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Author's Notes:

Tails of the Old Republic is a crossover between the Sonic the Hedgehog universe and the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game.

Sonic and all related IP belongs to SEGA/ Sonic Team
SW: KotOR and all related IP belongs to Lucas Arts/ Bioware Corp
No copyright or trademark infringement intended.

Series rated "Web-14" for violence, mild language, and suggestive themes.

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Lower City Taris — Javyar’s

The Human and the Mobian entered Javyar's Cantina.


The tavern's layout was almost identical to the one they had visited in the Upper City. It was slightly cleaner inside this place than in the grimy, run-down corridor's of the Lower City, but it was still poorly illuminated, and the foul odors of ethanol and smoldering plant material irritated Tails' sensitive nostrils. The first room of the cantina had the usual tables of drinkers, smokers, and Pazaak gamblers, but Carth and Tails walked past them toward the main dining hall. The fur over Tails' spine started to rise, and the adolescent fox couldn't help but feel something bad was about to happen.


Upon entering the dining hall, two green-skinned Twi'leks and one bug-faced Rodian approached, each wearing light to medium fiber armor and plated vests. Carth and Tails stiffened, but the trio wasn't approaching them, but rather a short, stocky Human male standing aloof in the corner of the room. He was hardly an inch over five feet tall, barely a head taller than Tails, and a foot shorter than Carth. The man wore thick black goggles, black boots, pants, and gloves, a blue overcoat with red shoulder pauldrons, and underneath all that, he wore a heavy full-body suit of white polycarbide fiber armor. The trio stopped within four meters of him, and the man did not look amused.


"Go away," said the man, with a dull, highly annoyed tone.


The Rodian spoke up first. "Hey, you not talk like that," it said. "We just wanted to say 'hi' to big, bad bounty hunter, Calo Nord!"


Tails got a really bad feeling about this.


"Nah, this can't be Calo Nord," said one of the Twi'leks. "He's supposed to be tough, but this guy's just a puny runt!"


"One..." the man droned.


"One? What that mean?" asked an irritated Rodian. "You be funny, tough guy?"


"Do you know who we are, Calo? We're members of the Black Vulkar gang!" declared the second Twi'lek. "You don't want to be getting funny with us, tough guy!"


"Two..."


"Me no understand," complained the Rodian. "One? Two? Why he count? He trying to count how many of us are against him?"


"It's three against one, Calo!" declared the first Twi'lek. "What do you think about those odds? Well? You have something more to say?"


"Three!"


That moment, a brilliant flash instantly blinded Carth, Tails, and the three goons. Carth and Tails recoiled from the flash, and too late they covered their eyes. Tails heard three blaster pulses in rapid-fire succession, and a second later, he heard three bodies thudding on the floor. Just to be sure, the fox quickly patted himself over, checking for any holes cooked through him. He found nothing, and the boy's internal cybernetics reported no damage apart from his overloaded eyeballs. Tails could hear Carth Onasi quickly patting himself down as well.


Slowly, painfully, Tails' eyesight returned. It was still black and white for a few moments, then natural color began seeping back into his vision. Tails finally got the nerves to uncover his face, even though pinpricks of light still dotted his sight. The fox blinked, but all he could see was the chest of the stocky armored man. He looked up, and saw the man glaring down at him from behind those inky black goggles. Then he glared up at Carth.


"You're. In. My. Way."


There was a moment's hesitation as Carth and Tails re-gathered their wits.


"One..."


Without question or hesitation this time, the duo immediately removed themselves from the threshold separating the main dining hall and the entry room.


"Smart."


With an air of quiet, highly annoyed arrogance, Calo Nord ambled to the cantina's exit and strolled through the sliding metal door.


"Good... freaking... grief," said Tails. Despite his effort's to hide it, the fox was terrified by the man's calm lethality. Tails inwardly knew that, had he been the man's actual target, he would have been a dead fox.


"You'll get no argument there," Carth replied. Much to Tails' annoyance, Carth seemed less shaken by what had just transpired.


Tails suddenly noticed that the entire cantina had gone quiet, and looking around, all of the patrons in the vicinity were looking at the three corpses lying on the floor. But after a minute, normal business resumed, the background music came back on, and the patrons went back to their food and drinks as if nothing had happened at all.


Three men dragged away the lifeless bodies, and a waiter appeared to wipe away the soot and fine mist of blood that had covered a table. This must have been a regular occurance here, and Tails was quite frankly disturbed by the people's nonchalance toward the whole incident.


