Part XIX

"He returned to the recovering fleet, hm?" Wrynn pondered that information carefully. "An interesting move, to be sure, given that the Galactic Alliance wants him for treason. Was he arrested?"

Croyel nodded. "On sight. It seems that General Antilles has no love for Durron, even before this. He wants to see Durron go through the wringer for what he's done- and what he suspects he's done- he has already pegged him for a full military tribunal."

Wrynn frowned. "What does he suspect?"

"According to sources… the thought has at least crossed his mind that Durron took the girl in the first place. And even if he denies it convincingly, the rest of the evidence is still damning enough. Drixl assures me that he managed to erase the shuttle's logs before anyone noticed, Antilles will be haranguing him for that for days before he even suspects that Durron didn't do it himself." The dark man sat back, pensive. "Should we terminate him while he's still confined on the Star Destroyer?"

Wrynn thought for a long moment. "No," he finally said. "We need to keep the fleet preoccupied with Durron's alleged treachery- perhaps there is even some verity to the accusation, he seems to have stepped on a lot of toes to accomplish what he did. An impressive feat; all the more the pity that he wasn't one of ours. Have the girl's parents been notified?"

Croyel hesitated. "Drixl says yes; we seem to have… lost many of our sources on Bastion and among the Fourth Fleet, however."

"Oh?" Wrynn's voice was low and dangerous. "More of Jacen Solo's doing?"

"Unlikely; it remains unclear as to the source of Solo's information on Coruscant, but his strikes have been exclusively targeted on the capital. I suspect that Pellaeon learned more than we thought from the vessels he captured in the Moffs' attack."

Wrynn sighed. "Well, this is why our informants exist in tightly controlled loops. Solo will run out of new names, and, by then, the armada will be ready and unstoppable. Let him play sleuth for now, he'll tire of it once he realizes that the girl is recovered." He paused and eyed Croyel coolly. "We are sure that Losek is dead, and that his files are destroyed?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Then there is no cause for concern," he waved his hand dismissively.

"Should we send the armada back against the Second Fleet?"

The other man's look was incredulous. "You think Antilles is going to stay where he is, now that he has the girl? No, as far as the girl goes- we've lost that round, Moff Croyel. But no matter- the galaxy is doing a marvelous job of self-destructing on its own."

Croyel sat quietly for a few minutes, but finally had to ask. "Have you… killed the one who failed you so grievously?"

"Vulcor?" Wrynn's brows rose. "No, I haven't yet decided his fate. He is still young, still soft, but… his initial punishment was enough to teach him a long lesson about the unfairness of the galaxy."

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

Wedge keyed open the door of the holding cell where Kyp Durron had been delivered late the prior night, telling Masters Hamner and Sebatyne to wait outside the door for the time-being. It was an unfortunate use of their abilities, but the Mon Mothma was not equipped to hold a Jedi, and particularly not one as powerful as Durron.

Granted, if he wanted to escape, Wedge half-suspected that he could easily bypass both of the other masters. For now though, Durron seemed content to maintain pretenses of being Wedge's prisoner.

Last night, Wedge had put Leyla to bed in a small guest room where his own daughters slept the rare times they had reason to join him on his flagship. Zekk had graciously offered to stay in the sitting room as an extra line of security, and Wedge had accepted instantly, relieved. In relative peace of mind, he then spent another hour going through the information on the datacard Leyla had handed him, until sleep finally claimed him; he slept for four hours, and then spent another two perusing the datapad, leaving Captain Bimb in charge of the ship.

Now, he knew he had no choice but to consult with Durron while maintaining appearances as best as possible that he didn't trust the man- not hard, because he didn't. But if Durron was right, if this 'Red Hand' organization really did have spies sown throughout the highest levels of the government, of the military… then he couldn't let them know the details Durron had passed on.

As he stepped through the door, the Jedi Master in question stared at him neutrally, unmoving from the stiff cot on the opposite side of the small chamber. For a minute, the two men stared at each other, sizing one another up until, grudgingly, Wedge broke the silence.

"We're alone; the holocams are undergoing "routine maintenance" for the next hour; the room is clean of espionage devices. That's the best I can do."

Nodding, Durron seemed to relax slightly, losing a touch of his cold arrogance. "She gave it to you?"

"Obviously. And before I do anything about it, I need to know whether or not you're playing games with me, Durron."

"I'm not. This threat is real."

"So was your attack on a fellow Jedi," Wedge replied evenly. "So was your presence among the attacking force against the Fourth Fleet."

"I did what I had to do."

Wedge frowned. "Clearly," his voice was rueful. "At complete disregard for anyone in your way. What I want to know though, before we can talk about anything else- is why? And how?"

Durron's voice carried a touch of impatience. "I should think the why was obvious," he snapped.

