It had been six days since the Resistance had arrived on Odessen, and three days since the old Alliance base had been filled with new occupants. The transition was quick and painless, the Resistance used to quickly alternating between bases. The Raddus stayed in a constant geo-synchronous orbit. If anyone showed up in the system, they would have ample warning to either dig in and defend themselves or escape on the transports.

Once the Resistance had begun moving in supplies and filling out into the base in earnest, her master had come to her and told her to pack. There had been no if's or but's, and it seemed highly strange for them to just up and leave so soon after fighting through the remaining defences.

As if he were smoke, he'd disappeared just as quickly as he'd appeared, leaving her to gather her possessions. Much of what she owned could fit into the Falcon in the crates they were stored in. After all, she'd barely removed a fraction of what she now owned into her shared quarters.

And so, she'd approached the Falcon with her usual Jedi apparel and satchel expecting to be flying away from the Resistance. The thought had pained her, leaving Finn, Poe, Luke and Leia behind to fight the First Order on their own. When she'd spotted her master stood by the hangar bay door with a large satchel over his back, her curiosity had battered aside her emotional turmoil.

"About time you showed up. I thought I was going to have to send Chewie to find you." Nasra had greeted, his dark hair tied up messily at the back of his head and his blue eyes seemed to be shining with something. It never usually worked out well for her when he got that look in his eyes.

"Are we not leaving?" She had asked, confused. She had held a hand up to shield her eyes from the glare of the sun. She could feel the heat on her face, arms and exposed sides of her stomach. It felt nice. Inviting.

"We are. Just for a few days. We're heading into the jungle – there's a spot I want to take you to." He'd replied, and she'd had to fight the urge to punch him in the face. She had thought they were leaving the planet! He'd offered no chance to ask any questions when he'd told her to pack up and hadn't even given her the slightest clue! Damn him! "Come on – there's daylight wasting." He'd finally said and set off.

The trek down the mountainside had been perilous. Once he'd stepped from the hangar and just dropped, she was sure she'd been summoned just to watch him commit suicide. Her throat had been filled by her heart leaping up to it and her stomach had plummeted into the core of the planet. She'd rushed the lip of the cliff and glared down at his grinning expression thirty metres down.

"I want you to jump and use the Force to cushion your fall. You need to get used to it, we're doing it the whole way down." He'd shouted, cupping his mouth with his hands.

"You're insane!" She'd shrieked in return, eyes taking in just the scale of the drop. Not to mention the rest of the mountain! The hangar much have been at least halfway up it! He'd just shrugged in reply. She'd stepped back and began pacing – obviously, this was a part of her training. Part of her wanted to leap, while another much more pragmatic part of her told her there was still a fully functioning elevator that could just as easily do the job. She had expected Jedi training to be, well she wasn't entirely sure what she'd been expecting if she were honest with herself – this whole trial by fire business her master had adopted definitely wasn't it though!

With a grimace, she'd ran at the edge and leapt, channelling the Force through her legs as she did. Calling on the Force came so much easier now. Shan had mentioned just how impressed he'd been when she'd moved all of the rocks on her own once they'd landed. They had experimented with her powers when they weren't sparring, but nothing to the degree she had accomplished.

With every success, the intensity of the training increased – as did the difficulty. With a grunt, she landed on the boulder Nasra was stood on and rolled with the momentum. She came up panting, eyes wide and had patted herself down to make sure nothing was injured and just to double-check she wasn't dead, of course.

They had continued that all the way down the mountainside, and she had to admit – it was fun. At one point, and she couldn't quite pin-point when it started, but they had turned it into a game of sorts. Who could do the longest drop, or who could leap the furthest. She'd had to concede defeat to her teacher on those accounts.

When they'd reached the bottom, she had asked how he had known it was possible to get to the bottom from there – for them, at least.

"I used to sneak out of the base that way. A few of the jumps are bigger than they used to be, but they're no hassle." He'd shrugged casually, hoisting his backpack up a little higher and beginning their hike through the surrounding jungle.

