Private Last Transmission

[Sophelia Ardemark]

Jackson Lesan

"Pirates! Dank FERIK!" The pilot cursed as Soph stood near the cockpit. White-knuckle grip on the back of one of the seats of their small transport. She and another padawan she'd just met, Jackson Lesan were supposed to be doing an 'easy' job of guard-duty for one Senator Dominic Praxon 's aide. She had some intel she was bringing back to the Senator. They were in High Republic space. Soph had to wonder if it was coincidence or what intel Itz Faeron had. And what would a Senator want to know if it drew the attention of pirates?

The ship jerked starboard and Soph's shoulder jarred against the bulkhead.

"RETURN TO YOUR SEATS AND STRAP IN!"

Soph's stomach plummeted as she looked back at Itz. The young woman remained composed. Hands in her lap. Soph noticed they were clenched tightly. Soph stumbled back to her seat across from the aide as the ship lurched again.

Oh no.

Soph felt sick flying on good, fair weather days.

She was going to be sick.

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson had been promised an easy assignment.

He was supposed to guard the aide, ride along, and make sure Itz Faeron reached Senator Praxon with whatever information she carried. Nobody had said anything about getting shot at by pirates somewhere over High Republic space.

The first impact threw Jackson hard enough against the restraint that his shoulder protested. His hand immediately found the buckle, and his fingers were already working to release it before the pilot shouted for everyone to stay seated.

"Yeah, that's probably not happening."

Another violent correction from the transport made him reconsider just long enough to tighten the harness instead. Jackson hated sitting still when something was wrong because it felt too much like choosing not to help. Somewhere along the way, that instinct had become tangled with his temper until the two were almost impossible to separate. Whenever someone threatened people who had done nothing to deserve it, every part of him wanted to answer the problem personally.

His eyes shifted toward Itz. She looked calm at first glance, but the tension in her clenched hands gave her away. Jackson's jaw tightened as he studied her. Pirates were one thing, but pirates chasing a senatorial aide who was carrying intelligence were something else entirely. Whatever Itz had, someone apparently wanted it badly enough to attack a Republic transport for it, and Jackson did not like what that suggested.

He liked even less that they were being forced to run. For half a second, the old answer came easily to him. He could get to the cockpit, find out where the attacking ships were, and make the pilot open the ramp if he had to. Jackson Lesan could accomplish a surprising number of stupid things with a lightsaber and enough determination.

Romi would have hated every single one of them.

The thought arrived quietly, and it no longer carried the same sharp ache that it once had. Jackson exhaled through his nose and leaned his head back against the seat. He still missed her, even if the grief had begun to change. Some days, her absence felt smaller and easier to carry. On other days, something would happen and his first instinct was still to look for her, expecting the correction, the advice, or that particular expression she wore whenever he was about to do something spectacularly unnecessary.

He could almost imagine her telling him to think first.

"Yeah, yeah," Jackson muttered.

He was not sure whether he was answering the memory or himself.

His attention shifted when he noticed Soph. She looked considerably less composed than the aide, and Jackson studied her for a moment before one corner of his mouth twitched.

"You look terrible."

He grimaced almost immediately after the words left his mouth.

"I mean, you're gonna be fine."

That correction was not much better, and Jackson knew it.

The transport lurched again, and his hand shot out to brace against the seat beside him. His irritation returned just as quickly. Whoever was out there had decided that whatever Itz knew mattered more than the lives aboard this ship, and Jackson could not tolerate that kind of choice.

He looked toward the cockpit and raised his voice enough for the pilot to hear him. "Can we outrun them?"

Then he looked back toward Itz.

"And before anybody tells me that's classified, now would be a really good time to mention if these pirates know exactly who they're shooting at."

His fingers settled against the lightsaber at his side, although he did not draw it. He glanced at Soph again and caught the tension in her face.

"If you throw up, aim away from me. Seriously."

The ship shook beneath another impact, and the humor disappeared from Jackson's expression. He had been told this was supposed to be an easy assignment, and he was beginning to think somebody had a very different definition of easy.

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

She could only offer a rude Tapani gesture to Jackson Lesan as he commented about her appearance. Of all things? Hands fumbled as she strapped herself into the crash-webbing. Before she promptly grabbed an airsick bag and vomited inside it with a heave or two.

How undignified.

A shudder went through her body even as she felt momentarily better.

"Kid - if we could outrun 'em, we already would've have!" The co-pilot yelled back to the other padawan. Soph managed to roll her eyes at him as if to say. Duh.

