Wharn wanted to tell them everything: that he'd been stupid and reckless and foolish, that Mjalu's death was his fault, that they should have left him to die. He couldn't get any of it out, though, not when they were fleeing for their lives through a city suddenly turned against them.

Their escape from the mining complex had been chaotic, and that confusion was why they got as far as they did through the city before security forces located them. They heard the sounds of speeder bikes swooping down from overhead and ducked for cover inside the doorway of an abandoned building just as the first laser blasts came raining down on them. The building shook as the biked pulled over them and started to veer for another pass.

"We can't stay here," Jodram said. His lightsaber still blazed in his hand. "They'll bring reinforcements any minute."

"Are we trying to get to the lifts?" asked Wharn as he held the side of his chest where his ribs had been cracked; he was panting and every deep breath stung.

"Where else can we go? We can't hide anywhere and they'll keep throwing people at us." Jodram looked to Jade. "Are you okay? Are you with us?"

She nodded, but her eyes were hollow, her expression blank.

"Master Mjalu-" Wharn wheezed, "Jade, I'm so-"

"Save it," Jodram said, "Listen!"

The drone of the speeder bike was getting louder. No, bikes.

Wharn bent forward and looked out the door. "I see one. He's coming around."

"Get inside!" Jodram pulled him back by the arm. "Get ready to jump."

"All of us?"

Jodram tapped Jade on the shoulder, hard. "Ready?"

She nodded but still didn't speak. Jodram glanced out the door again, then stepped fully out. As Jodram raised his lightsaber and batted back the first two laser-shots from the bike, Wharn stepped out to join him. The bike shifted aim slightly to fire at Wharn, which gave Jodram his chance. When the bike swooped low the young man jumped high, right onto the bike itself. A Force-shove knocked the rider onto the rooftop. Jodram wrestled the bike into submission and spun it around in a tight circle. When he brought it around again Wharn and Jade were ready. They jumped onto the speeder's back and Jodram gunned the engine, pushing them as fast as they could to the far wall of the cavern.

Laser blasts whistled past them. Wharn, barely clinging to Jade who in turn clung to Jodram, took out his saber to ward off shots from the three other speeders in pursuit. The city streets and rooftops whipped by fast. He caught only a few but spared most of his concentration for simply hanging on; Jodram was throwing them into all sorts of slides and dodges to avoid getting hit. A speeder like this had no shields or armor; one lucky hit and they were all dead.

The one thing their craft had going for it was that it was fast. The cavern wall and the lift platform were coming up already. Wharn could see a couple Mandalorians on the platform scramble to the edge and start shooting at them. Jodram was driving, Wharn was in the back, and Jade was sandwiched between them. It was all they could do to juke and slip and slide to avoid the blasts coming at them from both directions now, and even if they got to the platform Wharn had no idea what they were going to do about the Mandalorians.

"Hold on!" Jodram called. "We're going in hot!"

"What are you doing?" Wharn asked, but Jodram didn't respond. He just dove toward the platform, toward the Mandos, barely slowing down.

When Jodram dropped he dropped right onto a Mando. The impact knocked the mercenary off his feet; Jodram leveled out but didn't slow down. He slammed nose-first into the next armored figure; the bike jumped as they ran straight over him. A third Mandalorian nailed their speeder with his rifle; the whole thing lurched and Wharn knew the engine would blow with another hit.

So did Jodram. He called for them all the bail and they bailed. Wharn dove off, trying to aim his unbroken ribs toward the platform, and used the Force to cushion his fall. The errant, smoking speeder charged ahead and ran down one more Mandalorian before careening into the canyon wall and exploding.

It was Jade who tugged Wharn to his feet. Jodram was already at the controls for the lift, pounding on them like that could get the tube here quicker. The other speeder bikes had caught up with them and were circling around for a pass, and two more Mandalorians were on their feet and attacking.

Jade still seemed out of it but Wharn and Jodram charged with sabers blazing. Wharn bounced back two shots, ducked under a third, and came up close to the Mando. He swung his saber across the warrior's chest and was shocked when it deflected off the spotless armor plating.

