Getting in after hours (Finished)

[Kale]

Continued from Stolen lightsaber (http://216.73.105.30/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=31456&perpage=20&pagenumber=1)

It was almost 3:00 AM when two robed figures appeared on the stately thoroughfare that ran in front of the Jedi temple complex. They turned the heads of a few nocturnal perambulists, but street traffic was scarce at that hour in a place like the temple district.

Kale's steps slowed and stiffened as he drew near the complex. He felt even more intimidated by the massive structure than when he'd first wandered in after a botched pocket-picking attempt. Concealed beneath his oversized Jedi robe was the ornamental saber he'd swiped from the Archives just hours ago. He'd flown the coop to think it over and unload the merchandise in a safe place, but Rhea Kaylen had convinced him to do the noble thing.

That didn't mean he had to like it.

"I could just leave it behind a dumpster," he whispered to her. "They'd find it eventually, and they couldn't track it back to me so easy."

[Rhea Kaylen]

OOC: I understand delays. No apologies needed :)

Rhea pretended to think about it. "Well, yes, you could leave it behind a dumpster. The Temple officials might find it before the vagrants do."

She glared in Kale's direction.

[Kale]

Kale met Rhea's glare with an injured look. "Well, okay... what do you suggest? I ain't walkin' up to the Jedi Lost and Found counter with this thing."

The thief-turned-padawan-turned-thief-again stared up at the forebidding walls of the Temple complex and called up a quick mental map of the structure. "Shouldn't be that many people wanderin' around this late, as long as we can stay out of the way of night shift security. All we need to do is find somewhere where there ain't no guards or cameras and drop it off. Er..."

Kale stopped short and glanced back over to Rhea. "You don't really have to follow me in. I dunno if they'd look too kindly on a non-Jedi wearin' Jedi robes."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea suppressed a smile. His concern (though the boy'd never admit that's actually what it was) was sweet. Would have been adorable coming from somebody other than Kale. When she'd first met him, the boy would not have even shown that much concern for another creature's wellbeing.

The Jedi Order was good for him.

"Hey," Rhea admonished him with a grin. "Who's to know I'm no Jedi?"

Holding out a hand, she Force-called the stolen saber into her palm. The beautiful thing flew gracefully to her, and she cradled it respectfully against her wrist.

"Unless you'd rather I just went away, of course." She held out the saber to her friend, leaving the final decision to him.

[Kale]

Kale grabbed at it too late; Rhea had already whisked the gold and silver saber into her grasp. He gave her an exasperated look--in part to cover up how much he wished he could do that.

The teen looked contemplatively at the proffered saber hilt, then said, straight-faced, "It don't matter to me. Just wanted to be sure you can cover your tracks, is all. Don't forget to wipe that thing down again; the less prints on it, the better."

Kale led the way into the imposing courtyard. There'd be a guard at the main entrance, so he slipped through the shadows between the tall streetlamps toward one of the secondary entrances by the living quarters. He pressed his hand on the palm scanner by the door, then held it open for Rhea to follow him through.

There was a small lobby dimly illuminated by a few ceiling lights. Two darkened corridors branched off from the entrance--one straight ahead and one to the right. The coast looked clear as far as Kale could tell.

"Not that way," Kale whispered, pointing to the hallway ahead. "That'd take us toward the west entrance to the archives. Come on, there's probably a camera on this entrance. Any bright ideas about where to unload this thing?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea made a face at Kale's back as he turned. Wipe my prints? What did he take her for?

Rhea followed her young compatriot through the shadows to the side entrance, begging her clumsy feet to be silent and graceful. Luckily, she neither tripped nor made a sound as she and Kale slipped into the small lobby.

"Ummm..." Rhea murmured as she surveyed both corridors thoughtfully. Where to unload a filched relic? Somewhere the Temple authorities could easily get to it, someplace relatively public, so the theft could not be pinned to any one person...but nowhere Kale generally haunted, either, to keep him completely out of the searchlight.

Or would he become suspect because the saber was found far from his person?

This is why I never worked for Gucchi, Rhea thought sardonically. I'd have made a horrible thief.

Well, better to go with keeping Kale out of it.

"Uh, is there any place on the grounds you can think of that you wouldn't dream of frequenting but that's popular with everyone else?"

Well, that came out odd...

[Kale]

It did come out odd, but Kale knew what she meant.

"Well, the Archives, before last night," he replied glibly. "But that don't help us right now. Really, I spent most of my time outside the complex, or just floatin' around, except for a little practice in the Academy."

Which would be closed and locked this late at night. Kale walked as quickly and quietly as he could down the corridor, watchful for any security cameras on the walls above. The Temple was a pretty secure place. He wasn't sure of any particular public area that was left open all night, except maybe--

"The garden... Wait a minute, that might work. We could just drop it under a bush, and the groundskeepers'd find it in the morning."

