Dedicated to TrulyMaryJane

     Jedi Knight Kyra Kryze-Kenobi glanced in the mirror one last time before boarding the stolen commuter shuttle, making sure her blonde hair would be enough to conceal her identity, despite already knowing her blonde locks only made her look more like her mother, and that her blue eyes were a dead giveaway. She sighed and reluctantly selected the green contact lenses she had been saving as a last resort and put them on, changing the color of her eyes for the first time in her twenty-seven years of life. The rest of her outfit consisted of a dark blue tunic, black pants, black boots, a black leather jacket, and a utility belt that featured a pair of electrically charged batons, as well as the standard issue blaster she had carried during her time in the Alderaanian military.

     She prepared the commuter shuttle for takeoff and blasted her way out of the spaceport, hoping to draw the Empire's attention. Luckily, Lothal was crawling with Imperials, and she soon had three TIE fighters on her tail. She flew straight for the light cruiser that was hovering in Lothal's orbit as the Imperial starfighters opened fire, everything going as planned. One of the Imperial pilots managed to land a shot on the shuttle's right wing, and even though the vessel limped towards the light cruiser and its tractor beam, she did not try to evade the enemy craft. When a pair of stormtroopers boarded the shuttle and restrained Kyra, she struggled briefly before surrendering.

     "Let me go!" she demanded as the troopers brought her aboard the cruiser. "You're making a mistake!"

     As the blast door opened, she found herself face-to-face with the rest of the boarding party, which was led by Agent Alexsandr Kallus.

     "What are you looking at, Imperial scum?" she snarled, barely managing to conceal her surprise when she saw Kallus's eyes widen with recognition.

     "Bring her to a detention cell," Kallus ordered as another trooper escorted Chopper, who was painted to look like an Imperial astromech, and AP-5 – an abandoned protocol droid – out of the shuttle.

     "We were aboard the shuttle when it was stolen," AP-5 explained.

     "Well, stay here and wait for processing," the Imperial commander instructed.

     "Oh, we can do that. We can do that just fine," AP-5 assured the stormtrooper.

     When they reached the cellblock, the troopers escorting Kyra threw her down the stairs and into her cell, Kryze groaning as she sat up.

     Before the stormtroopers could lock her inside, Kallus stopped them and said, "Leave us. I'll interrogate her myself."

     After he had used his code cylinder to turn off the cameras inside the cell, Kallus asked, "Don't you realize how dangerous it is for you to be here? If anyone recognizes you..."

     "They won't," Kyra assured the Imperial agent when he fell silent. "Although, I am wondering how you managed to recognize me."

     As Kallus freed Kyra from her restraints, he answered, "I've spent more time with you than most Imperials. I recognized the features of your face, despite the modifications. Hopefully, for both our sakes, the adjustments you've made will prove effective in fooling my colleagues. If they discover you're here, I'll be executed for treason!"

     "Welcome to the Rebellion," Kyra said with a smirk before quickly sobering. "We think the Empire was monitoring your last Fulcrum transmission."

     "So you got yourself captured just to warn me?" Kallus asked incredulously.

     Kyra shook her head, "Bloody hell, the Imperial Academy really diminishes the imagination, doesn't it? I came to get you out of here, Alex."

     Alexsandr's ears turned bright red, but he tried to hide it by clearing his throat and grumbling, "Well, I guess I have no choice now. And you better refer to me as Agent Kallus, we don't really use first names around here."

     When a man ordered Kallus to open the cell door, Kyra gave him the handcuffs and told him to punch her. Kallus secured her hands behind her back, but hesitated before punching her, only doing as she asked when he saw the determined look on her face.

     He grimaced and landed a solid blow to her nose, which started to bleed as she fell to the ground and pleaded, "Stop! Please, I'll tell you anything!"

     When Lieutenant Yogar Lyste entered the cell, his eyebrows shot up, "A confession already? You are good. But it will have to wait. Grand Admiral Thrawn's fleet just arrived, and he has summoned us aboard his ship. Bring the prisoner."

     As the trooper pulled Kyra to her feet, Kallus asked why Lieutenant Lyste wanted Kenobi to accompany them.

