"HK, tell the Chieftain we seek to end the conflict between the Sand People and the civilians of Anchorhead. And find out if Griff is still alive." Pol instructed the Droid. After a moments deliberation in the Tuskan dialect, HK translated the outcome.
"Translation: The Chieftain says an end to the conflict is impossible, but he will downscale the attacks in exchange for moisture vaporators. He also says you can take the meatbag Griff. Apparently he is alive and useless."
"Tell him we accept, and we will return with the moisture vaporators."
"Translation: He doubts your sincerity, Master. As surety, he demands you and the Mandalorian remain, while the 'old one' procures the vaporators."
"Then ask if Jolee can bring Mission back to the enclave, she will want to see her brother."
The droid interpreted the request unintelligibly. After a confusing exchange, HK announced the results of the dialogue. "Translation: Master, it seems that the meatbag Griff has made quite an impression on the Tuskan people. The Chieftain says the Twi'lek Mission may return with Jolee, providing we promise to take both the female Twi'lek and her delinquent brother when we leave."
Canderous jibed, "HK, find out if there is any chance they'll bend on that last point and tell them she is a good little worker."
Pol gave Canderous a livid reprimand. "Cand! Ignore that HK, we never intended to leave Mission here. Canderous is just kidding."
"Am I? We could do with one less mouth to feed…" Pol gave the Mandalorian a stern look. "Fine," He grumbled. When Jolee left the enclave, HK and his Masters were deposited in a waiting room. It was a distinct step up from the holding cell, but still uncomfortable. The four Sand Warriors that joined them in the room kept them quiet for the three hours that they waited; wilting in the dry heat
Reunion
"Griff!" Mission cried and closed the distance between her brother and herself. They hugged briefly. Jolee noticed that they both wiped their hands on their trousers after the hug; a classic mark of sibling aversion. Jolee sighed; Griff wasn't all that much older than Mission, and the implications, that held saddened him. Those poor children, it's a wonder they survived each other.
"Wow Mission, am I glad to see you. Guess you got off Taris ok then?" Griff enthused.
Mission glared at him, no longer capable of enduring the devastating loss of her home. She began belting Griff brutally, "Yea no thanks to you - you mongrel…"She timed her blows with her words thumping at his chest, "Leigrek groping…Kinrath spawn!" Mission slammed Griff violently again with both her fists tears of rage clouding and doubling her vision. The older Twi'lek fended off the blows awkwardly between mumbling lame excuses for his lax behavior.
"Mission, wait you don't understand, I uh thought you were ok, I mean you were pretty grown up and all." Griff protested.
"I was twelve!"
Canderous and Pol viewed the exchange with mixed emotions. They were impressed and amused by the sight of Mission exacting her revenge on her brother, but incensed by his disregard for her welfare. Canderous in particular was disgusted by the young mans irresponsibility. He privately regretted the gag he had made about leaving Mission with the Tuskan's and was grateful she hadn't heard it.
Even in retirement Jolee epitomized the Consular code. He played peacemaker and intervened cautiously "We all make mistakes kids, perhaps it's time to forgive and forget. Mission you were too young to be left alone and Griff you were and still are too young to act as a parent. You're both victims here. You have to stick together." Jolee separated the feuding blue aliens gently.
"Yeah the old man's right Mission, you should listen to your Jedi friend."
"Whatever." Mission turned her back but Jolee caught her shoulder and turned her gently to face her brother again.
"Mission? Do you have something to say to your brother?" Jolee prompted.
Mission gave in. "So what are you going to do Griff?" She asked through clenched teeth.
"Well… This Czerka job hasn't exactly worked out for me Mission, and it looks like you're doing really well. I don't suppose you could spare me a few credits till I get on my feet again?"
"You're hitting me up for credits? Lena was right about you Griff, you are core slime! I don't ever want to see you again!" Mission stomped off angrily. Jolee gave Griff a disgusted wave and followed Mission, protesting about family values, as they left the enclave.
"Well Griff, you've really done it now." Pol said with a shake of her head. This guys a real prize no wonder the Sand People didn't want him.
"Heh, she's just mad, she'll cool off." Griff gave a guilty smile.
Pol glared at Mission's brother, "You sure about that Griff? It wouldn't have killed you to apologize."
"I suppose you're right. Say, you wouldn't have some change would you? See I've got this idea…" Griff appealed desperately to Pol.
Canderous answered gruffly, "NO she doesn't. Now get out of here before I ask HK to tell the Sand People you've been 'interfering' with their herds."
Griff paled and gulped anxiously. "You uh, you wouldn't do that, right?"
Pol said, "Just try him Griff." And the Twi'lek bolted.
