “Soooooo, how about we go and do something ridiculously, stupidly normal?” another teasing grin accompanied her next suggestion. “Nothing TOO strenuous of course, we still have to find a hotel somewhere for the other things later, hmm?”

Hiking along a mountain trail with a picnic basket was probably the most stupidly normal thing either Champion had done in a VERY long time. It was refreshing, to say the least, watching the dogs charge back and forth ahead of them, either bringing back sticks which they INSISTED the pair toss for them to retrieve, or diving into a nearby snow drift; Alderaan’s mountains were an odd mix of both snowy and not even this low down, which was interesting in and of itself, being able to find a nice place to put the picnic blanket down and still giving the opportunity to lift a decently sized snowball and hurl it directly at her unsuspecting partner’s face when he turned towards her after she had called his name. Of course, she had expected a retaliation, but Yerbol ending the battle by lifting her instead of another snowball and dropping her into the snow despite her (playful) protests of “NO, NO, I'M GONNA CATCH HYPOTHERMIA, BOL PLEASE!”

She was sure they spent more time laughing than eating. Not that it was an unwelcome change. She wouldn't admit to faking more than a few of the shivers on her way home, after all, they'd had the desired effect.
Yerbol raised an eyebrow at her quizzically after the fifth one, as they made their way into the hotel room (the Tuk'ata were remarkably perceptive and had flounced off to terrorise the local fauna and give their masters some much needed privacy, they weren't stupid and the Champions were sure they could find their way promptly back to the Commodore).
“Seriously, Ari, you don't have hypothermia. It wasn't that bad!” he chuckled, as aware as his wife that she lacked many of the other symptoms of the condition.
“Maybe not, but if you can't take a hint, that's your loss baby~” Aria simply shrugged and caught his eye over her shoulder as she dropped her attire onto a chair and skipped into the en-suite refresher. The door, when tried however, was left conveniently unlocked.

When the loading ramp made contact with hangar floor, both of their apprentices vanished very quickly, leaving the Champions with cart blanche to do…well, whatever they wanted. It was a strange feeling, but one that Yerbol could easily get used to, especially when Ari mentioned their agenda for the day.
“A hotel room DOES sound nice, but our place on Coruscant has set a high standard for us. Guess that means we’ll have to stay at someplace even swankier to compensate.” He shot her a playful grin as the duo intertwined hands, walking past bustling Alliance personnel, heavy machinery and other assorted reminders of work with a kind of reckless glide that is normally present in those who receive a chance to take a vacation.
When they emerged out of the hangar, they were greeted with the crisp, refreshing air that was the norm for Alderaan, even with the capital city just a taxi stop away.
“Let’s just…be, today.”

Which they did. After checking into their hotel, Yerbol voiced his desire for food, which then led to a discussion about WHERE to eat. Eventually it was decided that they were to enjoy the serene environs of the planet, setting up a picnic spot at a park just outside the city limits where there wouldn’t be too many onlookers who would call the city guard on the hounds. They had arrived and were enjoying a nice lunch when he had turned around to watch Taral chase down a pack of squirrels, about to comment on how little of a challenge the hounds were facing on Alderaan when he was met with fateful of snow. His spouse’s cackling triggered an immediate response.
“Oh no. We’re not doing this.” Before she could react, he scooped her up in his arms and found the biggest snowlike he could find, plopping her down with a satisfying thud.
“Somehow, you make a snowpile look very inviting.” A smirk crossed his features as he joined her in the snow and the Champion was very grateful there weren’t park visitors around their location for a few moments.

He was also very thankful that before he had to kick the hounds out, they had departed, giving them both snorts of approval for them to leave before setting off past city limits. This left them some time.

Which they took advantage of.

_____

His eyes opened to a few slivers of sunlight peeking through the heavy curtains that he had drawn last night before he had entered the fresher unit, silently wishing he had drawn them tighter so that they wouldn’t be roused from sleep. Groaning in protest, he cast a glance at the chronometer next to their bedside and rolled his eyes.

Seven forty five local time.

