Official RPG - Chapter Two

[Rogue 4]

Melinda had a nice dreamless sleep, and when she awoke, it was in her sleep couch. Michael must have carried me in here,she thought as she sat up.Wonder how long I've been asleep...

So many questions flooded her head, and she found, she could barely keep up with them all.

After all these years of wondering, she finally had a chance to find out about her past. About her parents. Are they alive, or are they---? Did she have any siblings? And what about this person, who had looked just like her. Her...grandmother?

What is/ was she like?

After all this time, she finally had a clue, a link, to her past.

She walked foward, and found Michael right where she thought he would be. He was seated in the pilot's chair, tinkering with something.

Mel kissed him on the cheek, then sat down in the Co-pilot's seat. "How long have I been asleep?" she asked.

He looked at his wrist chrono. "About two hours."

"I'm sorry." she said.

"Don't be, you were tired..." he said.

"No, not about that. Here I am, and you're father gives me probably the only link I'll ever have to my past, and I didn't even have the decency to say 'thank you'. I owe him so much more than that."

[MsSolo 1]

>I'm working on the assumption everyone's left the base. If not, deal with it <

Aurora reread the two messages. That's... nice, she tried to convince herself, they assumed I wouldn't come, and left without me. huh. She rubbed her forehead with the heel of her palm, staring at the two holocards. It still hurt from the several bumps she'd received on her convulted journey here. Where to go, where to go? she mused.

The Rangers seemed to be continually expanding, to Aurora's mind, and she'd lost track a long time ago of who were members and who weren't. Of course, the only one she'd known to start with was Mel. So, would she go find Mel and her boyfriend? Maybe. Or, of course, she could go find everyone else, follow the crowd, so to speak. Certainly sounded more exciting.

Aurora turned away from the messages, and stared out of the window. The stars glittered, lonely in the dark expanse. Her own loneliness stung, as she ran through the two messages in her own head again. The first, from the larger group, hadn't really been meant for her, she knew. They hadn't expected her to turn up. They didn't even ask her to follow them, just mentioned where they were going.

The second message went half-way to explaining why the first was so impersonal. Mel and Micheal were also away, and their message made it clear they wouldn't be back for a while. The mystery was solved, the first message was mostly directed at Mel and Mike (she knew he'd hate that abbreviation, but as her head was her own private place, she'd allocated nicknames as and when she jolly well pleased, thank you very much) and the second was aimed at the other rangers. No one had expected her to come.

A sudden longing came over her, and she sat down suddenly, resting her head against the cool glass of the window. She wanted to go back to Kotor Ami. She wanted to be remember and be important to someone again. She wanted someone who wouldn't dismiss her as unreliable and irresponible.

She puched the emotion aside. She was both responsible and reliable, and if the Rangers didn't recognise that, well, at least the Angels did. She couldn't come rushing to the aid of teh Rangers everytime they called, she had 'prior engagments', so to speak. There were a lot of Rangers, and consideraly less Angels. And she had been an Angel first. And there were less of them. And...

Wonderful, Aurora reprimanded herself sarcastically, guilt. Part of her did feel as though she should be dropping anything to help the Rangers, that she had made a commitment and she should damn well stick to it. But I've made a commitment to the Angels as well, an inner voice whined. I can't just drop them to help the Rangers. They need me more! Aurora thought she had left all those inner voices behind after the sith debacle, realising that she couldn't blame her every sinful impulse on a 'voice' that was of course herself. She supposed she'd forgotten to tell the voices that.

Stuff them all! a venemous and hideously recognisable voice hissed. Have we forgotten our duty to our people? They're jedi, they're to blame. Remeber the lightsabeer burns. Wonderful, Evil Aurora was back as well. Aurora added that voice to the growing list inside of her. She wondered which voice she was, really. The one most often in control? Not when Kotor Ami had had his way with her. And the Dark voice remembered that power. YeGods, she wanted that power again.

Aurora stared down at her hands, horrified at herself. She'd never realised how much of an effect the Sith had had on her. She'd never realised how much she wanted power. A sudden urge came over her to just walk away now. Walk away from the Rangers, walk away from the Angels, walk away from anything that gave her any kind of power over others. She couldn't be trusted with it.

And the voices, she wanted to walk away from them, as well. She promised herself that as soon as she got home, she'd book herself a session with a psychiatrist. She knew many people tended to seperate the conflicting impulses within themselves into almost different people, sometimes even giving them the voices of friends and relatives, but Aurora just wanted to shut them all up. She didn't want to be whiny, self-pitying Aurora; she didn't want to be evil (malicious, there's no such thing as evil, she corrected herself ayutomatically), vengeance-fueled Aurora; she didn't want to be wild, unreliable and unresponsible Aurora; she didn't want to be any Aurora but the one she'd grown up with, the one who'd been so confident of her world and her place in it, the one who'd had all her hopes and dreams shattered when she returned one day to see the burned and mutilated bodis of her friends.

A beep brought Aurora back to herself. A door slid open behind her.

