Even Villains Must Have Reasons

There's a tale that made the rounds when Nico was still a knight, his first apprentice not yet knighted, with a punchline that basically boiled down to missing out on a good thing by being overly concerned with culture.

As the story goes a newly elevated Master Dooku had been granted a long term diplomatic posting following the graduation, and therefore departure, of his first apprentice into knighthood.  In spite of only having been responsible for the padawan's last year and a half of training, Dooku saw the graduation as proof of his success as a teacher, and the mission as fertile ground to explore his diplomatic mastery as well.  He dined with the local nobility, hearing from them many tales of the same side of the story, then descended to the industrial sector, where he requested the local workers play court for him, sharing with him their side of the grievances in a group setting, as he had no interest in their cuisine.

Hearing out the workers would take longer than expected, he found out, as not all those he needed to consult were off shift at the same time.  And while he could attempt to pass judgement without consulting all of the leaders of the local guild, it would not be an accurate assessment.  And so Dooku agreed to leave and return at a later time so he might converse with the rest of the guild.

On his way back through the city he happens to meet a bessalisk independent contractor, an outsider like himself come to the planet, and one with a surprisingly in depth knowledge of safety protocol violations.  With his help Dooku was able to pin down not only the specific lines the breaches of contract were taking place, but cross-reference them to both ownership and work crew.  Mollified somewhat by this breakthrough, the jedi struck up casual conversation with the bessalisk, and somehow the conversation turned to the many varied cuisines of the galaxy.  And here came the surprise, as it turned out the Bessalisk had sampled and enjoyed many fine dishes that the galaxy had to offer, expressing great pleasure in the variance and depth of flavor in many meals the Jedi Master himself enjoyed.  So impressed was Dooku that he found himself invested in the conversation, and, when the Bessalisk admitted he was a hobbyist chef as well, was convinced to try the alien's favorite dish in all the stars, as prepared by his own hands.

They arranged a time and place to meet, and when the Bessalisk arrived he presented the Jedi with a simple meal tray and cover which, once shifted aside, revealed a nerfburger. Dooku found himself deeply offended by the Bessalisk's choice, but never one to shame himself in front of another he accepted the burger, tried a few bites, and expressed it wasn't bad before politely excusing himself, never to return.

The rumor is he has regretted not finishing the burger to this day, as it is still one of the best meals he has ever tasted.  Nico always finds himself smiling at the thought, and keeps the story close to his heart.  Both as a fond memory of Dooku being outplayed and as a reminder not to judge anything based on his own self importance.

  - - - - - - -

It's a good day to go out on.

Jango lies on the forest floor listening to the kids chatter about their hunt and reminisces as something slowly winds down inside him.

He called Spar just that morning, officially checking in with the new Mand'alor but really just to chat.  Wolfe had been there on behalf of the Jedi Order, standing in until one of the Council could sign off on the new treaty, so Spar had pulled him into the call as well.  Jango'd jokingly asked him to say hi to his Buir when the Kel Dorian arrived and Wolfe rolled his eyes, since they both knew Koon was on a mission to Kuat, but agreed to pass on his regards.  Once he said goodbye and wandered off Jango had a few more moments with just Spar, finishing up the conversation with something inane about how he was proud of him before signing off.  Not bad as final words exchanged go.

The rest of the day was dedicated to a beast hunt with the kids coming of age that year.  Nothing too dangerous, just the usual test of skill: hunting a carefully pre-scouted range in the wilds of Mandalore.  A proper coming of age for them, just one he'd finally gotten too old to be doing and hadn't realized.  Each of the kids had managed to take down a suitable tribute for their trial with minimal injuries.  Jango himself had only taken a minor hit from one of the oversized herbivores following the last kid spooking the herd, something he'd have shrugged off a few years ago with just a bruise.  But this time he could feel he'd finally pushed his luck too far.  So here he was, listening as the parents walk their kids through carving their kills.  Waiting for the end.

Boba settles next to him, hesitant only in the hitch in his voice as he starts up a conversation.

"I told you you were pushing it.  Could have just played cool ba'buir and swept in to help with the carving.  Instead you had to go and play hunt master."

"I know," Jango agrees cheerfully.  "You were right, I'm not as young as I used to be.  Shows what I know."

He glances up at his eldest, shifting to hold out a hand for Boba to take.  The younger Fett curses under his breath and grabs hold.  With both hands, as though he can hold him there through hand strength alone.  They stare at each other for a long moment, then both glance over at the sound of laughter to watch the twins start a dramatic reenactment of their hunt.

"I'll look after Spar," Boba offers finally, breaking the silence.  "He works too hard, and can't seem to get up the nerve to give Shisa that courting gift he forged."

Jango snorts, smiling under his helm.  "They already live together, how hard can it be?" Then he shakes his head fondly.  "Though Fenn's no better.  I wish you luck sorting that out."

"I'll manage," Boba dismisses idly.  Then there's silence again, for slightly too long to be comfortable.  The world's fuzzy with the life slipping away from him, and Jango squeezes his son's hand.

"You know I'm proud of you, right?"

A pause.  Then, rough, "I know."

"And you know I love you?"

"I… yes, I know."

Jango sighs, "Good.  Then, I want you to remember those two things.  Everything else is secondary.  I'm proud of you, ad.  Love you."

His vision fades.

Boba chokes, squeezing his hand back, "Love you too, Buir."

Getting Savage onto the Maalraas was an adventure.  The selcath were able to help her get him onto a hover stretcher in the wider spaces of the observation room, but the more cramped corridors of a starship weren't exactly planned with two meters of prone Zabrak in mind.  It took some creative force usage, but Knol was finally able to get him into the bunk room on the end of the hall, where she'd be between him and the rest of the ship if necessary.  There'd already been an oversized bunk inside, fortunately, and a few more careful force lifts got the kid settled in without too much jostling.  Then she disassembled the stretcher and packed it away in their new portable med pack.  As a final touch she tucks him in with the duvet from the sailer.

"You good there for a bit, Savage?  Anything I should do or anything you'd like me to get before I go?  Not sure how long it's going to take to get out of the atmosphere and into hyperspace once we get going."

"No, I will be fine," the Zabrak insists, voice steady in spite of the wrinkle of pain on his forehead.  Knol considers him for a moment before deciding she should take him at his word.  A final force-prod to reassure herself he wasn't hiding an injury before she nods and heads for the cockpit.

Orbital Control clears them for liftoff without a wait.  Half an hour to the hyperlane then they were away, course set for the Phelleem Sector.  The report had indicated Republic forces were gathering in the interference field surrounding the shadowy Orixon Nebula and Tae was with them.

What their ultimate goal was and even their numbers was unknown, too sensitive for even encrypted communication without due cause.  And Knol didn't really need to know, she just appreciated knowing all the angles beforehand.  Picking up Tae was going to be unfortunately similar to flying a mission blind.

Not to mention trying to hide a force sensitive on her ship undiscovered while tracking Tae down.  Knol have herself a moment to lament just how cruel the universe was to get her stuck in this position.  Then she stood up with a shrug and headed back for the cabins, it was her own fault really, not worth angsting over.

"Still doing alright, kid?" She asks as she stepped into Savage's room, only to wince as he startles awake. "Sorry, hey, Sunshine, it's fine, go back to sleep."

The Zabrak blinks suspiciously up at her, his brow deeply furrowed, and Knol can't help the amused ruffle that causes her.

"It's fine, kid, really.  Was just coming to tell you we made it to the hyperlane.  We'll be in hyperspace for a while now, barring any technical malfunctions.  You need anything else before I let you sleep?"

Savage frowns at her for a long moment, then abruptly looks away.  "No."

Knol shrugs.  "I'm going to try to get some sleep then.  I'll be right next door if you change your mind, just give me a poke or something.  Can you do that?"

"I cannot," the Zabrak replies, looking frustrated. "I can barely move on my own, let alone reach your chamber to 'poke' you."

Knol blinks, then shakes her head quickly. "Not a physical poke, in the Force.  Something like this."

She reaches out to tap at the edge of his Force presence with her own and he startles, looking up at her with wide eyes.  At her smile his eyes narrow, and he tries poking her back.  On his third try Knol nods, smile widening.

"That's it exactly, just like that.  You poke me like that and I'll know you want my attention.  If it's an emergency you can always give me a pull too."

She demonstrates and his eyes narrow even further.  His answering pull is hesitant, but still obvious, and the bothan nods happily.

"Yeah, like that.  Give me a yank rather than just poking me and I'll know to come running.  Got it?"

"I understand," Savage agrees.  His brow is still furrowed but he's back to staring at the ceiling, so Knol figures he's done with their talk.

"Alright then, sleep well, kid, and call me if you need anything."

An affirmative grunt as she leaves.

The bunk in the cabin Knol picked for herself is a more reasonable size, though she appreciates the little bit of extra room than she'd get on a Bothan sized bed.  It doesn't matter much, though, she's asleep the instant she's under the covers and doesn't wake for the next six hours.

When she wakes it's to the annoying chirp of her chrono alarm.  Knol almost snoozes it again when she remembers the Sith, his injuries, and the dietary supplements.  Instead she forces herself out of bed and wanders into the cooking area to see if they have anything she can make into a meal.

Fortunately the Station Commander seems to have preempted her, leaving factory sealed boxes of foodstuffs stashed in the cooling unit, as well as several different kinds of drinks.  They won't be reduced to surviving off rations and her newly acquired liquor collection anytime soon.

Knol rolls her eyes and makes a mental reminder to send the guy a nice thank you gift once they're safely away.  Then she sets about reading all the labels, eventually grabbing a couple boxes of protien loaf.  While that's heating she debates the different drinks, comparing them with the nutrition chart newly affixed to the cooler door, and snags some of the processed fruit juice cans to go with it.  Laying out the supplements takes almost another 15 minutes of cross checking diagrams and pill boxes, but she's pretty sure she's got it by the time the timer goes off.

Knol grabs the tiny tablecloth on her way out, balancing the tray full of food with the Force when she has to adjust it to knock on the door.

"You awake Sunshine?  I brought food."

A pause and a low sound that might have been an attempt at a reply before Savage growls.  Then, gingerly, he pokes at her.  Knol's fur ruffles cheerfully at that, and she lets herself in.

Savage has somehow managed to wedge himself sideways up against the wall of his bunk, his eyes catching her as soon as the door opens.  He makes no move to unwind, however, and Knol can sense the undercurrent of pain even through her shields.  She sets the tray down on the table and gestures at him.

"I was thinking you'd rather be sitting up for this.  So I can try to help you upright or we can work on moving you to the chair.  Depends on if you think you could stay upright on your own or if having the corner to lean on would be better.  What do you think?"

