Broken Chains (RWBY/SWTOR)

[ThatOnePsycho]

*Loud sweating*

Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna take shit for this?

Anyone who reads Fur and Fire's probably gonna go "Oh, so Psycho's ran out of ideas", I don't know literally everything about Star Wars like I do most my fic subjects, Ruby comes off as kinda OOC in Chapter 1 (deliberatly)...

Alright, enough delaying. Broken Chains. So, this was actually an old project of mine (I started it before Walking the Planes) that I dusted off and restarted a couple of weeks back. I'm happier with this version than the original, since I brought in all of Team RWBYJNPR.

------

Kory sat in the shuttle leading down to Korriban, feeling it shudder has it hit some turbulence. The entirety of her 'class' was sitting around, a small group of men and women.


By the end of the year, all but one of them would be dead.


The chilling thought ran through her, causing her to grip the underside of the metal bench. All but one of them would be dead. How would it happen? Would they kill each other, or would the Sith do it?


Wasn't that the same thing in the end, though? Whoever survived would be Sith.


That made Kory slightly sick. Whoever survived would become one the ones who enslaved them in the first place?


"So," one on the giant twins leaned forward. He had two gouges, one on each side of his lips, dark bruising around his eyes, and a strip of hair on his chin, "Whatcha do?"


"What do you mean?" The man across from her asked. He was bald except for two long strips of hair.


"I mean, we're all here because they found out we could use the Force, right? So, what did you do so they found you? Me and Balek," he pointed his thumb at his twin, "stopped the mine shaft from caving long enough for the other slaves to get out."


"Sent another slave into the ground during fight," the other man said, "I'm Niloc, by the way."


"Wyrd. What about you?" Wyrd asked Kory.


"Routine check," Kory said, "They do them once a year on Kalsunor."


"Same," Gerr said, "I'm Gerr."


"Wish we had that on Ilum," Wyrd said, "What about you?"


Kory's turned to the young woman currently curled up in the corner, the vibroblade they had all been given leaning next to her as she drank in the datapad in front of her, typing something out. After a couple of seconds, her silver eyes jumped up, "Sorry, what was that?"


"How'd you get found? I'm Wyrd, by the way, and these three are Balak, Niloc and Kory."


"Oh," She stored away her datapad, "I'm Ruby. I smashed an apprentice through the wall."


"Really?"


"Yep!" Ruby grinned just a bit too widely, and Kory got the brief feeling the other woman wasn't entirely sane.


"Anyone got any plans for if you win this?" Niloc asked.


"Not really," Wyrd said, and Balak shook his head.


"No?" Kory said. She didn't want to be Sith.


"Haven't thought about it," Gerr said, "That we're still actually here's still a big shock."


"Well, I do," Niloc said, "I'm gonna be big in the Sith world, I mean, have you seen them? Beautiful robes, manors, servants-"


"-'servants'," Ruby cut in, moving two fingers on each hand. Kory got the feeling she was subtly insulting Niloc, but he was too into it to tell.


"Yeah! It's gonna be great. What about you, Ruby know what would you do?"


"Get my weapon back, first. Then find my family," Ruby said simply.


"Bah! That boring-" the shuttles shook as it landed, the back opening, "Well, looks like we're here, eh? Let's go get started."


Niloc cheerfully grabbed his vibrosword, walking out of the shuttle.


Kory grabbed her own smaller one, a vibroblade, sliding the sheath into the clasp on her back as everyone caught up with Niloc.


Waiting for them was a red haired man, a small beard hung from his chin and he had a tattoo on his face. It started at his right temple, went below his eye and then up, expanding into a red triangle on his forehead that was mirrored immediately next to it, minus the eye part.


"Good," He said, his tone carrying barely restrained contempt, "You're here. I am Overseer Harkun, and I have been assigned to guide you rabble through your trials. As such, I will instruct you on the most basic part of our order. The Code of the Sith," Harkun started pacing, "Peace is a lie, there is only Passion. Through Passion, I gain Strength. Through Strength, I gain Power. Through Power, I gain Victory. Through Victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free."


"Out of curiosity," Ruby said, her voice having taken a strange tone, "Were those last two always in there, or did you just add them to make us slaves feel good about our sel-"


Harkun span, lightning jumping from his fingers into Ruby, sending the woman into convulsions, "You will not disrespect the Code around me, slave."


Ruby, to her credit, staggered back up quickly, apparently shaking off the last of it with ease, "Yes, sir."


"Good," Harkun said, looking angry at her defiance.


"Now, for your first task, each of you will fight through the tomb of Ajunta Pall right outside this dock. Within you will find Lord Spindrall, speak to the doddering old fool, he will judge whether you are worthy of our academy wasting more resources on you. Go, now.


The doors slid open, and they each ran for the tomb.


---


Ruby landed in the sand dune, allowing her Aura to break her fall. Drawing her vibrosword from its sheath, she felt a stab of longing for Crescent Rose as she activated it. But she knew where her baby was, and would be getting it back as soon as she finished on Korriban.


As the k'lor'slugs charged at her, Ruby span, letting the vibroblade cleave the first in two. Even a cheaply made weapon was enough to break through the child's carapice.


Throwing out her hand, Ruby called on the merger training she had been given to blast another with lightning. Spinning the vibrosword in one hand, Ruby watched the third.


Well then…


Ruby used the Force to yank it closer, cutting the slug in two and going down the steps, turning off the blade and cleaning it with a rag. That was something to be missed about Grimm (one of the few), they cleaned up after themselves. She had learned that the hard way with Crescent Rose.


"Excuse me," Ruby's eyes trailed down to the man standing at the foot of the steps, he was wearing red plastoid armor, "I take it you're part of the acolyte group that just passed by?"


"I am," Ruby said, throwing aside the rag.


"Damn," he said, "Then I suppose you're too busy to hear me out?"


"Hear you out about what-?" Ruby paused


"Sergeant Cormun, Fifth infantry company, Korriban regiment," Cormun saluted briefly.


"Sergeant, you have my attention."


"Have you seen the k'lor'slugs yet, acolyte?"


"A couple of small ones," Ruby said.


"Big ones are even more disgusting, mouths bigger than your head. We're here on what should have been a routine sweep to thin them out."


"Didn't go according to plan, then?" Ruby asked, stepping down to look around the area. There was a hastily made barricade with several more infantry holding blaster rifles.


"We thought it best to eliminate the nest, ma'am. They breed like rats, and that's foiled all attempts to clear them out. They," Cormun looked distraught, "They killed three squads of my men."


Ah, crap… what would an Imperial want to hear…?


"Their sacrifice will be remembered," Ruby placed a hand on his shoulder.


"Thank you, Ma'am."


"You want me to take out the slugs?"


"After a fashion. Before they died, my men managed to plant the explosives we were going to use. I have the detonator here," Cormun lifted up the cylindrical item, "It's short range one. We hadn't thought we would need more. And now," Cormun stared at Ruby, "Ma'am. A single squad would walk out of here alive after the fight to get it into range. I don't fear for my own life, but my men… they have families."


"I understand," Ruby said, "I'd do the same… have done the same. You want me to go do it, I take it?"


"Yes. I know it's much to ask from a Sith, even one who is just an acolyte, but… it is said that one of you is worth twenty normal men."


"I'll do it," Ruby took the detonator, storing it in her robe as she drew her sword again, walking out the barricade, she looked to the opposite direction, where she saw one of the others stepping over a body, looking shaken.


Ruby focused on the way guarded by several large K'lor'slugs, turning on her sword and spinning it, she lowered herself for a second and activated her Semblance.


---


Pyrrha closed her eyes, hearing the cheers above her. They were different from the ones she had been once used to. Bloodthirsty.


"And now, it's time for the main event!" Pyrrha drew Milò at the announcer's call, stepping forward. She didn't like this, but she had to do it.


"In this corner, from parts unknown, the Bloody Warmaiden who climbed through the ranks at a meteoric pace!" Pyrrha still wasn't sure how someone had managed to come up with a worse name than 'The Invincible Girl', but they had managed, "Pyrrha Nikos!"


Pyrrha waved with one hand, a smile instantly plastered on her face. She knew this song and dance by heart.


"In the other corner, the champion of Karagga himself! Barada!"


The Klatooinian stepped from his spot, and the slowly prowled around each other.


"Nice and easy Nikos," Barada said, "Just take the fall. We got a big name Sith family watching."


Pyrrha's green eyes scanned the crowd, locking onto them, a man and woman in black robes, "The payout's three times what you offered me."


"Yeah," Barada gave a nasty smile, "but you'll live long enough to use that third."


Barada moved with speed unusual for his kind, swinging an axe at her.


However, he was painfully slow compared to…


Pyrrha dodged, raking Milò across Barada's back lightly. Enough for him to know she could have won right there. He wanted to give the damn imperials something to watch?


Pyrrha span, driving her leg into his spine and sending him flying back.


"You're making the last mistake of your life today, Nikos."


Pyrrha didn't say anything, but ducked under Barada's swing as she struck him in the chest with Milò's pommel.


She regretted it immediately as he drove his knee into her jaw, followed by an elbow to the skull to send her into the ground.


Barada grabbed her by her hair, pressing Milò to her throat, "Interesting weapon. I think I'll-"


Pyrrha stomped backwards, cracking Barada's leg and spinning into another kick. As he flew away, she grabbed Milo out of the air without looking, eyes locking on the imperials.


To her shock, the man who had caught her eye was nodding.


Pyrrha's instincts screamed at her to dodge, and she span, catching the needle in her arm. As Barada grinned at her, she felt her arm start to lose feeling, "Let's see you fight now, Nikos."


Pyrrha's grip on Milò grew tight. He thought she would die here? That would just make Ruby's sacrifice be in vain.


Pyrrha exploded into a whirling storm of metal, taking off one of Barada's arms on the first swing, followed by several deep lacerations to the chest, before taking his head off.


"The… the winner is Pyrrha Nikos?" the announcer sounded confused, even as Pyrrha walked away and out of the arena. She needed the med pack she kept in her apartment.


She got two blocks before Karagga's goons caught her. Four heavy nonhumans in plastoid armor.


"Move," She said.


"You were supposed to take the fall," one said.


"I never agreed to-"


"I said, you were supposed to-"


"I believe she heard you the first time. I'm quite glad she didn't, or else I wouldn't have met someone truly interesting," Pyrrha span, staring at the imperial man seated on a bench. He hasn't been there a second ago…


Now that she could see him up close, she could make out the bruising around his golden eyes, and the lines maring his face. His brown hair was just visible under the hood he wore.


"Would you boys mind leaving me to talk to Miss Nikos alone?" he asked, waving a hand.


"Yeah, of course," the leader nodded dumbly, walking away with his friends.


"Now, I am Lord Alister Temere, and I have a proposal for you, Miss Nikos."


"I don't care," Pyrrha shot back, turning away.


"They'll come for you eventually," He pointed out, like he was discussing the weather, "I'll give you a way off planet, a place to stay and a large quantity of credits. Larger than you should have made today."


"And what do I have to do?"


The Temere smiled, "Teach my idiot of a daughter to fight."


---


Ruby cut down another slug. The moment she had detonated the explosives, they'd been attacking her en masse, but she was close enough to see the exit. A flick of her hand sent a wave of Force behind her, sending most of the remaining ones back.


Turning, Ruby followed that up with another blast of lightning, allowing frying another couple of slugs.


"It's the acolyte! She's coming this way but there's a ton of k'lor'slugs chasing her!"


"Then what are you waiting for? Give her some help and fire!"


"But, sir if we hit her…"


"You won't, fire!"


Bolts of red and green flew around Ruby as she bobbed and weaved to avoid the storm of plasma while also cutting down several more. The ones that were hit by bolts generally stopped moving, a burning hole in their carapace.


One particularly large one was withstanding the onslaught well, the bolts of plasma bouncing off it.


Ruby cut down two more, jumping off a third's head to rain another bolt of lightning on the large one. Landing on its back, Ruby called out to the guards, "Sergeant! When it opens its mouth, fire into it!"


"Ope-?"


Ruby flipped her vibroblade around and drove it through the K'lor'slug's eye. The creature shreaked, thrashing about in an attempt to remove Ruby, however bolts flew into its mouth, leaving it to collapse dead.


Ruby stood, walking towards the barricade, "I blew it up."


"And we took out the broodmother from the looks of it," Cormun smiled, "We can handle the rest from here, ma'am. I'll make sure to wire some of the credits to your account when I get back. Oh! I'm sorry, I just realized I never got your name."


"Ruby Rose. What so you mean, credits?"


"The Imperial Military keeps a healthy supply of credits to pay for third party assistance. With our alliance with the Chiss Ascendancy and the Mandalorians, it's just a good idea. We are also allowed to use it to pay Sith who have not been assigned to assist our regiment but do so anyways."


"Does that happen often?"


"Not as much as some of us should like," Cormun said, "You made at least one friend among the military today, ma'am. I'll leave you to get back to your trial."


Ruby nodded, giving a small smile as she turned away, reaching for another rag to clean her blade as she went.


It took twenty minutes for her to arrive in front of another long staircase, watching as Kory walked up it. The other acolyte looked to be on the verge of tears.


"Hey," Ruby stopped, "Are you alright?"


Kory shook her head wildly, her grip on her sword tightening. The blade was coated in red, "I don't like it here."


"Neither do I," Ruby said, "but we're stuck here for now. Keep your chin up, ok? I'll see you in Harkun's office."


Kory nodded, continuing on her way.


Ruby walked down the stairs, looking around the room. On either side of the walkway leading to another staircase were men and women. Some were beating at dummies with vibroblades, others blasting them with weak jolts of lightning and others yet still were mediating. Her eyes were drawn to a large bloodstain on the floor, some of it fresh.


The sound of her boots on stone was the only sound as Ruby approached the stairs. Walking up them, Ruby stopped behind the man kneeling in before a dais, "Lord Spindrall?"


"Slave," Spindrall stood, turning towards her. He had dark shadows under his bloodshot orange eyes and a grey beard, "You are the last member of Harkun's newest group, sent to learn from the mad man in a cave?"


"I am," Ruby said evenly, hiding the jolt of anger, "Lord Spindrall, if you don't mind me asking, why are you here?"


"Why does anyone come here? Can't you feel it, the power of the Dark Side that inhabits this tomb?"


Ruby closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the thrum of energy, "I can."


"Stand still a moment, slave," Ruby tensed as Spindrall walked around her, before he grabbed her vibroblade, drawing it, "You haven't bloodie- no, wait. You've been cleaning the gore off?"


"Yes."


"You aren't a normal slave, are you?"


"I'm not a slave," Ruby said through gritted teeth.


"There is a quite easy way of judging that," Spindrall span her blade, handing it to her, "Do you see those four down there?"


Ruby followed his eyes, staring at the four watching them, "Yes."


"They are disgraced former acolytes, training under me in hope of regaining some semblance of honor. They want two things from you."


"What?"


"They want your spot as an acolyte, and they will take your life to get it. If you aren't a slave, if you are worthy of being Sith, cut them down."


Ruby didn't want to be Sith, but if it meant getting back to her family…


Ruby walked down the stairs, the acolytes watching her and parted as she reached them. The moment she past them, the first struck.


Ruby deflected his blade, grabbing his face and sending Force lightning crackling through it. As the next stepped forward, Ruby immediately blasted them, striking out and severing their head.


The last two attacked together, and Ruby snapped her hand out, grabbing a second vibrosword to deflect both strikes. Jumping back, Ruby threw a blade at one, blasting the other with lightning until he stopped moving.


The last jumped at her, holding both blades. Ruby sped herself up as fast as she could go without creating petals, hitting him in mid air, and hiding her flinch as his organs splattered across the floor.


"Well done, acolyte," Spindrall stepped down from his place, "You were correct, you are no mere slave, unlike the last one. I will give you several pieces of advice, then send you on your way. First, use your lightning to empower your blade. It will assist you when you get your saber. Next, harness your hatred of Harkun. It will allow you to become more powerful."


"I don't hate Harkun," Ruby said.


"But you will," Spindrall nodded, "You should go now. Follow the walkways to reach the academy, acolyte."


It took an hour to exit the tomb, but as Ruby entered Harkun's office, she couldn't help but feel satisfied.


Something quickly wiped by the nasty grin on the overseer's face, "Good, the last you has arrived. Now you can find out what the Hermit has decided about you slime. Acolyte Kory, step forward."


"Yes, Overse-" Harkun's saber ignited, cutting off Kory's words... and head. Ruby couldn't keep the look of surprise off her face. She knew they would be killed for failing, but hadn't expected it to be so… quick.


"She was a weak, pathetic worm. Even that lunatic Spindrall could see that," Harkun stepped behind his desk, hitting a holographic button, "I have sent each of you your room numbers. I would suggest getting some rest, you'll be up early tomorrow."


Ten minutes later, Ruby was in her room, eyes focusing on the other bed. Would that have been Kory's?


Pushing down the thought, Ruby plugged her datapad into the terminal and typed in seven addresses into the holomessage she had been composing before hand and hit send.


---


Pyrrha stared at the address in front of her, reaching out and tapping it with a shaking hand. A brief letter popped up.


Hey, guys.


I'm not sure if any of you use these addresses anymore. I hope you do, it's only been six months, but…


Anyways, sorry it took so long to contact you, but this is the first time I've gotten to a terminal since Voss. I hope things have been ok for you all.


So, this is the hard part. I might need some help. I'm typing this out in the back of a shuttle heading towards the Sith academy on Korriban.


Yeah. I know. Apparently I'm Force sensitive, who knew?


I'll try and message you guys whenever I can.


Love you all,


Ruby


Pyrrha brought a hand up to her mouth, feeling hot tears start to run down her face. Ruby was alive?


Pyrrha opened a new tab, starting to type.


Ruby,


I'm- Dust, what to say? -so happy you're alive. We feared the worst after Voss. I won't lie, things have been difficult, since we lost you.


I decided to go my separate way from the rest for a bit, though I have stayed in touch with them. I'm currently living with a wealthy family, training their daughter to fight. It's not the best job, but it keeps me fed, which I'm sure makes you happy.


I'm not sure if the rest have seen your message yet, nor how much they told you. Forgive me if I repeat anything that they already told you.


Blake, Yang and Weiss are all still together, though I expect one of them to break off to find you after they see it. Blake and Yang both took your 'death' harder than most of the rest of us, but Weiss kept them together well. You'd be proud. You probably are proud.


Jaune enlisted with the Republic military and should be deploying before too long. I haven't heard much from Ren or Nora in a bit, though they were with Yang and the others last I heard.


I'll try and figure a way to help you out too.


With love,


Pyrrha.


Pyrrha leaned back, rubbing tears from her eyes as a choked, giddy laugh rose up from deep inside her. Ruby was alive, Ruby was alive!


A knock came from the door, drawing her attention, "Yes?"


"Miss Nikos? You're late for your lesson," the young woman in the door said, "Lord Temere sent me to fetch you."


"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said, "I'll be right there. Thank you for reminding me."


Pyrrha walked to the place she kept Milò, checking the blade briefly, before flipping open the clasp at the bottom to check the mechanism within.


It had taken a year and a half to get enough money to convert Milò, Gambol Shroud, Stormflower, Myrtenaster and Crocea Mors into vibroweapons. The Job had been intended to start the even more expensive process of getting the guns modified into blasters.


Pyrrha stepped into the hall, walking towards the large room the Temeres kept for training.


The Temeres were… tolerable. Lord and Lady Temere had done their best to make her feel welcome in their Athiss estate, but… they were imperials.


Their daughter, however, was unlikable. Pyrrha hadn't met anyone as repulsive as Aalale before, not even Cardin. Jaylana and Alister were, at the very least, moderates among their peers. They were proud members of the Empire, but they didn't approve of violence for its own sake. Aalale always asked Pyrrha to teach her the most painful places to strike, ones that would cause her opponents to die writhing in agony and always threw a fit when Pyrrha refused.


"You're late," the brown haired woman said, leaning on the vibroblade she trained with, "You kept father and mother waiting."


"I'm sorry," Pyrrha directed at Alistair, who was seated in a armchair to the side of the arena, "Something came up that I had to deal with."


"Do you want to reschedule?" Alistair asked calmly, his golden eyes watching her, "Aalale doesn't depart for a couple of days, if it's important."


"Father!" Aalale gasped like he had implied something horrific about her, "This is supposed to be my final test to you! I've prepared all week!"


"Pyrrha has a life outside this family," Jaylana cut in.


"It's been dealt with as well as I can for the moment. Thank you though," Pyrrha smiled at the duo.


"See!" Aalale swelled, "She understands me proving my skill is more important than whatever minor thing she has in her life!"


Pyrrha glared at the back of Aalale's head. Ruby wasn't minor.


"I do hope you prove yourself," Alistair rebutted, "if you're anywhere close to last month's showing, I'd be better off sending Pyrrha to Korriban over you."


Aalale bristled, "She isn't even Force sensitive!"


"Then how is she able to beat you so handily?" Alistair's eyes were focused on Pyrrha, ignoring Aalale's stomped foot, "Ready, Pyrrha?"


"Yes."


"Then you two may start whenever you wish," Alister said, tenting his fingers as he rested one foot on his knee.


"Good," Aalale smirked, lunging at Pyrrha, "I've been waiting for this!"


Pyrrha sidestepped the telegraphed strike, doing a half spin to keep track of Aalale. As the heiress span, swinging at Pyrrha with something between a roar and a shriek, the champion leaned away from the attack.


Pyrrha smashed Milò into Aalale's skull, watching her stager back as she readied herself for the inevitable attempt at retaliation.


She wasn't disappointed, Aalale charging at her with a mad shriek, giving up all attempts to give a sense of decorum as she attacked Pyrrha again and again.


The champion turned each blow away with ease, stepping back to offset the force of the strikes.


"Pyrrha," Alistair barked, "I've seen enough, end this."


Pyrrha did so, catching the next attack and sweeping Aalale's feet from under her, catching the vibroblade in the air and shutting it off. Dropping it, Pyrrha turned off Milò and stepped back as Alistair walked towards his daughter.


"Father?" Aalale panted as she pushed herself up, staring at her approaching parent, "Why did you stop it?"


"What," in the four months she had worked for the Temeres, Pyrrha had never heard Alistair's voice like this. Barely above a whisper, with an icy rage coursing through it, "was that?"


"I was proving my ski-"


"Your skill? At what, making a fool of yourself? Look at you, you're out of breath after- what was it, Jaylana dear? Ten strikes?"


"Fourteen."


"Now look at Pyrrha. She's hardly broken a sweat. If this was a real battle, you'd be dead."


"If this was a real battle, I would have won!"


"And how did you expect to do that while swinging around your sword like a child playing pretend?"


"Father-"


"No. This has gone on long enough, Aalale. You're almost a full grown woman but you act like a child. We've afforded you every chance to become a powerful Sith, and you've squandered it with nothing but excuses. We asked you why you had been avoiding your combat training and you said you weren't content with the training droids we bought you. So we hired a trainer, and you've wasted her time as much as anyone's. What now, do you intend to blame it on Pyrrha?


Aalale staggered up, clutching her vibroblade, "I- She didn't-"


"She didn't what? Throw this fight? Lavish you with unearned praise? Pyrrha is a saint compared to what the trainers of Korriban would do to you."


The hairs on Pyrrha's neck stood on end. Something was about to go wrong.


"Father, I-"


"No," Alistair cut her off again, "I'm done with your excuses. Go to your room, I need to call Tremel."


"Why?" Aalena asked, looking on the verge of tears.


"Why? Because you're clearly not ready, anyone can see that. Maybe in another year, if we're both lucky, but presenting you to Darth Baras as you are now would make our entire family look like we think he's a fool."


"I- I-" a dark look came across Aalale's face, and she span, turning on her vibroblade and leaping at Pyrrha with a scream.


Pyrrha dodged, but Aalale was immediately upon her, swinging repeatedly, "This is your fault! You made me look like a fool!"


"I did everything I could!" Pyrrha shot back, "Half the time I had to drag you into here!"


"Shut up!"


Pyrrha turned aside her student's blade, keeping herself calm as Aalale fell into a renewed rage.


Finally, Aalale opened herself too wide, and years of combat experience kicked in as Pyrrha stepped into her guard, angling Milò's blade up and impaling Aalale.


As Aalale fell back, Pyrrha was suddenly painfully aware she was in the room with the parents of the woman she just run through.


Alistair was merely watching her however, seemingly examining her, "Pyrrha, I have an offer for you."


"What?"


"I seem to be out an heiress," Alistair said, "And you seem to be Force sensitive. A friend of mine opened up a position for Aalale at the Korriban Sith Academy. It's the most prestigious academy in the Empire. Would you like to go?"


Pyrrha opened her mouth to refute, before her mind pulled something up.


I might need some help. I'm typing this out in the back of a shuttle heading towards the Sith academy on Korriban.


Sith academy on Korriban.


I might need some help.


"I'll go," Pyrrha nodded. She had no love for the Sith, but if it meant Ruby had a friendly face, Pyrrha would gladly go.


"Then you should start packing," Jaylana said, standing up and dusting off her skirt as she walked to Alistair, "The shuttle will be here within the next couple of days."


"I'm- I'm sorry."


"She made her choice," Alistair said softly, "I can't have very well expected you to just lie down and let her kill you, could I? Just- leave us alone for a few hours, would you Pyrrha?"


"I- Yes, of course."


As Pyrrha stepped out off the room, she heard Alistair speak, "Damnit Laney, why couldn't you have understood I was trying to keep you alive?"


