Star Wars 1. Chapter 1

Planet Hoth-aboard the Fury

"You need to loosen up your sithy self."

Z'axsille froze in mid-gulp, hot caff on her tongue, halfway down her throat, but couldn't swallow for fear that she'd sputter and cough or if she didn't swallow, she might spew it out onto the datapad in front of her. She lifted her eyes, setting the hot cup down as calmly as she could on the table, and regarded the pirate who was leaning against the bulkhead. Slowly she managed to swallow the caff and took a deep breath, quelling the small tingle of anger that had begun in her fingers. "My sithy self?" she asked in disapproval.

Ashara Zavros, her Jedi-turned-Sith apprentice, giggled behind her. She peered over her shoulder to the young woman and gave her a scowl. Ashara covered her mouth with her hand and gave it a wipe, as if she were trying to erase any good humor that could be found there, but a twinkle lingered in her eye. Z'axsille was pleased at least that the girl was beginning to show some humor; she had been so stoic and maudlin when she first came on board as part of her crew. And who could blame her, after what had happened on Taris.

"Uh-huh. You could let your hair down a bit more often." Andronikos Revel, pirate, pilot, and treader of thin ice gave a shrug. "We all could use a night out, in my opinion. Especially considering our mission tomorrow." His gaze took in the crew in galley. They were a mixed bunch; herself, Ashara who was Togruta, the Dashade Khem Val.

She gave him a hard look. Her hair was pretty short, her Zabrak vestigial horns even shorter. There really wasn't anything there to 'let down'. If she suspected he was joking even a little she might have not felt so disconcerted about his tone, but Andronikos' sense of humor was nonexistent. In fact it was usually guaranteed that she could get a rise out of him on a daily basis by underscoring his non-sense of humor with a well-timed joke. Or three.

"Who's going out?" Lieutenant Talos Drellik, the newest member of the crew, chose that moment to come into the galley. "Is this a meeting?" He chirped. He was always chirping, always cheerful. Ugh. Sometimes so cheerful it gave her a headache. "Did I miss a memo?" He looked a bit embarrassed. "I'm sorry, m'lord, if I did."

Z'axsille waved her hand to dismiss his apology. "No meeting. Revel here has simply suggested we might all enjoy a night out on the town, so to speak." The fact that they were on Hoth, with only military outposts qualifying as a poor excuse for civilization, did not seem to deter him from this idea. "He has not, as yet, offered up a likely venue where we might participate in such a night."

"Where there are soldiers, there are likely venues," he growled. He lit a cigarra and peered closely at her through the smoke. Why did she feel like she was being measured by him?

"And you happen to have found a likely venue?" she asked. Leave it to Andronikos Revel to find a party on this frozen planet.

He nodded. "While you and Ashara were out today I made a supply run. Happened to overhear a couple guys talking about some underground club called The Blue Night. They were kind enough to fill me in on the details." Z'axsille could only imagine the powers of persuasion that Andronikos had used to make those poor sods spill the beans. He took a long drag on the cigarra and checked his chrono. "Take us about an hour to get there."

"Are you intimating that we should go soon?"

"If we want to leave before dark."

Z'axsille regarded him silently. There was something going on in his head, some wheel turning that she couldn't get a firm grasp on. He looked back at her squarely and for a moment it was as if a challenge was being offered. There was a flash as his eyes narrowed so minutely that no one else in the room would have noticed. She felt a slight suspension of time, her breathing became shallow as their gaze held. It was as if she was seeing him for the first time. Seeing him, not the skin on the outside, not the tattoo on his face, not the blasters in their holsters, not the hands that piloted her ship, but the male energy that drove the machine. _No_, she thought. _Not machine. Animal._ Her heartbeat quickened and she took a deep breath, confusion furrowing her brow.

"Well I think it's a great idea!" Ashara piped up behind her, excitement in her voice.

"As do I!" Drellik rubbed his hands together. "It really would be an adventure! I've heard rumors about it, of course. But my time was so completely taken up with the search for historical artifacts, I'm afraid I never managed to get there."

As a Sith, she could have ruled her crew with an iron fist. Discouraged them from voicing their opinions, told them even what to think. But she had seen too many Sith brought low by yes-men and poor information. Z'axsille had made it clear that they were to not be afraid to make their thoughts known, to give her intelligence that countered the facts at hand, even if that meant a revision of plans. She looked around at her crew, Andronikos still regarded her with that measuring gaze from behind the cigarra smoke, Ashara and Talos eagerly watched her, Khem in the corner muttered and shook his head.

"Am I to assume, Shadow Killer, that you disagree with this idea?"

"_Waste of time,"_ he crossed his arms. A hard look came over his face. Trying to suppress Zash from rearing her conscience again, no doubt. "_If you order me, I will go. But the energy I need to keep this witch buried deep will not allow me to protect you as I should." _It was true that since Zash had taken up camp in Khem's body, Z'axsille had not been able to take him to fight beside her. When his conscience was present, he spent most of his time in the crew's quarters, doing what Z'axsille would almost have called meditation.

She turned back to look at Andronikos. "While it is true that I encourage you all to voice your opinions to me in matters that affect this crew, you should all know by now that this most certainly is in no way a democracy. I do not command this vessel by majority rule." She paused, feeling the energy from Ashara diminish as she anticipated Z'axsille's rejection of Andronikos' suggestion. She studied him again, trying to find a way into his thoughts, but he was a blank slate, almost as if he were deliberately keeping her out. If she only knew what he was scheming, she might feel a bit more comfortable. As it was, there was no clue that she could pick up on. "However," she turned to look at Ashara, "this crew has most certainly been worked beyond the normal call of duty." Ashara glanced up quickly, a hopeful smile beginning on her lovely, young face. "I think we are entitled to a night of entertainment."

