Decisions on Dantooine

Note : All Characters and situations belong to Bioware. I merely tinkered with them to add in a story of my own. All Mandalorian words and phrases in Italics are from Karen Traviss.
Artwork:By the very talented Xhybridus
Pairings: Canderous & F!Revan





A pink and gold sunset was slowly fading behind the serene pastures of Dantooine as  Canderous Ordo emerged from the Ebon Hawk in search of fresh air. Now that their companion, Isole Nyxa, was being trained a Jedi, the tension on board was palpable. Bastila was always whispering in her ear. Carth was brooding over the secrets they kept from him. Mission was still sulking over the destruction of her rakghoul-infested trash compactor of a home planet. The Wookie kept to himself, but the damned astromech droid kept wheeling through the ship, whistling and beeping cheerfully. That was just irritating.

Canderous had been trapped there, confined to the medbay by the ankle he had shattered during their narrow escape from Taris. After two weeks of painful, grueling recovery, he'd finally given in. He let some saber-jockey wiggle their fingers over his leg, and it was perfectly healed in seconds.

So, the Jedi weren't totally useless, but that didn't mean he wanted Nyxa to become one.

It was a matter of time before they got to her. Sooner or later, that fiery girl would be sneering and self-righteous, just like the rest of them.

He turned his grey eyes skyward, considering jumping ship for the thousandth time. He had never promised to stick around after escaping Taris... Yet he hadn't. Couldn't. It was a matter of honor. Whatever pretentious little nightmare the Jedi turned her into, she would still be the woman that saved his life on Taris.

His thoughts grinded to a halt as Isole emerged from the enclave. His heart sank to see her clad in those Jedi rags, complete with a lightsaber hanging from her belt. Though she greeted him with a smile that shone both from her lips and her stormy blue eyes, he steeled himself against her pretty face.

"You don't like the look?" she querried playfully at his expression of distaste. She held out both arms as if to highlight her wardrobe, but it was just as much an invitation for his eyes to roam... and he took full advantage. The robes didn't flatter any form, but at least he could tell there was a woman under there, unlike the armor she'd been sporting on Taris. A slender one with nice little curves right where they should be...

Jedi or not, she was still damned attractive.

"Hnh," was his assessment, but there was no disapproval there.

Isole chuckled softly and found a place beside him, both leaning against the outer wall of the enclave, staring idly into the sunset. Canderous had his burly arms crossed over his barrel chest. Even slouched as he was, he still towered over her. He, too, had updated his attire: gone were the vest and the tight black shirt stretched over his formidable muscles... She missed that, but she supposed wearing Davik's heavy armor had its advantages, too.

"The Council has asked me to investigate a crystal cave not far from here," she began carefully, peeking up at the Mandalorian between her dark lashes. "Any chance you'd want to come with us?"

Canderous shifted his weight. "You and Bastila?" he guessed in the form of a growl. His dislike of the other Jedi was a thing of legend. Their very first conversation had been reduced to bickering and name-calling. To his credit, 'spoiled Jedi princess' did hit the nail on the head...

"She's still restricted to the Enclave. I thought we'd take Carth," Isole mentioned, but that was hardly any better. At least Bastila wouldn't be following on Isole's heel, making moon eyes at her.

Canderous bristled. His jaw clenched while he considered his options. In the end, it was his pettiness that won out. Isole wouldn't be taking some quaint little stroll through a crystal cave alone with that di'kuut, not while Canderous was around to stop it.

"What the hell?" he shrugged his broad shoulders, intent on giving the impression that he wasn't conerned one way or the other. Little did he know he couldn't fool a Jedi. "I got nothin' better to do."

---

"Ugh," Carth stuck his head a little ways into the cave and immediately withdrew. "Smells like Kinrath."

"That a problem for you, sweetheart?" said a very snide Canderous, an acidic smile lilting the corners of his lips. "You want to wait out here while Nyxa and I deal with the big, bad bugs?"

"Giant Kinrath. The poisonous kind," Carth specified, just as bitter and spiteful as the Mandalorian. Actually, his patience was wearing especially thin and not just with Canderous. He'd been snapping at everyone that crossed his path of late, when he wasn't brooding in the cockpit. "I think you'll need my help."

"I think we'd be just fine," Canderous was curious how much it would take to push Tin Soldier over the edge, but Isole was determined to keep the peace.

She let out a very audible sigh and marched into the cave. Carth was right, about the cave at least. The pungent odor of slime and overgrown insects struck her in the face, then lingered in the back of her throat. Her nose crinkled, but unlike Carth, she pressed forward without hesitation or complaint.

Canderous fell in step behind her. Somewhere, there was water dripping into a shallow pool. Now and again, he could hear the wind off the plains sigh as it passed the mouth of the cave, but beneath all of that, he could hear them, the vermin. They skittered and rustled through the damp soil, scratched their long legs against the rock walls and let out warbling little cries. Lots of them.

