Paneau: capital city of Dalon
Dalon Medical Center
5.5 APC

Though he had once again drifted off into a light meditative trance, Derek and Cordira's quiet discussion in the corner of the room brought Rech back to himself. He couldn't see them as they sat on the floor on the other side of Mand's bed, but just thankful that they remained quiet as had been asked of them, he didn't mind. If he focused well enough, he could hear what they were saying...but he couldn't bring himself to pry. After enduring that terrifying disaster earlier in the day, the two children felt safe enough with him to relax with each other once more, and he didn't want to alter that in any way. They'd process the day's events in their own manner, he told himself, and if they needed his comfort, they'd know to ask.

The door to the room quietly swept open, waking him even further. He moved to stand from his seat to greet his visitor, but Master Kanomin was already holding a hand up to him to halt him when he looked to her. Though she seemed a bit tired, her expression was still calm, and her eyes were warm with a small, kind smile, as usual. She waved affectionately to the children as she stepped further into the room, and reaching Mand's bedside, she looked about the monitors briefly before returning to Rech.

"She's been faring well?"

Appreciating her soft voice, he nodded. "Near as I can tell." He took in a slow breath, looking over his wife with cautious hope. "...I don't want to curse it, but it's been a while since anything's gone wrong."

Master Kanomin's face brightened just slightly. "Perhaps she's finally stabilizing. It would be welcome relief for all of us, you most especially."

He agreed. "It would be. They still have such a long way to go, though... I don't think we can celebrate just yet."

Looking back down on Mand, Master Kanomin nodded, her expression solemn. "I'm afraid I can't stay long. I just came by to see how you were holding up."

Afraid that something else more troubling was worrying the petite Jedi Master, Rech watched her carefully. "I'm alright." He took in a slow breath, preparing himself for his offer. "Master...if you need an extra hand to continue treating the wounded..."

But Master Kanomin was quick to shake her head. "No, Mand is your priority." When she looked up and met Rech's disappointed expression, though, she continued softly with an explanation. "We've seen to all the children who had the most serious wounds, and they're all resting and mending on their own now. We have just two of the older instructors left to treat." Her face visibly faltered with sadness and pain Rech hadn't seen from her before, but she corrected it quickly, her voice hardly audible. "I'm sorry. It's been...quite some time since I was last on a triage team like this. I kept seeing my daughter Daxaly in all those children I healed... It never gets any easier."

Rech knew very well the weariness in her eyes, having looked that way himself for weeks after the Dalon Palace collapse. Such senseless destruction and massive loss of life had been unbearably difficult to comprehend, and it left such a sinking, draining feeling behind, only time had been able to heal him. He stood from his seat and stepped over to her, keeping his voice quiet but firm.

"Master, you need a break..."

Again shaking her head, Master Kanomin smiled serenely. "I'll be fine, Rech. Thank you." She glanced down at Mand, releasing a soft breath. "This was the break I needed. Seeing her doing...better...gives me hope." Returning her gaze to him, her smile fell the tiniest bit. "Master Rylka should be returning to you shortly. Let us know if you need anything."

Rech nodded as he watched her leave, and though he could even feel Mand's stable condition through the Force, in the back of his mind, he was still wary. Perhaps he was simply apprehensive about not having enough help on hand should Mand's systems suddenly crash, or maybe he had just become accustomed to the Masters' company over the weeks. Either way, he was beginning to relax with the thought that at least one of them would be coming back soon, allowing him the chance to rest as he hadn't for what seemed like days. Still standing at Mand's side, he returned his attention to her, gently lifting her hand into his. Her skin was ice cold, as he expected it to be, but it still unnerved him every time he touched her. She had basically put nonessential parts of her body into hibernation, halting cellular processes and restricting almost all blood circulation to her midsection and head. Her extremities were all lifeless, motionless, and every hour was such a test of his patience and his trust in her abilities...

