Night of the Hunter

"Pray to your god, open your heart. Whatever you do, don't be afraid of the dark. Cover your eyes, the devil inside…"

12 BBY – Teth

Run.

Those were the last set of orders given to Nerah as she fled from the Fury, pushing ahead the delicate package as quickly as she could. She had administered the sedative as instructed, though as to why was still an enigma to her. According to her research, Trilla Suduri had never commanded a fondness for pets or keeping living creatures, and it baffled her as to why this package could be so important.

Or why she had to run so damn fast.

Teth's terrain was not difficult to traverse, despite its various bouts of trees and flat-topped mountains. Because of the Fury's detection and masking technology, she had been forced to make a long journey on foot, dropped off via the Praetorian that was still in orbit. Since Teth was in Hutt Space, a faction currently at odds with the Empire in terms of fleet movement through their territory, sending an entire fleet would be too provocative, and the Empire did not want war with the Hutts. Not yet anyway.

She'd been running for almost two hours, and despite the strain on her body, she did not tire. Trained to be conditioned to almost machine-like levels, Nerah could maintain this pace for far longer if necessary. Her body would give out before she stopped, and from what she had seen Suduri do on Onderon a year ago, she needed to get as far away as she could before her extraction came in.

Finally coming to a stop, letting her lungs get a full breath, she stopped the capsule beside her, checking to see if her commlink was operational. Even with many kilometers of distance traveled, it merely fizzled with static, meaning she was still within range of the Fury's jammers. Merely meeting her ride at the extraction point seemed like the best bet for now.

Pocketing her commlink, she manually lifted the capsule to begin her journey across the rocky zone. As she turned it, something flopped forward and smacked into the cover, making Nerah jump…but what came next stunned her even more.

Crying.

"What?" she gasped through her helmet as she let the capsule hover again, trying to decipher whether or not the baby's crying was real. The wails continued, and she tried pushing it away for whatever reason, but they never ended, and eventually her curiosity got the better of her. Leaning in, she unlocked the capsule and felt her eyes bulge.

There was a toddler inside the capsule.

Nerah was a super soldier, trained to kill, hunt and fulfill her objective. She'd been asked to kill more people by now than she could count, and on very rare occasions did she regret her choices.

Never had she been asked to kidnap a child.

It continued to cry and Nerah felt her heart wrench at its despair, but her focus on the mission pulled it back, knowing she had no time to reconsider anything…for it may cost her life.

But it was just a baby…

"Hello…" Nerah eased, reaching forward, only to hear the child scream louder.

"Bad!" she screamed. "Mama!"

"Bad?" Nerah asked rhetorically, and then shook her head, removing her helmet. "No, no! I'm not bad. I'm not scary. Look!" She smiled, cocking her head in adorable, teenaged fashion. "See?"

The toddler's cries became sniffles as she still looked terrified, but Nerah gently reached in and lifted her into her arms, feeling a part of her heart glisten at the chance. Being seventeen, Nerah had missed out on the average marrying and mating age by now, and she felt an almost natural motherly instinct with this child in her arms.

"Was that scary lady hurting you?" Nerah asked, holding her close, not surprised a terrorist like Suduri would do such a terrible thing. "Don't worry. I'm going to protect you now."

The toddler whimpered, shaking in fear and pain as the injury she sustained from the flop ailed her, and Nerah did her best to give her comfort. She removed one of her gloves to caress the child's head with her flesh hand, hushing it silent.

"Shhhh, it's okay. It's okay," Nerah eased. "I won't let anyone hurt you, I promise."

"I want mama," she whined, shivering.

"Mama?" Nerah asked, taking a seat against a nearby rock. "Who's your mama?"

The toddler shut her eyes, and Nerah quizzically watched her until she pointed back the way she came, and the chiss only cooed.

"I'm sorry sweetie…but we can't go that way. There's a bad lady who wants to hurt you," Nerah softly wiped the grime dirt from her face with her thumb. "She's a very mean person who likes to hurt people."

