Disclaimer: Lucas owns Star Wars; we just mess with the reality.

Authors' note: This is a story that I am co-writing with a good firend of mine. This is AU, but set in the KOTOR era. Read, enjoy, and review!

Chapter 1: Not as Planned

Rina perched on the rooftop, hood drawn low over her eyes; she could see her target without them by channeling the Force through her eyes. The Sith strode alone down the night-darkened alley. He paused, his head whipped in Rina's direction, and the Jedi slunk lower amidst the shadows.

Good, Rina thought. He's seen me. But she stayed where she was.

The Sith Force-jumped onto the roof opposite her.

"Come out, Rina Vaxon!" he called.

Smirking, Rina rose slowly to her feet, and restored her normal vision. "Greetings, Darth Caverion."

"You've been following me again."

"And why not? You're the only opponent I've ever faced who I haven't killed in the first five minutes."

"Flattered."

"You should be."

There was a short pause in which Caverion chuckled, and then: "Shall we?" He pulled back his hood and drew his light sabers.

"Of course." Rina launched herself across the gap, drawing her double-bladed light saber as she flew. Caverion swung his sabers into an X over his head to catch one of her blades as it arced toward his head. Rina landed delicately in front of her opponent on the edge of the roof, the crossed blades locked.

"Very dramatic," Caverion commented, and Rina snarled, angling the other end of her saber toward his chest. "But ultimately futile, my little Jedi." The Sith lord shoved Rina's upper blade away to throw her back, and in the same smooth motion swept his blades at her abdomen. Rina used her backward momentum to hurl herself in a back flip to the other roof, and Caverion only managed to singe the edge of her cloak.

"Running away, little rabbit?" Caverion flicked off his sabers. "You know I am too good at finding things."

"And you know I am far too good at not being found." Flashing a taunting smile at the Sith, Rina re-clipped her light saber to her belt, and slipped off the opposite side of the roof.

"Let the hunt begin," Caverion chuckled, and used a gutter to slide to the ground. "Ready or not, little Jedi…"

Rina could feel Caverion's presence behind her. She whipped around a corner and got her bearings. There was a bar a block away, she knew, and—oh! She grinned as she felt the Force emanating from one of the guests; he wasn't nearly as powerful as she was, but possibly strong enough to deter Caverion. With a quick glance around, she darted inside the bar.

"Can I help you?" The bartender eyed Rina over the mug he was washing.

"No thanks." The former Jedi pulled her cloak closer around her to make sure her light saber was hidden; they tended to make people uneasy.

Weaving her way through the crowd, she made for the back door out into an alley.

Caverion sensed Rina leave the bar. "Nice try, princess," he smirked. It was a valiant attempt, he thought, leaping to the roof again by way of several garbage cans and a hovel held up by the buildings on either side. I mean, it was a good ploy, going through the bar near that pathetic excuse for a Jedi. Nevertheless, he continued, scampering among the shadows, you don't give me nearly enough credit…I am far too good a hunter.

Well, that didn't work, Rina observed, dodging down another side street to avoid the shadow she knew was following her. Alright, then; different tactic.

The woman suddenly broke out into a run, catlike strides eating up the distance between her and an abandoned house she knew to be nearby. She sensed Caverion drop to street level and match her pace. Let's see how well he handles this. She picked up speed, weaving through streets and alleys. Always her pursuer stayed just fifty paces behind. With a final burst of speed Rina darted around a corner and dove through the glassless window of the deserted house.

Interesting. Caverion slowed to a halt. His quarry had distorted the Force currents throughout the decrepit building, making it impossible for Caverion to get a good sense of her location. Where the hell is she? They were on equal ground now, relying solely on skills of stealth, with no help from the Force to see each other. "Clever, I give you that," Caverion chuckled. Bring it on.

Silently he cracked the door open. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty." The house was completely dark, save the faint, pale light from one of the moons that somehow filtered through the mountains and larger buildings to fall dimly through a half-boarded window. The whole place smelled of dirt and decay, and was completely silent. If anyone else had entered the dilapidated dwelling they would have thought it empty. But Caverion knew Rina better than that. No longer wanting to see the Force emanations, which only served as distractions in such an environment, Caverion let his vision fade to normal, drew his hood over his head, and melted into the blackness of the room.

