LordDarthYoda - I mean spoiler alert, the good guy or girl wins :). I want to show Tiplee as something of a more feral and animalistic sort of fighter than usual and fighting with kicks and punches is kind of like that. I think that to make each character unique you have to sort of show it through actions as well as words - so we have Tiplee, the refined diplomat at the start of the mission, beating a Mandalorian half to death with her bare hands at the end of the mission. It's a contrast, but its also a useful one to show.

Mr. Insane - I think this was a complicated story because there were a bunch of character arcs (each of the main Jedi had one to some extent) But the Sascha-Nara friendship was my favourite to write and I think that showed. I do think the Ubrorans will be eagerly hoping for some sort of reparations from the Republic to rebuild their world.

SpeechBubbleMe - I mean, it might be my upbringing, but committing suicide (which is roughly what Coren did) is generally considered to be the cowards way out and not honorable. Of course the samurai would disagree with that, so I admit there is a lot of ways to see what Coren did. It was a sort of an appropriate end as far as Tiplee went though.

TheAdamBomb505 - I added a little bit in this next chapter to address this question (because it was a good one!) That's why I welcome feedback, sometimes it cues off a good idea in my head and I can add it in!

A/N - Into the denouement. Probably ~2 chapters left before I do an epilogue. As always the epilogue will preview the next book!

Anyways, all reviews, follows, and favourites are deeply appreciated as always.

Please enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 62: Resting Up

Aurine Brynar woke up from a deep, peaceful slumber and realized that she had no idea where she was. The last thing she remembered was flying back to the triage station along with the Kuati medical team. Maybe she had fallen asleep? Or asked to be sedated? Whatever had happened, it was clear that she was currently in a hospital bed.

Unfortunately in her life, she had come to know the sights, smells and sounds of hospitals fairly well. Across the galaxy hospitals were kept in a fairly standard manner with only minor differences between them. The walls would always be painted in some light, calming colour, usually some sort of blue or beige. There would also be an overwhelming sense of...cleanliness, from the air to the walls to even the datapads that the doctors would carry around, everything was just kept spotless.

Aurine sat up from her bed and stretched out her neck and shoulders. Both were rather sore. In fact she was rather sore all over her body. Not exactly surprising, given the battle she had just fought, but still unpleasant to wake up to.

She looked around the small room. The only other bed in the room was occupied by Sascha. He was sleeping peacefully, his chest slowly rising and falling in rhythm. The fact that he wasn't hooked up to any sort of monitoring device she took to be a very good sign. Still, she could tell that he had some injuries left over, just from the bulges she could see under the sheets – one was across his chest, that would be to help with the recovery from the broken collarbone, an injury that would take a while to heal. The other was on Sascha's right leg. Aurine didn't know what specific injury Sascha's leg had taken, but again, it would probably take a while for him to get back to one hundred percent.

She looked around and on a nearby table, she saw that someone had left her datapad out for her. As it was slightly out of reach, she had to exit her bed, get up, pad over and go back to her bed. By the time she was settling back into her (very comfortable) bed, she sensed someone nearing the door. A few moments later, it opened revealing a tired but still energetic looking Doctor Hyram Jarvis.

"I thought you might be awake," the Kuati doctor said. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore. Where are Tiplee and Nara? What is their status?"

"Tiplee and Nara are both recovering. We had to operate on the Togruta after a scan revealed that one of her broken ribs had punctured a couple of her internal organs. It was a bit touch-and-go for a little while there, but she will be fine. I do wish I could have given her more time in the bacta tank – I think she is in for a long recovery. But she'll make a full recovery"

"Where'd you get the bacta tank from?" Ubrora, somewhat infamously, had never saw fit to import bacta.

"It came from the same place I did. The Kuati Victory."

A missing piece of the puzzle finally clicked into place for Aurine, "The ship that fought the Reprisal."

The Kuati doctor nodded, "Yes. A special, 'volunteers only' shakedown mission for one of our new prototype capital ships. I didn't see much of the battle, of course, but I'd say that she passed her shakedown run."

Aurine has many more questions that she'd like the answer to right now, but she wants to focus on the health of her fellow Jedi first. "How is Tiplee?"

"Battered and bruised. She lost quite a bit of blood during her fight and has been kept mildly sedated since then. I would have woken her up earlier, but it has been a busy time...there have been so many wounded..."Jarvis trailed off.

