From Flames, I Soar

by Kurenaino

With the Empire at the height of its power and the shadow of a greater threat hanging above all those who would oppose Palpatine, the Specters, led by former Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus, are forced to contend with the Sith Lord that set the galaxy ablaze. Sequel to In Chaos, I Thrive.

66. Legacy of Mandalore

You may ask, "Hey! Why are you like this!"

I don't know, guys. I don't. I thought this chapter was going to be short. I just...I don't know what to tell you. But I will tell you this. I had a TERRIBLE idea for the next chapter, and yes, it's going to be long, and it's going to take a hot minute to do, partially because it's still being worked out. But it's gonna be good! Awful and terrible, but good.

Once again, I thank you all for reading and being patient with me, and I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you kids think!

Chapter 66: Legacy of Mandalore

Given the high stakes of the mission, it went as smoothly as any of them could have expected.

The mission had been simple. Rendevous with the freighter Chandrila Mistress and provide them with fuel they desperately needed, then escort them to their final location. It was made substantially more complicated by the nature of the cargo the Chandrila Mistress carried, not weapons or supplies, but Senator Mon Mothma, a rebel sympathizer outspoken against the rule of the Empire, her recent speech in the Senate decrying the Emperor as nothing more than a lying executioner imposing tyranny on the galaxy in the name of security leaving her denounced as a traitor and sending her on the run.

But people had already heard her, and in the span of moments, the Rebellion had found a voice to rally behind.

A run-in with an Imperial probe droid early on in the mission gave them cause to believe that the mission may need to be aborted, but the reinforcements they had feared would arrive never came. Even when Chandrila Mistress and the Gold Squadron that escorted her arrived and they began quickly fueling, there was no sign of the Empire, and after they had finished with no interference, Hera convinced them to allow her to guide them through the nearby Archon nebula so they could lose anyone that happened to be watching them, just in case.

They emerged on the other side of the Archon nebula to the blackness of space, not a single ship on any of their long distance scanners, and assured of their safety, they made the jump to their final destination above Dantooine. There, Mothma made a broadcast over the holonet, resigning from the Senate and once again decrying the Empire, promising not to stop fighting until they had restored the Republic, that here, the Rebel Alliance would be born. And as before, people had been listening, and before long, Dantooine's orbit was filled with the ships of rebel cells that had heard Mothma's rallying call and came to be united.

It was then that the Empire arrived.

They appeared far behind the newly arrived rebel ships, arriving along the same vector, which meant that somehow, one of them had been followed, and with the slightest flicker of motion, all five Star Destroyers disappeared, only to reappear a second later with perfect, precisely calculated microjumps to surround the entire rebel force. They were spread out at an even distance from each other, three encircling the rebels and the other two above and below them, their considerable weapons all pointing in toward them, too far away to hit each other, but the perfect distance to utterly destroy the rebels.

Without terms, without demands to surrender, the Star Destroyers opened fire, and there was chaos.

Each ship was on their own as they attempted to flee, the previous sense of unity among them lost within moments, and despite her best efforts to defend Mon Mothma's Chandrila Mistress, Hera Syndulla quickly realized as she guided the Ghost through flames and the wreckage of the ships that were being swiftly destroyed that this was a lost cause. The Imperial formation left them wide open and exposed, with no chance to take cover behind debris without being seen by at least one of the warships. Worse still, their proximity to Dantooine had them all caught in the planet's gravitational field, preventing any ships from jumping into hyperspace until they cleared the planet's orbit. Even their TIE Fighters were hanging back, drifting outside the perimeter of Star Destroyers like a shell, waiting to pick off any ships that looked like they might manage to make a run for it.

But it was the only way out, and Hera knew that she had to take it, even if it meant abandoning the other ships that were methodically being disabled and destroyed by the Imperial assault. Pulling back hard on the yoke, she sent the Ghost spinning out of the way of yet another ion blast and sharply commanded Kanan to get to the gunner's station, and the Jedi swiftly leapt to do as commanded, running out of the cockpit just as Sabine threw herself into his vacated copilot's seat to take control for the forward cannons.

"What are we doing, Hera!" Ezra shouted as he clung tightly to the back of the copilot's seat, his eyes fixed out the viewport as the Ghost's nose pointed between two of the Star Destroyers toward open space and the swarm of waiting TIE Fighters.

"We're getting out of here," Hera said calmly despite the tightness in her throat. "Sit down and strap in, this is going to be rough."

"Woah, wait, we can't just leave them!" Ezra said as he gestured wildly toward the burning wreckage of a ship just outside the viewport. "Hera, Mon Mothma-"

"The Chandrila Mistress has already been hit!" Hera snapped as she spun her ship out of the way of a cluster of turbolasers. "There isn't anything we can do, we've already lost. We need to go, now, or we're going to end up like the rest of them."

"We can't just abandon them!" Ezra pressed, grimacing as a freighter in front of them was engulfed in a ball of flame as a turbolaser split it's hull. "We have to help them!"

"What do you expect me to do against five Star Destroyers and their entire compliment of TIEs?" Hera snapped as she wrenched the yoke sideways and spun out of the way of the doomed freighter, the viewport filling with flames as the Ghost passed through the explosion, the console beeping as it displayed the slight reduction in the shield's power. "I'm good, Ezra, but nobody's that good. The best I can do is cut a path through those TIEs to open space and hope that they're good enough to follow and get far enough away to make a jump."

"It just doesn't feel right..." Ezra grumbled as he was pressed back into his seat with the sudden increase in speed as Hera found her opening.

"Lot of good our help will do anyone if we're dead," Sabine said as she swiftly shut down all non-essential systems to give the engines more power. "Think Thrawn's out there?" she asked, and Hera's teeth ground together.

"Who else could it be..." the Twi'lek grumbled, her eyes narrowing and her hands clenching tightly around the yoke as the TIEs began to come clearly into view.

"Well, let's just hope he hasn't brought any of his fancy new TIEs with him," Sabine said as she took control of the forward weapons, a quick flick of a few switches linking her up with Kanan's gunner station.

"I don't know if it would matter if he did with numbers like these," Hera said as she watched the TIEs grow closer as the Imperial starfighters began tightening their formation as they monitored her approach. "We're not looking for a fight, we're looking to run. We just need to get far enough away from Dantooine to jump."

"Hera, we've got about thirty TIEs converging on our location," Kanan's voice came over the com. "You got a plan?"

"Face your cannons forward and give them everything you've got," Hera said as she reached over and flicked a few switches on her console. "If we can keep them from wanting to be in front of us, we'll have that hole in their formation."

"Yeah, we'll also have every single one of those TIEs at our back..." Sabine grumbled right before she gasped as she was slammed sideways in her seat, and cursing under her breath as space began rapidly spinning outside the viewport, she belatedly fastened her restraints.

"I'm working with what I have here," Hera said quickly, keeping the Ghost spinning as she once again reached over to make adjustments on her console. "Kanan, Sabine, open fire and don't stop until we've made the jump."

"You got it, captain," Kanan said stiffly, and in the next moment, red blasts of plasma bolts fired from the Ghost's forward and ventral cannons joined the spinning blaze of space, the rapidly approaching TIE Fighters swiftly breaking formation to avoid the onslaught of fire from the Ghost's cannons, only to fall back in behind the rebels, immediately opening fire as they pursued the fleeing ship.

Quickly, Sabine abandoned the forward cannons and began swiftly running her fingers over the buttons and switches on Hera's console, their warning systems blaring as their shields dropped down to critical. With a flicker, all the lights in the cockpit went out, the warnings temporarily ceasing as Sabine diverted all possible power to the engines and the rear shields. With a jolt that pressed them back into their seats, the Ghost shot forward with the extra boost to their speed, their monitors once again flashing with warnings as the shield continued to deplete, as did the number of TIE Fighters in pursuit as Kanan methodically picked them off.

With a slight hiss of air from between her teeth, Hera swiftly pulled back the lever as the navigational computer chimed above the blaring of alarms, and with the slightest shudder of the ship, the Ghost jumped to hyperspace, leaving the slaughter far behind them.

It left a bad taste in their mouths.

With the quite declaration of wanting to repair what damage she could, Sabine got up from the copilot's seat and left the cockpit, grabbing Ezra by the arm as she passed him and bringing him with her, leaving the frustrated Twi'lek alone in the cockpit, sighing heavily as she shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She felt nauseous, the weight of the loss sinking heavy upon her as she looked out at the swirl of hyperspace. Even if others escaped behind them, even if all the others they had left behind managed to escape, be it on their own path or on the path that Hera forged for them, the losses they had suffered before they managed to get away had been catastrophic.

Not only were several independent rebel cells likely entirely wiped out, but the future of the greater rebellion seemed to hang in the balance. Mon Mothma had been that uniting force for them, her words alone enough to bring so many smaller cells together for a greater cause. But she was gone now, dead or captured, the Chandrila Mistress completely disabled by the time Hera made the call to run. What was left now were small cells left adrift in a galaxy where it was clear that uniting together was a death sentence, that coming together would bring the full force of the Empire down upon them in the swiftest, most horrifying way imaginable.

Almost worse then all that, however, was how the Empire knew where to find them, and how quickly they had arrived, almost as if they had been ready and waiting for the greater rebel fleet to arrive before they launched their attack. It was a trap, and they had all walked right into it.

"Know what bothers me most about all this?" Kanan's voice said from behind her as he entered the cockpit, and Hera looked over her shoulder at the Jedi as he closed the door and sat himself down in the copilot's seat. "There aren't many ways this could have happened," Kanan continued quietly. "Mothma could have set this up. She wouldn't be the first Senator we've dealt with pretending to be a rebel sympathizer in order to catch us."

"You and I both know that's not the case..." Hera muttered, and Kanan nodded.

"I didn't think so, but it needed to be said," Kanan said. "That leaves us with only two viable possibilities. Either someone close to Mothma was an Imperial spy-"

"Or the Empire has access to the Fulcrum network," Hera said coldly, her eyes narrowing as she looked at Kanan. "Thrawn knew about Kallus for months before we extracted him. It's very possible in that time he figured out how to access the Fulcrum transmissions. And if that's the case..."

"He knew where and when we were all meeting," Kanan said. "I didn't want to believe it, but it's possible the entire Fulcrum network's been compromised."

"And if it has, how long has he had access..." Hera muttered tiredly as she ran her hands over her eyes. "It's bad enough that this happened, but it's much worse if he's been collecting information for weeks or months."

"And if he has, what exactly does he know?" Kanan asked dejectedly, his shoulders slumping as he leaned back in his seat and looked out at the swirl of hyperspace and wondering if when they returned to Atollon they'd find the Empire already there. Of the five ships that had been at Dantooine, it didn't look like the Chimaera was with them. "Do you think Ahsoka knows?" Kanan asked, and with a heavy sigh, Hera sat up straight in her seat, her fingers quickly running over the console before her and beginning vital system checks, her previous moroseness banished to the back of her mind, and Kanan couldn't help but smile. His Hera, ever the commander.

"I can't imagine she doesn't know. Mothma was broadcasting when we were attacked, I'm sure Ahsoka watched it in real time." Hera hunched over slightly, the churning nausea returning for a moment, and Kanan laid a hand on her shoulder, the woman flashing the concerned Jedi a small, tight smile. "She's smart, I'm sure she came to the same conclusion we did. She's probably shut down the entire network already as a precaution."

"That might not be enough."

"It isn't, but it's all we can do right now," Hera said firmly as she very gently took Kanan's hand in her own. "You're worried they're at the base."

