A/N: in which theron works for the dark council, davri works for the dark council, and kovach doesn't work for the dark council

i actually really like this chapter. so. that's nice. also, i've officially started work on part three, which will cover the beginning of kotfe + the timeskip. it's... well. we're going full on fix-it fic for part three.

that said, i WILL get the rest of this fic out before kotet launches. i will. i promise.

"You have what installed within the capital?"

"A complex system capable of electric—" Lana's words cut off with an impatient huff. "A weapon. Is that what you needed to hear?"

Theron shook his head, keeping his focus on the image of New Adasta on the display in front of him. Riling up Lana was very, very low on his list of things to do at the moment, especially given the information she'd just revealed. "So, you have a giant system capable of mass murdering your own people. I thought we were doing our best not to kill anyone?"

Giving a short nod, Lana tapped at her datapad before handing it off to Theron. "We should be able to… alter the output. Rework the system to produce a smaller, non-lethal shock, perhaps even one we can focus rather than unleashing it on the entire city."

The datapad held schematics for the weapon, along with statistics and readings for output and other aspects of the device. Theron scrolled through the pages, mind already working on a few possibilities for recalibrating the weapon. "So if we use this against everyone who's already been possessed…?"

"Theoretically, we should—"

Lana's answer was cut off by the doors sliding open without warning as Rei stormed into the room. Theron kicked himself for not looking further into the assistance the Dark Council had sent; her robes were torn and filthy and a bruise had formed on the side of her face, but it was without a doubt Rei, scowling up at Lana with palpable irritation.

"Minister Beniko, we really need to discuss your—" Rei faltered as she caught sight of Theron, her brow furrowing and posture stiffening. As quickly as she'd stopped, her attention snapped back up to Lana and she continued as if she hadn't missed a beat. "—your definition of the word plan. Half the Council wants me to relieve you of your position for incompetency."

Lana's expression hardly changed, but even Theron could sense the shift in her mood. "When the Council has a plan that goes beyond telling me to handle the situation, I'll gladly listen. And until we even know if the device held within the People's Tower is capable of what we need, we're proceeding with Kovach's plan."

"Kovach's plan," Rei echoed, her words dripping with sarcasm, "which consists of prodding the city's electrical grid until it overloads."

"Kovach knows what he's doing," Lana snapped before turning to Theron. "Figure out what we need, deal with Nox, and let me know when we can get started." With another sharp glance at Rei, Lana swept out of the room, already barking orders into her earpiece.

As good as it was to see Rei relatively unhurt — and to see her at all, though somehow it wasn't too surprising that they'd both found themselves in the thick of things again — Theron wasn't entirely sure what to make of Lana's orders to deal with her. Rei was visibly upset, hands balled into fists at her side and practically fuming at the now-closed door; if this was Lana's attempt to redirect anger intended for her, well…

It was far from the worst Lana had done.

Besides, Theron wasn't entirely certain where he and Rei stood, not after Yavin. It had made things easier — after all, it wasn't as if there was a customary way to say goodbye to a Sith lord in that situation. Still, it was only that much more difficult to decide how to greet her now.

There was only one safe bet, in his mind — jump right in to the mission at hand. "I should've guessed you'd be the Council representative."

Without warning, Rei slammed the datapad she held into the wall opposite her, hard enough that it crumpled into a smoking mess of parts. "Shut it, Kallig," she seethed, still staring at the wall as lightning crackled at her fingertips. "And I know, that's why we're trying to stop this."

Theron fought the urge to take a step backwards; he was fairly certain — mostly — that her sudden outburst had little to do with him. "Rei?"

She glanced up, startled, as if she'd already forgotten he was there. "One… moment." Rei turned back to her right and groaned, "I've already told you, that won't work. I tried it on Oricon and you all hated it there, too. And Force help me, Zavros, that was years ago and if you bring it up one more time—" She faltered, but shook her head and turned back to Theron with a shaky apology. "Sorry, what were you saying?"

