"Easy, Kaz," Mand's voice floated through to him as he came to. "You'll be okay. For now."

As much as his side throbbed, his head pained him more, which surprised him. At least he had feeling, he mused.

He forced his eyes open, looking up at her though they refused to focus. "...the hell happened?"

Knelt beside him, Mand gave him an irritated expression. "You collapsed. Again. I told you, you were in no shape for this." She briefly glanced down at his side with a light breath. "Honestly, I don't know why they didn't just take your spleen back at that station. I lost mine years ago, thanks to your friend Prophet, and I've done fine since."

If he'd had the strength, he would have rolled his eyes. She never missed a chance to bring up his past offenses against her, no matter how well they'd recently managed to put it all behind them. Instead of retaliating, he focused his minimal energy on remaining conscious. His hand found his side, and even through his blood-soaked shirt, he could feel it.

"...a bacta patch?"

Mand's eyes narrowed. "No, don't even start. You do not get to protest this anymore. You are done refusing what I've told you to do."

He had begun to respond with equal irritation, but as he lifted his other arm, he felt its abnormal weight and had to inspect the cuff with IV lines attached to him. Still in a bit of a daze, he glanced up at her blankly. "...I know you didn't have this on you when we left the ship."

Her expression softened slightly. "One of the hunters brought that and the patch after you blacked out."

He blinked. "Who was it?"

"I don't know," she sighed, shaking her head, "I never saw his face. He said he'd return later. I just hope he doesn't come back with any kind of demands..."

His guilt suddenly returned to him in earnest, ushered in by her genuine concern. It was at his insistence that they had approached the Guild in the first place, and it was his impulsive response that had landed them in the hunters' custody, unable to barter for the information they sought. He had gotten himself into, and out of, plenty of trouble before, but this time, he had dragged his former partner down with him in his self-destructive haze, when she had only been so eager to offer him the help he obviously needed. He spoke before he was truly aware of his own words.

"I'm sorry, Kil..."

She appeared just as surprised to hear his sincere apology, but she remained silent, allowing him to continue.

"...you were right. This is my fault."

Compassion subdued her intense expression, her eyes looking on him with sympathy for a long moment before she softly responded. "Don't count us out of this fight just yet. They treated you. They didn't have to. You and I have been in tougher scrapes than this. We'll figure out a way to get out of here, and we'll get back to searching for her."

Another lengthy silence stretched between them, but much more wasn't needed to be said. Mand remained at his side, studying him briefly before she slowly lifted her hand and brought it to his face. She lightly brushed her fingers down the side of his cheek, a tender gesture that confused him briefly. Their cover as a married spicer couple mattered less and less to him the longer they were captives of the Guild, but in the back of his mind, he knew her unyielding determination to help him wasn't merely an act. She could have, no, she should have given up on him after his ill-advised antics despite her warnings, but she had stayed, resolving to see him through it all...

A soft whoosh announced an entering visitor, and they both looked over to see a helmeted man slowly step inside the room, carrying two canteens in his arms. The door closed behind him with a brief wave of his hand, and he stood completely still for a long moment as he observed the two of them. Mand had a wary expression on her face, but she didn't appear to feel threatened, or she would have already moved to adopt a more defensive stance. Was this the hunter that had helped to treat him when he had been out?

"Good," came the hunter's voice from his helmet, "you're awake. I was afraid I hadn't given you enough time to recover."

Horatio studied him carefully, unsure what to make of the man's tone. He sounded...genuine, and like he was already familiar with them, yet neither Horatio nor Mand knew his identity. They couldn't return the level of comfort he shared.

"I've been worse," Horatio answered gruffly, to which the man nodded in understanding and stepped closer, extending the canteens to them.

"Water."

Mand carefully took them both from him, opening one to sniff at it briefly before taking a small sip. Satisfied that it was safe, she reached down and gently tucked her hand under Horatio's head to help him lift up to the canteen as she tipped it. He was initially reluctant, but the cool, crisp water at his lips immediately negated his caution, unaware just how thirsty he had become. He gulped down as much as Mand would allow him to, appreciating the chill he felt through his core that further soothed his pain for a brief moment.

