As tortured as the silence was in the Shadow Nova's cockpit as they traveled through hyperspace for hours, Mand surprisingly wasn't the first to speak since they'd left.
"You had better find something else to stare at, Kil."
Her retort had already escaped her lips before she could stop herself. "Or you'll throw me out the airlock?"
Her antagonistic reference to his earlier threat elicited little to no response from him, indicating to her his ongoing foul mood, or worse, his declining physical condition. He hardly moved in his seat, even seeming to breathe as little as possible, and it worried her. She hadn't intended to fixate on him as she had, as he had apparently noticed though his own gaze was locked out the viewport in front of them, but she remained so perplexed, so curious about the sequence of events had brought them together again. It had been almost eight years since they'd last seen each other, and so much had changed, for both of them, since then...
"...why didn't you tell us about Jewel, Horatio?"
His voice was flat. "Because I didn't want to."
She had expected as much. As private as he had been about his family and anything else important to him, he wasn't the type to have made public announcements about those he kept closest to himself. But the exclusion still hurt Mand; she had long considered Wil part of her family, and despite their rough past and after what he had done for Cordira, she had welcomed Horatio, as well. He hadn't been as eager to accept her invitation, though, and apparently he still struggled to let his guard down and trust others.
"I didn't tell anyone about her," he continued unexpectedly after a few moments, still looking out the viewport. "The fewer people who knew about her, the better. At least...so I thought..."
"You know we would have offered her protection in a heartbeat."
He finally turned to meet her gaze. "The same protection you offered Wil?"
As unfair as his accusation was, she remained silent. Wil was a Rys'tihn Royal by his mother, and since his arrival on Paneau at the age of two, he had been under the constant vigil of an ever-watchful covert guard. He had slyly subverted that guard for the second time on his journey to Dantooine, and it had, like the first, very nearly gotten him killed. She could appreciate his distrust.
A second time, though, he surprised her with his willingness to continue. "I promised her," he managed weakly, his voice trembling as he looked away from her. "I told her I wouldn't let anything happen to her."
Mand released a slow breath, readying herself to share her own struggle she had told only a handful of her closest friends. "That's one of the easiest promises to make, but it's also the most difficult one to keep. Even me, with my 'Force crutch,' as you call it... I knew couldn't bring myself to say it to Cordira, no matter how desperately I wanted to, because I knew there was no way I could follow through on it.
"They tried to take her away from me, before she was even born. I realized very quickly, before I'd even seen her face, or held her hand, that I would have to fight for her for her entire life. And so I have.
"And I've made mistakes. Hundreds of them. She nearly paid for those mistakes with her life. And so did I. But she's been right there with me, fighting as best she knows how... And if Jewel is anything like you, I know she's going to be fighting, too.
"So you do the best you can, as long as you can. You surround yourself and your children with friends and people willing to help. The wider your safety net, the faster those friends can come to your aid wherever and whenever you need it. I know you don't want to trust us, but...Horatio, please believe me when I tell you, any of us Natiyrs and Rys'tihns will always do anything we can to help you, Liaa, Wil, or Jewel. Anything."
She studied him intently as he remained motionless beside her, seeming to be carefully considering her words, or maybe even ignoring them entirely. She couldn't quite tell by the blank expression on his face just how he was going to react until he finally spoke, nearly at a whisper.
"It's not you I don't trust."
Though it puzzled her, she couldn't probe further. A proximity alert sounded throughout the cockpit, announcing the end of their jump to Paneau. She righted herself at the controls and pulled the Shadow Nova out of hyperspace, and the planet's familiar blue and green marbled surface filled the viewport. It was just a short dive down through the atmosphere to the peaceful main continent, and within minutes they were beyond the capital city of Dalon and headed towards the Naeron Mountains where the Rys'tihn Retreat was hidden away.
"I still don't understand why we had to come all this way just to talk to him," Horatio grumbled. "This trip has taken so much time we could've spent going elsewhere to look for Jewel."
"There are a number of things the Ghost Heirs won't discuss with us over transmissions of any kind, secured or not," Mand returned, effortlessly settling the ship down in the Retreat's hangar. "A semi-Ghost Heir relative is one of them."
Mand watched as Horatio held his side to stand from his seat, grimacing only slightly as he moved and left the ship ahead of her. He wouldn't allow himself to heal, she knew, so she made a mental note to insist on checking his bandages before they left for their next excursion. He would deny her concern and refuse her aid, as he always had, until he collapsed again; she could only hope to intervene before he reached that critical point.
Though Mand knew that Wil's half-brother Malin was in his early thirties, the Rys'tihn man who approached them in the hangar wore a worried expression that acutely aged him. Horatio noticeably slowed as Malin neared, perhaps afraid of Malin's retaliation for his younger brother's dire state, but Mand quickly commanded his attention, reaching out and pulling him into an embrace.
"Malin," she greeted him warmly as she stepped back from him, gripping him at his shoulders. "Rech hasn't left his side, I promise you."
But Malin wasted little time, already eager to address the reason for their visit. "Aunt Elena said you have a scan of the ship?"
Mand nodded, pulling the projector out of her jacket pocket to display it for him. He scoured over every line of the holo, watching as it slowly spun in the air above Mand's hand, but his shoulders sagged visibly as his expression fell to match. He shook his head needlessly, looking to both of them after a moment. "Neither of you know it?"
"No, we don't," Mand sighed. "Malin, did Wil tell you anything about someone he thought might be after Jewel or any of the Sheridans recently? I think that he had to know something before he left for Dantooine, something that made him call for help. He had to have had some kind of idea of what was about to happen."