There were important things to take care of — Kovach and the Council and Lana's plan — but Rei looked beyond exhausted, almost unraveled. That could take precedence, even if only for the moment. "Are you alright?" Theron would've offered some sort of comfort, but Rei was a bit too jumpy and her fingers were still sparking.

Rei gave one of her grins, as if she were about to wave the whole thing off, but it faded and she shook her head again. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine once I'm off Ziost. Spirits in my head, remember? It's—" She paused, shooting a stern glare towards the empty space she'd been lecturing a moment before. "We're a party, Vitiate's a crowd. So, ghosts, Theron. Theron, ghosts."

She gestured between Theron and the empty space beside her, and given the week he'd had, it was honestly far from the strangest thing to have happened. At the very least, he no longer had to wonder whether or not Rei had ever been telling the truth about sharing her consciousness with nearly half a dozen ghosts.

Though, he'd try not to think too much about how exactly she came to house a handful of Sith spirits in her mind.

"The weapon," Rei exclaimed suddenly, as if she'd just had some sort of revelation about it. "Acina said she'll send over all the schematics and information the Science Bureau has, but it should all be redundant. Will it work?" she asked, beginning to frown. "Zaara says she thinks it should. I've been trying to find her to get more information, but…"

Theron held up the datapad as if in answer. "I'm looking over it."

"Good." She turned to leave, mumbling something about updating the Council. As the door slid shut, Theron wondered if he should've said something, anything, other than falling into the familiar routine of putting work first.

But it was a moot point, he figured, and instead of dwelling on it pulled up an image of the city's superweapon, his mind already working on solutions.

Zaara frowned down at the message on her datapad, scrolling through pages of schematics and calculations and notes that Lana had sent her. She wouldn't argue with Lana — couldn't, not with the task ahead of them — but the four hours she'd been able to carve out for sleep had been cut down to…

Fifty six minutes, according to her chrono.

Vector was still asleep, snoring lightly and somehow looking even more contented than he usually did while awake; Zaara didn't want to disturb him, but also didn't want to run off again at the risk of worrying him. She settled for leaving a lengthy message, one that would cover the general situation without going into specifics. It wasn't the optimal solution, but they'd have to make do.

Besides, it was far from the first time she'd put a mission first.

After taking only a few moments to get ready, Zaara slipped out of the small room they'd been sleeping in and made her way up to the next level of the hospital. The area they'd set up as a command center was mostly empty — anyone not taking a few hours to sleep was on guard duty — but Captain Jorgan sat at one of the long tables, scrolling through a datapad, still fully armored though his rifle rested on the table beside him.

"Captain."

"Agent." Jorgan didn't quite scowl — he was far too dignified for that, Zaara assumed — but the look he gave her was far from pleasant.

Zaara was too tired to do more than prepare some caf, shoulders slumping a bit in her exhaustion. Even with her training and the few discreet implants that were standard for Imperial cipher agents, there was a limit to how long she could go without sleep and still operate effectively, and she'd reached it about twelve hours ago. The brief nap and caf would help, but she'd be useless in the field without some decent rest.

As it was, she'd just tried filling the pot of caf with her empty mug instead of the other way around.

"How long has it been?"

The unspoken since you've slept hung in the air and Zaara assumed the captain had noticed her mix-up. "Technically, about five minutes." Her mind worked to figure out Jorgan's intentions behind the question — weakness? something about blasters. fatigue. — but the lines wouldn't connect and the only conclusion she could draw was the obvious one, that this was some combination of small-talk and trying to work out if her exhaustion would affect the mission. Turning to face Jorgan, she shrugged and decided for honesty. "Before that, about forty eight hours."

Jorgan gave a small hmm but said nothing, his expression still one of unwavering disapproval. After a moment, he gave another noncommittal grunt and said, "It's a long op."

Without further comment of her own, Zaara sipped at her caf, suppressing a shudder at the lack of anything to sweeten the taste.

"Dav does this thing—" He paused, started again, "The major does this thing when she can't sleep, especially when we're on missions — she does word puzzles every night until she falls asleep. It's some psychological thing. Now whenever she pulls out one of the puzzles—"

"Everything shuts down and she's out five minutes later," Zaara interrupted, nodding. She figured she must have looked pretty damned tired to be getting advice from Jorgan. "Basic self-conditioning. It's a method I'm familiar with."

