As Jace's speeder shot over her head, Thunder turned and faced the Siths. "What the hell do you guys think you're doing here!?" she yelled as the speeders all came to an abrupt halt. Her eyes focused on Palin, Seven and Star. Jen and Skate likewise directed their glances at them.

Seven tried pathetically to brush off an excuse. "Huh? Oh wow, uh, how'd we get here? All I remember is getting drunk on the SSD and passing out and...uh....waking up here and, uh......then there was the chasing, which was followed by the crashing, and, uh, now there is yelling, and, um...."

"For Sadow's Sake, Seven, shut up the hell up!" Palin yelled. She directed her gaze at Thunder. "I'm not going to lie. We were all tired of being left behind on the SSD while you guys always got to go out on missions."

"I see," Thunder said. "We'll talk more when we're back at the SSD. For now let's just take care of business.....aw stang."

The Siths all turned their heads to look where the girl's stolen speeder had been stopped, only to see it darting away down into the bowels of Coruscant. Without hesitating, Thunder motioned her hand and Jen and Skate shot off in pursuit. Thunder looked at the other three Siths.

"Weren't any of you watching her!?" Thunder yelled.

"Oh sorry," Seven muttered sarcastically. "I was kinda busy BLEEDING TO DEATH!"

"Stow it, Seven," Palin told him. "Star, switch me bikes and take Seven back to the ship. You're the only qualified medic we have with us."

Star frowned in disappointment but nodded and jumped onto Palin's bike, and Palin likewise jumped onto hers. Star and Seven's speeder veered off and headed back towards the docking pad.

"All right, Eight, we're losing ground here. Let's go get our mark."

Palin nodded and they kicked their engines to full and sped off.

****

Jace, still clad in stormtrooper armor, was hot on Xanthis's trail. He whipped out the blaster carbine on his belt and with one hand took aim. The bolt sizzled through the air, but missed as Xanthis dropped into a roll at the last second. Jace cursed him.

Xanthis then dropped his speeder into a straight downward spiral, taking him deep into the bowels of Coruscant. Jace followed and cursed again. But this time he cursed his bad luck.

None of the Siths knew that he had allowed Xanthis and Zarin to live while he had been a prisoner onboard the TOS, though in Zarin's case it proved to be only a temporary thing. He needed Xanthis alive for now. But...he couldn't let the Siths think something was up. He had to act his usual self. And his usual self would go after Xanthis like a mad man...which Jace was doing. But he couldn't kill Xanthis yet. Someday, yes...but not now.

Jace fired again, this time scoring a hit. But Xanthis kept his speeder upright and continued his drop into the darkness. Not hesitating in the least, Jace followed him into the abyss.

****

Palin and Thunder caught up to Jen and Skate fairly easily. The girl was flying her speeder recklessly through traffic, weaving in and out of the lanes.

Palin looked to the side and saw Jen take out a blaster. She looked over at Thunder. "Should I shoot her down, Two?"

"That depends, Eleven. Do you want to be the one to explain to Reno 'we would've brought you back alive but we kinda shot her out of the sky, instead'"?"

Jen holstered her blaster. "When you put it that way..."

"All right, we need to get her stopped," Thunder said. "We have to explain that we aren't trying to hurt her. That we're not trying to kill her."

"And I'm sure you're doing a great job of that, Two," Palin sarcastically muttered. "Nothing better than having four unknown and armed people chasing you in speeders with blasters drawn to say "Hi, join us!"."

Thunder gave Palin a sour look as they slowly closed in on the fleeing speeder. "I think I remember why we don't let you talk."

"Two, I'm going to ask a big favor of you," Palin said.

"What?"

"Let me deal with her."

Thunder almost fell out of her seat. "What!?"

"With four people chasing her she's going to feel intimidated," Palin pointed out. "Let me catch up and talk to her. I can do it. And if worse comes to worse...I do have the strong mental abilities. I can con her into coming."

Thunder and Jen exchanged dubious glances. Finally Thunder nodded. "Fine. We'll head back to the ship. But if you don't come back with Sher...then don't bother coming back at all. Reno may seem lenient at times, but trust me, he is a vengeful bastard. Just ask Grish."

"Who?" Palin asked.

Thunder and Jen exchanged another dubious glance. "Just be sure to get her," Thunder said. "Good luck!" With that Thunder pulled away and sped off.

