Disclaimer: George Lucas owns Star Wars
A Shift in the Force: Chapter Thirty-Four: House Renliss
AN: Carina's had an interesting few days, huh? And the Jedi Council knows about Carina now…so I wonder what that will mean.
I saw Rogue One and just about died and decided I needed to write for this fic because ohmigods it was glorious.
In other news, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Carina had learned the hard way to trust only herself, but in her dreams, there was no way to protect her back. There were enemies on all sides.
"I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me," a voice whispered in her ear and she turned sharply but saw nothing but the whisper of a child. It was vaguely unnerving.
Everything was cast in shadow, but Carina had never minded the shadows, the shadows was where she thrived best.
And for a brief moment, she thought she saw a pair of brown eyes peering out at her, but then she forced herself awake suddenly to a clap of thunder overhead.
Carina leaned forward with a sigh in the dim lighting of the temple, running her hand through the half of her hair that was long and dyed black and red. It was a rather bad dye job, but at the time she hadn't really cared, and now the red streaks were beginning to annoy her.
She had an aching headache at the back of her head, but that was usual; she'd had that same headache for just about a year and she wasn't foolish enough to take something to alleviate the pain.
Tython was quiet, generally, but she was really the only one that could speak intelligent conversation on the planet, so she was unsurprised to awaken to silence.
Gratina's image-caster was heavy in her back pocket, but Carina was still debating the choice that lay before her.
She pulled herself upright with the use of the wall before walking towards the opening of the temple to where her transport was sitting unassuming within the downpour. She pressed a button on the device clipped to her hip in order for the ramp to descend and then she stepped out onto the transport she'd stolen.
The security droid that had been on the transport when she'd stolen it had proven to be a bit of difficulty before she'd effectively deactivated it. It had almost broken her wrist, and Carina was still sour about it, but she couldn't deny that a security droid could be very helpful.
Carina opened the small compartment she'd shoved the tall droid within, considering it silently.
These kind of droids weren't that common in the Outer Rim, they were generally in charge of guarding top-level facilities or important persons, that kind of thing.
She twisted her hand, drawing it upwards, watching as the unmoving security droid was lifted into the air in order to be brought into the main area.
The droid was largely undamaged, which was helpful. She pulled its head into her lap, removing the plating that protected the center of its information core before taking out her vibro-screwdriver and getting to work.
Carina didn't really remember where she'd learned mechanics, but she could manage small repairs without difficulty. It was probably something she'd learned when she was young, something that the Council hadn't approved of.
Reprogramming wasn't that difficult if you knew your way around a droid's internal wiring.
Of course, Carina didn't necessarily need a droid, she was fine on her own, but after a few too many near misses and a blaster bolt scar on her shoulder, she was less careless.
Carina frowned as she fiddled with wires, yellowed eyes narrowed as she pursed her lips.
Her Sith master had a droid once, an astromech, but it had been riddled with blaster fire, which further solidified her belief that droids were something that could be replaced.
Fingers twisted within the matrix of the droid's core and it gave a few jerking movements the light stuttering on in its eye pieces, but they dimmed until managed a twist and the whole body of the droid gave what could be considered a kind of convulsion.
Carina set its head down before coming around to its front as its eyes lit up and it pulled itself into a sitting position.
She knelt so it could see her. "My name is Carina, what are you called?"
"I'm J-7KR," the droid informed her, "a security droid specializing in strategic analysis…where am I?"
Carina arched an eyebrow. "Is your voiceprint taken from a Basic-speaking species?"
"Yes," the droid said. "My creators thought it would help to sound less like a droid."
"How's that going for you?" Carina smirked.
"Very well," J-7KR said. "It appears to put others at ease."
Carina gave a soft chuckle. "I suppose it would. I might've scrambled your circuits slightly when I reprogrammed you, it might have screwed up your ability to filter the information that comes in through your circuits."
"Your concern is noted," the droid said in a rather dry manner, which was a bit amusing, to say the least.
