The next chapter is here! As always please feel free to let me know what you think.

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AnarionRising27: Glad I got the family right. I was going for worried but supportive. There is something delightfully evil about me being the only one who knows what the Mandalorians are up to...

Once again, thanks for reviewing. I hope you continue to enjoy!

Chapter 6: Unexpected

The first thing Rassen saw upon awakening was darkness.

The Jedi groaned as he looked around groggily, trying to remember where he was and how he had got there. He had been exhausted, so exhausted. Then there had been pain… what had happened next?

Rassen groaned again before attempting to rise to his feet. As he began to straighten up, he grunted in pain as his head smashed into something hard, a ringing noise filling his ears. He frowned before reaching out a hand to brush his fingertips over the surface in curiosity. As far as he could tell through the material of his glove, it appeared to be made of a metal of some kind, which naturally explained why catching it with his head had hurt so much. Truth be told, he hurt everywhere else as well, but that was more the result of…

Then it all came back to him; the colony, the Mandalorians, the trap.

Now he remembered the moment the bomb had exploded, the sound of it drowning out the rest of the world, the heat of it washing over him like a tidal wave as he was thrown backwards. In the moment he had realised what was about to happen, running entirely on instinct he had reached out to the Force, called upon it for help in a way he had never done before. That he was still alive, albeit aching all over was nothing short of a miracle.

Forcing down any thought of panic as he began to suspect just where he was, Rassen stretched out his arm again; though this time he reached to his left rather than above him. He barely extended it half way before his fingertips made contact with metal again. The Jedi repeated the process to his right, then turned to do the same in front and then behind himself. Each time he felt metal around him, almost like he was in a prison cell, albeit an irregularly shaped one. He was also in total darkness, which made the passage of time impossible to determine. How long had he been unconscious?

He had once told Shaela that being able to draw on the Force was a gift. The senses could be fooled by those who knew what they were doing. Hence, no one should ever blindly rely on the five senses if it could be helped. That being said, the Force couldn't be used to detect metal. Being able to see would certainly be an advantage on this occasion.

The omni-tool!

Despite his still throbbing head and general condition, Rassen couldn't help smiling as he activated the device on his left wrist, silently thankful that it had been developed to be as user-friendly as possible. The glow of the omni-tool was comforting in the darkness as he slowly manoeuvred his arm around, scanning with his eyes for anything important. He had no idea how much wreckage he was under. He needed more information.

He spent a minute or so slowly scanning the few feet of space he had available, before noticing that the glow the omni-tool projected against the metal seemed to shift slightly every time he drew it back towards himself. Rassen frowned at the difference, examining the ground at his feet, which seemed to be comprised of the same metal as the rest of his surroundings. His frown deepened as he glanced back at the omni-tool. The orange light was being only weakly reflected by the walls around him, due to the fact they looked like they had been covered by a thin layer of some kind of powdery substance, probably cement which had been displaced by the explosion.

The reflection of light from the omni-tool was slightly different here, but as far as he could tell there was no difference in the composition of the walls or floor. Rassen looked up; squinting as he tried to detect whatever could be causing the difference. After a few moments, he noticed a slight flaw in the metal above him which caused him to remain hunched over.

Almost directly above him, so small he would likely have missed it if not for the omni-tool, was a gash in the metal. It was likely the result of something heavy colliding with the surface during the explosion had caused the damage. The light from the omni-tool could not be reflected by something that wasn't there, resulting in a small amount of the orange glow escaping outside into the darkness, hence the subtle difference whenever he swept his forearm directly underneath it.

That was his way out.

Rassen smiled for the first time since awaking at the sight. Closing his eyes, the Jedi extended one hand in the direction of the hole, reaching out to the Force as he did so. Slowly, the gap began to widen as he concentrated, a shrill squealing noise accompanying it. He froze at the sound, cursing himself for trying to get out without first establishing whether anyone was nearby. Mandalorians were nothing if not thorough; they might well be combing the ruins now to make sure he was dead.

After making sure to carefully sense for anyone else in his immediate vicinity and finding there was no one nearby, Rassen continued to widen the hole, wincing at the sound it made. After a few minutes the gap was wide enough to allow him to straighten up, which he did, after searching for anyone else though the Force once more.

