CHAPTER SEVEN

Things were not going well for the rebels in this battle and they knew it.

The numbers assailing them from all side was more than overwhelming even though they were doing their level best to hold their ground. Buck Wilmington saw another ship exploding in his corner of his eye and did not even bother to look at the console before him to identify which of his comrades had just met their fiery end. There were so many that Buck could hardly count and he was long past the point where he was capable of mourning just one loss at the time. His heart ached for all the lives that were lost, until the mourning he was enduring felt like a passenger with the cabin of his ship. He thanked the Force that JD had been assigned to playing escort to the transport ships that were fleeing the system because the young man was too inexperienced to be engaged in a badly as vicious as this one.

Buck was barely managing to keep his own ship out of range from some hotshot TIE fighter's targeting scanner as he remained close to the body of the Purgatory surging through space towards the star destroyer that all the pilots in the air now knew to be the Chimaera. With their advance towards the lead ship in the quartet of destroyers that had come for them, the air had suddenly been filled with so many TIE fighters, Buck could not even begin to guess how outnumbered they were. Ships were exploding across the dark sky one after the other, some were TIE fighters, others were X-wings. Buck found his fingers moving so fast across the controls that he had hardly dared to waste time drawing breath. He tried almost single handedly to win this battle on sheer will alone and relied heavily upon his exceptional skills to make that a reality.

"Get closer to the destroyers!" Buck shouted into his headset, offering direction to those under his command and anyone else whom had listening. He knew that a number of squadron commanders had been killed and their members were desperately seeking direction.

"Close!" Audrey cried out. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Buck nodded inside the cockpit of his ship. "We stay close to those destroyers and we'll make those TIE fighters think twice before they shoot at us!"

"Watch your tail, Blue leader!" Buck heard some shout into his headset. Buck glanced in his scanner and saw a trio of TIE fighters closing in on him. The three ships moved parallel to each other, the outer two being wingmen for certain. No doubt these were the three that had been systematically targeting squadron leaders to thrown the X wing squadrons into disarray. Buck banked hard just as he felt a volley of shots escape the lead fighter and singed his starboard engine but not enough to disable it fortunately. The X wing rolled in mid air as it escaped the discharge of energy, forcing two TIE fighters in his path to alter course drastically and slam into each other from the force.

"Buck are you alright?" Audrey asked as she flew her ship behind the trio that were still in pursuit of Buck.

"So far so good," Buck said veering hard as he tried to shake his attackers. His computer console was screaming warnings as he moved into what it considered optimum targeting position to be fired upon. "Could use a little hand though."

"I'll do what I can," the colonel answered confidently and Buck could see the digital blip of her ship, opening fire on his pursuers. She struck the right wingman first, detaching the wing of the TIE fighter from the main body of the craft. Losing its balance, the TIE began spinning out of control, blue energy cackling throughout its hull before slamming into the hull of the Nimbus. The explosion on the surface of the great ship was barely negligible but every little bit that they could do to harm the destroyer was welcomed.

Buck managed to take advantage of the confusion and turn on his attacker in a sharp turn that should never be employed by any pilot with good sense. Fortunately Buck did not come into that category and he found himself face to face with the pilots who would kill him and began surging towards them, firing all guns in their face. Behind them, Audrey was also continuing her advance, locking the two TIE fighters into a pincer movement that gave them no place to run.

"Audrey," Buck spoke into the headset seeing her approach in his forward scanner. "I'll take the one the right."

"I got him on the left," she answered and although Buck could not see her face, he knew that she was smiling inside the cockpit of her ship.

The two TIE fighters tried to escape the trap that they had fallen into but neither Buck or Audrey was about to let that happen. Buck held his breath as his saw the one ship falling into position of his targeting scope and hoped that Audrey was similarly prepared. As soon as the TIE fighter entered the range of his guns, the targeting screen began to flash, signaling in thin green letters that it was in optimum firing position. Buck needed to pull the trigger on the throttle only once and series of energy bolts escaped his main guns, streaking ahead from the bow and impacting the TIE fighter in the dead center. The circular sphere that made up its cockpit, shattered with a resounding explosion, sending the rest of its assemblage into the air in a pile of quickly extinguished fiery debris. It disintegrated in the vacuum of space in less than a second but its demise did not spare its sister ship as Audrey's guns did their worst and caused similar destruction. Buck said nothing as he saw their remains flickered into darkness and was grateful for his near escape but this battle was far from done yet.

"Good shooting colonel," Buck responded. "You saved my butt."

"Thank you Captain," Audrey answered. "It was my...."

She never had the chance to finish the sentence because her ship lit up like a Roman candle in front of his eyes. Buck watched in horror as the main guns of an approaching star destroyer struck her. The Phoenix having lagged behind the Purgatory in order to allow the rebel ship into place had been ordered to move in to create the net around Mary Travis. Unfortunately, its unexpected arrival had seen Audrey's ship placed right in its path. The Y wing cracked apart like an egg and she erupted in a spectacular ball of fire, which diminished a second later.

"AUDREY!" Buck shouted anguished, wishing that what he had seen was not the end of her but he knew that it was. Within second of the explosion, she and her ship had scattered to the solar winds.

"Was that Colonel King?" Lieutenant Jammer Nabbierian asked, his voice as filled with sorrow as Buck's one had been.

"Yes," Buck swallowed, feeling the moisture in his eyes. He blinked them away because he could not mourn her now. He could not mourn until this was over or he would be seeing more friends die just as abruptly, not to mention his own end. She had just saved his life and he had been helpless to return the favor. In a split second, his mind was filled with images of their bantering and casual flirtation. She was a friend and good officer. He could not believe that she was gone. "That was her."

"Bastards!" Another pilot swore angrily. Buck recognized her as Captain Maggie Darkstar.

"Put it away for now," Buck cleared his throat once he trusted himself enough to speak. "We're going after the Phoenix! Blue squadron and Gold squadron, what's left of you follow me. That ship killed Colonel King and we're going to take it out of its hide."

The Phoenix had taken Audrey King from them and for that it was going to pay. Of that, Buck Wilmington would stop at nothing.

**********

The explosion caught the attention of every rebel defending the base against the ground assault of the approaching Imperial forces. The sound roared through the air, forcing everyone to turn and stare in a symphonic of instinctive reaction. Vin Tanner found himself counted among these; his attention had been so fixated on the enemy ahead that he had hardly paid attention to the danger he sensed in the sky. In the few seconds leading, Vin had felt it pressing up against his spine but had discarded the sensation as being attributed to the fierce battle that was taking place above the skies of Siraj. He did not understand until this instant that it was an altogether different threat.

By the time they turned to look, rotating balls of smoke was already exuding towards the sky, tinged with fiery amber that indicate the strength of blast. While they could not see the actual destruction, they could very well imagine it. The columns of smoke rising into the air were a good indication of the level of damaged sustained by the building and its ordeal was far from over. Less than handful seconds passed before they saw the orbital bombardment for themselves as a powerful beam of energy descended from the sky to strike building again. The initial blast was already causing great chunks of rock to crumble inward, creating new explosions from its impact. Vin did not have to see the terror of those still inside the building to know of its existence, he could feel it in every fiber of his being. It required concentration to block those frightened emotions from him, lest they overwhelmed him.

"We have to help them!" Someone shouted and Vin wholeheartedly agreed with that statement although what how they were going to manage that was beyond him.

"I'm already contacting the fleet!" Nathan Jackson responded.

Vin left the line where the rebels had been laying down a wall of suppressing fire trying to kill as many Imperial troops as they could but it was a losing battle. The AT-AT's merely shrugged off the blasts while managing to return fire and creating significant losses on the rebel fortification. What the AT-AT's could not reach, the armored walkers were taking care of quite effectively and even though they were capable of being disabled by portable blast cannons, the rebels were simply not causing enough damage to be effective. They all knew they were fighting a losing battle but the goal had been to delay the enemy long enough to allow their transports to flee the planet. With the bombardment of the rebel base itself, the chances of their transport escaping the planet was remote.

"What the hell happened to the shield generator?" Vin asked as he reached Nathan and Josiah.

"I don't know!" Nathan barked back. "Somehow they disabled it. We're wide open."

Josiah suddenly turned towards the structure being blasted to kingdom come by the firepower from the unseen destroyer that was quickly reducing it to a pile of rubble. Vin sensed a swell of fear rising from the senator as a terrible realization dawned upon him .The sensation was almost alien coming from Josiah but its intensity could not be doubted as the big man's eyes stared at the building before him.

"Casey!" He shouted and started running.

"Josiah!" Nathan called out. "Come back here!"

"I'll go after him!" Vin said quickly to his friend, trying to hold things together even though it seemed everything was falling apart at the seams, despite his best effort. "You try and get someone to run interference for us or else we can forget about getting any transports off the planet or anyone else in that place!"

"Be careful!" Nathan nodded, never having doubt in regards to that because he was a soldier and as much as Josiah was his friend, he had others to think about.

Vin lost sight of Josiah as the senator ran through the jungle towards the beleaguered base. However, Vin did not need to see him. Josiah's emotions were a beacon of turmoil that kept the two of them tethered together. Josiah's concern was mostly centered on Casey and the notion that with the explosions that were tearing the base apart, she might not have made it out yet. As the only family Josiah had left, Vin could understand his concerns and knew that his reasons for following the man had more to do with stopping him from doing something foolish as well as helping him find the plucky young woman.

"Josiah wait up!" Vin shouted hoping the big man would stop and let him catch up.

However, Josiah was not listening and Vin continued closing the distance between himself and the rebel base alone. From up above, the bombardment had not stopped and each blast made Vin winced inwardly as the intensity of suffering began to grow tenfold. Panic and fear were running rife through his mind and he had difficulty discerning it from any of his own emotions. From the distance, it had not been possible to see the level of destruction wrought by the assault from the sky, However as Vin cleared the trees and emerged in the immediate surrounds of the base, he saw what had caused Josiah's anxiety and felt the same fear coursing through him.

The destruction was vast. The base, once the bastion of an ancient race moved on, was hardly the most hospital of places for habitation but for the months he had been a member of the Rebel Alliance, it had been his home. It pained him to see the great rips in the brickwork, the gapping holes of wall that had crumbled inward from the bombardment. Tongues of fire rimmed the edges of the fissures that had been created from the powerful blasts and voices of wounded and those still trapped inside added their noise to the eruption of chaos that had already gripped the area. Vin took a deep breath to steady himself, tracking Josiah solely through the Force and knowing that the senator had entered the structure through the launch bay which still remained intact, though it was unknown for how long.

Ships were departing in erratic pauses. Vin hurried to the opening to see transports making hasty departures while they still could. The hulls of some ships were pitted and scorched as they tried to gain altitude despite the obvious damage to their systems. Most made it but a few did not. Vin watched in horror as those too badly damaged crashed into the jungle, their demised marked by a fireball and the screams of doom that Vin had to shut off or else. Upon entering the hangar bay, Vin was faced with the full extent of the damage. Conduits and wires were sending live sparks across the floor, emergency crews were trying to put out fires that would impede the progress of the evacuation. Technicians were running across the deck, shouting at pilots to take off while they still could while some were themselves bundling into ships in order to escape.

Amidst all this chaos, Vin saw Josiah. The senator was staring at the Rogue, beyond horror that the ship had not taken off. Vin understood the implication as well as he. If the Rogue was still here, then Casey and Louisa were still in the base somewhere. However, Vin was not ready to believe the worst. He could not. A Jedi needed to have faith in the Force and Vin had ever hope that Casey was not dead. His senses did not admit any foreboding when he thought about the girl and Vin was certain that if she had died, he would on some level be able to sense it.

"Josiah its not what you think!" Vin declared as he reached the man.

"They never made it to the ship." Josiah retorted. "I should not have left her. I should have taken her away from here myself."

"Josiah we don't have time for this!" Vin grabbed his shoulder with enough force to force the man into moving. "She's still here and we have to find her, while we can."

Almost as if fate was attempting to support his cause, another blast was heard and the impact of the detonation shuddered throughout the structure. A section of wall came toppling down at the far end of the hangar, along with streams of dust and mortar shaken loose. The base would not be able to withstand this kind of abuse much longer. The blast placed further urgency into the actions present and shouting and orders flying about the place grew more fevered and determined. Vin looked at Josiah and tried to reach the senator.

"Think Josiah!" Vin ordered. "Where would Louisa and Casey go? What had they been planning to do when they were about to leave?" He shook Josiah and made his words have impact. "Josiah, we can't find them if you don't help."

Josiah sucked in his breath at that and nodded quickly. "Casey would not have gone anywhere," Josiah said quickly running through the possibilities in his mind. "I told her to follow Louisa and stay close to her. Louisa was going to take the Rogue out of here."

"Okay," Vin agreed with that assessment, refusing to let Josiah sink into despair now that he had gained some kind of momentum. "Where would Louisa go then. She was transporting anything because the Rogue was too well known. Just Casey."

"Yes," Josiah nodded and then stared at Vin. "She might have gone to the operations center before leaving, just to check in and account her departure. With all the traffic that was going on, it would be simpler than waiting for flight clearance. That's it Vin! The operations center!"

Josiah had started to run even before the words left his lips but instead of dismay at what he would find urging him on, he was running with purpose. Vin matched him stride for stride as they hurried into the corridor that led away from the hangar. It was slow progress as they were moving against the tide of body, hurrying away from the main concentration of bombardment, attempting to reach the hangar and launch deck while it was still standing. Josiah was barely conscious of this and Vin made sure he kept his friend in sight so that Josiah did not get away from him and get himself killed. He knew perfectly well what foolish risks emotions could lead a man to do.

Another blast was heard and this one flicked what remaining lights that were in the passageway to almost nothingness. Sections of the corridor begin to collapse with both Vin and Josiah barely avoiding being hit by a large piece of rock as it broke free from the ceiling. They took the turn to the operations center when suddenly, they were met by a large slab of rock that kept them from going any further. It effectively sealed the operations center and anyone who was in it behind a wall of rock. Josiah stared at it in shock before he threw himself at it, determined to remove the obstruction through will alone.

"CASEY!" He shouted pounding his fists against it. The block of stone was wedged in tight and did not even budge as Josiah became more panic stricken. "CASEY!"

"Josiah!" Vin pulled his away from the wall because his hands were leaving bloody stains from his relentless pounding. "Stop it!"

Suddenly a voice slice through the pause as Vin and Josiah stared at each other. "Uncle Josiah?"

"Casey!" Josiah almost flung himself against the wall again. "Casey, are you alright?"

There was a pause and what sounded like tears. "I'm okay Uncle Josiah but Louisa's hurt bad."

"We're gonna get you out!" Josiah shouted, every trace of his polished manner having given away for the fears of the terrified parent. "I promise you Casey, we will get you out!"

He turned back to Vin. "We have got to do something! We can't leave them in there!"

As he made that statement, another blast rocked through the air and he heard Casey screaming behind her prison of stone.

"Please Uncle Josiah get us out of here!" Casey cried out. "Everything is falling apart!"

Josiah stared at Vin in anguish and helplessness, not knowing what to do. He could not just leave her in there and in a short time, it would not matter anyway. Casey and everyone else behind that wall of rock would be buried alive. Josiah had never thought he could feel as useless as he did as this moment. What had he been thinking keeping her so close to him! He should have sent her far away from all this not condemning to die in a tomb of rock! "Vin, what do we do?" He asked the apprentice. "There's no time to dig her out!"

Vin took a deep breath and braced himself inwardly. He had to do something and in the final analysis, he was the only one who could. He had never attempted anything so ambitious before and if he failed, it would be a failure that would condemn innocent people to death. He should not have to do anything so ambitious, he was only an apprentice. Stop it! He heard his inner voice shout at him and it had a strange ability to sound like Master Yoda when he was being doubtful of himself. However, thinking about Yoda did remind him of a few things, particularly the Jedi Master's lesson about doubt.

Not to try but do. Or not at all.

He had to do. Closing his eyes, Vin took a deep breath and forced himself to forget that the rock was huge, that its size was daunting or the fact that if he could not move it, people would die. He did not think about how it would destroy Josiah if Casey were to die or the hurt in Buck Wilmington's heart if Louisa were lost to him. He emptied his mind of such thoughts because they were nothing more than a distraction he could not afford. He thought of moving the rock and only of that. He paid no heed to its size or its circumstance, just the fact that it needed to be moved. He closed his mind to all the other pressures and allowed the Force to flow through him. Only the Jedi could do that and Vin knew in recent times that he was destined to be a Jedi.

The rock started to move, slowly at first. Loose pieces of grit started to drift down its surface as it began to force itself from the passageway in which it was trapped. Vin closed his eyes and concentrated even harder, feeling his strength bursting at the seams as he forced it forward much to Josiah's astonishment. It was hard, even though he had told himself that the size of the obstruction did not matter. He closed his eyes tight, beads of sweat forming on his brow and his teeth were grinding together, his jaw tight with concentration. Vin was not aware of it but his fists were knuckled until they were white and he was almost trembling slightly but he refused to let go of the object he could see in his mind's eye. The Force was flowing through him and he was going to do this because failure was not an option.

He was not even aware when a rivulet of blood started running down his nose as the rock wrenched itself free from its confinement with a large heave, bringing down a support beam onto the floor and raining the floor with more debris and plaster but no so much that it was blocked still. The large slab shattered when it hit the floor, breaking into hundreds of pieces as Vin finally released his grip with an exhausted gasp as he toppled backwards, damn near spent entirely by that mammoth effort.

"Vin!" Josiah came to the young man and helped him to stand as Vin braced himself against the wall, feeling a white-hot pain in the center of his skull from pushing himself so hard. However, the pain was inconsequential because it was flavored by the sweet taste of success. He had done it.

"Are you alright brother?" Josiah asked, looking at him as if he was ready to embrace the apprentice for what he had done.

"Just a little winded," Vin confessed. "I haven't tried anything that ambitious before. Go on, see to Casey. I just need to catch my breath."

"Thank you Vin," Josiah said softly, his eyes glittering with emotion. "Thank you so much."

"She's my family too." Vin managed a weak smile.

"Uncle Josiah!" Casey emerged from the rubble, her face covered in plaster and dirt.

Josiah fairly picked her up in his arms and lifted her into the air like he had done when she was a child when she came into her embrace. "Oh Casey!" He laughed never more happy at anything than seeing her alive and well. "You had me so scared, little girl."

"You weren't the only one Uncle Josiah," she smiled but remembered the situation. "Uncle Josiah! Louisa's hurt and not just her!"

"Don't worry," Josiah said as he followed her into the wreckage of what was left of the operations center. "We're gonna get her help and anyone else in here who's alive to use it."

Thanks to Vin, Josiah had been delivered a miracle in being able to reach his niece and he was not about to falter for anyone else who needed it after that. 

**********

"We're too late!" Inez Recillos exclaimed when the Windsong entered Siraj space.

Before the cockpit of the small starship was a battle of mythic proportions taking place. Although they were still some distance away from the main arena of fighting, there was no doubt that the Rebel Alliance cell of Wild Space was fighting for its very life. The space before the Windsong was filled with what seemed like almost a hundred fighters, composing of both TIE's and X -wings. They were so numerous they looked like a swarm of glow beetles engaged in a frenzied nocturnal dance. Eruptions appeared sporadically over this rich tapestry of color, though there was nothing beautiful about it. Each burst or flare of light was another life being extinguished in the cold vacuum of space.

