Dependable Barriss

It was pointless trying to remain calm. She had succeeded in lying to herself, convincing herself that everything was fine but it wasn’t. It was far from the first time she’d tried it and coming to think of it, she should have known the consequences would be the same.

Complete and utter catastrophe.

The latest failure of the sort had nearly resulted in Adder’s escape. A loyal citizen of the Empire, which was a rare commodity in the Outer Rim, had found him on some factory planet with a name she did not remember. Arriving there unannounced, she had had the chance to gun him down with the TIE’s cannons but she had chosen not to in favor of capturing him alive. That mistake had allowed him to take-off and the result had been near three days of chasing his planetary shuttle. Angered by her decision, the contempt for his life had only grown as the chase dragged out. He had been ridiculously outmatched in both firepower and ship class yet he had still managed to out-perform her and be one step ahead. That had made her bitter beyond words until all she could think about was how she was going to tear him apart. In the end, the anger and resent had combined to form a strangulating hold of her heart. She hadn’t been able to think clearly before the final blow had been struck.

She wondered if this was going to be just like that. The symptoms were the same; she had been angered, she had been bitter and now, she felt her heart squeezed by an unexplainable force. Was she going to enter the same frenzied bloodlust as she had with Adder? Was she going to lose control again?

Are you going to try and get us both killed again?

Barriss was silent as she should be. She was cowardice, she was frailty, she was every shortcoming the Inquisitor could think of.  Reduced to manipulating Ahsoka’s image to haunt the Inquisitor’s dreams, Barriss had made herself something even viler than a spider-roach. Her loathsome ploy had been played so many times that the Inquisitor had believed that Ahsoka was only that – a twisted memory from the past or a weapon in Barriss’ hastily shrinking arsenal. It was that vulnerability which Barriss had exploited to impair the Inquisitor’s rule over her own body and if she was able to do that, then what else could she do? What else did the Inquisitor not know?

She spotted a fork in the path ahead and aligned her thoughts with the first problem she had to solve.

“Which way is it?” she called over her shoulder. She was half running at a hasty stride with Yena right behind her, and after Yena was the twi’lek, who was struggling to keep up.

“Left and then it’s just straight ahead for another five minutes,” Yena replied efficiently.

Just five minutes, she motivated herself. The issues pertaining to her two jedi nuisances would have to wait until she was safely onboard a ship.

They rounded the corner just as a patrol of stormtroopers rushed past them, led on by black mouse droids. The one trooper wearing a black shoulder pad threw them a glance and she ignored him. They were all dead men to her and she had to reach a shuttle or some other ship large enough for the three of them before the ship’s stabilizers or repulsors gave in. Fortunately, Yena’s advice was spot on as always and at minute five exact they entered starboard landing bay number two. As the three of them reigned up to a full stop, the Inquisitor took a look around. The hangar was massive and could hold several squadrons of TIE-fighters at once. She breathed in the heavy scent of oil and other tough substances in the air and everywhere around the spacious area there were stormtroopers in their white armor and crew of all branches in their gray or black uniforms. They were bustling around amongst maintenance machinery and vehicles in teams of two or more, some of them carrying hoses and cables and others carrying munitions. TIE-fighters landed smoothly on the deck, re-armed and took off again, but for every TIE that took off again, two were too wrecked to launch. The crews worked in perfect unison every time and they seemed completely indifferent to the shudders going through the hull whenever a proton bomb impacted. The sound of commands being piped through the speaker systems indicated that the battle was taking a turn for the worse yet it did nothing to unnerve them.

They’re little more than clones, she told herself as she turned her attention away from the doomed men. She had never really had much to do with soldiers of the Empire and neither had she thought of their lives or their motivations. Little did she care too, as long as they served their purpose.

“Over there. Those Lambda-shuttles look untouched,” Yena announced and pointed to her discovery. There were five shuttles parked unattended at the aft wall of the hangar and she considered it. A shuttle would be of little use against enemy fighters, but they wouldn’t need to dogfight. All they had to do was get away from the battle and then engage the hyperdrive. With a few fighters as an escort they could easily accomplish that so she gave Yena a nod. Almost simultaneously, she felt the invisible hold of her heart tighten.

“What is it?” Yena inquired, taking a few steps forwards impatiently.

She had to support herself against some machinery which was vibrating as if working overtime.

“The force-…” she said but she wasn’t certain. She tried moving again but that only made it worse. She was anchored down where she stood and slowly,the noise around her faded. She looked up, trying to see who was doing this to her but all she saw was Yena’s inquisitive expression. Her lips were moving but the Inquisitor heard nothing except the unsteady beating of her own heart.

Calm down, she told herself but that did nothing in itself. Darkness crept in all around her and the younger mirialan beamed fear in the force but the Inquisitor didn’t hear her voice. Instead, she heard a much more familiar voice whispering in her ear.

“Baaariiss…” its gleeful voice greeted her. It wrapped its arms around the Inquisitor’s midsection in a solid embrace and the Inquisitor’s heart felt like it was going to explode. She could feel the apparition’s cold and damp breath against the side of her face and she was tempted to say the words that she never understood why she had to say.

Ahsoka… I’m so-.. I tried.

The apparition responded by pressing its freezing lips against the Inquisitor’s neck. The intimate gesture felt like acid against the skin but she couldn’t turn away from it.

“You haven’t given up, have you?” it asked. She couldn’t tell whether the surprise in its voice was faked or not but her reply came out automatically.

Never.

She heard a dreadful laughter that was like shards of glass in her ears. If she could, she would have plugged her ears with her fingers but she was powerless. The horrible sound ceased only when the apparition covered her vision with its clawed hands and disappeared with its final words echoing in her mind.

“Then why are you afraid?”

The world trembled around her and the soundless, dark dreamscape faded. The first thing she saw was Yena’s scared eyes searching hers and when she responded, the younger Inquisitor inquired fervently, “are you alright? You were zoned out, I thought you- What happened?”

It was a new thing to her, seeing another Inquisitor so distraught. There was a near blinding light behind Yena, but she could still see her fidgety hands which she seemed unable to place anywhere. Undoubtedly, Yena wanted to do something to help but she didn’t know what. It reminded her of her former self, when Barriss had discovered her force-healing ability. It had been a similarly stressful situation where one of the other younglings, a human boy, had been involved in a serious accident. She didn’t remember his name nor the particular circumstances, but she remembered the look of utter horror in his face and how he had begged for help. She had called for aid but he had kept on begging her to do something. With no Master Luminara there to supervise her and no assistance in sight, she had done what came up first in her mind. She had placed her hands on his chest and meditated. More to her own surprise than his, it had worked. After that, it had taken her a long time to figure out what exactly she had done. Afraid to relive the experience, she had on occasion denied doing anything to the boy, but of course, Master Luminara had seen straight through her. If she hadn’t, it was a good question whether she would ever have realized her own potential.

But however much it did to ease her twisting heart, it was all a long time ago and healing was not something she was likely to ever be practicing again. All it did was remind her of another thing she had sacrificed.Unwilling to be caught up in the past and risk losing herself and her wayward apprentice, she took Yena’s hands to stabilize herself. “I’m fine, but Yena, you’re shaking.”