     "To show the Grand Admiral how effective I am in dealing with the rebel threat," Lyste answered smugly.

     "She's a bounty hunter, not a rebel," Kallus clarified, but the lieutenant did not seem to care.

     "She's from Lothal. That's enough," he stated before leading Kyra and Kallus to the landing bay, where they came across Chopper and AP-5.

     "I did not request any droids to accompany us," Lyste said, but AP-5 informed the lieutenant that Chopper had recorded the shuttle theft.

     "Protocol is for us to provide it as testimony against the thief," AP-5 added.

     Lieutenant Lyste allowed the disguised droids to join him as they boarded a Lambda-class shuttle and flew to the Chimaera, Grand Admiral Thrawn's Star Destroyer.

     "I haven't been summoned by ranking officers since that incident with the princess and commander from Alderaan. And to think Organa—I mean, Kenobi was working with the rebels," the lieutenant rambled nervously. "Oh, that was not a pleasant meeting. I shall endeavor to make a better impression this time."

     "I'm sure you will, Lieutenant," Kallus replied quietly as their shuttle landed in one of the Chimaera's hangar bays.

     As they disembarked, Lyste transferred Kyra to one of his commanders and instructed the stormtrooper to take her to detention block B-7. Kyra locked eyes with Kallus before the commander shoved her forward and led her to yet another cell. After a short while, the blast door opened to reveal Kallus, AP-5, and Chopper. As Kallus removed Kyra's restraints once more, she did not realize that her mother's ring – which she had worn ever since her father gave it to her seventeen years ago – fell off her finger and onto the floor. When AP-5 reminded the rebels that they would not be able to leave the Star Destroyer without a specific set of clearance codes, Kallus sighed and informed Kyra that there was another complication.

     "I've just learned that Thrawn is very close to locating your base," Kallus told her. "I need you to tell me where it is so I can remove it from his database."

     Kyra thought for a moment, then suggested, "Now, hear me out, but if we infiltrate Thrawn's office, we can accomplish both of our goals. Kallus, you can erase the location of our base, and we can gain the clearance codes we need to get out of here. But we'll have to make sure Thrawn isn't in his office first."

     "I can take care of that," Kallus replied as he grabbed his comlink. "Lieutenant Lyste, where are you?"

     "Following Pryce," the lieutenant whispered. "She's headed to the detention cells with Admiral Thrawn and Colonel Yularen."

     "Stay on her. But remember, Lieutenant, don't let them see you," Kallus instructed before putting his comm away and turning to Kyra. "We'll have to get you a uniform."

     After changing into an officer's uniform and tucking her hair beneath her cap, Kyra turned to AP-5 and said, "I need you to stand guard and let us know if anyone's coming."

     As she and Kallus made their way to Thrawn's office, Alexsandr said, "See that trooper? Convince him you're Lieutenant Lyste. Here is his code cylinder. Get him to open the door with it."

     "You really have thought of everything, haven't you?" Kyra whispered. "I'm impressed. You're starting to think like a rebel."

     Kyra reached out to the Force, using a Jedi mind trick on the stormtrooper as she said, "I am Lieutenant Lyste. Admiral Thrawn told you to expect us."

     "Lieutenant Lyste. Thrawn told me to expect you," the trooper agreed as Kyra handed him the lieutenant's code cylinder.

     The code went through and the stormtrooper stepped aside, allowing Kyra and Kallus into the grand admiral's expansive office, which contained several items that he had collected from the rebels. Once Chopper had stolen the clearance codes, Kyra instructed him to send the data to Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus, who was waiting with Captain Rex to extract the rebels.

     "Are you crazy?" Kallus asked. "They'll intercept the transmission!"

     "Exactly, a secret code that was transmitted from Thrawn's office," Kyra replied.

     Kallus held Kyra's gaze for a moment, then sighed and nodded as he activated a holomap, "Good point."

     "Damn it!" Kyra cursed. "You were right. Thrawn is close to finding our base. Chopper, erase our planet and add another as a decoy."

     As Chopper removed Atollon from Thrawn's map, Kyra's comlink beeped and AP-5 said, "Unfortunate news. Grand Admiral Thrawn is headed for his office."

