Lavality was caught off guard, before she knew it she was on the ground, pounced upon by a four year old Trandosha child. "H-hey there Silonik.. nice to see you to." She said with a smile across her face, she managed to lift Silonik off her and place him on both feet.

"It's nice to see that he's ok, but also that his friend is fine." She was tempted to say why, but wondered if it would be ok in the presence of these children.

"You've had a long flight I take it," she said and noticed Mortor and how he looked. "And you look like you could use a change of clothing," she smiled at the youth before stepping aside.

Some distance behind two young Trandoshan females walked toward her. "Please be sure these children get a full meal and a change of clothing," she said to them and they bowed to her. "I want you to meet, Lacka and Volruc, both have been with me for many years. They will take care of your needs, but please remember your Jedi training and treat them well." she said to the two youths before looking at the one called 'Rane'

"I must speak to you, in private." Lavality said, she no longer had that concerned, motherly look on her when she was talking to Silonik or Mortor, that was now replaced with a more authoritive, if not, concerned look.

Rane was reluctant to let the pair out of his sight, not after been their personal guardian of sorts for well over a month, but recognized the need for the private chat this girl was requesting. The little ones needed a hot meal and a bath anyway and he was sure they would feel more comfortable with their own kind providing them. He let her lead him away to a more private location where there were as many eyes. “From how you greeted us, I am assuming you know about the invasion.” Without waiting for a response he continued. “Silonik already knows some of the details….” Rane admitted with a sigh. “Perceptive that one….I couldn’t even do a play of the truth on him.” He chuckled mildly before turning serious. “What you may not know is this: there are at least two Sith on the planet now. It was their presence I felt that prompted me to take those two and leave, for I knew what they would be about.” He sighed heavily. “I just wish I could have saved all the younglings….”

Lavality blinked. "How did the order allow the Sith onto Naboo? I would've expected Master Dolash and the others to have taken care of any Sith long before they arrived.." she said and sighed. "What about the Academy? Do you know if any of the other Padawans and Knights either made it out? Or are staying?" She asked.

Rane blinked at her in turn: she didn’t know….

“Lavality…there is no Jedi Order anymore.” He said. “They disbanned…not long ago. Master Dolash….” Bitterness entered his voice “….that bastard….he apparently felt it wasn’t worth running any more and disbanned it…leaving scores of padawans and learners like Silonik and Mortor alone to fend for themselves. Most of those left on the planet were children, with only one or two fully trained Jedi to tend to them. Left them to the wolves….he did….if I ever see him again….” He left it at that, figuring she could safely guess what he was thinking, if she wasn’t thinking the same thing herself. "The Academy itself is abandoned, it's library and archives destoryed or taken away by the few Masters they had." He continued after he had calmed down a moment. "There is little if anything for the Sith to find...except the children..."

Her heart sank; as did her body as she sank into the chair. "Thats....." she said as she placed her hand over her mouth, she looked away and toward the wall. "Damn...." she muttered.

She never thought the order would be disbanded, hell, she never thought the children at that Orphanage would be abandoned. "And its to late for me to dispatch a rescue squad.. as I'm sure the Empire is already swarming the planet, and with a Sith there.. err.... Damn that Dolash.." she snarled and shot up out of her chair and walked toward the door.

"The Sith won't hesitate to kill those children...." She said sadly. "This is unacceptable... but sadly there isn't anything we can do, if we had been warned of their approuch a few hours 'before' they had arrived we might've been able to deploy a fleet.. the best I can do is deploy a cloaked corvette to the area," she looked over her shoulder at Rane, then back toward the door, she then turned toward a communications panel that was on the wall. "Bridge, prepare my command ship for launch. Inform my crew to get their asses on that ship and get it ready, I don't care if they are enjoying a family vacation with their young ones, I need everyone on board in one hour. Prepare escort squads of four Crescent frigates." she said, the communications officer on the other end gave a green signal, indicating that he had received her transmission.

"We'll be headed to Trandosha, I had planned to wait awhile but it seems thats not possible." She said and then contacted the bridge again and informed them to have Asri moved to the command ship.

She let out another sigh. "I'll dispatch another ship to the space around Naboo... but as much as I want to rescue those children... I can't risk an altercation with the Empire. We are not ready for a full shall engagement, but I guess its about time to talk to Sha'tor Rissonik about an idea that's come to mind for several months.. and this latest attack has become the catalyst that'll bind everything together," She smiled.

"I suggest you get yourself a hot meal, something tells me the next few hours are going to be hectec." She said and left the room, she had several things she had to do before it was time.

He had expected her to go into a rage, but she kept her composer, a sign of the training she had received while she was at the Academy, if not due to the military discipline that was apparent in her stature. Rane simply nodded and headed off to find a meal.