Azure gaze tracked the way his hand fidgeted over his lightsaber.

Itz did not offer either of the padawans a response. Instead, facing forward with lips pressed thinly together. The woman unclasped her hands to take out her comm. Typing furiously away. Soph did not like the look of that. A silent exchange with Jackson.

Another lurch and her eyes snapped back to the window. There was a flash of red and the world imploded outside as their shield failed on the portside. Smoke poured from one of the engines, the wing gone. Her eyes widened at the damage outside. And then they began to plumet downard. She heard the frantic calls of the pilots on the cabin.

"Maydaymayday. Bravo-Alpha-two-six-one going down. I repeat..." Soph looked at the aide and at Jackson. Even as that world below them began to get bigger and bigger outside their windows. The mottled greens quickly coming into sharp focus as they went downard. "Protect her!" She yelled. A force bubble slowly forming outward just as -

WHACK.

Something heavy rammed into the back of her head and she was met with blackness.

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson caught Sophelia's gesture and would have laughed if she had not immediately proven his warning painfully necessary.

"That is disgusting."

The co-pilot's answer wiped the amusement from his face just as quickly. Jackson looked toward the cockpit with irritation already rising in his chest, but he bit down on the first response that came to mind. The pilot was right. If the transport could have escaped, they would not still be taking fire.

His attention returned to Itz when she pulled out the comm. Jackson did not miss the silence. He did not miss the speed of her fingers either. Something about that bothered him more than the lack of an answer.

He glanced toward Sophelia and caught the same concern in her expression. Whatever Itz knew, she clearly intended to do something with it before their attackers could stop her. Jackson wanted to ask what she was sending and who was receiving it, but the red flash outside the viewport swallowed the question before he could give it voice.

The impact threw him hard against the crash webbing.

Jackson heard the shield warning. He saw the smoke. Then he watched part of the transport disappear.

His stomach dropped as the ship followed it.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

The ground rushed toward them faster with every passing second. Jackson could hear the pilots shouting their distress call from the cockpit, but his attention shifted immediately when Sophelia yelled for him to protect Itz.

Then Sophelia went down.

Jackson's temper surged so quickly that heat seemed to crawl beneath his skin. His hand closed around his lightsaber out of instinct, even though there was nobody aboard the transport for him to fight. The pirates were still somewhere above them, safely removed from the consequences of what they had done, while everyone aboard this ship was about to pay for it.

He wanted to hurt them.

The feeling came sharp enough that Jackson recognized it for what it was.

Romi would have recognized it too.

That thought stopped him before anger could become useless action. Jackson released the lightsaber and forced himself to look at what was actually in front of him. Sophelia was down. Itz needed protection. The pilots were trying to keep the remains of the ship under control, and the ground was getting very close.

Jackson reached toward the Force instead.

He planted both feet as firmly as the plunging transport allowed and pushed his awareness outward. Sophelia had already begun forming a protective barrier before she was struck, and Jackson poured himself into reinforcing the space around Itz and the fallen Padawan. He did not know how much of the crash he could absorb, but he knew exactly how much effort he was willing to give.

All of it.

"Stay down!" Jackson shouted toward Itz. "Keep your head covered!"

The hull groaned around them as the transport tore through the atmosphere. Jackson felt every violent correction through the deck beneath his boots. His arms trembled while he held the Force around them, and anger continued to burn underneath his concentration.

Someone had decided that killing an aide, two Padawans, and a flight crew was an acceptable price for whatever information Itz carried.

Jackson could think about that later.

He could be angry later.

Right now, people needed him.

Jackson lowered his center of gravity and poured more of himself into the barrier as the trees raced toward them.

"Come on," he muttered through clenched teeth. "Come on."

Whatever happened when they hit the ground, Jackson intended to make sure that somebody walked away from it.

The first treetops vanished beneath the nose of the transport, and then everything happened at once. Jackson felt the hull buckle around them as something beneath the ship struck with enough force to drive him against the restraints, but he refused to let the barrier collapse. Metal screamed, the cabin twisted violently, and the world outside became a blur of earth, shattered branches, and torn vegetation as the transport carved its way across the ground. Jackson gritted his teeth and held on to the Force while one final, brutal impact sent a deafening concussion through the cabin and brought their descent to an abrupt stop.

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

The stillness was what made Soph come to eventually. There was no more rumble of the ship beneath her. That sensation of flying, well, falling gone. No more ship sounds. Or the voices of the pilots. Blue eyes cracked open, the natural sun streaming in making her squint. Something wet and warm trickled down the side and back of her head.