Malin only looked more reticent. "He never told me anything. I didn't even know he'd left Paneau until I got the relay alert the covert agents sent me in response to his distress call. They converged on his location, and I couldn't give them any intel. I was as blind as they were."
"Do you have access to any of his research or data logs?"
Again Malin shook his head. "He's practically his own covert agent now, only he doesn't report to anyone. He has complete autonomy and anonymity on our networks if he chooses."
Frustrated with the lack of anything helpful so far, Mand stole a brief glance at Horatio before continuing, somehow keeping the exasperation out of her voice. "Is there anything you can think of that might point us in the right direction? Something he might have mentioned off hand, something odd that got his attention, anything that may seem out of the ordinary to you?"
"The only thing I know he was involved in recently," he paused, turning to Horatio, "...was looking into a relative of yours, Mr. Sheridan."
Horatio's gaze sharpened as he focused on Malin, engaged in the conversation for the first time since they'd arrived. He seemed reluctant to speak. "...a relative of mine?"
Malin nodded. "I wasn't able to get out of him who it was, and I haven't had time to investigate on my own. He kept it to himself."
The sudden dark tone in Horatio's voice was jarring. "I grew up an orphan on Coruscant. My sister is dead. I haven't seen or heard from either of my nephews in more than twe-"
Stopping mid-word, Horatio froze in place, having come to a sudden realization. His face became pale, concerning Mand even more every second he went without taking a new breath. Had his blood pressure bottomed out?
"...Horatio?"
She gripped his arm gently to steady him as he wavered, and her touch immediately brought him back to himself. He glanced between her and Malin for a moment before he elaborated, albeit reluctantly. "Right before Jewel was born...I thought I had come across some information on my nephew Max."
"Soran Redgrave's son," Mand clarified, remembering their run in with the spice mogul well, and Horatio nodded.
"But by the time I got to where I thought he'd be, Max wasn't anywhere to be found. I was too late. Wil asked about him a few months later, but I told him to steer clear of anything to do with Soran or his spice group. Soran was the last person I wanted getting his sights on Wil. He's incredibly dangerous, and I told Wil that a dozen times. If Soran found out that Wil was looking into him or Max...taking Jewel wouldn't be out of character for his preferred method of payback."
Mand's breath froze in her chest. If it was true, that Soran had hired some mercenary or hunter to kidnap Jewel in retaliation for Wil's probe...then they had little time to spare. Their search for Jewel had only become more dire.
"I'll send agents to every corner of the galaxy," Malin pledged, already withdrawing a data pad from his pocket. "She'll be our highest priority."
But Horatio held up his hand to stop him. "No, don't. If Soran really is the one who has Jewel...he'll tear your agents apart the second they get anywhere near him. Keep them away from him, from any of his spicers."
Briefly stunned, Malin stared a moment before looking to Mand for confirmation. She weakly nodded to confirm Horatio's mandate, and Malin only appeared more defeated. She could see in his eyes that he so desperately wanted to help, but Horatio had flat out denied him the chance. She gripped his arm in a gesture of support, and she had begun to make another suggestion when Horatio abruptly turned and left them, returning to their ship without a word. His behavior was only going to become more erratic, she feared, but she would have to do what she could to calm him.
"Have your agents keep a lookout for that ship," she requested quickly as she palmed him the holo projector and turned to follow Horatio. "We'll be in touch."
Malin nodded, already on his way, too. "Be careful out there, Master."
By the time she had caught up to him inside the Shadow Nova, Horatio stood just outside the cockpit with his back to her, his left hand pressed against his side, and his right tightly clenched and shaking at his hip. She allowed him some distance, not needing the Force to tell her how dangerously enraged he'd become, but she still wasn't prepared for how quickly he pulled his right arm back and cried out, throwing everything he had into a powerful punch against the durasteel wall. She gave a startled gasp, hearing the sickening snap of a bone in his hand breaking from the trauma, and it tore at her heart even further. He kept his knuckles pressed against the wall as he drew in unsteady breaths, and though she knew she was potentially risking her own safety...she reached out and gently placed a hand on his back, calling on the Force to ease his pain.
So much fear, worry, uncertainty, and anger freely flowed from him, draining her own composure, but she took it all; the faster he released it, the quicker she could calm him so he'd allow her to tend to his wounds. After a number of agonizing minutes, he willingly walked with her toward the rear hold, laying himself down on a padded bench without any prompt from her. He was pale again, she noticed, his injuries having worn down his stamina, and she could only do so much to remedy it.
Looking him over, she quickly tended to his split knuckles, dabbing a light layer of bacta onto them with a cloth to stop the bleeding. His broken hand she'd have to splint, but only after she'd seen to his side. She quickly discovered that he'd already been bleeding for some time; the stain on his shirt over the bandages had darkened and browned, frustrating her that he'd actively hidden it from her as they had traveled. Was he just in denial of how truly injured he remained, or had he just been that oblivious to it? He stared blankly up at the ceiling as she worked, hardly reacting to her tugging on the seal around his bloody bandages, and just as she moved to replace them with a bacta patch, he reacted, grabbing her wrist with his good hand.
"No bacta patch."
"Horatio - "
"No," he repeated firmly. "No patch. The smell will give me away."
Mand blinked. "What? Horatio, you've reopened your wound a third time now, and you're worried about a smell?"
His eyes finally focused on her, sharp as she'd yet seen them. "I know where we can find Soran."
