Disclaimer.


XXVI.

Rescue Gone Wrong

ATTON

"So I wasn't friends with Mical yet. I'd spent maybe a couple hours showing the guy around and giving him the intel on the crew, and I hated his guts. Not only was he Republic, which meant we might have all sorts of interference from bureaucratic idiots chasing us any day every bit as bad as the plague of bounty hunters earlier, but he had all the sense of humor of a stone wall, and he was so decent it made me want to punch him.

I didn't know if he could fight, either—he can, just so you know—and I knew Mira was still getting used to her lightsaber, so I was thinking Darden had to be an enormous idiot to take the two of them to rescue a Jedi from a lot of mercs in a kinrath-infested cave. The point is, I was on the verge of breaking something myself so I could fix it and take my mind off everything when your man Canderous made his appearance. Whistled from the doorway.

Oddly enough, he hadn't put on that precious armor of his yet that morning. I guess Darden'd say that meant he was talking to me as Canderous, not Mandalore, which might be kind of interesting, given what he said.

"You are messed up, Rand," he told me, without as much as a good morning first. "Pilots of this bucket. Well—let's just say I wouldn't want the job."

"Yeah, good morning to you, too. What do you want, Canderous?"

"Don't get your panties in a twist. The big, bad Mandalorian isn't gonna hurt you. I don't want a fight. Not with your kind. No, I just wanted to offer you some friendly advice."

Yeah, Mandalore isn't my biggest fan. Well, he wasn't, anyway. I'm not sure what he thinks now. But the sarcasm was a little much, all the same. Anyway, I didn't want any advice he might offer me.

"If you want me to leave the Exile alone, don't bother. Nothing's gonna happen. So it's no use telling me that if I hurt her you'll empty three rounds from that monster rifle of yours into me and light up my corpse like Unification Day, or whatever it was you were going to say. Especially with Blondie around."

He laughed at me, and not in a nice way. "Don't sell yourself short. She's not interested in him, and she won't be, either. If it was going to be anybody, it'd be you, Rand. But there's no need for me or anybody to protect Leona." He tapped a finger against his tattooed bicep. "She's got all you people wrapped around her finger, even that Sith woman posing as her teacher. You don't get what she is, any of you. She can handle herself."

I'd been about to leave. I wasn't interested in Canderous telling me what could happen but wouldn't with Darden. I knew all that. But the comment about Kreia threw me. "Wait. Kreia? You think she's Sith, too?"

Canderous snorted. "Why do you think I'm still here, Rand? Really. Nobody else here knows a damn thing about where Revan went, or will anytime soon. And sure, travelling around with a woman like Darden Leona, helluva opportunity to find more of my people, recruit them to the cause. But I could do that on my own. No, I'm here because that witch implied she knows something about Revan, and about me. I want to know what she knows, sure, but more than that, I want to know why she's holding it over me. Now, I've watched her. I think she's got stuff on most of the crew, especially those of us she considers a threat. To her, to Leona, I don't know. But I'm pretty sure she's got something on that Echani girl, Mira, and you, too."

"I'm no threat to Darden. It's the only reason I haven't put a bolt through Kreia's brain already—'cause I'm not sure it won't kill Darden, too," I snapped.

For a moment, I could've sworn Canderous respected that. "Good. I thought that was how it was. But I don't want to talk about the witch."

I resigned myself to hearing what it was he had to say. Didn't mean I had to like it. "No. You had some advice?"

That I obviously didn't want to hear it didn't faze Canderous one bit. "I did," he said. "Like I said, Leona's tougher than you people give her credit for. I fought her, in the Mandalorian Wars. She is ruthless, calculating, willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her goals. She was right under Malak in Revan's chain of command, and she earned that spot."

"I know that! You think I don't know that?" I'd seen Darden cut through swathes of people to help the Ithorians on Telos and to take down G0-T0 on Nar Shaddaa. I'd seen her work on the Handmaiden over months, even though that schutta on Telos was likely to brand the Handmaiden a traitor like her father or worse if she ever found out Darden was training her to be a Jedi. She'd used me more than once—very nicely, true, never for something I didn't actually want to do myself- but it didn't make it any less manipulative. I knew Darden's history and reputation and I'd seen it was valid.

But Canderous was unconvinced. "I don't think you do. Not like you need to. See, no matter what she ends up doing, it's always what she thinks is right." He chuckled darkly. "Conviction like that—it can cut someone like you in half like a vibrosword, Rand. It's killing you now. She doesn't think it's right to start anything with you right now, no matter how she feels. And that's fine. But if she changes her mind, if she decides for some reason she does want to get into it with you, she'll know what she's doing. Just make sure you do."

The reversal was like being shot out of the sky on Telos, completely out of the blue. "You're worried about me, not her?"

Canderous had been leaning against the doorway to the cockpit. Now he straightened, and walked past me to the pilot's chair. "I knew a guy once," he told me. "Not too long ago. He sat right here. Good with a blaster. Good with the ship. Good man. Better than you, for all he was Republic to the bone." He looked back at me just like you used to look at the washouts, but his tone was dead serious for all he didn't have any use for me, and I found I was listening despite myself.

"He flew the ship for another woman," Canderous went on. "Another ex-Jedi. Now, there isn't another in the galaxy like her, and there won't be again, but she and your Darden Leona had a few things in common. She was beautiful, she was inspiring, she was deadly, and her fate—her destiny, or whatever—was bigger than me and my people, and it was bigger than what she felt for the pilot of the Ebon Hawk."

I stared at the seat. "Revan? And who? That Admiral? Carth Onasi?"

He didn't answer for a long moment. "Leona knows," he said finally. "She talked to Mission and Dustil. If you talk to the utility droid, he'll probably show you the holo-recording." He gripped the pilot's chair. "Revan gave me the mask and told me to unite the clans. Told us both there was something she had to do, and then she left on this ship. Now it's back and she isn't. I'm still waiting for my commander. But Carth? He's a little worse off." He moved back to the doorway. As he passed, he just about knocked me down with a clap on the shoulder. "It's not as bad as it could be, Rand. Watch yourself."

"You keep watching Kreia," I told him. "That's different."

Canderous paused. "That is different," he admitted. "Yeah. Can I count on you to help, when the time comes?"

I didn't tell him about Kreia and me. What'd be the point? I wasn't there because of Kreia anymore, anyway. As much as I didn't want to see the things I'd done in my past like she'd threatened, feel what I'd felt then, I wanted Darden to be safe more, even after all that had gone down, even after what Canderous had told me. "I'll do what has to be done," I promised.

