They looked so powerful, in their simple understated robes. She wondered if it was a uniform, or if there were ranks within that different robes denoted-
"Revan?"
She looked up, returning her mother's gaze evenly. It said what normal mothers simply spoke: Eat your food.
She dug her fork into her food with renewed vigor, smirking across the table at Phineas.
And the strange metal devices that hung from their belts; they carried no blasters, demolitions, or vibroblades. The devices must have been weapons. She admired the clean, sleek design of them and wondered if she would ever get to see how they were used-
"I do work hard for this food, Revan, so if you don't want it, I ask that you tell me before I waste it."Her mother did not betray annoyance- she simply went on eating her own meal, watching Revan with more curiosity than motherly concern.
Revan smiled.
"I met a Jedi today, Mother." Phineas paused in the middle of his drink.
"A Jedi?" Nura replied, nonplussed, as if Revan had said 'the janitor' or 'a protocol droid'.
"A few of them, actually."
"The Jedi are here to investigate the presence of Force sensitive individuals on Anelli," Phineas added quickly. "There are rumors that my mentor for the Junior Committee program, Committee Member Abbas, was once involved with them."
Revan rolled her eyes. Her brother rarely said anything nowadays that didn't sound like a press release or didn't contain the word 'Committee'.
"Rumors are often false," Nura replied, beginning to cough.
"They want to see me again. Me and Malak." Even as she said it, she found it as incredible as she had earlier today- one moment she was just a ten-year old girl, coming home from school with her thin and pale friend. The next she and said friend were suddenly the interests of the Jedi, with a promise to meet again on their way home from school the next day.
Malak seemed more nervous and afraid than excited, wary of anything giving him more notice than one gave a piece of furniture.
She, on the other hand, was fighting to keep from dancing around the table with child-like glee she hadn't shown since she was five.
"They think you're Force sensitive?" Phineas said, his calm and bipartisan tone immediately breaking into a derisive older brother's voice.
Nura's eyes were bloodshot and Revan watched her mother inject herself with a medpac under the table, trying and failing to hide the moment of weakness from her children.
"No." Best that she keep those particular pipe dreams to herself for a while.
"Today I was picked to present the case of the miners of Delre," her brother began dismissively."They claim that their mine is not being adequately kept up and it will fall within a matter of years." Nura nodded, her hand shaking slightly as she took another bite.
"I know. I watched it."
Phineas sat up straight.
"You did? I didn't know they broadcast the Junior Committee exercises-"
"You didn't win the case." Revan felt as though someone had jabbed a sharp stick in her side. But it was not her side that ached.
Was this what the Jedi were talking about? Was this the Force?
Phineas didn't move.
"Yes…Yes, they failed to get support for their claims. But an investigation has been started."
Nura breathed through her mouth now, loud and raspy.
Her mother was sick. That much Revan knew, but she couldn't very well ask her mother 'what's wrong' or 'how can I help you'.
"You'll do better on your next case," she replied flatly, sitting back in her chair for a moment and staring at the food as if it were to blame.
Revan inspected it too, wondering why she didn't feel sick. She couldn't think of anything that might weaken her mother and not infect her and Phineas; and the rest of Anelli, and the rest of the galaxy.
Nura rose abruptly from her chair, passing them and retreating into the bedroom.
She sat in silence with Phineas for a moment, shoving her food around her plate.
She felt like she had a bruise on her shin and someone kept pressing into it with their fingertips. But it wasn't her shin that ached.
Little hiccupping noises came from across the table, and she looked in the direction of the bedroom, wondering if it was her mother, if she should do something.
It took a moment before she realized the noises were coming from Phineas. He clenched his fork in exactly the position it had been when Nura had left the room, but his other hand was now halfway through his dark brown hair, knocking it out of it's usual straight lines and making strands stick out in random directions off his forehead.
He stared at the middle of the table as if he could burn a hole through it.
She felt as though she wanted to do the same, even though it wasn't her eyes that burned, that felt wet.
"Phinny-" she began slowly, with a nickname she hadn't used since she was too young to even know her own name. "Are you crying?"
