In the Presence of Enemies: Act Two

"In the Presence of Enemies" is the first in a series of short stories featuring the KoTOR II crew, re-exploring their story with a slightly different take.

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'Believe me your majesty, I understand your anxieties.' With Kreia, Brianna and Atton all in Jedi robes at her flank, and the Mandalore at her side, Jayna the Exile stood before the apprehensive Queen Talia of Onderon. Glancing at the Mandalore briefly, the Queen then turned her head back to Jayna, speaking politely and regally.

'It's not your intention specifically that I doubt, young Jedi. Please, step forward.' Talia descended from her throne as Jayna rose from her knee, the two of them meeting at eye level. 'Would you or your companions desire anything? I'd be remiss to welcome you to Iziz without offering something.'

'I'm quite fine. But thank you. I'd prefer to discuss my purpose here.' Set down in a cavernous gold hall, the throne room of the Queen's palace had taken long enough to cross for Jayna to take the time to question the Mandalore. Surprised that someone with his responsibilities would bother with her affairs or this man Dhagon Ghent's, she had had her suspicions. Though not calling him a friend, Mandalore had nonetheless complimented Ghent on his reliability; 'he knows what happens to people who break promises,' the armoured Mandalorian told her as they'd entered the palace. 'And a favour is a nice thing to be owed.' She had become accustomed to such vagueness from Kreia, but with so many strange faces filling her ship, only her pupils now seemed a refuge from uncertainty. Kreia in particular, cryptic as she was and prone to disappearing during planetary stops, offered only more questions.

'Yes, Master Kavar,' Talia answered. 'I know of him. I understand you've traveled a long way.'

'I have.'

'Have you heard of General Vaklu, Master Jedi?'

Jayna shook her head no. 'There is great political unrest in Iziz at this time,' Talia explained. 'One of my former Generals has been organizing against me, and I fear the threat of his will may manifest into something more physical. For weeks now I've been signing search warrants between tax documents.'

'I'm sorry to hear that.'

'Please understand: I would help you if I could, but I'm afraid you've traveled here for nothing. I cannot help you.'

Jayna felt a pang at this. 'We were informed by Dhagon Ghent that you could.'

'Yes, Mr. Ghent,' the Queen acknowledged with an air of disappointment. 'He was a loyal aid in my political office for many years. He must've angered someone greatly to have to conjure such information for outsiders.'

The Mandalore now made no attempt to suppress indignance. 'Outsiders?'

Jayna shot him a warning glare, and turned back to Talia. 'Queen Talia..I understand your reservations, I do, but this is important. It's about the Sith.'

'Ghent angered Vaklu because of his support for you,' Mandalore went on, 'which got him royally charged. For clearing him of that crime which you, the Queen, didn't even know about apparently, he gave me that information.'

'That's enough,' Jayna rumbled. 'Times are difficult everywhere, I realize. But the Sith are bearing down on us; hunting Jedi and succeeding, so it's very critical that we bring together as many Jedi as we can. Master Zez-Kai Ell has already agreed...'

'General Vaklu is my own cousin, Master Jedi. My flesh and blood is the greatest threat to the stability of all that I have worked my life to preserve. Do not mistake me when I tell you I know the sting of disappointment..but more so I am familiar with betrayal. I remember how many Jedi and good, honest servants of the Republic so quickly turned to the Sith.'

'Begging your pardon, majesty, but what exactly is your meaning? I've...' Jayna fumbled for words. 'I've never...'

Talia panned her view across the four Jedi standing before her. 'It would be most advantageous for Sith agents to bring together so many Jedi. By the very chance of numbers, it is likely there are Sith in this room.'

'You listen,' came the Exile's voice of military days past, ire rising, 'I've been hunted by the Sith for months now. Relentlessly. I look around me and all I see are black masks in wait and I can't...I've found Master Ell, and I need Kavar. I need to know where he is.'

'You would come before me, bring enemies of my people and of the Republic into my halls, and then make demands of me?'

