The first potential ally Lux thinks of is Dalla. His ex-girlfriend and the crew's loyal fence has a budding reputation as the slipperiest fish in the galaxy, and they could use a few of those.

He emerges from his comm with Dalla with a deep frown.

"What is it?" Ahsoka asks.

"She can't come. Her network is in shambles after Ellie died, and Tor knows her face. She's completely tapped."

It wasn't the response they were looking for, but Ahsoka will take it. "We'll move on to our secondary options then. I'll start looking."

Tracking down Ahsoka's "friend" is far harder than she thought.

The last place she'd seen her was on Coruscant, and there's no way she's going to set foot in the center of the Empire. With two team members gone, she can't afford to risk anything.

Instead, she walks into the nearest cantina, nurses a jawa juice, and listens.

The bounties flash by on the wall. Imperial turncoats, clone deserters, common criminals, people on the wrong end of vendettas, to her amusement she even spots Saw.

Just to be safe, she takes Saw's bounty off the projector. Then she walks out of the cantina and back toward the ship.

Lux passes her by in the hallway. "Did you find her?"

"She's still active. That's a start, at least. Where's Tav?"

"With Mom."

That's good. Ahsoka doesn't need a baby to deal with while she contacts this person.

In her and Lux's room, she punches a series of numbers into the holoprojector, crossing her fingers the cantina bartender was right about it.

"Hello?" a familiar, snakelike voice answers.

Ahsoka decides to cut the pleasantries.

"Ventress, I need a favor."

"Tano?" Ventress queries. Before Ahsoka can open her mouth, Ventress corrects herself. "That's right, you married the senator. What kind of favor is it, Bonteri?"

"A job. Two weeks. Lots of credits."

The holoprojector's image turns on, revealing Ventress sitting on a chair with a bottle of something.

"Really? Now why would someone like you need the likes of me?"

Ahsoka puffs out. "Let's leave the details for briefing. Until then, let's focus on a hundred thousand credits."

"Well if you're going to make it worth my while, I was getting a little bored with Quinlan away on the underground…"

"You're late."

Ironically, the first thing she said to him in person.

"I'm sorry," Lux says, sliding into the cantina stool. "I hope it isn't too much of an inconvenience."

Bo-Katan Kryze knocks back a shot. "Make it quick, Bonteri."

Lux lays two photographs on the table, pushing each one forward in turn.

"This is my friend's kid. And this is our crew's grifter."

Bo glances at the pictures. "Grifter, huh?" she asks, tapping Sierra's picture. "She doesn't look like Nite Owl material."

Lux couldn't agree more. "She serves her purpose."

Bo faces him square on. "Now, why are you showing me this?"

"I'm here to offer you a job. Help me get my crew back, and I'll pay you handsomely."

"Get them back? Where are they?"

"Torrance."

Bo almost physically recoils. "Tor?"

Lux nods.

"No way. I'm not letting my ne – my crew anywhere near Tor."

"Six figures. I promise."

"Last time, you weren't very good at keeping your promises," Bo says, voice icy as the referenced Carlaac.

"That was a long time ago."

"Seems like yesterday." Bo says, standing up.

"Please," Lux begs, holding up Sierra's picture. "I'll double the reward. One of them is my little sister!"

Bo stops, thinks, and sighs. "How old?"

"Sixteen," he takes a risk. "Her name is Sierra."

Bo makes a face. Maybe it's because of Satine, her own sister. Maybe it's because Korkie's been bugging her about a new job. Mostly, it's about all those credits.

"Fine," she says. "Six figures. No less."

"Let's get one thing very, very clear." Saw Gerrera says. "I hate you. I hate you with all the burning passion of my soul."

"But you still called me, eh?" Hondo Ohnaka announces, leaning back in his chair and regarding the four rebels in the hologram. Saw Gerrera, a man and a woman he doesn't recognize, and another woman he remembers well. Very well, actually…

"How are you doing, my favorite spice?"

Steela Gerrera opens her mouth, undoubtedly to say something snippy, but Saw jumps in front of her.

"She's married. To a clone captain."

Steela glares at her brother while Hondo processes the information. Really, he didn't see the girl as the type to settle down with a clone captain…

But ah, such is life, is it not? There will be other lovely ladies.

"Congratulations, my dear! But you all didn't contact Hondo just to make small talk, did you now?"

"No," the other woman says testily. "We're here because you helped us in the past. We need you again."

Hondo looks at the rest of his men behind him. "Now, what's in it for me?"

"Credits," Saw says. "A little revenge. And a chance to help out a friend."

That may genuinely confuse Hondo, but he wouldn't dare say. "A friend? Which friend would that be?"

The woman holds up a photograph, a photograph Hondo immediately recognizes.

"The tiny Jedi."

"She's been kidnapped. You help us get her back, and we have thousands of credits just waiting for you." The woman baits.

The deal had pretty much clinched for Hondo when she said "thousands of credits," but there was one more thing he had to know.

"And how do you know of the tiny Jedi, young lady?"

The woman's jaw sets. "Her name is Katooni St. James." She says. "I'm her mother."

The people gathered in the ship's main cabin have two things in common.

Ahsoka has met up with all of them at one point or another. Secondly, they all really want a hundred thousand credits.

Ventress was the first to arrive. When she walked up to the ship, Saw answered the door. Instead of a "Nice to meet you, Ventress," he decided to greet her with a blaster. Ventress didn't take it that well.

Luckily Steela and Ahsoka heard the racket and came running to smooth things over before someone (read: Saw) died. They probably got there just in time.

Next up is Hondo, who made a very memorable entrance. When Rex opened the door for him, he walked right past him with his arms open.