"Leyla," Wedge acknowledged slowly. "But what is she to you, Durron? Why risk your position among the Jedi, your freedom… your life… on her?" For a long time, they sat in silence. "Did you do it for Jaina?"

"I did it because it was the right thing to do," Durron snarled, and Wedge knew he had touched a nerve. The question being- which one?

After another moment of staring impassively at each other, Wedge accepted that and moved on. "And how is it that you came by information that led you to her so quickly, while everyone else spent weeks floundering before making any progress?"

"Has anyone else made any progress?"

Wedge shrugged. "Jacen Solo uncovered something and has been routing spies from within the government for the past several days. Well?"

The Jedi looked like he struggled whether or not to reveal the truth- the whole truth, at any rate. Finally, he relented. "The night of the raid on Jaina and Jag's apartment, one of the commandos survived," Wedge started in surprise. "I took him and interrogated him, and followed a slow trail of information from there."

"You took him…?" Wedge was confused, and then angry. "What the hell were you doing in their apartment in the middle of the night? Durron… you and Jaina aren't…?" he trailed away suspiciously.

Dark eyes flashed angrily. "Would you think before you make baseless accusations and crude assumptions?" he hissed. "What, do you think I staged an emergency at Jag's work so that Jaina would be alone? The only reason he wasn't there was because he was lured away just before the attack!"

Wedge had the good grace to appear embarrassed. "My apologies," he said smoothly. "But given your past with her…" he shrugged and dropped it. "So why were you there?"

"I sensed a problem."

Wedge muttered something that might have been 'Jedi.' "Fine," he said louder. "I suppose I'm just going to have to accept that for now, aren't I?" He continued without waiting for an answer. "Now what is it you propose I do about this headquarters on Gree Baaker, and the armada amassing in deep space?"

"You?" Durron smirked. "Nothing. But someone- Jedi- needs to go and strike against the headquarters, cut the head off of this entire operation and rout the conspirators from the top-down."

"And I suppose you plan to be a part of the strike force?"

He shrugged. "It would make sense, especially if we can catch them before they flee their hideout. Eventually though, they'll realize that they're compromised, which is why we need to act soon. I'm counting on having bought some time by coming here- I don't think they'll have expected that. But by now, they know I'm here, and it can't be long until they realize I've passed along everything I know about them."

"Hm," Wedge considered him. "That was an interesting trick with the ship's computer and the datacard. It's likely to have bought you some time."

"Trick?" Durron frowned.

Wedge stared. "Uploading the data and erasing the mainframe."

"I didn't erase the mainframe…"

A tap on the door startled both of them. With a last glance at Durron, Wedge strode over and keyed the release code. The door slid open to reveal his aide, Lieutenant Drixl.

"Priority message from Admiral Sovv, General," Drixl said quietly in stilted military tones, entering the cell. The door shut behind him.

Wedge took the proffered datapad and thumbed in his clearance code and the encryption keys. The message popped up, and he stared, frozen, at the screen. His eyes darted once to Durron, back to Drixl, and then resumed focusing on the screen. His hand dropped casually to his blaster…

"Down!" Durron yelled at him, and he dropped moments before a shot rang over his head. Shocked, he looked up and saw Drixl staring between him and the Jedi, wide-eyed, calculatingly. He raised his blaster slowly, not training it on either one… "No!" Durron shouted, gesturing with one hand.

The shot intended for Drixl's own head went wide, burning a line across his scalp. Durron yanked the blaster to his own hand at the same moment that Hamner and Sebatyne came flying through the door, lightsabers at the ready. They took in the scene, looking around wildly.

Wedge stood shakily and sighed, drawing his blaster and stunning his stricken aide. "Master Durron," he turned slowly, "how many people did you want for that strike team?"

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

Jacen stared in surprise as the Supreme Commander of the whole GA Defense Force stepped into the Masters' Chamber, where Jacen had been told to await a visitor. He had gotten the impression that it was someone important, who wanted to speak with him discreetly. That it was someone this important had not crossed his mind.

"Admiral Sovv," he remembered himself. "What can I do for you?"

"Jedi Solo," the Sullust spoke in thickly accented Basic, "I am on my way to meet with Chief Omas, but wanted to give you the good news personally- just a couple of hours ago, I received a heavily encrypted transmission from General Antilles. Your niece is safely in his care, and your sister and brother-in-law are already en route to them from Bastion with your parents."

A broad smile lit up Jacen's face. "When? How?" he asked excitedly.

"That's all I know; I'm sure you'll be able to learn more once your family intercepts her."

"Of course; thank you, Admiral," he said sincerely. "That is… relieving."

Sovv smiled, face-folds crinkling. "You're doing good work here, Jacen. Soon, I hope, we can put this whole thing well behind us."

Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene. Scene.

