Disclaimer: Not mine. Not the plot, not the characters, not basically anything.
Author's Notes: I had a chapter fifteen written up about half way done then I got Manga5Lore's very long review and realized that I needed to rewrite it. I have about two pages worth of responses that I will add later to answer that review. Thanks for the construction criticism. :)
Also, now we're onto Tatooine where we meet our favorite droid… oh I am going to have fun writing HK… -excited shiver-
XxXxX
Chapter Fifteen: Desert PlanetSand… everything was sand. As far as she could see there was sand. These were the dune seas of Tatooine, an unlivable desert sea as far as the eyes could see. But this was where it was. This is where the Star Map was.
The unconscious thought floated through her mind as to how lucky she was that it hadn't taken them more than a few days to travel here. She could feel the dark energy rolling out from the cave behind her. Where the krayt dragon guarded its precious treasure.
It will soon be my treasure, she thought. She smirked as she concocted her plan, only a bantha's grunt to interrupt her thoughts…
XxXxX
Alaanis Pi rolled over in her bed, halfway to falling off. Groaning, she sat up, her vision foggy from sitting up too quickly.
It had been two days since they had left Kashyyyk and they had just landed on Tatooine while the crew, bar Carth piloting the ship, had slept.
Looking around the starboard dormitory, Alaanis yawned noticing her surroundings. Bastila was in the center of the room meditating. Juhani and Mission's beds were empty. Checking her chrometer to make sure she hadn't slept too late, Alaanis stood up and pulled out some clothes and her jedi robes, heading to the door.
"Another dream?" Bastila said coolly. She had been speaking in such a manner since their last discussion about Carth. Alaanis had tried to shrug it off, but Bastila obviously knew that Alaanis had been lying.
"You saw it too, do you really need my description?" Alaanis asked, leaning against the wall and yawning again. It hadn't been a peaceful night's sleep to say the least. All three dreams had brought uneasy slumber.
"Different points of views interpret differently," Bastila stated simply. "I'm just looking to gather all the information we need."
"Well, simple enough my thoughts told me that we had traveled for a few days worth, it was in a krayt dragon's cave, obviously it was in the dune seas, and there were banthas around," Alaanis explained. "Not that that narrows anything down considering there are tons of banthas and tons of dune sea on Tatooine. And many settlements. How do we know Anchorhead is the right settlement?"
"I did not choose this exact landing," Bastila admitted, her eyes closed still. "It must be the will of the Force. It has guided us to two Star Maps already. It is always guiding us."
Alaanis shrugged. She didn't want to get too philosophical before downing some caffa and heading to the 'fresher.
XxXxX
Bastila had decided not to stay in the dormitory for long. She felt different when she meditated on the Ebon Hawk. It was odd. Not like back on Dantooine where everyone else was jedi and she usually meditated along. Not like on the Endar Spire where she shared quarters with about a dozen other jedi. And not like on Taris where the decaying planet teemed with life, filled with so many emotions. It was difficult to take it all in at once.
Walking past the engine room, the young jedi spotted Juhani meditating, her back to the doorway. Her head was bent forward, her legs crossed and her arms folded. She didn't seem peaceful though. Something was plaguing her thoughts.
"Do you mind if I join you?" Bastila asked the Cathar.
"Not at all Bastila, come in," Juhani answered, lifting an arm to usher Bastila in. The slightly older jedi sat down to Juhani's right. "It is a peaceful place to meditate in here with the hum of the engines. Does it not remind you of the streams of Dantooine?"
"I did not usually meditate by the streams, but yes it is rather peaceful," Bastila noted. "You don't seem peaceful though. Is everything alright?"
Juhani opened her eyes and looked over at Bastila. "I cannot help but feel the emotions as they roll inside of me. The anger and despair of such things outside peaceful Dantooine. I had lived in the world before of course, as a slave and it made me bitter. I cannot help but hold this bitterness in my heart as much as it conflicts with being a jedi.
"How does she do it?" Juhani said quietly. "How does Alaanis act honestly and yet not defy her role as a jedi? She does these good things… and yet it's selfless. She received no reward."
"I do not know Juhani," Bastila replied with a shrug. "I am unsure myself. But I am not sure if she is the ideal jedi. She… defies the council's wishes and is headstrong. I admire her though."
"The council is wise but they are not all powerful," Juhani declared. "I feel so ashamed when I see her… it reminds me constantly of my fall." She turned away from Bastila. "I was so weak. I let my emotions control me. How does one keep such things in check though? Anger… vengeance… when I saw the Wookies held captive on Kashyyyk it took all of my power not to drive Czerka from the planet single-handedly and free the Wookies."
