"Atris would be the first Jedi I run into..." she muttered angrily as she stalked down the narrow walkway.
That was unkind. She should be happy Atris was alright, no matter how irritating the woman could be. And truly, it was good to see her alive, there had been a time when they had been friends of a sort. A long, long time ago now it seemed.
Atris herself didn't seem keen on rekindling what was lost when she had left for the Mandalorian Wars. Atris had never forgiven her for that, she knew. She remembered well how Atris had treated her at the trial, she would never understand. Atris had been on the Jedi Council that had exiled her. In fact, she'd been one of the most vocal. Atris had wanted her imprisoned, or worse.
And the woman had her lightsaber. That really galled. Even when she had offered to do whatever Atris needed to prove she deserved it back, Atris had rejected her outright. She'd just have to get a new one the old fashioned way. She'd been collecting parts for a while now and intended to talk to Bao-Dur about his possible aid once she found her friends and they collected their ship.
It had been Atris who had stolen the Ebon Hawk. Apparently, she'd been trying to dissect the records and navicomputer to determine the cause of the destruction of the Peragus facility. She had told her to have fun with that, the navicomputer was a mess. All she'd had to do was ask. She told her it was the Sith, but she wasn't sure Atris believed her. Atris seemed blinded by hate.
What she couldn't figure out was what Atris was doing down here in the first place. Tucked away in this forgotten Jedi academy with a bunch of girls who looked like her and couldn't use the Force. It was downright creepy. She figured she'd talk to one of the girls and see what she could find out about where her friends were and maybe learn something of Atris' intentions.
She made it back into the strange round room and went up to one of the hooded women in white Atris had called 'handmaidens'.
"I'm searching for my friends," she said.
"You will find them in the main irrigation channel room," the pale handmaiden said. "The particle emitters there that once governed the flow of water to Telos can double as force cages."
Force cages? Atton wouldn't like that. She frowned.
"So they are prisoners?" she said sharply.
"They were caged for their safety until we could determine your intent, exile. Atris cautioned us against your tactics, fearing that your allies would create a distraction," said the hooded young woman.
She went on, "Your companions gave us little trouble, however. The male could have presented some challenge if he had resisted, but he chose not to."
"Atton?" she asked, surprised.
"He has had some Echani training," the handmaiden replied. "He masks it well, but when you were in danger, his mask dropped into a stance we know well."
She filed that interesting bit of information away for later.
She asked the handmaiden, "What can you tell me about your mistress?"
"She leads us. As she rebuilds Telos, she rebuilds the order... and through them, the galaxy."
Sounds like Atris is doing a lot, she thought dryly.
She asked, "And how does she plan to do that?"
"We serve the Jedi, we do not question them," came the response.
That must be nice.
"But why is Atris here?" she tried.
"Shortly before the destruction of Dantooine, by the forces of the traitor Jedi Malek, Atris had many Jedi artifacts and knowledge transported here secretly," the pale maiden said.
"Artifacts?" she asked.
"Yes, many relics from Dantooine."
"I see," she said.
She had a lot to think about as she wandered the halls in search of the irrigation channel. What was Atris doing down here with all these brainwashed women and a bunch of Jedi artifacts? And bugging her more was, where had Atton received his Echani training, and why hadn't he told her about it? That could have been useful. To be fair, she hadn't told him everything about her past either. Although he probably was starting to fill in some of the gaps on his own, now that the Force had brought Bao-Dur back into her life. She'd have to try and break the Zabrak of all that General business, that wasn't who she was anymore.
When she found her captive companions, both Atton and Bao-Dur were out cold. She didn't believe Kreia's story that Atton was just tired from the journey either. She released the force fields and the men started to come to. She moved to help Atton to his feet.
"Enhhh..." he said, starting to rise. "Hey, you're back with us. We were just on our way to rescue you from those ghost women, when... uh, we got locked up."
She said, "Are you okay? You look a little disoriented."
"Nah..." said Atton. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine."
He seemed to regain some clarity and said, "Uh... how did things go with the Jedi here? Are you all done?"
"Not exactly," she said hesitantly. "I've agreed to help them. Or her rather. There's only one."