Beskar'gam, of course. The Mando swiped at Wharn with a knife and he barely jumped back in time. The blade cut across his shoulder, tearing clothes and skin and drawing blood. Wharn howled in pain; the Mando spun for a kick aimed at his broken ribs. He flicked his lightsaber down to block it, sizzling blade against beskar legpiece. The Mando still had a rifle in his other hand and swung it up to fire, even though he was off-balance. At that range it was almost impossible to miss.

Jodram's blaze sizzled across the Mando's back. He grunted, lost balance even more and tried to recover. Wharn saw an opening and took it. He lunged forward and thrust his saber into the man's side, between his armor plating, through his ribs into his lungs and heart. Wharn felt the man's death in the Force: the pain, the shock, the disbelief fast surrendered. It was satisfying to feel.

He pulled the blade out and let the body collapse. The and Jodram looked at each other across the corpse and heard the awful whine of more approaching speeders.

"Guys!" Jade shouted. "Ride's here!"

They sprinted for the lift and threw themselves inside. The doors closed before the speeders got there and the capsule shot upward for the planet surface.

"Do you think they can stop it?" asked Wharn as they shuddered with fast motion.

"I'm sure they can stop it," Jodram said. "I'm more worried about whoever's up top, waiting for us."

"There was nobody when we came down."

"They hadn't fully secured the place yet. We only got inside because we were lucky."

"Unlucky," muttered Jade, and neither boy responded. It was impossible to disagree.

Wharn was surprised when they made it to the top. He was surprised when the door opened and nobody was there to shoot at them. The three of them ran across the empty hangar toward the exit and were about to plunge outside before Jodram called a halt.

"Goggles! Breath-masks!" he reminded.

"I don't have them!" Wharn said. He was lucky to have his lightsaber.

"Here." Jodram ripped off a piece of his tunic that was already torn in the fight. "Cover your mouth at least."

Wharn did the best he could. This part of the planet must have been turning itself away from Varadan's sun because the valley had fallen into shadow and the sky above was the color of hot flame. When they stumbled outside he held a hand over the top half of his face so he was looking through a slit between fingers. It kept out most of the flying dust particles but his eyes still itched. How he was going to climb up and down mountains with one hand he didn't know.

He heard the sound of spacecraft engines and decided he'd probably never find out.

"For the rocks! Run!" Jodram said. All three of them raced away from the landing complex. Wharn risked a look skyward to see a ship plunging down on them: blunt-bodied and flying almost vertically. A Mandalorian attack shuttle, probably.

They reached the rocks and tried to scramble up the jagged slope. The Mandalorian ship fired a few shots but they went high and wide. They impacted on the mountainside ten or twenty meters away and shook the entire face.

"How do we get back to the ship?" Wharn shouted over the explosions, the roaring engine, the savage desert winds.

"We have to take care of them first!" Jodram shoved a hand skyward.

There was another explosion as more lasers hit. Wharn said, "They're trying to flush us out! They want to capture us if they can!"

"That doesn't mean they'll let us get away!"

"No, but-"

Another explosion cracked through the air, but the mountainside barely trembled. That one was different. It had been a bigger blast, far bigger, but further away. And in the direction they were trying to go.

"They found the ship," Jade muttered. "It's gone."

"We don't- We're not sure," Wharn stuttered.

Jade lowered her head. Wharn looked to Jodram for guidance. He was the one who'd gotten them this far. But now his single-minded determination had melted away. The young man who looked back at Wharn was dirty, exhausted, and out of ideas.

-{}-

In a grim way, Jade found herself waiting for capture. It would mean some answers before they killed her, some fulfillment of the revelation that had just rocked her world. There would be pain too, untold agony before she died at the hands of a Sith, but right then it almost felt worth it.

The Mandalorians must have pinpointed their location because their shuttle set to hover over the mountainside and four troopers dropped out, slowing their fall onto the slope with bursts from their jetpacks.

