The battle is over but Soniee doesn't have long to decide what to do before the next challenge comes. A little support and good advice would be nice about now. and PLEEEEEASE comment! pretty please.

She had killed a dozen men and injured half that many to the point that Zal was forced to… put them out of their misery. She had felt the life go out of them, felt their fear and their pain. Worse yet she had drawn power from their suffering. Thankfully she had snapped herself out of that almost drunken state before the Lasat had finished off Kallus.

She hated to think what the consequences might have been if every single imperial had been disposed of in the battle. Onderon would be swarming with troopers as soon as they could be dispatched. As it was the Iziz garrison would need to be replenished but at least if the Agent took the story back to his superiors that she had planted into his mind, they'd come believing that before the storm they had beaten all the fight out of the Onderonian rebels.

Though it had been no great effort to alter his memory of the event, the reality of it, the fact that she had manipulated the man's mind; it made her sick to her stomach.

And she had done it all for Saw Gerrera. She hadn't known why she deviated from her flight plan to the Iziz space dock. Making a pass over the wilderness on her way had just seemed like the thing to do. When she broke through the clouds and saw her friend hard pressed by his enemies there was nothing else she could have done.

Her connection to Saw wasn't quite like her link with Korkie but it was amplified by the necklace and the dagger. Soniee nearly broke the clasp again in her effort to remove the piece of jewelry and stow both objects in the body of her powered down droid for safe keeping. She needed to get away from them just for a while to clear her mind.

Had she really been away from the planet for an entire week? It felt like so much had changed. Saw still wanted her. That much hadn't changed.

Soniee left her ship and began to wander the streets of Iziz. The rain was finally tapering off but she didn't even feel it.

She was remembering her time on Coruscant. Back then a boy had been sent to the med center just for crossing her path. Another professed his love for her and asked her to stay with him. And then there was Korkie. She didn't know where he was or if he had gotten her message or if he still wanted to be married to her.

Back then she had longed for a friend or a parent to talk to. Lagos had commed her just at the right time and then Momma… But Momma Ordo was gone.

The closest thing Soniee had to a mother here on Onderon was probably Shara. Shara was her aunt, sort of. She had been close to Soniee's own mother. And Shara was wonderful with her own children.

Maybe that's what directed Soniee's path toward the old Gerrera house. She hadn't really intended on going there but she found herself standing in the street before it. There wasn't anyone staying there now and Soniee had always felt comfortable there when she had gone for her language lessons. Surely it wouldn't hurt to stop inside and get out of the rain for a bit.

There was a layer of dust on everything but it was nothing like the coating of cognine fur that the place had gotten when the Blackwell kids decided to give their pet a haircut. Soniee smiled at the memory. She wondered what sort of trouble she and her Onderonian friends might have gotten up to if she had grown up here, maybe even in this house.

And then she sensed it. She wasn't alone. "Hello?" she said quietly as she rounded the doorway into the living room.

His green eyes were wide with panic like a cornered animal and it looked like he might bolt at any second, but then he saw it was her. "Sanya."

They stared at each other for several standard minutes before the dam broke. She ran to him, wrapped her arms around him, and cried in Onderonian, " Papa ."

At first Bremon just stood there petting her hair as he might the mane of a skittish dalgo colt. Until instinct kicked in and he pulled her closer. "My girl. My baby girl."

They stood there, father holding his daughter for an indeterminable time. Then he pushed her out to arm's length surveying her for damage.

"There was a battle. Saw was involved. Frayl and I flew over after it was finished. Were you there? Were you hurt?"

"Frayl's alive?" She asked in amazement before she thought to address his concern. "Yes, I'm fine. But it was me. I killed all those soldiers. Saw was in danger. I did it to protect Saw."

Her father nodded, trying to take in the information. He grasped onto what he could understand. "You love him? Saw?"

"I love Saw very much." She took a few steps away from him and wrung her hands. "but nobody can make Saw to anything. I doubt very much if we would be able to make each other happy for very long. Once the initial fire burns out... Saw needs a battle to fight and while I... like fighting beside him, I don't want to fight forever. I think, even if we were victorious over all of our enemies, we would probably start fighting each other."

He placed a hesitant hand on her shoulder. "You're a good judge of character. Like your mother."

"She liked the idea of Saw and I ending up together." Soniee smiled up at him. "She said so in her journal."

"That was a daydream. She... we," he corrected himself, "would never have forced you into a betrothal. You've read how that worked out for she and Lux Bonteri's father?"

The marriage Soniee had arranged on her own hadn't turned out much better but she agreed, "Lux and I are friends. I guess that would have been a great match too. Him being the heir to the throne."

Bremon's brow furrowed. "He's not."

"He's not what?" she asked.

"Lux Bonteri is not the heir to the throne of Onderon."

"But he's Dendup's closest relative. Isn't that right? He told me…" Lux had been trying to tell her something at the ball. Something about Dendup's cousin.

"You know the story of our ancestors Oron and Galia?" He began. She would have liked to hear him sing the ballad that Shara had sung to her months ago but she didn't interrupt. "She was the princess and upon the death of her parents she and Oron Kira became the uncontested king and queen of Onderon."