His head and upper torso now sticking out from the makeshift prison cell in which he had found himself, Rassen called on the Force again and jumped, easily leaping a few metres into the air before landing in a crouch in front of the hole. He breathed heavily, a drop of sweat running down his brow at the effort of having escaped while still far from his best, even though the night air was cool. Nonetheless, Rassen was grateful to be free and grateful to be alive. The Jedi took a deep breath before looking around him, freezing in horror at the sight before his eyes.

The area around where he stood had been completely devastated. The ruined building he had just escaped from had been only one victim among many. A film of ash coloured cement dust coated the remains of what had once been homes, tiny flakes of the grey substance occasionally breaking off to float away in the slight breeze that currently flowed through the area. The buildings beyond several hundred metres from his position were in only slightly better condition, individual thermal detonators having rendered them near useless but not utterly destroyed them. Rassen closed his eyes sorrowfully as he looked away from the devastation. For the first time since he had regained consciousness, Zaressh spoke up, the Sith's voice causing Rassen to feel like he might vomit.

As I said earlier, doesn't this look familiar?

Despite his best efforts to resist it, Rassen found himself being pulled back into a memory.

The house was burning. Smoke filled his lungs as he struggled blindly through a decrepit hallway, the paint on the walls faded to an off-white which was in the process of peeling away. He hadn't been there when the fire had started, but he had made a promise. Upon hearing that pirates had been sighted in the area near the homestead he had come as fast as he could. He just hoped he was fast enough to save at least someone.

Rassen began coughing nearly uncontrollably as he searched room after room, voice hoarse as he called out to the inhabitants of the small house. His words were snatched away by the crackling fire which covered the walls, the flames seeming to taunt him as he moved past them. He threw the next door open, eyes closing in sorrow at the sight of two still figures, both of them blackened corpses on the floor. Too slow. He had been too slow.

A crashing noise from upstairs caused Rassen to glance up before he continued moving, kicking open another door to find himself staring at a short staircase leading up to the next floor. The Jedi bounded up the stairs as fast as he could, the wooden steps groaning far more than could be considered safe as flames began to lick at them. His coughing quickly grew worse as a result, eyes now beginning to badly sting as well.

He now found himself standing on a small landing, several doors lying on both sides. A scream of agony came from the furthest room on the right, causing Rassen to sprint toward it, barging the door open. A small figure writhed on the ground next to what once had been a bed, hideously burned as it continued to wail at its suffering. Rassen darted forward and gently picked up the child, whispering soft words of reassurance to it that rang hollow even to him. How could everything be all right when the boy's parents lay dead the floor below? How could everything be all right now the child was so burned that even with bacta, the miraculous healing substance which had revolutionised medical technology, the boy would still have horrific scarring for the rest of his life? How could everything be all right when perhaps he could have prevented all of this?

The Jedi turned round at another crashing noise signalling that the staircase behind him had collapsed, blocking the way out. Thinking furiously, Rassen snapped a hand in the direction of the wall which separated the bedroom from the outside world, which exploded outwards as he brought his power to bear against it. The Jedi then sprinted toward the open air, using the Force to gently but quickly lower himself and the child to the ground. He then continued running, desperate to put some distance between them and the burning building at his back.

After a couple of minutes he stopped and lowered the child to the ground. The boy had stopped screaming and was now moaning softly, eyes wide in agony. Rassen closed his own as he reached out with the Force, panic beginning to take hold as he realised how weak the boy was. The Jedi began to desperately try to repair the child's body, snarling at the effort of trying to heal the burned skin, repair the smoke-corrupted lungs, and soothe the crippling pain.

His eyes snapped open as the child grabbed onto the front of his armour, grip strong despite his suffering. The boy's bloodshot eyes were as wide as saucers as they stared into his own, the child seeming to know even before he did that Rassen couldn't save him. His eyes seemed to pass judgement on the man before him even as Rassen cradled him in his arms.

"W-where… were you… Jedi?" The boy whispered, the words cutting to the bone worse than anything Rassen had ever heard. In the year since being separated from Shaela, he had thought it impossible that any moment of his life could be worse than that one, but he had been mistaken.

This moment was even more terrible.

