Disclaimer- I do not own the rights to Star Wars Kotor 1 and 2 or their characters and likeness.

Ch. 7

A severe pain pierced the inside of Atton's brain. He began to slowly stir, and as Atton turned over he fell off the prison cot that he was sleeping on. The cold floor felt like sharp blades on his skin. He quickly jumped back to his feet before fumbling back onto the cot. Within his eyes there was a dull haze that was gradually fading, and once it completely cleared Atton noticed the small containment room that he was residing in. It soon became apparent to Atton that he midst have gone too far the night before. From the corner of his eye he noticed a man standing outside the force-shield. Atton turned to see It was Andrew with a disappointed expression. A thought then crossed Atton's mind, and he let out a painful chuckle. "Man does this bring back a sense of déjà vu, except this time you're wearing clothes."

Andrew was not amused at the attempt of lazy banter . "Atton this is not a time to joke. You were arrested last night for getting in a brawl."

"Did I win?" Atton continued to quip."

"Do you think this is funny?" Mission then moved out from behind Andrew, and she was equally as irritated. "If it wasn't for your friend this would be playing out a whole different way.

Confused at the random woman yelling at him Atton questioned. "I'm sorry who are you?"

Andrew then gestured the young Twilek and said "Atton this is Mission Vao. She's head of security here in Ahto City, and the reason your not in front of a jury of Selkath facing the death sentence."

Atton still did not act serious, and once again teased Mission with a sarcastic response. "Nice to meet you chief. I'm thankful for you not throwing me to the literal sharks."

"Shut up Atton!" The voice did not emulate from Mission or Andrew, but from a furious red-head coming down some stairs behind them.

The sight of one of his closest friends took Atton aback. "Mira, what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing. Mission did you mind." The security head pressed several buttons on a panel to to the side which lowered the force-shield. Once it was down Mira moved into the cell and grabbed Atton by the collar. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Atton remained unshaken. "Well the thing is I wasn't. If you didn't know I was sort of drunk."

Andrew entered the cell next, and quickly pulled Mira away before she got really physical. After a brief second to make sure she was calm, Andrew turned back to Atton. "We gathered that much, but was there a reason why you attacked Carth."

The former smuggler shrugged in response, and said "I don't know, I tend to get a little violent when I'm buzzed."

At the this point Andrew simply sighed and put a hand on Atton's shoulder. "Atton this isn't like you. If something is wrong please let us help."

Finally Atton's smug faded. He brushed away Andrew's hand, and said. "There is nothing you can do. Now if you're done interrogating me can you please let me go, because I have a wicked headache."Andrew slowly steps to the side. Atton then starts to walk past him before stopping in place to say "If anyone needs me I'm going to be on the ship." From there he makes his way up the stairs to exit the holding prison.

A loud metallic thump was then heard as Mira punched the broadside of the wall. Her hand was now trickling a small stream of blood, and her knuckles were a small shade of purple. Andrew took notice of this, grabbed the hand, and waved his own over it. Several strings of light swirled around it, and the bleeding soon stopped. "Watch yourself Mira, we don't want our top medic hurting herself."

"I'm sorry, but he really pissed me off just now."

"I understand, but you must not let anger cloud your judgment."

Mira released a deep breath. "You're right, but I can't just allow him to walk away from this; not without giving me a proper explanation first." She then stormed out of the room

"Well this has turned into a big mess." Both Andrew and Mission turned to see Carth sitting on a cot in an adjacent cell. He wore a huge black eye, and several bruises on his face.

"Glad to see you're up admiral" Andrew commented.

"I have to say you trained that guy really well. Even while intoxicated he got the better of me."

"Maybe you're just getting old" Mission joked as she released his force-shield.

Carth stood up and casually limped out. "Haha very funny. So tell me, what do we do from here."

Mission pulled a chair out of the corner, and offered to him. "Well luckily my men found you before the Selkath caught wind of what happened. You should be alright, but I would be careful walking around, rumors can fly fast."

