A/N: Well, after about four months, I've finally returned! Sorry it took so long, but I usually take the summer off to write chapters ahead of time, and I've gotten quite a few written now.
So, remember back at the beginning of Remnants of the Storm when I said that there was a scene with Rebecca Storm and Dakota Farthing that I probably wasn't going to be able to incorporate into my trilogy? Well, turns out I actually can now, so here you go! Also, if you haven't read my other two stories preceding this one, Price of Duty and Remnants of the Storm, then I advise you to do that, please.
I do not own Star Wars, only the original characters I've created.
Prologue
Rebecca walked through the entrance of her home and sighed tiredly before calling out a greeting, "Dakota, I'm back for a bit! Where are you?"
"I'm back in the spare bedroom!" Rebecca heard as she made her way down the hall towards her friend's voice, ready to rest for a few days and not have to think about the Kalifan rebel cell. Yes, they were doing good work against the Empire, but she didn't deny that it was a...taxing job, especially when she was the top commanding officer in the Shadow Squadron. And...she wasn't going to deny that it often kept her from being with her family. But—
"What is this?" Rebecca said in surprise and shock as she entered the spare room. Dakota's blonde head was bending over the bed in it, which had a man covered in bandages lying on it. But...on the stand next to the bed, the brunette commander spied a battered dark helmet.
A dark helmet that had an Imperial symbol on the side.
"Oh, Rebecca!" Dakota said as she straightened up and turned around, giving her friend a large smile. "You're back! I wasn't expecting you back so soon. You'll never believe how far Victoria has advanced in her training—"
"Is that...an Imperial?" Rebecca stated in a hard tone as she narrowed her violet eyes suspiciously at Dakota's...patient. Dakota looked at the man in the bed as her smile disappeared, replaced by an expression of caution and apprehension.
"...Yes, he is," Dakota began as she looked back to Rebecca with an imploring look in her eyes, "but please let me explain—"
"Explain that you're harboring an Imperial, my enemy?" Rebecca interrupted, her eyes staying on the injured man. The enemy, her mind whispered. She clenched her jaw angrily as visions of her comrades who had died while fighting the Empire danced through her mind. She had held most of their hands in the medbay as they had tried to fight for their lives, only to eventually succumb to their injuries. She had seen the heartbroken, angry, sorrowful faces of their loved ones as she had delivered the news of her soldiers' deaths, and endured the hard slaps to her face that had sometimes come right afterward. Yet she had never had the time to grieve like them when she'd always had other missions from the Kalifan Court to take care of. And to find one of them in her own home? Her hand drifted toward her blaster as she watched the Imperial for any signs of movement, despite the fact that he was apparently sleeping.
"In short, well, yes," Dakota said as she looked Rebecca straight in the eye. "But please listen, Rebecca. He literally crashed right in front of me while I was walking home a few days ago. I got him out of there, but his ship blew up. He has nothing right now, and he's not a threat in any way. Trust me on this."
"That's what they all say," Rebecca said coldly as she stepped closer to him, the memories of all the losses she'd been through as a rebel still fresh in her mind. "Now step aside, Dakota, and let me deal with him."
"Rebecca, don't," Dakota said as she stood between Rebecca and the Imperial. "I gave my word that I'd help him. And he's not a threat. He's not even awake right now!"
"And do you know how many rebels he's killed, Dakota?" Rebecca said incredulously, glaring around her friend.
"I don't know, Rebecca," Dakota admitted, "but neither do you. We don't know anything about him. We don't even know if he's ever been in contact with any rebels whatsoever. I've told you before, you can't just...assume these things about everyone that's an Imperial. They're people, too."
"People who have destroyed countless lives with their heinous Empire." Rebecca shot back acidly. "This is a war, after all! And they're the enemy!"
Dakota pressed her lips into a thin line as her brows scrunched together. "I won't deny that, Rebecca. But since this one is under my surveillance and help," she proclaimed, pointing at her patient, "I say that he stays and lets his wounds heal."
Rebecca sighed heavily, reluctantly conceding the argument. "Fine, but as soon as he's done here, I'll be taking him to the Shadow Squadron to be interrogated." She thought that would make Dakota happy but, to her surprise, the blonde Human closed her eyes and shook her head sadly.
