Summary: A sequel set two years after Use Discretion, and in between Episodes I and II, obviously. The encounter with the Force-wielding stranger has yet to be explained, and there are other forces at work in the lives of the Jedi and would-be Jedi of the universe.
Warning: Nothing.
Disclaimer: I own plot and OC's. Don't own anything else.
After a pathetically-long hiatus inspired by just plain block, college, and my boyfriend, I have returned. At least to post this. Hopefully, this is the beginning of at least updates a little more frequently. Here's hoping!
Please review if read. Comments, ideas, suggestions, and helpful criticism welcome. Flames will be ignored.
"I thought you said you knew her!" Reli exclaimed, running close behind Atton as they escaped from the cantina, which had exploded in a brawl moments earlier.
"I do! I did! I do!" he protested, and she only glared at him. Rounding a corner, the man pulled Reli after him, hiding her to his side as their pursuers shot past on stolen speeders, shouting to one another to find the pair of humans.
"I should have asked how you knew her, then," she remarked dryly, catching her breath while Atton replaced his blaster back in the holster on his right thigh.
"Well…it's complicated," Atton hedged, and she groaned.
"Do tell. She waits five minutes, and then tries to blast us. Former lover, maybe?" she asked, peering at him. Not losing his composure for an instant – shameless as well when it came to some things – he only grinned back.
"Yep."
"No former lovers as contacts, then," she said, rolling her shoulders absently.
"Jealous?" he shot back easily, watching her. Having traveled together for almost two years, the two had formed an odd sort of partnership – a forced one, albeit – and Atton never gave up trying to start something.
"Hardly. I'd be more jealous if a Hutt wanted you for a bounty," Reli informed him dryly. Seeing his carefully-blank look, she stared at him before muttering something under her breath. "Don't tell me, I don't want to know," she said louder, for his benefit.
"I hear and obey," he replied, executing a mock bow and smirking.
"Shut up," she ordered calmly, peering around him to see into the main streets. "You think it's safe for us to come out yet?"
"With Kilyana knowing I'm on the moon? Nope," Atton told her, his tone one of boredom and hinting at years of experience doing this kind of thing. Reli tried hard not to think about how many times they had been forced to run from Atton's 'contacts', and grit her teeth.
"We might as well get to the ship," she said finally, running a hand through her hair. It had darkened to an almost mahogany hue, and was twisted into an intricate knot on the base of her neck to keep out of her way, several tendrils of hair framing her face. "If you think you can manage to pilot us off this rock."
"I'll do that, and see you two X-wings I can get into hyperspace without being caught," the man shot back, and Reli punched him lightly in the arm.
"Enough, you braggart. Let's get going," she repeated, blaster still in hand. She preferred not to use her shoto in public – and especially not in a place like this.
"Was that fun enough for you?" Atton asked, putting the ship on autopilot once they were in hyperspace, heading for Aaris II. Reli rested her elbows on the back of the co-pilot's seat and favored him with a bemused expression.
"Oh, quite enough fun," she replied, rolling her eyes as proof. The black hood of her robe was hanging down her back, her shoto safely tucked in her sleeve as always. Sitting down with a sigh, she checked the coordinates with concern. "The Aaris system?" she objected. "That's in the Kathol Sector, in the Outer Rim. What's there for us?"
"Well, you see–" Atton began, but she cut him off sharply.
"Oh, don't try to lecture me," she informed him, recognizing the tone. "You always seem to drag me into more trouble," she added as an afterthought. "Some bodyguard you are. I would have been better off at Naboo…" she murmured, looking out the shielded window of the cockpit with a frown.
"But there's something there you might be interested in," he said, as Reli went silent in her own thoughts. "There's a cave with Force-sensitive crystals there."
"And you happen to know where it is," Reli said skeptically, seeing where the pilot was going with that.
"Not exactly, but I know someone who can get us there," he shrugged, sitting back and crossing his arms behind his head. "And maybe there're some clues about this Jedi Master you're looking for there. It's worth a shot," he added defensively.
"No, it's a good idea…not that there's anything else to do," Reli mused. Atton's confusing – and sometimes complex – way of looking at things often resulted in disaster as a whole, but provided important information, or even exactly what they needed; all in all, the results usually outweighed the damage. "I'm just wondering what's going to be waiting for us there," she added, glancing cynically at him. "Seeing as everywhere we go, you seem to 'know' people."