Canderous regarded me a moment. "Huh. I said she'd make you a soldier and a man," he remarked, then left.

I sank down in the pilot's chair, trying not to feel too tragic as I did. It was the first I'd heard about you and Carth. I tried to laugh it off, but though I hadn't seen T3-M4's holo yet, I'd seen that one on the Harbinger, where the Admiral had been so desperate for even wreckage from the Ebon Hawk. You really did a number on him when you left. And though I might have thought I'd be well out of it once, imagining Darden dropping me off on a planet someplace and flying the Ebon Hawk off into the Unknown Regions with all her mess by that time just made me a little sick.

The parallel was too obvious, though, except for the fact that I'd gotten the impression from Canderous that you'd given Carth a chance, and it didn't look like Darden was going to give me one. I decided it was probably just as well. I mean, I'm no Carth Onasi, even at my most heroic. I can say it for sure now I actually know the guy. And right then, after that talk with Canderous, I thought that if I'd changed enough to be a soldier and a man, I was just barely scraping by. They called me the fool, sometimes, then. Kreia. The Handmaiden. Even Mira. And with the way things were going, I figured I probably was, and I knew I was space-slime that didn't deserve Darden. If I just learned what she could teach me of the Jedi, I decided, and watched her back when she'd let me, it'd be enough. It would have to be.


Aithne had listened to Atton's recital with fists clenched and eyes blazing. "And you call Darden manipulative, Rand," she said, through gritted teeth. "That certainly was interesting. A bit like salt and citrus ground into a gaping wound, but interesting."

"Aithne, we can't even imagine what it's like to live inside your head," Darden said. "We don't blame you. This is just what happened, as it happened. What you take from it is up to you."

Aithne took three deep breaths. "Continue," she said, then, shortly. "What happened in the kinrath caves?"


You're not going to like this, either, Aithne. We'd gone to the caves early that morning, like Atton said. We'd run into the last group of HK-50 droids that HK-47 needed to triangulate the location of the factory—I'd taken pieces from them as HK-47 had instructed for him to study, because as much as I didn't like HK-47, I didn't like his upgrades after me, either.

Anyway, we'd entered the caves around 0930 local time. The crystal caves had been a hotspot for Padawans back when the—well, you remember that bit. I'd picked up the supplementary crystals for my first lightsaber there, but the passages had changed since. The kinrath were proving particularly pernicious lately—Zherron had asked me specifically the day before to take care of them if I could—and they'd reworked the caves.

So we'd been stumbling around in circles for more than half an hour without finding any trace of the mercs, stubbing our toes in the dark. Honestly, the caves were ideal for a secret base. Smelly, dangerous, hard to get to. And damn frustrating to find, even if you went looking.

Both of my companions were picking up on that frustration. "Are you certain we have not been this way before?" Mical asked me deferentially after a while.

"Yeah, we've passed that rock that looks like a laigrek twice," Mira agreed.

I ignored them, but when we came to a fork in the caves, I went left instead of right. Mira looked around at algae-grown walls, stalactites, and stalagmites. "This is different," she observed. A kinrath shrieked defiance. "I don't like it," Mira added.

I switched on my lightsaber.

Quite by accident we'd stumbled not onto the merc camp we were trying to reach, but the kinrath hatching ground Zherron wanted us to destroy. Several small, ravenous kinrath scuttled out from behind a column. Along with an enormous one that had to be the colony queen. I shielded.

We fought for ten minutes before things got bad. Mical fired from the background, but his blaster bolts could do little against the kinrath's tough white exoskeletons. So Mira and I found ourselves taking on the brunt of the battle. And Atton's right: just then, Mira was only just getting used to her lightsaber, or to any melee weapon at all. She was my weakest pupil in lightsaber combat. Using the forms she'd started to learn in actual combat the day before and this morning, she was starting to get a feel for her weapon. She managed to kill several of the hatchlings with her single, violet blade. Their exoskeletons hadn't hardened yet. But the queen was mad. We were killing the colony. She didn't want to get too near me, so she went at Mira, instead, and Mira was unprepared for her.

Mical couldn't shoot around the column in the center of the nest to protect Mira. I was surrounded by three starving, furious hatchlings myself. But I saw the kinrath queen's long, needle sharp, venomous beak dart out once, twice, three times past Mira's weak defense, into her shoulder, stomach, and arm. More than that, I felt a hot flash of pain in each area myself, though not so badly it incapacitated me.

Mira cried out and fell down bleeding. I released a wave of the Force. Hatchlings and queens were all knocked back and stunned. In one furious arc I cut all the hatchlings down. Then I stabbed the matriarch through her compound eyes, down into her bloated body. She fell back, dead.

Mical had already run to Mira. He was kneeling beside her. He had her head in his left arm and an antidote syringe in his right hand. He injected her with the antidote.

I knelt on the other side of Mira. Her face looked like a corpse in the light of the crystals. You know the kinrath. They always nest near them. She forced a smile. "Those crab things sure…have a nasty bite, Dar," she grit out from between clenched teeth. "Guess I better…work Soresu some more…huh?"

She groaned. Her hand, clenched over her stomach, was red with her own blood. I could feel Mira's life leaking away through the Force.

"I have a healing pack here," Mical said, speaking quick and low. "If I give her a shot of adrenaline, it should speed the antidote through her system, but it could also increase blood loss. The kolto shot could help congeal the wounds, but not enough that she could be moved safely to the Ebon Hawk and the med bay."'

Mira's wounds were life-threatening—the worst I'd ever attempted to heal since my exile. I wsn't sure if I could do it, but if I didn't try, I felt that she would die. "Mical. Shut up."

Gently, I took Mira from him. I placed my hand over Mira's on her abdomen, over the worst wound. I could feel the tear in the stomach and the muscle. I focused on the Force, and on how Mira's body should work. Beside me, the crystals in the cave started glowing. The Force comes easily there. So easily.

Mira's stomach wall, muscle, and skin knit itself together. Mira gasped, and Mical watched as what was very likely a mortal wound ceased to be a wound at all. I took a deep breath, hardly wearied at all. I wasn't pulling the Force. I was merely conducting it. I moved a hand to Mira's shoulder and healed it, and then her arm.

Mira sat up. Her voice was shaky when she spoke. "Tell you what: we are definitely using those credits to get me some new clothes this afternoon."

"That was…Mira, you might have died!" Mical cried.

