"There is a good reason why we forbid Jedi from marriage. When we love someone, we fear to lose them. Fear leads to anger, hatred, corruption, and ultimately, darkness. As long as Jedi do not become attached to anyone or anything, they can rest assured that they will never fall to the dark side." - Verrack, from Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters

"Patrick!" Pete suddenly shouted. "Run!"

Patrick turned away from the man in the dark armor and sprinted toward the escape pod, but he ignited his blue-green lightsaber anyways, just in case he had to fight. He gasped for air, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he and Pete ran for their lives. Eventually, they made it to the ship, and Pete frantically tried to open the door. At first, it wouldn't budge.

"Patrick, do something!" Pete exclaimed.

Patrick took a deep breath and let the Force flow through him. Then, he reached his hand toward the door, and all of a sudden, it swung open. Pete smiled, and both of them climbed inside before the man in the dark armor caught up with them.

"Holy smokes, that was close," Patrick said as he turned off his lightsaber and took control of the ship.

"Yeah," Pete said, trying to catch his breath. "Where are we going now?"

"I don't know," Patrick said as he pushed a few buttons on the control panel. The escape pod slowly began to rise, but Pete glanced nervously at the Star Destroyer.

"Can't we use the hyperdrive?" he said.

"Not while we're still in the atmosphere," Patrick replied. "Just be patient, okay?"

While Patrick steered the ship upward, Pete reapplied his eyeliner. Patrick rolled his eyes, but he didn't say anything. He had to pay attention to what was going on around him if he wanted to make it out of here alive.

Once Patrick was far enough away from Alsakan, he turned back to Pete. "Do you even realize how ridiculous you look right now?" he asked.

Pete smiled. "Admit it," he said. "The makeup looks amazing."

"I wouldn't say that..."

"You know, makeup is great for a guy. Because it makes a guy look..."

"Pete, will you focus?" Patrick said. "We need to decide where we're going."

"Anywhere where that guy with the helmet won't find us sounds great, Trick," Pete said. He pulled out his copy of Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters and started flipping through it, much to Patrick's chagrin.

Patrick sighed and said, "Put the book down. How about Devaron? I've always wanted to go there."

"Why Devaron?" Pete said. "That's such a boring planet."

"Boring planets are safe planets," Patrick said.

"Yeah, whatever," Pete said.

"Give me a pen," Patrick said. Pete groaned, but he handed him one anyways. Then, Patrick leaned over and wrote in the margins of Pete's book, "BORING PLANETS ARE SAFE PLANETS."

Pete sighed. "Seriously, Patrick?" he said. "You just ruined my book."

"No, I didn't," Patrick said. "You already wrote all over it."

It was true. Pete's copy of Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters was covered in marginalia. Most of Pete's annotations didn't even make sense. He'd written things like "Before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger," "Am I more than you bargained for yet?" and "Pat and I in the wake of Saturday."

"Please don't call me Pat," he said to Pete when he saw that last one.

Pete crossed out "Pat and I" and replaced it with "me and Pete." "Is that better?" he asked.

"I guess so," Patrick said. "So are we going to Devaron or not?"

Pete shrugged. "Why not?" he said.

Patrick set the destination coordinates for Devaron, and he piloted the escape pod toward the nearest hyperspace route. With the new hyperdrive, he was sure that they'd be there in no time. Pete was still busy reading, but Patrick ignored him as he carefully navigated the ship.

"Hey Patrick?" Pete said just as Patrick was about to shift the escape pod into hyperspace.

"What?" Patrick said.

"What's up with your lightsaber?" Pete asked. "I've never seen one that was that color before."

"Yeah, even Master Yoda thought it was unusual, and he's seen everything," Patrick said. "It's halfway between blue and green..."

"Kind of like your eyes," Pete interrupted.

"Yeah," Patrick said. "Kind of like that."

"Well, I think it's very pretty," Pete said.

Patrick was about to respond, but by the time he looked back, Pete had already returned to his book. Patrick shrugged and turned on the hyperdrive, and soon, the escape pod was traveling faster than the speed of light, hurtling out of the Core Worlds and into the Colonies.

Within a few seconds, they were in the Devaron system. Patrick turned off the hyperdrive and piloted the ship toward the planet. Devaron was a small world with a lush, green surface, and already, Patrick couldn't wait to explore it. He carefully entered the planet's atmosphere and allowed the escape pod to float to the ground.

Patrick and Pete climbed out of the pod, and they stopped for a moment to look around. They'd landed in the middle of a dense forest, with trees towering all around them. "Come on, Patrick," Pete said. "Couldn't you have landed us somewhere closer to civilization?"

"I think we're fine just where we are," Patrick said. "Besides, maybe we'll get a chance to see the Temple of Eedit."

"That's on the other side of the planet!" Pete exclaimed. He groaned and leaned against a tree. "Maybe we should try finding somewhere to stay for the night. It's already starting to get dark."

"We could just sleep in the ship," Patrick said.

"Where's the fun in that?" Pete said. "We should at least make a fire or something."

"Do you even know how to do that?"

"Master Dystrala always used Force Lightning to start fires."

Patrick was horrified. "That's a dark side power!" he exclaimed.

"The dark side's not necessarily bad," Pete said. "It's just...dark."

"That's not what Master Yoda said," Patrick said.

"Master Yoda doesn't know everything."

"He's 900 years old!"