He was about to turn and report his assessment to Isole when the toe of Carth's boot caught a pebble and kicked it into the wall. What should have been a quiet clatter echoed all through the cave like a bolt from a verpine blaster.

Canderous wheeled on him, a silent snarl on his lips, but the other two just froze, barely breathing. Any chance of stealth was gone now.

The first little beast came creeping curiously around the corner. Carth drew his blaster but Isole gestured frantically for him to stand down. She wanted to try her new powers in the vain hope of killing the creature silently and avoiding detection from the rest of its kind. So she swept her hand through the air in an upward diagonal. The Kinrath was dragged off of its long, spindly legs to dangle helplessly in the air and--

And then nothing else happened.

Her face crinkled with fierce concentration, but she lost it. She exhausted herself with the effort, all for naught. The Kinrath dropped, shrieking onto the ground again and charged them with a vengeance.

"Down you go!" Hollered Carth as he seized a blaster in either hand and opened fire.

Isole's blue lightsaber hummed to life. She leapt on the beast, dropping into the first lightsaber form they had taught her: Shii-Cho. It was as useless as her paltry powers. There was no disarming  a Kinrath,or subduing it without harming it. This was a fight to the death. With a growl deep in her throat born of irritation, she resorted to hacking and slashing while the Kinrath scuttled this way and that to avoid her.

One solid bolt from Canderous' heavy repeater did the trick. The Kinrath let out a cry as it fell over and drew in all its limbs toward its body.

Canderous barked a triumphant laugh. "Ke nu'jurkadir sha Mando'ade," he warned those overgrown bugs. Don't mess with Mandalorians!

But no sooner was this one dead than all of its brood came screaming up from the depths of the tunnels. All hell broke loose.

Isole vaulted herself among the beasts, slicing and chopping, lobbing off limbs and heads, a little more adept and a lot more ruthless.  Carth and Canderous took careful aim, picked the bugs off one by one. They were safe from a distance, but Isole didn't have that luxury. She grunted and cried out in pain each and every time one of those stingers jabbed her in the chest.

"Uh-oh. We've got company," Carth warned them, in a voice much higher and panicky than his own.

A dozen more were were racing out from around the corner. Among them was a female that stood almost a meter tall, with blood red markings on her abdomen: the Matriarch. This one would defend her brood to the bloody, bitter end. To her beady, yellow eyes Isole was the one surrounded by the corpses of her young and Isole was the first that had to die.

Isole saw the Matriarch coming and tried to surpress the panic rising in her chest. Her legs were turning to jelly beneath her. Suddenly her gut was churning. She was nauseated and feverish all at once ; the poison from their stingers worked quickly after six or seven doses. How could she hope to hold off the Kinrath Queen?

"Cover me," Canderous ordered, and like a good little Tin Soldier, Carth snapped to obey, allowing Canderous to race to Isole's side, kicking carcasses out of his way with every other step. He grabbed the Jedi around the middle and snatched her out of the fray.

His arm held her fast against him, her back to the hard, chiseled muscles of his torso. She had never seen him drop his weapon before, but he did so now and with his newly freed hand, he unclipped a medsharp from his belt. This one was not filled with pale blue liquid kolto, but rather something acid green and viscous. Whatever it was, he jammed it into her thigh and quickly depressed the plunger.

The substance scorched through her body. For a moment, it seemed to make her blood boil and electrocute her muscles, but when that faded... her strength began to return. The urge to vomit was receding.

Isole twisted to peer up at Canderous, as best she could in his iron grasp. In that moment, he wasn't a mercenary or some hired thug; he was a real warrior again, defending a comrade. Determination blazed in his grey eyes. His brow was knit, lips pressed into a thin line. As soon as the medsharp was empty, he had tossed it aside and retaken his weapon. He kept up a steady stream of fire, one-handed, not quite as deadly accurate as he would be with both, but he was resolutely unwilling to let go of her.

Until he caught her staring at him.

His gaze snagged on her stormy blue eyes. She had him distracted from the battle at hand, just for a moment, but he had to know she was alright. He searched her face, relieved to find she wasn't looking so pale or sickly anymore. She did, however, look quite confused about why he was coddling her. So, he let her go in a hurry.

"Better?" he grumbled at her.

Isole bobbled her head in the affirmative. As soon as the Mandalorian released her, she flung herself at the Matriarch, lightsaber arcing through the gloom. At the last moment, she dropped to the ground and sliced upward, neatly cleaving the stinger from the Kinrath's body. It screamed and howled in pain and staggered this way and that. To end its misery, Isole drove her saber through its back, into its chest. The poor creature went silent, and when the weapon was deactivated, it fell onto its back and drew its legs up just like a vanquished spider.

Silence reigned in the absence of the Kinrath's shrieks.

Isole was short of breath, so she flopped the rest of the way to the ground and just laid upon the cavern floor. She let out a soft laugh, born purely of relief. "These crystals," she told the boys. "Better be worth it."