     When Kyra asked if the protocol droid could stall him, he replied, "I cannot. He is already at the door."

     Kyra cursed again and told Chopper to deactivate the holomap before turning to Kallus, only to find he had disappeared. She hid behind a piece of retaining wall that Sabine had decorated with the Alliance Starbird, and Chopper quickly followed her lead. A second later, Thrawn entered his office with a pair of stormtroopers in tow and activated the holomap that Chopper had just turned off. After a long moment, Thrawn closed the map and one of the stormtroopers asked if everything was all right.

     "Apparently so. Yes," Thrawn answered quietly.

     Suddenly, the sentry droids that Thrawn used for combat training stormed into the office and quickly dispatched the two troopers. Thrawn tried using his override code to shut the droids down, and when they did not listen, Kyra suspected that Kallus had tampered with them. The grand admiral jumped over his desk and grabbed his blaster, but when he tried to shoot the droids, one picked him up and threw him into the retaining wall. The wall leaned towards Kyra and Chopper, Kryze stifled a scream as the heavy slab started to crush her left foot. When Thrawn stood, Kyra eased the retaining wall back into place, wincing as she gingerly tested the amount of weight her foot could hold.

     Kyra sighed as her injured foot protested, but she knew her best chance of escaping with Chopper would be when Thrawn was distracted. When his back was turned, Kyra clenched her jaw and ran out of Grand Admiral Thrawn's office with Chopper on her heels, a stab of pain shooting through her left leg with every step.

     She met Kallus in the hallway and said, "Assassin droids? Nice work."

     Kallus smiled as they turned left at the intersection and sprinted past AP-5, who struggled to keep up despite shuffling as fast as he could. They were halfway to the hangar bay when Kyra's leg gave out and caused her to fall, the commander knocking Chopper over in the process. She cursed and quickly righted the droid, who grumbled as Kallus helped Kyra to her feet, Kenobi yelping as she leaned against Alexsandr.

     When Kallus asked her what had happened, Kyra replied, "It's a long story that we don't have time for and involves a retaining wall."

     Just as AP-5 caught up with the others, Kallus wrapped his arm around Kyra's waist and helped her to the hangar, where they found a disguised Kanan and Rex conversing with Governor Arihnda Pryce. Apparently, their conversation did not go well, because the stormtrooper accompanying Pryce stunned Kanan. Rex opened fire and quickly gunned down the trooper, but the governor managed to duck beneath the blaster bolts and kicked Rex in the stomach. As a squadron of stormtroopers appeared behind Kyra and Kallus, Chopper sealed the door and cut them off. When Governor Arihnda Pryce knocked the blaster out of Rex's hands, she was stunned by Lyste, who – thanks to Kallus – believed she was the rebel spy.

     "I've got her! She's the traitor!" the lieutenant declared as Chopper, AP-5, Captain Rex, and Kanan Jarrus boarded the stolen Lambda-class shuttle. "Trooper, are you all right?"

     As Kyra raced towards the shuttle, Lieutenant Lyste spotted her and realized that he had been deceived.

     The lieutenant raised his blaster and aimed it at Kyra's chest, the Mandalorian Jedi freezing as Lyste shouted, "You! You're the shuttle thief who—"

     Before the lieutenant could finish his accusation or open fire, Kallus tackled Lyste to the ground, knocking the blaster out of his hands. The lieutenant groaned, lying unconscious on the ground as Kallus switched out Lyste's code cylinder for his own.

     "Kallus, come on, we've got to go!" Kyra shouted over the roar of the shuttle's engines.

     Kallus stood and said, "There's been a change of plans now that I've captured Fulcrum."

     When Kyra looked down at Lieutenant Yogar Lyste and hesitated, Kallus grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look at him, "It's okay. I can do more good here."

     Kyra Kryze-Kenobi sighed and nodded, finally limping up the ramp, "Be careful, Alex. Please."

     Alexsandr Kallus glanced around the hangar before meeting her on the ramp and planting a quick kiss on her cheek, "I will. May the Force be with you, Kyra."