A/N: in which cori's attempt to be doubtful fails, rei's attempt to be responsible fails, and davri's attempt to... do anything fails.

and heeeeeey so i hope you all like giant chapters that are almost 2k words longer than they're supposed to be

"What now?" Cori allowed herself a moment to catch her breath, still eying Kovach warily despite the enthusiastic assistance he'd provided up to that point. "The city's defenses are completely down now, so there shouldn't be any more issues with evacuations."

"Their ships can get out," Kira added, "but anyone could also get in. Not that I'm complaining, necessarily, but the Empire isn't exactly known for opening themselves up to attack."

Kovach nodded sharply. "It's our only option at this point. You've seen the damage — there isn't much of a city left to defend. There's no real sense in wasting resources protecting it." With a frown, he turned back to the main terminal and keyed in a code. Lana's image appeared a moment later, and Kovach reported, "Evacuations can continue, Minister. AA guns and other defenses are all offline. Shall I escort the Jedi back to headquarters?"

"That won't be necessary. Agent Ven has asked that you meet her and Captain Kartier in New Adasta." Lana focused her attention on something out of the holo for a moment, then turned to Cori. "Stay safe."

As the image fizzled out, Kovach turned to Cori and cleared his throat. "Before we proceed — I believe it's safe now, to tell you I'm not with Sith Intelligence. I work for Theron Shan. I've been feeding him information, and I'm the reason he and his team are on Ziost."

Kira made a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a tired laugh. "Next time, lead with that."

Kovach seemed to be telling the truth, but Cori was wary of trusting him. Rather than outright saying so, she pursed her lips and asked, "If you've been keeping him informed, why would you tell him to come here when the possessions are as bad as they are?"

Opening his mouth to speak but not saying anything, Kovach glanced away and reconsidered before looking back up at Cori, not quite meeting her gaze. She thought that, for a second, she could sense a flash of guilt from the agent, but it was too brief to tell. "It was a mistake," Kovach finally admitted. "I knew Theron would be interested, especially when the Sith decided against investigating, but I didn't expect him to bring the Sixth Line here. When I learned he was headed here, I…" Kovach paused, watching the terminal in front of him intently. "I didn't stop him and I should've."

Cynicism didn't come naturally to Cori, but she couldn't shake the feeling that Kovach wasn't quite telling them everything. But before she could figure out how to respond, Kira placed a hand on her hip and pointed out, "Look, even if he's not working for Theron, he's working for Lana and Zaara, right? So, you have to figure — lying, telling the truth… either way, he's still on our side."

A sound point, but it did little to ease Cori's mistrust.

"Here — I can prove it," Kovach offered, pulling out his holocomm. A few moments later — to Cori's surprise, she realized with some chagrin — Theron appeared, crouched down and blaster in hand. "Agent Shan."

"Not really a good time, Kovach." Theron glanced away, then turned back to the holo with a frown. "Unless you've got somewhere not crawling with possessed bakers."

"I do, actually. I'll send the coordinates. If you're at the bakery," Kovach commented thoughtfully, "you should be just down the road from the compound. The reason I called is because Agent Ven assigned me to work with Master Cori. I felt it was appropriate to inform her of my… role in all this."

Kovach swiveled the holocomm to face Cori, and as she came into view Theron gave a heavy sigh of relief, shoulders slumping a bit. "Thank the Force you're here. If anyone can get Zaara and Lana to listen to reason, it's you. They've been capturing and torturing my team for information, and I've got to get them out of here."

Cori gave a grim nod. "If you come meet us, we can go talk to them and explain everything. They already know I'm here."

He frowned, sighing as he admitted, "Yeah, that's probably best. Send me those coordinates, Kovach, and I'll head that way."

"Of course, sir." The holocomm blinked out, and as Kovach transmitted the information, Cori pulled out her own holocomm to check in with Lana. A somewhat tense silence followed after the necessary procedures were finished; it was another ten minutes before Theron arrived, looking even worse than he had over the holo. Cori tried to ask what exactly had happened, but didn't get a single word out before Theron shook his head and gave a tired laugh. "Don't. I get enough of the guilty Jedi looks from Satele, these days."

Cori apologized almost reflexively. "Sorry. But the captain we've been working with, over at the headquarters, she has some medical training. She could—"

"Thanks," Theron interrupted, "but I've been through worse. I'd rather take my chances than be at the mercy of an Imperial medic. Especially since they're about to find out I'm the one that caused half of this mess."

