Nix had braced herself for an argument on two fronts. From Rassi, she expected disbelief fueled by the natural denial of the horror that had befallen her parents. From Solna, on the other hand, she’d expected a refusal to trust an outsider and the immediate dismissal of everything Nix said on the grounds that Nix wasn’t part of the Silent Enclave and therefor could never be trusted.

“What do you mean?” Rassi asked, the denial Nix expecting sweeping over her features.

Solna however simply looked away.

So that Rassi wouldn’t see the understanding in her eyes.

“Oh wow. Now is not the time for this,” Nix said. “I’m not quiet like you two and everyone is going to notice that in about a minute when they get the building fire under control. Please, just trust me. We need to leave.”

“You do,” Solna said. “Rassi’s not like you. She can be on the other side of the camp when they find you. She can be safe.”

“Sol, no,” Rassi said, her confusion turning to gentle certainty. “I’m never going to be safe here.”

“You could be,” Solna said, clearly trying to convince herself as much as anyone else. “You have been. We can make it work.”

“They’ll kill you too,” Rassi said. “I’m slipping. So much. People are going to know. And if my parent’s weren’t an accident, then I won’t be either. And they won’t stop at me.”

The shared sorrow between the two felt so mild to Nix’s sense, at least until she adjusted for how quiet each of them usually was in the Force.

Which was a good, if terrible, sign.

They were mourning the loss of everything they knew, and they would only do that if they’d already made their decision.

“Time’s up,” Goldie said. “I’ve got multiple groups converging on your position, and they are most definitely armed and dangerous.”

“Come pick us up then,” Nix said, drawing the Force into herself in a blatant display of Jedi-style power. 

The Silent Enclave would discover that Rassi and Solna was missing soon enough, but at least in this moment, Nix wanted their presence with her to be a secret.

“Inbound. Small problem though, you’re still inside and they’ve got you surrounded on all the sides that have doors leading out,” Goldie said.

“Then make us a new one,” Nix said. “Don’t worry about anyone in here. I’ve got that covered.”

“Oh I love you Mom! One door coming right up!” Goldie said, her glee radiating through the Force despite her mechanical nature.

“Uh, what does that mean?” Solna asked, looking away from Rassi with panic in her eyes as the future descended on them.

That was when one of Goldie’s proton torpedoes obliterated the wall behind them.

Nix, knowing exactly what she’d asked her daughter to do, was ready for that and caught both the debris and the blast wave with a wall of Force power that clanged louder than the bomb blast in the Silent Enclave.

“It means I will not let either of you be hurt and that we are getting out of here,” Nix said as Goldie slammed down outside the new exit the building had gained with the sort of force she would only use when there were no crew members to be splattered by it.

Rassi and Solna turn and looked eyes with one another. Their decision was already made and the look they shared was merely the confirmation of that.

Where Rassi went, Solna would follow.

Nix was pleased when that turned out to the the edge of space and beyond only a few moments later as Goldie blasted out of the atmosphere and began running the calculations for a jump to light speed.

“What about your friend?” Rassi asked as Nix led them to Goldie’s cockpit.

“I’m more her daughter really,” Goldie said over the intercom.

“What? Who is that? There’s no one else here!” Solna said, eyes darting to the viewports around as though she might catch sight of a stowaway grappled to the outside of the ship.

“Rassi, Solna, meet Goldie. She’s the ship we’re in,” Nix said. “And also my daughter.”

“That sounds complicated,” Rassi said.

“Not terribly, she built me. Isn’t that what mother’s usually do with their kids?” Goldie said.

“You…you exist in the Xah?” Solna said. “But that’s not possible. Droids, unliving things, they can’t be part of the Xah!”

“Generally a true statement,” Nix said. “But life is a lot more complicated than we usually give it credit for being.”

“Oh, Rassi, this is wrong. What had we done,” Solna said.

“Taken a very frightening step into the galaxy that is all of our birthright,” Nix said. “I know this is a lot, and there’s no need to try to take it all in right away. The key is that you’re safe now.”

“But we’re not,” Solna said.

“You will be in five…four…” Goldie jumped to light speed on four before continuing, “threetwoone. We’re in hyperspace now. Whatever problems you had, they are light years behind you and will have four hundred billion systems to try to track you through if they try to figure out where you’ve gone.”

“No,” Rassi said. “They’ll know. They always know where we are. People have fled to the stars before. It didn’t save them.”

“The Enclave must be kept secret at all costs,” Solna said.

“They’re not going to Expunge you,” Nix said.

“They could,” Solna said.

“No. They really can’t,” Nix said. “You’re with me now and the Expunging Rite isn’t one that either the Jedi or the Sith used.”

“Because it was a secret,” Rassi said.

“Not exactly,” Ravas said, appearing on the bridge in the open co-pilot’s seat. “I saw what Primus Dolon was beginning to work on and the rest of pretty easy to understand from basic principals.”

