Chapter 29: No More Secrets.

Tahiri was beginning to regret her promise. Her condition was deteriorating more and more as each second passed, and it was getting harder for her to hide her dwindling health from the strike team, and, in particular, from Anakin.

Her boyfriend had been watching her like a hawkbat ever since she'd collapsed, and whenever she showed even the smallest hint of discomfort or pain, he swooped on her like a mynock and proceeded to fuss over her until he was forced back to the front of the group by either Jaina or Jacen.

Those times were becoming more frequent, and every time her inner struggle showed through, it took Anakin that little bit longer to be pulled away.

She was affecting his leadership, and even though no one could really blame Tahiri for her injury, she felt the resentment from the others all the same.

Most of it came from Alema, Tesar and Ganner, though she expected the former two had more of a problem with her involvement in Bela's death than the fact that she was disrupting the mission.

She couldn't hold that against them, though, because she already felt responsible for the Barabel's passing. After all, if the strike team hadn't needed to stop for her, and Alema, Tesar and Bela hadn't created the diversion, then the alien would still be alive.

Yet another teammate dead, and another death she hadn't been able to prevent.

Everything she and Jacen had done to change the past had only managed to exacerbate the situation, and so far, the only person they'd actually saved had been Anakin; at the expense of many others.

Tahiri tripped on a broken piece of yorik coral and felt a gentle force-nudge propel her forward and hold her upright.

The aide had come from Jaina, who was this hour's babysitter. After leaving the outhouse, the Dark Jedi, Lomi and Welk, had suggested heading into the tunnels in order to find a short cut and get ahead of the problematic Vong. Anakin had agreed, but had decided upon doing a rotational watch over Tahiri, in case she fell again. It was a tad annoying, but at least it kept him at the head of the group... mostly.

Tahiri glanced over her shoulder at her boyfriend's sister with a grin of gratitude; however, when she saw the icy expression on the brunette's face, her smile faltered.

"We don't have time for this negatude right now!" Jaina hissed at her, giving her another shove forward. "If people die, they die."

"That's a little cold," Tahiri growled back, dabbing at her suddenly glassy eyes with the back of her hand. She was shocked at the older Jedi's attitude towards her, and couldn't believe that Anakin's sister was one of the few harboring anger over her actions.

"I'll cry at home," Jaina answered coldly. "But if you don't get your head back into gear, more people will die."

Tahiri was stunned, and for the rest of the elder girl's babysitting shift, she stared dead ahead in silent agony.

The entire time, she kept thinking about how much she'd wrecked everything, and was looking forward to Jacen's turn to watch over her, so she could let out a few of her frustrations about what they'd done.

The force, it seemed, wasn't with her at all. Tahiri's heart constricted in her chest as the sandy mop of Ganner Rhysode towered over her. Of all the people she could have had looking out for her, Ganner was at the bottom of the list, and being lower than Alema Ra was saying something!

"Tahiri," the decoy leader acknowledged her, giving her a short incline of his head.

He'd bluntly accused her of sabotaging the mission earlier, and had cunningly threatened to continue the verbal grilling at a later date.

She suspected that time had come now.

"Ganner."

For a few moments, there was no sound except that of the crushing of synthetic rubber on organic coral, and then he cleared his throat and spoke. "This isn't your fault, you know."

"Excuse me?" She was stunned. This was not how she'd anticipated the conversation would begin, and one look at the earnest expression plastered across the man's face told her that he was completely serious.

"I said, it isn't your fault… Bela's death, I mean," he clarified.

Her eyes widened at first, but quickly narrowed when she tried to figure out what kind of game he was playing. She definitely hadn't been mistaken when she'd felt his unease at her through the force, so it confused her that he would be so kind now.

"What happened to all that pent up hostility?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow in question.

"I still don't trust you, Tahiri," he told her honestly. "But I know that you had nothing to do with Bela's death. It's not your fault you got hurt, and anyone who even hints at blaming you for what just happened is a fool."

"Thank you," she said, flashing the man a small smile and hoping her sincerity would show through in her actions and voice.

"But I haven't forgotten what we spoke about the other day; or what I saw at the slave city," Ganner added, his tone almost intimidating.

"What you saw, and what you think you saw are two different things entirely."

"Would you mind elaborating on that for me?"

Tahiri sighed and gave him a sidelong glance. There was no getting around it now: Ganner was too much of a liability to her and Jacen's plan to be kept in the dark any longer. In fact, he might even be able to help them.

"Before I say anything, I need to know that what I tell you will stay between you and me… and Jacen."

"What does he have to do with anything?"

"Ganner, please! This is important!" Her sudden rise in volume irritated her burning throat, causing her to launch into a fit of rasping coughs.

The decoy leader patted her on the back soothingly, and Tahiri knew the sentiments behind the gesture were genuine. At least things with Ganner weren't as bad as she'd feared.

