"-No word yet from Coronet City spaceport on suspected reasons for the pre-dawn Star Destroyer crash," a blonde and buxom HoloNews reporter said breathlessly. Her hologram played at near life-size, volume set to be just at little louder than the wind whistling in through the open hangar door, or the razor hounds playing tug-of-war under a customized freighter with a long nerf bone. "Investigation and rescue efforts are continuing under Army supervision-"

Wiping grease off his hands with a vicious swipe of a cloth, Vinap Thaniel muted the hangar holocast, and tried not to snarl too loudly. It's official. The galaxy's going crazy.

Maybe that report was enough for the groundbound, but anybody with half a brain and stardust on their boots knew Star Destroyers didn't fall out of the sky by accident. And the so-called Grand Army of the Republic didn't supervise rescue efforts with heavy artillery in the background. The GAR shouldn't be supervising rescue efforts on Corellia at all; that should be CorSec and the Jedi.

Where are the Jedi?

Not one word on the holocast about them. Not one. You'd think some spacer-off-the-street would have had something to say into the blonde's mike about their guys in Corellian green poking their noses into things.

...Except every spacehound with half a brain was already hopping off the planet. Heck, if Vinap didn't have most of his credits sunk into this shipyard he'd be off the planet. He had a bad feeling about this-

Scaly ears flicked up, and his buddies dropped their bone-toy. The razor hounds traded a glance as they rose, hackles up, ready and able to lunge at whoever was coming through the open hangar door.

"Zeus! Apollo!" Vinap snapped. "Don't eat the customers... er?"

Scaled tails were wagging.

"Aww." A little girl, couldn't have been more than fifteen, with brown hair caught in pigtails and a feathery sharp-eyed winged alien clinging to the shoulder of her green longcoat. "You guys are so good! I bet you don't let anybody in here who doesn't belong. Who's a good razor hound, yeah you are..."

Zeus and Apollo were letting her scritch them. Right under the chin-scales. Vinap pried his jaw back up off the deck, and stomped that way. His buddies were very well-behaved razor hounds, sure, but he was going to give this crazy kid a piece of his mind.

"Master Thaniel?" A taller, older teenager, following right behind her; pale skin, black hair, and black longcoat lending him a little more bulk than Vinap judged he really had. "Oh good, you're in. The Flying Thantas are saved! I see you've already met Beast Master Silica-"

Wait, what?

"-Allow me to introduce the rest of our advance team." The teen in black waved a dramatic hand to his right. "Our gallant sharpshooter, the Red Samurai, Klein!"

A redhead in a rakish bandana waved back, grinning.

"Our acrobat and sword-dancer, the lovely Lightning Flash!"

A smiling auburn girl in white and blue made a slight bow at his left, with an air of he's mine that made Vinap hide a knowing snicker.

"Our publicity agent, the Elusive Argo!"

A brown-haired girl in a hood, with painted-on whiskers and eyes that glimmered with mystery. Her bow was deeper, almost Jedi-formal; but there was nothing Jedi about the heavy leather half-gloves on her hands. Those subtle glints of metal and circuitry were vibro-claws, or Vinap would eat his hydrospanner.

"Our magnificent mechanic, Lisbeth!"

Red and white and a huge hydrospanner over her shoulder, hefted like it was nothing. Vinap made a mental note never to tick Lisbeth off, even if the pink-haired girl did look just barely eighteen. Anybody who could handle equipment like that knew how to break it, too...

Wait a minute. He knew one of the adults hanging out in the back of this little circus. It'd been at least a year, but - Minnetaka Greensleeves? Sure, he went by Kirigaya now, all respectable and signed up with a CorSec charter by way of marriage, but he'd never failed to have a helping hand or listening ear when an old friend had trouble, even with his own kid locked into that awful computer-deathtrap of Kayaba's. What was he doing dressed like a spacehound again, face carefully straight except for the gleam of mischief in his eyes-

A really familiar gleam.

Corellia's nine hells. This kid is-?

"And of course our doctor Medic Sally, our bookkeeper Master Giles, and our technical assistant, 'Taka Greensleeves," Kazuto Kirigaya rolled on, with a flick of hand that all but shouted, I have to take them or there's all this yelling, you know how it is.

Oh, spirits of space. Minnetaka'd gotten his boy out. Somehow. And given they were using cover stories, apparently whatever he'd done either wasn't quite legal or tied into a CorSec mess somehow...

And I don't need to know, Vinap decided. This is going to be one heck of a drinking story later. "And he is?" Vinap jerked a thumb toward the dangerous-looking dark guy by the medic's shoulder. Who was grinning at him, metal glinting from one ear.

