Chapter Fifteen
Disclaimer: I do not own KotOR.
"You know something, Revan?" Canderous asked rhetorically as he stared around at all the carnage surrounding them with glee. "You really had me worried there for a moment with all your talk of 'leaving peacefully' and 'avoiding senseless slaughter' but now I see that I was wrong to doubt you and it will never happen again."
"Thanks for the support, Canderous," Revan replied, electing not to mention the fact that he really hadn't intended for their trip to the Sand People enclave to end up like this. The aging Mandalorian likely wouldn't have even believed him anyway. People often didn't when it came to the multitude of things he'd accidentally pulled off.
"I can't believe you," Carth complained, having no trouble believing what had actually happened. "Do you have no self-control?"
"Not really," Revan admitted with a shrug. "And it wasn't like they played no part in their destruction. They attacked me."
"Yeah, after you stole from them," Carth pointed out. "To you or me the taking of one vibroblade would not warrant being set up by everyone here but different cultures being what they are…"
"That's a remarkably open-minded attitude for someone who doesn't ever actually having any idea what I'm saying," Zaalbar said, surprised.
"What?" Carth asked blankly.
"Big Z called you a racist," Mission helpfully, albeit falsely, translated.
"But…but I'm not!" Carth protested helplessly. "And I didn't even say anything that might be misconstrued as racist…"
Mission shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me. Big Z's the one that thinks so. Feel free to ask him all about it."
"It's not my fault it was so shiny," Revan insisted. "Maybe they shouldn't have polished it so much and it wouldn't have tempted me so. I DO have a rather severe case of kleptomania, you know."
"I just love it how you're blaming people that you killed for their own deaths because you stole from them and they got upset," Bastila said, rolling her eyes.
Revan smiled winningly at her. "I do try."
"Hey, what's this?" Mission asked, looking through a door she'd just opened. "I think that this is where the Sand People kept their prisoners. I vote we take a look."
"I wonder if we can kill them as well," Canderous mused aloud.
"Hear that, Carth?" Revan asked smugly. "The Sand People kept prisoners. Me killing them was perfectly justified."
"Not to burst your bubble or anything, Revan," Carth countered, sounding greatly amused, "but humans have prisoners, too. They're kept at prisons."
"Or in the custody of the scum of the galaxy," Zaalbar helpfully added, sounding for all the world like he was actually in the mood to talk about his personal problems. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it – Revan still didn't care and so chose not to pursue that line of questioning.
"And that's legally sanctioned," Revan disagreed. "Whereas these people have probably never even had a trial or anything."
"Can you guys keep it down?" an irritated voice called to them. "Some of us are trying to take a nap here and it's hard enough without you yapping with all these Jawas squeaking at each other all the time."
Mission froze. "I'd know that voice and the tendency to refer to things that sound nothing like squeaking as that anywhere…Griff!"
"Whoa," Griff said, now sounding a bit desperate. "I don't know who you're talking about. I've never heard of any Griffs. My name's Riff and I am certainly not a wanted man with debt up to his Lekku."
Mission sighed and decided that this was really a conversation that they should have face to face. She walked down the hall towards her brother's cell and stopped in front of the one that contained a blue Twi'lek frantically attempting to dig his way through the floor with his bare hands. "Hello, Riff."
"Oh, uh, hi…" Griff risked a glance up and frowned. "You look a little young to be a bounty hunter…wait…Mission?"
"And so he finally recognizes me!" Mission deadpanned.
"Oh come on, I haven't seen you in two years and last I heard you were on Taris," Griff reminded her. "You know, Taris the world that was recently reduced to rubble by the Sith Empire?"
"I know," Mission said. "I was there. I was actually escaping with the reason why he did it…"
"So since it's been ages and I was rather of the opinion that you were dead you can see why it never occurred to me that you might be here," Griff continued smoothly.
"Maybe," Mission allowed. "But I ran into Lena, Griff. She told me it was your idea to leave me behind on Taris and that she tried to buy me a ticket but you talked her out of it."
"Did she now?" Griff asked, scratching behind his neck nervously. "I didn't realize you two were on such good terms…"
"That's not exactly a denial I'm hearing," Mission said, her voice colder than it was before.
"No," Griff said softly. "I guess it's not."
"But…why?" Mission asked, looking lost.
"If she starts crying then I am ripping his arms off and beating him to death with them," Zaalbar growled. "I don't care if he IS her brother."
"Oh, you know…" Griff said vaguely, looking anywhere but at his distraught sister.
"No, that's just it. I don't," Mission said flatly. "I was twelve, Griff, TWELVE. You left me all on my own and you promised to come back for me. You didn't, though. I blamed myself, I blamed Lena…I blamed everyone but you and now I see that I should have. Why would you abandon me?"
"I always meant to come back for you," Griff said, looking pained. "Things just…they got complicated, okay?"
"Things were always complicated," Mission said bitterly.
"I…I really was in no position to be taking care of a kid," Griff told her. "I know that I shouldn't have left but, well, things worked out, didn't it? I taught you how to survive and here you are, probably doing better than me."
