Chapter Thirteen
Demetrius could not have been more pleased with his son when he heard the news of Arden Lyn's rather public declaration of defection from the Empire. "Just what we need to complete our coup against the Emperor but be careful. She's not likely to fall for your charm as easily as any other woman has in the past," he said. "No worries father, she's in the shower cleaning up from her battle with the priests and her escape from the destruction of their fortress," Paris replied.
Who knows how eager he'll be to get under the towel that she'll wrap herself with after the shower. It seems as though he is too promiscuous to be controlled forever by anyone Demetrius thought to himself silently. Nonetheless, it was his hope that his son would not be distracted with Arden or any woman when the time came to destroy the Emperor. The last thing he needed was to have to save his son from his head being up in the clouds about some girl during the battle.
"Admiral, the designs you requested have been tested. With some luck, they'll be ready for their first battle ahead of schedule by about two months earlier or so," one of his subordinate officers stated. "Perfect, this is excellent news. We'll go ahead and go by the schedule even if they're ready in advance, I want to make sure I have the Emperor by absolute and total surprise," Demetrius said.
"Yes sir, have you found the assassin who will capture him?" the officer asked. "Why yes, my son came across a former Emperor's Hand named Arden Lyn who killed several stormtroopers. She spared their leader, Dark Jedi Yun, but made her statement of defection in the blood of Imperials. The timing in her doing so could not have been any better as far as I'm concerned," Demetrius answered.
"Perfect, let's hope she will accept your offer to join us and fight the Emperor on our behalf. I'd hate to be the one to point a pistol at a man who can reduce me to ash in seconds," the officer stated. "If anyone can persuade a woman like Arden Lyn, Paris is the one to do it as he is about to now," Demetrius agreed. "I wish him all the luck in persuading her then, I have heard she can be very stubborn," the officer said.
Demetrius dismissed him after admitting that he had heard that about her as well and the officer bowed before leaving. Once again, Demetrius was alone to think about all that was and would be for the Zaarin family. He was not without his fears when it came to taking on the Emperor and Lord Vader, failure to destroy them meant being forever pursued by relentless forces eager to get a reward. However, the worst part about that was Vice Admiral Thrawn had left Zaarin's keep to forge his own destiny which meant he could be the one ordered to pursue Zaarin if he failed and survived.
Why in the universe would even the bravest Imperial Admiral not be afraid of that possibility in his shoes? Could he really expect his son to understand that his fears had guided him well throughout his life and even saved it on more than one occasion? He highly doubted it, intelligent as his son was even compared to him and he was already one of the greater minds of the Grand Admirals. Shaking his head at this distraction, he turned his attention back to planning when to launch the coup against the Sith.
Arriving out of the shower, Arden immediately bandaged her forehead since it was still bleeding though not as badly as before. Grabbing the flimiplast with Paris' information, she headed for the room number that he had left on it and knocked on the door. "Come in, the door's opened to the Force if it's you, Arden," Paris said. His voice sounded like a younger and more confident version of what his father's voice was and she wondered if Demetrius had been the same way when he was young too.
But those silly questions that thought started were soon blown out of her mind when she saw Paris for the first time. He's the man from my dream, the shoulder-length hair, that build... How is this possible? Arden asked herself silently. He looked like he had seen her from a dream before as well and confirmed he had when he asked if she knew about the little girl and describing her.
"Formalities aside, I have come to offer you a place fighting with me and my father to destroy the Emperor. You could have your revenge for whatever insults he and Lord Sidious did to you and rescue anyone you love from the Empire," Paris added after their talk about the vision. Could I save Shira from the clutches of the Empire? Arden thought but didn't say. "On a condition, if you don't mind having conditions to your bargain," she said aloud.
"Personally, I could care less as this is more my father's bargain than it is mine. I'm just the sweet talker who's supposed to reel you in," he retorted. Smiling, she continued with what she said although she was beginning to admire his attitude and looks more and more. It wasn't love at first sight, she had seen him before this in the dreams that she had had of her possible family. "I want to be permitted to bring my pupil Hoar along with me for at the moment, he's the only friend I have," she said.
"Well I certainly don't want to separate you from your only friend so with that said, you got yourself a deal. Welcome to the winning team, Arden Lyn!" he joked. I am not so sure you and your father have what it takes to match the might of the Empire. The Rebel Alliance is their greatest opponent so far and even they struggle to stay alive she thought silently.
She tried to assess this man carefully and wondered why in the universe the will of the Force would decree him to be the father of a possible child. Was it because it had willed that she would move on past Xendor and find a life of peace? Could this be her big reprieve from what the years of suffering had brought upon her coming in full at last? "How long have you had the dream of me and the girl, Paris?" she asked at last.
"Most of my life, since at least my early adolescence or so. Why do you ask?" he answered. "I've had the dream for eight years since I returned from the Void of the universe on a mission for Thrawn when he was part of the Chiss Ascendancy," she explained. "So the two of you do know each other from somewhere as father believed," he stated, it wasn't a question.
"Yes, we worked together during the Clone Wars before I was frozen in suspended in animation for fifteen years. I floated in an escape pod during that time and he tried to find me to no avail, I was found by the enemy he had waged war with and held in their captivity for a couple weeks. Then I returned without a friend in the galaxy and meditated on my grief for six months before serving the Sith. Seven and a half years have passed since I agreed to serve them and now I have gone rogue on the promise that I would find the young boy called Skywalker," she confessed.
