Thanks for all the replies everyone. Peenk waited as the carrier landed, it's ramp already extended. When it touched down, Marko, in his black armor, walked down accompanied by a very tall man with red hair. The Corellian eyed him cautiously. "Zell?" He smiled as he gave her a small nod. But that smile quickly died when she tore into him. "You selfish asshole!" She shouted, jerking her bodyguards to attention. Peenk seldom swore like that. "Do you have any fucking idea what you put people through? People risked their lives to find you. And the damned government has come down hard on my mother, demanding to know why she's involved in a military action on Coruscant. She's gone to meet the Vice-President to explain what's happened!" All Zell could do was point to himself in shock, but the woman was not going to let him speak, "And you've scared the hell out of Baby and your sisters. Baby has been making herself sick worrying about you. She was stuck out on Moscow for more than two weeks, not knowing if you were even alive," The tall man glared at Peenk for a moment, then waved her off with both hands and walked away. "Where the hell are you going?" She shouted at Zell's receding back. "Don't you dare walk away from me when I'm talking to you!" "Peenk," Marko spoke quietly from behind her. "Shut the hell up!" Peenk spun about on Marko, but he just made a slashing motion across his throat. "I said shut up!" He continued calmly. "Once again, you are overreacting." "Don't tell me I'm overreacting!" The blond said furiously. "Well what would you call it?" The man asked in frustration. "Damn it, the boy doesn't need you making matters worse for him. Baby has already made it clear that she's going to give him hell. Same for Joshua. So he doesn't need you adding to his troubles! He told me why he did it, and I can't say that I disagree." The woman glared at the man for a second before nodding. She then glanced about. "Where are the others?" She asked warily. "Well, Karyn, Kaleena, Ano, and Ugly are taking some prisoners to SecFor. The others are running an errand." "What kind of errand?" Peenk asked, knowing that Marko was hiding something. Marko closed his eyes and sighed. "They took Joshua to the hospital to get a burn on his back taken care of." "And how did he get burned there?" The blonde asked slowly. "He was wearing a breast plate." "Mulk kind of shot him in the back." "Mulk did not take a blaster!" Peenk said quickly. "So how could he shoot him in the back?" "It happened when the blaster on a droideka he threw against the wall misfired," Peenk took a step toward Marko. "Zell led them to a lab guarded by droidekas?" The Corellian was now seething. "Droidekas?" "He didn't know they were there," Marko reasured her calmly. "One of the locals said that they were brought there about twenty years ago. Evidently they were brought in and placed in two hidden rooms." "And of course there was a command droid there as well." "Of course," He told her. "But that does not matter now. It's over and he's back. Just give it a rest," Peenk stood staring at the clone for several seconds before shaking her head. "How bad is it with Joshua, really?" She asked. "Deni said it'll take about an hour, and he'll be on his way home. That breast plate you bought kept him from a three, four day hospital stay she said." "Deni?" A smile slowly spread over Corell Peenk's face. "You had sex with her, didn't you!" "Every chance I get, girl!" Marko said with a grin. "She's a wild one. And she has some interesting friends, too. And Sanva really likes her!" Peenk shook her head one last time and walked for the exit. "I'm going to find Zell," She told Marko. "He's going to need some new clothes, I don't think his old ones will fit. I'll take him to one of my shops and then to Merzer's." Zell dropped the boxes and bags he'd brought with him by the door. The entire apartment was dark except the bedroom. He slowly crept for the door and peered in. He could hear Baby moving about in the bathroom. He sighed, dreading what she had to say. But he also knew that he deserved her wrath. Just as he deserved the anger of everyone else. From his sisters, to Joshua, to Peenk, all the way to Marko. Marko had made it clear what he thought of Zell worrying everyone, and then putting their lives in danger when they went to find him. Marko, Stefan, and Kipper had taken a liking to Zell when he helped stop the Empire's operations on one of Magenta's mining planets. And they found his actions to be reprehensible. He shook his head as he quietly stepped through the door. "Get your ass in here Zell," The Twi'lek's voice floated in from the adjoining room. "It's time to talk." The redhead strode over to the platform that their bed sat on and turned as the door to the bathroom opened and Baby stepped out. Zell's chest tightened as he saw her glide across the room as only a Twi'lek could. She was dressed in a very skimpy bra and pair of panties. But Zell didn't see that, he only saw her black painted lekku. Seeing the direction of his gaze she nodded. "Yes, they are still painted black. You are not getting off the hook that easily, mister!" She said as she thrust a finger into his chest. "I danced Eternity for you, and you kissed me, accepting me. So we will get married." "I want nothing more," He whispered. Baby then pounded his chest with her fist. "Now tell me why you did this! I was happy the way you were!" "But I wasn't!" Zell shot back, intensely. "You don't know what it was like being that small, that weak, that fragile, when everyone around you was an athlete! My father, my sisters, the cadets at Carida." "Being strong physically isn't that important, Zell." "The hell it's not!" He said emphatically. He looked about the room for a second before turning back. "Two men died at Carida in my first year teaching there, because I was too weak. The first was one of the other computer science instructors. It seems he didn't like the fact that the top position in our department was given to a thirteen year old, so he was going to vent his anger on me. It seems he had a bit of a drinking problem!" He stared out at nothing for a second before going on. "If I'd been a normal sized teen, I could easily have fought him off. But I was too weak, too small. And that was when I discovered that Imperial Intelligence had secretly assigned two bodyguards to me," Zell's eyes now bore into Baby's. "They shot him eighteen times. All because I could not fight him off!" Then a sad expression dropped over his face. "The second to die was one of my students, in a terrorist bombing of three classes and the computer lab at school. We were on the eighth floor of the lab when half of it collapsed. He'd lost his right arm at the elbow and was hanging on with his left. I tried to pull him up, or at least hold him until one of my bodyguards could get to us. But I just wasn't fucking strong enough. I lost my grip and had to watch helplessly as he fell to the rubble below." Baby wrapped her arms around her man. "And do you want to know what hurts the most?" He asked her. "It was the fact that seven hundred twenty one people actually died because of me that day." "What do you mean?" Baby asked, stunned at this news. "Those bombs were meant to kill me. Alliance Intelligence had learned of the Wonder Kid as they called me, and where I was. And so they went after me." "But you were thirteen!" Baby said in shock. "You were a kid!" "I was a kid whose students were hurting the Alliance. Don't forget, this was war. I would have done the same thing if I were in their position. But enough about that. It's all in the past. All I'm interested in now is the two of us."