Lana had always enjoyed meditating, even before she was sent to Korriban. It gave her clarity, a sense of direction. It helped her see the necessary path, even if it was one she did not wish to walk willingly.
It was on Korriban she learned how to master her connection to the Force through the clarity she received from meditating. It was this ability that allowed her to overcome obstacles impeding her from her goals. While her peers tried to ingratiate themselves to the various Lords and Darths in pursuit of meaningless titles and temporary power, she sought knowledge realizing true power lay there.
It was her drive in this pursuit that caught the attention of Darth Arkous. In hindsight, it was easy to see how she was the ideal candidate for the Revanites: no lust for public glory, a desire for order, and the strong affinity with the Force all made for a very attractive potential recruit. Had he approached her before sending forces to Tython she wasn't sure she would have been able to turn down his offer.
However, another destiny lay in store for her. A tug in the Force started lead her away from him, and he sensed her suspicions. After the attacks on Tython and Korriban, Lana traced leads to Manaan to try and see what Arkous was plotting.
When she landed, she was surprised when an SIS agent was waiting for her in the spaceport. She had been distracted after getting an update from Cipher 9 who was working closely with an associate, a Chiss bounty hunter. Darth Nox and Darth Imperious were covertly searching for leads using the cleanup efforts on Korriban for cover. Neither group had come up with any new information.
Theron surprised her when she had disembarked, already knowing she was Darth Arkous's apprentice and her roll in the attack on Tython. He said he knew why she was on Manaan and took a risk telling her his involvement in Korriban and what he knew. They worked together, digging for information and aided his team - a Jedi knight and special forces trooper- through the underwater lab. The submersible she hacked was needed after Arkous and Darrok launched all emergency pods, but it took time to unlock the hanger doors.
"You're a Sith," the Jedi accused when she finally revealed herself on the holo call.
"Yes, but not your enemy. Not today."
"I don't care if she is Sith," a female voice from outside the range of the camera said, "I'm not dying here when I got assholes to find who need a bullet in the head."
"I do so love a pragmatic mind," Lana replied drily, tapping frantically at her console. As she rescued Theron's people she could sense her destiny was tied closely with at least one of them, but worked to push the feeling away to concentrate.
"I think it just might put everyone at ease if you ditched the lightsaber," Theron said, eyeing the weapon pointedly as the group finally returned.
"Is that really necessary," the Sith asked, clearly amused. "Surely I'm not as intimidating as you imply?"
"You can understand our concern, I'm sure," said the woman at the head of the group. Lana recognized her, both from the holo call and from intelligence Darth Arkous had received on her over the years. Jedi Master Brooke Alde, fourth cousin to Count Alde, Scion of House Alde, as well as a distant relation to Duke Organa. She had single handedly defeated Darth Angral and led a campaign that eventually silenced the Voice of the Emperor, whom she incorrectly assumed to be the Emperor himself.
Lana had been impressed by what she'd seen of Master Alde. Her prowess with her lightsabers made her formidable on the battlefield, but that was not her only strength. Lana had seen videos of more than one official swayed by her arresting green eyes that stood out against pale skin and a charming smile. Her looks caused her to stand out in any crowed, with her soft features and long, nearly white blond hair.
She was accompanied by Jedi Knight Kira Carson, a former Child of the Emperor and in her own right not someone to be underestimated, although potentially more susceptible to having her emotions manipulated.
The Jedi Master was more than just a fighter, however, as her diplomatic response to Lana's statement showed signs of her noble upbringing. She could feel the Jedi probing her through the Force trying to determine the Sith's true intentions. For the sake of the tentative truce Lana allowed her to see.
"As I'm sure you can understand mine," Lana replied firmly. "I've come to help, and I can hardly do that without my weapon of choice."
"Lana Benkio: Dedicated Imperial citizen and fully armed Sith lord," Theron Shan introduced, obviously still uneasy.
"But you don't need to worry about that last part," she assured with a small smile to put them at ease as she dismissed his statements with a hand wave. Lana nodded at the Jedi and said, "I already know who you are Master Alde, Jedi Carson." She saw surprise in the Jedi's eyes, and explained. "Your activities over recent years have garnered the attention of many in the Sith hierarchy, as I'm sure you can imagine."
"Please, just Brooke. We're not on Alderaan and I'd rather not be reminded of my family. Dealing with enough betrayal as it is, thank you."
"As you wish." Despite their different philosophies, Lana found herself genuinely liking the Jedi. Too bad they were sworn enemies. In another life, Lana could easily see them as close friends. She felt a tug she'd come to recognize as the Force directing her attention to the two soldiers standing behind the Jedi.
