3951 BBY, Citadel Station, Residential Module 084
Atton
Switch the face of the +1/-1 card, the totals are nine-ten…
Atton was about to mentally pull another card from the deck, his eyes darting behind his eyelids in somewhere between REM sleep and something lighter and less fulfilling, when a nearby knock, knock, knocking woke him.
He shot up, eyes open and mouth dry.
He hadn't meant to drift off, his mind still racing with numbers but his body heavy with the thirst of sleep still weighing him down and demanding that he drink up more shut-eye.
Before he could relent, Atton swung his still-booted legs off the side of the bed and clamored towards his door, stumbling until he met the front one. With a slap of his palm the panel opened and one of Lieutenant Grenn's lackeys greeted him with a confused stare.
"I was hoping to see the General," she said, her light eyes flittering between Atton's tired frame and the empty sitting room beyond. "We have a message-"
"I'll relay it to her," Atton said, also glancing back and finding Eden's door closed. She must still be asleep, he thought, though another inner part of him knew that was wrong. Eden had always known when the door needed to be answered, as if haunted by premonitions of visitors before they even graced the doorstep. Either Eden was dead, Atton surmised though hoped otherwise, or the woman wasn't even here at all…
"I have express orders to-" the officer argued with a stern look before the comm at her ear began blinking and bleeping. Mid-sentence, she paused, raising a hand to her lobe. Her eyes grew distant as she listened to the message only she hears, though Atton could hear the distant voice rushing their words on the other end, the words unintelligible. "Alright whatever, just make sure she gets this."
The woman pushed a datapad identical to the one Eden showed him yesterday into his hands and turned on her heel. Atton watched after her, several other officers appearing out of seemingly nowhere in the residential hallway and following as if they, too, received the same distress call.
It was early. Too early. Hardly anyone walked the streets here, at least from what Atton could see - their apartment still barricaded by a swath of orange construction barriers blocking the entrance from street-view. But aside from the officers now hurrying down the causeway and the distant glow of the holo-trees lining the avenue, there was no one outside aside from Atton. Before anyone else could appear and spot him, Atton ordered the door shut.
"What was that all about?" Kreia asked, materializing behind him.
Atton startled, jumping at the sound of the old woman's voice just as he was about to lean on the just-closed door.
"Hell," Atton muttered, his mind still muddled with accidental sleep. He glanced at the woman's door, finding it shut just as it had been before. Was she sitting in the common area and I just hadn't noticed? A shiver ran the length of Atton's spine. "Just… something for Eden."
"Interesting," Kreia said, wrapping her outer robe over her kaftan. "I would say we should inform the woman, but seeing as she's been gone for over two hours-"
"Two hours?" Atton balked, suddenly more awake than he was moments ago. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit…
Atton rushed back to his room, datapad clutched to his chest, and instantly looked towards the window as well as the old-fashioned comm set on his nightstand. The window was void of signs just as the comm was void of any missed messages. If Luxa knows I let her out of my sight…
"Why didn't you say anything?" Atton hissed.
Kreia tsked, though it sounded almost like a laugh.
"As if you cared?" the woman said as she crossed her arms, calling him out. "I may not approve of it, but she will make it out of this mess, I assure you."
"Mess?" Atton echoed, his eyes scanning his meager room until he spotted both his second blaster as well as his Harbinger cache stuffed beneath the bed.
"I feared it would come to this," Kreia admitted casually, as if whatever she was about to reveal were both a minor inconvenience as well as an utter betrayal. "But I worry we may have overstayed our welcome. On Citadel Station, not Telos."
"What are you even talking about?" Atton asked through bewildered, half-slitted eyes as he holstered his backup weapon and secured a satchel to his hip with the gear he'd recovered from the Republic ghost ship.
"Just wait a moment," Kreia assured through a pleased smile.
Atton shook his head, but as soon as he did, the apartment console chimed pleasantly as if to answer his unspoken question.
"Go ahead," Kreia smiled, still far too comfortable for whatever Atton feared was going on. "Answer it."
Without removing his gaze from Kreia's smug silhouette, Atton moved towards the console and answered the call.
"Get off the station," Eden warned instantly. Her face did not appear on screen, only her voice. "Get out of here, the both of you."
"What's going on?" Atton asked. "Where are you?"
