First off, sorry for the two month late chapter. Calculus is not fun and has been consuming much more of my time than I would like. Should clear up next term.

Second, for anyone who came over to Pulsar Company from Grimm Retreat – what in the flying fuck is going on with RWBY these days? I saw that Bumblebee got made canon, and Ruby has some sort of insane fucking meltdown reaction to Blake and Yang coming out, and then she kills herself and nobody cares? What the FUCK?

Read and review.

Kyra woke up to the familiar, floaty sensation of swimming in bacta, though her eyes remained shut. Even with all the healing the liquid had been doing to her, her body still felt like it was on fire, with a thousand and one things going wrong all at once. The tank let out a beep. "Healing cycle completed, releasing patient."

The liquid quickly drained out of the tank, and the vacuum sucked Kyra's feet to the bottom. She opened her eyes as the bacta went below her head, though her vision was still blurred, and the last of the bacta went out the bottom. The tank door slid open, and Kyra fell out onto her hands and knees, letting out a pained gasp on impact.

For a long while, Kyra just laid there as her senses came back to her. Then, she tried to stand, but her legs wouldn't respond to her. It wasn't for a lack of trying, either – no matter how desperately she tried, her legs simply would not work. Her arms worked just fine, though, and Kyra slowly crawled her way over to a nearby chair, intent on dragging herself up off the floor.

Why? Why are my legs not working? What went wrong?

For what should have been a simple task, even with her current condition, dragging herself over to the chair was an arduous task. Her body felt heavier and her muscles weaker, even though nothing had actually physically changed as far as she could tell. "Come on..." Kyra groaned as she pawed for the top of the chair. She managed to get a grip, and tried to pull herself up, only for her strength to fail her at the last moment and send her plummeting back to the floor, knocking the chair away from her.

The door to the room suddenly opened, and in walked a 2-1B. "Oh, Maker!" the droid exclaimed, before rushing over to Kyra and helping her up onto the chair. "My apologies, Kyra – I accidentally set your tank to automatic release. How clumsy of me!"

"...It's fine." Kyra numbly said, waving the droid's concerns off as it checked her over to make sure she hadn't hurt herself in the fall. "How long was I out?"

"Three days." the droid replied, pulling away from Kyra, satisfied that she remained uninjured.

Kyra slowly rubbed her face, trying to get some bacta residue out of her eyes. "...What about Nax and Lexi? Are they alright?"

"Lexi's injuries were relatively minor, and she has recovered. She simply needs to gain her weight back. Nax, however..." the droid trailed, and though it couldn't show emotion on its faceplate, Kyra knew his position was much more dire. "Nax has suffered severe damage to his body, both internally and externally. The other droids are working around the chrono to mitigate the worst of it, but assuming he pulls through, he is likely to suffer some sort of permanent nerve or muscle disorder, even after physical therapy is complete."

"Can I see him?" Kyra asked, immediately growing worried over Nax's condition.

The droid checked the datapad it was holding, and then nodded. "He is in-between operations at the moment, so you can see him. Lexi is currently with him, as well." the droid answered, pausing for a second and then looking up, as if in realization. "Speaking of disorders, your current status as a parapalegic is a result of the discharge of high volumes of electricity – your bones had partially calcified, and you had suffered noticeable nerve and muscle damage."

That's why I can't move my legs? I got shocked too much?

"Is the damage permanent?"

The droid shook its head. "Thankfully, no. By the time we got you into the bacta tank, the damage had nearly developed to the chronic stage. However, as it stands right now, you will be confined to a hoverchair until your body recovers over the course of the next several weeks." it answered, before reaching into a nearby cabinet and producing an inactive hoverchair. The droid unfolded it, activated it, and helped Kyra into it, and she quickly acclimated herself to the controls.

Kyra was about to shoot off to Nax's room, but realized she was still in her skivvies. "Uh, where are my…?" she trailed, before she looked over her shoulder and saw the medical droid holding out a dull looking shirt and pair of sweatpants for her, which she quickly took, slipping into the shirt and using the Force to put the pants on. "Thank you, but where is the armor I came in here with?"

"Back at your ship. Wearing it while recovering would only impede the healing process, so we saw fit to return it."

Kyra nodded in understanding, and then reached out with the Force to find Nax and Lexi. It wasn't hard to do, and once she had located them, she directed the hoverchair out into the corridor and down the length of the medbay with such speed that it even surprised Kyra. She came to Nax's room in no time at all, and from outside, could hear Lexi slowly playing her xantha. "...A thing of beauty, I know, will never fade away..." she softly sang.

