Note: Sorry this took so long for me to post compared to the other site. That's mostly a matter of me just forgetting. And well, this isn't the final chapter I promised. This is based on a scene that was supposed to fit into Complicit, but couldn't. And then I ended up making it more complicated than it was going to be originally. Well, Wen got her development and backstory, so here's Tal's. And my headcanons about the Chiss post-TLJ.

Two weeks after the death of Supreme Leader Snoke- First Order Orbital Command Base Delta- Zenalkar's Orbit

"I fold," Casper said, placing his Sabacc hand face down.

His opponent, a stormtrooper nicknamed Red, nodded and started to gather the cards. Red wasn't wearing a helmet or armor. No one really bothered anymore. The unusual thing was that he was a Twi'lek (red-skinned, hence the name). Just like most of the stormtroopers of the First Order, he had been recruited as an infant. His lekku had been cut off in an allegedly harmless and painless operation to allow him to wear a helmet. Casper had found records of other near-humans in similar situations. But with the anti-alien policies of the First Order, those beings had even less of a chance of making officer than their human counterparts.

"See you around Cas," Red said after he finished, slipping the battered deck into his utility belt, the only piece of armor he wore over his body glove.

"Yeah, see you," Casper said as he got up from his place on the floor and went to stand by one of the viewports, looking out over the stars of the Unknown Regions.

Ever since the destruction of the Supremacy, and so much of the First Order's fleet, it had been hard. A handful of ground troops had followed the Resistance down to the planet. And somehow they had escaped. Rumors circulated about Luke Skywalker's presence or lack thereof. And of course, his alleged death.

But for Casper, and the beings of that engineering room, it had taken 24 hours for a small cruiser to show up and for all the personnel to board. They'd been taken to a system locally called Zenalkar, one of the few planetary holdings of the First Order in the Unknown Regions. This one had doomium that the natives didn't even realize the importance of.

But the station wasn't designed to hold so many. Even now, there were rumors about sending the troops planetside and billeting them with the workers, but nothing had come through. So they'd made do. No commands had come down, and there weren't enough spare rooms for the surviving displaced members of the fleet anywhere. There had been enough order to keep power and food properly rationed, but that was all. The large connecting room for civilian hangars had been turned into a makeshift camp. Spare bedding was spread out, and beings sat in groups, trying to find some way to pass the time.

And Red wasn't the only person only in a body-glove. Casper was too. It hadn't been washed in weeks and had become crinkly with his own dried sweat. And pretty much no stormtrooper walked around fully kitted out. There were even officers around only in their underclothes, having turned their jackets into bedding.

There was one confirmed piece of news that reached everyone on the station. That Supreme Leader Snoke had died, killed at the hands of a Resistance Jedi assassin who'd come under the guise of discussing surrender.

At the hands of Rae.

Casper didn't know, or even care if it was true. He still loved her. But she was public enemy number one, possibly even more sought after than General Organa herself. She'd escaped after disabling Ren. Who was now the Supreme Leader? Phasma was also dead, and she definitely wasn't coming back this time.

But Casper did know one thing. He wouldn't be complicit anymore. When he got the chance, he'd run. He'd seek out the Resistance. He'd give them anything they wanted, so long as they let him tell Rae the truth. To reunite with her. It not like he had any friends in the First Order left to betray.

Well, there was still Tal.

And as if the thought had summoned it, a Chiss ship dropped out of hyperspace and began to dock at the station.

Tal looked out the viewport, past the space station, to the planet it orbited. Decades of strip-mining by the First Order had turned what Chiss databanks recorded as a tropical jungle planet into a dark gray mass. But that wasn't their destination. The Ozyly-esehembo signaled for the manual helmsman to bring them in, and she left her station to rest after such a long journey.

"Mertalar," Aristocra Nresh'kabat'arquen said in Cheunh, not turning to address him. "What position does this station hold within the First Order? "

"Aristorca, if I may- " Diplomat Vanto said, before Tal could respond. He was an elderly human, and Thrawn's former aide. He'd been sent to the Ascendency years before the Chimera, and was the official Chiss liaison to the First Order. While Tal had been quickly promoted after the destruction of Starkiller base to be the First Order diplomat and translator and with Vanto representing Ascendancy interests, and being a human, albeit one who had lived on Csilla for decades and Tal being a half-Chiss who hadn't seen the Ascendancy since he was a teenager, and representing the First Order, as one would expect, a rivalry had sprung up.