"Get off the station," Eden seethed with a poison Atton had yet to get a taste of. Another mood for the books, he thought sourly as he awaited Eden to elaborate. "Now."
Only she didn't. She signed off, the signal dead before Atton could demand further answers.
"I hardly expect you to heed that warning," Kreia smiled just as Eden's comm went silent.
Atton grimaced at her.
"I think we should-"
But before he could plot anything out, Kreia cut him off.
"I will head to the Ithorian Compound," Kreia announced. "I assume you shall do something different, and perhaps meet us later?"
Kreia was still acting far too casual, and far too knowing, for Atton's liking. He only advanced on her by a single step, raising a brow as he did so in hopes that it further belabored his question instead of uttering anything in response.
"Eden will want to protect them, yes?" Kreia said, tired now. "She will end up there eventually. And when she does, I will be there to meet her."
Without another word, Kreia swept past Atton towards the apartment's exit.
"Will you?" she asked before disappearing.
Atton blinked and she was gone. There was no woman in the hallway towards the residential exit - let alone anyone at all.
Atton sighed and nearly collapsed against the wall of the apartment, a thousand and a half thoughts spinning around his head.
He would make his way to the Ithorian Compound - eventually. But first, he would find Luxa.
And make sure his debt was paid.
3951 BBY, Citadel Station, Residential Module 082, Docks
Eden
"The Exchange rate may be fifty million, but my rate is one hundred million." The Quarren she suspected to be Lopak Slusk said with slitted eyes, a smirk gracing his face. Everyone present in the docks froze when the announcement first began to play on all available screens, but it was only when the bounty was announced that the room held its breath.
Eden stared back at the version of herself that had been Vale on Tatooine, her hair fully yellow-blonde and her eyes lined heavy with ochre.
"Bring the Jedi to me alive and I will not only pay you the unfathomable sum promised-"
Her face as Lena on Nal Hutta graced the sea of screens next, displaying a version of her with blue hair instead of yellow. Another face Eden no longer recognized.
"-But I will make all of your other errant dreams come true."
Now a version of Eden as she'd looked during the Mandalorian Wars stared back at her, her short hair cropped just beneath her chin, her eyes sharp and angry, a Padawan braid peeking out from the nape of her neck. And then a version of herself as she'd been just the other day - sporting her current outfit as well as Luxa's borrowed lipstick and all. Eden tore her eyes away from the screens just as everyone else did, her gaze meeting each of theirs.
"One hundred million credits," the Quarren repeated. "Go."
Eden stood splayed, surprised, before the whole of Citadel Station.
At first, no one moved. And then everything happened at once - a wave of motion and adrenaline and fear came crashing through the space, all hitting Eden at differing speeds. The fear and apprehension came first, the surprise only stalling the starvation of the credit-hungry inhabitants a moment before the first shots were fired and screams rang through the air like a bell tolling the doom of all - but mostly her. Half the station darted towards her while the other half only sought escape, causing both panic and frenzy that sought refuge in a space that could not possibly house both.
Eden's apprehensive hands prickled with electricity, as if she were a live wire. Without thinking, Eden ducked, punching her fist to the floor. The mercs around her collapsed in a confused heap, their eyes rolling back in their skulls as Eden turned back to Benok, his eyes wide as he still held Ithira tight in his grasp.
Within the span of a moment, Eden slipped into the man's window of surprise and slammed her open fist upward into his unsuspecting jaw. Benok stumbled back, loosing his grip on Ithira enough for Eden to grab the girl back and tried to push past him. She could see the Czerka ship just ahead in the doorway, a group of ignorant droids still loading its cargo bay as if this were usual fare. Pulling Ithira alongside her, Eden ran.
"What are you doing?!" Ithira hissed, shooting a hazardous glance over her back. Benok was already getting back to his feet.
"Just shut up and run faster!" Eden breathed as she willed her limbs to move beyond their limits, hoping the Force would grant her the grace she needed to make sure Ithira kept pace. "We've got a clear shot to the-"
But before Eden could finish her sentence, the breath already knocked out of her lungs, she was skidding to a halt and ducking on instinct - her eyes shut, her ears ringing. A few dark moments passed before the blinding bright light of the Czerka ship finally overtook her entire field of vision, their way out up in flames.
"Thought it would just be that easy," Benok laughed, suddenly at Eden's side, his mouth right at her ear. "Jedi?"
