LL3 25 We've Been Had

Kess rushed back to her barracks, thinking hard about who her real friends were. She had her suspicions about the identity of Shori Ka, but forced herself to play it safe, for even her well-meaning friends could blow this whole thing with a slip of an innocent tongue.

There was only one girly girl she knew she could trust completely, and gathered the woman up from the barracks without explaining anything until they got in the speeder.

Before Kess entirely finished her explanation, Yana shouted from the driver's seat. "You're gonna do what?"

Kess spoke low, "C'mon, girly. Keep it together. It's a Jedi thing. I gotta go up against the bad guy."

Yana put her palm to her forehead, but managed to keep her wits. "They're all on a double date tonight. We should fuel up the speeder before we go to the Mash Pit."

"That a girl."

"Do you know who it is?"

"I think I do. Yeah." Kess fretted at what this was going to do to her best friend. "Kayla is not going to be a happy woman."

Han and Lando were arguing over who would fly and who would be in the gun turret and Admiral Ackbar took over the holomap to plan attack formations. Leia breathed away the stress and glanced over. She found Luke half-sprawled in a chair and rubbing his weary eyes.

"Luke, you're exhausted." She knelt at his side and hung on the armrest. "We can take care of this. You go home and get some sleep."

Luke tapped his thumbnails on his lips, not looking at her.

She went from pleading to ordering. "She's not going anywhere until tomorrow at the soonest. The Imperials are still three days away, which means we'd have to wait three days before we do hear from her. If you are going to get any sleep, you'd better go do it now."

He stood as if to leave, but didn't. "Leia," he lowered his voice. "As logical as all this seems, I've got a really bad feeling about this plan."

"Of course you do," Leia let him down gently. "It wouldn't be love if you didn't."

His eyes flicked over.

She smiled warmly, "Go home."

Luke sighed in defeat but warned as if it were a threat of some kind. "I'll be in here first thing tomorrow."

Leia patted his hand as he left, "so will we."

Yana and Kess strutted into the Mash Pit pretending to be giddy. The music pounded through smoke and the smell of ale. They weaved through crowded tables to the booths in the back where Joanne and Kayla were slowly getting drunk and their dates were quickly getting lucky.

"Dang! You escaped training late today, girly girl." Kayla shuffled closer to Rett to make some room. "Wanna beer?"

Joanne cuddled deeper into Hagat's arms. "We haven't seen you since last night. How was the Reception?"

Kess raised her grinning chin and pointed excitedly at the pin on her collar.

Joanne's face struck with wild and wonderful shock.

Kayla stood up and threw her arms out so she could reach over the table and hug Kess. "When did this happen?"

Kess settled into the booth to tell them all with a shine. "Last night after the Reception. He didn't want to spoil his sister's big day so he waited until it was over."

Congratulations rolled around the table as Yana pulled over the nearest chair. "I think the Jedi Knight here deserves a celebration, don't you think?"

As usual, the activity spun up like a little social tornado, several discussions erupted at once, new food was ordered and beer was passed around. Questions shot at her with eagerness, respect shined, toasts rose into the air, and Kess took it all in with a calm and humble happiness.

News travels fast, especially in South Base, which was exactly what Kess intended. Acquaintances of random closeness stopped by the table from time to time to congratulate her. Despite that this venue was entirely informal and the company dotted with people she considered her closest friends, Kess secretly felt this hullabaloo was no better than the snooty discourse she suffered at the Minister of State Reception. What was worse, the more she sensed out to the mottled madness of emotions in the gathering around her, the more she confirmed her suspicions on the identity of Shori Ka, and realized where she had made her mistake all along.

Kayla wrinkled a cute groundhog nose at something Rett said, and all of his attention was directed back to his own date. The man kissing Kayla lavishly behind the ear and was reeking with deceit, a deceit that could have been easily mistaken for just a young buck trying to score. Sapphire eyes, cinnamon blonde hair, and a Lando Calrissian smile, Rett D'monck snuggled up behind Kayla's ear still pretending that his entire agenda revolved around simply getting Kayla into bed.

