Seth thought the darkness would be total, would be an escape from the pain.

But then he opened his eyes again and found himself lying on a table, immobile, and it was not the table Nova had set him down on.

There was a light on, to his right, angled down at him, and everything around him was thrown into deep shadow.

He had been here before...

It was a place of terror. A place of cold living fear.

A place of pain.

A face swam into view overhead. A man's pale, gaunt face, with eyes of scarlet. He reached out and Seth flinched, but the man paid him no heed. Instead, he tested the restraints that currently held Seth's wrists and ankles against the table.

He wanted to speak, to beg, or demand to be let go, or say anything.

But his words died in his throat.

The man with the gaunt face disappeared and Seth heard nothing. The man moved without a sound. He swallowed, testing the restraints. He had to get out of here, somehow, someway. His parents had to be looking for him...

The man returned. He had a small blade of some kind in his grasp now. He raised it, mouth closed in a gentle frown of concentration.

He began to lower the blade toward Seth's stomach...

Seth started to scream, words tumbling out of his mouth and he began to thrash about, trying desperately to escape, begging the man to stop, promising anything.

Blade met flesh.

* * *

Somehow, when Seth snapped awake, thrust violently back into the land of the conscious, he managed not to scream at the top of his lungs.

Probably what helped was the fact that his whole body hurt, and he was groggy and disoriented. And he recognized where he was. Seri's medical shack. And as he settled down, he heard something nearby: breathing. The soft, steady, quiet respiration of a sleeping person. Seth looked around and saw Nova lying on a mattress on the floor beside him. He frowned, staring at her prone, sleeping form. Why was she here? Surely she had better things to do, or at the very least a better place to sleep. As he was thinking this, she took in a deep breath suddenly and opened her eyes. She rolled over and locked her beautiful blue eyes with his.

"You're awake," she said.

He nodded, uncomfortable, the blind terror of his nightmares still clinging to him. "Um...how long have I been out?" he asked quietly.

Nova sat up and stretched, then got to her feet. "It's the next morning from last night," she replied. "I'm not sure how long it's been since I fell asleep, but Seri and I worked on you for several hours after I got you back...how much do you remember?"

"Enough," Seth replied.

She frowned, then suddenly moved across the room, rummaged around for a moment, then came back and pressed a canteen into his hand.

"You're dehydrated," she said.

"Thanks," he replied, and drained the whole thing. Coughing, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and set the canteen down. "Where are we at with the ship?"

"It's basically ready," Nova replied. "Yex came back not long after we got you back when he hadn't heard anything from us for what he considered too long, given that I couldn't go."

"I'm sorry you had to come get me...did anything happen while we were gone?"

"No, we got lucky. Everyone's still okay. But Yex took the part and left immediately. He told me that the ship should be at least flyable today. Yesterday, people started asking questions, and I finally shared the plan with the whole group. Everyone is in line with this plan. In fact, they've all been preparing, packing their stuff. They're excited."

"It'll be dangerous to get to the ship, and that's the easy part, I think," Seth replied.

Nova sighed and nodded. "I know, I think they don't care. I think they're ready to risk their lives for even a chance of getting out of here."

"Okay, so what's left to do? What's stopping us from leaving?" Seth asked.

"Well...Seri has been insistent that we wait for you to heal up before moving through the Undercity," Nova replied.

Seth felt a flash of anger. He stood up suddenly, swayed on his feet as a bout of dizziness hit him, and a wave of pain. "No," he said, almost growled, "we're not staying here on account of my lazy ass. We're going."

"Seth..." Nova replied, hesitant, "you're hurt bad. You need-"

"No. I'm not holding us back. If the only reason we're not going yet is me, then I say we're going. I don't care what Seri says. I'm not holding everyone back."

He looked directly into Nova's eyes. "Seth..." she said, not quite meeting his gaze. Finally, she sighed. "I can understand that. You'll have to contend with Seri, but I get it. I'll start getting everyone ready."

