It was so strange to have Caleb literally fall back into her life – and stranger yet that he didn't feel like Caleb. Raen was still puzzling out the fact that Caleb had changed his name and she was sure she was going to either forget calling him Kanan or just give him a nickname so she didn't confuse herself. But after seeing his lightsaber, hearing him calling her Fish, it was…good.

Not so good was seeing the toll the years had taken on him. Raen got him to sit down near the door of the freight car, shoving the door open like in the old days, but Caleb's face never turned from roughly her direction – showing the years between her memory of him and the present, the faint scruff of a beard along his jaw, excluding the existing strip on his chin. The metal visor over his eyes made Raen's gut clench in worry, remembering her nightmare of a few weeks ago. Not nightmare; vision. That made her nervous about a bond, but when she tried to ask about it Caleb just waved her off.

"Look, I don't know if you've noticed, but some of the Empire's worst are coming after you," he told her after just sitting and watching – or maybe sensing – Coruscant speed past. "Not just the ISB."

"The red blades?" Raen asked; Caleb's head leaned back in surprise. "Yeah, they've been after me off and on for a few years. Mostly I give them a good chase and lose them before I head back to my hole."

"How many of them?" he pressed.

"I think they've got three on me right now," Raen admitted, which got curses that the old Caleb might have flushed to say aloud streaming out of the new Caleb like industrial sewage out of a Hutt power factory. "Wow, it's not like they're hard to get around…"

"Raen, Inquisitors aren't that stupid," Caleb told her sharply. Inquisitors. That must be the real name for those stalkers. "Their leader died hunting me and my apprentice, and two more came after us after that."

It wasn't hearing that Caleb had faced some Inquisitors himself that made Raen look away, something deep down inside twinging with a fierce ache. Caleb had an apprentice. An apprentice. Sure, her plea before he'd left for the war was years passed and they had both grown out of the Jedi myth-tradition, but a little bit of Raen was still that ten-year-old waving frantically at the departing ship and hoping that in just a few years he'd be back and he would be a Knight and…

"Well maybe they've been sending you better hunters than I've been outrunning," Raen made herself comment, shoving that piece of resentment down. "That or mine are just waiting for a good opening to hit me, but I dare them to try."

"Sure, with a training lightsaber," Caleb teased, and Raen couldn't help a smile to see him smirking at her faintly. "Come on, fifteen years and you're still using that old thing?"

"You're using the same lightsaber you made as an apprentice," Raen countered.

"Weak," Caleb retorted, grin spreading. "Mine's full power, thanks."

"Well, give us a couple hours and I'll show you why I haven't," Raen sighed. The train made a long turn, and briefly the spires of the Jedi Temple flickered into view as she stood from her side of the door. "Coming up on our exit; I could use a hand getting these crates ready."

"If you give me a hand to them, I'll gladly help," Caleb answered, extending a hand to her. Raen took it and pulled Caleb to his feet – which put him head and shoulders above her.

"Never going to get used to you being so damn tall," Raen muttered, but Caleb still heard and laughed – the same laugh when they'd been kids. She guided him to the corner where she'd left the crates, and switched on one crate's built-in lifts before pushing it under his hands. "You can roughly track me if I move, right?"

"Roughly is putting it lightly, but yeah," Caleb confirmed. "Just tell me when to jump and I'll be right with you."

"Well don't move yet," Raen warned him with a smirk as she readied the second crate for herself. As she pushed towards the open door, she heard Caleb shuffle slightly, then come up alongside with his crate. Not bad; maybe he was getting the hang of the Force sight thing she'd read about once. She looked out at the passing superscrapers and just managed to count out to the next large gap, with another view of the Temple. "Jump, now!"

Raen shoved her crate forward and launched after it. The Force flooded her again, and she couldn't help an exhilarated whoop as she plummeted. She more sensed than heard Caleb's surprised panic as they hurtled down, down, down. Raen started angling herself towards their landing spot, and molded the Force to start slowing down. The Force-enhanced drag and thrust guided her smoothly over the railing on the edges of sector 1313, and Raen made sure the crate was still secure before turning to make sure Caleb was behind her after she'd recovered from her landing. He was just barely managing, kicking and flailing even as he edged closer to the railing. Raen flung a Force hold around him and his crate, reeling them in as best she could to make sure he didn't miss.

"Almost, almost," she panted as she guided them in. The crate landed first, scraping slightly before it floated onto its repulsor coil, and Raen yelped as Caleb plowed into her, sending them sprawling on the floor of the platform.

"…we're not dead?" Caleb groaned after rolling off her chest onto his back. Raen could only respond with a moan; that was going to leave a hefty bruise come the morning. She just managed to shift the final note of her moan into a laugh.

"Didn't trust me, did you?" Raen ground out before she sat up, rubbing her chest a little. "Shows what fifteen years doing nothing but scrounge and try to keep up training on my own does…"

"Never said I didn't trust you," Caleb answered, propping himself up on his elbows with a sigh. "That's a new exit."

