Consciousness returned to Brinna in a sudden jolt and for one panicky instant, she thought she was still in the academy on Korriban. She sat bolt upright and would have leapt from the bunk if a familiar voice hadn't stopped her.

"Whoa, easy there. You're not on Korriban anymore," Jolee said.

"Thank the Force for that," Brinna said, feeling the tension drain out of her body. The adrenaline that had rushed through her system made her feel slightly queasy and she took a few breaths to steady herself. "Where are we?"

"On Dantooine," Jolee said, moving in to check her pulse.

Wearily, Brinna relented, though she wished he wouldn't fuss over her. She knew he could sense her thoughts because he gave her a stern look and she sighed. "What happened? All I remember is stepping back on the Hawk and then passing out. I didn't think I was that badly injured."

"You weren't, although you're going to have a nice scar on your leg. You collapsed because you were exhausted, mentally and physically."

Brinna could hear the undertone in his words but she really didn't feel like discussing Korriban. Instead, she decided to turn her attention to her own physical condition. Someone had removed her tattered Jedi robes and dressed her in the pants and sleeveless shirt she normally wore to bed. She rolled her right pant leg up and pursed her lips as she examined the jagged, livid pink skin on the back of it. Jolee was right; she was going to have a scar, although it certainly wasn't going to be "nice".

"Please tell me Canderous didn't change my clothes for me," Brinna joked, attempting to distract Jolee. She avoided his eyes as she pushed her pant leg down but she could feel his ponderous gaze on her all the same.

"No, he didn't. Bastila and Mission did. And you can't avoid thinking about Korriban forever," he told her.

"I know, but I can avoid it for a while at least. Why don't you help me by telling me why you decided to come with me?" she asked, abruptly changing the subject. She didn't ask the question simply to divert him, she truly wanted to know. He'd given her nothing but flippant answers but she suspected that he had his reasons and she wanted to know what they were. Sometimes she caught Jolee looking at her or gently probing into her mind via the Force and something just felt…off. Brinna believed that Jolee liked her but sometimes she felt like he was observing her as if she was some sort of unusual specimen and she wanted to know why.

Her question provoked Jolee to launch into one of his long-winded stories. She couldn't help but smile as she relented and listened to him ramble. He was a crafty old man. He pretended a tendency toward senility but Brinna was positive that it was all an act. Jolee was nothing if not shrewd and she had quickly learned that his rambling stories often held key bits of information, though she had yet to really make anything of those bits. It was as if he was trying to tell her something, however indirectly. She supposed she could come right out and ask him what he was getting at but she knew full well that he was not going to give her a straight answer. Either she would have to put his jigsaw clues together or she'd have to be content with not knowing.

"Your destiny is…rather unclear," Jolee was saying and Brinna found herself attending to his words more closely. There was a contemplative expression on his face but Brinna could see a flicker of something like wariness in his eyes and she found herself taken aback. "In fact, everything about you that I can see is odd. Slightly off, as if my eyes are trying to trick me. Something…something is very dark about you."

It was impossible to suppress the slight shiver that ran up her spine. Jolee's words made her feel a sense of panic and dread that she hadn't felt in some time. As much as she had always tried to deny her own darkness, Korriban had given her several unpleasant reminders.

"Not exactly the most consoling words I've ever heard," Brinna said when he had finished his story, lamely trying to make light of the situation.

Jolee shrugged. "It's the truth, however uncomfortable it makes you," he told her bluntly.

She sighed deeply. "Korriban was… I don't really know how to explain it. I guess it was just a reminder of what I could turn out to be, what could happen to me if I'm not always on my guard. It scared me," she said frankly.

"Fighting the dark side is never an easy battle," Jolee told her. "Korriban was a real test for you, but you passed. Just make sure you remember it every chance you get. Remember how you felt on that planet because you can't afford not to."

"I know," she said, looking down at her hands. Thoughts swirled around in her head, images of the violence and horror she'd experienced on Korriban and she found herself wincing. "The dark side… I don't ever want to succumb to it. I don't ever want to become what I saw on Korriban."

"So don't be a mindless bantha. Don't succumb to it. After all, I'd hate to have to make a Sith sandwich out of you," Jolee said in a strangely cheerful voice, as if she could simply snap her fingers and make the temptations of the dark side go away. She gaped up at him and he returned the gaze with a pleasant smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd better go let that pilot of yours know that you're awake before he wears a hole in the floor with all his pacing."

Startled, Brinna stammered at him, "W-what do you mean?"

"Ah, the foolishness of youth. You think you have all the time you want and that's your worst problem," Jolee said, shaking his head with a condescending smile. "Carth was your most frequent visitor, you know."

