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Chapter 9

I was always able to convince Bril to do what I wanted, even when we were kids. True, I didn't have the same skill he did—that strange ability to completely entrance and influence a stranger using only honeyed words and tone—but I could still convince him into doing just about anything.

In the Academy, my teachers taught about influence and manipulation and how having information about someone's personality or who they know or just about any facet of their life meant having an advantage you could potentially use to control them. When we were pickpocketing street kids I'd been doing just that, only on instinct, without really knowing how I was twisting him into doing what I wanted.

But now I knew, and I was doing it on purpose. I was laying it on thick, using the memory of his dead mother and everything else Lady Kallis had ever done to us, to push him into following my plan despite both the risk of his own death and the fact that it meant having to face his most profound fear. I swallowed my guilt with every word, pushing through any trepidation I had left. No amount of sentiment I had left would keep me from doing my duty.

"You're sure she won't know she's drinking poison?" Bril asked uncertainly. "If she tastes something off…"

"It's fine," I reassured him again. "I concocted the poison myself. It has no taste and no odor. Just a drop in her drink is all you'll need."

Bril's eyes narrowed as he looked at me. "You made this?" he asked, holding up the small vial to examine. "Harry, just tell me what you've been doing for the last two years!"

Stupid!

Being around Bril again had my guard lowered, and not just physically. I'd done everything I could in my time at the Academy to keep my mind focused and sharp, and slips of the tongue like that should have been beneath me. Just the fact that he was still alive had me more mentally vulnerable. I had to be better. Mistakes, even small ones like that, would kill me in this line of work.

"I told you, you can't ask me that!" I hissed coldly, my fists clenched at my side. "Besides, it doesn't matter. We need to focus on what's happening now."

Bril frowned and irritation flashed in his eyes, but my tone didn't invite any more questions. No doubt he knew I'd been with the Empire, but it was still a mistake to tell him that outright. Already my Imperial mandate dictated that I should be killing him—I didn't want to give myself any more reasons to do exactly that.

"Do we need to go over the plan again?" I asked, struggling to swallow down a frustrated sigh. "All you need to do is get Lady Kallis' drink from the bar, add a single drop of poison to it, and take it to her."

"And tell the guard that you want a meeting with Lady Kallis, right? What if he questions it?"

I smirked and shook my head. "Kallis still uses Gamorreans as guards, right?" I asked. "Well, Gamorreans are 95% muscle and 5% brain. They make better attack dogs than they do door guards—too easy to convince. We'll be fine."

He didn't look entirely convinced, but I had all the confidence in the world that it would work. Bril often took Kallis' meals to her at her directive, and not only were Gamorreans generally too thick to question my meeting with her, but I knew that Bril could talk people into just about anything. Time would not have dulled those skills too much—of that I was certain.

"I don't know if I can do this…" Bril whispered. "I don't think I can take a life."

It was a reaction that I should have expected. Always, from the time we were waist high and running around the filthy streets of Nar Shaddaa, always, he'd been the soft one. We had to steal to survive, but he'd never once wanted to. Killing someone—even if that someone was as evil as Lady Kallis—fell so far outside his moral code that it was almost laughable to think of him considering it. But again, I was always able to convince him of anything, even if it had to be something different than he thought it was.

I had no choice but to lie. Fortunately, despite his uncanny ability to read people like an open book, I just happened to be his weakness, just like he was mine. His presence made my mind and training less sharp, just like mine meant that I could lie to him with success. His trust in me would overcome whatever natural ability he had to find the truth underneath lies.

I raised an eyebrow. "I never said it was a lethal poison," I lied smoothly. "It'll only knock her out."

"But you said you're here to kill her," Bril argued, eying me suspiciously.

I nodded. "Yes, I'm here to kill her. All I need is for you to get me access. If she's knocked out, she can't call out for her guards when she sees me. Then, I can finish her off."

Of course, that wasn't at all true. She needed to die, and the poison itself would absolutely do that. If it weren't for the fact that I needed to kill Zorbo as well, I would only have needed Bril's access. Then I could just enter her office and kill her with my bare hands. In reality, that would even be preferable. Despite that I'd left my identity as Harry behind, I couldn't deny the part of me that wanted to kill her myself. Even if it was the best and most efficient solution, poison seemed like a bit of a cop out.

But Zorbo was also on my target list, so I couldn't be that obvious. I was here on behalf of the Empire, and if the rest of the Hutt Cartel suspected that Zorbo's death was at the hands of an Imperial Agent, it potentially took any arms and narcotics deal off the table. Kallis' death, and Zorbo's, had to be as subtle as possible.

"You'll have my back if things go wrong, right? You learned more than just how to make poisons and wear a disguise?" Bril asked. He was still probing for more information, but still I didn't have to lie in my answer.

"I've always got your back."

Bril looked totally at ease as he approached the bar, slipped the poison into the glass, and walked out to the back rooms towards Kallis' office. I'd known he wouldn't have any problems. Even being separated for two years, Bril and I had been in enough tough situations for me to know that he could keep calm under pressure—even when it meant confronting his greatest fears. He might show his anxieties to me, but when it came to doing what he had to, he was cool, calm, and collected.

I looked around the brothel as I waited for Bril to come back out. The main room was still filled from floor to roof with dark red light, making it seem as though there was a panel of stained glass sitting directly in front of my retinas.