The Jedi Knight closed her eyes. It was easy now to focus on the victory that she had spearheaded, but it would be foolish to lose sight of the many that had paid the price to make it possible. "How bad was it?"

"It was war," Doctor Jarvis replied simply.

Aurine supposed that explained everything. The only thing there was to do was move on. "And Sascha? How is he?"

Jarvis shrugged, and smiled, "What, he isn't always like this? Beaten within an inch of his life?"

"He's gone on many missions where neither of us pick up anything more than a scraped knee," she said, suddenly feeling defensive.

The doctor continued to smile, "I am sure of it. It only seems like in my limited interactions with both of you that you tend to be on the wounded side."

Aurine smiled, "I should take from your joviality that Sascha is not seriously hurt."

Jarvis started ticking off points on his hand, "Broken ribs, partially torn meniscus in his knee, concussion, minor damage to internal organs, especially his liver so make sure he's not imbibing alcohol in the next few weeks..."

"...I doubt that will be a problem."

"...and finally and most crucially...a broken pinky toe."

Aurine laughed loudly, a free, throaty laugh like she hadn't had in a long time, "Will he ever walk again, doctor?" she asked melodramatically.

Jarvis laughed, evidently not able to keep a straight face anymore, "But seriously, he does have a broken toe. Make sure it heals properly."

The Jedi Knight nodded, "One last question...why can I not remember what happened to me after I got on that gunship? I don't think I fainted."

Jarvis looked embarrassed as colour entered the cheeks of the older man, "I may have injected you with a sedative without your permission."

"When was that?" It shouldn't have been possible for someone to do that to a Jedi Knight.

"Right after you got in the gunship. I figured it was a test of sorts, either you had your wits about you and you'd stop me from sedating you, or you didn't and you needed to be treated without this 'I'm a Jedi and cannot be hurt' nonsense."

Aurine tried to be angry, she really did. But the Kuati doctor was just so earnest and well meaning. Besides, everything had clearly been under control by that point...and she had been exhausted. "I recommend that you don't make a habit of sedating Jedi, Doctor Hyram Jarvis."

The doctor bowed, "I have been warned."

"Could you send in someone that can tell me what has gone on in the..."

"...Three days."

"...Three days since the battle?" Force, she had been out of it for a while...

"I will find someone that can speak to you. I will contact General Ecalt. He's on the base raising morale of the wounded troops," Jarvis' eyes twinkled, "He's quite the hero now you know. I heard that he's already been contacted about turning his life story into a holomovie"

"I'm all for it," said Aurine "As long as they get Wynissa Starflare to play me. Remind me to tell Pravin that he should include that as a condition."

Jarvis gave her disbelieving a look. Wynissa Starfare was very pretty and lithe, not exactly her body type. Or hair colour. Or eye colour. Or skin colour. Okay, she didn't look like Wynissa Starflare at all. A girl could dream about being played by the galaxy's most famous actress, right?

She put a hand on her face, "Just get Pravin, please?"

The Kuati doctor bowed and withdrew.

She spent the next few minutes calmly meditating, trying to find the status of her body. She was clearly on the mend, but that did not mean her body was ready to do much more than sit in this bed, walk around and eat. Which was fine. Her apprentice was right here beside her snoozing peacefully and her mission was if not complete, than very close to it. For once, she had time to spare.

It might have been fifteen minutes after Doctor Jarvis had left when Pravin Ecalt marched through the door, followed by a shorter, older version of Pravin Ecalt, a person that she recognized as Ravar Ecalt, head of Ecalt Industries. Pravin was dressed in military style fatigues and still looked rather tired, though there was certainly an air of confidence about him now. Ravar dressed plainly in a dark blue tunic and black pants. The only indication that the older man was extremely well off was an impressive ring around his right ring finger that featured a few prominent jewels.

Aurine started to get out of her bed to greet the two Ecalts, but Pravin put both his hands out to stop her, "Please, stay in bed Master Jedi. Should we keep our voices down to not wake the Padawan?"

Aurine glanced over. Sascha showed absolutely no reaction to the new entrants in the room. "Nah, I think he's still under sedation for a while longer. I doubt we could wake him."

