Hera stepped slowly from the Ghost, Chopper at her heels. Around her, the air bustled with an activity that, for a moment, caused her mind to trick her heart into believing she was back in Lessu, back home. Several seconds later, she had regained her composure and paid the droid at the front to keep their ship safe for a while, for what seemed like way too much of their money. Another thing to worry about, another load on the back of her mind. Her father and his million secret streams of revenue that kept the rebellion running had meant she had never concerned herself overmuch with it in the past. The knowledge of return, of the temporary nature of her missions had always insulated her. That was all gone now.

"Which way should we go?" In contrast to her gloomy countenance, Fen was beaming, a flower suddenly blooming once planted in its native soil. Her face shone with happiness, bliss even, erasing the lines of fear from between her brows. Her elation was almost grating.

"I have no idea. You know this world."

Fen gave her an eye-roll that came across as smug. "Coruscant is so big, no one can know the whole thing, I've never even been to this level before."

"You still know more than I do." Hera gritted her teeth. She was not some provincial, overwhelmed by the glittering capital. Well, she was, but she didn't want to be treated like one.

"Let's try this way." Fen suggested, stepping out into the noisy street.

At this distance, on this level, Coruscant was a little less than glittering. Nevertheless, as Hera followed Fen, stepping out into the street, she was instantly overwhelmed. Around her moved thousands of people, illuminated by street lights and neon advertising. Wafts of greasy smoke drifted through the air from food vendors with divine-smelling, rusted stands. People shouted on all sides, crying out their deals, each trying to undercut the other for products and services she didn't understand. The air was heavy with moisture and the smells of people so strong it almost turned her nose. Every other step, she had to watch to not trod into a puddle from the pipes leaking up above. Occasionally, they would cross an intersection and the sky would open up to dizzying heights and she would catch a glimpse of the pale blue sky kilometers above or a deep pit that sunk into the darkness below.

Fell pulled her hand as she constantly stalled, brain trying to process all this information in a few heartbeats."Come on!" Hera could hardly hear her over the rackets, but she followed nonetheless, Chopper trailing at her heels, uncharacteristically silent. A trillion people, it was an unfathomable number, a nearly impossible sum back on Ryloth, but here, surrounded, she believed it. As she turned each corner, she imagined an end to the crowds, but it never materialized. Fen herself seemed to be wandering almost at random, eyes wide and bright, taking in everything. Hera, trying to remember the turns they took away from the Ghost, sighed and pushed her discomfort to the back of her mind. Right now they looked like lost tourists, someone needed to take charge.

"Hey." She shouted finally, "Let's not get too far from the Ghost." Fen kept walking for a few seconds after Hera had stopped, then, like a pet running out of chain, she lurched against their connected hands.

"What?" Hera's practicality warred with the starry look on Fen's face. Surely she could let Fen wander around her home a little longer?

Practically won the war. "I said I don't want to get too far from the ship, we'll need to find our way back eventually.

Fen glared, for a moment Hera wondered if she would fight back, but, a moment later she dropped her gaze. "I guess we should find a place to stay.". Together, they turned, walking more slowly back the way they had come, Hera took a steadying breath, turning her attention away from the populace to the windows plastered with ads that flanked the street. "How about this?" Fen asked, stopping in front of a building that looked a little cleaner than the others, a flashing sign proclaiming rooms for rent. It looked almost nice.

"It's going to be too expensive." Hera warned, trying to preempt Fen's hopes.

She was shot a look of disbelief in return. "You don't know that." Fen dropped Hera's hand and marched to the advertisement. "Look, it's only seven hundred credits a month."

Hera returned her stare of disbelief." That is way too much."

"What do you mean? It sounds reasonable to me."

"We do not have enough for that." Hera was already turning away, an odd sense of burning shame in her stomach. Several steps later, a new thought crept into her mind. Fen had been a Jedi monk and then a slave, when was the last time she had bought something, anything, with her own money?

She voiced her question.

"I'm not sure. I bet I've done it though." Fen had pulled herself up, tilting her chin in the process.