"Because of Big Z," Mission managed to force out, closing her eyes tight. "If it weren't for him then I would have died ages ago and you never would have even known."
Griff had nothing to say to that and, after waiting for an answer he clearly didn't have, Mission turned and left the room. After pausing to let Griff and the Jawas out, the rest of the party did the same.
By the time Mission had calmed down Canderous was eager to start killing things again and claimed that his 'Mandalorian Senses' were telling him where to find Jagi. This was rather convenient since they realized that Jagi hadn't exactly been very specific about where he wanted Canderous to meet him. Of course, the fact he claimed that his 'Mandalorian Senses' would only work if he were blindfolded and walking backwards just made the whole thing seem much more ridiculous than it already would have but no one really felt like arguing with him at this point.
They reluctantly followed after Canderous – mostly to prevent him from getting himself killed – for about an hour when, right before reaching the top of a sand dune, the Mandalorian spun around, ripped off his blindfold, and then raced down the other side.
"JAGI!" he hollered as he did so.
"Excited query: Does this mean that we're going to get to kill something soon?" HK wondered, his eyes glowing red at the thought. Revan wondered if he should be disturbed by this but decided that since he didn't actually care then it really wasn't his problem.
"CANDEROUS!" Jagi yelled back. "I almost thought you weren't going to come. I-wait. You brought companions? Come on, Canderous, you were supposed to come alone!"
Jagi came into view once Revan reached the top of the Dunce. He was standing with two men at his side so his complaint that Canderous hadn't come alone was an odd one. Or else Jagi was totally planning on cheating.
"What, no you didn't," Canderous said, sounding confused.
"I didn't?" Jagi asked sheepishly. "Oh, well…I meant to!"
"I'm not a mind-reader, Jagi," Canderous said patiently. "And if I were supposed to come alone then why did you not bother to come alone?"
"Because…um…clearly I didn't trust that you would!" Jagi replied triumphantly.
"Then why would you want to make that a condition of our fight?" Canderous asked reasonably.
"So I could demonstrate once and for all how you have no honor!" Jagi cried out.
"Okay, seriously, stop shouting because you are giving me a headache," Revan complained.
"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU-Hey!" Jagi cut off as Canderous shot at his feet. "What was that for?"
"You may not care what Revan thinks but he and I are tight and so if he says to stop shouting then you had better listen," Canderous said, cocking his gun menacingly. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Y-yes, Canderous," Jagi nodded quickly, unable to stop his voice from shaking.
"And we'll see just how 'honor-less' I am when I shoot you dead," Canderous continued. "If you were going to bring people, Jagi, you should have brought more than just two because I've got six."
"You're not going to use all of them, are you?" Jagi asked nervously. "It's so, you know, dishonorable."
"As it happens, I won't," Canderous said magnanimously. "Because, seriously, I could beat you and your backup by myself. I won't do that, either, because I don't want you to die that embarrassed. Revan? HK? If you please?"
"Statement: I may need to revise my definition of love…" HK commented as he moved as fast as he was able towards Canderous.
Revan, however, paused as he considered the request. "Well…I suppose you did stop the shouting," Revan agreed finally as he, too, joined Canderous.
"You can say when to begin," Canderous invited. "If I do it you'll probably die thinking that I cheated."
"Alright," Jagi said, his face red from all this talk of the certainty of him losing. "Ready…set…go!"
Revan, Canderous, and HK fired in unison. Unsurprisingly, they were all amoral enough to end the fight then and there.
"Okay, the last four giant caves that we've checked might not have had a dragon or a Star Map but you know what they say," Bastila said optimistically as they approached yet another cave. "Fifth time's the charm."
"I believe the expression is actually 'third time's a charm'," Zaalbar corrected.
"Well, yeah," Bastila admitted. "But we're on our fifth try not our third so I was just modifying the phrase to fit our current situation."
"If there really is a dragon in this one then I'm a little – scratch that, a lot – concerned about how, exactly, we're going to be able to take it out," Carth spoke up.
Canderous shook his head sadly. "You're scared of one little ginormous dragon that likely at Bastila's father?"
"Frankly, yes," Carth confirmed, really not seeing what was so strange about that.
"Pathetic," Canderous declared.
"Hey, you and HK might be excited but Bastila already claimed she can't help and Revan probably won't want to so we don't even have any Jedi on our side here," Carth pointed out.
"Statement: We don't need any Jedi," HK bragged.
"Who knows, Carth?" Revan said placatingly. "Maybe an easy way to kill the dragon will just manifest itself."
"Excuse me," a green Twi'lek greeted them as they neared the cave. "My name is Komad and I'm a hunter. I'm looking to kill this giant dragon nesting in this cave as he's recently killed a friend of mine named Shan and he's far too close to Anchorhead anyway. Would you care to assist me?"
"See, Carth?" Revan asked, pleased. "Sometimes things really do just work themselves out."
"…How?" Carth demanded at last. "How do you do these things?"
