Kiara felt the pull to wake up, but she was still so tired. She could tell that she was being held by someone and when she cracked open her eyes, she saw the image of five Alexes dancing around in her vision. She heard people speaking but it sounded as if it was in the distance. She turned her head but instantly felt as if she were on an ocean during a storm; she closed her eyes so that she wouldn't get sick. She could pick up only a stray word here and there as she struggled to control her stomach. It felt empty while it wanted to rebel at the same time. Kiara steadied her nerves as she attempted to identify words and tried to figure out who was saying what.
Jedi.
Emperor.
Gift.
Execution.
Inquisitor.
How had she gotten here? What was going on? She cracked her eyes open once more and saw Kanan, or several of him, off to the side. There was a man speaking out of her field of vision. It caused panic to course through her veins upon hearing him speak. She knew that voice. She tried to turn to face the voice and felt as Kallus who held her, set her on her feet but kept a tight hold around her waist to support her. When Kiara saw the man who had been speaking, she recognized him. She felt the familiar rush of adrenaline as she spoke in a mere whisper that even Kallus barely heard.
"No. Caleb." Kiara closed her eyes as she was pressed tighter against the warm body supporting her. "He can't know."
Elios Dume was feeling quite pleased with himself. Being able to turn over not just one force user wanted by the Empire but the Jedi as well as an additional rebel was bound to set him apart from his colleagues. Especially since it would show that he was willing to sacrifice everything for the Empire. His Emperor's wishes were all that mattered.
"Sergeant, see to it that these three are put into binders and sedate the Jedi along with my daughter. We can't have them using the force to escape; now can we?" Elios practically spat out the word force.
Kanan heard the Moff refer to Valour as his daughter and his mind was filled with questions. Questions that had little time to fester. The lights all around began to flicker.
It was then that Elios noticed that Kiara was awake. "Sergeant, shoot her!"
The troopers and the three other men in the room were then surprised when every blaster in the room was ripped out of the hands of the troopers as they spun around. The troopers were held at gunpoint by their own weapons. Even the blaster and lightsaber on the desk were lifted up and pointed toward the Moff.
"No." Kiara could barely stand but she wasn't going to let the man who had once been her father harm the men who were with her. She turned the lightsaber on with a thought and it drifted closer toward the man seated in the chair behind the desk.
Kallus cast a glance all around him and saw where the Imperials were all being held by the weapons pointed directly at them. "Kiara, no. You have to stop this."
"Is it any wonder that had her sedated?" Elios shouted. "Not even the Jedi wanted her. They took my son and left me with... that."
"Shut up!" Kallus shouted back. "In case you haven't figured it out, I'm trying to save your life. The least you can do is be silent."
Kanan took a breath. The Loth-wolves had used Kiara to keep him alive. Had repeatedly said Dume together. Now with Moff Dume, he was her father. But he had a son. He turned and placed a hand on Kiara's shoulder where she was still being largely supported by Kallus.
"Kiara, don't. Don't do something that you'll regret."
"Who said I'll regret it?" Kiara's voice was distant and tired.
"I know enough about you to know that you've worked hard for years to try to help people. And I also know that if you use the force to do this, you'll not like what you'd become."
Kallus added with a soft plea with a word, "Kiara."
The room fell deathly silent as not just the two rebels but also the Imperials waited to see what the woman would do next. The answer came in the form of the lightsaber being deactivated and returned to the Jedi's grasp as the blasters all around switched from kill to stun. Elios realized what was about to happen and reached for his comm on his desk but never was able to signal for help before the entire room was stunned minus the men who had come to save Kiara. With the release of the weapons and their clatter to the deck plates, she fell back into a slumber from the exertion. Kallus was quick to lift her back into his arms as she went limp as he took in the sight of the room full of Imperials who were all stunned.
"We should get going before they begin to come around."
Kanan nodded as he motioned for Kallus to give Kiara over to him. "I'll take her. With the force, it will be easier for me."
Kallus only paused for a moment before he shifted her over to him. He then picked up his blaster from where it had fallen after Kiara had released it and led the way back out of the office. As they raced down the corridors both men were surprised when the blast doors closed as they passed through them.
"Chopper, is that you?" Kallus called into his comm unit. When the droid confirmed he couldn't help asking, "What took you so long? You could have done that when we left the detention area!"
Chopper warbled out an excuse, but Kallus didn't bother listening.
He cut the astromech off. "Contact the ship and tell them to get ready. We're nearly to the hanger now."
When the call for a pickup came through Zeb headed down to the loading ramp and as soon as the Shadow Chaser was inside the TIE Fighter's hanger, he lowered the ramp and began to fire his bow rifle to give cover fire as the others entered into the hanger and then picked their way toward the ship. He was a bit surprised that it was Kanan who was carrying what appeared to be an unconscious Valour. He sort of thought that Kallus wouldn't be letting her out of arm's reach for a while. Meanwhile, the blond man was firing off several shots as he and Kanan joined Zeb on the loading ramp.
"Tac! Raise the ramp! Now!"
With the ramp raised Kallus raced toward the cockpit in preparation to fight to fly out of the sector, and fast. Zeb took the turret cannon. That left Kanan to watch over Kiara. Kanan strapped the unconscious woman into a flight chair and strapped in next to her. He sensed the fight going on outside the ship as they fought their way to the hyperspace lane. It helped that the only Imperial ships that found them to fight were those who had a visual of them thanks to the digital cloak.
When the ship lurched to indicate that the Shadow Chaser had made the jump to hyperspace Kanan wasn't surprised to soon find Kallus returning to where he and Kiara were. When Kallus knelt to check on Kiara Kanan spoke up.
"Did you know?"