Ashara's face lit up and she began to bounce on her toes. "Oh! Thank you!" She sprinted to the door and scootched past Drellik, the sound of her feet could be heard as she ran down the hall to the crew quarters, only to return immediately. "How long do I have?"

"To what?"

"To get ready!"

She looked at Andronikos, who shrugged. "Half an hour?" He nodded.

Ashara's grin went from ear to ear. "I can work with that." And she went running off again. Z'axsille allowed herself a small smile as she listened to her footsteps fade down the hall, then shook her head and picked up the datapad.

"Well! I think I shall go make myself presentable as well! Nothing like the prospect of a little fun to make one want to get a bit spiffy!" Drellik gave Andronikos a clap on the arm. "Well done! Well done I say!"

She heard grumbling behind her. "Khem, you may stay and guard the ship. I don't enforce fun."

"_As you say."_

She went back to her datapad, scrolling through research that still needed to be done before they headed out to Darth Thanaton's library tomorrow. It was time. Time to face Thanaton, time to put these four ghosts that she had bound to her body to use. She could feel the power of the ghosts swirling through every atom inside her, their thoughts sometimes intruding on hers like wisps of smoke. She pushed their thoughts aside, concentrating instead on the schematics that were in front of her. She felt a prickling at the back of her neck and looked up. Andronikos was still standing there. "Well?" he asked.

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going to go get ready?" He looked pointedly at her robes. "You can't go out in that."

"What's wrong with what I have on?"

He paused, then said, "Too sithy."

She stood immediately and advanced on him, but he stood firm and didn't back away. She deliberately got into his personal space, nose to chest, and gave him a hard look. What is it with him and the 'sithy' stuff all of a sudden? "Too sithy?"

"The point is to unwind, Z'ax." Had he just called her by name? She reflected back. No, he had always called her Sith, or Lord Nighthawk if he was trying to be on his best behavior. "You can't relax in those robes. And more importantly, people around you can't relax when you're in those robes. You want your crew to have fun then change into something civilian." He shrugged. "Or not. It's your call." He took a final pull on the cigarra, then leaned over and stubbed it out in a tray. As he did, his shoulder brushed slightly against hers.

It was like an electric jolt, pinpointed on that one spot on her shoulder which then radiated outward, down her arm, up around her shoulder and across her spine. He took a step back, showing no outward sign that he had felt anything. "I'm going to go rent us a four-man speeder," and then he was gone. She stood in the galley, realizing that she had stopped breathing. Such unassuming words, but such an impact they had on her. It wasn't that his voice had changed, or his tone from every other day before. She had heard his voice many times, had spoken with him, had had many conversations. But never before had his voice wormed its way into her body, almost like it had entered at the point of contact when he brushed against her, allowing a small crack to be used to advantage as it snaked around through her bloodstream, expanding outward through nerves and muscles until she felt as though all her energy had converged at the small of her back. She blinked and took a deep breath, looking around the room with new eyes.

"_Who are you?"_ she whispered to the air where he had stood.


	2. Chapter 2

Nearly an hour later and after apparently emptying her entire wardrobe over the crew quarters, Ashara had managed to settle on something and came running down the hall to the ramp. "OK, I'm ready!"

Z'axsille gave her a sharp stare. She was covered head-to-toe in a white fur-lined snow suit, with white fur boots to match. "Wait. All that messing about with clothes and you're wearing a snow suit?" The giggle and side glance Ashara gave her only served to confuse her more.

Z'axsille pulled on a parka over her own choice of attire: the softest black nerf-leather boots pulled up to her knees, black thermal leggings, a soft blue shirt topped with a black jacket. As she zipped up the parka, pulling the lined hood over her head, she caught Andronikos watching her. "Non-sithy enough for you?"

An eyebrow twitched over one of his brown eyes. "It'll do." Then he turned and went down the ramp.

Ashara and Talos piled into the back of the speeder. Andronikos had managed to get them one with a tempered glass dome roof and heated seats. He slid into the drivers seat, the engine already humming. Z'axsille closed the ramp to her ship and punched in the security code, then sank down onto the warm seat of the speeder. The door closed with a soft 'snick' and then Andronikos was off, steering along the road that led from the spaceport. Dusk was just beginning to settle.

Soon he steered off the main road onto a smaller, barely discernable track, heading out into the open tundra. Z'axsille tried to keep the concern from her voice, "Are you sure you know where this is?"

"Just sit back and enjoy the ride, Sith." He gave her a side glance, then turned back to driving. Z'axsille could tell he was scanning the path before them. Wampas were known to frequent the area and the big ones could stomp on a speeder with surprising swiftness.

Z'axsille settled deeper into the warm seat and tilted her head up. Ashara and Talos were chattering in the back, but she let their conversation become background noise as she stared up at the stars. It was fully dark now and the domed roof allowed her to view the full spectrum of sky. The stars winked down at her and she blinked back.