"It's the Force, I suppose," Revan said with a shrug. "I never really think too much about it, I'll admit."
"And thank the Force for that," Bastila murmured.
"We would love to help. What do you need us to do?" Mission inquired.
"I've set enough mines to bring down a dragon twice this one's size," Komad revealed. "But waiting here for it to come out…well, frankly that's really, really boring. Would someone go and lure some bantha right over behind the mines so as to tempt the dragon?"
"Not for nothing," Revan said slowly. "But while doing that might be annoying, it's hardly a trying task. Why do you need our help?"
"It's as you said," Komad replied easily. "Doing it myself would be annoying."
Revan shrugged. "Works for me."
Canderous tilted his head as he thought about it. "Would we get to see the bantha explode?"
"That depends on how closely you put them to the mines," Komad answered.
"Right," Canderous nodded. "I'll be back."
With that he wandered off alone and, within ten minutes, returned with nearly a dozen bantha following behind him.
"Okay, you guys just stay here, alright? I know there's a dragon in there but he'll probably explode before he can eat you. If I'm lucky, you'll explode as well," Canderous told them.
"You know, that may not be the best thing to tell them…" Carth pointed out.
Suddenly the ground shook as the dragon rushed from its cave – and it moved pretty damn fast for such a huge creature – and raced towards the bantha. Before he got there, however, the mines began to go off.
The explosion was, needless to say, epic. Revan and Canderous were in tears by the time it was over due to the sheer badassery and HK was hoping that he wouldn't lose his memory again so he could always remember such a spectacle.
"Well that was fun," Komad declared. "I think I need to get a drink to celebrate this monumental occasion. I'll be back for my share of the treasure later so don't steal all of it, okay?"
"Yeah, sure," Revan agreed absently as he wandered into the cave.
"Do you see the Star Map?" Bastila called after him.
"I do," Revan confirmed. "I also see a holocron by a dead human that looks nothing like you. You want to check it out?"
"Alright," Bastila agreed, entering the cave herself. "Father!" she cried upon reaching the body. She picked up the holocron. "Mother will never get her hands on this. I don't know what you mean by him not looking anything like me though."
"Well…he's kind of…black," Revan said delicately.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Bastila demanded, hands on her hips. "Are you racist or something?"
"It's racist to not be colorblind and to point out that a white girl does not really resemble her black father?" Revan asked, annoyed. "Besides, you're practically your mother's twin!"
"Lies and slander!" Bastila shouted. "Let's just look at the Star Map, shall we?" She walked over and opened it then took out her datapad and began copying the information down in it.
"So will we still need to go to Korriban, Manaan, AND Kashyyyk?" Revan asked her. "Or do you think we might be able to piece together whatever it is that we're looking for without doing so?"
"No, we'll definitely need to go to all of them," Bastila decreed. "It wouldn't do to not be thorough, I…is that blaster fire?"
"Probably," Revan agreed. "But what were you saying?"
"Shouldn't we go check it out?" Bastila pressed.
"We can when you finish," Revan replied. "It's not like Mission, Zaalbar, Carth, Canderous, and HK can't handle themselves."
"If you say so," Bastila said dubiously, quickly finishing her map and heading towards the sounds of combat. Before she could reach it, the noises stopped and she sped up to find her companions standing over several bodies that weren't there when she and Revan had gone into the cave.
"Hey, is that Calo Nord?" Revan asked curiously as he came up from behind her. "Didn't he get killed by a ceiling back on Taris?"
"Evidently not," Canderous remarked. "He never freaking dies. Trust me, I've tried dozens of times and it never sticks."
"Try cutting his head off," Mission advised. "And if that doesn't work then at least you're next reunion will be amusing."
"Good idea," Canderous said, looking at Mission with new respect in his eyes. "Anybody have a vibroblade?"
"So did you find the holocron?" Helena Shan asked once Bastila and Revan – who honestly wasn't sure why he was even there – had returned to her in the Cantina.
"I did," Bastila nodded. "But it's mine and you can't have it!"
"Truly, she's come so far since she was four and the Jedi took her," Helena said sardonically. "But tell me, dear, if you had no intention of giving it to me then why in the world did you even come here? To rub my face in it?"
"Yes," Bastila replied promptly.
"Is that really the Jedi way?" Revan asked pointedly.
"I-" Bastila started to say but was cut off by her mother's coughing fit.
Helena quickly pulled out a handkerchief and coughed into that. When she pulled away, it was red.
"Is that…" Bastila's eyes widened. "Blood? Are you sick or something, Mother?"
"YES," Helena said loudly. "Haven't you been listening?"
"I didn't believe you," Bastila confessed. "But since you clearly are sick then all is forgiven. Here, take these 500 credits and go get your treatment."
"Thank you Bastila," Helena said, stunned. "That's more than I ever…you can keep the holocron."
"I was planning on it," Bastila said simply.
As Revan watched Helena leave he turned to Bastila, "Oh, that was touching. Now, about that 500 credits…I can't believe you've been holding out on me!"
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