Coruscant – 500 Republica

"So, how'd it go?" Raen asked, almost singsong, when Kanan returned to his ambassador suite close to the Senate – Kanan wasn't surprised she was there had he wanted to think about it. The faint scowl he'd been managing to work off came back full force, though he waited until the door hissed shut behind him. Only once it was did he snarl in some frustration before untying the sash closing his coat. "Uh oh, someone didn't like my friend…"

"Yeah, when your friend is the clone that probably tried to kill Master Kenobi," Kanan snapped before throwing sash, then coat, in Raen's direction. Even though he couldn't see her, he still got some satisfaction from hearing her squeak a little at the assault. "And how in hells did you get in here?"

"Ventilation and maintenance tunnels, then some well-placed memory blurring," Raen answered from behind the fabric he'd thrown. "Also Cody checked reports, he thinks it's kinda likely Master Obi-Wan survived – especially since, you know, he sent off that warning message after Order Sixty-Six happened. If that's the case he's keeping a lower profile than you are."

Kanan grumbled anyway and would have managed to get somewhere just fine if Raen didn't approach and take his hand. A wave of feeling flowed up his arm – concern, mostly – before Raen tugged him along. Kanan briefly noted that it was away from where he figured the in-suite bar was but Raen pushed him down into a chair before he could ask. He was able to track her outline to another chair across from him, sitting and leaning towards him.

"So, before the full meet and greet again," Raen began, "what'd Cody have to say? He's doing all right, yeah, you guys didn't give him away or anything, right?"

"Didn't talk much, but we saw plenty," Kanan replied; Raen's unease and mild discomfort flared a little when he mentioned seeing. "Lots of people in there, training commanders and cadets alike, not to mention a bunch of general Imperial desk jockeys."

"He mention the others needing coverage out?"

"Wait, it's more than just extracting one guy?"

"Uh, yeah," Raen answered. "Cody's not the only clone there. Some of the very last special operations commandos are in there. I mean, can't guarantee they'll tag along with whomever you guys work with, but Cody was pretty adamant that it's six to go out, not just him."

Kanan would have groaned but he already heard Hera: Getting those commandos on our side would be ideal, but if we at least give them something to consider it's still an opening. He'd never met any of the clone commandos with Master Billaba, but what Kanan had heard was enough for him to know that Hera wasn't going to back off from the chance to get those commandos as a resource for the Rebellion.

"Other than that technical detail," Kanan continued, "someone more humanitarian-minded than me right now spent a good bit of time looking over the med clinic he took us to. Anything you wanna share about that?"

"Hey, I don't know anything medical," Raen told him, outline shifting defensively. "Cody and I keep contact to a minimum to keep the Imps from finding our jacked frequency. If he showed it as part of the diplomat tour, there's a reason to it."

Kanan tilted his head towards the door as he sensed Zeb approaching the door, and knew Raen had sensed him, too. It didn't stop her from swinging herself over the back of her chair and ducking warily behind it. Kanan couldn't help shaking his head at first, but then he picked up someone else with Zeb: the princess. A quick scan of the building – zooming out almost like on a holoprojector, just in his head – revealed Hera descending impatiently from the roof landing. That would be everyone.

"Raen, relax," Kanan tried to soothe her, but the door opened too soon. Leia strode in first, all confidence and surety, and Zeb ducked in before the door closed. Kanan got up to spread his hands warningly towards Leia. "Princess, not a good idea to be here right now…"

"Is that so?" Leia asked in that tone that reminded Kanan way too much of Hera. "Why, we're not going to discuss our little informative tour of the training facility?"

"Maybe not without introductions," Kanan suggested before nodding towards the chair Raen was taking cover behind. He couldn't help a smirk before latching a Force hold on Raen's ankle and tugging her off balance enough that she dropped onto the floor, loudly enough for Leia to jump.

"Fierfek, Kay, you really had to do that?!" Raen swore as she got up to her feet, brushing imaginary dust off her sleeves as she got up slowly. "Tell me the junior senator is with you."

"More accurately, he's with me," Leia answered, arms crossed over her chest. "Now you tell me you swept this room for surveillance devices."

"I'm not entirely stupid for being gutter trash," Raen retorted, yet a whiff of acceptance and even respect between Raen and Leia flashed over Kanan's awareness. He was probably going to regret having the two of them meet, but there was nothing to be done about it now. "Waiting on one more, yeah?"

