Once more, agony slowly roused Wil to consciousness, and his angry headache seemed to pound even harder against his skull from the inside, taking his breath away. He felt briefly weightless, a short respite from his pain as he came perilously close to blacking out again, but the more he tried to move his head, the more he returned to himself, and the hard floor he was sprawled out on gave him no comfort. As much as he was willing to give into the calm darkness, he fought through it instead, hearing Baxer's words echoing about in his mind.

"W-we we will be home soon..."

He opened his eyes to find himself staring straight up at a dark, dingy ceiling. It was devoid of much detail, but he wasn't able to make out much, anyway, as blurred as his vision remained. He recalled believing he had just been aboard a ship that had finished a hyperspace jump before he'd blacked out earlier, so was he still on it? He didn't hear the low hum of any engines or feel their vibrations through the floor, so had he been moved? Was Baxer the one who had brought him on board and then taken him elsewhere?

A sudden, piercing pain in his head froze him in place as he closed his eyes and held his breath, enduring the worst of the pain in complete silence. He was completely immobilized for what felt like an eternity, unwilling to move for fear of causing himself more pain, and he heard a soft, muffled voice calling his name, disorienting him further. He half thought it a figment of his imagination, perhaps a repressed memory bubbling to the surface in an attempt to distract his own mind from the intense pain. But the voice called for him again after a moment, louder and more insistent, just as he felt a pair of fingers press hard into his neck.

Gasping in surprise, Wil opened his eyes again to see the blurry outline of a man hovering over him, but his features were partially hidden in the darkness. Wil could see the patent relief on his face, though, as the man smiled broadly and let go of a tense breath he had been holding, his shoulders visibly sagging.

"Oh, thank the Force," he breathed with familiar affection. "I thought you were dead."

"Max," Wil identified his cousin with similar solace, beyond relieved to be in the presence of family once again. Family, his sluggish mind slowly brought to recall, that hadn't been seen or heard from in months... "Max!"

"Easy, easy," Max calmed him, his smile fading as he pressed Wil's shoulders to the floor when he'd begun to lift them. "You have a really nasty crack in your skull. I think it's even still bleeding." He turned Wil's head just slightly with a light grip on the younger Sheridan's jaw. "Who did this to you?"

Seeing the room beginning to spin again, Wil complied with Max's order, fighting lightheadedness that preceded his prior black out. "I...don't know, I don't remember. I was on...Corellia? I think? I was talking with...Baxer, and my dad, in a diner." Realizing he clearly had to be missing part of his memory, he glanced about their surroundings, an equally dismal and small room that still seemed unfamiliar. "Wait...where am I? How did you find me?"

Max appeared to focus on each of Wil's eyes separately, comparing them briefly before answering him. "You're on Coruscant now. Your brother sent a message to me as soon as your father told him that you'd been taken. I happened to already be very close by, so I came to find you as quickly as I could. And it's a good thing I did, because...you need to be evaluated. Soon. Do you think you can stand?"

Still reeling from Max's revelation, Wil hadn't processed his question. "Coruscant... So, Baxer did this to me? He brought me here?"

Glancing about the room as if suddenly nervous, Max shook his head. "I don't know, but we can figure that out later. Let's get you up and moving so we can get you treated. I don't like the way you look."

"Well, that's...rude..."

Max laughed. "Can't be all that bad if you still have your father's wit, I guess." He grasped Wil's hand in a firm hold and dug his other arm behind Wil's shoulders to support him as he sat up, bracing him around his back as he wavered. Max was knelt beside him, watching him intently as Wil fought to maintain a hold on his consciousness. He slowed his breathing and concentrated, focusing on calling the Force to himself to steady the shakiness he still felt. Pleased with Wil's progress so far, Max lowered his arm from behind him and leaned back to sit on his feet, preparing to stand so he could pull Wil the rest of the way up.

"Maybe you won't even need my h-"

A single blaster shot suddenly rang out, cutting Max off as the bolt landed in the left side of his chest and toppled him off his knees to his side on the floor before he could react.

"Leave my friend alone!" Baxer bellowed as he sprinted into the room from a darkened doorway, his blaster still aimed at Max with fury in his eyes. "You won't hurt him!"

"No! Baxer, Baxer!" Wil lifted his hand up toward Baxer, desperate to stop him from killing his cousin. "Baxer, stop! He's a friend! He wasn't hurting me!"

Another sharp, white-hot pain tore through his skull, nearly reducing Wil back down to the floor, too, but he held out, because he had to. He had to protect Max. Looking back up to Baxer, Wil watched as an odd twitch seemed to briefly bring him back to his senses, his previous rage all but gone with a few confused blinks.

"But...but he-he he hurt you, Kaz. I-I-I I saw it, he hi-t h-hit you. Hit you. In the head. I see the blood."

With his hand still outstretched towards him, Wil pled for Baxer's understanding, though he didn't fully understand what was going on himself. "Baxer, he didn't hurt me. He was trying to help me. Please, listen to me. He's..." He paused, unsure if he reveal the family connection or not. "...he's Recero's son. His name is Max. Let me help him."

Baxer blinked repeatedly again, his hand still aiming his blaster as it twitched a few times. He was clearly struggling to process the conflicting information as he glanced between the two Sheridans, but he finally shook his head.

"But the sho-sh-shop shop is...ready. Ready. You have to s-s-see see it! Come. I h-have have to show you."

"Let me help him," Wil repeated firmly, concentrating even more intensely. "Then you can show me everything you want. Everything in the shop. You'll have my undivided attention. But let me help him first."

Baxer stared blankly for the longest, most painful moment... "Okay. But hu-hurry, hurry. Y-you have to see."

Wasting no time, Wil turned and painfully crawled on his hands and knees to Max's side, his vision blurring even further despite his attempts to blink it into submission. Max appeared unconscious, only barely breathing with shallow, ragged grunts. Unsure what else to do, Wil carefully rolled him onto his back and placed his hand onto Max's wound, centering himself once more to heal his cousin.

He recalled his lessons with Cordira, her advice to see the Force weaving the wound back together, and he heard his friend Sakiko's voice telling him the Force would always be drawn to him because of his good heart. Max needed the Force far more than he did right now, Wil thought to himself, willing its healing power to flow through him and save his cousin...

"Okay," Baxer interrupted, grabbing Wil's arm and pulling him forcefully up onto his feet. "You have t-to to see, now. It's not f-f-far. I have to sh-show you, Kaz. It's ju-just just as you left it."

Wil could only stagger with Baxer as he pulled him along, too weak and disoriented to fight back or make a stand. As they traveled further into the dark hallway, he took one last look at Max behind him, still unresponsive on the floor.