Star Wars Legacy: Family Ties
A/N: I don't own Star Wars. It is owned by George Lucas. Star Wars Legacy Comics are written and illustrated by Jon Ostrander and Jan Duursema. All Original Characters belong to me.
A/N: This fanfiction is dedicated to ChildofWinds over at JCC. This is also dedicated to SOS Save Our Skywalker Thread Members on JCC Lit and now on EU. I'm still waiting (after two months or so) for their decision as to the status of SOS Skywalker.
Chapter 7
"Depends on what you tell me," Wolf replied, this time out loud.
Tarak motioned for Wolf to come close so that he could whisper, "I'm Tarak, of the Great River organisation, dedicated to helping Jedi escape the Sith and bounty hunters. My ex-partner is still my partner; he's just executed the first part of our mission. I have to do the second part; that is getting you and Jedi Vao to our rendezvous, and the crew of this ship. Apparently, High Command wants them too."
Wolf listened and processed the information, he whispered, "You work for High Command of what? To make such an elaborate plan, it's obviously not the Sith, or the Fel loyalists. Who is the High Command you speak of?"
"If I tell you this, you can't repeat it to anyone not cleared to hear about it," Tarak replied, whispering again, "In short, it is the Neo Rebel Alliance. Formed by those of us in the Galactic Alliance, and those beyond who knew Emperor Fel was a fool for allying with the Sith, those who believed in democracy, inspired by Mon Mothma, Leia Organa Solo and Luke Skywalker. Unfortunately for us, the massacre of Ossus happened before we could get word to the Jedi, and afterwards it was too dangerous for outright war until now, now we are ready to go." Tarak stopped to allow Jedi Sazen to process this. "You see, the Princess is the last piece, she's going to be bait for the Sith. They won't be able to resist the prize, because they want her to get to her father. And now, perhaps also the occupants of this ship."
"But why kidnap her," Jedi Sazen asked.
"Because, it's not really a kidnap, it's really only a kidnap so that we could talk to her, and the Sith won't suspect a thing. Their intelligence network is quite good, and we've had to close some shops before they were caught," Tarak replied. "She's the last piece, as I said before and if we picked her character and personality right, she's going to volunteer to be bait. Oh, and before I forget, I should extend the invitation to sign up for the Neo Rebel Alliance, though we assumed that any Jedi would be willing to sign up to a group that aims to take down the Sith."
Wolf let himself process everything, and took a deep breath, "So you are Alliance personnel," Jedi Sazen said out loud again, "I think I can tell that to the Imperial Knight, though I suspect that he'll think you kidnapped her to try her for war crimes. That might make him more hostile, but I can understand that we can't tell him anymore," as he reverted back to whispering. He paused, before continuing, "As for the Neo Rebel Alliance, Knight Vao and I will definitely join. We both wish for democracy to be restored to the galaxy. You still haven't told me where she is gone to though."
"You know their intelligence network is headed up by a Sith, Darth Maladi, that's why we have ysalamiri, they can't divine anything and the Force bubble projected by one is small enough to not be noticed until one is quite close. As for the Princess, she is headed for my home system, Fydir," Tarak answered. "And to get into that system, you need clearance, which I and my partner have, but no one else but system natives will have, otherwise the FDF will blow us out of the sky. You tell that to the Imperial Knight if he still wants to take it out on me, that he won't get anywhere near his Princess until we get past the FDF. Oh, and once you get inside the Star Cluster, then you've got to search for her too, I know where my partner's headed, but there's no star chart of the interior of the Fydir Cluster, outside of maps held by the FDF."
"Alright, so we reveal that your partner is headed to Fydir, the one place where he knows that the princess will be able to be stashed away safely away from others who would steal the bounty. I'll tell them that only you know the co-ordinates, and that you want revenge on your partner just as much as we would like to have the Princess back. That you'd give up the bounty for now, just to repay your partner," Wolf murmured into Tarak's ear.
"Yes, that's okay." Tarak replied, "I just hope it will work, I didn't expect to be found out though."
"You are quite good at deception. But I'm a Jedi Master, I'm trained to detect even the best lies." Wolf replied, "By the way, I felt that you are Force-sensitive, care to tell the truth about that?"
"I suppose I should," Tarak replied, sighing, as though it was like a big weight was about to come off his shoulders, "I am trained, as is my partner, not by Sith nor really by Jedi, though one of my Masters was of the Jedi for a short time before he joined the Fydiran Order. He's the one that advocated the strongest for our intervention. There are a lot of things about Fydir that we don't like people to know. Fydir has its own traditions, we're sort of fall between the Jensaarai and the Witches of Dathomir, in terms of how far we are from being like the Jedi of the Ossus Order."