Savage grumbles under his breath for a moment, considering his choices, then huffs.  "The bunk," he growls, voice dry and raspy, and Knol winces in sympathy.

"Sounds good, then we'll get you something to drink straight away, you sound terrible." She pulls some spare pillows from the closet and does her best to arrange them into a pile with the kid's head still in the way.  It's not perfect, but stays up well enough for her to awkwardly slide and force lift Savage into place.  Most Zabrak at least had the decency not to be over half a meter taller than her…

Once Savage was in place she draped the tablecloth over his lap and opened one of the juices.

"I wasn't sure what you liked, but this is the healthiest drink we have at the moment, so I figured you could try it, and if it's terrible I'll get you something else.  If it comes to that we also have just filtered water.  Here, see if you can turn it while I hold.  Once you've wet your throat we can see if you're up for holding it by yourself.

Savage only barely refrained from rolling his eyes before he nodded, so Knol chose not to mention it as she held the juice up so he could drink.  After a few swallows he tilted the juice back upright and looked at her expectantly.

With a shrug Knol moved her grip to the top of the bottle, letting Savage wrap his hand around the base.  Then she slowly relaxed her grip a fragment at a time.  There's a muted stab of pain when she finally let's go fully, but Savage manages to keep it upright without outwardly revealing the effort it must be taking.  He even manages a shaky drink by himself before Knol gently moves the tray to his lap so he can set it down.

Savage eyes the lumpy meal in front of him and wrinkles his nose. "What is this?"

"Protein Loaf," Knol admits with a shrug, taking a bite of her own and making a face.  "Basically they grind up the meat really small, into something like a paste, then compact it back together before freezing it."

"Why?" The Zabrak demands, giving the loaf on his plate an extremely dubious look.  "What is wrong with just smoking actual meat"

"The taste mostly," Knol guesses, "Most folks these days don't even realize meat has to come from dead animals, and they don't like having the burnt taste of smoked meat when they're trying to make dinner.  While protein loaf can theoretically be any flavor you want if you have the right ingredients.  You can also make it into a lot of different shapes and cook it into lots of different recipes that way.  Plus it stacks better in the hold and if you have to you can eat it through a straw." She makes a face after her next bite and shrugs. "The texture is still a bit off-putting though."

Savage manages to get his fork up to his mouth without spilling and grimaces, nodding his agreement as he swallows.  Then he goes for another bite. "The taste is not terrible at least."

"True, it's a mix of a lot of things but they tend to try to keep the flavor consistent," Knol explains.  "I'll make you a few recipes I picked up sometime when we know your stomach can handle the oil.  Need to keep your protein intake up and this should be a decent way to do that, though you'll still need the supplements for a while." She gestures to the pills on the tray and Savage frowns at them in turn, scooping them into a hand.

"Do I chew them, or…?" He glanced at her, honestly unsure.  Knol shakes her head quickly.

"Just swallow them whole, they're made to release nutrients over a period of time as they dissolve."

The face he made at the taste was certainly memorable, and Knol gestured back to his loaf.

"Try some more meat to clean your tongue, then juice to while away the taste.  The other way around and sometimes the Juice manages to taste worse than the meds did.  There you go.  Better?"

"Yes," Savage mutters struggling through another mouthful of juice before he returns to the meat.

They both eat in silence after that, and Knol paces herself to avoid it looking like Savage was falling behind.  He's careful though, and manages to avoid getting almost anything on the tray.  The tablecloth he manages to keep clean all together.

But he's exhausted when he's done.  Knol collects the trays and the tablecloth back up, then gestures to the bed.

"Let's get you settled again before I go clean the dishes.  Would you rather be on your side again? Or on your back?"

Savage's face hardens at that, and Knol can see him considering both whatever made him home into that hunched position and the pain it was putting him in to sustain it.

"I would rather see the door," he ground out finally, and Knol knew better than to ask for an explanation with that tone.  She had a pretty good guess anyway.

Instead the bothan considered her pile of pillows for a moment before nodding and stepping forward.  With a little maneuvering she had Savage laying down on his side again, mostly supported by the force, while she rearranged most of the pillows behind him.  That done she leaned him back and gave him the last pillow to hold onto.

"Should help support your shoulder somewhat," Knol points out when he frowned at her.  The kid rolls his eyes but tucks it under his arms anyway, so she's taking it as a win.

She picks up the tray and the tablecloth before turning back.  "Pike me if you need anything," she reminds him, poking him for good measure.

Savage pokes her back with a grumble, "Yes."

Knol grins at him.  "Good.  If I don't hear from you I'll be back in an hour with something to drink.  See you then."

She returns to the kitchen to clean their plates and check what she has the supplies to make once Savage is feeling better.  Then she doubles back to check the estimated weekly diet tables for his recovery, just to be sure.

An hour passes quickly in the depths of research, and soon her chonomiter is going off again.  She grabs a pitcher of water and a cup this time then goes to check on her guest again.

If the whole fight goes by this fast, three days won't feel like anything.

- - - - - - - - - -

Savage is both the easiest first time patient she could ask for and a terrible patient, all in one.  Anything Knol asks him to do directly he obeys, but anything she's careful not to directly order him to do is up for negotiation apparently.  By which she means he's struggling to sit up without help on the second day in spite of all of her suggestions, but at least he keeps taking his pills and meals when she hands them to him.

He also fails to mention any pain he is experiencing unless she asks him very specific questions, and even then he's extremely hesitant to verify anything.  It makes Knol want to shake him until he understands her sometimes, though she'd never act on it.  And it makes her want to track down Dooku and beat some reason into him.  Maybe the Nightsisters for good measure.

But she can do none of these things.  Instead she's stuck trying to figure out when Savage is going to be the most obedient prisoner ever and when he's going to use every loophole she's given him to insist on injuring himself.

Really, that selkath doctor's dig about jedi and hospitals makes a lot more sense now.  She knows she's been far worse than this, and the healers all deserve medals for putting up with her.

By the third day Savage is forcing himself to stay awake after his hourly check-ins and attempting to pull himself out of bed.  Knol's worried he'll eventually succeed and then end up stuck on the floor.  At least there's a system in place for him to get her if he needs it, she's just still not sure he'll actually do it if she isn't tracing out to him first.

"I'm not sure what you're accomplishing, exactly." She tells him the next time she catches him leaning heavily on the bunk wall between attempts. "I mean, I understand not wanting to be on bedrest any longer than you have to, I've been there.  But you and I both know that if you actually manage to push yourself out of bed you'll just end up on the floor with no way to get back up."

The kid snarls at that, gaze focused determinedly off to her left.  But his grimace says he agrees with her.  And all she gets when she tries to read him is the same mix of frustration and self-recrimination he's had since yesterday.

That and the undercurrent of fear that's been with him since he woke up poisoned days ago, that spikes whenever she presses him for answers.  And yet she has to try.

"Come on, Sunshine, what's this about?"

Savage grits his teeth, refusing to meet her eye, before finally sighing and focusing on something near her elbow.

"I cannot simply remain unmoving and expect my body to recover functionality.  If I cannot move now then I will not be able to move tomorrow.  In less than a day we…"  He shakes his head and starts again. "I cannot continue to rely entirely on your assistance.  I must regain limited mobility, or remain a burden for you to carry or cast aside."

"That's not…," Knol cuts herself off, forces her fur flat, and sighs.  "No, you're right.  I can't exactly give you a reason I won't just leave you behind somewhere.  Nothing I'd believe in your place, anyhow.  And your body is healing, not returning to the way it was.  It's true you'll need to exercise to get back into your best form.  But you aren't there yet.  I know it isn't comfortable, but you're going to have to wait before your body can actually take the damage a fall might cause."

In all honesty she was probably not helping.  It hadn't escaped her that she was a Jedi and Savage at least currently a Sith.  But in his weakened state he wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight, let alone attempt to escape, so it had been much simpler to give him the benefit of the doubt than it would be if he'd been at the top of his game.

If he'd been healthy she doubted he'd have been willing to come along with her at all, even just to break his mind control.  He might not even have been able to follow her in this state if Dooku hadn't abandoned him to die on Dxun.

And tomorrow they would be rendezvousing with the task force so she could look for Tae.  Would she have trusted him this close to the other Jedi if he weren't as weak as a yearling cub right now?

Weak as a yearling cub, and he knew it.  A Sith under a Jedi's command and completely at her mercy if she decided to turn on him.

"Look at me," Knol demanded, tapping Savage on the chin when he didn't obey.  "Come on, Sunshine, look me in the eyes and listen."

He growls, hands clenched in the duvet across his lap, but yellow eyes meet hers and she nods.

"Good.  Now listen, I will have to depart when we arrive, to find my contact.  You are not leaving the ship.  I have no intention of telling anyone you're even on-board unless things go completely sideways, but even then you are remaining here while they will be remaining outside.  Do you understand?"

"I understand," he growls, his jaw tight. "And after you meet your contact?"

"With any luck we'll be taking him with us," Knol admits.  "He's a padawan," She reassures Savage when he tenses. "I'm looking for his master, but they're on different missions at the moment.  In the meantime I'll vouch for his conduct.  If you don't do anything to harm him or me he won't do anything to hurt you."

He doesn't believe her, Knol knows.  There's disbelief and fear in his eyes as he studies her face, but he nods nonetheless, choosing, at least for now, to take her at her word.

Not like he has much of a choice.  And the feel of that leaves a sour taste in her mouth long after the conversation is over.

But there are no easy answers, no reassurances she can give that will be believed without proof.  And proof can only come from promises kept.  On both their parts.

Knol finds herself once again belatedly hoping that bringing Tae into the middle of this won't turn out to be a terrible mistake.

- - - - - - - - - -

Savage is radiating a constant background static of fear and the resulting defensive anger by the time they're breast to drop out of hyperspace the next morning, and Knol is honestly pretty concerned about him accidentally tipping off the other Jedi to his presence just with that.  Not that she'd ever tell him that, it would only push him further into the depths of frustrated paranoia.  At least with her promise to lock him in the ship and leave him there he's been willing to behave, no matter how grudging his belief is.

Coming out of hyperspace in the Phelleem Sector is a bit anticlimactic for all the stress it's been causing them both.  There's another encrypted data file waiting for her, and Knol takes a moment to decrypt it before she continues.

Turns out since she last checked in the Republic has officially moved its staging ground to Handooine.  The Jedi Commanders have moved to a listening post there to supervise the final preparations for an assault on Jabiim, bringing Tae with them.

Knol reads the report twice just to be certain of the details, then tosses the datapad into the copilot's seat and sets a course for Handooine.

With the fleet now orbiting the planet rather than hiding in the nearby nebula they pick up the Maalrass's signature long before she reaches them, sending out an identification request that's much closer to a friendly request than the bothan was expecting.