Fingers lifted, bringing back blood.

Everything hurt.

Wincing, her head slowly moved. The ship was shattered around them. She was laying among jungle and torn ship like it was nothing stronger than the archive scrolls. “Itz? Jackson?” She groaned. Tried to move. Something heavy pinned down one of her thighs.

Jackson Lesan

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson heard his name before he understood what it meant. Sophelia's voice seemed distant beneath the high ringing in his ears, and when he tried to open his eyes, sunlight pouring through the shattered hull made him squeeze them shut again. His stomach rolled while pain announced itself from nearly every part of his body, but the sound of Soph calling for him finally pulled him back toward awareness.

"Soph?"

His voice came out rougher and quieter than he intended as he forced his eyes open again. The cabin was barely recognizable. Sections of the hull had been peeled away, seats had torn loose from their mounts, and pieces of the transport were scattered through the jungle beyond them. Scorched metal, coolant, and damp vegetation mixed into something unpleasant enough that Jackson decided breathing through his mouth was probably the better option.

Memory returned in pieces as he stared at the wreckage. He remembered the ground rushing toward them, the barrier straining against the impact, and the violent sound of the transport tearing through the jungle. After that, there was nothing. Jackson tried to sit upright, but a sharp pain through his ribs forced him to stop and press a hand against his side until the worst of it passed.

"Okay. That hurts."

His attention shifted toward Sophelia, and the blood along the side of her head immediately wiped away what little humor remained. She was awake, which mattered, but the section of twisted support framing pinning her thigh made his expression tighten. Jackson carefully pushed himself onto one knee and moved toward her despite the protest from his ribs.

"Don't move."

He planted one hand against the deck to steady himself and reached toward the wreckage with the Force. The metal resisted at first, wedged beneath part of the shattered cabin wall, but Jackson clenched his jaw and pushed harder. The beam groaned as it lifted a few inches, then enough for Soph's leg to come free. Jackson shoved it sideways with a final burst of effort and let it crash into the debris beside them.

"There. You're clear."

Jackson stayed close enough to make sure she was not about to collapse before his eyes moved through the wreckage toward the place where Itz had been sitting before the crash. Protecting her had been the reason he had poured nearly everything he had into the barrier, and the possibility that it had not been enough tightened something inside his chest.

"Itz?"

Jackson raised his voice as much as his aching ribs allowed while he searched through the broken cabin. His gaze drifted toward the ruined cockpit next. The silence coming from that direction bothered him more than he wanted to admit. He remembered the pilots shouting over each other while they fought the transport all the way down, but now the only sounds came from the surrounding jungle and the occasional metallic ticking of the wreckage as it cooled.

Anger started creeping back in as he surveyed the destruction. The pirates had knowingly shot a transport full of people out of the sky because they wanted whatever information Itz carried. Jackson could feel that familiar heat building beneath his frustration, the urge to find whoever had done this and make them answer for it. He forced himself to stay focused on the wreck in front of him instead. Anger could wait until he knew who was alive.

Romi would have told him to think before he acted. Jackson hated how often she had been right about that.

He drew a careful breath and looked back toward Soph. "Can you stand?" His attention immediately returned to the wreckage and the jungle beyond it. "We need to find Itz fast, because whoever shot us down might come down here to make sure they finished the job."

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

Jackson Lesan

She tensed as she felt the power from Jackson. The raw strength through the force and something else she couldn't name. That weight on her leg lessened until it was moved completely. She forced herself to move and slide free. Palm pressed against the jungle floor. Free hand lifted as a golden-warm glow pulsed from her fingertips as she poured the force to heal part of her head injury.

She conserved some of her strength. Not healing things all the way. Because there was Jackson.

And Itz.

If they could find her.

A tremble ran through her as she felt the shock of what happened want to creep in. Paralyze her limbs and take over. This was what she'd feared when she'd feld with those survivors from the sith on Tapani. They'd pursued them relentlessly. She remembered huddling in those escape ships. With the others. Clinging to scraps of hope while expected to be blown to dust among the stars.

She trembled again as she managed to sit up.

She didn't trust her legs yet.

"I need a minute," she whispered to Jackson. "Go look for her." She felt that familiar urge. To give up. To crawl into a ball. Silently, she fought it. Her hands trembled and she couldn't stop them.

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson watched the golden light gather around Sophelia's hand and ease some of the damage along her head. He did not know enough about healing to judge how much she had repaired, but the fact that she was sitting up on her own helped loosen some of the tension in his chest. The trembling in her hands did not escape him, though, and neither did the way her voice had dropped when she asked for a minute.

