Chapter 1: Taris, day 1

Two days and no visible injuries left but the woman was still unconscious.

Carth had been intrigued by the fact his companion was the mysterious ex-smuggler the Jedi delegation had specifically requested for the journey. Who was she anyway?

He had woken up from their rather inelegant landing to find her still wrapped around him and still unconscious. Blood had covered her face from a hidden wound somewhere on her scalp. Seeing no other pods around them he had had to concentrate on getting her to safety.

Luckily they had crashed on the 'right' side of the planet, and a few credits got them an abandoned apartment in a run-down building aliens used as a shelter in this xenophobic city. Well hidden among the rest of the castaways.

Carth did the the best he could with what he had, not daring to leave the unconscious woman alone for longer than necessary. He cleaned her wounds the best he could and used their emergency medpacs on her, ignoring his own smaller injuries. Even the head wound seemed to heal up nicely - yet she was still unconscious.

He left only for long enough to secure some food, they'd worry about the rest when she came through.

The second night her condition changed. She appeared to be sleeping in stead of being unconscious. At least, she seemed to be dreaming. She was restless, too, and sounded like she was in pain.

Carth had taken to sleeping next to her on the narrow bed, just in case. Not to mention the fact that the place had about enough materials to make one of the three beds habitable. They also had no way of heating the room, and the first night, when she kept shivering despite all the blankets Carth had simply wrapped himself around her and warmed her with his body heat.

He gathered her into his arms again, now, and tried to soothe her by contact and soft whispers. So like when he'd calmed Dustil after a nightmare... For a second he allowed himself to remember his son, then pushed the memory away forcefully, and concentrated on making a wounded fellow-soldier feel better.

o o o

He was already up but close by when she finally woke up. Straight from her dream, eyes open and scanning the place, finally resting on him. The gaze held no recognition.

'Guess I'm not unforgettable,' he grinned inside his head but kept his face neutral as he approached her and spoke aloud: "How are you feeling?"

She just looked at him, unblinking.

"I'm Carth, one of the Republic soldiers from the Endar Spire. I was with you in the escape pod, remember?"

Expression returned to her dark eyes and she sat up a little shakily.

"Yeah, I remember, Carth Onasi. Commander."

"Call me Carth."

"Shin," she said, then, looking down on herself, grinned, "I suppose a guy who's undressed me and put me to bed is entitled to call me by my first name."

He wasn't a blushing type but somehow the memory of the nights spent holding her made him feel uncomfortable and he was glad when she changed the subject by asking about her condition, gingerly touching her head.

"You were unconscious for two days. I was starting to wonder whether I should risk finding a doctor when your condition changed to sleep."

"I remember... some sort of a dream, almost like a vision."

"Well, you hit your head quite severely, who knows..."

"Where are we?"

Carth explained what he knew about Taris in general and the building in particular, all the while keeping an eye on her movements, looking for signs of faintness as she got up, stretched and reached for her clothes he had folded next to the bed.

"I had to wash them the old-fashioned way so I couldn't get rid of all the blood. You hungry?" he asked, to distract her from the state of her clothing.

"Starving," she smiled.

"Good. Then you might be able to get down the food we have."

They discussed their situation over the breakfast.

"So... we need credits, supplies, and leads."

"Yes. Finding Bastila must be our first priority but we also need to eat."

"Well, let's go explore our opportunities."

"You sure you're up to it?"

"I feel surprisingly fine. Thank you, doctor Carth."

"You sure? You seemed quite disoriented when you first woke up."

Her face turned dark, "that, unfortunately, is something I have to live

with."

He shot a curious glance at her but recognised the 'no trespassing' look on her face.

"Here," he said instead, "I cleaned up your blaster. It seems to work alright."

"Thanks."

They exited their safe haven, and decided to have quick look around the building.

"Tell me about yourself, Carth," Shin asked, after a while.

"Me? I'm just your ordinary star-pilot."

"Really? My roommate at the Spire called you one of the Republic's best pilots."

"Well, I've seen my share of wars... and I suppose I've gathered a sort of an reputation along the way."

