CHAPTER VI: Pain

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Bodies. Hundreds of dead Republic soldiers were scattered. Kiray could feel more, just barely, throughout the ship, and the magnitude of death struck her like a stone. Kreia walked amongst the corpses without bother and Atton just looked very, very confused.

"Don't know what's going on," he muttered as he gestured to the navicomputer. "Take a look at the logs. They've chilled my back through and through." Kiray looked at him before signing onto the computer and delving into the holologs.

"The last one's the worst," Atton hissed, but that only caused Kiray to activate it. The captain appeared, talking away about how he'd sent a report to his commander and wondering about strange disappearances on board before an ensign appeared.

"Sir! There's a stream coming in from medbay!"

A shriek rang through the bridge, the shattering of broken glass, and a grating voice rumbled ominously, "I have come for the Jedi." Kiray shivered as the images vanished before giving Atton a look. He flung his hands up and said, "What? I did get the drift charts, you know!"

"Good. Now let's get out of here," Kiray said coolly, working her way around the bridge with Atton and Kreia following her. Kiray opened the door to find four Sith assassins waiting. Her backup fired at any that Kiray didn't fell with a monstrous scream or her blades, and they were soon finished.

They wandered through their section of the ship, only coming across teams of three or four assassins a few times, before Kiray ended up in the escape pod bay. However, it was locked down, so the three of them could not shoot off into space, which was fine by the entire group. There were no serious injuries as they came across five or more assassins, and Kiray found the conference room, bringing up the most recent record.

The captain appeared again, and he was talking to what, at first, appeared to be thin air. Then a double-recorded image appeared, and Kiray found herself face-to-face, if not directly, with Admiral Carth Onasi. It appeared that he'd wanted the Ebon Hawk badly, trying to find hints of someone's fate (a lost love, maybe, Kiray figured.), and quickly signed off. The captain was musing to himself when the least expected person appeared.

"QUERY: You sent for me, captain?"

"Ah, yes. I need you to check on the passenger again, make sure there isn't anything she needs. Just don't be too obvious about it."

The assassin droid nodded and replied, "STATEMENT: Of course, captain! As always, it is my pleasure to serve!" Kiray growled indiscernibly as the image faded, and Atton gave Kiray a glance.

"That the droid you ran into?" he asked, getting only a taciturn nod in reply as Kiray turned on her boot's heel and out of the conference room. Atton tried to catch Kreia's eye (if she had any) and try and get answers out of her, but he had no such luck, and settled for following Kiray and Kreia out to the next section of the ship.

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Kiray sliced into two troop quarters and retrieved a few paltry items before stopping in front of a third. Kiray's eyes went wide and she jogged forward, analyzing the door.

"What is it?" Atton questioned, this time determined to get an answer, "Why are we stopping?"

"Hold on," Kiray muttered, "This was my room."

"Your room? When?"

"Before I woke up on Peragus. There are a few things I left behind that I need to pick up."

"Whatever you need to do, do it quickly," Kreia grumbled, earning herself another pair of eyerolls as Kiray opened the door and dashed for the footlocker, popping it open. Inside was a datapad, a slim armband, a stim, and another set of Mandalorian armor that Kiray had crafted herself during her tenure in exile. Her amber eyes flicked from her old set to the one she had made herself, and soon shot Atton a glare that told him to leave pronto. He ran across the passageway, hacked the door to those quarters, and slid inside. Kiray shed her older armor and put on the new-ish set. This one also had a black bodyglove, but covered with silver and navy stripings, but dominated by the navy. Kiray called Atton in and passed him her original set, and he tried to refuse. This was her original soul, after all.

"No, Atton, this is not me, not any longer. The Kiray who wore that was pure Mando, not half Mando and half Jedi," she argued, and Atton grudgingly wore it, but soon felt its warmth, her joy of life filling it, and not vestiges of a dark past like Atton's jacket barely covered. He nodded a confirmation to Kiray, who handed the Matukai robes to Kreia, and the rearmored group made their way through the crew quarters, fending off more assassins and exploring heavily. Kiray left no stone unturned, and when they were done, Kiray led them into the maintenance level.

It was cold down there. Not by temperature, but because of a darkness flooding the area. The threesome stopped at the first junction as Atton pointed out, "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Don't we all?" Kiray said in reply, glancing around, hoping to the Force that there were no assassins creeping up on them. "Look, we just have to get to the fuel line and we'll be all right, 'kay? Let's get rolling!"

"All right, but trust me, if there's something wrong and neither of you pick up on it, I'm outta here," Atton muttered, allowing Kiray to stick her tongue out at him before walking forward and towards another junction. Kiray stopped again, holding up a closed fist.

