For a few seconds, it seemed as though she would be falling forever into a chasm of black.
That abruptly changed the moment her body landed with a loud thud on the steel floor. The shock of metal meeting a body caught off guard kept her lying on it, paralyzed for a moment or so.
This is not the Jedi Chaser. I am not burned. Carth is not dead. There is no passion, there is serenity.
The Code only worked to change her panic into frustration and anger.
There is no serenity, there is only the knowledge that you have failed.
Katrina opened her eyes, taking in her surroundings slowly. She had slid down a tunnel from the meeting room to a detention cell; the wall that had opened up to deposit her within the cell was now sealed. A force field of blue crackled above her head, the only apparent exit from the cell itself.
She was alone. She was alone, and unarmed, and locked up in a detention cell without having found Haytham or the Sith.
She pushed herself up, letting out a wince as she located a number of bumps and bruises on various points of her body.
What had she been thinking? She had wandered blindly into a room in which she was surrounded. No- not only had she wandered blindly into a room in which she was surrounded, but she had also given her lightsaber to a nameless, faceless Sith who might have dumped it into a garbage chute by now.
Her idiocy made her angry and her anger shamed her because she knew that this was the reason she had failed; her inability to control her anger towards Haytham, her inability to keep control of the situation.
Katrina inspected the cell. There were no controls inside it. The force field was a good few meters above her head. She could jump it if it were off, but without her lightsaber there was no way to possibly weaken it.
She finally leaned back against the wall and slumped back to the floor.
She was Revan, a Jedi; she cowered before no one.
Not only was she a fool, but she was a conceited fool. To think that she was so above Haytham, a character with obviously more intelligence than she had given him credit for...
She shivered. Revan, who believed she was so powerful. Katrina, who had bought Revan's lies.
Had Bastila or Juhani felt her sudden moment of fear? Were they now also walking into the same trap?
She closed her eyes, trying to reach out to one of them. She got nothing but a slight headache for her troubles.
Carth would never have let me do anything so stupid.
The silence was immediately interrupted by the sound of footsteps above her, walking across the metallic floor. She heard them echo off the walls of her cell. She felt fear, bravado, and concentration all mixed into one somewhat conflicted Force user coming towards her.
Katrina stood, staring up at the glowing blue force field. Was it one of the two mysterious Sith coming for her?
Goosebumps formed on her arms. I'm as good as a tach against a disruptor rifle.
But to her surprise, the face that came to the edge of the force field and peered down at her was not marked with the pale varicose veins of the dark side.
Dustil Onasi sighed, grinning in relief.
"Finally. This place has got more detention cells than an actual prison. Isn't this supposed to be a mining corporation office?"
She gazed up at the familiar Onasi features with more gratitude than she would have liked.
"How did you know where I was?"
Dustil moved to begin working on the force field's controls.
"We knew Haytham didn't kill you, so we assumed he stashed you away somewhere. I don't think I would have found you if you hadn't just called out through the Force though." He glanced at her and then turned back to the controls.
She hadn't even thought of him. It was so much easier to simply see him as the morose stepson than the Padawan-in-training with the potential to become as powerful as any of them.
The blue force field drew back inside it's projectors with a hiss. Katrina leapt out of the cell, landing next to Dustil.
He was clad in his Sith uniform. She looked him up and down, trying to keep the appraisal out of her face. Dustil saw it nonetheless, narrowing his eyes.
"It was the only way to sneak around in this place," he said tersely, turning around and heading in the direction of the exit.
She didn't know what to say. To look at him threw her sense of time and place entirely out of whack, and she felt as though she were back on Korriban at square one and the past months hadn't even happened.
"Where is everyone?" she finally said, following him closely.
"Canderous, Bastila, and HK are storming the place just like you ordered them. Master Juhani felt your capture and sent me to find you. Mission and Zaalbar are hiding out in the Hawk. Ordo's got a communication device if we need to follow through on the distraction idea though." He led her through the hallways with a look of concentration on his face, his movements always slightly ahead of his feet as though the Force was yanking on an invisible leash.
"Have they found Haytham yet?" she demanded.
A blaster shot rang out above their heads as they rounded a corner. Dustil pulled out his lightsaber.
"No, but I think his guards have found us."
"Isn't that uniform supposed to deter that?" Dustil only glared at her.
"I don't have a weapon." she finally admitted. The younger Onasi glanced back at her belt incredulously as if to make sure she was telling the truth. A slight smirk came over his face as if he was fighting to keep from making some kind of remark.
