"I knew it was gonna take some doing," Ashton murmured, staring at the Ebon Hawk. "I know we promised to pay for this... but we were running out of credits too... we just don't have enough."

Dakota nodded slowly. "We're just going to have to go back and tell her..." She turned and headed back toward the park. Before they had gotten too far, Dakota laughed.

"As if they'd stay where we left them," she pointed out. She changed directions and Ash followed her with an amused smirk as they entered the Hearth Home. The pair was completely overwhelmed by the feeling of entering the place now that Tysyacha had polished the hearth stones.

"I am truly sorry for interrupting," Dakota said softly, coming up beside Tysyacha. "We don't have enough money for the extensive repairs your ship is going to need..."

"Still interested in the pilot's slot," Ash added. "Because where there's a will there's a way... your ship will get its repairs. We're just not the way..."

Tysyacha's heart sank, but then her mind came up with a plan. An absurd one, to be sure, since she was the one who had inadvertently caused the Ebon Hawk to crash in the middle of their beautiful urban park, but she figured that with the newly- formed goodwill on the part of the Kiffar and explaining the real reason why the vessel had to be repaired so quickly, she just might win them to her side, and her allies' side.

"Good Kiffar," she explained, "it seems that with my payment to Yeru Dolzhna for the repairs of your urban park, my crew and I have run out of funds to pay for fixing our vessel as well. The Ebon Hawk is more than just a freighter; it is a fighter and combat transport fit for ten. We are on an urgent mission; the enemy is waiting.

"This enemy is not some foreign invader from some far-off planet, or even bands of brigands and mercenaries bent on a military coup. We face none other than the True Sith, who are stronger than the remnants of Dark Jedi you have previously fought. We have strong reason to suspect the True Sith have found their moment, their decisive point in history to attack and reveal themselves. Help us repair our ship, and you help us to be prepared before they take us by surprise. Who among you will do this?"

Not one certain Kiffar, anyway. He scrambled up to the front of the Hearth Home, addressing the construction workers, architects, and other building planners loudly:

"My friends! This woman is a charlatan, a pretender! Fake! How do we know she won't spend the credits we've earned on a galactic spending spree on frivolous luxuries? We have already fought the Sith, 'we' being the entire galaxy, and defeated them. There are no 'true Sith' and 'false Sith.' There are only Sith, and they've been driven back to the abysses from whence they came! Have you any proof of their existence, wretch?"

Tysyacha thought a moment and then sadly shook her head. No definitive, physical proof. Only the pull in the Force that seemed to beckon her to battle and bloodlust.

"See? She herself admits she has no evidence of these 'true Sith'. Disbelieve her tales and cast her out of the Hearth Home for her fraud and deception!" He stared and then stormed back to his former place. No Kiffar came forward with credits--or even words.

Prae looked down and said to Tysyacha "Though I am not a follower of the force as you are, I do acknowledge the threat that the Sith posed before. If you need a vessel for your travels, The Valiant Glory is ready for use. It is one of the finest war vessels ever built by Sangheili hands."

Cetanu stared blankly at the old woman who had approached and spoken to him about a great hunt she promised that he would dream of...very strange. She reminded him of a sage.

Cetanu heard a local speak of the witch woman harshly as she attempted to gain favor from the people. "Do not bother asking these honorless cowards for aid...I don't even recall them fighting in the Great Ooman Spat," Cetanu muttered. To the Yautja the Mandalorian Wars were known to them as the Great Ooman Spat, as the Mandalorian Wars were nothing but a pathetic spat compared to previous, near extinction civil wars that occured to the Yautja species centuries back.

Cetanu stood up as Prae offered their services for transport. He was about to offer that he and Prae could repair their vessel, but realised one problem, no one had any money to offer them for the labor, so he kept his mandibles shut. He just guessed that he would have to put up with the people traveling aboard Prae's ship.

Another thought surfaced....he was going to have to hide his trophies.

