Chapter 44

In the merc bar Canderous, Mission and Zaalbar scanned the crowd taking in all of the armed hirelings, guns and general rabble. The occupants would have been better suited for a canteen in Anchorhead rather than a place like Manaan.

The trio also made note of the exits and general layout. There were several alcoves with private booths, a few pazak tables, and a circular bar in the dead center of the room. There was bland, if not insipid, canned-music coming from the speakers overhead. Even the bars in the Upper City had more of a pulse. This place was as uninspiring as watching slime trail off a Hutt's backside.

"I've had more fun stubbing my big toe than what this place offers." Mission complained. "What a snore-fest."

"I actually agree with you kid." Canderous nodded.

"Do you think they serve real food here? Food that isn't fish? I hate fish. Rather eat the gunk that comes out of the synthesizer back on the Hawk." Zaalbar echoed his displeasure along with the others.

Was it any wonder the mercs of Ahto City were looking for action? Anything to liven up the place would be welcome, so was it any wonder the Republic drive to hire guns was so successful? Question still remained was why did they need them all? It couldn't be anything on this passive water-ball.

But if not here—where?

"Wait I think I see someone I know. See that Mandalorian in the corner? We served together during the war. We're of the same clan. He might be able to shed some light on this whole business of why the Orange Coats need so many guns. He's more likely to talk without an audience. You two scram; see if there any others who will spill. I need to talk to my clansman alone."

"Whatever." Mission shrugged at the orders she was given and wandered towards an Iriadorian male in bright yellow armor.

"You like the watered-down piss they call booze in this sterile milk-drinker's hub?" Canderous said approaching the other Mandalorian. "Cuz' I sure as hell wouldn't drink the swill."

"Canderous?!" the dark-haired man barked out a disbelieving laugh of recognition. "I haven't seen you since the Republic broke our ranks at the Battle of Malachor."

They clapped forearms in a warriors' grip and shook.

Canderous gave the other an apprising look before he spoke, "Bergeron. I see you've got some new guns to add to your collection. Times must have been profitable for you since the war." The old Mandy seemed to be a bit amused with his old colleague.

The other Mandalorian nodded, a cheeky-cocksure grin plastered on his weathered war-scared face. "Very profitable. When the Republic defeated our fleets, I learned a valuable lesson. It's far better to be a freelance Merc in war than a soldier from the losing side.

"But if you're here to get me into a job, I'm not interested right now. I've got so many offers that I can't keep up as it is. Try that Iriadorian skull-slacker at the bar or that Echani nurf-herder cowering in the corner."

"Stop being such a piss-ant, Berg. Ain't looking to hire. Just tell me if you know anything why the Orange Coats are hiring so many guns."

"They ain't saying. But the price is sure right. Of course, I haven't heard of anyone coming back so I'm guessing the job ain't easy."

"So, you're working for the Orange Coats now?" Canderous said disdainfully.

"Says the man working for a Jedi- and a knife-ear at that, just like Revan. Don't think that you linking up to be a Jedi's jackboot hadn't gone unnoticed by the rest of us, Canderous." Bergeron said in equal distaste. "Guess that's a merc's life. Go where the credits are the highest, right?"

"Or maybe just I don't want Darth Tin-Jaw to take over the galaxy. A Sith Empire, not my idea of freedom."

"The yoke of Republic oppression isn't either. Sith rule smells like opportunity to me."

"Yeah? I lived with Sith occupation on Taris before they blew the whole damn place to hell. Unless you're the one doing it, choke-holds are never ideal even for the opportunistic."

"Keep telling yourself that if helps you sleep at night, Canderous. I think we're done here. Might want to check out your little tail-head. The horned brute she's talking to is just looking for a fight and hell, he might pick one with the rug just for shits and giggles."

While Canderous was interviewing his old comrade, Mission began her own style of interrogations.

"I don't fuck younglings, even if you are a tail-head. So, if you're peddling flesh I ain't interested and I'm not for hire, try the Mandie or the Echani- though, they lack the stomach for certain jobs."

"Pft. I'm not a whore, you shutta. As for hiring- do I look like I need more muscle? Please, I have a Wookiee as back-up in case you missed the eight-foot big furry guy standing behind me." Mission dismissed the man's words as much as challenging them as she often did back in the Lower City when confronted with the Vulkers or any other rival gang of the Hidden Beks.

"Or the Mandie in the purple armour." Mission pointed with her thumb towards Grandpa Candy. "Both will tear your arms off for even thinking of me as some 'kinda whore. I just want some info from the underside. Like, do you know anything about the Selkath younglings gone missing?"

"Perhaps, but my business with the Selkath is my own."

"The honed one hides." Zaalbar said. "Maybe we should just gut him like a Selkath preparing an Orchana ray for lunch?"