Andronikos banked the speeder quickly to the right and Z'axsille saw an ice cat in the near distance. It gave chase as they zoomed past, so Andronikos sped up just a little to leave it in their dust. Z'axsille had had cause in the past to admire his piloting skills on her ship, so she shouldn't have been surprised that he also handled the speeder with ease and confidence. She studied him from the corner of her eye. He had been a part of her crew for what, about 7 or 8 months? What did she really know about this man other than the very small amount of details she had been told by him or Zash? He had mostly kept to himself on the ship, piloting as she needed, running missions when asked. She had begun to rely on his intelligence and insight in planning strategy, especially she had noted that his long term strategy was beyond reproach. But there was still a part of her that didn't trust him, something from his past that gave her pause. Z'axsille could sense that he was a man with a very deep emotional well and that he hid much of himself down at the bottom darkness of that well. She also sensed that something in him had shifted recently, something that made it seem like he was balancing on a knife edge. She couldn't get a better feel for it than that. Any time she tried to get a firmer grasp on the goings-on of Andronikos' mind, she felt her attempts turned away as if he were blocking her in some way. _No. He'd need to be Force sensitive to do that._ She felt uncomfortable even contemplating the possibility and brushed the thought aside.

She turned her attention to the datapad she had brought along, taking the down time to memorize the lay-out of Thanaton's estate in addition to the area of Dromund Kaas that surrounded it. She lost herself in the research for a while until she heard a soft thud and Andronikos muttered, "Damn." He leaned forward to search for something on the floor.

Z'axsille saw he was holding an unlit cigarra in the other hand. She leaned forward and saw the lighter at her feet. "I've got it." She picked it up, then held out her other hand. "Here, let me." He passed her the cigarra and she lit it, inhaling the smoke deeply. It had an unfamiliar flavor, a little sweet, a little spicy. She blew the smoke out and passed it to him. "Unusual flavor." The filtration system was swiftly removing the scent from the air, but it still lingered on her tongue.

"Corellian. I picked it up on my supply run. Kinda hard to find in the Outer Rim. The tabac is grown in volcanic soil. Gives it that spicy flavor you probably can taste."

"Ah." She paused. "Corellia is your home planet if I remember correctly?"

"Yes." He had become stiff, his jaw muscle tight as he clamped down on his smoke.

_Ah-ha. A chink in the armor_. "Do you miss it?"

He was silent so long that she didn't think he was going to answer, but then he growled, "No."

She was going to push him further, but before she could a squeal erupted from the back. Ashara pointed over the back seat between the two of them. "Is that it?"

She looked ahead and in the distance at the base of the mountain that was rising in front of them she could see blinking lights. "Looks like it," he said. In a few minutes, they had pulled up to what amounted to a speeder parking lot.

They piled out and Z'axsille gave the area a hard look. "Wait, is this in a cave?"

Andronikos typed in the speeder's lock code and shrugged. "I told you it was underground," then started to make his way between the other speeders toward the entrance. Before he had turned, she thought there had been a smirk on his face.

She narrowed her eyes at his back, but said nothing. _If I didn't know better, I'd think I'd just been told a joke._

Even before they reached the front entrance, Z'axsille could hear the pulsing beat of music coming up from the cavern. She could see Andronikos pass a substantial amount of credits over to the Nikto bouncer who then waved them through. "Either this the most exclusive club in this sector or that was a sizable bribe."

"Bribe. We're not on any guest list, so…" Z'axsille made a mental note to reimburse him when they got back to the ship.

Ashara had found a pile of coats left by other party goers and began to remove her parka and snow pants. Z'axsille soon discovered that underneath all that white fur Ashara had on pretty much the skimpiest outfit imaginable. And shiney. Somehow it managed to glitter from within, as if it had tapped into the young girl's barely contained energy, and somehow she had managed to make it work with the white snow boots. She bounced on her feet to the surging bass as she waited on the others to throw coats on the pile, then led them further towards the back. She was oblivious to the hungry looks she was getting from the men she passed, and some women too, Z'axsille noted. Instead she kept looking over her shoulder impatiently. "C'mon you guys!" Finally she obviously couldn't bare it any longer and grabbed Talos by the hand. "Let's go!" She led him at a run towards the dance floor.

Talos gave a whoop as they merged with the crowd.

Z'axsille paused at the entrance to the large cavern to take in her surroundings. On the far side she could see a stage was set up with a band that was actually quite good. The dark shadows of the dancers moved en masse in front of the stage, surging to the beat of the pounding tribal rhythm. Off to the side tables had been set up and a long bar had been improvised from crates. It was dark, it was noisy, it pulsed with energy. She felt a tug on her sleeve and looked over to Andronikos who jerked his head toward the bar. She nodded and followed behind him, pushing through the mass of bodies.

They managed to squeeze between a Twi'lek and a Trandoshan who gave them a cross look. Z'axsille gave him her best smile and wink. His face relaxed and he returned the wink-no easy task on a reptilian face, then turned back to his friends. Andronikos watched the exchange with a smirk. "So Trandoshans do it for ya?"

She knew what he was asking, but chose to ignore him, leaning up over the bar to get the bartender's attention. In a few minutes she had a bottle of, well, something that looked like whiskey, but couldn't attest to its pedigree. She grabbed the bottle and glasses and pointed to an empty table that sat back along the cave wall. She could feel the Trandoshan's eyes linger on her backside as they moved away and might have given her hips a bit of an extra roll to her walk. She had a lot of respect for the fierce hunters. _Yeah, respect, _her brain guffawed.