After eating he wandered a bit and came across Silonik and Mortor, whom were giving their caretakers a bit of trouble. Silonik had apparently forgotten what Rane had told him before and was engaged in a game of tag with Mortor, the result being the pair running all over the deck and the poor two Trandoshans watching having a hard time keeping up. They got a break when the pair spotted Rane and ran up to him.

“Did you two get something eat?” He asked them.

“Not yet, we just done taking a bath.” Silonik replied.

“Well I suggest you go get some food, we’ll be leaving again shortly.” Rane told them.

“Where are we going?”

“To Trandosha. Lavality wants to talk to your grandfather about something.”

Silonik nodded, an excited light in his eyes that he’ll get a chance to see his whole family again soon. Before they could run off, they spotted a medical team wheeling a patient down the hall toward the docking bays. It took a moment for Rane to recognize the patient as a Trandoshan, for he had never seen one that coloration before.

“Lady Asri….” Silonik said, concern in his voice. “I wonder what happened to her….”

“You know her?” Rane asked.

“Uh huh…She came with Daddy last time he visited us at the Academy. She took me and Mortor to a carnival once. Very pretty lady…and very nice. Daddy likes her a lot too.”

“I see. Well you to go get something to eat, I’ll meet you on the ship ok?”

“Ok!” The pair replied before allowing the two females to lead them away toward the cafeteria.

With nothing else to do, Rane went on ahead to the docking bay to get boarded. He saw Asri there as well and when the doctors were done securing her in her new medical room Rane took a moment to get a better look at her.

She was asleep or unconscious, likely the latter and occasionally her body twitched as if she was currently in a bad dream. He tried to get a general impression of what she was feeling using the Force, but discovered he could sense nothing beyond that she was alive. Strange…. He thought. It’s almost like something’s interfering with the Force. Curious, he gently lifted up her free right hand and noticed immediately the silverish ‘specks’ through out her skin. Nanotech? That would explain it… He thought as he put her hand back.

He let her be after that, knowing it was best to leave her in peace. Shortly after Silonik and Mortor joined him, though with now full bellies they were more interested in sleeping then play and chatter. He got a hold of one of the crew, who led them to what would be their room for the trip.

A long clang resounded through the docking bay forty one as the clamps that held the cruiser class command ship disengaged, gravity set in and the ship floated there.

"Clamps disengaged, engines online... want to tell me again why we switched to a frigate command ship and not the cruiser command ship?" An officer asked the XO. "Lavality plans on landing near the clan grounds; a cruiser or destroyer command ship would be a bad choice to use in landing, and besides, she doesn't want to draw any 'unwanted' attention."

The officer raised an eye-brow at this, after a few seconds she shoke her head and went back to her duties.

At that very moment Lavality walked into the bridge. "Launch," she simply said as she took her seat. The ship's four massive engines came alive and soon it was out of the station and out of the asteriod field.

"Prepare to engage hyper-space," she said. The ship lurched forward and soon disappeared into hyperspace, followed closely behind by its escorts.

"ETA is thirty minutes ma'am." The helmsman said, Lavality nodded and got up from her chair. "Keep a close vigil on your sensors, if anything seems out of place, drop us out of hyperspace and release fighters."

"I don't understand, we are far from the empire.. it's not like they'll attack us," The XO said.

Lavality nodded. "While I'm hoping you are right, we can't discount the possibility that others may take this oppertunity to elimanent four jedi."

"You don't mean Jedi Hunters right?" The XO said nervously.

She sighed. "The one thing I didn't tell Asri, was that three of the generals she killed were infact Force Hunters at one point in their life..." she said before leaving the bridge.

Making her way to medical, she found Asri asleep. She sat down on the chair and stared at the female trandoshan, in this position she seemed helpless, but she knew that Asri was far from it.

”What is this!?” Her father yelled, welding the wind instrument as if it was a sword in front of Dresik’s face. Asri cowered behind the table nearby.

“It’s a flute father.” Dresik said calmly, though Asri could see the fear in his eyes.

“I know what the skrag it is.” Besk snarled. “What are you doing with it!?”

“I….” Dresik faltered, the words he wanted to say failing to emerge. Besk grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him against the wall, cracking the masonry and Dresik grunting in pain.

“This is yours isn’t it?” Besk said, cold and cruel. “You had designs on becoming a musician didn’t you? My son…a musician…I won’t allow it! No self respecting T’Doshok would even dream of doing this! So what is your excuse boy!?”

Dresik was silent, fear overwhelming him. Asri could see Besk’s rage increasing by the second and she feared for her brother’s life. Then, a spark of courage entered her and she stood tall. “It’s mine father…not his.” She said, sounding far braver then she really did.