Maybe she's been out in the Outer Rim too long.  Or maybe the Republic's army just hadn't been out here long enough.

There's no complications with her Council provided codes this time, the paperwork on Manaan having fully returned her to active status. A few brief questions later and they're able to give her clearance and a landing area on the outskirts of the militarization zone.  Traffic control makes quick work of guiding her down and then Knol is left to finalize last-minute plans as she preps the ship for lockdown.

She hesitates by the cabins, knowing Savage is probably tracking her force signature.  Even if the witches or Dooku didn't teach him that's pretty instinctive, right?  Either way, leaving the ship without saying anything probably isn't the right call.  Wouldn't be with any of the agents she's run ops with at least.

A thought occurs to her and she ducks into her room for a spare canteen to use as a peace offering, filling it up in the kitchen before heading back to Savage's room.

At the door she pauses, then reaches out to poke him.  After a moment's hesitation he pokes her back, and she lets herself in. Inside he's already sitting upright but not trying to pull himself out of bed just yet.  Knol rolls her eyes at his defensive glare and holds out the canteen.

"There should be enough water in here to last you a few hours, and the cap seals when you're not using it so you shouldn't have to worry about it leaking everywhere." The bothan demonstrates how to open the cap and how it goes back on before handing it over.  "I'm about to lock up and head out to find my contact.  Anything else you need before I go?"

There's silence and Savage still won't meet her eyes, so Knol sighs and turns to go.  Just as she reaches the door, he finally responds.

"Keep your word, Jedi," he growls, his fear peaking as she turns to face him again before he gets it back under control.  He's looking her in the eye, though, in spite of it.  Knol nods firmly back.

"You will be leaving Handooine with me.  For now, hold here and wait for me to get back."

That earns her a nod in return, the yellow eyes burning into her back long after the door closes behind her.  She activates the defensive systems in the loading bay then departs, sealing the ramp closed behind her.

Surprisingly there's actually a trooper waiting for her at the edge of the landing zone.  He salutes as soon as she gets close and informs her Air Traffic Control sent him to bring her to Central command as soon as she was ready.

It's almost exactly what she would expect from a mission briefing on a large op.  But the trooper's stiff and standing out against the background where any of her agents would have spent the time trading jokes with one eye on their surroundings.

Knol knows she isn't suited to be a military commander, far more skilled in espionage and infiltration.  But a part of her doubts anyone could be suited for this, ordering kids who never had a chance to live into battle and calling it the greater good.  Maybe she's being too hard on the council, they might not have had much of a choice in this, but neither did the clones, and they deserve better.

Still not their fault they exist.  She smiles at the trooper, "Thanks, I guess it'd be a ways to walk."

He relaxes fractionally, and nods, gesturing her towards the speeder.  "Around 3 kilometers, sir.  Long enough it's better not to walk it if you don't have to."

"I agree, though sometimes needs must.  What's your name, kid?"

"Foray, sir."

"I'll remember it, Foray, thanks for the lift."

She can feel his embarrassed gratitude even if she can't see behind his helmet.  But the last of the nervous tension leaves his spine.

"Thank you, sir.  Let's get back to base."

- - - - - - - - - -

There's a fog in his mind that Tae's been having trouble working past.  It's a lingering cloud of thoughts and emotions that press against his skin from the inside out, making it hard to think and harder to breathe.  He knows how he’s supposed to sort the feelings out, all the little tricks his master was able to teach him to get his mind clear and back to being his again.  But his uncle is missing, and Tae is trapped in what seems like an endless whirlwind of stress that lingers until he can't tell where his thoughts end and the others' begin.

Normally he'd reach out as soon as he started to feel overwhelmed, but his uncle was supposed to be dead and hadn't gotten back in touch since the coded message he'd sent Tae to say he wasn't dead but would be going undercover for a while.  So he couldn't risk accidentally broadcasting to anyone that his uncle was alive, let alone explaining to any of the Jedi in charge of the newly renamed 'Padawan Pack' exactly why he was so stressed.

Instead he had to let the others assume his erratic shielding was due to grief and having never been on an active battleground before.  While his master was missing and he couldn't do anything about it.

The battle preparations weren't helping either, though.  He'd assumed a battlefield wouldn't be much different than being in the middle of a bar brawl, all those minds, most of them with drugs lowering their filter level, and each one in some way upset about what was happening.

So far battle was nothing like that.  On the starcruiser it had been cold with a flurry of suppressed panic as years of experience and training took hold for every trooper onboard.  Keeping his sense of self in the middle of that had been hard, especially when he'd badly wanted that reassurance that if everyone did their part they probably wouldn't all die.

Now he's realizing that feeling wasn't the sense of certainty he took it for.  It was adrenalin, and training kicking in in something like muscle memory.  Here on the ground the troopers readying for deployment said goodbye with a sort of grim finality that echoed their certainty that many of them were going to die.  They knew their generals were worried, had heard gossip of the somber expressions in the war tent, and responded by making extra certain they took this one last chance to say goodbye.

Their low morale was affecting all the Jedi, he knew, but Tae kept catching snatches of thoughts that made him crave his master's reassurance.  A rare few of the troops kept their spirits up, some wanting to lift the others' spirits, and yet more with the hope that the Jedi would somehow produce a miracle.

It was these thoughts that prevented Tae from sleeping, because he was one of the Jedi they were laying their hopes on, and he was every bit as uncertain and afraid.

The others had cornered him finally, Elora taking the lead but even Xule had followed.  He wasn't sleeping, his shields were failing, and they could all feel his distress.  Tae could hear their concern, feel it around the edges of his cracking shields, so he'd agreed to spend the day meditating rather than training for the upcoming fight.

He's halfway through carefully reinforcing his dwindling shields when Master Norcuna comes looking for him, his mind a carefully collected spiral that doesn't leak any of the concern visible on his face.

"Padawan," He starts, then pauses before beginning again.  "Tae, a Jedi Master arrived this morning, asking for you by name.  There are some difficulties in verifying her identity however, more importantly, we cannot verify her connection to you.  Have you ever met a Knol Ven'nari?"

It takes a moment for the concern to make sense.  A moment where all Tae can remember is a tiny bothan with a fiery mind laughing at his master in a bar fight, before she hands him her drink and wades in to help.  Then reality comes crashing back and he remembers a remembrance ceremony, with her name following his uncle's.

He's rising almost before he realizes it.

"She's here?" He asks desperately.  "She's alive?"

Master Norcuna frowns faintly. "As far as we can tell, yes.  Knight Leska informed me of her arrival and has been destracting her while I sought you out.  Would you know her well enough to spot an imposter?"

It's a chilling thought, that someone might want him badly enough to impersonate a deceased Jedi to get to him.  But Tae breathes through the chill before nodding.

"Master Ven'nari let me practice reading her mind once, on a mission where we ended up working together.  I think I'd be able to recognise her mental signature anywhere now."

The Twi'lek nods slowly, "And would you wish to see her to try?"

Tae doesn't even have to consider it before nodding.  If Master Ven'nari is alive she might have news of his Uncle.  And even if not he wants to see her again, to have the chance to see her alive after mourning her.

Master Norcuna accepts his decision without stopping to make sure he's certain a second time.  They make their way through the training grounds and past the war tent, heading for the medical tent.  Halfway there Tae realizes he can sense her.  It's muted by the fog following him, but only just.  There's a swirling heat that accompanies her thoughts Tae is pretty sure no one could fake that even if they managed to fake everything else.

Knight Leska gives Master Norcuna a sharp look as they arrive but doesn't comment.  Beside her the bothan catches sight of Tae and steps around the other master to meet him.

Though the first words out of Master Ven'nari's mouth are, "Shit kid, you look awful."

Knight Leska tisks at her, but Tae finds himself smiling.  "And you look like you've been well, Master Ven'nari."

"I look like I've only just rediscovered hygiene, you mean. But you're too polite to say it." The shorter Jedi shakes her head, "A holdover from your Master, he always did speak like a politician."

It's not a hint or code, but it's also the first time anyone's brought up his Uncle in months without Tae mentioning him first, and suddenly he feels like crying.

"Ah shit, Little Diath, come here.  I'm too short to do this without your help."

There's a hand on his arm and Tae leans into the offered hug, hiding his face in the bothan's neck for a long moment as he pulls himself back together.  This close he catches flickers of her thoughts in spite of the shield.  He thinks he must be projecting a bit too because a hand comes up to rub at his temple.

"We really weren't considering you at all, were we kid?  Sorry, I should have come back sooner."

Flashes of a conversation overlooking a lava field, a plan to fake their deaths and go underground.  Traces of guilt for not discussing Tae's future there at the same time.  And under it all are a thousand different plans she's prepared since, and flashes of a yellow and black striped figure she's left on the ship.

Tae pulls back, blinking down at her as the impressions settle into order in his mind.  She's going to look for his uncle.  "You need my help."

Master Ven'nari nods, "We do."

He looks to the other Jedi next, "May I go?"

"It will be dangerous," Knight Leska informs him.  "Master Ven'nari had a run-in with Dooku on Onderon.  He may be pursuing her still."

"The Council assigned Tae to our supervision," Master Norcuna interjects.  "It would be a grave misstep to entrust his care to another."

"You want Master Ven'nari to claim him as her Padawan learner," Knight Leska accuses, and Tae blinks, glancing down at the bothan Master.  She meets his gaze steadily.

"I have no intention of replacing Master Diath.  That said, as long as it's alright with you I'm willing to give it a try."

"I accept," Tae replies quickly, glancing up at the other Masters.  "This is something I need to do."

"Very well then," Master Ven'nari cuts in before the others can respond.  "Padawan Tae Diath I take you as my Padawan learner." She turns to Knight Leska, "Any objections?"

"Keep him safe and I'll have none," the Knight replies.  "We can get the paperwork filed right now and get you both out of the system before Count Dooku has a chance to track you down."

"You should take this time to say goodbye to your friends," Master Norcuna suggests gently before Tae can follow them.  "Whatever papers you need to sign will wait until you're ready to leave."

Master Ven'nari nods at the suggestion, giving Tae a shooing motion when he turns to her for permission.  It's an echo of his first day as a padawan, but this time the feeling in Tae's gut is regret, not excitement, as he hurries away to find the others one last time.

- - - - - - - - - -

Knol watches the kid, her new Padawan learner, leave to say his last goodbyes and has to bite back a scathing criticism of the war effort.  But her company already knows everything she could say, and they don't need to hear it from her.

Diath might tho, when she finally manages to track him down.  How did they let it come to this? Where he could have lost his Padawan on the battlefield and not even known until it was too late?  Tae might be the most well adjusted psychic she's ever met, but the separation had left him battered.

