IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD, THIAS

The rebels may have taken care of the Bralykburns, but that doesn't mean there aren't problems coming from the north. World-ending problems. -LS

...

Long after the hologram fizzles out with Bralykburn on one knee, Lux stares at the two girls with a mixture of fear and awe.

"We did it," Dalla says, stupefied. "We got Hugo Bralykburn to bend the knee."

"You two terrified him," Lux gapes. "You threatened him with the wrath of two Great Houses and all their might. And you yelled at him."

Steela's shock wears off before the others' and she swivels on her toes to stare down Dalla. "The Lady of House Gerrera?"

Dalla shrinks. "Hey, it worked."

"Really Dalla? Really? I don't have a noble bone in my body -."

"You would actually make an incredible Lady," Lux interrupts. "People like you, you care about them, and you can get them to do what you want. I'd put you in charge of my holdfast."

"Oh, yeah," she scoffs. "My awesome diplomacy skills just shone through there, where Lord Bralykburn walked all over me until the actual Lady showed up."

"That's because it's the Bralykburns. You were still doing all the diplomacy; I was just your northern cheerleader in the background," Dalla explains. "If it was a normal negotiation, you would have been fine."

"Still! Now that he thinks I'm noble he's going to tell other people, and they're going to talk, and this whole thing is going to get out of control once they realize it's a lie."

"It's not actually a lie," Lux muses. "Since your mother died you technically inherit her position as lady of the house."

"That's lady with a lowercase L. Dalla said Lady with a capital L. Capital L Lady means nobility, Lux! And my mother wasn't nobility."

"Your brother calls Bremon Kira Uncle Brem!" Dalla protests. "That makes you a lesser -."

"We're not actually related, Dalla!"

Dalla's plan goes straight to Dxun. "Oh…"

"Enough, both of you!" Lux raps out. "If there's damage it's done. Bralykburn's bent the knee, now all we have to do is make sure he keeps his word. His record regarding that isn't exactly spotless."

"He'll move out of the harbor but he'll take his sweet time doing it," Dalla sighs.

Lux's eyes shine devilishly. "Why don't we help him with that?"

Steela rubs her temples.

"Don't say another word, Lux. I'm getting Ahsoka before this goes any farther downhill."

…

"Wait, I'm a Lord?" Saw asks when Steela finishes explaining the transmission.

"No Saw, you are not actually a Lord," she groans.

"Well congratulations on getting them to kneel," Ahsoka changes the subject. "That's one less thing to worry about."

"And I plan on making sure it stays that way," Lux interjects. "The sooner the Bralykburns leave the sooner we don't have to worry about them, and a display of strength will show them that we're serious, like it did with the power generator.'

Ahsoka raises an eye marking. "What did you have in mind?"

"Just a little something." He pulls a comlink out of his pocket, dials, and settles into a comfortable position while it rings.

"Hello?" he says. "Yes, I'd like to speak to whoever runs your harbor."

"Lux, what are you doing?" Steela demands.

Lux covers the receiver with his hand. "Getting rid of the Bralyk - hey, is this the guy in charge? Thank gods I finally got ahold of you. There's a ship in the harbor that needs to be towed away."

Dalla and Saw sit bolt upright and Steela's jaw falls open. Ahsoka rubs her temples and mumbles "He had to do this."

"She's a northern ship, flying a red banner with a…" he gestures to Dalla to help him.

"A blue stream."

"A blue stream! Don't ask me any clan names because … I don't know, maybe they got sick of freezing to death and came down for vacation? Anyway, she's blocking our access to the Royal fleet, which we need to do our repair work. I had my secretary call their captain and he called her some not too repeatable names."

"First I'm a Lady, now I'm a secretary. Oh how my job description changes," Steela grumbles. Saw gently elbows her.

"Yeah, so you've gotta tow her! Her entire crew's on board, just throw your lines and pull them out to the river." Lux listens a few more seconds. "My name? Yeah, it's Ed Teach… T-E-A-C-H … Well it's about time. Thank you, officer!"

"What the heck was that?" Saw demands when Lux hangs up.

"I just got rid of the Bralykburns," Lux preens. "The harbor police are going to tow them to the river as we speak."

Steela's and Ahsoka's eyes light up in admiration.