Andronikos poured a couple of generous drinks and downed his in one swallow before she could even get hers to her lips. He poured another which was taken care of just as quickly. She studied him and noted a very fine film of sweat on his upper lip. A thought gave her pause. _Is he nervous?_ He avoided her eye, looking instead toward the dance floor. She took a deep swallow of the _oh-gods!_ really bad whiskey and sputtered a little as it burned its way down. He refilled his own glass _How is he managing that swill?_ and topped hers off as well. He studied the dancers, then looked down at his drink in single-minded concentration. When he looked over at her, her heart gave a skip and a feeling of dread washed over her. He wasn't going to ask her to dance, was he? _Oh no, please don't- _She watched his mouth in horror. "So. How's your sabacc?" he asked.

Z'axsille had to give her head a shake. That was a relief. _Yes, a relief_, she told herself. Not dancing, then. Sabacc. He was watching her, waiting for her answer. "Rusty," she finally managed. _So why do I feel disappointed?_

He gave a nod, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a sabacc deck. "Let's get you polished up, then."

They spent some time running through a few hands, Andronikos coaching her occasionally, scolding her for trying to cheat with the Force on more than one occasion. Between games she tried to find evidence of Ashara or Talos. She would see them occasionally moving through the crowd on the dance floor. Ashara's sleek body and carefree dancing had attracted several admirers, but she kept close to Talos, twirling around him while he whooped and hollered-or at least Z'axsille imagined; the music drowned out pretty much everything coming from the dance floor.

Eventually she and Andronikos moved to a small room at the back, where the beat of the music was muffled slightly and several tables of card players had set up. He held her back before they sat down and leaned close to her, his lips against her ear. "Hold off on the sithy stuff. No cheating. Nothing dodgy. And follow my lead." She nodded once to show she understood, trying to quell the sudden surge of blood that wanted to rush to her face. The soft puffs of warm breath against the side of her face, combined with his low growling voice and close proximity was making her head spin. _What's wrong with you?_ she asked herself, not for the first time that night. As the evening had progressed she had felt more and more out of sorts, the room a little more off-kilter and it wasn't the rot-gut whiskey or the pounding music or the crush of the crowd that was the cause. It was A-_No. Stop. _She pushed the thought aside and when it wanted to come back, she forcefully shoved it away.

Andronikos was waving her toward him, pulling a chair back for her and sliding into one himself on the other side of the table. There were several other players there already and she looked them over, squelching her need to use the Force to worm into their took a deep breath. _Ok, I can do this._ The cards were dealt.

She couldn't have said how much time had passed. It had become a haze of cards and credits, cigarra smoke and whiskey. She watched Andronikos from lowered eyes, picked up on his cues and began to counter his moves with her own. It was as if a hair-thin connection were beginning to form between the two of them, something that allowed one to tug on and signal the other who would then respond with a nearly indecipherable nod or blink of the eyes and a move would be made so that the other would win the table to groans from the rest of the players. At one point, she stopped and looked hard at him. An odd thought had crossed her mind, a question that she had brushed away before, but now had come nagging its way back. As if he knew she was studying him, he looked up and his eyes locked with hers. There was a question there, but she shrugged at him and went back to studying the table. For a few seconds, she could feel his eyes still on her. When he returned his attention back to the game she took a deep breath, trying to slow her quickened heartbeat, but the thought remained. _Is he Force sensitive?_

She shook her head and returned her concentration back to the game. After a while she didn't have to remind herself to not use the Force, and instead just enjoyed the game for what it was; picking up on the other players' body language, noting the cards played, keeping her own breathing steady.

And then it came down to a hand she was dealt that was impossible. Well, not impossible because she was looking right at it, but there it was; the Idiot's Array. Just really very highly unlikely. She noted that not only had she held her breath for a split second, but knew that her eyes had dilated. She might as well have broadcast her hand over the speakers the band was using. Two of the other players quickly bowed out, but a sour-tempered, well-fed Cathar on the end who had been losing badly for the past hour was concentrating on his own hand and had been oblivious to her tell. She saw Andronikos give a small shake of his head and knew that she should play it calm, but she wanted to shove all her credits in with a dramatic flourish.

The Cathar placed his bet and the play came to her. She felt conflicted; if she bet high, she'd chase the Cathar off, but there was the chance that if the play took too long her cards could change. They weren't playing at a professional table where she could lock her cards' values, so timing was going to be crucial. She bet a safe amount and saw Andronikos give a small nod, then folded out of the game. The Cathar was focused on his hand, and he seemed to have paid small attention to her play. He raised his bet by a considerable amount. Andronikos leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. She glanced at him from the corner of her eye and he gave her a wink. _Now. _She called.

The Cathar gave a grunt of disbelief when he saw her hand. "Impossible! You cheated somehow! You have a frelling skifter or something!"

Andronikos gave a sigh as Z'axsille shook her head. "Sorry, friend. I don't cheat."

The Cathar's eyes narrowed, then he stood so fast the table tipped over, cards and credits flying. Heads turned. He pointed a fat finger at her, and she could see it shaking in anger. "You frelling cheated."

Z'axsille stood up, crossing her arms. "I told you once. I won't tell you again."

The Cathar's hand formed into a fist and he made to take a swing at her, but Andronikos grabbed onto his arm and held it. "It's true, the lady doesn't cheat." He smirked into the Cathar's furry face. "But I do."

The Cathar growled and his other fist came up from underneath to send Andronikos sprawling onto the hard stone floor. Z'axsille's anger rose immediately to the surface as she knelt down next to him. He groaned and rubbed his jaw.

