((Now for something completely different. Those who fight monsters sometimes don’t care what they become. And when that happens… Run Away. This is the next on my story arc Love, the Force and Everything. It follows after Swirling Force? Or Destiny? And no, Will is not happy.))

 

It was a quiet day on Ralltiir. While the planet was not nearly as urbanized as Coruscant, it was fairly densely populated, being a Core World settled for nearly as long and well situated on trade routes. But Ralltiir was better known for banking and commercial operations than for high population. Unlike Coruscant, it had some undeveloped areas. Forests, lakes, rivers, all places that people could go to get away from things. Unfortunately, those places were no sanctuary against some very nasty things. And when well trained and armed hunters sought prey that had nothing… Well…

 

“Keep running, Jolia…!” The male Twi’lek said as he ran through the darkness. “We have to keep going!” He skidded on the rocks as he followed the river, hoping and praying that his pursuers had lost him and his family. His brown skin was pale with fright and fatigue and his lekku drooped with exhaustion, but he kept going, He had to. He had to get his family to safety. It had been pure luck that he had seen the armored forms that had been waiting ahead of them on his first chosen path in time to avoid them, but they had to have scanners. But if he could get to where he was going, there were places to hide that were proof from scanners.

 

“I can’t… run…” The female Twi’lek said, gasping for breath. Her red skin was not much brighter than his brown and her own lekku hung limp. “…much further…” She had a bundle in her hands and it wriggled a bit as she held it carefully. “Why are they chasing us, Miik? We haven’t done anything.” She gasped as she followed, picking her footsteps with care. “Have we?” She asked, fear and fatigue warring in her tone.

 

“I don’t know.” The male Twi’lek eased his mate up a particularly rough patch of ground. ”But people have been disappearing from the shelter we were at. Too many to have found work or a legit way out. There are stories going around, bad stories.” He usually discounted such things as hysteria mongering, but now…

 

“Slavers?” The female asked, terror suffusing her face as she glanced behind her. “Damn this red skin…”

 

“I don’t think so…” Miik said thoughtfully as he helped her over a set of rocks. “There were some people asking around, suits who looked military, offering jobs that are far too good to be true. But… Slavers don’t ask. They just take. The suits were asking about us specifically. Maybe corporate types, I dunno. I left as soon as I saw them.” He had hoped it was fast enough, but a contact had commed him, saying that his usual haunts had all been visited. So they had run for the countryside. And that had brought them here, being chased through the night.

 

“We haven’t done anything to anyone.” Jolia said sadly. “We are just poor.”

 

She and Miik had both hoped to find better work, make a home and stable growing environment for their child. She loved Miik. He could have left her when he found out she was with child. It wasn’t entirely HIS fault she had conceived, but he seemed genetically incapable of doing the wrong thing. They had just had the worst luck imaginable. Her few jobs had always been temporary and he had a distressing tendency to find bosses who treated him like dirt, were less than capable of doing their jobs and went out of business, or were out and out criminals. Every time he had discovered the latter, he had left, often after leaving an anonymous note for local law enforcement. They had always had trouble making ends meet, even before the kid and Kili was not helping matters. But Jolia was not about to give up her beautiful little girl, not for anything.

 

“No we haven’t.” Her mate assured her. “I have worked hard to stay out of the criminal sector. The jobs available may be slim, but we have our pride. I am not a criminal and no child of mine will be one either.” Jolia smiled at Miik, but then focused on her feet. If she slipped here…

 

“Where are we going?” She asked after a moment. “Where can we be safe?”

 

“I know a place.” Miik assured her. “I was told by someone I trust that there are caves nearby are actually safer than the ones in the city and proof from scanners. No dianogas apparently.” Jolia winced, she and her husband had done some seriously disgusting work for various companies during their brief… She paused as her mate froze. She stared at him and he shook his head, listening.

 

“What is wrong?” She asked quietly. The baby started to whimper and she quieted the waif with a caress.

 

“I am not sure.” Miik admitted. “But… the animal sounds have stopped. That is not a good sign.” That mean they were not alone. “Jolia run!” Miik started to turn and stopped, a puzzled expression coming over his face.

 

“Miik…?” Jolia shook her head. “Don’t…” She screamed as her mate fell over with a splash into the shallow water, a small silver thing sticking out of his back. “Miik!” She screamed, but did as instructed. She turned and ran. She made about three steps when something stung her arm and she was falling, slowly, so slowly. She hit the ground with a thud and screamed inside her mind as the bundle in her arms fell out of them and started to cry. She could not move a muscle as armored boots crunched through the gravel nearby.

 

“Get the male out of the water!” A voice barked, a commanding tone. “We don’t want him to drown or get a chill. I got the kid.” She watched as a pair of armored arms picked up the squirming, crying bundle. She quailed inside as her child was lifted, but then the voice… cooed? “Easy, little one, easy. Your momma and daddy are fine, just scared. We won’t hurt you or them.” The wailing slowed and then stopped. “Easy, little one, easy. See. No one is going to hurt you.”

 

Hands that were strangely gentle picked her up from the ground. Gentle fingers manipulated her arm, pulling out whatever had hit her. She found herself lying on something hard as someone wrapped something around her. It was warm. A blanket? She couldn’t move at all as her body was strapped to whatever she was lying on. The same voice spoke again, close to her ear.

 

“I know you are scared, Ma’am.” A warm, wriggling bundle was deposited on her chest. “It is just a paralytic. You have no reason to be afraid. We won’t hurt you, your mate or your child. Sleep and dream of your child.” A hiss, a sweet smell and she was falling into darkness that was oddly comforting. Her head was turned to the side and she saw something move in the distance as consciousness left her. A dark shadow within a shadow. Was it her imagination or was it a man in black armor, watching? She fell asleep wondering why that chilled her.

 

***

 

She wasn’t sure how long she had been asleep, but when Jolia woke, she was warm, dry and clean. She had a moment of fear, but then a small bundle wiggled in her lap and her eyes shot open. She was sitting in a fairly comfortable inclined bed and… A young female human in a medical tunic smiled at her. She glanced around quickly. The room was small, and bare. A chair and the bed she was in were the only furniture.

 

“Your baby is fine, Ma’am.” The medic said kindly. “That is a brave girl you have there.”

 

“Takes… takes after her dad…” Jolia said automatically, trying to wrap her head around what had happened. She looked around. She wasn’t in a cell, she wasn’t restrained. She was wearing a jumpsuit of some kind and she felt… good. “Where… Where am I?” The medic slumped.

 

“I don’t know.” The medic admitted. “There are six rooms off a corridor. All the same as this. I woke in one myself . I was snatched a day ago. I think it was a day anyway, if they haven’t messed with the chronos. I was on the late shift at a free clinic when a man came in, he asked to see a doc and I was the only one available. I went in and he hit me with something. I…” She shuddered slightly. “I woke up here.”

 

“I…” Jolia tried to stand up, but her head spun. She sat back with a groan. “What the…?”

 

“It’s the sedative, Ma’am. I felt the same way.” The doc said gently. “Here…” She held out a glass of water. “This should help the headache too.” Jolia winced, she had been so worried that she hadn’t even realized that her head hurt.

 

“Dehydrated?” Jolia asked softly. “Or is it a reaction?” The medic looked at her and Jolia shrugged. “Wanted to be a nurse. But… No money for school.”

 

“Practical experience?” The medic asked slowly. “You look like you make do. Be at ease, you are not showing any signs of reaction.”

 

“My mate?” Jolia asked after a moment of drinking. The water tasted heavenly. She gave her daughter drink and the little Twi’lek burped noisily. “Is he here?”

 

“No.” The doctor said slowly. “Besides you and your daughter, there are two humans and a Wookiee here. But… All of us are female…”

 

“Where are we?” Jolia asked as her mind started to function again. She looked around and paused. “A ship?” The walls were made of metal, and a hum was barely audible in the background.

 

“I don’t know.” The doctor said, her face falling. “I have never been on a ship. The other three haven’t woken… I… I don’t know what to do…” The woman was almost in tears. Jolia reached out and touched the woman on the shoulder.

 

“We are alive.” The Twi’lek said gently. “Where there is life, there is hope. We just have to stay strong. They... didn’t… um…” She looked at the clean suit she wore and shuddered.

 

“I wasn’t.” the doctor said softly. “I don’t know your anatomy very well. I usually have a medicomputer to back up what I know. But you were not bleeding or showing any other signs. I fell asleep and when I woke, you were here. With the little one. She is cute.” Jolia had to smile at the kind tone. Babies often had that effect on females of many races.

 

“Have you seen anyone?” Jolia asked cautiously. Whoever had them had to be watching and listening. “Who brings the food?”

 

“Armored forms bring trays of food. They look human.” The medic said softly, her eyes jerking right and left. Jolia looked out of the corner of her eye and yes, cameras showed at two corners. “Three of them, and one always has a weapon ready. I… I know it is gutless, but… I couldn’t…”

 

“Neither of us are soldiers.” Jolia said slowly. “I assume you feed the sleepers?”

 

“Yeah. No one has talked to me.” The medic said hastily. “I just did what I thought was right. No gear, no computer, no…” She paused as Jolia patted her arm again.

 

“It is all right.” Jolia said with a confidence she didn’t really feel. “Let’s go see if we can help the others. If we are all female, I bet they are keeping the males separate. But why…?”

 

“I can think of a bunch of reasons. None of them good.” The medic said with a gulp. “But… you are right. My name is Karen.”

 

“I am Jolia, Karen. And this…” She smiled at the bundle in her arms. “…Is Kili.”

 

“She is beautiful.” Karen said with a smile as she helped Jolia to her feet. “Well, let’s do what we can.”

 

Despite the best efforts of both the doctor and Jolia, none of the other three woke, even when Jolia, greatly daring, slapped the Wookiee. They ate the food that was put in their mouths, but none woke.

 

“Strong drugs…” Jolia said with a shudder as they walked back into the corridor.

 

“Yeah.” Karen agreed, her shoulders slumping. “I don’t know what to do…” Both women froze as a door neither had seen opened nearby. A fully armored form beckoned them. Karen and Jolia shared a glance, and then Jolia picked up her baby and nodded.

 

They followed the armored form, not missing the four other armored forms that held blasters at the ready as they moved into another room where an unarmored human male sat. He nodded to the pair and waved them to chairs in front of the desk he was sitting at.

 

“I apologize for the discomfort you both have suffered.” The man said as both females sat. “We cannot be too careful these days.”

 

“Where is my mate?” Jolia asked, keeping her voice level with effort.

 

“He is still asleep, Miss Jolia.” The man said politely. “My name is Dun and I am your…well… I don’t want to be your captor, but I don’t have much of a choice at the moment.”

 

“What do you want with us?” Karen asked, her voice one step removed from panic. Dun held up an empty hand and his expression was conciliatory.

 

“Ma’am, I apologize for the treatment you have received. But we needed you.” The man seemed honestly upset by this, but Jolia was not convinced. “All of you.”

 

“For what?” Jolia asked sourly. “You could have just asked.”

 

“We are building a better tomorrow.” Dun said quietly. “And you are going to help us…”

“He is insane.” Karen said softly as the two females were ushered back into the room that Jolia had woken in. “Totally stark raving mad.”

 

“Yeah.” Jolia said with a swallow. “I… I am scared.” She held her baby close as Karen checked the other females. “Any change?”

 

“No.” Karen shook her head. “They are all still asleep. This is like no drug I have ever seen though. They are just…out. It doesn’t make sense. Do you feel sleepy? I…am suddenly…”

 

“Yeah, but… We have bigger problems.” Jolia said slowly as she moved to feed her child. “You noted the uniforms.” It wasn’t a question and Karen looked at her oddly. “Dun –if that really is his name- was wearing a Republic uniform with a major’s rank and Intel markings. But this is not a Republic operation.” She bent her head and caressed Kili’s head gently as the baby fed.

 

“How can you be sure?” Karen asked slowly, her face worried as she played with that thought. “Pirates and slavers could stolen have Republic uniforms.”

 

“They could have. But...” Jolia agreed. “I have known a few soldiers, Karen. I worked as a maid on a military base once. I was a maid for the commanding general, before I met Miik and Kili was born. These are not soldiers. Or not…normal ones.” What was wrong with her vision? Why was it blurring? She grimaced and shook her head. Karen stared at her and Jolia sighed. “Soldiers work as part of a team; they are trained to work as part of a team. It… They act a certain way. These do not act that way. I…” Jolia winced and shook her head.

 

“Jolia…” Karen asked quietly. “Are you okay?”

 

“No.” Jolia said sadly. “You see… I knew one human who did act like these do. He was scary. He was dangerous. He…abused the staff on base, and eventually he was kicked off. He never touched me, but he was looking. I found out later he was with Republic Intelligence. He moved like these guys do. But it is more what Dun did not say that what he did. I can’t really explain it, but I know who they are. These people are with the Special Branch of Republic Intelligence.”

 

“Special Branch…” Karen went white. “Oh my god… The ones who put children in those horrible war droids.”

 

“Yeah.” Jolia said sadly. “We have got to get out of here. Somehow…I…” A faint hissing startled her. Then she froze, Kili had fallen asleep in mid meal. That hadn’t happened since the waif was a week old! “Karen! Gas!” She was trying to get to the door, but collapsed before she could make it halfway. Karen caught the falling baby, but could only crawl a meter or so before she too passed out.

 

***

 

When Jolia woke, she found herself in a small space. The walls were metal and there was some kind of viewport over her face, but it was opaque, she couldn’t see out. She could barely move at all inside of it. And her daughter was nowhere to be found.

 

“Kili?” She called, but only the echo of her voice answered her. “Kili!” She shouted. A voice she remembered answered her.

 

“Ma’am, your daughter is fine. She is asleep.” Major Dun’s voice was calm and cool. “You should sleep. You have a long journey ahead of you.” Jolia screamed again.

 

“Give me back my daughter, you son of a barve!” She managed to get her hands up and started hitting the inside of whatever she was in with them. “Give me my daughter!”

 

“It won’t work…” Another voice, a sad voice, said softly. “The sleep process won’t work with her so agitated.”

 

“Can you blame her?” Dun’s voice was somewhat sad as well now. “Miss Jolia, you are in no danger. Your daughter and mate are in no danger. Just relax, everything will be fine if you relax.”

 

“Flarg you!” The Twi’lek snarled. “Give me back my daughter!” “The sour voice sighed.

 

“It is not going to work. She is going to need a trank.” The voice turned sad now. “Open it up.”

 

“Right.” Dun’s voice was concerned now and Jolia froze as the walls of whatever she was in cracked and a lid of some kind opened up. She was about to move when a blaster muzzle appeared. “No funny business, Ma’am.” Dun said quietly as the lid opened fully.

 

“Where is my daughter?” Jolia demanded, rage suffusing her face and tone. “Where is she?” She demanded.

 

“Ma’am…” A figure in a white coat came close, but did not get between Dun’s blaster and the enraged Twi’lek. “Your daughter is in hibernation. She took to the coldsleep fine, no complications. You need to relax. We are going to…”

 

“You put my daughter in coldsleep?” Jolia hadn’t thought she could get that stiff. “You will kill her! You Bastards!”

 

“Ma’am…” The doctor had a hypo in hand now. “Your daughter is fine. Just relax. If you relax you will see her again very soon…” Jolia snarled, her hands were on the lip of the pod. A coldsleep pod, she realized now. Ancient tech, but still very effective for keeping people secure for long trips.

 

“Ma’am…” Dun warned her. “Don’t. We don’t want to hurt you.” His blaster did not waver.

 

“If you think I am just going to lie here and let you Special branch bastards hurt my little girl…”

 

Jolia was beyond rage, but suddenly everything stopped as a fully armored black shadow appeared behind Dun. Her eyes went wide as silent fire spit from its hand and Dun fell, a red hole in his head. The white garbed human spun with an oath, a blaster coming up but the man in black fired again and the doctor fell, clutching his arm. Jolia shook her head, stunned. A silenced slugthrower, Intelligence agents used such weapons. The man in black stepped forward as the white garbed man whimpered and tried to crawl away. When the man in black spoke, it was as if all warmth fled from the room.

 

“I know you can hear me, Firdlump.” The black armored man’s voice could have frozen liquid hydrogen. “I hope you can feel this.”

 

With that, he shot the doctor in the other arm. Then he lifted the man’s chin with an armored toe and shot the man in the forehead. Then he turned and looked at Jolia who shuddered. His voice was just a trifle warmer when he spoke.

 

“Your daughter is alive.” The man nodded to a wall that she could now see pods attached to. Coldsleep pods. “They took extra special care. Good way to motivate you to do what they wanted. Lousy Special Branch creeps.” Something about this man scared her worse than the Special Branch goons had.

 

“W…Who…” Jolia asked, scared out of her mind. “Who are you…?”

 

“Who am I?” The man said idly as he turned to go. “Death.”

 

“W…wait…” Jolia rolled partway out of the pod, barely noticing that she was not wearing anything. “You can’t just leave me here… Help me…” The man did not pause and his voice was cold and merciless.

 

“I can’t help you. Death doesn’t help anyone.” Then he was gone. Jolia stared after him, then down at the two very dead men and cried.

“He said…what?”

 

Despite the warm hospital gown she wore, despite the blanket over her, Jolia was shivering as she lay in the comfortable bed of a starship’s medical ward. The droids that had tended her were gentle, but the docs were adamant. And the Hutt who had slithered in a few moments ago and now lounged beside her bed was just downright odd. Since when did Hutts speak Basic? Or act nice?

 

“He said he was Death…” Jolia winced but relaxed as Kili squirmed a bit on her chest. The girl had not wanted to leave her mother’s side after being gently revived from her coldsleep prison and no one had pressed. “He was so… cold…”

 

“This is not good…” The Hutt’s voice was very concerned now. “Not good at all. He loved her… This is not good.” The Hutt actually sounded afraid now. Jolia shivered again, despite the blanket they had given her, despite the warm mass that snuggled close, whimpering as she picked up on her mom’s distress.

 

“He…” She managed to choke out words. “He…just killed them. Bang… and they were dead…” She shook her head. “Who was he? What was he?”

 

“A man.” The Hutt said sadly. She had introduced herself as Cranna. “A very bad man who has been trying to be good.” The Hutt shook her huge head. “Special Branch just made a serious mistake, girl. A very serious mistake, and it will cost them dearly. He won’t listen to me, maybe he will listen to his wife.” Jolia tensed at the sad tone the Hutt projected now. “I hope so… I really do. I have no love for Special Branch, but what he will do will tear him apart. If it hasn’t already.”

 

“He saved me…” Jolia said slowly. “He saved me, and Miik and Kili. Can I help?”

 

“We have to keep you in isolation for now, Jolia. We don’t know what they did to you.” The Hutt said gently. Jolia nodded. She reached out and tapped the clear transparisteel pane that separated the Hutt from her. “Your mate lives and is waking. He shows no signs of tampering. But… The doctor does.”

 

“Karen…?” Jolia said, stunned. “What do you mean?”

 

“They did something new to her, Jolia.” Cranna said quietly. “We don’t know what. The moment she woke, she was complaining of ‘voices in her head’. Until we can get her to someone with more knowledge than us in such things, we will keep her asleep. She complained of odd dreams too. You haven’t had that problem, have you?”

 

“I don’t think so…” Jolia said slowly. “No…” She shook her head. “Nothing like that. No dreams that I remember. Odd… Usually I remember dreaming and I do it fairly regularly.”

 

“Of what?” Cranna asked curiously. “Or are they too awful to remember?” She paused as flush crossed Jolia’s face. “Oh, that kind of dream.” Cranna said with a smirk. Jolia nodded, her face embarrassed. “It’s okay, girl. I am over seven hundred years old, you youngsters don’t know dirty…” Her tone was too much and Jolia giggled. Then the Twi’lek sighed deeply.

