Last time: Sulam asked if Cien could be trusted after she took off. Sasha said yes.

Now: Cien reaches the Gold Leaf.

Chapter 3- Got Away... Again

She clutched the little bobblehead figure that Kyr had given her as a small gift when they had rechristened her ship the Spirit, telling her that every ship needed a dedicated mechanic. She was almost there, and she felt her anger building within her. She was going into battle, and she was falling into the deadly calm she always felt before doing so. The darkside was with her, as was the light side, and she would stop at nothing to bring Kyr back. And kill Selina, and any of her minions that got in her way. But Kyr's safety was paramount.

The clock on the navicomputer counted down slowly, the seconds ticked by and each felt like an eternity as the clock slowly reached zero. Kyr was still there, in the back of her mind. Growing fainter, it felt like, with each passing second. Finally the alert sounded and she pulled the levers back.

If Kyr had been conscious, he would have seen Cien's heartbeat appear on his visor display, and he would have felt the kyber crystal around his neck vibrate just a little. But in his semi-conscious, delirious state, neither of these registered to him. He was too sick and too weak to notice.

Ordinarily she might have come in several light minutes away so she could coast in stealthily, but there was no time. The ugly ship, the Gold Leaf appeared before her as a brighter speck in a sea of stars, out in the middle of nowhere, far away from any particular systems or routes. But it was there, in front of her. She ramped the sublight engines up and headed in. There was no fighter cover, no patrol to deal with. But it was a big ship, and heavily armed on its own. She remembered from her own research over the last week that these had been veritable fortresses during the Clone Wars, so it should be a force to be reckoned with. She set her deflectors to double up on the front, and watched the ring ship become more defined as she approached, and she looked at it with grim menace.

And then with a flash of pseudo motion it jumped to hyperspace.

She stared in shock at where the ship had been. "No!" She screamed. "No!" She slammed her fist down hard enough on the console in front of her to leave a dent in the metal casing. She stared at the blank starfield in front of her as the horror set in, the realization that she had failed him, again. That he had slipped from her grasp, again. And there wasn't time to find him a third time. They didn't have another two weeks for Tac to try and contact her. She had utterly failed him, and in the back of her mind he slipped even further away.

Kyr had been taken from her, and it was because she had acted too hastily, she realized. They had recognized her ship, and they had engaged a hyperdrive on an escape route that was precalculated. In her haste to try to save him she had ended up condemning him. And she had utterly broken her relationship with Sasha, Viran and Oppie. She had blasted away from the Republic ships. All of it would have been worth it if she had been able to save Kyr. But she hadn't. She started crying anew, she had never felt so utterly powerless and alone as she had now.

Cien, Sasha's voice sounded softly in the back in her head from the mindspace. She pulled her legs up to her chest and buried her head in her hands. She didn't have the energy to answer.

Cien, please if you can hear me, answer.

I'm sorry. She thought back, I'm so sorry.

It's okay. Please don't apologize. Sasha went silent for a moment. Did you find him? Her voice asked carefully.

She couldn't answer that question as she wept alone in the cockpit.

Cien… please join me in the mindspace. Sasha suggested very gently.

She tried in vain to compose herself for several moments before she gave up, and appeared in mindspace as she was, in the infinite blackness of the shared space sitting on the ground with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her black cape spilled out behind her, blending in with the non-existent floor as she waited for Sasha to find her. Sasha appeared from the darkness and walked over to her. She knelt down in front of Cien.

"What happened?" Sasha asked after a long moment of silence.

"They jumped as soon as I arrived." She admitted quietly. "I came in too close, they saw me, and they jumped. And now he's going to be gone before Tac can send us coordinates again." She said as she broke down.

"Cien…" Sasha said as her voice trembled with emotion. "I'm sorry." She placed a hand on Cien's knee. "I'm here."

Cien didn't acknowledge the gesture, she just wept "I'm sorry." She said, "I'm sorry for everything." She said.

Sasha shuffled forward and wrapped Cien up in a hug. "Please don't apologize. I understand why you did it. I am not mad. Please don't blame yourself," she said as she held her close. Cien just held her position, weeping, with some small part of her relieved that Sasha didn't hate her.

After a moment, Sasha pulled away slightly, but kept her arms around Cien. "We are on our way to your location," Sasha explained softly. "We should be there soon."

"Am I still welcome there?" Cien asked brokenly.

"Yes, of course," Sasha said, reassuringly. "No one is mad at you. It will be okay."

She didn't acknowledge her statement, she just stayed with her knees folded up to her chest, letting Sasha hug her.