The Cathar smiled. "But it was done by the end." She turned back to Bastila. "Am I wrong to wish vengeance upon those who have harmed me? Those who have harmed the weak?"
"It is in the nature of your people Juhani," Bastila answered. "You cannot help but be a Cathar. As much as Alaanis and I cannot help but be human. Despite the good deeds she does, it is a battle for us all, to face the dark side and fight it. It's fought in our minds and hearts… not with the lightsaber or blaster."
"I suppose so," Juhani said quietly. "But I am jedi. I am supposed to be above such things." The self-hatred Juhani was harboring was evident through her expression.
Alaanis came ambling into the room as this point. "We are not almighty. We learn self-discipline and we try to be the best jedi we can be. That's all we have to do is try and fight the dark side within. As difficult as it is, we must accept that we're not perfect."
Bastila and Juhani both stared as the older jedi sat down on Juhani's left. Her hair was wet from the 'fresher and her skin was glistening, still covered in a soft layer of water. "I thank you both," Juhani said quietly. "Perhaps now I am peaceful enough to meditate."
"You can count on us," Alaanis told her. "When you feel you are losing it, use us. Draw upon our force auras. We'll help you out."
Juhani smiled and the three jedi crossed their legs, closed their eyes, and lost themselves in their connections to the force.
XxXxX
Around midday everybody finally found their way into the common room. Carth had walked up from the cockpit and was standing off to the side, Zaalbar was assisting Mission in making a computer spike on their usual couch, Juhani and Bastila found their way to the other couch, and Jolee, Canderous and Alaanis were sitting in chairs around the room, Canderous looking rather lazy as he pulled out one of his Mandalorian pistols and began examining it.
"So what are we sitting around for?" Jolee grumbled. "Don't we have a Star Map to search for here?"
Alaanis exchanged a glance with Bastila and then turned to look back at the rest of the room. She explained the dream they had shared. Mission cocked her head to one side. "What if the krayt dragon's still there? I mean… you may have killed a rancor, but I doubt the dragon's going to be very easy."
"We'll deal with that when we get there," Alaanis answered.
"Hunting is a sport around here," Bastila interjected. "Perhaps someone is eager enough to kill a krayt dragon?"
"How about we started with getting off the ship?" Carth muttered.
"Well, we'd be a rather odd bunch if all of us went," Alaanis decided. "And we don't want to draw much attention to ourselves. Perhaps a few of us should stay on the ship?"
"I'm not staying, I have business here," Mission declared with folded arms and a stubborn look.
"Well who wouldn't mind not coming?" Alaanis asked the room at large.
Canderous scoffed. "A world of sand isn't much of interest to me. Nothing worth doing here. Czerka will soon find they made a mistake coming here to mine the land. This world is a heap of garbage. I'm surprised that your star map is here in the first place."
"The star maps are thousands of years old," said Bastila. "Tatooine probably wasn't always a dune sea."
Alaanis sighed. "But where would we look first? Honestly, I doubt Czerka knows anything about it, much less cares, and most people living in this settlement haven't been here long enough to know or care."
"There are the jawas and the sandpeople," Carth told her. "They've been here a long time."
"How would we communicate with the sand people? It's not really a language course available at many universities or at jedi temples," Alaanis reminded him. The room was quiet temporarily.
":They must have a droid shop here. Maybe they have a protocol droid who can interpret the language:" Zaalbar suggested. Bastila translated for those who did not speak his language.
Alaanis mused for a moment. "That could work."
Carth gave her a look. "The sandpeople aren't much for negotiations you know. And I doubt they're very happy considering Czerka came and took over their territory."
"They've been shoving the jawas around and slaughtering the sandpeople… when they aren't killed first," Juhani added. "The sandpeople are vicious. I doubt we'll get close enough to talk to them."
'Well, like it's been said, how about we just get off the ship first?" Alaanis asked again. The room quieted again and everybody turned towards Alaanis. "So who's coming with me?" Mission was about to say something before she was interrupted. "Yeah I know you're coming Mission."
"We need to restock our supplies," Juhani stated. "I'll go and collect some new supplies."
