We're on TATOOINE! I couldn't wait to get here, it's about to get meaty ya'll :) HAPPY NEW YEAR!

"By the kriffin Core! How do people not die of dehydration on this planet?!"

Kalima downs an entire canteen of ice water and continues panting. They just spent the entire morning asking around town for a star map. It's just dawning on her that this mission could take days, nothing like Dantooine where they already knew the location of the temple. No one here has a fracking clue what they were asking about.

This wasn't going to be easy.

"Pretty sure death by dehydration is the most common way to die here, have you seen their water prices? Sheesh, good thing you're on military salary," Missions responds, opening her own water canteen.

"Yea no kidding," the former smuggler snorts.

They had split up into four groups. Kalima and Mission, Bastila and Juhani, Carth and Zalbaar, Canderous and…well he didn't want to team up with anyone. It's almost time for them to huddle up for a status update and the two scoundrels get to their meetup location first. Mission is always great company, and the easiest going person in the crew from Kalima's perspective, but today is a bit awkward for the older woman because of the…unwanted interruption. She sighs heavily and decides to get this out of the way before the rest of the team arrives.

"Mission?"

"What's up?"

"Is there any chance at all in this thing called life that I could pay you to not tell anyone about last night?" she asks without looking at the girl.

Mission gasps and feigns shock. "You think I would tell anyone your business?! C'mon Lima, you can trust me with your dirty little secret, you don't have to pay me," she finishes with a sneaky smile.

The woman rolls her eyes and mentally palms her face. Mission already talked. There is no way in hell this street rat wouldn't use this opportunity to finesse some credits out of her if she had kept her mouth shut. It's the perfect blackmail. Mission loves a good gossip!

"Oh gosh Mission who did you tell?" Kalima is now glaring at her.

"No one! I didn't tell anyone I swear!" the defense comes in a high-pitched voice.

"I know you Mission, just tell me who you told!"

"No one! I mean it!"

Kalima huffs and shakes her head. It's no use. If anyone could lie with a straight face even better than her it was Mission. That girl is practically her twin. Who is blue, and 20 years younger. "Never mind."

She slumps on a hot bench and the teenager joins her. Everything is hot on Tatooine, even unsuspecting things like furniture. The heat only makes her more aggravated; she didn't want to hear a lecture from the Jedi, but she's even madder at herself for caring what anyone has to say about her sex life. When did she start caring what people think?

"Hey 'Lima"

"What?"

"Do you like Canderous?" the question springs up as if the girl read her mind.

"What? No!" Kalima retorts sharply, knowing damn well she didn't sound convincing at all. "I don't know to be honest…but I'm not gonna pretend I'm not attracted to him," she adds honestly.

"Haha, yeaaa that's Canderous for ya," the girl says in a knowing tone.

"Wait," Kalima blinks, then looks at her, "what do you mean?"

Mission shrugs, "Well you know…he always had gals fawning over him and guys shaking in their boots. He's the alpha, alpha, ALPHA of Lower Taris. Shit, people are more terrified of him than of Davik." The girl pauses for a second and her energy shifts when remembering her old homeworld. "Were." she corrects her sentence.

"Reeeally?" Kalima slowly raises a brow, trying hard not to imagine Canderous with a harem of scantily clad women. This wasn't surprising. People are naturally attracted to and afraid of power, and the Mandalorian had lots of it. What's surprising was how little the two have talked about the man before. Mission could talk for days about any and every topic. If there's anyone that can give her the scoop on Canderous, it's Mission. "What else can you tell me about him?"

"Other than the fact he's totally badass? I dunno, legend has it he used to raid villages on his own and kill rancors with nothing but his hands and a bad attitude out of sheer boredom after the Mandalorian Wars."

The woman rolls her eyes and elbows her fellow scoundrel, "Come on, get real!"

The girl laughs like an imp, "What? That's really what people said you know!" Kalima joins her in laughter until Mission simmers down looks serious again. "And then he came to Taris and things got…really scary. He was bad for every thug's business. Seized their shipments, stuck up their bases, took out every bounty in his first few months, dropped more bodies than a plague! All. By. Himself. It got so bad Davik had no choice but to make him an offer. Kriff, I think he would've taken over the Exchange if Davik didn't recruit him. What's that saying again? 'Keep your friends close but enemies closer'? Haha…yea. After that, he pretty much became the authority in the Lower City since no one sees Davik in person anyway."