He studied her for a moment before nodding.

"Take the minute."

Jackson glanced around the wreckage and made sure there was nothing immediately threatening close to where she sat.

"Just don't try to prove anything by getting up before you're ready."

The advice sounded suspiciously like something Romi might have said to him, which made Jackson almost resent himself for saying it. Instead the thought made him smirk. The older padawan did learn something from her after all.

His attention shifted back toward the ruined transport. Itz had been somewhere ahead of them before the crash, but the cabin had torn apart badly enough that Jackson could no longer trust where anything had ended up. He moved carefully through the debris, stepping over twisted framing and ducking beneath a section of hull that had folded inward. Every breath reminded him that his ribs had taken part in the crash too, but he ignored the ache as much as he could.

"Itz!" Jackson called again.

There was no answer.

That silence started working on his temper in a different way. He had already been angry at the pirates for shooting them down, but now the possibility that Itz was injured somewhere in the wreckage made the frustration sharper. Jackson forced himself to keep looking instead of letting his mind run ahead to what he wanted to do to the people responsible.

The cockpit area had taken the worst of the impact. Jackson slowed when he reached what remained of it and looked over the wreckage with a growing knot in his stomach. He did not want to think about the pilots yet. He wanted to find Itz first. He HAD to.

"Come on," he muttered. "Where are you?"

Jackson reached out through the Force instead of relying on his eyes alone. He was not looking for anything complicated. He only wanted the smallest trace of life, movement, fear, pain, anything that might tell him Itz had made it through the crash. For a moment, the jungle and the wreckage seemed to press in around him.

Then Jackson stopped.

He turned his head toward a section of the transport that had broken away from the main cabin and landed farther into the vegetation. His expression tightened as he focused in that direction.

"Soph," Jackson called back, keeping his voice loud enough to carry without shouting himself hoarse. "I think I found where she went."

He started toward the separated section of wreckage, moving faster now despite the pain in his side.

"You feelin any better? I don't feel comfortable venturing too far off. Can't leave you behind."

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

"Just don't try to prove anything by getting up before you're ready."

"I don't need to be told what to do," she snapped but there was no bite behind her words. Mild annoyance. And it was good. Better to cling to that than let shock take over. Let past trauma come in and claim her. As he left to check the rest of the all-too-silent bones of their transport, Soph managed to push to her feet. Palm snapped forward, finding the trunk of a charred tree to hold herself steady for balance.

A dull ache still existed in her head but at least the sharpness was gone. And the world didn't spin as much. Azure eyes panned around the wreckage as she stepped gingerly in the path Jackson had just tread.

Jaw clenched as she saw the remains of the pilots.

And she felt that overwhelming sense of failure again. If she'd been better. Faster. Stronger. Maybe she could've saved them.

What was the point with all this training if stuff like this happened?

She frowned, head turning toward Jackson as he spoke again.

"I'm right behind you," she said softly and began picking her way through twisted metal and ruined jungle. The heat and humidity already making her skin break out into a glistening sweat. Her foot slipped once, she caught herself with a vine. Maybe she was still alive. Hope sparked quietly in her chest. The sounds of ships passing overhead made her hurry her pace.

"They'll be coming here. We need to hurry." That small spark in her chest dimmed as she caught a pair of unmoving boots in the wreckage ahead.

Jackson Lesan

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson glanced back when he heard Sophelia moving behind him. He had told her to take a minute, and of course she had decided that meant thirty seconds and stubbornness. Under different circumstances, he might have made something of it, but relief settled beneath the irritation when he saw her upright and moving under her own power.

"Of course you're right behind me."

His tone carried more concern than annoyance, and Jackson slowed enough that she did not have to push herself harder to keep pace. He noticed the way she used the vine to steady herself after her foot slipped, and his expression tightened as he watched her recover.

"Easy."

The warning had barely left his mouth when a fresh bolt of pain worked through his side. Jackson stopped and grabbed at his ribs, breathing shallowly until the worst of it passed. Every deeper breath pulled at something bruised beneath the skin, and the ache had only become more noticeable now that the adrenaline from the crash was beginning to fade.

"Yeah. I'm doing great too."

Then Jackson saw where her attention had gone. The boots beneath the wreckage were impossible to miss once she stopped on them, and he could see the way the sight landed on her.

"Don't focus on that over there... just the next step hmmm?"