She angrily brushed away a wave of concern from Anakin, insisting to him through their force bond that she was perfectly fine, and didn't need his assistance.

"Are you ok?"

Tahiri nodded in reply to Ganner's question, still struggling to regain her regular breathing pattern after its latest interruption.

"I'd like to hear your explanation," he continued, after waiting for her coughing to subside, "but I'm afraid I can't promise not to mention it to the others; unless, of course, your explanation is plausible."

She took another gulp of air and exhaled loudly. That was about as good as she was going to get from the man, so she prepared herself for the skeptical backlash, and launched into the story; the truth.

"Before the battle at the slave city, I had a vision," she began, trying to keep things as simple as possible.

"A vision?"

"Yes; about what was going to happen on this mission." The blonde paused as Ganner's brow creased as if deep in thought, but when he didn't say anything, she took that as a sign to keep going. "I saw the battle of the slave city, in great detail; almost as if I was actually there."

"So you knew exactly what was going to happen!" the male exclaimed in shocked awe. "That explains so much... the lightsaber incidents, and your knowledge about the Yuuzhan Vong using the slaves..."

"There's more."

"More?" Ganner cried incredulously.

"During that battle – the one in my vision – Anakin was fatally wounded."

The fair-haired man's face took on a pensive expression, and he regarded her profile from side on. "It wouldn't happen to be the same injury you're dealing with now, would it?"

Tahiri nodded mutely.

"Kriff! And to think I treated you like a common criminal earlier! I'm –"

"Don't apologize," she interjected. "Please. I don't want your pity. I should have told you sooner, it's as simple as that."

"What about Jacen? You mentioned him before... how does he fit in to all of this?"

Tahiri thought carefully before answering, not wanting to put Jacen in it too much. The last thing she wanted was for Ganner Rhysode to start questioning him as well, and get two different stories.

"Jacen knows about what I just told you, because he was with me when I had the vision, so I replayed what I saw to him. That's it, basically."

Ganner was silent for another moment, obviously processing everything he'd heard. "I suppose," he said, turning to her once more, "what I don't understand is how I managed to let those little things affect my judgment so much. I mean, contrary to popular belief, I'm not as aggressive as I appear, and I don't usually attack people the way I did you without solid evidence... and a few lightsabers still clipped to your belt are hardly what I'd call solid."

Tahiri frowned at him, not quite sure how to approach the question, when out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the skulking figure of the Dark Jedi, Welk, his sallow face trained intently on her.

"I think I know what might have happened..."

*---*

"So you told him everything?"

Jacen was doing his best to keep his anger in check, but the fact that Tahiri had just divulged all their secrets to Ganner Rhysode was making the task difficult.

It was blatantly obvious that the decoy leader was under the influence of the two Dark Jedi. Jacen didn't believe it was intentional, but the issue was that the older man had been affected by their vicious thoughts once already, when he had confronted Tahiri shortly after the slave city battle, and there was a good chance he would fall under their sway again.

The only difference was that if or when it happened again, Lomi and Welk would stumble upon some rather interesting information in Ganner's mind, and things would become so much worse for everyone.

"From a certain point of view."

Tahiri's candid tone broke him out of his reverie, and when the meaning behind her words finally sunk in, he felt like grabbing the girl by her shoulders and shaking her senseless. This was a serious matter, and now was not the time for jokes or friendly teasing.

He took a firm hold on the tops of the young Jedi's arms, stopping her in her tracks as she limped alongside him, but refrained from launching into the shaking frenzy he so craved to do. Instead, he brought his face so that it sat inches from hers and snarled his reply.

"From a certain point of view? You either did or you didn't, Tahiri!"

"Not everything is as black and white as you seem to think, Jacen!" she spat back, putting a greater emphasis on his name, and making it almost sound like an insult.

They stood there like that for a moment, both sets of eyes blazing with determined fury, and neither one willing to back down. It was Jacen that finally gave in, letting go of her and dropping his hands to his side.

"I'm sorry."

The apology sounded flat and unconvincing to his ears, and he scowled at this. Tahiri was the only one on this mission who truly understood him for what he was; yet here he was, treating her like she didn't matter.

She'd put her life on the line for him and his family, and, if history repeated itself, she would one day die that very thing.

He should be appreciative of her selflessness, and for everything she'd done, as well as everything she planned to do for his family; however, not matter how hard he tried, he couldn't quite make himself feel that way.

Perhaps it was jealousy; an envy manifested inside his soul, because he could never be the kind of Jedi she was becoming.

"I didn't tell Ganner the whole truth."

Once again, Tahiri's hoarse voice interrupted his thoughts, and Jacen was a little surprised to find they were no longer stationary, and were once again following the group.