 

“I have said this before, but I will say it again. Thank you.” Jolia shook her head as Cranna tried to wave it off. “No… You could have just dropped us off, dropped us in a hospital or shelter or whatever when your people came in after us. You didn’t. He cleared the way for you, but you helped us. Thank you.”

 

“Get some rest, Jolia.” Cranna said kindly. “I bet your daughter will have difficulty sleeping for while after such an ordeal. If you need help sleeping, hit the call button.”

 

“Thank you.” Jolia said again as she lay back and closed her eyes. The bed was so comfortable, so clean and dry and… She never noticed when she nodded off, her daughter falling asleep at the exact same instant.

 

Cranna looked at the slumbering pair and her eyes were sad as she started for the door. The medics outside nodded to her and their faces were also sad.

 

“The baby too?” Cranna’s voice nearly broke and she took a moment to control herself. “The same readings?”

 

“Yes, Ma’am…” The head medic replied. He was very good, if not in Katherine’s class. Cranna kicked herself once again mentally for leaving her good Cathar friend behind where an insane mass of nano machines could abduct her. “This is like nothing I have ever seen. They are all…for lack of a better word, on the same wavelength.”

 

“I know.” Cranna said sadly. “I need to consult with some allies. No sign of nanites, have the droids put the doctor back into her pod. We keep the rest in the coldsleep pods until we can find away to help them. If needed we can put Jolia in one as well.”

 

“Ma’am…” The doctor protested. “If we do…”

 

“I know.” Cranna said in a resigned tone. “I don’t know how they didn’t kill the baby putting the poor thing into coldsleep, but… We can’t take the chance. My responsibility. If it comes to it, I will do it. We will see if we can get a stasis unit big enough for the both for them. But… Any sign of Will?”

 

“Just the bodies of the Special Branch team, Ma’am.” An armored mercenary said uneasily. “Dead. None of them knew what hit them. We are good, Cranna… but…” He licked his lips.

 

“You are not in his class, Dron. Nowhere near.” Cranna said sadly. “Thank the maker. One of him is more than enough.” The Hutt sighed. “At least Jina got a warning off to us, so we didn’t fly into the ambush too.” She shuddered. “She was a good woman, even for a Jedi.”

 

“We don’t know she is dead, Ma’am.” Dron said quietly. “If she is not…”

 

“If not, she is praying for it.” Cranna said quietly. “I want to help and I can’t. I am sick of running. From this Magga punk, from Firdlump, from everything that is chasing us. But we can’t stop. Not now.”

 

“What do you think Will is going to do, Cranna?” Dron asked softly as the Hutt slumped in place.

 

“Don’t ask that, Dron.” Cranna’s voice was resigned now. “You really don’t want to know.”

<Dantooine>

 

A bloodcurdling scream rang through the forest as the armored form fled for his life. Trooper Rob Jax had been a soldier since he was a teenager, he had fought in many places, spilled more blood than he had ever thought possible, but this… This was… Something slammed into his side and he was falling as the report of a blaster sounded in the distance. He hit the ground hard and rolled as he had been taught, but the distant shooter fired again. His knee spasmed as coherent energy slammed into it, dropping him back to the ground. Nobody could shoot like that! Nobody! This guy was unreal! He scrambled for his rifle that lay nearby, but another shot hit it reducing the firing mechanism to so much wreckage. His pistol was in hand as he rolled to a sitting position, starting out at the night, his visor showing… nothing. Something slammed into his helmet and he saw stars. Was this it? He thought back…

 

It had been a simple job. Not even a snatch, just a pickup. His bosses had changed their tactics, and he was glad. Snatching people felt wrong. He obeyed orders, he always had even before that evil doc had injected him with something that burned and made him a slave. Then… Well... Things got fuzzy, but he was part of something now something wonderful. Even the evil doc had mellowed a bit and she had even apologized to him! But to spread the good word they still had to get recruits and that was where his team had come in. Before, they had snatched people. Hundreds of beings went missing daily in every world, this was nothing new. But the abductions had drawn too much attention, so they had started hiring people. Not that any of their hires really had a clue what they were actually being hired for. Not that most of them minded. Since the teams went to homeless shelters, orphanages, hospitals and other places that the disenfranchised hung out, there was no shortage of volunteers seeking a better way. And it was a better way…

 

But that had led him here. To this place. His team had been tasked to get a shipload of recruits ready for their journey to new lives. None of the recruits had been any trouble at all. Usually there had been one or two per shipment who were leery, suspicious or just plain nuts. This group had been mostly kids, and with the promise of a better life than the evil orphanage where the team had found them… He swallowed. He knew what evil was, and the people running that orphanage definitely counted. The team had ‘rescued’ half a dozen orphans from the grasp of the pedophile who ran the place. Jax just wished he had been able to pop a few rounds into the scumbag. But the team leader had said ‘No’. Orders were orders and eliminating scumbags usually drew attention. So they had settled for tying the scum up, making the man incredibly uncomfortable and posting his private video collection over the planetary holonet. Someone would take care of the scumsucker.

 

The kids had been easy. The unemployed had jumped at the job offer. Everything had been going like clockwork, and then it had happened. One of the team had gone down. No noise, no cry for help, no nothing. One moment the woman had been standing there, helping get the kids calmly in the van and fed the sedative that would start their acclimatization into the collective, the next she had been on the ground. He had been closest, and what he had found when he rolled her over had made him gag. She had been shot in the head. The kids had screamed and the team had reacted as planned.

 

The door had closed, even with kids still out of their seats and taken off like a bat out of hell. THEY were the important ones. The team… well, dying would suck. But he knew he had died at least once before and had been cloned. The team had fanned out, trying to hunt the shooter. But HE had been hunting them. Every so often a shot would ring out, from somewhere far away. Another armored form would fall. The medic was the second to go, shot through the head trying to tend a fallen comrade. After two more had fallen, the team leader had given the order to break contact, but…

 

He screamed as something hit his hurt knee. His blaster was no longer in hand and he was sure he was losing blood. A voice came from nearby.

 

“Name.” The voice… so cold, so mechanical… It was male, human if he wasn’t mistaken and so very cold. Jax knew he was fairly good at what he did, but this…

 

“Jax, Rob D.” The soldier grunted. “Serial number 11DI-“He screamed again as whatever had hit his knee did it again.

 

“All I wanted was your name, boy.” The male voice sounded darkly amused now. “Does he contact you or can you call him?”

 

“What?” Trooper Jax asked incredulous. He screamed again as something grabbed his knee and gave a squeeze. It felt like an iron vise. “What do you want?” He grated out between clenched teeth.

 

“You are dead, boy.” He could barely see a black armored form now, squatting nearby. The figure was blurry through the haze of pain and fear that Jax felt. “Call your team leader. Tell him to get the kids off the transport.”

 

“Flarg you!” Jax managed to snarl. “Won’t help you!” The black armored form shrugged.

 

“Fine.” He pulled something from his belt and hit an illuminated button. An explosion was heard in the distance, followed by two more. The man chuckled evilly. “Gotta love secondaries.”

 

“What…?” Jax stared and part of his visor suddenly went dark, showing terminal lifesigns from all the rest of his team, the ones who had escaped in the van with the kids. He felt sudden loss in the collective as well. “No! What have you done?” He demanded. “What the flarg are you?” The same iron vise gripped his throat and pulled him close to the armored form. Something flared from the man’s hand and he felt odd. “No…” He gurgled as the man dropped him. The nanites inside him… He couldn’t feel them anymore! The collective came to him, easing his fear and pain but they all shared the same horror. They couldn’t help him. But he knew who he faced now. Only one being wore black heavy combat armor and could disable nanites with a touch.

 

“Your transport just had an unfortunate engine malfunction.” The man in black said in an utterly dead voice. “No survivors.” The visor of the helmet was impassive, but Jax had the sinking feeling that the face under it was just as disinterested.

 

“They were kids!” Jax screamed as he tried to rise, only to be slammed back down by an armored boot.

 

“No, they were slaves that I just freed. I don’t know whether Firdlump can feel you at this range or not.” The man in black said conversationally. “I don’t particularly care, but I hope to find out sooner or later.”

 

“Kalenath…” Jax said, feeling something wet bubble out of his mouth. “She’s… alive…”

 

“Yeah, right.” Will Kalenath said quietly as he rose and walked a few steps away. “I really hope you feel this, Firdlump. I really, really do.” Jax stared as the man drew a pistol, a disruptor pistol! Jax was breathing hard as Kalenath fiddled with the controls on the side.

 

“No…” The downed soldier begged as the man in black aimed at his good leg. “No… Please…”

 

“How many of your victims begged, Jax?” The man in black asked softly, almost silkily. “Your master made me what I am. I wanted to be a soldier and he made me a monster. He had help, lots of it. But in the end, he made me what I am. First of the Seven, killer.” Will Kalenath shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter. We have all night; you are the last of your team. I don’t need anything from you except this. I want you and your filthy collective to hurt.” Jax was pleading as Kalenath took careful aim at his foot and squeezed the trigger.

<Alderaan>

 

“Both whole teams?” The armored form asked the robed one incredulously. “I felt the last one… He… Jax…” The hard bitten bounty hunter swallowed and actually looked green.

 

“The recruiting bases on Taris, Correllia, Coruscant and Tattooine are gone. No survivors. No combatants in any of them. Just workers. He killed them all. The team on Ralltiir had evacced, they started the in-processing then apparently he got aboard somehow. He killed them all. He left the ship and all the people aboard for Cranna’s people to find. Just left them all sitting there. Then… Dantooine… He blew up the transport.” The robed man said heavily. “Five troops, twelve recruits, eight of them kids. He took out the rest of the team and then, well, you know…”

 

“Jax lasted two hours. We did what we could to ease his pain, but… We have got to stop Kalenath.” Kunda Gev said with a wince. “We have got to find a way to stop him, Brakon.”

 

“I know, but that man has more lives than a Correllian Sand panther.” Brakon Darshiel said slowly. “Every single trap we have tried has failed. Every single time we have tried to stop him, we have lost people, lots of people. What I don’t get is why he would kill kids. That is… so unlike what I know about him.”

 

“I met him, once. Aboard the Sitolon homeship.” Bakon looked at the hunter as Gev shuddered. “He… I swear he wasn’t human, Brakon. He may look it, act it… But he isn’t. Not anymore. I have hunted a lot of bad people, Brakon, but that man… There was nothing behind his eyes. Nothing at all. Whatever the master did to him as a teen… He isn’t human anymore. And Jina… People do strange things for love.” The bounty hunter said with a sigh. “He loved her and he thinks we killed her. Every person who has tried to tell him, he has hurt and then killed.”

 

“Would you believe him if the situations were reversed?” Brakon said sadly. “And I don’t know if you can call what she is now alive or not. She has apparently bonded to Ecmin, won’t leave her side. At least they have managed to get her potty trained.” The Dark Jedi and the bounty hunter shared a grimace of disgust.

 

“No, I guess I wouldn’t believe it either. And Jina bonding to Ecmin? That does not bode well.” Gev said with a grimace. “If what she said is true…”

 

“Zana shared the fragmented memory when we helped her find it buried in the mess inside her skull, Gev. I know you saw it.” Brakon winced and the bounty hunter nodded with a shudder. “What makes matters worse is that Jina has apparently decided that she is Ecmin’s ‘retainer’ or some such. She says she is a guard, she has even been pushing get armor made so she can protect her ‘stepmom’…”

 

“Armor like she was wearing in the vision.” Gev said with a sigh. “I hate the Force… I truly do…”

 

“I do too sometimes. Everyone from the master on down has been trying to convince Jina to allow the docs to work on her. But every time they come close, she starts screaming and fighting.” Brakon winced. “She may not have her lightsaber or knowledge of how to use her higher abilities, but she is damn powerful. Menglan tried to sedate her secretly and Jina threw Menglan into a wall with the Force hard enough she gave the doc a concussion. Ecmin won’t let anyone else touch her now. Jina hears the collective and she listens, but she only obeys Ecmin.”

 

“Great, an insanely powerful Jedi with the mindset of a mentally challenged kid…” Gev shook his head. “Maybe we should just give her back to Kalenath…”

 

“No consensus on that as you know. And Ecmin….” Brakon said softly. “Ecmin is totally against the idea. Says Jina is her responsibility. And Jina listens to Ecmin. No one else, just Ecmin.”

 

“Not even Maria?” Gev asked slowly. “I thought they bonded?”

 

“They have. A bit.” Brakon said with a sigh. “We think it is their past associations, ones that included affection. But Maria has been incredibly careful not give Jina any instructions. Just love and affection. She is trying to just be there for Jina. She explained it, and I have to say I agree. Jina needs the care Maria and the collective can give her, but she doesn’t trust anyone but Ecmin and maybe Ren, a little. It will take a direct order to Ecmin from the master to let the docs even examine Jina and for now, everyone is just trying to keep the poor woman stable. What?” he asked caustically as Gev looked at him oddly.

 

“Isn’t she the one…” Gev said slowly. “…who killed you…?”

 

“Yeah.” Brakon said with a wince of remembered pain. “I was… Well, I had gone rogue. I thought if I ran far enough I could avoid the Jedi. Then I found Oreana. I figured if I could train Oreana right, maybe…” He shook his head. “I don’t know what I was thinking, or IF I was.”

 

“Oreana turned out fairly well.” Gev said neutrally. “Didn’t she?”

 

“Sort of.” Brakon said with a groan. Then he stiffened. “Hmmm…”

 

“What?” Gev asked slowly. “I know that look. What did your devilish mind just come up with?”

 

“How many teams do we still have out?” Brakon said slowly, his mind obviously racing at lightspeed. “Six?”

 

“Yeah.” Gev said dubiously. “Half in Imperial space, being very careful. Half in Republic space, not sure about where they are at the moment. Every base and recruiter has shut up shop and gone into hiding, trying to ride this out.”

 

“We need to conference. I may know a way to stop him.” Brakon asked quietly. “Is this place secure?”

 

“No, but I know somewhere nearby that is.” Gev started off, with Brakon following an instant later. “Follow me and TRY not to stand out too much.” He led the way from the dingy alleyway to a…

 

“You have got to be kidding…” Brakon said slowly as he came to a sudden halt in front of the small house. “Here…? You can’t feel it but I can. There is a Jedi in there. This is a bad idea.”

 

“You have been out of touch.” Gev said slowly. “Come on in.”

 

Brakon followed but had his hand on his lightsaber as they entered the small dwelling. The figure in brown robes nodded to him.

 

“Well met, brother Brakon.” Brakon’s eyes went wide as the human nodded to him. “I see my return to this existence is still a secret, huh Gev?”

 

“Somewhat, Jarrel.” Gev said sourly. “I sincerely hope so anyway. The last thing we need is for the Stormhawk to come back here. It took months for the situation here to settle after their little incursion.” The man in Jedi robes shuddered.

 

“I agree… Did they ever… Um… remove my progenitor’s body from the front of the ship?” Jarrel Strum asked uncomfortably. And who could blame him? The being he had been cloned from had been tortured to death and then turned into a gruesome figurehead for the renegade battlecruiser by the simple expedient of throwing his corpse in space and then strapping the remnants to the front of the ship. “I understand I ticked them off, but sheesh…”

 

“According to reports most of your… remains… were blasted off during the fracas with Zelkin Infinium.” Gev said slowly, his face sick. “I know they were mad at you, but…that was extreme.”

 

“What I did to that poor girl Nia was unforgivable.” Jarrel said sadly. “If only we had known then what we know now…” He shook his head and sighed. “The master’s methods are better now. Gentler and less invasive at the very least. What bring you to my humble abode?”

 

“You have heard that Kalenath has gone on a rampage.” Gev said slowly. Brakon nodded agreement. “We have to stop him, but fighting him won’t work. All that will happen is we lose more people.”

 

“No one is invincible.” Jarrel said slowly, thinking hard. “But he is cunning, sneaky and utterly merciless.”

 

“Brakon here said he had a thought he wanted to share with all of us.” Gev said slowly. “Are we secure?”

 

“In here, yes.” Jarrel said assuredly. “I maintain the image of a harmless old coot. For situations like this. My penance for what I did to Nia Korr.” He slumped.

 

“You were obeying orders.” Brakon said slowly. “Just like I was when Vandar told me to face Jina.”

 

“Vandar told you to face Jina?” Gev exclaimed in surprise. “What the heck? Why?”

 

“I don’t know.” Brakon admitted. “He promised me backup and it came. Just a little too late to save me. The master brought me back, but…” Brakon shuddered.

 

“What did it feel like?” Jarrel asked softly. “If you can talk about it.”

 

“Always the doc? Sorry, no time.” Gev asked sourly. “We need to contact the collective, warn the other teams.”

 

“I’d rather not talk about it, Jarrel.” Brakon said with a gulp. “It was seriously unpleasant.”

 

“Fair enough.” Jarrel said softly, disappointment coloring his features for a moment. “This area is secure. Go for it.”

 

Brakon slowly calmed himself, sending his mind out to greet the two nearby minds. They welcomed him and then they sought more minds. Few on planet, but as they passed further and further out, more and more joined until they were one huge swirling mass of mental energy. Brakon smiled widely as they all merged into a mind mass the likes of which the galaxy had never seen, all compassionate, all hopeful, all caring deeply for each other. He put forth his idea and the expected reaction hit him like a hammer.

 

W T F?

“What the fu- Where is she?“ The angry voice startled many beings in the medical ward of the Sitolon homeship as Sharra Kalenath stormed out of a room and more than one Sitolon backed away from her incandescent fury.

 

“Where is who, Matriarch Kalenath?” One of the head nurses said in a calming tone. “Is Brianna not in her room?” Sharra froze in place, her face turning from angry to scared.

 

“Brianna isn't in her bed! You don’t know where she is?” Sharra asked her tone halfway to begging. “Oh my god! James! Sarai!” She barked as she ran for another room. She glanced in, sagged in relief on seeing her son sleeping in his crib and turned towards the lift.

 

“She is not aboard, Mom.” Sarai said as she exited the lift. “We just confirmed. I was on my way to speak to you.”

 

“Then where is she?” Sharra was now very scared. “She wouldn’t have just left, not without telling someone.”

 

“Two other patients are missing.” The huge golden queen said quietly. “Cili Sandskimmer and Jan Kolis, the trooper that Will captured when he went after the Islanian slave trackers.” She paused and them she seemed to slump in place. “A transport is missing as well.”

 

“What?” Sharra was almost in tears. “We have to get her back.”

 

“We will.” Sarai promised her human step mom. “Come on, let’s go talk to Ecien, get some plans laid. I know we have trackers on all our transports, I just hope we can find her before it is too late.”

 

“Why would the three of them leave?” Sharra asked as she followed Sarai, somewhat dazed. “Cili is a good kid, I don’t know the trooper.”

 

“I don’t know, Mom.” Sarai said quietly as they walked. “All three had implants, Lohas removed Brianna’s and Nolikas removed the implants from Cili and Jan. Jan was waiting to have her legs regrown. It took us a while to convince her to let us do it.”

 

“Cili was still waiting for new eyes, wasn’t she?” Sharra said dubiously. “And Bri… She has issues as well. She is still sick.”

 

“I don’t like this, mom.” Sarai said with a shudder that traveled up all four of her legs and traveled down all four of her arms. “I don’t like this at all.” She paused in midstride as a large silver bug ran towards her. “Ecien?”

 

“My queen, I have checked the recordings. Brianna took the transport.” Both females stiffened in shock. “But… I don’t think she was in control of herself. Cili was pushing a wheelchair with the prisoner in it, but she was also acting odd. “

 

“Some kind of long range control mechanism?” Sarai said a moment of fear. “Is Lohas free? She can answer that quickly is she has time.” Ecien shook her head.