":I shall stay behind on the ship:" Zaalbar declared. ":T3 needs some repairs. Perhaps you could pick up some parts at a droid shop:"
Alaanis nodded her head. "Will do." Jolee, Bastila and Carth all agreed to come as well as Juhani, Alaanis and Mission. Grabbing her oversize hunter green bag, Alaanis led the group off the ship and were greeted immediately by a Czerka representative.
Alaanis made some small talk with the Czerka representative, asking about their mining work. Canderous had been right when he said they wouldn't find anything. The Czerka representative finally left the group with a map of Anchorhead and the demand of a small docking fee. Carth wrangled up fifty credits and the six walked out of the hangar, map in hand.
"Okay… so the droid shop is near the gate to the dune seas," Alaanis noted, looking intently at the map. "The Czerka office is on the right here not too far from the hangar. Then a bit further away on the right is a swoop track and next door to it is the cantina. Across the way is the hunting lodge. Then there are some other Czerka buildings, but most look like they're for employees. Oh and then next door to the main Czerka office is a Czerka supply shop with a Czerka repair shop next door to that." She scoffed. "They don't hold back much do they?"
"So where to first then?" Carth asked her.
"I think we should split up to get things done quickly," Juhani suggested. "Bastila and I can buy the supplies while you go into the Czerka office. Then we will meet in the droid shop to get what Zaalbar needs for T3 and perhaps a protocol droid if necessary."
"That sounds good, anybody object?" Alaanis questioned. Nobody said anything so Alaanis assumed there were no objections. "Okay then… let's go."
It was a very short walk to the Czerka office, store and repair shop from the hangar as Alaanis had declared it would be. Juhani and Bastila branched off to go into the Czerka supply store while Alaanis, Carth, Jolee and Mission arrived in the Czerka main office.
The office was rather bland with a large 'Czerka Corporation Main Office' sign hanging on a bleak wall behind a large semi circular desk where a man was sitting, flipping through files on a computer consoles with a whole mess of datapads lying around. There were a couple employees standing off to the side of the desk, obviously waiting to talk to the man behind the desk. There were some shelves holding books such as Czerka and You and Czerka's Tatooine Plan sitting on them along with some brochures. Mission walked over and started sifting through a brochure. Alaanis peeked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. Czerka was trying to make Tatooine sound like a leading urban planet… like the 'Coruscant of the outer rim' as the brochure stated.
On the left side of the room was a woman who appeared to be in her mid thirties with short brown hair and a sour look on her face. She was talking with an Ithorian.
":Why must Czerka repeatedly attack the sandpeople, can you not negotiate:" the Ithorian asked the woman. She must've been the head of the Czerka team… or at least in the small building.
"The sandpeople leave us no choice when they attack us," the woman said, sighing exasperatedly. "We didn't ask for them to attack us sir, we just have to fight back in return."
":Retaliation won't solve anything, you should have at least tried talking with them:" the Ithorian said grumpily before leaving the office. The Czerka representative groaned and shook her head.
"So many complaints about those damned sandpeople," the woman muttered. Alaanis left Mission with the brochure she was reading and went over to the Czerka representative. The woman looked curiously at Alaanis. "What would you like offworlder? And please don't say you want to complain. We've had enough complaints just this past week to suffice us forever. Ever since e started fighting back with those sandpeople…"
"I'm actually looking for information," Alaanis told her.
The woman's eyes grew slightly suspicious. "What kind of information?"
"Well, there are a few things I'd like to know," replied Alaanis. "I'll start off with an easy one. Do you have an employee named Griff here? A Twi'lek?"
The woman's eyes bugged out for a split second before she began stuttering, "Griff? I don't know any Griff… you must be mistaken. Czerka has no employees named Griff." Alaanis pierced her with a look that plainly said 'yeah right' and the representative sighed. "Yes… Griff is one of our less proud employees. He always skipped his shifts and complained about everything and stole from us. Good riddance he's gone."
Alaanis lifted an eyebrow. "What do you mean he's gone? What happened to him?"
"In retaliation to a group of Czerka guards we sent after the sand people about a week ago, the sandpeople attacked a group of Czerka employees. We found a couple bodies, but no Twi'leks. But then again, we only found about half the employees that were attacked. This was about four days ago now," the woman explained.
"So Griff might just be being held captive by the sandpeople?" Alaanis asked.
The woman snorted. "If he acts anything like he did working under Czerka I wouldn't be surprised if they just killed him to shut him up. They're more known for keeping jawas as slaves than Czerka employees. Did you have other questions?"
"Yes… do you know anything about…" Alaanis thought it probably wasn't the brightest idea to mention a 'star map' unless it was completely necessary. "Do you know anything about a krayt dragon cave nearby?"
