„You know some would regard it as dangerous for a jedi to walk around with an imperial special operations officer." "Yes, but I'm carrying my lightsaber" Bastila joked. "I'm wearing high resistance body armor and an E-4 on the back of my waistband." Marius shot back, already enjoying their little game." Bastila put her hand on her lightsaber "you don't really expect the body armor to stop a lightsaber?" "I don't know it's a Durasteel-cortosis alloy very thinly melted into carbon fiber" he said it has sometimes stopped point defense laser cannons during the tests. Besides I remember beating you another time." Bastila shook her head "I was out of form because your employer had kept me in a cell for several weeks, that's hardly a fair fight" she responded accusingly. "Now you didn't answer me question from earlier, why does Revan want me here?" "What do you mean exactly" he asked. Bastila had to try hard to not get annoyed with him, especially because she was on edge about this part anyway. "What's so hard to get? What does he hope to gain from having me here?" Marius shrugged "something to look at probably", she hit his shoulder "I'm not joking!" "Neither am I, did you seriously think he would let you off the hook once he almost had you?" "I didn't think he was so fond of me after I fled the devastator." Marius turned around and faced her. "I think it is not only about your skill as a warrior" he said again hoping she would finally get the message. She looked as confused as beforehand. "Please don't make me say it, he's gonna murder me if he finds out." "Say what?" said Bastila, who was now actually annoying Marius. He sighed "he finds you visually and otherwise appealing, shall I paint a picture?" he asked. Bastila blushed turning away from him, thinking about the chances of her lightsaber penetrating his body armor to end this highly uncomfortable decision. Fortunately, it was cut short anyways by the arrival of a Hapan in a completely blue uniform. "The members of your respective governments have started to arrive." He said noting the information that these two were talking to each other in the back of his head to report it to queen Kade later. They both nodded and went separate ways to welcome their colleagues and superiors in their wings of the palace.
"I have already met commander Shan" Lord Revan Marius said standing up from one of his knees. "Did you hint at the reason she is here?" his master asked. Marius grabbed a drink of a shelf nearby, "Did I ever fail you on something as simple?" he asked. Revan nodded "good this will make her insecure and will make reobtaining her easier. If my plan fails, I want an interceptor on every hyperspace router out of the Hapan cluster. By notifying them when she leaves, we have a very high likelihood of catching her without any other republic ships. The crew of the interdictor is to wait until your unit arrives. You can proceed to board the vessel as soon as you want but try making as little a mess as possible while doing so. We don't want to scare her by murdering the entire crew." Marius nodded they had experience boarding ships, even military vessels but he would have his team train for that specific scenario again, just to be sure. A failure in securing such an asset after already revealing your intention to do so by pulling a republic military vessel out of hyperspace would not only result in the same political backlash as if they had succeeded but it would also be highly embarrassing." Marius nodded "on a sight note, if we get her we want the new autimatic CWM- 9 as service rifles." Revan frowned "you guys are worse than little kids, you just got a new assault rifle." "Yeah but if we don't get another one you will need to get your girl yourself." Revan looked at the man asking himself when he it had come to someone talking to him like that without getting his head cut off. The unfortunate truth was that he didn't have the time to deal with this himself and it would also look better to have this accomplished by an unknown asset. "Alright you'll get your new toys but I want the merchandise before I pay you." Marius didn't immediately take Revans extended hand. "If we get her another way before we can spring the trap we get them anyways."
The negotiations where opened with a ball for republic and imperial representatives to meet and get used to each other. Most of the jedi wore their normal robes but the council had convinced her that as the poster girl of the republic it would be better if she wore an actual dress. As the emperor walked up to her she already regretted it seeing his grin. "I like your dress commander shan." "You look respectable as well" she said trying to turn around and leave as quickly as possible. Revan stayed where he was but said barely audible to her and definitely not to anybody else. "This wont do you any good Shan." She whirled around and thought about spitting in his grinning face for a second until she realized that this was a diplomatic meeting and that wouldn't be too productive. "I would like to inform you that I pushed for these negotiations to happen, don't make me regret this." She said angrily, she didn't think she would get any more annoyed with Revan until his smile broadened. The worst of all was that she had to admit to herself that she liked that smile. "Of course the republic wasn't in any position not to negotiate after my last victory. So you can probably grant me some part in this, I after all always was a diplomatic type." She growled annoyed "So diplomatic that you sent a special operations officer to do the job of a security employee? I hardly think the hapans would be to pleased if they found out." "No they indeed would not be to pleased." Revan said grabbing her arm, inviting her to a dance.
Bastila thought about declining but it wouldn't only look bad to the holo reporters and cams in the corner of the room but the chancellor and the council had asked her to be as polite as possible so she caved in following him. "They would however," he continued "also not be to pleased if someone found out that a republic senator bribed the hapan minister of defense, for her to deny my flagship access to the Hapan space." Bastila flinched, he wasn't supposed to know that. "Ahh, while we talk of flagships, I'm constructing a new one for me. You should come visit sometimes. I could show you how it is even more a masterpiece of engineering and building than the ships of the star destroyer class. It will unfortunately remain the only one of its type for the time being since it blocked the Starforge completely for four months now and I had to outsource ship building to the worlds I captured which were capable of it." "I am not even sure I want to know what machine of terror you have constructed this time Revan and I sure as hell wont come and visit so you can put me into a cell again." Revan smiled at her good naturedly "don't be silly Bastila I already have three other plans on how to get you back into your cozy cell." "Well that wouldn't be to helpful to the negotiations." Bastila answered while he spun her around to the music. "Of course I wouldn't think of snatching you during the negotiations" Revan said, "you can very much feel safe here" he assured her. Bastila raised an eyebrow "how many of these plans include doing that?" she asked him. "None of cour…" "Don't lie to me Revan" she cut him off. "One" he said, "maybe two". She laughed which drew some attention to them but she didn't notice it, Revan on the other hand was definitely not unsatisfied with that. "And would you care to elaborate on your third idea." Revan nodded "of course" he leaned in closer an whispered into her ear "it may or may not have something to do with the Corellian-Weapons-Manufacturing corporation." She laughed again "I find it hard to believe that." "Don't then, maybe I lied to lead you onto a false track." In reality, Revan thought, he hadn't lied, well not completely at least, since Marius had actually required something from that corporation.
As Bastila Bastila broke away from Revan she noticed that the holo reporters had taken quite an interest in the odd pair. She sighed, already to see the headlines. As she walked over to the other jedi, Grand Master Vash approached her "What did Revan want? You didn't seem to happy." She asked Bastila. "I am fairly certain he will be trying to recapture me to gain my battle meditation." Vash nodded, "I figured as much, although I don't believe it is merely for the purpose of abusing your battle meditation." "I seriously don't understand what you all mean, one of Revan's officers said something similar to me" Bastila answered. "This is always quite amusing," Vash said "young women never seem to notice it when a men is interested in them." Bastilas eyes shot up at her "you must be joking, Revan hates me. He tried to have me killed when I fled his ship." The grandmaster laughed "I have to this day not figured out of girls of your age are actually this naïve or if they don't want to acknowledge it." She proceeded in a more serious tone, "you need to be careful though, you know that Revan is not harmless and it could be quite dangerous for you if he is interested in you."