"Well I can't go all the way to the Temple anymore, can I?" Raen pointed out, but clapped a hand to his shoulder. "Come on, time to get up. We got a good lead on those Inquisitors – that's what you called them, right? – so they shouldn't catch up if we keep moving."

"Sure, if I'm not sore from that leap," Caleb groaned, but he was smirking as they both got to their feet. Raen guided him back to the crates and got him set up with his crate again before taking up hers.

They didn't talk much as they headed into 1313; Raen made sure her blaster was unholstered and on top of her crate for easy reach in case of trouble, and a glance back at Caleb showed he had the same idea. She heard him speaking quietly into a comlink but let him. He was probably talking to whomever his friends were, most likely the Lasat and the Twi'lek from where the raid happened. Raen wouldn't have minded giving Caleb the coordinates to their final destination, but she couldn't know that his team's channel was secured against the Empire. They could meet halfway, though, she was sure.

Raen sensed the Black Sun checkpoint before seeing it, and she heard Caleb going for his blaster as the muscle started stepping out.

"Easy," Raen muttered over her shoulder to him. "Don't shoot them or we're both in trouble."

"You say that when they've got us surrounded?" Caleb asked, voice tight.

"Less surrounded and more inspectin'," the Twi'leki leader noted with a harsh smile as he stepped out towards them. "Raen, gel, you didn't say you were bringin' a friend along this run."

"The convoy had more coverage than expected, Ty'rova," Raen replied, though Caleb's tension still rattled her nerves. "You take your cut as usual and let me take the rest through."

"Mm, I'm more tempted ta take half and yeh friend," Ty'rova drawled as he strolled closer. Raen couldn't help a scowl as he flashed another smile, even though it was all sharp teeth. "But we still got a nice haul from that last pull, so I'll letcha off the hook, this time. Business as usual nex' time, luv."

"You're all generosity, Ty," Raen deadpanned, which, despite his smile, made Ty'rova's headtails shiver with disdain. "I'll make sure to bring plenty next time."

Ty'rova refrained from further comments but waved her through. Raen quick-stepped past him and the rest of the Black Sun goons in his patrol, Caleb right behind her. His disapproval smacked into her back so heavily it might well have been a durasteel wall.

"You let that slime steal what you bring down here?" Caleb asked once Ty'rova's checkpoint was well behind them. "That's just giving criminals like them even more power down here!"

"They already own most of the sector, and if I tried to fight them off they've got enough connections to the Empire I wouldn't be safe anywhere on Coruscant," Raen argued. "Letting Ty take some of what I get means I can keep the other sorry souls near my hole, plus myself, alive a few days longer. Or at least not starving."

"That doesn't stop his kind telling them about you anyway," Caleb pressed, "especially now the ISB has it out on the HoloNet you've got Jedi training."

"Ty knows. Part of the payoff to him includes his silence in return. The rest of his particular crew is totally ignorant. They know I swipe goods but they don't connect my surface raids to what they get from me."

"That still doesn't guarantee your safety, Raen."

"I haven't been safe since a whole legion of clones descended on the Temple," Raen snapped, stopping to turn to Caleb and making sure he felt her frustration. "I wasn't safe for the first five years of my life. I know how to take care of myself, thanks for the confidence."

Caleb stared at her – or as close to staring as a blind man could get – before Raen turned back to pushing her crate. That was when she sensed the faint but amused headshake from him.

"Haven't changed, have I?" Raen asked as her ire cooled, and Caleb chuckled softly.

"Nope, not one bit."

"Good."

It was about ten more minutes until they reached a large square, mostly-deserted except for small stirrings of life that Raen could sense. She sighed internally before disengaging the repulsor coil on her crate, returning it solidly to the floor. Raen glanced over at Caleb and saw his head turning, as if trying to get himself oriented.

"It's okay," she told him before raising her voice a bit. "You don't have to be scared, everyone, he's a friend of mine. Helped bring in today's delivery, come on out."

The first sign of motion was under a pile of scrap metal that hid one of a few warrens in the square, and Raen crouched to meet the glowing yellow eyes peering out at her and Caleb. Raen offered the gaze a smile, gently reaching out a hand and beckoning the owner of the eyes out. The Shistavanen cub edged out slowly, snout first and sniffing at Raen's fingers before pulling himself out, matted brown fur filled with more clumps than she'd last seen and ears flicked nervously toward Caleb.

"Kyrr, wow, you went under a few sewer pipes, didn't you," Raen sighed as she found Kyrr's scruff and hefted him to his feet. He snarled weakly at the yank, but blinked at Caleb warily as the Shistavanen settled, just a little taller than Raen.

"Practice scouting," the young wolfman grunted out before pointing to Caleb. "Who?"

