Chapter Ten

Planning

"What news do you have to report, my apprentice? Your reports from last month's assault on Hoth left out some details."

"Everything was in the report, my Master."

A burst of lightning hit his apprentice and he held it for almost a minute, "Why do you lie? Did you think you could hide her from me?"

Banis coughed and slowly returned to his knee, "I wanted to break her, Master. Present her as a gift for you."

Palpatine hissed and hit him again, only for a few seconds this time, "I applaud your capture and your results have been in your favor recently. Which is why I'm letting you live. Now, where is she?"

"I transferred her to Lusankya, along with Captain Solo." Banis grinned, I will bring them to you, as you desire, my Master."

"Solo?"

"He was there at the Death Star, Master. He was responsible for depriving you of the Skywalker females before its destruction. I did have a plan for him if you will let me."

"He can be your toy then. But I want Potter here!"

"As you wish, my Master."

x x x

Lily stared out at the emptiness of the space around the medical frigate. The eighteen year old could not believe her mother had disappeared last month, and it had been more than two years since Lily had even see her, returning to Safehaven after the Battle of Yavin to continue her education and training.

There had been minor injuries that she had received during the Coruscant Gambit and she had only needed minor healing, while nearly the entire company from Dagobah had been wiped out. Only the pilots having fared better than the ones on the ground.

Sirius was nursing a pair of blaster burns and Kyle was floating in a bacta tank, having taken a pike through the chest during a duel with two Force adept Royal guards. He had been wounded before they had fought him putting him at a disadvantage during the duel. Of course, losing Master Yoda had been difficult for her to handle and his death in the Force had nearly cost her life from the tremor in the Force.

Lily was unsure what she could do to help her father. For her entire life, he had always been strong and confident and it was not until she saw him before Coruscant that she realized how much her mother's presence grounded him. Now, he seemd to do everything as if he was on autopilot since the fight on Coruscant had been a dead end. It seemed to Lily that the only thing left to do was to hunt down Darth Banis and find out where she was being held.

A hand rested on her shoulder and she looked up at her friend, a tired smile on her face, "Credit for your thoughts?"

Lily sighed, "I can't believe she's gone, Aunt Padme. I mean, I can sense that she's alive, but like dad, we can't pinpoint her location."

"Don't despair, Lily." Padme smiled, hoping to get one back, "I think your father is doing enough of that for the both of you."

She snorted in amusement, and decide to change the subject. Stretching, she stood and looked at Padme, "Has Luke made any progress on that prisoner?"

Padme shook her head, "We have a name. Mara Jade. We looked her up in the archive data that we hijacked and either she wasn't recorded or more likely, the Emperor erased everything about her existance. Anakin figure she's an operative of the Emperor and a Sith in training."

"Could you see it? With Luke, I mean." Lily cracked a grin but Padme frowned questioningly, "I think Luke might have finally found someone."

"Mara?" Padme frowned, "You think that's why he didn't kill her?"

Lily nodded, grinning at her mother's friend, "That might have been one reason. He described it as if the Force was 'compelling him to save her', like a compulsion charm, except through the Force."

"We'll have to see then. I just hope that she isn't convincing him that she's turning good just to backstab us later." Padme said quietly thinking about the possibility of Luke beginning with a relationship with a woman who had obviously been trained by Palpatine. She had always believed Luke would end up with Lily, especially after discovering Sirius and Leia had downgraded things to a 'stay friends' relationship. She was going to keep a close watch on this girl.

x x x

"How are you doing this morning, Miss Jade."

The red headed woman looked up from her bunk to see the annoying sandy-haired kid that had beaten her in the palace and then taken her captive. With a groan, she sat up, "Why haven't you killed me yet?"

Luke frowned, "Do you not like the room? I can request a better one for you. One with less restrictions or something."

Mara groaned again, "You really are clueless, aren't you? Why are you doing this?"

"Maybe you could help me."

"Me help you? Clueless, ignorant, naive, anything else?" Mara glared at him as he placed a tray of food on the table.

"How long have you been training with Sidious?"

"Who's Sidious?" Mara furrowed her brow, "I've trained under Palpatine for almost eighteen years. I have no memory of anything else."

"Have you ever been to the Sith academy on Korriban?"

"Where's Korriban? What's a Sith Academy?"

Luke shook his head and pulled up a chair to the table she was sitting at, a tray of food being consumed at a healthy rate, "How many others trained with you under Palpatine?"

"It fluctuated. Anwhere between ten and twenty depending on the time of year. I remember there being some students would would be more advanced, others that Palpatine would personally execute because they failed at something simple, while others would simply disappear."

Luke looked surprised, they had estimated less than that, given that there had been barely a hundred Jedi who had graduated over the years along with the number of the Old Order who had been killed in the last two years from the rising numbers of the Sith, "What else can you tell me?"

