The ship was dimly lit in comparison to the Republican shuttles Kia had always travelled on. In fact, there were a lot of differences between this ship – Zar had called it a Firefly Mark II – and the ones Kia was used to. The walls weren't exactly dirty, but they lacked the shine of Republic vessels. The corridors were narrower, the roof a little lower – the whole thing felt a great deal smaller than she was accustomed to. She assumed that was down to the ship having a function beyond the transportation of passengers.

Marik was running by this point, and Kia had to do the same to keep him in her view – the corridors were not very long, and her old friend would disappear entirely if he was even a little too far ahead of her. They came out into the cockpit of the vessel, and Marik began spieling off a bunch of directions. 'Course is set; raise the ramp, start up the engine – though give Kay a buzz to make sure she's not tinkering with anything when you do.'

At first, Kia was a little confused by this – how could he expect her to know how to pilot the ship? Then she noticed a red skinned Twi'lek sat in the pilot's seat. He gave Marik a broad grin. 'You serious? We're getting off this tight-arsed dreck of a planet?'

'You mean the "tight-arsed dreck of a planet" that I called home for about ten years?' Marik asked with a raised eyebrow. When the Twi'lek gave him a sceptical look, though, he grinned. 'Yeah, we're leaving for real this time.'

'Finally!'

The engine roared to life, and the ship lifted off the ground. Kia sat in one of the seats as Marik did, and like that, they were out of the warehouse hangar and hurtling up through the skies of Coruscant.

'We may want to hurry,' Marik was helping the Twi'lek fly the ship at this point. 'My friend here,' he jerked his head in Kia's direction, 'came with another old friend and sort of attempted to arrest me. I'm not sure that we'll have the easiest time with our departure if he's put out a warning to Republic Officials to stop us.'

'We'll make it,' the Twi'lek replied confidently.

'We will,' Kia affirmed sourly, annoyed at being left out of the conversation. 'Republic officials and the Jedi Order aren't on the best of terms, in case you weren't aware, Marik. The Order's been running on limited resources over the past few years.'

'Well, that's not good for them. It is for us, though.' Marik grinned s they passed through Coruscant's atmosphere and into the black of space. 'Co-ordinates locked, engine ready... Here we go.' Then came a familiar sensation – like one's insides being stretched then pinging back into place – as they went into hyperspace.

The Twi'lek let out a whoop, removing the headset he had been wearing and standing, before he turned to face Kia and Marik. He was around their own age – possibly a little older – and was wearing an exuberant expression. Kia gathered that he either loved space travel, or despised Coruscant. Or a little of both.

Whoever he was, he gave Kia an evaluative look. 'So who is your friend, Cap? You keep us docked here for nearly a week after we unload the shipment, don't even start looking for any new contracts, and then you get chased back here by two Jedi – and decide to bring one of them on board barely half an hour after you tell us we'll be leaving soon. You have a bit of explaining to do, mate.'

'He does,' Kia agreed shortly, her eyes boring into Marik's skull.

The young man looked from one to the other. Then he turned to the Twi'lek. 'Sorry, Dax; I promise to explain later, but I get the feeling that Kia would run me through if I left her waiting any longer.'

Dax glanced from Marik to Kia, and laughed. 'Yeah, I reckon she would as well. I'll be in the lounge if you need me.' He made his way out of the cockpit.

Marik finally turned his chair face Kia. 'I suppose I owe you a lot of explanations.'

Kia didn't respond.

Marik sighed. 'Look, if it makes you feel better, I never wanted to leave you behind. You were the only real regret I had about doing what I did. And sometimes, that was enough to make me want to give it all up and go back anyway.'

Kia still didn't respond.

Marik was starting to look a bit worried. 'I left you behind for a reason though, Kia. You were on your way to becoming a great Jedi, and I was choosing a path that would put me in a great deal of danger – if I hadn't cut off contact with you, you'd probably have been killed. If you'd been with me, you'd definitely have been killed.'

'Marik,' Kia cut in, 'I'm hearing platitudes, and I'm hearing excuses. I wanted to hear two things from you, and neither of those are them.'

