Star Wars: Saviors of the Broken

Chapter VII

"There is a good reason why we forbid Jedi from marriage. When we love someone, we fear to lose them. Fear leads to anger, hatred, corruption, and ultimately, darkness. As long as Jedi do not become attached to anyone or anything, they can rest assured that they will never fall to the dark side." - Verrack, from Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters

"Patrick!" Pete suddenly shouted. "Run!"

Patrick turned away from the man in the dark armor and sprinted toward the escape pod, but he ignited his blue-green lightsaber anyways, just in case he had to fight. He gasped for air, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he and Pete ran for their lives. Eventually, they made it to the ship, and Pete frantically tried to open the door. At first, it wouldn't budge.

"Patrick, do something!" Pete exclaimed.

Patrick took a deep breath and let the Force flow through him. Then, he reached his hand toward the door, and all of a sudden, it swung open. Pete smiled, and both of them climbed inside before the man in the dark armor caught up with them.

"Holy smokes, that was close," Patrick said as he turned off his lightsaber and took control of the ship.

"Yeah," Pete said, trying to catch his breath. "Where are we going now?"

"I don't know," Patrick said as he pushed a few buttons on the control panel. The escape pod slowly began to rise, but Pete glanced nervously at the Star Destroyer.

"Can't we use the hyperdrive?" he said.

"Not while we're still in the atmosphere," Patrick replied. "Just be patient, okay?"

While Patrick steered the ship upward, Pete reapplied his eyeliner. Patrick rolled his eyes, but he didn't say anything. He had to pay attention to what was going on around him if he wanted to make it out of here alive.

Once Patrick was far enough away from Alsakan, he turned back to Pete. "Do you even realize how ridiculous you look right now?" he asked.

Pete smiled. "Admit it," he said. "The makeup looks amazing."

"I wouldn't say that..."

"You know, makeup is great for a guy. Because it makes a guy look..."

"Pete, will you focus?" Patrick said. "We need to decide where we're going."

"Anywhere where that guy with the helmet won't find us sounds great, Trick," Pete said. He pulled out his copy of Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters and started flipping through it, much to Patrick's chagrin.

Patrick sighed and said, "Put the book down. How about Devaron? I've always wanted to go there."

"Why Devaron?" Pete said. "That's such a boring planet."

"Boring planets are safe planets," Patrick said.

"Yeah, whatever," Pete said.

"Give me a pen," Patrick said. Pete groaned, but he handed him one anyways. Then, Patrick leaned over and wrote in the margins of Pete's book, "BORING PLANETS ARE SAFE PLANETS."

Pete sighed. "Seriously, Patrick?" he said. "You just ruined my book."

"No, I didn't," Patrick said. "You already wrote all over it."

It was true. Pete's copy of Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters was covered in marginalia. Most of Pete's annotations didn't even make sense. He'd written things like "Before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger," "Am I more than you bargained for yet?" and "Pat and I in the wake of Saturday."