Chapter Text
Bunnyburrow…
A planet of gentle rolling countryside and low hills, speckled with the safest forests in this part of the galaxy, and quite possibly, the entire northern Mid-Rim…
Farmland reached for hundreds of miles in every direction, with families numbering in the hundreds tending to their land in complete safety… For there had been no action on Bunnyburrow for nineteen years…
It was enough to drive an adventurous Doe like Judy Hopps CRAZY…
But, thankfully for HER, she was about to embark on a journey that would change her life forever, in all the worst, AND best ways…
… … …
Judy Hopps sighed as she looked again at the clock on the wall of the busy shuttle terminal…
“9:47”
Her foot began tapping on the dirt floor of the shuttle terminal, creating a muffled hammering sound as her foot began tapping faster and faster, little puffs of dust rising from the dirt with every tap.
Judy Hopps was a Bunny who hated a lot of things…
She hated injustice…
She hated crime…
She hated corruption…
But at the moment, she hated nothing as much as she HATED waiting…
She looked again at the clock…
‘Where the lettuce leaf IS he?’ she thought as her foot began tapping faster and faster, almost faster than the eye could see…
She knew her boyfriend had long been dreading this day now, even though he WAS excited about certain parts of it, but if he had finally gotten cold feet and decided to ditch her…
“You DO realize that you’re even “CUTER” when you’re all huffy like that, right?” a voice beside her said as a coffee and a bag of what smelled like baked pastries magically appeared in front of her eyes.
Her eyes went wide as she stepped back, before she glared at the grinning striped Rabbit Buck who had brought the treats that he probably HOPED would buy him mercy for his comment…
If so, he was wrong…
She grabbed the bag out of his hand with one paw, before the other swiftly flew and gave him a small punch on his shoulder.
“OW, Geez, Judy!” he complained as he rubbed his arm.
“That’s for calling me “CUTE” in public, Jack.” She said with a frown as she raised her coffee for a drink, in an effort to hide her smirk at the distraught look on the striped Buck’s face.
For a moment, Jack stood looking at her with a rather offended and confused look, before he finally rolled his eyes and put an arm around her shoulder with a smirk of his own. “Judy, you know MOST Does LIKE being called “CUTE”…”
“Well I’m not “MOST DOES”… And it won’t look good if you’re calling me “CUTE” around other mammals where we’re going…”
Jack chuffed. “You are the WORST girlfriend a Buck ever had…” he said with a teasing smile as he took a bite of his pastry he had taken from the bag.
“Well there are PLENTY of other girls out there who would LOVE to have you… You KNOW Jessica wouldn’t mind if you decided to stay.” she said back as she took a bite of her OWN pastry.
Jack frowned at her. “Judy… I THINK that I made it plain to her, AND to YOU that I don’t WANT Jessica…”
‘…’
Judy’s ears tinged a bit pink.
“You almost made us late…” Judy said in an effort to distract herself from the sudden bashful feelings such words made her feel.
She LIKED Jack…
She didn’t LOVE him… Not yet, at least… But she LIKED him…
But to hear him say that he liked HER better than her scheming, jealous, overly-pretty sister did things to her… Made her FEEL feelings she didn’t think she was ready to feel yet…
“We we’re twenty minutes EARLY… Just like ALWAYS.” Jack said confused.
“And I WANTED to be THIRTY minutes early, but you kept futzing around, dragging out the goodbyes… AND you forgot our meals my mom made us…” she replied a bit tartly, while still trying to keep a smirk on to show she was only half serious…
Jack lost his humor at that, the rest of his smile fading as his eyes fell with his ears.
‘Ok… A LITTLE overdone, Judy…’ she thought.
“Jack?” Judy asked, dropping her own humor as she realized that something was bothering her Kithood friend/ very recently boyfriend.
He didn’t say anything, instead turning to look away, his gaze captured by a starship that was hovering a couple kilometers above the rolling farmlands all around, an uncharacteristically fearful look on his face.
‘…’
She sighed, set down her bags, and reached around and gave him a hug. “I’m sorry Jack…” she said quietly.
He sighed himself, before he reached around and returned her hug with even greater force.
THIS felt right when it came to her interactions with Jack Savage…
THIS made her and him both happy…
After a moment, they parted. They spent a moment looking into each other’s eyes, trying to read the other, before Jack pulled away just a little further.
‘*sigh*… Maybe he IS getting cold feet…’
“Jack…” Judy said, trying to regain his attention. “We’ve talked about this… Something’s seriously bothering you, I can see that… But what is it EXACTLY?” she asked gently, not paying any attention to the other mammals on the platform, (Mostly Bunnies) as some watched the exchange for lack of anything better to do as they all waited for their shuttles.
Jack sighed again, before he looked up into her eyes. “It’s, just…”
He stepped closer, and took one of her paws in his own. “I’m just, scared, you know, because…” he swallowed. “I keep worrying that this isn’t going to work… Me and you…”
She didn’t say anything…
He continued. “Judy… What we’re doing… What we’re ABOUT to do… It’s beyond anything any Bunny I’ve ever heard of has done… And with everything the way it is right now, I just feel like something BAD will happen, and that one or both of us isn’t going to be able to come home… And then what?” he said with a distressed wave of his paws. “And even if we pull this off without being KILLED during training, we’ll be stuck in a five-year career where death could claim one of us every single day, and if we get separated, we might never know what’s happening with each other except for the OCCASIONAL holocall, and you KNOW what they say about long-distance relationships…”
“Jack?”