No matter what good had come of their ruse, Tae had suffered for it.  And they owed him for that.

"Sorry for leading the Count this way," she offers finally, following Knight Leska into a small logistics tent.  "I know him showing up on my tail could make things messy for you."

"Maybe if he shows we'll be able to get the forces we actually need to pull this off," the human replies tiredly.  "I'll be honest, Master, the Senate is pinning their hopes on Master Kenobi somehow finding a diplomatic solution.  If that fails we're fighting a civil war I don't think we can win."

"And the Council's response is to sent you more Padawan's," Knol puts the pieces together.  "They can't allocate more Knights without consulting the Senate, but the kids are an available resource."

"We shouldn't be asking a handful of Padawans to stand in for an army of soldiers, but there you have it," the Knight sighs, handing over a datapad with the correct paperwork.  "At least you're getting Tae out of the line of fire.  All we're waiting for now is Master Kenobi and we'll be deploying."

Knol's ruff flattens slightly at the thought.  She quickly finishes the paperwork and hands it back. "Anything else?"

"That should be everything," Leska agrees with a faint smile.  "We don't have much but if you need food or fuel…"

"Save what you have for the troops, we'll be fine for a while," the bothan cuts her off.  That earns her a faint smile.

"Then that's all.  May the Force be with you, Master Ven'nari."

"And with you all, Knight Leska."

- - - - - - - - - -

The ship is larger than Tae expected.  Admittedly about half the size is down to the folded wings, but the other half is still larger than a few scattered snipits lead him to expect.

The trooper who dropped them off saluted sharply then turned back the way they'd come.  He'd been cautiously interested in them, departing this close to a major mission, and had let Master Ven'nari draw him into a light back-and-forth that left the trooper feeling better than he had when they arrived.  Tae still isn't sure exactly what it was about the conversation that helped, but maybe it was simply being acknowledged rather than ignored.

There's another Force presence on the ship, a quiet sort of darkness that feels like sickness.  Underneath it is an abrasive sense of fear, and a determination dedicated to surviving in spite of it.

Tae's never met a Sith, isn't entirely certain he'd know what the Darkside feels like in a friend who's lost their way.  But he knows there's something wrong with that signature.  He doesn't realize he's stopped, staring up the loading ramp dubiously, until Master Ven'nari is abruptly in front of him.

"You sense him, don't you?  And you're wondering if I'm out of my mind."

Tae sputters at the accusation.  "I-! No! Of course I don't think that Master Ven'nari!  I'm certain I just don't know the whole picture.  There's probably a perfectly good reason to keep such a dangerous secret this close to so many other Jedi."

The bothan's brow twitched skeptically.

"For some reason, kid, I get the feeling you're trying to scold me.  But I'll just take you at your word instead." She glances up the ramp herself, then turns back to him with a frown. "I won't be able to talk about it until we're gone, so if you want to take a look at my reasons consider this permission.  Go ahead."

Tae hesitated at that.  Telepathy was an uncommon skill, and a powerful one, but those who knew about it could diminish its effectiveness with deflecting techniques, or even traps.  And while using his abilities to enter another's mind gave him a lot of power, it also left him uniquely vulnerable to counterattacks.  If Master Ven'nari had fallen and intended to overpower him in some way this was likely a trap.  But if she hadn't it was still possible her thoughts could be misleading.

Or they could be the simplest way to verify her intent.  There was no way to be sure.

Tae closes his eyes, taking a deep breath, and reaches for the Force.  There's no warning, just a twinge of anticipation, and he decides to trust his newest Master isn't lying.

Years before his Master had introduced the Bothan after they were thrown out of a bar.  Master Ven'nari had chuckled when Tae handed her back her drink and agreed easily when his uncle asked if Tae could practice reading her mind.

"We all have secrets, kid," She told him when Tae had been surprised.  "And it's not like a normal Jedi can't rummage around enough to find some of them anyway.  The secret's not thinking of things you don't want other people to find out.  Just focus on my thoughts rather than digging through my mind and I promise you won't find out anything you'd end up in danger for knowing."

He's not sure that's true anymore.  Whatever secret she's keeping is certain to bring with it a whole mess of trouble.  Enough that she's seeking out his master for help sorting it out.  But Tae needs to know what he's walking into.

He closes his eyes and leans into the fire that burns in Master Ven'nari's mind.  This time there are no mirages, no misdirection layered on top of thoughts meant to redirect the eye.  He falls straight into a memory, a sickbed confession played back slow as it was deliberately recalled.  There are fragments of thought tacked on in places, connections her mind makes automatically but there and gone before they can become complete images on their own.  It's enough for him to guess at the bigger picture, and doesn't feel like she's leading him on.

When it gets to the end the memory shifts back to normal though patterns.  Flickers of plans underneath the more direct feeling of awaiting his response, though Master Ven'nari already suspects what it will be.

Tae opens his eyes, glancing past the other Jedi into the shadows of the ship.  Then he meets her gaze again.

"You're right.  He deserves the chance to make his own choices before being condemned."

It's a reflection of his own skill, twisted into a tool for slavery.  Even a simple Force Suggestion doesn't feel that innocent now.

Master Ven'nari gives him a sympathetic glance.  Then she sighs and gestures up the ramp.

"We need to get back into space sooner than later.  But I promise we can talk about all this more once we're in the air."

Tae nods quickly, hurrying up the ramp into the ship proper.

Master Ven'nari follows him in, sealing the ramp behind them before starting off down the hall.

"Get yourself settled into either room on that side," she says with a wave. "Afterwards you can come meet me up front.  Don't wander around until I can give you the tour and introduce you properly, got it?"

He nods quickly, earning him a smile before she vanishes down the opposite hall.

Tae turns away before he can give into his curiosity and try to figure out which door she went through.  He's been given a choice of rooms after all, and clearly that decision should be given the utmost care and attention.

- - - - - - - - - -

Savage hadn't been planning on sleeping, hadn't been expecting to be able to with all his senses on high alert.  But his body betrayed him once again and sent him spiraling into unconsciousness anyway.

When he wakes the Jedi has returned, and there is a second presence following behind.  Even in his exhausted state Savage hasn't forgotten their discussion the night before, so he must assume the presence is the Jedi's contact.

He hopes the Jedi will keep her word, but cannot be certain.  Knows only that she will not defend him against her own kind if they choose to fight him.  And in this state he knows whatever conflict arises will not be much of a fight at all. 

The only weapon he has is the waterskin, the hard head of which might be able to do some damage if he had the strength to back it up.  He's too weak to run, too weak to win in a fight, but not to fight at all.

There's a small part of him that insists it won't be necessary, but he's lived too long to take anything on faith under another's rule.

By the time they make it into the vessel he's pulled himself upright, wedged into the corner of the wall, with the waterskin half hidden under a corner of the blanket.

But the new presence doesn't come to his room.  Instead the Jedi stops at the door once again and prods him with the force, only entering after he prods her in return.

The Jedi takes in his defensive attempts with one glance, and Savage fights down the illogical impulse to try and hide what his plans were.  She doesn't order him to stand down, though, and he can't decide if she doesn't think he's a threat or if she truly believes her companion won't start anything.  He forces himself to meet her eyes either way, and after a moment she nods.

"My contact agreed to come with us.  I'll introduce you as soon as we get a destination and are back in hyperspace.  For now we need to be on our way as quickly as we can afford.  That said, do you need anything before we set out?  It might get a little bumpy, but I'm assuming you want to stay upright.  Anything else?  It might be another half hour to an hour before I can come back."

For a second there's an impulse to ask for a weapon so strong it's dizzying.  Even for the most stringent tests the Elder Nightbrothers would grant you a dagger if you asked.  But he was an enemy here not a child prepping for his coming of age.  She'd be a fool to humor him.

Savage shakes his head instead.

"You ok on water?" The Jedi presses, pointing to the waterskin in his hand. "There still any in there?"

He has rationed it, uncertain when she would be returning.  There's a little less, and while more would be acceptable he's not about to hand over his only weapon like that.

"I will be fine," he tells her firmly.

The Jedi studies him for a long moment, then reaches for her own belt, disconnecting an identical water skin and holding it out.

"Just in case," she tells him, stepping forward to rest the waterskin on the bed within reach before turning and leaving the room.

Savage takes the second skin gingerly, suspicious of a trap and yet finding none.  He considers the new presence but they seem to be ignoring him, moving instead to join the Jedi in the front of the vessel.

He settles more firmly into the corner, anticipating the lightning shocks of pain liftoff will drive through him.  And reluctantly reassures himself that the Jedi kept her word.

It's the upcoming introduction and what may follow that must concern him now.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Have a seat over there," is the greeting Tae gets as soon as he makes his way up to the cockpit.

Master Ven'nari is in the middle of a complicated series of inputs, but has the time to indicate the chair to her left. It's massive compared to the one she's piloting from.  Tae eyes it dubiously for a moment before sitting down, but it's not as uncomfortable as he expected.

"Your permissions just came through, Maalraas," a voice speaks up from the communications array in the console in between their two seats.  "You are cleared for departure, stand by for exit flight plan."

Master Ven'nari nods as she flicks the return signal button.  "Understood, Maalraas standing by."

There's a data transmission of some sort and flicking a few switches somehow sends it on to a small green console in the corner that wakes up with an irritated clatter before beginning its job.  An overlay appears in the far right of the viewport but the older Jedi doesn't seem phased, tuning instead to press the return signal button again.

"Flight path received, Air Control, the Maalraas is ready to proceed."

"You are clear Maalraas, depart when ready.  We'll inform you immediately if anything changes."

"Departing now."

There's a flurry of switches and a jolt as the ship starts rising.  Then they're sliding forward and up as the ground falls away from view.  Moments later the sky shifts through an array of shades until it settles on a dark blue-gray and they level out.

"This is Air Traffic Control, Maalraas you are clear.  Fly safe out there."

"Keep up the good work, Air Traffic Control.  This was the least painful departure has been in a while."

There's a startled laugh.  "Thank you, sir.  We'll do our best.". And then the line goes dead.

Tae stares at the buttons lining the console in front of him and wonders if the sequence somehow makes sense with practice or if the bothan simply had years of experience in him with which to guess.

When he glances up they're still flying generally away from Handooine and Master Ven'nari is watching him.

"Well kid, any idea where your Master might have been headed?"

Tae shrugs apologetically. "I haven't heard from him since his last message to tell me he wasn't actually dead.  But I know it was sent from the Lannik System."

"He's headed straight for Hutt Space," Master Ven'nari muses, tapping the edge of a console idly.  Then she smiles.

"That close to Bothan space there's no way he made it through undetected.  Don't worry, Little Diath, we'll find him."