"Hera's incoming," Kanan reported, sensing her heading their way as quickly as she could without being obvious. "Maybe we can actually start figuring out how to get six clones out from that fortress without the Empire catching on."

"I have a few ideas," Leia replied with a smack of cocky confidence not unlike when they had met on Lothal. Kanan still hadn't decided if he liked that confidence or if it was annoying as hells.

"Someone better; I like smackin' bucketheads as much as the next guy, but there's too many of 'em in there for me to take all on my own," Zeb grumbled, though Kanan sensed that Zeb wouldn't mind those sorts of odds. "Not to mention it'll be easy t'get pinned down in there."

"Sorry, I was finishing my aerial sweep, making sure everything was wiped," Hera excused as she breezed inside. "I do have the records you asked for, highness."

"Just Leia, please, captain," Leia replied, and Kanan made sure to offer a smile in what he could roughly approximate was Hera's direction. Even though everyone else's outline was dimmer than Raen's – Leia was maybe five shades dimmer, while Zeb and Hera were difficult to make out – Kanan could basically see them, and from those echoes get a rough outline of the room. He was definitely getting better at this.

"Here, let me," Hera suggested as she headed for the holotable in the sitting area Kanan and Raen had been at before everyone arrived. Raen herself moved closer to the wall, out to the edges, as Hera approached. Kanan wasn't sure why Raen didn't like her, or at least was pricklier with her than others. He sat back down in his chair and watched Hera fiddle with the table. Too bad the Force didn't let him see technological displays.

"This is a scan I took of the training academy, after a few passes and telling a nervous comptroller I was on a security patrol for the senator," Hera explained. "The academy itself covers about four hundred levels, all surface-level and above. The pad you got access to is for academy personnel and other Imperial officials, at level three-seventy-five. Service entrance is down here, level fifty-six, and the public main entrance is at level two-thirty-three."

"But they've got nothing below-surface," Raen pointed out. "With the sector address I can do some spelunking, get an idea of what's down there."

"You haven't done it before?" Leia asked. "What about when you met with the commander?"

"Cody had been tracking me for a few months before I let him find me," Raen clarified. "After we got our little arrangement set up, I decided for his safety to keep distance from the academy. That's why I hit convoys closer to the spaceports, not the academy."

"Preserving your contact and regular operational security," Hera noted with a hint of praise. Kanan hid his smile at Raen's flicker of surprised pride by cradling his chin in his hand. "The belowground access can be our primary entrance point, or even an emergency egress in case we have to go in a hurry."

"What about coming at it from the roof?" Kanan asked, motioning towards where he hoped the hologram was. Zeb reached down to take his wrist and shifted his direction. "Hera can fly us in, we drop and move, then pull out down under."

"Sure, try filing an aerial drop request with a traffic comptroller that's approved," Hera replied. "I would prefer that, too, but in a shuttle we're too high-profile."

"Speeder at the service entrance, then," Kanan amended. "Less visibility, close enough to the belowground we can secure that route before moving on."

"Getting in's all well and good," Raen interrupted, "but getting out's the problem. We're going in as at least a team of three; we're coming out at nine. Assuming everything goes well, yeah, we can get them out through the tunnels; what if nothing goes right?"

"By reputation, Republic commandos are masters of improvisation," Hera said, "and they're not afraid of leaving a bit of wreckage if something gets in their way."

"Sound like my kinda guys," Zeb chuckled darkly. "Too bad Sabine's not here to play."

"So, we get in at the service entrance," Kanan suggested, "pull the clones out, and drop into the tunnels to get out. Quick, clean, and quiet."

"With a complication," Leia sighed. Kanan just knew this wasn't going to go well. "During the tour, I took a chance to speak to one of the medical technicians in a clinic for the academy. Apparently, the clones get a bi-weekly exam that includes some sort of anti-aging medication; it's not enough to reverse their accelerated aging entirely, but it does slow it."

"Explains why Cody felt younger than Rex does," Kanan muttered, shaking his head slowly. "You're saying if we don't get a supply of this stuff, these guys are going to get old again."

"At least looking it, and feeling it sooner," Leia insisted. "Any operation to extract those men will also mean getting some of that supply. And, in the long run, perhaps it could be researched into a full therapy against the aging, and we can provide it to any surviving clones."

Kanan smothered a groan, still shaking his head, but he felt Raen bristle in irritation.

"I can do it," she insisted. "It'll be easy. We get in, I signal Cody and go for the meds while the rest of the team gets the clones out. I follow with a bag of the stuff and rendezvous outside. Quick and easy."