She'd seen the holos. Trilla Suduri was a menace that needed to be put down for the good of the galaxy, and Nerah would die before she laid her hands on such a beautiful little girl.

The chiss smiled. "What's your name?"

"Katara," she shivered.

Nerah rose to her feet, and then carefully set her back in the capsule. "I'm Nerah. I'm going to keep you safe, okay? Once the scary lady is gone, I promise I'll take you back to your mama."

Shutting the capsule, Nerah slid her glove back over and reapplied her helmet. Making sure her blaster was still primed; she engaged the float and continued her rapid movement.

This mission just got a lot more complicated.

12 BBY – Fury

It was a jolt, a fierce shock that restored her vision and reignited her visual receptors. Darkness became light, and she felt her servos grind into a stiff reboot position as the rest of her body followed…loosening with each part that warmed to life. There was no breath to take, no restoration of senses, blurriness or pain.

Rava simply arose.

Ignorance was then brushed away by the tsunami of unfamiliar feelings she had experienced before. Her memory did not falter, and even without context she felt everything just how she left it, right before that sudden deactivation that had spared her from the…the thing.

Guilt.

Those emotions returned with a vengeance, the image of Trilla's motionless body in the dirt shaking her arms, shivering her fingers. She panicked, fumbling around and trying to smash her own head with the strength of her servo-powered arms. How could anything deal with this horrible, drowning regret? How could anyone make any decisions for themselves?

How could she possibly live with this?

"Trilla…I'm sorry," she almost whimpered, beginning to produce synthetic tears. "I'm so sorry. I…I don't…"

"Get up," Trilla's voice demanded, sounding strained, rough and almost venomous. Rava looked up with frozen despair and saw Trilla's reddened eyes and makeup-smeared cheeks, the remains of moisture still present on her face. Her hair was a ruffled mess, uncombed and slick without a fresh wash, and her eyes…the green had begun to lose its ground again. "Get up!" Trilla shouted again, jerking the android to her feet with a harsh pull of her arm.

"Trilla…" Rava trailed, only staring her way as she walked over to the holotable with a vicious snarl, continuing her scan. "I'm—"

"Get your worthless metal ass beside me and enhance the fucking signal," Trilla growled, slowly turning her head her way. When Rava didn't move immediately, she screamed, "NOW! Or I'll tear you apart piece by fucking piece!"

There was no choice remaining, and her natural instinct was to follow her instructions anyhow. Rava did as she was instructed, gaining access to the holotable and enhancing the signal scanning range to the entire planet. Pips of settlements and cities appeared as the information flooded in, and Trilla's bloodshot eyes watched intently for something Rava had no knowledge of.

"What happened?" she dared to ask.

Trilla's deep growl rumbled in her throat. "My daughter has been taken, slipped out from under my nose after you dared to strike me," her tone was different from normal, and yet strikingly familiar…almost distant. "Now we rectify my mistake of ever believing you to actually be of any use to me."

Rava shivered somewhat but had no words of retaliation. She merely nodded her head with acceptance. "Of course, Suduri."

"Download the map, droid," Trilla ordered, almost making sure Rava felt the verbal dagger that was the word droid sink itself into her synthetic flesh. "The Empire is present above, so we cannot use the Fury. I will search on foot, and you will follow in my wake like the worthless drone you are."

Trilla's helmet landed in her grip as she called it with outstretched hands and pulled it over her head. Rava's guilt now became shame, and for the first time in her existence, words carried pain as they entered her audio receptors. Her venomous insults weighed down upon her shame and dipped into a pool of sadness, sadness towards the unending anger Trilla was now drowning in.

Why did she care if Trilla berated her in such a way? Why did her words hurt so badly?

This must be why Eon shed so many tears in times of conflict with her…because in the end, Rava cared for Trilla, and to see her in such a manner, to hear someone she cared about desire to hurt her…it broke her in a way. She lowered her head, glowering at the floor while Trilla prepared herself, and saw no other out than to appease her.

