Star Wars: Pathways

by X12

2: An Explosive Arrival

Author's Note:

After carefully consideration and lots of things changing within the lore and Star Wars itself, I've decided that this story will also being using non-canon content (within reason). At first my aim was to keep it close to canon as possible within the Expanded Universe as I do with all crossovers I write, but with the announcement that EU no longer being canon (which personally I refuse to accept, I don't care what Disney says), and so many things to keep track of in the EU, I'm just going to let the gloves off and just go with what I know.

With that note out of the way I hope you enjoy the story.

Hyperspace

Jump Route - Corellian Run - Destination: Coruscant

Finally, the trip was almost over. Just a few more minutes until they finished the jump back to Coruscant. For Sousis, the couldn't get there any sooner. She cradled the small sleeping colt in her claws the whole duration of the jump, feeling nothing but guilt and discontent with herself and her recent actions. Sousis did little to nothing to hide her emotions, even a non-force user could feel something was wrong with her, Master Yoda finally popped the question.

"I sense conflict within you young master, what troubles you?"

Sousis continued to cradle Etude to give him a mother's comfort, she didn't bother looking back up at Yoda when she gave him an answer. "Master... I wish to resign from the Acquisition Division... I can't bring myself to do that again."

Yoda knew this was her issue, but her wanted her to admit it herself to help her let go of her feelings by talking them out. "Understand I do. Cannot handle such a task, many cannot."

"Well from what I've learned Master, that's an understatement. I know for a fact things could have gone much worse if I didn't change their minds quick... but its not only that. When we left, I felt their pain. Not just from the king and queen.... the guards as well. Just thinking about makes me want to..." Nothing else uttered from her maw, she knew it best not to finish that sentence.

"Know the feeling I do, Master Stormjumper. Allow you to resign from your assignment I will."

That was more than a relief to hear. She never knew being part of the Acquisition Division was this hard. She wanted something new to do ever since her promotion to Master. She heard from other Jedi that its one of the hardest jobs in the whole Order, but she thought they meant physically, not mentally. Only those who have complete control over their emotions were capable of these types of recruiting tasks. Sousis did have a good grasp of her emotions being the master she is, but being young as she was, she still somewhat lacked full maturity and experience to fully grip her feelings. With her being seventy-nine, she still had some years left before she actually matured into a grown adult. With her being the first of her kind to have known being a Jedi, not even the council knew what to expect after seeing her the way she was for decades and age as slowly as she did. One of the only other Jedi in the order knew that aged like she did was Master Yoda himself.

"We'll being coming out of hyperspace in twenty seconds Master Jedi." The pilot alerted them.

The dragon cringed on the inside when he announced their time of arrival. For some reason she disliked the idea of letting go of this pony, there was something about Etude she couldn't put her talon on. In one way or another she felt some sort of connection to him. She knew this boy will have a bright future, but what that future was was still a mystery, but she knew she wanted to find out one day.

Twenty seconds later the shuttle came out of hyperspace to be greeted by the glorious sight of the capital of the of the Republic, Coruscant.

---

Coruscant
Jedi Temple Docking Complex

The shuttle was on a direct course to the Jedi Temple, passing by all the crowded air traffic. The pilot sent the landing codes to the Temple before they were granted access to land at the Docking Complex. With a smooth landing the shuttle hatch opened with the Jedi Master's and the exiting the craft with Etude still in Sousis' arms. They were meet by a human Jedi female who appeared to be in her seventies. "Greetings Master Jedi. Is this Etude Encore?"

Sousis unwrapped the colt out of his little blanket to reveal him to her. "This is him. I'm hoping you'll take good care of him?" She asked with obvious concern in her voice.

Etude felt his blanket removed from him which caused him to stir and whine. The women took the colt in her grasp. "Do not fear, he's a good hands."

Unknown to them or anyone else in the hangar, there was a small noise of beeping coming from the shuttle next to the one that just arrived. The beeping was practically soundless until its audio started getting louder by the second.

"Wait... do you hear that?" Sousis alarmed them, looking around to see where the sound was coming from.

By the time anyone notice it was far too late, the source of the beeping created a deadly firework that blew the nearby shuttle to shreds, blasting everyone forty feet in the blast radius and gravely injuring just barely beyond that. Sousis and the other nearby Jedi we just lucky enough to not be in effective blast radius.

The ringing in the dragon's ear flooded her hearing along with the blurry vision from the explosion, all she could make out was a barely audible squealing cry with rapid footsteps following the source of the cry along with a humanoid figure that she could barely recognize. Sousis couldn't effectively react to anything until her vision and hearing cleared up a few moments later.

