A/N Guest: yeah, it can be easy to mix up the publish date and the update date. Also, I PASSED THE BAR! By a grand total of 3 points o_O So relieved!
Chapter 51: Tensions and Stories
"Now that was awesome. Come on Carth, admit it."
"Yeah, nice work," said Carth as he brushed past Mission on his way out of the cockpit.
"Hey, don't give me that! If it wasn't for me, we'd all still be stuck on that ship!"
Carth paused and turned back to the twi'lek. "Look, Mission, I wasn't brushing you off. That was really incredible work you did, a brilliant job. There's just a lot going on right now."
"What? What do you mean?"
"Mission, we didn't all make it back. And Kyrena . . . well, come with me and see."
Mission's mouth opened and closed twice, shocked, and fell in behind as he moved into the cramped medical bay, now jam packed with what seemed like the rest of the crew, all of them talking over each other.
Mission poked her head between Canderous and Jolee to look at the examination table and gasped. Kyrena was pale and sweaty, but that wasn't exactly new. What was new was the empty space where her left arm used to be. Only . . . were those wires and circuits coming out of her upper arm?
"Hey!" shouted Carth over the hubbub, "everybody out! Come on, everyone into the common area, come on, let's go." He herded the crowd out of the room where they gradually settled down on the couches.
Carth stood in front of a very intense bunch of eyes and was suddenly very aware that he was the last of the three de-facto leaders.
"We did our job, Republic. What the hell happened?"
Leave it to Canderous to get to the point.
"I . . ." where did he start with something like this? "Uh . . ."
Mission rolled her eyes. "Why don't you start with when I broke you out?"
Carth nodded. "Right. Mission did an amazing job and deactivated our force cages long enough for us to break out. Saul . . that is, Admiral Karath had taken all the guards off the command deck, so we were able to get to the bridge."
Jolee sat back, eyes narrowed. "Why would he do that?"
Carth grimaced. "He wanted us to get to the bridge. In fact, I think he wanted us to escape. There were no guards on the bridge, either. It was just Saul. He drew on me, but deliberately missed, and he made sure we could disable the tractor beam, too."
"But . . . but he's a Sith. Why would he do that for us?" asked Mission.
"He didn't do it for us. He did it for her." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards the medical bay.
"But . . . this does not make sense."
Carth nodded towards Juhani. "I'm getting there. So after we disabled the tractor beam we headed towards the lift to the hangar bay." He shuddered. "And that's when Darth Malak found us." Mission gasped. "Darth Malak? The Darth Malak?"
He nodded grimly. "Yeah. And he wanted to talk. To Kyrena."
"Did he now . . ." Canderous looked suddenly thoughtful.
Carth gave him a hard look. "Yes, he did. He told us that Kyrena is not who we thought she is. She's not a Jedi . . . she's not even a Republic soldier. In fact, she was the Jedi's prisoner, her memories erased. He told us that she's Darth Revan."
Mission glanced around at the others, but they all seemed to be taking that seriously.
"Then he turned off her arm, the arm that she lost in the Mandalorian Wars. And then Revan started to break through the personality the Jedi programmed her with. She . . . she talked with Bastila, asking why Bastila saved her life. And then she somehow turned her arm back on and fought with Malak while Bastila and I ran."
Canderous started to react but Carth cut him off. "I've seen Jedi fight before, shoot, I've seen Kyrena fight before, but I've never seen anything like the way those two fought. There was nothing Bastila or I could have done. We were almost to the lift when Malak cut her arm off. Then Bastila turned around and attacked Malak to let us escape, and even then we only just made it back to the ship. And then, on the ramp, she told me that Kyrena wasn't dead and collapsed. And here we are."
Everyone was quiet for a minute, just trying to take it in and process the massive news, even as they recovered from the adrenaline and anxiety of the last few hours.