They had walked for hours, the sounds of the creatures of the planet bouncing off of the tall trees that had trunks twice as thick as her. The air had been clammy and she'd found herself sweating within an hour.

Since then, the two of them had trekked further into the surrounding jungle as each day passed – annoyingly, her master hadn't seemed to be nearly as affected by the climate as she. Though, as she'd panted her way through each day, he'd intermittently passed on tales and stories of his previous life here. It was fascinating, hearing about his time as the Commander of the Eternal Alliance. The way he described Sith and Jedi working together towards a common goal – if the Sith ever re-emerged, was it possible for it to happen again, or was there too much bad blood between the ideologies?

As the two of them would make camp, Nasra had gifted her with a temporary single-bladed training saber he'd claimed to have found on his ship. While she was thankful to be learning the forms and sparring with an actual lightsaber now, her weeks of tutelage under the Jedi had passed on a number of far more subtle lessons. The primary one that always came to mind when using her new blade was that the grip wasn't quite right for her smaller hands, or how the hilt was a half-inch longer than she was used to. To a degree, she felt a little spoilt for knowledge with being taught by Shan. She'd resolved herself to absorb every minute bit of information he could pass on to make the Jedi better for it in the future.

Her mind continued to reflect on the events of the last week as she allowed the water to run down her face, washing the sweat and grime away. The force of the water cascading down onto her nearly nude body was so much that she'd had to keep her eyes closed.

The waterfall she was in was small, only perhaps two feet taller than she and she stood up to her waist in the clear, chilled water gently running her fingers through her dark locks. It was the first opportunity they'd each gotten to wash since the beginning of their little excursion. She hadn't hesitated when Nasra had told her where she could wash, grabbing her small satchel with a change of her robes and some basic sanitary products she'd managed to find in the Falcon some weeks before.

She'd practically sprinted to the water, divesting herself of her robes as soon as she came into sight of the water and dove under the water in her smallclothes. She'd heard Nasra's laughing the entire way and couldn't care less.

Rey had been forced to endure the awful stench their sweat had caused for the last few days and she couldn't take it anymore. She'd had a taste of a finer quality of hygiene since leaving Jakku, and she'd be damned if she ever let it be taken from her willingly.

And so, she continued there for a time, enjoying the feeling of the water running down her body and the complete sense of calm that came with it. Lazily, she opened her eyes and let out a blood-curdling shriek, though if anyone were to ask her about it in the future, she'd vehemently deny it.

"Are you quite done yet?" Her master asked lazily as he sat on an outcropping of stone just to the side of the fall.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She screeched, moving her hands to cover herself as she ducked her body under the water.

"Waiting for my turn. I thought that much was evident." Nasra replied, rolling his eyes. It was at this moment she realised he was without his upper robes, his skin bare to the world and in the dying light of the day it seemed to almost glow in its paleness.

"Well you can damn well wait a bit longer, at the camp." She growled dangerously as her eyes narrowed and she spat out a small mouthful of water that had made its way into her mouth. Water dripped annoyingly into her eyes and she wiped it away with the back of her hand, the other attempting the cover herself under the water.

As her arm dropped back under the water, she noticed he was gone. She looked around questioningly – her vision had hardly been blocked long enough for him to move that quickly. Something didn't feel right.

Suspiciously, the young woman stood up and continued to finish her washing routine, snidely taking more time than she normally would to go through her routine. First, she lathered her hair with some product that smelled vaguely of Fuji Apples, which she found intoxicating. Before she applied the gel to her hair though, she found herself breathing in the aroma in her cupped hands and smiling softly to herself. After a moment longer of self-indulgence, she began working it through her hair, moving her fingers in a small circular fashion like Leia had told her to do. The tension in her shoulders and neck disappeared, and her entire body shivered pleasantly as she performed the task with as much gusto as she tackled her training.

Afterwards, it was a simple task of gently washing the suds out of her hair under the running water. This time as she opened her eyes, there was no Jedi sat waiting for her. She'd resolved to give him a piece of her mind when she returned to the camp – perhaps a right hook would do it.