"I will follow you," Rava agreed.

"Good," Trilla's voice boomed through her vocabulator, and then turned on her heel with a flap of her cape. "Let's go."

12 BBY – Teth

Teth had proven to be much more inhabited than Nerah had been lead on, but she had done her best to avoid the settled areas to not tip off Suduri as she approached her ship on foot. It had been said that the woman could feel anyone tailing her from many miles away, and Nerah knew she had got by with a stroke of luck as she observed her arguing with her droid companion. She still had no idea why this child was important, even if the idea of Katara being Trilla's child had crossed her mind, but she shot it down with the obviousness of the terrorist's brutality. She could never conceive such a precious lifeform.

Although the crying was beginning to get on her nerves.

Long relinquished of her helmet, as it was a disguise one anyhow and she had planned to leave it behind at a certain point, she pulled her shoulder-length hair from her eyes as she groaned, finally stopping to open the capsule. Katara was in tears, but it wasn't quite wailing…more pouting.

"Katara…why are you crying?" she asked, unsure how else to frame it. "If you tell me, I can try to make you feel better."

She sniveled. "I'm hungry."

Nerah mentally grimaced. Should've figured that, and with her intelligence it was almost embarrassing.

Only, she had nothing a toddler could eat, as her ration sticks were too hard for her to bite down on. Katara needed something liquid or gooey…like milk.

I could try that…

But she had no idea how that would work, as she had never tried or even considered it. Chiss women her age could theoretically breastfeed as early as ten, sometimes even nine, and while Nerah was seven years senior to that…the thought still made her uncomfortable. This wasn't her child…and with her gear, it would be a tough maneuver.

Aside from the fact that she could smell Suduri chasing after her now, Markov and Thrawn would scold her for hours for submitting to such a diversion.

She could try heading into the cantina she saw on the way to the Fury, but it wasn't likely they had baby food.

Nerah knelt so she could be at Katara's eyelevel. "Look, sweetheart, I don't have anything for you…could you try to tough it out for me? We're almost there, I promise."

Katara's downcast expression wrenched at her heartstrings, and her pouting only seemed to worsen.

Whoever thought this mission was a good idea is going to have my pistol jammed into their jugular.

Unless it was Thrawn, or Markov…or anyone who had the authority to send her on missions, which was a very sporadic few. Child stealing felt beneath her…far beneath her. Her frustration was about to erupt, but she stopped herself, knowing if she scolded Katara, it would just be downhill from there.

It was looking like the cantina was her best option.

Nerah flashed Katara a warm smile. "Um…tell you what, sweetheart, I know a place where they might have food for you to eat, okay?" she said, rubbing her thumb against the child's cheek. "But I'm going to need you to be quiet for me. If you be a good girl, I can get you some food faster."

Katara looked despondent, but she eventually laid back down in the comfortable covers. "Okay."

"Thank you!" she bloomed. "I promise, we'll have you a full tummy in no time."

Sealing the capsule, Nerah let her less enthusiastic face show itself as she picked up the pace, testing her conditioning ever further as she continued to make her way across Teth's surface. It wasn't long until she reached the cantina, and the gamorrean bouncer only looked to the floating capsule for a moment, before turning away.

Nerah hadn't waded through much of the galaxy's low life yet, but Hutt Space was the exact opposite of what the Ascendancy had to offer. Instead of over sophistication, the Hutts seemed to favor discord and disorder, which to her made about as much sense as her current mission. Cantinas around Hutt Space were notorious for their cesspools of scum and villainy, which was exactly what the Empire was tasked with scrubbing off the galaxy.

What she wore wouldn't give her away as Imperial, but her Basic accent certainly would in these parts. She'd been trained for subversion if need be, and now it was best to adopt her more crude form of speech and hope no one noticed that chiss didn't belong in these parts. Her crimson eyes quickly probed from patron to patron and found no immediate danger as she came up to the bar, letting the capsule float beside her.

"Hello," she greeted the duro bartender, getting a feel for her adjusted accent. "You wouldn't happen to have any…milk…would you?"