“W- What? I – “ she stuttered. She probably didn’t understand how curious she looked, but she sobered up quickly. The worry drained from her body and she pulled up the fallen Inquisitor. “I was worried you had another… Episode.”

“You shouldn’t be so quick to show concern for my safety,” the Inquisitor said as she gathered her strength again. She waited until Yena had given a nod of understanding and then she led on.

“Let’s move, there’s nothing but death here.”

If anyone heard her ominous opinion of the situation they didn’t show it. As she searched the faces of crewmen they passed, she had to squint her eyes to see. It was as if she had achieved night vision during her time in the spontaneous purgatory and her eyes refused to adjust to the brightness. Yena didn’t notice it, nor did anyone spare them a glance as they made their way towards the ship. Once they were inside they split up without exchanging a single word. Yena took care of their prisoner and the Inquisitor occupied the pilot’s seat. She wasn’t very well versed in flying these things but it ought to be simple enough. It was easy to get the engines going and the controls weren’t tough. They had plenty of fuel and although not all weapons were installed, the deflector shields were all in order and the hyperdrive was working. That was all they would need from the ship and all she had to do next, was to enlist the aid of a few fighters to keep them safe while they made their escape.

“She’s bound in the back,” Yena said as she entered the cockpit and strapped herself in the co-pilot’s seat. “All systems set and ready?”

“We just need an escort and we’re good,” the Inquisitor replied and raised a hand to the panels above. “One or two TIE-fighers should do it – they won’t dare refuse us.”

She found the switch to close the cargo ramp and the switch to activate the repulsors, but her fingers hesitated.

What is that? she asked herself. There was a moment of pause to her suffering which allowed her reprieve and the clarity of mind to see what was happening around them. Through the cockpit glass they could see chaos erupting in what had been orderly moments before. Abnormally bright flames were licking at some of the walls and there were wounded men lying about. Shrapnel rattled against the canopy of the ship when smaller explosions went off in the hangar though the unarmored men were not as durable. Several of them were cut down where they stood never to rise again and there were no medics in sight to take care of them. It was clear that time was up. Still, her fingers did not move.

“Shall I request the escort?” Yena asked, staring expectantly at the Inquisitor.

“Wait,” she said and debated internally whether to open her mind to the force or not. It meant she would open herself to the pains of the many deaths around her but it also meant opening herself to anything the force might be trying to tell her. Casting aside her fears she decided to do it and within a second she felt enclosed, as if there were mental walls keeping her locked in.

Ahsoka.

She bit down hard and tasted blood before she felt the pain.

Twice in a day.

She felt her nails dig into her hands as the flames of hatred swallowed her heart. She did not bother taking the careful approach of examining the barriers in her mind, rather, she battered it head-on and sensed it crumble like the inferior fortification it was.

You’re not as crafty as you think, she told the enemy within. The mental trick was as dastardly as one could expect from a jedi and it might have worked if not for the Inquisitor’s overwhelming power. As the trick unraveled completely, the only thing keeping her from taking out her spiking rage on something on the ship was imagining Barriss’ horrified expression once she saw what Ahsoka would become. As a padawan to the Chosen one, Ahsoka had been nearly as reckless as he was but she had been twice as compassionate. She had carried every single death that was a result of her actions with her and she had never found a way to get rid of her guilt. A lot of jedi had been of the opinion that what they did was for the greater good or that they did what they had to do, no matter how horrible the deed. Ahsoka had, rightly so, never understood those views and she had never seen herself sending people to their deaths. Her efforts to conform to the jedi ways had taken their toll on her and it had crushed her just as much as it had Barriss who had been watching all along. It was curious to think that both of them had seen the anguish within the other, but never within themselves.

Perhaps that is still the case, she wondered. Ahsoka did say she saw the internal conflict within Barriss, but could she see through the Inquisitor as well?

It doesn’t matter, she decided. Once I have her, there will be nothing left to see within me.

Both Barriss and Ahsoka would be nothing but memories of a time when weakness was allowed to strive. She imagined Ahsoka with her brazen smile and her bold demeanor and then wondered how long that would that last in a cage. Barriss had attempted to manipulate and deceive, but that had failed to bring Ahsoka on the right path. This time, she was going to use the recipe she knew would work. There would be no manipulation and no dishonesty. Ahsoka had to understand that there was no other way and that the Inquisitor was too strong. Granted, she had been taken down by treachery, but that was over now. Barriss had played her trick and she couldn’t play it twice.

Something rustled her shoulder and she looked over to yet another of Yena’s startled expressions.

“Are you alright? Should I take the controls?” she offered.

“Stay on the ship,” the Inquisitor said as if compliance to her plan was an undisputed fact.

“What? Where are you going? You said there’s nothing but death here! The ship is going down!””

The deep hollow sound of metal being pounded rang throughout the ship. Yena was right in that the ship was done for, but if her premonitions were right – as they always were, then it would be worth going down with it.

“She’s still here. Don’t wait for me if the ship suffers complete failure,” she said in parting and then sat off towards the cargo hold to the sound of protests but she heard no steps behind her. Already she could feel the quakes in the force after the destruction of the mental cage she had been in all along. Around her, the odd brightness dissipated and rematerialized into a single entity that she could not see but that she could feel. She made that her focal point and demanded that the force shield her and hide her presence in the somber currents of dying men and women in the force.

Immediately upon exiting the shuttle she detected the faded montrals of her tormentor moving amongst the corpses of Imperial crewmen. The sickly yellow eyes made the cheerful smile that was on her lips appear ever more macabre and she moved around with a light jump to her step as if she was overjoyed. No one else noticed the apparition and her first instinct was not to shy away from it as it had always been, it was to follow it. She knew that no good could come of the devilish image of Ahsoka, but she also knew what the force told her. Ahsoka was still on the ship and no matter how or why she was still there, the monster was going to lead her to her.

Giggling like it was a game of tag, it took off in a direction and she followed even though what she was doing was borderline insane. It could only be a matter of minutes before the last of the stardestroyer’s systems gave in and they all perished but then again, she wasn’t the only one who had lost her sanity. She darted past patrols of stormtroopers, crew and officers headed everywhere and nowhere. Did they even understand that they were about to die? Did they care? It was laughable to her in that moment to think that the principles of law and order were so deeply imprinted in the minds of every Imperial soldier that they were willing to die for nothing with no questions asked. Yet thinking of it, she was struck by an unforeseen chill. It reached all the way into her bones and she felt her heartrate triple.

The artificial atmosphere generators must have given in, she stipulated, but there was something about the entire situation that hit her harder than it should have. The Imperial soldiers could have been asked to kill their own families and they would have done it without a second thought. They might even have enjoyed it, knowing they were serving true justice and that unsettled her immensely.

“Baaa-riiiiss?”

She shook off the dread and put herself back on the pursuit. These thoughts didn’t belong to her and they did her no good. If she gave Barriss more thought then she was only improving her chances to make a difference again. Having to sprint to keep up with the corrupt version of Ahsoka, the warmth of motion served as a counterweight to the chill but it couldn’t completely eradicate it.

Up ahead, her guide paused. She had reached a relatively narrow access tunnel which had no doors in the sides and three stormtroopers couldn’t stand shoulder to shoulder at the broadest spot. There were racks everywhere, humming with fans or electrical equipment and she guessed that this was some sort of maintenance area. There were only two ways out of the place and one of them was behind her now. With no crew in sight, she could see why Ahsoka would take that path. There was no way she would be expecting this and at the same time the apparition disappeared into the obscure reaches of the other end of the tunnel, the real Ahsoka came running towards the Inquisitor.