Master Yoda was still on the ground from the blast and the elder Jedi human looking around the hanger with a look of grave distress. Sousis first went over to tend to Yoda, helping him up to his feet.

"Master Yoda, are you alright?"

He gave out a few choking coughs from the smoke of the explosion before answering, "Worry about me you should not, the youngling you must pursue."

"Pursue? Wait..." She looked back at the elder Jedi who was still looking around the hanger like as if she.... lost a child. "Oh no..."

Before she could begin her search Master Yoda tugged at her clothing with another cough. "A disturbance I sense in the Force... be on your guard you should." With a nod in agreement Sousis rushed off on her four legs to search for Etude. Frantically asking person to person in the hanger who wasn't injured, none of them knew where the lost youngling went off to. She complete skid in her tracks when she felt something in the Force call out to her. She heard a foal's cry, but it was getting further and further away, but she could sense the direction the cries came from. Somehow, some way, the foal was no longer in the temple. Sousis unfurled her wings and took off into the city, following the source of the inner cry in her head.

She had difficulty concentrating where Etude could be when all the traffic and buildings were in her way. Luckily she picked up on it again, sensing she was below her somewhere. She dove straight down near a sector with plenty of shuttle platforms where she swore she felt him. The dragon landed on a vacant shuttle platform with no one appearing to be on it. Though she knew that wasn't the case, she slowly investigated the platform knowing full well she could feel Etude's presence. There was someone else with him, she could sense dark intentions from them. Once she was guided to Etude's location she pretended not to know where they were and casually walked by the edge of the platform. As soon as she felt fear from the kidnapper she flipped off the platform and hovered in the air right under it, revealing the kidnapper to be some kind of masked red skinned humanoid in a ragged bounty hunter garb who was hanging by a grappling cable in one hand and holding onto Etude in the other by the nap of his neck.

"Found you!" Before the bounty hunter could react she swiftly used the Force to undo the cable, dropping the hunter and the foal. With another push of the Force Etude was pushed right out of the kidnapper's hands, plummeting straight to the city with a squalling panicing cry. The hunter activated his jet thrusters on his boots to save himself from falling. Seeing his target fall he immediately dove to try and catch the pony. However the hunter's thrusters were no match for the speed of a dragon. Sousis zipped past the hunter at full speed and wings splayed out. She quickly caught the boy and held him close. "There you are."

In a vain attempt to get the child back the hunter brandished a DL-18 blaster pistol and started firing at the Jedi Master. Worrying for the youngling's safety she turned and flew back up to the platform away from the hunter to keep Etude from any further harm. Knowing that damaging the child could mean a failed job either way the bounty hunter didn't pursue, instead opting to give up for now and flew down to the city streets. Relieved that the chase was over she looked down at Etude to check if he was harmed. Aside from the fearful crying, he seemed to be as good as he was before the incident. With a huge sigh of relief and caring hug for the boy she flew back to the Jedi Temple.

---

Coruscant
Jedi Temple

After such a stressful day, well, stressful for Etude, things had a chance to go back to normal now. Master Stormjumper proudly brought him back to the temple safe and sound without a scratch. The Jedi that greeted her and Master Yoda waited in the nursery where an incubator was ready for the young foal in Sousis' possession, sound asleep on her back.

The Jedi approached her with hand over her heart in relief. "Ah, Master Stormjumper! I'm reveled you found the youngling safe and sound."

Sousis in turn replied with chuckle and a tiring sigh. "If by sound you mean constant crying, then you're right."

With no surprise from anyone, Master Yoda found his way to the nursery as well to see the return of the youngling. He approached Sousis from behind, using the Force with ease to levitate Etude into his hands. "Glad we are of his return. Have you to thank for, Master Stormjumper."

Sousis turned to give a slight bow to the Grandmaster before she raised with a straight look on her face. "Master, I need a moment to speak with you if you don't mind."

"Of course." With more use from the Force he guided the baby through the air into the caretaker's arms. "Now in your hands, his care is."

"I won't let you down Master." With vigor to do the best she can with the youngling she gently placed him in the ready incubator. The incubator's transparent hatch closed, sealing the foal inside while pumping in filtered air.

Meanwhile, Sousis and Yoda took their leave from the room and proceed to walk through the halls of the temple with Sousis matching Yoda's pace. "You were right Master. Something is afoot. The timing was all too perfect, I believe someone infiltrated the temple somehow, planing all of this just to kidnap Etude. I caught up to the kidnapper, he seemed well equipped and ready for something like this, though it seemed he wasn't expect a Jedi to literally fly after him. I couldn't get a good look at him though, he was wearing a full mask so I couldn't really get a hold of his identity. The only distinguishable feature I can really note about him is his red skin. My first guess is he's a Zeltron, but that's only an educated guess."