Kallus looked back up at the Jedi and released his breath. "Only since Lothal. She told me before she headed back to the complex for the evacuation. But she made me promise not to say anything."
Kanan furled his brow. "Why wouldn't she want me to know?"
"I don't know." Kallus shook his head as he lifted Kiara back up so he could take her to rest in her cabin. "You'll have to ask her."
Kanan shadowed Kallus as he led the way toward the woman's cabin. "What about that display of power in there?"
Kallus pulled back as he set Kiara on her bunk and then stood up to lean against the side of it. "No. All I've seen in the past is a street light malfunctioning. She said that she tends to cause things to break when she's upset."
"What about Moff Dume? How much do you know about him?"
Kallus thought back to what he'd known about the various Moffs. "Not much. I never served under him directly. I heard that he's willing to do just about anything to excel."
"Obviously, if he was willing to turn his own daughter over to an Inquisitor." Kanan wondered what could turn a father against his own child. As a man who was expecting his first child, he couldn't imagine handing over his own flesh and blood to the likes of the Inquisitors.
Kiara began to wake up and was confused. She glanced around and noticed that she was in her own cabin on the Shadow Chaser. She sat up and instantly fell back down to the bunk as she was overtaken by a wave of dizziness. She waited for it to pass before she sat up again, but this time much slower. She wondered how she ended up on the ship when the last thing that she could remember was when she'd been on Trilex. She'd been called into the minister's office and then...
She closed her eyes as she remembered seeing her father. Remembered seeing him raising his blaster. Remembered him firing on her.
But that didn't explain why she was on her ship now. Kiara climbed to her feet and swayed slightly as she held onto the side of the bunk as she waited for the room to stop spinning. She had to get to the refresher. Fortunately, her cabin was the one closest to it. When she first got her ship, she never considered having anyone else on it with her and she had been all about simplifying her day. Her quarters were the closest to the refresher which was also on the way back up to the cockpit.
When Kiara finished, she stepped out of the refresher and was taken by surprise to see Tac hovering just outside of it.
"Mistress Kiara!" Tac floated around the woman rapidly, causing her to have to close her eyes as she felt a fresh wave of dizziness as a result. "I'm so pleased to see you well and back on your feet."
"Tac," Kiara leaned against the closed door as she steadied herself.
"Yes, Mistress?"
"Stay still."
Tac paused in mid-air and tilted his head. "Of course."
Kiara carefully started back down the corridor toward her cabin before she addressed her droid. "What happened? Why am I here?"
Tac, remaining where he'd been told to stay still at, responded, "You activated your bio-chip for an extraction. Master Kallus and his friends, Kanan Jarrus and Garazeb Orrelios, assisted in your removal from an Imperial Star Destroyer."
"Where are they?" Kiara asked as she stopped at the doorway of her cabin.
"They are all in the common area. I was asked to check on you when you went to the refresher since none of them felt that you would want any of them to join you in there." Tac then tilted his head to the other side. "Were they wrong?"
"No." Kiara shook her head but regretted it as the motion triggered a wave of nausea. "They weren't wrong."
"Is there something that you require?"
"Maybe later." Kiara then went back into her cabin and fell back down onto her lower bunk. Several moments later she heard a chime to indicate that someone was at her door. "What?"
On the other side of the door Alex's voice could be heard, "Can I come in?"
"Why the hell not?" Kiara muttered while she kept her eyes closed as she continued her losing battle against the dizziness that still made the room spin around her. When the door slid open, she heard Alex's boots click on the deck plates. He sat on the edge of her bunk, and she could tell that he was looking down at her. "Please tell me that I was at one hell of a party and that's why I feel like I have the galaxy's ultimate hangover."
"I'm afraid not. You were given some pretty powerful sedatives. I was beginning to wonder if you'd wake back up before we got back to Rebel Command. We've even finished the supply run that we were originally on while you were out."
"Great," Kiara opened her eyes and saw the concern in Alex's. On the small table that she had near her bunk she saw a tray that appeared to have a soup bowl with a cover over it. She realized that she'd not eaten in quite some time, but she didn't want to even risk trying to eat just yet. He must have realized that since it was off to the side and looked nearly forgotten. "So, what happened?"
"What's the last thing that you can recall?"
"I was called into the minister's office and..." Kiara breathed out a sigh, "My father was there. He shot me."
Kallus nodded. So, she didn't remember the actual escape. "You must have activated your bio-chip before he did. It took us a full rotation cycle to get to you, though. They were giving you an injection of sedatives every two hours, which means that you had quite a bit in your system when we got you out of there."
"Great. So, anything interesting happen?"
"You could say that," Alex paused as he saw that Kiara was trying to sit up, so he helped her before he continued. "For one thing, I thought you only caused things to break when you use your force abilities."
Kiara shrugged, "It's what happens when I lose control over them," she paused before asking, "Why? What did I do?"
"You turned the troopers' blasters against them, and against the Moff." Kallus could see that Kiara was trying to remember the events of the rescue, but she had no memory of the event. "And there is one more thing. Kanan knows."
"How?"
"The Moff was planning to turn both of you over to the Inquisitors. I think that's what triggered your ability to focus enough and use your powers. I heard you say that he couldn't know about Caleb. He spouted some things that he shouldn't, but among them, he mentioned that he had a son that the Jedi took while they left-"
"Me."
Kallus nodded. "From there, it was a simple matter. He does want to speak to you, but he'll wait."
"That's going to be a fun conversation," Kiara muttered as she tilted her head back and closed her eyes again.
She put her hand down at her side and used all of her will to calm her system. After a moment she felt Alex's warm hand wrap around hers. She turned her hand over and grasped his hand back and held it as she listened to the sound of the ship's engines beneath the deck plates. The two then sat there for several moments in silence.