The representative nodded. "The hunters often like to challenge each other into hunting a krayt dragon that's been in a cave only a few days travels from the city wall. Nobody's ever succeeded. The dragon's been there for about a decade now, or at least anybody who's been here that long says so. But if you're planning on hunting, you need a license. And they're not giving out anymore anytime soon."
Alaanis' face fell. How the heck would they get into the dune seas then? "I could give you a hunting license though… but only if you help me out," the Czerka woman said. Everybody always wants something in return for our help don't they?
"What would you have me do?" the jedi asked.
"Like I said, the sandpeople are giving us trouble," the woman repeated. "Now… I don't care how you do it, whether you kill them or negotiate with them, whatever works, get them to stay away from ours mines and back off of Anchorhead."
Alaanis frowned. That wouldn't be easy. "How do you think I should go about doing this? And if I wanted to negotiate then how would I speak with them? I don't know the language."
"The droid shop owner, Janis, an Ithorian, boasts that he has a protocol droid that can speak the sandpeople language," the Czerka representative told Alaanis shrugged. "I don't know if it's true but you could ask him about it."
The jedi nodded. "Alright, that works. I'll do it."
"Excellent," the representative smiled. "Also, if you do decide to do this the easy way, bring back some gaffi sticks. There aren't many bounties around here, but I will give you two hundred credits for every gaffi stick you give to me. Think you can do this in three days? The sandpeople camp is about a half a day's journey away. I'll get you a map of course.
"And there are markers on the edge of territory used by Czerka. We recommend you don't pass the markers. Otherwise you may never find your way back considering that area is uncharted." Alaanis handed her journal to the woman who uploaded a map from her own datapad and handed the journal back to the jedi.
"I'll remember that, thanks," Alaanis said nodding.
"Did you have any other questions?" the representative asked with a false smile, but the relieved look on her face was genuine. Thinking a jedi will get the job done easily I guess, Alaanis mused.
"That's it," Alaanis smiled back and turned around to almost walk right into Carth.
"Force Carth!" she exclaimed as he took a step back. "Make some more noise when you stand behind me. I had no clue you were there!"
"Is that my fault?" the pilot smirked at her. Alaanis gave him a look and walked around him. Mission and Jolee were both staring at the brochures, Jolee scowling.
"They're taking the little jawas as slaves to work in the cantinas on this planet," Jolee informed them as Mission put away the brochure entitled The Natives. "They were also talking about the sandpeople as savage beasts. You'd think they were katarns or maalraas by the way they were talking about the sandpeople. Czerka's pretty damn ignorant…"
"Well, we're supposed to either negotiate with the sandpeople or kill them," Alaanis told the group as they walked out of the Czerka office. Alaanis pulled out her journal to look at the map. She didn't see Bastila or Juhani in the supply shop. They were probably already at the droid shop.
"I bet Czerka wants you to kill them," Jolee grumbled.
"Probably," mumbled Alaanis.
Mission took a step in front of Alaanis and started walking backwards to talk with the female jedi. "Did you find out anything about Griff?" the Twi'lek asked curiously.
"Uh… yes…" Alaanis said cautiously.
"And what did you find out?"
"Besides that they think he's a slacker and probably were going to fire him soon anyways… he was caught in a sandpeople raid and is assumed either dead or being held captive," Alaanis said quickly.
"Dead? Captive?" Mission exclaimed. "I hope he's alright…"
Alaanis bit her lip to not say anything else. She was about ready to start trashing Mission's brother to no end by everything Mission, Leena and the Czerka representative had said. But then again, Alaanis had never met Griff. So she couldn't say anything.
"But we still need a protocol droid that can speak the sandpeople language," Carth's voice broke into her thoughts. "The Ithorian that owns the droid shop claims to have such a droid."
"Well, we'll see when we get there," Alaanis stated.
XxXxX
"Salutation: Greetings meatbags!"
Bastila raised an eyebrow at the rust colored droid standing in front of her. He had glowing red photoreceptors and in his hands was a blaster rifle that he looked like he could use quite well.
"'Meatbags'?" Juhani asked the droid curiously. The Ithorian droid shop owner, Janis, was standing off to the side, gathering together the parts Zaalbar had needed for T3.
"Statement: Yes, meatbags," the droid said. "Explanation: Lifeforms such as yourself have all that water and all those squishy innards-"
"We get the picture," Bastila cut him off. What an odd droid.