“I mean, imagine if we get posted on different ships, let alone different PLANETS…” he rambled, getting more loud and animated by the second.
“Jack.”
“I’d do ANYTHING to keep you safe, but a fluffing lot of good that’ll do me if you’re in a different solar system and you get hurt and I can’t BE there when you need me!” he shouted, causing some nearby to look over curiously.
“JACK!” Judy nearly shouted as she grabbed Jack by his shoulders and shook him from his distraught rambling.
‘…’
She KNEW Jack…
She knew he acted strong, and tough, (sometimes unnecessarily so…). But he was actually a very emotional Bunny under his “cool as a cucumber” façade…
Ever since she had mentioned joining the academy as a stipulation of her accepting a relationship with him, he had done everything he could to be the supportive boyfriend, while ALSO trying to gently dissuade her from her course like the rest of her family, and had usually ended up on the short end of the stick with both her AND her family for it…
As the time to go had drawn closer, the pressures and stresses had mounted, and when they had left her parent’s home forty minutes ago, it had been like a funeral procession…
And apparently it had finally gotten to him…
‘All because he won’t let me go alone…’ something small in her thought with a smile.
He had joined her in signing up shortly after he had accepted that she wouldn’t change her mind, but she knew that it wasn’t what he TRULY wanted…
Underneath the playful, excitable, adventurous Buck he always seemed to be, there was a Bunny that desired what every OTHER Bunny desired… What he had been robbed of as a little Kit, so cruelly by the heartless killing machines who’s evil and destructive ways were STILL being felt throughout the galaxy by the meek and the innocent…
He wanted a family…
He wanted to make a burrow of his own with a Doe he loved, raise tons of Kits, work on a farm for the rest of his life with a single girl, and be HAPPY with that one girl… Not unlike her father… His adoptive father…
And he had chosen HER, out of all her many sisters, many of whom were far more beautiful than herself…
Jack had had a crush on her for as long as she could remember him being with her family, and as they had grown together, she had seen that he truly was a good Buck… One of the BEST she had ever met, not to mention one of the “CUTEST” males she had ever seen…
When he had asked her to be his girlfriend a month ago, it had not been TOO big of a surprise, but she had not exactly been expecting it either…
She had given it a great deal of thought, and she had decided that she cared about him enough that she didn’t mind being his girlfriend, and that one day, if things went well, she wouldn’t even mind becoming the wife of a good Buck like him, and settling down to raise that family she knew was what HE truly wanted…
But not yet…
She loved the idea of being loved by one mammal for the rest of her life, but there was something SHE wanted to do FIRST, BEFORE she settled down and became Jack’s wife, and the mother to who knew HOW many little Savages… Before she settled HARD, like her mom and dad had…
She was twenty-four years old…
She was young and strong…
She wanted to make a DIFFERENCE first, wanted to HELP…
And she had been given her ONE chance to MAKE that difference, and she would take it with everything she had.
She looked Jack straight in his Icy-blue eyes, trying to comfort him, but also to bring him back to the present. “Jack…” she began gently. “We are NOT going to die.”
His breathing slowed just a little as he looked her in her Amethyst eyes. “We are NOT going to get separated, or at least not TOO far… We are NOT going to be killed… And we are NOT going to forget each other…”
She squeezed his paw in her own. “It’s only five years I’m asking for, Jack… Five years of us serving on the same ship, serving the same mammals, and making the galaxy a better place for those who are helpless to help themselves… Mammals like… Your parents…”
Jack’s grip tightened painfully for a moment.
“We are going to be SAVING mammals like them, Jack…” she said as she reached out her free paw and pet the side of his head. “And I will NOT forget about you… I won’t LET myself forget about you…”
Jack took her other paw in his own, gently rubbing the fluff of her palm.
“And after our five years of making the galaxy a better place are done, we’ll come back home, and, I’ll marry you, and we’ll make EACH OTHER’S galaxy a better place.” She concluded, before adding, “But I can’t get my start without someone there believing in me, and goodness knows my family doesn’t believe in me…”
‘…’
“So… Are you still with me?”
Jack was quite for a moment, and Judy began to worry that she had lost him despite her speech…
HE had accepted the stipulations of a relationship with her… HE had made her feel things she had never felt before by saying he’d go with her, and be her partner in this…
But, was he having second thoughts?
She WOULD go by herself, if she HAD to… She was strong, and young, and that would only mean she could be out saving the galaxy with only herself to worry about, but, she had to admit that the idea of having a partner with her, someone who loved her, and was rooting for her, would have made the trials ahead of her much easier to bear… Not to mention the benefits of getting to see someone she cared about in PERSON, and not over a holotransmitter…
But if she had lost him…
“And… There’s NO possibility of… Changing your mind?” he asked, with a small, accepting look on his face…
He was asking, one more time… But she could tell by his look that he meant to stick with her… No matter what.
