Mountain Territory,

Mandalore

The five Mandalorians stood around the crash site as the man in the brown cloak, knelt on one knee, his hand pressed flat to the ground and eyes closed in concentration. He finally opened them.

"Nothing. It's been too long."

"Let's see if there are any physical signs left that we can track." A'den desperately wanted to know, being called back from Keldabe had reignited his hope. They split up, taking different paths away from the centre. Mereel followed his brother.

"What are you going to do if we find her?" he asked.

A'den didn't answer, instead he pulled down his viewfinder to check the undergrowth, adjusting the imaging in his HUD.

"Vod?" Mereel asked again.

"Are you looking or just making holes in the ground?" he retorted.

Mereel flicked down his viewfinder irritably; he completed a further scan after his brother.

"If they came this way it's too long ago. It's growing season, covering any tracks. Fek! I sound like Levet."

They both flicked their view finders back up.

"You didn't answer." Mereel pushed.

"She's my wife. I love her. What do you think?" He growled out, scraping the floor with his boot. "I can't see any signs here. Anyone else?" He asked over the Com.

"Nah. Nothing."

"Nope nothing here." Came the replies.

"We split up then. In pairs, each take one lodge from Shysa's list. Cover more ground."

Mereel followed him to their speeder, "I should never have gone to Keldabe with you." A'den said, starting up the speeder with a vengeance.

"Kit?"

"Yeah."

"Was she starting to expect more?"

"She hadn't said, I hope not. I didn't give her any."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Does she know about Ryssa?"

"She knows. Let's go."

He jammed his foot down on the power, he had no time to waste.

.

The lone speeder sent up a spray of sludgy snow in its aftermath, as it sped towards the abandoned hunting lodge. The Nulls were checking the others. That's was assuming the people they were seeking had survived and they were in the right area. Nothing was certain.

"This is it Maze. If they're not in there we may be too late."

"Or Shysa's Intel is a load of Osik."

"You're spending too much time with Levet, who spends too much time with Rav."

"Are you accusing me of being a born-again Mando, General?"

"If the cap fits…."

Zey knew Maze had snorted a reply, even though he hadn't heard him because something else had intruded into his mind. He had never felt anything quite like this.

"We're near but we need to be careful. They're there but they've been found by the Empire…..and something else." The feelings he picked up on were raw, visceral from nearly all the beings involved.

Maze slowed the speeder.

"Arligan? You okay?" He looked at his partner; he had not seen him look like that since the night of the Jedi Purge. Grey. Broken. He had just recovered to what he had been on Qiilura; a strong man with a sense of justice.

"Arligan!"

"I'm okay but we need to go in on foot now." Maze slowed even further and the speeder dropped to the ground with a soft whump. He didn't have the time for pure stealth. Zey dropped from the speeder, surprisingly soft footed for a man of his age and size.

"Be prepared for anything Captain. Something we've never seen before."

The former Jedi was taking this extremely seriously if he called him Captain.

"With you General," Maze activated his HUD.

"There through the trees."

An old building built into the side of the hill and surrounded by several Imperial speeders and speed bikes, nearly hidden. Tendrils of smoke appeared from the sides of the opening.

"All this for two people. I know he's an ARC but isn't it a little overkill?"

"Trap you mean?" Replied Zey.

"It had crossed my mind."

"Hmm." Replied Zey, as he crouched down, concentrating on the building in front of him.

"How do you want to play it General?"

"No guard." Zey mused. "I think….we just go in through the front door."

"Sounds good to me." Maze primed his blasters.

Zey checked his lightsaber; he didn't use it often and took a moment to sink into the Force in preparation. He did not like what he felt, the darkness enveloping the area ahead.

"No time to waste Maze. They're in there and in trouble."

"Force user?" asked Maze, he had been trained by a man who could kill Jedi with his bare hands and would take them on if needed.

"Yes—but nothing like I've felt before. Leave it to me."

"Understood General."

The two men ran towards the building.