"I don't have the luxury of concern," Carina said, bouncing onto the heels of her feet in order to stand in an upright position. "I'm a Sith and a bounty hunter, I end lives."
"I am unfamiliar with the term 'Sith'," J-7KR mentioned as she moved to fix a hole in the side of the transport and its head twisted in order to follow her.
"Are you familiar with the Jedi?" Carina asked, taking out a probe to remove anything unwanted from cutting into the wiring.
"Yes."
"Basically, the Sith are the complete opposite of the Jedi, we have more fun and kill far more." Carina rolled her eyes.
"Those two things are not similar," J-7KR informed her.
"They are if you enjoy it," Carina said mildly, fixing a makeshift patch over the wiring. "It seems I'm in need of a partner."
"You don't seem like the type to need a partner," the droid said.
"You flatter me." And Carina's smile nearly reached her eyes.
The temple that Carina had made her home stretched very deep down, and Carina had never fully explored it, but J-7KR around it was rather helpful. Of course, she could've easily used the Force to float herself down, but with the darkness it was much harder to tell how down it went.
Carina and J-7KR, whom Carina was now simply calling 'Jay', peered over the ledge.
"There is an approximate twenty-six point three percent chance of survival with this level of darkness," J-7KR mentioned.
"That's very comforting, Jay," Carina said before taking the rope and sliding down the ledge into darkness, the light-rod dangling at her hip, casting ominous shadows across the cavern.
When she glanced up, she could still see the optical lights that were Jay-Seven's eyes brightly glowing. It shouldn't have really been a comfort, seeing as he was just a droid, but there weren't many droids that could pull off dry sarcasm in a conversation.
Luckily, it didn't go nearly down as far as either of them had been thinking, and Carina's boots landed lightly on the ground with a soft splash, and she unclipped the glow rod at her hip in order to illuminate the way.
It looked like there had been a sort of earthquake that had made the edge of the temple separate with the wall. The rough cavern wall was wet when she pressed her hand against it and Carina brought the light close in order to see rivulets running down the side to pool on the ground.
Carina moved the glow rod to her feet where they seemed to be a small river forming from the constant raining.
It seemed like an odd thing to do, if Carina was being perfectly honest. There were other places in the temple to look over, probably far less dangerous, but Carina's curiosity had never been a good thing.
There was something down there, though, what it was, Carina had yet to discover.
She brought the glow rod up once more as she moved, the water splashing around her boot only for her foot to collide painfully with something.
Carina winced before bringing the glow rod down close to the water's surface to see something shining silver beneath it. She frowned, reaching her hand down into the cool water, her fingers finding something smooth and cylindrical.
She lifted it up, pulling up what could've only been a very long lightsaber, smooth and silver with minimal designs on the hilt with something not unlike prongs on either end. Carina held it out and clicked the activation button and from either end hissed as a yellow blade erupted from both.
It was absolutely stunning.
Carina had seen double-sided lightsabers before, but none with as simple a design as the one she currently held in her hand.
One Jedi's loss was her gain.
So Carina deactivated it, clipping it to her waist before making her way back to the rope that Jay-Seven was keeping clasped tightly in its hands.
She grasped it with her metallic hand, light dancing across the surface of the metal, reflecting for a single moment eyes of brown, but Carina didn't notice.
"Are you thinking about joining this House of Renliss?" Jay-Seven asked.
Carina arched an eyebrow, but she didn't open her eyes as she separated the parts of the lightsaber she'd found, the yellow gem dropping before her as the artificially made red one was lifted into the air to replace it.
"I'm thinking about it."
"That is a bad idea," Jay-Seven said and Carina was rather amused at how humanoid that statement was. "Too many unknown variables."
"That's life." She fit all the pieces back together again. "I haven't killed anyone in days, it's not very healthy for me…I need murder and mayhem in my life."
"There are other ways to find murder and mayhem," Jay-Seven said and Carina looked over to where the droid was slumped against the opposite wall.
Its arms and legs were rather long, resting in front of it and curled at its sides like a doll a child had just tried to set down in a poorly made sit.
