A/N: in which rei is ace, the barsen'thor shows up, and rei and theron attempt that "heartfelt conversation" thing
you don't want to know how many times I rewrote this goddamn chapter. please take it before I rewrite it again.
Theron was not, by nature, an anxious person. But with as much as was on the line at that moment, he could admit to being a bit nervous.
He watched impatiently as the terminal tried and failed to establish a connection, their attempts at contacting either fleet pointless until the signal jammer was taken care of. There was little left to do but wait, and Theron found himself growing restless; between his efforts and SCORPIO's, they'd finished decrypting the last of the Revanite data around the same time as they'd lost contact with their team.
Their team, which was no small part of the reason he was so on edge. Or part of the team, at least.
Just one part, really — Nox. Rei.
He would've liked to say that he was frustrated, or annoyed, or even outright unaffected by her — she was Sith, after all. She was the enemy, and that distinction would only get more clear if the Republic and Empire were to get involved on an official level. Of course, that was almost simple to ignore when Theron considered that, of the Sith he was currently working alongside, only one had arranged for his capture and subsequent interrogation and it hadn't been Nox.
Though, he supposed that shouldn't have been comforting. After all, Lana had been far easier to trust at first; she was pragmatic — ruthlessly so, evidently — but she had still been so level-headed and willing to compromise and work together. Even if Nox was more… volatile, it had been easy to get caught up in her natural charisma, the easy lightheartedness that would've been unnerving if it weren't so genuine.
And she smiled all the time — when she fought, when she read, when she argued with Ashara — it was impossible to ignore. Unless, he considered, that was a problem that was uniquely his.
He got the feeling it was. Which, of course, was a terrible idea, on account of Nox being not only Sith, but a member of the Dark Council; there weren't really that many people in the galaxy who would've been worse choices to develop feelings for.
Groaning in frustration, Theron massaged one of his temples, aware of the concerned look Lana was giving him. She could stay concerned, for all he cared.
"Are you…" Lana cleared her throat, hesitating before speaking again. "Any word from our team? Or the fleets?"
"No." Leaning back in his chair, Theron turned his focus back to the terminal, which still hadn't been able to establish a connection. "We'll know the second they get that jammer disabled, though. The lists are all set to upload, so…" he trailed off, giving a little shrug. "Just waiting."
"Good. They should be close, I would assume."
"Yeah."
"Theron—"
Before Lana could continue, Kira appeared in the doorway, asking for any new updates. Lana slipped out of the room, giving some vague excuse as to why she was leaving, while Theron filled Kira in — which, considering they'd lost contact with their team, didn't leave much to say.
Placing a hand on her hip, Kira glanced back towards the doorway. "So Lana's still being… weird. Looks like you and Cori's little club is down to just you."
Tearing his eyes away from the display — Theron wasn't sure why he was even still watching when he knew the connection would continue to fail — he asked, "What club?"
"The I met a Sith and decided I wanted to get into her pants club."
"That's—" Theron searched for an argument, but nothing seemed quite convincing enough. "I mean, it's—"
Kira smirked. "What? Not possible because it's Nox the asexual Sith? Which I'm pretty sure is ironic, you know, since Sith and—" She stopped abruptly, shaking her head. "The point here is you, not her. Just because it's never going to happen doesn't mean you haven't thought about it."
Theron wasn't willing to dignify that with a response.
"At least you won't have a personal crisis over the whole attachments thing. I mean, I'm here for Cori, but at this point I'm starting to get more stressed out than she is."
"Speaking of Cori," Theron interrupted, looking for a way to cut their current conversation short, "didn't she have some job for you?"
"I'm doing it." Sitting in one of the empty chairs, Kira shrugged. "She just wanted me to stay behind to keep an eye on Lana. But you're changing the subject," she pointed out.
"And?"
"And details," she prodded. "Nox has been trying to get a rise out of you since day one. She's just… less creepy and awkward about it now. You typically complain about having to put up with her shit, but lately you look at her like she hung the moon. At least, right up until she mentions the Empire."
