p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"strongDisclaimer: I don't own kotor/strong/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"We entered Uppercity North and I looked around me. The sun was beginning to set, colouring the sky a deep, burning orange. I caught Carth looking at me again and he dropped his gaze to the ground right away. I didn't say anything though since I was guilty of doing the same thing. We walked across the street to find that the door on the other side lead to Uppercity North's apartments. As we entered the building, I could hear the faint sound of music coming from the party. I listened to the music to hear where it was coming from. Huh. It sounded like rock music. At least these Sith had good taste./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""The party is in one of these apartments. Shouldn't be too hard to find. You can hear the music from here," Carth said./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""At least it's good music," I replied. Carth chuckled./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""I guess so. Let's find Sarna so she can give us those uniforms." I nodded and we proceeded to the party. Just like the apartments in the southern part of the Uppercity, the building was shaped like a circle and the party was in an apartment on the other side. Like Carth said, the door was open and there were plenty of Sith. I noticed a young woman with red wavy hair talking to an equally young man with black hair. By the man's slurred speech, I could tell he was already pretty sloshed. The woman looked at us and beckoned the man to wait and she approached us./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Hey Carth, I'm glad you could make it. I seriously thought that you weren't going to show up." The woman shifted her gaze from Carth to me. "I suppose this your friend? The one you were talking about earlier in the cantina?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Uh...yeah," Carth replied. "Sarna, this is Alexie, and Alexie, this is Sarna." I waved hesitantly at Sarna./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Hi there. Carth's told me quite a bit about you." Suddenly there was crash followed by several excited screams. I looked past Sarna to see what was going on. Apparently the black-haired man tried to open up another bottle of Tarisian Ale but the cork ended up flying toward something fragile. Sarna rolled her eyes and sighed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""See what I have to deal with? At least getting them piss drunk won't be much of a problem." I looked at the Junior Officers and raised an eyebrow at Sarna./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""By the looks of them, they're already halfway there," I said. Sarna started laughing./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""You've got that right." Sarna turned to face the rowdy crowd of Sith and I noticed that the black-haired man who was now drinking the Tarisian Ale directly from the bottle yelling "This ale's great! We should have conquered this planet emages/em ago!"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Careful Yun," Sarna called out to him. "That wine's got quite the kick. A couple of more bottles and we'll all be passed out on the floor."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Come on, Sarna. It's not like we're on duty. Live a little," the man named Yun said as he passed her the bottle. "Come on, drink up." Sarna put the bottle to her lips and took a single swig out of it before giving back to Yun who gladly started drinking out of it again. Sarna turned to me and Carth again./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""I'll have to introduce you but I get the feeling using your real names would be a bad idea. If anyone asks you're names are Luna Darran and Adrian Antilles." Carth and I exchanged glances and shrugged. We followed Sarna into the apartment building as she introduced us to the other Sith Officers who greeted us gleefully despite their drunken states. Carth and I tried to blend in with the others but it was hard to do that without getting completely trashed ourselves. Carth, Sarna and I went our separate ways to get everyone as drunk as possible. There were a couple of groups of guys who were taking turns with the keg and there were even a couple of guys already passed out. I couldn't help but laugh at the realization that this was going to be easier than I thought./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"I wasn't sure how long went by before all the Sith Officers were passed out from alcohol consumption, but it was a few hours at the least. I was glad when the it was over because I could feel the alcohol begin to fog up my mind and I was certain I wasn't the only one. Sarna did more drinking than me and Carth drank a little too. I'll admit it was fun watching the young men and women try to hold down their dinners and the alcohol after drinking from one of the kegs. Carth's gaze found mine and he raised an eyebrow at me. I smiled and giggled slightly in response, making Carth laugh a little. I'd be lying if I said I didn't drink at all and stayed off the dance floor but I didn't drink all that much and dancing never hurt anyone, plus it was fun. Unfortunately, Carth wasn't having as fun of a time as I was. He ended up having to play referee for a drunken fight between two of the young men. I didn't know what happened exactly since their speech was slurred (I spoke a lot of languages, but drunken man was not one of them), but I guessed that one of the men did or said something to make the other angry and fists started flying. Carth, being the nice guy that he was, broke up the fight between them while all the others except Sarna and I screamed in chant-like unison: "Fight! Fight! Fight!" like it was little more than a playground fight between two school boys. When I was sure the fight was over I continued to mingle and giving young Sith officers more and more drinks which they took happily./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"Over the course of the next few hours, the Junior Officers dropped one by one until they were all passed out drunk. I felt bad for them since most were barely out of their teens. I turned them each on their sides so that if they threw up in their sleep they at least wouldn't choke on it. Sarna beckoned Carth and I over to a large yellow backpack. I assumed this was wear all the uniforms were stashed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Alright all the uniforms that weren't locked up before the party are all in here," Sarna explained. She squatted down and looked through the backpack. "Let's see here." Sarna looked up and looked at me for a moment, as if analyzing me, and looked back at the pack. "Corana's about the same height and build as you. Aha! Here's her armor!" she exclaimed though it seemed like she was talking more to herself than anything else. She took out a Sith uniform from the yellow backpack and handed it to me. "This should fit you."