"Sorry, I didn't realise anyone was in here. I thought everyone had left." Aurora turned, still sitting, to see Han Solo (Han Solo!) standing in the doorway.

"I, I only just got here."

"You a Ranger?" he reached out a hand and pulled her to her feet.

"Yes, I think so." He raised an eyebrow. "No one else seems to, though. They certainly didn't expect me to turn up."

"You're a little late, and it was rather pressing, from what I heard."

"More than a little. Blame Baron Fel and a variety of ancient plagues and wars." He raised his eyebrow again at this enigmatic statement. "They don't seem to need me, any how."

"How about those two?" he waved his hand to indicate the second message. "I'm not a jedi, but even I know that with him around, they're bound to run into some sort of trouble."

Aurora grinned. Micheal did have a talent for attracting trouble to himself. She guessed that it was probably due to his apparant invicibiloity. Practically omnipotent, with a tendancy to assume he was Omniscient as well (she'd had a long argument with him over the existance of her people, he just hadn't been able to believe they'd existed if he hadn't heard of them). People, including herself, just found it all a little too tempting.

"I wouldn't want to intrude," she admitted.

"I thought you and Mel were friends?"

"How do you know so much about all this?" Aurora demanded.

"We-url... Skywalker is my brother in law," Han Solo gave her a rogueish grin. Aurora's stomach did flips. Married man, married man, she reminded herself. There was far to much potential for yet another AuroraVoice in that thought.

"So he just chats about the Rangers? So much for confidentiality." Aurora grinned at him, just to let him know she was kidding. Mostly. "Yeah, I'll go find them. Of course, I've no idea where whosiwhatsitplace is, but it's probably somewher on my navicomp. Be nice to see Mel again," she added reflectively. "Thanks for the advice!" She gave him a flash of a smile and wlaked past him and through the still open door, hurrying to her ship.

"What advice?" Han asked the empty room.

[Master MJade 0]

Now i remeber why i hate transports.

"all right we're just about there" said Ullic.

Ka'al sat behind him. "so are you sure this will work?"

"Nervous know are we?" asked Ullic.

"No just command instinct."

"Well we just learn more about you every day." Said haladar as he came in to the cokpit. " how long to reversion?"

"about a five minutes." replied Ullic's partner, Kyp.

"actually i'm a flight commander of the shodow gaurds squadron." replied Ka'al to the unasked question that she thought was there.

"All right we're here." said Ullic as they reverted.

"wrong time to ask this but are you sure Am'ni and i wont stick out like a sore thumb?"

"maybe the eyes but that shouldn't be a problem. said haladar.

[Andy 60]

5 minutes later the swirling colour of hyperspace gave way to open space, just outside the system

"Doesn't appear to be anything this far out" Kyp Talarin stated.

One of the NRI support crew tapped away on the scan controls.

"There is a Victory-class Star Destroyer and a repair facility orbiting the nearest planet, probably docked for mantainance."

"Everything appears to be normal here then, which means we are on time" Ulic said

"How about at Atmosus itself?" Kyp asked

"Everything looks fine there too" NRI crewman answered.

"Good, with that established lets move on to the interesting part." said Ulic.

--------

About a half hour later the transport landed at the meeting centre, which was part of an abandoned repulsorlift city.

"Okay, now watch yourself here," Ulic said, "Some of these mercenaries are pretty dangerous people, and some of them like to remove a bit of what they consider opposition."

Some of the rangers shifted uneasily.

"If you don't think you are up to this, then remain with the ship, the NRI support crew will be here. But most of all remember that we are supposed to be a mercenary TIE Defender pilot group. If anyone asks about hiring us, direct them to either me or Kyp."

The Rangers checked their comm units and made sure they had their blasters handy incase they needed it, and those who did not want to stay with the ship headed of towards the meeting centre.

"Now lets hope nobody recognises us..." Kyp whispered to Ulic.

------------

They all got into the meeting without problem, it hadn't started yet, but there were already hundreds of mercenaries talking, drinking, and even some fighting.

"I don't like the way that Rodian over there is looking at us" Ka'al said.

Ulic looked over to see a Rodian eyeing them with interest.

"He was in the landing bay next to ours, I saw him watching the ship come in."

"I thought it was a human we were looking for." Kyp said.

"It is, I don't like this at all." said Ulic.

"Could be he's just looking for a fighter squadron."

"We'll speak to him later" Ulic said. "Split into pairs, you know who we are looking for."

[Master MJade 0]

"I"ll stay here" said Ka'al. "Me and Am'ni. I belive it is best if we stay here to keep an eye on the compition. "

"well..." replied Ulic.

"it'll show that your trusting just enogh if you leave two but not to trusting that you leave no one."

"good point" replied Kyp.

*****

After the others had left Ka'al and am'ni sat in the transport to talk,.

" what's wrong with-? asked Am'ni "whats wrong?"

"someone is coming."

The Rodainfrom outside came in to the ship.

""don't move." said Ka'al in what the other rangers called her freezing over hell voice. "What do you want?"

Am'ni. Get your blaster out as casually as possible.