[Rhea Kaylen]

And that was exactly what made Kale a good criminal.

Rhea refused to follow that line of thought. "Sounds prime. Lead on, Padawan."

The woman followed, creeping as silently as she could, and wishing ardently that she were as quiet as Kale.

The corridors were dim and cool, relaxed and breathing with the inhalations and exhalations of dozens of sleeping Jedi. Rhea could feel the Force, moving, shifting, converging in this place.

And then she realized something.

With the Force at peace, any attentive Jedi would feel their disturbing presences, awake when all should have been asleep.

Hurriedly, Rhea dimmed her perception and slid out of the tide-stream of the Force as far as humanly possible, hoping even as she warned herself not to fear (for fear would be felt!) that Kale's presence was not yet strong enough to alert anyone.

"We should hurry, ky'da. We are always being watched, here."

[Kale]

"No need to get jumpy," Kale replied in a hushed voice. "In that get-up, you look just like Obi-Wan Kenobi's great-.... whatever-it-is... granddaughter."

They came to a branch in the corridor, and Kale hesitated, looking down both paths. "Umm... pretty sure it's this way," he said, forging on ahead.

[Rhea Kaylen]

For a split second, Rhea's heart stopped. Then she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from erupting in laughter.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's great-...whatever-it-is...granddaughter.

Oh, if only he knew...but it was probably best he didn't.

Rhea eyed Kale askance and looked nervously over her shoulder.

"I am not jumpy, Kale. And what do you mean, pretty sure?"

[Kale]

"I mean it's this general direction," Kale replied testily. "Remember, I don't go to the gardens that often. I don't have the whole complex memorized yet--"

They came to a bank of elevators that led up into the living quarters. A computer terminal was erected between the two silvery elevator doors, but its display screen was dark.

Kale knew he could pull up the temple directory in just a few clicks, but security could monitor access to any terminal in the complex. Even something as innocent as directory assistance could look suspicious at 3:00 AM, especially the night after a robbery.

But Rhea was right. They needed to hurry.

"Just a sec," Kale said, giving the monitor a bump to pull it out of screensaver. He quickly navigated through the graphically uninspiring menus to the local Temple directory. It was a map intended for Temple visitors, so it required no security clearance. The garden was clearly marked. Kale traced the quickest path and closed the map.

"Okay, got it now. Straight down here, through the recruitment center lobby, and left. Like I said, I was pretty sure."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea pursed her lips but decided not to comment on Kale's flippancy. Such comments had gotten the two of them into nasty arguments before, and now was not the time.

The two of them wound their way along Kale's mental map, Rhea's footsteps echoing faintly despite her best attempts at stealth. She couldn't help looking nervously around her, expecting any moment to be met with stony-faced Temple security.

I hate to admit it, but Kale's right: I am getting jumpy.

When they reached the recruitment center lobby, a wide, curving hallway with an impressive front desk situated at the curve's apex and the bronze Temple crest glowering down from high on the wall, Rhea finally slowed to take in her surroundings. The floors were cool reflective marble and the walls stylized with silver tubing, making the already high ceilings seem to soar. Awe and fear mingled in Rhea's mind and misplaced familiarity stabbed her heart.

She was in the Jedi Temple, the one place she both longed and loathed to be. The revelation almost made her freeze, but with an effort she forced her feet to follow Kale, already disappearing around the bend of the hall. Their time was short and growing shorter. Best to leave sightseeing for another day.

[imported_J'ktal Anajii]

For their stiff looks, the soles of J'ktal's boots made little noise as he crossed one of the high walkway terraces in the Order. His master currently nowhere to be found, the Death-Shadow found hismelf with excess time on his paws, and was using it to familiarize himself with the Order's layout.

For the most part, it was boring, so he took to watching others as they moved about below him, hoping to find something of interest. His attention was piqued when he spotted two youths, one whom he had seen before, trying to apparently sneak around on the ground floor. With a smile, J'ktal leaned on the security railing and looked down, magnifying his view with his optical implant in his left eye. Yes, it was the boy he had seen. Finally some entertainment was to be had.

Leaning back from the rail, the gray mongoose made his way to the nearest lift, though not in any particular hurry. After all, there was no fun in a chase if the other side knew they were being followed.

[Kale]

Kale didn't like walking through the cathedral-sized antechamber of the Temple. There was no surreptitious way to get across it without looking like you were trying to be surreptitious. So he put a little more drive in his step and tried tried to cross it as surruptitiously unsurreptitiously as possible.

