It didn't take long for Carth to show up after Alexis did. He brought along five youthful TSF officers, each carrying a blaster rifle and a simple vibroblade. Alexis was glad that Doran was not among them. Things might have become complicated.
Carth's arrival brought the rest of the crew from the ship. Mira and Dustil looked almost as happy as Kalen and Atton, although they were a bit more prone to fighting and picking on one another. Visas was her usual imperturbable self, standing next to Bao-Dur and gripping the shaft of her lightsaber. Bao-Dur looked bored, while Mical just looked ill.
Alexis watched him from the corner of her eye for a moment. His face had a grayish cast and there were bags under his eyes. His robes were a bit wrinkled, which was most unusual for the Disciple. Normally he was impeccably groomed. Even his hair was slightly mussed. Alexis was determined, however, that she would not pity him. She walked over to his side and casually slapped him on the back. "Work with me today?" she asked.
Mical glanced down at her. "We've never fought together before. Is that entirely wise?"
Did the guy ever loosen up? "Well, we'll never get good at it if we don't try, now will we?"
"If that is your wish," he replied.
Alexis frowned and leaned in close to him. "Mical, are you all right?" she asked softly. "You don't look well."
He straightened his shoulders immediately. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"
"You're very pale…" Alexis told him.
"I'm fine," he repeated, looking away. Clearly the conversation was over.
Alexis turned and looked around. The urge to step forward and start giving instructions nearly overwhelmed her. Sadly, it wasn't her place. She was supposed to be a bounty hunter, just another member of Kalen's crew. Kalen and Carth were calling the shots today.
"Good morning Admiral," Kalen said, walking over to Carth. They shook hands briefly.
"Kalen," he responded.
"So, what's the plan of action?" she asked.
"We're going to split into five groups of three and do a sweep of the docking module. We have permission to search every hangar, although we can't arrest anyone or seize anything not directly related to our mission," Carth replied.
"Which is?" Canderous asked.
"Sith assassins. There have been several attacks in my own apartment and sightings in this area. We've been led to believe that this module may be their source," Carth said.
"Makes sense. They had to get here somehow," Dustil stated.
Carth's TSF soldiers hung on his every word. The admiration in their young eyes was almost indecent to look at. Not only was Carth an Admiral in the Republic fleet, he was also a crack pilot and he was very young for someone with such a high rank. He was attractive, too, although hopefully they hadn't noticed. He was wearing his Republic armor, rather than an official uniform, but he looked good, nonetheless. Nothing could outdo the tight black pants, but Alexis wouldn't complain. At least he'd lost the orange jacket. He was a figure to be looked up to, by men and women alike.
"I'll take Atton and Bao-Dur, then," Alexis heard Kalen say. She had missed part of the conversation while she'd been busy watching Carth.
Canderous appeared at Alexis's side. "I'll go with," he glanced down at her for a moment, "Lexi and Mical," he said finally. It sounded so strange to hear him call her Lexi. He didn't appear to like it, either.
Dustil turned to his father. "Mira and I will take one of your soldiers with us."
Carth nodded. "Walhrik," he said shortly. A short, stocky redhead trotted immediately to Dustil's side, blaster in hand. His hair was almost exactly the same color as Mira's. Dustil, taller and darker than both of them, looked odd standing between his two fiery-haired companions.
"Visas, do you mind taking two TSF officers with you?" Kalen asked the Miraluka.
"I do not mind at all, Master," she answered. Alexis didn't know how many times she'd heard Kalen ask the other woman not to call her master, but it seemed that old habits died hard.
"Pierce, Finelli," Carth said, motioning towards Visas. Two dark haired men, one tall and one short, stepped forward. They moved more reluctantly than Walhrik had. They were eyeing the blind woman with undisguised suspicion. She smiled faintly at them, and Alexis wanted to laugh. She wondered what they would do if they knew that the Miraluka knew exactly what they were thinking.
Alexis turned to Canderous. "I think that they might mind," she whispered softly.
Canderous chuckled. "He should've given them to me."
"That's too cruel," Alexis responded.
"Let's get this show on the road," Atton said, pulling his blaster.
Carth nodded. "Each group needs to take a comlink and head to the far end of the module. We'll start with the hangars on the end and make our way back this way."
Alexis and Kalen both took comlinks from Carth. Alexis winked at him as she stepped back to Canderous's side. As she took her lightsaber off of her belt, she noticed that one of the soldiers beside Carth, a very slight blond boy with big blue eyes, was staring at her with a wary expression. She gave him a roguish grin and his eyes widened.
