3951 BBY, Telos IV, Citadel Station, Entertainment Module
Eden
"Didn't expect you to call so soon," Luxa nearly purred as she pulled Eden further inside Citadel Station's lone seedy lounge. Wary of visiting the local cantina more times than she could count, her visage growing alarmingly more recognizable by the day, Eden was eager to meet with Luxa somewhere she hadn't yet been spotted. The lounge was smaller and more intimate, brimming with smoke - making each of its occupants more mysterious, to Eden's advantage. "What's up, love? Already made up your mind?"
Luxa pulled Eden into a tall-backed booth. The two women tumbled into the far end of the seat while Luxa laughed, brushing a loose lock of Eden's hair behind her ear as she straightened her posture and waved at a nearby attendant to bring them a round of drinks. Eden flushed red, thankful that the seat backs were high enough to ensure their meeting was more private, regardless of what Luxa expected from this unannounced rendezvous.
"I need to talk to you," Eden began, straightening her getup and smoothing out her hair. No part of her felt comfortable but it was the only way she was guaranteed to go unnoticed until Admiral Onasi finally decided to show up on the station. She could have resorted to using the Force but to mind-wipe an entire satellite colony was likely something well beyond her ability, even if she wished it.
"What is it now, are my colleagues at it again?" Luxa groaned, pulling out a cigarra. With a simple flick of her nails, the end lit up, a plume of purple smoke erupting from its tail and joining the fray.
"Well, likely," Eden admitted. "I'm not sure how much longer I'll last here, if I'm being honest. But what I really wanted to talk to you about was Czerka."
Eden kept her voice low, though she found it near impossible. The music here was not nearly as loud as the cantina, yet the drone of constant conversation that surrounded them was just as suffocating. It was only made worse by all the smoke.
Luxa smiled, though the corner of her mouth lilted. Her lips were still painted crimson, though a slightly more orange shade if Eden's eyes were as discerning as she liked to believe. Luxa tapped the end of her cigarra on the lone ashtray that occupied the table between them and blew out another plume as she looked Eden in the eye, brows furrowed.
"Jana Lorso," Luxa started, laughing again though this time softer, a certain sourness overcoming her gaze as she uttered the name. "That wench got a hold of you, didn't she?"
Eden nodded.
A droid scuffled over, depositing their drinks with a sloshy push before scurrying off again, leaving Eden with a damp elbow. I could fix you, she thought longingly after the droid even after it had gone, before finally turning to Luxa again while passing her a drink.
"Classic juma?" Eden asked just before taking a sip and finding her assessment correct. The bright, iridescent blue liquid sloshed around her cup with a satisfying viscosity Eden had to admit other drinks lacked. "I expected something, I dunno, classier from you. Or more rare."
"Oh, you would," Luxa smiled, grabbing her glass with her cigarra still poised between her first and middle finger. "But trust me, the juma here is excellent. I'm pretty sure they import it straight from… wherever."
Eden couldn't help but laugh this time, examining the contents of her glass as she eyed Luxa just over the rim, trying to get a read on the woman without being too obvious.
"Y'know I hear this stuff is yellow in some parts of the galaxy," Eden said off-hand. Luxa took a swig and only after she swallowed did she allow her jaw to drop for dramatic effect.
"Really? I'll have to see that one day." Luxa set her glass down and stared at it, as if willing the contents to change color to sate her own curiosity. "But this business about Lorso…"
"Well as you can imagine, the sort of business savvy woman she is, Lorso made me an offer," Eden began.
"What did the woman say, exactly?" Luxa sucked on her teeth and took another pull from her cigarra as she awaited a reply.
Eden recounted how she and Atton were targeted on the promenade after leaving Luxa's apartment and more or less blackmailed into meeting with Czerka's resident COO. Luxa let out a low whistle, which only stopped the moment Eden pushed the ten-thousand credit towards Luxa's pam beneath the table. Before the woman could get too excited about presumed advances on Eden's part, she eyed the coin and blanched, promptly pushing it away before she resumed eye contact with Eden above the table.
"Is that… real?" Luxa whispered, shuffling closer to Eden and hunching over the table. "She just… gave that to you?!"
"Up front," Eden confirmed, pulling away and placing the coin back in her pocket. She didn't let go until she knew the thing was deep enough to stay put. "But she wanted something in return, of course."
"I mean," Luxa eyed the room before scooting closer to Eden until they were shoulder-to-shoulder, their glasses nearly clinking in mock cheers. "Sure, I've seen that amount of money before - plus more, and often - but unrefined coaxium is banned on this station. It'll blow the joint to bits. Not that the law has anything to do with what the Exchange gets up to, but our little startup hasn't risked these sorta transactions because it'll just slow us down. TSF has scanners for substances like that, too, so what this tells me is that Lorso has someone at the TSF in her pocket. Someone big."