 

“No.” Ecien was angry, but tightly controlled. “She and Melita are busy. Melita thinks she can spoof some of what Firdlump’s collective is doing. Maybe if she can, we can keep them off the homeworld for an extra six months.”

 

“That is worth it.” Sarai said with a sigh. “But we need to find Brianna. Hopefully before she and the others get to wherever they are going.”

 

“No note.” Sharra said with a grimace. “If she had a choice, Brianna at least would have left a note. She is nothing if not thorough, she would know we would be worried, that we would come after her. Would she want that?”

 

“Maybe.” Sarai said, musing. Then she stiffened. “Oh my god!” She darted into another room and the other two followed her. She shook her head as she took in an empty bed. “How the hell did she get Mira out of here without us seeing her?”

 

“We are missing something.” Sharra said flatly. “The ship’s systems have been hacked, obviously. The security cameras, except for the standalone ones in the hangar bays, are unreliable. But by who?”

 

“We don’t need cameras.” Sarai snarled and Ecien nodded and left the room. “We are doing a headcount. We should have… Oh my god…” The queen froze in place. “You lousy lying barvette-“

 

“Sarai!” Sharra exclaimed. “What?”

 

“Jainine just confessed to me that she did it.” Sarai snarled, her tone cold. “She hacked our systems and got Brianna, Cili, Jan and Mira to the ship. And not alone…”

 

***

 

“Where are we going, Master Jedi?” Brianna asked in a confused tone. It was all she could manage as dazed as she was. “I shouldn’t have left…” She tried to get up from the bed and collapsed. She was very weak from her ordeals. Lohas had saved her life, but she was still recovering.

 

“Easy, Brianna.” The Togruta in Jedi robes said sadly as she eased the girl back into a resting position. “It’s okay. We are going to see your Dad.” The Jedi Master touched a hypospray to her arm

 

“This is wrong.” Brianna said in a confused voice. “Why are you…?” She sighed and relaxed back into sleep.

 

“I am sorry, Brianna.” Jedi Master Ashla Ti said with a sigh. “We don’t have a choice now. I hate this. I hate this…” She brushed a gentle hand across Brianna’s brow and the sick girl murmured a bit in her sleep.

 

“I know.” A form composed of blue energy appeared beside her. The blue skinned Twi’lek’s face was sad. “But it is the only way to stop Will.”

 

“We don’t know that, Ulaha.” Master Ashla Ti said quietly. “Visions are not perfect. You know this.”

 

“Yes I do.” The dead Jedi said sadly. “How are the others?”

 

“Still asleep.” Ashla Ti said with a wince. “Have you heard from Jainine?”

 

“They are holding her.” Ulaha said quietly. “They are angry.”

 

“We kidnapped Brianna and Cili.” Ashla Ti said sadly. “I think they have just cause to be angry.” She checked on the poor little girl and sighed as she found Cili unchanged. “Poor kid. I just hope there are medics wherever we wind up.”

 

“Why are you doing this?” A voice asked her from the other side of the small medical bay. The human woman was propping herself up on the stumps of her legs and staring at the Togruta. “This doesn’t make sense.”

 

“Yes it does, Jan.” Ashla Ti said with a sigh. “I am trying to stop Will from kicking things off too early, before anyone else is ready. He is angry, furious actually. He won’t listen to anyone. This is the only way to stop him.” Ashla Ti surreptitiously hit a control with the Force.

 

“Where are we going?” Jan asked, her eyes dulling as painkillers started her slide back into unconsciousness. “I don’t want to face him again. He is…scary…”

 

“Sleep, soldier.” Ashla Ti said sadly. “We are going to Alderaan.” She moved to a small tank nearby and sighed as she looked at the still form that floated inside. If not for the small amount of movement on the medical monitors, the little girl in the tank looked dead. “I wish there was another way, Mira. But there isn’t.”

 

“She knows.” Ulaha said quietly from nearby. “But you better hope that Firdlump’s people have their act together. If you face Will…”

 

“I die.” The Togruta Jedi Master said flatly. “It is what he does. Especially now that he has gone off the deep end.”

“This is a trick.” Brakon Darshiel had been a lot of places, done a lot of things. But this… “What is she doing here? Any ideas Gev?” He asked as he stared at the bounty hunter’s tiny image on his screen. He had a camera feed on his main monitor and was talking to Gev on his scrambled com. On the main monitor a Togruta Jedi was seen leaving the hangar spaces, heading into town.

 

“This is weird.” Kunda Gev said softly. “Ship is still positive for three life forms, but all are faint. Should I check it out?”

 

“Carefully.” Brakon was scared. “Something is wrong. Holy flarg…” He stared at as the camera shifted and tracked the Jedi’s progress. She was walking towards the residential section. The section of town where he and Jarrel where hiding.

 

“You don’t think…?” Jarrel asked softly. “I mean, she IS a seer, but this is nuts.”

 

“Maybe I should try and lead her away?” Brakon said dubiously. “She is a seer and likely will know if I try and deceive her.” He stiffened. “She is heading this way. This is not good.” The he stared as the Jedi…sat on a bench. “What…the…hell?”

 

“She couldn’t hear you, could she?” Jarrel asked softly, even more scared. His eyes went wide as the Togruta shook her head slightly. “She knows she is being monitored.” The Togruta on camera nodded slightly. “Holy flarg…”

 

“You don’t want to fight.” Brakon said slowly, totally unsure of this. The Togruta on screen shook her head. “You want to talk?” She nodded. “This makes no sense.” The Togruta shrugged and sat in a meditation position. Passersby looked at her oddly, but Jedi were not that rare around these parts.

 

“Brakon, we have a problem.” Gev’s voice was odd when it came over the com. “Ship has four beings aboard, all female, none of them are hale.”

 

“Four?” Brakon stiffened. “Why would a Jedi bring four hurt females to Alderaan and leave them in a ship in the middle of a hangar bay?”

 

“It gets worse.” Gev sounded nearly poleaxed. “One of them is the Seventh of the Seven.”

 

“Mira's body is here?” Brakon actually felt faint. “According to what Jina told us, she is a shell, her mind caught up in the nanite swarm.”

 

“Yeah. She is in a tank, some kind of stasis I think” Gev agreed softly. “Two human females, one with missing legs, one…” He broke off. “Oh frell me…”

 

“What?” Brakon demanded. “Don’t keep me in suspense. WHAT?”

 

“Brianna Makarian, the girl that nut Jaken tortured, is lying in a pool of her own filth.” Gev’s voice was scared now. “I need help! She is convulsing! What do I do?”

 

“Jarrel…” Brakon turned to his companion who nodded.

 

“Merge your mind to the collective, Gev.” The Jedi said quietly. “Those of us with medical training can help you. Holy…” He said as his eyes went far away. “Oh poor kid. Ok, Gev, lets help her. We are going to be busy, Brakon.” He sat in a meditative posture and nodded to the Dark Jedi before closing his eyes and focusing his mind to help the bounty hunter tend the hurt girl.

 

“I guess I will talk to Ashla Ti.” Brakon said softly, his posture dejected. “I do not understand.” He was very careful to stay out of plain sight as he left the building and started towards where the Jedi was still sitting. His own Jedi robes drew a few looks, but no one said anything. Indeed, most of the passersby hurried along their way. He sat down near her and assumed a meditative pose.

 

“Brakon Darshiel.” Ashla Ti said softly. “You have a problem.” She could have been discussing the weather for all the emotion she showed.

 

“Maybe.” Brakon said softly, his eyes roving. “What do you want, seer?”

 

“I want to stop Will.” Ashla Ti said sadly. “You need bait for your trap. I brought it.” Brakon froze, but Ashla Ti was not finished. “My life is probably forfeit now. Will or one of his allies is going to kill me. But we can’t have him starting things too soon. If he pushes your master too hard, your master will do something rash.” Brakon scoffed, but inside he was quailing. “Don’t lie to me, fallen one.” Ashla Ti said softly. “You know what the nanites will do if they suddenly lose control. You know.” Brakon swallowed. Their last command was ‘consume’ so, yeah. He knew.

 

“We can’t trust you.” Brakon said quietly but firmly. “You lie better than anyone else, seer.”

 

“Isn’t that what you said to Jina?” Ashla To said, her face sad. “And you people have the gall to wonder why Will is angry?” She shook her head in disbelief, her montrails sweeping in a graceful arc.

 

“She is not dead.” Brakon said slowly, unsure. ”We are trying to help her.”

 

“Yeah.” Ashla Ti said with a sigh. “Sure you are. She might as well be dead for all the good she is going to do you. The four on that ship need medical attention. And this is so you do not do anything else dumb: Brianna’s full name is Brianna Makarian Kalenath.” Brakon felt his breath leave him in a whoosh. The collective as a whole rocked on it’s axis. Wonderful bait, but… He managed to focus on the Togruta as she spoke again. “A ship will be landing shortly. I need to meet it, get my apprentice before any of Will’s allies catch us. Cranna is going to be after our hides.”

 

“Why?” Brakon managed to choke out past his fear. No one sane hurt one of Will’s adopted kids. No one. The last time someone had killed two of his adopted children, he had killed three people on the Stormhawk. He had tortured two of them to death and tossed another out an airlock while still alive. All of this on a ship that Will had been affiliated with until then. “That Hutt defines vindictive. What did you do to her?”

 

“She couldn’t help the recruits -willing and otherwise- into your collective that she found on Ralltiir, so we stole them from her. You can save them. They are innocent in this struggle, pawns. Cranna and Will would just sacrifice them to keep you from growing stronger. I find I cannot.” Ashla Ti shook her head. “I had hoped to keep Diseree out of this, but…” She shrugged.

 

“And we should trust you, why?” Brakon asked softly.

 

“Because in about two hours, this entire area is going to be crawling with Special Forces, ordered to look for Brianna Makarian.” Ashla Ti did not look at him. “They don’t know she is Will’s adopted daughter. If they did, they would be here now. And you know what they would do.” Special Forces pretty much defined overkill on occasion. In this case, diplomatic niceties would go out the window, they would search house by house if that was what it took. And anyone who resisted, well…

 

“You could come with us.” Brakon said slowly, his senses at their sharpest. “We would welcome you.”

 

“No I can’t.” Ashla Ti said sadly. “I can’t see Jina like that and not try to help her, get her away from you scum. And I will not expose my apprentice to you either.”

 

“We are not evil, seer.” Brakon said gently. “We want to make a better galaxy.”

 

“Yes, you are evil.” Ashla Ti said as she rose. “But, may the Force help me, you seem to be the lesser of two evils now. I hope you can stop Will, I truly do. I doubt it, but I truly hope you can. Or you have not seen bad yet.” With that, she walked away quickly.

 

Brakon waited a few minutes before rising and moving to go back to the safehouse. He was not surprised to find Jarrel packing. The Jedi had been listening of course.

 

“You believe her.” The Dark Jedi said as he helped load a computer into a box for transfer.

 

“Yes.” Jarrrel said sadly. “We have lost all of our networks in the Special Forces. We think most of the agents are dead. If not, they are likely praying for it. But if that girl is one of Kalenath’s adopted kids…”

 

“Transport landing.” Gev’s voice came over the collective. “It is one of ours. Just like she said. Positive for one life sign, too small to be an adult.”

 

“Can you get the kids into the new transport?” Brakon asked. Gev was silent for a moment and Brakon sighed. “She wasn’t lying. She was scared. Very, very scared.”

 

“I will need help.” Gev said after a moment. “I can’t move them alone and there are no droids aboard.”

 

“If what she said is true…” Jarrle winced. “Anyone who remains behind is in danger.”

 

“If we pack the transport to the gunwales, then it becomes a big fat target. One nuke and bye-bye.” Gev said softly, worried. “He would do it too.”

 

“Do we have a choice?” Jarrel said quietly. “Those four girls need medical attention. And she was right. It is the bait we need.”

 

“Is it?” Brakon said dubiously. “I am not too proud to say I am scared. That man is terrifying.” The entire collective shuddered as one.

<Two hours later>

 

“Are they out of their fracking minds?” The voice of one of her subordinates echoed in Captain Nara Deering’s ears as she led the search through the ship they had been tasked to sweep for evidence. “That guy is not someone to tick off.”

 

“Lock it up, sergeant.” Deering said quietly. Not that she didn’t agree totally with the sentiment. But she had a job to do. “Let’s just see if we can keep this from going totally nuclear.” She winced at her choice of words and her team likewise did as well. Luckily no one could see her expression through her helmet. Her whole team was in full armor, like all the others searching this city’s landing bays.

 

“Yes, Captain.” The sergeant complied, no doubt grumbling under his breath, but if she couldn’t hear him, or could pretend she didn’t hear, she wouldn’t have to maintain discipline. Discipline was what made soldiers what they were. Any yahoo could shoot and often did. But soldiers with discipline and organization could take on almost any number of undisciplined opponents and expect to win. Maybe not easily, but win. But that was assuming the opponent was sane.

 

Will Kalenath was pretty much a legend in Special Forces. Oh, no one really knew everything he had done. But the stories that were told over beers and sometimes during other activities, were enough to make anyone even remotely sane step carefully around him. Tales were told of Sith flat out running from him. Deering knew that stories often exaggerated. That a lot of what was said about the man was likely wild tales told to impress partners of the night. But, then again, she had met the man. There was something about him that just scared her to her bones. Which was odd. She had faced a lot of scary people in her life, Sith, pirates, traitors, spies, mercenaries. But there had been something about Will Kalenath that had chilled her. She hadn’t been afraid of him, not really. He hadn’t been angry, or even rude. But there had been the distinct feeling that she was an insect crawling up the leg of a Rancor, or maybe a Krayt Dragon. Interesting, but not worth his time. She knew that if she had been worth his time, her stay would have been much less pleasant, and it hadn’t been very pleasant at all. None of them had been able to forget that the man had nuked a civilian space station filled with noncombatants, basically because he could. Admittedly, it had been an Imperial space station with a military shipyard attached, but still…

 

“Cap’n?” Her XO called from one of the room and she hurried to where he was. He pointed at a bunk and her heart almost froze as she saw bloodstains on the sheet. “This is definitely the ship we were sent after, Cap’n.” The XO said softly. “But no sign of the hostages.”

 

“How long?” Captain Deering asked quietly. “That looks fairly fresh.” She had a lot of experience looking at blood. Too much. The XO ran a scanner over the bunk and nodded.

 

“Recent.” The XO confirmed. “Within two hours, for the last set. And…” He slumped a little. “Blood type matches to the 99th percentile. It was her, we missed her.” He snarled softly. “Blood and vomit. What did they do to her?”

 

“I don’t know. I am calling it in. Keep searching, maybe we will find something else.” Deering doubted it, but she had to try. She had to. “Bravo Six to base.”

 

“Base here, Bravo Six.” The voice of the com tech assigned to her unit came on quickly. She had to smile. She liked Private Summers. Despite his unnerving lack of depth perception on occasion, something that had earned him the team name of ‘Cyclops’, he was good at tech type things. “Go ahead Captain Deering.”

 

“We have found traces.” Deering said quietly. “XO reports that his scanners are 99% sure our target was here. She is gone. No sign of anyone now.”

 

“Wait one, Bravo Six.” The voice went away and when her com buzzed again his voice was worried. “What kind of signs, Captain? Our ‘liaison’ is worried.”

 

“Blood and vomit, Base.” Deering said calmly as she stared at the sheets with the nastiness on them. “She was here. Others were as well, but no traces on them. It was less than two hours. Have any ships lifted since then?”

 

“Negative, Bravo Six.” The reply came immediately. Summers was on the ball. She liked that. She disliked having to rely on others, ever since a really bad mess on a planet called Forge. She much preferred to act on her own, but sometimes there just was no other way. “No ships have lifted and while all of them are screeching like scalded mynocks, none have tried lifting without clearance.” Deering snorted a sour laugh.

 

“They know what we would do, base.” She sighed. “We are continuing our sweep, but this is definitely the ship we were after initially. We will keep looking. Any revised word on a possible ETA?” She broke off, not wanting to name the boogeyman. The odd thing was, she wasn’t really afraid for herself. Will had excellent target control even when stressed. He only used overkill when he had reason. Facing even a squad of Republic troops wouldn’t be reason, she hoped so anyway. He might hurt her; he likely would not kill her. She was afraid of what would happen to a man she admired if he kept doing some of the things her liaison had told her about. What was happening to a man she admired.

 

“Negative, Bravo Six. He is running silent.” Summers sounded nervous now and who could blame him? “Stay in contact, Captain.”

 

“Right.” Deering said softly. “XO? Anything else on scans?” The response came quickly.

 

“Lots of different DNA. They must have been in a hurry, their scrubbing was not as thorough as usual. The sniffer is having trouble differentiating them all. They must have had a full team in here. Whoa…” His voice turned speculative. “This is odd.”

 

“What is?” Deerign asked as she started for the cockpit and the team tech who was accessing the ship’s computers. Not that they were likely to find anything, but maybe they would. And anything was better than just standing around. “What do you have?”

 

Deering was not the sort to micromanage. She had seen all kinds in the Republic military and she had always found that most of the time, standing back and being icily polite had better results than getting in someone’s face and screaming. Oh, she wasn’t a robot, she had emotions just like anyone else, but they got in the way sometimes. There were times when she had to put her soul in storage and just do the job. The fighting on Forge had been one of those times. She shook herself, the past was the past. She had to focus on the now, to keep the future from being bloody and short.

 

“Cap’n…” The XO’s voice was odd, not scared, but odd. “You ain’t going to believe this…I just got a match for one of the DNA traces. Male human.”

 

“Oh?” Deering moved to where her XO was looking at a computer terminal. “Problem?”

 

“I don’t know, Cap’n.” The XO turned the screen of his DNA sniffer so she could see it and she scanned it, unsure. “Third line from the bottom, Ma’am.” Deering looked and froze in place, her breath leaving her body in a solid whoosh.

 

“Holy mother of Zenn’la,…” Deering rarely cursed, but this was the time for it if any was. “100%? No way, check it!” The XO did and shrugged. He redid his scan and it came up the same. The readout was simple to read, and the system was nearly foolproof since soldiers could -and would- break anything given just a little time.

 

The line read ‘Agent Third Class Jaken, listed rogue. Last assignment: Stormhawk’

 

The liaison had briefed them on what had happened the last time someone had hurt one of Will’s ‘kids’. The man who had brainwashed Brianna into killing two of Will’s adopted children, who had hurt Brianna so badly and turned her into one of the Dragons against her will. He was dead -tossed out an airlock without a space suit- but somehow, he was here.

 

“This…” Deering could have sworn the planet as whole lurched in fear under her boots. “…is not good.”

Brianna Makarian Kalenath woke from dreams of pain and fear to peace and gentleness. She was lying on something very soft, covered by something very soft. But she hurt. Gentle hands were soothing her sore muscles as she groaned.

 

“Easy girl.” A melodious female voice that she did not know soothed her fear. “It’s okay. No one is going to hurt you. No one would dare.”

 

“What?” Brianna remembered hazy images of a Togruta, a worried looking one, tending her. “Where?”

 

“Easy…” The voice crooned softly. “It’s okay, Brianna. It’s okay. You are in no danger. Whatever that Jedi gave you reacted badly with whatever else you were on. You had some convulsions. That is why you are sore. Just relax, let me soothe your muscles, okay?” Against her will, Brianna felt her muscles reacting to the skilled fingers that were soothing them. “That’s it, girl, just relax…” The voice was so soothing, the touch was as well. But Brinnna knew where she was now. She could feel them, all around her. The sense that she had gotten from her squadmates had been kind and gentle if hard as nails. They had also been more than bit fanatical and nuts. The feelings she got from this woman…were just wrong. There were other things impacting her body, things she did not recognize, but could fight and did. “Easy girl…”

 

“Stop touching me.” Brianna said flatly. “Now.” She tried her hands and feet, but of course they were bound. She cracked her eyes, but, no surprise, they were covered. “You people…” She sighed. “…are morons. Not even the Sith are this stupid.” Most Sith... had learned.

