Polar Regions of Telos, Some Time After Last

[suitably_heroic]

Atton	"Well," Atton said, as he sank behind the controls of the new shuttle, "This can't be any worse than last time." He should've known better than to say that, probably. Right now he was just relieved: after fighting their way through a bunch of mercenaries and droids gone crazy, it was nice just to get to sit down for five seconds. They'd determined that the only place their ship could have gone was the polar region - it was the only part of the planet that wasn't shielded in some way. So that's where they were headed now. Unless something else terrible happened. "So that's the hole in the shield network, isn't it?" he asked, fifteen minutes later. "Doesn't look like much to me." Just snow. Snow and ice. And... okay, there was a giant square thing jotting up out of the snow, surrounded by four massive pillars. He squinted at it as he moved the shuttle in-- The shuttle rocked hard as a missile struck it right in the back. Several systems burst into flames. The instruments started screaming. "You've got to be kidding me! It's not my fault!" And then there was nothing left to say, as the shuttle slammed into the square thing really, really hard.
HK-51	"Egotistic: Excellent shot," the HK unit standing on top of the roof mused. "Even with the prevailing winds. I couldn't have done it better myself." "Field assessment:," the HK unit to his side said, "I have picked up the heat forms of the Jedi and her allies. Activate the mines, and prime the self-destruct sequences." "Relieved statement: Ah, Jedi, it is good to see you intact. We were concerned that shooting down your shuttle would damage you irreparably," the third HK unit said, as Meetra climbed to her feet with difficulty. "Quick clarification: But now that we have found you, we hope that we can facilitate communications," the first HK unit noted quickly. "Unnecessary addendum: And put an end... to hostilities," the second one added.
Meetra	By now, most of what Meetra could muster was a sense of resigned irritation. She reached to activate her shielding, then took a few steps closer to the droids. "Why did you try to shoot down my vessel?" she asked. Presumably for reasons that earned them a good vibroblading. She was in the mood for it.
HK-51	"Unnecessary clarification: We merely wished to cripple your vessel," one of the HK-51s replied. "Once we tracked down your location, we managed to destroy several droids in this location." "Probing query: We are, however, curious as to why you chose to come to the remnants of the polar Telos irrigation system. There is nothing here that our instruments can detect," one of his buddies noted. "Eager threat:," the third one added, "But we are looking forward to extracting your motives for coming here when we place you in torture restraints."
Meetra	Right. Why did she even bother? She felt Atton and Kreia coming up on her back, apparently not in too bad a shape. "If you want a fight, then come on," she said. The words were only halfway out of her mouth when Atton started firing.
Atton	When the droids had been taken care of, they walked back to the ship to check on the still-unconscious Bao-Dur. There was nothing they could do for him right now, though, and frankly Atton wanted to get inside where at least it'd be warm. Really. Jedi took him to the nicest places. It took a little searching, but they found the hidden turbolift eventually - and took it way down into the building itself.
. . .	The doors slid open in front of them, and they were greeted by a trio of identical white-haired girls wielding very sharp sticks. "Lay down your weapons and you shall not be harmed," said the one that was unhooded.
Meetra	Some very unflattering thoughts shot through Meetra's mind. "Who are you?"
. . .	"I will not warn you again," the girl said sharply. "Lay down your weapons, or we shall take them from you."
Kreia	"Do as she says," Kreia said quietly. "I sense she will do us no harm." She laid down her own weapon. The others followed, though going by the look on Atton's face, he wasn't happy about it. No matter.
Atton	Fifteen minutes later, and those creepy girls - Echani, by the looks of them - had taken Meetra off to go talk to somebody, leaving Atton stuck in a Force cage with an unconscious guy and the old lady who hated him. Fantastic. "Why is it that everywhere I go I wind up in a cell?" He shook his head. "I mean, why did they lock us up? What is this place?"
Kreia	"It is a training ground for Jedi," Kreia said.
Atton	Atton blinked. "What? This ice hole?"
Kreia	"Yes," Kreia said. She did not need to look to know this. "It bears the semblance of an academy - but where are all the students? Curious."
Atton	"You've got to be joking," Atton muttered. He knew the old lady and he knew she wasn't, but still, this just proved Jedi were ridiculous. "What is a Jedi Academy doing out here in the middle of nowhere?!" And how the hell did he wind up here? Kark. This wasn't good.
Kreia	"It is a place hidden from the galaxy," Kreia pointed out, "like the Academy on Dantooine. But this place?" Yes. She knew this place, now. "Oh, Atris. You have been clever."
Atton	"Atris?" Atton prompted. It was rude talking to yourself when your audience didn't know what the hell you were talking about.
Kreia	"It's none of your concern," Kreia informed him primly.
Atton	Ugh. More Jedi talk. "Well, the sooner we're out of here, the better," Atton said. "Two crazy Jedi are more than enough for me. No one told me we were going to be dumped in a nest of Jedi." He spent so much time trying to keep out of these people's way - keep far away from the damage they tended to leave in their wake. (Keep himself and his secrets far away from them.) Why did they keep dragging him in anyway?
Kreia	Now that... that was interesting. Kreia's curiosity about him rose from absolute zero. "And what is it about this place that causes you so much fear?"
Atton	Poodoo. "What do you mean?" Atton asked, making sure the irritation sparked in his voice, loud and clear. Projecting his annoyance outwards and amplifying it to cover the fear and frustration. "We're in the middle of a bunch of Jedi. You know how they are."
Kreia	"No, I do not," Kreia drawled thoughtfully. "Not in the way you seem to." She reached through this web of artifice he had crafted around himself, batting away his irritation. It was not a subtle inquisition: she found surprisingly complex defenses that could be broken only with subtlety or force, and she had no time nor interest in the former.
