"You are a real piece of work." Pierce's voice was dripping with contempt. "You know that, right?" He punctuated his words with yet another kick to the downed man's ribs.

Quinn didn't say anything. He couldn't; he'd had the wind knocked out of him almost immediately after entering sickbay, and now his mouth was full of blood. He'd been so intent on putting as much distance between themselves and Baras's trap that he hadn't recognized the threat from his shipmates until it was too late. Lt. Pierce had ambushed him after he'd set the course away from the station, laying him out on the floor with a single punch. The much larger man had dealt him a number of blows after that, making sure he wouldn't be getting up anytime time, then kicked him a few times once he knew Quinn was down for good.

He should have known. The rest of the crew wasn't stupid, not even Pierce. And even though the Sith who commanded them said she wouldn't tell anyone what had happened on the space station, it didn't mean the others wouldn't find out.

He just hadn't expected it to be so soon. Or so brutal.

"We know how loyal you've always been to Baras. You owe your career to him, everybody says. Did you really think, after the Emperor's servants told us Baras was a traitor and sent us to stop him, that we wouldn't be watching you like a hawk?" He took a step closer and the pilot instinctively curled into a tighter ball, trying to protect his ribs and abdomen from the lieutenant's boots. "We were monitoring you the entire time you and Adarai were on the station."

"We heard everything." Vette's voice was cold. "We know what you did."

"You're exactly the type of officer who gets fragged by his own unit, you lying son of a bitch," Pierce snarled. "If Adarai doesn't kill you herself, I hope she lets me do it. Well, me or Broonmark – I'd love to see him tear you apart with his bare hands." He grinned at the Talz at his side, who voiced his approval at the idea.

The bruises already covered the side of Quinn's face, his left eye swollen shut, and he tried to turn away.

Pierce leaned in, surveying his handiwork. "Not so pretty now, are you pretty boy?" He kicked him again. "Maybe once you're gone, I'll go to Adarai and show her what real loyalty is. Prove it to her. Make my move." The emphasis on the last three words made Quinn's entire body tense up, and Pierce laughed. "Yeah, I've seen you looking at her. Don't think we don't know. But she's too good for you. She needs a real man."

The thought of this was almost too much. The idea of this near-animal touching the Sith noblewoman spurred Quinn to try to rise, but another kick from Pierce prevented that. He collapsed back to the deck.

Now Vette came to stand over him. "How could you do this, Quinn?" The Twi'lek, not normally one for violence, had watched silently during Pierce's attack, observing but not participating. "After all she's done for you. For all of us."

"One of the few Sith – and a pureblood at that – who doesn't see normal people like us as cannon fodder, and you had to go and sell her out to Baras. And for what?"

Vette scowled. "You've seen what he does to people when they stop being useful to him, even the ones who've been loyal to him for years. He kills them without a second thought. They're nothing to him."

"Just like you." Pierce loomed over him. "Unless…are you useful to him for something else?" His expression twisted maliciously. "Do you let that old man fuck you, is that why you think you're so special?" He rolled Quinn over with his boot. "If that's all you're good for, maybe Adarai will let me have some fun with you before she kills you…"

Before Pierce could say any more, Jaesa Willsaam burst into the room, panting, and planted herself between Pierce and Quinn. "Stop. Please."

"This doesn't concern you," the big man growled. "Unless Adarai sent you with a message saying she wants to take care of Quinn herself. Where is she now?"

"She's meditating. But please, you don't want to do this."

"And why not, Jedi?" He made the word an insult. "You saw what this piece of garbage did, how he set her up– "

Jaesa stood her ground. "This wasn't what it looked like. Think back to what you saw during the fight – did you not see how easily Adarai took out those droids, the ones that had supposedly been programmed specifically to defeat her? Did you not see her cut through them like a hot knife through butter?" This seemed to make him pause, and he took a partial step back. "Think about it. If Quinn had really wanted to kill her, he could have done it anytime before this, and without an elaborate plan using battle droids. This whole thing was staged…it had to look good to Baras, because Quinn knew he'd be watching. And Adarai knew it too. That's why she didn't kill him…because it was obvious to her that everything he'd done was for show." She stared up into the lieutenant's eyes. "This gift I have, through the Force – I can see Quinn's motivations, clear as day. And I saw that Adarai knew exactly what Quinn had done. To her, during the fight on the station, it was obvious. He never meant for her to die."

