"This is disgusting, alright."

"Whatever did do this was vicious, for sure…and it wasn't a knife that caused these wounds, even I can tell that from just a look."

Finn and Poe couldn't help but feel degraded and depressed after they'd lost the ability to relax on Naboo. Naboo had been their home away from home for so long, a place where they felt they could unwind, and now, after several beautiful years of great memories working on Naboo for the Dyad, for their beloved Darth Raize and Furiosa…it was all gone because of what the Dyad's apprentices and padawans…what their OWN padawans…had done.

But…there was still the vacation planet of Pokitaru. Poe had done the local sheriff there a few favors now and then and so now he and Finn had decided they'd go there for a while to relax. They didn't want to be around the Dyad for a while, truth be told…not after what Raize and Furiosa had done.

Finn had finally decided to speak up. He'd told them that what they had done was a bad idea. "All we're doing is just alienating what few allies we have! Many of our padawans don't live under planets with your influence, they live in New Republic space, and now people are gonna talk! They're gonna talk about how we're all murderous authoritarians who just kill people who don't go along with what we want, who think we're above the law and can do whatever we want! I don't want people to be afraid of me!"

"As long as you're Sith, they're always going to be afraid of you to some degree, that's not a bad thing." Furiosa had argued. "Fear breeds respect."

"The Mandalorian I worked under thought the same way. I had no respect for her. I was afraid of her, but I didn't respect her." He'd said as Rey stared at him, scarcely able to believe what she was hearing. Finally he ended the call, and Poe had gently patted him on the shoulder, trying to comfort him.

"Hey. It'll be alright." He'd insisted. "You're gonna like it on Pokitaru."

But…things were not quite that simple. They'd only been there three days before the local sheriff had come to visit Poe and had asked him for a favor, because a rather well-off man who owned a big fleet of fishing boats had been horribly mangled and mauled at night. He'd asked Poe for help and now Finn and Poe were investigating in the morgue, looking down at the body as the sheriff, a fairly nondescript, bearded and moustachioed alien with soft blue skin and no nose, looked down at the corpse as well, arms folded over his naked chest, dog tags from his time in the great wars against Mandalore hanging from his neck.

"Good thing you contacted me, Sheriff Andal." Poe said as he put on some gloves and began to inspect the body. "Yeah, these are definitely animal wounds."

"I would have my own expert examine it, but unfortunately he's on vacation today." The sheriff confessed. "And, honestly…we're very short-staffed here in the Pokitaru Police Department. We had a lot of our men killed in the line of duty during protests about this gala that's happening this month to celebrate over 300 years of fishing industry success. All the big names are gonna be there, and not just for the fishing industry, the cruise people, the general tourist trade folks, they've all been coming in." Sheriff Andal remarked. "Folks hated it."

"They don't want a bunch of rich people around being all bread and circuses, huh? This is my surprised face." Poe wryly remarked.

"They have a legal right to host a party here, it's part of our planet's constitution. If people wanna throw a non-violent party, there's no law against it. The mayor tried to make that case in a town hall but the folks there just didn't want to listen, they threw out a lot of stuff like "They're just crushing the underclass" and "we don't want bourgeois pigs here" and "Eat the rich" and all those buzzwords but none of them actually gave a good LEGAL reason why they couldn't hold the gala. That's when they started doing the protests."

"Protests aren't illegal?" Finn asked, sounding mortified and disgusted.

"Of COURSE not, we have people who protest outside of fancy rich houses on the beach all the time." Sheriff Andal. "A lot of them want those spots of beaches to be open to EVERYONE, even if that place becomes privately owned."

"Mansion people are evil! Mansion people are evil!"

"Hey, it's not that simple! What about property rights? What about sanitation? What about security?"

"…"

"…WELL?"

"….MANSION PEOPLE ARE EEEEVIL! MANSION PEOPLE ARE EVIL!"

"Well, I give them points for moral clarity." Finn commented.

"Yeah, and then the COUNTER-protests started."

"Counter protests?"

"Yeah, stuff like "Not in OUR backyard! Not in OUR backyard!"

"Ohhhhh." Finn nodded. "Yeah, I had a feeling they'd start saying that."

"So the protests eventually got violent?" Poe asked the sheriff.

"Yeah, one of the cops started yelling angrily at the protestors and told them they were all sorts of nasty names, and then one of the protestors just stabbed him in the face with a laser knife! It got chaotic! And the thing is, my men were outnumbered three to one, I couldn't have them fight them all off and I didn't want the news headlines to be showing a slaughter of protestors. I had to have them retreat even as those protestors were beating at least 7 cops to death or trampling them!" Sheriff Andal confessed. "So now I'm super stretched thin for solving stuff like this, and no witnesses are talking because, well-"

"It's a rich shoobie tourist so they don't care if he cacks it. I got it." Poe said. "This guy's haircut costs more than half my weapon's cache. And he's not the only victim who's just like this? You've got others who endured similar attacks?"