"Well of course we need a roustabout." Kazuto blinked at him; big black eyes in an innocent face that had just the faintest edge of don't push if you don't want blood on the walls. "Doesn't everybody? Agil does an excellent job of... taking out the trash."

He had to get falling-down drunk with Minnetaka later, Vinap thought, trying not to either stare in awe or break down in helpless laughter. The kid had the tone just perfect. "And what does that make you?"

"I'm the fixer, what else?" A polite bow. "Kirito, at your service. Though I hope you will be at ours, shipmaster. Given the current uproar in the Inner Systems, the ongoing War, and some rather craven behavior by the last vessels we took passage on - well. The Flying Thantas find ourselves in need of quite a bit of tonnage."

Vinap nodded, trying not to snicker. The kid had either practiced this story enough to have it down cold, or he had all Minnetaka's gift for crafting a legend on the fly. "And the Flying Thantas are...?"

"We're a traveling circus."

Of course they were.


"...And then he said, do me a favor, 'Taka. When your boy really cuts loose, give me a heads-up so I can jump for cover. As in, somewhere out of the star system." Midori snickered behind her datapad.

"I thought Anton was going to melt." Guen shook her head as she sat on some spare crates and watched everyone else swarm around loading their three newly-acquired ships; almost tempted to laugh herself, if she weren't still caught between relief and pain. "You could see it all over his face. Corellians! You're all crazy!"

Midori dragged and dropped a file, and arched an eyebrow. "Let's just hope we're crazy enough."

"No kidding," Guen breathed. Hopefully any plan that bent a Jedi's brain would confuse a Sith into a frothing fit. Though she was a lot more worried about confusing the Army. She'd dealt with Force-users throughout her career; one more on the Darkside couldn't be that hard to steer clear of. A whole army? That was a lot harder to run from.

That's if we can stay together long enough to run. Elbow on her knee, Guen propped her chin on her fist. Her face probably looked like she wanted to shoot somebody right now. Fair enough; she did. Because apparently Sith and the whole Army after them weren't enough for some people. Those tense minutes on the beach, when she thought everything was going to fall apart then and there...

The CorSec agent made herself take a slow, deep breath, considering what the guilds and the parents had and hadn't done. The Enclave had tried to tell parents and family what the victims were mixed up in. She knew they'd tried; she'd been a shoulder for Thai to lean on when he had to break the news to yet another family that someone wasn't going to be coming home.

They'd tried. But it was hard for anybody to sort out the reality of still bodies in a dreamworld versus minds that had been in the Galactic Civil War.

At least nobody got shot.

It hadn't been that close a call. She hoped. But the guilds had assumed they were running this little escape, and the parents had assumed they had some say in what risks their little darlings would take now, and no few players had said screw getting off the planet, they had a mad programmer to tear into little pieces.

At least Kirito had stopped that cold.

"Kayaba is dead."

He'd stood there, shoulders straight, a shadow in the sunlight. Looked over the crowd on the sand, like Guen had been looking over it; noting who was angry and who was curious and who was just too stunned to move.

"He revealed himself at the end of that last boss fight," Kirito had gone on, almost steadily. "He'd heard about Argo's vision. All the higher-levels had-"

Asuna's hand had brushed near his; Guen could almost hear the silent, Stop.

"Kayaba didn't reveal himself willingly," the young Healer said dryly. "Kirito took a chance. If it hadn't worked..." She shook her head, and fixed that intensity on her black-clad partner. "But how did you know?"

Kirito's gaze flicked to his family, then went distant. "I can feel the Force moving when someone uses it. It wasn't that useful in the game; mobs and bosses were using programs in the computer. But I could always sense another player calling on it, if they were nearby." Black eyes were bleak. "Only when I dueled him, I never felt him use the Force."

"When you dueled-" Argo's eyes went wide under her hood. "Ki-bou. What did you do?"

"What he had to." Asuna drew herself up, pitching her voice to project over the murmurs and the waves. "Listen. We didn't have time to do much planning before. We still don't have much time, but we need to make sure we all agree about where we're going. Our next step is going to be the spaceport, and if the Army doesn't have a Star Destroyer parked in orbit right over it, they're dumber than a floor waxer with a fried motivator." She let the chuckles rise, then swept them with a serious look. "If they find out who we really are, we're all dead."

She'd stood straight, gaze eagle-fierce. "This is as quiet a spot as we're going to get. If anyone thinks they'd be better off staying on Corellia than getting off the planet, now's the time to say so."

Well. There'd been a lot of yelling - Guenith had added to it herself - but between the Army tried to kill us and the Sith will try to kill us, people had made up their minds pretty darn quick.