"You may not," Sh'kabatar snapped, " I want to hear from Mertalar. He actually has experience with the First Order, and yes, I do trust him not to blatantly lie. "

"The original intent of this meeting was to be at this location, Aristorca," Tal began, "simply because of its proximity to the Ascendancy. However, it was supposed to be conducted on the Supremacy, our fleet's flagship. But as you know, the Supremacy was destroyed in a battle against the Resistance, along with a majority of our capital ships. Our surviving ships are needed for the war effort. This space station is an administrative hub, one of little value. It was chosen because of its convenience and our inability to offer you anything more deserving of your station without sacrificing our own security. "

"As you can see," Vanto cut in, " The First Order is coming from a place of weakness ."

"Which was caused by a fluke victory," Tal rebuked, "The Resistance is more on the run than we are. They only have one smuggling ship and can fit of all their members within it ."

"Not for long," Vanto replied, this time in Basic.

"Both of you, silence," The Aristorca ordered, "I simply asked for information, not for you to do all the negotiating for me. "

The arrival of the Chiss ship had sparked organized panic in the hangar. A commander, the highest ranking officer in the room had ordered everything pushed against the wall, but unless you had your full kit on hand, you didn't have to put it on. Everyone had lined up at parade rest, and just in time, for the governor of the system and station to arrive with his entourage.

And then the Chiss ship had disembarked. The Chiss woman in the front, who didn't wear an Expansionary Defense Force uniform, seemed to be the leader. The cape and golden epaulets also helped. She was followed by a squad of EDF soldiers in their green uniforms. There was a human on her right, also in an EDF uniform. But it was the being in the First Order uniform on her left that really caught Casper's attention.

It was Tal.

Casper! Keeping pace with the Chiss group, Tal watched Casper, at parade-rest, in only a body glove, stand among the lines of displaced beings. He was alive! And through Cas, Tal could find Wen and Quay. He might have been assigned a new duty now, but he could at least have closure.

But Tal forced all thoughts of Casper out of his head, when the governor of the station came out to meet Sh'kabatar, with his own stormtrooper escort. He switched over to standing by the governor's side, and translated all of the Aristorca's responses into Basic, while Vanto translated the governor's statements into Cheunh.

And it didn't go too well. Tal could tell that the governor had no idea how much he could promise the Chiss delegation, but at least he'd read his primer on the Ascendancy's house system. The meeting devolved into promises of good-will from both sides, with the governor promising a proper meeting with the new Supreme Leader and navigational data as a gift. It was clear, to anyone raised around Chiss, that Sh'kabatar felt offended by her treatment, but seemed to understand it was the best the First Order could offer. It reflected worse on their abilities, than their opinion of House Arquen and their possible Chiss allies.

And try as he might, Tal couldn't find a time to inform the First Order of the fact that the Ascendancy was on the brink of a civil war between the houses, without Vanto being able to hear. Arquen was part of the faction that supported allying with the First Order directly, ensuring the expansion of the Ascendancy in the process. The houses that historically opposed the neutrality mandate made up most of the faction. But even if they were a minority, those who didn't support the First Order had differences of their own, making those calling for war the largest. A handful of minor houses supported the Resistance, but they were so small, and had no military of their own, that all that meant was no house could find allies in them. The neutrality faction, the largest and most powerful, was falling apart between the true neutrals, and those who wanted to make a treaty with the First Order to ensure their independence.

In the end, nothing of true value was agreed upon in the course of the meeting, other than the date when Sh'kabatar and the other Aristorcas seeking an alliance would meet with the Supreme Leader.

Casper was grateful, for when the Chiss party was going to return to their ship, Tal said something to his Chiss boss and then broke off and ran over to Casper.

"Cas, you're alive," Tal said, leading his friend over to a place by the viewports where they could sit down, "I heard about what happened and-"

"Don't worry Tal," Casper replied, surprised at the actual warmth he felt seeing the half-Chiss alive.

