Juhani:

"What happened?" Carth demanded.

"Mission, I want you to head back to the Ebon Hawk now," Rian commanded. "Trade places with Canderous."

"I'm coming with you," Mission insisted. "I'm not going to sit around while who knows what happens to Zaalbar. I can't."

"I don't have the time to argue with you," Rian growled. "Go. Now."

"But—"

"I don't want you to see me like this," Rian interrupted. "Now, go."

Mission narrowed her eyes, but hurried off without another sound.

"Rian, please calm down," Bastila pleaded. "You're getting reckless."

"Bastila, you follow Mission," Rian said. "I want you to make sure Czerka keeps their mitts off of my ship."

"You're too angry," Bastila argued. "You're going to make an enormous mess—"

"You say it like that's a bad idea." Rian gave her a feral grin.

I placed my hand on Bastila's shoulder. "She is too angry to listen to anyone right now," I said. "I think that perhaps you should do what she says for the moment, if only to keep from enraging her further."

"But her thoughts are of the Dark Side!" Bastila protested.

"I will watch her," I promised.

"Anger is rolling off of you as well," Bastila said.

"I am a Jedi," I said. "I will take care of things."

"I'll contact you on your comlink if anything happens," Carth offered.

Bastila nodded slowly before she followed after Mission.

"Are your blasters charged up?" Rian asked Carth.

"Always," he replied. "Will somebody tell me what's going on?"

"I'm going to cut through a Wookiee village, is what," Rian snapped.

"No," I interrupted sternly. "We find the mad Wookiee in the Shadowlands, is what. I do not think the Jedi Order condones genocide."

"Those bastards just took him like we were no better than children," Rian continued. "And that idiot, that nerf-herder just let them take him! Chuundar's going to be choking on my lightsaber."

"Rian Vega if you cannot control your outbursts, I'll send you back to the Ebon Hawk with Bastila," I said. "I am concerned for Zaalbar as well, but we have a mission to accomplish."

"What the hell happened to you?" Canderous marched down the ramp towards us. The Mandalorian cracked a grin as he eyed the bruise along Rian's cheek.

"Rian was physically removed from the Wookiee village," I said.

"I figured you were getting bored on that ship," Rian said to the Mandalorian.

"Something like that," Canderous replied.

"Alright, we're heading into the Shadowlands," Rian announced. "We've some more goals now, too. Find the Star Map, find some crazy Wookiee and kick that schutta of a Wookiee Chieftain in the teeth for holding Zaalbar hostage."

I said nothing. I feared that Zaalbar's predicament had to do with his culture and that perhaps Rian was about to make a terrible mistake. After all, Zaalbar had said that the Chieftain, Chuundar, was his brother.

The day had not started pleasantly. Being the only human in our group, the entire planet just assumed that Rian owned Zaalbar, Mission and myself. I would have thought that the lightsaber attached to my belt would have spoken otherwise. I do not know how the others felt about the situation, but it left me dwelling on old memories.

We were nearly arrested when a Czerka slaver started to pat down Mission's lekku and discuss prices. A boot to the groin from Mission, a lightsaber pointed in his face from Rian and a roaring Zaalbar was an intimidating combination. Fortunately they heeded my suggestion and we slipped through the gates into wild Kashyyyk before the Czerka man could call for backup.

It got progressively worse. Hidden by the branches, a slave cartel leader had decided to "put down" an unruly Wookiee. Rian tried to blackmail them and they attacked. Perhaps it was an honest negotiation mistake, but I suspected that Rian kept raising her price to goad the slavers into violence. Self defense wasn't against the Jedi Code.

Kinrath were everywhere. Zaalbar became more morose as we traveled further into the heart of Kashyyyk. The random Wookiees we encountered on our way to the village seemed enraged by our very presence. They called Zaalbar a "madclaw" and they spoke it as if the very word defiled their lips. But we pressed on and lost Zaalbar because of it.