"That doesn't mean he knows everything," Pete said. "Just like good cannot exist without evil, the light side cannot exist without the dark side. Master Dystrala thought that we should use both sides of the Force without falling to one side or the other. We should be balanced, just like the Force itself."

"But the dark side corrupts," Patrick argued. "You can't use its powers without becoming evil."

"Do you think I'm evil, Trick?" Pete asked.

Patrick paused to think, but after everything Pete had done for him - convincing him to stay in the Ancient Texts Library during the raid, talking him into going to Alsakan, comforting him whenever this whole situation became too much - the answer was clear. "No," Patrick said. "I don't think you're evil."

"Then you can use the dark side without becoming evil," Pete said. "You just have to be careful."

"I'm still not letting you use Force Lightning to start a fire," Patrick said.

"Suit yourself," Pete said. He wandered aimlessly around the forest, whistling some strange tune, while Patrick rubbed two sticks together in an attempt to start a fire. It didn't work, so he tried again. Over and over, he did the same thing, but nothing worked.

"Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?" Pete said after Patrick had been trying to start a fire for over an hour.

Patrick frowned and kept on trying, but he was losing hope. "Maybe we don't need a fire," he said.

"No, we definitely need a fire," Pete said. He climbed back into the escape pod while Patrick picked up another pair of sticks and rubbed them together.

A few minutes later, Pete ran out of the escape pod. He was holding something, and Patrick adjusted his glasses so he could see what it was. "Hey Trick!" Pete exclaimed. "There was a lighter in the cargo hold this whole time!"

Patrick sighed, took the lighter from Pete, and started a fire. Soon, the fire was roaring, and the two Jedi were sitting next to it, enjoying its warmth.

"This reminds me of all those nights I spent with Master Dystrala and her friends," Pete said. "It feels like so long ago now."

"Yeah, it really does," Patrick said. "So much has happened since the raid."

Pete nodded. "I don't know why, but today's been rough for me," he said. "I just can't stop thinking about all the Jedi I knew, and how they're all gone now..."

In a move that surprised even himself, Patrick wrapped his arms around Pete and embraced him. "Thanks," Pete said as he held onto Patrick. "I really needed that."

"You're welcome," Patrick said.

Pete let go of Patrick and then said, "I've been thinking about the raid on the temple a lot lately. Do you have any idea of who could have done it?"

"No, I don't," Patrick said. "There must have been a Jedi involved though. No one else would be able to get into the temple, and one of the attackers definitely had a lightsaber."

Pete shuddered. "A Jedi wouldn't do something like that," he said.

"Honestly, for a while, I thought one of the New Wave Jedi started the attack, but now, I'm thinking the man with the black helmet might have been involved," Patrick said.

"Or maybe that guy's just troubled," Pete suggested.

"He had a red lightsaber," Patrick said. "I think he's more than just troubled. He could be a Sith."

"I'm just scared that whoever killed all of those other Jedi is going to show up again and kill us," Pete said.

"Me too," Patrick admitted. "I wish we knew what we were up against."

"Yeah, but at least we have each other, right?" Pete said. "I don't know what I would do if I really was the last Jedi alive."

Patrick nodded and rested his head on Pete's shoulder. The sun had long since gone down, and Devaron's three moons were shining brightly in the sky. As Patrick closed his eyes, he thought about Pete. He still wasn't quite sure how he felt about him. Sometimes, Pete drove him crazy, but sometimes, he made his heart skip a beat. He couldn't stand Pete, but he couldn't stand to be without him either. More than anything, he was afraid of losing him, and he was afraid of facing the rest of the galaxy alone. He knew it was against the Jedi Code to feel this way. He knew he'd become too attached. He told himself that he'd fix this, that he'd let go of his attachment to Pete before he fell to the dark side, but he suspected that it wasn't quite that easy. For now, he snuggled closer to Pete, promising himself that he'd let go of his emotions when morning came.

The next morning, Patrick awoke to a loud beeping sound. He slowly opened his eyes, but all he could see was bright sunlight. "Pete?" he said as he adjusted his glasses. "Where'd you go?"

"I'm right here, Trick," Pete said. Patrick turned around, and sure enough, Pete was there, tinkering with a red-plated droid. "R1-69, this is my friend, Patrick," Pete said. The droid beeped, and Pete said, "R1 says that it's nice to meet you."

"Uhh...okay," Patrick said. "How did that thing even get here? I thought you left it behind somewhere."

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Pete said. "Hey R1-69, how did you get here?" The droid responded in a long series of beeps. Patrick paid little attention, but Pete listened carefully.

When it was done, Pete turned to Patrick and said, "Apparently she was a stowaway on an Imperial ship." He paused to think and then turned to R1. "Wait a second," he said. "Does that mean there's an Imperial ship here?"

R1-69 responded with a single, high-pitched bleep, and Pete cursed under his breath.

"Patrick, we've got to go," he said. "There's an Imperial ship nearby."

"Are you sure?" Patrick said. "I haven't seen any ships around."

"You've also been asleep for most of the day," Pete said. "We should go."

Patrick nodded and headed for the escape pod, but before he got there, he noticed that there was someone following them. He turned around, and he saw the glow of a red lightsaber. Patrick's first instinct was to run, but the figure leaped out from behind the trees, did a rather impressive backflip in mid-air, and landed right in front of Pete. He was dressed in black, and Patrick couldn't help but notice his disproportionately large forehead. All of a sudden, the man twirled his bright red, double-bladed lightsaber and then held it to Pete's throat. "Any famous last words?" he said.

"Brendon, is that you?"