He uttered the last word with such vitriol that Eden almost thought it was the word alone, spoken like some spell, that sent her sideways - but it only took her a moment to realize it was a shockstick. Benok threatened to push it deeper into the side of her ribs, her chest aching and throbbing with errant energy.
"Big mistake," she muttered, her breath ragged as she tuned into the electricity coursing through her and redirected it until it exploded outward.
With a shove, Benok's eyes went wide, and he was sent back, the silhouette of his skeleton flashing through his skin and outer armor as Eden threw him off her and turned back towards the docking bay waiting area and its sea of angry citizens.
"Follow me," Eden hissed, pulling Ithira closer beside her. Ithira only looked at her wide-eyed, clipboard still somehow clasped to her chest.
"What?" Ithira balked. "Why?!"
Benok's advance guard still lay slumped on the ground at the dock's entrance, but just beyond them were a slew of what appeared to be armed civilians, eager to cash in on the prize that was Eden.
"You want to live, don't you?" Eden said, unholstering her blaster and shooting the first three to advance in the knees in quick succession before slamming the other two on either end with her suddenly extended Echani staff, all with the same hand. Ithira's wide eyes looked from each of the bodies on the floor as they fell before looking at Eden again and nodding fervently. "Quick, follow me. And duck."
Ithira lowered her head just as a flurry of blasterfire rained through the space. Eden grabbed the girl's wrist from behind and tugged until she was poised at her back, Eden's body acting as a shield.
"And stay close," Eden said once the laserfire runoff cleared. "That's about all I can promise you."
Eden felt Ithira nod at her back, everything about her as desperate as Eden couldn't afford to be right now.
Without thinking, Eden lashed out again, this time with her staff, until it met the jaws of three more pursuers from her left. She sensed them the moment her hand touched her staff, poised at the ready. And the moment the staff touched bone with its last victim, she threw her other arm out, positioning her blaster until it fired five times, knocking the assailants to her right down in fewer shots than she counted had aimed at her and missed.
The Force was coming back to her more easily now and Eden wasn't sure she was entirely thankful for its return. This is too easy, she thought before throwing another punch leftwise. This is just like Serroco.
You're too eager for a fight, was Kavar's main complaint when overseeing Eden's lightsaber training. But that had never been true. Eden could always anticipate the next action of those around her, as if blessed with second-sight to whatever card another person was about to play even if the talent didn't extend to something like Pazaak. Her ability to read the room and accurately predict her peers' next move was something other Jedi trained years to accomplish. But Eden had always been plugged into the thoughts - and emotions - of others. And often to her detriment. And now the desperation and the delirium of the docks fed straight into her veins, filling her with an adrenaline she almost didn't know what to do with.
I'm not eager, she'd argued. I don't start fights - I just finish them.
It had happened with Aiden, too, as well as Atris. And though Eden was not the only Jedi who chose to follow Revan, she was the only one to atone for their sins, to answer for their collective crime. Eden was the one left to end the war and clean up its unending mess. And it wasn't over. Not even after all these years.
"What do we do?" Ithira asked, breathless as she ducked again, the mob growing closer while people on the outskirts screamed and ran for cover. The shuttles outside were already piled up, the traffic out of here as much a hazard as being in a warzone. "Where do we go?!"
Eden glanced behind her at the way they came, her gut sinking to see the awning above come crashing down in a flurry of frenzied blasterfire. Blocked. To their left was the shuttle entrance where a horde of people crowded the mass transit terminals, overwhelming the underpaid staff, all eyes aglow with worry and fear as they watched the commotion surround Eden, as if they, too, were studying her face amidst the chaos. Shit. As if she weren't hated enough.
"There," Eden whispered as she pulled Ithira away from a group of weaponless brutes coming at them only armed with their fists. Eden shot at the awning above, hoping to recreate the mess at the secret Czerka entrance and whistling through her teeth when she did. "We go through there."
Amidst the pandemonium, infighting taking root all around her as the fight both grew and evolved, people either scrambling to get to her or off the station entirely, Benok emerged from the crowd behind her - his wrist launcher poised in their direction, his dark stare brimming with poison.
"Where's there?!" Ithira whimpered, blasterfire flying past her ear and singing her pristine hair. The girl groaned, her mouth on the verge of a scream as Eden pulled her along.
