Last time: The Jedi and Kyr fought against an Imperial Garrison to get the temple info.

Now: Sasha informs Oppie they are finally coming for him.

Part 3 Chapter 1- Not Alone in There

The Shadow Runner dropped out of hyperspace, before them was the familiar sight of Artemis. But Kyr dove into the atmosphere not towards the familiar outpost they had visited so often in the past year, but towards a different town set into a different mountain range hundreds of kilometers away. As they arrived closer, the details showed a large village that was in the same style as the other town, albeit a little more cleaned up and less rugged looking. Up the mountain and at the end of a long road leading up from the town's main square was a large house, or lodge that was an artfully crafted mix of stone and timber that overlooked the valley.

"This is Haven." Kyr said, as they came to a hovering stop over the town. "A nice, sleepy little village where I store all my favorite explosives." Viran was next to him in the co-pilot's seat and leaned in a little closer.

"Welcome back Kyr." A friendly woman's voice came over the comm. "You know the drill."

"Roger that Zeran. I'm bringing two guests with me." He flipped the switch to turn the line off. "She's the field's mechanic and… mayor, I guess might be the word." He said in explanation to the other two, Sasha at the engineer's console.

"Gotcha, the hanger is open, they can park next to ya." Zeran said over the line.

"Thanks." Kyr responded. "Okay, you guys want to undock and just follow me in?"

"Sure thing." Viran said, getting him from his seat as behind him Sasha did the same to go back to their shuttle after hitching a ride with Kyr. After the battle at the last temple, and the last eight months journeying, they had all agreed they needed a chance to rest and resupply before heading to the quaternary system, all three felt like they were walking into danger at this final site. Sasha and Virans little shuttle had definitely been taxed by the long journey, so they were going to drop it off here before continuing on, while Kyr resupplied his expended munitions and did his own maintenance.

They landed, Kyr felt a sense of familiarity pulling into his usual space in the hanger built into the mountain side next to the lodge. Around them the great forests tried to encroach, and an electromagnetic fence line tried to keep the local wildlife out. Kyr and Tac left the ramp at the same time as Sasha and Viran stepped down the hatch of their own ship.

"So what is this place?" Viran said, looking around at the hangar, and out the open doors to the forest and the town that was off in the valley below.

"Old family estate." Kyr said, "Imps never knew about it so it's off the maps. Got a bunch of friends and a few refugees who joined me, so it's kind of turned into our own private refuge."

"How many?" Sasha asked.

"Dunno, maybe three thousand people. Zeran knows, I'm sure." Kyr answered, leading them into the estate through a metal door. "Got a nice little cantina, and a theater too, for some reason. We're close to some of the hunting grounds of some of Artemis' most dangerous game, so be careful when you go out at night." He explained.

Sasha shuddered at the thought and the cold air. "We'll keep that in mind."

Zeran appeared from the entrance to the hangar that led outside and jogged over to meet them at the door before they disappeared inside the large estate. She was wearing dirty bright orange overalls that looked like they had years of grease and oil built up on them. "Kyr, hey bud." She said, taking him in a big hug before turning to face Sasha and Viran. "Where'd you pick these two up? They Jedi?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, looking at their outfits and the lightsabers that they had prominently clipped to their obi belts.

Sasha and Viran exchanged a glance from the corner of their eyes before looking back at her.

"Yeah." Kyr said.

"Nice, you guys helped us a bunch on Onderon, you're okay in my book. Once you're settled, I'll take ya down to the canteen." She said with a friendly wave.

Sasha and Viran were taken aback by that, then hurried to catch up as Kyr and Zeran entered the house.

"Onderon?" Viran questioned.

"I remember hearing about that on the holonet and through the temple," Sasha remembered. "The Jedi involved helped liberate the citizens from a crazed leader who worked with the Seppies. You were there?"

"Yeah," she nodded as they continued walking through the house and up a flight of stairs to what appeared to be the main level. "I was in there with Steela and Saw, there was some little Togruta Jedi girl that was helping us, and the clones. They did good work helping us break free from the Seppies." She said.

