Chapter 2

Today...

Three days had passed since Monty’s gruesome retirement, and the Academy was beginning to settle down. Monty promised to hang around a little bit on IRC and the message boards, but he wouldn’t be coming back to the server again. His only answer to the inevitable “why” question was: “ I gotta take care of some RL issues. Bug off..”

There was a nice post left on the news page, DJ chiseled a new name on the Hall of Fame Wall, and that was that. Life moved on, no matter how hard some wanted it to stay the same. At least, for most it did. Not for Hardwired. So far he had successfully kept his promise to himself not to sleep a wink since that day, and as such was finding it hard to keep his patience during his current Padawan session. Today he was conducting the lesson in the Great Hall, next to Vladarion’s garden. Ever since the episode earlier that week, he had been feeling drawn to the area. For him, it was his only safe haven from a world that was constantly moving on.


The first class had gone surprisingly well. Carda, Cossyc and Moridin seemed to get along well as padawan brothers, although they were all rough around the edges. It would take some time to file that away- but then, wasn’t that what masters were for? They all had something to offer to each other...but something was holding Moridin back. Even though he had only spent a few days with him, Hardwired knew that he had the potential to be a great duelist, but some mental block prevented it. He would just have to watch him, and see what hindered the young Jedi.

Usually, the Hall was a cacophony of sound from the various students and knights milling about, but the server had been eerily empty today, so he had moved the lesson here. Hardwired liked the change in atmosphere from the matrix rooms. Plus, the huge size of the room amplified his voice from shouting to megaphone.

“No, no, NO! Carda! What are you doing? I said swing to the right! No, your other right! This isn’t brain surgery, you know.”

Carda grimaced, and set himself up again for the exercise at hand. He gave a haggard look over to his training partner, Moridin. Moridin drew his lightsaber for what seemed the hundredth time (it probably was), and winked.

“Come on, Carda, let’s do this again. Boy, do I love this exercise.”

Hardwired was not amused. “Well I’m glad you enjoy it so much, because it’s what you’re going to be doing for the next hour. Now get to it!”

Moridin sighed and then positioned himself. He swung twice to the right, standing perfectly still, and waited for Carda to make the counter blow. If he did it correctly, Carda would come in and hit him in between swings, with enough time to escape before the second hit came. His orange saber swung in a wide arc, and just as he reached the middle of his body, Jowol zipped in with a quick right red strike. Moridin winced as the saber bit into his left shoulder, but the pain was soon gone. Now the second string of his combo whipped his saber again to the right, and Carda attempted to evade it, but he wasn’t quick enough. He saw the approaching saber and tried to duck under it, but instead just presented his head as a larger target. It rolled all the way to Hardwired’s feet.

Hardwired ran his hands through his hair in frustration, but didn’t yell this time. “Again. Do it again, Carda. By the end of this session, you will have conquered this exercise. And wipe that smile off your face, Moridin. You’re next.” He looked at his watch and sighed. This was going to be a long day. Carda couldn’t tell his left from his right, and Moridin had been...inconsistent. Something had shot his focus to pieces, and it needed to be taken care of. Xizzen- now Xizzen was coming along nicely. He might even make knight soon, if he kept progressing the way he was these past few weeks. Of course, he had been a padawan of his for longer than the others... In fact, he should begin talking to him about how the knight trials worked...Anyway, he could think about that later. There were padawans who needed him to ride their butts right now, not later. Before he could verbally abuse them again, though, the loudspeakers boomed overhead.

“HARDWIRED, PLEASE COME TO THE JAK+ ROOM IMMEDIATELY.... OH, AND BRING ME SOME COFFEE WHILE YOU’RE AT IT. MAKE IT HOT, NOW!”

The young knight sighed again. It seemed like he had been sighing a lot more as of late. He gave a sharp glance to the now smirking padawans. “Keep working on that exercise. Switch off every three times, and I’ll check your progress when I come back.” He began to walk towards Mune’s bar, to get whichever Council member’s damn coffee, and then a crackle of bright green light enveloped him. A small smile crept across his face as he appeared inside the bar. That teleport probably scared them back into line, alright. Sometimes they needed to be reminded who the master was around here.

Then again...so did he.

***********************

“Ok....I think he’s gone. Let’s go.” Moridin’s tall figure peered around the entrance of the bar, checking for signs of his master.

