Jax hadn’t minded the extra time he had been offered. He had used it to wash up and to get a quick meal of his own before heading to the hanger. He was still early even having done these things, as neither took him particularly long. He used this time to begin prepping the ship. Jek arrived not too long after and asked if they were ready. “Almost,” he replied with a nod. The last of the supplies were being loaded, and soon the workers exited the ship. After giving a brief tour of the ship, Jax headed to the cockpit to prepare for take-off, and was soon joined by Jek, who took the co-pilots seat.<br/><br/>“Yes, you have a point. We should have a story for how and why we left. You never know who we might run into,” he agreed with a thoughtful look on his face. “Perhaps transmitting us a mission that it we may not want to accept will help to solidify our story. I had planned to leave the ship somewhere out of sight and approaching on foot, but if you wish to make a more dramatic show of it and land in their front yard—or on a battlecruiser—I can try to make it happen without getting us killed,” he explained with a rare grin, all while preparing for take-off.<br/><br/>“Perhaps we should alert someone to our plan so that they can transmit a mission to us,” he looked to his companion to see what he thought. “It’s that or I fire on the temple—without hurting anyone, of course—and hope that they fire back so that we can set up a convincing story,” he offered with a shrug. He preferred not to damage the ship much if possible, but as long as nothing important was hit, they would be fine, and the damage could be repaired.<br/><br/>He waited for his friend’s input before making any decisions. “We should also come up with a good reason for why we decided to leave. That’ll probably be the most important in convincing them to let us in and trust us,” he was thinking out loud, but it would be important, “I did not mention it to the Council, but the Force has warned me, this will be a difficult mission, and we will reunite with old acquaintance, although I do not know who,” he explained, believing that this was something his companion should know.<br/><br/>“That it why I thought it best that we not conceal our identities as soldiers, and why I believe that our reason for leaving will be important. They must believe that we who once refused to betray the Jedi have now been pushed far enough that we would do what we once could not,” he sighed lightly, pausing his activity and looking to his old friend, “I feel that there are many challenges and temptations that will await us. We must trust one another and be strong, or else we may truly become what we pretend to be.”<br/><br/>He was quiet again for a few moments before he had an idea, “Perhaps the Council was on to something before. The two of us, we shared a bond in the Force once. It was but a mere shadow of what it once was, like to thin strand barely holding on…” he trailed off for a moment and shook his head to refocus himself, “How is your telepathy?” he wondered as he looked to the other Jedi.<br/><br/>It was not his strongest skill, to be sure. He had focused on strengthening his natural ability for Psychometry, and he was not much of a talker, so he had not spent as much time training telepathy as others had, but he could use it, and many of the principles he had learned in training psychometry could be applied to telepathy to increase his ability at least to some extent, with a little practice. “Perhaps if we take a little time to strength our bond on our journey, it would allow us to communicate more easily with one another through telepathy. It may come in handy during a mission such as this,” he explained. It was just an idea but being able to communicate without words would be an invaluable tool. Of course, that was assuming they could pull it off.<br/><br/>------------------------------------------<br/><br/>Aeris smiled lightly when the other woman finally noticed her, nodding in response to her greeting. She involuntarily opened herself up in her old friend’s presence, perhaps due to the bond they had shared. This meant that she felt the other woman’s moment of jealousy through the Force, before she quickly apologized. Aeris chuckled and waved a hand, “Don’t worry about it,” she accepted the apology before taking another drink of her own.<br/><br/>“Anyways, isn’t your appearance more fitting for a Sith? My appearance doesn’t exactly strike fear into the heart of my enemies,” she pointed out, moving a hand up and down to illustrate her point. There was a light smile on her face that told that she was at least partially joking. Trying to lighten the mood, perhaps. It was a true statement, though. Her own appearance was not even the least bit terrifying, except perhaps her blood red hair, but once you got past that, she had nothing going for her in that department, short of putting on an angry scowl or something. That was not to say that she could not inspire fear in her own way, nor that her name was not known, as she had given many plenty of reasons to fear her. As far as appearance went, though, she had basically nothing. An-Lok’s appearance, on the other hand, was fitting for her tasks.<br/><br/>When asked where they were and what she was doing here, Aeris chuckled, “you came all this way and you don’t even know where you are? But then again, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” she offered a teasing grin. “We are on Nar Shaddaa. I came to finish a mission and to pick up another,” she explained, “Still waiting on that last part. I’m supposed to meet someone to get the details, but they haven’t shown up yet,” she continued, sighing just a little to herself. “But I suppose you could say that this is what the Force intended, huh?” she chuckled again, having little doubt that they had both been brought here together for a purpose.<br/><br/>She looked at the other woman as she explained that she had been on Korriban yesterday, concluding just as Aeris had that the Force had guided her here. While braiding her hair, she went on to explain that they were losing battlecruisers and star destroyers to the Jedi, and that the cruiser she was on was heading for the front lines. The young Sith went on to explain that she was considering picking up some new recruits and Force sensitives to drop off on one of the training planets. “Sounds very efficient,” she replied before downing the remainder of her drink, “I can appreciate that.”<br/><br/>An-Lok was right, Aeris still felt the urge to move, to run. It seemed like this was all she ever felt nowadays. She quirked a brow slightly at the other woman, a little surprised when she explained that it would keep on the move and there would always be something to do. “Are you trying to recruit me?” she wondered aloud, although she could feel that the other woman did not really have the answer any more than she did.<br/><br/>She ordered another drink and leaned back a little on the barstool, stretching a bit as she did. “Perhaps,” she answered, not really having a true answer for the other woman just yet. She wasn’t sure that being stuck on a battlecruiser with a bunch of people was really her style. True, she could block out a lot now, but that was not to say she would always be able to block it all out. Being on a ship alone was much more peaceful. There was also the fact that if the ship was attacked and people died, she would feel all of their deaths, just like she had in the many battles she had fought early in the war. Those memories, those feelings, they still haunted her to this day. Perhaps that was part of why she always wanted to run, to try to escape from them. But she couldn’t, because they were inside of her and she would never be able to outrun them.<br/><br/>There would be plenty to do, though, and it would be a change of pace. Plus, she knew that the Force had led her here for a reason, and she couldn’t just ignore that. She sighed again at this realization, as if slowly resigning herself to this fate. Just then, a figure entered the cantina and came to stand on the opposite side of her. She glanced their way, one hand on her lightsaber out of habit, despite feeling that this person intended her no harm. In fact, she knew that this person was the contact she had been waiting for. “This is all you need to know,” the person spoke lowly, slipping her a datapad before turning and walking out.<br/><br/>Aeris glanced backwards at the figure before looking down at the datapad. She turned the screen on and quickly scrolled through the information before turning it off, sighing even more heavily then before, and leaning back, allowing her head to drop backwards. “Well, it looks like I’m coming with you after all,” she pulled herself together, sat up, and took a sip of her fresh drink. “The new mission I just picked up involves gathering some known Force Sensitives from a few nearby planets,” she explained, waving the datapad lightly and holding it in a way that the other woman could take it and have a look, if she wished. “If that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is.”