"This guy's all right, I swear," he protested, raising his open palms to face her.
"I've heard that before."
The blue-green planet ended up being little more than mountainous swampland, and Reli shook her head in bemused disgust as the Ebon Hawk was landed on a small landing pad in the midst of what seemed to be an abandoned settlement. Small huts were crowded together defensively against the rest of the planet, and the sun was barely able to penetrate the thick foliage above them. It reminded her in some ways of the place on Kashyyyk, the undergrowth the Wookies called the Shadowlands – only that was more hospitable.
"What a place," she remarked dryly, lifting the hem of her gown higher as they picked their way from the pad to the area that somehow resembled a street in the fact that it was lacking all the muck. Underneath her black robe that resembled a Jedi robe, she wore an equally-dark gown that ended just below her knees in the same style as Naboo, with loose sleeves and closely fitted around her torso. Silver designs edged the hem and bodice, her shoto was in her sleeves, and high black boots over gray legging she wore underneath the gown completed the outfit she had taken to wearing.
"Better than some," Atton replied, looking around with his hand on his blaster. It was a gesture Reli had grown accustomed to, and she hardly took notice of it anymore. It was when each hand was on a blaster was when she bothered to worry.
"I'm sure it's better than some you've seen," she agreed, looking around as well. There were some signs of life around – the fact that the surrounding forest hadn't taken over the buildings yet was a clear example. Reaching out with the Force, Reli thought she picked up some life forms, but wasn't sure. She had trained intensely during her time with Atton, not only learning techniques to block the Force from her mind, but practicing skills she remembered from her days at the Temple.
"Yep," he nodded, striding down the street. Reli easily kept up with him, and prodded his shoulder.
"Are you sure you can trust this guy?" she asked, and he grinned.
"Not any more than I can trust anyone else," he admitted, and she groaned audibly.
"Oh, that's just great," she sighed.
"Hey, it's nothing I can't handle," he said patiently, and she glared at him. "Just relax. And don't take too much offense, either," he added suddenly, and Reli narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"What do you mean?" she demanded, and he laughed nervously.
"You'll see."
"Atton!" a voice hollered, and they turned their attention to the approaching human male. He appeared to be in his early thirties to Reli, with black hair and blue eyes, tall stature, and dressed in clothes that suggested he did a lot of traveling and got very dirty in the process.
"Huron, nice to see you!" her bodyguard greeted the other enthusiastically, clapping the man on the back after shaking his hand. "Good of you to agree to this."
"Well, I've been meaning to go out there anyway, so – hello!" Huron said eagerly, noticing Reli, who was standing behind Atton with a dry expression. "And who might you be? Atton doesn't usually attract women of such class," he began, but grunted when Atton punched him in the side.
"Cut it out," he ordered, and she shook her head.
"My name is Reli," she introduced herself, retreating to her formal speech as she usually did with people she didn't trust. Atton noticed, but shrugged.
"She's the girl I'm the bodyguard for – I told you, remember?" he prodded. The other man had a blank look for a minute before nodding suddenly.
"Oh! She's the one?"
"Yes, I'm the one," Reli said in irritation, hating to be talked about as if she wasn't there. "Now, how far is the cave from this location?"
"About two days worth of hiking," Huron replied with a shrug eerily similar to Atton's. "Can't use swoops in this terrain – muck'll suck you down faster than anything else around."
"And how will we avoid that demise if we walk?" Reli asked testily, giving Atton the look he had grown to know meant he was in big trouble.
"I know paths around the bad areas," the man replied promptly, almost looking smug. "And we use the trees in some parts."
"It sounds more like an acrobatic session than a hike," she grumbled, but crossed her arms across her breasts in resignation. She wanted to get to those caves, and if this was the only way…she had been through worse, a little slime and tree-jumping wouldn't hurt her. "When are we going to leave?"
"Well, it's this planet's night cycle, and I don't recommend traveling when it's dark," Huron told them, looking around. "There's a few mercs here that won't mind some company for the night."
"So, this place is deserted?" Atton asked, falling into step next to the other man as Reli followed close behind.