"Okay. I guess I'll look after the money then." Hera pulled Fen away from the building and kept scanning with her own inexperienced eye.

It was nearly an hour later, once Hera was almost hopelessly lost down back alleys that they found something that looked promising. At street level it was a bar, wan yellow light shining out of unwashed windows, the pale glow amplified by the single functioning streetlight outside. Looking up were a series of small windows, each with a flickering light in shades of yellow. The sign in one of them proclaimed cheap and clean rooms.

"Are you sure about this?" Fen's nose was wrinkled in disapproval.

"You've seen worse." Hera tried not to growl, her patience nearly expired as she pushed Fen inside, ignoring the brief flash of something in her eyes.

She marched them both into the bar, moving easily through the middle-sized crowd. "Hello." Hera plastered a quickly constructed smile on her face and stood tall, trying not to look as exhausted and desperate as she felt. The bartender, a human man, turned slowly, pushing greasy hair out of his eyes. The look he gave her made her want to take a shower. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed Fen by the wrist, who she guessed was about to run. To her surprise, Fen was as still as a statue.

"What do you want?" He said eventually.

"A room." Hera turned to Fen, her face was as pale as death. Something about the bartender deflated at her words.

"For how long."

"A couple of weeks to start." Hopefully they wouldn't need to stay in this place longer than that.

"That'll be three hundred fifty credits upfront. Food's extra." Hera did some quick math with growing unease, trying to keep her face even.

He gave them both another long, roving glance, eyes lingering . "Though, I could use some help down here every once and a while, I'd make it three hundred, throw in the food."

Hera swallowed hard, his gaze clinging to her skin like oil. "What kind of help?"

"Just servin drinks, mindin the bar, that sorta thing."

She nodded slowly, weighing their options. "Okay, you have a deal." Fen said nothing, her chest rising and falling faster than Hera though was normal. The followed the bartender up a narrow and crooked set of stairs into a small room with peeling pain and a filthy window filled with neon light.

"There you go. Meals are at the bar whenever. You start tomorrow." The door goaned shut behind him. Hera let go of Fen's wrist and walked forward, taking stock of the space, trying not to think about her room at home, filled with warm orange sunlight and adobe walls. This frigid space, smelling faintly of mildew could not be more different. As homesickness overwhelmed her, she suppressed a sob with difficulty, throwing her single bag of belongings onto the only bed in the room and put her head in her hands for a long moment. She could do this. She would do this. Her only real problems right now was a moldy room and a sketchy bartender. She had dealt with worse. Ignoring the chill in the pit of her stomach Hera looked up.

Fen had not moved, instead, she stood, shoulders hunched, in the entry were Hera had released her. "I know it's not great," Hera began, it was quite a bit worse than great. "But hopefully it'll only be for a little while until we can find some rebels and join their group." Fen didn't respond, her eyes were moving, but looked strangely unfocused. "Fen?"

A small whimper escaped her throat. Hera stood, concerned. Fen's demeanor could not have been more different from the jovial girl of an hour ago. She was trembling, fear washing across her face. Carefully, Hera put her hand on Fen's shoulder. When that received no response, she lifted the other, tiling Fen's jaw so their eyes met. "Fenrian?"

"I'm sorry." Her voice was less a sob than a whisper as she pulled away from Hera into the even smaller room that passed for a 'fresher, the door partly closing behind her. Warring between trying to help and giving her space, Hera remained trapped in place, catching occasional, muffled sobs. Eventually she decided on space and sat on the bed, which groaned alarmingly as she arranged her worldly goods.

Fen emerged looking, if possible, paler than when she had gone in, her eyes rimmed with red and exhaustion. She sat next to Hera, close enough that Hera could put her arm around her and pull her close. "I can't, I'm sorry, I can't."

"Can't what?" Hera twisted her head, releasing Fen to get a look at her face.

"I can't work down there. I can't … the way he looked, the things in his mind…" She trailed off, her body giving off another violent tremor.

Hera tried to measure her words. "I know it's going to be hard for both of us, but we don't have a lot of options right now."