"By the Force!" Claire Moseley gasped, her eyes glimmering with the specks of lights that were ships battling each other with savage intensity.

The Windsong had left Cordoba, barely keeping one step ahead of the troops that were once under Ezra's command but were now directed to bring him in at all costs under Julia's command. Ezra had used every security code he knew to take them through the blockade and for most part had been successful but it had taken time and now they learnt what that delay had cost them. All throughout their journey to Siraj, they had been sending repeated signals to the base on Siraj, not even caring if those signals could be trace to them in their desperate effort to warn their friends of the coming danger. However, it was painfully evident that none of those frantic messages had reached their destination.

Ezra's attention was not however on the number of ships involved in the battle or what those flares of light in the dark meant but rather what the Purgatory was doing at present. He watched in horror as the Nubian warship sailed through the swam of TIE fighters, shoving past the Nimbus as it sailed towards the Chimaera at top speed. He watched the Phoenix joining in the fight, moving in the opposite direction towards the Nimbus. At first, he could not understand what the two ships were doing. The Purgatory's trajectory was going to take her straight to the Chimaera.

Then he saw the Shadowstar pull away from orbit of Siraj where it had been assaulting the surface, no doubt decimating the rebel base with aerial bombardment. The former commander of the Cordoba based watched as the Shadowstar joined the battle, also entering the arena from a completely different angle until the formation placed the Purgatory right in the middle of all four ships.

"Oh hell!" Ezra fairly swore. "Patch me in through to the Purgatory!" He shouted at Inez. She had the correct codes to reach the warship, he did not.

"What? Why?" She stared at him, terrified by the intensity of his voice.

"Because she's cut off," Ezra turned to her. "Trapped."

CHAPTER EIGHT

On the bridge of the Purgatory, the realization dawned on both Mary Travis and her crew that a fatal mistake had been made.

The scanners and the display screens on the bridge, showed in perfect clarity just how grave a mistake had been made as the four star destroyers converged upon the Nubian warship like a pack of hounds about to tear their helpless prey to a thousand shreds. The Purgatory continued to surge towards the Chimaera, still motionless in space, allowing the smaller ship to be led into the masterfully crafted trap created by the Grand Admiral in command of the expedition to Siraj. As Mary clutched the armrests of her chair, staring at the digital representations of the four ships as they surrounded the Purgatory, she realized that she had underestimated her enemy and it was going to cost her dearly. He had moved his ships around in such a disorganized pattern that Mary assumed she was dealing with a commander who had no idea what he was doing. Too late did she understand that there was no doubt in any of his actions, that the ships had been sent this way and that in an elaborate effort to trick her into assuming exactly what she had.

Now that she had committed herself to attacking the Chimaera, the trap had closed with all the other ships being recalled and surrounding the Purgatory on four fronts. Mary did not look at her crew. She could not. She was too ashamed to meet them in the eye after what she had done. They were just aware as she of what had happened, that they were trapped by Imperial forces on all sides and had inadvertently placed themselves, thanks to her mistake, in a kill zone. As the Shadowstar created the last link in the barrier that would prevent anyone of them from escaping this engagement alive, Mary forced herself to think because she could not let it end this way. The enemy knew what she was going to do, had decided long before even arriving at Siraj that she was unpredictable, that she would take the fastest course to victory even at the risk of it being the most daring and dangerous. Who on earth was in the Chimaera who could predict her actions so easily?

"Commander," the com officer spoke up over the hushed silence throughout the bridge. "The Chimaera is hailing us."

Mary met Chano’s gaze and they knew there could be only one reason for such a request at communication. Surrender. The Chimaera was giving the Purgatory the chance to end this before she and her ship were destroyed. However, Mary knew what that surrender would entail. They were all accused of treason and sedition and in the Empire of Palpatine, there was only one sentence for those crimes; death. She sucked in her breath, deciding what was to be done in that instant. "Let’s hear it."

At the very least, she wanted to see the face of the enemy.

The display screen before her flicked momentarily and the commander of the Chimaera appeared before the crew of the Purgatory. Mary did not recognized him at first but this was only a momentary lapse because her mind was already remembering Buck’s forced trip to the Maw some months back. It had been commissioned and paid for by a Grand Admiral named Thrawn with indigo colored skin, crimson eyes and a white uniform as befitting an officer of that rank. She had never met a Grand Admiral and seeing this one scared the daylights out of her because it was he who had maneuvered her into the position she and the rest of the rebels found themselves. She wondered would her actions have changed if she had known that it was a Grand Admiral she was dealing with. She supposed she would never know.

"Grand Admiral Thrawn, I take it." Mary said coolly, showing no fear. She would not give him the satisfaction.

"Commander Travis." Thrawn nodded in what appeared almost an acknowledgement of respect. He did not show any reaction to her knowledge of his identity. "It has been a good game but I think its time to end this."

"I don’t know," Mary retorted. "I might surprise you."

"You have been a formidable foe," Thrawn answered coolly. "I have enjoyed our little engagement, however, the fact remains is that you are surrounded on all fronts. Your rebel base has been compromised and your fighter fleet is in tatters. You have lost even if you are not willing to admit that."

Mary showed no response to that dismal accounting of the day’s losses. "We will not surrender." She said icily. "If we were to surrender, I am aware that every man and woman under my command will be killed before we even reached Coruscant."

"I am not a judge or an executioner," Thrawn answered her truthfully. "However, I cannot speak for how my government will respond to their fates. The Rebel Alliance is a threat to galactic security and carries a charge of treason and sedition. Your people knew that when they took up arms against the lawful government."

Mary almost responded to that but held her anger in check because it would not serve any purpose to let him see that she was checkmated. Showing nothing of what she intended to do about his ultimatum, if anything, Mary stared back at Thrawn. "I will not argue ideology at this time Admiral," Mary responded. "Suffice to say why should we surrender when the consequences of dying here and now might be preferable to being taken home as your trophies?"

"Because I am not interested in the others." Thrawn returned in that cool voice that indicated that he had everything under control and was about to show her how much it was all out of her hands. "I am interested in you Commander Travis. It was not the rebel stronghold in Siraj that brought my participation in this affair. It was you. I intend to present the Emperor his prize one way or another."

Mary felt the rage bubble inside of her as she realized that all this carnage had been attributed to vanity’s desire to have her as a trophy. She thought of the lives lost already, not just in the air but on the planet itself and felt the fury rise up from inside her to choke the reason from her. Raising her eyes to meet Thrawn’s own, desperation gave rise to something of a plan. In truth, it had more in common with a last resort than it had with an actual strategy but it was also the only chance she knew of ensuring that the Purgatory was not boarded or its crew taken prisoner.

"I need to consider the situation," Mary replied softly, feigning the mask of a commander without any alternatives. As a performance, it was not all that far from the truth. She gestured at the communications officer to sever the connection between the two ships, "please standby."

**********

"Power our main engines," Thrawn responded as soon as Mary Travis’ face faded from the viewer on his bridge "Ensure that we are ready to move at a moment’s notice." The Admiral ordered as he returned to his command chair and sat down in it, his body language telling everyone present that their commander was anticipating trouble.

"Admiral?" Pallaeon asked, understanding the urgency in Thrawn’s behavior but not why.

"She’s not ready to give up." Thrawn said without hesitation. "There’s still a little more fight left in her. She won’t surrender, not until we increase the stakes a little more."

************

"Divert all power to our front shields!" Mary barked as soon as Thrawn’s face disappeared from the screen.

"What are you planning?" Chano asked anxiously as the bridge crew moved to carry out their commander’s latest order.

"Our last chance." Mary responded without looking at him. "Helm, take her to ramming speed!"

The bridge seemed to fall deathly silent with that one order as all eyes shifted towards Mary, hoping perhaps that they had heard her wrong that she was not demanding of them what her order seemed to indicate. Mary noted their frightened expressions and she was prepared for it. She had no wish to lead them to death or dying herself but the fact of the matter was, they could not be taken alive and if there was even the slightest chance that some of them may come out of this alive, Mary was prepared to take it.

"You heard me!" She repeated herself. "Ramming speed! Full ahead!"

The helm officer nodded and immediately acted to comply with that order. The view displayed on the screen before the bridge of the Purgatory shifted from its image of the ships converging upon it to that of the Chimaera which lay dead ahead. The Chimaera remained in position, refusing to move as the Purgatory sailed forward, sending the stars around it in streaking past the hull in its surge ahead. Mary’s gaze remained fixed on the ship, aware that this act of desperation could very well end up in her killing everyone on board the vessel, not to mention herself. However, she and the Purgatory’s crew had nothing to lose even though they might think her actions foolhardy. If Imperial forces boarded them, none of them would survive. They would be exterminated by the handful for treason but not before each one of them were tortured for every ounce of information they could provide the Empire about the Rebel Alliance network.

As ludicrous as it seemed, this was the better of the two possibilities.

"Commander," Chano whispered softly. "It’s been an honor serving with you."

Mary raised her gaze to him and tried not to let the emotion show in this critical hour. "Like wise, Commander." She answered just as quietly. "I’m sorry I could not have done any better for you."

"You did us proud Sir." Tylene, her Correllian weapons officer declared with just as much pride.

As the seconds hurried by and the Chimaera loomed closer in the screen, the bridge officers saluted her one after the other, showing their solidarity with her decision to end their service on board the Purgatory with an act of final defiance against Imperial tyranny. Mary had never felt prouder of her or sadder for them. The ship began to shudder as the velocity increased and despite their affirmation to hold their ground with her, she could see the fear in their eyes as the Chimaera remained lock in position as if testing her determination to stay on her suicidal course. She wondered if Thrawn could predict that she was desperate enough not to care whether or not they made it out alive.

She doubted it.

The Purgatory continued at is juggernaut pace, now hastily being bombarded from all other ships as they tried to halt the crafts progress to the Chimaera. The Nubian warship sustained a tremendous beating that could be felt throughout its superstructure as the ship heaved in protest, bleeding from a thousand wounds as it closed in on the enemy for its final moment. Across the bridge, circuitry was overloading, panels were flaring up with heat, terminals were going critical, forcing crew to abandon their stations as fires broke out across the deck. Mary’s own console exploded, sending sparks and glass towards her, she leapt from her seat to avoid being sprayed with a face full of shrapnel. Chano hurried to her and helped her off the floor as the antigrav's in the ship started to give way, making their steps lighter. Not that it mattered much since everyone's attention was more or less occupied on the approaching ship that was growing larger and larger on the scanner. Mary stared at the screen as Chano helped to her feet once more, wondering how long the Chimaera would hold firm and knowing without doubt that she was not moving.

Unlike the Imperials, she and the Purgatory had nothing to lose.

**********

Thrawn watched the approaching Purgatory and felt a little curl tug at the corner of his lips. The Nubian showed no signs of slowing down and Thrawn was certain that she would not either. Mary Travis was too proud and too desperate at this time to back down. The beauty of her unpredictability is that it was also damned predictable in its own way. One just had to know the woman to be able to outmaneuver her. Thrawn made it a habit to study his opponents as closely as possible before he engaged them and Mary Travis had been one of the lengthiest that had undergone scrutiny. Had she known what she was facing in him, there was every likelihood that she would have avoided the trap he had her ensnared. Her actions were that he might have gambled upon himself if he was facing anyone else in the Imperial fleet but a Grand Admiral who was a quick study.

"Move the ship," Thrawn ordered sharply.

"Move?" The helm officer looked over his shoulder, unable to believe that Thrawn had given an order to withdraw.

"You heard the Admiral!" Pallaeon snapped aware that time was of the essence and that the lieutenant of the con was wasting it by asking unnecessary question. "MOVE THE SHIP!"

The delay came to late as the officer struggled to comply with the order, unable to regain the lost time when there was almost a million tonnes of warship coming towards them. Thrawn cursed under his breath, making a note to ensure that if they survived this the lieutenant's most important task would be ensuring his heating coils were still effective when he was assigned to an ice world like Hoth. His fingers dug into the arms rest as the ship started to bank hard but the lapse would cost them.

*********

"ALL HANDS BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Chano shouted into the still functioning com system when he saw the Chimaera's bulk take up the entire view screen.

His warning came less than a split second before the ship slammed into the side of the Chimaera whom at the last minute had banked hard in an effort to avoid the collision. The sound sheared through their eyes as the impact shuddered violently through the ship. Everything that was not bolted down on the bridge when flying as the Purgatory screeched past the Chimaera. Emergency klaxons began screaming all across the ship as the Purgatory took the brunt of the collision since it was smaller in size to the massive star destroyer and less armored. Consoles that had been short-circuiting and erupting sporadically had now started exploding with greater force.

Mary was thrown to her feet as the sound of explosions burst around her like blasts of artillery. For a moment, she could do nothing but keep her head down as the violence shook the bridge around her and she heard screaming. Fires ignited from damaged control panels, were kept fed with flammable cabling and any other material that provided sustenance. The unnerving noise of metal tearing and the steel framework of the ship ripping itself asunder sent waves of fear into Mary as she envisioned what the collision had done to her ship. The forward momentum of the Purgatory was still carrying it forward, despite the chaos that had overtaken the bridge. She did not know how long she remained on the floor, somewhat disorientated by the flashes of light that broke the complete darkness but when it became so silent that it was almost deathly, Mary raised her head and pushed herself to her feet.

The first thing she noticed was that the Purgatory was leaning on a slant. Attitude control had been destroyed and the ship though moving forward still was starting to spiral because of the incline. Mary stumbled slightly as she tried to regain her balance and her eyes widened when she saw the state of the bridge. Metal beams had come down on some of the stations, fire was burning out of shattered console screens and live wires hung limply from torn fissures in the walls and ceiling. The viewer before her command chair had completely shattered, covering the immediate area in a spray of glass. Mary saw some of the bridge crew starting to stir and her eyes searched the immediate area for the first undamaged console.

"All hands," Mary activated the com system and hoped that it still function. "This is Commander Travis, Abandon ship!" She ordered, wiping a smear of blood from her forehead. "Repeat. Abandon ship!"

It was not idle threat, from the undamaged console, she was able to get a fairly decent reading of the ship's current state and it was dire indeed. The damage to the ship's core was substantial. Very soon it would reach critical mass, destroying the Purgatory and everyone on it. That is if the four destroyers did not catch up with them and blow them out of the sky first. At this moment, it could go either way. She heard movement and saw Lieutenant Tylene pulling himself out from under a support beam, his arm hanging loosely at his side and was clearly dislocated.

"Get to the escape pods!" She ordered him and scanned the wreckage for any other survivors. Some were like Tylene, emerging from under the destruction, some what disorientated by the chaos. They used her words to focus themselves and the order to depart the ship was one that sank it most clearly. Mary scanned the bridge to search for more survivors when suddenly, she saw a figure huddled near her command chair. Mary stumbled forward, feeling a sharp pain in her hip as she moved and let out a small cry as she unwittingly placed weight on it. She made her next step a little more carefully but it did not lessen the pain any more, just allowed her to get forward a little more. Dropping to her knees once she reached the injured crewman, Mary felt her heart stop when she realized that it was Chano.

"Chano!" Mary gasped as she saw his head and chest bleeding profusely. The head injury did not seem severe but the wound to his chest, just beneath the ribcage was another thing entirely. If he were not given medical treatment soon, he would die. Mary was not about to let that happen. Slipping his arm over her shoulders, she closed her eyes and braced herself for the pain that would come when she attempted to haul him to his feet. The pain was beyond belief and set her hip on fire as she pulled him upright. Mary could not keep herself from uttering a sob of pain as she stared dragging him towards the exit. She knew that she would be forgiven if she left him and continued on her own but she refused to let him die here. After failing the Purgatory so dismally, she was not going to waste any more lives under her command than necessary.

The bridge had access to life pods of their own and as Mary made the laborious task of bringing Chano and herself to safety, she could hear the Purgatory's death knell in the increasing frequency of explosions that were exploding throughout the ship. It was almost a cascading effect, moving deck by deck until it reached crescendo at the engine core and tore the entire ship apart. Mary cast a final gaze at the bridge as she drew further and further away, trying not to feel the sorrow of its loss. The Purgatory had been her first real warship command, the reward she had received by joining the rebellion and forsaking command of a star destroyer. She had loved the little Nubian warship and was proud of all they managed to do together. Their relationship had almost been symbiotic except now she was leaving it to its death. She felt as if she had cheated somehow.

This is not the time, Mary told herself as he found an escape pod and placed Chano into it. The pod took two and Mary took a deep breath, casting one final look at the hallway of her ship, even though the bridge was no longer in sight. The pod could take more but the others had gone ahead and Mary could not trust the ship to remain any longer than necessary on board. When the core went critical, they had to be a good distance away or simply escaping in the nick of time was not going to be good enough; they would be vaporized just the same. She did not mind her own life in jeopardy but Chano's was another thing entirely.

Fastening Chano securely into one of the seats within the life pod, Mary did the same for herself and activated the panel next to her that would breathe life to the transport. The lights underneath her finger tips came alive once she keyed in the correct sequence and with a sudden lurch, the pod plunged downwards, making Mary's stomach follow its direction for a few seconds. She raised her eyes to the portal above the ceiling and saw the metal surface contract into the shape of the Purgatory as the pod left it behind. Mary did not know how long she continued to stare until she saw her beloved ship tear itself apart in a brilliant explosion that lit up the sky with amber balls of fire and smoke.

She watched the ignited pieces of metal streak across the sky, not realizing that corresponding streaks were moving down her cheeks as tears.

***********

With the lowering of the deflector shield, the priorities of the rebels fighting the ground assault shifted radically. While a few remained to impede the progress of the juggernaut rebel forces encroaching their defensive perimeter, most of the ground pounders had returned to the rebel base in order to aid with the evacuation. Some parts of the damaged structure were not accessible and though they were certain there were lives still trapped in small pockets throughout the facility, no help could be provided to them. The efforts were now focussed on retrieving as many from the destroyed bastion of rebel activity as possible and with the depletion of forces on the line; the Imperial advance grew even more rapid.

Chris Larabee and the rest of Colonel Kellis’ squadron had been busy attacking the Shadowstar after it had begun its assault the rebel base. The contingent of X wings sent to do battle with the star destroyer soon found itself outmatched and it was a note to preservation and determination that they managed to disrupt some of the bombardment though not enough to be effective since the shield generator had been lowered. During the course of the fighting, only Chris’ superior reflexes kept him from joining the growing number of casualties, including Kellis, who was shot down in a fiery blaze. Chris felt the terrified emotions of all that had died, seconds before the end and after awhile he had to consciously disconnect himself from sensing them. However, as the Shadowstar began to move off and join the other ships, with the X-wings following close behind to aid their comrades who were embroiled in the engagement with the Purgatory, Chris noticed something disturbing.