On the one day they had off, he couldn’t even sleep in. Figures. Then again, the activities of last night(and early this morning) were more than enough to compensate for the early rising. Yerbol turned over, placing an arm around his partner’s waist as he drew himself closer to her, planting a handful of kisses on her neck before settling onto the pillow, eyes closing. Maybe he could sneak in a couple of more hours before they were drawn away fro-

His comm unit vibrated.
“Oh for the sake of all that’s living…” He muttered, choosing to ignore the vibrations and closing his eyes. Whoever it was, they could wait.

It vibrated again with even more incessancy.

“Fine, fine.” Rolling out of bed, he stumbled over to the comm unit laying on a coffee table nearby, the unit half covered by his shirt(how did it end up here? Oh yeah…heh.) and answered:
“Yerbol speaking.”
“Hey, Yerbol…ah…could you come down here?”
“Ethan? What’s going on?” His apprentice’s voice was shaky when he responded:
“I think…I think I’m sick.”
“From what?” Silence.
“From. What?” A mutter.
“What was that?” A more audible, yet slurred answer this time:
“Cocktailswithgirls.” Son of a bantha.
“Are you hung over? That’s what this is, isn’t it?”
“I think…I’ve never been…hung over before…my head hurts.”
“Just…where are you?”
“Ah…” A pause.
“Think I’m...outside a big house.” Well that helps.
“What district? No, wait, forget it, just send me your coordinates and I’ll get you back to the ship.”
“Ok.” The call ended abruptly, Yerbol receiving coordinates and plotting the destination before biting his tongue in an attempt to suppress a loud stream of curses. Ethan was right outside House Kenaya’s complex, the aforementioned house a pivotal family that had lobbied for Alderaan to be one of the first Alliance planets to have the Qyaari involved in building Alliance governmental policies. They were trusted allies.

And somehow Ethan was right in front of their main base of operations. Hung over.

It had to be his apprentice, right? It couldn’t be Aria’s. Nope. She had to get the one who probably fell asleep at a library watching holo-vids of Alderaanian history. Grimacing at his lack of clothes once more, he walked to his spouse’s side of the bed before whispering:
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. With breakfast. And caf. I promise.” He kissed her cheek, taking one last longing look at the bed before he dressed and walked out of their hotel room.

___

When Yerbol arrived, he found Ethan standing against the complex’s outer wall, two armed guards bearing the emblem of House Kyanna flanking his position. Ethan’s nearly red hair looked duller somehow, his eyes somewhat bloodshot, clothes limply hanging off of him. With a shake of the head, he addressed the guards:
“Yerbol Massani, a Qyaari whose apprentice decided to embarrass the entire Order. My sincerest apologies if he was any trouble.”
“None at all this morning, sir. We didn’t even know he was here until Lady Jetsa told us of a ‘frumpy visitor’ at the gates that she saw on her security feed.” The matriarch of the family saw him. Great.
“Well please convey my deepest apologies for the unsightly visitor and I will personally see to it that he is disciplined for his actions.”
“Of course.”

__

The taxi ride back to the outskirts of Aldera was silent, Ethan occasionally drinking the electrolyte beverage Yerbol had purchased for him on the way to his location. It wasn’t until they reached the Commodore when Yerbol spoke in a restrained manner:
“What happened last night?” Ethan shook his head.
“I don’t know, I just-“
“Bull. Tell me what happened.” Ethan’s eyes widened slightly as words began to tumble out of his mouth:
“I was at the swoop track and I was betting on races and there were these girls there and they were cute and I told them that I was here on official business and they kept asking about it and I told them that I was your apprentice.” He stopped, smiling proudly.
“They liked that. Thought I was a big shot, bought me some drinks and-“ Yerbol grabbed Ethan by the collar of his shirt, eyes ablaze with indignation.
“YOU USED YOUR POSITION AS A QYAARI TO GET DRINKS?!”
“Woah, woah, I’m not finished, I’m-“
“YES. YES YOU ARE. GET YOUR ARSE BACK ON THE SHIP, NOW!”
“But-“
“SHUT IT!” Yerbol inadvertently clamped down on the boy’s collar so hard that he ripped a chunk of fabric as he tore his hand away in disgust. Ethan stood still, jaw slightly ajar as Yerbol jabbed a finger into the boy’s chest.
“You have NO idea what we’ve done to get to where we are now as an order and yet you flaunt our status like we’re bloody celebrities?! If I had known you were going to be that reckless, you would’ve been on lock down the moment we landed!”
“Hey, hey, I can have fun, can’t I? I mean, we’re allowed to blow off steam?! You and Aria went prancing off to-“
“ON THE SHIP!” The apprentice’s brow furrowed in frustration, turning on his heel back towards the ship, storming up the loading ramp.

