The Whitesun System

For a long moment Cynthiana said nothing, she matched her friends stare, and out of the blue she said simply, "Seven. All of them imperials. All of them..... all of them dead." With her hand she activated the holocron and brought up some images of seven different Sith Lords, including the Sith Emperor and Darth Zannah. "Ever since I first activated this holocron on Moorja, and drew that Sith to me, to us, Androths killer. I have had nightmares constantly of these seven. Harming you, Snowy, Master Yoda, My mother, my brother. me. Though Master Yofda helped me, I learned to control my anger, I masterd it yes, But. it does not lure me anymore."

The images faded and the holocron shut down, locked up so to speak. "I can use the Lighting, but it does not lure me to darkness, or drive me crazy, At this moment the only person I'd use it on, if I ever got the chance, is this guy." She withdrew a holorecorder and activated it, it showed a young man, half is face was a droid armor, and his left arm also droid armor. "According to legend, three thousand years ago doing the zenith of the Republic this man and his twin brother attacked the Sith Empire, and Galactic Republic at once, When the battles were over, he had disappeared."

She sighed, "During the battle of Kamino, my squad and I stumbled upon a tomb on an island on one of Kaminos moons, it was filled with carbonite statues and cases, In a stasis chamber on that island. He was within, locked away in time. If anyone I would use this power on, its him, and him only. The other seven are long gone, slain by him already. He is the only one left, I do not know his name."

She smiled faintly "When those droids first attacked us in the sewers, You had zoned out, To defend you and Snowbund I used that power, I shorted one droid and fought another, the third just watched, then briefly fought me and fled. The only time I use the lightning is to defend myeself and others, or destroy items marked. Those droids tracked us that far because of a tracking device one planted, on me. I fried it with force lightning. But when I first learned the ability, I asked Master Windu to help me learn to properly harness and use it. Here" Cynthiana dug through her bag and withdrew a holorecorder, "This contains everything Master Windu and I did, I recorded all of it for future use. I promise you, you can trust me."

She then gave a curious look to her friend, "After everything I have said, do you still want to go to Kamino, to try and get the Eagle back ? Because if you truly do, I am with you."

Kinara seemed satisfied with Cynthiana's answer, and her expression softened tremendously, even smiling softly. "Well then; let's get to Kamino..." she smiled. She stood straight and stretched out her back, a few pops ringing out. She stretched out and grunted. "If we can steal the whole Eagle we'll be able to do what we damn well please within reason; and use the Tartans for whatever we want too." she smiled.

She ran plans in her head; the whole Obsidian Eagle.....That'd be great..... She smirked. "I'm takin' the whole damn thing.....and the Tartans...." She smirked and giggled excitedly.

She then cleared her throat and smiled. "Well....I'll be meditating in another room...lemme know when we reach Kamino."

It was two seconds later when Snowbund called out "Kamino! Everyone awake ?" The Kraethian stepped from the bridge of her CR90 and into the commons deck one level up that held all the bedrooms and conference rooms. Even after the Purge years before Snowbund had stuck with her normal clothing, the Jedi Robes were too... how did one say it ? Trouble magnetic ? No that wasn't right, but it somehow did the job. The less one were the traditional Jedi Robes, the less change they had of getting caught, or worse, killed by the Empire.

But that was then this was now, and Snowbund still had her same outfit she wore with Kinara all those years ago. In fact as she adjudsted for the tenth time in as many minutes the collar of the top she wore, as she stepped into view she spotted Kinara. It was odd, Kinara was a wonderful friend and a good Padawan. But she remembered something briefly about the outfit. Kinara had briefly complained, then saw the outfit the Kraethian wore, and then it was all blown to heck and back.

Yet Yoda said nothing, and nobody else in the order seemed to care whatsoever. So it seemed fitting for Snowbund to wear such clothing as a Jedi, heck, as hammered as she was recently it was a small wonder she even WAS a Jedi still to begin with.

Cynthiana sat nearby, her eyes closed as she was trying to meditate.

Well, her eyes were closed until Snowbund announced their arrival at Kamino. Her eyes snapped open, oh Holy Sith this wasn't going to be good was it ? But all worries were chucked clean out the airlock when Cynthiana saw Snowbundf step into view. "And I thought the Jedi Robes were itchy, you take it to an entirely higher level, Sunrider" Snowbund snickered at the thought, Cynthiana rarely went anywhere in a Jedi Robe, hell she always wore the black number.

Somehow Snowbund was relishing and wondering what Kinara's reaction would be if Cynthiana was that surprised to see that much fur to begin with

Kinara paused as she heard Snowbund's entrance and announcement that they arrived at Kamino. "Oh....alrighty then." She yawned and stretched out. Her own Jedi Robes that she wore currently were filthy, evident by the old stains on them. She looked to Snowbund as she entered and a small blush came back to her cheeks. "I forgot you still had those...." she said. To be fair, she would have noticed earlier, but she was extremely sleep deprived.

She turned and brought her bag over to her with her Force Grip, smiling and patting Snowbund. "I'm going to freshen up. Sleeping for...what, three days? straight with no shower or anything sucks...." she cleared her throat and disappeared into a random bedroom that looked like it hadn't been used.

Once there she laid out her fresh set of clothes, which included Old Republic Jedi Battle Armor she managed to find while adventurin on her own, a fresh hooded robe, and usual robes and undergarments she'd need. After she that she did what she needed to do, stripping down, showing, drying, etc. Then got dressed again after making sure she was completely dry and her hair was brushed.

She was putting on the hooded robe when she came back out from the room she'd showered in to look for Cynthiana and Snowbund, lightsaber hilt on her belt at her hip, and the shoto guard hilt in a slot on the back of her belt. The Robe covered most of her body, but underneath it, the faded green Jedi Armor still held true and strong, despite its needing of a new finish.

"Yep, almost choked a lot too recently" One more adjudstment went the collar before Snowbund just up and gave up. The Kraethian was about to mention the spare stateroom with a refresher she was welcome to use when Kinara was actually headed to th exact one Snowbund was going to point out. Well that worked out better then expected for sure!

Cynthiana smirked, "And here I thought you got rid of those"

Snowbund smirked again, "nope, Yoda never said a word and Master Windu and I never really spoke to each other to begin with. Plus I blend in very well in this get up thank you very much, not even the empires agents knew I was a Jedi until the last possible second when they were dead!" Snowbund then looked to her friend "What has you riled up so much now, Cynthiana ?"

A troubled sigh and Cynthiana stood up. "It is a long story, but it concerns the past, and present. It is too much to tell in one sitting. Just, be ready for anything."

When Kinara returned Snowbund smiled "You look good in that armor, reminds me of something I saw in one of the holocrons on Coruscant. I think I still have it. Somewhere" It was a datacron Yoda had given her, about her ancestors. that holocron contained everything from Deiyi Sunrider, the reason behind the entire Prophecy of the Force and the Chosen One, all the way to a event three thousand years before known as The Zakuul Incursion.

Kinara smiled. "Thanks, Master. I always did find this armor....comforting." she smiled. She tilted her head however at the mention of the holocrons. "Oh? I'd love to see it one day, I should think." She smiled, shifting her hip to one side as she adjusted the robe to cover more of her body. The armor also came with a helmet that had a visor on it, which currently she had between her hand and hip.

"Did I ever tell you how I found this armor?" She asked. She figured she might as well say now before they headed out. "During my travels, I allowed myself to be sold into Slavery out of sheer curiosity. Crazy, right? Yea I know. Anyway, the guy that owned me showed me off as a trophy, often dressing me up in this armor. Well, jokes on him because when I left, I took it, and the rest of my stuff." She explained, laughing at it.

"Though in hindsight it wasn't that odd that he'd have it...his crime empire was in an abandoned temple....I made sure he paid though." She added. She then blinked. "I don't think he ever got to the archives.....the holocrons might still be there." She smiled.

"What do you say; after we get the Obsidian Eagle, we take her to the planet and do a little raid? Maybe we'll find some crystals." She smirked. She was really in the mood for some mischief. Stealing a Valiant Class Republic Cruiser, then raiding an ancient Jedi Temple that had been inhabited by criminals? Fun for days! Quite literally!

The starship hovered slowly as it entered the hangar. The space station that accepted the landing ship hung in low orbit around one of Ariel’s moons. It seemed like a typical meeting place for his line of work, but the smuggler did wonder what exactly he’d be moving.

A station like this usually carried materials to be processed in other locations, and were usually shipped on larger freights. Radimus’ ship, while a freighter, was not exactly a large freighter. As he listened for the control towers’ orders and locked his ship into the landing hitches, Radimus cleared his mind of the needless pondering. He had a job to do, and he was meant to meet the client here. The smuggler stood up from the comfy, slightly squeaky cockpit seat.

Radimus headed down two corridors before reaching the passenger exit, where he stepped out onto the elevated landing platform.

As the platform lowered another vessel glided in to land at a nearby landing pad. the old Sith Fury-class Interceptor was useful and durable as well. A single woman stepped from the vessel and ont an elevated platform that moved to join another platform allowing the woman to head towards Radimus.

Looking up briefly at the mans ship the woman nodded. Her long brown hair over time had changed to black mostly thanks to the Dark Side influences of a certain artefact in her possession. Her smuggler had arrived. She had something she needed to get to Kinara, and contacting her even with the Cyper wouldnt work as Imperials were getting better at cracking their code. The last meeting point had been ambushed.

Kinara had been waiting for the crystal for years last Cynthiana knew. The Jedi turned starship seller still had her own lightsaber, the white and silver hilt of the staffsaber glittering in the hangar lights as it hung on her right side. Of course Cynthiana didnt know kinara had gotten her new crystal for her Tonfasaber.

Nevertheless, the dark core of the kyber crystal gave it a nice forest green hue. Perfect for what Kinara liked. She just had to get it to her friend. Cynthiana didnt remember the guys name as she racked her mind trying to remember it before speaking, finally saying instead. "You the smuggler ?" She had the kyber crystal in the package. Kinaras name on it in Aurebesh and strange numbers

“I’m the Pilot,” Radimus corrected. Straight-up saying he was a smuggler would put a damper on his reputation. Plus, even if the station was perfectly secure, one could never be too careful. “You must be Cynthia,” Radimus greeted with a bow of his head. His gaze flashed to the lightsaber handle at the woman’s hip, but they just as quickly returned to her eyes. ”I thought you’d be taller,“ The ice-breaker came with a wink.

“I don’t think I need to say this, but the quicker we get your cargo loaded up, the easier it is for the trip.” Assorted loaders began hefting metallic green crates aboard Captain Dorr’s ship- perfectly legitimate cargo, the better to fool customs and chance pirates. “So where am I taking the processed ore?” By that, he meant Where am I taking your smuggled goods.

"What a Kuatian isnt that tall are they ?" Cynthiana asked, she was about average for humans of her planet, a good meter and two thirds or so, almost two meters actually in her own case.

She smiled then, good he was the man she sought. "Good, exactly what the messenger needs" She said simply, She nodded to his craft "As you landed I managed to get word from the receiver of the cargo. She will meet you in the Dalian System. Massive Star Destroyer, named Obsidian Eagle, cant miss it."

Cynthiana then lifted the package. It was small, about the size of her own head. "This is to be given to her directly, It is something I feel she should have. You will recognise the woman you are to give this to, she will have a tonfashoto lightsaber hilt on her belt." She handed the kyber crystal to Radimus "Between here and Dailian is clear flying. hopefully you wont come across any Imperial or Sith entanglements enroute. If you do, hide this. However a smufggle does his work is good for me, dont tell me your secrets"

Cynthiana for a former Jedi, was in a happy mood. Happy in the sense that before she met Radimus she had a shower to get rid of the stink of shit. Someone had flooded the Moorja Jedi Temple with its own backed up sewer network. "Get this to her without any entanglements with the other cargo to be shipped to Dailian directly in terms of supplies and I will triple the payment for you"

Radimus Dorr smirked, “All in a humble pilot’s work,” He slipped the package under his arm, “I’ll give it the royal treatment.”

Royal treatment was Smuggler’s Code for “The most well-hidden compartment on the ship.” In Radimus’ case, it was in a small locker hidden underneath a floor plate somewhere in the cockpit. In all Captain Dorr’s years as a pilot, no boarder has ever lived long enough to see the cockpit, let alone search it.

Triple pay, The words rang in Radimus’ ears like music. “Not sure what a tonfashoto is, but I’ve been around the block long enough to know a beam sword when I see it.” The layman language used tends to help blow off any suspicion that Dorr was in any way Force-sensitive. “Sides, if she’s as pretty as you, I doubt I’d have any trouble finding her.”

With that smirk still on his face, Radimus about-faced and headed back up the ramp into his ship. “Be seein’ you.”

It was a rather long ramp, giving ample time for any retort.

Cynthiana smiled, The package was away, But at his comment of how pretty she was and if Kinara was as pretty as her. She partly doubted so she merely snickered as the cargo was loaded aboard As he walked up the ramp she called after him simply saying "Look for the only soldier using a lightsaber, and you'll find who the package goes to." There were fifteen million female clones that were identical to Kinara, and also fifteen male clones. So it gave a enw meaning to being told to go screw yourself.

But she meant it, triple the payment the secon d the crystal touched Kinaras hands. She knew she had made the right choice in pilot to transport cargo. Besides the ship needed the items for supplies anyhow, starship fuel, hypermatter, wasnt easy to refine, but Cytnhiana had a deal going and Kinara was flying free because of it and the former Jedi's pocket book was lined with so many credits it was a chore to figure out what to buy. Lately it was clothing.

Once aboard his ship, Radimus went through the motions and phrases. Permissions to disembark, warming up the engines, following the directions of the control tower. The same shit any pilot goes through- smuggler or otherwise.

When the ship crossed the hangar threshold, the safety tethers released their hold, and Captain Dorr was officially off on his job.

After inputting coordinates into the ship’s computer, Radimus fired up the hyperdrive, and left the ship on auto-pilot in hyperspace. With that out of the way, the pilot stood from his chair and began doing some smuggler-specific work.

The special package- which had been set on the floor next to his cockpit seat- was properly secured within his “Royal vault”. From there, he left the cockpit and headed into the cargo bay.

All of the crates of materials and such were exactly where the loaders had left them. The locations were pre-determined by Radimus himself, through marks along the cargo bay floor. This was advantageous because the pilot’s work involved strapping down the cargo in case he came across any shaky flying or (less likely) got boarded by pirates.

It took several minutes to properly strap down all of the cargo, but travelling through hyperspace tended to take hours at a time. This was preferable to the decades that normal engines would have taken, and no one alive was going to argue that.

On the last pile of boxes, near the cargo bay door, Radimus noticed an unusual sight. One of the crates wasn’t quite even. As a professional, Radimus needed to make sure that nothing was tampered with. As he grabbed the crate, he noticed that it was significantly lighter than the rest.

Was I had somehow? Radimus didn’t like the idea of someone managing to sneak away with some goods within such a short time span, especially within range of the station. Most smugglers wouldn’t dare examine their clients’ goods. In the case of Radimus, he was a careful man, and that allowed him to be one of the best in his business.

His arms- strong from doing his own loading and unloading, effortlessly removed the lid to the crate. The pilot made a concerned face when he saw that the box was only partially full. Several small boxes of spices- rock salts- were off to one side.

“Not exactly the best organizing,” Radimus commented as he reached in to shift the boxes to a more secure position. “Hm…” He glanced over to the fire station, and grabbed one of the blankets. Radimus stuffed the blanket into the crate, and closed it up. “That should do it.”

More than likely, it was a last-minute addition to the cargo. Radimus did note he was to take four crates of these particular spices to the designated location. This fifth barely-filled crate may have even been a bonus.

It was no issue altogether, the crates all secured down the same. Soon, the pilot was done, and he headed back to the cockpit.

It was easier than she had thought, watching him from the Refresher with the door closed and the light inside off so he wouldnt notice, masking herself with the Force was one thing, but smuggling herself aboard was quite another. C0ynthiana found herself drawn to this man for some strange reason. He screamed ladykiller. But something of how he focused on the job than wanting to screw the first woman he found made her think. He didnt even look at her belt where the holocron was kept. Most men she met went right for it straight off.

But this man didnt do that. No, Radimus was focused on the job at hand and that was to deliver the kyber crystal to Kinara. And that meant a lot. She went to her wtristmounted comlink "C2, prep the ship, go to Dailian and wait for me there, I'm shutting off my comlink entirely. You know what to do" She said simply. Sometimes she was glad to have the droid as a means of transport as a last resort when times called for it

The orders received she motioned for a 5th crate to be readied. Easily concealing herself inside the droid loading the ship didnt even notice the weight difference as the crate was set within the cargo hold of the vessel.

That of course was ten minutes before she felt the ship go to hyperspace. Which gave her less than a minute if not more than a minute to hide somewhere else. Easily slipping out of the crate and into the refresher without a sound she watched through a crack in the door with the lights off as he went about the cargo hold making sure the cargo was properly secured. She watched without a sound as he repacked the crate. A bonus, yes, for him actually. The spice was useful only to a few people. herself included. She blinked.

Oh Sithspit

Spice made her high, she couldnt avoid getting loaded around spice, and the spice she hid in was the illegally refined spice It wasnt just basic rocksalts!! Briefly she turned on a glowrod, and btriefly in the mirror of the refresher she didnt see herself, she instead saw Radimus' smiling face. That itself wasnt so bad, the bad thing was she didnt know the guys name!!

Illegal spice made her do weird things, blackout type things, things she couldnt dare hope to even remotely try to remember. {thankfully those things that she had done blackout high nobody remembered anymore to begin with because the planet was destroyed by the Empire}

But why was she thinking about the Pilot ? He knew her name, but she didnt know his ?? She turned off the glowrod, but right before she did so, her spice screwed mind briefly saw Radimus again.

That smile.

And the fact he either didnt see or completely ignored the holocron when he saw her saberstaff hilt. But that smile on his face. That disarming charming smile.... She reached out with her senses. which in her drugged state was a bad idea.

Whoops.

Radimus stopped back at the cockpit and went through some diagnostics. As he tapped some old-fashioned keys on the control deck, he suddenly felt a strange sensation.

The Force. Radimus recognized the feeling. It was suddenly calling him. While he hid his affinity from others, he did trust in the mysterious workings of the Force. It was what helped him out of some nasty situations.

What the… The pilot stepped out of the cockpit, and continued focusing his senses. He followed the vague instructions down the corridors. Eventually he arrived at a door close to the cargo bay.

The Refreshment chamber? Radimus didn’t feel like he needed to relieve himself. Then again, it couldn’t hurt to have a shower before sleeping for the few hours hyperspace time.

The pilot tapped a single button on the nearby keypad to open the door, and a second button to turn on the lights. There, he spotted a woman. Not just any woman, but one he recognized almost immediately.

“Cynth?” Radimus stepped back, “I thought you were staying at the station. What are you doing here?”

Her eyes wer closed, she sat crosslegged atop the refresh itself. Trying to focus when spiced was one thing she wasnt truly abel t odo. But Master Yoda, and Master Thanos had trained her, She just hadnt used her abilties to focus through the spice in so long.

So as Radimus opened the refresher door she felt a brief pang of energy and when he said her name her eyes snapped open. She had focused so well she managed to float off the refresher counter just enough to not damage the thing if she fell. The pink and green eyes glittered with sheer power, and something else entirely

Ctynthiana.... reeked of Spice, and not the Rock Salts that Radimus was to deliver, this was something more refined. But because he said her name her concentration was broken and she sprang to her feet. Out ofg habit her hand went to her mouth in a sush motion as she tackled him.

[Fade to Black]

[Some time later fade back in]

An alarm was blearing. Two bodies were crammed in the lower bunk of the ship. They were at the destination already ? Cynthiana murred something in Kuatese before switching to Basic midway through her mumbling "Somebody shut off that alarm.... Oh... what'd I dri... Oh good morning Mr Dorr... please.... Get Off Me" She said simply when she rolled over, Radimus ontop of her, they were by then she noticed, both wrapped in two different blankets. Which allowed her to easily lift him off her with the Force.

She then saw her clothes, and lightsaber, in a .... pile on the floor..... Uhm.... what did ? No she didnt remebmer it ? Did they ? "Did we ?" Yes they did.

Something seemed wrong with her. That much, Radimus could determine. For starters, back when they were discussing the job, Cynthiana’s eyes were chestnut. As she got closer, Radimus could see an eerie pink and green mixture, giving her an almost untamed look.

Untamed was fitting, considering what she did when she closed the distance. For a moment, Radimus could’ve sworn he had seen that type of look before, from many other women.

…

“Whoa!” Radimus flinched as he felt himself get shoved off by some unseen force. At least, to those who weren’t Force-sensitive, it would be unseen.

“Are you alri-“ Radimus scrambled to his feet, he saw that Cynthiana’s eyes were back to chestnut. He then noticed the alarm blaring. I can't think about this right now. I gotta… He pulled his pants back on quickly and bolted out to the cockpit. He passed by his jacket laying somewhere in the corridor.

The alarm could only mean one thing: They were about to exit Hyperspace near designated Customs space. Radimus always had to stop by there in order to be searched. Every time, he could sneak things passed them.

He wasn’t sure how they would react to Cynthiana being here. Still, Radimus tapped in some instructions on the console, and set a timer for the deceleration process. They had five minutes before he could pull the switch to officially end the jump.

“Ah jeez,” Radimus muttered as he snagged his jacket off the floor, zipped it up over his bare torso, and tapped a button into the intercom. “Hey Cynth, we’re uh… about to hit customs.” Come on, Radimus… think! How could he hide Cynthiana, the woman who got him this job?