“Of course he’s gone, you n00b, we both
have force sight. We can look through walls. You know, the whole Jedi thing? Besides, I don’t wanna go in.”

Moridin blushed slightly at the joke, but he wasn’t about to tell his padawan brother that his force powers had been on the fritz lately. He could barely manage anything past the Jump ability, and he felt that growing weaker as well. It was a problem he should talk to someone about, but it was just so embarrassing. What’s a Jedi without the Force? Not a Jedi, that was for certain. Besides, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t figure out on his own. Who needed an old spiny-ass like Hardwired to tell him what to do? A wide smile crossed his face as he remembered the coffee order. HW tried to act so tough, but he was still a coffee boy to the real higher-ups.

He rolled his eyes at Carda. “What, afraid of the great Hardwired’s wrath?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I am!”

“Well, do you want to do this interminable exercise one more freaking time?”

“Um...well, no.” Carda’s shoulder’s slumped a bit. “My arms are tired. And I’m tired of dying. And I’m thirsty.”

“Come on then! Let’s have a drink, and then get back to work. I’m sure he won’t be back anytime soon anyway. Those Council guys are so full of hot wind that I’m surprised they don’t float away.”

Now it was Carda’s turn to roll his eyes. “Ha ha. Did your mom tell you that one?” But poor jokes aside, he smiled and followed after his brother. After all, it was only one drink.

Moridin threw his arm around his friend’s shoulders, a large smile across his face. They both walked over to the bar, which was at the moment without a tender. Moridin hopped over the counter and looked at the varied bottles lining the wall. “So, bro, what’ll it be?”

“Whisky”

“Whisky? What is this, a John Wayne movie? I thought we were in the middle of a Star Wars universe.”

“Yeah, but the writer doesn’t know what kind of alcohol they serve on Tatooine, or any other alien planet, for that matter.”

“The who?”

“Never mind, just give me a glass of whiskey.”

“Fine, whatever.” Moridin poured out a glass of whiskey, and then some kind of Star Wars drink for himself. It probably had some kind of name like: “Bothan Firewater”, or something. He sat next to his friend and drank whatever he had poured for himself slowly. They began talking about unimportant things, both of them trying to make the one drink last. He was even thinking about having another when a shadow fell across their backs.

They didn’t notice the dark presence until it was too late.

*********************

Hardwired appeared in the JAK+ room with a crackle of green energy. He had jumped into the fountain room, but no one was there. Before moving on into the padawan training room, he stopped to admire the room for a moment. This area was one of the reasons he loved being a knight. When too many people were on the server, too many even to enjoy the Garden, he could always come here to relax.. The light trickling of the water reminded him of the Garden’s waterfall, and he smiled inwardly. Virtue and Faded had made this map very well.

He was about sit down when he remembered the damn coffee, and his unknown caller. He used Sight and saw that a lone being was standing in the padawan training room. He moved into it, and saw that whoever it was had his back to him. Hardwired coughed slightly and said, “Um... Sir? I brought you your coffee.”

That was when Virtue turned around, smiling ear to ear. “Why thank you, mate. I was wondering when you would show up. The coffee’s not cold, now is it?” His British friend gave him a large wink, and took the cup and sipped it cautiously. “Ah, not too hot, but not cold either. Bravo.” Hardwired could tell he was halfheartedly trying not to laugh.

“You ass. Why’d you have to go and do a thing like that. I was in the middle of a pad session. Now I have to go back and retrieve what time I’ve lost. As if I didn’t have any other things to do than to be the butt of your jokes!” The frustrated knight began to type in the coordinates for the Great Hall, but Virtue stopped him.

“No, wait Hardwired. I just did the coffee thing as a joke, but we really were summoned. One of the Council members wants to talk to us about something important.”

“Indeed, I do.” A mechanical voice buzzed from behind them.

Both of the knights looked with surprise at a lanky Trade Federation Droid standing awkwardly in front of the door. They hadn’t heard it come it, which seemed impossible due to it’s clanky appearance. Hardwired looked a little closer at the droid, and read the i.d. plate that all JA members were required to wear. “Doobie? Why are you in that ridiculous skin?”

Massa shrugged (well, attempted to shrug), “I dunno, change of pace. Besides, I think it’s rockin’. Roger Roger. Except for that. I keep on saying it without- Roger- meaning to. Dang it, there it is again.”

Virtue looked over at Hardwired and gave him a “whatever” glance, then his eyes went back to Massadoobie, their leader. Their...really, really weird leader. “So...what did you need, Doobie? What’s the matter?”

