Paneau: capital city of Dalon
Dalon Medical Center
5.4 APC

Rech hadn't even given Major Jax a chance to stand from his seat in the hall before he swiftly passed him and charged into Mand's room, demanding answers as he waded through the other medics around her.

"What happened!"

Though she wasn't completely unconscious, Rech quickly realized she wasn't entirely lucid, either. Her half-open eyes slowly tracked from side to side, seeming to lethargically follow the activity around her, but she remained silent as a nurse hastily strapped a breath mask over her face.

"We - we had just gotten seated for dinner in the banquet hall," Jax tried to answer Rech over the chaotic atmosphere in the room, "but when she tried to talk, she...only spoke nonsense... They weren't even words, just gibberish -"

"I want a full work-up," the lead doctor ordered over Jax, "and turn the oxygen up to maximum; her levels are dangerously low."

As he scooped up her hand at her side with a sense of dread, Rech was beginning to feel that the scene was all too familiar...

A nurse quickly shooed Jax out of the room and shut the door behind him as they continued busily working on Mand around Rech, setting up monitors and displays about her. Hoping to learn something faster than their tests could tell him, Rech gently placed his palm against her forehead, closing his eyes to concentrate as he sent tendrils of the Force through her. He immediately noticed how sluggish her mind was, and it had been years since he had felt anything like it from her...

His efforts must have allowed her to recognize his presence. Through the breath mask over her mouth, he heard her lightly speak his name, but the remainder was too muffled to understand. He carefully lifted the mask off her and set it to the side, leaning closely over her to listen to her soft words that were hardly audible.

"...we have to...find him..."

Perplexed but cautiously optimistic, he gently stroked her hair back from her forehead, looking into her eyes with deep concern. "Find who, Mand? What are you talking about?"

But she wasn't as coherent as he had hoped, seeming to ignore his question. "He...needs our help..."

"Who, Mand?"

Her voice was even more distant. "...Zev."

While working under her alias Killian R'Daw as an operative for the Huxnel, she had come to believe a fellow agent named Zev was her older brother. After the failed Huxnel Invasion more than ten years ago, he had been incarcerated for life after being framed for the deaths of New Republic guards and for his crimes committed with the group, and Mand had left him far behind with the rest of her false past. It was a name Rech hadn't heard or even thought of in years, and he desperately hoped that he had heard her wrong. The more he thought about it, though, the more things were slowly starting to make sense; her lengthy fatigue, her sudden inability to form words, and now her lapse into memories more than six years old were all the same symptoms that had preceded a difficult episode just after they learned that she was...

Stunned for a brief moment in both realization and disbelief, he turned back to the nurses still working on Mand. "Get her an iron supplement, highest allowable dosage."

One nurse stopped, looking puzzled. "Sir?"

"She's severely anemic. Her entire body is...starving..."

In order to alleviate the stress on her system, he put her into a light, Force-induced sleep, in complete denial of her condition as the nurse complied. Looking up to the room's window for the first time, he saw Jax standing out in the hall beside Koril and a few guards that must have accompanied them from the Manor, but no Elena. A brief pang of worry gripped his stomach as he wondered if something else had happened, and with Mand comfortably sleeping for the time being, he stood from her and stepped outside the room, allowing the nurses to continue their work.

"Is she going to be alright?"

The amount of concern in Koril's voice and in his expression caught Rech off guard for a moment, having grown accustomed to his emotionless tone over the months. Though he was glad to finally see Koril in better form, he took a quick glance back inside at Mand and breathed shakily to answer him. "For now. Where's Elena?"

Both Koril and Jax looked reluctant to answer.

"She's...still at the Manor," Koril returned carefully. "Cordira became inconsolable once we realized that something was wrong with Mand. Cordira wouldn't let go of her; she was terrified, screaming... Elena stayed behind to try to calm her."

Rech's heart wrenched into a searing knot. He knew very well how difficult Cordira could be when she unwittingly experienced the same pain or horrors Mand did, but why had she reacted so dramatically to it this time?

"Rech," Koril continued quietly, "...what's wrong with Mand?"