After all my experience on Dromund Kaas, I felt a sort of disconnect between my old life as Harry and my new life as an Imperial Agent. As much as I knew all the memories the place brought were my own, they felt foreign to me, as though I was looking at them through the eyes of another. Before Dromund Kaas, the brothel had always disgusted me. The patrons at the House of Plom Bloom were everything I didn't want to be.

Now that I was an asset of the Empire, I felt disdain on another level entirely. The brothel represented everything the Empire stood against. It was an expression of absolute freedom, the kind of place that exists only when there are no steadfast rules to constrain the devils of intelligent life. Freedom was tantamount to anarchy and could result only in disorder and chaos. The Empire would put a stop to all of it. It was just another reason I had to succeed.

Bril pulled me from the uncomfortable memories when he reappeared from the back rooms. His face was completely passive, no smile or frown to give any indication of his emotional state. That, I knew, was a bad sign. Bril wore his heart on his sleeve, no doubt a part of the charm that had made him a good thief—but showing no emotion at all generally meant he was trying to hide his fear or anxiety more actively.

"What happened?" I asked quietly, only loud enough for him to hear. Bril's eyes were wide and shimmering wet, and I could see something like an accusation in his gaze as he looked at me.

"She drank it. She didn't even question it…" Bril said. He was trying to look confident, but his shaky tone betrayed his distress.

Of course she hadn't questioned it. I had never expected that she would. Kallis ruled her underlings through fear, and she had no doubts about the power she had over them. To her mind, there was no question of any possible betrayal. But the true fact was, Kallis had no realcontrol. Sure, all her workers feared her power among the Hutt Cartel and her unpredictable nature, but the Empire had shown me over and over that ruling through fear alone is ineffective.

It's not the fear itself that's the problem—the Empire ruled absolutely with it—but it's the fact that Kallis gave her workers no real reason not to betray her that was the issue. Life in the Empire could still be comfortable, even for those who didn't trust their government completely. People were still able to work and make a living and have a decent life. Kallis didn't offer her workers that. It made their existence feel meaningless, and if they were to see an opportunity to rebel, it meant they weren't really risking anything more than their own life. If all that life consisted of was effective slavery at the House of Plom Bloom? Most would find the risk to be well worth it.

"Can we go in? Did you tell the guard about the meeting?" I pushed. I wasn't going to question Bril about what the problem was. I was pretty sure it was because he'd discovered my lie about the lethality of the poison, but either way, I wasn't willing to ask while we were out in the open.

Bril dipped his head once, the movement so minimal I almost doubted that he'd moved at all. But I didn't need him to be emphatic. I just wanted to get it over and done with.

I moved past Bril, grabbing his arm and pulling so that he would follow behind me. As I rounded the corner towards Kallis' office, I registered that I was catching the eyes of a few of the workers headed in and out of the dressing rooms. I paid them no mind. I just had to act confident that I was exactly where I should be. I was more likely to get stopped if I looked uncomfortable or lost.

I slowed to let Bril move ahead of me as we neared Kallis' office, just in time for the Gamorrean guard to look up at our approach. I could still see the tension in Bril's shoulders, but just as I'd thought, the guard just grunted and stepped aside. I stepped past and closed the door behind me after Bril.

Bril froze in place just inside, staring across the room towards the desk.

But I couldn't focus on that, yet. My gaze darted about the room, looking for any sign of threat, or any sign that someone else could see what was happening. There was nothing—merely a small and well decorated room, furnished with a fairly simple desk and chair. There were ornate busts decorating two corners and a red tapestry of some warlike scene covering nearly the entire wall behind the desk.

Finally, I cast my gaze to Kallis, sitting absolutely still in her chair behind the desk. Too still. Her eyes were wide, her body lounged lazily in her chair in a way that I knew she would never sit in her right mind.

A smile crossed my face. The poison was doing its job.

"I thought you said the poison wouldn't kill her!" Bril hissed, finally turning around to face me with flared nostrils. "She's dead!"

My eyes flicked towards Bril and then back at Kallis. Her red eyes were staring straight at where I was standing in front of the door, but she wasn't moving even slightly, nor did she make any sort of sound.

"She's not dead—but I'd bet she's wishing she was…" I spoke coldly, imbibing my voice with every dark memory, every ounce of hatred I had towards her.

"Look at her!" Bril whisper-shouted. "Not blinking, not speaking—she's dead!"

I shook my head. "No, she's paralyzed. But you can still see us, right, Kallis? Can still hear us? I've never felt the effects of the poison myself, but I'm told it's agony." I stepped closer to the desk and leaned over it, getting my face close enough that we could look into each other's eyes.

"You remember me, don't you? It wasn't so long ago that I spent every day at your mercy. How things have changed…"

A tiny, practically inaudible sound bubbled its way up her throat. Bril gasped at the sound, clearly having not believed that she was alive despite my saying so. Still, there was something in her eyes that I couldn't quite grasp, almost like she was confused. It took me a moment to remember my disguise. I reached up to wipe the makeup off my forehead, uncovering my lightning-bolt scar. At that, her eyes widened minutely, and I took solace in the fact that she knew exactly who had come for her.

"Oh, so you do remember me," I said. "Perhaps you want to call out for your guards?"

Another murmur, this one sounding more desperate than the first, but certainly no louder.