Marik stared at her for a brief moment. Then he dropped his head into his hands. He let out an explosive breath. 'You're right. You are. I –' He looked up at her, fully meeting her gaze for the first time in over five years. 'I'm sorry Kia. I'm sorry that I left you behind without an explanation. I'm sorry for everything you must've gone through in the past few years on my account.' His voice actually started to break. 'I'm sorry for everything.' His head fell again, and he didn't raise his gaze for a while, as though he had been ignoring or refusing to accept any guilt for all these years – and now, facing his old friend, it had finally caught up with him.

Kia's gaze softened considerably, and in truth, her heart went out to him. She hadn't considered all he may have gone through. But all she said was 'That's only half of what I needed to hear, Marik.' Her tone was gentle, but her words still struck.

He nodded. 'You're right.' He sat up, and added, 'not trying to put this off Kia, but this is going to be a long story. If you're hungry or thirsty or... Well, need anything done, you may want to get it sorted. You'll be here a while.' She shook her head. She'd waited five years for this, she wasn't about to put it off. 'And you won't interrupt or ask questions 'till I'm done?' She shook her head.

Marik sat back in his chair, his eyes looking out into the distance. 'Well. All right then.'

...

'You remember how I was sent on a reconnaissance mission into Korriban? Well, the reason for that wasn't entirely for the Council to punish me for my little outburst, or even to get some intelligence on the Sith. What they really wanted was to get me as far away from you for as long as possible. The way they saw it, we were pushing each other into the Dark Side, and only by getting us away from each other might we return to the light. They thought you were the most salvageable – and in any case, it'd be difficult for them to get rid of you without upsetting or killing Zar – and that's why I was shipped off into Sith-controlled space.

'I didn't get captured or killed, like they may have hoped. I don't know if they told you – they may have tried to keep it a secret – but I actually apprenticed myself to a Sith Lord. A twisted little man called Darth Reiker.' Marik assessed Kia's expression. 'You did know. Interesting. I guess that must have been a strange thing to get your head around? It was for me. I didn't do what I did at the request of the Council, either. We were told to try to avoid too much interaction with the Sith themselves, in case we were caught. I guess that's why I thought it would work. Becoming a Sith's apprentice became my own choice, and they'd never sense any intention of reporting back to other superiors – because I wasn't planning on reporting back anything to anyone.

'So I went to the temple there, and expressed my interest in becoming a Sith. They sort of bought it, too. They accepted me for trials with a number of other initiates, and we were all going to compete for the honour of becoming Reiker's apprentice. And I won – but only by using my Jedi training coupled with the few techniques they actually taught initiates. And that tipped them off to the fact I was once a Jedi.

'So they... Well, they've had Jedi turn to the Dark Side before, so they didn't feel the need to be executed. But they did feel a need to examine me. Thoroughly. Making sure I had left all my ties to the Republic behind. And it was very, very painful.' His voice was dull, which made it all the worse.

'It didn't matter that I considered all my ties to the Republic cut. I was alone on Korriban. The only person I felt any emotional attachment to... Well, I'd chosen to leave her behind as it was. There was nothing I planned to return to any time soon. As far as I was concerned, learning the ways of the Sith was my life's goal. If not for that, I'd have given in to their tortures very quickly.

'It took them about a week to decide I was suitable apprentice material. It felt so much longer, though. Every day, I was tortured by initiates, apprentices and Lords alike – for instruction, information or because it was fun for them and they just could. It was usually the lightning. Near-lethal volts wrapped through my body, coursing up and down my veins for as long as my body could stand it – and they'd stop just as I was about to pass into the Force. Most of the time, I wished they hadn't.' His hands shook a little as he spoke, his knuckles white as he clutched his seat – Kia had only twice seen him in such a state, and this was possibly worse than both of those.

'Even now, trained in the Dark Arts of the Force, I've never been able to conjure Force lightning. I can't use the Force to stop it, either. The time I spent in the cells at Korriban almost broke me, to tell you the truth. If they'd kept me there another couple of days, I'd have snapped entirely.