A disgruntled looking cathar, Captain Aric Jorgan if she remembered correctly from reports, crossed his arms, and glared at the Sith before speaking. "How's it going. Havoc Squad, led by Major Aneira Horner," he introduced curtly, deferring to the unassuming woman just behind him with a nod. She wasn't much taller than Lana, and her black hair was tied back in a tight bun. Her bright blue eyes stood in stark contrast to her slightly tanned complexion, and Lana could see how the young major could be underestimated. Nothing particularly stood out about her, but Lana could see the shrewdness in her eyes. It was clear she had taken pains to remain inconspicuous, allowing her to be overlooked until it was too late. "You might be familiar with some of our work: took down Gen. Rakton and earned the nickname 'Sith Slayers.'"
"You don't need to worry about that last part," the major replied drily, inspecting Lana, "and before you ask, I wasn't the one who picked the name. But tell me something, how does a Sith Lord apprenticed to a powerful Darth not end up on my hit list?"
So, those stories were based in truth. Lana was familiar with Major Horner, mostly through circulating rumors. She had made a name for herself prior to assuming command of Havoc by hunting down those she believed responsible for her family's execution. Her efficiency in taking down both Sith and high ranking Imperial officers earned her notoriety and it wasn't long before she was working with SIS to take down some of the more… sadistic Sith. Most of her achievements had been downplayed by those who didn't want to believe a common soldier could challenge a Sith. A decision, in Lana's opinion, as foolish as it was dangerous.
"It's worth noting I'm not technically a Lord," Lana said in an attempt to diffuse the growing tension in the room. "Just like many outside the order will call a Jedi 'Master' as a show of respect even if they have not yet attained that rank, outsiders will address us as Lord."
"Yup, totally the same thing," Jedi Carson muttered, "except our reactions when someone doesn't use the title." Master Brooke was quick to silence her with a glare.
"Then I'll have no issue with you, my Lord," Major Horner said, sarcastically emphasizing the title. "I even promise to not shoot you in the back when we eventually part ways."
"Then you do me a greater courtesy than most Sith," Lana replied with a smirk.
"A Sith with a sense of humor, will wonders ever cease," Kira mumbled, earning yet another glare from her master.
"And, as Brooke stated, there's no need for such formality, Major, Lana will suffice."
Theron cleared his throat and briefed everyone on what had been learned. Lana was only paying minimal attention, distracted by the soldier. For reasons she had yet to discover, it appeared to be Maj. Horner the Force was guiding her towards.
"Jorgan," Major Horner ordered as they wrapped up, "tell Vik I need him to shore up a bunch of his contacts for the info we need, preferably some who actually understand the meaning of the word 'discretion'."
"You know the kind of guys he works with," Jorgan huffed. "Not sure their goals exactly align with ours."
"Which is why you're going with him to make sure we get what we need."
"Oh boy," he said without enthusiasm. "And why can't you do it?"
"Cause I'm going to be too busy working with the Sith," she replied nodding towards Lana. She did not seem thrilled at the prospect.
"Have fun boss. If you do decide to shoot her, wait until I'm around or at least record it for me."
"No promises," she answered with a smirk. Once he was gone, she sighed and turned to Lana and asked, "Are you ready to head out?"
"I'm sorry?"
"You, my medic, and I are headed to Imperial Space," she answered, slowly repeating everything they'd just briefed. "Shan and Brooke are gathering others they can trust to start combing the Republic, your team of four you sent to Tython is handling the Empire side, and we're liaising between the two groups and Jakarro and Vik's contacts. Since Lt. Dorne and I know how to blend into the Empire, we're going to stick near Imperial ports bordering Republic space disguised as Imps for ease of data transfer."
"I understood that from the briefing, I just don't understand why we need to travel together."
"Shan didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what," Lana asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Upon learning a Sith Lord was here my droid may have accidentally and maliciously destroyed your ship." Her jaw dropped a little at the major's revelation. She just shrugged and gave a sheepish smile before saying, "4X can be a little… enthusiastic in our fight against the Sith, sorry about that. I'll replace it once everything calms down."
"You're going to buy me a new ship," the Sith asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
The major snickered, "Me? Hell no, I'm just a poor grunt. I'm gonna make the Republic replace by filling it under a miscellaneous expense or some bull shit. I'll get Dorne to figure it out, she's good at finding loopholes in the purchasing regs. You wouldn't believe some of the shit we've ordered." She started laughing and put her hand companionably on Lana's arm as she said, "One time we bought a herd of tauntauns to be delivered to Republic High Command, but somehow they ended up at the Senate… Anyway, story for another time, suffice it say a lot of rum was involved. Point is, I'll requisition you a new ship and that way every time that warmonger Saresh starts in on me I can laugh to myself about how funds were diverted from her war chest to give a new ship to a Sith. It's the little things in life that make you smile, you know?"