His pupil-less eyes regarded her for a moment, before he returned to cleaning his glass. "Milk?"

Nerah deadpanned, her gloved hand resting on the capsule. "Yeah…milk."

Someone behind her hollered, "I've got some milk for you back here, sweetheart!"

The chiss wasn't naïve enough to fall for that goad, and the various chuckles and laughs she picked up with her innate sense of hearing deciphered it as a sexual jest…a bad one at that.

Shaking it off, she continued to question the bartender. "Do you have any kind of paste of some sort?" she asked while mentally grimacing. Some sort allowed her accent to sneak through, but she didn't think anyone noticed.

The duro did not appear inclined to assist her, and that was when someone rose to their feet and walked her way. Her ears perked as she contorted her wrist, prepared to flick out her holdout blaster if need be.

"What's in here?" the human asked, his clothing soiled and ragged, but she couldn't help but notice his holstered blasters. To Nerah's luck, Katara hadn't started crying yet, but him pointing towards the capsule raised her ire, and the last thing she needed was a traumatized toddler.

"Oh, it's nothing," Nerah tried to feign innocent ignorance.

"Well, if that's the case…you wouldn't mind if I…" his finger pressed the open control before she could realize what he was doing, and the top folded open, revealing Katara for all of them to see. She shivered slightly, taking in her surroundings, before desperately searching for Nerah as the man smiled. "Oh look! It's a baby!"

"Bad!" Katara shouted, trying to hide herself. "Bad!"

Nerah had no idea how she knew so quickly, but that put the chiss on alert, and as the man reached out again, she grasped his forearm tightly. "Don't," she warned, and that was when her accent completely came out.

He smirked. "Oh, look at this. We have a posh lady and her little baby, boys!" he drew laughs from the others. "It's been awhile since we've had a crack at one of you lot. I think we'll take that baby off your hands now…while you, pretty thing, are coming with us."

The chiss closed the capsule, and by now she had already telegraphed her move. "Last chance."

He scoffed. "I don't think you—" his taunt was cut short by her impossibly fast drawing of her holdout blaster and bolt straight though his heart.

The groan he emitted was the only sound that pierced the stunned silence that ravaged the cantina as his body flopped onto the floor. All conversation was ground to a halt, and all eyes were on her as Nerah stood and watched…hearing the bartender take a duck behind the counter.

A pin could've been dropped, and even the deaf would hear it.

Katara shrieked. "Bad!"

On cue, Nerah watched multiple men draw their blasters as they rose from their seats, and with a powerful kick, her boot tore over a table as she took cover behind it, grabbing the capsule and spinning so her back faced the blasterfire that now slammed into her cover. Katara cried in terror, and Nerah only shook her head.

"Um…sorry sweetheart, but Nerah has to go to work," she sweetly tried to calm her as the bolts kept pounding. "Back in a minute!" she shut the capsule and let her second holdout blaster slide from her wrist, deftly twirling them in her grip. Cracking her neck with twin jerks of her head, she rolled out of cover and fired two perfect shots that burned satisfying holes through two skulls, falling back into makeshift cover as the others followed suit.

"The fuck, man?!" she heard one of them whisper from across the cantina. "Is she fucking special forces?"

"Maybe."

Nerah cleared her throat, barely breaking a sweat by now. "If you boys back off now, you get to keep your lives. I'd consider that if I were you."

"I think we should take the deal man."

"Are you crazy?! She'll kill us anyway!"

The chiss chuckled. "Maybe, maybe n—" her cover was pulled aside as a massive devaronian lifted her by the collar, snarling as he did so.

"You just wasted my friend, little lady," he growled. "Now I'm going to waste you."

Nerah moved quickly, utilizing her dangling legs to wrap around his neck and lean back, forcing him to free her from his grip and shove her off before he suffocated. Flipping to her feet, his missed swings as she dodged sounded like they would hurt if they landed true, but her reflexes won out, kicking him into a table as he overextended his reach.

