You've Got A Friend In Ni

[Gar]

The Zeltron had to pause for a moment to regain her composure. "The last time I saw Master Henoch...he told me I was graduating, that I was to be a Jedi Knight of the Order...and he made me promise not to leave the academy until I had achieved this..." The tears flowed freely down her face now, dripping from her chin. "The next day the Zeltron officials, who had previously been tasked with bringing me back to my planet, told me that Master Henoch had confessed to forcing himself on me. He said that he used his position of authority to manipulate and coerce me into sleeping with him..." she winced, glancing up at Jaden with a pained expression, "He knew that the school board couldn't expel me for being raped. And he was right. The order was discontinued."

"I begged the Zeltros officials to speak to the council, to tell them Master Henoch was lying, but they would not listen. 'Don't worry, Miss D'magren,' they said, 'We've arranged it so that the general public will not know the name of Henoch's victim. Rest assured that you are safe now, everything is past you, and tomorrow you will graduate and be free of this wretched place.' After multiple attempts to reason with them and seeing that it was useless, I ran to the Headmaster. I begged him to tell the council the truth. I'll never forgot that cold look in his eyes..." she shivered, "Or his reply...I can still hear it plainly in my head today..."

"He said, 'You've been nothing but a thorn in my side since you came to this academy, Miss D'Magren, and now we've lost one of our best Masters, thanks to you. If you had any shred of decency, you'd go home today and revoke the Way of the Jedi, maybe take up dancing or something else you'd be better suited for. But doing something so selfless--that is too much to ask of your kind, isn't it?'" Ni pulled away her hands to wipe the tears from her face. "What the Headmaster didn't know is that I'd been ready to leave the academy for a long time. I only stayed because I made a promise..." she leaned one elbow onto her thigh and rested her forehead in her hand, "The next day I learned that Master Henoch had taken the Oath. He was banished from the Core Worlds. All because of me..."