Alana watched her grandmother walk down the ramp of the Millennium Falcon. She would have happily run over to greet her, except there were other people present. She understood that no one was to know that Leia was her grandmother! She also knew that only a select few people actually knew that Leia was her grandmother, but counting herself, that number was only seven people. She knew that the decision to tell someone that secret rested solely with her mother! She recognized the man with Leia as her grandfather Han Solo. She also recognized the Barabel as Saba Sebantine the Jedi Master who had taught her grandmother. She saw the girl with a pair of lung rods in her hands and a satchel over one shoulder. The girl was shorter than she was, only reaching her chin, but she had no idea who the girl was though.

Tenel Ka smiled in happiness as she watched Han and Leia descend the ramp of the ship. The two were a team in all things, and where one went, the other was certain to be close by. She knew the Barabel by reputation, and the protocol droid was also recognized, but the other five droids and girl were unknown to her. The girl maintained a steadfast grip on what was clearly a pair of weapons. Long metal rods with the centers wrapped in leather could be nothing else. She saw the girl look towards the entrance of the hangar with trepidation. That was when she noticed the lightsabers on the girl's belt and almost breathed a sigh of relief. The safety of her daughter was not taken lightly!

"Leia." Tenel greeted cordially.

"Queen Mother." Leia returned formally. "You know my husband Han, and my teacher Master Saba Sebantine, but you haven't met my Apprentice yet." She stated as she gestured to Talon. "This is Talon, and she is my Apprentice."

'Talon, I want you to bow and simply say 'Your Majesty' and nothing more, understand?' Leia sent to Talon over their Bond.

"Your Majesty." Talon said as she bowed to follow the instructions given by her Master.

"Charmed, I'm sure." Tenel Ka replied with a nod of her head. "I would like to present my daughter, The Chumeda of Hapes, Alana."

Before any other introductions could take place, a second vessel flew into the hangar. That one unknown vessel was followed by more than a dozen others. Before the vessels even touched down, people dressed in solid black were jumping to the floor of the hangar with red-bladed lightsabers in their hands.

"Talon, protect Alana! Get her out of here, and keep her safe!" Leia shouted as she ignited her own weapon.

Tenel noted that almost instantly, numerous blasters were in use as both her Royal Guards and four of the droids unleashed a veritable storm of energized death upon the invaders. She and Saba were only an instant behind Leia in activating their lightsabers, but already there were perhaps a score of attackers down.

Tenel swiftly glanced around to spot her daughter so that she could protect the girl, but Alana was nowhere to be seen.

The instant Master Leia had given her a desperately shouted instruction, Talon had acted. She grabbed the red headed girl by the shoulder and guided her out of the hangar at a run. Once into the actual palace, Talon started thinking about a place where Alana would be safe. As the two girls ran through the palace, Talon heard a voice that she was very familiar with, but it wasn't that of Master Leia.

'Talon… use the ventilation shafts, you'll be able to avoid them for a time.'

Talon immediately saw why that would be an intelligent move, and she began looking around for a vent that they would be able to access. A glance to her left showed her a vent cover at the end of a short hallway.

"This way! We'll be able to avoid them." Talon said as she headed towards the vent.

Alana followed the girl who was her grandmother's Apprentice. She knew that the girl's name was Talon, but otherwise, knew nothing about her. There was one thing she could be certain of though. Her grandmother would not have trusted Talon to protect her without the ability to do so.

Talon knelt down in front of the grate to the ventilation duct. Getting the grate off was a simple matter, but looking into it, she could see that she wouldn't be able to take her training weapons with her. That was something that would have really bothered her one month ago. Being required to leave her training weapons in her quarters at the Jedi temple, meant that she had less regret about leaving them now, but she still wasn't pleased with it at all.

With in a few meters, the shaft made a ninety degree turn, and Talon knew that there was no way her training weapons could have been brought along. She followed the shaft through several turns until she came to a junction where she could go left, right, up, or down.

'Talon… you need to go down. You'll encounter less of them that way.'

Talon realized that a lot of sense was being made, and she relayed the information to Alana. "We should go down. They'll be expecting everyone to go up, so that's where they'll go."

Alana looked at Talon with wide eyes. "You're right. Going up is the way I would have gone."

It took some time, but descending one level at a time before crawling to the next junction and descending another level, they eventually reached a subterranean corridor system. The two girls exited the ventilation ducts and proceeded cautiously through the corridors. Talon just knew that danger was approaching them.

