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She could never say no to Leia Organa. Not during the first war, not six years ago when she'd watched the recently resigned senator's transmission while curled under the bar of a cantina on Nal Hutta. But this was the closest she'd come to it, the most she'd ever entertained the idea of leaving. She was getting too old for this sort of thing.

But Hera also knew the only reason she let herself consider an escape for so long was that it was something she'd never do. Even before what happened to Hosnian Prime, she knew she wouldn't be able to share this galaxy with the First Order, anymore than she had the Empire.

And after.

There's barely anyone left to make this decision, and she's not one of them, just as she wasn't before. But just as before, she had been listened to, her thoughts considered. Now, she has her orders.

But Hera gives herself a minute, just one, to outside the door, her arms crossed. Then once again, she lifts her hand, and knocks on it.

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Hera leans forward, putting her elbows on the table and folding her hands.

"It didn't take much following. Shortly after that, a group of systems seceded from the New Republic. To the First Order."

There it is.

"And how many have joined them since? I take it they have become . . . "

How to put this?

" . . . increasingly aggressive, in more recent days?"

"It doesn't really make much of a difference now."

Hera lets out a breath, unfolding her hands and pressing her right to her forehead.

"Some of us believed that their goal was to restore the Empire," she says, lowering her hand again. "But the Republic wouldn't act, without proof they were violating the Concordance."

Edited 2017-09-29 01:56 (UTC)

"The Republic would not act."

This, too, is an interesting point.

"And has there been proof since? Or it is something other than the Republic which is choosing to act?"

"Those of us who though the First Order was a threat found a way to act - independent of the Republic."

She doesn't hesitate this time, but a her fingers twitch as she speaks. Hera knows the Resistance was always an open secret, but she still doesn't like to admit this.

"But by the time we found something that my convince the Senate..." Now, she does trail off for a moment, as she chooses her words. "It was too late."

"The Senate has been disbanded?"

Again his eyebrow goes up, because that seems . . . ah.

"No, no that wouldn't bring you here, would it? They've been destroyed."

Hera flattens her hands on the table.

"The entire Hosnian system has been destroyed."

"The sun went supernova?"

That would be the most efficient way, and yet --

"The weapon they used has also been destroyed."

Meaning the method isn't so important now, Thrawn.

Is it not? Perhaps, though Thrawn is very often curious about things that turn out not to be irrelevant.

Ah well.

"That seems fortunate, if such can be said of any of these recent events. Your resistance leadership still exists, I take it?"

Hera waits again, remembering how much it bothered her that Thrawn seemed to sense what she would say before she said it.

"Yes. We survived their attempt to wipe us out, too."

"And now?"

That is the crux of the matter, isn't it?

Perhaps.

"And now what's left of the Republic asked me to come here," Hera answers.

"Because they've decided they need more help."

If any of the Republic's citizens had ever taken pains to learn the biological signs of excitement in a Chiss, they would most definitely be observing them now. The blue of his skin pales fractionally, and the red of his eyes deepens a shade or two.

His breathing slows to compensate, and he sits forward in his chair.

"I have no contacts in the outside world these days. Those I do maintain here are most likely already with your Resistance. I will consider if any of them give signs of being a mole, of course."

A pause.

"Are there documents you wish me to look over, to see what strategies I can anticipate your enemies unleashing?"

Hera stays quiet for another moment, folding her hands again.

"They thought you might need something else to convince you."

Hmm. Less anticipated, but still interesting, for all that.

Thrawn folds his hands in front of him again, though he does not move to sit back.

"And what, Hera Syndulla, do they think will -- as I have heard it said -- sweeten the pot?"

It gets a small, tight smile from Hera.

"What do you want?"

He smiles, thin and mirthless.

"Front line command."

She waits again, to see if he'll continue, and then -

"You have interesting priorities."

"I have learned, in my time here, that I really do prefer to be useful. And, as it happens, busy."

So it goes.

"I think they could work out some kind of command."

Hera mulls over her words. "But I doubt they'd trust you to handle something like that alone."

"That," Thrawn says, with only the faintest flicker of humor, "is entirely unsurprising. And, from my point of view, both reasonable and acceptable. Depending on who they might wish to send with me, of course. A certain type of rigid thinking would be . . . difficult to work with."

See: the majority of the Imperial officers Hera used to work against.

"I think I have some idea of who'll they'll send."

It's the first time she blinks away, looking toward one of the walls. But before she speaks again, she straightens, and looks back to him.

"Is there anything else you want to know, or that you'd want them to know?"

"Some idea," he repeats, studying Hera for a long, quiet moment.

"Is that information you might be willing to share with me? Or shall I merely wait."

Another pause.

"As for the rest, if there is information to be had about current ship and weapons technology, as well as the current state of affairs on all current fronts -- I'd like to begin my reading as soon as possible."

"I'll make sure that happens, after I've talked to them about what you want."

Hera unfolds her hands, pressing them on the table as she rises from the chair.

"I hope you haven't gotten tired of me."

He raises one eyebrow again.

"I rather think the opposite question is more pertinent, Hera Syndulla."

She, after all, never did manage to destroy anything Thrawn loved.

"Though for my part, you are quite as interesting as ever."

She looks back down to him.

"I'll do what I have to."

Thrawn continues to look up at her, fingers clasped in front of him.

"For as long as it takes?"

Given that neither of them can have any idea how long that will be.

She stay still, her hands on the back of her chair.

And then, she admits, "I already considered not coming back."

"A reasonable choice, I would think."

He is not smiling now.

"And yet here you are."

"Here we are."

Hera releases the chair, and turns to leave.

"Indeed."

Another momentary silence.

"Return quickly, if you can, Hera Syndulla. We both well know how rapidly the fortunes of war can shift."

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