Lana woke up the next morning to again find the bed empty. Panicking, she sat up and looked around to see a cup of coffee on her night stand and heard water running for the bathroom next to her bed. Shortly after the water was shut off, Rory limped out and gently lowered herself back on the bed.

"Good morning," Lana said once she was settled.

"Morning," she replied, leaning against the pillows. "Sorry if I woke you, but I got up a bit ago and couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to make myself useful. And no, it wasn't because of another nightmare."

"How did you manage to get this in here," Lana asked, nodding to the cup as she took a sip.

"Very carefully," Rory answered. "Not my first time on crutches, there was one summer I practically lived on them after I broke my leg. You learn to quickly get around. I did spill a little trying to set it down, I'll clean it in a bit."

Lana waved her off. "You made me coffee, I can handle wiping a table."

"Which by the way, you may have skimped on furniture, but good to know you didn't on that. Even my parents never ordered stuff that expensive."

"We all have our vices," Lana sniffed defensively, "mine is high quality beverages. And as you rightly pointed out the stuff being served in the galley is low quality even by military standards."

"That was a diplomatic way to saying it's shit," she snickered. "I wasn't complaining, far from it. I was just surprised. I also made breakfast, by the way, but carrying food in here without spilling it everywhere is outside my abilities."

"You didn't have to do that."

"Eh, it was the least I could do after last night," she shrugged in response.

"You mean falling asleep mid flirt," Lana teased as she took a sip, laughing as the colonel blushed.

"That, and for before," Rory replied thickly looking away.

"I promised I was here for you, however you needed it," Lana reminded softly, placing a hand on Rory's.

She gently set her coffee down as silence settled around the pair. After a long pause, Rory linked her fingers with Lana's. Looking intently at a spot on the wall, she confessed, "The nightmares aren't the worse part. It's the memories."

"I can't ever begin to imagine what you endured."

"It's not just those memories, although, yes they suck. It's the memories she took from me."

Any words she could think of to say sounded weak, so instead Lana squeezed gently her fingers. A reminder that she was there for her.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts from the dark place they were headed, Rory changed the subject, "Cipher has been collecting what info she can about our past that we know Vaylin tampered with. I don't want to know how she's able to get so much, but it's been helpful. Unfortunately, my parents were declared traitors."

"Which means Intelligence would have wiped anything that wasn't useful to them," Lana finished.

"And I don't want any of that," Rory sighed. "I want something I can see my parents in, not faceless Imperial citizens. But that doesn't exist anymore and I don't know how to undo what Vaylin did to me."

Lana had an idea where to find something on her parents, but would wait until she was sure she could get a secure channel away from prying ears. "I may have an answer to that," Lana started as the woman next to her finally looked over at her. "We may have a lead on a counter drug for what Vaylin used on you. It won't completely reverse what was done, but it would make it easier to push away the memories she imprinted on you with the ones she tried to erase."

"How," Rory asked in disbelief, hope sparking in her eyes.

"Contact inside the Spire," Lana answered vaguely. All things considered, Senya deserved a bit of anonymity. "Cipher left this morning to follow up on the lead, we'll know soon if it pans out."

Rory looked over at the Sith, eyeing her with a mix of disbelief and hope. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm hardly a catch," Rory pointed out.

"I thought we went over this last night?"

"Just let me be appreciative you put up with me," she pouted.

"Alright," Lana conceded with a smile, "but just this once. Now, I believe you said something about breakfast?"

It took Lana longer than she'd have liked to admit to track him down, but did her best to present a calm she didn't feel when he finally answered her call.

"I trust if you made this much effort to find me you have a good reason." Not a question. The former Minister of Intelligence wasn't known for idle conversation, a trait Lana appreciated.

"General Sarjen Horner," Lana answered, ignoring the eyes being narrowed at her, "I want everything you have on him and his family."

"Even if I had anything other than what was in the Intelligence dossier on him, why would I give it to you?"

"Let's end this dance," Lana said around a tired sigh, "I have neither the time nor patience. I know you were friends with the Horners, and I know the information that was sent to SIS that had them sending a spec ops team to Ziost the day of the execution came from your office."

"You still need to answer my question if you want my help."

"Aneira Horner," she answered. "I'm sure you heard about what happened to her after she was captured by the Eternal Empire."

"Sparse details," he conceded.

"When she wouldn't give them what they wanted, they tampered with her memory. By her own admission what she remembers of her childhood isn't right."

"What do you mean," the former minister demanded.

"She remembers constant beatings and emotional abuse."

"That isn't… those weren't the kind of people Sarjen and Catelyn were," he shot back, fighting to regain his calm.

"I know they were friends of yours," Lana repeated. "I know you would have kept something for Aneira when you were sure you could get it to her. This would be the time, Minister."

He rubbed his hands over his face tiredly. "I suppose you're right. With all the chaos, no one really wants me dead anymore. It was part of my insurance package. Sarjen had a list of names and blackmail on a large number of Sith and officers that he hid before they executed him. They think I have it, which I've used to my advantage. Truth is, if I do, he locked it up so only specific people could get it and I'm not on that list. I'll send you everything I have."

"Thank you," Lana said, bowing slightly.

"Don't thank me just yet," he warned, his eyes light with something that could have been humor, "wouldn't be surprised if he managed to have something on you. You were Dark Arkous apprentice at the time, after all. Just look after her, will you? I promised Sarjen I would before they took him, but I'm afraid I may have failed."

"I don't think you did too bad."

"For a Sith you're a terrible liar," he remarked dryly, but the trace of humor was still in his eyes. "It will take some time for me to make arrangements. I will let you know when you can expect the shipment."