Mission turned her head over her shoulder just slightly and smirked. "I thought you learned the last time not to eat people if you don't where they've been after you took a chunk out of that Grammorian's arm back in the Undercity." Mission scoffed, playing along. She knew the rough-and-ready of the streets. Offering credits to loosen this merc's tongue would only aggravate the Iriadorian.

"You speak the brunt and brutal language of my people, not surprised coming from a rug, or a tale-head. You share our love of death and bloodshed. But we are a rare breed on this planet.

"Even the Sith here are as cowardly as the fish people. The Sith sought to buy my loyalties with credits as if wealth could somehow quench my burning bloodlust. They would have been better off hiring an Echani for the errands they had me running."

"So what'cha doing with the Sith?" Mission pressed. Ignoring the fact, the Iriadorian understood Sheraroook, or perhaps he simply had a translator implant. It was common enough amongst the mercs as not to be out of the ordinary.

"Good question." Canderous said as he walked up behind the young Twi'lek.

"The task paid well but was boring and beneath me. I was told to lure the Selkath youth to the Sith Embassy. Nothing more. I lied, I threatened, I promised, and I brought the most promising youth of the fish-people to the Sith and there I left them. To what purpose I neither know nor care."

The merc's voice took a turn into hopeful anticipation. "When the Sith learned, I have betrayed their secrets maybe they will try to kill me. One can only hope. I would welcome the excitement."

"Sounds like they are recruiting. Like the silver-backs did back on Taris or Czerka on Kashyyyk." Zaalbar grunted disdainfully. The Sith and those like Czerka have always been the bane of the Wookiee nation. He despised them all.

"That's exactly what it is." Canderous agreed. "We use it on planets we had conquered. Get'em while they are young and impressionable."

"I remember you guys doing that back on Taris when you held Machine City before Revan came and put the squash on ya."

"Is there anything else the three of you milk-sops want or can I go back to my drink?"

"From you. No. Be gone." Canderous said curtly.

"I was here first, Mandie," the merc snarled, his hand going for the butt of his blaster.

"Now we are. You want to pick a fight over a barstool, fine with me prickle-head. Seems like a stupid thing to die for. But then Iriadorians aren't known for their keen intellects." Canderous goaded. "Except for the one that created that superweapon that destroyed Malacor Five- and you are not him.

"You have no name to fear. I do. I am Canderous Ordo of clan Ordo. So, you now leave. Come back when you are more than just hot wind whistling from your ass. You might actually be worthy of dying by my blaster by that time."

Mission snorted a laugh which was over powered by Zaalbar's amused barks. Affronted, the Iriadorian did not wish to back down. But he seemed to be smart enough not to get into a duel with so many eyes upon him, some of them being of the laughable excuse of the Selcath police force. They must have been called in by the nervous bar-tender when Canderous had issued his challenge.

Loosing face however was not something the Iriadorian was going to let go. Everyone knew it as well. Now however was not the time or place for his vindication. "And maybe you will be brave enough to face me without the help of a tail-head youngling barely off her mother's teat or a rug who still hasn't popped his first cherry. But I doubt it. The seat is yours, Ordo." The Iriadorian saluted Canderous with a rather vulgar finger gesture before moving off.

Mission stuck her tongue out at the retreating back of the man in yellow. Mindful that she just looked like a kid she was trying not to be, she leaned her back against the lip of the bar and folded her arms in a very Skye-esk way then spoke. "Soooo, how long do you think it will take for that little display to take notice?"

"Why do you think it was a display?" Asked Canderous in the manner adults do when they already possess the answer to their own question they ask of a child.

"On account that it was. You antagonised horny-head on purpose so that the Republic recruiter guys get wind of it and come ask'in you to sign up. Same as Skye insulting that Gray-belly Sith slimeo when we first got here. Best way to find out what's-what is to get on the inside of stuff.

"Bet'cha those missing Selcath younglings ain't gone unnoticed. You think that's why the Orange Coats are hiring so many mercs like to counter measure, or something else? "

"Hard to say, kid. Not a bad question, though." Canderous offered half a smile. "Now keep those pearly whites together. Here's comes that recruiter we saw on the way in here. We'll find out soon enough. Then we talk to the Whelp and see where she wants to go with this."

KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR

"I hear you have been appointed as Arbiter in Sunry's trial." Elora said to Jolee as they approached her at their appointed place of meeting in the same café they had before. "Please Jolee, you know my husband is innocent," she held her hands close to her chest pleadingly. "Please don't let him go to jail for a crime he didn't commit."

"Calm yourself Elora. You know I will do all that I can. But I've been gone for couple of decades… we lost touch. What has happened to him since I left?"

