Last time: Kyr and Cien arrived to talk about the raider attacks. Then they told the Admiral the good news.

Now: The trio decide to take a break from researching.


Chapter 3- Dinner with Kait

Viran groaned as he rubbed his hands down his face as he leaned back in his seat. "Can we please take a break? If I stare at one more datapad, I'm going to scream," he said.

"I could use one," Sasha said, sighing as she stretched in her seat. "These chairs are not the definition of comfortable."

Oppie checked the chrono on his wrist. "It's actually dinner time, both here and at home. Want to go to that bar across the street and see what they've got?"

"Yes, please," Viran said standing. "I could use a drink or four."

"Same," Sasha agreed as she slipped her jacket back on.

Oppie stood up and stretched. "I'll say one thing, they definitely gave us all the information we could possibly want." As he started walking towards the door.

"Funny," Sasha said as she and Viran followed him. "Though I will give them credit. They definitely have done their research."

"I just wish they could have given us the abridged version," Viran huffed.

"Well, let's just say I'm learning more and more about the cartel than I ever wanted," Sasha added with a slight shudder.

"Same." Oppie said with a grimace, walking down the corridor. "Have you heard from Cien?" He asked, glancing at Sasha.

"Yeah, she sent me a message through the mindspace a while ago saying they made it to the 19th," Sasha said then smiled. "She said the Admiral nearly killed Kyr when they told her about the twins."

"They really should have told her sooner." Oppie said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah," Viran chuckled. "I wonder how the others will take it."

"Based off how they acted when they found out Kyr got married, the others might be mad at first then elated," Sasha guessed with a chuckle.

They stepped outside through the main entry doors. "Which way was it?" Oppie asked, looking around the small courtyard that was inside the fence. There was a pedestrian gate where two Marines were stationed, and looked a little bored.

"I think it was this way," Sasha said, pointing across the courtyard.

The marines looked at them as they passed and Oppie waved at them. "We can get back in this way?" He asked.

"Yeah, just need your badges." One of them answered.

"Thanks." Oppie said as he continued walking. "Is this how it was last time you were here? Or has this just all been in the last couple of months?" Oppie asked Sasha.

"No, it wasn't like this at all," Sasha stated, frowning. "In fact, we were able to get around without much detection. The only place that presented a challenge here in town was the militia headquarters."

Oppie just nodded. "You guys were more in the northern side of the city, right?" Oppie asked.

"Yeah, we never traveled this far," Sasha said, looking around as they walked towards the bar.

Viran nodded at that as they crossed the street and reached the bar Kait had mentioned. When they entered they found the place had a decent crowd, but wasn't too full at the moment. There was a mix of Embassy staff members, Caranas locals, and militia officers. Sasha spotted an empty booth in the back and led them over to it. Viran slid in first on one side with Sasha sliding in next to him.

Oppie looked around a little, "want me to go place an order for us?" He asked, guessing they needed to go order at the bar.

"Sure," Sasha said. "I'll take a cider and a bantha burger. Or whatever they've got that works."

"Make it two on the burger, but I'll do a beer," Viran said. "Thanks Op."

"No problem." Oppie said, stepping away. He threaded his way through the light crowd and stopped at the bartop, waiting for the barkeeper to notice him. After a moment he was able to place the order, just ordering three of what sounded like the closest to a bantha burger and waiting a few minutes for their drinks. He took the glasses back to the table while the food was being prepared, setting them down on the table.

"Not sure it's bantha, but it'll be a burger of some kind." Oppie informed them, taking a seat across from them.

"Right now if it's edible, I'll take it," Viran said, scratching his neck. "I'm so hungry."

"That's what you get for not having those snacks," Sasha said with a snicker before she took a top of her cider.

He stuck his tongue out at her before taking a sip of his beer. "I was focused, okay?"

"And when you're focused you do forget to eat sometimes. Alright, fair," Sasha said with a shrug.

Oppie smirked at their antics. "My eyes hurt from reading so much." He said, rubbing his face with his palms. "I feel like we learned a lot, but anything important we already knew." He said tiredly.

"Same," Sasha said, stifling a yawn. "And we've barely made a dent in that pile."

"Don't say that," Viran groaned. "I was dreaming we were almost done."

"This isn't a dream," Sasha said before taking another sip.

"I feel like we need to take a different tack with this." Oppie said, taking a sip of his cider. "Doing a ton of research about what the cartel has already done doesn't seem like it's going to get us to where they are now, especially since the landscape for them changed so drastically over the last few months."

"Then maybe we need to track their movements?" Sasha suggested. "Like look at a map and place a pin in every location they have been spotted over the twenty years. And then we check those sites if they are still standing for any evidence. That means…" She swallowed as if the cider wouldn't stay down. "That means checking out places like Selina's bar even though it's ruin, there is still her office."