Pravin shook his head, "Those two Padawans did so much in that battle, I am very glad that both survived."

"How old is your apprentice?" asked Ravar. "The last time I saw you, you were the apprentice Master Brynar."

"That was a much dumber, much younger version of myself, Mr. Ecalt."

"Just call me Ravar, please."

"Thank you. Sascha is seventeen, as hard as that is to believe." Seventeen and he's been through a lot, she almost added. But she couldn't be more proud of her Padawan.

Ravar looked at Sascha's peacefully sleeping form, "I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing teenagers as Jedi. In my teenage years all I cared about was girls and trying to win sports championships with my school. These two Padawans helped save a world." Ravar laughed lightly, "And I wonder about my sanity sometimes when I wake up sometimes and feel inadequate."

Aurine smiled. The humility from Ravar was not false, but it was clearly intended to put her at ease. "I understand that. I think that freeing Ubrora will probably end up being the most significant achievement of my career. But I will gladly return to the Temple and accept another assignment."

"When you recover," said Pravin.

"When I recover," she acknowledged. "But for now, please fill me in on all that has been happening since I have been sleeping." She turned her attention to Ravar, "I assume you are responsible for bringing that Kuati ship to Ubrora."

"I managed to get a good deal," said Ravar. "Turns out the Kuati ruling family felt that it owed the Jedi Order a favour. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" Ravar asked innocently.

Aurine marveled that the Kuat family could be roused to do anything that wasn't self-serving. But they had been complicit in almost killing three Jedi, including both Sascha and Tyra (and herself), so one could see how that would be something they'd like to make amends for. "I think the Kuat family's debts to the Jedi have been paid, if such a debt even existed in the first place."

"I'm sure the Kuat family will be pleased to hear it," said Ravar. "But the story is simple, I got my son's message and I decided to do anything in my power to help him, and that meant approaching anyone and everyone about finding someone that could lend me a warship. In the end Kuat answered the call...though I paid them well for their services. It was not a bad investment," said Ravar thoughtfully. "I think the Ubrorans will be very interested in buying many of my products, it could be a good market for Ecalt Industries."

Pravin rolled his eyes, "Not everything is about business, father."

Ravar took the insult good naturedly, "This was about economics, Pravin. I've spent a lifetime trying to teach you the difference, but it appears you still don't get it." Ravar sighed and turned his attention back to her, "The fight against the Reprisal was a tough one. We were actually getting the worse end of things up there – I probably shouldn't have bought into all the Kuati propaganda saying that this ship would be the equal of anything that it came up against."

"But the tide did, shift thanks to the military history lessons I kept trying to input into your brain," Pravin said.

"What kind of lesson?" she asked.

"That the bow and arrow has never quite gone out of style," replied Ravar. The Kuati briefly outlined his strategy for the Arrow and how it had all gone to plan, resulting in the Reprisal's downfall.

"A very unique strategy," she said. Aurine gestured to Sascha, "I'm sure my Padawan would love to hear the details later, he's always been fascinated by fleet tactics."

"I shall make a note to have Captain Kuat forward her battle report to the young Jedi," said Ravar.

Aurine had one more important question about the fleet battle, "And what happened to Vash Varless? I assume you took him prisoner?"

Pravin smiled tightly, "Vash Varless came to a more...poetic end than that. See he tried to escape the Reprisal on an escape pod and he managed to get to Ubrora...but his pod malfunctioned and he landed in the middle of one of Ubrora's oceans."

"So? Why didn't someone go out and get him?"

"Oh we tried," said Pravin. "But do you remember why the Ubrorans never developed cities by their oceans?"

Aurine racked her brain back to Tiplee's opening briefing all those days ago, "Something about some very dangerous pack hunter that roams the ocean. Deadly things. Ten feet long, mostly made of teeth. They hunt in packs. I don't remember what they are called though."

"They are called Krakthurs. The Ubrorans mostly call them the terrors of the deep though," said Pravin. "They hunt by smell and by their sonar. So when Vash's pod landed in the ocean..."

"The Krakthurs come searching for some tasty prey," said Aurine. "But that doesn't yet explain what happened to Vash. His pod could float and keep him safe."

Pravin nodded, "Don't you see the obvious conclusion? We came to rescue Vash, but he could see our ship incoming, so he decided that he would try to swim to a nearby island and try to escape us. He...uh...didn't make it. The Krakthurs did."

