I Want to be Your Knight Chapter 9

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I watched as Jys' face softened for a moment. Then she stood up and took a couple steps away from us. Standing there with her back towards us, she hung her head, and clenched her fists. She seemed so lost and broken.

And I knew that I was responsible for it.

That my actions while blindly obeying Jacen was the root cause of her pain and misery.

Silently, I stood up, and walked over to stand behind her, placing my hands on her shoulders. "We can do this. All of us, together."

She shrugged her shoulders, pulling herself away from me, and took another three steps forward. Then she turned around so that she could face us both, anger shining brightly in her eyes.

"Fine. We'll do this, at least until Ben here realizes that he can't. And then we can all blame him for getting us a failure."

I smiled at Jys as Seha said, "Thank you, both."

Jysella helped Seha onto my back, and I carried her that way. Our progress was even slower than before. Between the time we started, and when Seha had been attacked we had covered around 20 klicks. After her injuries, we were lucky to get 10 klicks in a single day, most were closer to 5 or 6.

After the tenth day, and us still being 30 klicks from our destination, I could only imagine what Kyp was thinking. In truth, the thought amused me a bit. Especially, since he had hidden those refreshment techniques from me.

Fourteen days after we were dropped from Kyp's shuttle, we stumbled out of the forest and into Hyllyard City.

As we emerged from the Force bubble of the forest, Kyp came running out of one of the buildings. Apparently, after we didn't show up by the deadline, he had called in some searchers and a full medical team from the Jedi Temple. The medics took one look at us, and then hustled us up the well in a shuttle to a Defense Fleet medical frigate in orbit. Once we got there, we were given a hydration drip and then dumped into Bacta. No "Welcome home," or "Glad to see the lot of you alive." All they were concerned about was getting us in that Bacta.

Not that I'm complaining or anything.

Our tally of injuries included two broken arms-apparently on one of Jys' tumble while she was cutting us a path, she broke her arm and didn't tell me about it-one broken leg, and innumerable scratches. We were all malnourished and bordering on dehydration. Additionally, the scratches on my face had became swollen and red on the third day. Later I found out that that was due to a time released venom and seed combination. If we had taken another week or so getting to the city, a plant would've sprouted from my face.

When Jys found that out, she had told me: "I should have dragged my feet more. I would've liked to have seen that."

Anyways, I spent the full three days of our trip back to Coruscant in the Bacta, Jys only needed one day of the trip, and Seha got all three days, plus another two once we arrived.

On my first night back on Coruscant, I stretched out on my bed, luxuriating in the feel of the mattress. The first real one I had slept on in around 20 days.

I was comfortable. I was stretched out on my soft bed. The lights were turned off, the only illumination came from the dying sunlight which streamed in through the window, and I had an Alderaanian waltz playing softly in the background.

So of course, just as I was about to drift off to sleep, the door buzzer sounded... but rather than the simple musical chime that I was used to, what came from the hidden speaker was an ear-piercing screech. "Come!" I screamed over the noise, even as I mentally cursed Jysella's pranks.

The noise disappeared as the door opened, and Kyp walked into the room. He pulled my desk chair over closer to the bed and dropped into it. Then he leaned back in the chair and propped his feet up on my bed. For a moment, I felt the urge to kick his boots off of my blankets, but in the end felt that it would take to much energy to do so.

"I was worried about you."

Startled slightly, I twisted my head to look at him. His dark eyes glittered in the dim light of the room.

"Nice to know you care," I said, then I smirked at him. "Consider that worry payment for not teaching me how to use the Force to refresh myself."

Kyp tossed his head back and laughed. "I was afraid one of them would let it slip. Knew I should have told them to not say anything about it. Oh well, I guess this means we'll have to find something else to do with our mornings."

I shook my head, and turned my focus back towards my ceiling. We sat in silence for a while. Listening to the soft music as the waltz faded away to be replaced by a Kuati sonata.

Finally, Kyp spoke up again. "I have orders from the Council that you're to remain in chambers until Seha gets discharged and your entire group can be taken before the Council. And before you ask, Jysella is confined to quarters as well. Your meals will be brought to you, and the ability to send messages from your holonet terminal will be turned off."