"Nikos, are you alright?"

"Sucker punched, but yeah. Help me up." She pulled him up then turned to the Cathar. She started to generate Force lightning through her body, but Andronikos grabbed her arm to stop her. She looked up at him and he shook his head. What he said next couldn't have been more surprising to her, "Too easy." Was there a smirk on his face?

"What?"

"C'mon, Sith. When was the last time you had a good bar fight? You could clear this room with one sweep of your hand." He nodded his head toward the Cathar who was watching them both with wary interest. "Where's the fun in that?"

She looked down at her hands and pulled her focus away from generating lightning. She understood what he was saying, but did he really expect her to not use her powers at all? "Live like a normal person for a change."

_Normal person? I'm normal! How am I not normal?_ She looked up at him, feeling a bit stunned. Did he think she wasn't normal? She felt a strange determination to prove to him that she was, if nothing else, 'normal'. She gave him a nod and he nodded back. "Watch his friends. The one on the right has a vibroknife."

"Got it."


	3. Chapter 3

Reflecting back as they both lay in the snow outside the cave where they had been unceremoniously dumped by a couple of Nikto bouncers, Z'axsille couldn't have said who had thrown the second punch, but by the time she and Andronikos had closed the gap between the Cathar and his friends she had managed to acquire a bottle of half empty whiskey that she cracked over the head of the friend with the vibroknife.

After that, it was all a bit of a blur. At one point a chair leg was smashed into her face and she had retaliated with a series of blows to the offender's torso and chin, dropping him with a lucky punch. Andronikos had kicked the legs out from under the Cathar who had hit him in the first place and was about to pounce on him when he was hit from behind as a Devaronian body-charged him and pinned him down on the ground. Z'axsille had rushed over-suppressing the urge to force throw the guy off-and punched him in the kidneys, then pulled him up by the collar and gave his head a smack on the underside of a table. Andronikos had stood back up and swung at his head, but the Devaronian ducked and Andronikos spun a bit from hitting only air. Z'axsille steadied him with one hand while she grabbed the Devaronian by a horn with the other and held him in place. "Not so fast." She pulled him back in front of her. "OK, go Nikos." Andronikos gave her an appreciative look and swung again. This time it landed fully on the chin and the Devaronian slumped down at their feet.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Who's next?"

Andronikos pointed. "That one."

_Perhaps I shouldn't have hit the Nikto bouncer_, because that was when things really did get out of hand. She wasn't sure when they had shown up exactly, but by then the room had erupted. At one point she had seen her Trandoshan friend with his vibroblade out stalking a terrorized human, but then she was thrown across the room by someone from behind and landed at the feet of a Wookie who was standing along the sidelines. The Wookie reached down and pulled her up, then spun her on her toes to face back into the room and gave her a push to send her back into the fray. His chortling laugh rang in her ears and she looked back over her shoulder to see him toasting her with his mug of ale. So she didn't see whose body it was that managed to stop her as she stumbled across the room, but it was solid enough to bring her to a complete halt and tall enough that she didn't bother to really have a look at what face might be up there before she attacked.

"Get outta my way, you kriffing oaf!" She gave the stomach a good right jab, followed by a fierce kick to his shins. Only then did she look up to find the horned Nikto glaring down at her. _Gods they're big when you really get down to it._ He grabbed her wrist and twisted so that her arm was behind her, but she still had some fight in her so she slid out from under his grasp and gave her knee a good jerk up into his groin.

_Definitely shouldn't have done that,_ she thought. And probably she shouldn't have run away after that either, but she had. And she probably shouldn't have used that teensy-weensy bit of the Force to send that table careening into his legs, but she had. And she most certainly shouldn't have snuck behind the bar and grabbed that bucket of ice, or sent the contents flying in the Nikto's direction, or tried to blame it on the Wookie. _Most definitely shouldn't have tried to blame the Wookie. _But she had.

And now she and Andronikos were laying in the cold snow, flat on their backs. She groaned and put a hand to her face. Fat lip, swelling eye, very sore jaw. She gave herself a little healing, then felt down to her ribs where she had been hit with a particularly hard blow and healed a little there too. She lay back and looked up at the night sky which was when she heard the strangest sound coming from Andronikos. At first she thought he was crying, but when she looked over at him she realized he was _wait-no_ laughing. At first it was a chuckle, but then he burst out with a full-on laugh, groaning a little and rubbing his side, but still that didn't stop him. _Is he giggling? _She'd never heard a grown man giggle before. His laughter was infectious and pretty soon she couldn't help but laugh a little. She tried to suppress it, but it bubbled up unbidden. She looked over at Andronikos who was looking at her and laughed harder. At that, her laughter overwhelmed her and she couldn't contain it. They lay back on the snow and laughed at the stars.

That's how Ashara found them, in near hysterics, trying to stop and not able to. She looked them both over and snorted in anger. "Really? Laughing? You get us all kicked out and you guys are laughing?"

Z'axsille rubbed tears from her eyes and tried to sit up, but another burst of giggles made her fall back onto the snow. Andronikos grabbed her arm. "She's pissed," he said with a snort which sent her over the edge again.

"Y-y-yes, sh-she is." She was standing over them with her arms crossed in all her righteous Jedi glory. _Oh gods._ "Wh-where's T-T-Talos?" Ashara huffed and stomped off, hopefully to find Talos and maybe their coats. She was able to finally calm her spasming laughs and managed to sit up, then looked down at Andronikos. His face was a mess, bloody nose, and what would soon become a really nasty bruise along his cheekbone. She pulled herself together. "Here," she packed some snow and set it gently along the side of his face. "Hold this."