As the Rodain sputtered and muttered. ka'al cut him off. "Last i checked it was common courtsy to ask to come on. at least that is if your not a thief." ka'al's voice got impossibly colder.

"Now sit down and we'll wait for my boss to decide what to do with you, thief."

she looked at Am'ni "go to the bridge and contact boss."

Am'ni walked to the bridge to get Ulic while Ka'al watched the Rodain

[Andy 60]

Ulic's comm beeped at him.

"Feyyat here" he answered it.

He listened as Ka'al explained the situation to him.

"Sith!" he said, "I knew we should have kept an eye on that Rodian"

"What is it?" Kyp asked

"That Rodian tried to break into the ship, fortunatly there were people there."

"Are you going back?"

"Yeah, you stay here with the others, let them now what's happening, if you need me just call."

With that Ulic headed back out to the ship.

[Master MJade 0]

"and that's that." said Ka'al.

"good thing you had insisted thatsomeone had to stay."

Ka'al gave a slight bow to acknowledge the praise.

"so what do we do with him?" asked Am'ni.

before Ullic could respond the transport's comm beeped.

"kay here." said Ka'al using her pysuedonym for the mission.

"tell Feyyat that our contacts here." said Kyp.

"Allright"

She turned to Ulic and asked him what was your mission name again?"

"Feyyat is the mission name. I had better get going. Oh and stick him," ullic pointed to the Rodain."in a secure cabin."

"Yes Sir"

Ka'al moved to take the rodain off Am'ni's hands. "Go with him"

Ullic left with Am'ni.

[Master MJade 0]

"All right thief. NOw again tell me who your boss is." said a menecing Ka'al.

"I told you. I don't know." said the Rodain, Cheet.

"So, some stranger hires you to check out the People who come for the job. "

"YES."

"I don't believe you."

"i swear it is." exclaimed Cheet who was now getting very nervous.

"Well it all depends on if Fayyat believes you. He doesn't take kindly to trespassers."

[MsSolo 1]

Aurora stretched her legs inside her cramped cockpit, and was rewarded with a stubbed toe. She stared morosely at her bruised knee, scraped shin, bumped head and now seventh stubbed toe. She'd been waiting to land for almost five hours, and there was nothing she wanted more than to get out of the bloody Angelfighter. Eventually, her comm crackled into lonely life.

-Are you receiving us?-

"Yes!" Aurora snapped.

-This is Naboo immigrations. Please give your planet of Origin-

Aurora grinned wildly, "Chi'andr'ck'rd'a"

There was no reply for a momnet. Then, sheepishly, -How do you spell that?_

"Don't bother, it won't be on your computers anyway. It's in the Unknown region. Just, please, let me land. We can't discuss this on the ground?"

-Your ship is unidentifiable.- The voice replied stubbornly.

"Ye-es," Aurora intoned, "It would be." She fought to control her temper. "I... built... it... myself." She spoke slowly for the hard-of-thinking.

-we need full specs before we can allow you to land- the voice muttered petulantly.

"I sent them. Four...damn...hours ago." Aurora stared out of the view port, trying to spot the offending ship, which held the offending voice.

-Um...-

Aurora screamed, silently. She imagined her rage and fustration as a large, glowing, crackling, scarlet ball. It engulfed her. Then, by sheer force of effort, it turned blue. "What's your name?"

-Bob, ma'am-

"What happened to the specs I sent you, Bob?"

-They were lost.- The sheepish tone had returned, and Aurora felt a tinge of pity. The claming blue behind her eyelids rippled and flowed in soothing hypnotic patterns.

"PLease, can we land. You can see my ship. You can see how small it is. You can see it has no sheilds. You can see it has weapons no more powerful than that of say, an X-wing." Ok, the sheilds thing was technically not true, but she wasn't exactly lying either. It was just, well, suncrusher technology.

-I'd love to let ou land, um, Miss Aurora. But, you see, I can't. The Queen ruled that all ships entering Naboo must pass through Immigration, and Must be detained in unknown.- Bob was sounding a little more contrite now.

"Bob," Aurora wheedled, "if, say, the Millenium Falcon where to come to Naboo, would you detain it?"

-No. The Millenium Falcon is a recognised ship of a recognised make.- He now sounded confused.

"Oh, but Bob, it's not! You see, it has had so manny modifications, so many (and here was the key word) illeagal modifications, that under the most recent ruling of the current Queen of Naboo, it's no longer a YT-1300 freighter. And, those modifications are illeagal, you know, so it simply couldn't pass through immigration even if that law hadn't been passed." And now the Punchline: "But I bet you'd pass it anyway, wouldn't you, Bob?"

Utter Silence.

Then: -AngelFighter1, you are free to land. Upon landing, we would be obliged if you made your way to the immigration office. Thank you for you time.-

"Thank you, Bob" Aurroa said sweetly, almost sickenly so. She was glad she couldn't see the immigration ship through the cockpit; it implied they couldnn't see her either. And the sneer on her face betrayed any sweetness her tone might have implied. She opened her eyes to the darkness of space and made her way towards the soft blue and green crescent that was Naboo, where she would, hopefully, meet up with Mike and Mel.

