#handmaiden/brianna | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

attonposting · 1 year

Text

Presenting: A Mostly Complete Breakdown of the KotOR II Crew's Relationships With Each Other

(Assuming a LS Exile, a dollop of headcanon, and a lot of reading time)

Kreia

Kreia and Atton: Of all the crewmate dynamics in the game, this one's the most well-explored, with a particularly glorious smattering of high-grade explosives. What's maybe less apparent is why they hate each other. Atton's part is straightforward; his demeanor towards Kreia starts out the same abrasive, pseudo-hostile that's his default. It sours further when she talks down to him and acts like a holier-than-thou Jedi, but he'll still interact with her willingly. And it bottoms out into murderous, trapped loathing at the Telos academy, where Kreia becomes his slavemistress and he avoids her whenever possible, desperately hungry to lash out but terrified of her retribution.

Why does Kreia hate Atton so much, though? It starts out because he's an irreverent bastard, but I think it comes down to two main reasons. Number one is that he reminds her of Sion, her worst student. They're a pair of stubborn, sadistic, infatuated blockheads who took all the wrong lessons from Malachor and run about with their oversimplified conclusions causing destruction for no purpose but its own sake. Most importantly, what Atton shirks and what Kreia embraces is accountability. Kreia believes in ownership of one's choices to the point that she can't accept redemption – wanting to change, admitting you were wrong - as an honest decision. Atton? Atton doesn't believe in redemption either, but that's because he fuckin' bails rather than own up to anything. And when Kreia uncovers that, how he cowers from his own nature, her scorn is boundless.

Reason two is that Kreia would have rather traveled with the Exile alone, shaping them in isolation of other influences. Atton is the first spanner in this plan. Later on it becomes clear that the Force has designs for the Exile, and that their entourage is simply something she must contend with, but Atton still gets the short end of the stick here because he's one of the companions who wants to get close to the Exile, especially if they're a lady. And the possibility of Atton, who is a lesson in doing everything wrong, influencing the Exile? Not on her watch.

Kreia and Bao-Dur: Bao-Dur is one of the crewmates Kreia hates most, though not through any fault of his own. He defies her probing (she really doesn't like it if she learns he actually can be read, just not by her), and she also dislikes the old and powerful connection he has with the Exile, because anyone who can mold the Exile, or who they'll turn to for support, fundamentally undermines her mentorship. Bao-Dur is neutral to Kreia at first but comes to distrust her the more he overhears. Her guidance to the Exile sets off a lot of red flags, but he doesn't really feel prompted to act on it unless the Exile starts listening to her – whereupon he'll incorrectly blame his General's fall on Kreia and attempt to act in their protection.

Kreia and Mira: Kreia doesn't particularly see Mira as a threat compared to many of the others. A foolish little girl clinging to a code that will get her killed, yes. But she's not an obstacle to her plans for the Exile, being as standoffish as she is, and so Kreia leaves her to her own devices, biding her time for the day she'll be tested. Mira is very wary of Kreia without fully understanding why – looks harmless, but Mira's good at feeling people and Kreia gives her all kinds of bad vibes – so she keeps a wide berth. Any conversations they've had have been very short and very acerbic on both sides.

Kreia and Brianna: This gets really complicated if you ascribe to the 'Kreia is Arren Kae' theory, which I do. It would certainly explain why Kreia's hackles go up when Brianna joins the crew, when the connection to Atris and later her antipathy for Visas is something she makes liberal use of, and also why she's so disapproving of training Brianna to be a Jedi when she expresses very little opinion on the subject for anyone else. There might be a smidgen of an old desire to keep her out of harm's way (and even moreso, to remain free of the Force and its machinations), but Kreia refuses to allow whatever feelings remain influence her decisions – and she throws Brianna right into harm's way when she uses her at the rebuilt Enclave and drops her off at a freshly-unhinged Atris's feet. That right there kills any nascent thoughts I might have had of Kreia approaching Brianna for any constructive reason during their earlier travels. Before everything goes down, I don't see them crossing paths much – Kreia has an especial desire to keep her distance and Brianna is not one to socialize.

Kreia and Mical: There is not a lot of interaction that can happen when you've been mindwhammied into forgetting the other person exists. I don't think Mical knew Kreia was on the ship at all until the game's climax, even when he was looking right at her. Kreia has an interesting opinion on Mical, though. She definitely disdains his idealism and softheartedness, but I think she does respect him in a backhanded way – he's the only one who managed to figure out what was happening, and actually forced her hand in order to keep the game afoot. I certainly read a sort of admiration in “you were a wasted pawn of the Republic,” and that's more than anyone else on the crew gets out of Kreia.

Kreia and Visas: So Kreia resents Visas, a lot. She did not want the Exile to have to face Nihilus, and Visas's arrival locked that very dangerous confrontation in stone. She adapts her plans quite successfully, because she's nothing if not resourceful, but Kreia's attempts to prey on Brianna's distrust and inflame her jealousy have nothing to do with any threat Visas presents. I think it also comes back to her scorn for both weakness and redemption; if Visas was weak enough to have her will crushed, she doesn't deserve to be lifted up, and the Exile only wastes their limited energy on a pity project. On her end, Visas is a remarkably mellow individual, but Kreia is the one person on the ship she does not trust. The others are clear presences through the Force, even drawn towards the Exile's alignment as they are. When she looks at Kreia, her sight is... blurred. Difficult to see. And her Master had spoken of his own Master, a Darth Traya...

Kreia and Canderous: I doubt Kreia sees Canderous as anything more than one of Revan's creatures, broken upon their charisma and following their orders in vain. She's generally pretty uninterested in any of the crewmates beyond their potential uses, but her treatment of Canderous is especially dismissive in that she doesn't even care if he sees her for what she is. I find her general scorn of the Mandalorians interesting, given that they do espouse a lot of the philosophy she shares in-game – they have a sink-or-swim ideology that eschews aid and forces each member to survive on their own merits, always seeking adversity to become strong lest they dull their edge, without falling into the Sith trap of self-destruction through infighting. I guess they're not subtle enough for her tastes. Canderous hates her for the same reason Atton does – she didn't even try to hide the fact that she was manipulating him, just nailed him to the wall on day one. Even if she hadn't been so blatant, I doubt Canderous has much trust for Jedi-types lying around after the plot twist of the first game. Revanchists, he's totally game to hang out and swap war stories, but Kreia's more of the 'preachy old crone in robes' breed of Jedi and he remembers what happened the last time he trusted those.

Kreia and T3-M4: Oh boy, but Kreia does not like the metal cinnamon roll. She's got issues with her students having attachments to people that aren't her, and she already dislikes droids for their immunity to mental alteration and probing. Which is actually intensely hypocritical of her, since she otherwise praises things that are dead to the Force and can defy its will – but I suppose it's less laudable when the Force in question is her own. Same as how Kreia praises focusing on practical skills rather than the Force, yet apart from her persuasion has few of her own, which is why these droids can defy her so. Add in that it's T3's navicomputer lock that's preventing Kreia from discovering where Revan has gone, and it's no surprise she blasts him in the cut content. For T3's part, he's never liked the old woman – she's very rude, yes, but more important is the question of how exactly Kreia got on the ship in the first place. How and when, I don't know, but she definitely hijacked T3's ship at some point and interrupted his Very Important Mission. Even if their goals ended up being aligned, T3 has issues with people who think they don't have to ask for his permission.