There’s no room for error this time, she inspired herself and took the lightsaber in her hands. She readied her body to absorb the impact should Ahsoka decide to try and get past her and it did seem like that was the plan, but then she slowed down. She came to a sliding halt at a distance where a blaster shot would have been easy and the look on her face was, to the Inquisitor’s satisfaction, one of shock.

“Clever trick,” she began, giving credit where credit was due. “But this ends here.”

Had she surmised the results of her defeat by watching the holo recordings alone, she would have been too hard on herself. Ahsoka’s montrals were partly covered with gauze and her frontal armor plates were scorched with several slices of soot where the Inquisitor’s lightsaber had struck. The flexible, mud-colored clothes left her forearms bare which had cost her. There were red scratches and lesser burns on the bare skin although the Inquisitor did not recall causing that.

Ahsoka shook her head to get past the confusion.

“It would have been better for the both of us if you had abandoned the ship and this meaningless hunt,” Ahsoka expressed as the broad, white stripes above her eyes turned down sharply, accentuating her frown. “Even you have to admit that this is suicide. Look around you – We’ll both die here and that’s not what you want, is it?”

“You know exactly what I want,” the Inquisitor proceeded, pleased to watch Ahsoka’s expression twist even though it was only for a second. “You had your chances to stop it but you didn’t. What am I to make of that? Perhaps you want me to hunt you?”

“You’re delirious,” Ahsoka declared with a contemptuous headshake.  Her stance had changed, the Inquisitor noticed and she changed hers to match it. “Are you so lost that you do not understand why I let you live?”

Ahsoka’s words touched her heart like needles and the Inquisitor’s voice became barbed with the emotions bleeding through the confines of her soul.

“You have always valued compassion too much. Nothing but suffering and despair comes from it and if you stubbornly refuse to accept that then you will have both in plenty soon enough.”

Vents of steam were ejected from above before the ripples through the steel told her there had been another explosion - but Ahsoka hadn’t moved. Their eyes locked and the Inquisitor felt the tightness in her chest unwind enough to encompass a new blend of emotions. The dark side’s intoxicating tendrils took hold of her and she was reminded of just how soft Ahsoka’s montrals were.  Ahsoka’s fresh breath filled her nostrils and she could almost taste the lips she had desired for so long but always been denied. The dark side would give her the power to take it all if only she let it permeate her soul. If only she let go of control.

No, she thought quickly, resisting what was clearly a trap. How stupid do you think I am, Barriss?

When the second explosion rocked the deck, Ahsoka tried to move and the tunnel was cast in crimson light. Ahsoka activated her lightsabers in response but she wasn’t looking at the Inquisitor. She saw something behind her and judging by the look in her eyes, it wasn’t something pleasant.

“I feel it too, Barriss. I know what it’s like, it haunts me too.”

“What are you talking about?” the Inquisitor asked, mystified by Ahsoka’s words. Was this some poor attempt at deception?

“It’s been worse than ever lately, hasn’t it?”

She can’t mean –

Icy claws dug into her back before she could think the sentence through. Her ears were filled with a freakish version of Ahsoka’s voice.

“Doesn’t it feel good?”

In an instant, it was impossible to resist what her body craved. Without her consent, the dark side started to wound its way into her veins like a parasitic liquid with a will of its own and she advanced on Ahsoka without ever having decided to do so.

“That’s so much better, isn’t it?”

“You have to fight it!”Ahsoka said hastily, attempting to embolden her but she was forced to pay attention to the Inquisitor as their blades came ever closer. “It’s not you, it’s the Empire! Fight them!”

Something about what Ahsoka said struck a chord with what little was left of the Inquisitor’s mind, but she struggled to keep her mind together.

Why am I fighting it?

“You’re stronger than this!” Ahsoka tried again.

Isn’t this what I want?

“Don’t give in to it!”

Barriss is dead.

A girlish snicker filled her mind and she felt a pain she had felt a thousand times before.

“Now, she is.”

Sparks flew as the blades collided and with no will of her own, she watched herself lash out wildly, carving bright orange slices into computer stacks or the walls. Ahsoka was fast, parrying and dodging but the tunnel was far too narrow. She couldn’t slip past the Inquisitor without taking her out.

“Barriss listen to me!” Ahsoka continued, unhindered by the attempts at her life. “You can fight it! You have to fight it!”

The more she engaged Ahsoka, the more the agony eased. A shower of sparks exploded from a destroyed rack and she had to duck and cover her face with her arm. Ahsoka attempted to leap over her but that was stopped with a force push. Ahsoka got up quickly, propelling herself with force-enhanced speed towards the Inquisitor but she saw through it and planted herself in the way of her body and her blade in the way of Ahsoka’s.

“I know I should have done something,” Ahsoka threw out, evidently attempting a new strategy. “But you’re right, I was too scared. But it’s not too late! Let me h–“

Ahsoka was cut off by the Inquisitor’s fist connecting with her jaw. It probably hurt herself more than it did Ahsoka but she didn’t care. Her face split in a manic grin, thrill relieving the agony.

Bleeding from her torn lip, Ahsoka grimaced. She wasn’t caught off guard as the Inquisitor’s lightsaber came forwards in a vicious thrust towards her abdomen. She cut down with both lightsabers and moved forwards, forcing the Inquisitor to either get out of the way be severed in half. The Inquisitor chose the first option and performed a stunning feat of agility, leaning back deep enough to touch the floor with the back of her head and then using the built-up tension in her body to work her leg like a spring to offer Ahsoka a nasty uppercut with her boot. She made some unintelligible sound of discomfort but she was back in the assault so quickly that the Inquisitor only barely met Ahsoka’s white sabers with her single red in time.

They both had the same idea and threw a force push at each other. They were evenly matched and they stood locked in that position for five seconds before the Inquisitor’s strength gave in and she was driven backwards with enough force that she made a mirialan-sized bulge in the rack she landed in. Screaming pain sprung to life in her bones but the dark side dulled it to the point where it was nothing but slight tickles. Driven to the point of complete disregard for her own safety by the staggering power she possessed, she flung herself at Ahsoka again.

Ahsoka had given up trying to reason with her and she was prepared this time. She made a series of high-speed feints which forced the Inquisitor back. Furious and unable to comprehend how Ahsoka could hold her ground, the Inquisitor came at Ahsoka with a ferocity she never would have deployed if not for the insistence of the apparition.  It was easy for Ahsoka to deflect and parry but it kept her on the defensive and it killed more of the time they had so preciously little of.

Until her saber was caught between two white and then twisted out of her hands.

Before she understood what had happened, she saw the world rise around her. The hard feeling of her knees landing in the deck broke the illusion but then an immense, searing pain originating from her chest threatened to drown her senses. She let it and by focusing on the agony, she could finally resist the hold of her mind long enough to think but by then it was far too late.

The claws let go of her back and she tipped over to land in something soft. Amazingly, she found the strength to speak but there was only one thing on her mind.

“I-...  hate you… Barriss.”

