Revered and Reviled

Patience entered the first of the three open tombs. She made her way easily through the various puzzles that were meant to protect the tomb, and Carth and T3 followed her into the large central chamber.
"Come out," said Patience. "I want to talk to you."
Before Carth could ask what she was doing, the spirit appeared, in a wave of dark energy that drove him to his knees. T3 squealed in terror, and withdrew to the far end of the room.
The spirit spoke, in a voice dark and hateful, using a strange and unfamiliar language that hurt his ears. To his shock, Patience replied to the spirit in the same language. But when she spoke it, the language was sibilant, and seemed to wrap itself around his brain. They spoke for a while, Patience soft and pleading, commanding; the spirit, sad and dark, despairing.
Patience seemed to sparkle as she spoke, trying to convince the spirit of something. Carth watched in disbelief as the darkness seemed to fall away from the spirit as she spoke. A soft, warm light filled the room, and the Force spirit ceased to haunt the tomb, fading away like the mist over water on a brightly dawning day. Patience smiled in joy, and Carth staggered to his feet as the overwhelming darkness disappeared.
"Isn't it wonderful!" She bounced over to Carth, and threw her arms around him. "He's free, he's finally free!"
"Who – what was that?"
"Huh? Oh, you don't speak – whatever it was I was just speaking," she laughed. "I don't know the name. Or where I learned it. You're going to stare suspiciously at me, aren't you?" Patience smiled at him.
"Well, no, not really. Okay, yes I am. What just happened? It looked like – did you just set that spirit free and turn it back to the Light?"
Patience nodded happily.
"This is the tomb of a Sith Lord."
"Ajunta Pall, the leader of the Exiles that took over Korriban after the Hundred-Year Darkness."
"So who was that that you just set free?" asked Carth, not daring to believe.
Patience looked at him in surprise. "Ajunta Pall, of course."
Carth stared at her.
"And now he's free! Even better, he's reunited with the one he loved," Patience sighed happily. "So romantic." She picked up the swords from the sarcophagus. "Okay, let's go."
Carth followed her out of the tomb, not sure if he should speak to her or worship her.
"Let's go to the next tomb," she said eagerly. "The one with the killer droids!"
Carth rolled his eyes. "Why do you think that's a good idea?"
"Parts!"
T3 whistled in agreement.
"You know, I was trying to think of why I like you. You're always grumpy, you were already married, you have terrible taste in clothes."
Carth looked at her in surprise. "Did you come up with a good reason? Besides my dashing good looks?" he grinned.
"I did," Patience smiled at him. "It's because you actually think for yourself. Sometimes you even disapprove of what I do."
"Sometimes you do very crazy, stupid things."
Patience laughed. "You think about what I'm doing, and why. If you don't understand it, you question me until you do. You don't just take my word for it. And you stop me from doing too many crazy, stupid things."
"When I can."
"Yes," she smiled, "when you can. But you try! When you said that you would stop me if I started to fall, you meant it. You really would."
"I would try, anyway," he said seriously. "I'm not sure how much good I would be."
"But you would try anyway," she smiled, glowing with happiness. "You would try." She threw her arms around him, and kissed him for the sheer joy of it. "I can't even explain how much strength that gives me, to know that you love me enough to try." She pulled away and smiled mischievously at him. "Also, you have a great ass." With a giddy laugh, Patience ran down the hallway leading out of the tomb, leaving Carth to follow her.
Suddenly she stopped in her happy dance, and fast as thought, whipped out her lightsaber.
"You survived," snarled the Sith student. "This was my idea! I was the one who was supposed to get those swords!"
"Oh, that stupid prestige thing," said Patience with a slight sneer. "You want the sword of Ajunta Pall? But you were too cowardly to come get it yourself."
"I couldn't get past the traps," the man snapped. "Not all of us thought to bring a droid to do all the work for us."
T3 whistled in indignation.
Patience frowned at the man. "So you were just too stupid to get it yourself. And yet now you think you're going to be good enough to get the sword from me?"
The man held out a grenade. "I planned ahead. Either you hand over the sword or I drop the door on top of you and pry it off your corpse." He smiled cruelly. "You might survive, but your toy won't."
Patience glared at him, and dropped one of the swords on the ground and kicked it towards him. "Fine, take it. I can get more prestige anyway." She readied her lightsaber. "And if you even think about double-crossing me with that grenade, I will make sure you don't survive either."
"No, no," the student smiled, carefully picking up the ancient blade. "I'll play fair – this time. I want you to see Master Wynn's face when I hand over a Sith artifact that he's been after for years." The sword firmly in his hands, he turned and ran swiftly out of the tomb.
Patience put her lightsaber away.
Carth shook his head. "Poor kid. That wasn't very nice."
"I lost all sympathy for him when he threatened you," she frowned.
Carth shrugged. "Still, I think I'll go somewhere else when he hands over that sword to Master Wynn."
Patience looked at him with concern. "I didn't go too far, did I?"
"No," he smiled, "he really should have gotten the sword himself. It's nice to know you do have limits to your shiny goodness."
Patience stuck her tongue out at him. "Come on, let's get out of here before someone figures out that if they just ask nicely, I'll give them the sword."
Carth laughed, and they headed to the next tomb.