Fen shook her head, jaw alternating between clenching and shaking. "No. I can't. You know that."

"No, I don't. We need to eat, we need a place to stay. I don't like this any more than you do but we don't have a choice. I know it's not my … father's house, but we'll manage." To her horror, she found that she too was crying again.

Beyond the fear, Fen's face hardened. "I can't do this Hera. I would rather starve."

'You would rather starve than serve tables every other night?" She really did try and make it sound less incredulous than she felt. Her eyes were pulled down to where Fen was rubbing violently at her wrists, twisting her hands around the scars that covered the skin, still an irritated red. It hadn't been that long, she reminded herself. "Fine." She allowed herself to give in to Fen, her slender fingers and desperate eyes twisting her heart. "I'll see what I can do."

Fen sat on the edge of the best furthest from Hera, her wrist still burning where Hera had grabbed it, occasionally pulsing with flashes of memory. Her facade of calm was a dubious, fragile thing at best. Here, in this small, dirty, dark room, she could barely breathe. The thought of going back down to that bar, to the eyes of the men appraising her was enough to make her joints freeze, her mind slip out of gear. Hera had no idea what she was asking, her few days of slavery insufficient to teach her the brutal truths of it.

She was home, she was back on Coruscant, and yet she had never felt so far away. Even with only a feather-light touch on the Force, she could feel the presence of the Temple. But it was not a comforting sensation. Once it had been a lighthouse, a beacon in the storm. Now it was twisted, corrupted, light almost snuffed out. It reminded her of herself, a thought she didn't dare dwell on.

Hera had a comlink, she could switch it to the Jedi emergency frequency, call out, listen, perhaps there was an answer there. But, like every time it had occurred to her, she dismissed the notion. Surely the Empire would be watching that channel, the easiest way to track down the Jedi. But here the temptation was stronger. She needed to know what had happened. Whatever she was now, she had been a Jedi for most her life, they had tied themselves to her, strings of fate so thick they could not be cut easily, or with impunity.

"I'm going to the Temple." She said into the quiet, only partly aware of giving voice to her thoughts.

"Are you sure? The Empire's going to be here." She felt Hera shift on the bed beside her, concern and pity in Hera's mind still. Both emotions curdled her stomach.

"I know, I'll go alone." She stood, the image of the Temple burning bright in her mind.

"No, it's too dangerous." Hera moved to follow, but Fen raised a hand.

"I need to do this alone." She didn't wait for a response, but walked to the door as fast as she could before her courage failed her. Hera didn't try and come after her as she made her way back down the narrow stairs, but her body halted her just before the bar, terror locking her limbs in place. Several long moments of indecision followed, her body quaking with the thought. She let out a shaking breath and, like armor, Fen wrapped the Force around her and slowly descended into the bar area, which had only grown more crowded as time passed. She could feel each eye on her, as though they were burning holes into her soul as she all but ran from them, their disquieting thoughts crowding against her mind.

She was out of breath and almost in tears as she exited, heart deafening the sounds from the bar she could still feel in her bones. She leaned against the outside of the building for a moment, catching her breath. Still more people on the street glanced over at her. Fen suddenly regretted not having Hera, her shield, at her side. They had barely been separated since they had found each other and now she felt naked, exposed, vulnerable. Her pride alone stopped her from running back upstairs to grab her.

As fast as she could, Fen made her way to the nearest turbolift and up, using the few credits Hera had deigned to give her. The turbolift continued to rise as she stewed in fear and anxiety, sunlight streaming around the car with increasing brilliance. At last, she reached the top, the floating surface of Coruscant, many, many kilometers above the surface. Unwilling to ask directions and draw attention to herself, Fen used the Force as a compass, moving through the bustling, well-dressed crowds towards the corrupted light of the Temple.

Up here, on the surface, the skyscrapers blocked most of the sun, but at least she had clear sky above her it's warmth shining down on her occasionally. Even so, this was not quite the home she remembered, the buildings were changing, more severe, taller, harsher; the fashion of the streets matching the brutal buildings around them. The final nail in the coffin of the dream that was her home were the stormtroopers. They were everywhere, each one testing her impassive mask and heart rate.

