I'm good at shooting people, cracking wise, and pretending to know how to fight.

Green.

The word shot through Atton's mind, bounced merrily off a couple of synapses, then escaped through his mouth as a grunt. Green, he thought again, and then: Ow. The word 'ow' rocketed off his bones, poked around the wound in his side, then took a running jump off the new scar on his chest. He grunted again.

"This wasn't my fault," he said.

That thought didn't hit him until the words were already out of his mouth.

"Have to... stop her... or she'll bring the screams of Malachor V to the galaxy... the way we carried the echo... all this way..."

Now what did that mean? Atton racked his mind for it, but he couldn't come up with anything-- and then he realized it hadn't been his voice doing the talking. He stumbled onto his feet and tried to take stock of his surroundings - grey, grey, green. "Green," he muttered. "Bao-Dur?"

No answer. He staggered towards the faint pinpoint of a presence he could feel. There he was - a huddle of horns and pale skin and blue. "Bao-Dur?" he repeated, but he didn't get an answer. And that pinpoint... had that even been there in the first place? He couldn't feel it now. "Bao-Dur?!"

Nothing.

"E chu ta," Atton spat. He took a deep breath that hurt like hell and reached inward, asking the Force to put something nice and good in his cracks, the parts that hurt. When he opened his eyes again, he could see more clearly - Bao-Dur's body, yes, and the wreck that was the Ebon Hawk behind him.

"Meetra?" he called, but he couldn't feel her either. Actually, it was hard to sense anybody here. There was this thick blanket of pain and wrong, ten times as terrible as Korriban. It made it hard not just to use the Force, but to breathe.

He choked out another curse, then turned around. Rocks, sticking high up into the sky. Above, the crackling of thunder, the constant bright flashes of lightning. In the distance, ugly grey things roamed around, he didn't know what. Didn't think he wanted to know. It was still hard to think. He reached for his side and found the lightsaber clipped there still, thank the Force or whatever was responsible for making that happen.

Glancing down, however, also made it obvious that Bao-Dur's wasn't the first corpse to occupy this general area.

Malachor V. He had sat in a ship in its sky as tens of thousands of lives had been snuffed out in an instant - but he'd never been here. On its surface. Breathing in the poison. He lit his lightsaber and let out a cough. "Okay," he mumbled. "Pure pazaak."

What was, though, he wasn't sure. As he began his walk across the toxic surface of a planet made of grey and green, the only thing he was really sure of was that whatever he'd meant, he'd been wrong.

( A merry stroll. )

[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, first part based on 'knights of the old republic 2', second part dialogue and actions taken from it verbatim, woo ]]

( A betrayal. )

After his conversation with Kreia-- well, Atton really could use some air. He slipped out of the ship and got the shuttle back to the main entertainment deck, where Sparkle was supposed to meet him. He could really use some poptarts now.

And maybe a drink.

[[ for sparks! stuff under the cut taken from 'knights of the old republic 2'. ]]

( And we wind down Act One with the Trial of the Exile. )

ACT ONE:
Peragus
1. Meetra meets Atton and rescues him from a Force cage at the Peragus Mining Facility.
2. Meetra and Atton find out that everyone in the facility is dead, the comms are cut, and their only hope is a T3 droid.
3. Meetra decides to break out. Atton helps via the comm. Then a ship arrives...
4. In which Atton finds out Meetra comes with a hateful old lady mentor attached. As well as a bounty and assassin droids.
5. Atton and Meetra make it to the hangar bay via the creepy ship outside. Kreia decides to fight the scarred Sith inside.
6. In which all three manage to leave Peragus on the Ebon Hawk, Peragus gets blown up and Meetra and Atton bond.
Citadel Station
7. They arrive on Citadel Station and immediately get arrested for blowing up Peragus.
8. The Ithorians are trying to restore Telos to its former glory but need Meetra's help with an evil corporation, Czerka. Atton and Kreia discuss Meetra's current weird Force-lessness.
9. They meet with the Ithorians, then get shot at by thugs from the Exchange. This will be a repeating pattern. Also, the Ebon Hawk's been stolen.
10. Meetra reprograms a Czerka droid to steal some of Czerka's files and gets Czerka busted. As a reward, they get to leave the station - and immediately get shot down over Telos.
Telos
11. Meetra meets her old subordinate Bao-Dur, more mercenaries are fought, and the Ebon Hawk's location is tracked down to the polar regions of the planet.
12. They promptly get captured by someone in the polar regions. Kreia decides to non-consensually read Atton's mind, and promptly blackmails him with his own history.
13. Meetra meets her old friend, the Jedi Atris. Atris is still a little sour over that whole Mandalorian War thing.
14. This post!

[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, taken from knights of the old republic 2. and now i take a quick break. ]]

"Thank you for seeing me. I am Mora, and I have come to see you on behalf of our leader here."

The Ithorian stood in the doorway to their apartment-slash-cell, looking expectant. He had called some time ago, requesting what Atton could only characterize as an audience with their resident pantsless Jedi. Been a while since he'd seen an Ithorian, but this one seemed about as earnest as the last one he'd spoken to.

"What does your leader want?" Meetra asked.

They'd been doing nothing but hanging around for over a day - this was a welcome distraction, for now. Depended on what the Ithorian wanted.

"Are you familiar with the restoration project on Telos?" Mora asked.

Telos had been razed by the Sith during the Jedi Civil War. They had bombed it in hopes of taking down the newly reawakened Revan. Even now, the planet suffered heavily under the consequences.

"Yes," Meetra replied. "Go on."

"Recently, we have run into contention with the corporation known as Czerka," Mora explained. "Perhaps you have heard of our troubles as well. Czerka has integrated themselves into the Telosian political system and economy. They are currently pressing to be awarded our planet restoration contracts. Their efforts hinder us greatly, and have terrible consequences for the planet's surface."

Meetra crossed her arms. "So what can I do--?"

"Our leader, Chodo Habat, is a powerful priest," Mora replied. "He sensed something upon your arrival - a disturbance, an echo in the Force. Chodo told me to tell you that if you could help heal Telos, it might be possible for him to help heal you."

She blinked. "What does that even mean?" An echo? A disturbance?

"I am unclear as to what Chodo means by this," Mora said apologetically. "He says the echo he felt upon your arrival suggests that you yourself are damaged. He can feel the pain through the Force."



( In which Atton and Kreia have a heart-to-heart... )

[[ nfb, nfi, ooc-okay, taken from knights of the old republic 2. ]]