Chapter Five - Call It Face, All Of Us Or Me And The Two Ladies?

Kell stormed into the Wraith's lounge room, all of the remaining Wraiths present whirling around to see.

"Enough is enough Face! She's been there over a month. Either we can go against the High Command as an intelligence team, or I'll go alone," Kell said angrily, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Adra and Nicola glanced at each other, obviously speaking through the Force; less than a minute later, they both stood up and walked over to stand beside Kell.

"Three Wraiths can do more than one, Kell. We're coming too," Nicola said simply, for once with no sarcastic comment or such attached.

"It's my fault she's there anyways. She got me out and now it's my time to return the favor," Adra added, her tone also unusually mild and devoid of sarcasm.

Kell raised an eyebrow at them, Nicola in particular. "Oh, well um, thanks for the offers ladies, but should you really be going on this?"

Nicola glared at him, silver eyes flashing. "Why does everyone assume that just because I'm several weeks pregnant, that I'm made of glass? Besides, I was Targeter, remember?"

Kell gulped and nodded. It was a bit hard to forget that. Whenever one of the male Wraiths, Face Kell, Cloud, and occasionally Bror, got the women annoyed, Nicola would step in and use her fighting skills from her previous job as a NRI agent. And when Nicola struck, you were silent.

"As I said before, I'm the reason Tyria's there. And having two Jedi along will help. We've got some special powers remember?" Adra said her voice with more life in it than before.

Realizing the futility of arguing, Kell merely nodded. "Alright fine. Well, call it Face, all of us or just me and the two ladies?"

Face glared at him. "Kell, sometimes I hate you." Turning back to the remaining Wraiths, he asked, "Alright, but volunteers only. Anyone?"

Bror immediately stood up and went to stand beside his wife. No words were needed to see that he would go along, to not only rescue Tyria, but to keep an eye on his very willful and occasionally a bit impetuous wife.

Gaeriel Captison, Asyr Sei'lar, and Vana Sage stood up and stepped forward.

"Three more Jedi for the party," Asyr said, smiling slightly. Behind them, the door burst open, revealing Cloud dragging Jade Veila behind him.

"I'm coming with ya, Kell. And Jade is too. Or she will be once the situation is explained," Cloud said, a bit breathless. Jade merely glanced at him, her green eyes a bit hard. Turning back to Kell, she raised a questioning eyebrow. Taking a hint, Kell started to explain.

"So, will you come along?" Kell finished.

Jade nodded. "Of course, Tyria is my friend as well." Kell grinned, now they were 10. All eyes turned towards the last Wraith in the room, Thracia Cho Leem, the only Wraith who was also a member of the Jedi Council.

Thracia glanced at each face in turn.

"Well?" Kell asked impatiently. Thracia thought for a moment before replying.

"I'll come except for one thing. We'll have to postpone the mission for two weeks because I've got Council duty."

Face nodded. "Alright, then we all go," Kell started to protest but Face cut him off. "It would take us at least a week and a half to get everything arranged. And we'd better tell Wedge what's happening so that Iella doesn't lend us to the Jedi or send us on another mission,"

Making a slight face, Kell mumbled, "I knew that."

Clapping him on the shoulder, hard enough to make him wince, Gaeriel replied, "Sure you did Explosion Boy. Sure you did."

* * * * *

Wedge Antilles leaned back in his office chair, contemplating about the past two months' events. Things had happened very quickly and the majority of it had been bad. They had not merely lost Bilbringi shipyards to Daala, but they had lost almost 2 complete y-wing squads and about a squadron of a-wings and b-wings. Not to mention Tyria Tainer being captured.

Not only was she a long time member of Wraith Squadron, but also half of the NR's hacking system. They had only ever needed Tyria and Adra. Between the two of them, they could probably hack into any system anytime given the right tools. Worse, if Daala managed to "break" Tyria, about 90% of the New Republic's security codes and ship I.D. overlays would come spilling out. The only worse thing that Wedge could think of would be if Tyria was either sent to Ysanne Isard, and tortured by her, or if she was turned into an Imperial spy.

It wouldn't be the first time it had happened. Several Rebels had been Imperial supplies, including that Thyferan awhile back, Erisi Dlarit. Hell, Tycho Celchu, Wedge's twic, had been wrongfully suspected of being an Imperial turncoat.

But he couldn't dwell on only bad things that had happened. There had been some good. Two new Special Forces squadrons had been created about 4 months ago and had survived the Bilbringi disaster. Nicola Afyon, formerly Nicola Ettyk, had passed the Jedi trials, married her former Jedi Master Bror, started a new squadron, The Wild Knights, and was now pregnant. Several other Wraiths had started dating other pilots. But the largest surprise had been Face and Adra. Before Nicola had intervened, both had argued with a passion but really were in love with the other underneath. He hadn't been there, but Asyr Sei'lar had told him that Nicola had had to use the Force to get them to show their true passion.

But enough about that. He sat up in his chair and checked the date on his chrono. Just as he had thought. The remaining Wraiths were leaving on their rescue mission. Hopefully, they would find Tyria sane, unbroken, and alive.

*Quick Author's Note:  Jade normally comes out of her "lair" once every year or so
**Second A/N:  I'm well aware that Thracia Cho Leem is supposed to have quit the Old Jedi Order when Anakin Skywalker was like...13, but she's resurrected here in a new version.  A very new version.
***Last A/N  AdraLoran is writing a story about the event matchmaking event Nicola brought about. And I will to most likely. They're both based on an RPG called The Core Worlds.