As she sat back from him and closed the canteen, saving some for later, Horatio lowered his head back to the floor and returned his gaze to their visitor with a wary expression. The helmeted man hadn't appeared to move since handing over the canteens, seemingly hesitant to speak again. Horatio had begun to ask him a question, but stopped when the man pulled his left arm up to his chest and punched at the buttons on his wrist commpad. He looked up and over at the lone security cam in the corner, and the three of them watched as its blinking green light went completely dim. Had he just deactivated it?

"I'm sorry for the...accommodations," the man said as he returned to them, "but I have to keep up appearances for my hunters, at least for now."

Mand and Horatio exchanged uneasy glances, unsure what their visitor meant, but neither were prepared for his following move. He lifted his helmet off his head with ease and held it at his side under his arm, looking down at Horatio directly.

"It's been a long time, Uncle Horatio."

Dumbfounded, Horatio stared up at the young man. He looked to be in his mid thirties, his frame was lean but muscular, and his hair was short and sandy brown, but it was his unmistakable green-brown eyes that gave him away as one of Recero's sons, his nephew he'd only seen once but never formally met.

He could hardly breathe. "Aalon..."

Aalon nodded needlessly, shifting his gaze to Mand after a moment. "It's an honor to meet you, as well, Master Natiyr. Aalon Roeken."

He politely extended his hand to Mand, which she only shook reluctantly, and he seemed sensitive to her wariness. "Yes, I know who you are, but I promise you, except for my wife, no one else in this complex knows you're here under aliases. I've made sure of that."

Horatio furrowed his brows. Aalon spoke with such confidence and surety, but how was he in a position to make those kinds of assurances? He'd have to be extremely high in rank, and among the hunters of the Guild, there was only one rank that mattered...

Aalon seemed to aptly read and confirm Horatio's train of thought. "I'm the Hunter Lead, the Guildmaster, like my father before me. Have been for three years. This is my facility, and these hunters are under my command." He paused briefly, looking down at Horatio's bloodied shirt. "I am sorry for the way they treated you when you arrived here. It won't happen again, you have my word."

Although he wasn't sure a response was required, Horatio nodded faintly to accept his apology, but it only momentarily alleviated Aalon's concern. The younger man seemed to hesitate a long, tense minute before finally discovering the courage to speak once more.

"...I think I know why you're here. And it worries me."

Horatio felt his chest freeze solid with intense dread. If the Guildmaster knew about his daughter's kidnapping, was one of his own hunters responsible for it? Had his own nephew sanctioned a bounty on his little five-year-old Jewel?

Aalon turned to Mand with jarring curiosity. "Your lightsaber, do you have it with you?"

As if sensing Horatio's rising anxiety, Mand was reluctant to respond. "...it's well hidden."

Aalon glanced aside in thought. "So it's somewhere on your ship. I'll delay the scanning crew so they won't find it." Returning to Horatio, he ignored his uncle's changing expression. "And your wound, did they remove all the shrapnel from it?"

Seconds passed with agonizing sloth. He hardly had the strength to breathe, let alone process the realization he had already come to. "How did you...know..."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Aalon appeared every bit as reluctant to confess what Horatio feared. He heaved a shaky breath that weakened his earlier confidence.

"...because I was there. I'm the one who threw that detonator...and I'm the one who took your daughter."

The sound of Aalon's words reverberated through Horatio's head a full minute before he truly processed what the Hunter Lead had said. In the span it took him to gather the strength to breathe again, Mand had already stood from his side and charged at Aalon, reacting in Horatio's stead.

"You...what?"

Defensive, Aalon glanced between the two as he cautiously backpedaled from her. "Jewel is here," he countered quickly. "She's safe. And she's sedated. She hasn't been aware of anything that's been going on, I promise you - "

Mand rapidly had him backed up against the wall, holding her palm towards him as if prepared to use the Force on him. For some reason, though, she restrained herself, only threatening him. "Your promises mean nothing right now."