There’s more toggles and buttons, and a deep hum somewhere in the hold, then they’re changing course again.

“Fifteen minutes to the hyperspace lane,” the older Jedi spoke up as she leaned over the controls. “Then I can finally answer any questions and get you that introduction.”

- - - - - - - - - -

There was not an armada lying in wait for them at Manaan.  There wasn't even that much of a conflict getting clearance to land on one of the smaller medical platforms.  The only hiccup was when her bioscan came up as a perfect match but listed her as deceased.  And that was a simple matter of explaining to the security doctor in question that she's been out of contact since her last mission and hadn't realized she was presumed dead.  They just updated her official file and that was that.

The station they'd gotten permission to land on was more of a xenobiology lab than a proper medical facility, but that was why spaceport security had directed them there.  If nothing else the small team's excitement at the prospect of studying actual Orbalisk venom meant Sunshine was immediately rushed into intensive care.

An hour later the facility supervisor took Knol aside and quietly informed her it was a miracle the Zabrak had survived this long at all.  Even for a species renowned for their survivability, many systems were already on the border of shutting down.  They would continue to run tests against the samples they'd extracted from both his blood and the soiled Duvet, but in all likelihood they were going to lose him.

On the other hand they'd been able to send away for Zabrak positive blood from a larger medical facility, and hooked him up to an IV in a private room where she could sit with him in case they had any news.

Knol spent the next few hours slipping in and out of a restless meditation, answering whatever questions she could whenever the techs came by or a nurse came by to check readings.  In spite of the toxin still burning it's way through his system Sunshine was somehow still hanging on at just above cascade failure.  Not a single one of his systems had failed, in spite of the continuing damage and the pain Knol could still feel radiating off him.

It was an offhand comment from one of the lab techs that made her consider this might be part of the Nightsister magics as well.

"I just can't make sense of it," the woman complained after reading the readouts for a third time and getting the same results. "Everything we see says he should be seconds away from finally collapsing, but it's been hours and though the damage is spreading further into his extremities the core functions are no longer getting any worse.  It's as if something is physically holding his system together at a baseline functionality.  Because it refuses to let him fall apart before total collapse."

And to the doctors that probably sounds like the hint of some not yet understood medical miracle.  But Knol's Sith guest had all but admitted to being enhanced through some Dathomiri Force sorcery.  If they could rewrite his brain on such a basic level, what's to say they didn't rewrite his body as well?

And would Diath's knowledge of shields and force suggestion be able to help if it was a biological rewrite rather than a purely mental one?

She keeps coming back to it over the next six hours, no matter how many times she tells herself to set it aside, and that Fay is still a possible plan B.

She's still thinking about it when the lab tech comes running back in with the latest sample results and says that Sunshine's system has actually started producing antitoxin for the Orbalisk poison, slowly binding and neutralizing the poison in his system. And they can start manufacturing a synthetic variant right away.

After that there's a rush to produce and deliver the anti-toxin as quickly as possible, hopefully accelerating the process.  As the doctors work Knol sets about locating a ship that she can use to take them off planet, and somewhere she can ditch Dooku's ship without dooming the unsuspecting civilian she sells it too.

In the end Station Security is willing to risk taking the ship off her hands.  It's technically contraband siezed from a separatist sympathiser, and one of their techs is really excited to get his hands on the solar sail that comes with it.  As long as he doesn't take the sail appart they can just hand the ship over to Dooku as reclaimed property if he ever comes looking for it again.

The station commander is even willing to hand over one of the vessels they have impounded in return.  She's a liscenced jedi so he can wave payment for the ship without having to report it being a thank you for turning over Dooku's sailer.  And the ship in question has been in lockup, unclaimed for over a decade.

Knol's pretty sure she can handle some angry spacer somewhere trying to take her down for driving their ship, so she accepts the offer.  The commander agrees to hold onto the sailer until she has a chance to search it and move anything she wants to keep to the new vessel.

Then the deed transfer comes through and she curses.  A Mandal Motors Rawl Class Diplomatic Transport, licensed only a few days before the bombardment 7 centuries ago.  No wonder the spaceport was interested in getting it off-planet.  If the Clan that owned it isn't dead they'll probably kill to get it back.  Even if they are, Death watch certainly wouldn't mind getting their hands on it.

But heck, it should be fast, durable, and well armed.  She'll take what she can get.  She can get the Sith to fight any Death Watch who show up or something.

The ships more or less out of the way, Knol turns her attention to tracking down Tae Diath.  Even recently back from the dead she's not interested in using her (still active) Council issued codes to request the information.  Fortunately the agent she set to watch the boy after the bar brawl still has him, and is prompt in responding to her requesting an update.

The doctor flags her down for an update before she finishes decrypting it.

"We believe the majority of the toxin in his system has been isolated, and will be increasing the temperature and his fluid intake in an effort to purge the resultant compounds from his body.  If possible we would ask you to wait outside for this period, as it increases the risk of infection in bystanders.  As his current caretaker we would also ask your permission to induce a light fever, on the assumption that increased sweating will accelerate the process."

Knol considers this for a moment then nods, her coat shifting to lie flat once again.  "Permission granted.  Just remember that he might not react well if he wakes up in the presence of strangers and don't hesitate to call me back if it looks like he might wake up."

"Of course, we will keep you updated."

As she left a part of Knol's better judgement was screaming at her to go back and stand guard.  The Sith might wake up and murder everyone at any point, what right did she have to risk everyone on the base by returning to the Orbital Control Station?  But she needed to get the Sailer up there anyway and move whatever she wanted to take over to the Rawl.  Dooku still hadn't tracked them down, but the longer they stayed in one place the less likely that would hold true.

Knol would really rather have her new, unbugged vessel ready for emergency liftoff down at the labs before that happened.

- - - - - - - - - -

Knol isn't sure what she expected but the ship is a deep woody brown, shifting between darker and lighter shades that she can't even begin to know the meaning of and tipped with stripes of red and yellow.  She'd been idly considering if she should ask the station to do a quick repaint, if the ship turned out to be Death Watch blue or something of the sort, but this wasn't bad.

With the transfer paperwork in hand she just had to give it a name and they could give her the keys.  Maalraas, she decided after agonizing over the choice for a full fifteen minutes.  That's what the legend of the stealth beasts on Dxun had called them, dark shades.  But not so dark after all, and at least this ship had the teeth to match.

Stripping Dooku's ship of anything valuable came next.  She took the remains of the Sith's armor, most of the medical supplies, the Count's spare clothes and the sheets.  Then she went back for the expensive alcohol and the real wood holotable, just to tweak his nose some more.  She'd have to nail it down somewhere and replace the fixtures she'd ripped out of it, but it would actually match the Maalrass's lounge surprisingly well.

Deciding that was enough for now Knol paid one last visit to the commander's office to sign over the sailer.  The selkath gave her a grin and thanked her for apprehending the criminals who stole it before sending her on her way.

Though over double the size before countung wingspan, the Maalraas still fits easily on the research station's landing pad.  The only spot of color over the ocean, looking like some large out of place bird.  Or maybe a beached fish.

The facility supervisor waves her over when she steps in the door, indicating the crate of supplies standing beside them.

"We made up a list of suppliments your friend should take to help in dealing with the cellular damage.  Protien, trace minerals, everything he should get in a healthy diet that might not be available while in depe space." They tap the datapad in their hand with a smile. "Dirrections are all on here.  With another set for the second crate.  That one's emergency stabeliers if he suddenly has a crash during recovery.  These are whatever we could supply from our own stores but it should be enough to keep him alive until you reach another medical facility.  As a thank you and we'll wishes from everyone here to his speedy recovery."

"It's appreciated, and I'm sure he'll appreciate it too," Knol agrees, considering the crates and the datapad.  "How did you know we'd be leaving?  Most doctors I know want their patients to stay in bed until they're recovered.  Argue it pretty strongly."

The selkath shakes their head lightly.  "You said as much when you came in.  Whatever we could do for him as fast as we could, even thought you could not say why he was suffering from Orbalisk toxin.  Then, as soon as he might be on the mend you started planning your departure.  Master Jedi, whatever it is you're attempting to do, it's clear time is of the essence.  And as much as we'd all rather your friend remain in bed until he's fully recovered, well, it's clear you don't have that much time."

Knol's fur ruffles involuntarilly at the accurate read but she gives the doctor a faint smile.

"You're right.  But if it helps, I'll try to play doctor stand-in and argue that Sunny stay in bed as long as possible as we travel."

The selkath actually laughs at that, shaking their head as they hand over the datapad.  "Then, on behalf of doctors everywhere, I dearly hope you learn something from the experience."

Knol isn't sure what to say to that, but takes the datapad and the excuse to leave the conversation, securing the crates on the Maalraas before returning to Sunshine's observation room.

The cleaning droid leaving the room happily informs her that the sweat-soaked blanket this time was only barely stained black, and after a few more quarter hour periods the isolated venom content in his blood should be at a managable level.  The bothan can feel the stifling heat in the room before she arrives, radiating through the force as the Sith struggles with his fever, still too weak to wake up fully, but no longer as deeply unconscious.

The technition keeping an eye on his charts from outside the room waves her over, explaining that they believe the venom is inactive, and about 75% has been successfully purged.  But they're concerned that the remaining percentage won't be properly filtered by a ship's water recycler, and might still be toxic enough to kill anyone other than a Zabrak. So they're pushing to get as much of it out of him as they can.

"I just hope we manage to find a more stable solution soon," the technician admits softly.  "Waiting for him to reach 100% toxicity free isn't viable.  And in the meantime he's unconscious, suffering thought a feever while already at his worst."

Knol freezes as the technition turns back to monitoring the console.  She hadn't considered the risk of contamination in the closed environment of a ship.  But more than that, she'd left a recently abandoned force sensitive to suffer through a feever alone, with her only though being for the potential destruction he could cause when finally awake.

Reaching out to the twisting energy in the other room Knol tries to draw up a feeling of calm the way the Temple Healers do, with minimal success.  Unlike the injured jedi she's seen, the Sith doesn't even seem to realise an attempt a comfort is present, and attempting to wrap it around him herself only seems to agitate him more.

But it's fire that torments the sleeping Zabrak, a burning he can't escape or pinpoint the origin of, attempting to devour him from the inside out.  And fire Knol knows how to handle.

Moving to sit at the base of the wall she reaches out into the Force again, feeling the battered presence of the Sith flickering at her back.  In her mind Knol tucks that candle under her collarbone, focusing on slowly spinning the fire threatening to overwhelm it away, until the ache of the fever is a vortex around them rather than on top of them, no longer battering the Zabrak's exhausted mind.