Kreia and HK-47: For this one, we're back to Kreia's refusal to view droids as people. In her eyes, HK-47 is yet another one of the tools Revan lavished their time on in a meaningless sidetrack from their true potential. Unlike T3, though, HK doesn't present an ongoing obstacle, just a blunt instrument and an irritating reminder of her former student's proclivities. HK, for his part, frequently occupies his processors with potential scenarios where he could terminate the old-model meatbag without compromising his Master's integrity. The unusually strong Force bond presents an altogether new challenge for his assassination protocols and he's eager to overcome fresh obstacles – for purely hypothetical purposes, of course.

Atton

Atton and Bao-Dur: They tolerate each other, which is as good as things get with Atton. It's a sort of wary, untapped understanding that they've both done some shit and don't want to talk about it, and they've kind of got a personal issue with the other's war crimes (and that sure is a KotOR II sentence) but don't think it's worth it to drag it out. It could warm up into something friendlier if they ever hashed out an understanding – they have some crucial things in common and could really get each other in a way most of the crew couldn't – but it would take something big to get that talk to happen. Apart from the history, Bao-Dur thinks Atton is ridiculous and Atton thinks Bao-Dur is a stick in the mud and a gearhead, but they do trust each other to have the General's back. And that's the most important thing to both of them, so they get along all right.

Atton and Mira: They snipe at each other constantly, and get into more verbal brawls than anyone else, since they're both pretty chatty and not afraid to insert themselves into other people's business. But their relationship isn't as hostile as it looks from the outside, even if it has involved stolen equipment and at least one minor sonic charge being planted on the pilot's seat. They annoy the hell out of each other, but Atton is about as fond of Mira as he is of anyone who isn't the Exile. She's relatable without the traits that make him despise himself, and when they're on the job, the two of them often end up backing the same strategy, or spouting very unintentionally synchronized “oh, kriff no”s to someone else's, despite having no actual desire to agree with each other.* And Mira thinks Atton's an idiot, but he's a familiar kind of idiot, and he's good for a laugh (read: easy to wind up and create some on-demand performance art.)

(*For posterity's sake, group strategizing usually slices out like this: Atton, Mira, and Visas on Team Sneaky Fuckers; Brianna, Canderous, and HK-47 on Team Why Don't We Just Light The Place Up; and Mical and very occasionally Bao-Dur on Team I Am Very Concerned You Would Suggest That. Kreia would be a Sneaky Fucker but refuses to provide positive reinforcement to any of these cretins. Poor T3's contributions go nearly unnoticed due to half the crew not understanding Binary. G0-T0 vacillates between Sneaky Fuckery and systemic elimination of all obstacles depending on the situation, and for Hanharr, do you even have to ask?)

Atton and Brianna: They openly hate each other. Brianna thinks Atton is undisciplined and uncouth, Atton thinks the Handmaiden's a self-righteous bitch. The reason they really loathe each other instead of the usual 'just thinks that person is really annoying' is because they don't trust each other to have the Exile's best interests at heart – Atton thinks she's a spy and Brianna thinks he's a slimy, lying opportunist, and if she learns who he really is, that's going to get five times worse. Both of them have fantasized about kicking the other's ass at length, but Brianna has too much discipline to start a fight and Atton's worried that he might not come out on top. Killing her would be easy, but an honorable duel with a crazy Echani ice queen who spends every waking hour boxing air in her skivvies? No thanks.

Atton and Mical: Atton despises Mical on principle. Everything Mical does infuriates him, no matter how innocuous. Mical needs help in a firefight? Useless fop, don't know why we let him tag along. Mical heals Atton afterwards? Pushy asshole thinks he's better than me. Mical asks Atton to pass him the salt at breakfast? Get it yourself, you needy bastard. Mical looks in the Exile's direction? Die in a fire, Blondie. He drags him endlessly, coming up with a stream of excuses to hate him when the reality of it is that Atton's pissed that Mical is a better person than him in every single way, and has decided to react to that by resenting his existence rather than, y'know, trying to improve himself at all.

On the other side, Mical dislikes Atton - it would be very strange if he didn't - but he's patient and diplomatic, rarely rising to the bait and occasionally extending olive branches (which only serve to make Atton angrier and more unreasonable.) He wants Atton to work out his issues, because that in turn would be best for the Exile who cares for all of them, and also because he hopes that it might get him to improve his behavior. Of course, it'd be much simpler to drop Atton off on the next planet, but unfortunately he's already ruled out the possibility.

Atton and Visas: They don't interact much. Visas doesn't have any particular feelings about Atton; she trusts him because his feelings towards the Exile are clear and that's the only metric that matters to her. Atton doesn't care that she was Sith, it becomes obvious by like three days in that she's not a threat and the Handmaiden's full of it – it's her servility that creeps him out. It's that Jedi tendency to act like drones instead of people. He doesn't know what to do with that (he does, knows a lot about how to crack open their shells, but not in any way he wants to remember), so he keeps his distance. The sad thing about this is that they do have some big things in common; they're ex-Sith who lost all hope in the galaxy only to have it restored by the Exile, who they'd gladly die for because they don't value their own lives and because the Exile is so much greater than they could ever be. But I can't realistically see Atton taking his walls down for that conversation to happen. Visas can talk about her feelings but keeps to herself; Atton reacts to emotional honesty like a wet cat.

Atton and Canderous: Pretty hostile. Atton's not as overt about it as Bao-Dur (since his hate congealed in a different direction), but he has any veteran's grudge against the Mandalorians and doesn't love the idea of them reorganizing. Canderous has a thick hide when it comes to trading jabs, but he's less tolerant of anyone shit-talking his people and their honor, and you can bet Atton has made plenty of snipes from the relative safety of the Exile's favor. Atton eventually ends up crawling to the Exile to bail him out after Canderous calls him out on his bullshit and challenges him to throw hands, because he could kick Atton's ass in a brawl and Atton fully knows this but will not admit it.

Atton and T3-M4: T3-M4 has done nothing wrong in his life, ever, and Atton is proof that there is no fairness in the galaxy. T3 retaliates by inconveniencing Atton in endlessly small ways – colliding with him while he's carrying food, tweaking his laundry cycle to singe his clothes, constantly changing the astrogation system's access codes. And, of course, baiting him into pazaak only to crush him with his superior logic matrices. Atton brought all of this on himself and T3 would strongly consider stopping if Atton would only apologize and admit he has been very rude and mean. He doesn't.

Atton and HK-47: A flaming mess. Atton distrusts T3-M4, who is a cinnamon roll with a shock arm; now take his irrational hatred of droids, add in psychotic programming and an expressed desire to murder everyone on board, and you can be sure he's sleeping with his door locked. This is made worse because while HK-47 also hates Atton, he's very interested in his past as a fellow assassin and Jedi-hunter – irritated that Atton seems to have fallen prey to that insidious meatbag disease known as 'regret', but he has no desire to respect those boundaries and is highly curious about comparing their tactics and K-D ratios. Mostly because HK wants to express his clear superiority over his meatbag imitators, but also because there may be an opportunity to refine his craft. (If we're dealing with a DS Atton, they still hate each other, but it's because Atton is as disgusted by the idea of a droid doing his job as HK is of him. But you can expect a lot more open debate of torture tactics at the breakfast table.)

