Ep 6 Ch 8
Return of the Jedi (Part 2)
A/N: As always, my thanks to my editor Fallenstar2.
The transports landed in a small clearing about a mile from the Shield generator. The doors popped open and Dawn leapt out, her lightstaff in hand. She was followed closely by Zett, Faith and a dozen more slayers and Jedi. The other craft landed, expelling their people as well and soon a group of over a hundred clone troopers, slayers and Jedi prepared for battle.
Which, by the sound of things, had started already.
"They were supposed to wait for us!" Faith ground out, taking off for the generator. A minute later, she arrived at the edge of the clearing and stared in amazement as small, furry creatures worked alongside the Rebels in taking out the Storm Troopers. Faith, Dawn and Zett stared in amazement for a moment, before Faith turned to Dawn.
"Where in the plan did it say we'd be getting back up from the Care Bears?"
"Short help is better than no help at all," Dawn muttered, then giggled. "Heh! They look like little furry Hobbits!"
Zett lit his lightsaber and held it in the ready position. "For Frodo, then." Then without further word, he charged. Dawn rolled her eyes.
"No more Lord of the Rings!" she yelled at him as she followed behind, her lightstaff ignited and blocking half a dozen shots that were headed her way. The storm troopers, previously beset by the Ewoks and Rebels, stared in horror as dozens of lightsaber wielding Jedi, sword and axe-wielding girls and blaster-packing Troopers in Clone War-era armor charged at them.
The battle was fast and furious. The Slayers were all equipped with chest armor, but had all opted against wearing any of the cumbersome armor on their arms, legs or heads, instead relying on their increased agility to protect them. This turned out to be an excellent idea, as they were soon cutting through the Storm Trooper's ranks with ease. The Clone Troopers took up position in front of the door, covering Han, Leia and Artoo as they tried to break the door open once more. And the Jedi….
Dawn couldn't help but stare, albeit briefly, as the two dozen Jedi Knights battled the Storm Troopers. It was an amazing sight, one not seen since the beginning of the Clone Wars and Dawn felt honored to be a part of such a fighting Force.
Suddenly the ground around her exploded as one of the Walkers opened fire. Dawn flew through the air, slamming into the ground next to the wall of the shield generator. Instinctively she rolled and put her back against the wall, minimizing her exposure even as her hand reached down to her belly. Quickly she reached out through the Force to her unborn child and was relieved to find her all right.
Her, she realized. It's a girl…
"Dawn!" Zett shouted, running over to her while blocking a few errant blaster bolts. "Are you okay?"
"Fine!" she replied, standing up on shaky legs. "Just a bit shaken." They fought side by side, turning back bolt after bolt and then suddenly Dawn spoke. "Zett, I've got something I have to tell you."
"Can it wait?" Zett asked, decapitating a storm trooper that foolishly tried to rush them.
"Probably, but then I'd lose my nerve again." Dawn took a breath. "I'm pregnant."
That caught Zett off guard and Dawn detached her ligthstaff to give her the dual blades which she used to deflect the bolts. "You're pregnant?"
"Yup," Dawn said nervously.
"How long…"
"About three months. But I just found out at the beginning of the week - the same day you proposed."
There was a beat. "And you tell me this NOW?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, I've wanted to tell you, but I thought you'd get upset…."
Zett laughed as the smile grew on his face. He casually deflected a few more bolts back at the remaining troops. "Dawn, how could I be mad about this? This is… this is wondrous!" he paused for a moment as the reality sunk in. "What in the Force are you doing in combat?!"
"I can still fight!" Dawn shouted defiantly, shutting down her lightsabers and reattaching them as the fight came to an end. "I'm not helpless…"
"No, you're pregnant!" Zett shouted back.
"Mazel Tov," Han said dryly as he poked his head around the corner. "Now, if you two don't mind, we have a shield generator to destroy!"
Dawn tossed her hair back and walked - well, it was more like strutted, to Zett's eyes - around the corner to help get the door open. Zett sighed and shook his head.
"Force help Obi-Wan if they are anything alike…" he muttered as he turned to follow.
Halcyon marched next to Luke as the two made their way up the stairs towards the Emperor. Besides his chair stood Mara Jade, a cold expression on her face and her arms crossed in front of her.
"Greetings, young Skywalker," the Emperor spoke. "I have been expecting you."
"You could have had some refreshments ready, then," Luke replied flippantly, barely glancing in the Sith Lord's direction as he took in his surroundings. His eyes fell on Mara's face and he gave her a small smile. "Hello again, Mara. Round three?"
"Maybe later," she replied dryly.
"You are quite insolent. Much like your Aunt."
Luke looked at the Emperor with a bland expression. "Actually, I'm told I take more after my mother. But Aunt Buffy does send her regards."
