Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, only Original characters.
Escaping from the events of the now destroyed Peragus station, Kreia, the Exile, Atton Rand, and the droids fled to Telos only to find more problems: The Ebon Hawk was stolen. Fighting their way through mercenaries working for corrupt business syndicates and wild beasts, they finally found the location of the Ebon Hawk through the help of Bao-Dur, an old associate of the Exile.
Arriving at the location of a secret Jedi academy, the Exile came face to face with someone else from his past. Atris, a member of the Jedi council and one of the most prominent persons who campaigned for his exile….
"I had not expected to see you again after the day of your sentencing," Atris said with out preamble, walking towards the Exile. "I thought that you had taken the path of an exile, wandering the galaxy. Yet you have returned," she said, stopping a few feet away, "Why?"
"What have you done with my friends?"
"Your concern has been noted; your friends are unharmed. They have been detained for their own safety." Atris stated in a calm tone that somehow still made her seem self-conceited. "However, I do find it…unusual, that you are traveling with others again. I had thought you had cast off such things at the end of the Mandalorian Wars. Or," she looked at him slyly, "are you here to see me?"
"It was not my plan to see you, Atris." The Exile replied in an even tone. "I am just here to get my ship back."
"No matter your reasons for being here, your presence demands an explanation!" Atris thundered in an accusing tone of voice. Her accusing tone sharpened as she continued, "Peragus is destroyed. Then you arrive from a Peragus on the very ship that Revan himself has been using." Atris' tone of voice made it clear that she expected the Exile to answer her.
"First, I am not under your jurisdiction anymore," the Exile began in a firm voice. "Second, the Ebon Hawk was the only ship available. Third, it was the Sith Lord who destroyed Peragus, not me."
"I see. A Sith Lord conveniently destroyed Peragus."
"Doubt me if you want," the Exile retorted, "but I am being just as honest as I was that day when you sentenced me to exile." His voice, though quiet, hardened perceptibly.
Atris's eyes closed and her expression turned wooden. "I remember that day," her voice turned soft. "I remember your words…how they rang with truth. I also remember your defiance," she removed a lightsaber from her belt, activating it as she spoke, "I have kept this as a reminder of that day."
He recognized it immediately as his own, "I did not think that you would want to remember that day."
"I remember it," Atris replied, her voice growing as hard as ice, "so I would not fall to the Dark Side as you have done!"
"You really think that I fell to the Dark side?" The Exile's voice was soft with disbelief. Atris's accusing stare answered his question.
"Atris," his voice hardened, growing an edge, "you are a fool." Her face clouded with anger and, drawing in air, she opened her mouth to rebuke him, but the Exile pressed on heedless of her anger. "You stand there, proclaiming your own self-righteousness and condemning others without so much as a shred of evidence or even bothering to listen to them."
"How dare you…" Atris began, her voice rising in anger.
The Exile spoke over her, "and the rest of the council is just like you! That is what I learned that day eight years ago. That Revan was right about you all."
"You do not kn…"
"You and the council do not know!" the Exile snapped. "There is a time for meditation and a time for action and neither you nor the council can tell the difference!"
"How dare you," Atris's spat, eyes narrowing in anger. "The Mandalorian Wars should have been your grave and Malachor V is where you should have died!"
"Is that how you really feel?" The Exile asked his voice becoming quiet. "Is that what is hidden behind the veneer of self-righteousness?"
"You see shadows where there are none," Atris denied, "and hate where there is none. You are blind, as always," she spat. Pausing and visibly composing herself, she continued, "I grow tired of fighting with you. You want your 'ship', take it. You want your friends, take them. Just, leave," she made pushing motions with her hands, as if by the mere gesture she could throw the Exile out.
Four of Atris's Handmaidens quickly walked forward. "We shall remove him, mistress." Two of the Handmaidens led the Exile away while the other two remained.
"Are you alright, Mistress," the elder of the two Handmaidens asked after the Exile had left.
