Cal woke up to the sound of silence.

He looked around with sleep-heavy eyes. None of the other crew members in their bunk beds were stirring. The engines weren't humming, either. Greez must have parked the ship somewhere, he concluded.

So; a quiet morning, then. Cal wouldn't complain. He hadn't gotten too many of those lately.

Yawning, he made his way up the ladder into the main area of the ship. He spied BD-1 standing on top of the star chart, just a second before BD-1 spied him and gave a cheerful trill in greeting. If the droid was as worn out by their recent hardships as his human friend, he never showed any sign of it. Cal patted his head fondly, before allowing him to jump on his back and take his customary place on his shoulder. He strongly suspected that BD-1 did that less out of necessity nowadays and more out of an enjoyment of being carried, but it wasn't like he minded. After years on his own, having this constant reassurance that a friend was close by actually felt nice.

Following routine, he first went up to the cockpit. He heard Greez's snoring long before he spied the Latero asleep in the pilot's seat, with two of his arms dangling off his side and the other two draped over his chest. Cal had never seen him sleep anywhere besides that chair. Outside the windows was the black emptiness of space. They seemed to have parked in the middle of nowhere – which, after the hectic nature of the last couple of weeks, was just fine by Cal. He made a quick check of the sensors and, upon picking up nothing that might have spelled danger, retraced his steps back into the lounge and made a b-line for the caf machine.

As he waited for the dark liquid to pour into his cup, Cal became aware of how peaceful this suddenly felt. For once, he could just enjoy the quietude and allow his tired thoughts to wander. He couldn't remember when he had last felt this way. It must have been before the Clone Wars. But he could get used to this kind of tranquillity again…

"Morning, Cal." said a voice right behind him.

Cal nearly jumped out of his skin. His hand only barely refrained from darting to his saber as he turned around, being faced with the tattooed face and unimpressed air of a nightsister. "Stars; do you have to be so quiet?!" he exclaimed, trying to slow his racing heart down.

Merrin gave a nonchalant shrug. That one hair strand that she kept trying to secure in place had broken free again, falling over her eye. Clearly she wasn't particularly fazed that she'd very nearly given him a heart attack. "I'm a nightsister; so yes. You should get used to it, Jedi."

"I'm not going to." Cal stated. He noted that Merrin was sporting the same set of pyjamas that Greez had found for him during one of their few stops in a civilian port. The blue, baggy fabric looked odd on her, but it wasn't a bad look, he thought. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Yes, you did." Her face wrinkled in sleepy displeasure. "On Dathomir we were woken by the sun every morning. Here, I don't even know if it's morning or not." she grumbled. Then she bent around him to look at the steaming cup on the table. "What's that?" she inquired.

"Caf."

She threw him a blank look.

Cal scratched his head. Sometimes he forgot that Merrin had only been introduced to the wider galaxy a few short weeks ago. "Well, it's a drink, obviously, made of – of…." He frowned. "Come to think of it, I don't know what it's made of. Maybe that's for the best. But it's great for morning grumpiness!" He held the cup out to her invitingly.

Merrin eyed it critically for a moment. Then she awkwardly pulled up her pyjama sleeves and took it from him. "I'm not a morning grump." she clarified before taking a sip. Immediately, her face contorted in a look of disgust.

Cal smiled. "It takes a while to get used to."

"I think I'll pass." Merrin coughed, handing him the mug back. "That is horrible. And you drink this every morning?!"

"Basically." Cal took a big gulp, letting the hot liquid sear his tongue. Instantly, the last of his sleepy haze evaporated and he could feel his attentiveness turn to maximum. He didn't know how a rather simple drink could have the same effect as hours' worth of concentrated meditation, but he wasn't going to argue with it. "On Bracca, this was pretty much essential for early shifts. It gets you addicted incredibly fast, though, so you better be careful."

Merrin scoffed. "Again, I'm a nightsister, Cal. No offense to your horrible favourite morning potion, but it'll take a little more than that."

"You sure you're not a morning grump? You could have fooled me right now."

On the surface, her unimpressed face remained in place, but her lip twitched upwards ever so slightly. "Then you're easy to fool."

"So, just hypothetically, if I woke you up tomorrow before you had your ten hours sleep, I wouldn't have to run for my life?"

"I will murder you should you really attempt such a thing." Merrin warned. It was a 100% believable threat, but said without any malice.