"I guess you'll just have to follow me then."
Dustil whirled out from around the corner, his red lightsaber blazing. A few of the guards ran at the sight, but a few more weren't intimidated.
Follow you? Not going to happen, kid.
Katrina flew at one of them, catching him off guard and tackling him to the floor. The rest turned on her immediately, but with Dustil's lightsaber and a blaster in her hands, they didn't last long.
"Or...not," Dustil replied grimly, watching her as she stepped over the bodies of the guards, hefting the blaster she had ripped out of the first one's hands.
Katrina didn't answer, waiting for him to begin down the next corridor.
She could only hope he knew where he was going. Some kind of connection between Padawan and Master had to be helping him in navigating the labyrinth building.
"It's the Jedi!" The familiar exclamation came at them from every new turn, and Katrina hoped the blaster she was holding wasn't going to run out of ammo at any point.
She despised blasters, though she'd never admit that to Carth, who had almost a fond affection for his. She watched his son slash through the guards with his red blade, feeling almost jealous.
A vibroblade clanged to the floor as the last Sith fell. Katrina dropped the blaster and picked it up.
Good. Now she was at least back in familiar territory.
"Damn." She glanced over at Dustil, whose lightsaber was looking thin and weak. Small sparks bubbled over from its hilt. He smacked it a few times with his hands, the beam quavering and pulsing before finally righting itself.
She didn't mean for her next words to sound as vindictive and sarcastic as he obviously took them, his mouth forming a straight line and his hands gripping his weapon as if it were the blade of Ajunta Pall.
"I guess you'll just have to follow me, then."
"Stop." Dustil's instruction wasn't needed, as he stopped so abruptly in front of the door that she ran into him.
"I...feel something," he said, almost squirming under the unfamiliar words.
Katrina brushed past him, running her fingers over the door as if the Force was something tangible.
She felt it too. The adrenaline of battle and the nearby presence of the Force sensitive, the sensory overload making her feel like she had just used a stimulant. Not to mention her bond with Bastila nipping at her heels like a playful gizka.
They forced open the door, finding mostly unconscious and a few dead disguised Sith guards littering the empty room.
Katrina rubbed her forehead, continuing on towards the next door, towards the direction the Force was leading her.
They had probably massacred a fair amount of workers at this office, disguised Sith or not. She had no idea how the hell they were going to get out of this one without getting arrested or put on trial.
The door was locked. She and Dustil forced it open with his lightsaber, despite the blade's protests at being used for something its unaligned crystal couldn't handle.
A few blaster shots bounced off the doorframe right above their heads.
"Suggestion: Master, might I advise that you make your presence known before allowing the meatbag Onasi's offspring to break through a door in Sith uniform?"
Canderous hefted his blaster calmly, walking towards them. HK-47 stood guard next to the door.
"In the future, try using a different colored lightsaber when you're slicing your way through a door. Red tends to set off warning alarms."
"Maybe you should learn to become a little less trigger-happy," Katrina replied evenly.
"About time, kid. I was getting ready to contact you even though I knew it might give you away if you were still sneaking around. Would have been a valuable lesson in quickening the pace." Dustil eyed the Mandalorian with a raised brow but said nothing.
Either he was unlearning the Sith value of being quick to anger, or he was relearning the way to keep hatred bottled until it eventually boiled over.
"Any reason you're holed up in here?"
"The field of unfortunate guards behind you pretty much deters any unwanted visitors," Canderous replied. HK-47 turned his copper head towards her, affecting a threatening pose.
"Colloquialism: As meatbags are fond of saying, Master, presentation is everything."
"So you found Haytham?" The Mandalorian cocked his head in the direction of a door behind them.
"Bastila and the Cathar are getting to know him right now. We haven't seen hide nor hair of the dark Jedi, though." Katrina nodded, moving past them towards the door.
Dark Jedi she would deal with later. Right now she would deal with the man who had supplied the means of making her life fall apart.
They had evidently ambushed the corporate officer in his office. Bastila and Juhani stood on either side of a chair on the visiting side of the desk, their weapons drawn and acting like a cage made of lightsabers for the man in the chair.
Dustil stopped at the door, folding his arms and watching her.
Katrina walked around to the other side of the desk.
"Revan." Juhani's face was a tangle of irritation and sweat. "You were much more efficient than I had expected, Padawan." Dustil gave a nod of recognition from his post against the door.