"Ahsoka," Sasha mumbled under her breath. She had met the Togruta Jedi only once, but she had become a legend to many younglings since she was the Padawan to Anakin Skywalker, and saved so many lives and won so many battles.

"Sounds right." Zeran said. "How'd you two meet this ugly mug?" She said gesturing to Kyr.

Sasha and Viran didn't know how much Kyr spilled to her. They glanced at the Mando before answering unsure.

"He's… he's a friend of a friend," Viran said with a sense of vagueness.

Kyr spoke up, "They were Op's students, like his little brother and sister. Guess that makes them like my little brother and sister by extension."

Zeran smiled, "Ah, some of that Mando aliit stuff? Okay, then I'll buy ya guys a round." she said.

Viran and Sasha smiled. A drink sounded great.

"Thanks, that would be nice," Sasha said.

At the edge of the system, Cien came out of hyperspace. The navicomputer called the blue and green world in front of her Artemis, and she was able to track their fresh ion trail down to a small outpost nestled into the mountains, though the planet really only had a few rough settlements anyway. Her ship was powered down to near nothingness, so she could remain hidden. She considered for a moment and decided to wait, this must just be a stop over. Either way she made sure to remember this location, since it was obviously someplace they might run to if they needed to escape.

For some reason, sleep was eluding her. Laying on the bed in the room she had been given in at the family estate, Sasha stared up at the ceiling. Her left arm tucked behind her head while her right rested across her torso. Kyr was kind enough to allow her and Viran to crash there for the night as he claimed to have plenty of space and open rooms. When he had given them the tour, the only rooms he said were taken was his on one side of the house and another that belonged to his cousin and their significant other. Sasha and Viran have opted to take two rooms next to each other, instead of sharing one, on the side of the house opposite of Kyr as it would allow them more privacy and because that's where Kyr had led them to in the first place. Even though they were together and had spent the last several months on that little shuttle together, they never exactly shared the same bed space before. So for now they decided to have their own rooms.

There was an anxious energy building up inside of her as she continued to lay there and think about the fact that the next system was supposed to be one from the stela that showed Oppie returning. She knew that she was going to need her rest for the coming mission, but everytime she closed her eyes to sleep, her mind would run a million miles a minute.

Finally giving up on sleep, Sasha decided it would be best to meditate and try reaching out to Oppie again. Plus a part of her wanted to deliver the news that they would soon be freeing him from the strange world he was stuck in. Moving off the bed, Sasha moved to the floor. Once seated like normal for mediation, Sasha closed her eyes and centered herself into the Force. She found herself once again in the darkness that was the space in her mind. Then she called out to Oppie.

"Oppie," Her voice rang with an echo through the darkness.

"Sasha?" He responded from a distance after a moment.

A familiar smile came to Sasha's face as she heard his voice.

"I'm here," Sasha said. "I just wanted to talk." A moment later, Oppie's figure appeared before her. She smiled at him. "Hey, Op. How's it going?"

"Good." He took the opportunity to sit on the not-ground in front of her, still tired, and bearing the injuries from that fight at the temple, though he looked like he had healed a little bit. He grimaced as the motion bothered his shoulder. "How are you guys doing?" He asked, happy to see a familiar face.

Sasha sat down across from him. "We are doing fine. Just another exciting temple run, you could say." She chuckled. "We are back with Kyr though."

"That's good, I guess if you've been to another temple it's been a while since we last talked?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to know how long it had been. To him they had just talked what felt like an hour or two ago. Sasha had been careful ever since that first time not to tell him how long had passed, and he was thankful for that in some ways.

"Yeah it's been… a while, but we have good news!" Sasha said as she went from nervous about talking about it, to excited to share the news.

"Oh?" He asked.

"Op, the last temple we visited gave us the coordinates that we believe will lead us to the location where we can finally bring you back." She paused before placing a hand to her chest as if to calm her beating heart. "Bring you home."