The girl went on telling Kalima about some of the Mandalorian's notable feats, one of them involving the raid of a slavery ring. This one didn't sit too well with her. Instead of freeing the slaves, he sold them off to a higher-end buyer.

"Wow…he never talks about this stuff. He can go on and on about his Mando battles though."

Mission laughs, "Yeaaa I don't think he's a big fan of Taris. I'm sure he would've left a long time ago to raise hell on other planets if Davik didn't give him a sweet deal."

"So where does Calo Nord fit in all this?"

"Eh, they pretty much stayed out of each other's way. Davik needed them both alive…until last month. My money is on Canderous if they ever meet again though. I mean…Calo is meaaaan. Definitely the more evil one. But Candy fights like hell."

"You did not just call that grown man Candy…"

They both roar in laughter just as the Mandalorian, Bastila, and Juhani appear around the corner.

"Speaking of the devil," Mission murmurs to Kalima. The latter is too busy watching the man walk towards them, her heart almost skipping a beat when he caught her eyes and stared back at her. Canderous has one of the most intimidating auras she's ever encountered, but now with more backstory, she has a newfound…awe for him. "So hey, tell me," she hears Mission whisper to her, "are you two really knocking boots?"

Kalima's mouth gapes at the further intrusion of her privacy, "You are way too young for me to have this conversation with you."

"Ugh! You always treat me like a kid!"

"You ARE!"

"Not!"

"What are you two fussing about?" Bastila asks nosily when she reached the two ladies, Juhani right at her heel and Canderous about ten feet behind.

"Nothing," they answer in unison. They sharply look at each other, annoyed at how obvious they sounded, then turn back to Bastila.

"So we know we need a license to get out to the sand dunes, but without directions, we're just going to roam aimlessly till we all die from this ridiculous heat or get killed by natives. Problem is those Czerka bastards won't give me the license till I agree to handle the Sand People for them, which I really, really don't want to do."

"Stop being such a pacifist," she hears Canderous' voice behind Bastila. The Jedi steps aside to allow him in their circle. "You'll never get anywhere on this planet without a fight, but if you want to waste your time, there's a droid near the exit that speaks whatever these sandbags call a language. You can try the communication route."

"Wow, it almost sounds painful for you Mandalorians to consider any other route but violence," the Cathar scorns.

"Easy there kitty." The nickname visibly irritates the woman, but Canderous ignores her and continues, "Anyway, owner's asking for 5000 credits, a bit steep for that pile of rust if you ask me. I can get him to drop the price to zero."

An image of Canderous pummeling a droid owner with one hand or aiming a blaster to his head pops up in Kalima's head and she raises a hand immediately "Let's…try negotiating first. Bastila you found anything?"

The Jedi looks like the question punched her in the gut, and for a second Kalima thinks she's going to reel and puke all over her boots. "I…I met my mother."

"What?!" While this has absolutely nothing to do with the mission, Kalima couldn't help her unexpected interest in the topic. From her understanding, Jedi don't grow up with their parents, which explains their lack of emotional intelligence.

"Yea it was a…very interesting moment," Juhani volunteers.

"Well? How did it go?" Kalima urges for a story.

"She wants me to help her. Can you imagine? After all these years of being a horrible mother, then being absent for most of my life, the first thing she asks of me is a favor!" the Jedi answers in a restrained exasperation.

Kalima looks perplexed. Wasn't expecting that.

But before she could respond she sees Carth and Zalbaar joining them. "Tell me about it later," she says softly to the woman before turning to the other males. "What's up guys, anything new?" she asks as she stands up, ready to head back out once she gathers intel.

"Yes! And it might be good news," the pilot answers, wiping some proud sweat off his forehead.

"Finally!" Everyone huddles to listen to him.

"This Jawa named Iziz says he knows of an 'ancient technology' on this planet, but he won't tell me anything else until we agree to free his partners captured by the Sand People. I think he might be referring to the star map, we know it's here and we know it's ancient."

"Again with the unreasonable bargains!" Kalima throws her hands up in frustration but lands them right on her hips and makes a quick decision. "Ok. It's our best bet for now. I'll get the license and we'll split into two groups. Carth, Canderous, Juhani, come with me."

The T in Tatooine stands for torture. Pure torture. It's too hot to fight in armor, but too dangerous to fight without one. On top of that, there are dark Jedi in the area.

"I can't believe Malak already knows where we are. Does Bastila have a tracking device on her or something?" Kalima groans while trying to heal a gash on her bicep where a saber hit her.

"Or maybe the ship does," Carth replies, sheathing back his blasters.

