84 Chapter 74

Renn and Ahsoka stared at the icy obstacle ahead of them in exasperation.

The cave system seemed to be doing everything it could to try to and frustrate them. Collapsing cave floors, ice boulders, collapsing tunnels, and finally the exit was frozen shut.

"Told you this would happen." Ahsoka looked up at Renn with a deadpan expression on her face.

Renn was still carrying the girl in his arms form when she tripped escaping from the ice boulder, so she only had to move her head a little bit to glare at him.

Ahsoka had rolled her ankle when she had tripped and Renn thought that she probably either twisted or sprained it.

Yaddle and Opal were more adept at using the force to heal wounds than him, but he was able to use the skill reasonably well. Well enough to heal a sprained ankle at least, but he wanted to get them out of the caves first which is why he was still carrying Ahsoka.

Renn just sighed and nodded in agreement, the girl had been warning him about the cave entrance sealing shut for a while know. And it turns out she was right.

"Well, never mind." Renn said tiredly, "Guess we'll just destroy it."

"Oh yeah right, like it's that easy," Ahsoka rolled her eyes, "That doors massive and it's part of a jedi temple, you won't be able to break it like you did with the ice on the side passages."

"It'll be fine," Renn said as he shrugged and lowered Ahsoka gently to the ground before he stepped towards the ice door and began to examine it.

He ran a gloved hand gently over the surface of the ice analysing it before drawing a vibro-knife and chipping away at the door.

Renn carved a small alcove into the ice before stopping and sheathing his blade. He then reached into a pouch on his belt and withdrew the spare power packs he carried for his blaster before pressing them into the alcove.

He fiddled with the power packs causing them to be in danger of overloading and then added an explosive charge that he had in another pouch to the pile of potential destruction and walked back to Ahsoka.

Renn then snapped his palms towards the door and sent a shock wave of the force towards the pile of explosives.

The pile of power packs and the explosive charge detonated, and the force wave stopped the explosion from going back into the corridor and instead the full force of the blast rippled through the wall of ice.

The ice splintered and exploded outwards in large chunks. A cloud of evaporated water leaked out from the sides of the huge hole that had been carved into the ice door and tinny crystal-like shards of ice fell from above.

"See, told you it would be fine," Renn said as he crouched down to pick Ahsoka up again and began walking towards the exit.

Ahsoka rolled her eyes again and pretended to look unimpressed, but she couldn't help grinning as Renn carried her out of the caves.

The two of them emerged from the caves and found themselves in a circular chamber made of old stone walls frozen with ice, and Renn figured that this was Ilum's jedi temple.

He's suspicions were confirmed when he looked down to see a group of terrified jedi younglings, a bewildered looking padawan and a shocked looking jedi grandmaster, who was gaping open mouthed at Renn.

Renn just shrugged, ignoring the jedi, and started walking towards one of the stone benches that were dotted around the chamber so that he could treat Ahsoka's ankle.

He had only made it a few steps when he heard a girl scream Ahsoka's name and charge forwards and try to wrap her in a big hug.

A task that proved difficult for the small human youngling as Renn was still carrying Ahsoka in his arms.

The girl ended up jumping up and nearly colliding with Renn trying to get to her friend before finally managing to embrace her, causing Renn to somehow end up carrying both girls.

"I was sooo worried about you! I-I thought you had an accident or something. A-are y-you okay, are you hurt anywhere? W-what happened?" The youngling asked, not even trying to hold back the tears of relief and worry that were spilling from her eyes and running down her cheeks.

"I-I w-wanted to go look for you, b-but they wouldn't let me. C-cause I'm t-too weak. I-I'm s-sorry." The youngling continued to cry as she hugged Ahsoka tightly.

"Shhh, I'm okay. It's okay." Ahsoka said comfortingly as she rubbed her hand across her friends back in small circles.

Renn smiled softly at this and decided to just carry the two girls to the bench before lowering them slowly so that they could both sit comfortable on it.

He was in the process of standing back up when he heard a shout from behind him and the sound of a lightsabre being ignited.

"Intruder! Unhand the Younglings!" Renn turned to see the padawan glaring at him with his lightsabre pointed threateningly towards him.

Grandmaster Yoda still looked to be in a state of shock and was just watching the proceedings, while the other younglings were looking around in worry and confusion.

Although Renn did notice a couple of younglings giving the padawan weird looks, as Renn wasn't even carrying Ahsoka and her friend anymore, so they were trying to figure out which younglings Renn was supposed to unhand.

"Surrender intruder! You have no where to run!" The padawan ordered Renn just stared at the jedi in confusion.

"Come on mate," Renn said tiredly waving a hand dismissively towards the padawan, "Let's not do this, I'm too tired for… whatever this is."

The younglings who had been giving the padawan weird looks giggled at Renn's words and the padawan's face flushed red with anger.

"I said… SURRENDER!" the padawan screamed in rage jabbing the point of his lightsabre towards Renn who just rolled his eyes.

The padawan looked like he was a few years older than Renn, but Renn thought he was acting like a petulant child and so just ignored him.

"Answer mee!" the padawan hissed in rage after Renn had just sighed instead of surrendering.