Palpatine's eyes narrowed. "I'm rather surprised she didn't try to come with you. Her and I have some… unfinished business."
"I asked if she would like to come," Luke said. "But she told me she didn't think you rated her attention anymore."
Palpatine snarled. "Insolent boy! You'd best watch your tone!" he sat back in his chair. "I sense a great anger in you, Skywalker. Anger at me, perhaps, for taking your family away? Anger at your father, for not being strong enough to resist me?"
"Mostly I'm angry that these boots aren't comfortable when you're forced to stand still and listen to the bad guy do his spiel for half an hour," Luke interjected sarcastically. "But please, feel free to ramble on. A Jedi knows no pain, after a-" he was cut off by a sudden blast of Force Lightening that sent him hurtling back down the stairs, where he landed in a twitching heap.
Okay, so Buffy's smack-talking approach doesn't have quite the desired effect, he thought to himself.
"I believe its time someone put you in your place, boy," Palpatine snarled as he walked to the edge of the stairs. "You are but a lone Jedi in the universe that I created. The universe in which I destroyed all of your kind! Your pitiful rebellion? They are about to fly into a trap of my design. Your friends on the moon? They will soon be wiped out. You, boy, are nothing. Nothing but another tool of the Dark Side. A tool that I will mold and shape, until I make you the perfect successor for Vader!"
"Is that a fact, your highness?" Luke growled, pushing himself to his feet. "I may be the lone Jedi in here - but out there, a couple dozen are on their way, along with our own secret fleet, to overwhelm your trap. A couple dozen more are landing on the moon to take out your shield. Look out there, your highness! Some of you own troops have turned against you, because of your mad lust for power!" Luke drew himself up to his full height. "I guess this universe you built decided to do a little remodeling on its own."
Palpatine was about to blast Luke once more, when a sudden burst of bluish-purple energy appeared in the center of the room. An instant later it cleared, leaving two very familiar faces in its wake.
Anakin looked at his son with a grin. "Luke, you're grounded for pulling this stunt. No TV for a week."
Willow noted Halcyon and her daughter, but only had eyes for the hunched-over, weather figure of Emperor Palpatine. "Hey, boss. I came to finally pick up my severance package." She ignited her purple blade and lifted it in a salute. "I believe I'll take your arms, legs and head."
Dawn stared at the door. "I could probably cut through it," she stated, igniting her blade. She was about to plunge it into the door, when a heavy metal clanking caught her attention. She spun around to see an AT-ST Walker approaching, its guns pointed down at them. Dawn and Leia exchanged a look, then lifted their lightsaber up in defense, even as Zett stepped in front of his fiancé.
"Don't argue," he said in an undertone before she could start to grumble. "You can't blame me for worrying."
Han put his hands up and stepped forward, hoping to draw attention away from the three Jedi long enough for them to make a break for it. "When you see your chance, get out of here."
"Not going to happen, Nerf-herder," Leia replied.
The hatch to the walker opened and the four breathed a sigh of relief when Chewie poked his furry head out.
"Chewie!" Han exclaimed, letting out a nervous laugh. "Don't scare me like that again!"
Chewie howled good-naturedly.
"Chewie, come down here and help us get these doors open!" Dawn shouted up, a smile on her face at Han's furry companion.
"No, wait!" Han exclaimed, turning to his friends. "I got an idea."
"Darth Traya."
"Call me Willow."
"You!"
"Call me mom."
Willow looked at Palpatine calmly, her lightsaber never wavering. "What do you say, old man? Think you can still go?"
Palpatine sneered. "I have no need to exert myself. That's why I have my Hands. Eliminate them both!" he demanded. "Leave the boy in one piece though. I will still have uses for him."
Mara leapt at her mother, a look of intense concentration on her face as she brought her lightsaber down in a crushing blow that Willow still managed to block easily.
"Prepare for the fight scene," she quipped as she battled her daughter once more.
Halcyon, meanwhile, had gone straight for Anakin. "This time, I will carve you up!" he swung low and Anakin parried easily. Halcyon reversed direction and brought his blade up, but Anakin blocked that as well. He let Halcyon come at him hard, never fighting back, just blocking his blows. Luke made a split-second decision and, heeding Yoda's advice, left Palpatine alone for the moment, deciding instead to help Willow. He walked up calmly behind Mara and tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me.."
Mara let out a fearsome growl and swung her blade around hard, trying to decapitate Luke. Luke ducked, letting the blade pass harmlessly over his head, then popped back up…
And kissed her hard on the mouth.
He pulled back, leaving a stunned Mara open to a blow on the back of her head from her mother that stunned her. Willow looked at Luke with a wry grin.
"Well, that's one way of doing it…"
"I'll handle Mara. You take the Emperor," Luke advised, bringing his lightsaber up to bear. Mara snarled at him and rushed Luke.