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Thanks for helping us out, Sarna. This must be very risky for you," I said. Sarna smiled and waved her hand in dismissal before squatting down again to look through the backpack./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Don't worry about it. Carth explained that you're looking for Bastila. She's too important for me to worry about getting in trouble."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Yeah but this is the Sith we're talking about. The trouble you're going to get into involves torture and execution," Carth said worriedly./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Look, you two; I appreciate your concern but this is my choice. I'd rather risk discovery and execution than lose Bastila and the Republic to Malak," Sarna replied with such determination that I just couldn't argue with her anymore. She pulled out another uniform and handed it to Carth saying "This should fit you." We thanked her for her help one more time and we left for the apartment. It was pitch black outside except the street lights which creeped me out. It reminded me too much of those horror vids my brothers made me watch a kid. I was relieved when we finally made it back to the apartment. I immediately grabbed some clothes and entered the refresher to change, leaving Carth to change his own clothes while I was in there. First, I cleaned off the makeup with a washcloth and some water. Then I took off my earrings and placed them on the counter. I could deal with those in the morning. I pulled off my shirt and kicked off my pants, replacing them with a simple tunic and leggings. I pulled off the long gloves I was currently wearing and replaced them with the single leather glove I always wore on my skeleton-like metal hand. The last thing I did before going to bed was pulling my mess of blonde curls into its usual braid down my back. After leaving the refresher, I found Carth had already changed his clothes and fell asleep. I smiled slightly and shook my head. I turned off the one light he left on and crawled into the other bed. I didn't realize how I tired I was until I got on the bed. No wonder Carth passed out so quickly. It wasn't long before I, too, fell to sleep./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"emI am on a war-ravaged world, the bodies of the dead littering the battleground. Some of the dead are Mandalorians while others are the bodies of Republic soldiers and Jedi. I feel really bad about how many of those young Jedi (some of them are just kids) whose deaths I just sent them to but I try to push down my conscience as I stab one the ends of my double-bladed lightsaber through the gut of one Mandalorian in front of me, rip it it out and stab another behind me with the other end of my glowing cyan blade. I see the grenade coming a moment too late and I barely have enough time to get out of the way. I moved away enough so the blast doesn't cause me any serious burn injuries but it still sends me flying. I land on my back, knocking the wind out of me, but I still slide quite a bit and do a flip, making me land on my stomach. My ears are ringing from the blast and I'm trying to get my breath back as more people from both sides of the conflict are slaughtered./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"First battle and it's already gone to hell,em I think to myself. Some part of me is angry./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"These as people depend on you. They see you as a leader. Act like one, emI tell myself angrily. I decide it's time to grow up and stop acting like a child and start acting like a war leader. I get to my feet and my heart beat starts to race in fear as I see a young man with short dark hair and hazel eyes be surrounded by Mandalorians. By the looks of him, the grenade blast injured him more than it did me. I can't let them hurt him, he's like my brother. I don't think, I simply act. I /emstrongForce-jump/strongem to the group of Mandalorians who are too cowardly to take him on without being injured and I cut off the head of the leader. I stand between the man and the Mandalorians./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"em"Anyone else?" I snarl angrily. The Mandalorians hesitate but decide to attack me anyways. I am perfectly fine with that. In fact, I'm looking forward to it. I smile crookedly and proceed to slaughter the Mandalorians./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"I woke up with a start but thankfully I didn't cry out. Sitting up in bed, I looked around me while trying to get my breathing under control. My skin was hot and sticky, and my hair was soaked in sweat. It was just a dream. Force, I wasn't used to my dreams being so…intense. There was no way I was getting back to sleep after a dream like that and I could see the sun starting to come up from the window so I got up and went to the refresher to rinse off the sweat. It didn't take me long, only a couple of minutes, and I left the refresher feeling a lot better and finding Carth awake as well. Did I wake him up?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Hey Carth. What are doing up so early?" I asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""I was about to ask you the same thing," Carth replied./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Bad dream," I answered vaguely. "You?