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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 2914983" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 341“Is it just me, or are we surrounded by children?” Jyren whispered as quietly as he could manage as he and Marix walked through what had once been the huge main hangar for the Temple. Now it was a mix of that and some training areas from the looks of things. The night had been fairly quiet, considering the situation, but it seemed like the Jedi had a habit of getting up long before Yavin’s star even thought about rising over the moon’s horizon. Not that this was horrible to either of them, but sleep was...well, a nice thing and not something either Marix nor Jyren were able to get much of lately.    Marix couldn’t help a slight yawn before grumbling, “Weren’t we trying to get away from that?”    “My thoughts exactly,” he trailed off, though, after hearing an interesting sound that turned his vision off to the open hangar door. The sunlight was a bit weak at this hour, but it was enough and the gas giant, Yavin, did a good amount of help in illuminating its moon. A young human, probably in his early teens, and a similarly aged Bothan were putting on blast helmets, while two other apprentices, a Rodian and a Duros, were stepping back and rubbing their sides. It took Jyren a moment to notice the small, floating pair of Remote Droids and that the apprentices were also handing over deactivated lightsabers.    Jyren actually couldn’t help stopping not far away to watch, and Marix walked straight on without him for a good thirty paces before realizing he’d stopped. She returned to roll her eyes at him and then a strange curiosity gripped her and she, too, turned to watch the young Jedi attempting to blindly deflect blaster bolts with lightsabers. An older Jedi, probably a Master from the way he held himself, stood back and watched carefully, but was remaining generally silent throughout the exercise...even when the students failed to deflect a shot and yelped in surprise when they were stung by the low powered bolts.    Almost out of no where, Jyren added to where he’d trailed off before, “At least they’re just watching us.”    That actually got a short laugh from Marix, who couldn’t help a nod, though her eyes were still focused on the Force training in front of them, “You mean instead of pouncing you, screaming to play, removing any chance at a full night’s sleep, and requiring nearly full time attention?”    “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were taking a shot at me,” Jyren said as, coincidentally, the human student missed a deflection on a blaster bolt but actually managed to jump to the side and out of the way to avoid it still.    This time, Marix did turn to look up at him, catching the slight grin on his face but keeping her own face neutral, “You do no better. In fact, you know that if I was taking a shot at you I’d have a blaster.”    Jyren’s grin grew, “If I was lucky.”    “See?” she finally grinned, too, before patting his shoulder, “You do no better.”    Silence never came over the entirety of the hangar...nor the jungle outside. So even though both Marix and Jyren went quiet, the world around them didn’t come anywhere close to it. There was the thrumming of the lightsabers, general movement around the hangar and a series of very interesting noises coming from outside that hangar that were most likely some kind of animal...but it sure wasn’t like any sound either of them had ever heard before. But soon, the movement began to overwhelm the other sounds. Footsteps that grew into faster walking and, soon, there was running. Voices were growing and words were spreading and the Force was somehow growing more tense every moment.    Marix was the first to turn around and see the gathering of Jedi around a holoprojector. Knowing something was definitely bad, she grabbed Jyren’s arm and dragged him over to the crowd, poking him roughly until he got the idea that he was going to have to do the looking because even though there were mostly children here, there were still enough people taller that got in her way. But even Jyren couldn’t make out exactly what was going on...beyond the fact that it was some kind of feed from the Holonet. Closer to it the device were the majority of who Jyren recognized to be the few Jedi Masters that stayed on Yavin IV as teachers.    It wasn’t long before one of the Masters, a white haired woman who Jyren didn’t even know the name of, spoke up to calm the group. Her voice was calm, somewhat soothing, and had an interesting song-like quality to it, “Back to your exercises, everyone.”    It was...amazing how such few words delivered in just the right way were so effective. In a matter moments, the students dispersed, heading off to where they’d come from but, of course, talking about whatever it was they had seen at the same time. A few of the older students(who were probably Knights or at least close to it) stayed, as did all of the Masters...all six of them. And, of course, neither Marix nor Jyren went anywhere.    That got them some stares, but when the two of them were able to very easily match every single one of them, Kam Solusar waved a hand to get everyone’s attention before saying quietly, “This should have waited.”    A male Twi’lek in rather boring looking robes bowed his head and said softly, “I apologize, Master. I was merely attempting to check that it had not been damaged.”    “What’s done is done,” Master Solusar nodded to the Twi’lik before looking at one of the other Jedi, “We’ll need to contact Master Skywalker to confirm this...please meet me in the briefing room in half an hour.”    There was a series of nods and the remainder of the crowd dispersed...well, again, except for the two outsiders, who both could tell that certain words were being held back because of their presence. It was interesting to note, however, that Master Solusar stood there next to the holoprojector, idly watching the nothing that was being shown now.    After a few minutes, as things seemed to have returned to normal, he said quietly, “The Vong are moving...Dantooine has fallen. Master Skywalker believes they’re heading straight for Ithor.”    Normally, that might have brought about some kind of silence, but instead, for Jyren, it brought a question, “Why do you want to talk with Skywalker if he sent you a message?”    “If Ithor is attacked, we’re cut off,” Kam said softly, and it started to make a lot more sense all of a sudden.    It was Marix who spoke up next, latching onto a small piece of information one of their scouts had reported not long before the two of them had left Alraxia, “I thought the New Republic was denying the existence of the Vong.”    “They are,” the Jedi Master nodded and shrugged slightly, “Master Skywalker has gone to Coruscant to attempt to change that.”    Jyren nodded slowly, a thousand thoughts running through his mind and at least a few starting to take a strong grip on him despite his knowledge that it would be stupid to attempt pretty much any of them. From the link, this was calmed and in a moment he gave in to what he had to do rather than what he wanted to do. With a sigh, he said, “I hope it goes well for him.”    “For a moment there, I thought you were going to actually be staying,” the Jedi answered with his own sigh, but managed a polite smile. It was still surprising how much he seemed to want the two of them to stay there. Maybe it was just to have another person to help them fight a fight that couldn’t be too far off from the way things looked.    A careful glance was shared between Jyren and Marix before she shook her head and answered the unspoken ‘why’ that was hidden at the end of Kam’s sentence, “If you’re right about the path they are taking, then we need to leave now before we are cut off from our home.”    “Really...?” Master Solusar seemed to be very interested in the slight hint that was given without being meant to, “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where home is, though.”    “No,” Marix said simply, before bowing politely and turning around to head back to where Loki sat outside the hangar.    But Jyren didn’t follow. He stayed and after a deep breath, reached into his jacket pocket. He then stepped over to the Jedi Master and handed him a small comm device, “If it gets worse...use that and you can get a hold of us.”    Before the Jedi Master could say anything, Jyren turned around and headed after Marix...back home again.</blockquote>

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