"You know about his injuries from the war, how it left him crippled. There is no way he could have overpowered that Sith woman like they claim," the woman's voice still betrayed her desperation.

"Not to mention he would have had to have been considerably older than this Sith woman." Jolee added.

"Are you saying someone your age couldn't overpower a woman?" Carth asked.

"Humph. I'm a Jedi. And one who had been living alone in the Shadowlands until recently. That keeps you in shape dammit. We're talking about Sunry here."

"And there is no way he would so something so dishonourable as to hit her from behind. Sunry's a decorated war hero. He's a Hero of the Republic!" Elora defended her husband.

Jolee put a calming hand on his old friend's arm which seemed to work to sooth her frazzled nerves. "We'll find the answers Elora. Still yourself woman, you're not doing yourself or Sunry any favours getting worked up like this. Trust in me. I won't let Sunry down."

Elora only managed to nod though her tears. Steeling her spine, she said. "Find the real evidence, Jolee. That's all I ask. The real evidence will prove Sunry didn't do this."

As the old Jedi and his younger companion walked away, Carth kept pace and whispered as if the old woman they just left might overhear. "I have to ask, Jolee what if your old pal isn't as innocent as everyone seems to think he is? He is old and crippled... what if the only way he could overpower this Sith woman was to hit her over the head when her back was turned?"

"That's what we're going to find out Mr. Ray-of-Sunshine." Jolee grumbled. "We better head out to the East Central where that hotel and embassies are. Start digging."

KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR

"Jedi, you return. Have you information for me? Have you discovered the fate of the missing younglings? Have you news of my daughter, Shasa?" Shaelas asked, her voice (though difficult to tell in her native slurping tongue of her people) took on a note of desperate hope. Shaelas stepped forward from her small alcove in the diner, mindful not to get into the personal space of the Nagai woman.

"A bit, yes." Revan said. In truth, she had just got off the comm with Canderous, so what news she held was third hand. It wasn't much, but at least it was more than they had an hour ago.

"Excellent. You have done well. What have you learned?"

"The Sith hired an Iriadorian mercenary to lure the Selkath younglings to the Sith Base." Revan answered.

Shaelas seemed to ponder this before she spoke in the infuriating politeness the Selkath were known for. "I see. This information is useful, for a start. But it does little to explain the truth of this matter. We must know what purpose the Sith have for these youths. For my daughter.

"Are they prisoners of the Sith? Are they even still alive? I must know more Master Jedi. I must know what happened to my daughter!"

"Have no fear, Mistress Shaelas. We will seek more answers." Juhani comforted the other female.

In hearing those words the Selkath woman seemed to gather her composer once more, though it was rather difficult to see she had lost it at all. "I cannot officially ask you to enter the Sith base, Jedi. That would be a violation of Ahto City's strict neutrality laws. However, I fear such a brazen act may be the only way to learn the truth." Again, the woman's inner fears were draped in the public face of Selkath politeness. "But entering the base will not be easy. And should you be captured or killed, I will have to disavow any knowledge of your actions."

"Of course, you would need to." Revan hissed. "We're good enough to risk our necks to save your web-fingered offspring but not good enough to put your political seat in jeopardy. I see how it is. Then I do this not for you Selkath, but because I care not for the Sith or the foothold they are trying to construct on this bucket of water. Oh, and after we rescue that child of yours and the others- how will you disavow that she was taken in the first place or how you indeed got her back?" The Nagai tipped her head very like a Jedi Master and turned on her heel causing the scale-mail half-skirt of her Zeison Sha battle armour to billow as she stalked out of the canteen.

"What was all that about?" Bastila asked when she caught up to her lover. Even Juhani was frowning at the display she bore witness to.

Revan shook her head. "Sorry. It's this polite two-faced duplicity of the fish-men that's getting to me. I know as a Jedi I shouldn't let it get to me but it is. I despise such things. It pisses me off. As a scout, I'm used to it. I expect it. It's part of the job. But being recognized as a Jedi and I have to face the same kind of crap..." Revan shook her head. "I don't know, but it feels different when you wear the robes and the saber."

Bastila laid a hand upon her lover's shoulder. "I quite understand."

Juhani too understood that frustration, that anger. But it wasn't directed at the Selkath diplomat. She looked upon the closeness of her fellow Jedi sisters and closed her eyes, willing away the burring resentment growing within. Here out of the preview of the Council, Skye and Bastila were allowed to express their love for one another even if they were fairly covert about the relationship. Jealousy brewed deep within Juhani's heart. Jealously for the freedom Skye and Bastila had that she and Belaya must hide.

