"Do you think it'll hold?"

Cinder peered at where the hole in her ship had been patched up. It was a ramshackle job. She'd expected HK to have higher standards.

"Answer: Master, would I lie to you?" The droid was standing behind her, one foot on the cargo ramp and the other still on the landing pad. Bestia hung limp and pathetic in his rust-red arms.

"You're an assassin droid, I'd be more concerned if you didn't lie." She closed her eyes and felt her fingers flex. The patchwork panel made a grinding sound, the sharp screech of metal against metal. The monkey lizard she'd saved from Durgulla's dungeon scurried up her arm, cawing at the sound as he clutched his ears. She lulled it to sleep with the wave of her hand. She turned to face her companions. "Up you go."

HK affirmed and walked stiffly into the cargo hold. She followed close behind, stopping when she reached the top of the ramp. She turned to take one last look at Nar Shaddaa. The landing area was empty now, barren save a few flecks of spacers mucking about. The bustle that greeted them initially was gone, shoved so rudely aside by the return of the Hutts. She saw a line of Evocii march rank and file down a thoroughfare. Some Hutt loomed behind them, lounging on a palanquin. Good riddance, she mouthed as the cargo ramp started rising beneath her.

The vacant cargo hold welcomed her with silence. Far off, she could make out the clattering of HK's feet against the metal floor, but there was no noise where it mattered. No engines firing, no gears or machinery moving. All was still in The Ashen One. This was wrong.

Her mind raced with emotions and questions, its own set of gears whining and whirring in a chaotic cacophony. The weight of what she had endured in so little time was like to crush her. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, sure enough, but it was little more than a single narrow shaft, growing thinner and dimmer with each passing second. There he is, she thought, but still so far away. Ruin would be waiting, she surmised. All that was left was to get to him and put an end to things.

He had been so close to them the entire time. Rhen Var was so close to Korriban on every star chart one would think they shared a sun. But unlike the Sith homeworld, the frigid wasteland was cut off from every hyperspace lane, rendering it all but inaccessible.

Though not for long.

The ship now housed the means to get to Rhen Var, though Cinder did not expect it to be without difficulty. She would have Bestia point the way—healed or no, it was no concern—and Kregg pilot the ship. If what Bestia had said about the Force winds was true, then Cinder wanted no part of flying through such a mess herself. Nor would Fell be suited for the task. As fair a pilot he was, the way he flew while being escorted by those Mandalorian interceptors still gave her pause. It mattered little now; the past was done, and they needed to break free of Hutt Space while they still could.

Yet the ship seemed empty. Did they leave me to die here? The ordeal with the terentatek had nearly killed her. If not for Bestia... If not for Bestia, indeed. Cinder praised the woman's ingenuity and quick-thinking. Broken legs... and soon enough a broken heart to match. She noted how empty those last words sounded in her head.The silence became unbearable and she set off in search of Fell.

The boy's chambers were cloistered off in a nook nestled between the turret room and the engine bay. A narrow passage snaked its way through the flaking metal walls, dark save for dim blue strips that pulsed every two standard minutes. Had the engines been running, the noise would have barraged her through the wall. A low hum was the worst that assailed her ears now, and, for that, she was thankful. She found the door to Fell's room at the hall's end. It pulled itself up at her approach.

Compared to her own quarters, Fell's room was spartan. It wasn't some fit of minimalism; Fell had come from nothing. He brought nothing with him from Ord Mantell, not even at her prodding. He took no prizes on Ossus (either time), nor did he hunt for relics on Korriban. Anything he did find, he brought to her at once. She always made it a point to offer them back to him and, every time, the boy would stubbornly refuse. She found herself bringing the trinkets to Ruin more often than not. The Dark Lord would ponder them, some a great deal more than others, and toss them back at her feet. She ended up stashing them somewhere in the Valley of the Dark Lords, far below Ruin's keep. Now, the valley was in the hands of the Jedi, and the cache doubtless was too. If they can find it.

Fell was atop his bed, lying on his back with his arms clasped against his chest. His eyes were closed, though he was not asleep. Cinder sensed him stir at her approach. She took a step towards him, soft and steady, her first footfall silent. On the next step, she purposely jammed the toe of her boot into the floor. The heel came down in a thump quickly after, and the boy sprang upright.

"We have a job to do and you think it time to rest?" Cinder set her fists on her hips. Fell turned to face her, swinging his legs off the bed. His bare feet landed next to his boots. He shook an errant strand of hair from his forehead and stood up.