Mandalore stepped towards her a pace. 'Enemies?' All at once the sound of weapons charging rang out from unseen places across the room.

'Stop this,' demanded a softer voice. From the bunching of the group Brianna stepped forward. 'Pardon my Master, your majesty. Our journey has been most laborious. We wish to cause you no offense.'

'She's caused enough for all of us,' Mandalore started, only to have Atton step in front of him.

'Back up, chrome job.' Mandalore tried to move again and Atton gave no ground, and his best ominous glare; 'don't even try.'

Seeing the man restrained Brianna continued. 'She seeks only to do the right thing: help her people. Please understand that our wish is only to aid her in this.' Jayna took notice at this, while Atton came in as well: 'And uh, we should get out of your hair now. Thanks for the audience and stuff.' He let go of his aggressive stance parallel to the Mandalore, catching a glance from Brianna. And Kreia.

Talia surveyed the group carefully again, and gave Atton a polite nod. 'The hopes of Onderon go with you. Safe journeys.'

---

'Damn it!' Jayna slammed her hands down on the circular console in the Ebon Hawk's main chamber, glaring down into it with all her frustration as though it were the guilty party itself. 'Weeks...we finally get there..'

'I take it things didn't go well?' Bao-Dur politely observed as he worked on HK-47. The entire group stood about, save for Visas, who remained unseen. As Mira quietly watched, Brianna and Atton stood patiently at their Master's flank, and Jayna's own Master was none too subtle about being in her face.

'That was an impressive implosion. We're quite fortunate not to be lying dead in the palace waste heaps, and the Queen will most certainly not help us now.'

'Thank you, Master. That's very helpful.'

'I tried to help, but you wouldn't listen,' Kreia hissed back. 'Your apprentices were the only saving grace. Not only did you fail to apply a single thing in your general approach that I advised you to earlier, you crumbled. You gave away critical information about your motives with nary a prompt! If the Queen or any of her aides are found to be in alliances with the Sith, I should say we may yet join someone's trash heap.'

'So it really didn't go well then,' Bao-Dur quietly concluded.

'You weren't of much help either.' The Exile turned with hostility on the Mandalore. 'That was no time to be getting xenophobic.'

'Don't blame me for your problems,' he fired right back, 'I brought you in as a peaceful agent and acted as a third party. That was it. You blew up. You pissed off the Queen, not me.'

'What should I have done then? Everyone seems to have advice or criticism of some kind and yet none of it amounts to anything.'

'I told you..' Kreia started in.

'Yes, power. I know. We've had this discussion.'

'Clearly you heard none of it. You listen with the intent to reply, not absorb. You treated the Queen the same way. Any ruler worth their crown would've held such insolence in deadly contempt; you are lucky for her weakness.'

'Because she didn't kill us she's weak?' Jayna shot skeptically.

'We brought an enemy of her people into her court and she barely mustered a suspicious tone. The will of her people shifts and she frets and moralizes rather than acts. Yes, I should say she is very weak.'

'I'll try to kill more people next time. Perhaps that will please you.'

'I don't need to hear this. Rabble on your own, I am done.'

Kreia turned and headed towards her dormitory. As those on the periphery of the current events came into the discussion, Mandalore stealthily retreated and followed her into the corridor to catch her attention.

'Hey.'

'I informed all of you..'

'Tell the kid whatever you want, Kreia. You and I had a deal.'

'It was less a deal and more of a ransom,' she tittered with some amusement. 'I have something you require, and you have no other way of getting it.'

'I helped your little kiddie pal. Once again: not my fault she screwed up. Now I want my information.'

'You want?' Kreia chuckled with condescension. 'You are so driven by emotion Canderous Ordo. Revan, for all his strengths, was mightily passionate; I can see why he chose you over all. You will aid the Exile, and only then will I tell you of Revan's fate.'

'You clearly can't stand the whelp. Why are you helping her?'