Canderous snorted. "Bunch of cowards," he muttered, making a face at the kid. He looked away quickly and Canderous chuckled darkly.
"You shouldn't treat them that way, Canderous," Mical said stiffly.
Canderous turned back to look at him. "What about you, kid? If I curled my lip at you, you'd do the same."
"Stop that," Alexis said, grabbing Canderous's arm. "Let's go. They can catch up." She let him go and jogged off, grinning.
She heard Canderous muttering darkly as he trotted after her. "She has to run everywhere, doesn't she?"
Carth stood inside the final hangar with the other four groups, his blasters still gripped loosely in his hands. Three hours and around fifteen assassins later and they still didn't know where the Sith were coming from. They hadn't even all been in one hangar. There were generally one or two hiding in the backs of empty hangars, but no large group and certainly no transport. Carth was stymied.
Where were the bastards coming from? Had they gotten them all, or were there some to be found inside the residential module next door? Carth didn't know.
"Admiral, who's that girl?" Brant, the small blonde TSF officer, asked from Carth's left.
Carth glanced up. Alexis was standing over the body of an assassin. She was pointing something out to Canderous, who was watching over her shoulder. Carth noticed that there was a slice across her arm that was bleeding fairly profusely. "Which one?" he asked, pretending not to know exactly who the boy was talking about.
"The black-haired one, really small, over there by that giant with the rifle?" Brant replied.
"They call her Lexi," he said shortly. He hoped it sounded final, as if there was nothing else interesting about her.
"I didn't see her with them the last time they were here," he observed. He was fairly intelligent, as Carth well knew.
"No. They picked her up sometime in between," Carth told him. He wished Brant would just drop it.
"Is she a bounty hunter?" he asked.
Alexis was standing up once again and Canderous was looking at her arm. When she smiled up at him, Carth felt a flash of jealousy. "Yeah. Something like that," he responded.
"She's quite the leader. She's the only one I've seen that Mandalorian listen to," Brant said.
"How did you know that he was a Mandalorian?" Carth asked.
"He was wearing Mandalorian armor the last time he was here," the boy responded, giving Carth a strange look.
"Oh yeah," Carth muttered. Damned kid and his observations. He was a bit too bright for his own good.
Brant was silent for a moment, watching Alexis. Carth followed suit. She was holding her palm over the injury on her other arm. A soft, green light slowly enveloped her entire forearm. When she pulled back, the cut was gone, but the tear in her shirt and the blood remained. "Do you know how long she's been a Jedi?" Brant asked.
"No clue. Not long, I'd wager. The exile's been training her crew," Carth said. He glanced over at the kid. "Why are you so curious about her?"
"Mostly because she's gorgeous," the kid conceded, "but also because she has such a hold over the other two she's with." He motioned towards her. Carth turned back. Mical was standing beside her now, too. She was standing on her tiptoes in front of Canderous, peering at a wound on his cheek. She dropped back to the ground and held her finger in front of it, emitting the same soft green light. Canderous was glaring at her, but not in a threatening way. It was more… tolerant. The cut disappeared. "I think he'd kill anyone else who did the same," Brant said with certainty.
Carth knew that Brant was right. Canderous's loyalty to Alexis was so unwavering that he might just abandon the Mandalorians to remain at her side, if she asked it. "Probably," Carth responded.
"She's wicked with that lightsaber," Brant said.
"I've seen her slice someone in half," Carth replied without thinking.
"Wow," Brant muttered, his eyes filled with respect.
"Look, I've got to go and talk to the exile. You and Oren round up the others and wait for me by the shuttle. We'll deliver a report to Lieutenant Grenn and then you guys may take the rest of the day off," Carth said.
"Yes, sir," Brant said, forgetting about Alexis.
Carth watched the young man leave to find his friends. After a short pause, Carth ambled over to Kalen. She was fiddling with one of Atton's blasters. Atton himself was nowhere to be seen. "Let's call everyone over here," Carth said without hesitation.
Kalen nodded. "Hey! Everybody, here!" Kalen shouted.
They arrived quickly, surrounding Kalen. Atton walked up behind her and put his arms around her. Carth was surprised she didn't protest. In fact, she looked rather pleased. She turned back and smiled at him. Alexis caught his eye as she approached and glanced over at them and raised her eyebrows, grinning. Carth shrugged.
"Not much of a fight," Canderous said, gesturing with his gun.