"I guess that's sort of reassuring." Carth fell into the chair in an evident amount of pain. He squinted his eyes tight, and his muscles tensed slightly. When he at last got comfortable he looked up at Andrew to ask "By the way do we have any new leads pertaining to the nightly assaults?"

"It was a Sith Assassin, similar to those that attacked Citadel Station two years ago. I encountered them late last night." Andrew then paused to momentarily ponder on his recent encounter. "However I will say, this one seemed different from others that I've faced. When we fought each other, they held back for some reason; it was almost like they was sizing me up. If we encounter this person again we need to be careful. I have a feeling this one won't be as much of a pushover."

Carth shook his head. "Andrew we can't just sit and wait for them to attack. Do we have any plan on how to catch them?"

"I might have an idea" Mission said as she pulled out her communicator, and started entering a message. "I thinks it's time for me to call for a community meeting."

...Ahto Ciry Hangar...

The Ebon Hawk sat cooly as Atton slowly approached. Suddenly Mira shot around the corner with a furry in her eyes. She then yelled out while continuing to chase after him. "Atton slow down. What the hell has gotten into you."

Not looking back Atton kept on walking. "Nothing has gotten into me. I was having a good time and it got a little out of hand."

"Don't try to belittle this. I know it's more than that. One of the witnesses heard you mention Carth taking something away from you. What did he take?"

Atton then stops abruptly right at the foot of the exit ramp "He didn't. I was just angry and juma really doesn't give me the best judgement."

"Enough about the damn drinking! You've said multiple times now that when you get lit you turn into an ass. What I want to know is what about Carth set you off. Two days ago you were fine with each other, you practically lived in the cockpit together. What got between you two."

"You." The word escaped Atton's lips almost like a whisper.

"What" Mira asked unsure if she heard him right.

"Yesterday when you said all those provocative things about Carth, it got me all riled up; especially when you said I wouldn't know how to make a woman feel good. I know you were just kidding, but I couldn't help getting jealous."

"Why would you be jealous?"

"Because you weren't talking about me that way." Atton had turned to look Mira straight on. "For so long I wanted to tell you. I never did because it was either the wrong time, or I would just chicken out. But I'm not going to hide from my feelings anymore. Mira, I love you."

His eyes were red, and the surface of his skin appeared clammy. Instead of waiting on a response, Atton began to walk away, however Mira grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. She looked up at him with a bright gleam in her eye. "It's about damn time." She then clasped on both sides of his face and pulled him in for a kiss.

They lingered for several moments, taking in one another's emotion. When they at last parted, a deep grin grew on Atton's face. "I'm sorry I kept you waiting."

...Ahto City Courtyard...

Mission stood in front of a greatly amassed crowd. "Hello, thank you all for coming. As you may know there has recently been several random assaults on citizens throughout Ahto City. We want to bring this culprit to justice, which is why I'm going to have an assistant take a brief examination of all of you." At that point Andrew stepped forward from beside her to show himself to the crowd. "Last night he ran into the assailant, and he believes he can identify them by getting a good look at each of you." A loud murmur of disapproval flowed throughout the gathering of people. "I understand you may not all agree with this kind of investigation, but right now it is the best thing we can do. So until we've inspected everybody, no one is allowed to leave."

Andrew approaches a man standing up front. He looks him up and down and says "No you're much to short." Next he walked up the row, casually observing each person. He stopped at another man and glanced him over. The man had a great girth about him, and didn't appear to be in good health "No offense sir , but you don't seem like much of a fighter." Before he moved on Andrew spotted a little girl hiding behind the leg of whom appeared to be her mother. He walk up to the child, and kneeled down to be eye to eye with her. "How could someone as precious as you want to hurt anyone."

Once he stood back up, Andrew felt a cold touch on the back of his head. The uncloaking of a stealth generated was then seen that revealed the Sith Assassin aiming a blaster at him. "Are you that eager to see me again?"

Andrew, however, did not flinch. He grinned and said "I would drop that if I were you."

