Chapter 16: Another Library World? Didn’t we already do that?

Summary: After finishing up on Nar Shadda, Aayla and Izuku feel themselves being pulled towards an ancient seat of Jedi knowledge, long abandoned. But...why?

Chapter 16: Another Library World? Didn't we already do that?

It had, in fact, taken Aayla and Izuku quite a bit of time and effort to get one of the Infinite Engine Seeds back to their ship. It would have been difficult under any circumstances. But adding in the tiny little detail that were three of them complicated matters a hell of a lot. It meant there was no way they could take all of them now, which also meant that they'd had to double down on the difficulty by finding a way to remove just one while keeping the others hidden. The increased difficulty had cost them nearly two weeks, had resulted in them technically stealing one of Nar Shadda's decrepit trash haulers (they'd put it back!), but they had ultimately succeeded. Meaning they now had one of the 5x5x5 meter cubes tucked away in the cargo hold, its height almost literally scraping the ceiling, even as they'd hidden the others as thoroughly as possible.

Of course, the entire affair had gotten more and more stressful as they worked due to an entirely unrelated matter. Well, mostly unrelated. After a few days, they'd begun to feel a pull that they were supposed to be elsewhere. The pull hadn't been strong at first, just a warning of sorts that their time window for whatever it was the Force wanted them to do was approaching. The pull had gotten more and more insistent as they worked, however…even as The Force had also insisted they would need the Infinite Engine Seed. That taking at least one now would be a good course of action.

By the time they had finally left orbit, the pull had been so strong they could literally point toward where they'd needed to go. Which, with a star map and a tiny bit of meditation added in, had produced a destination with hilarious ease. Ossus. They needed to go to the planet of Ossus, of all places. While, given the Jebble Box in their hold and its connection to the Jedi, that made some sense…Izuku still had something of a complaint.

"Didn't we already do the Library World thing?"

Aayla smirked at the crankiness in his voice. They both knew it was more exhaustion from their last two weeks talking than anything, but she obviously couldn't help herself as she summoned up false energy and rebutted.

"Of course not! We did the University World thing. Totally different! Also, Ossus isn't really a library anymore. More an archeological site. Which, given our pattern of digging random Force stuff from the distant past up, fits right into our theme!"

Izuku groaned.

"That's not supposed to be our theme! Aren't we supposed to save the galaxy or something? I'm a hero, not an archeologist!"

Aayla snorted at that, even as she pushed the hyperdrive lever, sending the Wandering Fate leaping into their first hyperjump.

"Look on the bright side, Izu! Ossus is in the middle of karking nowhere, off any major trade lanes. It's going to take like two weeks just to get there. We'll have plenty of time to catch up on all the sleep we missed…and other things~."

Izuku cocked his head, then nodded. That was a very good point, after all…

... ...

Despite Aayla's teasing hint, both of them had plenty to keep busy with during their two weeks in hyperspace. A somewhat grim-face Aayla took to studying more about the Jedi, though Izuku was pretty sure she was putting something off by studying outside accounts of the order. Izuku continued to try and wrap his head around the Republic and its history, its political system, and the other powers like the Hutts that were out there. They did spend time together, of course. Both of an intimate nature and for more practical things like teaching Izuku how to pilot. But they each also spent a fair bit of time wrapped up in their own little worlds. It was really starting to sink in for Izuku how alone he was aside from his companion, and how out of his depth. Meanwhile Aayla seemed to be struggling with something that made her pull away from him a little bit.

Despite their slight distance, the bond between them hummed with life. Both of them might be uncertain about where life had taken them and where they were headed, but neither had any regret in them for it bringing them together. With no immediate crisis at hand, they both simply fell victim to the need to try and sort their own headspace out…though even then they weren't particularly good at staying away from each other. Be it out of a need for comfort, or simply the soothing feel of the bond, they often found themselves gravitating to each other, even when both were wrapped up in their own thoughts. It was…pleasant, in a way. Particularly as the periods of silence were broken up by meals, the occasional talk over something interesting one of them found, and periodic discussion of just what the two artifacts in their cargo hold could mean for them.

It was only, in the last leg of the journey, a single day out from the Adega system, that they stopped to actually talk over where they were going. Both had read about Ossus from their respective angles during the journey. Aayla had tackled its history with the Jedi Order, Izuku its history with the Republic. Now, it was time to compare notes and see if they could sort out what they could be looking for. As often happened when they talked over information about the galaxy, Aayla took the lead.