"Uh-huh. Hey, what's going on in here?"

A raid, as it turned out. The Sith decided they were Republic fugitives, and they had to shoot their way out. Carth noted that his companion could more than hold her own in a combat.

The alien the Sith had originally been harassing spoke to Shin, who appeared to understand him.

"He'll take care of the corpses for us," she explained to Carth.

Her linguistic abilities dazed Carth over the following hours. She seemed to speak an amazing amount of alien languages and understand even more. More, she was polite and patient with everyone they came in contact with, and he was happy to let her do all the talking. She was obviously better suited for that than the simple soldier he knew himself to be.

Her skill was almost enough to make him suspicious if it had not been for the fact that her defining feature seemed to be that way she'd go out of her way to help everyone she could, from a scared woman who had angered a thug enough to set a bounty on her head to an old Ithorian who was bullied by some human children.

She used their last medpac, the one he'd been saving, to heal the said Ithorian's wounds. When the old man walked away she turned her concerned eyes on him: "I'm sorry, I hope you don't mind - I just... I couldn't watch him walk away in pain."

"You are an amazing woman, Shin Cidon. But I can't help wishing you'd except some reward every now and then - we could use the credits," he grinned to let her know he wasn't actually being serious about it. Her generosity also calmed his fears over her suitability for the mission.

He couldn't help feeling a lingering doubt at the back of his mind, though. A raw recruit, requested by the Jedi to join the mission... and she's the one that survives? He'd been betrayed once too often to let his guard down fully, even if he let himself respond to her teasing and flirting.

"Ready to tell me more about yourself? Where are you from, for example?" she was asking with a smile.

"Can't we just concentrate on the task at hand? I'm not used to talking about myself or my past very much. At all, actually."

She just looked at him and he sighed.

"My home planet was the first one to fall before the Sith. I..."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I understand you don't want to talk about it."

Why did she have to sound so damn sincere? He felt like such a worm to be harbouring doubts about her when all she did was try to be friendly, and find a way to save Bastila, who was so important to the Republic's war effort.

"Come on, we need more information. Let's head to the cantina!"

o o o

"Great. It seems we need to get to the Lower city. And we need Sith permission to do so!"

"Well, I know just the person to help us out," Shin grinned and nodded towards a very obviously drunk Sith soldier.

"Shin..."

"Don't worry. Just... stay out of this, okay?" she flashed him a wicked smile before engaging the Sith in conversation.

Carth felt he really shouldn't be surprised that the man was taken in. If she could persuade a man to withdraw a bounty he'd placed just by talking to them... He was startled out of his musings by the returning Shin.

She was beaming, "We've been invited to a party. Well, really my breasts have been but I take it the invitation included the rest of me too, despite the fact he was talking to my cleavage. Well, anyway. Poor, hard-working soldiers will go there straight from work, some even in their uniforms..."

"...and if they're like any soldiers, they'll drink themselves unconscious after a hard shift," Carth finished for her, grinning, "Good plan."

"Thanks. Now, about those credits... There's that sweet old guy willing to sell me his Pazaak deck or then there's the Arena. I'm an average player and an average fighter, guess we'll try both and see where we get."

o o o

"Average," Carth repeated at least a dozen times to her as they made their way back to the apartment.

Shin shrugged, and smiled slightly, "What, you think Duncan was hard to beat?"

"Well, maybe not, 'Mysterious Stranger', but Ice definitely was!"

Shin decided to address his tone when repeating her 'stage name' instead of the point in the sentence.

"I'm not comfortable with the name either, but I have to agree with your reasoning. They could know my name."

They had returned to their 'shelter' to eat after the Hutt had managed to somehow arrange crowds for three different Arena fights within hours - true, he didn't put much effort to the first ones, explaining that it was hard to get the audience exited over Deadeye Duncan's matches these days.

So Shin had defeated three out of the five Arena fighters, they had hundreds of credits... and still time before the party.

"Need some rest?"