Willing himself upright, Horatio managed to stand with one hand firmly pressed against his bandaged side. The room spun with his premature movement his head wasn't ready for, but he refused to remain listless any longer. Eye level with his nephew, shoulder to shoulder with his former partner, Horatio glared at him, at his sister's son he could no longer consider kin.

"You...you attacked my family...in my home..."

Aalon again looked to them alternately. "Horatio, I can explain - "

"You almost killed my son! I held him in my arms, I watched the life leave him!"

"I did what I had to so I - "

"And then you took my daughter from me, from her bed, in the middle of the night!"

Just as furious, Aalon raised his voice to match. "Someone put a bounty on her!"

Horatio was silenced only for a moment, but Aalon didn't waste the opportunity to explain, his words as sharp as his tone. "I told you, I am the Hunter Lead. This is my Guild. Every contract that comes through my organization, first goes through me. Then I assign it to the hunters with the skills that would best fulfill that contract. It's up to me whether I leave the client anonymous or not when I give out those contracts to my hunters. They may not know what client they're serving when they go out on their hunts, but I always do. I always know." He paused, his voice losing strength. "...except for this bounty on Jewel.

"I don't know how," he wavered, "but the contract was entered into my system entirely anonymously, without a client attached to it. That's not supposed to happen. Someone with a connection to my network they're not supposed to have put that bounty on Jewel. The second it came across my desk...I reacted. I left immediately for Dantooine. I didn't have time to wait, and I didn't have time to warn you. I couldn't risk the chance that whoever had sent me that contract could have also already hired someone else outside the Guild, someone I had no control over. I had to get there first.

"I was supposed to be in and out before anyone ever noticed," he continued with weakened fervor. "I am sorry for the injuries I gave you and your son. I didn't know that's who he was. He was too good; I was afraid he was another hunter, and I had to stop him somehow. But Jewel was never aware of any of it, Horatio, I swear to you. She has been asleep this whole time, and she has not been harmed in any way. She's safe here. She's family."

Horatio had heard enough. His clenched fist shook at his side. "You're no family of mine," he seethed. "You have no right to decide where she's safe. I am her father. I make that decision. I don't care if you're the Hunter Lead, or the Black Sun Boss, or even the resurrected corpse of the Emperor himself, you don't get to decide how to protect her. You're going to take me to her, right now."

Aalon stalled. "I have had my best slicers trying to decode that contract since I returned - "

But Horatio had no patience left, twisting a fistful of Aalon's shirt at his neck and pressing his fist into his throat. "Take me to my daughter, now!"

Aalon breathed in short spurts. "She's - - asleep. She won't - "

But Horatio pressed harder, ignoring the intensifying white-hot pain from the broken bone in his hand. "Take me to her!"

Though hardly able to breathe, Aalon continued to resist, seemingly testing Horatio's resolve to the last - until Mand gripped Horatio's wrist and pulled him away, freeing Aalon to cough and choke as he recovered. Horatio turned to redirect his anger at Mand, but she held tightly to his wrist, locking her gaze with his. Something indescribable in her eyes calmed his fury and soothed the searing pain in his hand at the same time...was she using the Force on him?

"Fine," Aalon said roughly, still massaging his throat as he righted himself. "But I am not going to wake her up. She's staying here. She's safe here, until we figure out who put that bounty on her. Agreed?"

Every fiber in his being resonated with revolt, in complete denial that he would accept such detestable terms...but he had to. Nothing about his nephew's assurances sat right with him, but if he could just see his Jewel and find a way to confirm Aalon's claims, he could at least find rest for a brief moment. His old, battered body needed it. A curt nod accepted Aalon's terms, and he watched the Hunter Lead closely as he donned his helmet once more and pressed keys on his wrist commpad, unlocking the room's door and leading them silently through the compound.