"Atris," said Atton.
She looked at him and he shrugged. He was full of surprises today.
"Lucky guess," he said.
She asked again, "Are you sure you're all right? What happened in there?"
His face was unreadable but he said, "Ya, I'm fine. Another Jedi pulling strings is just not exactly what I wanted to hear."
She sighed. She hadn't wanted to do this, in truth, she quite liked having the pilot around, and not just for his flying abilities, but she knew it was only right.
"You've done enough, Atton," she said. "You can go, if you want."
"Nah," he said. "I was just complaining. Heh. I'm with you until things start going better for you."
She noticed his baleful look at Kreia before he answered. She noticed the forced lightness of his tone. But she found such relief in his answer, how she responded was to grab his hand in both of hers.
"Thanks, Atton, I appreciate it," she said.
She really meant it.
He shifted uneasily and said, "Uh, hey. Don't mention it. It's my pleasure."
Noticing his discomfort, she let go of his hand. She hadn't meant to make him uncomfortable. She turned to check on her former engineer.
As she walked up, Bao-Dur said, "I... am sorry, General. I must have lost consciousness in the crash."
"There is nothing to apologize for. Are you sure you're okay?" she asked.
"I am fine, General. Even power has been restored to my arm," said the Zabrak.
Mostly convinced and ready to get out of this place, she said, "All right, then. Let's go."
They all moved out. The party passed through multiple corridors of those spooky blonde women in white, but it wasn't long before they found T3, locked in another containment field. He beeped at her.
"Well, if it isn't the one who stole the Ebon Hawk. Not so smug now, are you?" said Atton.
She was horrified to find herself giggling.
Kreia interjected, "Don't be a fool - Atris stole the Ebon Hawk."
T3 started beeping again.
"Your behavior core..." she said, "they didn't memory wipe you, did they?"
She had grown quite fond of the little utility unit. He responded in beeps and whistles.
"It wasn't your fault they took the ship, T3."
"I bet it was," said Atton grumpily.
T3 continued beeping.
"Wait, they downloaded what from you?" she said, ignoring Atton this time.
He was still beeping, but she cut him off then, saying, "You can fill me in later - let me get you out of there first."
When she lowered the field, they all got to the ship in a hurry. Once in the Ebon Hawk, they zoomed out into the snow of Telos and the atmosphere beyond, with no real destination yet chosen.
Then, when they were all assembled in the main hold, T3 informed them that the link with Atris' system had been two-way, and while she had copied many of their records, she had been mostly unsuccessful with the navicomputer and he had managed to collect some of Atris' files in return, including a holo of the trial that left her exiled.
Which was how she found herself watching in defeat as her entire crew witnessed her greatest moment of shame. It seemed like it had just happened, even now. Standing there in the center of the Jedi High Council as they weighed her crimes and judged her no longer a Jedi. As Kavar failed to speak up in her defense. As Atris raged. As Vrook… did what he always did.
But there was something new at the end of the recording, something she had not been a party to. Those council members then discussed a teacher, Revan's teacher, and their belief that it was those teachings that led Revan and the others astray. She didn't know anything about that, Revan had already risen to the rank of Jedi Knight by the time they had met.
When all the painful discussing and speculating over what they had learned from the recording was over, she went in search of Bao-Dur to ask him about the lightsaber. She had been right about him, he knew exactly what was needed and they decided together they would journey to Dantooine to seek out the missing components.
He had called the lightsaber a part a her. She thought about what that meant as she headed for the starboard dorm to get some rest. The blade of a lightsaber was just plasma, controlled by the Force of the user, directed through crystal. So one was literally a part of the weapon. But it was more than that. She had made her first lightsaber while being raised to Padawan. It had been her second test, following learning and understanding the Jedi Code. She had loved constructing that weapon. The first time she turned it on and it had worked, she'd known she'd never let go of it. And she hadn't, not until the day she was exiled when she had struck it into the center stone of the council chamber, before storming out.
But Bao-Dur was right, she wasn't that woman who had followed Revan to war anymore, and that wasn't her lightsaber anymore. It was time for a fresh start. She was thinking good thoughts as she drifted off to sleep in her bunk.