She paused in her getting dressed, the underclothing was like a bodyglove of a sort. Thin and molded tothe body, like a Stormtrooper blackglove minus sleeves. "And thats... bad ?" She asked, once she found the comm controls by the door

"only if you get caught." came the reply "Odds are good we're gonna get boarded, so if you can find a place to hide that isnt a bunk..."

"I'll improvise. How long do we.... Nervermind, I got this." She felt the ship drop from Hyperspace. Hert gaze went around the bunk, then she smiled. perfect. leaving her lightgsaber on the floor with her top covering it she gently moved it to a locker. her gaze however caught a few items, one of them a lightsaber, the other.... other things..... She shook her head and flicking her wrist, the vent grate opened and she easily pulled herself into it.

She moved soundlessly to where the vent looked out over the cargo hold area. She was safe for the moment. She felt the ship slow. Shaking her about in the vent before she used her feet and hands to hold her steady as the ship apparently docked with another. She saw two Stormtroopers and a Imperial Officer step into view.

The two troopers split up as Radimus greeted the Officer

Radimus stood patiently inside the airlock. The clang reverberated through the smaller ship as the Customs vessel locked onto the starboard airlock. The suave smuggler listening to the marching footsteps echo dully through the corridor. When the marching stopped, Radimus tapped a finger on a nearby console, and the starboard airlock swished open.

A team of two stormtroopers and one officer entered. “Captain Radimus Dorr, pleasant to see you. You look…” The officer sized-up Radimus with an air of disgust, like a nobleman regarding a dirty peasant. “Dishevelled.”

“Likewise, sir,” Radimus gave a curt nod and an inviting smile. “Sorry about my state; I just woke up. As usual, make yourselves at home.”

“As usual… Hmm… The Visionary,” The Officer still gave off the faux-impressed voice most Imperial officers were known for, “And her shuttle, The Sparrow.”

“I like to see them as reminders of an honest day’s work.”

“Indeed,” the officer replied as he gestured to the stormtroopers. They all split off to search different sectors of the ship, “I haven’t had any trouble with you, and I haven’t heard of any trouble with you.”

“That’s good… isn’t it?”

“A perfect record seems good…” The officer paced across the corridor, “But it could also mean you’re very skilled at hiding things,” the officer replied.

He seems to be onto me.

“Judging by your ship’s jump data, you came from Ariel. Lot of folks there want to get certain contraband past us.”

“Nothin’ but normal resources here. I have nothing to hide.”

“Sir,” A stormtrooper appeared, “I discovered a crate with a blanket shoved in. It wasn’t filled up.”

“No need to worry about that,” Radimus spoke with a calm smile, although his hand did shift slightly, “It was loaded like that, those are my personal souveniers.”

“So he says,” the officer repeated, “It was loaded like that, those are his personal souveniers.”

“Understood, sir.”

Soon enough, the second trooper arrived. “He’s clean, sir.”

“As per usual,” the officer replied, “Have yourself a nice trip, Captain Dorr.”

“Thank you, sir,” Radimus bowed his head until they vanished past the airlock doors. Finally he could afford to sweat. With a light sigh, Radimus closed his own airlock doors. Almost immediately afterward, the Customs vessel disengaged, and Radimus was free to fly.

Radimus stepped back towards the cockpit and fired up the engines. “We’re clear,” he called as he set some coordinates and set the ship on autopilot. He then headed back to his bunk. “Cynth?” he asked.

In the vents Cynthiana stared, "Pompus twit" She mumbled in Kuati when she saw the Imperial Navy Officer. She had run ins with them, customs always ambushed the target zone with TIE and Lambda shuttles. She stared however when she saw Radimus use the most basic mind trick.... and it worked It was the most basic mind trick. The same one she had accidently used on Master Jinn!! {which at the time also worked}

It took a good minute until she was sure the Imperials were away and they were moving from the customs station. She breathed a sigh of relief before she opened the vent over the cargo hold, directly before the hallway leading to the bunks, or at least where the bunks normally were located. Gripping the edge of the vent she rolled out of it and dropped to the deck of the cargo hold

Her hand went to the floor as she landed in a low cruch. She stood up. A hand brushed the hair out of her face while her other hand went to her neck briefly before she rubbed both wrists. Holding herself steady like that hurt. "i'm here" She said, she turned towards him, he got a good look at her current state of dress, for one thing without her top the black form fitting sleeveles tanktop like bodyglove that most Stormtroopers wore was snug to her body like a one size too small shirt that showed off the muscles too well

She gave him a rather confused look. She didnt even raise a hand as out of nowhere the force flowed and for a moment Radimus was briefly in freefall before she held him against a wall. But not with a weapon. "What was that ?" Oh dear, seemed Radimus had more to answer than simple state of dress, She recognised the mind trick

(Collab between HolyJunkie and Princess Awinita)

"What was what?" Radimus asked as innocently as his type of voice could muster.

"That" Cynthiana jerked her thumb at the airlock "The mind trick.I felt you were Force sensitive but not that sensitive"

Shit, uhh... He took a second to figure out an excuse, and said "Oh, he and I go back. We have an understanding."

"I am listening" She crossed her arms over her chest as she let him from the wall

"He uh... doesn't get suspicious over a person-sized space in a storage crate, and I don't get suspected of human trafficking?" Radimus smirked, "You know, typical smuggler stuff. No mind tricks here. What do you think I am, a Jedi?"

"You are Force Sensitive. Only Jedi know how to do mindtricks" She replied simply. Though confused

Fuck. "Jeez, I never took a Jedi home before. They're really somethin' else." He then shrugged, defeated. "Alright, you got me. I try to keep it discreet- helps me do my job, you know?"

"The ImpOff belived you as if it were the truth. So either his mind is weaker than those Ive gone against, or hes just really bored of his job" She said simply.

Well, maybe I can sell myself short? he wondered, 'Cause that guy's more dedicated to his job than anyone I know... Ah, what's the use. "He's actually quite good," Radimus replied, "Toughest part of any job that comes through this sector, really."

"He knew we came from Ariel. they may have stopped my ship already for inspection" If they found a droid of all things controlled the vessel with nobody else around to fly it... that would raise questions for sure, possibly even impound the vessel

"That's not good," Radimus leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms in thought. His eyes wandered to Cynthiana's face, then her arms, and then her figure. "That there's good though," he snapped his fingers before pointing at her, followed with a wink. "But seriously, I dunno how we're gonna save your ship."

"Right now that does not matter, Ceeto can work things out once they see its just passing through the system. on its way to Ossus.. Whats left of it" Cynthiana mused. She raised an eyebrow and stared briefly at Radimus. "What ?"

"You had crazy eyes since boarding my ship," Radimus replied, "They were pink and green and we..." Radimus stared at the chestnut eyes that beheld him now. "You don't remember what happened, do you?"

"Remember what ? We... oh... nope" Then it hit her. "oh Sithspit iot happened again..."

"Well, you're pretty powerful, so it wasn't like I was able to resist. Electrifying too."

"Its not that its.... there's Spice in the crate I hid in to get aboard... Kessel Refined Spice" She said.

"Oh!" He understood that a high enough dosage of that particular spice was a non-contraband hallucinogen. "... I'm sorry, I don't usually mix business with pleasure unless they're good to go." He didn't want to mention any further how he couldn't fight back. Or rather, he partly didn't want to.

"Was I.... Did I enjoy it ?"

"From the sound of it, very much. Though that might've been the spices." Radimus chuckled.

Cynthiana smiled, Ok she liked this guy already. Good in bed, AND a Force Sensitive able to use basic force abilites

"Why did you stow away in the first place? Making sure I earned my triple pay? Or did you want to experience the royal treatment yourself?" As confidence returned, Radimus pat his leg, only to rememberhe was still wearing nothing but pants and a jacket.

"You never looked at it." She meant the holocron she kepot on her belt at all times or in the bag she carried on her belt. "Most men of any planet go right for it, the Holocron."

"Most smugglers would go for a holocron as well," Radimus nodded.

"You didnt, Were you scared of those who want it ?"

"Thing about holocrons is that they're valuable to all sorts of people. As soon as even the slightest whisper goes out, half the galaxy's got your number. I'd never so much as touch a holocron. Too much trouble, and I got in trouble with chicks before."

"Because of the lightwhip ?" Ok how did she know about that ?

"How did... You put your stuff in my locker, didn't you?" She nodded, Radimus scratched the back of his head with an uneasy smile. "That was a good time while it lasted," he spoke sarcastically.

"Something tells me I do not want to hear this, but something else entirely wants me to hear this" Cynthiana said going into the bunk and removing her stuff from the locker, as she put the saberstaff hilt on her hip where it belonged she picked up the lightwhip, it was dead, useless "Why keep it ?"

Radimus followed, mainly so he could pick up the rest of his clothes. "Spare parts," he replied. No point hiding he's at-least Force-sensitive, so he might as well show her it, "For my good-luck charm." With his clothes and exosuit under an arm, he beckoned Cynthiana to follow him to the cockpit. There, a long lightsaber handle hung over the cockpit via a fine chain. It was in quite good condition.

She followed him to the cockpit. It was strangely similar to her own ships cockpit layout but it was unlike anything she had ever seen or flown in before. Seeing the lightsaber she stared at it. "I do not feel a crystal ?"

"Nope, used it to escape the person who had the whip," Radimus replied, "That was fun."

"How... could you use a crystal, a Kyber Crystal, attuned, to escape a person ?"

"I have my ways," he winked, and pulled Cynthiana close. "Just like I got my ways with Imperial officers."

A thought hit her as he pulled her close. Out of reflex she hugged him, if she tried anything otherwise in the cockpit she'd damage something on accident "Would you like another one ?" She meant another crystal as her eyes were on the hilt

"I think I need a bit of rest after that first-" He paused as he noticed she did not look sultry. "Oh! You mean a crystal. That'd depend on the next job, I think."

"I know a place. Its where I got mine from."

"I thought they were all destroyed, though?"

"Some were yes. Most were actually. Most temples that had them. harvested for a weapon.... But there are two places I know of that still have them... not exactly readily available"

The thought seemed wonderful, and yet alien to Radimus. His old lightsaber working again seemed like a nostalgic dream. On the other hand, he did have a low profile to maintain... well, outside of this new lady friend, of course. "Let me sleep on it, after the job."

"Speaking of the job..." Cynthiana said letting go over radimus and pointing out the forward viewport "Who else knows about the meeting point ?" It was a older CR90 Corellian Corvette on appraoch

"Oh crap," Radimus noticed some particular markings along the hull. "Pirates, just out of scanner range of customs," It wouldn't surprise him at all if the pirates had an under-the-table deal with the customs officials to raid ships for their supplies anyway. Radimus let go of Cynthiana and headed out of the cockpit.

"Oh..... Sithspit.... That's an old Clone Wars supply ship" She saw the number still blazoned on the forward section of the hull. "Looks like Alderaan.... wait no.... Ah crud the planet Id is whiped" She said as the ship lfew over the smaller vessel

"I gotta get refreshed and dressed proper," Radimus called back as he thundered down the corridors and headed into the same one where Cynthiana had hidden in before. He undressed quickly and showered up equally as quickly.

"I'll be here..." Cynthiana replied as she went out of viewport range to remove her top, Sometimes fighting in it was constraining, with just the bodyglove helped for more freedom of movement. Reaching to her belt she quickly tested her saberstasff, first one blade sprang to life with an unearthly howl, rather unsettling for those not used to it, then the other blade. just as unsettlingly loud howling before deactivbating the weapon

Just as quickly as the refresher started, it stopped, and the automated dryer worked its magic. Soon, Radimus was fitting into his form-fitting exo-suit, followed by his good clothes. After that, he burst out of the Refresher, into his bunk, and grabbed the closest weapon he could grab- his trusty custom rifle. A fresh energy cell was slapped in, and the weapon hissed as it locked and loaded. "We gotta get one more thing squared away," Radimus called as he returned to the cockpit with a second belt- identical to his own. "Put this on, it'll prevent my security from targeting you."

Cynthiana nodded, not asking questions, the fact his security systems didnt target her to begin with was a miracle to begin with. it fit, a bit loose but she managed to adjust it so it was a snug fit.

In the cockpit, Radimus tapped a few keys on a console. A series of whirrs and beeps filled the chambers for a moment, and then fell silent once more. "Now for the blast doors..." he tapped more keys, and multiple sections of the ship sealed off entirely. "Just like the turrets, the belts contain keys to get passed," Radimus explained. From there, he glanced back up at the Corvette. The much larger ship was right on top of them. "Those things tend to hold hundreds of people..." It doesn't need a big crew though. Hopefully the crew was all it had.

"I'm happy its not a Ventator" Ok that would suck if it was. "The airlock has vents right ?"

"Wouldn't be much of an airlock if it did," Radimus replied, "Just the depressurization system, but I don't think your fine body can fit something that small."

"Second airlock is out of the question, so we either let them come to us or we go to them before they can get to us" then she stared at him when he spoke of her body. Ok she liked this guy. "Most Destroyers havea vent shaft that connects to the other vessel or space dock when the airlock is sealed to provide airflow and sometimes fuellines. im not sure of Corvettes"

"What can I say?" Radimus shrugged at Cynthiana's stare, "I know what the ladies like."

She smiled at that, Yup, he was a keeper

"Back to the Corvette," he glanced back out of the cockpit window, "Looks like they're pulling us into their hangar. That means we can open our airlocks without a problem." He turned back to Cynthiana, "Let's go get'em Tiger."

As soon as the tractor beam forced the Visionary to land, Radimus hit the panel to open the starboard airlock. The hangar filled with pirates wouldn't have dreamed to expect such a smaller ship crew to take the offensive like they did. With a mask over his face, Radimus was sure to prevent anyone from identifying him as a mild-mannered ladykiller pilot.

The mask was a tinted helmet plate, designed as a radiation shield for droid optics whenever droids headed out into a vacuum. No one could see in, but Radimus could see everything clear as day, with no bloom from any bright lights. This gave him an aiming advantage in the brightly lit Corellian Corvette hangar.

"I take it they want us to go out the front door" Cynthiana mused seeing the crew, aliens, humans, and droids alike scrambling everywhere in the massive hangar. "I'll go first. Something feels off about this"

Radimus stared at Cynthiana for a moment. He had half a mind to say something caring, but he instead quipped, "Ladies first." He kept a firm grip on his rifle, and followed her lead.

Cynthian a had a retort but instead smirked, OK fine, she could lead. But he locked them in. Moving from the cockpit to the hold to where ramp was lowering she withdrew her saberstaff. "Try not to get shot... or worse" She said as her blade activated, the sudden growl of the blade, a pale pink hue, as one of the blades sprang to vibrant life. Amazingly stable but it sounded like a dropship engine

Radimus levelled his rifle over Cynthiana's shoulder, and reached for the console with his free hand. With a tap of the button, the ramp began to lower. "I'd make a bet on kills, but everyone knows you don't bet against a Jedi."

"But if it were a Jedi betting against a fellow Jedi..." She cast a playful look towards Radimus as she started walking down the ramp before it was full open blasterbolts rang out, she defelcted a fiew, two went right back where they came from as a third nailed a water pipe and filled a small area of the hangar with fire suppresion foam. Every swing of the saberstaff, even with one blade active, made a unsettling howling noise, like a Kryat Dragon itself was loose within the ship.

Radimus squeezed the trigger, and a three-round burst erupted from the blaster, taking one of the shooters down. "Whoever loses buys." He usually means supplies, but he became focused on combat to finish the thought. This left Cynthiana to use her imagination. More squeezes resulted in more bursts, and more troopers fell.

"Buys what ?" She looked at him, her attention briefly taken directly by Radimus as she easily brought her saber to defense and sent a few random shots in random directions before sending out a brief Force Wave over a group trying to get too close

Cynthiana started moving from the hangar towards the doors, if they could get to the cockpit, which on a ship this big was the bridge. She stopped briefly, feeling cold for a very brief second before focusing on the matter at hand.

Something was indeed off

Radimus matched her step, watching her blind spots, and dropping enemies with grim accuracy. However, she did value speed as she bounded out of the hangar. Now, the smuggler was set to cover their escape. Nearby the end of the ramp, Radimus ducked a few shots and slid behind a series of crates. "Oh! Convenient," he quipped as he dropped another two guards.

Moving through a hall she struck down two more pirates, but there was something still off, pirates were scattered through the ship, in pairs, and well armed. She halted as she passed a door, backtracking slightly she ducked into the room, activating the light she stared at what was there. Armor, helmets, gear, all clone wars spec stuff too. "oh dear..." She picked up a old Phase 1 Clone helmet, sighed and set it back on the rack "ugly" She grumbled before turning to leave when something shiny caught her eye

A lightsaber.... no, a few lightsabers set on a shelf. She felt the Force strong with the weapons, they all had their crystals. So who.... she felt it again. that odd cold feeling. Darkness, hate... She scrooped up the saber hilts and using the Force she latched them to her belt before leaving the room, She had to head back to the hanger. Before that.... thing got there

"Jeez, at this rate, she'll win the bet before I get close to the hangar doors," Radimus smirked. Another burst, another dropped trooper. Before concentrated fire could return, the smuggler slipped back into cover. "Though I guess the majority of them are here. Maybe I'll get treated."

Suddenly, he felt a presence pass the far doors. Not the doors where reinforcements were milling into. This presence came from the doors behind him. Radimus spun and aimed, but even his reflexes weren't quick enough. The burst soared down the hangar, and stopped in mid-air, vibrating as the condensed bolt maintained its structure as a projectile. The figure- dressed in black- stepped out of the way of the shot, and continued a slow approach. The burst suddenly continued the course and harmlessly hit the far wall.

Radimus fired twice more, this time fanning the burst out. However, a flicker of red sliced through the air, and the smuggler felt the crate to his back suddenly shove backward. The deflected shot nearly hit his head.

"Well shit," Radimus stood up, ready to move, but the Inquisitor rose her hand, pointing outstretched fingers towards the smuggler. Invisible fingers wrapped around Radimus' neck, and lifted with the strength of a Rancor. Radimus kept a grip on his rifle, and struggled to aim.

"Well well well.... if it isnt the Visionary... and her captain." The Inqusitor smirked as her face was seen. "We've been waiting for you. tell me... were you traveling with anyone ? A jedi perhaps ?" She let him go as treoopers and pirates both took potshots at the hanging man

That officer, he must've sold me out... Radimus grit his teeth. He wanted to talk back, but the grip was tight. Then some blaster bolts slammed into his shoulder and hip. With the exosuit, the damage was mitigated somewhat, but it still hurt like hell. He emitted a wordless growl of pain, and a third shot hit him in the arm, forcing him to drop his blaster. Both hands, out of instinct, grabbed at the nothing that was choking him to death. His vision blurred, and began to grow hazy. Cynthiana... he tried to summon adrenaline- anything to keep him conscious.

From above shots rang out, and two bodies fell into the hangar from the second floor. Lnading in heaps on other shoulders the troopers and pirates turned their fire upwards. The howls of a Kryat Dragon were heard as shots were defelcted and sent elsewhere. Finally Cynthiana jumped the rail, still defelcting shots back at the men shooting them a Rodian went down with a well defelcted shot to the nose.

Slamming to the deckplates Cynthiana flicked her wrist, calling a blaster fallen from a pirate, she opened fire a good dozen times before flinging the weapon a way and drawing her saber. Now it was just them... and the Inquisitor.

"Ahhh..." the Inqusitor smirked again "So good of you to join us" She let radimus go, the man hit the deck, hard. The saber acviated a red blade.

Radimus felt the terrible grip vanish just as quickly as it came, but it took his neck muscles a moment to expand and contract properly. He coughed and choked as he gasped for air, but his vision was still swirling in a daze. "Safe word..." he whispered hoarsely, "Tatooine... Tatooine..."

The Inqusitor smirked and stalked forwards, revealing herself in full, yellow eyes, pale white skin, markings of the Darkside upon her face and hands. The black armor revealed a slender figure. Even without a helmet the Inquistor was dead voiced, gravelly and thick.

"She needs to cut down on smokes," Radimus' consciousness slowly returned as air filled his lungs with proverbial ecstasy. His muscles still refused to follow his instructions, but he managed to barely sit up against the crates. To his side, his blaster rifle lay- just out of reach. No, that won't work... he had to think. What did he have that would take this choker off-guard?

The Inqisutor stepped closer to Cytnhiana. So far only Radimus had really seen her fight with one blade, but she used a saberstaff, that was clear. And even prettier when the second blade activated with a brief growl. the darksider snickered "Pretty" She said simply as Cynthiana gave the woman a very dirty look. "But it will not save you"

With that battle was joined. A clash and howl of unsettling sounds met in the center of the hangar as Jedi and Inqusitor met in combat, fast and furious movements, no real set stances or forms from the Jedi Order as tjhe two were a blur in the hangar. Two saberstaff weapons against the other as they moved through the hangar. Nothing nailed down was safe, it was a weapon.

Radimus barely ducked a crate that was flung across the hangar. With a wordless grunt, he hit the floor. Soon enough, however, his vision returned to normal, in time to see Cynthiana going toe-to-toe against the Inquisitor. Something was wrong though. The Inquisitor seemed amused. Was she just better? Nah, couldn't be. I wouldn't tap that. Radimus pulled himself across the floor to grab his rifle. At the very least, he needed to secure his prized gun.

After slinging the rifle, Radimus brought himself to his feet. His legs wobbled as the pain of the three blaster wounds seared through him. Gotta do something... he grit his teeth as he watched the crazy duel between two aggressive fighters. He then knew what he could do. He just needed to wait for a parry. It didn't need to be a solid one, just enough to slightly jar the Inquisitor.

