Chapter Thirty-Five: The Chip

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Devnos looked at the plain, metal chalice and wondered.

Were they going to try the special water again? Was that what this was all about? Didn't they realize that it hadn't worked to the extent they wanted it to, and that it never would? Especially now that Devnos knew about it, and how to fight it, begin to counteract it, immediately.

He had thought he was up against an unbeatable duo, who could only be taken down by a hero. But if they were just going to keep playing the old tricks…why, Devnos could beat them. It wasn't nearly so difficult as he had imagined.

"Drink it all up," Gaffil ordered, grabbing the back of Devnos' neck. His thick ring dug into Devnos' skin.

Devnos studied the liquid, then downed it in a gulp. Grimacing at the taste, he moved to wipe his mouth with his sleeve, but then stopped.

That hadn't been Rafintair and Gaffil's "magic" water; it had been far too bitter.

Larifx, what had he just taken? He twisted, trying to see Gaffil, to figure out what was going on.

Gaffil's eyes gleamed with malice.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"What do you mean, he's got a chip in his head?" Sanar demanded, hands resting insolently on her hips as she glared up at the scientists.

The leader, a humanoid with only tufts of green hair remaining on his head, shuffled nervously, and pointed at an X-ray. "Do you see this solid block, resting near his brain? It is a micro-chip, specially designed. I've never seen anything like it… That he survived the surgery of insertion is, in itself, quite unusual," Tufty-Hair added.

Sanar blinked. "Figures that our planet's only advancement would be in evil brain surgery," she muttered.

Jaina raised an eyebrow in her "sister's" direction. "Na'Lein'yhpaon is probably up and about with every world – or it would be, if Rafintair didn't ration everything, kill the geniuses, and keep the public in the dark…"

The slave shrugged. "True enough." She narrowed her eyes at the scientists. "Why have you stopped talking? I still don't know what's going on!"

"Er, yes, dreadfully sorry," the leader stammered. "Uh – while we cannot yet know what the micro-chip is meant to do, we believe it is the cause for Mr. Klis'…unusual brainwaves."

"Can you get rid of it?" Jaina demanded, leaning in to get a closer look at the X-rays.

"Get rid of it?" one of the other scientists squeaked. "But – but, Miss Solo – such a surgery… He could have barely survived the implant!"

Crossing her arms over her chest, Sanar glowered at the men. "Can…you…do it?"

Tufty-Hair took over again. "Well, theoretically…yes… But, Miss Klis, Miss Solo – the chances of the surgery going wrong are very high."

"How high?" Jaina demanded.

"Seventy-nine percent," the third scientist answered. "Because of the micro-chip's proximity to Mr. Klis' brain, the retrieval procedure… There are so many potential, dangerous consequences – both short- and long-term. I would not advise this surgery."

Jaina could see Sanar's Adam's apple bob as she swallowed. "But…if we decided to take the chance…you have the material and expertise to do this surgery, right?" the older woman asked, painstakingly careful.

Tufty-Hair looked like he didn't even want to reply, but, at Jaina's glare, he did. "If you decided to risk it…yes. We could."

Seeing that Sanar had no intention of speaking further, Jaina thanked the men for their time and set up another meeting, later, for further discussion. It was only after she and Sanar had left the med-centre that Jaina tried to draw her companion out of her silence.

"Do you want to go see Devnos again?"

Sanar didn't even dignify that question with a response.

"Okay," Jaina said after a beat. "I'll talk to the security."

-x-x-x-x-x-

"You back again?" Devnos asked neutrally when Sanar stepped up to the bars of his detention cell. He had been moved out of the interrogation quarter when Kip had proved unreachable.

Sanar leaned against the metal bars that separated them, but watching him carefully provided little insight to his frame of mind. If anything, Devnos looked more guarded than ever, and she could barely read anything from his expression. She considered probing him with the Force, but quickly rejected the idea. Even with her connection to the Force back, she had little ability with the conventional uses of the energy source.

"The scientists finished looking at your brain," she began, dropping her eyes to the floor for a second before she raised them once more.

"Really." Devnos lay back on his thin bed, placing his threaded hands behind his head as a sort of pillow. For all the galaxy, he looked disinterested.

Sanar knew him better than that. Or she had, once, and she chose to believe that she still did. That he hadn't changed as completely as it appeared.

