Hoth: Blood and Ice

She lowered the data pad and looked at Layne fully. Her voice is quiet and intense. "I committed my service for the sake of my children and the people I care about. Getting charges dropped on an alleged killer is the least of what I would do for them. Besides, I wasn't there. I don't know that you're guilty any more than anyone else. The weight of evidence will show if you are or not."

Children. She didn't even *know* Luth had children. Chalk it up to that whole 'using other people for her own selfish needs' thing again. Never actually bothered to ask what those things tying her to the Sith and Baras were.

Made sense now, of course. Why she couldn't just leave. Even if she *had* wanted to.

Those shoulders of her slumped even further upon the realization.

"...Would it be bad for you if this doesn't go as Baras wants?"

She hesitated to ask; not because it wasn't the right thing *to* ask. But because she feared she was still asking it for the wrong reasons... that need to be the self-sacrificing hero as a way of balancing out the part of herself that was a villain.

She let the silence sit for a moment. Finally, she let out a soft breath. "Potentially," she admitted. "I've fought every day not to fail. I don't want to find out what might happen."

She leaned back and sighed. "As long as he's not implicated and the cooperation with the Republic we've built can be protected, I think it should be fine."

"...Is that what he *wants*?"

"I'm following the cooperation order until I'm given others," she replied with a quick glance. "I don't like jumping to conclusions where Baras is concerned."

"Maybe he really *is* just making it all up as he goes along," she said, "...are you going to call any witnesses?"

"I haven't decided yet," she replied with a shake of her head. "Fortunately, you never actually said there was anyone else there to the Jedi."

"The Jedi are many things," she said, "But they're not stupid. They can put one and two together..."

She took in a deep breath again for the next part.

"...and there's someone who knows... I went to him..."

"Not stupid does not equate to 'we should just tell them everything because we assume they know'."

Luth winced. "Who knows?"

She sighed. "I can't tell you that. You might do something to them."

"As long as they're not a threat to the trial outcome, there's no reason to," she sighed.

She had no idea what Daz might do or say at the trial, of course. He might just decide to raise his voice regardless of whether he was called to the stand, and tell them all the truth. That his cousin had given in to the Dark Side, fought Darth Baras, and cut off her cousin's own hand.

She wouldn't blame him.

"Good," she gave a weak nod, "that settles that then."

"Look. Layne," she said, putting her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands. "I need to you work with me during this, okay? Answer questions with yes or no if they are yes or no questions and that is all. Do not elaborate. Just answer questions with the minimum amount of syllables physically possible. You are going to be tempted to elaborate or to give a speech or whatever. Do not. It won't improve anything."

"...Wouldn't that just..."

Wouldn't that just make them think she was a monster after all? If all they heard was yes, and no, instead of *why*... Wouldn't they then have no sympathy for her?

But wasn't that what she wanted anyhow? Or rather, didn't she believe she was undeserving of it?

"...never mind. Okay."

"It's court. Everything you say will be used against you; everything in your favor is hearsay. Baesal Zyn and I will be there to argue for you. Let us do our jobs." She said, sounding exhausted. "Please."

"...fine."

Maybe it was time to let others do at least some of the work.

"...but if they ask me to elaborate..."

"Then you will do the minimum to answer the exact question. Don't lose track of what they are actually asking, or get sidetracked with unrelated stuff." She rubbed her head. "As for Baras, leave him out of it if at all possible. Draahg brought back the body, which makes him look uninvolved. If they make that assumption, do no correct it."

"... It should be fine if you plead guilty, I'll run it by Baesal. They do not need to know why you did what you did unless they directly ask. Then consult us, it's what we're there for. There should be no need to the trial to proceed from there, though maybe military tribunals have more inane nonsense attached. We'll handle things unless you need to do something if so. But ideally, they'll just hand down your sentencing and that'll be it. Accept it, we will make any final statement that needs to be made if they need to, everyone goes home."

Deep breath. Deep sigh.

"...Go home?"

She had no idea what sort of sentencing might be handed down. She didn't think it'd be to just go home, though.

"... I mean, we're on Hoth, no one's going anywhere and we might all die anyway," she sighed.

"Hmmm..." she gave a weak nod at that. "...I was told I'd been gone for twenty days... has... anything happened yet?"

She let out a breath, releasing herself from on-the-job Luth and relaxing back into her seat. "A couple of this. Senator Saresh and Baras put together a joint plan to get a warning out to the Republic and Empire... It worked as far as we can tell, so they at least know what happened. We all collected our information on the Eternal Empire... short yours and Shyyyo's."

"But the war hasn't started yet? Out there?"

"No, not yet," she replied with a short shake of her head. "I don't think we'd be able to do this whole trial thing if that happened."

"Then maybe there's still time..." she said; or rather whispered; for her own benefit.

"...That's good."