The closer they neared to the Chimaera; his senses found itself pressed against a barrier it could not penetrate. A circle of darkness surrounded the lead ship and its radiating power also extended itself to the ships that flew close to its sphere and even the Purgatory itself as the Nubian surged toward it. Within that perimeter, Chris could sense nothing; not a mind thinking its thoughts, not an emotion depicting the fear and aggression this situation must surely engender. All that he could feel was this large vacuum of nothingness. As he and the rest of the X-wings watched in horror as the Purgatory found itself surrounded on all fronts by the large attack force, Chris was helpless to discern whether or not Mary was still alive because of that nullifying effect.

It was the same feeling he had experienced when Buck had returned from the Maw with the yslamiri.

Suddenly, it all made perfect sense. It was Thrawn that was commanding this battle. Mary was facing a Grand Admiral. Although Chris had never served in the military, he knew that the rank was given to officers with exceptional command abilities. The surgical effectiveness of the strike against the rebel forces was proof enough of Thrawn’s capabilities since this was shaping up to be one of the rebellion’s worst defeats in its short history. Thrawn had engineered the retrieval of the yslamiri in order to use it on the Jedi. The small furry creatures were an oddity of nature, somehow existing outside the Force and in doing so were able to create a bubble around itself, which no Jedi could penetrate and was thus rendered helpless. It did not surprise Chris in the slightest that having anticipated the presence of Jedi on Siraj, Thrawn had taken appropriate measures to protect himself against their threat. Whatever the reason for it hardly mattered now, because its effects were well and truly in force. Chris could sense nothing from the Chimaera and the surrounding ships.

Which meant he could not sense Mary either.

CHAPTER NINE

From the cockpit of the Wingsong, Ezra Standish watched in horror as the Purgatory languished within the kill zone formed by Thrawn's attack fleet. The Nubian warship was being besieged on all sides by streaks of powerful energy, impacting against its hull. Life pods had started to eject from the main body of the vessel and these tiny capsules of life surged away from their doomed mothership into the dangerous field of battle with no ability to defend themselves. Ezra continued to study the readings from the beleaguered craft, watching its destruction shift from a possibility to inevitability. Unfortunately, the X-wings offering aerial support did not know that the battle was doomed. Their fierce protection was likely to get them killed if they continued to remain close to the Nubian warship when she exploded. A warship of that size would have a sufficient blast radius to take any small ship in proximity to a fiery death.

Why had not the order for withdrawal been given to those ships?

"They must pull away." Ezra responded as the Wingsong attempted to skim the edges of the battle to join the departing exodus of rebel ships that would be journeying to the rendezvous point. "The Purgatory is about to reach critical. The order to retreat must be given now."

"Mary must not be on board." Inez replied next to him. She knew Mary Travis long enough to know that the commander of the rebel base would never allow her pilots to be endangered necessarily. However, she had seen the evacuation of the Purgatory and supposed that it was possible that Mary was in no position to give the order for withdrawal. "I think she is in one of those life pods."

Ezra knew he had no authority to act but someone had to do something before these pilots were killed either by the shockwave when the Purgatory was destroyed or by being trapped in a kill zone with four Imperial destroyers. However, the order for withdrawal had to come now. The hope of defeating the enemy was dwindling, if there was every any at all. The most sensible thing for the rebels to do was to leave while they could. There was no shame from leaving a battle they could not win and foolishness in staying to fight it when death was inevitable. He thought quickly of what was to be done and hoped he did not overstep his bounds by acting but the order had to be given or the consequences would be devastating indeed.

"Inez, can you patch me into the X-wing communications channel?" Ezra asked.

Inez and Claire stared at him in surprise before Inez hurried to comply with his request. They had attempted to warn the Purgatory earlier but the ship had been too busy fighting of the Chimaera and its companions to respond. Meanwhile Claire was following an earlier instruction by Ezra to monitor the ships leaving the system in order for them to join the departing convoy. The situation overall, did not appear good. The bombardment of the rebel base by the Shadowstar had almost destroyed the landing bay and most of the ships that managed to escape were now under heavy fire from the TIE fighters' left to secure the planet.

"I've got a line patched through!" Inez announced and gestured Ezra to begin speaking.

Ezra nodded anxiously, meeting her gaze and drawings strength from her encouraging smile before he spoke into the com unit. "Attention all rebels ships, break off from the Purgatory. She is about to reach critical mass. Repeat, attention all rebels ships, break off now. You are in a kill zone."

There were burst of responding static as the fighters in the air tried to discern who it was that had made the announcement. It was not Commander Travis and yet the advice given was sound and they wished to believe it, however, they did not know him and thus were unable to decide whether the order was legitimate or an enemy trick. Finally, a familiar voice filled the cockpit of the Wingsong to make that determination for himself.

"Ezra, is that you?" Buck Wilmington's voice demanded.

"Naturally," Ezra responded in his cool, deliberate tones belying the urgency of the moment. "Do you think you can convince your compatriots that I am not some Imperial spy and carry out my request? If you remain where you are you will be destroyed, if not by the Purgatory's blast radius or by those Imperial guns. You need to withdraw and offer aerial support to what few ships have managed to escape the destruction of your base. Also, a number of life pods have ejected from the Purgatory, it would be a good idea if we intercepted them before Imperial TIE fighters lock on a tractor beam and take them captive. Mary Travis may be on one of these."

"Right," Buck agreed. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"It appears that my tenure as military commander of the Cordoba base is over," Ezra released a long sigh. "Grand Admiral Thrawn has given me little option to do anything else. I think that was his intention all along."

"Thrawn?" Buck exclaimed. "It's Thrawn that's leading this attack?"

"Yes," Ezra exchanged glances with Inez and Claire. "Did you not know?"

"No," the pilot responded. "If we had...."

"It would most likely change nothing," Ezra cut him off abruptly. "Buck, issue the order to the rest of your fleet. Get yourself and the others out of the line of fire while you still can. We cannot win this one but we will lessen their victory if we deny them prisoners. At the moment, your immediate priority is to ensure as many of your people leave the system as possible. The base on Siraj 3 has been heavily bombarded so the transport departure is slow, especially with TIE fighters picking them off one by one. You and your companions would be best served aiding those ships to leave."

There was a slight pause and Ezra imagined he could see the smirk on Buck's face at his attempt to offer guidance. Almost on cue, Buck's response indicated that Ezra was right to think that.

"You giving orders now Ezra?" Buck asked and Ezra knew he was wearing a smile inside the cockpit of his ship.

"No just friendly advice," Ezra frowned, wondering how he had found himself in this position. This was Mary's task to do not his and he felt uncomfortable issuing orders in her stead but the situation warranted it by its urgency.

There was another pause before Buck answered. "Thanks Ezra," The big man responded seriously. "We needed it."

"Buck," Inez broke in to the conversation, seeing both men were becoming uncomfortable by the emotional content of it. "Take care."

"Inez?" Buck exclaimed. "You here too?"

"I'm afraid I led them straight to me when I tried to send the base a warning," she confessed. Inwardly, Inez was glad to hear that Buck was still among the living. When the Windsong had arrived in the scene of the battle, she had thought the worst. There were so many casualties already and she had feared that he might be one of them. Even though her heart lay with Ezra now, Inez still cared deeply for Buck and supposed she always would. She did not wish to see him harmed.

"Thank you for keeping her safe Ezra," Buck said gratefully.

"It was my pleasure," Ezra offered Inez a smile and then returned his attention to the situation at hand. "Buck, we can talk later. Right now, you need to get your ships out of the way before it was too late."

"Yeah right," Buck agreed with that statement and then added, "Ezra, I'm sending you the rendezvous coordinates through a coded frequency. You've given us good lead to act, now its time for you to get out of here. I'll pass on these orders to the rest of the fleet. You need to be there at the rendezvous point when they get there. Until we find Mary, we're going to need all the command help we can get."

Ezra stiffened, having no wish to assume any sort of leadership role in place of Mary Travis but Buck was right; they needed him.

"I will endeavor to do what I can." Ezra answered. "In the meantime, you take care my friend."

"Yeah the same to you," Buck grinned. "And you keep our girl safe."

Ezra smiled slightly at the way he put that and nodded with his eyes fixed on Inez; "I had never intended anything else."

************

Chris continued towards the Purgatory even though the order had come through the com system a moment ago for all ships to withdraw. He could not do so until he knew whether or not Mary was alive or dead. It terrified him beyond belief that the link between them had been severed no doubt a side effect of the yslamiri that Grand Admiral Thrawn must have had on his ship. Not only were his powers depleted because of the creatures but in this maelstrom of chaos presently before him, he was also required to find Mary without it. With so many ships in the air and the destruction of the Purgatory reaching apogee, Chris knew his chances of finding her were remote unless he resorted to conventional means and with so much confusion taking place around him, that would be difficult to do.

Even as he continued towards the Purgatory, X wings were whizzing past him, putting as much distance between themselves and the doomed Nubian warship. TIE fighters were also starting to withdraw in the face of the relentless bombardment of energy from the surrounding destroyers. Enormous bolts of power from the main guns of the destroyers assaulted the Purgatory without mercy until Chris could see the hull becoming so hot from the burst of energy that tendrils of blue were spreading across the surface like spidery webs. From his approach, he could see armored plates buckling and then breaking free of its superstructure. The space around it was already littered with debris and now new flotsam was added to the mix with steel plating breaking free of the ship and hurtling into the darkness.

"Oh no!" Someone gasped over his com set and Chris could not tell who it was except to know that something terrible was about to happen.

It did.

As he moved his gaze upwards, Chris saw the body of the Purgatory beginning to crumble under the relentless assault. The destruction reached climax with a shattering explosion that, though could not be heard, was felt by every sensor and instrument on board the small fighter. The sky turned brilliant as the much beloved ship of the rebel fleet breathed her last, sending columns of fire and smoke in all directions in her final swan song. Chris' felt his heart break and was certain that emotion was felt by every rebel who bore witness as they watched the explosion tearing the Purgatory apart. Debris flew in all directions as the craft was consumed by a ball of fire with glittering embers taking their place among the canvas of stars for a brief moment. The tremendous conflagration lasted only a minute before the cold vacuum of space suffocated the Purgatory's last gasp of breath with its airless void.

There was silence over the air waves following the dissolving evidence of the Purgatory's destruction and it demoralizing effects rippled throughout the remaining rebel forces as surely as it had seeped into Chris' own psyche. For so many, fighting the rebel cause had been something good and noble but until today, no one had ever suspected the cost could be so great or the sacrifices as much as it had been. Chris' thoughts were mostly focussed on whether or not Mary was on board that ship. Without his Jedi senses, there was no way for him to know and not knowing was driving him to distraction. The possibility that she could be dead was so awful he could not even begin to imagine coping with it if it turned out to be true.

Suddenly, a shrill burst of static made him flinch and he almost tore the headset from his ears to escape the irritating sound when through the crackling, he heard a voice speaking.

"This is Commander Travis!" Mary Travis spoke frantically, unaware that it was he listening, only aware that she was in danger and in need of help. Chris quickly searched the source of the transmission even as she was trying to reach him and realized that she was transmitting from the last pod that had escaped the Purgatory before its destruction. This made sense since Mary would have been the last to leave her ship. She would have ensured everyone else had gone before departing herself. He was also the closest ship to the Purgatory prior to its destruction and was best able to receive her distress call.

"Mary!" Chris responded, wasting no time in allowing her to know that she had been heard.

"Oh Chris!" Mary exclaimed, undoubtedly relieved to hear his voice. "We need immediate pick up! Chano is badly hurt! He needs a med tech!"

"I'm homing in on your signal." Chris replied.

"Chris, the transmitter was damaged when we left the ship," Mary explained, her voice taut with anxiety. "I think this message may have come across on an open frequency."

Chris felt his stomach hollow at the thought as he studied the readings on his console which confirmed her suspicions. "Mary, cut transmission." Chris ordered sharply, aware that if he could hear her so could the Empire. "I've pin pointed your location and I'm coming to get you. Maintain radio silence until then."

There was no response to his demand that indicated that she had understood his message and was doing just as he asked by remaining silent. Chris hoped he could reach her before the Imperials were aware that she was in a life pod with no way to escape if they decided to retrieve her.

**********

"Sir, we have her!" Pallaeon announced over the bridge of the Chimaera.

Thrawn sat up in his seat and aimed his crimson colored gaze at his adjutant. "Where is she?"

"As you suspected, she was in one of the last pods to depart the ship," Pallaeon explained even though he was certain it was a redundant gesture but nevertheless Thrawn liked the protocol that went with it. "We targeted emitted a low level energy charge which damaged their scrambler transmitter coils forcing them to use conventional bandwidths. We detected Commander Travis sending a distress call to an X wing on approach to the Purgatory at the time of its destruction. The X wing will be in interception range in 30 seconds."

"I want that ship." Thrawn said sharply. "Allow the X wing to pick up the life pod. I do not wish to risk damaging the Emperor's prize before we get our hands on her. Have four of our TIE fighters intercept the X wing once it has retrieved the pod. Express to our pilots that they are to drive the ship towards Siraj. The object is not its destruction but the damage of the ship's starboard engine. Without it, the rebel ship will not be able to make the jump into hyperspace. It will be forced to land o the surface to affect repairs or find some alternate means of leaving the system at which point we can move in at our leisure."

************

It did not take long for Chris' X wing to close in on Mary's life pod. The rebel fleet was following the trajectory of the departing transporters and the TIE fighters were in pursuit trying to prevent that from happening. The four destroyers were also moving into flanking positions before taking up the chase to finish off the remaining rebel forces now that the Purgatory was destroyed. Chris knew that he would have to retrieve the life pod and slip past those four ships and it would be no easy task since an Imperial victory would prove all the more glorious if they were to capture Mary Travis as well.

Upon reaching the life pod, Chris activated the tractor beam in order to capture the craft and led it safely to the planet. There was a narrow margin of time in which to accomplish this since the rebel ships were leaving the system in large numbers and his X wing was incapable of carrying any more than one passenger. Even if he did strand one of the life pod's passengers on the planet, there was no guarantee that Chano could survive the trip to the rendezvous point if he was badly injured. Mary's voice had been frantic when she had communicated with him and Chris could imagine that Chano was in a bad way for Mary to be so concerned.

Upon connecting with the life pod, the X wing shuddered a little as the tractor beam secured its hold on the smaller craft. Chris wanted badly to inquire after Mary, to see if she was alright before he took them away from this battlefield but the danger in breaking radio silence was great and he dared not endanger her that way. The sooner he pulled away from the Chimaera, the more distance he would put between himself and the yslamiri, which nullified his powers. Chris hated how disorientating it felt to be without the Force flowing through him but he could not afford to allow himself to become to disabled because Mary needed for him to be in control of his faculties. Once he was certain that the life pod was secure, Chris powered up his engines and a burst of acceleration sent him surging towards the planet once more.

However, no sooner than he had secured the life pod and put some distance between the ship and the place where he had made the retrieval, he noticed the presence of four TIE fighters moving towards him on attack vector. There was no doubt of their intentions as they opened fire with blasts of energy detonated around his ship. Chris poured more speed into his engines, increasing his acceleration until he was able to put a margin of safety between the X wing and the enemies. Hardly an easy feat when he was still locked onto the small life pod and the acceleration could endanger both ships, particularly when they attempted to enter the atmosphere of Siraj. Unfortunately, he had little choice in the matter because it appeared as if the enemy ships were not about to let them escape for any reason.

In an effort to shake off his pursuers, Chris performed a series of evasive maneuvers. However his maneuverability was limited with the life pod still held in a tractor beam and the controls felt heavy and unresponsive in his hands. Swerving and banking hard to the point when Chris feared that the life pod might detach itself from the grip of the tractor beam, he narrowly avoided the energy discharge from the four TIE fighters that were determined to keep them from making the jump to light speed. It was a futile gesture anyway; Chris could not possibly accomplish such a thing without landing on Siraj first. The life pod was not equipped to travel in hyperspace over long distances. The more distance they put between themselves and the Chimaera, the more he felt the return of his powers. However, the infusion of the Force came to late and as the planet Siraj started to loom larger in the distance, Chris' ability to evade the enemy came to an abrupt end.

The blast was loud enough to jolt him forward in the seat. If he had not been fastened within his seat with a safety belt his helmet would have slammed into the cockpit controls doing untold damage. Before him, the sensors started flashing the crimson colors of danger. One half of the craft dipped dangerously to one side and without even confirming it on the console before him, Chris knew that one of his engines were gone. Fuel and life support energy was bleeding out of the wounded X wing as she plunged into the atmosphere of Siraj. Tractor beam control was being maintained at the barest minimum and as the X wing broke the surface of the planet, Chris noted his attackers breaking off their pursuit, refusing to follow them any further.

Not that it mattered much anyway. The X wing surged through the skies of Siraj like a projectile and Chris had extreme difficulty controlling its descent. He was unable to plot a course to the rebel base because the destruction to the engine made it impossible for him to attain that level of control. The safety of the life pod became a burden the small fighter was struggling to maintain. With the return of his Jedi abilities, he could sense the terror inside Mary's mind as she was forced to remain inside the pod, helpless and completely dependent on him to see her safely through the landing. He wanted to reassure her that everything would be all right but he could not take his mind off what he was doing to offer her that comfort.

With massive systems failure throughout the ship, the X wing burst into flames as it dove through the atmosphere, encompassing the life pod as he penetrated the planetary ozone layer. Once past it, the flames died down and Chris was able to gauge where their landing site would be. They were hundreds if not thousands of miles away from the rebel base possibly on the other side of the planet itself. With a damaged ship, that was a long way to be from the others. Unfortunately as the ground rushed up to greet them, Chris realised they did not have much choice. The X wing had almost exhausted itself. A hundred feet from the ground, the tractor beam power finally cut out, releasing the life pod. The cylindrical shape disappeared into the trees, creating a large groove through the woods as it came to a gradual stop, crushing trees, bushes and anything else in it its path as it continued on its juggernaut pace.

The X wing's landing was not so smooth. Once it had relinquish hold of the life pod, the X wing began to spiral downward and Chris knew that when the ground swallowed up the ship, he could not be on board. Making sure he was secured to his seat, he removed the canopy overhead and heard the wind sweep it away in a loud swoosh. Overhead, he could see the sky spinning above his eyes as he activated the ejection system. The tremendous hydraulic forces beneath the pilot's seat released with a loud bang and suddenly, Chris was propelled in the air.

For a few seconds he was ascending through the sky and then the safety chute billowed free from the back of his seat and he was lowering at a more sensible speed. Looking over the terrain as he descended, Chris could see the destruction created by the unceremonious landing of the life pod. It left a clear trail for him to follow and he could feel Mary inside his mind. She was frightened and worried but she was alive. Chris let out a sigh of relief before he was alerted to the sound of an explosion in the distance. Snapping his head towards the direction it had come from, Chris saw the billowing clouds of black smoke that had followed in the wake of his X wing slamming into the jungle. He felt a pang of remorse for the ship that had served him nobly these past few months before realizing that he ought to be grateful to be alive, even if they were nowhere out of trouble at this point.

Because Thrawn was coming for them.