The verb had no place in this house- where no one had cried since not knowing there was a word for that too. But she could see the wet lines on Phineas's cheeks, saw how tired his eyes were with a red tint that didn't come from illness.
She got up and walked over to him.
She felt as though she wanted to hug him, to make him stop crying, to make him become her arrogant older brother again, even though her arms refused to lift.
He stood up quickly, resting his fists on the table, breathing slowly.
"Why are you crying?" She couldn't keep the shock out of her voice, the disgusting way her lips spat out the word 'crying'.
She felt as though she wanted to throttle him, to get him out of her sight, to make him smaller than her, even though it wasn't her hand that turned and lifted to shove him back into his chair.
Revan felt a small jolt, and stumbled backward but stayed upright.
It surprised her as much as it did Phineas, who stood staring at his own hand as if it was a malfunctioning droid. He had been able to do it before, mostly when she was irritating or teasing him; he would somehow shove her back onto the couch or the chair she was sitting in without ever touching her.
But now nothing had happened. She hadn't plopped down onto the floor. There was no giggling over how his strange power had made her tumble clumsily back onto a chair.
She had only taken a step backwards. Was this what the Jedi were talking about? Was this the Force?
He tried again. She only felt a slight pressure on her chest, and did not move at all.
There was a difference; he had never done it with the intention to hurt her, to make her smaller. To throttle, or to get me out of his sight.
Phineas inhaled deeply, dropping his hand back down to his side and retreating into another room.
Revan felt as though she wanted to be better than him, to be able to knock him down as he had once been able to do to her.
Even though she was a ten-year-old interest of the Jedi, already on her way there.
Like the Endar Spire nearly two years ago, she wasn't exactly awakened to sweet nothings.
At first it was just a low rumbling, like the normal creaking of the Hawk. She rolled over, crossing her arms over her chest, trying not to over-analyze the vision she had just had, trying to ignore it.
Next was a physical jolt, shoving her up against the cold steel walls that held up her bunk, forcing her eyes to open whether they wanted to or not.
Katrina quickly pushed herself up, walking at a brisk pace towards the cockpit.
"Cease fire, Fornia Security, repeat, cease fire! We have come peacefully!" Bastila sounded more irritated than frightened as she transmitted the message again.
The now-familiar reddish colored sky spread before her, lighting up the cockpit with a sort of ethereal orange glow. She could now recognize the skyline of Fornia, make out the outline of the Fornia Demolitions plant in the distance, the high and reaching spires of the government offices.
A small fighter swept past them, rocking the ship with its proximity and speed.
"Perhaps we should move out towards the rural areas and make our way to the city on foot," Zaalbar growled, punching a few buttons to silence a beeping alarm.
"They're just going to throw us in some cell and let us rot if we try to land in the city anyways," Mission added.
No. That was running away. And she was not running away again.
"They can try," she murmured back to the Twi'lek, leaning over Bastila to press the comm again.
"We will land peacefully and be taken into custody, Fornia Security. I have matters to discuss with the Committee."
The fighter that replied stopped firing, but Katrina knew without looking at the sensors that the small ships had them surrounded, and would escort her into the dock and to the government offices.
There would be no chance to escape, no second attempt at getting it right.
"Then I hope, Ebon Hawk," the fighter replied, "That you have a good lawyer."
Canderous landed the ship neatly in the same dock they had been in before, and they turned to Katrina with expectant eyes.
She suddenly felt like the leader of some hideous cult that would slit their own wrists if she gave the go-ahead.
"Caution: Master, the Fornian Security forces intend on arresting you. They will in all probability impound the ship and put the crew in holding cells until the Committee decides upon a sentence," HK said with a slight hint of derision in his modulated voice, as if she should have realized that and taken appropriate aggressive action already.
"We have plenty of evidence against Sakh and…" No, not yet. "And the rest of the Sith on Anelli." She waved her datapad in the air as proof.
"With luck, they'll be too busy debating to remember the charges against us and won't notice we've left the planet until it's all over."
'Over' did not mean the end. There would be no end. But 'over' didn't mean kill either. She didn't know what it would mean.
"What's to stop them from coming after us?" Canderous murmured. Katrina eyed the grip he had on his blaster and pitied the guard that would have to relieve him of it.
