Disclaimer: George Lucas and his companies and their shareholders own Star Wars. Any unrecognisable characters and scenarios are mine.
Author's Note: Sequel to my first fic, The Fall and Rise. Obviously spoilers for it so read that first . Crazy idea, I know but bear with me…
Second Life
Chapter III
The two Jedi emerged from the warp into rather less interesting surroundings. It was what they both suspected of being a storage compartment. 'A very small storage compartment', thought Norrin, feeling Anakin's elbow in her back. "Ani, get off!" she grumbled.
"Where am I supposed to go?" he replied just as tersely.
"Out!" Norrin said, throwing her weight on what she guessed was the door's control panel. She got lucky, bursting out of the door, which shut behind her.
'Lucky' may have been an inaccurate word to use because she found herself staring down the barrels of six standard issue Imperial blasters wielded by six standard issue stormtroopers.
"You know it's an offence to stowaway on an Imperial military vessel, though that's the least of your worries. You're gonna have to come with us" the leader informed her, his fellows dragging her roughly to her feet. "Not the bridge" the man told them "our Lord and Master will want to speak to this Jedi himself."
Anakin meanwhile was still in the compartment, fighting down a feeling of panic. He held the time device in his hand tight. From the nanosecond he had materialised he knew where they were. He hadn't seen his surroundings but the place positively reeked of the force stench of the Sith. If he was here, there was only one Imperial military ship it could be, the Super Star Destroyer Executor.
Before the completion of the Death Star, the Executor had been the most feared ship in the galaxy. Not only for its immense size and firepower but for who it nearly always brought with it. Darth Vader and his special forces were stationed here and Anakin could feel the presence of his former self and alter ego like radioactive chemicals. And if they were taking Norrin to him, Anakin knew that he would have to reach her fast. 'So much for not butchering history. I wonder what happens when people meet themselves'.
Norrin was unceremoniously thrown to the floor of a large reception chamber, having been dragged across it by two of her captors. She now knew exactly who they were referring to as 'Lord and Master'. Darth Vader. The deep, unnaturally regular breathing, aided by cybernetic ventilators attested to that. She looked up as the troopers delivered their report at the towering, angular figure, his dark armour punctuated by diagnostic lights on the suit's many life support systems. Somehow, it was more chilling than she had expected and yet she felt a strange calm. She knew the man beneath that mask, knew what he had once been and what he would be again. She couldn't feel any true hatred or fear for him, only pity.
The troopers left, as Vader stood at the window of the vast room, looking at the Standard Star Destroyer Dominance bisecting the vista of stars. He turned and faced Norrin, now on her feet. "Your name, Jedi?" he asked at last.
"Norrin" she answered, looking strait beyond the mask.
"Where are your comrades, Norrin?" he rumbled.
"I don't know".
"I expected that" he answered flatly.
"I am alone. I've met no others since you torched the Jedi Temple" she bluffed. What else could she say, after all? That she was a friend from a future life?
"I know you are lying. I can sense another force sensitive aboard this ship. You are part of an organisation operating from somewhere. There is no other way that a child would be capable of boarding the Executor undetected." He told her, circling.
"Why would I tell you?"
"Because it will be more unpleasant for you if you are to refuse" he stated.
Norrin could see no good way out of this. She glanced in desperation at her lightsaber, hanging on Vader's belt beside his own. He had noticed. They stood facing each other in a frozen moment. She grabbed her weapon with the force, seizing the opportunity.
With a suddenness that took her breath from her lungs, she was thrown to the opposite wall, her lightsaber clattering to the floor. An unpleasant crack and an explosion of pain up her arm informed her that she had broken her wrist.
"For the last time, Jedi, where is your organisation?"
"I don't…" she gasped through the sharp pain.
Vader seemed to have lost his patience, "so be it" he intoned. Norrin felt her neck tightening around her windpipe as she was pulled into an upright position. She twitched grotesquely, occasionally clawing at her neck. She wanted to scream but all she could muster was a chocked cry. Her lungs burned, screaming for air. Then a terrible numb feeling began to encase her body's extremities and her mind. Time slowed to a crawl as she felt oxygen starvation eating away at her conscious mind. In a final assertion of her own will she yelled both physically and mentally the name of the only person who could help her "ANAKIN!"
Her body hit the floor with a dry slap. "What did you say? What did you call me?" asked Vader, too quietly to be picked up by his vocal enhancer. His voice sounded like it was grating on sand as it came out.
"Its your true name isn't it?" she rasped.
Suddenly Norrin's salvation came in the form of an alarm over the ships public address system. Vader roughly pushed Norrin aside as he swept out of the room like a bird of prey. His breathing was slightly more laboured than usual, showing how deeply the mention of his former name had actually affected him…
Anakin watched from the corner, transfixed by the horrible spectacle of his friend being tortured by the man he had once been. It was only because he still remembered the alarm code that it had ended. As soon as Vader swept past him, Anakin leapt to Norrin's side, lifting her gently into his arms.
She looked terribly pale, her hand was twisted unnaturally and her green eyes rolled back into her head. "Norrin! Norrin listen, you have to stay awake. You need a hospital so you have to get us home. I'm sorry." He pushed the device into her hand. She squinted down at it, barely managing to operate it before fainting.
As the klaxons vanished, Anakin found himself in one of the corridors of the rebuilt Jedi Temple, still holding his injured friend, the sunset pooling around them. He felt Norrin's chest. It was barely moving.
"HELP!" he yelled "Help please, she's dying!" he cried, gripped by panic.
The next ten minutes passed in a blur. Two other Jedi came running out of their respective rooms and commlinked for help. "Hold on, girl" Anakin told his friend before she was carried off by their fellows.