"Sorry I'm about to deprive you of all the fun."
"Believe me, 'fun' is not a word to describe our Mister Haytham," Bastila snapped.
Haytham raised a devilishly amused face to her.
He wasn't old or wild-eyed like the aristocrats she had faced to this point. He wasn't holed up in a house with an army of droids or a mincing blackmailer with a datapad of secrets. He looked clean, sleek, and polished. He looked as though he knew exactly what he was doing.
Was it his absence of fear that slightly unnerved her? If he was afraid, he hid it incredibly well.
Probably a trick he picked up from the Sith. She cracked her knuckles.
"I'm out of patience, Haytham, so I'll spare us any unneeded introductions."
He gave a sardonic smile through an odd glow of green from the reflection of Bastila's yellow blade and Juhani's blue.
"I have no need for your courtesies, Revan." Strange, the voice which has so disoriented her in the trapped room before now bounced harmlessly off the walls in the small office.
He was only a man. A foolish man, who had chosen to ally himself with her enemies. Katrina raised her vibroblade.
"If you haven't anything useful to say, I'm afraid I have no need of you." Haytham laughed in a tired sort of way.
"You can't kill me. I know everything."
He was right, and she hated it when someone she despised was right.
"I told you before we had business. I have what you want, and you can do what I can't."
She considered delivering a biting retort, but realized it wouldn't accomplish anything other than a momentary feeling of smug satisfaction.
Katrina seated herself in the owner's chair, putting her hands together and staring across the desk at Haytham.
"You have my attention. Say it quickly or you'll have the attention of my weapon as well."
I could probably get the same amount of attention from a blaster.
She was here on Anelli. Carth was there on Telos. Haytham and the Sith he was helping were the reason.
"Show me the weapon." Haytham eyed her, reaching out and punching a few controls on his desk.
A holoprojection splayed up from the center of what Katrina had thought to be a usually ugly paperweight.
"The Inferno line of demolitions," Haytham dictated, hesitating to glare at both Bastila and Juhani until they backed up enough for him to make sweeping gestures with his hands. "Developed using the most precise refinement of Baradium along with the most advanced stealth and guidance technology."
Katrina watched the schematic of the device rotate around in an endless circle. It was small and looked as though it could configure its mechanical plating to any shape.
"How does it work?"
"It is, in essence, a very intelligent thermal detonator. It attaches itself to a section of a ship's hull and explodes once it has become a part of said hull."
"Part of the hull?"
"One of the most innovative features of the Inferno line is its ability to be hidden in any situation. So long as one can get their hands on a sample of the material the weapon is to detonate, any sensors will not detect the weapon as an anomaly. The weapon will attach itself to its intended target and explode its contents directly onto the target's surface."
She couldn't remember anyone suspicious having hung around the Jedi Chaser, trying to crack off a piece of her hull. No one could have gotten close enough with Carth around. The Chaser had been his ship; their private getaway. The yacht the Republic had officially rewarded him with sat idle and abandoned in some Republic base.
She couldn't remember where he had gotten it from; whether the seller had reputable connections or not. Whoever it had been, that was probably where a sample of the hull had come from. She berated herself for not paying attention, for not asking questions or thinking ahead.
Maybe the old Carth had been right. You really couldn't trust anyone.
"You're breaking intergalactic statutes. These weapons are banned," she said dumbly.
Haytham smirked proudly.
"A unanimous vote from Coruscant."
"And with good reason," Bastila snapped. "I can't think of a more cowardly and sickening way to win a war."
"Cowardly in the same fashion that you and your companions attempted to secretly infiltrate this office and probably murder me?"
The floating simulation before her changed to show a demonstration of the weapon flying towards a ship and detonating, a large section of the vessel flying out like shrapnel and disappearing when it neared the edge of the projection.
Katrina swallowed hard and slammed her hand down on the controls to silence it.
"The Sith I saw..."
'Murdering' seemed too kind a verb for the look she had seen on the man's face in the holovid.
"The Sith I saw on Ruhol's recording- who are they?"
Haytham scoffed.
"Surely you don't think I'm that stupid," he replied after she gave no reaction.
"If you thought I came all this way to be satisfied by a title for the weapon I've already felt the effects of, then yes, you are that stupid."
Haytham sat back down in the chair, folding his arms in front of him. He stared back at her silently.
Enough.
Katrina reached her vibroblade across the desk, pressing it against his throat.