"May the Whyrens be with you!" Skate yelled as she turned around.

"Just don't kriff up," Jen muttered. Then she veered off, leaving Palin alone to chase Sky.

All right, this is my time to shine! No Thunder, Jace, or Jen to steal the glory. No Seven to mess things up. It's all me. "Let's rock."

****

Jace was preparing to shoot again, when Xanthis suddenly slowed his speeder down and pulled it over to the side. He jumped off the bike and stood at the edge of the platform. To Jace's surprise, he didn't pull out his lightsaber.

Curious, Jace slowed down his bike and parked it at the other edge of the square landing platform. He hopped off the bike and walked across towards Xanthis. Eventually they were standing face to face in the middle of the floating platform. For a short while they just stood there, face to face, staring eye to...uh...eye socket.

"So it has come to this, eh?" Xanthis asked. "A duel to the death in the bowels of Coruscant. Has our destiny finally completed it's course, Sidrona? Are we to end this bitter feud...here, of all places?"

Jace let out a short laugh. "Damn, man, stop being so melodramatic. If I wanted you dead, Xanthis, you'd already be dead."

"Then why are we here?" he asked. "What do you want?"

"I want you to leave the girl to us."

"I can't do that, Jace, you know that," Xanthis said. "My Master is dead. I am the Master now. And a Master needs an apprentice, else he is nothing more than..."

"I said spare me the melodrama, Xanthis," Jace burst in. "We do have something in common, though. Your Master is dead, and I want mine dead."

Xanthis smiled. "If that's all you wanted, Jace, then I could've done it for you."

Jace shook his head. "No. It must be at my hands. Nothing else will do. However, I believe you could help me."

Xanthis laughed. "And what makes you think I would help you?" he asked. "Correct me if I'm wrong...but you incinerated my eyes. You blinded me. And you played a part in the death of my Master. You let a very valuable alien prisoner escape our ship, and you foiled our plan to take back the SSD. And...why do you think I would help you?"

"Because...we're the same."

"Is that so?"

"It is. I didn't blind you. Reno did. His influence made me do it. I didn't kill Zarin. Reno did. I was merely there to make sure Zarin didn't kill Reno before I could. Why was I in a position to foil your plans? Because Reno put me there. His incompetence got him captured. It is all Reno's fault. And for that, you will help me kill him."

"Semantics," Xanthis grumbled. "Your word games aren't going to fool me, Jace. I may be blind, but I can see right through you. The answer is no. I will kill Reno one day, but it will be for my own reasons. Not yours."

Jace nodded. "Very well, then."

"So what now?" Xanthis asked. "Do we fight?"

Jace shook his head. "Now is not the end for either of us, surely you can sense that. A battle now would be pointless, neither of us would win. Besides, if I kill you now, who will help me destroy Reno?"

Xanthis turned and walked back to his speeder. "I said no, Jace. Reno will die for what he has done to me, but I won't help you."

Jace let out an evil, mocking laugh. "Of course you will."

Xanthis started up the bike, but before he took off he gave Jace one last look. "I'm going to kill you too, Jace, for what you have done to me." Then he took off, leaving Jace standing on the empty platform.

Jace watched the speeder fly away and smiled. He knew that Xanthis was leaving he planet now. He wasn't going to go after the girl. As he jumped back on his bike and thought of Xanthis's last words. He let out another mocking laugh. "Ha ha ha...Of course you will."

****

Palin smiled as she pulled her speeder bike side by side with the girl's. The other girl looked over at her in surprise. "Excuse me!" Palin yelled. "But you're doing 250 in a zone that is clearly marked 180! I'm going to have to ask you to pull your vehicle to the side of the road so I can check your license and registration!"

Sky gave Palin a very un-lady like gesture involving her middle finger, then stepped on the gas and accelerated past Eight. Palin opened her mouth in surprise. "What a bitch."

Palin pushed the speeder to the max and caught up with her again.

"Look," Palin yelled. "I just want to talk to you! I am NOT, repeat, NOT going to try and kill you!"

Sky repeated the finger gesture and veered off to the right.

Palin frowned. "The hell with this diplomatic crap."

She spun her speeder starboard and flew in close behind Sky. She whipped out her lightsaber and pressed it to the back of Sky's engine. Reaching out with the Force she tapped Sky on the shoulder. Sky looked back and her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Palin's lightsaber on her engine.