"Observation: Master my scans indicate that the Twi'lek 'Griff' is immensely unpopular at present. Query: Would you like me to terminate the retreating Twi'lek?" HK offered.
"No HK leave him be. Interfering with their Banthas? That was so wrong!" She laughed ruefully as they watched Griff's flight.
"He deserves it; we should head back to the Hawk."
Its love isn't it?
The walk back was peaceful; the Sand People let them pass back to Czerka territory without contest. The weary sunburned pair gratefully retrieved their gear from beneath the burnt marker, scrabbling in the sand for their clothing. Jolee had already retrieved his on his errand for the moisture vaporators. "You reunited Mission with her brother, for better or worse… Once again they love you, so who's the hero now Pol Valor?" Canderous asked as they shook sand from their belongings.
Pol was morose. The scene with Griff hadn't been all that she had hoped for Mission and she was still haunted by the quiet time they had spent under guard by the Sand People. It had given her time to think of the future, and question what it held. Given all she knew it was hard to be optimistic.
Revan had whispered in her ear, the breath of a memory not completely unified within her spirit. She had not been bought to task over leading the Jedi to war, against the Order's wishes. You know what the Jedi will give you Pol… for saving the Republic? No shiny medal like Carth got, just twenty years in a force cage for a job well done… Look at your boyfriend, even he got more out of the Mandalorian wars than we did, and they lost.
In addition to her misconduct over the Mandalorian wars, the nature and extent of her crimes as a Sith lord were doubly severe. Leniency was not likely to be forthcoming from the Order or the Republic. Pol would be tried by both factions for her misdeeds as Darth Revan.
Pol spoke with a broken spirit, "Heroine… villain, what they call me all depends on whose side I am killing for. They don't love me Canderous; they just love what I do… that is for now, while they've got a job that needs doing."
The Mandalorian made no attempt to lift her mood. He had been trying for weeks to rouse her to some kind of action. He hated not having a plan. This could go very badly for her. "At least you see that."
Pol dressed with shaking hands, until Canderous caught them in his. She was so distraught she looked as though she was trying to hold up her face with her eyes. "I am so screwed. What the frack am I going to do?" She asked him desperately. Canderous hugged her tightly. He took her head in his arms as she left wet tears on his shirt. He held her close and after the sand had seen more moisture from her weeping than it had in an era her shaking finally subsided.
The waterworks are finished, time to cheer her up. "Well to start with you could admit you can't bear the thought of living without me." Canderous boasted.
Pol laughed quietly. "Why should I? You've never said as much to me." She wiped a stray tear from her eye and sniffed inelegantly, wiping her burnt face on her sleeve.
Canderous held her by the shoulders at arms length and looked into her eyes directly. "I have." He stated with a frown.
"Bomadust! Oh you big liar, you have not. I'd remember if you had." Pol argued.
His eyes sparked at the accusation. "Liar! What? I've told you plenty of times. It's not my fault if you misheard me." He snapped gruffly. She's got to be kidding, I tell her all the time.
"When? Hmm? When have you said it Chief? I know the Mando'a word for love." Pol snapped.
Canderous planned his defense. "I remember the first time clearly, I told you on the Ebon Hawk, then again later in your rooms on Dantooine." Trust the amnesiac to forget the most important thing I tell her.
"Yeah right," Pol challenged him with her disbelief, "say it now then."
Canderous let her go. Oh man. His eyes darted about for a place to look that wasn't Pol shaped. Canderous tried staring at the sand. He coughed. Looking up at last he ran his hands boyishly through his silver hair, "Now?" He asked with a petulant sneer.
"I insist." You are not worming your way out of this Chief. I need this, tell me now.
"'Bah, you're ok.'"
Pol's mouth dropped open, "WHAT?" She exclaimed; her voice fell short in the heat about them dashing itself ineffectually against the dunes. Canderous grinned at her reaction.
"That's it?" she cried "That's your grand declaration of love?" He began to laugh. Pol saluted him, but she was smiling. "You ass," She grumbled as she armed herself for the trek back to Anchorhead.
Canderous buckled on his bandoleer and scabbard. "Yeah, so do I get a kiss now?"
"No." Pol pouted and turned her back on her love. She started to walk away calling back at him, "We should return to the Hawk."
"Oh come on, just cuz I don't meet your romantic ideal is no reason to sulk." He teased.
Pol stopped in her tracks he couldn't see her face but he could tell she was smiling when she said, "Bah you're ok." In imitation of his sonorous drawl.
"Ha you are going to throw that and expect me to go fetch? I'm not your Kath hound Pol; let's hear it in your words then." Canderous spun her about to face him.
"Too bad," She quipped turning her back again.