"Do you think there's some other meaning behind it? In giving me this, I mean," Eden asked, taking a larger sip of her drink than she planned but finding herself thirstier to feel something, anything other than anxiety, the moment the cool glass touched her lips. "Would Lorso expect me to know that sort of thing, as you just described, or does she just want to dazzle me with the value alone?"
Luxa scratched the nape of her neck as her eyes searched the lounge for an answer, before looking at Eden again and shrugging.
"Hard to say," Luxa said. "Personally, I wouldn't peg you for someone who would be in-the-know, no offense. You're new to the station and from the sounds of it, you didn't come here of your own free will, so I doubt you did your research before getting landlocked."
"So you think it's just a power play?"
"Oh, it's a power play, alright," Luxa huffed another long pull of her cigarra. "No matter which way you slice it, Jana Lorso is placing a bet on you. Regardless of whether she sees the Ithorians as real threats, she certainly takes your interest in them as one."
"I have no interest in helping a corporation strip a planet for profit," Eden scoffed, downing her drink before she could properly seethe. "But I also don't need any more eyes on me, at least not until I can get out of here."
"Leaving so soon?" Luxa purred before slipping closer to Eden again, this time slipping an arm around her before burrowing her head in her neck. Before Eden could protest, Luxa whispered. "Drunkard, ten o'clock. Order another round and we'll ask him some questions."
Eden tried to play along, flashing the room a demure smile before Luxa thankfully pulled away and let Eden do the rest. Raising her hand until the serving droid approached, its serving tray arm in serious need of calibrating, Eden eyed the person Luxa whispered about. Standing to Eden's left, staring at the stage, was a man wearing Czerka colors and looking red-faced.
"Another round for us please," Eden asked, "And one for the guy over there."
Eden nodded in the Czerka employee's direction, the man taking instant notice of her and Luxa at her side. Luxa waved, her fingernails tickling the air as she invited him over, leaning across Eden and patting on the empty vinyl cushion beside her.
Luxa clinked glasses with Eden's empty cup as the man flashed them a lopsided smile and sat beside her, going redder than Eden thought possible.
"Don't mind if I do," the man groaned with something akin to a half-smile, half-grimace. The serving droid couldn't arrive fast enough, the man nearly leaping for his free drink before its mechanical arm set the cup down. "S'been a rough quarter."
"So I hear," Luxa said, an arm still draped over Eden's lap as she swallowed the remainder of her glass. "Is Dal treating you well?"
Dal?
The man downed his drink before showing any reaction, his face going blank before a wash of relief came over his features.
"Oh yeah, Dal's great," he said with an awkward gulp. "Really 'preciate it at a time like this."
"Oh, of course," Luxa said, waving the thanks away as if it were nothing and winking at Eden before she looked the man in the eye again.
Ah, I see.
"My friend here's just been scouted by your nemesis, it seems." Luxa continued, "Any way I can get you to talk her out of it?"
Despite just how inebriated this stranger was, every neuron fired in his brain in order to allow him to look dead-on at Eden, a serious expression bespelling his face as he leaned in close to her, and without blinking, uttered, "Don't do it. For the love of all that is good in this galaxy, stay the hell away from Jana Lorso."
Without asking if Eden or Luxa wanted anything, the man grabbed the attention of the droid a third time, though he failed to actually place an order of any kind. Luxa tried to bite back a laugh and look on soberly, as if she were eagerly awaiting the man to elaborate, while Eden still tried to piece everything together.
"I take it you work with this Lorso woman," Eden said eventually, unsure if the man realized his blunder or had simply resigned to the notion of being too drunk to care.
"Work with's the idea, b'not the reality of it," the man grumbled, his eyes glazing over as he stared at some indiscriminate part of the table. "We were s'posed to set up a stronghold here, but Lorso's floundering. Made a mess of the whole thing. It won't work you know, like, everything?"
The man waved his hands about, looking at both Eden and Luxa as if they knew what he meant, sated to see them nod along as if they did.
"Whole thing's a joke," he continued, "It won't last y'know. But if word got out…"
"Word about what?" Eden tried to appear on the edge of her seat, though some part of her genuinely was. The man looked from her to Luxa, before shaking his head.
"Better not," he sighed, sitting back in his chair. "S'not worth it."
Eden didn't bother hazarding a glance at Luxa before digging back into her pocket.
"How about now?"
Eden pressed the coaxium coin into the stranger's hand, his eyes going wide before he realized what she was doing, and growing wider once he realized the truth of it.
He swallowed. For a moment he looked as if he might back down, but after looking at the coin again he straightened back up and looked Eden in the eye, his gaze unwavering.