Comprehension dawned on Brinna and she started at Jolee with blatant amazement. "Wait a minute…"

Jolee's smile grew wider. "Keeping Bastila distracted was a chore, I'll tell you that much. I don't think I've ever meditated so much in my life. I even let her talk me into a meeting with the Council. You'd better appreciate the lengths I went to."

"Are you...are you trying to play matchmaker or something?" Brinna asked, feeling her cheeks begin to blaze.

The other Jedi openly laughed at her. "I knew you never listen to anything I say. If you did, you'd know that the Council and I don't always see eye-to-eye. Anyway, I'm just trying to get it into your thick skulls that you two may just be good for each other."

"But I can't…it won't…," Brinna stuttered, confused. She didn't know whether to be furious or grateful for Jolee's interference.

"Bah! Stop gaping stupidly at me like a tach and save your protests," Jolee said. "My part is done. I leave it to you to work out the details."

Before she could say anything more, he turned and left the sick bay and she could do nothing more than stare open-mouthed after him. She wasn't alone for long, however, as no more than a few seconds after Jolee left, Mission ran into the bay and threw herself at Brinna.

"Ooof," Brinna protested as Mission bowled her over.

"Don't ever scare me like that again," Mission commanded, eyes blazing as she sat back and pinned Brinna with her gaze.

"But, Mission, I was just exhausted. Jolee told me that my wounds weren't all that severe…"

"No," Mission said, cutting her off. "I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the whole time you were on Korriban. We didn't hear anything from you guys and Jolee, Bastila, and Juhani wouldn't say anything to me but I could tell from their expressions that things were bad."

Brinna's first instinct was to tell Mission placating lies but she could see from the look on the Twi'lek's face that Mission meant business. Besides, Mission was young but she was no baby. She had proven herself to be a frighteningly mature young woman and Brinna felt that she owed it to Mission to treat her like an adult. Under the worry and anger, Brinna could see the fear in Mission's eyes and it upset her to think that Mission had been stricken with worry while Jolee, Bastila, and Juhani, with their Force senses, had wandered around looking concerned but not sharing anything with Mission. Brinna could only imagine how scary and frustrating that might have been for the Twi'lek teen, with no one to comfort her but Zaalbar, who wouldn't know any more than she about what was happening.

"Well, it was bad," Brinna said carefully. She would be truthful with Mission but there was no reason for her to share all the gory details. "The dark side was just so strong and…tempting. It was a constant battle and it wore me out."

Mission nodded tersely. "I was worried about you."

"I'm okay," Brinna said, hugging Mission in return. "I really wish we could have come back to the ship every night but I just thought that might look too strange. I was supposed to be a student at the academy so I tried my best to act like one."

"I heard," Mission said. A mischievous expression came over her face. "I also heard that you told the Sith Masters that Carth and Canderous were your slaves."

Brinna grinned in response. "Yeah, I did."

"I bet Canderous just loved that," Mission told her, her smile widening.

"He probably had to go do some sort of barbaric Mandalorian cleansing ritual when we landed here just to get rid of the taint of having pretended to be subservient to me," Brinna joked.

Mission laughed. "It probably didn't help that he lost fifty credits to me at Pazaak the first day we were here."

"That's my girl," Brinna said. Then she frowned as Mission's words sank in. "The first day? How long have we been here?"
"Today's the third day," Mission told her.

"I slept for two days?" Brinna asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Mission said seriously, studying Brinna's face.

"Nothing like reinforcing Bastila's opinion of me as lazy," Brinna said wryly.

"She doesn't think you're lazy," Mission said, surprising Brinna. "She was worried about you. I've never seen her like that before. I didn't even think she could get like that."

"Wow," Brinna said, not knowing what else to say. She was too busy trying to process the information Mission had just given her.

"Everyone's been worried about you," Mission continued. "Even Canderous. I think Jolee was going to Force Trip him if he asked Jolee one more question about the methods he was using to heal you."

The image of Jolee and Canderous butting heads made Brinna smile in spite of herself. "The more I try to keep you all from worrying, the more you all end up having to worry," she sighed.

"Don't worry, we're getting used to it," Mission teased her. "And, anyway, Canderous has been in a bad mood ever since we landed here. I guess he ran into some Mandalorian he knew and the guy challenged him to a duel on the Dune Sea on Tatooine."

Brinna frowned deeply. "What? Why?"

"I don't know. He's not exactly offering a lot of detail about the situation," Mission told her.

"What's with Tatooine?" Brinna asked. "First we find out Bastila's mother's there and now this."

"And that's not all," Mission said, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. She dropped her gaze from Brinna and began to pluck at the blanket sitting heaped on the bunk.