Suddenly another stealth generator uncloaked that showed Brianna with her own blaster pointed directly at the side of the assassin's head. "You're not the only one who knows how to sneak around with these things."

"Should I be afraid of a pregnant woman?"

"If you don't want a hole in your head than yes.'

The assassin laughed and dropped the blaster to the floor. "Well good thing I did not come to fight you; I'm here for your husband. I promised him a proper duel, and I intend on keeping my word." Andrew contemplated to himself for a moment, and then signaled to Brianna to lower her weapon. She did not look very certain of his decision, however, Briamna went along with it and slowly backed away. The assassin then pulled a small cylinder from their belt that extended into a quarterstaff. "Draw your blade."Andrew started to grasp at a vibroblade that hung from his belt, however, held a hand up to him. "Your actual blade please. If I'm being forced to fight, I want to face you at your best."

Andrew hesitated at the request, there were people around and his cover would definitely be blown. But he inevitably complied as well letting the saber hilt drop from the inside of his sleeve. The cyan beam was instantly ignited, and the crowd collectively gasped and gawked at the sight of it. One attendee called out "That man's a Jedi." Another shouted "I thought they were extinct."

The sound of the constant berating of the crowd soon went deaf to Andrew, his only focus was the opponent in front of him. "Your move." The assassin did not wait for a second invitation. With a lunge they swung at Andrew's head. He instinctually deflected it, and came back with an upward slash. The assassin sidestepped the attack, and did a downward strike that made contact with Andrew's leg. The blow sent him to his knees, and he barely raised his blade up again to block the next swing that came from over head. The assassin pushed their staff down, forcing the beam from Andrew's lightsaber to get closer and closer to his face. With one big shove Andrew got a brief relief from the pressure, and proceeded to roll out of the way. However, he didn't get much time to breathe as the assassin came right back at him. Andrew did his best to avoid any more hits from the staff. However, each swipe of the metallic pipe pushed his precognition further and further. Andrew soon realized he needed to end the fight before the assassin got in another shot. At last the assassin dropping to do a sweeping kick, this was Andrew's chance. As the leg swept near his leg, Andrew jumped above it and came full down upon his opponent while they were in that prone position. With his free hand he smashed his fist into their mask causing a great big crack.

From there Andrew went straight to his feet while keeping the tip of his lightsaber pointed at the assassin's throat. "You're good with that staff, but sadly it won't be enough. You are now under arrest, and will soon be taken into custody by security officials."

A painful cough escaped from the inside of the now broken mask. "He wasn't lying when he said you were fool of surprises."

"Who's he?"

"You already know whom I speak of. Is he not the one who haunts your very dreams?"

A chill chased up Andrew's spine. He peered over to Brianna, who looked just as scared as he was feeling. "You work for the dark entity?"

The assassin cackled. "So that's what you call him, I'd say he's more like a shadow. Has no face, does not suffer any pain, and never stops following you." Andrew tried not to show how uneasy he was, button the inside he was quite shaken. The presence of this person solidified the existence of the thing that had been torturing him for so long. The assassin cautiously got to their feet being mindful of the blade directed at them. "And if you expect me to reveal his identity you're wrong. He has worked too hard and too long to keep you in the dark; I will not betray him no matter what you do to me."

"Because he's your master?" Brianna spoke up a short distance away.

The assassin stuck their fingers inside the crack on their face mask and began to pull it part. The metallic plates and the attached cowl fell to the ground revealing the assailant's soft bright face and flowing blonde hair. "Because he's my lover." Everyone stood still in shock to see that the assassin was in fact a woman. "I'm sure you're fully aware of the lengths one would go to protect the one you care about exile."

"Who are you" Andrew questioned.

"My name is Sasha ot Sulem, and I am the messenger of your upcoming death."

"Sasha? You were that stowaway Revan found years ago on the Ebon Hawk" Mission commented. "You were no older than me."

Sash was not pleased that Mission had elected to speak to her. "Well I've grown up now, and I've learned a great many things."