************

After discarding the safety chute, Chris followed the trail made by the life pod as it made its rough landing. Their landing site was almost a continent and ocean away from the rebel base and as Chris moved through the thick jungle, he could hear the gentle lapping of the surf in the distance. When they had been making their rough descent, he had sighted the powerful aquamarine colors of the sea, though at the time he had taken little notice. Siraj 3 was a pleasant enough world but other than its natural fauna there was no other sentient life on the planet. Its remote location and lack of occupation was part of the reason it had been selected as a base. As he followed the path of crushed leaves and trees snapped in half, he realised that he was sad to leave this world. It did not take him long to reach the life pod but when he did, he noted that it was still sealed. Its outer hull was dented and charred with gases exuding from the damaged engines. Chris hoped the damage was not as bad as it looked. The life pod was capable of limited flight and they needed to reach the base if they were ever to leave Siraj.

Upon sighting it, Chris broke into a run and was at the craft in a matter of minutes. He could feel Mary's fear and her life force within the damaged shell but worried at her reason for not emerging from the vessel. Was she hurt and unable to do so?

"Mary!" Chris called out as he reached the hatchway.

"Chris!" Mary responded almost immediately. "The hatch is jammed."

Chris stepped back and examined the hatchway and could well understand why that was. The hatch controls had been damaged in the crash landing and had fused in certain areas. Chris took a deep breath and concentrated hard, focussing his mind on the task ahead and confident that he could accomplish it now that the Force was with him again. The hatch started to shudder first with low vibrations as Chris strengthened his hold and then with a loud rip of metal, it tore free of the hull and landed in the grass some distance away.

Mary wasted no time in emerging and when she did, her first act was to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight in an embrace of relief and happiness that he was the one who had come to save her. Chris held her tightly in his grip, taking deep breaths of her hair and enjoying the sensation of her body against his, her heart pounding against him. Once again, he was revisited by the electrifying experience of kissing her earlier and lowered his mouth to capture her lips in a kiss of passion. Mary did not resist and for a few seconds, time and space seemed to dissolve and all there was that wonderful moment of being together. This time it was he who took the initiative and he explored the warm cavern of her mouth like a wondrous discovery. When they parted, she was breathless and he never thought she looked more beautiful then at that instant.

"Thank you for finding me," she whispered softly, his arms still holding her waist while hers were wrapped languidly around his neck.

"I promised you I was going to be with you," Chris smiled. "I never break my promises."

"I made such a terrible mistake," she blinked, trying to hide her tears. He was the one person to whom she could show how much the defeat at Thrawn's hands really effected her. When she was with him, there was no need to be Commander Travis, just Mary and Chris Larabee always knew what Mary felt and what she needed. "I let everyone down. I couldn't stop him."

"You had no idea who you were up against," Chris said raising her chin so that she would meet his eyes and understand that she was not to blame. "You did the best you could and I know that there is no one under your command who would believe any differently."

"He knew exactly how to catch me Chris," Mary answered bitterly as he wiped the tears from her eye with his finger. "He knew everything I would do in a battle and he used it against me. I've never been up against an opponent who could do that."

"He did exactly what you do Mary," Chris pointed. "Now you know that when dealing with him, you need to be especially careful."

"Yes," she nodded, having learnt that much out of this entire affair. "And in being careful, I can tell you with have to get moving right now. Somehow we have to reach the others because it's not the rebel base he was after Chris."

"What do you mean?" Chris looked at her and knew the answer before she could say it.

Mary swallowed and met his gaze fearfully before she answered softly, "it's me. Thrawn wants me."

CHAPTER TEN

The battle was over with the rebels departing the system in droves, their numbers severely depleted, the space around the planet where their base was situated, littered with corpses and debris of comrades who had fought and died in the devastating Imperial assault. Less than half the transports had managed to escape the base before the aerial bombardment from the Shadowstar had leveled the landing bay, trapping many ships and killing more pilots. Those who could be saved from the wreckage were loaded onto the ships that had escaped, broken bodies that had been found after shifting through the mangled mess of metal and alloys. Others had been removed from the collapsed sections of the base itself but too many were left because they were unreachable by the rescuers.

Vin Tanner had deep reservations about leaving the system at least until after he knew for certain that Chris Larabee was one of the survivors but had little choice when his craft was filled with wounded who needed to reach a medical ship once they were safely aware. His senses told him that Chris was not in danger, at least none that his abilities could detect. The new that the Purgatory had been destroyed reached Vin as he had departed Siraj, preparing to make the jump into hyperspace. He had been ferrying a number of rebel personnel who had been unable to find any other transport when the base had been attacked with the failure of the shield generator. A swell of shock had moved through the Tracker and he felt inside his own heart as surely as he sensed if from those around him.

For so long, the Purgatory had been allied with all their victories against the Empire. Mary Travis' ship was almost as loved as she was and with her fate still unknown, the idea that they might lose her as well as the Nubian warship, was something that frightened everyone on board, including Vin. It was at that instant that Vin had known that wherever Mary was, Chris was not far behind. If the Jedi was not here then he was out there somewhere searching for the woman he loved. Vin also understood that just as Chris had been powerless to keep him from going after Charlotte so was he in helping the Jedi in this endeavor. Right now, he had to think of the people on the Tracker with him. They were wounded and they needed to escape the war zone.

Despite wishing otherwise, Vin knew that Chris would want him to deliver the rebels to safety before Vin made any attempt to seek him out. Sometimes sacrifices needed to be made for the cause, Chris had often said, even if the sacrifice was one of their own. Vin hoped Chris would remember that while he was aiding in the reconstruction of the devastated rebel fleet of the Territory. Vin could not even begin to imagine how many were left behind for the lack of transport or the equipment to reach those who were buried in the rubble following the destruction of the base. Vin had remembered what it was like when he helped Josiah and Casey remove the injured from the destroyed rebel operations center, loading them into the Rogue because it was one of the few large ships that had been left unscathed during the bombardment.

Louisa Perkins had been one of these and though she lived, she had been gravely injured. Vin took some comfort in the fact that Alexandra Styles was far away from here when the Empire had rained destruction upon them. Josiah had been relieved that Casey was unhurt but Vin could see that he felt ashamed for his selfishness when so many others had lost their lives around him. Although the young woman did not ask, Casey's thoughts had been filled with JD. Fortunately, Vin would be able to give her some good news when they met at the rendezvous point having met up with the young pilot when he had departed Siraj. JD had provided escort to the Tracker since it had become a hospital ship of sort with Vin ferrying the wounded. JD had asked about Buck but Vin had no idea how the hotshot star pilot was doing. As far as Vin knew, Buck had been apart of the aerial support defending the Purgatory against the

The rendezvous point was in a remote part of the Elrood Sector, a corner of space devoid of habitable planets or system. It was mostly a void filled with gaseous anomalies and relatively uninteresting stars at random intervals. Far away from the main space lanes, there was not a trace of civilisation to be found within 10 parsecs of the sector, which assured anyone selecting the venue as a meeting place, complete privacy. The effect of their defeat at Siraj was evident when Vin approached the gathering of rebel ships following the Tracker's emergence from hyperspace. Only a number of large cruisers had managed to escape Siraj and no more than two dozen or more transports had actually left the base to join the exodus. X wings were starting to make their appearances, a large number were damaged and limping towards the transport ships, all carrying the scars of the battle from which they had been forced to flee.

"By the Force," Nathan whispered as he saw the flotilla of ships, different in their models and origin but all carrying the same mark of defeat as if it had been branded into each of their hulls. Nathan tried not to be shaken by what he was seeing but it was not possible to do so when confronted by just how many of their number had been lost.

"I wonder what the casualty rate is," Vin asked softly, just as mesmerized as he flew towards the medical cruiser, Angel of Mercy. After a moment of silence, he decided he did not need to know. He glanced at Nathan briefly as he brought the Tracker towards the cruiser which was now one of the few that remained following the battle they had just left behind. If there were any command officers left after the fighting, they would be gather on board the ship to take a full account of their situation. Unfortunately, Vin did not think that any amount of consolidation would help if they had lost Mary with the Purgatory. Even now, Vin could sense the futility in Nathan. The captain was the most focussed person he knew in terms of his beliefs in the cause.

If Nathan started to doubt then they all had good reason to worry.

"Too many," Nathan answered tautly. "I can't do this Vin." He turned and stared at the apprentice. "I can't lead them."

"Of course you can," Vin retorted automatically. "Come on Nathan, you hold things together. We need you, especially now."

"I hold things together but I can't make it work without Mary," Nathan confessed. "I'm not cut out for that. I don't have what it takes, I never did."

"Nathan," Vin sucked in his breath, wishing he knew what to say to the man and decided to trust the words that came from the heart to do what was necessary because they simply did not have the time for this. "Maybe you don't have what it takes to be lead but no is asking you too. You just need to hold it together long enough for us to figure out what we're going to do. You got that, we." Vin placed a hand on Nathan's shoulder. "We're all in this together and we'll get through this the same way."

Nathan nodded slowly and offered the apprentice a little smile. "You're a good friend and you're right, I'll do what I always do, I'll keep this mess in one piece until Mary gets back. I work better as the rudder not the steer."

"Rudders are still important though," Vin pointed out, as the landing bay of the Angel of Mercy grew larger in the cockpit window. "Besides, try and interchange the two and then see some trouble brewing."

"Sure," Nathan retorted. "Try and make me feel better."

**************

Ezra Standish had boarded the Angel of Mercy a short time after arriving at the rendezvous coordinates provided by Buck Wilmington. As he left his ship, he felt conspicuous in his Imperial uniform and could not help feeling as if he should have removed it before disembarking his ship. Eyes followed him all of the way from the landing bay as he strode towards the innards of the ship. Upon notifying the bridge of whom he was, Ezra was somewhat surprised to learn that the commander of the vessel, a willowy Jungan female name Gia Dano was rather pleased to see him. He was familiar to most of the rebel fleet who knew of the Imperial commander of Cordoba who was one of them. Despite the fact that he wore an Imperial uniform when he arrived on the bridge with Inez and Claire, it was clear to him that those present were just as grateful of his presence. He recognized one or two of the officers on the bridge and realized that he had met them during the period where he was briefly in command of the Purgatory when he had been sent to rescue Buck Wilmington from the Maw while Mary was indisposed on Tatooine.

"Commander Standish," Dano spoke in that peculiar Jungan accent that made standard galactic very hard to understand when coming from their lips. "I must say that I am glad to see you."

"Why would that be?" Ezra asked genuinely surprised by the reception he was receiving from the woman and the rest of the bridge officers who seemed almost relieved by his arrival.

"I am a doctor in charge of a medical ship," Dano confessed readily not afraid to reveal that she was out of her depth. "I do not have much experience in military matters. Usually I am the chief medical officer of the Territory's rebel outpost and while I am able to guide my crew under those parameters, I am not entirely comfortable with being the only ranking officer left in this rag tag fleet."

"Oh my God!" Inez gasped, struck by the enormity of the claim and seeing in the Jungan's eyes that she was not exaggerating. "What do you mean?"

Eyes dropped across the bridge and the sorrow could be seen in all the faces present before Dano spoke again, her large circular eyes glistening with moisture and sadness. "We have lost the Purgatory and perhaps Commander Travis as well. Almost all our squadron commanders were killed in the battle of Siraj and many more were killed during the aerial bombardment of the base. Those who survived are presently being treated by medical droids within the walls of this ship and others like it. Our losses have been devastating."

"The Purgatory was destroyed?" Claire swallowed hard, knowing that was the ship on which her husband served. "Lieutenant Commander Chano? Did he escape?"

"We don't know," Dano answered truthfully and Inez immediately wrapped a comforting arm around the young woman's shoulders as it stated to sag from fears of the worst.

"Claire it is too soon for leaping to conclusions," Ezra said gently. "There was a great deal of confusion taking place when we passed through the system. The X wings were collecting as many life pods as they could when we departed Siraj. Chano could already be in the medical center here and we would not know it."

It was not much in the way of assurance but it was the best he could do under the circumstances and there was every chance that his assertions were true. Claire needed to believe Chano was still alive and he had no intention of seeing her any more afraid that she already was. Claire had risked much in joining his escape from Cordoba and he was not about to let her think that it was for nothing. Unfortunately, there was also every chance that he was dead just as it was likely that Mary might have perished on board the Purgatory as well. However, Ezra would not voice that possibility just yet. Those under Mary's command needed to believe she was safe and on her way to them.

"What about Captain Jackson?" Ezra asked, changing the subject so that Claire would not be given any more reason to fret but also because he was concerned regarding the well being of his best friend. Where had Nathan been throughout this? Once again, Ezra cursed himself for not being able to warn the Rebellion about Thrawn's fleet. Now it felt as if it was too late for anything.

"His ship is preparing to land," Dano answered much to his relief. "He is on board the Tracker, Vin Tanner's ship."

Ezra nodded with a swell of gratitude filling up his insides now that he knew Nathan as well as Vin was safe, but what of the others? "What about Chris Larabee, Josiah Sanchez, JD Dunne and Buck Wilmington?" He questioned, hoping that no tragedy had befallen his other close friends. The last Ezra had seen of Buck was when the pilot had transmitted the coordinates of the rendezvous point for the Wing Song to jump into hyperspace. He hoped Buck had the opportunity to do so as well. Ezra did not possess many friends in his life thus he cared deeply for the ones he did have.

"Captain Wilmington and Lieutenant Dunne has just entered the Elrood system," Dano responded, glad to be able to deliver that positive news to the humans before her. "Senator Sanchez is already on board but I have no news on the whereabouts of Chris Larabee. As far we aware, he is counted among the missing."

"I see," Ezra nodded in understanding. "What are your orders about remaining in this area?" He asked.

"Commander Travis told us we should remain in this system for another ten hours and then depart." Dano answered automatically.

"That may be unwise," Ezra remarked, glancing at the three women consecutively. "Grand Admiral Thrawn has been well prepared for this assault. There is reason to believe he may have had contingency plans in the likely attempt the rebel fleet was force to run. Elrood is close enough the Siraj system to be suspect as a place you might choose as a rendezvous point. Undoubtedly, the Grand Admiral would assume that you would select a venue that is as isolated as this and may have scouts ships watching all possible areas matching the same description. "

"We cannot leave," Dano declared anxiously. "The are still many of our forces unaccounted for. If we leave they will be stranded here. Most of these are fighters were unable to refuel when the Purgatory was destroyed."

"I appreciate that," Ezra countered. "I suggest two or three fuel carriers remain so that the rest of the fleet can leave immediately."

"Ezra!" Nathan Jackson called out as he and Vin appeared at the end of the corridor.

The lean black man wore a wide grin on his face, not merely of happiness at seeing his old friend but something deeper Ezra noticed. Both men met in a warm embrace, glad to see that that each was safe despite the calamity of Thrawn’s attack upon them. Without even hearing Nathan speak, Ezra knew that his friend had suffered a difficult time even if he appeared unscathed physically. Once he had pulled away from Nathan, he offered a more subdued greeting towards Vin Tanner and introduced Claire Moseley to them. While they were familiar with her husband Chano, most did not know Claire other than the fact that she was also a spy on the Cordoba base. Once the introductions were made, Captain Dano agreed to show Claire where the survivors of the Purgatory were emerging from the life pods, with Inez accompanying her for morale support.

"I am sorry I was unable to contact you in time for Thrawn’s attack. He appeared at the Cordoba base with obvious designs in provoking me into making the attempt to do so. He did not say as much but I am certain he was suspicious of my loyalties." Ezra explained.

"Thrawn," Nathan mused. "No wonder we were hit so hard. He’s destroyed the Purgatory and we still have no idea where Mary is."

"Or Chris for that matter," Vin added. "Look Nathan, I have to go back to Siraj now that the wounded are off my ship."

"What?" Nathan exclaimed, staring at him in horror. "Vin that’s crazy! It’s crawling with Imperial ships!"

Ezra could see Nathan was becoming panicked. He recognized the expression all too well after years of friendship. Nathan was a good command officer but he would always be best utilized taking care of the details that commanders often took for granted. As an executive officer there was none better preferred to work in the background. Ezra could tell that he was fighting to keep the present crisis from overwhelming him and knew he had to help his friend out of this situation. Nevertheless, Ezra still felt unhappy about being forced into such a position because he was not one who was accustomed to being in charge when it came to people who meant something to him. Inwardly, he had always known his time as commander of the Cordoba base was a limited tenure mostly because he was a member of the Rebel Alliance in everything but name.

However, to take charge here meant assuming responsibility for people he considered to be his friends and in Nathan’s case, family. It frightened him to place the burden upon himself because he did not wish to fail them and if there was one thing he had managed to do quite spectacularly all his life, it was to prove that he was incapable of doing anything right for very long. Unfortunately, it did not appear as if he had a choice at this time. With Mary being gone, he could tell that Nathan was looking to him to fill the void left by her notable presence and as much as he wanted to turn away from role, he could not for one simple reason - they needed him.

They needed him and he did not have the heart to abandon Nathan to this alone.

"Nathan, it is necessary that Vin go." Ezra spoke after a long pause, coming to the decision that if they required him to make the hard decisions for them, he would for the time being and only until such time that Mary was returned to them. "He alone can find Chris Larabee."

"Which means what?" Nathan demanded. He had no wish to leave Chris to languish in danger but he had to be realistic with so many dead already. How could they be certain that Chris was still alive? "I don’t want you risking yourself when there could be every chance that he’s beyond finding."

"He’s not dead," Vin returned firmly. "If he was, I would know it."

"I’m sorry Vin," Nathan apologized almost immediately, realizing how he sounded. Of course Vin would know if Chris were alive or dead. The connection between Master and Apprentice was strong and they were capable of sensing each other over great distances even if that thread was sometimes vague. "You're right but its pretty risky Vin."

"I know," Vin nodded, able to sense how anxious Nathan was about doing the right thing for everyone concerned. "But I have to go."

"Nathan," Ezra stared at his friend, wishing to remind Nathan that aside from the obvious, there was another reason to encourage Vin's return to Siraj. Like every other member of the seven, Ezra was aware of how close the relationship between Chris and Mary was. As he was attuned to Vin, Chris was also the same way with Mary but on a far more personal level. If she was alive, then there was every reason that Chris would know how to find her. "Vin has to find Chris because only Chris can find Mary if she's alive."

With as much vehemence that Vin had made the declaration that Chris was alive, Nathan returned with just as much confidence regarding Mary's present state. "She's alive. I refuse to believe she's anything else."

"Well then we know what has to be done," Ezra met Vin's gaze with a nod that he was good to depart. "However, I do not believe you should be going alone. As invincible as you Jedi may believe yourselves to be, there is still a sizeable contingent of Imperial troops in Siraj who beg to differ with that view. You should take someone with you."

Vin tended to agree even though he wished he did not have to risk anyone else in this endeavor. "I'll ask JD, I heard from flight control that he was on an approach vector when we landed in the docking bay. The kid is mean as catfish when he's behind a fighter, I think he'll handle himself all right."

Although the rest of the seven tended to see JD as that young kid who had stumbled into the Rebellion almost by a freak set of circumstances, Vin remembered JD as the young man who had defied the Avenger in the skies above Ithor. After Vin's ill-fated attempt to save Charlotte Richmond and the battle that had almost seen his death at the hands of Darth Vader, JD had valiantly managed to elude Vader's super star destroyer as well as saving his life. Following that debacle, Vin had developed a great sense of respect for the young man and had no qualms about having JD accompany him into any dangerous situation.

