“Someone is looking happier,” a voice crackled over a comlink. Ty swooped in on the back of her own sanval, tendrils pushed back by the rush of air.

“Right back at you,” he yelled into the comm.

“How many have you taken down so far?” she called over as their mounts came alongside each other.

“It’s not a competition.”

“You do remember I’ve seen inside your head, right?”

He was about to respond when laser bolts tore between them. He craned around to see a single-seater Nihil fighter attempting to bring down a Skyhawk. Ty didn’t wait. With a cry she brought her sanval around and dropped on the marauder like a hawk, the reptile biting clean through the Nihil’s wing. The fighter spun to the ground, smashing into an already wrecked pavilion, its pilot dying instantly.

Ty whooped in triumph, reminding Elzar how different they were. She may have been trained as a Jedi, but she’d wandered far from the path. Perhaps this was the reason they’d been brought together, part of his atonement. If he could show her the way it should be …

He scanned the ground below him, finding the perfect opportunity. A Nihil speeder bike was bearing down on a blood-soaked Crolute who was running for his life. The saggy-skinned amphibian wouldn’t get far, not at the rate the speeder was traveling, its outriggers tipped with pointed bayonets that would impale the runner in seconds.

Luckily for the Crolute, Elzar’s sanval was faster.

He urged the dragon into a dive, and the beast opened its maw wide, ready to swallow the Nihil whole.

No. Not like that, girl, Elzar thought. There’s been enough death.

The creature’s jaws snapped shut and instead the sanval skimmed low, pushing what was left of the war-cloud aside with the beat of her wings. The Nihil twisted in their saddle, their eyes widening behind grease-smeared goggles as the sanval closed the gap. With a swing of her scaled head, the sanval thwacked the Nihil from their perch, the now pilotless vehicle rolling straight for the Crolute. The amphibian tripped, landing in a heap of blubber, the speeder passing harmlessly over them, guided by a helpful nudge from Elzar. Nearby, the grounded Nihil watched their bike explode against a wall and, snatching a blaster from their belt, prepared to take their revenge against the helpless Crolute.

Typical bully, Elzar thought as he brought the sanval back up, too scared to pick on someone your own size. He probably shouldn’t have enjoyed the dragon flicking the Nihil shooter into the air with the tip of her tail, but was sure the Force would forgive him in the long run, especially as it would be a lesson to Ty that she didn’t always have to kill.