"What do you wanna know?"
3951 BBY, Dantooine Grasslands, Rakatan Ruins
Erebus
"I had such big plans for you," Azkul sputtered through bloody teeth, a wicked smirk still gracing his mouth despite how many times Erebus had hit him already. "We were so close."
Erebus still held Azkul by the scruff of his neck, his wrist aching while the rest of him threatened collapse - a herd of kath hounds still frozen, about to pounce, behind him. He could see their bright amber eyes reflected in Azkul's silver one; the lid so swollen around his other eye that it was practically shut. A bruise wreathed Azkul's entire face, and still the man found it in him to smile. To laugh. Erebus wanted to rip the man apart but knew that it wouldn't give him the answers he needed, nor the satisfaction he truly craved.
"Oh?" he said instead. "And what plans would that be?"
Azkul didn't laugh this time. Instead, he smiled wider. His red-stained teeth shone like a harvest half-moon in the brightly lit chamber. The Golden Company's equipment still stood fresh and spattered in only a minimal amount of blood all things considered, glittering up at Erebus in his peripheral vision, beckoning that he kill Azkul and view their contents. But Erebus could not move. His body ached, his lungs pierced with pain as each breath escaped his lungs, and there was no doubt he would lose a bit of himself if he poured any more wrath into wringing Azkul's neck as he kept the kath hounds at bay.
"We broke him, you know," Azkul began, spitting out a molar as if it was nothing. "We broke a Jedi Master."
Erebus felt his eyes go wide but he shook Azkul the moment he felt himself slip, not wanting the man to have the satisfaction of surprising him.
"The hell you did," Erebus growled, though he knew Azkul was right. Having seen the man himself just moments ago, it only took a moment's recognition to realize that Vrook was changed. He was no longer the same man as Erebus had seen him the night before, unperturbed and so sure of his survival.
"It was your boyfriend who helped us," Azkul smiled wider. "He broke the whole code. Split it wide open."
"Split what open?" Erebus hissed, his thumbs pressing into Azkul's throat. Mical had taken a beating after his interrogation, Erebus couldn't deny that, but the man hadn't seemed as shaken as Vrook had been moments ago and so eager to leave. There was still a tired hope in his eyes when he'd awoken, looking at Erebus with his usual cocktail of interest and distrust, but nothing to suggest that he'd been truly violated as Azkul insinuated.
"It's too late," Azkul choked. "We've already sent our data to the man in charge."
The man in charge?
"What man?!" Erebus demanded, his thumbs pressing further into the man's neck until his own knuckles ran white beneath Azkul's blood running down his gnarled hands.
"You'll never find him," Azkul promised, the light beginning to leave his eyes. "But if you plan on killing me, then do it already."
Erebus stilled, his fingers still tight on Azkul's jugular.
A white-hot heat coursed through him followed quickly by a searing nausea that spread from his gut to his every limb, Erebus' hold on Azkul slipping for a moment before quickly regaining his grip. Vision spotty, Erebus blinked and stared hard at Azkul.
"Not yet," he snarled. "Tell me everything."
"If only we had the time," Azkul said, still laughing until his face went slack. The man wasn't dead, Erebus could tell, but just as unease swept through his own body he felt it similarly wash over Azkul as the man fell unconscious. His eyelids still half-open, Azkul fell into a stupor, still held aloft in Erebus' grip.
"Shit."
Erebus let Azkul slump to the floor, not caring how the man's limbs met with the hard ground = and not expecting his own body to do the same.
First, it was his right leg, then his left. He held out an arm to hold him steady, reaching for a nearby pillar and missing by inches, his eyesight still spotty and white.
"Shit, shit, shit."
Erebus sucked in a breath and braced for impact, willing his mind to remain active even as it fought to put him to sleep. He'd fainted before, but not since he was a child. He managed to stay conscious even if the rest of him failed to follow suit, his body falling limp before he could will it otherwise.
Erebus fell, and the room exhaled along with him - a held breath finally released as time resumed and the kath hounds at his back bounded through the air and towards Azkul's half-lifeless body. Before Erebus could react, his mind still detached from the rest of him aside from the roiling nausea, two of the hounds grabbed Azkul by either arm and after a brief tussle over possession of the kill, escaped together with his body in tow. Erebus watched as the beasts wrestled his limp body through the doorway, down the hall, and into the night… leaving him alone with the last hound…
He closed his eyes. Braced for impact. The world went black, held somewhere between a nightmare and a held breath. Erebus felt the hot breath of the hound at his neck, its wet nose mere centimeters from his face. But just when he thought he felt a probing canine grace his jaw, it all stopped. Time, space, everything. It was as if he had been sleeping, everything that transpired before either a dream or a memory. And the next thing he knew, he was sound asleep in his bed.
