A day and a half, all the time in the world and no time at all. Rumors, scuttlebutt, Seph's ear to the ground and new arrivals on Rishi had put the Sith Lord ill at ease. Paradise was left behind on full thrust takeoff and the tail end of a warning.

Shipboard routine, learning to walk, building strength, oatmeal and watered-down juice for breakfast, tea and toast for lunch, soup for dinner. Doc said she could upgrade to noodles in a few days. She'd kill for a nerf burger and fries. Corso was by her side through it all, never complaining when her temper got foul, holding her at night with no demands, neither of them addressing the Rancor in the room.

Five days in and she couldn't sleep.

"Should you be up?" Scourge didn't turn around when she entered the cockpit where he stood, hands clasped at the small of his back.

"Old habits die hard." She shrugged, took a stand at his side and gripped the back of the pilot's seat for support. "You carry it with you, you know. All the torture packed into a neat little capsule lying in the pit of your gut waiting to explode at a sound or a word or in the dark where the nightmares dwell. I'll never be free of his touch. It's like rot you can't slice away no matter how deep you cut."

"It will get easier with time."

She cast a querulous glance his way. "Says the Emperor's executioner and inquisitor. Have you ever subjected yourself to your own methods?"

His eyes swept to her, dark and steaming like lava hitting water. "The pain was unendurable in the beginning when the Emperor changed me, and I carry his touch always, as do you. It will get easier." He unclasped his hands and lowered himself into the co-pilot's seat with more grace than a man his size should possess. "You need to stay on the move."

"Old news. I've got credits to burn and a star map of endless destinations I intend to fully explore. Beryl and her brother are still out there, and too many people know of my physical enhancements. I don't want to be around when they start asking the hard questions at the end of a needle or a fist. I've had quite enough of that."

A pensive mien tightened the angles of his face. "I have to wonder if the Emperor knows just how close he came to fulfilling the goal of Project Creation when he created you."

She sat in the pilot's chair swiveling it sideways to face him. "If you were going for reassurance, you missed it by a long shot."

Lines creased his forehead above the brow spur he cocked in her direction. "It was speculation, not reassurance, but still something to consider."

Ky sank back in the seat. "So, the force then? Is that what you see every time you look at me? Cause I haven't levitated any cups or saucers yet and I don't glow in the dark."

He fixed her with that unsettling, probing stare that made her want to crawl out of her skin and hide. "Not the force, but something else. It's as if you tap into the knowledge of space and time itself. The Infinite Engine is part of you now, Gree quanta-technology is part of you now. They fuel your cells, your neurotransmitters fire at an unprecedented rate, that is why you can do the things you do. You call and the universe answers."

She dropped her gaze to a bright spot on the breastplate of his armor. A reflection from the control panel, a focus other than his eyes. "Perhaps the universe should change its call sign. I never wanted any of this."

"Want counts for nothing and what's done is done. Now you need to learn to live with the aftermath. Little has changed except you can no longer hide in plain sight."

A derisive grunt burst from her throat. "It figures. I finally get enough credits to pay off the Hutts and maybe bribe the Geno into a little internal housekeeping and life takes a giant dump in my cargo bay."

"You're lucky to be alive."

A face danced across her mind. Tattooed, sneering, smiling, laughing, loving; she hadn't asked but needed the answer. "I'd like to think it was a little more than luck. What about Skavak? Without him, you'd have never found me. I owe him my life."

Scourge rose from the chair like a column of smoke and looked down at her. "He left soon after you arrived on Tython."

Thinly veiled expectation glimmered in her eyes. "Did he say anything before he left?"

"A private conversation with you I doubt you heard, and I do not eavesdrop." A hint of something crossed her face. Relief? Disappointment? Hurt? He wasn't sure. "Take the gift for what it is, Ky. Don't go looking for trouble you don't need."

She nodded, slow, thoughtful as if agreeing to turn her back on a dilemma she'd never resolve. "And the boy? There was a boy in the lab. Young, maybe ten or twelve, locked in a stasis tube. Did he survive?"

