SWRC: Hidden Pasts (Book 2)

Chapter 15 Reunion.

Hiccup was bursting with excitement as Neeran finished landing the Spectre on one of the outdoor landing platforms that surrounded the Jedi Temple. The second she landed, Hiccup had already opened the doors to the cargo hold and was already racing across the grounds of the Temple.

But something made him stop.

"Aren't you coming to, Master?" asked Hiccup, stopping when he realised that Neeran wasn't following him.
"Something tells me, that coming here myself was a mistake," said Neeran looking up at the tallest of the five pillars in the Temple and not bothering to correct Hiccup on not calling her 'Master'.
"But, I thought that you wanted to come back here?" asked Hiccup, standing up. "This is the home of all the Jedi after all, isn't it?"
Neeran simplied smirked as she replied, "It's most Jedi's home. I'm one of the few exceptions to that thought, remember?"
"Oh, right," replied Hiccup sheepishly.
"Go find your friends," said Neeran as she stepped off the ramp. "I'd like to meet them."

Hiccup smiled widely and nodded before running off into the Temple to try and find his closest friends in the whole galaxy. Neeran meanwhile, returned her gaze back up to the tallest tower in the Jedi Temple where she knew that members of the Jedi Council were watching her from high above.

"Maybe this will work out correctly though," mused Neeran walking towards the Temple enterance after her exuberant apprentice who'd already disappeared into the Temples interior.

<Shortly afterwards...>

It wasn't long before Neeran met the five friends that Hiccup had spoken so highly of in their travels during the past three years. One was the orange skinned and white marked Togruta girl Ashao-Tika, nicknamed Ashao, who Neeran knew was more than a 'friend' to Hiccup, another was a blue and rust skinned Twi'lek boy Januix, nicknamed Janu, a mixed green coloured Nautolan boy called Kit or Kit Sa for short as none of them could pronounce his full name of Kit Sa'runelko (being they were very young when they met each other for the first), a black and deep orange skinned Dathomirian Zabrak boy called Zanbique, who they all called Zan or Zanbi for short and was a extremely rare find in the Temple as Dathomirian Zabraks were rarely ever found to be Force-Sensitive and sparked Neeran curiosity, and finally a blue skinned and red eyed Chiss boy called En'urul, usually called En.
"Alright, let's see if I've got this," said Neeran, taking a deep inhalation. "Ashao-Tika, Januix, Kit Sa'runelko, Zanbique and En'urul. Am I right?"
Hiccup nodded enthusiasitcally and replied, "Yep."
"This is going to take a while," groaned Neeran, hanging her head. "Expect me to get your names wrong every now and then."
All of them seemed to shrug at Neeran admitting that she wouldn't remember all of their names.
"We'll probably get your name wrong as well, so no hard feelings?" asked Ashao-Tika, offering a look of apology.
"Accepted," replied Neeran, brightening up to the prospect that no one would remember whose name was whose until later.

Hiccup then began to talk with his friends about their adventures throughout the Clone Wars as they were now know as.
Neeran watched him with a smile on her face. She hadn't seen her own friends in an even longer time and knew that Hiccups' time with his friends was precious.

Something suddenly tipped her off that she was being watched.

Neeran turned around and caught sight of shadowy figure disappear behind a corridor.
"Hiccup," said Neeran sounding slightly cautious as she turned back to face him. "Perhaps you would like to talk to your friends on your own?"
Hiccup was confused by Neeran's sudden suggestion but couldn't deny that he was excited either.
"Where are you going then?"
"I need to speak to someone," replied Neeran. "I'll find you when I'm done."
And with that, Neeran left Hiccup alone with his friends and went to the one place she loved in the whole Temple: the Archives.

<In the Jedi Archives...>

"Long time no see, Neeran," said a voice behind Neeran.
"Jocasta," replied Neeran, placing her fist in her palm and bowing deeply to Jocasta the Librarian. "It's been far too long."
"Do you have a new update for the Archive?" asked Jocasta, waving a hand at the rows and rows of glowing blue data disks stored in the Archive.
"I might," replied Neeran. "I just need to know, do you have any information on the planet of Lothal?"
A look of deep thought crossed Jocastas' face as she stroked her chin and and gazed off into the depths on the Archives as if trying to remember some long forgotten detail.
"I do not recall a planet known as Lothal," said Jocasta slowly.
"I'll check the Archives," said Neeran, activating one of the monitors that was connected to the entire Archival system and entered in the planet search 'Lothal'.
A moment later, the screen flashed up the data on the planet Lothal. Neeran scanned the document over and then said, "A lot of this stuff is out of date. Theta, can you upload the new data we have?"
"On it," said Theta as he entered the monitor and began updating the data.
"Thank you Neeran," said Jocasta, "This will prove useful in the future."
"There's another thing," started Neeran as Theta came back and Jocasta began to move away. "One of my Padawans' friends. He's a Dathomirian Zabrak called Zanbique, but they call him Zan or Zanbi. How did he come to be here?"
"I believe that information is stored on their Jedi files," replied Jocasta as she then moved off to help another with Archive research.
Neeran returned her gaze back to the Archival Monitor and entered in the names of Hiccups' five friends and bought up all five of their files for viewing.
Neeran was interested by the information that came up about each of them and decided to also pull up Hiccups' again. His information matched his friends in surprising way, though Neeran felt that something was amiss with all six of them.
"Theta," started Neeran. "Can you store this on your hard drive for later viewing?"
"Okay," replied Theta as Neeran placed her hand on the monitor and saw a small flash of light before Theta entered the system to copy the six files.
Neeran was snapped out of her concentration as Theta returned to the A.I chip and by a simple question.

"Who is she?"

Neeran blinked several times as whoever had said it was being shushed by their friend, fearing that they'd be heard.
Neeran stole a backwards glance at the two talking and saw that they were just Younglings, and she guessed that they'd never read anything about her in the Archives.

Neeran then noticed several more scared looking Younglings, and even a couple of young Padawan Learners and a Knight or two, give her a wide berth as they scoured the Archives for information to help with their Jedi studies.

She sighed as she watched them, knowing exactly why they avoided her.
Slamming her hands down on the desk, Neeran stalked past the scared children, teenagers and young adults and left the Archives, saying goodbye to Jocasta before leaving.

Neeran continued down the corridors of the Temple, unsure of where she was heading until she emerged on the roof of the Temple and took in the bustling city-planet that was Coruscant.
Neerans' head buzzed with the many sounds of airships, speeders and spaceships flying overhead and had to retreat back into the Temple shortly afterwards.

Neeran continued to stalk through the corridors of the Temple, until a long forgotten but welcomed voice broke through her mindset and caused her to look at them.

"Anika?"