"Nicely done," Ahsoka praises. "Now if we're done dealing with them, let's go talk to the people again. They need to know you're still here." She smirks. "And they need to know about their new Lady."

…

While the harbor police tow the Bralykburns to the river ("Edward Teach?" their captain roars at the harbor police. "The bastard who complained said he was Edward kriffin' Teach?") a little sailboat cuts past them, captained by a young boy.

Thias Blackwell picks a random dock and ties off his bowline. He furls the sail and shoves everything from the deck into the tiny cabin before stepping onto the dock and heading for the city of Iziz with a spring in his step.

I've got this, he thinks, his hands jammed in his pockets. I've totally got this.

His confidence gets an unexpected boost when a droid patrol stops him before he enters the city. When Father talked about them they always sounded scary, but in person Thias thinks they're more stupid than anything.

A mechanical arm blocks his route to the gates. "Identification, please," it orders.

Thias looks into its photoreceptors. "I'm fourteen."

"Fourteen?" the droid repeats.

"Yeah, so I'm not old enough to have ID." Thias prays ID issuing is the same in Iziz as in the north.

The droid pauses for a moment to fact-check his statement, then lowers its arm. "Proceed."

Nailed it, Thias mentally crows. This is going to be so easy. Why didn't Father just come clean about where Dal is and let me come down?

And then he steps through the gates and the chaos of Iziz during rush hour hits him.

Maybe this isn't going to be so easy.

Thias shakes off his apprehension and steps into the flow of traffic. He picks a nice-looking family and decides to follow them while he works out a plan for how he's going to find his sister in a city which, he can see now, is a lot bigger than he thought.

I really should have done that in the boat, he admits to himself and picks another person to follow after the nice-looking family goes into a building. Now what am I going to do? It's not like there are going to be signs pointing to wherever the rebels are.

Okay, calm down. If worse comes to worse you can sleep on the boat and then try again tomorrow. You have almost the whole day. Just start looking.

He buys a sweet from a vendor to put himself in a better mood, and starts walking.

As he wanders the streets of Iziz, he looks for anyone who looks suspicious or might be carrying a weapon until he realizes it's useless. Of course a bunch of outlaws would be trying not to look suspicious!

Next he aims for high-traffic areas, where the rebels would probably have someone to monitor. He even braves walking under the hundred serpent banners near the Royal Palace to see if anyone's casing the place out. Of course no one is, but Thias accidentally on purpose kicks one of the banners' support poles.

He follows the main road and ends up in the large market by the docks. That's great, just great. I've gone in a circle.

I need a break, he decides and sits down on a bench to rest his aching feet. He checks the position of the sun in the sky. It has to be mid-afternoon by now.

As Thias watches the chaos of the market, a cloaked young man pokes past a vendor's stall and pauses by a stack of crates. He rests his hand on top of them for a second and then moves on.

Maybe he should be the next person I follow, Thias thinks and watches the young man meet up with a similarly hooded woman. Not human, Togruta maybe? He'd need a closer look to tell for sure.

Thias is snapped out of his thoughts by a massive hologram exploding from the top of the crates.

The woman in the hologram is about his sister's age, very tall, and hefts a sniper rifle over her shoulder. Thias grins with victory. She has to be one of them! Nobody else would carry a rifle.

"People of Onderon," the woman addresses the thousands listening to her. "The time has come to take back our freedom. We have all been deceived. King Rash is a traitor, who has sold Onderon to the Separatists for the crown."

If only she was really there, that Thias could run up to her and ask where his sister was, or better yet find Dalla in her ranks. But he can't do that to a hologram. He could grab the disk and try and trace the comm, but he's no Emoth and they probably cloaked it anyway -

Or you can tail the guy who planted it, doofus!

Thias gets up as nonchalantly as possible while the woman's still talking and follows the cloaked young man and Togruta woman. They whisper as they walk, like lovers or people trying not to be heard.

He thinks he's doing a good job at it too. He keeps a good distance away, and when it looks like the man or woman are going to look behind them he ducks into an alley. It's all going great until the couple quickly rounds a bend and someone snatches Thias from behind and pulls him into the alley.

He thrashes but the man holds him tight, yanking him further into the alley. "Easy, kid!" he orders. "I'm not a kidnapper!"

