A/N: Thank you to all those who have joined in and most importantly thanks to all who have already reviewed and favorite-d!
Chapter 2 deals with Minneko's past and how the Survivors survived. We see Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker for the first time. For all you Rey fans-don't worry she's coming up in Chapter 3!
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. Disney, and the great George Lucas do. I make no profit, only goofy squeals when I see the reviews in my inbox.
Chapter 2
D'Qar
If it had been any other person, Minneko supposed that they would probably be a bit unnerved by the group sitting opposite.
Of course, Minneko had stared down her grandfather more than once, but that was beside the point. Those times, Minneko had understood who she was up against, knowing that at the first sign of argument Bant would chime in with some story or other about her grandfather and what he had gotten up to, thereby deflecting his attention and allowing her to make her escape as her grandfather sputtered.
Of course, it had helped that each knew the other's weak points, and knew that to attack those points would only result in familial anarchy the likes of which Bant would flay the both of them alive, Dark Side be damned.
So as Minneko fingered her thumb drive as they waited for the meeting to be called to order, she wondered why her grandfather had entrusted the mission to her in the first place.
A chime sounded and everyone took a seat. Kister straightened up beside her and Minneko wondered again, why.
"You have information for us?" Mon Mothma eyed the pair with a critical eye. Minneko supposed that yes, wearing their pins at the shoulder was a mistake, but old habits were not easily broken. As it was, the dragon was hardly a bad omen. In the Alderaanian zodiac, the Dragon had been the most powerful sign. The weakest, most easily influenced was the Sheep a farm animal good for wool, milk, and once it outlived every other use that the farmers needed it for-meat. The flock that was housed in the HAB's biosphere was twenty strong and relatively simple-minded, easily startled and
But she digressed as Kister, unused to these situations shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Okay, she was a little unnerved as well. It was Luke Skywalker, for Force's sake. Just because her granddad didn't like his dad didn't mean that stories-rumor and fact, and sometimes a mix of both-circulated the HAB with lightening speed.
"This has a list of something that could help the Resistance." Minneko put the drive on the table between the two groups. "Granddad told me to deliver it.
"And who exactly, is your grandfather?"
"Ferrus Olan." Minneko said, looking at Luke Skywalker. "He was a Jedi, in the Old Republic."
"Ferrus Olan was killed during the Purges." Admiral Akbar interrupted. "How is it possible?"
"You worked with the Ruse Spy Ring?" Minneko asked and the Mon Cal nodded. "That's how. They faked the records and joined up with the Dragon Clan in Syberea."
"After things went quiet, a group left Syberea and settled on Illum. We've been there ever since." Kister added.
"So you've been hiding on Illum all this time." Mon Mothma said. "That's why we never found any survivors."
"Well, some went to Corellia, some went to the Outer Rim. Most of us stayed together and decided to not let the Sith pollute the last Jedi Sanctuary in the galaxy." Minneko knew how those words sounded to outsiders. Many of the smugglers-former Sybereans shook their heads at the supposed folly of their life. She supposed that they had some sense defending the last Jedi stronghold was an easy way to get a target painted on your back.
But they still continued shipments in exchange for the high-quality ore that they extracted.
"Which clans survived?" Admiral Akbar, having dealt with Sybereans before knew how much stock they put in with their clans. "Dragon, Tiger, Boar, and there's a family of Dogs and Rabbits that we're trading partners with on Malastare." Akbar nodded, knowing that the Sheep, Ox, Rat, and Horse clans had more than likely perished. "Granddad married into the Dragons-the Teslus family, and Kister's a Boar."
The Dragon and Tiger clans-impulsive and always game for fighting fortune and fate alike had been the first to joining the Ruse Spy Ring. Calculating Rats and nervous Rabbits were among the fewest who had joined the spy ring. Most of the clan leaders had pulled them out just before then-Chancellor Palpatine had been "kidnapped" by Separatist General Grievous.
"Why show yourselves now?" Mon Mothma asked, voicing the question that everyone-at least on the Resistance side was thinking. "Granddad said that he wasn't going to let the galaxy tear itself apart any more in his lifetime and wanted to do something to stop it. Basically he got wind of what Snoke set out to do and wanted to end it."
"You mean Starkiller." Minneko nodded. "And just after we set off, Granddad died." She shrugged at the sympathetic looks. "It was a long time coming. First he hears what Kylo Ren did, Bant passed, and then he got wind of Starkiller. I honestly think that he couldn't take any more heartbreak."
"How did she die?" Minneko and Kister exchanged glances. Bant and Akbar had worked together during the Clone Wars, but for them to have been that close?
"Old age." Kister replied. "Went to sleep one night after saying she was tired, and never woke up. Heda wouldn't speak to anyone for days. We did an autopsy and it seemed that she'd gotten pneumonia. I don't think she wanted to make much of a fuss. We were busy getting everything in order to transfer control."
"And what we're here to do is officially hand over control of Illum to Master Skywalker." Minneko pushed the thumb drive toward him. "On that you'll find names, records, and some of the old order's archives."
"Right now, there are over a hundred of us trained to use the Force." Kister said. "And all of us are ready to fight."
-PAGEBREAK-
Kylo Ren stared out the viewpoint, seething. Starkiller base had been destroyed, and with it the First Order's greatest weapon. Snoke had been furious and Ren hadn't been spared the Supreme Leader's wrath. In his hand he fingered a medallion. It was smooth with age; slightly tarnished, etched in a language he didn't understand-had no hope of understanding. It didn't matter. What mattered was what it represented.
In searching for the Resistance, a scout team had found a long-abandoned structure filled with such medallions. Whoever had occupied it had clearly left in a hurry and in their haste, had dropped this coin.
On the obverse, it showed a Dragon, clutching a lightsaber in its talons. The detail with which it had been cast was loving, as though the carver wanted it preserved for the ages. The reverse featured a damnable replication of the symbol of the Galactic Republic.
The Jedi, wherever they were hiding, would pay. They would pay the ultimate price. He would relish cutting them down, one by one. He could hear the screams; taste their fear as he and his men rushed into their sanctuary.
Luke Skywalker thought he was so smart, he thought cynically, staring into the blackness of space.
He would save Skywalker for last, make him watch once again as he destroyed the Jedi.
One more time.
Honestly, Ben Solo seems to me to just be a moody teenager with angst issues. Some therapy would do him good. If he were really that bad, then he would have had no problem keeping his mask on the whole movie. The fact that he removed it-frequently-and that Hux (one of his subordinates) saw his face shows to me that he's just gone slightly emo and needs someone to knock his head and set him straight. That's my operating theory, anyway.
If you check out the previous chapter-I recently came across official material that states that Poe Dameron is from Yavin 4 and updated that little tidbit.
May the Force be with you!
Sparky