Wait.
Erebus shot up. His eyes adjusted to the light, yet he could hardly believe his surroundings. He was back on his ship, in his room, in his bed. In the few moments before waking, nothing felt off. It was as if he'd always been here, sleeping soundly, and that everything following the moment he plotted a course for Tatooine had been a complete fabrication. But it all came rushing back to him as he blinked himself awake, a cold sweat taking shape like a second skin.
Maybe it had all been a dream, he hoped, willing that his sudden faintness dissolve as he swung his legs over the edge of his bed. But instead of finding any solace in his workspace, all he found was a pylon. Ancient and pyramidal. Sitting idly on his desk beside the onyx trinket his sister Eden had left him in said dream, making it all too real again.
"We are headed for the Japrael System, just as you were instructed," a soothing voice beckoned from the doorway. Erebus winced, keeping his eyes closed as he swallowed the sick feeling that rose in his throat, and looked at the vision of Jedi Master Lonna Vash as she approached from his cockpit. He hoped she, too, was a figment of some remnant nightmare. But no. She was here, in the flesh, and looking more worse for wear than he anticipated despite his wishes that she were not there at all. "How are you feeling?"
"How do I look?" he croaked, trying to crack a joke. Only Vash did not laugh. Staggering, Erebus lost balance as his left leg suddenly gave out. Master Vash moved to help but he waved her away, bracing himself against the wall as he cast his gaze about the room.
"Did you-"
"I recovered what I could from the ruin, yes," Vash affirmed before he could even ask. "I took everything I could carry, and then some."
Erebus tried to pinpoint what was new in the room, what else had been added to his collection besides the pylon, only to find his vision was too questing and fuzzy, too out of focus to make sense of. He pulled himself up again and looked Vash in the eye until the kaleidoscope image of her finally fell into focus as he asked, "And the kath hound?"
"Don't worry about it," she said, finally offering her hand.
Erebus looked from Vash to her hand, and back once more, unable to banish the thought of himself as a child again, seeking her help and approval. Instead of accepting her help, he pushed past her and into the cockpit, finally releasing a breath when he was seated in the pilot's chair.
"What are you doing?" she asked, not bothering to mask the sharpness in her voice.
"Plotting a new course," Erebus said, blinking wildly as he willed his vision and his full faculty to return amidst his poor state.
"To where?" Vash asked, rushing to his side. "Aren't you on a tight schedule? It's been almost exactly one standard week, what if we don't-?"
"We'll make it in time," he assured, doing what he could to convince himself as much as Vash. "This is just a quick detour."
"To where?" Vash demanded. Erebus refused to look at her, willing his gaze to remain fixed on his navicomputer.
"Don't worry about it-"
"Where," Vash hissed, this time holding his shoulder in a vice grip.
Erebus paused and closed his eyes, another wave of nausea rolling over him as he gathered his resolve. As soon as the faintness passed, he opened his eyes and looked at Vash.
He could still hardly believe any of the last week had happened, let alone the week before that, or even the last few hours. But the reality of it was sinking in now and it was coming at him fast. For a moment, he smelled cigarra smoke, wondering if he'd had an aneurysm - but before he could question it, the scent was gone and all that was left was Master Vash. She smelt the same as she had when she'd been his tutor, filling his cockpit with the scent of fresh synthetic cotton, the way all Jedi robes did on Coruscant. He remembered that smell. His room at the Archive had smelled of it, though Atris detested the fragrance entirely. If only the Jedi could find a more neutral dry cleaner, she'd complained once to which Erebus laughed. What was more neutral a smell than fresh linens?
"We're going to Malachor," he announced. He turned from Vash, though part of him wished to see the emotion play on her face as she registered his response.
"Malachor?" she echoed. "Malachor V?"
"The very same," he muttered. "It will give us time to prepare."
"To prep-" Vash sighed, "Ah yes, our masquerade."
"Indeed," Erebus said, his mouth thinning into a line. "We can test our Jedi slave charade on Mellric and Uruba. They're relatively low-ranked, but they aren't stupid."
"Mellric and-?" Vash repeated before swallowing.
"Don't worry about it," Erebus assured, "Just let me do all the talking. It will only better sell our story, to them as well as to Nihilus."
Nihilus, Vash repeated in a whisper, mouthing the name instead of saying it.
"I hope you're right," she said eventually, shaking her head.
Erebus swallowed, hard.
"I hope so, too."
3951 BBY, Telos IV, Citadel Station, Residential Module Plaza
Atton
"She's been gone an awfully long time," Atton muttered into his drink, uneased by Kreia's presence at his side. At least the old woman was turned away from him, their shoulders barely touching as they sat in chairs that faced in opposite directions of the local marketplace in an attempt to get a good scan of the plaza.