The disapproval lifted just a bit, and the cathar's features smoothed a fraction into what seemed to be understanding. "This isn't the first mission that's caused you to lose sleep," he observed, more a statement than a question.

Offering nothing more than a small shake of her head, Zaara took another long sip of her caf, grimacing at the heat on her tongue and throat. On the list of missions that kept her up at night, Ziost was quickly becoming number two behind only the year-long stint she'd done with the SIS.

Most of the time, she completed the mission and moved on — easier said than done, naturally.

"You're a good soldier, Captain," Zaara offered without pretense, some younger, more wistful version of herself feeling almost sorry for the situation Jorgan had found himself in. "A pain in my ass the past few years, but I respect you in a way I don't respect Major Sohms." It was difficult to hold on to a sense of ideals with the state the galaxy was in, but Jorgan had seemed to, and it made Zaara almost miss her early days in Intelligence.

But the rookie field agent with a habit of letting liabilities walk away wouldn't know what to do with Ziost.

The odd silence brought on by Zaara's uncomfortable praise ended abruptly as the major herself walked into the room, bags under her eyes and ponytail askew but expression one of intent. "We're pulling the Republic out of here and the Empire's going to help," she announced. "We're already giving orders to everyone we come across, but I can't stop the blockade without help."

"Blockade?" Zaara echoed.

"Phase one — Havoc secures Intelligence headquarters and shuts down planetary defenses. Phase two — troops on the ground. Phase three — blockade to prevent evacuations or reinforcements from off-planet. If phase three hasn't already begun, it will soon," Davri warned. "I've got to get in touch with Saresh, but she won't listen to me unless I bring her something good."

"Like Imperial assistance," Jorgan guessed, nodding slowly. He watched Davri for a moment longer, expression indecipherable as he turned to Zaara. "If there's anything that will ensure her cooperation, it's making sure the Imps get the short end of the deal."

Zaara sighed and closed her eyes, pinching at the bridge of her nose as she felt the beginnings of a stress-induced headache. "Ziost already is the short end of the deal, Captain. But if there's a chance it'll get the Republic out of Imperial space, I'll give it a shot."

"Good." Davri placed a holocomm on the table, keying in a frequency and standing beside Zaara so they were the only ones in view. They waited, and as it connected Davri cleared her throat. "Supreme Chancellor. I'm sure you'll recognize Agent—"

"Assisting Imperial evacuations?" Saresh snapped, effectively cutting off Davri's introductions. "Firing on Republic troops? Handing over confidential information to the Empire's top agent? I expected better from you, Major Sohms."

Davri's expression only hardened. "All due respect, Chancellor, I was acting in the interest of the Republic. I cannot, in good conscience, continue the attack on Ziost. We've lost too much, and we're losing even more. I should've backed out the first time I contacted you about the evacuations."

Saresh crossed her arms, unflinching as she met Davri's unwavering gaze. "Explain to me how that has anything to do with reports that you are actively fighting against Republic forces."

"They're not fighting for the Republic anymore. They're possessed — they're Vitiate's pawns," Davri insisted, voice low. "That's what we've been trying to tell you since we got here."

"All you've been telling me is that Havoc Squad is incapable of following orders."

Zaara chose that moment to step in, clearing her throat and addressing Saresh with what she hoped was something close to respect. "Supreme Chancellor, for what it's worth, I'm willing to send over preliminary reports on the possessions on behalf of Sith Intelligence. We have a better chance of getting out of here alive if we're at least not working against each other." She ran through a list of any other relatively harmless information she could offer up; they clearly had a leak, either within Intelligence or within the Sith, and that devalued her offer considerably.

But Saresh simply frowned, unimpressed, and turned back to Davri. "I'm sure Garza will be pleased to hear you're continuing the tradition started by Major Tavus." The line blinked out, and Zaara could've sworn the temperature in the room dropped.