Given the constant aggression, one such subtle parry happened. Radimus shot his good arm out forward, and the dust around him suddenly zipped towards him like a magnet. The Inquisitor's saberstaff, in the marginally weakened grip, flew right out of her hands. Radimus soon felt the grip in his hand, and he took a stance. The saber flared to life as Radimus panted.

Her weapon flew true to radimus gasp, twirling around to face the man the Inqusitor was aware of Cynthiana behind her Yellow eyes stared at the man broefly before turning around, catching Cynthiana's downward swing with two fingers and the force the Inqusitor grabbed a saberstaff hilt off Cynthianas belt and at the same time used the Force to send her flying a few dozen meters as the green blades activated.

Simply pointing one of the green blades towards Radimus the Inqusutor asked "Do you even know how to use that ?"

"Better than I bet you can handle a man," Radimus quipped. His expression unreadable under the mask. With a deep breath, the quaking and the pain began to recede. Like a meditative state- one he hadn't experienced in so long- Radimus was once more the Jedi. He switched off one of the saberstaff blades, opting instead to use the red blade as a sword with an extra long handle.

Crashing hard into a stack of crates, Cynthiana rolled to her feet. Without thinknig it she drew the other saberstaff off her belt./ Activating a second pare of blades, two saberstaffs at once, it had been done at times in the Temple and elsewhere. As the blaes sprang to life she ran forwards, using the Force to amplify her speed she all but dropped between Radimus and the Inqustior. two saberstaff lightsabers in her hands, both of them active.

The Inqustori smirked "Five against two... I like these odds" the darksider said

Cynthiana smirked "No, Six against two... I love these odds" She said, kicking up a third blade from her belt and using the force she kicked it at the Inqustor and the fight was on again

As t turns out, I'm... barely able to walk. Radimus' meditative state began to wear down little by little. He spent a good portion of his stamina overwhelming the Inquisitor's Force power to steal the saber, but even if he hadn't, he knew merely walking was going to be a challenge.

Even so, he had to get back to the Visionary. With the pain flaring back up every step, Radimus stepped clumsily toward the ramp. The hard part came with him climbing the ramp. However, he did have hand holds to help. Once aboard, he closed the starboard airlock and tripped into the cockpit. His vision began to blur once more- this time due to the pain. Come on, you useless... he grumbled at his injured arm as he tapped the controls through spikes of pain. The engines warmed up, and the Visionary began to lift off- now that the tractor beam was no longer being operated. The ramp was still wide open for Cynth.

The two were still going at it, sabers a blur of color, green, blue, pink, and gold, swirled through the massive hangar. Finally hover when Radimus looked through the viewport as the ship hovered off the deck he saw that Cynthiana had gone back to using her own staffsaber. The other weapons on her belt. execept for one.

Forcing the Inquisitor back step by step was one thing, but never showing any signs of growing tired was quite anothe,r yet Cynthiana had learned through hard practise and the holocron how to use her growing weakness into fuekl for her movements.

Finally she sent the Inqusityor against a wall with the Force, Wrenching as she did so the staffsaber hilt from the darksiders grasp before turning and running, the hilt locking at its proper place on her hip as Cynthiana tor up the ram and slapped the seal to close it behind her "Lets go! Get us out of here!" Hopefully there werent any other ships around

Sadly, there were... two Impstars had just arrived in system. But they didnt, for the moment, seem interested in the ship leaving the Corvette

Radimus turned the ship around, and engaged engines at full power. The Visionary accelerated rapidly, pushing the smuggler back in his seat, and likely knocking Cynthiana off her feet. They began making solid distance after breaching past the hangar door. Through the pain, Radimus tapped in some jump calculations. He had no time to figure out some new coordinates, so he settled on ones immediately familiar: It would take them off-course from Radimus' job, but it would buy them several hours of respite.

With a push of a switch, the Visionary vanished from view of the Star Destroyers, as well as the Corvette. Once the cockpit was lit up with soothing blue light, Radimus deactivated the security system, and collapsed from his chair. His body crumpled on the floor, but he still breathed.

halfway up the ladder t othe cockpit and she heard a thud. That tolkd her one thing. Radimus! Scrambling the west of the way up the rungs sne all but tripped over the stolen saber that belonged t othe Inqustior... the tracked thing was strange but Cynthiana ignired it as she all but scrqambled on all fours to Radimus' side "Radimus!" She gently rolled him onto his back. Counting the wounds....

"Pretty thing..." Radimus winced, "Med bay... second... on right..." he weakly rose a hand to point down the hall behind the cockpit. "I swear... first dates... aren't like this... often..." Shortly after, his eyes rolled up to the back of his head.

"Second on right, got it" Cynthiana said as she took the belt off, her belt, not the one he gave her, else the security would kill her on movement alone so she could pick him up, her belt was packed with a good half dozen or more saber hilts could do more harm than intended. then she picked him up, bridal style and carried him to the med bay. She smirked however at his musing of first dates. As she laid himo n the medical bed she gently tapped his chest "Hold that thought. Droid..... Yeah you, Dont know what happened or how many hits he took in the fight but ... strip him down and get him in the tank... five minutes ago"

The droid glanced at her with an emotionless expression- but only for a nanosecond. It shifted across the medbay on installed railings. With nimble needle-like fingers, the droid stripped Radimus and scanned the wounds. Blood seeped through the blaster burns that had penetrated the exoskin. The medical droid was modified not to loudly specify a diagnosis, (It annoyed Radimus every time he came in with a broken limb,) so it simply carried the buff Radimus over to the bacta chamber. Shortly after hitching him up, the tank was sealed off, and rapidly began to fill with the medicinal gel.

As he floated in the glow, Cynthiana got a good look at the status of Radimus. A blaster wound to the side, one in the shoulder, one more in the same arm, as well as bruising that formed around his neck. Fortunately, the bacta would eventually do its work, healing the nasty wounds with minimal scarring. The same couldn't be said with some older scarring, however.

Going over the data was one thing. but when she saw the info coming from older wounds her vision fogged and briefly she saw a man getting whipped by a lightwhip, sheer redhot energy lancing his back. She couldnt move away or turn aside as the vision shifted to the War. She remember every battle she took part in. Beriefly she saw Moorja, the Temple in flames. Then they were on Arda 2 an Industrial word of the three Ardas as it was known. A battle took place there upon the planet. A grioup of battledroids had gotten the drop on a Jedi Master and his Padawan.

The droids took on e of the two Jedi down. the Master destroyed the rest. But it was as the purple saber swung her way did the Force Vision end and she found herself staring at Radiums face, his eyes closed within the Bacta tank as the thing beeped as the healing was done. Cynthiana took a ragged breath and stepped back. "Help him get dressed.... I'll be in the cokcpit" She told the droid before turning and leaving the medbay and went to the cockpit, sitting in the pilots chair as she picked up the belt with the good ten hilts on it.

She sat there a good ten minutes or so as she heard complaining from the med bay as she stared at the green saber, the basic plain hilt, Her heart hasmmered as she remembered the Jedi Master the blade originally belonged to. A tear streaked from her eye. She remembered how her friend had reacted upon being told of his death

Radimus awoke, wearing only his pants and his jacket. "Where's the suit?" He asked the droid.

The droid pointed at the exosuit, hanging on the wall. It had sustained significant damage, and was no longer suited for work in a vacuum. Radimus sighed; it was his last one from a set of four.

With a groan, the smuggler pushed himself off the table. He wobbled slightly as he started to regain his bearings. "Cyn-?" He asked weakly, only to suddenly upchuck a handful of bacta he had accidentally swallowed. "Ugh... Cynth?" He stepped out the medbay door.

"In here" Came her answer from the cockpit as she wernt through the hilts one by one.

Radimus turned to see her, seated in his chair. With a weak smirk, he called "Who are you, and why is there an angel in my chair?" He massaged his eye lightly with a knuckle as he approached.

"I am Cynthiana, no Im not from Iego, however I have been there and no I do not want to go back" Cynthiana replied never missing a beat, the next sdaber hilt she picked off her belt was a weird one. it was curved, she hadn ever seen it before. truly a relic of the Clone Wars apparently.

"Hey, thanks for getting me patched up," Radimus leaned against his chair, crossing his arms over the top. "Uh..." He noticed that she was preoccupied with a splendid collection of lightsaber hilts. "Nice haul," he smirked, "But I'm gonna have to hide all of them." He couldn't see Cynthiana's face from his angle, so he didn't see the tear trickling from her eye.

Noticing her lack of response, Radimus' smirk faded. "Hey, are you alri-" Then he saw it. Oh yeah... that's right... These sabers... they must've belonged to... People even he knew. That's sobering...

She held up her old battle instructures lifghtsaber "Recognise this hilt ?" She asked simply holding it out to him. They both at one point studied under Master Drallig.

Radimus nodded. He didn't know what to say. He had run from the Jedi a long time ago.

"It was in the corvette with the rest of these. even this one." She then held up Qui-Gon's lightsaber, Obi-Wan had used it for a time before rebuilding his own blade anew. She held the hilt in her hand, by the blade emitter. it bounced a bit "And I know just who this should belong to"

When Snowbund had first arrived at the Temple on Coruscant when the Dark Woman had passed away, only Qui-Gon Jinn had befriended the Cathar woman who was scared of everyone around her. And when she was informed of his passing she had in all sense of the word, clammed up

"But what confuses me is this one" She held up Dooku's lightsaber hilt "I've never seen a curved one before."

Radimus did recognize the curved saber hilt. At one point, he had used one- an old artifact from a history exhibit at the Temple. The saber didn't work, of course, but Radimus did understand the feel for it. The curved hilt allowed a unique grip for harder, more vicious strikes. However, it was ill-suited against any saber permutation, save for the typical sword style. After a pause, Radimus glanced at the control screens. He identified the coordinates he must've entered while barely conscious. "Oh crap," he said.

"Looks like we're taking a detour. We won't be making it to the job rendezvous point with this jump." He couldn't risk decelerating in the middle of a worse situation, so the best bet was simply to wait for the jump to complete, and then charge up the hyperdrive once more, and be on their way proper.

He glanced back at Cynthiana. "You gonna be okay?"

She nodded after a moment "Yeah, Yeah I'll be alright, I can send word to Kinara to expect us to be a bit late wont take but a minute" She said simply she put the sabers back on her belt, then put the belt back on. However she did undo the other belt he had given her to put on to prevent from getting killed by the security system. "Perhaps a different color ? As comfortable as it is, it.... its not my color"

"It's functional," Radimus stated matter-of-factly as he put the two belts away. "In any case, we've got a couple hours to burn before I can get us back on course." He had half a mind to clean up some of the rooms to make them more presentable to his extended guest. "So uh... I got a hundred and four, how about you?" He asked, referring to the overall kill count from the brawl in the hangar.

Iot took a second for her to reghister what he meant before she mentally kicked herself and her brain worked "oh, uh.. one hundred sixteen. After I got the lightsdabers from a stateroom on the ship I figured time to doubleback. Im glad I did." then something else hit her

"First you use a Mind trick on an ImpOff, then you pull the saber from the Inquistor. I'd say you could use a teacher. Couldnt you ?" if that wasnt her side of the bet because she won, was she offering to be his teacher ?

"So your request from me... is to be your pupil?" Radimus blinked, "I'd have thought you'd go for something more... convenient?"

"If you want to be my Padawan, thats up to you, I wont hold it against you" though I am pretty sure you want me to hold something against you

Radimus laughed, "It's not a demand if you let me decide, honey. Do you want me or not? ... As a Padewan, I mean."

"You still need something, something's missing.... Yes, I know just the thing," Cynthiana had a idea of how it could work. "You have some skill, but no real strength in them. I could help you out.... But...." Even without the spice she was good in bed. She wanted to remember after all.... her chestnut brown eyes sparkled in the blue light of hyperspace

Radimus seemed to read her mind. He inched close, and put a finger over her mouth. "I'll be happy to learn again." her eyes shined, but not because of the hyperspace tunnel reflecting off them

[Fade to black.]

[Fade in from black]

Again the alarm for dropping out of hyperspace was going off. But this time it didnt bother her as much if at all as she again found herself tangled in the blankets, Radimus nowhere to be seen. For a moment she tried to go back to sleep, then she woke up in full. Alarm going off, and the sudden deacceleration from hyperspace, and then her own commlink going off. Half awake she felt around for the comlink and came uyp first with her foots, then her saberstaff before finding the thing. "Yes ?.... Ceeto.... yeah Ok.... wait you're where ?.... Oh... stay put we'll come to you" with that she got up. got dressed and went looking for Radimus "Radimus ?"

"In the cockpit!" Radimus called back. In lieu of his exosuit, Radimus had a proper layering of clothes beneath his jacket. "We just arrived at the rendezvous point. Where's the drop-off?" He turned in his chair to see Cynthiana all dressed. "Well hello! Rise and shine." He smirked before turning back to the screens of the cockpit.

Cynthiana smirked "Yes I slept well enough, Ceeto managed to get past customs, remarkably easy when it was just him and nothing else aboard." She stepped up to the viewport looking out at the stars "Hmm" She said simply. They were at Dailian, there was no mistaking that planet whatsoever. But the Obsidian Eagle wasnt there

"It is unlike Kinara Kaal to be late for anything." She mused thoughtfully.

"Lemme check the scanners," Radimus usually had them off for the sake of stealth, but a quick scan couldn't hurt or raise suspicion. The radar screen pinged to life, and began searching for ships.

"How's your memory?" Radimus asked casually with only a hint of suggestion.

She smiled "Very well, thank you" The smile was geniune, she liked him, and somehow hoped he'd stick around.

"I gotta say, it's better without the spices." Radimus winked at her, but he too was being genuine.

"I agree, I cant remmber anything when I'm blackout high. Those spices did that to me." Then she remembered the locker. "The boys in the holo frame. Were those..."

She went through his locker, Radimus' eyes widened slightly. It shouldn't come as a surprise, considering how much time she's had alone in the bunk. "It's me, and also the only photo of my brother." His brother, the one constant throughout Radimus' daily adventure. "I'm still looking for him."

She had a soft smile on her face "My brother tried to make things hard for me on Kuat" She said simply. "Tried to undersell me when I sold ships and weapons to whoeever needed them. He even publicly denounced me on the Holonet.... and then one morning, we found him dead in his room, rolled out of bed and somehow hung himself. While asleep.... no spices or alcolhol in his system.... and then there was the loss of Master Thanos on Moorja..."

"I think you might want this" She held out a golden and silver hilt. She'd seen the blade it made in her vision.

"That's pretty heavy stuff," Radimus replied as he turned away from the radar console. He glanced at the hilt, not seeming to recall it. "Well, since I'm not hiding it anymore," he winked at Cynth, "Might as well flaunt it." He accepted the lightsaber. "Not my kind of grip, though... I really should get a new crystal..."

"When you were in the bacta tank I... I had a Force Vision.... I saw the blade that hilt makes, the puple blade of master Windu"

"What..." Force Visions... "Wh... What else did you see?" Radimus suddenly remembered who owned this particular lightsaber. But how...? I heard he was... and the lightsaber...

"I saw a Padawan get shot.... By a battle droid. A purple blade destroyed the machines.... "

Radimus felt an itch in his stomach- the side with the liver. Now he was starting to remember. "Yeah, that was... That was me." He remembered losing consciousness.

"Master Thanos and I were sent to Arda 2 a Sepratist supply depot was there.. . we were the closest to rescue you. Master Windu didnt trust me, I gave him the intel that nearly got you both killed"

Radimus huffed a laugh, "I dunno, given how good you are, I'd say getting shot was worth it." He laughed more heartily. "I mean, all in all, not even the Force can change the past."

She smiled. maybe he was right ? It didnt matter, her gaze went to the radar. Nothing. Where was Kinara ? "Even then, what can it do for the present ? Master Windu didnt trust me because of both the intel I gave him... and.... where I got it from. But he trusted Master Yoda because Master Yoda trusted me"

"I remember Windu was a pretty anal man, all things considered." It was extremely painful, getting shot, and having nothing but robes to protect himself. Emotions were steadily swarming for a moment- relating to the mistake that nearly got him killed, and how much he was willing to forgive. It was, after all, a long time ago, and a Jedi Padewan was a different life.

"He was smart. and before I got the Holocron he... he almost took me as his Padawan. He took a boy from another class" She smiled as she took a seat in the copilots chair. "He chose you."

"Small galaxy, am I right?" Radimus gazed warmly at Cynthiana, and then returned to the radar. "Yeah, doesn't look like anyone's around... Maybe this Kinara is late?"

"Possible... Hangon" She went toher comlink, going over notices.... "Ah, yes, she says shes delayed, but it was sent six hours ago Dailian time. She should be here by now." She looked up out of the viewport.

"What do you think, another round?" Radimus joked with a laugh. He knew that the job would be close to completion at any minute. Now probably wasn't a good time.

"Actually no I'm good. Im going to meditate in the cargo hold by the airlock, dont panic if a Star Destroyer shows up sending out the Jedi Beacon code. That'll be Kinara"

Radimus nodded. "Too much of a good thing, I read you." Having used the Refresher stations already, Radimus was clean and presentable. He glanced over to the secret panel where he kept the "Royal Treatment" vault. The smuggled item was still there- he knew. Soon, it will be delivered, and his payment transferred to his wallet. He could hardly wait.

Plus, he felt an unusual pull towards Cynthiana. Despite his deeply cautious nature, he wanted to see where the consistent pull would take him.

A ping in the Force. Both of them would feel it, Radimus would be unfamiliar with it, but Cynthiana would recognize it almost immediately as Kinara. It was strong and focused, yet gentle and friendly. In front of Radimus' view screen the Obsidian Eagle would jump out of Hyperspace, the three Kilometer Long Valiant Class Star Destroyer as intimidating as ever as it rumbled to a crawl. On the top bow of the ship, the Symbol of the Grey Jedi was displayed proudly for all to see.

The Communication beacon pinged immediately after the ship dropped from Hyperspace, and when answered the holographic figure of Kinara would appear with a freindly mock-salute. "Howdy stranger; I'm Kinara Kaal of the Obsidian Eagle. If you are who you are supposed to be, you'll have something for me. And...." she turned her head to the side slightly, reaching out with the Force. "You've got a dear friend of mine on board too. Tell me, how is Cynthi doing~? It's been some time since we last saw each other."

"Captain Radimus Dorr, at your service." Easier to find than I thought, he recalled what he first said to Cynthiana about 'if she's anywhere near as pretty as Cynth, that the job would be an easy one.' "Cynth's meditating in the cargo hold. Truth be told, she did stow away quite well. Where would you like me to land?"

"You enjoyed it too" Cynthiana's voice broke in as she appeared also on the holo. "Kinara..."

Radimus threw his hands up in mock-defeat. "Guilty as charged."

Kinara's brow raised.at that. Enjoyed? She smirked. "You found yourself a keeper then, Cynthi? Do tell me you remember it? Or maybe recorded it?" She winked. "You're clear to land in the Bow Hangar, opening the doors now." she spoke to Radimus.

The Hangar Doors on the Bow of the Obsidian Eagle parted, slowly opening before the air-locked shields took their place, allowing space enough for small frigates to be carried within the hangar itself. "I'll meet you there."

"I was spiced...." Cynthiana replied giving a fast glance towards Radimus over the holo. A smirk on her face

What happens in hyperspace stays in hyperspace, Radimus smirked as well. "She came onto me, to be fair." With that, the smuggler fired up the thrusters. The Visionary lurched and accelerated to circle around the Obsidian Eagle. Expertly lining up with the Bow hangar, Radimus slowly moved in and landed. The ramp then opened, and Radimus killed the engines.

"Yes.. the first time...." Cynthiana said before the holo died after she sent a coded missiv to Kinara directly. 'I have something that belonged to Master Androth, I think he'd want you to have it'

Radimus then got to work opening the Royal Panel, the secret compartment he hid the contraband he was hired to move. The package was soon in his hands, and the compartment was once more concealed. With the contraband under one arm, Radimus slid down the ladders leading down to the cargo bay. "One smuggled good for a friend of yours," he spoke as he glanced down from the railing overlooking the relatively larger cargo bay.

"After you" Cynthiana motioned to the airlock. He was, after all, the one to make the delivery As she spoke she was removing the other sabers aside from one, along with her own still on her belt, Apparently there was someone it was to go to.

As promised, Kinara was waiting for them in the Hangar when they dropped the ramp and made their official entrance into the Eagle. "Spiced, huh? Thought you were above drugs, Cynthi?" She asked, quickly moving to hug her dear friend tightly before turning to Radimus, not even hesitating to look him up and down and bite her bottom lip. "Quite the ruggid man you found yourself, Cynthi... I wouldn't mind taking him for a spin myself.... you being in the sharing mood, anyway." she winked.

She noted the package beneath his arm and her face became more serious. Something from her first Master? Sure she never really bonded with the guy but still.... it was her first Master. She felt the pull of the Force on the object. "A crystal?" she turned her head to Cynthiana while holding out her hands to receive the package from Radimus.

"There's enough of me to go around, but the job comes first for me," Radimus replied as he handed Kinara the package. "Don't wanna mix too much business with pleasure, after all." He winked, ever the lady-killer. He then stepped back to give Cynth and Kinara some privacy with whatever Cynth had in store.

"And that isnt all." Cynthiana said stepping into Kinaras view from the ship. She had a lightsaber in her hands. Something Kinara hadnt seen in a decade at best. Not since Moorja during the War.... "I think this belongs to you. You were his Padawan after all" She held the hilt to her friend. And as the crystal was unwrapped Kinara she could see was happy with the prize. "I was on Moorja recently... It... I had a Vision, that crystal, in that lightsaber" She nodded towards Kinaras guardshoto, "In your hands"

She smiled then looking to Radimus. A playful smirk on her face "I dont know.. I mean.... I got dibs after all...."

