Crespi broke out through the gash in the outer skin of the ship to find less than what he hoped he would find. Kowalski had disappeared, although there were no aliens to greet them or acid burns on the hull. Crespi knew that Kowalski would at least be able to take out a few aliens before being overwhelmed. Kowalski was a good, competent soldier who knew his stuff.

Instead it looked like the stormtrooper had just disappeared into thin air.

The others visibly relaxed seeing Crespi emerge from the stairwell. Easily lowered the rifle he had trained on the opening. "Sir, what was that explosion we heard?"

"I managed to seal off the stairwell from the Queen's Chamber," Crespi said. "It should buy us some time but we need to move now. They have Commander Tano's scent and know she was responsible for the death of their queen. I can only imagine they'll want revenge for its death."

Salvia looked up at Crespi. "We can't move quickly with both Kaeden and Ahsoka unconscious." She glanced at the thing wrapped around Dr. Larte's head and shuddered. "I don't know if we can remove that thing from Kaeden's face. Ripping it off might do more harm than leaving it on."

"I don't leave anyone behind if I can help it," Crespi said. "You were once a Jedi, and by your current occupation I'd guess that you had some ability with healing?"

Salvia tensed, fear filling her eyes. "I… I can. But Jedi healing can only accelerate the body's natural healing rate. I won't be able to mend all her injuries in the time we have, but she'll be able to limp along with us."

Hooper saw the fear in Salvia's eyes as well. "You look afraid. What's wrong?"

"In order to heal her, I'll need to bind my presence in the Force to hers. That temporary bond is what allows a healer to kickstart the body's natural healing process."

"And? What's wrong with that?"

Salvia's voice trembled. "I don't know if she'll allow me in. Ahsoka and I parted under… less than ideal circumstances."

"We don't have a choice," Crespi said, shaking his head. "Do what you can."


Barriss closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, trying to bring her heart back under control. Fear of what Ahsoka's reaction to her presence might be constricted like a serpent inside her.

When there is no emotion, there is peace. Barriss may not have been a Jedi anymore, but the platitude still held firm. Fear would do no good, so she forced it away, feeling the pressure on her heart start to slack. She breathed deeply and calmly, and reached out.

The bacta she had applied to the worst of Ahsoka's wounds had already started working. Burned skin was soothed and the blood in the lacerations began to clot back together. Barriss rested a hand on Ahsoka's forehead, probing the walls Ahsoka had erected around her mind.

In her comatose state, Ahsoka's defenses were relaxed, allowing Barriss' gentle probe to slip through into her old friend's mind. She found the nub she was looking for and used the Force to stimulate it, causing the appropriate glands in Ahsoka's body to accelerate their work healing the togruta's wounds.

Barriss shifted her attention from wound to wound. The smaller cuts knitted together leaving small, faint scars on Ahsoka's skin. Barriss had to pour more Force energy into Ahsoka to deal with the larger wounds. She managed to stop any bleeding, and that was enough. Ahsoka might be sore and scarred when she woke up, but she wouldn't bleed to death.

As Barriss focused on healing the togruta's wounds, she could feel Ahsoka's mental defenses attempt to identify the foreign presence that was inside her mind and body functions. With the sudden flare of anger and rage, Barriss realized that Ahsoka had recognized her and had begun pushing back against Barriss in an attempt to force her out of her mind.

Barriss' eyes snapped open as she was thrown backwards, slamming into the hull of the alien ship. She looked up to see Ahsoka glaring at her angrily. The togruta yelled. "You! You-"

Crespi cut her off by grabbing her shoulder. "Enough of that Tano. I don't know what you have against Salvia, but she just healed the worst of your injuries. Whatever bad blood exists between you two, save it for after we get off this forsaken planet."

Ahsoka glared at him, fury in her eyes. She snarled, not even addressing Barriss. "Just tell Salvia to stay away from me and out of my head!"

She whirled quickly and stumbled a bit before regaining her balance, wearily making her way over to check on Kaeden.

Crespi walked over to Barriss, and helped her back to her feet. "What happened between the two of you to cause this?"

"My name isn't Salvia," Barriss sighed and looked up into Crespi's eyes. "I'm… I'm Barriss Offee."


Teraan and Rynn scrambled up the tunnel as fast as they could. There was no way of knowing whether Henry's sacrifice had collapsed the tunnel behind them or whether the aliens had made it through and were storming after them. Plus it was likely that there were other ways for the aliens to get into this tunnel. There had to be an exit after all.

Long minutes of silence passed as they climbed up and up. The only sound was the crunch of boots on silica and Rynn's heavy breathing. Being a science officer, the twi'lek didn't have the stamina that the stormtrooper did. But still, Rynn pushed onwards and upwards. Fear was a powerful motivator after all.

The tunnel's slope began to decrease and they squeezed out of the narrow tube into a chamber. It was about as tall as the mining tunnels, and had two tunnels branching out on each side.

"Wait a minute…" Teraan said, noticing the bisected corpse of one of the aliens. She moved slowly down one of the branching tunnels, only to run into a cave in. But the blockage was not one of rubble, instead one of glassy, smooth material. "This is where your friend Hooper sealed the entrance to the cavern!"