"Yes."

Poe thought it over. "What we need is simple. A nice, classic stakeout. Is there a super fancy restaurant where these rich dummies will be eating?"

"Yes, and I've promised them some security."

"They can have it. They can have…us. We'll be your junkyard dogs." Poe reasoned with a grin. "We'll be there. Whomever is behind this, we can catch them in the act. Plus, if we save these rich dummies's lives, maybe we can engender some good will with them and they can open up business with the Dyad and make Pokitaru more hospitable to our masters and our apprentices."

"Sure, if you don't screw this up." Sheriff Andal said. "Listen, the thing is, these people are very skittish around even the mere MENTION of the Dyad, Darth Raize basically has confessed multiple times in interviews she's outright murdered rich people because she hates that "they're exploiters". Don't give away what you are. If you have to use force stuff, just don't use your lightsabers, you'll be a dead giveaway as Sith and they'll recognize you as Dyad folks for sure. If you save their lives, though, maybe they'll be much more open to chatting with you as padawans of the "Dark Ladies"." The sheriff reasoned.

… "So, have you heard anything back from C'haly?"

"No, no. I'm gonna have to book the trip on my own…"

"The calamari here is to die for."

"Here, let me pour some cracked pepper on that…"

"The beef wellington's not bad either…"

"Ugggghhhh." Poe groaned as he paced back and forth in the kitchen, pretending to be one of the serving staff whilst Finn was hard at work cutting up a salad. "Is it ready yet?"

"…juuuuussst aaaabooouuut…THERE." Finn fished and held up the perfectly-sliced up salad, laying it out on a fancy platter for Poe to deliver to the customer who'd asked for it. So far, the night was going very smoothly indeed. None of the fancy rich high falutin types there had a clue what was going on. They were in the dark about who Poe and Finn truly were.

It helped that they were much less recognizable in general than the Dyad. It wasn't like THEY did interviews with reporters or the like.

"Wow, you're really good at cooking." Poe admitted. "I can barely heat a microwave up. How'd you get so good at this?"

"When I worked under the Mandalorians, being able to properly cook your own meals was a must-have skill set along with hunting and tracking." Finn confessed. "It's just standard Mandalorian stuff, really. I'm just above average when it comes to cooking, not that special, I promise you."

"Hey, listen. I think you're doing a great job." Poe gently patted Finn on the shoulder, and then kissed him on the cheek. "This is gonna be a good night. I can tell." He said as he then brought the platter out to the table, setting it down right before-

"WAITER!"

Poe cringed as he looked up, then headed over to a nearby table where a very angry-looking Gaomrrean in a fancy tuxedo was pointing down at his bowl. "What's this fly doing in my soup!?" He proclaimed.

"…forgive me sir, it's hard to tell, but if I had to guess…the backstroke?" Poe sarcastically intoned. People nearby began to chuckle and laugh as the Gamorrean gave him a VERY nasty look, Poe picking up the soup bowl. "Still, I'll get you a fresh bowl of soup free of charge, good sir. Would you, perhaps, like some bread sticks with that-"

He stopped, and frowned. "Wait, do…do you hear…barking?" he asked aloud as several aliens and people inside the room stiffened. Yes, they, like Poe, had very good hearing, and they were sure they'd just heard loud-

"ROWF ROWF ROWF!"

"RARR RARR RARR!"

"AARRRROOOOO!"

"OH MY GOD!"

"HOLY CRAP!"

"RUN FOR IT!"

People in the kitchen bolted out of the double doors leading to it, screaming and hollering, the waiters and kitchen staff yowling in terror, bite marks all over them. "Get out, get out, a mad pack of dogs! A mad pack of dogs!" Finn yelled as he raced out of the kitchen door and quickly tried to block it, trying to shift a table to keep the dogs from racing into the main dining hall. Poe held up a hand and focused, and the table slid right in front of the door, Finn wiping his brow…

Just as gigantic, viscious-looking, and HUNGRY dogs barreled towards the door. Several managed to scramble over the table as Finn reeled back, pulling out a knife to defend himself as Poe quickly drew his gun. The dogs were so huge…and so many! They raced towards the rich customers, ignoring Poe and Finn, diving at the customers! The Gomorrean went down, he yelled and hollered, trying to knock the dog off him as it clawed and tore at his flesh, biting into his neck to sever his jugular, a woman screeching as her dress was torn along with her flesh!