Tails visibly wilted, and he held his hand over his heart as he tried to get a hold of himself again.


Calming his frayed nerves as best he could, Tails followed Carth further into the dining hall and took a seat at a table on the opposite side of the room. Unlike the food selection in the Upper City, the menu here was of considerably poorer quality, and a plate of food cost four times as much. Almost everything here was highly processed "mock food" synthesized from cultured microorganisms.


Technically, it was all nutritionally complete, but Tails' found most of it unappetizing. It least it looked better than some of the synthesized slop he occasionally ate on Mobius; this stuff at least attempted to look like real food.


After eating a small meal, Carth and Tails quietly discussed how to continue their objective. Bastila's escape pod had crashed down into the Undercity, even farther underground than where they were now. Tails briefly wondered how an escape pod could punch so far down, but he jostled the question away as irrelevant. Obviously, Carth and Tails would need to find an elevator platform that descended that far down, and hope that said platform wasn't impassibly guarded.


In the middle of their discussion, however, Tails' caught the sound of someone's name he recognized. The fox swiveled his ears around, trying to pinpoint the source and clearly hear the name. He caught it again, and pinpointed it to an adjacent dance hall. It was Holdan.


"Excuse me a moment," Tails told Carth.


"What's going on?" asked Carth as Tails got up from his chair.


"Unfinished business."


"How can you have 'unfinished business' here when we just got here?"


"I'll explain later."


"No, you explain now," Carth demanded.


Tails sighed, and replied, "Before I retrieved that suit of armor last night, I saved the life of a Human female named Dia. She was attacked by a bounty hunter because a man named Holdan put a price on her head. She explained it's because she defended herself against Holden's advances on her, and now she's living with the consequences."


"So just what are you planning?"


"Simple: get Holdan to drop the bounty against Dia."


"Are you crazy? How do you intend to accomplish that? Appeal to his heart?"


"I dunno. But I'm going to try anyway."


"That's very noble of you, Tails, but our primary objective must come—"


The teenager started walking, not letting Carth finish his sentence. The Republic soldier cursed under his breath and followed.


The dance hall was sparsely populated, but in one corner a group of adult male Humans were gathered. Their attention appeared to be fixed on the orange female Twi'leks on the dance platform. From their idle conversations to their seating arrangements, Tails quickly identified which Human was Holdan. Nervous but with a placid exterior, Tails walked up to the man wearing a white shirt and green vest.


"Excuse me..."


Holdan's gaze remained fixated on the dancers until one of his buddies lightly whacked him on the shoulder and pointed to the fox.


"Huh? W-What? Oh, sorry. I didn't see you there," said Holdan, who didn't really sound the least bit sorry. "My attention was kinda focused on the dancers. What do you want, midget?"


"Are you the man who placed the bounty on Dia's head?" asked Tails.


Holdan frowned, and said, "You're here about that? I guess Zax must have mentioned me to you at the bounty office. Fair enough. I don't care who takes her out, just so long as the job gets done!"


Tails clenched his teeth together, but made no change to his outward expression.


"I cant let her get away with what she did," Holdan continued. "That wench tried to cut me with a vibroblade!"


"Why would she try to do that?" asked Tails, trying to keep a lid on his emotions.


"Because she's crazy, that's why! She started screaming that I was making advances, and the next thing I know: she's coming at me with a knife!"


"Yeah right," Carth chimed, stepping out of the background. "Sounds to me like she was defending herself."


Holdan glared at him, then turned back to Tails.


"Hmf. I admit I was drunk; maybe I got a little fresh. But it was no big deal. She didn't have to cut me!"


The anger in Holdan's voice was becoming more apparent.


"I'm beginning to think you got what you deserved," Tails jabbed.


Holdan's frown deepened. "Hey, you weren't there! She totally overreacted!"


Tails crossed his arms behind his back, and said, "Let me get to the point: I want that bounty on Dia's head removed."


"WHAT?!" Holdan bellowed. He got up out of his seat, and replied, "I can't do that! I work for Davik! I have a reputation to uphold! And I'm not gonna let some crazy wench make a fool out of me! There has to be payback!"


The Human's six buddies also stood up, all glaring down at the fox. Some of them popped their knuckles.


Tails kept his head level, but glared up at Holdan, and only at Holdan.