---


Blake staggered out of her room on the Golden Dragon, nodding to Ren, who was already walking around the kitchen. The martial artist held out her mug, allowing Blake to snag it as she went with a mumbled thanks.


Looking out one of the windows, Blake stared at the waves crashing upon the sands as she settled into one of the chairs wondering if she should go out and eat on the beach.


The Dragon felt too empty now, without Pyrrha, Jaune and, especially, Ruby.


Blake's grip on her mug tightened. She didn't think any of them had realized just much losing their leader would hurt. Still hurt.


Yang had, unsurprisingly, taken it the hardest. She had them on the first non-empire base they had come across, Nar Shaddaa, and launched herself into a multiday long bender. Blake had been half a mind to join her, with how bad the heart ache was.


Pyrrha had requested to be left on Nar Shaddaa, taking a small portion of their money and disappearing into the Smuggler's Moon. Feeling guilty, Blake had suspected (and later outright confirmed through messages) about being the last one on the ship. Survivor's guilt.


There had been a lot of that over the first couple of months.


Nora had been unnaturally quiet and Blake had occasionally found the explosives expert just sitting on one of the couches bolted to the ship, staring blankly at a wall. Sometimes, when Ren had been busy, Blake would join her. Pulling up stories and jokes her parents told her back on Menagerie.


Ren had been as impressive as ever, but there were slip ups that gave away that he was feeling Ruby's death just as much. An extra plate of food at dinner, always almost placed at Ruby's seat before he caught himself and put it in the center. A pause in his speech when he'd turn to where Ruby usually was.


Jaune had gone quiet immediately after, speaking only a handful of sentences over the next week. The first time they hit a republic world, he had, quite calmly, informed them that he was enlisting in the army and marched off to do so, headless of their calls.


Weiss had held it in the best, busying herself with taking on all Ruby's responsibilities except leadership, which had passed onto Jaune. Once he had left, though, Weiss had taken on that duty too. Finding jobs, haggling the payment, Weiss had taken to the life of a smuggler with bizzare ease.


Blake was used to hiding scars, though she had admitted to Pyrrha that she had been hiding it until she could get away from everyone else. Ruby's death had been painful.


The younger woman had always seemed so alive, whether she was complaining about whatever trouble Yang and Nora had gotten into at port or playing dejarik with Ren, Jaune or Pyrrha. Less than a day before her death she had been arguing with Weiss about an apparent error Weiss thought she had found in Ruby's ledger of their credits. Weiss had stalked out of the room, smiling smugly at actually getting one over on Ruby in math.


Turns out Ruby had known of the error before Weiss pointed it out, purposefully omitting the credits she had spent on a blaster so Weiss would have a longer ranged option in a fight.


"Heeey!" Blake snapped from her thoughts as Nora sat down across from her, a stack of pancakes on her plate, "How's everything goin'?"


"Fine," Blake said, smiling across the table, "How are you?"


"Fine," Nora said, starting in on her first pancake, "One sec, got some mai-"


"Is something wrong?" Blake asked as Nora froze, eyes wide as she stared at her datapad, pancake hanging from her mouth, "Nora?"


"Check- check your mail," Nora breathed out, not breaking her stare.


Blake did, turning on her datapad to check her mail… and froze, "No…"


"Yes!" Nora leapt up, grinning triumphantly as she turned the corner, "Ren! Food can wait! Help me wake everyone else up, it's suuuper important!"


As Nora ran down the hall, banging on every door as she went, Blake opened the mail. As she read it, shock gave way to worry, then determination.


Ruby was alive. Ruby was alive.


Ruby was alive and in Empire territory, being forced to go to one of their academies and become a Sith.


Under the table, Blake clenched her fist, feeling her ears nearly flatten.


Which meant, no matter what it took, Blake was getting into Empire territory and protecting Ruby.


---


Jaune reread the mail for the twentieth time, feeling something coil in his gut.


He wasn't sure which was worse, Ruby being dead, or being forced to become part of their 'noble' class.


Jaune sent off a short message, pleading with Ruby to stay strong, but that he couldn't help at the moment.


And he really, really wanted to be able to, but he was getting his first deployment soon.


Jaune had put his training with Pyrrha to good use. Beyond the roof of their dorm in Beacon, they had gone out of their way to train on each planet, experiencing how more and less gravity would affect you when fighting on desert sand, or ice, or in the heart of a jungle. And look where it had gotten him,Carida, one of the Big Three, and legitimately this time. Top of the class in close range combat, forward assault and search and destroy.


Jaune's datapad beeped again, carrying official Republic mail. He was being assigned to a small force in the Outer Rim, looking for signs of imperial movement. To be deployed within the week.


Good. Ruby might be (relatively) safe, but there were other people who could be in danger because of the imps. And if an opportunity to save Ruby came up? All the better.


Now he just needed to get through the remaining time he had to sit around and wait.


Jaune pulled up his friends addresses hoping to get in a holocall about the news.

---

Christ if I know parings (other than Renora and Freezerburn), Part of me is going Ladybug, part of me is going Milk and Cereal, and part of me is going "Why not both?"

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Ruby dodged around a droid, slashing at the set of exposed wires. As the training droid shutdown, Ruby turned towards the combat master, calmly sheathing her sword.


Then the hairs of her neck stood on end and she span, drawing her vibroblade as quickly as she could.


The new droid's blade clattered to the ground as Ruby took off its right arm, but a blade sprang from its left arm, slashing at Ruby. Ruby severed the central mass of wires, pushing it away as another droid stepped forward.


"Form two!" Inquisitor Jarobi barked and Ruby shifted forms. Taking one hand off the vibroblade, she lowered the weapon into the starting position. She tightened her stance, turning her torso slightly as she did so.


Form II: Makashi focused on footwork and keeping yourself from being disarmed in combat. Fluidity, balance, precision.


Sith Inquisitors traditionally preferred either Form II, Form I: Shii-Cho, or Form VI: Niman. Form I was the opposite of Makashi, focusing on sweeping strikes to disarm the opponent. Form VI, however, was a blend of the five preceding styles. It wasn't as good at anything as the other forms, but had none of the weakness.


Ruby wasn't sure if she liked any of them. Weiss, Pyrrha, Jaune and Blake had all let her try out their swords, and she was decent with them, but she had been trained to use a scythe in combat.


Still, after two weeks of near non-stop training, she was getting used to the three styles. Especially Makashi, which was similar to what she had been using beforehand. Don't block when you can deflect, riposte when the chance came.


The first attack came, and Ruby stepped back as she deflected each strike, waiting for the droid to open up.


When it did, she ran her vibroblade through the droid's 'head', activating the programming that made it shut off.


"Hmm…" Jarobi paced around her, his eyes examining her, "You're performing well today, Ruby. Keep this up, and you could very well become a powerful Inquisitor."


"Thank you, sir."


"No-" Jarobi sighed as her datapad beeped, "I hope that's important."


"It's from Overseer Harkun. He wants my class at his office as soon as possible."


"Then you may go," Jarobi turned, walking towards another training Acolyte, "Form six!"


Ruby stepped out of the training room, walking through the metal hallway towards Harkun's office. She had been able to avoid talking to the Overseer much, but even those few conversations were causing Spindrall's prediction to come true.


"Took you long enough, slave," Harkun sneered as she stepped into the room, the rest of the acolytes already gathered, "Ignoring your betters?"


"No. I was training with Inquisitor Jarobi, but then I got called to deal with an over inflated ego. You can message him if you don't believe me."


Harkun's sneer grew worse as he hit a button on his desk, "Jarobi?"


"What, Harkun? I'm busy."


"The Rose slave is claiming she had been training with you."


"She was until you sent for her," Jarobi said, "I do hope this is actually important, Harkun. It's a hour and a half until we break for the day, you could have waited until then."


"Yes, yes," Harkun hung up, a scowl creeping onto his face, "Alright, so you were training. For once."


"As opposed to the slacking off we've all been so busy with," Ruby snarked, "I'm sure we'd all like to get back to that, so why don't you tell us why you called us here?"


"We'll see how confident you are after this. Ffon, come in!"


"Yes, Overseer," Ruby looked behind her as a black clad man stepped forward. His eyes were a orange that bordered on red, while his skin was as crimson. As he stepped closer, she noticed the bony ridges on either side of his nose.


"Meet our newcomer, Ffon Althe. Sith blooded, and more powerful than any of you could ever hope to be. He will be Lord Zash's apprentice, you slaves might as well throw yourself from the Valley, you'd be saving us all time."


"Soooo…" Ruby stretched out the word, "You called us here to boast about how you're so scared of a bunch of slaves that you're attempting to rig it. You know that makes you look bad, right?"


"Pah!" Harkun scoffed, "if you had an ounce of Sith blood, you might stand a chance against Ffon, slave."


Ruby rolled her eyes, "Is that all? Because apparently I have a suicide note to write, 'dear everyone, Overseer Harkun is such a cowa-"


Harkun's hand sparked meaningfully, "Don't test me, slave. Everyone else can leave, you stay."


Ruby kept the mask up as they left. Be something other than Ruby Rose for the moment, "So why're you keeping me around? Hoping that if I miss an hour of training, I'll lose to your pet?"


"You'll be gaining a roommate as of later today."


"Not Ffon, I hope?"


"Scared?"


"No, it'll just be so much harder to frame you for his death if we're sharing a room."


"I bet you think you're funny?"


"Pretty," Ruby shrugged. Throw up enough sarcasm, and they couldn't hurt you. Couldn't find what would hurt you.


"Yes, well. This is the heiress to a powerful Sith family, you will behave in her presence. That we have to have her bunk with a slave is bad enough, it'd be worse if you're unruly."


"Oh, I'm sure it will be fine. We'll braid each others hair, plot murders. Normal Sith stuff."


"Cute. No self respecting Sith would touch you."


"...Yeah, sure, let's go with that," Ruby said with a shrug, "I'll go clean our room. Bye Harkun."


---


Pyrrha ignored the quaking as the shuttle entered through the atmosphere, staring at the message in front of her.


Heiress? Heiress? She hadn't signed up for that-


"I seem to be out an heiress."


Had, had that been a twisted offer of adoption? She knew the Sith valued strength, but to up and adopt your daughter's killer?


And why hadn't either of them mentioned this to her? She didn't want to be the heiress to a Sith family. She'd only agreed to this so she could find Ruby.


"Uh…" Pyrrha's eyes turned to one of the black suited guards across from her, "is everything alright, Lady Temere?"


No. That was where she drew the line, "Don't call me that."


"Ma'am?"


"Just call me Pyrrha, I insist."


"Are you sure, Lady Temere? It's improper for the soldiers to speak that way."


"Yes," even if she had wanted it, wasn't Jaylana still Lady Temere?


"Very well, Lady Pyrrha."


Pyrrha stifled a sigh. Good enough for now.


"How long until we land?"


"One minute. I suggest being ready."


Pyrrha checked Miló again, before sheathing it, waiting for the shuttle to land as she did. She could do this. Compared to tournaments and Grimm, this couldn't be that hard. Right?


The first thing Pyrrha noticed about Korriban was the heat. The air seemed to shimmer close to the metal landing pad they were on, and she she saw an endless field of sand below them.


Trust the Sith to build their most prodigious academy in the heart of a desert. Beacon was built on a cliff overlooking the sea, Haven was lined with trees, Sanctum into one of the floating islands. Sith had worlds, and they built their academy in a desert.


Stepping out of the sun, Pyrrha walked to the salt and pepper haired man sitting behind a desk, "Are you Overseer Tremel?"


"Huh?" The man's head jumped up from the display he was looking at, allowing Pyrrha to get a good look at him. The dark skin of his face was marred with lines and there was an almost dead look in his brown eyes, "Ah! I didn't hear you land, apologies," the man stood, "I am Overseer Tremel, yes. You are Pyrrha Nikos?"


"I am," Pyrrha said.


"Well then, stand still a moment so I can get a look at you," Tremel stood, pacing around Pyrrha, "Well, you weren't what I was expecting, but Alistair doesn't tend to make mistakes on such matters. You are, at least, physically strong. And you're not a slave."


Pyrrha blinked at the spat word, "Slave? What do you mean?"


"Alistair didn't tell you? The Dark Council, Darth Malgus and the Emperor have, for some reason, decided to allow Force sensitive slaves to attempt to become Sith," Tremel shook his head, "Disgusting."


"Wouldn't more Sith be a good thing?"


"Normally? Yes. But slaves are slaves because they were weak. Introducing too much of that bad blood, letting it rise so high? That will destroy us."


Pyrrha didn't say anything, keeping her disgust hidden. If Tremel was an example of a normal Sith…


The things she did for the ones she loved.


"Where do we begin, Overseer?" Pyrrha asked. The sooner she got free, the sooner she'd be able to find Ruby.


"Good. Aalale wou-" Tremel stopped, "She wouldn't have taken the initiative like that. Beyond that door is the tomb of Ajunta Pall, within you will find a Sith Warblade. Retrieve your new weapon and meet me in my office at the main academy."


"I'm fine with Miló," Pyrrha said, reaching up to touch the sheathed blade.


Tremel clicked his tongue, "Yes, Alistair did say something about that. Retrieve it nonetheless. Even if you never use it, being able to say you own a warblade that you personally retrieved from the tomb of the first Dark Lord will strengthen our claim that you are worthy of being Darth Baras's apprentice. Even after your departure from Korriban, it will be a sign of your strength."


Pyrrha nodded, walking towards the door, "Then I'll see you in your office."


"Yes. And Pyrrha?"


"Yes?"


"While you're in there, there's been an infestation of tomb robbers thinking they can take our legacy. If you eliminated them, it would also make you look better."


Wasn't she technically tomb robbing?


"Yes, Overseer."


"Good," Tremel nodded, "I'll leave you to it."


Pyrrha drew Miló, walking the brief distance between her and the tomb, sighing as sand got into her boots.


As she stepped into the tomb, Pyrrha met the eyes of a young man. He was wearing brown synth weave armor, a mass produced vibroblade on his back and a blaster on his hip.


He grabbed the blaster, firing a bolt at her. Pyrrha saw his eyes widen as she dodged around his shot. She dodged around the next two, closing the distance between them as his face paled.


"Sith!" He called down the hall as he grabbed his vibroblade, slashing at Pyrrha as it hummed.


Pyrrha caught his arm, running him through as she did.


"No!" Pyrrha dove out of the way as a stream of blaster bolts scorched where she had been.


Two more guards were running towards her, holding bayoneted blaster rifles. Pyrrha span around another two bursts, throwing Miló at one of them.


The moment Miló sunk into his chest, Pyrrha activated her Semblance, catching the blade as it flew back and launching herself across the space with unusual strength, cutting through the other.


Looking down at them, Pyrrha sighed.


"I'm sorry."


---


"I don't like this," Yang said for the twentieth time, carrying a box full of relics into the ship.


"I know," Blake said, carrying another with Ren, "None of us do. But you've still got that bounty on you and are the only one who can fly the ship."


"Yeah," Yang lowered the crate, walking out onto the landing pad as Blake jogged to catch up with her, "I know. But it doesn't feel right, flying a bunch of dusty old relics to the Jedi while Ruby needs our help."


"Me and Nora will make sure nothing happens to her," Blake promised, eyes trained on where Nora and Ren had stepped away, talking quietly.


After a minute of talking, Nora latched onto Ren in a back breaking hug. Ren didn't hesitate to return it, resting his head on Nora's.


With Yang incapable of going, they needed a heavy hitter tagging along with Blake. While Yang trusted her partner, everyone agreed that it would be safer if someone that could cause a lot of destruction if things went wrong came along.


"Tell Ruby I love her when you see her," Yang instructed Blake again, "and make sure she stays healthy."


She had sent messages to Ruby with those words everyday, but it wasn't the same as saying them personally.


Blake smiled at her, just a tiny quirk in the corner of her mouth, "And you make sure the Dragon stays in one piece. I don't want to bring her home only for there to be no home to bring her to."


"Relax," Yang said, "I could handle my baby in my sleep!"


"I know. And we can protect Ruby. I'm not leaving her behind again. Not now, not ever."


"Good," Yang smiled, punching Blake in the shoulder, "You gonna wait for Weiss before heading off?"


"No need to," Weiss came up next to Blake, her white coat buttoned up to her neck, "I'm here."


Weiss reached into pocket, handing Blake a golden card.


"A credit chip?" Blake asked, turning the card over.


"Yes," Weiss nodded, "It has four thousand credits on it. That should be enough to keep you going for a month or two. Just in case you can't find work."


"Thanks," Blake smiled again.


"And if something goes wrong, let us know so we can help. Ruby's not going to be happy if you two die trying to save her."


"We will," Blake nodded, "And you three stay safe. We'll call you when we get settled in."


"Still doesn't make much sense to me," Yang said, "Heading into Hutt space to get to the Empire."


"Korriban is in the Stygian Caldera," Ren said as he and Nora walked to them, "It'll disrupt any attempts to make a jump through it, Empire has the only way in and out locked down."


"And even if it wasn't, Korriban has to be heavily defended," Blake said.


"Yeah," Yang said, "but how does going to Nar Shaddaa help?"


"There's some big bounty hunter thing happening soon," Nora said, jumping in place slightly, "We're gonna find a way in."


"And that helps-?"


"We'll start on Dromund Kaas, the Empire capital planet."


"And from there to Korriban?"


Everyone shared an awkward look.


"No," Weiss finally broke it, "Then they wait."


"What?"


"There's no way they'd let us on Korriban," Blake said, "Dromund Kaas is the closest we can get. We're still going to be viewed as mercenaries, they won't trust us enough to let us onto Korriban. The moment Ruby gets off Korriban, we make a beeline for her and we get out. But that's the best we can do. The only other thing we can do is trust Ruby."


"This sucks," Yang sighed, "Like, really sucks."


"It's better than it was a couple of weeks ago," Weiss pointed out.


Blake's datapad chirped, and she looked down, "Our ship's going to start boarding soon. We're in the fifth group, but we should go."


"Yeah," Yang nodded, "We'll- just don't pull a Pyrrha, ok?"


"I won't," Blake said, grabbing her bag and walking away, Nora joining her a second later.


Yang watched them go, before turning and climbing into the Dragon, retracting the gangplank once Weiss and Ren were on.


"Hold on," Yang said, hands a blur as she got the Dragon into the air, clearing the Coruscant atmosphere at borderline illegal speeds, before punching in the coordinate of Tython, "Oh boy."


"What?" Weiss asked, sitting at the Dejarik table with Ren.


"It says it'll take six hours to get there," Yang said, reaching for the button to turn autopilot off, "I can get us there in fou-"


"No," Weiss said sharply, "We're carrying priceless relics, not guns. We'll do this properly."


"Fine," Yang sighed hitting the confirm button on the autopilot array.


As they leapt into hyperspace, Yang threw up her legs onto the front, pulling out her datapad to play a game.


---


Pyrrha stepped into the chamber, walking towards the mummified body clutching a long sword. As she sheathed Miló, keeping an eye on the rusted droids lining the walls, Pyrrha couldn't help but be reminded of Jaune.


She hadn't heard from him since her self-imposed exile. Hell, she hadn't heard from most of her friends since then.


It had been, oddly enough, Blake who had broken the silence. A month and a half after she had disappeared into Nar Shaddaa, Pyrrha had gotten a message from the cat faunus. In it, Blake had detailed how Jaune had left for the Republic military.


Pyrrha had spent three days procrastinating about responding to it, before sending a message back. A short apology for Ruby, before asking her if the rest were angry at her.


Blake's message had said no, that they never had been. That they all were worried about her.


Pyrrha's grip on the blade grew tight. They shouldn't have been, it was her fault.


Pulling the sword from the mummy's hands, Pyrrha took a moment to examine it. The pommel was curved away from the blade, a red gem embedded in the center of it. The gladiator ran a hand along the leatherbound hilt, reaching the guard. It was clearly intended to block, as each side of the warblade's guard was bent towards the blade, to catch the opponent's blade.


The blade itself was quite simple, a straight blade made of a red tinged metal extended for about… twenty five inches? Dust she didn't know. She'd ask Ruby when they saw each other, she was good at that. Weapons, math and mechanics were Ruby's area of expertise.


The blade seemed to hum in her hand, a pleasant, enticing sound instead of the toneless hum that came from a Vibroblade. As Pyrrha looked around, however, she quickly found a problem. There was no sheath, no way to carry it back while keeping Miló in hand.


The blade humming again, causing Pyrrha to smile. Well, it couldn't hurt to use the sword once. Ruby tried out weapons all the time, even if she always returned to Crescent Rose.


As if that thought had triggered some hidden mechanism, four of the droids sprang to life, drawing conventional swords as they stood between her and the exit.


Pyrrha felt a grin slid onto her face as she wrapped her off hand around the lower portion of the blade. The blade hummed again, like it was excited.


As the first droid stepped forward, Pyrrha launched herself forward, her sword cleaving though the droid before it had time to react. And the one after that.


The next one had enough time to attempt to block, her weapon sinking into the rusted blade. Pyrrha pushed harder, cutting through the sword and droid in one strike.


Before the last droid could move, Pyrrha leapt at it, her new blade cutting though it as easily as its kin. Pyrrha looked down at her sword. It need a name… how about…?


"Ýmnos," Pyrrha breathed through a haze, staring at the sword in her hand. Ýmnos, in turn, hummed in what could only be approval.


With Ýmnos's song in her ear, the walk out of the tomb and to Tremel's office didn't seem to take as long.


As she walked down the hall leading to Tremel's office, she was stopped by a pair of young men.


"Hey there, acolyte! Stop right there," the smaller of the two said, pushing off the wall he was leaning against, "Let me have a look at you."


Pyrrha took a moment to do the same. His hair was shaved in several spots, and he had a cross shaped scar across his face. On his back was another sword.


"So you're Overseer Tremel's secret weapon, eh? You're impressive to be sure, but the old man took too long to make his move."


"You seem to have me at a disadvantage, you are…?"


"I'm Vemrin. Unlike you, I fought and bled for everything I have. I demand your respect."


"And you have it," Pyrrha said, "but Korriban is a big place, surely there's enough room for both of us?"


"I'm glad to hear you say that. There's plenty of room behind me. Listen, if Tremel had made his move a year ago, when I had first got here, you might have had a chance. But he didn't. Now you're too little, too late."


"This is ridiculous Vemrin!" The other man said, reaching for his vibroblade, "let's just kill her and hide the body!"


Ýmnos hummed as Pyrrha tensed, moving the sword slightly. Before they could come to blows, Vemrin placed his hand on his lacky's chest.


"We're not on Balmorra, Dolgis. There are rules and traditions here. We'll leave the cheating and shortcuts to Tremel and her."


"I'm not going to go down easily," Pyrrha warned.


She was going to get Ruby and herself through this, no matter what.


"You think highly of yourself, don't you?" Vemrin scoffed pushing past her, "Coming, Dolgis?"


"I'll be right there, Vemrin," Dolgis said, before turning to Pyrrha and standing to his full height. It probably would have been more intimidating if Pyrrha wasn't nearly as tall as he was, "Listen here, you bitch. Acolytes aren't allowed to murder each other, but accidents happen. It isn't murder if there's no one around, understand?"


"Are you threatening me?" Pyrrha asked incredulously, "Outside the Overseer's office?"


Dolgis froze, looking over to Tremel's office like he had just remembered where he was, "Point is, I'm warning you. Vemrin is the alpha monster here. You mess with him, you die."


"I'm not scared of you," Pyrrha said bluntly.


"Well, you should be," Dolgis scowled at her, before marching away.


Pyrrha watched him go, before walking into Tremel's office. With the Overseer was a woman around Pyrrha's age and they both turned to her.


"Ah, Pyrrha," Tremel said, "You've got the blade, good. Let me see if for a moment, would you?"


Pyrrha handed Ýmnos to Tremel. The Overseer examined the weapon.


"Father," the other woman said, "Who is this?"


"This is Pyrrha. Alistair sent her," Tremel said.


"I thought he was sending Laney?"


Tremel sighed as he closed his eyes, "Aalale is dead. She attacked someone stronger than her."


The other woman closed her eyes, shaking her head, "Damnit, Laney."


Pyrrha stood there awkwardly.


"Back on topic," Tremel said, "Well done, Pyrrha. You completed this trial perfectly. Your next one will be tomorrow. Take your blade and-" Tremel hit something on his desk, and a chirp came from Pyrrha's datapad, "-that is your room number. We're supposed to fill up each room, so you'll be bunking with a slave. My friend Harkun is her Overseer and says she's trouble. Inform me if she is too much, we'll deal with it."


"I'm… I'm sure we'll get along fine," Pyrrha said, turning and walking out.


It took a few minutes to find the room. She would drop off her stuff and go to look for Ruby.


"So," A familiar voice said as the door swung open, "You're my roommate? I don't know what they told you but- Pyrrha?"


Pyrrha let Ýmnos fall from her hands, "Ruby?"


Sitting on a messy bed, though when Pyrrha had entered she had been sprawled out on it and staring at the ceiling, wearing red robes was Ruby.


---


Ruby stood from her bed, walking with a calm she wasn't feeling. She pulled Pyrrha into the room, looking around the hall furtively. Once she confirmed that nobody else was around, Ruby withdrew, hitting the buttons on the panel next to the door to shut and lock it.


Then she promptly span around and tackled Pyrrha onto the bed behind them.