"That's not a bad idea," Viran said, tipping his drink to the idea before taking a sip.

"Would you feel comfortable going back there?" Oppie asked her, slightly worried.

"Not really, but we need to find Cordova," Sasha said, looking away. "So I think I can handle a brief stop there."

"Okay." Oppie replied, taking a drink. And he thought for a minute. "They had cameras there, right?" He asked, his brow furrowed.

"I think so," Sasha said, somber. "Somehow Kyr was able to see me and Cien die. Over and over again. So there are cameras somewhere."

"What happened that night there?" He asked, "did you encounter any cartel members after you escaped?" He asked carefully.

Sasha lowered her glass to the table as she looked away. "We arrived to find it completely empty except for Selina's grandfather. He was injured in the explosion like I was. But as we escaped there were a couple of goons waiting for us. Cien took care of them before they even had a chance to fight back," she explained.

"Did the militia know about them?" He continued. "Reading through their report today they didn't mention finding any sort of cartel presence there, except for, I guess, the guys Cien took care of."

"Yeah there was nothing else there," she finished, not even touching her drink.

Viran grabbed her hand and laced his fingers with hers. He gave her hand a comforting squeeze.

"They would have had a cam there as well as a transmitter." Oppie continued, "they might still be there, since the reports didn't mention finding anything like that at the site."

"It would be worth checking out then," Sasha said, looking at him.

"Maybe something for tomorrow." Oppie said, "as long as our boss will give us clearance." He said with a slight roll of his eyes.

"Man I hate that guy," Viran groaned. "He is such a jerk. Can we just… ignore him and do our thing?" He suggested. Sasha raised a brow at him. "What?"

"It's not a great idea to get him on our bad side. As much as I would love to see him shipped to the edges of wild space," Sasha said with a snort before taking a sip.

"Well maybe we can just go see him and make him suggest we go there." Oppie said with a smirk.

"With a Jedi Mind Trick?" Sasha asked before laughing. "I mean it can work, but he doesn't strike me as a weak mind. I might need a little help."

"What about Kait? Maybe she can help us?" Viran suggested.

Oppie stared at Sasha, "No, I didn't mean with a mind trick," he said as if deeply insulted, "I meant reverse psychology, or something." He took a drink and looked side to side since he had been called out. "Though yeah we could ask Kait if she could run interference for us maybe." He said a little more subdued, taking a drink.

"That works too," Sasha said, turning a little red. "I didn't consider the reverse psychology thing or asking Kait. I think both would work better before trying a Jedi Mind Trick on him."

"So are we going to try and convince him then?" Viran asked.

"It's worth a shot," Sasha said, shrugging.

"Yeah." He glanced up around the bar, looking to see if their orders might be coming out soon. There was no sign of the orders, but he did happen to see Kait studiously reading a datapad at the far end of the bartop. She was sitting alone with her back to the rest of the bar, and he had missed her in the small crowd that had been at the bar to order before. Or she had just arrived in the last few minutes. He looked back to Sasha and Viran, "you guys mind if we invite her over to join us?" He asked carefully, he nodded towards her.

Viran and Sasha glanced over to see her too.

"Sure," Viran said. "I'm cool with it."

"Yeah, sure," Sasha said, a bit more subdued.

He glanced at Sasha a little worriedly as he got up. He retraced his steps from their booth and walked to the far end of the bar, stopping beside her. "Hey Kait."

She looked up from her datapad and then over to him. "Oh, hi Op." She said brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes.

Op stood there for a second trying to think of what to say, then realized he had something completely different he needed to address. "I wanted to apologize for not reaching out to you after what happened on Nivon, I didn't mean to leave so early, then." He said, trying to grin, but probably failing at it.

"Oh, that's fine." She said, as if a little confused, "I understood given the circumstances." She said, glancing away. "Did you guys make much progress today?" She asked.

"Some yeah, it was quite a lot." Oppie replied.

"That's good." She said.

"Yeah." Oppie said, and there was an awkward pause. He swallowed, "we wanted to ask if you wanted to come over and join us." He finally said, gesturing back at the table.

Kait glanced up to where he had gestured. Viran waved at her. Sasha just gave a simple nod.

Kait hid a smirk from the way they were looking over at them, "I don't want to intrude."

"Oh, you wouldn't be intruding." Oppie said, "we had an idea we wanted to run past you, and just wanted to have… drinks with you." He said.

Kait looked at him for a second, then over at the table. "You sure?" She asked, looking back at him.

"Yes." He stated.

