Shin looked up at her, eyes wider than normal. "Sabine—this isn't. This is not—It was going off, I wanted to just turn off the ringer-"

     "... Really, Shin? All this time, just to turn around and pull *this*?" She didn't give her a chance to say anything, reaching forward and snatching the comm from her hands, immediately deactivating it so they couldn't keep the signal going. "You didn't mean anything you said, did you? This whole thing—was it all just a ploy for information? On me? On the Republic?"

     "It wasn't, I swear on the force, Sabine Wren—O-On the graves of my family-" Shin was suddenly feeling the weakest she ever had as her hands hung open, empty from the object rightfully snatched away from her. "I need you to trust and believe me!"

     "Trust you? Shin, I just heard you tell Baylan, one of our most sworn Republic enemies, that you'd be reaching out to him "when the time was right". Do you have some explanation for that? How do I know he's not already on his way here, to dismantle the New Republic and everything we've built?" Sabine just shook her head, looking away from her. She wanted to believe her, more than anything... but she didn't want to be naive either. "I thought you were here because you *want* to be... because you care about us."

     "I wasn't going to give away my location to the man who wants you all out of his way... I wasn't going to reveal to him where I was—I. I am *done* trying to explain this... if you don't trust me, lock me up again. I don't care. Send me to the Republic cells."

     "Perhaps you don't care, but I *do*. I care about—about us. About you." Sabine just collapsed into the nearby chair, at a complete loss for what to do. She didn't want to send Shin away, she just... she was never good at talking things through. Sabine looked down at the comm in her hands, staying silent for several moments. "Do you want to be here? Be truthful."

     Shin took a moment to reply to this, trying to explain this the best way she could. "Of course I do... Sabine, if I didn't want to be here, your friends would be dead."

     "Then *talk* to me. What was that call about? Why did you answer it...?" She asked, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible. "We can't run from your past the entire time you're here... it won't work."

     "I heard it going off... I was curious." Shin started. "I didn't know it worked here... especially since all of the tech here operates under different frequencies. I just wanted to know how it was working in the first place and who could be trying to reach it given that information... I didn't expect Baylan."

     "... They're looking for you, that's what's going on." Sabine said finally, as if she was piecing everything together. "And they'll keep looking for you... especially after that call. I—... we need a game plan. An actual one."

     Shin began to nod slowly. "We do—very much so... we need to tell someone—we... should get General Syndulla. She could be the only one who won't kill us for being perceived as traitors... or whatever the Republic does."

     "No one's going to *hurt* you, Shin... but that being said, you're right. Assuming... that everything you're saying is true, this means that they've found a way to get into our comm frequency, and that's bad." Sabine looked over at her. "... I'm sorry. For being so quick to assume the worst. I'm not always the best when it comes to... feelings."

     "I can forgive you... I understand I may not seem like the most trustworthy person. But I don't want to just be seen as Shin Hati, dark Jedi and wrongdoer..." She said honestly.

     "I don't think that—not about you. It's just..." she sighed lightly, turning her chair around to face her. "I don't want to lose anybody else. That goes for you too, Shin. I want to trust you—I *do* trust you."

     "I can promise you this, I will not be lost to you." Shin stood, reaching hands out to Sabine. "I trust you with all my being, and to know you you trust me means the world."

     Sabine gently took her hands, very carefully pulling the woman closer to her. "We'll have to discuss all of this with Hera. She's the only one here who... gets family, in the way that I—that we—do." She gently brushed her thumb over the back of her hands. "But we'll be alright, I promise."

     Shin gave the other woman's hands a reassuring squeeze. "We will be alright. We just need to continue to trust the other. We have to be open. We'll tell Hera when the morning comes... and we can tell her we plotted the starmaps."

     "With the Starmaps plotted out, things will probably move... quickly through the Republic." Sabine nodded slowly. "But that's what we've been preparing for... and if I'm going to go out into the unknown, I'd rather be doing it with you right there, at my side."

     Keeping their hands linked, Shin sat on the floor beside Sabine's chair as she rested her head against the other. "We go together... and we fight together." She said, almost as a promise to seal their conversation.