Kinara was quiet after their playful banter over some playful "escapades" with Radimus were over, her face solemn as she reached out with the Force, the Lightsaber detatching and disassembling itself quickly, the Green Crystal glowing gently as she focused on it so... effortlessly. It was like she was in a trance, focused purely on the crystal itself. Soon enough, her own Force signature imbued itself within the crystal, granding it a darker shade of green, and a black Core. The hilt reassembled itself, and landed back in one hand, while her other hand lifted the Guard Shoto up, the thing disassembling itself as well, the crystal inserting itself there before the hilt closed up, and was completed. The blade ignited, a brilliant Forest Green surrounding a solid Black Core as her hand held the tonfa-like hilt in a reverse grip.

Finally she smiled and deactivated the blade.

Cynthiana smiled seeing the blade, a beautiful dark green with a black core. It was in a word, perfect. though she still held Master Androths old lightsaber hilt. She held it by the blade emtter towards Kinara. "I found this lightsaber in a trophy room, owned by the same Inqusitor searching for us both. She saw my face to when we fought. though I am pretty sure the Visionary got records of that battle yes ?" A glance was cast towards Radimus. "There was also a hilt from Master Jinn, have you seen master Sunrider ?" She meant Snowbund.

"I saw her a while ago.. had a run-in with Vinh; destroyed her fleet, or at least a good chunk of it." she said. She pulled Cynthiana into a tight hug, holding onto her for a bit before patting her back, smiling and pausing for a second. "Thank you."

"Well, I'd hate to interrupt this," Radimus spoke up after a good pause, "But that Inquisitor knew my ship, she'd have looked up the registry and learn my face. I'm gonna need to lay low for a good while." That'll make future jobs much harder. "Know any good places around here?"

"She knows my face as well, no doubt she will want a rematch too..." Holocredordings came in handy. then Kinara hugged her "I think I know a place.... sithspit, seriously ?" Cynthiana was then focused on Kinara after their hug. If Vinh was stil around then the Inqusitor was the least of their worries. "How did you manage to get away from her ? Shes the one that killed Master Androth"

"You can stay on my ship if you would like; we're bound to be in HyperSpace for a while as we jump to another place. I know a place where you can do what you want with who you want." she smiled. "Friendly girl by the name of River. Lets you do what you want."

"She seems suspicious." Radimus inched close and whispered into Cynthiana's ear. After clearing his throat, Radimus replied in full, "Thank you, that is very appreciated."

'She's harmless, trust me... its Snowbund you gotta worry about.... her smell' yep, she smelled a wiff of Snowy on the ship, worse than a hutt on a good day. "Yeah you saw Snowy recently, I can smell her from here. She was aboard recently wasnt she ?" Cynthiana then asked meaning the faint scent that never would go away even if they vented the ship entirely.

"I don't think I smell it," Radimus replied. However, he has been around many hives of scum and villainy in his line of work. Unless it was a sign of fuel leakage or other mechanical or chemical hazards aboard a ship, subtle scent would probably go over his head. "Though I'm not sure I wanna smell the source, looking at the face you're making, Cynth." He laughed.

"It takes a bit to get used to. How Kinara can stand the stink is beyond me" Cynthiana replied simply. Snowbund stank worse than a Hutt on a good day. Mostly because of the Nexu she hung around with... and also the Jawas and her landspeeder sized pet that dropped sludge at random targets

"Well, in any case, my payment?" Radimus winked at Cynthiana while wearing a confident lady-killer smirk. "I'm considering the rest bonuses, by the way."

"You get used to it...." Kinara stated, shrugging. "And yeah, she's on board. As Ship's Commander I ordered her to take the Longest Bath possible." Kinara said calmly. She motioned for the two of them to follow. "Come, I'll take you guys to, well.. Cynthi's Quarters. I had one built for her When I had the Eagle upgraded. With a pause she nodded, and quickly lead them through the winding corridors of the Obsidian Eagle to a door across the corridor from her own; labeled "Cynthiana". She knocked on the door and it opened, and she gestured in. "As for your payment... well, I think me and Cynthi can figure something out. Until then.... you guys get some rest, we'll be getting underway soon."

"I dont think rest is what we have in mind....." Cynthiana's eyes sparkled at the mere thought of thinking up something. However she turned to Radimus as they moved down the hangar to a set of stairs leading to the second level to where some staterooms were "check your account, as promised, triple the pay on package in Kinaras hands"

Radimus produced his credit chip, and smiled, "Pleasure doing business. Now I'm officially off the job," he then comically gestured into the room. "May I come in?" He asked, all suddenly polite to a goofy degree.

Of course by then the door was about to close which then prompted Cynthiana to mumble in Kuati as she reached both arms out and grabbed Radimus by the shoulders "Get in here!" Yanking him into the stateoom that overlooked the dorsal hangar bay

[Fade to Black....]

[Fade back in]

Sometime later, Radimus sat up in the king-sized bed. Bare-chested, he stretched his shoulders, and glanced around the room. Many shelves and other furniture- some knocked over- filled the stateroom with interesting variety. It was clearly several leagues classier than his own bunk aboard the Visionary. Barely enough room for a bed and a locker. Radimus turned his gaze to the other side of the bed. "Good morning, Cynthi," he smiled.

"Good morning!" By that point of course it was clear when niot spiced out of her mind Cynthiana was in fact a early riser, living with a btrother who tried to kill you on a daily basis did that to people So she was mostly dressed, at least again dressed like she was when they faced that Inqusitor, she had a datapad in her hands. "We made the news. Imperialsare on the look out for a ship calling itself the Ghost, looks like your vessel. Our faces arent men..... Oh no... where... impossible"

"That doesn't sound like us," Radimus rose out of bed, pushing the blankets off himself. He headed into the next room to pick up his clothes.

"It isnt us, but the ship is nearly identical to yours. Also I am not seeing anything in here related to any bounties... oh... well not any more looks like the only bounty is 4 billion credits, alive only for Snowbund.... they'll never collect it" Cynthiana mused

"Well... I could sell her... Nah, she's been too good to me." Radimus couldn't imagine selling these recent memories. Something would seem to tell Cynthiana that the smuggler was not just talking about his ship. "The Visionary's been my girl since... well..." The lash scars on his back prickled. "Yeah," he slipped his leggings and trousers back on. "Anyway, you said that something was impossible? What happened?"

"Kanan happened thats what. There's a bounty for five hundred thousand credits for information of one Kanan Jarrus, information is to be sent to the Grand Inquistor..."

"Jar-head?" Radimus huffed in amusement, "Man, that's great to hear he's still around!"

"You knew him ?"

"Wasn't exactly the most disciplined, but neither was I. We got along like two Jawas without a droid between them. Oh, that brings back memories." The Dexter's Famous Noodle Incident, one that Ki Adi Mundi would never forget. "Classic Jar-head. 'Course, he eventually learned discipline, as did I. We kinda split since then."

"I am starting to remember.... Master Mundi didnt exactly look happy.... smelled great great though" Cynthiana chuckled, Of course it was a dark memory that came to light shortly after that incident Mundis Padawan, Vhoi Vinh had been seemingly killed in battle with a few unwanted folk when Mundi used the Force to creatute a Shatterpoint barrier, Choi had gotten in the path, and as a result, Mundis power hit her dead in the back of the head.

"Hey, speaking of... I don't think we ever officially met while at the temple," Radimus scratched his head before reaching down to pick up a tee shirt, "Though I guess it was forbidden for us to "pair up". I still don't get it, though. I always thought a balance could be achieved with this sort of thing... I mean, that's what the Force is about, right? Balance?"

"I suppose so. I never really went to Coruscant though. I was mostly kept at Mooja's Temple, or even Lothals temple. only times I was at the jedi Temple on Coruscant was during the Padawan Trials and my Knighting Ceremony and when the Council contacted me to come to the council chamber for missions" Cynthiana mused. "I do remember two boys though, and a unhappy Master Mundi... A smirking Master Yoda..."

"I remember a little girl myself," Radimus quipped, "Still little, as far as this cat's concerned," he playfully punched Cynthiana's shoulder before sitting down on the bed to get his footwear back on.

Cynthiana was about to answer when a solid THUD hit the stateroom door, somethung hummed and thumped against the door again. the humming and thumpuing, followed by something horking up a hairball made Cynthiana start looking for the airvents for a easier path out before just going to the door and opening it and having to duck at the last second to avoid getting soaked in a affectionate hairball from Nexi as a floating thing the size of a landspeeder thumbed against the door, it looiked like a Harrower from the old archives of the Sith Empire. Only thing is, this thing was sentient and quite possibly Kinara wanted them for something. "oh.... oh dear... What has Snowy been feeding you, Buzzy ?" The Harrower chirped something and tried to ram into the doorframe again, only to halt because the nexu had tackled Cynthiana and was licking her face much like how a Howler would tackle its owner after a long day away

Radimus was no stranger to such beasts, but he was a stranger to one off its chain. This creature seemed a lot more... tame... compared to the ones trained to kill by abusive owners. Radimus slipped on his jacket and watched the situation play out. It was cute seeing Cynthiana tackled by something that seemed like a big cat.

HORK And there it went, the Nexu hairballed, a happy hairball, all over Cynthiana. She was soaked And it wasnt the first time. Then there was another horking noise, this one more mechanical as Buzzy, the Baby Harrower started to leave some sludge before a Clone spotted it and scared it to the refuse area. Cynthiana got to her feet. her hair plastered to her back as she whiped some of the hairball from her face. It was mostly water at the very least. "Not exactly how I planned breakfast but... I guess Snowbund wants us" It was easy to remember Snowbund. When they were at the temple as kids, Snowbund had arrived by shuttle. Only Qui-Gon had befriended the massive Cathar girl. others were scared of her due to the facial markings. And Yoda took her under his teaching.

"You bet I do" There was no forgetting that shade of gray fur.... or the sheer stink

"Charmed," Radimus greeted with a casual salute. He then stood up from the bed. "I'm Radimus Dorr, I captain the Visionary."

"A pleasure. Snowbund Sunrider, that's Nexi. Get off Cynthiana dear." Snowbund said, the Nexu dutifully stepped from Cynthiana and padded over next to Snowbund, the dark green and yellow dressed feline woman stood a half head taller than Cynthiana. "Kinara is waiting for us on the bridge, have you seen Buzzy ?"

"Yeah he went that way" Cynthiana jerked a thumb towards the refuse station. Snowbund put a gloved hand to her forehead, rubbing it slightly this was going to be a loooooong trip

The corridors of the Obsidian Eagle were similar to those of... well, the last Star Destroyer Radimus had been on. It was not exactly an Imperial Destroyer, but a capital ship used during the Clone Wars. However, much of the design philosophy was retained over the years.

The State rooms- like the one he was pulled into earlier- was one such deviation. The mess hall was also a deviation. More extravagant compared to the simplistic, function-over-style halls he had frequented alongside some Clone Troopers.

I wonder how Ninety is doing. he found himself wondering, And the other three...

Breakfast was a quick ordeal. Many discussions were had about things beyond Radimus' pay grade, updates on personal lives were exchanged, and the cat-woman called Snowbund received Qui-Gon's lightsaber from Cynthiana.

I remember we once called him Qui-Gon Gin. The Jedi Master never drank, but the pun was always a kicker with the other disciples.

Soon enough, Radimus was milling through the rooms of the Visionary. He figured he might as well do some clean-up since he wasn't planning to go anywhere anytime soon.

Out of nowhere came a all at once familar voice. "I couldnt find you after breakfast" Cytnhiana stood in the doorway of the cockpit to the Visonary. Her gaze went to the lightsaber hanging on its chain. "You up for a trial ?"

"A trial?" Radimus asked. He knew his ship, he could feel the shift in weight when Cynthiana boarded. Plus, the whole Force-like pull he felt with her made her approach recognizable. He was currently cleaning up the room across from his bunk, where he stored extra weaponry as well as combat clothing and munitions. His eyes settled on an old-looking blaster rifle for a moment. "Well, I thought cleaning up the bird for once would be a trial." He picked up the blaster rifle and secured it to the weapons locker. He then turned and asked, "What did you have in mind?"

She held out her hand, in it the Ancient Sith Holocron floated a moment before showing a navigation route, one presumably long forgotten but was actually quite stable. "An old Temple,.... in the heart of what used to be the Sith Empire long ago.... Rumor has that it holds a Temple there where you can find a new crystal"

"Are these rumours founded?" Radimus smirked.

"They are, its where Master Jinn got his crystal"

"That would've been a long time ago," Radimus shrugged, "Still, it'd be something to do while keeping a low profile. Although the Empire might have found it." Radimus pondered aloud, "Still... it'd be nice to get my blade working again."

"Trust me its better than Moorja or any other more known planets."

"Guess it's a date then," With a chuckle, the smuggler headed out of the armoury, and followed Cynth into the cockpit. He slipped into his chair and began warming up the engines. In the communications console, he hailed the control tower. "This is VCX-100-02552, callsign "Visionary." Request permission to leave?"

"Copy that Visionary, permission is granted on vector three thirty two. Have a safe flight, see you at the Downs" Came the reply from hangar control. Cynthiana had to smile, trust Kinara to have her clones with her own personality quirks

With a nod, Radimus lifted off, and carefully soared out of the hangar. "Alright, lemme see that route..." Radimus examined the holocron map closely. "Looks like..." He then started tapping calculations into the navigation computer. "Alright, let's roll!" With that, he pushed the double-lever, and the Visionary once more vanished into Hyperspace.

Once they were stable in the flow, Radimus rose from his seat. "I'm gonna keep cleaning. We've got a while before we get there. It's almost half-way across the galaxy." Once more, he entered the Armoury and continued cleaning up the place.

The hold didnt exactly have the combat space desired for lightsaber training so until asked to hold or move something or aiding in the cleaning Cynthiana simply helped Radimus clean the ship. Finally in the bunk she saw him cleaning a few things inside the locker. One of them, the lightwhip hilt. Seeing it she asked simply "What is that ?"

"She was a piece of work," Radimus said after gazing at the whip hilt, "And also what happened to my previous crystal."

"You mentioned that you blew your old crystal up. How is that possible ?"

"It was a matter of cycling the crystals' energies back into itself, amplified with a series of power cells." The explosion, when it did happen, resembled a spiked ball of lightsaber blades shooting out in a myriad of directions, stabbing effortlessly through anything unfortunate enough to be in its path.. Not even the most perceptive Jedi or Sith could've dodged it if they fell for the trap. "When it went off, the one who used that whip was standing right on top of it. Grazed me too," Radimus removed his jacket and indicated an old burn-gash on his left arm that had since healed over. "It was on Kuat, in fact. It's where I got Visionary too."

"I recall my brother upset he lost his fiance in a explosion. he died six weeks later" Cynthiana said briefly staring at the healed over scar. "Well, you havbe your war trophy so to speak. Honerstly I'm glad you did what you had to, had my brother married her.... well.. there's better ways to die... Like a speeder accident or a hyperdrive explosion"

"Nah, she kept me locked up as her... well..." Radimus didn't much like to talk about it. He preferred to drown those memories in... less-crazy women.

"I understand, you got your war trophies.... and I got the Inquesito... hey was this her weapon ?" Cynthiana picked up the strange hilt The inquistor used had a track, no actual hilt persei. It felt strange in her hands for that matter

Radimus gazed at the lightsaber with actual focus for the first time. "You think those Inquisitors put trackers in their hilts?"

"Lets find out" Cynthiana said, the strange hilt then flaoted in the air between them, a motion of her hands and the thing pretty much exploded into pieces, like an exploded diagram of how something worked. the crystal pused a strange way, however the tracker was easily spotted "yup, there it is.... hmmm. Drop us out at Seeles System, I'll jettison this onece we get there" Cynthiana said as the hilt rebuilt itself as it if was never damaged.

"You got it," Radimus headed back into the cockpit, checked the star map, and completed some calculations. "Should be a safe stop right... now." He decelerated, and they found themselves a safe distance between two suns.

As the ship deaclerated Cynthiana let go of the saberhilt, it flew towards the airlock, which she sealed once the hilt was in the thing. Opening the ramp the hilt was sucked into space. But just to be sure it wssnt in their path, Cynthiana nudged it further with the Force. "We're clear, Lets go With any luck the Inquisitor will think us dead in one of those suns"

Once the ramp was closed again, Radimus re-entered some new coordinates, and fired up the hyperdrive. Without a tracker causing any problems, they were back on course. "I hope Kinara wasn't planning on sticking around our meeting point for too long!"

"If the Inqui tracked the saber that far, wouldnt dare go against the 'Eagle. That thing drawfs a normal impStar or a VicStar at least three times" Cynthiana said climibf the ladder to the cockpit from the lower levels, taking a seat in the copilots chair

"Yeah, well I've seen a single Bomber cripple a capital ship," Radimus once more recalled his beint stationed on the large Clone ship a long time ago. The Separtists had a particularly skilled pilot on that bomber. "Anyway, the Temple's a Sith place?" He didn't much care for the so-called "duties" of the Jedi, but the "selfish" focus of the Sith struck him as equally repulsive. From where he stood, Radimus believed in living as part of the universe, a conduit of the Force. Nothing like a responsible Jedi Knight, dedicated to some cause, or causing extinction of the Sith for a millenia.

"Not entirely. Its a Force nexus point, but thanks to the ancient Sith Empire its.... kinda corrupted by the Dark Side. But otherwise its harmless" Cynthiana said ".... I have been there a few times. its not the best view, but its alright"

They still had a while before they arrived, so Radimus once more returned to the Armory. "When I was with Mace- Master Windu- we were stationed aboard a Clone capital ship. A Venator-class called Othello. I got along with some Clone Commandos, November Squad. I thought while lightsabers were the Jedi's weapon, it couldn't hurt to be more flexible. They taught me to shoot." He jerked a thumb at the armoury, where the blaster rifle still hung. "They requested an extra rifle for me."

"They don't make the energy cells anymore, so I modified it to take the new ones. November-Nine-Zero - we called him Old-Timer since his number was ninety- he was the tech whiz. Got me interested in tinkering- though I never got to practicing until I ran away."

"November Squad ?... I only remember Beta Squad, Then some major units. Like the 501st...." Cynthiana shivered at the memory as she all but fell into ther copilots chair. She'd never forget how she fled the Temple, lying outright to that sith lord she once called a friend

Of course he believed her that was what shocked her the most, Skywalker killing younglings, then aiming to kill her, but he stopped, because she had the holocron. And she lied to his face, and he believed her words.

Of course she never took the Holocron to Sidious, she kept it. Learned from it, became the sole Heir of KDY, a public figure so powerful that only the Empoeror himself would have to kill her to make a point or even hope to keep starship supplies moving with her gone. Which was odd, with all the activity in the Outer Rim territories had her construction yards working overtime just to keep with demand.

"Not a lot of folks knew much about the Commando squads. It was either battalions like Vader's Fist or the ARCs." Radimus headed to the armoury to retrieve the old Commando rifle. "You ever fire one of these?" He asked with a smirk.

Cynthiana took the weapon in her hands, it felt weird compared to a lightsaber, a blaster pistol yeah she'd handle one of those when on missions for the Council those few weeks leading up to Order 66. But even then she hated using a blaster, it felt wrong. in her hands "Not since the start of the Clone Wars" She said simply

The way she held it made it clear she wasnt used to it. "Feels.... different, I mean, I've used a blaster pistol, but only once do I remember using a blaster rifle... it was on Moorja, I tried to shoot a Sith... It didnt work" It was the same result that Radimus had when he tried to shoot the Inqusitor the first time, the bolt just stopped in its path

She handed the weapon back to Radimus. "If you could see November Squad again... Would you take that chance ?"

"I think we both went our separate ways, and if we ever meet again, it'd be because the Force allowed it," Radimus replied. Trusting in the natural balance of the Force was the one big thing he agreed with the old Jedi council about.

The smuggler headed down to the lower decks to continue cleaning up the place. He had much to do, and all the time in Hyperspace to do it.

From where she sat in the copilots chair she could keep an eye on their flight path as well as any incoming transmissions. One transmission however caught her eye. So she spoke aloud, her voice carried by the internal comm "But would you take it ? It is a risk, after all, they're Clones, programmed to kill Jedi now most surely. But... if there was a chance..." Cynthiana was trying to put together the coded transmission, decoding it took time but still

"If it was a cycle ago, probably. Now, with me being made. I don't think so."

"Well I am, because Im picking up a transmission.... an old Jedi code too"

"What?" Radimus closed up a storage cell in the Lounge and headed back to the cockpit. "Any idea who it's from?"

"I only knew one Padawan before going to Moorja who used that word constantly in the code.... We called her Bantha... Crazy blue skinned girl, bright red eyes too. had an obseession with Banthas. So when she went with her Master on missions, and they were in destress or needed help, the code would be sent out with that word repeating." And it was repated, over and over, along with a string of numbers. But the word Bantha was clearly heard

"Its coming from Dromund Kaas"

"Bantha...?" Radimus scratched his head. "There aren't any Banthas in this neck of the woods-" He then recognized two numbers. RC-0122 and RC-0905. "It couldn't be..." Where were the odds? "Those are Commando numbers. That's Lance and Dex."

"I know, Banthas are native I think to Tatooine, that's in the Outer Rim sure, but nowhere near where we're going. So, if Bantha is sending out the code with this word over and over, simply repeating, with those numbers... And they're coming from Dromund Kaas.... strange, the only things on that planet is some hold out Mandolorians, Some Sith... though greatly reduced and mostly just crazies. then Gundarks, Vinecats, Sleens and Stonebacks" They were headed for Dromund Kaas anyhow...