As predicted, Kayla eventually snuck a secret question at Kess. "If you're graduated, and your training is over, should you be elsewhere doing other things right now?"

Smugly, Kess rested her chin in her hand and narrowed evil eyes at her friend. "Do I get extra credit for finishing my homework early?"

Kayla's painted mouth began a fresh smile. "When?"

Kess answered only by batting her eyelashes at Kayla.

Kayla spread her hands and squealed again. "Yes! You do get extra credit, girly girl!" She reached over to hug Kess again, then sat back down (practically on Rett's lap) with a squeak of a cheek-pinching auntie. "Oh, I am so proud of you!"

As Kayla attracted all the attention, Kess noticed the color in Rett's face had momentarily drained. She sensed the panic well up in the Force for a split second before it faded into hard, decisive determination. But Rett managed to sit there behind Kayla with an almost apathetic gaze, uncaring what the girls were talking about as long as he was going home with his date.

Kess tried not to care. She tried to meditate in the brief moments mid-conversation. She tried not to hate him. She tried not to over-react.

She must have tried enough because it didn't take long before Rett oozed in an openly 'sly' comment at her. "Yo, Kess, you'll never guess what I picked up at Lokey's liquidating auction."

Kess hid behind her mug. "It would figure you'd buy up as much of that bishwag's crap as you could."

Rett shrugged that off. "Fencing gear on the cheap. Why wouldn't I?"

Kess shrugged too. "So? What? Are you going to start your own class now?"

"Dunno," he smirked but didn't try to hide his devious nature at this discussion. "Perhaps I should want to test my skill against a true opponent first."

Kayla kindly defended Kess. "Do you have any idea how much trouble she got into for the last one?"

Rett shook that off, "She's her own Jedi now, I thought." He flicked taunting eyebrows at Kess. "You owe me. Don't you think?" He wagged an index finger at her belt. "But without the blade this time. Just snubs."

The deceit coming from him was sharp, and it was just as obvious in his eyes and on his grin as it was on the Force. Rett's tactic wasn't to hide his emotion, it was to mask it as something else. As long as everyone believed he was just in it for the sex, just in it for the duel, just in it for the money, no Jedi could determine what exactly he was after.

Clever, really.

And, as usual, the man didn't hesitate to go in for the kill.

The whole gang of the table watched with bated breath to see if she had turned into the same stoic, serious Jedi that Living Legend trained her to be. But they openly hoped that little ol' Kess retained a little bit of that irresponsible playfulness they loved her for.

Kess narrowed her eyes at the man and smirked deviously back. "You're on."

Biting his lower lip, Rett slapped the table with giddy success. The gang swooned into action. The tab was paid. The drinks were emptied. Bodies stood and filed out of the booth table. At her open suggestion to some, and her slyly waving hand at others, the party broke up to leave the restaurant and headed for the door.

Rett decided they should do this somewhere well out of the way so no one gets hurt and no one gets in trouble. Kayla began to tag along with him. Rett had to go home to pick up the snubs anyway. Kess stopped that discussion before it began.

"No. I'm pulling rank." Kess called to them. "The girly girls are going in Yana's speeder with me because I have a story to tell. We will pick up something to drink, you pick up the snubs, and we'll all meet on the ridge." She spread her hands at Rett. "Cool?"

Rett stepped backwards with a nod, wrapping his arm across his stomach and bowing once at them all. "See you in twenty minutes."

With that, he turned and motioned Hagat toward his speeder. (Poor Hagat was still trying to catch up on what was happening.) Yana and Kess jumped silently into the front seats of Yana's speeder. Kayla and Joanne climbed into the back, chatting merrily. Both began poking questions at Kess about her graduation. Yana took her time to power up.

Two hard sets of eyes watched through mirrors as Rett's speeder powered up and move away around the corner.