"Query: Are you going to purchase me?" questioned the droid.
Juhani examined the droid. It looked to be in rather good condition. "Perhaps we will be buying you," the Cathar replied. "Do you speak the sandpeople language?"
"Statement: Yes, meatbag, I do speak the sandpeople language," the droid answered. "I speak many languages." Juhani continued examining the droid, looking to see if anything was obviously wrong. She was no expert with droids and repairs, but she could spot any obvious problems.
The droid, HK-47 as Janis had called it, was in rather good condition. His memory core had suffered some damage, but besides that and a few scratches and dings, he looked to be quite fine.
"Salutation: Greeting meatbags!" HK-47 exclaimed, looking behind Juhani and Bastila to where Alaanis, Carth, Jolee and Mission stood in the doorway.
"'Meatbags?'" Mission repeated the question.
"Statement: Yes, meat-"
"We don't need another explanation," Bastila stopped HK from continuing. "It's his name for lifeforms. With a rather strange explanation."
Alaanis shrugged. "I'll take your word for it. Does it speak the sandpeople language?" Bastila nodded her head and Alaanis began examining the droid like Juhani had.
":It is in quite good condition despite its damaged memory core:" the Ithorian owner Janis told the newcomers. ":Here are the parts you requested.:" He handed Bastila a pile of parts while she then in turn handed Alaanis to stick in her giant bag.
"Query: Will you be purchasing me meatbag?" HK-47 asked.
":He is four thousand credits, a very nice bargain for such a talented droid:" Janis declared.
"Statement: My abilities are more extensive than the Ithorian meatbag knows," HK said. Alaanis snorted. She liked this droid… so far.
"Sure, I guess we'll be buying him," Alaanis nodded her head, pulling out a handful of credit chips from her pocket and giving them to Janis. Janis sealed the deal with Alaanis, and then the group of now seven walked out of the droid shop and headed to the cantina for some lunch.
"Statement: HK-47 is ready to serve."
"So… who owned you before Janis?" Alaanis asked HK curiously.
"Statement: My memory core has suffered some damage. I cannot answer that question," HK declared.
"What are your functions?" Bastila asked the droid.
"Statement: Assassination is my first priority function, and dialects of many organic forms is my second priority," HK explained.
Mission stopped in her tracks. "Whoa… an assassin droid?" She turned to Alaanis. "You just bought an assassin droid? Are you crazy?"
"I probably am, but I didn't know it was an assassin droid," Alaanis shrugged. "You won't kill us without an order directly from me will you?"
"Sorrowful Statement: Without your order, master, I cannot kill," HK answered.
"'Sorrowful'?" Carth shook his head. "As far as I can tell this thing is going to kill us all."
"Query: Would you like me to dispose of this smart mouth meatbag?" HK asked Alaanis. She could almost depict a pleading tone in this question.
"No HK, you can't kill Carth," Alaanis sighed. The seven continued walking towards the cantina. Inside weren't many people, perhaps a dozen or so, mainly Czerka employees off duty. A few jawas were walking around serving drinks. One of the things Czerka had done to Tatooine. Alaanis led everybody over to a table in the corner. HK stood behind the table while Jolee, Juhani, Bastila, Carth and Mission sat down. One of the jawas came over and they ordered some food for each of them.
"Bastila?"
The chestnut haired jedi turned her gaze away from Juhani whom she was talking with and caught sight of a woman who looked remarkably like Bastila, only about thirty five years older. For a moment Bastila looked shocked, and then she took on a cool look.
"Mother… what are you doing here?"
This is your mother? Alaanis asked through the force bond.
Yes, this is my mother. Bastila answered.
"I was going to go look for you, but I don't have much money to go off planet and look all around the galaxy for you," Bastila's mother, Helena Shan, stated tersely. "Not like I'd have any idea where to look for you when you haven't even tried to get in contact with me or your father since you became a jedi."
"I wouldn't have known where to look for you either mother," Bastila muttered. The table was awfully quiet while the two Shan women stared at each other, both wearing icy expressions.
"So… where is father?" asked Bastila.
Helena's eyes grew dark. "Your father died Bastila. We came to Tatooine and your father wanted to hunt the krayt dragon here. Krayt dragon pearls are very valuable and we needed the money. But… on the hunt he was killed."
"Are you certain…?"
"There were eyewitnesses Bastila, he's dead." Bastila looked away from her mother.