"I think we've earned a rest, master," Fell said as he stepped into his boots. "You didn't return alone, did you?" A snarky grin flashed across his face, disappearing just as fast when Cinder did not return a smile.

"I handled my end of things." Although, I have aught unfinished business with which to contend. "Is he here?"

Fell sucked in his cheeks. "Yeah," he said with a sigh, "they're here." She began to raise a hand but he kept going. "I wasn't sure about it but I didn't really have a choice. He wouldn't leave without her-"

"Her?" Cinder cut him off. Her fingers twitched; she fought to restrain herself from the Force's passionate call. "We are not running a charity here, apprentice. Who is she?"

"Some slave girl, name of Xira Morr." Fell took a seat on the edge of his bed. "I've never seen anyone quite like her before, and a lot of different types of people came through Ord Mantell."

Cinder turned her back to him and cupped her fingers around her chin. "Human? There's a noble house on Jineer that bears that name." It was a sister planet to her homeworld Fassa, in orbit of the same star.

"No, you told me of the Moors of House Jineer." Fell drug out the o's for emphasis. "She's near-human at best. Skin white as creme, ugly black patterns all down her face and neck." He started thinking out loud. "I thought maybe Rattataki, but that can't be right. They're hairless, and they're not so fast."

"'Xira' is an extra-galactic name," said Cinder. She thought back to before the carnage at Durgulla's palace, trying to place the Hutt's slaves in her mind. The Twi'lek girl, Twyla, stuck out plain as day. There was a Devaronian, too, though that one had been caked in sugar. One detail began to gnaw at her. "Wait a minute, you brought a Hutt's slave onto my ship?"

"I said that before, did I not?"

Cinder spun around and faced Fell. "Where are Kregg and his paramour? We're dead freight. All this 'rest' and 'leisure', I'm wondering if I ever left Durgulla's palace."

"Well, I was waiting for you to get back, but we didn't know how long it'd be." Fell got back to his feet and started to pace. "The ship's small enough, right? How hard can it be to find them"

"Stupid boy." She made for the door but stopped herself short of the frame. The door slid up, hissing in her ear as she turned back to Fell. She let out a sigh. "I grow tired of the stench of lickspittles and sloths." That was all he needed. Cinder let Fell brush past her, stomping his way out of the room and hopefully towards the cockpit.

She took her time leaving the hallway, reaching out to the Force and near-losing herself in thought. This is getting out of hand. She had long thought three a crowd enough. But six? The Ashen One may have been designed as a freighter, but they only had the two crew cabins.

When the ship came into her possession, the crew cabins were lined with enough bunks to house eight people each, four lying against each wall. That was well before the series of upgrades she'd made to the vessel. She gutted the excess from her own cabin first, turning the cots and tables to scrap to trade for more useful furniture. She let Fell take the other chamber when he came of age, after she knew he was more than a child with a power he had precious little hope of controlling.

Boyish denseness aside, Fell had grown a great deal from the boy she met on Ord Mantell. The boy who was scrawny, timid, scared, and weak, and yet so violently powerful in the Force that it piqued even her interest. She had turned down several apprentices before Fell. All were Sith Academy hopefuls that had little strength and littler sense. The keenest among them had also been the most bawdy. If apprenticeship were a means to get inside her tunic, then it would also prove the quickest way in the galaxy to become a eunuch.

Her stomach turned as The Ashen One lurched upwards into the sky. I shouldn't have had to tell him. He needs more initiative. The wall beside her had one of the ships many PAs built into it. Ancient as they were, she never saw it fit to remove them. Given the option, she preferred them to portable commlinks. She ran her fingers across the mechanical dial and paged Fell in the cockpit. He answered her in a voice laden with static.

"Get us close to Ossus," she said. She leaned up against the PA to make sure she was heard. "As close as you can. If Rhen Var were still on the maps, the two worlds would share a route. We'll make plans from there." Fell affirmed and the static bubbled as the PA switched off.

Cinder continued on her way down the hall until she found herself outside her chamber door. She went to open the door, but stopped herself short. Wait a minute. The Force nagged at her, gnawing at her insides like swampflies nibbling at her flesh. She let one hand slide to her lightsaber hilt hanging against her hip. The other opened the door.

She saw Kregg sharing a passionate kiss with the slave woman, Xira, his arms wrapped tight around her. His eyes opened at Cinder's entrance, slow at first, then springing open wide. Cinder pretended to notice neither of them, though the frustration ate at her innards. She walked over to her end table and reached for the slender pink bottle of hypocras. With the Force, she pulled a tumbler towards the table's edge and began to pour.