The other two took their chance and charged with battle roars and knives drawn. Nerah swept under one knife swing and caught the man's arm while simultaneously blocking the other with her gauntlet. Kicking out her old victim by the knee, he cried in pain as she threw him aside and engaged the other, dodging two swings before jabbing him in the throat with a quick fist. He choked for a moment, and Nerah took advantage of his falter with two punches to his chest and an over the shoulder takedown.

"Threatening a child?" Nerah spat, her annoyance building. "I ought to tear your spines out one by one."

The devaronian roared as he charged, but Nerah merely held her ground and stopped his advance with her raw strength, chopping at the side of his neck with her flat hand. He grunted, and his swings were met with dodges and a subsequent halt with her gauntlet before spinning into him with her holdout blasters revealed again, firing two lethal shots through his chest.

As the giant, horned alien fell to the ground, her other two victims were still writhing on the floor in pain, and she could only growl. "Perhaps next time you will consider your words before you use them."

One groaned. "Y-yeah! Sure lady. Will do."

With a sleight of hand motion to stow her blasters again, Nerah stepped over their forms and to Katara's capsule, opening it to reveal the frightened toddler. "Hey!" she beamed. "I told you I would be back in a minute. Sorry if that was loud, sweetheart," she caressed her cheek and activating the capsule to follow her again. Looking over the bar, she found the bartender shivering behind. "Food please."

He shuffled beneath, and then quickly revealed four paste tubes that would be perfect for her. "Please leave."

Nerah accepted the tubes and took Katara into her arms, letting the capsule follow as she left the cantina. Popping open the tube for her, she squeezed it for Katara to eat, and she could only giggle as she wolfed it down in hunger.

"Feel better?" she brushed her hair.

Katara nodded as she ate, her mouth covered in paste as she spoke. "Thank you."

As she pushed the door open and back out on Teth, she gave her a little kiss. "Of course. I told you I would protect you, didn't I?"

12 BBY - Zeffo

"W-woah! Dammit!" Xur cursed, grasping for the ascension cable as he was lowered down into the dark cave, the glow stick he had thrown down his target far below. He'd never been much of a fan of heights, but the black abyss below was what really got to him mentally…and the fact that Daniel Velken wasn't being gentle with the lowering act.

The latter being looked down from atop, stopping the mechanism for now. "What? Can't handle a tiny drop?"

Xur snorted. "If you consider a hundred-foot chasm into a black abyss tiny, then I guess you should be applauded for your rather foolish bravery."

"You'll be fine," he waved off, and reactivated the mechanism.

"Gah!" he grasped ahold as he felt himself fall for a moment. "Take it easy!"

"Heh, heh," Daniel chuckled.

"You're enjoying this…" Xur noted as the glowstick approached. "You know they didn't tell me you were such a jokester."

"I'm not. You just make it too easy."

Xur groaned as his feet hit the ground, unfastening the cable and igniting his orange blade to illuminate the cavern. "You sound like my wife."

Daniel clipped the hook to his belt and descended, now with the titian glow to show him exactly where the ground began. "When we…met…I can't remember what planet it was, but we never actually fought. She hunted me through the streets, sewers, mag-lev system, all of it. I actually ended up using it as a way to fake my death…but, I'll be honest with you. That was the first time I'd felt legitimate fear in a long time."

Xur watched him land with a little grace, unhooking himself and letting the cable dangle for them to use again. The cavern was large; most of the sides either caved in or sides of solid bedrock…but Xur couldn't help but notice signs of Imperial activity, as well as a distinct side passage that had to have been dug out by someone.

"This way," Daniel beckoned towards that exact passage, and Xur followed his lead, albeit beginning to shiver as his breath was visible in the cold air. "How did you fake your death?"

The zabrak almost laughed. That felt like a lifetime ago. "Baited an Inquisitor into utilizing a fuel leak to set me on fire, then I fell into a canyon about three hundred or so feet, was caught by a probe droid with gravity lifts and tossed into a niche in the side of the cliff. Then set off an explosion above with a few body parts from dead stormtroopers. They were all vaporized, but it had to look convincing."