[E-wing 3]

Aurora was walking up to the immigration office when the window shared as a chair flew out. This was followed shortly by a young man. As soon as the man hit the ground out side he scrammed feet, a look of fear on his face. Before Aurora could ask what was going on the door slammed open and out walked.......

Michael!?!

He was followed by Stinger and Melinda. Melinda ran around infront of Michael trying to stop him from getting to the man.

"Michael relax! He didn't mean any harm." said Melinda.

"Didn't mean any harm! He wanted to take stinger apart!" yelled Michael.

"Ya, I say let Michael rough him up a bit. Anyway it's not like he'll shoot the kid." said Stinger.

"Why not? Shooting him sounds like a good idea." said Michael.

"You don't carry a gun." said Aurora walking up.

The 3 of them turned to face her and said "Aurora!"

[MsSolo 1]

Aurora tilted her head and stared at the threesome, then at the dazed man lying suspiciously still on the pavement.

"Hey. Got your message," she said offhandedly. She bent over the prone figure, and poked him in the stomach. His breath whooshed out. She stood up again.

"What are you doing here?" Melinda asked

"Stopping your boyfirend form killing innocents, it seems. It's a sad day when I have to be the mature one." She glanced down at the pavement by her feet. She frowned, and glanced around. "Where'd he go?"

A muffled voice barely made itself heard from the immigration offices. Aurora walked over to the window.

"I think we should go," she said as she returned.

"Why?" Micheal demanded.

"We'll be arrested if we stay," Aurroa answered simply, and began walking away, leaving the others to make their own desicions.

[Rogue 4]

Michael and Melinda's minds went a thousand different directions at once. Both of them trying to find the best solution to the problem they faced. Like always, thier Force link was open, and they could hear eachothers thoughts. They looked around to evaluate the situation.

"Arested? I'm not going to some prison for droids..." Stinger blurted out.

"Nobody said you were." Michael replied.

"She did..." The droid replied gesturing towards where Aurora had been last.

"Stinger, none of us are going to go to prison." Mel replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Stinger, you're not helping." Michael scolded him.

"Sorry...so what's the plan?"

What are we going to do? Mel asked Michael.

Well, they don't have much in the way of security...

Mel shook her head. I don't like what you're implying...

It might work... Stinger seemed rather irritated for a droid. "You guys mind sharing with me?"

"Oh...sorry Stinger." Mel said sweetly. She turned back to Michael. "We are not swarming security..."

"Just a suggestion." He shrugged. "Can't exactly give in to them either...they'll detain you're ship if we run for it..."

A thought struck Mel. "Not if it's not in thir files." she whispered, and she winked at him, causing him to smile. She took out her commlink, and spoke into it. "E4, you there?" She got an affirmative beep in reply. "Okay...listen carefully. I need you to put the Dreams in the files, under the alias we used last time...Midnight Dreams? And, I want you to close the docking bay tight..." Beeps. "Uh...i dunno...change the records to say that the bay is closed for maintinence, or something."

She turned off the commlink, and smiled. They began moving farther into the city of Theed, the capital of the planet. Personally, Mel had never had a reason to look for the planet until now, and had been surprised to find it in her Navicomputer. Now, she could not even believe how beautiful the planet was. It was so unlike the planet she had grown up on, so unlike Coruscant. It had a feeling of elegance to it, yet everything looked so simple.

She reached out with the force to get a feel for the place. She could feel Michael beside her, Stinger a little bit back...she extended her sphere farther, and could feel excitement flow off a kid as he played a game with a ball in his yard. She felt the plant growth, the small grouping of people sent her waves of emotion. Joy, Happiness,... Peace.

This planet, was wonderful.

"Here comes Aurora," Michael said, but she already knew. She had felt her in one of the crowds, and she was now coming towards them. They stopped to wait for her.

[MsSolo 1]

Aurora had also been stunned by the beauty of the city, but in a much more pragmatic way. Having left the two youths to decide on their own fate, she had quickly lost herself in an ornate park. Ducking into a small pagoda, she made a few swift changes.

First, the hair. The smoky grey/brown stood out in any crowd, mostl;y for its unusualness. Okay, pick a colour, any colour, Aurora thought for a moment, then, oh, why the heck not, black and blue it is. And, hey presto, it was.

Then, the eyes. Again, naturally grey. Defintaely not blue, pink maybe? she got out a small hand mirror, and studied her reflection critically. Ok, definately not pink either. Aurora was torn between brown, so common a colour it would pass completely unnoticed, or silver, which was easier to do and maintain. She settled on silver.

Finally, her clothes. They no longer suited her new look, so she changed her short cape and trousers to black, her tunic to electric blue and every seam she could find was silver.

A small mammal scuttled up the trelliswork, and Aurora breifly placed herself in its head to study her image. At first glance she was so outrageous looking no one would bother with a second. Ducking through some bruise coloured flowers, and letting the heavy scent infuse her clothes, she returned the the main street.