"I understand. Doc's helping up at the orbital station, but I can—"

She was cut off by the shrill chime that signaled a priority call. Theron pulled out his holocomm, taking a steadying breath before connecting. To Cori's surprise — and Theron's dismay, judging by his expression — the Supreme Chancellor appeared, arms crossed and looking mildly unimpressed.

"Supreme Chancellor."

"Agent Shan. And Master Cori — what a surprise. I'd like to say this changes things, but I'm going to give you the same option I'm giving Shan." Saresh's tone was as hard as her glare, and it left Cori with the same sour taste of cynicism as before. "You've been aware of the situation on Ziost for well over a week, and failed to report it to either the SIS or the military. You took action by yourself, in the form of an unsanctioned operation with a rogue group of black ops Jedi, and still failed to report. And now, my sources tell me that you're actually on Ziost."

"Chancellor—"

"And you, Cori," Saresh carried on, ignoring Theron, "if memory serves, should be off on a mission for the Jedi Council. I'm not interested in explanations or excuses. Despite your refusal to follow procedure, we can still salvage this situation — if you're both willing to finally work in the Republic's best interests rather than your own."

Cori stepped forward, holding out a cautious hand to keep Theron from saying something that would likely only draw more ire from Saresh. "I assure you, Supreme Chancellor, we are working in the Republic's interests. But I'm afraid there isn't a situation to salvage. The planet is in chaos, and—"

"Which is exactly why we have to act," Saresh snapped. "I'm well aware of the state that Ziost is in. The two of you can either join the offensive, or face the consequences when you return to Coruscant."

Theron's expression was one part anger and one part sheer disbelief. "If you know about Ziost, you know about the possessions. We need to get people out, not bring more in."

"You aren't in a position to argue, Shan. Besides, the time to debate the offensive has long passed."

Rei frowned down at the holoimage of the Council chambers. Ravage, Acina, and Aruk were the only ones present, though both Zhorrid and Marr had advisors attending. Lana had already assured her that the meetings, as informal and last minute and numerous as they'd all been over the past few days, were all similarly small since most of the other members of the council were off assisting with the situation on Ziost however they were able.

Marr and Rictus, she assumed, were doing something helpful. Zhorrid was as likely to be helping as she was to be simply taking a day off. The others, Rei had no idea.

It was beginning to grate on her nerves.

Not that she especially despised interrogations, but they could get exhausting. Seven straight hours with one of the Jedi from the capital, and all Rei had to show for it were bloodshot eyes and a split lip where the Jedi had managed to slam his head into hers. Actually killing him had been an accident, a moment where she'd struck out in blind fury despite knowing how close he'd been to death.

Before that had been two Imperial soldiers and another of the Jedi, though Rei had been more interested in trying to get Vitiate's attention than anything the soldiers had to say. That attempt had been similarly unsuccessful, though it hadn't taken nearly as long.

And now, she was expected to report in to the rest of the Council, who had all been sitting safely in the Citadel while Rei had to keep shoving Vitiate out of her mind. She had, technically, volunteered, but that didn't change the fact that she was the only councilor on Ziost.

"Feel free to begin, Nox."

Rei's frown deepened as she glared down at Ravage's image. "Right, sorry. I was just thinking about how I have to keep the former Emperor out of my head."

"Yes," Ravage said flatly, "we've all read the reports."

"Vitiate's presence seems to have stopped growing in intensity," Lana interjected, speaking quickly enough to cut off any further retorts Rei would've had. "We've distributed a combination of neurotoxins and tranquilizers to our soldiers, and if the evacuations continue at the rate we're at now, we should have at least the capital empty in a few days."

Marr's advisor, a regal pureblood with long dark hair, spoke up. "Are we beginning to gain control of the situation?"

"Evacuations are going smoothly," Rei confirmed, "but we still have the Jedi to deal with. We've confirmed that they're part of the Sixth Line. Beyond that, we still don't know why they're here or who sent them."

"And how many Jedi have you already gone through questioning, Nox?"

She narrowed her eyes at Ravage's image. "Two. One was useless. The other gave me a name."

On the holo, four pairs of eyes stared up at her expectantly. "The name of who sent them?" Marr's advisor questioned, typing up notes on her datapad.

"Surro," Rei revealed. "Master Surro. She leads the Sixth Line, and we think she's here on Ziost."

The advisor nodded, still typing furiously, and Lana added, "Actually, we may have more than that." She glanced over at Rei for a moment, giving her an odd look before continuing. "The Sixth Line may simply have been here to investigate Vitiate. Agent Ven and I believe they may be here on orders from Theron Shan."