"Pyrrha! What are you doing here?! No, nevermind," Ruby babbled as she wrapped her arms around Pyrrha, "Dust, I'm happy to see you! I mean, I didn't expect help this quickly when I sent that lett-" Ruby stopped, pushing herself up so she was straddling Pyrrha.


Pyrrha, for her part, was staring up at Ruby with wide eyes, her red hair splayed out like a halo on the equally red sheets.


Ruby hid her own flinch at the crack of her hand on Pyrrha's cheek, watching the gladiator raise a hand to touch the red spot, "What-?"


"You idiot," Ruby seethed, "You and Jaune both. I stayed behind to keep you safe and you leave everyone else? Do you know how worried I was when I got your message? And now you're here! I don't know how you got to Korriban, but there's no way they'd let us get off. And, and-" Ruby froze again, "You need to go."


"What? Why?" Pyrrha asked.


"I'm supposed to get a roommate later today. They haven't shown up yet and-"


"I think I'm the roommate," Pyrrha said.


"Wuh-?" Ruby stared at Pyrrha in bewilderment.


"That family I mentioned… they were Sith. I had to kill their daughter in self-defense and they asked me to come here. I agreed so I could protect you."


Ruby blushed slightly, "Oh."


Pyrrha's face suddenly became serious, "Ruby. They said I was bunking with a slave."


"Former slave," Ruby corrected. There was no point in denying it.


Ruby tensed for a quarter of a second as Pyrrha pulled her close, before returning to hugging Pyrrha.


"Oh, Ruby," Pyrrha sounded choked, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."


"It's not your fault," Ruby said, "I'm fine. It's over now."


Those scars were hers to live with. Not Pyrrha's. Never Pyrrha's.


"This is my fault," Pyrrha mumbled, "I should have paid more attention, realized you weren't actually on the Dragon."


"I thought I was the one who threw my datapad in?" Ruby asked, "how is that your fault?"


Pyrrha didn't answer, merely tightened her hold on Ruby. Ruby hugged her back, ignoring the part of her that was pointing out, with justifiable confusion, that she was in the midst of comforting someone for something that had happened to her.


Still, Pyrrha was here! Ruby had expected to go at least a year without seeing any of her friends!


"Pyrrha," Ruby said, "It doesn't matter. You're here now. I missed you."


Ruby heard Pyrrha swallow, "I missed you too. More than you could know… Oh! I had something I wanted to ask you. Can you get off of me for a moment?"


Ruby rolled off of Pyrrha, staring at the metallic roof and resisting the urge to give a mad laugh. When she had been told she was getting a roommate, she had been prepared to slide the mask of sarcasm on at all times. There would have been nowhere it was safe to just be herself.


But it was Pyrrha! Pyrrha was here! She could be herself around Pyrrha! Well, almost herself.


"So!" Ruby popped up, a grin on her face, "Whatcha need?"


Pyrrha had picked up the sword she had walked in with, hesitating briefly before offering it to Ruby, "I retrieved it as my first task. I was wondering what you could tell me about it."


"Sure!" Ruby grabbed the sword, examining it. The first thing she noticed was that it was lighter than it probably should have been, "Lets see… Longsword, probably around-" Ruby stuck out her tongue, "Four feet. Not sure what kinda metal though…" Ruby span it once, experimentally, "It's really well balanced," Ruby closed her eyes for a moment, "and radiating the Dark Side."


"Is it safe?" Pyrrha asked, worry creasing her face.


"Pyrrha, it's a sword."


"You know what I mean," Pyrrha sighed.


"Should be fine, yeah," Ruby handed Pyrrha back the sword, "Pretty much everything old does that here. Do you have a name for it yet?"


"Ýmnos," Pyrrha said, leaning the blade against the wall of their room. Something about that it was their room made Ruby want to giggle madly, which she did, "are you alright?"


"I'm fine," Ruby said, "Just happy you're here. Whatcha gonna do with Ým- whatever?"


"I'll get a sheath for tomorrow," Pyrrha said.


"Ok! Hey," Ruby frowned as she realized something, "Where's Akoúo̱?"


Pyrrha stopped, reaching behind her, "I left it on the Dragon."


"Why?" Ruby cocked her head, "It's still a good throwing weapon."


"It didn't feel right, carrying a shield after…"


"Pyrrha," Ruby said, swapping from happy to worried, taking Pyrrha's hand gently, "You took this really hard didn't you."


"Yes," Pyrrha said, looking back at Ruby, "I'm sorry. I'm going to make this up to you, no matter what it takes."


"Make what up to me?" Ruby asked, "You didn't do anything wrong."


Pyrrha crouched slightly, bringing her even with Ruby, "I promise you, I'm going to keep you safe until one of us leaves Korriban. If it's me, I'll wait for you. And if it's you, I'll do whatever it takes to finish here and meet with you."


"I hope you realize I'm not going to sit around like a damsel," Ruby said, remembering the stories she had loved on Remnant, "We're going to get through this together, Pyrrha. Ok?"


"Ok," Pyrrha smiled back at her.


"Great," Ruby chirped, grabbing Pyrrha by the arm and dragging her towards the door, "Come on, let's get something to eat while you tell me what you've been doing!"


---


Ren felt the Dragon shift, tilting downwards as they slowed rapidly. Ren calmly stood, breaking from his meditation and walking out of his room.


Weiss was seated before the chess set she kept in a corner. Her right hand was holding her datapad, blue eyes trained on it as her left hand messed with the pawn before her left rook. The black piece spinning idly. The datapad chirped and Weiss let go of the piece and reached across, moving one of the pawns on the white side.


Weiss, Ruby and Pyrrha had been happy to see the game existed in the Galaxy, even if it had never become as popular as its circle based cousin. The set had fallen into disuse after they lost Ruby and Pyrrha. Jaune would play on occasion, but he had been focused on whatever thoughts had driven him to join the Republic military.


"Who are you playing with?" Ren asked, leaning on the railing across from Weiss as she moved a black pawn, typing something into the datapad.


"Ruby," Weiss said.


Ren nodded, closing his eyes and listening to the rattling of the ship. The Golden Dragon had been a bit of a clunker back when they had bought it, five years before. The first set of jobs they had ever done were to get the parts Ruby and Yang had needed to fix the various failing systems of the XS. Still despite that, Yang could make the ship dance when the need arose.


"Alright you two," Yang called, "We'll be entering Tython space in a minute or tw-"


Attention unidentified vessel. You are approaching Tythonian space. Identify yourself or you will be shot d-


"Shut up, would ya?" Yang sighed. Whatever she had done, the warning immediately halted.


The holocommunicator in the center of the ship beeped, informing them of someone attempting to hail them.


"I've got it," Ren said to Weiss, who was halfway out of her chair. Turning, Ren walked to it, hitting the button to take the call. The machine flickered on, "Hello?"


Standing in the projected light, flickering slightly, was an older woman with her hair in a bun. At Ren's word, she smiled and Ren was distinctly reminded of someone's grandmother, "Hello. I am Master Yuon Par. I take it you are the freighter bringing my relics?"


Her relics? "We are, Master Par."


"I'm glad to hear that," she said, "Normally, you would be required to land at the station and take a shuttle down, but from what I hear, you're carrying a rather large load. Is that true?"


"Yes," they were being paid by the crate, so Weiss had them pack as many as they could onto the ship.


"Then I have permission to grant you permission to land on the planet," Yuon said, "due to safety concerns, however, I must inform you that you will be restricted to certain areas of the temple."


"Of course," Ren said, "That is reasonable, we are outsiders."


"Thank you for understanding," Yuon said kindly, "I'll head over now to meet with you. My apologies if you get there a bit before me."


Ren sat down as the hologram flicked off, preparing himself for the turbulence of landing. He wasn't disappointed, the entire ship rattled slightly as they entered the atmosphere, through it stopped after they got lower. They really needed to get that stabilizer fixed.


"Damn," Yang breathed, "Ren, come look at this!"


Ren stood from his seat, making his way to the co-pilot seat and looking out. Stretching out as far as they could see was nature. A mountain range was to their left and below them was a giant forest with a raging river through it. In front of them...


"That must be the Jedi temple," Ren said, watching the building approach.


"Yeah," Yang reached over, hitting a switch, "Hey! Anyone picking this up?"


"Yes," a calm voice said, "You are the freighter Master Par mentioned?"


"Yep! We're starting our approach now."


Once they had landed, Ren was the first out, stepping off while Yang finished the sequence to open the cargo bay and turn off the Dragon. Yuan was actually already there, alongside a large trandoshan.


"Ah! It's good to meet you face to face," Yuon said, "This is my friend, Qyzen Fess. Qyzen, this is… oh," Yuon turned away from Qyzen, "my apologies, I was so excited about these relics I forgot to get your name."


"I'm Lie Ren, it's a pleasure to meet you Qyzen, but if you don't mind me asking, what is a trandoshan doing on Tython?"


"Tracking prey, Little Hunter," Qyzen said, staring down his scaled snout, "Beasts of Tython very large, very strong, good for Score."


"Score?" Ren asked.


"Scorekeeper watches us, sees all, knows all. Prey award points. Large prey, strong prey, more points," Qyzen gestured as he spoke, something Ren was going to assume was a smile on his face, "More points, more honor when meeting Scorekeeper."


"Interesting," Ren said, "Do you have a large score?"


"Not one for boasting," Qyzen said, "Yes. Should probably return to hunt. Will be back later, Yuon, Little Hunter."


"Yes, I'll see you later, Qyzen," Yuon said, before smiling at Ren, "Thank you for that. Many disapprove of my friendship with Qyzen. It's good to meet someone else that can see beyond his race, Lie."


"Ren," Ren said automatically.


"I'm sorry?"


"Everyone calls me Ren."


"Do you want to be called Ren?"


"Yes."


"Very well, Ren," Yuon said, "I should probably start in on these relics."


"Are you an archaeologist, Master Par?"


"Of sorts," Yuon said, "I travel across the Galaxy, trying to learn more about the Force from the past. I won't bore you with the details, Ren."


"That doesn't sound particularly boring," Ren said, "We can learn a lot from the past."


"Indeed we can," Yuon said, "but some of my colleagues think I take my interest too far. Would you mind assisting me with the first crate, if it doesn't bore you? I have many relics to go through."


"Sure," Ren said, "Where do we start?"


"Maybe," Yang called, "with helping us actually get them off the ship?"

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Does something about the format seem weird to you guys, or am I just seeing things?

---

"Pyrrha. Pyrrha. Pyyyyrrhhaa!"


Said woman moaned pitifully, weakly batting away at the finger prodding into her side, "Go away."


It returned seconds later, "Dust, you're acting like Yang with a hangover. Listen, training starts in an hour. Unless your trainers are a lot more lenient than mine, 'I overslept' isn't gonna cut it. I'm done with the shower, it's your turn. Then we can go get some food."


Pyrrha sat up, squinting at her underwear clad roommate. Ruby still had a towel thrown over her shoulder, her red tinged hair dripping slightly.


"We have a shower?" Pyrrha asked half asleep, watching Ruby dry off her hair.


"Yeah," Ruby stopped, jerking a finger towards her side of the room, where a door sat open, "It's good. Warm."


Ruby pulled off the towel, leaning back to throw it into the bathroom. Pyrrha broke her eyes away from the… distracting movement that created, "Do you mind… um.. do you mind putting on some clothes?"


"I need to get dressed anyways," Ruby stretched, leaving Pyrrha even more flustered, "You're stuff should be in the other dresser."


"Oh," Pyrrha said, glad for any distraction from Ruby, who was bending down to grab something from her dresser. Yanking open the dresser and grabbing the first pair of matching clothes, Pyrrha booked it into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.


Well, at least she knew for sure that Ruby was Yang's sister.


Cleaning herself quickly, Pyrrha switched into the clothes she had grabbed, opening the door, "Ok, I'm- are you alright?"


Ruby was giving her datapad a glare, though once she heard Pyrrha's voice, she immediately broke the glare, smiling calmingly, "My Overseer wants to see my group after breakfast, time for the next trial."


"Then why were you looking at it like that?" Pyrrha asked, grabbing her own datapad and checking it. Tremel wanted to see her too.


"He called me away from training yesterday to threaten my group and tell me you were coming," Ruby said, standing up, "Ready?"


"Yes," Pyrrha finished sliding on Miló's harness, adjusting it before looking over at Ýmnos, "I need to get a sheath at some point."


"We'll go grab one once we break," Ruby said, "We should go get some food."


"Yes," Pyrrha said, "and maybe you could tell me what you've been doing the last two weeks?"


"Yeah," Ruby stopped in front of the door, looking sheepish, "When, uh… when we step out, I'm gonna start acting weird. Gotta keep myself safe, right?"


"Yes," Pyrrha agreed, though she wasn't sure what Ruby meant.


"Just, I'm still your friend, ok?" Ruby said.


"Ok?" Pyrrha asked, worried now.


"Ok," Ruby's smile slid off her face as the door opened, overtook by something that would have been more in place on Blake or Ren's face. Closed and guarded, "So. Other than teaching us to use the Force, we're being made to learn to fight with swords. I'm best in my group, of course."


"I bet," Ruby wasn't as good as Pyrrha or Blake with swords, but she had been capable enough with them, "Do you need help training?"


"That'd be great," Ruby said as they rounded the corner, passing by a pair of large twins, "You're better than the droids they put us up against. They'll probably want you to pick a Form when you get to training though."


"It can't help to learn something new here," Pyrrha said. She couldn't exactly just refuse to train, could she? "What are the forms?"


"There's Shii-Cho," Ruby started, "it's about getting rid of your opponent's weapon without hurting them. Then there's Makashi, lots of foot work there, it was made to counter Shii-Cho. It's what I'm training right now."


"Really?" Pyrrha stared at Ruby as they grabbed a pair of trays, walking towards one of the lines for food, "Why?"


Ruby's voice dropped as she grabbed some strawberries, there were several foods that were nearly identical to home, grown across the Galaxy, "It reminds me of Weiss and works with my semblance. Next is Soresu, it's about deflecting blaster shots. Then Ataru is… weird."


"How?"


"It's really flashy," Ruby said, "Spinning and jumping and stuff."


"Like you with Crescent Rose?"


"More," Ruby said, "It's… hard to explain. Easier to see it."


"Ok," Pyrrha said, sitting down with Ruby.


"The next form is kinda two in one. Shien and Djem So. They're a more aggressive defense. Niman is a combination of the others. The last major Form is Juyo."


"What's that one about?" Pyrrha asked, watching Ruby wolf down her food, "Hungry?"


"Gotta run soon," Ruby said in between bites, "Harkun's office is on the other side of the building and he's already looking for reasons to hate me, I don't need to give him more. Juyo's all about embracing your emotions and using them to hit your opponent hard. It's a very Sith style."


Pyrrha was reminded of Aalale's last moments. The frenzied attacks that had been stronger than anything else she had ever done, "I'll have to think about those."


"Mh," Ruby said, finishing her food and grabbing the tray, "Meet me at our room after, ok? We'll get that sheath for Y- whatever. See you."


"See you," Pyrrha responded instantly, watching Ruby casually throw her tray onto a bin as she walked out of the mess hall. Looking around, Pyrrha saw a young man walking towards her, his hair shaved similarly to Vemrin's, with a vibrosword too large for him on his back.


---X Ruby X---


Ruby stood across from Harkun with the rest of her group, waiting for…


"Sorry I'm late," Niloc skidded into the room, "I was busy. There was this cute redhe-"


"Nobody wants to hear about how you harassed some poor girl, Niloc," Ruby cut him off. The other acolyte was something of a buffoon. Convinced that he would win this, survive in the world of Sith politics, and have women fawn over him.


Harkun gave a snort of laughter, "What do you know? Rose can be funny. I'd say don't do that again, but I doubt you'd stay alive long enough to try."


"So, what's our trial?" Ruby asked.


"You'll be proving your worth at one of the essential parts of a Sith Inquisitor's duties. Information acquisition. You will each be given a task to prove your ability to use your cunning, skill and intuition in gathering information for the Empire. Understand?"


"Yes, sir," Ruby chorused with her group.


"Then I will give you all your assignments," Harkun pulled something up on his terminal, "Rose, you will be assisting Inquisitor Zyn. An apprentice has been murdered and the only witness is refusing to talk."


"Fine," Ruby nodded.


"Niloc, you will be assisting Inquisitor Arzanon. He is here rooting out traitors. Gerr, Inquisitor Urinth has suspicions that there is a Republic spy on Korriban. Root them out. Wyrd, Lord Samus needs help hunting another traitor, you will assist him. Balak, a pair of slaves murdered a Lord, find out why. Ffon, Lord Abardon has asked for you to assist him in using a holocron to find weak blooded amongst our staff. Those from slaves."


"What?" Niloc bristled with rage, "Why should he do that? We're all slav-"


Harkun blasted Niloc with lightning for a moment, silencing the boy, "That isn't for you to decide, boy. Be gone, all of you!"


As they filed out of the room, they split into two smaller groups. Ruby and Wyrd went one way, while the others went towards the exit hall.


"So," Balak said. His voice was surprisingly soft for such a large man, "Who was that redhead you were talking to today? You don't mind me asking that, right?"


"No. She's my roommate, Pyrrha Nikos."


"Truly? She's not from our group, obviously. Do you get along?"


"Yeah," Ruby said. Why wouldn't she get along with Pyrrha?


"Well, do you mind putting a good word in for Wyrd? He was interested in her. So was Niloc, he was hitting on her when we left."


Ruby felt an unfamiliar feeling as she stared blankly at Balak, like her entire body was dunked in ice and she missed a step, "That's not really something I do…"


"Ok," Balak nodded, "it didn't hurt to ask, right? Only one of us is making it out of here alive and if it were my choice, it would be Wyrd, so I wanna make sure he'll be fine."


Ruby nodded along, keeping her face empty. She hadn't become close to any of the others. Kory's death establishing that if she wanted to get home, the others had to die.


"Well, I'll see you later, Ruby," Balak smiled, nodding as he entered the room opposite her assigned one.


"Acolyte," the fat man across from her stopped pacing, the red tattoos on his lips moving with his smile, "You've arrived."


"Really?" Ruby said, "I thought I was twenty feet back!"


The man laughed, "I opened myself up to that one, didn't I? Now, put aside the jokes at my expense for a moment so I might explain why you are here."


"Harkun said something about a murder?"


"Yes," Zyn said, "What we call 'an unauthorized murder'. A rivalry between apprentices grew too heated and now we have a body. The only witness was an acolyte named Alif, but he has been stubbornly refusing to speak. He is through that door," Zyn jerked his head towards it, "I'll be watching you through the holocameras, do whatever it takes to get him to talk."


"Yes, sir," Ruby opened the door, stepping in and hearing it click meaningfully, "Hello… Alif, was it?"


"Listen," the man strapped to a diagonally reclined table said, face bruised, "I know why you're here. I'll tell you what I told the rest. I don't know anything about this."


Ruby delayed answering him as long as possible, eyes roaming the set of bloodied tools presented before her, "I'm here to help you-"


"Banthashit," Alif spat, "You're here to torture me, like all the others!"


"Not if I don't have to," Ruby grabbed a rolling chair, pulling it closer to the table, "Please, Alif, for both our sakes, don't make me have to."


Ruby had enough to deal with without the guilt of torturing someone on her mind.


"I don't! Please, you have to believe me."


"Even if I did," which she didn't, "Do you really think the next person to walk through the door will? I'm not going to hurt you unless you make me have too. Here," Ruby hit the familiar controls on the side of Alif's table, loosening his restraints slightly, "does that help?"


"Why- why are you doing this?" Alif asked.


"I'm your friend, Alif. The only one who you're going to get in here. Help me so I can help you."


"But- I-" Alif stopped, "He'll kill me if I say…"


"And you don't think they'll get this information from you anyways? Alif, if you tell me, I can use it to argue that you deserve leniency. Otherwise, they'll torture you until you give, and then kill you right alongside them."


"I- I know," Alif said quietly.


"Then who was it? We can protect you from him."


"Esorr Kayin."


"Thank you, Alif. I'm going to leave now, I need to set up your protection."


Somehow.


As she stepped out, Zyn looked up from where he was reading something on his datapad, "Well done, acolyte."


"The killer-"


"There's no need to repeat it, I heard it loud and clear, though I wish I hadn't."


"Why?"


"Kayin's master sits on the Dark Council. I can not punish him myself, though I suspect Lord Necus will deliver retribution."


"What about Alif?"


"What of him?"


"Kayin will kill him if we keep him here. He needs to be moved."


"That is not your decision to make."


"You're a member of the Korriban Sith Academy, the greatest institute in the Empire. You have to be able to send him somewhere! Or are you scared of an apprentice?"


"Girl…" Zyn said warningly. That didn't work…


"You said you can't punish Kayin. Imagine how angry he will be if he loses his chance at killing the one who got him caught."


Zyn sighed, "Oh, fine. I have a Darth on Dromund Kaas who owes me a favor. I'll send Alif to her. As for you, I will send a message to Harkun that you passed. Not that it matters."


"What? Why?".


"I received a message not to long ago. A member of your class attempted to assault another member in the Valley. In the ensuing struggle, the other acolyte threw his assailant over the edge."


"Another 'Unauthorized murder'?"


"Normally there would be an inquiry, however given that this happened in broad daylight, there is little need."


"Who were involved, if you don't mind me asking?" Ruby already got the feeling she knew who survived.


"Niloc and Ffon."


"And Niloc died?"


"Yes. You may return to your room for the day, Acolyte. We traditionally allow you to have the rest of the day off after a trial."


---X Pyrrha X---


Pyrrha stepped into Tremel's office, waiting for the Overseer to finish his conversation with someone over his holocommunicator, "-not sure about this. She's powerful, yes, but will she be enough?"


"Tremel," Pyrrha stopped at the tone in Alistair's voice, "if Pyrrha isn't enough, nothing will be. She is worthy."


"There was talk of her speaking with her roommate, a slave."


"Is this roommate powerful?"


"Harkun-"


"I didn't ask what Harkun thinks. I wanted to know whether she was powerful."


"...I do not know."


"Then until we find out, I will trust Pyrrha. What do you think, Pyrrha? Is she strong?"


Pyrrha froze as Tremel turned, "Acolyte! How long have you been there?"


"I just arrived," Pyrrha said.


"This slave," Alistair said, "Is she strong?"


"Yes."


"How do you know?" Alistair asked, "It's been less than a day."


"We knew each other before we came to Korriban," There wasn't any real point in hiding it, "Since before she was a slave."


"How did she become one, if she's strong?"


"She stayed behind to protect me and our friends. We had assumed she died, but…"


"Clearly not," Alistair finished, "Tremel, whose slave was she, anyways? There are Sith lords who surviving under long enough to get to Korriban is testament enough."


"I don't know," Tremel said.


"Then, once again, I will trust Pyrrha on this matter. I should go, Lord Marr is supposed to contact me later."


The hologram cut out, leaving Pyrrha and Tremel. The Overseer seemed to search Pyrrha's face for a moment, "You truly believe this slave is worthy of being Sith?"


"Either side would be lucky to have Ruby," Pyrrha said instantly, "I'm- I'm just happy she's alive."


And that Ruby seemed to be willing to accept Pyrrha's assistance.


"Ah," a wistful look came across Tremel's face, "I understand. You are here for your trial, I assume?"


"Yes, sir."


"Very well. I want you to go to the academy prison and speak to the head jailer, Knash. There will be three prisoners for you to pass judgment on. Once you are done, you may return to your room for the day."


"That seems like a short day."


"It is customary to give acolytes the day off once they finish a trial. Your," Tremel coughed, "friend will no doubt be the same. You were only reunited yesterday, use it well."


"Thank you, sir. Before I go, would it be possible for you to send me videos of the Lightsaber Forms? Ruby tried explaining them to me, but I always preferred a visual example."


"Of course, I'll send them to your room. I even have some recordings of the more esoteric styles. And if I find anything out about your friend, I'll be sure to inform you."


"Thank you," Pyrrha repeated, before stopping, "Uh… where is the prison?"


"Across the atrium and down the right hand corridor. And Pyrrha?"


"Yes?"


"While I will hold my tongue at Alistair's request, I must remind you of your position. The Temeres are a powerful family and Alistair is taking a heavy risk naming an unknown his heir. Think hard about whether you want to be seen consorting with this girl."


"Why wouldn't I?" Pyrrha asked.


"She could become your weakness," Tremel warned, "You're enemies could use her to get to you."


"Ruby isn't a weakness," Pyrrha snapped. Ruby could never be a weakness to Pyrrha. In this horrible, twisted situation they were in, she couldn't think of anyone she would rather have at her side.


"...Very well. Go to your trial."


Pyrrha did. As she arrived in the atrium, she ducked behind the meditation stone as the boy who had been flirting with her (what was his name? Nilus?) stalked through the room with a murderous look on his face.


When Pyrrha reached the jails, she found the first time on Korriban where she couldn't sit quietly.


Leaning against the wall was a balding man, a small machine with a trigger in his hand. He was talking with a twi'lek girl who couldn't be older than sixteen, "Another word from you little bird, and you'll be in for a world of hurt."


"Chirp," the blue skinned twi'lek said dryly, "Chirp, chir-"


"Alright, that's enough of that," the man said, placing his thumb on a wheel at the back of the item and pulling the trigger. The twi'lek immediately started to spasm, clawing at the collar around her neck as the man slowly started to push the wheel up, "That'll teach you to be mouthy. You know what we do with people like you, girl? We break 'em. Then, once you're nothing but a husk, we'll give you to a Sith, who will finish the job. They'll make you nothing more than a-"


"Stop that!" Pyrrha yelled, stomping over and ripping the device out of his hands. The moment she did, the twi'lek, who was curled up on the floor, stopped her spasms, "Never do that again!"