“Well boys, I’ll show you what the matter is.” And with that, Massadoobie pulled out a briefcase, and set it down on the floor. It opened by itself, and then popped up on four legs so that it made a makeshift table. Inside were several documents reading: TOP SECRET, in bright red letters. Doobie opened one of these, and gave the other two to the knights. When Hardwired read his, the first page confused him. It was a list of all the retirements in the past 5 months. Silky, Luke Skywalker, Jumping Jedi, Vladarion, the list went on and on. Monty’s name had been newly entered on the bottom.Virtue asked the obvious question before Hardwired could, “So, what does all this mean?”

But Massa didn’t answer the question right away. “Hardwired, come here for a moment, and stand still.” Hardwired raised his eyebrows at Virtue, and then stood in front of Doobie. Doobie then proceeded to perform a red kata right in the young knights face. He had teleported back into the room before his now dismembered parts finished rolling across the floor.

“What is this?! Pick on Hardwired day? Sheesh, let’s get to what you came here to say? I’m tired of crap like that!” But Massa just smiled.

“Ah, but that is what we’re here to talk about. Roger. Tell me, Hardwired, did that move just now hurt you?”

“Well, um, no. Not really. I mean, we have a pain indicator so that we know when we’re hit, but it’s small. Even a mortal wound only stings a little bit. Why, what’s your point?”

“My point is, that the light sabers that we use here at the Academy, or any public server for that matter, aren’t real, correct? You could never kill anyone with these things. It just triggers a respawn. Roger Roger.”

“Well...sure. Yeah, that’s right.” Both knights looked at each other with confusion on their faces. This stuff was basic. Why did Doobie care to talk about it? And that Roger thing getting pretty annoying.

Doobie unfastened a latch on the table/suitcase, and popped a secret compartment out of it. He then laid it out for the other two to see. Inside lay an assortment of light sabers, all of them obviously new, and uncommonly shiny. In fact, their sabers looked dull beside these. Doobie lifted one out and ignited the blade. Virtue and Hardwired blinked, and backed a step away from the luminescent blue saber with astonishment. It was so bright. It was the most beautiful, and most deadly saber they had ever seen. Doobie pointed it at the two knights, and grinned. “Well, this one won’t just sting a little bit. This one will kill you dead, just see for yourself.”

He pointed the saber back towards the floor, turned it off, and tossed the hilt to Hardwired. He caught it, but only just. He was used to much lighter hilts. This one was too heavy, and he almost dropped it. The coolness of the metal felt more tangible than before.

It felt real.

But that was impossible. A real light saber? But...this was a game! Nothing that happened here was actually real! “This can’t be possible,” he muttered to himself.

*********************

Leif arrived on the server with a strange sense of foreboding. A slight chill ran through his body, and he looked around uneasily. The swishing trees in the empty courtyard made the only sound, except for the sound of his quiet breathing. He had never had this feeling on the server before. It had been about four months since joining the Academy, and he had never been happier. Coming to the Academy had felt like coming home, but today something was...wrong. Almost like...what was it Aphex was trying to train him to detect? A disturbance in the force? Something like that. Whatever it was, he didn’t like it.

But then again, there was nothing different here that he could see. He was just jumping at shadows, and that was all. He laughed quietly at himself. What was he, a man or a mouse? Then he laughed again, since he wasn’t a man at all. The bright orange skin kind of gave it away.

The Kel-Dor skin had always been a favorite of his, and that was what people usually saw him as. Sometimes he wore a different skin when playing Capture the Flag, but this skin represented who he really was. Not that many people used this race, and it made him feel unique. Besides that, it gave a feeling of mystery and intimidation to dueling opponents who didn’t know him. The stark black breathing apparatus didn’t give away his facial features, so while enemies attempted to figure out where he would strike next, or what he was planning, he was already there.

He moved off from the courtyard’s tall gray obelisk, in search of some dueling partners. Aphex had been teaching him some complicated moves for the medium stance, and he wanted to try them out in a true combat setting. One thing Aphex’s training taught was that things were always easier in the classroom than in a real fight. Before his jump to the server, Moridin, Carda Jowol, and Harwired had been the only people listed as “online”. It was probably a pad session, but maybe Moridin would finish in time for some sparring. Leif considered almost all of the members of the Academy as his friends, but a few had become close friends- almost brothers. Moridin was one of those. He would trust Moridin with his life, though that element would most likely never come into play. After all, no matter how much he liked it, he had to remember that this was still a game.