Anger rose within her for her lost world. A world lost if it had not been for the presence of Bastila and Skye. The more she watched the two becoming closer and closer the more the Cathar missed her beloved sweet Belaya. How she longed to be with her honey-tongued golden-maned soul's ease. Their relationship was made public and forced to end and at least as far as the Masters were concerned it was. Yet and yet...

"Juhani...?" Skye's voice leaked into the Cathar's mind. "Look, if what happened in there with that woman..."

"It isn't," Juhani said a little too quickly. A little too sharply. Her gut told her that in hearing it Skye would never let it go. She would push and inquire until the older woman found the root of the cavity. There would be no rapid egress this time. Anger bubbled. "Just leave it." Juhani warned in a tone very reminiscent of that when she was within the grove back on Dantooine.

"Then what is it?" Skye whispered as they continued their walk across the Eastern concord of Alto City.

Skye was so like the woman Juhani worshiped, her mind fogged as she tried to recall the face she saw as a child with the woman before her. The rage became stronger. Revan saved her world against the Mandalorian threat. Revan and her fellow Jedi destroyed Machine City and freed Taris. And because of another Nagai her world suffered a greater threat.

"Do you recall what I told you about my home world?" Juhani all but hissed.

Skye nodded. "You said it was 'the armpit of the galaxy and you were glad to see the backside of it. You also said the Jedi were responsible for freeing you."

"Yes." Juhani's voice remained cool. "But I never told you where I came from did I? Where I grew up as a child? I suppose I was trying to deny what I was feeling."

Skye frowned this time. "Not that I recall. No, you didn't. I first assumed it was Cathar. But the Jedi were too late..."

The Cathar's lips pursed into a grim line, "I have been wrestling with my feelings inside. Trying to come to terms with it, but I cannot. I must have someone to blame. Someone to blame for the destruction of my homeworld. Someone who is responsible for the death of everyone I have ever known except for those on Dantooine!"

She spun around, stopped walking and fixed the Nagai with a stare where she stood. "Taris! It was Taris that the Sith destroyed to try and kill you and your precious Bastila! Taris- my homeworld!"

Bastila and Revan shared a glance then back to the angry woman before them, their eyes filled with remorse and pity. Emotions Juhani didn't want to see, it only stirred more resentment within her.

"If it weren't for you and Bastila, the Sith would never had reason to destroy that world. It was your fault for being there, and your fault for rescuing Bastila! Without your intervention, the Sith would have no cause to lay waste to my childhood!" Juhani's golden eyes flashed towards the human.

Bastila started to reach for the younger woman but Juhani swatted the hand away. "No! I will vent my anger! I need someone to blame... something... anything! I hated that world, yet everything I learned as a child, I learned there. It was much a part of me as the air I breathe. I had this ache inside me were all my childhood memories lay, and I find your face with them. If it was not for you, that world would still exist." Her seething words came out a hiss.

Ravensong's mouth opened in astonishment. "Juhani... if we could have prevented what happened to Taris, I would have. I am so sorry."

"Belaya, my love was to be taken from me by the Masters because Jedi are forbidden to love. I allowed myself to fall to the Dark Side because I would not lose her too. But the Masters aren't here to take the one youlove away from you! Are they?" Juhani snapped. "It is hard to lose your entire past. You would not understand."

"Juhani..." Revan started then stopped. If she could only tell the younger Jedi the truth, that yes, she did know about losing the entire past- about losing everything ever known.

"No! Leave me be. The pair of you." She stalked away saying nothing, giving nothing more.

Revan's instinct was to go after Juhani but she stopped herself short even before Bastlia's hand landed upon her shoulder.

"Well this is a real cock-up, isn't it?" Revan muttered.

"It must have been building up for some time. Belaya was there for her when Taris was destroyed... but we are constant reminders of that pain." Bastila whispered back.

"That would be enough to be pissed off but it's more than that." Revan looked to her lover knowingly.

"Though discrete, we have not been… subtle about our affections." Bastila looked towards the direction Juhani had stormed off. "She's right... the Masters are not here to demand we stop our affair," she shook her head. "Revan..."

"No! We agreed on Tatooine we would not allow our fears of this... our love to stop us." Panic now replaced the struck bewilderment she held for Juhani's outburst.

"We're Jedi."

"So? What is that? Why should that be factor in what we feel for one another? Of all emotions Jedi should feel love above all."

"Love for others, not the self."

Juhani had by now long disappeared amongst the avenues of the city even still Bastila's grey eyes fell upon the direction the younger woman had gone. "Juhani and Belaya are denied what they feel for one another and Juhani fell, embracing the Dark. Belaya... went into the self, cutting off others-refusing to teach the younglings."

