Leia smiled, almost patiently.


"It sounds like you think that I deny hopeful recruits the training they seek based on 'tests', such as how they present themselves when they walk through the gate. I guess I've given you the wrong impression..."


To be truthful, many Force adepts have passed through these gates, each with their own customs, quirks, weaknesses, beliefs.... some were even already Sith, coming here in peace. I have never denied a single one of them guidance and training, ever. They have always been welcomed and embraced; it is my duty to help and guide all who come here seeking aid, not to turn them away.


If I were to deny a Force adept training based on first impressions, I would not only be acting unfairly as you said, but it would probably only encourage him to seek out the Dark Side as the answer to his questions and problems. It would be an act of fear on my part as you said, a fear of dealing with potential problems in the future. Not to mention though, if that person were to be tempted by the path of the Dark Side, this Order would not be at their side to offer them guidance and support. Turning away someone like that would be to deny ourselves a chance to make a difference, and that would just be... stupid!


What I meant when I told you that all who walk through that gate are closely scrutinized and perhaps 'tested', and are not allowed to just waltz in here and be trained is that yes, we are looking for traits that might lead the individual to turn towards the Dark Side. But whether or not the individual will recieve training has nothing to do with the observations we make. Before I start training a Padawan I want to know as much about that Padawan as I can, to prevent and future... problems. So... if I see the person is quick to anger or is perhaps impatient, I will try to incorporate activities into their training that will hopefully teach them better self control and understanding. I take risks with most every Padawan, it's the only way for them to grow and move up in the ranks. I try to provide guidance that will help them stay on the path of the Jedi... I mean... that's what I try to do and you can never predict the future, and if one of my Padawans does choose the dark despite my best efforts, well..."


She grimaced and twitched as for a brief moment the memory of her saber delivering the fatal blow to her own cousin, Han Skywalker, rushed through her mind. She'd done everything in her power not to kill him, but when all attempts to talk to him had failed and his saber had been on an uninterrupted path towards her head (and he'd had an agenda to do the same to countless others), she'd had to....


As quickly as the thought had risen, Leia had purged it from her mind again.


Leia had trailed off, and now she shrugged. Tyscio was standing now, and as she was still seated she to crane her neck to look him in the eye. His lips were moving as if silent words were passing through them, and Leia wondered what those words might have been. She crossed her arms in front of her tightly.


"...but nah, I think you'd fit in fine here... the padawans aren't that confounding, though the one you met does tend to be a little obnoxious..."

A sly grin spread across Tyscio's lips. "And I certainly know how to handle obnoxious people," he quipped remembering back to when they first met... travelling to the forest moon of Endor, so long ago.

He squatted down to bring himself at eye level with the Jedi Master.


He glanced at her saber strapped to her side and looked at her questioningly, "May I?" he inquired.


And, while holding the weapon, he wondered about the stories it would tell. Where it had been? And what would it tell him about the person who used it.


Almost reverently he handed it back.


"I know that when light comes out, you stick the pointy end inside the other person." He joked lamely and slowly, allowed his body to fall back. He sat on the ground looking up at her seated amid the beautiful botanical garden arrangements around and began to wonder.


"Leia, what sort of future do you envision for yourself?" he suddenly asked, curious.

Leia shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable.


"I... don't think about it much, I guess it's easier not to. I always wanted to marry later and have a family, and I thought I had that with Han. But... I didn't, and I guess that whole experience made me sort of bitter about the whole idea."


She sighed.


"I know I still want it. Many times in situations where I didn't know whether or not I would live to see the next day, devotion to duty alone was not enough to keep me fighting..."


Leia turned the saber over in her hands, studying the familiar curves and edges. Then something made her smile again, and she looked up to meet Tyscio's gaze.


"As for my immediate future, well... it's sort of ironic, actually. You have managed to catch me a day before I plan to set off on a personal trip to Dagobah. I know Dagobah doesn't sound like the ideal vacation hotspot, but supposedly the Dark Side is strong there. I know that sounds completely random, but..."


"I've never really ever been seriously tempted by it, and I want to know...."

"Forgive my ignorance, I've never heard of Dagobah."


Tysico eyed her suspiciously. "Sounds iffy."


Then a grin broke, "Don't you ever take personal time on resort worlds, or some place with beaches?"

Bpfassh, unknown city...



Screams broke out, piercing through the steady bustle of the crowded plaza. Like a herd of stampeding milk-beasts on Shalis' home planet, the crowd around her collectively panicked, turned, and fled away from the source of the commotion.


I thought I'd lost track of you, you crafty beast...


