Jek just smirked at her when he caught her look at the words that he had said to the young man. He had expected the decision to come from him, but instead it seemed that the mother was pushing him towards the decision she was sure that her son wanted. He chose to stay as close to her as he could while the last interactions were had and the other siblings rushed to be rid of their oldest sibling, as though they could not wait to be rid of him. He found it amusing and was sure that the younger ones were bound to get into more trouble as soon as they left. When they returned, he trailed after her to the speeder and helped with the rather large bit of luggage from their second recruit before he went to get into the driver’s seat of the speeder. He looked to Aeris for instructions on where to go before realizing they were all kind of stuck because none of the children wanted to move away from the speeder or their older sibling.<br/><br/>Taking a deep breath, Jek shot a smirk over his shoulder at the two in the back “Want to see something cool?” he asked them before turning forwards. “Strap in.” He took in a slow breath as he closed his eyes, falling into a deep mediation with ease. He had strapped himself into the speeder before doing so, and it was a good thing as he floated up off the seat. He focused all of his attention in the Force onto the children and things around them, causing them to levitate up and away from the speeder. He stayed deep in meditation as he ensured all the children were carefully placed in positions that would not hurt them before he ended his mediation and gunned the speeder away before the children could get up and swarm them again. He had a large grin on his face, entirely calm but very pleased with himself. It had been a while since he was allowed to mediate to the point everything floated around him. To have that connection to the Force. He used it to guide him to their next location, where he pulled up just at the edge.<br/><br/>*****<br/><br/>An-Lok stayed hidden in her jacket, staring out at the scenery as they went along back towards the city they came from. They would have to stop and sleep again, among other short stops to feed the recruits. She didn’t want to talk to Jax after everything he had said to her. He didn’t know a single thing about what she had been through in the war, how this rich man would have only been one more among so many, and certainly not the first slaver. Other Sith happily accepted and used slaves, but her own experiences had caused her to hate them. There was only one way she could make him understand, to dredge up a memory she had wanted to stay hidden, forgotten. The source of one of her nightmares before he returned to her side. Jax was still trying too hard to cling to the Jedi and she needed him more open to her side of things.<br/><br/>“I’m hungry!” their second recruit called out, the third quickly voicing his agreement as well as informing them that he was cold. The large alien on the speeder bike also voice hunger and cold. An waited for them to stop, and for Jax to set up a fire to feed them all before she rose up out of the Speeder and sat on the back end with her legs folded, watching her lover with careful and angry amber eyes. “You don’t know, or understand how much war changes you. Or how easy it becomes to fall to the dark side. To realize that you’re already there when…” Tears swam in her eyes though she did not permit them to fall. She was quiet for a long time, watching him. She had more for him, just there on the edges of her mind and she let him know as much, as well that she wanted him to stay away from her until it came out. If he approached too soon, she would never be able to show him. This particular memory showed when she knew she had fallen.<br/><br/>The planet was long gone by now, a fate similar to Malachor, its name she could not remember and she hoped she never would as it threatened more buried memories. She had been on the planet, bustling with life amid the terror of war, homes and foliage burning down to nothing. People had been taking what they could to escape, and in the process, fallen victim to slavers. They wanted to get away with their lives but so many had been too strong willed and were dying as they fought against their captors. They had thought, in the middle of the war, that they were Jedi still and gone in to help. But An-Lok had fallen by then and when she was on the planet, surrounded by cages of people wearing shock collars, crying out in pain and for help, she had not been able to hold back. She had killed for the first time willfully that day, her orange lightsaber had been a constant light at her side for days as she ended the slavers and those in shackles who begged for their lives to just end instead of a false freedom in the middle of war.<br/><br/>Tears spilled from An’s eyes and she pulled back from the end of her memory, locking it back away from him and herself. She no longer felt anger, just a shame and pain of everything she had done.