Approximately two years earlier, Mid Rim Territories, aboard the cruiser Black Knight

Garin's Defender settled into its berthing grappler with a satisfying clang as the clasps closed around the fighter's pylons. He removed his helmet, stretching stiffly, he was used to short flights, and an eight hour lay away on a trade lane wasn't his idea of a short operation. It had to be done though; they only had the trade lanes that the bacta shipments were using, not their exact times. Isard was being appropriately paranoid about those and not releasing them to anyone who didn't expressly need to know. He opened the hatch and climbed out of his ship and onto the gangway; other Shadow's passed him as they headed towards the pilot lockers, inclining their head in what passed for saluting. He watched each of them carefully as they passed, watching for signs of weariness or discomfort. This was their third run against what amounted to helpless civilians, and he wasn't blind enough to think that it wouldn't sit ill on his people. Especially with the Hutt spawned Raptors in tow.

They were merciless even against helpless civilians, he'd made it a protocol now for Hades to stand to between the Raptors and the disabled transports to ensure they didn't wholesale slaughter them. So far Freille and his pilots hadn't been willing to cross Hades, but he knew that the captain was hardly pleased that his would be allies were preventing him from an easy kill.

"Ship handling alright sir?"

His mind snapped to, and he looked up to find one of Daru's mechanics standing in front of him, "sorry to startle you sir," he apologized quickly. "I just thought that you might be having problems since you were just standing there."

Garin shook his head, patting the Arkanian, yet another non-human he mused with a smile, on the shoulder as he passed. "No Adras, nothing wrong, just thoughtful."

He stopped suddenly, turning to look at the tech for a long moment as he began running his diagnostics on the line of Defenders.

"Adras, how are you?"

Adras looked up from his datapad, his pale eyes reflecting his confusion; "sir?"

"How are you holding up," Garin elaborated.

Garin had to admit, the poor man looked like he'd been caught raiding the pantry, "I—that is—well," he frowned, looking at Garin worriedly; "permission to speak freely sir?"

Garin nodded, already regretting asking the question but he'd asked and he did want to know.

"A lot of us are nervous sir; Chief Kerrila has been acting a bit weird lately. She doesn't get as animated working on the ships like she used to." He looked around, as if afraid that they might be overheard, but considering that he was the only tech here, and aside from Garin, all the other pilots had gone ahead to debriefing, where he needed to be actually, but this was more important.

"She's been talking to the ships sir, its weird but there you have it, and a lot of times she just starts crying, not sobbing mind you, just tears. We've tried cheering her up, the entire team has, but nothing really seems to be working."

Garin nodded, feeling his chest seize up as he tried to keep the worry from his face. Ardas had to know why Daru was acting like this, the entire damned crew knew about their relationship and probably knew about it ending too. He was just avoiding stepping on too many toes, Garin sighed heavily, and now of course Toth wasn't giving him anymore than a 'yes sir' whenever they interacted. The others were still in one piece, well no, Vic'que was weirder than usual, ever since hearing about the 181st being with Zsinj. Garin had something on that, which he hoped to get out of the way during this debriefing.

He looked at Ardas for a long time before breaking the uncomfortable silence, "keep an eye on the Chief, and don't feel like you can't tell me if something doesn't sit right."

Ardas bit his lip nervously, "we all trust you sir."

Garin snorted and smiled, "someone has to," he murmured as he turned to head towards the lockers and the debriefing beyond.

"There you are we've been waiting sir."

Commander Kindran's calm, authoritative tone set Garin back to his cadet days and he nodded by way of apology to the Commander and his pilots.

"I had something to take care of on my fighter."

"Of course sir," Kindran said as Garin came to stand besides him, "let me begin with the most obvious piece of intelligence, the unknown X-wings that we encountered on our second sortie."

"The great mystery, solved," Matrin said with a smile.

"I'm sure it was quite arduous for you sir," piped up Kalan.

Kindran eyed them for a moment before turning to Harth, "Captain if you wouldn't mind?"

Harth just nodded, reaching forwards, both Kalan and Matrin tried to scurry out of the larger man's reach but he grabbed the collars of their jumpsuits and knocked their heads together with, in Garin's appraisal, a very satisfying clunk.

Kindran nodded approval, "thank you. As I was saying, the unknown X-wings that we encountered previously were obviously not Republic in origin given their unusual markings," the holodisplay flashed images of the fighters in question, colored in an assortment of odd patterns and designs, no two alike. "We have however discovered exactly what they are, or rather who."

"And," Vic'que prompted, her tone hardly respectful.

"They are Rogue Squadron, or rather, were Rogue Squadron."

