I know you know I know you know that I know you know now [D6, LM]

[Tyllia Demici]

"I see," she said again. This time though, there was no skepticism in her voice. After all, this sounded somewhat familiar to her.

"A white fox," she clarified, "It is not here."

[Sholua Tempes]

"So it's a fox."

She considered the new information.

"It was here for a long time."

[Tyllia Demici]

"Perhaps. But it is not far," she said with a shrug. "Do you seek it for some special reason? You have spent a decade not thinking about these things, haven't you? Why now?"

It was a guess of course; based on what little she had observed of this woman, along with some reasoning throw in.

[Sholua Tempes]

"Things have changed. You're right. I spent ten years thinking I was the only survivor. Alone in the galaxy."

She shook her head.

"Shocking arrogance to think that I was the only one to escape the executions, I know, but that was what I thought. Now, I know that isn't true."

[Tyllia Demici]

"I am not the only one you know of, then. How many others are there that you know of?"

It was cruel, perhaps, to ask these things without correcting her mistaken assumptions. But, she reasoned, at least her motives; while ulterior in nature perhaps; were nothing like those of the Inquisitorius.

[Sholua Tempes]

It was true that Sholua currently considered Tyllia to be a Light Side user, but that didn't eliminate caution.

"That is their secret to hold and their stories to tell. I doubt we would have been having this conversation at all if a clanker hadn't caught me off guard. That was the last thing I expected to see walk onto the ship."

[Tyllia Demici]

"That is what the other one told me as well," she said, "I thought the jedi were supposed to be more open with the truth. But I suppose the fear of discovery by the Empire is great indeed."

[Sholua Tempes]

"The Order is no more, truly. There are no temples. No gatherings. We have been spread to the four winds it appears, if not hunted down and executed. The people fear Jedi as much as they do clones, battle droids and Imperial Stormtroopers."

[Tyllia Demici]

"A lot of people think the Jedi were traitors," she said.

[Sholua Tempes]

"There was plenty wrong with the Order at the end . . . but they weren't traitors. We weren't traitors. I guess you were early in your training and didn't get used as a teenage soldier?"

[Tyllia Demici]

She nodded briefly, though it wasn't in answer to her question.

"It is doubtless true that the Jedi were not traitors, and that their image has been tarnished by the lies and propaganda machine of a corrupt and evil empire. The galactic masses now, may never come to appreciate what they stood for, or against. But they *were* fools. Unwilling to look into the darkness, they could not see what was waiting for them. Unable to recognize that your order unwittingly brought this down on all of us."

[Sholua Tempes]

"My order."

She half smiled.

"That's a strange way to put it. Disassociating yourself while putting me in the spotlight, when neither of us are part of it anymore."

[Tyllia Demici]

"I never claimed to have been part of the Jedi," she said; deciding that there was no value in leaving the truth unspoken any further.

"The Jedi do not have a monopoly on the lightsaber, nor knowledge of the Force. There are other paths."

[Sholua Tempes]

"There are. Some dark, some not. You oppose the Empire by your words."

She stood up, brushing dust off herself as she did so.

"If you truly oppose the Empire then I, at least, don't care if your path is dark or light."

[Tyllia Demici]

"You are flexible when your preconceptions have the rug pulled from under them. That is good. But your old order would brand you a heretic for your stance on light versus dark, I think."

[Sholua Tempes]

"The order is gone. It fell, was brought down or consumed itself. What remains is not the same. It cannot be, or we will just repeat the mistakes of the past. The Empire needs to be dealt with first. Then we can examine our differences."

It was clear she wasn't offering friendship . . . more a business arrangement.

[Tyllia Demici]

"I agree with the sentiment," she said. "But I believe all this is part of a cycle. The Jedi rise during a time of darkness, and emerge victorious against it. And then, over time, the rot sets in. Complacency. Arrogance. Indifference. Zealotry. Through these failings they nurture the return of darkness in one form or another. Giving power to the Sith."

[Sholua Tempes]

She looked across.

"Sith? Really? Haven't heard that word used since my ancient history lessons back on Coruscant."

[Tyllia Demici]

"You... don't even know who'se in charge of the Empire? Who caused your order to fall?"

She seemed a little perplexed.

[Sholua Tempes]

She blinked.

"My clones shot me in the back when I was hunting an assassin droid. I only lived because my Master sent a warning through the Force a split second before they fired. That was ten years ago, and that was the last contact I had with the 'Order'. I've spent the last ten years just surviving here. I know the Emperor is probably to blame. Hell, he's claimed it enough in all the 'Jedi are traitors' rants that were the rage on the Holonet years back. As for an ancient religion that opposed the Order and was seemingly defeated by it . . . well my lessons were interrupted by the war so I was mostly carving battledroids into scrap when I should have been learning history."