Mira shuddered. "Yeah, well, I didn't."

"Darden, I have seen Jedi wield the Force before, but never—"

"It wasn't me," I cut him off. I pointed at the crystals.

Mical looked around.

Mira touched the crystal formation closest to us. "They make it easier," she said, sensing it through the Force. "They…absorb the Force or something. It's why those things nested here, but it's why you could heal me like that."

"Yeah…how do you feel?"

Mira stood, and ignited her lightsaber. She walked slowly over to an unhatched kinrath egg, and brought her lightsaber down viciously, smashing it to bits. An acrid, rotten smell arose when the lightsaber carved through the egg. "I feel like I never want anyone to feel that ever again," Mira told me fiercely.

I helped her destroy the remaining eggs.

When it was done, I grabbed her shoulder. The blood and torn fabric beneath my hand turned my stomach, though there was no wound anymore. "You do need to work on Soresu," I said. I couldn't keep my voice even. "You need to work on all your lightsaber forms. Don't scare me like that again, Mira."

"When I fell, right before you killed them all, you clutched your stomach, too," Mira said. "Did you—like with Kreia?"

"Master Kavar said bonds often form between Master and student," I murmured. "I didn't feel what you felt to the extent that I feel it when Kreia's hurt, but yes, I could sense your pain. I think the crystals exaggerated the effect."

"The cave is Force Sensitive," Mical said. "I've read of places such as this."

"Yeah. Padawans used to come here, back when the Enclave still stood, to find unique crystals for their lightsabers. I came here once."

I reached out toward a crystal formation, and that's when I saw it.

A woman, maybe five years ago, had stood where I stood. She was dressed simply, in the loose brown and white robes of a Jedi Padawan. Wildly curling chestnut hair was escaping from the complex plaits and pins she'd done it in, and she was breathing heavily. Around her, too, egg fragments were scattered yellow across the cave floor, and the smell of death was strong.

The woman's thigh was bleeding, tinged green from a viper kinrath sting. She kept herself turned away from her companions, so they wouldn't see the wound. She put her hands to it, and the crystals around her glowed. The poison left the wound, and the wound closed up. She looked down in amazement, and I knew she was wondering how she was possibly as strong as she'd been a moment before, but completely healed all the same. She felt the Force flow through the cave, just as I did.

"If we are going to prevent a blood feud between the Matales and the Sandrals, we must move quickly!" a cultured, female voice said.

The woman looked over her shoulder and smirked at her companion in the background, whom I could not quite make out. "Hey—you've got a fancy lightsaber crystal from the creepy kinrath cave; I should get a fancy lightsaber crystal from the creepy kinrath cave. Isn't it some Jedi rite of passage or something?"

"And you've been a Jedi for what, all of a day?" a man asked, amused.

The woman in the vision had felt a sudden, incredible rush of affection for the man. "Twelve hours," she corrected. "And don't call me a Jedi!"

"You called yourself a Jedi," the woman's female companion objected irritably. "Honestly! Cannot you admit you are a Jedi? I assure you, you will not die."

"Says you," the woman muttered. "Look how you turned out, Bas." But I could tell she didn't entirely mean it.

The woman reached forward and grabbed a crystal from the formation with a strong hand. The crystal yielded to her without a fight, ready to be hers, and to help her in the Force. The woman's arched brows rose in wonder, and her golden brown eyes flashed. They were the last thing I saw before the vision ended.


"You had a vision of me?" Aithne asked. "That happened—that was during the war, right after my 'training,' before we left Dantooine to start looking for the Star Forge."

"The crystals in that cave retain Force impressions," Darden explained. "I've told you before: no one lights up the Force like you do. You left a particularly strong Force impression. Strong enough, in fact, that I wasn't the only one to get the vision, but it was carried over through all my bonds."


"Revan! She was here!"

"Five years ago," Mira said in a strange voice. She was gripping the wall of the cave. Her eyes were distant, and she was shaking. "I know. I saw it, too."

"I as…" Mical began. He cut off, looking at me with wide, incredulous eyes, amazed, fearful that he'd shared in the vision.

Seven people reeled in my mind with me from the vision I'd just seen. It wasn't surprising that Kreia had seen it, but what was incredible, what was totally unexpected, was that Mira, Mical, and every one of my pupils back on the Ebon Hawk had seen it, too. It was one of those moments when the Force made everyone's mind clear to me, through the help of the crystals in the cave, and I could hear all of them in my head, and they were all trying to get at me.

-General?

-Darden?

-What has happened?

-What the hell was that?!

Their minds clamored at mine for answers, save Kreia's. I held my temples. It was mental overload. I thought my head might split from all the people in my head talking at once.

"She passed this way," I said, aloud and in my head. "The crystals remember. They sensed my connection to Revan, and told me, and through me, you. It's fine. It's fine."

"This Jedi thing's for real," Mira breathed, clutching at her stomach and the bloody rags over the wound that wasn't there anymore. "I…I really can do this. I am doing this. It's not just Nar Shaddaa. The Force…it's everywhere. Everything."

-This is strange. I had almost forgotten. After so many years, I do not know if I can do this again, even now, even now she is here—

-But was it Revan? Or was it the other one, the one she became? And which fought Malak, in the end?

-Did my mother feel as she did about the man? Does Darden feel as she did about—

-If the vision was about Revan, was it always determined that she was to face Malak in the end? Could there have been another choice for her? Did she determine her fate, define her identity? Can I choose—whom to serve, where to go—

-I never asked for this. I never asked for visions, to share thoughts with anybody...Force! They thought she was a man? Sheesh, was the entire army blind or something?—

Questions, emotions from far too many minds and hearts. It was overwhelming. The uncertainty, fear, and excitement of the others was physically painful. I sank to the floor. The crystals around the cave started glowing again as the Force gathered to me, converging upon me like a hurricane. I think I yelled. It was like Nar Shaddaa, except I hadn't been so intimately acquainted with the sentients there. I'd felt surface feelings, only the vaguest currents of emotion and thought. Now every question, every motivation of all my Force Sensitive allies pressed on my mind, hammered at me for attention. And above it all, your presence still echoed through the cave and through my vision, ringing through time like a bell, and deafening in its own right.

Kreia! Help me! I cried out. But she was silent.

The others kept beating at my mind for answers, but the vision had passed, and they couldn't hear me like I could hear them. Telepathy. It's not a common gift. Only one of my pupils then had ability. Atton calmed himself. His anger, his frustration with me pulsed in the background, but he pushed past them to my mind. Mental connectivity—or disconnection—is his specialty.