"Never fear, Hondo is here! Now, let's get down to saving the tiny Jedi and getting lots of credits, yes?"

Ahsoka expected no less from him.

Last to arrive were the Mandalorians. Lux drove the speeder holding Bo-Katan and a few of her crew members.

When she first spots his wife, Bo-Katan smirks.

"You married Skinny?"

…Yes. Yes, he married Skinny.

Lux rolls his eyes. "Yes, Ahsoka and I married a few years ago."

The speeder empties out. Bo-Katan, a young man and a young woman. Who are very familiar.

The young man nods to her. "Ahsoka,"

"Korkie. It's good to see you again."

The woman next to him, Soniee, lifts her holo visor from her eyes. "Hello, Ahsoka."

"Hi, Soniee. How are you?"

Soniee grunts and lifts a bag of what they assume is computer gear from the speeder. "I'm all right. Yourself?"

"I could be better. I see you've met my husband."

Soniee nods. "He came to Sundari once, during the peace negotiations." That was when he had believed his mother had been killed and set out to get revenge on Dooku, the prequel to his trip to Carlaac, not one of his more shining moments.

They walk the newcomers into the common room, praying that it hasn't exploded. By the will of the force, it has not. Saw is rubbing his neck, still sore over the beating he got from Ventress, but taking an interest in the Mandos. Steela is attempting to make small talk with Ventress, but neither of them are great masters of small talk. Hondo is regaling his pirate adventures to Rex and Tandin.

"I helped the tiny Jedi defeat General Grievous!" Hondo says in a rather embellished version of the truth. "The children seemed to take a shine to me."

Rex rolls his eyes. He knows the real story.

Ahsoka clears her throat.

"This is our team, Asajj Ventress, and Hondo Ohnaka." she says, nodding to the two outliers.

Steela waves at Soniee, apparently detecting a better chance at small talk. "Steela Gerrera," she says, pointing to herself.

"I'm Soniee," the girl with the visor still perched on her head introduces herself, but then she makes eye contact with Saw and they both go perfectly still.

"He's my brother," Steela interjects looking curiously between the two of them.

"I'm Saw." He holds out a hand in greeting.

Soniee glances at his hand and then back up into his blue eyes and then points to the young man standing beside her. "This is my… boyfriend."

Korkie steps forward, cordially but directly between Saw and Soniee. "Nice to meet you."

"Which one of you is Hutch?" Soniee hurriedly changes the subject.

Hutch looks up from Hero, who's currently a ball of sadness curled in on herself. "That would be me. You're the other hacker, I take it?"

Soniee nods, throwing one more glance back at Saw. "Korkie here is the planner."

Lux nods tersely. "He'll be working with me. Soniee, this is Hutch St. James, the guy you really don't want to check you out at the Reddy Mart."

No kidding there. Hutch's first hacking experiences were on his cash register at Reddy Mart. In fact, his exploits have earned him the nickname "Cashier from Hell."

Korkie, Soniee, and Bo take a seat, and Hutch stands up from Hero's side to run the slideshow he created for the briefing.

Ahsoka stands at the front of the room.

"Whoever contacted you initially has gone over the basics of what's happened, as well as settled your fees." she says, signaling Hutch to start the briefing.

Sierra's and Katooni's pictures pop up in a holo image for them all to see.

"The girl on the left is Sierra Bonteri, the group's grifter. She was taken into custody by the Empire when her alias fell apart."

"How did that happen?" Korkie asks.

"Every alias has a weak point. The Empire found hers, and it unraveled from there." Hutch says.

Soniee nods. "Most marks only check for a secondary school transcript, but the students who were actually in that graduating class wouldn't remember the alias because they didn't exist."

"That's almost exactly what happened." Hutch says. "Moving on. On the right is Katooni St. James." His lip wobbles. "My daughter. She was abducted from a grocery store twelve hours ago."

Hero sobs. Mina rubs her back in a circle.

"We think Katooni was taken for the Inquisition." Ahsoka says. "Assuming her kidnappers are taking her straight to Mustafar, we don't have much time."

"So are we dividing to go after the kid's sister and the little Jedi at once?" Bo asks.

Ahsoka bites her lip. "No. We're going to rescue Katooni first, then double back and rescue Sierra. Hopefully, our absence will lull Tor into a false sense of security and he might make a mistake."

Hondo nearly chokes. "Tor? Do you mean Commander Torrance?"

"You know him?"

"I have, how do you say… done business with him a few times."

"For what?" Ahsoka asks.

Hondo shrugs. "Spice."

Spice. Wonderful. She can think of all the uses for various "spices" in interrogation: hallucinogens, sedatives, uppers… all of them can break a prisoner like a twig.

So Sierra is inexperienced, being mistreated, and probably high as a kite. I wouldn't be surprised if Tor knew everything down to what we had for breakfast the day she was taken.

"Both of them need help." Tandin says. "Or they will die. They'll die awful, painful deaths and there's no way we can divide ourselves to get them both out at once."

"So what are you saying? That we let one die?" Mina cries.

"No," Tandin hastens. "Not at all. We're going to save them, we just need…

He trails off. "If we go after Katooni, we need someone who will take care of Sierra. Someone who isn't afraid of Tor."

In short, they need John Bonteri. And they're not going to get someone like him.

Bo-Katan snorts. "You want a guardian angel?"

"Basically," Ahsoka says.

"Then make one." She says. "How old's the girl?"

"Sixteen." Mina says forlornly.

"Age of majority for humans is eighteen. I know a place."

"Will they help us?"

"They're the galaxy's greatest busybodies. I know they'll help us."