He brightened at that, genuinely smiling. "That's great. This place is fascinating, but I feel like I've been here for weeks... Well… You know. Could you have some bacta ready?" He asked, rubbing his shoulder and flinching a little.

Sasha nodded. "Yes. I will make sure to have a medpack ready to go for you. How are your injuries by the way?"

"Healing." He said, noncommittally. "I've spent the time in between our talks in healing trances so that has helped, but I am not sure this set right." He gestured towards his left collar bone.

"Well I guess you can only do so much with what you've got," Sasha said with a shrug. "And I can check the setting on your collar bone when you get back. Just beware, it's gonna hurt a lot for a split second as I might have to reset it properly."

"Oh joy." He said. "Yeah if I get out of here I'm going to carry a medpack with me from now on just in case I get sent to the end of nowhere." He said with some dry humor.

Sasha giggled at that. "At least your sense of humor is still intact," she joked.

"Oh, yeah I'm the funniest person here." He shrugged, and flinched, then continued. "Not that that's saying much."

"Well you have to do something to entertain yourself I guess," Sasha mused. "And being a one man funny show is a good way to kill time." She chuckled.

"Yeah, it beats trying to figure out the portals for the hundredth ti-" He cut off as he looked around him. "Did you hear that?" He asked.

Sasha shook her head. "No. Op what's going on? What do you hear?"

"I don't know…" He trailed off, standing up and looking around. His hands went to the sabers clipped to his belt.

Sasha staggered to her feet. She reached for her own saber at her belt only to remember she was weaponless in here. She cursed inwardly before looking back to Oppie.

"By the Force, Sasha, I think it's him…" He trailed off, unclipping the sabers from his belt as heavy footsteps started approaching, and adjusting his footing into a ready stance. Instinctively he moved to protect Sasha, even though she wasn't even there.

"Him? Him who…?" She trailed off when she instantly remembered that there was one other that went through with Oppie. Dracul.

The laugh echoed, the same laugh from the temple at Chikara. Op ignited his sabers. "It's Dracul, he's here!" Oppie yelled in panic, then suddenly he lifted his sabers as if to ward off an overhead blow, and he shifted backwards, the vision of him fading through Sasha as he was pushed back, and a red saber came directly for Sasha's head.

Heart racing with panic, Sasha was at first startled by Oppie phasing through her, but then brought her arms up in self defense as the red blade would strike her. It was hard to tell what was real or fake as it felt too real to be fake. But as the blade came down, it too phased through her. Her heart skipped a beat as she wasn't sliced down the middle. However, her worry grew as she realized Op was alone facing Dracul still not fully healed either.

Before her, fading into existence from the darkness, Dracul stepped forward, his saber low in a one handed grip. It looked like he was following Oppie, who was now somewhere behind her, out of sight. But then he stopped, and looked down, directly into Sasha's eyes, and then stepped forward, brushing her aside with the Force to continue on to his prey.

Sasha was suddenly knocked out of the darkness of her own mind and back into reality. She actually fell onto her back as if someone had just physically shoved her. Sasha scrambled from the floor and backwards into the wall. Her heart was racing and her palms were sweating like no one's business. Clutching her still beating chest, Sasha tried to calm herself down. That was Dracul. He was still alive and now he was facing off against Oppie. She had to tell the others. Scrambling to her feet, Sasha rushed out her room barefoot. She then took off in a hectic sprint looking for Viran or Kyr or both. Either way, they had to know.

Sasha had found Viran in his room next to hers, passed out on the bed. She had woken him, much to his dislike. However, when she told him it was an emergency, it had woken him right up. They then ran around searching for Kyr. After searching the kitchen, living room, dining room, the training room and even checking Kyr's room or they guessed it was his, they headed for the hangar. They soon reached it to find the exterior doors sealed shut, but the lights were on as if someone was working. And it was about twenty degrees colder in here than the house, and Sasha was still barefoot. She remembered to grab a jacket, just not her boots, but that didn't matter at this moment. Looking around, Sasha and Viran spotted him and Tac working on loading what looked like explosives and missiles into the Shadow Runner.