"JD has earned quite the reputation as a gunner," Ezra nodded in approval. "You will need that advantage."

"What about you?" Vin glanced at Nathan wondering what the rebel fleet would do now.

Nathan met his gaze uncertainly, not sure of what was to be done. He was still in shock as the rest of the rebel fleet who had not anticipated their defeat costing as much as it had. "I'm open to suggestions," he raised his eyes and met Ezra's hoping his old friend would have answers he did not.

"Ezra?" Nathan stared at him almost pleading with him to take this weight from him and Ezra knew he could not deny that request.

The commander sucked in his breath because he was at a crossroads and he knew it. There was no going back to the life before, not after what had happened on Cordoba. By being here, he had well and truly rolled the dice on his future and that future lay with the Rebellion, no matter how dangerous that path might be. Now that he had chosen, he had to make the best of it and serve where his talents were most needed and at this moment, he was needed to lead because after Mary, no one else in the tattered remains of this fleet could. He saw Vin staring at him and the apprentice seemed to understand what was going through his mind and a small smile pulled at the corner of Vin's lips as if telling him without words that Vin had every confidence in him. Surprisingly enough, that helped.

When Mary came back, Ezra would be happy to stand aside for her because this was and always would be her command. She had been the impetus that had brought the seven together and for that Ezra would always be grateful because she had given him a family in the circle of friends he never dreamed he could have and with that family, the love of a woman like Inez. Only he knew how precious was the gift the rebel commander had bestowed upon his life and he would show her his gratitude by keeping those under her command safe from harm until she was ready to return and assume its protection herself. Exhaling outward, he let all reservations escape him and plunged in headfirst because that was the only way to begin such things.

"First of all, we should leave the system." Ezra repeated what he had told Dano earlier, a new resolve in his voice as he spoke. It sounded alien coming from him but somehow he managed to hold himself steady. "Do not assume that the Grand Admiral has not considered the possible locations you may choose as a rendezvous point. If there is one thing Thrawn has shown every one of us, it is his ability to out think us. Elrood is known as a remote system and logic would dictate that it would be one of the systems he would keep under surveillance. If the Empire is not here yet, it soon will be. We do not have much time."

"But we have people still coming here…" Nathan started to say.

"Leave two or three fuel carriers here to ensure that any stragglers will be able to join us at the new rendezvous point." Ezra offered, finding the answers inside him in a place where he had barely scratched the surface during his time as military commander of Cordoba. "The rest of the fleet should be prepared to jump into hyperspace within the hour."

"That makes sense," Nathan answered, feeling better because he could coordinate a thing that was within his power. All he needed was the direction to focus his skills. "Where would we go?"

"We should stay clear of the Territory for awhile." Vin suggested. "They'll be combing every part of it now."

"I agree," Ezra nodded. "I say we head somewhere they would never think to look for us."

"That's easier said than done," Nathan retorted before he spotted the glimmer in Ezra's eyes and realized that his friend would not have made the suggestion if he had not already considered the question already. "You got an idea don't you?"

"Not much of an idea," Ezra confessed. "More of a gamble really but if it holds, it could be very useful to us."

"Where?" Nathan urged.

"Jofa."

"Jofa!" Vin exclaimed, even his ability to sense what Ezra had in mind had not been able to prepare him for that. "Are you out of your mind? That's the place where Mary became famous for being the Hero of Jofa? It's dangerous and it's ....."

"No longer inhabited." Ezra pointed out. "The Empire wiped the Jofans out after the uprising Mr. Tanner. If there are any left, they would be more inclined to accommodate rebels who might be able to give them a way to strike back at the Empire."

"That's a big if." Nathan looked at him uncertainly. "We need a negotiator for that."

"I thought we had one, "Ezra responded smoothly, having considered that too. "We have a former Republic senator in our party that would be more then adequate to the task."

"Josiah." Vin guessed and then agreed it was a good choice. "Josiah could talk anybody into anything." The apprentice was now seeing what Chris had talked about so passionately when discussing Ezra and the role he could play in the Alliance once he chose to join them fully.

"As far as I know, the undersea cities were destroyed." Nathan remarked. "Even if there are any left do standing, it will take time to repair them."

"True," Ezra agreed but it was a redundant concern. When the inspiration for using Jofa as a rebel base had come to Ezra, he considered the logistical problems it would pose and had come up with a few solutions. "However, all the cities were connected to the surface by oceanic platforms that were a transfer point for off world cargo, passengers and such. These platforms are large, some were even the size of small cities. Even one would take care of our needs until we can restore more permanent facility beneath the waves."

"But if there are Jofans left, they're not going to be happy to know that Mary is our leader." Nathan pointed out. "I mean to the Empire she was the Hero of the Jofa because she led them against the natives during the uprising. To the Jofans, she'll be a criminal."

"Which is why the Empire will never think to look for any rebel command led by Mary Travis on Jofa." Ezra concluded. "They would think precisely what you are thinking right now."

"And you think Josiah is going to be able to convince them to let us land when they hear Mary is our commander?" He looked at Ezra skeptically.

"They have no choice Nathan," Ezra explained. "Jofans were not just native amphibians when the Empire destroyed their cities, they were also composed of an air breathing population that took care of all extra terrestrial interests. Almost all the Breathers, as the Jofans called them, were killed with the destruction of their pavilions and the Swimmers who were not annihilated by vengeful Imperial forces were left cut off from the rest of the galaxy. It was a symbiotic relationship forged from a thousand years of coexistence. With the Breathers, they were a space faring race and without them, the Swimmers if they still live are cut off and forgotten, with no way to avenge the dead half of their race. They need us as much as we need them. All we have to do is to ensure that Josiah is able to convince them of that."

"I hope you're right about this," Nathan sighed.

"He is," Vin smiled at Ezra, sensing the man's confidence and being able to take comfort in the fact that even though Mary was not here, it still appeared that the rebel cell of Territory was in good hands.

Warning: This section is rated NC-17

CHAPTER ELEVEN

There was a strange sense of quiet following their crash landing that seemed far removed from the battle they had just emerged. Stranded in what could be considered a tropical landscape, it was obscene that beauty could exist in tandem with the carnage that had taken place in the skies above the planet. The peaceful setting seemed awkward and poised on a knife's edge, with change likely to happen with the next breath of sweeping breeze. Chris could sense Mary's emotions even though it was hard to read her thoughts. In times of extreme stress such at this, she had a tendency to box up all her thoughts into one place, hiding them in a place so fortified that very little could penetrate. Chris of course could break down those barriers easily but he refused to because she had a right to her privacy. Emotions radiated from her were easily read but thoughts required more specific burrowing and he knew for a fact that she did not appreciate it.

Within the protective casing on the life pod, Chris examined Chano's wound and knew that he would have to do something or else Mary's executive officer would not last the next day, let alone the next few hours if he continued to remain untreated. Unfortunately, the chances of rescue were dwindling, not unless they called for help and they could not do that when their scrambler coils were damaged, without giving away their position to the enemy who was surely waiting for such an action. When Chris had been piloting the X-wing, trying to bring the life pod to safety, TIE fighters had singled him out for attack. Chris was certain that Thrawn had sent those ships to drive him into Siraj because he knew it was Mary who was on board it. Thrawn would have been able to track the X-wings unceremonious entry into the atmosphere and while he might not know exactly where they were, he would have enough of an idea to begin searching. Unfortunately, Chano's injuries were bad enough to ensure that mobility for them would not be possible.

"How am I doing?" Chano asked weakly, having roused in the middle of Chris' examination of his injuries.

Chris considered his answer before responding. He did not wish to make Chano believe the worse but his condition was critical and there was no hiding that. "You're doing fine," Chris finally answered. "But your injuries are another thing entirely."

Chano did not seemed surprise and Chris did not expect he would be. The executive officer of the Purgatory was an able man. He could assess his own injuries without Chris needing to lie to him. Chano processed the information regarding his state of health and accepted it. Chris supposed he would; the man was a soldier who understood the risks of warfare and more specifically the dangers of being attached to a rebellion against the Empire. "What about the Purgatory?"

Chris shook his head. "I'm sorry," he replied softly, aware that the ship meant as much to Chano as Mary. "She was destroyed."

Chano swallowed hard and turned away for a moment, feeling vulnerable enough as it was without showing Chris his pain at the destruction of the warship. "What about the fleet?"

"Chano, you need to rest," Chris started to speak, not wishing him to be inundated with news of the devastation.

"Please," he insisted. "Don't treat me with kid gloves, not if I'm going to die. I want to know my life paid for."

"You're not going to die," Chris declared. "Things are difficult at the moment but not impossible."

Chano did not appear to believe him. "Tell me," he asked again.

Chris nodded, deciding that nothing was going to convince Chano otherwise so he might as well just tell him and be done with it. "The fleet was retreating. I am not sure what happened but apparently they manage to disable the shield generator. I don't think half of our ships made it out of the launch bay. When I came after you and Mary, the general retreat had been sounded."

Chano absorbed the news well and muttered a slight 'damn' under his breath before he regarded Chris again. "What's our situation?"

Once again, Chris saw little reason in lying because on some level Chano must have suspected what was happening by the fact that there were still inside the life pod. "Our situation is that we have crashed on the surface of Siraj, on the other side of the planet away from the base. My X-wing is scrap and our scrambler coils are damaged. I also think that it is entirely possible that the Imperials got a fix on us when we crash so we should be expecting visitors in a few hours."

"I didn't expect that much truth." Chano retorted bringing a little smile to Chris' face as well as his own.

"A Jedi is bound by it." Chris answered with a straight face.

"Sure, that's why you speak in cryptic sentences," Chano responded, wincing slightly as the pain overtook him. "So what do we do now?"

"I'm not sure," Chris said honestly. "Mary is trying to fix the scrambler coil. If we can get it activated, then we should be able to call for help. There might be enough ships left in the system for one of them to come get us, that is if they're not all gone yet."

"You have to get her away from here," Chano declared firmly. "If I can't be saved, don't waste your time and resources trying, you can't let them have her." He stared at Chris with a hard and determined gaze. "The cause needs her too much. I don't want you risking her life because of me. If you have to leave here to protect her, do it."

"Chano..." Chris believed the man was earnest in his wish to save Mary and for that Chris admired him a great deal but he did not know if he could do as Chano wanted. Mary would never stand for it and for that matter, neither could Chris.

"Please!" He begged.

"Alright," Chris conceded if only to calm him.

"Thank you," Chano said gratefully, believe the Jedi as he eased back onto the seat he had been strapped.

Nothing further was said as Chris administered all the treatment the medical supplies was capable of providing for the exec's severe injuries. It was barely a treatment but Chris felt he had to do something. There were Jedi who were capable of doing extraordinary things with the healing arts but Chris' talents did not lie in that direction and so he could do nothing but render Chano unconscious so that the man would not suffer too greatly. However, the reality of the situation could not be denied that unless they found help soon, Chano would die.

***********

Chris emerged a short time later from the life pod and went in search of Mary who was assessing the damage to the craft and its ability to sustain them for a time. Chano was resting as comfortably as Chris could make it for him and he could sense by the frustration in her emotions that Mary was in need of something similar. As he made his way to her, he was invariably attracted to the sound of lapping waves from the nearby beach. With everything that had happened today, being in a place as lovely as this seemed almost surreal. Chris enjoyed the salty breeze against his skin and stared up into the sky, wondering how long it would be before the Empire came after them. They were most likely having trouble pinpointing them because the X wing and life pod had become detached from each other prior to the crash.

"Damn it!" He heard Mary swear and arrived just in time to see her flinging a hydrospanner down at the ground in exasperation.

"Problem?" He asked neutrally, sensing she was in an extremely agitated state and the next thing thrown might be at him.

"This whole communications panel is fused!" She shouted. "They sent a low level energy pulse at us to short out these systems! This was not some random accident Chris! This was intentional!"

It did not surprise Chris. If they wanted her as badly as he suspected, then it would almost certainly have been done to discern which pod she was on when the Purgatory had to be evacuated. Chris was stating to admire Grand Admiral Thrawn in a begrudging way. The man was certainly deserving of his rank but his genius only seemed to worse their own situation tremendously. Chris knew that Mary was feeling the net close in around her and he did not blame her for her anxiety. Even a Jedi was as prone to such feelings as she.

"Mary, the rebellion will come looking for you," he assured her. She was on top of the life pod, kneeling down before the damaged communication panel, appearing most disconsolate. The realization that things were grim had forced her to sit down and she wiped sweat off her brow as she tried to think.

"I don't want them to come looking for me!" Mary barked. "If they do, then they'll be caught by that son of a bitch up there!" She glared hatefully at the sky as if she could almost see Thrawn. "He's got us Chris! He knows it! Why do you think he's taking his time up there? He knows we can't go anywhere!"

"Mary," Chris walked up to the wall of the life pod and extended his hand outward to her. "Come on."

She stared at him. "Where?"

"Just come on," he growled, meaning he did not wish to ask her again.

Mary let out a groan of annoyance and climbed down from the life pod before reaching him. "What?"

Chris took her by the hand and pulled her away from the life pod. For a few seconds, he did not answer her annoyed questions about where they were going, despite the growing level of their protestations. They moved through the woods surrounding the life pod and soon emerged from the tree line to be confronted with a length of pristine white beach. Foaming waves teased the shoreline as waves swept in from the lovely vision of ocean before them. In truth, Chris' purpose for taking her away from the life pod had been to keep Chano from becoming privy to their worsening condition. Already the exec was asking Chris to abandon him to the Empire and Chris did not wish the man to do anything foolish if he learnt that their capture was almost a certainty. The man was unconscious but he did not want to risk Mary's anger waking him up.

"Look." Chris said gesturing to the ocean before them.

"Its very beautiful," Mary said taking in a deep breath of sea air. "But does not answer my question of what we are doing here?"

"What we are doing here," Chris stared at her. "Is giving you a chance to vent without Chano hearing you."

Mary's expression melted into dismay as she realized what he meant and she turned away, ashamed. "Oh Chris," she exclaimed softly. "I didn't think."

"It's alright," he placed his hands on her shoulder and forced her to look at him. "I know you have a lot on your mind."

"Chris, I don't know what to do." She confessed, turning around and when she did, he saw tears running down her cheeks. "We can't stay here because they will come looking for us and we can't move Chano. We can't even call for help and if they had any sense, the fleet would be on their way out of the system. We can't expect a rescue."

"I know," Chris agreed, having considered all these points again.

"Chris," Mary took a deep breath and Chris could sense something deep and foreboding emanating from her thoughts, something that made the Force inside him tremble with uncertainty. "I think perhaps we ought to consider me surrendering to them."

"Absolutely not!" Chris responded so quickly the word escaped him like a reflex action.

"Chris! We have to consider it!" She insisted. "Thrawn's entire expedition is not to destroy the rebel base, its to capture me alive. We can use that to our advantage."

"How?" He demanded, staring at her in astonishment, unable to believe that she could even suggest such a thing. "How could you think giving yourself up to them to be an advantage?"

"He wants me alive. He needs me alive. A Grand Admiral does not get sent to do this sort of work. Any Imperial commander in the fleet is capable of engaging us. If Thrawn was sent to lead this assault it was for good reason and I think it was because to capture me alive! I know what I mean in terms of morale and politics and I understand what my capture would mean but I am one person and the cause will survive if I'm gone. They won't kill me Chris. I will be made an example of, probably brought to Coruscant so the Emperor can crow about my capture."

"Mary," Chris shook his head, not about to entertain such a thought, even for a second with all the points she had brought up. "We're not talking about this."

"Chris," she refused to give up because he did not wish to see that they really had no choice. "If I surrender myself, perhaps I can convince Thrawn to leave the system once I am in custody. Those who are here, including yourself and Chano will have a chance to escape. There are people in the base that are trapped because of the attack, who are injured and unable to escape. If those Imperial ships leave, our people can retrieve them."

"Mary, I won't let you go." Chris said firmly. "We both know that once you are in Imperial custody, they will kill you."

"You are a Jedi," Mary countered. "Tell me what you see about my fate? Am I to die now?"

Chris shook his head. "It does not work that way. The future is hard to predict, emotions are always clouding the outcome."

"Tell me!" She insisted.

"I DON'T KNOW!" He shouted back at her losing control. "ALL I KNOW IS THAT I CAN'T LET YOU DO THIS!"

"Oh Chris," Mary took his face in her hands and pulled him to her. Their lips met in a soft lingering kiss. She could feel Chris trying to draw away, probably because he thought this expression of intimacy was some attempt by her to sway his decision. In truth, it probably was but Mary had seen the emotion in his eyes and guessed the words he could not say. Admitting it was beyond him right now because the change in their relationship had come rather suddenly but she knew how she felt and it was the truth, no matter how difficult the revelation would mean in light of what she wished to do.

"I can't let you go," he whispered as her mouth opened beneath his, like a sensuous blossom reacting to sunlight.

Mary ignored his words, her hands sliding around his neck as she pulled him closer. Her passion for him taking hold as the power of his lips against hers started to impress itself upon every inch of her consciousness. Without being aware of it, Mary's mouth had started plundering his, her hands closed around his neck were now exploring other places. She felt him responding to her kisses, felt the resistance melt away for pure hungry need and with a growl of desire, he was holding her to him, pressing their bodies together, until there was no mistaking his need for her or her wish to resist satisfying him. Her fingers raked through his blond hair while he wrapped his arms around her waist and yielded to his desire now that he allowed himself to feel it.

Chris felt himself aching even as he kissed her, unable to believe just how incredible she tasted. For months, they had been close emotionally but even he was unprepared for the totality of their physical connection. Mary was almost dizzy from his demanding mouth as she felt him suckle on her lower lip. Together they had created a taste that had them battling each other for dominance as their tongues dueled in heated combat. Sweet pleasure exuding from every stroke, Mary could feel every perfect sensation down to her toes. His large hands were gliding up and down her back, trying to study every curve of her body while at the same time savoring the sensation against his flesh. The pleasure of his touch was far more potent than any fantasy she had entertained for so many months. His was a reality that was sweeter than any dream.

Chris could not breathe but then catching his breath would mean he would have to leave those incredible lips and he could not bear that. Instead, his mouth moved down her neck, exploring new flesh as he journeyed downwards, his hand cupping her breast in his palm though the fabric of her clothes. When he squeezed gently, he felt her arc against him and he continued caress that curve of flesh, eliciting a soft groan of pleasure from her in his ruthless desire to feel all of her now that the opportunity was presenting itself. Chris had wanted her so badly for so long but he could not imagine how incredible she could feel until now. All he could knew was his insides knotting were from the sheer anticipation of taking her right here and now.

" Chris…" She whimpered as hand finally tugged at the coarse material of her uniform before he thrusted his fingers past it to reach the smooth white skin of the breast he could not see but throbbed when feeling it. As his fingers grazed an erect nipple, Mary arched sensuously against him, her supine body pressing hard against his own. Chris was coming undone by the heat of her that was invoking a response from him he could not deny as their urgency for one another swallowed them whole.