"Because they were denied! Not because they loved." Revan reached to her lover's hand but the human pulled away. "Bastila don't fear our love. What we have. It gives us strength. Power. A sense of the self within the Living Force. We are bound mind and soul by the Living Force, because it is meant to be. WE are meant to be."

More than a few heads turned to the raising voices of the two women. Ever mindful of her surroundings and those within it, Bastila grabbed her lover's arm and pulled them into a more secreted area of the thoroughfare. Here, in a more private corner the two may speak uninterrupted or the more likely event of being overheard.

"Bas... listen to me..."

"No, you must listen, my love. And you are my love but we cannot carry on as we are. We can't. Just look how our relationship has affected Juhani."

"'Tis only because she is denied her lover, get Belaya here and all is right once more. At least in that part. We can't do anything about Taris save make Malak pay for it. And isn't just us. You heard her. It was Taris. And yes, our being there was causative to its destruction but it was Malak that did the deed. He made the choice. Mission is still dealing and she was there for it all and yet she does not blame you and I for it.

"Juhani sees us and sees what might be for her and her soul's ease-for Belaya is surely that as you are for me. She grows weary that she cannot have it. Seeing us, Juhani sees the world she lost because we just happened to plummet to its surface after the attack on the Endar Spire. She sees us and all we represent is loss.

"Yes, she's pissed. She has every right to be. She lost a hell of a lot. The Code teaches us 'there is no emotion there is peace'. But that is rarely the case. It's an axiom for meditation, to make sure our emotions don't go and get the better of us and we do something stupid in the heat of 'em. Like the Sith.

"But the day to day... we feel because we are alive. The grave is a fine and safe place. There we do not bleed and we do not feel and we are nothing but the dust to be reborn. We can't apologize. It will only make things worse. Better no excuse than a poor one.

"Juhani... is easy to fix. We get her Belaya and Belaya to Juhani. The more Jedi fracking-up Darth Tin Jaw's plans the better. We can't do anything about Taris- not now, nor could we have at the time. Not without an armada at our back. But we can do something for those two."

Bastila stayed her tongue but not her mind. That was rampant with thoughts a plenty, too numerous for Revan to take accounting of. "The Masters will never allow it," came a dark whisper. "We can disguise our closeness for our Force-bond. But Juhani and Belaya have no such connection. The Masters will see the request directly for what it is. A poor attempt at forbidden matchmaking."

"Under normal circumstances, all true. But these circumstances are not normal and besides we will not be so brazen as to ask for Belaya outright. We request the aid of another knight who is familiar and can complement our fighting styles. We point out the necessity after facing Malak's henchmen, putting down his apprentices and the Sith assassins. We point out the obstacles we've faced and those we will face.

"We acknowledge we know no Master can accompany us, but another knight, one easily overlooked, one familiar to us, one who can fight at Juhani's back as readily and as easily as you and I. We ask for one who can blend in with our motley crew, one of age. We use all the words of strategy we can muster. Sith's blood, if your abilities with the battle meditations can reach that far I'd say use it, but no... it must be their idea. We point them to Belaya's direction.

"If nothing else, we tell Belaya directly. We talk to her, bypassing all other voices. Lay it all out and arrange for her to meet us. Maybe here or hell, maybe meet us at Korriban. For Juhani she will come. As surly as you and I would come for one another. Sometimes it's best to ask for forgiveness than it is for permission, and if clemency is not afforded at the very least no orders were disobeyed—no word broken. The Code remains intact and so does our vow to it."

"In word, only, not the spirit of it." Bastila nodded her head, even if she agreed with Revan's way of thinking if felt wrong to bend to it.

Revan looked to her lady love. "My spirit will never will be fully Jedi and it will never be Sith. I am Grey through and through. Yes, I hold more faith in the Light, but I cannot be the Jedi you once knew before the wars and I don't remember the woman I was after. I remember only Skye and fragments of being Revan and that is only because of you."

Bastila suddenly looked guiltier than ever. "Revan... there is something you should know."

"I don't like that tone," the Nagai said.

The guilt remained. "Maybe there's more than the recent… there might be a reason when Juhani thinks of her homeworld she thinks of you."

"You mean me as Revan, not me as the woman Juhani knows as Skye."

A nod.

"The Revanchist freed Taris; destroyed the hold the Mandalorians had over the world. She destroyed Machine City. She made it possible for an enclave of Jedi to remain there as she and the other Jedi went off to war."

Revan sucked in a bit of air more to steady herself, then she looked on to her lover. "Then why doesn't she recognize me..." Revan paused. "Oh, for fuck's sake, the Masters did a mind whammy on her too didn't they?"

"I wouldn't have put it exactly that way... but yes." Bastila grabbed her lover's arm. "It had to be done. When you met Juhani she was a youngling. You sent her to us... or inspired her to do so. You always wore that mask in public, never allowing your face to be shown in public... but to her to this lost terrified girl you let her see...