Listen to me, sweetheart. To me. Okay. I deal. I draw 5, you draw-

-3.

That's it. 5-3. I draw 7. My total's 12.

I draw 10. My total's 13.

I draw 4, and play Mebla's special double card to get to 20.

I draw 8 and bust.

Really, sweetheart? This is your game. You can make it end however you want.

This is our game, and I always lose with you.

Funny. I kind of thought the same thing. Fine. My hand. I draw 10—

Either his 'voice' crowded out all of the others, or he managed to make the others hear him, and they built their own walls to keep from hurting me further. Either way, the mental storm abated, and I was able to sit up. Atton and I split off, each playing our own games now that I had it under control.

The cave came back into focus. I'd almost blacked out. Mira was kneeling in front of me, looking worried. "You okay, Dar?"

"Revan always did have a powerful effect on people. You know, I'd forgotten what she looked like? I only ever saw her face the once…"

"It was a choice she made so that she would be an idea, not a human woman," Mical said hoarsely. "But your—our—vision was not of Revan. It was of Aithne Morrigan, the woman that Revan became."

The fact that he'd shared in the vision made me almost positive that he was the same kid I remembered from the Academy on Dantooine. "Do you want to tell me about why you might have shared our vision?" I asked him gently.

"I do not believe so, no. Not yet. Forgive me."

He placed a tentative hand on the crystal mass, and a single crystal fell away from the outcropping and into his hand. "They remember her, though," he told me. "And Bastila Shan, and…"

"Carth Onasi."

"They remember them, and now they will remember us."

I gestured at his crystal. "If it calls to you, you should keep it. For when you do feel like talking. Mira? If you look, you might find one that likes you. You need a supplementary crystal for your lightsaber."

Mical slipped his crystal into his pocket, and Mira took another from a different formation. But I went to the exact place in the formation from which you'd taken your crystal, and touched the formation. For a split-second, I saw your face in the faceted, polished rock. You were happier then than you are now, full of humor even as you burned with all the fury and wonder and brilliance of the Force.

Then a single crystal yielded to me and dropped into my hand, and all I could see in the formation was my own face, reflected back.

I finally stopped playing pazaak in my head, and all was silent. I put my crystal into my pack and turned to face my companions. "Let's get out of here and find Vrook."

I guess it was just easier, navigating the caves starting from the crystal cave. In short order, we'd located another chamber, this one larger, cleaner, and lit with artificial lights. Barrels of supplies stood here and there about the cavern. There were eight mercs. Four played cards and downed juma at a little table, two were stretched out lazing on cots, and two stood guard over the corner where someone had rigged up a force cage. In the force cage, scowling fit to curdle milk, was Master Vrook Lamar, formerly of the Jedi Council.

Vrook saw me before the mercs did. For a moment, his trap dropped open in dumb astonishment, but then he started pointing wildly back up the tunnels, gesturing for me to leave. Unfortunately, his gesticulation caught the attention of one of his guards. Her head swiveled, and she stiffened when she saw us.

"This is a restricted area, settlers. How the hell did you get through the kinrath? You should leave," she called.

Vrook seemed to sigh. I didn't get it. He was trapped. He couldn't imagine the eight half-drunk, half-conscious mercs would pose any trouble, could he? I shielded. "I don't think so. You've kidnapped this man," I told the woman.

The men playing cards stopped. One of them kicked the two on the cots. The six of them stood, and the woman crossed her arms. "This isn't kidnapping, this is bounty hunting. This Jedi is worth a lot of credits on Nar Shaddaa, and we're collecting."

Dantooine's pretty far out. I guess they hadn't heard. "When's the last time you've been to Nar Shaddaa?" Mira asked.

"The bounty's dead," I added. "The boss got what he wanted, and he's not paying up anymore. So why don't you just let the nice Jedi go, and no one has to get hurt."

The merc drew her blaster, and the other mercenaries drew their weapons, too. "You just want the credits for yourself!" she accused me. "I'm going to say this nice and slow for your little kath-herding head: unless you want to wind up dead, leave now."

I switched on my lightsaber. Mira, taking her cue from me, did the same. The mercenaries were a little surprised. "I'm not leaving," I told them. "Give him up. Now."

For a moment, she wasn't sure about it. Then she smiled nastily. "Three times the bounty, boys! I warned you, lady. But I'm glad you didn't listen."

She brought her blaster up, and I adopted Shien. The mercs fired, and we engaged.

In the more open cavern, as opposed to the cramped and obstructed crystal cave, Mical could fire more safely, without fear of hitting me or Mira. I hadn't known if he could fight before then, but I was very pleased to learn he could. Matter of fact, he's nearly as good of a shot with a blaster as Canderous is, and probably a bit better than you and me, Atton. His firing freed me up to move, and covered Mira.

Things went better than in the fight with the kinrath. When it was over, I went over and shut down Master Vrook's force cage.

He stepped out with dignity, but he was not happy. "Always rushing into action without thinking of the consequences. What? You were expecting thanks? Khoonda is in danger, and you've ruined the best chance of avoiding a full-scale conflict."

"Well, hello to you, too," I forced out. "You know, Vrook, it's always such a pleasure to talk to you." Really, that kind of rudeness is inexcusable, especially upon first meeting.

Vrook folded his arms, and Mira and Mical shifted uncomfortably. "Is this a joke to you?" Vrook demanded. "People's lives are at stake. Every action has consequences, no matter how small or insignificant they seem. Even the smallest choice has potential for harm. The Mandalorian Wars were proof of this. Intentions mean nothing if a greater tragedy is caused."

It was Atris all over again. Like I'd stepped right back into that Council Chamber the second I'd let him out of the force cage. "So if the galaxy's crashing down, we should all do nothing! We might make it worse!"

Vrook looked down at me with horrible sarcasm. "Did you think rushing into battle against the Mandalorians did anything but bring more harm to the galaxy? It only served to bring about a second war, more dangerous than the first. Countless Jedi died in both conflicts, and everyone who followed Malak and Revan died or turned to the Dark Side. Except conveniently you."

"Yes! Except me!"

