They make me cry too, 17. But at least they have each other.

More Tanalorr coming up, LordAries! We begin our mission to bring Force-sensitives to their refuge. Thanks for sticking with me.

Chapter 26: Preparing for the Worst

After several luxurious weeks of sporadic morning naps in the top bunk, the apartment slowly began to fill again: another refugee run complete, mercifully without Inquisitorial presence, and success too on Tanalorr. Cere and Mace arrived home with a holo-map of their newly-constructed settlement, pointing out grain fields and vegetable plots, shelters and training spaces. They were ready, now, to welcome refugees. The Hidden Path had a new end-point far safer than Mapuzo or Jabiim. Which surely meant that they were ready to tackle Arkanis.

"But what about here?" Cere asked. "Any news from Yaga Minor?"

"Happily, almost none at all," Korkie recounted. "The stormtroopers inspected our garage again. I think they're bored. But they didn't find anything out of the ordinary for a freighting business."

"There is important news," Kawlan added. "I met Mahdi. He's gorgeous."

Korkie gaped. He did not like the look of Kawlan's grin.

"When in the hells did you meet Mahdi?"

"Apologies, Korkie," Kawlan conceded. "I exaggerated a little. I didn't meet Mahdi. But I did lay eyes on him. A few weeks ago."

Oh. Oh, kriff.

"Kawlan-" he pleaded.

"He was sleeping. Shirtless. Up in that bunk there. With you."

Korkie buried his face, flushing with heat, in his hands.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I thought you were out all day."

"Don't apologise!"

Kawlan clapped him on the back.

"Young love. It warmed my heart."

"That does not warm my heart," Cody contributed. "You know that's Boil and my bunk, Korkie?"

"Well, it's my bunk when you're not here," Korkie retaliated. "Besides, there's nothing to worry about. We mainly just kiss. And I did change the sheets."

Boil looked at Korkie with suspicion.

"What does 'mainly just kiss' mean, exactly?"

Korkie flushed deeper still.

"Do you want me to answer that?"

Cody and Mace answered in firm unison.

"No."

"Great," Korkie agreed. "So in summary, Cere, that's no news from Yaga Minor. None at all."

Cere shook her head with bemusement.

"I'm so glad I asked."

Mace and Cere worked at their map long after their company had retired to their haphazard sleeping arrangements. Boil and Cody had apparently found the sheets to be satisfactorily clean and reclaimed the top bunk; Trapper and Kix were sandwiched in the bunk beneath them, Kawlan was squashed onto the couch, and Korkie slept sprawled with reckless abandon on the floor.

"Scarparus Port faced east," Cere recalled. "The old naval academy at its apex. And shipyards on either side."

"And it looks to still be operational, so surely is now in use as the Officer's Academy."

"Which places the fortress within this radius," Cere murmured, marking out her estimation of an hour's speeder ride. "As per Grakkus's report."

They examined the grainy images they had recorded in their hasty fly-over on their way back from Tanalorr. Imperial defence had been tight and they'd not managed any real scouting of the location. Three large complexes fell within Cere's arc. This was a better lead than nothing.

"This isn't big enough or well-defended enough to be called a fortress," Cere reasoned, striking off one building. "It'll be one of these two. Probably this one."

Mace nodded his agreement.

"I think the other is the hospital. Remember when Ki Adi had a mission to Arkanis? He said that the public funds he recovered were used to build a new wing of the hospital. Nearly doubled its size."

He pointed to the two-toned building.

"Old building, new wing. And I assume they still have use for a hospital."

Their eyes fell to the final building, poised at the verge of sheer cliff-face, overlooking the grey-blue ocean. The hazy image at least allowed them to glimpse what must have been three main entrance points. Cere squinted.

"Maybe there's an entrance here too…"

"Hard to tell."

They looked at each other in sombre silence. They really didn't have much to go on.

"Are we ready?" Cere mused.

Mace sighed.

"As ready as we'll ever be, I suspect."