"Ubrora got its revenge on Vash Varless," said Ravar quietly.

Aurine grimaced, "I would have preferred the revenge of a fair trial and a long incarceration, but I suppose I can see the irony of Vash's demise."

"Trust me, Master Jedi, I was disappointed to learn of Vash's death as well," said Pravin. "Tyrants like that deserve to be put on display so that everyone can see what monsters they were and so that alternative histories don't get written about them. Vash was a monster. But he died in the teeth of monsters. Perhaps the galaxy was trying to tell us something."

"That it hasn't lost its sense of irony?" inquired Ravar

Aurine snorted, "The galaxy has always had the most perverse sense of irony. Trust me on that one."

Pravin nodded, "I suppose that is true. Just a few seconds ago I called my former employer a tyrant and a monster. I worked with him for years. And yet I am now considered a war hero." He held his hands out, "Irony at its finest."

"I can hardly disagree with that. I'm glad you chose to walk this path Pravin...it suits you," she said.

Pravin hesitated for a moment, "May I ask a question?"

Aurine spread her hands wide, "Pravin Ecalt, I have nothing better to do today but to sit in this bed and answer your questions." She settled back into her (small but comfortable) bed, laced her hands behind her head and leaned into the pillow.

Pravin smiled at her reaction, "My question was about when we first met. You made a remark about me being braver than I knew. How did you know that, Master Jedi? Was it just the Force giving you intuition?"

"The Force sometimes will provide me with general...feelings about someone. A general perception. I could see that you were warring with yourself, that you were unhappy with the direction that your life was taking you. I prodded you gently at that point because I knew that idea would get into your head. I couldn't foresee all of," Aurine spread her hands wide, "this happening, but I think I got the sense that you were somehow crucial to the fate of Ubrora."

"In fairness, this Jedi was only telling you what I had been trying to tell you for years, Pravin," commented Ravar.

"But if I had listened to you then, I couldn't be here now," Pravin pointed out. "This was clearly my path, my destiny."

Ravar shook his head, "I keep telling you that there is no such thing as destiny or the will of the Force or any junk like that..." Ravar trailed off upon realizing that he may have insulted her.

Aurine was far beyond reacting to such insults. "Don't worry, some days I'm not sure that I believe in the will of the Force. Sometimes providence is just coincidence writ large."

The two Ecalts shared a look, "Perhaps we can save the philosophy for another day," said Pravin.

"I guess there's one last thing to tell her," said Ravar.

"What's that?"

"That you are currently on a Republic world. Ubrora has been provisionally accepted into the Republic as of yesterday evening," said Pravin.

"Who signed on behalf of the Republic?" By tradition only senior diplomats such as a Jedi could sign such an important treaty.

"Captain Alesi Kuat, of the Kuat Defence Force signed on behalf of the Republic," said Ravar. "As a distant member of the Kuati royal family, she was deemed to be a senior enough Republic official."

"I believe the official document still has space for Jedi Knight Tiplee to sign, when she is able to," said Pravin.

And just like that, her original mission to Ubrora had ended while both Jedi Knights assigned to the task were asleep. Talk about ironic.

But it was a good step for Ubrora. The Republic would no doubt (after some wrangling in the Senate) send help to the planet to assist it in the rebuilding process. Some more charitably minded planets, like Alderaan, would no doubt work to send aid as well. It also meant that the Ubrorans would be protected from outside invasions. Though they were rare, they had just seen evidence first hand of how it could occur.

There was also a host of fringe benefits like technology sharing, access to a large free-trade market, and so on and so forth. In short, it was going to be a good time to be a Ubroran. She just hoped that the Ubrorans could manage the transition so shortly after fighting a damaging war.

Which brought her to her next question, "President Mollek is going to continue in his job?"

"He indicated that he will be overseeing the rebuilding of Ubrora, but seems to want to step down sometime in the next few years," said Pravin. "Which is a shame, because he's shown himself to be a capable leader."

"Maybe he'll find his way to the Senate," she mused.

"I thought only children worked at the Senate," commented Ravar.

"The Senate does get things accomplished, despite the common perception that they do nothing," said Aurine. The Jedi Knight had her own reservations about the Senate, but they didn't deserve to be casually denigrated like Ravar was doing.