"No, this was enough, thanks. We should go on with our exploration."

o o o

More xenophobic Tarisians, more Sith soldiers that made Carth feel uncomfortable - it was hard to tell from Shin's expression what she thought - and a clinic.

He insisted she'd allow Doctor Zelka Forn to give her a check up. It was about time she was generous with her credits to benefit herself. Much to their surprise the man did not charge them for his work, and the spare medpacs they bought from him were ridiculously cheap. Carth saw Shin give the doc more credits than he'd asked for and approved of it heartily. The man would put them to good use, helping the poor.

Again her talking skills paid off, and Zelka ended up revealing that he was sheltering some Republic refugees. They were dying but at least they were dying free and without pain. And Bastila wasn't among them. That just drove home the fact they needed to get to the Lower levels, fast.

Zelka warned them of the rakghoul disease when they discussed the Undercity. It didn't take a genius to read the determination in Shin's eyes when she heard of the cure the Sith were keeping to themselves. She would get that antidote to Zelka if humanly possible.

When Zelka's assistant cornered them on the way out and suggested selling the antidote to the highest bidder Carth couldn't contain his disbelief when Shin didn't turn down the offer immediately. She sighed at him after they'd left.

"It's called sneakiness, Mr Goody-Two-Boots. You let the scumbags believe you might also be a scumbag so that you get more info out of them."

"Oh." He felt stupid. "See, this is why you do the talking," he muttered in the end.

She grinned at him. "Okay. We either have time for one more fight in the Arena, or then we could go get ready for the party."

"You want time to dress up? Do we need to buy a mirror to the apartment?"

"They'll be too drunk to notice by the time we get there - I could be a Twi'lek dancer or a bantha - they won't know the difference. I hope. I'm not the dress up type."

"So, cantina it is then."

"Buy you a drink, commander," she grinned again.

o o o

"That was... a novel tactic."

"Shut up," Shin got out from behind clenched teeth as she limped towards their temporary home.

"No, no, I admired it," Carth said, really meaning it despite the fact he couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice, "shoot and run is a risky way to go about it, though."

"I knew I had no hope in hell against his vibroblade in close quarters.

But man, could he run for an old guy!"

They reached their apartment and Carth motioned her to take off her jacket so that he could attend to the wounds on her side she'd gotten when she hadn't been fast enough.

"I liked the Twi'lek girl," she said out nowhere, maybe to distract herself from the pain.

"A Twi'lek and a Wookiee, who'd've thought."

"This place makes strange partnerships," she smiled, trying to catch his eyes to share the joke but he lowered his gaze at the word 'partnership'.

"What's wrong?" she frowned, and all the doubts and fears he'd been going over in his head came out, a little more forcefully than he'd intended.

He could see he had hurt her with his veiled accusations but... but whatever she seemed like he could not silence the little nagging voice inside him that whispered that she was just a little too good to be true, a smuggler-turned-Republic-soldier-for-no-apparent-reason, specifically requested for the mission, a little too good in the Battle Ring, a little too persuasive... He was taken in, just like everyone else. Soon he'd be spilling his secrets to her, just like everyone else. But he had learned the hard way not to trust anyone...

He ran his fingers through his hair, trying - in vain - to keep the locks from falling back to his forehead.

"Look, I... I should probably apologise. You haven't done anything to deserve this - yet. It's nothing personal. I just... won't trust anyone. Not you, not Bastila, not even myself. And if you're smart, you do the same thing."

She just looked at him with those dark eyes of hers, face totally blank.

"I'm... not good at this apologising thing. But... I'm not good at that trusting thing either. I'm not saying I think you're a Sith spy or anything. But... Oh hell, I'm not ready to call you a partner either," he finished savagely.

"We still have a job to do," she said, turning her back on him, and he felt inexplicably like he'd slapped her.

After all, she'd done nothing to earn his distrust... except by being too good to be true.

"I... yeah. Can we... Truce?" he offered with a hopeful smile, and when she turned to face him again he made shameless use of what Morgana had called his 'puppy dog eyes'. Shin melted, and even smiled a little in response.