Inside the bunker, the view screen flared to life. The operation's officer looked on as one of his troopers in a flared back helmet gave a report.
The rebels have been routed, sir. They're fleeing into the wood, he said. Odd how he held the mic up so close to his face that it blocked it… We need additional support to pursue.
"Send three squads to help!" the young officer ordered to his subordinate. He turned to another. "Open the back door." He clasped his hands together and then grabbed his pistol. He wanted to be able to take as much credit for this victory as he could.
A moment later, the officer, followed by three full squads of storm troopers, spilled out onto the grounds. They stopped for a moment, looking around in confusion for their comrades - and then nearly two dozen lightsabers flared to life just inside the foliage. The next thing they knew, they were surrounded by clone troopers, slayers and Ewoks.
Han gave them all a cocky shrug of his shoulders as his demo team made their way into the bunker.
Two minutes later, the remaining Rebels dove for cover as the massive shield generator complex exploded into a giant ball of flame.
"End of the line, farm-boy!" she screamed, attacking him fast and furious.
Willow calmly walked towards Palpatine, her lightsaber held limply at her side. She deactivated the blade and let the hilt drop to the ground. "If I was still the naïve girl I had been when Dooku took me under his wing, I would be standing in front of you today, collecting vengeance for the thirty years of hell you gave me."
"Oh?" Palpatine asked with mock sweetness in his voice. "Aren't you still that same, naïve girl?"
"No, I'm all grown up." Willow's eyes flashed white with power. "And this isn't vengeance. It's JUSTICE!" Willow let loose with a powerful burst of white magical energy, which Palpatine countered with his Force lightening. The two forms of power slammed together, each tying to overpower the other. Both Sith and Witch stood there, eyes locked one each other, as their powers fought for dominance.
"FIGHT ME!" Halcyon screamed, hacking and slashing. Anakin tiredly kept blocking, never once striking back.
"No, Hal. I won't."
"And why not? Why not finish the job Traya had you start twenty years ago!"
With a start, Anakin realized something - Nejaa Halcyon wanted to die. He wanted Anakin to strike him down - not in some misguided attempt to lure Anakin back to the Dark Side, but in an attempt to end his own suffering.
"Finish it!" Halcyon's electronically distorted voice cried out.
"No, I WON'T," Anakin shouted, forcing Nejaa back with Force blast. "I won't do it, Nejaa. I won't kill you, not like this."
"Why!" Nejaa pleaded.
"Because I still have hope that you can come back from this!" Anakin exclaimed. "I still have hope that I can get my friend back, that I can, in some small way make up for the most horrible action in my life!" He dropped his guard slightly and looked at Nejaa with pleading eyes. "I have hope that Buffy can tell your grandson you died a hero."
Halcyon, consumed by his grief, attacked Anakin once more. His last slice made it through Anakin's weakened defenses and cut across his belly, causing Anakin to scream in pain and fall to the floor. Nejaa followed, falling to his knees as tears streamed down his ruined cheeks under his mask.
Luke heard his father scream, but he was too busy fighting off Mara to help him.
Guess the kiss was a bit too much… he thought, blocking yet another blow to his head. Mara lashed out with her foot, kicking him the side of the knee hard and nearly dislocating his kneecap. Luke hobbled back out her range, favoring his right knee as he held his lightsaber at the ready.
"Your mother's right, Mara. You don't have to fight for him!"
Mara shook her head, an almost sad look on her face. "It's all I know how to do." She moved into attack once more, but the room suddenly rocked as the magics and Force powers continued to build up between Palpatine and Willow. Mara paused and stared in wonder as her mother's normally deep-auburn hair turned white. Luke noticed this and pressed on.
"Look at her, Mara!" he screamed over the noise the mystical battle was creating. "She's fighting for you! And that's something she only just learned how to do!"
"I am the Emperor's Hand! I am an extension of his will!" Mara shouted back. "That's why I was created! That's what I was made for! There is nothing else!"
"You have a family, Mara, who want to get to know you," Luke countered. "You are so well-trained in your abilities, that there are dozens of young students that would want to learn from you. You can have a future away from all of this!" Luke switched off his saber and stepped in close. "Master Yoda told me my trial was to bring Neeja Halcyon back to the side of the light, but I'm not resting until I free you of Palpatine's hold, too. You have such potential to be a great person, not just a weapon!"
Mara looked at Luke, then back at the monster fighting her mother. She saw the look of fear, of desperation - and the lust for power that never died in his eyes. She saw her mother, the picture of a goddess, fighting to destroy evil with everything good she had…
And she saw her mother's lightsaber suddenly ignite on its own and fly into her mother's back. Saw the look of surprised mingled with pain as she looked down to see her own purple blade piercing out of her belly... saw her energy fail as she slipped to the floor.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Mara screamed. Rushing towards her fallen mother. She was brought short by a blast of Force lightening from Palpatine.