"She described you perfectly when she came to Dantooine, stolen away on a cargo vessel." She smiled. "Not unlike a little one we found on the Hawk not so long ago."

Revan returned the soft smile.

"Revan... those memories are surfacing despite the block. Maybe that is why Juhani lashed out so. She has no context... only vague distorted memories of you and recent events."

"Not to mention we are practically shoving our love in her face." Revan concluded. "Okay. So, we fix this… and we tell her the truth of who I am. Today. Despite everything else, Juhani deserves the truth."

KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR~ KOTOR

At the core of her being Juhani seethed. She felt her anger rising like the ocean waves slamming against the walls of Alto City. The Code seeped into her soul giving her buoyancy to rise above so that she might not drown in the rage as she had that day in the grove when she struck down her Master.

She followed her Master out into the Khoonda Groves. "You have had many trials in your life my young Padawan. You survived Mandalorians besieging Taris, the murder of your father, the slow death of your mother, and sacking of Machine City by Revan. Her presence woke the Force within you. I admire the way you fought to free yourself of that old life and to come here to be trained.

"You survived much since then: your initiation into the Order; becoming eligible to become a Padawan. All because of your desire to be worthy of Revan's belief in you. I find it curious... how the circles turn within the ways of the Force."

Juhani was only half listening to the older Cathar woman. She knew why she was out here in this green sea of grass and weeds. She barely looked up when Quatra stopped at the ruins of black standing stones. She could not fathom why her Master brought her out here in the first place. The standing stones always felt so at odds with the Force or rather the Light. There was a perpetual coldness to old ruins as if it were touched by the Dark Side. Perhaps they were.

"Revan was an interesting woman both before and after her Fall. The mask she wore once belonged to a Mandalorian woman who stood upon the beaches of Cathar and protested the massacre of our people as the other Mandalorians and their lackeys lead by Casssus Fett drove them into the sea. Our people nearly became extinct because of that terrible moment of bloodshed." Quanta's golden eyes studied the younger Cathar a moment before continuing her narrative.

"Ninety percent of our people were wiped out by Basilisk war droids. When news of it reached my ears, despite the fact the Republic choose to suppress the massacre, when I felt the deaths of our people through the Force, I raged. The anger rose up so swift and terrible at times it nearly choked me. I wanted to join Revan, Alek and Meetra as they left with so many of our Jedi brothers and sisters to confront the Mandalorians."

"Why didn't you?" Juhani muttered darkly, her mood sullen as it was when they began their hike.

The elder woman smiled, the points of her incisors showing just above her lips. "I chose not to defy the decision of the Grand Council. I choose to heed their wisdom even as I yearned deeply to do otherwise. It is not easy to put aside what you long for, for what you desire. But the Code demands it of us. It is a sacrifice we as Jedi must make. There is only the Code. Do you understand, my Padawan?"

Juhani's sullen features pulled into one of wrath she did not bother to disguise. Her lips pulled back into a snarl. "You want me to give up my heart! To give up Belaya!"

"What I want is irrelevant Juhani. We are Cathar, our emotions run deep. Deeper than many other species. It is why we must as Jedi be more mindful of them than other species. They can easily overcome us." Quatra inclined her head as if to prove a point.

Juhani schooled her expression to become more natural, yet defiance still burned within her amber eyes. Her wrath and frustration were seizing her heart, stubbornly refusing to let go of their hold upon her.

Only that morning Belaya held her as Juhani wept for the loss of Taris. The news of its destruction trickled down from the Masters to the Padawans to the inhabitants of Dantooine. Unlike the fate of Cathar twenty years ago, the destruction of Taris by the hands of Darth Malak spread like wild fire.

It had devastated Juhani. She knew so little details of what motivated Malak to destroy the world. Only that it was because his agents were unable to locate Knight Bastila Shan. The very Knight responsible for killing Revan. It wasn't revenge that motivated Malak in hunting Knight Shan, it was lust for power. Her power. When she could not be located, Malak raised the planet from the stars. If he could not have her and her unique abilities the Republic surely wouldn't either.

All Juhani felt was the loss off her home word. All the memories she held- good and bad- were now dust in the Great Void. And here in this secret place where they could look up at the stars Juhani and her lover Belaya afforded themselves brief moments of tenderness, lovemaking and indulgences of exploring their emotions. All secret, all forbidden.

They had been very careful, very secret and yet the Masters had found out. Of course, they had. It was only a matter of time. Yet they made no outward demands the romance be ceased. So perhaps they had no proof the affair existed, only speculation. Had not the Force allowed the wise Masters to see that which was hidden beneath them? They were hunting that much was clear: laying bait so Belaya and Juhani would out themselves.

