Chapter 2 – Dark Lord of the Sith

"Revan?" blurted Atton, trying hard not to fall off his stool.

She laughed. "Oh, now you remember me, Jaq?"

"I could say the same," grumbled Atton.

"Oh, I remembered you, Jaq… I was just playing with you to see how long it would take you to recognize me."

"Hey, in my defense, it's not like the Dark Lord Revan ever took off her helmet in my lowly presence during the handful of times I was around her. And what's with the new name?"

"I could say the same," mimicked Revan. "Liah Stari is the name the Jedi Order gave me when they wiped my memory. What's your excuse?"

"My excuse is not wanting the Sith and Lord Revan to be able to track me down once I deserted them. And might I add, so much for that plan," he replied bitingly.

She shrugged, unperturbed by his tone. "Fair enough."

Atton pushed his still half-full glass away. He no longer was interested in drowning his sorrows in juma juice… not tonight – not when he had finally found someone who might give him some news about Jena.

"When did you come back, Revan?"

"Oh, not long… I only just got to Nar Shaddaa."

Atton stared. "But you went to Telos first, right? Tell me you went to see Carth first."

Revan laughed. "Well, of course I did, Jaq… He'd have kicked my ass in a large way if I hadn't… and I'd have deserved it, too. Why do you care, though?"

Atton shrugged. "We're drinking buddies."

Revan eyed the pile of empty glasses Atton had been accumulating in front of him. She raised an eyebrow. "Drinking buddies, eh? Wow, you must've drunk him under the table more than once. I mean, I love the man, but he can't hold his liquor. But there's more to it though, isn't there?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why were you so hell-bent on me going to see Carth first? Methinks you have an ulterior motive."

"It's not an ulterior motive… it's just that I like to think that if Jena were to come back, she'd come see me first…"

"Ha! So I was right… there is something going on between you two."

"Well, yeah… but she told you that already," stated Atton.

"Jena? No, never a word."

"Oh." The monosyllabic word was eloquent enough.

Revan laughed and patted him on the back. "I'm just teasing you, Jaq… You're making it way too easy… must be the booze. No, she mentioned you all the time. To be quite honest, I was getting a little tired of it. That girl's crazy about you. Of course, it's not till I actually saw you that I realized her Atton was actually the Jaq I knew from way back in the day that we won't talk about."

"About that… I'd really rather go by Atton now."

Revan shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just don't hold it against me if I occasionally call you Jaq… old habits die hard… well, except for the Dark Lord evil stuff. That's all behind me."

"Yeah, I heard… Carth had a few stories to tell me… like the one where you gave all your credits to some guy so he could pay off his debts. Not exactly the Revan I remember."

Revan flushed slightly. "Yes… well… that doesn't really count… I didn't even know I was Revan then… I didn't have any of my memory back."

Atton grew serious. "Revan…"

"Yeah, what?"

"Where's Jena?" he entreated.

Revan's smile faded slowly. She sighed. "I was wondering how long it would take you to ask that question… The truth is, I… don't know. We completely lost track of her about four months ago, and I have no idea where she is."

"So… right around the same time I lost touch with her too," he said dully.

"She's not dead," rapidly said Revan.

"How do you know?" he asked drearily.

She closed her eyes. "I just do… Look, we can talk about all this later… this is why I came here to see you. We're on our way to Coruscant."

"'We'?"

"You, me, Carth, Carth's son Dustil, and some other guy you don't know."

"Carth has a son?" asked Atton incredulously.

Revan stared at him. "You know, for drinking buddies, you guys don't seem to really know much about each other. He couldn't even tell me how to find you."

"We were drinking buddies. We weren't dating!"

"So what did you talk about when you were drinking then?" she asked.

Atton scoffed. "You really want to know?"

"I never ask questions I don't want answered."

"All right… We talked about the only thing we really had in common: the fact we were both abandoned by female Jedi."

"Ouch."

Atton shrugged. "Hey, you asked."

Revan grinned. "I suppose I did."

"Anyway, what makes you think I'll follow you to Coruscant, Lord Revan?"

"Because you want to know what happened to Jena and you want to help her, Jaq." She paused and looked at him appraisingly. "By the way, you look like a big bag of bantha poodoo."

"How kind of you to notice," he quipped. "You're not so shabby yourself."