 

“Look, Brianna…” The gentle touches vanished and the female voice was sad and tired now. “I just want to help you. I know you are scared. You have no reason to be. No one is going to a kriffing thing to you. No one would munking dare.”

 

“Scared?” Brianna actually laughed at that. “Why the hell would I be scared of dead people? You obviously know who I am. Well, I know who you are too. And you know what is going to happen, very shortly. Maybe I will survive, maybe I won’t. But none of you will.” She would have shaken her head, but it didn’t move. “So, implanting or brainwashing first? Or torture just for the fun of it like before?” The female voice sighed.

 

“Brianna, we cannot change what happened. We are not going to hurt you.” A hand patted her bound one and she flinched but controlled it. “I know your name, mine is Monyka.”

 

“Stop. Touching. Me.” Brianna bit out, her voice cold and hard even to her ears. “Your pheromones won’t work on me, lady and your mental projections need work too.”

 

“Brianna, please…” The female was begging now. “We don’t want to sedate you. We don’t want to put you in coldsleep, you likely won’t survive the transition into hibernation as weak as you are. Just relax, let us help you…” The hand touched Brianna’s again but Brianna had taken enough.

 

While her companion had been talking, Brianna had been using one of the Dragon’s gifts to look at the binders that held her wrists and ankles. While she no longer had the mask that had separated her from the rest of humanity, she could still do a lot of the things that the Dragons had taught her in her short tenure with them. It had been…incredible. She had learned so much, about so many things. It hurt, even now, knowing that almost all of her wingmates -ten other pieces of her soul- were gone for good. She didn’t need to see the mechanical devices to scrutinize them. She didn’t need a pouch full of slicing gear or even to have her hands free to hack them. Somehow, she shared Will’s ability now. And more.

 

Brianna. No, I am almost to Alderaan. There are other searchers looking for you. Don’t do anything rash. Will’s mind voice was harsh with fear and anger. Brianna’s on the other hand, was calm.

 

You know I am bait, Will. For you.

 

Yes. Will Kalenath’s mental voice was cold and hard. They won’t get away with this, but if you do what you are planning, you will likely die. I don’t want you to. His voice moderated a little, just a little. Brianna, don’t… Brianna let out a sigh and said something she never had.

 

I love you Will. Then Brianna cut the connection. The gentle hand was back on her arm, caressing and she snarled as she focused herself and then cast her mind at the mechanical restraints that bound her, electronic ones.

 

“Monyka! Watch out!” A hated voice from Brianna’s past had her flinching momentarily and then she was in motion, the restraints around her clicking open and falling away as she threw herself at her tormentor. If this person was allied with the man who had that voice, she wanted the woman to hurt.

 

Brianna Makarian Kalenath was, at heart, a technician. She loved fiddling with things, making them work. But when she had joined the Dragons against her will, she had been exposed to a much larger world. She was weak and sick, but it made no difference. Strength counted a great deal in hand to hand fighting. Speed and leverage counted for more usually. It didn’t hurt that she had worked out with the Dragons a great deal, working out with a former pro wrestler and two rated masters of different form of unarmed combat. Oh and when Dragons sparred? They worked out full contact without padding. A quick grab and twist and the woman howled in pain as Brianna’s muscles protested, but moved in memorized patterns. Two lightning fast movements later a sick crack sounded, a female scream came and Brianna pulled the covering off her eyes with her free hand as she held the woman to the floor with the other. She looked around. She was in what looked like a private stateroom on a starship. That was both good and bad. Good in that she had a few moments, hopefully before more baddies came after her. Bad in that she was no pilot. If the ship was in flight, she was screwed. She looked dispassionately at her victim.

 

The female Zeltron was face down on the floor, her cries muffled. But she shrieked again as Brianna put more leverage on the broken wrist she held. A quick blow to the back of the Zeltron’s head laid her out, and Brianna moved to finish the job. Fair fighting was for rings or dojos. Anything less than full out in real life usually wound up with the person trying to be ‘fair’ either hurt or dead. And Dragons did not do anything halfway.

 

“Freeze!” A loud voice commanded as the door hissed open. Brianna dropped the unconscious Zeltron and spun to her feet as a pair of armored forms entered the room. Her eyes narrowed as she saw neither of them had blasters out. “We don’t want to hurt you, girl. Stand down!”

 

What she did took them completely by surprise. Why would an unarmed, half dead young human girl clad only in a hospital gown, confronted by two trained soldiers in armor attack? They went for weapons as she dove towards them, but it was too late.

 

“No!” The taller one cried as her grabbed at her and missed. She slid right between his legs, coming up behind him and striking for the neck armor. Any armor had weak spots. Armor was designed to minimize the vulnerable spots on a body, but if that body wanted to move, there were always going to be joints. Joints could be exploited. The man blocked the attack, trying to grab her wrists. But Brianna had been planning for that. She wasn’t strong enough to pound her way through armor plate and the neck was an obvious vulnerability on most humanoid sentients. It was instinctive to protect that, even if it left the rest of the body vulnerable. A few of the Dragons had been strong enough to power their way through such encounters, Brianna never had been. So she had studied other methods of fighting. She let the man grab her wrists and then with deft twists, grabbed his wrists. Two motions later, she had his elbows and shoulders locked out of his control –human joints were only designed to move one way after all- and gave a savage yank with all of her meager strength. A shrill cry came from the helmet as both of the man’s shoulders dislocated with a simultaneous ‘pop’. He wasn’t dead, but as he fell to the floor, he wasn’t a threat for the moment either. The other guy was still trying to get his blaster out, backpedaling as Brianna turned on him.

 

“We don’t want to…” Whatever else the man was going to say was silenced as Brianna flowed at him. The style of fighting she had learned was a combination of many styles. It incorporated Echani blade dancing, wrestling, an ancient art called Aikido, and various other sources. The Dragons had never named the style. The few who had seen it practiced –and survived- called it ‘Reach Out and Break Someone Fast’. The guard screamed as she almost swam inside his guard as his blaster came up and then she was behind him. Her hands came around his neck and she threw herself over his shoulder, despite her legs feeling like jelly. A crack sounded and he convulsed and went limp in her hands. She let go of the corpse and rolled back into the center of the room as the man went down, kicking the Zeltron out of the way in passing. The other guard was trying to scramble back as she rolled again, this time to her feet. Her face was a remote, dead thing as she stalked towards him. He was making a noise somewhere between a groan and a sob as she took his neck in hands that shook, but were still strong enough. A quick jerk and that foe fell still, neck at the exact same angle as the other. Brianna screamed, a battlecry yowl of rage and victory as she turned towards the door and scooped up the guard’s fallen blaster.

 

The fallen Zeltron made a noise somewhere between a tearful cry and a scream as Brianna kicked her in passing, but the woman wasn’t armed. Not a threat. That was the only thing that saved her life. She was not worth Brianna’s time. Brianna knew she had no chance, that Special Branch had a lot more guards, probably all with heavier weapons, and armored to boot. She wore the patient gown she had worn on the Sitolon homeship, more than bit worse for wear by now, and had a blaster pistol. She didn’t care. She just wanted to find the man whose voice had tried to warn the Zeltron. She wanted to make Jaken’s acquaintance again.

Brianna flattened herself against the wall as she hit the hatch control and then jumped through the opened door with her weapon ready to… She froze. Whatever Brianna had expected on exiting the stateroom she had been a prisoner in, this was not it. She paused as she looked around the small common room. It looked like a transport of some kind. Her mind moved in paths that had been hardwired into her brain. Exits, five. All looked exactly the same. She didn’t recognize the class of transport. But that was immaterial. The Twi’lek who was staring at her with the baby in her lap was terrified. An IV dripped fluid into one of her arms. That arm was strapped down, the Twi’lek obvious hadn’t done it. It looked like she could barely move. The red skinned female wore a dirty jumpsuit that was open in front, the baby had obviously been feeding when Brianna had made her entrance.

 

“Please…” The Twi’lek begged. “Do whatever you want to me. Please don’t hurt my baby.” Brianna ignored her and the female babbled something else, tried to rise and sank back, obviously there was something wrong with her. Brianna didn’t care.

 

“How many?” Brianna barely recognized her own voice. “How many guards?” She pressed when the Twi’lek stared at her, confused.

 

“You can’t fight it.” The Twi’lek said with a grimace. “It get in your head and you can’t fight it. Don’t hurt Kili, please.”

 

“Where is Jaken?” Brianna’s voice went even colder. Her eyes flicked form exit to exit. Where were the guards? They had to know she was loose by now. Confused by all the negative emotions, the baby started crying. The Twi’lek gave a small cry and hugged the little female close. Brianna relented a little. “Tell me what I want to know and I am gone.”

 

“I…” The Twi’lek said slowly. “I don’t know any Jaken. I was a prisoner and then I woke up a guest and then I was a prisoner again, and now… No one has been back. I don’t know where my mate is, I don’t…” Her eyes went wide and Brianna sighed as armored forms appeared in one of the exits.

 

“Surrender, girl.” One of them said, almost kindly. “You are not going to win.”

 

“Do I look like I care?” Brianna snorted derisively. “Ok, he is not that way.” Her entire body went still as the hated voice sounded again.

 

“Brianna…” The slight form of the tech who had hurt her so badly appeared from another doorway. “I am sorry. I am a clone, not the one who hurt you. But if you have to kill me, do so. I don’t…”

 

Whatever else he was going to say was cut off as Brianna’s pistol fired from the hip. She wasn’t in Will’s class with a blaster, she had qualified expert on the range in training, but she was a tech. She didn’t go into combat on a daily basis like her adopted dad did. At this range though, she couldn’t possibly miss. The Twi’lek screamed and tried to cover the baby in her lap as Brianna turned toward the troops, the cooling mass of the tech who had hurt her thumping to the floor, a large smoking hole almost perfectly centered in what was commonly called by some ‘the sniper triangle’, a triangular area between the middle of the ribs and the base of the neck. He was dead before he hit the deck. She hadn’t even turned!

 

Brianna’s eyes were cold as she scrutinized the troops. They looked nervous, and who could blame them? But then a brown robed form stepped forward and they parted to let him through. He shook his head.

 

“Brianna Makarian Kalenath, stand down.” He said calmly. “We don’t want to hurt you. There has been enough death already.”

 

“Do I look like I care what you want?” Brianna asked just as calmly. “You are dead, Jedi. If Jedi you are still.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at his face and then she sighed. “Well, well, well… Dead men do tell tales. Jarrel Strum.” The Jedi flinched and she smiled. No one remotely sane would have called it friendly. “I guess you want to wind up where the man you were cloned from did.” Considering that the original Jarrel Strum had been captured by the Stormhawk, tortured to death and then tossed into space and turned into a macabre figurehead for the ship…

 

“You are not getting out of here, Brianna.” He said with a pained expression. “We don’t want to hurt you. We did not expect to have you dropped in our lap. We know your dad is on the way, and when he gets here there will be hell to pay. We don’t want to hurt you. We are not trying to hurt you, recruit you or anything. We have been trying to heal you, we have not succeeded.” Brianna shrugged. He tried again. “Come on girl, do you want to die?”

 

“Everything dies, Jarrel Strum.” Brianna’s soft voice silenced everything in the room. “The only question is how many of you are going to go with…” She broke off as a blaster sounded. A large black mark appeared on her gown. The mark was centered on her chest. She staggered for a moment and stared at Jarrel and then at another large armored form that appeared from a side corridor. A bounty hunter by his armor and steadily held carbine. She didn’t fall.

 

“No!” Jarrel shouted and started forward, only to pause as Brianna screamed.

 

It was sound of rage, pain, grief… All of these and more. It was raw primal emotion and the Jedi was actually forced back a step as the sheer power in Brianna’s shout coursed through the chamber, silencing everything. Her hand came up and one of the troops with him shoved Jarrel to the side –out of the line of fire- as Brianna started shooting. She might have been sick, weak, tired, hurt, maybe dying -all that. But Brianna was a Dragon. Her shots were deadly precise, and fast as lightning. She dove for cover as the troops started firing back.

 

“Get down!” One of the troops screamed as he threw himself over the Twi’lek and her baby. He jerked as shots hit him but despite that he covered her body with his own, holding her in place, and protecting her even as life fled his form.

 

“No!” Jarrel cried as Brianna danced through the fire that was seeking her now. “No, Brianna! No!”

 

She was good, no question, but there were a dozen guards in the room now and the man in bounty hunter garb was firing as well. She killed another guard and then another. Then pain flared across her arm as a bolt connected. She dove and spun, trying to avoid the fire that was still seeking her. Then something went ‘crack’. Pain flared in her head and she knew no more.

Edited September 26, 2012 by kalenath

“No…” Jarrel Strum stared at the still form of the girl in the burnt medical gown and snarled at the bounty hunter who was approaching now, his weapon ready. “Are you out of your mind? You shot her!” He stared around and shuddered, four armored forms lay still, another dead weight lay over a twitching red skinned form. Jaken also lay where he had fallen and was not going to move again.

 

“She was about to shoot you.” Kunda Gev said quietly as he kicked the blaster away from Brianna’s still hand and shook his head. His voice was clinical. He shook his head. “Center mass, right over the heart and she didn’t go down. I guess the stories about the Dragons were not exaggerated.” Then he paused. “Kriff me, she ‘s not dead…”

 

“What?” Jarrel asked, dazed at the carnage. He darted forward and yes, the girl was still breathing shallowly. He shook his head and snarled. “Get me a medikit. Now!” His hands were flying as he checked her wounds. She had four blaster wounds and was bleeding from a scalp wound. That in addition to the damage that had been done before. “I didn’t see what caused this.” He said as a medikit was thrust into his hands.

 

“I caused it.” Kunda Gev said quietly. “Specialized munition for live captures. Simple but effective.” He picked up and oddly shaped thing from the floor and looked at it. It was a ring of what looked like plastic. “Short ranged, and inaccurate as hell, but I had no choice. Five direct hits and she is still alive…” His voice held awe.

 

“She was talking.” Jarrel snarled as he concentrated on his patient, barely registering the crying Twi’lek carrying the baby who was helped from the room. “She wasn’t going to shoot.”

 

“Yes she was.” Gev said without taking his eyes from Brianna. “I do this for a living, Jarrel. Maybe you didn’t sense it in the Force, but all the cues were there. I have hunted both sentients and animals for bounties. She acted like both. Part of her was acting with reason. Part of her was acting on the instincts that Jaken programmed her with. She was going to kill you and then as many of us as she could before we killed her. It was clear to me, I didn’t have a choice. She shot Jaken and then she was going to shoot you.”

 

“So you shot her. She was in gown!” Jarrel shook his head, somewhere between fear and anger. He worked to pass beyond them. “You know what her dad is going to do. And who the flarg’s idea was it to bring Jaken anyway?”

 

“He was part of the team.” Gev shrugged. “No one thought about it until he was here. Then it was too late to do anything about it except try and keep him away from her. We failed.” He slumped a little. “As for Brianna? Her dad is mad at us anyway.” Gev said with another shrug. “I doubt anything we do to her will make him less so. Dead or alive she will work as bait.” Jarrel looked at him and then focused on his patient.

 

“She is going to need more help than I can give her here.” Jarrel said with a sigh as he sat back after a few minutes. “Damn, girl…” He was nearly in tears as he brushed her hair gently.

 

“It’s not your fault, Jarrel.” A soft, pain filled voice sounded form behind them and both turned to see Monyka being assisted out of the stateroom they had put Brianna in by another trooper. “Girl broke my arm.”

 

“Nanites not working?” Jarrel asked as he went to her side. “Brianna is stable, for now.”

 

“No.” The Zeltron female said with a grimace. “They don’t seem to be. Man, this hurts worse than my last rough john.” She held herself steady as Jarrel took her wrist in gentle hands. Power flared from his fingertips and she sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

 

“I deadened the pain.” Jarrel said quietly. “We need to splint that. I have no idea why the nanites are not working. You can still feel the collective, right? I can feel you.”

 

“Yeah.” Monyka said with a soft, contented sigh. She shook her head as she looked at Brianna. “What is up with her? She wouldn’t hear me. She wouldn’t calm down. I could always calm people, that is why you…well...” She blushed a bit and Jarrel patted her arm.

 

“That is one reason we recruited you.” Jarrel said gently as he pulled a small splint from the medikit. “One of many. And no, no one is going to ever make you turn tricks again.”

 

“You think that would calm her down?” Monyka asked quietly as she stood still, one of the troops helping her stand, offering support as she gritted her teeth against the pain that flared past whatever Jarrel had done. He was quick, tightening the splint and then soothing the pain again. “If that is what it would take to get through to her, I might. Poor kid.” Jarrel looked at her and she flushed a bit. “I don’t want to be pressed into doing it but if it would help...”

 

“You are not a prostitute anymore, Monyka.” Gev said from where he stood, his blaster ready. “What you do is your choice.”

 

“Choice?” Monyka said with a sad expression, her tone sour. “I always had a choice. Live or die. Turn tricks or get strung out, go out of my mind from withdrawal. Do something dumb and get killed.” She shrugged and then smiled. “You all cleaned me up, showed me a better way, you gave me something I never had.” Her smile turned tender. “A family. Something to believe in.” She shook her head and her face fell. “Katherine and Menglan can help her, but we can’t take her with us, can we?”

 

“No.” Jarrel said as he squatted down by the unconscious girl again, smoothing her hair gently. “I want to. We can help her. But…” He sighed as Monyka came up and laid her non-injured hand on his shoulder. “Brakon is right, this is the only way we are going to stop Kalenath. It goes against the grain to use this poor hurt girl and the shell of Mira as bait. But we have no choice. Is it set?”

 

“It’s set.” Gev said quietly. “Is she stable enough to move?”

 

“She is.” Jarrel said softly. “We should have a full support rig set up for her at the trap site if we don’t want her to die there.” Gev just looked at him and Jarrel snarled. “Look, I know you have the place rigged, but Kalenath is known for subverting traps. Do we have to just leave her there to die? I mean, we have all this gear…” He shrugged. “Dun…” He shook his head and sighed in exasperation as Gev hissed.

 

“Dun was an idiot.” Gev said quietly and dispassionately. “We told him to leave that family alone. We told him not to snatch people. But no, he had to get a full quota. I told him, everyone told him, this isn’t a quota deal. If we take risks, they tend to bite us. And they bit him, hard. And then to put the kid in coldsleep…” Horror edged into his voice and he shook himself. “We need every warm body, but geez.”

 

“At least Jolia and Kili survived.” Monyka said with a soft sigh. “I will go with them, ease the transition as best I can. I assume you all are going to stay?”

 

“We have to.” Jarrel said sadly. “We have to make sure he survives. If we can knock him out, get him into stasis… Then we will bring him, Mira and Brianna with us. If not…” He shrugged.

 

“Be careful, Jarrel.” Monyka leaned close and kissed the Jedi. “You too, Gev.” She smiled. “I would kiss you too, but you are in armor and Olandas would have my head.” She smiled again and left the compartment. Jarrel smiled after her and then sighed as two troopers came in with a stretcher.

 

“Okay, let’s do this.” He knelt by the still form of the bait they were going to use to trap Will Kalenath and focused himself. He had to be dispassionate. He had to be. “I will steady her head, you two roll her onto the stretcher and we can get her to the site.” He looked to where Gev was standing. “What?” He asked as he felt resignation from the hunter.

 

“He may just cut his losses.” Gev said slowly. “If he does, none of us are leaving this planet.”

 

“I know. But even as far gone as he is, I don’t see him doing that.” Jarrel said with sad sigh as the troops rolled Brianna onto the stretcher. He laid her head down gently and backed up as the two soldiers picked it up. “Gently, let’s not kill her if we can help it.”