"Just trust me," Eden spat, shooting just past Benok before redirecting her gaze to the alleyway ahead. "I know where we might be able to get some back-up."
3951 BBY, Telos IV, Citadel Station, Entertainment Module
Atton
It was worse than he thought.
By the time Atton reached the edge of the 084 Residential Module, there were everyday civilians either running for cover or for the Citadel Station docks looking to escape the satellite city entirely. Atton began to follow them a ways, at least until he came upon the lounge at the edge of the main Entertainment Module.
The place was a mess, blasterfire filling the space even while the band on stage continued to play. Atton shouldered his way through the half-inebriated, half-harrowed crowd fighting for entry out of the space to cash in on the bounty displaying on all screens throughout the station. Right now, a version of Eden with blue hair played over the station's monitors, both over the commercial ones outside as well as the ones in here meant only to cover the latest swoop races for the patrons. Atton wasn't familiar with this version of Eden, and while he was on the same page as about everyone else on Citadel Station right now, another part of him felt some mixture of both betrayed and intrigued.
"Where's Luxa?" Atton demanded of the bartender once he worked his way to the bar, holding a blaster to the Trandoshan's head. The man only shrugged, shooting a thumb over his back towards the backstage area for musical acts. Atton ducked, side-stepping blasterfire as if it were a common inconvenience, before shuffling his way towards the back of the lounge, shooting a few rounds over his shoulder and hearing the satisfying thumps of bodies hitting the floor as he advanced.
"Luxa!" Atton called, finding that the backstage area was only full of smoke. "Luxa! I'm-"
But before Atton could make any threats, a hand reached around his face and closed over his mouth tight, pulling him into a corner, his blaster almost going off in the confusion.
"Shut up, you idiot," Luxa muttered at his side, pulling Atton down behind what he now realized was a makeup vanity for the dancers here. "Shoot now, talk later!"
Atton shook his face out, flexing his jaw before doing as he was told, dog that he was. The room was split in two, one half designated for what appeared to be makeup while the other half was dedicated to clothes and musical equipment. Atton threw a glance over the edge of the vanity to lock on a vantage point before throwing his wrist backward over its surface and firing several times, pleased to hear a couple more thumps meet the floor in response.
"I have some questions," Atton demanded despite Luxa's previous request and his current desire to spy his own handiwork. The woman only rolled her eyes, her pink irises betraying the whites for a second longer than she should have, especially given the amount of heavy fire they were under. "One of which being whether my debt is paid."
"The hell it isn't," Luxa hissed as she shot a few rounds over Atton's head. "You let the target out of your sight. As far as I see it, you abandoned your end of the bargain!"
"Does that change anything, though?" Atton said, shooting again before pulling Luxa down to the floor with him, an elbow pressed to her pink collarbone. "You wanted this to happen, didn't you?"
Luxa resisted at first, pushing against Atton's weight and threatening to bite his exposed forearm before pulling away and smiling her full-canine smile.
"Something like that," she smirked. "Watch out."
Atton shifted his head right and Luxa raised her pistol and shot, a body falling hard against Atton's back. Luxa groaned and pushed both Atton and the dead man's weight off of her.
"So what was my role in all this exactly?" Atton begged while avoiding offering thanks, knowing there were bigger questions to ask. Luxa only smirked at him again and continued firing beyond Atton's back as he fired beyond hers, bodies falling on both sides.
"Gain her trust," Luxa heaved, out of breath, but smiling still. "And get her to do my dirty work for me."
"Dirty work-" Atton began. He looked around him now, the room littered with both regular citizens, mercs, and Exchange. Infighting. "You wanted her to take care of the Citadel Station boss. Leaving you with a window to-"
Atton shot a few rounds into a group of men that rampaged into the room, turning just in time to shoot down a dancer that approached from behind before Luxa could. Luxa only smiled wider.
"Look innocent and inherit the job?" Luxa shrugged. "Something like that."
Before Luxa could look too smug, Atton grabbed her by the scruff of her skimpy collar and pulled until they were eye-to-eye.
"Take me to him," he growled. "Take me to Slusk."
"What, you think you could-?"
Atton assumed Luxa was about to say take him, but instead her eyes went wide. Atton shot at another oncoming interloper before shooting two of Luxa's men between the eyes at either side of her.
