Present

Caden residence, Mandalore

4 years, 1 month ABY

A pair of vibrant gold eyes stared up at the high ceiling of a quiet room, flickering absently across its surface as their owner cocked her head slightly. One arm was tucked behind her head, the other draped across her midriff as she lounged in a bed meant for guests, the crisp early morning air leaking in through a window she'd cracked open the previous night. Her head turned left and lips tipped upward when she spied the home's owner bent over a hunk of machinery, the tip of his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth rather cutely. His left hand reached forward, a sharp gasp and slight jump occurring a moment later when something he was working on sparked on contact.

He waved the injured appendage up and down, doing little hops before sticking the end of his index in his mouth. He sighed hard and rolled his eyes as he tossed his soldering iron onto the table in frustration. Catching sight of the quietly-observing woman, he stood up straight and placed both hands on his hips with an apologetic expression on his face.

"Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to wake you."

Kael smiled and shook her head as she swept her legs over the side of the bed. "You didn't."

Xel grunted with a nod and turned back to his project, a partially dismantled assault cannon of some model she'd seen once before.

"Whatcha workin' on?"

He glanced up at her, leaning over the machine. "Last time I used this thing was on that pirate cruiser three months back. Never got around to fixing it." He sighed. "And, upon closer inspection, I saw room for improvement."

She stood with a small stretch, padding her way over to him on bare feet. "Improvement how?"

Xel gave her a sideways look, dark blue eyes briefly flickering down to her legs before he blinked rapidly and cleared his throat.

Kael slightly arched an eyebrow and managed to suppress a smirk as he focused on his answer.

"Fire. An enhanced plasma cell that ignites targets on impact." Xel grinned with a spark in his eye. "That, plus an advanced hydraulic chamber that increases the operational range of the underslung launcher, should improve this thing's effectiveness in a pitched fight by a minimum of thirty-four percent."

Her eyebrows shot skyward. "Really? Now that's impressive."

He smirked. "Cuy'ni, partayli?" It's me, remember?

Kael smiled back at him with a roll of her eyes. "Elek, Xel'ika. Ni kar'tayli." Yes, Xel, I know.

Xel grinned proudly and picked her up unexpectedly, the smaller woman squeaking in surprise and delight. "Jate bora, vaar'ika!" Great job, pip-squeak! "Kandosii!"

Kael laughed at his pet name for her and held onto his shoulders for dear life as she was swung in circles, her captor eventually slowing down and holding her just above him. The dirty blonde girl stared down at him, the laughter and life in his eyes making her heart perform a brief gymnastics routine in her chest. Just as quickly as she'd been snatched up, Kael was set back down, feeling for the first time how cold the stone tiles were beneath her bare feet. Her head tilted curiously as Xel slowly turned back to his work.

"Hey Xel."

"Hm?"

She leaned against a table at her back, pushing herself up to sit on it. "What does that mean? That word, Kandosii?" She shrugged. "I've never really figured it out."

Xel paused in his work, looking up at her with a mildly concentrated expression on his face. "It's…complicated." He smirked. "Like a lot of words in Mando'a,it has multiple meanings. Typically, it's only used the way I did just now, as sort of an exclamation of excitement or approval. Other times, like with my ship, it's used a bit more literally."

"Which is…"

Xel smirked. "It means 'indomitable.'"

"And tal?"

"Blood. Put them together—"

"And you get the Indomitable Blood." Kael grinned. "That's awesome."

Xel smiled and nodded, turning back to the cannon. "You can thank my dad for that."

Kael's smile slowly faded as her eyes turned to the ground and she absently picked at the end of the table. "I wish I'd gotten to meet him." She looked up at him. "Both of them, really."

Caden's face fell slightly before a bittersweet smile graced his lips. "Yeah, me too." He looked over at her. "They would've loved you guys."

Kael nodded and fell silent for a while, several minutes passing as the silence was only broken by Xel's work. "So…how did you get them back?"

He took a sharp breath and looked back up at her. "What?"

"Kanan and the others. Yesterday, you said you found them on Mon Cala, right? How'd you rescue them? You and Alen call in the cavalry? I mean, they were on an Alliance-controlled planet, right?"

Xel frowned and glanced to the side. "True, but it wasn't that simple." He straightened up and picked up a nearby cloth, wiping off his hands. "As soon as we discovered that the Empire had a large-scale facility in the middle of Mon Cala's arctic ocean, we knew we'd have to break them out on our own."

Kael's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why?"

His expression went grim. "Because there's no way a facility like that could've existed without inside help."

Her eyes widened in realization. "Thus you had no idea who you could trust."

He nodded slowly. "And it had already been more than half a standard week since the Ghost crew was abducted; there was no time to check. So there we were, five fledgling rebels taking a shot in the dark against a fully-staffed Imperial base…"

3 years ago

North Pole, Mon Cala

6 months, 3 weeks ABY

"So…remind me again whose bright idea this was?"

Ezra rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. "It's unorthodox, I know, but last time I checked, that never stopped you."

Xel snorted. "Are my tactics unorthodox? Sure. Potentially suicidal? Not so much."

Sabine gave the other Mando a sideways look and adopted a sarcastic tone. "Why, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were nervous. And here I thought the great and powerful Xel Caden wasn't scared of anything, much less a little water."

He faced her abruptly. "Your definition of 'little' and mine are very different, Sabine. And it isn't the water I have a problem with." His tone roughened as he turned back toward a nearby window. "It's what's typically in the water that makes me nervous."

Iola slowly grinned with a teasing expression on her face. "Aww, is the big metal man afraid of a few widdle fishies?"

Xel tensed slightly. "Iol'ika…"

"You scared of getting nibbled on, pinched in the butt a little?"

"Iola."

"Come on, Xel." She laughed. "You've wrestled Zakkegs, for stars' sake, and you're scared of some scaly things with gills and tentacles?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

Iola chuckled a little before realizing he was serious. She stopped laughing immediately. "Wha—why?"

"Because when I wrestled that Zakkeg, or my first albino Boma, I was on land. I was fighting the enemy on an even plain, even if it was their home turf. At least out of water, I can actually kriffing maneuver. Death by wild animal is one of my least favorite ways to go, particularly underwater."

"You mean you actually have favorites?" Sabine asked.

Xel shot her a glare. "Not the point. Bottom line—" he turned back to the window, "—the sooner we get this done, the better."

"Don't worry," said Alen, who was behind the yoke of their submersible, "according to the coordinates, we're almost there."

Xel exhaled hard, leaning on his knees. "Good. That's good."

"Um."

Caden's head snapped to his brother. "What?"

"Don't look now, but I think the scanners are picking something up off the sub's port side. Something big."