"Mission? Is everything okay?" Brinna asked, concerned.

"Oh, yeah. I just ran into the floozy that took off from Taris with Griff and she claims he's working for Czerka on Tatooine," she said in a falsely casual tone.

Brinna blinked rapidly a few times, trying to make sense of the overwhelming amount of information she'd been given in such a short time. "Do you want to look for him?" she asked gently.

"I probably should," Mission said, still employing the false casual tone. "After all, he's still my brother, right? It wasn't his fault that cantina rat convinced him to run off and leave me behind. Besides, he always said he'd come back for me one day, when he'd made some money. He didn't want to leave me behind but it was for the best."

Keeping her own opinions about Griff to herself was hard, but Brinna somehow managed it. He had to be a very special sort of sleaze to take off and leave his kid sister behind to fend for herself on a cesspool planet like Taris but Mission had been through enough and Brinna would not compound it by insulting the brother about whom Mission clearly had conflicting feelings. "We'll find him," she promised.

"Thank you for helping me again," Mission told her.

"Anytime, Mission, anytime."

"You up for more visitors?" a voice from the doorway asked.

Brinna and Mission looked up to see Carth standing there, smiling at Brinna. Out of the corner of her eye, Brinna saw Mission grin mischievously.

"Oh, you know what? I forgot that I'm supposed to meet Big Z in the shop. I've finally convinced him to brush those choppers of his so I need to go help him pick out a toothbrush," Mission said, bouncing up from her seat on Brinna's bunk and breezing past Carth.

It's a conspiracy, Brinna thought ruefully, feeling suddenly self-conscious in Carth's presence. She thought she might like to shake some sense into both Jolee and Mission. While she was done denying her own attraction to Carth, she certainly couldn't act on it, even if Carth was interested—and that was a whole separate can of worms that she wasn't even going to open. She already had enough to worry about.

"How are you feeling?" Carth asked her.

"A lot better, thanks," she responded. All at once, the awkwardness she felt was forgotten in favor of more pressing issues. "Dustil! Carth, he wasn't in the academy when…"

"No, he wasn't," Carth said, interrupting her gently. "Don't worry. He left shortly after Master Uthar and Yuthura took you to the Tomb of Naga Sadow."

"Did you get a chance to speak to him again?" Brinna asked, broaching the delicate topic as carefully as she could.

"No, but we really couldn't, even if he'd wanted to. It would have looked funny for him to be talking to your supposed slave."

"I guess you're right," Brinna said, feeling disappointed for him. "I'm glad he made it out okay, though. If he'd still been in the academy when the fighting started…"

"Hey," Carth said, moving over and sitting down next to her on the bunk. He took her hand and squeezed it gently. "That wasn't your fault. That's the nature of the Sith, to try to seize power when one of their Masters falls."
"I know," Brinna said. "I guess…well, I guess I never really understood your experiences with the Sith until now. I've been lucky enough to not really have had to deal with them until recently. What I saw on Korriban…those are things I won't soon forget."
"I know," he said, moving his other hand so that her own was clasped between both of his.

The memory of her trials in the tomb came back to her with sudden vividness and she closed her eyes, grateful for Carth's comforting presence beside her. Her hand felt warm and safe in his and she found herself fervently hoping that he wasn't planning on letting it go anytime soon.

"What was it like in that tomb?" he asked her quietly.

She shuddered and kept her eyes closed, remembering. "Well, between the wraids, the terentateks, the mines, the traps, killing Uthar, and having to fight Yuthura, I'd have to say that it wasn't exactly the highlight of my life."

"Terentateks? As in more than one?" he asked, alarm evident in his voice.

Brinna opened her eyes and smiled grimly at him. "As in two."

"That you made it out of there in one piece…well, it's nothing short of amazing," he said. He was holding onto her hand very tightly, as if he was afraid she might disappear if he let go. "You're just so…strong. I really don't know what to say other than I'm sorry you had to go through that alone. If I could have been there to help you, I would have been."

"I know, Carth," she said. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."

She surprised herself by leaning over and pressing a brief kiss to his cheek. His grip on her hand tightened even more and then, suddenly, he was pressing a kiss of his own to her cheek, his lips lingering longer than hers had.

"Thank you again for all you did to help me with Dustil," he said softly. His face was very, very close to hers and Brinna found herself staring at him, dazed.

"You're welcome," she managed to reply. They sat staring at one another, their faces centimeters apart, for a moment. Brinna's heart had just begun to pound in anticipation when he pulled away from her and gently released her hand. She wanted to scream in frustration.

"I have good news for you," he told her.

"You do?" she asked, trying her best to force her mind away from thoughts of his kissing her cheek.

"Yuthura Ban is here," he said.