"A fine vintage," she said, taking the cup in hand. She brought it closer to her nose and let the scents waft up; notes of nutmeg, clove, and darkberry made her slip a smile. She took a sip, then exchanged the tumbler for the bottle. "This one comes from Fassa, a world with which you're familiar, I'm sure."

"No, ma'am," Kregg stammered. Both he and Xira were on their feet. His look was dumbfounded, hers more on the side of impatient. "West Rim?"

"Close enough." Cinder shrugged and put the bottle aside. "Bold of you to claim my chambers."

"You're right, Lysara, I apologize." Pink crept across Kregg's cheeks. "It was foolish, inappropriate. It should have been elsewhere."

"A start." Cinder moved closer. She took one look at Xira, then stopped. "So, who is your confidant, and why is she in my robe?"

Within the shroud of Cinder's black robe, only Xira's face was visible. She was solid white, and the lights overhead practically set her skin to glowing. Elsewhere, she was black: raven-black hair dangled before her face in thick locks, and she wore strange markings wrought in black paint around her eyes, across her cheeks, and down her chin.

"Well, I can tell you, if you're willing to listen," Kregg said.

Cinder ignored him. "I'm told your name is Xira Morr, and that you hail from Wild Space. Answer me true."

Xira cracked a smile, baring dagger-shaped teeth that gleamed almost as white as her skin. She threw back the robe's hood and shook out her hair. "Aye," she said. She spoke in a strange lilt Cinder had never heard. The tone was melodic to her ears. "What else do you wish to know?"

"You'll do no good keeping secrets from me."

Xira chuckled and then cast off Cinder's robes entirely. "Then have all of me laid bare, Sith." She was naked underneath, and the light that bounced off her skin was blinding. Her skin was sunken and sallow, each of her bones threatening to pierce through like knives. Perhaps the only creature to starve in Durgulla the Hutt's court. Even still, the remnants of lean muscle were plain enough to see. "Warmaiden Xira of Clan Morr," she said with a mocking bow. "Emissary of the Nagai Golden Council, and heir-apparent to the Emirate of Firefist. Or pretender, depending on whom you ask."

Xira inched closer to Cinder with a sway in her step. "I take it you're this Lysara woman that won't leave my Ghost of Fondor's thoughts?" She went to rub a hand against Cinder's cheek.

Cinder caught it in her grasp, but just barely. "Nagai are quick indeed," she said. "To the unprepared." She once read a treatise discussing the fringes of Wild Space in the Jedi Temple Archives. The author had encountered the Nagai, but offered precious little insight besides that they were quick, comely, pale, and revered honor above all else. It appears Dryden wasn't too far off about at least three of those things.

Xira shook her wrist free from Cinder's grasp. "You should be dead."

"And you should have had enough drive to break free sooner." How can I break this one's pride? "I killed the thing you could not."

"Oh, yes, indeed. But I killed the monster."

"At what cost? You are a dead woman walking, with no will and no honor."

"If my knives had not broken in the slug's hide, I would gut you where you stand."

Cinder drew her lightsaber and brought the orange blade to life. She jabbed it forward, stopping underneath Xira's chin.

"But you don't," she said. "Try me."

"Point taken." Xira's expression twisted into one of pure hate. "If you're going to cut throats, then start with that bastard behind me." She nodded her head back towards Kregg.

"I have ought to say to him, indeed." Cinder switched off her saber and returned it to her belt. "Leave us."

Xira slunk off from the room without a word.

"Now, to get down to business," Cinder said, turning to Kregg. He had cleaned up a fair bit since their first encounter in the Viridian Slug, though stress had drenched him with the stench of sweat.

"Look, really, I apologize-"

"Stop groveling." Cinder sighed and jabbed her fingers against her temple. "Time is of the essence. We need to get moving."

"Alright." Kregg chuckled. "Where to?"

Cinder ran her hand down her face. Fools, all of them. "Did he not tell you where we were going?"

"No, Lysara, he didn't. Tell me and I can get you there."

As grateful as she was Fell had been willing to wait for her, she found herself wanting to throttle him for the delay. "Rhen Var," she said to Kregg through clenched teeth. "Can you handle that?"

"Of course I-" Kregg stopped himself. "Wait a minute, that's not on any of the galactic charts anymore, hasn't been for a good while. Too many ships went missing in that system."

