"Not to anyone who will take you too seriously, I hope."

Snort. "Only if their proposed exit strategy had room for an archive and a Dark Councilor."

"Just so."

Callida smiles a little, then her expression turns more serious. "Still. I'll be certain to practice discretion."

She is definitely annoyed at herself for the earlier mistake. She's going to be feeling that one for a while.

A ceasefire, then. Not unexpected. The promised retreat afterwards, however. That is less in line with her plans. She's not confident she can undo that, not with Occlus there to chivy everyone into line, not when she has Marr's favor. Killing Occlus is... probably an overreaction. If Malgus steps up his defenses, her desired casualty rating could still be achieved. She'll have to make sure he does that, before pointing them at him. She can sell out his scientists to buy a bit of time. They're offsite, so the Empire will hire mercenaries, and she can call in a favor to make sure they land on the "kill" side of "kill-or-capture".

Ana is a bit more subdued and clingier than usual when they get back to base.

Well, Revan will just have to apply snuggles, then, now won't he?

"You okay?"

Snuggles.

"Mm. Wasn't expecting to see her again."

He nods. Snuggles.

"Do you want to try to avoid that happening again?"

"I dunno. Kind of? But that feels like running away."

"Hmm, all right. Want to talk about it?"

"I just- I don't get her."

"She seems pretty unprecedented," he agrees. "Is it that she hasn't left the Empire?"

"It's- agh, I don't know." Ana buries her face in his shoulder. "Why does she exist," she mumbles.

He hugs her, and pets her hair.

"To make the galaxy a stranger place?" he offers, lightly. "It's all right to be confused about people sometimes. Do you want to hear about my interpretation of her?"

Hugs.

"Okay."

He hums and pets Ana's hair, thoughtfully.

"The things she did upon meeting us were: catching us off guard by opening the door instead of waiting for us, trying to figure out what we'd do if she told us no, trying to protect the crew of her ship from us, and then giving us an exit that also got someone else away from the Empire. That shows us some of her likely priorities. She paid enough attention to her surroundings to be able to name a ship with a pilot that wanted out of the Empire. I don't think she could have figured that out fast enough for us specifically, so I think she knew beforehand. I can think of some reasons why she'd pay attention, but I try to avoid too much baseless conjecture, so I'll skip it. She wanted to understand us, especially when it came to how we'd react to her. I think she was probing us on our philosophy a bit, trying to see what we were like, and by extension, what the Jedi were like. I'm not entirely sure. She definitely wanted to keep her people safe. When pushed, she didn't bend at all, even when it might have been smart - so maybe more than a little prideful. Ultimately, we walked off of her ship and she lost nothing but a cereal bowl, when we were planning to terrify or kill her and fly off on her ship.

"Occlus brought her along, when she didn't have to. A show of power, sure, but I think a different kind of power than we're used to. You or I could beat Callida in a fight, easily. Maybe she could have bought Occlus enough time to deal with the both of us, but there are better Sith for that. Callida turned out to be a good show of power, too - she showed competence and ripped our poor commander a new one when he tried to lie to them. So she does her homework. So we have a quick thinker that watches her environment and uses it to her advantage, does her homework, who prioritizes understanding her potential enemies, safekeeping her resources and people, solving conflict in atypical ways that will suit her goals, and resists compromising valuable resources, even under heavy external pressure. We're dealing with a smart Sith.

"So. What's a smart Sith doing still attached to the Empire? It's a shitshow that's slowly sliding apart, and everybody knows it. Not many people even like living in it, and why would they? It sucks. Everybody that's not a Sith is trying to avoid their attention, everyone that is a Sith is in a never ending fight for their lives. She'd mentioned she was inured to torture before the age of sixteen. That's dark, and it's got to do some things to someone, to grow up in a world like that. To me, it didn't sound like she was grateful for the chance to grow stronger through pain. There was pride there, but also anger, bitterness - and you saw the way she looked at you at the meeting. This woman can absolutely hold a grudge. I bet the Empire's pissed her off. So why does she stick around?

"There's the logistical problems of escaping, of course - she's the only apprentice of a Dark Councilor. If she ran, every Sith in the galaxy would be out for her head to prove their might and power. But I don't think that's entirely it. It feels too simple. She's had years. Plenty of time to fake her own death and arrange transport to wherever she'd like. Hell, she had us in her ship asking for a ride, she could have left right then and been safe. We would have owed her one. It feels like there's something else going on here. I just - don't know what that is." He pauses, thoughtfully, searching for words.

"... You know what the weirdest part for me was? How she acted around Occlus. Usually Sith apprentices are never really comfortable around their masters. Like - not precisely nervous, but - they watch for openings. They watch for chances to prove themselves. They want their master's approval, but they're terrified of the next blow, and they're prepared to fight for every inch of themselves against everyone that would dare to take it away from them. They're prepared to kill the person they're closest to, because that's what they need to do to survive. And I - I just didn't get that impression from either of them. I'm not precisely sure of what's going on between them, but I don't think it's like other Sith master-apprentice relationships. I don't know what it is, but. It seemed almost healthy."

"You're so good at people," she sighs.

"I still don't know how to, how to- feel about her. She's a Sith, but she cares about people but she's apprentice to a Dark Councilor and a scary one but she's not strong but she wasn't afraid but she let us go but she didn't come with us and blehhh."

He smiles a little, at the compliment.

"Aw," says Revan, gently planting a kiss on Ana's hair. "I think she's complicated and has introduced an element of moral grey to our black and white battle of good and evil. Which makes everything a bit more complicated, but this could be a good opportunity. Maybe we can get her to ditch the Empire once and for all, if we figure out what's keeping her attached."

"Mrrph. I don't like complicated."

"I know. I'm sorry the galaxy's a bit of a complicated mess sometimes." Pet, pet. "Look at it this way; helping her out of the mess she's in is, hm - an extra bonus prize. If we can't, it's sad, but Sith hurt people and if we need to kill her to finally stop them, then, well. That's unfortunate, but the Sith need to be stopped. I'll try to take point for her, if it helps."

"Yeah, it would. I don't think she likes me."

"The only time you really got to talk wasn't in the best of circumstances." And also Ana threatened her. Such are the downsides of playing bad cop. "I'll do my best to handle it."

Snuggles. "Best Revan."