"He reminded me of something I had forgotten," Atris said, sounding wistful and but still agitated. Her eyes grew distance, gazing across time.
"Forgive me, Mistress, but the Exile," the Handmaiden searched for words, "I have never seen anyone effect you that strongly. Was he someone important to you before?"
"We all have our heroes," Atris answered. "And when they fall we die inside." Her eyes refocused on the Handmaidens.
"The Exile must not be allowed to spread his taint to the galaxy. Both of you go and arrange it so that though he may take off, neither he nor the crew will live."
"Mistress?" The lesser of the Handmaidens asked, surprised.
"Do not question my wisdom," Atris looked pointedly at the lesser Handmaiden. "I see things that you cannot see. Go and do as I have instructed you. But remember," Atris interrupted the Handmaidens began to bow, "the Exile is wise. You must be cunning."
"As you wish, Mistress," the older Handmaiden answered before the lesser Handmaiden could add anything else. Giving a small bow, they left. Atris turned towards her meditation chamber, shutting off the Exile's former lightsaber as she walked.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Do you think they used to have a 'thing' for each other?"
"What?" the Lesser Handmaiden looked at her older half-sister in surprise. "Who are you talking about?"
"Mistress Atris and the Exile," the Older Handmaiden explained. "I think they used to be lovers or something like that." She pressed on as she armed a gas mine and placed it into one of the Ebon Hawk's ventilation ducts. "You saw how angry she was. Nobody has ever made her that angry."
"Sister," the Lesser Handmaiden finally said, "I think you are too addicted to romance novels. Don't worry," she reassured her horrified half-sister, "Mistress Atris does not know. I think she is the only one who does not know." Her half-sister looked far from reassured that Atris did not know about her secret. Such past-times where not strictly forbidden, but Atris did not approve of such things.
"Why are we doing this?" the Lesser Handmaiden asked, changing the subject.
"You remember what Mistress said," she said looking at her half-sister, "The Exile has fallen to the Dark Side."
"But has he?" she looked at the Older Handmaiden, her eyes sincere. "I do not think he has fallen. He may not be a Jedi anymore, but he is not a Sith. But to be fair, I do not feel that Mistress Atris is a Jedi anymore either."
The Older Handmaiden stopped what she was doing and looked at her younger half-sister. "Those are treacherous words," her eyes were as hard as her voice.
The Lesser Handmaiden fought to match her half-sister's gaze, "but am I right?"
The Older Handmaiden was the first to look away. "I don't know," she answered. "Several hours, ago I would have said that you are wrong…but the Exile…I don't understand her anymore. If only…."
A rusty-red colored droid stepped into the passageway, blaster raised. The Lesser Handmaiden reached for her own pistol, voicing a warning that was drowned out by the droid's blaster. The Older Handmaiden was turning to face her foe when the blaster fire cut her down. Though the Lesser Handmaiden was caught in the middle of the passageway, her half-sister's collapsing body was between her and the droid. The falling body could not protect her for more than a moment, but that moment was long enough.
Raising her pistol, she dodged to the side and fired at the droid, striking it in the main chassis. To her amazement, her single shot dropped the droid.
Turning back to her fallen half-sister, she cursed, checking for her fallen sister's heartbeat.
A piercing electronic shriek came from behind her. Twisting around she swung her weapon to bear on what was behind her. She did not see her new assailant as an electric blue stun bolt filled her vision, only to be replaced by the blackness of unconsciousness.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\\/\/\\/\/\/\\/\/\\/\/
The droids of the Ebon Hawk were definitely not having a good day.
HK-47 had started out the day in a semi-powered down state running diagnostics on his systems until T3-M4 would return to aid in his repair.
'Thought: Curse that look-a-like who shot me,' HK-47's processors sped up in anger. 'Looking like me, then daring to shoot me while my self-preservation protocols were busy telling me that it was myself I was looking at.'
HK-47 stood in the small storage compartment that was attached to the main hold, powered down except for his processors and other minor systems running diagnostics. As his diagnostics on his auditory sensors were running, he began to hear voices. Powering up all the way, he split the attention of his processor between what his diagnostics were telling him, and who might be the voices he was hearing.