"Ossus has one hell of a mixed history with the Jedi order. From being one of the first worlds to ever be settled by the Jedi, to being the site of one of their greatest defeats when it was attacked by the Sith Lord Exar Kun. It was originally part of the Cron Cluster, now called the Cron Drift, before someone on Exar Kun's side somehow caused a supernova event. It was a lush world before that, but despite surviving it was ravaged into something of an arid wasteland. It can still support life, though, and has recovered somewhat since then. There are even some primitive Force-using clans on the planet, supposedly descended from the Jedi that were trapped there."

Aayla frowned at the planet displayed above the holo-table. She tapped a key and several areas were highlighted.

"The odd thing is that, despite being from relatively close in the timeline to our two artifacts…I can't find any connection. Revan was after Exar Kun's time. Though admittedly, I had a hell of a time finding much about him. Not even sure they were a him, actually. The difficulty was enough for me to conclude that a lot of information about him or her has been redacted from the public archives we were able to access. Probably right after the Jedi Civil War, with the bans just not having ever been lifted in the millennia since then. The Jebble Box, in turn, might be that old. Hells, it might actually be older, but I couldn't connect it to Ossus at all. Still, The Great Library may be a place to start…maybe."

When Izuku shot her a questioning look, she grimaced.

"I'm afraid what was available in the public archives I could access was limited. Supposedly, while the Library remains, little has been recovered from it. On the other hand, I found mentions of multiple Jedi-sponsored archaeological trips to the Library, as well as to these other marked sites on the planet. I have a hard time believing that they would have kept mounting expeditions if there was nothing to find…"

Izuku nodded slowly at that. Sighing as it seemed Aayla was done, he look over the holo-table. He input a few commands and it zoomed out to show an ancient star map instead of just Ossus.

"Ossus is important to the Republic, too. At least from a historical perspective. Apparently, during the early Republic era, it was Ossus and the Jedi that shielded the nascent Republic from enemies in the Tion Cluster and the Hutt Empire. It acted as a Fortress World, protecting what we now know as the Core Systems from a lot of the other powers of the time. That ended with the destruction of the Cron Cluster, of course. But I was able to determine that it had a population in the hundreds of millions before then. Which means there are a lot of ruined cities and such spread all over its surface."

Izuku tapped another command and the display shifted to another star map, dated a good three hundred years later. It showed Ossus in its current position, minus a few thousand years of galactic drift.

"Oddly, the supernova didn't end the Republic's involvement with the world. After the hyperlanes restabilized, more or less at least, the world was found again. It became an important site during a later conflict with the Sith, though was largely abandoned again after that. As you mentioned, there have been numerous major archaeological visits, and not all of them by the Jedi. I found mentions of major efforts by the Hanna Institute of Antiquities and the University of Agamar, just for starters, and those are unlikely the only ones. They have to be finding something to make it such a popular place to visit. They just aren't talking about what they find."

From there, the two debated where they should go. The Great Library seemed obvious, but Izuku argued that the likelihood they could find anything that hadn't already been found seemed silly, given how many professionals had been through. The silence of the Force on the issue, aside from them needing to get to the planet, was irritating. A planet was still a lot of real estate to search through…

... ...

Both of them felt like idiots the moment they dropped out of hyperspace near the planet. Mostly, that was on account of the pre-recording welcoming comm message inviting them to land at the Library that had come through seconds after they dropped out of hyperspace. Aayla expressed this more dramatically than Izuku as she pounded her head on a console. One that she had, thankfully, at least had the good sense to lock first.

"Why. I mean, I suppose I shouldn't be complaining it was easy. But how could we have known we were here for a person, not the place! That hasn't been the case yet!"

Izuku, while feeling equally sheepish, was also mentally checking his assumptions and groaning internally.

"We probably should have realized that there was a reason we needed to be here within a certain time frame. The planet and whatever is on it isn't going anywhere, but whoever that woman is probably would have if we'd waited too long."

Aayla nodded, then frowned as she looked up at the brief message that was frozen mid playback. Something about the woman was familiar, but she couldn't say why. The blonde was young-looking and quite pretty, though something about her eyes gave away a feeling of not being young at all. She was also wearing Jedi Robes…but not like any Aayla could remember seeing at the temple. These robes were customized to a much greater extent than she was familiar with. They remained humble, but the symbols embroidered along its edges enhanced the woman's almost ethereal beauty. She shook herself and spoke up again.

"She's a Jedi, that much is obvious. I'm…not at all sure how this is going to go, Izu…"

Izuku sighed, doing his best to send reassurance down their mental link.

"You were always going to have to find them sooner or later, Aayla. If not because of your past, then because of the Jebble Box. Better one than the whole order, right? Particularly given how strongly we were directed here. Best get it over with."

Aayla sighed, but wordlessly acknowledged the truth in that, even as she input a vector that would drop them out of orbit on a good approach to the Great Library's remains…

... ... ...

A/N: And so they are about to encounter one of my favorite Jedi, despite how little we know about her...