New chapter up. Only a few more until the end of this one. Enjoy and thanks for reading.


Theron POV

I woke up wishing I were dead. It had been a long time since I had taken a blaster bolt set to stun square in the chest. Long story short, it hurts. It hurts a lot. My chest was on fire and my head was making a grand effort to explode...or maybe implode. I kinda wished it would. At least I'd be put out of my misery.

With a groan I got to a seated position and opened my eyes, evaluating my situation. I wasn't being restrained, wasn't in a cell and I was also still alive, obviously, so the commander must have succeeded in saving the galaxy...again. It looked like I was on a very familiar smuggler's ship. None of the herald's ships looked like this and there was no reason to think they'd rescue me, anyway.

Once my eyes started to focus fully, I noticed I wasn't alone. Nikka stood across the room, leaning against a table. The look in her eyes was anything but friendly.

"You shot me." I said as the memory of what happened before I was shot came back to me. I was happy that my voice came out stronger than I felt, at the moment. My throat was dry and a bit sore, but otherwise okay.

Nikka glared at me with a look that could peel the paint off the side of a starship. "You had it coming. You're just lucky your blaster was set to stun. I didn't bother to check the setting before pulling the trigger."

"You cheated. You're Force sensitive." I said, rubbing my neck. "Not just sensitive. You pulled those blasters out of our hands and into yours, perfectly positioned to fire. You've been trained."

Nikka stood up straight, standing away from the table and took a step towards me. I noticed the lightsaber hanging from her belt. I hadn't seen the weapon in the hanger bay. "Before I met you, I trained on Tython for six months, ironically, by your mother. If she were here, she'd probably say the reason she felt compelled to train me, when so many on the council voted against it, was so I could save your sorry ass now. I've also been training with Lana and Senya since you left."

She was Force sensitive, trained by the Jedi, but yet she didn't seem to believe much of their typical philosophy. She said the bit about Satele like it was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard and couldn't believe she was saying it out loud. Interesting. We had been together for years and I had no idea. Not once had I ever seen her do something to even make me suspect she was Force sensitive. She sure as hell didn't talk or act like a Jedi. Had I been that unobservant or was she just very good at hiding her abilities?

"I'm guessing the commander defeated Zildrog."

Nikka crossed her arms over her chest. "He figured it out using the details you gave him. The gravestone and the entire eternal fleet have been wiped out, but the threat has been taken care of. Regardless, he seems happy to have you back."

Wiped out? I made a mental note to ask the commander for details, but I had a more pressing matter in front of me. My heart dropped. "And you're not happy?"

She almost growled. "I'm mad at you."

"I…" I started, but Nikka held up a hand.

"No, you don't get to talk. I know now you did what you did to save the Alliance and the galaxy, I get that, but you left me. You walked away, without even the slightest indication of anything. Would I see you again? Did you ever even love me or was that just a game to you? Too many questions and no answers for too many months, so yes, I get to be mad at you, as irrational as that may be. And all you can do is let me be mad."

With a final glare, which was enough to keep me from replying to her angry rant, she turned and left the room. I honestly didn't know what I could even say to stop her, so I just let her go. She was too angry to understand how much it destroyed me to leave her like I had and how I would never forgive myself.


Rio POV

I headed towards the back of the ship where Theron was currently sleeping off a stun bolt. When Lana and I successfully defeated Zildrog, thanks in large part to the intel from Theron, we had gone off to look for our undercover spy. He had been following the head herald of Zildrog, making sure he didn't get away.

We found Theron in the hanger, unconscious, along with a very dead herald and several of his minions. Nikka was standing over their bodies holding two blasters that were not her own, though the minions all looked like they had been killed with a lightsaber.

At first I thought Theron might be dead, too, but when we got closer, I could see his chest moving with each breath. I didn't ask what happened and I didn't confront Nikka as to why she was there in the first place. I could pretty much guess. Lana signaled for our shuttle to take off with our prisoner, as Lana, Nikka and myself loaded the unconscious Theron onto her ship and headed home.

Nikka insisted on standing watch over Theron during the trip, but said very little else. I didn't need to be Force sensitive to figure out she wasn't happy. I was a bit reluctant to leave her alone with him, but figured if she wanted Theron dead, she'd have killed him on Nathema before we got to her. After all, I was fairly certain she had been the one who stunned Theron in the first place.

I turned a corner and had to move quickly to the side to not collide with Nikka. She was walking with a purpose and looked terribly upset. I wanted to go after her, but decided against it, since trying to reason with her when she was mad usually ended poorly. I didn't want a bottle thrown at my head, intentionally this time around.

I entered the back room to find Theron awake, looking upset himself. He was pacing back and forth.

"I figured by how aggressively Nikka just passed me in the hall you were awake." I said jokingly.

"Yeah, she's mad." Theron replied. "You must be, too. I have a lot of explaining to do."

I held up my hand. "It can wait. You've been through enough, considering you just risked your life to save the Alliance. Again. And as for Nikka, just let her be for a while. She'll cool down. Everything that happened over the last few months has been way too familiar to her. She'll get over it."

"Did you know she was Force sensitive?"

I nodded. "I did, but it wasn't common knowledge and she wanted it kept from you specifically for some reason. I knew, her old crew knew, and her ex-husband, obviously."

"Obviously?"

"Corso left Nikka while she was on Tython being trained. He left without leaving a message or any kind of communication. He was just gone. I'm sure he probably explained his actions at some point since he joined the Alliance, but Nikka never shared and I didn't ask. It's a sensitive subject, as you can imagine."

"And then I left, without a message or any indication of why I was leaving, except trying to kill you. I was just duplicating the last time she was left." Theron sat down on the bunk behind him, his head in his hands. After a few seconds, he snapped his head back up and looked at me. "Actually, what I did was worse. Corso didn't try to kill her only living relative on the way out the door."

"It's more than that, I think." I replied, taking a seat across from Theron. "Nikka took Corso leaving fairly well. She loved him, of course, but their relationship wasn't overly tight. He was very much opposite to her in most ways. You, on the other hand, you and Nikka are cut from the same cloth. It's why you get along so well. She loved Corso, but she's in love with you. That's why she's so mad. But it's also why I know she'll come around. She reserves this kind of anger for people she truly loves. You just need to be willing to wait."

Theron sighed. "Nikka is the only woman...the only anyone...I've ever said 'I love you' to in a serious way. I didn't have parents growing up, or grandparents, siblings or close friends. You know who raised me and who my parents are and how they all are around topics like love and emotional attachment. That's why it took so long for me to say it to her. I was having a hard time admitting it to myself. I love your sister, Commander, and I'll wait as long as I need to for her to forgive me. And once she forgives me, I'll spend the rest of my life proving just how much I love her."

I stood, patting Theron on the shoulder. "I hope so. I like you, Theron. I like the idea of having you as family." I turned to walk out, but turned back. "Oh, on a side note, I'd steer clear of Lana for the time being too. She's not overly happy either."

Theron Scoffed with a smile. "Right now, I'd rather be face to face with an angry Lana, than see that look on Nikka's face again."


To Be Continued...