'It is but her temperament that infuriates me. She needs to reach something, and she has what she needs; it is but the realization she lacks. In time, you, like all aboard this ship will play their part in her fate. Until then do as instructed. Make another demand of me and you'll receive nothing.' With confidence she turned and headed down towards her room, leaving the Mandalore to skulk off in his own direction. Back in the main chamber, the group continued chatting.

'Assurance: Master, had I been there I would have been quite willing to help you kill as many despicably disrespectful monarchs as an inbred pack of royals could ever produce.' Jayna let out a deep, tired sigh, still not taking her eyes of the console.

'Are you gonna be alright?' Atton asked her.

'I need time.' At this she pulled herself away, wandering off to the back of the ship.

'Great,' Mira huffed. 'All for nothing.'

Bao-Dur rose to his feet, joining in. 'I'm sure there'll be a way to fix this. She's gotten us out of tougher situations.'

'Directive: Cease with metaphorical considerations of repairs and continue the literal ones on my drives, Iridonian.'

'Yeah, well she could probably use someone to tell her that right now,' Atton added, ignoring HK, 'I'm gonna go back there.'

'Atton,' Brianna called after him, struggling somewhat with her words, 'I am...grateful for the help you gave me in the palace. Thank you.'

'Well don't sound so pained to say it,' Atton quipped as he exited the room.

Mira walked around near where Brianna stood, running her hand softly along the console. 'It's weird, you know. I keep thinking eeby jeeby about this whole deal -- traveling the Galaxy with almost a dozen people I don't even know -- but for some weird reason I get the feeling you're right, horn head.'

'She's a leader,' Bao-Dur proudly chimed, 'she inspires confidence.'

'Not really. Especially not after that. I don't know what it is.'

Brianna turned to Mira. 'You said it your own self, bounty hunter. It is a feeling. My master has a magnetism to her. It is like a force that binds us; we know her mission is ours as well.'

'No, I feel it. I don't know it.'

'Condescending Statement: Yes, feelings. Explication: Chemical imbalances that function only to override logic and direction. Statement: I feel no such loyalty. There is only the directive with my Master, and where she orders my crosshairs to fall. Repetition: There is no 'feeling.''

'That,' said Bao-Dur as he returned to work on the droid, 'and she'd scrap you if you stopped listening.'

'Baleful Retort: I obey because it serves me. Proud Statement: I am able to create my art with her directives.'

'Aww, the little droid likes art,' Mira mocked the HK. 'Gonna make us a mural of boppy little Gizka frolicking on a sunny hill?'

'Abhorred Reply: That is a thing of nightmares.'

---

The months following the origin of name Atton Rand were filled with torturous exercises for the man who had assumed it. He found Lina to be the least verbose of any of his superiors at the Sith Academy, preferring quick, pointed description over explanation and possessing a distinct dislike of having to repeat herself. Most painful then were her memory exercises, which Atton was put through as often as physical exercises. The average work week for a businessman on a core planet couldn't be completed in the amount of time per week he would spend in a dark room with a logic puzzle, with no friend but the pricking of something that felt sharp and cold running up and down his back. He had never been certain if it was a trick of the Force arranged to keep him rough and distracted as he worked, or a simple effect of the room; whatever it was it had done the job as no other distraction could. Every shadow seemed to articulate itself into a menacing form and every sound was like an army drum's pound thundering forth. Atton had learned to complete these logic puzzles quickly.

But those were only some weeks, and others were filled with more prosaic but equally difficult physical exercises. At last, as he had been promised, he was tested excruciatingly; from standing on a pole for 13 hours to days-long voyages into the Korriban desert, Atton faced death or the desire for it so many times such that after three months of extensive training regimens, the word became as neutral to him as 'sky' or 'ground.' But the severance of the connection to life it implied still held him in a grip, and his refuge from death's gaping maw was built on the foundation of his superiors' delight in his skills. If that were to become undermined, everything built on that foundation would collapse and tumble right into it; the Sarlacc nested a few miles north of the Academy made this threat literal. And so facing his end in the desert brought him safe refuge at home in the Academy. Yes; at last, it had become a home.