Thias tries to yell something like "Sure you're not!" but the man covers his mouth with his hand.

"I grabbed you because you were tailing my friend. When I let go, you're going to tell me who you are and why you were doin' it. Deal?"

Thias nods as best he can and the man loosens his grip on him.

"I'm looking for my sister and I think your friend knows where she is," he says. "My name is Thias Blackwell."

The man pulls out a comlink, and turns a little to look at Thias better without giving him a view of his face. Then he huffs and releases him.

"Another Blackwell?" He cries. He's dark-skinned, with a soul patch shaved into two sections and a streak of orange in his hair. "How many of you all are there?"

"Well our mother was a Flint…"

"And you're just going to keep trickling down here one by one?"

Thias grins. "We are the deep."

"Of course," the guy snorts. "If there was any doubt you've cleared it up. Only lordlings would say something dumb like that."

"It's not dumb! And how did you -."

The guy wordlessly holds out a comlink displaying image results for "Thias Blackwell."

"Oh."

"Kid, your sister is going to be pissed," he says, stashing the comlink.

"Who are you?" Thias demands. "And how do I know you know my sister?"

"I'm Saw," he says. "And I don't have a holo of Dalla and I together, if that's what you're asking. But look at me close. Did you see the woman in the hologram?"

Thias squints, but he doesn't have to. As soon as Saw points it out he sees it. The nose, the curve of the cheekbones. Genetics. "You're related."

"Took you long enough," Saw takes his arm. "Come on. We're going inside before any droids see us."

He brings Thias around the back of a house and lets him in through a side door. For a second every safety lecture Thias ever sat through flashes through his head, but he pushes them aside and follows Saw.

"So is this your secret base?" he asks once they're inside. It doesn't look much like a base, more like a party with less fun and more tension.

"One of them," Saw says and brings him into something that looks like a living room. "Take a seat, kid. And prepare for death. Your sister is going to -."

"Death?" Another young man interrupts and pushes forward. This one's dark-haired with light eyes, sort of like the woman who gave him candied jogans.

When Thias puts it together he relaxes immensely. "Lux Bonteri?"

Lux stares at him for a while until realization hits. "Oh, no. Thias?"

Saw nods. "Yeah, that's what I was trying to tell him. When Steela finds out, she's going to flip!"

"Steela's the least of our problems. Dalla's going to flip worse than she would, and - Saw, what if they team up? We know what happens when they team up." The blood drains from Lux's face. "We have to do something. We have to give them some kind of buffer, where we can tell them he's coming without him being here to stir their anger."

"You think that's actually going to stop Mount St. Steela?"

Thias is honestly more concerned about Mount St. Dalla, mainly because he's related to that mountain.

"It's the best we can do," Lux says. "You take him somewhere he'll be safe, and we'll just let this simmer for a day or two. I'll tell the girls I got a comm, nobody is going to notice."

"Nobody is going to notice what?"

The terror freezes on Lux's and Saw's faces at the sound of the woman's voice.

The two turn around, pasting on calm masks as they do so. When they move Thias catches a glimpse of the speaker, the Togruta woman from the market square, flanked by the woman from the hologram.

And - oh yeah, he definitely came to the right place.

"Nothing, Ahsoka," Lux lies. "Just some minor field operations. Nothing to be concerned about."

"It doesn't sound like nothing," the woman from the hologram replies. "What are you trying to slide past us? Who's the kid?"

"Nothing. Yeez, Steela, why is everything a conspiracy to you?" Saw groans. "Kid's a street rat who broke in looking for some food to steal. We think we'll hand him over to Werda; she's cool and she's got to have a place in the tunnels. He's no leak, as long as we give him a place to stay. Tell them, kid."

But Thias can't tell them anything. Not now. Not staring down the person on Ahsoka's left, who's so angry her breath whistles between her clenched teeth.

Thias shrinks into the couch, making himself as small as possible.

"H-hi, Dalla," he squeaks.

"It's the end of the world, Thias." Dalla growls.

…

Thank you all for reading, and Starwarshobbitfics for your review, and please share your thoughts in the comments or in the forum. DK and I would love to talk with you all and we aren't scary, we swear!