Again looking back in on her as she remained asleep despite the medical team busily working around her, Rech spoke before he intended to. "I don't know - I mean..." He brought his hand up to rub his forehead, fighting through his denial. "The last time all this happened...exactly like this...she was pregnant with Cordira."

Both Koril's and Jax's expressions lightened slightly, but when Rech remained silent, they became somber again.

"Is she...?"

Rech had to look down and away from Koril, hardly able to answer him. "...she never told me."

Jax's hand gripping his shoulder brought his gaze back up to the major, still somewhat unused to Jax's unofficial manner. "You two have been through a lot recently... She might've been afraid to."

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Jax was probably right. The three miscarriages had worn her down substantially, physically and emotionally, to the point where Rech had almost asked that they stop trying. For the last two, the preemptive treatment they had tried hadn't lessened her body's drastic reaction to the tiny lives, but sadly had the opposite effect instead. They had decided on a more conservative approach with her next pregnancy, but she hadn't even informed him...

"Mr. Natiyr?"

Shedding Jax's grip, Rech quickly whirled around to face the young doctor, a relatively new resident he hadn't worked with before.

"She's stabilizing," the doctor reported with relief as he stepped up to them. "Her ox-sats are rising to normal levels. That supplement seems to have done the trick."

For now, Rech thought again, though he managed to keep it to himself. He began to ask a question, but the doctor continued before he could.

"I've requested that a team of prenatal specialists be on hand to monitor the twins while we try to determine the cause of her condition."

Air solidified in his chest in complete shock, preventing him from breathing and his heart from beating. Even if he hadn't been in denial, he couldn't have prepared himself for that. "...twins?"

Taken aback by Rech's reaction, the doctor fumbled with his datapad for the information. "Uh - y-yes...twin girls, about...14, 15 weeks. Well past the first trimester."

Rech's shock quickly shifted to confusion, though, as he looked back into the room at Mand, studying the quiet monitors around her. She was already into her fourth month? "But that doesn't make any sense," he said quietly to himself as he tried to process it all.

The doctor had been watching him carefully, though. "Sir?"

Returning to him, Rech nodded, coming back to his senses though still perplexed. "Thank you. I'll help with her treatment when I can."

Nodding, the doctor began to leave. "We'll be keeping a close watch on them all."

Though he wasn't conscious of it, Rech's lungs ached for a fresh breath, but he didn't breathe until Koril lightly gripped his shoulder, stepping up to his side. Rech couldn't look at his friend, though; still reeling from the news, he had to sit, feeling his legs beginning to weaken underneath him. Koril sat with him on the bench just outside Mand's room, but thankfully both he and Jax remained silent. He was feeling such a polarizing range of emotions, and he needed to process it all on his own.

It was a miracle that Mand was already so far along, after suffering three devastating miscarriages in the very early stages. He wanted to be happy, elated for the success, but every time he felt his heart beginning to flutter in excitement, the reality of her current state pierced through it. But why was she so suddenly ill in the first place?

After she had been kidnapped by a Dark Jedi more than ten years ago, they had rescued her and discovered her pregnancy with Cordira when it began causing her the same health problems. She was severely fatigued and anemic almost constantly, until a custom supplement had been created for her, replenishing her body with the nutrients she needed to survive. The girl, an altered clone of her mother, was especially taxing on Mand's system, hoarding so many vitamins and essential minerals that they were almost unable to reverse it or keep up with her demand. But surely it had been an unforeseen side effect of the experimental, altered cloning process, hadn't it? Why was Mand exhibiting the same symptoms with these two girls who definitely were not clones?

"Rech?"

He stood as Elena approached with a guard struggling to keep up with her. She looked with intense concern into Mand's room as she reached the group, but Rech was momentarily more worried about his distraught daughter.

"How's Cordira?"

A bit surprised by his immediate attention on the girl, she hesitated briefly. "She's calmed...for now. Raen and Derek are trying to keep her...distracted."

Trying to not become exasperated, he pressed on. "Why was she so upset?"

Once again reluctant, she glanced at Koril standing at Rech's side, speaking softly. "She thinks her mother is dying." Again looking behind Rech into the room, she couldn't hide the latent fear in her eyes. "Is she?"

Rech shook his head, relieving her anxiety, but he still couldn't bring himself to say it, prompting Koril's quiet intervention.

