Postscript: Not Yet Broken

"Alright, smarty-pants. I've got a good one," Tahiri said. "If you kill one person, it will save a thousand others. What do you do—kill one or let a thousand die?"

Anakin considered this for a moment. "Neither," he declared. "It's a false dilemma. There's always another way."

"Always?" Tahiri asked.

"Of course. I couldn't live in a galaxy where you had to make those kinds of decisions. Have faith in the Force and you'll find another way."

Tears filled Tahiri's eyes as she remembered the words of her beloved Anakin. What if it's countless thousands you could save? What if one of them is your best friend's brother? What if you can't find another way?

The questions haunted Tahiri. She knew they would haunt her until the day she died, she knew she would never have the answers. She didn't know if killing Callista was the only way. She hadn't even been sure that it would work. But it was the best plan she could come up with. If Jacen saw her, saw what he'd driven her to, then maybe, just maybe, he would see the light.

Callista had helped, she'd gotten him so close. But he wasn't quite ready, he wasn't yet certain that he was wrong. If he'd faced Master Skywalker with that uncertainty still lingering. . . .

Maybe if Tahiri had talked to Callista, they could have worked together. Maybe that was another way. But from the beginning, somewhere in her heart Tahiri had known her fate. She couldn't speak to the former Jedi, she couldn't risk losing her nerve. It was the only way.

There's always another way.

Tahiri buried her head in her arms and cried.

That's when the engines failed.

When Tahiri awoke someone was nuzzling her neck.

"Anakin, that tickles," she murmured. Anakin! Could it be? Was it over? Had she finally found her way back to her beloved?

Tahiri didn't want to open her eyes, didn't want to risk being disappointed. But even more she wanted to see his face again. Slowly her eyes fluttered open. She was met with blue eyes. But they weren't Anakin's. They belonged to an impossibly fluffy creature with long ears and pure white fur. The creature skittered away at the sound of voices shouting nearby.

Tahiri sat up and looked around. She was seated on a thin mat in small room with no windows and only one door. The voices were on the other side of the door. She padded quietly across the room and put her ear against the door.

"The killing stops here. I won't let you hurt her."

"Don't you understand? She's a murderer. She killed Callista."

They must have been talking about her. But how did they know? Who were they? How long had she been unconscious?

"And Callista wouldn't have wanted any more death in her name."

"Fine. Whatever. She's not even worth the blaster round." With that, the speaker departed.

Tahiri stepped back from the door, unsure how to proceed. The fluffy creature had followed her across the room and was now entwining itself around her legs. Its fur was even softer than it looked as it brushed against her bare feet and ankles. There was a knock on the door. The creature gave a little cry in response. Her savior entered.

For a while he just stared at her, and she at him. There was a sadness in his pale green eyes that Tahiri knew all too well. Yet somehow, despite the sadness, she had the sense that all hope was not lost. He was beaten down, but not yet broken.

Finally, he broke the silence. "I don't know what happened to your shoes. We couldn't find any when we pulled you from the starfighter."

"I wasn't wearing any," Tahiri replied.

"Oh. Well I guess that mystery is solved." More silence. Tahiri was sure he would confront her, ask her questions she could never answer. But he didn't. Instead he asked, "Do you know anything about fixing ships?"

She was thrown off, not prepared to answer such a simple question. "I know enough," she said cautiously.

"Good. Then you can help me fix one. Your starfighter is pretty well destroyed, but we may be able to scrounge a few parts. Maybe enough to finally get the Angel in the air."

"Why would you think I would help you?" she asked, trying to catch up, trying to figure out why this man did not want her dead.

He shrugged. "What else do you have to do? You know you can't go back, don't you?"

Tahiri knew she could go back. It wouldn't be pretty, but she could. She probably should go back. Take responsibility. Face what she had done. But not yet. Her executioners, if that's what they would be, weren't going anywhere. The least she could do was help this man first, this friend of the woman she'd murdered.

Callista's friend claimed he'd never seen the blue-eyed creature before, he didn't know how it had gotten into the room with her. But the fluffy animal, a whisperkit by Tahiri's best guess, acted like it had always belonged to her, spending most of its time perched on her shoulder, the way Ikrit used to perch on Anakin's shoulder. Currently, the creature was curled up in a ball nearby, as Tahiri was on her back under the ship. She liked it's companionship. She liked that it didn't judge her, that it snuggled close to her at night despite her crimes.

The Azure Angel, as Tahiri had learned it was called, was a weathered old Delta interceptor, looking aged enough to have been around for the Clone Wars. Why anyone would want to refurbish it was beyond her, yet somehow she didn't feel like she was wasting her time. Perhaps there was something special about it, something Callista could see and no one else. And the name—Azure Angel—something about it seemed important, meaningful, but she couldn't quite place what it was. It didn't much matter, Tahiri had given her word that she would help to repair the ship regardless, but something about it nagged at her.

"You spent a lot of time working on this with Callista, didn't you?" Tahiri asked.

"Yeah. But then it was just a hobby. We had other ships that actually flew."

"What happened to your other ship?"

"I gave it away," he said simply. Tahiri gave him a quizzical look and he explained, "It seemed like the right thing to do at the time."

"Stranding yourself on this planet seemed like a good idea?"

"I didn't say it was a good idea. I said it seemed like the right thing to do."

"That simple, huh?" Tahiri's tone was bitter. "It just 'seemed like the right thing to do.' "

"I figure that's all anyone can ever do. You can't know the future, you can't change the past. You can just do what seems right at the moment."

"What if it turns out it wasn't the right thing after all?"

"Like I said, you can't change the past. The best you can hope for is to learn something so you do better next time." Tahiri could feel the strange man looking toward her, and she was glad she was hidden beneath the ship, so he couldn't see her fighting back tears. "Sometimes we fail. Sometimes the galaxy tests us and we're found wanting. Sometime we aren't strong enough to save our friends. But that doesn't mean we should give up. 'Cause those same friends we failed to save—they watch us, they guide us. And if we give up when we can still fight it means we've learned nothing. And we fail them all over again."

Tahiri continued to tinker under the starship, considering his words.

"Callista was fond of saying the galaxy has a sense of humor," he continued, the somberness in his tone gone, replaced with playfulness. "Though she never mentioned that it was also a sadist."

For some reason that made Tahiri laugh. She slid out from under the ship and looked at him. He grinned back at her, a glint in his green eyes.

"It's not funny," Tahiri objected. "None of this is funny."

"Then why are you laughing?"

"Because," Tahiri replied, "I'm tired of crying."

He shrugged. "I'll take it."

The whisperkit had crawled into her lap as soon as Tahiri appeared from under the ship. She stroked it absently, watching Callista's friend as he carefully manipulated the wires of the hyperdrive. As he focused on the task before him, there was a sorrow in his eyes, but also a determination. Beaten but not broken.

Tahiri took a quick inventory of her life, right now, in this moment. There was the archaic ship, with a significance she couldn't place. There was her new pet, the creature that had adopted her instead of the other way around. And there was this man, this man who should hate her but didn't. This man who, despite everything, offered her the one thing she didn't deserve, but desperately needed. Hope.

Tahiri had made many mistakes. She had a million regrets. She would never heal all the harm she had done, but she would try. Her life was not over yet. She would not give up until it was.