As much as Atris had liked me before the Wars, I'd never had much use for her. So when she turned on me it hadn't hurt as much. But I grew up under Vrook, after they moved me to Dantooine. I'd respected him. I'd tried over and over again to win even a single word of his approval. It had never, ever worked. He had always been disappointed in me, he'd always found fault. He'd always been firmly convinced I was on a one-way space highway to the Dark Side. Meeting his criticism again and again, I'd begun to react to his judgment with anger and irritation. I remember countless times standing before him, trying to explain why I wasn't Dark Side, knowing it was true, but unquestionably feeling Dark Side emotions toward the man that just wouldn't accept me. In the cavern on Dantooine, every bit of it came back, and I felt as hot, irritable, and contrary as I ever had as a fifteen year old Padawan twenty years before.

Vrook felt like the disapproving Master, too. He reined himself in with an impatient shake of the head. "Enough of this. This is not the time for such arguments. The mercenaries have allied themselves with the Exchange and are planning to attack Khoonda. They've been holding off for the right moment. And now since they lost their captive Jedi, they'll attack immediately. I'm going to try to reach Administrator Adare. Time is of the essence."

He looked from me to Mira, opened his mouth, then decided he couldn't be bothered asking. He waved a single, contemptuous, dismissive hand that hurt as much as if he'd slapped me, and stalked out.

"That could've gone better," Mira said after a moment.

I forced a laugh. "I guess. Actually, that's about the reception I expected. Minus the whole the mercs are going to attack Khoonda thing. Admittedly, I didn't see that one coming. Let's go."

"If it helps," Mical offered, "None of the records I ever read say that you did fall."

I snorted. "What the records say doesn't matter so long as people say it. And people do say it. All the time. After all, everyone else that survived the Wars did. And anyway, they say, otherwise, how could I have ordered what I did?"

"I see."

We made our way out of the crystal caves. We'd spent more time in there than I'd thought, and the sun was already low in the sky over the plains. And standing in front of the sun were another six mercs blocking our way, headed up by a tall, powerfully built man with one eye scarred over and blinded by what looked like an old lightsaber wound.

"You are the Jedi I've heard reports of," he said in a silky, dangerous voice, looking down at me with his good eye. "I am Azkul, leader of the mercenaries on Dantooine."

I was hungry and tired, not to mention hurt by Vrook's reception upon his 'rescue.' "What do you want?"

Azkul smiled like a firaxa. All his teeth were intact, and brilliantly sharp and white. "Straight to the point. I like that. I will be equally direct. I am planning to take Khoonda, and you're going to help me."

It was humiliating for Vrook's report to be confirmed. "I am, am I?"

My hostility didn't faze Azkul. "According to my reports, I have four times as many soldiers as the militia. And I am committed to taking Khoonda. It is inevitable that I will succeed. If you wish to avoid my men eradicating the people of Dantooine, you will make it easier for me to take Khoonda. Of course, I will pay well for your services."

"I'm not a mercenary, Azkul," I told him. "And I'm not interested."

I'd messed things up, rescuing Vrook. But I'd be damned if I was going to make it worse by allying with Azkul against Administrator Adare, or even let it be rumored that I had and lie to get away without a fight.

"You'd better reconsider," Azkul said after a moment. "I can't have Jedi interfering with my plans. There is a considerable bounty on your kind that I will collect on unless you are working for me."

"We really ought to get Goto to spread the word around here, since they haven't bothered keeping up," Mira muttered. "Get him to do something useful for a change."

"There is no bounty, Azkul. Not anymore," I said. "And I cannot allow your plans to succeed. I suggest you reconsider attacking."

Azkul scowled. "I have put too much effort into this to allow two exuses for Jedi to stop me now." He raised his hand and walked away. "Men?" he called back over his shoulder.

Mira and I together froze all five of Azkul's men into Stasis. She was getting on much better with Force techniques than with the lightsaber.

Mira glanced at me, pleading. "Do we have to…?"

"Not now," I agreed.

Conscious of damaging my lightsaber, I instead took out my blaster from my pack and hit two men over the head with the handle. They collapsed into unconsciousness. Mira pushed a rocket into her launcher. I grabbed Mical and jumped clear with him, and the rocket exploded in the midst of Azkul's men in a cloud of knockout fumes. Those I hadn't already taken out collapsed as well.

Azkul was maybe fifty meters away. He turned, presumably to see his men taking us out, but instead saw all of his men down and Mira, Mical and I still standing. He ran.

I let him go then. I knew gunning him down probably wouldn't stop the coming fight, not with dozens of dissatisfied and out of work mercs just like him to continue it. Instead, Mical, Mira and I all headed to Khoonda.

"Thanks," Mira said. "I know there's gonna be another battle, like on Onderon. And I'll fight in it. I will. But until then, we've done enough."

I gripped her shoulder. "We'll talk later, you and me," I promised her.

Master Vrook had obviously made it to Khoonda. Militia men were already planting mines around the approaches to the building. In the courtyard, Berun drilled a squad, and blaster fire rang out as they practiced.

I didn't bother hiding my lightsaber as we walked into the building. It didn't strike me that there was a point now. I walked straight into the Administrator's office. Vrook was there with Adare, and Zherron was there, too. I bowed to Adare.

"Mical," the Administrator said in some surprise. "I feared when you didn't return from the ruins that you had gone the way of so many of our salvagers. You have joined with Darden Leona?"

"I have, Administrator. Nevertheless, I place myself entirely at your disposal in this crisis."

"I thank you," Adare told him. She smiled wryly at me. "So you have found the elusive Master Vrook. He's told me that his 'rescue' complicated our situation to some degree. I can't say that I anticipated that. I thank you for finding him, though. Vrook has informed me that the mercenaries have devised a plan of attack to annihilate Khoonda itself. I must ask you for your aid, as well as Mical, Darden Leona. Zherron says that even with a plan, the mercenaries will have to gather their forces to coordinate their assault. So we still have time. I'm afraid the militia has not been adequately trained for the task that befalls them."

Zherron seconded Adare. "The mercs could attack in two days, or it could be as much as a week. In any case, we have to be prepared."

Vrook stood by, glaring at me.

I bowed to him frostily, and addressed Adare. "Don't worry, ma'am. I could hardly have known about Vrook's plan before I arrived and you asked me to find him, but planetary defense is sort of a specialty of mine."

Vrook's expression softened somewhat. Whatever else he might have thought of me, he couldn't deny that I knew how to protect a planet. He gestured for me to continue.

"First thing's first: who knows about the attack?" I asked.

"Right now just us and the militia," Adare said. "I don't want to create a needless panic. But be assured I will make sure that all civilians are warned in time so they can get to safety. Though if we lose this battle, nowhere on Dantooine will be safe for settlers for long."