Two hours later, Wedge had successfully- and relatively quietly, with the help of Hamner and Sebatyne- subdued the other four crew members on his own ship indicated in Sovv's message. If there were more in the fleet, Sovv had sent that information specifically to ship commanders, and Wedge would just have to trust that they were handling things on their own.

The fleet was almost ready to make the jump to hyperspace- another three hours, tops- which meant that he needed to send the small team consisting of Durron, Hamner, Sebatyne, and Zekk first. It was equally imperative that they move as quickly as possible because eventually, they would realize that their spies had all been found out and that Durron was no longer in captivity- and coming for them.

Now, as Wedge led Durron from the detention center up to his private cabin, the only space he was particularly willing to trust, even after arresting the spies, he contemplated whether this changed anything about his feelings towards Durron, knowing that he had been telling the truth at least this far. Despite it all, he still got the distinct feeling that the Jedi Master was keeping something from him. Maybe it was nothing important, maybe it was something about Jaina- he had struck a nerve there, regardless- but this was his ship and he really didn't like feeling out of the loop.

They stepped through into the sitting room where Zekk was quietly pointing out something on Durron's datacard to two Masters. "Where's Leyla?" Durron asked, and Wedge quickly throttled his inexplicable annoyance over the other man's concern.

"Watching some silly holovid," Zekk murmured distractedly, pointing towards one of the doors leading off of the room.

The words had barely left his mouth before said door opened and Leyla stuck out her head, smiling brightly for the first time that Wedge had seen since arriving several hours prior; smiling brightly- at Durron. Wedge sighed, wondering how the rogue Jedi Master had somehow managed to utterly enchant two generations of Solo girls.

"Kyp!" she squealed. "You're out of jail?"

Wedge's lips quirked and Durron fought a smile. "For now," he said. "I have some things to take care of before they can lock me up again," he teased, though something serious certainly remained in his tone.

"Oh," she frowned, expression remarkably serious and thoughtful for her age. "Well, you'll say hi to mommy and daddy first, won't you?"

He smiled sadly. "I'm afraid I won't be here when they arrive."

She stared. "You- you're leaving?"

"Only for a few days."

Her face fell dramatically, and she quickly disappeared back into the guest room. Wedge shot a glare at Durron who held up his hands defensively, then sighed and followed his great-niece. "Leyla?" he asked as he opened the door. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

She was sitting on one of the beds, legs drawn tight against her chest, head resting on her knees. Her dark wavy hair had been released from the long braid down her back and hung in a curtain around her face. Her little shoulders slumped as he sat on the edge of the bed and reached a hand out to pull some of the hair out of her face. "Hm?" he murmured.

"I," she struggled to articulate, "It's just… Kyp's leaving." She turned her sad little face towards him. "And he told me he wouldn't leave me!"

Wedge frowned, but before he could reply, Durron spoke up from the doorway. Wedge hadn't even noticed him following. "When did I say that?" he asked bemusedly. She went pink and buried her face again, shaking her hair back from where Wedge had pulled it behind her ear. Mumbling something inarticulate, Durron stepped further into the room to try to hear her. "Hey, Leyla," he sat down and pulled her stiffly into his lap, "talk to me, hm?"

"You said it at my birthday," she muttered, refusing to move from her curled position.

Now Durron really looked confused. "Your birthday? Which one?"

"When I was little," she grumbled, "and you were late because you had to go to Ober… Obir… something Sky!" she huffed. "Daddy let me stay up with you and you said that you weren't going to leave me!"

He opened his mouth to respond, then stopped and stared at her. "You were two!" he exclaimed. "Do you really remember that?"

Her head shot up and she definitely looked a little guilty. "I- no," she admitted softly. "Not really. But… Wrynn taught me how, I wanted to know how I really got taken away from home. And when I could tell you were looking for me, I remembered waiting for you way back then…" she trailed away and her eyes watered. "Are you mad at me?"

"Oh," Durron sighed sadly and drew her into his arms, and she finally relented and curled up against him, "of course not, sweetheart. But I need you to understand that I have to leave now so that you can be safe, so that Wrynn won't ever try to take you away from your parents again."

She nodded. "Be careful," she muttered, voice muffled by his robes, "I think he hurt Vulcor."

He pulled away and looked down at her forlorn face. "I'll be careful," he assured her. "Will you be good? I think your great-uncle Wedge here could use some help running his ship…" she giggled. "Okay. I'll stop in and say goodbye before we leave, alright?"

She nodded, and Durron swept from the room, an unidentifiable expression covering his features.

End Part XIX

A/N: One of my few and far between author notes… given a lack of comments one way or the other, I hope you all are enjoying this, there seems to be a fairly consistent group of you reading, based on the number of hits each chapter accumulates…

Anyway, only a few parts left to go, so you should have the whole thing by the weekend. :-)

Cheers!