Fall of the Jedi

Chapter 11

*Author's note: Hello! Sorry it took so long to post this chapter, I've been dealing with some personal stuff so my attentions have been elsewhere. Chapter 12 might take a couple weeks to be posted but hopefully not too long! Thanks for your understanding and patience!*

Traveling with two incompassitated men through the thick forest was proving more challenging than first anticipated, Kal and Jango had fashioned a pair of stretchers out of wood and rolled Jense and Pao'l onto them. Kal and Jango carried Jense while Mij and Khane carried Pao'l. Kira followed alongside Jango at Jense's head and kept a careful watch over him while Wad'e took the lead keeping his eyes open for any potential threats. With how easily they've been jumped in the last few days, everyone was on edge and were hypersensitive to any sounds or movement from the forest.

Jense was still completely out but his breathing was normal and his other vitals, from what Kira could tell, were normal. She could still sense some of the Force within him, though it was weak and wondered just how much was taken during each session the Taavarians did on their victims.

She felt a similar strength in the Force in Khane but what worried her was that she couldn't sense anything of the Force in Pao'l. She might not have ever known him previously, but she knew he was a Jedi Master, she couldn't help but wonder what would happen to him when they returned to the Jedi temple. She couldn't imagine the Jedi kicking him out but at the same time she couldn't see how he could be a part of the Jedi Order if he no longer had a connection to the Force. Perhaps, Grand Master Yoda would know something that could restore the Force within a person but if she was being honest with herself, she doubted it could have even been a thing.

She looked back at Jense; his helmet laid on his stomach. His face exposed to the fresh air, allowing him to breathe it in instead of through the filtration of the mandalorian helmet. His chest slowly rose and fell with each breath. All she could think about was the vision she had before she and Mace arrived on Tooma. The image of a Jedi and the silhouette of a man in armor, which she now recognized as Mandalorian armor, was burned into the back of her eyelids. She hoped that her impulsive decision to seek out the Mandalorians wouldn't end in disaster and that her vision was telling her to stay away for their sake.

Kira may not have exactly liked Jango Fett very much but whether she admitted it or not, she was completely committed to the mandalorians now that she had seen Jense Kenvor's face. He may have been younger than she imagined but now that she was just feet from him, she knew, without a doubt, that he was her father. She found herself not wanting to return to Coruscant at all, she wanted to stay with Jense.

She had tried to ignore it when she first saw him in the cave but now that she was relatively safe, she couldn't stop herself from becoming immediately attached to him. She never realized before how desperate she was for a family. She still had no idea how to juggle both the Jedi and the Mandalorians, but she figured as soon as Jense woke up, she would find out.

She still had to speak to him, and he had seemed to think she was someone else in the few moments he was awake. She hoped he wouldn't be too freaked out when he finds his long-lost daughter had shown up out of nowhere and even worse that she was a Jedi apprentice.

Dar'manda, Jango had told her that she had lost her Mandalorian soul and now she feared what that truly meant. She didn't know how to be a Mandalorian, she only knew how to be a Jedi and both sides had a long history of being enemies. What did that mean for her? She didn't know and that's what worried her. She didn't want to necessarily give up the Jedi- or more importantly Mace but she couldn't see how she could possibly be both.

Kira also wondered who exactly Jense thought she was. A woman named Lenore, that was obvious, but who exactly was she? She had an idea of who it might have been, but she didn't want to assume. She had every intention of asking Kal but that was a conversation she could wait to have on the trip back to Mandalore. Assuming the opportunity came up to ask him.