I got as far as going to kematu and agreeing to help him capture saadia. But then I pick-pocketed a nearby Alik'r warrior for his hammerfell garb and scimitar which I wanted, got caught, and the whole cavern turned aggressive. I yielded several times to no effect, and tried casting harmony over and over but it doesn't effect them. So I ran out of the cavern thinking it was no big deal, kematu would still help at the stables. I told saadia to follow and then I went to the stables, but kematu attacks me on sight regardless. I backtracked to see if Saadia could go there first ahead of me and get caught, but she just lingers in white run endlessly.

So what do I do? My previous save point I can go back to before the cavern was like, yesterday. I've done way too much in that time to waste it all on a reset. I don't want to kill kematu and help saadia though either.

Any way around this?

I see your problem right there. You know they sell that garb in Solitude right?

I believe that all you can do is reload where you entered the cave to talk to him. Seems odd that you still have the dialog to trick her though, that is weird.

I know if OB you could wait like 3 days and aggression would reset on NPC's. Don't know if that works in Skyrim though.

Ahhh, they sell the scimitar too? Damn, what a waste. Anyway an update here is that saadia finally went out of whiterun after I attacked her and re-sheathed my weapon and paid the bounty. Now she goes out to the stables, kematu ambushes her and paralyzes her...and nothing. He just stands there, and if I go to talk to him, he attacks me. Reloading a previous save isn't an option because as I said, it means basically like 8 hours of progress lost.

If anyone could confirm the 3 days for non-aggression that'd be great.

I’m curious what would happen if you went invisible just before going into the stable area. Do you think she would still follow or the game tells him you are there and he still attacks you? Just curious…

I actually did when I crept to the stables. I drank a 50 second invisibility potion, and she still went there and still got captured. But if I tried speaking to kematu afterward, he still attacks me. If my invisibility broke after he paralyzes her, he also attacks me.

Did you get bounty on that hold (Whiterun?)? If you did, surrender yourself to a guard. The NPCs that got hostile from your pickpocketing attempt should settle down as well.

But I can totally see why you tried to pickpocket an Alik'r. I mean, those guys... they have curved swords. Curved. Swords. @_@

Sorry for the old suggestion, I took my time posting and didn't see some previous replies as they came. One more thing though: doesn't your game autosave whenever you enter a new location? I guess not because you state that you'd lost 8 hours if you loaded your latest save. Well, one thing I can say is save often with Skyrim. With any TES game really. With any game really.

Aaaand another thing you could do is fight Kematu into submission; that is, to pretty minimal health so that he begins to crouch. Then shied your weapon. See if he'll yield and continue as normal.

Nope I didn't get a bounty which was the weird thing. I checked my crime report after leaving the cave and there was no change.

To your edit: I did get auto-saves, but they disappear once I move to a new location and get auto-saves there. That being white run in this instance. Getting kematu to yield does nothing either, he just gets right back up and pounds away at me even with my weapon sheathed.

Okay. One other thing I'd try is committing some other crime in Whiterun Hold area to actually get the bounty, then get caught and pay up. Maybe that'll "reset" the Alik'r as well.

Are you playing on PC? There's http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Console#setrelationshiprank. Never worked for me when I tried to make Onmund of the College of Winterhold a follower again, because he had, for an unknown reason, quit being a follower at one point.

Nope I'm on PS3, sadly. I'll try hitting a guard and yielding for a bounty and see if that works.

No luck. Commited a crime, cleared my bounty, and kematu is still aggressive.

Once he has the girl, kill them both and be done with it.

I'm on PS3 also and mine saves like 4 or 5 Auto-Saves (unless you use different settings).

Also, if you got the animation where he stuns her and she lays on the ground that may be it. When I turned her in that's all I got. I never saw him/them load her onto a wagon. Did the quest clear from the log?

I remember him stunning her from another play through, and when he does stun her, nothing happens. I have to talk to him after and when I do he goes on a rampage. I'll try in-game waiting for 72 hours, if that doesn't work then yeah I'll just kill her and kill him to if he doesn't go away.

svcks too because I really wanted to help the red guard but not if it means backtracking 1/3 a whole day for it.

Try saving before trying to pickpocket.

"90% chance to steal" means you're about to get caught a CRAPLOAD of times. I've gotten busted on 90% chances like 5 times in a row, on the first item attempt.
Reload, pickpocket. Caught, back out of convo, reload, pickpocket. I save after ganking 2 or 3 items successfully, which in itself is a miracle.

No, no one actually sells the scimitar. But you can find it various places in game - the Dainty Sload for instance (but don't go there if you're going to do the TG questline). You can look it up on the wiki, there are various places to get one.

You could've at least waited till the quest was finished before you decided to have a go at them.

Yeah, I was surprised to see them in that cave when I was in there for something else long after I finished In My Time of Need...and I didn't even go into that cave for the quest.