On the holo, the Council chambers fell into an uneasy silence. Rei felt herself freeze, staring blankly down at the holoterminal as she processed Lana's words. "It's a possibility we'll look into," she forced out, feigning some sort of knowledge on the subject — as if she hadn't just had her authority undermined, hadn't just learned that the two others in charge were keeping information from her.

She felt, for a moment, as if she were once again the newest member of the Council — always the last to know and regularly left confused at information the others accepted without question.

The weight of the actual information hit her just a moment later — that Theron may very well have been on Ziost — and Rei was suddenly torn between marching outside to search for him herself, or simply tearing the information from the mind of their last remaining Jedi prisoner.

Theron would likely protest the latter, and her presence was too important for the former, so Rei would have to settle for finding Zaara and lecturing her like a wayward acolyte.

Rei cleared her throat. "If you'll excuse me, Council, I have business to attend to." Without waiting for any possible protests, Rei stormed out of the room they'd used for the meeting, heading straight for the main room where she hoped to find Zaara.

She found not only Zaara, but Andronikos and Kaliyo and that chatty twi'lek from the Wrath's crew. She marched right up to the table they were gathered at, not caring that she was interrupting whatever conversation they all were so invested in. "We need to talk, Agent."

"Later, Sith." From beside Rei, Andronikos placed a hand on her arm. "Whatever's going on, you don't need to take it out on Zaara."

"Fine." Without argument, and leaving the group perplexed, Rei grabbed Andronikos' hand and tugged him along with her as she stormed down the hall, leading them to an empty room with a mostly intact door. "I need your help," she began as soon as the door clanged shut behind them. "There's… I have things that need to be done, and now I know Zaara and Lana are keeping information from me."

That, at least, was part of the issue. If she could focus on that, on the anger from that one little thing, she could ignore the concern over Theron that was beginning to churn inside of her.

"Rei." Making no indication that he'd actually heard her, Andronikos gripped her by the shoulders and stared down at her. "Is that what's got you all worked up?"

She grumbled something about not being worked up. "They're keeping things from the Council, and I need it looked into. But I need to stay here." Council oversight had to be the simplest job on Ziost at the moment, and yet Rei had managed to completely mess up, letting critical information stay hidden from the Sith far longer than it should have. Whether it was Intelligence being the pain in the ass they always were, or just Zaara and her unending grudge against Sith, it was entirely unacceptable and Rei would have to find a way to make that clear.

Execution would be the quickest solution, but Rei was growing tired of death given the bodies piled in the streets of the capital and the way it permeated the Force here. Besides, she liked Zaara. Usually.

"Whatever you need me to do," Andronikos promised. In a lighter tone, he added, "Just send me with Vrynn. She's pretty handy to have around."

"Fine. I'll tell her." Rei ignored the concerned look Andronikos gave her at her short response, staring past him towards the half-closed door. "Theron's here," she revealed, voice low. "I'm not sure how long they've known or how he's involved with all this, but…" She trailed off, sighing and letting her shoulders slump. "I'm tired."

Slowly, Andronikos pulled her closer and simply held her. "I thought Lana said things were starting to turn around?"

"Maybe." Rei didn't move, content to stand with his arms around her. "I messed up. I was trying to do everything the Council needed me to, and I messed up. I just can't… With Vitiate…"

Andronikos pulled back just enough to look at Rei. "You okay?"

"Okay. Tired, but okay."

He studied her for a moment longer, but seemed satisfied enough with her answer. After another bit of silence, he sighed. "We're losing our edge, Sith."

She gave him a tired smile. "You lost yours a long time ago, Pirate. I'm just doing you the courtesy of following suit."

[We miss you. Stay safe.]

Six hours. It had been six hours since Vector had sent that message, and Zaara was doing her best to remain calm. Even though Raina was the only one she'd seen over the past few days, she'd been keeping close contact with the rest of her team.

Lokin had taken control of the medical facilities on the orbital station, SCORPIO was still up on the ship, utterly uninterested, and though Zaara had lost track of where Kaliyo was or what she was doing, she still responded each time Zaara checked in.

She knew, rationally, that there were plenty of reasons why Vector hadn't returned her message. He was busy, he was sleeping, he had thought about responding and forgotten to send the actual message.

But that wasn't what sprung immediately to mind, not when she was staring out over the mostly-ruined city blocks of downtown New Adasta. Zaara had taken the evening to herself — in a sense, given that she was still working — and had left the now-crowded lower floors of the hospital for the exposed upper floors. Somewhere between floors 38 and 41, the side of the building had been mangled and torn open, and Zaara was perched on a thick support beam that jutted out from what remained of the intact floor.