Juhani sat very still as it all became clear to her. She'd wondered more than once why she was here on this mission. She had proven herself weak to the Dark Side. She'd recovered, yes, thanks to Kyrena, but . . . Kyrena. No, Revan. It was no coincidence, no quirk of fate that she was here. It was the Force, taking her back to the beginning.
Revan was the reason she'd joined the Jedi, the inspiration to rise up from her miserable life and make something of herself. And then her inspiration had fallen into darkness, turning on the Jedi and the light, and she'd been plagued by guilt over her secret admiration ever since.
And now, beyond all odds, she found herself confronted by that same woman once again. It was the perfect moment, the perfect opportunity to show she had truly returned to the light. She would not fail, would not give in to her admiration for the lost one. She would purge herself of that guilt and prove to the Jedi and the Force once and for all.
She stood and turned towards the medical bay.
Jolee grabbed her arm. "Now wait just a minute, young one. Let's not do anything rash just yet."
Juhani shook him off brusquely. "No. I know what I must do. To hesitate is to invite the Dark Side. I must show that I have been redeemed, that my admiration for the Knight Revan once was does not distract me from destroying the evil before me now."
Carth stood. "Woah, slow down there Juhani! You can't just walk in there and kill her! She's unconscious, she can't even defend herself!"
"No?" she hissed. "And what of your Admiral Saul, was he not defenseless? And if I wait until she is awake, I will not be able to defeat her. Now is my only chance."
"I . . . but . . ." Carth hesitated, uncertain. Saul had made a choice, that was completely different, but she had a point about Revan. If the monster in that bed woke up again she would kill them all. Or at least, she certainly could if she tried. The woman was a legend on the battlefield. Only, they were talking about murdering a a companion in her sleep. Surely that had to be wrong? But . . . but was he honestly protecting Darth Revan, of all people? She had the blood of over a billion people on her hands, however many she had saved prior to that.
"Juhani, perhaps we should give her a second chance, just like she gave to you."
She turned back to Jolee, her expression faltering for a moment. "Yes, she did give me an opportunity to be redeemed. But . . ." she hesitated, visibly agitated. "But is that justice to give her another chance after what she has done? The Jedi believe in mercy and forgiveness, but the Republic does not, and we are sworn to protect and uphold it. Can you see the Republic giving her a second chance? Would they do anything but punish her? And if we do free her and she turns on us again, would we not be as guilty as she for the lives she takes?"
Carth started nodding slowly, the more quickly. "Yes . . . yes, I think you're right Juhani."
She blinked in surprise. "What?"
"About the Republic's reaction to this. It explains why the SIS are after us, why they didn't really care about what even Bastila had to say. They know, they must know that she's alive." He cursed. "And now I know that they know and what they want, and if I try to protect her from them, I'll go from a deserter to a traitor." He and Juhani stared at each other, each hoping to find a solution in the others' eyes.
Jolee planted himself in the passageway to the infirmary. "Those are answers you both have to find for yourselves. But I'll tell you what we're not going to do, and that's murder anyone in their sleep. Not while I'm on this ship we're not."
Juhani hissed, her hand straying near her lightsaber. "The enemy of the all Jedi lies there, and you think to protect her? You have been away from us for a long time, old one. Perhaps too long."
"Yeah," added Carth, "out of all of us you don't seem too rattled by this whole thing. What gives?"
"Well that's simple enough. You see, I knew who she was."
"What!?" cried Carth and Juhani together.
Jolee nodded amiably, though his hand inched towards his own weapon. "Perhaps I have been away too long, Juhani. But before we all decide to kill each other, why don't you let me tell you the story, hmmm? Come on, what do you say?"
Juhani stood poised for another moment, then slowly nodded. She didn't relax.
Jolee glanced between the two in front of him, quickly sizing them up and deciding on an approach. He was going to have to dig deep on this one and open up. A lot.
"Excellent. Let's see, where should I begin. All this running around and fighting has me a little off-balance. Heh, reminds me of my adventuring days."