That she felt out of place on the make-shift troop carrier was an understatement. Cayleen Hoss had actively been trying to avoid authorities for most of her life and now, she was headed straight for them.

“If you stay in the back you’ll be fine,” a man said to her with a grin that was nearly invisible due to his massive gray beard. He towered over her but for a man of his size, his voice was surprisingly kind. His words were meant to be reassuring but she could not look past the fact that everyone around her was wearing body armor and helmets. She had nothing to protect herself with except for Shilka of course. However, she had volunteered so she had to smile back at him.

“Thanks, but I think I can keep up with an old geezer like you.”

He let out a hearty laughter that was irritatingly infectious. She felt better for it already though that was cut short by her stomach growling. They had given her some grub but she was having some trouble digesting it. She’d been living off ration bars for close to a week and that couldn’t be healthy.

“Alright listen up!” the leader of the squad said, calling for attention. Hoss looked to the ramp of the cargo hold and so did the geezer. The ship had several fighters parked along the outer walls of the hold – Tapham’s among them, but there was still plenty of space for the twenty-odd troops their squad consisted of. The leader was a tall, dark-skinned woman with tied-up brown curls. She wore segmented body armor with a forest camouflage pattern just like everyone else, but on her head was a thick cap with the rank insignia of a Sergeant in the middle of the shade. Most of her kit didn’t fit a single biome and at a glance, Hoss might have categorized her as a bounty hunter or a mercenary, but that was unlikely. As the woman was waiting for everyone’s private chatter to die down, she glanced across the men and women who she would be commanding. When her hickory-brown eyes reached Hoss, she knew that this leader was made of the right stuff. That was reassuring.

“We’re going in hot,” she began. “We’ll be assaulting the port side landing bay. The Imperial batteries are silent and they’re most likely busy getting themselves the hell out of there, but we’ll still be going in guns blazing.”

A nearby detonation rocked the massive ship but nobody moved an inch. They were paying close attention to their Sergeant and that meant she probably should as well, but she couldn’t help herself staring. They all had severe faces and their equipment bore marks of excessive usage. More than a few had highly customized rifles or headwear and that was enough to convince her that they had to be hardened soldiers – veterans perhaps. Whatever cell these men belonged to, they had a much tougher job than hers.

“All we gotta do is go in, get our operative and get out. Simple in and out mission. Any questions?”

Nobody spoke up.

“Alright, lock and load! We’re going in in five!”

Hoss drew Shilka and made sure her equipment was in order. She didn’t feel as nervous as she thought she would in such a situation. Dreem wasn’t with her as he was resting in the medbay, but with all these troops around her what could go wrong? It was a simple pickup mission and if a jedi could disable an entire stardestroyer, she wasn’t worried about their chances of success. She saw that the squad was organized into several groups and as the appointed group leaders took care of their men, the Sergeant came over to Hoss.

“You’re the pilot who came flying from the moon, right?” she asked, eyeing Hoss up and down in a manner that made her feel even more out of place.

Hoss nodded and took notice of the other woman’s face. She had the voice of a woman at Hoss’ age but with her weathered appearance, she looked much older.

“That’s me. I’ve got a bone to pick with the bucketheads,” she replied, thinking of her precious Anguilli which was now a smoldering bunch of scrap metal. “I hope you don’t mind?”

The Sergeant laughed.

“We can always use more people who know how to use a blaster,” she said. “You’ll be joining my group and don’t worry about the plan, just follow me and do what comes natural, alright?”

“You got it,” Hoss replied but before the Sergeant walked out of she remembered a question. “You only mentioned one operative by the way. I’m guessing yours got the others with her?”

The dark-skinned woman looked at her questionably for a few seconds before she spoke.

“The others?”

“Yes, the Empire took three of us,” Hoss explained and tallied her fingers as she listed the names. “Fulcrum, Captain Tikira and Adder. Which one of them is your operative?”

“Fulcrum,” the Sergeant replied quickly. “I haven’t heard of the others.”

The ship veered from side to side as the pilot pulled maneuvers. The sound of blaster bolts against the shields of the ship reverberated throughout the hull and the Sergeant became still as she listened in to the radio in her ear.

“Got it,” she told the coms and then looked to Hoss but she had no more information to give. “I don’t know about the others but we’ll find out soon enough. Get ready.”

With those words she grabbed her blaster and Hoss started flipping Shilka as per usual when she got too nervous or too bored. The movements of the ship told her that the pilot’s plan of attack didn’t go further than swinging the ship from side to side like any newbie would do.

Like Dreem would do, she determined and thought back to one particular relief mission. She and Dreem had delivered a container’s worth of spare parts to a collection of farmers on a planet in the Felucia system and were on their way back to the cell. They were half a parsec away from being able to make the hyperspace jump when weequay pirates attacked them. She had given him the controls and retired to the cabin because their mission was done and he had need of the practice – needless to say, she had been quite alarmed about his rookie maneuvers and of the blaster fire he hadn’t avoided. If she hadn’t been able to climb her way into the cockpit and take over they would both have been taken and sold as slaves on Zygerria or something worse than that.

There was a brief moment of weightlessness and an end to the senseless maneuvers which meant the ship had entered the synthetic gravity inside the stardestroyer. A heavy clank told everyone that the landing was complete.

“Lower the ramp!” the Sergeant called though Hoss didn’t see who she was talking to. The ramp was released with a resounding metallic clang against the deck of the hangar. Almost immediately, the hangar was filled with the noise of blaster fire, red bolts flying everywhere. It was hard to see anything from all the way in the back, but as the groups rushed out with their blaster rifles trained on either flank, she saw no one be cut down. She was the last to exit the ship and she was overwhelmed by the sheer size of things. She had never been close to a stardestroyer before and it dawned on her how large it actually was. The hangar could have held at least five corvettes and still have room for hundreds of fighters but at the moment it was near void of them. The walls were clinically white and the floor was onyx durasteel except for the white, armored shapes which were in a full retreat. They were moving across the empty hangar deck towards the back where a large two-part gate was wide open. It looked to be the main access way.

“Keep firing!” the Sergeant shouted and pointed at the gate up ahead. “That gate dead ahead is the target! Second group, move up! First and third, spread out!”

She didn’t raise her blaster at all; there was no shot for her to take. Besides, it didn’t sit well with her to shoot at retreating soldiers – Imperial or not. The others were less sentimental about it and the blaster bolts flew back and forth even while they were scaling toppled crates, bundles of thick cables and transportable pipelines pulled out on the deck. She couldn’t see exactly how many stormtroopers they were fighting but the mass of white was dropping fast in numbers. She spotted one or two stormtroopers who had been hit lying still on the deck. Another was being dragged by two of his comrades but that only made them present easier targets for the rebels. Aghast, Hoss watched as the two dragging the wounded stormtrooper were gunned down mercilessly.

“Get to the gate! Go! We need control of that console!”

The Sergeant’s voice made her legs move. She passed over the dead bodies of the three stormtroopers and felt nauseous all of the sudden. The armor she had always been prone to hate seemed much less evil when it was half covered in black spots where blaster bolts had hit it. She made an effort not to think of the human body that was inside of it as she kept running. Up ahead were several towers of crates stacked three or four stories high on either side of the main gate. It was wide open and Imperial crew in gray and light-gray uniforms were rushing through it to get away from the action while stormtroopers poured in to get right into the thick of it. They were taking cover behind the wobbly towers and offering more firm resistance than before. The gate itself reached up two levels and was solid enough that even Hoss could see that the two-part horizontal door would be impossible to blast through should they be shut. The Sergeant wasn’t one to leave anything to chance it seemed. She shouted from the midst of the men, “don’t let them close it! Advance! Move, move move!”