Talon's feelings were proven to be correct as two of the assassins stepped around a corner and ignited their red lightsabers.

The men were clad entirely in black clothing. They had black hoods that even covered their faces. The only part of them that was actually visible, were their eyes. Those eyes were a dark brown, almost black, and they were narrowed in anger.

Talon stared at the pair of assassins for a second before she grabbed a pair of single hilt lightsabers from her belt and activated them, while assuming a Shii Cho stance. From the opening stance that each had taken, she knew that she was skilled enough with one lightsaber to dispatch both of them, but she chose not to spend the time it would take. She was going to fight them with overwhelming skills… besides, she knew from the stances that had been taken, that these two were from the same group who had hurt her Master. That was not something she was going to tolerate!

Alana stared in complete surprise at the two red bladed lightsabers in Talon's hands. Looking to Talon, she could sense a fierce determination as the girl faced off against the assailants.

"Since you are willing to wield the weapons of a Sith, why do you not join the Sith? Give us the Chumeda and you may live." One of the attacker's demanded.

"You're not true Sith." Talon replied firmly.

"What would a waif like you know of the true Sith?" The other sneered.

"I came from the Sith Academy on Korriban. I was raised and taught by Darth Magus. I have faced the Guardians of Sith strength, and I am still alive. I can see that neither of you would have survived." Talon replied in the harsh croaking language of Sithani.

"Tell us your name, so we can know who we killed." The second man sneered.

"The other Sith at the Academy gave me the name of Talon." She answered honestly.

Alana's mouth dropped open in shock as she stared at the girl in front of her. She could feel that Talon was speaking absolute truth and that truly frightened her.

"You dare claim to be a Sith? You will die this day and one of us will kill you!" The first one snarled.

"I can see that neither of you have the skill to defeat me. Darth Magus would've killed you for your obvious lack of skill." Talon stated plainly.

Alana sensed fear from Talon, but that fear had nothing to do with what was happening. For this instance, she sensed only a cold and staunch determination, mixed with a strong confidence.

"Talon… do you really think you can beat them?" Alana demanded in a frightened whisper.

"Easily. Darth Magus would have killed them for standing like that." Talon answered plainly.

Before anything else could be said, one of the men rushed forward. Talon leapt forward to meet him switching from Shii Cho to Ataru in mid leap. The man obviously intended to end things quickly, because he tried to bring his lightsaber down in an overhand slash that would have cleaved his victim in two. That strike was intercepted as Talon raised the blade in her left hand to block the overhand slash, and brought her right hand around with a downward angle so that her opponent was cut in two from his left shoulder to just above his right hip.

With one of the attacker's on the floor in two pieces, Talon turned to face the second. Taking his left hand off his weapon, the man reached to the back of his belt and drew forth a shoto blade, which was quickly ignited. She watched as a rather slovenly stance was taken in the Makashi form.

The opening jar kai stance of Makashi was so sloppy that Talon almost didn't recognize it. When she finally did recognize the stance, Talon almost shook her head in disbelief. Not even the Wielders had been allowed to be so careless in their lightsaber training! Granted, Darth Magus never made the Wielders hone their skills to the level of the Fighters, but they weren't allowed to entirely disregard those skills either.

Suddenly Talon's eyes narrowed in their focus. While it was true that this would be a very bad version of an opening Makashi stance, it could also be the opening stance of a form that she wasn't familiar with. The man did have proper balance for fighting, so she knew that it was possible, though unlikely given his earlier mistake.

Talon quickly changed strategy and dropped into a jar kai Soresu stance as she waited for his initial attack.

Talon didn't have to wait for very long as the man rushed towards her, She was left stupefied by the attack that was launched. While her mind was nearly frozen in a state of astonishment, her body reacted just as she was trained and deflected every strike that came at her. Finally… after she'd made more than a half dozen blocks, her disbelieving mind caught up with the situation and she realized that yes, this man was that foolish!

First disarming and then decapitating the man took place in an instant even though Talon's bewildered mind was still trying to understand how someone could be so poorly trained and expect to win.

Looking down at the body, Talon noticed a stunner on his belt. That meant that they wanted a live prisoner. Because of their demands, she thought the desired prisoner was Alana. That certainly wasn't going to happen! Master Leia had told her to protect Alana and keep her safe, and that is exactly what would happen!

Talon deactivated her lightsabers and put them back on her belt. Then she reached down and grabbed both the stunner and the shoto lightsaber. Although it used standard power cells, the shoto was much smaller lightsaber than normal, but then the blade was less than half a meter in length. With one of the weapons in each hand, she turned to Alana.