"Yeah. Really." She fell into silence for several minutes, lost in her thoughts. When she spoke again, her voice was foggy, almost distant. "There's a micro-chip sitting right next to your brain, and they think it's…affecting parts of you, somehow. Like, maybe your behaviour."

Devnos sat up, wrapped his arms around his knees, and stared at her intensely. "Sounds pretty crazy," he remarked flatly.

"Yeah, well, so does bacta." She lightly kicked one of the metal bars. "I asked about getting the chip out. Of your head, I mean."

Devnos stood and began to pace furiously. Sanar thought his hands might be shaking.

"Thing is," she continued, "there's a big chance it could go wrong – eighty percent likelihood. That's including long-term and immediate effects, by the way. Obviously, it's pretty dangerous. At worst, you could die. But at best…I don't know." She studied him. "I guess only you know what the best case scenario is."

Devnos' entire body was shaking, and he had to sit back on his bed to avoid falling over and convulsing on the floor. His hands gripped the thin bed until his knuckles were white, and the veins in his hands and fingers stood out visibly.

"Do you want me to tell the doctors to go through with it anyway?" Sanar asked, very quietly, her hands curling around the metal bars.

Strain screamed throughout Devnos' body and mind, so loud that Sanar stepped back, flinching. But he didn't speak.

She realized, then, that he was forcing himself to stay quiet. Which could only mean one thing.

Okay, then. "I'll tell them," she whispered. "And I'll be back to tell you when…when the surgery is."

Before Devnos could change his mind, Sanar turned and ran out of the detention area.

In his cell, Devnos shuddered heavily and collapsed. Unconscious.

He didn't wake up for seven hours.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Miko got all the way to the Palace ship bay's entrance before he realized that he didn't have any way of getting off the planet. His own private shuttle was in one of Kuat's moon's many craters, where Krista and Zekk had picked him up. Public transport was out of the question as well, and not only because flying out of Hapes, the strongest Imperial resister in the galaxy, was suicide. What kind of double agent would he be if he was seen on a public shuttle? His cover would be blown in all of three seconds. There weren't that many fully trained Dark Jedi, after all.

The last person he expected to come to his rescue, however, was Zekk, who bumped into him in the hall.

"Miko," the dark-haired man said in surprise, pushing back his necessary hood. The former Sith apprentice looked around, checking for an audience. Finding none, he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you," he blustered. "Jaina's not going to like it if you get killed and/or tortured because you decided to wander around the Palace and its surrounding areas." Miko snorted, then shook his head. "And she'd kill me if she found out that I let you. Head back to the Solo quarters, Zekk, before someone recognizes you."

Zekk brushed off Miko's command impatiently. "I need to move the Second Chance, and officially rent part of the bay. We kind of landed in a hurry, and I think we're blocking all of four other space crafts."

"You're going to get yourself killed," Miko despaired. "Does Jaina know what you're doing?"

"She's talking to medical research people." Zekk waved a hand dismissively. "And she just has to check if she wants to know."

Miko raised an eyebrow, but gave up. "I'm figuring out how to get off-planet. Neither private nor transport are an option, since my ship isn't here, and public ships…"

"Why don't you borrow Krista's ship? She can get off-world a lot more easily than you."

Miko winced. "Krista is not an option. I'm going cold turkey for a while."

Zekk blinked as Miko's explanation sunk in. "You're going cold turkey on a relationship? Are you insane?"

"No, I'm not, Mr. I-have-two-personalities," Miko retorted irritably. "I just… I need to leave before I cheat myself."

Zekk raised his hood again as he spotted a Mon Calamari private striding down the hall toward them. "Oh."

Snarling at his feet, Miko waited until the private had disappeared around the corner before he spoke again. "The whole confession just sort of…spilled all over the place. Very messy."

"It can't have gone worse than mine," Zekk offered helpfully. "Onyx let me out for a few hours to heal Jaina, and she ended up figuring it out. I had quite the time trying to convince her that a romantic relationship wasn't going to happen."

"And how long did that last?" Miko asked sceptically.

Zekk smirked, but his cheeks were red. "About twenty minutes."

Miko rolled his eyes. "Go figure. May I ask why you even tried?"

"Because," Zekk said simply. "I love her too much to hurt her, but Onyx doesn't always feel the same. Because I don't deserve her."