"You're right," Rynn nodded in agreement. "So we only have one way out."

Teraan nodded back. "Let's go. If we stay in one place for too long, they'll find us. And I doubt the two of us would survive long against a horde of those aliens."

With that, the two took off running back towards the mining tunnels.


The lift continued to rise up from the depths of the mine, Kowalski hanging onto his grapple underneath it as the minutes dragged on. Pulling himself hand-over-hand, he made it to the bottom of the turbolift car. The flashlight on his weapon revealed a number on the side of the shaft, reading that they had passed the second floor.

Massey must have heard him, because moments later a blaster bolt punched through the thin floor of the turbolift car next to his face. Another followed and slammed into his shoulder, stunning the stormtrooper and making him lose his hand grip on the bottom of the turbolift car.

Kowalski dropped in freefall for a couple seconds, before his grapple cable pulled taut and caught him. Swaying in the turbolift shaft, suspended over a few thousand feet of darkness, Kowalski regained his wits and looked at his shoulder.

The armor did its job, if the blackened plastoid was any indication. He moved his right arm, and almost screamed at the pain that shot through it.

The turbolift ground to a halt and Kowalski could hear Massey flee out of the opening doors. He looked at the number on the wall and saw a large 'G'.

They had reached the ground level.

Gritting his teeth, Kowalski pulled himself back up, hand over agonizing hand up towards the turbolift car.


Milnor Wilcox, RP-462, sat at the edge of the shuttle ramp, E-11 blaster in his lap. It had been a long time since RC-709 and the others had checked in. Too long.

But, he would stay until they came back, or he had no other choice but to leave them behind. Dust-off would only happen if those damn alien bug-things started swarming up at him.

He heard the sound of something running towards him at the same time as a crackle of static came over his comlink. It was somewhat garbled, but being a pilot used to static he thought he made it out. "Wilcox! You there? It's Kowalski!"

He grit his teeth in annoyance. RP-462 had always been a stickler for protocol, and RT-2756 knew it. The damn idiot always knew how to get under someone's skin.

"462 here. What do you want 56?"

As he spoke he raised the blaster and aimed it towards the sounds of running he heard. He relaxed when RT-8787 came tearing into sight. At first he was relieved. RT-8787 had been missing for a while looking for the abducted stormtroopers, but then he saw 87's face.

The former bounty hunter was a mess. Missing his helmet and the white stormtrooper armor was scuffed with dust and debris, scratched with claw marks all over it. His face was a bloody mess, with one side of it seeming to have been burned by acid.

RP-462 ran over to him. "87? what happened to you?"

RT-8787's only reaction was shoving his blaster into RP-462's gut and pulling the trigger multiple times. RP-462's eyes widened in shock and pain as he slumped off the ramp and onto the ground.

RT-2756's voice came over the comlink again, shouting a warning about RT-8787. RP-462 could not hear it over the sound of the Lambda-class shuttle's engines warming up, but then again, he couldn't hear anything anymore. The warning had come just too late.


Crespi didn't say anything as Salvia, no… Barriss, confessed her deception. The Mirialan's skittishness around Commander Tano made sense now, knowing the truth. Hell, Crespi almost punched himself for not making the connection sooner!

Crespi didn't know what to feel about this new development though. He sympathized with Barriss, of course, it was obvious that she felt terrible about what she had done to Tano and felt guilt over her betrayal.

Crespi and Barriss were alike in that way, they both knew what betrayal felt like.

Mylar stood alone in a clearing, lightsaber twirling in a blur. Fear and anger waged a constant battle on her face as she parried and deflected attack after attack from an unseen enemy.

Some strikes slipped past her defenses as she was slowly overwhelmed, catching her in both the arm and the leg. The Cathar cried out in pain, but to her credit stayed on her feet, desperation becoming the only emotion remaining in her eyes. Desperation for survival against impossible odds.

Crespi charged at Mylar, something in the back of his mind telling him to kill. He raced towards her, and she saw him coming. Her eyes filled with recognition and wariness and… hope?

Everything in Crespi screamed to stand down and help her, but a black clawed hand, his black clawed hand, swiped at her, tearing across Mylar's chest and gut. She remained on her feet for a moment, looking at him with confusion, fear, and betrayal in her eyes. She collapsed onto her back and the voice told Crespi to pounce.

He pinned her down, mouth opening as he leaned towards her head. As the silvery inner jaw shot forwards he looked into her eyes one last time. Reflected in those brown orbs was an oblong, chitinous head with no eyes.

Crespi shook his head, forcing that mini-vision away. Where the kriff had that come from?

He forced it out of mind, slamming shut his mental doors on the image of a bloody hole in the middle of Mylar's pretty face. Why the hell had he been one of those aliens in that vision?

Crespi had no idea, but he pushed the thought out of mind. What had happened with Mylar was in the past, and dwelling on the past instead of focusing on the present could, and most likely would, spell death for him and the others.

He called for everyone to gear up and move out, before setting off towards the exit from the cavern. They still had a ways to go.