Pierce looked her up and down, almost suspiciously. "You sure about this, Jaesa?"

"More sure than I've been about anything in a long time."

Pierce maintained eye contact with her for several seconds longer, then let out a sigh. "All right." He frowned, glancing between the Jedi and his co-conspirators. "You, ah, need any help getting him into a kolto tank or something?"

She smiled slightly, her relief palpable. "I can manage. But thank you. And Adarai will thank you too, once she's finished her meditation and out of her trance."

Looking properly cowed, Pierce and the others left sickbay, shuffling out in a mixture of guilt and embarrassment. Jaesa turned her attention to Quinn, crouching down beside him so she could help him up and onto one of the beds.

Finally able to speak again, Quinn rested his head against the soft bedding as Jaesa went to work with the medical equipment and kolto. "Thank you," he whispered.

"I'm so sorry I didn't get to you sooner…"

"It's all right." He swallowed hard; talking was still difficult. "You got there in time, and told them the truth about what happened."

The Jedi checked his vitals again, adding more painkillers to the kolto mixture, then pulled one of the chairs to the side of the bed, sitting down so she was closer to him. "I told them the truth, but not the whole truth."

Quinn turned his head, regarding her with the only eye he could currently open. "What do you mean?"

"What I said before about Adarai knowing exactly what you were doing…that was all true." Jaesa's voice was soft. "She knew she wasn't the one who was meant to die on that station, captain. She knew the only person on that station you wanted dead was you."

Quinn looked affronted, almost stunned, but said nothing to refute her.

"You wanted her to kill you," Jaesa stated. He still refused to answer, and turned his face away. "You knew Adarai could defeat your droids, and you wanted her to kill you after she did. Because you couldn't stand up to Baras, not even for the woman you love, and you were so ashamed by it that you believed you deserved death." Sensing his emotional response, her tone became more gentle. "Yes, I know you love her." She took his hand. "Because you know what she's really like. I do too. She's not how she presents herself to the world; she's not the façade she shows to others in the Empire. You were there when she fought her doppelganger at that oasis on Tatooine, and you heard what it said to her. She's not attuned to the dark side. So she's not drowned by her emotions like most Sith, but she doesn't repress her feelings like most Jedi either. That's why she's so different from any other Sith you've met, and why you're drawn to her. She's honorable and compassionate, empathetic but strong. She knows both passion and peace."

Quinn turned his head to look at her again. "The duplicate claimed it made her weak, but Adarai said it made her stronger. The balance between them, I mean. Not being only one thing or the other."

Jaesa shifted closer. "Your loyalty is one of your best qualities, Quinn. But with Baras it was misplaced…there was no reciprocation from him. But that's all right, because now you're giving your loyalty to someone who actually deserves it. Someone who understands why you did what you did, and still welcomes you as part of her crew." She glanced at the readouts on the medical scanner. "Adarai wants you to stay, you know. On this ship, with us. With her."

The pilot's brow furrowed, but slowly, as the kolto and painkiller mixture were spreading through his system. He was grateful he was still alive, and even more so that it seemed he'd continue to have a place on the ship, but the uncertainty surrounding his relationship with its commander still haunted him. Even in his mind it was difficult to form the words. "Jaesa," he began. He almost didn't want to bring this up, but given the young Jedi's abilities, he couldn't help himself. "Do you think Adarai will forgive me?" he asked hesitantly.

"Isn't it obvious, Captain Quinn?" she replied. "She already has." Jaesa smiled and gave his hand a squeeze before releasing it, dimming the lights so the man could rest more easily. "And I don't need any kind of special Force powers to tell me that."