"And Wen?"

The warmth dissipated suddenly, as Casper was reminded, again, of what happened that day.

Tal understood his silence, and the joy evaporated from his face.

"Quay too," Casper confirmed, without having to be asked.

Tal looked away and balled his fists. It looked like he was trying not to cry. "Kriff...kriff...not again…" were the only words Casper could make out.

"Tal, what do you mean? You're acting like this happened before."

Tal looked back at Casper, his fist brushing away invisible tears. "Not to me, no. But to my dad. There are rules to war. And those damn Jedi don't follow them."

Casper didn't quite understand. Tal had mentioned his dad and his imperial service in passing, but no specifics. Casper did know about Luke Skywalker, and rumors of some Jedi rebels in the early days, but no specifics. But Casper did know that "those damn Jedi " included Rae, forcing him to stifle sparks of anger.

Tal took a deep breath, "Oh, I've never told you about what happened with my dad."

"No sir," Casper said, adding the last part out of habit.

"My dad was in the Empire. He served under Grand Admiral Thrawn on his flagship, the Chimera. There was this last battle, to put down the rebellion on Lothal. You know about Lothal, right?"

"Enough." The rumors of a planet able to successfully and fully free itself after years under Imperial rule, before the Civil War even started had managed to get as far as Vardos.

"Well, this was the last battle. There was no reason the rebels should have won. There were only like five or ten of them. Less than even Yavin. But they had a Jedi. It was just some kid, he wasn't even older than the Empire. We had them dead-to-rights, so the kid surrendered. And this is where it gets weird. The surrender was false, the same dirty trick another Jedi used at the start of the Clone Wars. He took control of the bridge single-handedly, and then summoned purgil. He used his magic to control them. They plowed into all the ships except for the Chimera, which they disabled and pulled into hyperspace with them."

Casper could see the similarities to the Jedi from Lothal and Rae's tactics. The official story was that a Jedi entered the throne room under the pretense of surrendering, only to assassinate Snoke. But Casper couldn't quite believe that the Jedi summoned and commanded purgils. It sounded like it was the same class of rumors that Jakku was once a verdant forest planet, or that a Sith Lord once ruled both Mandalore and most of the crime syndicates at the end of the Clone Wars.

"You sure that's what happened?"

"Well maybe not the specifics, but my dad somehow ended up in Chiss space in 18AFE."

"Anyway," Tal continued, "on old Empire era navicomputer, the Chimera popped out above Csilla. If it wasn't for the purgils, I'm sure the Defense Force would have shot it down. They let the ship land and Thrawn told everyone over the com to take their personal effects, leave their weapons, and disembark. The way my dad told it, it had been days, there weren't any rations left. No one cared. No one told the Chiss what was happening, and the ship soon left. A bunch of humans who only knew Basic were left behind. If it wasn't for Vanto, some aide Thrawn had sent to the Ascendancy a few years back, the transition would have been even harder."

"Wow.." Casper didn't know what else to say. It hadn't happened to Tal, but with the way he told it, you could believe it did. And presuming Tal had been taught about the Jedi by his dad, grew up on the same stories Casper did, of course, he would hate those duplicitous bastards. Even with Casper's apathy towards First Order doctrine, without knowing it was his daughter who slew Snoke (and therefore had a good reason to), Casper might hate them too.

"Yeah. It just feels like everything is going around again. Same thing with Starkiller base, although any good tactician would have realized the flaws of the Death Star after the first one at a minimum. We got one Jedi ruining things, and the rebels pull out a hyperspace trick that by all rights shouldn't work, and everything goes down the drain."

"Wait, hyperspace tricks?" Casper was confused. He was able to put together that it had something to do with the Supremacy being impossibly sheared in half, and most of the fleet being damaged, but he didn't know what hyperspace had to do with it.