Atton	Atton snarled as he felt her in his mind, shoving back at it, dragging everything into it. It made it painful: a struggle. How dare she. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" he growled, grabbing for his head with one hand and reaching for her instinctively with the other. Inhisheadkillnowthiscouldnotbeexcused--
Kreia	"Stop struggling," Kreia murmured. "Let me follow the current... deep... deeper... to the source..." Ah. She ignored his screams. "Ah, with the fear is mingled guilt," she observed. "It squirms in you like a worm..." He was both more and less interesting than she had initially assumed, then... and more necessary to their quest than she had known. "And the why-- ah, there is its heart." He would have to stay, then. "You surprise me," she said. "I could not feel it before... your feelings are a powerful shield indeed." She tilted her head. "Do not worry, 'Atton'. If she is still a Jedi, she will forgive. And if she is not, she will not care."
Atton	HewasgoingtokillherhewasgoingtokillherhewasgoingtoKILLhe-- Then Kreia's last words sank into his aching skull. "No," he whispered. "You can't tell her. Please - I'm asking you. I don't want her to--" He just wanted to get out of here. Get out of this. Let him be the bitchy scoundrel who got her out of trouble a few times, then took off. Nothing else. He was okay with being that, in other people's lives - the stupid drunk, the snarky asshole, the guy who saved your life and then complained about it. The nice story about the grouchy smuggler who might have it in him to do a nice thing every now and again, then blew out of the system in a hurry. He could not be the truth to anybody. For a flash of a second, he thought of Sia, and hated himself for it, because now she would know.
Kreia	Kreia finished his sentence for him. "...Think less of you?" she said. "I hardly think that is possible." She tilted her head. "Still, there is no shame in what you ask." He was still a fool. But now she saw his role spidering out into the greater fabric of it all, and she was at peace with his presence here at last. He would be useful, yes, and now she knew how. "We all wage war with the past," she said. "And it leaves its scars. I will not speak of yours, Atton, but there is a price for such things."
Atton	"What?" Atton panted. "What price?" Leave? He could leave. He had no problem leaving. Leaving was all he ever wanted to do.
Kreia	"There are those who wage war, and those who follow them," Kreia said. She could see the image clearly in her mind's eye yet. "You are a crude thing, murderer, but you have your uses." She pressed her stump to her side. "You know how important this woman we travel with is," she said. "Even one such as you can feel it. You will serve her... until I release you."
Atton	What? No. "And what if I refuse?"
Kreia	"You will not," Kreia said with certainty in her voice. "If you do, then my silence will be broken. And then, Atton, you will be broken-- as you once were, so far away from here." She slipped her fingers out of his mind at last. "You fear the Jedi and rightly so," she said. "If Atris learns of your... choices, you will never leave this place." She considered that thought. "But whatever fear you hold of the Jedi, know that if you disobey me, then my punishment will make you beg for the death that has long hounded you." She shook her head. "Wipe the fear from your mind," she ordered. "You will not find blind obedience a difficult master. You chose it once. You will learn to embrace it again."
Atton	With her presence out of his mind, Atton could slide his defenses back into place. His bravado returned as they slipped over his most vulnerable places, and with it, the futile desire to make her bleed for the indignance and violation she had just foisted on him. But all he could muster right now, in this situation, were words. "I don't know how you became such a manipulative witch," he spat, "but why such a vicious old scow like yourself would even bother with me is a bigger mystery."
Kreia	Kreia shrugged. "No game of dejarik kan be won without pawns," she said. "And this may prove to be a very long game." She held no fear for him. He reminded her, though, of one of her traitorous apprentices - the fool. In many ways. "You are a slippery one, your thoughts difficult for even one such as me to read," she said. "I suspect the self-loathing that squirms within you gives you a curious strength." As it did Sion, as well. She knew the sickness - or power - that kept this one moving. And, knowing he did not understand, she did him a necessary kindness by explaining it. "Your spirit, as diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you." She had already given him more answers than he deserved, but there was no harm in giving him more. "I feel you have crossed our path for a reason. Perhaps even you, at the right moment, may be able to turn aside disaster. If so, your potential is not yet spent." And that was the greatest compliment she could give a man such as him.
Atton	And Atton knew it. He wasn't as stupid as he liked to make himself out to be - in a strange, twisted way, this manner of compliment was almost a balm on top of a stinking wound. The same, sadistic wound that kept refusing to kill him. "Fine, I'll be your pawn," he said. "But I think you have the wrong man."
Kreia	"Perhaps," Kreia said lightly. "But someone still has to fly the ship, and the Force is hard to predict." She looked up, and for a moment Atton could glimpse the white eyes under the hood of her cowl. "Our path brought us here for a reason, and now I know why. The past is here, and it must be met before the future can be set in motion."
Atton	Atton sat down on the floor of his cage, rubbing at his temples. "More Jedi speak," he said. He sounded mellow now, but it was largely because he was rejiggering his defenses. "Care to explain?"
Kreia	"No, I have wasted enough time with you," Kreia said. "Sleep, murderer. And be silent. I need no distractions." She waved her hand.
Atton	Atton's face hit the floor as the Force pushed him into an unasked-for slumber, full of images of people he had tried for so long to avoid.
Kreia	"A critical moment approaches," Kreia said quietly, and reached out into the Force, to feel for the shatterpoint where the Exile and Atris met - once again.

[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, taken from knights of the old republic 2. this would be the part of the game where i muttered '...fuck' for the first time. it would not be the last. ]]