And they had spent hours upon hours in training on Tanalorr but in truth it was such a pathetic level of preparation, after all those years in the Jedi Temple on Council-sanctioned missions. The Empire had hidden its fortress well; Cere and Mace had, through their espionage efforts, learned very little else about the happenings and layout of Imperial-era Arkanis. And there were no reinforcements to be rallied. Yoda would not come. Anakin would not come. And Mace had lost track of Ahsoka and Barriss, who both had their own reasons not to trust him, years ago.

"I don't know whether it is right to bring him on such a dangerous mission," Mace confessed. "I know he wants to come, but…"

Cere followed Mace's gaze to the young man sleeping on the rug. He wore no armour but like his ancestors slept with his weapons on his belt, the impression of two 'saber hilts faintly visible beneath his loose shirt.

"We need him," she admitted, feeling guilty as she did so. "His skills in combat and in the Force are those of a capable Padawan."

That afternoon, Cere and Mace had both participated in several garage-confined bouts of sparring with the young Mando-trained warrior and had the aching muscles to show for it.

"He's had more training than you might expect. He was trained principally by his aunt, I'm told. And Obi Wan too, of course."

"There's some of Anakin in his style too, is there not?" Cere mused. "Or perhaps Ahsoka's."

It was such a strange feeling, to speak those names now. Their once everyday companions had become distant ghosts.

"I'm told that Ahsoka gave him his first lessons in Jar'kai," Mace went on. "But it was me who taught him properly."

Cere chuckled.

"Very modest."

They fell quiet, immersed in the sound of the sleeping household. Korkie's hair was spilling over his eyes.

"I know that he is capable of the mission," Mace murmured. "But to lose him would be a greater tragedy than to lose you or I."

Cere would have liked to disagree. But she understood what he meant.

"He has a lot more to live for," she admitted.

Mace snickered.

"Even a karking boyfriend."

Cere chuckled, shaking her head.

"He tells me that they're not dating. They're casual. Whatever that means."

Mace rubbed at his aching forehead.

"I can't thank the Temple enough for sparing me those trials."

Cere rolled her eyes.

"You preferred honing your interpersonal skills in negotiations with terrorists?"

"Wholeheartedly," Mace agreed. "That was much, much healthier."

On the morning that they would leave for Arkanis, Korkie rose with the sun and walked to The Yagai Hive. He knew that as a general rule Mahdi didn't like to have anything to do with him in public and could anticipate that he certainly would not want to talk to him at work. But it couldn't wait. He charged down the stairs against the flow of zombified patrons staggering their way home and found Mahdi at the bar helping a colleague clean up. Korkie ignored the rising dismay in his not-boyfriend's eyes and planted his elbows on the freshly-wiped benchtop between them.

"I've been trying to comm you for days," he hissed.

Mahdi blanched. His colleague spoke before he could.

"We're closed, you know."

"I can see that," Korkie retorted. "But Mahdi's not rostered for closing today. Are you going to let him go?"

The Yagai bartender looked at him, bewildered.

"Who are you?"

"No one," Korkie snapped, before turning his gaze to Mahdi. "I need to talk to you. I'll wait upstairs?"

Mahdi's eyes were determinedly trained downwards upon the glasses he stacked into the cleaner.

"Yeah. Give me five minutes."

Korkie trooped back up the stairs and tried to centre himself amidst the swirling emotions in the Force. The Yagai bartender would have questions and Mahdi would be angry at Korkie for prompting them. But it wasn't like Mahdi had given him any choice. He was leaving for Arkanis in a kriffing hour and he hadn't answered a single karking comm-call. Korkie leaned against the wall of the parts shop that had been built above the club, folded his arms, and waited.

He felt Mahdi's own crackling irritation in the Force before he opened the door.

"What in the hells was that about? Has something happened?"

They took off, as always, at a brisk walk. Like they were kriffing fugitives, or something.

"You didn't exactly give me many other ways to reach you," Korkie pointed out.

Mahdi glared at him.

"Colles had a lot of questions about you."

"And what did you tell him?"

"That I owed you money."

"Ha. That's kriffing hilarious, Mahdi."

In truth, it made him angry, and even more truthfully, beneath the anger, it just really karking hurt. Mahdi seemed to understand.

"Look, I'm sorry," he conceded. "I've not been answering comms for a few days because Riyan's been home sick."

Korkie bristled.