No one bed or place in the vast Academy was ever stayed in for too long by those that were a part of the group looked after by Force Sensitives, but home was more a state of mind than a location. Home was safe and warm; security in oneself and a solid knowledge of the path that was laid down. Atton had never had this before in his life, and those who trained his eyes to see it earned his respect. His fellow students under Lina were very much unlike the average Sith recruits in that they thirsted for knowledge and power, but recognized the value of others in achieving those ends. And Lina, a razor-sharp brood-mare to them all, was an unforgiving but wise matriarch who managed to walk the line between teacher and companion well enough to earn both loyalty and fear from her pupils. She earned Atton's the day she effortlessly beheaded Ermen, who'd targeted him during an exercise; such was their power that these attacks from lower ranks were routine, but never successful. These were the Sith that made the Galaxy tremble.

Before long their unique unit earned the attention of the most powerful leaders in the Sith Empire. As the war slowed from a rapid flurry to a driving wave, and the brass became comfortable with the amount of control they had over the Galaxy, the higher-ups made time to review what their subordinates were doing in preparation for the future. In a surprise visit, Darth Revan and Darth Malak, flanked by the newly appointed Admiral Saul Karath, fell upon the Academy one day. Their newly made battle-cruisers, sleek and silver, constructed in locations unknown, descended upon the courtyard with disquieting grace, a lone personnel transport bearing down from one of them. Unannounced to the general populace of the Academy, their presence stunned all in their wake as they strode through the halls, Malak and Karath occasionally talking to each other as they walked at the more pensive Revan's flank.

No one dared approach nor speak in their presence, for it seemed as though entire worlds closed them off. A mystique that no mortal deed could achieve shrouded their every step, most true of Revan, whose signature black robes, flowing, rippled cape and armoured, battle-worn mask symbolized the untouchable nature of these Gods. The places they had walked and the things they had done choked the voices out of anyone in their sight. That day had started inauspiciously for Atton as he slumped back in a rec lounge chair, watching a holofeed with a fellow student and chowing down on one of a few cooked shryacks he'd netted during his last test in the desert. Giving no real indication of what awaited them, Lina entered and called the two of them, as well as the few others lounging around, to attention.

'Lord Revan is here, and has requested to meet you.' As quietly as she had come Lina departed, leaving the recruits to be choked themselves. No outward reaction could possibly reflect what filled Atton and his brethren at the sound of these words, and it was all they could do to pick themselves up to find their robes. Before they could even come to the main hall, the three leaders of the Sith Empire entered the plush, comfortable lounge. Unsure of what to do, the students silently lined up to face their grandest of Masters, humbled not merely by pain of death, but by the context of life; their masters' significance, and their victories.

'These are my best, my Lords,' Lina told them. 'They have trained with diligence, intelligence and great ability. All have accomplished the greatest of tasks that have been set before them, and all of them are ready to be sent into the field.' This was news to Atton. Malak whispered something to Karath, but Revan's focus was entirely on the group. Hands folded behind his back he swept slowly forward until only a few feet away from them, and then took a slow pace up the line they stood in. As though the Dark Lord sensed Atton's very deepest wishes to be elsewhere, he took a place right before him, staring right at his face. Every organ twisted in on itself, and yet his eyes remained absolutely still, their expression mirrored in the deep black visor of the Dark Lord's mask.

Turning swiftly on his heel Revan had faced Lina and stated simply: 'They will do.'

---

Fresh from the roundtable discussion, the Exile sat on a supply room crate, her unwavering stare penetrating things miles in front of her. Her lightsaber hilt rested lonely and untouched on the crate to her left, and Atton sat to her right in his most reverent understanding way.

'I wish I knew what to do,' she blandly uttered, 'I'm supposed to 'save the Galaxy.' What does something like that even mean?'