Poe and Finn quickly raced at the nearest people they could get to. Finn stabbed the knife down, right through the dog's head as Poe fired. TSSEWWW! TSSSEEEWWW! His pistol shots struck true, several dogs were blasted off their would-be victims. Loud screeching and growling filled the air as the dogs quickly realized they were being fired on, and were now actually in danger as Finn dove at the dog who'd attacked the woman in the fanciest dress.

SCHAA-THUNK! He stabbed into the dog, trying to get its neck, but he missed as it twisted away, getting its shoulder. The dog snarled, and leapt at him, biting at his hand. Gasping in pain, reeling back a bit, Finn had an idea, his free hand sneaking into his pocket, and attaching something to the underside of the dog. The dog yelped as Poe focused his Force powers, and SCHAA-THWOOM! He knocked the dog through a nearby window, as the rest of the pack began to take off.

That dog who'd been launched through the window had a tracker placed on him. Finn had had a hunch that they could track the pack down to their master, and his hunch had paid off. Getting out his tracker, he walked over to Poe as Poe got out a BACTA patch, attaching it to Finn's hand to begin healing him. "Here you go, buddy. Let me help you with that."

"Thanks. Look, I got the tracker on that big brownish one. They're going about…south-west…" Finn said as he examined the tracker scanner. "I hope they don't go, like, out of the city. This scanner only has a 10 mile radius…"

"Let's follow them. We don't want their master to figure out we're onto him." Poe insisted as he glanced back at the remaining people in the restaurant's dining hall. "You'd all best go to the police station. Make your reports to the sheriff. Tell them Finn and Poe helped you and we're now tracking down that vicious pack of attack dogs. He'll know who we are. ESPECIALLY me."

The two Sith made their way off, following the tracker as Finn looked down at the scanner. They kept to the rooftops, Finn peering down every once in a while before leaping from roof to roof. "We're getting closer…real close…" Finn murmured as they made a turn to the west before Poe whistled.

"I see a big junkyard up ahead. There. It's there, I'm sure." He said. "Call it a hunch." He added, seeing Finn's questioning look before they touched down at the junkyard. It smelled as bad as it looked, there were broken down vehicles and chunks of houses destroyed by hurricanes and storms lying left and right to be burned away by the enormous, currently-turned-off furnace located in the center of the junkyard. It would dissolve and burn all that were put inside it away into nothing but the tiniest of atoms, and there, to the side of it, not far away from an obvious big-enough-to-house-a-person garage…

Was a dead dog. The dog Finn had put the tracker in.

"Ohhh…oh, no…" Finn looked sadly down at it, shaking his head. It looked…tiny…in death. He knelt down, plucking the tracker out from the dog's chest. "…the tracker didn't kill it, somebody else clearly shot the thing in the back of the head, look." He said, pointing at a distinct burn mark. "And…it wasn't a laser, they used a more old-fashioned gun…"

"A junk gun for a junkyard rat." Poe said darkly. "Well…let's make it up to Fido here." He said as he and Finn snuck their way towards the garage, peering in a window. "…not sensing any sentient life inside." He murmured as he tapped into the Force, taking in a deep breath, feeling out for more complicated life forms. Nope…nothing but dogs…and all were in cages. They slowly opened up the door, sneaking in, closing it behind them as they glanced around this ramshackle, rotten-smelling hut. The dogs had been bred to be lean and mean, but now they looked pitiful trapped too tightly together in these metal cages they were in.

The dogs were all whining, whimpering as Finn looked over at what was distinctly old but once-VERY-nice pairs of shoes. "Look. These are old, worn-out Larry Vinyl shoes. These things cost as much to repair as our light saber!"

"Yeah, and this is a Guh'She tuxedo…" Poe murmured as he sniffed over another article of clothing left on the table, right in front of the dogs. "These are some real expensive clothes. Well…now we know how our friend is getting the dogs to only attack rich jerks. He's having them specifically go after folks in rich clothing and the like."

"Let's make sure we're…ready for him…" Finn remarked.

"You don't want to just call the sheriff?"

"You know what? No. Not for something like THIS." Finn quietly murmured as he looked over at the piteous dogs whining in their cages. "No. Could…could you help me try and reach out through the Force to these dogs?"

"Sure." Poe held a hand up. "…take my hand. And concentrate…"

A FEW HOURS LATER…

"Hmm. No barking? Good. All of you learned your freakin' lessons, I hope?" The irritated-looking orange-skinned alien walked in, wearing only a pair of pants and sneakers as he carried in some groceries, putting it on the table as he looked around the garage he'd made into his house. "Good. Especially because I've got a killer head…ache…" He stopped, glancing around in the dark. Why were all the lights on? And why were the cages moved back into…

Wait. He turned the lights on, frowning. The dogs were out of the cages! Gone! Who had-

He barely had time to react when somebody snuck out from behind the door he'd just open, grabbed him by his wrist and flung him with such force he broke through the wall, cascading out, flopping against a pile of trash as he groaned, now looking up at a furious dark-skinned face. Finn held his fist up, clenched around his lightsaber, which illuminated the raw, hate-filled anger he had as the looked angrily down at the man…and Poe stayed back, behind him.