Kyra opened the door, and was greeted with the sight of Lexi in the corner, eyes shut while she strummed away, humming the lyrics. Kyra chose not to interrupt deliberately, but the sound of the hoverchair caused Lexi to stop and open her eyes anyways. "You're out early."

"The medical droid made a mistake and set my tank for automatic release." Kyra replied, coming further into the room, until she spotted Nax laying in bed, wrapped in bandages and hooked up to an IV, and a wave of sadness washed over her. "You've been up longer than I have – how is he?"

"Bad." Lexi said with a frown, before she got up and walked over to Nax's bedside. "Docs give him a seventy-something percent chance of actually surviving, even with all the procedures they've been doing on him. No matter how you cut that, that's still a one in three chance that he dies."

"I know." Kyra sadly replied, slowly guiding the hoverchair over to the opposite side of the bed and taking Nax's hand, gently rubbing it with her thumb. "Have they said anything about giving him his voice and eyes back?"

Lexi tapped her fingers against her side. "One of the droids showed me the treatment plan they outlined for him – 'non-essential' tissue restoration is the last thing they intend on doing before giving him PT. They want to make absolutely sure that his body isn't going to reject any replacements."

"Replacements? They're cloning his eyes and vocal chords?"

"No, not as a first resort." Lexi responded, before an unsettled look made itself known on her face. "When Dantinian cut Nax's eyes and vocal chords out, he had them put in preservation jars. Sawei found them in the same place she found our gear. The droids are going to try putting the originals back in before they decide to clone them."

Kyra immediately felt a pit develop in her stomach in response to the revelation, but perhaps she should have expected this. Dantinian could only ever stoop to new lows of depravity, it seemed, even while dead. "Sick bastard." was all she said, squeezing Nax's hand.

"That's the understatement of the year, Kyra." Lexi said with a sad nod. "At least he's safe, now."

Kyra moved closer to Nax, keeping his hand held tight in hers as the life support beeped away, draining fluids into him as necessary. Kyra gently brushed his hair aside, and put her hand on his head. Then, she focused with the Force, visualizing Nax's thoughts as a dream for her to interact with. She wanted to be close with him, and nothing would ever get as close as she was about to.

What the Force revealed to Kyra's senses, though, was pure, unending darkness. She had initially assumed this darkness to be like a storm in Nax's mind – a result of his torture and abuse by Dantinian.

Kyra realized that this was not the case, however. The darkness wasn't representative of Nax's feelings, or a depression that he had fallen into – he literally wasn't thinking about anything, and whether this was incidental to his recovery or not was an unknown factor.

Kyra 'wandered' aimlessly in Nax's mind, until she eventually came across him sitting down on the edge of nothing, hunched over. Wordlessly, she sat down next to him, and he didn't react. He just kept staring, out at the empty black void, and Kyra chose to say nothing, instead just throwing her arm around him and pulling him in. Nax still didn't outwardly react, but Kyra could tell that the hug was having a positive effect on him, however little.

For a while, they just stayed like that, until Kyra heard what sounded like an angry mob approaching, and Nax began to shake uncontrollably. Kyra got up and pulled Nax to his feet, turning him so that he was looking directly at her.

This may have been little more than a dream for him, but the fear Kyra saw in Nax's eyes told of a much greater terror, one that nobody should ever experience in their life. Every little thought of Nax's was silently telling her to run, lest she meet the same fate he did. Kyra, though, didn't listen, and she bumped heads with Nax, locking eyes with him. "Nax, I'm going to kiss you. When I do, I want you to close your eyes, count down from five, and then open them again."

Without waiting for a reply, Kyra did exactly as she said she would, and Nax followed her instructions. Kyra immediately went to work on replacing the black void with something more amenable to Nax's mental recovery – a beach house on a tropical moon seemed more suited for that task.

Nax opened his eyes as Kyra pulled away, and he took in the sights, sounds, and smells of what Kyra had created for him. Beautiful wasn't an adequate enough word to describe the scene – sublime was a much better word for it. "I've… done some thinking about what you've been through, Nax, and I want to make it up to you as much as I can, starting with this."

Nax took her words in, and then looked over his shoulder towards the beach. He allowed himself a slight smile, and he grabbed Kyra's hand, leading her over to the beach. Sand sifted between her toes, and Kyra remembered that this was still Nax's mind, and he could exert whatever control he wanted if he so desired, which, right now, had them both in swimwear. Nax sat down on an extra-wide reclining beach chair, and Kyra sat down next to him.