"No—this planet balances on a knife's edge. I felt it the minute I landed. What Dantooine will become depends upon this battle," I murmured. "What do you know that needs doing?"

"Our militia is effective at peace-keeping but isn't prepared for a full-scale battle," Adare explained. "If you can do anything to ready them for the reality of it, that would be helpful. Besides that, look around Khoonda and see what you can do to strengthen our defenses. I know that we don't have the perimeter turrets online, and that alone could make a significant difference. Zherron says there is a considerable chance they will breach Khoonda down. Anything you can do to slow them down could turn the tide of the battle."

"I'll need access to your defenses."

The Administrator handed me a plastic card. "Here is a master card key that will open all of the security doors inside Khoonda. Anything that might aid you in your task, please use. Soon all the civilians will be evacuated. So if you have business with any of them, I suggest you take care of it."

"Actually, I did want to see if the Rodian had any armor that might fit my friend here—"

Administrator Adare caught sight of Mira's torn, blood-stained clothing for the first time. "Gracious!" she cried, springing forward as if to keep Mira from falling. "Are you all right, young woman?"

Mira laughed at her, waving her off good-naturedly. "I'm fine," she said. "I just need some new clothes. Especially if we're going to be fighting a battle."

"Of course," Adare said, recovering herself. "Er…were you with Ms. Leona earlier?"

"No, she wasn't," I answered.

"How many able-bodied fighters do you have with you?" Zherron asked.

"Twelve men, women, Jedi, and droids," I replied. "Including me and the people you see here. If they all fight. I won't make them."

"Jedi?" Vrook frowned.

"Jedi."

"If you could talk to them…?" the Administrator said hopefully.

"I will."

"Again, I thank you. Whenever you are ready to finalize the defenses, talk to Zherron."

I bowed to the Administrator again, and set off to work. Mira took our credits and headed off to Adum Larp's shop on the eastern corridor, but Mical and I went on to the turret center.

As I fiddled with the console, Mical watched me. "It is…unfortunate that things have happened here in this way. Yet you are handling the dangers we face well. You have bounced back from your error with admirable poise, and I feel that in the end, the people of Dantooine will not be the worse off for our premature rescue of Vrook Lamar. Now, you remain calm and focused. I admire your centeredness."

I patched the programming on the turrets, fixing their quirks and optimizing their hostile-recognition programs and firing patterns. "It's an act, Mical. I've got to handle things here so it doesn't fall apart. I'm the only one remotely qualified, but all that means is that if Khoonda falls, it'll be doubly my fault."

"I disagree," Mical said. "The mercenaries had planned to attack Khoonda in any case. And with Vrook imprisoned, no one in Khoonda was aware of the impending attack. Rescuing him may have advanced the attack, but now at least it comes as no surprise to the Dantooine settlers. And you are here to protect them. As you said, planetary defense is something of a specialty of yours."

I locked down the turret programming. "Maybe. Thanks for saying so, anyway. Let's see what else we can do around here before we ought to head back to the Ebon Hawk."

I was able to fix the broken medical droid in the med bay so it could heal the men that had been wounded when the turrets had gone off-line three days before. I started work on the Khoonda defense droids before Mira joined back up with us.

I blinked. I'd expected Mira to purchase more leather, or a similarly revealing civilian get-up. Even a suit of armor. But instead, she'd purchased what looked like some of the salvage from the Enclave that was floating around everywhere on Dantooine. A well-woven green robe and white undertunic, with fawn colored pants and very sensible boots. She was stuffing another robe like it into her pack. I refrained from commenting for the moment, though, and suggested we head back to the Ebon Hawk to appraise the others of the situation.

I called a conference aboard the Ebon Hawk the minute we boarded. Everyone knew there was trouble the second I walked in.

"And just what chaos have you stirred up now, Jedi?" Goto asked coldly.

"I—"

Mical spoke up stoutly. "It was none of Darden's doing. The mercenaries were plotting to attack Khoonda in any event. Now the situation is merely more…imminent."

"Great," Atton drawled. "We got another battle to determine the fate of a planet on our hands. Swee-Darden, we gotta break this addiction of yours. The first step is admitting you have a problem."

"Statement: I fail to see the problem, meatbag."

The Handmaiden, ever practical, ignored the banter and cut straight to the chase. "How much time to we have?"

"The captain of the militia, Zherron, says the attack could come day after tomorrow or a week from now. The mercs have to mobilize, but we've got a lot of work to do. Azkul, the leader of the Dantooine mercs, claims his force is four times the size of the Khoonda militia, and though I think he was trying to intimidate us when he said that, I don't think he was exaggerating by much. I fixed and optimized the machines around Khoonda, but that won't be everything. Not by a long shot."

"What is there to do?" Bao-Dur asked.

"The militia here aren't equipped to handle a full-scale invasion," Mandalore said. "I saw them setting traps around Khoonda. If we could strengthen them, it would probably help delay the attackers."

"Perhaps there might be settlers that would be willing to aid the militia in the defense of Khoonda?" Visas suggested. "Even temporarily."

"An excellent notion," Mical said approvingly. "The citizens of Dantooine have a right to help decide what befalls their planet."

"The Administrator also asks all of us who will to aid in the defense," I said. "I told her I won't order anyone to fight, but I'd appreciate everyone's help."

"Affirmation: I will gladly join the battle and enact assassination protocols upon the mercenary meatbags!"

"Thank you, HK-47. So long as you restrict your fire to mercenary meatbags, your help is more than welcome," I told him.

One by one all of the crew volunteered to help as well, save G0-T0, who said instead that he would let things run their course, and Kreia, who remained silent.

"Kreia? Are you with us?" I asked her finally.

I sensed she was disturbed by something, but her mental walls were iron. "I am not. This battle you fight alone. Let us see what you have learned. I…I need to center myself."

I decided to ask her about it later, and focused on the others while they were all together. "Tomorrow we'll do what we can to help prepare for the mercenary attack. Mira, Mandalore. You're in charge of improving the traps around Khoonda. Those people setting mines this evening looked like they didn't have the faintest idea what they were doing. Fix it."

Mira and Mandalore nodded.

"Mical. You've been around Khoonda a while. The Administrator recognized you. Do you know the settlers?"

"I have a passing acquaintance with them, yes."

"Take the Handmaiden and make them aware of the threat. Try and get them to rally to help the militia. Anyone you can, get them to come in."

"It shall be done," the Handmaiden promised me.