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Same." I raised an eyebrow./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""What about?" I asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Nothing I want to talk about." I nodded and left him alone. I didn't want to talk about my dream either./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Well...we're both awake so we may as well prepare our stuff for the trip to the Lowercity," I proposed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""And let's not forget the Undercity, which is even more dangerous," Carth finished. I nodded in agreement and we started preparing./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"For the rest of the morning, we ate quickly and focused on getting ready for the Lowercity. It wasn't going to be as...quiet as the Uppercity and we would need to be much better prepared. The true preparation was for the Undercity and we made sure to pack lots of medpacks, food, water, camp supplies, extra weapons and we even wore some light armor under our Sith uniforms. It was awkward wearing two sets of armor but we wouldn't have to wear both sets for long. Just long enough to get past the guard. When we were as ready as we could possibly be, we put on our Sith uniforms and exited the apartment. As we left the building, we were instantly soaked by the heavy rain that was falling. Not that I minded. I actually enjoyed the rain. I couldn't see Carth's face so I wasn't sure if he minded the rain but I had a feeling that he didn't have the same feelings about rain that I had./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"We walked through the streets of Taris, the locals looking at us with a mixture of fear and suspicion or not at all. I didn't know where the elevator was but I was getting a bit of a mental map in my mind thanks to all this walking around. We went to Uppercity North where I managed to get some drunks not to pick a fight with us and even screamed at some old man who was spouting anti-alien banthashit. He was friendly with us at first because of the Sith armor we wearing but got angry when I called him an ignorant bastard after he called aliens vermin. To be honest, the only thing keeping me from kicking his ass was Carth's hold on my arm and him reminding me that this crazy kook (his words, not mine) could cause us a lot of trouble. We took a right turn in the direction of the elevator to the Lowercity./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Another patrol headed down to the Lowercity, eh?" queried the elevator guard./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Yes, that's us," Carth replied./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Just be careful down there. Those damned swoop gangs will shoot anything that moves. Including us," the Sith guard warned./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Don't worry Soldier. We'll be cautious," I said. The guard unlocked the elevator and beckoned us to pass. I nodded tightly at the guard and he saluted us before he entered the elevator. I had a feeling that the real action was just beginning./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"strongA/N: Yes that was Malak in Alexie's dream/strong/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"We entered Uppercity North and I looked around me. The sun was beginning to set, colouring the sky a deep, burning orange. I caught Carth looking at me again and he dropped his gaze to the ground right away. I didn't say anything though since I was guilty of doing the same thing. We walked across the street to find that the door on the other side lead to Uppercity North's apartments. As we entered the building, I could hear the faint sound of music coming from the party. I listened to the music to hear where it was coming from. Huh. It sounded like rock music. At least these Sith had good taste./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""The party is in one of these apartments. Shouldn't be too hard to find. You can hear the music from here," Carth said./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""At least it's good music," I replied. Carth chuckled./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""I guess so. Let's find Sarna so she can give us those uniforms." I nodded and we proceeded to the party. Just like the apartments in the southern part of the Uppercity, the building was shaped like a circle and the party was in an apartment on the other side. Like Carth said, the door was open and there were plenty of Sith. I noticed a young woman with red wavy hair talking to an equally young man with black hair. By the man's slurred speech, I could tell he was already pretty sloshed. The woman looked at us and beckoned the man to wait and she approached us./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Hey Carth, I'm glad you could make it. I seriously thought that you weren't going to show up." The woman shifted her gaze from Carth to me. "I suppose this your friend? The one you were talking about earlier in the cantina?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Uh...yeah," Carth replied. "Sarna, this is Alexie, and Alexie, this is Sarna." I waved hesitantly at Sarna./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Hi there. Carth's told me quite a bit about you." Suddenly there was crash followed by several excited screams. I looked past Sarna to see what was going on. Apparently the black-haired man tried to open up another bottle of Tarisian Ale but the cork ended up flying toward something fragile. Sarna rolled her eyes and sighed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""See what I have to deal with? At least getting them piss drunk won't be much of a problem." I looked at the Junior Officers and raised an eyebrow at Sarna./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""By the looks of them, they're already halfway there," I said. Sarna started laughing./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""You've got that right." Sarna turned to face the rowdy crowd of Sith and I noticed that the black-haired man who was now drinking the Tarisian Ale directly from the bottle yelling "This ale's great! We should have conquered this planet emages/em ago!"