Daniel snorted. "Your admiral help you?

"Of course."

"Ah. And how long were you undercover?"

Xur swallowed, forced to remember it all in detail. "Something like seven months."

Daniel stopped by a turn in the cave, and this is when the durasteel panels began to appear, furthering Xur's assumption that this was all carved out unnaturally. "Do you think it was worth it?"

"Absolutely," he replied without hesitation. "If you saw what I have now…even after all the things I had to go through, I'd think you'd agree."

Daniel nodded, "Maybe," before turning the corner with his head low, coming to the overlook of a light-lit Imperial mine. Xur had remembered Cal's stories of the ice caves and Imperial operations underneath Zeffo, and this was everything he had expected of them. Daniel was already pressing forward, and before Xur could realize they weren't alone, he pulled a scout trooper into a choke hold and yanked him aside, keeping him out of view as they entered the catwalk. Xur had already stowed his blade as he followed, although stealth was not his forte.

"What is she like now?" Daniel asked, hitting the end of the catwalk that looked down into the mine, only occupied by sporadic trooper patrols.

"Trilla?" Xur asked.

"Yeah. I imagine she's probably not as murderous, especially since you married her."

The zabrak smiled to himself. "She's lovely."

12 BBY – Teth

"Gah! Ahhhhhhh!"

"Now, let me ask one more time. Who came through here?" Trilla's sinister voice projected calm, stoic resolve from her helmet, and the smell of charred flesh was filtered out before it reached her nose. The screams emitted from the roughed-up patrons who had asked her for compensation for her requested information were becoming music to her ears the longer they persisted. She had one pinned under her knee as she lowered her blade into his back, searing his skin while the other clawed at his throat from her outstretched hand. Everyone else had been scared off by now, but she could care less.

She will know who took her daughter.

"Ahhhh! Blue lady!" the one beneath her knee shouted. "Take it off! Fuck! Take it off!"

Of course.

Trilla pulled the blade from his back and rose to her feet, letting the other crash onto the floor as he caught his breath. "Did she have a child with her?"

"Red baby…" he whimpered on the floor. "Was looking for food. She had an…accent. Gah! Imperial."

Looking for food.

Trilla turned to Rava. "Search the area for footprints leaving this cantina, and I want every spec of land in every direction scanned and coded."

The android still looked about as emotionally useless as she had recently, and her docile look flinched for a moment. "Trilla…shouldn't we—"

"Get to work," she cut her off, and then took a knee beside her victim. "Which way did they go?"

He whimpered from his wound.

Trilla lost her patience and slammed her fist against his back, making him scream. "Which way did they go?!"

"Back door!" he cried, and then managed to point. "Out that way…"

She vaulted to her feet with that confirmation, returning her hilt to her belt as she quickly paced out of the cantina and into the air, Rava already waiting for her with her eyes glowing blue as she completed her scans. Her fist clenched with impatience as the need to press on only intensified, as each passing second only made Katara feel that much farther away.

Trilla could care less what path she left behind trying to reclaim her baby girl.

"Well?" Trilla asked, feeling her fingers crack against the pressure she infringed upon them.

Rava's expression wedeled down to emotional despair, shaking her head before beginning to crush it once again. "I can't do this…I can't do this."

"Are you cross-wired?" Trilla spat. "What are you talking about?"

The android appeared as if she was hyperventilating, her eyes flashing about in terror. "How do you…how do you deal with this?"

Trilla grabbed ahold and forcefully shook her body. "If I lose my daughter because of your ineptitude, I will melt you down!"

"Let go of me…" Rava growled.

Her helmet cocked to one side. "Do not test me!"

"If you do not listen to me, you will never find her again!" Rava shouted.