Soniee thought about this and swallowed hard. She tried to smile again but tears came to her eyes. "Sounds like Korkie wasn't such a bad match either. He was the heir to Mandalore." She admitted to her father. "His mother was the duchess."

"You kept his identity a secret to protect him?"

She nodded with a sob.

"And he is doing the same, pretending that you have died, to protect you."

"Yes." Soniee gulped and threw her arms around him. "Just like when you sent away mother and I."

There was a hitch in his voice as well when he whispered into her hair. "The biggest regret of my life is that I didn't go with her. We should have stayed together, no matter what."

Soniee tensed as if she had heard a sound and stepped back, drying her eyes and her cheeks. "I wish you could have met him, Korkie I mean. He's so kind, so brave."

"You still love him." It wasn't a question. He could see the truth of it in her determined green gaze that was almost like looking into a mirror.

With a deep breath, she collected herself. "The only question is what to tell Saw."

At that moment there was a knock at the outer door and the creek as it was swung open. "Hey is anybody here?" Saw's voice called out.

She had sensed his coming. "We're in here."

"We?" The young man came round the corner with a confused smile on his face. "Ah Uncle Brem." He had no doubt be hoping to find Soniee alone.

" Papa… " she began, turning to her father.

"It's alright, Baby Girl. I'll let you be." He kissed her forehead. "You do what your heart tells you." Bremon whispered.

"Thank you, Papa ." She watched him squeeze Saw's shoulder as he made his way out of the house.

Saw looked back and forth between them. "You two good now?"

"Elek."

"Good." He crossed the room and leaned in to kiss her.

She allowed the briefest touch before she turned her head. "Saw, we need to talk."

"We do." He agreed and jumped right in. "What happened today, the Empire, we're rid of them for the time being, but they'll be back."

"Yes…"

"I've been thinking." He started to pace. "I'd like more than anything to stay here, to defend Onderon, make it safe for our people." He raised his eyebrows in question and she nodded for him to continue.

"Thing is, it's me the Empire wants, and… people like you."

She couldn't argue with that.

"I'm leaving Onderon. I don't know for how long." It must have been killing him to say it.

He was looking for her approval, her assurance that he was doing the right thing, but before she could speak up he continued. "I want you to come with me."

"Saw, I…"

"I know what you're thinking." He placed his hands on her shoulders. "What would we do? Where would we go?"

"Well, I…"

"I've made some contacts, people who don't like the Empire any more than we do. We'll start off small just causing some annoyance, disrupting supplies for their war machine, helping out planets that have been hurt by their tyranny." He appealed to her caring nature. "I think we can really make a difference… together."

This time he paused, waiting to hear her response but now that it came to it, the only thing she could think to say was, "Together?"

"We can get married, if you want." He said softly. She was sure this is what he had been working up to the whole time. "I'm sure your father will stand up as our witness. We can say the words before we leave the planet and then the whole Galaxy is ours for the taking."

"Saw, you know I'm already…"

"He said you were dead to him. No one here would contest that your marriage to him never happened. What do you say, Nya? Please. Marry me. We'll make a brand new start."

"Saw…" she started again. She should turn him down flat, not give him any reason to hope. Why couldn't she do it?

"You don't have to give me an answer about that right away." He conceded. "But it won't take long for the Empire to muster another force to make up for their losses here. We need to get scarce, at least for a while."

"Y-you're right." she managed. "I have some business I need to finish here first."

The muscles in his jaw tightened. "This is about Dxun, isn't it? About what you found there?"

She didn't have to say anything. Her deep breath and the way she couldn't quite look him in the eye told him all he needed to know.

"Nya, I… know you can take care of yourself." Saw swallowed down his own pride. "You'll finish up what you've got to do." He took her chin in his hand gently and forced her to look up at him. "And when you're done with that we'll meet up. We'll set a place, somewhere far from here, and we'll go on together from there."

She inclined her head just slightly in a nod and then his lips found hers once again.

"I love you," he breathed.

"I…" it was true even if it wasn't in exactly the same way. "I love you, too."

They could make a life together. Maybe only for a little while but how long were their lives likely to last once they'd set themselves against the whole Empire. She would continue to keep Korkie's identity a secret, her own existence would remain hidden and maybe she could pull the reins in on Saw and his thirst for vengeance.

Their kiss lingered and then she looked into his blue eyes and gave him a brave smile. "As soon as I'm done, I'll come and meet you."

"Don't be too long." He said, almost pleading. "Sometimes I think… you're the only one who really understands."

Heard this song on the radio the other day and it reminded me of Saw. still a little disappointed that he didn't have blue eyes in Rebels or Rogue One. No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man, to be the sad man
Behind blue eyes
And no one knows what it's like
To be hated, to be fated to telling only lies
But my dreams they aren't as empty as my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance that's never free
No one knows what it's like
To feel these feelings Like I do, and I blame you!
No one bites back as hard On their anger
None of my pain woe can show through
No one knows what it's like
To be mistreated, to be defeated
Behind blue eyes
No one knows how to say, that they're sorry and don't worry
I'm not telling lies