"I suppose I am," Kanan said, his jaw clenching and swallowing hard against the anxiety in his chest. "This just feels like every other mission we've run against him. Somehow, he figures out where we're going to be and then moves to intercept us, or find a way to lure us into traps. I just thought that if he has access to the Fulcrum network, and with Chopper in his possession..."

"Chopper never stored navigational data, Kanan."

"No, but maybe he doesn't need it to know where we are," Kanan scoffed, a sudden wash of guild running through him. "You've seen it yourself, Hera. Thrawn figured out Ahsoka is Fulcrum just by looking at Ezra's leg. I think it's safe to say he's not exactly using conventional avenues of information."

"You're right about that..." Hera whispered, squeezing Kanan's hand as she looked out the viewport at the swirl of hyperspace, a tense, uncertain silence falling over them for a long while as they considered the possibility that they may have already lost. "We'll need to meet about this when we return," Hera said after a few minutes of contemplative silence. "But I think it's safe to say that there are two matters that need to be addressed immediately. Without Mothma, we need someone else to rally behind, and we need to do it now, quickly, or whatever rebel cells are out there are going to think that we've been beaten." She took a deep, heavy breath. "And..."

"And we need to deal with Thrawn before he deals with us," Kanan finished. "We're out of time, and we can't wait for him to go on the offensive. We need to take him down as quickly as possible." Kanan flashed a tight smile at Hera. "Kenobi's been talking a long time about moving against Thrawn. Think he's ready?"

"I suppose there's only one way to find out," Hera said, grim determination on her face as she returned the Jedi's smile. "But he'd better be. We've been carrying his ass for a long time. Time for our Sith Lord to prove he's worth it."

---

"Our course of action is clear," Ahsoka said as she placed her hand upon the table, her eyes roving around the room and taking in the faces of all the rebel leaders gathered there. Jun Sato and the holographic visages of General Dodanna and Bail Organa, Hera and her Spectres, Luke and Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi, all silent as they had listened to the devastating situation report on the mission to bring Senator Mon Mothma to safety.

"We need to deal with Thrawn," Ahsoka continued. "Immediately."

"I trust you have a plan," Sato said grimly, and Ahsoka nodded, he fingers swiftly tapping over the controls of the holotable, projecting the familiar image of Lothal in the holofield.

"Thrawn is currently based out of Lothal, where he has a factory developing this ship," Ahsoka said as she tapped another button and the three winged prototype TIE appeared next to the image of Lothal. "The TIE Defender. I sent you all the schematic before I had to freeze the Fulcrum network."

"Yes..." Dodanna said in a low, gruff voice. "It's a nightmare."

"Any ship can be defeated," Luke quietly offered. "Just because it has shields doesn't mean it's invincible. And we've taken down bigger ships with better shields."

"Bigger ships don't have the mobility these guys are reported to have," Hera said, her fingers rhythmically tapping upon the table as she eyed a Luke who flushed a deep shade of red. "You may be an ace pilot, but we can't assume Thrawn's going to bring anything less than his best, and even a great pilot can only last so long against superior numbers of superior ships. They're fleet killers, if we allow them to take to the air."

"Agreed," Ahsoka said quietly. "Which is why it's doubly important that we deal with him now, before the Defender becomes a reality." She paused and took a deep breath, her eyes focused on the holograms floating before her before she nodded, her gaze sweeping slowly around the table. "To do that, we need to hit him where he lives. We defeat Thrawn and liberate Lothal."

"Finally!" Ezra exclaimed with a breath of relief, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Helping Lothal was our mission when we first got started. It's felt wrong to abandon Lothal like we have, we've been gone for too long."

"This is bigger than just Lothal, Bridger," Leia scoffed.

"Maybe for you," Ezra shot back. "Lothal's my home. Getting the Empire out of there is the reason I joined up to begin with."

"None of that matters," Bail said quickly, shooting Leia a firm glare when it looked like she would continue arguing with the other teenager. "It's one thing to say you'll liberate Lothal, but another thing entirely to do it. The entirely of the Seventh Fleet is blockading the Lothal System," he said, gesturing to the hologram of the planet and the dozens of red points they represented the ships of Thrawn's armada. "Our numbers are limited and morale is lower than it's ever been. We can't match their numbers. Do you have a plan?"

"I do," Ahsoka said quietly, her fingers steepling together. "General Dodanna will join us here on Atollon to bolster our numbers. It won't put us close to what we need, but every bit counts. And the rest..." She hit the Sith Lord sitting beside her on the shoulder. "You're up, Kenobi."

"You're mobilizing the Mandalorians..." Sabine said tightly, her breath held and a nervous expression upon her face, her eyes swiftly averting when Obi-Wan looked in her direction.

"It's not just the Mandalorians," Ahsoka said firmly to the uneasy group. "I know we were all hoping to unite behind a more diplomatic symbol in Mon Mothma, but the Shadow King has long stood as a powerful force against Imperial control. When he calls, our allies will come, even scattered as they are now."

"When we defeat Thrawn, more will follow," Kenobi said quietly, his eyes fixed on the hologram as he reached over and tapped a button, displaying Thrawn's image in the holofield beside his TIE Defender and occupied Lothal. "But we start with Mandalore."

"Mandalore has been under Imperial control for a long time," Dodanna said, his arms crossing over his chest as he glared at the Sith Lord. Kenobi didn't so much as acknowledge he had spoken, his eyes fixed upon the holographic visage of his Chiss adversary. "How can you be certain they're still yours?"

"Some won't be," Obi-Wan said with a shrug. "There will always be ambitious clans willing to make sacrifices for power." His gaze flicked away from the hologram to Sabine when he felt a strong surge of shame and guilt from the young woman, keenly aware that every Force sensitive in the room had glanced in her direction. "I have full confidence in Bo-Katan," Obi-Wan said firmly, his attention finally turning to the skeptical general. "When I call...when she calls, our people will follow. Mandalore is first in the hearts of the Mandalorians, not the Empire."

"Are you so sure of that?" Dodanna sneered. "Moff Kryze is a favorite of Tarkin, and our people have had more than one run-in with her fanatics." He scoffed, gesturing dismissively toward the stoic Sith Lord. "I hear you've had trouble yourself. Wasn't it her people that shot Syndulla out of the sky?"

"When the Empire is watching so closely as they're watching Bo-Katan, one must be cautious and calculating in the actions one takes," Obi-Wan said flatly. "She did what she must to save her people from the heel of the Empire. We've all had to make sacrifices." Kenobi grinned, his golden gaze slowly drifting back to sullen Sabine. "But you're right. Mandalorian resolve must be tested before we bring them against Thrawn." He shrugged. "We will begin with the Wrens."

"W-what?" Sabine stuttered, pushing her chair away from the table and looking as if she was ready to run from the room.

"We start," Kenobi drawled, a sly grin upon his face as he leaned in toward the horrified Mandalorian, "with the Wrens."

"You claim to be such good friends with Bo-Katan, why don't you go directly to her!" Sabine snapped, and Kenobi chuckled, leaning back in his seat and clasping his hands behind his head.

"What, at Imperial center on Sundari?" the Sith asked. "You expect me to just walk up to the front door and ask to see the Moff?"

"You could call her!"

"I can't," Kenobi said quickly. "As I was telling the General, she is closely watched, and contact between us has been done through intermediaries or in person so transmissions cannot be used to uncover our connection." His gaze hardened, the teasing and bravado gone from his face. "Ursa Wren and Bo-Katan have been best friends since they were children. Our best vector to Bo-Katan is through the Wrens because we have you, Sabine. We cannot waste this opportunity."

"Maybe you haven't heard, but I'm not exactly on good terms with my family," Sabine growled between clenched teeth. "They're more likely to shoot me than welcome me."

"So we have a chance!" Kenobi chirped, and Sabine scoffed, disbelief on her face as she glared at the Sith Lord.

"Are you listening at all?!" Sabine snapped. "To them, I'm a traitor, to the family and to Mandalore!"

"Sabine," Hera said calmly, and Sabine quickly looked at her, her breath held and her shoulders tight with stress. "I know better than most what it's like to have family not believe in you." She paused, her gaze quickly looking around the room at all the people who depended on her, and with a resolved sigh, she met Sabine's eyes once again. "But I have to ask you to do this."

"Hera!" Sabine protested, finally standing up from her seat, the entirely of her thin frame shaking.

"If there's even a chance that we can bring an army of Mandalorians to our aid, we have to try," Hera said in an even, measured voice. "They will be invaluable in our fight against Thrawn."

"We can do this without you," Kenobi said quietly, earning himself a glare from Hera that he pointedly ignored. "I could get on the holonet and issue a call for the Mandalorians to rally to my side and hope they see it. Those that do might come, if they aren't crushed by the Empire first. And the Empire will destroy Mandalore," he said, bitter and harsh as his hand laid flat upon the table, his usually golden eyes glowing molten red with anger. "The moment I call, no show of loyalty to the Empire will save them, no denouncement of my claim will shield their clans. The Emperor will call for the destruction of all Mandalorians for my defiance, and Mandalore will be purged."

"Our best chance," Hera added softly, "is to go in quiet and rally right underneath their noses. If we take them by surprise-"

"We can kill two birds with one stone," Kenobi finished. "We liberate Mandalore to free Lothal, and the war that will sweep across the galaxy after will keep the Empire too divided to mount a successful invasion. The rebellion begins here, Sabine," Obi-Wan said in a firm, unwavering voice, "but we need you for our greatest chance of success."

For a moment, Sabine stood still, her gaze fixed at her feet and her hands shaking despite her best efforts to stop it. Then, without a word, she turned and rushed out of the room, the door closing resolutely behind her.

"Well..." Ezra said with a roll of his eyes. "That went well."

"It seems to me like she's run from a great many things..." Kenobi drawled.

"Maybe so," Kanan said with a shrug. "But she'll come around. Just give her time."

"We don't have time," Hera muttered, reaching over to the console in front of Ahsoka and tapping a few buttons, clearing the images from the holofield and pulling up a long list of data. "Can you do this without her, Kenobi?"

"Possibly, yes," he said quietly. "Bo-Katan and I have spent a long time entrenching loyalty to us among the clans. If I showed up at the Wren hold alone, I could probably get what I need done, provided the Wrens are not loyal to the Empire." He glanced up at the new data in the holofield, a deep frown upon his features. "Or aren't being leveraged to be loyal to the Empire..."

"Maybe Sabine's right," Hera muttered. "Maybe you're better off going alone. Maybe bringing her would only make her family hostile."

"Oh, Ursa Wren is cunning and callus, but family is everything to her," Kenobi said with a sigh, standing from his chair and drumming his fingers on the table for a moment as he looked once more at the data. "I think our best bet will be through Sabine, but something here doesn't seem right. What exactly happened between Sabine and her family?"

"She won't talk about it," Kanan said quietly. "Not specifically, anyway. She just said she ran from the Imperial Academy. We just assumed that her family was loyal to the Empire and saw her running as cowardice."

"It wasn't our business, anyway," Hera quickly added. "We all have a past, and we all have done things we're not proud of."

"Maybe so, but it seems to me that the past has finally caught up to her," Kenobi said with a roll of his eyes. "It has an irritating way of doing that. I'll get to the bottom of what our little Mandalorian's been running from."

"Obi-Wan..." Ahsoka admonished, and a soft, nearly compassionate look crossed the Sith Lord's face as he looked back at her.