To her surprise the candlelight doesn't resist, but neither does it lean into the offered protection.  It just continues flickering in exhausted circles where she left it, accepting what comfort she might give without expecting anything more.

A hand on her arm draws her back to the hall, though the vortex still turns in the back of her mind.

The technition smiles apologetically down at her.  "The director thinks we can program anpatch for your filtration computer to make sure the remaining particles are filtered correctly, and the simulations estimate 92% of the toxins have been purged.  The Droids are going to break his feever now.  Then they'll do one last sponge bath and change the sheets one more time."

With half her mind still meditating Knol can only manage a quiet thank you, but that's all that seems to be required before the selcath wanders off again.

She's investing herself too much, Knol realizes, waffling between her usual pragmatic approach and a biting sort of empathy that the Sith may never return.  Lowering her shields this far, attempting a shared meditation to shield not just a stranger, but a powerful darkside user from their own mind while they're weak, it could do real damage to both of them if she messes up, if he wakes up badly and lashes out.  And yet randomly dropping the protection will definitely hurt them both, plus the Sith wouldn't know why she'd done it.  Knol needs to pick how far she's willing to go and stay there so the Sith knows the rules she expects him to follow, no more of this waffling all over the place.

She still needs to decrypt the Tae report, they need a destination and to leave as soon as possible.  And yet the Bothan's more concerned with the mental state of someone she should really be calling 'prisoner' rather than 'charge'.  Where she hadn't cared beyond stealing him out from under Dooku's nose a day ago.

It's been too long since she rested, perhaps, her mind leaping between extremes more on instinct than discernable logic.  Knol can't sleep just yet, not when the Sith might wake at any moment and not when she's the one holding back his pain.  But an hour or two in meditation should help somewhat.

She slips back into the Force, eyes closed and breathing steady.  The vortex stays around the edge of her mind, the fire slowly fading to be replaced by shattering lightning, but Knol doesn't dwell on the why's, just leaves the candle flame flickering in her shadow as a buffer against the storm she's holding at bay, and loses herself in the moments that pass, letting her mind focus on nothing, letting it rest.

Some time later she's interrupted by a concerned technician, who tells her she can safely re-enter the room now, and wouldn't she be more comfortable in a chair?  Knol follows with the minimum required attention, settling into the offered chair and slipping back into a meditation quiet enough it might as well be sleep.  Beside her the Sith breathes quietly, the rhythm matching the vortex in her mind.  It's a simple matter to slip into that center once again.

Technicians wander through to check the charts, departing on footsteps as quiet as they can make them in the hopes of letting the jedi rest.

It will be some hours before either force sensitive wakes again.

- - - - - - - - - -

Savage's first sensation is of pain.  A full ache that itches along the edge of awareness, like the burn of sith lightning in the air just before it hits.  There's a force presence hanging over his, idly pushing the full bite of that pain out of his reach, sliding any part of it that ventures too close neatly behind glass.

He wants to curl up small and hope that that presence lets him stay here a while longer.  But the glass is too familiar, and he can't bear to have more of himself locked away.

"Please," he begs, not certain what to expect for this disobedience but desperate to try.  "Please, give it back."

A hesitation and part of him knows this is when he hurts again, but that's what he wanted, so the slow sinking burn of his body coming back to him doesn't feel as much like a rebuke as it probably should.

The ache of lightning fills his bones, his limbs, the edges of his thoughts, and he struggles to breathe through it for a moment, trying to direct the ache into rage as he was shown, but again he fails.  The force presence doesn't leave though, doesn't pull back in disgust at his failure and leave him to suffer through on his own.  Doesn't strike him down with lighting a second time and demand he do better.

Savage forces himself to open his eyes, and finds the Bothan Jedi staring down at him.

"Sorry, I should have asked first," she says.  "Wasn't thinking about the mind control and how not having access to what you're feeling might come across the same way.  It just felt like you were in a lot of pain.  How are you feeling now?"

"It burns like Sith Lightning," he responds simply.  "And I feel tired, weak.  I do not know how much help I will be in this state."

"Well, a lot of your internals were damaged by the poison before they finally flushed it out.  You're going to be weak and achy while your body recovers." The Jedi shrugs like it doesn't matter. "They were able to pack up some supplements for you to take to speed up the recovery process.  Until then you'll be resting in your bunk as much as possible, so it should be fine."

She hesitates then, before continuing in a lower voice.

"Something about what the Nightsisters did to you enhanced your body, didn't it?" At Savage's nod she sighed.  "Whatever it was saved your life.  There was… something that refused to let the poison kill that last 30% of all systems your body needs to keep functioning.  It let you hold on, and even started neutralizing the poison so the scientists here could copy it and make an antidote.  Now that the toxin's gone you should begin to heal again, but you're still only at 30%, so take it slow, alright?"

The Nightsisters' magics kept him alive.  In the back of his mind he admits that the theory makes sense, why waste time crafting a super-soldier who could be taken down by such simple means as poison?  But at the fore is a feeling much like drowning.  Savage is finding he would rather it had been the doctors, or some form or Jedi heeling, even a quirk of biology, rather than the magics woven into his blood.

A hand settles on his shoulder, shockingly warm for its size.

"Come on, Sunshine, breathe," the Jedi murmurs down at him.  "It doesn't matter if I'm right or not.  You're alive now, you're on the mend, and we'll get rid of every scrap of their magic in your system if that's what you want."

He's not sure if he wants that, isn't sure if that's even what he's feeling or if some fraction of his uncertainty comes from feeling eternally trapped behind glass, and he can't find the words at the moment to express any of that.

So of course his mind catches on the one work he knows doesn't belong.

"That's… not my name?"

The Jedi blinks, then grins at him.  "Well, yeah.  I never got your name, so I needed to call you something."

"My name is Savage," he manages, confused.  And the Jedi just smiled wider gesturing to herself.

"Mine's Knol, nice to meet you.  So, what do you think?  Can I keep calling you Sunshine or would you rather I just stick to Savage?"

He freezes again, uncertain what answer he's supposed to give.  It wasn't terrible, when she called him that, and he doesn't want to anger her by claiming it was.  But loosing Savage, loosing that last part of what made him him before Ventress…

There's warm fingers on his temple and another hand on his wrist.

"Savage, hey.  Come on, kid, breathe.  I can use both, and if it still feels strange after a while we can discuss it again later."

He breathes, sucking in one breath after another on her orders until he can keep the rhythm on his own.  Then he nods quickly, careful not to catch her fingers with his horns.

"Both."

The hand on his wrist squeezes gently, sending a stab of pain up his arm even as it feels like reassurance.  The Jedi, Knol's, fur ruffles as well, softening the curve of her jaw for a moment, and he wonders if it's meant as a threat display or something else.

Knol just grins at him again, though, before waving a hand at the door.  "I managed to find us a ship, so we're ready to leave as soon as you get the clear.  Even managed to find a clue where to find the guy who can fix your head."

He wants it fixed, wants in a way he can't remember wanting much else right now, but knows he did.  Wants his mind back without the walls of glad he has to struggle to work around with every lesson.  Even though he can't move, and will be next to useless against any of their pursuers the Jedi keeps offering that chance, and he has to take it.  He can only hope whatever will be required if him to repay her isn't worse than what has come before.

"When can we leave?" He manages after a long pause.  The Jedi laughs.

"Should have known that would be your response.  No worries, I'll see if I can flag down a tech and get us out of here today."

- - - - - - - - - -

There’s a hostility in the air on Onderon that Knol hasn’t felt anywhere else.  A part of it is the people, already vicious in their city’s endless fight against encroaching nature, now faced with a droid army poised to wipe them out in turn.  Another source is the world itself, where all nature outside of Iziz’s carefully slashed borders is violent and full of predators that can take down men with modern weapons.  Not exactly an environment that breeds conservationists.  Even the separatist droids, capable of standing against Iziz’s militias, find themselves repeatedly overwhelmed by the planet’s native inhabitants.

And then there’s Dxun.

There have always been rumors about Onderon’s moon, locked into the history of the planet as it is and home to all of Onderon’s worst monsters.  The Temple archives have oblique references to it in the oldest files.  Mentions of an assault from Onderon's moon, and the many Jedi who died preventing it.  There’s more in the restricted archives.  Sith holocrons speak of it as a site of potent dark side energy, and breeding ground of monsters perfectly predisposed for use in sith alchemy.

Knol is here chasing rumors of an ancient Sith stronghold, long since fallen into ruin.  A tomb perhaps, or maybe a temple, but definitely an ancient stronghold of the Sith.  It’s the real reason for the Seperatist presence on Onderon, and they’ve been preparing all spring for an assault on the moon, just as soon as the two spheres shifted into alignment.

Threads discovered by Clan Nari spies have led her here, too late to stop the assault, but not late enough that she can’t infiltrate the fortress first and remove anything they might be after.  Thankfully the local wildlife and the droids have been taking each other out, leaving her to make her way towards the fortress more or less unimpeded.  Even more than Onderon this moon makes her fur itch, instincts constantly warning that the jungle is hiding millions of predators of all sizes, plant and animal alike, sizing up an easy bothan meal.  And while she’ll never be an easy meal she’s learned long ago not to dismiss her instincts.  Many Jedi might see fight-or-flight as a chemical bias factor but for her the force works though instinct the same as it does everything else.

Knol would have died long ago if she stopped heeding it.

There’s an itch at the base of her skull that follows her but for once leaning on the force doesn’t reveal her watchers, just a squadron of droids sweeping the jungle nearby.  They’re wielding blasters and flamethrowers, hardly a threat of the kind to make her hair stand on end, and not close enough to stumble on her by accident.

There’s a search pattern they’re following, however, and if she uses that she can guess where she needs to go.  

It's good enough for a start at least.  Only three quarters of the moon left to rule out.  The eyes on her back fade as she makes her way around the droids, eventually disappearing entirely.  One less predator after her on a moon where even the plants try to eat you.

- - - - - - - - - -

As she scales low-lying branches, making her way through the least hostile trees, Knol slowly learns the force presences of the predators around her.

Bloodsap she learns first, needing to make sure she doesn't lean too long on a plant whose leaves and bark will try to drain her through her skin.  The Sugarleaves are safer, their sweet-smelling leaves the true trap, leaving their stone-hardened bark a safe landing zone.  Among fauna are the herds of Cannoks, terrorizing anything they can overwhelm and dying to everything else.  She can easily outwit them with a force trick easily enough, the herd would rushing off together after prey only one of them even saw.  The oversized Boma aren't so easily distracted but far simpler to simply spot and avoid.  The airborne Skreev circle the upper branches, looking for clearings with Bomu or Cannoks where they can dive down and spear themselves a meal before fleeing.  Sticking to the treeline kept her out of their way, and the single Drexl that flew overhead was happy to snatch up the Skreev eyeing her rather than the significantly smaller bothan meal.