She had never dreamed it could be like this. Mary felt Chris continue further down her neck, exploring every inch of her skin while he began to lower her gently to the sandy beach beneath them. The lapping of waves and the sunshine overhead made the whole moment transcendent of their present crisis but she did not care. She would have this one thing. She loved him, she had from the moment they had met and if she were going to do what she intended, then her last act of freedom would be loving him.

Chris paused a second as they landed on the soft sand beneath them, a look of understanding past through each others eyes as they silently surrendered to what laying next to each other would mean to their relationship. Mary unbuttoned her suit, sliding it down over her shoulders. Her cheeks flushed red with self consciousness as she disrobed, for it had been a long time since she had loved any man enough to take this step with him. Chris felt his breath catch as he was presented with the magnificence of alabaster skin and Mary blushed once more, suddenly shy as she recognized the hungry yearning in his eyes.

Slowly but uncertainly, she moved towards him, helping him out of his clothes. Chris stared at her as her fingers pulled at his fastenings, until he was just as exposed as she and they stared at each other for a time, all titles and complications just as discarded as the clothes near them. The rebellion, the war and everything else that kept them apart was now some distant memory as they stole this brief moment of time for themselves. When he was bare, Mary swallowed thickly as her palms began to explore his taut chest, becoming accustomed to his skin before desire made her bolder. She teased the tiny plateau of his nipples and elicited a pleasured growl from his lips as they contracted into hard points of flesh, sensitive to the touch. Chris did not believe he could have ever wanted any woman as badly as Sarah but when he grabbed Mary's wrists and set upon her, enclosing his mouth around one tight rosebud nipple, he knew Mary could never be considered as just any woman.

"Chris…" she chanted his name repeatedly as her hands caressed the beautiful muscles of his back, delighting in the feel of taut flesh and found herself singularly lost in how he made her feel. She was aware of nothing but this insistent tugging at her nipple that was driving her deeper and deeper into a realm of pure sensation, drowning her in a swell of frenzy.

I can't ever be without her. That was all that Chris could think as he nursed on her, delighting in the incredible taste and growing so hard that he could barely endure the torturous pleasure of it all. He wanted her to possess her, to love her, to be all the things for her, in body as well as in spirit. The need for her was beyond reason and when he bit down on that sensitive bud of flesh again and felt her nails claw at his back, his resolve to maintain control of the situation splinter into a thousand fragments.

His hand brush past her thighs causing her stomach to clench with anticipation as his finger traced a line slowly down her body. His smooth hands glided under her hips, savoring with the silk of her skin as he explored the most intimate part of her. The feel of his palms pressured against already sensitive skin brought another soft moan to her lips. Chris smiled at the reaction and took his time exploring her, wanting everything about this moment to be perfect. He wanted her to regret nothing even if this was the last day of their lives, even if the end of this day would see them in Imperial hands.

Suddenly Mary felt his finger caressing her folds, gently nudging her legs apart before sliding one digit deep inside her. Her muscles clenched immediately in reaction and Chris found himself groaning softly at the tight feel of her moist passage around his fingers. He imagined what it would feel like when those same muscles tightened around his cock. The very thought of it made him groan once more before the need to ravage her mouth became as vital as plundering the rest of her body. Kissing her passionately, he inserted another finger, pressing hard against its walls of insides, already wet with juices, and was rewarded with another pleasured sigh. Then he withdrew long enough to find her erect center and smiled when a experimental tweak caused her to push hard against him in reaction to the wonderful sensation.

Chris continued pleasuring her with his mouth, kissing her hard while continuing to torture the tiny pearl of flesh between her legs that was making her whimper his name with every gentle stroke. Her body writhed under him, each moan and whimper making him so hard, he could barely think and he wondered how much of control was his and not the Force keeping him from taking her right this moment. Whatever it was, Chris did not care. He only wanted to please her and whatever agency was allowing him to do that was a force he would not question. He did not care because he loved her. From the first time he had seen her inside that tavern in Cordoba Chris had known it and during the months that followed, he had tried to deny it even though his love was being fortified with each second in her company. Chris had thought that he would never feel this way after Sarah had died but Mary had been such a surprise and in a universe full of wonders, she was quite simply the best one.

"I love you know." He whispered as he started to push inside Mary and saw her eyes glisten with moisture not simply from the pleasure of him but from the words he had spoken. Words, she knew had been so hard for him to say.

"I love you." She responded and a tear rolled down her cheek.

It was a sight Chris could not stand as he kissed her again and continue to nudge past her folds, trying to maintain his composure but finding it damn near impossible because she felt so damn good! He practically slid into her like she made of warm honey and they connected in perfect unity. It was almost as if cosmic design had made her for him. Her heat sheathed him within waves upon waves of sensual ecstasy, until he was forced to close his eyes to focus or else he would lose his control entirely. It was so easy to be overwhelmed by the incredible tightness of her slick heat compressed around his tortured cock.

Chris broke away from her lips as they both needed to catch their breath. The sensations they were producing because of each other were literally drawing body and soul out of them. Chris braced himself on either side of her thighs, his hand digging into the soft sand. Her legs circled him and Chris hooked her thigh over his hip for better access as he began to pump inside of her. She tensed with each incredible stroke he pounded inside her body and pulled his mouth to hers again, feeling the need to taste him once more. Mary matched his rhythm with the tongue darting in and out of his mouth until all he could do to from coming completely undone was to keep time with it. He closed his eyes tight, sweat glistening over his body, his jaw taut with pleasure at the need to maintain control but she felt far more incredible than he had ever dreamed and when he felt her demanding lips, he felt his resolve began to splinter.

"Mary!" He groaned into her kiss and pumped even harder, ramming himself so far inside he could feel the hard obstruction of muscle at the end of that heavenly passage. Her thighs tensed around his waist and drew another tortured groan from him because they were clenching his cock with incredible pressure. Chris could feel a roar of indescribable pleasure each time he was forced to breach that narrow expanse of hot, moist flesh and thought he would go mad from being without. The heat of that clenching pressure was burning a hole through his soul, flooding his sense with so much pleasure that he was aware of nothing else but her. If this was the last thing he did in this life, Chris was more than happy to die.

"I love you," he moaned hoarsely, pumping harder until his cock became so hard, he did not think it was possible to hold back his release another second. . Mary herself was starting to crumble by the pounding of unbelievable pleasure inside her. She knew her control was starting to fracture as his cock continued to generate a white heat inside her at a devastating pace and was going to bring her over the edge of oblivion and then back again. She could feel its pressure foaming inside her loins, until every nerve was screaming in anticipation of the moment.

She continued to squeeze his cock mercilessly, taunting him with more and more sensation until he was one tightly wound muscle, demanding for surrender. It was just as well for she had reached the stars and could go no further as the shattering expression of her pleasure swept through her and then took her away on a tidal wave she could not stop nor did she want to. Her fingers dug into his back, driving her nails deep into his skin in a symphony of pleasure and pain, which only added to the excitement he already felt. It took Chris like a spell that was conjured especially for him and he was completely in its power when he heard her invoke it.

"Chris!"

Hearing that pleasured cry in his ear sapped the last of his strength and his endurance shattered with the contraction of her muscles around his cock in that final moment of pleasure reaching crescendo. It splintered his world and he uttered a guttural groan of raw, primeval satisfaction as he pumped his seed into her with powerfully relentless strokes. Every drop of himself escaped into her deepest crevices, taking with it his heart and his soul. Their pleasure had branded each other for life and no matter what happened after this, it would follow them forever, through this world and into the next.. His mind spun around in a kaleidoscope of color as his body shuddered in he wake of its powerful release. His hands clawed sand as Mary continued to kiss him on his journey down, her fingers raking through his hair as he continued to gasp, forcing more and more of himself into her until nothing left.

He collapsed against her and felt as if he had come home when she held him in her arms, their skin scented with their passion, feeling as if pain was something that could be lived with as long as he did it with her. They did not speak, there was no need to as they heard the world continue around them, knowing that whatever happened later would happen, now was their time.

For however long it lasted.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The sun pinching at her skin roused Mary from the light sleep she had fallen into. She opened her eyes to see the sun fading away into the horizon. It took her a few seconds to remember where she was and when the memory returned to her, with its warm and tender images of love making, Mary could not help but allow a small smile of content to run across her lips. She was still lying in Chris’ arm, naked on a tropical shore and could not help chuckle at the thought of being found by the Empire in this manner. The look on their faces might just be worth the capture. Shifting her head slightly, she noted that Chris was dozing just as restfully as she had been and took a moment to watch him in his sleep, relishing the pleasure of knowing that he loved her as much as she loved him. For a few seconds, she stared at him, thinking that he looked so much younger with a hint of boyish innocence that was not at all marked by pain and loss. She wished she could see him like this all the time but supposed the memory of this day would have to be enough to sustain her in what was to come.

Mary took a deep breath and steeled herself inwardly as she shifted out of Chris’ embrace, careful not to wake him. She knew he was weary because he had been through as much as she on this day but as a soldier and the leader of the rebel base, she had learn to get by on less sleep. The priorities of the job had taken that away from her. Mary rose to her feet and was grateful that Chris remained in slumber allowing her to do what she had to in relative peace. She gathered her clothes and dressed quietly, still watching him and basking in the sight of him in the wake of their intense pleasure before she left him and headed towards the life pod. She did not have much time and him being asleep was probably the best chance she had of doing what she intended without interruption. While she was certain she could have masked her thoughts long enough to carry out her plan, this way was less strenuous.

Reaching the life pod, she glanced inside its confines and noted that Chano was still unconscious since what he was experiencing could hardly be called sleep. His color was pale and his condition appeared to be worsening, confirming again that her decision to something was the only chance Chano before it was too late. Without wasting time, she went to the communications panel and activated it. As anticipated, the panel flashed warnings that the scrambler coils were damaged and that any signal sent could be intercepted but Mary ignored it, choosing to continue with her transmission. Her fingers flew over the keypad and in a matter of seconds, an unfamiliar voice filled the inside of the pod.

"This is the Chimaera, what is your operating code?" The voice demanded.

Mary closed her eyes, knowing that even now, they were tracking the transmission from the bridge of that ship back to her. Releasing a held breath, she answered bravely, even though inside she trembling with fear. This is Commander Mary Travis of the rebel fleet, I wish to speak to Grand Admiral Thrawn."

"Stand by," the voice returned and confirmed to Mary that there was no other choice. Even Thrawn knew that eventually they would have to surface.

Less than a minute ticked by before Mary received an answer to her request and in that time, she prayed that she could gamble with a Grand Admiral and win because if she was wrong, then Chris and Chano were as good as dead. Chano would be left to die in his present condition but Chris would be delivered to Vader and his Emperor and that was something Mary did not wish to see. Her thoughts returned to the moment when a holographic image of Grand Admiral Thrawn appeared on the console panel before Mary.

"Commander Travis." He said coolly. "How nice to see you are in one piece."

"Let’s dispense with the civilities shall we Admiral?" Mary retorted, having no patience to endure idle chatter. "You have me at disadvantage and you know it. I am here to talk terms."

"Very well," Thrawn replied unperturbed but then he had no reason to be, Mary thought bitterly, he held all the cards. "Although what terms you are referring to seems to elude me since the only course of action you have at this point is unconditional surrender."

"We have terms to discuss," Mary reiterated. "Make no mistake on that. You may have caused significant damage to my fleet but you have not destroyed it. I have been pondering what you said about being given this assignment to bring me in. I take it such a directive would have come from the Emperor himself."

"You assume correctly," Thrawn responded, his voice hiding his puzzlement at where she was taking this conversation. "What of it?"

"I assume a significant part of this order requires my being taken alive." Mary returned and noted the flicker in Thrawn’s eyes as she made that statement. It could have been fluctuations in the holographic image but somehow Mary did not think so and she was proven right by his answer.

"A great deal," Thrawn confessed, starting to see the strategy she had in mind. She was certainly determined enough to carry it out and with that Thrawn realized that the woman was correct; they did have terms to discuss. "Your capture and trial would be given the morale of the Empire a well needed boost, I am told."

"I see," Mary nodded having suspected more or less the same. "So I assume everyone in general will be rather upset if I chose to blow my brains out right this minute, rather than risk capture?"

Thrawn smiled faintly, admiring her bravery if not her cause. "It would be most inconvenient," he remarked. "So what would we have to do to keep you from doing just that Commander?"

"Are you man who gives his word Grand Admiral? I haven’t met anyone of your rank who was unable to keep his word to a fellow officer although Imperial officers seem to be the exceptions these days. I need to know that since I have no bargaining points other than my life."

"I do not give my word lightly," Thrawn said after a pause and surprised himself by meaning it. She had been a worthy adversary and occurrences were rare when he encountered one. As two battlefield commanders, he could make a gesture, considering he had some idea of what she wanted. "If you tell me what it is you wish of me, I will try to accommodate it within reason."

"Alright," Mary swallowed and knew that this was for the best, no matter what the outcome. "If you send a shuttle to these coordinates, I will come with you willingly. I will place myself in your custody without incident so long as you leave the system immediately after my incarceration. You’ve achieved more than an outstanding military victory here already and you will have captured the most decorated commander in the Rebel Alliance fleet. A handful of lives on the planet cannot make that much difference to you."

"It does not," Thrawn replied automatically since she was right. He had accomplished all he had set out to do. The defeat at Siraj was a crushing blow to the Rebel Alliance, especially with Mary Travis in custody. If it would guarantee him her incarceration without incident, allowing him to present the Emperor with his prize, Thrawn was willing to sacrifice the rest of the expedition. "Are you so willing to trust that I will keep my word?" He asked, not thinking her gullible enough to take him on face value.

Mary was prepared for this. "You will send one pilot in a short range shuttle to these coordinates. I will not be able to leave the system in it even if I chose to renege on our arrangement. I will however, be able to land within the Chimaera and use its internal sensors to ascertain whether you have jumped into hyperspace. I will remain in your landing bay until I am certain that the attack force has left Siraj. If for one moment, you attempt a deception, I’ll blow the thing sky high and take half your ship with me. Do we understand each other?"

"Perfectly," Thrawn smiled. "Masterfully played Commander, I wished we had met under different circumstances."

"You will forgive me if I don’t say the same." Mary returned coldly.

"How soon will we put this little play into action?" Thrawn inquired not at all offended.

Mary felt time pressing against her and wished she had never conceived of this terrible plan but her regret was brief because she had done what was necessary. Chris and Chano would survive. She would use the Imperial shuttle once she had control of it to send a coded frequency to the coordinates for the rendezvous point and the rebellion would dispatch a rescue ship for both of them. It was the best she could do for the two men because she was Commander Travis and no matter what the cost, they came first. They would always come first.

"Have the shuttle depart immediately and I warn you Thrawn, no tricks. I expect you to keep your word but if you don’t, your Emperor will have no prize. The last thing I do in this life will be to ensure that much." Mary repeated herself, her voice filled with venom.

"Understood," Thrawn said tautly. "Our pilot will be at your coordinates shortly. Please leave this frequency open."

Mary nodded and stepped away from the panel as the image of Thrawn faded from view with a slight ripple of static. Well it is done, she thought silently to herself as her eyes searched the pod and found the weapons locker. Moving towards it, Mary almost felt as if everything taking place was no longer happening to her. Everything had taken a quality of unreality that did not seem as if it were apart of the physical world. When she pulled open the locker and sighted the blaster within, she knew that this was real because what she was about to do could not be imagined even in her worst nightmares. She adjusted the blaster in her hand and focussed herself, aware that the ruse she was about to perform required the deepest concentration.

Once she had steadied herself adequately, Mary Travis went to find Chris Larabee.

**********

Something was wrong.

Chris felt it immediately and woke up.

The tremors he felt in the Force where like quakes, signaling calamity in each wave of prescience that moved through him. He thought it might be the Empire and immediately got to his feet, having awoken so abruptly from his fitful sleep that he cursed himself for letting down his guard in the first place. However, it did not take long to realize as he quickly put on his clothes, that there was no sign of the Empire but the danger whatever it was, loomed in the darkness, waiting to spring. His Jedi senses were functioning with their usual potency but there was something wrong and he could not imagine what it was. He saw Mary gone and noted that her footsteps had taken her to the life pod. Pulling on his boots, he quickly followed the tracks hoping they would lead to her. His heart was pounding and there was this terrible feeling he could not shake that was growing more urgent by the minute.

He concentrated on finding Mary, to ensure that she was not in any kind of danger and found her almost immediately. After what happened between them, their connection seemed even stronger. She was close, he discovered and on her way to find him. Her emotions were filled with sadness, an acceptance that they were not going to escape this present trap. Chris supposed he could not blame her for that because things were rather dire at the present and considering how responsible she felt about all of this, it was no wonder she was dwelling on it. However, amidst the thoughts of desolation that filled her heart, her mind was thinking of their love making, replaying in her head as she saw in her mind’s eyes their heated coupling. Chris could feel those same passions as she did and was almost lost to them when he noticed something beneath it all that only an experienced Jedi was capable of seeing past. Something that concerned him right away because what she was thinking about seemed forced, like a series of numbers she was reciting in her head over and over again, as if trying not to forget it or worse yet, trying to conceal her real thoughts from him.

Chris looked up in understanding just in time to see Mary appear before him and pull the trigger of the blaster in her hand. She caught him completely off guard, the beam of energy digging into the flesh of his stomach and sending his flying backward from the power of its discharge. The pain came almost immediately after, a deep searing sensation that would have torn a cry of agony from him if he were not so confused. He landed hard on the ground, feeling bones break on impact and then having his nostrils filled with a smell he knew to be charred flesh. He was dying and he knew it, even as the agony of the blast twisted him with its unrelenting waves of pain. He raised his head, staring at her in shock and betrayal as she approach, uncomprehending of what Mary had done, the gun in her having dropped lifelessly to her side. Tears were running down her cheeks and he recognized the sound coming from her as weeping.

"I love you more than anything in the world Chris," she whispered. Mary was standing a good distance away from him but close enough so that he could look into her eyes and understand that what she had done was for him and Chano, even if it did not appear that way right now. "I could never let them hurt you but I know you would not let me save you even if I could. A choice has to be made Chris and the Rebellion needs the Force and the Jedi Knights to be more than just an army but to be a beacon of light against the darkness that is coming. I cannot provide that light but you and Vin and others like you can so none of you can be sacrificed, not for me."

"NO!" Chris groaned, understanding completely what she intended. He did not have much time left, already his training and his natural impulses were kicking in. In a matter of minutes, his body would shut down and he would enter a Jedi healing trance that would render him unconscious for however long it took to heal from his injuries. "Don’t do this!" He begged almost reduced to tears. "We’ll find another way!"

She swallowed hard as she saw him grow weaker and left the weapon on the ground when she finally reached him. He was in no condition to offer her any resistance and Mary lowered herself next to Chris and took him in her arms. "This is the only way Chris," she whispered, her salty tears landing on his cheek as she tried not to cry. "I cannot bear it if you were to die, I just could not imagine living in a world without you."