"I will leave tomorrow afternoon for Krownest to meet with the Wrens," Kenobi said firmly. "With or without Sabine. If she wishes to continue running, so be it, but I need to know exactly what she's running from. I've got the feeling it's vitally important to the success of this mission." Ahsoka stared at him, a frown on her face as she studied the Sith Lord, felt the flow of the Force, and with a sigh, she nodded.

"Finish up what you need to and see me before you leave," Ahsoka said quietly."

"I will," Kenobi said, nodding to the woman and turning to leave before he stopped, stood still for a moment, and turned back to face the people sitting around the table. "Bail," he quietly addressed the hologram. "Have you heard anything about Mothma's fate?"

"Not yet," Bail said gravely. "Though I don't suspect it will be long before the entire galaxy knows what happens to those that defy the Empire..."

"I suspect you're right," Obi-Wan muttered. "If we're lucky, she didn't survive the attack, but if the Empire managed to capture her..." The Sith's featured hardened, the glow of his golden eyes flickering with blood red. "It might suddenly be very dangerous to be you, Organa. I hope you have an exit strategy."

"I do," Bail said as he flashed a small, comforting smile to the suddenly extremely concerned Leia. "You worry about Thrawn, Kenobi. I'll worry about myself."

With a resolute nod, Kenobi left the room, and Ahsoka cleared the holofield, a press of a few buttons once again filling the field with a tactical display of Lothal and the armada surrounding it. The meeting was over, and it was time to plan the battle.

---

"I don't understand," Grotthu said, her glowing red eyes following the Sith Lord as he crossed the room to collect the armored gauntlets from the top of his dresser. "Am I no longer useful?"

"Don't be ridiculous, you're eminently useful, my dear," Kenobi drawled, flashing the Chiss a tight smile as he fastened one gauntlet to his arm. "In fact, you may be the most useful resource I currently have." She was silent, her lips pressed into a tight line, and Kenobi sighed, crossed the room to her, and placed a swift kiss to the woman's ridged forehead. "If we can buy any time at all, if we can give Thrawn pause or give him reason to hesitate, we must take the opportunity while we can."

"And you think I can do this?" she asked, a single eyebrow raising as she watched the Sith Lord cross the room to stand before the mirror, the Force strapping his other gauntlet to his arm as he looked himself over. "Mitth'raw'nuruodo has been nothing if not singularly focused in his efforts to destroy you."

"That he has, but how long has it been since he's seen a face like his that hasn't been in the mirror?" Kenobi asked as he turned to face the woman perched on the edge of the bed, the black military uniform of the Chiss upon her slim frame for the first time since he captured her over a year ago. "How long has it been for you?"

"Not so long for me," she said with a slight smirk. "But for him? Many years."

"And the Empire isn't exactly kind to aliens," Kenobi added. "Part of him must long for his people. That, my dear, is where you come in." The woman pursed her lips, her foot tapping against the ground as she considered, her eyes flicking down to stare at the multi-circle insignia of the Chiss Ascendancy upon her arm, and a faint smile crossed her face.

"You want me to find out information for you?" she asked after a few moments of silence.

"If you can," Obi-Wan said, his lightsaber hilt spinning in the air for a moment before the black blade extended with a smooth, high pitched sound, so very different from other lightsabers. "I doubt you'll have the opportunity to get the information to us, but if you think trying to pick his brain will slow his actions against us, do it. All we need is time, and the more you can give us, the better prepared we will be."

"Understood," she said quietly as she stood from the edge of the bed and smoothed out the front of her uniform. "When do you want me to leave?"

"Within two hours. Immediately, if you can." With a nod, the woman strode toward the door, the Sith Lord watching her as she went before he called for her to wait, and she stopped in the doorway, her head turning to look back at him. "You've been of great aid to me, Grotthu."

"I should hope so," she said with a shrug as a slight smirk touched her lips. "I am Chiss. We don't do substandard work."

"That certainly seems to be the trend with the Chiss I've encountered," Kenobi said with a roll of his eyes, and he stepped closer to the woman, gestured for her to come to him, and when she stood before him, he tightly hugged her, a small sigh falling from his lips when he felt her hands rub slowly over his back. "I'll see you after I've defeated Thrawn's fleet and seduced that little tease to my side, yes?"

"Yes..." she said quietly, pulling away from the Sith Lord's grasp with a wry smirk upon her face. "Or else I'll watch your rebellion crushed from the bridge of his starship." She shrugged. "Either way, it promises to be spectacular."

"Mm, that it will be," Obi-Wan said, meeting the Chiss' devious gaze for a moment before he bowed his head. The woman followed suit, bowing briefly to the Sith, and then she was gone, Kenobi's eyes fixed upon the spot she had stood only a second before, a tightening in his gut coming with the feeling that he wouldn't see the woman again. With a hiss of frustration, he shook his head, willing the feeling away as he extended his hand and called the horned Mandalorian helmet to his grasp. Giving himself a final once-over, making certain his armor was set right and the robes woven between were straight, he brushed his fingers over the three sabers on his belt, and with everything accounted for, he left the room, striding through his ship and barking a quick command to K2 to be ready to leave within the hour before he stepped out into the light of Atollon.

He had decided that it was best to give Sabine a chance to cool off before he approached her, time to think about and consider all that had been discussed in the meeting that afternoon, which also gave him time to tie up loose ends and prepare himself for the trip, the undertaking laid out before him not insignificant. They were on the brink of open war with the Empire, not just the hit and run tactics and the minor nuisances and inconveniences they had been engaged in, but a galaxy-wide rebellion, and he was about to step forward as their public leader.

A king and conqueror, as he had always meant to be...

But now, with the twins ready to depart and his last ditch effort to buy more time from Thrawn underway, time was up, and Sabine must decide to keep running, or to stand and face her past.

He looked up into the sky when he heard the roar of engines and saw a single freighter taking off, likely his Chiss departing for her mission. His pace slowed as he took a moment to watch her leave, reaching into the Force to feel for the odd, opaque Chiss mind and found her in a state of determined resolve, though the rest, whatever feelings and emotions lay beneath were hidden, as they always were. Even after all this time, he never got a true grasp on the Chiss mind, like orderly rows of neatly categorized numbers written in a language he had no experience with. Even his mastery of Cheunh, the Chiss language, didn't make it any easier.

It didn't speak well for his impending confrontation with Thrawn.

The ship quickly sped high into the atmosphere before it disappeared from view, and Kenobi continued on his way across the base, heading out toward a distant, isolated watch post that Zeb often frequented where he suspected he'd find Sabine. Even from this distance, he could feel the disruption in the Force, the chaotic swirl of shame and rage that the young Mandalorian was so often stained with, and now, faced with the prospects of returning home, it was enough to disrupt the even flow and peace of Atollon.

He couldn't help but wonder if such a disturbance would rouse the Bendu.

Sabine was exactly where Kenobi suspected she'd be, the Mandalorian sitting in the lookout chair, her knees drawn to her chest as she stared out across Atollon's red landscape, her shoulders hunched and tense. So lost in thought was she that she didn't hear the Sith Lord approach, and only moved when his shadow fell over her, her thin frame tensing as she jumped and quickly turned to look over her shoulder. For a moment, she didn't move, her eyes wide with fear as she stared at the armored Shadow King, and then, with a heavy, resigned sigh, her shoulders slumped and she looked back out over the red expanse of Atollon.

"You know, you and Bo-Katan did a really shit job with Mandalore," Sabine grumbled bitterly.

"Maybe so," Kenobi muttered, standing still for a moment before he placed his helmet atop one of the small crates that made up the walls of the little observation platform and sat beside Sabine. "Everything changed when Satine died," he said quietly after a moment of silence, his eyes unfocused as he stared out across the landscape, though he could feel Sabine turn her eyes upon him. "I should have done better, but I was so lost, I..." He hissed a short breath between his teeth, his lips compressing into a bitter, disgusted frown. "I've never been very strong without her. It made it easy for Sidious to manipulate me, and by the time I finally turned on him..." He shrugged. "All we could do then was damage control. Open resistance against the Empire would have been the end of Mandalore."

"Submitting to the Empire was the end of Mandalore," Sabine said in a whisper, far less the accusation that Kenobi had been expecting and instead weighed heavy with guilt. "We might still exist, but it was at the cost of our spirit."

"Sabine," Obi-Wan chided, a wry smirk on his face as he glanced at the miserable teen. "You know better than most that you can't kill the soul of Mandalore."

"You can," she said so quietly that Obi-Wan had to lean in closer to hear, her arms tightening around her knees as if she was trying to disappear within herself. "When I served the Empire at the Academy, I..." She trailed off, the tightening in her throat making it too difficult to breathe, let alone speak, and she quickly looked away from the man beside her, fighting back the bitter, unwelcome sting of tears in her eyes.

"We've all done things we aren't proud of, Sabine," Kenobi said quietly, and the teen's shoulders hunched, making her seem even smaller.

"This is different..." Sabine said between clenched teeth, her voice filled with anger she couldn't repress. "I created weapons for the Empire that they turned on wilful clans, including my own." She scoffed, disgust and shame making her thin frame tremble as the tears finally fell silent and unbidden from her eyes. "Mandalore feared the weapons I helped create..."

"Which is why you ran?" Obi-Wan asked, and Sabine nodded, still and silent as she looked out across Atollon. There was something else, something that still sat hidden in the heart of Sabine Wren, and raking his eyes over the warrior made small by guilt, the Sith Lord decided it was worth pressing harder. None of them had liberties anymore, not time or secrecy, and even grief and trauma needed to be torn open if it would help them survive the storm to come.

"I've never known the Mandalorians to fear any weapon," Obi-Wan said, and a stab of pain shot through the Force as the girl winced.

"This wasn't any weapon..." Sabine whispered, her voice hitching as a sob broke her previously even tone. "This weapon, it..." She paused, the guilt on her face quickly becoming anger. "I was young and arrogant, and it was a challenge! I-I didn't know what they would use it for, and when I found out that they meant to turn this terrible weapon on the clans of Mandalore, I sabotaged the prototype and destroyed the plans so it could never be recreated!" She paused, her chest burning with heavy, labored breath and tight with the swirl of guilt that swiftly swallowed the rage that had filled her only moments before.

"My family..." Sabine began, stopping when she heard how rough and raw her voice sounded, and with a shaking sigh, she ran her hands through her hair, her shoulder drooping under the weight of the memory.

"They sided with the Empire against you," Kenobi quietly finished.

"I did it to protect them..." she said meekly. "I did it to save everyone, and they wouldn't even listen..."

For a long moment, they were silent, the Mandalorian and the Shadow King sitting beside each other and watching the breeze blow gusts of fine sand up into the sky turning red with the slow setting of the sun. Across the dunes, the krykna emerged from their burrows, skittering across the sand in search of the prey that emerged as the heat of the sun dissipated with dusk, and even now, as the sky slowly darkened, Obi-Wan could see the foreboding imprint of the Chimaera splattered across the sky as he had seen in his visions, the omen of what was to come far sooner than any of them were prepared for.

"Once," Kenobi said quietly as his finger traced circles in the sand, "I swore I would be the one to destroy the Sith." He glanced over at Sabine and found the girl's eyes fixed on him. "I was young, and I was arrogant and riding high on a victory against the Sith that no Jedi in a thousand years had done."

"That obviously didn't work out," Sabine said wryly, and Obi-Wan chuckled, a slight smile touching his lips as he shook his head.