Excellent. Rina couldn't help but smile. It worked. She perched precariously on a few floorboards from the nearly floorless room above the entrance, watching the barely distinguishable outline of Caverion against the scarce lighting as the Sith advanced across the room. Just a little closer.

The faintest creak from the wall across from her made the shadow twitch ever so slightly. No, no, no! Not that—Gah! Caverion had shifted course to investigate. No! You idiot! Come back this way! Yes…that's it…good…just a little closer…

Clearly the hunter had decided the noise wasn't worth his time, and began circling around toward the stairs. Perfect, Rina thought.

Realizing that the noise had not been Rina's doing was strangely satisfying to Caverion. It had disappointed him at first to think that Rina had been so careless, and he found now that it had confirmed his suspicions that this wasn't a waste of time.

When I catch her, Caverion thought, this will have been a hunt to remember.

He approached the stairs, anticipation building in his mind. He didn't hear Rina's muscles tensing or the faint flap of her cloak until she was on top of him. They were lucky he wasn't on the stairs yet—it would have been farther to fall. The pair went down and landed with a crash on the wooden floor, broke through the half-rotted boards, and fell into the basement.

They landed side-by-side amidst the dust and splinters, both coughing, and neither looking forward to the bruises they would surely have later. After each had ascertained that there were no large splinters lodged in their flesh, nor broken bones, they sat quite still for a moment. "Damn you," Caverion growled eventually.

"Well, I hadn't anticipated the floor falling out from under us!"

"You were trained as a Jedi! You're supposed to anticipate anything!"

"I wasn't trained as an architect!"

"Well you were the one who led us into a rotting house! You should have had enough sense to check that the floor could withstand—"

"Well I was watching you walk across it and figured it would hold—"

"Clearly not! I now have you to thank for my bruises."

"Oh, get over yourself! I doubt you have any opportunities to care about your appearance."

"Like you do either!"

"Oh, that was low!"

"What do you expect?"

"A little decency toward the one who cushioned your fall."

"You landed on me!"

"Did not!"

"Even so, I have you to blame for why I even fell through the floor in the first place. These bruises will throw off my form."

"Your bruises?"

"Oh, stop being so prissy."

"Prissy?"

"What? You got kicked out of the Order, so what use could you have for getting all cleaned up? It's not like you have to look good for Master Kavar any more."

"That went too far!"

"Did it?"

"Bastard!"

"Bitch."

"I hate you."

"You only say that because you know I'm right."

"Are not!"

"Whatever."

Rina gritted her teeth. "I was never interested in that—"

"Oh, please." Caverion rolled his eyes. "You fawned over him every time you worked together to track me down. Every time I saw you two together you were all over him." He made the mistake of turning his back. "I'll bet the reason you got kicked out was for having a little too much fun during the night hours with Master—" The Sith lurched forward from the force of Rina's kick. He twisted as he fell, and landed hard, facing Rina's burning gaze.

She came at him again, but Caverion easily dodged her foot, hooked the toe of his boot behind her knee, and brought her toppling down—right on top of him. Her elbow hit his stomach as she fell.

"Ow! Well, that backfired," Caverion grunted.

After a few moments of confused and painful struggling, Rina managed to pin Caverion to the floor and began hitting him anywhere she would find an opening in his defenses.

"Don't…you…ever…suggest…I was attracted…to any…of those empty…dogmatic…self-righteous…Jedi!" Rina spat.

Caverion caught hold of her wrists and gave her a mocking smile. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Such language; that's not very Jedi of you," he whispered, and flung her off him, grabbed her by the front of her robes, and slammed her into the wall. "And don't you ever sit on me again or I will kill you."

"Do it then," Rina snarled. "I dare you."

The Sith hesitated.

"Awww. Has the widdle Sith prince got a weak spot?"

His left hand grabbed her throat and lifted her higher so her feet dangled from the ground. She didn't flinch.

"You can't kill me. Admit it—you enjoy our duels too much. Perhaps you've even—" The hand tightened and she shut up.

"Not another word," Caverion hissed.

Rina shrugged, and drew her lightsaber. Caverion leapt to the side to avoid the blades, and drew his own sabers as Rina fell to the floor.

