27. April 2016: chapter updated
A/N:
Anyway - as mentioned previously, this is an incredibly self-indulgent monster of a fic. While my Inquisitor (Reiyaxa) is definitely the focus, my Agent (Zaara) and Knight (Cori) also feature fairly prominently during Rishi. Other classes will appear down the line. Thanks for reading!


"A shame. Perhaps I should've sent a team of my own."

"You did. My team found their corpses, Nox, there's no sense in trying to deny you went behind my back. The Republic simply beat us to both Manaan and Rakata Prime — this has nothing to do with the competency of my researchers."

Despite her efforts to keep her expression neutral, Rei found herself frowning down at the report on the datapad in front of her. She'd suspected something had happened to the Reclamation Service team she'd sent to Rakata Prime, but hadn't been able to confirm anything. And while she didn't exactly trust Darth Acina, Rei was confident she had no reason to lie at the moment.

Business in the Empire was continuing as normal — the death of Arkous and the alleged treachery of Lana Beniko no more than minor blips in the otherwise unaffected order of things — but Rei had been unable to put the Revanites out of her mind. She hadn't been satisfied with the Council's treatment of the situation, either; they'd simply blamed Lana, but it had been Arkous, a council member with a tremendous amount of influence and power within the Empire, who'd been at fault, not some inconsequential Sith lord.

Taking matters into her own hands had become nearly impossible, however, after she attempted to defend Lana. So Rei had been forced to turn to allies — not that she had many, but Acina's position had made her an obvious choice.

On the surface, they'd been attempting to harness the Rakatan technology used in the Revanites' cyborgs, but Rei had been hoping to find any further information on the Revanites. So far, they hadn't been successful on either front.

"Tell me, at least," Rei sighed, folding her hands on top of her desk, "we've got something? I'll accept that the facility on Manaan was too damaged to be of any use, but there's no excuse for returning empty handed a second time."

Acina raised an eyebrow, giving Rei an icy look of disapproval. "Given how desperate the Republic is to recover this technology, I'd say we've been successful, yes. What they didn't salvage, they destroyed — or tried to, at least. It is Rakatan, after all. It will take time to work through what we've acquired," she admitted, "but we should have enough to make a full report to the rest of the council in… a month, perhaps."

A month was better than nothing, Rei supposed, but it still felt like far too long. Either way, her role in their partnership was over for the moment, and she would have to be content with sitting and waiting for further updates from Acina. "You're working with scraps," Rei asked, "and the Republic, as far as we know, may have implants that are entirely intact. They'll have working prototypes before we even understand the technology."

"Yes, but they won't use them," Acina scoffed. "They'll study the technology and the information will waste away in some lab report. We can have enhanced soldiers bolstering our military all over the galaxy by the end of the year."

A secondary goal, in Rei's opinion, but an important one nonetheless. "And the Revanites? Is it possible to learn anything more about them from what we've gathered?"

Her question was answered with a lazy knock at the door and a voice she wasn't certain she wanted to hear at that moment. "Revanites? You're not still hung up on that, are you, Nox?"

Rei greeted Zaara with a terse, "Agent Ven."

"I don't mean to interrupt," she offered, voice far more sincere than it had been moments ago, "but your door was open, and it's important. Very important, according to the Wrath."

"We were just wrapping up." Acina stood, giving a curt nod first to Rei then to Zaara. "I'll forward you anything we find, Nox, but I won't make any promises. Always a pleasure, Agent."

Rei said nothing as Acina left, simply giving Zaara a questioning glance; the agent shrugged. "I did some work for her a while back. It ended well. It's not important — this is." She placed a mangled piece of metal on Rei's desk.

"Did you… steal that from an art exhibit?"

"It's a tracker, Rei."

"Have you seen some of the art in these museums? It's an easy mistake to make." Picking up the tracker, Rei turned it around in her hands, able to make out the remains of a metal shell. "Was if filled with explosives? Or, you wrestled a rancor for it, perhaps?"

Zaara rolled her eyes and snatched the tracker back. "I had SCORPIO rip it open to get to the core. I thought maybe we could use it to determine where they're coming from."

"And?"

"And no luck — at first. They don't do anything, so we couldn't track a signal back to wherever it came from." Pausing, she glanced towards the still-open door, lowering her voice when she spoke again. "I found a fourth one this morning, and we were able to piece together enough information to find an origin. Like I said, I told Darth Evris, and she thinks it may be connected to Rakata Prime."

"And?" Rei repeated. She knew Zaara was close with the Wrath; they'd both been involved in uncovering the Revanites originally, so she wasn't certain why they weren't both investigating now.

"She thinks it's trouble, and I agree. I don't trust anyone who can track me down on my own ship. That's why I want your help."

Rei stood, stretching her arms over her head with a contented sigh. "You know, I was just thinking I needed a vacation." There were preparations to make, of course, necessary precautions to take while she was gone from both Dromund Kaas and Korriban, and then there was the matter of gathering her crew; neither task would take long, considering Zash handled most of Rei's business while she was gone and her apprentices and Talos were never far. Andronikos had left the city for a few days, but she could have Zash send him a message.

As for Rei, she had a score to settle with the Revanites.

Cori awoke with a start.

The dreams and visions that had clouded her sleep for the past several nights were slowly becoming clearer; the danger had a source, the panic had a reason.

And, somehow, Lana was tied to it all.