I still couldn't decide if we made the correct choice. Zaalbar surrendered so easily to Chuundar, but my stomach twisted in knots over the value of the Wookiee Chieftain's word. I hoped my instinct was wrong, but how much would Zaalbar be worth to Chuundar alive after we had completed the task he had given us?

I was just relieved that the further we traveled into Kashyyyk, the less regular the slavers became. Their cages were much too small for a full grown Wookiee; I didn't even want to try to imagine how they forced their captives into those prisons.

"Are you going to say anything?" Carth called after Rian. "Or are you just going to keep marching forward like a madwoman?"

Rian snorted and continued her angry hike.

"Juhani?" That man got irritated far too easily. "Somebody? Anybody?"

"Czerka has their claws sunk deep into this planet," I said.

"I know," Carth replied. "They have the cooperation of a Wookiee Chieftain for their slave operations."

"That Chieftain's name is Chuundar," I said. "He is both Zaalbar's captor and brother."

"That's just great," Carth muttered. "I'd love to see what their family reunions are like."

Rian plodded forward. The Mandalorian's attentions were on the scope of his blaster and I had the sinking feeling that I was the only one in the group that was relatively calm. And I wanted to destroy Czerka.

Amid the thick foliage the Wookiees had set up a system of pulleys that lowered a platform down into the Shadowlands. Like Chuundar had promised, a Wookiee named Gorwooken was waiting for us at the platform.

He bared his teeth at our arrival. "/Chuundar has commanded that I grant you access to the Shadowlands. Your soft feet are a barely tolerated insult./"

Rian tested out the platform's railing before leaning against it. "Just unlock the thing and lower me down, Carpet," she said.

"/The descent is long/" Gorwooken growled. "/Be still, or we will attract… unwelcome visitors./"

"Exar Kun in a tiara!" Rian huffed. "I'll sing all sixteen verses of Fast Love in Deep Space if I feel like it."

"/And you will prove to be very easy prey/" Gorwooken replied.

"Rian, silence," I commanded. "Save your energy for the task at hand."

Rian glowered.

"Besides," Carth cleared his throat. "There are seventeen verses to Fast Love in Deep Space."

Rian smirked. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to share the final verse with me?"

"It's a bit inappropriate for a mixed audience," he muttered.

"You afraid the Mandalorian might blush?" she asked.

"Yes." Carth laughed nervously. "I'm refusing entirely for his sake."

"I've heard it." Canderous snorted. "It's anatomically impossible trash that children snicker over."

Rian raised an eyebrow. "Are you just upset because you find yourself lacking?"

"Don't waste my time," Canderous said.

They fell into silence as the platform continued to sink lower into Kashyyyk. I wanted to talk to Gorwooken. To ask him what he thought of Czerka, about how many children disappeared from their nurseries, if he had ever felt a collar around his neck. Instead, I bit my lip.

Kashyyyk's surface, the Shadowlands, was blanketed in a dark fertile soil that the wroshyr trees fed off of. So far below the canopy of leaves, I could see why it was called the Shadowlands. Gorwooken said nothing as he opened the platform's gate.

"How hard will it be to find a single Wookiee on a planet covered with them?" Rian began to test the weight of her lightsaber in her off hand.

"We will just have to begin somewhere," I said as I stepped from the platform.

I reached out with the Force. The planet's surface was teeming with life, but very little of it was sentient. Strange, that of the few sentient forms I could sense, there was one meters away.

"You hear something?" the Mandalorian asked me.

"That way." I pointed in the direction that I sensed the lifeform.

"Let's go, then," Rian said, her lightsaber ignited.

I finally caught a glimpse of him as I rounded an enormous wroshyr trunk. Dancing among ravenous creatures, the man had a vibrant green lightsaber in his hands. When the creatures attacked, he cut them down in rapid succession with a chuckle. As his dark eyes found us, his face immediately soured.

"The damnable racket of battle!" he called out. "Watch yourself, even more of these crawling beasts are hiding in the underbrush."

"Who are you?" Rian demanded. "What are you doing here?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm Jolee. Jolee Bindo. Follow me to my camp and we'll talk a bit."