"We can't worry too much about that, if that coward wants to send his rookies after us then let him. More target practice for us." Canderous is of course, absolutely elated that he gets to fight Jedi again, and is grinning while charging back his repeating blaster.

"Let me help you with that," Juhani offers when she sees the older Padawan struggling with healing her wounds. Healing required stillness, and stillness is Kalima's weakest trait.

"Thank you," she's grateful to the Cathar and watches her technique, trying to pick up more on how to regenerate the tissue under her skin. Something she's sure will come in handy later.

"We have to let Bastila know. If there are more of them, they're gonna go after her." Kalima pauses for a second and realizes the Jedi only has Zaalbar and Mission with her. "Juhani, go find her. We're picking up the droid anyway."

"You're right," the Cathar agrees, "She'll need another Jedi with her. I'll go alert her and head west. Where should we meet again?"

"Everyone be back at the gate by 16:00, once we locate the settlement, we all go in together. Our group will search for the Jawas, yours for Mission's brother. Hopefully that droid will be any good with negotiations or else..." she sighs, "We'll unfortunately have to do Czerka's dirty work and we need all the help we can get."

"Fortunately," Canderous adds.

"Shut up!" The two women snap at the Mandalorian in unison.

"Seriously Canderous we're talking about genocide here," Carth tells the man with an incredulous look on his face.

"No, it's self defense," the warrior replies as calmly as ever. "Like 'Lima says, we try to negotiate, but if they refuse..." he makes a clicking sound with his blaster and completes his statement with a grin.

"Unbelievable," Kalima murmurs to herself before getting back to Juhani, "Let's get going, I'll see you later."

"I like this droid!" Canderous laughs after letting off a last round of blaster shots at the falling Tuskan raiders.

"Observation: For a meatbag, your priorities seem to be in the right place. My programming detects a high compatibility. In your human words, I rather like you too." Answers the droid pleasantly.

"Psychopaths..." Kalima shakes her head slowly, her lips parted in awe, "as if one wasn't enough, I now have two psychopaths."

"Correction: Master, I believe the word you are looking for is - efficient."

"Damn right!" Hoots Canderous.

Kalima throws her hands dramatically at them and looks at Carth, "And look! They even correct me!"

The pilot chuckles and shakes his head, "Makes you wonder who its previous master was. Or who created it in the first place."

"Already asked, but all memory of his previous owners is erased," she answers matter-of-factly.

She has to admit, as outlandish as the Mandalorian can sound sometimes, he makes combat fun. To her, it's a hindrance, sometimes a cause of panic. To him, it's an opportunity to rise above obstacles and outdo himself. With a mindset like that, it's easy to turn any work into play, and she's happy that it's rubbing off on her. Or maybe, he's rekindling something that's already inside her, as if she fought a war in her past life. Carth on the other hand, always undermines her plans and avoids conflict at all costs.

Speaking of conflict. A ripple in the Force draws her attention to the sand dune ahead of them.

"Incoming," she alerts the crew as she grips her saber tightly again. Four raiders appear at the top of the dune. Easy. And then there's eight.

Ok, twice outnumbered but doable.

"HK, come with me." she instructs the droid. So far negotiations have been futile, these people attack on sight. But she's determined to figure a way out. The new Jedi is the main close combat fighter in the party so she darts off, silently wishing she had kept Juhani instead of Carth.

"I'm here to talk!" she shouts at them, throwing up her hands in surrender but making sure her saber was still in her palm. The natives show no sign whatsoever of slowing down or easing up. Instead, their blares grow louder and angrier. "What's wrong with them HK? What are they saying?"

"Answer: Master, I don't know. Translation: KILL THEM ALL!" replies the droid.

"Great..." she mutters loudly as she dodges the first attack, still not activating her saber and trying to convey that she does not want to fight. The first raider swung his stick to her head and missed, she trips him and turns to the second one who is charging right her with the pointy end of his Gaffi stick. A quick twirl to the left has the warrior almost falling towards the droid, his unstopped momentum propelling him forward. It's at that moment Kalima hears blaster shots.

"NO! Don't shoot! HK! SAY SOMETHING TO THEM!" the woman yells frantically. Canderous and Carth who are still behind them have now joined in the shooting and made things worse.

"Objection: Master I'm an assassin droid, not a protocol one. My defense protocol automatically activates when your life is in danger. Error: Cannot initiate negotiation during combat."

"You gotta be kriffin KIDDING ME!" she curses in bafflement while dodging yet another deadly blow. "What the hell did I buy you for!?"

