A/N: Thank you for the reviews and the follow clicks. I'm still really surprised at the attention this has gotten. Please remember that I really have no idea where I'm going with this; it just popped into my head and has not let go so far. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think.

Alés let her eyes roam over the familiar clearing one last time. This had been home longer than anywhere else. It hadn't been easy but she and Master Basri had created a life here and it hadn't been bad. Now she would be returning to a place she'd left a lifetime ago and there was no way of knowing what condition it was in after being abandoned almost thirty years. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Could she really walk back into a place she'd loved but that had become the site of a massacre? Could she walk through the halls and not see the bodies of her family on the ground? Would she still be able to feel their presence around her? And if there were Imperial remnants around was it safe for former Jedi to reveal themselves?

Hefting her pack with a sigh she turned and headed down the path. She had no choice. The Force had pointed her where to go. Perhaps she would return here and perhaps not. It was foolish to be attached to a place. She would always have her memories and she had packed her few belongings along with Master Basri's lightsaber.

The Mando was waiting for her outside his ship, impatient to be gone. He didn't speak, barely letting her get on board before closing the ramp behind her, then hurried up a ladder into the cockpit of the ship. Stowing her bag against a wall she followed. Poking her head up the ladder she saw the Child was already sitting in some kind of contraption in one of the passenger seats and she eased herself down into the empty one. After flicking several switches and pressing different buttons the ship lifted from the ground. Alés kept her eyes focused on the windows somewhat anxious for that first glimpse of space … and a small smile crossed her lips when they broke the atmosphere. It had been so long since she'd been amongst the stars.

A slight jolt and the windows were filled with the long white lines of hyperspace.

She gripped at the sides of her seat as the ship made the jump to light speed. The Child next to her gurgled in what sounded like amusement.

"Don't like flying?"

"It never bothered me before but I haven't been off the planet in probably thirty years. I'm sure I'll get used to it again."

He glanced over his shoulder. "Your face isn't green yet so you should be fine."

Alés grinned at the back of his head, glad to see the Mando had a sense of humor under all that beskar. "Well, if I did get sick you'd be the first to know."

"Get sick in my ship and you're cleaning it up."

The Child giggled again before sliding down from his seat and climbing up in the Mando's lap. To her surprise he gave the little guy the round knob off the top of one of the control handles. Though she had always tried not to form judgments based on appearance it was hard to get a sense of personality behind a helmet so to see that touch of affection was telling.

"Did you travel much when you were a child?"

"No. Once you were brought to the Temple you most likely didn't leave it again until it was time to travel to Ilum to find your kyber crystal and become an apprentice. After that, if you passed your Initiate Trials and were chosen as a padawan, you could spend quite a lot of time off the planet. It all depended on your Master and what missions you were given."

"What is a kyber crystal?"

"The heart of a Jedi's lightsaber."

He paused a second. "Do you have a lightsaber?"

"I do."

"I haven't seen you with it."

"I don't think I've held it or turned it on in over ten years."

"Why not?"

"There has been no need."

"What were the Jedi?"

"They were the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy."

"If they could use this Force to know things then how were they unable to see their destruction?"

She sighed. "That is a question Master Basri and I asked ourselves countless times. The only thing that made any sense is that the Dark Side clouded the vision of the Jedi, made it harder for us to see and feel the Force."

"As if a veil had been placed over your eyes."

"Yes, exactly."

They sat in comfortable silence for a while before he spoke up again.

"Was your life hard once you left Coruscant?"

Alés was a bit surprised to hear such a question from him though it further confirmed her growing conviction that there was a decent man under the helmet.

"The first few years were certainly stressful. Knowing you're being hunted is not a pleasant sensation. As time passed and we saw how isolated we were that stress began to lessen though it never vanished completely." She thought back on their years in hiding. "It certainly wasn't the life I had expected when I was little but we survived. I can't say it was exactly easy but I think, perhaps, the circumstances helped in my training so I can't complain."

There was another break in the conversation. By now The Child was nodding off and the Mando placed him back in his little seat. She was again pleasantly surprised by how careful he was with him.

"So what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Don't be obtuse. I just gave you my life's story. I am naturally curious about you as well."

He was silent so long she figured that was his way of answering her question. While a bit disappointing it wasn't totally unexpected. Most would be leery of opening themselves up to a stranger.

"My parents were killed in a Seperatist raid when I was a child. The Mandalorians found me, took me in, and raised me."

"And the bounty hunting?"

"The Empire almost wiped out the Mandalorians. I did what I could to survive."

"You retained the honor they instilled in you despite everything."

A pause. "Why do you say that?"

"I can sense it in you, see it in the way you are with The Child. It is not something to be ashamed of, Din."

He fell silent after that and she pondered what was now before her.

She had hid from the Empire for so long that it was hard to think about returning to Coruscant without a bit of nervousness. If what the Mando had said was true and there were remnants floating around it was entirely possible they would still be following Palpatine's orders on killing Jedi. Granted she wasn't wearing a sign that proclaimed she was one but it still made her a bit anxious. And how would she feel to once again be in the halls where she saw her clan mates, padawans, masters all fall to blaster … or lightsaber? Master Basri had, of course, taught her how to keep her emotions under control but she'd never been in a situation like the one she was now headed to. She hoped her training would hold.

"If you'd like to rest there is a bunk down there," he said, his words breaking into her thoughts. "There's some food as well if you're hungry."

"How long will it be until we get to Coruscant?"

"Quite a while. I can't risk going straight there so we'll be changing hyperspace lanes several times, jumping around to avoid being followed."

"Then I will take you up on your offer. Perhaps we'll be lucky and this will be a quiet, easy trip."