"No, it didn't. The path I set out on did lead me to the Sith." His lips compressed for a moment as he scanned the horizon, his eyes narrowing as he watched one of the coral formations slowly move. The horns of the rousing Bendu, he realized, and couldn't help but wonder if he too felt the dark tides shifting deep through the Force. "But it also led me to darkness, and betrayal by the Jedi I once called family, and before I realized how far I had fallen, it was too late to turn back. I...couldn't see the path anymore." He chuckled softly, a hollow, melancholy thing. "Now, I wonder if their final betrayal was because, on some level, they knew I was too far gone to be saved."

"...do you regret how you handled it?" Sabine asked quietly.

"I don't know," Kenobi mused. "Sometimes, I wonder if I had a choice at all." He paused, a frown crossing his face as a flash of pain sparked through his golden eyes. "No...of course I did. Maybe if I'd have been less proud, I could have been a Jedi Master. Maybe I'd have died with the rest of them when Sidious executed the final revenge of the Sith." He huffed out a soft breath, and looked at the Mandalorian at his side. "No, I don't regret the path I chose. But then," he said with an indifferent shrug, "by the time I betrayed the Jedi, there wasn't another path."

"Maybe there was," Sabine said quietly, looking out across the landscape for a moment before she stood and brushed herself off. "Who are you bringing to Mandalore?"

"Luke and Leia," Obi-Wan said as he stood as well, a gesture of his hand calling his helmet beck into his hands from the crate where it had been placed. "Cody and Rex. I thought I might bring Kallus and his big cat boyfriend as well as back up, just in case." He looked over Sabine as her nose wrinkled with a quiet laugh. "And you, of course," he added, "if you're ready to face your family."

Sabine stiffened, her throat tight and her shoulders stiff as she looked up at the Sith, hurt and anger and guilt and a profound loneliness crossing her face before she straightened up, her mouth pressed in a firm, determined line, and nodded.

"When do we leave?" Sabine asked in a clear, firm voice, and a wide grin spread across the Sith Lord's face.

"The twins have been prepping the ship," he said in a slow drawl. "We leave immediately."

---

"Breakout over Krownest in ten minutes, Father," Luke said as his hands danced effortlessly over the Umbra's controls, the hum of the ship beneath their feet shifting slightly at the boy's command as he prepped the ship for reentry to sublight space.

"I've got shields at full and all our weapon systems engaged," Leia chimed in with a devious smirk as she looked over her shoulder at the Sith Lord that stood just behind the pilot and copilot seats that she and her brother occupied. "Just in case we need to come out swinging."

"Stealth?" Obi-Wan quietly prompted, and Leia scoffed, a disdainful look upon her face.

"Please..." Leia said with a roll of her eyes. "I thought the whole point of this was to be seen."

"It is," he said with strained patience in his voice. "By the Wrens. By Bo-Katan. Not by the entire Empire! Not until we want them to. Not until we're ready!"

"I thought we were ready," Leia said snidely. "Isn't that why we're out here to begin with?"

"We're here to throw you out the airlock where nobody will ever find you!" Kenobi snarled at the smirking teen. "You were in the briefing, oh daughter of mine, you know the plan, and if it's your intention to vex me, it's working!"

"We don't have anything to fear from Mandalore..." Leia said dismissively. Earning her a hard glare from the Sith Lord.

"Maybe not," Obi-Wan agreed. "But we do have something to fear from the Empire. Suppose we come out of hyperspace and find the Chimaera over Krownest. What then, Leia?" She didn't answer, only hunched stubbornly over her console. "No..." Kenobi muttered, "best to keep hidden until we're ready to launch a definitive strike. Honestly, Leia..." he said with a roll of his eyes. "I thought you were supposed to be more tactical and calculating than that."

"You think you can go head to head with Thrawn when it comes to tactics?" she hissed as she shot a glare, albeit a nervous one, over her shoulder at the Sith Lord. "The Force favors the bold, that's all I'm saying..."

"Well, they don't call him the Shadow King for nothing," Luke put in with a smile. "I've already primed the stealth systems, Father. We'll go dark right before we drop out of hyperspace."

"There's a good boy!" Obi-Wan said through clenched teeth as he grinned tightly at Leia and ruffled Luke's hair. "See, Leia? This is how proper, respectful children behave."

"Father," Leia said flatly. "I was raised to be a princess. Were you honestly expecting me to be any kind of proper?"

"That's my girl," Kenobi said as he kissed the pouting girl's forehead and turned to leave the cockpit. "I'm going to get the crew ready. And helmets on before we're sublight!" he said sternly as he pointed an admonishing finger at the twins, unable to keep the smile from his lips and eyes. "Just in case things go bad in a hurry."

With the cadence of the twins' reflexive obedience, Obi-Wan left the cockpit, his good humor turning sour in his twisting gut. As much as he was loathe to admit it, Leia had a point. This plan of rallying the Mandalorians was a double edged sword in the best of circumstances. They were, in essence, opening the Empire up to a war on two fronts, revolt by the skilled and highly dangerous warriors of Mandalore possibly pulling attention away from the defense of Lothal, and Thrawn's fleet was close enough to likely be called to hold Mandalore for the Empire. Any chance they had to divide Thrawn's forces was a chance they had to take.

However, opening a two front war for Thrawn also opened up a two front war for them, and against an enemy as large and vast as the Empire, their opportunity to strike at a divided force was a small one. The timing needed to be perfect for this not to collapse upon them, and as Leia had so pointedly mentioned, going head to head against Thrawn on the field of tactics and strategy had never played out well. No, their victories against Thrawn in the few times they had clashed never felt much like victories, save for the one on Lothal, when their escape from the Imperial factory was wholly unexpected and accomplished only with the aid of the Force and the Lothwolves that carried out its will. An unexpected thing, both for the rebels and for the Grand Admiral, a chance encounter that couldn't have been anticipated or planned for...

Leia had hit the mark closer than she likely knew. A bold approach, unable to be anticipated, was likely the only way to kick Thrawn off his stride. All Obi-Wan could do was hope that everything he was putting into motion was enough.

Walking into the lounge, he rolled his eyes at the sight of Kallus and Zeb sitting close together and speaking in hushed tones, their fingers lightly and covertly brushing against each other on the table between them as they looked over a datapad balanced on the Lasat's knee. Quickly striding up to the unsuspecting pair, Lumis grabbed hold of the back of Kallus' jacket and dragged the startled man off the couch and to his feet.

"Honestly, Alexsandr..." Kenobi chided as he sent a languid smirk to the perturbed Zeb. "Keep behaving like this and you're going to start coughing up hairballs. Where will we be then?"

"Presumably, we won't be on missions like this," Kallus said flatly, giving the flushed and flustered Zeb a quick smile before he faced the Sith Lord when he released his hold on his clothing. "Really, Kenobi. Cody and Rex are cloned Mandalorians, the Gemini have Mandalorian heritage, and for Sabine, this is a homecoming of sorts. But why are we here?"

"Have you seen how big Zeb is?" Kenobi asked, and a wide, devious grin spread across Kallus' face. "Oh, no, stop!" the Sith said hastily. "I can read minds, don't even think like that! It isn't what I meant and you know it!"

"You asked..." Kallus said with an indifferent shrug.

"You asked!" Obi-Wan snapped back. "And if we're quite finished being absolute children, Zeb's a big, easy target that can draw a lot of fire should things go wrong, and you, Fulcrum, have intimate and extensive knowledge of Imperial training and movements that should help us fill in the gaps in our tactics should we need to fight actual Imperial Mandalorians." He paused, his gaze flicking to Zeb as the somewhat aghast Lasat rose from his seat. "Also, I need someone to keep guard while I have sex with Bo-Katan."

"I suppose we're not quite finished being children, hm?" Kallus asked the grinning Sith Lord.

"Wait, you brought me along as bait?" Zeb asked, and Kenobi scoffed as he rolled his eyes.

"You have a problem with that?" Obi-Wan asked, and after a moment of consideration, Zeb shrugged, slowly shuffling to stand a bit awkwardly at Kallus' side. "We should be out of hyperspace in just a few minutes. Get your things and meet in the cockpit. I want all hands on deck just in case the Wrens are less than happy to see us."

"You got it, boss," Zeb said quietly as both he and Kallus turned to leave the room, the Lasat's large hand resting on Kallus' back and gently kneading at the muscle.

Shaking his head as a small smile played on his lips, the Sith Lord stepped into the lift and waited as he was swiftly brought down into the hold. As soon as the doors slid open with a gentle hiss, he could hear the sounds of combat, could smell the acrid smell of plasma burns and blaster fire, and with a heavy sigh, he crossed the short hallway and stepped into the hold. Crates were scattered around the open room, serving as cover for the two clones that were hard at work in their efforts to destroy each other, a swift volley of blaster fire shooting through the air before a sharp ringing reverberated through the air as Cody swung a metal staff at Rex' head, and Rex swiftly moved to block it with a staff of his own. Quickly spinning around to counter attack, Rex swung hard at Cody and found himself swiftly losing his balance when his staff hit...nothing at all, only noticing now that the weapon had been wrenched from his grasp when he had swung. Quickly turning to face Cody and preparing to block another attack, he found instead that the other clone had been disarmed as well, both weapons floating high in the air above them.

"You can't find another way to get out attention?" Cody sighed as he took off his helmet and faced the amused Sith Lord. "You know, most people would just say something. Or com us. Or use that fancy intercom system you had installed."

"Yes, well, most people can't move things with their minds or I bet they would," Kenobi scoffed. "I was always taught to use the gifts I've been given."

"You were raised learning Jedi restraint, strange that you don't practice that particular skill..." Cody grumbled.

"Sweetheart, I've never had much restraint," Kenobi drawled, a slight flick of his wrist sending the staves clattering behind a pair of crates. "I made for a poor Jedi, it's why I left."

"Have we arrived?" Rex asked before Cody had a chance to respond, taking off his own helmet and tucking it under his arm as he laid his hand on Cody's shoulder. Obi-Wan couldn't help but scoff. The traitor and the slave, brothers at last.

"We will in just a few minutes," Obi-Wan said quietly. "I hope you two haven't worn yourselves out playing around down here. I'd hate to lose you because you old men are in need of a nap." Cody frowned, the Sith's flippant tone unable to hide the obvious concern in his golden eyes.

"You know how it is, brother," Cody said with a shrug. "Can't be at our best in a fight if we don't get a little riled up before." For a moment, Kenobi just stared, his brow creased and his lips pressed tight in a frown before he nodded, the answer apparently acceptable.

"We break out in just a few minutes," Kenobi said evenly. "I have Luke at the helm and Leia on weapons, which should be enough to handle anything the Wrens can throw at us, but in case there's a nasty big fish in that particular pond, I want you two to man the ventral and anterior weapon stations."

Cody frowned, giving Rex a worried glance before he turned his attention back on the Sith Lord. "You don't think-"

"I don't know," Obi-Wan swiftly interrupted. "He's been pretty good at anticipating our moves, but this soon after our defeat at Dantooine, it's pretty reasonable to expect we'd go to ground."

"Or go looking to bolster our forces," Rex said grimly, and from the grimace on Kenobi's face, it was clear he had thought something similar.

"I'm sure he's got a plan," Obi-Wan said quietly. "I'm sure our window of opportunity is frightfully small, but those are the odds I work best at. I have a few more things up my sleeve, boys. We aren't defeated, not yet." He quickly checked his com, his brow wrinkling as he frowned. "Get to your stations. Breakout in thirty seconds."