The Human calmed himself slightly and slicked his hair back. "Although, I do feel rather guilty about all this. Dia's a good looking gal; it would be a shame to kill her. Besides, I've been noticing a lot of the ladies here have been giving me the cold shoulder since all this started. Tell you what: I'll take two hundred credits in exchange for lifting the bounty."


Tails' eyes narrowed. He was losing his cool, and he knew that this situation could quickly escalate into a brawl, or worse. He knew he needed to consider all options, and going Super Smash Brothers on his dumb butt wasn't exactly Plan A.


Tails mentally sized up Holdan and his circle of friends, and determined that he could probably defeat them with minimal risk of injury (to himself, anyway) should a melee break out. However, the boy understood that gratuitous violence was not necessarily the best answer, and Tails decided to rein in his wayward testosterone.


"So... let me get this straight," Tails said calmly, "You will remove the bounty on Dia's life — permanently — for a simple payment of two hundred credits? If I do this, what guarantee do I have you'll actually lift the bounty? What prevents you from reinstating it again a few days or weeks later?"


Holdan stared into Tails' eyes for a moment, and the man appeared to be calculating his options. His mood had calmed down to mild irritation, and he finally said, "You have my word. Forward me the cash, and I'll walk right over to Zax's office and tell him the bounty is off the table."


As he spoke, Tails deployed all of the lie-detecting techniques he knew. With his eyes, Tails had searched the man's face for telltale eye movements and muscular tics. With his ears, he had scanned Holdan's chest for altered heart rhythms and distressed breathing patterns. And, with his nose, the fox even sniffed for changes in the Human's perspiration, although the margin for error was greater with all the man's buddies standing by him.


After a few moments' analysis, Tails was mildly surprised by his conclusion: Holdan was actually telling the truth. Most likely, anyway.


"All right, it's a deal," Tails finally answered. "Two hundred credits for Dia's life."


Tails gave him the money, and the man smiled slightly, and said, "Very well, Dia can live. Don't worry, I'll stick to my end of the bargain. Come on, guys; I'm getting sick of this place, anyway."


Holdan and his circle of friends left the dance hall, and Tails could only feel contempt for them. Part of him really wanted to beat them all to bloodied pulps.


"Nice save," Carth commented. "And here I thought you were deliberately trying to instigate a fight."


Tails had no reply.


"That was awfully generous of you, giving him all that money," he continued with a twinge of sarcasm. "I just hope we don't end up needing those credits later on. You know, you seem awfully eager to blow our cover for some odd sense of moral righteousness. Look, I'd want to do the exact same thing in your position, but we have more important things to worry about right now!"


Tails sighed, and answered, "I know that. But am I really supposed to ignore everyone else's plight just because their not high on our 'priority list'? Did you ever consider that Dia might be some family's wife and mother? If I have the capacity to help someone, is it not duty to help him or her?"


Carth Onasi recoiled. He fidgeted, then turned away and started walking out of the dance hall.


"Let's go," he commanded.


Tails followed, realizing he had just struck a sensitive nerve.


On their way out, yet another disturbance was developing in the main dining hall. A young, blue female Twi'lek was being harassed by two armored Rodians. They weren't there before, and Tails wondered if they knew what had just transpired half an hour ago.


The Twi'lek was shorter than the Rodians, barely taller than Calo's height. She wore a black shirt, a gray vest, khaki pants with a black belt, and black boots. On her head was an odd looking black headband that circled her cranium and looped between her two fleshy "head-tails". She looked particular annoyed at her company.


"I told to leave me alone. So, give me some space, bug-eyes!" she chimed. "Your breath smells like bantha poo-doo!"


The Rodians seemed unimpressed. "Little girl should not be in bar," one said. "This is no place for little girl. If girl smart, she run away home now."


"Who you calling 'little girl', chuba-face?!" the Twi'lek demanded.


"Little girl need lesson in manners!" declared the other Rodian.


"Just a sec, boys," she said, and turned to somewhere else in the dining hall. "Zalbaar, a little help here? I need you to rip the legs off some insects!"


There was a roaring sound coming from down the hall, and Tails visibly jumped.


"Mission, I'm busy! They just brought my food!" roared the voice.


"Quit complaining, you can finish eating later," said the female Twi'lek. "Besides, you could use the exercise, so get over here!"