As his initial wave of anger faded, he knew that many of the things he had said were ill-advised. He could have handled that better, but to see the carelessness, the stupidity that Ethan exhibited was jarring. He needed to talk to someone who had been through something like this before, someone who had a lot of experience training younger people-

Malu. She’d know how to handle something like this.

Yerbol walked out of the hangar and took a taxi back into Aldera, the stop about a few blocks away from their hotel. He located a restaurant that proudly declared they served breakfast along with lunch and dinner, strolling in and placing an order before finding a seat and withdrawing his comm unit, placing it on the table in front of him. He did a quick scan of the restaurant, happily acknowledging the scant populace of the eatery with a nod. The Champion then withdrew an earpiece from a hollowed out compartment on the rear of the unit, planting it firmly in his right ear before reaching out to Malu’s frequency without thinking of what time it was on Zinuthra. Thankfully the voice that answered didn’t sound like it was roused from slumber:
“Yerbol, what a pleasant surprise.”
“Sorry about the ambush, but I ah…had a bit of a blow up.”
“Oh darling, that happens in a marriage.”
“No, no, not with Ari, with Ethan.”
“That happens quite a bit, too. Well, tell me what unfolded." Yerbol summarized as much as he could, fully aware that he was in a public place and omitted as much unnecessary detail as he could. When he was finished, Malu chuckled.
“What?”
“That sounds very much like a typical apprentice.”
“How so?”
“Think about this for a moment. Apprentices, even in the former days, were young, weren’t they?”
“Yes…”
“How old were you when you first became a Padawan, hmm?”
“16.”
“Right. Aria was even younger than you when she became an Acolyte. Did either of you know very much when you started?”
“No, but we were teenagers with little to no field experience. He's older and was hand picked thanks to his experience…or I assumed that.”
“You assume correctly. He performed well enough in field assignments, but we passed on several other more qualified candidates.”
“What?”
“Yes, we passed on several who we thought would be a better fit on paper…except for Kytra. She was one that we knew would flourish right away, albeit with a little guidance here and there.”
“So you gave him to me for what purpose?”
“What else? To become a Champion.”
“But you said there were others who would be a better fit!”
“Certainly. His arrogance, irreverence and sensitivities towards the opposite sex were all noted. But surely you’ve seen his aptitude with the Force? He has so much potential to succeed and we trust that you can bring it out of him.” Sighing, he placed a hand under his chin, asking her:
“You really think that much of me?”
“Of both of you. You two represent the future of our order and it would be a shame to not use your talents to train others.” Yerbol was quiet for a few moments, allowing Malu to continue:
“Apologize for your outburst, but make sure that you reinforce that those kinds of behaviors are what made Force users very unpopular in the galaxy. He will learn, grow and adapt. Trust me. I’ve had apprentices with worse attitudes and they grew out of them with enough guidance…and yet this isn’t all you have on your mind, is it? Too bad it’ll have to wait.” A moment later, the woman he had placed an order with planted a bag with their food on his table.
“I mean, I can talk about it with you later.”
“There won’t be time. I know you’ll figure it out. And with that, I must be off. Take care of yourselves…please.” The call ended, Yerbol both grateful and mystified by Malu’s sound advice and cryptic messages about the larger issue at hand he was struggling with. In any case, he had to return to Aria. He was hungry.

When he entered the room, he quickly apologized:
“So sorry I had to leave like that. I brought an offering if that helps?”