Obi-Wan turned and rushed out of the hold to the lift, not waiting to see the clones running to do as they were told, and by the time he reached the cockpit, a large, white planet was visible through the viewport, and he quickly pushed away the surge of pain he felt in his chest. He had been here before, of course, when he was the Padawan of Qui-Gon Jinn, sent to defend the teenage Duchess of Mandalore. Krownest had been cold and harsh, and they had been on the run from nearly the moment they had landed in search of allies, only to be chased off the planet with the complete eradication of Kryze family allies by Clan Wren.

It was the first time of many that they had faced off against Ursa Wren. Now, hopefully, they wouldn't find themselves standing against her.

"No Star Destroyers, no Imperial ships..." Luke said with a sigh as he read the sensor data. "That's promising."

"Let's hope that luck holds out..." Sabine muttered, her grip on the back of Luke's seat tightening.

"Luck has nothing to do with it, all this has been carefully planned..." Obi-Wan said as he watched the planet grow larger, the ship rocking slightly as they entered the atmosphere, the snowy forests of the land below slowly starting to take shape. "Leia, open a com channel. Let's let the Wrens know we've arrived."

"Woah, wait, are you crazy?!" Sabine hissed. "They're going to shoot us out of the sky!"

"Sounds like a pretty typical Mandalorian welcome to me," Kenobi drawled with a roll of his eyes. "Honestly, Sabine, what were you expecting? You want us to land unannounced on Krownest and sneak into the Wren stronghold? Do you suspect your mother will react better to an infiltration of her holdings?"

Hissing a curse between her teeth, Sabine glared at the smirking Sith Lord, stalked forward to the Umbra's main console, and laid her hand over the com switch.

"Ibic cuyir Sabine be Clan Wren," she said in a confident, proud voice that betrayed none of the fear or anxiety she showed only moments before. "Ni ganar te Prudii'alor ti ni, bal vi tionir ru'duumir at rusur."

"Well you could have embellished a little..." Leia scoffed after Sabine cut the com.

"We're warriors, not diplomats," Sabine shot back. "We prefer a direct approach."

"Maybe they prefer it a little too much..." Luke said as he sat up straighter in his seat, his hands tightening around the yoke. "We have incoming."

"Maybe they're just coming up to welcome us," Zeb said with a nervous chuckle, his ears flattening against his head when a warning chime sounded.

"We have five fighters, father," Luke said swiftly, his attention darting between the viewport and the scanner readout. "They aren't in ships, they're using jetpacks, from the look of it."

"Don't you dare let any of those assholes touch my ship!" Kenobi snapped, reaching over and slamming the intercom as Luke pulled up on the yoke, taking the ship higher up into Krownest's atmosphere. "Cody, Rex, we're about to have the Wren welcome committee on our tail. Open fire and keep the pressure on as soon as they're behind us so they keep their distance."

"Those are my people, Kenobi..." Sabine said quietly as she nervously looked at the sensors and saw the Mandalorians coming closer, the ship and the warriors only seconds from meeting head on.

"I've seen Bo-Katan tear ships right out of the sky with nothing but a jetpack and a well-placed explosive," Kenobi snapped, bracing his feet against the bases of the pilot and copilot seats, his hands linking through the support straps as he watched the displays, silently counting to himself as he watched the cluster of dots draw closer to the ship. "Dive, Luke, now, go!" the Sith Lord commanded, and with a wide, maniacal grin, Luke pressed the yoke forward hard, the swiftly shifting inertia inside the cockpit making their stomachs lurch, and Sabine, Zeb and Kallus threw themselves into seats and scrambled to strap themselves as they realized what was happening.

On the sensors, the dots of the Mandalorian attackers quickly scattered as the ship dove right toward them, and for a fraction of a second, through the viewport they could see the warriors sent reeling by the wind speeds caused by the rapidly accelerating ship. White and gray cloud cover lit up with flashes of green as Cody and Rex fired at the Mandalorians as ordered, and as they had hoped, rapid speeds and continuous fire kept the warriors from drawing too close. They pierced the cloud cover to see the wilds of Krownest spread out before them, a sea of forests and mountains beneath them, and Kenobi quickly reached over to the navigational display and marked a place on the screen where he knew the Wren Fortress lay nestled surrounded by high peaked mountains and frozen lakes.

"There," he snapped at Luke. "Get us to ground quickly, I don't want them to have the chance to launch ships." Luke quickly glanced at the navigational display as he evened out the ship, his already excited grin growing wider.

"There?" Luke asked. "That's going to be rough."

"Can you do it?" Obi-Wan asked, and Luke laughed as he reached over and shut off all of the ship's flight assistance.

"Of course I can do it," Luke said smugly. "Strap in."

Obi-Wan barely had time to throw himself into the seat behind the pilot when the Umbra dove again, the ship spiraling as Luke brought them hard to starboard, warning alarms chiming in the cockpit as the spinning view outside the viewport changed from pale sky to blurs of deep green forest to dark gray and white of the snowy peaks. The indicators of the pursuing Mandalorians scattered briefly with the rapid change of the ship's flight pattern, but they quickly converged behind them again.

The ship jolted when Luke swiftly brought them out of their spiral, the ship oriented sideways as they cut right between two close together peaks, and as Obi-Wan clung to the back of Luke's seat, he could hear Kallus retching as Luke dove into a ravine, the corridor between the two mountains thin and twisting and perilous. His eyes narrowed in concentration, Luke guided the ship perfectly through the winding ravine, the sideways ship oriented ship angling up and down to follow the angles of the mountains he flew between, only briefly noticing that the indicators of the pursuing Mandalorians disappeared from the sensors as Rex and Cody's continuous fire hit the snowy mountains, causing avalanches of rock and ice and snow in their wake.

When they emerged from the mountainous ravine, it was right above the Wren Fortress.

Leia tapped the intercom an swiftly ordered Cody and Rex to cease fire as Luke leveled the shift and swiftly spun it to face the fortress, the landing struts lowering as they landed right between the edge of the frozen lake and the forest. As the ship settled, Luke turned and grinned at the occupants of the cockpit, each and every one of them varying degrees of disheveled, dizzy or sick.

Obi-Wan hit the smug pilot on the back of the head.

"Helmets on, I said!" The Sith Lord snarled as Luke rubbed the back of his head. "Leia has hers on, you couldn't follow one safety precaution?!"

"...my restraints were securely fastened," Luke grumbled, shrinking back when his father glared at him, and with a muttered apology, he reached under his seat for his helmet and quickly slid it on.

"I'm going out," Kenobi said quickly, the darksaber flying from his belt to hover above his outstretched hand. "No doubt our welcome party will be converging upon us momentarily. When you've got your bearings, get your weapons ready, set them to stun and follow." He turned to leave the cockpit, the door sliding open with a smooth hiss, and he turned, his eyes narrowing as he looked between the twins as they began to unstrap. "And no lightsabers!" he ordered. "That's not something I'm ready to blow open."

With that, Obi-Wan slid his own helmet over his head and left, his long stride quickly taking him down the hall to the hatch of the boarding ramp. He pressed his hand to the controls and waited as mechanisms whirred and hissed with the efforts of the depressurization process, and before the door slid open, he felt the presence of Sabine Wren slip beside him, silent and focused, her expression hidden to him by her own helmet, though he could feel the tension within her.

"Nervous?" he asked quietly, and to his surprise, Sabine shook her head.

"Not anymore," she said in a tight but unwavering voice. "There's no turning back now. Stupid to be nervous about it."

Kenobi chuckled as the hatch slid open, and together, they stepped out of the ship into the frigid air of Krownest.

The pursuing Mandalorians that they had lost in the mountain passage appeared just as soon as they stepped off the boarding ramp, and they had brought reenforcements.

With a wave of his fingers, Kenobi called his lightsaber to his hand, the red blade striking on with a hiss the moment it touched his palm and holding off on igniting the darksaber clutched in his other hand. He stepped in front of Sabine, providing her with cover as she took aim at the swarm coming toward them, and effortlessly batted away the shots that began being fired upon them as soon as they were in range. Just behind him, he could hear Sabine curse nervousness and fear running colder through the Force than the air around them despite her previous calm. Her family had arrived, and Kenobi had no doubt that the Wrens would not give them the courtesy of setting their weapons to a non-lethal setting as they had.

Just as the Wrens came within range of Sabine's less powerful, stunning shots, Kenobi reached out through the Force and pulled the closest three Mandalorians out of the air, sending them slamming hard to the snow below, his lightsaber spinning as he deflected the increased fire. The converging warriors baked off suddenly, going to ground and taking cover behind trees and stones when the rest of the crew ran down the boarding ramp, their weapons blazing and striking several of the retreating force as they took up position behind and beside the Sith Lord.

"Shame they took to ground," Leia scoffed beside Obi-Wan, her own blaster raised as she snatched a small cylinder off her belt. "I brought the special loadout. Want me to smoke them out?"

"Do it," Kenobi commanded, his eyes fixed on the Wren fortress and the second wave of Mandalorains he could see flying toward them. With an almost gleeful chuckle, Leia lobbed the device out toward the edge of the forest where the warriors had dug in, and a second later, a hazy blue smoke billowed over the area, the flashes of red blaster fire lighting up the mist as the Mandalorains continued their aggressive fire.

"Pretty sure those helmets can see through a smokescreen, princess," Kallus snapped as a shot that got past Kenobi's defensive flew just past his head.

"It's the special loadout," Leia said with just too much amusement in her voce. "That's not a smokescreen, it's ionized gas."

Before the meaning behind her words sunk in, the Sith Lord reached out, his fingers splayed and glowing blue pulsing through his veins as lightning shot from his fingertips. The moment the arcs of lightning made contact with the gas, it quickly spread throughout the ionized vapor, the plasma bolts of their fire quickly stopping as the Mandalorians were sent convulsing to the ground.

With the first group dealt with, Kenobi quickly turned to face the second group flying toward them, and finally, he ignited the Darksaber.

The response was immediate, the Mandalorian charge forward halting as if they had hit a wall, the entire group holding off as they dropped to the ground, their weapons still raised, though now more cautious than aggressive. For a while, neither group moved, all weapons raised and the tension so heavy it could be felt like electricity in the air. Kenobi's group only moved when the electrified Mandalorians began groaning upon the ground, some of them slowly climbing to stand on unsteady legs. Cody and Rex repositioned, turning their focus from the active threat to the potential one, tightening up their formation as they did so, and the Mandalorians aimed their weapons, the high pitched whine of priming blasters screeching in their ears.

"Enough!" a cold, strong voice called from the back of the group, and the Mandalorians parted to allow a woman in gray and gold armor to pass. She stopped at the head of the group, her warriors forming up defensively around her, their weapons pointing threateningly at the intruders.

With a gesture of his hand, Kenobi ordered his people to lower their weapons.

"Well..." Obi-Wan drawled as he took a step forward, the Darksaber held in his hand more with the Force than with his trembling fingers. "It's been a long time, Ursa Wren."

"Not long enough," Ursa scoffed, matching the step forward that the Sith Lord took. "Or maybe it's been too long."

"I'd certainly like to know which," Kenobi said, and for a long moment, Ursa stood still and silent, her hand resting on the hilt of the blaster at her hip.

"The last time you set foot on Krownest, it was to threaten my clan," Ursa said coldly. "Do you come here to bring war back to Clan Wren, Shadow King?"

"I do," Kenobi said gravely, the Darksaber unwavering in his hand as the Mandalorians quickly moved into a defensive combat formation, though Ursa Wren didn't so much as move.

