Chapter Two: Now you've gone

„Sure we're glad for the experience,
We miss you now you've gone.
We're just swimming in your soul 'cause,
We all wish we wrote this song.
Life goes on."

James Blunt, „So long, Jimmy"

Ebon Hawk, Main Hold

"And then he said… Atton?"

Mira's slightly bewildered voice floated through the room, but the addressed didn't react. He just continued staring at the star map in the center of the room and absentmindedly flipping a pazaak card in his left hand. Mira raised an eyebrow and walked over to the pilot. Visas, who had been accompanying the young bounty hunter remained behind. "What'cha doin' here, flyboy? Jedi-girl playing hard to get?"

Still no reaction, just staring and flipping. "Hey, I'm talkin' to you!"

Then, after some more staring and flipping he said very quietly and very Atton-unlike: "She's gone."

"Who… oh… gone? What d'you mean with "gone" exactly?"

"She is no longer here, Mira. On Citadel Station, I mean. And she has been absent for… quite some time."

Mira spun around to look at Visas. "You knew? Why didn't you tell anyone?"

The Miraluka Jedi turned away a little from her, as she was always a little irritated by Mira's often brash and forward behaviour. "I… was not quite sure. The bond I had felt between us, it was… muffled and… a little worn out somehow after our escape from Malachor V. I could feel she was there but not much more. And… I did not want to spoil your evening."

"Well, looks like someone beat you to it. At least with flyboy over there.", Mira retorted dryly, jerking her thump in Atton's direction. Visas didn't answer and instead went over to where Atton was sitting with the back to them, still brooding. Softly she put a hand on his shoulder, making him jump a little.

"Hey, stop sneaking up behind me. The old witch used to do that, and it creeps me out." He had turned around and gotten up from the booth. Both Mira and Visas were shocked and surprised at seeing his face. There were very clear traces that he had been crying. "What? Stop looking at me like I just spotted tentacles.", he huffed at them.

"There is no need to act uncourteous towards us, Atton.", Visas chastised softly, but before Atton could reply anything, Bao-Dur and Mandalore appeared in the doorway, carrying a pretty drunk Disciple between them. "Did anyone tell him it's not appropriate behavior for a Jedi to get drunk after only four glasses?", Mira commented as dryly as ever.

Bao-Dur chose to make an impassive face while Mandalore mumbled something like "Another remark like that and next time you'll be the one playing his baby sitter." into his gray-red beard. About time he takes off that thing., had been the common thought at the moment Mandalore had been walking down the ramp in the Mandalorian ceremonial armor, but without the helmet. His only reply at the gaping round had been: "How do you suspect me to get drunk good and proper with my helmet on, huh?", and that had closed the mouths.

Now he and the Zabrak carried the passed out Disciple past the remaining crew and dropped him quite unceremoniously on one of the bunks in the males' dormitory. Then they returned to the common area as they both wanted to know what all the commotion from earlier was about.

"So… where's our fearless leader anyway?", Mandalore barged into the common area, and all heads were turned towards him.

After a shock second, Visas finally said: "She is not here anymore." As no one answered anything, Visas felt compelled to elaborate a little: "She left. Citadel Station. And most probably the Telos system at all. It seems that Atton also knew of this." With that she gestured over to him and all heads were turned to him.

He held up his hands in a defensive posture and said wearily: "Hey, what're you all lookin' at me? She just told me she… needed to work some things out on her own… and uh… that she was going to find Revan." He rubbed his neck and looked around as a heavy silence had filled the room. Then suddenly everyone seemed to be talking at once.

"She what?"

"That stupid Jedi…"

"I suppose she has good reasons for it, and we should trust her."

"Leaving her clan like that…"

Still shaken himself and in no mood to be able to abide those ramblings, he hold up a hand and barked a short: "Shut up!" And a little quieter he added: "All of you. She left, and she had a good reason for it. I suppose. But I think she was wrong with one thing: Leaving alone was not a very smart move." It was the longest speech they had heard from Atton since coming back from the party, and the tone he used was slightly disturbing. There wasn't much left of the cocky smart ass they had come to know. Instead before them was a grim and slightly detached young man. A broken man., as Visas observed, and it made her slightly uncomfortable. The pilot with his daring and non-chalant manner had always been the one holding up moral together with Neeneá. Especially when they were acting together. Come to think of it: She was also at her best when he was around.

"Spoken true, Rand. Did she explain why she had to do this alone?", Mandalore asked him, but Atton looked away, saying: "She has, but I'd prefer it to… keep that to myself."

Mandalore wanted to say something but Visas bet him to it, feeling that Atton had withdrawn himself too much now to be of any further help. The young man was clearly shell-shocked and needed to rest immediately. "I have to advise strongly against questioning Atton further, Mandalore. My senses tell me that he has to rest. I suggest we all retire and postpone any discussions until all of us are fit enough to attend."

For a moment there was silence, and she could see the shifting in everyone's auras. The bright red of Mira flickered a little, which was accompanied by a suppressed yawn, and the red grew a little duller. The huntress was tired, even if she tried to conceal it. The engineer's bright green one had already been dulled when he had entered the ship and was now only simmering, while the dark bronze one of the Mandalorian pulsed violently as usual, but even this pulsating was weaker than when they had entered the officer's mess some hours ago. And finally, Atton's blue aura, usually tinged with silver spots now and then - when the Exile was around him, Visas admitted in her mind – had changed into dimmed blue with occasional dark blurs appearing in it. It worried her the most, and she made a mental note to meditate about this immediately.

The moment of silence was gone, and everyone had agreed on her suggestion. After half an hour of bustling around the dormitories and the 'freshers, quietness overtook the Ebon Hawk.

