Disclaimer: You all know exactly what I'm going to say. Should I say it in a different language sometime? I don't own this. Maybe I'll copy it in in Aurebesh...

A/N: Hey, it's Monday morning, and I'm awake! This is different. (and I don't mean literally awake, I mean mentally awake). Anyway, I'm a big fan of this chapter (I know, I wrote it, but I like it anyway. Brain wave of brilliance here :P) so I hope you enjoy it! Happy reading!

Chapter Eleven

The Sith uniform was a little loose on me. I looked the part of a teenager in way over her head. Fortunately, two of my best friends were a Twi'lek street urchin with a surprising talent for fashion and makeup and an astromech droid who could do pretty much anything with a computer. Mission gave me a complete makeover, temporarily dying my hair black like the Sith woman's, styling it similarly, even cutting it a little bit, and almost going overboard on the makeup. T3 changed the woman's datapad so that my picture (my new, improved self, of course, courtesy of Mission) was on it for identification purposes, but with her name: Irena River.

Finally, I was ready, and I was pretty convinced that I was absolutely wacko. So was Mission, apparently. As she handed me Irena's bag, containing the altered ID, she shook her head at me. "I still think you're crazy," she informed me.

"I'm not crazy!" I defended myself, not quite believing it.

"Right." Mission rolled her eyes. "You got a Sith drunk, locked her in our cargo hold, stole her uniform, and are planning to infiltrate the Sith academy by impersonating her. Not crazy. You just keep telling yourself that."

I almost chickened out. But I didn't want all Mission's good work to go to waste. Add to that, I had this gut-feeling something bad was going to happen to Caeli. Worse than being attacked by two terentatek. This wasn't predictable bad, this was unforeseen bad.

So I kept going. I walked up to the guard at the door, and when he asked for my ID, I pulled it out, showing it to him.

"Very well, Irena. You may pass."

I shook my newly acquired bangs out of my face and put on my best condescending tone. "That's Miss River to you, soldier."

"My apologies, Miss River." The guard gave a slight bow, which I acknowledged with a nod before moving into the academy.

Since Irena was an archaeologist, I decided it would be in my best interest to head for the Valley of the Dark Lords, and hopefully I would be able to orient myself enough to find out where I was supposed to go without looking suspicious. Maybe I'd find someone I could trust, someone who could help me maintain the ruse without drawing attention. But I couldn't count on that. As far as I knew, as far as I could assume, I was on my own. Not even Caeli and Carth could know I was here, and HK wouldn't care.

I had to restrain myself from sneaking as I emerged into the canyon that led to the Valley of the Dark Lords. I reminded myself that I was supposed to belong, that I was playing a role here. Problem: I'd never been much of an actor. Mostly because I got stage fright like no other. But here, any mistake could be fatal. I couldn't afford to mess up.

As the valley opened up before me, however, I had trouble acting the part of an archaeologist who came here every day. The view was magnificent. The central pillars, crumbling in their old age, past their glory days. The sunset, vibrant and orange behind them. And the dark tomb doors, two on each side of the valley, shrouded in mystery, thrill, and danger. In other words, I did not want to go anywhere near them. Unfortunately, according to my ID, I was an archaeologist studying the Tomb of Marka Ragnos, which, if I remembered correctly, was the one with the crazy assassin droid in it that would kill you if you made a sound. Just what I needed.

I was so absorbed, I had no idea I was walking forward, nor that I was about to crash into a young Sith archaeologist. When we collided, I stumbled backwards, managing to keep from falling with great difficulty. He wasn't as lucky. Datapads went flying in every direction as he tumbled to the ground, landed in a somersault, and stood up again as though he'd never fallen. Then he paused, dusted himself off, and started to collect the datapads he'd dropped. I rushed to help him.

"Here," I said, handing him a couple of them. "Sorry."

"Irena?" he asked. I started. Did I really look enough like her for someone to recognize me? Maybe it was the hair. It was pretty distinctive.

I realized he was waiting for me to respond. "Yeah?" I asked, not being able to think of anything else to say.

"…Why are you treating me like a stranger?" he asked slowly.

"S-sorry," I muttered again, nervous. If he found out… I supposed he was a friend of Irena's. Because they did have friends among the Sith. I'd almost forgotten that Dustil had to save his friends once you redeemed him from the dark side.

"See, there you go again!" he cried, seemingly frustrated. I flinched back. "Hey," he said, "I won't hurt you. You're just lucky you ran into me and not, say, Lashowe. She'd have murdered you on the spot. Or Kel Algwinn, he's just a creep. Come with me."

For some inexplicable reason, I followed him. All my warning bells were on, screaming that it was a trap, that I should turn and run, but I followed him anyway. For some reason, I found it within myself to trust him, maybe just because he hadn't murdered me on the spot like many other Sith would have done. The only problem with that logic is that a lot of Sith are smart as well as cruel.

He led me in the direction of Ajunta Pall's tomb, and I was instantly on alert. If he tried to lure me in there to get me killed… well, it would spare him the trouble of doing it himself. I kept one hand on my holstered blaster as we kept going towards the door, around which, I could now see, black fog swirled. Great.

"We're—we're going in there?" I managed to squeak, still sounding less terrified than I felt.

"You've been inside tombs before, Irena," he muttered.

"Yeah, but not this one!"

"We're only going right inside, there aren't any traps. Or even tuk'ata. You'll be perfectly safe, now come on."

