Hoth
Lyran Residence
3.2 APC

Seeing the looks on everyone's faces, it didn't take Koril long to deduce what had happened. Deilia wouldn't meet his gaze, nor would either of his Edgepoints. He would've preferred to endure the Huxnel virus for another four months rather than meet Elena's furious, betrayed, and devastated expression, emotionally disturbed as he had never seen her. He wasn't sure what his own expression was communicating, but as the others cautiously left without getting Elena's attention, leaving them alone in the large room, he released a shaky breath and stepped toward her where she remained leaning against the wall, hoping he could find the right words to calm her.

"Elena," he began gently, but her eyes hardened even more as she held her hand up, preventing him from continuing and halting him several steps away from her.

"I... I do not believe this... I went along with it, I eventually accepted it... I thought it was...the Ghost Heirs' mandate because of the situation, what had happened to you, but this...this was your doing? How could you...how dare you do this to me!"

He hardly had the strength to speak. "I had to be sure you were safe..."

"No," she returned coldly, holding up an accusatory finger at him. "No, this is not about keeping me safe. This is about your total lack of respect for me! You forced everyone I love...to betray me!!"

He tried to shake his head. "No, Elena--"

"You forced Deilia, and Swip and Leikam, and Jax, even my mother to lie to me!"

"No, they never lied to you--"

"You forced them to intentionally mislead me! To betray the trust that I had in them! All because you don't think I could protect our child? You don't trust me!!"

Desperate for her to understand, he matched her intensity, but with sympathy and sincerity. "It's everyone else I don't trust!" When she remained quiet but still furious, he went on. "You wouldn't have left my side if I had simply asked you to."

"Of course, I wouldn't have!!" she answered, incredulous. "You had just been attacked, nearly killed! If there was anything I could have done to prevent it from happening again, I would have done it!"

"And my enemies know that about you, Elena!" he countered emotionally, imploring her to see reason. "They would have expected it! Don't you understand? You would have been nothing but a target beside me."

"So you turned me into nothing but a vessel carrying your precious Rys'tihn heir! You wouldn't even talk to me! You just sent recorded transmissions, like I was some kind of security threat! I wasn't a Jedi, I wasn't your wife, I was hardly even a person; I was a piece of cargo to be controlled and secured!!"

He didn't need pain receptors to feel his heart aching, threatening to beat out of his chest the longer she refused to hear his pleas. Slowly stepping closer to her, he gently held her shoulders, looking deeply into her eyes as he sought some way to break through her anger. "Elena, please...listen to me," he softly begged. "All I have ever done was try to keep you safe. That's it. I never intended for you to feel like I was robbing you of what you are. You are still a Jedi. You are still my wife. I would never deny you either of those. My only interest has been in protecting you...and with all this unknown danger and risk...I did what I thought I had to."

Her eyes were intensely focused as she spoke through nearly clenched teeth, heated malice seeping through every word. "Then you have certainly done your father proud."

Though her anger was instantly replaced by sorrowful regret for what she had said, the weight of her statement hit Koril hard, cutting him deeply, crushing him mercilessly, and paralyzing his lungs so he couldn't breathe. In his shock, he released his grip on her and stood numbly in place, motionless until he felt his legs beginning to give out underneath him. Barely able to, he stepped back from her, slowly lowering himself onto a couch as he stared blankly at the floor with an unfocused gaze. He still hadn't taken another breath.

More than three years ago, his father Merli'il had orchestrated the removal of three Governors who threatened peace on Paneau. Though he knew it was wrong, and if found out he could have been tried for treason, Merli'il did it anyway, only interested in protecting those he loved from approaching danger and turmoil. There were other ways he could have gone about addressing the issue with the Governors, but feeling that immediate action needed to be taken, he went ahead with the plan, and paid for it with his life in the Dalon Palace collapse.