She smiled herself, as she silently and gently shook her head no.
“Ok… I’m with you.”
‘…’
Jack finally smiled, again rubbing the fluff of her palms. “I’m with you all the way, Judy… For better, and for worse… And when we’re out there defeating evil in whatever shape it may take, and saving those who can’t save themselves, even against the most UNIMAGINABLE horrors… I’ll make sure you can always count on me to be there right beside you.”
Judy’s heart felt a surprisingly painful thud at those words…
He was with her… ALL the way…
They would make the Galaxy a better place… TOGETHER…
Jack stepped closer, resting a paw on her cheek as he began to draw her face closer to his…
She knew what he was asking of her, and though it always felt the tiniest bit… Odd, even as his girlfriend… How could she refuse him this after he had basically told her he would WAIT for her, putting aside his dreams so that she could fulfill hers?
She closed her eyes and gave him a gentle kiss on his lips, shoving under her psyche the fact that it always felt like kissing one of her brothers whenever she kissed Jack…
If she was to become his WIFE someday, she’d have to get over that…
But that would come later…
As they separated, and as her blushing ears caught the sound of an approaching shuttlecraft, she comforted herself with the knowledge that she’d have five years to become used to kissing Jack Savage. She’d have five years to get used to the IDEA of becoming his… MATE…
Who knew… If things went well ENOUGH, and if she could get over those tiny little niggling doubts for the best Buck she had ever met, maybe she’d surprise him and agree to marry him BEFORE their five-year tour of duty was over…
But until then, she could focus on doing what she had always DREAMED of doing since she had been a little Kit of nine… And as she and her boyfriend began to climb aboard their StarSpeeder 1000, the craft that would take them to that faraway place that would be the beginning of the greatest adventure of their lives before they settled into the REST of their lives, she paused and looked out at the busy shuttle terminal, taking one last look at the rolling green and gold hills of Bunnyburrow…
Her home no longer…
Her attention was drawn to a large screen playing a wonderful melody that said to her, “JUSTICE”, “ORDER”… “GOOD”…
(https://youtu.be/mPi__BzKClM?si=gkasHg2srodwS-WA)
“JOIN THE EMPIRE…” The screen spoke in a welcoming voice as it showed footage of many brave, white-clad Stormtrooper mammals marching in formation. “EXPLORE NEW WORLDS… LEARN VALUABLE SKILLS…” the screen said as squadrons of Fly Fighters flew by in a great swarm of justice. “BRING ORDER, AND UNITY TO THE GALAXY…” the screen said as it was filled with the awe-inspiring image of a mighty Star Destroyer guarding an innocent world. “BE A PART OF SOMETHING… JOIN THE EMPIRE.”
And underneath the large screen, a large banner waved where it had for the last six months… The birth of her dream…
“Small mammals now welcome to sign up under the mammal-inclusion initiative: Starting at Five-year tours of duty.” It read.
Judy Hopps smiled…
“Time to make the Galaxy a better place…”
… … …
=Thousands of Light-years away=
… … …
The Red Fox pulled a lever on his specially boosted seat, rising by a good three feet and flicking a few switches near the roof of the large bridge in preparation for the drop from Hyperspace, before returning his seat to its normal position and reaching over to the specially modified console and preparing to deactivate the Hyperdrive.
He looked left to the starship’s pilot, waiting for his signal to drop.
‘… … …’
The Fennec Fox across from him nodded, and the Red Fox slowly pulled on the Hyperdrive yokes, watching as the spinning whirlpool of blue and white light dissolved and was replaced by streaks of starlight as they reverted to Realspace, the entire cabin rumbling somewhat disconcertingly as the old Cowrellian frigate stressed itself with the transition.
‘This poor baby’s showing her mileage…’ he thought as the streaks of white were finally replaced with the black of the void, pinpricked by the tiny dots of distant stars, as well as a nasty grey-green ball floating through space that was their destination… Some nothing planet in a nothing star system in the middle of nowhere, some planet he had only very recently learned was called Rókavár…
“Ladies and Gentlemammals, this is your captain speaking, we’d like to thank you for flying “Fox-Starlines; ‘Only the lowest class for the lowest class’”, and as you look out ahead you will see your destination, only the most MISERABLE MUDBALL to ever grace your sights! Yes there will be regrets! No we don’t care... No there are no refunds… And again thank you for choosing Fox Starlines!” Nick Wilde said into the intercom with a thoroughly self-pleased smile.
“Would you cut the theatrics?” the tiny Fox across from him asked grumpily.
“Relaaax Fin… The transition to Realspace was successful.” He said as he and the Fennec Fox both checked their respective consoles, and the much smaller pilot, and OWNER of the vessel took the yokes and switched to manual piloting. “Nothing showing up out of the ordinary… Power systems showing up within tolerance… Hull integrity checks… Life-support… Weapons… Shields… Everything’s in the green…” he listed, before smirking as he looked over at his best friend. “For ONCE…”
The Fennec Fox’s head snapped to the larger Fox faster than could be seen with the naked eye. “You talkin’ bout my girl, Wilde? I’ll put you back on pod cleaning duty with Travis if you don’t watch yo’ MOUTH.”