(OOC: I have an idea. How about we abandon the Ebon Hawk on Kiffu as a gesture of goodwill and reparations and take the Valiant Glory instead? In terms of a real KOTOR III that LucasArts might develop, if the Hawk is kept, there will have to be a plausible explanation for it to be left behind by the Exile for the next PC to use.

What do you think?)

((That sounds good. The Valiant Glory is very different from your standard ship though, being Sangheili, so I might have to make a map or write a description of it.))

(OOC: That would be fantastic!)

{}

"I would be honored to have the Valiant Glory as a transport," declared Tysy, "and as for the Ebon Hawk, I'd like to leave it here for the Kiffar as a symbol of goodwill and restitution for the damage I have caused."

A handsome yet greasy-looking Kiffar male suddenly leered. "1,000 credits for--you!"

"I said restitution, not--!" Without another word, she sent the Kiffar tumbling into a group of his compatriots with the slightest of Force Push maneuvers. "Anyway, the ship is yours, and as for us, we're going aboard the Valiant Glory. The Hawk, as well-maintained as she is, is getting old, and she needs extensive repair in order to fly again. I presume the Sangheili vessel is in top form," she declared, gazing at Prae with a mixture of fear and admiration. "We'll be launching soon, after we buy as much food and fuel as our remaining ten thousand credits will allow us."

"We'll be launching soon, after we buy as much food and fuel as our remaining ten thousand credits will allow us." The witch woman said.

"That will not be necessary," Cetanu piped up. "We've just recently done just that. Refuel and Resupply," he finished up, glaring off in the thrown Kiffar's direction. This woman certainly was interesting.

Cetanu rolled his head on his neck wearily, he was getting tired of just standing around and waiting, he wanted to get moving.

"We have, though you must allow us some time to make preparations for your added crew. Since we have only needed to support the two of us, me and Cetanu have used the additional rooms besides our own for more cultural purposes." Prae stated, though what he really meant was for Cetanu to hide all of his trophies. "Meet us at the docks in two hours. We will have readied the ship by then, and you finished any business you came to complete presuming it is not long term business."

Except for the one time he had been given a massage by Davik's personal Twi-Lek attendants, Canderous had never felt better. Even though he was not one for Force mysticism, he couldn't ignore the fact that the "hearth home" was actually doing something to him. Canderous, for the first time in several months, felt great.

"Meet us at the docks in two hours."

"Lovely." Canderous said out loud. Just what I always wanted - to travel in a strange ship with.... those... "things", Prae and Cetanu. Whatever they are. He jumped up from his resting place near the healing stones and headed toward Tysy, hoping to find out what she was planning to do in the meantime.

Kreia smiled to herself. Yes, we should leave a very good hint behind. Someone may try to find us yet. The girl badly needs to control her temper. Just what is she up to? We will find out...

She took a deep breath, immersed herself in the Force once more and joined the group headed for the Valiant Glory. Surprise, surprise, what will we find if we look deep enough?

"There's something--else here," mumbled Tysyacha to Kreia and Canderous. "I sense an ill foreboding on this planet, one that we would not be wise to ignore before we leave Kiffu. While Prae and Cetanu are readying their ship, we might investigate." Canderous stared, not unkindly but certainly hard, into her bottomless blue eyes. He seemed to want to ask, What is it that you see, or sense, in this Force of yours?

"Pain," Tysy mumbled softly, "and something silenced. Come. The hunger is this way." She started moving toward the cellar of the building, which could be used as a fallout shelter in time of war or natural disaster. Something smelled down there--an odor of rotten eggs and something worse. When she saw what it was, Tysy gagged.

"Corpses! Two of them! Get back!" she cried before almost retching behind a pillar. "I knew something odd was down here, but I didn't expect this--the stench of death! I'll see if I can determine anything from the state of the bodies," she moaned, using Breath Control to block her respiratory senses for as long as she needed to. What she saw distressed her even further. "These two were killed by lightsaber," said she. "Someone who knew how to use the Force has been here before. Possibly Sith."

She straightened up and climbed with Kreia and her husband from the cellar's dark depths. "I would like your attention for one more moment," she said to the Kiffar. "It seems two bodies--dead bodies--are in your cellar. Do you know anything about this?"