Koril had convinced himself that he had been justified in sending Elena away, fearing for her life and for their children's lives more than he ever thought he would. His fear had blinded him into thinking he had done the right thing, ordering his sister Deilia to keep Elena far from Paneau on Hoth...but he had essentially repeated his father's mistake without even realizing it, without intending to.

With silent, remorseful tears freely flowing down her cheeks, Elena carefully knelt down in front of him, wrapping her arms around her large stomach briefly. She met his gaze with obvious pain in her eyes, but as she reached her hand up to his face, lightly cupping her palm at his jaw, her sorrow made her entire body tremble.

"Koril, I'm sorry... I...I didn't mean that."

Finally taking in and releasing a shaky breath, Koril nodded after a long moment. "Yes...you did," he hardly managed to say, "and you're right."

"No...Koril..."

After briefly closing his eyes to bittersweetly enjoy the warmth of her touch he hadn't felt for months, he met her gaze again, feeling his own eyes beginning to tear with intense emotion.

"That night after we got back from Bespin...my nightmare..." He paused, afraid to continue as though saying it aloud would make it true. His voice nearly refused to work. "...I saw you die." Quickly being overcome with emotion, he had to look away from her as she brushed her thumb over his cheek. "At first, I thought I was seeing you in the Manor...and if you weren't safe there, and if I couldn't trust my officers at the hangar after one of them had poisoned me...I...I had to do something."

Though wrestling with his confession, she suddenly looked up at him with unexpected sympathy. "You could have told me..."

Shedding a few tears himself, he shook his head. "You wouldn't have believed me... You wouldn't have changed anything, so you could try to stop it yourself...but I couldn't risk that." He brought his hand up to hers that was still against his cheek, holding it briefly before reaching down to her to delicately trace his fingers down the side of her face. Even through her pain and turmoil he had unintentionally forced on her, she was still so beautiful...

"I can't lose you, Elena," he breathed, looking down into her reddened but still deep emerald eyes, "...I can't. I'm not strong enough." He had never found it so hard to speak before... "After seeing what Rech and Mand went through...losing their baby, and then Rech...Rech's agony, after we thought Mand was gone... I know...I know I'm not strong enough to endure that." Swallowing hard to steady his voice, he gently grasped her other hand, locking their fingers together. "I'm sorry I put you through this... You...you, and Derek, and this baby are more important to me than anything else in this galaxy, and I just wanted you safe..."

Though weakened by intensifying sobs that shook her, she somehow managed to stand without much aid, pulling on his hand to balance herself as she got to her feet and stepped back from him. Assuming that she was too upset with him and was going to leave, he released her hand, looking to the floor as he anxiously ran his hand through his hair. He had told her everything, and his remorse was well evident in his face, so how things proceeded was now only up to her...

As he brought his hand to his forehead, she stopped him, lightly gripping his wrist as she pulled it toward her. Unsure what she wanted, he watched her emotional expression as she rotated his hand so his palm was facing her...and as she pressed it against her stomach, he felt his child kick for the first time. Overwhelmed again, he could hardly breathe, and he struggled to stand, as well, while she gently pulled him to his feet and into a tight embrace. She wept audibly with the release of emotions, burying her face in his chest as they stood together, a dozen feelings coursing through them both. Elena weakened, though, the longer they stood, and even though she was still sobbing, he carefully eased her back down onto the couch with him. He pulled her tightly against himself with one arm across her chest, the other around her back, and despite tiring even more, she gripped his arm as she tucked her head under his chin.

"I was...supposed to meet with Veon...that day," she sobbed quietly, though she was calming as the tender moment continued. He nodded carefully, lightly kissing her at her temple as he keenly remembered the exact moment he had learned of Veon's death. He knew she had to have been heartbroken when she found out, having worked with Veon so closely for so long and being kept far away from it all. Her schedule with King Verojec took her to the Banarecc Estate often in recent months, and she often planned to see Veon there, as well.

"I know." And anticipating her next question, he answered it before she spoke again. "But I still couldn't let you come back... My nightmare changed."