"I mean really, how long does it take you to shower?" Came the familiar voice behind her.

She spun automatically, ducking beneath the water as she did so. Before her, dressed in the same fashion as before was her Jedi master. Maybe more than one right hook, then.

"I thought I told you to wait your turn at the camp." She growled, balling her hands into fists. Quickly, her eyes flickered to the water they were both stood in and attempted to hide the smirk that came with the idea that popped into her mind.

"I preferred waiting he-" He began, only to have a large amount of water drop down on him from above that had been full of weeds and algae which were pleasantly absent by the fall. Her smirk died on her face when it all passed through him.

"Wha-" She tried, when a distant voice began calling her name.

"Rey! Are you alright?" She heard distantly.

"I… think so?" She replied hesitantly, her eyes glued to the sparkling blue's before her. She dared not blink, less the being before her vanish again.

"What's wrong?" Her master asked, his voice above and to her left – the direction of the path. "Ah." He murmured.

"Mind telling me why there's two of you?" She demanded, her eyes still not leaving the smirking figure before her, though she felt somewhat saner now that she wasn't the only one seeing this.

"You're stood in the centre of a Force Nexus. Rey, say hello to your first Force Spirit." There was a cheeky wave and wink from the apparition before her. "And it should stop using a form that doesn't belong to it." He added with a bit more weight to his words.

The spirit shrugged and exploded into a flash of blue light, the two Jedi briefly covering their eyes.

"Is this better, Commander?" The echoing voice asked. When she opened her eyes, the figure before her was no longer her master, but instead the glowing blue form of what she assumed to be a male human wearing a combination of robes and mask – not too dissimilar from her own master. Was this the spirit of a long dead Jedi?

Not very Jedi-like for watching her bathe.

"Keyan Solborne, fitting that you'd end up a Force Ghost. Now, before I tear your spirit to pieces, mind telling me why you were watching my Padawan bathe?" Nasra asked, his arms folding across his chest and a very unamused expression on his face. She could distantly feel him pulling power into himself through their bond.

"Oh please. Do you have any idea how dull it gets on this planet? Besides, she's cute enough. Would've made a fine conquest in my younger years. You know how I do so enjoy Jedi playthings." The spirit shrugged and Rey's eyes bugged out of their sockets, her mouth hanging agape.

"Wrong answer, Occlus." Nasra snapped, lashing out with both hands as the spirit squirmed in his invisible grasp. Rey watched on, stunned. The apparition let out a blood curling scream as if it were in pain before exploding in a cloud of energy. Its departure left barely a ripple in the water. "Sorry about that."

"Who was that?" She asked, watching idly as Nasra turned his back to her out of politeness. She appreciated the sentiment, though she thought it was a little too late for that.

"A dead Sith." Came the simple response. With a grunt, she pulled herself out of the water and picked up a cloth to dry herself with. She paused at the answer she got.

"You say that so simply. I just became a personal show for a dead Sith Lord!"

"If it's any consolation, that's the second time I've killed him now."

"It helps." She sniffed, wringing her hair out over the water.

"Don't bother dressing yourself or drying off. I want you to follow me into the water." Shan announced, his head slowly waving side to side as if he had been debating something internally.

Seriously? Why had he not told her as she got out of the water? He had to wait until she was almost dry and almost dressed to make his mind up? This was the decision to come out here all over again!

"Seriously?" She asked, her voice low and flat as her right brow arched up to meet her hairline.

"No funny business, I swear." Her master chuckled, holding his hands up to either side of him. With a sigh, she divested herself of what clothes she'd put on and dropped back into the soothing waters, briefly dipping under the water to keep her hair off of her face.

As she re-emerged, letting out the breath she'd briefly held and pushing what strands of hair had fallen into her eyes, she watched her master remove what clothing he'd been wearing for these last few days. While he'd been wearing his Jedi robes, much like she had, his were much thicker with the added armour plates that were interwoven – not to mention the fingerless gauntlets he wore and the large armoured combat boots that came up to his knees. He removed all with a practiced ease she envied.