"Do you know how to use these?" Talon asked.

"I can't use the lightsaber well enough to fight." Alana replied with a shake of her head.

"You won't have to worry about that. Take these and don't let anyone know you have them! Let me do all the fighting. If they never see you with a weapon, they might assume you don't have one, and not search you properly after killing me. If that happens, these will give you a chance to escape." Talon instructed while giving the other girl the two weapons.

Alana took both weapons and hid them in the bodice of her dress. She saw Talon close her eyes for a second before opening them again and looking around. The girl practically ignored the two men she had just killed, by doing no more than stepping over their dead bodies while moving past them.

"We should keep moving. Master Leia is still fighting them up in the palace." Talon said to Alana.

"Okay." Alana affirmed.

Alana realized that Talon was simply going through the motions of helping her, but was very serious about it. The girl in front of felt nothing like Jacen had, and nothing like the two men they'd just encountered. Even though Talon had the same color of lightsabers they did, the other girl seemed different somehow. She wanted to know why.

"Were you really at a Sith Academy?" She asked softly while following as silently as possible.

"Yes. That's where I grew up and learned most of what I know." Talon answered simply.

"So you're really a Sith?" Alana asked in surprise.

"I was. Master Leia said that I'm a Jedi now. So now I have to learn what Jedi do." Talon replied.

"So where is this Sith Academy?"

"It was on Korriban, one of the Sith home-worlds. The Guardians killed everyone else, and I escaped. Then Master Leia found me and she's teaching me to be a Jedi."

"So who is Carth… Darth Magus?" Alana asked curiously.

"Darth Magus was the Sith Master teaching us. A Guardian ate him, and they ate everyone else too."

"What's a Guardian?" Alana wanted to know.

"Darth Magus told us they are the Guardians of Sith strength. That only a true Sith can face them and live. The Jedi call them Tarentatek." Talon answered as they kept moving.

Alana had been told a few stories about Tarentatek. Nightmarish creatures from what she knew, and supposedly not real. According to the stories she'd heard, they were extremely tough, and impervious to lightsabers and all types of other weapons. Incredibly strong, and very fast, they were very difficult to kill. But Talon had apparently seen and fought one.

"Have you really seen a Tarentatek?" Alana asked in whispered awe.

"I've seen a lot of them. I had to fight my way past them so I could get to a ship and leave Korriban." Talon answered plainly.

Alana was impressed. She'd seen that Talon pretty skilled with her lightsabers, because neither fight had lasted more than a couple of seconds. Tarentatek were mindless monsters though, and these assailants were sentient… that could make a difference.

As Talon moved forward, she remained alert for those who would harm Alana. She could feel the Force giving her a warning, but it wasn't telling her where the danger was coming from.

Talon rounded a corner and led Alana through the subterranean catacombs beneath the palace, before they entered one that was several stories in height. There were many ventilation grates a floor or two above her head, but no doorways.

Alana was about to breathe a sigh of relief when three of those lightsaber wielding assassins entered ahead of them. She was frightened by their appearance, but strangely, she felt no increase in Talon's fear. The other girl was scared, but not of this, and she couldn't help but wonder why.

Talon watched her three opponents approach, and she could see the cocky arrogance in them. She could also see from the way they were holding their activated lightsabers, that they hadn't been properly trained. She knew that these three claimed to be Sith, but didn't know the language, nor did they know how to wield a lightsaber correctly. It proved that they were only pretenders who were clad exactly like the previous two.

Talon pulled her two double-ended hilts from her belt and activated all four blades as she assumed a ready stance in the Whirlus form. The three men stopped and stared in amused confusion.

"If that's supposed to intimidate us Little One… you have failed! We will kill you and take the Chumeda prisoner. Once we have her as a captive, Hapes will do anything we want to keep her safe." The lead man in the center stated confidently.

"Hapes won't need to do anything. Master Leia told me to protect her, so I will." Talon replied simply.

"You really think you have a chance to kill all three of us?" The one on the right asked with a chuckle.

"None of you have been trained properly, so you're the ones who have no chance." Talon answered.

Alana gaped at the girl in front of her. Talon wasn't boasting, or being cocky about anything. She was stating a simple fact, as if she were talking about what they were going to eat for dinner.

"You do realize you've just earned a very slow death, don't you?" The man in the center asked.

"Maybe… but none of you have the skills to do it." Talon said simply.

"Enough chatter! Let's find out who's more skilled!" The assassin on the left growled.