Two standard days, according to Xyla's chrono, passed. To Kanan, they may as well have been two years. It was torture watching the visual feed from the cams in Hera's necklace, listening to how the Zygerrian scum talked to her. What made it worse was how easily Hera fell into her role. She'd told him once that Twi'leks stored deep memory stretching back generations in their lekku; her people had always been a favorite target for slavers, and so those traits that had helped her ancestors survive their enslavement (obedience, submission, silence) were passed down to her. Of course, it took an effort to sweep aside her own personality, but once it was done it was surprisingly easy to become someone else.

That didn't make it any easier having to watch the cams and sit there and do nothing. The day before, Hera had tried sneaking into her 'owner's' study where he kept his illicit records. She'd been caught and thrown to the floor. Kanan had jumped to his feet in an instinctive effort to protect her despite the distance. "Don't!" she'd pleaded. It had taken him a moment to realize she hadn't been talking to the Zygerrian as he towered over her; she was talking to him, telling him to stay where he was. To the Zygerrian, she'd made an excuse that she'd simply gotten lost. She played innocent and frightened very well; he'd simply smirked down at her and stepped over her to go on his way. It had taken much longer for Kanan to get his anger under control.

Now he watched blurred holoimages of the carpet. The slaver was in a meeting with two people (who still had yet to either name or show themselves above the ankle on the cams) and had brought Hera in to show her off. He'd made her sit on the floor by his chair, like a canid. Every now and then the images would shudder; at first, Kanan had thought it was just static. Then the truth hit him: the Zygerrian was stroking her lekku in a display to his guests of dominance and power. That anger he had fought down not twenty four standard hours earlier came back in full swing.

"You're going to drive yourself crazy if all you do is stare at the feed." Xyla stepped beside him, in the same human form as when they'd met, with a piece of fruit in her hand. "Have you slept at all since you got back?"

Kanan didn't turn to look at her. "Don't need it." He didn't add that he couldn't even if he tried.

Xyla looked down at him as she bit into the fruit. "She'll be alright, Kanan. She may not look it right now, but Hera's not some helpless little youngling. If she truly feels in danger, she can take care of herself."

"I know that," he snapped. He didn't mean it to come out so short, but he hadn't counted on just how deeply this mission would affect him. "It doesn't mean I have to like being so helpless."

Xyla shifted her weight to one foot, still munching on her snack. "If I offer a suggestion, will you promise not to bite my head off?"

Kanan had to take a breath to calm down enough to not snap at her again. "What is it?"

"I'll monitor the feed while you go get something to eat and some rest. All we need is a name and a face and we can go for an extraction. I'll call you if anything develops. Deal?"

His initial instinct was to decline and continue watching the gutwrenching footage until they got their info. This whole mission had been his idea, and as a result he felt responsible for whatever happened to Hera. But really, what good was he doing just sitting here waiting for either a name to be mentioned or to explode from outrage at Hera's treatment?

He blew out a breath through his nose and ran a hand over his face. "Fine." He stood and headed for the hallway, then stopped. "Call me immediately if something happens."

Xyla rolled her eyes and waved him away. "I just said I would, didn't I? Get outta here."

A single meal bar was the only thing Kanan could force himself to eat. He didn't think he could keep anything else down. Now without the holoimages playing before his eyes, they instead played on an endless loop in his mind. What was going on now? Had one of the people the Zygerrian was meeting with finally slipped up? Had that bastard touched her again?

He forcefully shook the questions away. They weren't doing anything but getting him worked up again. He tried picturing what Hera would say if she saw him now. Probably something along the lines of him being a typical human male, always feeling like he had to protect the poor, defenseless female from the bad, scary people. Or that he was getting soft. Or that she'd personally chain him to the wall if he even thought about pulling her out early.

A smile had just formed on his face when Xyla's voice came through his comlink. "Kanan, we've got a problem."

He was on his feet and out the galley door before she even finished the last word. When he entered the control room where he'd been monitoring Hera's footage, the holoimages were gone. Xyla was working frantically at various buttons and switches. "What happened?"

"We've gone dark," she said with worry in her voice. "I think that Zygerrian mongrel trashed the necklace."

Kanan stomped down the fear that rose in his breast. What had prompted the slaver to dispose of the necklace now of all times? Had he caught wind of its real purpose? Was Hera alright?

Xyla turned to him with wide eyes. "We're blind, Kanan."

"So let's get Hera out of there." It was so simple; why did Xyla seem so at a loss?

The Clawdite shook her head. "Hera had a feeling something like this might happen. She made me promise not to pull her out until she contacted me, no matter what."

Kanan stared at her. That anger, always hiding just below the surface of his self-control waiting to be unleashed, wound its way into his concern. A dangerous combination in anyone, but especially so in a Jedi. "She did what? When was this?!"

"Just before we took off for the planet. She told me while you were checking things on the shuttle." Xyla's gaze became sympathetic and apologetic. "She knew you'd react like this if something deviated from your plan, so she made me promise."

Kanan clenched his fists and closed his eyes. He couldn't afford to lose control of his emotions because of a snag. Hera couldn't afford it. He focused on that small part of the Force that he was never able to fully escape from, drawing from it until his pounding heart became calm and that unpleasant tingle beneath his skin went numb. A handful of deep breaths later and he could open his eyes without seeing red.

"So, what do we do now?"

Xyla blinked, obviously taken aback by his abrupt change in tone. "We wait."

I was afraid you were going to say that.

The next day and a half Kanan spent in deep meditation. Rather than focus on letting go of his emotions like his old Master would have wanted him to, he latched onto Hera's faint signature in the Force and held on with every fiber of his being. He felt nearly everything she did: disgust, indignation, frustration, anger. It made him sick to his stomach to know she was going through it all alone, but as long as he held onto her signature he knew she was still alive. That was the important thing...that was the important thing...

A surge of triumph through the Force slammed into him and nearly knocked him onto his back. She'd found something! "Kanan!" Xyla's voice echoed the excitement and relief that now flooded through him. "Hera's made contact. She's got names and sale records that go to the top of the Tilo Prime Senate. The higher-ranking Senators will give up all their contacts to keep their names out of the news and keep their positions. We've got this ring!"

Kanan sprang up and ran straight for the nearest prepped shuttle. "Great!" he answered into the comm. "I'm on my way for extraction now. Keep the engine running, Xyla."

He had just lifted off the hangar floor when Xyla's voice returned, all lightness gone. "Uh, Kanan. You might wanna hurry. She's been spotted by the Zygerrian. Her comm's gone dead."

A cold weight fell into his stomach at those words. He reached back into the Force and felt for her presence. Sudden pain erupted in his head. It both blinded him and pushed him onward, opening the shuttle and pushing it to its max speed. If something had happened to her...

The flight down to the planet seemed to take an eternity.