'But Reiker brought me out, and made me his apprentice. And suddenly I was working alongside the same people who had been trying to wring every ounce of pain from me. It was surreal, if nothing else, I suppose. And so very different from our training as Jedi. My... master, well, he didn't train me in the same way Kolim did. And the worst part is that I didn't actually have all that many problems with his methods. He treated me as a servant of sorts, sending me to fetch things and carry out his will throughout Korriban. But he only gave me information if I pressed him for it. He gave as much as I desired – it was new, after being force-fed the Council's dogma most of my life I was actually able to learn at a pace I more or less dictated, even if everything else was decided by a Sith Lord.

'I had to do a lot of stuff that I'm not proud of over that year on Korriban. I killed people, sometimes in cold blood – even though I tried to avoid it. I tortured others, like I was tortured, and it's likely they deserved it far less than I did. I lied, cheated, stole; anything to improve my master's standing in the political world of the Empire. I fought against other Sith Apprentices as much as I fought alongside them. But even then, it wasn't always enough. I don't doubt it was my power that kept me at Reiker's side during my time as his apprentice. I wasn't a natural when it came to Sith lore, or teachings and philosophies (such as they are). If it wasn't for my skill with a lightsaber, my master would have discarded me. But since I did have my skill with a lightsaber, Reiker saw me as a very useful enforcer who just needed a little wearing down before he could be turned full Sith.

'I heard about what happened at Coruscant, and the end of the war, early on in my training. I refused to go back, even to see if you were alive – and the idea that you might not be terrified me. Made me angry. And I think that drove me hard enough in my training to convince Reiker I could be taken off Korriban. So, one year after my training under him began, we left for the Sith Capital of Dromuund Kaas.

'Things got a little easier for a while when we arrived. Dromuund Kaas is a much colder planet than Korriban. Patience is almost as much a virtue there as it is among the Jedi Order, and some of my training as a Jedi actually came in useful there. It also helped that there is something of a culture of honour and respect among the citizens – I know, it's weird, but it's true. It made the place a bit less alien. I was never able to think of it as home, but the cities reminded me enough of Coruscant that I felt far more comfortable there than on Korriban.

'My training proceeded better than ever, as a result. At least, it did for another year. Then one day, my master comes to me with an errand – I'm to take out a target for him. A pirate who'd intercepted a shipment of his and done away with its cargo. Well, this wasn't exactly a unique assignment – I'd had plenty like it before. But then I caught up to the target and found out that the shipment had been a bunch of slaves and, even though he had realised his life would be forfeit unless he returned them to Reiker... He let them go. A couple of other things had happened around that time – I'll explain those later – that had made me seriously question my actions as the man's apprentice, and how much longer could I live with doing it. Turns out this was the step too far.

'I tried my best to avoid openly defying my master. I thought a short prison sentence would suffice for the pirate, and that Reiker would forget the incident in a few months and I could have him released. But that didn't fly. Reiker wanted him dead – wanted him dead by my hand, specifically. He was afraid I was going soft, with good reason. So, he demanded a show of loyalty. I was to kill a series of targets for him – and that didn't include the pirate. They did include two families from a small village in Alderaan. Our families, to be precise.'

Kia couldn't restrain herself at that point. 'What?' She demanded. 'How? How did he know –'

'I messed up, Kia. I thought my position was safe, so I checked up on you while I was on the Sith Capital – I had no way of knowing if you were alive or not after the sack, I wanted to know for certain. And then I started checking up on our families, make sure they were OK and all. But Reiker kept an eye on my research. He wanted me to prove I was loyal to him by killing these possible ties in the Republic for him. There was no getting around it. So I did the only thing I could do. I left his services.

'Of course, he was a Sith. It's never that easy with those people. First thing I had to do was get rid of anything that would have led him to you or our families – that took more time than I anticipated, though, and alerted my dear master to what I was planning. I found myself on the run on the centre of the Empire's power, which made things very tricky. Fortunately, I had something of an out.