“The CAPTAIN says what he wants aboard ship.” Nick retorted with a widening grin.
“And the OWNER of the ship might just decide he doesn’t NEED a captain who’s always dissin’ on his ride!”
“Hey, I’m just saying… You’re stupid lucky this old thing still flies.” Nick Wilde responded as he tapped on a button and activated the intercom again. “Passengers to the cockpit, please?”
“Whadaya MEAN LUCKY?!? The Consular Class is an EXCLUSIVE and a CLASSIC! They built these things with ROYALTY in mind! These seats probably sat fuzzy butts worth a MILLION TIMES what you’ll ever be worth! PROBABLY even a few SCALEY or FEATHERY butts too!!!” his pilot and best friend, Finnick De-Becque ranted at the slurs on his beloved starship, which he had dubbed “Vexed Vexée”… “VIXIE” for short…
Nick just laughed. “ALRIGHT, alright!” he said as he waved his paws in defeat and patted the console tenderly. “I’m sorry, Vixie… I’m sorry I insinuated that you’re old, and should probably be mothballed---" he grinned wickedly… “---And I’m also sorry that your “husband” can’t take a joke.”
Nick could have SWORN he saw Finnick’s ears billow a cloud of steam as he looked like he was about to yell at him again… But he instead somehow calmed himself… SOMEWHAT… “*growl* Just shuttup an’ get those fluffing passengers up here so they can do THEIR part… Whatever that is… And consider yourself lucky I haven’t found a lounge pod to launch you into space with yet…”
Nick winked as he activated the intercom again. “PASSENGERS to the cockpit, PLEASE.” He said much louder, and far less politely.
“You wanted us?”
Nick startled at the proximity of the voice behind him, their arrival having been as unnervingly silent as always. He looked behind him at the dark robes that covered everything but the snouts of the mammals that had appeared in the corridor that led back to the rest of the ship.
‘Damn crazy mystics…’ was his first thought, before the taller of the two robed mammals, quite obviously a Fox going by its snout, turned to him with a questioning frown on its muzzle.
‘Oh damn… I forgot… They can read thoughts…’ he thought as he decided it was probably in his best interests to return to his duties now that they were in-system before the crazy “star-weirds” decided to turn him into a newt, or something…
Just remembering how they had found them creeped him out…
“Ahem*, You wanted to be notified when we reached the Róka system…” he said as he gestured out the window. “Well, we’re arrived in the Róka system… Consider yourselves notified.”
The robed Fox, despite most of its face being hidden, turned to him with an unmistakable scowl, and seemed about to speak before a hooved hand from the other mammal swiftly rose to silence her colleague. “And… Has anyone tried to contact you since you’ve arrived?” the shorter, older Sheep (judging by the snout,) asked in her tired but gentle voice.
‘…’
Nick slowly turned back to look behind him at the dark-clad Sheep with a head-tilt. “I thought you said you wanted a “QUIET” journey...” he said cautiously, wondering at the tiny hollow feeling in his stomach at the odd question. “You ASKED quiet, we GAVE you quiet… You ASKED quick, we GAVE you quick… You ASKED for a simple drop-off in a dead-empty star system that no mammal in their right mind would EVER stop even just to get their bearings! We GOT you here, and now I expect to be paid the rest of my commission so we can drop you off and get back to our lives… You didn’t say ANYTHING about---"
*beep-beep-beep*
Nick looked down at his console, his stomach dropping further and further down his gut as he suddenly began to wonder if this was all some elaborate trap…
Goodness knew he had been dragged into such before…
“We’re being tracked!” Finnick shouted.
“Imps?!?” Captain Nick Wilde asked quickly.
“No…” Finnick responded as the computer began printing the data on a screen… No longer any sign left of their joking and arguing of earlier… Something was OFF about all this, and now they were a CREW who would NOT go down without a fight.
The ship’s scanners finally began to make sense of the signals it was detecting, and began to print out info on the foreign signal that had appeared from behind a large moon…
Approximately two miles long… Shaped like a giant donut in space with a bite taken out of the front…
His stomach dropped…
‘Oooh FLUFF…’
He heard a sigh come from the hooded sheep, as if she was trying to comfort a stubborn Kit on a stormy day. “It is alright.” The older Ewe said calmly. “We are among friends here.”
Finnick looked at the printout on the scanner screen…
He looked slowly to Nick with a scared look, hoping that he had read wrong…
Nick slowly nodded… He WASN’T crazy…
Finnick looked at the scanners again.