As Hoss knelt behind a cluster of barrels, she breathed in the tang of soot and smoke in the air and it made everything worse. She placed Shilka on the blue barrel in front of her and had to hold on with both her hands when she took aim.  The stormtroopers were incredibly disciplined, only taking safe shots and biding their time while more and more reinforcements arrived. None of them had seen her and they weren’t shooting in her direction which meant she got more than one clean shot – if she had fired. Unable to pull the trigger on any of the stormtroopers, she ducked behind the barrel and slapped her forehead several times.

Come on Hoss, what’s wrong with you? They killed Castrian.

She heard the Sergeant shouting something but she couldn’t make out what it was. Her mind was already concerned with the image of a twenty-four year old mandalorian soldier standing tall in his best armor, but she could never maintain that picture. Before she could stop herself, she saw red blaster bolts piercing the suit of gray and blue armor.  His posture was thrown off as he crashed face-first into the ground. Gaping in horror, she could smell the burnt flesh as shot after shot lit up his dead corpse until it was nothing but a smoldering pile of scorched armor. Usually, she kept him out of her thoughts by thinking of all her losses as one. Often, she labeled them ‘business contracts’ or ‘robbed friends’ which spared her the pain, but this time something had cut straight through her. She couldn’t feel angry about it, all she felt was a sharp prod at her heart that kept telling her he wasn’t around any longer. He was dead – murdered by the Empire and all she had left of him was the weapon she was holding in her hands now. Back then she had sworn to use it to make the Empire pay just as the troopers were doing now, but where revenge should have felt sweet, she only felt disgusted. The scent of burnt flesh was the same whether it was her brother or the stormtroopers and now she was reminded why she preferred working alone. This wasn’t silent sabotage, theft or smuggling. This wasn’t liberating slaves or delivering food to those in need. This was war. This was bloody murder and she had never wanted to take part in that.

“Left flank! Move up, move up!”

The stern order broke through her cloudy mind and she got up to join the battle again. No matter her feelings about the situation she had volunteered and she couldn’t let them down now. The stormtroopers were defending the gate with fervor and they were making good use of the crates for cover. The Sergeant was shouting more orders and two of the groups broke off to surround the defenders. Hoss stayed with her group and as they approached slowly while delivering withering salvoes of suppressive fire on the defenders, the Imperials were taken in the flanks and overrun. That left the way to the gate open and when they reached the wide-open gate, she threw herself against the wall, panting hard.

“You’ll get used to it,” a trooper next to her told her. It was the elderly man again and he didn’t look like he’d broken a sweat. His voice was compassionate and no matter what he had seen, she gave him a nod. It was too exhausting to try and explain herself.

“Get these crates down!” a gruff voice ordered. “Form a defensive wall!”

The rebel troops set to work immediately, putting themselves in harm’s way momentarily to establish a thick wall of crates which they had no idea what contained. Red blaster bolts came flying over their heads but they didn’t fret. In some way, she was impressed by their valor. The only soldiers she had seen in action were Imperial or Republic troopers and she had never been able to think of them as ordinary people. They were more machine than man, she had wrongly thought.

Suffering another prod at her heart, she nearly jumped when the Sergeant spoke again.

“You! Pilot!”

That’s probably me, Hoss thought and true enough, she looked across the wide-open gate and found the insisting stare of the Sergeant.

“Look around the corner. What do you see from there?”

She didn’t think about it before sticking her head out and peeking around the corner into the hall behind the gate. It looked tall and stretched on further than she could see. It had rails built into the floor and she guessed it was meant for transporting TIE-fighters on trams perhaps, but she didn’t spend long pondering its use.

“Th-There’s at least five patrols coming!” she yelled back at the Sergeant, indicating the fifty stormtroopers or so which were advancing in the distance, but that wasn’t the worst of it. “They’ve got a walker with them!”

The huge, lumbering thing was maneuvering itself into position behind the stormtroopers and it would be able to get a perfect shot at them in moments. More than one trooper dared a glance to confirm what she had reported and more than one of them withdrew their heads with a curse.

“What are those bucketbrains doing?” a man next to the Sergeant said. “Why aren’t they abandoning the ship!?”

Maybe they were machines after all.

“Keep shooting!” was the stark reply from the Sergeant. “She’ll be here any moment, she’s never let me down before!”

The mass of enemies was getting closer and as the red blaster bolts came flying again, the troopers fired back at them. They were still about twenty left but they would be obliterated in seconds once the walker started firing. Watching it lumbering closer without anything happening on their own side, without any orders being given or anyone moving was horrible. It was like just standing there, waiting for death to come.

Come on, she urged. Where are you?

She took aim at the stormtroopers as they came within range of her Shilka, but she didn’t press the trigger. They fanned out to create a broader firing line and for every two of them that went down, a rebel trooper collapsed lifeless.

Where is she?

The walker stood close enough now that she could see the twin-barreled laser cannons aligning themselves. It would have been able to shoot at least five steps earlier, but they must have known that the rebels had nothing that could stop it. Now, it was getting ready take care of them in a single shot, but its sights went further than the hastily built rebel barricade.

“What is it doing?” a female trooper blurted out, but Hoss understood its intentions immediately.

“The ship! It’s aiming for the ship!” she yelled out desperately. A single blast could take out the ramp and without it, it would be impossible for them to make it out of there. Suddenly, death seemed very likely.

“Damn them all to hell!” the Sergeant shouted and turned to the outmatched troopers who were looking to her, clearly hoping she was going to give them the order to retreat. “Close the gate! We’ll find another way!”

The gray bearded man beside Hoss operated the console with one hand. His fingers moved with an astounding calm as he set the gate to emergency close which caused two outer layers of thin steel, which she hadn’t noticed so far, to shut immediately. The two main parts of the gate were slower but they didn’t sit around to watch, they retreated while the doors still lasted. Those who were too wounded to run were carried and as they made it across the floor, Hoss fell behind with the elders of the squad. The Sergeant was running beside her, talking furiously into her wrist com, “what do you mean leave?  What about you? Where are – What?”

Hoss had no idea what the other end was saying but judging by the look the Sergeant had, it was not what she wanted to hear. Her face was a hard-set image of frustration as she motioned for everyone to keep retreating.

“Get to the ship, we’re leaving.”

What? We’re just going to up-end and leave?

They had inflicted losses on an already dead crew and taken some themselves as their only achievements. What of the jedi? What of Tikira? Her questions remained unspoken as nobody questioned the Sergeant. The depleted squad of soldiers made quick pace across the hangar deck and before Hoss could catch her breath, they were inside the ship with the ramp closed. As the engines fired up, she held on to the barrel of a fighter’s cannon until the jittery movements of the ship had come to an end. Then, a short glance around the hold revealed that there were more than a few troopers missing.

