Disclaimer: Star Wars was created by Lucasfilm Ltd, and is now owned by Walt Disney. The "Republic Commando" series was written by Karen Traviss; the secondary language, Mando'a, was created by her,too. I don't make any money off of this, and do it purely for my own and hopefully those who read it's enjoyment.

Author's Note: I would like to thank Fires of Hope, who beta read this chapter.

edited January, 2013: includes new cover art "Longing on Qiilura" by Yumehoshi-san on deviant art. com.

Prologue

The Jedi didn't hold with relationships-` attachment,' they called it- but they didn't expect Jedi to be celibate, either. That seemed to be asking for trouble. One day, they'd get some lovesick Jedi doing something crazy, whatever the training was supposed to knock out of them and it wouldn't end well...

-RC-1136, a.k.a. Darman Skirata, musing on the nature of Jedi and relationships

Omega Squad Hadde-Rishun Road observation point,

Haurgab,Mid Rim;

approximately 937 days after the Battle of Geonosis

...

0010 hours after the issuance of Contingency Order 66

We can see the cordon zone around the Jedi Temple from a nearby park. The smoke hangs thick in the air, billowing from the burning Temple and the various other nearby buildings. Starships from both our side and the Seps' had crashed into the other buildings during the repelled CIS assault on Coruscant that ended mere hours before. Most of the fires at the Temple had started after the troopers from the 501st Legion had entered. I don't know if they started them through stray shots, if they destroyed something there that shorted out, or if the Jedi set them to slow the attackers down.

Any of those is possible, even likely, but there are other, much more important thoughts that have taken up residence during the last ten minutes since the command for us to kill my wife and her kind.

The last time I heard from her was a written answer to the Mando'a wedding vows twenty minutes ago. originating somewhere on the outskirts of the capital's solar system.

What's taking her so long to land? Where is she? I wonder; my worry turns into full fledged panic, as a blue holographic figure appears over my squad sergeant, Niner's greaves. Shab, it's Palpatine again. What does he want now?

"Sergeant, some of my spies in the vicinity of the spaceport are saying that there are Jedi over there. Your armor's tracker indicates that you're near the Jedi Temple. Let my new Apprentice deal with the traitors' home."

"Yes, sir." he replies, sounding anything but eager to get to the spaceport... I don't blame him. The holo flickers and disappears. "Well, looks like we'll need to leave our armor here when we get out."

I know that, but I'm reluctant to leave it behind.

My son by our squad's immediate superior had drawn a picture of sorts on my armor the last time we were here. Something tells me things wouldn't be easy during the extraction, and if the worst should happen, I'd need something to keep me going. "Wouldn't it be enough to deactivate our trackers one at a time and make them think we're dead?"

Before any of my brothers can answer, my comlink is the next to crackle to life and I jump, startled. "Etain to Omega. On the ground, at the CSF staff club. I'm in civvies; repeat... no more robes." She sounds somewhat out of breath, and in the background, I can hear the ominous, all too familiar chug-chug-chug of a Republic Gunship. They're looking for Jedi,I realize, and my worry ratchets up yet again.

Answering, the first terse words spoken to her since she left for Kashyyk a month ago from my squad are from me;

"Etain, we're holed up in a park two kilometers from the Temple. Meet us here with Kad and we'll wait for extraction together. We have two transports on the ground, Aay'han and Ny Vollen's crate. We'll wait in the park for one or the other to pick us up. We already know it's not safe to go to them. We've been getting reports of Jedi on the loose all night. And we all know that not all Jedi overcome feelings of desire for revenge, no matter what the training's supposed to suppress."

"Copy that, Cyar'ika. Just let chaos reign supreme for a few more hours. After all, we need cover to get out of here." She's commanded troops long enough to know that when a mission goes wrong, her job is to keep things looking better than they really are. The attempt is transparent, but I can't fault her for trying.

Her voice sounds muffled and quieter. She had apparently turned away from the receiver, but I can still make out what she's saying... `Laseema, let me take Kad. Omega somehow ended up near the Temple. It'll be easier to get off-world if you go to the spaceport alone. The new recruits might be dimwits, and incompetent shots, but they can figure out when something looks out of place. A Twi'lek trying to evac a human would more than likely raise their suspicions.'

There's no indication of what my squad mate's wife answers with. At least, not for another five minutes. Even carrying my year and a half old son, and hiding from who knows how many patrols, Etain can make good time when she's motivated.

Quiet voices reach my ears, one: female, too calm for tonight... Etain. The other: muffled, and child-like. Obviously, whatever Laseema said were words of agreement, because she wasn't with them.

The childish voice takes on a hopeful quality and a higher pitch. "Da-da? You out dare, da-da?"

Etain's voice takes on a cautious tone. "He should be, Kad." Louder, the tone she'd often used when issuing orders cuts the evening air. "Dar'ika, would you mind coming out where I can see you... if you really are here."

Slowly, I step through the bushes separating our positions. There were two reasons for her inability to see me, and one very good reason why she couldn't sence me, either. Without the clear air that usually happens on this part of Coruscant at night, visual range for a typical sentient has been cut to ten centimeters, because of the smoke in the air billowing from the nearby Jedi Temple; the other explaination has to do with the fact that my squad mates and I had hidden from patrols behind a bushrow.

As for the inability to detect us with what my adopted father calls `mystic mob radar', well, as of tonight, that's suicide.

"Etain, follow the sound of my voice..." I stop talking and my breath catches in my throat when I hear a muffled thump from nearby, followed by choked, fearful sobs. "Kad, where's Buir'ika?"

"She fall down, da-da. Mama has owies."

"I want you to listen to me, son, and do exactly as I say. I'm going to turn a light on. When you see it, I want you to come to it. Crawl. Don't try to walk. Will you do that for me?"

"What about mommy?" I can hear his desparation not to be forced to leave Etain's side; it's the same desparation I have to get to her, something I can do only if I can get my child to leave her.

"I can only wake her up if I can find her, Kad. That's why I'm asking you to come to me." The searchlights on either side of my armor's helmet flare to life, casting haunting glows on the smoke all around me. "Can you see that, son?"

"The funny yites, Daddy?"

"Yes, those ones." There's a rustling sound off to my left, not too far away and getting closer. Slowly, a small shape becomes visible. Crawling like he had been told, the figure of my little boy moves to me out of the haze, a rag covering his face that looks vaguely like his mother's beige undertunic.

Without being told to, Laseema's husband, Atin, moves out of the bushes and reaches out his arms to hold the toddler.

Kad looks between me and the `stranger' in my clothes, at least to him. At my nod of reassurance, however, he moves toward my brother and lets Atin scoop him up in a loose embrace.

I follow the path Kad had taken to reach me, using the infrared setting in the helmet to follow the small handprints in reverse to find Etain, who'd been passed out for two minutes, fifteen seconds; it seems like an eternity when you're worried. Reaching her prone form, I crouch, remove my thick glove, and place it in front of her open mouth, silently begging her to exhale. Even in the midst of passion, it had never felt as good as it would now if she'd just humor me for fierfek's sake. Ten more seconds of nothing. Fed up with waiting for her to breathe on her own, I remove my helmet as fast as I can pop the seals on either side and gag. Even low to the ground, the smoke from the burning Temple not so far away is cloyingly thick. I reach my bare hand to the side of her throat to search for a pulse and find one. It's weak. I gather as much breath as I can and, after yelling for my brothers to get Kad out of here, bend over my unconsious wife, place my lips firmly against hers, and let the rest of my reserve air out into her lungs.