"Is the smuggler having second thoughts?" Now is not the time for hangups. If Kregg and the Nagai will not help, then this meaningless quest will have been for naught. "There's a man who needs killing, and to do that I need to get to Rhen Var. Can youhandle that?"

"I don't know what you want me to tell you," Kregg said. He threw up his hands. "Place might very well not even exist. Shrouded in something fierce."

"You've heard correct. But that's not an answer to the question I asked."

"Do you have a hard-on for dying or what, Lysara?"

Cinder felt her head throb. She was losing patience, and fast. "Perhaps you do, smuggler."

"Look, I saw what happened in Durgulla's chambers. I heard what your boy said, and now I'm getting the inkling he wasn't bluffing. You're a Sith." Kregg chewed his lip a moment, but decided against speaking further.

Cinder motioned to her bed. "Take a seat. We've much to discuss." He hesitated at first, but Kregg did as he was asked. "Yes, I lied. So did you."

"What?" He was about to jump back up, but stopped when Cinder moved over towards him.

"Xira," she said as she loomed over him.

"You ain't jealous, are you?" Kregg forced out a laugh, but it died quick as it started. His grin turned to the furrowed frown of frayed nerves.

"Start from the beginning." Cinder watched sweat glisten across his brow. She squatted in front of him so that she could look in the eye.

"Where do I even start?" He swallowed again. "You got anything to drink?"

"I might. Though I fear it won't be the one you want to try." She shot a glance over at the hypocras. "It's a family specialty. A bit above your station, I'm afraid."

"Of course. Give it here anyway."

Cinder couldn't help but crack a smile. With a wave of her hand, she brought over a tumbler and then the bottle. She poured just enough to coat the bottom of the glass in frothy pink, then shoved it into Kregg's open hand. "Drink up."

"Don't have to tell me twice." He took a sniff, then a swig. In that single gulp, the glass was empty. He set a hand against his throat. "It's got a burn to it."

"One that no one expects. Focus now, Kregg."

Kregg set the glass down in his lap. "It's not as big a lie as you're thinking. The debt? That was all true. I did a spice run for the Fat Minister that ended up going to shite. Still not sure how, the plan was good, the credits were good. Still think the bastard set me up.

"Anyways, he took my ship and my first mate. No clue what happened to either of 'em. Xira came into the picture a year or so later, sent over by Urga the Elder to take his moon back quickly and cleanly. How someone like her wound up in the employ of the Hutts, I ain't got a clue. She roped me in on her little scheme, and we planned to move against the Fat Minister.

"The day came and well, he cheated. He tossed her in the beast pit and pit her against something she couldn't even beat. I'll never know what it was. She won't discuss it; it's a stain on her honor."

It was a terentatek, more than a match for even the greatest of Jedi Masters. "How did she survive?" Even trying to picture Xira in her prime, Cinder did not figure her odds of survival would have been fortuitous. The thing nearly wiped the floor with me, limbless, battered, and hungry.

Kregg tried to stand, but Cinder pushed him back down. "Didn't I tell you she won't even tell me? What do you care, anyway? She'll stay out of your way."

"Good as that is, I still like to know who I'm giving passage." Especially someone as important as her. "This isn't a transport barge."

"Aye, fair enough. Look, one thing she did share with me was that the Hutt robbed her of her chances to redeem her honor. She lost it all, so she was supposed to see herself dead." Kregg let out an airy chuckle. "Very hard to do when you're surrounded by silken pillows and indolent slavemasters."

"Very generous to his slaves, that slug," Cinder said, turning her back to Kregg. "I thought it to be a show at first, munificence on display for a decadent court." She walked over to her wardrobe and opened the door. She shrugged out of her brown robe and hung it inside. "I thought he was a dullard, in truth. But evidently he knew what he had with Xira." And understood plain as day that we were a threat.

"That's the thing, Lysara. He didn't. Never did."

"Lying to me will get you nowhere." She moved back over to Kregg's side.

"Most people couldn't tell you what a Nagai even is. I know I fekkin' couldn't 'til I met Xira. Durgulla ain't no different. I'm telling you, he never knew what he had." Kregg chuckled. "He thought he had a Rattataki, as did everyone else in the court the few times he showed her off."

"He didn't keep her at his side like the others?"

"Oh, no," Kregg said with a laugh. "Of course not. He understood damn well that she was a threat. That's why he had her under lock and key inside the slave pens on his pleasure barge, ensuring she was starved. Pity for him, the person he gave the key was acting against him.

"Durgulla the Fat could be clever when he wanted to be, make no mistake about it. He knew exactly what you and your boy were the first time you stood before him. And he understood full well what you were trying to pull with that bait of yours."