I hesitated, reluctant to ask Atton for anything after the Mical debacle the night before. Then I proceeded, timidly. "Atton? Can you and Visas work on the salvagers? They don't like the mercs, either, and they're running out of profit options. If you could get them to call even a temporary truce with the settlers to help out, even just a few of them..."

Atton agreed immediately, however. "Don't worry about it, Darden. We'll take care of it."

"Teethree?"

The droid chirped.

"I want you to help Bao-Dur with the droids in Khoonda, okay? I did what I could, today, but I'm no expert like the two of you."

"You got it," Bao-Dur said, and Teethree agreed with cheerful confidence.

I looked at HK-47 with some distaste. "You're with me," I told him. "We're going to find Zherron and Berun, and we're going to instruct the militia in proper assassination protocols. They can hardly handle kinrath and kath hounds right now. We have to turn them into an army."

"Affirmation: HK-47 is ready to serve."

I looked around. "Dismissed," I said finally. "Get some sleep. You're gonna need it."

Everyone left but Kreia, who had sensed my desire to speak with her. I regarded her from across the table. "You're still shaken up from the vision this morning," I decided. "It had to have hit you harder than any of us, considering you taught her."

"I made no claim to having ever done such a thing."

"No, but you never tell me anything. You hinted at it, and that's enough."

"You know nothing," Kreia hissed.

"Kreia, we can talk about it," I pressed.

"And what would we discuss?" Kreia demanded. "Revan is gone, gone even before she departed for the Unknown Regions. The woman that ended the Jedi Civil War, do you think that was Revan? Pah! Perhaps she has found herself again there, out in the shadowy places beyond the known galaxy. But I cannot find her, and it is not my path to attempt such a quest. The Force does not treat its puppets so tenderly."

Something about the way she spoke of the Force this time caught my attention. She was less guarded than usual, more emotional. "Why did you come for me?" I asked her quietly. "Why were you searching for me, before the Harbinger intercepted the Ebon Hawk? Not because I'm the last of the Jedi, like you said, because you've known I'm not this entire time, haven't you? So what was it about me in particular?"

"Leave me," Kreia snapped. "I am weary."

I could hardly interrogate her when I'd feel every blow, and Kreia's mental defense was far stronger than my mental offense, especially since I have an aversion to breaking into the minds of others in the first place. So reluctantly, I walked away. It's not just the Sith Lords, is it? You're doing something else, aren't you, Kreia?

She didn't answer.

I made my way to the storage compartment where Mira liked to hang out during the day. I knew I had to address her pacifism before the battle, or else the disquiet she'd feel killing might impact her progress as a Jedi. She was sitting against the wall, playing with her rocket launcher.

I sat beside her. "Hey."

"Hey."

"I like the new look," I offered. She looked softer in the robe, more at peace, and more like the very young woman she actually was than a backstreet femme fatale.

"Yeah?" Mira asked. "I'm gonna have to do something with this neckline. But I figured, if I'm going to be a Jedi and have collaborative visions and everything…might as well, you know?"

"Don't mess with the neckline," I advised her. "There are other ways to distract targets, when you're a Jedi."

Mira considered this. "What are you doing?" I asked her.

"I need some better rockets for this thing," she said, and fear and disquiet roiled about her in the Force. "If we're going into a battle some time this week—all I got are stunners and noisemakers, mostly. Not much good against a high-powered carbine or any heavy duty armor."

"Mira," I said.

She avoided my gaze.

"It's okay to be bothered by the killing," I told her. "It's good that you see the faces of the enemy, their connections to the Force in everything."

"How do you do it?" Mira asked softly. "How do you kill so many people, when you know they have homes, families, stories? When you can feel the way they fit into the Force, good or bad?"

"It's not easy, and it never will be," I told her. "It rips holes in you, too—killing. But here's the thing: when the enemy wants to destroy you, you have the right to protect yourself. We've talked about that before. But it goes even further. You, me, and the others: we've been given a gift. We have the ability to defend ourselves, and when so many other people don't, it becomes our responsibility not only to defend ourselves, but to defend those who can't defend themselves—protect their right to life, home, and family. How do I do it? I think of them. Always of them."

"Yeah, but it's not fair, that we rip holes in ourselves to do it," Mira argued.

"No, but haven't you heard? Life's not fair."

Mira laughed. "Well that's the truth." She looked thoughtful, though. "It was never like that, on Nar Shaddaa," she said. "I could always get away from the idiots after me, and no one's life depended on whether or not I killed my targets. But I think I get it, what you're saying. I don't like it. But I think I could accept it, maybe. It's good, protecting others."

"Yes, it is."

"Thanks," Mira said after a moment. "And don't worry. I'll back you up, in the battle."

I stood. "I didn't come to talk to you because I doubted that," I told her. "I came to talk to you so you wouldn't torture yourself doing it."

"Thanks," Mira repeated. I could tell she'd need some time to think about it. But I thought she'd be okay.

I had a lot to think about myself, so I headed for the place I always went to think. Except someone was already in the med bay. I backed out. "Sorry," I said to Mical. "I didn't know this room was occupied. I come here when I need to—'

"—No, please," Mical said politely, gesturing to the seat across from him. "There is something about this place, is it not? I noticed it last night when Atton gave me the tour. There is a—a peace about this room, an acceptance."

"Force echo," I told him. "They're all over this ship, from the Jedi that lived here during the Jedi Civil War—Revan and her friends. So far, Kreia and I are the only ones that can feel them, though I think Mira and the Handmaiden are starting to sense them—they tend to hang out places the echoes are particularly strong. You're going to have to tell me about your training, eventually, you know," I added. "You know about, even use the Force, more than any of the others did before I started teaching them, even Mira—and she consciously followed her targets' auras through the streets of Nar Shaddaa."

"Please," Mical said, pained. "I am still coming to terms with it myself. It has been many years since I have felt the Force with any strength."

"Just so long as you know it won't be denied forever," I said. The two of us lapsed into silence.

"There were three Jedi on the ship with Revan," Mical said by and by, falling into historian mode. He does that when he's nervous. I think it relaxes him. "The Guardian Juhani—a great Cathar warrior. She disappeared three years ago on assignment to Alderaan. There was Bastila Shan, whom we heard in our vision this morning. She was a powerful Sentinel, the youngest Jedi ever to master the Battle Meditation technique. The Admiral I report to told me she died two years ago, with many other Jedi."

"Katarr, then."

"Do you know what happened?" Mical asked me, eager as ever for new information.

I shrugged. "The Sith happened. Visas' entire planet, all the Miraluka in this sector of space, and almost seventy Jedi were wiped out in an instant."