I hope it wasn’t for nothing, she contemplated glumly. The men and women of the assault squad were sat down amongst the cargo in utter silence. Not a word of discontent or sorrow was exchanged and she had rarely seen a more disheartening sight. They had just lost friends for nothing but nobody was frustrated. They should have been angry at the very least but she couldn’t see anyone showing it. Maybe they were all happy to risk their lives for the jedi, but they couldn’t all share Dreem’s opinion of them. Could they?

She gave up trying to reason with herself and suddenly felt compelled to sit down and join them, but the moans of the wounded caught her attention. None of them were loud but she couldn’t cool down with them constantly reminding her of what had just happened. Before the stretcher bearers arrived to take them to the medbay, she had left the hold. She didn’t know the ship or where she wanted to go – only that she wanted to get out of there. Whether it was by some sort of instinctive call or random chance, she wandered straight unto the bridge.

Oh right, the battle isn’t over.

There were a number of seats positioned in ascending height from the fore to the back. About half of them were occupied but even then, none of the seats were too tall for her to look over. She could see the star destroyer taking up most of the view outside the windows and it struck her that they were actually still fighting a battle out there. Red and green plasma lit up the darkness along with scattered fires and breeches in the massive hull of the Imperial ship. She was very glad that they weren’t on it any longer but the Imperial crew wasn’t so lucky.

There’s got to be thousands of people on that ship, she thought and didn’t know what to feel about it. A ship that size had plenty of escape pods but where would they go? It was better not to think of it but with everything going on, it was useless trying to gear down and so she looked for something to do. She spotted the Sergeant standing in the front where all of the seats had at least three consoles each and she stood over one of them. Maybe Hoss could be of assistance and just maybe, she could get some answers.

“Fulcrum, this is Thresher One do you copy, over?” the Sergeant spoke to a holographic image Hoss recognized from somewhere. It looked like a special sort of double-bladed knife with a handle in the middle.

The Sergeant’s foot was tapping away impatiently while she waited for a reply and when she noticed Hoss she waved her over.

“Pilot, I can’t get a hold of Fulcrum. Do you have any sort of coms with your people?”

She did have her coms linked up with Tikira and Dreem but she had never synchronized it with Adder’s.

“I can try Captain Tikira,” she said and brought up her coms but she couldn’t help herself asking, “are they alright? Why did we leave-“

“Not now! Just hail them,” the Sergeant intervened and Hoss felt bad for even asking. The Sergeant was already trying to reach Fulcrum again so Hoss spoke into her own coms.

“Captain can you hear me? It’s Hoss.”

There was no response so she tried again but with the same result. She heard the Sergeant punch something that gave way before addressing the entire bridge.

“Keep on the lookout for an escape pod and keep our channels open, she might be trying to hail us from an Imperial ship.”

She doesn’t know, Hoss thought but kept that to herself. The Sergeant looked stressed enough without her useless questions and so she just tried hailing Tikira again.

“Captain, this is Hoss. Can you hear me?”

The Sergeant sat down in the seat, ripped off her cap and planted her elbows on the console. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and groaned powerlessly.

“Forget it you’re wasting your breath.”

Hoss sat down in the seat beside the Sergeant as there was no reply yet again. She propped an elbow on the console and ruffled her hair into a mess.

I need a shower, she decided but such a luxury wasn’t a commodity on a battlefield.

“The name’s Kaeden by the way,” the Sergeant told her without lifting her head.

“Hoss. A pleasure.”

Kaeden brought up the holographic image again but she didn’t speak. The bridge was quiet and Hoss guessed they were concentrating on the fighting. There was none of it close to the ship and there were few bolts of any color flying through space. The battle seemed to be over but at what cost? Of those she had seen get killed there was probably hundreds more she hadn’t seen – not to mention the jedi.

Sighing, she realized she was going to have to be the one to tell Dreem.

She refused to even consider the possibility that her Master wasn’t coming back.

It had been close to twelve minutes since the Second Sister had rushed off into the stardestroyer to find the jedi. The landing bay had long since been abandoned and she was the only one there. Despite her instincts telling her to flee or run or at the very least put herself in the pilot seat of the shuttle, she stood outside next to the cargo ramp. Her hands were collected at the small of her back with her knuckles prodding into her spine. Her feet were placed firmly on the deck and there was a very slight hunch to her stance that spared her back just enough that she might stand there for hours if need be.

Remember what she told you.

You must be patient.

Her Master’s parting words on the first day of her training had never left her. While at first, most of what she had been told had been incomprehensible to her, she had eventually understood what it was her Master had attempted to imprint into her. It was vital that she did not give in to the easy temptations that the Empire offered and that she survived. Not only in the sense that she stayed alive but also in the sense that she retained who she was. If she gave in to the lures of the dark side and became obsessed only with her search for power then she would forget that vengeance was all that mattered.

She tasted the word and once again imagined what it would be like to see those who had wronged her dead at her feet. This time, she saw Inquisitors in their black uniforms with their sickly greed frozen in their golden eyes. Their lifeless forms still bore sizzling cuts from where her lightsaber had ended their wretched lives and around her, the temple was on fire. She could still smell the smoke and hear the screams but she had relived the scene so many times it only served as a reminder now. There were times she didn’t see Inquisitors but stormtroopers or even civilians in spite of the fact that they hadn’t been there. She took it as a sure sign of what was to come and relished in it. There was no clearer sign that the force wished for her to endure until she could strike back – and she had endured.

For years, she had toiled for the Empire, knowing that she was meant for more. They required loyalty and results and that was what she had given them. She had ripped more force sensitive newborn from their mother’s arms than she cared to keep count of and delivered them to be processed. Officially, she concerned herself only with Project Harvester, but she spent as much time as she could get away with researching and training for the day her patience would pay off.  It was the belief that kept her awake at night and the motivation she used whenever her consciousness tried to prod at her. Under her own strict governance she had achieved a power and knowledge of the force that few Inquisitors could boast of and that was partly why she was able to tell that her mission into the Outer Rim was much more than what the Inquisitorius had thought it to be. She had known at once what the force was trying to tell her and she had eagerly leapt into hyperspace, risking everything to reach who she knew was on the other side.

But the reunion with her Master had not gone as planned. The Inquisitorius had told her little of what to expect and she certainly hadn’t expected to arrive straight into such a mess. If it had been any other Inquisitor, then her Master would most likely have been dead. Those vultures would have leapt at the chance to secure themselves a kill, regardless of what happened to anyone else. She didn’t believe in luck; it had to have been the will of the force that she got there just in time. Reinforced by that fact, she had eagerly taken up the role of Apprentice and carried it out as she had always imagined she should but she hadn’t been prepared for the level of indifference she was going to meet. Her Master acted as if the Apprentice had always been there and that she had only carried out her duty when she saved her life. That should have been satisfactory, but she couldn’t help but feel that something was missing. They had of course never had the time to properly form the bond between Master and Apprentice, but that didn’t seem to interest her Master at all. It was difficult to decipher exactly what was going on, but everything Yena had hoped for was threatened and there was depressingly little Yena could do about it. Her Master was deeply focused on the capture of the togrutan jedi and very little else seemed to matter to her. She hadn’t even called in the observation yet which struck Yena as fatal misconduct. Why would she take on such a challenge all on her own? It couldn’t be about the glory because had she wanted that, she would never have accepted staying in the Outer Rim for so long. But then what was it? And why did it bother Yena so much?