A part of Trilla snapped violently back into place with Rava's demand, and for a moment her sense returned enough to consider her words. The silence that had been infringed upon her lips seemed to give Rava the composure to continue her rant, even if Trilla had no idea what she was struggling with. Everything had been a haze since she had awoken, unable to remember how she ended up lying against the dirt outside of the Fury, and the news that Katara had been taken had only thrown her into complete disarray.

A complete, unbridled rage.

"There is something wrong with my circuits, Trilla," Rava almost plead, her voice troubled and laced with too many emotions for Trilla to decipher and detect. "I can't…think. All I can do is feel and it hurts!"

Trilla had never seen her in such a state before, as now that calm, synthetic expression and precision was nowhere to be found. It was almost as if…as if she were alive.

The index.

Now it all made sense, and Trilla knew what she had to do.

"She's struggling," Trilla's ears perked as time seemed to slow around her, and just over her shoulder was the Second Sister pacing out from the woods. "If you don't help her now, you'll never find your daughter."

Trilla grimaced, her teeth grit as she forced herself to look away. "Get out of my head."

"I could say the same thing to you," the Second Sister stopped just behind her, the voice she projected filled with more malice than ever before. "Let me in. Let me bring our daughter back!"

"She is not your daughter!" Trilla whirled around, screaming as her helmet nearly rammed into the projection of her inquisitor self. "All you are is a dead memory that will never return, and I swear…I will never let you inside my head again."

"I'm not the dead memory," she growled…and it was only then that she realized the Second Sister's eyes were emerald green. "You are."

That malice in her voice faded away into indifference, adopting the same tone she'd used since she ripped off the beskar Imperial insignia from her suit. Terror tore through her psyche, and she reached forward, begging the spectre of herself with a violent shake.

"Help me…get her out! Get her out before I hurt someone else!" she plead, her voice hoarse and terrified.

Her spectre gave her nothing and turned away. "The rest is up to you."

"Trilla."

Rava reappeared before her, shoved back into the instance she had left with the appearance of herself. She blinked as the android tried to get her attention, and Rava leaned in again.

"Please help me."

That panic she had begun to fade, and Trilla did her best to shove away all the darkness that was building within her. As of now, there was far too much, but she managed to seal at least a part of the Second Sister away long enough for her to look Rava in the eye.

"You're too used to multi-tasking at incredible levels," Trilla eased. "Focus…one thing at a time. Face each emotion on its own, and I know you'll find the strength to conquer each one. They are nothing to be afraid of, and once you embrace that fact…I promise, you will get through it."

Rava focused for a moment, but eventually nodded. "One at a time…very well."

Trilla let her go. "Good. Now, try to do it on the way. We need to keep moving."

12 BBY – Zeffo

"Hey…have you ever seen one of those jotaz things?"

The scout trooper's buddy groaned with annoyance as he secured the last crate. "Are you going to ask me about every dangerous animal on this blasted planet?"

"I'm just…you know…trying to be prepared."

"The only people who see a jotaz end up dead, corporal."

"What?"

"You heard me, now get back to work!"

"Sir!"

Daniel's specs lowered as he set them back onto his belt, and then tapped Xur's back, who was watching the other direction. "It's through there. Solid bedrock. Lightsabers can't even cut through it."

"Uh-huh," Xur deadpanned, still watching his direction from their catwalk perch above the Imperial mine. "I'm guessing you have an alternative?"

"The Empire does," he looked down to his chrono. "Right about…now."

On cue, Xur watched the transport turbolift doors open, and out rolled a clandestine Imperial officer flanked by a squad of troops and what looked to be a crate of explosives being rolled out behind them. Immediately the officer began to point out orders in a "lay down the law" fashion, and the scout troopers they had observed started to clear the area for the squad to do their work.

"I've been listening to their comm channels and planning this for weeks," Daniel revealed. "They know something's back there…I'm just not sure if they know it's it."

"Why didn't they just blow it when they found out immediately?" Xur asked.