With a few unflattering comments towards the Chancellor, Davri stormed out of the room. She paused for a moment to call over her shoulder, "If we don't hurry up and kill Vitiate I'm gonna start taking it out on Imps."

Ration bars were a form of Imperial torture — of that, Rei was certain. She'd been picking at the same one for nearly a half hour, breaking off little pieces whenever her hunger got the better of her.

Rattataki, like twi'leks, could stomach just about anything. That didn't mean it was going to taste good.

She wouldn't even be eating it at all if it weren't for the fact that the majority of the group gathered in the command center had been bothering her about it all evening. The meeting was a close to an official briefing as any of them had received while on Ziost, and it left Rei almost as bored as she was hungry.

Cori and Kovach had returned from whatever it was that they'd been doing out in the capital — some sort of plan Kovach had worked up. They evidently hadn't been successful, and Zaara was now ensuring that everyone, the Dark Council included, was caught up on the situation. The new plan she was working on with Lana and Theron wasn't polished enough to share with the rest of them, though she assured them it would be worked out by the next morning.

As the meeting came to an end and the room slowly began to clear, Rei's silent ration bar brooding was interrupted by Theron joining her on the bench she'd claimed for herself. "How're you holding up?"

She broke off another piece of ration bar and popped it into her mouth. "Fine." It was mostly the truth; after some rest and a bit of meditation, Rei had been able to once again quiet her Force ghosts, but the general atmosphere of Ziost was still taking its toll on her. "You?"

Theron pressed his lips together into a thin frown, taking a moment to answer. "Been better," he admitted. "Not that it matters, with all we've still got to take care of."

"You sound like Zaara," Rei commented, rolling her eyes. "Have you even been to a medic since you… What was it? Blew up your own shuttle?"

"Strategically overloaded," Theron corrected, neatly dodging the question. "Besides, I've somehow ended up with the Dark Council breathing down my neck. Which, by the way, is not something I'd ever anticipated saying."

Glaring down at the ration bar and breaking off another bite, Rei gave an exaggerated shrug and chewed for a few moments before answering. "It's worse when you're actually on the payroll." Theron's predicament was, in part, her fault; it was possible that she'd overstated his importance during their brief meetings, in an attempt to offer what little protection to him she could. Presenting Theron as more of an asset than a liability was the only way she knew to keep the Council from… how had Ravage put it?

Dealing with the threats they had the power to end.

Rei had managed a clever — in her mind, at least — comeback about Vitiate being the only real threat, at which point a new report had come in and her argument met a rather final end as Marr declared Theron useful for the moment.

Her thoughts trailed from Theron to Marr to the Revanites, and she found herself frowning. "Should we… talk? About Yavin?"

Theron's expression became guarded, and the warmth he'd approached her with lessened somewhat. "What about it?"

"I was fairly certain I wouldn't ever see you again." Rei chewed at her lip; it was a poor excuse for the way she'd left, but it was also the truth. "But circumstances aside, I don't mind being proven wrong."

Some of the warmth returned, and Theron offered a tired smile. "That makes two of us. Circumstances aside."

"Good." Rei gave a little Force-assisted toss to the half-eaten ration bar she still held, sending it flying across the table in the center of the room. "And as enjoyable as it's been, please don't make a habit of finding yourself in Imperial space," she added, shifting into a more comfortable position as she grabbed her datapad.

"Trust me, I don't plan on it. Too much paperwork involved." Theron held up his own datapad as if to make a point. "There's a form for everything. Trying to work through these schematics is a nightmare."

"I would help," Rei shrugged, "but it's a recent giant weapon, not an ancient one — completely out of my realm of expertise." She pulled up the notes sent to her by Zash — some from various Council meetings she'd missed over the past few days, some from a handful of potential helpful resources on both possessions and Vitiate, and the occasional odd request from some inconsequential, persistent Sith.

There was a lot to get through, and she likely only had a few hours to read through it all; after what seemed like the hundredth page covering evacuation procedure, Rei found herself slipping towards sleep, her exhaustion only exacerbated by the combination of the relative silence in the hospital, the continued efforts of suppressing her Force ghosts, and the warm presence of Theron beside her.