Patience, she reminded herself. Answers would come in time. She had been told to wait on the ship and standing just outside it was as much as she was willing to stretch the meaning of the order. A good Apprentice did as she was told but it was still a challenge to stand there while her Master was off on her own. She should trust her Master of course, but she was still letting her down. An Apprentice was supposed to have her Master’s back and support her when she needed it and how could she do that when she was standing idle? She wasn’t prepared to lose her Master this soon.

A wave of heat washed over her and she was glad that she had decided to wear the helmet. Bright-yellow flames exploded from broken piping above but her semi-heat resistant uniform offered protection.  It wasn’t going to help her much if the airlock shields gave in though and it seemed like their power regulators were about to. The enormous, transparent, white-hued shield that separated empty space from the artificial atmosphere of the landing bay was flickering dangerously and if it failed completely, the emergency shutters would kick in and she would be trapped.

She considered what her Master had told her. If the ship went down, she wouldn’t want her to die here waiting, but what was the alternative? Flee and go back to an Inquisitorius that would execute her for failing? Then she’d rather go down with the ship and her Master even though it pained her to think that the Empire was going to get away with what they had done, but she owed her Master her life. She couldn’t go back now. There were no second chances in the Imperial system.

She felt a pull to the left and looked to see the entire landing bay listing to the side. The stabilizers had given in and she could hear the brakes on the shuttles groaning as they withstood the building friction. The corpses littering the deck started sliding towards empty space along with un-docked TIE fighters, machinery and parts. If she was going to leave this place alive, her Master had to come walking through the entrance within seconds so she threw a glance back in that direction but she wasn’t there.

Someone else was there.

Jedi.

She knew what that meant.

She’s dead.

As the jedi came towards her at a force-enhanced sprint she took her lightsaber in hand. Her eyes stung and it felt like someone had thrown a bucket of ice cold water over her head.

The jedi killed her.

A rage more intense than any she had ever felt before burned away her patience. The togrutan jedi was easy to recognize from the holo recordings but in the force, she was different than anything Yena had ever met before. Had she closed her eyes she would have seen a bright, white light – that was what it felt like looking at her. But there was something more to her radiance than a strong presence with the light side of the force. There was an emotion amongst many which was far superior and which could not be dimmed. Yena felt it clearer and clearer as the jedi jumped over sliding obstacles and dead men to get ever nearer to the ship. The jedi finally came to a halt when she landed close enough to the ship that Yena could have engaged her with the lightsaber but she chose not to yet. Instead, she stared her Master’s killer straight in the eye and released the multitude of frustrations she had built up through years of suppression.

“What have you done?!” she roared.

“We don’t have time for this! Listen to m-“

“You killed her!” she continued and didn’t stop to wonder why the jedi hadn’t pulled her lightsabers yet. She was going to spend the rest of her life alone without her Master and it hurt more than any torture she had ever received.  All those years spent working for those who had destroyed her life were meaningless. Her family, her friends and all those the Empire had forced her to slaughter were never going to be avenged. The only thing she had achieved in her short life was to be a good and loyal pawn and now, she could choose to go back and be executed for being a failure or make herself scarce and be executed as a traitor.

All because of this fallen traitor. This… jedi.

The injustice of it all was unbearable and there was only one way to release.

“Die!”

“Wait! She’s not-“

The crimson blades hissed as they burned through the air. The rotation made them a flying disc of red plasma but the jedi set off and the double-bladed lightsaber landed against the deck, deactivating without having done any harm.

“Fight me you coward!” Yena screamed as she followed the togruta through the air with a poisonous glare. The jedi was mocking her, refusing to join the duel.

“Why won’t you listen!? She’s not dead!”

She called the lightsaber back to her hands and reactivated it. She then rotated the two blades seven times as she performed a deadly dance of feints and on the eight rotation she struck nothing again.

Deactivating the visor, she growled another challenge.

“Fight me!”

The jedi had succeeded in getting around her but she halted half-way up the ramp, turned and looked down at Yena. Only then did she notice that the jedi was carrying a woman with a face she remembered.

Master.

Why hadn’t she seen it immediately?

“I don’t want to fight you,” the jedi told her, her voice drained. “I can sense that you care for her and so do I. You don’t have to trust me, but if you don’t get on this ship and help me save her life then she is going to die.”

It was only then that she saw how taken by the situation the jedi was. Her shape indicated it had been a tough struggle but not only on a physical level. It became obvious what it was the force was telling her and for all the rage compelling her to launch another attack, she could not do it. The jedi was cradling the Second Sister in her arms as if she was the most precious thing in the world and she was worried sick.

That made her rage subside and she didn’t have to think long to make her decision. If there was even a chance that her Master was still alive and could be saved then she was prepared to do anything it took – even if it meant committing treason. She didn’t say it, but she deactivated her lightsaber and the jedi took the meaning and rushed up the ramp to enter the shuttle.

During an unspoken peace treaty, Yena helped the jedi place the Second Sister on the deck in the cargo hold. It was a small area with little space but nothing had been loaded onboard and there was nothing gentler to place her on so it would have to do. They both took great care and as soon as she was down, the extent of her wounds became clear. The black uniform had a long cut from the shoulder down the chest and Yena had to swallow a lump in her throat before she could continue. The jedi sent her a measuring glance and Yena didn’t know what that was supposed to mean but the only thing on her mind was to make sure her Master was going to make it. She let the jedi take off for the cockpit to handle the flying and if she was going to lead them straight into the hands of rebels then so be it. If the jedi was this committed to saving the life of her enemy then that meant wherever they were going, they were not going to be executed.

At least not right away.

She found a medkit behind a panel with a red cross on it, tore it open and spilled the contents next to her patient. She was by no means a medic but she knew how to put on a bacta patch and the medkit had plenty of them. She knelt down beside her Master, took a knife from the pile and started cutting at the burnt uniform. The nasty gash went from her left shoulder all the way down to her solar plexus and while keeping her thoughts strictly on the work she had to perform, she couldn’t keep her eyes from watering.

Focus. Clean the skin, dry the skin and apply the patch.

The movement of the ship made it difficult to work precisely, but the bacta patches were large and easy to handle.  She had no trouble working a sterile cloth with one hand and applying patches with the other and as she worked, the Second Sister gave out a series of choked sounds.

Focus.

Clean the skin, dry the skin and apply the patch.

She could feel the Second Sister’s ragged breathing whenever her chest rose and fell but that in itself was no precise indicator of whether her efforts were too late or not. When she was done with the patches, she found a densely packed blanket which she tore from its packaging. She covered up her Master as well as she could and then quickly felt her cheeks and her forehead. She was cold and her skin clammy with sweat but the only thing Yena could do about it was to wipe her with forehead with a cloth. Then, she found a flexible water container and brought it to the pale lips of her patient.

“It’s water, please drink” she said and was surprised by the anxiety in her voice. When the lips parted she squeezed the container and waited patiently for her Master to swallow it. She repeated that until the container was empty and then she brought in another until that was empty too. After that, she pushed unused bandages, wipes and other soft-looking medical equipment underneath her Master’s forehead to work as a pillow. It wasn’t much but it was all she could do for her with what she had. She took up the cloth and started wiping her forehead again but before she could repeat the treatment, the cockpit door swooshed open. She managed to catch a glimpse of hyperspace before the door closed again and then she returned the stare from the jedi.