"Led him to his death didn't you?" the younger Shan said bitterly. "You always made him go treasure-hunting. But it was never enough for you. Why didn't you just leave father and marry a baron if all you were going to do is push him from world to world and lead him to his death? You were so eager to get rid of me."
Helena's eyes narrowed. "I am not the reason your father died child, and you have your story backwards. Your father loved treasure hunting and though I didn't want him to keep traveling, he did. When the jedi said you could become one of them, I thought it was a better life for you than being dragged along on another one of your father's expeditions. I told him not to go after the krayt dragon, but he didn't listen to me."
Bastila scoffed. "You are lying!"
Shaking her head, Helena sighed. "I see you aren't going to believe me. I'll tell you what I approached you for then. I am sick. I can't stop it and all the doctors I've seen have told me that. All I want is your father's holocron. It was on his body when he died. In the krayt dragon's cave."
"You expect me to kill a krayt dragon just for you to have father's holocron?" Bastila exclaimed.
"Perhaps," Helena replied, her lips thin.
"Are you really even sick mother? Or are you just hoping for pity?" Bastila spat. "Who knows, maybe I'll just keep the holocron for myself instead of giving it to you." Helena shook her head and opened her mouth to reply before thinking better of it and leaving the cantina.
The silence of the table was broken by Juhani's question, "Are you going to give her the holocron if we find it? We will probably have to go through this krayt dragon first anyways."
"I don't know," Bastila answered, avoiding looking at anybody. "He was my father as he was her husband. But is keeping it being selfish?"
The jawas began bringing their food then. Alaanis was upset at seeing the jawas treated this way, as servants. She handed the jawas serving them a handful of credits.
":Thank you for your donation stranger, but we do not need it:" the jawa said refusing her credits. ":We are being paid contrary to popular belief.:"
Alaanis smiled at that and put her credits away as she began eating.
Lunch was a rather enjoyable affair. Bastila tried ignoring the naggings thoughts of her mother and participating in the conversations. Everybody seemed to be relaxed. HK complained at first about being around so many meatbags and not being able to kill any of them so Alaanis let him sign off. Everyone felt a bit more relaxed without an assassin droid hovering over their table.
They were having quite a good time that time rolled by as they sat in the cantina, sipping some ale and laughing. Juhani and Bastila were being a bit quieter, not drinking much. Alaanis and Carth both wouldn't let Mission drink anything alcoholic. The Twi'lek was grumpy at first but she settled for some juma juice.
It was almost sunset by the time they all left the cantina, HK back online and walking a few steps in front of the group.
It was a perfect time for the dark jedi to strike.
Nobody noticed as they passed by an alley and five figures fell from a rooftop. But before they could get too close, Alaanis, Bastila, Juhani and Jolee all felt the ripple in the force.
Dark jedi, Alaanis thought.
There are five of them… about ten meters behind us and closing, Bastila's thought floated through the force bond. The four jedi ignited their lightsabers and turned around quickly, Carth, Mission and HK all lifting their guns to shoot.
"Query: Master, may I kill these meatbags?" HK asked.
"If anybody attacks us and I fight back, you have the right to kill them," Alaanis explained as she parried a blow from one of the dark jedi wielding a red double-bladed lightsaber. Alaanis dropped down on one knee as a wild swipe was made for her neck and she cut the body in half with her violet saber. With seven against five it was no fight. Soon enough, only one dark jedi remained.
Aiming her Mandalorian blaster pistol, Mission made a clean shot right between the eyes of the dark jedi who collapsed onto the ground, dead. Alaanis took the lightsabers and a few credits the dark jedi had on them and stuffed them in her bag.
"Nice shot Mission," she commented as she looked at the last dark jedi, lying on the ground. She pulled out a datapad from the dark jedi's pocket. It had cracked but part of the message was still readable.
Order from Lord Malak: Find the jedi Bastila Shan and capture her and her companions. You may kill all but Bastila…
There seemed to be a few more lines but they weren't readable because of the large cracks in the screen. Alaanis threw the datapad down on the ground. "Perhaps we should get these bodies out of the street?"
Without any arguments, Jolee, Carth, Alaanis, Bastila and Juhani all grabbed a body and dumped them in the alleyway away from the center of attention. Then they continued back to the Ebon Hawk.
"Are there going to be dark jedi on every planet we go to?" Mission asked, a bit frazzled by the surprise attack as they boarded the ship.