A traveling circus. Guen grinned now. It didn't explain their supply of ready credits, traveling entertainers were usually just this side of broke... but usually wasn't always. And it did explain everything else; odd people, different accents, weird flying alien beasties, gear and clothes scraped together from anywhere they could get it. Heck, it even explained having wizards and doctors along. As long as nobody looked too hard, they'd be fine.

And Vinap Thaniel was definitely not looking too hard. Too busy grinning at the cute little swindler, awww, I don't care if he's adopted, 'Taka, he's definitely your kid...

Force, she loved Corellia.

I love it. Guenith winced, hearing the holocaster warm up for some kind of news report. Yet another breathless how-much-we-don't-know-about-the-Enclave, probably. The thought turned her stomach. We all love it. And now we're going to have to leave it.

There wasn't any choice, really. Too many clones on Corellia, and the whole Sector was too close to Coruscant and the Senate for comfort. They had to get away from anywhere with Army ships, and that meant heading out for some nice, quiet Rim planet nobody wanted. At least until they had enough time to catch their breaths and start thinking again. Anton and the other pilots had even been able to nail down a good rendezvous point; some planet called Trigalis, she thought. Anton hadn't given many details, except wet, green, much like Kashyyyk, but not nearly as lethal as Felucia.

If he was trying to be reassuring, he'd failed.

Not that their stray Coruscanti Jedi had time to be reassuring. He was either poking the big CR-90 that'd take the bulk of their people or having intense conversations with anybody who thought they could pilot. Every ship was getting at least one person who had real-life experience flying in space, even if that put a teenager like Nanami at the helm. Which according to Agnei was all for the best anyway, as every ship needed at least one healer and Lau and Nanami were a team their main medic had no intention of breaking up.

There's a story there, Guenith thought, recalling how Agnei had winced at the thought of separating the two orphaned padawans. Hope I live long enough to hear it.

Whatever their story was, it almost couldn't be worse than Vinap's casually-dropped hints. The shipyard owner's free and frank gossip about what he'd heard from other spacers had curled Guen's hair.

The Jedi Temple is burning.

That much, they'd managed to piece together from spacehounds who'd snuck and jumped out-system from Coruscant before the Army blockade could stop them. The rest of the rumors from that city-world - who knew. Jedi Masters attacking the Supreme Chancellor? The 501st clonetrooper legion shooting civilians out of the sky? A figure with gleaming gold eyes, who if you even looked at him, you might choke to death?

"It's a fairly common Sith ability," Asuna had told her, when Guen started to laugh at that one. "We'll need to have everyone practice breaking chokeholds. If you can hold that image strongly in your mind, sometimes you can hold the choke off. Even if you aren't a Jedi."

Choking someone to death was a common Sith ability. Guen shuddered now, remembering. Okay, maybe their surviving Jedi had a reason to be freaking out.

Though their best reason for panic, pure and simple, was just how few Jedi there were left. Traders came to Corellia from all over the galaxy, and the ones who'd made port today might have been singing verses of the same song.

"The Jedi are dead," Guen muttered under her breath. "The troopers say they were protecting civilians. Some kind of takeover move against the Senate, and everyone knows the Jedi don't want to win the war, or it'd be over by now... How can those offworld creeps believe that? How could anyone believe that? We know Jedi. They never want a war!"

"We know Jedi." Midori's eyes were shadowed as she traced her fingers over program code. "Most planets don't. Not like Corellia. Why do you think my grandfather left Humbarine to begin with? They have old warrior traditions. You'd think being a Jedi would only add to a dojo. But it doesn't work that way." She rested her datapad on her lap, shifting her shoulders to loosen tense muscles. "Most people fear Jedi. And fear leads to the Dark Side-"

"The Supreme Chancellor is about to address the Senate in an emergency session!" came the breathless blonde reporter. "Cutting to live feed in five, four, three-"

An echoing, immensely vast chamber appeared in the hologram; Guenith had only seen images of it a few times before. Every time she had trouble grasping the sheer size of the place. Every one of those dots was a huge hoversled in itself, carrying a Senator and all their retinue as they spoke and debated.

The one front and center drew every eye. Red-robed security in faceless helmets with some kind of electrified pikestaff, the horned alien major-domo whose real name and rank she could never remember... and one frail figure in a dark hooded robe, yellow eyes glittering in a ravaged face.

Is that... that can't be... the Supreme Chancellor?

Palpatine drew a breath to speak-

Steel streaked through the air, hitting the holocaster dead center. The hologram died in a wail of sparking circuits.

Damn it! We needed that news, who would-?

Glancing around the hangar, Guenith realized it was more like who wouldn't. Knives, blasters, and more esoteric or improvised weapons had appeared out of nowhere, and every player with a clear shot was aiming right at the dying holocaster.