"Sayonar refused to abandon the child to his fate. You will meet him when we reach Tython."

"Are you sure Tython is the best place for me to be right now?"

"I suspect the Jedi would rather wash their hands of any further involvement. They have jurisdictional autonomy, even from the Republic and will not detain you or allow anyone else to do so. Once you leave the planet, however, you will be on your own."

"I know how to run," she muttered at Scourge's retreating back.

For days she and Corso tiptoed around each other, punctuating long periods of silence with idle chit-chat. The more strength she regained, the more distant he became. He never asked, she never offered, but life had a way of hammering home the sins of the past and the fears of the future. It just required an opening.

The ship slept. She sat at the galley counter dunking a tea bag into a cup of steaming water watching the liquid turn from pale gold to the decadent caramel of whiskey. A sigh, a sip, she hovered over the cup inhaled the fragrance and let her mind fill with nothing.

The scrape of metal on metal, a tanned arm sliding onto the counter beside hers. She waited, Corso didn't speak. Not knowing where to begin, she made the first offering. "I made such a mess of things. Of us. didn't I?"

Sadness hunched his shoulders, pressing his elbows into the hard surface. "We both made a mess of things. I thought I'd lost you forever. Where did you go when you disappeared?"

The truth came automatic, hollow and real. "Rishi. I created Rishi, and I was at peace."

He stared at some point on the far side of the room. "At peace. Are you sorry I brought you back to all this uncertainty?"

She hadn't given it any thought and the question caught her off guard. It was hard to look back on a place where she had everything and not feel some regret. But it wasn't living and it wasn't dying and it wasn't worth the cost to those left behind. "No. This is where I belong."

"At least I did something right. Was I there? In your Rishi?"

"Yes."

"Anyone else?"

She knew what he was asking, and she could lie, should lie, but covering lies was hard. She wasn't prepared to dig that hole. "Yes."

His sigh filled the room, tremulous and heavy like the weight of unshed tears. "I see."

"No, you don't."

An edge of anger honed by hurt crept into his voice, glinting and barely there like the tip of a knife. "Then explain it to me. Do you love him?"

Ah. There it was. The Rancor was loose, stomping its feet, demanding attention. She laid her hand on his. Tension rippled along his arm as though he wanted to pull away. He didn't. "I needed the balance of him and you together. His fire, your gentleness, both saved my sanity. I think I loved the idea of him. I love the reality of you."

He moved impossibly fast, a blur plucking her off the stool and wedging her between the edge of the counter and his body. His fingers dug into her arms, the counter edge ground into her lower back. Inches separated his face from hers, brows locked, teeth clenched, his words gusted across her cheeks. "Never again. You don't leave me, and I don't leave you. I can live with whatever you had to do to stay alive, but don't ever push me away again. I can't bear to feel that empty."

She'd spent so much effort trying to protect him that she'd stopped seeing him. There was steel in him now that wasn't there before, a bedrock of resolve, solid and unwavering. Still, she had to try and explain all the blunders she'd made. "I watched you die twice, and I needed—"

His fingers dug deeper. "You needed, you needed. Shut up, Ky."

His lips covered hers hungry and hard and not to be denied. He released all his anger, fear, shame and self-doubt into her mouth, she tasted forgiveness and comfort on his tongue. The terror and pain melted under the heat of his touch, swept away in the grip of his hands.

There was no gentleness in their room, in their bed, in him. No carefully choreographed moves, no holding back. Everything dissolved until only they remained. Him and her. Them, as they were always meant to be. Equals. Positions changed with fluid ease, flowing one to the next; from behind, her on top, him on top, stars...he was magnificent. She opened, and he flowed in her and over her, molten and hot, branded her with his teeth, and made her name a manifesto when he came to his shuddering finish.

She slept for the first time in days, buttressed against the warm wall of flesh at her back, the fighter at her side, the bastion between her and the hunter. He was the forged barrier that held back the dark void of memory and stood between her and the abyss. The boy was gone, the man was hers, and she rested in the perfect being he'd become.