"And what does that have to do with not being able to answer your comms?"

"It's a small apartment. He'd hear anything you said. And I figured you might be inclined to say something… inappropriate."

"Something along the lines of the fact that we kiss occasionally, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"And you couldn't have left your brother unattended for two minutes and stepped out of the apartment to comm-call me? Was Riyan dying, or something?"

"Riyan wasn't dying. I'd just prefer to be-"

"-more subtle about it. I know."

Korkie could have said a lot more. A whole kriffing lot more. But he hadn't found Mahdi, he reminded himself, to have this argument. It wasn't an argument, in truth, that he was interested in having. Most days, the sheer joy of being in Mahdi's company was enough to make up for the inconvenience of playing by his cautious rules. Korkie didn't need their love shouted from the rooftops. He just needed the company.

"Anyway," Korkie sighed. "I'm sorry for causing a scene at your work. I just had to catch you today because I'm going away on another job. I'm leaving in less than an hour."

Mahdi, who had perhaps been bracing for continued debate, blinked his surprise.

"It's going to be a bit more dangerous than the usual," Korkie went on. "I'll be back in two or three weeks, hopefully. But to be honest…"

He gave a hapless shrug.

"I don't know."

Mahdi pondered this.

"I don't suppose you're going to tell me what you're doing or where you're going."

"It's in your best interests that I don't."

Mahdi looked at him with narrowed gaze.

"You talk like a kriffing spice-runner, Ben. Are you a spice-runner?"

Korkie barked out a laugh.

"Sure."

Mahdi did not seem amused.

"So you're not a spice-runner," he deducted.

"Don't think about it too hard, Mahdi," Korkie advised. "I stress you out enough as it is. But what I've been meaning to tell you is that when I go away I'm going to miss you."

"Oh."

At this, Mahdi finally softened.

"I'm going to miss you too."

With the fleeting touch of a hand between Korkie's shoulders, Mahdi directed him off the main street and down a quieter alleyway.

"About me not picking up your comms, Ben, and being rude to you at work…"

He grimaced.

"I really am sorry about all of it. I know it upsets you. I just-"

"It doesn't upset me," Korkie protested hurriedly.

Mahdi raised a brow.

"Doesn't it?"

Korkie shrugged.

"No. It's fine. I guess… it's just not what I expected, maybe."

Mahdi sighed and offered a weary smile.

"Where did you say you were from?"

"Mon Gazza."

"Right."

Mahdi looked vaguely sceptical. It was probably Korkie's stupid accent undermining him again.

"And did they not have homophobia on Mon Gazza?" Mahdi ventured.

"I don't know. I haven't seen any homophobia on Yaga Minor either."

Mahdi rolled his eyes.

"That's because I haven't let us be seen, Ben."

"I kissed plenty of men on my first night in The Yagai Hive," Korkie countered. "No troubles."

"That doesn't count," Mahdi explained. "You can plead severe intoxication. The rules of the normal world don't apply at The Yagai Hive."

"Is that why you work there?"

Korkie shouldn't have asked it – Mahdi had apologised, after all, and they weren't supposed to be fighting.

"Kriff off."

"Sorry."

Mahdi sighed.

"Was it really all that different on Mon Gazza?" he asked. "Did you hold hands with all your boyfriends in the street?"

Korkie laughed.

"Mahdi, I didn't have any boyfriends on Mon Gazza. You'd be my first. Except I presume you're also afraid of labels."

Mahdi's grimace affirmed the suggestion. Korkie refused to be disheartened.

"Do you know why I didn't have any boyfriends on Mon Gazza?" he challenged.

Mahdi shook his head. Korkie flashed him a fleeting wink.

"Because I was too young."

"Kriff's sakes, Ben…"

Mahdi groaned but could not stifle a smile.

"You're so annoying, sometimes. You know that?"

Korkie grinned.

"Yes. But you still like me."

"Regrettably," Mahdi grumbled, but his sternness was half-hearted.

The narrow alleyway was quieter than the main street but they were by no means alone, with passing occasional sentients enjoying their first smoke of the day or taking a shortcut as they ran late for work.

"I wanted to be alone with you for a few minutes before I left," Korkie murmured. "But I have to leave really soon from the north of tenth sector."