Cal counted it as a win.

"Byss?" Greez stopped what he was doing on the ship's console and turned to look at Cal. His eyes were narrowed in the suspicious look that was quickly becoming a staple for him since Cal had gotten to know him. "What in the galaxy do you want on Byss?! Why don't I take you directly to Coruscant? It's right around the corner."

"Is it that difficult?" Cal felt his heart sink.

"Well, not getting there per se, but... listen; just because you got into the most highly fortified Imperial prison in the galaxy doesn't mean that I'm comfortable taking you to the heart of Imperial Space! And, frankly, you shouldn't be either. What's so important about Byss all of a sudden?"

"I'm not sure." Cal was well aware of how strange he sounded. Something was drawing him to that world, though he couldn't explain what. It felt similar to the way he had felt the holocron call to him. "I just have this feeling that we need to be on Byss right now."

"A feeling –" Greez stopped an shook his head. "You know what, I'm not even gonna question it. Just tell the others where we're going and grab some seat."

"Really?" Cal had been prepared for a longer argument.

"Between you two Jedi and that nightsister, I'm starting to get used to this kind of thing. But you're absolutely, 101% sure this is a Force-inspired feeling, not just a vague idea?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. I guess I'll set a course for Byss." The Latero pointed three of his four arms at Cal. "But you're explaining it to the others, not me. And at the first sign of trouble, you better be ready to hightail it out of there."

It was safe to say, Cal reflected while red blaster bolts punctured the air all around him, that they had gone a long way past the first sign of trouble. If he were a less optimistic person, he would even say they were rather deep in it.

"This is a fine mess!" Merrin yelled at him from behind the land speeder she was using for cover.

"I'm scared!" cried the small Rodian child she had enclosed in her arms.

Cal didn't have time to reply to either: the Stormtroopers were advancing towards their position, seemingly increasing in numbers despite all the blaster shots he successfully redirected back at them, and as more and more joined the fray that was becoming increasingly hard to do. Cere was right beside him, dealing with at least the same amount of hostiles. Cal exchanged a quick glance with her and on a silent signal they both pushed the closest Stormtroopers away with the Force, which gave them some space to breathe. Then they started to fall back to where Merrin and the child were hiding.

Things had gone off plan pretty much immediately. On Cal's suggestion and under the curious looks of his other Force-sensitive companions, they had set course for Inner Core world of Byss. The Mantis had barely entered orbit around the planet when a Star Destroyer had jumped out of hyperspace almost exactly on their position.

A presence in the Force had emanated from the ship; dark and malicious like only an Inquisitor felt, and a shiver had run down Cal's spine. Greez had already punched in escape coordinates. But then his scanners had picked up a small shuttle, escorted by several TIE fighters, leaving the destroyer's hangar and heading towards the surface. Gradually it had become clear that the Imperials didn't know they were there and weren't interested in them.

At that point, Cal had been ignoring the giant battleship completely, his eyes focused on the course of the quickly receding shuttle. Beside him, Cere had gone stiff with tension. From the look she gave him, it was clear that they were thinking the same thing. His Force vision couldn't have been a coincidence, and there was only one reason an Inquisitor would come to this world.

They had managed to get to the child before the Inquisitor did, but only just. Under usage of Greez' false codes and invaluable ability to tap into the Imperial's communications, they had reached the workers' quarters of the capital city just in time to see a group of Stormtroopers dragging a small family out of their house – and their young son, who couldn't have been more than eight years old, lifting and throwing three grown soldiers into a wall without touching them.

Cere had been in the middle of it before anyone could so much as blink. She had cut down the closest Stormtroopers even as they took aim at the boy. Then she had deflected the remaining troopers' blaster shots, followed by the red blade of the Inquisitor who had jumped down from his shuttle in an attempt to catch her unawares. It was a big brute of a creature; none that Cal had seen before. He'd looked surprised to encounter a Jedi instead of a defenceless child, but that hadn't stopped him from going for the kill regardless. While he was distracted by Cere, Merrin had darted in to scoop up the child who hadn't moved an inch away from the deadly lightsaber duel, looking on in shocked fascination.

For his part in the improvised rescue, Cal had focused on dealing with the rest of the Imperial forces and had been doing nothing but since. This was an Imperial homeworld and he was starting to see why Greez had cautioned against coming here. The Stormtroopers here were of a different calibre than those on Bracca, and there was a seemingly inexhaustible supply of them. Him and Cere had been forced into retreat.