.

Hunting Lodge

The door flew open followed by Coric, who banged it shut and pulled the lock across, closed. He knew it wouldn't keep them out. Nothing would. They had minutes left now, if that.

"They've found us!"

"The Empire?" She asked,

"Stormtroopers. Mandalorians and something else."

"Something else?"

"I'll explain later. Just grab everything. We go out of the tunnel."

Coric pulled furniture in front of the door. If they blasted through it wouldn't help but it may buy them time.

Ryssa pulled on a coat and hat, and dragged the prepared bag from the bedroom before heading towards the cellar door and the tunnel, the one that took them straight into the woods. She fumbled with the old fashioned key managing to finally open it. She turned and took a step towards Coric and saw the front door lit up; vibrations in the ground travelled up her legs but she didn't understand what was happening until she heard the whump of the explosion, just before she was thrown up and at the cellar door, as the outer door was blown in with a blast. She saw Coric being lifted into the air at the same time.

Coric's helmet stopped most of the effects of the blast enough for him to see the Stormtroopers push through the door. He scrambled to one knee and fired repeatedly at two Stormtroopers now standing either side of the blown in door; he vaguely heard someone shout Sarge as one of them went went down. They were followed by something he had only ever heard rumours of when he was attached to Vaders Fist. Rumours that were whispered and not broadcast, then sounds he hadn't heard in a while, not since the Jedi Temple. Then he saw it.

A double red bladed light saber. Even Vader only had one.

The heavy footsteps thumped on the floor as the owner of the red blades came into the room; he looked around.

"Well, isn't this cosy?" A grating voice observed.

Coric fired again and again; the red blades deflected the blasts but not hitting Coric.

"I'm not after you, Clone. My Master likes to deal with Clone deserters himself. It's the woman I want. Hand her over."

Coric felt himself being lifted and thrown to one side like one of those clone rag dolls he'd seen on Coruscant; his ribs felt as if a durasteel band was crushing them, then his world went black but not before he saw the familiar yellow and grey armour of Reau standing at the door.

Ryssa shook her head, it was spinning, her vision blurring as she watched horrified; the thing, force lifted Coric and threw him like he weighed nothing at all and then it turned to her. There was nowhere to run, she was lifted from the ground and held there, in limbo, for what felt like minutes and then pulled towards the being dressed totally in black armour with the red light sabers. It wasn't Vader she knew that. But the species—she just couldn't work out what it was. It's hand reaching out to her. The medic in her observed, grey scaly skin, yellow-red eyes. She couldn't even guess at its height and bulk. Finally she was hanging in the air, centimetres in front of its face. The acrid smell of its breath made her gag.

"Information." It growled. "There are Jedi on Mandalore, I can feel them. You know where they are. You will tell me."

"I don't know any Jedi."

"Liar!"

He dropped, she hit the floor winded, unable to move. It's lightsabers extinguished, it moved to stand astride her; she heard a woman's laugh in the background as he pushed his large hand towards her head.

"You either tell me willingly, or I will take it. Either way, there may not be much left after I've finished."

Ryssa shook her head, not daring to utter a word.

There was a voice in her head, not hers, persistent, sifting and sliding through her memories, latching onto them.

"You will tell me."

She felt them going, being sucked out of her like a leech pulled blood. She heard another voice, from years ago, calmer, telling her to fight.

"General Kenobi." She whispered.

"Kenobi is dead, he can't help you." The being gloated.

She fought to keep hold of her memories, keep hold of herself. She thought of her Mother, her childhood, EmDee. The Mandalorian in black Beskar, A'den, Coric. The War.

The red blade grunted in frustration.

She kept remembering them all, all her treasured memories, everything that was her.

"You will tell me or die."

A searing pain shot through her head, as she heard a piercing scream.