Leif headed towards the Great Hall in search of his friend. The huge metal doors opened with an empty, cold clang that made him want to find the other three Jedi quickly. This place had never put such a chill into his bones. When the doors slid shut automatically, the way they always did, he jumped again, and then chided himself for it. A Jedi must not fear this easily. He made himself focus on the task at hand.

Placing his feelings aside, he felt himself grow calm and steady. There was no fear. There was no terror. The Force was his ally, and he would not fear the shadow. A cracked smile formed behind the black mask, and only his close friends would have been able to see the smile that shone in his eyes. A quick use of force Sight showed that there were two people sitting at the bar...no, wait, now there were three. One had teleported in just as he started to watch the other two sitting down. That must be Hardwired. Only he had the admin codes required to teleport around the map.

Leif walked over towards the bar, a feeling of relief coming over him. The Academy had the same effect as an abandoned school or church. Everything was fine while there were people filling it, but when it was empty, the halls seemed haunted. He crossed the hall quickly, ready to meet his friends. The bodies in the bar still glowed faintly yellow through the stone walls, and he noticed the one who had teleported in had drawn his sabers. That was strange, because Hardwired never used duals...and besides, it was against the rules to fight in the bar. Just what was going on? Now the other two were trying to fight the attacker off, but had gotten caught between the bar and their opponent. They didn’t have any movement to maneuver.

The young Jedi smiled. This must be a lesson on surprise attacks, or something like that. Then one of the defenders lost an arm, and Leif heard something he had never heard before. People who had been on the server when Monty retired had said that his scream had pierced every wall of hte Academy. Some of them still heard it in their nightmares. That scream must have sounded like this one. It was a cry of surprise and pain, but mostly pain. Chill bumps spread out across Leif’s body, and he ran headlong into the bar, saber lit.

A lone figure now stood in the bar room. He was clothed in black, and leaning towards one of the privacy booths. A low, ominous chuckling issued from behind his mask as he began cutting away at the glass.

Leif’s mind reeled. Those doors were impenetrable! How was he getting through? If he could cut through those doors, what would his sabers do to players?

That was when the attacker noticed Leif’s presence. “Hrm,” His crackly voice scratched through the mask, “Another end to tie up. Rats.” He began to quickly move towards the young Kel-Dor’s position.

Leif backed away from the oncoming assault. What was going on here? As he drew closer to the door, he heard a small, metallic click. Someone in the control room had locked this room down.

He was trapped.

*********************

“Oh, but it is possible,” Massa said softly. “And before I explain any more, let’s go back to the list you have in your hands. As you probably already know, this is a list of all the trainers, knights, and students who have left the Academy recently. Roger Roger. Now people are always leaving the Academy, and others are always joining. It’s just the way things work. But lately, more have been leaving than coming. We didn’t notice it at first, but after Vladarion died, DJ and I began to watch who was leaving, and why. We even did a little back checking. What we found out, was that more people have left the Academy in the last five months than ever before. And for almost not reason whatsoever.”

When Vladarion was mentioned, Virtue and Hardwired both felt a tug in their chest, and Hardwired exclaimed, “Wait, how is Vladarion’s death involved? That was an accident. If you’re suggesting that someone is causing all of these retirements, it couldn’t possibly have included Vlad.”

“Unless it wasn’t an accident. Now before you bombard me with questions, let me tell you what I know. For the length of time that the Academy has been established, the council has been on good terms with Real Life™, or what we call RL on the servers. You know this, because you have to deal with it everyday. It’s a constant balance between what’s real, and what we do here to have fun. Now sometimes, a person can’t take it anymore, and they leave. Sometimes it’s not for good, but most of the time it is. They have a situation back home that they have to take care of, and when they leave, if they were important, we say that they “retire”. Roger Roger. But in reality, their game self dies, never to play again. Still, this is a minority of our members, and others come to take their place. Just as each member balances his RL and game life, the Academy stays balanced. Until lately. Roger.

“As I said, more and more have been leaving; more, like Monty, have been dying to the game. The council believes that rogue RL powers, or demons, have started an attack on the Academy. They don’t seem to have a pattern, and, if our information is correct, none but Vladarion have actually been killed in RL as well as in the game - but we do think he was killed, and the reasoning behind it remains a mystery. Which brings us back to these,” He motioned towards the real sabers.

