Title: Inner Demons, Outer Evils

Summary: A tragic event sets Rogue Squadron on the path to the truth...and sends one of the Rogues on a collision course with himself.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is, quite clearly, not mine, and no copyright infringement is intended. This story is not written for profit.

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Chapter 19: And it Begins

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Wes and Ooryl paused outside the access door. "Ooryl, wait just inside. Try to find a place to hide, but keep where you can see the door. I'll keep my comlink on, with the setting low. Don't let Lonciez leave if you see him."

"Ooryl will not."

Wes frowned. He knew the Gand culture that required that Ooryl refer to himself in different ways in different circumstances, but he didn't always understand when he chose to use them. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck, major."

Wes turned the old-fashioned wheel to open the door. Before he actually pulled it open, he drew his blaster.

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Inside, the place was pitch black. Wes was glad he'd thought to grab a pair of night-vision goggles to replace the ones he'd lost during their rescue mission.

He crept slowly up and down the corridors, listening for any sounds and watching for even the slightest movement, but saw and heard nothing. He was going to have to start opening doors, and that could get dangerous. The last thing he wanted was to warn Lonciez he was there by sliding the door open, only to have the man start firing at him before he could even tell that the room wasn't empty. There had to be a better way.

He'd stopped in the middle of the corridor, trying to figure out just what that better way was when something caught his attention, though he didn't know what. He sidestepped quickly, flattening himself against the wall around the nearest corner. His eyes widened as Lonciez walked right by him. This was too easy, and something didn't seem right.

"Hi there," Wes said, stepping away from the wall, blaster pointed at Lonciez. "Take me to wherever you have Jesina, and maybe she can talk me into not using this on you."

"You're very good," Lonciez replied, raising his hands slightly as if to tell Janson that he wasn't going to argue. "This way, toward the back."

"You're being very cooperative."

"I like living." He paused. "I have no intention of harming her. She used to be my partner. I care for her very much."

"Yes, I'll bet you do. But the feeling isn't mutual, as I'm sure you've realized. And we want her back."

Lonciez stopped walking in front of the third unit to the end. "In here."

"Open it. And don't try anything, because I'd be glad to get in a little shooting practice here and now."

"I have no intention of becoming your target, major." He reached out with both hands and pushed the door up. It wasn't an easy task, and went up slowly, but Wes saw that Jesina was indeed inside. She was sitting on the floor in the corner, hands secured with binders, but she looked all right.

"Release her."

Lonciez stepped forward, helping Jesina to her feet. He unfastened the binders and tossed them aside. He then, still holding Jesina's arm, spun her around and shoved her toward Wes, who stumbled backward as her full weight hit him.

Jesina hit Wes and then the floor as Vayl bolted from the room. She shook her head in a futile attempt to clear the fog that seemed to be surrounding her brain. "He...it's all planned...he's going..." She stopped and shook her head again.

"Are you okay?" Wes asked, kneeling beside her.

"He...he drugged me...I think. Water?" She leaned her head against the wall as he went to the refresher and came back with a glass. She drank it quickly, probably more quickly than she should have, and her head felt a little better. "You have to go. He's heading for the hangar – he's headed for the Imperials."

"I can't comm anyone – we're being jammed." He shook his head, frustrated. "I can't leave you like this. If he comes back..."

"You sound like a sap. Go, Janson. I'm going to head for the bridge. I can make it. I'll send anyone I pass your way. Don't let him off this ship." He hesitated and, to prove her point, she pulled herself – with a lot of effort – to her feet and gave him a shove. "Go."

Her head was starting to clear as she ran. She needed to tell Captain Ackrand that there was a possibility that they're position would be, or had been, exposed. She also wanted the Captain to give the ship's gunners the order to shoot down a shuttle, escape pod, or other stray ship, and to have MPs sent to secure any escape pod launchers.

She ran almost headlong into Tyria Sarkin and Face Loran. "Sarkin," she gasped out, winded from running while she still felt ill. "Janson's headed for the main hangar. Go to the other. We need to stop Vayl from getting off the ship."

She reached for her comlink, but Jesina shook her head. "Keep trying, but it doesn't work. We're being jammed. Go!"

He nodded and took off in the direction she'd just come from, and Face jogged along with her. "Colonel, you don't look very good."

"He...he drugged me, is all. It hasn't gotten out of my system yet."

"Yeah, I see that." He paused. "You heading for the bridge?"

She nodded and told him why. "Dead or alive, we can't let him get away from us. I don't know how much he knows, but if he knows anything, it's too much for Hekrig to get his hands on. We're going to have it tough enough going up against him, without him knowing where all our people are."

Just then her comlink buzzed and her stomach flipped over on itself. If the jamming had stopped, he was either trying to transmit a signal to the Imps or he was no longer on the ship. "Dreis," she answered.

"He got out – I couldn't reach him in time," Wes' voice came over the unit.

At that exact moment, her head started to swim. "Shoot...him...down," she mumbled, as her knees buckled. As she hit the ground, her comlink fell from her hand. "Scramble...Rogue." Face just barely heard her.

He knelt next to her, checking her pulse with one hand and picking up the comlink with the other. "Janson, it's Loran. She's down – sick or drugged or both. She said to scramble Rogue. I think she's worried that he already got a message out."

On his end of the conversation, Wes nodded. "Get her to the medcenter and put Aces and Legacy on high alert to move the second we need them. I'll get in touch with Wedge."

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Wes walked into the medcenter half an hour later, with news that Lonciez was dead and that there'd been no sign that the Imps were making any move toward them. Wedge had decided to keep the three squadrons on high alert in case anything did happen.

"How is she?" he asked the doctor who was looking over a datapad when he walked in.

She looked up at him. "I don't know. She's still not conscious, which worries me. Especially considering that I can't figure out what the substance in her system is, except that it's not a drug."

Wes frowned, glancing briefly over his shoulder as Wedge walked in, but turned his attention back to the doctor. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, if it was simply a drug, it would be showing some sign of dissipation from her blood stream – the levels would be either remaining steady, or decreasing slowly. That's not what's happening here." She motioned for the two men to follow her.

She led them to a computer screen. The display showed jagged lines, going up and down across the screen. "This line tracks the substance levels in her blood. "It decreases and increases, but never falls below the point it was at when she first was brought in. Overall, the level has increased. I don't think she was drugged – this looks more like poison. But it's not a substance I've ever seen before."

She paused. "I do, however, know what it's doing. It's triggering the release of a very high level of a particular hormone called AHD. In turn, the high levels of AHD in her blood are weakening her organ function. Particularly, her lungs at this point."

Wes looked at Wedge and then back to her. "If you can't figure out what it is, then that means that it's not something readily available."

"Which means he wasn't nuts – he planned this whole thing."

"And now he's dead, and we have no way of finding out what this stuff is, how to counteract it, or if he's been in constant communication with someone in the Imperial camp," Wedge continued.

"I'm glad we sent everyone down to meet Elscol."

Wedge looked back to the doctor. "Can you save her?"

"Only if I can find something to counteract whatever she was given, of if someone comes up with a way to neutralize the additional AHD. Otherwise, she'll die."

Wedge massaged his temples. "Are there doctors on, for example, Coruscant, who can do this?"

"It's possible," she admitted, nodding. "I can send the data I have back and see if they can come up with anything, and we'll work on it here, of course."

"Do that." Just then his comlink beeped. "Antilles."

"General, we just received a communication from Zhar. Elscol Loro is evacuating her command center."

Wedge and Wes exchanged glances. "And it begins," Wes muttered.