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Chapter 4: Darth Eris

Nobody could tell what Darth Vader was thinking. Ever. His mask kept his emotions hidden until he spoke.

This meant that nobody knew he was annoyed.

But Darth Vader was annoyed. Big-time annoyed.

So was the emperor.

And so was Darth Eris. (a/n: Ha! Ha! Ha! Got you there, didn't I? You thought Darth Eris was Lila's Dark Side alter ego! Ha!)

Who is Darth Eris, do you ask?

She was Darth Vader's apprentice. She was being trained in the arts of the Dark Side. Nobody who didn't need to knew what she looked like; she kept her hood up in case anyone was taken prisoner by the alliance. They weren't supposed to know she existed.

Today, however, she took her hood off, revealing long blonde hair. Hair that perfectly matched her eyes.

Today she was pissé. She stood with her master listening to a report from General Veers. "My lord—" Eris coughed "—and My Lady, the fleet has moved out of light-speed. We detected an energy field protecting the sixth planet of the Hoth system. The field is strong enough to deflect any bombardment."

"The Rebels have been alerted to our presence," said Lady Eris angrily.

"Admiral Ozzel came out of light-speed too close to the system." Vader also sounded angry.

" . . . He felt surprise was wiser . . ."

"He is as clumsy as he is stupid," said Vader. "General, prepare your troops for a ground attack. Lady Eris, I have a special mission for you. I want you to go with the troops. When they take control of the rebel base, I wan you to find the girl Lila Skywalker. She will probably be going under the name of Lila Kenobi. Find her, and bring her to me."

"Yes, my Master."

SWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSW

Once again, Lila was preparing to go with the fighters. She stood in the command center as Leia announced the attack plan.

"All troop carriers will assemble at the north entrance. The heavy transport ships will leave as soon as they're loaded. Only two fighter escorts per ship. The energy shield can only be opened for a short time, so you'll have to stay very close to your transports."

"Two fighters against a Stardestroyer?" asked a man named Hobbie.

"The ion cannon will fire several shots to make sure that any enemy ships will be out of your flight path. When you've gotten past the energy shield, proceed directly to the rendezvous point. Understood?"

"You'd have to be pretty thick not to understand it," muttered Lila. Luke grinned.

The pilots filed out. On her way to the hangar, Lila was stopped by a young man with unkempt brown hair. "Hi, I'm Zed, and I'll be your gunman for today."

"Nice to meet you. Come on!"

Cheers rang through the base as a voice came over the loudspeaker: "The fist transport is away. Repeat, the first transport is away!"

"So." Lila strapped herself into the pilot's seat of her snowspeeder. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, ma'am!" said Zed emphatically.

"Good, because the Empire is no joke." Lila carefully started the engines and lifted the speeder off the ground.

"Oh Force . . ." Lila stared as they came in sight of the Imperial Walkers. Luke's voice sounded through her headset. "Attack pattern delta. Go!"

Firing at the walkers, Zed yelled to Luke, "They're too heavily armored! We can't penetrate the shields!"

"Who needs to penetrate?" retorted Lila. "Launch the cable on my mark. Ready . . ." the speeder sped towards the walker. "Fire!"

A harpoon cable attached itself to the leg of the walker. Lila swerved around the other legs as the cable followed. "Detach!"

With a loud boom, the walker exploded as it's legs tangled in the cable, causing it to trip. "Nice shot, Zed!"

The nearest walker, however, aimed and fired. Lila's speeder spiraled to the ground as she tried to land it. "Shit!"

"What's wrong?" asked Luke.

"I've lost Zed . . ."

"Aw, crap!" Luke's gunman, Dack, had met the same fate.

"Well then," said Lila brightly as she and Luke climbed out of their fighters to attack the walkers on foot, "we're going to die."

SWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSW

"Aim for their fighters," snapped Darth Eris.

"Yes, my Lady."

Eris grinned as she prepared to go with the ground troops. The capture of Lila Skywalker would improve the Emperor's view of her, which had declined since her failure at the Battle of Yavin.

The fight was short. Fifteen minutes later, Lady Eris Lead the troop into the chaotic Rebel base.

Now, where is that girl . . .