A decently sized palm canopy appeared over the chair, giving them some shade, and both sides of the chair had tables manifest with drinks ready-made. Nax still looked unsatisfied, though, and after some thought, snapped his fingers to create a little music player on his table. The device immediately started playing one of those synthpop songs that Lexi had picked out at Iridonia.

Nax finally allowed himself to relax, and he threw his arm around Kyra, pulling her in close. The couple simply sat there as the music played, happy that the worst of their struggles was finally over, and the song's lyrics finally kicked in. "You belong to me. I couldn't say goodbye. I wanted to hold you forever."

"Nax?" Kyra quietly asked, turning over to look up at him. "Why aren't you talking? It's your mind, you're not limited by your body here."

Nax looked down at Kyra with a sad expression, and Kyra immediately regretted the suggestion. He remained silent, but with what Kyra had done to get into this position, she understood Nax's feelings on the matter. He wasn't going to speak, not until he felt that he was ready. Kyra quietly nodded and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll always be with you, Nax. Just say the word when you're ready."

Kyra laid back down and moved closer to Nax, and the mood lightened up again with that out of the way. "...and I will repeat many sins. More than peace, more than freedom, because you're all I want. Even if you move away, change, or lose sight of it, don't lose your brilliance..." the song continued, picking up its tone as Nax and Kyra grabbed their drinks and toasted to each other. "You can change your destiny beyond the time! You can change your future beyond the darkness! We can share the happiness! I'll look for it, the day we can forgive each other!"

The drinks went down easy – not that they were real in the first place, anyways. Very fruity, and very sweet. Vostoya Mules? Kyra wasn't complaining, but she nonetheless raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't whiskey your drink? Hettyc Baar, or something like that?"

Nax smirked and nodded, and with a snap of his fingers, replaced the empty glasses with shots of the Mandalorian whiskey, and a full bottle between them. Again, the couple toasted and downed the shots. Kyra had grown a bit more used to alcohol since she joined Nax, but Hettyc Baar still knocked her flat on her back, even in Nax's head. Kyra grabbed the bottle and poured two more shots, and they drank up. "Guided by the wind of dreams, I will be swayed by a ship of mistakes! If I can live, there will be a day when I can come back again!"

Kyra sat the bottle and shot glasses on her table, and she curled up to Nax as the music continued on, gently caressing Nax's face. "I don't ever want to leave your side again, Nax." Kyra admitted, before kissing him as the music hit its climax.

"...Beyooond the tiime!"

Nax reciprocated, and the two held like that for what felt like an eternity. Neither one wanted to pull away, even if this wasn't 'real'. They had pined for each other after being separate for so long, and they had not only finally reunited, but truly had some privacy with each other, even if the method of getting it was more than a little abstract.

Indeed, both of them refused to part lips – Kyra threw her arms around Nax's neck, and Nax threw his behind her back, pulling them closer to each other.

It was perfect.

And, like all perfect things, it had to come to an end.

"Kyra?" Lexi asked out of nowhere, and Kyra turned her head to look at the source of her voice. She was there, staring blankly ahead at the two of them, not actually in the dream, just a visualization of her voice. "The docs say that it's time for Nax's next surgery."

Kyra gave Nax a concerned look, and he simply smiled and nodded to signify that she could go. Kyra stole one more brief kiss from Nax, before bumping her head against his and pulling away from his mind. She returned to the real world to find a team of medical droids waiting for her to leave, with Lexi behind them, and she quietly excused herself with Lexi in tow.

"You know," Lexi started as she threw her hands behind her head casually. "You were like that for a long time – three hours, almost. What were you doing?"

Kyra sniffled, and her eyes grew watery. "I was spending time with Nax, is all. Just… inside his mind."

Lexi raised her eyebrows as she offered her a tissue. "...What, you sat with him someplace pretty, drinking cocktails while you watched a sunset in his head?"

"Yes, actually." Kyra replied, a slight smile appearing on her lips. "It was... nice. I want to take him somewhere like that when he recovers. Just the two of us somewhere peaceful, away from all the fighting."

"Sounds romantic." Lexi said with a smile as Kyra took the tissue from her. "Might be a good idea for your honeymoon."

"Maybe." Kyra agreed, and she wiped her eyes. "Know any good places?"

Lexi crossed her arms as she tried to think of suggestions. "...Pantolomin. I've only ever been there twice, both for jobs on offshore corp accounts, but it's a gorgeous planet." she attested. "With the money your family has, you could probably rent out an island for a month or two."

Kyra's mouth hung open as their purpose for being on the rings came to the forefront of her mind. Looking for the Void Charter to trade for information on the Cranky Bantha. "Speaking of my family, what are we going to do about the job for the Void Charter?"