As they crossed underneath the vaulted dome, Kale couldn't help taking a quick once-around glance at the balcony floor above. For an instant, he had an impression of a shadow disappearing around a corner, but when he looked again, it was gone.

Up a short flight of marble steps, through an arched entryway, down the hall to the left by some potted Tjauro cactus... and the garden entrance was straight ahead. Not the main entrance; they'd go in through the back.

Kale felt the front of his cloak and pulled up to a stop in a moment's panic. "You, uh... still have it, right?" he asked Rhea sheepishly. "'Cause I never took it back."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea, too, grew nervous as she and Kale tried to sneak across the wide open area, and she could not shake the empty feeling in her stomach that usually indicated a premonition of danger. A snatch of memory flitted across her mind as she glanced nervously over her shoulder...again.

Her mother's face was lined with worry, and her father asked, sounding frightened, what was wrong.

"I have a bad feeling..." was all the woman had said, her hand pressed to her stomach as if the bad feeling had settled there.

Both of them knew what that meant; neither was aware that seven-year-old Rhea knew, too.

All her life, Rhea had had the same warning of danger--nausea. But she could not pinpoint a reason to be afraid: no one was about, she heard no one following, and Kale's much more acute senses apparently detected no other presence.

And, besides, their mission, such as it was, was nearly over. Rhea felt her muscles relax--fractionally--as she and Kale approached the entrance to the garden on tiptoes.

His question, however, plunged her heart through her feet. Uh, oh. He didn't have the lightsaber? Rhea's hands flew to her sides and she patted her pockets frantically...whew! There it was, in her jacket. She slid her fingers into the pocket and clutched the cool metal tube.

Nodding, she swallowed drily and poked her tongue through her fused lips. "Yeah, got it. Sorry 'bout that; I'll just hang onto it, shall I?"

[Pierce Tondry]

"Yeah, got it. Sorry 'bout that; I'll just hang onto it, shall I?"

The words floated in among the trees and plants of the garden. Though there was a certain amount of insect and animal life in its confines, there was nothing in that population large enough to be harmful or sentient enough to be alarmed.

A meditating Jedi Padawan on self-imposed night watch was another matter entirely.

Ever since the incident with the poisonous spiders, Pierce had regarded the garden as a soft spot in GJO defenses. When returning from some night duty shifts as part of his Intelligence work, Pierce had started the practice of going through the gardens just to keep an eye on things. The quiet, the timing, and the solitude made it an ideal location for private meditation time as well.

And someone, or something, had just disturbed that.

Intelligence Operative training instinctively took over and Pierce disappeared into a cluster of foliage, watching the door to see who would come through it.

[Kale]

"Works for me," Kale replied off-hand. "I just hope the place ain't locked..."

The ornamental gate swung open with ease, and Kale and Rhea stepped into the garden of the Jedi Temple. The artificial sunlight was gone this time of night; a pale, blue "moonlight" filtered down through the canopy foliage, and everything to either side of the main path melted into the shadows. Ahead, the path meandered into a grassy clearing surrounded by fragrant floral shrubs and surmounted by an ancient-looking fountain.

The beauty of it was lost on Kale, who'd never lived on a green world for as long as he could remember. All he was concerned with was cover, or the lack of it.

He took a few tentative steps into the garden, glanced around futilely into the shadows, then kept stalking forward as cautiously as possible. Though there was abundant cover surrounding the door, Kale didn't want to drop any clues by leaving the saber right next to one of the garden entrances. His instincts told him to keep going.

"Coast is clear so far," he whispered to Rhea, though he didn't stop to consider that his street-trained senses might not be so accurate in a more natural setting. "A little farther in... like the base of those bushes behind that bench. I'll check out the clearing. Keep an eye on my back, right?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

"Sure thing," Rhea whispered automatically, even as she realized just how useless she was in a situation like this. She could watch Kale's back, alright, but then what? Stupidly, Rhea wondered if she should be prepared to simply alarm her companion of anything wrong, or if she would be expected to do something about it herself.

Oh, yeah. I'll be a ton of help should a crisis arise.

With any luck, none would, but Rhea cautiously eased the heel of her hand under the old cloak she wore to rest against her mother's lightsaber. Unlike the museum piece heavy in her jacket, the plainer, silver weapon on her belt worked just fine. Only Rhea wasn't at all sure that she would be able to use it well enough against properly trained Jedi knights. Or even if she should; after all, she and Kale were doing the right thing. Right?

Rhea kept her guard as promised, her eyes darting about, straining through the murky shadows of trees and shrubs, looking worriedly for any movement. All the while the slightly sinking feeling in her gut sank lower and lower toward her feet.

Something was not right, here...

[Pierce Tondry]

Children?