"What the heck were you hoping to do? Training dogs to track expensive clothing to attack the wealthy? Beating them?! Teaching them to be vicious?!"

"What makes those fuckin' rich assholes so special? They ain't better than me. They deserve to be knocked off their high horse." The junkyard trainer muttered.

"It's not your job to teach anybody. Nobody hired you to do that. And all you're doing is making people with legit gripes against folks like them all look like insane, murderous, animal-abusing monsters." Finn snarled darkly. "You give people like me, who want to actually help the poor and downtrodden, a bad name. Folks like me are supposed to be there for those who slip through the cracks. You wanted to help folks with barely anything, go grab a goddamn ladle at a soup kitchen instead of beating a dog into ripping somebody's throat out!"

"Easy for you to say, YOU'RE rich…YOU'RE well off." The junkyard trainer darkly snapped. "You can afford to wear nice clothes and have nice weapons."

"I wasn't always rich. Most people aren't. You can stall for time all you want. Nobody's coming for you. Well…I say that, but…"

Poe stepped forward…as the dogs now began to emerge from the shadows behind him, growling darkly.

"What's the phrase? Every dog has its day?" Poe cheerily inquired. "Well…go ahead, gang." He commented.

"RAAAAAAAHRRRR!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

The two Sith walked off, ignoring the man's screeches and howls as the dogs went to town, loud, horrible biting, crunching noises echoing through the night air as Finn put his lightsaber away, Poe giving him a smile.

"Now THAT'S acting like a Sith." He cheerily intoned. "I'll go give the Sheriff a call and tell him where he can pick up our little friend from back there…"

"…I thought I'd feel better about this. But…I don't." Finn confessed. "I guess I just…I…" He hesitated. "…I admit, I sort of saw a bit of myself in that man. Under the Dyad, haven't we done similar things?" He wanted to know of Poe as Poe hesitated. "There's not too much difference."

"Hey, look, the Dyad are an actual good authority, not like that guy who just took things into his own hands. They actually mean well." Poe reasoned. "If people TRULY didn't like the Dyad, they'd say so on Nar Shadaa, right? They're not dictators."

… "Wait, WHAT?"

Finn and Poe gaped in astonishment as they looked down at their ship's computer screen. It was showing the poll results from the latest polls for the Nar Shadaa election. The Dyad were dropping in support to a massive, massive level. At one point their approval rating had been well above 60 percent…now it was barely 40. And who, of all people, was running against them?

Leia Organa.

It was a brilliant move. Leia had announced she was moving to Nar Shadaa with her husband Han and they had all eyes on them. The Dyad couldn't openly do a thing about this, nor stop them from running because there was no law that said a non-native of Nar Shadaa couldn't run its government…especially when neither Rey NOR Furiosa could claim to be natives either! Now with the entire galaxy watching the race with interest, if anything untoward even remotely happened towards Leia and Han, either at their homes they'd set up, or their campaign headquarters, or towards them specifically, Nar Shadaa was sure the New Republic would openly invade.

And worse still the Dyad couldn't make the argument that the Republic was just trying to take over Nar Shadaa…because Leia'd gotten out in front of that, openly admitting she wanted Nar Shadaa to properly rejoin the Republic and to return to a "far less criminal status quo". "This time, the New Republic will properly hear your concerns. And we won't throw you out of a window if you make more than a certain amount of money per year."

"My wife won't electrocute you if you make a crack about her dead parents, I swear." Han had added, and some reporters had even laughed.

"And unlike the Dyad, I won't brazenly flaunt the law and ignore it just to suit my own ends. We can't be above consequences and standards just because we think we know best." Leia had insisted. "But the Dyad think they ARE above all that. Someone has to show them that there are consequences for just doing whatever the hell you want. Somebody has to remind them the Galaxy has rules and laws, and you can't just break them. Somebody has to remind them that they're not the sole arbiter of right and wrong. I won't pretend to be perfect. I've got my own issues. But I'll be honest about what I am. Can the Dyad say they're honest about what they do?"

"I'M GONNA SHOVE MY BOOT SO FAR UP HER ASS!" Furiosa roared. "Her last gasp will be after my boot's stomped on her neck!" She snarled as she threw the holo-vid screen in her and Rey's bedroom across the room, a dark, baleful look on her face. "I'll teach that stuck up princess a thing or two! Just she wait! JUST! SHE! WAIT! I'll find a way to get her! I'll find a way!"