"What?" she asked, her full attention now focused on his words. Her eyes widened. "She's here?"

Carth smiled. "Yes and I know she'd like to talk to you."

Brinna jumped up from the bunk, hastily pushing her hair out of her face. "I can't believe she made it! Thank you for telling me, Carth. I can't tell you how glad I am to know that some good came out of that whole situation," she prattled at him as she bent over to retrieve her clothes from her footlocker. When she stood back up, she could have sworn that she had caught him eyeing her, but that may have just been a byproduct of her wishful thinking.

"I'll clear out so you can get dressed," he told her, standing up from the bunk. He paused for a second in the doorway. "She's at the far end of the outer courtyard. I'm really glad that you're all right."

He disappeared before she could reply and her mind wandered as she dressed. It did a lot of wandering to the kiss, even though she tried her best to divert it in other directions. She sighed aloud as she pulled her hair back and secured it with a band.

I'm acting like one of those witless heroines from those stupid holovid romances, she told herself. She could almost hear Bastila berating her.

The Ebon Hawk was deserted when she exited the sick bay, so she wasted no time in going out to the outer courtyard to see Yuthura. Brinna had seen something in Yuthura, something special, and she had known that Yuthura's fall to the dark side had to have been a terrible loss for the Jedi. The intelligent, articulate Twi'lek held so much promise that Brinna couldn't stand to see it wasted on the greed and depravity of the Sith and she had high hopes that things would work out very well for Yuthura now that she had returned to the Jedi.

Yuthura was pleased to see Brinna and the two women talked for some time about Yuthura's experiences with the Sith and her plans for the future. Yuthura admitted that the dark side continued to tempt her and that she found it difficult at times not to give in to her anger and exercise her power, as the Sith Code had taught. However, she also told Brinna that she felt freer than she ever had. Brinna could sense the change in her friend and was glad for it.

Their conversation turned to the slavers that Yuthura had once wanted to fight and Brinna was disturbed to hear that the Twi'lek's time with the Sith had caused her to forget about her desire to do something about the injustices of slavery.

You think you control it, Brinna mused. But, really, the dark side controls you.

Brinna had felt its pull, had fought against the desire to succumb to the temptation to give herself over to it. The dark side had whispered in her mind, had told her that if she only learned to become in touch with her darker side, she would have unimaginable power, power enough to stop Malak. Now, after having met Yuthura, Brinna could see just how insidious the dark side was. Yuthura had given herself over to it, impatient with what she had seen as the Jedi's failure to act quickly enough on the issue of slavery but once she had succumbed, her noble goals had faded in favor of her attempt to gain power. They would have been lost altogether, had she not managed to break free of the dark side. Brinna never wanted that to happen to her. She never wanted to lose sight of the people and things that were important to her. The dark side wanted to consume her, not help her. She would remember that. She had only to look at Yuthura and Juhani to find all the proof she needed of it.

"Why don't you come with me?" Brinna asked Yuthura. "I could use you at my side."

"That's…very tempting. But I'm not ready to leave here, yet. And I don't belong on the path you have to take…I told you that on Korriban. It's still true. But…perhaps you could come back, afterwards. I could certainly use a friend, then," Yuthura suggested.

Though disappointed, Brinna was not surprised that Yuthura had turned her down. The truth was, in her heart of hearts, she knew that Yuthura was making the right decision. The Twi'lek needed the serenity of Dantooine and the presence of her old master to help her to reclaim the parts of herself she had lost to the dark side. Brinna would have really liked to get to know Yuthura better but the Twi'lek was not ready to face the kind of darkness that Brinna continued to face. For now, Yuthura's place was at the enclave.

"I'd be glad to be your friend, Yuthura," Brinna said.

"That's good. I look forward to that time. Perhaps we can travel together, then."

"I've got to go," Brinna said regretfully. Dusk had begun to settle over the grasslands of Dantooine and Brinna knew that she was losing precious time. Every day that passed was a day that brought Malak closer to his goals. They would have to leave for Tatooine first thing in the morning and there were things to be done before their departure.

"Then may the Force be with you, my friend. I hope we will see each other again."

The two women clasped hands before Brinna left. She walked slowly toward the entrance of the enclave but, in spite of voice in her head telling her she had no time to fool around, the gentle breezes and warmth of the evening air slowed her steps. The moment felt precious to her and she felt an inexplicable sadness as she looked out over the waving grasses. The courtyard was becoming deserted as the inhabitants of the enclave retired inside its walls and the residents of Dantooine returned to their homes. Brinna seated herself on one of the low walls, facing out toward the grasslands, and she closed her eyes and let the wind play over her skin.

"I thought I'd find you here," a voice just behind her said.