"Want to make sure ? I mean, its a risk worth taking" For all they knew they might take potshots at Radimus, but leave her alone even if she showed her saberstaff to them. Cynthiana was too high profile to be a target of anyone

"Lemme try talking to them first," Radimus replied, "Maybe word hasn't spread this far yet." Radimus prepared to decelerate as they approached. After appearing in normal space in high orbit around the planet, Radimus opened communications on the same channel as the distress call. "This is the Tyson," He made up a fake name just to be absolutely safe, "We've picked up your distress signal."

There was no response yet. Radimus repeated, "Tyson to distress call, do you read?"

After another long pause, Radimus was about to repeat again when a voice emitted from the other side. "This is RC-1211. We're glad to hear from you, Tyson."

"Who else is with you?" Radimus asked.

"RC-2356, RC-0905, and RC-0122."

"Could you put Lance on?" Radimus asked.

"Uh... Sure...?" The voice disappeared for a moment.

Soon enough, a new voice appeared. "Lance here. Who is this?"

"Just the guy Old-Timer took a liking to."

"Old-Timer... No!" Lance erupted in joyous laughter. "Holy shit it's the kid! Poindexter get over here!"

"The Kid? The Jedi kid... Damn, you do know we're supposed to hunt you down, right?" Dex's voice slowly approached their own communications device.

"Guess I'm not comin' down to help you out then."

"Proven loyalty to the Empire meant we could remove our chips," Dex replied.

"I get the feeling you're crediting the Empire for something they never dreamed of doing," Radimus chuckled. He leaned to Cynthiana, "They won't kill us."

"Of course we won't! We kept you alive on the Othello, remember? I ain't wasting the efforts of that campaign, not from the... well, you know."

"Yeah, I know," Radimus gripped the controls and steered the ship down into the atmosphere. "Gimmie your coordinates, I'm on my way."

"Dex ? Its Cynthiana. Is Bantha with you ?" Cynthiana already liked the sound of Dex, Lance too. "Should be easy to spot, red hair, red eyes, blue skin, loves Banthas"

"Got a bunch'a kids with us," Poindexter replied, "We were originally sent to kill'em, but you'll see how that turned out." He then gave Radimus the coordinates, and the smuggler in turn weaved above the clouds and took a dive when close enough.

Thick, heavy rain slammed against the cockpit window as if a barrier had just been passed. Trees flooded the area below them, flooded in turn by actual floodwaters. From Radimus' perspective, there was no possible lanzing zone on this side of the planet.

"Pretty hard to see here, Dex," Radimus called.

"Don't worry, we gotcha." Dex then shouted some instructions away from the communicator. In a minute, Radimus spotted a series of lights flash into existence amidst the dark and stormy environment. A series of green and blue lights formed a ring on a faraway butte.

Radimus turned the ship several degrees and flew closer. "I see'em. I am on approach."

The ring of lights marked a flat stone platform marginally above the trees. Cracks in the stone overflowed with rainwater, but otherwise did not do much to wear down the butte in a way that was immediately dangerous. Once Radimus landed, he unchained his lightsaber hilt and hitched it to his belt. He then headed into the armoury and grabbed the DC-17m- which he slung over his back. "Figured they might like the memento," he said to Cynthiana, "Got an imbrella?"

There were ponchos in Radimus' bunk locker, which he retrieved. The Ponchos were the kind that you threw over your shoulders, and a small automated strapping system tightened the poncho around their bodies, as well as secure the hoods to be resistant to terrible winds. Radimus also folded his boots into the leggings of the poncho system, to prevent water from running down his legs.

It wasnt the best, but it would do as the rain was constant to never ending, at least for a long time as they exited the ship. First thing that Cynthiana saw was two crashed vessels, one of them a Counsolar class vessel from CEC from what it looked like, no missing that hammerhead bridge design. With a good enough crew that vessel could support a small fleet, or be a small fleets command vessel.

In the lights of the ship Cynthiana could barely make out against the driving rain a few figures standing nearby, one of them clearly female in jedi robes, and all of them were drenched

Two stormtroopers in heavily customized armour approached. The lead one held his arms wide open. "Raddick!" Lance bellowed as he grabbed and lifted Radimus into the air in a bear hug. "Long time no see, kid!"

"Nice... to s... see yoou~!" Radimus wheezed as the wind was knocked out of him. "You got stronger."

Lance dropped the smuggler, "You got more rugged. Did you change your lifestyle? Old-Timer did say your Jedi manners were too stuck-up." Lance grabbed Radimus by the jewels. "Still got it, eh, Rad-Dick?"

Radimus once more wheezed, this time wordlessly. Lance and Dex both burst out laughing, until Dex finally noticed Cynthiana. "Who's your friend?"

"Too young for you," Radimus replied, "We should call you Old-Timer now," This time, all three of them laughed.

"Ain't no one takin' that nickname, Radimus."

"Where's Tyson, anyway?" Radimus asked.

"Tyson?" The other two Clone Commandos approached as well. "That's the name of your ship-"

"Nah it ain't," Lance replied, "Tyson was the previous third. CQC specialist."

"Sorry I lied. My ship's really called the Visionary," Radimus explained, "Still, how's Tyson?"

"Gone,"

"Oh man..."

"Don't sweat it, kid. Some Clones have complications develop later in their lives. Not even those pencil-neck bastards could'a predicted it. I got somethin' too, but they were able to cure me in time. Tyson was behind enemy lines when his hit."

Radimus produced a flask from his jacket- a flask he only ever drank from whenever he needed a buzz. This time, however, he popped open the lid and poured one out on the ground. "I'm gonna miss the big guy," Radimus said as he capped off the flask once more.

Briefly Cynthiana looked up towards the sky as the rain pelted down. the loss of a friend was never easy to take. She took a deep breath as she looked to Lance and also to Dex "November Squad... you guys were assigned to Master Windu right ?"

"Ah, Mr. Forehead," Dex revelled in nostalgia. "Couldn't deny our skills, but he never laughed once, no matter how hard we tried."

"It was mostly 'cause our jokes were directed at the kid."

"You guys were just jealous," Radimus laughed.

"Mandalorians ain't known for the shit that matters," Lance returned as the three of them once more laughed together. "Oh yeah, we gotta introduce you." He gestured to the younger Commandos. "That there's Eleven, we call him "Tyke", that there's Fifty-Six, we call him "Smack-down."

"Charmed," Radimus shook hands with the two Commandos, though they appeared to still hold onto typical Stormtrooper discipline. He then turned back to Lance and produced the rifle he brought along. "Still have this thing too."

"The hell did you do to it?" Dex asked, immediately noticing the modifications.

"No energy cells," Lance realised immediately, "Does it work?"

"Every configuration. At least they still make the grenades for the launcher," Radimus handed Dex the rifle.

"Old-Timer taught you well," Were it not for the helmet, everyone could've seen the proud look on the old Commando's face.

"Well, it's like he said, The Force is flexibility."

"What about her?" Lance asked, planting an elbow into Radegast's ribcage.

"Master Windu rarely smiled," Cynthiana mused, when he did smile it was either for pride, or for something natural happening, like Master Yoda losing a bet and having to eat Dexters cooking for a week. She raised an eyebrow at the question of what about her. So in reply she simply niodded towards the nearby wrecked LAAT/i gunship "I take it the landing wasnt so good now was it ?" She was all business briefly by then for dealing in starships she could cut these guys a deal, instead of killing Jedi children... they protected them. So they got a really nice deal on a brand new starship of their choosing

"The landing was rough indeed. You can see why," Lance pointed to the never-ending storm. "We got a dry shelter in the cliffside. We've spent enough time out here." He barked "Dismissed!" to the kids who had used their lightsabers as landing markers.

"I can see why Master Windu was paired with you guys" Ctynthiana mused thoughtfully, she then counted a good two dozen kids, about half her age at best, of various races, Human, Miralin, What looked like a few Zabrak as well, also a Twi'lik or two. "Is this all of them ?" She asked seeing the kids, ranging in age from twelkve to eighteen she surmised there had to be more.

"Nope" came a rather recognisible voice, "But I dont think we'd all fit in that." Cynthiana turned as one of the taller Padawans stepped into view of the ships floodlights as the rain let up, but still drizzled. There was no missing the red eyes and blue skin. "You got our message! I almost didnt believe someone could hear us way out here since the Imperials left the system weeks ago" Bantha, as her named implied had some tattoos like a Tusken Raider even though she was a Chiss by Race

"How long have you been here ?" Cynthiana asked

"Fifteen or so years... why ?"

"Figures, and this is where you've lived ?"

"Mhm"

"How far is it to the Dark temple ?"

"About three clicks, that way" Bantha, whose real name was Tsilla pointed due south. "Kaas city is over that ridge, they dont bother us, we dont bother them. Most of them are crazy to begin with and scare the kids"

Cynthiana nodded. giving a look towards, who she presumed was Lance {But ended up being Dex because they were identical} "When we get back, we need to talk."

"Me?" Dex asked. "Actually wait, what do you mean 'get back'?"

"I gotta find me a new crystal," Radimus replied, indicating the long dandao-style hilt on his hip, "I made one of Old-Timer's bombs with mine."

"Wow, must've been important if you did it to your own laser sword," Dex shrugged with a chuckle. "Alright, not like we can't take care of ourselves another hour or so. Take your time, Rad-Dick."

"Thanks, I will," Radimus retorted.

"Yeah... we're gonna have to chat when we get back...." Cynthiana mused

As the two of them headed back to the ship, Radimus gazed at Cynthiana, who seemed somewhat annoyed. "Don't worry about it," Radimus smiled, "They're good guys. Long assignments behind enemy lines, you gotta have a way to release the tension."

"You have a point The Clones I was with when I had some assigned to me had a good sense of humor and made me and Master Thanos smile many times, but.... Its not them Im worried about." Cynthiana replied simply. three kilometers to the temple. they could use a speeder nearby.

"Let's take the Sparrow," Radimus pointed out the shuttle craft that was built with the Visionary. "If there's crazy people over there, we could use the firepower."

"Another thing Im not worried about." Cynthiana mused, but he was right, the only people who really lived on Dromund Kaas any more were the so called Prophets of the Dark Side, a few reclouse Sith Purebloods, and then some weirdos who lost their minds prospecting.

"What I am worried anout" Cynthiana said as they got aboard the Sparrow, "Is us"

"Us?" Radimus paused for a moment, but then continued with detaching and launching the shuttle. "Is it..." He spoke those next two words without thinking, but he hadn't really figured out a guess at that point. "What about us?"

"Where we are going. the Dark Temple, it wasnt always like this, it was a Force Nexus and for a time it was peaceul, clean, bright. But the Sith built a shrine in there, corrupted the Force there. And for a good thousand years the Sith Emporer had his throne inside, furling his dark power. People who went there looking for Sith treasures went mad and killed each other"

"Other than that. I wont be able to go far with you into the Temple"

"Ah, right. The trial," Radimus nodded, "I wonder how the visions will manifest this time..."

"I cant tell you that. But, based on experience; well.. its not fun. But at least its dry"

"I had that experience too," Radimus reminded Cynthiana, "It ain't my first rodeo, though you'd know a thing or two about rodeos, eh?" He winked.

Cynthiana smiled at those words, yeah she knew. Radimus was indeed a keeper. her keeper "There" She pointed out the viewport the massive structure made of black rock towered int othe sky. a pad large enough for landing near the main door, which remarkably after thousands of years was still intact. "A landing pad. Once inside be ready for anything. I can only go so far with you."

"I feel you," Radimus replied as he landed the Sparrow. He stepped out of the shuttle side-by-side with Cynthia. Also side-by-side, they entered the temple.

Almost immediately, like squeezing past a Gungan membrane, Radimus could feel ethereal, familiar yet alien energies permeating throughout the temple. "Feels like the inside of my mouth after a Morning Trick." The most disgusting cocktail ever served at Coruscant, but a tourist attraction all the same to the daring types. The smuggler approached the doorway, and glanced back to Cynthiana. "I'll be seeing you," He smirked before stepping through the door- which shut behind him.

As the door closed behind the statue Cynthiana dropped to her knees, her eyes closed, the Dark Side permenated the Temple, what used to be raw Natural Force energies was corrupted and dark. yet she was a beacon of light there, so was Radimus, and if Radimus could pass the test....

Long, narrow, winding tunnels carved into the rock. Radimus took a deep breath and stepped down the tunnel. "Thirty-three... Never thought I'd be in a place like this again," It was nostalgic, in a sense. The gross feeling all around him was all-new compared to last time, but it was something that simply made the test a greater challenge.

"If I remember right, the test was ultimately determined by what you desired at your core," Radimus closed his eyes as he walked. He felt the Force around him, penetrating the walls, forming faint pictures around him. As a result, he could still "see" and not trip on the uneven terrain.

Eventually, he came to a fork in the road. "The fork didn't matter," Radimus recalled, "Trust in the Force."

However, when the smuggler stepped over the threshold to the door immediately ahead, he felt his skin curdle and burn. His jaw unhinged and split at the seams, and he was suddenly thrown back into darkness.

Radimus scrambled back to his feet as soon as he landed. He felt at his face to find his strong jaw was back the way it was. The smuggler stood up, and found he was back in the same room, as if he had never crossed the door.

"That was different," Radimus's brow furrowed in contemplation. "Trust in the Force..." He stepped through again. This time, however, Radimus felt a strange sensation, as if his body suddenly slumped over, but he didn't move. The smuggler turned around to see his body- separate- sitting dead-eyed, not moving, going nowhere.

Radimus blinked, and once more he was back in the room with the three doors. "Come on... think... what's the problem here... Last time it was easy. I trusted in the Force, and I knew in my heart what I..."

What did he want? Radimus stepped through the door once more, only to feel his arms shoot out to either side, as if he were chained by the wrists. What is happening? Radimus groaned as the tugging became more and more painful. When the stretching became unbearable, Radimus clenched his jaw and squeezed his eyes shut.

And back he was, once more in the room with the three doors.

What do I want...? I want... Cynthiana... but that's selfish desire... I want... peace and balance... but that's Jedi code... Radimus figured it out. "I'm really split..." At this rate, he had no hope of completing the trial.

Radimus leaned against the wall on one side and sat down. "I want balance in the Force, so I trust in the nature of the Force..." The Jedi Order were so focused on the Light side, they called extinction of the other "Balance." This was not true balance, for the Dark Side found a way to tip the scales once more.

"This test... is for the Light Side, and only the Light Side."

"Light and Dark... Strength, and wisdom... Balance is what I want..."

"A good thing, Balance is."

"I was wondering when you'd show up," Radimus said.

The goblin-like laugh echoed through the chamber. "A focus on the Light side, do you know why?"

"Maybe I don't," Radimus looked up at the ceiling, "But this isn't balance."

"A good thing, balance is. A bad thing, balance is. A fickle thing, balance is. An impossibility, balance is."

"What do you mean?"

"True balance. Everything is equal, everything lives the same, everything perishes the same. To co-exist with other abstracts, true balance cannot."

"What then is balance when you say that the Jedi seek to restore it?"

"Balance, in the eyes of a Jedi, is balance of life. It is not the number of cycles you live. The experiences within those cycles, balance resides. Opportunity for life, balance is."

Radimus was quiet for a moment. "Opportunity for life..." He could get behind that. "What about attachments?"

"To let go of attachments, part of the Jedi path is."

"So I shouldn't be with Cynthiana."

"Mmmm... Perhaps... Attachments... Part of life, it is. An opportunity, it is. Part of the balance, could it be?"

Radimus stood up. "I think I got it," he said, as he stepped through the door.

---

For long moments it was quiet, random clanks of rock cracking upon another. the age of trhe temple proved it stood for thousands of years and will stand for thousands more. A single being knelt before the massive Sith statue. Unmoving, quiet.

"Worried are you, hmm ?" came a voice, a all too familar and at once alien.

"Yes"

"Close to him, you are." came a rather blunt statement, Cynthiana opened her eyes, swirls of energy danced before her as she stood up. "Wrong this is not. Attachments, normally forbidden they are. The order destroyed, possible to continue through you and Radimus it is in the Force, Strong you are"

"Master ? What are you saying ? I thought..."

"As time continues, Change things do, to achieve balance, important it is to seek opportunity. Part of the balance it is. Neither dark nor light the Force is. Balanced it is when found."

"So... what we did on the ship. Radimus and I"

"Together. Strong are you in the Force. Balanced it is when together you are"

"He is my Pa..."

"No, he is not! Not your Padawan Radimus is. Your husband possibly he will be"

"What ?" Cynthiana was at a loss for words at that. radimus her husband ? Impossible "But thats..."

"Impossible, you say" there came a soft chuckle, Cynthiana knelt to one knee to be eye level with the srilnig Force energy

"Then my visions...."

"A look into the past they are. Dwell on them you must not. Look ahead you must."

"So you're saying I should be with Radimus ?"

"Strong in the Force you are when together. Balanced the Force is when attachments are possible. In the Force you must trust. Guide you it did. Did it not ?"

"I... I was attracted to him yes, when we first met, I stowed away on his ship" She felt ashamed about that, a business woman and former Jedi Knight.

"Yet feelings for him you have. Love him you do. Balanced the Force is. Looked down upon nor shamed you are. Your head up, hold it you must. Calm you must be. the Force, let it guide you will"

Cynthiana smiled, "Thank you, Master Yoda" She slowly stood up. the sheer feeling of darkness burned away, she felt nothing but the natural power of the Force. It was niether dark nor light, it just was, raw, serene, balanced.

The door opened. Radimus stepped out, with his right hand clenched. He looked somewhat haggard, given the cold sweat he formed from the visions. "Told ya," he spoke weakly.

Cynthiana sighed with relief, maybe Yoda was right, she felt his chuckle in the back of her mind, Ok so he was right. "How does it feel ?" She meant the fact that swure they were standing in the Sith Temple, the core of it. And yet, it didnt feel like the Dark Side was there, just... overabundance of Force energy

"Still feels like a Morning Trick, but that's probably 'cause of the lack of ventilation." He opened his hand to show Cynthiana what he had been awarded.

The crystal was a deep amber, which oddly reflected a topaz yellow in the light. "I'm gonna put this together outside," Radimus said, "I've had enough of Morning Tricks."

Outside, Radimus sat on the entrance ramp into the shuttle. With practiced motions, he disassembled his lightsaber hilt, and carefully installed the new crystal. Reassembly came just as easily for him. "My last crystal was blue, if you recall," Radimus tightened the peen that held everything together properly. "Welp, here goes." He pointed the saber away from him, and squeezed the activation button.

An amber blade with a bright yellow core erupted, clean and solid. "Orange... Huh, it suits my jacket," He pointed out the orange sleeves.

Cynthiana's eyes went bright seeing the brand new blade, an explosion of energy as the blade sprang to life. "Its beautiful. Like its owner" Uh... wait, what did she mean exactly by that ? Did she speak with Yoda too ? "Come on, we got three kilometers to go to get back to the others, and the rain is a drizzle, you were in there for a while. I'll fly"

Radimus gazed at Cynthiana, taking note of her flushed cheeks. "You're right, they're probably waiting for us. It felt like I was down there for hours."

"A day. You were in there for a day"

"A day," Radimus repeated, as if he couldn't believe it. He folded out one of the passenger seats and sat down. He suddenly felt hungry.

"Yeah, trials like this arent exactly short. When I went for my first crystal I was gone from my Master for almost a month in the desert on Tatooine follwing the directions from the Force just finding that Kryat Dragon cave" Cynthiana said powering up the Sparrow and lifting off the ground.

Once they were underway, she asked simply "So... what did you see ?"

"Well..." Radimus leaned back in his seat. "Not much happened, just... soul-searching. I felt split on what it meant to be a Jedi, what a Sith was, what the Force was... balance... I didn't know Green Goblin was still around, unless that was just a Force entity manifesting as him... I do know something now: I love a woman who can fly."

"That was Master Yoda most likely. I.... I spoke to him too. What did he tell you ? When you got that crystal, what did you see ?" If it was anything like the guts of a Kryat Dragon, which somehoew felt like home to her after her seventh hunt for one of which she got six new crystals of various sizes...

"When I got the crystal..." Radimus wasn't sure what to say. He'd only known her for close to two cycles now. It seemed too fast, and yet... "I saw you," Radimus replied, "You and... someone else... A child."

'Balanced the Force is, when together you are' rang in her head as she listened to Radimus. "....A child" Well that explained a lot. "Me... and a child,... then its true."

"I dunno what it means so far, but I'm trusting in the Force... But there's something different now. I feel... dedicated."

The Sparrow soon latched onto the Visionary.

"We're here...." Cynthiana said as the automated systems latched the two ships together. But before she turned from the seat she spoke up "I spoke with Yoda while you were in the trial" She turned to Radimus "He said that the force is in balance as long as we're together. I said it was impossible but he said its in balance"

"The Force throughout the galaxy?" Radimus chuckled, "I don't think any one person can be that strong." His chuckling died down somewhat quickly, "Nah, but I think I get what he means."

"When we're together, we're strong, When we're together, the Foce is in blance. But everything else he said eludes me completely" Most of the time it wasnt easy to decern eactly what Yoda meant.

"Let's hear some of it then," Radimus said as he stepped out the shuttle and into the corridors of the Visionary.

As they walked back to the others, she explained what Yoda said to her while he was in the trial chamber "He sdaid that normally attechment is forbidden, but the order is destroyed, and the Force was not in balance. But he said also that the order could be restored... through us... through them" She meant herself and Radimus, as well as the younglings, the Commandos, and Tsilla and her Master

"Gonna be tough work," But Radimus did admit he felt more dedicated to the things he did. "In the meantime, we should figure out how to load everyone aboard."