"Thank you," he replied, calming down a little. He looked down at himself as he realized how exposed he felt and saw that he was wearing only a pair of boxers, and not the ones he'd been wearing earlier. He sighed. "I was changed when I was passed out," he muttered.

"Yeah...um, if it makes you feel any better, Seri made me leave for that. She said she'd already seen you naked?"

"Yeah, she joined me in the shower a few times to conserve water and look over my wounds," Seth replied, suddenly awkward.

"Are you and her, uh..."

"No, we're not."

"Oh. Okay." Nova lingered a moment longer, then left. Seth began moving about the shack, hunting for some clothes.

Close now. They were so close to escape.

* * *

He had to argue with Seri for nearly five minutes before she finally relented. She made him get undressed again to check his wounds, which he did with mounting frustration. But he did make sure to let her know that he did appreciate what she had done for him. She had, he was sure, saved his life. Again. After applying some more kolto and re-bandaging his wounds, she seemed satisfied that he was at least able to probably make the trip to the military base. After that, he left her to pack up her medical supplies for the journey.

As he stepped out into the open area, he heard a lot of chatter. Dozens of people were moving about, talking excitedly, all of them very animate and even happy. He felt a stab of guilt at that as he began making for Nova's shack. Sure, they were happy now, believing they were getting off this planet, out of this wretched dark abyss, but...certainly there were going to be casualties. Either from the rakghouls on the way to the ship or even get blown to interstellar dust by the Sith quarantine if something went wrong.

But what was the alternative?

Stay here? Obviously now that they had gotten hold of the notion that there was another option, that didn't seem viable any longer. Although honestly that was kind of inspiring. A lot of people might actually opt to stay here, even if it was horrible...it was a horrible they were familiar with. But not these people. Not these exiles, outcasts, pariahs. Sons and daughters of pariahs, even. No, they were risking it all to leave.

And Seth wasn't going to let himself stand in their way.

He was going to make good on his promise to Nova: he was going to do everything in his own power to get them out of here.

He found Nova in her shack, pulling on a set of combat armor.

"Your armor's there," she said, pointing to the locker.

"Thanks," he replied, hurrying over and beginning the painful process of pulling it on. He didn't even want to think about what he looked like right now, with how bad he was feeling. Neither of them spoke as they geared up. Once the armor was on, they each grabbed guns, energy clips, medical packs, blades, whatever else they might need.

There was no coming back from this.

By the time they were done, they found everyone gathered by the main gate. Seth looked out across the sea of faces, doing a quick headcount. There were thirty in all, including Seri. "Is this everyone?" he asked as he made his way to the front with Nova. "Are we sure?"

"Yes, Seth. This is everyone," Seri confirmed confidently. "I triple checked. Everyone's here."

"All right." He and Nova came to stand at the front with Seri by the gate. A silence had fallen. Everyone was looking at him. Including Seri and Nova.

"What?" he asked. "What are we waiting for?"

"Despite how I might feel about giving up even an ounce of control," Nova said after a few seconds, "you're the best one to lead this operation."

"Me?" he asked, and looked at them all. He could see it in their eyes. Whether or not he actually was qualified to do this, they believed he was. "Crap," he muttered.

"You can do this, Seth," Seri said.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes for a moment, then made himself focus. "Okay, listen up! I'm leading this pack. Nova, you're covering our ass in the back. Is everyone armed?"

"Just about everyone," Seri replied. "We've passed out all the weapons we have."

"Fine. Best way to do this isn't to fight but to avoid it. I tell you to stop or hold up my fist, you all be ready to stop on a damned second's notice. Rakghouls hunt by sight, but we could run into gangs or scavengers. It's a two hour walk and I intend it to stay that way. If you need to go to the bathroom, do it now. We're not stopping if we don't have to."

A few people broke away from the group as he said that and went to relieve themselves. Seth took the time to look over his armor and weapons again, trying not to look nervous. He'd had to play leader more than once, and most of it was looking like you knew what you were doing. The rest of it was actually knowing what you were doing or, barring that, being able to roll with the punches. They were going to need luck for this.

