It was a nightmare. A true nightmare.

Satine shockingly stared at the automated pod accelerating before the hyperspace jump, her expression turning blank. It was as if her body was disconnecting from her emotions.

Corio picked up all the speed the ship could handle, and it still wasn't enough.

The ship's passengers were all on their toes, having perceived impending drama.

Even Obi-Wan, in his haze on the ground, understood an outline of the situation, sensing Satine's distress, his leg twitching slightly, as if wanting to stand up.

All their efforts to reach the pod were turning out to be not enough.

Until the unexpected happened: a blue and grey battleship materialized itself in front of them, intercepting the pod and vacuuming it in its hangar with no apparent effort.

Like everyone else, Satine gaped, undecided whether to be jubilant or alarmed by this new unforeseen development. It wasn't like anything ever went according to plan, in her life. However, she soon realized there was no time to ponder, as the battleship was pointing towards them with no intention of slowing down.

"We're going to collide!" a twi'lek fugitive shrieked, holding onto his lekku.

Corio barely made it on time to steer the ship, when it became clear that they no longer had control over the commands. The battleship had activated a magnet to attach itself to them.

Panic took over most of the fugitives. They started screaming, their post-traumatic stress kicking in.

The spaceship jerked and tilted, signaling it had been anchored securely.

Satine's alarm bells went off the moment she saw two fully armed, beskar'gam clad Mandalorians break into the hold door. They marched straight towards her, asking her to follow them.

"Oh, the surprise" she sarcastically told herself, but spoke no words of opposition, knowing it was them who detained her daughter. After the gruesome episode on the islet, Satine was expecting no leniency from them, but was prepared to face anything and fight till her last breath for her loved ones and herself regardless, in a display of the true Mandalorian character they accused her of shunning.

As she walked, droplets of cold sweat beaded the skin on her face, but her gaze remained solemn and focused, right as she left behind her beloved in enemy territory once again, agonizing on the floor and surrounded by undesirables.

She was led across the hangar and into a steely room where a figure awaited.

Her already stern expression hardened the moment she saw her sister's back. The last remnants of hope that Bo-Katan would remember about their sisterhood and overcome their differences all but vanished.

"What do you want?" she snapped defensively.

Bo-Katan sheepishly turned, holding a bundle in her arms. Mara Jade.

"Just to give the ik'aad back to you" she somewhat awkwardly extended the bundle towards her sister so that she could take it.

Satine stiffened, then melted into tears on the spot, releasing everything she had kept bottled up until that moment. She looked vulnerable as she welcomed her daughter in her arms, despite still wearing an armor.

Bo-Katan silently witnessed the reunion. She wouldn't disclose it all that easily, but upon discovering the tiny Kryze baby, with hair as red as hers, she had experienced a surge of regret, nostalgia and pride, directed at her relationship with her family, with Satine especially. Now, in an unexpected twist of destiny, both her sister and herself were wearing armors at the same time, an event Bo-Katan was certain she would never live to witness. Passing the rescued Kryze baby over to her sister was like promising Mandalore's future would be kept safe through fight, devotion and sacrifice, regardless of political color, and it was momentous.

Bo-Katan studied her sister, vulnerably exposed with no defenses before her, grateful, even. In the past, when recognition was all she yearned, such reverent demeanor would have made her grin, but now Bo-Katan felt embarrassed. Recovering the Kryze baby had not been enough to wash away the guilt she felt after the episode on the islet, so Bo-Katan bowed her head, acting like nothing she did would ever be enough to redeem her.

"Is there anything else I must take care of… I mean, you came with that unfortunate crew…" Bo-Katan asked with a servant's spirit and a slight raised eyebrow.

"Please, help my daughter's father" Satine looked up from her baby for the first time since their reunion, meeting her sister's eyes with her teary ones.

Satine was not one to bear grudges, Bo-Katan had forgotten that. All that mattered to her was unity, and peace, notions that Bo-Katan used to dismiss as markers of weakness in her idealistic youth.

