And Mical was... had been a soldier, yes, after he had been a Padawan, but he had been a spy. It had not been until Meetra found him in the bowels of the Jedi Enclave that he'd truly became someone who served on the front lines. It hadn't mattered: there had always been other people on their team whose reflexes were perfect, whose instincts were deadly and true.

Like Atton.

But Mical was not Atton. So he wavered, for just a second.

It was long enough. The woman threw something at the floor, and it explode into a plume of smoke right at Mical's feet. Before he had time to sink into Jedi breath control, she fired at him. He had to make a choice, and the choice was the one to preserve his life: catching that blaster bolt straight on his lightsaber.

Just in time to suck in a deep breath of poisonous smoke, and suddenly he was light-headed, sinking to his feet.

"That's what I thought," said the woman.