As he pulled his hooded tunic up and over his head, she noticed for the first time in all their weeks of shared living that his torso was covered in a litany of scars. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of it. As he turned and waded into the water to join her, she noticed that the front of his torso was oddly bereft of them, the skin looking fairly undamaged besides the occasional thin pale scar.

"I figure now's as good as time as any to introduce you to this place properly while we're both here." He began, his voice deeper than the apparition had made it, she noted absently. "A Force Nexus is any location that's particularly unusually strong. It can be the Force in balance, like this planet, or in this case the Light." He said, spreading his arms wide to indicate the body of water they were in. She noticed he was still wearing his cloth pants, the fabric covering him all the way from hips to shoulders.

"There's a lot of different benef-" He paused before clicking his fingers. "Rey, you still with me here?" He asked, his eyes twinkling with amusement. She never once drifted in any of her previous lessons.

A light blush formed on her cheeks and she cleared her throat, "Sorry, I was still thinking of the Sith. You were saying?"

Nasra nodded apologetically before continuing, "As I was saying, there's a lot of different benefits of these Nexus'. Some can provide good locations for Temples, such as Tython. Others are used in a Padawan's trails in becoming a Knight. While the Nexus' in tune with the Light are rare, they can be used to experience glimpses into the Force that are clearer than one would normally attain in a meditation."

"So, I could see the future?" She breathed, the words of her teacher sinking in with as much weight as a thousand Starkiller Bases.

He nodded slowly, his face solemn. "Possibly – remember though, the future is always in motion. If you see something you don't like, if you work towards avoiding it, you could inadvertently be the cause of such a future. Do you understand me?"

She nodded slowly. Don't go changing the future. Got it.

"Can I see the past?" She asked after a moment of thought.

"Possibly. The Force determines what we see, and it's not always clear as to whether it's the past or present." He answered her, bringing a handful of water up to his face. After a moment of wiping his face with the liquid, he let out a calming sigh. "I've never been particularly skilled with this aspect of the Force. I like the direct approach – I tended to leave these philosophies to the Consulars."

"Consulars?" She asked, the word foreign to her tongue and mind. Absently, she gently splashed water up and down her arms and over her bare shoulders.

"Ah. Well, there's three main denominations of Jedi. The Guardians, the warriors of the Order. Usually these are the most proficient with lightsabers. Then there are the Consulars, or the Sages – these would delve into the Force and try to master that. Finally, there were the Sentinels, who essentially tried to find a happy balance."

"So, you're a Guardian then?" She frowned, thinking about his title as Battlemaster and his skills with a blade. It made the most sense.

He chuckled in reply, leaning back into the water and drifting lazily on the current as his hair floated out around his head like a brown halo. "I wish it were that simple. No, I'm a Sentinel – specifically a Jedi Watchman."

"What's a Watchman?"

"It depends on who you ask, to be honest. The official job title was to be a liaison to a specific system for the Jedi High Council and to protect that systems laws and rights. Unofficially, we tended to branch off on own and combat the Darkside how we saw fit." He laughed quietly to himself and after a moment added, "Usually with the business end of a lightsaber."

"What type of Jedi do you think I would be?" The question had been on the tip of her tongue ever since he'd first described them. Each sounded fantastic, if she were honest with herself.

"You're tough to pinpoint. You've excelled at everything I've taught you so far, not to mention that your personality falls fairly snugly into each of the roles. I think it's a question only you can answer further into your training. Don't get me wrong, I'll make you as well-rounded as possible no matter what you decide."

She smiled at that. The ability to decide for herself was a pleasant option that she had to admit had been extremely scarce throughout her life. She hadn't chosen to live on Jakku. She hadn't chosen to get swept up with Finn, admittedly not until much later. The ability to choose for herself was still such a new and exciting option for her, and she loved every moment of it.

"So, are you ready to delve into the Force?" Came her masters voice, snapping her back to reality. He was stood to his full height and was slowly approaching her. Absently, she noticed that there wasn't an ounce of fat on him – each muscle trained through years of combat and training to make every aspect of his being a deadly weapon.