He led me inside the tomb, and the black mist that had shrouded the door was everywhere. All around it swirled, seeming to have a mind of its own, and I could feel the cold finger of evil touching my soul. The fog wound around me just as the electricity had back before all of this started, back when I was just a normal human being trying to get through high school.

"What do you want from me?" I demanded, trying to flinch back, but I discovered that I couldn't move a muscle. I was trapped, just as I had been in my desk chair, fingers poised over the keyboard.

"Who are you?" he asked. I took a breath to speak, but he cut me off. "I know you're not Irena. She's my best friend, and I want to know what happened to her." That I could understand.

"She's fine. She'll be returned to the Academy, unharmed, as soon as I've finished my work here."

"Which is what?"

Cover story time. "You have to promise me not to speak a word of this to anyone."

"That depends what you tell me."

"I'm not saying anything till you give me your word."

"Fine," he snapped. "I won't tell anyone. Happy?"

"Of course." I paused. "I am here," I began, "to test the effectiveness, security, and leadership of this academy. I've been sent by Lord Malak himself and will be staying here until the training of the new Sith this year is complete. But you can't say a word of this, please. If anyone knows Lord Malak is inspecting the place they'll all get on their best behavior, I won't be able to deliver an accurate report, and I'll probably end up being killed."

"Wow," he breathed. "You've met Darth Malak? Personally?"

I nodded.

"What's it like?" he breathed in awe.

"Overwhelming. I felt like I was the least significant little bug in the universe, and I… well, it's hard to explain. I was terrified out of my mind, though. I could feel this… this power emanating from him in waves, it almost overwhelmed me. And he had so much authority… any of his men (or women, to be fair) would do anything he told them without a second thought."

"Are you one of those?" he asked curiously.

"Not entirely," I told him. "I do have a will of my own, you know. I will follow his orders if they are within reason, but I refuse to destroy planets just for the sake of his unbridled cruelty. Fortunately, I'm not in command of any fleets, or I'd be dead."

"You wouldn't destroy a planet if you were ordered? Mercy is a weakness."

"I don't see it as mercy. I see innocent people, not allies, but certainly not enemies, going about their daily lives, being murdered on the spot for something over which they have no control. Like Taris… they had no warning, they had no means of defending themselves. And they all died, all for the sake of killing one Jedi who escaped at the last moment. All in vain. An entire planet. Billions of people. Entire cultures, all wiped from the face of the galaxy, and for what? In the hope that the Jedi who is most valuable to the Republic would die in the bombing. But she didn't die. She survived. So Taris was destroyed, really, for no reason at all. On a whim, Malak decided to wipe it out. Even the Sith who were unlucky enough to be stationed there lost their lives. I'm sorry to be ranting, but this is why I preferred Revan to Malak. Revan had strategic genius, and used it. Malak destroys worlds at random. Revan had a plan. Malak just wants power." My tone was bitter by the end of the rant. Then I realized what I'd done: shared my view of Malak and Revan with a random Sith boy. My view wasn't conventional Sith, either.

"Power is sought by all Sith," said the boy automatically.

"But what good is ruling the galaxy if there's no one left to rule? Revan was efficient. Malak's just all-around brutal."

The tendrils of mist wrapped around my throat and started cutting off my air. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right here," snarled the boy.

"Because," I gasped, "I couldn't report back for my duty, Malak would send someone else, probably much less lenient than I am." I tried to snap at him, but since I was gasping for breath, it didn't work. The pressure on my neck lessened.

"What's your name?" he asked suddenly.

"For the sake of my cover, just call me Irena."

"No. She's my friend, and you're not her."

"Fine, then. Call me Rena. Or River. And you?"

"Galon Lor," he said without hesitation. "Archaeologist."

"Oh," I said inadvertently. He was the annoying-voiced boy who always stood outside of the tomb of Ajunta Pall and told you about Pall's sword. "Um… can you let me down now?"

"Ah. Right." The dark tendrils lowered me gently to the ground. "Well, if you're on a mission for Lord Malak I suppose I should help you. Fortunately for us, Irena's not all that popular, so not many people know her as well as I do. You did a pretty good job of imitating her as well," he added, gesturing at my disguise.

"Thanks. I need to find some way to observe all the basic functions of the academy without looking too suspicious. Do you have any connections who won't ask questions?"

"You should be a poet," he remarked dryly.

"Sorry if I can't help rhyming once in a while!" I snapped.

"Okay, calm down… River. I'll do what I can. Maybe I'll get you some interviews with the candidates for the Sith position this year. I'd be careful what you ask them, though. That new girl in particular seems remarkably vicious."

"Duly noted." Caeli was playing her part well if this kid thought she was vicious. Especially compared to people like Lashowe and Shardaan. "Shall we get started?"

A/N: Okay, so the next chapter is actually better. I just like the concept in general. Props to anyone who got my Allons-y reference last chapter by the way! (Doctor Who is awesome :D) Have a fantastic rest of your Monday or whatever day you happen to be reading this on (I do like to plan ahead :P) Review if you have a minute! It really does make me happy! I've discovered that if I have a moment in which I'm bored and don't have enough time to play SWTOR I automatically check my Gmail to see if I have any new reviews, followers, or any of my favorite fics have been updated. Emails make me happy! (*hint hint* :P) Anyway, I've rambled long enough. Goodbye, dear readers!