The others sensed her before they saw her, which was probably for the best, as they may well have not recognised her.

"That's, um, a new look," Mel offered. Aurora grinned.

Micheal was silent, in a specifically male kind of shock. Aurora's grin widen when she realised how much bare flesh was on show. Perhaps the whole 'skirt as long as heels are high' thing really was worth it, just to see that look. Mel elbowed her boyfriend sharply, and he ripped his eyes away, pretending they hadn't been there in hte first place.

"You did that remarkably quickly," he mentioned.

"Yeah. I guess I'm not so forc-shy as I used to be."

"But, how?" Mel looked a little stunned.

"Everything's done on a molecular level. Chemistry was one of my favourite subjects, and I tend to apply more logic to hte force than most jedi." Micheal looked a little perturbed, fully getting what she was hinting at. "But," Aurora went on more thoughtfully," I hear the Solo twin have done similar, though they may not have known the full extent to which they were affecting things."

"What about the eyes?" Micheal asked.

"Pigmentation." Aurora answered simply, knowing full well that what she said wasn't an answer for anything. "Hey, that droid with you?" Micheal and Mel spun around.

[E-wing 3]

"Aurora you know stinger." said Michael. "Stop being silly. First thing we need is disguise for the two of you so the local cops don't pick you up."

"But I already have my disguise." said Aurora.

"Aurora, we are members of a Force-user task force not a Jedi punk rock band." said Michael and he felt the two girls realize that he wasn't looking at how much she was showing but at how foolish her looked. At this Mel smiled.

"So how are we going to do this?" asked Mel.

"Well Aurora isn't the only one who can alter things on a molecular level. Althought a color change is not the limit of my powers." said Michael with a smile. He then put a hand on both of there stomaches. Before either could respond he set to work. He changed the style, color, fabric type, and even size. He even alterd there hair.

Melinda was dressed as an upper level Naboon, most likely a business woman, with her now blond hair in a bun. Her blaster was at her waist and her lightsaber concealed in her bun. Aurora was dressed like a Naboon body guard, most likely working for someone of Melinda's class, with her now jet black hair in a pony tail. Her blaster was in a side holster and her ring weapon on her back making it look like a part of the uniform but still useable if need be.

"Wow. I'm impressed." said Aurora.

"You should spend more time with him. He dose things like this all the time." said Melinda as she turned to look at Aurora. "Hey, why are her eyes still silver?"

"Eyes are the windows to ones soul. An Aing-Tii can no sooner change the color of someones eyes then they can the color of the sky." said Michael. "You might want to change it."

Aurora change her eyes back to normal then said "What about you?"

"I don't need a disguise." said Michael and then he and stinger dispaired.

"Where did he go to?" said Melinda.

"No where." came Michael's voice. "Another little Aing-Tii trick is the control of light waves. Masters of this power can make full scale illusions, but I can only do the simple things. Things like seeing in different more levels of light then normal humans, invisibility, and a human glow rod."

"Human glow rod?" laughed Melinda.

"Hey it comes in handy." said Mickael "Now we need a guide. Someone who knows the planet but will not turn us in."

"Then we'll go hire a local smuggler." said Melinda "Come on you 3. Let's get going." And with that she walked off.

"I love it when she takes comman." said Michael as he, stinger, and Aurora followed behind Melinda.

[Andy 60]

Ulic wasn't happy to meet their contact.

"Look I told ya once," the man explained, "I've changed!"

"Yeah, you must have changed a lot to be helping a guy you used to torture" Ulic growled.

The other Rangers that were present kept their distance.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't borrow my friends lightsaber and cut you down right now?" Ulic said.

"Look around you. You'd never get out, besides you need the intel I got you."

"Okay." Ulic reasoned, regaining some self-control, "We'll leave this subject alone, but I am still not pleased to see you."

"Okay, I get it!" The man, Finis Zlars, said.

"Well, what have you got for us." Kyp said, stepping forward.

"These datacards" Zlars said, as he slid two datacards across the table they were sat at. "They hold holo-recordings and copies of data sliced from the Imperial Holonet prooving that Reeku is up to something big."

"How big?" Ulic enquired.

"Massive troop and fleet movements, I suspect he's building some larger capital ships"

"So it's true then, Reeku is becoming a bigger threat to the Republic, uh, I suppose you'd better come back to the ship with us." Ulic said.

"We'd better all go back, to check this stuff out" said Kyp.

[MsSolo 1]

Aurora knew better than to try lying to Micheal, but not even he could penetrate her emotional guards. And she was fuming.

She'd grown up in a society were older invaiably meant more important, though that impression was partly due to the fact they'd all died just as she became an adult herself. Micheal clearly didn't think the same way, and once more Aurora wished she'd taken the road more travelled and followed the larger group.

It wasn't that she didn't like Micheal. As a person, he was quite nice. SHe just wished there was some way to strip him of his powers for a short while, so she could actually meet that person. Anyone who didn't know him as well as Mel did, in Aurora's opinion, might think him arrogant, egotistical and powermad. Ok, even Aurora could concede that that wasn't fair, but he was so damn powerful!