There was no way in hell Padawan children could be responsible for the spider infestation; it just defied all sense that they would willingly aid that kind of scheme and not get caught. Unless they didn't know what they were doing...

Pierce dismissed the notion immediately as unlikely. As young as these two were, they were still old enough to be suspicious when confronted with something like a container carrying deadly creatures. Neither of them seemed to have a creature carriage with them anyway.

So what were they doing in the Garden at this time of night?

Pierce continued to watch, his sharp eyes devouring the two children as they slunk deeper into the garden.

[Kale]

Whether it was the unfamiliar surroundings or an overdose of confidence, Kale didn't sense any of what was making Rhea so nervous. He looked up and down the row of shrubbery that marked the far edge of the clearing, then got on his hands and knees to inspect the turf beneath the bench.

"Maybe a ventilation duct would've been better," he muttered under his breath. But, no, there was more room for error there. Besides, the ventilation system was probably harder to get into here than in the Plaza Cueva de Luce.

"Dang it, shouldn't be talking to myself," he muttered again.

He turned and motioned Rhea to join him in the clearing. "This looks like as good a place as any," he said. "Drop it under the bench, and let's scram."

[Rhea Kaylen]

OOC: To Pierce and J'ktal--first of all, hello! One quick note: I never did make it clear on here how old Rhea is -_-;; She is twenty-six, eleven years older than Kale.


Rhea saw Kale, hunched over next to the bench, crane his head toward her and wave her over. Glancing about again nervously, Rhea slipped out from the dappled shadows of the trees and shrubbery near the entrance. The "moonlight" filtering from unseen lamps washed the clearing in shades of blue and Rhea felt positively naked as she padded across the exposed clearing.

The dim, shadowy light also hid the rock.

Rhea's toe found it, however, and painfully, too. Her weak ankle followed in quick succession and, unconsciously squeaking in surprise and pain, the woman crumpled to the ground with a thump.

The guilty lightsaber bruised her side as she fell on it. She had the distinct impression it had done more damage to her than she had to it.

"Ouch..."

[Kale]

Kale spun around at the noise like and stared Rhea like a spooked deer. He waited for a few painful seconds, scarcely daring to breathe, and strained his ears for any sounds of discovery.

Nadda. But the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up and saluting. Kale couldn't shake the impression that the two of them weren't the only ones startled by Rhea's tumble.

"Watch it, will you?" he hissed--he wasn't consciously unsympathetic, but he was too agitated to be nice. He gave the lightly bobbing foliage another once-over. "Come on, we've been in here too long as it is. Just hand it to me. I can chuck it in the bushes, and then we need to get out of here. I really think we need to get out of here."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Yeah, I'm fine Kale, thanks for asking.

The ascerbic reply never came, partly because Rhea knew Kale hadn't meant any harm, partly because her ankle was firing blaster bolts up her leg as she tried to get up. The woman muttered vehement oaths under her breath--only a few of which actually came out in Basic.

Her mother's cloak was wound around her leg, and her right arm, the one she was lying on, was twisted in the sleeve. Frantically Rhea tried to tug her limbs free even as she stage-whispered to Kale.

"Yes, I know we need to get out of here! I told you that myself..." She trailed off as she gave up attempting to disentangle herself and went after the saber instead. Once they were rid of the loot, Kale could help her up.

Assuming they could get rid of the loot.

Tangled and in pain, Rhea found the lightsaber was pinned quite securely in her pocket. She squirmed and tried valiantly to reach the artifact with her left hand, all the while biting her lower lip to keep her cry of pain in her mouth.

Finally the woman grabbed the saber and staggered to her feet, determined to put pressure on the ankle. Already the sting was wearing off.

She pulled the saber from her cloak and limped toward her comrade.

"I just knew I should never have volunteered for this," she mumbled as she avoided Kale's eyes and bent down to dispose of the stupid lightsaber once and for all.

Fleetingly, she wondered to whom it had belonged, its burnished silver and gold surface glinting in the false moonlight. Quickly she placed the relic next to the foot of the bench and straightened.

"Now can we please get out of here?"

[Kale]

Kale was wondering what was taking Rhea so long. Then he saw the twisted look of pain on her face. Aw, great... If that's more than just an ankle twist, how in frell is she gonna get back to Cueva de Luce at this time of night?

Kale watched where Rhea unloaded the pilfered saber. He was having second, third thoughts about the whole thing, but he was just as glad to have it over with. Spend too much time second-guessing yourself, and you tend to get caught.

"You don't have to ask me twice. Come on, I'd better be on the opposite side of the Temple by the time they find it."

[Pierce Tondry]

"Not so fast."

