The Ashes of Redemption.

A fanfic by Captin Azza based on 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' copyright Lucas Arts all rights reserved, developed by Bioware.

Chapter Two.

A thick, black coat of darkness dressed the capital city of Paddasamp, it was a color that suited the city well, manifesting the depression that covered the planet. From a distance the city looked like a graveyard, the crumbling buildings stabbed into the night like shadowy tomb stones, no lights illuminated these relics of a long forgotten, prosperous past, they stood mostly empty. An eerie mist floated between them, uninterrupted by the signs of life one would normally expect to find in a city. From within the city was like a grave yard too, there were no flashing banners, no streams of traffic criss-crossing through the air and barely any sounds.

Bastila Shan stepped off the Iythef transport ship and onto the landing platform, her movement barely making a sound. With the eyes of the soldier that she had become she quickly analyzed her new surroundings, a process that was as unconscious for her as blinking, her hand never went half a foot from her light saber which was hidden beneath her robes. She suspiciously eyed the few straggling passengers, fortunately they made no moves to attack her, perhaps sensing her readiness and ability to chop them to pieces. One whiff of the stinking, rotting air told her she needed to breath through her mouth.

Actually she felt a bizarre sense of belonging on the hell hole of a planet.

The irony almost caused her to grin and not in the sort of sane way one might at something funny. The place was broken and destroyed, a victim of the wars, it had never recovered, it should've died a long time ago yet it continued to live, a dark, hateful and toxic life, in fact the more she thought about it, the more she wondered whether she was thinking about Paddasamp or herself.

Bastila could still remember the days when she'd thought of herself as a good person but she didn't know where that person had gone. She had never really been able to go back to being herself after Malak, after all that had happened. Malak had shown her things about herself, shown her that she wasn't really the person she'd thought she was, that she never really had been, or would be. It didn't matter anyway, the old Bastila was a lie, not that she was any less of one now. If only Revan had stayed. Bastard. Redemption was an easy word to say but a hard thing to live.

What's the point in thinking about it Bastila?

She walked up the street as though completely oblivious to her surroundings. Actually Paddasamp wasn't the worse place in the galaxy, in fact many places that she had been outside of the core worlds were in a similar state. It was something she could easily get herself angry about if she thought on it too much, so she didn't, in fact thinking in general was something she'd taught herself to avoid, it only ever led her to despair.

Her hand slipped casually under her robe and gripped the handle of her light saber as she passed a gruff looking bum who looked like he was about to try and jump her. Her finger twitched over the trigger, her expression tightened and she glared at him as she walked, what little he could see of her face daring him to try it. The bum saw the look she gave him and thought better of it, he seemed to slump where he sat on the side of the road as if resigning himself to his pathetic life, pity struck her like a brick.

Keep walking Bastila, you can't save the galaxy. Look forward, one foot in front of the other.

After a short time she located what must pass for a Cantina on Paddasamp, to her it seemed like an extension of the rubbish pit that was the planet, only this part of it was configured like a bar. There were several twisted looking creatures scattered around, she privately appraised each of them, considering whether they seemed likely to be able to give her a ride to beyond the galactic rim - public transport didn't go there, apparently it didn't exist. None of them seemed likely, they were bums.

Not for the first time, she wondered why she'd actually come to this planet at all, it was supposedly known as the back door to the Republic; the easiest way in or out of Republic space, though, the more she saw of it, the more she wondered how this could be so.

The former Jedi walked up to the bar and sat on one of the stools, the shady looking character behind it gave her a spiteful look, the locals detested off worlders, she guessed that was because from their point of view the galaxy hated them and so they hated the galaxy in return. Fair enough. Actually it was something she could understand quite well.

"I shall have some of your most potent drink," She boldly declared, the barman collected the credits she'd left out for him then put a small glass in front of her, he then filled it with a slimy, green looking liquid.

