Time slipped away from her again, leached by exhaustion, thirst and pain. When she slipped out of her haze, she realized with a start that she was no longer alone. Her heart leaped and, turning to the footsteps that shuffled behind her, she kept the eagerness out of her face.

She needn't have bothered.

While she could make out only shadows in the covered doorways that lined the streets, two figures were clear in the twilight. Two young, ragged louts had her neatly penned at the end of a closed alley, their darkened teeth wet in shifty smiles.

" 'Ey, marster Jedi, can ye 'elp out some thirsty laddies?"

She licked her cracked lips as her eyes narrowed and assessed the situation. The young men were definitely in a bad way, their skin blackened and split, their eyes yellow with jaundice. But they, both of them, moved with the cunning purpose of a starving hssiss.

"I can give you water," she replied, her voice low and harsh.

"Oh, marster Jedi, we thinks ye can give us more'n dat," the larger of the two leered. "Th'likes o' ye don't come by dis way very offen. We canna be lettin' ye go away unwelcome-like."

"My friend here," he gestured to the smaller of the pair, who tilted his head to the side, his neck cracking and popping with the movement as he grinned, " 'E don't like Jedi much. 'E'd much rather let ye bleed out onna street, here. Me? Oi'd like ta shows ya some fun, first."

The young men approached, low to the ground, in slow fighters' crouches. The exile stared at their emaciated forms and was unwilling to heap more suffering on them. She reached for the Force and willed them to be still.

They kept moving.

Aghast, she watched the galaxy's life energy disappear into the two fiends. The smaller one smiled even wider, unnatural lips loose with joy.

"Y'see? Dat wat Oi loves about ye Jedis," slobbered the larger one. "Y'feeds us."

"Now, m'friend, here. 'E's still bitter-like, abouts our families bein' sucked up an' burnt awa' by da Jedis from the skies. But Oi sez we can has our fill before we burns ya."

The two shuffling forms circled in the growing shadows. Where she should feel rage, hatred and hunger from them, there was only emptiness. The exile stilled her breath and calmed her heartbeat. Her eyes scanned the surrounding area, weighing tactics and calculating advantage. She would lay even odds that her light sabres would be as useless as Force powers against these two – and she was spent and weary.

Wisdom had its uses.

The exile dropped a flash grenade and, with a quick twitch of her hand, activated the stealth generator at her waist. As her two opponents clutched their eyes and howled, she folded her body through a tiny gap in the alley and slid down a narrow passageway.

Blind, lost and confused, she moved as silently as she could. She could hear the enraged shrieks of her pursuers echoing from the settlement's high rooftops. She gasped as she heard more voices take up the call, then groaned as she encountered another wall.

Trapped!

Muttering a string of curses that she hadn't used since she was 'General' to a rag-tag group of Republic betrayers, the exile searched the walls for any niche, any crack, that might act as a foothold to climb, but the sandy permacrete was unyielding. Her fingers scrabbled across the wall's surface as her breath came in dry sobs.

There! A miracle! One slab of the wall felt – different. The dimensions seemed big enough for it to be a door – an escape. If she could just get back to her ship, she could wash this place from her memory. She pressed on the wall to no effect. She poked and pulled until her fingertips were slick with blood. She felt an indented groove, perhaps a lock of some sort, but couldn't seem to focus on its mechanism.

I was never any good at this stuff. I never had to be. He was always there.

She slammed her palm against the stubborn door.

What have you left me to?

To her dismay, the grunting howls of her pursuers were getting closer. They'd discovered her escape route! She sobbed again, and pounded on the door. "Open, dammit!!" she whispered. "Please, open!!"

"Just say the word ..."

The filthy little planet tilted beneath the exile's feet at the sound of that voice, so cocky and sure. She spun. Even in the gloom she knew that lean form, that arrogant pose.

"Atton!"

She wasn't sure if she saw his grin in the darkness, or if she just knew the familiar sight of it so well that it manifested in her mind's eye.

"Let me take care of this," he said and turned to the tiny door. In less than a heartbeat it was open. He grabbed her hand and pulled her with him. Then he shut the door behind them.