She was exaggerating. She had to be.
Still, the observation made him uncomfortable. Kira wasn't the one he'd wanted to have this conversation with, either — granted, he wasn't looking forward to the conversation at all, but Kira certainly wasn't who he'd had in mind. Before Theron could find a way to fill the somewhat awkward silence between them, the terminal beeped, signaling a successful connection. "Guess you'll have to wait on those details."
Upon returning to the safehouse, Zaara was greeted with a tense atmosphere; it was uncomfortable, though not at all unexpected.
She'd sent most of her own crew back to the ship, hoping to alleviate — or, at the very least, not contribute to — the stress that the looming meeting would undoubtedly bring. Rei seemed to have done similarly, though Kira stood with Cori and Theron on the far side of the main room.
"Updates?" Zaara prompted as she joined Rei and Lana.
"Darth Marr should be here momentarily," Lana informed her.
"And Satele?"
It was Theron who answered. "She's on her way."
She acknowledged him with a nod. The divide between the two teams was unmistakable, more so than it had been when they'd first joined forces on Manaan. Zaara wondered idly whether that was the continued influence of Theron's capture, or the result of both the Empire and the Republic involving themselves full force.
As Lana had said, Marr arrived soon after Zaara, addressing the Imperial team with a nod. Satele arrived moments later, with a second Jedi trailing close after her. The rosy-skinned twi'lek towered over the grandmaster, her broad-shouldered build one of a soldier, despite the elaborate robes she wore.
"I wasn't aware we were to have additional company," Zaara commented lightly.
"This is T'sereen Neiri," Satele explained, "the Barsen'thor of our order. Seeing as she commands the bulk of our fleet above Rishi, I thought it reasonable for her to accompany me."
Suppressing her discomfort at the twi'lek's steely glare, Zaara took a step forward and cleared her throat. "I suppose no other introductions are necessary. As I'm sure you know, Theron and Lana organized our team — beginning months ago with the original occupations of Korriban and Tython, and culminating with our victory here on Rishi. While we were successful against the Revanites as a whole, we were unable to deal with Revan himself. Which," she paused, nodding towards Theron, "is why we're suggesting a temporary alliance as we move forward to Yavin 4."
"Revan himself?" Satele echoed.
"Himself," Zaara confirmed slowly. "It's… He's another of Revan's descendants, and took up the mask and, apparently, the name as a sort of… birthright."
"The guy's got an ego bigger than his fleet," Theron commented, crossing his arms. "But he also has the weight that comes with Revan's name and thousands of loyal followers. He's a very real threat, even if he's trying to systematically destroy both the Jedi and the Sith like… like Zaara said, some sort of twisted birthright."
T'sereen shook her head. "Revan — the real Revan, the Jedi Master Layla Karris — never intended to destroy the Jedi. She parted ways with the order, but she was never hostile with them."
"Please, do try to explain that to our current Revan," Rei challenged. "I'm sure talking will solve everything in this case."
"I'm not suggesting we talk."
Satele held out a hand, silencing T'sereen. "Agent Ven, was it? You mentioned Yavin 4."
"Yes." Zaara hesitated a bit, glancing over at Theron. "Do you…?"
He gave a long sigh, but nodded regardless. "After getting to spend a little quality time with some of Revan's interrogation probes, I learned he's obsessed with bloodlines. He was very insistent that I join him on Yavin 4." Grabbing his datapad, Theron pulled up a projection of Yavin 4 on the holoterminal display. "I don't have exact coordinates, but…" A section of the moon lit up, illuminating a thick jungle terrain.
It was T'sereen who spoke up first. "Why Yavin 4?"
"He seems to think he can strike at the heart of the Sith there."
Satele and Cori shared a quick, worried glance that Zaara almost missed. "The emperor," the grandmaster confirmed.