"Vod, you better not be screwing with me."

"I swear I'm not. Don't look."

Against Alen's advice (and his own better judgment), Xel looked out his window and froze immediately upon spotting a dark shape in the distance, its silhouette barely highlighted against the pitch-black backdrop of the deep sea.

"Oh shab."

Alen glanced back in alarm. "Xel?"

"Shabshabshab."

Iola approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Xel, breathe—just take a breath and calm down."

His lungs kept hyperventilating harder the longer he stared out the window, the silhouette slowly but surely coalescing into a creature the size of a mid-size cruiser. Massive, gelatinous yellow eyes stared back at him with pupils easily the size of human heads. The seemingly-glowing orbs were set in a long, gigantic head suspended on a sinuous neck. To say nothing of its mouth, which was filled with all manner of fangs…

Suddenly, there was something blocking his view—or more accurately, someone.

The glowing yellow beacons were replaced by gentle sky blue eyes, staring back at him with concern and affection rather than malevolence. Slowly, he became distantly aware of a soft voice trying to reach him.

"Xel—Xel? Look at me."

His eyes flickered to the side, toward the exposed glass.

Iola put a hand on his cheek and turned his focus back to her. "Hey. Focus here. Eyes on me, okay?"

Xel nodded stiffly, keeping his gaze on her face and noticing for the first time that her hair had been steadily growing darker over the years.

It was forest green when we first met. Now…it's like the color of partially-dried wood.

Bit by bit, his breathing and heart rate stabilized, and Iola smiled at him widely upon seeing it.

"See?" she asked. "Piece of cake."

Xel shuddered with the memory of what he'd seen, then pressed his face into her shoulder. "Thank you."

She gently stroked his hair and held him close. "You're very welcome."

Caden glanced out the window when they pulled apart, still seeing the silhouette but not freaking out this time. "With that thing prowling these waters, it's a wonder this facility is still operational."

"And it is operational," said Ezra from the cockpit.

Snapping toward the voice, Xel pushed himself upright and moved toward the pilots, whistling through his teeth when he saw what they were talking about. Before anyone could comment on it, the sub's communication system beeped with an incoming hail.

Alen answered without missing a beat. "Gulomi Base, this is supply craft GT-X04, here for our routine drop."

The line filled with static for a moment before they answered. "X04, you're not due down here for another three days. Why the accelerated timetable?"

Ezra clicked his end on. "Sudden shortage of deep-sea crafts in our region has the locals drafting subs en masse. We wanted to get our drop in before we get served, over." He thumbed the line off and waited.

About five seconds passed before the Imperials replied. "Roger that, X04. You're cleared to land. Docking bay E-07, as usual."

"Good copy. E-07." Ezra turned to Alen. "You know where that is?"

"No idea."

The older Jedi shrugged. "Well—guess we're winging it."

"AKA, we let the Force guide us."

"Isn't that what I said?"

Alen just sighed and grinned as he shook his head, closing his eyes as his hands settled onto the yoke. Xel closed his eyes as well and stretched out with the Force, feeling several expectant signatures in the gigantic undersea facility before them.

"You feel that, right?"

Xel nodded in reply.

"Yes," Ezra responded as well.

"Two rows down it is."

Alen smoothly maneuvered the submersible into position and waited for the doors to part before gently applying the throttle and bringing them into a sealed hangar. The inside was about what they'd expected—very clinical and bright, strewn with technical equipment and various custodial and cargo staff.

"I could be wrong," said Sabine, "but I'm pretty sure making a fuss in here would be a very bad idea."

"She's right," Iola agreed. "One wrong move, and I doubt the Imps'll hesitate to flood the whole compartment."

"So…stick with the plan?" Ezra asked.

Sabine nodded and motioned to Xel. "Stick with the plan."

Minutes later, Alen, Ezra, and Iola were in plainclothes, completely unarmed and unassuming, as they unloaded three crates on corresponding repulsor pads. Barely a few words were exchanged as they went about their tasks, the three infiltrators escorted down one hall after the next by attending stormtroopers before being led to a large storage room. The moment the door slid shut behind them, they popped the tops of two crates and released their armored comrades, along with a third crate containing an entire cache of weapons.

"You'd think a place this secret would have better security," Ezra commented.

"Don't jinx it, Bridger," Sabine scolded as she handed him his lightsabers.

Xel did the same for Alen and passed Iola a blaster. She looked at it curiously and turned to Xel for an explanation.

"I looked at your old one and decided it wasn't sufficient." He tapped the thick barrel of the S-5 heavy blaster pistol in her grip. "I modified this one months ago, in between sessions with Peetee's new body. Just never had an opportunity to give it to you."

Iola hefted the blaster and pointed it at a nearby wall, getting a feel for the weapon's weight. She gave Xel a sideways look, a smile slowly coming to her lips. "It'll do." She smirked. "Although I might just have to try your style."

Alen gave her an arched eyebrow as she picked up her old blaster from the crate as well. "His style?"

Iola threw him a grin and pulled both blasters out, whipping her hair about and aiming at the entry door akimbo.

Alen just stared openmouthed, face turning steadily more red as Xel sidled up to his side with a grin and their bond opened.

"Xel…why is that so hot?" Alen asked dreamily.

Xel laughed in his head. "'Cause you've got some Mando in you, vod. Bravery and skill are like exposed skin to us."

Alen had to force himself to look away with a sharp clearing of his throat, double-checking his lightsaber.

Caden kept chuckling behind the safety of his faceplate, but he came to an abrupt stop when he spotted Ezra, whose eyes were closed, with a concentrated expression on his face. Sabine shuffled up next to him, stowing her WESTAR-35s and brandishing an EE-4 blaster rifle.

"Where are they, Ezra?" she asked him.

He hesitated a moment. "I can't speak for everyone, but Kanan is in an eastward section of the base." He pointed toward an empty wall. "That way."

While Ezra had been using his Force bond with Kanan to trace his location, Alen and Iola had been disconnecting a nearby panel, hoping to find a coordinated system like on Bogden. They had.

"I'm tapped into their security logs," said Alen. "Trying to locate—oh. Oh no."

"What?" Sabine asked.

"Crap. I should've expected this."

"Let me guess," said Ezra, "the Inquisitors are here."

Alen looked up at him. "They just docked with the station. And they're closer to the other Specters than we are."

"Well then," Xel sighed. "Plan B."

The two stormtroopers flanking either side of the storage room's exit briefly lost their balance as a massive rumble went through the space behind them. Exchanging a brief look, they keyed the door open and swept the room with their E11s, straining to see through a thick cloud of dust that had permeated the air. They stopped upon seeing a massive hole blown into the far wall of the chamber, lowering their weapons as an overwhelming sense of dread fell over them.