She quickly surveyed the bar again as the barmen was preparing her drink, she looked down at herself. She hoped that the cloak she was wearing was tight enough to draw the right sort of attention, it should be she decided I'm the only one here who looks fit and not starving. Just to be sure, she pulled her hood down off her head. Hopefully it wouldn't be very long before she were 'approached' or attacked as the case would probably be, she didn't want to spend any longer on the dismal planet than she had to.

Bastila looked back down at her drink and wondered again whether she really wanted to drink it. What the hell. She put the liquid to her lips, thinking how disgusting it smelled.

--

Motten crept silently after his target, being careful to stay as far enough away from her as possible. Bastila Shan was elusive, yet she had been unable to escape his surveillance since her desertion of the military. Perhaps if she were aware that she was being followed, she would've made more of an effort.

Fool, she should assume she is being followed.

Motten had been an eager member of the military's covert operations unit since it's inception three years previously. Killing, stealing and deceiving were the name of the game and Motten loved it, he had been given a free license to do what he would otherwise have done anyway, he didn't even have to worry about being caught.

The covert operations unit – COPS – brief was to achieve victory through any means necessary and often it did so through means that weren't. It's members were drawn from regular soldiers who were being court marshaled, the more serious the crime, the more likely COPS would be interested. The unit was the military's most closely held secret, if the public realized it existed there would likely be a revolution.

Motten watched carefully as Bastila entered the seedy bar, why, he didn't know or care, he just hoped that the order to kill her came through, at that point his brief was mainly one of surveillance, likely the brass were mulling over what to do about the rouge Jedi.

Knock the bitch off and quit mucking around was his answer, he'd told them that too, manners didn't exist in COPS though there were certain lines that were never crossed, such as disobeying orders. Motten wasn't keen on doing anything that could take him away from his job, he loved it, even if he did get the odd mission that sucked.

He would often fill in the time by thinking about how he would kill Bastila if the order came through, when the order comes through, he corrected himself, they were bound to want it done eventually, Bastila was too dangerous to be wondering the galaxy. Between her battle meditation and the fact that she had been a Sith, she could potentially pose a real threat to the Republic if she were left to her own devices. Just the sort of threat COPS had been created to destroy; Bastila had done nothing illegal, her resignation from the military had been given and granted according to procedure, yet, she could not be allowed to live.

Motten's fantasies often involved capturing the former Jedi and torturing her a little, having a bit of fun before finally putting her out of her misery. He thought about this quite a lot. Appearance wise she was certainly the sort that many a man would fantasize about 'having fun' with, though Motten knew that if.. when the order came through, capturing her would be far too risky a thing to actually try. It would have to be done very subtly, maybe poison in her drink, or attaching a bomb to her space craft, these were the approaches that successful non-Sith usually took to killing Jedi, though they were boring, there were few other ways. Sometimes being a professional was hard.

He circled the building carefully and found a broken window through which he could observe the happenings on the inside, he produced a small camera, equal in size to a ball bearing and placed it on the sill, then he pulled out his small, pocket sized screen and tuned in the feed.

--

The drink seemed to rip the skin out of her throat as it went down, it was like a combination of sandpaper, slime, urine and a blunt heavy object to the head all in one small glass of green liquid. She rather enjoyed it. It gave her a sort of disconnection from reality which though temporary was pleasant. In fact she was considering asking for another when she sensed the approach of several others behind her, she turned around and saw a heavy fist flying directly at her.

Bastila easily dodged the fist which, compared to many of the fists she'd had flying at her over the years was moving quite slowly. The force that her attacker had put into his strike, combined with his clearly heavy weight, gave him quite a bit of momentum which unhindered by the fact that he hadn't hit anything, caused him to loose balance and fall forward, almost collapsing over the bar. She found it quite easy to grab the back of his head and bang it heavily on the bar, giving him a blood nose and knocking him out at the same time, his body slumped and collapsed on the ground.

The other patrons seemed to be relatively impressed with her moves, the barman had long since retreated, not seeming to want any part in the conflict.

