Aria closed a hand around her lightsaber hilts in preparation as a twiggy-looking man rounded the corner,  almost immediately relaxing. He wasn't dangerous, Bex was right.  Nothing they couldn't handle even in their current state, and if all else failed Chwuq and Taral would make quick work of him. His hazel eyes darted to the hounds, imploring that they ask them to not eviscerate him. She waited until his weapon was holstered before she coughed out. “Down.” they skittered back to her side but were still eyeing the man warily. He apparently had drugs which they couldn't exactly turn down in their current state though his questions they could have done without (and while she was sure they DID probably smell about as attractively as a Rancor pit, she didn't appreciate him voicing that out loud). Zora suggested they kill him and be done with it, Aria almost wanted to agree but dammit her entire torso hurt, blurry black splotches danced at the edge of her field of vision. She took the offered bottle from Bex as he held it out to her and downed it in one gulp. Breathing (and talking) started to hurt less. 
“Thanks.” she muttered to the brown haired man. Suddenly, as they were talking amongst themselves about what they were going to do now (going back to Zinuthra seemed to be the general consensus of their next step), the shifty man spoke up again, seeming to realise they must have come here on a ship of some kind. 
“No.” Zora growled almost instantly. Elara seemed to be thinking otherwise. Despite her own apprehension, she had learned to trust Elara's judgement. The woman's strategical expertise had rivaled that of anyone she had known, including Roan at times. If Elara thought they could trust him then that's what they would do. Besides, as long as this Junoco was with them they had access to medication that could relieve their ailments, which Elara was also of ample skill to carry out. He turned out to be rather speedy at “packing his things”, probably as a result of being a smuggler and any number of the other things he had mentioned. They made their way back to the ship at a slightly quicker pace, then debated at length whether to deposit Junoco on Coruscant before returning to Zinuthra. 
“He has information about what happened on Nar Shaddaa, right?” Aria pointed out, wincing as crossing her arms over her chest made her ribs throb again. “We need him to tell the Elders what he saw. What he knows about the Xiis.” she turned to Junoco before he could interrupt, explaining. “Those are ‘the blue guys’, by the way. That's what they're called.” without meaning to sound quite as condescending as it had come out. “Coruscant’s light-years away, we don't have time for that kind of detour. He comes with us to Zinuthra.” 
“Hey, hey hey! You promised!” Junoco protested. 
“You give us the information we need, we drop you off on Coruscant next time we head out. That's how you smugglers work right,  give something get something?”
She jabbed a finger in his direction, teetering ever so slightly from the effort. “But if you even THINK about giving us false intel,” she focused as much as she could through the pain medications fuzziness that began to cloud her mind. Let his lungs tighten for a few brief seconds to remind him she could just as easily kill him with or without Havoc's help. “I will snap your neck like a toothpick while Bex holds you down and stops you escaping, got it?” 
The smuggler nodded so vigorously she thought for a moment his head might pop right off his shoulders. If only she hadn't been too worried about Yerbol to find it funny. They punched in Zinuthra's coordinates and everybody crashed in the various crew quarters as they attempted to recover from their wounds. Junoco flitted between each member along with Elara  (once she had slept a while) to administer medical treatment where necessary. Aria had tried insisting that she didn't need their help (or want the smuggler anywhere near her for that matter), but at some point the previous dose of medication had worn off and the pain had become so intense that she nearly passed out. 
It was the closest thing she got to sleep the entire trip back. She couldn't sleep, not without Yerbol there. Her mind wandered to all manner of disturbing places, catastrophizing about what the Xiis might be doing to him. She tried to meditate and reestablish their Force link again, to reach out to him just to hear his voice, but was met with a solid wall of fuzzy unconsciousness each time she tried. Chwuq and Taral stayed with her, grunt-whining anxiously to pull her back to reality before she became too disassociated by pushing herself too far. 
“Who’s Yerbol?” Junoco’s voice startled her, apparently she had been mumbling aloud along with her mental attempts to reach him. “If they are in fact a person and not a uh...a ‘what’, I guess?” Elara's glare mirrored her own.
“I told you not to bring it up.”
“None of your business, that's what!” Aria snapped sharply, rising stiffly to her feet as the ship announced their arrival on Zinuthra. She made her way towards the loading ramp after Bex, Abbeth and Zora with the tomb beasts, Elara and their new ally behind her. Vano, Cheriss, and Matthew were waiting for them in the docking area. 
“What's the Loth cat dragged in?” Cheriss snorted as she eyed Junoco up and down with a flash of contempt in her eyes.
“Yerbol…?” Vano frowned, noting that the dynamic duo were down to one. 
Aria tried to keep a straight face, tried to explain what had happened without her voice cracking, but it wasn't all that successful. 
She shook her head, choking out. “There were so many of them….tried to get everyone out, thought he was right behind me. I lost him, I lost him…” Vano pulled her into a hug only to abruptly release her as Aria shouted out in pain.
“Think my ribs are broken...please don't do that again…”
“That's it, we're getting you to the medbay right now. Elara can fill Master Carnagie and Master Matare in on what happened.”
“I don't need to go to medbay, Va! I'm FINE! Just...aches a little.” Aria groaned in protest.