Once everyone had come back, he walked over and hit the access button to the gate. "Any questions? Speak up!" he called.

No one had any questions.

They all knew the score.

"All right. Let's do it!"

* * *

They almost made it.

Seth had almost convinced himself that they were actually going to get to the military base without running into anything serious along the way. They'd had to stop twice, once only about ten minutes in, and that had been a real gutwrencher. There'd been a horde of rakghouls passing by just beyond the alleyway they were preparing to leave. They'd managed to hang back, waiting for the worst to happen, but the rakghouls had passed by without stopping. The second time had just been another, much smaller clutch of rakghouls just half an hour ago.

And now they were actually within sight of the military base itself.

No one had died, nothing had gone wrong. It was looking like a perfect run.

And then, as he began leading them into the large, open courtyard that was all that stood between them and escape, a loud shriek went up. Seth instantly froze up, becoming as still as a statue, blaster pistol in hand, hunting for the origin of the sound. And then he saw it: a rakghoul up on top of a pile of refuse. It had spotted them and was sounding the alarm. He aimed and popped off a shot. It was good, punching a hole right through the thing's big, stupid mouth and bursting the back of its head like ripe fruit.

But it was too late.

A chorus of shrieks rose in the still, dank air of the Undercity, a nightmarish cacophony of terror. And then the rakghouls began to swarm. They came from everywhere. Seth looked around as he tried to assess the situation. They couldn't break and run for the military base, some had been hiding among the debris and were now charging from that direction. No retreat, either. They were coming from behind as well.

They were coming from everywhere.

"Stand and fight! We have to kill them all!" he called.

And that was all the time he had before the fight began. They had been so close. He felt sick with rage and fury and pain, but clamped down on it hard. He needed to focus right now, to kill as many of them as possible. He stood fast and opened fire. There were dozens of them. All around him, blaster pistols opened up. People screamed battlecries of fury. His next shot was good, and so was the one after that, turning two sprinting rakghouls into flopping corpses. Next shot missed, but then he turned the eye of another shrieking, scowling rakghoul monster into a spray of dark gore. There were so many of them...

Seth felt his pain evaporate. He was high on the adrenaline, on the conflict itself. His reflexes were amped up, everything seeming to slow very slightly. He kept on firing, putting the old blaster pistol through its paces. All around him, he could hear the others fighting for their lives. A dozen rakghouls fell, then two dozen fell.

And then the others fell upon the exiles.

And there was blood on the air.

Seth drew his blade and sliced open another gray monster as it came for him. Couldn't let even one past, couldn't let the exiles get attacked. But even as he thought that, he heard someone scream in pain. And then another voice rose up.

Gritting his teeth, blood pounding, Seth fought hard. Had to be faster, had to be better. Couldn't fail these people who'd already suffered so much. He had to save them all. He had to. He decapitated another rakghoul, sliced through the flesh and bone of another's arm, slashed and cleaved and chopped and swung his blade again and again and again until his muscles burned from exertion. But there were more, there had to be a hundred of the things, two hundred. More were coming all the time, shrieking, slavering maddened gray blurs of death and horror.

And one of them got the best of him, smashed his blade aside and he fell back, groping for his pistol.

The creature raised its clawed hand...then froze.

All of them froze. All became still and silent.

Someone was crying. Someone else was moaning in agony.

And then, just like that, the rakghoul beast that was looming over him turned and ran. No, it didn't run, it sprinted. It fled.

"What the..." Seth whispered, chest heaving as he tried to get his breath back, adrenaline and blood pounding through his veins. He forced himself back to his feet, grabbing his pistol and his blade, looking around, ready to keep fighting for his life, for the lives of the others. But every rakghoul that wasn't a corpse was currently fleeing madly.

"What's happening?" Nova asked.

He turned around and quickly studied the outcasts. It looked bad. Several of them were injured. He saw at least one dead on the ground, his throat ripped out. And there even more unmoving forms spread out on the ground, bleeding out.

