Quietly seated on a plush couch beside Derek, Sakiko watched the flurry of activity on the other side of the ample gathering room with a small smile. A Paneau agent kindly offered both her and Derek some fruits to eat while they waited, but she politely declined, having already taken a large drink from him minutes earlier. Derek ignored the agent completely, however, and the kind young man left with a courteous albeit disappointed bow. She was already plenty well aware of Derek's sour mood, and intent on diffusing his frustration, she gently gripped his hand that sat on his thigh, keeping her voice soft.

"We'll leave soon," she pledged to him. "It would be rude for us to so suddenly reject their hospitality."

Derek only gave a deep grunt in response, though she felt his hand tighten the slightest bit around hers. Even though he wouldn't see it, the gesture broadened her smile, and she eventually returned her attention to the others just as Wyliaa continued her affectionate assault on Wil within the Paneau safehouse on Coruscant.

Wil's embarrassed smile wasn't at all a deterrent to Wyliaa's impossibly tight hug or the incessant kisses she planted all over his face in between her grateful words. "You smart, 'andsome, brave boy... You saved us."

Wil shook his head to dismiss her praise. "I had a lot of help, Wyliaa..."

"Yes, of course," she agreed as she released him, turning instead to face Sakiko with a wide smile as she continued to speak to Wil. "I wish you could 'ave seen zhe look on zheir faces as she marched in wizh zhat...zhat beast. Completely under 'er control, such a fearsome, ferocious creature...zhere to scare zhem all away, if it did not eat zhem first."

Sakiko maintained a demure expression. "I did not command it to do anything it didn't already want to do. I was merely a guide for its primal nature. It was acting only as it normally would, with no further influence from me."

Wyliaa laughed, reveling in the memory she was so excited to recount. "A guide... You were zhe cross'airs! Rakos' guards were so, so scared. Zhey could not bring it down, even wizh all zhe blasters and weapons zhey 'ad. And even in such a big crowd in zhe cantina...it only went after zhe Zygerrians. No one else was 'urt. It was like it could sense zhat zhey were zhe aggressors, and zheir power over us drew it to zhem. It was brilliant!"

Impressed but also intensely curious, Wil had hung on Wyliaa's every word, briefly glancing at Sakiko for her input. "That's incredible. What kind of creature was it?"

Though Wyliaa had begun to respond, she couldn't decide on a proper answer, leaving Sakiko to explain.

"A feral, canine hunter native to the lower levels, commonly seen prowling darker sectors during the night." She paused, adopting a more elusive tone. "I...might have known where to find one and how to redirect it a bit...higher than where it's used to hunting. It will not be hungry for quite some time."

"I think my dad and I almost ran into one when we first landed here," Wil breathed with awe, making the connection. "We were lucky to avoid it, although just barely, and it sounded...dangerous." Looking back and forth between the two, Wil suddenly appeared worried. "What about the other slaves? What happened to them?"

Wyliaa gripped Wil's shoulders, her smile returning in earnest. "Zhey are all free," she beamed. "Zhe Zygerrians who were left, maybe a 'andful of Rakos' weaker guards, 'ad no means of containing us, so...we walked out zhe front door of zhe cantina. Every single one of us. And it is because of you, Wil, and your plan to get us out. Sakiko told me it 'ad all been your idea from zhe beginning. "

Wil had again adopted an abashed expression, still unwilling to accept such accolades from her. Wyliaa wasted little time in pulling him into another tight hug and round of quick kisses to express her appreciation, far from tiring of it.

"Let the boy have a breath or two, Miss Wyliaa," Ceyelle interrupted their moment with a jovial smile as she returned from the small side room Horatio had been set up in. After his bacta treatment, Ceyelle had taken over Horatio's care and hadn't yet allowed anyone to see him, keeping Wil and Wyliaa from straying too far in the Paneau complex. As both of them stepped up to her within moments, Ceyelle quickly waved off their questions she knew were coming.

"He's alright," she preempted calmly, reaching a hand up to Wil's shoulder to console him. "He's resting. I got some bactade into him, so that will do him some good. He will just need time to heal."

Seeing an opportunity, Sakiko spoke up softly. "Perhaps I can be of assistance?"

Wil immediately agreed and pleaded to Ceyelle on Sakiko's behalf. "She can help heal him, Ceyelle. She fixed my broken collarbone."

Although still appearing somewhat wary of the two Loreean strangers, Ceyelle eventually nodded, seemingly swayed only by Wil's genuine insistence. With another subtle squeeze of Derek's hand before she stood, Sakiko crossed the room and followed Ceyelle into the quiet darkness where she heard only the soft, even breaths of slumber. She found Horatio sound asleep in a plush bed, likely the greatest comfort he'd felt in days, and only after she sat at his left side and placed a hand gently on his arm did Ceyelle finally step away and leave her alone with him.

As she drew on the Force to begin healing him, Sakiko looked over his worn face, thinking back to their first encounter more than ten years ago. A decade only passed as mere minutes to her, having already lived nearly two human lifetimes herself, but what all had Horatio faced in that time? Would he recognize her, remember her? Could his memory or cognitive functions have been damaged by his drowning in the toxic water? Ceyelle hadn't mentioned his mental state as she had reported to them earlier, but perhaps she didn't know how to assess him?