"What?" asked Mission from the couch, both incredulous of his claim and eager to help him deflate the knife-edged tension in the room. "You were an adventurer?"
"Yes, yes, I was an adventurer. Happy now? I wasn't even done with my Jedi training back then. I had a full head of hair and an eagerness to see absolutely everything. Sound familiar? The Council was never very happy with willful, brash Jolee Bindo, you see. Even less so when I began my smuggling career."
"You were a smuggler?" Mission's disbelief and respect rose in tandem.
Jolee turned to engage Mission directly. "It hardly matters now, does it? And besides . . . you don't really want to hear about me. We're talking ancient history, probably before you were born. History bores kids. Proven fact."
Mission crossed her arms. "Oh yeah? Well old people love to talk about history. Proven fact."
Beside him, Carth and Juhani were slowly starting to relax, their anger starting to fade into the background. Good. "Oh fine, fine, have it your way. Just don't cry about it later. Let's see. Yes, I was a smuggler. I wasn't always the wrinkled coot I am now, you know. I can still fight, too, so wipe off that smirk I see there."
Mission tried, unsuccessfully, to do so.
"At the time the Ukatis system was interdicted by its own King. He preferred to keep his people starving and poor, all the better to oppress them. The Senate was trying to negotiate a peace, but they were getting nowhere as usual. I decided I wasn't going to wait. I found myself a ship and a partner and we began smuggling food and supplies to the Ukatis citizenry through the blockade."
Mission scoffed. "You were a pilot, too?"
"Pilot, smuggler . . . several other things, too. Or did you suppose I was always a crotchety hermit?"
"But you're, well, you're you. You know, a Jedi. Jedi don't do things like that."
Jolee shook his head fondly. "You're very sure of that, are you? My, my, you must be very learned and experienced to know so many things. At any rate, I was still a Padawan at the time. And why not do it? There were millions of people crying out for aid. What else was I supposed to do?"
Juhani's voice had the flat tone of someone carefully controlling their voice. "Why not wait for the Council's negotiations to conclude?"
Jolee waived her off, though he watched her closely from the corner of his eye. "Don't be stupid. Are you doing nothing? If nothing's not good enough for you there's no reason it should have been good enough for me back then, either."
Carth eyed him suspiciously. "Where did you get the credits for all the supplies?"
"Well . . . we didn't buy all the equipment, per se. Some were happy to donate goods. Some we just, ah, knew had more than they could use . . ."
Mission laughed. "So you stole it!"
Jolee opened his arms pleadingly, his face the expression of innocence. "'Stole' is such a harsh word. They would have donated those goods readily enough if they were compassionate. I considered it a tax on the greedy. We only got caught once. A lone Ukatish frigate shot us down and forced a crash landing. I thought the Force had abandoned me, as I remember."
Juhani's patience was wearing thin. "Does this story have a point?" Still, she couldn't get quite the same amount of venom behind it. It was working.
"Slow down, I'm getting there. Young people these days, so impatient. Now, where was I? Ah yes, well, as it happens, getting shot down turned out to be very fortunate. That day was the day I . . ." He hesitated, and for once it was only half affected. The memories were still hard edged enough to draw blood.
"What? That was the day you what?" Mission sat up straight on the couch, leaning forward slightly, egging him on with an eagerness that was for once at least half affected, desperate to keep the story from ending for fear of what might happen when it did.
"Well, that . . . that was the day I met my wife."
"What? You were married? You are wasting our time with these pointless memories." Juhani's eyes were hard as she tried to stare him down.
Jolee couldn't quite suppress the jolt of anger that ran through him, and he rounded on the young cathar. "Let me tell you something. Once you've lived as many years as I have, you'll have yourself a long, long list of memories. If you're lucky, most of them will be good. If you're not, some will be bad. If you're really unlucky, some will be so bad you never want to be reminded of them again . . . ever. You'll go far away, to a place that doesn't hold any memories at all. And there you'll be happy just to forget and be forgotten."