"Jedi can sense lies," said a builder with an eerily cold tone of irritation and apathy.

"There were Sith here," replied one, his voice meek with grief and sorrow, "or what we believed to be Sith. They came to our Hearth Home looking for our stones, the stones that light our holy fire, claiming them to be precious artifacts. We said we needed them, and they slew two of us before our very eyes. We gave them what we said were all we had, but we did not hand over the last eleven. You polished them, Jedi."

"What exactly do those stones do besides light fires?" asked Tysy. "In the Force?"

"The Sith said they were precious, so we believed them," said the builder, "but that was all they said. They held us hostage by our humble faith, and so we backed down in weakness. We don't know what the stones do, but we used one of them to craft the Pendant of Pardon your husband now wears. They seem to be helping him. If the Sith have these, the rest of the stones that we gave them, they could be wearing them as we speak. Be on your guard. They could do more than they already have..."

"Huh." Canderous grunted. "And that one jerk of a Kiffur wanted to tell you that there wasn't any danger from True Sith." Personally, he was glad for the change. Finally, there was some action, some danger. Even though he knew it was childish, he readied his rifle, feeling like True Sith would jump out of the sky at any moment.

He almost laughed out loud, he felt so good. What a day... He thought to himself. He still had concerns, however.

"Tysy," he took her aside and whispered to her, "If the True Sith really were here, its possible that they discovered we are here as well. In that case, it might not be the greatest plan to leave in the hunk of metal with those Sangheili. Perhaps if we had a diversion...."

He thought to himself. Nothing was coming to him. "Or, we could always just blast away in that ship and hope for the best. Always worked before. But whatever we do, we need to stay ahead of the True Sith. I just wonder if they expect us to try and get off the planet as fast as we can."

"True sith..." A mechanical voice repeated from behind them. They turned around to see a strange female clothed from head to toe in a strange armor appearing to be made from similar material to that of normal clothing. Inside the armor was Audrey, however she hid her face behind a mask to prevent her former pupil from discovering her identity. The mechanical voice was the product of a small computer chip placed on her neck that changed her vocal chord to sound more like a machine that a woman. "True sith... Yes, yes, this does seem like their work..."

Audrey could sense of the presence of death, and to her it was beautiful scent to which she couldn't help but stop and admire. "I guess they're coming out of their little hole. Hmmp, about time." She smiled underneath her mask before reaching out for one of the builders, using both her arm and the force. She picked him up and slowly dragged him towards her before he was an extra arms length away where he halted in mid air. The fingers of her arm had been stretched out and aimed at the floating builder, before clenching into a fight fist. Her force grip on the builder had a similar affect. As she clenched her fist title, the man's ribcage compacted into his internal organs, giving him a painful yet quick death. "Goodbye," She muttered before tossing him aside.

"Tysyacha Dvyx Ordo of the Jedi order, oh no wait, you betrayed and abandoned the order to save the life wicked witch that used you to destroy the remnants of the Jedi order," Audrey said, adding a small laugh at the end, before drawing her blaster riffle, "Your death should be interesting."

Still imbued with the Force and feeling almost girlish, Kreia forced herself not to flinch when the cloaked woman murdered the poor local. A rogue Jedi, she realized. With the murderer's attention drawn to her vile deed, Kreia hardly needed as much as a wink with the Force to tear the woman's mask of, and, with ridiculously little effort, she twisted the blaster to face the woman's head dead on where she held it in a firm grip, along with the rest of the murderer.

'Fire a blaster at a Jedi, would you, silly?' Kreia smiled at the woman who tried hard but could not move. 'Your trigger finger is free to move. Go on, let's have a blast.'

Despite the simple task of the removal of the mask could not be completed, Kreia had no difficulty moving the blaster and aiming it at Audrey's head. Audrey moved her head and stared down the barrel of her own blaster. "Impressive, you've learned a lot.. But quiet clearly not a lot," Audrey said before sending a shockwave towards Kreia with the intention of knocking her to her feet. Audrey didn't care much with her shockwave knocked her down or not, it removed Kreia's concentration and Audrey was able to move freely.