"Oh, they haven't told you yet?" Tal thought for a moment, probably about if it was above Casper's clearance to know, "Well I only got told because the Aristorica and the Admirals wanted to know what happened to our fleet, and if the Resistance could do it again. Anyway, the Resistance Mon Calamari Cruiser tried to jump, either right before the Supremacy, or with the jump point inside the ship, and then the Supremacy got sheared, and everyone else felt the shock waves. The weird thing is, that shouldn't have happened. The simulations and experiments for hyperspace missiles are old. And they all say, nothing that bad should have happened. With a ship that size, the Supremacy could have been damaged, maybe disabled, but nothing worse. There is a theory why, it's above your clearance, and that doesn't account for the shock wave. But it's not going to happen again, at a minimum because we know not to ignore what looks like a distraction."

"Oh." Casper expected that an answer like that would have brought him closure, but nothing happened.

The two of them sat in uncomfortable silence for a few moments, until Casper tried to make conversation again.

"So what is your new assignment? I understand if you can't say."

"Oh, I got pulled to be a diplomat with the Chiss. There was a Human who knew Cheunh, another Chimera crew member, who was on Starkiller. They thought the Chiss might trust me more, since I grew up in the Ascendancy and am half-Chiss, but they don't, not that command will listen. Sorry, I left without telling any- without telling you."

"That's fine."

More silence.

"Oh hey," Casper said, fishing for a topic of conversation and hoping wasn't too personal. "Why did you join the First Order?"

"It was my dad's idea. He wanted to join up as soon as the First Order appeared. He was always an Imperial at heart. My mom hated the idea. She managed to convince him to stay until I was eighteen, then I could choose where to go. Dad agreed, but only because she thought she might change her mind over time. It was a pretty ugly divorce, I ended up hating her. I went with him, only cause I thought the First Order might actually welcome me. The Chiss never did. It seemed like they treated the chimeras- they called us that, both because of the ship one of our parents came in on, and because of the whole different species slapped together thing- worse than the humans. We threw off their precious house and hierarchy system. I'm pretty human passing, so I thought the First Order would welcome me. Nope, neither side trusts me, and now I have to be a translator for both. And Vanto has this weird grudge I can't quite figure out." Tal slipped into cynical anger towards the end.

Casper had seized on Tal's dissatisfaction. He'd been holding onto the idea of- well if not defection, at least escape. And if Tal also wanted to leave, Casper could use the man's tactical skill. But he'd have to be careful. Before everything had gone sideways, before Casper actually cared about something, or knew about Tal's past, Tal would have turned him in for sedition. But now he didn't know. Tal would never turn to the Resistance, but leaving the First Order would probably be the hardest part.

"If no one trusts you, why do you stay? I mean, I'm sure the Chiss wouldn't take you back, but even with a war brewing, there should still be somewhere to hide."

Tal turned and stared Casper down. Even with the conversation already being so serious, it seemed like Casper had crossed some line into a new level seriousness. Instantly, anxiety bubbled and Casper regretted saying that, and wished for a do-over.

"I've made vows, Cas," Tal's voice had dropped to a deeper tone and his eyes almost seemed to be glowing, "I would never betray those vows. Allegiance is the most important thing. I'd be no better than the Jedi. I've worked to earn their trust, I have to prove them wrong."

Casper was relieved that none of Tal's anger went into questioning where his own loyalties lay, but that was pretty creepy. He was disappointed that he now knew that his one remaining friend couldn't be relied on. Even so, he reflexly did the "calm-down" motion with his hands.

Tal shook his head, as if breaking out of a trance. "Sorry about that. I know you meant nothing by that, and those statements were borderline-seditious in the first place. It's just my loyalties have always been questioned."

"No, it was my fault," Casper said. He did believe that, but not for the reasons Tal would assume, "and I suppose you wouldn't want to leave your dad."

"He's been dead for almost a year now," Tal was strangely matter-of-fact about it, especially compared to how he reacted to Wen and Quay's death. Casper supposed Tal had already mourned his father. "It was a skirmish on a mining planet. He was an overseer of a native-pop workcamp. They somehow got to the monitoring station before the enforcers could kill them."

Casper couldn't figure out what to say. He thought about his family, no not Rae nor his family through bonds, but his bio family. His parents and grandparents and little sister he joined the Empire for. How they died in a Republic bombing run on Vardos. He'd missed his sister becoming an adult...no she never became an adult, she died before that. And Riyu. But Tal could still reclaim that, his family divided by parces.

"Did your dad have a family? Back in the galaxy?"