Coric's eyes opened at the scream, to see yet another larger green armoured Mandalorian, blocking the door; he took down another one of the Troopers and was immediately fired upon by the grey and yellow Reau. Behind the Mandalorian followed a large barrel chested man with a brown-grey beard and grey, shoulder length hair, tied tidily behind his head. He held his hands facing out in front of him, as if pushing against an invisible wall. The Inquisitor flew back but landed on his feet, with his hand on the floor in front to support him. He glared at the newcomers.

"A Jedi! Finally." He spat out, standing up, his hand pushed out with a half closed fist.

Zey had never seen whatever it was before, not a Sith, but just as Dark. He felt malevolence ooze from the creature's pores and it revelled in it. Immediately after his initial attack, he felt the creature using the Force to try and close his windpipe; Zey drew on a Force ability he had not used in decades. He had been taught it by an old, dear, dear friend, since departed but Zey had never fully perfected it; as imperfect as it was he needed it now. He sank deeper into the Force to gain strength to put to his personal shield and slowly he prised the imaginary fingers from his neck. He could feel the surprise rise in the creature and seeing his opening. He took it.

Coric shook his head, it was still swimming; the creature, some kind of force user was fighting another force user, who looked like a Jedi and was losing; Coric pulled Ryssa out of the way and raised his blaster to fire but it was too late, he couldn't get a shot in. Then he saw more grey and yellow armour, he knew who that was and took several shots. They didn't stay around and they headed out of the door.

"Maze!" A deep baritone voice shouted, Coric recognised the name, an Alpha ARC — a deserter. He didn't care at the moment as the pain from his ribs and the wound on his shoulder, where he hadn't realised he had been hit caused him to stop and catch his breath. Probably broken he thought, as he forced himself to get up and move over in front of Ryssa. She looked dead, livid bruises blooming up all around her neck; he checked her quickly, there was a pulse. He knelt in front of her blocking any further attacks. The green armoured Mandalorian had disappeared after Reau and dragged her back.

The other two were struggling; Coric knew a Force battle when he saw one. He took another shot and another; the Inquisitor still didn't go down but it distracted him enough. He fired again and again, then a white blade ignited with the sound of a light saber. Seconds later, the Inquisitor dropped to its knees, as its head bounced off into the corner, yellow-red eyes staring. The white blade turned towards the other Mando's fighting just in time to see a vibroblade flash and glint off the armour pushing the Green Mandalorian down, as two of them leapt out of the door; Coric heard a speeder start up and drive off.

Maze had continued to fire at Reau; he knew who she was and what Gilamar had done to her so called boyfriend. She had jumped on one of the speeder bikes with an accomplice; Maze managed to get several shots off and hit one of the engines before she fired something.

As soon as Maze heard the noise he knew what it was, "Fekking whistling Birds." He cursed, and leapt behind a speeder bike for cover, although he didn't expect to survive after her flew through the air.

He regained consciousness half a minute or so after the blast, being protected by his Beskar chest plate and HUD from the tiny target seeking missiles.

"Must be a cheap durasteel knock off." He laughed to himself, pushing himself up and wincing at the bruises that he knew were already blooming before heading back inside.

.

Ryssa's head hurt, it burned, but the attack had stopped she knew that much. She also felt someone holding her and she felt safe. She opened her eyes blinking, she didn't recognise where she was. It hurt even to think; she was just too tired and let the blackness descend.

Coric sat holding her as he watched both men come towards them; he still didn't know who they were.

"I'm Maze." He gently took hold of the blaster in Coric's hand saying "You don't need this, ner vod, let's get you looked at." Coric let him take it.

Coric looked down at Ryssa, "I'm fine. She needs looking after, she just took a blaster bolt ricochet and that thing, whatever it was. What it did to her."

"Inquisitor. We've heard of them, looking for Force users." Maze looked over and could see Zey the other side, holding her, his hand splayed across the top of her head. "But you still need looking after."

He watched Zey and the woman wasn't getting up, turning back to Coric, he said, "Zey has her and we've got a medical kit but we need to get you both somewhere safe. What about you? How long have you been here?"

