A/N: Here we go kids! Star Wars isn't mine blah, blah, blah, this is just for fun. Only the OC's are mine and the fun I get from writing this! Onward! Plz review!

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SW Ep. V: Jedi Assassin Ch.2—Face-Off

"So, your buddies are sure these weapons are good to go, right?" Han whispered for the 20th time.

He stopped just behind Luke, who was geared up in his black assassin-armor, blaster raised- the signal to halt.

He, Luke, with Chewie close behind came to a corridor's end; Luke checked the adjacent halls before moving on.

They had used Luke's ship, the skiff called Revenant in stealth mode with Han's cargo ship disguised as a well…cargo ship.

Under the guise of 'delivering supplies' to Fondor, complete with false ID tags, codes and all other bells and whistles courtesy of Luke's two laiasons, Link and Mouse, they had altered Han's ship from a very recognizable smuggler's vessel to a very discreet Imperial-standard-issue freighter.

Han's loud objections to 'desecrating' his ship had died when Luke informed him it was his own fault. Han was coming with because Fett had commed Luke threatening him to stand aside so he could bring in Solo to Jabba the Hutt. Han forbade Luke to kill Jabba for fear of a crime war.

So, Luke reminded Han it was his own doing; Han was quiet—till he starting objecting loudly again.

Han's loud objections had died when Luke had subtly reminded him that Leia would be very impressed and pleasantly surprised that Han had contributed to the mission—and who knew how she'd reward him for it.

From that point it was clear Han wanted to object, but then would think about Leia and he'd fall silent.

At least till he started asking Luke if the new rapid-fire-super blasters Link and Mouse had 'made in their spare time,' would actually work.

"Quiet," Luke distractedly said, looking carefully either way.

"Your scanners aren't picking up"—Han started.

"No, but the Empire will have stealth tech on this ship," Luke cut in, only half paying attention to the other man. "Link, Mouse, you there?"

Over his helmet's comm he got them.

"Yeah, boss," came Link's voice.

"Where is everyone?" Luke asked, beginning to feel edgy.

"Our scanners are clear too," Mouse replied, "and…you know our tech is way above the Empire's. The ship is deserted."

Luke hissed. Han softly groaned behind him.

"I smell a trap," the smuggler said.

"Doesn't matter," Luke replied, and Chewie harned in agreement, "we have to get to the main reactor. We make that thing blow, the whole ship goes up." He waved. "C'mon."

As they moved on, Luke's entire body was bunching up in knots. The last five months since Yavin, he and the 'group' had traveled from one side of the galaxy to the other, ferreting out and destroying all of the Empire's super-initiatives. They killed every scientist except Xux—Luke had spared her when Fade looked into her innocent, child-like mind and saw nothing but a naïve dupe—leveled and razed every weapon and installation, hoping to draw Imperial attention away from the super-ship. After all, the super ship was much closer to completion and therefore the greater threat. But, while some Imperial agents had clearly been sent after them, it wasn't the extent that Luke had been hoping for.

He held back the sigh. The fact was, the Empire surely was aware they were targeting this ship, and the lack of personnel meant they didn't want Imperial lives in jeopardy—for once.

That on some level was heartening, ever so slightly.

As they neared the main reactor, the loud hum of the massive construction dispersing and generating energy became more pronounced. Luke took in the cavernous chamber.

The super-ships reactor area was a dizzying high structure, with the bright azure-gold-white bands of energy being siphoned through lit tube-like conduits, readout panels and control gauges every few meters, regulating the power.

Brilliant, state of the art…and a very vulnerable target.

Luke, Han and Chewie stepped closer, scrutinizing the chamber for agents or traps.

Nocturne, the cyber-falcon who had partnered with Luke years ago, was perched on his shoulder, using his own adept equipment to pick out problems.

"Anything Noc?"

Noc only shook his navy-feathered head.

Luke's other partner, the Force Ethereal, Fade, was hovering at his side, her purple cat-eyes narrowed.

I sense dark blotches in the Force, friend, she suddenly said.

Luke looked around. "Where?"

All around us, but it is hard for me to place exactly where.

All around them, black and scarlet-clad figures appeared from behind secret panels, dropped from the ceiling on cables, and rushed in through the various entrances.

"Well," Han said, "I can tell you exactly where they're coming from."

Luke elbowed him.

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Han shook his head as Luke shouted and pushed him behind a control station.

So, this was how the kid kept people safe, huh? Han thought.

He reflexively pulled out his own blaster and returned fire as the kid whipped out those creepy sabers that came out of their sheaths as daggers and then the nano-tech made them 'grow' into lethal long-swords. The kid jumped lithely into the largest concentration of Imps and started cleaving out punishment.

No one crossed the Specter and lived; Han had seen it again and again. The kid was an escaped science experiment some crazy geneticist had tried to put together for some underlord—but the kid had escaped, with the bird and ghost-cat, two other experiments.

Han didn't ever let himself think about what else that mad scientist had been cooking up in that playhouse of his. It was for the best the kid had leveled it to dust and hunted and killed all the survivors.

Some things were better just left alone; making monsters one of them.

One of the Imps shot the blaster from Han's hand. He saw more of them swarm into the chamber as the kid cut, flipped, Force-levitated all sorts of heavy stuff and crushed his opponents under it.

A piece of the wall tore free and a group of 12 or so yelled as Han heard their bones smash under it.

It was a sickening noise; he swallowed, but the kid didn't seem to blink, cutting off a man's head a second later.