As he cradled the boy, unable to muster a reply to the question, the child's eyes began to roll upwards into his head. Rassen gently released his grip on the small body as he allowed his tears to fall, the droplets of water being absorbed nearly instantly into the ground. He stared at the boy he had failed to save, desperately seeking understanding from the corpse before him.

I am so sorry.

Rassen found himself on all fours as the memory faded. The Jedi's body shuddered violently at the clarity with which he had relived that moment. The child had stared at him in awe when he had first met the family, the boy's mother and father having been almost as impressed upon meeting him. Wherever they were now, Rassen doubted they felt anything less than burning contempt for him. He certainly did.

Well that was fun, wasn't it? My favourite part is the bit where-

"Shut up," Rassen whispered almost inaudibly, voice even quieter than the light breeze which could still be felt in the area. Zaressh's voice faded from his mind, but not before twisting the knife once more.

I think we had better check on those new friends of yours sooner rather than later, don't you?

Rassen ran quickly from one ruined building to another, senses alert for any sign of life. He had been moving for ten minutes, but had yet to pick up anything through the Force, which was troubling. Mandalorians were held in high esteem for a reason, but they were neither Jedi or Sith. Being able to shield their minds from a Force user through extensive training and strong discipline? Yes. Being able to conceal their presence in the Force entirely? Unlikely.

As the minutes dragged on, Rassen felt increasingly uneasy. He should have seen some sign of the Mandalorians by now. While the ruined buildings certainly provided plenty of cover, they did not make individuals harder to sense. Yet, aside from the obvious destruction, it was like they had never visited Horizon. No corpses in blue armour, no weapons, nothing of Mandalorian origin remained within the colony. They had come to another galaxy, attacked a civilian colony and then just… disappeared. The Mandalorians had all arrived in the same way he had, at least to the best of his knowledge. The most likely reason as to why there was no sign of them was that they had left the planet during the time he had been unconscious, but if that was the case then how could they have managed it? The device seemed as though it could only transport people and whatever could be carried on someone's person. He certainly hadn't seen the Mandalorians attempt to bring any kind of vehicle into contact with whatever the device had been.

Rassen stopped next to what had once been a shop of some kind. Eying the building sadly, he pulled off one of his gloves, the brown material with its faded white plate that protected the back of his hand sliding off easily. He then scooped up a handful of the ash like dust which seemed to be everywhere, though there was less of it here than where the buildings had been entirely demolished. Parting his fingers and allowing the tiny flakes to slip through the spaces between them, Rassen then replaced his glove. As much as he hated to admit it, Zaressh's voice had been right. He couldn't sense anyone in his immediate vicinity, meaning all of the colonists close to him were dead. He needed to get to the three people he had hidden; they stood the best chance of still being alive of anyone within the colony. Rassen was about to continue walking before he remembered.

We will not be able to understand one another.

Senses still alert for any sign of danger, he activated his omni-tool, the orange glow engulfing his left forearm. He gazed at the vaguely familiar symbols, attempting to remember what each one meant. If memory served, then simply having the omni-tool attached would allow him to understand the languages of Shaela's galaxy, though he still wasn't sure entirely how that worked. Inwardly he cursed himself for not paying more attention when Shaela had tampered with his first one what felt like a lifetime ago. In truth he had been paying more attention to her, intrigued that someone who had been terrified of him moments prior had then attempted to help him. While he had saved her life, the quarian hadn't reacted quite as perhaps would have been expected; she hadn't run away.

After a couple of minutes of examining the omni-tool, he finally recognised what appeared to be the symbol for the translate function. Pressing it resulted in a seemingly endless list of languages appearing. Glancing around to ensure he was still alone, Rassen then selected the first language he recognised. As much as he had relied on his omni-tool during his first period in this galaxy, (and then through Shaela hers once his own had broken) he had managed to pick up a few words from a variety of languages during his time with the quarian. As far as he could tell, the omni-tool was now set to try and translate everything he said to one of the more common languages used by the humans of this galaxy, which certainly seemed suitable. For the life of him though, Rassen didn't understand why there hadn't been a standard language introduced across as many species as possible, such as Galactic Basic. It probably had something to do with the human/asari way of speaking being so fundamentally different from the way turians spoke, or something similar.