"Yea well for your sake I hope one of those things can help you in court, because you're under arrest." Mission then signaled her men that were standing close by to take her away.

Sasha did not resist, she willingly let herself be put in custody. However, as she was being escorted away she turned to Andrew and said "Your time is coming exile, and you are going to pay for what you did." Then without another word she was carried off.

Suddenly a man from the crowd yelled out. "Hey what are you gonna do about the Jedi?" This outburst ignited a loud and near riotous fuss amongst the crowd.

Mission stepped forward attempting to ease the tension. "Everyone calm down this man has worked closely in this investigation. He means no harm to any of you."

"Why don't you tell that to the son and wife I lost because of their meaningless war" another crowd member shouted.

"Please he only wants to help" she pleaded further.

However, Andrew moved in front of her and held a hand up. "Mission don't worry. It's better that we leave Ahto City. After the incident last night concerning my two pilots, it will only be a matter of time before the Selkath catch wind of it."

"Where will you go?"

"Not sure just yet, but I'm fairly certain that you are not the only ally we have in this galaxy."

Mission looked over Andrew's shoulder to see the crowd. She frowned and yelled out to them. "Because of you jackasses he's gonna leave, you can get out of here now." Silently pleased the mass of people slowly began to disperse.

Brianna sent out a message on her comm informing their friends of their departure. As she finished Brianna nodded to Mission and Andrew, and the three of them walked to the Ebon Hawk. Once they arrived Mission stopped halfway to the ramp. "It's just as big as I remember.

Andrew placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yet she maneuvers like she was the size of a starfighter."

Mission looked up at Andrew with a disappointed expression. "I only met you yesterday, but it feels like I'm losing a long time friend."

All Andrew could do was chuckle to himself. "I tend to have that effect on people."

She extended her hand to him. "Farewell, master Jedi. If you need anything feel free to contact me."

Andrew and Brianna said their goodbyes to the head of security, and then boarded the ship. When they entered the garage Brianna stumbled slightly leaned against the wall. Andrew immediately checked on her. "Dear, are you alright?"

"Yea, I'm good. I just need to lay down."

With a small smile he pecked her on the cheek. "Alright, why don't you get to bed." She left him with one last kiss on the lips, and then gingerly waddled down the hall. Now that he was alone, Andrew took in a deep breath. Things happened so fast, he didn't have a chance to process it. This dark figure, this dark entity, this shadow is a real physical being. That thought swam through his head, and then suddenly he realized something. The shadow is a physical being, being that can be touched and felt. In other words he is a mere man, a mortal man, and Andrew can deal with a mere man. Now that he was feeling better, Andrew made his way to the cockpit where he spotted Atton flipping switches and prepping the ship. However, what caught Andrew's eye was that Atton was gleaming with a bright grin. "You seem oddly chipper. Did something happen?"

"You can say that." Atton hit a button on the his dashboard, and the ship began it's ascent. Andrew took the copilot seat and started to stretch out. After a few minutes Atton turned to him and said "Hey listen, I really am sorry for putting us in this position. My emotions ran wild for a bit, and ended up producing quite bit of trouble for us."

Andrew grinned at the man, reached over, and patted him on the back. "It's good that you admit your mistakes Atton, it shows that you really are learning."

"Well I'm just glad it worked out in the end."

"So you finally told Mira."

All color disappeared from Atton's face. "Wait, what? How did you..."

"Atton we've all known, her included. We were just waiting on you to muster up the courage."

Atton sighed. "You know sometimes you're a real pain in my..."

"Andrew, you need to come quick." Mira herself had just ran frantically into the room.

Confused and also concerned Andrew asked "What's wrong?"

"It's Brianna, her water just broke, she's going into labor."

Now all color in Andrew's face disappeared. "Oh, not now."

...End of Ch 7...

Author's Notes- Now the real drama is about to begin. Stay tuned for a chapter full of love, comedy, and most likely pain. Please R&R and I'll see you in chapter 8.