 

“Let’s also not let her kill any more of us, okay?” Gev said with a wince as he looked at the five bodies scattered about.

 

“I don’t think that will be a problem.” Jarrel said sadly. “I really don’t.”

“Is it ready?” The brown robed form asked as he rechecked the medical gear attached to the unconscious from of Brianna Makarian Kalenath.

 

“Would you stop asking that?” The man in bounty hunter armor snapped. “I have told you four times. Yes. It is ready.” Then Kunda Gev sighed. “Or, as ready as we are going to get it.”

 

“You don’t think it will work.” Jarrel Strum, or a copy of him anyway, said softly as he finished up and covered the hurt girl with a light sheet. He glanced sidelong at the bounty hunter. “Do you?”

 

“Against any other non-force using foe, this many traps would work. Set the trap, set the bait, wait for the mark to enter it.” Gev said with a shrug. “But this is the First of the Seven we are talking about here. You know? The one who nuked the shipyard at Korriban? The one who mutilated Kola –Ravishaw’s apprentice- on her own dreadnought flagship? The one who burned Ravishaw’s other apprentice Shult alive? The man who faced Ravishaw down in his cloning facility on Korriban before nuking that. The one who apparently faced Bob and all of his minions down when they tried to ambush him. The mark who hunters like me tell stories about going after and getting reamed, and left alive, because we are not worth his time? Dragon Four, who has survived everything the Sith Empire, Republic, Hutts, slavers, pirates -and everyone else in the galaxy apparently- has thrown at him over the years? A man who eats Sith Lords for breakfast and goes away hungry? Do you think it will be easy?” He asked caustically.

 

“No.” Jarrel sighed as he walked to another side of the small compartment. A tank that lay there held a slumbering human girl, floating suspended in a nutrient bath. It beat keeping IVs in her and was oxygenated, so she couldn’t possibly drown either. “I have done a lot of bad things. My progenitor did more by all accounts, but this… Using these two poor girls as bait…”

 

“Basic hunting technique.” Gev said quietly. “To catch something, set a trap and use the right bait. We have the right bait.” He did not take his gaze from the sleeping form of Brianna. He didn’t trust her, even now.

 

“Don’t tell me Olandas is not upset about using two hurt girls like this.” Jarrel said with a glower. “Don’t even try.”

 

“She is.” Gev shuddered. “I fully expect her to tan my hide when we get back to base. We have consensus within the collective, barely. But she, Katherine and Ecmin are very unhappy. We don’t have a choice, and I do think it is the best plan we could come up with. Waiting for him to pick our teams off one by one won’t work. We have to go proactive on this. We cannot let him keep the initiative.”

 

“And seeing if you can take him isn’t anywhere on that list.” A soft voice came from the door and both men turned to see a man in black robes standing there. Brakon Darshiel’s face was impassive. “Don’t tell me you don’t want to see if you can, Gev.”

 

“I won’t.” Kunda Gev said with a shrug. “He is a challenge unlike any I have faced. But I know my limits. If it was just me and him, no problem, we face off until one of us is beaten. But it is not. He is targeting everyone in the collective now whether they can fight back or not. I bet if he had caught Monyka and the newest recruits, he would have gunned them down without a moment’s thought, even the baby. He is not just targeting people who can fight back now, he is totally lost it. Blowing up a transport with kids on it for the sake of killing five troops was just wrong, even for someone like me.” Something filtered through the mind mass of the collective and both Brakon and Jarrel pretended not to see Gev flinch. Olandas’ anger and fear for her chosen partner was easy to feel, but she also sent pride and encouragement. Gev sighed deeply. “I don’t know if we can take him, but we are going to give it our best shot.”

 

“His weakness is the Force.” Brakon stated with confidence. “We have an advantage.”

 

“He has faced Force users, a lot of them. Jedi and Sith. He faced the entire Jedi Council on Tython by all accounts. He has fought Sith, many, many Sith.” Gev said, not arguing, simply stating facts. “He is alive, many of them are not. And he has that blasted armor that the bugs gave him. Did we get anything at all from the suit Jina was wearing? I know the set that Michelle wore vanished.”

 

“No.” Brakon said with a sigh. “It disintegrated when Jina was pulled from the wreckage of her transport. Just…vanished.” He scowled. “And before you say that is not possible, it happened. I watched Michelle’s just phase out and disappear before too. I could tell it had some kind of concealment system, but no more.”

 

“I am really beginning to wonder of our definitions of ‘impossible’ are too strict when we are discussing the Seven.” Jarrel said with a frown as he led the way out of the small room. The hatch hissed shut behind them and locked. “Come on, let’s get to the safe room.”

 

Special Branch had a lot of ships of this type. They were ubiquitous and useful for remaining discrete. Getting it into place without drawing official attention had been…interesting, but they had managed. So while Republic forces scoured the city for Special Branch, they hid in plain sight in the middle of the hangar bays. Most of the rest of the teams and new recruits had been evacuated earlier. It was just them and one other.

 

The odd trio walked through the small transport and came to another door. It looked exactly like any of the others, but when the keypad was pressed, a hidden door nearby opened into a very small and cramped room. Three seats had been moved into the room to add to the one that was filled already. The black robed human did not look up or acknowledge the three in any way and truth be told, all three were glad of it.

 

“Now we wait.” Gev said as he sat and scrutinized a set of screens. “Any idea how long?”

 

“We know he is on planet. He was seen, and…” Brakon said with a sigh. “I wish she had come with us. I truly do…”

 

***

 

Jedi Master Ashla Ti woke. She hadn’t expected to. When the man in black armor had suddenly appeared in front of her, she had expected to die. Something had flashed in his hand and she had blacked out before she had even been able use the Force, let alone draw her saber or speak. She winced, but nothing hurt. Nothing. That was odd. She opened her eyes and froze. She was floating in something, something that felt heavier than water. She could see something shiny all around her, a tank of some kind. She cast out with her senses, but something was blocking her. She couldn’t feel the Force. She tried to speak, and stiffened as she realized she was not wearing a mask. She was breathing the fluid! A cold, hard, merciless voice spoke in her ear.

 

“No doubt, you are wondering what is going on.” Will Kalenath’s voice was soft, clear and totally uninflected. She quailed, but whatever she was in was just large enough for her to float upright in. She couldn’t move much at all. “Be at ease, Jedi. I am not going to kill you.” Something in his words made her very, very afraid. “This is a recording, I have business to attend. But then again, you know that, you brought me here.” Ashla Ti was shaking her head, aware of something encasing her montrails. Will’s cold recorded voice continued. “Your Padawan is currently in the custody of Cranna the Hutt. She was… unhappy with Diseree for stealing her guests to hand over to Special Branch the way the Padawan did. I highly doubt that Cranna will kill the girl, as she was only following your orders like a good little soldier. After all, what are a dozen innocent lives to you? Even a six month old baby is no match for your ‘ethics’ is it? The end always justifies the means, huh, ‘Jedi’?” The last was heavily sarcastic.

 

“But have no fear, ‘Jedi’.” Again the word Jedi was heavily sarcastic. “I won’t kill you. You will beg for it, you will pray for it, but I won’t. You took Brianna from healing. You knew she was still sick. That it might kill her. But it was for a greater good, wasn’t it, ‘Jedi’?” Will’s recorded voice mellowed, just a little.

 

“I bet you are wondering what is going on. I can answer that.” She could just see his evil grin. “The tank you are floating in is made of glasteel, fully impervious to anything you can do, especially since there is a nice little experimental device strapped and glued to your head. One that denies you the Force. I could have done field surgery, implanted it into your head, but I am not a surgeon. It might have killed you and denied you all the fun that awaits you.” An evil chuckle came from the speaker. “The fluid you are floating in is actually a devious concoction that your friends at Special Branch dreamed up. Cranna captured a number of samples from various places and her people managed to duplicate it. It heals even faster than Kolto. She never named it, but I figure that we may call it Ti Gel, since you are the testing nerf.” Ashla Ti tried to calm herself and her body reacted, slowly, so slowly. “So… Let’s see if it works…”

 

Sudden pain flared through Ashla TI as current fed into the tube from somewhere. Whatever else the fluid was, it was apparently conductive, because the power flowed into her from all over, even through her mouth and down into her lungs as she tried in vain to scream. She convulsed, slamming into the walls of her prison, but barely noticing that pain on top of the rest. As suddenly as it started, the power cut off and she was left to sob in her watery prison. The tank was too narrow for her hands to reach her head. There was no way for her to remove the device that stripped her of the Force and that meant…

 

“Still with me?” Will Kalenath’s cold voice came again and Ashla Ti was trying to plead, to beg, to do anything but no sound came out of her mouth. Just bubbles. “You shouldn’t have taken the kids, Jedi.” Will’s voice was sad now. His voce turned cold again. “But, you did, so…The facility you are in is a former military bunker left over from the initial Sith invasion. It hasn’t been used in more than a decade. It is marked on the maps as ‘destroyed’ and it mostly is. No one comes out here. There is nothing to see, nothing to do. The power systems still work though. The tank will keep the fluid circulating, keep it fresh. Funny how quickly IT regenerates. The blast doors functioned, they sealed the place nicely. It will make a dandy tomb. I have no idea how long it will take you to die in that fluid. To tell you the truth, I don’t particularly care.”

 

Ashla Ti was trying to slow her beating hearts as she had been taught, but without the Force, it was next to impossible. She was almost calm when Will’s voice spoke again.

 

“You hurt my little girl, Jedi.” Will’s voice was soft now, soft with silky rage any Sith would have envied. “Maybe you think I won’t kill Jedi who do things like that. Maybe you think it was the lesser of two evils. Maybe you just don’t care.” Will’s voice sighed. “I am going to leave you to think on this, Jedi. I was angry about Jina, but not –quite- over the edge. I was going to hurt them, kill as many as I could until Sharra jerked me up short. Guess what you just did? You pushed me right over and Sharra wants blood now too. Well done. Enjoy your life, Jedi. For as long as you last. I am going to go get my girl from Special Branch now. Alive or dead, I will get her back. Goodbye and good riddance, Jedi Master Ashla Ti. Maybe in your next life, you won’t hurt my kids.”

 

Ashla Ti was begging again, but the voice did not return. Instead, the lights that had been dim outside the tank suddenly clicked off and she was left in darkness. But only for a moment as white hot power surged through the tank again, searing, burning. But not –quite- killing. It stopped again and she could almost feel her body starting to heal again. She had never seen this. Ever. Her visions had been…flawed. How else had they been flawed? Power scalded her again and she screamed helplessly again in her tomb, trying with all her might to feel, to see as she had once. But there was no answer. No sense of anything but pain.

“Did you feel that, Brakon?” Jarrel said, his face white. “That was…”

 

“Ashla Ti.” Brakon gasped as a tremor was felt through the Force again. On a scale of personal level horror from one to ten, this one was about an eight, maybe an eight and a half. “Oh my god… What did he do to her?” He grimaced as it came again and shook his head. “What is he doing to her?”

 

“I don’t know.” Jarrel groaned as pain erupted inside his skull again. “Ow… Son of a…” He looked at the other black cloaked form and snarled. “Why aren’t you feeling it?”

 

“Stupid Jedi.” The man in black who had been in the room when they had arrived did not turn and his voice was low and mocking. “I am enjoying it. Jedi screaming is something I have always treasured. He does know how to make his points. And it is distracting you fools. Gev.” His voice was cool and the hunter nodded.

 

“I am on it.” The hunter said softly, taking control of the video screens. “No sign of… Wait…” He paused. “Camera three has been tampered with. And we just lost feed from video five.” He paused. “Wait, it’s back, but…” He shook his head. “It’s looped somehow. Dang this guy is good.”

 

“Anything?” The man in black asked the two Jedi, light and dark, who shook their heads. He sighed. “Someone should track that stupid Togruta down and put her out of her misery. She is going to draw Sith and everyone else with a glimmer of the Force away from…” He paused and then laughed. “Of course. Sneaky man. That was all to get Force users away from this city.” He chuckled evilly. “I need to remember that one.”

 

“How can you be…so…” Jarrel gasped as pain rang inside his skull again. He took a deep breath and focused himself. “A diversion.” He said as he managed, finally, to move beyond the pain. “And a lure?”

 

“Every Sith who feels that is going to be drawn to her pain like Corellian dark moths to a flame.” The man in black said quietly. “She is powerful and the thought of killing or turning someone like that would be irresistible. Jedi will be drawn to help her. Maybe they will fight each other? It’s doubtful they will be able to find her, or at least not quickly. That man defines sneaky and underhanded.” Then he froze in place. “Whoa…”

 

All the others turned to stare at his screen and the black armored form that had just appeared on it. Then everyone went even stiffer as the armored form spoke. It spoke in a normal tone, he knew where the mike was somehow, and was aiming his voice at it.

 

“One chance guys.” Will Kalenath’s voice might have frozen a nuclear explosion in it’s tracks. “Give me the four girls the Jedi stole from the Sitolon and I will leave.”

 

“Why would he…?” Brakon asked softly, bemused. “He never did that before.”

 

“He knows he is a pawn.” The man in black said sourly. “Ticks me off. I bet it ticks him off worse. Unfortunately we can’t. Cili and Jan are gone. He won’t take just the two and we do need to try and… What the…?” He exclaimed as the man on the screen vanished! “Where did he go?”

 

“He was never there.” Gev said after a moment. “There was nothing on the other cameras that showed that spot. He must have hacked into the system. But how?”

 

“He can join his mind to machinery.” Jarrel said quietly. “His daughter Nia shares the ability. Given what Brianna did to her restraints, she has it too. Somehow. I have no idea how. They are not related by blood and it is not a natural ability.”

 

“What do you mean?” Brakon asked as he scanned his screens. “Various people can manipulate machinery with the Force.”

 

“He didn’t have the Force until Special Branch gave it to him as a teen.” Jarrel said with a sigh. “I studied what records that Special Branch has on him after I was decanted. But by all accounts, he could apparently do what he does at an early age. He definitely could when Special Branch captured him on the way to Onderon when he was sixteen. He just didn’t know it.”

 

“So…?” Gev said dubiously. “The mines?”

 

“Are worthless.” Jarrel said with a sigh. “Or worse, he can turn them against us. Deactivate the mines. Make them inert. Never liked the idea of explosives in an enclosed area anyway.”

 

“Might be the only way to stop him.” Gev said with a sigh. Then he tensed. “Damn! Corridor two just reported a breach, he used a breaching charge to burn through the fricking hull.” An image appeared of a black armored form entering the ship before a flash came from it and the vid image vanished. “Dang it! Corridor three now! If he avoids the hatchways, the electrical traps won’t work either!”

 

“Damn!” Brakon said with a snarl. “What else do we have?”

 

“Gas?” Jurrel asked, and then shook his head. “No, his helmet is sealed. And if we use any of the nasty ones, they will affect us and the girls too.”

 

“Up to us, then.” Gev said with a shiver. “Come on.” He rose and the two Jedi, light and Dark did as well. The man in black remained seated. “Come on.” The Sith shook his head.

 

“I may be able to do something from here. Maybe.” The man in black said softly as he manipulated controls. “If he sees me, he will overreact. If he doesn’t…” He shrugged. “He may overreact anyway on seeing Jarrel, but if nothing else, he will not leave this ship.” He hit a control and a beeping sounded. Then it stopped and the man snarled. “Oh come on!” He hit the control. “He probably knows where we are. Get to the girls! Now!” Gev and the two Jedi had weapons in hand as the door hissed open, but nothing happened as they started for the room the girls were ensconced in.

 

“Duck!” Came a warning and all three hit the floor as the whine of a disruptor sounded. Gev cursed and returned fire, peppering the area the bolt had come from with energy fire that hit nothing. A laugh came from nowhere and Gev snarled.

 

“Stand and fight, coward!” He bit off as his weapons threw coherent energy. Again he hit nothing but air and corridor wall. “I thought troopers were brave!”

 

“Coward?” The cold voice of their supposed prey came from nowhere. “That is rich coming from you, bounty hunter. How many of your prey could fight back effectively? Hmm? You read up on them, prepare, lay your traps and then spring them. How does it feel to be hunted for a change?”

 

Spurred by something, Gev dodged and another disruptor bolt burned through where he had been standing. No armor in the galaxy would stand up to that kind of firepower for long. He looked to where Jarrel was standing, blue lightsaber between himself and the direction the blasts had come from. His face was intent. Jarrel shook his head, he couldn’t sense the man. Brakon was already falling back, his red lightsaber likewise ignited. Not that lightsabers could block disruptor beams, but they might offer…

 

“Fall back!” Gev yelled as something came flying at him. With an extremely lucky shot, he fired and hit it. It exploded in a white mist. Gas! Probably not a knockout gas either. “We can’t fight him like this!”

 

He dodged again and as a strangled scream came from behind him as the disruptor fired again. Someone had been hit, but he was spraying the area and… Yes! A form appeared in the white mist, a faint outline of a man in armor. Gev snarled and triggered his backpack rocket launchers, manual launch, blind fire. In such an enclosed space, the missiles were as dangerous to him as they were to his enemy. But desperate times and all that. Another cry came from behind him as he seemed to erupt in fire. But he had the satisfaction of seeing the form in front of him jerk back as the missiles flew. The boogeyman in black could be surprised… that was… Something exploded right in front of Gev. He had a moment to gawk as one of his rockets exploded just after launch, hit by an impossibly accurate short range shot. Then the explosion hit Gev, he slammed faceplate first into the corridor wall and blackness took him.

 

Brakon jumped as an explosion went off and Gev flew into the wall, and then slumped to the floor, stunned or unconscious. Many objects were flying into the mist that was seeping through the corridor now and the Jedi thought he saw a man shaped form dodging back away from them as explosions started going off. In a matter of moments, he deactivated his saber, jumped forward, grabbed the unconscious bounty hunter and jumped back trying keep his jumps evasive. He landed and ran. Jarrel beckoned him from ahead and he jumped through a hatch moments before it slammed shut, sealing them away from the lunatic in black armor for a moment.

 

“You okay?” He asked as he checked Gev quickly. The hunter was still breathing, but his sense in the Force said he was going to be unconscious for a while. “Jarrel?” He asked as he looked up only to blanch as he saw Jarrel slumping in place. “Jarrel!” He cried as he ran to the other robed form. “How bad?”

 

“Bad.” Jarrel said as he slid to the floor, his hands over his chest. “Took it in the lung. Burned right through armor and me.” Brakon’s hands were gentle as he moved the Jedi’s hands and inhaled sharply. Disruptor weapons were ugly and this one had been set for full power. It had burned clean through the man and melted a hole in the bulkhead behind him. Probably not more than that. Kalenath knew his weapons and likely wouldn’t take the chance of a stray shot blowing through the entire ship to hurt his adopted daughter. Jarrel gasped. “Go…”

 

“I am not leaving you or him.” Brakon declared. “If Kalenath finds you or him unprotected, you are dead.”

 

“Should have vaporized me.” Jarrel said with a groan. “Doesn’t hurt, but… that is not a good sign.” The ship lurched and Jarrel grimaced. “If he gets the girls, it’s over. He will take them and blow the ship. Stop him!”

 

“You better still be breathing when I get back.” Brakon said with a glower. “I don’t want to have to explain why you died. Again.” Then he was in motion.

She didn’t hurt. That was odd. She expected it to hurt. She had been shot. Multiple times. She remembered that. She remembered angry voices, concerned faces, and then a pervading whiteness that blurred everything. She was drugged. Again. She focused what she could of her mind and catalogued herself. She couldn’t feel her arm or her chest. That wasn’t good, but at least there was no pain to distract her. Now if this stupid lethargy would only fade. Her body would eliminate whatever drug was holding her, eventually. She wondered idly if she had that much time.

 

Brianna Makarian Kalenath opened her eyes and focused blearily on her surroundings. What she saw made her freeze.