"Bring me to him."
Luxa's eyes shifted from side to side, glancing at her henchmen before nodding hurriedly and readjusting one of her heels.
"I suggest you don't shoot them," Luxa choked as she gestured towards the Gamorreans flanking the door, two lackeys Atton recalled having helped outfit him a couple of days ago in Luxa's luxuriously outfitted clandestine apartment. "We'll need their help if you plan on infiltrating Slusk's hideout."
Atton looked from one Gamorrean to the other, sizing each of them up with a furrowed and out-of-breath brow before returning his gaze back to Luxa.
"That is what you wanted, right?" Luxa asked, annoyed now. "Hot. Shot?"
Luxa seethed now, her rose-colored eyes flashing scarlet.
Atton watched Luxa another moment, her eyes growing more poisonous by the second, before he finally nodded.
Whether this was the right choice or not didn't matter. It was too late now.
It was too late for a lot of things, and Atton would have to be fine with that.
3951 BBY, Telos IV, Citadel Station, Entertainment Module
Eden
The cantina was empty.
The music blared again but to an audience of none. Unless Eden and Ithira spelunking what remained of the wrecked furniture within counted for anything.
"This is your idea of back up?" Ithira scoffed. Eden only turned her head, scrunching her face at the girl in response. "Maker, sorry."
I could have let you die, y'know, Eden thought, knowing it to be entirely too true. She'd done it before. On Dxun. I still could.
"She must be at the other place," Eden sighed, holding her blaster aloft while she kept her Echani staff at the ready in her other hand but detracted, holding it as an officer might hold a glowrod in a holo-drama. "Maybe we can-"
A light fixture overhead sparked and fluttered before crashing to the floor. Ithira screamed and Eden extended her staff hand, reaching out with the Force to stop the clattering metal from crushing the girl's head.
"Thanks," Ithira mouthed, slumping her shoulders as she dutifully followed Eden through the dimly lit and eerily empty bar. "You don't think-?"
Think what? Eden thought, rolling her eyes as she awaited Ithira to finish her sentence only when she never did, she turned to find the girl missing.
"Ithira?" she called into the half-dark, watching the light when the strobes hit for any sign of the girl's form.
Shit, he's here.
It was only a matter of time. Eden had hoped the cantina would still be full of people, if not littered with its own miniature version of the havoc still unleashing destruction across the docks, but most of all she was hoping Luxa or any of her contacts were holed up here making a last stand or something. Eden stalked the outer edges of the dancefloor, waiting and watching as an army of shadows flashed through the space, the lights strobing in and out of a sea of color and disparate darkness.
Idiot, she thought, closing her eyes for a second and centering herself. Use the Force. You dolt.
She used to be able to get a read on a place within moments, but Eden only saw bits and pieces, some louder than others. She could still sense the fevered energies of this place in its usual habitat, combat notwithstanding. And the same frenetic vigor coursed through her as she commanded - no, asked politely - that the Force show her the life signs of this room, as if she were conducting a seance instead of using one of her birth-given senses.
The room before her was unreadable, like a static screen betraying nothing of its contents unless the signal was honed in on. But to her left, in her periphery, as if she were trying to examine a room in the dark, she sensed the swoop track entrance and the lanes below - a race still ongoing, oblivious to the mayhem above. Eden stepped closer, but slowly, bookmarking the information for later. And while the rest of her Force sense caught up with her muddled brain, she waited, as if unaware that there was a man approaching from her right…
"I told you it wouldn't be easy," Benok whispered in her ear as he held a blade to her throat, the nose of his blaster pressed into her rib cage.
Eden only smiled.
"I never said I believed that," Eden smirked. She felt Benok tense and then press the blade further into her neck.
Eden closed her eyes and for a moment glimpsed the surface of Malachor. A part of her shuddered, but another part of her felt comforted somehow, more complete - Eden's past deeds coming to haunt her in her moment of need. How prophetic…
When she opened her eyes again, she willed her Echani staff to extend, but of its own accord - the Force working through it instead of the button just below her poorly poised thumb - just enough for its pointed edge to slam hard into soft space above Benok's knee, piercing the sliver of exposed fabric between his armor enough to send him akilter.
"You planning on taking that hundred-million for yourself?" Eden asked into the dark, watching the light for any sign of Benok as she retreated further towards the entrance to the swoop track, wondering where Ithira had gone.