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Careful Yun," Sarna called out to him. "That wine's got quite the kick. A couple of more bottles and we'll all be passed out on the floor."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Come on, Sarna. It's not like we're on duty. Live a little," the man named Yun said as he passed her the bottle. "Come on, drink up." Sarna put the bottle to her lips and took a single swig out of it before giving back to Yun who gladly started drinking out of it again. Sarna turned to me and Carth again./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""I'll have to introduce you but I get the feeling using your real names would be a bad idea. If anyone asks you're names are Luna Darran and Adrian Antilles." Carth and I exchanged glances and shrugged. We followed Sarna into the apartment building as she introduced us to the other Sith Officers who greeted us gleefully despite their drunken states. Carth and I tried to blend in with the others but it was hard to do that without getting completely trashed ourselves. Carth, Sarna and I went our separate ways to get everyone as drunk as possible. There were a couple of groups of guys who were taking turns with the keg and there were even a couple of guys already passed out. I couldn't help but laugh at the realization that this was going to be easier than I thought./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"I wasn't sure how long went by before all the Sith Officers were passed out from alcohol consumption, but it was a few hours at the least. I was glad when the it was over because I could feel the alcohol begin to fog up my mind and I was certain I wasn't the only one. Sarna did more drinking than me and Carth drank a little too. I'll admit it was fun watching the young men and women try to hold down their dinners and the alcohol after drinking from one of the kegs. Carth's gaze found mine and he raised an eyebrow at me. I smiled and giggled slightly in response, making Carth laugh a little. I'd be lying if I said I didn't drink at all and stayed off the dance floor but I didn't drink all that much and dancing never hurt anyone, plus it was fun. Unfortunately, Carth wasn't having as fun of a time as I was. He ended up having to play referee for a drunken fight between two of the young men. I didn't know what happened exactly since their speech was slurred (I spoke a lot of languages, but drunken man was not one of them), but I guessed that one of the men did or said something to make the other angry and fists started flying. Carth, being the nice guy that he was, broke up the fight between them while all the others except Sarna and I screamed in chant-like unison: "Fight! Fight! Fight!" like it was little more than a playground fight between two school boys. When I was sure the fight was over I continued to mingle and giving young Sith officers more and more drinks which they took happily./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"Over the course of the next few hours, the Junior Officers dropped one by one until they were all passed out drunk. I felt bad for them since most were barely out of their teens. I turned them each on their sides so that if they threw up in their sleep they at least wouldn't choke on it. Sarna beckoned Carth and I over to a large yellow backpack. I assumed this was wear all the uniforms were stashed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Alright all the uniforms that weren't locked up before the party are all in here," Sarna explained. She squatted down and looked through the backpack. "Let's see here." Sarna looked up and looked at me for a moment, as if analyzing me, and looked back at the pack. "Corana's about the same height and build as you. Aha! Here's her armor!" she exclaimed though it seemed like she was talking more to herself than anything else. She took out a Sith uniform from the yellow backpack and handed it to me. "This should fit you."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Thanks for helping us out, Sarna. This must be very risky for you," I said. Sarna smiled and waved her hand in dismissal before squatting down again to look through the backpack./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Don't worry about it. Carth explained that you're looking for Bastila. She's too important for me to worry about getting in trouble."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Yeah but this is the Sith we're talking about. The trouble you're going to get into involves torture and execution," Carth said worriedly./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Look, you two; I appreciate your concern but this is my choice. I'd rather risk discovery and execution than lose Bastila and the Republic to Malak," Sarna replied with such determination that I just couldn't argue with her anymore. She pulled out another uniform and handed it to Carth saying "This should fit you." We thanked her for her help one more time and we left for the apartment. It was pitch black outside except the street lights which creeped me out. It reminded me too much of those horror vids my brothers made me watch a kid. I was relieved when we finally made it back to the apartment. I immediately grabbed some clothes and entered the refresher to change, leaving Carth to change his own clothes while I was in there. First, I cleaned off the makeup with a washcloth and some water. Then I took off my earrings and placed them on the counter. I could deal with those in the morning. I pulled off my shirt and kicked off my pants, replacing them with a simple tunic and leggings. I pulled off the long gloves I was currently wearing and replaced them with the single leather glove I always wore on my skeleton-like metal hand. The last thing I did before going to bed was pulling my mess of blonde curls into its usual braid down my back. After leaving the refresher, I found Carth had already changed his clothes and fell asleep. I smiled slightly and shook my head. I turned off the one light he left on and crawled into the other bed. I didn't realize how I tired I was until I got on the bed. No wonder Carth passed out so quickly. It wasn't long before I, too, fell to sleep./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"emI am on a war-ravaged world, the bodies of the dead littering the battleground. Some