With a low hmm — it was unclear to Zaara whether it was thoughtful or disdainful — Marr stared down at the display for several moments before speaking. "He will attempt to bring the emperor back into a physical form to strike down."
"Good," Rei scoffed. "The emperor's a useless piece of—" She trailed off as all eyes in the safehouse turned to her; however, it was Satele who she directed her retort at. "Yes, sorry, we're not all mindless drones serving an absent deity. The more important thing is — can it be done?"
Not moving from the Yavin display, Marr nodded slowly. "Returning him to a physical form — almost certainly. Killing him — certainly not."
"Sith lies. Everything can be killed."
Finally turning, Marr regarded the Barsen'thor with a cold intensity that chilled even Zaara. "I'm afraid not, Master Jedi," he said curtly. "The emperor would endeavor to devour all life within the galaxy, and we would be hopeless to stop him."
"But if we stop Revan," Lana spoke up, "we at least buy ourselves time. The emperor — he's weakened at the moment. There's little he can do."
"Correct."
T'sereen didn't look satisfied, but she didn't push any further, either. "To Yavin 4, then? A temporary alliance, to end this false Revan?"
"Even between the two of us and our combined allies on the council, I don't think we'd manage a formal truce," Rei mused, glancing over at Marr. "Will our current forces do? I can send for…" She paused, her face scrunching in thought; she had plenty of allies to call on, and a fleet of her own, but wasn't certain how many would be available at such short notice. "Well, I'm sure I can throw in something for support."
"We're in a similar situation," Satele admitted. "Even if I petitioned the Senate for assistance, it would take far too long to get approval. But my troops are loyal to me, and I'm sure Master Neiri will lend her aid, as well?"
It was clear Satele was leaving her little choice in the matter. "Yes, of course," T'sereen agreed, offering a sharp nod.
"Then it's settled. Agent Ven," Marr offered a brief nod. "Nox, I'll be in touch. Lord Beniko, I believe we have much to discuss, in light of recent events."
"Yes, my lord." Lana gave a shallow bow. She hesitated, glancing over at Cori, then followed Marr out of the safehouse.
Zaara herself was prepared to leave; she'd taken care of everything earlier after they'd returned and, despite the (mostly) relaxing few weeks on Rishi, she was more than ready to get back to working official jobs for the Empire. "Rei?" she prompted. "You'll be heading out?"
She nodded slowly. "Yes, though not quite yet. I've got things to wrap up, business to settle. I need to run by Kaas City, too." Turning to Zaara, she nodded again. "I'll let you know when I'm close."
"Master Cori?" Zaara called, hoping for one last chance to speak with her before they parted ways. "A moment?"
"I…" Cori hesitated. "On Yavin? I need to speak with Master Satele."
She nodded, unsurprised; being around the grandmaster always brought out the best — meaning the most infuriatingly Jedi — in Cori. Zaara was about to leave when Satele called out to Theron; he gave a feeble excuse, at first, but Satele wasn't deterred.
"You mentioned interrogations — Master Neiri is an adept healer. And if you needed more time on Rishi, she and her crew aren't leaving until tomorrow."
Out of more respect for Theron than Satele, Zaara urged Rei out of the safehouse, leaving the others to converse in relative privacy. "Kaas City?" she prompted once they were back in the alleyway.
Rei waved off the question. "Just normal business. And Zash left a message for me earlier; apparently I'm quite popular. Everyone wants to meet with me."
With a wide grin, Zaara nudged Rei with her hip. "Just give me the name."
"Darth Acina, who I need to meet with anyway." Rei offered a bright smile of her own, shrugging. " And Darth Praetis. She's not so bad, and probably just wants to find out how to get on my good side. So, no assassinations."
"Praetis." Zaara tossed the unfamiliar name around in her mind. She was familiar with Acina, but Praetis was a name she hadn't heard.
"She's a bit of a socialite. You'd like her, I think. Lots of mystery and family drama."