"Job for the…?" Lexi trailed, trying to recall what Kyra was referring to. "Oh, right. That." she remembered, scratching the side of her head as she wondered what to do. "The smart thing would be to just forget about it and go to Alderaan. We know who your family are and where they are, so any information from the Bantha would be pointless."

"And the dumb thing?"

Lexi's smile grew devious. "...Well, the gravity well generator here is going down in a few days to let us out, and there is a perfectly good Vanguard CR70 just sitting in Bestine. Considering the amount of work put into it? I think it would be a crying shame if it was left there to rot until it got scrapped."

"You want to steal the Bantha?" Kyra quietly fussed, her eyes full of worry. "Lexi, I just got you and Nax back. I don't want you to go and jump right back into another fire when we just put one out."

"Kyra, I know Imperial security like the back of my hand. It'll be fine, just an in and out klep. By the time they figure out what's going on, I'll already be long gone with the Bantha. Trust me on this one."

Kyra furrowed her eyebrows. "Blackwall isn't going to let you out, you know. He was the angriest I've ever seen him when he figured out you went AWOL for Nax."

"Oh, that won't matter, Kyra. I have my ways."

Lexi paced around the perimeter fence of the Bestine ship graveyard. No cameras had seen her, and nobody was nearby. Kyra had endlessly fretted over Lexi's plan, considering she was still supposed to be under medical watch, but Lexi remained undeterred.

The plan was that Lexi would get inside the shipyard and break into the master control terminal. There, she would release the electronic locks on all of the impounded ships and grant herself access to their systems. Then, she would get on board the Bantha, wipe away any failsafes the Empire had put in place, and take direct control of the navigation systems.

Once that was done, she would set all the ships in the graveyard to start their engines and fly around to cause a diversion, while she took the Bantha into space. Arfive would be waiting in the desert with the Knight for a signal from Lexi, and they would link up at Geonosis before heading back to the Rings. Simple.

Lexi activated her cloak and approached the nearest access panel, pulling it out and exposing some of the electronics within. She scanned for the port she needed, and, once she found it, pulled the link from her wrist and connected it, with the visualizations of the local network filling her mind.

She quickly got to work, forcing the cameras to enter a feedback loop of the past few seconds – anyone worth their pay grade would notice the problem when a patrol was supposed to walk by the cameras, but she had plenty of time until then. As a final touch, she threw a daemon into the system that would report everything as normal – nobody would notice her work unless they manually checked it.

"It's go time." Lexi muttered to herself as she disconnected from the panel and put the cover back in place. She darted for the door to the yard, and entered a factory reset code into the keypad, resetting the original code and granting her access.

Once inside, she headed straight for the main building, the most likely place the master control terminal would be on the network. She dashed behind a Z-95, and, after making sure that the area was clear, made a move for the ladder to the roof, careful to not make a sound as she climbed up. Once she was up, she quickly surveyed the area, before repeating the process to slice into the main comms relay.

Terminal, terminal, terminal… there!

Lexi quickly gave herself administrator permissions and interfaced with the terminal. She worked tirelessly, running down the list of stored vessels and releasing their locks – any enterprising pirate crew would probably have a field day if they managed to get unrestricted access to the graveyard like she just did.

With the terminal overridden, she placed another daemon on the network, this one ready to control the ships as soon as she sent the signal, and had the terminal upload it to every flight computer connected, including the Bantha's, though she would have to manually disable it once on board.

With the main body of work in place, Lexi made sure to cover her tracks – she forced the relay to report all communications as normal, while in actuality, disabling outbound communication. In true slicer tradition, she left a calling card in the system, though not one of her own – this one was from a rival on Nar Shaddaa, Wikjak. With any luck, he'd catch the blame for the job.

Her work complete, Lexi disconnected from the relay, returned everything to the way it was, and dropped down from the roof, back into the yard. The Bantha was by far the largest ship in the yard, though it was on the other end from the main building.

Lexi quickly and carefully moved from ship to ship, darting between the open rows. For how much materiel was stored there, the security presence was awfully light – the network showed only two patrols, both pairs of troopers.

As she got closer to the Bantha, she could hear some voices in the distance, and Lexi got low. "...Love that bossman got nailed the other week." one trooper said.

"The hell for? He said they didn't have squat on him." the other replied.

"ITB hit his ass with tax evasion, of all things. Six, seven years of it, something like that? He got slapped with ten years, a bunch of fines, and the back tax on top of that."

