'Wilds' wasn't a noun usually used to describe a forested planet with mountain ranges.
But after clawing her way through the thousandth errant branch to catch in her hair or scratch at her cheeks, Katrina was about ready to declare this place a jungle.
"If you will look to your right, sentients, you may observe the Mikaelean Titan, the largest tree ever to grow on our soil," the tour guide's high-pitched voice rang out.
"Shouldn't excursions like this be banned?" Dustil muttered, wincing.
"Because of the Sith threat? Probably. Maybe they just haven't gotten to it, or they're figuring we'll take care of it."
"I meant because of her voice," he added, smirking at her.
His wit's back. He seems to have successfully repressed the last few days.
That was more than she could say for herself. She had never thought about children.
The forests surrounding the city of Mikael were dense but well lit, due to the fact that most trees were very tall but not very wide.
Hell, she had never even dealt with children. Even the memories that had come back to her on Anelli of herself as a child were somewhat austere.
The forest floor, however, was a maze of vines, bushes, and bugs, things the tour guide seemed to know how to avoid. Katrina wondered when she was going to let the rest of the group in on the secret, batting a small two-headed fly away.
Carth had obviously thought of children at some point.
I could ask Dustil what he was like as a kid. She glanced over at her former Padawan.
Nope. Probably a bad idea.
Besides, she reasoned, Carth wasn't there for most of Dustil's life, and only half there for him when he was a child.
It took a moment to realize that, for the first time, the thought had crossed her mind as the truth. Not the invention of a bitter teenager that had fallen to the dark side; not what the Lovesick Padawan Katrina had wanted it to be.
Carth hadn't been there. Most of the time because he had thought Dustil was dead. The other half of the time because of duty, honor, and other noble ideals she was sure hadn't meant a hill of beans to Dustil or his long dead mother.
"We're almost there," Dustil said, glancing down at the map Dathan had given them.
"Just around this corner and off to the left, looks like," Katrina murmured, watching the tour guide cautiously.
The guide hadn't liked it when Katrina had suggested they go off-trail. She cast a severe look towards the pair of Jedi, turning back to the family of Twi'leks who were also in the group.
Mission was a kid (no matter what the Twi'lek herself would say); Carth had gotten along with Mission all right, hadn't he?
"Trust me, Mission. There are a lot of worlds better than Taris," Carth pushed a dangling piece of scaffolding out of their way, stepping carefully over the large puddles throughout the Undercity sewers. "Taris is no place for a kid to live on her own - even a kid who's got a Wookiee to look out for her."
Mission stopped, putting a hand on her hip and glaring at him.
"Hey, I ain't no kid! And I look out for Zaalbar as much as he looks out for me. Geez, I come to ask you a question and you give me a lecture!"
Carth turned around, scoffing.
At this rate, the Gamorreans will be buying the Wookiee back from someone by the time we get to him, Katrina thought, sighing.
"Don't you snap at me, missy! You want a lecture? How's this: Only bratty little children fly off the handle because of a simple comment."
"I don't have to listen to you, Carth! You ain't my father- though you're sure old enough to be! So keep your lectures inside your withered old head, 'cause I don't need 'em."
Watching the outrage come into the pilot's face, Katrina wasn't quite sure if he was more insulted that the Twi'lek had acted so unreasonably or that she had called him 'old' twice in the same sentence.
"And I sure as hell don't need this!"
Maybe he hadn't dealt with Mission so well.
"Ready?" Dustil nodded.
"Go." The two bolted into the forest in the direction the map indicated, ducking behind a tree to wait until the rest of the group was out of sight.
But she wasn't totally unable to deal with children. She had kept those kids from tormenting that Ithorian in the Upper City, hadn't she?
"Hey you kids- leave that Ithorian alone."
The boy laughed, kicking the Ithorian in the leg as if to spite her.
"You're a freak too! Why don't you get out of here, you freaks?"
"Yeah," the other one added, smashing his small fist into the Ithorian's back. "Why would a human want to help you, freak?"
"Get out of here you punks, or you'll be the ones in pain," Katrina hissed.
Katrina sighed in frustration.
I will not think about this, I refuse to think about this.
She stood, pulling out her lightsaber and igniting it, listening to its hum for a moment before beginning to hack through the vines and bushes in her way.
The wilds suddenly seem much improved.
The datapad Dustil was carrying began to beep as they reached a small clearing in the brush.