Sakiko could feel Horatio's slowly rousing consciousness as she continued to mend his fracture, but she remained silent at his side to allow him the extra time to rest. It wasn't until he suddenly choked and coughed with a wet, rugged sound from deep in his lungs that his eyes finally opened as he awakened. He didn't immediately appear alarmed at finding someone sitting beside him as he recovered his breath, but as he was still somewhat out of it, she was fairly certain he hadn't yet recognized her. With a small smile, she kept her voice soft to avoid startling him.

"I thought I told you to mind that cough, Mr. Sheridan."

Focusing his weak gaze on her, Horatio studied her a long moment before realization finally brightened his eyes. "Sakiko..."

She smiled warmly, still resting her hand atop his arm. "It's good to see you again."

He continued to process his thoughts a moment more before he became intensely confused, unable to explain her sudden presence beside him in his haze. "What are you doing here?"

Far from being insulted by his inquiry, she answered him calmly. "Well, just as it had on Corellia all those years ago...the Force called me to you."

Her response hadn't cleared any of his confusion, prompting her to continue. "I suppose I should say it called me to your son first. I found him not long after you two were separated by that explosion, and I've been helping him ever since. He recognized me and told me he was a Rys'tihn, but...I knew there was something else about him I couldn't quite identify. I didn't know he was your son until just a bit ago when Ceyelle brought us here."

Even in the darkness of the room, color seemed to slowly drain from Horatio's face as he listened to her, and it perplexed her. Why was he just as reluctant for her to know that Wil was his son as Wil was to admit to her that Horatio was his father?

Horatio's voice was weak. "...how do you know the Rys'tihns?"

"I spent several weeks with them while they were searching for Cordira Natiyr a few months ago."

Horatio appeared completely unprepared for her answer, only blinking in response. It was a complicated explanation she had given only once before...

"After you and I parted ways on Corellia," she recounted softly, "I...did some research on my own. Before I gave the Jedi the warning you had for the Natiyrs, I wanted to be sure I was giving them true intel. I read up on those families as much as I could, learned everything I could about the experiments, and I did everything short of tracking down those labs myself before I shared the information you gave me.

"I knew the New Republic had eventually begun their sweeps, but I continued to keep an eye out for any of those names popping up where they shouldn't... And eventually, I spotted the movements of a Darkmyre. I followed the trail to Nar Shaddaa and got the attention of the Natiyr search party, and they allowed me to help them. We then found Jake Redgrave on Myrkr, but Cordira was lost again, and we were all sent away...until you found her."

As if tired of explaining the same thing a dozen times, Horatio hardly refrained from rolling his eyes. "More like she found me."

Sakiko smiled warmly. "So I heard. I believe that, just like it brought me to your son here, the Force brought you to Myrkr so you were exactly where you needed to be when she needed you." She paused briefly, recalling their brief albeit personal conversation on Corellia. "Isn't that what you told me? That's what she had asked of you? The woman who had saved your life... She was Wil's mother, wasn't she?"

A sudden chill blanketed the room as Horatio instantly closed himself off from her, turning his face away from her and refusing to answer her. Undeterred, she continued to share her healing energy through her touch on his arm.

"I am sorry," she began softly, sincerity saturating her words. "I shouldn't have been so forward. It's a delicate subject, I understand." Though he remained turned from her, she continued carefully. "We only met once before. Even in just the brief glimpses I got of you in that cantina before you followed me...I could tell that you do everything in your power to put off the appearance of a mercenary, of a dangerous man that everyone should avoid and no one should be close to... But I know you care. What you did for Cordira... That was honorable. And you wanted no credit for it, even when it could have cleared your name with the Jedi."

The silence hung between them a long moment before Horatio finally returned his gaze to her, although only partially. "...I was asked to."

"But you didn't have to," Sakiko countered with a wan smile. "That's the distinction." Afraid of having riled him too much from his resting state, Sakiko slowly sat back from him and prepared to leave.

"You think far too little of yourself, Horatio," she ended gracefully, sharing a meaningful gaze with him as she stood. "Wil already thinks the galaxy of you."

With soft, elegant steps, she began to return to the common room, but Horatio unexpectedly spoke up behind her and kept her from getting far.

"...did it change what you thought of him?"

Puzzled by the question, she turned back to face him, studying his anxious expression. "I don't understand what you mean."

Horatio stared hard at the ceiling over his head, refusing to meet her gaze. "Wil... Did learning that I'm...that I'm his father...did that change how you felt about him?"

A peaceful understanding slowly washed over her heart, endearing them both to her further. She considered her words briefly before she responded, watching his reaction closely.

"Of course, it did," she answered bluntly, softening the rest of her response. "But you've not asked the proper question."

She took a few careful steps closer, returning to his side. "While I did just spend some time with the Rys'tihns and Natiyrs months ago...I never mentioned you, and they never spoke of you to me, either. I don't know what kind of history you have with them, and I don't need to. What I know of you comes from that day we met on Corellia. I know that you are a man who risked taking a blaster bolt to the throat from a complete stranger to share information that would save a young girl's life. And I now know that you are also a man who traveled halfway across the galaxy to rescue his friend who had been taken by slavers. So learning that Wil is your son, well...it's certainly no surprise. What I saw from him these past few days, his quick thinking, his unwavering determination to get to you, to save you and your friend, knowing you were likely hurt...it reminded me of you. I just didn't realize it until now.

"So yes," she concluded once more, her tone steady, "it changed how I felt about him. For the better. You should be so proud of him."

Horatio hesitated but met her gaze with a faint nod, agreeing. "I am."

Sakiko smiled as she turned to leave him alone once more. "Then tell him that. He doesn't need to hear it from me, but from you."