"Such an open ended question, Skywalker." Mara looked at Luke hard before sighing and running hand through her hair, "Why didn't you kill me?"

Luke stood and turned away to stare out the door's window, "I don't know really. You're not the first Dark Jedi I've faced in the last two years. I've killed three of them because they had killed...well, they were disrupting our adgenda. For some reason, the Force was telling me not to kill you. Maybe you'll become a powerful ally of the light. I do sense the good in you."

"And if I don't turn? You'll be forced to kill me. I'm unable to turn against my Master."

"I believe you will, Mara. It's never too late." Luke turned back to her and their eyes met, both becoming lost as they could both feel the pull towards one another. A second later, Mara looked away and they both realized they were only two steps apart.

"What are you doing to me?" she stammered, refusing to admit he might be right.

"Am I?" Luke breathed quietly, trying to meet her eyes again, but as she looked away he nodded and turned away, "I'll be back."

She felt him go and wanted to make him come back, but she could not bring herself to stop him, feeling the conflict between her new feelings and the loyalties which remained to the Emperor.

x x x

"Harry! Snap out of it! We have to figure something out!" Anakin nearly shouted at his friend, "Our losses at Hoth can't go unanswered. We have the personnel, thousands of volunteers and almost a million Knights to help crew ships." Anakin turned to the rest of the Jedi Council, "Our problem lies with our lack of capital ships. We need to either build them or acquire them from the Empire."

Around the room, nearly all of the Jedi Council was assembled. Obi-wan, Harry, Ulundi, Offee, Shaak Ti, and Ahsoka Tano were the few present, while four others were on assignment and a somebody had yet to be chosen to replace Master Yoda. To the right of Anakin sat his wife, a representative of the Alliance Council, while on his left, sat Knight Representative Lian.

"Aggression is not the way of the Jedi, Anakin." Shaak Ti calmly said, Ahsoka cut her off with a frown, "We aren't the Jedi of the Republic anymore, Master Ti. We need to begin acquiring more ships. For the last seventeen years, we've managed to build an army to rival Palpatine and his forces. It's time to use our forces and let him know we're back."

"Are we sure we want to formally declare war?" Luminara asked, holding up a hand to stop any outbursts, "The implications from Hoth are that they declared war on us, but our first venture to bring a public face to the opposition was not successful. In fact, we lost a very powerful member of our Order."

"The Alliance Council is backing our decision, Master." Padme said quietly, "Aldaraan, Correlia, Chandrilla, Sullust, Mon Calamari are all key systems that have thrown in their support to our fight against the Empire. There's only one that sits on our Council that objects to any heavy action and he's our intel officer."

"We need more ships and our allies have limited resources which in the long run, won't win us the war. Losing those three ships at Hoth has raised the question of when are we going to build a fleet to rival the Empire." Anakin paused and then announced, "I vote to strike Kuat Shipyards."

The silence was deafening as the idea of hitting such a large target was insane to consider. It was Harry who broke it, "I second the motion to gain more ships. But there's an easier way of getting the Empire to supply us ships without much risk."

x x x

The Marauder exited hyperspace in the middle of an Imperial convoy, two Assault frigates were escorting a group of shuttles towards the blue and green planet of the system.

The response to the freighter was immedaite and as one, the two Frigates opened fire. Inside the cockpit, Lily and Sirius Potter guided the ship around the enemy fire, spinning the ship on its axis while barely skimming above the first Frigate's surface. It went the entire length before pulling past its engines and moving recklessly towards the fire of the second frigate. TIE's were pouring out of the hangers of both ships as it angled towards the surface of the second, repeating the manuever they used against the first.

Their package delivered, the gunners began to fire on the enemy fighters as the two Potters weaved around the Imperial fire before entering in a set of hyperspace coordinates and jumping from the system.

x x x

Aboard the first Frigate, Harry and Obi-wan materialized in the middle of the bridge, their lightsabers engaging while Harry unleashed his elder wand and threw a furious burst of conjured fire. The destructive element whipped over the surprised crew while Harry maintained enough control that kept the fire from touching the consoles.

Obi-wan shoved a pair of Stormtroopers hard against a wall while deflecting two blaster bolts back into the men who fired. He ducked under another closing the distance to two more Stormtroopers, hacking both down with a finesse-like spin that carried him to the door to the bridge. Seeing that Harry had already killed the others on the bridge, Kenobi sealed the deck and hurried to the communications station.

Harry moved to the helm began to enter a set of coordinates. Obi-wan's voice broke over the intercom, "This is General Obi-wan Kenobi, of the Jedi Phoenix. I've taken control of the ship and I'm prepared to vent all the ship's oxygen unless all stations stand down and comply to surrender. Personnel are to return to their quarters and any violations will result in the forfeiture of your life."