"Or perhaps the antidote? I have it right here," I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a small vial filled with a clear liquid. Kallis' eyes filled with tears, but I would feel no pity for the woman. How many lives had she ruined besides mine and Bril's? She deserved nothing from me but torment and death.

"Just tell me you want the antidote, and I'll gladly give it to you," I said coldly.

"Harry… this is wrong," Bril whispered behind me. "I thought you were going to kill her…"

I shook my head. "The poison will do that, eventually. I'd hate for her to die without having time to think back on all her mistakes. Of course, I could always give her the antidote, she only has to ask…"

Kallis let out a stifled, enraged scream. Still, it was only loud enough to be heard in the room, not even close to enough to be heard outside. The poison wouldn't allow her any more freedom than that.

"You said it would only knock her out!" Bril said, keeping his voice low. He looked more frightened than ever, though whether that was a result of what was happening with Kallis in general, or that it had been done by his own hand, I wasn't sure.

I finally whirled around to face the only friend I'd ever known, but I wasn't only looking at him through that lens—not right now. Right now, he was beginning to prove himself a liability. "If I'd told you what the poison was going to do, you would never have done what was needed," I said, more coldly than I intended. "There's no room in this world for weakness, Bril. You want to get off this planet? You're going to have to do exactly what I say."

From the hurt that flashed across Bril's face, I might as well have hit him. "You're not the Harry I know at all, are you?" he asked. I didn't answer, but he was absolutely right. The boy he'd known was dead. I was very much alive.

I ignored him, surprised at my own lack of guilt. The fact was simple. I just wasn't really Harry anymore, and now we both knew it. Still, I couldn't kill Bril, that much was certain. If he could just stay quiet and let me do what I was here to do, he could finally be free. I wouldn't feel guilty for anything I had to do to make that happen.

I turned back to Kallis. "I only have one question for you," I said. "If you can answer me honestly, you might just survive this little encounter."

Kallis' eyes rolled in their sockets, but she let out another sound, this one eerily different from the others she'd made. Almost an agreement.

"Where is your access to Zorbo's palace? Is it in this room?"

Even with the poison coursing through her veins, Kallis visibly paled at my question. Her eyes widened, and there was the tiniest movement in her head, like she was trying to shake it from side to side.

"I know you have a private elevator into his compound, and I don't think I'm wrong in saying that it's somewhere close…"

I'd seen it in security recordings gathered by Watcher Four. Nearly every day, Kallis emerged in Zorbo's palace by way of an elevator. But there was only one camera in the brothel itself, and it was only in the main room with the patrons. I could never determine where it was. But it had to exist somewhere in the back rooms, and in my childhood, Kallis' office was the only one I'd never been inside.

Bril grabbed me by the shoulder, and I had to do everything in my power not to reach around and break his arm. That reaction was near instinctive after all the training I'd done on Dromund Kaas. As it was, I merely looked down at his hand on my shoulder, and then back at Bril himself with narrowed eyes.

"What is the matter with you? Why would you want access to Zorbo's palace, of all places? It's even more dangerous than here! Why can't we just leave now? With Kallis… like that, can't we just go?" Bril's voice was desperate and pleading, and his fingers dug into my shoulders like he was trying to spear them through one side and out the other. His breathing was quick and shallow, his hand clammy on my shoulder.

A small, mostly ignored instinct in my head suggested that I turn around and comfort him, that I agree with what he was saying. I couldn't afford to do that. Bril's fear of Kallis and Zorbo could quickly become a big problem, but I wasn't about to modicoddle his weakness.

I batted his hand off my shoulder, still resisting the urge to go on the attack. "Bril, shut up!" I growled. "I told you, if you want to get out of here, you need to do as I say!"

Bril shrunk back again, looking torn between an urge to run and trying to listen to whatever part of him still trusted that I had his best interests in mind. In a way, I still did, only that meant not wanting to kill him despite my orders dictating that I should. Still, it was a lie to say that I was doing this for him. If I were, I'd ignore killing Zorbo and just escape with Bril off-world. The thought had flashed through my head, but I couldn't really consider it one of my options. That life was for Harry.

"So, Kallis, in this room?" I asked, walking around the desk until I was facing the tapestry on the far wall. "Strange place for a curtain, isn't it?"

The desperate squeak that sounded from Kallis' throat told me that I'd found what I was looking for. I grabbed the back of her chair and spun it around so that she could see what I was doing. I didn't want her to miss even a second of her failure. With one tug at the edge of the tapestry it came cascading down, revealing the elevator door behind. It wasn't very big, probably only meant for one person, but it was all I needed to get into Zorbo's palace unnoticed. On the wall to its right was a small scanner.

"Looks like an optical scanner," I said, mostly to myself, though Kallis let out another noise in protest. She was giving me her best 'I'm going to kill you' look that used to terrify me as a child. There had been a time when one look at those red eyes would have had me on my knees and kissing her feet, but now it put a smile on my face. I was the one in control. She was at my mercy. She would live or die based on my decisions, and there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to let her live. What was even better was her knowing that I could use her to get into Zorbo's palace with the potential to erase her entire reason for living—serving Zorbo and the Hutt Cartel.

"Come and help me for a second, if you don't mind," I said. I reached out and grabbed her with one hand on the neck and the other pulling her silken black hair. I lifted her out of the seat and smashed her head into the wall next to the scanner. Her nose snapped with a resounding crack, almost loud enough to drown out the gasp earned from Bril.

