Summary: Rogue Squadron heads back to Hoth to defend an Intelligence Unit. But they get more than they bargained for.
Disclaimer: Star Wars, Rogue Squadron, and the rest are not mine. I write this for my own amusement. Jesina is my own, original creation.
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Chapter 24: What Else?
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Wedge closed his eyes briefly. What else could go wrong? "What happened, exactly?"
"Somebody took a shot at Inyri and I," Hobbie said.
Wedge thought his friend's face looked flushed, but he wasn't sure and didn't care to ask. Whatever was going on there, he was sure he didn't want to know. "Did you see him? Or her?"
Hobbie shook his head. "Came from around a corner. By the time we got there, whoever it was was out of sight. Nothing."
"Get the whole squadron into the briefing room. I want to know where everyone is." He looked at Jesina. "Any chance it's one of your people?"
She looked slightly offended. "No. Someone must have gotten by. I don't know how they could have, but nothing surprises me anymore." She sighed.
"Then get your people together. With Iella down, you're back in charge. For the moment, anyway." Then he glanced at Kyp and Mara. "About Corran…"
"We'll handle him," Mara said, cutting him off. "Trust me, I'll handle him." Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel, motioning for Kyp to follow her.
Wedge watched her go, wondering who was in more trouble – them, the intruder, or Corran.
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Mara stalked through the corridors, more than a little annoyed at this turn of events. Then she slowed, letting her frustration bleed off through the Force. She wasn't really annoyed. She was worried. Horn had seemed to her to be fairly stable. She'd even confessed to him her concerns that Skywalker might get himself into trouble again, and asked him to keep on eye on the Jedi Master. To know that he'd made the same mistake – or at least was headed in that direction – was disturbing, to say the least.
She stopped for a second and turned to Durron as he caught up with her. "How bad?"
"Hmm?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes.
"How bad is Horn?"
The frown on the Jedi's face deepened. "He's…he's not beyond help. The reason it all started was out of a desire to save Wessiri. But once he started, he didn't level off; he just went deeper. And he almost killed me."
"So, bad."
"Well…he almost killed me. He didn't, and what stopped him was when I told him Wessiri wasn't dead. It didn't take long for him to cool down once he realized I was telling him the truth. And he did seem to regret it – he was afraid of facing everyone."
"So what set him off this time?" she asked, thinking aloud. The question wasn't actually directed at Durron, but he answered anyway.
"Maybe he's trying to make amends. If he was drawing on the Dark Side, I'd have felt it by now, and he's not."
Mara gave him a sideways glance. "You may be smarter than I give you credit for. Though I doubt it."
He frowned, unsure of just how insulting that comment was supposed to be. Then he thought for a moment. "Of course, he's on such shaky ground that his intentions might not matter. He's in a weak spot right now…all it'll take is for something to catch him off guard or for him to perceive something as a serious threat, and he could slip."
She glanced at him again, frowning. Maybe there was a brain to be found somewhere in all that cockiness.
Kyp narrowed his eyes at her. "I did learn something from my mistakes, Mara," he said icily.
"Stay out of my head, Durron."
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Corran slipped around the corner. Finding the person who'd shot at Hobbie and Inyri would be so much easier if he used the Force, but he didn't dare. He'd done too much damage already that way. He probably shouldn't even be doing this.
He definitely shouldn't be doing this. He'd been ordered to remain in his quarters. But he'd heard the shot and Inyri's shout and all he could think about was Borleias and Lujayne Forge. Damned if he was going to let that happen again. If Wedge saw fit to discipline him for that, well, he'd deal with it.
He heard a noise – the soft thud of footsteps – and froze. Where had that come from? Then he heard it again, and his eyes were drawn to the end of the corridor. Without consciously using the Force, he sensed the sudden danger and dropped, rolling across the floor. He came up on one knee, blaster in hand, but didn't fire. The person was already gone.
He sighed. This was getting him nowhere. Slowly, tentatively, he reached out through the Force, trying to sense the intruder. But the first presence he felt was Kyp Durron…and Mara Jade was with him.
"Wonderful," he muttered aloud. He'd been afraid of discussing this with Wedge, and now Mara was here? "Well, you made your bed, Horn," he mumbled to himself. "Now lie in it."
A moment later, though, dealing with Mara Jade was the furthest thing from his mind. He sensed his quarry – and the fact that the intruder had found Durron and Mara. He broke into a run, rounding one corner and then another before they were within sight. "Jade! Durron!"
Neither turned to face him. Instead, they spun in the opposite direction, realizing where the threat was coming from. He sped up, sprinting towards them. Something wasn't right.
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Wedge looked around the briefing room. All the Rogues were there except for Corran, who wasn't answering his comlink. Jesina was too, along with the Intelligence team that had gone to the asteroid and a handful of other agents. One of them, who's name he'd learned was Vayl Lonciez, kept close to Jesina and continued to shoot dirty looks at him, Tycho, Wes, and Hobbie. He wanted to know why, but hadn't been able to get Jesina away from the man for long enough to ask.
He sighed. He couldn't help but feel like they should be doing something, but he couldn't think of what. He wanted to know more about who had shot at Hobbie and Inyri before he sent any of his people out looking for whoever it was. And right now he knew absolutely nothing.
He was hoping that Mara and Durron would let him know if they learned anything – not that he liked the idea of relying on that man for a blasted thing – but they were independent operators and not his responsibility. And so he felt substantially less concern over the fact that they were wandering around the base, but was willing to make use of them just the same.
Glancing around, he noticed that Wes, Hobbie, and Tycho had apparently caught on to the fact that that agent had taken an interest in them. They were talking quietly, but every few minutes would glance in his direction, and then return to their conversation when they realized he was still watching them.
Inyri, Ensa, Duryll, and Teril were sitting together around a table, but none of them seemed to even notice that the others were there. Each wore an equally vacant expression, and Wedge knew that they all wished they were doing something, instead of sitting around like hostages. He guessed that Inyri was feeling that even more than the others, since the intruder had taken a shot at her. He completely understood their frustration, but he wasn't going to change his mind. They had no idea who was here, how many people there were, how they'd gotten past the defenses – and he wasn't doing anything until he either had more information or had no choice.
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Mara felt Horn draw closer to them at the same time as she felt another, unidentified presence in the Force. She heard the Corellian's shouted warning and having been facing in his direction until that moment, spun around as her danger sense flared. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Durron mimic her movements. And she saw nothing.
She heard Horn's footsteps as he ran toward them, and then the intruder appeared. The person wore a dark cloak, almost identical to the one Durron was wearing. The hood was up so she couldn't see the face. But she could see a gloved hand…and the detonator it held. But, at that moment, something else made her turn back to face Horn.
She saw the other Jedi raise a hand and realized in a split second that Durron had been right. Horn's intentions had been noble – she'd felt that – but all it had taken was one immediate threat to push him back into his slide. She yelled out to Durron to handle the would-be bomber as she lunged at Horn.