A/N: Sorry for the delay! Thanks for all your support, as usual. By the way, in case it's not obvious, dialogue in italics is Sabine reading lips. I wanted to give some designation there.

Next time: Ketsu and Sabine try to come to an understanding. Also, the battle begins.

Through the Daybreak

Part Six

The lights are dimmed in Sabine's quarters as they skid down the landing strip at Chopper Base, shortly preceded by the Shadow Caster. She lays in her bunk in the fetal position, still in her civilian clothes from the day. Her blaster lays discarded at the bedside, just barely sticking out underneath the blanket. Just because she can't hear anyone approach doesn't mean she wants to stop defending herself if the need arises.

If she presses her knees against the wall, she can feel the machinery in the engine compartment grinding away. The adjacent chamber is soundproofed for their comfort, so she's never noticed it before. The tiniest vibrations in her surroundings now stood out to her. Recycled air tumbles out of the vent in the ceiling, causing gooseflesh to erupt on her exposed skin. Two pairs of footsteps come down the hall and fade with increasing distance. She feels it with the beating of her heart, with the thrum of blood in her head. It is all she has.

The sight of Ketsu at the table in the common room brought back a flood of memories, not all of them unpleasant. For the longest time at the academy on Mandalore, she'd been her only friend. She closed her eyes and there they were, skipping out on kitchen duty and sneaking around after curfew. Eventually they had taken the plunge. That was when everything changed.

During their partnership, Sabine had fought to eliminate any signs of weakness, lest other bounty hunters doubt the credibility of their cell. But then they started making money, and Ketsu had gotten greedy.

As much as she wanted to be optimistic about a person's motives, experience had proven that she should do the opposite. To Sabine, vulnerability was a cursed thing, and only allowed people to take advantage of her. She wasn't above begging for help when the wellbeing of her friends were on the line; for herself was another matter entirely.

Her parents were angry. That was plain enough to see, especially for her father. If Kanan were to come across the Chalactan woman again, there was no doubt he would kill her in vindication. She knew enough about the jedi code to determine that this wasn't the accepted way, but they'd never been traditionalists anyway. Mother was a little harder to read, and Ahsoka only projected grief and a weird brand of acceptance on which she didn't care to dwell. Ezra was working double time to reign in his rage, for it was precisely that that put him under Maul's influence in the first place. And she, after a period of mourning that she considered self indulgent, was gradually growing to accept this new reality.

That left one member of their crew unaccounted for. On his way to bed for the night, Zeb stops outside her door, one fist curled in lieu of a knock. He hesitates a second too long. From within comes the imploring reminder: "I can feel you standing there."

Karabast. Perhaps Kanan and Ezra weren't the only force sensitives on board. But then again he had seen his brothers in arms develop heightened senses after accidents, one even creating a new kind of bow rifle defense after losing an arm. He wasn't surprised. Sabine was skilled at everything she put her mind to.

Zeb had always been a solitary warrior; such was the life of a captain in the honor guard. Though he had been known to keep a few lovers, he never married and never really had close relationships with anyone. That is, until he joined the crew of the Ghost.

After the initial distrust had worn off, Kanan and Hera became like his siblings. All of his brothers and sisters were long since dead in the decimation of Lasan, so their camaraderie was comforting. It was plain to see that the two of them were romantically involved, but they never made Zeb feel excluded. On one occasion when they'd allowed themselves to get tipsy following the successful completion of a mission, he swept Hera off her feet just outside the cantina and carried her as he ran down the block, laughing all the way. Kanan had followed closely, waving his fists and gasping around his own mirth that he ought not to put his paws on the merchandise.

Then a headstrong fifteen-year-old Sabine Wren had joined the crew. There was no need to tread carefully around her, for she was as strong as any human male and could tell tales with the best of them. Irrationally, Zeb took a liking to her. She reminded him of his youngest sister Leena, whose grammar school had been one of the first buildings bombed in the siege that destroyed their world.

His first reaction to the accident was to hunt down whoever did this to Sabine and beat them senseless, to get revenge for the light that had fled from the girl's eyes. But he wasn't a brute...not anymore. Her sorrow hung over all of them like a raincloud. He wanted nothing more than to dissipate it.

Upon him entering the room, Sabine rolls over and reaches for him. He complies, squatting by the bedside to take her hand. She smiles; he dishes up his trademark lopsided grin.

"How ya doin', kid?" He asks, making sure to emphasize each word.

She follows his lips with her eyes and nods. "I've been better."

Now that was the understatement of the century. Just a year ago he might have left it at that, for Zeb was never good in emotional situations, but now he knew what had to be done.

Pulling away from her grasp, Zeb draws himself up to full height. "Can you stand up?"

Silently she complies, reaching for his biceps as the floor tilts beneath her. The blood roars in her ears and her knees almost give out underneath her. Sabine's voice is slurred with drowsiness and disorientation: "Where are we going?"

It takes some time to make their way down the corridor and exit the Ghost. She clings onto his arm for dear life; fortunately, they do not run into anyone on their way to the fringes of the base.

Sabine squats in the dust and gazes up to the starlit sky. The sun has just set, and Atollon's three moons were just cresting over the horizon. It is going to be completely dark soon, and that terrifies her.