'Think it out,' Atton responded, hoping to help. 'What saves the Galaxy? Jedi. Jedi are good. You've got me and the white-hair trained up pretty nice, after all.'

Though calm and low, her voice didn't sound depressed; solid, rather. 'The two of you saved our collective hides today. Brianna saw right into the heart of it and knew what to do. I miss that clarity.'

'And what -- you don't think that came from your training?'

Jayna shook her head. 'Whoever gave her that stern inner calm was someone exceptional. She'd never say it either, but she's just so proud to be training and to be with us.' Pure conviction rolled off of her tongue. 'Kreia's right.'

'You know I have to smack you on general principle for saying that, right?'

The Exile smiled, though again through weariness.

Atton smiled back even bigger. 'Or how about we smack her instead? I'll hold her down and you...' She titled her head in his direction as he rattled. '...too much? Yeah okay. But you really should do more of that, you know. The looking like you actually want to live life by smiling.'

'What I like doesn't matter. In fact, I don't think much of anything matters right now. We have to survive.'

'Jayna...' Atton searched himself, shaking his head a little. '...people like you and me, we know there's things worse than death.'

'You would be right if it was just my life that was at stake. There's so much more. I've always known that, but this is the first time that it ever felt like...' She trailed off into a hush.

'Like you might fall short right?' the other surmised. 'Trust me I know how that feels. Not much scares me more than that. I mean, so much stuff has happened to me to get me here, right? And now I'm trying to get to the new place, but I have no idea where that leaves me. I feel like I'm stuck, and unless I do this big thing which I don't know what it is, I just sit here in the middle not knowing what the hell.'

'I know how hard that is, I do, but this goes far beyond it. There are five Jedi left out there besides the few of us. A Galaxy of trillions of humans and quadrillions of others and there are five true Jedi Masters left: Ell, Kavar, Vrook, Vash and Atris. I've already written off my chances with two. Do the numbers.'

'I would rather fudge a bantha,' he declared, deadpan. 'I hate math.'

Jayna sighed with affection. 'Does everything have to be a joke?'

'Only the serious things. Love, dying, explosions and ironic names. Anything else is just too simple.' His pure ease with this response warmed her to the core; it seemed like she could forget what mattered.

'You always make everything seem right,' she confessed, a glow lit across her entire face.

Taking the opening, Atton's voice grew softer. 'Well it's one of the few easy things worth doing.' They held a comfortable silence for the moment, lost as they stared at one another, until Atton moved forward and began to lean in towards her.

Jayna snapped to her feet like lightning. 'I uh..I can't.'

'Why not?'

'Not now. There's just too much happening. Maybe after.'

A little surprised, he backed up. 'Okay. I get that,' he still assured her, 'I've got time.'

'Thank you.' They held another moment of silence, and both took their turns breathing out, releasing the tension and reverting to a casual state. Atton stood as well.

'That's better. Anyway, I think I'll hit the cold metal hay. Wish me no nightmares. Three nights in a row is enough.' With a stretch of his upper body he wandered off out of the room, leaving a calmer Exile to deal with the Mandalore, who entered in his place.

'Later,' she quickly told him.

'No, now. I have news. Dhagon Ghent says he has something for us. I spoke to him in town not an hour ago and we might still be in luck.'

'You went to speak to him tonight? Why?'

'Playing my part, I guess you could say.'

Clear-headed at once and satisfied with this, she grabbed her lightsaber and rose to her feet.

---

She watched them go from the shadows; first Atton, presumably to his bunk, and then Jayna and the Mandalore to the ship's only exit. She absorbed all she heard and felt with a sharp breath, feeling it sinking in with the blood rush to her head that followed. Brianna let it flow out. He had mentioned dreams; constant dreams. She'd not heard a word thereafter. Dreams. Like the ones which she'd been having every night for three nights now, in which a faceless man murdered a beautiful Jedi; they were not merely hers. They were never clear, and no words could be heard, but there was always the feeling; the sheer terror that poured from them when she begged. Now she was sure.