Startling him from his thoughts, he heard a soft sniffle and a muffled sob behind him. Turning to look, he saw both Derek and Cordira sitting on the floor as they had been earlier, but Derek sat just beside Cordira and had his arm wrapped around her back, comforting her. He seemed sad, too, but Cordira was the one crying, though her face was buried in her hands. Carefully placing Mand's hand back down on the bed, he stepped closer to the two children and knelt down to them, keeping his voice soft.

"Cordira? What's wrong?"

As she raised her head up, Rech could see the patent fear in her slate gray eyes, reddened by tears she seemed to have been withholding for some time. Something was genuinely terrifying her.

"Please don't make me go back to school, Daddy..."

His heart sank as he heard the sheer anxiety in her voice, piercing him deeply as he felt how truly scared she was. She was beginning to sob more noticeably, and afraid of disturbing Mand with their discussion, he gently gripped her hand and stood with her, leading both her and Derek away. "Come on, let's sit outside and talk."

Cordira's grasp on his hand as they walked was nothing short of intense, and even when he pulled her into his lap after stooping to sit on a bench just outside the door, she kept a white-knuckled hold on a fistful of his tunic. Her small body was trembling against him as she cried more earnestly, and he could only rock her gently in his arms and smooth her fire-red hair with one hand to comfort her.

"I don't want to go back," she repeated in between sobs. "Please don't make me go..."

"You don't have to," he soothed quietly. "Not right now. No one's going back for a few days, at least."

She only cried harder. "Please, Daddy! I don't want to go back..."

He kissed the top of her head, hugging her even more tightly to try to calm her. "Cordira...I know it was very, very scary today... I'm so sorry. But it won't happen again, I promise you. They'll fix what was broken, and you won't even see it anymore. You'll be very safe at school."

"No," she continued sobbing, nearly obscuring her words, "no, he'll find us there! He'll find us, and he'll take us away!"

Completely blindsided and confused by her statement, he leaned down and shifted her on his lap to look her in the eyes. "He who? What are you talking about?"

She rubbed her face with the back of her hand to clear some of her tears, but they were quickly replaced as she answered. "The Scary Man. I don't want him to take us away!"

"No one's going to take you away, Cordira," he kept soothing, though he was steadily becoming more concerned himself. "Who is this 'scary man'? Have you seen him before?"

"I see him when I sleep," she sobbed, burying her face in his chest. "He has lumpy orange skin and a pointy mask covering his whole face. He'll find us and take us!"

Stunned, Rech could hardly breathe. The poor girl had been haunted by nightmares for a month or more, but she had stubbornly refused to talk about them until now. The day's events must have been too much for her to handle, and in trying to process it all, she fixated her overwhelming anxiety on her dreams instead. He felt terrible that he hadn't been able to address her fears before, but at the same time, how could he explain to her that something that seemed so scary to her wasn't really a threat? How would a five year old understand that what she was dreaming wasn't necessarily what was going to happen?

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized he couldn't tell her that honestly. Mand had a history of being warned of future disasters by the Force through her dreams, so how much less likely could it be that Cordira, essentially a clone of her mother, was experiencing the same thing? Still, even if it were a vision of an event to come, there was little that could be done about it with the few details Cordira had provided. The Paneau Royal Guard would be on heightened alert after the disaster at the Academy this morning, so the children would be especially well protected from now on, wouldn't they?

"He won't take you, Cordira. You're safe here."

Her crying eventually abated as he continued to comfort her, holding her closely to himself to make her feel secure. Calmed but tired from her emotional release, she eased herself out of his embrace to stand on her own. Before she got far, though, he lightly gripped her shoulders and kissed her gently on her forehead. "I love you."

She nodded with an intermittent sniffle, but she only stared at the floor, not meeting his gaze. Derek stood quietly beside her, patiently waiting for her to acknowledge him again, but Cordira didn't look at him, either. Releasing a slow breath, Rech reached up and gently stroked her cheek, keeping his voice soft. "Go back inside, get some rest. It's almost bedtime for both of you."

Without a word, the two complied, returning to their corner in Mand's room and leaving Rech alone in the hall with two Royal Guards posted nearby. The guards only gave him an understanding nod when he looked up at them, leading him to assume they, too, were fathers. They remained silent, though, allowing him to recover his thoughts on his own.