Wolf listened closely, and considered the revelations. There hadn't been a Jedi who had left the New Jedi Order in its early years that could possibly be still alive. He couldn't think of any of the more current Jedi that had left the order and were still alive. Only Jaina Solo had left the Order and that was to become Empress Fel, and Tarak was definitely no Solo, he just had no resemblance to any member of the royal Fel family. He wondered, who this Jedi was, but he sensed the truth coming from Tarak, and he also sensed that Tarak was not willing to answer this question right now.
Wolf thanked Tarak for the information, and untied the ropes. He took the pair of stun cuffs off Tarak, but then put them on again, though this time his hands were in front of him, rather than cuffed behind him. He also took all of the weapons that Tarak had, his holdout blaster and the vibroknife that he had hidden in his boot. Wolf exited the room and went out to the bridge, leaving Tarak alone. Tarak sat and waited.
Wolf went down the corridor of the Mynock and approached Draco. "I told you I could do it, they are heading to the Fydir system. You only needed to offer him a shot at his former partner to get him to talk."
"Fydir," Draco replied, looking at Wolf as if he was lying, "how could they get in, that cluster has tighter security than even Bastion. Everyone has to pass through Fydir Two to get into the Cluster itself, in fact only a select few are allowed through. Most Imperial freighters only get to Fydir Two and then never make it through into the Cluster itself."
"That ship is one of the select few that can get through, but he has the clearance codes to get in," Wolf reasoned. "And he's also the only one who knows how to navigate through the systems in the Fydir Cluster. So we basically have to take him."
"There's no choice," Draco replied, "though we still have to convince the crew to go."
"I'm sure they want the Princess still, so they'll come," Wolf replied. "The Princess is the prize in the galaxy, besides your Emperor, but no doubt he's in a secure place where the Sith can't get at him without major losses."
"We could just rip the codes out of his mind of course," Draco replied. "Or trick him into telling them."
"I doubt it, Knight Antares," Wolf answered, "he's quite resistant to mind tricks and probes. You'd have to push really hard to get through I think. It's probably better just to let him take us there. I can sense when he lies."
Wolf walked away, when Draco gave his assent. He went to the bridge, and walked up to Cade. "We're headed to Fydir Two," he said, "the prisoner said that was where they were headed." Cade punched in the co-ordinates into the navicomp and the Mynock went into hyperspace. They were on their way to Fydir Two for now, though Cade had no idea what it was like there, he hadn't been there before, and apparently, judging from the looks that Jariah and Deliah gave him, neither had they, nor Knight Krieg.
Meanwhile, back on the Shadow Drake, Deziel was just finishing visiting the Princess. She was still weak from her injury, but to be safe, Deziel used the ysalamiri and sedatives to keep her sedated. The Shadow Drake popped out of hyperspace in the Fydir Two system. He commed the control centre on Fydir Two, transmitting the high level codes that allowed him quick entry into the Fydir Two spaceport. The chief port officer, happened to his cousin so they of course rushed him through the port. The Shadow Drake, got through the customs and then cruised through the system back into space on the other side of the system and entered hyperspace, the stars elongating into blue towards Fydir Prime, where the Council awaited, and the leaders of the Neo Rebel Alliance.
The Mynock was still swung through Yag'Dhul and then towards Fydir Two. Onboard, Knight Vao and Master Sazen were deep in conversation in what little private area was available to them.
"The prisoner is an agent of the Galactic Alliance?" Knight Vao asked, quietly, as Master Sazen recounted the story that Tarak had told him.
"Yes, he is, but the others are not to know," Master Sazen replied, in a hushed tone, "as long as they think he's just a bounty hunter in pursuit of his ex-partner, it should be okay, we can then make contact with the Neo Rebel Alliance," he continued, looking around, both through the Force and through his eyes to see if there was anyone else close by.
"What about Cade and the rest of the crew?" Shado asked, "they aren't going to be happy finding that they can't get their bounty."
"They'll have to live with it, Tarak's mission is much more important, the Sith have to be beaten," Master Sazen replied.
"But we'll definitely lose their trust," Shado replied, "they might sell us out to the Sith some time later, and there are the Imperial Knights to deal with, too."
"They'll understand, in the end," Master Sazen replied. "and the crew of this ship, I feel won't be leaving Fydir Two soon either, not if the Alliance is ready to move, they'll probably be locked down, somewhere safe until the war is over and the Sith are destroyed."
"But will they be able to take down Cade, since he is Force-Sensitive," Shado asked, again, knowing that they had to follow this plan through now, the Jedi couldn't stand back when the Alliance waged war on the Sith, not anymore, since they were inexplicably tied together in the Sith-Imperial war, and now as the second war was about to begin, they had to repay the faith that the Alliance had put into them.
"The ysalamiri, they will use it against Cade, because I will warn them," Wolf said, simply, as a matter of fact. "For the good of the galaxy, I have to sacrifice his trust in me, whatever little is left. That's the only way I see right now." And there the conversation ended.
