Brinna went to sleep with a stupid grin on her face and it was still there when she woke the next morning. Only the sight of Mission's face, drawn with anxiety, could wipe the ridiculous smile off Brinna's face. As soon as she saw how worried Mission was, Brinna felt very selfish for having been so focused on her own happiness.

"Don't worry, Mission," Brinna said, putting a reassuring hand on the Twi'lek's arm. "I'm not going to abandon Zaalbar to Chuundar. We'll get him back."

"I know," Mission said with an attempt at a smile but she didn't look any less anxious than she had two minutes ago.

The teen walked out of the bunkroom with a dejected slump to her shoulders and Brinna moved over to Bastila and Juhani, who had been quietly watching the exchange.

"Could the two of you see if Chuundar might at least let Mission visit Zaalbar?" Brinna asked.

Juhani nodded. "We will take Mission, although I am not confident that she will be allowed to see her friend."

"Neither am I," Brinna admitted with a sigh. "But it's better than her sitting around here moping all day. But who knows? Maybe you'll succeed where I failed. Maybe you'll be able to talk some sense into Chuundar."

Bastila nodded curly. "We will try," she assured Brinna.

She was not pleased about being left behind while Brinna went down into the Shadowlands and Brinna knew it. It didn't matter to her, though. Brinna had a strong premonition that she would need some serious muscle down there and she had decided to bring Carth and Canderous along with her because of it. It wasn't that Brinna doubted either Bastila or Juhani's abilities; it was simply that she had yet to see the Mandalorian walk away from a battle looking any worse for the wear than he had when the battle had begun. As for why she had chosen Carth…

As Brinna's thoughts turned to him, she felt a response from Bastila. Two could play at Bastila's game, however, and Brinna closed her thoughts off to the other Jedi, denying Bastila the access she sought. Bastila's gaze met hers rather challengingly and Brinna could sense Bastila's mocking question: Do you have something to hide?

"Bond or no bond, some things are private," Brinna told her quietly. She then turned on her heel and walked out of the bunkroom. She could sense Bastila's disapproval and Juhani's confusion.

The rest of the crew was assembled in the common room. Mission was picking dejectedly at her food while Carth did his best to cheer her. Canderous was standing near the replicator and Brinna headed his way.

"We'd better get that Wookie back soon," Canderous said, his gravely voice sounding grave.

"I know. If I'd known this was going to happen, I would have made Zaalbar stay behind on the ship. It's my fault that he was taken," Brinna said. She meant what she said. She was angry with herself for exposing Zaalbar to such a perilous situation.

"Don't blame yourself, blame Chuundar. There's no honor in what he did, taking a hostage and hiding like a coward, sending you out to do his dirty work," Canderous said, disgust evident in his tone.

"Considering he's helping to enslave his own people, I'd have to say that honor is the last thing Chuundar's worried about," Brinna said dryly.

"Maybe you should take me to see this Wookie."

Brinna couldn't help but smile at that. "Trust me, if I thought it would help, I would. As it is, the sooner we get down into the Shadowlands, the better."

"I'm ready whenever you are," Canderous told her.

"You've probably been up all night, unable to sleep because of the prospect of battle."

Canderous grinned at her. "Very insightful."

She ate a quick breakfast and then she, Carth, and Canderous gathered their things and left the Hawk. Canderous looked thrilled to be off the ship and headed toward a possible engagement and he eagerly moved ahead of Brinna and Carth, scouting out their route.

"Aw, isn't that sweet," Brinna commented. "He can't wait to kill something."

Carth laughed and she looked over at him with a smile. "This is much better than the cold shoulder," he told her.

"But not better than bickering with me, I'll bet."

"Nothing's better than that," he teased her.

"I aim to please," she said, with a wink.

They caught up to Canderous. Along the way, they ran into some Wookies who were doing some hunting, trying to clear the walkways of kinrath. The Wookies were less than thrilled with the presence of Brinna, Carth, and Canderous even though the three had aided the Wookies in killing the kinrath. Brinna was becoming too used to such treatment at the hands of the Wookies, however, and she didn't let it bother her. After all, it was understandable. The only other humans on their planet were trying their best to enslave as many Wookies as possible.

Gorwooken wasn't much more cordial when they finally found him. He curtly told them to be quiet during the descent so that they would not attract unwanted attention. Brinna had already had about enough of the forest creatures of Kashyyyk and decided to take Gorwooken's advice. The descent took a good twenty minutes and Brinna couldn't help but marvel. She'd never seen trees a tenth as big as those on Kashyyyk and she found herself surveying the forest about her in awe. When they finally reached the forest floor, it was abundantly clear just how fitting the name "Shadowlands" was. It was so dim on the forest floor that it was impossible to tell that it was full daylight. The ground was a forbidding place and it wasn't hard for Brinna to understand why the Wookies took it as seriously as they did.