Chewie shook him, harning loudly.

"Yeah, I know, the hitch," Han grumbled as he ducked down and prepped the two blasters Link and Mouse had borrowed to him—at his insistence.

He knew they'd encounter no end of hitches once they got here. Hitches followed him like an obsessed ex; never left him alone.

Well, this time, he was ready. He finished punching in the command codes and twisting this knob, pulling that lever and such to 'prep' the blasters.

And then, they…got bigger?

It was crazy, the blasters, suddenly, their parts started contorting, shifting, moving around with weird grating noises, were at the end six times bigger than before!

"All right!" Han yelled gleefully. "Let's test these out!" He yanked them up from the ground, grunting at the weight, and whipped them towards the fight.

"Yeah!" he bellowed. "You want me hitches!? This time, I'm ready!"

Chewie took in the two enormous blasters and harned in dismay, looking at his bow-caster.

Han spun on him. "What do you mean you're not ready?"

Another harn.

"I told you to be ready! Hitches always come for us!"

Chewie made some noises and waved a furry hand.

"What do you mean, they only come for me?"

A blaster bolt skidded by his ear. Luke kicked someone in the face and whirled on Han.

"Han, you idiot! Fire!"

Han gaped angrily. "I am not"—

Chewie bellowed.

"Okay! Okay! I'm firing!" He pulled the triggers.

Gatling-style fire erupted from the two mega-blasters shooting in all directions. Imp after Imp toppled over, not reaching cover in time. Only Luke seemed nimble enough to evade getting hit.

Noc dived beneath a console, having hacked into their systems with one of his claws.

And Fade, well, she was nebulous, intangible, so the fire when right through her.

"Ah!" Han shouted, pulling at the various controls on the weapons.

"Han, stop firing!" Luke yelled.

"I can't! I mean! I'm trying! They won't turn off!"

"Duck!" Luke shouted. He ran, stooping, back to Han and Chewie and scooped up Noc before they darted out of the room, crouched down.

No one was alive to pursue them.

Several halls later they paused to regroup and catch their breath.

"What was that!?" Luke demanded, gesturing angrily.

"Hey, don't blame me! It was your buddies' defective hardware"—

"Whoa!" Link said over their comms. "Did that two-credit smuggler just call our stuff 'defective'?!"

Han pointed to his earpiece impatiently. "You two and your no-account"—

A nearby wall blew in just as Fade stiffened—

Luke heard the tell-tale sound of lightsabers being ignited.

He leapt to his feet, brandishing his own blades anew as twenty Sith Inquisitors surrounded them.

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Luke wasted no time leaping onto the nearest desk before doing a high-backwards flip over their new attackers, opening fire as he soared over them.

Some of the blaster bolts were deflected back to him; he blocked them with his vambraces.

He didn't truly expect to deliver harm, but it was a great means to deflect attention off Han and Chewie and onto himself.

He noticed Noc carefully plug into a nearby terminal.

Good bird!

"Ghost! We need backup!" he called.

"On our way; we just finished with the control center," she reported.

Good, Fondor's actual facility was successfully sabotaged then.

He fought on as Han and Chewie fired into the melee, trying to not hit him.

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Han wondered just how much longer they could do this.

The fact was, without the cat, they would have lost already.

As Luke viciously fought, ripping the floor from beneath the Sith and crushing them in it, Fade would glow with power, before releasing it in brilliant amethyst flashes, stunning the Inquisitors.

The problem was they kept flooding in, sabers held high and robes flowing.

How did the Empire have so many!?

Han clenched his jaw as he fired. "Chewie," he suddenly said, "follow my lead."

After all, this trick worked on the Death Star.

"Hey!" he yelled, standing up, "You Sith wanna a real opponent, I took out Vader's TIE, any of you Sith enough to face me!?"

Everyone turned at once to face him.

"Han, are you—?" Luke shouted.

Han gaped at all the yellow eyes impaling him. "Oh," he said and ran for it.

"Ahhhhhhh!" he yelled as he bolted out of the room, over 50 Sith in livid pursuit, sabers waving around angrily.

Chewie wailed as he rushed after them.

"Uh, did I just see that?" Link asked.

Oh yeah, they were uploading the visuals from Luke's helmet.

"Ugh, you did," Luke said, sheathing his blades and pulling out a special set of blasters.

He sprinted after Han, not thinking that Noc was still hidden away.

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Okay, so maybe this wasn't his best idea after all.

Han couldn't stop himself from yelling himself hoarse as he ran faster than he ever did before.

Except the Sith weren't so easily thwarted.

Han didn't realize he had it in him, he'd always assumed that Luke was the agile one, but when they began to rip parts of the wall and floor out with that eerie Force power Luke can do, and toss it his way, he was actually able to dodge, jump over and evade all of it.

Who knew? He'd have to remember to tell Leia about it—if he lived.

The wall blew in ahead of him smoke billowing out.

Ghost and her team.

"Well, it's about time," Han snarked as figures came out of the onyx clouds.

Brown eyes met many sets of…yellow.

"So sorry to have kept you waiting," a Sith sorcerer quipped as she raised her withered hands and blasted Force lightning at him.

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A/N: Well, it seems that my penchant for cliffies has not concluded with the previous fic! LOL; please review…c'mon! You're still with me in the sequel, if you haven't reviewed yet I know you must be liking something, or why bother following me? Just a couple words will make this writer VERY happy! Thanks much and till next time!