She darted down the sparsely populated hallways. What few people she did pass she killed before they could report her presence to the Alliance. Quickly deciding she needed more information, she tore off her cloak and let her hair fall down around her shoulders. She stopped a passing officer.

"Excuse me, do you know where I could find Commander Kenobi?"

"She left with the pilots," the man panted. "Say, I haven't seen you before—"

She killed him.

I have failed.

Eris found Darth Vader at the entrance to one of the hangar bays, watching the Millennium Falcon escape yet again. "Master, I have failed." She knelt at his feet.

"How have you failed?"

"Lila Skywalker went with the fighters. I should have predicted this."

"It is not your fault. Come, we must make preparations for her capture."

"You had a backup plan? You did not believe I would succeed?"

"No; I merely took precautions."

Seething, Darth Eris followed Vader to his ship that would take them both back to the Stardestroyer.

SWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSWSW

"Are you insane?" screeched Lila.

"No," snapped Luke. "I'm resourceful."

"Resourceful my ass, you don't just go and climb a walker, insert a hand grenade, of all things, and wait for it to blow up! You could have been killed!" Trying to look up at Luke, she banged her head on her speeder. "At least you're still alive!"

Luke rolled his eyes. "Are you almost done?"

Lila was kneeling in the snow, trying to repair her damaged speeder. "Yep. Just have to reconnect this, and we are . . . done!" she proclaimed triumphantly as the speeder hummed back to life.

"Good. We need to go, now."

Luke and Lila climbed into their respective speeders and lifted off. Flying out of the Hoth atmosphere, they parted ways. Luke to Dagobah to confer with Yoda, and Lila to the rendezvous point.

Om second thought . . .

Lila needed to see Yoda. True, he would probably yell at her, but they needed to talk. She had no clue where Dagobah was, so she would have to follow Luke. But he was already mad enough at her . . . oh well, she just wouldn't tell him until they got there.

Laughing to herself, she turned around to follow Luke . . . and stopped short.

Lila stared at the Imperial Stardestroyer for a long moment.

Then she contacted Luke. "Luke! What the hell is this thing doing here? The ion cannon was supposed to clear the Empire out of the way!"

"I don't know, but whatever you do, don't go anywhere near it!"

"Gee, ya think?" But it was too late. Even as she spoke, her small fighter was pulled into the tractor beam.

Far in space, en route to Dagobah, Luke heard what could very likely be the last transmission from Lila Skywalker: "Shit! Luke . . . tractor beam . . . pulling . . . in . . . dammit . . . help!" After that, there was only static. Then the transmission ended.

Luke immediately sent a message to the Millennium Falcon. "Han, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, kid. What's up?"

" . . . We lost Lila."

In the cockpit of the Falcon, Han gave command to Leia. She grabbed the comlink. "Luke? What are you talking about?"

"We lost Lila."

"What do you mean? Is she dead?"

"No, she . . . well, basically . . . Okay, so, there was this Imperial Stardestroyer when there shouldn't have been one, and Lila was caught off guard, and it had a tractor beam, and . . ."

"Oh, no," muttered Leia. "Are you telling me she got captured by the Empire?"

"Pretty much, yeah. My question is, are they going to kill her?"

"Most likely. But if she's a Jedi wouldn't they try to make her go to the Dark side?" asked Leia.

"Yes," said Luke, "but the Emperor doesn't know Lila. She would rather die."

"Which means," interrupted Han, "that she is either dead or she is going to be."

Cool. Only the fourth chapter, and already we have a plotline. This must be a record for me.

Hah! I tricked you all! Actually, not really. Darth Eris was originally Lila's Dark half, but the I thought it would be cool to imagine the expressions on ally our faces as your jaws hit the floor!

SwimAngel: Thank you.

Readers, please! I must ask that if you read the story, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE review it! Because I know that some of you have read it but aren't reviewing, as can be shown by looking at my Stats. I know at least two of you have me on your Story Alert list or Favorite Stories list (thank you, btw), but you didn't review!

And for that matter, where are all my reviewers for Three Lives Connect? Where are you all? You said you were looking forward to this one!

Sorry. I can't help bitching, it's just really on my nerves!