 

“Oh no…” She hissed into the oxygen mask that covered her nose and mouth.

 

Brianna was no med tech. She couldn’t really make sense of the medical readouts that surrounded her. She didn’t really need to. The utter lack of pain was a bad sign. Even drugs couldn’t dull it completely. She knew that from personal experience. If she didn’t hurt after such a pounding, then she was screwed. She tried to cast out with her mind as she had been taught, but something went click and her mind filled with fuzz. When she could think again, she sighed. They were not going to let her get away the same way twice. Looking down at herself, she could see restraints on her body, actual buckle down straps as opposed to electronic locks this time. Not things she could slice. There were IV lines, monitor lines and other lines. Cables of a type she recognized. Tripwires. She was rigged with explosives. Probably physical detonators instead of electronic ones, again so she or her dad could not hack them.

 

“Brianna?” The soft, worried voice pulled her from her reminiscing and she blanched as she saw her adopted father standing at the hatch. His helmet came off and she gasped. Will’s face was a block of ice and she knew. She knew. The blast marks and other residue on his night black armor spoke of heavy combat.

 

“Will.” Her voice shook as she tried to control her fear and pain. “I am sorry.”

 

“Not your fault, Brianna.” Will Kalenath said as he entered the room and shut the door. It clicked shut and locked at a touch behind him. “How you doing?”

 

“I am a mess.” Brianna said softly as he came closer. “Will, no… I’m rigged.”

 

“I know.” Will said gently. “Let me see.” Brianna was careful not to move as Will bent down to examine her. Then he slid his hands gently under her body, stopping as they encountered something. “Damn them…” He murmured under his breath. His face… Brianna didn’t need to merge with him to know exactly how angry he was.

 

“Will….” Brianna begged. “No… Don’t…”

 

“We will get you out of here, Brianna.” Will said gently. “Relax. Nothing is impossible. You know this.”

 

“I saw a female Zeltron, forms in robes. I don’t know how many.” Brianna couldn’t make herself relax. “They had a clone of Jaken.”

 

“Saw that.” Will said gently as he started looking closely at the bed she was lying on. “Good clean kill. They rigged the body, but with a mine. Silly rabbit…”

 

“Trix are for kids…” Brianna finished the ancient quote. She took a deep breath and spoke evenly. “I am screwed, aren’t I?”

 

“I don’t know, Brianna.” Will said in a soft voice that scared her badly. Something about him was…off. “They are not going to get away with this.” The fires of hell rang in his voice now. “I don’t want to lose you. Not now.” Brianna felt her eyes start to burn and she said something she never had.

 

“Dad.” Will froze in place at Brianna’s soft word. She never called him ‘Dad’. Her dad was dead. “They are waiting for me. A guard of honor. Hold the…” She broke off as Will slapped a finger over her lips.

 

“Stop.” Will’s voice was soft and commanding, but no longer the terrible emotionless thing. “You are not going to die. Not here. Not now. You are rigged, Brianna. But none of them are intended to succeed. They don’t want either of us dead. I can get you free, hold on a sec…”

 

“Then…What?” Brianna tensed as the door behind Will opened again. He spun, a weapon in each hand, but no one entered. A voice spoke from outside.

 

“Shock charges can kill.” The male voice sad quietly. “We didn’t want to hurt you, Brianna Makarian Kalenath. Please, Will Kalenath. There has been enough death already. We do not want to hurt you.” Brianna Makarian Kalenath took a deep breath and spoke evenly.

 

“Dead slaves are useless.” Brianna said sadly. Will looked at her and nodded as he started unstrapping her. “But some people simply will not submit to your idea of order, pawn.”

 

“Look…” The male voice was pleading now. “Will Kalenath, Jina Darkstorm is alive She is badly hurt. She will never likely recover. We don’t know what happened or why. We are trying to figure that out.”

 

“The Jina I knew is dead.” Will’s voice likely would have made a Nexu curl up in fear. “I took out two of your teams to avenge her. For her, I would kill every last one of you Special Branch scum. If I could get to your base I would have just dropped a nuke on it and been done with it. But you knew that.” He might have been discussing the fishing season on Dac, the Mon Calamari homeworld, for all the passion in his voice now. “She was my friend and your scum killed her. Maybe her body is alive. Her mind? Her soul? Gone.”

 

“Not true.” The male voice said softly. “She is a mess. Whatever hit her brain hurt her, inside her head. We put her back into her brain, but it was fragmented, damaged beyond immediate recovery. She…” The voice sighed. “We think we can help her, given time.”

 

“Well I think you are full of nerf droppings.” Will said as he finished unstrapping Brianna. “The shock charge, nerve gas canister and thermal detonator that were attached to you have been disabled, Brianna.” Brianna stared at him and he smiled, a strangely tender expression on his hard face and she relaxed just little. “I was military before I joined the Dragons, remember?” He looked to the side and shook his head. “I assume you rigged Mira’s tank similarly.” He said to the voice outside.

 

“You are not leaving, Will Kalenath.” A new voice spoke as a black robed form appeared in the doorway. Brianna felt her mechanical heart freeze as she recognized him from descriptions. Ravishaw! Will’s right hand shot to his left wrist but the bracelet on it was jerked from his grasp before he could activate anything. It made a cracking noise as it was compacted in midair.

 

“Naughty, naughty.” Ravishaw smirked. “No booms until later. We are going to have so much fun.”

 

Will’s face went ashen and then it hardened. Both of Will’s hands shot up with blasters, but the man who was not a Sith waved negligently and Will went flying to hit the bulkhead. He snarled and then he went flying again to hit another. Then another. Brianna blanched as her adopted father slumped to the floor, obviously many bones were broken. The man known as Ravishaw smiled at Brianna and his face was cold as he laughed. “You need to lie down, young lady.” Brianna felt something seep through her. It sapped her will, slowed her down. She tried to reach for the blasters that had fallen when Will went down, but something was holding her in place as an armored form appeared behind the Sith. “Sleep Brianna. When you wake, you will be healed, all this will have been a bad dream and you will be welcome among us.”

 

“Flarg.” Brianna managed to snarl as she tried to grab for the trip wires that still hung loose across the bed. “You!” An incredible pain hit her and she knew no more.

“Too close, Ravishaw.” Brakon said with a grimace as he checked the unconscious girl. “Way too fracking close!” Ravishaw snickered from where he was watching the fallen soldier. “What did you do?”

 

“My job, fool.” Ravishaw snickered at the snarl from the bounty hunter who staggered in. “Since none of you seem to be capable of stopping that man, I will just… Hmmm…” Ravishaw smirked and drew his sword. “Master wants him alive. No one said anything about hale.” He stepped towards the still form in black armor.

 

“Back off, Ravishaw.” This came from Gev’s mouth but it was not Gev’s voice. Firdlump was not happy. “How is Brianna?”

 

“Hurt worse.” Brakon eased the girl back onto the bed, this time he did not restrain her. He activated a medical droid and it hovered to her. It beeped concernedly and he set it to tend her and keep her unconscious. It would be gentler than strapping her down again. “Jarrel?”

 

“His nanites are fixing the damage.” Firdlump said quietly. “Gev is still unconscious. I will send a team to help you… Ravishaw!” He barked as the insane Bladeborn ran a hand over the tank containing the still form of Mira. “Stop that!”

 

“Eh…” Ravishaw pouted. “She is no fun anyway. No screams. I think I am going to try and figure out where Will stashed the Jedi seer. Her screams are downright entertaining.”

 

“Ravishaw…” Firdlump began, but paused. The man in black was gone. “Damn him! Idiot boy. Status?” He asked as armored boots sounded nearby.

 

“Mira is stable. Brianna needs a full surgical suite sooner rather than later.” Brakon knelt beside the still form of Will Kalenath and shook his head. “What the hell did Ravishaw do? Will is out, way out. He has twelve broken bones too, including a possible spinal fracture. He is alive, but… This is weird.” He shook his head and he slapped old style mechanical restraints on the man before searching him. He shook his head again as he started pulling weaponry off the black armored form. He quickly had a sizeable pile.

 

“Most of what Ravishaw does is weird.” Firdlump said with a sigh. “Gev is waking. I will leave you to finish up. Get the team and the two girls out of there. NOW. Before any official attention lands on you. I scrambled the Special Forces commo, but it won’t last.”

 

“What the…frack…?” Gev’s voice was dazed as he put out a hand to steady himself again the wall. “What happened?” A quartet of armored form approached and Gev drew his blaster but then lowered it. They were Special Branch, troops who had been ‘suborned’ from the regular Republic military. They kept trying to get a mole or agent into the Special Forces. It was hard to do, Special Forces personnel were nothing if not paranoid. They usually suicided on capture, and often with explosives. Sometimes the collective managed to take prisoners and ‘adjust’ them, but the Forces were downright canny, and keeping an agent in their midst had proven fruitless.

 

“Apparently, you knocked yourself out.” Brakon said with a grimace as he finished checking his enemy for tools and weaponry. The pile beside him was…impressive. “The master took control of your body to keep Ravishaw under control. Easy with her.” He called as the soldiers started moving Brianna onto a stretcher. “She has gone through hell. Several kinds of hell. He glared at the hunter. “What the frack were you thinking laying those on her? None of us agreed to that. The shock charge yes. The thermal? The nerve gas?”

 

“He was going to find and deactivate the thermal no matter what. And yes, nerve gas. A knockout biotoxin.” Gev said softly, hand on his helmet. “Would only have stunned him.”

 

“And the girl?” Brakon asked in a dangerous voice. Gev shrugged and Brakon had his answer. “She was not a threat. Not anymore.” He smoothed her hair gently as the soldiers finished strapping her to the stretcher, picked it up and started off with her. Another pair of troops had loaded Will Kalenath’s still form up on a stretcher and he nodded as the man’s armor vanished. “Thought that would happen. Man, I wanted a sample though. Didn’t feel metallic. Almost organic. Almost alive…” He mused as he covered the unconscious soldier with a blanket. No need to draw too many more eyes than they would already. Then he shook himself. “Come on, let’s get Jarrel and get out of here before the Special Forces respond.” A gesture and the tank holding Mira rose from where it had been resting. They hadn’t trapped it.

 

***

 

Brakon was on edge, but nothing happened as the group left the ship. They stuck to the maintenance areas and the only motion they saw was an astromech droid working on something in the distance. Jarrel and Gev were staggering, but becoming stronger as they walked. He carried the pod with a minimum of effort. But… Something was wrong. Something was off. He couldn’t- quite- sense what it was.

 

“What word from the ship?” He asked as they made their way through yet another empty passageway. It was downright eerie, but they had selected this route specifically because it was unfrequented. The last thing any of them wanted was a firefight now. Gev looked at him and Brakon pressed. “I KNOW we were under radio silence. But this is too easy. This whole thing was too easy.”

 

“Easy?” Gev nearly thundered, but moderated his tone at a glower from Jarrel who was walking beside Brianna’s stretcher now, a disapproving scowl on his face. “You call that easy?”

 

“Yeah.” Brakon said softly. “I do. Something is wrong. Any word at all from the ship?”

 

“They have made the proper check-ins.” Gev said quietly. “Not due for another for ten minutes. Come on, we are nearly there.”

 

“Something is…” He broke off as the massive door of the hangar bay ahead of them opened. “Oh… dear…”

 

“What the…?” Gev’s voice was stunned as he and the other just stared at what was supposed to be their ride away from Alderaan. “That… can’t… be…”

 

They were in the Republic sector of the planet. The Republic maintained a certain amount of infrastructure despite Boris Ulgo’s best attempts to dislodge them. Military base, supply depot, embassy, landing grid… So… What was a SITH design assault shuttle doing sitting smack dab in the middle of the Republic hangar bay where their evac transport was supposed to be?

 

Everyone’s blood ran cold as a sound came. Singing.

 

“Screams of misery, screams of victory. Blood, blood, blood, blood.” A form covered by a black cloak that covered brown armor stepped from the lowered ramp of the shuttle and the music -if you could call it that- was coming from him. “Dreams of darkness, dreams of chaos, blood, blood, blood, blood.”

 

((To the tune of “Asante sana Squash banana, wewe nugu mimi hapana!" Rafiki in The Lion King http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR7pBKJJ98Q))

 

He stopped singing and his hood fell without a hand on it. He smiled under bandaged eyes and everything in the bay suddenly felt a lot colder. He bore no lightsaber visibly, but the sword at his side was distinctive.

 

“Going somewhere, gentlemen?” Idjit of the Bladeborn asked conversationally.

 

Oh frack!!

None of the Special Branch personnel dared move.

 

“Hello.” Idjit, the seer of the Bladeborn, just grinned. It was a weird smile, it was there and gone, as if he had a secret and no one else did. “Brakon Darshiel, Kunda Gev, Jarrel Strum, other slaves of Firdlump. I suggest you put my sister Mira, my friend Will and his daughter Brianna down. Now.” There was no threat in the mild tones. No menace at all, but…there was.

 

“You cannot win against all of us, Idjit.” Brakon said as his lightsaber slapped into his palm. “We have no quarrel with you. Fifth of the Seven.” Where the hell was Ravishaw?

 

“No.” Idjit said with a sad grimace. “You know better than to attack me personally. Your quarrel is with people who cannot fight back. Unarmed men, women, children, babies. Any time you face someone who can fight back, you run. Ah…” Brakon felt his heart leap with hope as Ravishaw sauntered into the bay and froze on taking in the sight that greeted him. “Hello Morey.” The insane former Bladeborn shook his head and smiled, his cloak falling as he cleared his sword arm.

 

“Come to join us, lickspittle?” Ravishaw’s grin was predatory. Brakon stiffened. If Ravishaw pushed this… “It’s about time.”

 

“You know better than that, Morey.” Idjit did not move as Gev and Jarrel stepped away from where Brakon was gently lowering the tank to the ground. They moved to bracket the Bladeborn. The soldiers raised their weapons and then stiffened as Idjit sighed. “None of you have a clue. And I don’t have time to enlighten you. Ah well.” He dropped his cloak and his sword was in hand before it hit the ground. His sword came up in a salute and then down into ready position, quick as the tongue of a snake.

 

“You are not going to win, Idjit.” Brakon tried again, his saber igniting. Jarrel moved to the side, his own saber igniting. Gev had his weapons in hand as well. Ravishaw hadn’t moved at all. What the…?

 

“Watch me.” Idjit said with another half grin as he moved. Then his sword met another as Ravishaw moved and the pair fought back and forth. “Not bad, Morey.” Idjit said with a grunt as Ravishaw forced his blade away and delivered a powerful kick that sent the slight Bladeborn seer flying. Idjit landed on his feet and… Holy hell! He was standing exactly where he had started! How the frack did he do that? Was this all planned? What did he see that had him smiling so secretively?

 

“You never did focus enough on your bladework.” Ravishaw said with a smirk. “When you serve me I will make you practice at least three hours a day.” He attacked again, a blistering series of feints, cuts and thrusts that had Brakon staring in awe. How did he move that fast, even with Force speed? And how did Idjit counter them all?

 

“That presumes that I am going to serve you.” Idjit countered. “You see, I know something you don’t.”

 

“Don’t start with that holo-vid. You are not the Dread Pirate Roberts!” Ravishaw snarled as he darted in again, only to meet a boot of his own and double up as it found a sensitive spot between his legs. His armor stopped it from doing actual damage, but it still had to hurt. “That was… passable…” Ravishaw grated out as Idjit darted away.

 

“I have improved, a little.” Idjit said with a sigh. “You, on the other hand, are still the arrogant piece of garbage you always were.” Brakon tensed. He didn’t know the full story of what lay between these two, but he did know it was not good. He had to stop this. If Ravishaw killed Idjit, the entire prophecy would come crashing down on them. That was the whole point of capturing Will instead of killing him. If they killed the Seven they knew of, others would rise. Ones they didn’t know. Ones who could take them by surprise.

 

“We are leaving.” Brakon said as his red blade lowered to hover millimeters from Brianna Makarian Kalenath’s unprotected throat. Everything stopped as both Ravishaw and Idjit turned to look at him. “Get out of the way, seer.”

 

“You threaten a young woman, one you have hurt before, in my presence and expect me to stand aside?” Idjit said, his voice cold. He stopped in place and his sword maintained it’s guard position. “You don’t know much about me, do you Brakon Darshiel?” Instead of pressing his attack when Idjit turned away, Ravishaw stepped back! The insane Bladeborn actually looked- What the…? He looked almost scared!

 

“Ravishaw, what are you doing?” Brakon asked as the man in black took another slow step back. “What are you doing?” He demanded.

 

“You are so stupid, Sith boy. I don’t answer to you.” Ravishaw said, his voice a cold shadow of Idjit’s. “We had a chance and now we don’t. Brianna Makarian Kalenath may not be a child anymore. But she was an innocent.” The insane man shook his head and sighed. “Even for a Dark Jedi, you really are an imbecile. We could have taken him prisoner, blade to blade, or guns to blade, as long as he was not…totally ticked off. But no, you had to do that, didn’t you? You just had to.” Now his voice was…mournful? His blade flicked up in a salute to Idjit who returned it. “Another time, lickspittle. You will serve me.” Then the insane man’s blade was back in its sheathe! What the?

 

“That will be the day.” Idjit said softly as Ravishaw… vanished! The empty eyesockets under the bandage swept the landing bay and everything seemed to stop as Idjit laughed. The similarity between Idjit’s laugh and Ravishaw’s was downright eerie. The sound scurried around the metal walls like a Tuk’ata’s claws and he seemed to revel in it as much as Ravishaw did. “One. Last. Chance. Surrender. Now.” The seer’s eye sockets bored into Brakon’s eyes. But no matter what, Brakon Darshiel was no coward.

 

“I don’t care how powerful you are.” Brakon said softly. “You can’t beat us alone.” The troops raised the weapons that they had lowered as Idjit and Ravishaw had fought.

 

“Who said I am alone?” Idjit’s voice was sad now. Then he straightened from his crouch and started to sing again, and this time-

 

“Heaven burns the stars are falling, as the enemy draws nigh…” Another voice answered him as a pair of armored forms stepped out of the shadows. Republic Special Forces! Singing! “…Sound the call, fleet and troopers, ‘Republic’ our battle cry…” Another voice sounded and another pair appeared form another shadow. “Face the foe, never waver. Summon fire from on high…” Two more appeared from the other side. More than a dozen Special Forces had appeared now and others were appearing. All had weapons aimed.

 

Sixteen fully armored and heavily armed Republic Special Forces troops were standing with weapons ready as Brakon, Gev and Jarrel stared at them. The Special Branch Troops, unsure, waited for orders. Then Brakon heard something that froze his blood. Will Kalenath joined the music –he couldn’t move, but he could sing- and Brakon saw Brianna’s lips moving as well as she tried to fight the sedatives.

 

“From a thousand sovereign planets, scattered through the endless night. Bound by blood and peerless honor, hold the line until the light. Hold the line against the night.” ((Tune March of the High Guard))

 

Brakon wasn’t sure where to look, which threat was greatest, so he was taken totally off guard when Brianna surged up on her stretcher. Her body was strapped down, her head was not. She threw her head back, driving her neck onto the point of his energy blade. He recoiled, too late. She fell back, her neck smoking. His hostage had just killed herself!

 

“No!” He shouted, but it was too late. Idjit’s left hand came off his sword hilt and power flared from it as the powerhouse of Istara’s Bladeborn showed his true nature. His bandaged eyes never left Brakon’s as the stretcher with Brianna hovered to one wall. The tank with Mira and the stretcher with Will hovered to the side as well. The Republic Troopers remained where they were as Idjit snarled.

 

“We could have done this the easy way.” Idjit’s voice was conversational, but dark power sang in his veins. “Allow me to show you the hard way.”