"She's having twins."

Initially, Elena's expression brightened, but after considering the distressed look on his face, she, too, became confused, having followed the same process he had.

"Rech...it was like watching a memory happening again right in front of me. It played out the exact same way, even down to her asking about Zev, just like when you two had visited me on Hoth trying to escape Layna before Cordira was born. How can that be? I thought Mand's problems were all...because of Cordira?"

His mind overworked, he blanked. "I don't know." It was all he could think to say, though he knew Elena expected more from him. She seemed to sense his turmoil, though, and quieted, pulling him into a friendly hug instead. Her embrace focused him just enough to remember...Elena had been home less than a full day, earlier that morning Koril had only just been brought back to his senses for the first time in months, and the two of them had only gotten half of the rest they were in desperate need of.

"Go home, you two," Rech commanded softly as he stepped back from Elena. Predictably, she began to protest, but he continued before she could get very far. "There's nothing you need to be doing here at the moment. Besides, this is the last thing either of you need right now, more stress... I'll let you know what we find out or if anything changes, okay? Just, please...go rest."

Again, Elena began to say more, but another quick glance at Koril kept her quiet. She nodded reluctantly, squeezing Rech's arm to wordlessly communicate her support before leaving with Koril, Major Jax, and their guards. After he watched them disappear down another busy hallway in the med center, he felt the weight of worry heavily sagging his shoulders as he released a shaky breath. He silently returned to Mand's room, gently taking up her hand into his as he sat beside her and began calling on the Force to strengthen her deteriorating body.

Paneau: capital city of Dalon
Rys'tihn Manor

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight."

Though they were both sitting on the same couch closely beside each other in their private living room, Koril only just heard Elena's soft whisper. Derek was sound asleep against her, his arms wrapped tightly, almost protectively around her neck, even in his slumber. Similarly, Koril cradled Dirani in his hold, the two-year-old girl snuggled tightly against his chest with fistfuls of his shirt in her tiny hands. It was already well into the night by the time he and Elena had returned to the Manor from the med center, but after all the activity following Mand's episode and Cordira's crying fit, neither of the Rys'tihn children had gone to bed willingly. It had taken another few hours for the two to finally fall asleep, and though it had come out of distressing circumstances, it was a sweet family moment they hadn't been able to share for a long time. And able to actually feel connected to his children as he hadn't for months, Koril savored even the quiet, his mind clear enough to hear Dirani's slow, deep breathing as she slept.

"Me, either," Koril answered just as softly.

Elena furrowed her brows in concern. "Koril..."

"I'm fine," he countered quickly, hinting at a lax, content smile. "Just being with you again...keeps me going."

Though she wasn't entirely pacified, she allowed herself to smile a little, too, reaching over with her free hand to his. She locked his fingers with hers, resting their hands atop her thigh as she looked back down on Derek sleeping awkwardly against her. Exhausted from his efforts to calm Cordira earlier, Derek had quickly fallen asleep in his mother's arms, comforted merely by her presence. Derek had suffered, too, in Elena's absence, and the boy couldn't have been happier to see her earlier that evening as he returned home from his school day.

Surprisingly, though, Dirani's reaction to Elena had been completely opposite of Derek's. In the care of their nannies Kollie and Raen almost since birth, Dirani had been only months old when Elena left for Montar, and to the young toddler, her mother was a stranger now. Dirani refused to allow Elena to hold her or get close to her, seemingly afraid of her, and Koril could tell how much it hurt his wife. Dirani remained comfortable enough with him, though, even despite his emotional distance over the months, a fact that kept him focused as he continued to recover. He remained confident that the two would reconnect eventually, but for now, he enjoyed her affections.

It seemed like another hour went by as Koril watched the two children sleep, though neither he nor Elena had tired. He began to suggest they put the two to bed, but an urgent beep from his comlink stopped him. It sat with his other effects on a table across the room, but he didn't have the heart to wake Dirani to retrieve it.

"Kaydee," he whispered, hoping the protocol droid's auditory sensors would pick it up, even though she was around the corner from them. Dutifully, though, Kaydee stepped into the room after a moment, politely remaining silent as she awaited instructions from him.

"My comlink. Take the message."