"Is that all you ever think about?" Alexis asked him.
"Yes," Canderous responded.
Kalen shook her head. "So… we still don't know where your assassins are coming from."
"There could be more that we have not found, Master," Visas said. She rarely spoke when not spoken to directly, and Carth was surprised to hear her speak up now.
"I know. Carth's secretary said she'd been followed from her apartment, according to Alexis," Kalen said.
"What we do know is that they didn't come here by any ship in this module," Dustil said.
"At least not one that's here now," Mira amended.
"So… does the search go on?" Atton asked over Kalen's head.
Alexis had listened to all of this in silence. Finally, she spoke. "Something's not right about all of this, but we don't have the time to stick around and find out what. We're leaving tomorrow. I hate to leave Telos with assassins still on planet, but I don't see what choice we have. Besides, I think that I'm the reason that they're here in the first place. Hopefully once I'm gone, they'll leave too." She looked downcast for a moment, but that disappeared as quickly as it had come.
"After we're gone, the TSF can take care of any Sith that are left. They haven't attacked anyone but you, and I don't think that they're likely to," Carth told her.
Alexis nodded. "I'm going to take a walk around the Citadel to see if there are any other assassins visible at the moment. I'd like to take one or two people with me, if someone would like to go."
"I can't," Carth said regretfully. He hoped that Canderous didn't go with her.
"I'll go," Kalen volunteered.
"Me too," Dustil added.
"If Kalen's going, I'm going," Atton said.
"No thanks, Atton. Two's enough. Besides, you'd just distract her," Alexis said.
"It won't take long, Atton," Kalen said with a smile.
"I'll just go and play pazaak," he replied. "Anyone want a game?"
"I'll play with you," Mira replied.
Carth watched the groups start to form: those going with Alexis, those going back to the Ebon Hawk, and him. Alexis turned to him suddenly, a speculative look in her eye. She walked over and stood on her tiptoes to plant a gentle kiss on his cheek. "See you later, Admiral," she said, trailing her hand down his arm.
Carth gave her a lopsided grin. "I knew you couldn't resist the uniform."
Alexis turned to Dustil and Kalen once the others were gone. "Shall we?"
"You nearly stopped his heart, you know. You can't spontaneously kiss old men like that," Dustil said,
"How old is he?" Alexis asked.
"You don't know?" Dustil responded.
Alexis shook her head. "It's never come up. It doesn't really matter to me, anyway."
"He's forty-three," Dustil said.
"Fourteen years. It could be worse," Kalen said.
"I wouldn't care if it were," Alexis told them seriously.
"Okay, I think we're venturing into the 'more than I wanted to know' category," Dustil said.
Alexis grinned at him. "Come on. We haven't got all day."
"Why not? What else have you got planned for today?" Kalen asked as they started out of the hangar.
"Oh. Hey… you want to go to dinner with Carth and I tonight? We're-"
"I thought I mentioned that 'more than I wanted to know' category…" Dustil interrupted.
"Ha, ha. No, we're having dinner with the Senator. She invited Kalen as well," Alexis said, glaring at Dustil.
"No Atton?" Kalen asked.
"Well, she didn't specifically invite him, but I don't see why he couldn't come," Alexis told her.
"I do. She'll probably kick you all out," Dustil said.
"That's not very nice," Alexis said.
"But probably true," Kalen admitted ruefully.
"Oh, he knows how to control himself when he has to," Alexis replied.
They made their way to the shuttle in silence. Inside the next module, Kalen turned to Alexis. "I think I'll leave him on the Hawk. I'll come, but he probably wouldn't enjoy it."
"Are you sure?" Alexis asked.
"Yes. He'll be much happier back on the ship with his pazaak deck," Kalen responded.
"She wouldn't deal well with Atton," Dustil said. "She can barely deal with my dad. She's my third cousin," he told Kalen.
"She's nice enough," Alexis defended.
Kalen pointed to an apartment complex a few doors down. "Isn't that the letter that they told us that Seré lives in?"
Alexis nodded. "That's it. Let's take a look." Alexis pulled her lightsaber and slipped into the main chamber. The doors to the apartments were in a semicircle around them.
"It's too light in here," Kalen said, glancing around with her lightsaber in her hand.
"You're right," Alexis said, clipping her lightsaber back to her belt. "They have to be waiting for her somewhere. She said she thought they were following her from here, though."
"She doesn't seem very bright to me," Kalen muttered.
"Why is everything about these guys so mysterious? Don't they know that that gets old?" Alexis asked with a sigh.