"Do…you wanna make the call?"

"You crazy? You do it."

"I really hate to pull rank, but in this case…"

"Ugh—fine." Click. "Er…Gulomi Command? We have a…small problem."

"Can someone please explain to me why we never stick with Plan A?"

"Easy isn't for Jedi?" Alen suggested to Ezra.

"Oh no," Sabine replied, "trust me—it's every mission, not just the ones he's on."

The Jedi sighed and threw his hands up—metaphorically speaking, of course, considering doing so literally would've dropped him onto Ezra and Xel. As it stood, they were taking the station's service tunnels three levels down, then transferring to another wing of the facility, which was actually much larger than it looked at a glance. Mainly so because most of the station wasn't exposed to the open water, but built into a hollowed-out deep-sea cavern. As a technician-slash-expert slicer, Alen had wondered how such a facility got reliable power this far from civilization. The answer had been found during his hack into their networked power grid, when he found readouts for a massive hydroelectric system that utilized the variance in temperature between water at various elevations to turn an array of frictionless turbines and generate power.

The system was quite ingenious, if Alen was honest, and he wondered who the chief engineer behind this project was. It would have to have been someone with fairly high security clearance to operate on a top secret facility like this. Either that or he was killed immediately after the project's completion. With the Inquisitorius managing this station, both possibilities were equally viable. Speaking of which, he'd had to cut his link to the security feeds to avoid detection, but last he'd checked, the Grand Inquisitor was deploying his people to opposite ends of the station defining each main route to the detention blocks. Evidently, he didn't expect them to use service tunnels to circumvent the station's security.

As they crawled from the undercroft of one section to another, Alen was forced to revise his judgment. Quite suddenly, with only the briefest warning from the Force, one of the steam vents in front of them burst open, pouring hot steam into the narrow passage and splitting the infiltrators.

"Oh hell no," Sabine growled as Ezra and Xel were separated from them. "This is not happening again."

"Damn right," Alen agreed, pushing his hand forward and creating a temporary tunnel with which to traverse the steam.

After crawling through, he kept the passage open for Iola, but Sabine just snorted and pushed her way through the burning vapor, her suit shrugging it off with ease.

"I could be wrong," Ezra began grimly, "but I think we've been made."

Snap-hiss.

The tip of a blazing crimson blade emerged through the ceiling between Sabine and Alen.

The Mandalorian woman drew her EE-4 in one hand and a shaped charge in the other. "Seconded."

Without further ado, Sabine planted the charge on the ceiling directly above her, barely six inches from the lightsaber, and moved to one side as Alen did the same on his end. A second later, a massive thump sent a four-foot-wide chunk of durasteel and thermaplast rocketing upward toward the enemy. Their exit made, Sabine leapt out first and pulled the trigger of her weapon twice, sending two six-shot bursts into the spinning blades of the Fourth Sister before she was Force Pushed into a wall with a grunt. Alen jumped out next, giving Four a solid flying kick to the chest and igniting his lightsaber as soon as he hit open air. Xel and Ezra followed Iola out after four audible lightsaber clashes, catching sight of the other, shorter Inquisitor on their opposite side, near a recovering Sabine.

Ezra leapt to his girlfriend's defense, Force Pushing the Tenth Brother into an important-looking pipe. Steam erupted from the point of contact, bathing that half of the hallway in fog and cloaking the Advozse's movements from view. Xel sprinted into the fog, catching sight of an ignited saber and estimating its owner's location before shoulder-charging directly into his chest and knocking him back against the wall hard. Winded, Ten was unable to avoid the gravity-assisted double-fisted smash that cracked the top of his helmet and dazed him. Glancing back at the duel between Alen and Four, Xel let out a small growl.

"We don't have time for this!" he shouted, bringing an armored knee into Ten's faceplate and further stunning the Inquisitor.

"Agreed," Alen shouted back, combining his power with Ezra's to Blast Four across the hallway.

Xel used a minor manipulation to open a door at the end of her flight path, flicking it closed as soon as she was inside. Iola shot the door control the instant it slid shut, sealing her inside for the moment, and the five took off toward the detention block a moment later. Figuring that they were made, Alen reopened his link to the security system and tapped into their camera system to find that the Grand Inquisitor and First Brother were booking it toward their location.

"Take a right!" he shouted.

The team followed his lead, allowing him to take point as he led them down a twisting pattern of turns through the maze-like detention level until they reached the target area. Catching a brief glimpse of white plastoid, Alen drew his Bryar pistol and exchanged a nod with Xel before all five of them burst into the open hallway and effectively painted the room with laser fire. Six stormtroopers slid to the ground a moment later, giving them a clear lane to the cells. A few well-placed explosives later, and three cells were forcefully opened, their tenants stumbling into the hall seconds later. When the smoke cleared, Sabine immediately realized something was off.

"Hera…where's Kanan?"

The green-skinned Twi'lek looked up at her with dazed eyes, rubbing a hand over her face briefly. "I…don't know. The Imps pretty much kept me drugged out of my mind. Guess they figured I was half the brains of our operation."

Ezra smirked. "Well they're not wrong."

"But that leaves us with a very big problem," Iola said. "We have four Inquisitors actively hunting us, a very spotty escape plan, and still no Kanan."

The ornery astromech droid at Hera's side began speaking at them rather animatedly with what Alen could only describe as honks.

"What'd he say?" asked Zeb drowsily.

Sabine's eyes lit up. "Chopper says they moved him to a different section when you arrived, insisted on keeping you separated."

"Probably so they could work on him specifically," Ezra said grimly. "There are only so many ways to break a Jedi."

"Does Chop know where exactly?" Iola asked.

"No," Sabine replied. She turned to her boyfriend. "But Ezra might."

The Jedi's eyes were closed in concentration. "I've…got a vague sense of it." He pointed to the northeast. "That way."

Alen glanced down at his wrist-mounted datapad. "According to these schematics, there's one possible location. The problem?" He looked up at them. "It's a complete dead end."

Zeb frowned. "And we're not exactly in any condition to fight."

Ezra frowned hard. "Here's what we're gonna do. Sabine, Iola, Alen—you're on escort duty. Take Hera and the others and secure a submersible for our escape. Xel, you're with me. Any objections?"

"I might have one or two."

The entirety of the group save Alen turned and stared uncomprehendingly into the mostly-empty hallway, wondering at the source of the voice. Alen, on the other hand, just stared into a thin shadow created by an outcropping in a nearby wall. Altogether irritated, the Jedi calmly drew his Bryar, charged up a shot, and fired directly into the shadow, his attack answered with a rapid deflect. Evidently, Four had been so surprised that she didn't even try to reflect the shot back at him. And then the others saw her and drew weapons—those that were armed, anyway.