"Only you can remind your men of his loyalty" Satine continued "Or else, they won't spare him"

Suddenly, it hit Bo-Katan. A bewildered expression took over her features, as she eyed Satine.

"Kenobi… that's why you left the ik'aad behind? To rescue him?"

"I had no choice"

"You went…"

"…all the way to Zygerria, yes. Some fugitives were able to tag along, they need rehoming, possibly"

Bo-Katan appraised her sister for a while, an all-knowing grimace on her face, before standing up and heading towards Dooku's captured spaceship.

"Thank the Manda for sisters, then" she said, matter-of-factly.

Floating somewhere in the Inner Rim, on the Star Destroyer

Padme was nervously pacing her room, holding an extra-large pair of pliers in her hands as her loyal astromech droid drilled a hole into the wall, hoping to find the hatch to the ventilation system.

Another dead end. It looked like she had been placed in an iron cage.

"Oh, no! What else can we do, R2?" she dejectedly exclaimed.

The droid buzzed and beeped when the sound of familiar fast-approaching steps reached Padme's ears.

Anakin.

Padme rushed to amass as many objects as she could against the holey wall, trying to hide the fact that she'd spent the last few hours attempting to escape, fearing for her life as well as her babies'.

Deep down, she knew there was a concrete possibility he wouldn't spare her, a thought that fostered her oppositional demeanor. She was ready for everything, except for her husband's strangely humane, nearly mollified expression when he slid the door open with a gesture of his robotic hand.

She stared at him, wary anger giving way to confusion as she saw him longingly admire the one-week-old twins from a respectful distance, strangely receptive to her guidelines for once.

"Padme" he started, his voice still a bit testy, but much calmer than she'd ever heard him since the fateful Mustafar night.

Padme raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. After what felt like an eternity, he did.

"Did Obi-Wan recently tell you anything… pertaining to lesser-known facts about Mandalore?" he inquired.

Padme shook her head, quite shocked at finding herself having a near-civil interaction with Anakin, who had stormed outside with unmatched bloodthirsty fury mere hours earlier.

Anakin stood still for interminable moments, his eyes fixed, as if lost in space. Padme didn't quite know what to make of his bipolar disposition. She had taken for granted that he would notice the holes, but he seemed oblivious to them.

"I have to report to him" he solemnly declared, almost as if he were trying to justify himself to his wife, a note of repressed aggression in his husky voice.

Padme blinked, more confused than ever.

Bo-Katan's battleship, Mandalore Sector

Obi-Wan was put on a stretcher and carried to the med bay without many questions. He was grey and quite far along the scale of resilience, but Mandalorian medics were renown for intervening where others would just administer compassionate care. Warriors to the core.

"Well, he's still alive" the burly on-duty surgeon had commented upon seeing him.

Satine nervously waited just outside the med bay, not wanting to be any farther, not daring to walk any closer, holding her daughter tightly as if her life depended on it.

Bo-Katan gave her some time to compose herself, then decided she couldn't put showing her find off any longer.

"There is something I want to show you" she told Satine with a lowered voice.

Satine, who was sitting, looked up at her and silently stood.

She was led across another steely corridor and into the command room, where a strange dismembered technological object rested.

Bo-Katan turned to look at Satine, scanning her face for a reaction.

"The automated pod…" Satine studied it, her features alight with recognition.

Bo-Katan was grim, her arms folded across her chest, reluctant to drop the bomb.

"It's a Sith artifact"

Satine stared at her sister, suddenly reliving her conversations with Dooku. The magnitude of the currently unraveling course of events dawned on her, slowly crushing her.

"The Sith… are after my daughter" she couldn't even begin to describe the degree of fear that was seeping into her bones. The worst-case scenario had become reality, her beautiful daughter had become a target mere days after being born, and she had failed at protecting her.

"You're in danger. You, and the ik'aad. You must go into hiding"

Satine mournfully rested fingertips against her lips.

"I can help you find a hideout"