Unlike everyone else, the Hunter honed in on the source of the commotion and began to push her way through the resulting pandemonium towards it for a better look. A vicious roar caused her to pause, and Shalis looked up in time to see a humanoid leg fly through the air and land somewhere in the crowd, splattering blood everywhere. It was now moving her way...


Shalis tried to reach for her weapon but it was lashed to her back, and the crowd was too thick for her to reach it. Shalis cursed, and surveyed her surroundings once again. The size of the crowd allotted her some small margin of safety, but she needed to remove herself from it before it met it's fate....


A bad place to hunt such a powerful creature, I would simply die along side all of these poor wretched beings....


Shalis turned and began to move across the flow of people, to a nearby building. Beings of all sorts bounced off of her but she paid them no heed, her heavy alloy armor kept her from harm... though not as much could be said for those who collided with it.


She soon reached a building with an awning attached to the front, obviously a fresh produce stand which the vendor had just recently abandoned. Crates of curious looking produce were arranged in lines underneath, and Shalis dragged one of the larger crates to the edge of the awning. She climbed onto the crate, and then grabbed onto the frame of the awning and pulled herself up onto it. The thick canvas held under the strain of her weight, and so she climbed up the sloped awning to the flat roof of the building.


She would be safe up here, the confusion below would keep her prey too occupied to notice her...


Taking a moment to rest, Shalis knelt on one knee and looked out over the plaza. Her prey had moved into view, and currently it was standing upright on it's two hind legs with it's head cocked to one side, curiously studying a small wailing child that it held dangling in the air. Nearly 9 meters tall, her 'prey' was a rather ugly creature... it could pass for both a lumbering bipedal and a deceptively agile quadriped, Shalis had seen it move both ways. Shalis had yet to identify any major weaknesses with the creature, besides it's limited intelligence.


Her people had entrusted her with the task of bringing down the abomination that they had created in their thirst for a more challenging prey...


But perhaps this time they had outdone themselves.


Her prey's current behavior was puzzling; she had been tracking it for months and had found the creature to be deceptively cunning, usually only killing for food or when threatened (though she had witnessed a few exceptions....).


Despite being nearly 9 meters tall, in wilderness settings it always managed to adapt and blend in with it's surroundings. It usually chose to strike silently and keep to the shadows, and thus the crazed, open killing spree the beast seemed to currently be on perplexed Shalis.


It was as if something was driving the beast mad... but what?


Powerless to do anything, the frustrated hunter silently watched the slaughter below, unable to not help but feel that her people were wholly responsible for this... crime....


She turned her back to the scene, and walked away.


Another time, Sha'ta'lusk...

Leia cast an unreadable expression at Tyscio.


"Resort worlds!? What's so great on those? Naboo's got..."


Leia began counting off fingers.


"Beaches, lakes, nice peaceful cities, resorts, lush green plains, forests..... I mean, just look around you!"


Leia's rant suddenly turned serious. For some reason, whenever she was around Tyscio she always started second guessing herself, asking herself more questions about what she really wanted....


She was stuck in one of those moments now.


"I've never visited the vacation side of Naboo before, really.... maybe I should do that. Dagobah, though... there's not really much there, just one big empty swamp.... but supposedly the Dark side is strong on that planet. Luke trained there, during the war..."

Leia trailed off, and shrugged.


"I guess I don't know why exactly I want to go there. Maybe I'm just... looking for trouble, or something. Oh, I don't know...."


Suddenly she looked up sharply at Tyscio, an odd gleam in her eye.


"Well, I've got some time off.... any suggestions besides these money burning resort worlds?"

It was an empty void. That was the only way Silus could describe the black wall, almost an ocean, before him. His eyes searched it, searched around him, as he tried to remember where he was.

Slowly, growing faster by the moment, memories floated into his mind. They were only small strands, remnants of memories, and as soon as they appeared, they were gone. Silus tried to reach out, tried to recall any of them, but instead, found...nothing. He shivered from the cold, realizing he was naked.

Taking a breathe, he stepped forward into the void. Instead, it moved back from him. Narrowing his eyes in confusion, he took a step back, and the void moved forward.

"serve." Silus reached unconsciously for his lightsabre, searching for where the voice came from.

"serve." It was female this time, barely a whisper and yet loud enough that anyone near could hear it. Silus looked around at the darkness surrounding him, and felt a growing sense of fear.

"serve." Images came into his head, more strongly than before. They weren't memories this time, instead promises of power, others bowing before him. Again, the voice echoed, "serve."

The darkness seemed to rise, thicken in front of him with the voice. At every command, it seemed to darken. Silus found himself taking a step forward, but stopped.