“These were made by our crack technicians, and they are the only weapon that will hurt the RL demons. Anything else will be ineffective. You two, and two others of your choosing will be sent out to track down the killers, find out the reasoning behind the deaths, and destroy whoever is leading this destructive attack on the Academy. You must not fail. If you do, word will soon leak out, and a total war between Real Life and Game Life will break out. The loss of life... would be tremendous. I suggest that you each choose one of your padawans, if they are ready to be trusted. Roger Roger.”

Hardwired and Virtue stood dumbfounded, their jaws slack. This was just a bit too much to take. RL Demons? Murder? The Academy on the brink of war? Massadoobie took their silence as consent, and continued with the final part of the briefing.

“Along with you and your two companions, the staff has sent their best technician to aid you in your mission. The enemy -Rodger- is obviously using the source code to break in to the Academy, and you will need someone to counter their hacking attempts. In other words, you’ll need a code monkey.”

“Hey, I thought I said no nerd jokes. I’m the one risking my life here, so you could at least treat me with some respect,” An irritated voice called through the doorway. The computer geek stepped into the room, wearing a long gray robe that covered his feet. He had short black hair, and brown eyes. Virtue even thought that he saw a pocket protector peeking out of one of the technician’s pockets.

“Stop your whining, nerd, or I’ll send you back to Chosen One’s slave camp. Do you want to work on the Reloaded Mod some more?”

A terrified look appeared in the young man’s eyes, and he shook his head violently. Massadoobie laughed, and gave him a robotic wink. “I’m just kidding with you Orion. The staff sent you because you’re the best guy they’ve got, and I accepted their decision because I think so too. You’ll do fine on this mission.”

The two friends standing with Massa smiled up at Orion. He was a good friend of theirs, even though he was a little too knowledgeable in code making. Orion stepped onto the elevator, which brought him swiftly down to the ground floor, and joined the group. He gave a small smile to Hardwired and Virtue, and then looked over to Massadoobie for the final instructions.

Doobie once again motioned to the real Lightsabers. He picked three out, and handed one of them to each of the Jedi. Hardwired looked at the gleaming weapon, and noticed that it was an exact copy of his own saber. He turned it on, and a clear, fluid blue laser hummed into life. Even the color was right. “You’ve been planning this for a while, haven’t you, Doobie?”

“This mission is at the top of our priority list, if that’s what you mean. The future of the Academy depends on it.” The trade droid winked at Virtue. “Hey, we even made your saber’s blade pink, just the way you like it.” Hardwired and Orion snickered under their breath, while the embarrassed Brit fumed.

“It is not pink! It’s purple, dammit!”

“Sure. It’s purple. You just keep telling yourself that.” Doobie clanged his metal hands together in an awkward clap, and smiled. “Well boys, that’s about it. Hardwired and Virtue, you find whoever you want to take with you, and we’ll meet here this time tomorrow. Rodger Rodger. Then I’ll tell you your first destination, and we-”

Just then the scream that chilled Leif’s blood echoed through the JAK+ rooms. Doobie gave a sharp look at Orion, who was already scanning the whereabouts of the cry. Orion looked up after just a few seconds a said, “The bar, there are four people there.” He paused for a moment. “One of them is a real lifer.”

Doobie pointed in the general direction of the control room. “Go shut it down, and then meet us there.” He motioned to Hardwired and Virtue. “Let’s go find out what this is all about. Bring your new sabers along. You’ll need them.”

Four separate strikes of vibrant green lightning lit the room, and then it was empty once again.

****************

The three Jedi appeared inside the bar, their muscles tense and ready for action. But the action had already taken place. The room was trashed. Overturned tables and chairs littered the floor, and there were scorch marks everywhere from stray saber strikes. Yet the silence was deafening.

There was no one there.

“He must have logged off right as we entered.” Virtue thought aloud.

“But if he’s gone, then where are the other three?” Hardwired wondered. After seeing what the RL demons had done to Monty, he was exactly keen on imagining what kind of horror they would come upon.

Then a muted call came from one of the privacy booths. “Hardwired, is that you?!” Before Hardwired could answer, the middle glass door came up, and Moridin stepped out quickly, orange saber in had. When he saw that the assailant had fled, he put away his saber and then hurredly motined over to the three admins. “Come quick, Carda’s hurt.”