Thinking of Bestia sent waves of rage through Cinder's chest. Her face went red. "Don't change the subject."

"Easy there. You're the one with the sword, I get it." There was a certain admirable quality in the way Kregg kept his cool. No small wonder he'd evaded the Republic all these years. "I shouldn't have to tell you of the Hutts and their hubris." Kregg got to his feet and dusted himself off. This time, Cinder let him. "The Fat Minister couldn't have told you half the species in his palace. He wanted to make them all as munificent and exalted as Hutts. They were cattle to him." Kregg clapped her on the shoulder.

"Don't touch me." Cinder bristled.

Kregg bit his lip and drew his hand back. "Anyways." He cleared his throat. "He would've made Xira into another little doll for hisself soon enough. I had to save her."

"You chose to save her, Kregg," Cinder said, staring at his hand. "You deny yourself agency."

He shrugged at that. "Enough about me. Tell me about your boy."

"He's not mine," Cinder said. "He is a sworn sword to me, an apprentice. Nothing more."

"Confidant?" Kregg cracked a smile.

"Absolutely not, and my liaisons are of no concern to you." Her fingers tapped the pommel of her lightsaber. "He is my apprentice."

"So it is true, then. You are a Sith." Kregg sighed.

Cinder stayed silent. Am I truly? "Yes," she muttered under her breath.

"My intuition tells me you're not searching for any old man in this mythical place, then." He placed a hand on his hip. For the first time, Cinder noticed the snubnosed blaster he had holstered there as his fingers went to rest on the handle. "Gone to find your master?"

"Going to kill my master." Frustration pounded at her from within her skull. The pressure felt intense enough to send her eyes spewing out their sockets. "Is that what you want to hear?" She approached Kregg until she was almost stepping on his toes. Standing, they were too close in height for her to loom over him. "Or is this where the smuggler draws his line?"

Kregg cut a wry smile. "Here I thought the queen of the Sith would have smelled more like death than roses."

Cinder rolled her eyes.

"I balk at nothing, Lysara," Kregg continued. He took a few steps back, then began to pace around her in a circle. "You know what kind of man I am. 'Tis why you sought me out."

"It was the boy's idea."

"Well, you could have vetoed the little underling." Kregg stopped just behind her. "Tell me, did you choose to go on those missions where you hunted me, or did the Republic send you out like a well-trained attack dog?"

She chuckled. So he does know.

"The Jedi thought they had everything figured out, that it would just be another smuggler sting." Kregg was back in front of her now. "But they underestimated me." He laughed. "They always do."

He studied her up and down for a moment, then said, "I figured you would be older. More hardened. Not every day you get a foolhardy teenager sicced on you, who forces you into an asteroid field and almost gets you eaten by a space worm."

"The 'hardened' Jedi were all out establishing baronies on the Republic's frontiers." That had been true then, and based on what she learned of the destruction of Malastare, it still rung true now. The Jedi Grandmasters always stayed behind in the Temple, Masters went off to claim their place as Jedi Lords, and the knights, green as they were, tended to problems in the Core. "And luck would have it that teenager doesn't stand before you now."

"Aye, she's all grown up." Kregg clapped her on the shoulder again, and this time she didn't wince. "You want to kill the Dark Lord of the Sith, fine. Just don't expect me to pull the trigger unless we're blasting him from orbit."

"No need. Just bring us to him."

"Well, Lysara, pleasure to finally meet the real you after all these years." Kregg made a bow that was half-mocking, half-earnest. "Rhen Var, eh? I can manage."

This went better than expected. "Get to the cockpit." Cinder pointed to the door. "Lord Fell is en route to Ossus space so we may chart our next move."

Kregg nodded, then sauntered towards the door. He looked back over his shoulder as the door slid up at his approach. "Anything else?"

"Several things," Cinder said, "though most can wait. One can't, though."

"Oh? Do tell."

She gave him a once-over, and her eyes laid him bare. Beneath all your swagger, your faux confidence, you're still the same disheveled man I met wasting away in a bar. "Darth Cinder."

"Come again?" He cocked his head.

"The girl's been dead for a decade, so keep her name off your lips." She paused. Kregg was almost through the doorframe when she continued. "The boy must never know."

He turned back at her words. "Aye, understood," he said with a short nod before continuing on his way to the cockpit. Or more than likely back to his mistress.

Now to tie the other end of the bow. Cinder sighed, patted down her tunic, then left the room to head for the med bay.