Juhani blinked. "Is that why you went to Kashyyyk?"
Finally. Young people, so slow on the uptake. "Heh. Partly, maybe. I doubt I could ever explain it to you fully, even if I wanted to." There, let her feel clever, maybe that would take the edge of her anger.
She shrugged. "What does this have to do with Revan?"
"Let me ask you this: have you ever been in love? Truly in love, I mean, and not simple infatuation."
Juhani hesitated, breath half-drawn.
"Exactly. You're still at the beginning of your life. There will be someone in your life, perhaps many people, but if you're fortunate you'll find love once. The Jedi, with their damnable sense of over-caution, would tell you love is something to avoid. Thankfully, anyone who's even partially alive knows that's not true."
"You risk the Dark Side with such passions!"
"Bah, all this nonsense about avoiding love is so much foo-foo. Love doesn't lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled . . . but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love, that's what they should teach you to beware. But love, itself, will save you, not condemn you."
The Jedi's eyes narrowed. "You speak of love, yet your memories are so painful you ran from them into exile. It seems that love is something you should have avoided."
Okay, perhaps she was a little more clever than he'd thought. He could work with that. "Hmph. Maybe. Do you want to avoid the greatest things in life simply because they come with some complications? Love causes pain, certainly. Inevitably love is going to lead to as much sorrow and regret as it does joy. I suppose there are perfect, eternal loves out there . . . but I haven't seen any. How you deal with the bad part of love is what determines your character, what determines the Dark Side's hold over you."
"Hmmmm," spoke up Carth. "Maybe the Jedi just think you shouldn't take that risk. The consequences can be pretty catastrophic, as we've all seen."
Juhani had had about as much as she could take. "You openly attack the beliefs of the Jedi. I cannot believe you are one of us any longer."
"Well, technically, I was only a Padawan, not that that makes a difference to most. But as for the order, itself . . . no, I never left it. It left me."
Juhani laughed. "What is this foolishness?"
"Oh, is it? Hmph. There are moments when I think you must be much older than you seem. This isn't one of them."
She snarled. "Speak clearly. Are you a Jedi, or are you not?"
Easy now, don't push too hard to fast. But it looks like she's just about ready. Well, here goes nothing. He allowed a little of the harmless old man to fade away from his face.
"Something wrong with your ears? I thought folks only went deaf when they got to my age. I follow the Jedi Way and use the Force, don't I? That makes me a Jedi last time I checked. But the Order itself, the Jedi Council and so forth . . . no, I'm not a part of that and haven't been for a long time. And good riddance, I say!"
"What?" she hissed. "Impossible. You cannot be a Jedi and not be a member of the Order."
"You know what I hate? Well . . . you know, lots of things, really. But I'm old and easily annoyed. But that's beside the point. What I really hate are how most people view the Jedi. Everyone thinks the Jedi are perfect, that they can do no wrong. They think the Jedi Council is completely incapable of injustice."
Juhani was on the edge, hands balling into fists. "You think to judge us?"
"Damn right I do. The Jedi are just as capable of injustice as anyone else. They may try harder, sure, but sometimes they get it wrong. And I'm not even talking about how some of us fall to the Dark Side. No, that's plenty indication of our fallibility, but it's something else entirely. No, I'm talking about how, more often than not, your average robe-wearing Jedi can try to do the right thing and still be completely wrong."
To the girl's credit, she was struggling mightily to hold onto her temper. She really was trying to keep it together, to prove she had changed. "You speak in anger, old one. You feel wronged, that we have offended you personally, and now you blame the Jedi Order itself for it."
Jolee allowed the anger in his own voice to fade. "No, no, not at all. The Jedi always treated me well. It would be foolish and untrue to say otherwise. That's not what I meant, anyway."
Juhani's anger faded some as well, replaced by confusion. "I don't understand."