Accepting the task with a bow as she always did, Kaydee obeyed, taking the comlink with her to a separate, enclosed room so as to not disturb them while she answered on Koril's behalf.

Elena looked worried as she spoke softly. "What if it's about Mand?"

Koril could only shake his head in uncertainty as he slowly sighed, unsure what the message could be about. Either way, it apparently required his immediate attention since it had come through on his emergency channel.

Kaydee returned just a few minutes later, her servos making only faint whirring noises as she moved. "Master Koril," she addressed him with her quietest volume, "Commander Nyra Zsasso with Spaceport Control wishes to speak with you. She insists that it is most urgent."

He glanced at Elena warily, returning to Kaydee. "Did she say what it's about?"

"She reports that her pilots diverted a small ship that was headed here to the Manor, Master, and that within it, they discovered the painting stolen from the Rys'tihn Apartment on Coruscant, as well as its presumed thief. She requests your orders for the prisoner's transfer."

Having only just heard about the painting's theft from Major Jax earlier in the evening, he was anxious to learn who had been able to bypass the apartment's tight security so handily.

"Who's leading night guard tonight?"

"Major Anylya Tidesetter, Master."

Moving to stand as slowly and smoothly as he could with Dirani still cuddled against him, he continued with Kaydee. "Wake Major Jax, I want him with -"

"No, Koril," Elena interrupted quietly yet still with intensity. "Let him sleep. I'll go with you. I want to see who it was."

Nodding after a moment, he turned back to Kaydee. "Bring Kollie back up here to watch the children, and inform Major Tidesetter that we're leaving."

Again, Kaydee obliged, disappearing a different direction as Koril and Elena both took Dirani and Derek to their beds. Dirani was easy enough to settle into her own blankets without waking her, but Derek threatened to wake up as Elena gently eased his arms from around her neck. She began to rock him slightly, and thankfully he remained asleep as she tucked him into his bed on the other side of the room from Dirani's.

Paneau: capital city of Dalon
Dalon Spaceport Control Center

The trip was arranged surprisingly quickly, but the tense silence between himself and Elena was slowly eating at him. He knew she was just focused, intent on finding out who had been able to get through their revamped security at the apartment, but her voice was just as comforting to hear. In the formal setting of the Spaceport Control Center, though, she remained a silent partner, walking beside her High Commander as they were escorted by a handful of guards to Commander Zsasso's office.

The Commander was a harsh woman Koril had known for years, and he was well aware of the heavy-handed way she ran the Spaceport and her crews under her. Considering their troubles over recent years, though, he was sure the right officer was in place; due to her diligence, their thief had been intercepted and soon would be brought to justice.

"High Commander," Zsasso greeted him firmly with a salute. Her only feature that gave her age away was a streak of gray hair that began at her left temple, creating a light line over her dark hair that was gathered at the back of her head in a tight braid. "Good evening. Do you confirm that this painting is your property that was stolen?"

Quickly getting down to business, she stepped over to the large painting resting against the wall behind her desk, watching him carefully for his reaction. Koril immediatley recognized it, remembering where it hung in the apartment's main gathering area. He nodded, earning a rare smile of pride and satisfaction from Zsasso.

"Then I have your thief in custody," she continued boldly. "Which detention center would you like for me to have him transferred to?"

Though he appreciated Zsasso's enthusiasm, he remained curious. "Have you interrogated him yet?"

"No, Sir, I didn't think that it was necessary, given the circumstances under which he was detained. I thought it best to leave that to the investigators of your choice."

"I want to talk to him first," he answered, glancing briefly at Elena. "I want to know what kind of criminal we're up against."

Despite seeming a bit disappointed that she wasn't receiving the praise she expected, Zsasso nodded. "Of course, Sir. This way."

Zsasso and her guards led them deeper into the center, finally reaching a series of interview rooms where one had been turned into a makeshift cell. Two guards stood outside it, two inside, and as Koril stepped up to its window to look in, he was quite surprised by the burglar's age...or rather, the lack thereof.

Sitting at the lone table in the room opposite one empty chair was a teenage boy with heavy binders connecting his wrists together. He looked nothing short of terrified, and the longer Koril studied him, the more he noticed that the boy also looked...familiar.