She had little time to marvel about the forest, however. As soon as they set foot on the ground, they caught sight of a fire and Brinna had to blink a couple of times before she believed the sight of the campers that stood around it. Calo Nord stood smirking at them, a couple of mean-looking Wookies standing just behind and to either side of him.

"How the hell did he make it off Taris?" Brinna asked Canderous under her breath.

"He probably attached himself to the underside of a ship like the insect he is," the Mandalorian told her.

Canderous's eyes took on something of a feral gleam as he taunted the diminutive Nord about his Wookie muscle. Calo was rather smug about having survived Taris and Brinna did her best to hide her amazement.

"Can you believe this guy?" Carth asked her quietly. "He just keeps turning up."

"We'll just have to make sure that this is the last time we're ever going to see him again," she replied, her eyes fixed on the bounty hunter.

"Good riddance," Carth said and then the battle began.

As usual, Calo had several choice explosives, as did his Wookie companions. This time, however, Brinna was ready for him. She used the Force to help her leap clear of the explosives and then froze the Wookies in stasis. Calo Nord, unfortunately, proved to be very resistant to the Force but Canderous didn't seem to mind. He went after the bounty hunter with a zeal that Brinna found rather alarming. She left him to it, however, and took the opportunity to permanently disable the Wookie who had been standing to the left of Calo.

When the battle was over, the Shadowlands were made even dimmer by the dense smoke that Nord's explosives had left behind. Brinna and her companions took a few moments to heal and to search the bodies of Calo and his companions. By the time they had finished, the smoke was finally beginning to clear and Brinna saw Gorwooken standing at the basket looking completely nonplussed by what had just happened.

"You looking at the Wookie? He was probably hoping we'd all finish each other off," Carth said, as if he'd read her mind.

"Friendly sort, isn't he?" Brinna asked sarcastically. "Helpful too. Although I guess I really can't blame him. If I were in his shoes, I'd probably hope for the same thing."

"Let's move. We've got better things to do than standing around here watching these corpses rot," Canderous told them.

"I don't think they'll be around here long enough for that," Brinna said, with a slight shudder. She could see a disconcerting number of bright eyes peering out from the underbrush.

They followed the narrow path that had been carved through the forest. The trees arched overhead, lending the unsettling feeling that they were moving through a tunnel. While there was some beauty up high in the boughs of the trees where the Wookies made their homes, Brinna saw nothing to admire about the Shadowlands. She could hardly wait to leave them far behind her.

Suddenly, a familiar sound caught Brinna's ear and she exchanged glances with Canderous and Carth. They moved cautiously and, just around the bend, caught sight of an old man with a lightsaber fighting back four katarns.

A Jedi? Here? Brinna thought in amazement.

The mystery Jedi made short work of the katarns and then turned to complain to Brinna, Carth, and Canderous about the "damnable racket of battle". Brinna could feel him reaching out to them with the Force, trying to get a feel for them. He seemed satisfied with what he found; the next thing Brinna knew, he was hurrying off into the Shadowlands, calling over his shoulder for them to follow him.

"Could this day get any stranger?" Brinna murmured as the Jedi led them to a hovel-like dwelling.

"You probably shouldn't ask that question or it probably will, just to prove it can," Carth said dryly.

The Jedi introduced himself as Jolee Bindo. Brinna had heard him mumbling something about fighting the Sith and she would have liked to probe him further but he wasn't really in the mood for answering questions. She was able to learn that he knew of what they were searching for but said that there was certain "barriers" that stood in their way. He then told her that he'd join up with her and help her to bypass those barriers if she would take care of the Czerka poachers who were slaughtering tachs. She stared at him incredulously but she could sense that he was quite serious. Brinna wasn't too thrilled about being made to jump through hoops but it looked as though she would need his assistance and so she agreed to the task. As they left, she could sense contemplation from him as he reached out once more to her through the Force.

Brinna's meeting with Jolee had left her feeling slightly off balance. He had studied her with some interest, almost as if he knew something about her that she didn't know about herself. She didn't like the feeling. He acted eccentric but Brinna could sense that he had a very sharp, intelligent, and active mind.

"What was going on back there?" Carth asked her once they were out of earshot.

"Huh?" Brinna asked, rousing herself from her own Force-aided probing of Jolee.

"Jedi mumbo jumbo," Canderous answered him. "Jedi mind reading."

"We don't read minds," she said, shortly. "We can sense things but we don't pry into other people's private thoughts."