The owner of the other voice stood up from his table and walked toward them, and Tails was startled at his size. This person was an eight foot tall wall of muscle, thickly carpeted with long brown fur. He had a vaguely gorilla-like head, and sported some impressive teeth and claws. This person wore no clothing except for an odd red belt and suspenders that wrapped over his shoulders, though what they were suspending, Tails had no idea.


"Carth, just who or what is that?" Tails asked.


"Huh? That's a Wookie. What, you've never seen a Wookie before?"


"Um... no."


"You never got out much, did you?"


Tails had no reply.


As he approached, both Rodians entered a startled panic.


"We want no trouble with Wookie!" they said. "Our problem with little girl!"


The young female Twi'lek grinned, and said, "You've got a problem with me? Then you've got a problem with Big Z. So unless you two want to take on my furry friend, I suggest you greenies just hop on out of here!"


The two Rodians glared angrily at the upstart Twi'lek, and replied, "Little girl lucky she has big friend!"


Without further incident, the two Rodian gang members turned and walked away.


"That was... impressive," Tails commented.


"Wookies are incredibly strong," Carth said. "Few are willing to challenge them to a fight."


"No kidding."


Tails started walking up to the Twi'lek and her Wookie friend. Carth sighed and decided to follow.


"Hi there!" said Tails. "That was impressive!"


The blue Twi'lek looked down at him and smiled. "Well, hello there," she answered. "What's your name?"


"My name's Miles – Miles Prower. But, you can call me Tails." said the fox, and he showed her his tails.


"Neat! I've never seen your kind before, and I know pretty much everybody here in the Lower City. You must be new down here," she replied. "I guess that makes me and Big Z your official welcoming committee!"


"So, you speak — uh, what's it called — Galactic Basic?" asked Tails. "All the non-Humans I've met here spoke their own languages, but we speak the same."


"It's not that strange," the Twi'lek explained. "Most aliens can speak Basic; they just prefer to use their own languages. But, I grew up here on Taris, so I got used to speaking the native tongue."


The fox found it odd that this Twi'lek, including the other non-Humans he'd met here, tended to refer to themselves as "aliens". Was it a cultural bias?


Carth stepped into the conversation, and said, "You showed a lot of guts standing up to those thugs, kid; I commend you. You got a name?"


Tails suddenly felt embarrassed that he had forgotten to ask the Twi'lek her name.


"The name's Mission Vao," she replied. "And this big Wookie is my best friend Zalbaar. I'd offer to give you a tour of the Lower City, but it's not exactly safe outside. Is there anything else you need?"


"How did you and Zalbaar become so close?" the boy asked.


"He and I just kind of fell in together," Mission answered. "It ain't easy being on your own here in the Lower City. Everyone's looking to push you around."


"So we noticed," Carth commented. "Still, you seem like an odd pair."


"When I met up with Zalbaar, it seemed like a pretty good match," Mission continued. "I knew we could look out for each other. With my street smarts and his muscle, we make a great team."


Tails looked at "Big Z" then back at the blue Twi'lek.


"Um... you're not... romantically involved with him, are you?" he asked.


"Wait, what?" sputtered Mission, giggling. Zalbaar just snorted and grumbled. "Um, that would be a no," she added. "Wookies and Twi'lek don't share that kind of chemistry. Besides, I'm only fourteen!"


"You are? Hey, we're the same age!" said the fox.


"Really? Interesting," she said, studying him. "But, your pick-up lines need a lot of work. You're a cute boy, but no girl's gonna fall for such a cheesy come-on."


Tails' heart suddenly fluttered. "What?! No, no no, I didn't mean anything like that! Honest!!" he stammered.


Mission Vao giggled again, then petted Tails on his head, messing up his bangs. She then walked past him toward the exit.


"Come on, Big Z; let's go. This dive's pretty boring."


"But, Mission, I haven't finished eating!" the Wookie protested.


"Can't you think about something besides your stomach for five minutes? Come on, we'll go see if there's anything good to eat at the Bek base."


Mission and Zalbaar left, leaving behind an annoyed Human and a pathetically downtrodden Mobian. Carth clamped his hand around the back of Tails' neck.


"Listen, you," Carth grumbled, "I already got my hands full with you and your impulsiveness, and I don't need you hitting on the locals!"


"I... was NOT... hitting on her!" Tails growled. "My choice of words my have been unfortunate, but I had no hidden meaning behind them!"


"Uh huh, sure. Whatever you say."


"I'm serious! Those were NOT pick-up lines!!"