"Okay." She said, grabbing her datapad in one hand and her drink in the other, and she walked over to the table with Oppie trailing behind her. She waited for Oppie to scoot into the booth, and then sat down next to him, setting her drink and pad down. "Hey guys." She said.

"Hey," Viran said, smiling at her. "Glad you could join us."

"Hello," Sasha said, smiling softly.

"So what was the idea you wanted to run past me?" Kait asked, taking a sip of her dark ale.

"Oh, it was involving looking into the bombed bar site," Viran said. "We were wondering if we could take a look at it tomorrow. We think we can find some clues there."

She looked between Sasha and Viran. "The site where you and Cien were? The militia went over that site pretty thoroughly, what do you expect to find so much later?" She asked.

"Cameras," Sasha said, speaking up. "We know the cartel had them set up somewhere to get footage of the explosion. Which means the cameras are connected to potentially a nearby cartel location. We just don't know where they are located and where they receive back to."

Kait furrowed her brow. "Why did they have cameras there? How do you know they had them?" She asked.

"Our brother Kyr was held captive by Selina," Viran explained, looking away. "During his captivity, she showed a video of Sasha and Cien entering the bar and it exploding. He didn't go into a whole lot of detail about it and it's understandable why, but he said that Selina showed him that as her way of telling him his whole family was dead. Me, Op, Sasha, and his wife. And the worst part about it was that the video was on constant loop." He paused. "But even though we saved him and proved to him that we are in fact not dead, we all know it still haunts him."

Kait swallowed at that. "I can imagine." She said, "I lost my brother, I couldn't imagine having to watch that over and over again, let alone my whole family." She said a little absently. "That wasn't in the reports, I don't think that anyone knew there were cameras there, and the militia arrived on the scene and locked it down immediately, so I doubt the cartel was able to get in there to clean it up, unless they remembered to do it weeks later, which I doubt. That seems like it would be a really strong break." She said. "It's usually the little things like that." She said with a slight smirk as she took a sip of her ale, and Oppie glanced at her a little side long.

"That's what we were thinking too," Viran said with a nod. "It doesn't hurt to check and see. However, will Marshal J'onz allow us to look? We get the feeling he doesn't like us very much."

Kait looked down at her drink. "Got to admit, I'm not sure." She said, "this is my first assignment and I'm new to all of this. His methods are…" She paused, "not what I would do. I can't see why he would not allow you three to go checkout that site though." She said.

"What methods?" Oppie asked.

"He seems to do a lot of paper shuffling." She said with a shrug. "He doesn't go out in the field much, he seems to spend a lot of time trying to get breaks by looking at documentation and piecing the puzzle together indirectly. He has me do a lot of work that just seems wasteful. Following up on reports, but nothing too concrete. I feel like we keep nibbling at the edges of the cartel, but we haven't made any big scores against them." She groused a little annoyed, finally having people to talk to about it.

"That's really strange," Sasha stated.

"Yeah, it is," Viran agreed. "Well maybe we can finally do something about that and get something done around here."

"Yeah." Oppie agreed, "I think we're in this for the long haul for a variety of reasons. Kyr, Cien, Kitsu and Illara are also going to join us when they can, so we'll stay here as long as we need to. Also, I will pay money to see how any of those four would react to J'onz." Oppie said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah, that'll be a treat," Viran said through a chuckle. "I can't wait to see that."

"But Oppie is right. We are not going anywhere as we came here with the goal to stop the cartel and figure out why Cordova put that bounty on me," Sasha said, simply. "So we will do whatever it takes."

"And we could really use your help in this too," Viran added on.

"I'm game to help out however I can." Kait said.

"Excellent," Viran said, smiling at her.

At that point a server delivered their food orders and brought Kait's over as well, she had ordered the same thing as they had.

Viran raised his beer in a toast. "Alright, here's to kicking the cartels butt."

"Hear hear," Oppie said, raising his glass.

"I can head back to the bar since it sounds like we got everything sorted out." Kait said, and started scooting out of the booth and made to grab her pad and the plate.

Oppie threw a glance at the other two, "we wouldn't mind if you wanted to eat with us?" He offered.

"Yeah, stay. Hang out," Viran said after taking a sip of his beer. Sasha nodded in agreement, even if she was still being subdued about everything.

Kait looked between them, and settled back down. "Okay, thanks." She said.

"So Kait, we never really got to talk last time, but tell us about yourself. You're from Nivon right?" Viran asked, striking up a new conversation.

"Yeah." She said in between a bite of her burger. "Born and raised, my dad was a cop, and my mom was a nurse, they both retired earlier this year though. They went off-world to some place with nicer beaches." She said with a smirk. "You guys?" Kait asked, looking between them.