Yoda stopped his slow pace all together, prompting Sousis to do the same. Yoda looked at the floor with a low grunt. "Troubling this is... more clues did you gather?"

"I'm afraid not Master. I put the youngling's safety a priority over the kidnapper. He quickly gave up chase when I got Etude back. It seemed as though he didn't want to harm him, which I can rule out her wasn't out to kill him, other wise he would have already done the job."

Yoda turned his head towards the large windows and closed his eyes in concentration. "What could one want with this specific youngling?"

The question made her stop to actually think about it thoroughly. This was now less of a coincidence than she originally thought. It was all too planned out. If the kidnapper really wanted a youngling that badly and were able to infiltrate the temple, surely they could have managed to sneak into the nursery and snag a youngling for themselves. Then a bad thought crossed her mind that she wished she never thought of in the first place, but she couldn't help to linger on it. "Master... you don't think..."

"No." The Elder Master immediately disclaimed before hearing her out. "Doubt his majesty has deep connections such as this I do. If indeed planned this was, much more time needed to infiltrate Jedi temple."

Well he did have a point. There's no way Shining Armor could have made connections to the underground so quickly from his world. Even if he did Yoda's point still stands, breaching the temple would take much more time and effort on the kidnapper's part. If this was all true, that only meant one thing left. "Master, if you're right, then I fear this was an inside job. The kidnapper had know we were retrieving Etude long before our departure. I only hope the king has no part in this."

With a thud of his cane Yoda started walking again. "Done your part you have. A break you deserve, perhaps meditation you need. Begin investigation we will, need not to worry you should. Go, much to do there will be." With a slight nod and another grunt, Yoda proceeded through the temple by himself.

"Of course Master." She answered before he was out of earshot. She turned back down the hall to return to the nursery again where the foster caretaker was doing scans and other test on the sleeping foal with a datapad. "How is he?"

The caretaker ignored her for minute as she continued to run test on the foal before finally deciding to respond. "I'm intrigued, I've never encountered his species before."

Sousis stepped to the caretaker's side to see just exactly what she was doing. "Mythian Pegasus." She kindly aided her.

"Oh of course... how could I forget. You must forgive me, I sometimes forget we have new additions to the Republic. There's only been one other Mythian youngling who has entered these halls. I'm sure Etude will be good friends with him."

This interested Sousis, she wasn't aware another Mythian came before Etude. She wondered if he was another pony. Maybe a gryphon or diamond dog. Either way it would be a sight to see how they might interact. Now that made two... no, four Mythians to enter the order. "When do you think he'll be ready?"

The caretaker looked away from the datapad for second to answer Sousis' questions, seeing as she needed more information on Etude anyways. "We'll that depends. Can he walk?"

"Well... he has a ways to go but he's getting there."

Once more the caretaker went to work on her datapad, putting in information as she spoke. "I don't have much information on him from the databanks so I would greatly appreciate your assistance. Would you mind helping me make sure i get all of this correct?"

"I'll be glad to." The dragon smiled.

"Good. Now then, age?"

"Two standard years old."

"Okay. Gender?" Sousis stared at the caretaker for a second before she just crossed her arms and stared with annoyance. "Dear, I know it may sound like a dumb question, but I've been doing this for years now. With all the different species that enter these halls, you can never be too sure."

Sousis thought about it before she realized she made a good point, sometimes some aliens got sensitive when others got their gender wrong, seeing as how Etude is one of, if not, the only pony to ever be taken into the temple, it was an honest question to ask. "Male."

"Very good. I'll be able to take it from here dear." Sousis did feel a bit awkward from being called "Dear" when she was older than this women, but looks can be deceiving she supposed. "Thank you so much for your assistance, and think you for bringing us another potential member."

With not much left else to say she respectfully bowed to the other Master and glanced over at Etude one last time. With her mission done and the youngling in the hands of the order she left the room with Etude to be taken care of. She considered Yoda's advice and returned to her room within the temple. She closed all the windows and turned off all the lights while turning up the heat to a high temperature, or high by at least human standards. She knelled down on both knees to take a meditation position. Completely relaxed and in her element she lost herself in the Force and began meditating. For the next nine hours or so hours in meditation her thoughts were focused on Etude, trying to see if she could foresee his future.

One thing she did foresee in the future was that things were going to be interesting in the future, this was something to look forward to.

Comments

[doorcf]

Wow, You're finally BACK!

[HB_DS2013]

Shining Armor having a connection to the Coruscant underworld? Nah. That's just against his character.