It wasn't safe; then again, what was in this city? She'd spent the morning fighting for her life in an old diner, wasted most of the afternoon with a fruitless interrogation, and had been avoiding Rei the entire evening. For whatever reason, the most recent Council meeting had left her furious, and Zaara wasn't in the mood to know why.

She wasn't really in the mood for anything; all Zaara wanted to do was wrap up the business on Ziost and go spend the next few weeks visiting increasingly shady cantinas with Kaliyo.

Zaara was relieved for the chance at a distraction — even if it was a frantic soldier who came running up to her, skidding to a stop a good ten meters from where the intact floor gave way to gnarled metal. He glanced up, wide eyed, and held out a datapad uncertainly.

"The Minister sent me, sir," he forced out, breathing heavily. "It's… it's chaos. In the capital."

Her moment of relief ended rather abruptly. "Slow down, Private." Zaara pulled herself to her feet, carefully walking across the suspended beam to meet him in the center of the destroyed office. "What's going on?" She took the datapad, brow furrowing at the information.

"Republic. Reports say they're all over the eastern side of the city, and a secondary force has hit the headquarters to the north."

Frowning down at the two — then three, then four — incoming alerts about the attack, Zaara tucked the datapad under one arm and pushed past the private, jerking her head to indicate he should follow. "If there's any caf left, we'll need some. Find Kartier, wake her up and tell her what's going on. Have someone contact Captain Quinn up at the orbital station and tell him Lys needs to get her ass down here. Go." She practically shoved the private out of the office, then closed the doors as best she could.

There was something off about this attack.

Not that the entire past week and a half hadn't been completely abnormal, but it didn't make sense for the Republic to attack, not with what had happened with their Jedi.

Unless they didn't know — but still, blindly attacking a major city because a… recon? infiltration? team had failed to report in was more the Empire's style, and even then only if the stakes were high enough. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the stress was beginning to get to her, but something wasn't right.

Cori had warned them, though it was rather unhelpful and she wouldn't go into any sort of detail. She'd claimed not to know how much information the Republic had or what they hoped to accomplish with an attack, and refused to give specifics about the little she did know.

But with the invasion actually underway, she might be a bit more talkative.

Zaara had no doubt that Lana's first instinct would be to turn to Cori and see what else she knew, and Zaara trusted her — mostly — not to be too harsh in her questioning. It helped that she expected Cori to be honest about anything she may know, though Zaara knew that was a somewhat naive hope; as much as Cori didn't seem to mind helping the Empire if it was for a good enough cause, there were entire years of her life marked as confidential in Republic files and though Zaara hadn't ever been brave enough to search through them, she assumed it was for high risk missions against the Empire.

Zaara, like Cori, would one day have to choose between her loyalties to her home and her loyalties to her sister. Hopefully, it wouldn't have to be today.

So instead of contacting Cori, Zaara pulled out her holocomm and punched in a code for a different Republic frequency, one she wasn't sure was still valid and was even less sure she'd get an answer.

The next few seconds seemed to drag on, but the call did eventually connect and Theron's image shimmered to life on Zaara's holocomm. He looked considerably worse for wear, with particularly nasty bruising around his implants, and seemed as relieved as he was wary to see Zaara on the other end of the holocall.

"Agent," Zaara offered in way of a greeting. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say we're in the same system."

Theron sighed, but gave in with a slow nod. "I'll take a wild guess and say you're talking about Ziost. Did Cori tell you, or did you figure it all out by yourself?"

"I worked out the SIS," Zaara shrugged, quashing the annoyance that Cori knew about Theron but had held that information back, "but it was Lana who thought you might be involved."

"Of course she would."

"To business, then." Zaara glanced down at the datapad she still held, scrolling through the handful of notifications and alerts she was getting about the Republic's attack. "What the hell were you thinking?"

It was a few moments before Theron answered, his expression hardening. "I was trying to help. That's my team of Jedi out there you keep interrogating, but I'm not the one who called in the attack." He frowned. "This was an off-the-books mission. No one should've even known about it."

It was an answer Zaara could be satisfied with, even if it didn't really change anything. "You're down at least a half dozen Jedi, by the way. We're holding two up at headquarters. One probably won't survive more than a few more hours, but you're free to take the other when you leave."

