For Badesh agony and ecstasy had always been intertwined. And yet the day had come in which he learned that there could be pain without pleasure. Every time he felt Vette and Quinn through the force he felt so helpless that he had even stopped to wreck the interior of the Fury. On an intellectual level Badesh had known that of these emotions were two separate things. No, it wasn't the knowledge that almost drove him insane with fear and regret, it was the emotional realisation.

His friends were hurting and there was nothing he could do about it! What if Vette and Quinn died? Who would calm him down? No, that was the wrong question… who would know him? Who would truly know him? He had to hurry! He had to save them!

Badesh sat in his quarters and stared at the chronometer in his computer as if he would will time itself to speed up on his behalf. There was still one hour left before he arrived on Alderaan.

Suddenly his personal holocommunicator beeped. Badesh hastily put his mask on, pushed the receive-button and said unusually loud: "Yes?"

"Lieutenant Talos Drellik, Imperial Reclamation Service, at your service. I was told that you wanted to speak to me, my Lord?"

Badesh was relieved that he could finally get a hold of Talos. His superiors had told Badesh that he had been on a mission; it seemed that he had finally returned.

"Yes, I need your expertise on force-bonds, Lieutenant. I assume that you have heard of occurrences in which Jedi formed bonds with their apprentices?"

"Padawans, my Lord," replied Talos.

"What?"

"Jedi call their apprentices Padawans…"

"I don't care!" Badesh yelled. He regretted his outburst immediately. He needed Talos, there was no time for Sith caprice. "Lieutenant, time is of the essence – please just tell me about force-bonds as quickly as possible."

"My apologizes, my Lord. In the records I have read so far force-bonds usually manifested only between powerful Jedi Masters and their closest Padawans, predated usually by an experience like fighting together and/or healing each other. It is very rare, there have been theories what finally triggers this bonding, but in my professional opinion they are only guesses – we simply don't have enough data to establish a working theory."

Badesh had feared as much; it was a rare thing after all – and since it did only happen to Jedi the Sith and therefore the Empire didn't know much about it. "Are there cases in which force-sensitives establish a force-bond with non-force-sensitives?"

"None that I have heard of, my Lord. But the Sith force mystics might know more about that than me."

Badesh ignored Talos' last comment. "Do you have records on Jedi tracking each other through the force-bond?"

If Talos found Badesh's question odd he didn't show it. "Regrettably not, my Lord. But I could send you our files on Jedi and Sith who tracked people through the force."

"Send the records as quickly as possible, Lieutenant!" Badesh felt nervous, he had to work quickly to hope to find his friends.

"Right away, my Lord." Talos bowed.

"I want you to keep quiet about our conversation – and thank you." Badesh was a little surprised about himself as he actually thanked Talos. The stress seemed to take its toll.

Talos bowed again and then his picture vanished.

A few minutes later Badesh received the data. He immediately started to browse through the texts, hoping that he would find information that would help him to save Vette and Quinn in time.

ooOOoo

Exactly one hour and 4 minutes later Badesh stepped out of the Pallista Spaceport and set his sights on the city in front of him. The last known coordinates of Quinn and Vette were that they had landed here and were about to follow the Ewok to her client. Badesh wore a plain brown robe with his usual mask, a Sith was always bound to get attention – a Jedi was more low-key.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture Quinn's force signature, its energy and taste. After a few minutes he felt like he was close enough, in the recordings an unknown Sith had described the meditation as 'letting the force signature guide the hunter to his prey'. At first he felt nothing, but then Badesh felt a very weak resonance of Quinn's signature, almost like a ghost of a force signature. He had to focus harder! But even after several tries he still couldn't feel more than a shadow of a force signature. But… perhaps that could still lead him to the right place.

Badesh opened his eyes and walked towards the crossing from which he had felt the signature. After a few metres he meditated again and got another notion of Quinn's force signature. Badesh was frustrated that he had to take little steps in order to find his friends, but at the same time he was amazed that it was even possible to trace a force signature that should have faded a long time ago, from a non-force-user nonetheless. The only reason he was able to feel this faint presence was probably because of the force-bond. Badesh was now certain that he would find whoever was responsible for Vette's and Quinn's pain – and they would pay dearly for this travesty, he would make sure of that. The prospect of a possible bloodbath amongst his enemies excited Badesh, but he shook off this usually very welcome sensation. No, indulging in his pleasures wasn't what he wanted to think about now. More importantly was that he saved his… loved ones as fast as possible.

Badesh worked his way half-way through the city when he was interrupted by a tugging at his sleeve. Annoyed he looked around and saw that a little human boy was standing behind him.

"You are a Jedi, aren't you?" the boy asked exhilarated.

Badesh was about to simply shake the nuisance off but then he registered that a young woman and a man, probably the boy's parents approached. There was no time to lose and but he needed to stay as inconspicuous as possible.

"I am sorry that Jerek bothered you, Master Jedi," said the woman. "But you know how children are – they simply adore Jedi."

Badesh was confused. By the stars! Why would anyone adore these bloodless, dogmatic… "Of course," he lied. "I you would excuse me, I am on an important mission for the, uh, Jedi Council."

"Can you really lift things with the force?" asked the boy and grabbed his sleeve again.

Badesh looked at the man and the woman, but they simply stood there instead of disciplining their offspring.

"Yes, but I have important Jedi-business to attend to…"

"Show me!" squeaked the boy.

His patience was wearing thin, Badesh simply wanted to kill the whole damn family, but instead he forced himself to stay calm. He used to force to lift a small stone lying on the ground and let it fly into the boy's hand. The boy laughed whole-heartedly and beamed at Badesh.