"Anellian law doesn't include extradition procedures, or going out of the jurisdiction of their own system. So long as we clear the system before they get to us, they'll say 'good riddance' and go on with their lives."
"Just so long as we never come back," Bastila added.
She hadn't thought of that. The fact that, no matter how today ended, she would probably never see him again.
One way or another.
Her lack of anger towards him both unnerved and comforted her. But love is more dangerous than all those things, apprentice.
Someone had said it on Korriban; Uthar? Yuthura? Sith who were long dead or long gone.
Thinking of Korriban made her think of the Sith made her think of Dustil.
Her Padawan (she would have to get used to thinking that those two words equaled Dustil Onasi) stood behind her, watching her with careful eyes as if waiting for her to do something he could imitate.
All she did was turn and walk towards the gangplank, followed by everyone else. He couldn't do anything else but follow as well.
A security team waited for them, lined up like soldiers being inspected at the end of the gangplank.
"Crew of the Ebon Hawk, you have been indicted with crimes against the planet of Anelli, including multiple murder charges, breaking and entering, and damage to property. You are to be taken before the Committee immediately for a preliminary hearing."Katrina nodded.
"Good." The guard only stared at her.
"Your weapons, please."
She considered hiding her lightsaber for a moment, maybe tricking him into believing she had already given it to him, considering what had happened the last time she had foolishly handed over her weapon.
But as had happened frequently on this world, Anellians were hard headed people that weren't easily tricked. She might fool him, but she doubted she could fool every other guard on the detail and every one that would follow.
She handed it over somewhat begrudgingly, keeping the datapad tight in her grip as if he would try to take that from her too.
The security team surrounded them, half around the droids, Mission, and Zaalbar, and the other half around the rest.
"Hey, where do you think you're drawing this line, huh? Humans and the rest of us?" Mission said indignantly, shoving the hand of one of the guards off of her.
"The rest of your crew was not involved in the crimes you are charged with. The Committee wishes to question the Jedi and the Mandalorian alone."
The guard examined Katrina's lightsaber carefully, as if whatever he was looking for was hidden in its smooth metal casing.
"There was another Jedi, a Cathar-"
She braced herself, ready for Dustil. Nothing came, and she was oddly disappointed.
"She did not survive our return," Katrina answered flatly.
The guard nodded again respectfully.
"The Committee does not wish to question you either, Jedi apprentice," he said to Dustil.
'Apprentice' sounded like it meant 'evil', 'mutant', 'disfigured'. She swallowed, again watching Dustil for reactions.
"He's my Padawan," she finally said, testing the words between her lips and found that they weren't any harder to say than 'Carth's son'. "If you question me, you question him."
The guard didn't object, apparently as fair and unbiased to their criminals as they were to anyone else with opposing views.
"Good luck, Master Jedi," a voice called from the entry way to the dock.
She glanced over at the port authority officer she had first met upon landing here. He smirked at her and she smiled ruefully at the sky as if it were to blame.
"You'll forgive me if I don't pay the docking fee this time." He nodded as if he understood. She doubted he did.
The government offices were as busy as ever, but the crowds quieted and parted respectfully for them.
She wondered that no one threw anything or shouted death threats at her. Surely some of those officers she had killed, albeit Sith in disguise, were residents of Fornia? Surely some of them had friends and family?
If any of them did, none were here to persecute her. Apparently that was the job of the Committee.
The guards led her straight to the chambers. One opened the door, waiting patiently for her to enter.
"Jedi Revan. We did not expect your return." It was as cordial as her first visit. Katrina wondered how long the atmosphere would remain that way. She could feel suppressed anger like an itchy piece of clothing around the room, so pervasive that even if Sakh or the late Abbas had been in the room, she might not be able to sense them.
The voice was rough like leather but not cruel. It was not over-confident, brimming with golden assurance. It was not him.
She relaxed a little, stepping into the spotlight without any hesitation.
"I won't waste your valuable time, members of the Committee. I have information regarding the illegal activities of some of your members." One of the members cleared his throat loudly.
"Yes…you'll forgive us if Committee Member Abbas is not here to review your evidence."