"And who are you to tell me what to do, girl?" the man said, "Give me back my trigger."


"You were going to kill her," Pyrrha said.


"Nah. Those things are designed to cut out before that point. She'd survive. I take it you're the Acolyte Tremel brought in?"


"Yes. You're Knash?"


"I am. Come on, I've got some real treats for you," Knash said, gesturing for Pyrrha to follow him, "So, I should inform you that you're rather odd. Normally we send your type off world for the interrogations. You will normally be expected to pass judgment after we got the information, and you'll be the one swinging the sword during an execution. Tremel had these three shipped here specifically for you. He seems to think you're Exar Kun come again or something. Here's the first one."


"You think bringing in some new girl will get me to crack?" the woman behind the bars laughed.


"This one was sent to assassinate an imperial spy in the Yavin system. Throughout her torture, she maintained the story that she was hired anonymously."


"Listen, girl. Hopefully your better then him at comprehension. I didn't know he was imperial and I don't know who hired me!" the woman barked.


"So you don't work for the Republic?"


"No. I don't care about politics. I do my job to keep myself fed and alive, pissing off one of the big guys isn't a good way to stay alive for long."


"Then why didn't you do your research? Knash snorted.


"Why should I of? Listen I've been doing this since before the cold war started. I've never heard of either side hiring a freelancer to assassinate a spy like this."


"You gave Imperial Intelligence a right good headache trying to find you, for someone who keeps insisting this was just business. Right, you heard her story. Time for you to make your decision. What do we do with her? Execution? Lock her away to rot? Bleed her till she relents? It's up to you."


Pyrrha swallowed. She needed to do this. For Ruby. But want to do? What to do?


"Well?" Knash said.


"Give me a moment," Pyrrha said, thinking aloud, "So you're a free agent who killed a member of Imperial Intelligence. How long did it take them to find her?" Pyrrha directed the last bit at Knash.


"Bit over a month and a half," Knash said.


"Would Imperial Intelligence take her?" Pyrrha finally said.


"What do you mean?" Knash said.


"She was able to hunt down and kill one our," Pyrrha stomach rolled at that word. There was no denying it, she was becoming part of the Empire now, "Men and stay hidden for a month and a half. She's clearly a capable assassin and she didn't break under torture. Would Imperial Intelligence take her?"


"Yeah," Knash nodded, "I see your logic there. I'll send a message while you deal with the next one."


Pyrrha nodded, trying to keep her disgust hidden. She was part of the Empire.


It was for Ruby, Pyrrha reminded herself firmly. She was doing this to protect Ruby, not because she held any love for the Empire. Ruby had suffered because of her, the least Pyrrha could do was be her defender.


"Please," the bald cyborg in the next cell started the moment she stepped near, "I am a fellow Sith, grant me trial by combat."


"That pile of waste is Devotek. He was a Sith champion, before he botched a mission and got a thousand imperial lives snuffed out."


"I served faithfully, flawlessly, for twenty-four years! One mistake and they threw me away," Devotek stepped closer to the bars, "They left me here to rot. Please, give me a weapon, let me die a warrior."


"Can I do that?" Pyrrha asked Knack.


"If you really want to. Vibroblades are in there," Knash pointed at one of the crates strewn around the room, hitting a button on his desk that caused the bars of Davotek's cell to pull up.


"Thank you," Devotek walked over, grabbed a vibroblade and a smaller vibrodagger. Turning them on, he turned to face Pyrrha.


The gladiator turned on her own sword, preparing to fight as the familiar weight of Miló settled in her hand.


"Interesting design," Devotek said, "I've never seen one like it. Come, fight, die."


Before Pyrrha had time to think, Devotek charged at her, his blades a seemingly random blur of chaos. Even with her moving as quickly as physically possible, several strike got through, causing thin cuts to appear along her arms.


Gritting her teeth, Pyrrha hit a button on Miló, unfolding the sword into a spear and using the extra length to hold of Devotek's assault. Eventually, Devotek attempted to swing down, and Pyrrha blocked with Miló, struggling slightly under the weight. He shouldn't be that strong, not without.


"You're a skilled fighter," Devotek said, pressing down harder, "but you have yet to use the Force. Why? Why deny yourself this power?"


Because it was her first day here and she didn't know how?


Pyrrha was aware that wouldn't be an excepted excuse, however, so she looked around. Knash was reading something, apparently unconcerned with the fight to the death happening in front of him. Eventually her Aura would give out, and then it would be a swift death.


Pyrrha refused to go down like this. She wasn't going to force that pain on Ruby so soon after being reunited. Reaching out, Pyrrha felt herself touch something greater, and her Aura seemed to revitalize itself. The cuts, which had been sluggishly healing, sealed closed immediately.


Slowly but surely, Pyrrha forced herself up, grinning at Devotek as a look of shock appeared on his face.


Devotek bounded back, throwing his dagger at her while in the air and wrapping his other around the sword, landing in a stance. Pyrrha dodged around the dagger, ignoring the wet thunk it made, and charged to meet Devotek.


Pyrrha met each of Devotek's blows, Miló moving into position to block each strike before it happened. The moment Devotek slowed, running out of steam from his frenzied attacks, Pyrrha capitalized on it.


Miló slashed through his arm, sending his blade falling to the ground. Before it did, Pyrrha grabbed it, using it to run him through.


"Ah," Devotek stared down at the bloody blade in his gut, "It seems the Force prefers you as its master. Well then, at least I die with honor. End this."


Pyrrha lifted her sword, and Miló hummed as it severed Devotek's head.


"Well," Knash said, walking over and poking the body with his toe, "Looks like the old fool still had some fight in him after all. Unfortunately, he killed your third when he threw the dagger."


"Is that a problem?" Pyrrha asked worriedly.


"No. I'll count you stopping me from shocking the twi'lek as one. She's a prisoner and you made a choice about her. You're free to go."


Pyrrha nodded, trying to keep a smile off her face as she went to find Ruby.


She wanted to train now.


---X Jaune X---


Jaune moved through the halls of Ryloth's Revenge, nodding to a pair of crewmembers as he entered the hanger bay and climbed onto the ramp of Fortitude-transport he had been assigned to. Training kicked in as he saluted to his CO, "Sir!"


"Corporal Arc," the grizzled sergeant nodded, "Sit down, we'll be leaving in five."


"Yes, sir," Jaune slid into his seat opposite Sergeant Horner, "Where's the rest of our squad?"


"On the way. I'll inform you of our mission once they're here."


Jaune nodded, checking his SR-25. Protocol said they were supposed to be informed of missions a day in advance. Protocol meant nothing compared to reality.


There had been a sudden jump to hyperspace, followed by a bulletin for each of the squads to report to the hanger.


It took three minutes for the rest of their nine man squad to climb into the shuttle, the pilot immediately shutting the loading door and beginning the process of sealing everything off.


"Men," Horner said grimly, "immediately prior to our jump, the captain was received orders from General Garza. An unusually well equipped Sep movement has seized control of Eriadu."


"Eriadu?" Karle asked. The large brick of a man was frowning, "Where's that?"


"Seswenna sector," Rabi answered immediately, "would the Imps care about Eriadu? Why not Dzass IV? Or Seswenna? They took it during the war…"


The Mirialan trailed off, fingers reaching up to touch a scarred symbol under her eye.


"I don't know," Horner said, "and we don't need to know. The Imps want it, so we don't want them to have it. Our job is to join with the rest of the forces sent and liberate Eriadu."


Euva coughed, the Zabrak clutching her rifle, "But if we don't know why they-"


"Leave that to SIS. They'll figure out that stuff."


"What are we supposed to be doing?" Jaune asked.


"The men of the Revenge have been assigned to sector H-7," Horner pressed a button on his right bracer and the ceiling mounted holoprojector turned on, "centered around the charmingly named Old Factoryville."


Jaune felt the shuttle take off as they exited hyperspace, "Is Eriadu a industrial planet?"


"Yes."


"Could that be why the Imps want it?" Jaune asked.


"Not likely," Horner said, "The Imps have their own industrial worlds, it'd take too long to refit everything to hit their specs. They want it for other reasons. Put that out of your mind for now, soldiers. Unfortunately, Factoryville has anti-air all around in. We'll be landing outside of their range and fighting our way it. Revenge 3-2 has two tasks as we march towards the actual RV. First, we are to take out three missile batteries along our path, second we are to eliminate the commander of those batteries."


"How far out are we landing?" Karle asked.


"Forty clicks out. Should take us a day to reach the first battery. We'll commandeer a vehicle there."


"Rules of engagement?" Morsil, their Chagrian explosive specialist, asked.


"Assume hostile until proven otherwise. Weapons loaded, out, and ready to fire on the signal."


"And if we find some Imps?" Jaune asked.


"Imps are always hostile. Shoot them," Horner said as they landed, "Corporal Arc, you take point."


---X Blake X---


Blake sat up and turned off her datapads alarm, stretching out and hissing as her back cracked and popped. Once she was done with that, she typed out a message and hit send.


Hey, are you awake?


As she waited for a response, Blake took a quick shower and changed. Grabbing her datapad, she smiled at the response.




Ruby

Still sleep late?


Blake

Different planets, Ruby.


Ruby

Right. What's up, Blakey?


Blake rolled her eyes and gave a sigh. Only Ruby and Pyrrha could get away with that.


Blake

I wanted to make sure you were alright. They're treating you ok, right?


Ruby

I'm fine. I miss you, though. How are you?


Blake

I'm ok. I wish I could be there with you. I don't like the idea of you being all alone.


Ruby

That's ok. Guess who showed up last night?


Blake

Who?


Ruby

Pyrrha!


Blake stopped, staring. Pyrrha? How had Pyrrha gotten to Korriban so quickly?


Blake

WHAT!?


Ruby

Yeah! Apparently she was living with a Imleri family and they sent her to Korriban!


Blake blinked as Ruby suddenly added Pyrrha to the chat.


Pyrrha

Hello?


Ruby

See!


Blake smiled.


Blake

Hi, Pyrrha. Are you alright?


Pyrrha

What do you mean?


Blake

You're on Korriban, right? Are you alright?


Pyrrha

I'm fine, thank you. How are you?


Blake

Fine. I need to go, me and Nora need to go meet with Vito.


Ruby

Tell him I say hi!


Blake stored her datapad with a snort, going to meet Nora.


"Blake!" the bruiser was seated on a bench in the lobby, grinning as she flicked through a comic, "Ready?"


"Yes," Blake said, walking out the door and to the nearest cab, "Have you talked to Ren?"


"Yeah. They're with the Jedi now, he seemed to be having a fun time. Him and the person they were bringing the stuff to have been chatting."


Blake nodded, leaning against the cab door. They were in the mid-city of Nar Shaddaa. Subcity Kaead.


It took them almost an hour to reach the market were Vito's business was on. If Blake looked up and squinted, she could almost see the sky.


Blake always wondered how Vito had gotten such a good piece of real estate. Pushing open the door, she ignored the tickling bell.


"Welcome!" The twig of a man behind the desk said, "if you ne- Blake, N! What are you two doing all the way out here?"


Vito was short, his balding head barely reaching Blake's chin, and one eye a normal blue and the other an unblinking black.


"We need your help, Vito," Blake said, walking further into the shop, "We need some supplies."


"Of course! Anything for you girls, what do you need? Spice? I got a shipment of glitterstim coming in if you can wait a week. Or do you guys need a job? I'm all stocked up at the moment, but I know people who will pay good money for people who work like you do."


Blake made a gesture, towards a very specific part of the counter in front of Vito. His eye widened, and he reached down, turning off the recording devices.


"Ruby's alive," Blake said without preamble.


"She is!?" Vito laughed, face stretching into a grin, "Stars, where?"


"Korriban."


"Oh," the smile crumpled, "Oh, no…"


"Yeah."


"What do you want me to do? I'm good, I know, but even I can't touch Korriban."


"Ya know the Great Hunt?" Nora asked, "We're gonna join it!"


Vito blinked, reaching up and tapping his prosthetic eye, "That isn't an easy thing to do, N. E'ery hunter worth their blaster wants into that thing."


"We can do it," Blake said. It didn't matter what it would take, they would get to Dromund Kaas.


"Not saying you can't. Stars know you're some of the best the Galaxy's got, but a gun and determination will only get you so far. The competition is gonna be the most skilled, dangerous sons of bitches out there."


"Which is why we're here. We need equipment, we'll pay whatever it takes."


Vito turned, pushing open the two doors leading to his back room, "Come on, then. I got some stuff that you'll like."


--- X Nora X---


By the time Nora and Blake made the short walk around the counter and into the back room, Vito had several briefcases on the table in the center of the room. The fixer came from behind a rack, his four prosthetic legs clicking on the floor as he did.


Nora still wondered how he lost his lower half.


"Right, we'll start with the stuff for N first," Vito grabbed one of the cases and opened it. Inside were a pair on gauntlets, "A pair of B-3 knuckle mounted vibroblades. I know you like being loud, but sometimes you'll be paid to take them in quietly. Try 'em on."


Nora caught them, sliding them on and hitting a button. The moment she did, they moved, the panels shifting until they were comfortably fit to Nora's hands. Another button saw a pair of wide blades jump from them, "Nice!"


"Next," Vito cracked open another, flipping it around to show a pair of slightly bulky, rectangular bracers, "X-12 wrist-mounted rocket launchers. Capable of firing antipersonal, AP, EMP, and a bunch of other payloads. Only problem is you gotta reload after each shot."


Nora put them on with a grin, "I love bombs."


"I know you do," Vito said, opening the third, "Next is for the both of you. Shield generators. They're not Echani or Mando, so they won't soak up a punch, but blaster fire will be eaten," Nora opened her mouth, "Yeah, yeah, I know. That funky Aura stuff of yours. Still, won't hurt to have a redundancy, right?"


"Right," Blake cut in, "And for me?"


"First, I got one more thing for N. Got a couple dozen power packs for you, since Ren gave you one of his blasters."


Nora touched one of the two guns that made up Stormflower, "Thank you."


"It's fine. Those are on the house, by the way. Now, for you, Blake, I got a couple of things. Not as much as for N, but you ain't the type to be rattling anyways. For you, I got a bunch of cryo and ion grenades."


"Thanks."


"Not done," Vito said, "I also have a stun glove and a stealth pack. For when you need to go non-lethal."


"How much is all this?"


"Normally? Twenty thousand credits. I'll take it from the money I owe you all from that last job."


"Thank you," Blake said, "We need one more thing."


"What?"


"A place to stay."

---

Prefer White Rose, but I'll give it a try.

Click to shrink...

That's because you're boring (I'm joking). I'm fine with almost anything when reading (unless it's really creepy) but my preference when writing is Ladybug or Milk and Cereal

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Pyrrha sat on her bed with Ruby, watching another Juyo holovid. The more she watched, the more Pyrrha came to understand the frenzied style.


"It's not actually random," Pyrrha said.


"Huh-" Ruby cocked her head, unintentionally nudging Pyrrha. The taller woman leaned her head against her charge, "Oh! I see."


The key was that none of the techniques technically led into each other, instead being designed to be able snap between them (or return to rest) at will. It was probably more exhaustive, but was also unpredictable.


The something inside of Pyrrha that had awoken during her fight with Devotek resonated with the moves. The fast, lively actions looked right.


"Ruby?" Pyrrha asked.


"Yeah?" Ruby responded, turning her head to Pyrrha, "Whatcha need, Pyr?"


"Do you want to go spar before lunch?" Pyrrha asked.


Ruby blinked a couple of times as she stared at Pyrrha, before a large grin spread across her face, "Sure! I'll go grab my sword."


Pyrrha frowned as Ruby jumped up, rolling across her own bed until she was hanging halfway across it. Ruby's voice had changed as she said that, slipping into something slightly maniacal.


Pushing it out of mind for the moment, Pyrrha stood up herself, walking over to the sheathed swords propped up against the wall. Ýmnos hummed softly as she picked it and Miló up.


"You'll have your fun soon," Pyrrha murmured.


Ýmnos hummed again.


Sliding on the larger blade, Pyrrha put Miló at her side. She smiled down at her weapon of choice. Already, she could picture how to use the moves she had seen with the leaf shaped blade.


"Ready!" Ruby said, holding her vibroblade by the sheath. As Pyrrha opened the door, the guarded look reappeared on Ruby's face.


"Where are we going?" Pyrrha asked, reaching out to touch Ruby's wrist. She didn't like seeing Ruby like this. Ruby was happy, loud and hyper, not impassive, quiet and calm.


"Training rooms," Ruby said, though she didn't protest the hand wrapped around her wrist, "They're on the upper floor."


The halls of Korriban's academy were, outside of the faint whirring of climate control, stunningly silent for before noon. So silent, in fact, that Pyrrha stopped Ruby to peer into one of the rooms. Seated on the floor, their legs bent under them, was a collection of young teens, each surrounded with a dark miasma.


Pyrrha met the yellow eyes of the pacing instructor, who jerked his head meaningfully. Retracting her head from the room, Pyrrha turned to her friend, "Why are the- Ruby?"


"Yeah?" Ruby said, sounding like she wasn't really paying attention. Something only reinforced by her eyes being glued to her left hand.


"What's that?"


"Spider," Ruby said like she was discussing the weather. Considering her feelings on the subject matter, it probably was equivalent.


Crawling across Ruby's left hand was a large spider. Pyrrha could see the bug's mouth moving slightly.


"Why do you have a spider on you hand?" Pyrrha hid her distress behind a layer of calm. The Deathstalker had turned her off to all arachnids.


Ruby, however, had a deep love for bugs of all sorts, something that had shocked Pyrrha the first time she had come across it. They had been sitting around waiting for a shipment on a desert planet in the Outer Rim when she had turned to see Ruby crouched down and watching a scorpion.


Ruby didn't respond, still too transfixed by the spider, a wide grin on her face.


"Ruby!" Pyrrha said, "sparring?"


"Oh! Right," Ruby let the spider back onto the wall, turning to Pyrrha, "Ok, lets go."


"I didn't know kids came to Korriban."


"Every Force-sensitive has to come to one of the academies," Ruby said ,"it's the law. You can be executed for not sending one. Trust me, I know."


---


Weiss leaned against the railing, eyes trained on the holocommunicator in the center of the room. After a minute, the machine turned on, projecting a slightly blue toned version of Blake.


"I didn't expect you to call so soon," Weiss said. The quality of the call was too good for a handheld. Packing everything required to project a hologram plus a comlink left even the top of the market ones with a certain graininess to them.


"I wasn't going to," Blake said, "But I wanted to let you know we were fine, and tell you all something. Where's Ren and Yang?"


"Yang's working on the Dragon and Ren's with Master Par. I can go get them, if you want?"


"No," Blake said, "it's not super important. I just thought you'd all like a heads up on how things are going," the corner of Blake's mouth tugged up, "Yang's worried about something?"


"Ruby," Weiss said instantly. Both of them knew their friend's habits enough to know she only worked on the Dragon when something severe broke or she was stressed out.


The smile disappeared into an impassive mask, but Blake's bow, as it tended to, gave her away. It drooped forwards just enough to give away that the thought of Ruby made her sad.


"We all are," Blake said, "She doesn't deserve being stuck on Korriban… I wish I could be there with them."


"I think we'd all jump at the chance," Weiss said, eyes roaming away from Blake. Idly looking for something to take her mind off the topic of her best friend's current location, Weiss dug into her coat pocket, pulling out a credcoin and began to flip it.


"I wish we could get to Korriban and grab her," Blake continued, "Yang's right, this doesn't feel like the right thing to do."


"And getting ourselves killed is?" Weiss shot back, "Korriban is one of the most defended places of the galaxy. Even if we could land, there'd be no way we'd be able to get off."


"I know," Blake said, "but I can't help worrying. What if the Sith get to them?"


"What do you mean 'get to them'?" Weiss asked. Did Blake think the Sith would kill Ruby before she could be saved? As much as Weiss hated the idea, she knew that it was a possibility.


"I mean..." Blake's ears drooped further, "I know what it's like to be around people like that. It can get to you, make you think that they're right."


"Ruby's strong enough to resist it," Weiss said. She had no doubt Ruby would make it through this without being shaken.


"But is that a good idea? What if they kill her for not being Sith enough for them?"


"Then…" Weiss stopped for a second, merely watching the coin continue to rise and fall with her flipping, "Then it's up to you to save her from herself if you have to. You can break through whatever form of mind control the Sith do to her, I know it."


Blake nodded, "I'm not sure I can, but I'll try."


"So, why did you call?" Weiss asked, "it can't have been just that."


"I wanted to let you know how things were going… and I have some information."


"Ok," Weiss said, "Shoot."


"Vito got us some weaponry and a job, as we're actually in the back room, I'll be heading out as soon as I'm done with this call. The place to stay will take a bit longer, but he said he should be able to pull a few strings and have us set up by the end of the week."


"Great," Weiss gave a smile, "What else?"


"Pyrrha's…" Blake breathed in, "Pyrrha's on Korriban with Ruby."


Weiss froze. Pyrrha was on Korriban? Pyrrha was on Korriban? How did that happen?


"What? How?" Weiss asked, ignoring the coin hitting the floor as she stared at Blake.


"She was with with an imperial family, they pulled some strings to get her there or something."


"I… I see," Weiss said, pressing her lips tight. Pyrrha had been working with the Empire? After what they had done to Ruby? "I should let you get to the job."


"Ok," Blake said, looking surprised as the hologram turned off.


Weiss walked to the chess board, typing out another message.


Pawn to C3


---


Ruby looked down at her datapad at the chirp, closing her eyes for a moment to visualize the chess board. The Sith didn't seem to care about her messaging her family, but somehow she got the feeling asking for a chess board would be a bad idea.


Then she typed out a response, Pawn to D4.


Stowing the datapad away, Ruby drew her vibroblade as Pyrrha placed Ýmnos against the wall, before drawing Miló. As the red head stepped onto the round platform they would be sparring on, Ruby entered the Makashi rest stance.


Pyrrha smiled lightly at the as she took the starting position of Juyo. The arm holding Miló above her head, and her lower body turned away from Ruby. Ohhhh, so they were trying out new styles, huh?


Ruby moved her weapon, wrapping both hands around the hilt and shifting the weapon to her left side.


"Now," Inquisitor Jarobi was pacing around the sparring platform, watching them with a class of younglings, "Ruby. I know you know the rules, but I will recount them for your friend, here."


"Yes, sir," Ruby and Pyrrha said as one, eyes trained on each other.


"First, neither of you will turn on your vibroblades. Second, neither of you are to use the Force in ways that are directly lethal. Third, when I say stop, you will stop. Understand?"


"Yes, sir," they repeated. Ruby was more focused on Pyrrha and got the feeling the other woman was much the same.


"Very well. You may begin."


One heartbeat passed, then a second. On the third, both of them moved.


Ruby dodged Pyrrha's seemingly random attacks, using the footwork she had been training to keep away from the attacks. Coiling her muscles, Ruby burst into the air, twisting her body so she landed on her feet facing Pyrrha's back and swinging for Pyrrha's side.


Pyrrha turned, angling Milo to convert the energy of the spin into an attack. Neither had time to break from the attack and dodge or block, so first blood (as it were) was drawn near simultaneously.


Ruby jumped again, watching Pyrrha turn to be waiting for Ruby… and fell, bringing her sword crashing down onto the back of Pyrrha's shoulder. A subtle shimmer of red appeared around the strike as Pyrrha grabbed Ruby by the arm and transferred it into a throw, knocking the weapon from her hand as she went.


Ruby rolled with the impact, throwing out her hand and trying to pull her vibroblade to her… come on… come on...


Ruby growled under her breath, staring at the shivering sword as Pyrrha advanced, anger buildi-


The sword flew past Pyrrha, tearing open a small gouge in her cheek that immediately sparked shut as Ruby caught the weapon and leapt to meet Pyrrha.


Ruby let her body operate on its own, dodging and clashing with Pyrrha as she mentally fused Makashi and Ataru with her own fighting style with Crescent Rose.


Improved footwork, improved acrobatics and, if they kept their promise, improved Crescent Rose…


Ruby let something between a dreamy smile and a leer slid onto her face as she imagined fighting Pyrrha like that. By that point, they would both have a year's worth of experience with the Force and these styles on top of their Huntress training.


Ruby snapped back into reality as her and Pyrrha struggled with each other, staring into Pyrrha's green eyes as she noticed Pyrrha had a similar look on her face. The other acolyte's red hair was a mess, strands of crimson falling across her forehead and into her eyes.


"I missed this," Ruby breathed, pressing harder against Miló.


"Same," Pyrrha agreed, "I can't-"


"What are you doing, slave? Shouldn't you be at your trial?" Ruby closed her eyes, sucking in breath as the moment disappeared, "Or have you realized there's no point?"


"Oh," Ruby smirked at the interruption, "Ffon! You mean you haven't finished your trial yet? Really, how would Harkun behave if he knew his pet was slower than a slave?"


"Shut up," Ffon scowled at her, "I've been delayed by fools refusing to allow me to perform my task!" the Pureblood stomped over to Jarobi, pulling a crystal pyramid, "Stand still!"


"And why," Jarobi said, drawing his lightsaber but not igniting it, "Should I allow you, an acolyte, to use that on me, an instructor?"