"Statement: That hurts, master. Have I not been useful to you?"

And now the droid is guilt tripping her. Their third communication attempt is a fail, she has no other choice but to activate her saber and force push the two warriors who are closing in on her. Looking ahead, four more men. Eight! Sixteen total now.

"Never mind! Just fight!"

"Statement: With pleasure Master."

The Sand People are absolutely relentless and unreasonable. Meanwhile, Carth and Canderous are shouting orders at each other which sounded like a recipe for disaster. The droid manages to drop two men with laser precision shots to their heads, and Kalima is in a melee with four warriors at the same time, calling on the Force whenever she could to push them away from her as she fights off one at a time.

Canderous is on the verge of punching Carth in the mouth. That darned pilot had the audacity to call nonsensical shots in ground combat. He had told the Republic officer to handle the furthest raiders while he goes out to help Kalima and instead the man treats it as a competition to come up with the best plan.

"Stop being an idiot Republic! One of us has to stay here to cover us!" the Mandalorian growls.

"Take her left and I'll take her right!" the pilot argues back.

"That's not how this works! This is not space battle!" Canderous gives up reasoning with the man and runs towards Kalima, halfway wanting to shoot the pilot if he decided to run after him.

So far the woman has been handling herself, but is rapidly getting overwhelmed. She's relieved to see Canderous' repeating blaster smash into the Tuskan warrior's face on her left, and simultaneously disturbing to hear the loud crush of cranial bones. The Mandalorian normally stands back to take out enemies from afar with his long-range weapon, but when he engages in close quarters combat, it's absolutely terrifying. The sheer brute force he uses to kill two men with nothing but his fist and weapon takes Kalima aback, but now isn't the time for distractions. They both keep advancing through the warriors while the droid and Carth put their marksmen skills to use.

They are now down to eight men, and Kalima's energy is draining. The heat, armor, loud irritating bellows of their opponents are all blurring her senses, and she's completely blindsided by a warrior who managed to get behind her and stab her right below the rib.

"UMPHH-" she bites down a pained groaned as she quickly swings her blade back to slash her attacker in half. Adrenaline numbs her and snaps her back to full alert mode. She has to finish this fast before she bleeds her guts out, so she gathers everything she has left and goes full force, increasing her aggression to match that of the Mandalorian next to her.

They finish off the last raider together and Kalima slumps to the ground with her hand on her rib. She is bleeding inside her armor.

"You okay?" her partner shoots her a quick concerned glance before she shoos him off with a wave.

"I'm fine, I'm healing it." A faint glow emits from her hand as she tries to focus on closing the wound.

The Mandalorian turns back to Carth, still furious about his lack of synergy. "What the hell was that Onasi!?"

The pilot is catching up with them, boots sinking in the sand as he tries to add speed. "I should be asking you! We could've taken them out from the sides," he justifies.

"And risk shooting her?" the Mandalorian asks in disbelief at his strategy.

"Listen I'm a Republic soldier, I don't take orders from a washed merc who also happens to be a former enemy!"

"And I assume you think I'll take orders from a spring chicken with no real battle experience. Your Republic ranks won't help you out here buddy."

"I fought in the Mandalorian Wars just like you did-"

"In a cushiony pilot seat? Try putting 40 years of land and air warfare under your belt before working up the nerve to give me orders. We're not in the same league!"

The men keep bickering and pay no attention to Kalima who is fighting to maintain consciousness. This Force healing stuff wasn't simple. She had to maintain her focus while keeping her breath steady, while also riding the waves of adrenaline. However, she is losing energy by the second. The Jedi have a way of siphoning Force energy from their surroundings and mind into their bodies, creating a cycle of rejuvenation. But Kalima is far from mastering this technique and can't seem to reabsorb the energy she was transferring to her wound, which is now bleeding intermittently. Her increasing anxiety blocks the flow of the Force and she feels her mind starting to blackout.

"Guys?" her voice is soft but heavy with concern, and unfortunately not loud enough for the two males to hear her.

"You're right, last I checked my league won and yours lost," the pilot answers coolly.

"So we're riding on the coattails of Revan now aye? You don't get to be second in charge after Mandalore without actually understanding strategy."

She looks up from her wound to find the men facing each other, massive military egos clashing. Two former war enemies who are trying to pull rank on each other. Behind each one of them is a Tatooine sun, burning through their silhouettes and making everything unbearable. But Force, what a striking visual it was. Now her eyes are shutting down and the arm she's supporting herself with is giving away, she musters the very last of her energy to get their attention.