"'Were,'" Toth echoed, "as in no longer are?"

Kindran nodded, "precisely, apparently, after the fall of Coruscant and Isard's subsequent escape there was a falling out between Rogue Squadron and Republic Command over how to deal with her. As a result, the former members of Rogue Squadron have—somewhat poetically—gone rogue in order to pursue Isard."

There was a long pause, all four Hades squadrons, Shadow, Diamond, Wyvern, and Mantis were completely silent, and then everyone burst out into gales of laughter, even Vic'que and Harth were smiling.

"The Rogues are rogue," various individuals called out in various permutations, the laughter continued as more jokes and cracks were made, Garin looked over at Kindran with a shrug that said,'what can you do?' Kindran nodded agreement, and Garin caught the look of amusement in the older man's eye; even he saw the humor in the irony of Rogue Squadron's rebellion against their own side. In an odd way, it mirrored what Hades was doing, or had done until now, and Garin had to admit he admired the Rogue's tenacity in pursuing Isard. It explained in some part why Hades had received no attention; despite several attempts when she was still instated on Coruscant. If he'd had the Rogue's after him he'd have been pretty occupied too; it would be an interesting contest to see which was better since apparently the Rogues were at least as good as the 181st. Then again, Hades had bested members of that infamous unit in the past, so perhaps the Rogues weren't all that bad after all; they had run when they'd seen Hades and the Raptors in and around the convoy rather than stay and fight.

The laughter finally died down with a scattering of chuckling as Kindran cleared his throat, calling for attention once again, "yes, I'm sure Rogue Squadron realized the irony themselves. However now that we know they are operating against Isard as well it makes our situation somewhat, delicate shall we say. As everyone is aware, we joined Zsinj on the assumption that Isard would use her newfound mobility to pursue those who stood against her. We assumed we would be a prime target given our continued defiance during her tenure as de facto Empress;" here Kindran glanced at Garin, who nodded quietly, yes this needed to come out now considering the stress this situation was putting on the unit.

"Since this assumption has proven to be false, we are left in a situation where Zsinj is no longer vital to our survival and in fact may actually be a detriment to it," he took a breath, "I will leave the rest for the Lieutenant-Commander."

Garin stepped forwards, taking center stage, yes, he'd discussed this with both Iriana and Orlis, but that didn't make this any easier now that his people were staring at him curiously; he took a deep breath and took the plunge.

"First," here he looked at Toth; his longtime friend was eyeing him suspiciously, an expression he'd worn more and more in the recent weeks. "How many of you are disgruntled by what Hades has become."

There was dead silence, no one moved a muscle, not even Kalan and Matrin, usually so animate; now they were stone still. He'd expected this reaction, what Adras had said to him was broadly true of most of the unit, they all trusted him and here he was calling their scrutiny upon himself voluntarily; if their places had been reversed he was certain he'd feel just as uncomfortable.

"As Orlis just stated, we went to Zsinj as insurance against Isard, but she has backed herself into yet another corner and we're left raiding civilian targets for little purpose. I admit that it does hurt Isard, but considering that she seems intent on making her own cage rather than using the freedom she's given herself I see little reason to continue as we've been doing. So I want to know now, how many of you think what we're doing under Zsinj is wrong?"

Glances were exchanged as the silence dragged on, finally a group of pilots stood up, slowly others joined them, until finally everyone, even his friends, were standing in agreement.

Garin nodded, "alright, then we've got two things to do. First break away from Zsinj and his watchdogs, second determine what to do once that is accomplished. Thankfully, Zsinj, like Isard is too engaged with other matters to hunt us down. So long as we stay clear of his space there shouldn't be an issue." There was one more thing, and he might as well, he hadn't told this part of Orlis or Iriana. "Given what my planning has gotten us into, I believe it is in the unit's best interest if I step down," there was immediate uproar, even Toth was shouting disapproval; Garin had to bite his lip to keep from doing anything embarrassing.

He raised a hand for silence and it was given after a moment. "Hear me out, I've made a very bad call and if it had been in a different situation I could have gotten all of us killed, so I am asking, and I will be sending a mail to all crewmembers so don't think this request is limited to you, for all officers opinions on my command. If the overall opinion is one of disapproval then I will turn command of the unit over to Captains Arusi and Chapella."

Present, interrogation room aboard the Mon Cal cruiser Home One, Bilbringi Shipyards

"Wait, you volunteered your resignation because you made a mistake?"

Deana's voice sounded more than a little shocked, "yes," I said tacitly with a shrug. "I felt responsible, so I opted to stand down from command should the unit call for it."