Pierce stood up, revealing himself, but even then the shadow and nearby foliage made his identity difficult to determine. He stepped from among a cluster of plants onto a dirt path that led farther into the gardens, or back towards the entrance depending on which way you were going.

"What did you leave there?"

[Kale]

Kale bolted to his feet and cast a startled look over his shoulder, his heart somewhere in the rafters above. Quickly regaining his poise, he turned around slowly to confront the inquisitor.

There was a figure silhouetted in the midst of the rhododendrons. Kale didn't recognize the voice, but it sounded authoritarian.

Maybe... just maybe... it wasn't a knight, and he could get some sort of edge.

"Who are you?" he asked back, trying to sound as officially indignant as possible. "And what are you doin', hidin' in the bushes back there? You could give a guy a heart attack that way."

Behind his back, he squeezed his sweaty hands together as he prayed that Rhea would keep her cool.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Okay, Rhea, calm. Just stay calm.

Yeah. Right. Not if adrenaline had anything to do with it.

Rhea whirled on the voice, instantly regretting whirling--it made one look suspicious, and it hurt her ankle like all frell.

She squinted through the dim light and the shadows but could make nothing more of the newcomer than an undefined dark form. The voice was male.

Rhea was just wondering whether to bolt or stay put when Kale asked, in a voice far more relaxed than Rhea felt, who the man was and what he was doing here.

The woman sincerely hoped the boy knew what he was doing.

[Pierce Tondry]

When being questioned, turn the line of questioning back on the asker.

It was one of the oldest tricks in the book as far as infiltration was concerned. Pierce's training had taught him others. "What did you leave by the bench, and what are you doing in the garden?" he asked insistently.

Meanwhile, he continued to approach the pair.

[Kale]

OOC: Sorry, college has been busy.

Okay, so that didn't seem to work. And as Pierce got nearer, Kale's danger sense kept redlining. He's a cop, he thought. A Jedi cop. Krasst...

Kale's mind was running at full tilt weighing the respective advantages of making a break for it or trying to talk his way out of it.

"It... it's nothin', okay? I, uh..."

He faltered, then gave a sigh of defeat. "You ain't gonna tell anybody, are you? It was gonna be a birthday present, okay? You know, a surprise. I bought it in Twilight District."

Beating back his thief's instincts, he stepped aside to give Pierce a clear avenue to inspect the saber if he wanted.

[Pierce Tondry]

The distinction between truth and falsehood grated across Pierce's empathic senses like nails on a chalkboard. The boy was lying and knew it.

"What is it, and who are you?" Pierce would not be deterred.

He pulled a borrowed practice saber from his belt and ignited it, bathing his two catches in blue light. His eyes mapped out Kale's features, then took in Rhea's, too. "And lying about your name won't do you any good," he added. "I never forget a face."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea personally thought Kale's excuse, and the lie that executed it, were rather smooth. The stranger, however, was not fooled.

Rhea was just starting to think the situation couldn't get worse when the man brandished a saber. Rhea's heart pounded, even despite the fact that the saber's buzz was tellingly low--only a sparring blade. Instinctively her hand moved a millimeter towards her own saber, but she halted instantly, realizing what a bad idea that was.

The eerie blue light blew what little cover Rhea and Kale had left...but it also gave her a clear view of their questioner. Rugged, stern-looking man, middle age-ish, plenty big enough to overpower her but not so bulky that he was likely to be slow. Attacking him would be an exercise in insanity; Rhea was too small (curse her Imrani heritage) and though Kale, while scrawny, might have been strong enough to take him, the boy could no more wield a lightsaber than Rhea could pick a pocket.

Which brought them back to a stand-still, with Kale left with a lie on his tongue that Mr. Jedi was not buying.

I need cues, Kale, Rhea thought desperately, as in a wild moment of courage, she suddenly stepped forward, hand outstretched for a handshake.

"Well, why would we want to lie, sir? My name's Rhea Kaylen. My buddy here needed help buying a surprise present for a mutual friend, and I volunteered. We were stowing it here for safekeeping. The gardens are still open to everyone, are they not?"

Rhea Kaylen had not the slightest idea what she was doing. Luckily, shooting off at the mouth had always come easily to her, even if lying had not. She hoped that at the very least she'd pulled the Inquisitor's attention somewhat off of Kale.

If the boy was going to go down for this, then he wasn't going down alone.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce's eyes narrowed as he regarded Rhea's outstretched hand, and the shiftiness in her emotions. "Listen to me carefully, both of you," he began. "Lethally venomous spiders were recently smuggled into this garden. They nearly killed two Padawans. Who brought them in is still unknown. The Garden is being watched to make sure it doesn't happen again."

"So. What did you hide?"