Bao-Dur

Bao-Dur and Mira: They don't have an awful lot in common, but they interact well enough. It's part because Bao-Dur is the king of the garage and Mira spends plenty of time in there, and part because Mira likes to poke people to see how they'll react (and at first, she really wants to know if the beefcake Zabrak does talk or if he just tinkers in the droid bay all day looking like a snack.) Bao-Dur's a wallflower but he can sass back with the best of them when prodded, and he's gotten involved with Mira's maintenance more than once - enough for Mira to grudgingly respect that damn, she runs a tight ship with her equipment but this guy knows what he's talking about.

Bao-Dur and Brianna: Unfortunately I can't really see these two coming together outside the field. They both keep to themselves in their spare time, and neither of them are the type to initiate conversations, so most of their talks have purely been strategy or reacting to situations as they happen. They're both pretty practical and goal-oriented people, so they don't clash. The one place these two intersect is Telos – Brianna is actually very impressed with Bao-Dur's work and considers him singularly skilled. If she expressed that, things might warm up a bit, though Bao-Dur definitely has some not-so-charitable thoughts about why a Jedi Master was sitting around stealing power from Telos's already strained grid instead of helping with the restoration efforts in any way.

Bao-Dur and Mical: They get on quite well. Bao-Dur's more of an introvert while Mical likes to strike up conversations, but they're the two most Republic-positive people on the Hawk and they're both appreciative of the other's work, which is a good foundation. Mical definitely has questions about Bao-Dur's extensive experience with Telos on his studies of worlds sickened by the Wars, which is a topic Bao-Dur has a direct interest in – he'd hoped to branch out before the Telos Project started going sour. They've had plenty of problem-solving brainstorming sessions, even if their musings in their respective fields tend to go way over the other's head. I was also gonna bring up that they both think the world of the Exile and find endless inspiration in their actions, but that's kind of true for everyone in KotOR II: The Simp Lords. Still, it's those two and Visas who are the least afraid about expressing it.

Bao-Dur and Visas: They go for a long time without crossing paths, but they've got plenty in common – they're fundamentally gentle people who struggle with feelings of despair and anger borne of PTSD, and they both appreciate solitude to center themselves without actually having a real desire to self-isolate. I could see them taking up a companionable silence one day on the Hawk while the others are off adventuring, and in time coming to meditate or simply exist together. They've both got a planet's worth of trauma on their shoulders and they could forge a strong connection if one of them ever reached out.

Bao-Dur and Canderous: Bad, bad, bad. Bao-Dur's deal is self-explanatory – he hates the Mandalorians with an all-consuming fervor, to the point where he's uncomfortable with himself, and Mandalore's presence on the ship just drags it all out into the open. And Canderous doesn't understand this, or the depths of Bao-Dur's PTSD; he sees a skilled warrior who was instrumental in his people's defeat, which he's been taught not to personally resent. So, y'know, there's nothing stopping him from dropping by and striking up a chat between two old warriors. And he figures out real quick that Bao-Dur's the type that holds a grudge, but I don't think he can really grasp just how deep it goes. In Canderous's world, if you've got a problem, you brawl it out. Bao-Dur could only begin to find common ground with a Mandalorian if he was shown some remorse, which just isn't going to happen. Now make it not just any Mandalorian but their leader, this symbol for everything he despises, who loudly intends to reunite his scattered thugs and murderers for the next great war? Yeah. It's bad.

Bao-Dur and T3-M4: They have a rocky start, since T3 really doesn't like that suggestion of a memory wipe. But Bao-Dur's not going to press if this mouthy Astromech is that opposed to it, and if I had to peg one guy on the KotOR II Hawk who sees droids as fully-fledged people, it's gonna be him every time. The Remote talks up Bao-Dur enough for T3 to trust him with some maintenance, and it leads to a gorgeous heat sink on his processors and the smoothest treads of his life. It doesn't take long for Bao-Dur to become T3's favorite, second to the Exile. T3 repeatedly rants to Bao-Dur about all the incredibly annoying and illogical things the organics on this ship get up to. Bao-Dur chuckles, agrees with everything, and never breathes a word of it to anyone else.

Bao-Dur and HK-47: HK-47 is a one-of-a-kind piece of machinery, but Bao-Dur could really do without the cutting remarks. If he has to hear 'Insincere Placation' one more time, he's kicking him out of the garage. And if it's not the disparaging comments about his skills as a mechanic, it's the frankly disturbing homicidal musings. Bao-Dur wonders if programming a droid to be this single-mindedly murderous constitutes abuse. HK, for his part, does come to respect Bao-Dur's skills, and has very good reason to fear self-proclaimed mechanics after a low-repair amnesiac Revan did unspeakable things with a hydrospanner. But his friendly musings about the laudable efficiency of the slaughter at Malachor V and the truly impressive galactic implications of all that death did not produce the enlightening discussion he'd hoped for.

Mira

Mira and Brianna: Mira first saw the Handmaiden from afar when she was stalking the Exile on Nar Shaddaa. They meet properly when Mira's poking around the ship, and okay, yeah, Mira sees why this girl fought like a dancer with that electrostaff – she spends all her time training. Like, does she even know what fun is? An intervention is necessary. In her efforts to get the Handmaiden out of her shell, Mira drags her out of the cargo hold for anything she can think of – the latest gossip on the Ebon Hawk, girl talk, drinks, blaster practice, an improvised dartboard with a picture of Kreia taped over it. Brianna really doesn't know what to do with this attention at first, and she's very put off. But Mira refuses to let her be awkward, and... even if all these customs are foreign to her, she finds she does enjoy being sought out? By the end of the game, those two are tight-knit. Mira's eventually the one who teaches Brianna how sarcasm works, something which Brianna wields with terrifying precision.

Mira and Mical: Mira's decent enough to the guy, but with a distinctly condescending flair. The Disciple is like a pet, maybe – cute, harmless, and doesn't do anything useful as far as she can tell. Well, that's not strictly true, because he's good for getting Atton to act like a ronto in heat, but she doubts the Exile keeps him on for that. They've squabbled before on missions when Mical had an issue with laying out a minefield on civilian turf (they were just flashbangs and stunners, dammit, what does he take her for?) or thought talking to a bunch of crime kingpins would work. Still, he's nice to look at if you can tune him out.

Mira and Visas: Mira tries to draw this one out of her shell, too, but with much less success. It's part because Brianna really hates Visas and Mira doesn't get their Jedi crap enough to work out whatever this spat is, so Girls' Night dies before it ever has a chance to become tradition. The other half is because Visas barely reacts to anything Mira does – she'll never refuse her company, but she seems indifferent to everything Mira tries to engage her with. It makes Mira sad, and also really uncomfortable, and she eventually gives up for fear that she's just dragging around someone who doesn't know how to say no to her. (This wasn't strictly the case. Visas is terrible at enforcing boundaries, but she generally didn't mind – just didn't really understand what was expected of her. Aimless chatter is a luxury she had to relearn. On the whole, just being on this ship that teemed with life and determination instead of draining them was often enough for her, and she spent many hours feeling and observing the others from afar.) But Mira doesn't stop watching Visas, and she's relieved when other members of the crew, and of course their fearless leader, connect with her in their own ways.