Jackson moved toward the wreckage before either of them could decide what it meant. He crouched beside the twisted metal and immediately regretted the movement when his ribs protested again. One arm folded across his middle while he shifted enough debris with the other to get a better look at the body trapped beneath it.

The dead man wore part of the flight crew's uniform.

"Hey... t's not Itz."

Relief came quickly, but it did not last long. Jackson pushed himself back to his feet with a grimace and kept one hand pressed against his side until he was steady again. The sound of ships overhead dragged his attention toward the canopy, and his expression hardened.

"They're coming."

He looked back toward Soph and studied her for another moment.

"Stay close to me. And if your head gets worse or your legs stop cooperating, you tell me."

Jackson started forward again, but the pace cost him more now. Each uneven step through the wreckage jarred his ribs, and more than once he had to stop long enough to brace himself against a piece of twisted hull and breathe through the pain. He hated how much it slowed him down, especially with Itz still missing.

"Iiiiiiiitz!"

His voice carried through the ruined transport and out into the jungle.

Jackson pressed his palm against his ribs again and kept moving.

"Come on, Itz. Give me something."

The ships passed overhead once more, and Jackson forced himself onward despite the pain. They had found one answer beneath the wreckage, but the only one that mattered was still somewhere ahead of them.

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

Teeth ground as they saw those boots belonged to the High Republic flight crew. It was still a life lost. Soph hated it. After Tapani, loss just hit harder. There had been too many gone. Too many she couldn’t save.

Azure eyes panned to Jackson. For the first time, noticing the way he held his side. His crouch. That tick of pain along the edges of his mouth.

“Jackson, wait,” hand lifted, fingers gently wrapping around his arm as she urged him under the cover of the jungle canopy as the ships made another pass over the wreckage site. “You’re hurt.”

Not a question. A quiet assessment from a healer’s eye. “Let me see. Before it gets worse.” She’d guide him a little closer. Fingers released him. “Can you lift your shirt?”

She needed to see those ribs.

Jackson Lesan

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson let Sophelia guide him farther beneath the canopy, although the movement pulled another sharp ache through his side. He caught the way she was looking at him now, not as another Padawan trying to keep moving, but with the focused attention of someone who knew exactly what pain looked like.

When she asked him to lift his shirt, one corner of Jackson's mouth twitched despite himself.

"You're just trying to get my shirt off."

The grin only lasted until he tried to straighten. Pain tightened across his ribs hard enough to wipe the humor from his face, and Jackson pressed a hand against his side while he waited for it to ease.

"We don't have time for that right now."

His voice had changed by then. The teasing was gone.

Jackson glanced toward the wreckage as another ship passed overhead, then looked back at Soph. He knew she was right about the injury, even if every instinct in him wanted to keep moving until they found Itz.

"Quick look."

He carefully lifted the edge of his shirt enough for her to see the bruising beginning to spread across his ribs. Even that small movement made him grimace, and he lowered his breathing into shallow, controlled pulls while she looked.

"If they're cracked, they're cracked. Just tell me if I'm going to make them worse by moving."

Jackson kept his attention divided between Sophelia and the jungle around them. The wreckage was still too close, the ships were still overhead, and Itz was still missing.

"We find her first. Then you can tell me how stupid I was for walking around like this."

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

"You're just trying to get my shirt off."

“Jackson…,” a patient warning. As if he hadn’t been the first one to ever tell her that. Soph let some of the tension ease from her shoulders as he relented. Trying to keep her eyes from rolling.

Men.

Azure eyes landed on those mottled deep purples and blacks spreading across his ribcage. “You’re going to make it worse by moving around,” she echoed his words back to him and took a step closer. She wouldn’t be able to heal it all the way right now. She was too weak for that. And the last thing he needed was her to pass out on him. Not when they had to find Itz. And get far away from the crash site.

“Give me a few seconds,” fingers lifted and hovered over those cracked ribs. She could sense them in the force. Almost see them beneath his skin. That soft, warm glow came from her fingers and trickled down as the force worked. He would feel the soothing warmth. It wasn’t an oppressive heat like the stifling jungle around them. It would be a balm to those sharp cracks of pain he’d been feeling.

Slowly, those bones set back together. Even as her head swam. As she felt a wobble in her knees as the action demanded her energy. Fingers lifted.

“It’s not where I would’ve wanted it but it’s the best I can do for now.” Eyes panned to his face. “Now you won’t puncture your lungs at least. Should give you some time.” Eyes squeezed closed for a moment. Trying to shake off her fatigue. Another pirate ship roared overhead.

“Do you think we’ll find her?”

The other unspoken question.

Alive?