“Where are you taking us?” Yena asked and to her annoyance, she couldn’t keep her voice firm. She was distraught and it was impossible to hide it.

“We’re going somewhere neither of us has to worry about being caught,” the jedi replied neutrally. Her voice was hoarse and Yena could see that she had taken a tough hit to her lip. She was still bleeding from it and Yena wondered just how gruesome the fight had been. “How is she?”

She made her way to the other side of the Second Sister, knelt down and offered to take the cloth but Yena wasn’t satisfied with the explanation put forth.

“Where?” she pressed and dipped the cloth against the Second Sister’s head again. She wasn’t ready to trust the jedi yet in spite of what she had seen. The Empire had taught her to loathe and despise their kind and working with one was perhaps the most disgraceful treason she could commit. Not that she gave a fig for what the Empire thought of her actions.

“You’ll have to trust me after all,” the jedi sighed. “Besides, I could easily have flown us to one of the ships orbiting the moon if that is what I wanted, but I didn’t because I know what they’ll do with you.”

“And why wouldn’t you want that?” Yena asked swiftly. “What are you trying to do?”

“I told you, I’m trying to save her.”

“You did this to her,” Yena said in a severe voice and gesticulated with a hand. “How is this saving her? Why would you - ”

She bit back the last words because the answer was blindingly obvious. The jedi hadn’t been presented with a choice.

“Look…  It was never my intention to harm her but she gave me no other options. If I hadn’t taken her down then we would have been fighting until the ship went down.”

She’s telling the truth, Yena bitterly admitted. She had gone in, well aware that the ship would go down in flames at any moment and in order to do what? Kill or capture a jedi who had already defeated her once? It was suicide and the jedi had done exactly what all the texts at the archive had told her a jedi would do. She had been unable to leave behind a wounded enemy and thus she had attempted a wild rescue, believing what she did was right.

“I understand,” Yena said but she wasn’t entirely sure of it. Something still didn’t add up.

“You do?” the jedi replied with one white marking raised warily.

Yena nodded as she squeezed the cloth, poured some water on it and used it on her Master’s forehead again. She was sweating profusely but she was much colder than what was healthy and as Yena continued caring for her Master, the jedi gave up her stare. There wasn’t much more to be said between them and Yena didn’t have a strong urge to confide in her enemy. Her Master’s life hang by a thread and that was all that mattered in the moment. That the jedi was concerned about her life as well didn’t have to make complete sense as long as she wasn’t posing a problem.

The togruta took a blanket-looking rag of some sort and used it to cover the Second Sister’s hair.

“What are you doing?” Yena asked curiously.

“Nothing,” the jedi said quickly and offered no further comment before she leaned close to the patient and spoke softly.

“Barriss? Can you hear me?”

Yena’s eyebrows knit together to form a frown at the use of the name, but her Master responded to it. Her head tilted towards the jedi and Yena could tell there was movement underneath the eyelids but she was too weak to speak.

“You know each other,” Yena said eventually as it dawned upon her. She was unable to take her eyes off the scene before her and as the jedi placed a hand on the Second Sister’s cheek, Yena’s heart twisted.

“We used to,” the jedi corrected her but the confusion only grew within her so she decided to listen to the force instead. The vibes she was getting through the force didn’t lie and the way the togruta’s fingers touched the Second Sister’s cheek as if it was her most prized possession suggested something she wasn’t quite ready to believe.

“You’re very concerned about her,” the jedi said out of nowhere. “I could feel it even before I saw you and I wonder why?”

“You don’t know me,” she answered vaguely. The only common cause they had was the woman between them now and besides that, they were still enemies. She didn’t want to talk more than she had to, but nothing she said now would make her any less of a traitor.

“That’s true, I don’t but why don’t you tell me who you are then? It’s going to take a while for her to recover and unless you plan to kill me - which I don’t think you will, we’ll be spending a few days in the same boat.”

“You sound very sure of that,” Yena said, expecting to see the jedi unsettled but all she showed was an impromptu smile.

“Because I can see her in –“

Before the jedi could complete the answer, a rustle by the other end of the cargo hold caught their attention. One of the panels in the wall was coming loose and Yena berated herself for not having done a better job.

“Captain?” the jedi said, quickly shifting a scrutinizing stare between the two of them. “What have you done to her?”

Yena rose from her Master and prepared to defend herself. She looked at the Captain who appeared the wreck she was. Her orange flight suit was ruined with dry blood and so was her face. It was difficult to tell whether her skin tone was originally orange or red as the swollen bruises made up most of what was visible. She got to on her feet with no small amount of trouble and with her bound hands she clung to the control panel for the cargo unloading system.

“I think you know what we did to her,” Yena replied slowly as her eyes met the jedi’s. The togruta was back on her feet quickly and moved towards the Captain.

“Captain? It’s okay, you’re not in any danger here. I’ve come to rescue you.”

The jedi’s voice was faint and hushed as if she was goading a beast which was perhaps the correct tactic to use. The Captain didn’t look like she saw the jedi for what she was and she pressed herself against the wall, her expression somber and her voice on the verge of grief.

“Who are you? Why- Where are we?”

Yena decided it was probably better not to say anything.

“It’s Tikira, isn’t it? We haven’t met, but I’m Fulcrum. You remember that name right?”

Fulcrum smiled, sincerely trying to appear friendly. It had to be something she had done before because it was a very convincing display – just not for the Captain. The twi’lek shook her head rapidly and clutched the controls. Her fingers narrowly missed the various buttons and Yena felt a chill run down her spine as she understood the danger they were in. If she pressed the right one she could open the ramp and that would send them all into the vacuum of hyperspace.

Perhaps I overdid it this time, she chided herself, thinking of the torture she had conducted. She had become quite good at it over the years – too good, perchance.

“Fulcrum? But - … Why are you with them?”

If she had sounded desperate before, she sounded utterly terrified now. She looked at the jedi much in the same way she had looked at Yena when the torture began and that made a smile tug at her lips. She would readily admit that the Empire had taught her to enjoy the misery of others but she had learned through blood and tears to fully savor it.

“I’m not with them,” Fulcrum said, shaking her head as to exaggerate her non-existing affiliation with the Empire. “I’m with the Rebellion – just like you.”

“You’re lying,” the Captain cried. “It’s a lie!”

Her auburn eyes took in the smile Yena couldn’t hide and she shuffled further into the wall.

“Captain?”

What came next was what Yena guessed was the twi’lek language and it was used to its fullest in what could only be elaborate insults. She could pick up the word ‘Imperial’ used from time to time but that was it. All the while, the jedi attempted to commune with her and calm her down but it wasn’t going to work.

The twi’lek knew what she was doing when next her hands moved and it seemed like the jedi finally realized it too. Before the Captain could move another muscle, a force push smashed her into the side of the shuttle. It sounded like she had shattered half of the bones in her body but her pain and her wailing came to a swift end with the vicious hiss of a lightsaber cutting through her fractured torso.

Yena deactivated the blade and looked at the jedi who had delivered the maiming force attack. She looked like a proton bomb had gone off right next to her but Yena understood immediately why the power had been so raw and disproportionate.

She isn’t a jedi.

A lot of things started to make sense.