Now they found themselves trapped in a dead end street, with high stone houses to either side and more and more Imperials pouring in. The Inquisitor had broken off pursuit a good while before then, but Cal was not naïve enough to think that meant he had given up completely. He had probably shadowed their retreat here and was just waiting for an opportunity to strike.

Cal was about to give him one.

"Merrin," he called, raising his voice to be heard over the blaster fire hammering against his speeder, "can you get the child out of here without them seeing you?"

His friend threw him an apprehensive look. "I can, yes. You can't." she stated.

"Do it. Get him back to the Mantis!" He didn't wait for her to protest but turned to Cere and pointed at the building behind her. "We have to split up. Can you get up there and distract them?"

The older Jedi looked at him and in a split second they communicated the plan. Cere looked uncertain for a moment, but she nodded in confirmation. Merrin gave him one last unreadable look. Then she murmured words in her strange tongue and suddenly both she and the scared little child in her arms were gone. Next to him Cere readied herself and, after taking a deep breath, Cal jumped back out from his cover, lightsaber raised. Instantly, twelve blasters were trained on him and firing. He tapped deep into the Force, not even trying to anticipate the bolts but moving instinctively, sending them flying wide.

He didn't see Cere dash across the street, but when he managed to get a quick look she had already made it half-way up the façade of the building. As the first troopers finally noticed her, she was already vaulting over the rooftop and vanished out of sight. A small smile flitted across Cal's lips. Now, who are you going to go for…?

He felt a warning in the Force, saw a shadow fall over him and dived back behind the speeder. The red blade pierced the ground where he had stood a heartbeat ago and the Inquisitor growled, wrenching it free with apparent anger.

His glare fixed on Cal. "You're just delaying, Jedi!" he snarled. "You know you'll die here; it's just a matter of how painful it is going to be."

"For you or for me?" Cal threw back, raising his lightsaber.

The Inquisitor didn't dignify that with a response, but marched straight towards him. Cal could make out pale skin and lidless, almost reptile-like eyes behind the red visor. He could see how those eyes narrowed in hatred and concentration, and then they were exchanging blows. Once again, Cal let instinct take over, relying on the Force to direct the flow of the fight. The Stormtroopers had stopped firing, apparently anxious to hit their commander, which was what Cal had been hoping for.

The Inquisitor struck, re-positioned his lightsaber and struck again, never stopping in his forward momentum. He activated the second blade and sent it spinning to further drive Cal back. Cal only responded. Strike; deflect; parry; a rhythm occasionally interrupted by having to jump out of reach of the spinning red blade. Soon, his arms were starting to ache. The Inquisitor's technique was nowhere near as refined or graceful as Trilla's, but he made up for that with ferocity, putting his entire body into every strike. It was wearing down Cal's stamina quickly.

If he timed it right, he might have been able to deny the clash of lightsabers and make his opponent stumble, using his own momentum against him. But whether he succeeded or not, that would have meant a quick end to the fight, and he needed this to last a little bit longer. At least until Merrin and the child had gotten safely to the ship. By now he'd been pushed back almost to the end of the street. Behind him loomed a terrace front, far too high to jump over. The cordon of Stormtroopers had steadily followed behind them, cutting off that escape route even if he could stall the Inquisitor for long enough. A particularly strong strike from him made Cal stumble backwards, his back hitting the bricks of the building.

The Inquisitor lowered his blade. His visor slid up, fully revealing his satisfied expression. Cal could only guess that it was something about letting his victim see his face before he killed him. The pale lips twisted in the mockery of a smile. "Nowhere to run to now. Are you ready to die, Jedi?"

"No." Cal responded truthfully. He and the other both knew that he wouldn't get out of this. Not alone. The Inquisitor had to sense that he had no plan, and he assumed that meant he had won. The thought that Cal was completely trusting in his friends now had to be incomprehensible to him.

The red blade flashed. The Force told Cal what to do. He threw his arms out, pushing the off-balance Inquisitor back a couple of meters. Then, as blaster bolts started closing in on him, he jumped up the building, as high as he could. He knew full well that he wouldn't make it. He waited for his momentum to drop and the Inquisitor's saber to slice him in two.