Laughing at the absurdity of the situation, Lana said, "You are not what I would have expected from your Intelligence profile."
"I'll take that as a compliment," she replied with a wink. "Now let's get out of here before your old boss sends his new friends after us."
They had grown close during their time on the Imperial space station and Rishi. There was a bit of tension that developed between the pair when the major didn't think she was doing enough to convince Darth Mar for an alliance with the Republic.
Lana had been surprised to walk into the meeting to see the major and Cipher 9 drinking in the back, but didn't comment on it. The pair had kept silent until things seemed to be going poorly between Darth Mar and Grand Master Shan. When it looked as if they would both walk out without coming to an agreement, she had gone off on both parties in an angry, and somewhat drunken, rant. She accused both of being so wrapped up in their war they couldn't look beyond it. Lana flinched when she felt the anger rolling off Darth Mar at her disrespect. It was only through Lana's intervention, and Cipher's echoing of the major's sentiments, if somewhat more diplomatically stated, that helped get the meeting in the right direction.
They remained distant on Yavin, barely saying more than was necessary to each other at mission briefings. Finally, with the defeat of Revan, Lana reached out to Maj. Horner. Lana would be headed back to Drumond Kaas soon and she didn't want to leave without attempting to resolve things between them. She agreed to meet Lana at the shuttles on the outskirts of their camp.
Aneira had beaten Lana there, and indicated the Sith should follow her into one of the shuttles where they could talk privately.
"What did you want to say," the soldier asked, arms crossed defensively.
"I wanted to clear the air between us," Lana answered.
"Clear the air? What needs to be cleared up? The whole letting Theron get captured thing or not standing up to Mar enough to push the alliance?"
"I did everything I could to encourage that," Lana ground out.
"From your knees, you mean," she angrily spat. "Brooke at least had the backbone to tell Shan she was being unreasonable."
"If I had done that Mar would have killed me right then for insolence," Lana retorted, frustrated.
"Good to know what your priorities were," the major snarled. "If things had gone sideways and Mar had walked out of that room instead of teaming up glad you would have made sure you would have gotten out of there alive."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it! I was fully prepared to argue my case for the alliance even if it meant going all the way to the Dark Council. And at least I was attempting to do something instead of you, getting drunk in a corner with Cipher 9."
"We were both convinced you damn force users were again about to destroy everything and neither of us wanted to be sober for that."
Lana was about to argue, but suddenly lost the energy. Heaving a tired sigh, she said, "I don't want to fight with you." She looked closely at the soldier and could see the same sentiment in her eyes.
"We're both mad at each other, but we don't want to be. We are both about to leave for our respective sides who are intent on ignoring the larger threat to kill each other. So where does that leave us," Rory asked.
"I don't know," Lana answered honestly, "but we have at least an hour until we need to figure that out."
Rory laughed in surprise before saying, "For the record, I'm still pissed at this whole situation."
"That makes two of us," Lana replied.
"That's something at least," Rory muttered before pulling Lana in for kiss that was full of the emotions they'd been repressing.
"Are you sure it's wise to do this here," Lana asked, breaking the kiss. "Someone might intrude."
"Doubt it," Rory smirked at her, "it's yours. Promised you a new ship, didn't I?"
Lana stared dumbfounded at the soldier before smiling and pulling her back to continue where they left off. The hour they spent together was more than she had imagined and not nearly enough. The parting had been difficult, both of them now officially enemies again. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the events on Ziost that had seemed to further drive a wedge between them, the time spent in that shuttle was one she treasured.
Still, she believed the Force was directing her towards the major, and it had never steered her wrong before.
It was this connection with the Force that first led her to Koth and later Senya, both of whom would prove essential in locating the Outlander, Master Alde, and other allies held captive by Zakuul.
The connection was a double-edged sword, and lately had been warning her of something, causing a pit in her stomach that was becoming harder to ignore. At first, she had assumed it to be the growing might of Zakuul, or later the revelation – courtesy of Senya- that Brooke was slowly dying in her carbonite prison forcing them to move up the timetable for the rescue operation.
It was about 3 months prior Lana discovered that wasn't the case when an image of the major appeared during her nightly meditations. After that Rory's image was a regular fixture, her features becoming more and more distressed.
When Zakuul had invaded, she had been on a mission with two of Lana's best assets in an attempt to discover what had happened to Darth Mar's ship and what connection that had to the former Sith Emperor. She had arranged their transport, a smuggler who had been good enough to avoid the Voidwolf, and planned to meet up with them post op at a nearby station. It was there after the debrief she hoped they could discuss any potential future with Rory, but fate had other plans. In one fell swoop Saresh found a way to weaken Lana's power base as well as get revenge on the insubordinate major. Cipher 9 had informed her when they had been surrounded and she barely had a chance to issue her last order: everyone comes home alive.