"Fast, direct, and quiet," Hera agreed, though Kanan sensed her watching him. "Any complaints?"

"Splitting up is not smart," Kanan pushed, lifting his head to fix on Raen. "If you go off on your own, it's more likely you're going to get caught, especially if there's Inquisitors after you."

"They won't know I'm there," Raen argued.

"You say that, but you haven't done it."

"Are you saying I can't hold my own against them?"

"No, I'm saying it's dangerous!"

"Force-dammit, Caleb, I am not a child anymore!" Raen snapped, anger and frustration putting spikes in her aura again. "How dangerous have the past fifteen years been, huh, with Jedi on the run and everything going to hells?! I am sick and tired of hearing someone complain then not do anything. If you're not going to help, then I'll damn well do it all myself, just like always!"

Kanan was still reeling from her shouting his old name in his face, and he didn't recover until after Raen had stormed out from the room. The seething frustration still prickled awareness, and Kanan realized he was shaking, just a little.

He refocused on the room and noticed instantly that Hera was gone; she must have gone after Raen. Leia was watching him curiously, and Zeb was ignoring the fact Raen had used the wrong name.

"…well, that was…productive," Kanan sighed, flopping back into the chair.

"Yeah, we're never putting her an' Sabine in the same room," Zeb commented. "Still, we've got a plan. Maybe there's still somethin' to this."

"I think there is," Leia agreed. "Those men won't last under the Empire, and the moment they snap they'll be killed without a thought. The sooner we can help, the better."

It's not about them, Kanan thought, pressing his fingertips together. Raen needs more than this. He just had to find out what before she self-imploded.

"Raen! Raen!"

Raen tried to outpace Hera, arms folded tight. Of course Caleb wouldn't come to her himself, of course he didn't know what it was like – to watch the only safe place you had known crumble, literally. He had seen the peripheral edge with Order 66 but he hadn't seen what had happened. What she'd lost.

She just managed to get out of the swanky building – still followed by Hera – before the Twi'leki woman caught up, snatching her by the shoulder and forcing Raen to stop and face her.

"…please, tell me," Hera insisted, voice soft. Raen shook with pent-up anger but it didn't seem to faze her. "Raen, please."

"…I'm not the helpless kid he thinks I am," Raen murmured, forcing herself to be as calm as possible. She'd never gotten that particular trick down, locking everything away. Didn't seem right. "I was never helpless."

"Kanan doesn't think that," Hera insisted.

"Then why does he think I can't do my part?"

"He doesn't think that," Hera pressed. "Raen, I know it may be hard for you to realize, but Kanan does care about you. He regrets that he never knew what had happened to you. I wouldn't even be surprised if he blames himself for not coming to get you when he had the chance."

"The clones would have killed him anyway."

"Maybe. But at least then he could say he tried, and he's trying now."

Raen lifted her eyes to Hera uncertainly. Even though Raen was sure Caleb was the elder between himself and Hera, Raen saw a lot of what Caleb had been in Hera: the hope, the optimism. She liked to think she used to feel some of that, or at least mimicked it, once.

"…I know it's hard for you to trust me, or anyone other than Kanan, right now," Hera continued after a few beats, "but you can count on us. And I think you had a good idea; it may be the easiest way to do what we need to."

Raen blinked in surprise at Hera's insistence. That was an admission that would've needed to be wrangled out of the new Caleb, she was sure, but here was Hera, a stranger, telling her it was a good idea.

"…Cody or one of the other commandos could cover me," Raen suggested. "That way Caleb doesn't get to worrying like he does."

"Oh, that hasn't changed at all," Hera chuckled, and Raen managed a smile. "I can deal with him and the princess. You get on home and get ready for your adventure. Once you've got your information, you can let us know."

"…thank you," Raen murmured, but before she knew it Hera's arms were embracing her gently. Raen stiffened nervously before recognizing the hug.

I'm gonna miss you, Caleb, so so much.

Raen's arms curled around Hera, trying to remember how to hold someone close without tossing them away from her. The Twi'leki woman didn't seem to notice or care, just holding her.

"We'll get this done, Raen," Hera murmured softly. Raen shivered as Hera slowly rubbed her back. "Then Kanan will help you with getting into the Temple. And if he balks I'll drag him in there myself."

"Yeah, I…I think you could," Raen admitted weakly, but her arms tightened slowly with Hera's soft laugh. "Just…it's hard. Seeing him again, seeing him…"

"Different?"