His wife, who had finally fallen into a state of blissful sleep with her head tucked beneath his chin after their earlier activities, stirred at the sound of the communicator chirping, initially rolling over to face him and throwing an arm and a leg around his torso in an attempt to keep him from rolling away, muttering a groggy protest. “Stop movinggggg, baby, pillows aren't s’pose to move around!”
The infernal communicator would not be silenced, however, and after a few moments of trying in vain to ignore it and go back to sleep, she was forced to release him so he could answer it. The Champion sat up slowly, bunching the covers around her shoulders with one hand as she wiped the sleep from her eyes with the other and listened, with a raised eyebrow, to Yerbol’s side of the conversation. Though she couldn't hear what Ethan had said, it wasn't difficult to infer both who was on the other end of the line, and the situation that had unfolded.

There were a few minutes of silence as Yerbol’s apprentice fumbled to send the coordinates through, during which it became Aria's turn to guffaw with laughter.
“Oh come on, Bol, like you've never had to do the walk of shame before in your life!” the look on his face told her that he probably hadn't (or refused to admit to it), and instead Aria shook her head and pulled a hand through her well-mussed (which she maintained was entirely her partner's fault) hair, “He's still just a kid, what is he…19? 20? Only a couple years shy of me, that’s almost certain. Pretty sure this is what ‘normal’ people our age, their age, do. How bad can it be?” An unimpressed snort, followed by an angry huff of breath as the Champions received the coordinates. “....Where is he?” Aria asked slowly, unsure if she truly wanted to know the answer. Yerbol declined to provide one, instead swallowing down his own anger and beginning to look for his discarded attire, his wife peered over at the comm unit and groaned as she registered the location in her own mind.
“Ahhh, frack.” she muttered, glaring up at the ceiling as she rubbed both hands over her face in exasperation. “This is bad.”
Yerbol grunted in affirmation, leaning down to kiss her cheek and mumble something about breakfast before he disappeared from the hotel room.
“Go easy on him!”
_________________

She must have drifted off for another forty five minutes or so, because the next thing Aria was aware of was her own communicator chirping loudly from somewhere across the room (had she really thrown it that far? Apparently so!). Grumbling unintelligibly about where she would rather the device went, the Champion rolled onto her back and sat up, sticking her hand out to float the communicator back over and allow her to place the earpiece into her ear to mutter groggily:
“Somebody better be dying, or they're GOING to be when I'm finished with them.”
“Well, hello to you too, Darth Grumpy.” smirked the overly-jubilant voice of the Qyaari Lorekeeper. “Please tell me you two weren't…busy, or this is about to be extremely awkward.”
All Aria could muster was a muffled snort as she threw the covers aside and began searching for her discarded attire and redressing herself.
“No, but I WAS sleeping. Whaddyagot?” the last two words merged into one continuous syllable as she yanked her shirt back over her head and worked on straightening it while she waited for an answer.
“Ash and I finally pinned down some coordinates for you.” Vano continued, “We're patching them through to the Commodore’s navigation unit now, and you should get a copy to your personal frequencies too.” A pause, then, “I tried to tell you yesterday evening, but you didn't pick up.” she could practically hear the shit-eating grin in the Mirialan’s voice.
Now Aria remembered why she had thrown the unit across the room.

“I have a bad feel-”
“DON'T say it!” Aria cut her friend off with a vehement protest before she could finish, leaning back against the headboard with a groan. “You'll jinx it.”

She had just signed off from the call, falling back onto her stomach as she brought up the coordinates and tried to make sense of them, when the door opened and Yerbol reappeared. The Champion’s nose crinkled at the familiar, mouth-watering smell wafting from the bag he carried and she quickly sat up again, peering at him in an expression of near disbelief.
“... Is that REAL bacon?” When was the last time they had actual, real bacon? She couldn't recall. “Okay, I love you even more now.”
She was starving at any rate and would've eaten whatever the offering had been, even if it was more space rations.