Four stared at Alen for a while, both her blades active. "I really can't trick your mind, can I?"

"Not in the slightest," answered the Jedi as he ignited his saber.

Four was joined by all three other Inquisitors as they rounded the corner, having been in wait for the aftermath of Four's "surprise" attack.

"You've got to be kidding me," Zeb drawled.

Chopper's honks decidedly agreed with him.

Hera lunged for one of the fallen stormtroopers and appropriated his weapon, then fired into the cluster of Sith several times. They all drew weapons and instantly fell into an intricate pattern of deflects, the others practically raining down blaster fire and managing to keep them back long enough for them to begin retreating down the opposite end of the hallway. Sabine and Xel planted detpacks on the walls and ceiling on their way out, then detonated them once they'd reached a minimum safe distance, effectively blocking the Inquisitors from following.

"Okay," began Hera, "new plan."

"No," Ezra replied, "old plan will still work."

"Assuming the Inquisitors don't kill us first or destroy all the submersibles."

"They can't afford to do that," Xel said. "This far underwater, with virtually no contact with the outside world? They need those transports to get out of here."

"Especially since they're in enemy territory," Alen added.

Zeb glanced at him incredulously. "Say what?"

"They've been holding you on Mon Cala this whole time," said Ezra. "How they even got here is a mystery I intend to solve—after we're gone."

"I've cleared a path through the station's automated security and sent the facility's schematics to your HUD," Alen told Xel.

"I see them. We'll split at the next intersection. Good luck, vod."

"May the Force be with you."

By Ezra's reckoning, it was about sixty seconds before the Inquisitors realized something was off, another thirty before they pinpointed it as the absence of two of the group's Force-using members. He suspected that Fourth Sister was the one who put the pieces together first, given that she'd overheard part of their plan. Bottom line—it was about two full minutes before either Force-wielder caught sight or sound of their pursuers, and when they did, it was only the Sakiyan First Brother and Fourth Sister. Not a great combination, based on what had happened on Bogden. By what they were hearing over their private comlink, Alen and the others had made contact with the other Inquisitors at sparse intervals, but Sabine was using her explosive inclinations to slow them down at every turn.

Each report or burst of alarm from the other side of the link gave an extra burst of speed to Ezra's steps, intensifying his need to get to Kanan faster. Despite the fresh memory of Alen's spectacular defense against all four Inquisitors at once, Ezra knew from experience that such a performance was a one-off—and virtually unrepeatable now that the Grand Inquisitor had analyzed and determined the weaknesses of the younger Jedi's style. If they caught up to Hera and the others, a pitched battle would mean death for all of them. So distracted was Ezra by his worries that he didn't notice that none of the pursuing Sith were throwing their lightsabers. Upon closer inspection of their surroundings, Ezra picked up on several high-priority power conduits that, if ruptured at high enough heat, would create small-scale explosions that could compromise the structural integrity of the tube-like hallways.

Xel, evidently, picked up on this as well, and decided to exploit it and, before Ezra could warn him against it, planted a detpack near a T-intersection in the passages. He detonated it when the Inquisitors got relatively close, and the resulting explosion triggered a chain reaction that effectively severed one half the hallway from the other, water pouring in as the long half began to sink into the sea. One of the chain explosions sent debris and water falling between Xel and Ezra, separating them, and they were forced to run in opposite directions when they realized emergency bulkheads were about to seal them off to prevent further leakage. Ezra came to a stop some fifteen seconds later and took a moment to catch his breath and check his datapad.

"Karabast," Ezra hissed between his teeth. He raised his left arm to his mouth, activating his comlink as he took off running. "Xel, I'm checking these schematics, and there's no way for me to reach you or Kanan from here. What's worse—"

A loud rumble and massive vibrations throughout the station cut Ezra off and nearly knocked him off his feet.

"The hell—"

Ezra's comlink beeped and erupted in static before Hera's voice was heard over the link. "Xel, Ezra—if you can hear me—" static, "—the Inquisitors broke off their pursuit of us about half a minute ago, and we think their leader did something to the station."

"I think the Grand Inquisitor finally figured out what I did to their security and decided to perform a manual workaround," Alen explained.

"Meaning?" came Xel's voice.

"Meaning he just overloaded part of the station's power grid. Everything I did to make your trip faster and slow them down just went down the tubes. If I had to guess, I'd say you have maybe two minutes before GI and Tenth Brother are breathing down your neck too."

"And I'm now all alone," Xel added with a sigh. "Perfect. Ezra, link up with the others. I'll get Kanan."

Ezra's eyebrows hiked upward. "Are you kidding me? You can't take four of 'em on at once, and that's exactly where this is headed. You're walking into a dead end, remember?"

"I don't have a choice. I'm the only one within range, unless you fancy trying to punch a hole through four pissed-off Inquisitors and retrieving Kanan in that mess."

Ezra's lips pursed hard. "You grab Kanan and run straight for us. We'll have a defensive line at the end of the third corridor, you see where that is?"

A moment's pause. "Yeah, I see it. Just be ready for a fight."

Ezra smirked. "Always am. May the Force be with you."

Xel ran to the end of what seemed like an endless twist of turns and hallways—some disorientingly transparent—to find himself confronted with a set of double blast doors sealed shut—or so it seemed at first glance. Upon approaching, he keyed the controls and realized that the Grand Inquisitor's overload must've shorted out the security key system for the whole station. Drawing both pistols, Xel stepped inside and looked around the spherical room beyond, carefully clearing the darkened space before allowing himself to focus on the suspended figure in the center of the room. Trapped in a force cage and fastened to the front of an Imperial torture table was the battered form of Kanan Jarrus, decked out in a uniform that was part street clothes, part armor.

The Mando strode to a nearby control panel, but found it inactive thanks to the overload. Frowning behind his helmet, Xel raised one of his pistols and shot the force projectors, then holstered his weapons and reached up to wrap both hands around one of the restraining coils. Grunting with effort, he used both Force and his crushgaunts to bend the metal restraints until they snapped. He repeated this tactic with the other side, picking up on movement and a low groan as Kanan began to regain consciousness.

"W-Who's there?" the Knight asked drowsily.

"It's me, Jarrus," Xel replied, grunting as he got to work on the leg restraints.

"Huh. I must still be sleepin'. No way you'd be caught dead in a place like this."

Caden sighed hard. "Unfortunately, if I can't hurry this up, I just might be."

Xel gave a small cry of triumph when the last cuff burst in his grip, releasing the Jedi. Kanan reached out toward him shakily, grip solidifying as soon as Xel grabbed his shoulders, then turned to sling one of Kanan's arms over his own.