"Doesn't matter whether I take you in or not," Benok hissed through gritted teeth not far from where she maimed him. He'd limped along the wall until he met the far one, his blaster still steady on her torso despite the distance from what Eden sensed through the Force. "I just want you gone."
"And why's that?" Eden asked after firing a few rounds in tune with the beat, sending Benok skittering sideways. Her smirk widened.
"I can't have you meddling in Lorso's affairs. That's my job." Benok offered, even though he knew full well that he didn't owe Eden an answer. But she figured the man enjoyed hearing himself talk. "Not to mention the pleasure I'll take in seeing the Ithorians suffer."
Eden faltered, her eyes going wide before she tapped back into the Force again, her sense of the room flickering like a poorly rendered image on a cheap viewscreen.
"Haven't they suffered enough?" Eden asked. "Czerka's already beaten them at every turn, why bother worrying about them anymore?"
Part of her was lying, knowing that her entire intention of staying here and pretending to help Jana Lorso was all a ruse to make sure the Ithorians received the resources they required to keep the planet afloat.
"You didn't really read that report, did you?" Benok mocked with a laugh. Eden tensed, her mind instantly referring to her scant memory of the contents of her datapad that morning, only recalling news of some abandoned military facility Czerka had its eyes on but finding herself clueless to anything else. Shit. "The Ithorians have been in league with a war criminal. Lorso's already working on a report to the Republic. Chodo Habat will be charged by the end of the week, mark my words, whether you finish that planetside mission or not. They're done for."
The current song on the cantina's playlist tuned out suddenly before the next one started up, and in the interim Eden heard Benok activate his wrist launcher, a missile blinking and at the ready.
"And knowing how deep in you are with those plant-loving sycophants, well, I just can't have you messing with my turf here on Citadel Station," Benok monologued before taking aim.
Eden counted three, two, one until Benok's rocket was set to launch from his wrist and made sure that she was silently gone before it made contact with its destination. She crept up on Benok, watching as he smiled in the light of his rocket's impact, relishing the moment when his triumphant smile turned to utter confusion to find that his missile met with a whole load of nothing.
"Citadel Station," Eden huffed, creeping up behind Benok until her blaster was thrust into the nape of his neck and her staff held into his side, threatening to pierce his ribs, a mirror to how he'd cornered her moments before. "That's smalltime."
Before Benok could retort, Eden smacked the man - hard - in the back of the head, watching with her poised staff as he stumbled forward.
"You plan on working under Slusk forever?" she chided further, kicking Benok when he was already almost down. He stumbled further until his head rammed into the hard ground, but instead of crumbling to the floor as his men had at the docks, Benok turned his fall into a sloppy fumble, tumbling until he emerged sure-footed on the other side of his stumble with his blaster held aloft again, his combat knife glinting in the flashing cantina light. "I pegged you as more of a go-getter."
"For now," he muttered. Benok wiped his upper lip of blood and smirked back at Eden, his wicked grin flashing at her through the strobing lights. "And at the moment, you're the biggest thorn in my Maker-forsaken side."
Before Eden could anticipate anything, Benok charged, running towards her at full speed until they were both sent back into the abandoned bar behind her. Glass came crashing down around them, a flurry of various liquids raining down as Benok struggled to grab hold of her neck and throttle her then and there. Choking, Eden gasped and punched. Benok went flying, her fist throbbing with pain but stopping her none as she got up and straddled the man. Benok looked up at her through a bloodied smile and an already swelling eye, thrusting his combat knife into her side only for Eden to ignore the wound completely and continue to pummel the man in the face.
"I thought-" Benok spit out a tooth, a sinful smile still gracing his blood-soaked mouth, "Jedi played nice."
He laughed, coughing up blood, though the knowing smirk on his face faded none. Eden hit him again and wrenched him up by the collar until they were eye-to-eye.
"See, that's the part everyone keeps getting wrong," Eden breathed, spitting in Benok's face. She smiled. "I'm no Jedi."
3951 BBY, Polar Plateau, Telos IV
Brianna
"You wished to see me, Mistress?" Brianna bowed, still standing on the threshold of Atris' study. She dared not take another step further out of fear of what transpired here last time, and thankfully Atris appeared not to notice her hesitation.
