A/N: Just a fun little blip to introduce my Sith Sorc. She'll be appearing in the upcoming chapters of Family is More Than Blood soon. However, when I considered how best to introduce her, I kept coming back to Andronikos. Who wouldn't want to explore the mind of this foul mouthed pirate? So, I decided to go with his initial thoughts on the Sith.

First Impressions


Tatooine
Sith Inquisitor
Act I

Andronikos Revel considered the Sith standing in front of him as she held out the datapad, claiming it was from his old girlfriend Casey. The Sith was petite to the extreme, barely coming to his shoulder. Andronikos was a fit man, but he'd never been considered tall. She was skinny too, barely appearing more than a waif under her desert attire. The only thing that truly made the woman stand out as a Sith was the golden, feline mask that she wore under her hood.

The creature next to the Sith woman growled, probably some form of speech. It was a massive that stood two full heads taller and sported thickly corded arms. Andronikos didn't like the way it pointed to him before crossing those arms, either. "I need this man to find the artifact." The woman's voice poured from behind her mask with a smoothness that Andronikos hadn't expected. There was little feedback from the filters, meaning he could hear her actual tenor, instead of a droid like echo. That was high quality tech. "You know you'll always be my favorite slave," she purred. Andronikos was sure it was real, too. An honest to Force, throat rumbling, purr. The creature threw his hands up—Andronikos was almost positive it was a he—and stormed off.

The two watched in silence, until Andronikos decided he was ready to get moving. If this woman had a line on Wilkes, he didn't plan on waiting around for the trail to go cold. "So, you any good with that, Sith?" The pirate nodded to the vibrosword on her back. He didn't know a lot about Sith, but rumor had it they carried lightsabers, and that sword looked mighty big on her tiny frame.

The feline mask turned towards Andronikos. "Would you like to find out?"

The pirate raised his hands in defense. "I meant no offense, just curious." There, with pleasantries out of the way, they could proceed. "Come on, I'm ready to put a few blaster bolts into that bastard Wilkes."

It took four damnable hours on bantha to reach the coordinates that Casey encrypted on that datapad. There were worse ways to spend the time, granted. Sitting in the saddle behind the Sith had given Andronikos ample time to, get to know a little more about her. Not that conversation had been great, but a guy like him didn't need words to get a bead on a woman. For example, resting his hands on the Sith's waist gave him a feel of her body. She was tight skin over lean muscle that flexed under his fingertips. He watched the way she observed her surroundings, seemingly drawn to movement or sudden sounds.

Andronikos had originally assumed the Sith, who had yet to reveal her name, was human. Now, he wasn't so sure. The way she fought went beyond simple Force tricks, at least, he thought it did. She danced between the Sand Raiders, swinging her vibrosword two-handed unless she needed the other to shoot lightning. Now that had been an impressive sight. He wondered if all Sith could zap people, then started considering possible ranges and how fast he'd have to run to escape it. Andronikos didn't like his odds.

"We're here," the still unidentified Sith said, grasping his hands between her thumb and forefingers as if their presence around her waist disgusted her. Well, she hadn't complained a few hours ago.

Andronikos pulled away from the woman and slipped off the bantha, deciding against offering her a hand down. If the she didn't want him to touch her, that was fine by him. It gave him a chance to take in their surroundings. "Hiding underground. Damn, wish I'd thought of that." The woman prowled into the compound, there really wasn't another word for the way she walked, without a word. While Andronikos generally preferred a more voluptuous figure on his eye candy, he wasn't going to deny himself the pleasure of watching her ass as he followed her further underground.

When the Sith's vibrosword hummed to life, Andronikos brought his attention back to the task at hand. She went on point like a predator sniffing out her prey, and the pirate decided his life may depend on him staying well clear of her blast radius until the bodies stopped dropping. He fired from cover with sub-standard blasters, whittling down the targets to Wilkes himself.

The man had turned into a raving lunatic since the last time Andronikos had seen him. And I thought all that time in that escape pod had nearly driven me mad. Wilkes was far worse. He raved about proving himself in the mutiny that put Andronikos in that kriffing pod; that he wasn't just some dumb grunt. As if using a freaky Sith artifact to warp the weak minds of his crew was supposed to be some kind of impressive feat. Now, surviving in the depths of space with a few ration bars and two canteens for ten days. That was worth bragging about.

"For Andronikos Revel to come so far, and fail so hard," Wilkes laughed. Andronikos wasn't sure whether to shoot the man out of revenge or pity. "You even brought a Sith, a cute little kitten, and still couldn't get the job done!" Revenge, Andronikos decided. Definitely revenge.

"I am not cute," the Sith stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the galaxy. "I. Am. Deadly." She thrust both arms forward, electricity arcing from her fingertips to Wilkes' body.

The man screamed, dropping to his knees. Still, he clung to his insane laughter. "Heh, going to let her have all the fun, eh, Nikky?"

Andronikos hated that name. Anger coursed through his veins, and red fringed the pirate's vision. "I'm going to rip out your throat and laugh while you try to scream." He bit off each word of the threat, fully planning to make it a reality, taking aim with both blasters.