"After awhile those ways get a bit boring," Carina said as she stood in order to ignite the lightsaber and hold it carefully in her hands before attempting to swing it around herself, her grip clumsy.
It was easier with a single lightsaber or Githany's lightwhip that she'd stolen from the Jedi Temple, but from the design of the lightsaber, she knew that it could easily be parted into two sabers, but Carina had never been very good at dual wielding, or, at least, she never remembered being very good at dual wielding.
She swung it carefully around her.
"And we wouldn't want you to be bored," the droid said.
Carina almost smiled. "You can't say that you like hanging around here all the time, Jay? There's nothing much to do here for you."
"That is true," Jay-Seven agreed and the hum of the lightsaber came a bit too close to her as she looked over to it.
The security droid class that Jay was a part of weren't made with much of an expression, but that was droids for you. Carina liked that Jay didn't have much of a face, in some ways it was very helpful.
She deactivated the lightsaber, clipping it at her waist once more before pulling out a datachip and handing it off to the droid. His dark metal fingers made an odd ringing sound when they collided slightly with Carina's own.
"Our coordinates for the meeting tomorrow," Carina said in a no-nonsense type of manner. "If you wanted to get the ship ready."
Jay-Seven's body clunked together as he took the datachip wordlessly and stood, making his way off in the direction of the transport, leaving Carina to watch him go, the headache intensifying briefly before returning to its usual throbbing and Carina frowned.
There was a fire set up in a cave not far from the skirmish that had ended in a ceasefire earlier that day, much to the relief of the young Jedi padawans.
Talik was the least injured of all of them, which was just a touch ironic, but Talik was fast and her reflexes sharp. She had trained under Keelyvine Reus, after all. Besides, she was the only skilled Healer in the group, injuring her was a bit detrimental.
Tiplar had her arm sufficiently bandaged and was leaning close to the fire to keep warm as her eyes flitted over to Talik who was reading over something on a datapad that had only been slightly dusty from the terrain when she'd dropped it earlier.
"How can you be so sure your master is still alive?" The question had parted from Tiplar's lips before she could stop it.
It might've come off as a bit rude and Talik blinked in surprise.
It'd been a year since Sabé Amidala had disappeared on an assignment and her master-student bond broken, and almost as long for Talik Shala to believe that her master wasn't as long gone as everyone else thought.
Rumors spread as they always did. Anakin and Talik had always been the object of many rumors, being either part of a prophecy or the padawan of one who was. But now with Talik believing her dead master alive, there had been many questions revolving around her state of mind, but Talik's mind was perfectly intact.
"I have faith," Talik said with utter surety, "and I have my own senses. I know she's alive, probably neck-deep in a Shadow mission, but I know she's alive."
Talik couldn't afford to do anything more, though. But the current situation was no different from any other mission that Sabé had done as a Jedi Shadow. It wasn't as though she had never faked her death before.
But Sabé had never felt the need to break their bond before.
Talik shoved that thought brutally aside.
Whatever mission Sabé was on, what she was doing was important, probably dangerous, and possibly not entirely mortally right, but one day she was coming back, Talik had to believe that was true.
"This is not unprecedented," Pablo-Jill mentioned to the room at large as the High Council deliberated on the matter of Sabé Amidala, or, as she was now known, Darth Carina. "Jedi have fallen to the Sith before, they have been seduced by its promises before."
"Yes, but this is sudden," Adi Gallia pointed out, rubbing a few fingers over her lips, "this is…drastic. I spoke with Sabé prior to her disappearance and she was somber, but not angry and certainly not questioning turning against the Order."
"Perhaps there is another alternative we are overlooking," Plo Koon rumbled behind his antiox breathing mask, and several heads turned in his direction. "What if it was Sabé Amidala's intention to become a Sith?"
Mace's brow furrowed and he shared a glance with Yoda. "Elaborate," he said flatly.
"Sabé specializes in retrieving Sith artifacts," Plo Koon opted to explain, "all potentially dangerous objects…I believe it could've been possible for Sabé to believe that the only way to find the artifact she was searching for was to become a Sith."