Rynn and Teraan broke out of the alien tunnel back into the main mining corridor. The tunnel forked, they could either go deeper into the mine, or head back to the lobby of the destroyed elevator.

"If we go down that way," Rynn said between deep breaths looking warily at the passage leading deeper into the mine, "I'm not sure we'll ever find our way out."

Teraan grunted, the exertion of the last few hours beginning to take its toll on the stormtrooper. "There's nothing the other way though, the elevator's been destroyed."

"There's the stairs."

Teraan pressed her lips together. It would be difficult to outrun the swarm of aliens up several thousands of feet of stairs. Teraan might have been able to make it given her stormtrooper training and childhood in Alderaan's alpine regions, but the exhausted science officer Rynn would never make it.

As if reading Teraan's thoughts, Rynn smiled slightly and offered one sentence. "It's the best chance we have."

With that, the Twi'lek disappeared through the opening to the emergency stairwell, beginning the impossible ascent up to the surface.


It was too quiet as the remaining group advanced along the trail blazed by the ill-fated miners weeks prior. Ahoska shifted Kaeden's body to a more comfortable position on her shoulder. Sure, she could just levitate the doctor with the Force, but using the Force like that would simply make the beacon she already was even brighter to the aliens that still hounded them.

Barriss had taken point with Crespi. The traitor bitch seemed more confident now, something that made Ahsoka's blood burn with anger. Some part of her had enjoyed seeing her cower in fear of what Ahsoka might do to her, but now that Ahsoka was little more than dead weight the Mirialan had stepped up to fill her place.

Ahsoka didn't know what to feel about the fact that Barriss had risked attempting to heal her injuries. To be honest, if the roles had been reversed, Ahsoka might have just left her behind to die a diversion. It was cold, but it was pretty much what Barriss had done to her nearly two decades ago.

Could it be that Barriss actually felt remorse for what she had done and wanted to make amends? And if that were the case, could Ahsoka actually forgive her for what she had done?

The group made turn after turn, following the guidance of Hoop who was by now the most knowledgeable of the group on the layout of the mine. After several intense minutes of silence that seemed to drag on for forever compared to the action they had just left, the turbolift lobby finally came into sight.

Crespi called a halt and moved forward slowly on his own. "Tano! Offee! Can you sense any of them nearby?" He whispered harshly.

"No," Ahsoka said.

Barriss nodded in agreement. "They seem to be concealing themselves. Repressing their emotions and feelings… almost like a Jedi would."

Crespi made it safely to the control panel and called the turbolift down. The minutes felt like days as they ticked by waiting for the turbolift to grind its way slowly down thousands of vertical feet.

Ahsoka leaned Kaeden's inert form against the turbolift bulkhead, and then collapsed down next to her, her limbs and feeling drained from the exertion of the day. Closing her eyes, Ahsoka meditated briefly while maintaining the shroud of obscuration that both she and Barriss threw up in an attempt to block themselves from the aliens.

Finally, the turbolift dinged as it came to a halt on the bottom floor. Ahsoka slung Kaeden around her shoulders as she got to her feet. The door opened and the Force screamed in alarm from all sides.

Ahsoka dove to the side as an alien lunged out of the turbolift at her.

Crespi shouted, "Ambush!" as aliens swarmed the turbolift lobby. The old clone put a burst into the alien that had come out of the elevator, dropping it, before turning on his heel and firing a stream of plasma at the swarming aliens.

Hoop cleared the turbolift, a gaping hole in the roof showing where the alien had come from. Ahsoka pulled Kaeden inside and then grabbed Crespi with the Force to yank him back into the turbolift car. Barriss did the same for Easely, who flew inside right as the turbolift doors began to close.

The aliens pounded along the sides of the turbolift, searching for a way to get in. "Fourth floor!" Hoop yelled over the din. In the chaos, no one had bothered to hit a destination on the control panel.

Easely reacted instinctively, lunging for the button as spindly fingers appeared in the small gap between the turbolift doors. The claws pried it open with superhuman strength and the soulless black head leered at them through the opening.

The spindly hands latched onto Easely and pulled, yanking him through the gap.

Crespi and Ahsoka managed to grab the stormtrooper's legs that kicked and jerked wildly. Easely's screams mixed with the shrieks into a noise that pierced through Ahsoka's montrals directly into her brain.

Hoop also grabbed Easely's legs as the lift began to slowly rise, Easely's chest preventing the doors from closing fully. No matter how hard they pulled, the aliens pulled just as hard, trying to claim their prize of another human killed.

Easely's screams reached a crescendo as the lift began to pass the ceiling of Floor 9, the rock walls slowly crushing the pinned stormtrooper. Then with a crunch, Easely's screams ceased, his legs jerked once and then went limp as the moving turbolift sheared him apart at the waist.


My sincerest apologies for taking so long to get this chapter up. I've had an incredibly busy semester and writing hasn't really been on my mind most of the time here at college. I hope it doesn't take as long to get the next part up.

Hope you all enjoyed this long overdue chapter though! As always, feel free to comment on anything you noticed or feel that I could improve on.