"You get a signal from Anakin or Luke?" Harry asked and received a nod.

"I'm going to inform the freighters to slave their ships to ours or be destroyed."

Harry nodded, and once they had control, he punched the controls for hyperspace and the two frigates and six transports altered their course and jumped from the system.

x x x

Barriss Offee appeared in the middle of the Victory class Star Destroyer's bridge with six Knights, Ahsoka Tano behind her. For a whole second the bridge stared in disbelief as the eight intruders, before all hell broke loose.

Shields sprang to life, lightsabers engaged and blasters fired. Chains snaked around the ship's captain while a stunner knocked him out. Stormtroopers were thrown across the deck while the crew futilely engaged the boarding party. Some were hit with stunners, others were shot or cut down by the various blasters and lightsabers.

Two minutes later, the bridge was sealed and Barriss began giving orders, "Secure the living, I want three guards. Ahsoka, take two Knights to the main hanger. Convince those who resist that it isn't in their best interest to do so. Lieutenant Sid, load those coordinates for our rendezvous."

Barriss walked over the to Captain and revived him, "I'm going to ask some questions, Captain. Now, I'm trying to be nice about this, but I won't hesitate to use more painful methods."

"I refuse to accept your terms, you Jedi scum!"

"Wrong answer. Legillimens!"

x x x

"I'm sorry, Harry." Anakin looked up from his desk as his friend entered his office, "We're only halfway through what we downloaded from the archives and we haven't found anything new."

"Six months, Anakin." Harry slid into one of the office chairs and put his hands on his face, "These raids have managed to distrat me from her missing, but you know it isn't enough."

"I understand, Harry." Anakin understood Harry's pain too well as he felt like he had lost a sister and close friend.

"What's blocking me? I know she's alive, I just can't sense her!" Harry looked desperately at Anakin.

"Maybe Palpatine figure out how to suppress our magic and the Force. He might have found some of the Ysalarmi that we use for our own cloning."

"They don't disrupt our magic, especially our bond. I could always sense Ginny while we were setting up our facilities. Even while we were both inside the fields."

"Then he's modified it." Anakin put up his hands to stop the same argument he and Harry had been having for the last four months since their pirating campaign had started against the Empire, "Come on, we need to get to the briefing."

Since the beginning of their campaign, the Jedi had managed to steal twenty Star Destroyers, thirty Assault Frigates adn several dozen more cruisers and freighters. In addition, the Alliance had found that they could now put every volunteer to work along with nearly seventy percent of the active Knights. With such a fleet, the Alliance Council with the Jedi were ready to begin a real campaign against the Empire. Harry had been the one to propose their first target and despite it being one of the smallest and least public within the Empire, it was also the biggest threat to the Jedi.

Since the fall of the Republic, the Jedi were going to assault to Sith world of Korriban and bring down the obvious threat a Sith academy posed to the galaxy.

x x x

"Then you're leaving?"

Luke looked up at the red-haired woman who had just entered his quarters, "I am."

Mara frowned, "Were you going to come tell me? Or were you going to assume I'd figure it out?"

He and Mara had been growling closer in the last month and because of the genuine change of heart, she had been given limited permission to leave her quarters, though it was always with an escort. Anakin had allowed Luke to skip several missions to allow him more time with her and Luke had been the last to realize that he was falling in love with her, "I'd have said something, Mara. And I don't know how you found out about it in the first place."

She walked across the room and looked out the starship window, "Let me come with you. You'll need all the help you can get."

Luke shook his head, "It's not my call, and I did suggest you accompany us. They're afraid that exposure to the Darkside so soon might cause you to relapse and betray us during the mission."

"I understand, you know I won't, right?" Mara turned around and brought her emerald eyes to his own blue ones, "I'll admit that I'm afraid of that too, but I feel that I should go with you."

"Not this time, Mara. I trust you and you've grown a lot in the last few months, something even my father noticed. And your progress with the theory of magic..."

"Stop, Luke. I don't want to hear about it right now." Mara stepped closer to him, feeling drawn through the Force.

Luke stepped closer to her and fell quiet. Both stepped closer and a second later, they embraced one another, their lips finding the other in a suppressed passion that had been building between the two during the last four months. Seconds turned to hours and hours into an eternity before they broke, breathless. They stayed in one each others arms and Mara rested her head on his shoulder, "That was..."

"...intense?"

"Yeah." Mara breathed.

"I wish you could come with us."

"I wish you didn't have to go."

"I'll be back before you know it."

"There's something about this mission, Luke. Something's not right."

"You think it's a trap?"

Mara hesitated, shaking her head in the end, "Not a trap. There's going to be something that nobody expected."

Luke nodded and exchanged a simple kiss with her, "I promise I'll return."

"I know."