Juhani ground her teeth knowing she had just done so. She looked at her Master, eyes scathing and burning with rising hatred, expecting the demands that would surely come.

"You know what must be done." Quatra said. Her voice was neither gentle nor demanding. It was a voice that expected to be obeyed.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

"Yes, Master I do know what needs to be done." Juhani hissed, a fog of rage boiling in the blood. Her hand shot for her waist going for the hilt of her lightsaber. In less than a quarter of a heartbeat it was ignited.

Juhani's mind buzzed with old memories- old angers. 'We are Cathar, our emotions run deep. Deeper than many other species. It is why we must as Jedi be more mindful of them than other species. They can easily overcome us.' Master Quatra's words came back hauntingly… tormentingly.

Indeed, her emotions had overcome her; boiled over as they had that day on the Khoonda Plains. Yet unlike that day when she fell to the Dark Side, Juhani had not allowed them to completely take her hostage.

"Well frack me sideways," a voice oozed from out of the shadows of alleyway leading towards Alto City's marketplace just off the main docking bays. "I never expected to see a sticking Cathar amongst all these idiot fish-people."

"I have as much right to be here as you do, sir!" Juhani managed to keep her voice level, though she did not bother to school the low growl in her tone. "You will leave me."

The male, a purple skinned Twi'lek with watery lavender eyes, snorted. "HA! Your people are pathetic. It's no wonder we crushed your world so easily."

Barely contained rage boiled to the surface. "What you know of my world, Twi'lek?" Juhani growled. Today was not a good day to be toying with her.

"Pfft. I know enough..." He paused frowning. "Hey, you look familiar somehow. But he is dead and she likely is too..." He spat. "Maybe I was wrong. Still a specimen like you would make a nice edition to my collection."

Juhani's golden eyes flashed in the dark of her eyes. His contemptuous snorting speech triggered childhood memoirs when the Mandie's took Taris. How their slaving allies scoured the Lower City stealing people away from their homes, enslaving them. It had happened to her mother... to her...

"I am no slave." Juhani hissed. Her lips curling back into a snarl.

"You Cathar aren't real people. You females make amusing pets, though. But the males should be put down like the animals they are," he continued to goad her heedless of the fury of the Dark Side churning within the young Jedi.

"I remember this one time on Taris..."

Hate and rage fueling her abilities, spurring her into action, Juhani leapt, catching the man by the throat and holding him against the wall. She wrapped the Force around the man's throat and squeezed until he gasped. "WHAT! WHAT did you say? What did you do on Taris you scum?"

He struggled against the hold yet laughed at her fury. "Put a male down just like the beast he was. So easy," he slithered the words out, staring at Juhani defying her. "Then I saw one of the females on the auction block but those dammed Jedi..."

"It was you." Juhani growled. The memories flooding back. She was just a girl, ten summers old when she was taken prisoner and sold off. Stripped down to her small cloths she was paraded about before the Mandalorian overlords and their slaver allies. One such was a Twi'lek salver named Xor.

Despite the unseen hand around his neck tightening the Twi'lek laughed once more. "Oohh I knew I recognized that fuzz face. You were the little Cathar I was going to purchase. But those fracking Jedi came and stole my pet away from me!"

"I am no one's pet! Lest of all yours!" Junhani snarled. She threw her prisoner to the ground where he landed hard on his tailbone likely breaking it. He barked out a groan of pain, but before he could scramble to his feet he heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber coming to life which caught his eyes. "And I am no terrified youngling any more. You are the beast; it is you that will be put down! For what you have done to my people I will see you dead!"

The Twi'lek realized all too late he had overstepped with this creature. His lekku coiled protectively around his neck. He fell back, tripping over his own feet and landed back down on his very bruised and sore backside. Juhani advanced slowly, toying with her prey as he skittered into a crabwalk desperate to get out of reach of the burring sapphire blade.

"Hold... wait you're... Jedi now? You're supposed to say no to the Dark Side!" He belted out.

"You know nothing of the Force, beast." Juhani snapped, taking another step closer. It would be pathetically easy to slice the man in two.

So very easy.

"Well, well what do we have here?" a very recognizable voice heralded out from behind the Cathar.

Xor whipped his head around hoping to find some measure of protection from the newcomer but when he saw the voice belonged to a pale-skinned knife-ear all those hopes were quickly dashed. But he had to try at least.

"You! Another Jedi? She's gone mad!" he wailed. "She's rabid. You got to stop her!"

"Do I?" Skye/Revan asked, walking up to stand at Juhani's right said side. "And why should I do such a thing?"

That shocked him into silence for a moment. His brain scrambling for words his tongue could not issue. Then he saw Bastila, a human... at least it wasn't another stupid alien.