Another light on the console began beeping… The huge enemy vessel was hailing them…
‘…’
Finnick balled his fists and turned around in his seat to look again at their passengers, a distrustful and angry look on his face. (Which was admittedly his USUAL look, only it was much more pronounced right now…)
“What, are, you, PLAYING AT HERE, SHEEP?” he growled as he speared the old Ewe with his best suspicious glare. “You didn’t say ANYTHING about rendezvousing with no enemy ship!!! I ain’t getting’ ANY closer to that monstrosity until you explain a few things… Like what the HELL you two were doin’ on a dead planet, what WE doin’ totin’ you two around like some VIP’s, and WHY you tryin’ ta get us KILLED when we could be doin’ our USUAL job, makin’ ‘honest’ money that we KNOW we can count on, and doesn’t involve dealing with Clanker BATTLESHIPS hiding in the Outer Rim with a HISTORY of blowin’ up ships like mine!”
The Sheep in the dark robes slowly turned to Finnick, a decidedly unbothered look on her muzzle. “I have TOLD you that you are in no danger, Mr. Finnick… You need not fear for your lives, OR your possessions, for we have no need nor desire to take either.”
Finnick glared even MORE suspiciously at the two robed mammals. “You DEFINITELY won’t if we blow you both out the airlock…” he said threateningly…
The Sheep looked at Finnick for a moment, her expression unreadable… Unlike her Fox compatriot, who was starting to look genuinely angry, Nick subconsciously sensing a growl from his fellow Fox in a way only a Fox could feel from another Fox.
Nick subtly began to move his right paw towards his gun belt… Just in case…
But before the situation heated any further, the Sheep turned and looked at Nick. “Captain Wilde, IF you want to turn around, and take us all the way back to Ram Var where we hired you, then be my guest…” she said, the few visible features on her old face completely passive. “However be aware that you stand to lose not only the remaining seventy-five percent of your commission fee, and the fuel and time you have already spent transporting us here, but you will ALSO be losing the opportunity to make DOUBLE your, ‘HONEST’ weekly income for a long-term work that is of a far more, HUMANITARIAN nature…”
‘… What?’
Neither Nick nor Finnick said anything for a moment, but Finnick tried to slowly reach for his OWN gun belt.
One of the Sheep’s hooved hands moved subtly to a spot on her hip under her robe… A spot that Nick had seen something once when he had been trying to spy on his passengers, and had only managed to see something that he had never thought he would EVER see with his own green eyes…
A weapon unlike ANYTHING ELSE in the galaxy…
“And you may ‘TRY’ to blow us out the airlock…” she said without any malice in her voice, only space-cold truth.
‘…’
Nick and Finnick both looked at each other…
This Sheep had them dead to rights… And she KNEW it…
If she truly was what Nick suspected she was, then this fight would be over in a fraction of a second, and he and Finnick wouldn’t even have enough time to grab their blasters, much less actually SHOOT them…
Finnick finally snapped out of his stupor, removed his paw from his blaster pistol, and with an angry huff turned around and resumed control of the “Vexed Vixen”.
‘…’
“Mr. Finnick.” The Sheep said authoritatively behind them.
‘…’
“*growl* Yes ma’am?” the Fennec Fox asked grumpily.
“Tell them we wish to board at once.” The Sheep said with what Nick had to wonder was possibly a bit of humor in her voice as she and the cloaked Fox turned and walked down the hallway towards their room in preparation for landing.
‘…’
‘Well THAT wasn’t very pleasant…’ Nick thought as he looked over at his pilot, who was grumbling in his seat as he finally answered the hail from the huge donut-shaped vessel in the far distance. “With all due… RESPECT… Our passengers wish to board immediately…” he said before turning to Nick and mouthing ‘Get them off my ship!’ with a jerk of his head back in the direction of their ‘guests’…
With a two-fingered salute, Nick hopped down from his boosted seat and walked down the corridor just as Finnick switched to an internal channel and shouted for the rest of the crew to come to the bridge…
He wanted a few answers with his passengers now that they had threatened his commission fee…
One, why in the galaxy would a Sheep and a Fox be wandering the wastes of Ram Var all alone, just in time to find him and his crew in the middle of one of their regular runs to the freezing planet…
And TWO…
‘What did that Sheep mean by… DOUBLE our weekly paycheck?’
… … …
‘This was SUCH a bad idea…’ the cloaked Fox thought as she and her Master returned to their room aboard the old Consular Class corvette, the “Vexed Vexée”… A ship that probably HUNDREDS of Jedi must have flown on before, a long time ago... HOPEFULLY before it was given such a tacky name… ‘Four months away from home, sneaking onto a heavily guarded Imperial world, dodging Stormtroopers and fighting Inquisitors…’
She thought back to the interaction they had just had with the pilot of the vessel they flew on…
‘And having to watch our backs for three days against mammals who would sooner SPACE us and steal our possessions than help us like Master hopes… And MALES who are of questionable decency…’
She looked down at the slender, curved hilt of the weapon that was symbol to both her proudest success, and greatest failure…
‘All so that YOU could ruin everything…’ she thought with a touch of bitterness at the device…
Her own Lightsaber… Her very first…
She would go back to using an Electro-Staff if it meant undoing this entire journey…
“Trouble, my young Padawan?” the Sheep asked as she removed her cloak now that they were safely in the privacy of their quarters, revealing the black wool that covered her head as she breathed tiredly.