 

“I didn’t…” Brakon was shivering as Jarrel and Gev moved to flank the seer again. “I didn’t mean to…”

 

“You hurt the daughter of my friend. You may have just killed her.” Idjit said slowly, as if totally unaware of the Special Branch troops who were all aiming at him now. As if they were not worth his time. “But more importantly to me, you hurt Cili and Mira. They had done nothing to you.” The blind man’s voice was calm, but his teeth were gritted as he turned his blind gaze about the hangar bay, obviously cataloguing everything.

 

“We… I…” Brakon struggled to find his tongue. The medical droid hovered to Brianna and he hoped it could do something. “I didn’t… I am sorry…”

 

“Sorry?” Idjit queried incredulously. “Oh no. Not yet you are not.”

 

“Idjit… No…” Brakon said with a grimace. “Don’t…We can…”

 

“You can die!” Idjit cut him off with a shout. Then the Force literally exploded from the blind man and hell itself seemed to rain as he charged.

Edited September 26, 2012 by kalenath

Captain Nara Deering was no stranger to battle. Ambushes -both giving and receiving-, set piece battles, firefights, urban combat, she had seen it all. Or so she had thought. For the first time in over two years, she felt awe. The last time she had felt such raw destructive power was when a nutcase named Baran had set off a nuke to stem a tide of Mandalorians who had been swarming into a city she and her people had been helping to defend. That had been a serious mess. Forge had fallen, with heavy casualties on both sides. But Mandalorians were nuts, and seemed to breed like Geonisian cockroaches. She did not hate them, per say. She had lived long enough to know that hatred was a waste of time. She did kill them any chance she got, sometimes just because she could get away with it. After all, they were the enemy, most of them anyway. She found herself conflicted at times. Will worked with a small clan that was not allied with the Empire and she had worked with them. It had not been an amicable partnership. But in the end, the mission as all that mattered, not personal revenge. So she knew battle intimately. But this…

 

The strange man who had been introduced to her as ‘Idjit’- and what kind of a name was that?- was attacking the entire group all by himself. She had been more than a bit skeptical when he had shown up, even with assurances from many different people that she knew and trusted. After all, he was a servant of the Empire. She had spent most of her adult life fighting servants of the Empire. But she decided, right then and there, that she never wanted to fight this man. He was going blade to blade with the black robed figure with the red lightsaber. She expected his blade to be cleaved, or at least burned by the Dark Jedi/Sith/-Whatever the man was-’s blade, but it wasn’t. And while he was doing that, somehow, a torrent of objects was pummeling the figure that had a blue lightsaber. The sheer number of objects were keeping that one busy. And the others, the troops and the bounty hunter… They were shooting at each other! She had not believed. The liaison had told her, but she had not believed.

 

“Cap’n?” The voice of her XO was hushed, scared, and she could relate. “What do we do?”

 

“I don’t think he needs our help.” Deering said with a grimace. “Secure the… What the hell?” She exclaimed and her weapon came up as she saw a form kneeling beside the stretcher holding the girl who had apparently killed herself to start the fight. She moved around the perimeter of the bay, careful to stay out of the combatants way and drew a bead on the female form who was doing something to Brianna. “You. Freeze!” The female looked up and Deering stared. Who the hell? Green eyes that were crying. Black hair… She looked like Will! She wore a nondescript flightsuit and was totally unarmed. The woman spoke softly.

 

“Brianna is alive, Captain Deering.” The woman said sadly. “I don’t know if she will stay that way. I can’t stay. I want to, but I can’t. I am not supposed to be here. But she is my sister. I couldn’t just let her die.”

 

“Your…” Captain Deering was not sure she had heard correctly. “Sister…?” She could see a medical kit laid out beside Brianna now and the signs of hasty first aid on the girl’s throat.

 

“Sort of.” The woman said as she stood up slowly, her hands in plain sight. “It’s weird. But we are kin, and that is all that matters. My sister needed me, so I am here. Even though I am not supposed to be and am going to get in deep, deep trouble for this. I had to help her. I had to.” The woman’s eyes were haunted, and tears were still falling. “She needs a surgeon though. I was trained as a battlefield medic. Maybe someday I can learn how to heal people instead of ripping them apart.” Now the strange woman’s voice was sad and sick.

 

“Who are you?” Deering did not lower her blaster and the woman shook her head. “Tell me your name. Now!” Deering commanded.

 

“I don’t know who I really am, Captain Deering.” The woman said softly, her voice and posture sad. “If you are going to shoot, then shoot. I am sick of lies. I am sick of evasions. Sick of hiding who and what I am.” Deering stared at her and then the soldier’s eyes narrowed under her helmet. A Mandalorian tattoo was barely visible on black haired woman’s arm.

 

“Mandalorian.” The soldier snarled as she aimed carefully to keep from hitting the unconscious form on the stretcher. “What clan?”

 

“Ordo.” The woman said quietly, her posture unchanged, her face resigned. Deering stiffened. That was the clan allied with Will. “I am not your enemy Captain Deering, just a lost soul whose sister needed help that only I could give. She is stable. For the moment.”

 

“And I should trust you… Why?” Deering demanded. “You refuse to say your name. You come out of nowhere and…” She broke off as the woman in front of her smiled.

 

“You shouldn’t.” The woman said softly. “Ask Idjit who I am and tell him he was right. All of it was for something. Pain and horror await us all. But victory comes from the oddest of sources, if we believe. Tell Will ‘Hold the line, soldier. Against the night outside and the night inside.’ Hold the line, troopers.” She saluted Deering, in the Republic style, and vanished.

 

“Hold the line.” Deering said softly, her voice bemused as she stared at where the human female had been. Then she shook herself. “Secure Will and Brianna! Medic!” Two of her people moved as she and the rest turned back to the fight.

 

It was almost over. The brown robed form was lying in a bloody heap. The goons in armor were all down and the bounty hunter was trying to draw a bead on Idjit who was toying with the Dark Jedi as a Nexu might toy with a small womp rat. Deering snarled a command.

 

“Take him out!” Deering’s rifle opened fire and a dozen other rifles joined hers. The hunter saw them aim and in a flash, his jetpack ignited. Deering snarled. “Don’t let him get away!” The hangar was open to the sky and… She sighed silently as the form of the hunter shot into the air and vanished into the distance. “Damn it!” She turned to where Idjit was standing over the still form of his enemy now and waited. He turned to her and nodded as his sword vanished back into it’s sheathe.

 

“As we discussed, Captain. I will take Mira, you can…” He stiffened. “Who the…? Oh no…” He breathed softly. “She didn’t…”

 

“What are you talking about, sir?” Captain Deering was totally unsure about this. Was this man a Sith or not? He certainly did not act like one. But then again, he had just torn through an entire Special Branch snatch team. “What is wrong?”

 

“There was someone else here.” Idjit said with a sigh as he turned his blind eyes at where the medic was working. “Brianna wasn’t going to survive until the end of the fight. I knew that. I didn’t like it, but I accepted that. She chose to sacrifice herself. None of your people were close enough to help her, so someone else did. Let me guess. Human female. Black hair, green eyes, looked like Will.” It wasn’t really a question.

 

“You know her?” Deering asked carefully. She wasn’t sure about much, but she was sure that the man had a number of other surprises.

 

“Yeah.” Idjit said with another sigh. “She is not supposed to do things like that. Brianna is alive, so I do understand. But this is… Going to cause problems. How is Will?”

 

“Alive.” A sour voice came from nearby. “Do you think any of you can cut me loose?” Will Kalenath’s sour voice came from the stretcher nearby.

 

“No, Will.” Idjit’s voice was sad now. “We need to talk. You, me and the captain. Since you have a possible spinal fracture, I don’t want to release you from the backboard just yet.”

 

“Idjit…” Will’s voice was sour now.

 

“Don’t try that tone with me, man.” Idjit said with a glower that shone even without eyes. “We have a lot to talk about after the medics clear you and your fractures have been set.”

 

“Who was the girl?” Deering asked as two of her people picked up the stretcher with Will on it, two more hefted the tank and two others waited until the medics were done before picking up the stretcher with Brianna. “She looked like Will.”

 

“You don’t want to know, Captain Deering.” Idjit actually looked scared for a moment. “You truly do not want to know.”

“Enough is enough, Idjit. Cut me loose already.” Will’s voice was cold now and Deering actually quailed at the sound, but the Bladeborn shook his head. “Idjit, this is getting old.” They had moved him to the hospital on the backboard and while they had treated his injuries, they had not released him from it. She had done everything the brown armored man had asked. And he had asked, not demanded or commanded, he had asked, politely, and everything he had asked had been within regs. Odd that.

 

“We are waiting for another.” Idjit said quietly. “When he gets here, we will have a little talk: You, me, the captain and our other guest. Will, you have to stop.”

 

“You of all people know I can’t, Idjit.” Will said quietly as he tested the straps that held him down again. “I have to follow this through. It is all I have left, all I am.”

 

“You are wrong.” Idjit said as his sightless eyes swept the small hospital room. Situated as it was in the middle of the Special Forces base, it was easily one of the most secure places on planet. Getting in had been easy with Captain Deering’s approval. Getting out would be less so, even for someone like Will. Which was the whole point. “You are so wrong, Will.” Was the seer about to cry? Could he? “How many innocent people must you kill for your revenge?”

 

“You dare ask me that?” Will demanded. “You of all people? How many people have you killed for revenge, seer? How many?”

 

“Three thousand, eight hundred and four.” Idjit replied evenly. Deering stared at him and he shrugged. “I know about revenge, Captain. I know it well.” The seer shook his head. “Will… Listen… Would you have killed that Twi’lek? The red skinned one? Her baby?” Will looked at him and Idjit sighed. “Will, it’s important. Far more important than you can think.”

 

“Why?” Will asked coldly. “What was she to you?”

 

“An innocent.” Idjit said in a tired voice. “Will… Please. It’s VERY important.”

 

“Innocent?” Will said softly, as if he did not understand. Then he nodded slightly. “Yeah, I guess she was. No, I wouldn’t have killed her or her kid. Why?”

 

“You would have killed the kids on the transport.” Idjit said softly. Will stared at him and Idjit made a face. “Did you really think I would let you just blow up a bunch of kids like that without doing something?” Will kept his eyes on Idjit and the blind seer sighed. “Yes, I let you blow up the ship. I disabled the guards, left them on the ship while I and a team of Bladeborn removed the kids, who are in a safe location now while we figure out how to deprogram them. Will… If you can kill children so offhandedly… Well…”

 

“Well what?” Will asked. When Idjit did not respond, he snarled. “Well what?”

 

“Captain Kalenath.” Captain Deering spoke up. “If you act like that, we wonder what kind of an influence you will be on your own children.”

 

“What are you saying?” Will demanded, his tone going cold. “I let you lock me up here. Don’t think I can’t get loose.”

 

“Where is Ashla TI, Will?” Idjit asked quietly. “It wasn’t her fault. What you are doing to her…” He winced. “What you are still doing to her… is beyond the pale.”

 

“She hurt my girl.” Will said as he lay back, eyes flicking between Idjit and the armored form that barred the door. “So you are going to take Brianna.” He said flatly. “Over my dead body.”

 

“Will…” Idjit sighed deeply. “We don’t know if she is going to survive.” The healer’s prognosis was depressing even if she did survive. “And you have to admit that you as a role model is kind of… um…” He grimaced, looking for a politically correct way to say ‘off’.

 

“Do. I. Care?” Will snarled at the seer, his hands still. “I denied Firdlump and his scum their prizes. YES, I would do it again. In a heartbeat. Men, women, children, pets, Idjit. You know what awaits them. You know what they are going to go through. Don’t tell me you don’t.”

 

“I do.” Idjit’s voice was sad. “But Will… Those kids hadn’t had the programming done to them. Not like the people that you just left sitting in that ship for Cranna to find.” Idjit was glaring at Will, that was clear even without him having eyes. “What the hell were you thinking? You just left those people -including a six month old- to die.”

 

“I couldn’t help them.” Will retorted angrily. “Cranna could. I couldn’t lose the trail. I am going to keep hunting these scum.”

 

“For how long, Captain Kalenath?” Deering asked softly, her voice almost toneless.

 

“Just say whatever you are going to say.” Will snarled at her. “I know I am not going to like it.”

 

“Will…” Idjit sighed deeply. “The Bladeborn have been worried about you. Don’t tell me you don’t know that. And having kids… Even adopted ones. You are not the best role model for anyone Will. Tell me I lie.” His bandaged eye sockets held the angry soldier’s gaze.

 

“So what are you going to do?” Will demanded.

 

“As of now, Will…” Idjit said softly. “Juli, Brianna and Zinoa are going to be placed in protective custody.” He stiffened as Will did. “Will, listen…”

 

“You son of a barve!” Will snarled. “You are with them, aren’t you? You bastard!” He was struggling against the restraints. “You set Jina up! Didn’t you? She said it felt familiar! Does Istara know you lobotomized Jina? Hmm? Motherfracking bastard!” Snapping sounds came from his body as he struggled, but he ignored them, fighting to get his hands free.

 

“Will, listen.” Idjit thundered, but it had no effect. The soldier was too enraged to hear him. “Captain Deering…” The armored soldier flipped a switch and a medical droid hovered close. A hypo extended and hissed. Will’s face was red with exertion and rage as the drug entered his system. “Relax Will. It’s a sedative. You need to rest anyway, heal.”

 

“You lying scum. Flarg…” A snapping sound came again as Will threw himself harder against the restraints. “You!” He had a hand almost free as the droid extended another hypo and when that hissed the soldier fell limp.

 

“That is a paralytic.” Idjit said sadly. “It will wear off in a few hours, Will…” But Will was still moving.

 

“Holy…” Captain Deering’s face was pale. “It’s not working!”

 

“Will…” Idjit’s voice was sad as he laid a hand on the soldier’s forehead, ignoring the man’s attempt to bite him. “Sleep.” The soldier snarled but then relaxed into sleep. The seer sighed and sank back. “That did not go well.”

 

“How did you expect him to react?” Deering asked softly. “You do know that all of his kids are of legal age to make adult decisions, right? Juli is the only one who is not, and well…” She shrugged and Idjit sighed.

 

“No, I am not dumb enough to try and cross her.” Idjit shook his head and a sad grin crossed his face. Then he sighed. “But is he the best role model? I mean, really?”

 

“No.” Deering replied with another sigh. “But …” She shook her head. “I have seen a lot of families. He does care about his family. No one can dispute that. Can we?” Idjit slumped a little.

 

“No.” He said quietly. “He truly does care about his family. But he is out of control.”

 

“Is he?” Deering asked softly. “He doesn’t have access to nukes that we know of now. But don’t tell me he couldn’t have killed everyone on that ship if he had wanted to. He didn’t.”

 

“Yes.” Idjit agreed sourly. “But we really do need to…” He broke off as the door opened and an armored form entered followed by a form in robes. Idjit sighed, nodded to Deering and left.

 

The robed form shook his head, but got out of the way as Idjit left. The man sighed and dropped his hood after the seer had left. The face of the man that the Seven called Morey and most of the rest of the galaxy called Ravishaw was somber as he looked from Will to the tense soldier sitting beside him.

 

“I found Ashla Ti.” The man said without preamble. “She is a mess. You sedated him?” Deering wasn’t sure what to say, and the robed form sighed. “Look, Captain, this is totally freaking weird, but I need you to do something for me.”

 

“Which is?” Deering asked softly.

 

“Get a caf, and tell Idjit to stay out for a bit.” Ravishaw/Morey said with a sigh. “I need to talk to Will, and I need to do it alone. You can listen via the camera mikes, but please…” Was he begging her? “It is the only way to calm Will down now. Idjit messed things up. He didn’t intend it, but he did. It’s not his fault. Tell him that, please?” Now he was begging her. Her!

 

“I…” Deering wasn’t sure about this at all. “What are you going to do?”

 

“I am going to try and explain things.” The blonde man said with a sigh. “And Captain, you so do not want to know. Please, if you believe nothing else I say, please believe that. Hold the line, Captain Deering… Please.”

 

“I meant to tell him…” Deering said slowly. “I never got the chance. That weird girl said to tell him…”

 

“She said 'Hold the line. Against the darkness outside and the darkness inside'.” Morey said with a sad expression. “I know. I was watching.”

 

“Who was she?” Deering asked softly. “I don’t trust you.”

 

“Good.” Morey said with a shrug. “Don’t. That was Nia Korr, Will’s biological daughter.” Deering froze.

 

“But… She is…” She stopped herself short and shook her head. “You are right. I don't want to know. We will be watching.” She got up and left the room swiftly.

 

“You can stop faking Will.” Morey said with a sigh. The man on the bed’s eyes didn’t move and Morey sighed. “Will, I know you don’t trust me and I know you won’t believe anything I say. Someone else wants to talk to you.” He nodded to the empty air nearby and spoke evenly. “You can show yourself now, Emily.”

 

Will’s eyes shot open as a blue transparent form appeared beside his bed. Emily Hollian Darkstorm’s face was sad and sick.

 

“Oh Will…” Her voice was heartbroken. “I am sorry…”

“I knew you were involved Emily.” Will said softly, his voice completely emotionless. “You had to be. It was the easiest way to get at Jina after all –through a blood relative-. But why?” The Force ghost of the female Jedi sighed. Ghostly tears were falling down her face as she looked at the bound man.

 

“Will, I don’t understand it all.” Emily admitted. “But what I do understand is that Jina was locked into this path. I tried to be as gentle as I could. I wouldn’t let anyone else do it. I had to. I tried to make it reversible. I tried Will.”

 

“Emily.” Will pressed, his entire body still. “Why?”

 

“Morey?” Emily asked, her tone sad and scared. “Help?”

 

“I will try.” The man known as Morey to the Seven sat beside the bed and sighed. “Will, you know what the seers say, that there is not a single future? That there are as many possible futures as there are possible choices?” Will looked at him and nodded. “We don’t know all of what will happen. We have been feeling our way through this mess. All of us, even Firdlump’s people have been groping in the dark, despite all of the advantages that everyone has.”

 

“So?” Will asked sourly. “What does that have to do with Jina?”

 

“Will…” Morey said quietly. “Sarai’s people did not plant the vision in Jina, did they? You asked Sarai, right?” Will nodded and Morey sighed. “I almost wish they had.”

 

“Why?” Will demanded, his tone changing to sharp disbelief. “If you didn’t, and they didn’t…” He jerked his head at the Force ghost who seemed to slump. “Who did?”

 

“We don’t know.” Emily admitted, her face and voice so abjectly sad. “None of the seers can ‘see’ where the vision came from. It’s odd. We touched Jina’s mind, when we… When ‘I’ hurt her…” Morey made a noise of comfort and Emily shook her ghostly form. “It was like nothing any of us had ever seen. Sith, Jedi, Bladeborn, other, we are all stumped. We have no idea where it came from. Or when.”

 

“When?” Will froze in place. His face, which had been slowly thawing, stiffened into immobility again. “What do you mean?”

 

“Will…” Morey said quietly. “You know what she means. ’Mirror to the soul, power temporal’. Has she talked to you?”

 

“Who?” Will asked softly. He was not expecting both the Jedi spirit and Morey to hiss at him.

 

“Don’t lie to me, Will.” Emily snarled. “Don’t even try. She has talked to you, hasn’t she?”

 

“I don’t know who you are talking about.” Will likely would have shrugged, but couldn’t. She he made a face instead. “We were talking about Jina.”

 

“Don’t try and change the subject young man.” Emily’s voice was stern now. Morey glanced at her and she snarled at him. “You too.”

 

“Begging your pardon, Emily, but we are talking about Jina, Will.” Morey said quietly. “We don’t know where the vision came from. We don’t know why it hit Jina so hard. We thought it was a possible future. We were wrong.”

 

“Oh?” Will asked sarcastically. “A Force user? Wrong? Oh stop the presses!”

 

“Will. Shut up!” Emily had obviously lost patience. “It was the only way to save Jina’s life!” Her angry tone had both the soldier and the man in robes flinching.