She nodded slowly, her eyes finally meeting the powerful blue ones that felt as if she were nothing but a child before.

"Good. Now, lay back." He instructed, his voice soothing as he knelt under the water. His right hand held the back of her head and the second found purchase at the small of her back. Her first reaction was to punch him square in the jaw, despite her body relaxing into the touch. Her near nakedness forgotten almost entirely. Slowly, the two drifted into the centre of the small plunge pool. "Now, reach out." Nasra whispered, his voice immediately drifting away as she submerged herself in the Force.

Immediately her vision went as black as the void, the only sound she could hear was her own breathing. She looked around quickly, her heart beating wildly in her chest. What would she see? The future? The past? The future?

Within moments, she felt her being pulled forwards by an invisible force. When she came to a sudden halt, she found herself in a war-torn street. All around her were the bodies of soldiers – some were First Order Stormtroopers, while others looked like far better equipped Resistance soldiers.

A TIE fighter screamed overhead as it burst into a ball of hot flame, the X-Wing that had shot it down following it shortly as distant AA-fire struck an engine. Neither pilot would have had a chance to eject.

A nearby explosion shook the paved walkway she was stood on. Acting on instinct, she brought her hands up to cover herself from the shrapnel – luckily though, something or rather someone stepped between them.

"Rey! We have to move!" Nasra screamed at her through his expressionless helmet. His blades were at his side, humming brilliantly in the sunlight. His robes were torn and scorched – there even seemed to be a slowly spreading wet patch on his side.

"You're hurt!" She found herself shouting back over the din. She moved to look at the injury, but he just shrugged her off.

"It's nothing – got nicked by some shrapnel. Come on, we have to keep pushing!" With that, her master began jogging ahead, a squad of soldiers falling in behind him without comment. Even from where she was stood, she could feel their spirits lifted by the sight of the Jedi Master.

She moved to follow, idly looking down to see her usual Jedi robes where there previously had only been her underclothes. In her hand was a saberstaff she didn't recognise – it wasn't ignited, however.

Her master rounded a corner a few meters ahead of her and immediately a hail of gunfire left the street they'd entered, the screams of men and women of half a dozen species crying out as they were cut down in an ambush. The cracks of lightsabers clashing echoed in her ears – her pace quickened.

The street was empty besides the bodies. Blaster holes were blown through all of them, their limbs – if they were still attached, were at odd angles. Some had large gashes across their bodies, still smouldering from whatever had torn through them.

A body shifted, crawling towards her weakly.

"Rey…" The weak, pained voice of her master called out. She turned to look at him, her eyes going wide. His robes were a charred mess, his helmet cracked and half of the faceplate completely missing as blood ran freely from his eyes, mouth and nose. "Rey… Run!"

As he said that, he gasped in sudden pain, his eyes going dull as a deep crimson blade was plunged into his back, a dark figure kneeling beside him. She screamed at the loss she felt – the large, bottomless void in which her masters presence had been in her mind.

She couldn't make out the features of the monster, only a swirling black cloud that wielded a crimson blade. She only knew one being that carried such a weapon – Kylo Ren. Before she could attempt to avenger her teacher, her friend – she was pulled back into reality.

A shuddering gasp left her as she returned to reality. Her eyes darted about wildly, taking in the large trees that hid the body of water she floated in. Nasra's eyes appeared over her, his face no more scarred than it had been before her vision.

Righting herself in the water, she latched herself to Shan, wrapping her arms around the man and sobbed into his shoulder. "I'm never doing that again."

"You'd be surprised." He chuckled, his body rigid in shock as she grasped him. After a moment she felt him gently patting her on the back. "See something you didn't like?"

She hesitated, pulling away from her teacher and sinking deeper into the water – conscious once again of being barely clothed. Should she tell him? Could she somehow avoid what she saw? "Is it possible to stop someone from dying with the Force?"

Her master was quiet for a moment as he too sank deeper into the water. "Naturally, not that I'm aware of. Sith often search for paths to immortality, though as far as I'm aware only Valkorian managed it but he drained an entire planet of the Force to do so. Why?"