"Hi there," Palin muttered sardonically.

"Get off my bike, you psycho!"

"Sith, actually!" she yelled as the speeder tore through the air.

"What the hell is Sith?" she asked asked. "That some kind of disease?"

Palin shrugged, but kept most of her attention on using the Force to pilot the bike. "Depends. Do you consider alcoholism a disease?"

"What!?"

Palin shook her head. "Nevermind. Just pull over so we can talk!"

"Aren't we talking right now?" Sky asked as the speeder bikes narrowly missed an air cab.

"Oh shit...okay, yeah, we can talk now." Palin fought to regain her composure. "Hi, my name is Palin."

"Hi, Palin."

Palin quivered in fear slightly, memories of an AA meeting coming to mind.

"So is there something I can do for you, Palin, or did you just want to keep chasing me all day?"

"Well now that you mention it, I was going to ask you if you wanted to join us!"

"Join who?" Sky asked, while slowing the speeder down some.

"Well, you know that you're Force-sensitive, right?"

The girl nodded. "Someone told me, yes."

"Well I'm giving you the chance to make something of your Force talents! To be all that you can be!"

"I don't want to join the army, thank you," she said stubbornly.

"Army? What? I'm asking if you want to join Sith Squadron!"

"And what is Sith Squadron?" the girl asked.

"Only THE drunkest bunch of Siths you'll ever find in your life. We drink, we fly snubbies, we drink, you bring in bounties, we drink, we get in pointless fights...uh, we drink.....oh, we tease all the guys into thinking they'll get some, then we kick the crap out of them...oh yeah, and we do a little drinking, too."

The girl let out a barrage of laughter. "Wow, that sounds like a normal day for me! Hey, I'm in!" She slowed the speeder bike to a complete stop and Palin let out a sigh of relief. She holstered her lightsaber and looked at the girl, who continued talking. "My name is Skyjnine. Everybody calls me Sky."

"Welcome to Sith Squadron, Sky. Okay, follow me to the landing pad. We'll get you out of here and take you to the SSD. There you'll meet our leader, Reno."

Sky let out a short bark of laughter. "He sounds like an idiot."

"Oh trust me, he is," Palin muttered. "But occasionally he comes in handy so we keep him around. All right, just follow me. Most of the squad is already at the landing pads. The rest you'll meet back at the ship."

"Sweet," Sky said. "Well, let's do it to it!"

Palin turned around sharply. "What the hell did you just say!?"

"Uh, let's do it to it?"

She shook her head adamantly. "Don't EVER say that again. I'll let you slide this time, but if you say it again you're going to get a genuine Sith Chick ass kicking. Got it?"

"Of course."

"Good. Let's go."

****

The Seal Breaker took off from the landing bay several minutes after the first Sith shuttle left. The occupants of the shuttle, however, were different this time. The only people on the Breaker were Palin and Thunder. Two had ordered everyone else to leave on the other ship. She wanted to talk to Palin alone.

"Going to chew me out now?" Palin asked as the shuttle broke atmosphere.

"Chew you out?" Thunder asked.

"Yeah, for breaking rules. Lead ordered us to stay, and only you guys to go."

Thunder laughed so hard she almost fell out of her chair. "Oh man, that's a good one! HA HA! Lead ordered.....ooooh....ha ha...since when have we ever done something Lead ordered us to do? Oh man, thanks, I needed that laugh."

"Uh...no problem. Well, if you didn't want to chew me out, then why did you ask me to come with you?"

"Well, this was technically the first time you lead a mission. I wanted to get your report. So...report."

Palin shrugged. "Well, we got our mark without any casualties, which is good. Well, Seven is a bit banged up, but he'll survive. I fought another Sith and didn't die, and I managed to thrash a bar. I survived a speeder chase, and convinced someone to join us. Overall a good mission, I think."

"Good," Thunder said. Then Two glanced at Palin's face. "What's wrong?"

Palin shook her head. "I don't know. I just keep getting this weird feeling that we forgot something....oh well, it probably isn't anything important."

****

"Guys?" Rick called out as he stumbled through the dark streets of Coruscant all alone. "Guys? Hello? Is anyone there? Uhh...Seven? Star? Palin? Thunder? Jace? Chief? McCloud?"