Kirito stood halfway across the hangar, another throwing spike in hand and face white as a sheet. "We're lifting. Now."


"You're saying the Supreme Chancellor is a Sith." The water in Agent Nyx's glass was trembling.

"Yes," Kirito said briefly, trying not to look too closely at fresh, bad memories. It was hard enough to be in space for real, packed into the CR-90 with nearly four hundred other players and relations. Thinking about Sith Lords made everything worse. "We saw several in ORO. That kind of damage, of... corruption, comes from decades using the Dark Side. Sith can hide it with a glamour, but it's always there." He could see it in his mind's eye; the ravaged face, the alien yellow eyes. The thought of any of that ever taking hold on people he knew...

It's too crowded in here. And there are too many scared people. We need to calm down.

At least his family and Agil's together were a large enough group to legitimately claim their own cabin away from the crowd. Which Anton and Agnei were taking shameless advantage of for a little peace and quiet to think, now that they were in hyperspace and everyone's wounds were treated. It was good to have Agil here, smiling at Kathy, quiet and solid as a mountain. It'd be better to have Fuurinkazan, but they were off in one of the small freighters making sure they knew how to fly it for real. He'd see them again when they all broke out of hyperspace at Trigalis.

Patience. We need it. Right now.

"You saw..." Guenith swallowed hard. "That was a game."

"Based on all too real historical records of the Jedi Civil War, as I understand," Anton said bleakly. "I'm afraid that game was all too accurate, Agent. What I've seen on Felucia..." He closed his eyes a moment, and shuddered. "Those are, indeed, betraying marks of the Dark Side."

"How could he have hidden it for so long?" Agnei sounded more dazed than afraid, as she held onto her mug with pale knuckles. "He worked with the Coruscanti Order. He met with the Council on a regular basis."

Shock. Kirito traded a glance with Asuna, silent question. Up until a little while ago Agnei had managed to keep herself and the other medics busy tending wounds, cuts, and general exhaustion. Now she had a moment to rest. Any clearer knew, that was when all the doubts and I should haves sunk their claws deepest.

:I'll help her,: Asuna assured him. "Sith can be good at hiding what they are," she said out loud. "The Jedi thought they'd wiped them out after the Ruusan Reformation, right? A thousand years. They've had time to get good."

"Scary thing is that the Jedi thought they'd killed them off at all." Agil cracked his knuckles, thinking. "You can wipe out a species. Hell, get a fleet big enough, you could wipe out a planet. But using the Dark Side, thinking that power's the only thing that matters - that's an idea. You can't kill an idea. Just the people who've got it."

"And that's what the Supreme Chancellor - the Emperor - is doing," Midori said, half to herself. "Wiping out the Jedi. Everyone who doesn't want to use the Force for power."

"He can't!" Suguha burst out. "We can't let this happen!"

"He can't, and he won't," Minnetaka said firmly. "He's already failed. We're alive." His gaze met Kirito's from across the room. "And we're going to stay that way."

For a moment, Kirito could hardly breathe. He'd seen that look before. From Klein. From Asuna. From every clearer he trusted.

We're alive. And I'm counting on you to help us stay that way.

There was a lump in his throat, and a suspicious prickle threatening his eyes. "I missed you all," Kirito got out. "So much."

"Aww." Lisbeth swept in through the cabin door, grinning. "And it's only been a few hours!" She nodded at Asuna. "Good news and bad news, Vice-Commander."

"Bad news first," Asuna directed.

"We can't make the best armor here on the Night Skimmer. Not the stuff you and Kirito need," Lisbeth said seriously. "Regular trooper armor, sure, I've got people started on that; it's calming some of the worst scared ones down. But not alchemically treated leather. We need to test those recipes in the real world first, and I'm not doing that without a lot more atmosphere to play with if things go wrong. Same goes for any esoteric 'saber designs. I can probably build the pieces, with help, but putting them together on a ship this small is just asking for something to go wrong."

"Alchemy?" Anton asked warily.

Kirito tried to look innocent. "So what's the good news?"

"Between Agent Nyx's contacts," Lisbeth nodded at the agent, "and Master Thaniel's, people really came through for us. We've got shipboard flack vests and plenty of blasters. And with the parts we lifted from the workshop, anybody who needs a regular 'saber can build one." The mechanic winked, and held out a dark jewel case. "And we have these."

Suddenly hopeful, Kirito opened the box. Nestled against silvery velvet were faceted black gems, drinking in light and casting it back in moonlit rainbows. Chandrilan obsidian. The key focus gem for a darksaber.

Looking up, he was almost blinded by Asuna's smile.

You've failed, Palpatine. You can't kill the Jedi. You can't destroy the Light Side. We won't let that happen.

We're going to live.