When they entered, the saw Carda, lying unconscious on the floor. He was missing his right arm from the elbow down. “He fainted from the pain, I think.” Moridin said quietly.

While Hardwired tried to tend to his fallen padawan, Virtue took a closer look around the room. He noticed that the privacy booth closest to the door was also down, but it had not closed completely because of something lying under it. It was a lightsaber. As he stooped down to get it, the door whooshed open, and a Kel-Dor appeared out of nowhere. Virtue nearly had a stroke.

“Jesus! What did you have to that for Leif? What are you trying to do, scare me to death?”

Leif rolled his eyes. “Well, if you had a psycho trying to kill you, wouldn’t you want to be invisible? I placed mind trick on the guy, and then slipped into this room while he was confused. He still tried to get inside, though, but he was too slow. One of his sabers got caught in the door. Who was that, anyway? And how did his lightsabers cut through the privacy glass like that?”

Virtue held up the lightsaber and turned it on. A glaring, blood red beam extended, and he turned it off quickly. “That’s a long story...and we’re going to settle this. But I think that’s all I can tell you. It’s pretty confidential at the moment.”

“Confidential?! The guy tried to kill me! I want to know what’s going on!”

“Well, you can’t at he moment. It’s Academy business, now.” Virtue answered.

“Wait a moment, Rodger.” The robotic Massadoobie said. Virtue turned around, surprised.

“Doobie? I almost forgot you were here.”

“Yeah, it seems like the narrator did too. I’ve had zero lines this section. Anyway, I just asked Orion to find the ip that the perp jumped to, and send you and the rest of the team after him. This could be a big chance for your team to find out where the RL demons are headquartered. So you’ll have to leave right now.”

“Right now? But I won’t have time to contact one of my padawans.”

“Exactly,” Massadoobie said, while looking directly at Leif.

Virtue looked over to Leif as well. “You can’t be serious! I mean, I know Leif and all. But how do I know he’s ready? How can I trust him on a mission as important as this?”

“I guess you’ll have to learn to trust him. Besides, it’s either take him, or no one.”

Leif was feeling very uncomfortable during this discussion. He didn’t think he was right for the mission either, whatever the mission was. Come to think of it, he didn’t know what the mission was! Or what they were talking about. He tried to butt in gently. “Listen guys I’m willing to travel into danger for the Academy, but I’d like to know what’s going on first.”

Virtue and Massadoobie looked at each other. They hadn’t even thought of telling him the situation yet. Virtue sighed, and drew Aphex’s young padawan over to the side, to explain. Massa walked over to Hardwired and Moridin, to tell them the same thing. He figured that Hardwired would take it better than Virtue, though, since Moridin was one of his padawans. At the moment, Hardwired was questioning Moridin as to the mysterious attacker’s identity.

“I told you, Hardwired, I couldn’t see who it was. Their name-tag was covered up in their robes. Why don’t you believe me? Moridin’s face was red with indignation.

“Mostly because you’re lying. I can see it in your face. Just tell me the truth. Hiding it will do no good.”

“I’m not hiding anything!”

Doobie pulled Hardwired away for a moment, telling him the same thing he had instructed Virtue. He was not happy.

“Don’t you see that I can’t trust him?
He’s obviously lying about the guy who we’re trying to capture. What if we come upon this guy, and Moridin freezes up, because he knows him, or he’s too scared of him? I need someone who’ll act when he needs to act.

“Then I guess you’ll have to make sure he doesn’t. Calm his fears. Teach him discipline. You are the master, not the other way around.” Doobie handed him the case of lightsabers. “Take this with you, and take what little time you have now to explain things to Moridin. Trust the Force. I’m going to go back to the control room to help Orion prepare. We’ve never sent more than one person to a different server before, and Orion has to go with you, so I’ll actually be doing the sending.” Massa smiled, as much as droids could smile. “I think this little trip will be good for all of you. Oh! Before you go, know that we already have people trying to infiltrate the RL defenses. The Man With Many Names will be your first contact. Good Luck!” And with that, Doobie teleported out of the room.

Soon, five beams of light left the Academy server. Left Home. Left safety. And traveled out into darkness and danger.

The ride had begun.

******************

Before Moridin left, only one thought echoed through his mind. He wasn’t worrying about his safety. He wasn’t worrying about Carda- Hardwired had said that he should gain consciousness soon. No, the thought that was bothering the young padawan was:

“Why did Motrec try to kill us?”