As she pulled her head back to look up at him, he couldn't deny the curious although still pained look in her eyes. He still couldn't tell her outright, though, and he sighed shakily as he brought his hand from her shoulder to the side of her neck.

"I need you to stay here, and I will stay here with you, until the baby is born, okay?"

Disappointment filtered through her expression, but she remained silent for a long moment as she rested her head back down on his shoulder, no longer looking at him. "...what's going to happen?"

Though the fear he heard in her voice nearly swayed his resolve, he managed to speak. "Nothing...as long as we stay here."

He could almost sense her struggle to accept his mandate once more, and though he expected her frustration to surface again, she only tightened her hold on his arm, and they sat silently in each other's embrace for several minutes as she calmed. A few lingering sobs were the only sounds in the room for what seemed like a half hour until she finally spoke up, her voice soft and barely audible, but sincere.

"I love you."

Briefly rendered breathless by hearing her say it, he hugged her more tightly to himself, again gently kissing her on her head. "I love you, too...so much," he returned, though his voice was shakier than hers; he would've expected her to say almost anything else but that. Thinking on it a moment, he gave a short, weak laugh. "Probably too much, huh?"

Looking up at him again, she didn't agree or disagree, but made another statement that twisted his stomach into an icy knot.

"You can't protect me from everything, Koril."

He swallowed hard. "...I can try."

Though she looked wary of his apparent determination, she also looked exhausted, emotionally and physically spent by their exchange. She laid her head back down, settling against him as she released one hand from his arm to place it atop her belly with care.

"Two weeks," she whispered, gently running her hand down her stomach, "then we'll be going home."

He grasped her hand, carefully resting them both on her swollen middle as he nodded. "Two weeks."

Her breathing slowed even more as she relaxed in his arms, giving in to a peaceful sleepiness he was glad she could achieve, even though he had just put her through emotional torture. He could tell she was still somewhat awake, though, and keeping his voice as soft as possible so as to not startle her, he tried to get one small question answered that he had been desperate to know for months...

"So...is Derek getting a little brother, or a little sister?"

Her voice was just as quiet, if not more so. "...you'll find out soon enough."

Paneau Sector
Leveyn Asteroid Field
Unknown location

Coming out of a drug-induced sleep, Horatio could hardly focus long enough to gather information about where he was. Whatever had knocked him out was stubbornly refusing to release its grip on him, forcing him to wait, which he couldn't stand. Even his mind was groggy, reducing his ability to process his own thoughts, but hopefully it would subside soon.

He could at least tell that wherever he was, it was very quiet. He heard his own breathing and weak grunts, but little else. There was just a subtle echo, so the room he was in was probably somewhat small, and judging by the sharp pain at various points along his body, the ground he was laying on was rough and rocky, as was the rest of the asteroid base he had lived on for months.

Finally feeling his limbs weakly responding to his commands, he tried moving one arm...and found that the other followed along with it. Though he already knew why, he had to open his eyes to see it...

On his side on the ground, he saw his wrists bound together in front of him with heavy stun cuffs. So he had been captured? He was a prisoner again? Desperately thinking back to how he had landed himself in another prison cell, he realized that he shouldn't be alone.

Mand should be there with him.

Gathering the strength to, he lifted his head and looked about the small, dark room, and though he half expected to find her dead beside him, he was relieved to see no one. His first reaction was concern for her, wondering where she was if he was incarcerated here, but the longer he reflected on his memories that were coming back to him, the more his concern gave way to resentment.

There was no way that he could have been caught so quickly. He had only just cut the power to the main hangar, not the entire base, and not even the galaxy's best security system could have directed the spicers to him within so few seconds. And even if it could have, they would have just killed him on the spot for his sabotage and ejected his body out into space from an airlock. Soran's group didn't have the time to deal with a traitor among them, so there had to be another reason he was still alive and still in their clutches.

...Mand had to have done this to him.