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson started to make another comment when Sophelia echoed his own words back at him, but the look on her face convinced him that pushing his luck would be a bad idea.

"Okay. Fair."

The humor faded when her hand lifted toward his ribs. Jackson held still and tried not to react when the first touch of the Force settled over the injury. He expected pressure or another spike of pain. Instead, warmth spread beneath his skin, completely different from the heavy heat of the jungle. The sharp edge that had accompanied every breath began to soften, and Jackson slowly realized he could inhale without immediately wanting to fold around his side.

The relief was enough that his shoulders loosened.

He looked down at the bruising while Soph worked and felt something deeper shift beneath it. The sensation was strange, uncomfortable without being painful, as if his body was being reminded where everything was supposed to sit. Jackson drew a cautious breath once she finished and found only a dull ache waiting for him instead of the stabbing pain from before.

"That's a lot better."

Then he noticed the wobble in her knees.

Jackson reached out and caught her by the arm before she could lose her balance completely.

"Hey. Easy."

Concern replaced the relief almost immediately. She had already spent energy healing herself, and now she had given more of it to him. Jackson understood why, but that did not mean he liked watching her drain herself while they were still stranded in hostile jungle with pirates circling overhead.

"You did enough. Don't burn yourself out trying to make me perfect."

Another ship roared over the canopy, and Jackson instinctively lowered his head while tracking the sound through the trees. The noise faded, but not far enough for comfort.

Then Soph asked the question.

Jackson looked at her.

For a moment, he did not answer.

The same question had been following him since he woke up in the wreckage. Every silent section of hull, every body they found, and every unanswered call had made it harder to ignore. Jackson wanted to believe the barrier had been enough. He wanted to believe Itz had survived the crash and was somewhere ahead of them waiting to be found.

He had no proof of any of it.

"We'll find her."

Jackson made the answer sound certain because Soph needed certainty more than she needed his doubts.

"Alive."

He added the word before she could ask the rest of the question.

Jackson wished he believed it as completely as he sounded.

He lowered his shirt and looked back toward the wreckage, then farther into the jungle beyond it. Staying near the transport was no longer an option. The pirates knew where they had gone down, and every pass overhead made the crash site more dangerous.

"We need to get away from here."

Jackson moved carefully through the vegetation until he reached the section of hull where he had thought he sensed something earlier. With the worst of the pain gone, he could concentrate again without every breath breaking his focus. He crouched beside the torn earth and studied the ground around the wreckage.

Something had passed through here.

Broken branches bent away from the transport, and a narrow track disappeared deeper into the jungle. Jackson reached toward the Force again, searching past the exhaustion and noise that still clouded his senses.

There was something ahead.

He could not tell whether it was Itz, and he could not tell how strong it was, but it was enough to make him look back at Sophelia with renewed purpose.

"I've got something."

Jackson stepped into the trail and motioned for her to stay close as the sound of another pirate craft rolled somewhere beyond the canopy.

"Come on. We follow this, and we don't stop until we find her."

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

"That's a lot better."

"Good," she breathed quietly. And through the force, she could tell he wasn't lying for her sake. Through what she could sense of the physical damage to his body. He was right, it wasn't perfect. But it was enough for now.

Carefully, she followed after him. Constantly wiping the sweat that gathered on her brow away. The humidity was stifling. Though she grew up on the ocean world of Pelagia, it had been a different kind of heat. The breeze from the seas were always there not to let this kind of thick air linger. "The humidity you wear," she muttered in a quiet huffing voice. Wiping her brow for the umpteenth time.

Every inch of her body was covered in a glistening sheen. Her clothing sticking uncomfortably to her skin. As her hair did.

"We'll need to find a water source," she said quietly as she stepped around a bramble of bushes and some roots from a large tree that stretched high above them. Adding to the green canopy above them. Soph looked at the ground. There were other footsteps here. Maybe Jackson was onto something. She could hear a ship hovering somewhere behind them. No doubt the pirates were finding a spot to land soon.

She picked up her pace.

Speaking of water source. The ground began sloping downward and those footprints disappeared into a swiftly moving river. Soph paused and looked around. "Do you see any tracks on the other side. Not sure how she got across." Soph frowned and looked closer.

Jackson Lesan

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson wiped the back of his hand across his forehead and looked at the moisture left behind. The jungle had managed to soak through nearly everything he was wearing, and each breath felt like pulling warm water into his lungs.

"I hate this place."

