Quermia, Atton's GFFA, Monday

[suitably_heroic]

"This is Quermia," Brianna said flatly. "You brought us to a Sith planet!"

"Ex-Sith," Atton said, rolling his eyes as he strode past her down the loading ramp. "There might still be some stragglers hanging around, but trust me, there won't be any Sith in government. Anyway, you should feel lucky about that-- it means I actually know my way around."

The Ebon Hawk's parking spot wasn't far from city center. Atton had made sure of that. He was hoping to keep this trip as short as he possibly could, especially because if Visas really was in trouble, well... they might already be too late.


"Remind me why we are here," Brianna said. Her eyes scanned the increasingly busy streets for any sign of trouble, exits to flee to and potential weak spots to hit. "Visas isn't here."

"I know," Atton said, "But this was the last bit of itinerary she actually bothered to send back to us. Apparently she was following the trail of some Sith artifact, and her seller was here. She was even kind enough to send the name."

He held up the datapad. Brianna snatched it from his hands and eyed it. "'Loomo's Assorted Wares'," she read.

"Loomo's not so much for creative naming skills," Atton said. "He's supposed to be somewhere around here, so keep your eyes open, all right?"

"My eyes are always open," Brianna said.

"I'm going to take that as a yes."

They walked around the marketplace for a couple of minutes, keeping an eye on the little stores behind the market stalls as much as the stalls themselves. They found Loomo's eventually, stashed behind a jewelry stall and a stall of not-exactly-street-legal blasters.

"Makes you think about what he might be carrying," Atton observed, glancing over to meet Brianna's gaze.

She shrugged. "Nothing of any concern."

The door jammed a little when Atton tried to open it, but a couple of tugs and it came loose. Not locked, just crappy; looking at this place, he really shouldn't be surprised.

The shop itself was filled with rickety tables and large shelves that looked even worse for wear. A lot of Loomo's illustrious wares were complete poodoo, Atton could see as much at first sight: clocks coming apart, doodads from around this general region of space... and some scraps of metal that, if you tilted your head right, revealed their origins as Sith Empire weaponry.

Just useless Sith Empire weaponry.

A Quermian head suddenly popped up over the counter, the man's long neck following not long after. "Ah, hello," he said. "Can I help you with anything...?"

Atton exchanged a quick, wordless glance with Brianna. The guy had a touch of the Force sensitivity - he could tell that from here - but he was clearly untrained. Brianna's answering expression held nothing in the way of alarm, which knowing her meant she wasn't worried. Which... might not be such a good thing. He was having a bad feeling about this.

"We're looking for a friend of ours," Atton said. "A Miraluka. She came in here a few weeks ago, looking for an artifact you were selling."

Was he just imagining it, or did the Quermian's eyes suddenly widen for a second?

"Of course, of course," the man said. "A very rare, very dangerous artifact--"

"We're aware," Brianna said. "We don't want to know about the artifact. We want to know about the Miraluka."

The Quermian shook his head quickly. "I haven't seen her," he said. "The artifact is still here. I keep it safely in the back. I can take you to it?"

... In the back. Atton never liked it when he was being asked to go out back. It usually ended in bloodshed.

Or maybe he was just being paranoid. Brianna still didn't seem worried. "Fine," she said, already moving. Quermians were large people, and the aisles in the store were broad because of it-- which was a pity, because it meant Atton didn't have an excuse to bump up against anything and take something.

The Quermian led them through a door in the back of the store, to a largely empty room that had a couple of large, locked containers pressed up against the back wall. "Here you are, container 26B," he said, bustling forward...

...and then something started hissing. Atton's hand shot down to the mask tucked in his jacket, slapping it over his face without even thinking about it twice. Seconds later, there were footsteps.

And then there were four Sith warriors in the room with them, and the clanking noise of Atton's lightsaber being yoinked off his belt and thrown at the back wall. Well. Poodoo.

He kicked the first one in the head, then drove his arm down on the elbow of the next guy to attack him. These guys were okay, but they weren't good - they telegraphed their moves just a little too much. Trading blows was easy enough. Distracting them long enough so he could yank his lightsaber back from the wall and behead the first guy to--

--behind him, Brianna hit the ground with a loud thunk--

--come at him was easier than he'd thought. The second had the presence of mind to at least try to defend himself with his vibroblade, but he failed. The third and fourth were tougher, but only because so much gas had flooded the room that Atton could barely see.

After the fourth hit the ground, he shot forward. He shoved the Quermian away from the safe the guy was clearly protecting and shoved his lightsaber into the door, yanking it sideways and then down until the safe's door fell off its hinges.

"Thanks," he snapped, deactivating his lightsaber and grabbing the artifact. "Don't bill me for the mess."

---

It took an hour or so to come back from the particular gas they'd been hit with. Atton knew that much by experience. So he draped Brianna on the bed in the med bay and sat down in the common room. The artifact was small and round and thrummed faintly with the dark side, but not in a way that really worried him.

The really worrying thing was...

"What was that?" Brianna grunted. Her shoulder was pressed into the doorway and she was barely holding herself up straight, but it had been forty-five minutes and she was already upright. Atton was almost impressed by that level of stubborn, except that it wasn't really much of a surprise, really. There wasn't a single person on their little team that didn't qualify as 'excessively stubborn' by most people's counts.

He tapped the gas mask he'd dropped on the holopad in the common room. "There's about... oh, six varieties of gas that can snap through a Jedi's breath control," he said. "About three of those, you can counter with the right protection. We're lucky I made the right bet, there."

"Hn." Brianna narrowed her eyes.

What? Was she upset with him for saving their asses? Or did she think he'd set this up? "Don't give me that. I used to hunt Jedi. Of course I'm not going to be stupid enough not to protect myself against people like me."

"It's not that kind of 'hn'," Brianna said. "You lied to me."

Atton blinked. "...Yes," he said, "Sure. Uh, about what in particular?"

"On Fandom," she said, pulling herself gingerly away from the door. She strode into the room and practically collapsed in a chair. "You were holding back."

"Was I? No, you won fair and square."

"Lies again," she replied. "I saw you fight before I passed out. You were holding back in front of your class. This makes our spar meaningless. Why?"

Atton shrugged.

"I knew you lied prior to Malachor," she said, "I do not see why you insist on doing it still. We all know what you were. We were all something else, before."

Atton's mouth quirked very, very briefly. "There's nobody in any galaxy who really knows what I'm capable of," he said. "Which is a good place to be, no matter what. Showing your hand is the easiest way to lose at pazaak."

"I thought we had stopped playing."

"One of these days, somebody is going to listen when I tell them I'm not a Jedi," he said, "and truly believe me when I say I'm a liar."

"I know you're a liar."

"And yet you didn't expect me to be lying." Atton slid out of his seat and pocketed the artifact. Yeah... he was not looking forward to where they were going.

"Ugh," Brianna muttered. She took in a deep breath. "So where are we going next?" she said. "Do you even know?"

Now it was Atton's turn to lean into a doorway, because, honestly: he really, really wasn't looking forward to this one. "The artifact comes from a tomb on Korriban," he said. "And the uniforms those guys were wearing? The way they were fighting? They're from one of the old outposts there. Not the Academy where we ran into Sion, mind you. But there was one near the Valley of Golg... this artifact's from one of the tombs there."

"You're not happy about this," Brianna noted. "It is Korriban. We have survived it before."

"Yeah," Atton said, glancing over his shoulder, "And remember how that went?"

[[ nfb, nfi, etc. some minor npc death. ]]