The Vixen removed her own cloak, revealing the sandy-gold fur of her head, the braids of her apprenticeship falling to her shoulders. “I just have a bad feeling about all this… Those Inquisitors back on Ilum… Letting these… SCOUNDRELS know about “Den-1”…”
She looked down again at the hilt of her weapon. “This Lightsaber…”
Master Ulla Woolington sat herself down on a comfortable chair, groaning lightly with the motion. “Skye, ALL Jedi used to carry a Lightsaber…” she said as she leaned back, not looking at her Apprentice. “You’ve wanted one of your own your whole life… And now that you finally HAVE one, you’re not happy with it.” The Sheep sighed tiredly. “If I had known you would be so unhappy, we would not have made the journey through enemy territory to a planet guarded so jealously by the Emperor and his minions.”
Skye frowned. “It’s not that I’m not GRATEFUL for you taking me to Ilum, Master…” she said, some distress in her voice. “I’m so VERY grateful that you took me to the Kyber caves, and helped me feel like a REAL Jedi, and not merely an imitation Jedi like I’ve always felt I am…”
Master Ulla didn’t say anything, but her face softened a bit.
Skye looked again at her Lightsaber. “But ever since I entered the caves and received my crystal, you have treated me differently than you used to…” she said, looking back at her Master with sad eyes.
Her Master was the closest thing she had to a mother… She LOVED her master, and her Master loved her too… Her Master’s love helped Skye cope with certain unfulfilled desires and feelings that had plagued her since the loss of her OWN mother and father when she had been seven…
But Master Ulla had acted unusually reserved with Skye since she had left the cave and shown her crystal to her mot--- MASTER…
It was to the point where she was losing sleep over it…
Master Ulla Woolington closed her eyes. “There is nothing WRONG with your Lightsaber, Skye… OR with you.”
Skye stood silently for a moment, spearing her Master with an incredulous look as her fluffy tail whipped around behind her.
‘Nothing wrong with my…’
Her Master’s actions had certainly said differently…
She raised her Lightsaber to be at chest-level and thumbed it on, the weapon making a snap-hissing noise as the soft pink blade came into existence and hummed in the way all Lightsabers do, only it sounded more high-pitched than her Master’s Lightsaber, the blade’s crackling sounding like grinding crystal.
She held the blade open, keeping it in view of her Master, who had opened her eyes as the blade had come to life…
The old Ewe watched as the pink light of the weapon flickered gently and subtly as all Lightsabers do, but in a color that she said she had never seen before… She then turned to Skye. “Just because I have never seen that color before doesn’t make it a bad thing…” she said quietly, looking to Skye like she was trying to protect her feelings.
That only upset Skye more…
She closed the blade.
“Then why so reserved Master?” she asked as she hooked the hilt to her belt. “I’ve always thought of you as my mothe---” Master Ulla raised an eyebrow. “… The CLOSEST THING I’ve had to a mother in all these years… You’ve fed me, clothed me, taught me, RAISED me since I was seven years old, and your approval has always meant the Galaxy to me… But ever since I got this Lightsaber, I feel as though I DON’T have your full approval… Like I’ve FAILED you in some way that I cannot undo…”
Skye walked forward and sat down on her knees before her Master, putting her paws on her Master’s lap, gently whining as she looked into the eyes of the most important mammal in the Galaxy to her. “What did I do wrong? PLEASE tell me…” she whispered sadly.
Goodness knew she would have never made it in the old order, from what she had been told about the Jedi’s strict code of conduct… She was FAR too emotional, and extremely dependent on her Master for her sense of stability…
And she was far too prone to growing ATTACHED to people…
She had always desired certain things in her life… Feelings of belonging, feelings of companionship, and friendship, and love…
She had SORT of found those things in her Master, and she knew Master Ulla tolerated a lot of things from her since the order no longer existed outside their small group of a couple dozen…
But her Master’s insistence on some of the more strict parts of the code in regards to personal attachments made it difficult sometimes to feel that she was getting everything she actually NEEDED, and when she was deprived of even the LITTLE affection her Master USUALLY gave her, it tended to drive her nuts.
‘…’
Master Ulla Woolington brought a hoof to the Vixen’s paws, gently rubbing them with her boney hooved fingers as her other hand moved to caress the Fox’s cheek. “I am sorry Skye.” She said tenderly, with all of the motherly love that Skye had grown to need so much. “It is merely a fear…” she thought for a second, “Or I SHOULD say, CONCERN, for the unknown…”
“You see Skye, all Lightsabers have greater meaning in the color they become when they are bound to a Force-sensitive creature, whether Mammalian, Reptilian, Avian, Insectoid, it matters not.”
The Ewe brought her own Lightsaber up for Skye to see. “My blade is green… That meant that when I was chosen by my crystal, I was a Consular… A Teacher… A Negotiator…” she scoffed lightly. “Not that that helped me or my first Apprentice very much when we were turned on at the end of the Clone Wars…”
“Master Berthe?” Skye asked as she sat herself down on the floor, to which the Sheep nodded.
“I owe my life to Master Berthe,” she said, “And if it weren’t for her skills with a Lightsaber, I would not be alive now when those Dingoes had killed almost all other Jedi in the Galaxy.”