"You're too late," Ursa said flatly, reaching up to remove her helmet and glaring at them with furious brown eyes. Beside him, Obi-Wan felt Sabine inch closer toward him. "War has already come to Krownest, and it has robbed me of my son and my husband. Did you think to sway me by bringing my daughter with you?" she asked, her eyes narrowing as she shifted her attention to Sabine. "She's the one that brought war down upon my clan."

"I brought Sabine to return her home to you," Kenobi said calmly. "Just as I will bring home the rest of your family." For just a moment, Ursa's eyes widened, the slightest flicker of hope sparking through the Force, and in the next moment, it was gone, her expression and her emotions under tight control. "Tell me what happened," Kenobi said as the Darksaber deactivated with a hiss and was returned to the Sith Lord's belt. "How was your family stolen?"

"Stolen..." Ursa scoffed with a dismissive flick of her hand, and all around her, her soldiers cautiously lowered their weapons.

"Stolen," Obi-Wan repeated as he strode toward the woman, heedless of the weapons that swiftly raised to point at him again, his own group cautiously hanging back, though Sabine trailed close behind him. "If they were dead, I've no doubt you would have broken Clan Wren against the bulwark of the Empire in search of vengeance. You haven't, so they must be alive and being used against you, so tell me, Ursa, how it has come to this."

"You should know already!" Ursa snapped, her eyes once again turning toward Sabine as she pointed an accusing finger at her. "Or has my daughter not told you what she's done!?"

"She has," Obi-Wan said quietly. "She lashed out against the Empire."

"Leaving her family behind to bear the retribution for her actions!" Ursa threw her helmet to the snowy ground and turned furious eyes back upon the Sith Lord. "To prove our loyalty to the Empire, my son was forced to enlist with the Empire, and my husband was taken to ensure our continued cooperation. We were imprisoned so that Sabine could be free!"

"That isn't fair!" Sabine finally snapped, tearing her own helmet off and staring unflinchingly when the Wren Clan leader turned her furious gaze upon her. "Family first, and you turned your back on me!"

"What else was I supposed to do, Sabine!" Ursa shot back. "You backed us into a corner! I did what I had to do to save us. As our Clan leader, I must act for the good of the Clan."

"So did I!" Sabine said, her voice finally beginning to waver beneath the weight of emotions. "I did what I had to do for our family! For Mandalore!"

"And I am not at the same liberty to be so as impulsive as you," Ursa said coldly. "If you spoke to me, if you told me what was happening before you acted, we could have thought of something." She scoffed, flicking her hand dismissively as a disdainful sneer crossed her face. "Instead, you forced my hand. I had no other choice."

"You could have fought!" Sabine shot back, and her mother didn't flinch, her expression cold and unreadable.

"And we would have died," she said flatly. "I chose to save our clan. Even if it cost my family to do it."

"As riveting as this discussion is, I'm sure we can find a better time to have it," Obi-Wan said before stammering Sabine found her tongue. "I came here to unite the clans of Mandalore against the Empire, not to wade balls deep into your family drama." With a long, hard glare at Sabine, Ursa turned her attention away from the defiant teenager, the anger gone from her face when she looked at the Sith Lord, though there was a hard edge in her eyes.

"You've come to the wrong place," Ursa said cautiously. "I can't make that decision."

"No..." Obi-Wan said slowly, thoughtfully, his head tilting slightly as he looked the woman over, reached out through the Force and felt desperation and hope and shame, a confusing, conflicting swirl of emotions. A knowing grin crept across his face. "But you've already contacted the one who can, haven't you?" There was silence, and Ursa Wren drew up tall, her head held high and her eyes hard and cold, though the shame Kenobi sensed through the Force before intensified. "The safe return of your family in exchange for the Empire's most wanted..." the Sith Lord drawled, his grin widening as the woman stiffened. "Ever the cunning bitch, aren't you?"

"I did what I had to do!" Ursa snapped, her eyes narrowing as Sabine rose her weapon.

"Yes, yes, we know," Obi-Wan said dismissively as he rolled his eyes and stepped closer to Clan Wren's leader, her troops swiftly raising their weapons, and with a gesture of his hand, he forced the Mandalorians to their knees, their weapons dropping harmlessly to the ground. To her credit, Ursa didn't so much as look at her swiftly and easily disarmed soldiers, her defiant gaze remaining locked on the abundantly confident Sith Lord.

"How long do we have to prepare?" Kenobi asked calmly, and for a long moment, Ursa didn't reply, only stood silent and unmoving, her gaze for only a moment flicking to the Darksaber in his hand.

"...not long," she finally said. "It's a fast jump from Mandalore to Krownest. You might have five minutes. Maybe ten, depending on the size of the force that's mobilized."

"And who should we be expecting?" Obi-Wan asked, and a flash of anger crossed over Ursa's face.

"How should I know?!" she snapped, but the Sith didn't answer, only raised an eyebrow as he waited for her answer. With a heavy sigh, the anger dropped away from the Mandalorian. "Bo-Katan, obviously. And she never goes anywhere without a sizable force."

"Her men?" Kenobi asked quietly, and Ursa shrugged.

"Sometimes. But for you, Shadow King, I doubt you'll get anything less than a full division of Imperial Super-Commandos and Gar Saxon himself." She laughed bitterly, resentment and rage once again tensing her shoulders. "Hell, you might even get Tiber Saxon as well. Clan Saxon is fiercely loyal to the Empire, which makes you both threat and opportunity. They'll bring their best."

"What, is that it?" Kenobi drawled, an almost bored, disappointed lit in his voice, and Ursa's jaw went slack as she stared at the man.

"Is that not enough?" she finally asked after a moment of stunned silence. "Who exactly are you expecting?" But the Sith Lord didn't answer, only smiled a sly smile as he turned away from the leader of Clan Wren to face Luke and Leia.

"Gemini, take the Umbra into orbit," Kenobi commanded. "I need eyes in the sky, let me know the moment Bo-Katan's forces arrive and if my good friend the Admiral shows up to play." Without a word, Luke and Leia turned and ran to the Umbra, the boarding ramp retracting the moment the two disappeared into the ship. "The rest of you, take up a perimeter. I want you to have a clear shot at everything in this clearing." He pointed the Darksaber at Kallus. "You're in command, Fulcrum. Loyalty to the Empire meant Imperial tactics. Link up your com frequencies so you can keep them clued into their most likely formation."

"You got it..." Kallus muttered, turning to the others for a moment to sync their coms. The Umbra's engines powered on and after the ship had lifted into the air and sped off high into the atmosphere, Kallus and his team took off in opposite directions to take up their positions. Except for Sabine, who was kept from running off the second she was able by the Sith Lord's hand upon her shoulder.

"Not you, Miss Wren," Kenobi said, his attention swiftly turning back to her mother. "Tell me about the Saxons." For a long moment, Ursa was silent, looking around at her uneasy, conflicted troops as they nervously eyed the Shadow King's troops encircling them.

"As I said," Ursa said quietly as she stepped closer to the Sith. "They believe unquestioning loyalty to the Empire will eventually see them elevated above Bo-Katan."

"Ambitious shits..." Kenobi muttered. "Certainly they don't believe that will work."

"It has," Ursa said flatly. "The Saxons were nothing before the Empire came to power, and their fanatical devotion has seen them risen high. Higher than they have any right to be. One misstep on Bo-Katan's part could see their clan elevated above her."

"Good thing that's never going to happen," Obi-Wan said smugly, the Darksaber spinning in his grasp. "I won't allow it."

"Shadow King!" Leia's voice came over the com on Kenobi's belt. "Three ships just came out of hyperspace. An imperial light cruiser and two Mandalorian frigate class warships. They've released troop transports and they're heading down quick toward your position."

"How many?" Obi-Wan asked quietly.

"I counted five. Want us to do something about them?"

"No," Obi-Wan said quickly. "We don't know where are allies are. Have they detected you?"

"No," Luke's voice answered. "The stealth systems are engaged, and we're positioned behind them and well outside their visual range."

"Good..." Kenobi said. "That light cruiser any of the ones we recognize from Fulcrum's dossier on the Seventh Fleet?"

"No," Leia quickly replied. "If your Admiral's here, he didn't come in one of his own ships."

"That unfortunately doesn't mean much..." Kenobi muttered. "Stay hidden, Gemini. We may need you momentarily." He quickly tapped a button on the com and was silent for a moment before he held the device up to his lips. "You get that, Kallus?"

"Got it," Kallus' voice crackled over the com. "We're ready."

With a nod, Obi-Wan returned the device to his belt and turned away from the line of Mandalorians, Sabine close on his heels and the Darksaber hissing as he deactivated the blade, his eyes fixed upon the sky and a faint smile upon his face when he touched the Force and felt the hard, steely resolve of Bo-Katan.

"Shadow King, wait!" Ursa said, her words swift and frantic as her long stride quickly covered the short distance between them. "My son, Tristain..." she whispered when she was close enough, quiet enough that Sabine had to lean in to hear her. "He serves under Gar Saxon's command. If he brought such a large force with him..."

"You believe your son is among them," Kenobi finished, and Ursa nodded tightly.

"I don't know what you plan to do, but please," Ursa muttered, reaching out to touch the hand that grasped the Darksaber, though stopped herself short, her hand balling into a tight fist. "I allowed the Empire to carve the heart out of me to keep my family and my clan safe. I would give all that and more to the one who could return them to me. You already-" She quickly stopped herself, biting down upon her lip, glancing for just a moment at Sabine before her gaze fell to stare at the footprints in the snow. "Please..." was all she said, her voice barely a whisper.

Beside him, Obi-Wan could feel Sabine tense, her breath held and the Force burning with emotions that she tried valiantly to keep a tight hold over, a thing she managed successfully, though the Force betrayed her to those with the talent to feel it. A hum began to reverberate through the air, the herald of the ships swiftly coming toward them, a thing that only intensified the fear and anxiety that strained the Force.

"I'll do what I can," Kenobi said as he looked away from Ursa, and with a sharp intake of breath that sounded like relief, the Countess of Clan Wren turned to her troops and ordered them to back up and take defendable positions, the warriors cautiously but obediently retreating to the forest line or taking up position on raised rock formations at the edge of the frozen lake. Not sooner had the Mandalorians settled in, the troop transports appeared over the mountains and swiftly dove toward them, the side of one of the transports opening and allowing armored Mandalorians with jetpacks to pour out of the ship and swiftly fly toward them.

Obi-Wan couldn't keep a wide grin from spreading across his face. At the head of the group was the distinctive blue and white armor of Bo-Katan, leading the charge as always.

"Are you an idiot?!" Bo-Katan snapped at the Sith Lord before her feet had even touched the ground, but the second they did, she was swiftly striding toward him and gave him a hard shove as soon as she was close enough. "You better talk fast, Kenobi, because-"

"Is Thrawn here?" Obi-Wan said calmly, coldly, so cold that Bo-Katan froze, gave him a hard, examining look as she drew her blaster from her holster and leveled it at his chest, the transports flying low overhead as warriors in traditional Mandalorian armor and a stark white, Imperial variant dropped from the ships.

"He isn't," Bo-Katan said quietly, taking a step back from the man as he ignited the Darksaber, Ursa quickly falling in beside her with her own blaster raised at the Sith.

"Then it's time," Obi-Wan said firmly, so unwavering and so certain that Bo-Katan took another step back, the hand holding her blaster shaking for just a moment before she was calm and steady once again, the Force singing with relief and purpose and long-repressed rage. All around him, the Mandalorians dropped from the sky to encircle him, their weapons raised, though none fired as their leaders strode forward to join Bo-Katan and Ursa Wren. Two wore the white and red of Clan Saxon and their Imperial Super-Commandos, the markings on their armor signifying that they were likely Gar and Tiber Saxon themselves.