"And you think I can!" He swore and winced in pain as blood gushed out of his wound from the exertion. He was badly injured but within the capability of the healing trace to survive. However, he was helpless to do anything else. "I love you Mary, please don’t do this. I can’t lose you."

"You’ll never lose me Chris," she smiled and kissed him tenderly on the mouth. "I’ll always be with you. Tell Billy that I love him and ask Orin to take care of my son. I know you will protect them both. I do not intend to give up our secrets but I need you to ensure that what I know is worthless to the Empire. My son and Orin will have to removed from Bakura." She paused a moment and blinked, fresh tears rolled down her cheeks as he stared into his horrified eyes. "I am sorry that it had to be this way but this was for the best, I love you Chris."

"MARY NO!" He hissed but his ability to stay conscious was slipping away fast and Mary held him in her arms as she watched him succumbed to the trance, holding him until he was unconscious. When his eyes closed, her tears came, loud racking sobs that shook her whole soul as she wept for him and for herself. She hoped Chris would forgive her but understood that if he did not, in a matter of days it would make little much difference.

She would be on Coruscant and nothing would matter then. Not even forgiveness.

*************

Vin heard a scream inside his mind.

Its power was such that it sent shock waves throughout his body, leaving him for a moment disorientated and uncertain of what had happened. The scream, like the howl of an animal, echoed through his consciousness and shook him to the core with the intensity of its pain and sorrow. Vin felt his heart shrink inside his chest as if someone had thrust a blade through it and was proceeding to cleave into two. At the cockpit of his ship, Vin barely had presence of mind to turn the controls over to his co-pilot who was demanding to know what was wrong with him. Vin could barely answer as he tried to catch his breath, aware that whatever it was came from the Force. While it was not quite like what he experienced on Ithor it was similar by its anger and pain.

"Vin!" JD demanded again when Vin had not answered him the first time. "What’s the matter?"

"Take over," Vin muttered as he clutched his head, trying to cope with the overload to his senses.

JD did not need to be told twice. The young man immediately switched command control to his console and guided the Tracker through its emergence from hyperspace. Considering what they might be emerging into, this was not the time for Vin to be having an episode. He sometimes wished the Jedi flashes did not pick such inconvenient times to exert itself though he knew his opinion was due to his ignorance of the subject. Of course today, that could mean virtually any subject. JD concentrated on taking the Tracker out of hyperspace, trying not to worry too much about Vin or think back on the events of today. So many people had died needlessly, including his friend Finn. Finn had been shot down during the attacks on the fighters sent to protect the rebel transports. The young man, with barely enough experience under his belt to be flying a patrol was no match for seasoned TIE fighters and despite JD’s best efforts, he could not save his friend. He was not about to let the same thing happen to Vin.

"Are you okay?" JD asked apprehensively.

"I’m fine," Vin muttered, clutching his head. The shock wave had evaporated into an echo but there was nothing else to follow that initial burst from the Force. He felt its rumblings dissipate and once it was manageable, Vin was allowed to discern its origins. It did not take him long to find out. "That was Chris."

"Chris?" JD stared at Vin, hoping that nothing bad had happened to the Jedi. "Is he okay?"

"I don’t know," Vin answered disturbed. "I don’t think so. I heard his pain. It was terrible. Like something had ripped the heart out him. There was so much anguish."

And then it clicked in his mind without any difficulty at all. There was only one thing that could make Chris scream out in agony like this. "It's Mary." Vin stared at the younger man. "Something has happened to Mary."

"What?" JD asked fearfully. They had anticipated the worst for Mary ever since learning the Purgatory had been destroyed but until now, it had not felt real. Nobody could bring themselves to think that Mary Travis was dead but hearing Vin say it with such conviction in his voice, following a cry of anguish from Chris Larabee, there could be no denying it.

"Is she dead?" He was almost afraid to ask.

"I don’t know," Vin shook his head. His connection was to Chris, not Mary. He did not have the ability to seek out a specific person as a fully trained Jedi Knight was capable of doing. Vin was still so new at being a Jedi but he had knew with certainty that some misfortune had befallen Chris because following that tortured cry, came a sound that was even worse.

Silence.

"We have to find him," Vin declared, staring at JD.

"We have no idea where to start looking." JD pointed out.

The slipstream starship began to hum as it began the process of emerging into normal space. With a slight lurch, the streaking stars around the Tracker started to slow and soon came to a stop in the place of their usual constellations. The ship had re-entered normal space and the system appeared nowhere as chaotic as it did earlier. Vin, who was somewhat, recovered from his experience studied the console screen that displayed the readings from the long-range sensors.

"Massive energy surge just above Siraj 2," Vin pointed out. "Looks like the Empire is leaving."

"Leaving?" JD said with surprise. "I thought it was standard procedure for them to mop up after a battle like this one."

"It is," Vin retorted, familiar enough with Imperial procedure to know this much was true but for some reason, this fleet was not following those rules. "But according to these readings, they’re jumping to light speed. All of four destroyers and its support craft." He continued to watch the screen for a few more seconds before the fleet disappeared entirely. "They’re definitely gone."

"Is that good?" JD looked at him suspiciously.

"I don’t know," Vin shrugged, a bad feeling coming over him even though he could not decide why that was. "I guess they got what they came for."

"Hey wait a minute," JD spoke up once more. "I’ve got an incoming transmission on one of our scrambler frequencies."

"Someone must be down there." Vin replied, leaning over to study the energy signature of the transmission.

"No," JD shook its head. "Its been left behind on what appears to be an Imperial beacon."

"What?" Vin met his gaze and the younger man’s confusion was just as evident. "One of our codes is coming from an Imperial source? If it's a trap, it's a pretty obvious one. What does it say?"

"Its brief," JD replied as he studied its configuration. "On a rotating modulation, repeating on cycles of two minutes."

"That's pretty rapid," Vin noted and considered what could come from an Imperial beacon with such urgency. "Let's check it trajectory." He took charge of deciphering it, allowing JD to handle the cockpit controls for awhile as he attended to this himself. After a time, the answer flashed before him. "Hell, its being directed straight at the Elrood System."

"Our rendezvous point!" JD exclaimed, wondering if the Empire was leaving the system in order to continue its attack there. Suddenly JD was very grateful that Ezra had opted to move the fleet in anticipation of discovery by Imperial forces. If that was the fleet’s destination, then they would arrive in the Elrood system to find nothing.

"There's more to it," Vin's voice became soft and strained as the message relayed itself to him in its entirety, explaining a great deal more than why a message for the Rebel Alliance would come to them in such a manner, as well as what Vin had sensed from Chris. His heart ached for his friend while at the same time, filling him with the urgent need to reach Vin before it was too late.

"JD, set course for the planet, I'm feeding the planetary coordinates to the navigation system." Vin ordered sharply.

"What is it?" JD stared at him, recognizing the tension in his voice and knew this could not be good news.

Vin paused long enough to answer JD before he resumed what he was doing. "It's Mary."

*************

It did not take long for the Tracker to home in on the coordinates sent to them in Mary Travis’ last message to the Rebel Alliance. The craft landed a short distance away from the life pod, its remains easy to see from the air because of the large grooves of charred earth that had been left in the wake of the pod’s violent landing. As the Tracker put down, Vin Tanner worried what he would find even though Mary’s message had given him a clear indication of what awaited him and JD on the surface. Even now, the apprentice was still in shock at what their leader had done even if it was just like her to take such action. For Mary, those under her command always came first no matter what the risks to herself. In this instance he questioned her judgement, wondering if she knew what was her capture would mean to the Alliance and most specifically his best friend, Chris Larabee.

Chris’ mind was silent but Mary had explained that too and so Vin had little trouble locating him. They arrived at the life pod first and quick examination of Chano who was still rendered unconscious through a Jedi technique no doubt, implemented by Chris, to spare him the pain of his injuries, was quickly realised to be in grave condition. Vin was grateful that his ship came equipped with a stasis unit for that was the only way that Chano would make it back to the Rebellion without dying during the trip. As it was, Vin was somewhat amazed that he had survived this long. Before he sought out Chris, Vin ensured that Chano was delivered safely to his ship so that he could placed into stasis.

Once Vin was certain that Chano was taken care of, he went in search of Chris Larabee. His friend’s life force though weak, was a beacon that drew him to Chris’ presence. He found the wounded Jedi in a clearing of trees, unconscious. Mary had been precise when she fired upon him, aware that his injuries had to be serious enough to force him into a Jedi healing trance but not so much that he would be killed instantly. Vin marveled in morbid curiosity the strength of will that was required for Mary to pull the trigger on Chris when it was obvious that they both loved each other deeply. However, it also made sense that she would take this course of action in choosing to surrender herself to Empire, to save not only those here but also the wounded still trapped in the wreckage of the rebel base. Chris would never had let her go and Vin supposed that when faced with that obstacle, what she had done was pure Mary Travis, brilliantly unexpected.

Vin doubted Chris would have known what hit him until it was too late.

"Is he alive?" JD asked when he saw Chris in Vin’s arms after the apprentice had found his master and dragged him back to the ship.

"He’s in better shape than Chano," Vin grunted an answer as he moved quickly up the ramp with Chris in his grasp. "But not much."

JD immediately descended the platform and met him part way to help carry Chris into the ship. The younger man noted Chris’ lack of response and looked questioningly at Vin. "Is he one of those trance things again?"

"Yeah," Vin nodded. "Mary figured if she could hurt him enough, he would go into the healing trance so she could turn herself into the Empire."

"Do you think he knew?" JD asked, unable to assimilate the situation because it was so unimaginable. However, he soon realized that almost all of it was. It would sink in soon enough but for the moment, he was still trying to take in everything that had happened today.

Vin remembered the scream he had heard in his mind. That wail of anguish, sorrow and utter defeat had come from Chris, Vin had no doubt of that. Until receiving Mary’s message, Vin had not understood why. Now he did.

"Yeah," Vin nodded somberly as he gazed at his unconscious friend. "He knew."

EPILOGUE

Ezra Standish stared outside the pexiglassed window of the observation deck and admired the iridescent glow of Jofa beneath him. For centuries, poets and artists respectively had attempted to immortalize the planet’s beauty without ever realising that it was a pointless exercise. No words spoken, no picture drawn could ever compare with the reality that he was viewing at present. In the days of the Old Republic, Jofa had been spoken about as the pinnacle of co-existence in the fact that two different species, one indigenous and one colonial had managed to build a new society of mutual cooperation. Together they built one of the most peace loving civilizations in the Republic, a race of artists who spread the beauty of their world throughout the galaxy. Even the violence of the Empire could not take that away from Jofa, even if that race was now extinct.

Ezra Standish stared out the window because if he turned around, he would be confronted with the observation deck that had been converted into a hospital ward because the Angel of Mercy was so overloaded with wounded that there was no place left for them to be. The sight of Jofa might offer them comfort but it would be a poor consolation to what they had lost on this day. Ezra let out a deep breath and turned around, finding himself confronted with rows upon rows of rebel personnel, lying prone on cots as medical droids and technicians moved busily through the aisle of bodies, attempting to deal with everyone. With the withdrawal of the Empire from the Siraj system, Ezra was able to send back a rescue team to retrieve the people at the devastated base.

The command structure of the fleet was in tatters. A large number of the dead was ranking officers and with the absence of Mary Travis, the rebel cell of the Territory was in something of a vacuum. Confusion and shock was prevalent among those who remained and in the wake of their losses, someone had to make the decisions and surprisingly enough Ezra found that he was able to do that. By the time, they had arrived at Jofa; Josiah who was the representative of the Alliance War Council, had given him a battlefield appointment of commander, making him the highest-ranking officer within the fleet. Ezra would only accept the role in order to be of service during Mary’s absence. Unfortunately, in light of present news, it appeared that it could be more permanent that he would have like.

The capture of Mary Travis had the desired effect the Empire had hoped to achieve when sending Grand Admiral Thrawn after her; to deliver a devastating as well as demoralizing blow to the Rebel Alliance from which it would never recover. As Ezra studied the desolate faces before him, it seems that goal might have well been achieved. A part of him did not know how he had come to this. It felt like almost a lifetime had passed since he had saved Nathan from that Imperial outpost on Doldur. Until then, he had only been interested in surviving his military service, stationed comfortably on Coruscant where he could roam the sabaac houses, looking to make a fortune using his skills as a gambler.

He had no idea just how big the game was about to get. Not until this moment.

"How are you doing Commander?" Nathan Jackson asked playfully as he approached his old friend and noted from his expression that Ezra was still a little shaken by all the changes that had taken place in his life within the last few hours.

"I hold you entirely responsible for this," Ezra scowled as Nathan joined him.

"I’ll try to live with the shame." Nathan deadpanned but softened enough to add, "you did good Ezra."

"My mother is going to kill me." Ezra grumbled some more, feeling the need to take his chagrin out on somebody and Nathan would do just nicely right now. "She would rather me be a criminal than a freedom fighter."

"Maude will take it in stride," Nathan chuckled, aware that Ezra’s belligerence was only a mask for his anxiety at failing those who were now trusting him to lead them as Mary had done. Of course that was impossible because they were two different people with two different ways of command, no less effective than one another. In the days to come, they would need Ezra to survive. "Have you told her?"

"I have informed her to make herself scarce," Ezra responded, recalling the contents of the coded transmission he sent to the Corporate Sector an hour ago. "I have not said why but she knows I would not make such a request lightly."

"Good," Nathan nodded, keeping to himself that Josiah would be pleased of this fact too. Ezra was still in some denial about his mother’s involvement with Josiah Sanchez, particularly when the relationship was formed prior to his birth. Nathan let his gaze sweep across the observation deck at the makeshift ward the place had become and felt whatever humor he was sharing with Ezra dissipate at the sight of so many wounded. He understood now why Ezra had been wearing such a grim expression on his face when he had first stepped onto the deck.

From where he was standing, Nathan could see Buck Wilmington holding a bedside vigil next to Louisa Perkins who was still unconscious after sustaining serious wounds when the operations centre had caved in. Buck was already grieving for Audrey King who had been killed shortly after saving his life. The big man did not take death well and the loss of the brave colonel had affected him deeply. Nathan gestured at Ezra to follow him and the two friends joined the third member of their set to offer moral support as well as affirmation that Buck had friends who would endure this crisis with him.

"How is she Buck?" Nathan announced himself and Ezra by inquiring.

Buck looked up at them, his eyes hollow with worry. Louisa’s skin was pale with an unhealthy translucence. She seemed a far cry from the fiery captain who was capable of standing up to Mary and giving the rebel commander as good as she gave. Louisa was a force of nature in her own right. She had thrown herself over Casey when the ceiling had come down in the operations center, attempting to protect the young woman from the debris. While she had managed to accomplish that, it had been borne at considerable cost to herself.

"The medtech says she’s got a lot of internal damage. They think they got it all but they can’t be sure for a couple of hours." Buck's voice betrayed his anxiety and Nathan wished that there was more he could do for Buck then offer moral support.

"She’s strong Buck," Nathan insisted. "She’ll pull through this."

"I know," Buck said with eternal optimism even if at the moment it had taken something of a beating. He was just glad to hear someone else think the same. "It's hard seeing her like this. She's usually up and about trying to make everyone feel better about being here. I wonder who does things like that for the morale officer when she needs it."

"You do," Ezra said with a smile. "Did you not know?"

It was obvious to Ezra how much Louisa meant to Buck even though he knew almost nothing about their relationship other than the fact that it existed. Ezra could not deny that he was happy to see Buck was involved with somewhere else as for a time their relationship had been a little strained because of his affair with Inez. Buck still had some proprietary feelings for the lady which though he tried hard to ignore was difficult to conceal around someone who read people as easily as Ezra. However, no such concerns filled Ezra's mind as he stood by Buck in this hour of need prepared to offer the friendship and support needed to make the man's burden a little easier to bear.

"I guess I did," Buck replied, feeling a little better.

"Hey flyboy," a weak voice suddenly spoke and captured their attention. Roused by all the voice overhead, Louisa was prompted into consciousness once more. Her emerald eyes fluttered open weakly and her voice sounded alien after speaking.

"Darling!" Buck turned to her immediately, dropping to his knees next to her cot. He reached for her hand and clasped it tight, wanting her to know that he was here and he would not leave her. With his touch he ensured that she was safe and that everything would be all right. "You're awake! Goddamn it girl, what you doing scaring me like that?"

"Well I'm sorry," she muttered sarcastically, her eyes fixed on him with a faint smile. "You know how I like to be dramatic about things."

"Hey Louisa," Nathan stepped into her view. "Nice to see you're still with us."

"I almost wasn't," Louisa sighed painfully, still unable to focus on them clearly. "Is Casey alright?"

"She's fine," Buck said kissing her hand. "You saved her."

"I'm glad," she closed her eyes slowly, indicating that she needed more rest and while nothing short of another Imperial fleet was going to tear Buck Wilmington from her side, Ezra and Nathan chose to make a discreet departure, allowing them some privacy.

"Before we got side tracked, I came to give you a status report," Nathan explained as they put some distance between themselves and Buck

Ezra flinched once more, needing to gain a little equilibrium at the heady pace of things. He was well and truly apart of the Alliance now, Ezra thought silently. "Go ahead." He said after composing himself.

"Are you okay?" Nathan asked with concern, aware of how great a step this was Ezra. He felt guilty about how the Alliance had trust this responsibility upon his old friend but Nathan had absolute faith that it was a burden he could bear. In fact, Nathan had always known Ezra was capable of it, even when Ezra did not.

"Yes," Ezra nodded. "This moments of disorientation will pass. Please continue."

"Josiah and JD are ready to leave for Jofa as per your instructions." Nathan informed him.

"Minimal complement?" Ezra asked, making sure his orders were followed to the letter. They had no idea whether or not Jofa was still occupied. The Empire made grandiose declarations about wiping out the entire Jofan race both air breathing and aquatic, however Ezra did not entirely believe it was true. If there were still sentient life on Jofa, they would be a great deal more receptive to overtures of an alliance without the intimidation of a large force attempting to make first contact.

"JD's taking Josiah in one of our fighters that had been equipped with aquatic lungs." Nathan explained. "As you requested, they'll make a preliminary sweep of the undersea pavilions to detect any sentient life and then proceed to make contact."

"Good," Ezra nodded, pleased of that. "As much as it would lessen the complication if they are all wiped out, I would like to see them apart of this. Their race has suffered greatly, we should give them an avenue to strike back."

As they made their way out of the observation deck, Ezra caught sight of Claire Moseley. The young woman was sitting at her husband side, holding his hand in much the same way as Buck had been doing to Louisa a short time ago. Seeing her there made Ezra yearn for Inez but he knew that she was most likely doing what she could to help the wounded on board the ship. Claire's face corresponded with so many others he had seen since coming on board and the mood was a dank smell wafting throughout the fleet which had so much power to destroy. The news of Mary's capture had torn the heart out of them, Ezra included and it was a wound he could only heal by helping them to survive this and making them strong for it.

"How is Chris?" Ezra finally asked.

Nathan's gaze dropped to the ground and his shoulders seemed to sag a little. "Bad, Ezra. Really bad and it's not the wound."

"It is the wound," Ezra countered with a knowing sigh. "Just not the one we are able to see."