The laughter died on his face as he sucked in a breath. "Ah-kriffin' hells, Sith. Can't you just heal me properly?" But he reached up and held the snow in place. She could see his knuckles were covered in cuts and blood.

"Well, wouldn't that be too sithy of me? Here I am trying to be normal and-"

He made to reach up his left hand towards her, but then hissed in pain. "Godsdamnit."

"You're arm?" He nodded and she took it softly and felt along the bone. "I think you broke it." There was no question now about Force healing him. She took her time, feeling the fracture in the bone, weaving energy around it to seal it back in place. It was just a small fracture, but she made sure it was done well, that there would be no lasting damage.

"Normal might have been a poor choice of words on my part," he said with a grunt of pain. "It's not that I think you're not normal."

Z'axsille looked up at him and he was studying her like he had been back on the ship, like he was measuring her. It sent a shiver up her spine that she didn't know how to feel about, so she went back to concentrating on his arm. When she felt the damage had been knitted back together, she lay his arm against his chest and told him, "Hold that still." She took the snow pack away from his face and healed up his other injuries. She could tell he had some bruised ribs so she gave some extra time there until he began to breathe a bit easier. His eyes were bright as they watched her work. "What would have been a better choice of words, then?" she finally asked.

He sighed and closed his eyes, "Oh gods, I don't know." She could see his breath on the cold air. "I just wonder-" he stopped and looked at her. She could tell he wanted to say something and wasn't sure how she would take it.

"Spit it out, Revel."

He took a deep breath, then growled, "What if something happens that you can't draw on the Force? Someone slaps a Force suppression collar on you, or throws you in a shielded room?" She must have been glaring at him because he held up his good hand to stop her from whatever she was going to say. "Hear me out. I'm not saying it's going to happen. And I wouldn't wish it on you, but all this focus on the Force, well-in my opinion it makes you vulnerable."

She sat back on her heels and studied him. She was prepared to be angry at him and even tried to make herself more angry than she was. _I should be insulted that he would even bring it up. After all, isn't my being able to wield the Force something that makes people envy me? respect me? _But she had to admit to herself that he had a point. She stood and reached out to help him up, grabbing his good hand and pulling. "So what's your suggestion?"

She could feel a release of tension that came off him, as if he had been holding his breath and had let it out in one puff of air. "Train in some hand-to-hand combat. No lightsabers, no lightning. And if we can get a hold of one, train with a collar on so you know what to expect."

She wasn't pleased about the suppression collar. Having worn a slave collar from a young age until only a few years ago she had the great desire to never wear a collar again, but he had a point. She nodded. "Ashara can help with the hand-to-hand."

His hand was still gripping hers and she felt him give it a gentle squeeze. He nodded and she could see his mouth moving as he said something, but the sudden buzzing in her ears drowned everything else out. Every sensation was focused on his hand holding hers; the rough calluses, the softer skin on the back of his hand, the warmth that seemed to seep into her muscles and radiate up her arm. She could feel his heart beat, the blood as it pulsed through his veins, the faint vibration of his voice. And there it was again-that feeling of some small tendril, microscopic and nearly invisible that ran between the two of them. Mentally she prodded at the connection, poked it ever so slightly and immediately felt his heartbeat quicken and his hand trembled slightly. _Does he know it's there? Can he see it too? _She realized she was staring at him as if hypnotised, her gaze captured by his brown eyes which held a hunger there. A hunger that was distant, held at bay by a powerful will. She looked down at their hands as if trying to find some physical evidence that might indicate what had caused her reaction, but there was nothing. _What is happening to me? _She felt the rush of eternity, pulling up and out from their tenuously joined bodies; out to above the mountain out to the darkened sky out to the myriad stars out to the voided black out to silence.

"Hey. Sith." She slowly became aware that he had spoken softly to her. "Z'ax?"

"Hmm...what?" She looked up at him, confusion clouding her brain. Had he asked her something?

"You alright?" His voice was deeper, huskier than it had been a few minutes ago.

She stepped back and pulled her hand away. "Yes. Fine." _Clear your head girl_. "What were you saying?"

He didn't answer right away, but studied her face thoughtfully. Then he shrugged. "Doesn't matter." He looked over her shoulder. "Here come the troops."

She turned to have her parka thrust in her face by Ashara, "Here."

Talos followed close behind. "Well you should have come for me right away! I have kolto packs!" he was saying to Ashara's back. "If Lord Nighthawk is unable to heal herself-" he stopped when he saw the two of them and what a mess they were. "Oh my! Oh! M'Lord! Are you-you look-oh dear! Your face!"

Ashara huffed and shook her head, muttering something about "deserving it."

"I'm fine, Lieutenant. But I think we need to find something to make a sling for Revel here. He broke his arm and I've mended it, but he still needs to keep it immobile for a while."

"Right away! I know just the thing!" and he hurried off to talk animatedly with one of the bouncers. Z'axsille could see the Nikto shake his head, but Talos didn't let up with his pleas so that finally the bouncer gave a quick jerk of his head and Talos ran back inside the cave.

Z'axsille put her parka back on, moving a bit stiffly while Ashara helped Andronikos into his, leaving his left arm free, draping the coat over his back and shoulder. It took them a while to find the speeder, moving in amongst all the others until finally Ashara waved, "Over here!"