Theron almost flinched at the information; Zaara knew it wasn't what he wanted to hear, but she figured he deserved to hear it nonetheless. But to Zaara's surprise, Theron just nodded. "That's all on me."

"Good. Now, if that's a mess you'd like to help clean up, we could use another pair of hands."

There were a total of six terminals in the room, three lined up along the wall on each side. Each workstation was the same, impeccably neat and entirely impersonal save for a few small details Davri was only beginning to notice — a datapad cover with a date and initials printed on one corner, a caf mug sitting on a coaster with the faded logo of a Huttball team, one of those special chronos that displayed a different inspirational quote each day.

She wasn't certain exactly what she'd expected an Imperial Intelligence office to look like, but this… wasn't quite it. It was too normal.

Davri paced through the room as she waited for the holoterminal in the center to go through; it beeped softly as it attempted to connect to Saresh's holofrequency. Aric and Forex stood behind her, Elara and Yuun stood watch near the door, and Vik was sitting in one of the chairs with his feet propped up on the terminal.

"Anything?" Davri looked away for a moment to glance over at Elara.

"Nope," Vik answered, tapping at one of the datapads. "Damn thing's got about a dozen layers of security. I just wanted to play some sabaac."

"I was talking to Dorne," she clarified. "But keep me apprised of your mission, Lieutenant."

"You got it, Boss."

Elara cleared her throat. "No one's come through this way, sir. And Lieutenant, standard-issue datapads do not come with sabaac games installed, I'm afraid."

Before Davri could offer a smart comment, the holoterminal beeped and Saresh appeared. "I trust you have good reason to contact me, Major? I didn't expect to hear from you until the headquarters were completely under our control."

"One problem — this place is packed with refugees."

The Chancellor seemed unfazed. "And?"

"And," Davri echoed, trying to keep the mocking edge out of her voice, "the Imps think the Emperor is on Ziost, and they're trying to get their people out. I've got no problem taking control of the headquarters, but you can't expect me to stop planet-wide evacuations?"

Saresh's stare hardened. "I expect you to complete the mission, Major Sohms. I would hate for your hesitance to be interpreted as treason, especially given the court hearing you're missing." The holocall blinked off.

Davri slammed a hand onto the terminal in frustration. "Try to do the right damned thing — just once — and look where it gets me." The office had descended into silence, save for the occasional beeping of the datapad Vik was still messing with.

There wasn't much of a choice, not really; to keep Saresh from claiming Havoc was committing treason, they'd have to continue pushing through the Intelligence headquarters. Even without taking direct civilian casualties into consideration, there was also the fact they'd be effectively shutting down the evacuations from the surface.

Well, if she'd be accused of treason, why not commit it anyway?

"Go big or go home," she muttered, turning to face the rest of the squad. "Anyone interested in having a future with the Republic military should probably head out."

Aric's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What are you planning?"

"We figure out what's going on. If it's bad enough that the Imperials really think they have to run, we keep our people out. We don't make things worse." Davri paused, jaw clenching as she waited for her squad's reactions. "Besides, it'll be easier to claim an empty building than one filled with evacuees and agents."

Forex was the first to show any sort of response, giving a dutiful bob and raising one of his arms. "Kick them while they're down. An excellent strategy, Major."

"Not exactly what I was going for, but I appreciate the enthusiasm." Davri glanced around at the others, her decision already gnawing at her; Garza's voice echoed in the back of her mind, loudly voicing her disapproval. She'd been in the military for close to twenty years, and hadn't ever come close to doing anything like this, but after seeing how shaken the Jedi were after Yavin 4 — the Grandmaster included — Davri couldn't just sit by as the former Emperor ravaged a planet.

And if the Sith were wrong, and this wasn't the Emperor, well… it wouldn't be the first time she'd nearly ruined her career.

After a few terse moments of silence, Aric spoke up. "We may not be able to get Saresh to listen to reason, but the Imps might." He paused, lips twisting into a frown as if the words left a bad taste in his mouth. "We could coordinate with them, minimize Republic casualties."

Davri gave a thoughtful nod, relief flooding through her at Aric's agreement; it wasn't uncommon for them to not see eye-to-eye on missions, and neither was the sort to give any ground when it came to their ideals. In this, she was glad to have his support, however begrudging it might have been. "It's a good idea, and I think I know just who to contact." She keyed a frequency into the main terminal, still trying to push down the uncomfortable feeling of wrongness about the whole situation.

As the holoterminal finally connected, Davri cleared her throat. "Agent Ven. Havoc Squad has a proposal for you."