Cynthiana nodded, getting everyone onboard safely was parmount, then they had to get them all to sdafety once off the planet. Ctynthiana trusted Radimus, and if he could trust the Commandos, so could she, normally she didnt, but then times had changed, she had to follow the Will of the Force.

Stepping down the ramp Cynthiana saw the Clones along with Tsilla and Master Talas were all waiting for them. "No doubt they wonder how it went; We'll worry of that later. For now, lets get them aboard, we have to figure a place for them to be safe"

"I'm gonna be completely honest here," Radimus said, as he stood on the elevated platform overlooking the main cargo bay. "If any Imperials so much as take a peek, this is gonna look like a slaver barge."

"They'll see Commandos, won't they?" Lance asked, "Don't you worry about it, kid."

"I'm thirty-four."

"Still a kid to us, mate."

"Still, at-first they'd probably think the Visionary is a slaver barge. Then they'd see the lightsabers, and that's what I'm worried about."

"Relax. They're traveling with me, with us" Cynthiana said simply, her arms crossed over her chest. "So if the Imperials pull us over for inspection, they'll recognise my codec and hey who knows we might get ourselves a SD free and clear" Cynthiana, being the sole heir of KDY, had access codes to get complete control of a star destroyer when needed.

"I dunno if even your rep can keep these kids safe if we do get searched," Radimus grit his teeth as he climbed up to the upper levels, returning to the cockpit, "The best course of action is to take some longer routes, make multiple jumps, avoid all checkpoints where we can." He brought up the star map on his console. The one he checked in particular was an up-to-date record of active customs checkpoints. Technically illegal to have, but it's not like Radimus ever allowed that data chip to be found during searches. "The first question is: Where's a good place to settle down where we can hide everyone?"

"First question should be why the hell is there a Star Destroyer in this system" Cynthiana said pointing at the massive Interdictor class vessel and its four support destroyers. "make that three... Hmmm" Cynthiana was thinking seeing the weapons on the ships, If she could get into the codec through the comms... "Get us closer to..... that one" She pointed at the Interdfictor class Star Destroyer

"Jeez, where did those come from?" Radimus blurted. He then listened to Cynthiana's suggestion. "Well, they're close enough to have locked onto us...

"Not entirely, just get us closer, and trust me" She opened the comm to white noise and went to her wrist mounted commlink and started typing in codes

Radimus stared at Cynth, though his eyes grew soft. "I trust you," He fired up thrusters and brought the Visionary closer.

When the Interdictor's massive gravity wells filled the viewport Cynthiana smiled, "perfect, I'm locked in their system. Head for the hangar. but dont open the hatch yet. We're gonna travel in style"

"Wouldn't dream of it. We got kids down there." Radimus complied, and brought the ship close to the hangar.

"You may want to close your eyes." Cynthiana said holding up her hand to her comlink, the holographic panel had strings of numbers and letters, as well as other stuff, including a few Star Destroyer models highlighted. She hit the button on the holo. Almost instantly the atmosphere on the 5 ships was vented, pulling everyone aboard into space. She hit another button and the atmosphere returned

"At some point, the Empire would have to weigh the pros and cons of keeping you alive the more people you kill, but frankly I'm just impressed in more ways than one."

"We can land there, there's breathable air inside. Once to the bridge I can fly us out of here" She pointed out a hangar bay

"Still... those men prolly had families," Radimus shrugged, "Then again, so did the ones we shot..."

"Most of them werent officers, a ship like this the bridge is sealed off. So until I get up there and have full control of this vessel, they're going to be trying to lock things down from their end."

Ah, right. clones. Radimus inched the ship inside the hangar and landed. He then grabbed his lightsaber hilt. "Let's do it."

Radimus squeezed past assorted kids who had been loaded into the Visionary, until he reached the cargo bay, where the ramp could be opened. "Watch our backs, Commandos," Radimus called. The four of them had their rifles at the ready. While the crew were vented, Radimus didn't want to blow off the slim chance that there are some who survived and now lay in wait. Plus, with this many ships, Radimus had a bad feeling that there was something worse on board.

Cynthiana felt it in the back of her mind. The other ships werent as locked down, their atmosephere was mostly saved as the blast doors sealed off certain areas until air was restored to those sections..Turning to the kids, as well as Tislla and Master Talas "Try and stay hidden, if you can scatter aboard the ship, pair off at best, dont go anywhere alone" They all nodded.

On the lead supoort vessel a single shuttle launched heading for the interdictor. An old friend had returned. it was time to even the score

With the Clone Commandos locking down their position within the hangar, Radimus joined Cynthiana into the corridors. Radimus flared his newly reconstructed lightsaber into existence in time to deflect some blasterfire. "I'm gonna need to replace my exo suit," Radimus spoke calmly as he sent another bolt directly back at his assailant.

"Feel free to pick one" Cynthiana said using the Force to pull the weapons from a half dozen Stormtroopers at once knocking them senseless

"None of our suits fit him," Dex's voice spoke over their communicators.

"Just keep watch on anyone approaching the hangar," Radimus returned, ignoring the implications, "Last thing we want is our escape to get scrapped."

"Relax, worse case scenario we get dropped back on Dromund Kaas, as much as I like the rain, I dont like the planet" Cynthiana said "Best case scenario I fly us out of here on this ship." Her eyes went to her wrsit, the holo counted down the lockdown of weapons, "Alright, we got weapons under my control... Lance; I'm passing you weapons control, disable our support craft."

"I don't think I can access that in the hangar," Lance replied.

"I can," Poindexter replied, "Lemme get to that console over there."

"I gotcher back."

"Go for it" She passed over the control to Dex's HUD via commlink. Turning around a corner she picked up one of the weapons dropped by fallen troopers and without looking shot twice "So uncivilised' She grumbled dropping two Troopers watching the turbolifts

"Hey," Radimus jerked a thumb at the backup weapon strapped to his back, his custom blaster rifle.

"I'm not used to it. No offense...." She almost said dear, but kept it in her head

"That's not what you said last time," Radimus retorted with a wink before swapping his saber for his blaster. With the long and narrow corridors, it seemed best to utilize both a laser sword and a laser gun.

"Ok so I used a gun, once. It didnt work as intended" Cynthiana snarked right back as she stepped up to the turbo lift and hit the button. Nothing happened. She smacked it again, then all but punched the control panel. Dead

"Intensions..." Radimus shook his head with a smile. He squeezed the trigger to drop a stormtrooper that had rounded the corner, approaching them. He then saw Cynthiana having trouble with the lift. "Tell you what, see if you can disable artificial gravity," Radimus slung his rifle and grabbed a prybar off the wall.

"mm" She said in reply, going to her comlink she started typing in more codes "Guys, just a note, it might get.... a little lightfooted for you" She said over the comm to the Commandos as well as the Jedi in their care. She nodded to Radimus She was ready. She hit the button to disable gravity.

Right before gravity was disabled, Radimus thrust the prybar into the lift doors, and peeled them open with a grunt and a little Force-boosted strength. From there, he glanced up and down the lift, and determined the lift itself was simply out of order, directly below the doors, with the hatch wide open and empty. "Typical," Radimus stepped into the lift, crouched low, and thrust them straight in a great jump. Without gravity to stop him, Radimus soared up the lift.

Following into the lift Cynthiana deactivated her saber and hooked it to her belt, Jumping after Radimus they went up a good two dozen levels to the Beidge, the door was marked in bright red, indicating it was locked tight. "Up one more.... here we go" On the holo she saw the bridge crew frantically trying to restore gravity. Cynthiana pulled a grate off the wall of the turbolift tub and started pulling wires.

A Minute passed. Finally the door blinkewd from red to bright yellow, to plain white, "There, our way in, they got a second blastdoor right at the bridge command deck, we'll be in communications" She said, She waved at the door since they were above it the door opened and those six Troopers and the two lone officers were seen staring b riefly at nothing until Cynthiana poked her head down "Hi' She waved, using the force she threw a stormtrooper into his fellow before pulling herself into the room. A quick glance to Radimus to see where he was, above her closer to the ceiling and she hit the button to restore gravity

THUD

"Get... off ... me" Of course her landing was coushined by an ImpOff whereas Radimus landing was softened, by her

"Needed a little warning," Radimus smirked as he got off and helped Cynthiana up. He then trained his rifle on the blind spots, and cleared them accordingly. "Looks like we took the bridge," he said after checking beneath the consoles.

"Yup, this is the bridge!... And I...." Cynthiana typed on her holopad on her wrist. Her face lit up in a smile as briefly the ship shut down completely save for basic systems such as life support and lighting, then the bridge lit itself back up "have full control... And we have us a visitor in the foreward hangar.... You feel it ?" She felt something cold, angry

"Yep," Radimus slowly slung his rifle once more, and grabbed his lightsaber hilt. With his free hand, he spoke into the communicator, "Everyone, get back to the Visionary. We've got trouble."

"I can get us moving, but to be safe, have Lance pilot the Visionary, its the only way to keep the kids safe from.... it" It meaning the Inqusitor Cynthiana was worried about the kids, Yoda said the Jedi could continue throug them, not just her and Radimus

"Understood. Kids, get aboard! Troopers, get ready to leave!"

Radimus glanced to the turbo lift they had just taken, and then back to Cynthiana. "That Inquisitor- if that is who I feel it is- will definitely detect all those kids. We're gonna have to intercept her ASAP."

"I agree. Lance, get those kids to safety away from the fleet and be ready to jump to hyperspace if we give the word/ We have a uninvited guest to take care of" Cynthiana said moving from the viewport to the main bridge controls as she easily hopped off the literal railingless bridge to one of the lower control panels and started putting in some codes. "Good luck, You'll need it" Cynthiana started shutting doors, and venting the atmosphere in the empty hallways to force the Inquistior to follow a set path.

"It's kinda hot that you know how to do all this," Radimus joked, "Well, I shouldn't be sayin' anything, given my own... repertoir." He meant no innuendo this time. "We letting her come to us?' The bridge did have open spaces, but that came with a chance of damaging the consoles needed for them to take the ship proper.

"Nope, we're forcing her to the brig level. We're meeting her there. I have full control, but to be safe I'm encoding the consoles to my commlink" Oh if only she had her own R2 unit to hang onto the commlink safely and not get bothered by Stormtroopers. "Ok lets go!" She easily jumped back to the upper level of the Bridge and headed for the tubolift

With the main lift out of commission, Radimus tested the other lesser turbolift panels, which seemed to work. None of them reached the same level as the one they took up to the bridge, but they would get them closer to other lesser lifts that would bring them to the brig. Radimus pulled Cynthiana into one turbolift and hit the button. Splitting up was likely to be a bad idea in a game of cat and mouse.

A long moment passed as the tubolift went downwards, then stopped at its lowest level. "How many turbolifts will it take to drive a Sith crazy ?" Cynthiana mused aloud, it was a retorical question to be sure

"One," Radimus replied, "Filled with two Jedi."

"You heard about that dramatic rescue didnt you ?" But before anything more could be said Cynthiana felt sheer cold all around them.

"No, but we're about to reenact it!" Radimus' saber flared up as the doors swung open.

Lightning arced into the lift, colliding with Radimus lightsaber "Ok forget the brig" Cynthiana grumbled, her own saber aflaring to howling life as she stepped from the turbolift her blade easily intercepting the Force Lightning.

Two could play at that game. "Miss us ?" Cynthiana smirked at the Inqusitor

"Very" Came the otherwise dead reply

In the tight quarters, Radimus was forced to take on the Inquisitor in single combat. With Cynthiana at his back, the smuggler was sure he could duck away and tag out if he needed to. In the meantime, he held his saber forward in a defensive posture. Radimus kept a firm, yet relaxed wide grip over his relatively long saber hilt.

The Inquisitor started off with a vicious volley of blows. Left, right, down, up, diagonally in every other direction. With his saber pointed forwards, moving like water, Radimus easily blocked, parried, and dodged. "Too slow, kid," Radimus taunted. Clearly the inquisitor's aggressive style was matched by Radimus' defensive stance.

Tire her out... that was the strategy Radimus came up with on the fly. Losing composure at the taunt would make the opponent tire our more quickly- at least in theory. Once the swings started losing speed to them, Radimus could feel it, and he ducked low and stepped back. "You're up Cynth!"

As Radimus ducked low and called her name, Cynthiana practially rolled over him, her back to his as he ducked out of the fight, as she came to her feet she ignited her saber once again the two skilled dueliest traded equally vicious blows. Moving with skill and speed Cynthiana matched blow for blow, parry for parry.

Moving through the narrow corridor to a larger platform the two traded blows. Missing a sing nearly had Cynthiana tumbling tothe lowerl evel of the catwalk system in the waste disposal chamber. A spang was heard as her saber made contact with a console, destroying the thing and activating the waste network. the place stank.

Whack Cynthiana reeled backwards as the kick nailed her in the chest, solid and strong. She slammed into the bulkhead of the doorframe, dazed briefly before rolling out of the stab from the Inqusitor.

With more space to maneuver, Radimus rounded past Cynthiana and knocked the same stab out of the way. With two quick thrusts, Radimus forced the Inquisitor to jump back a pace. "You okay, Cynth?" Radimus called, though he still kept his eyes on his opponent.

The smell suddenly grew stronger, and Radimus shifted his feet rapidly to dodge an incoming flying chunk of who-knows-what. The Inquisitor growled at the failed attempt at a Force projectile, and started throwing pieces of the console at Radimus.

The smuggler dove forward and rolled. He didn't want to give the Inquisitor any breathing room while Cynthiana was still recovering. With more thrusts and short swings, Radimus pulled focus from the Inquisitor. Once she started pressing the attack, however, Radimus switched right back to his quick, defensive blocks and parries.

From where she laid on the ground against the wall Cynthiana watched through fogged vision as Radimus fought against a far better skilled swordsman. She blinked away the fog, her nose filled with foul smells from the trashcompaction below the grated floor. She stared wide eyed as the Inqusitor threw a foul smelling chunk of what had to once be starfighter parts at Radimus, the man barely ducking in time. Cynthiana's eyes narrowed, she felt her heart hamemring within her ears. her heartbeat slowed as her eyes closed.

Lightsabers clashed as her heart drowned them out as it hamemred, then slowed. Her heartbeat steadied. 'In blanace the Force is, when together you are. Through you, suirvive the Order will' Cynthianas eyes snapped open and she sprang from the place she laid with a shriek.

Moving with preceise locked strokes and blocks. Cynthiana used the constantly shifting garbage as terrain for her endless assault. Blocking, parrying, striking and ocasionaly throwing something with the Force. When out of nowhere it became her undoing. The Inqusitor was so used to her viloent fast methods of combat, going slow and calm was unlike Cynthiana in every way.

Out of nowhere the strike came and her lightsaber went flying and smacked into Radimus as it deactivated, latching to his belt as if by the Will of the Force as a solid CRACK was heard as the Inqusitor smashed Cynthiana in the face with a solid right hook, causing the woman to spin around, Weaponless she had no defense, the Inqusitor simply did a upward slice, right up Cynthianas backbone.

Cynthiana collapsed, facedown on a pile of sludge and starship parts. the Inqusitor smirked, its weapon spinning like a fanblade as it turned towards Radimus.

Time seemed to slow for Radimus as he watched Cynthiana crumple. So soon after what was said at the trial, for something like this to happen. Radimus grit his teeth, trying to keep his emotions in check. By-nature, he felt his mouth move before he could think. "NO!" A single sharp shock, that resulted in the Inquisitor's smirk transform into a sadistic grin.

Calm down, the calm voice in his head seemed to echo, Take down this punk and get her to the medbay. It took a moment, but Radimus took a deep breath. You can counter her style easily. Just apply aggression.

Radimus resumed his stance, and moved forward. He only had a minute at-best, and the Inquisitor wasn't about to give him an opportunity to help Cynthiana.

The Inquisitor bounded forward, as Radimus expected. The spinning blade swiped at him, which was also expected. With such momentum in the spinning gyro-track, there wasn't much anything the Inquisitor could do with a perfect parry. The moment the blades clashed, Radimus' grip shifted slightly, and his blade slid down. It was a somewhat risky maneuver if the Inquisitor could read what he was doing. However, the Inquisitor seemed to get by well enough with pure aggression.

Radimus' blade cut through half of the circular ring. The spinning system locked itself as a failsafe to prvent either blade from flying apart, rendering the blade as a simple double-bladed lightsaber. For a moment, the Inquisitor felt stunned at such a perfect maneuver. She began to back off to gain some breathing room.

Radimus, however, pressed the advantage. With a twist of his wrist, he brought his lightsaber level and thrust forward. He delivered a series of quick thrusts, directly towards the Inquisitor's handle. As he did so, he flashed back to the Jedi Temple back in Coruscant. He saw Jedi trainees, Jedi Padawans, and even Jedi Masters duelling in their training.

Large swings, overhead swings, meeting blow for blow. Radimus couldn't understand why they did such things when no one would do that with even vibroblades. Over the years, he had his guesses as to why, but the one clear-cut answer he had turned out to be the very reason why he developed such a different style.

Because laser swords could cut through anything, one would want to cut their opponent in a single strike. However, Radimus figured, why bank on a single big strike, when you can use that "cut through anything" aspect to the fullest?

Each thrust had burned through at least one knuckle. Within three thusts, Radimus had nearly burned the Inquisitor's hand into nothingness. The pained shrieking filled his ears, but were drowned out by his focus, as wall as the garbage disposal machinery around them.

The Inquisitor's saber began to drop. Desperate, the Inquisitor reached for it with her other hand. Radimus, however, simply pressed forward. With another swing, he lopped the woman's other arm off.

The shriek was gut-wrenching, and even Radimus' focus wavered. Radimus suddenly felt light as a feather as he got shoved by an unseen, hateful force. The smuggler tumbled and rolled into the muck, before regaining his footing and raising his blade once more.

The Inquisitor was gone. Radimus was about to go search, but he saw Cynthiana, still face-down in the muck. Ten seconds had passed. The smuggler kept his blade gripped, but he quickly moved to Cynthiana. With a free hand, Radimus lifted her out of the sludge. "Cynth!" He called, "Talk to me, can you hear me?"

Thinking about it, Radimus couldn't figure out why the Inquisitor didn't use the Force to her advantage earlier. Perhaps she saw the smuggler as a weak Jedi the first time they clashed, and thought she could best him through swordplay easily enough. Perhaps her pride caused her lapse in judgement when she found herself against a Jedi cut from a different cloth. If either were the case, she got a sobering reminder for such a humiliating display.

On the down-side, the Inquisitor definitely got away, and she would absolutely come back stronger. That was not going to be fun, Radimus realised. However, he had no time to waste. As he felt the Inquisitor's presence waning rapidly, the smuggler turned off and hooked his saber to his belt, and began wiping sludge off Cynthiana's face with his free hand. As he did so, he stepped quickly to the exit, and began searching for a medbay.

With no markers around, Radimus was hard-pressed to find such a medbay. However, he did spot an MSE droid laying on its side- likely from the displacement of air from all the venting. With a foot, Radimus tilted the tiny droid back onto its wheels. With happy-sounding chirps, the MSE droid began to roll away.

"Wait!" Radimus called, "Where's the medbay?"

The droid stopped and chirped. Radimus hefted Cynthiana into a bridal carry and began to follow at a brisk pace. The tiny droid led Radimus into a different turbolift, and they rode it together. At the correct floor, the droid led Radimus to the Star Destroyer's medbay.

"Hold on, I gotcha," Radimus brought her over to one of the tanks.

A medical droid activated and rolled over on a series of wheels. "Greetings!" It spoke, unlike Radimus' own medical droid. "How might I help you?"

"Help her," Radimus ordered. He pointed out the gash in her back.

"Hmm, nasty. I'll do what I can," it replied before prepping Cynthiana for the tank. While he was certain Cynthiana had seen him from when he was terribly wounded, Radimus looked away regardless. Instead, he pulled the communicator from his belt. "Dex, it's Riddick. The enemy is retreating, but Cynth took a hit. Lemme know if a ship leaves."

"I read ya," Dex replied.

Radimus didn't want to risk splitting from Cynthiana. While he felt the Inquisitor's presence waning with distance, he didn't want to go anywhere until he was sure the ship was completely secure. To make sure Cynthiana was getting treated well, Radimus chanced a look. She was being treated well after all. Singed cut aside, she was looking quite fine.

"Kid," Dex spoke up, "I see an Imperial ship leaving from the bow."

Radimus felt the presence fading more rapidly. "We're good. Land as close to the bridge as you can." After that, he realised he forgot to grab Cynthi's lightsaber. "Oh shi-" But then he noticed an extra weight on his belt. "Oh thank goodness," Radimus sighed as he shifted the saberstaff to his side, next to his own long hilt.

Radimus hadn't used any Force manipulation during the fight, as his lack of practice meant it would've expended more effort than he could ever consider during a fight. If the Inquisitor was going to come back stronger, and now aware of Radimus' unorthodox tactics, the smuggler knew he'd need to get back in practice. He was a solid swordfighter, but that was all he had at the moment.

To put it frankly, he was extremely lucky, and he knew it wouldn't happen again.

"We've landed," Dex's voice emitted from the communicator.

"Good," Radimus replied, "Get to the bridge. Cynth already unlocked all systems."

"Where are we going?"

"Away from here," Radimus replied, "We need time to recover, gather our bearings. Get us to the Inner Rim at least."

They would have to ditch the star destroyer if they wanted to throw the Imperials off their train. "Keep the kids close to the ship as well."

"Tyke, you're with the tykes," Dex barked away from the microphone, To Radimus, he continued, "We'll get us in hyperspace in four minutes."

"Main turbolift is out of order," Radimus replied, "Get to a higher level and take one of the secondaries."

"Roger that."