"I would not worry about her for the moment," Kreia said, picking at her plate of some foreign dish Atton found unfamiliar in both smell and appearance. Atton sighed.
The plaza was crawling with people - tourists, locals - each of them discussing something different. Most talked of mundane things, like the rising prices on the promenade or trends in the galactic stock market. But there were also whispers about the civil war on Onderon, a conflict Atton didn't remember being so big a deal the last time he was truly portside. Thankfully, no one had mentioned Peragus in his earshot, though there was some talk about something going down on Dantooine…
"What I am more concerned with," Kreia began again, "Is just how much more attention she may draw to herself, despite her better efforts."
"Who said I wasn't worried about that?" Atton hissed in Kreia's direction. "We've been spotted everywhere we've gone no matter what we do."
"And yet…"
Atton felt Kreia's gaze on him. HIs skin crawled, and unwilling to give her the satisfaction of looking back at her, he whispered, "Yet what?"
"We've been settled here for several hours, undisturbed," Kreia said. He could feel the smile in her voice as she said it, waiting for it to register before finally turning her gaze away knowing that her words had some effect.
"We-"
Shit. The witch was right. Anytime Atton had stepped out with Eden, there was trouble. And yet half a day spent with Kreia was the quietest his life had been since his second-to-last shift ended on Peragus.
"She won't be able to hide for long," Kreia continued. "It is best if we urge her along. Push her to leave this place-"
"But how?" Atton pressed. "We don't have a ship!"
"That can easily be remedied," Kreia responded. "Time is on our side, but only for now. The longer we wait, the less chance we have of getting out of here alive."
"But what if we-"
Atton stopped himself, his mouth moving faster than his brain.
He was about to say what if we leave without her?
If Eden was the only reason they were being spotted, then escaping without the bullseye permanently printed on her back would be a no brainer. But the thought of leaving Eden here, alone, somehow seemed impossible to him. Unthinkable, even.
"We are inextricably linked to her," Kreia said despite Atton's hesitation, as if reading his mind. "We cannot leave unless she does. The Telos Security Force would not allow it, not to mention I believe the Exchange already has our likenesses posted up in a bunker somewhere, along with hers."
"If that were true, then we'd already be seeing the other end of their blaster," Atton muttered, knowing that the only reason the Exchange didn't seek to bother him nor Kreia now was because they did know exactly who they were. If he'd read between Eden's words correctly back at the apartment, she was meeting with Luxa now, and the fact that their meeting had gone on this long didn't soothe Atton's nerves at all.
"Perhaps," Kreia rejoined. "But I suspect they lack an interest because our heads aren't worth very much money."
"Then what do we do?" Atton asked, unsure of why he was deferring to Kreia at all. The deepest part of him, untouched by regret or ego - the survivor in him - knew he should listen. Though he didn't know why. The baser, more surface level part of him, wanted to leave here as soon as he could. Be rid of both women faster than he could pull a blaster. And yet here he sat, beside Kreia and awaiting her counsel.
"We do nothing," Kreia answered. "At least for the moment. We need to wait until the opposing side shows their hand."
"Opposing side?" Atton echoed. "Who, the Exchange? Czerka?"
"Either," Kreia said. "Or perhaps both."
The woman further picked at her food but ate nothing.
"Only time will tell who we should be more worried about."
"And what of the Sith?" Atton asked only for Kreia to jab him hard in the ribs.
"They are of no concern here," she hissed. "At least not for the moment. Though if we remain here too long, then they will be everyone's problem."
Atton nursed what he hoped was only a bruised rib, as if suing Kreia were a possibility, while he scanned the plaza again. What would any of them do if the Sith boarded this station? After being dead for so long, resorting only to characters in fairy tales? Malak had been a menace not too long ago, but Atton was familiar enough with the average spacer to know that what Darth Malak spiritually identified as made no difference to the lot of them. Nor did it make a difference to him, for that matter. But would the threat of any Sith make these people move? If they could see the walking corpse Atton witnessed stare them down on the derelict Harbinger, would the people of Citadel Station know that it was truly coming for them? Would they, too, look at Sleeps-With-Vibroblades and think, rightfully, that life as they knew it was over?
"My question still stands," Atton repeated. "What do we do?"
Kreia remained silent, watching her half of the crowd just as Atton did, until she sighed as nonchalantly as if he were merely questioning prematurely what they were doing for dinner later that evening before lunch was even over, bored with the query in its entirety as well as Atton's existence. Well, the latter might have very well been true.
"We do nothing," Kreia said. "We watch, and we wait."