By now she had noticed two more attackers confronting her, all three were dressed in motley rags, the one she'd knocked out was a short, squat human with medium length black hair, the other two were Rodians, both armed with blasters which seemed to be in very poor condition. The Rodians were both standing away from her and pointing their blasters at her chest, reluctant it seemed to attack her directly after seeing what had become of their fellow, or perhaps just afraid to use their blasters, Bastila wondered whether they would fire or blow up.

"Don't move," one of them said to her in galactic standard, it occurred to her that it was unusual to find Rodians who actually spoke galactic standard, unusual but not unheard of.

Bastila considered the two Rodians and their unconscious comrade, it seemed that her plan had worked perfectly, with any luck these fools would belong to some sort of organized crime group. If so there was a good chance that the group had at least a connection to some sort of unknown regions smuggling operation, services which made up the bulk of the Paddasampian black market. The slave trade was a main trade everywhere however and good looking female humans were more highly valued than any species save good looking female Twi'leks. Bastila hadn't wanted to spend time finding the smugglers, it was much easier to make them come to her, with satisfaction she saw that it seemed her plan had worked perfectly.

There had been a time when she would have vehemently refused to have any dealings with anyone of questionable character, other than the sort of dealings that involved them meeting the wrong end of her lightsaber, she grinned at the thought, she been so naïve in those days, so foolish.

"Put your hands in the air," one of the Rodians ordered her, it was certainly against her instincts to concede in battle, something she found very difficult to do but on this occasion was probably in her best interests, at least for the time being.

"Aright, I surrender," She did her best sound intimidated and raised her hands,

"Cuff her," the Rodian who had spoken before commanded his partner, the partner gave his gun to the one who had spoken, which he kept pointed at Bastila. The second one then walked behind her and pulled both of her arms together before snapping shackles onto her wrists. Bastila tested the restraints, they seemed solid enough but would be no match for the force when the time came.

The Rodian then searched her and found the wide range of things she carried on her, including credits, grenades, blasters and other things, he found her lightsaber and regarded it curiously, not seeming to even know what it was. He looked it up and down and was about to depress the trigger whilst unknowingly pointing it directly at his face, his mate stepped in at the right time however, appearing to be aware at least of what it was and prevented the dim witted Rodian from killing himself.

The two held a brief, hushed discussion in Rodian, apparently assuming that she was unable to understand the language even though she could. They shortly concluded that she probably wasn't actually a Jedi since if she were, she would've used her force powers to kill them. Bastila struggled to stop herself from grinning at their flawed logic.

The one who seemed to be the more intelligent of the two had needed to explain both what a Jedi was and what force powers were to the second one who despite this, didn't seem able to grasp the meaning. They also decided that she would probably fetch a very high price on the slave market, Bastila wasn't sure whether to be offended or complimented.

Confident that they had adequately restrained her, the Rodians then escorted her out of the bar, not even giving a backward glance to their unconscious friend. They took her to a waiting speeder which looked completely unserviceable but somehow mustered the energy to carry them off the ground and through the air. They eventually ended up at what was clearly some sort of criminal hide out built into the side of one of the dilapidated old Paddasampian high rises. Bastila was pleased, hopefully the rest of it would be this easy.

The hide out had been an office block once, the broken ruins of machinery littered the rotting, dead building. The 'landing bay' was merely a section of the building where the wall had collapsed, or been collapsed large enough to accommodate a small vessel, the roof of the story above had suffered similar treatment. Actually it was surprising that the floor was able to support the small transport craft.

As the Rodians led her though the hide out Bastila committed their route to memory, thinking it unlikely that there would be a usable route down through the building itself given the condition it was in. The hideout was quite elaborate, they passed several groups of riff raff who were no doubt fellow 'gang' members before being led to some sort of primitive holding cell.

The former Jedi, former Sith looked at the primitive iron bars wielded in a criss-cross pattern which wasn't even measured out very well. The bars were attached to a partially collapsed wall of what had once probably been a supplies cupboard. There was a small door built into the bars, the locking mechanism for which seemed to be a hand print pad.