Talos ran back with what appeared to be a very frilly scarf in his hands. "Here we are!" Andronikos balked at what she saw now was a _pink_, frilly scarf. Z'axsille had to wonder about Talos' statement that he "knew just the thing" when that thing turned out to be a pink, frilly scarf.

"Now just let me-" Talos tied the arm up, securing the scarf in a knot behind his head. "Now, if you would be so kind as to give that back when we return to the ship, I shall make certain it gets back to its rightful owner." He gave Andronikos' arm a gentle pat.

She couldn't help but smirk and gave Andronikos a wink. "Color suits you."

He mumbled something.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Good. Get in, I'm driving."

One of Hoth's moons was nearly full and was high in the dark sky by the time they left the club in the distance. It lit their way home with a blue spectral aura. Ashara and Talos in the back seemed to have a bit of an argument and she heard her say, "Well you disappeared for hours! Where were you?" She couldn't hear his mumbled answer. Craning her neck just a bit, she could see they had their heads together and were whispering urgently back and forth. Z'axsille sighed and returned her attention to the way ahead.

Andronikos shifted around in an attempt to get something out of his pocket. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to get my smokes. They're in my left pocket."

She leaned over. "Well, let me." He turned so she could get into his pocket and grabbed a cigarra and lighter. She lit it for him and passed it over, tossing the lighter back into his pocket. They sat for a few minutes in silence. Z'axsille noted that the whispering had stopped in the back. Turning she saw Ashara and Talos had both fallen asleep.

She reached out for the cigarra and he handed it to her. Yes, she could get used to that spicy, sweet flavor. In fact, she might have to make sure they kept a supply on the ship. She passed the cigarra back, blowing the smoke out through her nose. Andronikos lay his head back and blew smoke rings up at the sky, each one illuminated by the faint light from the dash.

"So tonight," she said.

"Uh-huh?"

"It was a test." She kept him in the corner of her eye, watching him. He held his body still, giving nothing away.

He sighed and turned to look at her, then passed the cigarra back to her. "It was."

Z'axsille took a couple thoughtful drags. "Do I get to know the result?"

He didn't say anything for a while, then leaned over and took back the cigarra. "Ask me later."

She could feel him watching her and turned to catch his eye. "When's later?"

He gave a small laugh, groaned and rubbed his side. "You'll know."

She could live with that, she decided. Something had shifted tonight and she could sense that he no longer stood on the knife edge. She was also confused about, well, many things. But she felt a small amount of peace knowing that she'd have answers at some point, maybe even to more than one thing that confused her.

"You know, for someone with no sense of humor, you have a nice laugh."

He smoked in silence for a while. "I haven't had much of a reason to laugh in the past couple years." His voice was low and soft. She waited for him to continue, he seemed to be on the verge of saying something more, but then he shook his head slightly and was silent.

After a while he reached forward and stubbed out the cigarra in the ashtray. "So."

"So?"

"Trandoshans? Really?"

She was quite glad he couldn't see the rush of blood to her cheeks. "Shut up and let me drive."

He leaned back and looked up at the stars. Off to their right, she could see that dawn was just beginning to break, a thin line of light silhouetting the blackened mountains in the distance. She thought she heard a chuckle come from his lips, but she couldn't be sure. _If I didn't know better, I'd think I'd just been told a joke._

* * *

Thank you for reading!

A/N-This started out as a character development short for the crew (post Hoth, pre-ohmigawd the ghosts are running rampant) in the Sith Inquisitor story line, but Andronikos had other ideas. As with all things Andronikos, I let him have his way with me. Oh, did I say that out loud?

I have no idea how to play sabacc-I bluffed my way through. If I mess up majorly, please let me know and I'll correct it. Also I changed Ashara's character a little-she's so droopy in-game that I can't stand it. She needed to lighten up, so I freed the young girl from her philosophical reveries. Thoughtful Ashara will come back gradually in further chapters. Also, the possibility of Andronikos being Force sensitive is not in-game, but I think it's a fascinating possibility to mull over. Much thanks to Nerica for her wonderfulness in helping me. Reviews are welcomed!


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 2: Revenge is Best Served with a Side of Blaster**

* * *

On the bridge of the Fury: somewhere in the Ether

"Hang on, Revel. Wait just one second. Are you telling me that you were the one who-"

"Uh-huh."

"Which caused a galaxy-wide monetary crisis-"

"Uh-huh."

"And caused a reorganization of the-"

"Uh-huh."

He wasn't sure why it had come out of his mouth, admitting to a deed that if she were in the mind for it could turn him into a hunted fugitive. Z'axsille had been ribbing him about his time as an accountant. Again. And he had come to the end of his rope and had blurted it out. The Big Secret. If he had the inkling to examine his motives at all, he might have had the tiniest thought that he got to puff his chest up a bit for her, this Zabrak woman who had somehow managed to squeeze into his consciousness whether he liked it or not. He was surprised to realize that he trusted her with this damning information, that of anyone in the galaxy he could tell her. He wasn't sure when this had come about, and he was pretty certain that she didn't trust him fully, but still, there it was. He could admit most definitely that seeing her speechless, sitting across the console from him with her arms crossed and a dubious expression on her face gave him an immense amount of pleasure.

"Revel, you are a big, fat liar."

Well, that hurt a little. He might be a thief, and a killer, and a pirate, but he had never lied to her. OK, well maybe little white lies, but not big, fat ones certainly. He most definitely had hidden things about himself from her, but who didn't keep secrets? He knew she had many. He shook his head at her and went back to his astrogation chart.