"Old friend," Caleb replied, but he was already turning as more kids appeared. Raen felt the smack of the Force in a scant few of them – too weak to really train – but still enough individuals to make Caleb wary. "Raen, how many of them are there?"

"Last count, just shy of twenty-five," Raen sighed. "War orphans, or their folks were taken by the Empire. Technically they're manual labor, but since Black Sun holds the power installations they're stuck down here."

"Bring food?" Kyrr asked, and Raen led him over to the crates, prying them hoping to start handing out Imperial military rations. Caleb helped, of course, but Raen felt the Force warm around him as he ducked to the littlest of Raen's neighbors, asking their names. Raen couldn't help smiling at that; that was Caleb through and through. As the kids got a good supply of the rations, many settled against the walls of the square to have their first portions of the day, while others vanished back to their own hideouts. Kyrr closed one of the crates and shoved it over to his den, clambering atop it before eating.

"Kyrr's got the rest of the stock," Raen told Caleb as she closed up the second crate. "He'll keep the rest of the handouts fair. The rest are mine. Want to call down your friends?"

"Yeah…yeah, sure," Caleb replied, invisible gaze still panning over the kids. "So…the raids…"

"Feeding them," Raen explained. "Kyrr's something of my second; he was the first one that found my hole, don't ask me how. He brought more until they started coming themselves."

"Some of them are Force-sensitive."

"Not really enough to train up in terms of strength. They know enough to stay hidden, which is more important for now. You want the coordinates for your friends or not?"

Caleb refocused and nodded, and after Raen told him the coordinates she moved off near Kyrr's perch to let him contact his team in peace. Kyrr looked up from his meal to give her a nod, then swipe his muzzle clean as he set aside the ration pack.

"He Jedi?" Kyrr asked in a low growl. "If old friend?"

"Yeah," Raen sighed. "I knew him when we were both Jedi. He went off to fight in the war, so I didn't know he'd survived."

"He get you out of Treteen-teen?"

"Don't know. He's got friends offworld, but I can't leave you guys."

"Cubs be fine; you teach survival," Kyrr pointed out. "Me, go with you. Train Jedi."

"Kyrr, you're not Force-sensitive," Raen argued, but he waved a clawed forepaw at her in dismissal.

"No need Force to follow Jedi way," Kyrr insisted. "Am already good tracker, good scout. Want fight."

"Kyrr, you're how old?"

Kyrr's fangs bared in a snarl, but Raen wasn't intimidated. They both knew he was only around thirteen Standard years – Shistavanens weren't full-grown until at least seventeen or eighteen – but he had undergone a coming-of-age ritual before his parents had been enslaved by the Empire. Kyrr considered himself an adult, but Raen knew better than hurling unprepared kids into battle. All she had to do was look at Caleb to see how that worked out in the end.

"They takes my clan," he snarled, Basic starting to fade as his fur bristled and his ears folded back against his head. "They kills Jedi. Must fight back, no hide like cubs! You Jedi, he Jedi, pack! Want hunt!"

"Kyrr, that's enough!" Raen barked. "I never finished my Jedi training, neither did he, and you're a teenager. If I leave, you're staying here. You think you want to be in a pack with me, you already have one! The other kids are going to need you if I go, and if you leave, most of them will starve. Do you want that to happen?!"

Kyrr was arching up, ready to fight for some unseen reason, but Raen felt a hand drop onto her shoulder, pulling her out of Kyrr's biting range. Caleb put himself between them, blind gaze locked firmly to Kyrr.

"Kyrr, right?" Caleb intervened, exuding calm through the Force even though Kyrr's rage was still spiked. "Couldn't help overhearing. Your parents were enslaved?"

Kyrr's only active response was a fresh snarl.

"I'll take it as a yes," Caleb continued. "Look, Raen's right. You're young. I get you want to get them back, or get revenge on the Empire for taking them. But if you leave with us to fight the Empire, these kids? They won't have any supplies to keep them going. They might make it a few weeks, but they won't have any food.

"If Raen leaves, this…this pack of orphans is going to need you. You'd be the leader in her absence. You won't be on a full battlefield, but poking the Empire with a stick and knowing how to go to ground is just as important. Okay?"

Raen sensed the threads of connection through the Force weaving from Caleb to Kyrr, and the wolfman teen calmed slowly, fur smoothing but his ears still flattened in displeasure. Eventually, Kyrr nodded, and Raen managed an exhale as Caleb took her shoulder again and shoved her well away from Kyrr.

"I see you're still as good at making friends as ever," Caleb quipped as they returned to Raen's crate of supplies. "You said he found you? Sure he's not sensitive?"

"Very sure," Raen confirmed. "I even checked myself after he pestered me about it for at least two months. Whatever instincts he has, they're normal for a Shistavanen."

"Still, I might put in a word for him," Caleb thought aloud.

Raen couldn't help a smile. He might not accept it, but Caleb was still very much the same as he'd ever been. Of that, she had no doubt.