That was probably a reckless move, but I couldn't help it. Any damage to anybody and a sign of an obvious death risked the Cartel finding out that it was the Empire who had orchestrated the attack, but even that logic couldn't completely make me control my behavior. It was all I could do not to wrap my own hands around her neck and choke the life out of her. Maybe in missions in the future I would be able to remain cold and impartial, but not this one. Kallis had made my life a hell for too long. There was no way I wasn't going to enjoy it.

"Sorry about that. Let me try again."

This time I held her eye over the scanner, though I was hardly gentle with the way I'd pressed her face to the cold metal. The elevator door opened with a hiss, revealing a space only big enough for a couple of people, and another optical scanner on the inside to make it move.

"I guess you're coming with," I looked down at Kallis, blood now dripping from her nose. "How nice that you get to spend more time with your old wards." I shoved her into the elevator, watching her land unceremoniously in the corner in a heap, her body not giving even the slightest amount of resistance. Even now the poison would be flooding through her, sapping her energy, and eventually causing her organs to shut down.

"Alright, Bril, inside," I said. Bril looked momentarily hesitant, but all it took was a stern look from me to get him moving. His trust in me was waning quickly, and it didn't take a genius to see it. Still, even if he didn't trust me in the way that he used to, he still wasn't dumb. He was too deep in it now to do anything but come with. Even under the circumstances he would no doubt see that I was the best chance he had at survival.

I waited for him to step into the elevator before I squeezed in beside him and lifted Kallis' head once more to the optical scanner. The doors slid shut, locking us inside as it started to rise. I dropped Kallis to the ground with a thump.

"Once the doors open, we'll be in Zorbo's palace, understand?" I asked Bril. "From here on out, you can't question me at all. I might have to act at a moment's notice, and I might not have time to explain everything. What I do, you do, okay?"

Bril shuffled his feet, and his shoulders still looked tense, but he nodded once. The blood had rushed from his face, giving his usual royal blue skin a flushed, sickly sort of visage. The Twi'leki headtails that usually hung casually over his shoulders stuck tight to his back in an obvious sign of his increasing anxiety. Nevertheless, he mimicked my movements, sticking close to the wall in case somebody was at the other end waiting for us.

The trip from Dromund Kaas back to Nar Shaddaa had taken a while, during which I'd spent watching and analyzing security footage obtained by Watcher Four of Zorbo's palace. I knew the layout of the place inside out and back to front, from the schedule of the security patrols to the most direct route to each objective. Once those doors opened, I'd have to move as fast and as quietly as possible. Stealth was my only advantage here, and that was hindered by Bril's hesitance.

But my timing couldn't have been worse. According to all the footage I'd studied, a normal day would have patrols passing every three minutes or so, and apparently, the elevator was opening on exactly that third minute. Fortunately, it was only a one man patrol, and just a human, or possibly a cyborg. A human I could deal with. Unfortunately, I had to act unarmed. Use of a lethal weapon would make it clear that foul play was involved. I couldn't have that.

Bril let out a gasp as the doors opened, but I didn't hesitate. I leapt out of the elevator towards my foe, keeping myself low to the ground to make myself as small a target as possible in case he was more of a 'shoot first, ask questions later' type. He wasn't. The shock of us being there at all had him frozen in surprise, if only for a second. I was on him just as he was reaching for the blaster at his belt, but he'd taken action far too late.

I jabbed at his windpipe with outstretched fingers just in case his first instinct was to call for help. He coughed and gurgled, and his hands reached up for his throat on instinct as though they could heal any damage I'd done. Immediately, I was reaching for his blaster ahead of him and kicking out at his shin to throw him off balance. At my age, and against an opponent bigger and stronger than I was, the only chance I had was to knock him off balance. Fortunately, I was trained to know exactly where to hit to inflict the most damage, and my strike had him toppling sideways with a grunt of pain.

Even as he fell, I slipped the blaster from his holster and swung the butt of it straight at his temple. The first hit caused another grunt and him groggily lashing out, but he managed nothing more than to clutch at my face with desperate fingers. The second swing caught him dead on the side of the head. He let out a whoosh of air, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he collapsed.

The whole thing took only a matter of seconds. It was sloppier than I would have liked, but that was the cost of hand to hand combat, especially since my strength and size would never allow for an instant knockout or kill. Still, it had been relatively quiet, and there was very little chance that anybody else had heard. I still had the advantage.

I grabbed him under the arms and began dragging him over towards the elevator. "Bril, give me a hand," I grunted as I pulled his limp form. Bril did as he was asked, but he was giving me a look I'd never really seen in his eyes before. Somewhere between fear and awe. I shouldn't have been surprised. In all the time we'd known each other, there was no way he could imagine I was able to act the way I had.

"So, you were with the Empire…" he said quietly, helping me dump the guard in the elevator with Kallis. The woman herself was still watching me with wide eyes, now full of understanding from what she'd heard from Bril.

"Stop. Talking," I whispered firmly. It was a lucky thing Kallis was more than halfway dead already. If my mission got traced back to the Empire it might as well be considered a failure no matter who I managed to kill. I wanted to grab Bril and force the importance of that into his head, but there was no way he could fully understand, and there simply wasn't time. There was only about two and a half minutes before the next patrol, and I had to move fast. The elevator door shut, hiding Kallis and the guard securely inside.

