Ben ran and ran until he had reached the Temple's exit, one of the little-known ones through the back. Once he had escaped the Temple, all he could think of was to get away. No clone troopers had spotted him, he had managed to escape. But one thing made him want to just fall to the ground and cry right now. As he was en route to escaping the Temple, he had felt a presence wink out of life. Yes, he had felt many of these die on this fateful night, but this one made him feel as if a part of him had died. Ben knew that the presence had been that of his sister, Serra. Tears fell freely down his face at that moment, and for several minutes more. Now, he was walking tiredly along the walkways of the Senate District, his eyes red and puffy from crying, and his body weary and aching from all the running, and now the walking. Finally, Ben could not walk anymore, and he collapsed onto the hard duracrete walkway. All he could do is lie there, in the cold darkness of the Coruscant night. It was surprisingly quiet, and soon he found himself asleep, a restless sleep, filled with nightmares, but sleep.


The next day, Ben awoke in the same spot he had fallen asleep the night before. As he rubbed his eyes, he looked up to see a girl practically hovering over him. He scooted backwards a bit, taken by surprise. The girl chuckled slightly, but still looked down at him concerned.
"First off, are you alright? I came by here a couple hours ago and found you asleep, so I figured I should wait till you woke up."

Ben looked back at her, his vision now clearing up. He could see that she had shoulder length brown hair, blue eyes that had an icy, but soft look about them, and guessed that she was roughly around 1.6 meters tall.

"Wow, she's pretty." Ben thought briefly to himself, quickly pushing the thought from his mind.

"Yes, I'm alright, I guess. Just tired is all, and still...shocked. Who are you?" He asked her.

She grinned at him and replied, "My name is Alice, Alice Senttin. And who might you be?"

Ben smiled back at her and said, "My name's Ben Keto. I am-I mean was-a Padawan at the Jedi Temple to Master Barrun Bok. My sister was Serra Keto, a Jedi Knight." Ben then frowned, looking at the ground, still saddened at the mention of his sister's name.

Alice looked at him curiously for a moment. "What do you mean? Oh..." She realized what he meant. "The raid on the Temple, is she...is she?"

Ben nodded, willing himself not to cry anymore. "Yes, she's dead. I felt her death through the Force as I was escaping the Temple."

Suddenly, Ben noticed something glinting on the girl's belt. It was a lightsaber. Ben's eyes widened, at the exact same moment Alice's did. Ben managed to murmur out, "You're a Jedi?"

She nodded at him, tilting her head slightly to see the lightsaber that hung at his belt.

"Yes, I am. Or was, depending on how you look at it. I was Padawan to a Knight named Vorok Ghon. I saw him die during the raid. The last words he spoke to me were how well I'd done as his Padawan, and how I should run now. Then a trooper shot him through the chest, and I ran without stopping." She sighed, turning away for a moment.

Ben quickly wiped a tear that had been rolling down his cheek, and looked at her.

"So we both lost someone during that terrible night last night. Right now, I think our first goal should be to get off Coruscant. After last night, it's obviously not safe to be a Jedi anymore."

She turned her head, looking back at with an agreeable nod.

"You are right, but the question is: How?"

Ben thought for a minute before replying.

"Well, we may have to do some things that aren't exactly what we'd like to. Maybe like stealing a ship or something." He said with a tinge of apprehensiveness in his voice.

She looked at him, a determined look on her face.

"Ben, if we expect to escape Coruscant, we may have to do that. But right now, we need to find a way to the spaceport, and try to stay unnoticed. By the way," she asked him, "how old are you?"

Ben replied quickly.

"Fourteen, and you?"

"Fourteen." She said with a grin. She held out her hand, and Ben took it, allowing her to pull him to his feet.

"Thanks." He said, as she began to hurry down the walkway, calling over her shoulder to him.

"If you wanna get off this hunk of durasteel, you better hurry, Benny!"

He laughed as he ran to catch up with her, thinking to himself.

"I think I like this girl."

He smiled and called back, "I'm coming!" He began running after her, feeling a sense of hope running through him.

And there they ran, side by side, two Jedi Padawans, on their way to adventure neither of them could have ever imagined...