"Oh? Perhaps another story will help. Let's see, how about . . . Master Hortath. He was a kindly old Jedi who meant well, but the most near-sighted thing in the Core, I swear. He would walk into walls, knock over tables, mistake apprentices for rancor beasts," (Carth snorted) "that sort of thing. And he was too proud to submit to proper treatment. Some used to counsel him and urged 'Use the Force, Master Hortath. Allow the Force to see for you.' But he refused to believe that his eyes were failing. He simply squinted more and more as the years went on, the other Jedi resignedly passing it off as the amusing quirk of a compassionate old man."
"So one day a young Padawan meets Master Hortath in the courtyard and, not knowing of his blindness, asks him for directions to the Council. Quite sure of himself, Hortath gave the lad directions . . . which happened to lead outside and away from the enclave. The Padawan is confused, naturally. He asks if Master Hortath is sure, and of course Master Hortath says that he is. The Padawan suggests that perhaps he should ask someone else, but the proud Hortath now feels insulted. He tells the Padawan to take the route he prescribed and no other. Rather dejectedly, the Padawan did as he was told . . . and so ended up leaving the Jedi Order forever. It was decided that the boy's fate was to leave the Order anyway . . . though whether that was out of respect for Hortath or because the boy went on to something else, well, we'll never know."
Carth shrugged. "So what does the Padawan leaving the Jedi have to do with the Jedi leaving you?"
"Not much. I never knew the Padawan nor met Master Hortath, himself. He was before my time."
"I don't get it."
"Considering that it's about blindness, I think that's an appropriate response."
Carth was getting irritated now. "Oh come on. You're the one telling us all these damn stories. What does any of it have to do with us?"
Jolee sighed dramatically. "The point is that the Jedi can be unwilling to admit that they can make mistakes, which makes them far worse. Take this war with the fallen Jedi. Do you think this is the only time it has happened? Take Exar Kun and his Sith, his lost Jedi. After he fell to the Dark Side, he attempted to recruit other Jedi to his cause. What surprised us, what took us completely unprepared, was how utterly successful he was. Many Jedi joined him and became Sith, themselves. Is this starting to sound familiar? Why they did I . . . I will never truly know. But they did. Battle broke out throughout the order . . . pupil against master, we fought ourselves. It was more than difficult, it was next to impossible. How do you fight against someone you love?"
Juhani crossed her arms. "You see now why the Jedi teach to avoid love?"
"Yeah," added Carth, "but what does any of this have to do with us?"
"You remember the day I was shot down, the day I met my wife? Her name was Nayama. She was the Utakis enforcer who shot me out of the sky. Upon meeting her, I knew right away that she was strong in the Force. That's why she was able to shoot me down. Nayama was a marvel of a woman. Fiery, determined, smart . . . she dragged me to the capital and foiled three of my attempts to escape prison. Oh, and that body . . ."
"The War?" prompted Carth.
"Well . . . yes, that. Needless to say I eventually won her over. That was after I kidnapped her upon being broken out of the Ukatis prison, mind you. But uh, that's another story entirely. At any rate, I wanted to train her in the Jedi way. The Council refused my request, naturally. I was still a Padawan at the time. I was an experienced Padawan, surely, but not yet ready to be a full Jedi and certainly not ready to train another. Especially not one so old as my wife."
Juhani gave up and sat back down on the couch. "So you were an idiot?"
Jolee smiled. "Easy to say so now. At the time I just thought I was right. I believed in her and trained her in secret. I ignored her willful nature . . . I loved her too much to see fault in her. And she loved me, too. I know she did. At the time, our love was a shared bliss . . . better than anything I had known before or since."
Carth glanced at the others, threw up his arms, and sat down next to Mission. "So what happened?"
"Exar Kun is what happened. Nayama was inspired by Exar's promises of a new Golden Age. She wanted to join him. She came to me, pleading with me to throw aside what she called the decrepit trappings of the Jedi . . . to join her in Exar's war."