"Go where I go, and keep your trap shut," I hissed. Bril nodded, and I saw his eyes fall to where the blaster still sat in the hand at my side. Evidently, his trust in me was falling so quickly he thought I might shoot him. Given the fact that he was seeing a side of me that he hadn't before, I shouldn't have been so surprised.

I took off down the hall at a jog, doing my best to ignore Bril's awe. He was following, but it wasn't exactly disciplined, and he spent more time looking up at the cavernous roof and the walls adorned with expensive paintings and statues than he did paying attention to what I was doing or where we were going. I couldn't really blame him. I'd already known what the inside would look like from the security footage, and I'd seen much more of the galaxy now than just Nar Shaddaa. Bril hadn't. Doubtless, he'd never seen anything so impressively expensive.

"Bril, keep up. The next patrol is only a minute and a half away."

It was enough to have him returning his focus to reality, and reality was enough to make him remember the stakes. If we were found by Zorbo's enforcers it would mean certain death and assuredly not a comfortable one. Hutts weren't exactly known for being merciful, after all. As one raised on Nar Shaddaa, Bril knew this better than most.

Without my extensive study of the security footage I'd never have found my way. Zorbo's palace was as immense as his wealth allowed, which meant enough twisting corridors to have anyone turned back to front. Out my peripheral vision I could see the frown forming on Bril's face every time we turned a corner, probably thinking we were getting more lost with every step. Still, I moved with absolute confidence. I had a strict plan for once I got into the palace, even allowing for lost time if I came across a guard, which, of course I had.

Twenty seconds left.

I found the door I was looking for with plenty of time to spare. It slid open at our approach, revealing a simple stairwell much less grandiose than everywhere else in the palace. I pulled Bril inside just before the next patrol rounded the corner.

Too close. Having Bril with me was messing with my timing and cutting my efficiency. I'd planned to be here much sooner than the next patrol, even if they were moving fast. I couldn't afford any mistakes. An Agent for Imperial Intelligence didn't have the benefit of 'learning for next time.' I had to be better.

I kept dragging Bril as I moved down the stairs while he looked over the handrail and down at the bottom. Our footsteps echoed up and down, but it was unlikely to be a problem. They would only be used in cases of emergencies. Elevators were much more efficient, and Zorbo's palace had many of them.

We continued down the stairs as far as they went, finally stopping before another door: my actual target.

"Is this how we're getting out?" Bril whispered, unable to keep the increasing nerves from affecting his tone. I let out a sigh and stopped before facing him. He was physically shaking as he clung to the guardrail, looking as though I was about to ask him to fight a Rancor head on with his bare hands.

I let out another sigh. If everything went according to plan, this would probably be the last chance I get to speak to him. After everything we'd been through, he deserved answers. Not just about where I'd been, either. He deserved the real truth about why I was back on Nar Shaddaa. Maybe I wasn't truly Harry anymore, but Bril had been the reason I'd gone to Imperial Intelligence in the first place. He was just a part of my life as an Agent as he was a part of Harry's life as his best friend.

"Bril, have you not figured it out by now? I'm not here for you. I thought you were dead, remember?" I said, my voice level. "I have a mission, and I'm not leaving until it's done."

There was no point hiding the real truth from him, much as I was loath to admit it. He'd seen enough and knew enough of my history with Imperial Intelligence that my working for them was the only realistic conclusion. How else could I have learned how to mix my own poisons? How else would I have learned how to take down an armed opponent with my bare hands? Why else would I infiltrate a Hutt's palace of all places?

Bril grabbed my forearm tight and looked into my eyes. "You don't have to stay with them," he pleaded. "We can just escape. You and me, like we always wanted…"

His eyes were wet and shimmering, whether a result of his fear or his desperation for me to listen, I didn't know. Maybe it was both. His voice was laced with concern and his words trembled. His desire to return to a simpler time was written all over his features.

The problem was, he was still speaking to Harry, not me. Even if there was a small voice inside my brain urging me to listen to him, I wouldn't. I couldn't. The Empire was my future. Harry had been weak, and that was something I never wanted to be again. I'd done everything I could to forget my life on Nar Shaddaa, and that couldn't just be erased, not even by Bril.

"I didn't come to get my old life back, or to recapture the dreams we had as children," I answered slowly. "I came here to erase my old life. Lady Kallis, maybe some of the bouncers… I've been sent back here to kill everyone who knows my face—to neutralize any chance that someone might recognize me."

The momentary silence that followed was deafening.

"Are you going to kill me?" he , though his question should have had the opposite effect, Bril's voice had lost its nervous, desperate edge. It was calm, almost as if he was preparing himself to accept his death. His shoulders dropped, completely losing the tension that they'd had since I arrived. I got the distinct impression that if I was about to try and kill him, he'd let me. Then again, maybe it was just that from what he'd seen, he knew he wouldn't be able to stop me.

My face betrayed no emotion—just a cold, hard logic. "I should kill you…" I murmured. For a moment the image of it played in my mind's eye. It would be easy. I'd know exactly where to strike to make it happen. In just moments, it could cease to be a problem at all. Just strike at vital points, and watch the light leave those blue eyes—

My logic vanished, and bile threatened to rise in my throat. The mere thought of doing that to Bril… It didn't just feel wrong, it felt impossible. Killing Bril would be like killing a part of myself, or at least, killing a part of Harry.