"Don't know what you're doin' here," Kanan admitted, "but I'm damn glad to see you—figuratively speaking."

"Figuratively?"

Xel stopped short and gave his scarred face a closer look, eyes widening behind his visor when he realized—

"Oh Force," Xel breathed. "You're—"

"Dead tired? Drugged to the gills?" Kanan smirked. "Ruggedly handsome?"

Caden hesitated a moment in shock. "Blind."

The Jedi Knight laughed half-hysterically, shoulders shaking with the motion. "Right—I always seem to forget that one."

Xel started moving for the door as he slowly came out of his daze. "It's just…I never noticed."

Kanan smiled. "I've been like this so long, most people don't. Used to wear a face visor so it was a little more obvious, but after a while…didn't seem to be much point."

Xel thought for a while as they traversed the first corridor. "So…how exactly do you get around if you can't see? How do you fight?"

"Oh, I can see just fine—so to speak."

"Just not right now."

Kanan nodded. "The Force allows you to transcend the bounds of physical form in more ways than one, but with all the drugs the Imps pumped into me, I'm having a really hard time concentrating—"

The door to the second corridor slid open with a hiss.

"—hence why I need you to be my eyes."

"Well that's good to know."

Xel and Kanan came to an abrupt stop, the former snarling at the sight of all four Inquisitors blocking their path.

The Grand Inquisitor stepped forward, shotos at the ready. "You know the drill, Mando. Give up now. You could barely handle us with two Jedi for backup—I hardly think one blind old man is quite enough."

Kanan "looked" at him with a taunting eyebrow. "Who are you callin' 'old'?"

"And why do you keep trying to get me to surrender?" Xel asked. His head cocked slightly. "Wait…of course. You know who I am." His expression darkened. "Which means Vader still wants me alive."

The Grand Inquisitor snorted ungracefully. "Please. Lord Vader has better things to do than bother himself or us with a worthless disgrace like you. I'm simply trying to avoid a long and boring duel when this could all be settled with the same outcome with a few words."

Xel's eyes narrowed. "No…that's not it. I'm Mandalorian—surrender isn't in our vocabulary, much less our tactics. You know I'll never give up without a fight, so what are you—" His eyes widened in realization. "Ahh…I see. You're afraid."

The GI stiffened.

Xel disengaged from Kanan, putting himself between the Jedi and the enemy. "You fear for the outcome of this fight. You weren't worried before, on Bogden, not at all. But here—at this time, in this place, with these players…you are." Xel grinned. "I guess that's what happens when you come face-to-face with the man who slew your predecessor."

That got a reaction from him. "Please," he snarled. "I was the one who captured them all in the first place."

"Yes, when you had the element of surprise and they were drastically outnumbered. Now, it's four-on-two and you know that any second now, it'll be four-on-four thanks to my friends. And that's just Force-users. Doesn't even take into account the outright legendary operatives we have with us. So ask yourself…" Xel drew his lightsaber, "do you really want to gamble on this fight?"

The Grand Inquisitor showed signs of nervousness for the first time since they'd met, and he froze rather suddenly before he radiated a burning fury. "Go, attack! He's stalling for time!"

Xel grinned malevolently. "I sure was."

Snap-hiss.

"And you fell for it," came Kanan's voice from behind as Xel's back was bathed in the green glow of his mother's lightsaber.

The Grand Inquisitor seethed for barely a moment before leaping forward with a furious roar, the rather confined spaces of the corridor not lending themselves to his acrobatic style—or those propeller sabers—at all. Xel and Kanan, by contrast, were doing just fine with their single blades, and aimed to carve a path straight through them by the way they kept shunting the enemy's strikes aside. Xel deflected a shot aimed at his neck and countered with an elbow to the chin of the Advozse, glancing back to see Kanan in heated combat with the Grand Inquisitor and easily holding his own.

He'd only seen the seasoned Knight in saber-to-saber combat a handful of times, but that had always been during practice. In a real fight…Xel would be hard-pressed to say he'd seen anyone operate that smoothly, especially not against three seasoned opponents at once. Aiming to take the heat off Kanan, Xel leapt straight for the Sakiyan, slashing at the back of his left leg and getting a backhand to the face for his troubles. First Brother made Xel his first priority, evidently still incensed about getting his other helmet destroyed, and laid on the hate as the Mando was forced to steadily backpedal.

It was only when his jetpack hit a wall and the First Brother had one hand clenched around his neck that Xel realized just how desperate things were. Kanan was busy and out of reach, Alen and Ezra were still a whole passage away, and Xel was running out of air. In a final maneuver of fury and coordination, Xel reached with his empty left hand and drew his Beskar knife, driving it deep into the side of the Sakiyan's rib cage and causing him to howl in pain. Using the sudden gap in his defenses, Xel shunted the Inquisitor's blade aside with his own and head-butted him solidly, then shimmied out of his grip and shin-kicked him in the gut.

He pivoted away when First Brother made a backhanded swing at him, leaping into a flying roundhouse to the face, then driving his left palm into his injured torso. The Sakiyan stumbled back in pain, and Xel leapt for Kanan, tackling him to the ground and shielding him with his body. The Inquisitors briefly froze in bewilderment at the sight—until First Brother began to beep. He had barely a second to pull the detpack off when it went off right next to a crucial power conduit. The next twenty seconds were a blur of rumbles, vibrations, and chained explosions that jarred Xel so heavily they threatened to render him unconscious.

Fortunately, he retained his senses, and slowly pushed himself upright as Kanan sluggishly joined him on his feet. When they turned around, Xel stared with a mixture of elation and panic. First Brother was buried under a mess of water-strewn rubble, Fourth Sister looked like she'd been through the wrong end of an ion generator, and the other two were sporting various injuries, but remained standing. To top everything off, there were ruptures in the hallway's structure all along its length, and water was spilling in from every point of defect.

After a few labored breaths, Xel found his voice. "The way I see it, you have two options. You can stay here, try to fight us two-on-two, and we all die when this wing goes down—"

"Or you can take your injured," Kanan added, "lick your wounds, and live to fight another day."

The Grand Inquisitor—who Xel was decently sure was human—gave them both a hard glare, looking every bit like he wanted to continue the fight, then relaxed slightly. "Very well. Another time then."

Tenth Brother slung Fourth Sister over his shoulder as the Grand Inquisitor gave First Brother's body a dismissive look before following the others out. Heaving a sigh of relief, Xel and Kanan exchanged a look, the Mando stooping down to retrieve his knife from the corpse before they too exited the corridor. Upon reaching the end of the third corridor, they found Ezra and Alen waiting in ambush, as promised. Xel and Kanan were nothing less than perplexed when they found out none of the Inquisitors had come that way, given that there were no other exits from that passage.