'Thought: Overall status: 40% normal capabilities. Combat status: 20% normal capabilities. Self-assessment: I will tear that imposter droid apart, actuator by actuator. Assessment of unknown meatbags: Two female meatbags. Confusion: The small one has said nothing about Master's brother adding any additional female meatbags to our crew. Conclusion: They must be intruders.'
HK-47's processor purred. He knew what to do with intruders. 'Thought: I must begin my preparations for an unadulterated slaughter.' With that thought in mind, he grabbed his blaster which had been concealed by the door to the small storage room.
As he started to leave the closet, HK-47 immediately discovered a problem. His right knee joint had frozen. Cursing the imposter with all kinds of droid curses, that would have shocked and offended T3-M4, and proceeded to unlock the joint to the best of his ability.
Unlocking it, HK-47 grabbed his blaster from where it had been tucked away. Clomping as quickly and quietly as he could mange, his joints still seemed to screech in his sensitive auditory enhancers.
'Thought: Those meatbags must be deaf if they cannot hear me coming.'
Pausing at the entrance to the corridor, HK-47 confirmed that the two meatbags were currently in that very hallway, a little ways down and in-between him and the garage. As he assessed the situation, HK-47 became aware that the two meatbags were conversing. 'Thought: How peculiar, two meatbags, intruding and then becoming involved in philosophical discussions. What is the Galaxy coming to?' He listened for several moments. 'Thought: It appears that this discussion will last sometime. Perhaps I can kill them as they leave?' HK-47's thoughts where interrupted by the whirring noise of T3-M4's wheel servo motors.
HK-47's processors sped up to deal with this new development. 'Thought: The little one will be heard by them soon enough. Then I could attack them. No, that is too risky. If the little one were to be damaged, it would take that much longer to regain my full functionality.'
HK-47 paused for a moment, running several scenarios. 'Thought: Yes, the best course of action is to ambush them now.' His processors purred at the thought of slaughtering the intruding meatbags.
Rushing, as fast as his inhibited state would allow, HK-47 stepped into the corridor and raised his blaster. "Exclamation: DIE MEATBAGS!" His synthetic voice could almost be heard over the roar of his blaster. HK-47 watched, pleased as the first meatbag fell under the fire of his blaster. Unfortunately, the other meatbag stood on the far side of the first, thus being protected for several moments from his fire. A problem that his damaged systems had not fully detected.
As HK-47 adjusted his aim for when the body of the first meatbag was out of the way, he was surprised to see the second meatbag already aiming a weapon around her comrades falling body. Her threat level rose in HK-47's database, as well as his appreciation of her skills, and his joy at her impending death.
HK-47's processors sped up to a whole new speed, this time in horror. As he had begun to evade, his right knee froze again; this time with the weight partially removed from his right foot. His heightened perceptions, which came with the faster processor speed, also detected multiple failures in his right arm, apparently triggered by his poor condition and his rapid firing of his blaster.
HK-47 watched in slow motion horror as the blaster bolt slowly slammed into his chest. He felt the same horror as he lost his balance as well. As HK-47 moved slowly through his fall, he began to curse the imposter with every droid curse he knew. When he had exhausted those, he began branching off into the more imaginative of the meatbag curses. HK-47 had no lack of curses as he was well versed in a large number of forms of communication. He was still cursing as he hit the floor and the power surge from jostled, damaged components shut him down. It was just not his day.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
T3-M4 was upset. First he had been hijacked, along with the ship, by some white-haired organics who had taken him to a base in the polar region of Telos. After that, those same organics had tried to hack into his memory banks; little did they realize that he had hacked them. He let out a few beeps of pride; he was after all, the best slicer droid ever made. Luckily, his new master, the brother of his first master according to his files, had somehow talked to the organics and had arranged for T3-M4's freedom. Now, he was on his way back to the ship. He had been ordered to prep it for his master's departure.
