Hey sorry that this has been so long comeing but i'm so stressed right now at uni that i think my head would have exploded if it wadn't reached half term. oh well thought i'd take some time out and chill by updating, hope that you enjoy and please review!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taris Local Time 15:48

She looked up from her third glass of Talrisian ale and smiled as Carth slid into the seat next to her, signalling as he did so to the bartender for his own drink.

"So… should you be drinking that stuff?" A smirk spread across her lips.

"This is pretty mild Cap…Carth. I think I can handle it." He nodded in ascent as his own glass was set down besides him.

"I've managed to find out that quite a few pods crashed down into the Undercity. Chances are if Bastila is going to be anywhere it would be there." He took a sip of his drink and turned to rest his back against the bar giving him a perfect view of the cantina. "The only problem I can see is actually getting down there. The only ones with authorisation are Sith, we'll need a disguise to get even as far as the Lowercity."

"I may have found us a way down into the Lowercity at least." Her eyes met his as he raised his brow in question. "See that guy over there…No don't look directly at him!" His frown indicated his irritation.

"I see him." He muttered taking another drink of ale.

"Well he's invited me to this party… a Sith party. If we play our cards right we might just be able to err…liberate us some Sith uniforms and we…"

"NO!" His sudden interruption caused her to look at his sharply. "You aren't walking into a room full of Sith…What if they caught you…or worse." His lack of faith cut into her deeply and she had to take a deep breath.

"Fine!" It was torn from her but she couldn't disobey a direct order from a superior officer. Downing the last of her ale she stood and dropped enough credits to cover her tap, before she turned and left. She was on the concourse half way between the cantina and the local weapons supplier when a rough hand grabbed her left elbow and swung her around. If it had been anyone else she would have planted her fist in their skull for touching her. Instead she just shrugged out of Carth's grasp.

"What is the problem?"

"I don't know what your talking about." It was spat out between her gritted teeth, her eyes taking in the Sith guard stationed nearby.

"Don't give me that crap sister – you stormed out of there in a huff, something obviously not 'fine'." His brown eyes bored into her own dark orbs.

"Do you really want to talk about this here? Out in the open?" Carth noticed the Sith and nodded in agreement.

"Fine we'll go back to the apartment."

The walk back was fraught with tension; neither of them spoke or openly acknowledged each other, but as soon as the door shut behind then Carth turned to face her demandingly.

"Now what the frack is going on?" It was an order she could see it in his eyes and that only added to her own anger.

"Permission to speak freely Sir?" She waited for him to give her permission before she launched straight at him. "I have the perfect opportunity to help advance this damn rescue mission and you sit there and refuse out of hand, with out bothering to listen to what I was about to say. Don't get me wrong you're the commanding officer on this and can order me to what needs to be done, but to question me own abilities without bothering to learn what they are is insulting beyond belief."

"This is about the Sith party…"

"OF course it is! I can do this but you didn't even give me the chance to explain the plan, you just shot me down. If this is how you treat your crew then I'll be asking for a transfer the second we get off this concrete rock." Her ranting was accompanied by her pacing back and forth before him, while Carth simply stood and waited for her to finish.

"Are you done? Yes? Good. I don't want you risking yourself so openly, a party full of Sith! And you want to waltz right in alone."

"I never said alone…you didn't give me a chance to explain."

"Fine then…explain."

"The guy Yun Genda… he's a Sith officer at the nearby base…a junior officer. He's throwing a party for some of his shift mates and asked me along. I told him that my over protective cousin – that's you – would never let me go on my own and he informed me to bring my 'cousin' along 'the more the merrier'. A lot if his shift are heading there straight from work…without getting changed they'll do that at the party leaving their uniforms sitting around just begging to be appropriated."

"Ok I admit it doesn't sound as dangerous as it did at first but it's still a big risk." She could see he was mulling it over in his mind even as she jumped in again.