The memory of his yellowing skin and white hair, how silently his body had slipped over the railings in Delre and plummeted into nothingness.
Katrina tried to remind herself that the Committee did not have this image of their colleague, that they could not immediately look at him and label him "evil Sith" as she had.
"This datapad contains messages of a Sith nature sent from Committee Member Abbas to Committee Member Sakh." She heard no indignant cries. If Sakh was there among the shadows, he made no indication of shock towards her accusations.
"These messages refer to a relationship akin to master and apprentice between Abbas and Sakh respectively," Bastila added. "We also have further testimony as to the location in which they carried out these Sith activities, which were conducted and hidden at an abandoned mining venture in the city of Delre, near one of Abbas's private estates. We also have evidence that Abbas once owned this mine-"
"Do you have information pertaining to the death of Abbas?" the voice asked calmly, as if they hadn't said a word.
"We have a recording of a man being brutally murdered by two cloaked Sith, presumably Abbas and Sakh. We offer it up for your records to see if you have anything else on the murder of this unknown man-"
"I ask again, Jedi Revan." The voice seemed to lose its composure for a slight moment, crossing the line from firm suggestion to livid force. "Do you have information pertaining to the death of Abbas?"
'Death' immediately sounded like 'murder'.
"We tracked the Sith to Abbas's private estate and engaged them. Abbas was critically wounded in battle-"
"Battle?" A derivise snort came from the far left of the room.
"That old man could barely hold a gavel!"
"We have no proof of his death-"
"What do you want, his body before you?"
The Committee erupted into a loud internal argument, and she stood frozen for a moment. Two hands briefly wandered into the spotlight, stretching out to silence the others for a moment.
"And the rest, Jedi Revan?" the voice demanded.
"The ideology of the Sith is superiority. Abbas was defeated, and thought he could go undefeated if he took his own life. He jumped over an access platform and fell to his death in the abandoned mining caverns."
The Committee exploded in outrage and loud debates. The noise bounced hard off the walls, making their words turn into unintelligible static.
"I know these facts may be hard to face-" she yelled over the din. They ignored her.
"Members of the Committee, listen!" she tried again.
The noise finally died down, but she could see the arms and hands of many of the Committee members near the edge of the spotlight, leaning forward over their large podium as if physical proximity might make them understand the charges she was bringing against them.
"I also have within the contents of this datapad incriminating evidence against the one of the chief corporate officers of the Anellian Mining Corporation-"
"Haytham-" One of the Committee Members was instantly shushed.
Their usual composure and intimidating presense was somewhat muddled, and it seemed more like she was facing a very tall table of shocked citizens rather than the strength and might and wisdom of the Committee with a capital C.
"There is a communication between Haytham and one of the Sith regarding the purchase of an illegal line of demolitions, the Inferno line which had been galactically banned through a mandate from Coruscant itself," Bastila said.
"And does this communication refer directly to Committee members Abbas or Sakh? Or are these Jedi instincts we are relying upon?"
No, they refer to someone else entirely.
Katrinainhaled deeply, feeling for the first time how many meters there were between herself and Bastila next to her in the spotlight, how many shadows lay between where Dustil and Canderous stood flanked by guards near the entrance.
Him too. He was part of it. Say it.
"A search of Haytham's private files revealed more about the source of the transmission-"
"The response was, 'Understood. Fifty-thousand as promised will be sent when my Lord comes."
"Is there a name with this file?" It had been one of the damaged ones; Katrina could find no source for the fragmented information.
"The transmission originated from this very government office. From the private quarters of Committee Member Phineas."
His name came out much easier than she had prepared for it to be.
The Committee was instantly silent. A pair of hands before her clasped together softly within the light, despite the fact that she was expecting them to grip the ends of the podium, try and rip it apart.
Try and rip her apart.
She could feel shock, anger, and fear all around her. Darkness made their reactions invisible but the Force made them almost her own.
"Forgive our skepticism, Master Jedi." Her head snapped up violently, as if a puppeteer had yanked on her strings. "But haven't you any real proof?"
She knew that voice.
And by now she knew exactly which dark form to glower at.
Katrina stood silently for far longer than she should have.