Radimus sat down on a nearby bench. Now he could finally rest relatively easily. With Cynthiana in the tube, and the Commandos on their way to take control, Radimus' main focus was making sure his partner... master... was alright.

It was then that he noticed that his hands were shaking. The Inquisitor's blows were harder than he expected. One more blow, and Radimus had a bad feeling he would've been disarmed himself.

I really was lucky... He trusted in the Force. While he did take on dangerous jobs because of his trust in the Force, he did prefer situations where he didn't need to rely so much on it.

Two more medical droids rolled into view, one of them holding a datapad. "Her vitals are stable" the droid said, its grany voice giving way that it was a newer model. "The device that inflicted the cut however has fused some of her bodyglove to her skin, it will take a while to remove the damaged tissue." As the droid detailed the damage that had been done to Cynthiana to Radimus the two new droids that arrived got to work gently removing the damaged skin and fused bodyglove after removing Cynthiana from the tank. Once the damaged tissue was removed with the bits of cloth, she'd get back in for further healing

"The good news however is that none of the injuries are life threatening, but, try as we might, we cannot waken her." The droid said. Somehow word filtered to the kids that their savior, one of them was hurt, and wasnt waking up. Which promted the kids to begin meditating.Calling on the Force to help heal Cynthiana and wake her up

As Radimus watched Cynthiana float in the kolto tank of all thingsd, it wasnt bacta this ship had, it was Kolto, which apparently worked just as good if not better than Bacta. A familar voice spoke "Worried you should not be. Meditating she is. Strong she is. Waken soon she will." Yoda's voice rang clear. The kids had called on him to help and guide

"I don't think I ever was," Radimus mumbled. Cynthiana wasn't one to be laid low by the likes of that Inquisitor. The slash was great, but shallow. Many have survived cuts like that.

"Worried the Younglings are" Yoda said simply. "Meditate they do. Help you both they will"

"Good kids," A smile crept along the smuggler's face. He too closed his eyes while he was seated, leaning forward, supporting his head in both hands.

A MSE droid came trundling in followed closely by Tsilla, "The kids are all meditating. Its strange, without warning they just sat.... oh my. What happened to her ?" the Chiss was alarmed at seeing the state Cynthiana was in.

The Medical droid shooed the Mouse Droid away "Shoo critter, let me do my work.... Oh shove off ya useless tin roller" The little Mouse Droid chirped unhappy at the Medical Droid which then relented its language at the droid "You lead them to me after he safed your proccessor ?... Ok fine so you're not so useless." Another happy chirp "Yes she'll be healed soon... Oddly however that she is not moving though, her vitals are rising...."

Radimus did not seem to respond or budge. His mind was deep into the calm darkness of meditation. He felt Tsilla before she even walked through the door, and his reach felt Cynthiana in the tank. Her essence was weakened at-first from the gash, but the smuggler could see that Cynthiana was making a recovery. He had no doubts about it anyway.

His eyes opened once more when the ship lurched slightly. Lance and the others had just initiated a jump into hyperspace, based on Radimus' instructions. Radimus knew they would need to ditch the destroyer sometime before their final destination, because such a huge vessel would be impossible to hide no matter where they ended up. However, the hyperdrive of such an immense vessel is a lot larger, and there was more than plenty of space. Until they had to ditch the ship, they were travelling in style.

That said, their taking down five Imperial ships on their own would no-doubt have increased the heat for them. We really, really need to lay low as soon as possible, Radimus realised. From one pocket, he produced his trusty starmap, and he began looking over planets within the inner rim. In particular, he searched for any place that could be used to hide.

He formed a list of different planets in his head, most of them by memory, others by reputation. One planet in particular had some unique characteristics that they could definitely use.

"Hm..." Radimus considered the possibilities. They would need to be careful out in the open, but if they pulled it off, they could effectively live directly under the Empire's nose and they'd be none the wiser.

Still, Cynthiana is his master. He would save the list of planets, and the recommendations on a small datapad. He would talk with her about it once she recovered.

----

It was a place but there was nothing. Nothing but black, as if lost in deep meditation. Cynthiana could see and hear, but she couldnt feel or see herself, nor could she move as she floated in the darkness. "Worried for you, the children are. Meditate and contact me they did." Came a voice. Cynthiana tried to turn and see who was speaking. Swirls of green energy foirmed before her as Yoda spoke. "Smart the Younglings are. Strong in the Force they are. Learn from you they will, Survive you will."

"Master ? Where am I ?"

"In deep meditation you are. Healing your body is. Alive you most surely are."

Then it hit her, the searing pain from the saber sending her to the sludge in a heap. "The Inquistor..."

"Gone she is. Drive her away Radimus did. In hyperspace, safely you are."

"Where are we going ?"

"Know that I do not. Advise you I do"

"Master, you said that Radimus and I, the Order could survive through us and the Younglings we saved on Dromund Kaas; then the Inqusitor..."

"Make trouble for you the Inqusitor does. Smarter than her you are."

"Then where do we go ? I stole a Star Destroyer,..."

"Switch ships at the next system you must, attempt to get a different ship you can."

"But where will we go ?"

"Hmmm.. a good question that is...."

For long moments nothing was said, finally Yoda spoke

"Grozporin, Gem Crystaleye, seek them at Arda 3 you should. Aid you they can"

"I do not think I have heard of them.... but if what you say is true, we can use all the help we can get" Cynthiana said, seemingly closing her eyes....

----

Her eyes snapped open in the kolto tank. Reacting fast her hand smacked the side of the tank. She wasnt naked persei, just topless. The droid saw her and esclaimed happliy, "Ah! She's awake! Draining tank... oh sush Shorty.... Ok fine up you go" The medical droid bent down and picked up the MSE droid and set it on the table. In leading Radimus, who carried Ctynthiana, to the Medbay, the little droid had inessence saved the womans life.

The droid chirped something to Radimus. The medical droid could only translate so far, but the chirps and beeps were lost on the medical droid. "I am sorry, but I cannot translate what this MSE Repair Drone is saying" The Medical droid said when Radimus gave a confused look to him as Cynthiana smacked the side of the kolto tank again before being pulled out of it. Reaching up and removing the breathing system from her mouth she was thankful she didnt have a solid gag reflex unlike most people had to be sedated when put in the kolto tank or were already knocked out at the time. Cynthiana coughed a few times, She'd need to find a new bodyglove. And she knew just where to look.

She fell off the kolto tank with a splash, her barefeet smacking the steel floor without a wet sound. She coughed a few times. She motioned to Tsilla and Radimus "Get up to the Bridge, get us out at the next system. We can try and sell this thing for scrap, if that doesnt work, the next system over will have what we're looking for."

At the confused look she said simply "We need to change ships, I know where we can hide the kids safely, Master Talas as well. But we need to switch ships, the Visionary is too small, And before we go any further I need a new bodyglove. This medical outfit get up is making me cold., I'll meet you on the bridge" Cynthiana said before leaving the two confused as the MSE droid chirped something and darted off the medical bed for the door leading the way to what Cynthiana sought, Every Star Destroyer had a armory, and that included clothing for the troopers. Hopefully she'd find one without sleeves

Radimus smirked, "I was thinking exactly the same thing," Radimus rushed to Cynthiana's side to help her walk, just in case. "I was checking the directory from one of the consoles here while waiting, so the nearest armoury isn't that far away."

A left, a right, straight down a corridor, and another right. They found themselves inside a woom filled with lockers. Each one was filled with Stormtrooper suits and equipment. "Could use an extra," Radimus snagged an energy cell bandolier filled with energy cells.

With Radimus helping her walk a few dozen steps down a longer than expected corridor, the MSE-6 droid chittered something and went right through the door. Of course what it then chittered to Radimus was simply 'A lady needs time to dress alone' Two manipulator arms formed off the top of the MSE droid and seemed to briefly cross before Cynthiana smiled, turning to Radimus she made the motion for him to wait at the door while she went through the armory.

The droid chittered something, seeming to know she sought something of a set type. The droid continued chittering as Cynthiana went over tio it and dropped to a knee, "Alright little one, You seem to know your way around here. And you seem to know me. Which set of these bodygloves dont have sleeves ?" At that the droid chittered and waved for Cynthiana to follow it deeper into the armory

Moments later and the MSE droid chittered happliy, having found exactly what Cynthiana sought in terms of an outfit. Bodygloves that stormtroopers wore were form fitting and had sleeves, and those were constrictive. But for Cynthiana, the MSE droid knew exactly what she wanted, she wanted to either show off her arms, or have as much freedom of movement as possible. It was in fact the latter of the two options. but the little MSE droid didnt care. It was saved, in a way, by Radimus, and in turn it saved Ctynthianas life, and on the little droids scanners it showed her as commander of the vessel. So naturally it had to show its commander the layout.

Cynthiana smiled seeing where the little droid lead her. Perfect, the Commanders section. She went through the first two rows. Ah, there it was, her size exactly, a bunch of them. perfect. A few moments later and the new second skin bodyglove was on. It fit snug toher body. The droid whistled something and tugged a rack into view, Cynthiana smirked, Of course, trust Imperials to have secret agents... Or even a set of her own clothing for that matter. She easily slid into her normal outfit, the black and silver designs on the cloth shimmered slightly in the light. It felt oddly heavy. Then again it shimmered. "What is this stuff ?" The MSE droid chirped "Ardian Silk ?" The droid seemed to nod bouncing on the front wheels. "Well, whatever it is I can get used to it"

Cynthiana smiled and bent down, picking up the little droid "Where's your owner little one ?...." The Droid chirped "I'm your owner ?" Well... droids of all types did work for her, but she liked this little guy "Well, first thing is first, your type of droid is designed to melt its proccessor if Rebels get hold of you, I dont want that. You're a helpful little thing and I dont want to lose someone like you, or Radimus"

The droid chriped happliy as Cynthiana carried it back to the entery area of the armory. Upon opening the door she found Radimus there, with who had to be Lance. She gently tapped the droid on the top, signifying he could trust the Commando and also Radimus. Seeing the concerned look on the Commandos face, without his helmet for once, Cynthiana said simply "What is it ?" The droid chirped, briefly scared but otherwise calm in Cynthianas arms when she gently patted its top. The droid could trust the Commandos

"Naturally we thought of ditching this destroyer before heading to one of several planets. Radimus came up with a list of best-case scenarios."

"I'm partial to a quiet Imperial tourist world called Arda-3," Radimus added, "But there are some other good ones. Before that, however, I know how we can scrap this thing without evidence... but it involves utilizing one of my... well, contacts."

The implications were that they would be dealing with scumbags that would sell out their own mothers- exactly the kind of guys Radimus partially was. They had to be, in order to keep the long arm of the Empire out of their heinies. "Lance is opposed to it."

"Can't think of any better ideas," Lance shrugged, "So we've agreed to let Riddick do the talking."

"Thing is..." Radimus scratched his nose, "They'd be real keen to take Imperial hostages if they got the chance, and Jedi are worth their weight in gold. Women, double."

"If our run-ins with Trandoshan slavers were any indicator, Commandos are valuable slaves as well," Lance added, "Hence why we're letting Radimus do the dealings."

"It'd be prefereable to get our hands on a CR90. It's a political vessel, not military-focused. If we extend the range on the Visionary's scramblers, we'd be able to get to Arda-3 or wherever we decide on without incident." Radimus continued, "Though that's assuming my contacts are cool."

"Arent CR90's referred to as Blockade Runners ?" Cytnhiana asked out of the blue, if they got one of those... "I got an idea. Lets see this contact of yours, you do the talking. If we cant get the CR90 at that location, how close are we to Kuat ? We can transfer to my own vessel there and continue on to Arda 3" Arda 3 was a Imperial Vacation Paradise, untouched by war with only two cities and prestine kilometers of grasslands and gorgeous mountain resorts.

Plus Yoda said to go there anyhow

"Only if we use it as such. The Corvette's a well-known politically aligned vessel." As it currently stands, the Rebellion-centric reputation hasn't yet sunken its hooks into the public psyche. Plus they're cheap for a cruiser.

"True, even with my codec it'd seem strange that Star Destroyers either lock up or entirely stop working when we pass them if Im using my command codec." A CR90 would indeed be a lot less obvious nor so large. "Alright, we'll do it. But, as a backup plan, we can have this ship auto recall to Kuat for further testing or even full system shakedown" Cynthiana pointed at Radimus "You do all the talking with these contacts of yours. If either Tsilla or I are seen, much less felt we'll have a problem" Slavers were one thing, but pirates were entirely another

"In the meantime I'm going to take this little fellow with me to maintanence. he's a helpful little droid and perfect for what we need. Just a few quirks to hammer out first" Cynthiana then headed off, the MSE droid in her arms chirping and its apendage amrs pointing in the right directions to go to get to the repair bay area. First thing was first; removing the self destruct protocol.

Like havin' a kid already, Radimus chuckled to himself. Comically, the vision he had of the child didn't even cross his mind. The smuggler headed back to the Visionary and switched on long-range communications, complete with encryption on a very particular frequency. "Come in Lecher. This is Dorr."

As was customary for long-range communications, it did take a couple of minutes at-least dor a response to arrive. Faster-than-light communication signals were a smuggler's best friend, after all. "Dorr? Captain Dorr? Long time no hear. Thought you were too good for us until now, eh?"

"Just keeping the heat off, You know how it is."

The laughter came a few moments later. "So what can I do you for this fine galactic cycle?"

"Getting the heat off. I hijacked a 22." The number twenty-two was known among the smuggling kind as "Star Destroyer". A sure-fire sign that one called too greedily in a particular card game. "Scrap it, dispose of evidence, and you getcherself a nice stack to work with."

"A 22... How the hell did you pull that one off?"

"What can I say?" Radimus confidently replied, "You know I always took the hyperlane through the dangerzone."

More laughter. "True that, Captain Dorr, true that. Where you meeting?"

"In an hour. We're almost at the usual spot. Talk to you soon."

With that, communications were cut off. Radimus' particular crowd of "in-crowd clients" ran a schedule that changed every Coruscant-standard cycle. Every Coruscant-Hour, they open a single frequency that they scout out prior to officially opening. From there, anyone in the know would know the exact time to tune in and how long they have. Radimus happened to catch the last several minutes this time around.

The destroyer decelerated and emerged from hyperspace. From there, Radimus called for everyone to get inside the Visionary. "It won't be comfy, but we gotta make sure they don't spot you guys," Radimus explained on the bridge.

"Preachin' to the choir, kid," Lance replied.

"Lance how do you know church-based phrases?" Dex asked.

"Remember that one mission where we breached and cleared a house of faith secretly smuggling odds and ends to the Separtists?"

"Oh yeah. Riddick was gone at the time, wasn't he?"

"Yeah, whatever happened to that kid, anyway?"

"He's standing here," Radimus replied, unamused, "Just get in the ship."

With the star destroyer set to auto-pilot, hovering in place, Radimus headed out in the Sparrow. They had decellerated somewhere in dark space between systems. Few ships ever came out here.

Few ships included a Mon Calimari cruiser dropping from Hyperspace several thousand kilometers away. The cruiser was heavily modified and painted-over to resemble a shark. Amusingly enough, it was the only thing about these particular contacts that were... conspicuous.

Radimus landed the Sparrow in the hangar, and the smuggler exited, with his good luck charm hitched to his belt.

"Still got that broken thing?"

Radimus nodded, "In our line of work, we can use all the luck we can get."

"That only applies if you don't make your own luck," A Mandalorian Trandoshan approached, and lightly punched Radimus in the gut. "Long time no see, Dorr! Whatever happened to yer old crew?"

"Sold me as a slave."

"And your owner?"

"What owner?"

This resulted in guffaws from all the other guards of various species and armaments. The Trandoshan known as Lecher stepped out into the hangar and spotted the distant star destroyer. The gravity wells shining in the starlight He gave a low, hoarse whisper. "You gotta tell me how you took that thing."

"Some imperial with a grudge," Radimus snickered as he improvised a fake story on the fly- smooth-talker as he was, "The guy hired me to steal him a military vessel back from a dude who was porkin' his wife. Thing is, he paid me in advance." He produced his credit chip, showing the triple-pay money Cynthiana had paid him.

"HA!" Lecher slapped Radimus' shoulder, "Ya shoulda directed him to me! I'd have weaseled him out of twice that!"

"I would've, but the guy didn't like Trandoshans."

"Who does, am I right?" Lecher roared with laughter. "Alright, let's talk business then. Ye gotcher scraphead over there, so what do you want?"

"I got this other job, but we need a proper blockade runner for it. You got any CR90's around, clear licenses?"

"CR90's..." Lecher's eye twitched slightly, but he seemed gleeful all the same. Radimus caught it, but didn't show that he did. "I might have a couple kickin' around. I thought your Visionary was perfectly suited for blockade running?"

"Cargo's bigger than my bird can handle," Radimus replied.

"Hm..." Lecher pondered thughtfully, "So you're buying a Corvette... for a Destroyer."

"Like I said, scrapping evidence. Think you can do me a solid?" Radimus asked.

Lecher did not respond immediately. He still pondered aloud. Radimus did not like this at all.

The MSE droid- now named "Vermin" was hidden within the Sparrow, recording the conversation and streaming it directly to the Visionary's console, where Cynthiana and the Commandos were waiting.

"Not good," Dex grit his teeth, "That Lecher's onto him."

"He doesn't have any evidence, though," Tyke interjected.

"When you got enough guns, you don't need warrants," Lance replied grimly.

"I'm finding it somewhat... difficult to believe how you hijacked the ship on your own," Lecher spoke slowly, yet methodically, "For one, if it was really you on your own, why leave the Visionary back at the destroyer? Why bring your shuttle?"

"Minor repairs needed," Radimus replied without skipping a beat. He also tugged his jacket collar down. "Ruined exosuit soo." Telling them his current weakness to the vacuum was a risky move, but that level of honesty might take them off-guard.

"And this imperial happened to have codes?" Lecher asked, "Couldn't have just sent these codes our way?"

"I learned that they make a practice of changing codes every few days, and even then, a different set for every ship." Radimus explained. This time, it was half-factual. At least, it would be a practice the Empire would have definitely adopted a long time ago. After all, these scumbags employed the exact same tactics for their communications. in the Visionary Cynthiana smiled, yep, they changed codes every month for different smaller vessels, the Destroyers were each week, but her command codes were automatically accepted by any vessel made by KDY

"Indeed, that does make sense," Lecher sniffed, "But I've survived the Clone Wars... I've tangoed with a Jedi before."

"I'm sure a lot of us have," Radimus shrugged.

"One thing we "lizards", as the Clones called us, have developed throughout our survival in fights against Wookies is our sense of smell.' Lecher stepped closer to Radimus, "In the Clone Wars, I had a run-in. Jedi gave off a particular smell."

"I have heard they used weird perfumes with their weird robes," Radimus chuckled, but no one else was joining him.

"It's their crystals," Lecher replied, "I could smell the crystals in their lightsabers. I smell a crystal on you."

Radimus erupted in a cold swear. Before he could even think about reaching for his good luck charm, Lecher's bodyguards had already levelled their weapons at him. "Buddy, come on. I brought you a destroyer!"

"A destroyer that'd have more spaces for trackers than I could possibly have the manpower to manage before the Empire's down our throats," Lecher spat, "But I'm sure it'd be alright. After all, we were humble semaritans who liberated a stolen military vessel... from a Jedi."

Well shit, Radimus slowly rose his hands.

"Don't even be thinking of using your little psychic powers. We've marked your ass."

Cynthiana didnt like where the conversation was heading. She spoke, oddly in binary at the time, "Vermin, you see the chance, spark off some electrial systems. they wont notice you underfoot, Hurry" Vermin chirrtered somefuly and peeked out. its optics finding what he sought, the old Mon Cal cruisers were all alike Trust them to have dataports.... in the floor. With their attention all on Radimus none noticed the tiny black box dart off the Sparrow to a power port in the floor and pretty much pee in it

The resulting electrical sparks arced across the hangar "Oooooo" the little Droid murred before darting back, once again not noticed back into the Sparrow While at the same time the weapons on the Interdictor class Destroyer warmed up. Smirking Cynthiana thought seeing the readout... "What do you think we should target first ?, Bridge, shields, engines...." She asked Lance, and also Dex and Tyke, Smack was too busy with the kids keeping them quiet

"What the hell just happe-?" Lecher barked, only he was cut off by the sharp sound of a blazing fire roaring to life. Their particular corner in the hangar glowed a hellish orange.

"I suggest you take up my generous offer," Radimus spoke coldly, as he rose his blade in a stance, "Or you might find out how I really took that ship.

"Clever kid," Lecher smirked, but he dashed back to make some distance from Radimus. "Kill him," he ordered, "A corpse is just as good for those Imperial bounty officers."

Bolts catapulted from blasters, only to be returned in kind. Two bodyguards staggered as their blasterfire slammed into their armour. They didn't pierce, but it did knock the wind out of them. The orange blade, on the other hand, was perfectly keen on cleaving through them- armour and all. "Ready to take up my deal, Lecher?" Radimus asked not unkindly.

The Trandoshan had retreated into the corridors with the rest of his bodyguards. No-doubt he would be calling for reinforcements from the crew. With that opportunity, Radimus tapped on his communicator. "Cynth, bring the Visionary close. We're taking what we came for."

"Gladly" came the reply as Vermin whistled and waved at Radimus it was time to go.The little droid, thanks to Cynthianas upgrades, could also pilot a ship quite well

"You get the Sparrow back home. I'll get our Corvette," Radimus jerked a thumb towards the shuttle and bolted into the inner hallways of the Mon Calimari cruiser. Vermin whistled and saluted before darted into the Sparrow and powering it up for takeoff

On the outside, the ships assorted gun turrets were beginning to get manned. The Commandos, seeing this from the cockpit, split off to man the two gun turrets equipped on the Visionary. "Evasive action, kid!" Lance called to Tyke- who had taken the wheel while Cynthiana began to remotely man the guns on the star destroyer, "We gotta give them cover!"