"I know that's why we…me and you are going to bring along a crate of that Talrisian ale, these Sith have never had something so potent the damn stuff is hardly ever shipped offworld. After they've had enough of that the poor misguided fools will more then likely pass out or won't remember us helping them to do so."

"Alright I admit it's a good plan but where are we going to get the credits from to pay for that much ale?"

"Already taken care of, I cleaned out that guy Niklos or something you know the one who thinks he's a big shot Pazaak player. Poor guy had to head home; I even spoke to the bartender who informed me that I'd just need to contact him for the ale to be delivered." A crooked smile spread across his lips and an odd twinkle lit his eyes as he spoke.

"Your good, Lieutenant, lets hope that you can pull it off." She felt the grin spreading across her own face, he was agreeing – giving her the green light.

"Thank you Sir."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She'd been sat there for over an hour, tinkering with the various stuff she'd pilfered or 'found'. That is if you can call the balancing act she managed to pull off sitting, perched as she was on the workbench with everything laid out around her. For some reason he couldn't tear his eyes from the hypnotic movements of her hands as she fiddled with small mechanical tools and objects. She had long graceful hands well hand anyway – her right hand was covered by the black glove she always wore. They where thin – her fingers – tapered line a musicians he instruments the wicked looking blade that lay next to her. She managed to wield it with a skill and finesse that impressed even him.

A frown marred her face as she attempted to fix something on her lap only to fail, her eyes where that odd dark colour – black almost but he'd seen then – first when she'd entered the pod bay back on the Spire and again on the way back from the cantina. They'd flashed a hidden gold, but right now they seemed as black as her hair which hung link silk to her shoulders. He longed to have a reason to touch it again as he had while she'd been unconscious. Frowning at the direction his own thoughts where taking he pushed them away focusing instead on the awkward situation they seemed to be in. crammed together as they where in a studio apartment, with no privacy and hardly and space to breath.

A quite sigh signalled her success and the smile that lit up her face as a result was almost painful for him to watch. Suddenly her gaze looked up and met his and the smile slowly faded. She had spunk – defiantly – the way she'd stood up to him and forced him to listen to her ideas until it had made more sense to simply follow it then not was admirable, so was her shear determination to make it out of this mess.

"What?" Her voice was soft although he knew it could be as cold and hard as durocrete when she wanted it to be.

Nothing really, I was just thinking, you know about what happened on the Endar Spire. What can you tell me – from your own point of view about what went on?" She frowned again thinking it over before she started to speak.

"To be honest, I haven't got a clue what went on. The first thing I noticed was my head connecting with the bulkhead as we where jerked out of hyperspace. I didn't even move till Ensign Ulgo opened the lockdown for my door, I was still pretty dazed – even when we spotted the first Sith boarders. I didn't even remember to turn my personal shield on."

"And yet the Jedi requested your addition to the crew just before we left Corascant."

"Huh? You must have got that wrong, Sir. I was given my assignment over a week before the Endar Spire arrived in Corascant, by Admiral Dadoona herself."

"The Admiral gave you your orders? That's pretty unusual for a Lieutenant."

"I've known the Admiral for years, she sponsored my enrolment at the academy. I was on her flag ship when she requested my addition to the Endar Spire. I'd not long finished my tour of duty on board the Liberty so I was due for reassignment anyway."

"I just think its odd is all – you being added at the last minute by the Jedi then somehow managing to make it off the Spire while injured and concussed -"

"What is this about Sit? If your questioning my loyalty then you can think again. The Republic is everything to me and helping keep it safe is all I care about, and had been since I enrolled at the academy at the age of 15. That's 11 years Sir, that I've given to the Republic willingly and I'll probably give the rest of my life to it as well."

"Alright Lieutenant - I'm just making sue I know who I'm dealing with, it's nothing personal I just don't trust anyone." He watched as she put away her tools placing her blade back in its harness before turning to face him, her face set and her jaw squared as though ready to take a punch.