"Off to CorpSec debt slavery for him, then." Lexi moved closer to the patrol and watched them walk down the lane. "So, what's that mean for this hunk of garbage? He's the one that set up the deal in the first place." the second trooper inquired, pointing with his thumb towards the Bantha.

"Who knows? We weren't going to get a cut out of it anyways." the first trooper mused, and they continued to walk down the lane, past Lexi.

Deal? What deal? Were they talking about the agreement that had been struck regarding the Void Charter, or was this something else entirely?

Lexi shook it off and pushed the rest of the way to the Bantha. The boarding ramp was already down, so all Lexi had to do was force the airlock to cycle to get in. Not a single alarm went off as it cycled, granting Lexi access to the Bantha's interior.

It was strange being back – even voluntarily. The crude graffiti and pirate charms that had once marked the walls had been washed away, returned to its original CEC fittings. It was almost uncanny, seeing it so clean, when she knew of the horrors committed on board. She knew Kyra would feel the same, but she wanted to change that with it in their care.

Lexi quietly walked towards the bridge, taking in the sights of the sanitized Bantha. Memories of being forcibly dragged from her cell after the escape attempt came flooding back, especially once she actually got to the bridge and saw the captain's chair. She instinctively flinched at the memory of Lostur's blaster cracking across her nose, and shook it out of her head.

She moved to the main control console at the helm and plugged herself in, navigating to the databanks. Through some divine miracle, the logs had been completely untouched by the Empire, and Lexi quickly got to work digging for Kyra's file, probably buried in Lostur's business ledger under the 'Investments' category with the rest of the data.

Vile.

It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for – after all, it was the most recently modified file in there, dating to just before the revolt. As she should have expected, the logs had nothing new about Kyra, though that wasn't the main objective anymore. Something did catch her eye, however. "...To the order of Allo Lostur, to be paid four million Imperial Credits upon delivery of Kyra Moryne to Queen Arith Armen of Zygerria..."

If she ever came knocking, that was as good an excuse as any to kick the door in and have the whole rotten structure come crashing down.

Lexi quickly downloaded the file, saving three backups just in case, and then got to work doing what she came here for. Again, she threw a daemon into the system, this one set up to wipe out any others in the system before self-deleting, with the slight modification of letting the others do their jobs first. With everything in place, Lexi breathed deep and sent out the signal.

All hell immediately broke loose.

The sound of repulsorlifts spooling up could be heard even on the bridge of the Bantha. The lighter ships quickly took off and began to pollute the airspace with their presence, and the Bantha joined them in short order, its path wild and unpredictable. The first daemon finally activated, removing the second from the system and allowing Lexi full control of the Bantha.

Setting the nose to pitch up, Lexi continued the illusion of automated control while she sealed all bulkheads and locked the ship down. The 'swarm,' if it could really be called that, followed the Bantha into the upper layers of the atmosphere while an Imperial response was scrambled and dragged up with them. As soon as they completely broke atmosphere, the ships all began spooling their hyperdrives and headed for the edge of the gravity well.

"Attention, stolen ships. Cease evasion immediately and power down your systems." one particularly disgruntled Imperial pilot blared over the comms.

No. I don't think I will.

A group of TIEs flew past the bridge viewport, swinging off into the distance, before coming back around for another pass. "Repeat, stolen ships, power down all nonessential systems and prepare for boarding or we willopen fire."

Almost there, almost-

The TIEs let off a volley of laser fire into the swarm – a few shots smacked into the Bantha and got eaten by the armor plating, but the majority were aimed at the fighters themselves. The sudden attack caused each daemon controlling the fighters to pivot around and suddenly start engaging the Imperials, turning the skies above Tatooine into a battleground.

It ultimately mattered little, however. The moment the ships with hyperdrives were out of the gravity well, they jumped wherever their daemons had determined was appropriate. The stars in front of the viewport turned to lines, and the Bantha jumped away to Geonosis, allowing her a moment of respite from her escape.

Arfive would be waiting at the rendezvous to link up, but unfortunately, she couldn't simply dawdle in hyperspace. Lexi accessed the main computer and set up a connection to the transponder. With ease, she deactivated it and wiped the original list of names that Lostur had chosen. If the Bantha was to be theirs, it would no longer be the Bantha.

Lexi quickly began to brainstorm names – none immediately came to mind that would work as the name for the ship, but there were quite a few good ones she could write into the transponder – Scenario of Sin, Straightforward Intentions, Effectively Broken, and Cheap Prototype were all very nice. They needed something… more, though. Flair, maybe?