"Probably," Bastila replied. "Malak knows the four planets we're going to travel to. Plus, Korriban is filled with tons of dark jedi so we're obviously going to see some… whether we fight them or not I don't know." Mission groaned as she fell down onto the couch of the Ebon Hawk.
"Query: Master… will I have permissions to kill these 'dark jedi' meatbags?"
XxXxX
Ah! It's short! I'm sorry! –apologizes- I just didn't feel like getting into the sandpeople stuff in this chapter. It's going to be included next chapter. And it will take a while… so I really think it would've taken me a while to write.
I'm sorry this chapter took a while to get out as well. I'd just been having complete writer's block for a few days. And then I went through a "I must draw Revan or the Exile or I will die!" phase. Which I haven't completely broken through, but I did draw Revan so I am rather happy. XD If you'd like to see my drawing (you know you do…) it hopefully will be on kotorfanmedia dot com soon. I'm waiting for it to be posted. It's not up yet. I'm Revans Pet Duck over there too.
Anyways… I must say complete thanks for the reviews! If you haven't notice (self promotion) I added a new one shot fic called Who We Were featuring a dark side female Revan and a light side male exile. XD If you're interested… alright I'll shut up now.
Continuing on, the Juhani/Bastila thing was inspired by Manga5Lore's rather long and critical (not in a bad way, mind you, your review made me realize how off some things were!). I had an original start to chapter fifteen but I hated it so much I was glad I could've rewritten it. It basically had Alaanis acting like a character right out of Mean Girls or something and spiting Bastila… and then there were these jawa homes…
So… I shall now respond to the reviews. Yay! XD
Resident roach code metallica – Kreia bugged me to no end during the game. I just wanted to yell at her a lot. She's worse than Bastila in the first game! I love HK… he's not my favorite character, but he's amusing. Of course I've seen episode three! I liked it. Of course, the romance sucks, but star wars romance? Come on… "Shut up and kiss me you fool!" "I am haunted by the kiss you shouldn't have given me." Makes you really appreciate the Han/Leia stuff doesn't it?
Lunatic Pandora1 – Your buddy HK has finally arrived in the story! Happy? Anyways… I've been playing kotor2 lately so I haven't gotten around to Jolee/Canderous interactions. Sounds entertaining… It's on my to-do list.
Siberian-Tigress – Thanks for the review! Glad you like Alaanis.
XxXxX
Now here comes the whopping two page response to Manga5Lore's review… I had to write this right after I read the review because I could not get those comments out of my head. Even when I tried reading Harry Potter they haunted me…
Wow, that's a bundle of comments! Before I answer all of your comments and concerns, I'm saying thank you for being brutally honest. When I first read your review I started defending Destiny to no end, but that's because you were more often than not right. So, I shall answer everything now…
I rewrote a lot of the scenes (I'm glad you liked the Rukil one) and despite if they work or not, I just wanted to change things around. Some things just really did not fit for me in the game and sometimes I had complete issues making them fit at all, sometimes when they were necessary. It would help if you could point out some specifics where they didn't work, because I'm not sure exactly what you mean.
As for the Carth / Canderous thing… it may seem like Carth has forgotten everything, but its more like he has just started ignoring Canderous. They just don't end up interacting much. Perhaps in the future I will be forcing them together more (especially towards the end of the story) but mainly they end up steering clear of each other. And on Dantooine they sort of reached a truce. Nothing spoken, just kind of ignoring each other. Hey, if you don't like someone why continuously argue?
As for Bastila… I have a tendency to over exaggerate Bastila. I apologize for that and I will attempt to make her more realistic in the future. By the way, I use some words like lecture and tantrum very loosely. I don't mean them exactly word for word. Especially when I say Bastila was lecturing Alaanis, I usually mean that they had one of those in game conversations where Bastila starts up a conversation and Alaanis teases her and it gets full blown. And her self-discipline? Pshaw. Sorry, first word that popped into my head. Well I'm going with the Bastila who was selected as special as a child with her battle meditation and was always treated differently, yet still disciplined. She takes this out on Alaanis who she considers to be her inferior. She's a bit arrogant, like the jedi council.
As for Juhani being written wrong, I wasn't sure how to write Juhani so I reinterpreted her. I realized, rereading Destiny that I got her completely wrong. I must admit that I dislike the way I interpreted her. I am going to try and write her a bit differently from here on. Like for example in this chapter with the Juhani/Bastila dialogue. It's sort of the conversation Juhani initially has with the main character, but it felt more appropriate discussing it with Bastila for some reason.