"Thank you, Master Jedi, you made Jerek very happy." The man shook his hand and Badesh sincerely hoped that they would stop harassing him.

Badesh bowed curtly and walked briskly away. Small and quick foot-steps behind him made him groan. Sure enough someone was tugging at his sleeve. He turned again and stared at the boy.

"That is for you, Master Jedi!" The boy handed Badesh a little toy figure and ran away.

Badesh stood there, dumbstruck and looked at the small figure in his hand. It was a farmer with a shovel in his hand. Badesh put the gift in his pocket, turned on his heel and strode in the direction where he had last felt Quinn's force signature.

ooOOoo

The estate was hidden in the woods, Badesh saw no guards in the vicinity. Yet he felt several presences… That meant that they used stealth generators. Badesh now understood how they managed to capture his friends. In this moment he felt again Quinn's presence as if he stood right next to him; they were hurting him again. Badesh gritted his teeth and strode towards the estate. There was no way that he could stage a surprise attack, he could as well mount a full-scale attack worthy of a Dark Council member.

Before he could reach the estate's yard five opponents approached him. Badesh didn't see them, but he could very clearly feel them. With one fluent move he drew his lightsaber and killed three of them, then he jumped at the last two and cut them in half. He rushed towards the estate, fuelled by rage, excitement and sorrow.

Until he reached the front door he cut through another ten stealthed opponents, as soon as he blew the door open with a mighty force push two dozen droids greeted him with a hail of blaster bolts. Badesh felt one again Quinn's presence next to him, no… he could feel him. His force signature and Vette's were close by! He deflected the blaster shots and lifted one door wing which lay on the floor with the force and placed it before him. Then he hurled the metal piece against the droids and jumped at the same time at them. The door crushed five droid, Badesh destroyed another six at he landed and emitted a force wave. Behind the droids a detachment of soldiers appeared, Badesh saw that some had hanging hand grenades from their belt. Badesh jumped at the remaining droid and emitted another force wave. At the same time he threw his lightsaber at the soldiers and used his left hand to pull the pins of the grenades with the force. Just as the lightsaber returned to his hand the explosion from the grenades shook the hallway.

As he walked over the bloody remains of his opponents Badesh reached out through the force and felt clearly that Vette and Quinn were somewhere beneath him – probably one or two levels underground. Badesh saw that a lift door was in one of the side-passages. He forced the door open and looked down – it was a rather large freight elevator and judging from the sound it made the platform was moving. He felt that at least ten opponents were on their way from below to him. Badesh ignited his lightsaber and jumped down. He fell right on two soldiers and crushed them under his weight, he killed the rest except one. He simply yanked the blaster from the nautolan male and grabbed him by his collar.

"Were are the prisoners?"

"In the cellar! I beg you…"

In the meantime the elevator had stopped moving, it was again on the ground-level.

"Is this the right button?" Badesh asked and pointed at the lowest button.

"Yes!"

Badesh activated the elevator and casually pressed the soldiers head against the wall as the elevator moved down. By the time he had reached the cellar the face of the nautolan soldier was reamed. Badesh let go of the maimed body and stepped out of the elevator.

Before him were four soldier, their rifles trained on him. Badesh felt with satisfaction sour fear coming from them. Suddenly one of them let her weapon fall and lifted her hands in the air.

"That won't save you," Badesh roared and dashed towards them. The other three opened fire, but he deflected the bolt easily and impaled them. Then he turned to the one who had surrendered.

"Who is responsible for this?"

"Giselle Organa is our commandeering officer! Please, I have two children…" the soldier begged.

Badesh simply crushed her windpipe with his bare hands. Nobody would escape from this alive, nobody who had dared to lay a hand on Vette and Quinn!

He felt their force signature behind the door at the end of the hallway. Badesh rushed to it and with one mighty force-push he blew the doors away, ready to slay any opposition left. Sweet anger was raging through him, but it died down the moment that he saw Quinn's lifeless body lying on table. Over him hovered a torture droid. Blood was running down Quinn's naked chest, he was covered in bruises and cuts. The time seemed to freeze. Badesh felt like he had stared for an eternity at Quinn, then he lifted his gaze and saw Vette sitting on the floor of her cell. She held her side and was also bruised and bloodied. Next to her stood Theron; strangely enough he had an almost disappointed look on his face. No, it was more like shock…

Then time seemed to unfreeze and Badesh saw from the corner of his eye how the two guards who had supervised the interrogations reached for their blasters. He jumped at the first and knocked him down with the hilt of his lightsaber. Then he threw his lightsaber at the other and cut off his right hand. The man slumped down on the floor, holding his bloody stump. Badesh cut the droid with his weapon in half and force-lifted both guards in the air and slammed them against the wall. Then he rushed to Quinn. Badesh ripped the bounds away and leaned down.

"Malavai… can you hear me?" He stroked the other man's cheek softly and felt a sting in his eyes. "Everything is going to be alright."

Quinn coughed and slowly opened his eyes. Badesh looked at him and waited to hear the voice he loved muttering 'my Lord'.

"B… Badesh?" stammered Quinn and slowly lifted his right hand to touch Badesh's mask. The Sith ripped the mask away and threw it away. Then he took Quinn's hand and guided it back to his face.

"Yes, I am here – I will kill everybody for you. Rest now, I need to look after Vette." Badesh pulled a small kolto injector from his pocket and gave it to Quinn and walked briskly to Vette's cell.