#

Tython, the last core world her feet would touch for a year or two or as long as it took for her to fade into obscurity. Long enough for her records to be shuffled to the back of the file and her name to fall off the bottom of the list. Long enough for the immediate demands of never-ending war to make her face a blur in a throng of thousands.

Sayonar and Kira met them at the landing pad, a boy with tousled blond hair and inquisitive blue eyes peeked out from behind Kira's shoulder. A broad grin lit the boy's face when he spotted Corso. Guileless and innocent, the joy of it pierced through Ky like a lance and scored that place deep inside that only barren women know.

Akaavi, Gus, and Bowdaar remained on the ship, Doc said his goodbyes replete with good wishes and departed, Kira led the boy away. Sayonar escorted Ky, Corso, and Scourge to an ante-room off the Jedi Council's main chamber. Caf, juice, and sweet honey cakes sat on a sideboard. A hint of cinnamon hung in the air.

"It's good to see you well." Sayonar poured a glass of juice and sat in one of the six chairs lining the table. "Something to eat or drink?"

"It's good to be myself again, and no thank you." Ky took a seat, as did Corso and Scourge. "What do you want?"

"Straight to it then." Sayonar placed her elbows on the table and leaned in. "We will provide fuel and provisions for your ship, but the council wants you gone from Tython as soon as possible. You bring discord and too many questions the council does not want to answer. More than Jedi roam these halls and we cannot keep you hidden here."

"I understand. I'll be gone by tomorrow at latest, but I have one question."

"I am listening," said Sayonar.

Ky sat back in the chair, her stomach a tight knot. "The boy. What will happen to the boy?"

"The boy is not your concern."

"I'm making him my concern, and I'm not leaving until I get an answer."

Scourge reached across the table and grasped Sayonar's arm. "Tell her, Nulis, or I will."

A mixture of regret and shame passed over the Jedi Knights features, nearly missed if Ky's attention had drifted for an instant. "In less than a week, Ethan will be remanded to the orphanage on Coruscant. He will remain there until he is either adopted or comes of age."

Ky reached for Corso's hand, he smiled and nodded for her to continue. "He's already at a disadvantage and I won't see him thrown away like this. I'll take the boy."

Sayonar stood up, shaking off Scourge's hand. "Are you insane? You'll be on the run. What kind of life will the child have?"

Ky stood as well, her hands splayed on the table, her arms stiff as rods. "Better than being lost in the red tape of a government that doesn't give a shit about its people below level 5100 or the Jedi who view every force-blind as just another drain on society. He's too old to be adopted, and once he reaches age, he'll be dumped out on the street like so much garbage. I met someone recently who went through the grinder of the system. The boy deserves more."

"He doesn't know you."

"He knows me," Corso chimed in, "which is a hell of a lot more than he'll know on Coruscant. Unless you and Scourge intend to take him, ours is the better offer."

"You know that's impossible. Scourge and I are fighting a war, and the boy cannot stay on Tython."

A smile creased the corners of Ky's mouth. "And I am going on a great adventure. The boy will see wonders beyond his dreams. I've learned hard lessons and trust no one except this man by my side and those on my ship. No one can touch me, or find me or catch me. You know this, Scourge. You've seen what I can do. The boy will be safe, and he will be loved."

"Nulis." Scourge once again reached for Sayonar's arm. "If you care for the boy at all, do the right thing. Give him a chance for a family."

Sayonar pinned Ky with her eyes, the understanding of women passed between them. "I'll have the documents ready to sign in the morning."

Corso led Ky from the room, down the spiral ramp to the first floor and out onto the lawn. He spotted Kira and the boy in the distance, just inside the tree line. He grabbed Ky's hand. "Come on, let's go say hello to our son."

#

Ky called her crew together the following afternoon shortly before takeoff. Ethan sat next to Bowdaar who was the only one who could comfort him when he tried to break away and follow Kira back to the temple. He had a death grip on a tangle of Bowdaar's hair right above the elbow and refused to let go. Patience and time to raise a child and it all started now.