Please, give me a challenge. She thought while studying the bars.

The 'cell' was already occupied by a slim, blond haired girl, probably under 20 standard years of age. The girl looked up when Bastila and her 'guards' approached and when they made eye contact, Bastila could see a street hardness in her eyes, like this girl was someone who knew how to handle herself. The girl was sitting on the ground in the cell, since there were no benches, she looked up at Bastila and then the Rodians, the cold, hard, unflinching expression on her face didn't change.

The Rodians clearly intended to lock her in the cell with the girl, Bastila decided that it was probably time to make her move. It was unfortunate that she hadn't been bought in front of some sort of leader before being imprisoned but she couldn't allow the Rodians out of her sight since they had her possessions. Now that she was in the base, she could probably find the leader anyway, then threaten him until he agreed to give her transport off the planet.

The smart Rodian was still pointing his blaster at her while the dumb one was pointing his at the girl in the cell and holding up his hand to the hand print reader, the cell door clicked and the door swung open,

"Get in," Smarty ordered her,

"Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you both ..."

Before the Rodians knew what had happened, she summoned the force and destroyed the circuitry in the shackles she had been wearing, utilizing a similar power to that which she could use to destroy droids, the shackles dropped uselessly to the ground. This only took her half a second and the Rodians, caught off guard, were unable to react fast enough. She used the force then to rip the guns out of both of their hands, quickly covered the short distance to Dumbie and used the handle of a gun to belt him over the back of his head, knocking him out. Meanwhile she used the force again to push Smarty to the ground, he had started to run off but didn't get far before Bastila knocked him over, she moved to stand over him and pointed the guns directly at his face,

"… how do I get off this planet?" she continued, speaking with a lot of force, making it clear to the Rodian that his life depended on him answering,

The Rodian laughed at her.

"Go to hell!" he shouted then, ignoring her weapon, seemed to spring himself off the floor and hurl his small, wiry body at her in a way that almost seemed impossible. His eyes glowed with raw fury and his movements were quick and feral, his hands reached out in front of him making to grab her throat, the short distance between them covered almost instantly.

Bastila reacted quickly, she dropped the weapons and as she did so she grabbed both of his wrists and rolled backward. She used his momentum to carry them both to the ground with such fluidity that she avoided injuring herself whilst pulling him down and moving him faster than he intended. For a moment the Rodian was top of her, his hands inches from her neck and only barely being held at bay, his eyes were similarly inches from her own and she could see the bloodlust in them, he was like a rabid dog. Fortunately she was only forced to endure the uncomfortable position for the briefest of moments.

Before they had fallen Bastila had lifted one of her legs and placed the sole of her boot in the Rodian's mid section, she allowed his momentum to continue but directed it away from and above her, using her leg to send the Rodian skimming off her. The move alone would have sent him flying but Bastila augmented it with the force and sent the hapless Rodian absolutely sailing through the air, as though he'd just been hit by a fast moving vehicle. He landed on his back with a somewhat sickening thud, Bastila jumped to her feet immediately after releasing her grip on his wrists.

The landing seemed to stun the enraged Rodian and Bastila finished the fight by banging his head into the ground with the sole of her boot, hard enough only to render him unconscious. She held her fighting stance for a few moments, waiting to see if he would awaken but he didn't.

The Rodian's reaction shouldn't have surprised her at all she realized, given the obsession Rodians in general had with violence and death, she should've expected it, fortunately Bastila was in a constant state of readiness for such attacks.

During her training on Dantooine her Jedi marshal arts skill had been ingrained into her, on occasions she had driven herself beyond the point of exhaustion in training, attempting to live up to the lofty expectations her masters seemed to have of her, expectations which had always seemed beyond her. She was at her most deadly when wielding her light saber but she was also able to utilize other weapons, her skill in unarmed combat was second only to her skill in lightsaber battle.