"If everyone got what they deserved," Miko said, "half the galaxy would be roasting, eternally, in an ocean of fire. Everyone has something to atone for."

Zekk shot the other man a peculiar, slightly suspicious look. "For a former," and he stressed the word, "Dark Jedi, you have a very unclouded view of the galaxy."

The red-haired man met Zekk's gaze unflinchingly. "My turning wasn't as unprecedented as yours, nor as dramatic. I've had more time than you to recover, and analyze everything until I'm blue in the face. But it always stays with me, just like it will with you."

Zekk seemed placated by this. "Is that why you and Krista…?"

"No. Well," Miko allowed, "maybe that's part of it. I grew up fast; she's always had some padding."

Zekk considered his next words carefully. "Krista and I were orphaned at about the same age, Miko, and…that sort of thing…it's Hell. Kris was nine when her parents were killed; maybe she puts on a bright front, but part of her…it's impossible for her to forget that."

"After nine years, though – "

"Imagine losing the two people who are supposed to always be there, right when you've reached the very beginning of adolescence. Krista has her brothers, sure, but… If she has issues with trusting people to stay, you have to understand it."

"You recovered," Miko argued, but Zekk could see that he had taken the words to heart.

"I reacted differently than Krista, that's all, and a lot more violently. I festered until I blew up as Onyx."

Miko sighed, but allowed Zekk his point. "That doesn't make it any easier."

"Don't tell me you seriously expected roses and true-forever love?" Zekk laughed out loud. "I never took you for naïve, Reglia."

"I don't suppose you have any advice?" Despite his display of backbone earlier, Miko looked downright pathetic now.

"Miko." Zekk rolled his eyes. "I've loved just one woman in my entire life, and I was lucky enough to fall for an incredible person who never gave up on me although she should have. I'm hardly the one to ask about making difficult relationships work; why don't you talk to Jaina?"

"I did."

"What did she say?"

"She told me to tell Krista."

"Well, then," Zekk said, as if that settled it. "Don't worry about it. Jaina knows what she's talking about. Usually."

Miko raised a wry eyebrow. "Someday, she's going to come crashing down from that pedestal of yours…"

"That's me the boyfriend talking," Zekk retorted, grinning. "If I didn't say it, I'd have problems. But being best friends has its advantages – I know all her secrets."

Miko smiled faintly, then looked down the hallway, back to the ship's bay. "Well, I'd best be looking for transportation."

"Here." Zekk tossed him something. "Take the Second Chance to Kuat's moon. I'll pick it up later."

Miko stared down at the access card. "You sure? What if something happens? I mean, if someone leaked my betrayal, your ship is scrap. I'm not really a pilot."

"It's you who should be worried; Brakiss will have an eye out for the Chance. Besides, it's not like I'm giving it to you. Jaina would kill me if I just gave up our ship. You're just using it to get to one place."

"Well…thanks."

"It's just docked on the west end, at the front. You shouldn't have any problem getting in; the landing master will be so relieved to get rid of the Chance, he'd hand her over to a dog."

"That just makes me feel all superior inside."

Zekk rolled his eyes. "Just so long as you don't get cocky and blow up my ship."

"Your ship? Please. You're so whipped, it's Jaina's, not yours."

"Your point?" Zekk replied, raising an eyebrow.

Miko shook his head. "See you later, Zekk."

"Hang in there, Reglia."

"Will do." And he set off, away from Krista.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Beyond the River, Kyp had found the one for whom he was searching.

Stepping forward, he greeted the man, and was surprised to find himself pulled into a familiar hug. "You made it, my friend!" the man exclaimed with obvious relief. "I had almost given up on you."

Kyp managed a smile, despite his astonishment. Why would this man, of all people, greet him in such a friendly way? No matter their connected paths, or what Kyp was to be… It was bizarre.

And it made him feel guiltier than ever.

"I'm afraid I was only recently let in on the…changes that are coming," Kyp admitted. "I'm sorry it took so long."

"Never mind; what's important is that you did make it, and with even a little time to spare. This is very good."

Kyp noticed an object hanging at the other man's belt. "Is that…?"

The other's hand went to the hilt protectively. "Indeed it is. But come. Before we do anything else, we must talk."

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Please R&R :)

.Tjz