Clarity slowly returned to Tallis. First through touch, and then eyesight. Something furry was on top of her, covering her in a protective blanket it felt like. Blinking away the last of her blurriness, Tallis grinned up at Chewbacca's face as the gentle giant wuffed his worries.

Han was right beside her. Chewbacca had covered them both from the initial impact of the grenade.

"I'm okay, Chewie. Good save." Tallis said gently, patting the big fellow on his cheek. Han echoed her praise in a groggy, but grateful grunt.

"You alright Chewie?" Han asked as the wookiee moved off them. Chewbacca shrugged and turned to show his back. There was nothing beyond a few singed hairs and the tough wookiee waved all worries aside. They had bigger concerns.

For one a good chunk of the piloting consoles had been destroyed by Drionn's grenade. It looked nearly impossible to turn it around and head back for Mos Eisley.

"What now?" Tallis asked as Han examined the damage.

Han smirked. "Blue, I can fly anything. Even this steaming pile of garbage. We don't have everything, but we can still get her turned around."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Now give Chewie a hand."

After several moments with Han's direction, the sailbarge was turned around and speeding back for Mos Eisley, and hopefully a clean getaway.

~~~

The Falcon was empty. Such a discovery worried Luke to his core. The docking bay personnel told him a female Togruta had took the ship in, and that there was no sign of a male human or a wookiee with her. Further more, the man had said the Togruta worked for Jabba and had gone to report to the slug.

"What if Jabba already has Han and Chewie?" Luke worried aloud.

Leia stood beside him with her arms crossed. "We'll just have to bust them out."

"Of Jabba's palace?" Luke asked incredulously. "Leia, I know you've never been here, but that is not a good idea. Jabba's place crawls with bounty hunters of all sorts!"

"He's right." Obi-Wan said grimly. "Jabba's palace is not an endeavor to be taken lightly. He is the wealthiest of Tatooine and therefore has security. We can only hope Tallis was able to get to them."

Luke pinched his nose. "What if they got her too? What if we're too late? We can't just sit here anymore."

"Patience." Obi-Wan said. "Patience is a Jedi's ally, Luke. Do not let your worries cloud your judgement. Now come, we will not find anything else of use here. Let's check the local spots."

Begrudgingly Luke nodded and followed the oldster. Leia's hand slipped into his own, a small and appreciated comfort.

~~~

Tallis grinned as she, Han and Chewie left the sailbarge at the edge of the scummy spaceport. Now they could get to the ship and fly easy.

"You know somethin' Blue?" Han said suddenly. "Remember Drionn saying the bomb wasn't meant for Luke."

Tilting her head, Tallis frowned. "I believe him... it was by the Falcon when it went off."

Han nodded. "Right? So much for actual proof though. Doubt Leia and the others would hear me out now."

"Drionn isn't going to get away with this." Tallis said solemnly. "He'll pay for it all, but right now we need a plan to take him down. Maybe even bring him to High Command for a confession."

"I'd like that a lot." Han said with a foul grimace. Chewbacca echoed Han's words with a nasty growl of his own.

"Good to know they didn't beat your guts out of you." Tallis said with a grin, reaching out and hugging Chewbacca's big arm. The wookiee chuckled and patted her head gently with his other hand.

Nighttime barely effected the busy streets of Mos Eisley. Crowded with all sorts of humans, humanoids and aliens alike forced Han, Chewie and Tallis to stay close together as they tried to pick up the pace to the docking bays. The humdrum of voices, moving bodies and vehicles was enough to drown out all else. Tallis never noticed what was following them til two human arms wrapped themselves tightly around her torso. She had no time to react as the ground suddenly fell away from her feet, the familiar sound of a jetpack firing into the air.

Not caring it if hurt her or not, Tallis bashed the back of her head against the head of her assailant. She was rewarded with a grunting sound and loosening of his hold on her. She elbowed the man in the side where she knew he wore no armor. His hold lost her completely.