Instead, he kept rising weightlessly past the third floor, and then another, and another. Below, he got a brief glimpse of the Stormtroopers surprise as they tried to keep pace with his unexpected movement. Then he reached the rooftop and Cere's hand shot out to grab his, pulling him up. He drew his feet in just before laser bolts chipped pieces out of the pantiles. Cere pulled him to his feet and gave him a quick once over. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Cal replied, a little shaky. From the street, the furious scream of the Inquisitor drifted up to them. "Thanks."

"Let's move." Cere ordered, always quick to get to the point.

They didn't stay on the rooftops for long, jumping down into the city's winding alleyways as soon as they were certain they were no longer in sight. Byss' capital city was a maze, but somehow they found their way through without losing too much time. With a touch of optimism, Cal thought that their meandering escape route must have further confused their enemies, because when they got to the space port there was no battalion of Stormtroopers waiting to greet them.

The hangar were the Mantis was parked was likewise unguarded and the ship's engines were already running. As soon as Cal and Cere were inside, the ramp closed and the ship took off. Instantly, BD-1 jumped off the holo-table and onto his shoulder, complaining in an accusing series of beeps that he'd been left behind. For once, Cal chose to ignore the little droid for the moment as he focused on the front window. What little he could see of the space port through it was rapidly receding, with Greez pulling off one of his trademark quick getaways.

Looks like we made it. Cal barely had any time to hold that thought before Merrin appeared at a run from the rear of the ship. Her hair strand had come lose again, Cal noted in the second before her look zeroed in on him like a heat-seeking missile. He was taken aback by the fury in her eyes. "What took you so long?!" she demanded, her tone matching her look.

Cal threw his hands up defensively, suddenly fearing for his life. Where had that come from? "Well…"

"Everyone strap in; it's gonna be a rough exit!" Greez called from the cockpit. "We've got TIEs on our tail."

A jolt went through the ship as he finished that sentence and the next second the Mantis made an abrupt jump forward. Cal gripped the holo table for purchase. His eyes found Merrin's. "Where's the boy? Did you make it here alright?"

Some of the fury seemed to abate. She gave a strained smile. "Did you doubt it? Don't worry; of course we did. He's back there."

She gestured toward the rear end of the ship. Cal turned around and spied a small face with wide, star-specked eyes peeking over the rim of the crafting table – and behind it there were three more faces, looking at him fearfully.

Surprised, he turned back towards Merrin. His friend shrugged and he could almost have sworn she blushed a little. "The boy kept crying for his family," she explained, "and when he said that I thought – well, that he had the right idea. If I'd left them, they'd have been that beast's first target."

"So you saved them." Cal said in wonder.

She met his gaze almost defiantly, jutting her chin out. "Does that surprise you?"

Another jolt went through the ship and Cal saw through the cockpit that they had made the jump to light speed. Greez had done it. He turned back to Merrin "Not at all." he told her honestly. "I should have thought of that. I was just surprised you managed to do that in that short time."

"It was a bit close."

And yet still she'd risked it. Cal was overcome with a rush of affection for his friend. He wanted to hug her. Given her furious reception earlier, though, he doubted she would allow him to. "Good thing you've got things under control." he settled on saying.

"Someone has to around here." she said, a hint of levity entering her voice. With a smile, she nudged his side. "You can't always be the only one saving people around here, Jedi." she teased. Then she frowned. "What?"

Cal became aware that he was staring at her a little bit. He quickly straightened up, not knowing what had come over him there. "Nothing. Just – good job. All of us, I mean. That was good."

"Hm. Yes, it was." Merrin agreed, throwing him another one of those unreadable looks that she was so good at. Cal really, really wished he could read those.

From his shoulder, BD-1 gave a series of meaningful beeps.

Merrin glanced up at the droid curiously. "What did he say?"

"Nothing." Cal supplied quickly. There were times when he was very glad she couldn't understand BD-1. But they also made him question whose side the droid was really on.

Thankfully, Cere returned from the cockpit in that moment. "Looks like we're in the clear." she informed them. Cal thought he detected a hint of pride as she looked at the two of them. "Well done, both of you."

Greez, following right behind her, begged do disagree. "Yeah, me and the droid don't get praise; I understand. Does anybody want to fill me in one what was going on down there?" He looked past the four of them at the family that was still huddled together in the back of the ship. "And who's this we've picked up?"