2 minutes later

"Kanan!"

The Jedi turned abruptly, glassy eyes unfocused but the areas around them lighting up in elation. "Hera!"

The couple crashed into each other's arms in the station's control center as they were unified once more, the others looking on with a mix of relief and uncertainty.

"I really hate to cut this reunion short," Alen said, "but we have slightly more pressing matters at the moment."

They turned to face him, Kanan speaking up. "How so?"

Alen shot Xel a look (which the Mando ignored, buried as he was in a nearby terminal). "My dear brother exploited a weakness in the station's power system—twice. The first time was bad enough, given how it strained the grid, but the second…"

"The second explosion was nothing short of disastrous," Sabine finished. "Given that the power grid was already in a state of disarray after the Grand Inquisitor triggered the overload, the resulting surge caused explosions all over the station. Long story short—we're leaking."

"Then let's get outta here," Zeb insisted.

"I'm afraid it's not that easy," Iola said. "Right after the Padawans linked up with Kanan and Xel, I checked the station's registry of transports—we're out of subs. They've all been taken by the facility's personnel to evacuate or were destroyed in the explosions."

"Now," Sabine added, "the good news is that we found another way out. The bad news is, that way is the Ghost."

"How is that bad news?" asked Ezra.

"Because the only way out is up," Hera answered, "and the only way up is through the water. That'll take some retrofitting, which will take time."

"But more importantly," Sabine added, "even if we do finish before we're all underwater, the engine output underwater will be several times lower than the submersibles had."

"So?" Zeb asked. "Who cares how long it'll take gettin' to the surface? At least we'll be there."

"Because we won't make it that far," Ezra said in a resigned voice.

"He's right," added Kanan as he looked to the side absently. "I couldn't feel it before because of the drugs, but there's something out there. Something big." He frowned. "And I don't think it plans on letting us leave without a fight."

"Why didn't it eat all the Imps then?" Zeb asked.

"Because they had the tech to outrun it," Sabine answered. "We won't."

"Maybe we don't need it," Ezra said thoughtfully. "If we get close enough, I might be able to establish a mental connection with it. I've done it before."

"True," his girlfriend admitted, "but that's a pretty big risk we'd be taking. That thing's big enough to eat the Ghost several times over. If we're wrong, we'll find out pretty quick."

"She's right," Kanan said. "That's our last resort. Any other ideas?"

Nearly half a minute of silence passed before Alen spoke up. "I've got nothing. Unless one of you says different, I'm pretty sure our last resort is gonna have to be our only one. There's no way that thing'll let us go unless it's either on our side or very distracted."

"Or dead."

The two crews snapped their attention to the now-helmetless speaker, who until that point had been generally silent.

Alen gave his brother a look. "Xel?" he asked uncertainly. "What are you talkin' about?"

The Mando frowned at his terminal in concentration. "I'm talking about killing the Skra'akan. According to their records, that's what that thing's called. Apparently, the Imperials built this base here for precisely this situation. Anyone who isn't wanted gets eaten by the Skra'akan, as a sort of natural security system. The station emits a constant, low-level sonic pulse to keep it from attacking, but if I turn it off and activate its turbolaser defenses—"

"I've seen the schematics, Xel," Sabine interrupted. "This station doesn't have nearly enough firepower to take out a creature of that size."

"That's not what it's for," he answered, eyes lighting up in excitement as he read something on the screen. "They're just the lure. The station is the weapon."

Ezra and Sabine exchanged a look, the former asking, "Whaaat do you mean?"

"I mean…I'm gonna use this base's power core to turn this facility into a bomb."

They all stared at him for several seconds before Alen spoke up. "Whoa…whoa-whoa-whoa, hold up. This place runs on hydroelectric power, Xel. Energy constantly being collected, used, and recycled. There's no central power core to speak of."

"That's true," he conceded, still typing, "the primary system is based on hydroelectric. But any good engineer knows that a facility this far from civilization, in such a hazardous environment, would need a—"

"Backup generator," Alen finished, eyes lighting up in realization.

"And for a station this size," Sabine added, "I'd wager it could power a small city."

"Uh huh," Xel confirmed. "And as luck would have it, that generator's core—"

He pressed a button that transmitted a 3D image to the holoprojector of the control room.

"—is nuclear."

Another brief period of silence passed before Alen turned to his brother with a suspicious expression on his face. "Wait…what are you not telling us?"

Xel frowned a little. "Because the Grand Inquisitor overloaded the station's automated security, I have to stay here to operate the gun turrets."

Tension immediately filled the room.

"You're not coming with us," Alen said flatly.

Xel's jaw tightened visibly. "No. Not at first."

The control center was silent for a full five seconds before it erupted into noise.

"This is insane!"

"Are you completely—"

"It's not worth—"

"Enough!" Xel shouted, the force of his voice shaking the room. "I've been calculating and working through this plan in my head ever since I felt the chain of explosions rock the base."

Iola stared at him aghast. "Obviously, you haven't worked through it enough if you still think this is a good idea."

"I don't plan on staying here when it goes off, but I need to get that thing's attention somehow." Xel sighed and worked at the terminal. "Look. Look here. The enrichment ratio and mass density of the uranium core is such that the maximum yield of a converted bomb would have maybe a half-mile radius. You guys evacuate in the Ghost, get to minimum safe distance while I hose the Skra'akan down with the station's turbolaser array and get it to hug the facility, then eject out an airlock and use my jetpack to get out and detonate the bomb."

"Half a mile is still entirely too far for you or your jetpack to get you," Alen said. "That creature will catch you long before you make that distance."

"Yes," Xel admitted. "Which is why I'm going to put it between me and the station." He projected a series of complex mathematical calculations on the holoscreen. "I've done the math. The space, plus the shock absorption of the water, plus the approximate mass, density, and strength of that thing's body puts my minimum safe distance around a quarter mile. Add to that my beskar'gam, and I can probably get even closer."

"That's assuming you'll even be able to get that far," Iola said, tone alarmed. "If the submersibles could barely outrun the Skra'akan, what makes you think you have a chance?"

"With any luck, it won't spot me until I'm already quite a distance away. And if not, then I'll fight it for every inch."

Alen got right up in Xel's face. "Xel, that thing is the size of a star cruiser. Exactly how much fight do you think you'll be able to manage?"

The Mando's lips pursed hard. "Enough."

Alen stared at him for a while, frowning hard, then turned to the others. "Can my brother and I have the room?"

Slowly, silently, everyone else filed out of the control room into an adjacent hallway.

The Jedi turned to Xel. "Are you absolutely out of your mind?" He threw his arms up to his sides. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to save our friends."