Plummeting to the roof of a building below her did not phase the Force practitioner as she used it to cushion her fall, avoiding the possibility of broken legs. Turning around, Tallis drew her lightsabers as Drionn hovered above her.

"Didn't think you'd be up to round two." Tallis said mockingly.

"Only needed ideal odds." Drionn replied as he approached the rooftop, one hand holding his blaster pistol, the other prepping the flamethrower built into his armor.

Tallis smirked. "Because I'm not hopped up on your poison."

A muffled snorts filtered through the helmet's vocoder. "I've always beaten you before. This time will be no different."

"I've had more training since last we met." Tallis said. "Put your weapons down and come peacefully. We can work this out civilly."

Drionn laughed uproariously. "Spoken like a true, spineless Jedi. I gave you a chance, now I'll gut you Jedi, like my ancestors before me."

"Bring it." Tallis dared.

The flamethrower roared to life. A lightsaber was useless. Tallis backed pedalled swiftly as Drionn touched ground. The fiery heat just barely touched her skin as Tallis raised a hand and used the Force to push back the fire. Or at least keep it from reaching her.

Drionn was quick to toss his attack aside, the flamethrower was abruptly replaced with a volley of laser blasts. Tallis brought her lightsabers up, rapidly blocking and even redirecting a few back at him. Each one however was caught by his armor.

Tallis charged forward, swinging her right hand lightsaber at his head. The Mando dropped under the blade. Tallis turned and lashed out again. Drionn avoided the strike with Jedi-like grace. Again she tried to hit him with her lightsabers, each slash missed him by mere centimeters. Nearly as agile as she, Drionn seemed to dance, to taunt as Tallis swung and stabbed ruthlessly this way and that to get to him.

But finally he had enough. The lightsaber came at him again. He took his disguised weapon from his belt. The yellow blade of a lightsaber snapped and hissed as Tallis' own collided with it, a mere inch from Drionn's neck.

Tallis froze, starring at the lightsaber in astonishment. In shock.

"That's-"

Drionn raised a knee, ramming it into Tallis' stomach. The small girl crumbled with a hollow wheeze. "Sula's." He finished. "Your witch friend's lightsaber."

Tallis slowly got back up, keeping a lightsabers raise for defence. "You . . . It can't be."

"Oh but it was." Drionn said with a wide grin, shown clearly by his voice alone. "The ambush, the traps, the slaughter. How many witches died that day? Didn't they nearly go extinct?"

"Drionn," Tallis whispered. "You killed . . . You murdered her?"

"Even then I was against your Rebellion. You were just too naive, too stupid to see it." Drionned heft the lightsaber, pointing it towards the confused little girl. "Come on. Let's see what you really learned."

Tallis thinned her lips, and suddenly jumped forward.

Lightsabers clashed loudly. Drionn calmly blocked and countered, easily handling Tallis and her dual wielding technique. The two were locked in a dance on the roof tops of Mos Eisley.

Lunging forward, Tallis used a discarded box for brief high ground, coming down on Drionn from above. The Mandalorian simply blocked and pushed up, causing Tallis to flip over him.

Landing behind Drionn, Tallis sweeped a leg. Drionn jumped over it and hacked his lightsaber down on her own. Nearly he broke her defence. Tallis pushed back. Standing up with lightsabers locked. She snarled at him, pushing him towards the ledge.

Drionn pulled his head back, and brought the crown of his helmet down on Tallis' forehead.

The headbutt sent the unsuspecting Jedi down. Huge stars sparked through blurred vision. Pain blossomed and spread like a wildfire throughout her skull as Tallis dropped her lightsabers, holding her head instinctively.

Drionn knelt beside her. "I was willing to let you go, Bluejay." He said the nickname mockingly. "But now . . . well, Lord Vader may have a use for you."

His words were too foggy to make out. But somewhere in them Tallis had a sickening understanding of his intentions. Drionn's hand grabbed the montral on the back of her head. Pulling back, he leveled the lightsaber to her neck. Tallis grunted, struggling against his hold with a stubborn will.

"Be still, don't want to cut your head off just yet." Drionn said with sadistic humor.