The translation process ready to begin, Rassen pressed on, still on guard just in case as he murmured lines of the Jedi Code under his breath. He just hoped the translation software of his current omni-tool was as fast working as what had been on his original.

The minutes crept by as he drew closer and closer to his target. Slowly but surely though, a creeping sense of dread grew within the Jedi. He should have been able to sense the turian and two children by now if they were still alive, but still could not feel anything through the Force. Dread gave way to panic as he turned a corner and saw the house where they had hidden. Like the other buildings in the area, the Mandalorians had settled for doing the minimum damage necessary to render it useless. The house still stood, but the windows had been blown out, clearly the result of a thermal detonator or something similar.

Time seemed to blur for Rassen as he reached the house, entered it and then stood in front of the makeshift hiding place where he had last seen the three colonists. The armchair had been thrown aside, the piece of furniture lying on the floor several feet away. The piece of flooring beneath it had likewise been tossed aside, revealing the foundations beneath the house. Rassen swallowed heavily as the scent of burned flesh reached him from where he stood. The Jedi felt his legs give out and he collapsed to his knees, brain struggling to process the revelation. He had failed. He hadn't saved anyone. The Mandalorians had somehow found the three people below the house and killed them.

He didn't know how long he spent there beside the hole, mind moving at a sluggish pace as he numbly tried to figure out what to do next. It might have been seconds, it could have been hours. Eventually Rassen slowly picked himself up; moving at a speed expected more from a man several times his age.

"I am so sorry," he whispered, voice barely audible. "I couldn't take you with me, not with them crawling all over the colony. I did the best that I could."

Silence was the only response.

Several hours passed as Rassen stood there, night slowly giving way to sunrise. It was nearly silent, the only sound being the occasional rustle of his cloak against his armour when the Jedi shifted minutely. To an observer it would have appeared as though he was lost in thought, which was exactly the case. As far as he could tell the Mandalorians had somehow made it off-world. He had no way to pursue them, not that he knew where they had gone in the first place. On top of that, not having a way off-planet also meant that he couldn't try to find-

His thoughts were interrupted by a slight rumbling in the distance. Instantly one of Rassen's hands dropped to his lightsaber, the hilt of the weapon cool to the touch even through the material of his glove. Were the Mandalorians going to do something else to the colony? It was unlikely; they had already rendered every building unusable or simply flattened them. Everyone here was dead aside from him, so he doubted they were attacking again.

The rumbling grew louder, causing Rassen to approach what had once been a window, though the glass littered the ground beneath it. The aforementioned fragments crunched beneath his boots as the Jedi stepped on them, leaning forward to squint at a small dot which had appeared on the horizon.

A ship. Mandalorian or something else?

Within a minute the ship had grown large enough for Rassen to see the vessel more clearly. It was small, probably a privately owned transport rather than anything sophisticated. The vehicle was painted a dull grey, with there being no visible weapons and a distinct lack of armour.

Definitely not military. Certainly not Mandalorian. Even assuming they somehow managed to arrange some kind of transport off-world prior to beginning their attack, I doubt any of them would be caught dead in an unarmed ship.

The vessel began to slowly descend, the boxy craft soon disappearing from view as it landed at the opposite side of the colony to where he stood. Rassen nodded slowly to himself as the craft vanished from sight. Whoever was on board, the two of them needed to talk.

Shaela stood just by the entrance to the hospital, one foot tapping impatiently despite her best efforts to make it stop. Tikkun, Rannoch's sun had just barely begun to rise when she had made the short trek to the medical facility. The sky was still mostly dark, though beams of orange light had begun to filter through the gloom. Shaela barely managed to supress a yawn. She had struggled to get any sleep last night, being too excited and tense for her body to find the relaxed state it needed for her to do so. She had said her goodbye to her mother, father and sister before leaving, all three of them having told her to keep them updated and to stay safe. She had hugged all three of them and promised that she would. With how sudden her decision to leave had been, she knew she had to convince them she would watch out for herself.

The appearance of a familiar figure shook her from her thoughts as Matriarch Wessa appeared from the opposite direction she had, and made her way over to the quarian, moving with the fluid grace all asari seemed to be naturally born with.