Mira and Canderous: Man, this one gets complex. Mira loves to pretend that she's over her past, and she's super not. The Mandalorians are the only family she remembered. It was screwed up on a lot of levels and she understands that better now than she did then, but... she knew who she was when she was one of them. Dreamed of being one for real someday, before Malachor ended everything. So finding the hidden enclave on Dxun stirred up a lot of mixed feelings. She keeps her distance from Canderous, but she's drawn to him anyway. It's Mandalore, a legend brought to life, of course she's curious – that's normal, right? And maybe one day he offhandedly comments that she handled something like a Mandalorian, and it means the world to her and she's not prepared for it, at all, and she tries to play it cool but ends up spilling that she halfway was one. And they swap stories for a long time after that. She doesn't take him up on his offer of returning to Dxun with him, but she feels a sense of completion, maybe closure, that it was made. Canderous obfuscates it, because no one will accuse him of going soft, but he's fond of that girl. She's got real fight in her.

Mira and T3-M4: For a while, they don't really interact, but Mira's eagle eye eventually catches that many of the inconvenient accidents on board the Hawk coincide with a little Astromech whirring by moments before disaster. Which is concerning, but also really funny, given that the usual butt of the joke is either Atton or HK-47. So she does what she does best and gets involved – either she gets a piece of the action or she's busting his operation. T3 promptly pops out eight pieces of weaponry she didn't realize a utility droid could have mounts for, wheels her over to a holoscreen, leverages her right back with the secret stash she keeps under the docking ramp panel, and recruits her wholesale. Everyone those two dislike proceeds to have a very frustrating week. She doesn't understand Binary, so they can only ever talk when T3 plugs himself in and types, but damn, Mira thought she had a mouth but that droid is sassy. Scrappy little fucker runs the ship from the shadows - she's staying on his good side.

Mira and HK-47: Mira tries very hard to pretend that HK doesn't unnerve the hell out of her. She's seen those things in action and she's not entirely convinced this one isn't a plant that's going to drill them in the back once some unknown trigger is tripped. HK-47 is deeply offended by the accusation – less that he would murder them all if he could, and more that Mira can't recognize how his abundance of personality and far more intimidating looks set him apart from his mass-produced copycats.

Brianna

Brianna and Mical: In-game, they can't ever interact, but I like to imagine that all six of the Lost Jedi come along with the Exile. These two have an awkward start – she's a soldier trained not to question while he's a historian who does nothing but. Mical has some questions about Atris that'll get Brianna's hackles up, and she'll want nothing to do with him for a while after that. But as she travels with the Exile, she'll come to realize that he's right; Atris's actions run counter to her spoken principles, and the Exile is a truer expression of the Jedi teachings despite having been cast from the Order. They'll coalesce most post-game, when Brianna sets aside her single-minded dedication to combat to become an archivist. Mical has plenty of interest in helping her with Atris's salvaged collection and disseminating the information within.

Brianna and Visas: Visas is demure and respectful – Brianna bites her head off every time she speaks up. It's a mess. Brianna's been raised with an incredibly black-and-white, fear-based set of views on the Jedi. There's no redemption for Sith in Atris's academy, only punishment and execution. The Exile skated by Atris's conditioning with their Force magnetism, and to a lesser extent, their similarities to Yusanis – Visas is not so lucky. Brianna's jealousy isn't strictly romantic in nature, though. The way I see it, it has more to do with her deep-seated feelings of abandonment and never being good enough no matter how hard she works. She thought she and the Exile were forging something special, that the Exile saw something in her that no one else had (and maybe that was even true, maybe she does have potential), and then they went off to gallivant with a Sith. She feels cheapened, replaced – maybe even scorned, if the Exile sees her the same way, as something broken and wrong to be fixed. And she can justify it to herself with what Atris taught her instead of actually confronting her own feelings. So it becomes a mantra: Visas is a Sith, she cannot be trusted, and all the time the Exile spends with her is time for her to sink her hooks into their mind.

I would like to think, on a LS run (as a mirror to what happens on a DS one), when Kreia tricks Brianna into despair and she subsequently discovers Atris's corruption, that Brianna has an epiphany – that she was watching for enemies in the wrong places, and that Atris's teachings had blinded her to what was evident in Visas's stance, if only she'd been able to accept what she saw. And by the time they band together on Malachor, they've buried the hatchet. Visas accepts this heartfelt apology readily – she never held a grudge even when Brianna was snarling at her daily. Post-game they become quite close. They understand plenty about what it means to dedicate yourself to someone out of desperation and out of inspiration, and they more than anyone else on the crew share the Exile lifting them up and setting them free. And they share their strengths – Brianna passes on her knowledge of combat now that she's ready to set it aside, and at her behest, Visas spends the time to teach her to see through the Force so that she'll never be blinded to others' hearts again.

Brianna and Canderous: Brianna's wary of Mandalore and disagrees stridently with him on philosophy – they agree on fealty and discipline, but discussing the purpose of combat has led to some raised voices and a few worried (or popcorn-crunching) eavesdroppers. But they do respect each other as fellow warriors. They've sparred a few times, even if Canderous refused to remove his raiment in a minor bit of tradition-crossroads. Canderous even lost a round or two, which he is damn impressed by but privately worries about for weeks later. He's getting old.

Brianna and T3-M4: Brianna largely ignores T3-M4. This is probably a good thing, since T3 holds a grudge from when she stole the Ebon Hawk and delivered him to Atris, where he had a very unpleasant time of things. He was not happy to see her board the ship yet again, and kept a close optic on her for a while. Eventually he decided she was unlikely to repeat offend, and she at least doesn't make a mess of the ship like some organics, but the beeps and boops he uses to address her are not especially polite ones.

Brianna and HK-47: Brianna cannot fathom why the Exile reactivated the assassin droid, and once it starts talking, she really doesn't understand why they keep it around. This is mostly because it's clearly a psychotic tool of war, the kind of single-mindedly bloodthirsty creation Atris always accused the Exile of being, and its company is... unbefitting for the hero she's come to know. But also, and she stubbornly refuses to admit this to herself, she's frustrated that the Exile thinks they need more firepower on the battlefield. Isn't she good enough for them?

Mical

Mical and Visas: They get along very well. They start interacting early on, when Visas first joins the crew and has all kinds of old untreated injuries that need tending. After the medbay visits taper off, the meditation visits start. Mical's curious about Sith philosophy and techniques and Visas is pretty much the most tailor-fitted discussion partner the galaxy could have possibly given him on those topics. Visas is dubious of Mical's own views, particularly that he clings to them when he's seen so many things that undermine them and readily admits this, but over her travels with the Exile comes to appreciate his steadfast optimism more. They're both very gentle people and Mical could do wonders in shoring up Visas's lost faith – a favor Visas pays back in full when Kreia betrays the team and leaves Mical to the horrifying realization that the Force is decaying around the Exile. She feels his distress and seeks him out, invites him to meditate together as he so often approached her, and repeats the words he always insisted upon – no matter how fraught it seems, there is always hope.