Fen looked up as she rounded yet another corner and caught her first glimpse. Reaching above the skyline were the five towers of the Temple, stark against the pale blue sky. It still stood. The great monument of the Jedi remained, the trail in the Force that she followed was not just the memory of a ghost. Perhaps Hera was right, perhaps there was still hope after all. Her moment of wonder was quickly lost as the rest of her mind caught up, unwilling to let her revel in this. She was no Jedi, by her own choice.

Her feet kept moving, a sense of false security growing with every second as she passed that invisible threshold between coming home and arriving, that point where landmarks became familiar friends, where all routes were known, places layered and steeped in memories. Despite all the changes, despite her mixed emotions, she felt safer than she had been in years.

There were more and more patrols as she approached the Temple, the crowds became even more richly dressed, though their clothes were still dark and angular. Now instead of ordinary citizens, she passed through the ranks of the wealthy, the senators, the aides, and only a few people like her, likely up to no good. There was less traffic on the sidewalks, as most had speeders or shuttles, despite this, the sidewalks were wider than ever. There was also an uptick in the number of military officers, dark black and olive uniforms blending in with the high fashion of the day.

Finally, finally, the endless sea of buildings stopped suddenly, leveling out into a flat expanse and at the end of it, the mountain of Coruscant, the Jedi Temple reached skywards. A smile came to her face, despite both herself and the pit of snakes that was her stomach. She could almost hear the room of a thousand fountains, the quiet murmur of conversation, the peace of the library, the smell of incense, the laughter of master yoda's instruction room. The negatives, the shades on her happiness were forgotten in the moment, and so too were her surroundings until she was stopped by a barricade.

"Ma'm, this is a restricted area." A stormtrooper held out his hand from behind a low wall of permacrete.

"Huh?" Fen scrambled, pulling herself together. "Sorry, I was a little lost in thought, what did you say?"

"The Imperial Palace is off-limits to civilians at this time." Her brain seemed to have ceased its functions.

"What?"

"Is she deaf?" She heard one of the stormtroopers mutter.

"The Palace is off-limits."

"The Palace?"

"Yes." The trooper was becoming irritated, but his words had finally punctured her happy ballon of denial and her stomach twisted with sudden nausea, her skin gone cold. She began to retreat, eyes fixed hopelessly on the tallest tower, where once the Jedi Council had sat. The Imperial Palace. The Jedi Temple. Her home. All one and the same. All off-limits to her at this time. It was so far from what she had feared, so much worse in a twisted way she could not name. A sacred space defiled, a precious ounce of magic drained for the universe. A childhood memory abruptly tarnished.

The Temple was now merely the home of the Emperor. She could imagine no worse fate for that building. It would have been kinder to reduce it to ruble, paved over it, anything rather than this. The murderers had moved it. In her mind's eye she could imaging them ripping tapestries form the walls, smashing the ancient sculptures, renovating, erasing, warping history. Her people's history. Her history. The stormtroopers were still watching her, growing suspicion in their minds. In a daze, Fen stumbled away, sliding down onto a bench a block or so later. With bone-deep trepidation, she reached out her mind towards it again, with new understanding, feeling the press of darkness in place of the light. The further she reached, the darker it became, a nexus of corrupted power in its core, so cold it froze her heart. The power that lurked in that former Temple was dark and profane, with a strength and depth that stole her breath. To her horror, she found something within herself answered this terrible call, found something warm and appealing in the darkness.

Inside, she send a sudden presence that flickered with awareness. Terrified, her certainty flayed to its core, Fen pulled back, as if burned and stood, on the verge of running away. She was lucky there was almost no one walking on the streets or she would have simply run into them in her desperate attempt to escape this horrible mockery of her childhood. There was nothing left unscathed and she was both devastated and savagely glad. The unstable twist of emotion chased her back, down into the darkness, back to Hera and the relative safety she might find in her arms.