"I told him I'd had a force vision before the battle; that I'd seen Anakin die, and because of that, I'd rushed in to save him without thinking, and sustained his injury myself."

"That's it?"

Tahiri nodded. "I never mentioned you, except to say that I'd confided in you earlier about my dream."

"So you lied to him?"

Jacen was a little taken aback by the girl's statement, and was slightly ashamed at the conclusions he'd jumped to before. She cared as much about this mission as anyone, and as much about their own secret task as he did, so to accuse her of being careless and revealing all to Ganner was to judge her very character.

And that certainly had to cut deep.

"I'm sorry," he said again, the words escaping his lips in a tone not unlike a whisper.

Whether Tahiri heard his latest apology, or simply chose to ignore it, Jacen didn't know; but she continued on with their previous conversation as if he'd said nothing at all.

"My lying to Ganner depends on your interpretation, I suppose; although, I like to think that I was selective about what I told him."

"Of course you do," he answered, smirking, before turning serious once more. "Tahiri..."

"Save your breath," she snapped, cutting him off sharply. "I heard you the first time, so there's no sense in repeating yourself."

"Ok, I guess I deserved that," he said matter-of-factly, nodding in agreement.

"You guess?" Tahiri scoffed, stopping against the tunnel wall and spinning him around roughly to face her. "You guess? We're in a kriffing battle meld, Jacen! No one's thoughts are secret anymore... or had you forgotten that?"

Her harsh reprimand was like a slap across the face, and the elder Jedi felt the sting of her words more than he heard them. The truth was that he had forgotten about the effect of the meld, and because of that, he was now more than a little worried about what Tahiri might know; or worse, what the others might know.

"What happened at the slave city, Jacen?"

His breath caught in his throat, and he felt instantly sick. So she did know something.

"Jacen?"

"I don't want to talk about it," he replied in a frigid tone, staring stonily ahead, and watching the retreating backs of his fellow teammates disappear even further into the inky darkness before them.

"Then perhaps I should just ask Tenel Ka about it. I'm sure she'd be more than willing to explain things to me."

He heard a sharp gasp from Tahiri as she flinched under his hard backhand, and immediately pulled his arm away from her, shocked at what he'd just done.

"Sorry."

"You've been saying that a lot lately," she said, one hand held over her reddening cheek.

Jacen stood there staring at her, unable to open his mouth and answer her scathing remark. He didn't need to; she was right. People only needed to apologize when they'd done something wrong, and he'd been doing just that, over and over again.

It was time to do the right thing for a change, even if that meant sacrificing Tahiri's trust and the faith of the rest of the strike team, in the process.

"I killed the slaves," he mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"I said, I killed the slaves," Jacen reiterated, a little louder this time. "On purpose."

"On purpose?" Tahiri echoed.

"Yes. I did it to save Anakin!"

"I know; you don't need to explain your reasoning to me."

"You're not angry then?" Jacen couldn't help but be dazed by the girl's words. He'd at least expected her to be the smallest bit angry at what he'd done.

"No, I'm not angry," she answered. "Just disappointed."

"What? Because of how hard I fought not to tell you, or because of what I did?"

"Both."

Her emerald orbs danced in front of his as she inched closer, taking Jacen's hands in her and stroking his palms with her thumbs in a calming manner. "But it shouldn't matter what I think, or what Tenel Ka thinks, or what anyone else thinks. What matters is what you think about what you did."

He could see her staring at him expectantly, waiting to hear him say he felt sorry for what he'd done. Jacen knew that it mattered what the others thought of his actions; Tahiri was lying to him, testing the waters to see exactly how far down his destined path he'd already stepped.

But he wasn't going to lie to her anymore; he was well past keeping secrets now.

"I feel nothing," he told her softly. "Nothing."

At first, there was no reaction at all, but then, as his words slowly sunk in, he saw the dark pupils of her eyes widen, and her hands began to slip from his grasp.

Just when Tahiri was about to respond, a throat cleared from ahead of them, followed by a grizzly voice.

"Am I interrupting?"

Jacen turned his head to the side and saw his younger brother standing in front of them, no doubt checking on why they were lagging behind. He tried to take a step towards Anakin, but was held back; only noticing that he and Tahiri's hands were still joined.

"Is there something going on that I should know about?" Anakin asked, his tone growing dark.

Jacen pursed his lips as the petite blonde practically threw his hands back at him, and had to stifle a laugh as he watched the girl's cheeks flush a brilliant fuchsia.

"Tahiri?" the younger Solo enquired. "What's going on?"

An almighty rumble, followed immediately by a deafening boom and ear-splitting shriek cut off any reply she might have made to the question.

There was no mistaking what the sound could mean. It was another voxyn attack.

Without thinking, Jacen, Anakin and Tahiri ignited their lightsabers and took off down the tunnel in the direction of the commotion, rushing to the aide of their friends.