"The artifact, damn you," the Sith grumbled, sending another stream of purple electricity into the man. He collapsed forward on hands and knees, blood dripping from his lips. A couple more strikes, and Wilkes finally spilled his guts. The artifact, and Andronikos' blasters, had been stolen by thieves days ago.

The Sith hissed in anger and backhanded Wilkes with enough force to topple him onto his back. Her feline mask turned towards Andronikos. "All of this chatter is making me bloodthirsty. Either you kill him, or I will."

There was no way in any hell that Andronikos was going to let this score go to anyone else. He stood over the rasping body of the man who'd stolen everything from him; his crew, his ship, even his kriffing blasters, leaving him to rot in some Imperial prison for months. "Guess you're not so big after all." Wilkes opened his mouth, still pulled into a smug grin, but Andronikos cut him off with a sharp crack of his blaster. The first bolt took the man's ear off before he managed a headshot. "Damn, sight's still off." The pirate shrugged and joined the Sith outside.

It took another two hours to track down the thieves. They'd left behind a handy trail of datapads that wove a tale about partners going insane, and Sand People attacks. Once again, Andronikos had been impressed by the Sith woman. She gave the illusion of calling lightning down from the sky in a radius that was anything but cute. It had to be an illusion though, no one was that powerful.

Finally, they tracked down the only bastard left. Of course, he was already dead. "Damned idiotic nerf-herding sons of Hutts!" Andronikos raved, pacing back and forth in his fury at the loss of his quarry. True, all the items they needed were there, but he'd been denied his kill, and that made the pirate's blood boil. He opened his mouth to spew another string of obscenities when the Sith casually flicked her wrist.

Andronikos' world turned violet, and every cell in his body burned at once. It took two agonizing seconds to realize that the scream he heard sounded disturbingly like his own. "Snap out of it," the woman spat. Just as suddenly, everything returned to normal, and the pirate checked to make sure he wasn't smoking.

Revel took a gasping breath and shook his head. "Next time, just slap me in the face, okay? Damn crazy Sith." Her mask turned slowly towards him, and Andronikos prepared himself for a disciplinary electrocution.

"Just get your blasters from the corpse, and let's go," she half growled. Definitely not human. That growl was way too authentic.

Andronikos bent to gather the weapons he'd been hunting for since the mutiny, examining them to ensure the bastards hadn't damaged what was left of the product. Standing again, he slammed them into his twin holsters, and sighed happily at the familiar weight. Andronikos dropped the lousy blasters he'd been forced to make due with on the thief's body.

Next, the pirate regarded the Sith where she squatted, studying the artifact. An eerie light radiated from her hands, encompassing the slab, before she nodded and slipped it into her satchel. He wondered what, if anything, that glowing light actually did to the thing. Maybe she had a way of neutralizing the artifact's ability to turn people into mutinous scum. That seemed like a handy trick for a Sith to have.

"Are you ready?" The woman asked with a hint of annoyance. Andronikos decided he liked her despite her curt tone and lack of etiquette, hell, maybe even because of it. She fought thorough and dirty. He'd never admit to it out loud, but this little Sith had all the makings of a proper pirate. An idea sprang to the forefront of Andronikos' mind, and he went with it before logic could make him see reason.

"Sure," the man commented. The tone of his voice lightened, and the Sith turned her mask curiously at him. It killed Andronikos not knowing what she looked like, and each imagining had become more outlandish than the last. "There's just one thing I want to ask—you got room for an extra on your ship?" The woman's shoulders tensed, and Andronikos hastened to get his resume on the table, so to speak. "I'm a damn good pilot, and I've got contacts a Sith wouldn't even think of. It'll be your show, no questions asked." After all, he needed a way off Tatooine. Not to mention, a new crew. This woman could be exactly what he'd been looking for.

The Sith stood, her mask tilting to the side to consider him. Andronikos did his best to maintain eye contact, knowing that if he showed any weakness now, he'd be fried bantha dwang. Slowly, her gloved hand rested on the bridge of the feline nose and the mask pulled away with a slight hiss. Andronikos froze, mind grinding to a halt momentarily as he stared into the golden eyes of a kriffing Cathar. Her fur was the blackest he'd ever seen, with subtle stripes across both cheeks and chin.

The pirate swallowed, searching for something to say that wouldn't get him shocked or mauled. In the end, the only thing that came to mind was, "Well, that explains the mask."

The Sith chuckled lightly, exposing two white fangs when she smiled. "Very well," she purred. There was that kriffing purr again. "Khem's fingers are too large to operate the hyperspace controls anyway. He always puts the wrong coordinates in." Replacing her mask, the Sith adjusted her satchel, hand resting over the artifact inside.

Andronikos smirked. "I get the feeling we're going to make a damn good team, you and me." The pirate pulled back the flap of the tent to display their shaggy mount waiting outside. "Now, let's get the hell off this rock, huh?" He still had no idea what to call this woman, so he supposed Sith would work until he figured it out. If anything, his future was guaranteed to be an adventurous one. What more could a pirate ask for?