"Exactly as the Jedi predicted," threw in Juhani, maybe gloating a little. "She had fallen to the Dark Side."
"I . . . hadn't thought so. Not right then. I was too proud to believe that of her. I had trained her myself . . . I loved her. I pleaded with her to reconsider, to think about all that she was throwing away, to think about what she would become. She would have none of it. Finally, in frustration, she attacked me. She drew her lightsaber and attempted to strike me down. It was a scene being repeated everywhere throughout the galaxy. Pupil against master. In my case, it was a long and terrible battle, but I defeated her."
"And?" prompted Juhani. "You did not kill her, and she was redeemed, and so we should allow Revan a second chance?"
Jolee shook his head slowly. "If only. You are right, I had her at my mercy, disarmed and defenseless. She looked up at me and she knew . . . she knew I couldn't do it. And I let her go. But she was not redeemed. To my shame, she went on to kill many Jedi during the war until she, herself, was slain in the final battle. I grieved for her death, inevitable as it was, even as the Jedi Council put me on trial for my actions once the war was over."
Juhani jumped to her feet. "You see? It is folly to leave Revan alive."
Jolee glared at her, dropping the mask completely for a moment and throwing in a thread of compulsion. "I'm not finished yet. Sit down."
She plopped back down, surprised at herself.
Jolee continued before she could think about that. "The Jedi put me on trial. I had trained Nayama against their wishes. I had failed to kill her when I had the chance, and she went on to kill others. Not to mention that I had remained a Padawan throughout the war. A formality, perhaps, but with the trial it had to be decided if I was worthy to become a Jedi at all. It was a travesty, of course. I told you that even the Jedi were capable of great injustices, didn't I?"
Juhani snarled, getting over the shock of the compulsion. "It was a travesty to punish you for your mistakes?"
"No, Juhani. It was a travesty because they found me innocent. Even though I . . deserved every punishment and more . . . they let me go." He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Mitigating circumstances, they said. I deserved compassion, they said. They said I had learned wisdom the hard way. For all I had done during the war, they wished to raise me to full Jedi status at long last. That, that was when the Jedi left me. That was when they failed me."
Juhani's jaw worked soundlessly.
"You see, Juhani? I agree with you. I am guilty for all the lives she took because I let her live. It is justice, it is right that she should be punished. I should have done it. But the Jedi would not punish me. They would not hold me guilty for her crimes. So kill that girl in her sleep if you will, and perhaps you'll be right to do so. But you will be a Jedi no longer from that very moment. The path you are walking, it leads to exile, it leads to where I stand now. Is that what you want?"
Juhani was silent, and Carth stared at the old man incredulously. "And you still believe love is worth the risk?"
"I . . . Yes, I do, I suppose. Does that surprise you? And what of you, do you regret your love with your wife?"
Carth didn't answer, eyes thoughtful.
"So when did you go to Kashyyyk?" Mission asked, relieved that everyone seemed to be calmed down again.
"Oh, that was not until many years later, to tell the truth. I spent quite some time wandering the galaxy."
"And the Jedi, they just let you walk away?"
"Why wouldn't they? I had refused my promotion to Jedi. I was a Padawan who had left the Order, nothing more. I traveled from one civilized system to the next, never staying long. I don't even think I knew what I was searching for."
Mission grinned. "Let me guess. Traveling from planet to planet, doing good deeds . . ."
Jolee laughed. "Nothing so extravagant. I merely traveled from place to place. It wasn't as if my travels were pleasant, either. There were plenty of folks who distrusted the Jedi after the war . . . or worse."
"What do you mean?"
Jolee shrugged. "Not everyone would understand why the Jedi would suddenly start killing themselves and tearing up half the galaxy, would they? If people weren't treating me with suspicion, they were looking at me with greed. I don't know how many thought they could make use of me for their own ends. I got so sick of the treachery and deceit I left the civilized parts of the galaxy and headed instead for the uncivilized parts."