"Hey guy! Shut it! Can't you see I'm trying to comfort my friend right now!" Ahsoka screamed from behind Renn. "She's upset right now, so I'd appreciate a bit of QUIET!"

The padawan looked like he had been slapped by the sound of Ahsoka's voice and Renn couldn't help but laugh at the man's expression.

Renn watched the padawan's face go even redder as his embarrassment just turned to more rage.

"Y-you've brainwashed a youngling! How dare you!" The padawan stammered and Renn lost all hope for the man not being a complete idiot.

The padawan rushed forward towards Renn, lightsabre raised high, and he heard a gasp of alarm from Ahsoka behind him.

"Padawan! Stop! You must!" Renn heard someone yell and knew from its strange phrasing that it was Yoda shouting for the padawan to stop. Probably more out of concern for the padawan than Renn.

But the padawan ignored the jedi grandmaster and kept running.

Renn just watched the Padawan rushing towards him with a raised eyebrow and grinned. A thought suddenly came to him, and he had to fight his instinct to start laughing.

He remembered on of his visits to Kamino and a conversation he had had with Spoon, his trainee ARC trooper friend.

He and Spoon had been discussing recent updates in galactic sports, specifically bolo-ball which they were both big fans off, when their conversation had gone to Jango teaching the Alpha ARCs the Mandalorian language.

Shae had taught Renn some phrases in Mando'a, as it was her native language and so she was fluent, but the phrases Spoon began telling him about were different. And primarily insults.

One in particular insult that Spoon had told him seemed to perfectly sum up the jedi padawan currently charging him. 'Kaysh mirsh solus' which literally translated to 'His brain cell must be lonely'.

Renn kept grinning as the jedi swung his lightsabre one handed towards him in anger, still thinking about the joke in the privacy of his own head.

The jedi let out a shout of victory as his lightsabre's blade approached Renn's neck, until it suddenly turned to a squawk of confusion and panic.

Renn stepped quickly into the jedi and grabbed the hilt of his lightsabre with one hand before smartly kicking the padawan's legs out from under him.

Seconds later the jedi was lying flat on his back with Renn kneeling on his chest and a vibro-blade hovering inches from his exposed throat.

"I told you to leave it mate" Renn snarled menacingly and the Padawan looked up, pure fear in his eyes, before fainting.

Renn's eye's widened in surprise after the jedi just fainted in fright and he turned to look over at Ahsoka who just shrugged, her friend still hanging onto her like a limpet.

Renn heard the sound of someone clearing their throat and turned to see the small green form of jedi grandmaster Yoda leaning on his small cane next to him.

"Appreciate it, I would. If release the padawan, you did." The jedi commanded and Renn raised an eyebrow questioningly.

He looked at the grandmaster for a moment before looking back down at the unconscious padawan, his vibro-knife still hovering inches from the man's throat.

Renn then looked back at Ahsoka, who just shrugged again helpfully and Renn sighed before rising to his feet.

He didn't sheath his knife however, and instead began twirling it around his hand absentmindedly as well as tossing it into the air and catching it.

Yoda sighed and prodded the face of the unconscious padawan with the tip of his cane, but the padawan remained stubbornly unconscious.

"Hmmm." Yoda hummed before turning away from the padawan and looking up at Renn.

"Nice it is, to see you again." Yoda said in his signature weird way. "And grateful I am, that return our lost youngling, you did."

"No problem," Renn said simply, and an uncomfortable silence descended on the temple as Renn watched Yoda shuffle uncomfortably.

Renn then smiled to himself and walked over to Ahsoka to check on her ankle. It was definitely sprained but after a quick application of force healing it was good as new.

"Unusual it is, for one so young to be so skilled in the healing arts." Yoda said from behind Renn, and he turned back to look at him.

"Nah, I wouldn't say I'm that good," Renn said thinking about how skilled Opal was, "Yaddle taught me a few tricks. Nothing fancy, but it's cheaper than buying med kits."

At the mention of Yaddle Yoda stiffened slightly and a mournful look filled his eyes.

"Okay, is she?" Yoda asked sadly.

"Yep, she's loving retirement," Renn said happily, as he thought of the small green woman who spent most of her time relaxing or occasionally ranting about forming a new jedi order that wouldn't be, quote, 'full of idiots'.

"… Please tell her, rejoin the order, she still can…" Yoda said softly, almost sombrely, while looking at the floor.

"Yeeeah, that's probably not going to happen," Renn said evasively, remembering the 'choice' words Yaddle had used to describe the jedi order the last time she had spoken about them, "But I'll let her know."

Yoda nodded then walked away to try and wake up the still unconscious padawan and Renn watched him go until he felt a small tap on his back.

He turned to see Ahsoka, and her friend stood behind him. Ahsoka was stood slightly behind her friend and was silently smiling at the nervous looking girl.

"Err, I-I wanted to thank you for saving my friend," The girl stuttered nervously.

"Pfft, please. More like I saved him," Ahsoka snorted confidently and Renn just rolled his eyes.

"No worries," Renn said smiling at the two girls, "But I'm sure she could have handled getting out on her own."