Not cleared by any kind of natural means, but trampled and matted down like a ship's landing post had been pressing down for a few hours.
"Here it is," Dustil breathed, stepping around in a slow circle, his blade held cautiously in front of him with one hand while the other inspected their surroundings.
Scorched branches and the crumpled remains of leaves marked the stages of a violent lightsaber assault. Senses that she hadn't used in months suddenly came alive again, showing her fatal blows, cries of agony, a final death rattle.
Dark red flaky blotches dotted the forest floor, too random for a lightsaber. Katrina didn't reach down to examine them. The echoes of whatever being they had come from were still hanging upon the air.
She pulled out the comlink.
"We've reached the site, Phineas."
"Good," her brother's voice crackled through the tiny speaker. "Leska's here with me if you need to ask anything."
Two or three smaller trails faded off into the forests. One large and wide one curved back through the wilds.
"Leska, how did you end up out here?" There was a long pause.
He's having trouble speaking. Her brother sounded solemn, like the Bothan had already died.
"They landed in the wilds so they wouldn't have to register their ship or have anyone know they were here. They were intending on gathering information about the rumored Sith on this planet as well," Phineas said, translating for the weakened Bothan.
That wide path you're seeing should lead straight to their ship, he added. Supposedly it's still out there.
Dustil disappeared down the path.
"Have these Sith attacked anyone else? Have they been here long or have there been any long-standing rumors about them?"
"There hasn't been so much as a missing tour guide until now. I guess they have no one to hunt, so they keep to themselves."
You didn't sense them?
Her brother's old walls came up momentarily, and then reluctantly crumbled. She felt like she wanted to wash her hands over and over again for ever listening to them, for ever betraying her sister, for being too weak to help both the sister and herself.
Even though she was the sister and it was his regret, not hers.
I don't exactly try to look for them anymore.
She could tell that, if anything, he avoided the Sith at all costs.
Dustil came jogging breathlessly back down the trail.
"About a kilometer or so away. Pretty banged up Class 580 freighter."
She gave him a blank look.
"Takes up to six passengers, about thirty-seven meters in length. It can carry two-hundred metric tons of cargo."
Katrina rolled her eyes. "Fascinating."
He was just like his father. Spouting ship specifications and admiring hyperdrive capabilities when they had more important things to do.
"It's all empty space now though," he added, wiping sweat off his brow. "Somebody ransacked it. A couple lightsabers used the loading platform and gangplank for target practice."
The smaller trails were in every direction, some dead ending against trees, and others snaking off through the forest.
The only one she recognized was another thick one that went straight back in the direction of the city; the path Dathan and his rescue team had taken.
"They surrounded them," Dustil murmured, turning around in a slow circle.
It did appear that way; three paths that extended into the forest formed a triangle around the trampled clearing.
"We were taught about this at the Academy," he suddenly said, turning to glance at her.
"Taught about what?"
"Looking for tracks. Discerning ones of escape from ones of intent. I guess they intended on us using the skills at some point in the future."
As grim as it sounded, she couldn't help a moment's annoyance at the Jedi. The Sith obviously planned ahead. If the Jedi Order had thought to do the same, they might not be the dying breed.
"Can you tell which one of these the Sith might have used to head back to wherever their base is?"
Dustil leaned over, holding his lit blade above each trail to give himself light.
"The air's getting thicker," he said heavily.
The atmosphere shifted even more wildly out here than it had it parts of the city. She held up the comlink, ready to ask Phineas about it.
Her former Padawan's head shot up.
She felt like the vines around her had turned into invisible snakes, and were slowly curling around her ankles.
Katrina slowly put the comlink away, putting both hands to her weapon and holding it out in front of her.
Stay calm. Don't panic.
Easy to say; not so easy to do when you were about to enter into another battle against assassins that only seemed to get smarter and tougher the more of them you killed.
They've been following the excursion the whole time. She exchanged a glance with Dustil.
Using the Force could get them into trouble. But not using it kept them from knowing when it was coming their way.
There's no time to kick ourselves about it now, Dustil.
They attacked so fast she barely thought of anything else other than swinging her lightsaber.
Two came at Dustil, looking like they meant to tear both his arms off. The young Jedi Knight flipped over them, landing unsteadily behind her and falling up against her back.
Another came towards her, and she blocked his assault, reaching out to try and send him flying backwards. She found she was so out of practice that she succeeded only in what amounted to a weak shove.