'He killed her,' Brianna whispered to herself. 'My mother.' She stood numb in the middle of the corridor and watched the astromech droid pass. 'For days I've...I felt it in him but now...' Now she knew. He had spoken the words, and she had felt the connection as he said them. For days the question of action had stirred uncomfortably within her and today it had threatened to overtake her during training. However, the context of the murder was as unclear as the dreams themselves, except for the truth that Atton had, many years ago, been a man to murder a Jedi; Arren Kae, whom Brianna recognized every night in this nightmare. Now the man who had killed her trained as a Jedi.

'I can't..' she let slip as her thoughts raced, thinking of every moment she'd cried out for her mother and had only the cold respite of her half-sisters and Atris' judicious wrath. Did he owe her all of this? Did the man resting peacefully in the bunk down the hall bear the weight of this woman's very world on his shoulders? What had he made her? Brianna drew another sharp breath, managing to guide herself back into the main chamber, which now stood clear. She could hear Bao-Dur's tools clinking in the cockpit and it was likely Mira had gone to sleep like Atton. The thought that grabbed her first as her mind slowed to logical pace was one of her Master.

'She's been training him,' she said more resolutely to herself this time. 'She doesn't know.' By what fate the former Handmaiden had been sharing these dreams with him was uncertain, but the sentiment it left her with was clear: she was afraid, and the reason to be so was sleeping aboard her very ship, 'pursuing' her Master no less. She went towards the exit, intent on thinking in the night air of Onderon when a shadow slinked from the hall behind her.

'Something troubles you,' came the rasp of Kreia's subtle tenor as she stepped into the main room. She wandered forward slowly, almost cautiously, peering at the young Jedi as if to see more than expected.

'It's nothing,' Brianna muttered back, uninterested.

Kreia moved her head up and down in a quiet analysis of the girl. She took a long moment, not speaking or moving until Brianna began to shift uncomfortably. 'Every inch of you boils over merely nothing?' the old Jedi commented knowingly, 'I think not.'

'Then consider it a matter of disinterest.' She started walking away.

'So much turmoil I sense in you, daughter of the Echani. It cannot be healthy to keep so many terrible things bottled in.'

Brianna stopped in place. 'We all have our secrets,' she replied, then turning around. 'I often wonder about yours.'

'They are great and many, I assure you,' Kreia curtly informed her, 'but I am merely a brick in the labyrinth of your troubles, this we both know.'

The younger woman stayed where she was, curious of the spinster's motive. 'My master may be bound to you in whatever way she feels she must be, but I am not. You are but a puzzling nuisance to me.'

Kreia heartily scoffed. 'All I seek is to make her able, and yet you seem wary.'

'She would be right to be wary of you,' Brianna countered with apprehension, taking a slow step forward, 'she worries for those she cares about, that they may be turned on by enemies in hiding.'

'You listen to me...' Kreia growled.

'And why should I?'

'Because there should be at least one fool on this ship who would!' The sudden jaggedness to her voice surprised Brianna; a difficult feat after years under Atris' tutelage. Tired now with her bile expended, she rested her arms on the console. 'Long before you learned to draw breath, I fought in the war against Exar Kun. I watched my fellow Padawans die by the hundreds. Those you thought you knew turned astoundingly quick to slaughter their oldest friends and wisest Masters for the mere promise that the Sith gave them: that they would be in the right. And because we failed to act, they did so for years. You don't think I understand how the Exile feels? She cares for all of you, blindly, and to a fault. And I understand because I remember.' She looked away, much of her face obscured by her robes, but the hint of a quiver in her voice unmistakable as her tone cooled. 'Sometimes we must do the thing we hate, the thing least ourselves, to accomplish what must be done. And if we hesitate, even for one moment, all we beget is more loss.' Brianna didn't take her gaze off her, rigid brow peppered with the growing mist from her eyes. 'I am as I am to your Master because I need her to understand things of this nature,' Kreia concluded. 'And you would do well to remember them, too.'