Atton nodded, though he was not calmed by Kreia's advice. It still all came down to Eden. Whatever she decided, whatever she had done in their absence… He couldn't tell if Kreia was bitter about this fact or accepting of it, her deadpan delivery of any and all responses so devoid of emotion that Atton hardly believed the old woman to be capable of feeling at all.
"You're not worried?" he asked after a minute's silence. "Eden aside, there's still a bounty out on Jedi. I wouldn't blame you if-"
"No."
"No?" Atton echoed.
Kreia refused to look at him.
"No," she repeated. "I am not worried."
"Alright, alright," Atton said, raising his hands slightly in mock surrender before lowering them again, realizing only bystanders could see him react to seemingly no one since Kreia faced away from him. "Sorry I even asked."
"It would be most wise if you did not act like such an idiot," Kreia sighed. "And it would be best if you kept most of your pressing questions to yourself."
Atton swallowed.
"Sure," he said, face reddening. "Whatever you ask for, your majesty."
Kreia jabbed him in the ribs again and Atton sucked on his teeth, instinctively keeping his expression as placid as possible.
"Whatever you say," Atton conceded. "Your highness."
Before he could relish in his own jackassery, Atton was thrust in the ribs again, Kreia's demeanor as calm as it ever was.
"If you retain any semblance of self-preservation," Kreia began, inching her head the slightest of millimeters in his general direction. "You would not test me."
More than anything, despite the pain radiating out from his ribs, Atton wanted to make another joke. The phrase your excellency even rattled around his empty shell of a brain between the Pazaak hands and hyperspace routes that usually took up residence there. But that same inner part of him that kept his idiot-self alive – a deeper part of him than he wanted to ever acknowledge, its depths more fathomless than his still-active gambling debt – knew that Kreia was not making an idle threat. She was making a promise.
"'Course not," he coughed, swallowing the swell of fear that took over him as Kreia shifted in her seat and nonchalantly looked about the room again as if nothing had happened.
"I fear you are not ready for what is yet to come," Kreia sighed eventually, sounding almost like a normal person again. "Nor is she. It would be best if we were rid of this station by week's end."
Atton opened his mouth, about to protest, but he stopped himself. Whatever it was he was about to say dissipated within moments, but the thought of him jumping to Eden's defense even in her absence gave him pause. Kreia had been the one to protect the woman's dignity the last time they spoke. Yet here she was talking as if Eden were merely a character in a holodrama.
"Weren't you the one that suggested we see where Telos brings us?" Atton asked, echoing the words Kreia had uttered in both the Ebon Hawk cockpit as well as in the sitting of their TSF-appointed apartment. "What happened to that?"
"There is more to Telos than this temporary station," Kreia said, finally taking a bite of her food and relishing in the taste of it, as if just to annoy Atton as he awaited an answer. After what seemed like an age, Kreia finally paused and dabbed the corner of her mouth with a mystery-cloth she produced from her empty sleeve. "It stands to reason there is plenty more this place has to show us."
Atton could see the faint outline of the planet itself from just outside the promenade window, though most of the landscape and its glowing atmosphere was drowned out by the traffic outside. Kreia spoke as if she knew something innate, as many Jedi usually did, and despite how on-brand it was – bullshit or not – Atton didn't like it.
"But I stand by what I said earlier, the sooner we get out of here the better," Kreia concluded. "And we had better do it fast."
Atton nodded absently, still staring at the faint outline of the planet below. He'd flown over here once, during the war – Revan's war. The memory of it had always been faint, as if it had all been a dream, but the recollection returned in full force now. As if he'd only just witnessed it. Much like the traffic that now crowded its skies, Telos' orbit had been littered with ships. Only instead of the common commercial or private fare that filled it now, it was full to the brim with Republic fighters and cruisers, all facing one another. Until pilots like Atton flew in. Darth Malak had approached the planet in his flagship Interdictor -class cruiser, the Leviathan, helmed by ex-Republic Admiral Saul Karath under Darth Revan's orders. Meant to lull their would-be enemies into inaction, Revan sought to confuse the armies poised at Telos' edge by having Malak arrive in a Republic-issued ship only to sic their cloaked fleet of Star Forge bombers when the Republic least expected it. Most ships were simply docked planet-side with nowhere else to go after the close of the Mandalorian Wars, not expecting to see any more action for quite some time. Least of all an unprovoked attack. Atton had followed orders, dropped bombs and flew off just as instructed. It hadn't been a particularly memorable mission, seeing as there was hardly any battle to be had, even if it would later be considered the beginning of the Jedi Civil War. To Atton, it felt more like an errand – done and forgotten. Until now.
"We should return to our quarters," Kreia said again after some time, finally standing though she motioned for Atton to remain where he was. "Keep watch for another half hour or so. Eden should be returning about then."