"I saw someone die." She replied quietly, her eyes downcast as she sniffed.

"Someone close to you, I take it?" She could only nod.

"That's a dangerous path, Rey. Countless Jedi have fallen because they searched for the power to keep people they cared about alive. Remember what I said earlier – if you try to prevent a vision, you may inadvertently end up causing it. Besides, not all visions are literal."

"But what if it is?" She asked, her voice desperate.

"Then it is." He shrugged. "Everyone has a time, Rey. Besides, those who pass on into the Force aren't ever really gone. They'll be with you, watching over you until it comes to your time to join them." His voice was soft, reassuring – yet somehow, she didn't feel its affects. "Come, we should probably eat. You were in your vision for half a day – you must be famished."

She was about to protest when her stomach growled loudly, not too dissimilar from one of the many predators she knew stalked this planet. Her salty cheeks tinged red at Nasra's chuckle and the two of them pulled themselves out of the water.


The blade hummed in the quiet night air, only the sound of her breathing and the distant nocturnal creatures were there to accompany it. Her eyes were blindfolded, the dark strip of cloth coarse against her skin.

"Concentrate."

She shifted her weight to her back foot ever so slightly and brought the single blade up in a guard across her front. Her breathing remained steady and she could faintly feel her misted breath rise up to tickle her nose.

"Focus."

Her heart thumped in anticipation. She flicked her tongue out to wet her lips slowly. Suddenly she snapped the blade to the left and back to the right, covering her shoulder. Without missing a step, she moved forward a single pace and bent forward at the waist, feeling something fly past her. With barely a flick, the blade spun in her hand and protected her back in a swirl of amethyst. She made sure to spin her body with the manoeuvre as Nasra had taught her, coming to a steady stop in her original position. There was no reprieve however, and her blade had to keep moving. Three bolts came toward her on the right which were blocked with a bare minimum of movement just before a pair came from the left – the first aimed at her left thigh and the last at her chest. She blocked her thigh fist before snapping the blade into a horizontal position and batted away the final threat.

"Impressive." Nasra congratulated her, clapping slowly. She removed the cloth from her eyes and de-activated the blade, the grin on her face causing her cheeks to ache.

"I could see them – actually see them. It's like nothing I've ever experienced." She breathed, the wonder in her voice barely contained. Would it be like that all the time?

"With continued training, you'll sense them sooner and far more clearly. Not just training probe stunners, but lightsaber strikes, falling debris, a knife in a crowd. The possibilities are limited only by how much you dedicate to your connection to the Force."

"Is that how you fought those droids? You could sense where they'd shoot?" She asked, grasping a nearby canteen and taking a mouthful of cool water.

"Partly. It comes with experience. Those droids were barely able to aim and move." He shrugged, crossing his ankles casually as he leaned back on the boulder he had been lounging on, a pair of sticks lazily floated above him, imitating a duel. "How are you finding your sense of the Force?"

"It feels stronger and clearer each time I use it." She admitted. Nasra had mentioned once or twice how surprised he was at how quickly she grasped everything he taught her – it was a little daunting, hearing the words but she made a point of continuing to throw herself bodily at everything she was taught. More so since her vision in the pool a few days prior.

"That's good. Tell me, since we've been out here – have you felt the pull of any dark places? Any feelings of overwhelming coldness?"

"No. I've continued meditating before going to sleep but nothing like on Ahch-To." She replied, taking a seat beside him. He seemed to nod slowly and brought a hand up to scratch at the beard that had grown in the time they'd been out here.

"That's good. You're learning control when you meditate. Your emotions have been all over the place since your vision – I just wanted to make sure." He smiled gently. She appreciated the sentiment and smiled back before frowning as a lock of hair fell into her face. Blowing it off her face, she turned her gaze upon her master.

"You prefer it out here, don't you?"

"What makes you think that?" He asked in response as he closed his eyes and folded his hands behind his head.