"Well they tried drills at first, but the winds here on Zeffo kill most of them before they can drag the equipment this deep. Then they tried their basic ordinance, and it only chipped at it, so now they're bringing in the big-time bombs. Once they blow it open…I'm almost certain the star map will be waiting there."
"Huh," Xur mused, finding his explanation typical of incompetent Imperial procedure. "So our plan is to wait here for them to blow it to pieces, hope the explosion doesn't kill us, then swoop in, kill them all and take the prize?"

Daniel shrugged. "You're on top of it."

The zabrak was much more used to thought out and methodical plans…mostly due to the company he had been keeping most recently. Part of him preferred the "jump in and see what happens" approach, since it was much more entertaining, and the results usually came out. Even so, having a trusty thinker always at his side was a nice balance of strategy.

Instinctually, he clung to their natural bond for a moment, and he felt it bite back.

"Ugh," Xur grimaced, feeling the darkness come over him that Trilla responded with…her hatred, desperation and stalwart resolve. Despite that, he felt she was safe, but distressed…dangerously distressed.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Daniel prodded with his elbow. "Ten minutes until they blow this thing."

"Dammit…it's Trilla," Xur said, shaking his head as the feelings passed. "I think she's in trouble…something's wrong."

"Could just be the place," Daniel figured. "Didn't you say the two of you dueled here?"

"Well yeah, but…" Xur trailed off as he considered the likely possibility, but it just didn't seem likely, not with how the feelings stemmed from their active bond, and not the touch of an object or a simple memory. This felt…this felt current, truly without much of a doubt.

"I've seen that look before," Daniel pointed out, facing him this time. "You're about to go after her, and I'm going to tell you right now, that isn't necessary."

The zabrak narrowed his eyes, feeling a slight bit of incredulous intrusion. "How the hell would you know that?"

"Because you trust her, don't you?" his stare pierced through Xur's veil as his words entered his ears. "I've seen her in action. You got nothing to worry about."

Xur wanted to believe him, but that feeling of regret that had plagued him for so long began to return…when he realized that he had failed to protect her when she needed him most of all. When she had been taken by the Empire and turned into something horrifying, her beauty and complexity stripped away…he could never let that come to pass ever again. She was just…

Trilla Suduri was everything to him, and it felt like she needed him now.

"I have to go," he shook his head, preparing to head back the way they came, but was stopped by Daniel's grip on his forearm.

"Eon, you'll never reach her in time anyway. She's halfway across the damn galaxy," he kept his voice low.

"I can't just leave her to this. I won't!" he shout-whispered in retort. "The last time I felt this way, I did nothing, and do you want to take a guess what happened?"

Daniel only stared, before turning away and letting go of his arm.

Xur took a knee, keeping his emotions reasonable. "I do trust her, more than anyone, but if I don't go to her now…how am I supposed to look at my daughter and tell her why she has to grow up without a mother?"

"You don't know that."

"No, I don't, and that's the point," Xur made clear, and then dug through his armor for his holocapture, and then revealed an image of himself, Trilla and Katara together posing for a photograph, looking as happy as a family could. "I can't let that go. I'm sorry."

Daniel did not immediately retort, and this time Xur spotted his eyes gloss for a moment, as if lost in a reverie of his past. Through that he could only assume that Velken had walked this road before, and whatever happened…it had scarred him, leading him down the path he currently walked. The zabrak always spotted that glint in his eye when he brought up family…almost as if it was a truth he had once known and chosen to forget.

This time, however, it seems that Xur's words rang true.

Velken sighed, pulling his eyes away from the operation. "So…where are we going?"

"We?" Xur asked, somewhat astonished. "Don't you want the star map?"

Daniel waved it off. "I'll just steal it later."

The zabrak smirked. "Heh, not a bad idea, I guess. Let's go. You can bunk in my TIE," he ushered, heading back the way they came.

"We're heading to Hutt space."

I'm back!

I think.

Who knows? I think I'm back, actually. Been feeling that urge finally returning, and I've got a few ideas that I can throw your way. Stay frosty! Hope you liked this one.

Thanks of course to Varyks Ren for the use of Daniel Velken.