"GUYS!"

The two men stop immediately to look at her.

"Oh shit!" Carth mutters and rushes towards her, and he's the last thing she sees before her eyes close and her head hits the ground.

The next time her eyes open, she's met with a blur of Bastila's face.

"She's back," she hears the young Jedi say. There is a warm sensation under her rib and she looks down to see Bastila's hands hovering over her wound, along with Juhani's. The two Jedi were healing her at the same time.

"What...happened ?" Kalima asks weakly, eyes barely open.

"You drained yourself," Bastila explains. "Relax, getting worked up right now will only drain you more."

Kalima feels a warm hand on her shoulder. "It's normal. Healing is a very advanced technique that requires intense concentration that can exhaust you if you're not careful," the Cathar reassures her.

Bastila nods, "You did well. You managed to close the wound but you were still bleeding internally. You have to start with the inside...feel the blood vessels and tissue underneath the skin, don't just rely on your eyes."

"Right...feel it, don't think it," Kalima repeats the lesson in a murmur. Her vision is now clearing enough to capture her surroundings. She's on the ground, somewhere back inside the gates and in a shaded area behind a building, Bastila and Juhani are on their knees by her side, the rest of the team is in the background looking restless. Carth and Canderous are visibly keeping their distance but start walking towards her when they see her wake.

"How are you feeling?" Carth walks up first, kneeling on one knee to wipe the sweat off her face.

Her energy was quickly coming back to her, and she lifts herself up to sit. It's a bit unusual for Carth to initiate physical touch with her, and she assumes it's due to his guilt.

"I'm fine, I think..." she says plainly while her memories slowly come back to her. "I think we need to discuss the chain of command."

The suggestion comes off as a surprise to her teammates, but she was the one who almost got taken out by a gaffi stick due to disorganization. Bastila is the highest-ranked, but when she's not in a party everyone else feels like a shot caller.

"Fair enough...what do you want to discuss?" Bastila asks hesitantly, wondering if this is another coup attempt by the ex-Sith lord.

Kalima looks at Carth and then at Canderous, "I'm not happy with our communication, especially what happened out there," she says seriously.

"It's my fault, I should've covered you fully," Carth admits apologetically, staring deep in her eyes to show her he means it.

Canderous grunts behind him, "Now he says it."

The pilot grits his teeth, annoyed that the Mandalorian was actually right. Kalima cuts directly to the chase with zero patience for either one of them. "Look, I don't know what happened between the two of you back there, but we can't have it again. I need to trust you to work together whether you like each other or not."

A pow wow ensues to figure out the next in command after Bastila and the obvious choices are Carth, Canderous or Kalima. The latter is the least experienced, but the most driven. Carth is the next highest ranking Republic officer, but Canderous has over 20 years of experience on him which easily makes him the most qualified on the entire team. Only problem is, he's a former (or current) enemy of the Republic, and this is a Republic mission.

"Don't be absurd, I'm not a child. I'm very aware we lost the war and am not stupid enough to believe I can singlehandedly take on the Republic. We have a common enemy and that's Malak. After that, I can worry about the future of Mandalorians," he corrects them after being accused of secretly plotting revenge. "And don't flatter yourselves, I don't care to lead a pack of rookies. Kalima should be given the chance to prove herself, I fully back her," he finishes arrogantly. Compared to what he's done in war, this covert mission is bordering on lackluster. But is still a hell of a lot better than Taris.

Kalima blinks at him, still not fully convinced he deems her combat and leadership skills worthy of his vote. She's comfortable calling certain shots in the mission, but things are very different on the battlefield. Out there, she looked up to the three veterans for strategy, even though her confidence sometimes made her act independently. Canderous shoots her a look that said 'You can do this,' and she hesitantly nods at him, her eyes telling him 'Thank you.' One thing she isn't excited about is having people risk their lives for her, the memory of Trask still haunts her. And yet, she somehow keeps having that effect on people and had no idea why.

Bastila is visibly unsettled about something but seems to be restraining herself. She always looked like she was restraining herself. "Well I can't say I'm excited about you teaming up with a Mandalorian, but this is first and foremost a Council mission, and you were tasked with it. I trust the decision of the Jedi Council. Choose your companions wisely," she warns Kalima.

The now healed woman dusts herself off and begins getting back on her feet. "Thank you, Bastila. Now that we got that settled, what's next? Did you and Juhani manage to locate the settlement?"

Bastila nods, "We found their territory directly behind the sand crawler. We can head back after we recoup."