She thought back to the name of their freighter, the Coruscanti Knight, and a flash of inspiration suddenly hit her, as if it was there all along, staring her in the face.

The Whispering Duchess.

Perfect.

As soon as she was done setting up the new names on the transponder, the Duchess dropped out of hyperspace, giving Lexi a full view of Geonosis. On cue, the Knight dropped out in front of the Duchess, and Arfive signaled her with a perfunctory chirp over tightbeam. "Dock up, Arfive. We need to put as much distance between Tatooine and us as possible."

Arfive chirped again, and the Knight maneuvered below the Duchess to dock. The moment Lexi heard the seals connect, she spooled the hyperdrive and set the flight computer to take them back to the rings with their prize. She finally disconnected from the ship, walked back to the captain's chair, and allowed herself to relax as the stars once again turned to lines.

In the days since Lexi left against her wishes, Kyra had been expanding the world she shared with Nax. Beyond the initial beachfront and house, they had mapped out an entire forest and some caves, and even begun to populate it with some wildlife. At present, they were walking along a creek hand in hand in the rain. Of course, none of this was real – the droplets on their skin, the damp feeling of their clothes, the cold – but they had accepted that fact, and even begun to ignore it in light of the escape it gave them.

The rain suddenly intensified from a light drizzle to a torrential downpour, and the couple stopped, looking up and letting the droplets fall on their faces. Kyra brushed her wet bangs out of her face and looked at Nax. "Guess we should find some shelter, hm?"

Nax continued to stare up at the sky, deep in thought. Only when Kyra repeated herself did he stop and look down at her, his hair falling in front of his face. Then, he nodded, and they quickly headed for a nearby outcropping of rocks to take shelter under. It was cramped, uncomfortable, and didn't completely cover them, with Kyra having drawn the short straw and being mostly out of the cover of the rocks.

But neither cared about the situation they put themselves in. They had each other, and that was enough.

Nax took his duster off and lifted it over their heads, giving them a little makeshift tent to sit under while the rain passed, though it was really just an excuse to get closer to each other. In service of that, Nax threw his arm around Kyra, and pulled her closer. Kyra smiled and nuzzled up against him, before glancing up and meeting his gaze with adoration in her eyes. Nax lifted her chin up, and after a tense moment, finally kissed her.

Kyra, naturally, wanted more, and pushed herself up into it, gently stroking the side of his face. Their lips briefly parted, and Kyra muttered a dreamy-sounding confession of love, before going back in for seconds.

"Dreamer, your presence is required."a hoarse voice suddenly said, unfamiliar to her.

Of course. Why wouldn't this moment be ruined?

"I'm busy, leave me be." Kyra replied in an agitated tone, before trying to block out the intrusion and return the magic that had just been destroyed.

"I am afraid that I cannot do that, Dreamer. This is an urgent security matt-"

"Everything is an urgent security matter when it comes to me." Kyra bitterly replied, finding the intruder's insistence irritating. "I have just gotten back the love of my fragging life, and I have had non-stop interruptions when I have tried to spend time with him. I am going to repeat myself one more time; leave me alone."

"Dreamer, if this issue remains untouched, all of our work will be undone. I cannot just leave you be, as this entire incident centers on you." the intruder replied.

Kyra rolled her eyes mostly in sync with Nax, and they kissed each other one more time before Kyra returned to the real world. "Better be important." she said, before turning and seeing some of Virgilius's advisors standing behind the intruder, another Rakata, one she had not seen before, though presumably was in charge of helping rebuild.

Oh. So it is important.

Sawei slid out from behind the group, visibly concerned. She not only looked perturbed, but was also utterly wrecked, though unlike Kyra, she could afford the luxury of walking on her own two feet. "Apologies for the intrusion, Kyra, but this is genuinely important."

"Shoot." Kyra said, tensing up a little bit in response to Sawei's unsettled look. However, she retained her frustrated appearance for the Rakata, though Sawei knew it was a farce on principle. Stop beating around the bush and just tell me what the problem is already!

Sawei glanced at the Rakata, as if asking an unspoken question, and the Rakata nodded to her. Then, she turned back to Kyra. "Do you remember when we liberated Wargate, what the prisoners on the bottom level were chanting when they saw you?"

Why this was relevant, Kyra had no idea, but she racked her brains, trying to remember what was said. "...Haika… Haika Daritya, or something like that. Why?"