"Step aside old woman, I'm not here to fight you, it's your little plaything I'm interested in fighting," Audrey says "I'm here to have a one on one with the exile. Traitor to traitor."

(Btw, i'd like Audrey's mask to remain on for the duration of this battle. I want her identity kept a secret.)

"So it's me you want?" asked the Exile, Tysyacha Dvyx Ordo, wife of Mandalore. "Very well. Asato ma sad gamaya!" she cried, a rally to arms. "From darkness to light!" Intending to finish her dueler off quickly, Tysy flung herself into a blow that would have severed the heads (and bodies) of lesser mortals. However, this rogue Jedi was not one. She easily backflipped away from the whirling silver lightsabers of the other.

Tysy spun on her heels and charged again in a leftward spin. This one connected, but it only grazed the flesh of the Jedi's arm. Hissing under the heat and duress of battle, with a triumphant gaze in her eyes, the rogue seized an opportunity to propel the Exile into the nearest pillar. Her victim, body relaxing, oddly let her snatch hold of her face and smash her skull into the wood. Lifting Tysyacha up, the assassin prepared to kill...

...and thus was greatly startled when the Exile ignited her sabers again, lowering them!

Canderous raised his rifle and shot a stream of blasts that passed a mere foot from Tysy, intended to hit the unknown Jedi in the chest. However, she spun around and swung her lightsaber, batting them away from herself as Canderous let loose another volley. He dropped to his knees and rolled toward her, pulling out his Mando dueling sword from where it was mounted on his back.

The rogue force-user lifted up her hand and shot out a stream of force lightening at him, lifting him up against the nearby wall and smashing him to the ground. He jumped up, shaking off the pain, but his sword and rifle were ripped out of his hands as well. He pulled out a grenade, knowing that they all could get killed by the blast, but hoping to distract the force-user yet again, and let Tysy regain her balance.

Still smiling to herself, Kreia lost no time and started a battle meditation, including Ashton and Dakota who were drawing near with their weapons raised. Her companions felt refreshed and superbly alert while the murderer started to sway and rapidly lose her self-confidence. This rogue will die any moment now unless she gives herself up, she thought.

( I must say, the use of character control here is out standing o.O )

Detecting what Kreia was doing, Audrey fired several shots towards the old woman from her blaster. "Stay out of this! This is between me, and her! And you too Mandalorian. I would have thought you'd have some honor," Audrey said darkly, using the force to rip apart the grenade without it exploding. She then turned her attention to the exile. "I'm disappointed. You were suppose to be challenge. How'd you expect to fight the true sith when you can't even defeat a cooperate manufacture?"

"So far, I have defeated you," replied Tysyacha, "because you haven't killed me even while I played the most dead of dead! You could have snapped my neck in two, but you didn't, and that means there is still some measure of real potential in you." Tysy lifted up the rogue Jedi into the air in the first stage of a Force Crush--the levitation. However, the pressure upon the rogue's body was slight, enough to hold her but not yet enough to cause any pain. She held her two lightsabers directly below the woman.

"Yes, I betrayed the Jedi Order by going to war under Revan's banner. I defied the Council and turned my back on their teachings--and myself. I also betrayed the Jedi by sparing Kreia, my Master, who would have been dead and thrown into the core of Malachor V if my former compatriots had their way. I do not deny my treason; I admit it. Tell me--why is it you have not been able to kill me yet, even when I relaxed now?"

"It's not why I have not been able to kill you you should be asking," Audrey replied before pushing aside the Exiles lift to lower herself down. Because of her mask, it was unclear how Audrey was dealing with fighting against Tysy's powers, however he tone of voice indicated that she has doing it with ease. "It's why I have not been wanting to kill you. It's because as long as your husband and adopted mother are here, we can never truly have a fair fight. They will try to interfere and protect you, while I have nothing but own skill in the force to protect me."

"Now my question, I need to understand the minds of the modern Jedi. Tell me-- why did you render the sacrifice of your friend completely meaningless to save the one who has only brought misery to your life?"

