Where's everyone going?"

"We just have some business to take care of. It's not anything important."

"You always say that. If you're doing something important, I want to help. I have to learn this stuff someday."

"No, you don't. Teller, you can be anything you want. Please, don't feel like you need to follow in dad's footsteps."

"I'm not doing it for dad. I like smuggling. Why can't you understand that?"

"I just worry about you. Wait, where is your mask?"

"Stop asking me that. I haven't needed that thing since I was fourteen."

"Ok, you're an adult now. I get it."

"So, can I come and help?"

"I just… The autopilot still needs fixed. How about you work on that instead?"

"But I was…"

"It's a very important job. I wouldn't ask you if I didn't trust you."

"Fine. I'll work on the stupid autopilot."

"Thank you. I love you."

"Yeah, fine."

Teller woke up in a cold sweat. He slid the privacy screen aside and needed a full minute to let his eyes painfully adjust to the speeder's artificial light.

"Are you ok?" Thayla asked, suddenly popping up into his view. "You were talking in your sleep again."

"I'm fine."

With deep concern in her eyes, Thayla looked back and forth between Teller and the bunk directly beneath his, where Jon was still sleeping.

"Seriously, I'm fine."

"How long have you been having nightmares?"

"I don't know. I guess since I got here to Centrallis. Somewhere around then."

"This planet is strong in the force, especially for a place with no natural life on it."

"I don't think that's what is causing it." Teller looked down in shame. "I should get some more rest."

Thayla put her hand on the screen, before he could pull it shut. "Teller, there are aspects to the force we haven't talked about, yet."

"You've been keeping secrets from me?"

"Not at all, it just hasn't come up yet, but I think it's time." She took a deep breath and suddenly the bags under her eyes had never looked so heavy. "Not everyone who uses the force does so with good intentions. Some seek to manipulate it, conquer it and pervert it."

"And what have we been doing?" Teller asked, quizzically.

"A Jedi surrenders themselves to the force. A Jedi understands that the energy of the universe is not something that can ever be contained or weaponized. We serve the will of the force, not the other way around."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because this power, the dark side of the force, is very tempting. It can make you feel strong and powerful in ways you could never imagine, but you can only divert the flow of a rushing river for so long. Trying to manipulate that tide, the very essence of the universe, will eventually destroy you."

"Does Jon use the dark side?"

Thayla sighed, deep and depressed. "I don't know, but be careful of anything he says to you."

"I will."

"Good. You should get some rest. We'll be in Nordic by sundown, tomorrow."

Teller nodded and shut the screen.

He reemerged a few hours later, finding that now Thayla was asleep and Jon was behind the wheel. Jamie sat in the back, using Teller's stick to practice her swordsmanship and D0-1T was silently charging and recuperating after days driving the ship.

"How far out are we?"

"About two hours," Jon replied.

Even far outside the city, the ground was torn up and miners were hard at work. Just as Jon had said, speeders like his were tearing up the ground with massive metallic claws, ripping up the dust and revealing the red crystalline veins that coursed through the planet.

"Did Davn have this many workers?"

"They used to, until the Blood Battalion started seizing every ship they could get their hands on and making the miners dig up crystal. They eventually eased up, but it brought things to a grinding halt. Now, the city is mostly just factories and merchants."

"It looks so strange out here."

"Strip mining isn't pretty, but it pays the bills."

A strange silence fell over them. Teller wasn't sure of what to say and Jon could feel his unease.

"Thayla talked to you about me."

"Yeah. She said you're someone who perverts the force."

"A Sith?"

"What's that?"

"Oh, I'll explain that later. She said I use the dark side?"

"Yeah, that was it."

"Well, I guess she is technically not wrong."

"Why do you do it? Does it really make you that much stronger?"

"It does, for a while."

"How does it-"

"I don't want to talk about this."

"Oh, ok. I'm just trying to learn more about all this. It's all new to me."

Jon sighed. "Take a look at Jamie."