**************

"I wish I could come with you Uncle Josiah," Casey Wells said unhappily as she accompanied her uncle to the flight deck where he would soon be embarking on another mission. This time he would be playing diplomat on Jofa and though the trip was meant to be merely reconnaissance at this time, she could not help feeling a little anxious at whether or not he would be in danger once more. After everything that had happened in the last day, she feared for the safety of the people in her life. So many faces she had become accustomed to over the past months were now gone, some were never coming back and others were wounded. Until now, she had never realized how truly dangerous being apart of the Rebellion Alliance could be and what had happened in the last few hours was a rude awakening. She tried not to think about Audrey whom she had liked a great deal, who was always nice to her and did not treat her like a child. It hurt knowing that Audrey was dead and the pain she saw in Buck's eyes was reflected in her own. JD had told her that Finn was also killed in the fighting and though he tried to be brave, Casey knew that he felt responsible.

And then there was Mary and Casey could not even begin to broach that pain because it would strangle her whole and leave her weeping like a little girl.

"I won't be gone long Casey," Josiah answered warmly. "This is important if we are to establish a base in Jofa."

"I know," she smiled, having grown up a little in the past hours to be able to accept that some things must be. She had vowed after seeing that he had come out of the battle unhurt that she would never give him reason to worry about her. "I just wished you didn't have to go that's all."

"Well I have to," he answered with a little smile as his big arms hugged her closer to him as they walked. "If not, you're not going to be able to rewire the communications system like you wanted to and make it so much better. Let's face it, after what you managed to decipher when the shield generator went down, there isn't a person on this base who's ever going to underestimate you again."

"I wish I had done it before all those people got hurt," Casey pouted, feeling no satisfaction when so many were dead or wounded.

"You did what you could and that is always enough," Josiah responded.

They entered the flight deck and immediately caught sight of JD who was preparing the fighter in the middle of the launch bay for departure. He was already garbed in his flight suit.

"Are you ready Josiah?" JD asked, glancing briefly in Casey's direction as they arrived at the ship.

"I am," Josiah nodded. "You have a spare flight suit?"

"Yeah, in one of the rear compartments." JD answered before Josiah rounded the ship, leaving JD alone with Casey.

Silence followed as they stared at each other, feeling awkward because they had both been given an unhealthy dose of growing up today and were still reeling from its effects. Casey knew she was glad that he was alive and though she did not say it, she worried for him as much as Uncle Josiah, though why she should care about a peasant was beyond her sometimes.

"I'm sorry about Finn," JD volunteered after a moment. "I know you liked him."

Casey met his gaze, wondering what he meant by that. "Sure I liked him, he was a friend."

"I mean as more than a friend," JD said gingerly and received an odd stare from her.

"As more than a friend?" She asked puzzled. "JD, what are you talking about?"

"I know you liked him Casey!" JD exclaimed with exasperation. Why did she have to make things so difficult?

"Are you sure you're alright?" Casey stared at him in sarcasm. "There was nothing between me and Finn. Why would you think that?"

"It isn't important," JD sighed and realized it wasn't really. What mattered that they were okay and they would survive this black day. "I'm just real glad you're okay Casey."

Casey softened, seeing the extent of his feelings in his eyes. "Me too JD." She smiled and thought he looked so handsome in his flight suit. For a peasant, she could not resist thinking mischievously.

JD swallowed hard, summing up the courage to lean over and kiss her lightly on the cheek when suddenly, Josiah's voice sang out in his ear.

"Are you ready to go, lieutenant?"

JD looked over his shoulder and saw Josiah staring at him. The expression on the senator's face appeared stormy to say the least and JD winced. Somehow, he got the feeling that it was going to be a long flight to Jofa.

*************

It was strange how liberating it was to know that one was going to die because it took away all the mundane concerns that plagued one's life and put it in its proper perspective. As Mary languished in her cell alone, fully aware that with each second the sands of her life were running out, she looked back upon her existence with a sense of quiet satisfaction. She had done a great deal of what she had set out to do and though it appeared that there were some points upon which she would always grieve, her existence had largely been full to the brim with all the important things. She had loved two men in her life and she had borne a son who would carry her in his heart and ensure her immortality in some distant way. She had stood up for what she had believed and had been unafraid of fighting for those principles no matter what the personal cost. She had friends who would miss her passing but they would go on without her, nevertheless and that gave Mary some peace.

She had avoided thinking too much about Chris Larabee for that would only bring pain and there was quite enough of that going around at the moment, thank you very much. She felt him in her heart already, felt his pain and anguish over what she had done but she knew that feeling would pass as time went on and he would survive. Chris was a survivor, no matter how much he may brood at times. Mary knew that she was making this positive account of her life because it was coming to a close. Since her capture, she had been deposited inside this cell and had seen no one. She knew that despite her relatively good treatment on board the Chimaera, this state of affairs would not last indefinitely. Thrawn had shown her that he was a man of his word as well as an officer of true character for she was treated as a prisoner or war, not someone charged with sedition, which would usually engender harsh treatment by a lesser person.

Her ruminations cut short when the doors to her cell slid open and Mary found herself no longer alone for the first time in days (?), she could not be certain since the hours seemed to bleed endlessly into one another after awhile. Thrawn entered her cell and in the flesh he was almost as imposing as he had been through the view screen of the Purgatory. He was a handsome man with deeply intelligent eyes and though he appeared in every respect human, his eyes were a crimson color and his skin was a shade of indigo. For the life of her, she could not place what race he might have originated from because Mary had never seen anything like him.

"Commander Travis," Thrawn said lowering himself onto the bunk bed across from where she was. "I wish we had met under different circumstances."

"Thank you," Mary answered graciously. As a prisoner, she had been acquitted with respect and dignity that he was not required to provide. She saw no reason to be rude under such circumstances. Besides, she was still a soldier and so she would accept that he had taken the field this day. "I appreciate that you kept your word in regards to my wounded."

"They can be someone else’s problem," Thrawn answered. "You were mine and all that I was primarily concerned with."

Mary did not know how to take that and so she did not respond, allowing him to continue with what he had come here to say.

"We will shortly be arriving at Coruscant," Thrawn announced, watching her reaction.

Mary was unsuprised by the news. She had expected it. "I take it that much has been made by my capture?"

"Consider yourself a subject of public relations," Thrawn said with a little smile. "It was a challenge playing the game with you, my dear."

Mary let a sad smile cross her face. "I have a feeling that I was outmatched." She had to give him that much because it was the truth. Thrawn had come after her and succeeded spectacularly in her capture. She respected a commander on the field worth his salt and she only regretted he was not on the side of the Alliance. "Although if opportunity ever put us on opposite ends of the field again, I think I might surprise you."

Thrawn was highly doubtful that she would ever leave Coruscant alive but there was no reason to be venomous. He could afford to be gracious in this instance. "I have no doubt of that," Thrawn responded with a slight bow. "You were a worthy adversary."

"As were you," Mary responded and knew it was the truth.

However, she could not help fearing how the Alliance would fare against Thrawn when she was gone. If Palpatine chose to set him loose again, Thrawn could devastate the rest of the Rebel Alliance as he had devastated the Siraj cell. It was too late for her now but she prayed that it would not be too late for her friends.

************

Buck Wilmington remained at Louisa’s side, long enough for the morale officer to drift back to sleep before he left her in the capable hands of the medical staff on the observation deck. Although she was weak, Buck knew that she would recover. Louisa was strong and determined. He had no doubt that she would be on her feet in no time, trying to perform her duty of making everyone feel better. He supposed that’s why he cared for her so much because in some ways, they were one and the same in that respect. Buck was sorry he did not get the chance to say goodbye to either Josiah or JD before they left the ship but there was something of more urgency that required his attention at present. Like the rest of the fleet, Buck was still in muted shock over the capture of Mary Travis and more specifically the circumstances of that incarceration. Once again, Mary had risen to the occasion, sacrificing herself so that the wounded rebels still trapped in the wreckage of the destroyed rebel base could be rescued.

Her loss had hit them all hard and as he moved through the Angel of Mercy, he could see it on the faces of everyone he encountered. There was not a person on board who was not affected on a personal level by what they had endured today, but Mary’s capture seemed to make things even worse. It felt as if something had been torn from them and the gaping wound of her absence was still fresh and raw. Buck tried not to think about where Mary could be at this time, aware that she was most likely on her way to Coruscant, no doubt to act as the center piece for some bit of Imperial propaganda celebrating this victory over their enemies.

What the rest of the Alliance did not know, was how Mary had given herself up to the Empire that was a secret known only by the seven.

Ezra had made that decision himself, deciding that there was enough shock going through the fleet without them having to know that their leader had almost killed the Jedi in her company to make her sacrifice. The rest of the seven seemed to agree but that agreement did not make it any tolerable, even if they understood her reasoning. The consequences of what she had done did not seem so important in the light of her capture but Buck knew that for Chris Larabee, it was a hell that no man should ever have to bear, let alone one who had already lost a wife and a child. Thus Buck found himself walking to the room where Chris was presently occupying, determined to pick up the pieces of his friend’s psyche, the way he had done when Sarah and Adam had been killed.

Chris had been placed in a private room, unlike the rest of the wounded at Vin’s request. This would be a good idea because only he had some idea of what Chris would be like when the man finally emerged from his Jedi trance. Buck arrived at the ward where the room was situated and found that he had been correct in assuming the worst. Even as he made his way down the corridor, a handful of orderlies were hurrying towards a commotion, which found its center in Chris Larabee's room. Buck swore under his breath and hastened his pace, arriving just in time to see one orderly flying out of the room. The man landed heavily on the floor, uttering a groan as he impacted before sliding some ways across the smooth surface.

"Get everyone out of there!" Buck shouted at the medical personnel in the vicinity trying to regain control of the situation. Those who knew his relationship with Chris were wise enough to comply and very soon, Buck was wading through bodies moving away from the area. Medical droids were helping one or two medtechs to their feet. Their injuries were not severe but indicative of a misguided attempt to get in the way of a very enraged Jedi Knight. Unfortunately, this was also nothing that Buck had not seen before.

Buck took a deep breath as he entered into Chris’ room. The Jedi was in the process of getting dressed and Buck could tell immediately why the medical staff was so determined to keep him on bed. The wound that Mary had inflicted on Chris was severe and there was blood seeping through the gauze around his body. His color indicated that he was liable to collapse at any minute but there was enough adrenaline running through his body to ensure he was capable of being quite dangerous, even in his weakened state. He barely looked up at Buck when the pilot entered the room, continuing to dress even though his movements were strained and labored.

"Chris, what the hell are you doing?" Buck demanded, unable to believe that Chris could be taking out his anger on innocent people trying to do their jobs.

"I’m going after her." Chris retorted, his hands shaking as he tried to secure the utility belt where he kept his light saber around his waist.

"So that’s why you’re taking it out on these people?" Buck accused; wondering where the hell Vin Tanner was in all this. He had thought he apprentice would not leave the Jedi’s side especially in light of what had happened.

"They tried to stop me from leaving," Chris answered as if that were explanation enough. "I have to go after her before its too late."

"Chris," Buck said gently. "It's already too late. She’s gone."

"Don't you say that!" Chris roared and glared sharply at Buck. The force of his rage sent Buck flying like a rag doll. The pilot slammed hard into the wall, his senses blurring with pain and for a moment, Buck thought he might lose consciousness but he knew he was very much aware because he could hear Chris shouting at him in rage. "She’s not gone! It’s not too late to save her! I won’t let her go! Not like Sarah and Adam! I couldn’t save them but I can save her!"

Buck opened his eyes and saw Chris breathing hard, sweat was glistening of his bare torso and Buck was certain that if Chris had really intended it, he would be dead. No, his old friend was angry and hurt, reacting in the only way he knew how but Buck could not let him continue this way. He would hurt himself and those around him. "You’ll get yourself killed." He muttered.

"Everybody dies," Chris growled. "Difference is choosing how you are going to go. I choose to do it saving Mary’s life. If I have to go through everyone, including the people here I will because I won’t let them have her!"

"They already do Chris!" Buck shouted, feeling his own temper bubble inside of him. "They have her and nothing less than an armed assault is going to get her back! Even if you didn’t die on the way there, what makes you think you could reach her! It's suicide!"

"I’m not asking you to come with me!" Chris shouted angrily as he struggled over to where the rest of his clothes were situated. "You’re not a Jedi! You don’t even know what it is to love someone for more than a day! For you it’s one woman after another! It’s not so easy for me Buck! I love her and there’s no one else for me but her! Don’t expect me to sink to your level!"

"My level?" Buck glared at him; unable to believe Chris had actually said that. The words stung beyond belief especially because Chris had said it. "It’s got to be a hell of a lot better than where you are Chris, taking it out on everybody. You think you’re the only one who’s lost? How dare you!"

"Get out of my way Buck," Chris stared at him menacingly. "I’m going after her and no one is going to stop me. I didn’t ask for your help and I don’t want it! All you’ll do is get under my feet and I don’t have time to watch your back!"

"For your own good," Buck declared stepping forward, "I’m not going to let you do this, no matter how angry you get."

"You think you can stop me?" Chris looked at him derisively. "Come on Buck, make your play, I’ll indulge you because I’m leaving this ship one way or another."

"Don’t make me hurt you Chris," Buck pleaded, not wishing this to go where it was headed. As hurt as he was by Chris’ words, it was no different from how he had behaved when Sarah and Adam had died. Buck just had to ride out the storm.

"Hurt me?" Chris’ eyes met Buck’s sharply and there was a moment of concentration when suddenly Buck started to choke. His hand immediately clutched at his neck as he tried to loosen the invisible talons around his throat. Buck’s face turned red as his air passages were blocked and he began rasping for breath. He dropped to his knees as the panic set in and his body started reacting to the loss of air.

"That’s enough Chris." Vin Tanner’s voice cut quietly through the air.

Chris looked up in surprise and released his hold on Buck, realizing that perhaps he had gone too far and was staggered by what he had almost done. He met Vin’s eyes with shame and horror but also with so much anguish that Vin felt the same pain inside his own heart but none of it would absolve Chris.

"Buck," Vin went over to the pilot who was on his knees, "are you okay?"

It took a few second of harsh breathing before Buck was able to answer him. "Yeah," he met Chris’ eyes and saw that the Jedi was staring at him and it did not take much clairvoyance for Buck to know that the expression there was one of remorse. "I’m okay."

Vin helped Buck to his feet and then turned to Chris, "Buck can you please give me and Chris a moment alone?"

"Sure," Buck nodded, deciding that there was nothing more he could do for Chris without provoking the Jedi’s anger even further. Although he was hurt by what had happened, he understood that Chris was in a great deal of anguish and this episode was merely a splinter in comparison to what he had dealt with when Chris had lost his family. Their friendship had remained intact after that and it still would, even after this. "Good luck." Buck muttered softly before leaving Vin and him alone.

Vin did not speak until after Buck had left the room and he noted that Chris’ gaze was aimed away from his own, perhaps because he was too ashamed to look Vin in the eye after his behavior with Buck. Vin shut the door, sealing them both inside the room so no one else would get hurt in the crossfire. He saw Chris continuing to dress himself, with every intention of leaving to seek out Mary. As much as Vin believed in what he wanted to do, he was not allowing Chris to do this, not today.

"I don’t want to hear it." Chris said sharply as soon as they were alone.

"Hear what exactly?" The apprentice leaned against the wall, making no move to approach him. "That you just tried to hurt your oldest friend, that you’re harming people who only care about your welfare or the fact that you are so wounded you can barely stand up. What exactly do you not wish to hear?"

"You are the last one to lecture me." Chris snorted.

"I am not going to lecture you but I’m not going to let you do this either." Vin retorted firmly. "She is my friend and she gave her life up so that you would live. Now that means something to me even if you could not care less."

Chris stared at Vin in anger. "I never asked her to do that!"

"No, you didn’t," Vin returned. "But you lessen what she did by what you intend to do!"

"Are you telling me to do nothing?" Chris demanded, unable to believe anyone could even suggest such a thing.

"No," Vin shook his head. "I wouldn't do that for anything. She is my friend and I want her back just as badly but you're cheapening her sacrifice by what you are doing right now. You need to rest and heal. When that’s done, we’ll think of a way to get her back."

"I can’t do that!" Chris said sharply. "I’ve got to go now."

"You can’t go now! You’re in no good to her the way you are! Even you’re not stupid enough to think you can get her back in your condition!" Vin snapped, allowing nothing without good reason and even then it could not be because Chris could barely stand let alone take on the defenses at Coruscant, which was almost certainly where Mary was taken.

"I DON’T CARE! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND! I CAN STILL FEEL HER!" Chris screamed. "I feel her inside of me. She’s scared Vin. She’s never been scared in her life and I want to protect her! I want to make it stop! I promised myself that I would never let anyone harm her and now she’s in their hands where they’ll parade her like an rogue animal just before the slaughter! I won’t let her suffer that humiliation and I can’t go let her go through that with her inside my head. I don’t want to know what it was like to feel her die! If I don’t help her now that is exactly what will happen! I don’t want to know what it feels like to have the life of someone I love die inside my head, not again!"

Vin swallowed hard as the last vestiges of Chris’ composure started to crumble and the Jedi slumped to the floor as if that admission had taken all the strength out of his body. "Why did she do it Vin?" Chris cried out as his voice broke into a sob. "Why did she do it! I would have protected her! I would rather have died than let her do what she did!"

"I don’t know Chris," Vin answered softly, his own voice cracking a little when he went to his friend and joined Chris on the floor. He had asked these same questions when Charlotte had taken his place fighting Vader. She had died for him. Vin still did not know how to deal with that because the pain was still great even though he had since learnt to live with it. Of course it was a thousand times worse for Chris because he loved Mary where Vin’s affection for Charlotte had since faded away. "I guess because she probably loves you as much you love her and she also thought that living without you is just as unimaginable as what you’re feeling now."

"God Vin," Chris sobbed visibly, having neither the energy nor the inclination to keep his sobs from escaping him. His body shuddered as he wept and Vin remained where he was, saying nothing and letting Chris to deal with his anger as well as his sorrow. "How could she think that this was a good decision for either of us?"

"She’s only human Chris," Vin answered. "And in loving someone, you make mistakes trying to do what’s best but Mary saved not only you but everyone else by what she did and we’ve got to make her sacrifice mean something. You have to heal Chris, if not for yourself then for Mary because we’ll need you when we try to get her back."

Chris wiped the tears from his eyes and met Vin’s sympathetic gaze. "I’m sorry Vin. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. It just hurts so badly I can’t stand it."

"I know," Vin nodded in understanding as he embraced his friend. "I know and I swear I’ll take on Coruscant and the entire galaxy alongside you if it means getting her back. While you’re recovering I’ll see to it that no one gives up on Mary, I won’t let them. I promise you that Chris."

Chris knew that when Vin made a promise, he kept it. He had seen first hand what lengths the apprentice would go to ensure that. "Thank you Vin," Chris whispered softly. "Thank you."

Vin did not know if getting Mary back was at all possible but at this moment, he was willing to say anything because Chris needed to believe it.

And hopefully, wherever she was; Mary would hear him and she would believe it too.

Not the End

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