"Why does every slave I came across ask me that? You should be honored to be allowing your better to pass his trial!" Ffon raised the pyramid again, only for Jarobi to ignite his lightsaber.


"Forgive me," Jarobi said softly, an act offset by the red light cast across his skin, "Somehow, in the twenty years I was raised to inherit the Jarobi family and forty years I have been Sith, I had somehow been under the apparent delusion that the trials were supposed to be… trying."


"I-" Ffon looked taken aback.


"Ruby," Jarobi continued, "Would you and your friend mind taking these initiates down to their lunchroom before heading to your own? I must assist Ffon in his trial. You understand."


"Of course," Ruby broke her mask to grin in unashamed glee, "Come on, Pyr, let's get something to eat."


---


Jaune was crouched down on an outcrop, peering through a pair of binoculars. After a minute, he hit the earpiece connected to his comlink, "I've got twenty hostiles around the fence."


"Lord," Horner growled, "How'd they get dug in so quick? This was supposed to have started a week ago."


"How'd they take over an entire world in a week?" Jaune responded instantly.


"...Fuck SIS," Horner's growling didn't stop, "And fuck the Brass. Why lie so obviously?"


So obviously Horner hadn't noticed it.


Instead of voicing that thought, Jaune brought things back onto topic, "Orders?"


"Hold position until we're there, Corporal," Horner said, before his came through from farther away, like had lowered the comlink without stopping it from transferring, "Syndulla! Keep trying to reach command, Euva, stay with him. the rest of you, with me, we're going to regroup with Corporal Arc."


Jaune unsheathed Crocea Mors, making sure the blade was sharp and the battery strong. It had been a pain in the neck to go through all the paperwork to be allowed to bring his sword instead of a standard issue vibroblade, but Crocea was part of him now, like Crescent Rose or Miló were to Ruby and Pyrrha.


He was probably only allowed it because he was the squad's close range assault specialist. Same reason he had an underslung scattergun on his SR-25.


The missile battery was… well, it wasn't a missile battery. Instead a massive turbolaser was pointed skyward, occasionally swerving in place to unleash a second sun into the distance, shooting at a ship well outside Jaune's sight.


"Arc," Horner said, the rest of the squad behind him as they moved to meet with Jaune, "Ready?"


"For what, Sir?" Jaune prepared himself for what he knew was coming.


"We're going in," Horner said, hooking his rappel wire onto the cliff without looking, "Someone's getting hit hard every time that gun goes off. Plus, if that that jammer is anywhere, it will be with the gun's controls."


"But are we enough?" Karle asked, swallowing and gripping his rifle harder, "They have to have at least three times the men we do down there."


"And each of those men is a Sep," Horner said as Jaune joined him, "So they're clearly a fifth as smart as our dumbest member. We can take them. Hell, Arc could probably take the entire building alone!"


Jaune probably could, Aura and all, but that wasn't the point, "And we can't get support anyways, Private. Even if we could send a request, they'd just shoot it down. We need to take out this gun, then we can call in backup. Either to take control of the gun and turn it against the Seps, or to help us push in. It's only going to get harder from here."


"Right in one, Corporal," Horner nodded, "I want you to take Karle, Rabi and Zaivic to clear the house, me and the rest will clear the perimeter."


"Yes, sir," Jaune nodd-


Then there was a flash of light from the house, and Jaune's training kicked in as he tackled Rabi and Karle to the ground before a nova of heat flew over them.


---


Blake climbed into the rented airspeeder, reading the dossier for their current target. A Rodian named Keegn, wanted for killing a minor Hutt's favorite slave. Worth… 10,000 credits.


Blake, not for the first time since Vito had sent her the data yesterday, stared at the number blankly. Even divided two ways, that was more money for each of them than Weiss had given them. It was a small wonder Vito had sent them this one, it would be enough to pay for a base and whatever airspeeder he planned to buy them.


"So," Nora threw herself into the car, "Where're we headin' now?"


"The landlord said that there's a bar Keegn frequents down a couple of floors," Blake said, starting the car and putting her datapad into a holder, "We'll look there."


She wasn't sure why a landlord knew that, but apparently he did.


"Nice!" Nora grabbed a bag she had been carrying when she stepped out of their quarry's apartment, "I found his datapad and a stash of credits, too! We can check the if the people on it have seen him!"


"You found that in ten minutes?" Blake asked, blinking.


"Mhh," Nora nodded, handing Blake the datapad, "It's been a while since I had to go scrounging, but I'm still good at it."


"Scrounging?" Blake asked, thinking back to her time with the Fang. Adam had never been the best with money and was both too stubborn and prideful to let Blake take care of it. He was the one in charge, so it was his responsibility. Blake had gotten used to scrounging up food, as they had almost inevitably run out of lien. But she couldn't imagine Nora scrounging for anything, "Why did you do that?"


"Lived on the streets when I was younger, before I met Ren," Nora's smile disappeared for a moment, before coming back full force, "Hey! Do ya think we could stop by a convenient store on the way there? I want to grab some candy."


"No," Blake said. Nora had lived on the steets?


"What? Why?"


"We're on the clock," Blake said, shifting the lever to angle them down as they came across one of the areas dedicated for moving between floors, "We don't know how many other people are hunting for Keegn, so we need to hurry. Besides, you're worse than Ruby with candy."


"Come on, Blakey, please~?"


"Don't," Blake said, "Call me Blakey."


"Why not? You let Ruby call you Blakey!"


"That's different," Ruby could get away with it and Pyrrha could. Nobody else, "Listen, once we're done, we can stop and you can buy all the candy you want. Deal?"


"Deal!" Nora said with a giant grin, throwing herself back to her seat as Blake leveled them out, "So~ Whatcha gonna do when we get Ruby back?"


"What do you mean?" Blake's mood immediately soured upon thinking of Ruby, her grip on the wheel growing tight.


Weiss was right, of course. There was no way onto Korriban without provoking the Empire's wrath. It still didn't make it any easier to stomach.


Blake resisted the urge to reach over and send Ruby and Pyrrha another message. They had done so through yesterday and into the night, but they had warned her they had lessons today.


Blake tried to suppress the chuckle as it occurred to her that Ruby and Pyrrha would be able to claim that they finished their schooling before Weiss, only for it to break out as she realized Jaune could make that claim.


"Well," Nora said, "How are we supposed to actually get her out of the Empire?"


"I," Blake frowned. She hadn't planned that far out, "I don't know. We'll find a way."


---


Nora hopped out of the car the moment there was land beneath them, not even bothering to open the door as she landed with a dull thump.


"Showoff," Blake said as she landed the car.


"It's fun!" Nora defended, crossing her arms.


"It still makes you a showoff," Blake opened her door, grabbing Gambol Shroud and strapping it to her back, "A normal human couldn't do that, or many near-human races. It makes you look like a Jedi."


Nora stuck her tongue out at Blake, "You're no fun!"


"I'm," Blake sighed rubbing at her eyes, "I'm sorry. I've been having a rough couple of days. I'm worried about Ruby."


"I am too," Nora said, "but she's not gonna be happy if we become grumps because we were worrying about her. Besides, you can always message her, right? It's what I'm doing with Ren!"


"I," Blake looked embarrassed. Or, at least, Nora thought she looked embarrassed as the faunus pushed past her, "I don't want to accidentally get her in trouble. We don't know how strict the Sith are about outside contact."


"Oh," Nora's smile shrank just a tiny bit, before immediately returning, "Then you can do it sometimes! That way we'll know she's alright and she can know we haven't forgot about her!"


"You can to," Blake said, dodging around a pair of trandoshan standing in the middle of the street, making threatening gestures to a shopkeeper, "She'd like to hear from just more than me."


"Of course I will!" Nora said, "but you're better with the planning things stuff than I am. So mine'll be just 'Hey, what's up?' and stuff like that. Are we almost there?"

Dr

"We've only been walking for a couple of minutes," Blake said.


"I know. Just curious. I wanna try these out!" Nora adjusted the missile launchers on her arms.


"We're trying to bring him in alive," Blake said, "He's worth more that way."


"Fine, Weiss," Nora stuck her tongue out again. Weiss was a lot more stingy with their credits than Ruby had ever been.


"We'll have more money for things if we bring him alive."


"Fine… but I get to try them out at a range later."


"If you want to," Blake said.


"Well, I do!" Nora nodded, ignoring Blake's snort.


"Nora?" Blake asked a few minutes later as they stood outside the bar.


"Yeah?"


"Can you go in while I wait out back? I want to be ready if he tries to run."


"Yeah, of course!" Nora grinned, watching Blake duck into the alley. Now, how to do this?


Nora pushed open the doors, doing her best to emulate the way bounty hunters walked in the vids. Kinda like a weird combination of Blake and Yang.


She felt several sets of eyes following her as she walked along, and heard a couple of snickers… Ok, this wasn't working.


Falling into a more normal walk, Nora stopped at the bar, "Hi!"


"Hello," the male twi'lek behind the bar said in Ryl, "What can I get you?"


"I'm looking for someone," Nora smiled, "apparently he's here a lot?"


"Who's that? I might be able to help you."


"A Rodian named Keegn, ever heard of him?"


"Yes. Back there," the twi'lek nodded towards the back left corner, "You are here for his bounty?"


"Yeah."


"He has a stun baton up his left sleeve, a vibrodagger up his right and a blaster behind his back," The twi'lek said dutifully, "When you turn him in, make sure they make it painful."


"You don't like him? Then why's he here?"


"Creds are creds," the man said, "but he carved up my daughter in some claim he was saving her. I won't lose sleep over him."


"Ok, Thanks!" Nora stood up, walking towards Keegn, passing a bald man who was watching them talk.


"Hey!" the Rodian looked up, "Are you Kee-"


Keegn didn't wait, pulling out his blaster and firing it at her. The shield generator Vito had given her flashed a few times as the bolts stuck it.


"So," Nora said, "Do you always shoot people you just met?"


"Shut up!" Keegn turned, running toward the back entrance and ripping it open… and walked right into Blake's waiting palm.


Electricity jumped along the glove as Keegn shuddered in place before he dropped.


"How'd you know he was there?"


"Heard him coming," Blake's bow twitched, "Come on, we should get him to the bounty office."


---


Jaune staggered up, ignoring the flames along his jacket and the itching on his face as he hoisted Karle to his feet, "Are you alright?"


"I'm o- Jaune!" Karle yelped.


"What?" Jaune asked as he turned Horner over, checking him. Well, he was breathing, which was more than could be said for Zaivic.


Or the pile of pulped meat that had once been the other human. Jaune looked down sadly at the charred body, sighing as he reached down and retrieved Zaivic's holo-tags.


Then he was distracted by Karle's jacket batting the side of his head, "What was that for?"


"The side of your face was burning, man! Er… sir."


Jaune blinked, touching his cheek as feeling his Aura swirl around the burns. If Karle wasn't telling the truth, they would have healed by now.


Meh, he'd had worse. Like that time on that magma planet.


"I don't know why we're doing this," Jaune's head snapped towards the sounds coming from behind them, "They took a thermal head on, they have to be toast."


"You're an idiot," the second voice said bluntly as Jaune forced Karle to the ground, grabbing his X-73 heavy blaster and Mors and lowering himself against a rock.


"What? Why?" the first voice said, a young man around… eighteen? Seventeen? cresting the rise.


"Because," a third, a female whose voice was weary, "Thermals aren't like fragmentation missiles. They're made to melt through ship armor, they have little in the way of blast radius."


"Which is why the commander was pissed at you," the first said, walking to Jaune and poking him in the ribs with the toe of his boot before crouching down, "Look at this sword! How much you think the Sith will pay for this ba-"


Jaune let go of Mors, letting the man stagger back as he stood up, firing a bolt through his throat, two more into the back of the woman's head and grabbed Mors as he stepped behind the last one, who was too busy staring at Zaivic's body to notice the vibrating sword until it was to late.


Jaune holstered his blaster, cleaning off Mors and sheathing it and reached down grabbing his rifle, "Karle!"


"Yes, sir?" Karle squeaked.


"Wake up Ravi, have her make sure Morsil and Horner will be fine and then fall back."


"What about you?"


Jaune looked down the cliff eying the base. No point in trying to do some cool jump, he had never been as good as those as… well, any of his friends. Instead he merely grabbed the cable Horner had been unraveling, "I'm going to clear out that camp."


Jaune stepped off the cliff, feeling his arm groan in protest at the tension before he slid down into the camp.


Upon landing, a steady of blaster fire hit Jaune full on the chest. His entire chest cavity would have been fried if he didn't have his Aura.


Gritting his teeth against the pain, Jaune pointed his rifle at the woman manning an assault cannon, pulling the trigger just enough to send out a burst of bolts into her.


Jaune felt his Aura heal his chest as several more Seps came rushing out of the big house.


Well, hopefully there weren't many more of those cannons, he wasn't sure how many more of those he could take before his Aura went down.


---


Ren opened another crate, raising an eyebrow as he examined the contents, "Master Yuon?"


"Yes, Ren?" Yuon was examining a square crystal closely.


Ren carefully took out one of the foot long rectangle containers packed into the crate, running a hand along the Aurebesh writing on it, "What are these?"


"Hm?" Yuon turned, taking the container and popping off the top, "Oh! Those are the lightsabers of the heroes of our order."


Taking out the cylinder within, Yuon handed it to Ren. Pressing the button on the hilt, Ren watched the yellow blade spring from it, "Whose was this?"


"Master Belth Allusis. He and his men stood against the Sith on Bothawui. Their last stand is considered the first major victory we had in the war."


"But if they died," Ren said, "How was it a victory?"


"Because," Yuon said, a joyous glimmer in her eyes, "They made the Empire pay dearly for it. Ultimately, the Empire were incapable of holding Bothawui and had to pull back. Further, their sacrifice rallied the Republic, and the Sith were left on the defensive for the next four years."


"If they hadn't, the Republic would have lost the war," Ren said, letting the saber snap off and handing it back.


What would it have been like, if they had awoken to discover themselves in a galaxy ruled by the Empire? The Galaxy was already dangerous as it was.


"Very likely so, yes," Yuon slid the saber back into its holder, before putting it aside and beginning to shift through the crate, "This isn't my area of expertise, but there is one I want to look at, if only for its historical significance. Here it is!"


The container Yuon lifted from the crate was immediately noticeable as different. Unlike the other containers, which were, except for their length, square, this was wider and flatter.


"Whose is this?" Ren asked, walking closer.


"This is the lightsaber of the first Mandalorian Jedi, Tarre Viz-" Yuon stopped as she opened it, a worried frown appearing, "Oh my…"


"What is it, Master Yuon?"


"It's gone," Yuon turned the container around so Ren could see the empty inside, "Someone stole Tarre's lightsaber!"


"And whoever did it was wanted to make sure the theft wasn't discovered, otherwise they wouldn't have left the container," Ren observed.


"I'll need to inform the Council of this," Yuon said, pulling out her holocomunicator, "even among lightsabers, Tarre's was one of a kind."


It took a few tries for the call to go through, showing a man with balding hair and a goatee, "Hello, Yuon."


"Syo," Yuon said, "I have terrible news."


"We know," Syo said, "We're already getting ready to meet and prepare a plan."


"You know Tarre Vizla's lightsaber was stolen?"


"What?" Syo's head jerked back, "The Darksaber has been stolen? You're certain?"


Darksaber?


"I have the holder right here," Yuon picked it up from the table, "It's empty."


"Then we'll need to discuss that at some point, but we have bigger problems at the moment. The Flesh Raiders have attacked the Gnarls in force."


"They encroach all the time," Yuon said, "We always beat them back."


"This is different," Syo said, "They're using tactics, bastardized versions of Shii-Cho, Niman and Juyo. They're fighting on the level of Padawans, their leaders Knights."


"Master Yuon," Ren said, "I can go help."


"Who is that, Yuon?"


"Syo, this is Lie Ren. He's been assisting me with unpacking the relics. Lie, this is Master Syo Bakarn of the Jedi Council."


"Hello, Master Bakarn," Ren let the use of his first name slide given the situation, "I'm willing to help, if you wish. My friends too."


"If you wish to help, I won't stop you," Syo said, "However, I should warn you it will be dangerous."


"We're used to danger, Master Bakarn," Ren said, pulling out his communicator.


"Thank you, then," Syo said with a bow just before the call ended.


"Ren," Yuon said, "When you're out there, there are four holoterminals holding recordings of founding members of the Jedi. If you could, try to retrieve them. If we defeat the Flesh Raiders, we'll return them, but we can't risk them gaining that knowledge."


"Yes, Master Yuon," Ren hit the button to call the Dragon, holding his breath.


"What is it, Ren?" Weiss said as she appeared.


"There's an attack going on, something called Flesh Raiders. I was hoping you and Yang could help…"


"Of course," Weiss nodded, "Where?"


"Somewhere called the Gnarls."


"We'll meet you there," Weiss nodded, turning away, "Yang! Gear up, there's an attack going on and we're helping!"


"I'll see you there," Ren said hanging up, turning to Yuon, "How do I get to the Gnarls from here?"


"There's a set of speeders in the training grounds we keep for emergencies," Yuon said, "Thank you again, Ren."


"I'll see you when I get back."


"I should be ready for whatever decision the Council makes," Yuon said, walking to a cabinet and pulling it open. Inside was a lightsaber with two emitters.


Ren nodded again, turning, leaving Yuon's chambers and heading towards the entrance to the temple.

---

I had originally planned to push back the Flesh Raider attack because someone expressed concers that things were moving too fast... but I can only justify the Dragon crew staying on Tython so long without it.

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

It turned out, to Jaune's dismay, that the Seps did have more auto cannons.


This fact had left the corporal leaning behind a wall with his Aura recovering from another set of blaster fire, waiting for the barrels to overheat and send the emergency shutdown signal to the weapons firing down the hall. The moment they did, Jaune whipped around the corner and shot the Seps. The underslung scatterblaster fired twice and the two Seps slumped and fell as the bolts burned into them.


Jaune calmly stepped over the blaster marred bodies, hitting the button to connect the trigger to the main blaster. Toeing open the door they had been guarding, Jaune's eyes widened and he dove to the side as the Sep firing team shot at him. Poking his gun through the door, Jaune blindly fired into the room.


There was a certain surreality to this. Single handedly fighting through a base of rebels like he was the main character of a Spruce Willis movie.


Everything had seemed surreal since Voss. The first few days had felt like a bad dream, nobody was quite sure what to do now that Ruby was gone… wasn't even sure they could do anything. Vito had given them a job through the Kessel Run, but Yang had been too busy drinking herself into a stupor.


Then Jaune had come back from arranging the payment for said job, a responsibility he had been wholly unprepared for, to find Pyrrha had taken some of their money and disappeared and she wasn't answering his attempts to call or message her.


Eventually, Weiss had left the Dragon, marched to the cantina Yang was drinking in and dragged her to the ship, called everyone to the main area. Once they were there, she had launched into a tongue lashing the likes of which Jaune had never gotten before, pointing out that sitting around feeling sorry for themselves was the exact opposite of what Ruby would have wanted. That she would have wanted them to do something with their lives.


Which led Jaune to where he was now. Fishing out a grenade and cooking it before throwing it into the room. After a second, there was an explosion and several screams as the frag grenade went off. Standing up and whipping out his blaster pistol, Jaune walked in and fired a stun shot at the one survivor.


Scanning the room, Jaune noticed how empty it was. Nothing except the door behind him and another in front of him. Walking over, Jaune looked down the stairs on the other side.


Looking back, Jaune walked down them. Ruby was a hero, so he would spend his life becoming the same.


Opening the door at the end of the staircase, Jaune raised his blaster as he caught sight of the people inside. One was a man leaning in front of a console, tapping rapidly as the round screen in front of him showed several red triangles moving around. The second was a black and green swathed figure pacing back and forth. Their walk reminded Jaune of Weiss, for some reason.


Suddenly, they stopped, turning to Jaune, "Commander, it appears your men let a Republic guest in."


"What?" The commander span around, grabbing his own rifle from his back as he turned to Jaune, "How did you get passed my men?"


"They must be dead," The hooded one said, "Unfortunate, but unsurprising. Command-"


The commander cut them off with roar, firing his blaster as he charged at Jaune. Jaune heard the woman behind him give a sigh as he rolled away from the commander, firing his own rifle as he came up into a crouch.


The commander reached down, touching the burning hole in his side before collapsing.


"Well," the woman lowered her hood, "That's disappointing. He would have been so much more use alive."


She was a pretty woman in her mid twenties (Jaune assumed), with neck length blonde hair and bruised yellow eyes.


"Sorry," Jaune spat, pointing his blaster at her, "I wasn't going to lie down and die."


"I was talking about him," She said, "Stand aside."


"Yeah right," Jaune said, "Put your hands up. You're our prisoner."


"I am?" She sounded so amused, walking forward with a smirk, "I wouldn't agree."


"Stop!" Jaune said, "I will shoot if you don't!"


She didn't. Jaune gritted his teeth, pulling the trigger and watching the burst of blasterfire rocket between them.


A snap-hiss filled the air as a red lightsaber appeared in her hand, deflecting the bolts away casually.


Sith…


"Now, stand aside. There doesn't have to be any more dea-" she deflected several more bolts.


"Die!" Jaune snarled as he heard someone coming from behind him, drawing Mors.


The woman raised her hand, hoisting Jaune into the air and leaving him to struggle against the grip around his throat.


"Arc! Are you down there?" Jaune heard Horner call.


"Arc?" The woman said, "is that your name?"


"Shut," Jaune struggled out, "Up."


The woman swung the arm not holding Jaune up and part of the metal wall moved up, before swinging the arm holding Jaune, sending him flying away and through another part of the durasteel wall.


Jaune shook off the brief daze as the door shut. Planting his hand on the wall, he hissed as the metal cut him.


That had broken through his Aura. Shit. He would have definitely died if not for it.


"Arc!" Horner reached in, helping Jaune climb out without hurting himself, "What happened?"


"Sith," Jaune pointed a shaking arm at the hidden door, noticing that his jacket sleeve was tatters, "Here."


"We'll report it to command once we take this offline," Horner said, "Rabi! Get over her, he's torn up bad!"


"I'm fine," Jaune said.


"We'll see if you say that once the adrenaline wears off," Horner pushed him down as Rabi went behind Jaune's back. A sharp tug and a burning spike if pain was immediately followed by a Kolto soaked rag.


"What was that?" Jaune asked, only for his eyes to widen as Horner took a bloody and jagged shard of metal from Rabi.


"Like I said, you're torn up pretty badly. We're doing first aid right now, but once our backup gets here, you're going in a tank."


"I don't need a tank," Jaune hissed as another shard was removed.


"Yes, you do. All Rabi's doing is closing the wound, you still have damage underneath. Spend the night in a tank and you'll be ready to head out in the morning. Consider a reward for taking out an entire Sep base by yourself."


---


Weiss tightened her arms around Yang's waist as she gunned the Bumblebee Mk. 2. Weiss didn't mind riding the speeder, she had actually learned how to herself, but Yang always pushed it too far.


"Can you slow down?" Weiss yelled.


"Where's the fun in that? Don't worry, we're almost there!"


Weiss tightened her grip further as Yang suddenly pitched them into a steep decent, aiming for the metal compound where they could make out quite a few Jedi moving around. On the grass, clutching blasters and vibroswords in massive hands, were aliens. Some wore scrapped metal in primitive armor, others a loincloth, and others still not even that.


One angled its head upwards, its eyestalks trained on them. As they landed, two robed Jedi approached, one casually igniting her double ended lightsaber and deflecting the shot from the creature. Seconds later, Weiss's blaster was in one hand, firing and hitting their attempted assailant.


"Hello," Weiss said politely.


"Hello," the one with her still ignited saber said, "Could you tell me who you are and why you are here?"


"Weiss Schnee and this," Weiss gestured to Yang, "is my partner, Yang Xiao Long. We offered to help with the Flesh Raiders."


"Ah," the woman inclined her head, "You're the other two Master Bakarn sent. I am Master Liv'trai. I must admit, you were not what I expected from the way your friend dresses."


Weiss glanced back at Yang. They were both wearing their 'work clothes'. A brown, ankle length long coat for Yang, her pants tucked into a pair of nerf leather boots, a white hip length, synthweave duster for Weiss.


"Where is Ren?" Weiss asked.


"Seeing to some wounded Padawans in here," Liv'trai pointed to the a door to their left, "once you've spoken with him, report to Master Weller. He'll have something for you to do."


The Twi'lek turned away from them, a boulder rising with her hand and crashing into a pair of (presumably) Flesh Raiders.


Yang hung back, leaving Weiss to arrive at the room and find Ren hunched over a bed, wrapping a kolto soaked bandage around the leg of a boy a few years younger than Ruby. At Weiss's cough Ren looked back, raising one finger to his lips and, after making sure the bandage was firmly on, he stood. Halfway there, the boy grabbed his hand.


"Please," he said, "I was doing the trials with my friend, Saz. Is he alright?"


Ren's eyes moved to the corner of the room, and as Weiss followed them, she bit the inside of her cheek. There were a pair of bodies on the floor, white sheets pulled over them.


"You should rest," Ren said to the boy.


"Is Saz alright?"


"I- He's got shot. We're sending him back to the temple. You'll be able to do your trials when this is over."


"Oh," The boy flopped back, "I hope he's not too angry about missing this."


Ren nodded, walking towards Weiss. Once he was there, she dropped her voice, "Saz is dead?"