She very easily could have disabled the guard she had seduced, without alerting Horatio to it, and then knocked him out before he left the ventilation shaft to return with her. Then she could have told the others what he had done, sparing herself the fault for their scheme. So had she and Groller gone behind him and plotted to use him as a fall guy so they could escape unharmed? What about getting to Soran? What about their plan to use Groller's crime as leverage against the spice mogul? He had seen the weariness in her eyes as the months had dragged on, but how could she fold now and betray him when they were so close to their end goal? Unless...

She could be punishing him for all the wrongs he had dealt her and her friends over the years, as he had first thought when they were holding him on Paneau on suspicion of murdering Veon. He, of course, had been innocent of it, they knew, but it hadn't negated her sour attitude toward him in the slightest. She would have eagerly taken the opportunity to dispose of him and continue on without him, unable to trust him. She had outright told him she couldn't believe him, so that had to be why he had been offered up to the spicers, now at their mercy instead of hers.

They might be more forgiving than she, though, if he played his cards right.

Still struggling to get a grasp on his senses, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, better able to survey his surroundings with his back against the jagged wall behind him. There weren't any objects or even any loose rocks around that he could turn into a makeshift weapon if needed, but his first priority was figuring out what they knew about him and why they were holding him. He had just gotten to his feet, standing on his shaky legs as the door to his room slid open, revealing a large, burly alien that nearly blocked out all the bright light that was trying to filter in from the hallway. Squinting, he couldn't see the brute's face because of the contrast, and he also couldn't see the solid, clenched fist his visitor swung at him until it met the side of his face with a sickening smack.

Completely caught off guard, Horatio could hardly see as he was forced sideways and met the opposite wall, only just able to recover and turn himself around when a second punch landed squarely in his stomach, knocking the wind out of him entirely. A third strike to the back of the head sent him to the floor once more, barely conscious and unable to take a breath. He could feel darkness closing in on him, but determined to beat it, he forced himself to cough and roll onto his back to counter any more blows the other had planned for him. Surprising him, though, his attacker was gone, and the door was sealed shut again, leaving him alone in the room. Had he blacked out again?

Finally gasping desperately for breath, though, he sat up with difficulty and rested against the rough wall again, bringing his bound hands up to his mouth to wipe away the blood that was dripping from his busted lower lip. In a daze, he couldn't figure out what had just happened or why; there were more definitive ways to keep him unconscious, if that was their intent. He certainly wanted to be, hardly able to see because of his pounding headache and lack of oxygen, but the sudden adrenalin rush was at least dulling his pain somewhat.

Hearing someone on the other side of the door again, he started to stand up again, but he couldn't keep his feet and legs coordinated long enough, and the door opened before he could move much.

This time, though, his silhouetted visitor was much, much smaller.

Not even half the size of the other, a young boy stepped inside, holding a plate of stale bread and a small cup of bright yellow juice. As the door closed behind him, Horatio could finally see the boy's face, and again he couldn't breathe, stunned as he stared at the boy.

"...Max."

Beneath the seven-year-old's rugged, sandy blond mop of hair were two clear hazel eyes that, as Recero had predicted months ago, he immediately recognized. At the sound of his name, Max screwed up his face, unsure what to make of Horatio on the ground in front of him.

"Who are you?" he challenged, apparently unused to others knowing who he was.

It took Horatio a full minute to recover from his shock, and afraid to divulge his relationship to the boy for fear of it getting back to Soran, he covered as best he could.

"I'm, uh...your father's prisoner, obviously," he returned, trying to put an edge back into his voice to mask his surprise.

Max looked unimpressed. "That's not what he calls you." He definitely had Recero's attitude.

"Oh, really?"

"He says you're his problem."

Horatio could barely keep himself from laughing darkly at the irony. Somehow maintaining a neutral expression, he lowered his voice. "He would, wouldn't he." Watching Max as he stood still just inside the door, he tested the boy's wit. "Does he always make you bring dinner to his 'problems'?"