One of the first lessons Aurora had learnt was 'all things in moderation'. Any power, even if used for 'good', could warp a person when used too much. This was something Aurora still held faithfully to, and, she had been suprised to find, most of the jedi did as well. But Mike was a jedi. One day that power would get him into trouble, and it would almost certainly kill him, directly or indirectly. Aurora could already think of seventeen different senarios.

"Is something wrong?" Micheal gave her an odd look. Aurora realised her sheilds were a little too high, so that she might seem emotionless. She smirked inwardly, it must really nnoy him to know that he couldn't sense what she was feeling.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking back a little." She flashed him a brief smile.

"HOw far back?"

"Before either of you were born," Aurora used the force to give her words weight, and groaned inwardly when she sensed that Micheal, though unable to sense her emotions, had sensed the emotion in her words.

"Age and experience aren't the same thing," he remonstrated mildly.

"Just as well. If either of you reach my age," Aurora paused wickedly, "having gone through what I have," she continued, "I doubt you'd have any shred of sanity left, especially considering everything you've both gone through already." Mel ignored all this, as her outfit/role insist4ed she must, but Aurora could sense that she was listening.

"YOu are much more free in your use of the force now," Micheal commented. "You've got more emotional sheilds that anyone I've met."

"We never really saw much of each other until now, have we? Mel could tell you, these sheilds have always been there. Sort of 'pre-programmed'."

"It might make some people suspicious. You should try lowering them from time to time. If we come across any other force senseitives they'll wonder what we're up to."

"Not gonna happen," Aurora remarked bluntly. She made a private resolution to wander into his dreams at some point and show him what life would be like without the force. Even if he knew she manipulating his dreams, he wouldn't be able to stop her. It wasn't her own emotions she could control with an iron will, and dreams were something not even Micheal would be able to alter without a great deal of practice. Raw talent was nothing without the self-control to contain it.

Just to spite him, Aurora changed her eyes back to silver. And she still wouldn't tell him how it was done, now she knew he couldn't do it himself.

[Rogue 4]

Mel listened to the whole conversation...a little amused, but more than a little annoyed. Aurora was a good friend, so she had to be kind. But she had to admit that Aurora was being very unfair to Michael.

Yes, Aurora was older, but that didn't exactly mean she was wiser. For that matter, who's to say who's a wiser person? Wisdom, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. What is wise in one person's eyes, may not be wise in another. One of the many lessons she'd learned since that fateful day she was brought to the accadamy.

Why was Aurora acting like this? Melinda could find no logical explanation. She supposed it was for the sake of being defiant. Aurora had never really gotten attached with any of the Rangers, and she had made it a hobby to avoid Michael. Why? It was all so ridiculous.

It took every ounce of strength Mel had, and a calming technique, to keep her from doing something rash that would blow thier cover. The bickering always seemed to occur at some of the worst possible moments, and she knew, that eventually, the Rangers as a whole would suffer because of this.

Melinda knew that she always seemed calm, focused, and in control on the outside, but sometimes she just wanted to scream.

She glanced around, using a technique Dan had taught her so she could "See without being seen". A few people were giving them strange glances, and Mel chuckled inwardly as she realized why.

To everyone else, it appeared as if Aurora was talking to herself, and in truth, it appeared that way. Mel had to constantly reach out to figure out where he was, because she couldn't see him. They must all think Aurora's crazy...

"Guys." Mel said calmly, ending the conversation, or so she hoped. "Everyone thinks she's talking to herself. And, we'd rather remain inconspicuous, wouldn't we? So, let's not do anything that will gain attention, okay?" Mel half smiled.

[Master MJade 0]

KA'al stood. This wasn't going to good.

sith i can't get any info out of him

"Alright you will just have to wait to talk to one of the others."

"Go to hell!" said Cheet, the rodain.

Ka'al shook her head and turned to leave.

At that moment Cheet attacked. Ka'al spun around trying to kick him.

Cheet slammed something down on ka'al's head.

Ka'al reached out to the Force for about 6th time in her life.

AM'NI!!! RODAIN! TROUBLE! HELP!

THWACK!!!

KA'al slumped to the side like a rag doll.

[Andy 60]

The Rangers hurried back to the ship, and Ulic banged on the hull to be let in.

"Where's Ka'al?" he asked.

"She went with that Rodian." The crewman said.

"We think she's in danger" Kyp explained, as they pushed down the corridor.

"I don't think-" the crewman said.

"Outta my way!" said Am'ni, as she pushed past the others.

As they hurried down towards Ka'al, Zlars stopped Ulic.

"Wait." he said, "Rodian?"

"Yeah, we caught him trying to break into the ship" Ulic told him.

"There was a Rodian following me, I thought I'd lost him." Finis said. "I think he is working for Reeku."

"Great!" said Ulic, "He could have blown our whole operation!"

They heard blaster fire coming from down the hall, and looked at eachother. And ran to the cabin where the Rodian had been taken.

[Andy 60]

Am'ni was bent down tending to an unconsious Ka'al, while the Rodian lay on the floor with smoke rising from a large blaster wound in the chest.