"But-?" Atton began, stopping himself before he could ask how do you know? Kreia did not wait for Atton to finish his thought and instead picked up her tray of food and deposited it in a nearby trash bin, dusting off her robes as if nothing of consequence had just passed between the two of them, or anyone.
Atton figured it best he never know.
3951 BBY, Telos IV, Citadel Station, Entertainment Module
Eden
"I can't believe they're stripping old military outposts," Eden seethed, pacing now in the back of Luxa's hidden apartment. She'd listened intently as the man she later learned was named Corrun Falt rambled on about each of Jana Lorso's corporate sins, appearing more enthralled than she was furious, the anger only unleashed once Luxa led her out of the lounge to let off some steam. "Not only do they not have the rights to it, I'm pretty sure the goddamn Republic does, but how in the 'verse does this woman think this plan is a sustainable one?!"
"She doesn't, love," Luxa sighed, lighting up a new cigarra, filling the air with its sweet smoke. "The girl just wants to turn a quick profit, and so does Loppak Slusk. As soon as Czerka Headquarters sees her numbers for the past year? Instant promotion, and then she's off this station. That's all the woman cares about, and she wants you to help her do it."
"But why not just turn me in?" Eden asked, shrugging her shoulders as she sunk onto the edge of Luxa's bed. "I'm worth a lot, dead or alive. She could make a name for herself that way."
"Lorso's a career woman," Luxa said with a smile. "I can respect that, but that means she sees your true value."
"What, like you did?" Eden snapped.
Luxa could have been offended but instead the woman just laughed lightly, tapping her cigarra lightly over the ashtray on her vanity.
"Sort of," Luxa chuckled, standing now as it was her unspoken turn to pace about the room. "She won't tell anyone outright, but as soon as rumor spreads about Lorso having an in with a Jedi? She'll have the respect and fear of everyone in that company. No one would have the balls to come up against her, which is sort of my idea too if I'm being honest, but I figured you'd at least appreciate that I sorta care about those hippie sluggish friends of yours and don't have any intentions of killing you." Luxa winked and flashed Eden a smirk. "But that's also where Lorso's stupid. Like Czerka Corp as a whole, her vision is short-sighted. I'm in it for the long game."
The long game, huh? Eden didn't like the sound of that.
"What was that back there, by the way?" Eden asked, tucking her hands beneath her legs. "Whatever it was Corrun talked about, Dal? And everyone in the bar knowing who you are yet acting as if they didn't see you?"
"You didn't figure it out? Jedi really don't get out much, do they," Luxa barked out a laugh. "They're all mine, dearie. On my payroll. Like the girls out there."
Luxa waved an absent hand in the direction of the remainder of her apartment, which was bustling with dancing girls in various states of dress just as it had been the last time Eden was here.
"So this is all Exchange?" Eden asked.
Luxa looked at her, tsked, and shook her head.
"Yes, and no."
Eden only cocked her head, unsure of where Luxa was going with this.
"Look," Luxa sighed, dropping her head for a moment before she shook out her limbs and readjusted her posture, a few embers of her cigarra fluttering to the floor in a hazardous shower of floating amber. "I work for the Exchange, yes, but I manage those guys out there. There's a connection, though not a direct one."
"How so?"
"There's a hierarchy, see?" Luxa gestured with her hands at an imaginary tree, cigarra embers falling just as before with each gesticulation. "I'm not quite a boss, but also not anywhere near an underling. Bosses control cities, sometimes entire sectors. I'm just a teeny tiny rung below a boss, not the second-in-command to a boss, though I do answer to Loppak Slusk just as Benok does but Benok is… well… Benok."
Eden had an unfortunate run-in with Benok the night she convinced Atton to play the Pazaak tables. Just as she was about to order another round of drinks and up the chips on Atton's table, a half-drunken and already-riled Benok knocked shoulders with her, more than insinuating that she'd have trouble on her hands if she didn't curb her boyfriend's winnings. Eager not to start anything, Eden had merely nodded and pulled Atton away, convincing him that it wasn't worth drawing any more attention to themselves if they wanted to remain unnoticed. Unfortunately, all of her forays into outfit changes and makeovers did nothing to hide the truth of who and what she was after that. Maybe Atton was right about the way she held herself after all…
"So what does that make you?" Eden asked. Luxa slumped her shoulders, her cigarra going completely cold with the movement as frustration took her.
"I'm sort of a mini boss, if that makes sense, but not as important as the head honcho," Luxa sighed, circling around the room again until she came upon the other side of the bed, forcing Eden to turn around uncomfortably to face her. Interesting power move, Eden thought. But okay.
"Like Loppak, yet unlike Benok, I manage some aspects of business. In my case, I book most of the entertainment around here, whether that be of the musical or physical variety."