"Rebecca, that's not what I quite meant. I meant to let him heal and leave. Of his own volition."
"What?" The brunette commander said quietly in a hard tone, hardly being able to believe what Dakota was saying. "Just act like he's not a sworn enemy of mine, and act like I'm okay with this when he leaves?" She shook her head hard as her eyes narrowed again. "No. I'm not doing this, Dakota. I won't go through with it!"
Her hand rested on the butt of her blaster pistol as Dakota coughed uncomfortably. "Rebecca, please, can't you at least try? It's not like it'll kill you, and maybe it would help you."
"Help me."
"Well, it's just that..." Dakota said quietly as her gray gaze landed on the floor, "...you never seem to be happy anymore. At all. I'm worried about you, and what this work is doing to you. Maybe spending time with him would help you realize some things."
"You should be more worried about that Imperial," Rebecca said darkly. "And, what made you think that I would ever like this? What am I supposed to do when I come home to this when I come here to get away from all that?!"
"I didn't think about that, Rebecca, and I'm sorry," Dakota said calmly, even as her gaze dropped down to Rebecca's blaster. "But sometimes, you have to do what's right, even if you don't want to do it."
"But I had nothing to do with this decision!" Rebecca said, anger starting to taint her tone. "I shouldn't have to deal with the repercussions!"
"Well, you have to now, so you'd better figure out how to deal with it!" Dakota said, finally losing the calm tone in her voice as her eyes narrowed. "And, while we're on the whole repercussions thing, how about your choice to leave us all alone while you go on missions as a rebel, for months on end sometimes, without our even hearing from you! Me, your students, Alena and Victoria! We're left alone all the time, and even when you come, you're not here with us! You say this is a place to relax from your work, but you don't! Your mind is always halfway across the galaxy, thinking about your work, and none of us know what to do about that! We can't get through to you, no matter how hard any of us try!"
Rebecca's eyes narrowed once more, and her jaw clenched up as she heard Dakota. "That...was..." she began, then stopped, not knowing how to put what she felt into words. Her problems, her regrets, everything. So she focused on the Imperial once more, shaking herself. "Give me the Imperial, Dakota."
"No." Rebecca's friend said defiantly, refusing to stand aside. "I won't. I'm sorry, but this is what I believe in. And I can't just stand by and watch you do this to yourself."
Rebecca's mind was filled with too much for her to go through. She needed to have the control again, like when she was with her rebels. She always had control with them. Steeling herself, she grasped her pistol and lifted it out of her holster. "Don't make me do this, Koda. Just give me the Imperial scum, and this can all end. Besides, this is for your own good. He will hurt you when he's strong enough, and I won't let that happen to anyone else! So stand aside!"
When the blonde Human still defiantly stayed where she was, Rebecca hefted her pistol and...pointed it at Dakota Farthing. Though Koda bit her lip, she still stayed where she was as she trained her dark gray gaze on Rebecca, sighing quietly. "I had hoped it would never happen, Rebecca."
"What?" Rebecca said coldly, her eyes still narrowed as her lips thinned, focusing on pointing her pistol, even as it wobbled slightly.
"The day when you looked just like your sister," Dakota said quietly before dropping her gaze.
Silence ensued in the room as Rebecca digested that single sentence, and her face grew pale as her eyes widened. Images danced through her mind again, not of her dead comrades, but of her sister, angry and filled with dark power, fighting to destroy her.
Snapping out of the memory, Rebecca gasped as she looked at her pistol, then at Dakota with a horrified expression. She would have hurt her, or even killed her. Not stopping to think about what she was doing, Rebecca Storm jerked back, slammed her pistol back into her holster, and sprinted out of the house, pushing past a bewildered Victoria on the way out. She didn't stop until she'd made it back to her own ship, and she breathed heavily, hating what she was going to do next. The moment when she'd admit that she was no better than her own sister if she had even dared to think of what she'd almost done. Sweating in her quarters, the last words Dakota had called out desperately before Rebecca had made it out of earshot reverberated through her mind the rest of the day and far into the night.
"Come back, Rebecca! Come back, please!"
A/N: Well, here's the start of a doozy of a story, everyone. Please give comments down below, as reviews are food for a fanfiction writer's soul, and I'll see you in two weeks!
