There was someone out there.

Avery peered across the silent, dark room past the hallway. She could just make out a figure a few rooms down, and dread coursed through her. To her shock, she could sense the Dark side of the Force in this man, pulling at the hole in her spirit. This was not another Sith pawn. As Avery made out his shape, he was walking toward them.

He? It? She heard Atton let out a low whistle behind her. The man-thing was grotesque, like he'd been cut to pieces and reattached. Angry red strips of skin highlighted one missing eye.

Kreia saw him as well, and drew out her vibroblade. She turned toward Atton and Avery. Her voice was firm. "This battle is mine alone. I am not defenseless." As was her way, she didn't elaborate, and began running toward the Sith.

"Wait!" Avery called. "What are you-"

"He cannot kill what he cannot see," Kreia called back, "and power has blinded him long ago. Run. I shall be along shortly."

As the door slammed behind her, the Exile and Atton looked at each other, unspeaking, and took off down the hall.

"We have to get to the main ion engine control," Avery panted. "If we can activate an engine maintenance procedure-"

"Right, right," Atton finished for her. "Just run, in case that nasty-lookin' guy is a good sprinter. We'll worry about that later."

They were rushing through maintenance hallways with blood-red walls, and Avery suddenly saw a white stand.

"The control panel!" she shouted as Atton bashed into her. They toppled onto the floor, and Atton pulled her back up in embarrassment. "Yeesh. Warn me the next time you go from a sprint to a dead halt."

As Avery fiddled with the controls, Atton heard the rush as a hatch opened. He frowned as the girl began to leave the room. "Tell me you're joking," he complained at her retreating back. "We are not going to cross back into the Peragus facility through the fuel line- that's crazy!"

She looked over her shoulder at him. "Atton, you need to trust me. Come on."

Her almost-flirting tone was back, and it seemed he was powerless against it. He relented way too early. "Alright…but I know I'm going to regret this."

She smiled and began to walk away again. Before he could think of something to say, the girl stopped in a dead halt, and began to scream.

"Avery!" He was rushing up to her as she crumpled to the ground in agony. "W-what's wrong? Are you-"

Avery managed to choke her screams back, but she rocked on her knees, clutching her hand. Atton was pressing her to him as hard as he could, practically suffocating her and utterly misunderstanding what was happening.

"Dammit, come on, Kess! Just hold on! It's only a little farther! Don't give up on me now!"

If she hadn't been in such agony, it might have been funny. But blessedly, the pain was fading now, and eventually she could speak.

"Atton, lemme go." Her voice was muffled against his shirt.

He instantly released her and peered into her face. "What happened to you?"

"Kreia. I think she was wounded, badly."

"Huh? How do you know that?"

"I think," Avery said slowly, carefully, "I felt it through…the Force."

"Look," he replied sternly, "if she's in pain, then that pain's buying us time we can't afford to waste. Especially," he added, "if sleeps-with-vibroblades gets tired of playing with her and decides to use us for practice next."

"Alright," Avery relented, standing with difficulty. "Let's go."

"Dee…reet!"

"What is that thing?"

"It's T3! Hey there!" Avery jogged down the pipe the two were in toward a clunky white droid with an air of familiarity. She began to speak with it like they were old friends. Atton shook his head. This woman would manage to be buddies with a droid.

"T3 will be joining us," Avery called over her shoulder as she and the droid continued up the pipe. "He- er, it- says it can crack the computer to get us to the hangar."

The droid squawked at her and shone a light on a container near the exit, and Atton caught up as Avery triumphantly pulled a clunky part out. "Here's the hangar's control conduit. Now we can definitely get out. At least, as long as we can survive the normal Sith, droids, crazy evil HK robots, super powerful cut up Sith…"

"Oh don't worry," Atton replied sarcastically. "We have a droid. We'll be safe."

T3 'looked' up at him, and Atton could swear it was miffed. It had to be the lack of sleep Atton had or something. He was going nuts. Droids couldn't be offended.

The Exile had her ear to the door. "From here on out, it's going to just be a long firefight to the Ebon Hawk. I suggest we don't get pinned down and hurry to the hangar."

The door opened, and sure enough, a group of three droids immediately began firing. Atton and the Exile took cover behind the doorjamb, while T3 whooped and sent out three ion-powered shots, destroying the droids in a matter of seconds.

As the two humans moved out of cover, Avery's eyebrow rose and she smirked at Atton. "We have a droid. We'll be safe, right?"