"That I did," Atris said with a serene smile as she rose from her desk. A pile of datapads more expansive than Brianna had ever seen sprawled the desktop in various stages of activity, some screens glowing dimly while the text of others seemed almost branded into the glass.
"Considering how successful your last assignments turned out and also considering that you are perhaps now more acquainted with this subject than anyone other than myself, I have another task for you."
Oh. The word formed on Brianna's mouth though no sound escaped her surprised lips. She'd remained in the academy much as she always had since her return, keeping her head low as she studied endlessly, sparring whenever her body did not require sustenance nor rest. The only difference this time being her elder sisters' willingness to acknowledge – and sometimes praise – her efforts. Brianna did not wish to ruin things now. But she also knew that denying Atris anything would cause dire consequences. Not that she had much of an idea of what those may be…
"I believe you are ready," Atris announced as she joined Brianna at the entrance to her study, Atris standing just within the room as Brianna stood just outside of it. "You might see it as another test, and you would be right, but I trust you are ready to be tried in such a way."
Tried?
Brianna faltered, trying not to let her dismay show on her face.
Had she done something wrong? Was this a penance of some sort?
"I understand, Mistress," was all she said in response. Atris liked that, her smile deepening only slightly as she bowed her head in the slightest as a means of reaching an agreement. "What is it you wish of me?"
Atris watched Brianna's penitent face for a moment longer than she would have liked before sweeping back into the room, examining its contents as if this was her first time stepping into the space. Brianna looked on, trying not to look too alarmed, waiting for Atris to elaborate.
"As discussed, or at least insinuated, the Exile will be coming here. Soon."
Atris' voice hitched when Brianna did not expect it to, the woman shuddering as she spoke before shaking her head and all evidence of her being bothered. Out of respect – and confusion, and fear – Brianna acted as if she had not seen.
"And when she does, we will exchange words. Words that will sit well with your sisters."
Atris rounded on Brianna again now, appearing as the rigid taskmaster she always did. Despite the severity of Atris' face, Brianna was calmed by this, comforted to see her Mistress looking like her usual self.
"I need you to quell their fears, however you see fit," Atris continued, clasping her hands before her until both of her wrists disappeared into the bell sleeves of her icy robes. "And I would also like… for you to follow her."
"Follow her?" Brianna echoed almost instantly. She took a step back, expecting Atris to react to her undue surprise and take it as an insult, but instead Atris only smiled her usual smile.
"Yes, I would like for you to follow the Exile and report back to me on every detail. It is of the utmost importance that you do this."
Atris swept back towards Brianna and took her hands up in hers, clasping Brianna's warm fingers in her cold ones until they were both held aloft between their two bodies in what felt like a pleading promise.
"Follow her how?" Brianna asked, the words coming out slowly, unsurely. She wanted to appear confident, as sure as her recent exploits had made her feel in the last few weeks, but suddenly Brianna felt as hopeless and clueless as she so often had before.
"Stow aboard her ship, make it look as if you wish to escape from here," Atris said, still clasping Brianna's hands. "I need her to trust you. I need her to confide in you. To tell you everything – about me, and about the Sith."
The Sith.
"She is league with them, I am almost sure of it," Atris said, though something in the way she sold it, Brianna doubted whether her Mistress believed in it fully, as if saying it aloud and expressing her desire for Brianna to find out made her theory all the more real. "I need you to uncover the link between and tell me everything you discover."
Brianna searched Atris' eyes, seeking some semblance of truth there. And there was – as well as a kernel of what Brianna could only label as fear, though she never knew Atris to be afraid of anything. Only cautious.
"Then I shall," Brianna said, unsure about the promise she was making but knowing she had no other choice. "Tell me what I must do?"
3951 BBY, Telos IV, Citadel Station, Entertainment Module
Eden
"Tell me where they are," Eden ordered, Benok's mouth spilling more blood than answers. "Where's Slusk?!"
The man laughed, spitting out his third tooth just as the sound of the cantina's doors burst open split through the constant thrum of the same song playing on repeat overheard.
"They're coming," Ithira begged, at Eden's side again after wrenching herself free at the sight of Eden beating Benok to a bloody pulp alone in the empty bar. And even if it wasn't empty any longer Eden had no intention of stopping. "We have to leave!"