[Kale]

Kale flinched at the saber ignition; the look of shock on his face was starkly evident in the pale blue light. The last time he'd seen a lit saber was about five hours ago--he remembered Dasquian's orange blade hovering dangerously close to his hiding place in the alley behind the Archives. But now there was no place to hide, and for an awful instant, he felt a cold brush of the Force inviting him to use his camouflage trick again, to disappear, slink out of the garden, and leave Rhea to deal with Pierce on her own.

He fought the impulse down. It wouldn't help him. He'd be right back where he'd started--minus the saber, minus Rhea, and probably minus whatever chance he still had in the Jedi Order if Pierce's memory was all he said it was.

Kale wavered, considering the value of spilling it all, when Rhea spoke up. What the frell is she doing?

Covering your behind, he realized. What was more, she was casting her own lot with his--if they screwed up, they did it together.

So Kale did his best to pay close attention while making some slight modifications to his story.

"Spiders?" he repeated. "I hadn't heard about that." And that was the unvarnished truth, but he saw Pierce's patience wasn't getting any longer. "Look, it's nothin' like that, and I don't want to be any trouble. So I'm gonna show it to you, okay?"

Taking a deep breath, he walked slowly back toward the bench and kneeled. "It looks like a lightsaber," he said scooping it from its hiding place, "but it don't light up. I think it's a showpiece."

The best lie was usually the one closest to the truth. Even if Pierce knew the saber had been stolen, he probably couldn't verify that the thief hadn't already sold it.

Kale gave Rhea a fleeting, optimistic glance, then offered the ornamental saber for Pierce's inspection.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce took the proffered saber and looked it over with an appraising eye. The weapon had been polished to a high gloss, the activation button was perfectly rounded with no wear on it, and the emitter cup had none of the minute carbon scoring a weapon getting everyday use. A quick flick of the switch confirmed that the weapon was not powered. The boy was right; this was a showpiece.

On the other hand, it didn't seem at all like the kind of thing a person would just come upon. "Where did you get this?" he asked, turning the weapon over in his hand. Something about it struck him as being familiar...

[Kale]

Kale shrugged. "That's the funny thing. It was sittin' in a pawn shop in Twilight District. I mean, I've seen funny things in those joints, but never somethin' like this."

Inwardly, the teenager was still awfullly antsy. It looked like Pierce was going for the story, but it was hard to rest easy while the intel agent still held a glowing lightsaber. On the plus side, he seemed to be more concerned with spiders than with recent thefts from the archives.

[Pierce Tondry]

The difference between fact and falsity wove through Kale's thoughts again. Clearly, he was not as innocent as things seemed, but what exactly he was guilty of Pierce did not know.

Additionally, Pierce was only a Padawan and had no great authority while he was inside the walls of the Jedi Order. As an Intel agent he could observe, take into custody those visibly committing wrongdoing, or report suspicious activity but he wasn't supposed to directly involve himself in matters that fell under Jedi authority. As best he could tell, Kale was innocent of any serious crime.

Pierce held the lightsaber up, examining it in the moonlight. Something about it seemed so familiar... "What was the name of the pawn shop?"

[Kale]

Oh, crud. This guy wasn't giving up. A few possible names flashed through Kale's mind, but he couldn't afford for Pierce to actually check up on them.

So he squeezed his eyes shut and scratched his head. "Uh... oh, gee, I dunno. It was run by... by a Toydarian, but I didn't catch his name. I guess I wasn't payin' much attention."

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce nodded, his attention still fixed on the lightsaber. "And who were you getting it for?"

[Kale]

Kale's heart nearly stopped. Any hesitation would look fishy, so he blurted out the first name that came to mind.

"Dasquian Belargic."

Frell!!! Why had he said that? Of all the names he could possibly have said, that was probably the worst one. Not only did Dasquian not know him from Adam, he was the one who had very nearly caught Kale in the act of stealing the saber.

Frell, frell, frell... Kale shot a worried glance at Rhea as he groped for a smooth recovery.

"I mean, well, we're not exactly friends of his, but I heard I might end up in his Basic Force class this winter, and she, well..." Kale stepped in closer to Pierce and held his voice to a confidential whisper. "I think she thinks he's hot."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea was beginning to feel like they might not actually die. Kale's story was going over far better than it had any right to; the guard, or whatever he was, seemed to be buying it. He was still suspicious, obviously, but if she and Kale could just milk this a bit longer, then maybe they could slip the noose.

Rhea felt it wise to just keep her mouth shut and look agreeable while Kale did the talking. The boy was a master con artist, no question, and shameless, it seemed.

Unfortunately, Rhea had never fully realized just how shameless he was.

When the Jedi guard inquired after the lightsaber's intended recipient, Rhea watched, puzzled, as Kale leaned in to stage-whisper,

"I think she thinks he's hot."