And yet, every now and then the fur at the base of her skull will stand up, though there's nothing she cand sense in the force.  Her silent watchers are wary, never venturing close or closing in for the kill, and they always remain behind when she moves on.  

There'd been rumors in the ancient archives of Force-hunters, beasts who cloaked themselves with the Force and used it to sense their prey.  Presumed to be a sith bioweapon gone native then extinct in the pressures of the Dxun environment.  Knol was beginning to suspect they weren't nearly as extinct as she'd like.

Still, cloaked watchers or not, she was getting closer.  While the droids scout every square inch of the jungle, fighting strangling vines and varyingly deep pools of water the whole way, Knol turns her steps towards the faint increase of darkness in the distance.

But she needed to hurry.  Even without any ability to sense the Force the battledroids will eventually find the temple themselves.  It just might take longer than they'd like to navigate the jungle on the way there.

A search unit is stalled at the edge of a mini-swamp when Knol lands in their midst.  Before the droids can react the bothan is spinning into battle. The two guard units with blasters going down first, taking just enough time for the rest of the droids to level their flamethrowers at her.  After that it's a simple matter of spinning the fire out of her way with one hand while using the other to strike down each droid in turn.

In the silence that follows the feeling of eyes intensifies.  The force swirls around her still, the last of the fire dissipating in her palm, but revealing nothing of her newest watcher.  And reaching out with a more direct pulse does nothing but make the feeling peak.  Knol eyes her surroundings for a moment longer, still seeing nothing out of place, before deciding an attack still isn't imminent and sheathing her lightsaber.  This time, however, the watcher follows her when she sets out.  Every now and then she thibjs she can hear a paw hitting water, or claws digging into bark for purchase, but the monster stalking her steps remaines otherwise undetectable.

The next group of droids she funds between her and the growing darkness falls like the first.  The third group is larger and more concentrated in flamethrower droids.  A few moments into the fight there's a low snarl and one of the blaster droids around the edge goes down before it can shoot her in the back.  There are massive teeth marks on the droid's head, and clawmarks where the invisible beast tore the chassis open to finally lay it low.

Still, the creature has yet to make a move against her.  And it probably doesn't prefer droids for food over Bothan.  Knol stretches her senses again, considering every corner of the clearing.  But the monster remains hidden and all she gets for her troubles is a headache and a vague sense of motion that quickly slips away from her again.

There's something following her, she's certain of it now.  And yet, trying to lean into that primal part of the force, the one making the fur on the back of her neck stand up, proves fruitless.  

With a huff Knol turns to continue towards the growing shadow, when there's suddenly a low growl and a sizeable presense behind her.  She spins, lightsaber already activating, then looks up.  The creature is a third again her height and easily five times her length, but it's standing out of range of her blade, teeth bared as it rumbles, but making no other move to attack.

Cautiously she reaches out with the Force, and is startled when the monster pushes back.  A tug on her force presence, and she can see flickering images of a monsterois beast, covered in glittering armor and radiating pure dark.  One living in exactly the dirrection she was headed.

Knol blinks, reaching out to the beast before her again, studying it even as it prods her in return.  There's a force bond there, recently torn, and running mental fingers over it gives her flashes of fire, a cub's death scream and glittering black droids.  The droids, while not radiating the force, had the same disquieting feeling in the beast's imoressions as the glittering armor of the dark mountain she'd been heading for.  Prodding that thought with a question gets her a huff and a series of impressions of a parasitic beetle, to be killed as soon as they were discovered near the den lest they multiply and take over, devouring tree and animal alike.

Knol grimmaces at the dark side radiating from the insects in the monster's memories.  Reaching out to her surroundings she finds she can sense them now, slowly overwhelming the monster she had been heading towards.  A Zakkeg, from what she had researched, but one slowly being devoured from the outside in, and as such wearing an impenetrable hide not even lightsabers could cut through.  And she'd thought the records of Orbalisks were creepy before she bumped into them.  An Orbalisks encased Zakkeg, definitely something to avoid.

Warning successfully delivered, the monster cloaks again, but this time Knol finds she can sense just a sliver of its presence, make out just a hint of its outline.  Prodding at it with the force reveals nothing more, but it occasionally prods her back.  There's an echo in it's attention of a curious cub, always prodding it for answers, and Knol finds herself carefully separating the monster's desire to handle-the-threat, kill-droids from her own.

No longer tracing the Orbalisk's darkside presence, Knol finds she still has some idea of where to go.  There are two smaller darkside presences not much further on.  Ones she had previously dismissed due to the strength and proximity of the Obalisk infected Zakkeg.  Both are smoother, less piercing of a call,  and at the same time more disguised, distinct from the scattered Orbalisks she can sense now that she knows what to look for.

But to get to them she'll need to pass through a bog teeming with the parasitic beetles.  Knol frowns, studying the scattered pillbug shells arrayed before her, not wanting to risk the water, seeing them scuttle through it at concerning speed.  But the Bloodsaps ahead of her have hints of darkness sheltered in their withering leaves, Orbalisks happy to drain the plants trying to drain them in turn.

The Sweetsap beneath her feet is unaffected, though, dead beetles littering the ground below, clearly incompatible with its acidic sap.  And an impatient tug on her force presence means her stalker would much rather her take the long way around, sticking to safe trees, rather than contemplating racing with death.

Knol chuckles under her breath at the admonishment, surprisingly similar to the complaints of her fellow Jedi on the rare occasions she had to work together.

Following the Sweetsap around the clearing leads them through a lighter patch, trees swaying ahead of her as her stalker moves invisibly from tree to tree.  Then Knol turns away from the prescribed path, forcing her watcher to shift into following again, the waters below grew more and more deadly as dormant Orbalisks sense her force presence and beging waking in a sea of dark stars around her.  All very interested in sinking their teeth into that beconing life.  But the trail of Sweetsaps continue, happily devouring the insects that devour everything else, allowing so Knol and her stalker to make it to the far side of the bog without incident.

The trees are thinner here, interrupted by unforgiving rock and intense winds.  Ahead of them is both the towering Sith Mausoleum Knol has been searching for, and the Sith Apprentice that has been searching for it.

The Zabrak clearly senses her, head jerking towards her as he struggles against his own limbs.  On the com by his head Dooku follows the movement, eyes widening slightly as he spots her.  Then he tilts his head in greeting.

"Master Ven'nari. It would appear the rumors of your untimely death were greatly exaggerated."

"Not everyone loves the spotlight as much as you do, Count." Knol rolls her eyes, just to see the proper bastard's eyebrow twitch.  Her cover's truly blown now, might as well make the most of it.

Dooku scoffs at her grin, "I suppose some are happy to settle for obscurity."  Then he frowns.  "I suppose I must consider that the others on your mission might have survived as well."

Knol shrugs dismissively. "Wouldn't know, I wasn't there to make friends, Count.  Saw my chance to sneak away - while still buying those reckless bastards a little time to complete the mission - so I took it."

"And no doubt stripped whatever information you could find on the base's computers for your home planet's paltry spy network.  Perhaps the Separatist cause would be better served taking your people down before any more damage can come of it."

"Shouldn't you be more worried about your own people?" Knol asks, giving the Zabrak on the ground a pointed glance. "Sunshiny Stripes isn't looking so good there."

Dooku scoffs, "I have no intention to bargain for the life of a mere apprentice. Under normal circumstances were he unable to defeat you and return to me he would be unworthy of my continued tutelage.  However, he recently fell afoul of the native Orbalisks insects. Once attached any means of killing the insect in question releases a fatal dose of an incurable toxin into the host's bloodstream."  Dooku sighs, shaking his head at the broken insectoid remains laying beside the still struggling Zabrak. "He'll be dead within the hour.  A pity, I had great hopes he would prove more obedient than my previous padawan."

"Whoever let you be a teacher clearly never saw you with kids," Knol muses acidly.  "They always end up dying in some horrible way."

Dooku's eyes flash. "You would do well to watch your mouth, Jedi."

But Knol isn't paying attention to him anymore.  Instead entire attention is locked onto the rapidly approaching shadow of a Drexl.

"Know what? Call you back sometime," the bothan quips, using the Force to snap the holo-disk into the drexl's eyes and sending it careening into the trees at the clearing's edge, only a short ways beyond the Sith's ship.

Before she can finish snatching up her lightsaber there's a snarl and the stalker lunges past.  Still cloaked, she can only spot it as it smashes into the Draxl's side, knocking the oversized I sect back to the ground as it tries to stand.  

There's a split second where Knol's only impulse is to run, just leave the Sith to die and the monsters to fight it out.  She's dismissing it before it even finishes forming, however.  Not like she'd be a very good Jedi if she couldn't be a better person than Dooku.

Her lightsaber's heavy in her hand, but the stalker is winning without her hekp, and beside her the Zabrak is still struggling to rise in spite of Dooku's words to the contrary, the force singing his frustration and pain.  Fear too, but buried by something like resignation even as he keeps fighting for breath.

Knol pulls him off the ground, with the help of a force pull, and all but throws the taller sentient over her shoulders to keep him upright.  The pain radiating off him intensifies, but there's a surge of startled gratitude as well, so she figures it's fine.

"Come on, big guy, let's get you somewhere a little safer."

Which, really, can only mean the ship.  She'll have to put searching the temple on hold for now.  But seeing as she's leaving with a Sith in custody Knol's pretty sure she has time for a detour.

The Drexl is wailing now, bleeding from several gouges and only able to track the smaller monster when it lands a blow.  A part of Knol's still tempted to step in, help the monster that's been following her this whole time.  But she knows this is the only chance she'll have to get the Sith to safety, and that makes sealing the loading ramp shut easier..

It's clearly one of Dooku's personal crafts, with real wood paneling and fancy upholstery on the pilot seat.  Knol tosses the injured apprentice onto the fancy bed and doesn't regret the bloodstains for a moment.

"Stay calm and stay put," she orders when he seems ready to start struggling again. "Try to keep the poison from spreading any faster while I get us out of here."

Then she activates the anti-turbulence field on the bed and sprints over to the ship controls.  Only, there's no armaments she can find, only a handful of micro tractor/repulsor beam generators along the nosecone.  An unarmed ship? For a mission to Dxun? Really?

At least the tractor beam generators meant the nosecones were reinforced.  Firing up the engine Knol takes a moment to reach out into the Force where her stalker should be and project her intent.  Then she lifts off just far enough to spin the ship and ram the Drexl in the side.  

Fed up with this assault the airborne predator turns and throws itself airborne, limping away and skyward as it retreats into the sunset.  There's a rush of satisfaction from below, at overcoming the predator and protecting the cubs.  And for a moment Knol can almost place the stalker's outline through the viewport.