"Yeah that's him alright" Zlars stated.

"Well, now we'll never know exactly what he was doing" Kyp said.

"Let's not worry about that just now" said Ulic, "we have more important work to do."

-------

Two hours later they had finished looking over the information from the datacards that Finis Zlars had brought.

"We'll need to get more details of where these materials are going" Ulic said

"I came across a rally point for the shipments, it's way out on the edge of the galaxy, near the Helska system." Finis told them. "Ther were two dead Victory-class Star Destroyers out there, so I attached the probe to one of them. It should be undetectable from the transports."

"Can you retrieve the data?" said Ka'al, who had come round about half an hour into the meeting.

"Sure, but I'd have to go and collect the probe."

"Can we go now?" Ulic asked, "We've done all we needed to do here"

"Yeah, my ship's in orbit, I'll have to get back to my shuttle" Finis said.

"Mind if I join you?" Ulic asked, "Can't risk having you run away on us now, could we?"

"I wouldn't run without my payment" Finis said dryly.

"Of course not." Ulic walked over to the safe and placed inside a small case of credits that Luke Skywalker had given him. "We'll pay you when we are satisfied."

"if you want to launch and wait by my ship, it's a modified Carrack Cruiser, Binary Sunset." he told the Rangers. "A little tribute to my home planet."

"I'll see you guys later" Ulic said, as he and Finis headed outside.

[Master MJade 0]

Ka'al woke up to bright lights and a sore head.

Shejumpt up and nearly fell down.

"Hey, careful." said Kyp.

"So...Did...What happened?"

"Am'ni got the Rodain."

"What about the Jedi?"

"What about them?"

"Nevermind."

"So where is everyone?"

"At a meeting."

"Well let's go!"

******

As she stepped into the meeting everyturned to look at her. Ka'al said before anyone could ask: "Don't worry. I'm fine. My head only hurts when i move it."

Everone laughed.

"So what are we talking about?"

*****

"You know i don't trust him." said am'ni coming up from behind Ka'al.

"niether do i. Thank you."

"for what?"

"For doing what you did. you acted like a Shadow Guard."

"high praise coming from you."

[MsSolo 1]

Aurora's head hurt. She'd found Mel's remonstrance for appearing to talk to herself somewhat amusing, as she spent most of her time alone holding in depth conversation and, more often, arguments with herself. She hadn't realised how much of her resentment she'd let show until she'd felt Mel's though.

Aurora forced her emotinal guards up another notch or so, until she felt practically Chiss. She felt so utterly divorced frm herself she was suddenly, achingly, lonely. Micheal shot her a startled look, and she guessed he'd reached out to gauge her reaction to Mel's words, and found almost nothing there. And it wasn't that she didn't care, and it wasn't that she was annoyed at what she perceived to be an intrusion, and it wasn't that she appreciated his concern. She couldn't even be worried about the lack of emotion. She recognised the danger she was in, in becoming so totally divorced to herself that she would reach the point where it would cease to occur to her to go back, and where the emotions would overwhelm her if she did. And she didn't care.

Aurora swallowed. She had to let the barriers drop a little. Logic agrued against it, but they were already dropping. She let anger, fear, pain, joy,everything back in. She let the resentment of Micheal swirl through her mind in green ribbons (Green? Isn't that jealousy? she caught herself, Huh, didn't see that one coming.). She let the pain of the loss of her people that continuously ached in her send concentric circles of black through her conciousness. She let her love of Steel grow little white blossoms in her head. She let the worries flash blue across her mind's eye.

Aurora became so caught up in the metaphorical representation of her emotional turmoil and the patterns it presented that she tripped over he own feet.

Or was it her own feet? Mel couldn't stop nad turn back, it would show her disguise up too clearly. Micheal clearly wanted to help, but that would havce been equally conspicious. Aurora rolled onto her back and sat up, staring in confusion at her boots.

"Since when were the laces tied together like that?" Aurora felt bewilderedment join the mess of emotions.

Mel tried to kill you once!

Aurora blink and climbed carefully to her feet. Since when has I been you?.

What if she did this? She didn't like the way I thought of her boyfriend. Perhaps she wants to humiliate me?

Aurora walked unsteadily after Mel. Her barriers had snapped back up after the first incongrous thought. Mike shot her a slightly odd look, but he couldn't sense the extent to which her confusion lay. He probably attributed it to the shoelaces. Aurora didn't give a damn who tied her shoelaces together. She wanted to know why she suddenly hated Mel. Perhaps she'd been repressing some deep feelings, unearthered by the sudden dropping of her barriers?

That doesn't sound right, she thought to herself, I mean, it was me who tried to kill her. Huh?

She is a jedi, though. And she's one of those keeping me away from the Angels. And she tried to kill you in return.

Aurora barely noticed the 'you' again, as her head had begun to hurt. Then, as suddenly as it had arrived, thepain in her head and the bizarre resentment towards the Rangers disappeared. She followed Mike and Mel meekly, and put her mind on other tracks.