While the Visionary was a fine ship with it came for evasion, the Mon Calimari were notorious for their excellently designed battleships. There were main guns up the whazoo, possibly too many for one ship to handle.

Grunts and shrieks filled the halls as the smuggler jedi danced up and down each corridor, dodging what he could and deflecting what he couldn't.

"Som of a bitch," Lecher grunted angrily as he scrambled into the bridge. "Lock down the corridors! Keep the Jedi bus-"

The ship shuddered from a sudden impact.

"The destroyer! It's still active!"

"What?!" Lecher bellowed, "Damnit! Return fire!"

Shots exchanged between the two vessels, which pinged off shields, slipped past shields, and damaged hull and system alike.

Meanwhile, Radimus bounded down the corridors, utilizing the Force to boost his leg muscles for increased speed. It was particularly draining for him, but the smuggler knew he needed to reach the next hangar over in his search for a Corvette. He knew Lecher had one- the trandoshan had several last time the smuggler was here.

Another bounty hunter dropped as a flash of orange split him in two. Shortly after, Radimus took a left and found himself in the next hangar.

Plenty of ships were available. A Hammerhead, many pieces of junk Radimus wouldn't catch himself dead flying, and one Corellian Corvette. The CR90 looked brand-new too, as if it were just stolen right from drydock. Which it was

Radimus deflected more shots and darted towards the Corvette. "A trade's a trade, boys," Radimus smirked as he raised the ramp after getting aboard. From there, Radimus shot down the narrow corridors and reached the small bridge. Once there, he booted up systems as quickly as he could, and fired up the auto-turrets system. Typically they were used to repel missiles as a point-defense, but they were also effective at tracking movement outside and shooting at them. Many more pirates got shot.

"And we're off," Radimus fired main engines, and the whole ship lurched. The sheer weight of the Corvette tore the latchings off the walls, which held onto the Corvette for a moment before releasing weakly once it crossed the threshold and into the vacuum.

"Sir!" One pilot on the Mon Calimari bridge reported, "One of the CR90's has just broken out of our port hangar!"

Should've taken my generous offer, The Trandoshan grimaced with hatred, "Never with a Jedi," he growled, "Jedi kill my people... Jedi TAKE MY STUFF!"

One more blast from the Star Destroyer had stuck the bridge in a direct hit. Those who survived the blast were immediately vented. The shot set off a chain reaction that reached half-way across the vessel.

"Well crap," Radimus said to himself as he turned the Corvette around to view their handiwork, "There goes my old career..."

Seeing the shot slam into the bridge of the vessel Cynthiana stared briefly open mouthed as did Lance and Dex, "uhm...... Oops" Cynthiana said, she hit two commands, the Kuat recall code was sent and the Destroyer disappeared into Hyperspace. There came a happy whistling however as the Sparrow docked with the Visionary and Vermin all but fall into the lower levels before using the repulsar system Cynthiana set up for him to get back to the proper level and came in whistling apparently a happy tune.

"We got the sparrow, We'll let the Imperials figure this mess out" Cynthiana mused over the comm. Seeing the CR90 that Radimus had liberated from the pirates she stared. "That looks new...."

"Fully equipped too," Radimus swooped by, coming to a relative half nearby the Visionary. On the side, the Corvette's tiny hangar opened. "Bring'er in."

As all Commandos were trained pilots, Tyke easily brought the Visionary inside. Radimus' ship was relatively large compared to the fighters normally docked within the tiny hangar, but it fit well enough. Once Radimus closed the hangar door, the atmosphere within the hangar normalized. This allowed the Visionary to finally be emptied from passengers.

The Commandos made a beeline to the bridge. "Nice one, Riddick! You did really good there, kid!" They approached, but suddenly paused.

"Sup?" Radimus asked.

"Kid... you got hit," Lance pointed out.

Thanks to adrenaline, Radimus hadn't noticed the blaster wounds he thought he had dodged or deflected. "Wouldya look at that..."

---

The Corellian Corvette came equipped with a medbay almost as good as the Star Destroyer. It was there that Radimus was facing recovery.

"Kid's out of practice, that's for sure," Lance shrugged.

"The girl's gonna be his master, isn't she?" Dex asked.

"Lucky kid, getting shot up notwithstanding," Lance shrugged again.

A quick search around the Corvette had landed them with several exosuits- the same kind Radimus had worn before. After Radimus got out, he groaned, and slipped on the exosuit as if by second-nature. The skintight suit felt like a second skin to him- probably because that's what it was. A space-proof, radiation-proof layer with mild blaster resistance- enough to block the smaller settings at least.

The reat of Radimus' wardrobe, however, was torn up on account of the blasterfire he had received. He had spares in the Visionary. For now, however, Radimus walked aboard the CR90 in a skintight suit.

On the bridge, he found the Commandos at their station. A look out the window told Radimus that they were already in Hyperspace, on their way to Arda-3. "How long was I out?"

"Enough to heal, apparently," Dex replied, "How'd you not notice you got shot that many times?"

Radimus shrugged, "I dunno. I think I did feel the pain... but there was something... telling me to keep going." He trusted the Force all his life, but not even he understood it all that much. Part of him considered questioning the Force, but he felt it was simply nature.

"Riddick, we know. You don't need to show off," Lance quipped with a laugh.

"Not my fault my pants were shredded."

"Actually, it is your fault," Lance smirked, "You were out of practice against so many blaster users! Still, cover that up!"

"It is covered!" Radimus cried, faux-offended.

"Cover it more. Put on a codpiece or something. Here, borrow mine!" Lance unhitched the crotch plate from his armoure and winged it ar Radimus. The smuggler caught it in the air, and gazed at Lance unamusedly. "Spoilsport," Lance shrugged.

Of course Cynthiana was on the bridge looking over a holomap of the galaxy. They needed a proper Hyperspace route to travel down to get to Arda 3. Even her code couldnt exactly isolate the best possible route to take."Half of the Spacelanes are blocked off for Military use only. its all going to the Horuz system too. Vermin, hook into my codec, I think there's some Im missing." Ctynthiana then noticed Radimus, and couldny help but smile at Lance's persona. She liked these Commandos. they were after all, Clones, but they had worked with them before

"No need," Radimus waved with a wink with his free hand. He winged the codpiece back at Lance before heading to the nav computer. After examining their current route, the smuggler inputted new coordinates with rapid clicks on the console controls. "That'll take us there." he said after confirming his math was right. Having worked solo as a smuggler, his math skills when it came to hyperspace jumps was quite solid. "Once we drop out, fire a jump with these coordinates."

"You got it, Riddick."

"Arda 3, Vacation paradise here we come. imperials have no military interest in it. Its perfect. Rumor among the Order was that there was a Nexus of some form there. Master Thanos and I went there once when I first became her Padawan, We never did find the Force Nexus" She relqaxed in her seat "Are any of you guys familar with a Wookiee called Grozporin ? Maybe a woman named Gem Crystaleye ?" Thing was none of them were familar with either but there was history on the genetic purists known as the Crystaleyes back before the republic was founded. Great scientests with genetic purity in mind.

"Never heard of no Crystaleye," Lance replied, "I guess we never went near their neck of the woods during assignments."

"Groz," Radimus repeated, "That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Crystaleye's unfamiliar, though."

"A Nexus, though?" Dex asked, "Sounds like typical Jedi voodoo nonsense as far as this cat's concerned."

"Yoda said to seek out either of them, they'd help us. Apparently they're on Arda 3" Cynthiana said, Vermin shistled something and activated a holo of the galaxy. "And our path takes us nowhere near any Imperial controlled zones. Vermin, try and find out why the Hydian Way is shut down between Mygeeto and Horuz" Cynthiana said, 'reeo' Vermin replied with a salute of its new arm. The MSE droid was helpful, it could belnd in so perfectly. At least nobody asked why or if she aimed at the bridge directly of that pirate cruiser

Radimus was somewhat quiet as he sat at the nav computer. He wondered why he suddenly ignored the pain of getting shot while aboard the pirate vessel. It seemed as if something was telling him to push past his limits. The smuggler was somewhat troubled by the idea of breaking himself like that, especially since he had no idea what the source of the sudden pain immunity really was. Radimus considered taking some time to look into it. Out of everyone aboard the ship, Radimus was the one who was consistently on the bridge during their current jump through hyperspace.

The Commandos were busy with their respective duties revolving around making sure the CR90 functioned properly throughout their trip. While the ship was new, it didn't hurt to ensure all systems were green across the board.

At one point, Radimus saw that Cynthiana was the only soul on the bridge at the moment. "Have you ever... ignored pain?" He asked.

For a long moment she didnt speak, her eyes closed as she was meditating. Yet she sensed Radimus many times. and when he finally asked his question she thought carefully on how to answer. "A few times when I was younger. Maswter Thanos always insisted I rest when I overexterted myself. One day on Moorja, Master Thanos and I along with Master Rayics Padawan Josef Storr were investigating Sith activity. We... we were ambushed, Master Rayic died first, shortly followed by Josef and Master Thanos.... I fought the Sith briefly on my own. Fell off more walkways than I care to count. If it wasnt for Master Androth.... may he rest in peace, and his Padawan Kinara whom you met, and Snowbund whom you also met..... I'd be dead. Vinh was too strong for me."

She sighed and relaxed in the chair "Apparently with the right Force Connection, others can also feel pain from the other. In your case my legs feel as if I went on a planet run without a swoop ten times without stopping" She meant him using the Force to help him move through the pirates vessel. Now her legs felt stiff as if she went on one too many walks in one day. But it didnt matter.

"The good news is, you're on your feet, you look good in black. But you're going to need a belt to properly hold that saber." Her own staffsaber didnt exactly go on a belt persei, more like an arm or shoulder covertec clip. Most Jedi kept their sabers at their belt, easy to reach. But Cynthiana had to keep her saber hidden at all times, so she desguised it as part of her outfit with it under her left arm when in public, literally invisible thanks to the cloak she always wore with it. But when in private or not in the public limelight she wore her weapon at her hip.

She stood up, going to the holoprojecter she activated it showing a system "Geonosis. Birthplace of the Clone Wars... Something is going on here, dont know what, even with Vermin's access abilities, we cant find out much. Apparently the Empire is building something here, they have mineral and Kyrriumsteel refineries here. Access to the system itself is entirely restricted to Eyes Only access too. Once Vermin said his access codec cant get him in, I told him not to worry about it and check on the kids."

Radimus had never been to Geonosis; it was only a few cycles before his being assigned to the Othello with November Squad and Master Windu. He had heard the stories from November Squad. Many Clones landed, as did many bugs and droids. For a good long while, the entire planet was nothing but carnage as Separtists evacuated with as much tech as they could. It was an enormous loss for the Separtists, and would only be the first in many to come.

Plus he heard of Delta Squad taking down an entire capital ship on their own. That was something November Squad swore they would out-do one day. They never did, though.

"I'll get spare clothes from my bunk," Radimus picked up his saber- which he had placed on a bare part of the console in lieu of a proper hitch he could use on his exosuit. Interesting notion- the Force connection. It didn't strike him as a particularly good thing to use in most contexts. If Cynthiana had been aboard as well, would the connection have tuckered her out part-way through, and leave her vulnerable? Then again, if she had been there, would Radimus have gotten shot several times?

The smuggler stood from the nav computer and headed down the corridors and back into the Visionary- docked in the tiny hangar in the Corvette. Radimus was impressed at the landing job- there was barely any room to spare. Tyke did good, To be fair, Commandos always do good.

Inside the bunk aboard the Visionary, Radimus threw open his locker and began grabbing spare clothes. Boots that weren't worn-down from the intensity of Force Speed, trousers and a tee that weren't riddled with holes and burns, and a new jacket- a blue one as opposed to his old orange one. Most of the rest was torn up from various adventures and misadventures, but the stuff Radimus donned was still in good condition.

"Maybe I should pick up some new threads on Arda-3," Radimus joked once he returned to the bridge. His lightsaber was hitched to his belt. The length of the hilt made it only partially hidden under his jacket, but he had assorted tube containers with his belt to better disguise the hilt as a simple storage device. On his back, his trusty modified blaster rifle was slung.

He joked because the pilot had a bad feeling that he may never be able to lay low for a good long time. He'd probably be made within seconds of entering any system if the Empire put out a bounty on him. If the pirates somehow survived their cruiser's unfortunate chain reaction, they would definitely squeal.

Staying with Cynthiana has been nothing but trouble for the humble pilot Radimus. However, the pilot had to admit that it was a nice change- a new adventure to rekindle that fire he once had. Plus, it was totally worth it.

The Hydian Way was a well traveled route, but between Denon and Geonosis it was a hyperspace security network mess thanks to something the Empire was doing in that area. As Radimus returned Cynthiana was at the controls as the ship was beeping a notice "We're coming up on Denon, We might have an Imperial inspection, everyone stay put" Cynthiana said over the PA system the ship possessed. The CR90 dropped from hyperspace into a busy space lane and Cynthiana saw their route taking them directly to the Imperial checkpoint for inspection. She typed in her code on the consol and sent it off in a transfer of data when it was requested. Hopefully with her codes they wouldnt get boarded

"Let's avoid hacking attempts this time, eh?" Lance joked.

Radimus didn't think it was entirely a joke.

"That was Dromund Kaas, this is Denon, if I did that here we'd have so many guns pointed at us" Cynthiana said simply with a shrug of her shoulders. "Bedides thats my clearance code from KDY as a shipbuilder, grants me access pretty much everywhere"

A voice crackled to life on the speaker. "Clearance codes appear to be in order. Do you have anything to declare, Lady Kuat?" An unfamiliar officer asked as professionally as humanly possible.

"Just some friends and extended family on a cruise to Paradise." Cynthiana replied after motioning for everyone to be quiet as she answered the comm. She didnt recognise the voice of the ImpOff on the other end

"Very well, you are clear to pass."

I guess the memo didn't spread that far yet, Radimus grimaced, hoping to the Force that the news of their hijacking a star destroyer didn't reach them.

"Thank you" Cytnhiana said, she motioned to Lance to pilot them past the checkpoint, Vermin whistled something as Cynthiana turned off the comm. "Relax, if they did get word of a Kuat Recall codec being used it was because we were under fire They wont see sign of my command codec being used, that's a silent system, all the KDY built ships are set up with that"

Vermin chirped and scotted up next to Cynthiana and Radimus' chairs and plugged into a powersocket to charge himself.

Radimus- being at the nav computer already- was the one to pilot instead of Lance. He brought the ship around and past the checkpoint. The Commandos present watched outside the cockpit window out toward the ships they were passing by. "Don't jinx it," Radimus said to Lance.

"I hope they didn't get any memo." Lance said almost immediately after.

"Damnit Lance," Radimus smirked.

"I dont think they did, Vermin, keep track of any following ships. We need to take the Corellian Run all the way to Coruscant, then get on the Perlenian Way from there" Cynthiana said, Vermin chirped and got to work.With the public track set they were cleared for the hyperlane travel. It was time to go

Once more, Radimus figured out the coordinates and tapped them in. It was as if a droid were seated at the console when it came to drawing up the numbers. Once more, the ship vanished into hyperspace.

"New coat, I see?" Lance smirked.

"Relatively new," Radimus replied.

"Given the state of the old one, I can see why."

Cynthiana smiled at the banter as she stepped from the chair. "Its a long way to Coruscant from here, once there we hop onto the Perlenian Way towards the Arda Cross trade spine and then we're at paradise and safety for the kids."

She turned to Lance "You and your squad did the right thing in protecting the kids. It was risky, but it was the right thing to do. You're soldiers. not monsters" She had a smile on her face. Finally she could trust clones again

"If you wanna thank anyone, thank Old-Timer, rest in peace." Lance replied.

"Oh yeah, wasn't that the time when you were trying to sneak into a Separtist research base experimenting with tracking Clone implants?"

"Yep," Dex answered, "Old-Timer wound up taking ours out and set up a decoy whilst we got in. Forgot to get new implants, so when Order... well, you know..."

Radimus returned his attention to the nav computer. It felt good being back at one hundred percent with the exosuit and everything, but he really didn't want to chance any further engagements that would wound him or anyone else further.

The sooner they got to actually laying low, the sooner Radimus could take on a new job... and probably a new employer- since one of his black market contacts is definitely floating in dead space right now.

Coruscant... Radimus hadn't been there in a long time. He wondered how his extended family was doing. He wondered if they had received news of his brother from another source. Radimus wondered if his brother had already been found. It was a large universe. Someone must have come across an ID card of some kind, somehow.

While he felt that strange pull towards Cynthiana, Radimus did have other purposes. He planned to talk with her about it in private- talk to her about their relationship.

"Either way, you saved the children, you did good." Cynthiana said. It was going tgo be a while to Coruscant, so she had time to kill. Losts of time to kill. She turned and headed from the bridge to the main hangar. She needed a good place to meditate. Tools and items were scattered about as she sat on the floor of the hangar to meditate. her eyes closed.

Radimus, being the pilot, remained on the bridge, watching the different consoles, determining their meaning. He hadn't flown a Corvette before, but it was startlingly similar to the Visionary. Correlian manufacturers seemed to have similar standards for control layouts.

Lance, on the other hand, entered the hangar. He regarded the parked Visionary with... something. Pride, perhaps? After a while, Lance spotted Cynthiana meditating, and silently moved to return tools to their respective lockers.

"Radimus is conflicted" Cynthiana said softly, but loud ebnough for Lance to hear as she meditated. the tools and items closest to her floated off the floor of the hangar a centimeter or so, dust and dirt also formed into larger stones as she meditated pretty much under the Visionary.

"Was I right in offering to teach him further to be a Jedi ?" She barely remermbered clones by name, all her clones had numbers or letters as their names. Infact the Clone Captain under her directly was named Krill; the 11th letter of the High Galactic Alphabet. "It is his choice, if he does not want me to teach then I will cease doing so."

Finally her eyes opened and she stared directly at Lance, For once he could see her crystal brown eyes so full of life "You worry for him too, dont you ?"

Lance stared at Cynthiana for a moment. "Well, Master Windu wasn't exactly the most caring on an individual level- always big-picture for him. Seeing Riddick with that lightsaber, though, I can tell he's always going to be a Jedi. Plus, he likes you." The old Clone Commando carefully reorganized a toolbox that was left behind by the pirates, but winked at Cynthiana all the same. Despite the playful old man jabbing, he spoke methodically, with an air of melancholy. "At the same time, he's one of us as well. Not in the sense that he's a Clone, but that he too desires closure. With all the craziness that unfolded, he needs to lay low for a while. All that time laying low means no time spent searching for that closure."

"He's a real catch, but he may be nervous about raising kids," Lance continued as he put the toolbox in a nearby locker. "He's always confident when it comes to handling ships, computers, and the smuggling trade, but families..." Lance clicked his tongue. "We were a brotherhood, but that's not quite the same. Still, I never fully understood the whole Jedi nonsense, but I do know it's important to the kid."

At the mention of raising kids Cynthiana raised a confused eyebrow. "Raising kids ?" She repeated softly, her voice however echoed in the hangar. She stood up then, Lance then saw the holocron she used and carried on her person at all times floating, opened, the weird almost stangely puttogether thing looked, for the most part, like a common Sith holocron. but it had angles normal Sith holcorons didnt have. It seemed to leak a purple smoke

"Radimus mentioned that during his trial within the Temple on Dromund Kaas that he saw me.... with a child." She said. "Is that what he is nervous about ?" For all she knew it was a ways off in the future. Sure she wanted to have a proper heir for her parents to be off her case about the matter,. But she wanted the right man for the job to be the father. Unlike how most aristicratic families on Kuat acted, a perfect human male to be the father of a nobles daughters child with no rights of the mother. Cynthiana didnt want that; what she wanted was to have the right father for her child.

Was that man Radimus ?

"I dunno what you're on about," Lance gave Cynthiana a confused look, "but I was talkin' about the Jedi kids we got here. They still need Masters, right?"

"Mm, they do, but thanks to..... the Emperor.... any survivors are either dead, in hiding so well we cant sense them, or.... worse." Cynthiana said, she'd heard rumors of how the Inqusitors came to be. "They could be hunting them.. And not to teach them either"

"What do you think I should do ?" She then asked Lance

"Shoot the bad guys," Lance shrugged, "Speakin' from experience. That's what we Commandos do. It's what we were made to do."

Cynthiana smiled, "And aside from experience ?" She knew Clones still thought on a steady level. But if it was true that Clones were better than Droids...

"When orders fail us, we do what comes naturally." They could never get a droid to do what comes naturally. To a machine, there is only the directive.

"What other Commandos did you guys have contact with ?" Far as Cynthiana knew, ARCs were few and far between and trained by Mandolorians directly. "Do you think any of the Jedi they were with survived ?" Sure it was 14 years since Order 66, but still. Arda 3 could keep the kids safe.... but for how long ?

"None of the old squads," Lance shook his head, "Plus not many of them were that keen about Jedi. They followed orders, but not many of them took a liking to certain Padawans.

"In any case," Lance finished putting tools away, "You got your focus thingy happenin', so don't let me disturb you."

Cynthiana smiled softly and shook her head, "Most times, quiet meditation only fills my mind with confusion. Speaking to someone does the oppisite." She said to Lance, she raised a hand slightly, the Holocron closed itself of its own accord and floated to her hand as she put it in the case on her belt.

She stepped up to Lance, and before the Clone could react she hugged him. "Thank you, Lance."