Desiraye struggled in the grasp of her assailant, but he held her firm. His heavy hand laid on her shoulder, his narrow fingers digging into the wound on her shoulder. It hurt, but she bit her lip to keep from crying out. She refused to let this man hear her cries.

She knew who it was now, could tell by the ring on his right hand.

"What do you want, Nord?"

"You're in the way," The man whispered darkly, "Davik likes you, and that means trouble for me."

"So what, eliminate the competition? Is that it?"

"Something like that."

"Pretty sure Davik would have a problem with that."

"Accidents happen."

"He's not that stupid."

"He won't question it. Not from me."

"Over-inflated sense of your own importance..." Desiraye sighed. He dug his fingers into her wound again and she flinched. With a quick glance around she saw her lightsaber on the floor near the bed, and with a quick flick of her wrist it was in her hand. She ignited it, startling her attacker enough to free herself, and spun on her heel with it held out before her.

"Dammit!" He cried as the tip of the blade caught his shoulder, his fingers grasping the seared flesh beneath his jacket.

"I'll see that you never make it into the Exchange!"

"Hey, accidents happen," Desiraye shrugged innocently, "The great Calo Nord was giving me a late night sparring lesson, and my blade slipped."

Nord just growled, rather unimpressively in fact, and fled the room. At the door he nearly ran into Canderous, who took in his injury with one glance and knew instantly what had happened. He grabbed the smaller man up by his shirt.

"You little -"

"Canderous, don't." Desiraye said, "He's not worth it."

Canderous let the man go and watched him run off, then entered the room and shut the door behind him.

"Should have known the little punk would try something."

"It doesn't matter," Desiraye sighed, extinguishing her saber, "Tomorrow we'll be gone. And if he gets in the way, we'll deal with him."

"In the meantime is tonight. He might try something again."

"I don't think so. He's a coward. He ran at the first sign of trouble."

"He might be a coward, but he's also petty. I'd be surprised if he didn't come back, or get Davik involved."

Desiraye looked at him skeptically.

"You don't think he's off somewhere licking his wounds?"

Canderous laughed.

"And nursing his wounded pride. I don't think he expected you to get the drop on him. Wish I could've seen his face when you did."

"Wasn't really all that impressive." Desiraye turned to put her saber on the bedside table. "He mostly was just angry. Like a pompous child throwing a tantrum."

When she turned back around, Canderous was behind her. How could such a large man move so quietly? She never heard a thing!

She almost jumped, startled at finding him so close.

"Um..."

She almost slapped herself. That was the most intelligent comment she could come up with?

He saved her from having to do anything further by laying his hand on her shoulder. His hand lay where Nord's had mere minutes before, but she felt no ill will from the man before her. Pushing aside the strap of her tank, he ran a thumb over her wound.

The skin had knit itself back together, but left an angry scar. And it was still tender - even his more gentle touch was painful.

Canderous frowned at her response, but more than being upset with her, Desiraye sensed he was angry with himself.

"This isn't your fault, Canderous."

His grey eyes rose to meet her blue ones, but he said nothing.

"If anything it's mine," She continued, "For jumping in front of the kid."

Still nothing.

"You have nothing to feel guilty for."

He released her then and stepped away, frustration surging inside him.

"Dammit woman, stay out of my head."

He didn't raise his voice, but he didn't need to.

"I'm not trying to get in your head. You're just very... emotionally expressive. I can feel everything pouring off of you in waves."

"Not everything."

"No? What exactly do you think you're hiding?"

In an instant her back was to the wall. He stood over her, one hand on the wall beside her head and the other at her waist. What she felt from him now was very different than anything she'd felt before. This was desire, lust. And somehow it both thrilled her and frightened her.

"Oh."

He smirked and stepped away. She tried to tell herself that she wasn't acutely aware of how much colder she felt when he wasn't there.

"Go to sleep, Toral. I need you sharp tomorrow."

"And what will you do?"

He gave her a look that said she knew very well what he wanted to do, but didn't say it. Instead, he said, "Crash on the couch and kill Calo if he comes back."

Desiraye smiled at that. Even though she didn't think that Nord would come back, she did feel safer knowing that Canderous would be nearby.

"I'm sure he won't come, but if you want to sleep on the couch, go right ahead."

She turned away to pull the covers down on the bed, hearing him mutter something that turned her face pink.

He dropped onto the couch with a heavy sigh, and she turned to look at him. Due to the furniture arrangement, his back was to her, so she studied him for a moment.

"Lights out, Toral. Unless you're afraid of the dark."

"Why would I ever be afraid when you're here to protect me?" She murmured. He said nothing, but she could feel his emotions shift. She smiled softly at the change as she crawled into bed.

"Goodnight, Canderous."

She was nearly asleep when she heard his response, but she could've sworn he called her beautiful.

….

The pair rose before the sun the next morning. Neither spoke as Desiraye dressed and packed the few things she'd taken from her bag, and both mutually agreed when it was time to leave.

Desiraye found that she didn't have much to do. She was pretty much useless, in fact. Canderous led the way to the interrogation chamber, destroyed the droids and freed the former pilot, got the codes and led the way to the hangar. It almost made her wonder what she was there for. She did radio Carth and let him know that they were coming, but that was it.

It was while they were heading to the hangar that a deep foreboding swept over her. It crashed down on her like a physical blow, and she leaned against the wall for support until the sensation passed.

"What was that?" Canderous questioned.

"I don't know. Something bad is coming. We need to hurry."

They continued on in silence, but Canderous kept her close, moreso than before even. Whatever had happened, he didn't want it happening again when she was too far away for him to protect her.

They were just rounding the corner to the hangar bay when the ground rumbled beneath their feet. One look at Desiraye's stricken face told Canderous he knew what it meant.

"Orbital bombardment. That's what's coming... they're going to destroy the entire planet..."

"Damn... I knew Malak had been wiping out worlds across the galaxy, but Taris? Isn't it a little below his radar?"

"It's because -"

Another rumble interrupted her words, and she tried again as it stopped.

"Bastila," She gasped, "It's because of Bastila. Malak's been searching for her - it's why he attacked our ship in the first place."

The Ebon Hawk was in sight now. Just a few more yards and -

"Well, what's this? Thieves in the hangar!"