He just hung his head and walked out in shame, awkwardly allowing T3 to go first past the piles of smoking scrap metal.

The party was at the point where Avery could sense what was coming up in the next room, and T3 made short work of it. Finally, they were entering the spacious hangar with the Ebon Hawk gleaming like a beacon for freedom.

"Uh oh. Sith incoming. Lots."

Atton prepped his blaster and glanced at her. "How are you doing that?"

"Umm, the Force I think. Feels like it's coming back a bit."

"Ah," Atton said pleasantly as Sith swarmed the room. He shot at the first to lead the charge. "Well good for you."

"Thank you," Avery politely replied as she ducked and stabbed a Sith through the stomach. "It feels rather faint, but it's nice to have it back."

"I can imagine." Atton shot a Sith through the weak spot in the armor between the eyes and kicked his body aside. "I think we should head into the ship now."

"I concur." Avery grunted as a Sith drove the full force of his vibroblade onto hers. "What say you pull us out and I man the-ooof-" she shoved the Sith back and sliced into the armor at his neck. "-the turrets to take care of some of this?"

"Excellent idea." Another Sith was shot from the balcony and tumbled to the floor below as Atton opened the hatch. "Shall we?"

The three rushed in, and as Avery gleefully exterminated the rest of the crowded hangar, Atton raced the Ebon Hawk out into space. Finally. Avery breathed a sigh of relief. It was the first quiet she'd encountered in a while that wasn't ominous. We're out.

They had forgotten, however, about the Harbinger.

"Oh great," Atton roared as a shot fired and hit an asteroid near them. The asteroid exploded, rocking the ship. "If they hit us, we're dead! But if they keep missing us, we're dead! That's great odds!"

"Can we jump to hyperspace?" Avery tried to call out above the din of the explosions.

"Not with all these asteroids around us. We'd enter hyperspace in pieces. We have to clear that field first. Now either they hit us and destroy us, or they hit an asteroid and make the whole field go nova."

"Fire on the asteroids- maybe the explosion will destroy them!"

"Dwoo," T3 chirped beside her.

"I know the facility will be destroyed, but nobody was alive on it anyway. Besides," she continued as the ship pitched again, "we need to get out of here alive and this is the easiest way."

Atton simply nodded. "Hold on! This is going to get a little rocky."

By the time the Ebon Hawk had finally hit hyperspace, the party was exhausted and Atton was peeved. "So," he said acidly, "now that we've just killed a planet, maybe one of you can tell me what's going on. Because between assassin droids, a Sith Lord that looks like he sleeps with vibroblades, and being target practice for a Republic warship, I was better off in my cell."

"The Republic warship was the Harbinger. It was seized on its way to Telos by the Sith - they sought you, Jedi."

Avery looked over at Kreia in surprise. "Why are these Sith looking for me?"

"Because you are the last of the Jedi. Once you are dead, then they have won."

"But I'm just an exi-"

"Exile or not- the Sith believe you to be a Jedi Knight, and that is all that matters."

"But," Avery started again, "the last of the Jedi? That can't be true. And the Jedi Order can't be gone!"

"The Jedi Civil War destroyed the Jedi. By the War's end, barely a hundred Jedi remained. Many fell in battle…and many more were seduced by Revan's teachings."

Avery's eyes dropped abruptly, and Kreia paused knowingly. "In fact, the Jedi Academy on Dantooine is nothing more than a crater that echoes with the ghosts of dead Jedi. And the Jedi Temple on Coruscant lies empty. The waters in the Room of a Thousand Fountains have fallen still, in reverence for the fallen Jedi…and those now lost."

Avery looked up sadly. "Then, if there are any survivors left, we need to warn them."

"Perhaps," the old woman countered, "but they are Jedi no longer. If the Sith have not already slain them, then they will not help you, nor can you help them."

Exasperated, Avery blew out a breath. "Well then how do we stop the Sith?"

"That... is not an easy question to answer. This threat is greater than you know... and I do not believe it is a battle that can be fought."

"So what do you think we should do?"

"Look - enough with the "we," already-" Atton interjected.

"-We cannot hope to triumph against them alone. To stop them, you will need weapons, allies, and... a teacher. In the end, I fear it may not be enough."

Avery ran a hand through her black hair, looking more tired than she had since she'd woken up. Kreia shifted. "You fought in the Madalorian Wars, and it cost you everything. Are you willing to sacrifice as much again?"

She looked Kreia dead in the eye. "The Madalorian Wars were my choice."