"What do we do?" whispered Wharn through the tattered cloth covering his mouth and nose.

"I don't know," Jodram rasped. She'd known him all her life but she'd never seen him so panicked, felt that panic so strongly in their Force bond. She felt him reach out to her, desperate and mournful. I'm so sorry, he said. I'm sorry I couldn't save you.

She couldn't reply to that. She peeked over the rocks and saw the Mandalorians shimmying toward them. There was no place to run and barely any place to fight. It was over.

And then there was the sound, the roaring of another set of spacecraft engines. She felt Jodram's sprit fall even further but hers barely budged. She already knew what was ahead of them.

Then she heard the sound of chain-linked laserfire and looked up. Red blasts slammed into the side of the hovering Mandalorian ship. It swiveling to return fire, popped off a few shots, then veered and accelerated away. The air around them howled as two long-winged starfighters went chasing after it.

When the next shuttle came and opened its drop doors the Mandalorians were ready. Forgetting their quarry, they'd dropped to positions of cover on the rocky mountainside and opened fire the second the first bodies jumped out. Their preparation did little good: Jade counted five lightsabers springing to life before the Jedi even hit ground.

Jodram was the first one up, the first to charge. Wharn and Jade followed and she prayed he wouldn't get himself killed, not when they were so close to an impossible escape. The Mandalorians fought hard; Jade saw one of them get close enough to a Jedi to slide a vibroblade into her thigh and kick her to the ground. That warrior only got a second to enjoy his victory; a blue lightsaber blade slipped between beskar plates and took his arm off at the shoulder. That same lightsaber spun around bobbed fast over a set of outcroppings and speared another Mando through the side. In the sandstorm the distant body wielding it was only a dark blur, constantly moving, but the luminous blue blade spun once more, shot ahead, vanished inside the chest of the third Mandalorian, then came out blazing.

Even before Jade felt her in the Force, she knew her aunt had come for her.

Attacked from all sides, the Mandalorian didn't last long. The survivors fell back, ducked behind rocks and reduced themselves to sniping ineffectively through the sandstorm. As the shuttle drooped low and the wounded Jedi was helped to the ship, the three apprentices converged around the small but commanding figure of Jaina Solo Fel.

"Come on, you three!" Jaina's eyes blazed. She hadn't even bothered with goggles and a mask, and her gray hair furled in the wind like a banner. "We've got more hostiles right behind us!"

Jodram helped pull Wharn into the shuttle's mouth. As Jaina helped Jade about she leaned close and asked, "Master Mjalu?" like she already knew the answer.

Jade shook her head. Jaina nodded and called to the pilot. The shuttle doors slammed shut, locking them away from the harsh atmosphere. The shuttle jumped skyward so hard they were thrown against the back bulkhead, but not hard enough to injure anyone.

They didn't seem to have a healer with them, but Jaina herself took out a first aid kit and started looking them over after they'd escaped to hyperspace. She checked over Jade first, saying, "You were down there for almost a week with no message. I figured something had to be wrong. We were hiding behind the moon for almost two days, waiting for some sign of where you were."

Beside her, Wharn tried to sit up. "Master, I'm so sorry! It was my fault! I-" He winced for the pain in his ribs.

Jaina looked him over more thoroughly. Her eyes went wide at the scorched clothing over his chest.

"Savyar was down there," Jodram said. "She killed Master Mjalu. She's a Sith."

"No," Wharn said. "Not Savyar. Darth Xoran."

"It doesn't matter." Jade grabbed her aunt's arm and squeezed hard. "Not her name. But her… I know her."

Jodram frowned. "You've met her? How?"

"I felt her. All that hate, that anger. I remembered it, all this time. I didn't know what it was. I just thought…" She clenched Jaina's arm enough to hurt but didn't let go. "It was her. Twelve years ago. She was the one who killed my mother."

Jade's eyes held her aunt's tight, imploring, asking a question she couldn't speak. Shame wilted Jaina's face and she looked away.

END PART TWO