'I had a ship – an old Firefly Mark II – the one used by the pirate I'd been sent to take out. I could have used that to make my way off-world and stay on the run. The problem was, I'd never learnt to pilot a ship in my life beyond a basic speeder. I needed a pilot. So I went to the prison – barely a step ahead of Reiker's men – and was able to convince the pirate to work as my pilot for a time. I sprung him out, we raced back to the ship and escaped Dromuund Kaas with barely a fighter squadron on our tail.'

Kia couldn't help but smile as he came to the end of his time on the Sith Capital. For all the pain he'd gone through, he told its end as one would a thrilling adventure. Then a voice came from behind them.

'He makes it sound a lot easier than it was.' Dax, the red Twi'lek, had returned to the cockpit. 'Sorry Cap, thought you'd be done by now and the rest of the crew is eager to meet this girl of yours –'

'Don't worry, we've gotten to the bit you all know about anyway. You can help tell the rest of it, if you like.' Marik grinned slyly at his pilot.

Dax shrugged. 'Well, he'd probably give you the watered-down version if I didn't,' he addressed Kia. 'Now, he says we got out easy. I got out with a blaster wound to the arm (and the damn thing left a scar and an ache in the cold even now), and barely managed to pilot the ship into Republic Space without the thing getting blasted out of the sky. Poor girl still received some major damage as it was, but with one arm and him,' he nodded aggressively at Marik 'barely knowing the hyperdrive controls from the navigational charts, I one man and one arm – a grand total of three hands, if you didn't know – short of a full pilot for this thing.'

'Who did you use before Marik caught you, then?' Kia asked him.

'Oh, no one. I can manage the thing by myself, it just takes a lot longer and a lot more effort to keep things maintained. Still, never had to split my profits,' he directed the last to Marik, once again.

'You enjoy the company,' the white-haired captain informed him.

'Not the point. Anyway, we arrived on – some green planet or another, can't remember its name. Marik and I worked out an arrangement. See, legally speaking, he owned the ship. He had also freed me. And he had a reasonable amount of money he'd stolen from his former boss.'

'Hey, I earned most of that money for him,' Marik interjected.

'Whatever. So he had most of the negotiating power when we made our deal. He would be captain. I would be his second-in-command and pilot. He would use the money to get the Legacy – oh, yeah, that's the name of this old girl – patched up, and we'd start using it to take whatever jobs we could find. Basically becoming mercenaries of the trade business. Smuggling or honest trading, we'd split the profits equal. And over time we added more and more members to our little family of selfish arseholes. Given that you're the most recent one, that brings us to the present day.'

'Well, that and the fact that I used the money from Reiker to start up our business, get this pile of bolts altered enough that it could actually be classed as a decent spacecraft rather than a floating accident waiting to happen –'

'I try to forget that bit, Captain. My grandfather's ship so molested and manipulated, made me sick –'

'You've said many times that the changes were major improvements, Dax.' Marik's tone indicated they'd had this discussion before.

'Not the point. It was still like watching a family member get pulled apart and be half replaced by machinery...' He stopped as he noticed Marik's expression go dark.

'Keep going with that sentence,' the captain said in a quiet tone.

'Sorry. Thoughtless comparison, didn't mean anything by it.'

'Anyway, that's where we're at,' Marik returned his attention back to Kia. 'More or less, anyway. We're actually on our way to Nar Shadaa right now. If we can pick up a contract anywhere in the galaxy, it's there.' There was an awkward pause. '... So, any questions?'

Kia sighed and lowered her gaze. 'No. Yes. Probably, I just think – well, give me a bit of time. This is a lot for me to process, Marik, you know that, right? Everything I've just done, your whole story –'

'I get it, Kia. We have living quarters on this ship for the crew, you can use one of those bunks to meditate, or whatever you need to do. You can ask questions when you feel ready.'

She nodded, and followed him when he stood and led her out of the cockpit, through the ship and down into the lower level where the crew would sleep. As they walked Marik added, 'Oh, and when you're ready, I'll introduce you to the crew. Nar Shadaa is some time away, and I get the feeling they'll be pretty interested in meeting you.'