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you, of all people, could so easily walk away from a position like that."

I snorted, was it that unusual? I'd have liked to entertain the notion that any decent commander would make the same decision but that might have been wishful thinking, regardless I had made the choice.

"But they didn't call your bluff I take it."

"Bluff," I asked incredulously, leaning forwards. "It wasn't a bluff; I fully intended to leave Hades if my command was no longer sufficient to keep my people alive."

"But you didn't," she persisted, probing the topic further; "after all you were still in command in this last battle."

I smiled at her coyly, "here is what happened….."

Approximately two years earlier, Mid Rim Territories, aboard the cruiser Black Knight

Garin sat at his terminal eyeing the report summary, as it stood; most of the unit was still behind him. Somewhat to his annoyance most of the officers were too, there were some that wondered what they were doing and in turn questioned his command abilities. Considering the doubts he was having about himself, he couldn't say that he blamed them.

His door chimed, "enter," he called without looking up.

"The report finished, you're still in command."

Garin looked over at Vic'que, "so it would seem. I'm not entirely sure if I like that outcome."

She smiled at him coyly as she approached, trailing her finger over the back of his chair before taking a seat in the second chair he kept in his quarters.

"Are you going to edit the results?"

"I might," he said after a moment, "even if I don't, I may still resign my post."

"You'd run away from the war," she said plainly, even though she said it tonelessly, there was the trace of accusation in her voice.

"I ran away from the war the day I decided to go rogue Vic'que. I've just been denying that this entire time."

She pushed his chair around with her boot, turning him towards her; "Thrawn didn't enlist a defeatist."

"Thrawn enlisted a boy he thought showed promise, it's been dumb luck so far for us."

Her eyes narrowed and very suddenly she was on top of him, pressing her lips and hips against his. Garin's eyes widened as she slid her arms around him, forcing her tongue past his teeth; images of Daru burst into his head and he gripped Vic'que's shoulders, shoving her off and back into her chair.

"What are you doing," he spat. Looking at her as if she'd sprouted another head.

"Since we both seem to be suffering the same ailment," she said, drawing her hair out of her eyes, her blue gaze burning into his face. "I thought that perhaps you could use a reminder of what you're pining for."

Garin felt violated as he stood up, looming over Vic'que as she smiled up at him triumphantly, "don't ever do that again."

"Why," she asked. "You've all but abandoned your precious tail head, the poor little girl* spends most of her time in the hangar deck wondering what to do with herself. I'm surprised she hasn't thrown herself under an engine block or power coupling."

"Just shut up and get out," he growled.

"Not until you stop acting like me, and start acting like yourself." He scowled at her as she continued, "I'm the one who fell in love with someone who cares nothing for me, and I have every right to be saddened by that fact; especially since he might very well be serving the man you seem set to betray. You fell for someone that cares so deeply for you that she's losing her mind because she thinks you see her as little more than a tool. Believe me when I say that I know how she feels, and even if I do not particularly like her, I refuse to see someone else in my situation."

Garin sat back down in his chair, "what do you expect me to do?"

"Be what you've always been, the heart of this unit. When I said you keep this force alive I was not being facetious. I meant it, one of the few compliments I've ever given you I, so take it while I still believe it."

"Vic'que, what are you really doing here," Garin asked, leaning back in his chair and looking at her, feeling very tired suddenly.

"I'm here to remind you what you chose to create with this unit, you stood besides some of the most dangerous men in the galaxy and survived. You managed to keep your doubts a secret from them and do the jobs they set you; no matter how repulsed you were by those orders. All so you could keep this unit, this family alive and now you're letting yourself destroy it. Stop being this weakling and be the man I hate and respect, sir."

"You have got to be the most backwards minded woman I know," Garin said with a snort, eying her smiling features.

There was another chime at his door, "enter," and Sissir entered, she cast a cool gaze at Vic'que who eyed her indifferently.

"Sir we've got a problem," she said, ignoring Vic'que entirely.

Garin stood and turned to her, "did our watchdogs get over zealous with the bacta distribution again?"

She shook her head, "its Daru. She's barricaded herself on the flight deck."

Vic'que let out a long, exasperated sigh. "What has she done now?"

"And you haven't done anything, why," Garin asked, his voice growing very cold as he stood up.

Sissir starred back at him blandly as she answered, "because sir, she's locked down the entire hangar, we can't even get in via maintenance."

Garin scowled and shook his head, a part of him despairing even as he pushed out into the hallway; this was what he got for letting things sit, Toth, and now Vic'que were both right on that count. He just hoped that he hadn't let things get to the point of no return; the unit was in bad enough shape as it was.