Ky stood at the workstation of the galley, Corso at her side, their hands clasped. "You all have decisions to make before I leave. I hold you to no oath. You are all free to find your own way."

"I'm a fool and known as a fool no matter where I go," said Gus. "I'll stay and help with the boy. Even a fool has lessons to teach."

"You're a fine medic, Gus and a friend. I'm sure there'll be scraped knees and bruises aplenty that require your attention. And you can teach Ethan what not to do in a crisis," chuckled Ky. "And you Bowdaar? Back to Kashyyk?"

"I owe a life debt to you," said the Wookie. "Words cannot release me from such a debt, only your death or mine will set me free. I will stay and help with the boy. I may yet have some knowledge and wisdom to give though not as much as an elder. I'm only eighty-five after all."

"Akaavi? Back to Mandalore or the bounty hunter's guild?"

"I think I may return on Untuar IV if you will take me. Seph and I have become close during your time away. We speak often."

"Seph is a liar and a scoundrel. Are you sure?"

"Skavak was a liar and a scoundrel, and yet you loved him did you not?"

Ky gripped Corso's hand tighter. "Yes. I loved him."

"Then I can love Seph also. He understands my language and my ways, and we are both of an age where we may settle well together. He is not Mando'ade but we can build our clan and make a home such as it might be. I will stay with the man."

Ky turned to Corso, the question rhetorical. He'd already made his wishes known, many times over. "I can never give you that farmstead or the children you wanted. All I have is what you see before you. Will it be enough?"

He draped his arm across her shoulder pulling her close. "I think I can make do."

"And you, little Ethan?"

The boy's eyes went wide as he hid half his face behind Bowdaar's shaggy shoulder. "Miss Kira," the boy said.

"I know you do."

"Bowdaar stay?"

"Yes. Bowdaar is staying."

The boy raised his hand in a thumbs up. "Ethan stay too."

"Alright. Next stop Untuar IV. You all know what to do."

#

To lose Akaavi was like losing a part of herself. The Mandalorian had been her friend, advisor, and comrade in arms since before Corellia. Perhaps she'd find love with Seph Okarr, Ky hoped so, but love was funny like that. No guarantees and one day at a time. For now, the Zabrak and the human made a good fit. A smart person takes happiness however and whenever it comes their way and doesn't look too closely at tomorrow, and Akaavi was smart.

Ky checked in with Risha on the way to Tolus Salini. Dubrillion was far from conquered yet, but she and the husband were still working on it. Risha seemed content with the man who 'looked like a noble but rutted like a stable boy.' She'd look good in that crown if she ever got to wear it, and Dubrillion could have a worse queen.

Tolus Salini, a democratic planet for social outcasts. When on planet, everyone followed the rules, and nobody got hurt. If someone felt cheated or had a problem, they followed the laws designed to keep the peace for the locals and took it off world. Ky would have liked to set up shop there eventually, but life had different plans.

She removed the Imperial ingots and the binder with the energy generator schematics from the storage locker and left the rest for Sayonar. Back on the ship, Ky sent an encrypted message to the Jedi with the location, locker number, and access code. The histories, Holocron and lightsaber hilt were always intended for the Jedi Knight, Ky had merely been the courier.

Ky brought up the star chart on the screen, the reflection painting ghosts of systems across her face and the face of Ethan who stood beside her. "This is your playground. Where would you like to go first?"

Bright dots of destinations twinkled in his eyes and flowed across his cheeks as he leaned closer. "There." He pointed to a system on the edge of the rim, just outside the exterior prong of the Tingel Arm.

"Good choice, navigator, I think your dad will approve. Sit in your chair and strap in. Let's go take a look, shall we?"

Before they left the star system, Ky placed the binder into a refuse cylinder and shot it into the outer corona of the sun. It seemed a fitting end.