"If you don't mind me saying so Sir, trust isn't something given – it's earned. I thought I'd already started to do that but obviously I was wrong. There's a big difference between not giving your trust to everyone and distrusting them, if you distrust everyone then your bound to be disappointed because you'll always be waiting for them to make a mistake just so you can tell yourself that you where right. I learned that along time ago, I hope you learn it to because distrusting everyone – well that's just no way to live." She turned to leave and he called after her.

"Where are you going?" He asked, she didn't turn around her hand rested just above the pressure pad that opened the door.

"I'm heading to the Cantina, see if I can earn us some more credits playing Pazaak – we're going to need them."

"shouldn't you be getting some rest your still recovering from that head injury."

"I've been asleep for three days Sir – I'd rather be awake right now." Without waiting for a reply she hit the pad that caused the door to slip open. He watched her leave with a heavy feeling in his gut. He hadn't meant to question her loyalty but he felt better knowing that she was just as dedicated to the republic as he was. 11 years that would make her 26 – yet he'd seen into her eyes. There was a knowledge there and a darkness that spoke of wisdom well beyond that of a 26 year old, and a pain - he seen that in them too.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She wanted to hit something, how could anyone be so frustration – she had no idea. She stomped down the corridor towards the elevator that would take her to the main concourse a growl left throat as she hit that sent her upwards. Trying to get him to open up was like trying to get blood from a stone, the worst thing of all was that she wanted to know more about him.

She felt the unexplainable pull and she was pretty sure that Carth had felt it as well, judging from the way he'd been staring at her. The door opened to the upper levels of Taris and she heaved a sigh of disgust, she hated planet – they where all pretty much the same. In fact she couldn't remember the last time she had willingly been planet side, the dinner meeting with the Admiral that she'd attended before shipping out had been in the Admirals quarters aboard ship. Dadoona had taken her dislike of planets into account, which still made her smile.

She started walking towards the Cantina her hand brushing the hilt of her blade where it rested as a type of reassurance. How dare he question her loyalty or the motives of an Admiral not to mention her friend, Dadoona had helped her through a tough time after she'd been rescued – she'd also been grateful of the help that she's been able to provide during the assault on Duxn.

Could it really have been nearly 12 years ago? It felt like a lifetime had passed by. She was nearing the weaponry store when she had the sudden urge to head inside, not willing to ignore her instincts she veered inside. Where she was immediately confronted by a human female by the name of Kelba Yurt.

"Hey there offworlder is there something I can help you with, top line weaponry and armour …well mostly."

"What do you mean by 'mostly'?" She asked with a frown.

"The Sith confiscated all my heavy duty items but the rest is still quality gear."

"I've been looking for a holo-imager trying to fix my dejar'ek boards, you wouldn't know where I could get one would you?"

"sorry closest I've got is a imager face mask, came in a couple days ago. It'll cost you 100 credits, though it'll need fixing."

"Show me." Kelba headed off to find it before scurrying back mask in tow. The mask itself looked like a loop of metal – very fine – that sat on your head like a hair band. It remained hidden beneath the hair while projecting a visual image down over the face.

"I'll take it, I also want that permacrete detonator and 4 heavy blaster charge packs."

"That will be 250 credits – those charge packs are 30 each but I'll give you them for 25 just for taking that imager off my hands. I get caught with that by the Sith and they'll close me down for good – you be careful now hon." With that she headed back to the rest of her stock while Raven placed the blaster packs and the detonator carefully into her backpack.

"Do you mind if I use your workbench? I'll only be a minute or two."

"Sure go ahead – we're closing up though soon."

"I'll make it quick." Ten minutes later she had the holo-mask up and working with two pre-programmed images. The first was a composite female face – blonde, blue eyes tanned skin. The second however was much more difficult to design. Taking a glace around she slipped the holo-mask behind both ears and activated the first image. She caught sight of herself in the shiny surface of the workbench and smiled – no one would ever recognise her. Taking one more lock around she slipped out of the shop and headed towards the Cantina. It was time she got them some well deserved credits.