"No. Something's wrong. Some-"

Everything happened in an instant. The darkness seemed to fold togethor and spread at the same time, forming a long spear that flew toward him. He raised his arms, tried to move out of the way, but felt like he was weighted down. There was pain as the darkness lanced through him, his scream swallowed by the void. He drowned in the darkness as it filled his lungs, filled him. He could still hear his scream.

It's hard to sleep with the responsibility of so many deaths on your shoulders...


It was early evening now, and in the distance a group of dark clouds loomed ever closer, threatening rain.


Shalis had only wandered a few blocks away from the square in which Sha'ta'lusk had caused so much havoc... she knew he would not wander far tonight. It seemed as if there were something in the remote area that he was searching for.... or perhaps protecting?


At any rate, she knew she would find out soon enough: her hunt was far from over... In the meantime, she had taken refuge under an abandoned awning of a small local shop. Apparently the owner of the shop had either gotten caught in the mayhem of the square and had been killed by Sha'ta'lusk, or had abandoned the area for safety after learning of the threat of the nasty beast.


She chose to make a bed out of the hard duracrete floor, still wearing her armor and clutching the odd round blade that was her weapon close to her. At least.... she tried to sleep.


It was not the harshness of the surface she lay on that caused her discomfort, nor was it the uncomfortable bulkiness of her armor that wouldn't allow her to get into any comfortable sleeping position. It wasn't that she was sleeping outdoors, under the awning of some random shop on some random planet. It also had nothing to do with the fact that when the rain finally started to fall, the awning became quite leaky....


The image of the chaos in the square drifted through her thoughts, refusing to be forgotten. Shalis was painfully aware that her only safety lay within the vast number of other beings around her being present to distract the beast as easy pickings while she ruthlessly bumped others out of her way to maintain her own safety.


Her people had created Sha'ta'lusk, an obvious act of selfish ignorance. Now innocents were dying because of their folly, and many more sacrifices would have to be made before all was said and done with.


Well, if Shalis was capable of making it all said and done with...


She shifted uncomfortably and wondered once again if she was actually the prey in this hunt, for if so it would be her last....

<i>Still in random hyperspace, Tec's ship shuddered and creaked as it exited into normal space, abruptly awakening Tec from his not-so-peaceful slumber. He did not open his eyes, but instead raised his hand to his head and felt around. His face felt tender, but not too bad for slamming into the angular control interface that he used to fly his ship.

Lifting his head, he tried to open his eyes, but found--to his great displeasure--that he could not. Moving around slowly, unbuckling his seatbelt and feeling his way behind him, Tec finally found the 'fresher unit, and thus the bacta packs and food. Still trying to open his eyes, and managing a small degree of success, he grabbed a pack of food from the vendor.

Maneuvering his way back to the cockpit, Tec seated himself and began eating his somewhat tasty food. While it didn't fill up his stomach, it didn't leave him heaving up nothing when, a half an hour later, his food came hurling out his mouth and into the toilet, and subsequently into space. Wiping his mouth with his cloak sleeve, Tec rinsed his hands with cold water before dunking his face into the cold water and relieving his eyes. He had a bruise on his left cheek, and also a black eye. While he had had worse, this wasn't on his to-do list, last he checked.

Looking out the cockpit window, Tec saw that a planet was coming into view. He hadn't seen any ships in a while, but he really wasn't looking. The stars still shone brightly, and the planet looked stunning, but Tec still felt horrible. Seating himself, he turned on the commlink.</i>

"Fighter Pilot Tec Fireheart, please state your position. Your ship has been spotted and identified as damaged, but your state and position are still unclear."

<b>It seems like someone was looking out for me...Don't know who it could have been, though...</b>

"I'm ok, just a little bruised up." <i>Looking at his console, he noted his coordinates and read them off to the coordinator.</i>

"I appreciate your help, but if you don't mind, where am I?"

"Why, sir, you are back at Naboo."

Tyscio looked at Leia in a highly dubious manner. Whoever visits the touristy spots on the planet in which they live?

Then he smiled, "Sure Naboo has all those places... but have you ever visited them, my dutious Jedi?"

Is there such a word as dutious?


"Besides," he pointed out, "being a princess, a rich princess I might add, a former New Republic Politician in which you were probably well paid again, what do you need to worry about with regards to credit spending? You probably give more to charity than I make in a year."


His eyes grew thoughtful.

"If you wanted to explore the darkside, wouldn't you try to go to the place it sprang from?" He paused. "Actually, do we know where the darkside came from? Where it first originated? Has anyone ever investigated.. perhaps the whole 'darkside' could be stopped at the source? You allow the present generation of Sith to die out... and then, without the source, the Lightside would triumph by default."

His questions were almost to himself as much as to her. He looked at her curiously. "Have you eaten?"