Now, Rhea Kaylen had long thought herself beyond the influence of hormones, but when the guard's eyes flicked automatically to her for confirmation, she felt herself go deeply crimson.

She could not believe the boy had said that. Of all the things...and he looked more than a bit pleased with himself about it, too. Whether he really was or whether he was playing up his ruse was impossible for Rhea to determine.

The Imrani woman made a mental note to strangle Kale with her bare hands at a later date. For now, there was nothing for it but to go along.

She played off her schoolgirl blush and pretended to be flustered. "Kale! N-now how could you say something awful like that?" She looked back up at the guard, wringing her fingers in saccharine imitation of embarrassment. "Dasquian's just an old friend of mine from...from Temple training. When Kale told me he was going to be in Dasquian's class, I thought, you know, perhaps it would be nice..."

She blushed again, half in humiliation, half in anger, as she purposefully trailed off as if agitated. Briefly she shot Kale a withering glare; the guard would interpret that as a reprimand, but Kale would know that it meant bloody murder.

And she didn't even know this Dasquian guy. He was probably some wrinkled old prune of a master with too much nasal hair. Oh, was Kale ever going to get it for this.

[Pierce Tondry]

Pierce's eyes fell from the lightsaber to once again regard Kale. "Then you won't mind me checking into this," he said frankly.

[Kale]

Kale took a deep breath and replied, "No, not at all. I mean... you aren't gonna ruin the surprise, are you?"

The pitiful look he gave Pierce could have made a Wookiee cry. Or so Kale thought.

[Pierce Tondry]

"And if I do?"

Pierce paused, trying to look Kale square in the eye, but the other squirmed just enough under his gaze to avoid it. "Kid, you look familiar, but in this life I don't randomly go for trusting people who I know are lying to me. If I were you, I would hope that whatever I was up to here tonight wasn't bad enough to get me in trouble."

The borrowed blue blade slid down into nothingness. In the reduced visibility, Pierce appeared a very dark shadow towering over the two trespassers.

"Right now, the two of you need to go back to your rooms. Don't try to run. Don't try to hide. You're in my sights now, so be very careful of what you do."

[Kale]

For once, Kale was at a severe loss for words. He no longer had any doubt about Pierce's sincerity, even as he said he knew Kale was lying to him. Somehow, Kale knew that Pierce knew, and that unnerved him. There was a part of him that wanted to confess the whole thing before Pierce found out about it himself, and that unnerved him even more.

"Yes, sir," Kale mumbled weakly. The fewer waves he made, the better; he was at the intel op's mercy now. With a quick "come on" gesture to Rhea, Kale shoved his hands in his pockets and trudged out of the gardens.

Once they were out in the corridor, Kale slumped against a wall with a mental groan. "Take it back to the Order," he mumbled. "Great idea, Rhea. Honest to Force, what would I do without you?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Well, that was it, then. It was over; the saber was back in the Temple and so was Kale, and neither he nor Rhea were in police custody.

So...why did Rhea feel like a failure?

She slinked out of the gardens after her young friend, mostly ignoring his mumbled reproach until...

"Honest to Force, Rhea, what would I do without you?"

The woman looked up into Kale's accusing eyes. His gaze shocked her, and guilt dropped into her stomach like a stone. She had gotten Kale into this...

But...this wasn't her fault; it was his! If he hadn't been stupid enough to try and steal a lightsaber from the Jedi Temple, for Astrel's sake...

She felt sorry for the boy, she really did, and maybe she was partly to blame for his kleptomaniacal trend, as she'd never tried to quash his pickpocketing while he'd lived at the Plaza. But Kale was not ignorant, nor was he mentally deficient. He knew stealing was wrong. And the choice to break rules had been his.

Rhea took a steadying breath and looked directly at Kale, reminding herself not to be too hard on the boy, because he was still in enough trouble already.

"You would probably be crawling to Gucchi about now," she said, "begging him to let you back into the Plaza as you try to find some black market buyer for your brand new, museum quality lightsaber before the Jedi set the Coruscant police on you. Plus, you would have opened yourself up to the Dark Side of the Force with no master anymore who could ever set you straight; you'd be either dead by the age of twenty in Gucchi's employ, or you'd be eaten up from the inside by evil influence until you finally went insane."

Rhea took a breath and held it, not really knowing how the boy would react.

[Kale]

Taken aback by the severity of Rhea's prognostication, Kale found himself groping for a scathing retort, but none was forthcoming. He pounded the wall behind him with a tight fist and drove on past Rhea down the corridor in the direction of the Living Quarters.

"Oh, right. Riiiight. So I make one mistake, and, pow, I'm rubbin' shoulders with the Dark Side. Well, things look so much better for me now."