"So… you're actually responsible for employing practically half the station?" Eden concluded, adjusting herself so she could look at Luxa again though now it seemed that the Zeltronian was purposefully trying to avoid Eden's gaze. "That sounds pretty important to me."
"Cute, coming from a Jedi," Luxa huffed. "You don't have any qualms about the fact that my business is still crime?"
"What if I did," Eden asked. "Why would you care what I thought?"
Luxa seemed to truly pause at this, smiling before affording Eden the barest of glances before turning away again, her eyes veiled by her scarlet hair.
"That's rich," Luxa said, the dark mirth still audible in her voice. "For a Jedi, I honestly thought you'd be harder to break."
"I know it doesn't matter to whoever put the bounty out on me or anyone looking to cash in on it," Eden said, "But I'm no Jedi. Not anymore, and not for a long time. I don't abide by some ancient code, though I won't say I don't have a, I dunno, a conscience. I haven't seen what you're fully capable of, that's true, but from where I'm standing you're the only shot this planet has at standing a chance."
Luxa barked out a laugh before side-eying Eden, giving her a more serious once-over than she had in their entire time together.
"I can't say I don't appreciate the help, especially since I half-expected it to take a little more sweet-talking, but is that really how you're justifying this?"
"The justifying's not up to me - or anyone. It may have been the prerogative of the Jedi Order once upon a time, but it's none of my business," Eden admitted, wondering what Kreia would have to say about all this. "This is a means to an end, no? And right now, it seems like the only available means to cleaning up a mess I should have taken care of years ago."
Now it was Eden's turn to look away. She felt Luxa's eyes on her back, sensing exactly when the woman turned to look at her when the weight on the bed shifted. Nothing could trump the guilt Eden felt after Malachor, and not just for what happened on that moon but every battle that preceded it - for Dxun, Dagary Minor, Serocco…
"I'm a lot like Lorso, y'know. I won't deny that," Luxa said, her voice low. The woman reached across the bed until the warmth of her hand met Eden's turned shoulder. "I can't say which side is good or worse, but all I can say is that I wouldn't dare throw away a connection with a Jedi, former or otherwise."
Part of Eden wanted to place her own hand on Luxa's, relishing in the closeness of someone else, something she hadn't let herself indulge in since Alek changed his name and started treating her as if they'd never met, much less shared a bed. But a bigger part of her wanted to know just how much Luxa knew, knowing there was no way she could ever truly trust the woman – or anyone, for that matter. Just as she never should have trusted Alek.
"Do you know who did it?" Eden asked instead as she looked Luxa directly in the eye.
Luxa recoiled as her pink eyes flashed wide, a question forming on her face as her red brows furrowed.
"Who did what?"
"Who put the bounty on my head?" Eden asked. "It was Exchange, wasn't it? Had to be."
Luxa swallowed before shaking her head, finally retreating after considering reaching for Eden again before realizing that whatever advances she'd planned or hoped to pan out would sadly not.
"Probably," she shrugged. "I don't know 'im. Or at least, I think it's a him. Knowing that sorta thing is waaaay above my paygrade."
Luxa got up and began to pace again, picking up her cigarra once more even though the end of it had long lost its fire.
"Wait, really?" Eden asked, spinning around to watch as Luxa moved about the space, trying to read her body language. The woman was disappointed, yes, though whether it was out of personal dissatisfaction or a matter of business, Eden wasn't sure. "You're a member of the Exchange and you have no idea who runs the whole thing?"
"Who would it help if I did?" Luxa asked. "That's how these sorts of operations work, sister. The fewer people know who the real higher ups are, the better. The safer they are. The more shit they can get away with."
Eden sighed, and Luxa swept across the room to pick up her chin with the tip of her manicured finger until they were face-to-face again, as if the last few minutes had never happened and Luxa was flirting as mercilessly as she was back at the lounge.
"But there's no need to worry about that now, darling," Luxa cooed, batting her lashes as she soaked in the sight of Eden as if seeing her for the first time again. "At least not yet. We know all of Jana Lorso's dirty little secrets, and we're going to take that bitch down. Together."
"But how?" Eden asked, slumping her shoulders. But Luxa only pressed her chin harder, forcing Eden to sit up straight like a disciplined schoolgirl.
"I saw what you did for the Ithorians back at the docks," Luxa said with a twinkle in her eye. "Don't act like that drunk in the lounge earlier didn't teach you anything."
Eden knew the man they'd roped into talking had revealed more than he should have, but she still struggled to see where in the world Luxa was going with this. "Yeah, and?"
"You're good with droids," Luxa smiled, her pink eyes glistening beneath her full lashes.
"Right?"