“Then you know how deadly it is!” Solna said.

“Deadly yes,” Nix said. “Practical? Eh, that’s more debatable.”

“I don’t understand?” Rassi said.

“The Expunging Rite, as you call it, is primarily used against recalcitrant members of your sect, correct?” Ravas asked. “People who have intentionally stunted their ability to manipulate the Force.”

“People who do no corrupt the Xah,” Solna corrected her.

“People who have reduced defenses against others manipulating the Force around them,” Ravas said. “The Expunging Rite capitalizes on this in a similar manner a martial art designed to be used against comatose targets might be designed if the aim was to produce a maximum amount of horror.”

“Think of it like a fighting style were you tear your opponent apart with your teeth,” Nix said. “It’s terrifying, and works perfectly well if the victim can’t defend themselves. Using it against someone who know how to fight though? If you’re lucky they’ll cave your face in with a punch the moment you come charging at them teeth first.”

“That…that can’t be right,” Solna said.

“It kills us because we’re weak?” Rassi said.

“Absolutely not,” Nix said. “The rite kills people because the person behind made an unforgivable choice. The victims are not at all fault. Being unused to manipulating the Force isn’t a reason for someone to die. We all have weaknesses, and it’s not our fault if others exploit those against us.”

“So we must stay with you then,” Solna said. “Because we are weak and only you can protect us.”

Nix knew that Solna was trying to provoke her. It was as much about searching for a reason to flee from the change before them as it was about defining where the boundaries were in a new relationship.  Knowing that there was a fathomless pool of fear behind her words made it, slightly, easier to remember that Solna was even more of a child than Nix had been at her age, and that gave her a path to the patience she needed, when a host of other alarm bells were ringing in her mind.

“Well, right at the moment we’re in hyperspace, so while leaving is theoretically possible, I’m pretty sure that theory states the best case scenario would be winding up stranded in interstellar space,” Nix said, wondering if she’d even get the hint of a smile from Solna.

She did not.

“We both know that’s not what you meant though,” Nix said. “You’re wondering if, like all the Jedi you’ve heard about, I’ve kidnapped a couple of kids to indoctrinate into my corrupt Jedi-ways. Is that about right?”

“No.” Solna’s scowl told Nix she’d more or less hit the mark though.

“Good. Since that would both be a horrible and a deeply stupid thing for me to do,” Nix said. “Which is why we’ll do this instead; I basically stole you. It was for what I believed was your own good, but you had no time to prepare and don’t know what tools you have to exist outside the Silence Enclave yet. Since I stole you, I’m responsible for you. That doesn’t mean I own you, and it absolutely does not mean you need to give up your beliefs or start training to become a Jedi or any of nonsense like that. What it does mean is that I owe you food and lodging. I also promised that you would be safe, and so, yes, I will defend you. Part of that, if you choose it, is that I will teach you what I know about how to foil the Expunging Rite, as well as anything else I understand about the Force.”

“And what do we owe you for all of this. What price do we have to pay?” Solna asked, clearly incapable of believing a word Nix said. 

Which on reflection, Nix couldn’t blame her for. Words rarely ever captured the full truth of a thing, and could so, so easily be slanted so that even the truth they did convey could misdirect the listener. Solna was right not to trust her, at least until Nix had the chance to fill the framework of her words with the clarity of deeds.

“You’ve already paid a hell of a price in leaving the Enclave,” Nix said. “The rest of the price is that I get to sleep at night knowing that the dying hopes of two loving people didn’t fall into the void.”

“And that’s all you want from us?” Solna asked.

“Oh I want a heck of lot more,” Nix said. “I would love to learn more about the Xah and the relationship your people have with it. It would be fantastic to have a pair of padawans as gifted as you two are. Heck, even having someone who was willing to clean out the heat exchange relays every five day would be a nice change of pace. None of that are things you have to do. Or should worry about at all until our current crises are a bit more settled down.”

“The heat exchange relay cleaning would be really nice,” Goldie said. “I can do a lot with the waldos but they are not good at dealing with those.”

“Where are we going to go?” Rassi asked, offering her hand for Solna to hold.

Solna shook her head at the offer, and Nix could feel her discomfort at admitting, even tacitly, the emotional weakness she was feeling.

“My wife and I have a home on an island with an old Jedi temple,” Nix said. “It’s not an abandoned village or anything, there are other people there, it just hasn’t been used as a Jedi temple in centuries.”

“So we won’t need to put on Jedi robes or anything?” Rassi asked a faint hint of disappointment in her voice.

“Nope. I prefer coveralls like this,” Nix said, pointing to her attire. “And Ayli, that’s my wife, wears all kinds of stuff. You’ll get to meet her when we get there. She’s been training with the other Force Ghost we know.”

“How many Force Ghosts do you know?” Rassi asked.

“More than they should,” Kelda said, manifesting beside Ravas. “And this one comes bearing problems I’m afraid.”