Besk regarded her with suspicion. “Oh really?” He said softly, but there was no sign of understanding in that voice. Suddenly he tossed the flute to her, Asri barely catching it before the expensive item fell to the floor. “Play it.”

Asri’s mouth went dry: she should have known he would pull this. She had watched her brother play it dozens of times, so could safely guess how the hold it right, but actually playing it was another matter entirely. She put it to her lips and blew and shrill note emerged. Dresik winced, but Besk didn’t even seem to be bothered. Trembling, she made a few more notes before Besk finally came over and yanked the instrument out of her hands.

“Figures…” He growled. “The only thing you are good at is housework.” Then without warning he snapped the flute in two. Dresik’s eyes widened in despair and shock: fortunately Besk didn’t look in his direction. “Stick with what you are actually good at female….” He tossed the broken flute to the floor and walked out of the house. It was only after a long moment when they were sure he was gone did either of them moved.

“I’m so sorry Dresik….” Asri said, tears streaming down her face.

“If you hadn’t done it…he would have killed me.” Dresik said, gingerly picking up the remains of his flute. “An instrument can be replaced….a life cannot….”

“Just a few more months….” Asri muttered. “Just a few more months and we’ll both be free….”

Dresik gave her a sad look. “But will we ever really be free of him?” He said. “Ever since Tnossok took over the K’Satikur Clan father’s been getting worse at controlling what we do.”

“We’ll leave the planet if we have to…”

He shook his head. “As the one that would carry on his bloodline, he would track me down no matter where I went. No…only his death would free us….”

Asri was shocked to hear him say that. Besk was a bastard, but killing him was near impossible since was a K’Satikur Warrior. “Then we may never be free of him….” Asri said with a sad sigh.

****

Asri groaned softly, a tear running down her cheek. "Never be free...." She uttered softly.

Lavality blinked and cocked her head to one side; the words Asri said were a surprise to her. "Asri?" She said, thinking that perhaps she was awake, but after no response she fell silent.

A dream perhaps? She is twitching every so often... must be a terrible dream for her to be like that.. she said softly.

Asri was preparing for bed one night when Dresik came in without warning, startling her.

“Dresik! You’re lucky I am clothed!” She teased. Dresik smiled, but there was a sadness to it that gave her cause to worry. “What’s wrong?”

“Father and I will be going out on a hunt tomorrow.” He explained. “I plan to confront him then.”

Dread filled her when she heard those words. “Y..yo…you can’t!” She said. “He’ll kill you!”

“Maybe…maybe not…I may get lucky.” Dresik said with a sad shrug, though she could tell he didn’t believe he had a chance.

“Don’t! Please don’t! If you die I’ll be alone in this mad world.” Asri begged, grabbing onto his shoulders.

“Asri….” Dresik gently removed her hands and held them in his own. “I have to do this…I can’t keep living a lie. If I am to die I want it to be while I’m fighting for what I believe in.”

“I don’t want to lose you….” Asri sobbed, tears streaming down her face.

“Dear sister…I’ll always be with you.” He said softly to her, wiping away her tears. “If I do fall…promise me you’ll find a way to kill that bastard, so that you can be free of him.”

“Dresik…I….”

“Promise me.” He said a bit more forcefully.

“I…I promise….”

Asri got up early the next morning, just in time to see her brother and father off. Dresik saw her and smiled at her before disappearing out the door. She would never see her brother again.

It was a couple of days before Besk returned and when she saw him Asri knew Dresik had failed. The wounds and blood on her father’s body told her the story: Dresik had fought with every ounce of his ability before he lost his life, yet Asri still found herself asking about his fate. “Where’s Dresik?”

Her father, whom for the first time in her live had a sad, regretful look in his eyes, simply said. “With the ancestors.”

Asri felt like her whole world had just fallen from beneath her feet, her father’s words confirming her deepest fears. A sorrow, a pain so deep she felt that she just wanted to die. Then anger and rage like she never felt before rose up. “You bastard!” She cried as she flew at her father, all teeth and claws, wanting to rip his throat out.

Besk was taken off guard by his daughters attack, but he still fended her off easily. The next thing Asri knew she was being held up by the throat against a wall. “So there is fire in you.” Besk said, amused. “Pity you’re a female and won’t be able to properly use it. Don’t taint your brother’s memory with this pathetic attempt at killing me: it will only make me glad that I did kill him.”

He tossed her to the floor then and left her sprawling on it as he left the room. Asri watched him go, hot, angry tears streaming down her face. I swear I will find a way….to avenge you brother….and free myself from you ‘father’….

****

“Dresik…..” More tears came down now, but this time those dark blue eyes finally opened. “I remember….” She said softly, to no one but herself. “I knew I had a brother…but had forgotten how you were…I remember now…I remember now my promise…I have avenged you brother….we are both free now….”