"So that's when you went to Kashyyyk?"
"Actually I was on my way somewhere else when I crash-landed on Kashyyyk. The ship I was using was a rust-bucket."
Mission nodded. "And then we found you."
Jolee smiled. "Plus or minus twenty years of dealing with the wookiees, yes, that's when you found me."
"Hmmm. Why didn't you stop the slavery of the Wookiees, then?"
Jolee sat down beside her, content at having successfully defused the situation without anybody getting killed. For now, at least. "Well, that was a recent development. I always helped the wookiees when I could. I would assist the few young ones who would get lost in the Shadowlands or attacked unexpectedly by the wildlife. I must say, for a while there the Wookiees actually thought I was some kind of benevolent forest god. Amusing, really. I set them straight eventually."
Mission gave him her best penetrating stare. "You're kidding . . ."
He grinned. "Nope. I had no idea that's what they were thinking for a long time. I just thought they were being friendly neighbors, leaving fruit and such for me. Later, when I started to understand some of their grunting, I realized they would say prayers to the 'hairless one' before descending into the forest. Hmph. Hairless one. I used to have plenty of hair, I tell you. Ahem. Well, at any rate, it took a few bruises, but I set the record straight."
"How in the galaxy did you do that?"
"Easy. I traveled to Rwookrrorro and met with the chieftain in front of everyone. Freyyr swatted at me just to see if I was real or not. I was real, and while it was a light swat, Wookiees are terribly strong. I was knocked out cold for a day. The Wookiees all thought it was quite funny."
"Yeah," she added sadly, "but then Chuundar took over."
"Yes," Jolee nodded soberly, "then Chuundar took over. At first, when the slavers took to hunting down lone Wookiees in the fringes of the Shadowlands, I did my best to divert them. Later, when Chuundar made his deal I didn't see any point. I wasn't here to save them from their own sad follies, after all."
"So if you liked Kashyyyk so much, why did you want to leave?"
"Are we back to that again? Hmmm... what's the best way for me to approach this? Ah, perhaps it's time for a little story . . ."
Mission giggled. "Oh, no, not another story!"
Jolee smiled. "You just keep quiet there, you! I've had to put up with all your busy-body questions, haven't I? Well, now you'll listen to a story, dammit! Ahem. Now where was I? Oh yes, the story. You almost made me forget about it. Nice try, but I'm not that old just yet. Heh heh. Now, then. A young man sees a terribly venomous snake in his small village. Nervous, he watches the snake carefully until it leaves. The young man follows the snake into the forest. He clears the branches out of its path and helps it over obstacles. He even works to keep it fed . . ."
"That's it, I'm out," said Carth, and he climbed to his feet and wandered off towards the dormitory. Only then did he notice that Canderous had left at some point during all these stories.
Canderous stepped into the medical bay and froze as he felt a blaster shoved into his back. "Hold, meatbag. I will allow no harm to come to the master."
The Mandalorian kept his voice even. "I don't plan on harming her, droid. I plan on learning from her. Helping her, if I have to . . . and what's with the 'meatbag?'"
HK-47 removed the blaster. "It's just that you have all these squishy parts. And all that water! How the constant sloshing doesn't drive you mad, I have no idea."
Canderous chuckled. "Fair enough. Neither do I, come to think of it."
"Statement: Now do you understand the travails of my existence? Surely it does not compare to your existence, but still . . ."
"I survive, somehow," he said dryly.
"Commentary: As do I. It is our lot in life, I suppose. Shall we find something to kill to cheer ourselves up?"
Canderous turned to face the assassin droid. "You know, you're not as bad as I thought you were going to be. You're pretty bloodthirsty for a droid, aren't you?"
"Answer: Even a droid has to be allowed a little fun once in a while."
"Right. Now scram, I'll watch over her for a while."