"Only once he's told me where Lopak Slusk is hiding," Eden hissed, pulling Benok's mangled face close to hers again in absolute ultimatum. "Where that snake is cowering. Safe and sound in his little sanctuary."
She'd said something similar to a Mandalorian on Dxun, the one who eventually revealed the location of Freedon Nadd's tomb in a dying breath, a mixture of regret and relief painting his fading gaze even as she looked on his disgraced, unmasked face.
"Never," Benok smiled through his swollen face. He spit, blood and spittle meeting Eden's eyes. She lurched forward, but Ithira pulled her back, wide-eyed.
"I can tell you," she whispered, begging that Eden look over her shoulder at their approaching assailants. "I know where they are. Where he is."
Ithira was nearly in tears and Eden's sleeve nearly in tatters when the girl finally managed to wrangle Eden off of Benok, still alive but all the worse for it. Whether he would survive, Eden did not know. It all depended on whatever Citadel Station doctor the Exchange had in their pocket, and how much time the man had left to get help. Blood poured from the wound at Eden's side, but she stood as if it were not there. Her head felt lighter, dizzier, but the Force made up for it. And in time, the wound would heal itself, if she willed it.
Yeah, she thought, reluctantly. Just like Dxun.
"Can we please leave?" Ithira still clung to Eden's clothes as she rose to her feet, leaving Benok for dead. She glanced about the cantina, still awash in strobing lights but empty otherwise. When she reached out with the Force – rawer but more accessible now, the scent of blood still fresh on her nostrils – Eden knew the room was full of potential, but hidden, threats.
"This way," Eden whispered, pulling Ithira sideways and down the swoop exit.
"Wh-" the girl floundered, "Where are we going?"
"We're getting a ride," Eden said, matter of factly.
At the bottom of the flight was a dark alley that turned in on itself, half of the swoop bike course blocked from view but displayed clearly on the large viewscreen ahead. Swoop bikes zoomed past, thrusting hurricane level winds in Eden and Ithira's direction as soon as they stepped onto the lower landing. The space down here was untouched by the riot above, the sound of the swoop bikes almost acting as a calming salve to the incessant beating of the music upstairs.
"They're still racing?" Ithira asked, bewildered. Eden nodded, eying the tracks and waiting.
"Looks like they are," Eden said, knowingly. She watched and waited as a single bike swept off to the side nearby, no doubt for a series of quick repairs before tearing back off into the race. Pulling Ithira along behind her, Eden approached with what at first appeared to be a casual stride. But once the rider finally disembarked, the swoop bike's front motor both removed and replaced within seconds, Eden hopped aboard with Ithira behind her.
"Excuse me?!" Ithira protested, pulling back just as Eden urged her onto the back of the bike, looking wildly between Eden's serious expression and the array of confused stares around them. "You can't be serious!"
The miniature army of repairmen at their side shared the same sentiment, watching Eden with an equal amount of alarm as the discharged cyclist.
"Oh, I am," Eden urged, pressing Ithira into her back and holding at least one of her hands close around her waist as she accelerated and sped out of the repair terminal as well as the swoop track altogether.
A few Heys! and Get back heres! followed them out of the track and into the night, the swoop audience's usual cheers quickly turning sour before Eden could no longer hear it at all.
"Now," Eden ordered as she careened through the streets, "You're going to tell me where Lopak Slusk is holed up."
Eden sped onto the main thoroughfare of the station, bypassing poor passersby, and speeding intentionally towards anyone that looked as if they recognized her face from the ads still being shown on cycle over the city's viewscreens. Can't take any chances, she told herself.
"That wasn't a question," Ithira complained.
"You're going to tell me where Slusk is, or I'll let you off here," Eden finished, waiting until they were in a sea of credit-hungry civilians and bounty hunters approaching from all sides. She brought the swoop bike to a quick halt in their midst, a slew of weapons at the ready. Eden didn't blink – she only waited. Ithira blanched and held tighter to Eden's waist, the ex-Jedi's blood staining her hands.
"Alright," the girl relented against Eden's shoulder, closing her eyes as she nearly crushed her datapad between her chest and Eden's back as Eden hit the throttle through the crowd sped through the city's streets again, a series of hollers and yells following them. "I'll tell you."
"Good," Eden hummed, an old but not unfamiliar bloodhungry desire taking hold of her. "Now, where to?"