"No, seriously," asked Revan. "What happened? You never used to look this bad, Jaq. I actually thought you were kind of hot."

"Well, it's…" began Atton reticently.

Reading his body language, Revan interrupted. "Not because of… Jena?"

Atton remained silent and glanced away.

She shook her head. "Man… Please tell me Carth didn't look this bad because of me."

"No… Carth always looked cleaned up. Well, since I've known him, at least. I can't speak for the previous four years. You were gone for a really long time, Revan," he added a little reproachfully.

"I know…" she said quietly, her gaze dropping. "If it makes you feel any better, she misses you a lot too."

"I was talking about you and Carth."

"No, you weren't. Anyway, so are you coming with us or not?"

"What, and leave all this?" he asked sarcastically, gesturing toward the various cantina drunks. "Well, if it'll help me figure out what happened to Jena, I'm willing to do anything."

Revan smiled. "That's more like it." She curled her lip. "And we'll give you a haircut, a shave and a shower, and burn this robe."

"No, the robe stays," he said determinedly. Avoiding her gaze, he explained, "It's the only thing I have to remind me of her."

"All right, in that case, we will wash it. Unless of course, you also have some emotional attachment to the crusty layer of dirt on it."

"No, that's okay."

The got up, tossed a few more credits down on the counter and walked out. Atton was thrilled to discover that he had at least become sufficiently sober to be able to walk without falling over. Which is a damn good thing, because I can't really see myself walking out of here hanging onto the arm of the Dark Lord of the Sith for balance. As they left the Entertainment promenade, Revan turned to Atton. "I hope you like the Ebon Hawk."

"The Ebon Hawk? Oh absolutely… we've had some good times together… crashing on Dxun… crashing on Malachor V…"

"Just what in the hell have you been doing to my ship, Jaq?" she demanded, arching an eyebrow.

"Your ship? Lady, that baby is a lot more my ship than she is your ship. Have you ever even touched her controls?"

"Well, I'm glad to hear you like flying it. You'll be able to give Carth a break. Just… not tonight," she added peering at him apprehensively. "I don't know if you always fly this drunk, but… Well, mind you, it would explain the crashes..."

"What is it with people always assuming that I was drunk just because I crashed a few times?" he retorted hotly.

Revan laughed. "Would you rather they said it was because you were a bad pilot?"

Atton turned red. "Hey, it's not my fault we kept getting shot at. I was not a bad…"

"Atton!"

Atton stopped dead in his tracks, recognizing the voice that had just called his name. Please tell me this isn't him… Please tell me this isn't him… He turned around. A blonde man in his early to mid-twenties, clad in green Jedi robes smiled toothily at him.

"Mi…cal!" said Atton with a fake smile. Wait. Why am I pretending to like him? I never pretend to like him. He deliberately broke his smile. "Well, I would say it's nice to see you, but then you know me and lying… What are you doing here, exactly? I mean, I never really pictured Nar Shaddaa as being your type of place." Part of the reason why I like it here…

Mical's smile faded and he glared at Atton. Now that's more like what I'm used to… "Well, I came here with the Admiral and Liah."

"Liah? Who's Liah?" He stopped. "Oh… right… Revan…" Frowning, Atton turned quickly to her. "This is the guy I don't know?" he asked heatedly, gesturing angrily in Mical's direction.

Revan shrugged. "I didn't realize you knew each other."

Mical pursed his lips. "Quite like old times, isn't it Atton?" he said sarcastically. When did you learn to become sarcastic? "You, me, the Ebon Hawk, saving Jena…" Saving Jena?

"Saving Jena?" Atton repeated out loud.

"Well, we can talk about that later," hurriedly interrupted Revan. "Let's just get going."

Mical shot Atton an uncomfortable half-smile, half-grimace and disappeared aboard the Ebon Hawk. Atton glared at Revan.

"You knew we knew each other," he said accusingly.

"Of course! But would you have come along if I had told you he was there too?"

Atton glared at her. "You are a despicable woman," he snarled.

"That's why all the boys love me, handsome!" she said, nudging him toward the ship.

Author's Notes: Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed my first chapter! I've gotten quite a bit written over the past week and a half, and the plot is starting to come together... I think anyway. Hahaha! Hopefully down the line I won't start getting messages from people asking me if I'm chewing spice. ;) As always, your feedback is more than welcome!

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