_______________

An hour or so later, they had reconvened at the Commodore (though Neta had not yet arrived), and the Champions and their apprentices crowded around the galaxy map as Aria and Kytra tried to input the coordinates. At first, it appeared as if they were a dud (“But Vano wouldn't have sent us botched coordinates! She's not that cruel! “) as every attempt was met with a loud bleep of protest from the tannoy on the console, a mechanical voice announcing that it was an “unrecognised set of coordinates, please input a valid astrogation position and try again”. She had just surrendered to their fate, stepping back to throw her arms in defeat, when Ethan shuffled up to join Kytra at the console and (despite his bloodshot eyes and the fact he had spent the past half hour clutching his head and complaining about the brightness of the Commodore’s interior lighting) managed to reroute the programme onto a different set of astrogation charts that finally spat out a viable planet.

It looked deceptively peaceful, at least eighty percent blue ocean, with the other twenty percent being made up of vast swathes of green.
“Hmm.” Aria muttered, scowling at the projection uneasily. “That's VERY unhelpful.”
Kytra’s nose twitched, perhaps sensing her Master’s unease, and asked.
“Do you think it's dangerous? Doesn't… LOOK like it is?”
“Looks are deceiving many times.” the Champion pointed out, gesturing to the green parts of the planet as the group heard the loading ramp engage, indicating that Neta had most likely returned. “We don't know what all this green is. It could be forest, jungle, or more swampland like Nuncata. There's no way to tell,” she paused, glancing towards the door as if waiting for the former spec ops to enter the CIC before she continued, “unless we try and run some kind of surface scan before we leave its orbit.”
“If that even works,” muttered another voice, “this place could be like Malachor, in which case all that machinery will get us nowhere.”

“REAL bacon, indeed.” He handed her food and drink, laughing at her profession of love before responding:
“I needed to do this sooner, then, eh?” Yerbol didn’t mention very much to his partner about his interaction with his apprentice, instead choosing to have a nice, happy, normal breakfast with his wife. In a way, their meal reminded him of their honeymoon, which was the last block of time where they had spent time together without the needs of the galaxy weighing on them. It made the Champion long for a time when they could make this their everyday course of living rather than what they currently had to deal with. Maybe after this(how many times had they said that phrase), they could go on a sabbatical. Maybe set down roots somewhere nice where the hounds could gallop without restraint and they could just…exist. Maybe get a dog…a real dog. One that didn’t inspire fear in the hearts of those who saw it. That would be nice.

His serene portrait of where they could be had to be stowed away after breakfast unfortunately, seeing as Vano had transmitted coordinates back to the Commodore for them to examine. Before they left their room, however, Yerbol stopped Aria from leaving, placing a hand on her shoulder as he told her quietly:
“When we get through this, I promise you that we’re going to do more…normal things. You deserve a life free from dangerous missions into the unknown and replete with bacon.” He drew her closer, placing his arms around her waist.
“One last kiss before go back out there? The apprentices don’t need to know that we express physical affection for each other.”

A smirk.

_______

“You’re sure about this?” Kira ruffled her auburn-colored locks that were now beginning to grow past her shoulders.
“Yeah. I can’t…” Her lips pursed, eyes cast towards the untouched mug of tea.
“I can’t just sit here, Neta. I won’t.” Neta leaned forward, taking one of her hands and squeezing it reassuringly.
“Glad to know you’re taking a better route than I did after Vivi passed. Mercenary work pays well, but makes you an ‘enemy of the peace’.” Kira snorted a laugh, hand withdrawing to wipe away the brief shimmer of tears that had formed in her eyes before resuming eye contact with the former spec ops officer.
“I did my time as…well, something like that. Didn’t get paid like you did, though.”
“It’s not all that cracked up to be.”
“Says the girl with five different luxury homes and kids in private school on Alderaan.”
“Hey, hey, those were Alliance funds, honey.” A shared laugh as Kira stood up, right hand briefly running over an ornately carved lightsaber hilt.
“Don’t want to keep them waiting, right?”
“Ah, don’t worry. Vano sent us all a message last night saying that the coordinates were in. I’ve got a course already plotted, but I want the kids to figure it out, too. Critical thinking and all that.”
“How long should we wait?”
“Until I’m done with my coffee.”