Sawei's frown grew. "'Haika Daritha,' yes. My understanding at the time was that 'Daritha' meant 'Darth,' the title for a dark lord of the Sith, though that isn't entirely right in this context." she explained, her tone dimming. "'Daritha' in the Rakatan language roughly translates to emperor, and-"

"What they were doing was calling out to you as the emperor, as a replacement for both Dantinian and Virgilius." the unknown Rakata summarized, cutting off Sawei. "Naturally, this jeopardizes our entire reconstruction effort. We cannot do anything if the people will not comply with the interim government, simply because you are a factor."

Kyra briefly contemplated proposing the idea that she take control and comply with reconstruction, but just as quickly remembered the stresses of simply being the Dreamer.

"You want me to turn the position down?" Kyra asked, already knowing the answer. The Rakata didn't even have to nod, but nonetheless seemed surprised by how quickly she answered; "I'll do it."

The Rakata looked between each other, and then back to Kyra. "We'll make the preparations – you'll have to give a speech in the next few hours once we're ready, but this should resolve the issue. Thank you, Dreamer."

The Rakata quickly vacated the room, leaving Sawei with the couple. She turned her gaze upon Nax with genuine concern in her eyes. "How is he?"

"He's… doing better, Sawei." Kyra replied, and Nax summoned whatever strength he had to lift his frail arm and give a thumbs up, before Kyra quickly grabbed it and held on to him. "I've been spending a lot of time with him, actually. In his mind, I mean." she quickly clarified, sounding somewhat embarassed by the notion now that she was saying it out loud to someone other than Lexi. "...It's, uh, really been helping, actually."

Sawei smiled at Kyra, and rested her head on her hand. "Tell me about it."

Kyra mentally did a double take, wondering if this was the prelude to a lecture, before she decided to indulge Sawei. "I've given us a planet of our own. Beachfront property, calm waters, a beautiful view – it's everything I would ever want if I retired. Before you guys came in, we were actually walking through the woods in the rain. It was… cute."

Sawei nodded, though her expression soured slightly as she moved to change the topic. "...When you battled Dantinian, Kyra, what did you see?"

What did I see? I saw-

Oh.

"...I had him on his knees, neck between my saber and his." Kyra started, trying to avoid averting her gaze in shame. "Never in my life have I wanted to kill someone so badly, so desperately, not even when it was Lostur on the other end. I was about to do it, too, and then I remembered what you told me-" she continued, beginning to stumble over her words. "-about what would happen if I went through with it. I don't know if it was a vision or what, but I saw both Nax and Lexi in his place, and I just… couldn't. Not like that."

Sawei looked back at Nax and let out a hum of approval. "Then in that case, I appear to have been in the wrong to try and separate you, Kyra. Completely and utterly misguided." she admitted, before returning her gaze to Kyra. "Your attachments did not weaken you like I believed they would, Kyra – no, they have instead made you stronger. I believe that, had you followed my advice and parted with him, you would have failed the test the Force presented to you."

Nax gently squeezed Kyra's hand, eliciting a smile from her. "So, does this mean that you've-?"

"Yes, Kyra." Sawei immediately responded, shaking her head with some amusement. "You've given me much to reconsider. Things are not as clear cut as I had chosen to believe – I see that much now."

Kyra nodded, her smile growing wider. "What are you going to do now? Galaxy's changed a lot since you were last out there."

Sawei adopted a look of slight concern. "That it has. The Jedi are no longer welcome – if I leave, I'll have to watch my every move, as will you, though not as much. If we were to draw our lightsabers outside of these rings, we would be painting a target on our backs, so I remain… undecided, at least for now." she replied, before switching the subject around to Kyra. "What about you? What do you intend on doing now?"

Kyra didn't have to think very hard about that. "When Nax is back to how he was, we're going to go to Alderaan to meet my parents. Tie up loose ends, clear the air about what happened..." she trailed, before looking at Nax, an adoring look in her eyes. "...Tie the knot, maybe?"

Sawei snickered at the suggestion. "That sounds to me like you've been planning this out the whole time."

"Maybe I have." Kyra replied. Nax suddenly started to move, took his hand away from Kyra, and forced himself to sit up straight. "Nax, no-" Kyra protested, trying to get him to lay back down. Instead, though, Kyra was pulled into an embrace, one that she quickly reciprocated.

"That looks like a 'yes' to me, Kyra." Sawei commented, before getting up. "I'll leave you two alone."

Kyra breathed deep. Just outside, she could hear the rumblings of the discontented crowd of Rakata, awaiting her announcement, some of them even chanting 'Haika Daritha'. Never had she ever imagined being in a position like this, in the realm of politicians and leaders addressing a nation. She always expected to be the small fry, one of those in the crowd, not the focal point.