Quickly surveying the warriors that surrounded him, the Sith Lord found that all those in the traditional armor held their weapons steady upon him, but nearly all of them had their other hand resting upon a cylinder strapped to their hips or legs.

Lightsabers.

Obi-Wan's hand tightened around the hilt of the Darksaber. Bo-Katan had brought her best with her, and while her forces were considerably outnumbered by the Saxon forces, he knew very well that one of his former Jedi was worth twenty of these Imperials. Maybe she had expected this. He bitterly thought that she had been waiting far too long for this.

"Well, I'll be damned..." said the haughty voice of Gar Saxon as he stopped beside Bo-Katan and Ursa Wren and drew his own weapon, his brother slinking in on the other side of Ursa, the woman's shoulders tensing with their close proximity. "It really is the Shadow King."

"I told you!" Bo-Katan snarled, the disdain clearly heard even through her helmet. "The Wrens can be trusted."

"Anyone can be trusted, with the right leverage..." Tiber scoffed, his head turning slightly to the side, and Kenobi followed his gaze, quickly surveying the warriors in the Saxon's field of vision, and immediately found what he was looking for. Weapon drawn, shoulders hunched, helmet angled slightly downward, the Imperial armored warrior sent ripples of shame and anger and determined focus through the Force. Tristain Wren, if he had to guess, and he did. Time was short, and once he made his move, there wouldn't be any opportunity to search for the hostage Wren.

"You were right to contact us, Viscountess..." Gar said right before he fired his weapon at the Sith Lord, the Darksaber cutting effortlessly through the air and sending the bolt burning into the snow at Tiber's feet.

"My son, Saxon..." Ursa said tightly as she faced the man and drew up taller. "You promised-"

"You'll have him, Ursa," Bo-Katan interrupted, and Gar laughed harshly as he looked down on the women.

"She'll have him when we have what we were promised," Gar said in a commanding voice, but Bo-Katan remained unmoving and wholly unimpressed.

"She will have him now," Bo-Katan said flatly. "You don't rule Mandalore, Saxon."

"No," Obi-Wan said, the Darksaber spinning in his hand as he took a threatening step forward, and although the Mandalorians refocused their weapons on him, the air filled with the priming whine of a hundred blasters, they all took a cautious step back. "I rule Mandalore," Kenobi said as he pointed the Darksaber at Bo-Katan. "Kneel before your Mand'alor, or be destroyed."

"You need power to threaten Mandalore, Shadow King, and you have none," Gar scoffed. "We brought an army of the best Mandalore has to offer. You may put up a fight, but not even you can stand against such a force." He paused, his weapon rising slightly as he quickly glanced back at Ursa. "Or perhaps you believe you do have allies here. Don't think we didn't see Sabine Wren hiding behind your dress..."

"You Mandalorians really have no idea what robes are, do you?" Kenobi muttered as Sabine cautiously stepped around him, both her blasters drawn and pointed at the two Saxons.

"Sabine..." Tiber said in an arrogant drawl. "How very good of you to return home."

"And how very convenient," Gar added. "I wonder, Shadow King, if you brought her here in the hopes of negotiating with the Wrens, or..." he said slowly. "Perhaps the Wrens have already made a deal with you. Admirable, Ursa, the lengths you would go to protect your family..."

"Even those guilty of treason..." Tiber said coldly, his head turning slightly to look at the tense Viscountess beside him. "But perhaps we might be convinced to overlook this transgression, Ursa."

"You already promised-"

"Our deal had nothing to do with your daughter," Tiber said sharply. "I have need of Sabine's talents. When the Shadow King is dead, she'll come with me back to Mandalore. In exchange..." He shrugged. "Your husband and your son will be returned to you."

"Oh, come now, is that it?" Obi-Wan said flippantly, a slight flick of his wrist calling upon the Force to drag the furious Sabine protectively behind him once again, and he grinned beneath his helmet when the Saxons' attention snapped back to him. "You're just going to take her daughter without offering anything more than she already expected? That doesn't sound like much of a deal to me."

"You have nothing to do with this!" Gar snapped, whatever else he was going to say cut off by a harsh laugh from the Sith Lord.

"I have everything to do with this," Obi-Wan said flatly. "Ursa doesn't have Sabine, I do, which means your deal is with me, not her. And don't think I've forgotten that you've taken a shot at me, you little shit, so don't expect an easy deal like you made with the Wrens. So come, let's negotiate."

"The Empire doesn't negotiate with traitors," Tiber said in a disdainful hiss, and Kenobi looked at him for a moment, the silence tense and the cold air heavy with the anticipation of the order to open fire.

"How right you are..." Kenobi said slowly, his hand flexing by his side as he surveyed the warriors before him, the sharp thrum of the Darksaber only raising the anxiety tight in the air. "We are at an impasse, then. Unless I remove your ability to negotiate."

Before either of the Saxons had a chance to move, before either of them could even understand the meaning of what had been said, the Sith Lord's hand tightened around the invisible coils of the Force and he pulled, and with a sharp cry, the soldier that Kenobi had suspected to be Tristain Wren was pulled off his feet and swiftly dragged through the snow toward him. No sooner had the boy come to a stop at the Sith's feet and his helmet torn off did Ursa quickly spin around, her blaster shoving hard up underneath Tiber's helmet as she fired.

His head snapped back, blood quickly pouring from the helmet and staining the white of his armor as he fell to the ground, and as Gar quickly turned his own weapon on Ursa, Bo-Katan reeled on him, the combat blade sliding out of her gauntlet as she stabbed it deep into his neck. The snapping hiss of two dozen lightsabers filled the air as blasters began firing, followed immediately by screams the sharp thrum of plasma blades as they sliced through Imperial armor and flesh and bone. The air filled with the chaotic flurry of blaster fire as bolts were shot and casually deflected to burn through stone and snow and armor, the force that had been surrounding the Sith Lord very swiftly shifting to flank the panicked and disorganized Saxon forces as their numbers were swiftly reduced, Bo-Katan's warriors moving out with their lightsabers as the Wren forces closed in with blaster fire.

"Boba!" Bo-Katan shouted into her com as she sprinted toward the Sith Lord standing protective guard over Sabine and Tristain. "I need you to take out the Saxon ships!"

"All of them?" came the smug, almost amused reply, the drop ships suddenly appearing over the mountains and one of them bursting into flames and crashing into the mountain side as Fett opened fire on it.

"Yes, all of them!" Bo-Katan snapped, eying the ships as they flew overhead, the three remaining breaking formation and swiftly forming up behind Fett's ship as they attempted to bring him down. "The transports, the frigate, the light cruiser, all of them!"

"That light cruiser's a bit much for a transport, even when I'm flying it," Boba muttered, and Bo-Katan gave a short hiss of annoyance as she reached the Sith and hit the side of his helmet with the grip of her blaster.

"Make it work, Fett!" Bo-Katan commanded, her eyes quickly raking over Kenobi for a moment before she added, "I suspect you'll have some help up there."

"Copy that," Boba said quickly before the connection was cut, the hatch of his transport opening and dropping a wide payload of explosives behind him, the three trailing ships too close to get out of the way in time before they were struck and went up in balls of flames, Fett's transport speeding away from the explosion and up into space.

"Gemini," Obi-Wan said into his com as he stared down the steely Bo-Katan. "Destroy the light cruiser. One of the frigates is a Saxon ship and should respond to your attack. Destroy that one too."

"Understood," Luke's voice said in reply. "Anything else?"

"One transport is returning from the surface. Fett's in it, so do try not to destroy him."

"We'll see how well he behaves himself," Leia responded. "We'll let you know when the sky's clear."

The com cut, and with a sigh, Obi-Wan removed his helmet, flashed a small smile at Bo-Katan as she laid her hand upon his cheek, and he glanced around the battlefield, the snow stained red with blood and the sound of blaster fire dying down to occasional shots as the last stragglers of the Saxons' Imperial force was killed. Ursa Wren rushed to her children, dropping to her knees in the snow as she threw her arms around their shoulder and held them tightly to her chest. He could see Cody casually walking through the snow, stopping occasionally to fire shots into the bodies on the ground to ensure they were dead. At the edge of the frozen lake, Kallus sat on a rock, his face in his hands and Zeb at his side, his large hand kneading at the human's tense shoulder, the trap that had been laid and the bloody aftermath striking just too close to the former Imperial's own experience with rebel forces.

Some damage just couldn't be undone, Kenobi thought as he looked across the bloody field at the Wren fortress, a sight he had seen before when many, many years ago, he had fought here during the Clan Wars, the memory as vivid before his eyes as if it were happening now. He closed his eyes, and for just a moment, he could feel Satine's delicate hand slide into his own, her fingers entwining with his, her head resting upon his shoulder and filled with the weariness and grief of war, and the bitter relief that it would soon be over.

When he opened his eyes, she was gone, but he could still feel warmth of her touch. She was gone, but the damage remained.

And this war was just beginning.

---

"You need to hear this, sir," Commodore Faro said the moment Thrawn stepped onto the bridge, and despite the woman's urgency, the Chiss took his time getting to the communication station where Faro stood. He was, technically, off-duty, had been sequestered in his quarters in study for the past several hours as he analyzed the newest information pertaining to the Lothal rebels. But, unlike so many Imperial commanders, the Chiss was never truly off-duty, and so the interruption was neither unexpected nor unwanted.

Information, no matter how insignificant it seemed, could make all the difference.

"We intercepted a freighter headed toward the blockade," Faro explained to the Admiral as her communications officer pulled up the recording. "When ordered to halt and identify, it responded with this." She gave a brief nod to the communication's officer, and the man played the message, a female voice speaking in a smooth, almost musical alien language. Seeing the Admiral's interest, his head tilting slightly to the side as he intently listened, Faro allowed it to play all the way through and let it loop once before she ordered the communications officer to cut the audio.

"Interesting..." Thrawn quietly mused, and Faro drew up to attention.

"We ran it through every database we could think of, sir," Faro reported. "We couldn't find any matches for the language anywhere."

"Nor would you," Thrawn said absently, his eyes fixed on the inactive displays on the com station. "It is Cheunh, the Chiss language."

Out of the corner of her eye, Faro spotted first weapon officer Lieutenant Pyrondi shooting Commander Hammerly a wide grin, the other woman scoffing slightly as she rolled her eyes. They all agreed that this was some sort of rebel diversion, but Hammerly had believed that the language was entirely made up in order to keep them wasting time in a wild, pointless chase, while Pyrondi had been of the opinion that this was some very real, very obscure language that their intrepid Admiral would be intimately familiar with. Faro had been inclined to agree with Hammerly, and while Thrawn was firm on the Imperial regulation against gambling and no credits were offered in the wager, Pyrondi was certain to never let them hear the end of it.

"Where is the ship now?" Thrawn asked, finally pulling his attention away from the com station and looking up at the viewport from where they stood in the crew pit.

"We disabled it and tractored it in," Faro said confidently. "We have it locked down in hangar two and have scanned it for explosives, but we didn't find anything. Scans report only one life form, but otherwise, it's empty." Thrawn nodded as he turned away from the station and walked out of the crew pit and back up to the command walkway, Faro following close behind him.

"Have we boarded this shuttle?" Thrawn asked, and Faro shook her head.

"Not yet, sir. We were waiting for you. We thought you might learn something from the way they react to our presence that we might miss."

