- ghosts of the past.

xx

"Solitary confinement is down that way," Arc nodded down the corridor that led to a group of cell blocks. "Liz, Luca, Rayla, and Vesper, you're on Solo, the rest of us have Kaleb."

"You're clearly favoring your team." Vesper said, pulling his blaster from its holster. "You have six, we have four."

"Get over it." Arc patted Vesper's back briefly, then pointed the hilt of the darksaber down the corridor to the cell block, telling them to split up.

"Is this the guy?" Juliet asked under her breath, falling into step next to Arc as they went down a separate hall that led to the regular cells.

"There's no 'the guy', Jules." Arc muttered back distractedly as he checked around a corner before taking the turn when it was clear.

The two fell into silence, followed by the others on their group of the rescue team. They made their way to the the detention block that Kaleb was being held in and stopped around corner, looking around it.

A First Order officer was leaned against the wall outside the cell labeled S-132. Kaleb's cell.

"Who volunteers as tribute?" Celeste asked in an undertone. "I say Jacen."

"Excuse me?" Jacen looked down at her in confusion. "You're the one with a lightsaber-"

"I'll take care of it." Niylah said, interrupting her brother. "Celeste, push something over on the other end of the hall and I'll take care of it from there."

Using the Force, Celeste pushed over a stack of boxes over on the opposite side of the hall, near a corner.

The officer's attention was diverted to the fallen over boxes. Arc pushed the group back as the officer looked down both ends of the hallway before deciding to go see the cause of the boxes.

Arc gestured silently for the group to move forward. Niylah went first, following after the officer as quietly as she could, the rest of them going after her and stopping at Kaleb's cell.

Niylah watched as the officer went around the corner then went after him, only to find herself face to face with him as she rounded the corner. In the blink of an eye, the officer had spun them both around, then slammed her back against the wall with a hand around her throat.

"Tritium here, I have a security breech in Level S of the detention blocks." He said into his comm link, keeping hard eye contact with Niylah who was trying to catch her breath again.

"This is Fintan," a voice came back, "I'm on my-"

Tritium switched his comm off and returned it to his belt. He cocked his head slightly to one side, looking at her. "We're not as stupid as you think we are."

"I couldn't agree less." Niylah hissed back, pressing the barrel of her blaster against Tritium's stomach with the little room they had between them.

The others had opened Kaleb's cell and Arc had brought Juliet in with him, leaving the other three outside to guard their backs.

Kaleb was sitting up against a wall, his head in his hands. The overwhelming aching pain in his body made it impossible to sleep or move comfortably, so since he had been left by the First Order, he'd stayed in the same position.

He didn't lift his head when Arc and Juliet entered, only pulled his legs closer to his body and quietly pleaded about not coming closer to him.

Arc grabbed Juliet's wrist, half to stop her from going any closer but also for a bit of moral support. The contrast of seeing Kaleb in pain but the comfort of Juliet being next to him was a bit confusing, but he pushed both sets of feelings down.