 

“By lobotomizing her?” Will said after a moment. “Oh yeah, that is a nice way to save her life. By killing her.”

 

“Will, she is alive.” Emily said sadly. “Her mind is a mess. I don’t know if she will recover or not. If she can recover or not. But if we hadn’t done it, she would have died on that table. She would have fracking exploded when they finished their scans and injected the nanites again! Tell me I lie!” Her ghostly eyes held his green orbs and he sighed.

 

“She would have preferred that.” Will said, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “Instead, you have trapped her in a body that she doesn’t understand, surrounded by scary people, unable to make her mind work right.”

 

“I know.” Emily said with a gulp. “No matter what anyone else says. I can never forgive myself for that. People say ‘Where there is life, there is hope’, but…”

 

“But…” Will agreed. “She was your daughter. You would do anything for her.” Now his face was sad. “I know the feeling.”

 

“How many times has Nia contacted you, Will?” Emily pressed. “It is very important.”

 

“To you, to Bob, or to Firdlump?” Will said quietly. “Not that there is much difference between any of you anymore.”

 

“Will!” Morey exclaimed as Emily recoiled in shock.

 

“What?” Will asked caustically. “The end always justifies the means. Right? A few dozen here, a few dozen there and…” He paused as his check stung. He stared up as Morey pulled his hand back.

 

“No…it…does…not.” Morey said with a snarl. “And you know it. Let her explain.” Will glared at him and then looked at Emily who was looking beyond shocked now.

 

“Morey, have you lost your mind?” Emily said, dumbfounded.

 

“I wonder sometimes, Emily.” Morey said with a sigh. “Be mad at me, Will. Be furious with me. Tear me the frack apart when you get loose, but listen to her!” He slumped into his chair. “I…” He stiffened as Will sat up, his bonds falling loose. “How the…”

 

“Man of many talents.” Will said quietly as he swung his feet off the bed. But instead of rising, he just sat, looking at Morey. “I understand Morey. More than you can possibly know. But I can’t tell you anything, Emily. I am sorry.”

 

“You…can’t…” Emily seemed to stiffen in place. “By the Force, you know…”

 

“Yeah.” Will agreed quietly. “I know. Morey, can you and Idjit remain in the same room without hurting one another? We all need to talk.”

 

“I don’t know, Will.” Morey said with a sigh. “I just don’t know. I remember…loving him. I remember hating him. It’s all a jumble, all messed up. I can’t…” he froze as Will’s hand came down on his shoulder and when he looked up the soldier’s eyes were kind.

 

“It’s all right, Morey.” Will said sadly. “Or should I say, Third of the Seven.”

 

“What?” Emily shrieked. “What do you…? Oh my god… Morey…? What? How…? Jina is not dead.”

 

“No.” Another voice agreed and all eyes turned to the door where Idjit stood, two steaming cups in hand. “But she can’t fulfill the prophecy. So the substitute takes the field. I wondered if you would figure it out, Will. Did you have help?”

 

“We were all curious.” Will said quietly, his hand never moving from Morey’s shoulder. “Mira, Istara, Jina, Michelle and myself. We put a lot of thought into it. To answer your question, Emily. No. Nia only showed up in the hangar bay. I very nearly wet my pants when I saw her.” Morey stared at Will and Will shrugged. “Do you have any idea what kind of math is required to understand time travel? I don’t. Mira and Michelle tried to explain it to me, and I lost track after about ten seconds. But when they started talking about paradoxes and possible outcomes from paradoxes, oh yes, I was scared.”

 

“Idjit…” Emily’s voice was soft, scared now. “What is going on?”

 

“The usual.” Idjit said as the two cups flew to Morey and Will’s hands. “Galaxy spanning plots, insane people, evil schemes, superweapons… The usual.” He shrugged and stepped into the room. Captain Deering followed, her rifle in hand. Will shook his head.

 

“There is no need for that, Captain.” Something in his voice changed. “We are secure.”

 

“For real?” Idjit said softly. “We had that nasty nano incursion in the ductwork…” He paused as Will looked at him and then grinned sardonically. “Okay, okay, crazy man. I will take your word for it.”

 

“How are you able to sit up?” Deering asked. “And how did you get loose?”

 

“Trade secret, Captain.” Will said softly. “For now, I have a question for you.”

 

“Me?” Deering asked, bemused, as she slung her rifle. “What?”

 

“Have you ever thought about kids?”

“Kids?” Captain Nara Deering didn’t think that she had ever felt quite so flabbergasted. “What do you…?” She paused. “Explain.”

 

“I will.” Will Kalenath said quietly. “But first. Idjit, can you help her see the other participant in this conversation?” Deering stared at him and stiffened as the seer nodded.

 

“Don’t touch me!” Deering recoiled, for all the good it would do as the robed man raised a hand. He didn’t move though.

 

“I won’t.” The blind man’s voice was kind. “Nara Deering, meet Emily Hollian…”

 

Captain Nara Deering has seen some very strange things as a member of the Republic Special Forces. She had been way too close to a nuclear explosion on the planet Forge. She had fought all kinds of beings, all across the galaxy. But when the transparent form of a woman in Jedi robes simply appeared in the middle of the room, she jumped back with a startled oath and had her rifle in hand again, for all the good it would do her. At least she didn’t cry out in fear and shock. It was close though. The ghostly woman’s face was sad, and tracks of spectral tears were visible. She shook her head. She had heard the take from the mikes, but… She had never thought to actually see the woman that both Will and Morey had been talking to.

 

“Ah…” Deering knew her tone was off, she forced herself to relax. If bad things were going to happen, she was the least likely to be able to handle them. That stung her. She hated feeling impotent, incapable. But at her core, she was still Special Forces. When she spoke again, it was fairly calm. “Pleased to meet you, Ma’am.”

 

“Don’t call me Ma’am.” The Force ghost replied with an expression that might have been a grin, but it was fleeting. “I work for a living.” Deering had to work to keep from snorting in laughter, the tone was exactly like a long serving sergeant that the Captain had regular dealings with.

 

“What is going on then?” Deering said when she could be sure her voice would not crack. “I thought this was about Will.”

 

“It is.” Will said sadly. “I messed up. I was over the edge. I would have killed every single Special Branch scum I could get my hands on for Jina. It wasn’t until Ashla Ti grabbed Brianna that I realized I was playing right into Firdlump’s hands.”

 

“What?” A chorus of disbelief came from around the room.

 

“He wants me a monster.” Will said quietly. “Monsters are fairly easy to control, if you know how.” The soldier spoke softly, but clearly. “Animals have basic rules, basic needs, basic instincts. Monsters too.” His voice was sad now.

 

“What are you saying, Will?” Emily asked, softly. Everyone else in the room shared her confusion.

 

“He doesn’t want me dead.” Will replied softly. “He wants me under his control again. Ah well… Fat chance of that, right, Idjit?”

 

“Not a chance, Will.” Idjit said with a sigh. “You know we won’t let them take you.”

 

“Idjit.” Will grimaced. “We have all seen that our enemies are not morons. I had to play my part. I had to. I… I had to…” He shuddered a bit and all the others stared at him as he seemed to shudder. “I had to show them what they wanted to see or they would have just killed Brianna and Mira. I had to.”

 

“Will… I…” Emily’s spirit was utterly dumbfounded. “I don’t know what to say.”

 

“This was all a deception plan?” Captain Deering asked incredulously. “All of it? The attacks, the people you killed? The trap you walked into? All of that was planned?”

 

“No.” Will sighed deeply. “I was out of control until Ashla Ti grabbed Brianna. And ever since then I have walked a tightrope. What I did to her was excessive, but they expected me to do something like that. And... I wanted them to hurt. I do want them to hurt, If not for them, Emily would not have been forced to hurt Jina.” He wagged a finger at the Force ghost. “I have not forgiven you. I don’t think I can.”

 

“I can’t forgive myself either, Will.” Emily said sadly. “Never. Possibly if I have a million years, maybe then, maybe not. But she was my little girl. Will… I…“ She slumped, her form shivering. “How can you go on from something like that? It was needed, but…”

 

“Emily.” Will shook his head. “I have done horrible things. Many, many horrible things. I have no advice for you. My only focus has been protecting my family. Nothing else has mattered at all. But that brings me back to you, Captain Deering.”

 

“Me, sir?” Deering wasn’t sure what to think about all of this.

 

“Hate will destroy you just as surely as a blaster or blade. If I know nothign at all, I know that. I have to prepare.” The older soldier said quietly. “Do you know any other life but soldiering?”

 

“Sir… I… I don’t understand.” Deering said after a moment. “What does this have to do with you…well…?”

 

“You all were right about one thing.” Will said quietly. “I am not a good role model for young people. You however, are Captain.” Deering stiffened and Will nodded. “This is going to get worse, Captain. A lot worse. I…” He stiffened and his face went white. Deering stared at him as he sank back onto the bed and tears started to fall. Both Morey and Idjit also went stiff. The Force ghost was crying as well.

 

“What…?” Deering asked softly.

 

“Brianna just died.” Will said quietly. Idjit’s hand found one shoulder and Morey’s found his other, both men offering support. “They couldn’t save her. Again, I am the last Dragon.” His voice was toneless now. “It was my fault, my responsibility that she was taken. My death is ordained, but not by my own hand.” He bowed his head and shook it. "They are trying to resuscitate her. Maybe they can... I hope so..."

 

“Will…” Morey’s voice was horrified now. “Don’t…” The old soldier looked at him and when Will spoke it was sad.

 

“I am not going to do anything dumb Morey.” Will said, patting both hands that gripped his shoulders. “I have my revenge on Special Branch.” He paused. “Almost.”

 

“What do you mean ‘Almost’?” Emily asked, concerned. “Will?”

 

“Will?” Idjit’s voice was sharp. “What have you done?”

 

“Cili asked me for something once.” Will said quietly. “I argued, but she was persuasive.” All eyes were on him again. Cili Sandskimmer had been one of the girls taken from the Sitolon medical ward by Jedi Master Ashla Ti. She had been an experimental subject and Special Branch had done horrific things to her.

 

“Will, what have you done?” Idjit asked, his tone turning horrified. Will just shook his head. “Will!”

 

“She begged me.” Will said sadly. “She begged me on her hands and knees not to let them have her again. To give her a way out if she did wind up back in their clutches.” He slumped. “What was I going to say, ‘No’?”

 

“She is a child, Will!” Idjit protested.

 

“Yes she is.” Will agreed sadly. “One who was abused and modified for some special purpose. Even the Sitolon could never figure out what that purpose was. Idjit, I wanted to tell her no. I really did. But she had a point. What does your own Bladeborn Code say about children who are trapped, who cannot be rescued? Whose lives will be horrific shadows of true living?” Idjit looked as if he wanted to spit, but then sighed and nodded.

 

“Free them.” The seer said, manifestly against his will. “I guess I shouldn’t expect anything less from the First of the Seven. I assume it will be quick?” Will nodded.

 

“Yes, it will be. And as painless as I could make it.” Will demurred. All eyes went back to him, many with audible snaps. “But… You all need to know, now that we are secure. I am not the First of the Seven Idjit . And no, I am not saying who is.”

 

“What do you mean you are not?” Emily demanded. “You are!”

 

“No I am not.” Will said quietly. “But I am protecting the First from everyone until the First is needed. That information does not leave this room.” All of the others looked at one another and Will nodded to them. “Firdlump created me. He made me a monster that he planned to control. Problem is, humans have this distressing habit of finding ways around rules, laws, and controls of various kinds. When you blew the cruiser I was a prisoner on out of the sky over Kuria almost twenty five years ago, you Bladeborn threw a huge hydrospanner into his plans.”

 

“Glad we did something right.” Idjit said with a wince. Will laid a hand on his shoulder.

 

“More than you know, Idjit.” Will said with a sigh. “More than you know. But, Captain Deering, I would ask a favor of you.”

 

“What sir?” Deering asked, dazed by all this.

 

“I know I am going to die, Captain. Not when, or where, or how.” Will said quietly. “But I do know I am going to die trying to stop Firdlump. That is part of the prophecy that is, distressingly, coming very true as we speak. I don’t want to leave the rest of my kids alone. Brianna is free of anything the scum might do to her again. Even if they can bring her..." He paused and smiled a bit sadly. "Ah... Good. They did. She will be a mess, but she is nothing of not driven. All of my kids will be in danger, from people wanting revenge on my at the very least.. Can you meet with them, talk to them? You are the best choice I could possibly find for a parent.”

 

“Me?” Deering staggered back a step, her hands coming up in awarding gesture. “Why me?”

 

“Because you know about holding the line.” Will said softly. “And unless I very much miss my guess, our lines are about to get hit. Hard. After theirs get hit...”

She was slow waking. That was odd for Cili Sandskimmer. She had always been an active girl. Ever since she could remember, she had been up at dawn, working hard to- She paused. No, that had been before the Special Branch butchers had come. Her parents, siblings and many others had died that day. But, the people who had killed her parents hadn’t killed her. No, they had done something far, far worse. Instead of killing her, they had taken her eyes. They had done so many things to her, some that hurt, some that didn’t. Many things that made her sick, and nothing had ever cracked the darkness that she had lived in. Until a man had come, claiming to be a Jedi Knight, she had known nothing but pain and despair. She hadn’t known what to expect, Jedi were the enemy. She had been a loyal servant of the Empire, like all of her family. But Markus Sigmundson had been kind to her, taking her from that place of horrors, getting her to people who could help her, keeping her calm despite her pain and fear. The Sitolon, whoever they were, had been kind to her. She knew they were not human, that had been obvious the first time any of them had touched her, but they had been gentle and kind to her, and…

 

“She is awake.” The voice pulled Cili out of her musing. It was no one she knew, female and kind, but… There was something off about it. “Good morning, Cili.” Cili tried her arms and legs and they moved, sluggishly. She licked her lips and spoke.

 

“Who are you?” She was amazed that her voice was steady. Then again, she didn’t know all of the Sitolon medics. “Where am I?” She felt something. Something that had her insides freezing, something she hadn’t felt for some time. Someone was trying to access her implants. Of course the implants that were still inside her body had been reprogrammed so that she had control over them. “No…” She whimpered. Only one group had the original access codes for her implants. The ones who had put them in.

 

“Cili…” A gentle touch traced her cheek. “It is all right child. No one is going to hurt you again. Just relax, we are working on cloning some eyes for you.”

 

“Why?” Cili asked softly. “What good is a slave who can see? A breeder who can see? Hmm?” She was unsurprised when her wrists and ankles were suddenly immobile. “Now the rough stuff again?” She was completely shocked that her tone was even. She expected to be quaking.

 

“No one is going to hurt you again, Cili.” The voice said softly. Something soft -maybe a cloth- wiped her cheek and then her forehead. “We want to help you.”

 

“Sure you do.” Cili said sarcastically. “Just like you did when you raided my colony? Killed my family? Took my eyes? Help me like that?” The female voice sighed.

 

“I cannot condone what was done to you before.” Another gentle touch wiped her forehead. “It was wrong and unneeded.” Cili felt something odd. Her skin… What was wrong with her skin? She felt hot and cold at the same time.

 

“What have you done to me?” Cili asked, her voice still that calm tone. “I know you Special Branch scum usually don’t tell your guinea nerfs anything, but I am curious.”

 

“We wanted to give you a real life again, Cili.” The touch was back, gently stroking her forehead. “What was done to you cannot be undone, but we can make you more comfortable. My name is Katherine, it’s okay, girl. We will help you.”

 

“Help me?” Cili asked incredulously. “I…” Suddenly her body rebelled and she was convulsing as something deep, deep inside her went crack. She screamed as agony came. A timeless moment later, she lay panting as that same soft cloth wiped her brow. “You bastards!” She screamed, her voice hoarse.

 

“Easy!" The voice said, trying for a soothing tone. “Just relax Cili. It’s going to feel very strange for a time. But when you are done, you will have eyes again.”

 

“And you are doing this out of the goodness of your shriveled up excuses for hearts.” Cili said with a snarl. “Flarg you!” She struggled, trying to pull her hands loose.

 

“Dang it girl, I don’t want to sedate you!” The voice of Katherine was sharp now. “Calm down. I don’t want to intubate you or drug you. You have enough drugs in your system already and the rescriptor might be affected as well. Just relax.”

 

“Not going to happen you stupid witch!” Cili snarled at her. Rescriptor? Wasn’t that…? She fought to keep a smile off her face. If only she could… She struggled harder, trying to keep the witch focused on her.

 

“Cili… please…” The voice turned away. “Oh, Ecmin, can you help?”

 

“I can try.” A melodious voice spoke from close at hand. “Child, easy. We will not harm you. We are trying to undo what the butchers who had you before did to you. Unfortunately, what they did is not easy to fix and requires a more substantial form of healing than normal surgery.”

 

“Whoever you are…” Cili’s voice defined rude now. “You are with the people who did this to me. Why should I trust you?”

 

“Because we are trying to help.” The new voice said gently. A feeling she remembered touched her. A Sitolon claw, gentle and soothing. “Please let us.”

 

“Why?” Cili asked sourly. “You are going to do whatever the hell you are going to do. No matter my wishes. No matter anything you are going to hurt me, just as you people did before.”

 

“Child –Cili-, we cannot change the past. You were hurt.” The Sitolons voice was sorrowful. “Let us help you.”

 

“And if I say no, you do it anyway.” The young human girl felt oddly calm now. She knew what she had to do, and why. “So do whatever the hell you are going to do. It’s not like I can stop you.”

 

“Cili…” Ecmin’s voice was gentle, soothing now and the soothing rubbing she remembered from the Sitolon homeship was relaxing her body against her will. “It won’t hurt. You will sleep and wake up a new woman. A valued part of our collective.”

 

“No, actually I won’t.” Cili said with a sigh as her body finally succumbed to the relaxation it was feeling. “I have no doubt that you think I will, but I won’t.” She smiled widely now, she could feel it starting. Tears started falling now, tears of joy. She was going to see her parents again.

 

“What do you mean, Cili?” Ecmin’s voice was confused. “It’s okay, girl…Don’t cry. We will welcome you.”

 

“No.” Cili said quietly as she lay back and sighed. “No you won’t.”

 

“Step-mom!” A terrified voice shouted. “Get out of there! She is a bomb!” A gasp came from nearby as Cili smiled widely. Various people were shouting now as the presence nearby withdrew.

 

She could feel the change that Will had described to her starting inside. Her implants were all non-toxic and not really dangerous. But when a soldier with a lot of demolition experience and a burning hatred of Special Branch decided to help her with a somewhat less than legal way out in case of capture, well…

 

Many chemicals reacted badly when placed together. Many naturally occurring chemicals reacted badly when placed with other naturally occurring substances. For instance, sodium chloride was a common substance in a human body. Pure sodium on the other hand, was less so. But detecting small quantities of such natural substances was difficult for even the best of sensors when they were looking for such things. When they were not, or the objects were hidden inside other things hidden inside a person’s body, well… It became much, much harder. And who in their right mind would be looking for vials of water inside a human body? Sodium and water made such an…interesting combination. When those vials of water all poured into a larger sealed container and then the sodium was injected into it, almost a kilo of the stuff all told…

 

“Why, Cili?” Ecmin’s voice was from a speaker now. It was not scared, not scared at all. “Why do this?”

 

“Because I refuse to be your guinea pig again.” Cili said with a smile. She knew she was about to die and truth be told, she didn’t care. “And… There are some people you just do not tick off.” She relaxed completely as she felt the fizzing that Will had described. Then, she was free…

((There are many forms of freedom. Almost as many as there are forms of slavery. What Will did was wrong. WHY he did it? I don't know. Comments or suggestion always appreciated. Flame swill have to clean up the mess Will left on Raltiir, Coruscant, Tralus, Correllia, Tattooine, Dantoine...)