Zaara couldn't hold back a laugh at that. "True. I'll look into her on the way to Yavin. Rei," she called, stopping the rattataki before the two split ways, "while you're there, see if you can get Lys to come with you. She started this with us, and she's the sort who likes to see things through."
Rei nodded, promising to do what she could to get the Wrath to Yavin 4. Headed to her ship, Zaara let out a long sigh, already anticipating that the next step of their mission would be anything but easy.
Sitting at the very foot of her bed, Rei glared down at her holocomm. It sat on her solitary pink pillow, silent though it had been beeping incessantly a moment before.
She wasn't ready to return to the council.
It wasn't that she was particularly behind on work; Zash still filtered through anything sent to Rei and forwarded along anything urgent or that she couldn't take care of herself. Mostly, she was simply not ready to leave Rishi, to put an official end to her impromptu vacation with Zaara. Though it hadn't quite been the relaxing few weeks she'd been hoping for, it had at least been a nice change of scene; there was something about reading council reports on the beach that made official Imperial business far less tedious.
And then, of course, there was Theron. With all that had happened over the past few days, Rei knew it would be easy to dismiss… whatever it was that was between them as inconsequential, something not worth attempting to follow up on. While part of her was more than prepared to march back off the ship to find Theron, part of her was convinced she should just leave.
She was considering it; besides, everything would change once they got to Yavin, anyway. Rei wouldn't just be a member of a team that Zaara had dragged her into — she'd be a member of the Dark Council, negotiating alongside Darth Marr on behalf of the Empire.
As much as she enjoyed her title and position, it was proving a bit inconvenient at that moment.
Even after talking it over with Ashara — Rei had kept her promise of delivering any updates to her apprentice — she wasn't certain she should get her hopes up, let alone act on them. She sighed, flopping onto her side and sprawling out across her bed. If she simply left for Kaas City, nothing would happen and things would return to normal.
Rei was in the middle of debating with herself when she remembered a very important detail — she'd forgotten Ashara's damn book at the safehouse.
Which, really, left her no choice.
Ordinarily, Rei would've just told Ashara to go get the book herself if she wanted to have it when they left. Instead, she swiped her holocomm from her pillow and marched off the ship, announcing she'd be back in a few minutes. Storming through the town before she could change her mind, Rei darted through the crowded streets as she made her way up to the safehouse.
Considering her scattered state of mind, she was halfway up the safehouse stairs before she heard the voices; Rei recognized Theron's easily, and was almost certain the second was T'sereen. Pace not slowing until she reached the top of the stairs, Rei leaned against the doorway and crossed her arms, waiting.
It didn't take long for the twi'lek to notice her. She frowned, her violet eyes flashing with something akin to impatience. "You have a visitor," she pointed out, nodding towards Rei.
Theron turned to face her, raising an eyebrow in question. "Nox?"
"Nox?" T'sereen echoed with a scoff.
"Darth Nox," Rei corrected smoothly. "Haven't you heard? I got a promotion. It came with a fancy new name and a seat on the Dark Council."
"I hadn't heard." T'sereen's tone was like ice. She stood, smoothing her robes and silently pushing her chair back to the table; when she spoke again, the politeness was forced. "I should leave you two be. I have my own business to attend to, though I don't imagine it compares to the importance of a councilor." She pushed past Rei as she left, neither of them having made any attempt to move out of the way.
"I didn't realize the two of you were acquainted," Rei remarked cheerily, sauntering into the main room and retrieving Ashara's book from where it still sat on the couch.
He shrugged. "We met a few years ago. And you know the Barsen'thor because…?"
Lips pressed together in thought, Rei leaned against the table beside Theron and crossed her arms. An unfortunate meeting on Alderaan and a slightly less unfortunate meeting on Belsavis didn't quite merit explanations. "We've crossed paths a few times," she finally answered.
"Right." Both answers had been deliberately vague, and Theron didn't press. "And what about why you're still on Rishi? I thought you left when Zaara did?"