Teller looked back and saw that she was continuing with her practice. She was actually better than him. "Ok?"

"When I was seventeen, Mandalorian soldiers came crashing through my front door with intent to kill me, Jamie, Thayla, our masters and everyone we had ever loved. I escaped with the clothes on my back and that little girl in my arms, but I survived. That's the part that I focus on."

"That you lived?"

"Yeah and that I'm still living," he said, through gritted teeth. "She has a good life. I have a ship and money. As for the things I had to do along the way…" He stopped for just a moment. "Everybody has done things they regret, but if there is no other option and I have to choose between me and anybody else, they lose."

Before Teller could respond, a light on the console began flashing.

"Someone is on our tail. Head up to the turret and check it out."

As Thayla climbed out of her bunk, awakened by the sound of the alarm, Teller headed up the ladder to the turret. Luckily, the repair teams working for the Concord were very skilled and very fast, at least in Davn, because Teller was able to see out of the new glass dome even better than the old one.

"Blood Battalion!" he called, before Jon hit the throttle and the ship suddenly lurched forward.

"Slow down. What if you hit someone?" Thayla cried out.

"It's better than getting captured by the Huntress."

"We can fight."

"I'm not taking that chance."

Miners dived out of the way, as the speeder came rushing down the main stretch of road, with the Bloods hot on their tale.

"How many are there?"

"It's at least two heavy speeders, but they're in a line. I can't get a good look."

"Dolt!"

The droid came rushing to the cockpit.

"Check every sensor we have for information on the guys following us and while you're at it check the news in Nordic. They never come this close to the city, not with the Rabble in charge. Someone might be reporting on it."

The droid plugged itself into the console and got to work.

"Teller, do you have a shot?"

The young man looked down at Thayla and then over at Jon. "I can't shoot with this many civilians close by. What if they crash and hurt someone?"

Jon scowled and looked angrily at Thayla, before turning back to the cockpit. "One of these days your morals are going to get us all killed, your daughter included."

They spent almost an hour like that, keeping just ahead of their pursuers and reading reports of the ten, twelve, fifteen, twenty, thirty Blood Battalion ships heading for Nordic.

"We're within sight," Jon finally said, to the relief of all his passengers. "Is everyone still ok?"

"We're fine," said Jamie, who was huddled against Thayla, while Teller continued to stand at the lookout.

The city outskirts were unusually light on traffic, so Jon didn't have to bring the speeder to a halt until just before they would have ripped through the blue permacrete streets.

"Finally," he said with a sigh of relief. "Teller, I'm swinging us around."

Masterfully, he turned the speeder on a dime and Teller whipped the turret around. The entire ship backed its way into the narrow city streets, with the turret focused on the line of ships heading toward them.

However, as if by divine providence, the ships suddenly stopped. The makeshift troop transports landed without firing a shot and the speeders bikes came to an abrupt halt. Their drivers had their fingers placed noticeably against their helmets, adjusting to receive a signal.

"I have a bad feeling deep in my gut," Jon said, as a sudden disturbance in the force rippled through the air.

For the first time that day, he and Thayla were in agreement, but at least they had time to back the speeder into an alley and prepare for a battle that would never come.

The Huntress rushed out into the square, just outside the upturned Mon Calamari Cruiser. The normally open plot of land was now inhabited not just by a thousand curious eyes but also by a rather bizarre sight.

A sleek black form stood in the center of the square, a ship standing amidst a crater in the dust.

Somehow, it was still in one piece and before their eyes it began to transform. Four spider-like appendages shot from its sides and lifted it up from the crater. A door cracked open, squealing as bare metal scraped against bare metal.

A hooded figure stepped forth, covered head to toe in cloth. Thick gloves covered its thin fingers. A dim yellow glow radiated from under its hood.

And then, every trooper, infiltrator and Blood Battalion officer bent their knees to the figure as if rehearsed, as if piloted by instinct, as if they were compelled by some unknown force.