"Bao-Dur was a Jedi," Tysy replied, "and as such, he would have preferred to see one who had fallen become redeemed instead of slain by the forces of Light. He would not have approved of my sparing Kreia, but he would have understood my reasons for it. His death would have truly been meaningless if I had remained upon Malachor V and assumed the Dark Throne of the Sith that Kreia, presumably dead, would have left open for me." She turned to Kreia and Canderous. "Please, stand aside. It's only fair that we duel man-to-man, or in this case, Jedi to Jedi." The two obeyed, reluctantly.

"Now. You have a chance to kill me here within this very circle of holiness that the Kiffar have lovingly constructed. Will their Hearth Home charter be written in blood?"

"But if history has taught us anything that when Sith are given a chance to live, they return to reek havoc and misery upon the people of the galaxy," Audrey said as she began to take apart her blaster apart to reveal a small light saber hidden amongst the mechanisms of the simple weapon. She looked at the lightsaber for a few moments before flicking the switch to reveal a purple laser blade emerge from the cylinder.

"Not always. As it is commonly said, only the Sith deal in absolutes. Sometimes the most degenerate Sith are truly redeemed, such as Ajunta Pall--and Darth Revan. I do not wish to fight or kill you, but if I must, then I shall. I won't take any joy in it, however. Can't you feel the pain inside me, the hunger that has not yet healed? I received it from slaughtering man and droid through the Mass Shadow Generator at Malachor V. I'm still paying the price." She whirled toward the Jedi. "We both will."

Tysy spun toward the rogue at a blinding speed which made Canderous' eyes boggle.

Kevak stared out the window of his office. Today was not a normal day, Kevak could sense it.
"Senator Leeilles, Two men are here to speak with you," said a feminine voice.

"Let them in," Kevak replied.

The two cloaked figures entered through the doors in a matter of seconds.

"What is so important that you had to see me, you both know its risky having these meetings!" Kevak barked coldly.

"Lord Kevak...

"Please, Senator Leeilles," Kevak said before the man could say his sentence.

"Senator Leeilles, the jedi exile is here on Kiffu," said one of the cloaked men.

"Are you positive?" questioned Kevak.

"Yes sir, we sensed her through the force," replied the other one.

"Damnit, not now."

Kevak was quite familiar with this exile although they never met face to face. She had taken down 3 sith lords with ease. The worst part was she managed to convert one of them. The last time Kevak had seen such a display of skill was when Revan defeated Malak and his forces. Kevak had fought Revan once himself. He knew Revan's task was great but the exile's was even greater. She would be a challenge to bring down, but maybe just maybe he could convert her to the dark side.
Kevak pushed this thought out of his head

Lets get serious here Kevak thought to himself.

Kevak cleared his head for a split second.

"Alright," he said at last. "I know what we must do. I will get a messenger over to her. You must try to help him find her first. He will relay a message to her for me. I will invite her and her company if she is not alone to dinner. After dinner I will request a meeting. It is there where you two will be hiding and wait for my signal. I will say I am very thankful you are taking the time to talk to me, and then you jump out. You both may die or not it makes no difference to me, now leave."

The two cloaked men turned around and left the room. Kevak went over to his intercom and hit to button.

"Could you please send Kijar in"

"Right away Senator"

A small kiffarian entered into the room

"You called sir," said Kijar.

"Kijar, I need you to take a message for me."

"Yes senator, just tell me what to say."

"I want you to approach a Tysyacha Dvyx and tell her that Senator Leeilles would like to... no would be honored if she and her company if she is not alone would come join me for dinner in honor of her defeating the sith."

"I can do that but I dont know where to find her," said Kijar

"Just talk to the two men outside they will tell you where to go," replied Kevak

"Yes sir, Im just glad all the war ended and the sith are gone," stated Kijar, and with that he left.

Kevak turned his gaze back to the window.

"You dont know how wrong you are my boy, this is just the beginning... the beginning of my Dynasty," replied Kevak as he chuckled to himself.