Driving up the boarding ramp, T3-M4 took a brief moment to look at the Ebon Hawk, and all the damage it had taken. He whistled in sadness as he surveyed the damage. It did not help that he had all the images from the ships glory days with his first master. Now, it was still space-worthy, but severely damaged.
Continuing into the ship he also saw all the interior damage that the Ebon Hawk had taken. T3-M4 moaned quietly at all the work he had ahead of him. He still had to repair his homicidal companion, HK-47. Revan had been quite clear to him that they needed to work together to aid in this mission.
T3-M4 was wheeling his way towards the main hold when he suddenly heard blaster fire from the rear corridor. Turning, he hurried to the source of the sound and was greeted by an unpleasant sight. T3-M4 saw HK-47 fall to the ground with one of the white-haired organics facing the fallen assassin droid. Shrieking in anger, he deployed his hold-out blaster and fired multiple shots at the assailant. Of course, he kept in mind that his new master, if he was anything like his old master, would want to know what the organics had been doing there. Therefore, blue stun bolts few towards and struck the white-haired organic and dropping her.
Hurrying past the two fallen hijackers, T3-M4 shot the other hijacker just in case, and then checked on HK-47. T3-M4 beeped in frustration when he found that HK-47 was indeed out of commission. Again. He would probably take even more time to fix without someone else helping T3-M4. Deploying his emergency grabbling hook, T3-M4 proceeded to drag HK-47's fallen hulk to the garage, where what was left of the meager spare parts could be found.
Dropping off HK-47 in the Ebon Hawks garage, T3-M4 hurried to the cockpit to finish his first task of the day: prep the ship. Starting the preflight startup sequences, and seeing that everything was functional, he hurried back towards the garage and also to where the hijackers where. That was when he realized he had another problem, T3-M4 did not know how long organics would remained stunned. Beeping in worry, he sped up on his way back to the garage, when he heard a welcoming noise, the sound of his new master's voice.
Turning to the boarding ramp, he saw his master and three organics come in. One was the old woman his first master had left him with. The second was the organic from Peragus station; the third…was new to him. He looked like a Zabrak though. T3-M4 rushed forward beeping and whistling the story of what he had found to his master.
"Not now, T3," His master said, looking tired.
T3-M4 beeped even more urgently. His master had to know about the hijackers!
"Just," his master waved him away, "not now." He beeped in irritation as everyone moved into the main hold, completely missing the corridor where the hijackers were. Beeping in frustration he headed back to the where the hijackers were lying.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Atton flew the Ebon Hawk out of the hanger and towards open space. "How are you holding up?" he asked the Exile.
"I'm tired."
"What happened back there?"
"I don't want to talk about it right now," the Exile replied. His expression changed, "Did you just hear something? Something…like a stun blast."
"It is an older ship, it will make noises every now and then," Atton answered. "Now don't change the topic."
"Just like you, I will talk when I am ready."
"Ouch," Atton replied with mock pain. "I did not think you knew me that well."
"I know you well enough to know that." The Exile cocked his head again as if listening to something. "Did you hear that just now? It was that noise again."
Author's Note:
Well, I am announcing that updates will be a little slower than they were in my previous story as I now have a full time job. I will continue, have no fears.
So, this chapter is a little longer than I normally write, hope you all do not mind. I also hope you enjoyed the humor I tried to put in the story. As for a little peek into the future, there will be two handmaidens on the Ebon Hawk, not one. I also plan to eventually add a romance between Briana the Handmaiden and the Exile, but we shall see where the story takes us.
I would like to hear you opinions and thoughts on where you think these change of events will take the story. Or even changes you would like to see. I will weigh all suggestions fairly, otherwise I would not ask for them. Who knows, maybe you will see your idea happen. Ultimately, I will follow where the story (this story, not the canon) takes me. Otherwise I would break the characters, and the story.
I would also ask forgiveness for any errors that slips through my only beta reader. I am now bi-lingual and it is a lot harder to remember English than it was two years ago.