"Truce."

o o o

They were once more in sync when they got back from the party. And high.

High on endorphins, the whole 'we-were-at-a-Sith-party!', stress and exhilaration combined to the few drinks they had been forced to consume, and the rush of mission accomplished.

She was giggling when he voiced the last thought. "Mission," she repeated.

"Who names their children that anyway," he wondered, chuckling, when he caught on.

"Twi'leks," she laughed louder now. He joined in, knowing they were just relieving the stress of the past hours.

"Let's get some sleep before trying out our new shiny armours," he suggested, then turned serious when realising this was the first time sleeping arrangements were discussed since she'd regained consciousness. It had been a long day.

She was obviously thinking about the same thing because, looking around the room with the three beds of which only one showed signs of use, she raised her eyebrow, "Just where have you been sleeping?"

"First of all, I didn't dare to sleep much, not knowing how your condition would develop," he started, painfully aware of how defensive he sounded, "and when I did... Look, it was cold, and I had no other way of keeping you warm."

His tone left no room for misinterpretation but again she just looked at him, accepting everything. She smiled slightly, taking in the lack of proper bedding materials.

"Well, I don't suppose it's the first time for either one of us to share in the field. Get in."

She undid her boots and took off her jacket and pants, then did some feminine wriggling that allowed her to remove her bra without taking off the black sleeveless undershirt she was wearing. Then, in her top and panties, she got in the bed and curled up facing the wall.

After a second's hesitation Carth followed her lead, stripped down to his Republic issue underwear, and lay down, back against hers. She mover a fraction closer, to better share the warmth.

"I never thanked you for saving my life, did I? Or for looking after me those first days."

"No need to thank me. I've never left a soldier behind, and I'm not about to start now."

"Well, I value my life even if you don't, so... thank you."

"I... I'm glad you're here. So... you're welcome."

"Good night, Carth Onasi."

"Good night, Shin Cidon."

But sleep was long in coming, even when her breath evened out. He couldn't stop thinking about her words. He did value her life, all life. Except, maybe, the Sith. And... she was handy to have around, her skills were undeniable. So he did... appreciate her.

But that wasn't what kept him awake. It was different now, somehow, to share a bed. The previous nights she had been a patient, an unknown body, now... Now he was painfully aware of her shapely behind pressed against his - her warmth reminding him of things better forgotten - and when she turned in her sleep, spooning him, the feel of her breasts against his back was almost too much.

He closed his eyes but saw nothing but her petite form in his mind. She was a head shorter than him, so slender it was amazing all that strength fitted in her body. Surprisingly well-endowed for her skinny form, too.

During the day she wore her dark hair in a simple ponytail but let it loose in the night, much as he had that first night, fearing the knot would press her wounds. It framed her high cheekbones and brow, face so finely shaped it felt ridiculous she should have to fight. So beautiful it should really be enough to go by in the world... When she smiled it was no surprise everyone wanted to do as she asked. The few times she had laughed out loud...

Her spirit awoke things in him that had been buried for years. He wanted to trust her, to tell her... to share his secrets, just like everyone else.

Finally, his exhaustion caught up with him and he slept.

Felt like only a moment later he was awoken by Shin trashing around in the bed. He had also turned in his sleep and was holding her in his arms. Without another thought he gathered her even closer, holding her when the trashing turned to shaking, when her whimpers turned to tears.

He had had his share of nightmares but this seemed to be on another level entirely.

She woke up with a start, met his gaze, and again her eyes lacked any sign of recognition. A panicky look was entering them, and Carth moved to let go.

"It's okay, Shin, everything's going to be okay."

"Sorry," she muttered, closing her eyes and holding on to him so that he couldn't move away.

"You sure you're okay?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"But you didn't even recognise me!"

"I... I was in an accident a year or so ago. My brain was damaged. I lost... lost some memories, and I still wake up confused. Every single morning."

"That... that must be tough," Carth felt the lame inadequacy of the words and tried to compensate by pulling her closer. After a moment he asked: "What does 'some memories' mean?"

"My past."