Telos, Atris' former stronghold

She didn't quite know what to search for, only that she had felt a strong pull towards this place once again. As she exited the small freighter she had purchased only hours before Admiral Onasi's party and had named Moon Shadow, T3 was warbling behind her, expressing his worries as to her coming back to the now abandoned complex. She turned and smiled at the little droid. "Don't worry, I'll come back in one piece. Try to fix that stabilizer, it will keep you occupied, it'll take your mind of the worrying. You won't even notice that I'm gone." With that she left the ship and started walking into the compound.

It felt strange being here again, and there were a lot of things she would rather be doing. Such as racing back to Citadel Station and… no, stop going there., she told herself. She knew she had to do this because there just wasn't any other way she would get the information she needed. When she had stepped out of the ship she had know what exactly she was doing here. A blush of shame started to warm her face, and she stopped just for a second to close her eyes and draw a deep breath. Yes, she needed to find Revan, but she hadn't told Atton the whole story.

Carefully she made her way through the deserted corridors of Atris' academy, shivering at the icy cold that had penetrated to building. The archive… she needed to get into the archive. Or at least somewhere she had access to the data Atris had been collecting here.

She rounded a corner, and there it was. A terminal. Just what she needed. Quickly she made her way over to it and tried to access it, but didn't succeed. She tried another three times then pulled out her comlink slightly frustrated. "T3, I think you should put fixing that stabilizer on a hold. I've got something here that should be far more interesting for you." The droid only warbled and beeped a short sentence that could be translated best with "See, I told you." and then told her he'd be on his way.

Knowing there wasn't anything to do but to wait she went through her plan just another time. She had told Atton she would go and look for Revan, but what she hadn't told him was why exactly, because it would have taken too great a deal to elaborate. And it would have tipped him off where to search for her very easily. And it would have to involve talking about what exactly had happened on their second visit to Dantooine. She closed her eyes. Yes, she had told him something, but not everything, and she hadn't been even remotely ready for that.

Telling him about what the council had been about to do and how it had made her feel and what Kreia had done would have been just too much. She still didn't want Atton to know how close she had been to losing it when they had told her they were going to cut her off the Force for good, or that for just one moment she actually had been grateful for what Kreia had done to them, even smug and satisfied. Even now it horrified her having felt those things.

And that was why she needed to do what she was about to do. When she had woken up from fainting, she had actually found the courage to take a last closer look to the masters Kreia had brought to the ground, and was deeply disturbed and surprised. They weren't dead like she had thought they would be but completely empty. Lifeless, yes, empty of the Force, yes, but not dead. That had been where she had made her decision. When everything would be over, when she was still alive by the end of it she would set out to find a way of curing the masters. It was the least she could do for them, if she hadn't been able to stop Kreia.

When she had faced Atris a second time, she had taken her time after defeating her. Atris and her remaining handmaidens had left, but the archive still had been there. But because the whispering of the Sith holocrons had been almost deafening and her shipmates had been waiting for her on the Hawk she only had time for a short glimpse into the archives. What she had seen had told her that she wouldn't be able to fix the masters by herself, but that she needed someone who had been taught by Kreia as well and was as powerful as her. And that was Revan.

The cheerful beeping of T3 was cutting through her thoughts. She got up again and smiled at the droid. Motioning him over to the terminal she told him to try and get access to the archive files. After three failed tries T3 gave up, making his mournful "Dwoooo…" sound. Her face fell a little but she tried not to let her disappointment show in her voice. "Well, then we just need to continue deeper into the academy, huh?"

T3 just hooted in acknowledgment and followed her when she started moving again. After a short run they found themselves in the same chamber where she had battled Atris last time. Strangely enough the Sith holocrons had all disappeared. Goose bumps started to crawl up her body, and her Jedi senses suddenly were sharpened tenfold. And yes, there it was. A dark taint, enveloping the whole chamber, the whole academy. Why hadn't she felt it before? Had it been too faint even for her? As if on cue a cold wind swept through the room, and a very faint voice said: "Come, little Jedi. Come and get me."

Her breath hitched in her chest, and her heart beat accelerated for quite some beats. Whose voice was that? Who was playing a game with her? She hadn't even been able to make out if the voice had been male or female, human or alien. Standing completely still she dipped deeper into the Force, trying to find a signature, a bump in the Force, just anything that would tell her who was behind this all. But there was nothing. Only the feeling that she wasn't done saving the galaxy by a long shot.

Cursing under her breath she made a decision. Searching for Revan would have to wait now. At first she had to find out where the Sith holocrons had disappeared to and who had taken them. And to whom in all the Stars the voice belonged she had just heard. Briefly she thought about taking the ship back to Citadel Statio and collect her crew and ship but somehow she had the feeling that this whole affair was way too dangerous to bring anyone with her except her own. Well, that and T3, that was.

Taking a deep breath, she found her center and steadied herself. Then she told the droid beside her that they would be going to… Korriban, she said. She didn't know where that had come from but suddenly she knew with absolute certainty that she needed to go to Korriban again. Well then, Korriban it is., she thought grimly while starting to run back to the Moon Shadow.

A/N: Oi, second chapter! And people, don't try to fool me, I know you are reading this story (bless that "Hits"-feature again and again), least you could do was leave a review behind, even if you didn't like it. But hey, I had one reviewer, though not here:

Akeera - Thank you for your review, even if it was submitted via my weblog (just look at the bottom left next next time you finish a chapter, there's a little case with a button saying "submit review go" ;)). Of course this wasn't a one-shot, 'cause I'm not very good at them ;) No, seriously, I have great plans with that story, I just don't know the details yet. Just try to stay with the story :) And thanks for your hint concerning the Sith at the end, once I worked up a little courage I'll try, I promise ;)