"Impressive," the girl in the cell seemed to state coldly as Bastila gathered her confiscated possessions off the unconscious Rodians, she tucked her lightsaber away quickly, it's weight was somewhat reassuring.

"Thank you," she replied evenly, without giving anything away, it was clear that some sort of negotiation was about to begin. Bastila paused briefly on finding one of the Rodian's wallet, she didn't have many credits of her own but resolved not to steal off the Rodian who probably needed them more than she did.

"So, you're going into the unknown regions?"

"Yes," Bastila replied,

"You'll need a good pilot and a fast ship, it isn't easy to run the blockade you know,"

"I'm aware of that," Bastila turned to face the girl, who seemed to behave as though she were much older than she appeared "Are you saying you know where to find such a pilot?"

"I am one," the girl responded, Bastila studied her intently, she didn't seem to be lying but Bastila got the sense that she was dealing with someone who was very good at lying convincingly "I usually charge 20,000 credits per trip to the unknown regions but if you let me out of here then help me get my ship back I'll take you for free,"

Although not sure that she could trust the girl, Bastila felt that she probably wouldn't get too many other offers of free trips beyond the rim, especially if the other criminals here responded to threats in much the same way as these Rodians had. Worse case scenario was that the girl was lying which wouldn't leave Bastila in any worse a situation than her current one, best case scenario was that the girl was being honest.

"Who currently has your ship?" she asked,

"This gang has it, they aren't keeping it here but I know where it is, the guards will be no better than the ones you just wiped the floor with,"

Bastila paused in a last minute consideration, really she knew she had little choice,

"Very well, I agree,"

"Excellent," The girl replied as she exited the open cell, she was quite tall and slender yet seemed fit enough, her straight, blond hair was probably shoulder length and quite thick, she kept it tied behind her head apart from the odd rogue strand which she brushed behind her ear. She had icy blue eyes which gave away nothing of her thoughts, her skin was pale and largely flawless apart from a few light nicks here and there. The girl was dressed in plain, black body armor that covered her from the neck down, leaving only her hands bare.

Bastila regarded the girl wearily, fully ready to respond to an attack if one came, none did. The girl saw her readiness and grinned,

"Don't worry, attacking you is the last thing I'm going to do, I don't want to end up like those Rodians,"

Bastila didn't lower her guard,

"What is your name?" she asked,

"Lina, yours?"

"Jennifer Hale,"

The girl grinned again, as if not quite believing the answer,

"Indeed, now, if you wouldn't mind," Lina held out her wrists which were restrained using similar shackles to those that had been attached to Bastila. Oddly Lina's were in front of her body, Bastila guessed that Lina had been able to climb through her arms, she looked skinny enough. The former Jedi used her force powers again to zap the shackles.

"So you're a Jedi ha?" Lina seemed to state more than ask,

"Not really," Bastila replied, images of some of the things she had done in past ten flashing back to her, she shuddered and repressed the memories. Lina shrugged,

"I don't really care anyway but lets get out of here before the Master shows up, I think even you would have trouble against him,"

"And why is that?" Bastila replied doubtfully, finding it unlikely that anyone on the planet would trouble her in battle, after all, no one ever really had, except Revan and Malak. She didn't feel that either of them could trouble her now.

Lina was in the process of looking though various cupboards in the room and stopped when she found a belt with two rather large blasters attached to it. She clipped the belt to herself as if she had done so many times and then ran her hands along the handles of the blasters, as though she were reunited with old friends. It was funny how captors always seemed to keep their captives' possessions in the room with them, or at least near by.

Bastila tensed and gripped her lightsaber, which was in it's usual hiding spot on her hip, behind her cloak.

Fortunately Lina didn't draw the blasters, although they did make her look quite dangerous, instead she pocketed a few other things that had been in the cupboard with them and continued talking,

"If we run into him, you'll see but lets hope we don't, he's the leader of this gang, ha… and he gave it it's stupid name,"

"What is that name?" Bastila asked curiously,

"Oh, the servitudial meatbags, stupid name ha,"