Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars
Big thank you to all of you who read the first chapter, even though I have no idea if you turned away after first few sentences... anyway, it really made my day.
So, here's the next chapter. I hope it clears some things up in this mess:) do forgive me for couple if grammar mistakes, I didn't know what to do to them.
"Skywalker, we have a problem"
"I noticed, this can turn rather interesting, but..." He was silent for a moment, then Mara noticed it too. All around them in the palace and the city, probably all over the planet, alarms went off. It could mean only one thing; in the skies above a battle had started to form, but that wasn't what worried her. What worried her was the sense of tread that went through her as if something big was going to happen. "... it has to wait 'til later." He finished his sentence.
At the same moment lights went on in one of the commandpanels followed by a low beebing noise. They went to investigate the panel. It showed miscellaneous statistics and codes, intertwined with some holographs. They soon found the source of the beebing; it was a message, requesting permission for action. And it was coming from...
"The Galaxy gun! They're going to prime it!" She realised. But Luke was way ahead of her.
"Palpatine would never have allowed the only commanding panel to be in the Gun incase the were weapon to fall in the enemy hands. He's got to have an override switch somewhere." He jumped to the massive throne, which was pretty much still intact though visibly gone through a rough treatment; the throne had lost part of it's backrest, 'Maybe because of what ever it was he did to emperor, the destruction is way more contained than back in Wayland', Mara thought as Luke sat down and started going through the holoscreens that had appeared on command.
As Luke sat on the throne, which Mara thought made him look like a complete stranger, She finally realised what had happened; the emperor was dead, she was finally free and so was the galaxy.
She went through that moment of victory again in her head and suddenly the feeling of relief was replaced with a feeling of awe, of how the force had answered to Luke's call. The jedi was even more powerful than she would have ever guessed. The force had practically sang and done his bidding at the slightest nudge, Mara felt her self very lucky to have stood witness to such an amazing moment. But then she remembered how Skywalker had practically torn Palpatine to pieces without as much as a bat of an eye, and sent him to that place, place that Mara hadn't even known existed, let alone knew what it exactly had been.
Mara shuddered at the memory of it, she wasn't sure if the word 'farmboy' was truly a correct word to describe him. He could actually be rather scary, a far cry from the ignorant fellow he sometimes seemed to be. And he hadn't actually been the kind and calm jedi the galaxy knew him as either.
Mara realised, that perhaps she had finally gotten to see the real man behind the mask, a man who had to hide his power in fear of... no, Mara thought, never in fear, to make sure not to bring any harm to those around him. A man who had seen far too much, whose shoulders were burdened with the weight of the galaxy, who couldn't truly be himself even in the presence of his loved ones, a man constantly dancing on the edge of the darkness, trying to keep the balance. A lonely man with no-one to rely on, with no-one to understand how he really feeling deep inside of his unbreachable jediheart.
"It's not a mask, just something others want to see, what they expect. They need and want a hero, not a tired and broken man", came a weary response.
"Stay out of my..."
"... head, I know, but the thing is that I can't do a damn thing if you keep on marching around my head, where I honestly have no idea you got to in the first place", was an answer that rather efficiently shut her mouth.
She rose her shields even higher pulling herself into farthest corner of her mind to stay away from his when she realised; it wasn't no-one. She had gotten in. She had for a single moment known him as he truly was. She had felt the scars and wounds in his soul and she had treated them the best she could with her lov... no it was not love... she was Mara Jade for Forces sake! She had no time for such nonsense! Especially with some farmboy. She would not, could not... right?
'But Mara, didn't you just decide he is not just a farmboy?' a part of her argued back.
'Well yes, but...' Her inner argument got interrupted by a sudden:
"Got it!" Luke said and made some 'corrections' to the Galaxy gun. "It's only a matter of time until they realise what I did, you think we could get a message to the New Rebuplic fleet above from here?"
"It's worth a try, the communications have probably been cut off but knowing Palpatine... it's worth a shot. Anyway, they need to know about the Gun being functional. Also try to make it quick, once they realise what happened this place will be swarming with troopers." Mara said. She was actually rather surprised of how no-one had yet to notice Palpatine's passing from this world, but with the sabotage done with the Emperor's personal datadesk, and Emperor not contacting the station himself, it was only a matter of time until someone counted one plus one. She was pretty sure the troopers were already closer than she would've minded.
Apparently Skywalker had realised the same thing himself as his fingers were again flying on the control panels.
On board Home One, many high-ranking New Republic Navy officers, including former smuggler Han Solo, stood in the briefing room with grim smiles on their faces. They had just received a short message from Lando Calrissian who was going to pull a stunt worth Rogues. It was a risky plan but so far they hadn't gotten any better ideas on how to breach the planetary defence and destroy the Galaxy Gun preferably before it could be used against them.
What made Han worry more was that they had heard nothing of Jade since she had set course to Byss nearly 23 standard hours ago, from her last transmission point. And even more worried Han was over Luke. The Kid had gone missing five days ago whilst distracting the Imperials that had tried to bring Jacen and Jaina to the emperor. The children, Leia and Winter had been found safe and sound, but the jedi had gone missing.
It wasn't 'til few days ago when Mara suddenly contacted the NR demanding to know where Luke was and why darkness was growing around his presence in the Force, that they had gotten any leads on where the emperor was hiding not only Luke, but also a new weapon of mass destruction, himself and a one big bad fleet of imperial trouble. And all this just because Mara had reassured she could track the jedi, and track him she did. Now 23 hours later Han was starting to fear the worst.
"Sir, we've got incoming transmission from the surface", announced a young communications officer, from the side of the room.
"Put it through", the mon calamari admiral requested.
"But sir, it's coming on the Emperor's private frequency."
"Put it through", Ackbar repeated grimly.
The atmosphere was far from grim when they realised who was making the call.
"Luke!" Han shouted in surprise; "oh, am I glad to see you, but what are you doing? How did you get your hands on that transmitter?" The relief on his voice was easy to detect.
"Easy Solo, let him speak", one of the others said.
"More importantly where is the emperor?" Was the next question from the group.
" The emperor is dead. This time permanently. I'm making the call from his private transmitter, but we've got a problem; they are trying to use the Gun. I'm doing my best to prevent it from here but it's only a matter of time before... sithspit! Mara, see if you can jam those doors, we're getting company." The cheers his announcement of Palpatine's death had evoked were soon replaced with quiet concern over the rest of the report.
"Miss Jade is there with you I presume?" Ackbar said.
"Yep, I'm here!" Came a shout somewhere outside the holoprojector: "and you gyus owe me big time." A loud boom could be heard from the throne room, then a wooshing noise as if blaster doors where shut; "probably a first time I'm happy that Palpatine was a paranoid nutcase, those doors should hold them for a moment!" Mara shouted.
"Luke", Ackbar said:"we have a plan for the Gun's destruction, but I'm afraid we need you to keep it malfunctioning until we can destroy it."
For a moment Luke looked past them all, 'probably Mara', Han thought 'Kid is always worried of his friends. Even if she tried to kill him at first.' Then the jedi responded; "We will stay and protect the override as long as we can."
"Kid, before you promise anything, remember Arvel Crynyd?"
"Are you insane? That's the plan?"
"That's the best we could come up with", Han sounded rather apologetic.
"Who?"
"Lando, and R2 will deal with the details."
"I should've known. Fine, we'll hold this place as long as necessary and then try to make it off of this rock. May the force be with us all", Luke said and cut the transmission.
So, what do you think? Anything good? What needs to be improved?
read and review:)