"I have… operations here that I've been able to oversee personally. Obviously that's no longer an option, so I've had to make other arrangements. And with everything that's gone on in the past few days, I forgot to grab this." She gave the book a little wave before setting it down beside her. Now that she was actually here, Rei wasn't certain exactly what she wanted or expected.
Before Rei could decide, Theron turned to her and asked, "You said something earlier about Kaas City?"
"Mm. Just a quick trip. The Empire has managed not to collapse in my absence and unfortunately that means people and meetings and paperwork, and at least one dinner party." She was reminded suddenly of all the reservations at various restaurants she still had to make; or rather, that she needed to tell Zash to make. Turning her scattered thoughts back to the present, Rei grinned, "I'll be on Yavin, if that's what you're asking."
He shrugged. "That might be part of it."
"Only part of it? I'm hurt." Rei pulled herself up so she was sitting on the table, letting her feet swing lightly as she cocked her head to the side, lightly commenting, "And here I thought I'd won you over with my natural charm and daring rescues."
Theron didn't answer, his eyes studying her for a moment before he sighed. "It hasn't been what I'd expected, that's for sure. And not just the Revanites, either, or the… daring rescues."
"The part where you genuinely enjoy spending time with a Sith really caught you off-guard, didn't it?" Rei asked, mock sympathy coloring her voice. Her fingers tapped arrhythmically along the edge of the table as she waited for an answer; better for Theron to say something than for her to admit something first, regardless of how impatient she felt at that moment.
Impatient, expectant, apprehensive — Rei wasn't entirely certain how to put into words all the things she was feeling, only that sitting and talking with Theron seemed so much more important than either council business or dealing with Revan.
"It did," Theron admitted thoughtfully, fidgeting a bit before adding, "You caught me off guard."
Rei bit back a smart remark; it should've been simple — I care about you and enjoy spending time with you and think we should take advantage of what little time we have left — yet all she'd done since arriving was stall. "Good. I mean — assuming that's a good thing." She paused, the tapping of her fingers growing faster and more discordant. "I would prefer if it were a good thing."
He let out a slow breath, sounding almost relieved as he answered. "It is. But—" Theron ran a hand through his hair; his gaze was unfocused, not quite staring at Rei but at a point just past her. "How long until we take care of Revan?" he asked, eyes once again meeting Rei's. "Go back to being on opposite sides of a war?"
She blinked, his words only half-registering; Rei wasn't certain whether Theron had always been standing so close, or if he'd moved, but she was trying — and failing, miserably — to remember why she'd hesitated to go back to the safehouse in the first place.
Unthinking, Rei leaned forwards, driven by both impulse and the way that Theron was still looking at her, as she pressed her lips to his. It was only a light brush of a kiss — an invitation and a declaration — but it was enough to send a shock of warmth through her. And, she assumed, to make a rather succinct point, given how words seemed to be failing her.
"Giving up on a good thing just because it's going to end is terrible logic," she pointed out, not quite moving away.
"You may have a point." Theron kissed her again, his hands moving to her waist as her own hands moved to rest behind his neck.
There was something undeniably right about the moment, something deserved. The part of Rei's otherwise distracted mind that was still capable of coherent thought wondered at how she expected this to end — not the kiss, but the fact that somehow, even in the brief time she'd spent with him, Theron had somehow become an unexpectedly integral part of her own life.
Maybe things would change after Rishi. After Yavin. At some point after that. But that didn't matter — not at the moment.
Rei was smiling as she pulled away, breathless laughter escaping her as she tried to form words. She wanted to apologize — she'd meant to ask, to give some declaration of intent instead of simply giving in to impulse — but it was Theron who spoke first, face flushed and his grin mirroring Rei's.
"Glad we cleared the air."
"Really?" Apologies forgotten and content to remain there until someone came looking for her, she raised an eyebrow. "Because you're welcome to clarify further," she challenged, already leaning in for another kiss.
She would have to thank Zaara for dragging her into this mess in the first place.