I Want to be Your Knight: Chapter 15

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She dropped to the ground, curling around herself into a fetal position.

I frowned and knelt beside her. I touched her forehead, and felt the Force writhing around her. At my probe, the Force settled down, and her eyes blinked open, the green orbs looking large and wide and scared.

"B-b-Ben... what are you doing?"

I suddenly realized that she was on the floor and I was leaning over her, well into her personal space. I sat back onto my haunches and looked at her, feeling a frown tugging at my lips. "You don't remember anything?"

Her lips pursed as she thought. "I remember Jysella leaving, and then laying my head on your shoulder. Oh!" Suddenly, a blush erupted onto her cheeks. "Did I fall asleep on you? I'm sorry."

I nodded my head, keeping my gaze locked with hers. "Yeah, you fell asleep on me, but that's not the issue, you were having a bad nightmare, that's what I was wondering if you remembered."

She quickly shook her head. "N-no... I don't remember anything like that." Then she stood up, rubbing her shoulder where it had hit the floor. "I... I think I'll go back to my room now. Bye Ben."

Then she was gone, and I was left staring at the closed door. I scratched at my head, wondering what was up with that girl. I muttered a curse and then climbed back into bed, pulling the blanket up over myself and falling asleep.

I was awoken a few hours later by a nurse poking me with a massive needle to draw blood. I yelped and jumped, shocking the nurse and snapping off the needle in my arm.

I'm certain that if Jys had been there, she would have been rolling on the floor with laughter.

After they had gotten the end of the needle out of my arm and drawn some blood, I was released from the med ward.

I wandered through the halls of the Temple, finally arriving at the quarters I shared with my team. I opened the door and walked in, to find Jysella, Seha and Kyp sitting on the couches talking.

Kyp glanced up at me, smiling, and said, "Welcome home, Ben."

"Hey," I replied, my eyes flickering to the girls.

Both of whom purposefully ignored me. I walked over and dropped into one of the chairs, and rubbed at my hair for a moment, as a tense silence settled over everyone. I looked down, knowing that I was the cause of this silence. That I still hadn't been accepted by anyone. I was still an outcast, still ostracized because of everything that I had done. Jys still despised me because of her mom, while Seha wanted nothing to do with me because I ran away after she kissed me.

I rubbed at one of my temples, feeling the beginning of a headache, as Kyp sighed. "The three of you still haven't learned anything, have you?"

I looked up, yanked from my ruminations by Kyp's voice.

Jysella stuttered, "Wha-what are you talking about?"

He stood up, and paced in front of the three of us. "You three are a team. You need to start acting like it."

I frowned and leaned back in my chair. "I don't know what you're talking about, Kyp. Didn't we act like a team during the training session? And on the Mrykr trip?"

Kyp shrugged his shoulders. "Ah, so you're only going to be teammates when you're on missions, huh?"

Jysella shook her head. "What's wrong with how we're getting along?"

Kyp grinned, and my heart sank. I just knew he had plans for us, and that we would probably end up regretting them. "As you all apparently see nothing wrong with how you are all getting along, then I guess there's nothing wrong with it."

I frowned as I watched him, then I let my eyes flick over to Jysella. After a moment she looked my way, the confusion I felt echoed on her face. I shrugged my shoulders and turned back to Kyp, to find him smiling as he settled back into his chair.

That went too easy, I thought, still uncertain of what he had planned.

We didn't see a lot of Kyp for the next two weeks. Whether that was because of how busy we were or because he was avoiding us, I don't know. As it stood, Kyp and I had stopped doing the early morning runs, which freed up my time a little bit more. Unfortunately, that free time was taken up by meditation with my teammates.

That was Kyp's idea. I think he enjoyed locking the three of us into a room for an hour every morning. It didn't surprise me that when other people discovered that we had those group meditations, that there was some serious betting going on. By the third day, the odds of my leaving the room alive had gone from around 10:1 to around 1:1.

That was progress, of a sort.

Also, I never did get a chance to have that chat with Seha. She often was often the first to leave our quarters after our meditation sessions, and when she returned she usually stayed close by Jysella or in her room. Of course, I didn't push too hard, as that really wasn't a conversation I wanted to have, and the tension between us didn't get worse. While she wasn't as happy as she was before that kiss, she wasn't as bad as when we were in the medward.

So, a bit over two weeks after the impromptu training session which landed me in the medward, we were summoned to see the Council.

I arrived first, and dropped into one of the not quite comfortable couches in the anteroom of the chambers, waiting for the two girls. Jysella arrived next, a frown on her face which quickly turned into a scowl as she saw me.

A few minutes later, Seha arrived, out of breath for some reason.

Before I could ask, the chambers doors opened, and Kyp's voice drifted out, "Padawans Jysella Horn, Seha Dorvald and Ben Skywalker, please enter."

I stood up, and the three of us went into the room. I stopped in the direct center of the room, with Jysella stepping up to my left and Seha to my right.

I fought to keep a frown off my face as I could feel Kyp's amusement. An amusement that bordered on outright glee.

"The Council has decided that it is time for you three to be given your first mission. Remember, the goal of this mission is for you all to work together as a team." As he said that last bit, his eyes flicked from one to the other of us, lingering for a moment on me. Then he continued speaking. "The mission is providing security for a trade summit on Corellia."

I glanced down at Jysella as I felt her emotions spike, and wondered for a moment if that was where her father had retired to. Kyp coughed lightly, dragging my attention away from Jysella and back to him.

"There is still some aminosity regarding the Jedi on Corellia, so you three will need to be careful. We don't believe that there is any overt threat against the summit, but it has been the target of terrorist attacks many times over the years. Do any of you have questions?"

I shook my head in the negative as both Jysella and Seha verbally responded that they had no questions.

Kyp grinned at us, that glee-filled amusement almost bubbling over in the Force. "Great! Your ship leaves in two hours. Don't be late."

My eyes narrowed as I smirked at him, thinking, So that's how he's going to play things. I bowed and said, "I understand, Master."

Then I spun on my heel, and walked from the room. I heard Jysella and Seha giving their own responses to the Council, and could feel them in the Force as they followed me from the room.

As the heavy door to the Chambers closed behind us, Jys and Seha fell into step on either side of me. I looked down at Jys, and allowed a smirk to come to my face, "Hey, Jys?"

She looked up at me, her brows knitted together. "What? And it better be good, Skywalker, I'm not in the mood."

I chuckled slightly. "Oh, I just think we need to get back at Master Durron for this little trip he's planned for us."

Her eyes lit up with mischief. "What did you have planned?"

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