"Thank you, Commodore, but in this case, I am afraid there is little I could discern." Faro huffed softly. That too had been Pyrondi's idea. That it didn't pan out might help take her down a peg when she came to gloat later. "What is your analysis of the situation?"

"We believe it's a rebel diversion, sir," Faro said confidently as she followed the Admiral into his aft bridge office. "Phoenix Squadron might be on the move."

"A diversion from what, Commodore?" Thrawn asked as he sat at his desk chair, a few taps on his datapad bringing up one of his oldest files in the record of his conflict with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"Maybe they're finally ready to launch another large scale attack on Lothal," Faro muttered, a contemplative frown on her face the moment she said it. "No..." she said quietly. "It wouldn't make sense to send a diversion here if that were the case."

"Very good," Thrawn said. "And?"

"And..." Faro sighed quietly. Thrawn and his mind games. "I suppose," she said slowly, "that they would only send a diversion here if they wanted us to shore up our defenses." She looked at the Admiral, and found him staring expectantly at her. "Which...doesn't make much sense. Unless..." A slight smile touched her lips. "They want us to look inward to keep us from looking outward. It can't be that simple."

"I think it is," Thrawn said quietly as he observed the datapad in his hands as it played the file, a recording of Kenobi as he preformed experiments on five Chiss he had captured. By the end of the recording, four of those five Chiss would be dead. His people were reclusive and rarely ventured beyond their borders, but the speaker on the shuttle's transmission was indeed a native speaker of Cheunh. There could be little doubt where this Chiss came from.

"So, what?" Faro ventured. "They're trying to conceal their movements? They're actually planning to attack somewhere else?"

"They are certainly attempting to conceal their activities, and while they may attack another location, that will likely be another diversionary strike. Their target is Lothal, that has not changed, and the matter has become more urgent now that they are aware of the construction of the Defender. But no..." Thrawn mused, staring at his datapad for a moment more before he shut off the device. "They know we are closing in and are now attempting to stall for time. We must not allow them to have it."

"With all due respect, sir, how are we supposed to stop them if..." Faro trailed off when the Admiral's glowing eyes flicked up to look at her, and she felt her heart skip a beat. "...your examination of the Chandrila Mistress' crew paid off. You know where their base is..." she muttered, a small, excited smile touching her lips despite herself.

"I want you to prepare the fleet for battle," Thrawn commanded as he stood from his seat. "We will keep a blockading force here in the event that our timing is off, but I suspect we still have time. Given our visitor in the docking bay, Kenobi will likely launch a diversionary attack to draw out attention outward before sending his forces to Lothal."

"Yes sir," Faro said as she drew to attention. "And our visitor, sir?"

"I will deal with her."

"...alone, sir?"

"Yes, Commodore," Thrawn said flatly. "Kenobi is proud, powerful, and arrogant. He will not have sent another to defeat an enemy he has marked as worthy of him. I am safe in the presence of our visitor."

"And when the attack force is ready, sir?" Faro asked. "We head for the rebel base?"

"Not immediately," Thrawn said quietly as he stepped out of the office, Faro walking beside him. "First, we will bring the Chimaera to pick up an asset on Mandalore. We will then rendevous with the rest of the fleet and travel together to the rebel base."

"I'll see it done, Admiral," Faro said with a salute, and with that, she turned on her heels and headed back toward the bridge, leaving Thrawn to leisurely make his way down that hall to the turbolift to the second hangar.

The hallways had been quiet and empty, but the moment the hangar doors hissed open, Thrawn stepped into a bustle of activity and noise, officers and technicians rushing about as they checked in and serviced the TIE Defenders that were currently being brought aboard from the Lothal factories, the pilots that had been brought in from Skystrike going through orientation and familiarizing themselves with the new starfighter, and at the far end, a division of stormtroopers personally led by their commander standing tight guard around a worn, locked down freighter.

He slowly headed toward the freighter, his eyes raking over the design, but like so many rebel craft, there was little information that could be gleaned from the structure of the ship. Many rebel vessels were old, outdated craft that had been refitted and renovated, others had been stolen from a wide variety of places. These rebel cells were often composed of a wide variety of species, utilizing the little resources they had to form a patchwork resistance, and while tools of opportunity could say a great deal about those who used them, the specific shape of those tools said less than the way in which they were used.

This ship, old, unmodified, without a weapon in sight, was meant to be unthreatening, unassuming. The ship would not make it back into rebel hands, and while it was disposable, the passenger inside was not. A small smile touched Thrawn's lips as he commanded the stormtroopers to open the vessel as he approached the freighter. A vastly important bid for time, as he suspected.

It only took a moment for the stormtroopers and their technicians to get the entry hatch to open, a harsh grind instead of the smooth hiss of more modern vessels, though that just as likely could have been the internal mechanisms working against their efforts to open it. Ordering the stormtroopers to stand down, Thrawn took a deep breath and stepped aboard the ship, his eyes quickly sweeping across the small, lightless, empty cargo hold as he walked slowly to the door and pressed his hand to the controls. It opened without complaint, and in the short hallway beyond, he could see the faint glow of low body heat typical of the Chiss, and despite himself, he felt his heart lurch in his chest. He had, of course, been in contact with his people, infrequent as it was given the Imperial eyes upon him, but it had been many years since he had actually been in the presence of one of his own.

He was not a sentimental man, but he did miss the Chiss. He would not have been doing all this work out in the Empire had he not cared deeply for them.

"I mean you no harm," Thrawn said in Cheunh as the door slid closed behind him. "You can see I am alone. You can come out."

For a moment, there was no nothing, and then the glowing shadow of her presence moved, and the woman walked out from a small room, her step cautious but unafraid, looking for more healthy than Thrawn had feared. And, again to his surprise, she wore the black uniform of the Expansionary Defense Fleet, the multi-circle insignia of the Ascendancy upon her shoulder. He would have thought that in conquering this small group of Chiss, Darth Lumis would have destroyed everything that connected them to their people, but instead, it had been preserved and, from the look of it, kept with considerable care.

What was done to this woman and her squad was abhorrent and would not be forgotten, but her current condition may have said at least something good of this rogue Sith Lord.

"I am Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo, currently in service to the Empire," Thrawn said calmly.

"I am Seg'rotth'uruodo," the woman said in a voice that didn't waver. "Currently in service to Obi-Wan Kenobi, your next Emperor."

Thrawn said nothing, only took out his datapad, looked at it for a moment, and held it up to the woman, her previous confidence faltering and her skin paling considerably as she looked upon the screen to see the Sith's recording of the deaths and dissections of her former crew mates and the cruelty that she was subject to. Her expression said it all. It was indeed her in the recording. Turning the datapad away from her, he cleared the files and swiftly entered in a secure, familiar code into the device's transmitter.

"H-he's treated me well," Grotthu said in a voice that shook slightly despite her best efforts, unnerved by both the memories brought back by the recording and the Admiral's silence. "It hasn't all been like that. He...respects me. I have a place in his team, I have worked closely-"

"I am not interested in your account of Kenobi," Thrawn interrupted, his gaze flicking up to see confusion upon her face.

"...you aren't?"

"No, I am not," Thrawn muttered as he looked back at his datapad. "You have been in his care too long for your words to have any meaning, and I have studied those he has had extensive influence over."

"There have been no others like me," she asserted, the resolute confidence back in her voice.

"No, I suspect not," Thrawn said quietly, again looking up at her and giving her a small, tight smile as the static lines on the datapad formed into an image. "But I have everything I need to know him and his tactics. I have a different use for you."

She started to say something, but the words froze in her throat as she looked at the datapad and saw the image of a woman in a white uniform of the Ascendancy's top officers. More than that, she knew this woman.

"Admiral Ar'alani," Thrawn said quietly.

"I do not hear from you so often," Ar'alani said, the hint of amusement in her voice. "Do you have something for me, Mitth'raw'nuruodo?"

"I do indeed," Thrawn said as he angled the datapad toward Grotthu, and Ar'alani's face went rigid. "I am certain if you ask high command for a list of lost patrols, you shall find her name among them." He paused, briefly looking at the woman beside him, her eyes downcast and her shoulders hunched. "I believe it is time she is returned home."

"I agree," Ar'alani said quickly. "The Chiss do not belong in Lesser Space."

"Then I shall have her returned to you immediately," Thrawn said as he ran his fingers across the screen of the datapad.

"I...I-I'm going home?" Grotthu ventured timidly.

"You are," Thrawn said quickly. "May I assume that I am to send her to our previously arranged coordinates?"

"I'm afraid not," Ar'alani said stiffly. "I'm on a mission and long past the previous coordinates."

"Really..." Thrawn whispered, a dark edge in his voice that made Grotthu shiver. "Are things back home so dire?"

"They are certainly serious. I can't say more than that," Ar'alani said, and with a heavy sigh, she shook her head. "I can't afford a detour, but I may be able to spare a recon shuttle to arrange a pick-up. I'll forward new coordinates to your questis."

"Thank you, Ar'alani," Thrawn said with a slight bow of his head. "I will see that she makes it." With that, the screen went dark, and Thrawn tucked the datapad away, his full attention on the woman beside him. "As you well know, we are currently engaged in a major operation," Thrawn said quietly. "It is my intention to lock Ar'alani's coordinates into a scout ship's navcomputor and put you on it. With our current activity, one missing scouting vessel will not draw any notice."

"...that's it?" Grotthu asked with a disbelieving scoff. "I spend the better part of two years with the Shadow King and you're just...sending me home? Without an interrogation?"

"I am," Thrawn said flatly. "As I said, you are of little use to me, and Kenobi's stalling tactic is painfully obvious." He paused, his ridged brow drawing together as he examined her. "You have been away from home for too long."

"And what about you?" Grotthu countered. "You've been here much longer than I."

"I still have work that must be done..." Thrawn muttered softly, his gaze becoming distant for a moment before he refocused on her, his gaze hard and uncompromising. "Please be aware that should you reject the offer of home and attempt to override the navcomputer to return to your Master, I will be watching and will follow you back to your base. Likewise, should you attempt to contact the rebels, I will trace your signal and discern their location."

"I don't expect anything less from you..." Grotthu said. "I trust that you would make such an override quite impossible anyway. No, I wasn't planning on trying to escape. I..." She paused, a lump suddenly forming in her throat that made it quite difficult to speak. "I do miss home," she finally managed to choke out, and a soft chime came from the Admiral's comlink.

"I am with our guest, Commodore," Thrawn said into the device when he removed it from his belt.

"I know, sir, and I apologize for the interruption, but I believe we have a situation," Faro's voice came from over the device. "We've lost contact with Tiber and Gar Saxon." For a moment, Thrawn was silent, his eyes fixed on the com in his hand as he swiftly ran through the possible scenarios and selected the most likely.

"And Moff Kryze?" he asked, his gaze shifting to look at the woman beside him.

"Nothing, sir."

"The diversionary strike, as we discussed," Thrawn said confidently. "Continue as planned, Commodore. This does not alter our strategy."

"...sir, if Mandalore is in open rebellion-"

"Mandalore is an acceptable loss," Thrawn said quickly. "We will not win a battle to lose the war when our victory is so close at hand. All that has changed is the method by which we will retrieve our assets. I will brief you when we are en route. For now, Commodore, prepare my ship for travel."

"Yes sir," was the brief reply before the com cut off, and once again, Thrawn turned his attention to the other Chiss.

"First, I send you home," Thrawn said in a glacially calm voice. "And then, I claim victory over the rebels. I have hunted Obi-Wan Kenobi for a long time. It is time to make an end of it."