"Stupid girl! I warned you about thinking with your heart," he snarled and lifted his hand to deliver the final blast. Luke rushed in to block it-
But Willow dived in front of her, taking the full brunt of the Sith Lord's power. The force of the blast sent her careening into the far wall next to Anakin, where her head impacted with a sickening crunch. She slid down to the floor, bleeding and dazed.
Halcyon had watched as Willow fought the Sith Lord, the monster that had made him what he was. Watched as she sacrificed herself to save the daughter she barely knew.
"I have hope that Buffy can tell your grandson you died a hero."
With a grunt, he pulled himself to his feet and staggered towards Palpatine, who was beating down Luke's lightsaber with his force lightening. Without a second thought, he hefted Palpatine high over his head. With the Sith lightening flowing down through his suit, Halcyon ignored the pain and, in one final, colossal effort, hurled Emperor Palpatine down the central access shaft into the superstructure. The fall did truly kill him then, as his body disintegrated under the onslaught of his uncontrolled powers, sending a sinister wind back up the shaft that did not die until the final erg of his powers dispersed.
Anakin groaned as he tried to pull himself up. The wound in his belly was burring, but a sudden, slight pressure alleviated some of the pain. The Jedi opened his eyes and looked down to see Willow's hand pressed against his abdomen, a soft white glow emanating from underneath it. He looked over to see Willow's battered, bloody face smiling weakly at him.
"Good as…new," she rasped out. "Now…go see…to… Halcyon." Energy spent, she slid back against the wall.
Luke and Mara were helping the former Jedi to sit up when Anakin stumbled over to them
"Dad!" Luke exclaimed. "Are you alright?"
"I'll live," he confirmed.
"Mom?" Mara asked, her tone frightened. Anakin shrugged his shoulders and then winced at the pain.
"She's banged up, but I've seen people pull through worse." Mara nodded, gave Halcyon a small squeeze on his padded shoulder, then moved to go over to her mother.
"Ah…Ahn…." Halcyon struggled to speak.
"I'm here, Hal. You did it."
"Ani, take this thing off of me," Halcyon said, grasping for his helmet. "If I d-die, today…I die….as a…man…."
Anakin nodded and slowly pulled apart Halcyon's mask, finally removing the terrifying face plate to reveal the scarred, pale face below. Anakin smiled sadly. "Welcome back, old friend."
Halcyon gasped and smiled painfully. "Make sure… Corran knows that... I died…as I had once…lived…..as a…Jedi…." He gave one last, shuddering breath and then Nejaa Halcyon, Jedi Master, lived no more.
"Mother?" Mara said quietly, coming upon the prone form of Willow Rosenberg. Willow sleepily lifted her head and gave a weak smile. "I did it. I made my choice."
"You have chosen…wisely," Willow chuckled slightly, but that gave way to a hacking cough. Mara looked on in horror as blood flew from her mouth.
"Oh, Force…" she felt the back of her head and felt a soft, sticky mess. "You have a head injury. We need to get you help…" Willow hand shot up suddenly and grasped her daughter's arm.
"No…. this is the end… of my… part in this…story." Her eyes held tears in them. "Used too much…power…fighting…Palpatine…used the rest to…save… Ani…"
"No!" Anakin breathed as he knelt besides his student. "Willow, why…"
"I took… your life, all those years ago. Took away…your children." She coughed. "I…owed you…this….Ani - tell Buffy… I'm sorry…and Padmé that…. I love her."
Anakin nodded. "I will."
"Mom…" Mara choked out, her emotions running rampant. There was so much she wanted to talk to her about, but no time. Besides her slipping away, they could all feel the reverberations through the floor of the tower - the shield was down and the station itself was taking hits now. "Please, don't die…."
"My sweet Mara…" Willow weakly lifted up her hand and placed it on her cheek. "Death… is nothing more than…the next…great adventure…" she sighed as the life started to truly leave her body. "It's your turn…now… you have so much… to live for…so much…to…do…." She looked imploringly in her daughters eyes. "Do… big things…"
"I will," she choked out. Willow gave her one last smile… then gave a shuddering breath. Her body fell slack against the wall, lifeless. Silently, Mara reached out and closed her mother's eyes. "Goodbye."
TBC
Next chapter - the destruction of the Death Star and a funeral for a friend.
You know, I kinda felt like Joss when I wrote this. I spent six stories torturing the poor girl, only to kill her off. This moment has been planned ever since I planed this story out- what, three years ago now? Four? Man, time flies...
Only two more chapters to go. Please read and review!