"Mandalorian by birth," Oppie started, "I was raised at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant." He supplied, "my master, Sen Redika, took us all over the place with our assignments. And then the Clone Wars, I did a lot of traveling with that." Oppie said with a slight smirk.

"I'm from Corellia and like Oppie was raised in the Jedi Temple. But when the war ended and the Jedi were wiped out, I've been with them ever since," Viran said, gesturing to Sasha and Oppie on that. "But now Sasha and I are married with our daughter currently back home with Kitsu and Illara."

"That's great." Kait smirked. She chuckled a little bit, "before on Nivon when you guys were on the run, I guess I remember meeting Drews and Lynn here." She said with a smirk, gesturing to Oppie and Sasha. "I remember you stopping by the office a few times to talk to Op, I thought you guys might have been a couple or something."

Sasha and Oppie both turned bright red at that. Viran clapped a hand to his mouth as he tried to suppress a laugh. He had not been expecting that.

"No, we are definitely not," Sasha said quickly and rather bashfully. "He's my big brother. Even back then and that was before Viran and I were together."

"Oh, yeah, no I figured." Kait said, looking between them. "Cien kind of explained that a little bit." She added. "What about you, Sasha, where were you from?" Kait asked, trying to make amends a little.

"I'm from Naboo," Sasha answered after a bite of her food. "And just like them, I was raised as a Jedi."

"So what does it mean to be raised at the 'temple'?" She asked, "was it like a school of some kind?" She asked curiously.

Oppie stepped in, "it's more of a lifestyle." He said, "if you have the Force, the Jedi Order would know about you, and they would speak to your parents when you were still a baby. Give you various tests as an infant, and if you passed, they would offer it to the parents for you to be trained as a Jedi." He said.

"Would you still take breaks to go see your family or anything?" She asked, her brow furrowed.

"No." Oppie answered, "once you joined the Order, the Order was supposed to be your family, so they very, very strongly discouraged any sort of contact with your biological family. And also any… other sort of bonds."

"Meaning, if we were still in the Order today, Sasha and I wouldn't be allowed to be married or have children together. We would have to leave the order if we did that," Viran explained. "But because we were only ten when the Order fell and were living under very different circumstances since then, we got that opportunity and seized it."

"However, neither of us have met our biological family. Oppie is the only one of us who has," Sasha added, looking downcast.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Kait said.

"It's okay," Viran said, shrugging. "A few months ago we actually went to Naboo and discovered that Sasha still has family out there. As for myself, well, I'm sure one day I'll go back to Corellia and track them down. But we are happy with the family we have now." He smiled at Oppie and Sasha on that.

That made Sasha smile lightly as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Well I'm glad that things worked out that you could be together, you make a cute couple." Kait observed.

"Thank you," Sasha said, giving her the smallest of smiles.

"Yes, thanks," Viran said before taking a sip of his beer. "So what about you? You got anyone special in your life?" He asked.

Sasha glanced at him on that and smacked him on the leg. He flinched and shot her a confused glare.

Kait froze for a second as she was picking her burger up. "Uh, no, not that I know of." She answered quite truthfully while she tried to smirk, while Oppie studiously took a bite of his own.

"Oh, I'm sorry I asked," Viran said, realizing his error. "I just thought since you're pretty cool and all… but I'm sorry to assume."

Kait blushed a little at that, "Well thanks. But no." She glanced around the table, trying to figure out a way to change the subject. "So you guys travelled a lot?" She asked. "I assume if you were needing to lay low you went a lot of different places."

"Yes, we did," Sasha answered. "It's hard to remember all of them though. There was a lot."

"Yeah, the only place we spent as much time on as Nivon was Vestora a year or so later." Oppie said, "other than that we ended up having to move every few months. A lot of the places are a bit of a blur now."

"Where do you guys live now?" Kait asked as she took a bite.

Oppie glanced at the other two, their family had always kept Artemis and especially Haven a secret. Viran didn't know how to answer as his mouth tried to form the words. Sasha however did.

"We live with our family in a house Oppie's family owns," Sasha answered. "There's not much to say about it other than it's a rather large estate."

Kait nodded, "all together in one house?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah, it sounds cramped, but it really isn't," Viran said. "It is rather big. And there is room for everyone to spread out and do whatever they want."

"Hmph, that sounds interesting." She replied, glancing at Op.

"It is." Oppie said, "and the forest around it keeps Kyr busy, plenty of trees to blow up."

"Blowing up trees?" Kait asked in a double take.

"For firewood." Oppie clarified with a slight smirk.

"Ah." Kait replied as if in total understanding, eating a fried potato stick.

Viran chuckled at that as Sasha tried to suppress a smile.


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