Her continued distress in Lana's meditations had her worried, and it was becoming harder to focus. It took some effort, but she managed to clear her mind of all distractions and entered what looked like an empty white room. It was comfortable in its familiarity, as this was where she had always gone when she meditated. However, this time she was troubled since this was the first time in months that no image of Rory had appeared.
"Lana," croaked a weak voice in front of her.
Startled, her eyes snapped to the source of the sound. On the ground in front of her was Rory laying on her side facing her, cuts and bruises covering her body.
"I have to be dreaming," the major said as she closed her eyes, "but at least it's a nice dream for once. Vaylin must have gotten bored filling my head with nightmares."
"You're with Vaylin," Lana asked, trying to fight off the oncoming dread. If this was true, rescuing her just got a lot harder.
"Yup," she sighed tiredly, "been 5 years of fun and games, let me tell you. Although, I'm pretty sure the game is just about over for me. At least I got to see you one more time," Rory said softly as her eyes opened and she looked back at Lana as if trying to commit her face to memory.
No, no, no, no… She hadn't come this far just for Rory to give up now. "You have to hold on," Lana implored, reaching out and grabbing her hands.
"Why? So I can have another day in paradise? No thanks, I'd rather sleep, better chance I'd get to see you…"
"Listen to me, you must hold on," the Sith begged. "I need you to hold on a little longer. Can you do that? For me?"
She looked conflicted but eventually acquiesced. "All right. Can I stay with you a bit longer? This is first time in a long time I've had a good dream," Rory whispered, biting her lip. Lana had never seen her so timid, but dismissed it as an effect of 5 years of torture at the hand of Vaylin.
"Of course," Lana answered as she pulled Rory into her arms so the major's head rested on her chest. Lana didn't like how weak she was. This was not the physical realm. If she was this weak here (if this was even her and not some sort of vision) then that meant her willpower was fading fast. Lana pushed those concerns to the back of her mind, trying to pass feelings of hope to Rory to help her hang on.
"I like your hair," she whispered, voice barely audible. "A lot better than your other hairstyle."
"What was wrong with my last one," Lana asked, amused.
She just shrugged and said, "Hard to explain, just didn't suit you, this does."
Lana held her for another hour until she faded away and an alert from T7 informing her of an incoming call from Senya pulled her from her mediation.
"Is there a problem," Lana asked as soon as the knight's form appeared on the terminal.
"A… development," she deflected. "I've located the rest of your missing people. The last four are in Vaylin's personal prison."
Lana felt her stomach drop at having that fact confirmed. "What's the plan?"
"The only opportunity to rescue them is if I do it now."
"No," Lana dismissed, "we're not ready to proceed."
"I know, but there won't be another chance," Senya insisted. "Vaylin is off planet, but will return in the next few days. There will be no chance at a successful rescue if she's there."
"That will make rescuing the Outlander that much harder," Lana pointed out.
"Yes, it will," Senya agreed.
Lana thought of the troubled vision she had of Rory. Clearly the Force was trying to warn her, and against her better judgement, said, "Get them out. Koth and I will just have to adjust our timeline again."
"As you wish," the knight said before ending transmission.
A/N: I tried to edit Maj. Horner's slang to sound more like something a soldier would use, but found it difficult to find stuff that always made sense. So more often than not, it might sound off since I went with Navy slang (I'm a Navy vet). Any soldiers reading this are bugged by that, feel free to PM me and I'll consider making an edit. I know it would bug me if I was reading something and a sailor talking like a soldier (yes there is a clear difference).
Also, fun fact, anytime Maj. Horner tells a story, it's based off something I either saw or a story that was told to me. I'll always tack it on at the end in the notes. Feel free to skip it if you don't care.
The tauntaun story is based off a story a Seabee told me. One time this guy and his buddy were going through a purchasing site, bored out of their minds. This site (I think it was Mil Mall, can't remember off the top of my head) was notrious for how badly things were labeled. Seriously, you could type in ball point pen in the search bar and end up getting hammers. Anyway, they searched for flashlights and found horses, because military logic. They get the bright idea as a joke to order it to see supply's reaction. After they submit it, they get slammed with work and completely forget. It wasn't until they get the purchase request back, signed off by the CO, that they remember it. This guy sprinted to supply to stop it. Turns out everyone had been so slammed that no one looked at it, and the CO assumed if it made it to his desk he didn't need to look over it. He and his buddy got an ass chewing but not much more since there were so many people who screwed that one up. Would have been a lot worse if the horse had actually been delivered.
That's my sea story for the day. No way was that as entertaining as listening to him tell it, but I hope you enjoyed it.