"Your experience differs from mine, Master Jedi," Ravar muttered under his breath.

"Moving on," said Pravin, clearly deciding to play the diplomat. "The only other thing that you might be interested in is that President Mollek has issued a full pardon for those that supported the invasion?"

"Wow," said Aurine, for lack of something better to say.

"I believe that I was fairly crucial in helping President Mollek come to that decision," said Pravin. "He told me that he planned to have the main helpers of the invasion brought before a special tribunal that would be in charge of hearing their cases and levying punishment. And I told him that if he was going to do that, he'd have to put me on trial first."

Ravar clasped his hand on his son's shoulder, "That's leadership right there. I'm proud of you, Pravin."

"Thanks dad. But it was the only thing I could do. If others were put on trial and I wasn't, the process itself would be unfair. Justice must always be...well... just"

"I agree," said Aurine. "And I don't think Mollek was thrilled with the idea of putting a Ubroran war hero on trial."

"Certainly," said Pravin. "The collaborators have, by and large, been named and shamed, their lives are ruined. Mayor Boikana has resigned his position, citing that he wants to be with his family. Arslan Ivalice's name has been floated as his possible replacement, but he hasn't said if he's interested in the position. In any event, there will be an election when there is time to have an election. Now is the time to rebuild. And as President Mollek said to me yesterday, 'Ubrora will have to heal, but it must heal not by focusing hatred on those that supported the invasion, but by focusing on what we can learn from it.'"

"He's got a good mind for speeches," said Aurine. "As well he should, since he's been giving morale-boosting speeches for weeks now."

Aurine did approve of the decision that the Ubroran President had made, as shocking as it had been at first glance. A blanket amnesty would allow the world to focus on the future instead of being focused on the past. Some would disagree, of course, but Mollek was popular enough that a slight dip in his popularity wouldn't really hurt him. He wondered if Sascha and Nara, would feel the same way as she did.

"So what does the future hold for both of you?" she asked.

"I'll be doing some negotiating of business deals," said Ravar. "But I'm having some of my best people make their way here without securing a deal, but I don't think that will last. President Mollek has also asked me to chair what he's calling the 'Ubroran Rebuilding Fund.' I hope to funnel charitable donations from off world corporations through this new charity. I think with my name attached to it, that we can get some good donations rolling in."

Aurine smiled and nodded, "A worthy goal, Ravar. I wish you all the best."

Pravin tugged at the sleeves of his shirt, "I've signed a one year contract to stay as the head of the Ubroran military. It will be a challenging job as we both have to decommission many of our ground troops and basically completely rebuild our navy. I hope to be able to have a framework in place that my successor can take over within one year. I intend to return to work for my father at the end of my contract though. A nice cushy head of security job title sounds good."

"And selling the rights to your life story for a nice sum so they can make a holomovie about you sounds good too?" she teased.

Pravin laughed, "Who told you about that? Heh, It doesn't matter, I'm not interested in having my life glorified."

"You could donate whatever you make to your father's new charity," she pointed out.

Pravin looked thoughtful, "That might be a good compromise."

Ravar put his arm around his son's shoulder, "We should be going now though, we have lots to do and we should leave you to your recovery."

Aurine got out of bed, resenting how hard that simple action was. She offered her hand to both Ecalts, who shook it, "I'm sure we'll see each other soon, but I want to say thank you on behalf of myself, my Padawan and the Jedi Order. Me, Tiplee, Nara and Sascha owe you our lives."

"And I owe my lives to all of you," said Pravin.

"Let's just call it even, Pravin."

"An agreeable concept. Come on father, we must be going."

Ravar Ecalt bowed slightly, "A pleasure to meet you again, Aurine Brynar."

Aurine bowed her head in acknowledgment and both Ecalts left the room, leaving her all alone with Sascha. She limped over to his bed and ruffled his hair, just because she hadn't been able to do that in a long, long time. Then she carefully smoothed it back into place.

Then she clambered back into her bed and pulled out her datapad. "Now for the most fun part of the mission, the post-mission report," Aurine commented dryly. It would probably take her a couple of days to summarize all the craziness that had happened. But the Council would want it for their records, that was for sure.

Whether or not they believed anything that she wrote was another matter entirely.