But then, I wasn't Harry anymore. I wasn't.

I wasn't.

Just picturing it was enough to make me feel unsteady, and I almost had to reach for the rail on the stairs. Bril watched me unblinking, unmoving. Since I'd arrived he'd looked nervous, afraid of the new reality he'd found himself a part of. Now though, watching me admit the truth out loud and the way it threatened to unravel my new existence as an Imperial Agent, he looked deadly serious, lacking any sort of fear or uncertainty. He knew exactly what I was thinking.

"I could never kill you," I admitted, talking to myself as much as to him. It was my turn now to have a shaky voice, and I hated it. My fists were clenched at my side, nearly hard enough for my fingernails to dig into my palms and draw blood. This wasn't meant to happen to me anymore. For two years I'd been resolute and unyielding. I wasn't supposed to show signs of weakness. An hour with Bril and I was already cracking at the seams. Even if I couldn't kill him, I couldn't return to being this, either.

No matter what, my future was the Empire, and it couldn't involve Bril. For one, my mission was to kill everyone who knew me, so he would never be welcome there. Hell, if the Empire found out that Bril was alive and I'd let him live, the possibility existed that they would execute the both of us. For another, his presence would mean that I could never truly bury my past. He would always be a reminder of my weakness. An anchor holding me down. I couldn't have both.

There was only one thing to do. I had to free us both, even if it meant Bril might hate me forever. I could live with that. We'd never see each other again, anyway. I just needed him to come with me for a bit longer to make it happen.

"The Empire will never accept you," I said. "It would mean that I disobeyed a direct order—and I'm meant to be buryingmy past…"

Bril's eyes widened and his grip on my arm tightened as he listened. A tiny blossom of hope flared into him, his emotion as obvious to me as the sun rising in the morning. "So, if you can't kill me, and the Empire would execute you for letting me live…"

I nodded slightly. "We have no choice but to run. To go somewhere so far away that the Empire will never find us," I lied. It was an awful, terrible lie. Not in my delivery, but in how much it was a betrayal of him. It was all he'd ever wanted, and while I'd spent two years learning to become strong, he'd likely spent the last two years trying to will our old dream into reality. Telling him it was going to happen and never intending to come through on that promise might be the most treacherous thing I could do to him. It would also mean he would live.

Bril narrowed his eyes, squinting at me the way he often used to do to gauge if I was telling the truth. I knew he would believe me. Even with his ridiculously intuitive nature, he wanted to believe the lie with all his soul. If I was truly honest with myself, I would also acknowledge that it was more believable because it held a little truth. A part of me still wanted to follow our old dream, too. But it was impossible, and so I shoved those dreams away as far as I could. The beaming smile that eventually crossed Bril's face made me want to take my own vibroknife and stick it into my stomach as penance.

"Then, we're leaving? Can you get us out of here the way you got us in?"

I shook my head. "We can't leave yet. The Empire will hunt me. I know too much for them to just let me go. But maybe if I can just finish this mission for them, they'll be less compelled to chase us."

Bril lifted a hand to his chin, finally releasing me from his grip. "Do you think so? I mean, if you know too much, won't they chase you anyway?"

I nodded again. "Probably, but I know what they're like. They'll put more resources towards finding us if I don't finish the mission. It's our best chance to really escape."

He bought the lie more easily than I expected him to. I guess it was because as I thought, he wanted to believe it. The easy smile that was so often seen in my youth reappeared on his face. Logically, it should've made me happy. It meant my plan was working, my well-laid plans beginning to come to fruition.

But happiness wasn't even close to what I felt. My stomach was churning, my mind flashing with the image of what I would have to do to make those plans real. If my training on Dromund Kaas hadn't conditioned me into being so mission-dedicated, I would have taken off running just to get away from the situation with Bril. Instead, I had to do everything I could to show an equally happy visage, a mere mask so that he would believe my lies.

"Okay then," Bril said, slapping a closed fist into his other hand. "Lead the way." His earlier fear of Zorbo's palace was entirely gone now, replaced with determination to finally be rid of Nar Shaddaa. Watching it was awful. Ruining his dream would be awful.

Finally, I turned away and stepped through the door at the bottom of the stairs. It opened onto a massive inside landing bay that served as a storage area for Zorbo's arms dealing operations. It would be guarded, but according to the security footage, likely only by a few people wandering about the landing. Fortunately, it was filled with crates of weapons and bombs, each one big enough for me to hide behind. If all went according to plan, I would be in and out without them ever knowing we were there.

"Stay here," I whispered to Bril. "We're not alone in here, and I'll be faster on my own. But be ready to move fast when I get back."

A little of his prior fear etched its way onto his face, but he nodded. The trust in me that had been waning all day had returned in full force.

I took off into the warehouse. Fortunately, the stairwell was in the far corner at the back, the least likely place for a security patrol to be. I used the crates of weapons as cover, darting between them and keeping my eyes peeled in case they were going to approach. I could hear them, laughing on the other side of the landing bay. Getting past them should be child's play. They would never see what was coming before it was already upon them. None of them would.