"I don't know for sure," Ren said, "They just pointed me to that room when I offered to help with the injured."


"But you think he is," Ren normally had a good intuition for these sorts of things.


"Yes."


Yang looked over as they came back, a slightly forced smile on her face, "Hey! Ready to go talk to that guy?"


Weiss nodded.


---


"So," Yang scowled as she leaned against the wall, "I hope you want us to go out there and shoot 'em?"


The Jedi stopped his pacing, turning to them, "I'm sorry?"


"The uglies," Yang thrust a thumb at the exit next to her and ignoring Weiss pinching her, "You want them dead, right?"


"'Uglies'? Do you mean the Flesh Raiders?"


"What else could I be talking about?" Yang said, "Now, do you want us to shoot them?"


"Yang," Weiss sighed warningly, "I'm sorry. I don't know what got into her. Is there anything we can do to help?"


"Yes," the Jedi nodded, "I have several things I need done out there, if you're willing to risk it."


"Any pay?" Yang asked halfheartedly.


Weller opened his mouth, before seeming to realize Yang's heart wasn't really into the request for pay, "I'm sure the Jedi Council can give you some sort of compensation."


"Then we're ready for those tasks," Ren said.


"I need all three of you to clear out as many Flesh Raiders as you can. There was a group of Padawans training with their Masters, Avitla, Mennaus, and Jerridan. They aren't cleared for combat."


"You think they're dead?" Yang pushed off the wall.


"No. Three non-combatants away from the rest of us... The Flesh Raiders have most likely captured them. They aren't the pickiest eaters, but they won't reject the chance of fresh meat."


"I'll do that one," Yang said grimly.


"The other is… well, it's the more dangerous of the two. There is a cave we think the Flesh Raiders are using to get through. I wouldn't ask, but a Padawan went in, ignoring orders. You all clearly have some skill with combat, so…"


"I'll do it," Weiss said, "send the co-ords to my datapad."


"Yes, and I'll send the last known location of those Padawans to you-"


"While you're at it," Ren said, "I'm supposed to be recovering the holographic projectors of the four founders for Master Yuon, could you send me the coordinates for them?"


"I didn't know Yuon had taken on another Padawan," Weller started to type, "I'll send them to you."


"I'm not her Padawan," Ren said.


"You aren't?" Weller trailed off with a noise, "Strange, I would have thought… anyways, I'm sending them now."


All three datapads went off, the map of Tython marked.


"Come on," Weiss said, walking out the door, "We should get to work."


"Catch you on the other side?" Yang said, holding up her arm.


"Of course," Weiss said, lightly bumping her own arm against the side of Yang's.


"Great," Yang said, spinning around and walking backwards so she could continue talking to Weiss, "Don't worry about me, I'll be back so quick you won't have time to miss me!"


"So you'll be taking an eternity then?" Weiss shot back with a small, warm smile.


Yang was really happy with the progress she had made breaking through Weiss's shell. It was, in some ways, even thicker than the one Blake had put up. Unlike the Faunus, who had slipped into her shell over the course of her time with the White Fang and her disastrous relationship with that guy she had to introduce to Ember Celica when they got back to Remnant (though she was willing to bet she would have to wait in line), Weiss's shell had formed from childhood.


"Then who'd get you off this rock?" Yang shot back, "I'm the one who knows how to pilot the ship!"


Weiss didn't answer, just shook her head and laughed. She drew Myrtenaster in her left hand, drawing the blaster in the other, jumping over the barricade and firing at the closest Flesh Raider.


Yang deployed Ember Celica, stretching as she walked towards a large Flesh Raider wearing spiked armor. He was busy holding a Padawan by the throat, laughing.


Leaving him open to the kidney punch Yang unleashed, the scatter gauntlet going off and burning a hole into his side. Yang ducked under the attempted retaliation with his vibrosword, swinging up, Yang watched his jaw shatter from the combination of her strength and the plasma that followed.


Yang smirked at the Padawan, "Get over there, kiddo. Leave this to the professionals."


Then she finished the Flesh Raider off with a right hook to the temple.


---


Weiss dodged the clumsy swing easily, running the Flesh Raider through. Removing Myrtenaster, Weiss span, firing several times and quietly watching three Flesh Raiders collapse.


Dodging another attack, Weiss stabbed one Flesh Raider while pointing her blaster at another and firing. At that point, the revolver mechanism automatically rotated over to the next chamber.


This had the benefit of letting the blaster, which was one of the models favored as a spare by game hunters, cool down the powerpack as she continued to fight. Each of the five were larger than the standard so each shot could be stronger, but it added more heat.


Looking behind her, Weiss confirmed that she was fully in the cave, and that no one was behind her, before closing her eyes. In front of her, a glyph sprang to life. She heard a familiar growl as something nudged her hand.


Looking down at the pair of Beowolves, Weiss smiled down at them both for the support they gave and what they symbolized. That she was a Schnee, not the twisted mockery of the name Whitley was no doubt continuing in their father's image, but what it should have been.


Weiss was the first to admit she probably had the least amount of interest in finding Remnant. She was all but certain that Whitley or her father would immediately try to marry her off so she couldn't contest his claim as heir (hypocritically) and she was happy with her friends.


Well, would be happy when they were all back together.


It also symbolized her freedom from her father's influence. No longer was she bound by her supply of Dust, now only her Aura, her power, was what mattered.


Yes, she missed Klein and Winter, but compared to being free of her father's attempts to control her, it was a small price to pay.


Weiss rounded the first bend in the cave, casually throwing up a glyph to deflect the two blaster shots. Dropping it, Weiss launch her beowolves at the Flesh Raiders, watching them be savaged with ease.


Walking to meet with her summons, Weiss casually repeated this twice more, summoning another Beowolf when one died, before she reached a large cavern that led to another pass. Setting her Grimm on the few Flesh Raiders standing about, Weiss rushed to the other side, where she saw a man standing over a bith curled up on the ground.


"Why are you doing this?" the bith asked, "You are Jedi! Why kill me?"


"Because the order is weak and must evolve, and yo-"


"Leave him alone!" Weiss called, drawing the man's attention, "Step away from him slowly."


"You are… you are no Jedi. But you are dangerous, you killed my men."


"He leads the Flesh Raiders that are attacking us!"


"This isn't an attack, it's a cleansing. If the Jedi were still worthy of their position, this attack should have been easily rebuked."


"Because attacking people in the middle of training is a sign of strength," Weiss said dryly, "It's over. Even if you managed to kill me and the bith, you would just lose when they send someone who is actually trained."


"The Order is weak and corrupt!" The man rambled, drawing a Lightsaber and igniting it, "Join us! Within the new Order, you would be a Master!"


"I'm not a Jedi remember?" Weiss said, stowing her blaster and creating a glyph in the palm of her hand, "And I won't help you."


"Then you will die!" The man swung his saber in a heavy overhand blow… only for Weiss to catch it with her glyph and stab him with Myrtenaster, the vibroraiper humming as it agitated the new wound.


The man shut off his Lightsaber, the hilt sailing past her guard before he ignited it again. Weiss flinched as her coat smoked lightly from the blow.


Before she could respond the man threw out one hand, sending Weiss flying away. Flipping in mid air, Weiss landed easily and prepared for his next move.


His saber flew through the air, only for Weiss to deflect it easily. The man yanked it back, leaping for her with it in hand.


"What are these things?" The man growled, "They're like no ability with the Force I've ever seen!"


"You must have a bad memory," Weiss said, the glyph on her hand turning black and blasing his arms back. Moving as quickly as she could, Weiss stabbed the man through the gut, "I am not a Jedi!"


The man's eyes widened, as the tried to bring his saber down. Weiss summoned her Knight's arm, catching and crushing her opponent's wrists until he dropped his saber into her waiting palm. Shutting it off, Weiss dismissed her Knight's arm.


"Amazing! I thought we were both dead! What was that thing you did?" The bith asked excitedly, "and how did ignore that Lightsaber strike?"


"I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention that to anyone," Weiss said, stowing the Lightsaber away and turning off Myrtenaster as she approached him.


"I won't! But now we need to-"


"What's going on here?" Weiss turned with the bith as man with a grey crewcut a heavily lined face and brown eyes jogged up.


"This Jedi attacked us, Master Orgus. He was sick… confused."


"Thank the Force you're both safe," Orgus said, leaning down an checking the man, "Whoever he was, he wasn't a Jedi. Not one of ours, at least."


"He was leading the attack," Weiss said, "He called the Flesh Raiders his soldiers."


"I knew they weren't mindless beasts," Orgus said, "I warned the Council for years! You beat these Flesh Raiders and this man with nothing but a rapier and a blaster, impressive."


"This isn't my first fight," Weiss said.


"Still, quite impressive. If you were a initiate I would take you as a Padawan. We've won this battle, but I'm going to make sure the Flesh Raiders can't use this tunnel again."


Orgus walked towards where the cave narrowed out, raising one hand. Weiss braced herself as the entire cave shook. Orgus swung it down, the tunnel collapsing with it.


"That's impressive," Weiss said.


Orgus laughed, "Well, old age is good for one thing, at least. You should return to the temple, the Council will like to speak with you at some point no doubt about what happened here. Can I get your name?"


"Weiss Schnee," Weiss introduced herself, "Should I really be returning to the temple? There must still be Flesh Raiders in the area."


"That's very kind of you, Weiss, but it isn't necessary. We have Jedi Knights mopping up the last of them now. You've already made us look bad enough today," there was no real heat to it, Orgus seemed more amused at the concept than anything, "let us at least handle this."


"It was nice meeting you, Master Orgus," Weiss said.


"I have a feeling we'll see each other again, Weiss. I'm heading back to the temple myself, I have much to meditate on."


---


Yang shot through two more of the Flesh Raiders, marching to the set of cages around the campfire. In each were padawans in a variety of states. Some were curled up into balls, others meditating quietly, "Any you Avitla, Mennaus, or Jerridan?"


They all shook their heads, causing Yang to sigh. Pulling back her arms, she shot the primitive locks off each, "Alright, get going."


"I…" One Padawan wearing a blindfold stopped, "I sensed them that way," she pointed across the river.


"Thanks," Yang patted her on the shoulder, "You'll be alright?"


"I," she reached down, grabbing a metal rod from the back of Flesh Raider. Hitting a button, the pincer shaped ends sparked, "I should be fine. Thank you!"


"You're welcome," Yang called behind her, before turning and trudging down into the river, "I hope she's right-"


Yang blinked as something sharp impacted with the back of her head. Turning, her eyes widened to see a Flesh Raider standing there, looking equally shocked… through a rain of golden hair.


Oh that piece of shit!


The Flesh Raider seemed to realize just how much of a mistake it had made, spinning and attempting to run. Yang grabbed his arms, driving her knee into his side. Swinging a fist down, another scatterblast shattered the Flesh Raider's knee.


The Flesh Raider babbled something in his language, clawing at the muddy bank as Yang landed on him and delivered a punch right to the back of his skull. He spasmed briefly before sagging forward. Dead.


Yang stood reaching up to touch her ruined hair. It would take months to regrow that. Yang aimed a kick at the dead Flesh Raider's side.


Climbing up the other end, she found four Flesh Raiders aiming blasters at her, "You really want to try that?"


They did.


Yang soaked up the blaster bolts, before letting loose. Yang elbowed one in the face, spinning and shooting one in the gut, grabbed the next one's arm and drove her elbow into with a nasty crack, and grabbed the next by the shoulders and crashed their skull into her's.


Yang fired four shots, putting them each out of her misery.


"Hey!" Yang looked up, seeing a darked skinned woman leaning over the cliff, "Are you with the Temple?"


"Yeah."


"Thank the Force! Listen, I'm Avitla, my friend is hurt-"


"Give me a second, I'll be up there," Yang wrapped one hand around a stone on the cliff.


"No, listen! Do you have a distress beacon?"


"Why, is someone hurt?"


"One of the Flesh Raiders shot Jerridan. Throw it the beacon up here, we'll radio for support. You should deal with that camp over there," Alvitla pointed to a camp in the distance, "They captured a bunch of other Padawans and I think one of their leaders is there. You go deal with them!"


"You sure?"


"Yeah," Alvitla nodded, "We have out training sabers if anything goes wrong."


"Ok," Yang chucked it at Alvitla, who caught it.


"Good luck!" She called.


Yang reached the camp very quickly, staring at the twenty Flesh Raiders standing about. They all stared back.


That's when the fight started.


Yang didn't wait for them to get within range, firing and killing half as they charged at her. Once the rest group reached her, Yang started dodging, letting them hit each other as she occasionally took shots.


Damn, these ones weren't smart.


"Jee-dai," Yang looked back at the one who stepped out, holding a pair of vibroblades, "Jee-dai kill. Me kill Jee-dai."


"I don't need to be a Jedi to kick your ass, Ugly."


The Flesh Raider roared, charging at her with his vibroblades held out behind him. Yang fired twice, watching him take the hits without flinching as he barreled towards her.


Yang fired down, using it to fly behind him and shoot him twice more. He just span, swinging for her neck. Jumping, Yang flipped, grabbing his eyestalkes and using them to throw him.


He crashed into the ground, and Yang fired several blaster bolts into his head just to be safe.


Yang turned, walking towards the next camp as she saw several transports flying towards others.


---


Ren planted Stormflower into a Flesh Raider's throat, throwing it over the edge of the bridge as he approached the holoterminal it had been focused on. Pressing the activation button, Ren stepped back.


Standing the the blue light was a mutton chopped man wearing Jedi robes, "Activation protocol begins. After the long silence, someone comes. I am Garon Jard, millennia ago, I help found our order."


"Hello, Master Jard," Ren bowed his head, "I've never seen a hologram quite so lifelike."


"We needed to be able to pass on our knowledge. I dedicated our order to peace, to ending war across the galaxy. Fighting only in self defense. It is the very basis of civilization."


"What about those who cannot help themselves? Shouldn't the Jedi defend them to?"


"We should, but we should do so with knowledge of the mark we leave. Death sends echoes through the Living Force. I hope that you will assist in making sure our order remains dedicated to peace."


"I'm not a Jedi," Ren said.


"But you could be," the comment was calmly stated, "Activation protocol complete. Go well."


The hologram shut off as the rest of the control board lit up. Hitting the button to eject Jard's projector, Ren put it away.


Looking up at the the pair of approaching Flesh Raiders, Ren fired Stormflower at one, pulling his empty hand back.


Drilling it into the second, Ren blinked as the Flesh Raider flew back. Taking a moment to line up his shot, Ren fired at the Flesh Raider and made his way to the next terminal.


"Activation protocol begins," the next master was a woman with her hair tied back, "Ah, another has come to listen. I am Cala Brin, and when our order was founded, I said we should dedicate ourselves to justice. True justice must not be blinded by emotions. Fear, anger, hatred. We must put our emotions aside so we can see the truth without favor."


"But what about positive emotions? Joy, love and mercy?"


"They all leave you blind. You should be put them aside too. And that has served us well, we are impartial and trusted because of it."


But at the cost of connections? Without emotions they had to appear to be beyond aloof, "I am sorry, Master Brin. I can't agree with you on that. Divorcing ourselves from emotions can leave us just as blind."


"Rajivari thought much the same," Cala said, "Activation protocol complete."


Ren removed the next, heading to the third. The hologram for this one was a male zabrak with his head pulled up.


"Activation protocol begins," he started, "A new Jedi comes to learn. Excellent. I am Ters Sendon. Keeper of history, a founder and chronicler of the Jedi. It was my hope that we would become guardians of knowledge and secrets. We would safeguard the wisdom of the galaxy."


"That sounds like an interesting journey. I'm actually here rescuing your projector from an attack."


"I am glad to hear that, Lie Ren. My journey took me across many worlds. There, I learned, heard and dreamed from each culture there. That is what the Jedi should do dispel ignorance. Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force."


"I'm sorry. What does that have to do with the rest?"


"You will know one day, Ren," the hologram said, "It will be your duty to understand cultures and bring that understanding to others. Activation protocol complete. Go well."


The hologram turned off, allowing Ren to get the third. When he arrived at the fourth, he frowned. This had been opened…


Someone had pried the holographic projector from its spot. Pulling out his holocomunicator, Ren waited for the droid to appear, "Hello! I can direct you to-"


"I need Master Yuon Par. Tell her it's Lie Ren.


"I will attempt to contact her… she will take your call."


"Master Yuon, there's a problem. One of the holoprojectors has been stolen."


"Stolen? Strange, the Flesh Raiders do not steal, they destroy. I will have to look into this. Meet me at the temple. And please P- Ren, be careful. If someone did steal it, they might attack you for the rest."


"I'll see you there," Ren said.


It took another hour to reach Yuon's chambers. As he stepped, Ren noticed Qyzen was there, "Master Yuon. I've returned. Hello, Qyzen."


"Little Hunter. Yuon tell me you have helped her. My thanks."


"Let me see the projectors, Ren," Yuon took the bag, taking them out and listing the names, "Jard, Brin, Sendon… it is just as I feared."


"Why? Who was the last one?"


"Master Rajivari," Yuon said, "He turned to the dark side. Betrayed the order he help found."


"And his holoprojector is missing."


"Yes, he was immensely powerful and that holoprojector most likely holds his darkest secrets. I believe I know where it might be. Kalikori Village is an illegal Twi'lek settlement nearby. Many of the people there are poor and hungry."


"And a projector like that could fetch a lot of Credits."


"Yes. I'll need to make my way up there when we have a free moment."


"I'll help," Ren offered, "The longer we wait, the longer the thief has time to sell it or access its data."


"You've help enough, Ren. I'm sure your friends and you will be departing soon."


"Soon, but not yet. I can do this, at least."


"I- thank you, Padawan," Yuon said, "I will need to brief the Council on these matters alongside the loss of the Darksaber."


"Things are getting stolen from the order a lot lately."


"Unfortunately. Ren, give me your holocomunicator," Ren did so, letting Yuon fiddle with it for a moment, "There. I've programed my code in. Might you do the same for mine?"


"Yes," Ren took it, typing in the code and handing it back and turning away, "I will see you when I return- Ow!"


"Is something wrong?" Yuon asked, one hand in a fist.


"No, it just felt like something cut me. I'll return soon."


---


Ruby didn't open her eyes as someone sat down next to her, focused on meditating. Through the Force, she could feel the rapidly becoming familiar existence of Pyrrha.


Sith meditation wasn't like other forms of meditation. Instead of clearing your mind, you were supposed to focus on the emotions within. Silently identifying each one and figuring out how to maximize it. The Dark Side was powered by raw emotion, using the Force to achieve those passions was normal.


"Did that fusioncutter do anything to deserve you tearing it apart like that?" Pyrrha asked.


Ruby gave a laugh, "Meditating, hush."


"That's mediating? I think Ren would disagree."


"I like this version more," Ruby said, continuing to dismantle the fusioncutter in her hand, "It makes more sense."


It made more sense to get her thoughts in order like this. Ruby was a creature of emotion, she didn't like the idea of separating herself from them.


"What are you mediating about?"


She didn't like Harkun, she didn't like what Balak had said about Wyrd and Pyrrha. She was happy Pyrrha was next to her, excited about what they could do together.


But there was a feeling she wasn't used to. Something coiling in her gut when she was near Pyrrha, and she wasn't sure what it was.


"Trying to figure out something. Don't worry about it," Ruby opened her eyes, pushing the thoughts away. It wasn't really working with Pyrrha here, "How'd your training go?"


"Quite well," Pyrrha said, "It's a bit easier than I expected."


"That's what we'll your autobiography one day," Ruby teased, "'Pyrrha Nikos: It Was Easier Than I Expected'."


"What will we call yours then?"


"Dunno. We'll have plenty of time to think of a name."


"Yes," Pyrrha nodded, reaching out and taking the thoroughly dismembered fusioncutter, "I do have something I was hoping to ask you."


"Sure," Ruby nodded, "What?"


"A couple of the instructors mentioned the Sith Code. Do you know what that it?"


Ruby nodded, "'Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.'"


"I don't agree with that first part, but I understand the rest."


"I like the last bit most," Ruby said, dropping her voice to mumble to herself, "It already freed me twice."


"You're not normally the type for meditation," Pyrrha said, "What changed?"


"Sith meditation is more about focusing on your feelings," Ruby said, "You should try it at some point."


"I will," Pyrrha said, "When does dinner start?"


"Not for another hour. What do you want to do to kill time?"


"What is there to do?"


"Other than spar and meditate? We could go back to our room and watch some vids or buy a game from the store. There's also a bar somewhere in there we could hang out at."


Pyrrha stood, "It surprises me when you mention things like that. It's not the sort of thing I would expect from a Sith Academy. Let's spar for now, we can watch a vid or something after we eat."


"Why don't you expect it?" Ruby asked standing up and grabbing her vibroblade.


"The Empire doesn't seem the type to treat people well."


"Then fly in enough water that we don't run out from offworld," Ruby said, "Selling games isn't that weird."


Pyrrha gave a shrug, holding Miló up while Ruby adjusted her hold on the vibroblade. Neither of them were in a lightsaber form, just a fun spar.


Ruby activated her Semblance, flying across the rooftop at Pyrrha.

---

Exact word, ho! I never said Weiss was not Force Sensitive, I said she wouldn't be the Jedi Knight. She has no interest in joining the Order, therefore she isn't a Jedi, nor is she a knight.

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Shorter chapter this time. Figured since I gave the Republic characters nearly an exclusive chapter last time, I'd give the Imperials the same this time. Next chapter should be back to normal. Now I must go, Fur and Fire needs some love.

---

Ren landed the speeder, stepping off it and looking around Kalikori village. It was a rough collection of prefabs and farms with a few banners hanging off the buildings.

Looking up, Ren sighed lightly. The sun was starting to set, he probably should have waited until tomorrow to start this.

The man's feet carried him towards a pair of Twi'lek men standing next to several metal casks.

"Get another, the festi-" one stopped as they saw him, "What do you need Jedi? This is the Festival of Awakening, you're not welcome here."

"I'm not a Jedi," Ren said, "I'm investing a theft is all."

"A theft? What was stolen?"

"A holoprojector from a Jedi training grounds. You haven't heard anything about that, have you?"

"I dunno," the man said, "maybe-"

"Will this jog your memory," Ren asked tiredly, holding put a chit with fifty credits on it. He was used to this stuff by now.

"Yeah," the Twi'lek nodded, "Nalen found one the other day. Of course, you said you're not a Jedi. I guess you don't know who Nalen is?"

"I don't."

"Nalen Raloch has been out dueling champion for nine year straight. He once saved an entire scouting party from Flesh Raiders, single handedly."

"He's a hero," Ren said.

"Yes. And he likes his peace, so leave him alone."

"That holoprojector is dangerous," Ren said, "I just want to make sure nothing bad happens to him."

"Nalen can take care of himself," the man said.

"Against Flesh Raiders," the other twi'lek cut in, "but that Jedi tech can be weird."

"...Ok, fine," the first said reluctantly, "Nalen went into Flesh Raider territory a few hours ago, he's got a cave out there he likes to stay in."

"He's not here? I thought this was a big festival."

"Nalen's been… distant, lately. Since he found that projector, actually."

"I see," Ren nodded, "Can you point me towards the cave?"

"I guess."

Slowly, dodging around Flesh Raiders under the cover of night and listening to the fading noise of people celebrating at Kalikori, Ren made his way to the cave.

It was on a cliff overlooking Kalikori and littered with bones. Ren drew Stormflower as he went, feeling uneasy.

At the end of the cave, on a slightly raised area, was a tent next to a giant pile of bones, a red crystalline cube pulsing next to them with the holoprojector on it. Reaching for it, Ren froze, spinning and pointing his blaster at a pile of bones, "Come out! I know you're there!"

A blue skinned Twi'lek stepped around the bones, a blaster pointed at Ren and a vibroblade in the other hand, "You aren't as bad as some of your fellows."

"Nalen Raloch?" Ren asked.

"Yes," Nalen said, "My people told me about you? Told you of their protector?"

"They did," Ren kept Stormflower trained on Nalen, "They said you had this projector. I'm bringing it back to the temple."

"No," Nalen said, "I need that. My training isn't complete. And once it is, there will be no temple to bring it to."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm going to make Tython our world. No Jedi, no Republic. It'll be ours to plow and harvest, our home."

"Do you really think that would work?" Ren questioned, "Even if you somehow managed to defeat the Jedi, the Republic will just send troops to avenge them. You'll only get the people of Kalikori killed."

"The Republic and Jedi are weak," Nalen growled, "Once I train others, they won't be able to stop us."

"Then the Empire will come," Ren said, subtly hitting the button that activated Stormflower's vibroblade, "They'll want to destroy anything Jedi related, and you have to know how they treat twi'leks."

Nalen shook his head in refusal, "No. No."

"You know I'm right," Ren said.

"You're a fool," Nalen holstered his blaster, sheathed his vibroblade and raised his arms, "Let me show you my power!"

Ren felt the entire cave quake, rocks falling around them, "What are you doing?"

"I'm drawing the Flesh Raiders," Nalen said, dodging the shot Ren fired at him, "I'm going to bury them here!"

"You're going to get us both killed!" Ren said, raising his voice to be heard over the shaking stone.

"Only if you're slow," Nalen said, jumping down and running towards the entrance.

Ren grabbed the projector, running for the entrance and dodging around the Flesh Raiders as he went. Locking eyes on the apparent leader of the Flesh Raiders standing in front of the mouth of the cave, Ren flung out his hand, watching one of the fallen stones be blasted forward and into the Flesh Raider.