What they didn't notice was that Draco had used the Force to conceal himself within listening distance and had caught snippets of the conversation. The bit about Tarak being a Galactic Alliance agent stuck into his head. He reasoned from there that the Alliance was going to try and execute Princess Fel for crimes against democracy. He went of to quickly grab the others, knowing that they would ally with him, his subordinate, because of their loyalty to the Princess, the crew because they wanted her safe as well, or at least the Captain. He couldn't believe that the Jedi would go through with something like that. To willingly let a person go to her execution. It was because they were still angry about Ossus even though the Emperor Fel had nothing to do with it.
It was then that Wolf Sazen detected through the Force that something was wrong, emotions were swelling off Draco Antares like waves through the Force, indicating that something was wrong. His first instinct was to move to protect Tarak, who had confided in him the truth of the matter.
That man must have overheard parts of our conversation, Master Sazen, Shado sent through the Force, as they left their area, and went back to the other room, where Tarak was confined to except when he was needed. They awaited the inevitable confrontation now, the truth would probably have to come out, or they would have to invent a lie. Shado could feel the righteous fury blazing off the two Imperial Knights as they entered, so uncontrolled he thought, close to the Dark Side they are. "What a surprise, the two Jedi are here defending that scum." Tarak sat, impassive, waiting for the Jedi to make their move.
"He's sealed the Princess's death, how could you Jedi, stand by and let an innocent person die like that." Draco's hand went down, towards his lightsaber. Master Sazen rose, "are you challenging us then," he reached down and flashed his lightsaber, ready for an attack. He saw that Shado and Ganner were also similarly prepared for a fight. Tarak continued to wait, the tension running high.
"Look, if you even want a chance of getting the Princess back, then we have to head on," Tarak reasoned, "otherwise my ex-partner will sell her to the Sith," still playing his part as an aggrieved bounty hunter.
"Liar, you are an Alliance agent," Draco spat out, "and the Alliance are going to put her to death for high treason."
"You must be mistaken," Tarak said, "I have nothing to do with the Galactic Alliance," he continued, as he tried to calm things down, "look, if you bothered to read me with the Force, you'll find that that's the truth." Of course, I have everything to do with the Neo Rebel Alliance but still that was the truth.
"I overheard you," Draco continued, refusing to back down, revealing that he had in fact been spying on the Jedi.
"You were spying," Master Sazen replied, calmly.
"There's nothing to say, I'm not a Galactic Alliance agent," Tarak said, truthfully, reinforcing what he had said before again, "I'm not lying when I say that. If you want the Princess back, then all of you have to calm down. Just feel it through the Force."
"Shut up, scum," Draco replied, as he called on the Force to slam Tarak into the wall of the ship. Tarak hit the wall with a thud and slid down, rubbing himself where he had been hurt. Snap-hiss, lightsabers were suddenly ignited, and a fight was engaged. Draco and Wolf fought, Shado and Ganner engaged each other, in the tight confines of the ship, it was hard to not do collateral damage. Tarak ducked and weaved his way to the intercom. He punched it on, and began shouting through it for help. Wolf's blade met Draco's as they struggled for the upper ground, Wolf drawing fully from the Force, feeling his opponent doing the same. They pushed each other back and forth. Shado was using his double bladed lightsaber, tough using only one end in the tight confines, his blue blade beating against Ganner's silver blade.
He could hear the booted footsteps of the crew running down towards the fighting Jedi and Imperial Knights. He saw Cade shout as the combatants were busily engaged with each other, ignoring him. "Stop, while you're on my ship, I won't have lightsaber fights onboard. I ought to dump all of you into an escape pod and leave you to drift." He saw that Cade had his blaster drawn, and Jariah with a thud bug and a blaster in hand. Tarak could see the anger blazing in Cade's eyes, and he knew that this one, out of all the other five Force sensitives on board, the Captain was the closest to the Dark Side, in fact, he could feel a bit of darkness come from him, though there was a little light, but he felt almost empty of the Force, muted.
The four combatants withdrew their lightsabers, and a round of violent verbal accusations started, around the claim that Tarak was a Galactic Alliance agent and not a bounty hunter as he claimed to be. Tarak denied the accusation, and the Jedi supported his denial. This only served in incense the Imperial Knights. The crew just stood in the middle of the argument, not knowing who was telling the truth. Cade trusted the Jedi about as much as he trusted the Imperial Knights, which wasn't much at all, but he trusted them more. And the Force did tell him that Tarak wasn't lying in his denial, something that the Imperial Knights could both feel as well.
A/N:Okay, so I might be going through a bit of a rewrite soon with some revelations in Legacy that I may or may not incorporate into this. Stay tuned and review please.