Leaning back against the wall behind him, he ran a hand through his hair, finally beginning to realize just how emotionally and physically exhausted he was. Cordira's crying fit alone would have drained him considerably even if he had been fully rested, but he wasn't, and he could feel the weight of his fatigue in every muscle, every limb, robbing him of his will to move from the bench he sat on. He needed to be at Mand's side, though; he had already been away too long. He managed to muster the strength to stand, and as he looked up the hall before turning to go inside, he wasn't expecting to see Koril making his way toward Mand's room with a guard escort, nor was he expecting such a dark look on the High Commander's face.

"Koril?"

Only stopping a moment in front of his guards standing just beside the door, Koril ignored him. "Keep him out of the room," he ordered them with a foreign edge to his voice before he continued on inside, leaving Rech behind bewildered and in shock. The guards who had just shared an emotional, sympathetic moment with him now looked at him warily, calculatingly monitoring his every move. Why had their High Commander given them such an order?

"Koril? What are you doing?"

Rech stepped closer to the room's entry, and though the guards closed the gap between them, standing shoulder to shoulder between Rech and Mand's room, he could still see past them inside it, and he could only stare in disbelief. Standing beside Mand's bed, Koril was looking down on her with a harsh glare, as though he thought her guilty of something, but what?

"I know you can hear me," Koril told her intensely, closely leaned over her. He seemed to wait for a response from her, but when she remained motionless, he gripped her arm below her shoulder roughly, shaking her upper body. "You're going to wake up, and you're going to tell me how you knew that crash was going to happen."

Icy pangs of fear tore through his chest as he saw Mand beginning to stir, and anticipating his movement, the guards standing in front of him grabbed hold of his arms to hold him back. "No, Koril, don't! Please!"

But it was too late to reverse; the damage had already been done. The monitors around her bed began to beep frantically, indicating Mand's rapidly elevating heart rate that was reaching potentially dangerous levels. As she opened her eyes, though, her movements seemed sluggish, as though she wasn't completely free of her hibernation-like trance.

Undeterred, Koril gripped her arm more tightly, making her wince. "How did you know about that crash!"

Her voice was weak, but she answered truthfully with as much volume as she could summon. "I saw it...a vision..."

"Koril, stop!" Rech continued struggling against the guards who held him outside, but he, too, had little strength to resist, drained by the constant vigil he had kept beside her for so long.

"And you only cared to warn your daughter! Is she the only one that matters to you?" Koril tightened his grip once more, and she could only moan in pain in response. "What am I supposed to tell the parents of those children who died? That their sons and daughters weren't important enough to get the same warning? And what about the families of the instructors who died trying to protect their students? They died as heroes, but they shouldn't have died at all!"

The alarms were sounding louder and louder, but Mand somehow managed to maintain her gaze with Koril despite her intermittent gasping. "It came...so fast... I didn't have time...I'm sorry..."

"Please, stop!" Rech begged again, desperate to wrench himself free from the guards, but combined they were too much to overcome. "You're killing her!"

Koril completely ignored him, though his expression faltered with extreme turmoil. "Those children weren't even three years old! Why didn't they deserve a chance? Dirani...Dirani very nearly joined them. And so did Tavyna Jax."

With so many rapid changes in her system that hadn't been counteracted, Mand was slowly losing consciousness as she fought respiratory distress. She tried to speak, but it was incoherent as she continued to gasp, panicking Rech further. "Hang on, Mand! Just hang on for me, okay!" Looking to Koril, Rech could hardly keep his voice from shaking as he pleaded. "Fluid is backing up into her lungs because her heart's suddenly beating so fast and pumping so inefficiently. She is drowning! Please, let me help her!"

Flinching as though Rech had struck a nerve in him, Koril swiftly released his grip on Mand and left the room just as quickly, wordlessly passing his guards that still kept a tight hold on Rech. Only after Koril was nearly out of view down the hallway did the guards let him go, and he couldn't get to Mand's side fast enough.