"No need to be so sensitive. I wasn't accusing you of anything," Canderous told her.

"More fool you. After all, I read your mind all the time. Not that there's a whole lot in there," she shot back at him, rolling her eyes.

"Found anything you like?" Canderous asked with a grin.

"You wish," Brinna told him dismissively.

"What's this?" Carth asked, crouching down. The expression on his face turned grim.

Brinna moved over to him and soon saw why he looked so grim. The body of a Wookie lay on the ground before him. Scanning the ground, Brinna found a bowcaster bolt casing.

"He was killed by another Wookie," Brinna said, holding the casing up to examine it more closely. It bore some markings and she wondered if one of the other Wookies might recognize them.

"Small wonder why," Carth said as she tucked the casing into her pack. He handed a datapad over to her. "It's that missing Wookie, Rorworr. Looks like he was helping traffic in slaves."

Surprised, Brinna took the datapad from Carth and saw that it was a slaving contract. She sighed and added it to her pack. "I have a feeling that one's not going to go over well," she said.

As they continued their explorations, Canderous literally stumbled over another interesting piece of evidence. It turned out to be a disembodied droid head and Brinna was able to play back a recording that implicated their shopkeeper friend Eli Gand in the murder of Matton Dasol's crew.

"More good news," Carth said as they destroyed the droid's head.

"We're full of it," Brinna said in a voice of false cheer. "Come on, there's nothing more to scout out here. Let's go see to those poachers and then we'll go pay a visit to Eli and Matton."

Following the directions Jolee had given them, they quickly found the area where the poachers had set up camp. Six machines had been set up, establishing a perimeter and Brinna studied them with interest. Her interest must have been obvious because the leader of the group moved over and addressed her.

He spoke derisively of Jolee and didn't seem the least bit worried about Brinna's presence. She was tempted to smack some sense into the man but she was determined to reach a nonviolent solution, if possible—and not just because Jolee had asked her to do so. The captain, however, didn't seem interested in negotiating and she sidled away from him to zero in on a more likely target. She began to chat up a guard standing at one of the machines while Carth and Canderous kept the captain occupied.

The guard looked bored out of his mind and spoke to her in a sullen tone of voice. Brinna smiled sweetly at him and asked him about the emitter he was guarding. He warmed to her enough to tell her that it was a sonic emitter.

"So this is the only thing keeping the predators at bay?" Brinna asked him in a casual tone. She ran her fingers lightly over the emitter and looked up at the guard through her lashes.

It worked like a charm. He admitted that it was and she coaxed him into giving her the code to shut the machine down. It didn't take all that much convincing; the man was not happy about his assignment and seemed thrilled at the idea of getting out of it. Brinna thanked him sweetly and used the code to shut the emitter down. She gestured to Carth and Canderous to keep the captain talking as she sidled over to one of the other guards.

A few minutes later, the second emitter was shut down. The effect was almost instantaneous. They could hear a low rumble and the forest floor began to shake. Panicked, the captain turned around just in time to catch sight of a truly terrifying beast that was making its way toward them. Brinna readied her sabers but she needn't have bothered. The beast was so intent on the Czerka who'd been holding it back that it didn't even notice her, Carth, and Canderous standing off to the side.

"What was that thing?" Carth asked, staring after the beast's retreating form.

"I don't know and I don't want to," Brinna answered, helping herself to the poachers' abandoned supplies. "Come on; let's take a look at what's past these emitters."

They made little progress down the path before they ran into a huge arch with a glowing purple shield. Brinna placed a tentative hand on it. Nothing happened but the shield felt solid and there was no way she could see of breaking through it.

"This must be what the old man was talking about when he said there were barriers," Canderous commented.

Brinna nodded. "Since he said he can get past them, I'm assuming that means he knows the codes to bypass the shields. Let's go back up and tell Matton about his friend Eli and then we'll come back down and meet up with Jolee."

Gorwooken didn't seem too pleased to see them and he grumbled something about how they'd better not take too long to fulfill the mission Chuundar had assigned them. Brinna's patience was thin but she managed to hang onto the threads of her civility and settled for merely telling Gorwooken to just take them back up to the surface, her tone indicating that she was not eager for further discussion. The Wookie sent a disgusted look her way but did as she requested.

Eli must have scented danger in the air because he looked rather skittish when he saw Brinna and her companions approaching. Of course, the grim expression on her face coupled with Carth's expression of disgust and Canderous's menacing one probably clued him in that something was wrong. He greeted Brinna and, cutting right to the chase, she informed him of the droid she'd found on the forest floor. Eli tried to steer the conversation in another direction but Matton wanted to hear what she had to say, so Brinna told him about the recording the droid had made.