She gave a little huffy sound. "That's it? You dump that in my lap and then go back to your stupid chart?" He tried to ignore her, to concentrate on the datapad in front of him. "You are obviously making it up, you frelling son of a Hutt." Now she was goading him, trying to get a rise out of him. She stared him down for several heartbeats, then gave a disgusted sound and turned her chair back toward the console in front of her, muttering under her breath.

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, her slaver's scars standing out in relief against her pale red-brown skin. Sometimes they would catch the light just right and he could almost read them. The ones not covered in her tribal tattoos were vivid, and added to her beauty in a way that he couldn't pinpoint, didn't really even want to. She shook her head, at him he presumed and went back to her work.

He thought that was the end of it. He thought he could breathe easier and not think about all that. So why, after a few minutes of silence did he say, "Sometimes it's not enough knowing what someone did, but why they did it."

She gave a growl deep in her throat and threw her datapad down onto the equipment in front of her. She turned slowly back to him, her eyebrows up waiting for further explanation. He sighed and pulled a cigarra from his pocket. This was going to take a while. "You might want to get some whiskey." She pulled a face at him, then stood and got glasses and bottle from a bulkhead cabinet. She set them down between the two of them and reseated herself. He handed the cigarra over to her and lit another one for himself.

"OK, tell me the reason you robbed that-"

"No. It goes back further than that."

"Then what?"

"Ask me _why _I became an accountant."

She sighed, blowing smoke through her nose. "Oh for frak's sake. Revel, _why_ did you become an accountant?"

As he poured out a couple whiskeys, his hand shook. Just faintly, just enough to reveal the power of the emotion behind the one word that he spoke, "Revenge." There it was, that feeling he had buried deep, kept hidden away, locked up tight. But now it was right there at the surface, hatred-hot and burning through his skull. He could tell that she could feel it, that it fueled the part of her that fed on the blackness.

"Yes," she whispered, her eyes half closed. He nearly groaned as an insatiable longing for her swept through him, for her to say that to him as he filled her with himself. Unbidden, a sudden image of her underneath him, his mouth at her breast, her lips parted, swollen, at the verge of-

No. Her eyes snapped open, as if she knew his thoughts. But she couldn't know. He kept her out, purposefully maintaining the wall. But the way she was looking at him, surprised and confused and more than a little excited, made him doubt that his wall wasn't hiding a crack in it somewhere, that something had slipped through. He remembered back to standing in the snow with her outside The Blue Night, her hand resting lightly in his and she had looked at him as if he were something new and curious. He remembered how his heart had nearly tripped out of his chest, how he lost himself for a moment in her green eyes. Thankfully she had let that night be as it was, had not asked him further about things that he knew she was immensely curious about. His intentions had not been innocent and he wasn't ready for her to know why, moreover knew she wasn't ready to know why.

He cleared his throat and swallowed the whiskey in one, watching her as she did the same. He liked the way she drank hard liquor, as if it were her lifeblood, as if she had been drinking it from infancy. Well, that's how she drank the good stuff anyway. He smirked a little, remembering her turning up her nose at some of the backwash they'd had on Taris. Even he, connoisseur of bad booze, had been turned off by that swill.

"So do I get to know the who that this revenge was directed at?"

There were things in his past that he wasn't proud of, things that he had done that he hated himself for, and gods knew, it wasn't the last time he had taken revenge on someone; his mutinied crew had found out all too well that Andronikos Revel's particular brand of revenge was plotted out with attention to detail and malice aforethought that would make a grown Sith Lord on the Dark Council cry with jealousy. His ability to seek revenge was a result of practice, born from a young age when the hatred had begun to simmer from the smallest of flames. Yes, he had done horrible things and yes, this thing was among the worst. But it was that one thing out of his past that he was the most proud, that made him who he was with no question. If you took this one thing away, you would no longer have Andronikos Revel. He gave her a quick nod, "There was."

She moved to the edge of her seat, leaning in toward him. "Who?"

He bent forward toward her, elbows on knees, feeling her pull him in. She would know. She would know it all and he couldn't not tell her anymore than he could stop his own heart from beating. She would know and everything would change and he felt his pulse race at the thought. He took a deep drag on the cigarra, blowing smoke down toward the floor. He looked up into her green eyes. "My father."

She gave a small sigh then, so light, so gentle that he might have imagined it. But she nodded.

They were ten hours from anywhere, alone in the galaxy except for the stars that winked at them. He had all the time in the galaxy to tell the tale of how Andronikos Revel had robbed the Global Trade Network Bank of billions of credits and gotten away with it.

* * *

A/N

OK, I made up the Global Trade Network (GTN) Bank for the purposes of this story, which does veer off from the canon. Also Revel's in-game backstory is a muddle of bits and pieces of information that nearly made me crazy, especially when I realized the guy could be 40-50 years old by the time he plunks his shiny hiney down in the pilot's chair of the Fury, and that age gap is just icky. So I kicked out some in-game stuff, and condensed some stuff, and changed some stuff so that hopefully it comes out to where he's in his early 30's and Z'axsille is about mid- to late-20's and that's way less icky. You can throw rotten tomatoes at me if you want. Or you can go with the flow and let me entertain you, which is rather more fun for all of us involved. Reviews are encouraged and thanks to those readers who have done so. Thanks for reading!


End file.