Perhaps this would be good practice for what awaited her on Alderaan.

Kyra steeled herself and sent the hoverchair outside and up onto the podium that had been set up for her. As soon as the Rakata caught the first glimpse of her white hair, the crowd exploded into cheering and chanting, clearly excited for the announcement that she would be taking over from Virgilius's advisors.

A shame that they were about to be disappointed.

Kyra raised her hand, calling for silence, and the crowd quickly quieted down. She tapped the microphone twice to test that it was working, and then finally cleared her throat. "Rakata of the Rings." she started, formulating an idea of how she wanted the speech to go. "Long have you suffered under the reign of Dantinian. Your brothers and sisters, your wives and your husbands, your parents and your children – their cries for vengeance have finally been answered. No more will you have to look over your shoulder for fear of being taken in the night, nor will you live in the shadow of Dantinian's enforcers. A brighter future is beginning to dawn for your people, one that will have a lasting peace, so that the memories of this horrible war may be washed away by the flow of time."

Your people. Kyra mentally echoed. That was an important distinction, one she would have to make throughout the speech.

"This future, however, is not one I am meant to share with you." Kyra revealed, content to let her words hang in the air for a moment. The crowd began to murmur among themselves, confused as to what she could possibly have meant by that. "I understand that many of you desire for me to lead you into this new age. While it humbles and flatters me that you believe that I am capable of performing such a task, I cannot. I am but an interloper – an outsider. I do not know what is best for your people, nor would I know where to even begin leading."

Kyra paused, giving herself a moment to think of how to proceed. "Something I have learned over the past few months is that we are not bound by the trappings of a concept as ridiculous as destiny. We are all capable of making our own decisions – of forging our own paths in life. I have lost count of the amount of times that I was told I would be nothing more than a slave, or that it was my destiny to be sacrificed by Dantinian, and each and every time, I have rejected those notions and made my own way."

Time to close out.

"This position that you wish to place me in is no different. I have chosen my own path in life, and it does not end with me as Daritha. No, instead, you must look inward, towards yourselves. To your neighbors, your friends, your families, and even those who you would have considered your enemies just a few weeks ago. You must all work together and carve out your place in this new future together as one unified people. My role here has ended, but yours is only just beginning."

Kyra let go of a breath she didn't even know she had been holding in, and waited, gauging the crowd's reaction. They were stunned – bewildered, even, by the speech, though of all the mixed reactions she was feeling, they did not appear angry. One Rakata, closer to the front of the crowd, stood up. "Haika Futula!" he shouted. The silence remained for a few more moments, before the crowd began to echo the chant.

"Haika Futula! Haika Futula! Haika Futula!"

Hail to the future, indeed.

Lexi was awoken by the sensation of the Duchess's computer letting her know it was dropping out of hyperspace. By the time she crawled up from where she had been sleeping at the helm, the lines had turned to stars, granting her a full view of the rings. "...Alright, let's get this thing set down..." she said to nobody in particular, laying in the course to the Dropstorm.

Her work was very quickly interrupted by an incoming hail from a patrolling Star Reaver, which she accepted. "Whispering Duchess, identify your crew and declare-"

The monotone voice paused mid-sentence, presumably from scanning the attached Knight. "Oh. It's you, Sapphyra. Patching Blackwall in now."

The line went dark, and Lexi waited for the ear blistering rant she was about to endure. The line crackled back to life before Lexi could even theorize what Blackwall would say. "Sapphyra, why are you like this?"

Disappointment poured from Blackwall's voice like a waterfall, sounding more like a frustrated parent than a military commander. "You knew I would have told you no if you had asked for permission to take off, so you just took your ship and did it anyways."

Lexi couldn't even deny that – she did forge the records, but she hadn't told anyone, aside from implying she would be doing as much to Kyra. "I was thinking of letting you off for you going AWOL in Noridar, as a sign of goodwill towards Kyra. Not anymore. You're going to be sitting in the brig until further notice."

The link quickly went dead, and the Star Reaver patrol signaled the Duchess with the approach path she was to take. With a sigh, Lexi wiped the original path and laid in the new course, before letting the autopilot do its work.

In all honesty, she should probably have expected this to happen.

That's all for this chapter. For what it is, it should NOT have been two months, but unfortunately, Calculus, work, and the absolute clusterfuck that is my life right now have all decided to firmly go 'fuck you'.

It's out, and the next chapter is the last one for this arc before we finally move on to Alderaan. Genuinely, I'm excited for Alderaan, though it's not coming out until the Tatooine rewrite is done, which I will resume after the next chapter.

Until next time.