Matton immediately put two and two together and, incredulity and indignation clear in his voice, he tried to question Eli about it but the coward turned tail and ran. Brinna could sense that both Carth and Canderous were itching to go after him but she raised a quelling hand and urged Matton in a gentle voice not to exact any sort of revenge on Eli. She pointed out to him that, at any rate, Eli wouldn't last long in the Shadowlands. Matton considered her words for a moment and then agreed with Brinna. Carth told Matton he didn't know if he could have been as forgiving, which came as no real surprise to Brinna.

Brinna asked Matton what his plans were and he said he'd take over Eli's shop until he earned enough credits to get himself off the planet. He then insisted on giving Brinna a reward and she turned around and spent it all and then some on items from his shop. She wasn't really in need of supplies at the moment but she wanted to do all she could to help Matton out. Matton thanked them again before they left.

"It's getting late," Carth said, looking up at the sky.

"Yeah and I don't fancy being down in the Shadowlands at night," Brinna said, with a slight shudder. "Canderous, can you take this stuff back to the ship while Carth and I go get Jolee? Let Juhani and Bastila know what's going on. We'll be joining you all on the ship in as little time as humanly possible."

"Now I'm the errand boy?" Canderous asked.

Brinna rolled her eyes. "Are you trying to tell me that you'd rather come with us to fetch Jolee? That doesn't seem your style either."

"Good point," Canderous told her gruffly, taking the supplies. "I'll see you back on the ship."

"Let's hurry. I want to get back up here as soon as possible," Brinna told Carth.

"I'm with you there," he agreed.

They didn't speak much as they hurried over to Gorwooken. Brinna could tell that Carth had something on his mind but she decided to let it be for the moment. She sensed that he needed some time to mull things over before he spoke again.

Once on the lift, Brinna and Carth stood as far from the less than pleasant Gorwooken as they could get. Carth remained silent until they were about halfway down.

"Why did you tell Matton not to go after Eli?" he asked her quietly.

She was rather taken aback by the question. This was what he'd been mulling over? But then she thought about his words and realized that he was really asking the question because he was thinking about his own need to exact vengeance against Saul.

"Because I don't think vengeance is justice," she told Carth gently.

He stiffened, as she'd known he would. Still, she was not going to change her answer just to please him. He'd asked her why she had advised Matton to make the choice she had and she was going to tell him the truth.

"And what if there is no possibility that justice will be served?" Carth asked after a minute. His voice was tight.

"Carth, I know how you feel about Saul…"

"You have no idea," he said. The sudden savageness in his voice shocked her and she started. He noticed her reaction and made a visible effort to collect himself, taking a deep breath and running a hand through his hair.

"Maybe I don't," she said tentatively. "I just would like to think that if I were in that situation, I would not want to become what I hated. And that's what I think vengeance does to a person."

"That's easy for you to say," he said, his anger coming forth once again.

His sudden viciousness hurt her feelings, even though she knew that his anger wasn't really directed toward her. She slipped her finger under the leather strap of her necklace and ran it back and forth a couple of times as she tried to decide what to say. There was more to the whole story with Saul and she wanted to ask Carth about it but she didn't want him to shut her out again. She was still debating over what to say when the lift touched the forest floor and Carth scrambled off it as if it were burning. With a sigh, Brinna followed after him.

Their progress along the forest path was swift. What small amount of dim light existed down on the forest floor was rapidly fading as the day waned and they were anxious to get out of there before it disappeared completely. Carth stood a little off to the side as Brinna told Jolee that the poachers had been driven away. She could sense Carth struggling with his emotions once again and she wanted to reach out and touch him, wanted to find the magic words to make everything in his world right. She had to force herself to focus on what Jolee was saying.

The old Jedi was pleased to hear of their success but Brinna found herself staring at him in disbelief as he expressed the view that maybe the poachers had deserved death. She shook her head, wondering if she was hearing things. After all, he'd told her he would prefer her to find a non-violent solution. Amazed, she told him that there'd been no reason to kill the poachers and he said that the environment might beg to differ.

Brinna decided that it was a fruitless argument and she reminded Jolee that he'd agreed to help them if they took care of his poachers. He was quite cheery as he told her he hadn't forgotten their agreement and he asked for a minute to gather his things. Brinna took the opportunity to look over at Carth, who seemed to have composed himself and was looking at Jolee with something like a mixture of amusement and disbelief.

"Come back up to our ship with us," Brinna told Jolee when he was ready to go. "We've got plenty of room in the quarters and it's getting too late to go on today. We'll head deeper into the Shadowlands first thing in the morning."

"Good idea," Jolee said genially. "Got any decent grub on that ship of yours?"