#

Ky stared at the words flashing on the screen. Are you sure you want to permanently delete this communications frequency code? She'd sent the mail and deleted the address. Just one more step to cut all ties. Ky pressed (YES), and leaned back into the arms that were suddenly around her waist.

"Is Ethan finally asleep?" she asked.

"Took two stories, but yes, he's asleep." Corso punctuated the words with a string of kisses down the curve of her neck.

"And yet sometime during the night, he'll crawl into Bowdaar's hammock and fall back asleep on the Wookie's chest."

"Mm-hm," he hummed against her skin. "You about finished?"

"Seph is still working the GenoHaradan but doesn't hold much hope in breaking the Vendetta. We'll be flying blind and comms dark from here on out. Dead to the galaxy. Hutts are paid off, one million plus interest, but they agreed to call off the bounty on my head. That's something at least." She wiggled her backside against the front of his trousers. "Think you'll be up for a little celebration?"

He nipped the lobe of her ear. "I already am."

#

Tamerlane Skavak strode through the Tinsel Nest casino on Affavan, heading toward the guarded double doors that stood between him and an invite-only high stakes Pazaak game. He patted the front of his jacket that held the stolen gold engraved invitation in an inside pocket.

Tonight, he was Pesco Notalle, a mid-rim industrialist who'd wake up tomorrow morning pissed off, and nursing one hell of a drug-induced hangover. Served the fat fuck right for getting played. Yeah, I got something to show you, and it ain't my dick, jackass.

Skavak's mark was just beyond those doors. Competition eliminated, trade war resolved, patent secured, and no more abused children in a secret room in the bastard's house. Ky would approve. Nix that last thought.

Poison was a woman's tool, but Skavak wasn't averse to getting in touch with his feminine side as long as the outcome justified the means. Of course, there was always the knife he had in the unscannable sheath in his boot, but that was messy. He really liked his new jacket.

It was possible someone would recognize him, though he'd never been to Affavan before and none of the names on the dossier he'd received rang a bell. As long as he had funds to get into the game, no one would care, and he had an escape plan in case shit went south.

He didn't need the job or the credits, he was playing for the thrills and that jolt of adrenaline when he got away with it and was still breathing. One less perverted scumbag in the galaxy was just an added bonus.

He was flying solo tonight but winked at the women who turned their heads to gawk as he walked by. The place was a veritable smorgasbord, and he might take a nibble later if he wasn't running for his life. Damn. Good times.

His datapad chimed. He pulled it from the inside pocket of his jacket, the back of his knuckles skimming the rough gold leaf of the invite. His eyes widened when he recognized the channel the mail had been sent to. That frequency and address hadn't been used for a long time. He halted in his tracks and tapped the open icon, two words and a letter froze on the screen; Thank you, K.

The world stopped and flew away like he was trapped on a conveyor belt taking him on a ride back through time. He smelled the musk of her on his fingers and his mouth, the shampoo in her hair, the mint on her breath. He scraped his teeth along his bottom lip, the tip of his tongue licking at the memory of the honey and salt of her skin. She smiled, and his heart broke all over again.

The walls of the casino expanded and contracted when he snapped back from gazing into that box in his mind. She lived there, locked away with all the memories. A place he opened only when he was very drunk or very high. Damn. Of all the lousy timing. She just might get him killed after all.

Roll with the punch, man, stay on top of your game. Get your shit together!

The guards were giving him the thousand-meter stare, he shrugged, slapped a silly grin on his face and pointed at the datapad. 'The wife' he mouthed at the guards. They nodded as if they understood. Oh, they really didn't.

His finger hovered over the delete button. He had the shakes, he fucking hated the shakes. A deep breath and he blew it all away in one single decision. He'd heard the quickest cut hurt the least. What a load of bullshit.

Delete mail? Confirm. Yes.

Delete account? Confirm. Yes.

Delete frequency code? Confirm. Yes.

Delete her? Never. Even if he could.

~The End~

A/N: Thanks to everyone who took this journey with me. I hope you've enjoyed the characters as much as I have. Every comment and bit of support is appreciated. Thank you all again.