________

“It’s not like Malachor, kids.” Neta appeared in the doorway of the CIC, a wide smile on her face.
“Atmospheric conditions from what we can pull from the records we got are favorable for a smooth landing. To think that we’ll actually be able to break into an atmosphere that won’t try to kill us.” Yerbol jutted his chin out, asking with mock indignation:
“You know where we’re going already, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
“And you ran all the scans probably last night?”
“Uh huh.” She plopped into a nearby chair.
“And you didn’t tell us?”
“Hey, you guys made it sound like you didn’t want to be disturbed. Vano sent us all messages and…well, I’ll assume that all of you were busy?” Yerbol tried desperately to suppress a flush of pink that rose to his cheeks, but he knew it was too late, so he spoke quickly to extract more information about their destination:
“So what do you know?”
“Well…” She leaned forward, interacting with a few command prompts on the projector, which spawned several columns of data that hovered over the planet. Ethan quickly started to spurt out information as he processed it:
“Atmospheric particles at point two zero, climate patterns read steady, gravity w-“
“I got this, Ethan, but thank you for the intro.” He smiled sheepishly, silencing himself before Neta continued:
“All of the numbers you see there were left on the astrogation charts. Revan left us just enough to work with.”
“Which is?”
“Sets of coordinates that we’ll need to use to jump to that part of the universe.”
“What?”
“This planet, Odessen as he called it, isn’t accessible as a direct jump from known space. You see that long number there? With all the decimals? That’s how far the planet is from Lehon in lightyears.” Yerbol stopped trying to read the number after the sixth decimal point.
“BUT, there are coordinates here…” She motioned to the left hand column which had four sets of numbers neatly stacked on top of one another.
“That we can jump to without running out of fuel.”
“So if we jump to these coordinates, we eventually end up at Odessen?”
“Right. Problem is…I don’t know where the coordinates will have us ending up. Even with me and Vano working on it together early this morning, we still couldn’t find a known path. Essentially, we’re jumping VERY deep into unknown space, way past Zinuthra and Quensu.” Yerbol swallowed hard.
“Do we have estimates on how long it’ll take for us to get to Odessen, then?” She nodded.
“Six months.”
“What?”
“Six months in hyperspace, BUT remember, we’ve got slipspace generators that can cut our travel time down and that doesn’t account for each segment of the journey.”
“Can the Commodore last that long?”
“Should. The ship was designed for long-haul recon and battle assignments, so we should be fine with what we have now. If not…we’ll figure something out. Besides, we’ve got an extra hand onboard.” Kira entered the CIC, a half-smile creasing her features.
“Thought I could join you guys for the ride. Sounds fun.” Yerbol couldn’t help but smile broadly at seeing Kira look like her old self again, telling her:
“It’s so good to see you again.” The smile decreased in scope as he asked:
“Wait, the Council…did they send you?”
“Kinda. I volunteered myself for this assignment and they put their stamp on it. They can tell you more when we set out.” Yerbol wanted to ask for more detail, but instead nodded.
“Well, we could use the help, especially from someone who helped take down the Emperor.”
“Exactly why she’s here.” Neta chimed in as she rose.
“I’ll get us up into orbit and then you guys can have your meeting with the Council.”
“Before diving into the unknown.” Ethan muttered, the apprentice vacillating between utter excitement and crippling anxiety.

As the Champions and their learners continued to pore over the projection in front of them and bouncing potential ideas back and forth, Neta made a reappearance and began to give them the rundown on the information that they had gathered. The Champion narrowed her eyes at the comment regarding their unavailability the night before, muttering: “Just tell us what you found out, Neta.”
Mercifully, the spec ops pilot did just that, though Aria had to admit that the intel they were presented with was no more comforting than their own theories had been. She felt her jaw slacken in disbelief as she coughed out, in unison with her partner:
“S-Six MONTHS?” Slipspace could only get them so far, she thought to herself. But, as always, what choice did they have?
Her momentary annoyance at their predicament was curbed by the presence of a familiar Knight who had been sorely missed among the Qyaari since her husband’s passing.
“Kira!” the Champion broke into a welcoming grin despite everything. “It's good to have you back.”