I'd organized this part of the plan days before arriving back on Nar Shaddaa. Having Watcher Four organize the device I needed to be in Zorbo's storage area was easy. All she had to do was create a profile as an intergalactic pirate who needed to purchase a specific weapon, and Zorbo's people would supply their own demise. I'd even watched the security tapes as a ship had unloaded it off a ship right into the warehouse, so I even knew where to look to find it.

Unfortunately, it was on the other side of the room, right over towards the huge, starship-sized doors which only ever opened when an arms delivery or pickup was here to complete their deal. It wouldn't give me much time. Still, I knew it would work. I'd planned every detail meticulously. Failure wasn't a part of my mission.

The guards never even heard a peep. My training made that certain. There were all sorts of tricks one could use to move quietly and undetected, and I was proficient in them all. It only took about a minute before I found the right weapon.

A Dioxis bomb.

It was an incredibly dangerous piece of equipment. It was more or less just a large metallic cylinder, standing at about double the height of me, and about four times as long. On its side was a small arming pad. It was exactly the weapon I'd need to finish the mission, and to make the entire thing appear an accident. Imperial Intelligence had given me everything I needed.

With just a few small adjustments to the arming pad, any investigation would find that the weapon had armed itself and gone off as part of a technical fault, releasing the gallons of toxic gas inside. It would be enough to kill the entire palace, including the Brothel downstairs. I would only need to do one more thing to ensure that it happened just the way I intended.

Carefully, I peeled the cover off the keypad with the vibroknife tucked into my waistband. One small wire cut and the bomb would be armed, setting the timer for a measly seven and a half minutes. Quite a crucial flaw in an otherwise brilliant weapon. The Empire's experts would never make such a mistake in weapon design. Still, it wasn't surprising. Black arms deals weren't exactly dealing with state of the art equipment. The only goal was to make quick credits. That would only make it accidentally arming all the more believable.

With a dull beep, the weapon armed as I cut the wire, and I snapped the keypad back into place.

The guards were still laughing on the other side of the port. I nearly rolled my eyes. Again, Empire guards would never be so lax in their duties. The Cartel guards were undisciplined, and it would cost all of them their lives. That didn't make it so it was anything other than fortunate for me, though. It allowed me to get out quickly and straight back to Bril.

"We have to run," I told Bril as I re-entered the stairwell. "Keep up."

I didn't wait for him to answer, running straight up the stairs towards my next target. Bril huffed behind me, but he kept pushing through. He wasn't unfit, but I'd spent nearly every day since leaving Nar Shaddaa increasing my endurance one way or another. I could simply move much faster and longer than him now. Still, he kept up as best he could, and we made better time than I'd hoped.

My next goal was the ventilation control room. It was a rarely used and not often guarded room in the palace that allowed them basic control over the palace—the general ventilation, cooling, and heating of the place. For those who worked in the palace and as a part of Zorbo's operation, they didn't really need to worry about such things. The only time it would ever change was if Zorbo himself complained of the ventilation or the temperature, and Hutt's rarely worried about such trifles. They were used to the contaminated, polluted jungles of Hutta. It took a lot for them to be uncomfortable.

And yet, a room overlooked by so many was the absolute crux of my plan. In fact, both mine and Bril's survival completely depended on it. Fortunately, we had plenty of time to make it there before the bomb went off. It was just back into one of the many corridors of the palace and through a door not far from the stairwell. Easy.

So easy, in fact, that I didn't see any security. It was the major security flaw in having a palace so large. It made guarding it all the more difficult. Like the floor with the three minute patrols, this one did have guards as well, but finally luck was holding out, and both Bril and I managed to get into the control room without being spotted. Inside, there were a few dusty, rusted pipes and the sound of air rushing through the vents on the wall. On the far side was an old, but functional, computer interface—just what I was looking for.

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the data spike that Watcher Four had created for just this moment. Once inserted, it would allow back-door access to the interface to control the general purpose of the control room. I used the spike and began tapping along the screen, eager to access the ventilation system.

It was a complex system, as it needed to be for any ventilation on Nar Shaddaa. The outside air was so polluted and unhealthy that any person of wealth needed to install state of the art ventilation just to have clean air. Still, a system as immense as Zorbo's palace could even be powerful enough to nullify the effects of the Dioxis bomb, and I couldn't have that.

For everyone else on the smuggler's moon, ventilation would seem so harmless, even beneficial. I would turn it into a weapon. All I needed to do was reverse the intake, and instead of ventilation, it would keep all the Dioxis gas inside the palace, even supporting its spread from room to room, until every living creature inside was dead.

Or nearly every living creature. All I had to do was turn off the ventilation completely for the control room, and Bril and I would be in an airtight room while every other part of the palace—including the brothel below—being connected to the same system, would be filled completely with lethal, toxic gas.

It was easy to physically hear my success. The sounds of rushing air in the control room stopped, and the computer interface showed the reversal of the ventilation, as well as the slowly increasing levels of pollution in the palace. Given time, one of the staff or an enforcer would come to check—but time was something they didn't have. The bomb would go off in a minute or so, too soon for them to do anything about it. The mission was almost done. My first mission for the Empire, one that perhaps even a seasoned Agent might struggle with. True, I'd only been as successful so far because of my insider knowledge as a result of my past, but still, it was something to be proud of. But I would save my celebration until it was complete.

"You can do so much now…" Bril whispered, awed as he watched the interface. "The Empire taught you so much."