Kess whispered tightly. "I can't believe I didn't see it all along."

Yana muttered, "Do you think Hagat's in on it too?"

Kayla and Joanne went silent and shifted forward in their seats, poking their heads between the shoulders of Yana and Kess.

Kess narrowed her eyes at the disappearing speeder. "No," Kess said quietly. "Hagat's just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rett will probably lose him on the way up to the ridge."

"Now?" Yana asked with a splash of madness on her face. "You think he's going to do it now?"

Kess eyed the dark street a moment longer before turning to Yana and nodded with painful reality. "He probably wants to get out of here before the bigger party starts. He knows what's coming better than we do."

Kayla's voice was as heavy as a lead weight. "You wanna clue us in there, Little Miss Jedi Knight?"

Kess pulled the Jedi Pin off her collar with a sad sigh and muttered to Yana, "Stop by Luke's place for a minute."

Joanne's black eyebrows hardened. "Hullo! Are you deaf? What the hell is going on?"

Kess turned solemnly to the worried pair in the back seat. "We've been had, girly girls." She sighed sadly at the news that would hit Kayla hard. "We've been had."

Kess put her thoughts to the door lock. It swished open to the silent barracks apartment. Only the kitchen's counter light was on, glowing white-blue onto the clean ivory floor and black furniture. Her footsteps echoed as she hurried in. Artoo woke up when his sensors detected the front door was jimmied. He blinked on and blathered annoyed beeps at her for waking him up.

Kess patted his dome head. "It's just me. Go back to sleep."

Artoo swiveled downward as if sighing at her ignorance, quietly beeped a derogatory comment about droids not having the capacity to sleep and promptly put himself on standby again.

Luke was already blinking out of his meditation when she opened the bedroom door.

He knew immediately it was her and that he was in no danger, but a thousand questions crossed his mind as she climbed onto the foot of the little bed and crawled to over his legs on her hands and knees. He rose onto one elbow in a sleepy alert, the black sheet spilled off his bare chest as he half-sat up, and then his eyebrows tied into a hard knot when she pressed her mouth against his.

She pulled away and looked him in the eye, still hovering on her hands and knees over his side. Her brows furrowed almost as much as his did.

Luke blinked, but before his thoughts formed the words to argue, he sensed the swirling anxiety from her, a touch of fear, a touch of worry, and overflowing determination.

She was leaving.

Now.

His lips parted, his eyes widened, and he reached for her the same moment Kess realized he wasn't going to bark at her. She fell to the bed at his side and drank in the feel of big arms around her. He cradled her, almost rolling on top of her, kissing her lavishly. He reached deep and swallowed as much passion as he could grab in a fraction of a minute. His fingers caressed their way into the feather soft hair behind her ear while the other hand took her side and pulled her hip into him.

Kess' body fit perfectly in his grip, like the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle of his life. She brought warmth to the cool sheets of his bed. Her hair splashed gold across the ominous pillows. She drew her claws lightly across his back like she couldn't get close enough. The kiss lasted a long desperate minute before he slowed to a stumbling stop.

His mouth hovered open over hers, panting speechless and scared.

He wanted to say it, but the words caught in his throat. The Force trembled with impending doom as it this would be the last time he would see her alive. Luke squeezed the reaction of human emotion from his eyes.

She pulled Yana's commlink out of her breast pocket and shoved it into his hand. When he squinted at it, she whispered to him in the darkness. "You can follow the commlink signal up to a few gigametres. It'll give you the direction we're going long before I get there. The thing's power cell will be long drained by the time I get to the battle groups, so as long as he doesn't realize it's on, you've got enough of a homing device to get you started."

He closed his fingers around the link.

He had a very bad feeling about this.

Luke focused on her in the darkness and then kissed her again, soft, slow and deliberate.

Their lips parted for the last time, and after a good long pause to stare into each other's eyes, Kesselia slipped out of his arms, crawled off the bed, and left.