"You can't cut me down, I am unarmed." He tried once more, this time looking to Bastila.

"I sincerely doubt such a thing. A slaver always carries three maybe up to four holdout weapons." Bastila supplied. "Still, this male cannot hope to win against a single Jedi, let alone three."

"Juhani, be so kind as to indulge my curiosity and tell me why we're about to remove this Twi'lek's lekku from his head?" The Nagai asked with all the sincerity of a feline Juhani resembled.

"He's a slaver... he was with the Mandalorians on Taris. He was there at the slave markets, and he was going to buy me before Revan came and freed us all when I was only a youngling."

"A most justified reaction. I'd say." Skye said.

"But... you can't murder me! You're Jedi, not Sith!"

"Oh, it won't be murder." The former Dark Lord went to him and knelt down on one knee. "See Juhani is a prime example of a pure Jedi knight- all Light and shiny. No, I dare say she won't be the one to cut you down in cold blood even as hers burns to take it."

He looked relieved then turned to see a very pointed grin on the knife-ear's white face. "Me? Before I was a Jedi I was a Nightsister. We are not known for our beneficence. And I'm more of what you call a "Grey" Jedi than one who follows the Light explicitly- like my companions."

The man's purple skin took on a sickly shade. He knew of the Nightsisters. They were specially-trained assassins and acolytes that served a powerful Force Witch known as the Night Mother. The greatest of the matriarchs was on Dathomir. They say that if you see Nightsister witch with a blade unsheathed you never saw another morning. They were swift, deadly and silent. They hunted without mercy.

Another very toothy smile.

"Fortunately for you, I now serve the Jedi Order and not the Night Mother whose edicts would demand that your blood be spilled for the atrocities committed against one of whom I claim as sister and her people." Skye looked past the man still on the ground and up to the younger woman. "Revan made a call to arms when she discovered what became of Cathar. But say the word Juhani and this Nagai would do the same."

The blue blade slid home within the hilt with that declaration.

There is no emotion, there is peace.

The axiom of the Jedi Code rolled over and over in Juhani's mind. Yet it was not Skye or Bastila or even the Masters that quoted it. In her mind the young Cathar heard the voice of her own beloved Belaya that urged her to stay true to the Light. Her sweet voice swirled around in her mind like a lover's embrace. Giving strength and power where it was rapidly draining away.

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no emotion, there is peace.

The young Cathar would not fall to the Dark Side. Not again. She was a pure Jedi Knight just as Skye proclaimed. She would honor her fallen hero Revan by being the Knight Juhani swore to be. She would be the woman Belaya loved with all her heart. She lost too much she would not lose her soul to the Dark Side as well.

There is no emotion, there is peace.

Xor puffed out a gasp of much needed air, relieved for the reprieve offered him. He scrambled to his feet. Wincing from the injury he gained during the war and his most recent- which not only included his bruised throat and broken tailbone- but perhaps most grievously, his pride. His hate for the beasts returned deeper than ever. Pain and embarrassment replaced all manner of common sensibility the gods gave to wamp rats and gave birth to outrage and anger.

The human bitch was right, he did have holdout weapons, but he'd be dead as soon as he reached for them if he didn't have backup. And a confrontation out here in the open was just stupid. He'd have the little beast bitch, Jedi or no. All the sweeter that he'd declawed her before he had his fun.

"You want to live- leave, now." Bastila commanded.

"Damn Jedi, this isn't over." Xor grumbled moving away from the trio. He moved away as swiftly as his bruised backside allowed.

"My Cathar blood seethes to see his blood spilled." Juhani said through clenched teeth. "I cannot stand still while I think about it. I don't want to let him go! "

"Then let's don't." Skye said sounding less and less like the programmed identity she had been given and more like the Revanchist.

"You mean to herd him." Bastila surmised. It was not a question.

"Tracking that swit won't be difficult. Not a lot of purple skinned Twi'lik slavers in Alto City. With all the mercs being hired by the Republic and the Sith he's going to be forced to rely on local thugs." Skye announced.

"Tracing us will not be difficult either. All he needs to do is ask were the Jedi have berthed." Juhani said. "He'll likely go to the Hawk."

"If he tries to board her, he'll be in for one hell of a surprise when HK makes himself known." Skye said.

"The droid will not be the one to take him." Juhani demanded. "I will."

The woman who was Skye only nodded. She understood the rage; the fury burring in Juhani's veins. She felt it the day she discovered who she was, what the Jedi Council had done to her. But she could never understand the fullness of such a loss that Juhani felt. The Cathar homeworld, her parents' murder, her enslavement, the destruction of Taris... so much more...

Juhani deserved retribution. She deserved justice.