Katrina whirled around, smashing her lightsaber up against her attacker's, looking around and frantically trying to make a head count.
Dustil fending off a bald human. Another human, clad in the familiar grey Sith uniform, hurtling towards her. The dark skinned Zabrak a few inches from her face, growling and trying to break their saber clash.
She broke free from the Zabrak, flipping her blade upside down and slicing him across the stomach. He fell to the ground with an indignant shriek before staying silent and still.
Dustil was slowly being backed against a tree by two humans. Katrina turned, sprinting towards them.
A blur of green and red came at her, and she swung wildly. The blur leapt over her, pulling her lightsaber out of her hands.
She froze for a split second. There is no available weapon. There is Dustil needing help.
Her former Padawan acted before she could do anything. Dustil dropped to the ground as both humans swung their blades towards his neck, diving between them and tumbling to the forest floor.
Katrina slammed her foot into the gut of the blur, now moving with a slower purpose towards her and appearing to be a green Twi'lek. The Sith fell back with a sick grunt, losing its grip on her lightsaber, which Katrina promptly called back to her hands.
The human in the Sith uniform tripped over an errant tree branch, his intended blow clumsily sideswiping Katrina. She pushed her blade through his stomach, watching as he fell like the dead weight he now was to the forest floor.
The two humans had caught Dustil lying flat on his back on the ground. They stepped ruthlessly on his arm. Dustil cried out, his weapon falling from his trembling hand and rolling away from him.
The Twi'lek swiped angrily at her. He had recovered quickly.
There is Dustil needing help…
A large tree limb shuddered over the heads of the two cackling humans from all the activity. If she could leap into that tree and chop that limb, it would knock both Sith off Dustil and get her away from the Twi'lek's attacks.
The muscles in her legs tensed, ready to jump despite minor doubts that she could leap ten or twenty meters off the ground.
That probably isn't good for the baby.
Her mind that identified itself as Revan wondered how it could have thought those words, in that combination, with that kind of tone in its voice.
The sickening crunch of bone woke her up.
Katrina slammed her lightsaber down on the shoulder of the attacking Twi'lek. The alien fell back, grasping the wide wound and the dangling as though if he held it there, it might reattach itself.
She flung her weapon towards the two humans standing over Dustil. It struck one of them on the neck, on apparently an important vein. The human crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
The remaining Sith- the bald human and the injured Twi'lek- fled into the forest.
She waited until she could no longer hear their footsteps crunching through the leaves and bushes, until she could no longer smell the stench of their hatred around her.
Dustil moaned loudly. She rushed over to him.
"My arm…" he said, in a voice so airy and ambivalent that she knew he was going into shock.
There was a joint in his upper arm where there hadn't been one before. The skin around it was an ugly shade of bright purple.
Katrina whipped through her pack, tearing open a medpac and putting a quick-seal splint on the arm.
The young Jedi Knight continued to moan weakly, halfway into a Jedi trance.
"Phineas?" she panted into the comlink. "Phineas?"
No need to shout. She wondered again how she was so certain he was smirking even though she couldn't see him.
"I need a medical rescue sent out. Dustil's hurt and I don't think I can drag him all the way back without hurting him more."
"Hurt? What happened?"
The Sith happened. Katrina looked around warily, wondering if they were regrouping, planning to come back and finish them off.
"A team will be out there within ten minutes," her brother finally answered.
She put the comlink back in her pack, falling back from her position over Dustil to sit on the forest floor, her hand on one knee.
One of the harder battles they'd had since going into hiding. Outnumbered and equally-matched.
But we're still alive, she reminded herself, wiping sprayed dirt off Dustil's cheekbone.
His lightsaber had rolled off to one side. Katrina reached over, grasping it from where it lay near the dead Zabrak Sith.
The Zabrak and the human in the Sith uniform were both sprawled, burned and still, very near to each other. One of the humans that had broken Dustil's arm, the one she had struck with her lightsaber, was curled up in a fetal position back near the trail the other two had fled down- his eyes and mouth wide open like she was still attacking him.
Wait a minute.
The numbers weren't adding up. Leska had mentioned three Sith; two humans and an alien.
Three Sith lay dead before her. Two humans and a Zabrak.
What didn't add up was the other two, the Twi'lek and the bald human, who had fled into the woods. That made five.
Five doesn't equal three. Five equals a lot bigger problem than we thought.