Mahdi's hand, for a precious moment, on his shoulder again.

"This way, then."

They walked with renewed pace. Korkie's nerves were getting the better of him and Mahdi, too, was beginning to reflect anxiety into the Force.

"You're worried, aren't you?" Mahdi ventured. "About this trip?"

Korkie grimaced.

"A little."

And Mahdi looked so unjustly beautiful with a faint crease of concern between his eyebrows.

"Do you have to go?" he asked.

Korkie pressed back against any rising doubt.

"Yes," he affirmed. "It's very important. The most important job I've ever done."

And the most dangerous. The most dangerous by far.

"Right."

They slowed finally in their frenetic pace as they rounded another corner into an empty delivery bay for a looming warehouse. Mahdi led Korkie through a maze of towering shipping crates: the closest offering to privacy that this sprawling city could give.

"Well," he offered, with an effortful smile, "I'll still be here."

The words were simple but Korkie had needed to hear them so badly. He flung his arms around Mahdi and tried not to squeeze him too tight. He adored him so much, in that moment. He could barely form words of his own.

"I'll come find you. As soon as I'm back."

They separated reluctantly. Mahdi held a hand to Korkie's shoulder.

"No need to rush, okay? You take care of yourself. That's the most important thing."

"I'll be fine," Korkie assured him.

It wasn't exactly convincing.

"Travel safely, alright?"

Korkie mustered his bravest smile.

"I will. You have a good few weeks at work. Don't let any other patrons fall in love with you."

Mahdi rolled his eyes.

"I tried not to let you fall in love with me and look where we ended up."

They shared a tentative laugh.

"I really do have to go now. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry."

"I'll miss you. I know I said it already but-"

"Yeah. I know."

Mahdi give him one last squeeze of his hands.

"I'll miss you too."

"I think it's best if we leave this with you."

Mace pressed Grakkus the Hutt's gifted holocron into Kawlan's hands.

"We have all the information we need but it would be too risky to destroy it. You'll need the information if we're separated. Or perhaps someone else may need it in millennia to come, just as we did. And these…"

A handful of data chips.

"These are all my records I've kept since the Order fell. Many are false leads, of course. But our misadventure on Nar Shaddaa ended up more fruitful than we'd imagined and some of the others could be too."

"Sure. I'll keep them safe."

Kawlan watched the Jedi Master in his uncharacteristic flurry of activity.

"And you already have all of the records for our ships? And all of the data concerning the Hidden Path?"

"Yes. All of it."

"Good."

Mace finally slowed in his movements and held Kawlan's gaze properly.

"Thank you, Kawlan, for taking care of everything. You should be proud of the pathway you have created."

Kawlan shrugged, uncomfortable with the praise.

"Korkie and I created it together."

"Yes," Mace acknowledged. "But he couldn't have done it without you. You've been very good for him. In matters of the Path and beyond."

Kawlan managed a smile.

"He's been good for me."

"Good for all of us," Mace agreed.

Kawlan opened his mouth and meant to wish Mace Windu a safe journey to Arkanis. But he couldn't quite make the words come out. Mace had given Kawlan everything he needed, down to the very last data chip, to one day soon carry on without them. The hardened soldier was preparing for the worst.

The fleeting presence of an unregistered spacecraft over Scarparus Port had not escaped the Second Sister's diligent notice and had been duly relayed to Sidious, who had feigned his disinterest – "Do you intend to report to me also, Second Sister, every thundercloud that rolls across that miserable horizon?" – but in truth had known that the Inquisitor's Academy, the location of which had been discovered by Grakkus the Hutt's resourceful but cowardly bounty hunters, was precisely the sort of grand prize that would lure Mace Windu's slippery band of rebels out of hiding. It would be the perfect test for his young protégé, who had amply proven her abilities in all fields bar facing her past.

He did not know when the raid would come and it did not matter. The Second Sister would not need his direct interference. Grakkus the Hutt's bounty hunters had fled for good reason. The Inquisitor's Academy was unassailable.

Cody drummed his fingers upon his shining armour – scratches buffed out and freshly painted in gleaming white – as the planet Arkanis, its blue seas wrapped in swathes of dark grey cloud, came into view after days of perilous travel.