"And commit suicide, apparently. It's death by explosion or death by giant sea monster—"

"Or death by drowning," Xel interrupted, "if we don't get moving soon."

Alen sighed. "Xel—this is crazy, even for you. I know how much your visit to Eran screwed with your head, I know you still feel a degree of guilt for Hypori—"

"This isn't about Hypori."

A pause. "Are you sure? Because this is starting to look an awful lot like a deathwish to me."

Xel frowned, eyes narrowed. "You think this is how I want to go out? Thirty thousand feet under the sea, parsecs away from home and family and everything I love? I hate oceans, especially deep-sea regions. You think I want to go out drowning, or in a blaze of nuclear fire? Eaten by some primeval monster?" He snorted. "Di'kut, please. For once in my life, I have a future that's solid, something that I can touch and actively look forward to. I have friends, a family, a woman who's crazy about me and I about her. Why in haran would I give that up for a lackluster death in my least favorite kind of place?" He took a breath. "I know what I'm doing, Alen. It'll work."

Alen frowned and rolled his eyes. "I know, Xel. This is you we're talking about. I know it will work. But will you? When the explosion subsides and the dust settles, will you still work?"

Xel smirked. "If everything goes according to plan, I'll walk away from this with a few scrapes and bumps and one hell of a story to tell."

"Yes. If. If it goes according to plan."

Xel took his brother's shoulders. "Al'ika, trust me. I have zero intention of dying today. I will come back."

Alen frowned harder, searching his brother's eyes. "You better. Because if I have to be the one to explain to Maila that I let you go through with something this stupid and crazy, I'm gonna be pissed."

The Mando grinned and laughed, slapping Alen's arm. "Trust me, vod, that's not a conversation I'd wish on my worst enemy."

Alen chuckled a little. "Because that woman is scary."

Xel just smiled. "I'll be fine. I promise."

The Jedi took a long breath and nodded firmly. "Okay."

All told, it took Xel and Sabine only a half hour to convert the station's backup generator core into a usable nuclear warhead, given that their ancestors practically pioneered the technology. That, and they both specialized in explosive ordnance. Everything was set to go through with Xel's plan, much to the discomfort of all present except the man himself.

"The Ghost's engines are successfully hardened against rapid salinization," Hera said over comlink. "All passengers are aboard."

"Roger."

Xel fidgeted and played with the stem of an underwater propulsion unit he'd scavenged from a maintenance station. Currently, it was attached to his jetpack, and would serve as a secondary rocket to get him as far as possible before his pack shorted out.

"Powering down the station's sonic emitters." Xel hit a few controls, a mechanical whine decreasing in tone over several seconds. "The moment the water settles, you swing back and get me, all right? Because I guarantee that my jetpack won't be working after a shockwave like that, and I am not swimming all the way to the surface."

"You got it," Hera answered.

"One thing we didn't really go over," said Ezra, "how are you supposed to hold up to the water pressure? I know your armor can take it, but you're not exactly sealed in completely."

"It's the body suit," Sabine replied. "It's designed to stand up to extreme changes in pressure and temperature. If it can hold up to the vacuum of space, it can hold up to this."

"Ah, gotcha."

Xel's hands flew across the defense controls. "Sonar picked up the Skra'akan. Taking the first salvo."

Over the space of about a minute, one salvo of green plasma after the next cut through the ocean's dark depths. It took another thirty seconds for the station's scanners to pick up a response, and when the creature did respond, Xel hardly needed sensors to know it. He could feel its rage through the very hull of the station. One good look at the facility's forward visual scanners was enough to send a massive chill down Xel's spine. He averted his eyes from the feed and grit his teeth, punching the controls on a half-dozen turrets and sending more plasma fire into the creature. It howled harder, but this time, there was no fear response, only the primal surge of bloodlust he'd felt on his very first hunt in the jungles of Dxun.

So he grinned behind his helmet and kept firing.

One blow after the next slammed into the Skra'akan until it closed to about a quarter mile. Xel activated his comlink when this happened.

"Ghost, take the side exit and get to minimum safe distance."

"Roger that," Hera replied.

"May the Force be with you, Xel," Alen said.

"Oya Xel'ika," said Sabine. "Kyr'amu meg skanah." Kill that hateful thing.

Xel grinned. "Elek, Sab'ika. Ib'tuur jatne tuur ash'ad kyr'amur."

Sabine chuckled malevolently, prompting Ezra to ask what he meant. "'Today is a good day for someone else to die.' Ori'haat."

Caden's hands flew over the firing controls, further luring the Skra'akan in as its massive body impacted against the fore of the facility. A look at the station's external camera feeds gave Xel an even more detailed vision of its body. Large tentacles protruded from much of its grotesque body, with its head long and massive, attached to the rest of the body by a long, sinuous neck. Its hide was a cross between that of a fish and a mollusk, half-scale, half-shell. All hardened. A closer inspection of its armored hide made Xel briefly wonder whether or not the nuke would be enough to kill it. He had no more time to consider this, as the Ghost flew from one of the station's side hangars.

I'm up.

Xel took a deep breath, releasing it slowly as he made his way to a nearby emergency airlock. Taking another deep, calming breath and focusing himself in the Force, he hit the initial control to fill the chamber with water, then punched the release and thrust himself into the darkened recesses of Mon Cala's northern ocean. Pushing himself from the edge of the airlock, Xel just swam for the moment, not wanting to draw the creature's attention just yet. Speaking of which, he glanced back to find it opening its jaws wide enough to swallow most of the facility's exposed veneer. A gigantic circular mouth formed fully, jowls retracting to reveal row upon row of speeder-sized fangs that crunched into the hull of the station and caused major ruptures to its atmospheric containment.

The sight immediately gave a new urgency to his movements, and he forced himself to face forward to avoid being frozen in sheer terror. What he saw moments later overrode his measures. When Xel felt a nudge from the Force, he hesitantly turned back toward the station to see a single massive yellow eye staring directly at him, its lids closing halfway as the creature's jaw loosened, and it released a chunk of the station.

And immediately turned toward him.

A split-second of hesitation preceded the activation of both the propulsion unit and his jetpack, his armored body rocketing away from the Skra'akan at a massive speed as his HUD kept track of his distance from the station. Xel looked back forward toward the darkness, finding the empty black much easier to deal with than the ancient creature at his back. A bone-shaking roar vibrated through the water and dragged out for ten full seconds before Xel realized something was wrong. Namely—he wasn't getting any further away. Looking back, the Mando felt his heart leap directly from his chest when he saw the Skra'akan.

And the very much open, circular, fang-rimmed orifice currently in the process of sucking in the ocean—and Xel.