Bril's voice over my shoulder nearly made me jump. It's not that I'd forgotten he was there, but my focus on completing the mission had let me forget about what I now had to do to him.

"What is it that you're doing, exactly?"

His question was an opportunity to do what I needed, though, now that the time was really here I wanted nothing more than to change my mind. But I couldn't. It was for him as much as it was for me. We needed to be free. For me to finally become a genuine agent of the Empire, and him to live a life away from Nar Shaddaa. A peaceful life.

"Downstairs I armed a bomb full of poison gas. Now, I've just reversed the ventilation and protected this room from the gas to protect us," I explained simply, turning slowly to face him. There was no way I could keep my emotions from my expression, now. He'd know something was wrong just by looking at me.

He did. His expression morphed to genuine alarm, a genuine fear. Not of the bomb I'd told him about, but of the fact that I'd lied to him about what was going to happen after. I watched as tears filled his blue eyes once more.

"What's it going to do to everyone?" he asked quietly, though it sounded rhetorical. He wanted me to answer, I could tell that much, but he knew what I was going to say before I voiced it.

"Kill everyone. Zorbo, his men, his staff. The entire palace. The brothel downstairs. Every person in the building who could even possibly remember my face," I said. I intentionally poured cruelty and malice into my tone. Bril needed to forget Harry, and it would be easier if he most vividly remembered a side of me that he'd never really seen that much. The rest of my thoughts went unsaid. It wasn't just their lives I was ending. Killing them also meant the end of every haunted memory I had of Nar Shaddaa. It was the nail in the coffin of my old life.

"Harry, you can't. Half of them are innocents! The workers under Kallis are just as trapped as you or I ever were. Even those working under Zorbo—not all of them are bad!" Bril started, nearly yelling, and definitely crying.

It was time.

Without hesitation, I grabbed Bril and twisted him around so my arm was around his neck, and my free hand on the back of his head. I began to squeeze. My own vision was becoming blurry with tears, but it had to be done.

"Bril, I'm sorry, but this is how it has to be. One day, you might even come to thank me for this. You can finally be free," I whispered into his ear as I squeezed his throat. I wasn't killing him, just knocking him out. When he woke up, I would be gone, and there would be no guards to stop him from leaving. His resourceful nature would make him take any credits or anything of wealth he saw—enough to get him off-world and start a new life.

Bril whimpered and choked and clutched at the arm around his neck, trying desperately to break free of the hold. He couldn't. I had a steadfast grip, and I wouldn't let go. It wasn't long before I felt his energy sap, and his legs buckled. I let the arm around his neck loosen and lowered him gently to the ground. The alarm of the computer interface started to sound quietly in the background, an indication of the bomb going off and the toxic gas spreading throughout the palace.

I paid it no mind, looking instead at Bril's unconscious form. For the first time in two years, and what I hoped to be the last time ever, I let my old personality take over. I let Harry take over. And for the first time in two years, I broke down and sobbed.

The Dioxis had done its job. I'd made sure of that. Zorbo's ugly, sluglike body held no signs of life, nor did anybody in the palace. Kallis, as well, was undoubtedly dead, the one part of the mission I'd taken genuine pleasure in. But I felt empty as I walked into the Imperial Intelligence building on Dromund Kaas. I felt different even more than I had at the end of my academy training. I felt like a completely different person, now.

I felt no remaining sentiment about my time on Nar Shaddaa. It was behind me. All that was ahead was my career as an Agent.

Watcher Four met me outside of mission control. "U-uhm, you did well, Trainee Seventeen," she stammered.

Trainee Seventeen. Hopefully, after meeting with Keeper, it would be the last time I heard myself designated in such a way. I nodded, but I didn't need to say anything to her. Agents were professional, not boastful.

"Did you manage to scrub me from the security footage?" I asked.

The Watcher nodded once. "My program erased footage of you wherever you went. The rest of the Cartel believe it was an accident, like you said. Some think the bomb was faulty. The ones who don't have expressed quiet belief that it was another in the Cartel."

I nearly let out a sigh of relief, but refrained. If Keeper suspected even for a moment that I'd found Bril, and then left him live—there was no telling what would happen. But as I hoped, Watcher Four had relied on her program to erase my face and those with me wherever I went. It reduced the chance of somebody spotting a digital footprint on their security recordings.

I would be in none of the ones on Nar Shaddaa. The program would cut the footage of me in it with old footage, so it appeared I was never there at all. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Is Keeper ready to see me?" I asked.

My Watcher nodded. "H-he's waiting for you in his office."

I took off towards Keepers office without another word. Like always, the balding man was behind his desk, watching the many monitors on his walls, keeping his eyes on matters of intelligence throughout the galaxy. No doubt he'd already watched footage of my mission on Nar Shaddaa, just like he had of my final exam in the Academy.

"Congratulations," he said without turning. "Your mission was a success."

"It was," I agreed.

Keeper turned to face me.

"Now your career with Imperial Intelligence can truly begin, Agent Nine."

Notes

Sorry this took so long. I've been pretty busy with work and stuff, and this chapter is loooong. Definitely the longest I've written.

Anyway, it's the last chapter before Harry's life proper with Imperial Intelligence, so no more Nar Shaddaa. Hogwarts is upcoming, I just need to decide whether I do another timeskip, or establish Harry's normal life as an Agent first.

Thanks for being patient with me :)

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