"They've been infected," he replied, his voice barely above a whisper.

Nova followed his gaze. "They are, but what drove the rakghouls off?"

As if in direct answer to the question, the entire area began to shake. Everyone cried out and looked up.

"Is it an earthquake?!" someone called.

"Do they get earthquakes here?" Seth asked. He knew that wild beasts could be driven off by something even more dangerous, something they feared. Natural disasters were on that list, and some creatures could sense them coming.

"No," one of the older exiles said, "I've never heard of one."

Abruptly, a huge section of the overhead roof detached and began crashing down towards the ground. "Run! Run for the base!" Seth screamed, pure panic gripping him.

He helped one of the injured exiles up and began carrying him across the courtyard. Everyone made a mad dash for the military base as the whole world continued to shake apart around them. Seth realized that he actually recognized huge, distant sounds that he was beginning to hear: explosions. Some kind of attack was happening, some kind of bombardment. But what? It would have to be a massive attack.

Had the Republic arrived? No, they wouldn't be waging this kind of destructive war, not at the expensive of who knew how many people were up there above them. If it was already this bad down here, he couldn't even imagine the pure destruction going on in the Upper City. He ignored that, making his way as fast as he could through the ruined hulks of vehicles and machinery. Seconds ground by as they all ran wildly and he led the charge, first across the open space beside the military base, and finally into the hangar itself.

There was the ship, waiting for them. It was powered up.

Please, he thought wildly, please let it fly!

If something went wrong now, surely they were going to die. Hurrying around the back of the vessel, Seth saw that the cargo ramp was down. It was one of the most welcome sights he'd seen in a long time. He rushed up it and set the injured man down as soon as he could, then ran through the rest of the ship to the cockpit.

Yex was at the controls, situated in the pilot's seat.

"What's happening?!" Seth asked.

"It appears that the Sith are bombarding the planet from orbit. I do not know why, but they seem to be attempting to extinguish all life on Taris," Yex explained. His usually calm voice was strained now, and Seth couldn't blame him.

"Why!?" he moaned.

"I doubt for any good reason. Seth," Yex said, his voice suddenly urgent, he held something small and blinking up, "please take this device. Take it into the control room and plug it into the main console. It is the only console that is active. Please, you must hurry, as fast as you can. And make sure the others are onboard and secured."

"Got it," Seth replied, turning and sprinting back through the shuddering vessel.

He almost ran smack into Nova. "What's happening?" she asked.

"Make sure everyone is onboard and safe! I'll be right back!" he replied, hardly stopping.

"Where are you going?!"

He ignored her, hitting the back ramp and leaping off of it. Landing with a grunt, the device clutched in one hand, he ran as fast as he could through the hangar. Had to do this fast. He'd already screwed up so much, hadn't kept those people safe. He felt hatred flowing through his veins, hatred and shame and fury at himself for failing. He muttered to himself between panting breaths as he found the control room and tracked down the console Yex had indicated. He found the right slot, clicked the device into place, hoped that was all he had to do, then turn and ran the whole way back to the vessel. He bounded up the cargo ramp, which began to close almost as soon as his boots touched it. He sprinted back down the ship, almost running into a few more people.

"Get settled! Get strapped in!" he screamed.

All around him, Taris continued coming apart. Huge things crashed outside. He found Nova in the cockpit beside Yex, who was working the controls with an intense diligence.

"Did it work?" he asked, gasping now.

"Yes, it worked. Please hold on."

Seth and Nova cried out as the ship shuddered suddenly and then raised up. Overhead, through the canopy of the cockpit, Seth could see the ceiling opening up. And beyond that, he could see the roof of the Undercity, and a portion of it was opening too, revealing a long tunnel. Somewhere in that tunnel, fires burned.

"Is this going to work?" he asked as he and Nova sat down heavily on the floor.

"I hope so," Yex replied.

The ship began going up into that tunnel.

"Seth," Nova said, and the urgency of her voice ripped his attention away from the tunnel and back to her. "Some of the outcasts onboard have