"Come on, we have to hurry," Theron rushed. He was pulling a sleepy Brooke through the halls from her quarters to the newly completed hanger.

"Seriously, Theron," the Jedi complained, "after wearing me out last night you couldn't have let me sleep in a bit longer? Or at least brought me breakfast?"

"Save your glare," he snickered as they entered, "it was Lana's idea."

"Yes, well, I figured an important announcement like this should be done early," Lana replied, amused at seeing Brooke's eyes bulge out and the size of the crowd gathered. All of her advisors were assembled on the balcony overlooking the bay and below was full of Alliance personnel, from smugglers to soldiers.

"What's going on," Brooke asked, eyes comically large as she took everything in.

"It's time for your first speech as the Alliance Commander," Lana explained.

"Say that again," Brooke said, still in shock.

"Inmates elected you head of the asylum," Col. Horner said with a smirk from where she leaned against a wall next to Lana.

"There was no election," Lana clarified, "it was something everyone knew. There is no Alliance without you, Commander."

"I thought you hated titles," Brooke joked.

"I hate having them, but I do love granting them," Lana replied with a small smile as the group followed Brooke up the ramp. "Cipher sends her regrets for missing this, there was a contact she had to meet on a very strict time table."

"No rest for the weary," the Jedi replied with a sigh as she looked over the gathered crowd. Taking a deep breath to steady herself she searched for words of inspiration.

The noises coming out of the Zakuulan scientist were no longer human sounding, hadn't been for at least five minutes. Cipher had long since learned how to tune out background noises, but watching his body spasm in unnatural ways did unsettle her. She blocked it out, keeping a clinical façade as she watched, knowing others watched her. The screams stopped and his body stilled as he finally died, expelling fluids.

"And that, gentlemen, is why you are going to tell me everything you know," Cipher said calmly, turning to face the soldiers chained to the wall, not unlike how she spent the past five years: arms up and stripped to undergarments.

They were at one of her contact's safehouses on Quesh. The scientist responsible for coming up with the chemicals that had tampered with her memories was now dead. She had planned on killing him anyway, but he'd made the mistake of lying to her. He tried to claim he used a formula that she would have been immune to thanks to her previous tampering. In response, she injected him with a toxin favored by Killiks, something Vector had shown her years ago.

"We'll tell you everything," the younger of the two promised, eyes avoiding the body behind her. He had puked when the scientist had first started to convulse, Cipher wasn't surprised he was the one to break.

"Then let's get started."

"So, how do I even know you really represent the Outlander or her alliance," the Devaronian asked suspiciously.

"I trust you've heard Hylo Viz is working with them," Captain Pierce asked, leaning back in his chair and linking his hands behind his head, brown hair just long enough to run his fingers through as he kept his long frame relaxed. He was the picture of carelessness, but it was easy for the swindler across from him to see the shrewdness in his eyes. He nodded in response to the smuggler's question, who continued, "Well she told me that when I see you I'm supposed to inflict levels of bodily harm that violate every level of the bro-code."

"Ok, so you at least know Hylo," Gault conceded, "definitely points in your favor."

"Simply put, we all win here," Pierce said with a shrug, leaning forward and resting his arms on the table between them. "You get the support you need to pull off this off, the Alliance gets needed credits and reputation boost, and we walk away with more money than we've ever heard of."

"I say we trust him," his partner sounded off from where she leaned against the wall.

"Well if Vette trusts you…" Gault muttered. "All right, everything checks out about you and you give me the warm fuzzies."

"Flattered," Jack snickered as picked up his glass and downed the rest of his drink in one gulp.

"You should be! Now how about another round on me? To toast our new partnership!"

"I never say no to something free," the captain agreed as Gault got up, leaving the smuggler alone with the twi'lek.

"So, Vette… you seem like the friendly sort…"

She grimaced in his direction as she kept an eye on Gault. "Sorry, taken, to a Sith. He's kind of a big deal, you wouldn't want to mess with him."

"That's good, we all need someone watching our backs out there," he replied conversationally. "Which is why I was hoping you knew some contacts who could help me find my girl." That finally got Vette to look his way, and with something other than disgust. "See, I recently was a… guest… of the Eternal Empire and we got separated. So far I haven't had any luck and I was hoping you could help."

"I might know some people," Vette offered as she took the seat Gault vacated. "What's her name?"

"Akaavi Spar. She's a Mandalorian."

"You got with a Mando? Seriously?"

"It's a hell of a story," Jack replied with a laugh.

"I bet. I take it you checked her clan?"

"They're all dead," he answered, "it's one of the reason our paths crossed."

"I see," she answered sympathetically. He knew she was mentally calculating the odds she was still alive. It was the same odds he'd been running every day of his imprisonment, and they weren't good. "I'll put the word out and let you know if I hear anything. And favor for a favor… if you hear anything about a powerful Sith Lord ripping the universe apart looking for a cute twi'lek, you'll let me know?"

"Your boy toy missing too?"

Vette laughed in surprise before sobering and saying, "Yeah, he disappeared 5 years ago with all the chaos of the invasion. The ship he was on was destroyed, but he can't be dead… he's too stubborn."

Jack saw her starting to spiral, the same spiral he'd been fighting off himself. He reached a hand out and companionably put it on hers. "We'll find them," he promised her.

"And if we don't," she whispered, voice thick.

"Then we make sure Arcann and Vaylin know who's gunning for them and why," he answered, dropping his carefree attitude for something more serious, "starting with this job."

Vette looked up at him and nodded as she squeezed his hand.