Dustil laughed. "You were a Sith. Wasn't the mask part of the mystery? I think that that was one of the most important lessons at the academy. Always remember: you must make your enemies go, 'Oh, how did he do that?'. It's all about style," he said, putting his finger on his chin and posing.
"And being a Jedi isn't?" Kalen said. "Have you seen our lightsaber forms? Some of them look more like elaborate dances and work about as well."
"Speaking of style, when do we get to cut off all of Dustil's hair? He needs to look like a padawan, doesn't he?" Alexis asked.
"Do I get to call you Master?" Dustil asked, leering at her.
Alexis laughed. "Be mindful of your thoughts, young padawan. They betray you," she said sagely, folding her arms over her chest.
"Weren't we doing something here?" Kalen said.
"Making fun of ourselves," Alexis responded.
"Do you really think we're going to find anything else?" Kalen asked.
"No, but we may as well finish our sweep of the Citadel," Alexis answered with a sigh.
"This could take hours," Dustil muttered, following the pair of them out of the apartment complex.
Alexis was collapsed in Carth's apartment several hours later, trying to force herself to get up and shower. She hadn't showered since the morning before and she felt a bit dirty. She even still had Kalen's tattoo on her arm. She had to be at the senator's apartment for dinner in two hours, and Carth would be home in one, but she just couldn't make herself get up.
Alexis glanced at the bloody tear in the sleeve of her shirt. She was probably just going to have to throw it away. That was okay with her. Shirts weren't hard to come by, it was the pants that were the problem. Sadly she was going to have to stop stealing Mira's clothes. Maybe Coruscant would have more options? Of course, once she got to Coruscant, she wouldn't need new clothes. She'd have Jedi robes.
How she hated Coruscant. It was just one huge city: no trees, no native animals, and no natural sounds to speak of. It stank of fuel and unwashed bodies and was full of horrible people. Alexis had always wondered how the Jedi Temple had ended up the there. Why would people seeking peace choose a planet of chaos?
She didn't want to go back. She'd lived there for nine years, and that was enough. She even hated visiting. Coruscant was worse than any world in the Unknown Regions. To her, Coruscant was worse than Malachor. And… she didn't know why she hated it so much. Many people found it distasteful, an entire world composed of one massive city… But her hatred bordered on obsessive.
Alexis sighed and rolled around in her position on the ground, lifting her hips and removing her belt and holster. She tossed them away. Why did the Senate have to be on Coruscant? Of course, if it weren't, Coruscant probably would have remained a normal world. Not only was the Senate often corrupt, but it corrupted everything around it. Perhaps that was why the Jedi had fallen so far. No. There was no one else to blame. The Jedi brought their doom upon themselves, her included.
Alexis sat up slowly and tugged off her boots and socks. She threw them near her belt and started on her hair. The pins and clips were everywhere, and her hair was now tangled in them. It took ages for her to find them. After twenty minutes, double the time it had taken her to make her hair look this way, she finally had removed all of the baubles that had held it in place. Her head hurt from the pins and her arms hurt from the effort. Would taking down her hair have been a frivolous use of the Force?
She stood and gathered her clothes and the hair pieces and took them back to Carth's room. She'd sort them out later. For now, she had to shower.
When Alexis emerged from the shower, still toweling her hair and dressed in a green tunic and brown tights, Carth was standing in the living room. She smiled faintly at him and sat down on the couch. "Long time no see. How did it go at the TSF headquarters?"
"I hate paperwork," he replied obliquely.
"That bad, huh?"
"Worse. When I finally got to leave, Seré followed me back to the office. I had some things I had to finish up before I left. She begged to stay here again tonight, where I could keep her safe."
So Seré had been lying when she said she'd leave Carth alone. That figured. "Is she going to Coruscant with us?"
"Actually, I've managed to convince her to stay. I have a feeling we won't see Telos for a long time after we visit Coruscant and I don't want Seré trailing after us," he responded. "You could be my secretary, if I h ad to have one."
"Fat chance of that," Alexis responded.
"I have to go hit the shower. When do we leave?"
Alexis glanced at the clock. "You've got twenty minutes before we need to head over to pick up Kalen."
Carth nodded. "I'll be quick, then."
Alexis watched him disappear into the bathroom. She rose and headed back to his room to get her boots and her belt. She was going to do it tonight. After their meeting with Senator Seraph, she was finally going to tell him that she loved him... And if anything else came up, she was going to go mad.
