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And yet…

"You mattered to someone," Div said. "You were someone, once." Because that was true. Someone had been born, had a mother, a father, maybe a brother. Someone had been taken by the Empire, had his memories scrubbed away. Turned into a killer. Maybe it wasn't Trever—but it could have been.

And Div wouldn't have wanted Trever to die alone, no matter what he'd done.

He rested a hand on X-7's shoulder. "You mattered. Brother."

The ghost of a smile crossed X-7's face. He closed his eyes. Div's hand stayed where it was, rising and falling with X-7's shallow breaths, until the breaths stopped.

"He's gone," Ferus said softly behind him.

Div had almost forgotten he was there. "Good riddance," Div said harshly. He stood up. "Let's get out of here before this place blows." Luke was gone. They had thirty minutes—if Luke had set the timer as planned. But nothing else had gone as planned. So they fled the building, Ferus's flashing lightsaber cutting down the few Imperials foolish enough to step into their path. Div's wound throbbed with every step, but he ignored the pain.

They ran side by side, their footfalls in sync. But when they finally stopped, a safe distance away from the garrison, Div turned his back before Ferus could speak.

"Div," Ferus reached for him. Div jerked away. "You're angry," Ferus said. "What is it?"

I'm always angry, Div thought. From their perch on a nearby hill, he watched the garrison, waiting for it to burst into flame. Picturing the look on X-7's face just before the life drained from his eyes.

The building exploded. The ground shook. Flames licked the sky.

It's all happening again, Div thought. Watching an explosion from the hills while his brother's body burned. Not my brother, he thought. But someone's.

"Aren't you angry?" he finally asked without looking at Ferus. "He sent your friends into an ambush. If we hadn't stopped him just now, he would have murdered Luke."

"You're not angry at him," Ferus said with that maddening Jedi certainty. "You're angry at yourself. For being misled?" He narrowed his eyes, then shook his head. "No, I don't think that's it."

"Do you need me here for this conversation?" Div asked irritably. "Seems like you already have all the answers."

Ferus just waited. Div could be a patient man, but he had the feeling that Ferus could wait forever. And while it would be easy enough to turn his back and leave…he didn't.

"Yes, I'm angry!" he spat out. "That I let him die thinking he was Trever. That I let myself…"

"That you let yourself think he was Trever," Ferus prompted. "Even for just a moment. You let yourself hope. Nothing wrong with that."

"It was a stupid, childish fantasy," Div growled. "Coincidences like that only happen in storybooks. In real life, you lose people, they stay lost. The galaxy doesn't bring them back to you. Your precious Force doesn't make the galaxy any less empty."

"It's less empty now," Ferus said. "Now that the Force has brought you back to me.

And me back to you."

Div snorted. "And what good is that? We're both broken, Ferus. Or haven't you noticed?"

"The Force doesn't always give us what we want, or even what we need," Ferus said.

"But it always gives us something we can use. To survive."

"And that's exactly what we do," Div said bitterly. "Survive. Good for us."

"Yes, Lune."

Div didn't correct the name. And when Ferus put a hand on his shoulder, Div didn't shrug him off. Ferus smiled sadly. "Good for us."

The garrison was burning, a towering inferno that set the horizon ablaze. The stormtroopers in the surrounding hills had abandoned their fight with the Rebels and were doing their best to combat the flames. But it was no use. Slowly but surely, the garrison was crumbling to the ground. It was just one building—but it was enough to spark a fire in the heart of every Belazuran who chafed at Imperial control.

As word of the successful attack spread around the city, the Belazurans remembered what it had been like ten years before, when they'd still had the will to fight. And