Canderous chuckled too, but for his part, he was just amused. For a fledgling Jedi, she hadn't done too bad. She would develop her powers in time, and when she did, she'd be a force to be reckoned with. He offered her one of his enormous hands to help her back to her feet. She took it with both of her own-- how dainty they looked in his grasp-- and squeezed his fingers. It didn't have to be said aloud. He'd saved her life with that antedote. Just a smile from her was more than enough for him. He answered with a nonchalant wink.

Side by side, they continued down the now vacant cavern corridor. It finally opened up into a magnificent chamber with a high, domed ceiling dripping with stalactites. The crystals were everywhere. They grew in huge formations in every color: dark reds and mysterious purples, icy blues and palest green, all  faintly glowing, humming with the Force. Canderous and Isole strolled toward them, basking in the ethereal, rainbow of illumination. The colors twinkled in Isole's eyes, glittered on every strand of her dark hair. In a shroud of violet light, she looked... beautiful and mysterious. Canderous, engulfed in the dark red, would have seemed so evil, dark and corrupt... but all that was undone by his smile. He was genuinely smiling at Isole.

Nestled between the crystal formation were the Kinrath eggs, oversized and an ugly grayish-brown. "If we wipe 'em out, you Jedi could get to your crystals easier," Canderous advised as he hung his blaster on his hip in favor of a small knife to do just that.

"I feel as a Jedi, I should object, but... those stingers hurt," Isole sent him a smirk that sparkled with mirth. Canderous' low, husky chuckle made her grin like a school girl. She couldn't let him see that, so she reignited her lightsaber and started about destroying the eggs. "There's crystals in the eggs."

"Huh. Bag them, too," Canderous shrugged.

"I don't want to. They smell funny..."

Canderous tipped his head back and laughed at the sky, just to shake his head. "You're as bad as Onasi," he accused. When Carth said nothing in his own defense, both of his companions shifted their curious attention back to him.

The little Tin Soldier was hanging back at the mouth of the chamber, stewing in resentment. Canderous was infinitely pleased because it seemed that the younger man was realizing, at last, that Isole preferred her men a little older and a bit beaten up. And manly. So, even if Carth did get age and survived a few harrowing battles, he'd always be a whiny little hutuune.

"You've been quiet lately," Isole mentioned gently. She had to hadle with kid gloves, and she could practically hear Canderous rolling his eyes.

"It was a refreshing change of pace," added Canderous, but Carth ignored him completely.

"S'pose I have been quiet," Carth agreed, sounding so distant and cryptic. Then, his focus sharpened and his pretty boy face adopted an ugly, sarcastic smile. "Guess I just don't like being left out of the loop."

Canderous, who had been tapping a chisel gently into the base of a crystal, suddenly whacked it instead. The shard flew off, the chisel dropped to the ground with a clatter, and he glared maliciously at Tin Soldier. "Why don't you grow some gett'se and just tell us whatever it is you're tiptoeing around?"

"Fine." Carth marched toward them as though he were on a parade ground. "The second we landed, the Jedi Council demanded to see Isole, and no one will tell me why. Then they announce they're training her as a Jedi, even though they never accept adults for training. They're making an exception for her. Again. No one will tell me why. Isole was a great help on Taris, but I thought Bastila was the key to the war effort. But she's not with the fleet, making battle plans; she's here, watching Isole, waiting for her. Why?"

There was pain in Isole's eyes. She didn't attempt to conceal it. One look at her sad, sweet face had Canderous' hands clenching into fists. Carth's mouth had annoyed him a dozen times, but the moment he attacked Isole was the moment Canderous decided to shut it for good. He had been kneeling, but he got to his feet and stalked toward Carth rather like a Kath Hound hunting an iriaz.

"You've got no right to question her," he said in a low, dangerous snarl. "She's proved herself a dozen times."

"Yes, she did. Before. Now, she's keeping secrets. From all of us. Doesn't that bother you?" Carth demanded, overflowing with frustration.
"I'm not going to betray you," she whispered to him. "I am not Saul."

"Yeah, we'll just see about that. Won't we?" hissed Onasi. He might have regretted those venemous words the moment he'd spat them, but he was a long way from taking them back. Instead, he turned his back on them and strode out of the cave, undoubtedly back to the ship, without them.

Isole shut her eyes. Being in tune with the Force meant feeling the emotions of others and right now, Carth's bitterness broke over her like tidal waves on a rocky beach. That she inspired those feelings... that was so, so much worse.

"Forget about him," Canderous ordered her sternly. His mood was like a gathering storm, but it didn't threaten her. She was safe within the eye of it. His wrath directed everywhere else. "We can get another pilot. And you'll have me, fighting at your side, where ever the Jedi send you."

All those other swirling emotions blinked out in lieu of her own shock. She gaped up at him with her wide eyes. She'd been hoping against hope that he would decide to accompany her but she hadn't dared to ask. "Really?" she said breathlessly.

His grey eyes were steel as he held out his giant hand for hers. "I'm with you, cyar'ika. For whatever comes."