Mical and Canderous: When Mandalore joins the team, Mical's immediate concern is the Exile's mental health. Bao-Dur has clearly been doing poorly since Dxun and it's hardly a secret the Exile shares much of the same trauma. He keeps to the background and watches carefully, his own few interactions with the man being brusque and dismissive. Carth is... concerned, to say the least, when Mical reports of a new Mandalore; it gets interesting when Mical's next transmission contains some footage. Much like the player, it doesn't take Carth long to pick up on the fact that Mandalore's voice is just Canderous's through some filters. This is how poor Mical ends up as the go-between between two old frenemies, passing notes back and forth like he's stuck at the middle desk. That said, he's greatly relieved that their Mandalorian contact is on the up and up; he would not question the Exile's decisions, but did worry about what might come of them until it became clear this was all the work of the Force.

Mical and T3-M4: They first met when Mical requested to see the records of the Exile's trial. T3-M4 was wary of the request, but organics who are actually courteous to utility droids are a rarity, and Mical eventually won him over without having to fetch the Exile for proof. Once T3 finds out that Mical has connections with Carth Onasi, they're fast friends and occasional coworkers, though there's a bit of friction involved because you know Carth would have told him to fish for any information on Revan's whereabouts, and T3 can't talk, as much as he'd like to reunite his old (and new!) friends.

Mical and HK-47: Of all the unfortunate meatbags HK-47 must share the ship with, it is the Republic one who clearly has the least merit. He has tried to convince his Master why a bit of target practice is necessary to keep his assassination protocols from degrading in the monotony of hyperspace travel, but for some reason truly unparseable to his processors, he has repeatedly been denied on this front. On Mical's part, HK-47 is a firm reminder of Darth Revan's character whenever his musings about their war strategy start becoming too favorable.

Visas

Visas and Canderous: It's so wild to me that I would have never known anything was here at all, if those legends over at TSLRCM hadn't brought back all of those Visas-Canderous interactions on the Ravager. Like, Visas forcing him to keep on fighting after a gravely wounded Canderous tells them to leave him behind, that he's not useful anymore... Hello?? My girl came full circle???

I don't know how much these two coincided before the end of the game, because they are exceptionally different people. Visas tends to hang in the background, and I doubt Canderous spared the Miraluka in the aft dorm that much thought beyond “damn, they make Sith different than they used to.” But there are no words to express how Visas felt when destiny called them back to Telos and not a single one of the crew balked in the face of her Master – and nowhere did that sentiment land harder than Canderous, who mustered an army to stop a second Katarr and walked with her to face her nightmare in person. (It wasn't for a lack of will on the others' part, and I suspect many of them were strident about wanting to join. In a lot of cases, the two-party restriction comes down to game mechanics; here, it's that Nihilus would have straight-up eaten anyone else. Visas was the only Force-Sensitive he wouldn't, the Exile was the only one he couldn't.) She's well aware it wasn't a personal favor, but the reasons pale in the reality of it; she had believed nothing could stand before her Master, and together, Canderous and the Exile proved her wrong. And Canderous is forced to reassess Visas afterwards, once he's done licking his wounds and kicking himself for a lapse in resolve so bad a Sith had to haul him up and tell him to get moving. Which is where he got it wrong; a Sith she is not, but that girl's got beskar in her, especially if she survived that long as that thing's apprentice.

Visas and T3-M4: At first, T3-M4 is quite cross about being overloaded via the Force and the attempt on his new Master's life. But the immediate request of termination is... concerning, and observing the following chain of events leads T3 to suspect that she'd been given orders that went against her core motivators, something T3 is distressingly familiar with. He observes Visas for a bit longer – he developed a number of protocols regarding Sith in his formative months - but soon deems them irrelevant once he's mapped her behavioral patterns and found them quite agreeable, if perhaps more cloistered than strictly recommended.

His initial diagnostic of conflicting orders seems correct, and T3 enacts a policy of friendliness in simpatico. Whenever ship maintenance takes him towards the aft dormitory, he brings her little things like Atton's share of dessert or interesting lightsaber parts from Bao-Dur's workshop. Visas is at first convinced that the Exile has simply programmed the droid to attend to her in their doomed quest to save her, but at some point she comments on it and discovers they genuinely have no idea what she's talking about. She does not know what to do with this information, but is immensely moved by the little droid. As a being without presence in the Force, Visas sometimes has difficulty perceiving his movements; when she admitted this, T3 developed a policy of emitting a low-volume sound pattern in her presence.

Visas and HK-47: HK was very excited when a Sith joined the crew - still irritated that his Master didn't simply dispatch the assassin like any being in possession of functioning logic circuits, but hoping that perhaps this was his chance to witness and partake in some real carnage. He ends up despairing when Visas ends up just as soft as the rest of them. She even eventually retracts her statement that all life exists for the purpose of being systemically extinguished! The Exile is a truly distressing influence.

Canderous

Canderous and T3-M4: Canderous affectionately calls T3-M4 a hunk of junk. T3-M4 affectionately calls him an obsolete model propped up with bulky life support mods. The little trash can's grown a spine since he last saw him – that, and Revan clearly taught him some creative curses while they were out on the edge of space. Canderous will never admit this and will lie through his teeth if accused, but he misses the old crew dearly – now more than ever that he's back on the Ebon Hawk. Having the droids around is an old, comfortable bit of nostalgia.

Canderous and HK-47: Canderous might be the only non-Revan meatbag HK-47 actually likes. It's mutual – HK's a fine soldier and an unreal shot with a scoped rifle, even if he's looking a little worse for wear these days. HK frequently seeks out Canderous to complain about the inconsistent and highly inefficient moral codes so many of these meatbags seem to possess. “Jedi,” Canderous agrees. He'd think a bunch of war veterans, particularly the type with a history of blowing up planets, would spend a little less time plucking loth cats out of trees and take a little more initiative with the armies of people trying to kill them, but he figures you can't take the Jedi out of the Revanchist. At least they're not boring.

T3-M4

T3-M4 and HK-47: Revan's two old droids are not friends. It's like a cat and a dog (or maybe a kitten and a grizzled bobcat) fighting over their Master's affection, except their Master left for milk a while ago and the only thing left to squabble about is who was more useful. Mutual accusations of obsoletion abound. T3 is very smug that HK spent a chunk of Revan's travels deactivated while he was present all along; HK, who is incredibly pissy that he was not involved in the grand plan and the game of cover-your-tracks that followed, never fails to point out that somehow, T3 failed so immensely that Revan saw fit to dismiss them both and carry on without backup, and that he at least does not have such a blatant error in judgment on his record. Add in that T3's tenure of the ship has involved hijackings and total crew pacification by a Sith warship, an Echani saboteur, and a band of slavers, and it's wholly understandable that this new Master decided they needed a more reliable droid.

It frequently comes down to HK-47 threatening the jumped-up Astromech with termination while T3-M4 smugly dangles the metaphorical car keys in his face.

G0-T0

I'm putting the crimeball in his own category because G0-T0 has remarkably one-note relationships with everyone and there isn't enough to say. It's really simple; they don't want him around and he doesn't want to deal with them. The only one worth any note is Mira, who he has identified as a reliable agent and a potential asset when it comes to delegating side jobs. She's proven capable of bringing in targets alive, which is a directive he's had some trouble with in the past. Mira's wary of having a major Exchange boss a few doors down from where she lays her head, but less on principle and more that she'll get caught in some conflicting-employers spat. And she wouldn't say no to some credits as long as the job didn't go against her sensibilities.