"This is the Tomb of Marka Ragnos," said Patience, reading the plaque on the wall. "Only no one can get past the insane killer droids." She looked around, and spotted a body on the ground. "I wonder what is making the droids insane."
T3 beeped a question.
"Oh, I don't know, but I'll try." She pulled a datapad from the corpse, and a sophisticated stealth unit. "That's odd." She started reading the datapad, and Carth grinned at her.
"So, are you going to tell me anything? Or should I just keep watching your butt?"
Patience pretended to frown at him. "I'm reading. It looks like the droid is suffering some kind of feedback, and you can only approach it if you're quiet." She looked at the stealth unit. "This guy tried it, but when he got to the droid, he couldn't figure out how to fix it and tried to leave, and it killed him."
Carth frowned. "This never sounded like a good idea, and now it sounds even worse."
Patience looked at him hopefully.
"Fine, fine, we'll go." He activated his stealth unit, and helped her set up the one she had found. "T3 has his own stealth mode, right?"
T3 beeped happily, then guiltily flashed a warning light as Patience shushed him.
She beckoned to them to follow, and they silently and carefully made their way through the tomb, disabling mines and carefully stepping over the bodies of droids and organics.
They found the droid in a large chamber decorated with a series of statues of ancient Sith lords.
"wHo iS tHeRe?"
Patience laid a hand on the droid, and waited for it to respond.
"pLeAsE sPeAk QuIeTlY. I hAvE a FeEdBaCk lOoP iN mY aUdItOrY mOdUlE tHaT cAuSeS mE tO rEaCt iNaPpRoPrIaTeLy To LoUd NoIsEs."
Patience considered, then stroked out a series of long and short motions on the droid's shell, spelling out her response.
The droid's head swiveled towards her, and the red eyes stared hopefully at her. "yOu… CaN hElP?"
She responded in the same fashion as before, and asked the droid for permission to try to repair it.
"pLeAsE. hElP."
She worked slowly, carefully avoiding any unnecessary noise as she worked on the droid's interior. The memory module was horribly damaged, and it took her a long time to complete the work, as she had to work on each matrix separately to prevent another catastrophe. Finally she restarted the droid's core, and stepped back to see what would happen.
"It… it worked! I feel much better," said the droid. "My protocols seem to have been rebuilt from scratch," the droid observed.
"It worked! I'm so glad!" Patience smiled, and T3 beeped happily.
"Yes," the droid agreed. "She is very special." The droid considered. "I must return to my core function, and continue guarding this tomb from the Sith."
"From the Sith?" said Patience in surprise. "I thought you were placed here by the Sith."
"That is not correct," said the droid. "I am a defense unit, placed here by the order of the Jedi Council after the death of Exar Kun. My programming was corrupted by a Sith who was trying to reach the tomb beyond."
"Is Marka Ragnos still there?" said Patience in awe. "Can we talk to him?"
The droid scanned her. "It would be possible, but inadvisable. Marka Ragnos is a master of Sith magic, and has been known to possess sentients with only a spark of the Force."
"Yeah, I checked my horoscope, and it says I should avoid possession today," grinned Carth. "Why don't you just take some of these books?" He pointed to a few old scrolls lying in a cracked sarcophagus.
"Oh!" Patience looked at the droid. "Is it okay if I take those?"
The droid nodded. "They will not harm you."
Patience picked up the scrolls, and a small triangular object of red and black crystal. "Oh, that's bad."
"What is it?" asked Carth.
"That is a Sith holocron," said the droid. "It is dangerous."
"I think I'll leave this here," said Patience reluctantly, and set it back in the sarcophagus. She looked longingly at the crystal again, then piled some rubble on top of it so she couldn't see it any more.
"What's a holocron?"
"It's a Force object, that Jedi and Sith use to record their memories. They interact with the user. A Jedi holocron meant to teach, for example, will always change its method of instruction to match the user. Sith holocrons usually just have lots of information."
"I can see why that would appeal to you," smiled Carth, "but wouldn't it also try and draw you to the Dark Side?"
"Yeah," said Patience sadly. "They're really dangerous. But I always want to know what's on them! For all I know, it could just be a holocron of evil cookie recipes."
Carth pulled her into his arms. "Tell you what, I'll buy you an questionably evil dessert when we get back in exchange for leaving the evil, mind-altering artifact in the tomb where it belongs."
"Deal," Patience smiled. "Come on, T3, let's get out of here. You'll be okay now," she assured the droid. "Your sensory matrix isn't vulnerable anymore, and your defensive protocols should keep any nosy Sith from getting too close."
"Thank you very much," said the droid, and settled back into a defensive posture to continue watching and waiting.
They left the tomb, and Carth sighed as they stepped into the fresh air.
"What's wrong?"
"How many more tombs are there?"
"Just one," Patience smiled sweetly. "But we don't have to go right now."
Carth grinned. "All this dust is getting to me. Let's go back for a little while. I'll buy you that dessert I promised."
Patience bounced up to him for a quick kiss, then paused and pretended to dust off his face. Carth laughed, and kissed her. "Yes, let's go back," she agreed.
He kissed her again. "You're not fooling anyone, you know," he grinned. "You just want to read the books you found before you turn them over to Master Wynn."
Patience laughed joyously. "Well, not if it turns out to be a collection of Sith recipes."