Panting, Ren looked back at the collapsed cave, before looking at the pouch holding Rajivari's holoprojector.

He had to get this back to Yuon.

---

Ruby was quietly walking down one aisle of holobooks, reading the titles as she went while holding the one she had already had grabbed close. She was looking for something to start to give her an edge over Ffon.

Ruby wasn't a complete idiot, Ffon had been breed to be a Sith. Ruby hadn't even known the Force existed before she was fifteen, was twenty by the time she learned she was Force Sensitive.

Ruby passed over the section about manipulating the mind with a suppressed shiver of disgust.

"Anything particular you're looking for, Acolyte?"

Ruby stopped, turning towards the woman who had spoken. She had short blonde hair and was wearing red robes, "Not really. I need to learn more if I want to succeed here. The lessons they gave us before were just kinda 'zap it' and then 'zap it more'."

"And many Sith believe that's all you need. You think differently?"

"Yes," Ruby said, "'Through power I gain victory'. My rival is a pureblood, I need more power if I'm going to beat him."

"A pureblood?" the woman asked, "I'm sorry, Acolyte. Who is your Overseer?"

"Harkun."

"So you are hoping to be apprenticed to Lord Zash?" The woman held her chin, "Strange…"

"What's strange?"

"Nothing you should be concerning yourself with, Acolyte. If you would like, I can show you a few tricks I've learned over the years."

"You'd do that?" Ruby lost control of her mask for a second, before returning it, "Wait. Why are you offering me this?"

"Is it not a mentor's job to pass on their knowledge?" the woman said, "There is much for you to learn."

"I-" Ruby hesitated. She wasn't really in a position to refuse. The only people she could truly call an ally on Korriban was Pyrrha and maybe Jarobi, "Ok."

"Good! Come with me, Acolyte."

Ruby trudged after the instructor, retrieving her vibroblade and checking out the book as they headed to the nearest training room.

"Tell me, Acolyte, have you started to design your lightsaber?"

"Uh," Ruby cocked her head, "No? Why would I?"

"Crafting a Lightsaber is an important part of becoming a Sith. It, or they if you prefer Jar'kai, should reflect you. Weapons that anyone can recognize as yours."

Just like Signal. Ruby wet her lips, despite her hands itching to grab a empty book and beginning the sketching, "But that's still a long time from now! I haven't been here for a month. Lightsaber training doesn't start for at least another six."

It took prodigies to switch from a regular sword to a Lightsaber without a period practicing with a training saber in between. Since the blade of a lightsaber was nothing more than plasma, its center of gravity was based entirely around the hilt. With a training saber, slipping up resulted in some pain and a welt, with an actual saber, it ended in missing limbs and death.

While there was probably Sith that thought only those prodigies deserved to become Sith (and most of them would probably be dead if they had that rule in place), a larger portion apparently believed that wasting resources to train them only for them to cripple or kill themselves shortly after was… well, a waste of time and resources. Lords and Darths didn't want to wait years, if not decades, to get an apprentice that lasted any amount of time.

"The sooner you have it designed, the sooner you can make it when you become an Apprentice. Lightsaber crafting is a deeper field of study than you might know. Curved hilt, and double bladed are the most common alteration to the hilt, but you can do much more with the blade than you might think. Using a smaller emitter to attenuate the blade to form a rapier, weakening the containment field, variable length blade. You should read up on it, Acolyte. Especially as you have no legacy, so you won't be inheriting a lightsaber."

"I will, ma'am," Ruby said as they entered the training room.

"Good," she smiled, an unusually kind thing, "Now. I promised to help you train, didn't I?"

"Yes."

"Well then," she said, "watch me and I'll explain what to do after."

The Sith held out her arm, pointing her finger at one of the training dummies in the back. Ruby felt the Dark Side gather in the older woman, before a beam of red tinged energy exploded out of her hand and smashed into the dummy, knocking it into to wall and leaving a smoldering mark on it.

"What was that?" Ruby asked, eyes locked onto the dummy.

"A blast of the Force," her teacher said, "Now, come here, Acolyte."

Ruby did so, entering the same pose, "How do I-?"

"I want you to think about the people you hate most," the woman said, "can you do that?"

Ruby's eyes drifted close, four people immediately coming to mind, her dead master, his equally dead apprentice, Ffon and Harkun, "I can."

"Good. Now, imagine the dummy is them. Imagine all the pain you want to inflict on them-"

"I don't want to-"

"Oh, everyone does, deep down. There's no shame in it, it's just another facet of the passion you feel. Focus on those feelings, dreg them up and infuse the Force with them, push them out."

Ruby breathed in through her nose, searching her heart. Finally, she grabbed the Force and pushed every angry feeling she felt into it. The blast that flew from her arm wasn't as refined as the woman pacing behind her, smashing into the dummy and shattering it.

"Well done!" Ruby turned, "I knew you could do it! Now, you should probably head to the infirmary."

"Why? I-" Ruby stared at the the slowly healing burns as she raised her hand, "I, but, it doesn't hurt?"

"It happens the first few times. Off to the infirmary, we'll meet back here in a couple of weeks, I can't wait to see what progress you've made."

"Yes, ma'am."

---

Zash watched her future apprentice leave, frowning. She had told Harkun she wanted a lower class slave, not a pureblood. What was he thinking?

She would have to look into this, and make moves to have Ruby succeed. She needed a body, after all, and all reports said Ruby was the most skilled of the slaves. The body couldn't be close enough to anyone for her to get caught.

But she hadn't expected Ruby to succeed with even a unrefined bit of Sith sorcery on the first try. It was a bit worrying, but they were in a nexus of the Dark Side.

---

Pyrrha shifted Miló into spear form, driving the base into one droid's torso before using it to bat away a vibroblade and impale another. Yanking it from the metal, Pyrrha flipped it and impaled the one behind her.

The next droid that came at her had a pair of blades and Pyrrha grabbed Miló by the center. Batting away one strike, then another, before driving her palm into the droid's open torso.

Pyrrha was still trying to get used to the feeling of something being moved without her using her Semblance. The droid broke as she launched it across the room and into the wall.

Spinning, Pyrrha deflected another two attacks and ducked under a third. There were two more droids with a sword in each hand. She let a smile slid onto her face as she shifted Miló again.

With four blades, things got even more fast paced. Pyrrha rapidly switched between Miló forms, to deflect the storm of attacks flying at her. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Pyrrha dodged around a blow, tightening her grip on Miló the slightest bit before throwing it.

It smashed through the first droid easily, allowing Pyrrha to briefly grab one of its swords to deflect the other droid's swords while she yanked Miló back to-

Stars exploded across Pyrrha's vision as the sword in her hand suddenly delivered a powerful shock to her. Clenched her teeth, Pyrrha growled in anger as she dropped it, letting her right arm hang as she grabbed Miló with her left hand.

It wasn't often Pyrrha envied Ruby for being ambidextrous, struggling to use her nondominant hand to fend off a droid was one of those times. Still, between her Aura and the cool feeling of the Force currently wrapped around her arm, she was regaining feeling in it.

Switching hands, Pyrrha reached out with the Force, clenching her hand and ripping swords from the droid's hands. Stepping forward, Pyrrha stabbed the droid, shutting it off.

"Interesting," Overseer Rance said, "Very interesting. I must admit, Temere, when you walked in with that weapon, I had my doubts, but you've made it clear you know how to use it well over the last few days."

"Nikos," Pyrrha said under her breath.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing, Overseer," Pyrrha said, already resigning herself to the fact that most people would be calling her Temere over her own last name.

"But what I find truly interesting is that you were able to continue fighting after grabbing this," Rance grabbed the discarded vibroblade by the blade, carefully weighing it, "These blades store a charge within the hilt to punish Acolytes from doing exactly what you just did. It's a habit you should not get into. I know Apprentice level Juggernauts that would be left incapable of fighting after the shock, you ignored it with ease. Impressive."

"Thank you, sir," Pyrrha nodded.

"I'll need to adjust your training to account for this. Stronger droids, Djem So techniques, armor. It is close enough to the end of day, you may leave."

"Thank you," Pyrrha nodded. Tomorrow was her and Ruby's rest day, leaving Pyrrha wondering what Ruby planned to do.

Well, other than practicing.

In the hall before their room, however, Pyrrha was stopped by an unpleasant sight. Namely, Ffon.

"Temere," Ffon gave a nasty grin, "Going to your slave?"

"Ruby isn't a slave," Pyrrha said, moving past Ffon.

"Enjoy her while you can, she won't survive much longer."

Enjoy? What was-?

Pyrrha stomach rolled as she realized what Ffon was implying, "It's not like that and Ruby will a hundred times the Sith you could hope of being."

Ffon scoffed, "She's a slave, she isn't like you or me, Te-"

"You're right, Ruby isn't like you or me. She's stronger."

"She. Is. A. Slave," Ffon repeated slowly, "I'm looking forward to seeing her realize that before I ki-"

Pyrrha span, drawing Ýmnos from where it had been sitting in its sheath and pressing it against Ffon's neck, "Don't ever threaten Ruby in front of me again."

"You'd threaten me over a slave?" Ffon voice had lost some of its mockery, his eyes staring down at the blade, "Murder isn't-"

"On my first day here," Pyrrha said, "another Acolyte said something to me. It isn't murder if there's no one around. Threaten Ruby again and I will make sure there's no one around."

"Harkun will kill her if I-" Ffon stopped as Pyrrha pressed the blade closer, hatred coursing through her veins, pulling the Force around her like a cold cloak.

But he was right. Harkun would blame Ffon's death on Ruby in a heartbeat if he was found dead outside their room.

Snarling, Pyrrha pushed Ffon away, walking towards her room. As she stopped to open the door, Ffon called out.

"Go on, you're perfect for each other! The heiress who thinks she's knight and her wh-"

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" Pyrrha shot back, locking the door behind her, "I'm back."

"Oh, hey Pyr!" Ruby looked up from where she was sitting at her desk, waving with her bandage wrapped left hand, "I was working on something for you! Come on over!"

"What happened?" Pyrrha immediately rushed over, "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Ruby nodded, "I just burned myself with a Force trick, I had it wrapped in kolto just to be safe."

"When was this?"

"A couple of hours ago," Ruby said, "it's fine."

"Let me see," Pyrrha grabbed the edge of the bandage, unwinding the dry cloth. If Ruby had burned her hand, it didn't look like it anymore, "It's healed."

"Cool! Now," Ruby grabbed the paper she had been working on, "Ta-da!"

Pyrrha blinked at the lightsaber in front of her. The hilt was slightly longer than normal, with a series of notes scribbled around it.

Phrik was written next to the hilt itself, with an arrow on each side. One read Wide blade emitter? Do those exist? Look up and the other second emitter, ask Pyrrha.

There were also a set of rough drawing of someone Pyrrha assumed was supposed to be herself holding a lightsaber, one with her holding it above her head like a spear half done.

"It's just a rough start," Ruby babbled, "but I'm sure I'll have it ready before you make your lightsaber. If you want to use it, of course. I comple-"

"Ruby," Pyrrha smiled at her, taking the sketch and rolling it up, "It's amazing."

"Oh," Ruby sagged with relief, "Good. I'll-"

"What about yours?"

"I've been working on it too, but it's not as easy as yours," Ruby gestured to the rolled up pieces of paper next to her desk.

"Should we get something to eat, then?" Pyrrha asked.

"Or we could have a droid bring us some and start a vid," Ruby suggested, "Start relaxing a bit early."

"Ok," Pyrrha smiled at Ruby.

"Great!" Ruby grabbed her comlink, crawling onto her bed and dragging Pyrrha with her, sitting almost uncomfortably close to Pyrrha, "What sounds good?"

"You choose," Pyrrha said, adjusting herself to be comfortable and pushing Ffon's words out of mind the best she could.

---

Blake turned a corner, dodging another blaster shot and firing a shot in return. This one wasn't from Vito, but a contact Weiss had in SoroSuub.

Dodging around another pair of bolts, Blake shifted Gambol Shroud and used it to cut a thrown brick in two before shifting and firing another bolt at him.

"Nora," Blake said into her comlink, "Where are yo-?"

Before she finished the sentence, an arm swung out from around the corner, clotheslining the corporate spy. Nora flipped the bith over, pinning his hands behind him, "Got him!"

Grabbing the bith's gun, Blake switched it to stun and shot him. The bith spasmed once, before stopping, allowing Nora to pick him up and throw him over her shoulder.

"Let's get back to the shop," Blake sighed, rubbing her eyes. The last week had been busy, they needed to make a name for themselves fast if they wanted any hope of getting into the Great Hunt, so they had been going from bounty to bounty as quickly as possible.

It took an hour, and another shot, to make it to Vito's shop. Walking in, Blake looked at the cyborg, "Is she-?"

"Out back."

They didn't get halfway through the door before they were jumped by the SoroSuub rep, "Did you get him?"

"Yep!" Nora dropped the bith onto the ground, letting the woman check him.

"This is him, alright," she nodded, handing Blake a briefcase, "We appreciate your discretion in this matter, Ms. Schnee was correct to refer us to you. I'll be taking my leave."

The woman's lasat bodyguard stepped forward, grabbing the bith and jolting it with an electrostaff. Hoisting the bith onto his back, he walked out the back entrance with the woman.

Walking out of the back, Blake froze as she saw Vito talking with a bald man, ignoring Nora bumping into her. Vito turned, a wide smile, "Blake, N! I was just finishing up getting you your next few jobs."

"Few?" Blake asked, stepping to the side to let Nora into the room.

"Yes," Vito nodded, "This is Braden. He's got three jobs for you."

"Ok…?"

"Yes," Braeden nodded, "I'm building a team for a difficult job… actually, a difficult series of jobs. Have you heard of the Great Hunt?"

Wha-? No, there's no way they were this lucky without outside interface. But from who and why?

"Why us?"

"I've been keeping an eye on you for the past week. It's been a long time since I saw a hunter work with the intensity you two have. Like there's something personal in it for you."

"We're trying to get to Dromund Kaas," Nora said, "We were actually hoping to join the Great Hunt!"

Blake sighed. Nora had no vault, "Yes. We are."

"Why?"

"We have a friend we're waiting for there," Blake supplied, "This is the best way onto Dromund Kaas."

"Interesting," Braden said, "I'm fine with it, so long as you're willing to stick with us until we win."

Blake considered their options. This might be the only chance they got, but it would keep them near the Empire for long enough.

Before she could decide, Nora made the decision for her, "Ok!"

"Then finish these jobs," Braden said, handing over a datapad, "I want to make sure your worth it. Then we'll need to get you down to Nal Hutta and begin trying to gain the favor of Nem'ro the Hutt."

"How long will that take?" Blake asked.

"Well, the jobs are up to you, but they're harder than your standard fair," Braden said, "They'll have guards, or are smart enough to go to ground. I'd guess a month, then a few more on Hutta, a few weeks on the imperial fleet to get supplies before we move on. So?"

Blake stared at the extended hand, sharing a look with Nora. Reaching out, Blake shook it, "You have a deal."

---

Ruby sat up, yawning and stretching. Looking over, she smiled at Pyrrha. Ruby used the Force to pull the bedding up, turning off the holoprojector with a wave of her other hand l as she did. They had fallen asleep in the middle of the vid, a 'romantic-comedy'.

Ruby hadn't gotten it, the idea of trying to date someone you had just met seemed wrong, icky even.

Grabbing her datapad, Ruby turned it on and sent a message to Blake. She missed the old one her and Weiss had gotten along with the credits needed for the Dragon… though it was probably either still on the Dragon or with Blake.

Ruby
You awake?

Sliding out of bed, Ruby slipped into the bathroom, turning on the shower and letting it warm up as she got ready.

What should her and Pyrrha do today? Spar, obviously, if not to get better than just for fun. Ruby enjoyed fighting and she'd watched Jaune and Pyrrha spar enough to know Pyrrha felt the same.

Then maybe her and Pyrrha could practice with the Force and relax. They had to train enough that a single lazy day wouldn't hurt anyone.

Showering as quickly as possible, Ruby dried her hair and walked back into the room. Checking her Scroll, Ruby found a response waiting.

Blake
I am now.
Ruby
Did I wake you up? I'm sorry.
Blake
No, we moved into our temporary place. Nora's running around yelling about pancakes.

Ruby giggled, changing and stepping out of the room.

Ruby
I'm going to get some food myself.
Blake
You're getting enough to eat, right?
Ruby
Yeah. They treat us pretty well, all things considered… well, except for the trials.
Blake
Why?
Ruby
Sith rule the Empire. I guess they're getting us ready for the noble life or something.

Putting away her datapad, Ruby walking into the mess hall, grabbing food for her and Pyrrha. Grits, toast, eggs and ecclessis figs.

Walking in, Ruby poked Pyrrha, "Breakfast!"

"Mhm," Pyrrha mumbled into Ruby's pillow.

"Come on," Ruby said, "You can nap after! I need to stop by a couple of places.

"Fine," Pyrrha sat up, grabbing the plate Ruby offered her.

Sitting down next to Pyrrha, Ruby began to eat with her.

---

Making the Empire slightly more competent (and pragmatic). Keep the prospective Sith happy with Bread and Circuses (or, well, Droids and Good Food).

There are a couple of lines implying that Zash wouldn't have taken Ffon as an apprentice even if he had succeeded. Her yelling at Harkun that Ffon could have succeeded trying to gain become the apprentice of 'any other lord'. It also helps me later down the line.

Weiss's SoruSuub contact was the build up to a joke I chickened out on.

I love that I can mention real life animals and food. Why? Because beyond Humans, apparently hawks and falcons existed a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

 

[ThatOnePsycho]

Fuckin' ay, time flies. Both in and out of universe. Sorry for the long wait. Hopefully it won't happen again, but with my juggling act and the stress in my life, I make no promises.

---

---

Ruby span the electrostaff, getting used to the unfamiliar weapon. Passing it from one hand to the other behind her back, Ruby turned to Pyrrha with a smile, "Ready?"

"Of course," Pyrrha said, "but why are you using that?"

"Figured it'd be fun to try something else out," Ruby said, "I don't have Crescent Rose, so…"

"Where is Crescent Rose?" Pyrrha asked, drawing Miló and preparing.

"With the Inquisitors who found me," Ruby said, "They were interested in the mechashift and considering they easily took down a few apprentices and a Lord, I didn't want to push my luck. They said I could have her back when I finish here."

"And you believe them? What if they're lying?"

Ruby tightened her grip on the staff, "Then I'll push my luck."

Nobody was keeping her baby from her any longer. She would get Crescent Rose back.

"I'll help, if you want," Pyrrha offered as Ruby climbed onto the platform. Pressing a button on the staff, Ruby entered a stance as she smiled at Pyrrha.

"That'd be great, thanks," Ruby twirled the staff again, before surging forward and swinging at Pyrrha.

Pyrrha angled Miló enough to push the staff away, leaving Ruby to duck under the swing. Spinning, Ruby threw a hand out, pushing Pyrrha ba-

…

"I'm," Ruby stood, sighing as she flicked off the staff, "I'm not feeling it right now, Pyrrha. Sorry."

"That's fine," Pyrrha said, returning Miló to its place, "Is something wrong?"

"I'm just feeling a bit burned out," Ruby sighed, throwing the staff to the side, "We've been doing the same stuff for a month. Practice, practice, practice! It's our day off, I want to do something different. At least Beacon shook things up with different classes."

"What do you want to do then?" Pyrrha asked, "I'm up for anything."

"I don't know! Read, play a game, watch more vids? I just wanna take a break from constantly sparing."

There was that book on lightsaber theory, among others.

"Then let's do one of those. It won't help either of us if you go into the week burned out."

"What about you?" Ruby asked, "it's your day off too. I don't wanna make you do something you're not interested in."

"Then we'll alternate. You choose one, then I will."

"Ok!" Ruby nodded, "but I picked last night, so you'll go first!"

---

Weiss stepped out of the temple with a sigh. She understood the Council was busy dealing with the fallout of the Flesh Raider attack, but they had been grounded for the last month and it was starting to make Yang unbearable.

Weiss loved that woman but the years hadn't strengthened her impulse control. She was still a hot head, but now she was a hot head with a starship. She wasn't used to sitting around on a fairly backwater planet for several weeks with nothing to do.

Walking further into the courtyard, Weiss watched various groups of trainees practice. The youngest, who couldn't have been older than ten, were practicing with wooden swords. Older students were practiced with electroblades.

Approaching two, Weiss watched them spar. Slash, parried, riposte, parried in turn. Leaning forward, Weiss watched one duck under his opponent's swing, striking her in the knee with a crackle.

Feeling someone approaching, Weiss looked behind her, "Hello, Master Orgus."

"Hello," Orgus greeted in turn, "I see the initiates caught your eye."

"These are initiates?" Weiss asked as the blades clashed in a shower of sparks, "They're quite good."

"They are," Orgus agreed, "before the war, they'd be Padawan, but we don't have enough Jedi for one to take them on."

"Jedi train one on one?"

"Yes," Orgus said, "unlike the Sith, who often take on many apprentices, we prefer to pass down knowledge like this. That's why they're using basic maneuvers."

Weiss nodded, "Is there something you need, Master Orgus?"

"Yes," Orgus gestured for her to follow him, "We're finally ready to meet with you. I'm sorry about it taking so long. We were shoring up our defences and looking into the man you fought."

"Did you learn anything?"

"Both frustratingly little and a surprising amount. He wasn't one of ours."

"Then how was he trained? Is he a Sith?"

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Orgus said, "Not every user of the Dark Side is a Sith, and I doubt they'd use a bunch of tribal natives if they wanted us gone. He may have been trained by a fallen Jedi, he may have discovered his power with the Force on his own, we don't have the ability to locate all Force sensitives in the Galaxy, and fell to the dark without proper guidance."

"I don't think I can give you any more information about him, then."

"We don't think you can," Orgus said as he pushed open a door, "We need you for something else."

"Like what?" Weiss asked.

"We need you to do something for us," Orgus said, "Satele will explain."

"Ok?" Weiss frowned, following Orgus to the large table in the center of the room. A half dozen Jedi were seated around it, with several other chairs open.

"Weiss, these are Masters Gnost-Dural and Tol Braga," Orgus gestured to a pair of kel'dor, "Bela Kiwiiks and her Padawan Kira Carsen," a seated togruta and a human woman around Ruby's age, "Jaric Kaedan and Syo Bakarn," and a pair of human men.

"Hello," Weiss said, smiling slightly and giving a light curtsy.

"And Grand Master Satele Shan," Orgus finished, pointing to the woman seated right in front of Weiss.

"Hello, Miss Schnee," Satele said, "Thank you for the help the other day, things could have gone much worse if you and your friends hadn't been here."

"I'm sure you would have been able to handle it," Weiss said, "The Jedi are some of the most skilled fighters in the Galaxy."

"But there would have been more deaths," Satele said, "on both sides. Because of you, lives were persevered."

"It was nothing," Weiss said.

"Nonetheless, you have our thanks. We'd like to hire you for another job."

"What?"

"In the wake of the war," Satele started, "We were forced to abandon several Jedi temples that were either within what is now Imperial Space or the demilitarized zone. One is on the planet of Lothal. We would like to hire you and your team to make sure the Sith haven't located it."

"I'm not one to argue with Creds," Weiss shrugged, "but why there? Is it something important?"

"Just that the Sith don't have it," Satele said, "if you have reason to suspect they do, we'd rather you level the entire complex."

That seemed extreme. Still, Creds were creds…

"Ok," Weiss shrugged.

"Would you mind taking Kira with you?" Kiwiiks asked, "I had wanted to bring her to Lothal, and this might be the last chance…"

"Wait," Kira said, "Shouldn't I stay here? We're in a bit of a-"

"We can afford to be missing one Padawan," Kiwiiks said, "I'll call you back if anything changes."

---

Kira followed Weiss to the ship, whistling under her breath as they entered it, "This is nicer than I expected."

"We spent a lot to upgrade the Dragon. Mostly making the living quarters and lounge more… livable. There's a mini-bar over there, if you drink," Weiss nodded to one part of the room, "kitchen is over there," the opposite part, "That's my chessboard, don't touch it."

"Ok?" Why would she want to mess with her chessboard?

"Bedrooms are there," Weiss pointed down the hall, "closest one is yours… well, technically it's Ren's, but-"

"-I'm staying on Tython for now," the man in question stepped out of the room, a bag thrown over one shoulder, "Master Yuon should be finished translating Rajivari's Holocron soon. I want to see how far this goes."

Weiss patted him on the shoulder, "We'll see you then, stay safe."

Ren nodded, heading out of the ship. Watching him go, Kira turned to Weiss, "I appreciate this, but… do I really need a room? Shouldn't this just be a quick jump to Lothal?"

It wasn't Weiss who answered, instead the blond pilot (she assumed) did, laughing, "Not really. We got a couple of problems, so it'll take a bit!"

"Problems?" Kira looked down, slightly nervous, "Is the ship busted or something?"

"No," the pilot said, voice hard, before walking into the cockpit.

"Sorry about Yang," Weiss said, sitting down in front of a holoprojector and gesturing for Kira to do the same, "The Dragon is hers, so she doesn't like people pointing out it's on the older side."

"I didn't," Kira argued.

"You asked if it was broken," Weiss said, "the Dragon's fine. A good ship can work for a couple hundred of years if you take care of it."

"Then what's gonna make it take a bit?"