"Mand? Stay with me, okay? You'll be alright, I promise." Though he wasn't expecting a response from her, seeing her so critical again mercilessly froze his own breath in his chest. As he began working to reverse the buildup in her lungs, two medics rushed inside to help, but he was quick to stop them. "Get those Jedi Masters back up here now!"

Though briefly hesitant, they both complied and left with haste, leaving him to work on his wife without distraction or interference. He first had to calm her racing heart, and after returning it to a slow pace that would have been dangerous without the accompanying hibernation trance, he could clear her lungs to breathe. It seemed to take hours, but working as quickly and carefully as he could, within a few minutes he was finally able to return enough of her systems to normal to silence all the alarms. She was breathing enough to keep ample oxygen circulating in her blood, and most importantly, the twins' vitals didn't seem to be adversely affected by the event.

Breathing heavily himself as he recovered from the anxiety and exertion, he thought back, recalling that he had never seen the twins' monitors fluctuate even once through it all. Mand had probably protected them from her distress, selflessly diverting everything they needed to them at her own expense. Worried that she may have suffered some kind of long term effect instead, he gently stroked her cheek, still somewhat in shock over what had just happened. Though he was momentarily lost in his thoughts, he heard a small noise behind him, and it wrenched his stomach into a searing knot; Derek and Cordira had witnessed the whole thing.

Turning back toward them, he felt his temper flaring as he saw them cowering against the wall together, holding each other tightly in fear. The looks of sheer terror on their faces in any other situation would have been enough to break him down, but it only infuriated him more. This was all Koril's fault.

"Stay here," he told them sternly as he took one last glance at Mand's vitals and left the room, surprised the guards were no longer outside it. They stood with their High Commander at the far end of the lengthy hall as he conversed with a number of officials, and they didn't see Rech approaching until it was nearly too late. Though they held him just beyond handshaking distance from Koril, he still raised his voice in anger.

"You are one hell of a coward!"

His discussion halted, Koril turned toward Rech, leveling a furious glare at him as his officials around him stared wide-eyed. Empowered by their reactions, Rech continued.

"You have no idea how or why this happened, so you've chosen to take it out on a helpless woman who can't even defend herself. How becoming of a High Commander!"

Koril's voice matched Rech's intensity, but he seemed to restrain himself somewhat with his officers beside him. "At least I'm not hiding behind her, using her as an excuse to ignore my duties."

"My duties?" Rech returned incredulously. "My 'duties' don't include serving you hand and foot! I have a family, too. Or do your kids take priority, even if my wife is dying?"

Jogging around the corner with urgency, Elena approached them, looking between Rech and Koril with obvious confusion. "What is going on!"

But neither answered her. "She ignored her duties, too," Koril continued harshly to Rech. "She could have saved so many more lives, not just Cordira's!"

Shedding the guards' hold, Rech raised his voice even more. "She saved Derek because she saved Cordira!"

Intent on diffusing the situation, Elena stepped between the two men, trying to speak calmly. "Rech, let's just -"

But he reached a hand up to her shoulders, forcefully moving her aside. "Stay out of this, Elena!"

Enraged, Koril lunged forward, gripping fistfuls of Rech's shirt to shove him to the wall. "Don't touch my wife!"

Rech landed hard with his back and head against the wall, and he had begun to retaliate when the familiar snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting echoed through the hall. Though he half expected to see Elena's purple blade in her hand behind them, he knew the sound wasn't nearly that close; it had come from somewhere else entirely. Still locked in each other's grip against the wall, both Koril and Rech simultaneously realized that it had come from the direction of Mand's room.

Rech's heart stopped as a sense of dread filled him. "The children..."

Releasing the other at the same time, they broke into a sprint in tandem, quickly leaving Elena and the bewildered guards behind. As they closed in on the room, Rech already had his saber hilt in his hand, and Koril drew his blaster just before they stormed in the open door. The room was tossed and in shambles, one of the medics lay dead on the floor, and in a battle stance shielding Mand, Derek, and Cordira behind her, Ri Banarecc held a rose-colored lightsaber blade toward them, blood dripping down her face from a broken nose.