of the dead are Mandalorians while others are the bodies of Republic soldiers and Jedi. I feel really bad about how many of those young Jedi (some of them are just kids) whose deaths I just sent them to but I try to push down my conscience as I stab one the ends of my double-bladed lightsaber through the gut of one Mandalorian in front of me, rip it it out and stab another behind me with the other end of my glowing cyan blade. I see the grenade coming a moment too late and I barely have enough time to get out of the way. I moved away enough so the blast doesn't cause me any serious burn injuries but it still sends me flying. I land on my back, knocking the wind out of me, but I still slide quite a bit and do a flip, making me land on my stomach. My ears are ringing from the blast and I'm trying to get my breath back as more people from both sides of the conflict are slaughtered./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"First battle and it's already gone to hell,em I think to myself. Some part of me is angry./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"These as people depend on you. They see you as a leader. Act like one, emI tell myself angrily. I decide it's time to grow up and stop acting like a child and start acting like a war leader. I get to my feet and my heart beat starts to race in fear as I see a young man with short dark hair and hazel eyes be surrounded by Mandalorians. By the looks of him, the grenade blast injured him more than it did me. I can't let them hurt him, he's like my brother. I don't think, I simply act. I /emstrongForce-jump/strongem to the group of Mandalorians who are too cowardly to take him on without being injured and I cut off the head of the leader. I stand between the man and the Mandalorians./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"em"Anyone else?" I snarl angrily. The Mandalorians hesitate but decide to attack me anyways. I am perfectly fine with that. In fact, I'm looking forward to it. I smile crookedly and proceed to slaughter the Mandalorians./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"I woke up with a start but thankfully I didn't cry out. Sitting up in bed, I looked around me while trying to get my breathing under control. My skin was hot and sticky, and my hair was soaked in sweat. It was just a dream. Force, I wasn't used to my dreams being so…intense. There was no way I was getting back to sleep after a dream like that and I could see the sun starting to come up from the window so I got up and went to the refresher to rinse off the sweat. It didn't take me long, only a couple of minutes, and I left the refresher feeling a lot better and finding Carth awake as well. Did I wake him up?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Hey Carth. What are doing up so early?" I asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""I was about to ask you the same thing," Carth replied./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Bad dream," I answered vaguely. "You?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Same." I raised an eyebrow./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""What about?" I asked./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Nothing I want to talk about." I nodded and left him alone. I didn't want to talk about my dream either./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Well...we're both awake so we may as well prepare our stuff for the trip to the Lowercity," I proposed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""And let's not forget the Undercity, which is even more dangerous," Carth finished. I nodded in agreement and we started preparing./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"For the rest of the morning, we ate quickly and focused on getting ready for the Lowercity. It wasn't going to be as...quiet as the Uppercity and we would need to be much better prepared. The true preparation was for the Undercity and we made sure to pack lots of medpacks, food, water, camp supplies, extra weapons and we even wore some light armor under our Sith uniforms. It was awkward wearing two sets of armor but we wouldn't have to wear both sets for long. Just long enough to get past the guard. When we were as ready as we could possibly be, we put on our Sith uniforms and exited the apartment. As we left the building, we were instantly soaked by the heavy rain that was falling. Not that I minded. I actually enjoyed the rain. I couldn't see Carth's face so I wasn't sure if he minded the rain but I had a feeling that he didn't have the same feelings about rain that I had./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"We walked through the streets of Taris, the locals looking at us with a mixture of fear and suspicion or not at all. I didn't know where the elevator was but I was getting a bit of a mental map in my mind thanks to all this walking around. We went to Uppercity North where I managed to get some drunks not to pick a fight with us and even screamed at some old man who was spouting anti-alien banthashit. He was friendly with us at first because of the Sith armor we wearing but got angry when I called him an ignorant bastard after he called aliens vermin. To be honest, the only thing keeping me from kicking his ass was Carth's hold on my arm and him reminding me that this crazy kook (his words, not mine) could cause us a lot of trouble. We took a right turn in the direction of the elevator to the Lowercity./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Another patrol headed down to the Lowercity, eh?" queried the elevator guard./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Yes, that's us," Carth replied./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Just be careful down there. Those damned swoop gangs will shoot anything that moves. Including us," the Sith guard warned./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;""Don't worry Soldier. We'll be cautious," I said. The guard unlocked the elevator and beckoned us to pass. I nodded tightly at the guard and he saluted us before he entered the elevator. I had a feeling that the real action was just beginning./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 14.4px;"strongA/N: Yes that was Malak in Alexie's dream/strong/p