His ribs still carried a dull ache beneath the bruising, but Sophelia's healing had taken away the sharp pain that had accompanied every step. Jackson could move without instinctively guarding his side now, which was fortunate because the sound of the pirate craft behind them was getting harder to ignore. He glanced back through the dense vegetation when the engines changed pitch. They were lower than before.

"You're right about the water. We need it, and that sounds like they're landing."

Jackson picked up his pace until the jungle floor began sloping toward the river. The sight of moving water brought some relief until he noticed exactly what Soph had. Their trail ended at the bank.

He crouched beside the last visible print and studied the mud around it. Jackson looked across the river when Soph asked about tracks on the opposite side, but nothing immediately stood out through the vegetation.

"I don't think she crossed."

Jackson shifted his attention back to their side of the river and began looking along the bank instead. The mud closest to the water had been disturbed enough that the current had already softened most of the impressions, but farther downstream he caught a broken fern and another patch of churned earth near the roots of a tree.

"Here."

He moved toward it and crouched again. It was not much, but the signs continued downstream along the river rather than disappearing into it.

"Looks like she followed the bank."

Jackson straightened and glanced back toward Sophelia. Sweat covered both of them now, and with no idea how long they would be stuck in the jungle, ignoring the river entirely would be stupid.

"Give me your canteen."

He took hers along with his own and moved to the water's edge. Jackson filled both as quickly as he could, capped them, and handed hers back before taking a drink from his own. He wanted more, but the growing whine of engines behind them made lingering feel like a very bad idea.

"That'll have to do."

Jackson started downstream, keeping close enough to the river to follow the signs without exposing himself along the open bank. Every few steps he found another small indication that someone had passed through before them. Bent vegetation, disturbed mud, and a snapped branch gave him enough to keep moving.

The whine of the pirate craft grew louder behind them.

Jackson looked over his shoulder toward Soph.

"They're definitely landing now."

His expression tightened before he turned back toward the trail.

"If this is Itz, she's got a head start on them. We need to keep it that way."

Jackson pushed farther along the riverbank, searching for the next sign of passage while keeping his pace manageable for Soph.

"We're still on her."

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

Jackson Lesan

"Thanks," she took the filled canteen. The built-in filter would take care of anything they didn't want to ingest. Several swallows later, the back of her hand wiped across her mouth. She took a quick moment to crouch near the stream and splash her face with water, wiping the dried blood away from her skin. It wasn't cooler but it helped with the heat for a moment.

"For the record, I hate this place, too. I always thought it would be better to crash land on a warm world vs a cold one."

A low, small chuckle and she pushed up to her feet to follow after Jackson. Sticking close to him. Giving a wary glance back every now and then to see if they were being followed.

"Now? I'm not so sure."

Peering around the other padawan, she thought she saw a figure down in the muck and reeds of the river.

"Itz!" She bounded forward despite her fatigue. She didn't see it was a trap. The 'body' only a collection of tags. Her foot hit a trigger and the next thing she knew a rope hidden among where she stepped cinched tight around her ankle and whipped her body up into the air to hang upside down.

"Eeeep," she shrieked, as she swung in the air. Everything wrong-side-up. Blond hair dripping below her like a waterfall of gold as she was suspended far from the ground. This was...embarrassing.

​

​

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson glanced over at Sophelia when she started reconsidering the merits of warm planets. Sweat had plastered strands of his hair against his forehead, and his shirt had long since stopped pretending it was dry.

"Cold planets aren't that bad," he said, letting a faint grin pull at the corner of his mouth. "You just need the right person to keep you warm."

He let the line hang there for half a second before looking ahead again, probably before she could decide whether to hit him.

The trail along the riverbank remained faint, but it was still there. Jackson kept his eyes moving between the disturbed vegetation and the jungle behind them, listening for the pirates as much as he watched for signs of Itz. The engine noise had faded slightly, which somehow made him more uneasy. If they had landed, then whoever was coming after them was probably on foot now.

Soph suddenly called Itz's name and surged past him.

Jackson's head snapped toward her.

"Wait, Soph—"

The trap triggered before he could finish.

The rope went taut, and Sophelia vanished upward so quickly that Jackson actually stopped dead in his tracks. He looked up and found her hanging upside down several feet above him, hair dangling toward the ground while she slowly swung from the snare.

For one brief moment, Jackson just stared. He tried not to laugh, but the sound escaped him anyway.

"Oh, that's bad."

Jackson pressed his lips together in a completely unsuccessful attempt to get himself under control as he moved beneath her.

"I'd ask if you're okay, but I feel like you're about to tell me you don't need to be told what to do again."