Meanwhile, Zeb finds two discarded lengths of pipe in a nearby rubbish heap and makes his way over to her, slapping the shorter one into her hands. She looks down at it incredulously.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

He takes a few steps back out of her line of sight; she follows him with her eyes, afraid to lose sight of him in the rapidly dwindling light. Once that happened, it was all over. "Just because you're injured doesn't mean you shouldn't learn how to make best use of it. Now close your eyes and I'm going to come at you. Counterattack before I can strike."

She appears dubious. "Zeb, this isn't a good idea. I can barely walk straight, let alone spar with you."

"Trust me," he encourages, "Now close your eyes."

And so she obeys, and the world plunges into darkness. The air around her is fairly crackling with electricity, and she is keenly aware of his presence stepping around behind her. It's not difficult. His paws are heavy and shake the ground wherever he places them. The feeling travels across the sand and to her own feet, which shoot up the length of her body to let her know that he's at her left side, improvised weapon held aloft.

Much to her surprise, she meets his blow with plenty of time to spare. Briefly she opens her eyes and is rewarded with a thumbs up as he turns out of the impact. A little more confident now, Sabine shifts to face another direction and focuses on the ground vibrating beneath her, the pipe whistling through the air and her hands clasped together.

Their next engagement lasts several blows, until Zeb has to take a step back to parry away her charge. What she lacked in brute strength she made up for in speed and agility, something in which he was severely lacking due to his size. All the while her eyes are closed.

Eventually a smile begins to tug at the corners of her lips. They carry on like this for several minutes, both taking turns being on the offensive and defensive. After one particularly daring move, Sabine's balance falters. She trips over an exposed rock and stumbles into him, grabbing great handfuls of his fur.

The tears are immediate, her confidence all but broken. Zeb doesn't hesitate to lift her off her feet and allow her to wrap her arms around his shoulders, relishing in the comfort that only family could provide.

"You did it. You were doing well," he assures her. Sabine doesn't understand him, but the rumble of his chest and the way he strokes her back tell her that it's something soothing. After the first night she'd locked her tears away, but here they were again with a vengeance. She needed time to adjust. She needed time to mourn.

"I'm always proud of you," Zeb says, and means it.

-0-

"It's time," the Old Master announces the second night after their operation. New Seeker sits cross legged on the floor of her temporary quarters in meditation, and barely reacts to his voice.

Slowly, she stands, testing the weight of her saber in her hands. Caleb's insipid face dances behind her eyes, giving purpose to what she's about to do.

"I'm ready," she confirms, pushing past him into the cockpit.

-0-

While Zeb and Sabine are fighting across the desert, several other members of the crew meet in the nerve center of the base to discuss their next steps.

Ahsoka and Hera stand at the opposite end of the holoprojector, mimicking each other's postures with arms crossed. Both listen intently as Ketsu relays what she's seen to Kanan, knowing full well that whatever she says could change the course of their mission.

"I didn't know jedi were in the practice of holding grudges," she remarks after he interrupts to fill her in on Malachor and his relationship with Saneetra. Now she understands why they were determined to resolve this on their own rather than get the authorities involved.

"Saneetra isn't a jedi. She's a dangerous rogue that's allowing her anger to cloud her judgment." Ahsoka had left the order long ago, but she wasn't about to let that woman besmirch the reputation of the men and women who trained her.

The bounty hunter frowns, forming a steeple with her fingertips in front of her lips. "So her motive is specifically to kill you-" She gestures to Kanan. "-to get some retribution for her mother being killed in battle. It follows that this Maul is helping her because two are more powerful than one. If you're dead, he can easily take your apprentice as his own."

That was about the gist of it. Hera reaches forward and activates the projection. The security footage of the pair fleeing the station appears. "We believe Sabine's accident was collateral damage to pull us out of hiding. Either that, or they were hoping several would detonate in the cargo hold and the entire base would go up in flames. Whatever the case may be, they're probably waiting for us to make the next move."

"I don't see how we could. We have a vague trajectory of where they might be due to their orientation as they jumped into hyperspace, but we don't know much more than that." Ketsu moves to one side to allow Kanan to push past her. He clenches and unclenches his fists as if he wants to say something, then begins to pace.

After a few laps, he makes eye contact with Ahsoka and stops in his tracks. "It feels as if she's taunting me. I can't explain it any way other than that. This is all a game of dejarik to her. Human lives are just pawns to get to me. By going easy on her, I'm putting all of you in danger." His stricken expression was enough to determine that he couldn't stand the idea. "I know how Saneetra operates, trust me. And I know she's going to strike first."

The rest of them take this all in, coming to a realization that their fragile semblance of calm was about to be shattered. Hera says, "I'll contact Commander Sato up in the air."

Her loyalty, as always, is unwavering.

"I'll rouse the ground troops," Ahsoka confirms.

Kanan offers them each a grim smile, knowing full well that Ezra would be up for a round two. Before he can leave the room, however, Ketsu brushes past him into the corridor.

"I'm going to speak with Sabine," she asserts, her voice almost out of earshot.

(to be continued)