Mical's face fell. He drew in on himself, slightly. "I do not understand what is happening," he confessed quietly.

"No one does. That's what we're trying to figure out."

I paused. "I'm pretty sure it was Jolee," I said, then. "The Jedi that hung out here, that is. I met him, once. He wasn't exactly an Order-perfect Jedi. From what I know of him, I don't think he adhered to much of anything that the Council was always telling us. But he made more sense than just about any Jedi Master I've ever met. I liked him."

Mical smiled down at me. "Revan did, as well," he remarked. "I suppose that is why she trusted him with the re-education of Dustil Onasi."

The offhand way he related what I was pretty sure was hardly common knowledge, and the prompting of the Force, let me know part of the reason I'd been so sure the day before that Mical belonged onboard. "You spoke before of Admirals in the fleet that wish to help the Jedi. Your boss, right? It's Admiral Carth Onasi, isn't it?"

"He is a good man," Mical confirmed. "One of the best."

"I think I ducked out on him on Telos," I commented.

"That was ill-done. He would have helped you."

"I know that now," I protested.

Mical looked down at me so warmly I shifted uncomfortably. "Things will work out for the best, Darden," he assured me. "Watching you today, I feel I understand why others followed you to war. You are a true leader. Whatever your mistakes, you recognize them, correct them, and return to the path of the Light. You speak of the stories about you, the rumors that misrepresent you as a fallen Jedi. I tell you that, given the opportunity, I will reverse these stories whenever I encounter them."

"Er…thanks. That's really nice, but it's unnecessary."

"Very well," Mical replied, unruffled. "Then I shall keep my favorable opinions to myself."

I really wanted him to leave, so I could think by myself, but Mical stayed on the cot, placid and unmoving, seemingly completely content with what I thought was an incredibly awkward tête-à-tête between two virtual strangers. So I decided to utilize his knowledge of the Jedi to explore one of the topics weighing on my mind.

I leaned back in my chair. "Do you know anything about Force bonds, Mical?"

"A Force bond? What do you mean?"

"A bond through the Force. Like the ones that caused me to share a vision with you and almost the entire crew, or to sense Mira's pain when she was wounded."

Mical was obviously uncomfortable discussing his uncanny knowledge of the Jedi and Force techniques. But honestly, I kind of thought he deserved it, appropriating the med bay like he had. He answered, nonetheless. "It is said that when a Jedi and Padawan establish a close connection, that they can feel each other across distances and coordinate their movements in battle. The intensity of the connection varies."

"Apparently bonding is something I'm gifted with," I explained.

"I do not know much more than I have told you, but from what we all experienced today, I believe it. I had thought I had heard more once in some of the holocrons, but I do not possess them. They are part of the holocrons that were taken from the Enclave."

The handmaidens on Telos had mentioned something about Jedi artifacts Atris kept back in her empty arctic Academy. My thoughts wandered to them. "Do you know where they might be?"

"I do not know," Mical replied. "I do not know who has taken them. If we were to find them, perhaps I could help you find the answers you need."

He hesitated, but his desire to be useful won out over his reserve. "I do remember that bonding is said to be something that manifests itself in such techniques as Bastila's Battle Meditation, the ability to touch the minds of others, to demoralize or inspire them. It is also said that moments of death, or near-death, may also cause such bonds. The stronger one is in the Force, the stronger the connection."

"You have a very good memory," I complimented him. Mical smiled somewhat shyly, reminding me even more of the bookish boy in the Enclave, years and years before.

"Today, in the cave—I felt everyone's thoughts, pressing in on me. It was overwhelming," I told him. I didn't really know why, except that Mical struck me as someone inherently trustworthy just as much as Kreia seemed inherently duplicitous.

He frowned. "I can only speculate that the crystals in the cavern amplified your natural ability. I had never heard that communication and words could be passed along such bonds, though sensations—pain, emotion, visual images—often are. Yet I heard you speak in my head. I have seen Jedi who have the ability to communicate with aliens and beasts. It is a rare thing, but perhaps your level of telepathy is one such talent."

"Kreia can do it, too," I told him. "Atton as well, if he concentrates. Not like me, though. Not so that it hurts. Talent. Huh. More like a curse. Okay. So these bonds. Have you ever heard of them being lethal? I mean, I know firsthand from today that they can certainly be loud…"

"I have never heard of a bond being lethal. Of course, I suppose such a thing is possible. I had not truly believed Bastila's Battle Meditation until I had seen it in action. Nor have I ever witnessed bonds of such strength as those you exhibited today."

I grimaced. "Well. Thank you, anyway."

Mical hesitated, then said, all in a rush, like he'd been holding it in all day, "Forgive me, but I must ask. In all the records I have seen, there has never been a definite reason given for your exile from the Jedi Order. If I may, why did you choose to leave the Jedi Order and accept exile?"

By this time I was pretty much used to talking about my past. It was unpleasant, but no longer painful or upsetting. "They said they exiled me because I went to war against the Council mandate, though I went to protect the innocents on the Rim from being slaughtered."

"They said," Mical repeated, picking up on the hint.

"Yes, 'they said,'" I confirmed. "More and more, I'm starting to think that wasn't it at all."

"Do you have a record of your trial?"

"I do. Want to add it to those impressive mental histories of yours? Teethree has the holo-record," I told him.

"Now there is much to do. But perhaps, when I get the chance…?"

"You can take a look at it," I told him.

Mical beamed. "I appreciate your trust. Thank you."

He still wasn't leaving. So finally, disgruntled, I stood. "I guess I'll turn in. Like you said, there's a lot to do. I'm going to need my sleep. We both will."

"Of course," Mical said. "I think I will stay here just a while longer. It calms me."

Yeah—I didn't get the med bay back to myself for a while, and when I did, I didn't like it.


A/N: Coming Next Time I Get the Chance: Aithne's decided she wants to return with Darden and Atton, but she knows she'll need a purpose if she does. She thinks she might want to work with Darden's Jedi, in a way she never wanted to work with the Jedi before, but before she decides, she has to know exactly what Darden's been teaching them. Conveniently, one of them is close at hand. Revan puts Atton Rand to the test.

And Later When I Get the Chance: Darden relates the story of the Battle of Khoonda, and she and Aithne swap stories about the travails of studying under Master Vrook Lamar. Afterwards, Darden lets Aithne in on the psychopathy of G0-T0, beginning to explain how the (droid) crime boss got to be a problem later.