"I don't like this plan," Korkie groaned.

Cody mustered a smirk.

"Now you know how I felt when you volunteered yourself as slaver-bait on Nar Shaddaa."

"At least on Nar Shaddaa we went in together," Korkie pointed out.

"We will join the clones soon after their entrance," Mace reminded the group.

The Jedi Master's voice was level and calm but it didn't do much for the atmosphere in the hold of the Hidden Path's only semi-aquatic freighter.

"We're going to get soaked," Korkie grumbled instead, eyeing the thick cloud obscuring their view of Scarparus Port.

"Your beautiful hair will make a full recovery," Cere reassured her young charge, tousling his curls. "A little rain never hurt anyone."

"You've obviously never seen Enceri in flood," Korkie sniped, in unmalicious retort.

Cody had the feeling that the boy would argue about anything to take his mind off what lay ahead. He remembered Obi Wan and Anakin debating trivialities from the state of Anakin's grimy tunics and unpolished boots to Obi Wan's apparently poor choices in rations as they approached Separatist lines.

"The electrical storm will obscure their radar surveillance," Mace observed. "The rain is a gift."

Korkie hummed his reluctant agreement.

"The Force is truly smiling upon us."

No one bothered to call out the teenager's sarcasm.

"It is highly unlikely that ordinary troopers are routinely granted access to the Inquisitor's Academy," Mace outlined, speaking now to Cody and his brothers. "But so long as you present to the elevator shaft-"

They technically didn't know that it was an elevator shaft, but it looked like one, at least, on the grainy fly-over recording that Cere and Mace had managed to snap.

"-with your aqua-speeder in a state of unsalvageable disrepair, they'll have to bring you up."

They'd gone through the plan a hundred times already but no one complained. Cody was well familiar with the unacknowledged, irrational hope shared quietly by all soldiers: that by voicing the steps aloud with enough certainty, the plan would come to fruition.

"The shaft appears to lead directly into the complex. They'll most likely take you to the eastern wing of the building where the spare transporters are kept. But at least one of you needs to get to the control room and shut down their security systems."

"We'll presumably need either an Imperial swipe or fingerprint to do so," Boil reminded them. "Which means bringing one of our esteemed Imperial colleagues with us, in some shape or form."

"First priority is disabling any external electrical barriers," Trapper listed. "Then, if we can manage it, internal doors and cameras. That lets you three-"

He gestured at Korkie and the two former Jedi.

"-either enter by the overridden elevator or with your cable-lines."

"Whichever way we get in," Mace went on, "that will be the simplest part of the whole operation. Once we get in, we're unlikely to be able to stay undercover for long."

"Hence the importance of the false target," Cere emphasised. "We need panic racing through that complex. And we need everyone worried that we're going to get down to the power unit and blow the place up. You all need to draw their attention completely while I find the children. They should be easy to sense. They won't all be adept shielders."

"And when you give the word," Greez contributed, "I fly up to meet you, everyone in, and straight to hyperspace."

The four clones, two Jedi and Latero pilot shared a look of determined optimism.

"Simple," summarised Boil.

"Full of holes," Korkie bemoaned.

Mace managed a smile.

"The holes are the moments in which we listen to the Force."

"It better have a lot to say."

"It always does," Cere consoled Korkie, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah," Korkie sighed. "I know. I just…"

He gave something between a smile and a grimace.

"Would you all be mad at me if I said I had a bad feeling about this?"

It rained on Arkanis like the world was going to end. As they landed upon the tossing sea Korkie could not help but think of his father and the journey he had made so long ago.

"Remind you of home?" he asked the clones.

Trapper gave him an encouraging squeeze upon the shoulder.

"This is a light drizzle, by Kamino's standards."

"A moderate drizzle, perhaps," Kix conceded.

Korkie thought of his father and the journey that had started it all. There was the strange feeling of an ending within the Force today.

Korkie, everyone has a bad feeling about this.

A bit of an awkward bridging chapter - apologies.

The next one is action-heavy. Gear yourselves up. We have the meeting of ex-Master and Padawan ahead of us.

xx - S.