Kale was scared--scared that he'd blown his one chance to make it out of the ghetto. And as much as he loathed the idea of becoming one of Gucchi's lackeys, he knew he'd be low on options if the Order tossed him back on the street. The last thing he wanted now was for Rhea to remind him of that.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea blinked dumbly as Kale swept past, then trailed after him, rolling her eyes.

Boys.

"No, Kale! I didn't mean it like that! Your lot is far better than that, I just wanted you to remember what the alternative could have been. No, you're not going to end up back in the ghetto as a thief, because you're still in the Temple. No, you're never going to have to answer to Gucchi again, because you're still in the Temple. And, no, you're not rubbing shoulders with the Dark Side, because you are a Padawan apprentice in the Jedi Temple. Don't you see? We succeeded; you're still here."

Rhea had the distinct impression that the boy stalking before her, fuming, had not heard a word she'd just said.

[Kale]

Kale stomped a heel to the floor and spun on it, stopping Rhea dead in her tracks.

"Then what the frell was the point of bringin' the saber back? It would've been just as safe sittin' in the ventilation hub at the Plaza. Now that the Jedi have it back, their list of suspects is gonna get a lot shorter, and guess who's gonna be at the top of that list?"

He huffed noisily and turned around again. "I coulda just sneaked back to my quarters. Frell, I wasn't even plannin' to do anything with the saber. I just had to think some things over, then you had to get all self-righteous on me!"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea's eyebrows rocketed upward as she stood staring mutely after the boy.

"The point, Kale, was not, was never, to keep the lightsaber safe! I thought surely you would have figured that out by now! The point was to right a wrong, a wrong you knew very well was on your head. Even if you weren't planning a thing for that saber, you still would have been responsible for its disappearance. And if you ever wanted to make more out of your life at the Temple than merely to scrounge some time off the streets, it was imperative that you be the one to return the lightsaber.

"I know for a fact that, despite whatever you say to the contrary, you like it here. Maybe, if you're not as thickheaded as I am inclined to think you are, you've realized, as I have, that you may even belong here. Which is why you agreed to bring the saber back. But Kale, I'm telling you right now, and self-righteous I may be, but if you don't change your attitude toward the chance you've been given, then it will not last."

Rhea paused for a breath, suddenly feeling deeply tired. It was probably close to sun-up by now. She'd had no sleep, work started in a few short hours, and she could feel her twisted ankle beginning to swell and throb. And one of the few individuals who actually, really meant something to her, who she now saw almost as a little brother, was blaming his trouble on her and calling her self-righteous on top of that.

"I know you're worried, Kale," Rhea went on in a vastly subdued tone. "But the Jedi are not going to turn you out of the Temple for one mistake. I 'got all self-righteous on you' because I knew that. I knew that if you returned the saber, you might have to be reprimanded, even punished, but that any punishment was better than the alternative."

[Kale]

Rhea could've been right; Kale honestly didn't know how the Jedi would handle this sort of thing. And maybe even if they did rat him out, they'd go easy on him because he'd brought the goods back. But he'd been pretty much alone and idle at the Order the past month or so--no Master to keep him busy, and now no Master to come to his defense. And, anyway, the whole fiasco was his fault...

Oh, great. Now he was feeling guilty. When was the last time that had happened?

"Well, one way or the other, they've got it back now," he said woodenly. "And I'm back. So I guess there's really nothin' more to talk about."

Kale slowly turned toward Rhea. "You'd better get outta here. If Cap'n Lightsaber wasn't exaggerating about his memory, it won't take him long to figure out you're not in the Order. You, uh... you wanna take a cab? That ankle don't look so good."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Well, perfect. She'd not only managed to terrify the boy, she'd upset him, as well. So much for trying to look out for him...

Is there ever going to be a time that I learn to shut my mouth?

Knowing herself, that was probably about as likely as Kale ever really forgiving her for the trouble she'd caused him.

"I left my wallet at home," Rhea replied, grimacing as Kale made her remember her ankle. "I'll be fine..." Suddenly Rhea looked around her and realized she hadn't a clue how to get out of the Temple. "Erm, at least, I will be if you can give me some quick directions."

Rhea blushed for the second time that night, this time out of genuine sheepishness.

[Kale]

Kale stared at her blankly for a moment before he realized she needed directions back outside.

"Down the hall to the left, right at the cactus, and then you can head out through the lobby into the courtyard. I gotta get back to the LQ."

He stalked away a few more paces, then stopped, turned and dug something out of his pocket. "Here," he said, tossing a pair of ten-credit chits. "Take a cab. And don't thank me. It's your money."

With that, Kale hastened around the corner before Rhea could respond.