"Sort of," Huron replied with another shrug. "Like I said, some mercs and adventurers come around to see what they can find, but no merchants or settlers. Rough crowd, but not too bad if you don't rile them."
"Sounds pleasant," Reli commented sarcastically, and rolled her eyes to look upwards as Atton backpedaled to drape an arm across her shoulders. Giving her a smirk he knew she hated so much, he gestured around.
"Hey, I can handle anyone around, so don't worry," he said with a wink, and grunted when she elbowed him sharply in the ribcage. "I was trying to reassure you!"
"If it's anything like what happened on Nar Shaddaa, I'm going to be saving you," she said primly, and the man 'hmphed' in her direction before sighing.
"Fine, fine, I get it. We'll stay on the ship for the night, Huron, and meet you there – the ship – in the morning," he said, clarifying the location with a slight warning tone in his voice. The two men stared at each other for a long moment before Huron nodded in acceptance.
"All right, I'll make a racket to get you two outside," he agreed, striding off towards the rest of the buildings. Atton turned back to see Reli already heading for the ship, and jogged to catch up with her.
"Hey! You don't have to leave me," he said in a hurt tone.
"I don't like it here," she said shortly, and he noticed her hand was in her sleeve with the shoto – a sure sign she was ready for a fight. "Something's not right."
"What do you mean?"
"If there are Force crystals around here, Jedi would have been here at one time or another," she informed him. "But I don't sense any Jedi presence around, or any trace that they might have been here."
"So? Maybe they just don't know about this place yet," Atton shrugged, but she shook her head.
"Jedi have been venturing into the Outer Rim worlds to find crystals like these for centuries. Aaris isn't that far from the Rim to be undiscovered until now," Reli pointed out.
"You think we should leave?" he asked, and got another shaking of her head as an answer.
"No – if there are crystals here, it'd be best to know about them," she replied. "But don't let your guard down."
"Do I ever?" he asked jokingly, slinging an arm around her shoulders again. She had yet to decide whether the gesture was one of friendship or an attempt at romantic contact, but he rarely did it, and whenever he did, she was grateful for the contact.
Reli woke up late that night – or early morning, it was impossible to tell – in a cold sweat, gasping. Sitting up in the bunk, she shook her head in an effort to dislodge the vivid dream from her memory.
"What's the matter?" Atton demanded, skidding into the room with his blaster drawn, wearing nothing but his pants.
"Nothing, it's nothing," she said, wiping off her forehead with a sigh.
"Nothing? It must have been hell of nothing, because I heard you all the way from my bunk yelling something," he retorted, his sleeping area on the other side of the ship.
"It's nothing," she said testily, shaking her head again. "I'm fine. Just a bad dream, I guess." She paused, unsure what to say. The dream itself hadn't been a bad one – but it disturbed her nonetheless. "I keep getting the feeling that staying on this planet is an idea that's only getting worse," she remarked dryly, but Atton wasn't about to be sidetracked so easily. Taking a seat near her knees, he eyed her with the abrupt seriousness she never expected from him.
"What was it about? Kenobi again?" he guessed, and she nodded quickly in silence. "You know, we could just track him down if you need to see him that badly," he suggested lightly, but Reli shook her head.
"No, it's not that. I guess I'm just getting more sensitive in the Force," she replied stiffly. "And I've had contact with him, so it's only natural."
"I don't see you dreaming about his old Master, or the Queen, or me," Atton pointed out, a bit tense as well. She knew he didn't like Obi-Wan for several reasons, and it was a sore subject between them after all this time.
"I can't explain it," she said shortly, rolling over on her side so her back was towards Atton, and she stared at the wall for moment before closing her eyes stubbornly. "We should get more sleep before that friend of yours shows up." Reli waited for the weight on the bed to move and leave, but to her surprise it merely shifted and grew heavier. She looked over her shoulder just as Atton, who had stretched out next to her, crossed his arms behind his head and looked up at the ceiling.
"I'll stay here, just in case," he told her, his tone revealing it was clearly useless to argue with him. Sighing heavily to make a point, Reli shifted again to face the wall and closed her eyes, pulling the blanket up to her chin. Pointedly ignoring his presence, she soon fell asleep, leaving Atton alone with his own thoughts.
Yes, Obi-Wan will be making an appearance. Of course. Please review.