“Her Lightsaber is blue.” Skye said.
“It is indeed. She is a Knight… Blue symbolizes a strong fighting spirit… A Defender… A Protector… An uncanny skill with the blade.”
Skye thought for a moment. “Is that all? What about the red blades the Inquisitors have?”
Ulla shook her head. “Kyber crystals are sentient, Skye, and they have a will of their own when choosing a wielder… And they DON’T take kindly to those who wield the Dark Side of the Force.” She said with a frown. “Red is an unnatural way of forcing an unchosen crystal to serve a wicked mammal’s will, by using the Dark Side of the Force to make the crystal bleed.”
Skye felt ill at that explanation…
She knew OF the Sith, those Force-sensitive creatures who used their powers for EVIL instead of GOOD… But she had never met one… She had met an Inquisitor here and there, but they typically seemed to be Mini-Sith wannabes, with trick-Lightsabers to make up for a lack of real talent…
But every time she heard ANYTHING about the Sith, it only made her dislike them even more…
‘Red is unnatural…’
She looked down again at the hilt of her weapon. “And Pink is CLOSE to Red…” she said sadly, suddenly worried that it was some sort of evil sign about some darkness within her…
If so, she would do EVERYTHING in her power to eliminate it, even if she had to run away, and never be happy again…
She would---
Her Master’s hoof shook one of her paws. “You listen to ME, my young Padawan Learner…” she said with a hard look. “Did you do ANYTHING to force your bond with your crystal?”
Skye was silent, a bit surprised by the forcefulness of her Master’s tone, but she eventually shook her head no.
“Did you PASS your test of spirit, and were you LED to your crystal?”
Skye again nodded her head, wondering how long ago her master had gone through the same trials...
Ulla smiled at that. “Then THAT was the crystal you were MEANT to have, Skye.” She said as she took Skye’s Lightsaber from her belt, handling the curved hilt gently. “This crystal CHOSE you, Skye… For WHAT, I do not yet know, but know that it is not a bad thing…”
Ulla looked away for a moment, a touch of distress on her face. “My concerns were not so much about the color of your Lightsaber as they were about something fearful I saw when I was waiting for you in the main caves…”
‘…’
“What did you see, Master?” Skye asked.
The old Ewe looked like she was thinking about something, something very troubling… But she eventually looked back at Skye, the concern on her face all gone. “It is for an old Sheep like myself to ponder, and for a young Vixen like yourself to not worry about, Skye.” She said as she handed Skye back her Lightsaber. “The Force moves in mysterious ways, Skye… I have sensed great danger in our near future, but I’ve also sensed a great happiness for you, my dear Padawan, from a source that will seem impossible…”
Skye looked at her Master with a bewildered look.
She reached a hoof to Skye’s shoulder. “Be ready to accept it when it comes… The good, AND the bad, and do not give in to any feelings of fear or doubt… The Galaxy is a dark place at this time, and many creatures are suffering at the hands of the Sith… But good WILL rise and destroy it, and it is our burden to wait patiently until we have the means to fix it, and until then, to try to make things better for those whom we CAN help…”
‘…’
Skye closed her paw around her Master’s hoof. “I will try, Master.” She said, feeling somewhat ill to her stomach all of a sudden.
“Now, my young Apprentice… What have I always told you that Master Yoda taught me?” she said, a smile finally returning to her face as she tapped Skye’s nose, something that only a Fox parent normally did…
Skye giggled lightly, feeling a sense of relief at the newfound ease between them after a whole week of uncomfortable distance… THIS was what she had been missing from her mother…
““Do, or do not… There IS no try.”” She answered with a toothy smile as she stood and began to gather her things, throwing on her cloak almost as an afterthought, and feeling too relieved to be paying enough attention to sense the presence on the other side of their door…
As long as she had the love of her Master… Her MOTHER… She was ok…
It would give her the strength to endure despite the lack of certain OTHER things her heart desperately desired, knowing that the right one had not come along yet…
She opened the door…
*POW*
…
Nick Wilde exited the turbolift and walked to the quarters that had been lent to the passengers for their ride to this forsaken system, finally ready to find out what was REALLY going on in that crazy Sheep’s head.
‘I mean, this IS nuts, RIGHT?!? Stop on a frozen planet to freeze the merchandise without making it taste like fried chicken, run into two galactic HOBOS who SOMEHOW got on said frozen planet without a ship, be offered BIG MONEY to take them to a long-forgotten system at the edge of the Galaxy full of either pirates or a Clanker hideout, AND she has a laser-sword?!?’ he ranted to himself as he approached their door, whipping out his captain’s master key.