Then the trees sway and it's gone.

Probably off to hunt some Cannoks in the post-battle high, she figures.  She wishes her monster quick success, turns the ship skyward, and lifts off.

Once safely out of the shared Onderon/Dxun atmosphere Knol weighs her options.  There's no telling how much of the ship is bugged, or even how Dooku is tracking it.  Any hyperspace coordinates she types in might well have an armada waiting for them when they arrive, but it can't be helped.  Not like she can trade favors for a half-priced cabin on a spacer's ship with a near-dead Zabrak slung over her shoulder.

Medical attention has to come first, though.  So she leaves the ship orbiting Dxun and wanders back into the cabin.  The Zabrak isn't responding anymore, his force presence staying pained and unconscious when she tries poking at his mind to make sure.

There's some just-as-likely-to-kill-you-as-help antitoxin in the fold-out medical suite.  And one of those expensive nutrition replacers for rich folks who don't want to worry about what they're eating.  Knol reads the instructions on the side, then shrugs and gives him the maximum 2 doses.  If he's lucky the degradable nanites will rewrite some of the toxin into nutrients before dissipating, and if not they'll at least clean up some of the cell-damage byproducts.  By the time she needs to worry about if the nanites are really biodegradable he should either be dead or recovering.

Beyond that she needs to find the injury and see if there's anything left she can drain before it gets into the bloodstream.  Easier than she expected to find, too, from the spreading black spot on the duvet below Sunshine's shoulder.  Rolling him onto his side for a better look she finds torn armor and flesh, including a bite wound and a separate injection wound wound.  Fortunately neither the mandibles nor the stinger were left in the injuries, so hopefully the poison sack was removed when the beetle was ripped out.  Plus she doesn't have to dig them out with her bootknife, win-win.

But other than that it looks like there isn't much left for her to do.  The bite has stopped bleeding, being mostly torn flesh, and the stinger wound has shifted from black ichor to red blood.  Knol doesn't actually know if black striped Zabrak bleed some other color but red is standard for Zabrak that she's aware of.

There's a blood bag in the medical cabinet, but it's labeled human male, and Knol doesn't know enough to feel like risking it yet.  Still, the bleeding could kill her guest even if the poison doesn't.   So she wipes down the shoulder as best she can then pads it with bacta and gause before securing the arm to the Sith's chest and immobilizeing the shoulder.

As an afterthought she shifts the Sith up off the soiled duvet, stripping it off the bed before arranging him more comfortably on the sheets below.  Next she decides to strip the armor, piling it in a corner of the droid recharging station along with anything else in the cabin she wanted out of the Sith's reach.

He doesn't appear to have a lightsaber, or any weapon at all really.  Knol wonders idly if she left it behind in Dxun or if he'd lost it somewhere before she arrived.  Not like she was going to go looking for it either way, as long as it's not in some secret compartment on the ship where he can grab it and try a sneak attack.

Right after he wakes up from being near-fatally poisoned feeling like he likes his odds.

Knol finishes up by tossing the spare duvet in the closet over her guest, then heads back towards the cockpit. Sitting back in the padded pilot's chair Knol revisits the question of where to go.  The ship is almost certainly traceable, a locator beacon at minimum.  As Sith Dooku likely trusts his apprentice about as far he can throw him, and then only because using the force proves he can still overcome the younger man.

So she can't risk taking the ship to any op-fronts, not to mention the complications the Sith himself brings up.  Sunshine needs medical attention, the sooner the better.  But there's a chance he might also kill everyone involved in helping him when he wakes up, if Dooku doesn't show up to massacre them first.

Knol wants him to live in spite of Dooku's predictions.  Wants to snatch him out from under the former Jedi's nose and rub it in that he survived after Dooku decided to abandon him.  But she wasn't willing to risk a hundred lives or more to saving a single enemy.

So, no op-fronts.  Or any of the safehouses.  And no medical stations or facilities in major cities.

With a sigh she selects Manaan, hoping one of the floating spaceports will have an offworlder medical facility.  Then if the Sith tries anything he can just drown.

The glow of the universe streaming by mocks her.  It will be hours before they arrive. The Zabrak might well be dead before they even land.  And if Dooku follows them to Manaan she'll be putting the entire planet at risk just by being there.

The jungle was simple compared to this, at least there the worst that could happen was an agonizing death.  Not the destruction of millions by a petty warlord seeking retribution on a single Jedi.  She faked her death for a reason, and now that anonymity was all down the drain.

Reaching out she gingerly tapped the ball of agony that was Sunshine's force presence.  Still unconscious but he was alive, and still breathing.  A faded impression of a stalker cub, screaming in pain as it dies to flamethrower droids, refuses to leave her mind.

Knol sighes and moves to the loading chamber to work through some katas.  She needs to get her thoughts back under control before the Sith wakes up.

- - - - - - - - - -

They're a little over halfway to Manaan when a flash of terror stabs through the ship.  Anger follows it, bordering on fury, and a bitter sense of confusion.

Rolling her eyes the Bothan lowers her saber and heads for the cabin, wanting to cut that train of thought off before any revenge plots can get off the ground.  But when she steps inside the anger fades slightly, Sunshine blinking up at her as though he expected someone else.

Probably Dooku, actually, what with this being his ship and all.

Knol stalks up beside the bed with a teeth-baring stage smile.  "Nope, no self importance Counts here.  You remember who I am, Sunshine?"

The Zabrak's brow wrinkles as he squints at her.  Then he manages a jerky nod.

"You're the Jedi," He decides.  "The one on Dxun.  Where…?"

"On the way to Manaan to find you a medical facility.  You remember getting poisoned?"

A grunt, then the Sith nods again.  "Yes.  The Orbalisks.  The temple was empty and overrun.  I managed to avoid all but one, yet that was enough." He meets her gaze steadily. "You should have left me to die."

"What?" Knol demands, fur ruffling at the thought. "Because you would have, or something?" There's no self-recrimination in the injured Sith, no hatred that would mean he would rather have died than be rescued by her, just a smooth sort of certainty.

"I am your enemy," he replies. "I killed Jedi on Devaron on Dooku's orders.  Preserving an enemy life will only cause more death."

"And you're a good apprentice who always follows orders," Knol rolls her eyes at the thought.

"Yes," the Sith agrees, the honesty in the force starting her.  "The Nightsisters did not wish for me to question once they empowered me."

Knol's eyes narrow in the silence that follows, not liking the implications.  The Sith seems to sense her discomfort, regarding her unblinkingly through glowing yellow eyes.

"And if the Nightsisters ordered you to betray Dooku?" Knol asks, her ears curling back.

"I would obey," the Sith replies.  A hesitation, then he continues, "When she ordered me to kill my little brother I obeyed."

Well, shit.

There's a hollow in the force at that admittance.  And echo where there should be an emotion but nothing comes of it.  It's terrifying, unnatural, and Knol would bet that Sunshine knows it as well.

She reaches towards him on impulse, hesitates, then rests a hand on his uninjured shoulder.

"I know some people who might be able to help with that." She tells him firmly.  "Let's get you to Manaan, then I'll see what I can do to track them down."

There's gratitude at that, and a faint, fragile hope.  But the Sith still meets her eyes squarely.

"Should Dooku wish to take me back I will go with him."

And, scrap.  That means there's something bigger going on, some plan of the Nightsisters' involving a pawn bound to Dooku's service.  Knol is suddenly grateful the Zabrak's communicator never made it off Dxun.  As it is she's going to have to deconstruct the holotable in the lounge in case, no point making the Count's job any easier.

But she gives the kid her most unbothered stage-smile and a pat on the shoulder.  "We'll be on our way before he can catch up to us, no worries.  I'll handle the details, so you just focus on staying alive until we get to Manaan.  Maybe get some rest."

A nod, then Sunshine's eyes slide shut as he passes out.  Knol can already tell the stubbornness on this one is going to be intense.

She leaves him to his beauty sleep and wanders back to the loading bay.  There she sinks to her knees, gingerly rubbing her temples as she carefully raises her shields again.  Keeping herself wide open for so long was giving her a headache, but she needed to know what the force was sensing from him.  And she'd gotten everything she could have wished for and more.

What a mess.

Knol shifts back to lean against the bulkhead, closing her eyes and relaxing into the Force.

She'd need to reach out to the others for help.  Not that they'd kept in touch since Queyta.  She'd only even heard of Fay or Antilles before the mission, and only worked with Diath once.

Or, well, twice if that surprise cantina brawl counted, though it had been his attempted infiltration gone wrong and she'd only been there for a drink.

They'd talked when they met up, though.  Had to convince the cryptids to wait long enough for the temple brat the Council decided to send when Diath put in the mission request.

But they'd realized, after they finally had the mission details out of the way, that they agreed on the fundamentals.  On things the Temple seemed to have forgotten, or simply started taking for granted.  And that this mission might give them a chance to slip the noose that the Senate was slowly closing around their necks.

She hadn't lied when she told Dooku she didn't know if the others had survived.  There'd been a plan, Diath helped her death scene along, then left her there to do his part.  Knol had been the first, and when she woke up she set out to sink the fortress and make her escape.  She didn't look for the others and they didn't look for her.  For all she knows they died when the factory went down, but somehow she doubts it.

And now Knol hopes she's right because Sunshine could really use their help.

Nightsister magic, from a force cult on Dathomir she'd only read vage rumors about in the same restricted records that described Dxun.  Something that could warp and control the mind and will to such an extent…  

Master Diath might have read more of the relevant passages, obscure archives research being a hobby of his.  And he may be able to tease apart the mind altering aspects even if he hasn't studied anything like it before.  Little Tae would know where he was, if she's willing to risk the telepath around Sunshine's broken mind.  In the best case scenario he might even be able to help with the Zabrak's recovery somehow.

Fay would be better, but on a level where Knol isn't even entirely certain what she would do.  The ancient Jedi could reach in and rearrange the Zabrak's mind with no trouble at all, but what she would leave behind when she was done...?

And Knol hasn't the slightest clue where she'd even find the older Jedi, constantly wandering the furthest eddies of the Force in a way the Bothan's not sure anyone else will ever really understand.

So… leaving elder cryptid as an emergency backup plan, that makes finding Diath plan A.  And who knows, if they really need her she's sure Fay will just show up.

So, Manaan, ditch the ship, find another ride, then go grab Tae.  Kid knew enough to back out of the way during the barfight, then offered to hold her drink, even with Nico presumed dead he's probably doing alright.  He didn't even drink it, just gave it back once they were done.  No matter how bad Sunshine seems to her Tae'll probably be able to handle it.  And if he can't they'll just leave.