When Micheal tried to ascertain her feelings a short while later, all he got was a blast of mental humming. It was a suprisingly catchy tune.

[Twi'lekgal 0]

The large crowd of the market place seemed like a hazy blob in today's fog. Terza pushed on foward. She stopped at a wonderful rich specimen, and giggled lightly to herself.She brought her arms behind her back, her deep blue skin as radient as her pale blue eyes. She was a young Twi'lek, abandoned here on Naboo. She tilted her head, her lekku moving with her gentle motion.

She examined the human before her. Occupied and busy argueing with the merchant. She tightened the purple strap holding up her lekku to keep them from draping past her neck. It was a hot enough day as it was. her hand reached out towards the human's pocket. The bag inside was silky and very expensive. She held it andlid it out without disturbing the arguing female human.

Terza smirked and ran off away before it could be traced to her. She stopped at a vendor who sat on the ground holding out these delicious looking juicy friuts. At that instant, Terza's stomach grumbled. She gve the furry vendor enough credits for a fruit. She ate it hungrily. He offered her another one for free. She bowed to him. "Thank you, sir" She took the fruit, and left for her haven, having found a day's meal.

She removed her jacket and laid it on the smooth flat rock inside the crumbling old house on the edge of the city of theed. She laid down hugging the cool fruit despite her unbearable hunger. She fell asleep the way she had been falling asleep for the past several years, trying to remember her family, her home, everything before HE came...

[E-wing 3]

Michael felt something........ He wasn't sure what but he felt it. It was almost like a shadow in the Force. The shadow pasted by him and Melinda with no problems but it seemed to linger on Aurora for a moment....... Then it was gone.

Michael tried to feel Aurora through the Force to make sure she was alright, but all he got was a blast of mental humming. At least it was a suprisingly catchy tune.

Then they were there. It was a pilots bar called Gungan Grotto. "This should be a good place to find a guide." said Melinda.

"You two do that. I'll go find us some transport." said Michael. "I have a feeling were going to be doing a bit of traveling while we are here." But before i go..... He leaned in and kissed Mel on the cheek. As he turned to leave his arm smacked into Aurora arm, the backs of there hands touching for a moment. Michael tensed for a minute as he waited for a doom vision, but then he remembered that he got one for her half a year ago. So he just smiled and keep walking.

***

"Is there a problem, Shadow?" asked Count Reeku.

"Yes and No." said Shadow.

"Please be more specific or I will have to kill you." said Count Reeku.

"When I killed of my people I happened to count the bodies and I found I was one short..... At the time I thought it was no big deal and that I just miss counted. But a few years ago I felt her." said Shadow.

"Her?" said Count Reeku.

"Yes, her." said Shadow "I've been keeping an eye on her ever since. You will not believe what she is doing now, or who she is with."

"Well, tell me." said Count Reeku. So Shadow did. "So she is still alive and she has a clue to who she is..... This maybe a problem."

"There may have also been another with them." said Shadow.

"May have been. What? Are you loseing your touch?" asked Count Reeku.

"At first I didn't feel anyone else but when I was in the girl's head.... It was like there was someone else with them. But to be able to sheild yourself from someone you didn't even know was there and keep your self open to those around you....... is well imposable as far as i know." said Shadow.

"Hmmm." said Reeku.

"Shall I go take care of them?" asked Shadow.

"No, I need you here. I have someone else who solved problems for me before you came. He is bounty Hunter, the best there is. I contact him. But You can continue with your mind games with this girl. Now come. We must address the mercenaries and give them there first test." said Reeku.

[Andy 60]

The two ships came out of hyperspace in the space lane that were used by Reeku's transports.

On board the Binary Sunset, Finis Zlars and Ulic Feyyat talked about the mission.

"So where did you say the probe was hidden?" said Ulic.

"See that dead Vic out there?" said Finis, gesturing out the viewport to the wreck of a Victory-class Star Destroyer, "It's attatched to the hull, I've been coming back every few months to download the data. I thought it would be better than transmitting it across the holonet, where anybody could decode it."

"Wise desision" Ulic agreed. "But have you ever had any trouble?"

"No, usually the only traffic coming through here is a couple of modular conveyeyors, with an escort made up of various uglies. They don't seem to take any notice of me."

"I see." said Ulic.

Finis reached over and flicked on the commboard.

"Alright, you lot wait here," he told the Rangers on the other ship, "We'll head out and retrieve the probe then we'll hyperjump into deep space about 10 parsecs away"

"Understood, Rangers standing by" came the reply.

"Come on," said Finis to Ulic, "We'll go out and get it with a smaller ship"

They walked down to the hanger that held just one ship. A Lambda-class shuttle sat there waiting for them.

"I didn't think Carrack Cruisers had a hanger" Ulic commented as the walked up the baording ramp.

"They don't" said Finis, "The hanger was one of the modifications I made"

"Ah" Ulic said, "That explains it then."

>I'm going to stop here for a bit, because there's a bit of a storm, and the lights keep dimming, so I don't particullay want to be doing this if there is going to be a powercut...<