He remembered passing her by a few years ago with hair dyed a bright blonde and eyes completely black with too many piercings in her ears. She'd tapped her nose and grinned. "Look the part, be the part, Master Plo!"
"You believe a Jedi would give themselves over to the Sith for something as simple as an artifact," Saesee Tiin responded doubtfully, brushing his fingers over one of his downward curving cranial horns, a scowl marring his lips. "No Jedi would agree to become a Sith if they were not already considering the action, Master Koon. If she has gone to the other side, she is no longer one of us."
Plo Koon gave him a rather impassive look. Saesee Tiin had always been considered to have somewhat obsessive views on the Jedi Order and reviled those that went against the Jedi. Now, it seemed, Sabé had joined the list.
But Plo Koon knew Sabé better, he'd taken her from Naboo, and he was the one she went to in times of stress and confusion, not Yoda, her old master. Not Yoda who was remaining silent throughout the entire debate, looking very much as though he was carrying the weight of all his years.
"Either way, we all know that once you journey down the path of the Sith, there is no turning back," Mace said heavily. "And this Darth Carina…she is a growing threat to the Republic, she must be found and brought to justice."
Yoda's fingers twitched where they were clasped in his lap, but he said nothing.
"You'll forgive me for coming armed."
Gratina had never met their prospective recruit, but she was expecting the rusty-red Mandalorian armor and the modulated voice, but not the very tall security droid at Darth's side.
It had been agreed for the Renliss sisters and Darth to meet on a planet not affiliated with any of them, mostly so that Darth didn't know where House Renliss' base of operations was if she backed out, or so the sisters didn't know on which planet Darth was bunking.
So the meeting had been set up on the planet Tatooine in a cantina in Mos Eisley, one that was used to less reputable types.
"You'll forgive us if we have done the same," Jalindas responded easily as both slid into the booth opposite Darth before clicking the holo-separator on the wall to keep others from seeing and hearing what went on between them.
The helmet inclined slightly before hands reached up to draw the helmet from their head.
Gratina was surprised by the yellowed eyes, cold and fiery, but she didn't comment on it.
"I am the bounty hunter Darth," the woman said coolly, "I'm a bit more, but currently bounty hunter will do."
"Shall I list your skill sets?" the droid beside her remarked, almost sarcastically.
"That isn't necessary," Darth cut it off before turning her attention back to the sisters. "I still don't think you'd want someone like me sullying your ranks."
The statement appeared to amuse Jalindas, and Gratina remembered how her sister had mentioned that Darth hadn't been all that receptive to the idea.
"You wouldn't be the first murderer we've recruited," Gratina said, leaning back in her seat in a would-be casual manner, but all three knew better.
"Believe me," Darth said, "I'm much worse."
And then she moved, almost too fast for Gratina or Jalindas to follow, a silver cylinder at her hip shooting into her hand as a blaster bolt shot through the air to fizzle out against a humming crimson lightsaber.
Jalindas had drawn her blaster too late and was evidently just as stunned at the lightsaber's appearance as everyone in the cantina, who had stopped to stare at them, because those weapons only belonged to the Jedi. Jalindas had never heard of someone using one that wasn't a Jedi.
But then everyone turned back to their drinks as Darth deactivated the lightsaber, her eyes narrowed and focused on a Christori that still had his blaster drawn.
Jalindas almost shot him in retaliation but the Christori had begun to clutch at his throat where he was sitting, struggling to breathe.
Gratina looked from the choking Christori to Darth, who hadn't moved other than in the narrowing of her eyes and Gratina had never seen anything quite so predatory. The next second he slumped over the table and moved no more.
"Are you a Jedi?" Gratina asked in surprise, trying to ignore that someone had just tried to kill her.
"Try the exact opposite," Darth said, her tone just a little too sharp. "No Jedi would do what I do, they're far too weak to."
Jalindas smirked in her seat.
"But your request has intrigued me," Darth continued. "Provided you can overlook my rather shall we say…bloodthirsty nature?"