But Max simply studied him in turn, tilting his head just to the side with the same curiosity that Horatio had seen in Recero the first time they had met. Though he had never seen the boy before, he felt a similar connection that had so quickly bonded him to his twin sister, and it looked like Max was also trying to decipher what he was feeling.

"How do you know my name?" Max asked with innocent curiosity. It took every ounce of restraint he had left to not answer him directly.

"I know a lot about you," Horatio told him carefully, gauging his reaction. When Max only furrowed his brows in deeper curiosity, not fear, Horatio continued just as cautiously. "I know you probably won't believe me, but...your mother sent me to find you."

With that, Max's eyes immediately narrowed, and anger quickly surfaced on his small face. "You're right. I don't believe you. I don't even remember my mother. She doesn't care about me."

Though a bit taken aback by his sudden dark shift, Horatio had to know...

"What makes you say that?"

"Because she left me when I was two."

Horatio sighed sadly. "Your father told you that?"

Max nodded emphatically, without hesitation, seeming to have clung to such damaged and false information about Recero that his father had fed him for years. Though he knew he probably wasn't going to change Max's mind, he at least had to try... He hadn't come this far just to be denied by gross misinformation.

"Listen, Max," he began quietly, gingerly running his tongue over his split lip. "I won't tell you who to believe, but you should at least know what both sides of the story have to say." Seeing the curiosity return to his face, Horatio went on carefully. "What your mother told me was very different. She said she fought to keep you when your father was trying to take you away. He hurt her so he could take you from her, but she tried to find you. She never stopped looking." Pausing briefly, he released a shaky breath, unsure if he should add more. The thoughtful look in Max's eyes made his decision easier. "She loved you, very much, Max. She still does."

Max's expression hardened again. "If she did, then she would have come for me a long time ago, and she would have come for me herself."

Though disheartened by Max's stubbornness, he tried not to show it. "She wanted to," he answered carefully, though he could hardly finish the rest, "...but she's very sick right now, so she sent me instead."

A brief flicker of realization seemed to pass across Max's face just before the door opened behind him, again revealing the large man who had attacked Horatio earlier. Able to see his rough, reptilian-like face with a bit more lighting, Horatio recognized him as an extremely well-built Trandoshan, one that very easily could tear his limbs off if determined enough.

The Trandoshan's slitted, golden eyes glowed with fury as he looked down at Horatio, hissing his native tongue through his Basic words. "Did I not...pound you hard enough??"

Sitting up straighter as the Trandoshan stepped around Max and lumbered towards him, Horatio shook his head that was still throbbing from earlier, weakly trying to defend himself with his bound hands. "No, I think you did a pretty good job--"

The Trandoshan reached down and gripped him by his shirt just under his neck, twisting it in his fist as he effortlessly lifted Horatio off the ground and held him aloft to deliver several more solid, merciless punches to his stomach. Hardly able to breathe anyway, Horatio choked and gasped through the pain of the blows, certain that the second round had bruised all his internal organs. He was seeing sparks of light in his vision the longer the Trandoshan held him in the air --

"Stop, Khovissh," Max demanded without any hint of reluctance. "He didn't do anything to me."

The Trandoshan looked back at the boy and challenged him impatiently. "Then what'sss taking sssso long?? Don't let thisss traitor ssscum become your friend. Ssssoran will not be pleassssed if you keep him waiting much longer."

Returning to glare at Horatio, Khovissh twisted his wrist even more before throwing him backwards against the wall and then dropping him to the floor without care. Landing hard on the rocky ground under him, Horatio forced himself to recover, willing his paralyzed rib cage to expand, though it took several agonizing seconds. Finally breathing again, albeit painfully, he watched as Khovissh left, then as Max approached him, still holding the plate and cup. There was a strange look of...pity on the boy's face that hadn't been there before, and as Horatio locked gazes with him, Max slowly placed both just beside Horatio within arm's reach. Before he stood up to leave, though, he whispered carefully so Khovissh wouldn't hear him.

"Don't drink the juma juice," he warned. "It will poison you."