Okay, so I was trying to write chapter 24 today (which is coming along nicely), and I got distracted and started writing what happened on Peragus when Atton met Jena. Anyway, I don't know if I'm going to add to this or use any of it in my fic or what, but I just thought I'd post it here for you guys to read and comment on.

Enjoy!

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Atton Rand stood still... there wasn't much else he could do in his force cage. He could have sat down, or perhaps even laid down on the floor, though admittedly not comfortably. If he stretched out too far, he might accidentally touch the sides of the force cage... and he didn't particularly feel like receiving electrical burns, no matter how mild. It was bad enough he hadn't eaten in three days... Three days! At least before three days prior, his captors had kept him fed. He may have been caught trying to smuggle illegal blasters onto Peragus, but he had at least been deemed worthy of what could only be described as the galaxy's worst prison food... and Atton ought to have known that first hand, as this wasn't exactly the first time he found himself behind bars. He had however always managed to smooth-talk his way out of incarceration after a few hours... Only this time his charms had been lost on the Peragus miners. Into the force cage he went, and was to remain until the next shuttle to Telos arrived, so he could be transported to a different detention facility. He had lost his ship and its cargo. Thinking back, he was rather glad that he had decided to use yet another alias when he signed up for this job. That way, the bounty on his head that was sure to follow would be for an Alderaanian by the name of Rik Janon, not a Corellian named Atton Rand... or Jaq Rand, for that matter, which was his real name. He briefly wondered why he hadn't bothered giving himself a new last name when he took on his first alias, after deserting the Sith, but he didn't wonder for very long. Deep down, he knew he was still too attached to his last name to abandon it completely. It was part of who he was. It was the name his mother had used, even though it was really just her married name... and she hadn't been anybody's wife for very long. Jaq had been his father's name, so Atton had never cared much for it. 'Atton' had been a name his mother had liked... so when the time came for him to find an alias, it had been his first obvious choice.

But that was then, and this was now... and now, he was hungry... hungry, and thirsty as well. He was thankful he had asked his guard for a jug of water, three days before... for immediately after he received his water, the guard left the room, and Atton heard what he could have only described as blaster fire. Only, he knew it couldn't have been, because blasters were forbidden on the fuel facility, for fear of explosion. That was the reason he was in prison in the first place. But whatever it was, he heard it, and it was followed by complete silence... a very eerie silence. Atton had suddered and got a very odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. And he had waited.

And waited.

And waited.

But no one had come.

And now, three days later, his water was gone, and he felt so weak he thought he would faint. The only thing that prevented him from doing so was the fear of hitting one of the force cage walls on the way down and getting electrocuted. He was in the midst of figuring out a way he could comfortably sit without touching a wall so he could play pazaak to try and pass the time, when he was startled. There was... a noise... outside the door. Atton stood very still and listened: silence. He waited for a few seconds and exhaled, having noticed he had stopped breathing. He could hear nothing else. He shook his head and started to reflect that the lack of food was making him hallucinate when he heard it again—louder. He held his breath. Yes, this time he had definitely heard something. It sounded like... metal. A droid being destroyed. Oh great, he thought. Whatever it is that's killed off everybody else here is back to kill me. I'd hide, but where am I going to go? I can't move more than three feet to my left. My blasters are gone, and I'm too weak to fight. Besides, whoever's headed this way probably won't bother letting me out of this cage before killing me... they'd just have to overload the force cage. Clean and easy, goodbye Mr. Rand. Well, they're not going to get me without a fight. I have to be ready in case they're stupid enough to let me out of the cage.

Atton stood ready, dropping into an echani stance. The door opened. Gritting his teeth, Atton braced himself... and when he saw who walked in, he forgot all about getting ready to fight. He lowered his arms and his jaw dropped.

A woman—she appeared to be roughly his age, maybe up to five years older—walked in. It wasn't so much the fact that she was a woman that made Atton's jaw drop. Nor was it the fact that she was a brunette—and Atton loved brunettes—or the fact that she had a rather appealing mole above her lip. And it wasn't the fact that she was petite, probably no more than 5'3", attractive, and armed with a vibroblade.

What made his jaw drop was the fact that she was wearing nothing but a skin-tight bodysuit of an ugly shade of maroon, which didn't leave much to the imagination. Forgetting hunger, thirst, fear of getting killed, Atton gawked at her. Surely he wasn't hallucinating her. And if he was, he started thinking that giving up food for a few days wasn't so bad if it meant he would be rewarded in such a way.

"The miners must've relaxed their dress codes without notifying me," he commented, his eyes dropping down to the woman's chest.

She blushed and ordered, "Keep your eyes up here, wise guy!" She pointed to her face. "Now who are you, and what happened in here?"