After a few long quiet moments, Sasha pulled away and tried to look at Cien's face. "We are here. I'll meet you in the hangar, okay?" She said quietly as she rubbed Cien's arms.

Cien nodded and broke the connection. Around her she appeared back in her pilot's seat, alone aboard the Spirit. Sasha was right, the 19th was arriving as the bigger Mon Calamari ships appeared along with their escorts of smaller frigates and corvettes. The fighter screen, she noted, was out in force with a full deployment of three squadrons, as if they had been expecting to fly into a battle.

"Spirit, come right to course three seven three mark two. Landing clearance granted in hangar one."

"Acknowledged." She called back, trying to compose herself.

"Hey Spirit," she recognized Hassens voice over the com as the X-wings with orange markings overflew her and formed up on her wing to escort her in.

She flew her fighter in, not able to respond on the com as she took the time for the flight to try to center herself. She flew in past the screen of ships with Hassen and, she presumed, Bubbles on her wing as the rest of Valiant squadron formed up for a patrol flight in case anything showed up. She settled into the same berth she had left only a short time ago, bringing the ship in for a landing and powering her fighter down as Hassen and Bubbles flew on into hangar three.

She sat for a moment in her chair, and called her buy'ce to her hand. She had done a miserable job of trying to compose herself, her face felt puffy from crying. She considered putting her buy'ce on, but if Sasha was indeed waiting for her she didn't want to meet her with just the T-visor, even if that meant the crew saw her. They'd already seen her cry anyway so it didn't matter. She keyed the door open and braced herself to walk out onto the ship she had so dramatically exited so recently.

Standing beyond the ramp was her family. Sasha, Viran, and Oppie were standing there, waiting for her. Sasha stepped forward when Cien appeared and she spread her arms wide to her. Cien stood there numbly, looking at the other three, aware of the deck crew studiously not looking at them.

"It's okay," Sasha said softly, but loudly enough for Cien to hear as her arms were open wide to her. Cien stepped forward and took the hug, closing her eyes and trying not to fall to tears again.

Sasha hugged her tightly, not saying another word, as she closed her own eyes. Oppie glanced at Viran and both stepped forward to join the hug, and the tension bled from Cien as all four of them stood together for a quiet moment.

"It's okay," Sasha whispered. "We are here for you."

"We'll always be here for you." Oppie added.

"That's what family is for," Viran finished with.

Cien felt tears coming down her cheeks again as they held her in the hug. Of all the terrible things she had done, she would never understand what she had done to deserve this, their devotion, especially from these three. "They took him again." She said quietly. "I saw them and they took him again." She said brokenly.

"And we will get him back," Sasha promised. "If Tac was able to contact you once, he will do it again. He is very persistent. And when he does contact, we will act. Together."

Cien didn't say anything, she just stood in the midst of her family, taking comfort in their presence.

He was sitting by the fireplace, back home at Haven. It was snowing outside, a heavy blizzard and the house was blanketed in meters of snow, and he was cold. He was hoping the fire would warm him up, since he felt a chill to his bones. He wasn't wearing his armor, he was just in soft, comfortable clothes for a change. His mom wandered in from the kitchen, like she used to, and sat down on her favorite chair, like she used to. The chair he vaguely remembered Op seemed to favor now.

"I'm cold." He said tiredly. He wanted to go to the dining room so he could sit in his chair, but he didn't have the energy to move. He was dimly aware of that in the distance everything still hurt, but it was so far away he could almost forget about it.

"Don't worry Kev'ika, it's going to work out soon." His mom responded worriedly.

"How can it work out if she's gone?" He asked quietly for the thousandth time ever since he had started seeing his mom. Some part of him was dimly aware he was just talking to a fever induced hallucination, but it helped.

"She's not gone, sweetheart." She answered patiently for the thousandth time.

"When I go will they be there?" He asked.

Heavy bootsteps walked into the room, and he looked up and furrowed his brow, seeing the rose red armor walking in. "Ori'vod?" He asked.

"Hey there vod'ika." Annaliese said with a genuine smile in her voice.

His mom glanced up at her, "how'd it go?" His mom asked his older sister.

"Perfectly." Anna said with a grin in her voice. She turned back to Kyr. "I really like Ci'ika. Not a lot of people would have gone after a Lucrehulk by themself." She said with an amused chuckle.

Kyr looked back at the fire, not sure what they were talking about, and feeling so drowsy.

"Stay awake there, verd'ika, that's an order. Just a few more hours." Anna said, looking at him with a frown.

He felt like now would be about the time he should wake up and see the gallery again, and some tiny part of him registered that the lights outside were flickering, but he just stayed at the fire, trying to stay awake because his sister told him to.

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