She could feel Bastila and Juhani tense, staring at her as though she were a wild animal that might break free of its weakening chain at any moment.
"I can't kill you. I can get you very close to it, however, unless you tell me what I want to know. Now."
She watched a few beads of perspiration roll down Haytham's brow as he eyed her weapon uncertainly.
"They have infiltrated all of Anellian society," he began quietly, "They have their hands in every political, economic, and social body on the planet. A small way to begin for a rising Sith Lord, but an effective one so far away from the Republic."
"Who's they?"
"I have been aiding them in the economic aspect of their takeover," he continued as if she hadn't said a word. "I don't know exactly how they knew you were still alive or how they found you, but they approached me not long after the Inferno line was banned, demanding the weapons."
"How long have these Sith been present on Anelli?" Bastila murmured.
"No one truly knows. There are rumors that Revan gave them a jump start on her last visit, but they may have been hiding and biding their time even before that."
"Why do they desire to assassinate Revan? Are they unaware that she has turned to the light and is no longer a rival for them?" Juhani added. Haytham shrugged.
"A conversion might threaten them even more. They don't share their political agendas with me."
He sighed, frustrated, and then straightened up, the composed smile coming back to his face.
"This brings me to our little agreement, Revan." He leaned forward conspiratorially.
Katrina reluctantly did the same, although her body language was as if he smelled like a pile of bantha droppings.
"These Sith don't know how to conduct business. They want complete control of the Anellian Mining Corporation. I can already feel them tightening the noose around my neck, trying to oust me from my position. I can't allow that to happen, no matter how powerful they are. But I am no Jedi, and I'm no former Sith Lord. I can't strike against them." He hesitated only a moment, as if it were a brief flash of static in a recorded message. "But you can."
Katrina narrowed her eyes.
Being propositioned for murder seemed as though it would be a daily occurrence in her life. What others couldn't do, they asked of her. What others could never see themselves acting on, they expected her to.
There is no pride, there is only everyone around you constantly reminding you that you can do everything they can't and then getting angry with you when you do.
"Fine." Bastila's jaw seemed to literally drop. Katrina eyed her, trying to will the Jedi to compose herself.
The lectures would come later. And Bastila was probably also under the mistaken impression that a promise to kill the Sith was a lie.
Haytham raised an eyebrow at her easy agreement.
"Well...I'm glad you see things my way. In reality it benefits us both-"
"And now, Haytham, tell me the identities of the Sith." Her voice was cold and unyielding. But she wasn't going to wait any longer.
It hadn't been over with Faris, and it hadn't been over with Ruhol. It hadn't even ended upon finding this smug businessman Haytham.
But she was going to end it. She was tired, and she wanted to go home, to Carth.
Haytham seemed to sweat more, his slicked-back hair looking a little wilder from his man-handling, and wrinkles Katrina hadn't noticed before beginning to appear in the lines of his cheeks.
Katrina felt his fear, and lowered her weapon.
"They're politicians," he said in a heavy voice, looking around the room wildly.
Bastila and Juhani glanced around as if searching for whatever he seemed to be getting so concerned about.
"There are two politicians that are suspects," Katrina added.
"Two?" Haytham gasped, grabbing at his shirt collar. "Is it warm in here?"
Katrina glanced around. Nothing had changed in the room.
Nothing except that it was now rank with fear, anger, and hate, as odious as any other foul stench.
She drew her weapon, looking around warily. Haytham clutched at his throat. They were trying to silence him.
"They've been betrayed-" he choked out. "Abbas and Sakh, and-" He fell out of the chair and onto the ground, unable to speak, grasping wildly at his throat as if the hand clenching it closed was tangible and could be pried off.
Dustil looked strained. He held out his lightsaber, stepping carefully in a large circle around and around the room.
He looked more afraid than any of them.
The door behind them burst open in a small explosion of smoke and blaster fire. Katrina stood over Haytham, coughing and straining to see through the fog.
Canderous and HK came barreling through it, firing their blasters wilding at the billowing gray clouds.
"Revan!" he yelled, rolling something across the ground to her. Katrina dove to retrieve it.
It was her lightsaber. She quickly tossed the vibroblade behind her, eying the Mandalorian quizzically.
"Found it on some unlucky guard out there. You're going to need it."
The smoke finally began to clear, and Katrina saw the outlines of two red blades coming towards them.
She would need it. Abbas and Sakh, the rising Sith, stood before her.