Set

On his way to the garage, Atton noticed Khara and Mical were back in the cargo hold, now officially dubbed "the training room". She was instructing him on one of the lightsaber forms, both wielding vibroblades to practice with, while Visas silently stood to the side. Mical laughed at something she had said, bashfully muttering about something or other. It made Atton nauseous.

He crossed into the garage and found Bao-Dur tinkering at the workbench.

"Got a minute?" he asked. The Zabrak stared at him for a moment, as if measuring his importance, and then went back to whatever he was tinkering with.

"I'm a little busy here," he replied. "What is it?"

Atton shrugged. "Won't take more than a minute."

"All right. I'll work while you talk."

"Look, your friend," he began awkwardly, leaning against the wall as casually as he could manage. He didn't know why he didn't use her name, but referring to her so impersonally made him feel slightly less stupid for asking. "You know her from way back, don't you? How much do you know about her, really?"

Bao-Dur looked up thoughtfully. "Her? You mean the General? Yeah, during the war, if that's what you mean by way back." He shrugged. "Can't say I know too much about her, though."

"Better than anyone else on this ship."

Bao-Dur pushed his goggles up to his forehead and looked at Atton thoughtfully. Then, he watched T3 come rolling into the garage. "I don't know about that," he mused, then pulled on his goggles and went back to work.

"Just give me your opinion, okay?" he said, annoyed, and looked everywhere but at the Zabrak. "And don't laugh."

"I'm trying to work here, Atton…"

"I was just wondering if you thought, maybe, she and I might…" He trailed off and Bao-Dur raised his head, stopping what he was doing.

"You're being serious," he muttered.

"You said you wouldn't laugh!"

"You are being serious. Atton," Bao-Dur pulled his goggles back up and turned to face him, "she was a general. I was just a tech. Your guess is about as good as mine."

The two men squared off, staring at one another as Atton processed what he was being told. Even T3 was staring at them, blue eye looking from one to the other.

"Well, what's your guess then?" Atton finally asked. Bao-Dur tugged his goggles down.

"I'm getting back to work," he said.

"Hey! I'm being serious here."

T3 beeped out a guess of his own. Atton didn't quite catch the full meaning, but he was pretty sure the droid was making fun of him.

"You're laughing at me?" he balked. "I'll put you on the scrap heap, you walking tin can!"

T3 protested in a series of deets as Atton stormed back to the cockpit. He slumped into the chair and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. His first thought was of her standing on the battlefield of Dantooine, the wind tugging at her hair and her lightsaber shining brightly in the dim light. He thought next of Kreia's words when she had discovered the truth about him, and he remembered how he had begged her not to tell Khara. Looking back on everything that had happened, he was positive there was no way she could ever know. She kept saying, "I'm no longer a Jedi" but everywhere she went, she behaved as nobly as all the Jedi in the stories had—the ones he had been positive never existed up until he met her.

Atton sighed and focused on her on that field in his memory. Before he knew it, they were back on Peragus, and she was standing there in her underwear, dripping wet. His breathing got a little deeper as he reexamined her curves in that skin-tight, see-through suit. And then memory blurred with imagination, and he was putting his hands on her, on her curvy hips and slim waist, backing her against the wall. And just before he could kiss her, someone bounded into the cockpit.

"Atton," Khara began, startling him so much that he nearly flipped out of his chair.

"Kay," he said, clearing his throat and hoping she couldn't see his lap. "What's up?"

"Are you okay?" she asked him, eyeing him warily.

"I'm fine," he replied, waving her concern away with his hand. "You need something? I thought you were busy training Blondie on how not to stab himself with a lightsaber."

She smiled—a quirky little grin he'd only see her wear whenever he made a joke. He loved it.

"I needed a break," she admitted.

"And so you came to me. I'm flattered." He stood up and walked around his chair. "Though I can't say what I have in mind won't work you twice as hard."

She chuckled, plopped into the opposing chair, and held up the pazaak side deck he'd let her hold onto. He shrugged and sat down again.

"Okay," he said, "but I think the other thing would be more fun."

"How far out are we from Nar Shaddaa?" she asked as he shuffled and dealt.

"A couple days," he replied. "We'll be there in no time."

"Are you excited?"

He glanced up from his side deck as she took a swig of water. "About?"

"Nar Shaddaa." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "It just seems more your speed."

"Better than Dantooine," he admitted as she took another gulp. "But like I said, I'm with you for the long haul. So don't get any bright ideas like I might be running off or anything. I have no intention of letting you out of my sight." He shrugged when she didn't say anything. "It's a rough place," he explained. "And you're a magnet for trouble."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh, pulling her knees up into the chair and resting her chin in the valley between them as she examined her side deck. Atton thought it was adorable. "It's a wonder you all are still here."

"Can I ask you something?" he asked as he drew his first card. 8.

"Shoot," she replied, flipping hers. 2.

"Do you still follow the Jedi Code?" He flipped another card. 1. "What I mean is, from what I understand, emotions are forbidden. Right? You can't fall in love, you can't get angry… But I've seen you angry."

"It's not that I don't think about the code anymore," she admitted and flipped. 10. "During my exile, I had time to think about a lot of things." He flipped. 6. "I think when one allows their emotions to rule them, they become like the Sith and easily lose themselves to darkness. However, when one attempts to completely excise emotion from their life, as the Jedi preach with the Code, they are the weaker for it." She flipped. 9. "You know the Code, right? There is no emotion, there is—"

"—is peace, yeah. I know it."

"One of the earliest forms of the Code went a little differently," she said, staring at her side deck. She plucked a card. "It said 'Emotion, yet peace.' Because there is emotion and we cannot escape it, but we can still find peace." She laid a -1. Sum 20. "That makes more sense, don't you think? That's the Code that I follow now."

Atton considered this as he drew another card. 3. He checked his hand for a 2 but there wasn't one. "So you accept emotion?" he asked as he reached to draw another card.

"I have been trained all my life not to," she confessed as he flipped over a 7. "But in my exile, I have been trying to let go of that kind of rigid thinking." He played a -6. "I don't really know," she continued as he flipped again, "if I've been successful. When faced with emotion, it's hard not to think of the Code." The card was 2. Sum 21. She looked surprised. "Ah, I won."

Her words were ringing between Atton's ears. I've been trying to let go of that rigid thinking. There was hope after all. He rubbed his sweaty palm on his pant leg.

"Set's yours, Kay."