"…in pain," Raen sighed, slowly letting go. Hera stayed with her as Raen tried to walk away, to head back for her hideout. The silent tell me was obvious to anyone, Force-sensitive or not. "It's been, what, fifteen or sixteen years since…everything, right? Anyone who's survived handled it their own ways. Caleb – sorry, Kanan –"

"Kay works," Hera assured her. Raen nodded gratefully; at the very least Caleb kept his first syllable when he'd changed his name.

"Kay ran, because that was what he felt like he could do," Raen continued. "But I hid. Unlike a lot of Jedi, I…I didn't grow up there. Didn't grow up Jedi. I spent the first five years of my life scrounging on Nar Shaddaa. First thing I remember is clutching some piece of scrap I couldn't lift and being so hungry. Then suddenly I'm found by this stranger who says I can be more than another dead kid on the street. That I'm…different. Special."

By this point they'd gotten to the taxi stand, and Raen would have waved one down. Hera stopped her, though, and instead pulled her towards the private speeder pad. They reached one that opened at Hera's touch, and Raen found herself gently pushed inside.

"…so the Jedi found you," Hera said once the speeder was up in the air, weaving slowly through the skylanes. "And you started training then? That was when you met him?"

"Well, not right away," Raen sighed. "I still had to learn the basics and try to fit in. The latter didn't work as well as the Order wanted."

"Fit in? Really?"

"I know, considering me," Raen pointed out. "Jedi training starts off with working in a little team – clan – that acts as something of a foster family. But by the time I was there, getting put in a clan probably wasn't the best idea, but the Masters did it anyway. Clan Shadowcat was where I went."

"Fitting," Hera noted. "A very quiet but very dangerous predator."

"That's what I thought, before I found out my clan severely disliked me. So I decided if they wouldn't like me, I'd make them notice me. Be too good for them to ignore. I got through basic lightsaber training in two years and was well beyond the others by the time I was eight. So one day I camped out in a vent to wait for an advanced class – struck lucky on the older apprentices that came in next. All three to five years older than me, and doing Form Three. So I dropped down and watched for a bit, copying the moves and learning.

"Right up until the Master teaching the class instructed folks into sparring in pairs. There were an odd number so I just…slipped out in case someone needed me. No one moved in right away, and the Master knew I was there. I was terrified I'd get thrown out – first time I wasn't where I was supposed to be, really – but someone came up and offered to partner with me."

"Caleb," Hera surmised with a smile, and Raen nodded.

"I never told him, but…since then, whenever we trained together later, there was…something. Something that…put us together, kept us that way. So when he left for the war, I asked him."

"…to be your Master when he got back," Hera murmured, "but he didn't come back. And you didn't know if he was alive or dead…"

"…so I fell back on my one instinct: hide," Raen concluded. "Sure I've prodded the Empire, especially with getting into the Temple to try and keep training on my own, but I've kept going to ground, staying out of sight."

"And that's how you've been since," Hera added. "Raen, I don't blame you. You and he have lost so much. But Kanan…he did more than just physically run. It's taken him this long to even really accept being a Jedi again. Hearing you were still alive brought a lot of memories back, things he hadn't wanted to remember for a long time. Mostly…regrets. Especially about training you."

Raen turned to Hera in surprise, her throat clenching tightly. He did remember her plea before he left. Was that why he'd come at all?

"I think he does want to train you," Hera continued, "especially since you're one of his few links back to who he used to be. But there's things he has to come to terms with first – and he has to stop running from himself."

"Like I have to stop hiding," Raen admitted; she was surprised that she could get the words out. Hera glanced at her with an approving smile. "Also, I'm…I'm sorry if I seemed like I didn't trust you, or Zeb, when we first met. I don't like strangers on principle – street rat instincts and all."

"It's all right, I guessed as much," Hera told her. "I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me about yourself, Raen, and anything else you might want to tell me."

"Trust is in very short supply these days," Raen pointed out, "so finding anyone who's worthy of it is…sometimes a surprise."

"With us, you'll find more than one surprise," Hera smiled. That time, Raen couldn't help a laugh.

"That, I'm expecting, don't you worry. You have two Jedi, a Lasat, a senator-in-training, and soon six clone soldiers, five of whom are master infiltrators and chaos generators. Surprise is going to be an understatement."

"The trick is seeing how much of one it's going to be."

"You have no idea."