"Bloodthirsty is not the correct description," the droid intoned beside her and Darth threw a scowl in its direction.
"You don't seem the type to work well with others," Gratina pointed out.
"I'm not," Darth agreed, toying with the lightsaber at her hip, "but I don't like being bored either, so you're the next best option."
"Flattering."
"Don't take it personally," Darth spared her a surprising grin, too dark and too lethal to be anything but worrisome, "I'm generally untrusting of just about everyone I meet."
"And yet you just saved her life," Jalindas brought up from Gratina's side.
Darth gave an uncaring shrug. "You haven't tried to kill me yet, currently, that's all you've got going for you…that and your pretty face."
Gratina arched an eyebrow and the droid piped up: "Those two things do not equate."
"Depends on the day," Darth said to the droid with a smirk before it disappeared under her helmet. She tossed a wupuipi, a coin currency used by many on Tatooine, onto the table before throwing a comlink to Gratina. "Secure comlink. Send me a message if you decide I'm trustworthy enough."
And then she sidled out of the booth with the droid behind her, tossing a coin to the bartender for 'the mess' that was the dead Christori, before exiting swiftly.
"She's certainly a character," Gratina decided.
Jalindas gave a half sort of shrug in agreement.
Obi-Wan doubted anyone had been in a more awkward position than the one he currently was in. It was one thing to have someone turn to the Dark Side, but it was something else for that person to be Sabé Amidala.
He didn't know which thought was better: that she was dead or that she was a Sith.
Both made him vaguely ill.
"Master Sabé wouldn't've done it," Anakin spoke up beside him from where they'd taken a break from their lightsaber training. Anakin was improving, he was actually doing far better than Obi-Wan had at his age. "She wouldn't've gone Dark."
Obi-Wan heaved a heavy sigh. "Anakin, we don't even know what happened to her before she—"
Anakin scowled at him. "Master, Master Sabé doesn't believe in half the Jedi Code but she doesn't believe in the Sith Code either."
There was a polite noise and both turned in order to see Plo Koon standing there, observing their quiet argument.
"Master Plo." Obi-Wan inclined his head respectfully. "We didn't see you."
"That's all right," Plo Koon's voice was deep and rumbled behind his antiox mask, "the High Council has come to a decision."
That got their attention in a single moment.
"The Council has decided that the Sith known as Darth Carina is a danger to the Republic and should be brought to justice."
Anakin's face fell and Obi-Wan ground his teeth together.
"Since you are the only one that has seen her face and actually spoken to her, they've decided that you would be the prime choice as the one to hunt her down," Plo Koon continued, directing his attention towards Obi-Wan, who stalled briefly.
"I don't think that's a wise decision," Obi-Wan countered quickly, "Sabé was –is– my friend, I'm too emotionally involved."
"Yes," Plo Koon agreed and Anakin couldn't help but think he looked a bit uncomfortable. "However, if reports are to be believed, you and your padawan were the only ones to make it out of that bunker alive."
Obi-Wan paled under his beard and Anakin didn't care for the look at all.
"Still," a sigh filtered through Plo Koon's antiox breathing mask, "I believe that her intentions prior to her disappearance were made in order to attain a very dangerous artifact…my beliefs are not shared, however. Anakin?"
Anakin tilted his head back suddenly. "Yes, Master Plo?"
"When Talik returns, please inform me," the Kel Dorian said, "there is something I need to speak with her about."
And Anakin's brow furrowed in confusion as he left the pair alone.
"You're telling Tali that her master's gone Dark," he decided without blinking and exasperated couldn't even begin to cover how Obi-Wan was currently feeling.
AN: Tbh, this fic is probably only going to be one of two or three things updated for the next few weeks, if how things stay how they are, and by that I mean if I'm still completely obsessed with SW.
Darth has made a new and sassy friend, isn't that nice? Jay-Seven gives me life and is based off Rogue One's Kaytoo.
The lightsaber belonged to a specific Jedi, but we'll get to them later, and whatever Sabé set out to find.
As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!