Feeling panic rising within him, Xel thrashed about and jammed his finger into the control of his jetpack—which was rapidly overheating under the strain of operating in such adverse conditions. Suddenly, a wave of calming energy came over him, and he felt his heart rate begin to stabilize. Looking out into the empty depths, he closed his eyes, opening himself to the Force, and felt his brother's presence clear as day, a source of hope and calm in the middle of his overwhelming fear. His dark blue eyes snapped open a moment later, turning toward the gaping maw barely two hundred meters behind him.

Both arms snapped toward and pointed directly at it, both WESTAR-35s armed and ready, along with every single micro-rocket on his person. A growl built in Xel's chest as he took a deep breath, releasing it a moment later in a blood-curdling battle roar as he let loose every scrap of ordnance on his person into the jaws of the beast. Explosion after explosion impacted the soft tissue of its gullet, and about twenty rockets later, the vacuum stopped, allowing Xel to jet away from the Skra'akan. The water propulsion system conked out seconds later, and he disengaged it to get rid of the dead weight.

Xel pursed his lips as the distance counter on his HUD reached .2 miles. A quick glance back revealed the Skra'akan rapidly gaining on him, its maw barely thirty meters away. His eyes squeezed shut as his right hand reached to a control on his gauntlet.

Sorry, vod. This one's gonna be close.

Later, Xel Caden would wonder at what possessed him to hit the trigger that early, given that the minimum distance he'd given to Alen was a bit on the…low side. Meaning that the quarter mile he'd fed his brother and the others was about .05 miles less than it should've been (a fact that Sabine probably also knew, but conveniently left out of the discussion). All told, he was a full tenth of a mile closer to the blast than he should've been, which meant that the sheer concussive force of the explosion should've rendered him unconscious. As it stood, the initial detonation reduced the rock and steel of Gulomi Base to little but dust and shrapnel, as well as the majority of the surrounding terrain.

The Skra'akan's natural armor, given that it could hold up to sustained turbolaser fire, resisted much of the initial fireball, but the concussive impact that followed virtually shattered its armored body. Taking into consideration that Xel faded in and out of consciousness in the seconds that followed the deafening explosion, he didn't get to see much of the gory details. The good news was that the majority of the concussive force and heat energy dissipated around the Skra'akan's corpse like water around rock. Given that he was practically sitting in its mouth when the bomb went off, the collective damage of the nuke transferred to him was of just enough of a minimal degree that he could survive.

The bad news was that the force that he did take knocked all the wind out of him and caused several considerable stress fractures—and not just to his bones. His body suit was torn in multiple locations, as well as the skin underneath. The seal on his helmet was likewise compromised, and between the pressure and leaking water, the oxygen flow to his brain was seriously disrupted. The impact of several tons of water relocating itself all around him was the final straw that rendered him unconscious.

"Is he alive?"

Alen's eyes were squeezed shut, his hands on Xel's chest and forehead. "Yes, but only just."

Ice-blue eyes slid open, zeroing in on the body below as their owner channeled the Force into his limbs and concentrated on his brother.

Come on, you stubborn oak…

Seconds later, wet, rasping coughs split the air of the Ghost's dripping cargo bay as Xel slowly regained consciousness, much to the relief of all present. The Mando awoke to six pairs of concerned eyes on his face, blinking up at them owlishly.

"Um—"

Iola interrupted before he could say one more word, protectively crushing his form to her taller body. "Xel Caden, don't you ever scare me like that again!"

The room fell awkwardly silent.

Ezra eventually turned to Alen. "Uh, isn't he your brother?"

Alen shot him a look.

Ezra shrugged. "Just sayin'. Seems like that should be your line."

Alen just sighed and shook his head, stooping down next to the embracing pair as they slowly pulled apart, Xel hissing and tensing as he began to feel the fractures.

"When you're recovered," said the Jedi, "we're gonna have a very long talk about how you keep finding yourself in these near-death situations."

A few slow blinks later, and Xel's lips stretched into a toothy grin, the Mando chuckling for a moment before cutting off abruptly in pain. He nodded slowly as Iola rubbed his shoulder. "Agreed."

"For now, though," said Sabine as they helped him up, "you just rest. I think you've done enough for one day."

"A day?" Alen asked. "Try a year. He'll be lucky if Maila lets him anywhere near his ship after this."

Xel's face paled. "Uh…about that—"

"No, Xel, I'm not talking to her for you."

"Alen—"

"No."

"Vod, please!"

"You made your bed, Xel, and you're gonna lie in it if I have to drag you there kicking and screaming."

Xel made inane grumbling noises as he was half-carried to the Ghost's recovery deck. He was a little more coherent once he'd been laid on a medical berth. "Alen?"

"Yes?"

He gripped his older brother's hand. "Thank you."

Alen sighed. "You should never have to thank family for being there. But you're welcome. Now…rest."

Alen placed his hand on Xel's forehead, relieved when he felt him drop off moments later.


AN: Wow…longest chapter of this story, bar none. I really didn't want to drag the Ghost arc out to five chapters though. Plenty more to come before the end of this story, another 14 chapters by my calculation (though one of those is technically the epilogue). I expect that all told, Kandosii'tal will easily hit 400K words before this is all over, which is…huge. But anyway.

This chapter…I have a few things to say about this chapter. First off, there were parts of it that were unreasonably difficult for me to write, mainly because I started hyperventilating while typing. Something that's always stuck with me about this story is the similarities and differences personality-wise between the brothers. They're two sides of the same coin, not always agreeing but always ultimately on the same side. Add to that the fact that they're also two sides of my personality, and you get a weird psychological mix that opens itself to quite a few possibilities conflict-wise.

In this case, it's phobias—more specifically, fear of extremely deep water. Not for the water itself, but what usually lives in the water. I remember the first time I saw Dead Man's Chest—the scenes with the Kraken had to be some of the most unnerving and tense that I've ever experienced, mostly when it was dark. Encountering something like that above water is bad enough, but under? In its home territory? Frack no!

So, suffice to say, in the scenes where I was writing about the Skra'akan (which A, is an actual creature in Legends, and B, was likely based off said Kraken), I had the misfortune of my overactive imagination going on overdrive, especially during the vacuum section. So…yeah, not the most fun for me to write, but I felt it necessary to add an element of…well, humanity to Xel. No matter how powerful you are, everyone's afraid of something. Granted, I think this is a pretty reasonable fear, but it took Alen's interference just to keep Xel from being paralyzed in terror.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this arc as much as I did writing it. I don't know how my output rate is gonna be for the foreseeable future, but I'm hoping to keep my momentum going. School's back up now though, so we'll see.

Please show me some love and leave a favorite and/or review.

Oya, vode.

- CDrake