There's another exception with HK-47, because some of the restored content implies he and G0-T0 had a history – but personally I do not know what to make of this, because their timelines do not line up and it doesn't come up later, leaving me to think it was a dropped plotline like Kreia zapping T3 or Kaevee and the holocrons. I'd like to do something with this, but there isn't enough for me to go on. About as much as I can say is that HK-47 is quite cross at this comically rotund intruder for bobbing onto his base of operations and attempting to dictate orders when any being in possession of optics can tell his Master is clearly the one in charge, and for not having the decency to invade his ship without a fail-deadly detonator baked into his circuitry. But really, anyone who had employed so many of his sub-standard clones and established the galactic reputation of HK units as bounty hunters was going to fall pretty hard on HK-47's shitlist.

Bao-Dur has strongly considered 'accidentally' damaging some vital components when G0-T0 seeks him out for maintenance. The Remote is a very enthusiastic ball-shaped devil on his shoulder.

Unfortunately, I can't comment on Hanharr since I've never played with him, even on the one time I forced myself into a Dark Side run. But the vibe I get is pretty similar to the above; nearly all of the crew would stay well away, with HK being the only one actually enthused at the prospect of having him around. But I don't know Hanharr well enough to tell if that could even be mutual or if he's just furious with everything.

#if there's any dynamics i missed or you think work differently #let me know!#kotor #kotor 2 #kotor ii #kreia #atton rand #bao-dur #mira #brianna #the handmaiden #mical #the disciple #visas marr #canderous ordo #t3-m4 #hk-47

183 notes · View notes

renegade-skywalker · 1 month

Text

Ghost in the Machine

Summary: The Jedi Exile discovers and decides to fix up the clearly-tampered-with HK found in her cargo hold to less-than-stellar results, and to further find that she is forever haunted by Revan's ghost.

Rating: T Word Count: 3,875

~~~

“Not bad, Exile!” Brianna applauded, miming clapping her hands together though the Echani did nothing of the sort. “No really, please try harder.”

“Damn, I didn’t realize you were also a professional insult comic,” Eden breathed, still winded from Brianna’s surprise roundhouse kick to the face. “But sure, I’ll try again.”

Eden fell into formation, trying not to relish in the smile threatening to spread across the Last Handmaiden’s face as she fell into stance across from her. The cargo bay was the perfect place to spar, so it was no wonder Brianna had found refuge here. Aside from it being the last claimed space on this tiny freighter, the room was spacious enough to roam and not feel boxed in, whether you were fighting real or imagined opponents. Or simply just trying to sleep.

Eden remembered the sad excuse of a room Brianna had tucked away in Atris’ secret academy, and though Brianna hadn’t adorned or claimed the cargo hold in any way other than by sleeping in it, it still felt more lived-in and homey than whatever the girl had back on Telos.

“Alright, promise not to go lightly on me, okay?” Eden pleaded. “I really want to learn. I mean it .”

“If you say so,” Brianna shrugged, the pleasure clear in her eyes even if she had the discipline to control her expression. The Echani immediately feinted left and jabbed right, high then low. Eden caught both jabs but fumbled on the second, losing her footing by the time Brianna grabbed the arm Eden meant to block with, intending to upend her center of gravity. But this time, Eden countered by shifting her weight, disorienting the Echani enough to catch her off guard.

“An improvement, certainly,” Brianna said, even-keeled. Eden was already out of breath and wanted to laugh. “But there’s one thing you haven’t considered--”

Just as Brianna moved to knock Eden down again, the Hawk jostled, sending both women against the far wall and onto the floor in a painful heap.

“Okay, now that, I didn’t do,” Eden said, grunting.

“I’m going to kill that pilot of ours,” Brianna seethed as she peeled herself off of Eden, gravity still forcing them downwards even as they struggled to right themselves. “That idiot doesn’t know how to-”

Eden was about to laugh despite how much her ribs hurt when a flickering on the wall above her alighted in her peripheral vision.

“Wait a tic,” Eden interrupted, now pushing Brianna off her with more force than intended. With a half-hearted sorry, Eden stood and, fighting gravity as the ship’s g-force stabilized again, approached the flickering wall with great interest.

“I shouldn’t be surprised that moron damaged something,” Brianna said, setting herself upright beside Eden and dusting herself off. “Wait, is that supposed to do that?”

Eden was fidgeting with the wall now, which she quickly realized was a panel. She rushed across the room to her pile of clothes, finding her hydrospanner within seconds, and with a little prodding the loose panel soon became an entire secret compartment, now no longer hidden.

“Is that-?”

Before Brianna could finish her thought, both women had fetched their weapons from across the room and had them drawn, at the ready, aimed at an opponent they quickly realized was--

“I think it’s deactivated.” Eden said tentatively into the tense silence that followed. Brianna shook her head, unsure, keeping her staff poised towards the dilapidated HK that slumped in the now-open access hatch behind the secret panel. Eden tip-toed forward, hand extended half-expecting to be vaporized before she got a chance to truly examine the thing.

“Are you certain?” Brianna asked, her voice a cautious whisper, as if the droid might overhear them. “These machines have been hunting you across the galaxy. Seems a bit of a coincidence one turns up hidden on the very ship you stole as a getaway. I think it’s a trap.”

Brianna held her quarterstaff aimed at the HK’s half-collapsed intelligence module, but Eden deactivated her lightsaber as she stepped closer. Switching out her saber for a blaster pistol, its nose edging toward the droid, Eden’s eyes scanned the entirety of the HK, keen on finding any signs of life.

“Key components are missing,” Eden said, her voice faraway, her mind racing. For a moment, Eden felt as if she were back on Tatooine again, inspecting a shipment of junk dumped on her doorstep by either a dehydrated scavenger eager for credits or a bargain-hungry Jawa, their glowing eyes alight like a used landspeeder salesman keen for a good trade. Part of her was comfortable, an old self settling into new skin like a fond memory. But another part of her knew Brianna was right. “Someone dismantled this thing, deliberately.”

It wasn’t the usual pieces that were missing, not the parts someone might grab for when in a tussle. The vocabulator, control cluster, droid processor and the chassis were all missing. Either someone needed a lot of credits, and badly. These parts didn’t come cheap, but they also weren’t easy to access. Especially for an older model, by the looks of it. Only someone with a lot of time - and a lot of know-how - would think to pilfer these parts over other chunks of the bronze plating that were much easier to get to and easier to fence. Or, whoever did this didn’t want the droid to be restored at all, short of destroying it entirely, knowing the parts would be hard to find.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Eden whispered, frustration already washing over her as the cargo door swooshed open.

Brianna swung around, her quarterstaff still aimed at the HK but revealing a small knife from her boot to point at the door yelling excuse me! just as Atton’s head poked inside, his mouth opening and then promptly closing upon taking in the scene as well as Brianna’s and Eden’s attire. Or lack thereof.

“I’ll just… see myself out,” he said, his face turning red, but before he could disappear, Brianna had wrangled the pilot into the room with her knife-laden hand and pointed him towards the dilapidated droid.

“I’ll forgive you for your inane maneuver a moment ago if you can tell us anything about that !” The Last Handmaiden hissed as Atton was thrust into the room, his face growing redder by the second. Before his eyes could roam too freely across any part of Eden as they had back on Peragus, Atton’s gaze fell on the droid, and as if under the same spell drew out his blaster and nearly fired before Eden placed a hand on his wrist, setting his aim askew before he could do any potential damage.

“He wouldn’t know anything about this, Brianna,” Eden said, never taking her eyes off the HK. It was familiar, but not in a way that was remarkable enough for a specific memory to return to her. The HK’s that had open fired on her on Telos had been of the same make, and even if the rest had been silver -- HK-50’s -- something about this particular HK-47 did not sit well with her.

“Brianna?” Atton balked, blaster still poised as he spun around to look at the Last Handmaiden, “Your name is Brianna ?”

“Really? That’s what you’re taking away from all this?” Brianna snapped, her knife-hand now planted on her naked hip, annoyance radiating off her in waves of heat and undulating rage. “You just had to say my true name in his presence, didn’t you?” This last jab Brianna aimed at Eden, her voice softer now, as if not only to relay the difference in her brand of annoyance but also in the hopes that Atton might be too stupid to pick up on it despite standing right there.

“Atton, how fast can you get us back to Onderon?” Eden asked, ignoring Atton and Brianna’s usual back-and-forth as her memory raced, recalling every merchant they’d encountered and their respective inventory.

“We’re already on course to head back to Dantooine,” Atton said after gawking between both women, unsure of where to keep his eyes and who to respond to. “Why do you want to go back to Onderon?”

“I need to buy something.”

“Buy--?” Atton echoed before connecting the dots. “Oh.”

“Do you think this wise?” Brianna asked, the consternation still clear on her face as well as in her voice. Despite Atton’s confusion as to what was going on otherwise, his expression changed to match the Last Handmaiden’s.

“Yeah, what if this droid takes a shot at you the first chance it gets?” Atton said, gesturing with his blaster. “That’s what they’ve all done so far.”

“Not the one on Peragus,” Eden mused. “Besides, if I can get one of them to talk, maybe I can figure out who’s been sending them after me in the first place.”

Atton and Brianna exchanged looks, ultimately shrugging in unison before eventually relinquishing their weapons.

“If you say so,” Atton resigned, leaving the room before heading back to the cockpit to adjust the Hawk’s coordinates. Without a word, Eden began shouldering on her clothes again, but Brianna just watched.

“It’s more than that,” she surmised, Brianna’s eyes reading into every minute action Eden’s muscles made as if it might betray some clue. “It’s not just about the assassin droids, is it?”

Eden only smiled, knowing the expression did not meet her eyes.

“No. No it’s not.”