As for Bastila / Canderous like I said I over exaggerate her, so their arguments seen full blown right? By the way, I'm not sure about doing a Bastila / Canderous romance. I was thinking about it, and I might, but there's no guarantee there. As for the 'no canon' there's no canon for many things, and yet its fan fiction therefore we can break canon right?
As for Carth's age and Canderous' hair, I forgot what Canderous' hair looked like so I just decided to make it brown, though I do imagine a handful of greys in there. Carth's age I am going to revise eventually (when I find out which chapter I put it in lol) because that was a complete accident and I am bugged by my lack of research. It's not really an Alternate Reality fic, it's just a very not researched fic therefore I got some facts wrong. Thanks for pointing them out though. :)
Did Juhani consider forgiving Canderous? Hm… -checks- Mm… you interpreted it wrong. Juhani was just trying to decide if she should release her anger or not. You see, since she's a jedi and this is Juhani, she feels obliged to stay calm and not get angry. Then again, she's a Cathar and has a fiery temper. She doesn't want to forgive Canderous; she wants to forget him.
The bickering between Bastila and Canderous… again, I exaggerate. Also, I know I'm not writing Canderous right. I have no clue how to write him. I try really hard with him (not like Juhani who I just said 'screw this' and wrote her how I felt like writing her) but I cannot get him right. As for Bastila using the force on Mission and Canderous, I'm being really hard on her. I'm making her into a spawn of the jedi council… you know arrogant and hypocritical. I should be nicer shouldn't I?
As for Bastila's apology… I thought it was sort of in character. It always seemed when I played that she'd fight with the character and then the next time you spoke she'd say 'I should've remembered my training' or something akin to that. And then more lectures on being frivolous…
Bastila's comments on wiping out the Mandalorians… in moments of anger humans do say things they don't mean. Like it's said in kotor2, "before being a jedi, she's a human". I think Disciple says that to the Exile. And Bastila gets angry with Canderous and says things she never would say normally. Anyone could've done it, its just human nature.
Bastila at war… I wouldn't really say that Taris or the Endar Spire was war. She fought a couple sith soldiers, got to an escape pod, fell on the planet of Taris, was held captive, was rescued and then fought through a sith base. Is that really war? It's more like a single battle. Or a chain of events caused by war.
Mission and Canderous… for me Mission is impressed by Canderous. Mission is also (to me) somebody who likes everybody. Even a tough Mandalorian bad guy. In your description of Canderous, I have to say mainly it's all what I agree with. But as far as I think, Canderous isn't a completely horrible guy. He isn't one to tease, yes, and that's out of character, I'll have to try doing that less. But I wouldn't see Canderous as one of those guys who sees a gizka that's irritating him and stomps on it. Perhaps he'll kick the gizka, but he wouldn't kill it.
Canderous and the Dantooine Mandalorians, I had a hard time with. I know he acted really out of character, but I kinda reinterpreted him because I cannot for the life of me write him correctly. I don't know… do you think I should just shove Canderous out of the picture? I like him as a character but it's hard to find the line between him and not him. Did I have him care about the farmers? Oops if I did. I'll try and write him better, though it's hard. But all around, I see him as not a jerk. I mean, really, he's completely whipped by Revan as we see him in kotor2. XD
So, I think I covered it all (and there was a lot in the 'all' heh). And as I reread the review, I must say that the Bastila / Canderous romance is an option, not a decided thing. As you said, they're going to eventually learn to deal with each other (Carth and Canderous too) but as for romance? That's hard to tell… And no offense, but I think you're making Canderous out a LITTLE harsher than he is. He's not an evil guy. He's just a Mandalorian who follows the Mandalorian honor type thing. Mandalorian honor and complete and utter brutality are two different things.
Again, thanks for your feedback. I need a beta like you lol, somebody who can criticize my work to no end. And the one thing I agree with most out of everything you said was that Juhani is written wrong. I will take that advice (and being nicer to Bastila) into my writing. And of course everything else. It was all VERY helpful.
XxXxX
Okay, I'm done with that very long response. Again, I apologize for the short chapter. I will try and update again within a week Though it'll be harder for me after that as I start my summer job in two weeks and the next Harry potter book is coming out soon. XD But expect chapter sixteen soon. Review (pleeeeeease) and Happy Independence Day for all fellow Americans. :)
Last note: Me is still looking for a beta. Help?
PS: I hit over a hundred thousand words! Yes! And at less than tenty chapters too... w00t! Okay. I'm done.
7-4-05