"T3 and HK are right Pol; you are wired to be cruel."
The droid's are talking about me? "Yeah well, you're about as romantic as a blank round of ammo."
Canderous shrugged. "I'm a warrior not a courtesan."
Pol rounded to face him again, "You want to hear it from me you got to work for it."
Canderous considered the challenge for a split second and agreed. "Fine be a child, now kiss me." Looking ready to pounce in frustration he leaned towards her expectantly.
Pol grabbed his chin in her hand halting his progress. "Ok I'll take your lame excuse for romance… for now…but you better lift your game." She threatened narrowing her eyes. Their mouths met in a single-minded expression of desire. The familiar longing compacted her will down to nothing, as they kissed she gave in to his embrace. Pol pulled away from the clinch her heart aching as if from over use.
"Oh and I think you should know I won't buy the 'can't teach an old dog new tricks' line either Ordo." She warned with a seductive sparkle to her eyes. Canderous threw her a sidelong smile, tinged with pride, and accepted the hand she slipped into his for the walk back to town.
Jagi
Canderous stopped suddenly in the congested streets of Anchorhead; it took Pol a moment to realize she had lost her companion. She pulled up short to see Canderous staring down hatefully at another Mandalorian. The fiery young man cursed venomously at Canderous. "You thought I was dead didn't you? You thought that we all perished in the attack!"
"Soldier you are out of line, watch yourself." Canderous had gone quiet assuming a killing tone.
Pol intervened, "I take it you know each other?"
"This has nothing to do with you Jetiise!" Jagi sneered at Pol; Canderous took a step closer to Jagi menacingly, but the smaller male continued his rant. "You sent us to die in a worthless attack while you directed your forces elsewhere!"
"I did what was prudent at the time!" Canderous was losing his cool. Pol shivered at the draining affect his anger had on the superheated air about them.
With the memories of Revan not far from her mind Pol found herself speaking out of line. "Things happen in war." For a moment she couldn't tell whose words had come from her mouth.
Jagi eyed her with unrepentant loathing. "I said stay out of it; this has nothing to do with you Jedi."
"This affects my employer Jagi…" Canderous began.
"Employer, you work for the stinking Jedi? How the mighty have fallen! You broke from the battle plan and let us die for it, so that you could steal the honor of killing the enemy commander! I have spent years tracking you down since the clans were banished, and I will not rest until I have my vengeance! I challenge you Canderous Ordo to the fight you fled above Althir. The Dune Sea at dawn and don't think of fleeing this one. I have already spread the news of my challenge. The surviving Mandalorian clans know what I do here. If you fail to meet me you will be stripped of your honor and cast out of our society forever."
Jagi stalked away before a reply could form on Canderous's lips. At first he was too stupefied to respond, honor duels were common but it was rare for such an unfitting challenge to be made. The rational behind Jagi's rage eluded Canderous. Pol tugged at his elbow. He gave an irritated and noncommittal grunt and they headed on their way again.
Pol scanned her memory banks trolling through the archives of Canderous's war stories. "What was that about? Jagi was in the battle of Althir? So you were the general and you changed a battle plan…that's what generals do… what's it to him? He was just a warrior right, a soldier under your command?" She reviewed Revan's working knowledge of Mandalorian culture and her own familiarity with her Mandalorian friend, trying to find some supporting framework for Jagi's claim. This is weird.
Canderous scowled as they pushed past a clump of Jawas. "Yeah,"
"So he doesn't have a leg to stand on right?" A lump of ice settled in Pol's gut.
"Yeah,"
"So call him stumpy and move on!" Pol suggested with a frustrated groan.
"Pol you don't understand, I've been given a challenge, my honor is at stake, I can't ignore it no matter how fracked up it may be. I have to go to the dune seas in the morning and kill Jagi for this insult." Canderous was reluctant to say more.
"Ok… so I'm your employer?" Pol asked as she quirked an eyebrow in the Mandalorian's direction, "what's that about?"
"Who else did you think I was working for?" Canderous let her words and jokes wash by as his boots ground out determined prints back to the Ebon Hawk. "You're a strange girl Pol."
"Well you know what they say 'eat you meal ticket and you get small satisfaction, but in the long run you starve'. Chief you sure you don't want to talk about this?"
"I don't wanna talk about it." Let it be Pol.
"You know a wise man once said to me that if you didn't feel like talking it usually meant you probably should"
"Nice try Pol. I won't talk but if you are lucky Jagi might cough up the big one before I spread him into a paste over the dunes."
"I'm coming then?"
"An honor duel needs witnesses to verify the honorable victor. I don't trust the morons he's associating with." Pol left Canderous to his inner workings and tried hard not to fall victim to her own for the rest of the walk.