~~~

“You never did tell me exactly where you got this ship,” Eden pressed, her elbow leaning heavily into the door frame leading into Kreia’s quarters as Atton so affectionately called everyone else’s haunts aboard the Hawk. “But you didn’t know about the secret compartment, did you?”

“It’s no wonder it’s there,” Kreia admitted, though no emotion betrayed itself over her placid face. Her exposed mouth remained still beneath her lowered hood, the old woman’s head barely moving as she acknowledged Eden’s otherwise unannounced entrance. “We learned it belonged to a one crime lord, Davik Kang, did we not?”

“That we did,” Eden sighed, already annoyed. Her gaze bored into the upper part of Kreia’s hood, where she knew the woman’s eyes were, dormant in the dark, wondering if she could see her through the Force as Visas did. “But you didn’t examine the thing before taking off? There was no sign that you might not have been alone?”

Kreia shook her head. There were plenty of times where Eden was not sure if Kreia was lying or not, or at least sheathing the truth beneath a veneer of half-truths and vague notions. This time, she felt it. The woman was earnest in her ignorance. In fact, Kreia hated it. A wave of unease radiated off of the woman as Eden thought it, validating her claim as well as resenting it, sensing both Eden’s accusation as well as her attestation in one fell swoop.

“Perhaps it is the doing of the HK that bested us both aboard the Harbinger,” Kreia offered with an air of corroboration, though Eden still sensed the ire in the old woman’s words. “That machine was full of secrets and subterfuge, far more advanced than the others we’ve encountered.”

“True,” Eden agreed, pushing off from the door frame and crossing her arms over her chest. “So, that’s it then -- you know nothing?”

Kreia almost sneered, but she hardly had to. Eden felt her disdain through the Force, a ripple of apprehension fluttering towards her in the open room, before dissolving into tired calm as Kreia inhaled and exhaled with purpose.

“To my displeasure, yes.”

“Understood,” Eden said, taking her leave, meaning it but also not. She knew the woman was keeping something from her still, but her surprise at the news of the droid hidden in the cargo bay was enough to tell Eden that at least Kreia had no knowledge of its presence before being told moments ago. The woman knew something, and was hiding it. Just… not that.