His grin faded when he looked toward what she had mistaken for Itz. Whatever the trap had originally been meant to catch, the jungle had just given them another reason not to charge blindly through it.

"Hold still. I'm getting you down."

He reached up through the Force and caught her weight before doing anything with the rope. Once he had her supported, Jackson found where the snare had been anchored and pulled the line loose. He lowered Soph carefully instead of simply letting gravity finish the job and guided her back toward the ground.

His attention went immediately to the ankle that had been caught.

"You hurt?"

Jackson crouched long enough to check the rope burn before looking over the snare itself. He had no idea who had set it or how long it had been there, and guessing would not get them any closer to Itz.

"Could've been here before any of us landed."

He pushed himself back to his feet and looked farther along the riverbank. The trail they had been following was still the only thing they had to go on, and the pirates somewhere behind them remained a much more immediate concern.

"We stick to the tracks and start watching where we put our feet."

Jackson looked back at Soph, and a hint of amusement returned despite himself.

"Especially you."

He started forward again, slower now as he searched the ground ahead before every few steps. The humor had helped, but the reality of their situation had not changed. Itz was still somewhere ahead, and the longer they spent standing around, the closer the pirates could get.

"Come on. Let's find her."

 

[Sophelia Ardemark]

"You just need the right person to keep you warm."

“Jackson,” Soph warned. A roll of those bright blue eyes. “Shameless flirt,” she huffed.

"I'd ask if you're okay, but I feel like you're about to tell me you don't need to be told what to do again

She swung helplessly. Feeling that blood rush to her head. The padawan still managed to scowl down at him. A huff as she tried to blow some of that hair out of her face.

“That’s not funny.”

Eyes closed as she braced herself, feeling the force wrap around her. Surprisingly gentle. In no time she was back right side up and on her feet. Hand reached out, steadying herself on his shoulder as the blood rushed back to the way it was supposed to. Head shook once.

“Could’ve been,” she glanced around. Uncertain. Hand suddenly dropping from him as she realized she’d left it there a moment too long.

“Wait a minute. Might slow them down, too.” Soph quickly crouched and tied the snare, hiding it, and reset it.

“I’m watching,” she groused. And followed after him as they picked their way further down the bank. Soph had to wonder about the natives. Leaving traps like that. Hopefully she and Jackson would never meet them.

“See anything?” She took another healthy sip of her canteen. As the terrain started to rise into something steeper and rocky.

 

[Jackson Lesan]

Wearing: xxx
Tag: Sophelia Ardemark

Jackson did not even try to deny it when Sophelia accused him of flirting. He only gave a small shrug and kept moving along the riverbank.

"Corellian," he said, as if that explained everything. Then he glanced back at her with a faint grin. "And I'm a Lesan. It's what we do."

The grin widened when she scowled at him from the snare, but he let the joke die once she was back on her feet. Jackson kept close while the blood rushed back to her head, ready to catch her if she lost her balance again. When her hand settled on his shoulder and stayed there a moment longer than it needed to, he noticed.

Of course he noticed.

Jackson looked at her hand, then back at Soph, and a knowing smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Hey, you…"

She pulled her hand away before he could say anything else, and Jackson let her have the escape without pressing it. When Soph crouched to reset the snare, Jackson stopped and watched what she was doing. After a second, he nodded.

"That's actually not a bad idea."

If the pirates were following the same trail, anything that slowed them down bought Jackson and Soph more time. He helped cover the mechanism again with loose leaves and disturbed earth before they started moving.

The ground gradually changed beneath them as they followed the river. Mud gave way to harder soil, then stone, and the incline began to steepen. Jackson slowed near a rocky rise and looked back toward where they had left the snare.

Then something clicked.

He looked at Soph.

"That trap wasn't random."

Jackson scanned the terrain around them again, paying more attention to the places where the jungle had been disturbed. A snare like that had required someone to make it, maintain it, and know where animals or people might pass through.

"If there's a snare, there's probably a village somewhere nearby."

His expression shifted as the thought developed.

"And if Itz found it before we did, maybe that's where she's headed."

Jackson climbed a little higher onto the rocky slope and shaded his eyes as he looked through the trees. From there, the thicker jungle broke in places, giving him a better view farther ahead.

"Yeah. I see something."

He pointed through the vegetation toward a faint break in the canopy farther inland. It was not much, but the trees appeared thinner there, and what looked like smoke drifted faintly above them.

"Could be cooking fires."

Jackson looked back at Soph.

"Let's hope your friends with the traps are friendly."