He tried to catch her by bringing the sabers down separately, one immediately after the other, but the former Jedi flung them both aside and regained her feet. She feinted a lunge with one blade, but brought the back end of her saber around in a wide sweep after Caverion had blocked her first move. The Sith parried that blade too, and pushed the attack, driving in hard with cuts to her head and torso, all of which she blocked. Rina managed to twist Caverion's left blade from his hand, and then went for his knees, aiming to cripple him. But her opponent jumped the blade and back-flipped out of reach when she abruptly changed the direction of her attack, swinging her blade upward. Skipping backward, the Sith caught his saber with his toe and flicked it up into his waiting hand. "Nice try."

The battle raged around the basement; sabers scorched the walls and the ruined stairs, whirling in a mad frenzy of feints, parries, and lunges.

Fifteen minutes of fighting later the pair were still going at it, using every ounce of their strength in their building frustration at being unable to score a hit. Caverion lashed out at his opponent again. "You're getting tired," he taunted.

"You wish." Rina sprung at him and succeeded in scorching the hem of the Sith's sleeve as he wheeled out of her path.

Half-an-hour later, the anger and adrenaline were wearing off, and movements were slowing. After another fifteen minutes, the pair, through a poorly-executed combination of maneuvers, locked sabers. "Give up," Rina growled.

"You first," Caverion snarled. Sweat plastered their clothes around them, and both were hot and exhausted.

In one final attempt Rina twisted her blade, hoping to get Caverion off balance, but merely succeeded in flinging Caverion's and her sabers to various corners of the room, where they flickered off. The opponents slumped against the wall and sat silently for a few moments, chests heaving, robes soaked.

"Why are we fighting, again?" Rina asked once they had calmed down again.

Caverion shook his head. "I can't remember." He nevertheless ticked off a few potential causes on his fingers: "The epic struggle of light versus dark; personal bragging rights; some sort of nonsense about one or the other of us being more sensitive than we would like to admit…"

They rested for a while until they had stopped panting…and began again: "Idiot," Caverion muttered.

"Freak," was Rina's response.

"Weakling."

"Prick."

"Arrogant whelp."

"Pale-face."

"Blonde."

"Jackass."

Caverion turned slowly, a satisfied grin spread across his face. "Fat."

Rina's eye twitched as she looked over at him, and the look on her face wiped away his grin. "Die!" She dove for Caverion's throat but caught his foot instead as he tried to scramble away.

Caverion clawed the floor to pull out of the Jedi's grip, but the floor was more yielding. "Let go of me, you hormone-driven Jedi princess."

"Hormone-driven?!" She pinned him by his legs and delivered a blow to the back of his head, knocking him out.


Caverion groaned as he regained consciousness. "…insufferable little twit."

"Who kicked your ass," said Rina. She spun one of his sabers on her finger.

"Hands off the hardware, sister." He reached out and pulled his weapon to him.

"Aw, you're no fun when you're defeated," she said.

Caverion grumbled, got up, and walked past her.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I need a drink."

"Someone's ego just got thrown out the window."

"Shut up."

She fluttered her eye leashes at him and raised his other saber. "Forgetting something?"

"Give it to me."

"Buy me couple of drinks, and I'll consider it."

"You drink?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You can't handle what I imbibe, Jedi."

"More than you can."

"Is that a challenge?"

She smirked.

"What are the stakes?"

"Free drinks for a week."

"Make it a month."

"Deal." Rina grinned. "But I'm not buying."

Caverion laughed. "Coin toss?"

"Tails."

The metal clinked against the floor. Caverion flicked on a saber to see by. "Damn!"

"Ha!" Rina snatched the coin up.

Caverion smiled and gestured toward the hole in the roof. "Ladies first."

With an impish grin she sprang through the hole in the ceiling. "It's decently safe," she called, testing the boards in front of her.

"Right, like I can trust your opinion of floor stability." But he joined her nonetheless. "Try not to get us killed on our way out."

"I can't kill you myself?"

"I think we've already established a truce of sorts."

"Oh, fine. Just make sure to stick around to pay me for my free drinks."

"Your free drinks? You had better stay to pay for mine!"

"I won't have to."

"Bullshit!"

She laughed. "Well, we'll just have to see, won't we?"

-End-

Authors' note: Tell us what you think.