"You are not listening to me. This is not like any field of battle you have ever fought in. Think carefully on your choice. If you choose to fight, if you choose war, it is a path few turn from once the first steps are taken. It carries with it a terrible price. And in the end, you may find you have nothing left to sacrifice."

"I turned away from war once, I can do it again."

"Pah, like so many Jedi, you hear, but you do not listen. You have much to learn."

Avery was frowning, but she was thoughtful. Kreia began to walk away. "We have spoken enough, and my wound pains me. If you have other questions, find me in the crew quarters…there we will speak more."

"Hey, don't stop your long, boring rants on my account," Atton said, his voice dripping with honey. "I was just getting sleepy-eyed."

Her voice began to fade as she continued down the hall. "Also, in private, we will be mercifully free from the opinions of imbeciles and fools."

Atton tapped Avery's shoulder until she faced him, and to her great surprise, he prompted, "Look, uh, not that I care or anything, but you might want to go check on our passenger- especially with that hand of hers."

"I'm sure she can take care of herself," Avery replied, eyebrows raised.

"I think she was barely keeping it together. I'm surprised she was able to stand with all of that pain rolling off her."

"What are you-"

"Come on, Avery. Are you kidding? If I were her, I'd be screaming like a stuck mynock."

He looked down at her. A grin had started at the corners of her full mouth, lighting up her dark eyes. He cleared his throat, rolled his shoulders, and corrected in a deeper tone, "W-well, I mean a very strong, very manly mynock."

"Right. You're right. I should go check on her." She wasn't even trying to hide her amusement anymore. As she walked off, she heard him kick at a chair, which was followed by his muttered complaints when he stubbed his toe.

When she walked past the main room, Avery saw a sealed door with a low-level encryption. Out of sheer curiosity, she easily hacked it and braced herself.

A brown HK model was standing there. Reflexively, Avery reached for her belt before scolding herself for forgetting that there was no lightsaber there any longer. Additionally, the robot was utterly inactive.

"What on earth?" she murmured. Why would there be an old HK sealed away on the Hawk? Quite a few parts missing, too. Four, her trained eye told her. One being something that allowed it to speak...

"The vocabulator!" she exclaimed. "I figured there'd be a use for it!"

After installing it, she proudly surveyed her handiwork for a moment. Not bad. Then she inhaled sharply. "Oops. Kreia."

The old woman was resting, and Avery could just barely make out faint whispers of channeled Force soothing the pain. It made her automatically clutch at the Ache again.

She sat down in front of Kreia, waiting for a while. When nothing happened, Avery blurted out, "When you lost your hand…I felt it too."

"Goodness, don't you ever greet someone before you begin a conversation?" Kreia came out of her meditation. Avery said nothing, so the old woman answered her question. "That does not surprise me, any more than you hearing my thoughts when we were apart."

"A bond of some sort, I suppose," the Exile hummed. Then, "I've never heard of a link like this before, in holocrons or in the Jedi histories."

"I confess its nature eludes me as well. But the bond is strong, and its roots run deep. It seems the Force flows easily between us- when one of us manipulates the Force, the other is aided as well."

"When we were on Peragus, I could feel the Force again."

Kreia pressed her. "Indeed? And was it the same as before?"

"No. Much fainter. Like a…whisper at the edge of hearing." There was a plea for hope in her dark eyes as she looked at the old woman.

"If my suspicions are correct, perhaps the damage the Jedi Council did was not as permanent as they thought. It is not an easy thing, to cut one off from the Force."

Pure joy lit her expression, and she hugged herself. "How can it be fixed?"

"Our link may have other consequences. Perhaps you can hear the Force again…distantly, through me. If so, then there is hope. I may be able to teach you, train you to feel the Force again."

Avery squeezed her knees to her chest even tighter. Kreia continued. "I offer to train you to become strong again, to know the ways of the Force, and to hear the Force sing within you as it once did."

The Exile lifted her chin slightly. "I would welcome whatever aid you offer. But…I had other questions."

"Ask, and I will answer."

Avery desperately wanted to fill in the gaps of her memory, and Kreia would do a far more thorough job than Atton. She pressed the old woman about the Mandalorian Wars, Malachor V, what occurred after the Wars, and especially about the fate of her beloved Master, Revan. When Kreia finally stopped, Avery asked her one last thing. "So what do we do now?"

"I do not know. The Sith struck more swiftly than I thought. And they will not stop until they have you in their grasp. If you fall, all the galaxy will echo it. For now, we are bound for Telos, and that is enough."

Avery nodded, a little shaky, and stood.