Tal thought for a moment. "No. He was an orphan. On Coruscant, Corellia- one of those worlds. He did have a boyfriend...he got transferred to another seventh fleet ship right before Lothal." Tal didn't need to say more.

"What about your mom?" Casper didn't know why he had become so focused on Tal's family outside the Order. Maybe it was some foolish hope he still had that he could convince Tal to run away with him. "I know you said you hated her, but she's-" Casper almost said blood, but he knew that wasn't important. Blood didn't matter, he'd be a hypocrite if he thought so. It was love and what you did that counted. "She raised you. That has to count for something."

"You know," Tal bit his lip, "I don't hate her anymore. I haven't hated her for years. I just felt like I sided against her. But- she deserves to hate me. I abandoned her..and I said such terrible things."

Casper thought about Rae. She probably hated him. He left her behind on Jakku, in slavery. And then he was complicit in so much. He joined the First Order, while she gave up the scraps she had on Jakku to help the Resistance. Or maybe the Stormtrooper squad he suggested gather the droid destroyed what little she had. She surrendered herself...she was so brave. And Casper was a coward.

But he couldn't remain one. He'd bide his time, sabotage the First Order in little ways as he did. The nebulous goal of defection solidified. He was ready to take risks he never would have considered before. And he'd tell Rae the truth, and accept however she reacted. And he would accept whatever punishment the Resistance had for him.

Casper was so lost in thought he almost didn't hear the Human wearing the Ascendancy uniform clearing his thought. The man's arms were crossed and he was glaring at Tal.

"Mertalar why did you wander off? We're leaving now," the man said in Basic.

Tal hastily stood up and Casper followed his example. But Tal looked more like he was sizing up for a fight instead of being at loose attention in front of a superior officer. Casper decided to be safe and went for the later.

"Casper here is my friend, Vanto," Tal shot back, "I was just catching up. I got the Aristorica's permission. You'll be glad to know I trust you enough not to mess up the Governor telling Mertalar dates for future meetings and clearance codes. Or the gift of stable hyperplane data."

Vanto sighed. Whatever rivalry Tal had with the diplomat, it seemed to be more of an annoyance to the Human. "Ok, ok. The Aristorica wants you back. You aren't in trouble, the Governor just doesn't want you to stay," Vanto finished with something in Chenunuh, clearly not meant to be heard by Casper.

Tal replied in Cheunh, waved Casper goodbye, and followed Vanto towards the docking bay.

But before Tal could get too far, Casper realized he had something else to say. Although if it was for the half-Chiss' benefit or his own, he didn't know. He ran to catch up with his friend and called for him to stop.

Tal and Vanto stopped. Tal took a few steps to meet Casper, while Vanto rolled his eyes.

"What is it?"

"Remember what I said- about your mom. It's not too late. You don't have to act on it….just remember."

AN: Here's the Chenuh dialogue at the end translated:

Eli: You want him to come with you? I'm sure the First Order won't mind giving you an aide, they seem to have plenty of folks to spare.

Tal: No, no, it's fine. I don't need one, and he'd be lost. Let's just head back.

The reason why Eli is so aggressive towards the First Order is that he thinks they're stupid and he wants to protect his adoptive nation from losing the war. Because he has heard Thrawn's rants about how stupid the Death Star is, and then the Empire went and built TWO and then the First Order built another. The plot of Thrawn Treason might also be relevant here. Speaking of Thrawn Treason, if a few throwaway lines become non-canon compliant, I will go back and edit it, but if the entire premise of the chapter falls apart, for whatever reason, then I'll just leave it as is. I hope he's in-character, since I don't really have much to go off of when it comes to a much older Eli and Tal is a bit of an unreliable narrator when it comes to him.

Also Red is part of my headcanon that not all stormtroopers are human, since there are so many disadvantaged non-humans the First Order could easily pick up. Red is the kid of a Twi'lek slave. And finally, the comment about how the hyperspace trick shouldn't have worked so well, what Tal doesn't know, is that (in this headcanon) with Hyperspace and the Force being related, the kyber crystals installed on all the Star Destroyers acted like amplifiers. And of course, there's still the stuff involving the tracker as well, which I put in the notes of the last chapter.