I sighed, and turned to face him again. "It was my decision."

Kyp arched an eyebrow at me. "What was?"

"To not use the recall. I didn't want to fail Jys again. So I talked them into letting me carry Seha."

Kyp chukled, and I frowned. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," he replied with a smile. "It's just that, Jysella told me that she had talked you into carrying Seha and to not use the recall."

I stared at him for a moment more, wondering why Jysella would have done that. Why she would have tried to protect me. I was used to myself doing such things, after all every time one of her pranks put me in the medward, I had defended her to the Council.

Kyp dropped his feed from my bed and then stood up, tossing me a sloppy salute. "Well, I'll see you in a few days then."

Then he walked out of the room, and I turned my attention back to the ceiling. Preparing myself for a long wait.

Though I know it was only two days, it felt like forever. All I had to do was read or meditate or run through what few exercises could be done inside my room.

Finally, the news that Seha had been decanted came, and I was ordered to appear before the Jedi Council that afternoon, along with my teammates from the survival training exercise.

I arrived at the Council Chambers about fifteen minutes before our appointment, ecstatic to be out of my room, and found Jysella and Seha already waiting. I walked up to Seha and smiled at her. "Glad to see you up and about."

She smiled in return and dropped her head, trying to hide the blush that was easily visible on her pale skin. I pretended to not notice, and turned to look at Jys, who was staring at me with cold eyes. I smiled at her, and for a moment her lips twitched.

Then I shook my head, and asked her, "Why?"

"Why what?" was her response.

"Kyp told me what you said. Why would you try to protect me."

She looked away from me to stare at the corner of the room. "I... I don't know what you're talking about."

I watched her for a moment, and then decided it was a mystery I could figure out some other time. I walked over to one of the couches and dropped onto it.

A short time later, the doors opened, and Kyp's voice called out. "You three may enter now."

Jysella was closest to the doors, so she entered first, with Seha right behind her and me trailing them both. As we stepped into the center of the Jedi sigil, the doors behind us closed.

I was interested in the distinct lack of hostility I could sense in the Force, and I allowed my gaze to flicker across the chairs. That was when I discovered that Valin Horn and Tionne were both in attendance via holocam.

We stood still in the center of the sigil, as Kyp and the rest of the Masters stared at us. After a moment or to of tense silence, Kyp began to speak. "The three of you have each told us your own versions of the events which occurred on Myrkr. Especially, explaining why you were so late to arrive."

I frowned as I didn't remember quite telling Kyp everything that had happened. Before I could respond, Kyp continued speaking.

"As you know this was a survival training exercise. What the three of you were not told was that it was also a team-building exercise. While the three of you did less than ideally on the survival training portion, you excelled beyond this Council's beliefs on the team aspect of the exercise."

Kyp stood up, and grinned at the three of us. "Congratulations. Your group is one of three who passed both aspects of this exercise."

I glanced over at Jys and Seha, noticing the same shock on their faces that I felt. I had expected to be chewed out for not activating the recall. I had expected to fail due to taking so long to get to the city. I definitely did not expect to come out of this scenario actually passing it.

Kyp nodded his head in our direction, and then grinned at us. "Your restrictions have now been released."

He turned and sat back down in his chair, and pulled out a datapad. We bowed and then turned to go, as we reached the door, Cilghal spoke up. "Master Durron, are you not forgetting something?"

We turned in unison, once more facing the Masters. Kyp had a mischievous grin on his face. "Oh yes, Thank you Master Cilghal. Since the three of you have done so well on this initial exercise, the Council has decided to perform an experiment with our training methods. The three of you will form a team. Much to my annoyance, I will be your primary instructor. We get to live, breath and eat together. Additionally, succeed or fail, your success in becoming Jedi Knights will be shared by your teammates. You either all succeed, or none of you do. Your new quarters assignments are being downloaded to your accounts now."

I blinked, not quite believing what I had heard. We had succeeded beyond their expectations, so they were using us as test subjects. What's more, we were now having to share quarters. I slowly looked at my new roommates, seeing the slight confusion and fear on Seha's face and the annoyed anger on Jys'.

Sighing, I bowed to the Masters and spun back around, leaving the room before they could spring something else on us.

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