Rei couldn't be entirely certain when she actually gave in and fell asleep, but she woke up a few hours after the meeting had ended, curled up beside Theron in a way that left her neck aching. She pulled away just enough to stretch, mumbling out a sleepy apology.

"It's fine," Theron assured her, glancing up from his datapad, but he looked even more exhausted than Rei still felt. "Besides, it's not like I had anything better to do."

Rei leaned over and frowned at the datapad, its screen filled with schematics and calculations she wouldn't even pretend to understand. "The device in the People's Tower," she guessed.

"Yeah. Just have to figure out how to make a massive weapon less… lethal."

In a slightly more lucid state, Rei might've had some advice, given her relative experience in the art of shocking people; in her post-nap haze, she simply shrugged. "I could consult the Council. I'm sure some sort of science went into designing it. Or," she considered with another shrug, "it simply puts out the biggest charge possible. Depends on who ordered its creation."

Theron sighed. "No time. If we want to get everything recalibrated, we'll have to head over in a couple hours. It would take too long to figure this all out again. It's just…" He trailed off, running a hand through his already-mussed hair in frustration. "We get one shot at this. Once we trigger the device, it goes through the entire capital."

"Hmm." Rei tilted her head to look at the datapad again, then up at Theron; it was almost comforting, and oddly endearing, to see the tired determination in his expression. A spark of pride shot through her, and she reached over to give one of his hands a light squeeze. "It'll work." Even as she spoke, she could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

Offering comfort that didn't revolve around bloodlust, revenge, and ensuring someone's slow death wasn't exactly Rei's strong point; that was easy, this felt like spouting false hope.

But to her surprise, Theron gave a short laugh. "Yeah. It has to."

She was in the middle of trying to figure out something else encouraging to say when Zaara walked past, calling out orders she did. The agent stopped, listened on her earpiece, and motioned to Rei. "Nox, I want you and Temple to scout out the People's Tower. Lana's worked out the last bit of the plan, and we want to move first thing in the morning."

Rei scowled at the interruption, but it didn't last long and she trudged after Zaara, following her through the mostly empty hallways as the agent spouted off coordinates and plans and orders. "Where's Temple," Rei asked, "can I take one of my people, and where exactly are we going?"

"Meeting with Lana, no because I can't trust them, and to find Kovach." Irritation crept into Zaara's voice. "He's been gone for almost an hour, and I—" She cut off, turning abruptly to a door with the telltale blue light of a holo creeping out from the bottom. The door slid open, and in the corner of the room stood Kovach, pleading with the flickering image of Saresh. Zaara stepped into the room, glancing back towards Rei and holding a finger over her lips.

"Even the Council is cooperating, Chancellor. They—"

"Of course they are," Saresh interrupted. "The Empire stands to lose a planet, Agent. Why wouldn't they make deals to get the Republic out?"

Kovach shook his head. "It has nothing to do with the Empire. It's the possessions — we're losing more soldiers to Vitiate than to the Imperial military."

"I've told you — when you have a report with concrete information, I'll listen. Until then, I expect you to do your job."

With that, Saresh's image blinked out and Zaara, hands clasped behind her back, cleared her throat loudly. Kovach whirled around, expression falling as he caught sight of the agent. "Interesting," Zaara said thoughtfully. "I'd figured it was Theron you were working for, but this is far better."

"You knew?" Rei made the demand at the same time as Kovach's quiet statement.

"I assumed. Agents like you are either young or spying for someone else." She shrugged. "You didn't really tip me off until I assigned you to work with Cori, though. It will be a shame to lose someone of your skills."

"You're going to kill me." There wasn't a hint of doubt or question in his voice.

Rei could already feel lightning beginning to spark at the edges of her fingertips, but Zaara shook her head. "We need you, unfortunately, and stopping Vitiate is far more important than you getting the fate you deserve."

Kovach let out a heavy sigh of relief. "Thank you, Agent Ven, I—"

"Don't thank me," Zaara cut him off sharply. "Once Ziost has been taken care of, I'm handing you over to Nox. If you're lucky, she may even kill you."