"I would see to that fool in the cockpit- and remind him of our destination," Kreia recommended. "I would not want him attempting to veer from Telos."

"He's not a fool," Avery objected. "But he does feel odd to me."

"He is a fool and an imbecile, his potential lies downwards, not up." The venom in her voice made Avery flinch. "Watch that one. His thoughts are slippery…I do not trust him and nor should you. Such a man serves himself first and his allies next."

Avery didn't say so out loud, but she didn't agree. Not about Atton serving himself first- that was likely true- but somehow, she sensed that all of Atton was definitely not on the surface. The only question was how deep his real self was buried.

He'd had a refreshing nap and quite the packaged dinner, but as Avery walked into the room, Atton scowled at the computer screen in front of him. Why did his stomach have to drop every time she was nearby? He refused to look up at her as she stood next to him. "How's our passenger? She still aging?"

He could hear the smile in her voice. "For someone without much to say, she sure says a lot."

"Yeah," he scoffed, "to you maybe. I don't usually hear much beyond 'fool' and 'imbecile.' How old do you think she is? She may have been good-looking once, but it takes some hard living to make creases like that."

"Good-looking?" She was in disbelief. "Are you that desperate?"

"Hey," he said defensively, laughing, "I just got outta prison. If we had a decent navicomputer, trust me, we'd be dropping out of hyperspace into the Nar Shaddaa Red Sector right now."

That should show her. She had no idea how good he was with women, how well he could use his voice and hands to coax them into doing what he wanted. Back in Nar Shaddaa, he'd managed to entice any female of his choosing into situations that would probably send this delicate Jedi girl into a swoon. He wanted to prove (to her, of course,) that she wasn't special or particularly appealing to him- she was just another set of curves to enjoy.

Instead of sounding hurt or impressed, however, she just asked, "Are we still on course for Telos?"

"Like we have a choice? It's the only place Peragus had logged in their astrogation charts." He sighed. "If you thought Peragus was dead, then Telos is a dying world they're trying to breathe back to life. We should be there before too long. You can check our course on the galaxy map if you want- it's on the wall behind you."

He heard her walk over, and it was much easier to think and breathe and stuff when she wasn't standing so close. Must be the Jedi in her, causing problems in his physical processes. And while he was on that subject, despite his best efforts to keep quiet, he was unable to resist his curiosity. "So…what happened?"

"Hmm?"

"Don't give me that. There were plenty of times back on Peragus where a lightsaber would have been helpful. So where's yours?"

She was so quiet for so long, he turned in his chair to look at her discreetly. Her dark head was bowed, eyes closed, with a tiny pinch between her brows. At last, she said in a small voice, "Exiles aren't allowed to keep their lightsabers."

"Oh yeah?" he replied. "I thought a Jedi was supposed to be married to their lightsaber. Guess I heard wrong. Were you a single hilt or one of those double-bladed Jedi?"

One long, pale finger ran down the space between screens, and she smiled wryly to herself. "Single hilt." A pause. Then, "I dual-wielded, though."

"Hnh. Figures. They weren't red, were they?"

"No." She shook her head, even though she didn't know he could see her. She sounded forlorn. "It's been so long I've forgotten the colors."

"I thought a Jedi and her blade couldn't be parted," he objected. "To lose it was like losing a part of yourself."

She opened her mouth to reply, but then her eyes narrowed. "You're awfully curious about this. Also seem to know a lot about a Jedi's intimate thoughts. Anything I should know?"

"Forget I said anything," he said curtly. "We've arrived."

As the four of them exited the Ebon Hawk, a voice came over the intercom. "Attention- this is Citadel Station Bay Control, Dock Module 126. Please remain where you are. Lieutenant Dol Grenn will arrive shortly to meet you. That is all."

Atton groaned. "I don't like the sound of that. If they think we caused the explosion…"

A trio of officials were walking into the station, and Atton murmured into the Exile's ear. "Here comes the welcoming party. They may not know what happened, so don't blow it."

He noted with intense satisfaction that she lightly rubbed her upper arms as he moved away. He still had it, that ability to lure a female, regardless of how innocent the girl was.

"I'm Lieutenant Grenn, Telos Security Force. I'm under orders to take you into custody in regards to the destruction of the Peragus Mining Facility. You will be placed under house arrest, and we will have to take your personal arms and armor until the completion of our inquiry. Do you understand?"

Atton's head bowed in defeat as the officials handcuffed them. "Aww shit. Tell me I'm not going to jail again."