Weiss reached over, turning on the holoprojector and plugged in a new datapad, one of the ones Sorosuub had been trumpeting as the evolution to the tech. A map of the Galaxy appeared and Weiss pointed at the center, "We're somewhere in here, the Deep Core."

"I know " Kira rolled her eyes, "I do live-"

"Then you should know that the Deep Core is a minefield of black holes, their accretion disks and fields of stars. It'll take a fair few jumps to get us out of it through proper hyperlanes. Which leads to our second roadblock," Weiss hit something on her datapad and a set of glowing lines appeared across the map, "These are the major hyperspace routes, the ones that you can trust to be safe. Notice anything about them?"

Kira squinted for a second, "All the ones in the deep core lead to one route."

"Yes, the one to Coruscant. If we use it, we could reach Lothal in two days… if there wasn't a well manned Republic fleet guarding the Hydian Way and regular Imperial patrols along the same area. So we need to be a bit more meandering. Once we leave the Deep Core, we'll take the Corellian Run until we hit Hutt Space, do a few jobs to throw off any remaining scent and then use the smaller routes to head to Lothal. It should take… a month, maybe two."

"Two months?" Kira asked, dumbfounded, "does the Council know it's supposed to take so long? Or did you just kidnap me? Because I do have a Lightsaber and I will-"

"I cleared it with Masters Orgus and Shan before we left. They understood. You being with us actually makes it so we have to take longer. If you're with us for a bit, it will be easier to bluff that you aren't a Jedi if we get caught… which means you can't be seen with a Lightsaber."

"I'm not giving this up," Kira said, "it's-"

"Relax," Weiss said, moving her hands in a calming gesture, "You can keep it on you, you just can't use it. Here's what we're going to be doing. We'll stop on Corellia, give you some of mine and Yang's spare clothes and go buy some… let's say 'essentials'. A blaster pistol, a vibroblade and some clothes that aren't Jedi robes, just make you look like another of the many Corellian smugglers out there. By the time we reach Hutt space, it'll be nearly impossible to recognize you."

"Alright, just two things," Kira said, "Am I gonna have to use a fake name?"

"Maybe a last one. It'll be easier if you keep the same first name. What else?"

"I use a Lightsaber staff, so a force pike or electrostaff might be better."

---

Jaune climbed into the APC, grunting as he lowered himself next to Karle and dusted the smoking spot on his flak jacket. The other human shook his head, "I still say you're mad, sir."

"Why?" Jaune asked.

"You were torn up beyond belief after a fight with a Sith, sir. Anyone else would've taken medical leave, instead you're here."

Jaune shrugged, "I got cocky. It won't happen next time."

"It implies you think there'll be a next time," Euva pointed out.

There would be, he would make sure of it.

"Next time, I probably won't be running into a Sith who wouldn't kill all of us," Jaune said, ignoring the point, "I'm going to be ready."

"You're mad," Morsil said from his spot in the gunner's seat, "You want to fight a Sith? One of those people who can slaughter an entire platoon?"

Jaune laughed, "Remind me to introduce you to my sword teacher. Once you've met Pyrrha, not much can scare you."

"She's that scary?"

"Not scary," Jaune said, letting affection leak into his voice, "but she's strong, loyal and brave. Once you've met Pyrrha, it makes things seem less scary."

"Where is she?" Horner asked, "If she's better than you, she'd be a one woman battalion!"

"She's..." Jaune hesitated, "Retired, now. As far as I know."

Retired probably wasn't the right word, he knew Pyrrha had been fighting in the arenas of Nar Shaddaa, but otherwise…

"Ah," Horner laughed, "Shoulda guessed that one! She's old, I take it?"

"Same age as me, actually," Jaune said, "We're from the same world."

"Aren't you like, twenty two?" Karle asked, "that seems really young to retire."

"We thought we lost a friend to the Imps," Jaune said, "Pyr… she didn't take it well."

"'Thought'?"

"Ruby's alive," Jaune said, "but stuck in the heart of Imp territory."

"Damn," Horner said quietly, "That fuckin' sucks."

"Yeah," Jaune said, grabbing a cloth to clean Crocea Mors, "It does."

"Uhh…" Karle hesitated, "Can I ask you a question, sir?"

"Only if I can ask you why you keep calling me 'sir'," Jaune said.

"I… good point," Karle said, "that sword, it isn't standard issue?"

"No," Jaune stopped, smiling down at Mors, "it's an old family heirloom. My great-great-grandfather used it."

"Then… are you really allowed to have it?" Karle asked.

"I filled out the paperwork," Jaune said, "so, yeah. I am."

"Oh," Karle said, "Ok the-"

Before anything else happened, the APC stopped moving, Horner growling, "Morsil?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Fire at will."

"Attention Republic soldiers!" Jaune leaned over enough to see the roadblock in front of them. Two speeder trucks sat in front of them, assault cannons strapped to the backs, "You are trespassing! Eriadu is a sove-"

A wall of red bolts blasted from above them, smashing into the two trucks as Horner gunned it, shots from blaster pistols and rifles glancing off the Malcolms as they rammed through the blockade.

"Damn!" Horner swore, "Karle, how long until we reach the camp?"

"About a day, sir!"

"Well," he growled, "it'll be a long day then…"

---

Kira sighed, rolling onto her back and staring at the ceiling. She hadn't slept in a bed this nice in… well ever. The Children hadn't been treated half as well as the acolytes below, she had been lucky to have a bed on Nar Shaddaa and the Jedi, while loads better than either, didn't splurge on buying luxury beds.

So, yeah. She wasn't used to a bed like this.

Finally, after an hour of doing everything she could think of, from punching the pillow into shape to reciting the Jedi Code to literally just twiddling her thumbs and staring at the ceiling, Kira gave up on sleep for the moment, standing and opening her door. Might as well get some idea of what was going down and who she was living with.

Kira looked around, counting the rooms, one, two, three, four, five, six. But there had only been three people on the ship?

Walking down the hall, Kira walked into the main area. Slowly, she examined different sections of the room. Chess board was half played, pantry was stocked with cooking supplies, bar was-

"You know," Kira jumped slightly as she realized Yang was seated in the corner closest to the bar, "If you wanted a look around, you could've just asked. You don't need to do the sneaking around thing."

"Sorry," Kira said, wondering why she hadn't gotten any warning sign.

"You drink at all?" Yang asked, pointing to the bar with her thumb.

"Not really," Kira's eyes scanned the bottles.

"Oh, yeah," Yang said, "you're some sort of super powered warrior monk thing. Guess they don't let you have booze?"

"There's not a rule against it," as far as Kira knew, "but we don't really have it on Tython."

"Then grab a drink and sit down," Yang used her glass to gesture to the bench opposite her, "I'll give you a tip, grab one of the bottle closer to you. That's the weakest."

"You think I'm weak?"

"No," Yang said, "I think you haven't drank before and I don't wanna have to drag you back to your room."

Kira rolled her eyes, grabbing a bottle and glass, "Shouldn't you be piloting this thing?"

"Autopilot is a beautiful thing," Yang grinned, "We're outta the Deep Core, should be smooth sailing to Corellia from here on."

"What if we get attacked?"

"We deal with that," Yang said, grabbing a bottle of murky liquid off the table, pouring some into her glass, "when we come to it. So, ever been to Corellia before?"

"No. Grew up in the Outer Rim Wild Space and Hutt space."

"Corellia's a weird one," Yang said, "It's not shiny like Coruscant. Lot of smugglers, lot of little towns. We'll be landing at Coronet, it's a good city."

"It is?"

"Compared to a lot of places?" Yang said, "Yeah. Not a place I'd want to settle down and live, but there's only one world I'd think about doing that and only once the gang's back together."

"Gang?"

"C'mon. You've been poking around, you had to notice all the extra living space we had to add on."

"I was wondering about that," Kira admitted.

"Nora and Blake are on Nar Shaddaa doing some bounty work," Yang started, "Jaune's stationed somewhere with the Repub military, Pyrrha and Ruby are at a s-" Yang hesitantly at the last second, "-hitty school and Ren's back on Tython."

"You know I don't know who those are, right?"

Yang gave another shrug, "We'll see how long that lasts. We'll probably swing by Shaddaa once we hit Hutt space. Get a job, introduce you to Blake and Nora."

"Seems a bit weird. We just met."

"Yeah, well, you're stuck with us," Yang said, "might as well introduce you to some of the others. No harm in making friends. Hey, listen."

"Yeah?" Kira asked as Yang suddenly became serious.

"Don't take earlier personally, Ok?" Yang said, "It's like… what would you do if someone called your laser sword a hunk of junk?"

"Lightsaber," Kira corrected, "I'd be kinda offended, but I also didn't call it a 'hunk of junk', I asked if there was anything wrong with it."

"Ok," Yang grumbled, "So I mighta overreacted. Point is, we're in this together now. Until you go back to the Jedi, we're gonna need to have each other's back. There's no room for bad blood."

"We're both literally stuck in the same ship?" Kira joked.

"That we are," Yang said, standing, "You should catch some sleep. Only another couple of hours till we hit Corellia."

Kira stood up, following behind the pilot. As Yang disappeared into one room, it left Kira tilting her head. Wasn't that Weiss's room?

Pushing that question from her mind, Kira walked back into her room with a sigh. She'd have to buy some holobooks when they landed.

---

Ruby stepped into the training room, bowing to her teacher, "Hello, Ma'am."

"Hello, Acolyte. I'm sorry for delaying this for so long, something came up." she said, smiling.

"It's fine," Ruby said, "I understand."

"I must say, I haven't seen a single thing that makes Harkun's complaints seem founded."

"You haven't?"

"No," she continued, "I haven't seen you do anything like being 'a disrespectful dog who thinks much too highly of herself'. And that is a direct quote. He seems to think you don't respect him."

"I don't," Ruby said.

"You don't respect your Overseer?"

"He's done nothing to earn my respect," Ruby said, "Why should I respect someone who has it out for me?"

"You make it sound like he's your enemy."

"For his pet to win, I need to die. He is my enemy," Ruby said.

"Remember, Acolyte, Harkun isn't the one who will decide your fate. That is Lord Zash."

"So much for 'the Force will set me free'," Ruby said, studying her… mentor?

"You don't believe that to be true?" she asked.

"There's not much freedom when someone else holds your life in their hands."

"You're strong, Acolyte, and smart. That's all that matters. Use the adversity to learn and gain power. Now, what do you know about Tutaminis?"

"I've never heard of it."

"Well," the Sith started, before covering her mouth and giving a harsh, ragged cough. Rubbing at her throat, the Sith sighed, My apologies, I've had a cough for the last couple of days. Back on topic, that will not do. Why don't you-"

"I just realized," Ruby blurted out, "I never got your name."

The woman smiled, "That was intended. Just call me Master for now."

"Won't that offend Zash? And can I call you Teacher instead? I don't like…"

"Lord Zash won't mind, Acolyte, and of course. Back to what I was saying, fire another blast at me. Not only will it let me see how you've come over the last month."

Ruby pointed her hand at 'Teacher' running her mind as she did. Who was this? Why were they so interested in Ruby? The only person she could think of was…

No, that was completely ridiculous.

The bolt, now a fist sized blast, flew at Teacher. She casually raised a hand, deflecting the bolt into the ground, "Try again."

Ruby did so, watching the energy disperse when it hit the hand, "So Tutaminis is a bunch of defensive moves?"

"Against energy," Teacher said, "I wouldn't use it against a vibroblade if you enjoy having all your fingers. We'll start with a blaster and move on from there. Ready?"

"I guess," Ruby said as a training droid stepped forward, holding a blaster rifle.

"Good. Do you mind if I ask you questions while we work?"

"No."

"Why don't you tell me about your life before everything," she said, resting her chin on laced hands.

"You're a therapist now?" Ruby joked, focusing on the droid. How was she supposed to do this?

"I'm curious. Any family? Parents? Siblings?"

"Just my sister, Yang," Ruby dodged a shot. How…?

Wait. Didn't she control energy when she used Force Lightning?

"Your parents are gone then?"

"Yeah."

"When did your mother die?"

"I was young. Three or four."

"Well, I hope you can find someone to fit that role."

"Yang did," Ruby let the blast hit her, focusing on reversing what she normally did. Heat, but not searing pain.

Teacher nodded, "Interesting. Any other family?"

"My Uncle Qrow and our dog Zwei."

"Did you have any romantic relationships?"

"No," Ruby said, dispersing another blast, "Not really interested in that."

"Job?"

"Huntress."

"What did you hunt with?"

"My blaster, Crescent Rose."

"You named your weapon?"

"I made her," Ruby said, catching a third. She wondered…

"You're a weapon designer?"

"I can be," Ruby said, "I'm working on the Lightsaber you said. And a spare."

"Impressive," she said, "I- Lord Zash will be very appreciative of your initiative. Why two?"

"Just to be safe," Ruby said, trying to funnel the energy into the air. The bolt hit, skidded up her hand and struck the ceiling. Teacher clapped with a smile.

"Not Jar'kai?"

"I need to keep a hand open for using the Force."

"That can be dealt with through Tràkata through."

"Trwhat?"

"Tràkata. A technique involving the Lightsaber's ability to be shut off and turned on rapidly."

"I don't know," Ruby deflected two more shots, "I had a friend who used two weapons. It's hard."

"Which is why you should learn to use it or a saberstaff, Acolyte. No one has ever gotten anywhere worthwhile by doing something the easy way. Prove to this world you're the best of your class! Can you imagine yourself ten, twenty years from now, walking through these halls as an example of what a Sith Lord should be?"

"You seem passionate about this," Ruby deflected another blast. Now...

"I practice it myself," she admitted.

Ruby caught the next bolt, firing it back at the droid, "I'll think about it."

"I'm glad to hear that, Acolyte!" Teacher said, standing, "Unfortunately, I have things I need to do. I'll send you another message when I have time for another lesson."

---

Kira stepped off the ship into the Coronet space port, adjusting the dress shirt Weiss had given her and walking over to Yang. The pilot was standing at a terminal, registering the Dragon, "I'm kinda surprised we aren't setting off every alarm in this place."

"If that was true," Yang said, "There'd be alarms goin' off every couple of minutes. Ya might not know this, but Corellia is a hotspot for people like us."

Kira looked back at the long freighter, clearly bulkier than standard and with stronger engines, "Yeah, but yours might as well scream 'I'm a criminal, come arrest me!'"

"Well, they will if you start yelling that," Yang said, pushing off the terminal, "There! All set up. C'mon, Weiss was getting a speeder for us. Unless you want to walk to the Blue Sector."

Kira rolled her eyes, jogging to stay even with Yang, "So, what's Blue Sector?"

"Offworlders' paradise," Yang said, "Cantinas, tattoo parlors, fences. The type of place you can get almost anything if you know where to look and nobody asks too many questions. Perfect for buying stuff for you."

"Ah," Kira said quietly. She knew the type of place from Nar Shaddaa… but hadn't been in a few years. There was no way the Jedi would let something like that crop up on Tython.

"You should get used to it," Yang said, "That's the sort of place we stay a lot."

"I grew up on Nar Shaddaa, I've been before."

"Really? That's-" Yang grinned as her holocommunicator beeped, "One sec. Weiss! What's up?"

"Where are you?" Weiss asked, frowning, "I'm waiting."

"Me and Ki were talking," Yang said.

Ki?

"Whatever, just hurry up. We're in row fifty."

Kira shared a look with Yang, "Is she normally like that?"

"No," Yang smirked, "She probably wanted to hang up before you could ask why she didn't drive it to us."

"Which is?"

"She doesn't know how to drive," Yang said, snickering.

"She doesn't?" Kira asked.

"Nah," Yang said, "Never learned. She always had chauffeurs and shit."

"Is she rich?"

"Not anymore," Yang said, "C'mon, before she gets even grumpier."

Kira filled that away. What happened to make it 'not anymore'? Did it have anything to do with her being a smuggler?

They finally arrived at the speeder, Weiss already seated in to passenger seat, "Come on."

Yang winked at Kira… before swooping down and kissing Weiss on the cheek, sending the white haired woman's face into an explosion of red, "Sorry."

"I-" Weiss's brain seemed to reboot, "Yang! Not in front of her!"

"Hey!"

"She was gonna find out eventually," Yang said with a grin, pulling open the car and sliding in.

---

Jaune stepped into the tent, ignoring the roar of laser cannons and artillery. The barricades set up around Old Factoryville were holding surprisingly well, "You wanted to see me, Sir?"

"Corporal Arc," the Major said, looking up from a holographic map projected onto the table walking. With the exception of his totally-against-regulations beard, he was the picture of a soldier. White plasteel armor with black highlights, a heavy blaster pistol at his hip, "Just the man I was hoping to see. Come over here."

"Of course, sir," Jaune said, walking over.

"Now, Arc, I have a few questions for you," Jaune didn't say anything, "First off, according to your records, you graduated from Carida with honors. Top of your class in close range combat, search and destroy and forward assault, very nearly there in tactics too. Correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"And what you've done so far, while in most cases incredibly foolish, proves that those marks are not just for show."

"Sir?"

"It normally takes more than a Corporal to assault an entrenched enemy and clear them out. We sent a squad to do what you did single handedly. The Jackets must be proud to have you."

"Jackets, sir?"

"Old joke my CO used to use," the Major smirked, "The NCO's have-"

"Sir!"

"I'll get back to you in a second, Arc," the Major turned to one of the men sitting at the heavy machinery on one table, a headset around his ears, "Report."

"Contact with Revenge 1-3 has cut off! Savior 2-4 is on route to their position!"

"Bring up the feed," he barked, turned back to the main table where a holographic display popped up, playing a 2D vid. Probably from a cam that one of Savior was carrying.

They were moving through the streets of the part of Old Factoryville the Republic had taken as quickly as possible, before reaching a house and pushing it open. What they arrived to, was carnage.

Parts of the metal walls were still slag, trenches carved through them. Standing in the middle of the room, her Lightsaber at the side, was the Sith Jaune had fought.

The sergeant in charge stepped forwards, "Halt!"

"Oh, no," Jause said, "no, no, no NO!"

"Remind me to yell at basic training," the Major said in resignation, apparently realizing the same thing as Jaune. They were going to try and bring her in.

She turned to them, many of the features Jaune had noticed completely removed by the blue tinge, "Well, I must give the Republic credit, they're very good at training martyrs."

"Oh, very funny," Jaune muttered, sure that was a jab at him. She thought she was dead, did she?

"We're taking you in for the-"

The Lightsaber ignited as she rushed forwards, stopping it just before the Sergeant's throat, "Your companions thought the same, as did a young man a few weeks back. Next time, I hope the Republic is ready to aim it kill."

"If that's what you want!" One of the corporals raised their Blaster, firing at her. Her arm moved so fast it was a blur, deflecting the shot back at him.

The Major gave a tired sigh as the- no, calling it a fight wasn't right, it was a strange combination of slaughter and dance started. She grabbed one soldier with the Force, sending them flying through a wall with a sickening crunch and deflecting blaster shots with her saber. Rocketing into their midst with unnatural speed, she sent another two flying into the wall where they crumpled, apparently broken. Her saber cut through two more soldiers, before impaling the last one.

Walking over to his desk, the Major sighed again, "Corporal?"

"Yes, sir?"

"You're dismissed for now. I need to- well, I think you know what I need to do. I might require your expertise on this woman soon."

"I'm not an expert-"

"You survived unscathed enough to still be capable of combat," he said, "that's the closest we have at the moment. Do you have any skill with vibroblades?"

"Yes, sir. It was my primary form of training when I was younger. I have my swo-"

"Is it Lightsaber resistant?"

"No, sir."

"Then," he sighed, "I'll work on it, Corporal."

---

Ruby stared at the message from Harkun, growling slightly. Why did he want them now?

Standing up, Ruby walked towards the shower, cleaning herself as quickly as possible. All the while, she grumbled about Harkun's love of informing them of a meeting the day of said meeting.

Rushing out of the bathroom, Ruby grabbed her clothes and pulled them on. Pyrrha opened her eyes, blinking tiredly at her, "Wuz goin' on?"

"Harkun," Ruby supplied, "I gotta go."

"Ok," Pyrrha said, laying her head back down, "See you when you get back…"

Ruby rolled her eyes, grabbing her vibroblade in one hand and strapping the sheath to her belt and sliding the bracelet Teacher had given her onto her right wrist and pulled the sleeve over it. Who knew Pyrrha slept in so much?

Balak smiled at Ruby as he stepped away from his and Wyrd's room, his own vibrosword strapped to his back, "Hi, Ruby."

"Hey," Ruby inclined her head, falling back into her mask, "Where's your brother?"

"Oh," Balak's smile faltered, "Wyrd got up before me. He went to get food without me."

"Wooooww," Ruby drew out, "What a jerk!"

"It's nothing," Balak said, "He's always been like that."

"If you say so," Ruby said, running her hand on the hilt of her sword. The pair lapsed into silence until they reached Harkun's office

"Slaves," Harkun said, pacing in front of his desk, "I'd reprimand you for being late, but you're not the last ones here."

"Who-?" Ruby stopped, noticing Ffon and Gerr. Oh, crap…

"Now," Harkun said, apparently not willing to wait for Wyrd to arrive before he started, "for reasons I don't know, nor need to know, Lord Zash has ordered us to speed up. As such, I'm assigning your next assignment now. Balak, you're to go and help Lord Renning with his study on Tuk'ata."

"Yes, sir," Balak said.

"Rose, you're to go down to the tomb of Marka Ragnos and retrieve a holocron stored within-"

"Easy," Ruby nodded, but stopped at Harkun's grin.

"Oh, no," Harkun said, "This is Lord Zash getting rid of you. No one has succeeded in removing that holocron from where it is stored before."

"Yeah, well," Ruby muttered to herself, "We'll see how long that las-"

"Sorry I'm late, milord," Wyrd said, rushing into the room, and unintentionally knocking Balak into Ruby. Ruby quickly faked stumbling back, the expected result when someone like her was hit by someone into Balak, "I didn't see the mess-"

"I don't care about your excuses, slave!" Harkun snapped, lightning leaping from his hands to strike Wyrd. Ruby looked between them and Balak, who started to step forward and open his mouth, and did the only practical thing to do.

She wrapped one arm around Balak, backpedaling out of the room and effortlessly ignoring his attempts to lunge out of her grip…

And his elbow hitting her square between the eyes, "Balak. Balak!"

"Let. Me. Go!" Balak continued to try and rush back into the room, "I'm gonna-"

"I'm trying to save both of your lives," Ruby hissed in his ear, "Best case scenario if you run back in there, Harkun starts shocking you both. Worst case? He kills you and Wyrd, or killy Wyrd to hurt you, or kills you to hurt Wyrd. He's not gonna kill him, Balak. If he lets me get away with all I do, Wyrd'll be fine."

"But, but…" Balak struggled a bit more, before sagging forward, defeated, "I know."

"Come on," Ruby said, continuing to tug Balak away just to be safe, "you're not helping Wyrd any by not doing your assignment."

---

"Ready?" Blake asked, drawing Gambol Shroud in one hand and flicking on the Sorosuub fusion cutter with her other.

"You betcha!" Nora's voice came across, a bit too cheerful for what they were about to do.

"Alright, I'm making the first incision in three, two, one, mark."

Blake resisted the instinctual flinch as Nora's missile rocketed across the space, striking the wall of the building below asand exploding to several cries of "Contact!" and a hail of blaster fire. Across the channel, Blake heard Nora give a cackle of glee before returning fire.

Blake breathed in as the cutter finished its square path, turning it off and carefully removing the panel before slipping inside. Slowly reaching into the pouch on her side, Blake pulled out a pair of biotic grenades.

Setting the detonators as she carefully moved along the rafters, Blake quietly spoke into the mic, "Ready, N?"

"Yep!"

"Right," Blake said, "Remember, no-"

"No names, I know!"

Blake rolled her eyes as another missile flew through the air, blasting several droids off their feet as Blake shifted her position slightly and threw the grenades onto the wall. Drawing Gambol Shroud and an ion grenade, Blake leaned back, throwing the grenade at a group of droids as she began falling towards the ground. Doing a flip to land on her feet as the grenades went off, Blake lunged forward grabbing the nearest guard and yanking him behind a crate.

Ignoring the elbow to her left eye, Blake slammed the hilt of Gambol Shroud into her target, hitting the cluster of nerves duros had under their armpit to send him reeling. Shifting Gambol Shroud, she applied it to the back of his head and fired it twice.

Blake slinked away from the body as Nora charged through the breach. A droid flew over her the boxes, half its body shattered as Nora let out another laugh.

"What is she? A cyborg? She can't be- MY LEG!"

Blake settled into position, doing her best to ignore the sound of Nora smashing her way through the guards. Sometimes literally, as the droids sailing over Blake's head were testament to.

Blake pulled out her shock glove, sliding it on with a sigh. Blake was starting to suspect this was the only job Braden actually cared about, as the other two had been fairly standard fare while this one was protected by a force of mercenaries and droids.

The door slid open, a hail of blaster fire launching at Nora and sending her Aura flashing. Nora shifted Magnhild, firing a flash grenade into the room without a flinch.

The moment the light faded, Blake ran in, latching the stun glove around the weequay's face and followed him as he fell Gesturing to Nora, Blake took the cable and quickly began tying their target up.

"One step closer," Blake murmured, enjoying applying some of the skills she had built up in the White Fang for something good.

---

Sorry if this sucked. Got a lot going on, so I'm trying to juggle that and writing.