Tallis gave him a quivering smirk. "But I want to cut off yours." One of her lightsabers flew back into her hand. She brought the green blade up, ready to decapitate her enemy. Drionn was only just fast enough to let her go and push himself back as Tallis poised the blade towards him.

The Mando growled. His jetpack started up, lifting him into the air. His flamethrower roared, fire rushing towards Tallis.

Turning, Tallis ran as fast as her still throbbing head allowed. Jumping over a gap to the next building she ran behind a large solar panel. The flames hit it and did not burn through. Tallis heaved in several quick breaths as Drionn circled around. Tallis did the same, keeping the large panel between them long enough to catch her breath.

"Come out Tal. Come out!" Drionn shouted.

"Coward, hiding behind your toys." Tallis shouted back. "What? You afraid I'll finally beat you?"

"You haven't been paying attention." Drionn laughed.

The jetpack powered down. She heard his feet touch the roof. Suddenly she bolted. The flame followed her. Tallis rolled, stopping behind a power box this time, taking more breaths as Drionn closed in.

"You have two choices." Drionn said, his voice wicked and cruel. "Come with me, Lord Vader wants to meet you and your Jedi friends. Or you can die here and Lord Vader will find them either ways."

Tallis squeezed her eyes shut. "Okay. But I have a counter."

"Well I'd like to hear this." Came the sarcastic reply.

"Yeah?" Tallis gripped her lightsaber tight. "Well here it is." She jumped out from her cover.

"You can go to hell!"

The Force coiled and then burst as she threw her lightsaber in a spinning disk like motion. At the same instance the flamethrower went off again, and this time Tallis could not avoid the fire. It reached out like athousand forked tongues, engulfing and burning Tallis's outstretched hand. She screamed, holding her crippled limb to her chest and falling behind her cover. Her blue skin bubbled and blistered, burning bone-deep as if the fire now lived there.

The lightsaber missed Drionn, flying just over his head before disappearing on the roof.

Drionn stalked forward, ready to take the girl hostage. He rounded the box, finding Tallis curled over her burn injury. From what he could see, it was bad. Bad enough for the Rebel soldier to forget all else in the midst of true pain. Drionn reached down, about to grab her and hull her up.

Suddenly blasters went off, peppering Drionn's back armor like a beating was being given. Drionn spun around, firing off his own shots. But a lightsaber blocked each one.

Ahead was Solo, his wookiee, a boy, and a girl. All four held smoking blasters. Covering them from Drionn's attack was a very old man with a blue lightsaber.

"Get away from her!" The blonde boy shouted, anger growling in his throat.

Drionn stalked forward, blaster and flamethrower readied. "You wanna repeat that, brat?"

The blonde did not hesitate to take another shot, the blast hitting Drionn in the armor, though close enough to the edge to burn his clothes. Drionn brought his blaster up, finger squeezing the trigger to kill the insolent boy first.

He never got the chance. A searing pain burned through his side, and reached his heart. The yellow blade of Sula's lightsaber punctured through him. His heart was was left with a gaping hole, unable to work.

Slowly he sank to his knees as the lightsaber was ripped from his body and Tallis came into view. With her good hand she pulled his helmet off. She smiled down on him, a trembling smile. "I told you you'd have to kill me before hurting either of them."

"That was for Jadastr. For Guadar and Stuadar. For Rukk. For the Dathomire clans. For the Rebels you killed that day. For Sula." Drionn fell on his back, starring at her with death closing in. Tallis smile became a pitiful grin. "You died a monster. And I will remember you as what you are. A disgrace to your people."

She watched without sympathy as Drionn died. And only after he drifted into the Force did she feel anything for him. For herself. To lose a friend. To have lost him long before she knew she already had. To be a victim of his manipulation when all Tallis wanted was him back, to start over.

Vaguely Tallis felt Luke kneel beside her. She did not protest as he pulled her against his chest. She must be crying, his shirt was wet under her cheek. She wrapped her arms around him, glad he is safe. Glad he is here.