Yes, I know, I've been gone forever. I've been having computer issues. What can I say?

Anyways, this is still my 'Daughter' AU. My muse has returned, though she is presenting herself differently. So bear with me as I begin again with Zara's tale.

Zara woke when the ship rocked, sending her rolling out of her bed and onto the floor, into the wall. She cursed and jumped to her feet when the door slid open, one hand held out with her palm spread and the other holding a knife ready.

"Whoa, whoa! It's just me!"

"Sorry, Trask, you startled me." Zara put her hands down. "What the hell is going on?"

"The Sith are attacking."

Her face was grim as she went to her footlocker, quickly dressing and putting on her armor—a motley collection of mismatched pieces, mostly Mandalorian, taken from dead bodies. She hung her weapons from her belt and stuffed everything left in her footlocker into her pack. Trask was already opening the door again and they hurried through.

"You'll have to slice this one." Trask said apologetically. "And we have to save Bastila."

"Bastila's long gone." Zara said harshly. "She'd've been on the first escape pod when the battle started going south." She didn't mention she'd swept the ship with her Force sense and found Bastila's 'scent' lacking. Of course, she wasn't going to alarm Trask unnecessarily by stating the other obvious possibility—Bastila was no longer alive. "It's ourselves we need to save now, so don't do anything stupid." Trask was a rookie, for sure.

Blasters echoed and Zara cursed as the soldier she could just see through the opening doors fell. Trask bolted out when the doors were open wide enough, shouting "For the Republic!"

She leaped out behind him, dodging blaster bolts or sending them sideways with just a touch of the Force. Her single vibroblade bit into one of the Sith's unprotected necks while Trask landed a shot that downed the other. She quickly looted the bodies and the duo moved onward.

Zara heard the buzzing and throbbing of a lightsaber battle before they opened the next door.

"It's a Dark Jedi!"

She rolled her eyes and bit back an acidic comment as the Jedi took the Sith down and then an explosion—the ship's systems failing—sent enough shrapnel into her for near-instant death.

Trask swore. "That was one of Bastila's Jedi. We coulda used her help."

Zara was already looting. "Yeah, well, that's not happening." She didn't touch the Sith's saber, but glanced quickly at Trask to make sure he didn't see her pocket the Jedi's green saber.

She sensed the two incoming soldiers and was on her feet and alert, but Trask wasn't. One of the Sith got in a headshot and she whipped her hand through the air, sending out a crushing concussive wave of the Force. Then she threw her vibroblade and the ignited lightsaber, impaling the Sith before calling the weapons back to her hand.

Zara decided that since the bridge would be overrun with Sith, it was probably best she keep the lightsaber ready.

She moved through the ship, easily reaching the starboard section with her deadly combination of the borrowed lightsaber and the Force.

"Well, well…"

She didn't even think when she heard the oily voice, using the Force to smash the door closed and separate her and the unknown Dark Jedi. Her lightsaber skills were a bit too rusty, she was fairly sure, to mess with the likes of him.

Her comm bleeped and she looked down at the tiny screen. "This is Carth Onasi. I'm tracking you through the life support system—you're the last one on the Endar Spire. Bastila's pod is away and I can't wait much longer."

"On my way, Captain."

The comm screen went black and she pushed forward. More Sith, more death, more taking from the bodies of the dead.

"Be careful." Carth's voice suddenly said. "There's a squad on the other side of the door."

"Thanks for the heads-up, Captain." Her eyes fell on an assault droid standing uselessly in the corner of the room she currently occupied. With a few seconds and spare parts, she opened the door and entered the thick of the squad with the droid.

The fight was pitifully short and she gathered anything that could possibly be useful. She went through the doors after hiding the lightsaber and saw Carth in the flesh.

"Just in time. Let's go."

He climbed into one of the escape pods and she followed, strapping herself securely to the crash webbing as they jetted away.

"This is gonna be a bumpy landing."

Zara flashed Carth a crooked grin. "I can handle a bumpy landing, Captain. Done plenty of 'em in my time."

She looked out the back window just in time to see the Endar Spire explode into space dust.