"I think you're a little biased to be rejecting this evidence." His presence seemed so obvious now, like a bright red blot on a white sheet.
"I think you're a little biased to be presenting it." The first person reference snapped like a wounded animal.
Hearing his voice made her think of him made her think of the mask and the outstretched hands made her think of Dustil stalking towards Abbas, red blade in hand made her think of Juhani's feeble grip and slow dissolve made her think of him lying on the landing platform at her mercy made her think of how he had betrayed her.
She heard a slight cracking sound as the datapad began to bend unnaturally beneath her fingers. She loosened her grip.
"I ask that the Committee disregard the council of Committee Member Phineas." His name was harder now, coming out as a single rumbling syllable rather than the smooth three it was comprised of. "He is one of the accused, and you can't possibly-"
"Twice before you have charged into our chambers and presumed to tell the Committee how its business should be conducted," the gruff, older voice that had greeted her at the beginning now returned, incensed. "The Committee would thank you to let it manage its own affairs."
Katrina swallowed hard, gripping her datapad against her chest as if it were an energy shield.
There is no brother, there are no personal feelings.
"I apologize for my conduct, but if you would just-"
"The Committee has given you leeway to the fullest extent of our laws, Jedi Revan. We do not persecute or prejudice for crimes that are in no way connected with our planet."
She bit her tongue on the rebukes she usually reserved for people who lived in shells and still considered themselves fair and open-minded.
"But the crimes you have committed in the past months…the audacity of coming before this tribunal with accusations against its own members…these are most definitely within our jurisdiction."
Their icy composure settled over them again like carbonite with the last ringing word.
Behind them a wide viewscreen suddenly opened up, backlighting them and making their outlines solid black shapes up against blinding white. She tried not to stare at the one just off-center, the one with the straight posture and the folded hands.
"Can you explain your actions in this security recording, taped nearly two weeks ago in the restricted offices of the Anellian Mining Corporation corporate offices?"
She very quickly identified herself and the red lightsaber blade following her through the labyrinth offices. Revan and Dustil, slicing their way through guard after guard. The cameras followed them to Haytham's office, to the room full of dead or unconscious guards that had led to it. She watched herself walk past them without a second glance.
She saw Haytham and watched two blades come dangerously close to his throat, one yellow and one blue-
Juhani.
She watched the door explode, the absence of sound somewhat unnerving while watching the intensity of a battle she had survived. The camera shook with the explosion, took a stray blaster shot from Canderous, and the recording ended before either Sith entered the room.
"The tape doesn't show the Sith that came through that door, your Committee members Abbas, Sakh, and Phineas attacking us-" 'Attacking' caused the figure with the straight posture and folded hands to slam said hands on the podium.
"You're my sister!"
Her first reaction was to clench her fist together, wanting to hear the satisfying crunch of muscle and bone between the vice of the Force around his neck.
But the second reaction was to feel Bastila's sudden tense shoulders, Canderous's narrowed, battle-ready eyes.
Dustil's sharp, expectant inhale.
There is no emotion, there is a Padawan watching you, Master.
"You and your companions are charged with the murders or attempted murders of over two dozen men-" the voice plodded ahead.
"Those officers were all Sith in disguise!"
"You have no proof of that," her brother added, mock offense and real delight mixing together to make his words go up and down in pitch.
I want to kill him.
"You are to be tried and convicted, and kept in custody until we can review your claims and sort out the fabrications from the tangible evidence."
No, this was all going wrong.
"And is this the decision of your political body, or the Sith in politician's clothing that sits with you?" Canderous called out from the shadows, eying the guards that were slowly approaching him like flies that had been buzzing around his head too long.
"Enough!" Phineas seemed to have lost all control. His entire upper body stood and thrust over the podium towards them, his face momentarily visible.
She stared back at his wild, sweaty hair, his wide trembling eyes, looking like he had just come in from the battle they had had weeks ago.
The guards pressed up against her, pushing her towards the exit.
Hands from the other members of the Committee came out to pull their comrade back into the shadows, murmuring words of comfort.
"The Committee indeed hopes your claims hold some merit, Jedi Revan," the voice called after her, grave and absolute. "If they do not, your life may not hold much merit either."