"For all your talk of being a soldier on Ahch-To, you feel calmer than ever before – dare I say even happy. On occasion."

His eyes opened at her last remark, mockingly glaring at the sarcastic tone and the raised eyebrow. He left out a huff before closing his eyes again, "I can be happy." He pouted.

"Uh huh, and I moonlight as a Wampa."

"You drool in your sleep like one, at least." He sniped in response, laughing to himself as she swatted his shoulder.

"Joking aside, you really are calmer. I can sense it."

He sighed deeply as he opened his eyes and stared longingly up at what little of the night sky they could glimpse through the canopy above them. "Odessen has a lot of memories for me, even before I woke up on Ahch-To."

"You know I don't mean being on the planet. I mean being out here, doing this." She interrupted, gesturing her hand out before her to their little training circle made out of intermittently placed stones in the clearing they were in. "The hermit life agrees with you."

"You take that back." He demanded with no real effort behind it. He let out another sigh, "It was Kira's favourite way to get away from everything. I'm at peace because she would have been."

"Your Padawan?"

"My wife."

The correction gave her pause and genuinely left her somewhat speechless. She'd had no clue, though now that he'd admitted it, the way he'd always spoken about her made sense. When he'd reminisced on the Falcon on the way to Naboo, he was remembering a love he'd never see again. Suddenly, even his outburst on the Raddus made sense to her – not only was he grieving for lost friends and family, but his wife as well.

"I'm sorry, I-" She began to apologise, though his raised hand cut her off.

"It's fine, really." He chuckled quietly, "I've had a few years to mourn her."

"You mourned her on Ahch-To?"

"No. Before that." He replied. A dark look flashed in his eyes so briefly, she thought she'd imagined it.

"What happened to her?" She asked, the question leaving her mouth before she could stop it. For a moment, all was silent between the two of them. Would he explode like he had on the Raddus? No, he was much calmer than then. He felt… tired, weary almost. The bond they had admittedly helped her to gauge his mood much more effectively as her powers increased.

"She was murdered. I was frozen in carbonite and slowly dying. Three months after my capture, the previous Emperor of Zakuul ordered his guard to eliminate Kira. She'd been trying to rescue me, leading raids against depots and the like. She'd been looking for me." He ran a hand down his face slowly, "She had been pregnant with our first child. It took a dozen Horizon Guard to kill her. I didn't find out until years later."

"How did you find out?" She breathed, her voice barely a whisper.

"I'd been looking for any scrap of information as to where she had disappeared to. Two years after I dethroned both the Emperor and his successor, I found out after a captured Horizon Guard sought to trade information for a pardon. I didn't even know I'd snapped his neck with the Force until he'd collapsed on the floor."

"I'm so sorry." Her heart bled for the man. All the loss he'd suffered throughout his life, defined by his skill in combat. The allies and comrades he must have lost over the years – only to lose the two most important people to him when he was powerless to stop it.

"You've nothing to be sorry for," He shrugged, blinking up at her and meeting her gaze. "I made sure all but one of those responsible were dead before I was put into that stasis unit."

"All but one?" She asked, folding a leg beneath her absently as she turned her body to face him.

"Arcann. The previous Emperor. He was a member of the Alliance – it's a long story." He waved the already forming question away with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Suffice to say, he wasn't the same man that gave the order."

They were quiet for a time after that, the sounds of the jungle calling out around the two of them. As she swept her gaze over the area, she couldn't help but think of the man beside her. He'd passed on the occasional tale of his exploits and his past, rarely lingering on any one detail specifically unless asked. She had a vague idea of how harsh his life had been, his trials as a Jedi were incalculable. Yet here he was, continuing on through his life – refusing to give up. Could she offer that same strength and resolve if their positions were reversed? Somehow, she wasn't so sure.

"We'll head back to the base in the morning. I'd suggest getting some rest." Nasra grunted as he stood and walked into the darkness. He paused briefly at the edge of the clearing as he looked back and gave a sad, soft smile over his shoulder. He disappeared into the darkness a moment later, walking in the opposite direction of the camp.