"Here," Wessa smiled, offering a simple travelling case light brown in colour to her. "One high-grade kinetic barrier, a few thermal clips to be safe, medi-gel and several doses of every antibiotic you could possibly need."

Shaela took the case gently from the asari's hands, bowing her head slightly in respect. She saw Wessa stiffen slightly in surprise and smiled slightly to herself. Influential matriarchs often went around with an entourage of younger asari who followed them out of devotion and a desire to learn. Bowing in the presence of Wessa showed her that Shaela valued everything her teacher had done for her and held her in the highest respect.

"Thank you again, Matriarch," she breathed. "Just… thank you."

Wessa waved away the thanks with a wry smile. "You're welcome, Shaela, but it may be better to hold your thanks until I've given you a firm warning about bringing back my ship in one piece. Speaking of which…" At this point the asari trailed off before turning to face the rising sun, its dim rays causing her normally purple skin to appear lilac where they struck it. "Are you still sure you want to leave immediately? Is there anything you need to do before setting off?"

Shaela shook her head. "No. I've said goodbye to my family and while I'll miss them terribly, this is something I have to do. It can't wait, Matriarch. Something is terribly wrong, but I don't know what."

Wessa looked back at her sharply. "Does your family know that you think you could be heading straight into danger?"

"T-they suspect," the quarian stammered. "I did tell them that Rassen needs help, but I may have left out that it could be dangerous." She looked away from the asari's piercing glare. "I haven't really told them much more than I've told you. I thought that if they knew I suspected I could be heading into danger then-"

"They wouldn't let you go."

"Yes."

Wessa sighed before turning to look back at the rising sun. After what felt like an age, the asari finally spoke. "Please inform me if anything goes wrong, Shaela. All of my resources are tied up at the moment in various parts of the galaxy, but I'll do my best to help if you run into serious trouble. If you damage my ship however…"

"I'm not sure I want you to finish that sentence, Matriarch."

Wessa grinned. "Then you're as smart as I've always thought, Shaela. Now," at this the asari began to walk away from the quarian, who stood there in confusion. "I believe I have a ship to show you?" Wessa smirked as Shaela jogged over to join her.

Rassen frowned to himself as he examined the small vessel from where he currently stood peering around the corner of one of the colony's devastated buildings. It had been several minutes since the vessel which currently stood a mere ten metres away had landed, but the pilot was nowhere to be seen. The Jedi closed his eyes as he reached out to the Force. Whoever it was, they were nearby, but he couldn't tell exactly where they were. That was unusual; with their being the only two people in the colony, he should have been able to pinpoint the newcomer's exact location. That he couldn't meant that whoever they were, they were extremely strong-willed.

His frown deepened as he concentrated harder. He couldn't sense any malice from them, just sorrow and determination. Sorrow about what had happened to the colony and determination to find out what had happened. Given that he hadn't been able to save anyone and didn't know why the Mandalorians had attacked, that made two of them.

Rassen pushed away from the corner of the building and walked towards the ship, making no further attempts at subtlety. He stopped a couple of metres away from it as he felt the presence shift slightly. Whoever they were, they had noticed him, which meant they could probably see him as well.

The Jedi turned away from the ship to face the devastated colony before he spoke, voice calm despite the events that had transpired.

"Whoever you are, I'm going to assume you are here to investigate what happened. I know who is responsible. I know how they did this, but not why. I have no way off this world. I propose that in exchange for transportation off this planet so I can try to stop them from doing anything like this again, I tell you everything I know." He paused to allow his words to sink in. "Are you interested?"

A sudden flickering at the edge of his vision caused Rassen to look to his right as a figure dressed in a form-fitting black and grey bodysuit appeared suddenly. The woman was rather short but had an athletic build, clearly being someone who was acquainted with danger, given that the weapon she was currently pointing at him didn't waver as she stared at him, upper face concealed beneath the shadow cast by her black hood. As he watched, she lowered the weapon, a sub-machine gun he believed the inhabitants of this galaxy called it, before tilting her head at him in in a way that told him she had made a decision.

"I'm interested," the strange woman began, her voice carrying a trace of an accent Rassen was unfamiliar with, not surprising considering that he was not native to this galaxy. "Start talking."