Eden did not know if it made her feel better or worse.

~~~

“Was this really worth the effort?” Bao asked slowly, his voice even softer than usual at Eden’s side as she slid the chassis into place, the final piece of the HK puzzle.

His question wasn’t so much about his own curiosity as much as it was an observation, his uncanny knack for speaking Eden’s deeper thoughts into existence despite her denial at the reality of it all. While Bao rarely spoke of his own inner world, he was always gently coaxing Eden out of her own, knowing full well the tumult that stormed within -- even if he was not ready to let her do the same for him. At least not yet.

The module clicked , satisfying some baser part of Eden, at least enough to soothe her nerves before the anticipation simply ate away at her to nothing.

“It delayed us quite a bit, nearly costing us the situation on Onderon,” she admitted. “So it better be worth it. Have your saber at the ready.”

Bao nodded. Eden swallowed, nodding back at him, and turned to the HK. Its eyes were vacant, dark, but once she flipped the switch they grew from hollow brown to bright amber. It awoke.

“Diagnostic: HK-47 activated. Running checks through primary systems,” the droid began in a low gurgle, its voice modulator growing smoother with each syllable. A low hum began in the belly of the thing, eventually encompassing the entire workspace as circuits lit up and several sparks snapped as old wiring finally came to life. Eden and Bao exchanged looks, only this time Eden enacted her lightsaber so it glowed a deep molten orange, setting the HK’s bronze plating aglow.

“Assessment: It appears I have suffered considerable damage and dismemberment. I can feel all the cracks in my motivators,” the HK drawled incredulously. “And my control cluster seems to have taken several repeating blaster shots at close range. How crude.”

Something about this HK was… off . Much like the HK-50 that tried to shuttle her off of Peragus at the expense of everything else living on the station, this model had the same brand of snobbish superiority. The other HK’s they’d encountered were frank, sure, but none had this much personality right off the bat. Most of them just had a single quip ready for her before opening fire, but like the one that had managed to hold Eden hostage, this droid had quite a tongue.

“Why were you in our storage hold?” Eden asked, her voice more timid than she’d intended. Her brain was too busy making calculations to cast her voice more commandingly, but she cringed nonetheless.

“Answer: I do not know, Master-” Don’t call me that, Eden hissed before the droid rambled on, “It is curious I was here - although this place does seem familiar.”

The droid’s intelligence module spun about, its eyes flashing as if taking in the scene like a person awakening from a coma.

“Extrapolation: Perhaps someone was already in the process of rebuilding me. It may be that I was needed for some task.”

Eden’s mind swam with so many questions but there was only one that made its way to her mouth.

“Are you… okay?” she asked, her eyes still pausing over the droid’s exposed bits and rusted portions of its outer shell. There was evidence of blasterfire but Eden wasn’t convinced that was the machine’s cause of death, so to speak.

“Answer: If by ‘okay’ you mean the loss of almost all my existing assassination protocols, then no, I am not okay. Furthermore, I seem to have no discretionary control over my vocabulator, causing me to reveal my true function as an assassin droid of unrivaled sophistication.”

Eden crossed her arms over her chest, though she sensed Bao bristling at her side. “You look a lot like a series of droids that have attacked me. Anything to say about that?”

“Answer: Oh that is impossible, Master. If I were out to kill you, you would not be speaking.” Eden shot Bao-Dur a pointed glance, not that she was happy or proud about the fact just relayed to them both. Bao held his weapon ready nonetheless. “And regardless, I am a unique model. Why, to think that there would be other versions of me would be unacceptable.

“Well, there’s at least four other now-defunct versions of you in the galaxy.” Eden huffed a laugh, to which the droid only balked.

“Master, I must inform you that your attempts at humor are wasted on such a droid as I. As I have expressed, I am unique .”

“I can just blast him, General,” Bao whispered sidelong to her. “By rifle or by my arm, we can be rid of the thing sooner than you can say the word.”

Eden appreciated the offer but shook her head, hoping the sentiment translated as Bao unwittingly backed down yet again.

“Trust me, there’s a series of HK-50 units sharing your model and function that we have encountered on multiple occasions,” Eden said deadpan, though the suspicion did not leave her voice. The droid perked up at that, either noting her observation for future personal investigation or taking it as an affront.

“Very well, Master,” the droid drawled, “Though please know that this discovery is also causing me some degree of anger. And humiliation.”

“ Are you alright?” Eden echoed from before, this time not stopping Bao-Dur as he took another step closer to the droid, his right hovering over his blaster as his left hovered precariously over the button of his lightsaber.

“Mockery: Am I alright? Oh yes, Master, why, I am fine,” the droid groaned, looking at Bao’s display as if it were merely an inconvenience and not a direct provocation. “Statement: I mean, I have only just been re-activated, only to find that there are sub-standard duplicates of me running around all over the galaxy, corroding my good name. But if they are in fact hunting you, then I look forward to the opportunity to meet these units - and educate them in proper assassination protocols!”

If the HK could huff in indignation, Eden imagined the droid would have.

“Conclusion: So it seems I need you - for the time being.”

“So it’s true?” Eden pressed. “You’re an assassin droid?”

“Recitation: Yes , as I said, I am an assassin droid. It is my primary function to burn holes through meatbags that you wish removed from the galaxy… Master .”

“What did you say?” Eden asked, her voice a husk of a whisper now.

“Master,” the HK repeated. “Oh, how I hate that term.”

“No not that, Maker never say Master again,” Eden said, finally disabling her saber and slumping to what was eventually to the floor. Bao-Dur moved to catch her, but Eden preferred this, the ground, as ridiculous as it was. “The… the other thing.”

“Query: Meatbag?”

Eden nodded, though her head felt detached from the rest of her body as she did so. Bao-Dur moved awkwardly beside her, still hovering as if he might catch her though she’d already descended to the floor and made a temporary home there, so after bending and unbending, Bao finally decided to crouch by her side and place a hand on her shoulder, anchoring her to the present if anything.

“Hey did you manage to--?” Atton’s voice spirited into the room, cutting the silence like a knife. Eden’s eyes darted up towards the garage entrance just as Bao’s did, the droid spinning around on its core hinges to face Atton directly at the intrusion. Atton’s eyes widened to disks as he took in the scene. “Uh… activate the droid?”

“What does it look like?” Bao-Dur asked, his voice even though Eden sensed the bite in his words beneath every syllable.

Atton swallowed as he entered the room proper, looking as if he wanted to do the opposite despite taking a few steps closer. “I’ll take all of whatever’s going on here as an uncertain but unmistakable yes.”

The HK extended an arm, as if a blaster were attached though no such thing was equipped, and instead held an empty socket aloft in Atton’s direction.

“Offer: I can dispense of this meatbag if you wish,” the HK suggested, “Just give the order--”

“No!” Eden hissed, shooting to her feet. “No and no.”

“Affirmation: As you wish,” the droid surrendered, sounding thoroughly disappointed as it turned back to Eden.

“Did you find out who’s been sending these things after you?” Atton asked, taking a step back as if the droid might rescind its offer to spare his life for now. Eden shook her head.

“It’s not one of them,” Eden said. Bao spun around to look at her now, just confused as Atton was.

“How do you know that?” Bao-Dur pressed, careful to ensure that his inactive saber was still facing the droid just in case it became a threat. “You asked the machine no such thing.”

“I know because I remember this HK unit specifically,” Eden said. She glanced at Atton this time, making sure she caught his eye before adding, “Unlike the one on Peragus.”

“What does that mean?” Atton asked.

“I modded this droid, twelve years ago,” she began, her voice hitching as the memory returned to her in full. Don’t call me meatbag, Alek had seethed. Eden had merely laughed, but it was the last thing she wanted to do now, despite the howl building in her throat at the irony of it all. “For Revan.”

“Revan?!” Bao-Dur and Atton both repeated at varying volumes and levels of surprise.

“Attestation: Revan, yes, that name does ring familiar,” the droid said in what Eden could almost call fond recollection.

“Just because you modded this droid to kill for Revan doesn’t mean she didn’t specifically want this droid to kill you, no?” Atton asked, eyes blazing as he reached for his blaster.

“For once, I agree with Atton,” Bao said as he enacted his saber, while Atton mouthed a despaired Hey! “I knew her as well as you, and after the way she set us up at Malachor? I wouldn’t doubt she meant for us all to perish on that moon.”

Bao-Dur’s lightsaber raged a silent sapphire in the din of the garage, and for once so far the HK was speechless.

“You may be right,” Eden sighed, her hand thrumming the button of her own saber but failing to flip the switch. “It can’t be a coincidence that a series of other HK’s were modded to assassinate in the wake of this one.”

Whoever did this knew me personally, Eden thought, the idea still too new, and too painful, to consider out loud. Or Revan.

“Admission: I recall Revan, but I do not recognize your face, Master. Despite my referring to you by such a title. I can call you something else if you wish.”

The droid almost sounded apologetic, but Eden knew it was only her perception. Or wishful thinking.

“You can call me Eden,” she sighed. The HK nodded, its eyes blinking once before verbally confirming her request.

“Confirmation: I shall call you Eden,” it echoed.

She should have felt relieved, but Eden only felt hollow, forever haunted by Revan’s ghost and cursed to follow her memory no matter what she did.

~~~

Notes: I posted this to AO3 in 2022 but never posted it here. I still rather like it writing-wise, but like a lot of stuff I write/post for kotor 2 this is a future snippet from my ongoing novel-length fic Out of the Abyss that can be read/enjoyed without the greater context of that retelling.

#kotor 2 #star wars #the jedi exile #hk-47 #atton rand #bao-dur #brianna the handmaiden #kreia #and revan haunting the narrative like always #my writing

2 notes · View notes