"Kyr," Sasha called as they approached, still dressed in their basic nightwear under their heavy jackets to ward off the cold.

He stopped what he was doing and looked at the two Jedi, while behind him the missile was lowering into the loading tube. "Uh.. hi?" He said, questioningly.

They came to a halt near him. Both of them winded.

"Okay…." Viran panted. "What is… this about?" He said as he still had no clue to this emergency Sasha had alluded to.

"I talked with Oppie," Sasha started.

"Yeah, we already knew you could do that," Viran interrupted before she finished.

"But something happened this time," Sasha said with a quiver in her voice. "He's not alone in there."

"It's not spiders, is it?" Kyr asked.

"What?" Sasha asked, confused by his question before shaking her head. "No! Worse." She paused, almost for dramatic effect. "Dracul is with him."

Viran blinked rapidly trying to comprehend what she just said. He was at a loss for words.

"Which one was that, the crazy saber collecting kid or the scary guy in the bucket?" Kyr questioned, needing clarification.

"The second one," Sasha said then gulped as if a lump had formed in her throat.

"Oh. I'm going to guess they haven't become friends in the past eight months." Kyr said, looking to see how much ordinance he had left to load.

Sasha shook her head. "He knew that he took Dracul into the space, but hasn't seen him since. At least until now. And…" She shuddered. "I don't know how, but Dracul was able to see me. He forced me out of my own mind while facing off against Oppie." She started to sound panicked. "If we don't get him help soon, Dracul could actually kill him in there."

"Out of your own mind? Is that normal Force jetii magic stuff?" Kyr asked.

"No, I don't think so," Sasha said in a small voice.

"Oh, well okay. I need another twenty minutes to load this stuff, then we can be on our way. You want to go grab your stuff?" He said, gesturing to the former ISB ship that was next to his in the larger hangar.

Sasha nodded and then turned her attention to Viran who still hadn't spoken a word.

"Vir…" Sasha asked gently.

"You mentioned that time flows differently for Op right?' Viran asked, looking at her. Sasha nodded. "Then we may still have time. We will get him out of there as soon as possible and away from that monster." He then looked between the two of them. "Let's get a move on."

Sasha gave a nod. They then rushed off together to get ready to leave in the next twenty minutes. Once they were back in their Jedi garb and their gear was gathered from the shuttle, they were ready to go and the large hangar doors opened, ready for them to take off. They met back up with Tac at the ramp of the Shadow Runner.

Tac whistled at them from the top of the ramp and turned as if to gesture them to follow. Already the ship was warming up, and the engines were coming up to speed. Viran and Sasha followed the droid up the ramp and into the ship. Setting their gear down in the lounge, Sasha and Viran headed to join Kyr in the cockpit.

"Hey guys." Kyr said, flipping a few switches as the ship spooled up around them. "All set?"

"Yes, I made sure to pack a medpack from that medbay you have," Sasha said as she sat at the engineering station. "He's going to need it when we do save him."

"That's what it's there for," Kyr said.

"So let's go save him," Viran said with a smile as he sat down in the copilots chair.

"Right-oh." Kyr said. "Zeran, requesting permission to take off."

Her voice came back over the comm after a few seconds delay. "Why are you asking?"

"Roger, thanks." Kyr said, he lifted off and turned into a steep climb, clawing through the atmosphere towards space. "Tac, you got those coordinates programmed in?"

Tac whistled a few beeps. He was standing beside Sasha knitting a small hat with pom-poms on it.

"Kay, good." Kyr responded, aligning the ship for Hyperspace and making for the edge of the gravity well.

Cien, from a far distance, saw the ship climb out and then jump to hyperspace in a hurry. Whatever they were up to they weren't wasting any time. She stepped back to the floor behind her seat and sat to meditate, so she could determine where the girl and her party were going.

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