Atton frowned. "Whoa, whoa, whoa... I could ask you the same. As you can probably guess, I couldn't see much from where I'm standing. You, on the other hand, were out there, so for all I know, you're the reason why I haven't gotten fed in three days."

"Three days?"

"Yes, three days. Now that's criminal. Thankfully I had some water left, otherwise... Well, otherwise you'd probably be going through my pockets to see if I had anything of value. And before you get any bright ideas, I don't, unless you collect pazaak cards."

The woman rolled her eyes. "I'm not here to rob you."

"So... you're just here to kill me, then. That's much better. I was getting tired of this scenery anyway."

"I'm not here to kill you either, though if you keep the attitude up, I might be tempted to. Now what is your name?"

Atton smirked. She seemed easy to get riled up. He liked that in a woman. But as he was still locked up and she seemed to be his only ticket out of his force cage, he decided not to push his luck, and to try and be civilized. "I'm Atton. Atton Rand." No point in giving her the Rik Janon alias, he thought. She's probably not from here, and if I'm going to escape this place, I'm going to want to let Rik Janon die along with the rest of the people on Peragus, so I don't attract a bounty. "I was put in here because of some trumped-up charges. I'm innocent, though. Really."

"Sure, you are," the woman said, smirking. She studied him for a moment. "I'm Jena Shel," she finally said.

"Well, nice to meet you, Jena. I'd shake your hand, but the force cage walls only cause minor electrical burns..." Atton said sarcastically. "Now how about you be a doll and let me out of here so I can..."

"Hold on a minute," Jena interrupted. "How do I know you didn't have anything to do with whatever happened here? ...Wherever 'here' may be."

Atton raised an eyebrow. "What, you mean you didn't come here on purpose? I'm shocked. I really am. Well, this little slice of paradise is the fuel mining facility known as Peragus II. It's Peragus II because the first one blew up... hence why they now have new laws regarding the possession of blasters in this place." He narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute... if you didn't know where we are, how did you get here?"

"I have no idea," Jena admitted. "All I know is I was aboard a ship called the Harbinger, then I woke up here in a kolto tank. All the people in kolto tanks around me were dead. You wouldn't happen to know how that happened either, would you?" she added suspiciously.

"What? Me? No! I told you! I haven't even seen anyone in three days!" This conversation was starting to get irritating. So much suspicion... so many questions... what did I ever do to... "Hey, wait a minute... You're that Jedi! The Jedi everyone was talking about!" She is! I should've recognized that stance the minute she walked in through the door... though I guess I was too distracted by her underwear...

Jena blushed. "Jedi? No, I'm..." Atton stared at her skeptically. She sighed. "Okay, so I was a Jedi. But I'm not anymore. I haven't been for... a while."

"I thought that if you became a Jedi, you had to die a Jedi."

"Not always," she said, suddenly sounding bitter.

Oh great. Of all the people I could stumble across, I had to find the Jedi. I can't have her know who I am... or what I did... Otherwise, she'll just leave me to rot in this force cage.

Atton cleared his throat, "So, anyway, um... Jena... how about you let me out of this cage? Cause not like your half-naked interrogation isn't a personal fantasy of mine, but..."

Jena's bitterness faded away and she glanced mockingly at Atton. "And what's to stop me from leaving you in here?"

"Hey, I thought you were a Jedi!" Atton protested. "Look, I can help you out. Really, I can. I'm pretty good with a blaster, and I'm a damn good pilot... There's a ship docked in the hangar bay. If you let me out, we can get to it and I can help you get away from here. I'm guessing you don't want to stay on this hole... do you?"

Jena appeared to be debating. "Well," she finally said, "all right. I'll trust you. I'll let you out." She disabled the force cage. Atton happily stretched his arms as far as he could. "But," she continued while pointing her vibroblade at him, "don't try anything funny." She noticed him leering at her again, and she pursed her lips. "And walk in front of me," she ordered.

I love you and your Peragus flash back. Seriously what I needed after that God awful song fic.

You should become Atton "Jaq" Rand's archivist you know. Your the only one who could do him justice, and I'd love your take one who he went from this to celibate for a year! Mopey Jedi man.

My <3 know's no bounds, you saved my Atton fangirl.

I'm glad you liked it! :) I was starting to wonder if it was really that bad, seeing as nobody made any comments at all. :P But then again, no comments is better than severely nasty comments (thinking back to the fanfic you were mentioning :P Poor girl.)

But anyway, there's an off chance I might revisit the whole Atton thing at some point... perhaps as an actual long story, perhaps as one-shot scenes (you know... like Atton's Redemption was meant to be. ;)). Right now however I'm just going to focus on getting the final chapters done before I start working on anything else.

Tell you what? For every one shot you write... I'll illustrait it!