BALANCE | A Star Wars story

XXXIX

Arden decides he will stay on the Libertas over the next two weeks. I sneak out to visit him every night but I'm too occupied with my team during the day to visit him.

      I have been given a small number of apprentices and a few guards that I will supposedly lead into battle. We have been tasked on heading to the Jedi archives and completely destroying it so that nothing remains.

      There is only a small number of us, eleven in total if I count myself. There are four guards, six apprentices and me. We have very quickly become close and from what the force is telling me I don't believe they share the same viewpoints as my parents.

      Five days after I arrived on Iokath with my parents I decide I can confide my squad. I take them on a 'trip' to the Libertas, the only place I can be sure isn't bugged (I've checked extensively). Thankfully there aren't as many cameras as Arden originally made there out to be but there are enough to make me wary. However Mazal has been stationed in the security office so he has been able to help hide the Libertas from prying cameras and help hide me when I visit Arden.

       Still that's not enough to make me comfortable when we pass a camera so whenever we pass one, I wave my hand to change the footage being seen to one where no one is onscreen. It still doesn't make me feel completely safe but it's the best we can do.

       I lead the way with my second in command, Awolia, she is a Sith guard and I've already told her everything. She made sure that the rest of the squads view aligned with ours before I decided to tell them. The only reason I've decided to confide in my squad is because I know that Arden, Mazal and I cannot pull this thing off by ourselves, we're gonna need some help and I trust my squad.

       We reach the Libertas by going down all the back routes to avoid people, I can sense the confusion emitting from my squad and it is heightened when I ask them to board the ship.

        "We're leaving Iokath?" Nakash, a female Togruta, asks in confusion.

        "No, I just want to introduce you all to someone and have a chat." I say and I sense some disappointment in the force at my words. "I'll explain everything onboard, I promise." They trudge onboard silently, tension hangs thickly in the air.    Onboard the ship they stand awkwardly around the hatch and I smile slightly and gesture them to follow me.

        "Arden?" I call out and I lead the group into the Libertas.

       "One sec!" His voice answers from the 'fresher.

       "Take a seat," I say to my squad once we reach the Passenger Lounge, we manage to fit but it's a little cramped. Whilst they sit on the seats I hover by the door, they all look at me expectedly and I itch to tell them but I don't want to start without Arden.

        "Okay so—" I begin when I sense Arden behind me and turn around. When my eyes land on him a breath catches in my throat and heat rushes to my cheeks as I try to control myself. He is stood there in a tight fitting black t-shirt and matching trousers that are pretty much just leggings. His hair is still wet and curled from his shower, and a few strands drip down in front of his eyes cutting across his sharp crystal eyes.

His eyes flick up to meet my gaze and he turns his head questionably, I snap out of my daze and hastily turn back to face my squad. Awolia catches my eye and smirks at me knowingly, I shake my head in response to her questioning gaze.

"Squad, this is Arden," he does a mini bow when I mention him which brings a small smile to my face. "This is his ship and I've got something I need to tell you all." I hesitate for a second, is this really the right thing to do? What if they leak our plans? What if they don't agree? What if—

"Go on," Arden whispers behind me, I turn to look at him and he offers a small smile and his eyes gleam with an emotion I can't quite place... pride? I take a deep breath and turn back to face my squad where they wait patiently.

"I've brought you all here because you should know by now I'm nothing like my parents and I don't want to be, I don't believe what they are doing is right and I have decided to confide in you all about my plans to stop them." I wait with baited breath as they digest my words, slowly one by one they break out into smiles.

"Your really gonna stop them?" A young female Twi'lek asks excitedly, her name is Teeubo and she is only fifteen.

          "Well I'm going to try my very best, but I'll need your help." I say my eyes sweeping over the group, the two male guards; Jidâs and Raryaim talk in whispers but I can feel their excitement and their nervous in the force. The entire room appears to be bussing with a restless activity as they all speculate about the idea of helping me. Before anyone opens their mouth I know they will agree, they want this as much as I do, maybe more.

           "Of course we'll help," Xokra, a male Zabrak says, his eyes alight with eagerness and anticipation.

           "What's the plan?" Nakash, the Togruta asks, the rest of them join in asking about the plan. I glance over to Awolia who just smirks at me, her smug face telling me that she knew this would work out. Then I look over to Arden who has moved to my left, he gives me a large grin that makes his eyes shine with happiness. Standing here I haven't felt this happy, content and eager for the future in a long time.

           "So the plan—"

-Authors Note-
This was a really difficult chapter for me to right for some reason.
I restarted a lot trying to get this to go in the direction I wanted it to go in.
But yeah the finish line is in sight but I have no idea how many chapters it's gonna take me to get there.