Rubbing tiredly at her eyes, Cori slid out of her bed, searching for a pair of pants to slip on under her too-long shirt. There wouldn't likely be anyone else awake at such an hour — at least, she hoped not — but she'd been caught off-guard one too many times. All Cori wanted was to get some water, maybe meditate a bit, and get back to sleep; she didn't have the time or patience to deal with anyone's comments, teasing or otherwise.

Of course, as her luck would have it, she wasn't the only one awake.

Kira cocked an eyebrow as Cori walked in, both Jedi sharing a look of tired understanding. Wordlessly, she offered her the mug she held; when she protested, Kira shook her head. "It's tea. I'll make myself another cup. Trust me, you look like you need it more than I do."

With a mumbled thanks, Cori cradled the warm mug as she sat, curling her feet up under her. "What are you still doing up?" she asked, taking an experimental sip of the tea.

"Oh, you know — the usual." She shrugged. "Cryptic visions about some unavoidable doom. Nothing worth worrying over."

"I'm still having them, too. The dreams."

While she waited on her tea, Kira sat across from Cori, a devious grin spreading across her face. "Still dreaming about your Sith, huh?"

Cori was too concerned to be embarrassed; even though she had seen Lana again, she couldn't shake the feeling of dread from the dream. Still, she had to put up some fight. "You know it's not like that," she insisted weakly. "I think... I think she may be in danger."

Kira's grin slowly disappeared. "That bad? So your dreams are getting clearer?"

"Not exactly clear, but... I could make out jungles. And water."

"Jungles?" Kira frowned. "You wouldn't be thinking of Rishi, would you? Because the navicomputer's rerouted there a couple times. I've got Teeseven monitoring it to see who's messing with it," she added, "but it hasn't happened again. Not yet, at least."

"Rishi." Cori stared down at the floor for a moment, deep in thought. "I think... maybe." She shook her head as if to clear it; her lack of sleep combined with the darkness from the vision was making it difficult to think. "If this is all connected — to Lana and to the Revanites — then do you think we should check in with Major Sohms? She wouldn't be getting these visions."

Kira slowly arched an eyebrow, remaining silent for a few moments before asking, "Cori? You know it's not the Force that's messing with our navigation system. If Lana's in your dreams, I'm guessing Theron's in our computers."

"Right, that's… sorry." Cori stared down into her tea, unable to express how haphazard her thoughts were; the continued lack of sleep was beginning to get to her, but she knew if she went back to bed she'd spend the next few hours tossing and turning. "Still, I think I'll call in the morning. If nothing else, it'll be good to know if she's headed to Rishi, too."

"Speaking of in the morning—" Kira reached over to grab Cori's mug, "—you should get some sleep. I'll have Teeseven set a course for Rishi."

Knowing it was pointless to argue, Cori made her way back to her quarters, a bit more at ease knowing they now had a destination.

After a few hours of fitful sleep and unfocused meditation, Kira knocked on Cori's door. "Hey, Boss? Talked to the Major. They're having the same issues, so we're on the right track, at least."

Crawling out of bed, Cori rubbed tiredly at her eyes as her door slid open. "Are they headed to Rishi?"

She shook her head. "Havoc's dealing with some stuff on Belsavis, apparently. We're on our own. Unless… would your sister be involved with this, too?"

"I don't know. I haven't heard from Zaara in months," Cori admitted with a shrug. "I think you're right. For now, we're alone in this."

"You've contacted everyone, then?" Lana tugged her hood back as she re-entered the safehouse. Matters of galactic safety or not, making deals with pirates was considerably low on the list of things she'd prefer to be doing; the faster Theron could reassemble their team, the better.

Theron didn't look up from the console he was working at. "Yeah. Had some trouble finding your agent — no surprise there," he admitted with a little shrug, "but I took care of it. Any luck on your end?"

"Yes. I—" Lana clamped her mouth shut, leaning against the table in the center of the room and crossing her arms. With a frown, she asked, "Are you certain this will even work? Rival pirate gangs — the entire premise is absurd."

"Anywhere else? No. Here?" Theron finally turned to face Lana, offering another shrug. "It may be the only thing that'll work."

"I realize that. What worries me is that I doubt anyone other than Zaara would be able — or willing — to carry out such a pretense."

"So we'll have to work fast," Theron reasoned. "How quickly do you think our new friends will track them down once they arrive?"

"The ones I've spoken with? I can't be sure." Idle conversations and the din of cantina chatter moved to the forefront of Lana's mind; their plan, as she'd discovered, was having unintended consequences. "The other pirates may be doing our job for us," she admitted. "The reputation we've built for them is... receiving lots of attention. There are already wagers on which local crime lord will defeat either of the captains."

Theron let out a short, hard laugh. "That may work in our favor. I'm pretty sure our illustrious Major Sohms is incapable of passing up a fight."

Lana nodded, adding, "And assuming I'm right, and the Lord Wrath arrives with Zaara — they'll likely investigate, at the very least." She paused, brow furrowing. "What about the Jedi?"

Despite turning back to the console, Theron couldn't quite hide the beginnings of a smirk from Lana. "Master Cori? The Jedi you couldn't keep your eyes off of? I was wondering when you'd finally ask about her."

"I was referring to the probability that she would follow up on threats to her life," she clarified. This was neither the time nor the place and, ultimately, irrelevant.

"Based on her reputation, I'm guessing it's more likely she'll try to turn everyone here from a life of crime. Trust me — finding her won't be an issue."

"Good." Only somewhat settled by the news, Lana tapped her fingers against her arm, thinking. "In the meantime, I've had an idea on how to draw their attention. We're going to need some droids."