“If only it were under better circumstances, eh?” Kira nodded to Neta as the pilot headed back towards the cockpit. “Let's get you patched in and the Elders can fill you in on everything.”
“Into the unknown might as well be the tagline for the Qyaari Champion job description at this point.” Aria snorted, flashing Ethan a wryly sympathetic grin. We'll get through this, somehow. Everyone is counting on us.

___________________

Several minutes later, the Qyaari crowded around the projections of the Council of Elders, as they received the full rundown of the information they had managed to gather about their destination. Although, that was rather optimistic, the Council were quick to reiterate that they knew nothing of the planet for certain, only yet more theories as to what they may find when they touched down.

Ailel crossed her arms as she surveyed the five in front of them, her blue eyes sparkling with worry.
“We have reason to believe that there may be a contingent, or perhaps more than one, of these ‘Revanites’ camped out on this planet. Radical Force users who were drawn in by Revan’s teachings, after he saved the Jedi, I'm sure you're all aware that Revan was not quite as dedicated to the original Code as some others. He amassed quite a following among both Orders who subscribed to the idea of neither Light nor Dark. Though, Cheriss and Malu would be able to tell you more, since most of the Revanites migrated to the jungles of Dromund Kaas for a time.” she finished, looking at the two former Sith in question.

The Dathomirian nodded severely, tenting her fingers together in the classic “I'm really unhappy about this” Cheriss pose, clearing her throat to compose herself before she began:
“As you may or may not be aware, the Revanites were known to the Dark Council throughout their time on Dromund Kaas, though they were naught but a pragmatic nuisance at best. Roan and I previously had managed to infiltrate their ranks where we were able to locate what he believed had been Revan’s original mask. We returned it to its rightful place in the museum in Kaas City, of course, but there is one issue: just before Bracknell and Soto came to power five years ago, the mask was stolen.”
“At the time, of course, we assumed that Bracknell had taken it. The Revanites that were left on Dromund Kaas were likely where he amassed the majority of his Sith followers, after all.” Malu chipped in. “But when we defeated Bracknell on Zinuthra, we could find no evidence that it had ever come into his possession, nor that Bracknell had any idea who DID have it.”
“So another Revanite must have taken it.” Kytra muttered, perching her chin on her palm thoughtfully.

“So we believe.” Cheriss confirmed. “But the culprit left no trace of their destination, beyond that they had gone into Wild Space and never returned. It’s highly possible that this Oddessen planet could be the Revanites’ new base of operations, we would advise you to be cautious.” her mouth quirked upwards into a wry smirk. “But I'm sure Kira has told you that enough times already.”
“There's no GUARANTEE that this person landed up on Oddessen.” Kira admitted as she gave each Champion a sidelong glance. “But it’s a possibility.”

Aria had remained quiet throughout the duration of the exchange, the expression on her face indicating her silence had been due to her being deep in thought.
“If that mask really IS Revan’s, and we were to track it down, could we use it to find him, if he's still out there to BE found?” she looked between the Elders curiously. “Artefacts sometimes hold onto the Force signatures of their bearers, right?”
“POTENTIALLY, yes.” Cheriss confirmed after some hesitation. “But I would recommend that your first course of action once you land would be to locate some form of communications array, or make one, to keep in contact with us so you can report your findings.”

Or so that you know we aren't dead. Aria thought wryly to herself, as Cheriss turned to the other Elders and asked:
“Anything that I've missed, Malu? Matthew?”

The concept of a “Revanite” was one that he had never heard of, but made sense. Revan was a mythological figure, almost launched into the status of Demi-god. People would be attracted to worshipping that kind of power, even going so far as to think they could learn how to be “like” Revan. Yerbol wondered silently how the Revanities could have made it to Odessen with just hyperspace travel, let alone how the Council knew that there were Revanites on the unknown planet, but then again, that data they extracted from Lehon might have had more than Yerbol thought. He would have to ask Vano how she managed to figure all this out when they returned.

