They were found by a small party of scouts looking for survivors, Ellsia had collapsed with exhaustion and her head lay in the Iridonians lap. The surge of force that had passed through her had completely drained her, she had never had so much power in her body at once and it had been a struggle to keep her eyes open. The leader of their group looked at them both with alarm and concern, "Captain, get these two to the safe house, I'll need to contact the general and let her know we found more survivors."

She looked down on them and sighed, it was obvious they had been through alot and by the way they were holding one another they really cared about each other.

Ellsia was not happy to be woken, she felt like her limbs were made of lead and she had a pounding headache, she looked over at Bao-Dur whose mouth was a grim line, he did not like the state he was in. She caught his eye and he nodded but the Bao-Dur she had spoken to not four days ago seemed to have disappeared, she shivered, what had she done?

It seemed to her in his stance and walk that he would have preferred if she'd let him die, was if for her own selfish reasons that she hadn't?

She felt so weak that her limbs were shaking and one of the officers put her arm around his shoulder to hold her up. He looked at her concerned and she knew she must look a fright. He kept up a running conversation the whole time they walked, he did not even wait for her to answer, she didn't think he expected her to.

"I'm Jerosh by the way," he finally added and smiled.

She smiled back, she was grateful that he had spoken to her, she had endured enough grim silence to last a lifetime.

"Captain Ellsia Trilaut."

"Well Captain, don't you worry, we'll be back at the safehouse within half an hour, I reckon you'll need a good rest."

"Thank you Jerosh, for keeping me company."

He saluted with his free hand and grinned at her, "Only doing my duty captain."

duty...captain...

The words echoed around in her head, it was her duty to protect others and keep them from harm, both as a jedi and a captain, yet if someone were to attack right now she would be helpless as a gizka.

She looked over to Bao-Dur and wondered what he was thinking, her gaze slipped to the arm that was no longer there, just a stump where his shoulder was, tears formed behind her eyes and she looked away.

What would happen now? it was as if a great chasm had opened up between them and she could not reach out to him.

"We are here Captain," came Jerosh's voice, breaking through her thoughts. They had arrived at a small camp and were ushered into healing tents, Ellsia knew it would be a while until she saw her friend again.

Sifting through the shuttle reckage had not produced much, almost everything had been crushed with the impact and she knew it was a miracle they had survived at all. She managed to recover a couple of medpacs and these she used on herself to ease the pain of her shoulder, she still would not use the force to heal herself. Dreams and memories shifted in her mind and she couldn't concentrate.

"Why now?" she asked herself, "Why after all this time do we come together?"

Something Kreia had said earlier popped into her mind, "It does not matter where we go, the destination is not important, only the journey."

She knew the force worked in mysterious ways and she had been through many journies in her life, the forced had shaped her destiny so far, maybe it was trying to tell her something?

A sound overhead and she saw a shuttle coming into view, she used the commlink that Caitlyn had given her earlier,

"General, is that you?"

"Yes Ellsia, we managed to find the shuttle and we are on our way to pick you two up."

Finally, she sighed, being on her own often caused her to think too much, the only problem now was that she would have ot face Bao-Dur again, and there was much left unsaid.

"So much I wanted to say..."

It was too late now, she must move on and do what she was brought here to do.

"Then I can leave and we'll all be happy again," she murmmered but her words were empty, never had she been truely happy anyway.

Except when she was with him.