Maze helped Coric up from the floor and over to the leather settee, considerate of his wound and past the open door of the bedroom, where he glanced at the unmade bed, obviously recently occupied by two people. They pushed on past it.

"Few months." Coric replied.

He watched Coric stare at the woman.

Zey meanwhile had lifted Ryssa onto the settee and made up the fire, to get some warmth into them all; it was still bitterly cold and the fire had burnt out. Zey also put some water on to make some shig to help them get warm, while Maze checked over Ryssa's shoulder and neck which was looking the worst at the moment.

"It's a clean shot, but it'll start bleeding again soon, we need to get Bacta patches on it." He commented. She still didn't respond, while pulling out two large Bacta patches and setting them up ready, he noticed her eye lids flicker open. "You'll need to take off your top, do you want to…" go in the bedroom, he was going to finish saying.

"Thank you." She asked her voice slurring. "What happened?" She looked over to Zey and Coric, with panic and confusion in her eyes.

Maze raised the infamous ARC eyebrow in response and turned to look at the other two.

Zey put a hand to her head, she closed her eyes again.

"Better for her." He answered Coric's unasked question, "We don't know what that monster did to her. She's just asleep." He had a bad feeling about this. Maze cut through he top and attached a Bacta bandage.

"Now, let's get you checked over." Maze addressed Coric as he turned his attention to him.

"I'm fine."

"Let's make sure." The tone of an order was there.

Coric sat back never taking his eyes off her, as Maze checked over his wound, cleaning and applying a Bacta patch to him.

"You probably need more but we can take you somewhere."

.

Zey lifted the woman, putting her carefully in the speeder and covering her, conscious of the eyes of the clone called Coric watching his every move. He would need to talk to Jusik about this, he had proved himself more of a healer than Zey would ever be and he had never seen anything like that thing. They had heard tales on their travels, but dismissed them as Myths and legends, just that. He would also have to warn Altis and get Kina Ha's input; that could prove invaluable.

Maze was examining the Stormtroopers, the ones Death Watch members had left. "This ones alive." He pulled the helmet off. Coric turned to look.

"Hil?" He gasped, he had thought he was imagining it when he heard someone shout 'sarge'.

"He's alive." Confirmed Maze

"We need to bring him with us, he's a brother." Coric insisted.

Maze knelt down by the Stormtrooper, there wasn't much Maze could do other than attach another bacta bandage and some painkiller. He was unconscious but stable. he wasn't going to risk a stim.

Maze and Zey looked at each other.

"What?" Asked Coric, "I can vouch for him. I've known him since he was a shiny, he's a good man."

"It's the chips. We have to be careful."

Coric reached to his temple. "Bind him then. I'm not leaving him here to die."

Maze pulled out his binders; he was also torn, finding a need to help clone brothers as well. "I must be getting soft in my old age." He muttered to himself.

Zey smiled, when he heard the comment.

"Come on we need to leave before the light goes. Or they may return."

.

A'den picked up his com. The Hunting Lodge they were in was practically derelict, the only occupants vhe'viin.

"We've got them." Maze voice came through loud and clear.

A'den closed his eyes in relief. Finally.

"We'll meet you on the way. It's quicker, there's injuries."

The com closed down, not giving him chance to reply. Now he was worried.

"They've got them. But we need to get back. They're taking them straight to Kyrimorut. They're injured, com Kal'buir."

.

Coric didn't object to the blindfold, if that's how they wanted to play it. He could soon find out where they were. Hil was bound and still unconscious, Ryssa was also unconscious and wrapped in a blanket leaning on him. He pushed a strand of her hair out of her face. She didn't look well, even though the wounds appeared superficial.

Maze sat with Zey in the front periodically glancing at their passengers in the back. He had a bad feeling about this to quote his old friend.

"Worried?" Asked Zey.

"Not sure what's been going on here and not sure the Null will want to know or how he will react."

"Not our business. I know how you like to have everything up front now, but not our business. Remember that."

.