‘If she thinks that I’m just gonna drop EVERYTHING I’m doing, leaving behind my well-paying clients, and risking my crew and friends for some sort of CHANCE at a more stable income---'
The door opened, and he made to step inside at the same time that the Fox he had seen earlier began to walk out…
A shocked pair of Sapphire-blue eyes met with a pair of similarly shocked Emerald eyes right before their faces collided in an explosion of pain in both of their noses, both back-pedaling and falling on their tails clutching their muzzles in agony, for very few places were quite as sensitive on a Fox’s body as their nose…
But when Nick looked up, about to curse the other Fox for not looking where they were going…
His mind fried a circuit…
‘--- I’d be MORE than happy to at LEAST HEAR her offer…’ he thought instantly as he laid his eyes on what had to be the most beautiful Vixen he had EVER seen…
Even holding her nose in an effort to stop the pulsing pain and possibly bleeding they had caused each other, he could tell that she was a one-of-a-kind sort of Vixen, her beauty that which could start WARS, or so he imagined…
The blonde Fox finally shook her head, regaining senses OTHER than “nose damaged”, and was about to shout at him for not looking where he was going…
But she seemed to realize rather quickly that her cloak was no longer hiding her face, and he imagined that she understood the look in his eyes, because she suddenly went tight-lipped, her beautiful Blue eyes going wide with panic as she began waving around for the hood of her cloak with one paw, her laser-sword with the other…
‘OH NO you don’t! We are NOT going to start out with “Aggressive Negotiations”…’
Nick swiftly scrambled up and grabbed her paw just as it grabbed the hilt of her archaic weapon… “Well, now, WAIT a minute there darlin’…” he said smoothly. “There’s no need for VIOLENCE aboard THIS ship… I’m not a threat to you…” he added as a flirtatious smile began to spread across his face.
“Un-HAND-me, RUFFIAN.” She said threateningly as her lips curled up to show her many sharp teeth.
“”Unhand me, Please.”” Nick responded with his OWN teeth now showing in a huge grin…
The blonde Fox growled loudly as she prepared herself to---
“Promise me we can talk if I let go?” he added, trying to appease her a little.
‘…’
“You Jedi LIKE to talk, DON’T YOU?”
‘…’
“UUUMMM…”
“Fine.”
His grin grew larger as he slowly removed his paw from her own, marveling at how silky her fur had felt in his hand, as she removed her own paw from her laser-sword…
He was now in speaking territory with the beautiful Vixen… And THAT was where Nick Wilde did best when it came to the female sort…
Or WOULD have if he wasn’t interrupted by the sound of the black Sheep Ewe clearing her throat, having watched the whole scene from the side with a mix of amusement and tolerance.
“Captain… I believe introductions are due now that we are at our destination, and that our hiding our identities is no longer a possibility...” she said as she gestured to herself. “I am Jedi Master Ulla Woolington… And you’ve just met my Padawan, Skye Winters.”
Nick looked back to the Vixen who was beginning to stand up again.
‘Skye Winters…’ something inside him thought wistfully.
He offered her his paw as was proper for ANY gentletod when a lady had fallen.
She looked at him suspiciously for a moment…
He smiled the most genuine smile he was capable of smiling…
She huffed, before deciding to accept the offered paw, and letting him lift her up to her feet… And then he lifted her paw straight to his lips as he gave her delicate paw a kiss. “Skye Winters.” He greeted. “A lovely name for a lovely Vixen.”
She quickly yanked her paw back to herself, holding the paw he had kissed like it was now diseased and in need of amputation… Though her much lighter fur betrayed the tiniest tinge of pink that peeked through her cheeks and ears. “CAPTAIN WILDE.” She greeted coldly.
“Hmm, cold as the arctic… Just like your name… I like that.” He said unabashedly.
“…I’m HALF Arctic Fox…” she finally admitted grumpily.
“And the other half I imagine must come from the moons of Iego… Right?” Nick replied with a toothy grin.
“…What? Moons of Iego? What does that mean?” she asked, looking genuinely confused
“Captain Wilde.” The Sheep spoke, interrupting his moves on the prettiest Fox he had ever seen.
‘FRACK!’
“As much as I’m sure you’d love to keep harassing my Apprentice for sport, we have far more important things to discuss now that we are in-system… Like your pay…”
‘…’
THAT got Nick’s attention… Because as much as he considered himself a ladies’ Fox, (Not that as a self-admitted gentletod, he had ever gone past first base with a lady…) he DEFINITELY saw himself as a business Fox FIRST…
He turned quickly to the beautiful Skye Winters with a whispered, “We’ll continue this later.” And with a wink that made the young Vixen blush again, he turned to the Sheep who he suddenly found FAR more appealing to talk to… (Though maybe the idea of being around her “Apprentice” for any length of time helped a bit…) “YES, I seem to remember you telling me you had some sort of plans for long-term employment for me and my crew… What SORT of business did you have in mind, EXACTLY?”
The Sheep, Master Woolington, as he recalled, walked forward. “Well, you are a smuggler, correct?”
‘…’
“Am I mistaken?” she asked when he didn’t answer.
“No-no… You’ve got yourself a smuggler. One of the best in the industry too!” he bragged. “Only met one guy who’s faster than myself, but good luck trying to get HIM on the line… He works for the Hutts…”
He smirked. “I can smuggle ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, so long as it’s not weapons… I choose not to deal in weapons… So what do you have in mind?”
The Sheep simply smiled. “Well Captain Wilde, let me just say that where we are going, there will be much need for the services of a mammal who deals in frozen fruit juice…”
‘…’
“Come again?” he asked…
