Desiraye had been unconscious for three days. Everyone on the ship trickled in to see her at one point or another, though never at the same time. It was almost like they knew when someone would be in there, and stayed away.
Canderous stayed by her side the most, but Dustil wasn't far behind. He'd sit with her for hours, but made himself scarce whenever his father came around.
The two hadn't even said one word to each other. Carth tried once, when shortly after they'd left Korriban, but Dustil just walked away. Akanni reasoned that things would be different when Desiraye woke up. He tried to believe that, but his hope was wearing thin.
And of course, it was dependant on Desiraye actually waking up. No one on the ship was exactly a doctor, so none were sure what to do for her, if anything they did would even help. Akanni tried to sense her through the Force, see if she could sense a problem or possible solution. But all she felt was darkness.
...
Arriving at Dantooine, Akanni immediately went to find Bastila and brought her back to the ship, hoping she could sense something within Desiraye. Unfortunately, the younger Padawan had about as much luck as Akanni herself did.
Bastila suggested having the Council take a look at her, but Akanni quickly shot that idea down.
"They didn't like her in the best of times," she asserted, "I'm not asking them to help her now."
But after three more days with no change in Desiraye's condition, she was beginning to get desperate. Still, she would only speak to Master Zhar, since he had a different perspective on the Council and Desiraye. He came readily, more than willing to help if he could.
"The darkness you sensed..." He began, "I sense it too. It is more pronounced that I had expected. I've only sensed it in people who have fallen to the dark side."
"The dark side? No, no way. Not Raye. She couldn't have..."
"I don't want to believe it myself. I feel a great battle within her, between the darkness and the light. The darkness is fighting to consume her."
"Great, more Jedi speak." Atton rolled his eyes. "Care to explain what that means?"
"What can we do to help her?" Akanni asked before Atton's question was answered. "There must be something."
"I'm afraid I don't know. I'll have to do some research before I can guide you. In the meantime, you should speak to the Council. They have an assignment for you."
With that Zhar left, and Akanni sighed.
"Guess I better go see what they want now."
Atton nodded but didn't answer, and after glancing back at Desiraye one last time, she left the medbay.
...
The Council's grand and important mission - their words, not Akanni's - was to... do exactly what she'd just finished doing. Searching for Star Maps. Even though technically it wasn't her that found the last one, she hadn't told the Council that. She didn't want to make things any harder for Desiraye than they already were.
As she left the Enclave's meeting room, she heard Mission shouting.
"He's better off without you anyway, you table-dancing, brother-stealing homewrecker!"
She reached the port just in time to see a yellow Twi'lek walking away, Mission glaring daggers at her back.
"Mish? What's going on?"
"That's Lena." the teen growled. "She's the one who made my brother leave Taris, and now she's saying it was all his idea! That lying skank probably left him as soon as she bled all the credits from him."
"You have a brother?"
"Uh, yeah. Name's Griff. Anyway, she says he's on Tatooine, so can we go there and look for him? She's probably lying, but if he is there, I wanna see him."
"Of course. We'll leave as soon as we get the okay from the Council."
...
Even after doing his "research", Zhar had nothing to help Desiraye. His suggestion was to leave her be, and see what happened. Obviously no one was happy with that, but what could they do about it?
The Council finally gave them the clearance to leave, but made one final request; they wanted Akanni to take a young padawan with her. It was the one she'd encountered on her taint-cleansing mission a little over a month earlier, a Cathar named Juhani. She'd been turned back to the light, and the Council believed that her presence would be a reminder of the power of the dark side.
Even though they voiced it as a question, Akanni knew that she couldn't refuse. She had to take the girl with her, whether she liked it or not.
...
About a day into their journey to Tatooine, Akanni went to see Mission. She was in the rear barracks making security spikes, and as Akanni sat to join her, the teen spoke before she could.
"Never know when you'll need some of these. Thought it'd be a good idea to have a few on hand."
"Not a bad idea."
The two worked in silence for awhile, until Mission spoke again.
"But you didn't come here to help me make spikes. You want to know about Griff, right?"
"If I'm going to help you find him, I need to know who he is. Anything you can tell me will help."
"It's kinda embarrassing, telling people about him. Griff wasn't the most popular guy, he had his faults. But I still loved him, you know? Sometimes people don't understand."
She set down one spike and picked up another.
"I never knew my parents. My brother always looked out for me. He's the one who brought me to Taris. I was just a kid, only five, but I still remember the trip - if you could call it that."
"What do you mean?"
"We were stuffed inside a star freighter's cargo hold with just enough food and water to make the trip. Not exactly first class, you know?"
"So you were stowaways?"
Mission bristled at that, her lekku twitching.
"I don't know the whole story." She defended. "I was pretty young. But my brother owed a lot of money. Might even have been a few arrest warrants out for him, I don't know. The only way to get off the planet was to smuggle ourselves out. I mean, I don't want to make it sound like we were criminals... well, maybe my brother was."
"Kinda sounds like it." Akanni agreed.
"See, this is why I don't like to talk about it. Makes Griff sound worse than he really was. He may have had his problems, but he always looked out for me."
"You have to stick by your family."
"Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say! Without my brother, I don't know where I'd be. I mean, he gambled. And drank. And he was always borrowing money for his latest get-rich-quick scheme. But he had a good heart, you know? He taught me how to survive. He showed me how to slice into a computer's security system; how to get inside a locked building without the entrance codes, and how to spot a wealthy mark for a quick shell game."
"Sounds like pretty handy skills to have," Akanni laughed, "Considering you've saved our butts with 'em a few times."
"Yeah, Griff did right by me. I really miss him since he left. He promised he'd come back someday, and I really hope he does. But now with Lena..."
"I thought you didn't believe her?"
"Well, I don't know. That's why I have to find him. I have to hear the truth from him."
"We'll find him, Mish." Akanni rose from the table. "I promise that."
With that she left the room, working over everything she'd just learned about the man she was supposed to find.