When Cheriss asked for the Elders to chime in, Matthew’s normally youthful countenance appeared to age almost instantly, wrinkles creasing his forehead and brow.
“There’s no guarantee that you can find a working communications device that far out in unknown space, but if you do, I would suggest patching into whatever frequency is available from Zinuthra. I, along with the rest of the Council, could care less who receives the information first. As long as SOMEONE knows where you are, we’ll feel better. Besides, I think the Alliance intelligence people would be more celebratory about receiving a landmark transmission from deep within Wild Space than we would.”
“A fair point. Besides, we probably wouldn’t be able to address it right away.” Yerbol cocked a brow, prompting the Miraluka to explain:
“We don’t just sit around and await your reports, darling. There are more things at play than even your little group knows about, issues that only we can address. And before you ask, it’s better that you don’t know about them. There’s a reason why we take care of these matters ourselves.”
“That’s not to say you’ll be completely on your own, though. We’ll try to provide support whenever we can, but Malu does make a good point: when you leave this part of Wild Space, we can’t guarantee very much support even if we wanted to.” An uncomfortable silence fell on the meeting, Matthew breaking it after a few moments:
“But there was a reason why we sent you, ALL of you, on an operation like this. All that has been accomplished up until this point has led you to this. Bracknell, Illesia and the Xiis, Manus…the Force guided you through this and other trials to prepare you for what you will go through. We believe in your abilities to succeed.” He shot the Champions a smile.
“Besides, you two really have been operating independently ever since you’ve been a team. The only thing that changes is that you won’t have to tell us very much because we won’t be able to hear you.” A half-hearted chuckle from Yerbol.
“We’ll do what we can to report back. I presume our little portion of the galaxy will be intact when we return?”
“As much as it can be, Yerbol. You do your part and we’ll do ours.” The Elder had been leaning forward, but now sat back, looking the group over one last time, a trace of some unreadable emotion glancing through his eyes.
“May the Force be with you. All of you. Come home safe.” Right as the transmission ended, Ethan asked in a still slightly bleary tone:
“So ah…how are we going to last six months on the ship?”
“Yeah, kid’s right. What IS the plan for getting to Odessen without starving to death?” Kira and Ethan’s questions were met with a nod of affirmation from Yerbol, who had been wondering the same thing ever since Neta dropped the “six month” revelation on them.
“Well, remember, the coordinates were plotted using standard hyperspace calculations. Slipspace generators can shave time off, but with these unknown jumps…well, we’re kinda shooting in the dark.”
“Cool, cool…but that didn’t answer my question.”
“We won’t BE flying for six months, Ethan. Our first stop might not take us more than a couple of weeks.”
“But that’s a ‘might’? Not a ‘definitely’?” Neta shook her head, looking at the Champions and Kira with mock desperation.
“He REALLY doesn’t know how we operate, does he?”
“Ethan, our entire profession leans on this kind of uncertainty. Better to embrace it now than try to fight against it.” The apprentice gulped down a knot forming in his throat, nodding before Neta added:
“We’re fueled up and ready to get to our first set of coordinates. I’m going to go punch in our destination and then…we’ll be off.” The pilot left the CIC along with Ethan, who the party could hear asking questions about how fuel efficient slipspace generators are as the cockpit door closed.
“Hey ah…sorry to drop in so suddenly. I know you weren’t counting on company, but it’s nice to be a part of something like this.”
“Are you kidding? Having you along is a comfort. You’ve been through even more than we have.” She chuckled.
“Agreed with the last bit, but not so sure about being a ‘comfort’. Never was very good at encouraging that kind of an atmosphere.” Her eyes were cast down for a few moments, then quickly told the group:
“I’ll ah…I’ll be around. We’ll have time to talk, I’m sure.” With that, she disappeared, leaving three.
“You want to watch our departure, honey? Might be nice to see known space. Won’t be seeing it for a while.” He took one of her hands in his, glancing down at her with a somber smile.