"Is it just me," she whispered, "Or is there someone watching us from behind?" Biting her lip, Kiray spun around, and instantly regretted it. Kreia and Atton turned to look as well, and Kiray felt the cold creep closer.

Standing at the door to the turbolift was a man so scarred and deformed that he looked dead. His skin was cracked and peeling, and while one of his eyes was a molted gold, the other was milky white in blindness. Kreia straightened and drew a huge vibrosword. Kiray gaped at the sword for a moment, and quickly closed her gaping jaw.

"Go on. I am not defenseless," Kreia assured her, and jogged back to the threshold back the way they had come. The old woman turned back and called, "He cannot fight what he cannot see, and power has blinded him long ago. Run. I will be along shortly."

With that, she ran through the doorway, closing as she ran. Kiray sighed before glancing at Atton, saying, "And you call me crazy." The scoundrel replied with only a shake of his head, and Kiray sighed. Why couldn't she stop staring at him? It was getting annoying, and Kiray could not for the life of her figure out why. She shook her short brown locks and led Atton to the right, into a room that had three footlockers with weaponry and armor upgrades and a workbench. Kiray was careful as she installed a biorestorative underlay on Atton's suit, along with a sound dampening overlay, and strengthening underlays and tough durasteel overlays on her own before proceeding back to the junction and turned left. Kiray was bored, and cut a long scratch into the wall with her newfound double-bladed sword.

There was a terminal in this chamber, and Kiray worked away at it until she was certain that the maintenance hatch was open. When it was, Kiray led Atton silently into the engine maintenance areas, and along the spidery catwalks until they came across another terminal. Kiray went to work on that one as well, and the hatch into the fuel area opened.

Atton watched as she approached it, and stopped dead.

"Nuh-uh. I am not going back to the facility through the fuel line, and that's final!" he cried angrily, crossing his arms in defiance. Kiray gave him a long look, hands on hips, and replied rather coolly, "Atton, there's two ways we can do this. Either you come with me, and trust my judgement, or I force you to come."

"And how do you force me?" Atton challenged. Kiray gave him a small, indiscreet smile and a penetrating stare. He felt his legs moving forward, even though he hadn't told them to...

"Hey! That's not funny, Fett!" Atton yelled, and his legs stopped moving instantly. Kiray pouted like a little girl, giving him a puppy dog stare. Atton sighed in defeat and declared, "All right, but I know I'm gonna regret this."

(CUTSCENE)

He stood stock-still, waiting, sensing.

"I feel you, my Master," he rumbled in a low, grating voice, "faint, weak."

"Your senses betray you, as you betrayed me," she answered coldly. He allowed a grin to play across his face, although it pained him to do so.

"And so you live. You are difficult to kill." He began walking forward. In the spastic light, Kreia's old and weathered face faded and reappeared before fading again.

"Have you learned nothing? Appearances always deceive."

"Your words mean nothing!" he growled, "No longer do your whispers crawl within my skull. No longer do we suffer under teachings that weaken us." Kreia walked forward into the light as he continued, "And now you run in search of the Jedi. They are all dead, save one, and one broken Jedi cannot stop the darkness that is to come."

Kreia gave him an icy grin. "Perhaps. We shall see." She readied her vibrosword, holding it tight. He drew his lightsaber in a thrum of crimson light, spinning around and slicing the blade through flesh. Kreia groaned as her hand fell to the floor, and she clutched her bare wrist in pain.

(End cutscene)

Kiray yelped as she grinned at Atton, grabbing her left wrist as it seared painfully, like molten lava was pouring onto it, burning away her hand. Kiray collapsed to the floor, chanting, "K'atini, it's only pain, k'atini, it's only paiiiinnnn, ooooowwwww."

"What – are you okay?" Atton asked, racing to her side. Kiray grabbed her head in her hands and groaned as the pain only worsened. "Damn it, it's only a little farther! Don't give up on me now, Kiray!" She groaned again, and carefully straightened up.

"I'm good, I'm good," she said calmly, if not just a tiny bit shaky. Atton helped her up anyways, asking, "What happened to you?"

"I don't know," Kiray answered, staring at her free hand. "I – I think Kreia got injured, bad. Maybe lost her hand."

"Well, if that's it, then that pain's buying us time to get out of here," Atton concluded, "As long as Sleeps-With-Vibroblades doesn't get bored with her as a plaything and come after us."

"You're right, Atton. We need to get going, and that's through the fuel line. Let's get going."

With that, Kiray led Atton into the line, back into the mining facility.