Of course two Jedi advanced faster than we did, Kalima notes. "Those people are nuts. They wouldn't even listen to the droid!"

"You know what you have to do," Canderous reminds her, hinting at his earlier solution. But Kalima shakes her head, there had to be another route.

"No, I got a better idea." Her crewmates turn to look at her with curiosity and some skepticism. "Let's pick up some disguises. We're going to infiltrate."

They start making their way back to the sand dunes. Bastila stays behind to make sure Kalima is fully recovered and able to get back on her feet. As soon as everyone is out of earshot she turns to her with a serious tone. "We need to talk about Canderous."

"What about him?" Kalima responds feigning nonchalance.

"I meant you and Canderous," the Jedi replies flatly.

Kalima rolls her eyes hard. Of course Mission talked. "Okay, and?" Here it comes.

"You know how the Jedi feel about attachments, if you pursue this you're going to fall to the dark side just like the last t-" the Jedi stops herself and breathes hard out her nose.

Kalima looks at her, feeling simultaneously irritated and amused. Their relationship had improved since Dantooine, however, she honestly didn't care what this younger lady had to say, and just didn't want to be bothered. Why did Bastila think she had a say in her private life?

"Bastila," she faces the woman and leans in close to remind her, "I'm not a Jedi." Then turns her back to her and keeps walking.

The words send a chill down the Jedi Knight's back. How do you warn a person about themselves when they had no idea who they previously were? She wants to scream at Kalima with all her might, to tell her how her past relationship with Malak had led her to ruin. All the students in the academy knew about it. That woman who became a Sith lord...she innately knew how to tap into the power of sexual energy, she knew how to transmute it and influence people at will. But she also didn't have full control over it. And quickly, it consumed her, made her power-hungry, and eventually led to her doom. Bastila is not willing to watch it happen all over again.

She quickly grabs Kalima's elbow and spins her back towards her. "Kalima, you don't understand. You can't go down this path, you won't be able to defeat Malak," she urges.

Kalima frowns. Does Bastila know about her strange connection to Malak? She hasn't told a soul about her visions of the dark lord. "What does Canderous have to do with Malak?" she asks inquisitively.

The Jedi looks at her with imploring eyes. "Attachments Kalima. Strong emotions, distractions, jealousy, possessiveness, almost every Jedi who played around with them fell. What the dark side does to your mind and body is ugly, I just don't want it to happen to you."

Kalima folds her arms and looks Bastila up and down. "You know, ever since you met your mother you've been more on edge than usual. You know that?"

The Jedi looks stunned. "What? That's ridiculous! That has nothing to do with this!"

The scoundrel smirks "Look at you getting all worked up again. So easy to trigger you. You know why Bastila? Because you Jedi don't learn how to deal with your emotions. No wonder it festers up inside you till it turns ugly. And the craziest part? You guys actually believe that makes you better than other people. It's hilarious!" she scoffs and keeps walking.

The Jedi looks incredulously at the woman and shakes her head before catching up to her. "Emotion is the opposite of peace," she argues with the scoundrel. "I have yet to see anyone in a relationship who's not dealing with a headache or heartache. I'll never understand why people put themselves through that misery. Why do this now in the middle of a mission?"

Kalima raises a brow, "Speaking from experience?"

There's a pause before Bastila speaks again. Her views on love definitely come from her parents' loveless marriage, and that experience alone was enough to make her never want to seek a union. "Well…yes. My parents."

The older woman shakes her head. "Feelings are part of life Bastila, just like the Force. They can be good or bad, but we don't stop feeling them just because we have one bad experience. If that's your logic, then you might as well shun the Force altogether just because it has its dark side. But we both know you'll never do that will you?" Her golden eyes pierce through the blue pools staring back at her.

Bastila blinks and swallows hard. She'd rather die than part with the Force, but there's no way Kalima is right about emotions being just like the Force. To the Jedi, they are completely separate entities. "Emotions and the Force are not the same things. Emotions are flawed and subjective, but the Force is universal."

A humorless chuckle parts her rosy lips before she retorts, "If you never allow yourself to feel your emotions, you can't process them. And that…means you'll never fully understand yourself." It's actually pitiful to Kalima how clueless the Jedi is about something as natural and free as feelings. She tips the young woman's chin up and winks at her, "The faster you accept them, the quicker you will sort this thing out with your mother. And yourself."

Kalima walks away leaving the young Jedi torn and questioning her very ideals. Is the woman right? Or is this what being seduced to the dark side feels like?