"Damn and father mentioned you going into another longer hibernation than any of the ones you've told me, is that true?" he inquired. Arden nodded and confessed that, altogether, she was more than twenty-five thousand years old with the first hibernation being the reason for such a huge gap. "I'm so sorry Arden, that explains the ring around your finger and how it is such an antique, right?" he asked. "Yes but I still wear it because it reminds me of the man I used to be married to, the man that the Emperor promised to resurrect in exchange for my service before I realized he couldn't," she answered.
"What was it like back in those days when the Republic was first forming? Was it as dangerous as the Imperials would have you believe it was?" he inquired. "For now, be satisfied that it was even more dangerous than that but I will tell you at another time. We have other matters to attend to right now, do we not?" she replied.
"We'll need to get to my father before the night's out, this hotel won't shelter us from Imperial authorities once they see Hoar is here," he agreed. "Then I'll go down and see if he's not too drunk yet but if he is, you're carrying him," she retorted. Shrugging, he agreed to be the Tusken Raider's carrier if he was passed out cold from drinking but truly hoped that he wasn't. Maybe I'm supposed to just bang Arden and then have something really bad happen to me or something he thought silently.
Hoar had been drinking for the last twenty minutes or so but still, he felt nowhere near capable of passing out. "This is the strongest that you've got? I'm barely even nauseated, never mind unconscious!" he exclaimed. "The whiskey impairs your thoughts and cognitive ability to register feelings of any kind, sir," the bartender warned.
"Hell with it, pour me another round and make sure I still got the credits from that pretty boy human to pay for the rounds!" Hoar ordered. "I'm afraid that's not going to be the case, Hoar. We gotta go now," Arden said from behind him. "Damn it, just give me the bottle and I'll guzzle it down next time I get a chance to do so," Hoar ordered.
"That'll suck up the last of the credits the kid put in your tab," the bartender replied. "Good, I might not be coming back here for a while anyway," Hoar snapped. When the bottle was handed to him, he and his companions immediately started running from the bar and to Zaarin's shuttle. "Any great ideas for dodging Imperials if they find us before we reach your ship?" he asked Paris.
"Just a couple but they should get the job done without any concrete bloodshed," Paris answered. "Now where's the fun in that?" Hoar asked rhetorically. "If we were here for your kinda fun, I'd let you have it all but we're not so you do as I say, got it?" Paris snapped. "Yeah, yeah sure, just don't be on the wrong end of my rifle if I have to shoot something," Hoar warned.
Arden smiled at that comment, wondering if the two would ever get along or if she was going to have to make them get along. Last thing she needed was an early preparation by being mommy for two grown men of different species. "Now boys, break it up! We're not enemies here, the Imperials are the real foes; Hoar, waste your rounds on them if you have to but no more than that," she ordered.
"No worries Mistress, did you think I'd do anything else?" he asked. "Actually, yes I did," she answered. "Me too," Paris agreed. "Shut up, no one was talking to you," Arden ordered at which point he apologized.
They reached the shuttle unopposed but did have to fight to protect the shuttle though Arden dispelled a round of Kinetite to throw off the stormtroopers sent to stop them. "You enjoy using that power a little too much, don't you?" Hoar asked. "Let's just say you don't want to be on the wrong end of it unless you know how to stop it," Arden answered.
"Yeah I don't think I would," Hoar retorted with a wink beneath his mask. "My father is located over the Parmel System at his facility Research though he'll soon be making his move. I shall have you two meet him there and he'll tell you what you can do to help his movement," Paris said. Then he launched them into hyperspace upon being clear of the atmosphere of Bunduki and flying in space.
Inquisitor Tremayne arrived on Bunduki in the hopes of finding Arden Lyn here since Palpatine had told him about her vengeance for the priests. However, the report brought in by Dark Jedi Yun indicated that she had already completed her vengeance and escaped from the planet. "You imbecile, by acting against her, you have helped her escape!" Tremayne shouted at the boy after reading a report. "Sir, I didn't even know she would be appearing on the field until she did and when I saw her attack my troopers and the disciples, I had to do something," Yun replied.
"True but you could have contact Palpatine first and heard what his orders were on the matter before attacking, not the other way around. It's amazing that you are still alive though I must admit that you are under the tutelage of Prophetess Sariss for a good reason," Tremayne stated. "And what reason is that, might I ask?" Yun asked. "That you stupid, incompetent, and a spoiled little child," Tremayne hissed in reply.
Yun simply bowed to Tremayne out of respect for his superior rank and left the older man to ponder his next course of action. Now where could a woman like Arden Lyn have gone after leaving Bunduki? She certainly would not go anywhere where her darker aura would give her away to anyone pursuing it for certain Tremayne thought quietly. Guessing that Hoar was a drinking type and that he would have come with Arden, he headed to the nearest bar that he could find.
Either it was the will of the Force or just excellent deduction but Tremayne found a clue that led him to her whereabouts almost immediately. "I am looking for a woman with neck-length black hair and a mechanical arm gained from a pre-Old Sith War juggernaut droid. She has a Tusken Raider in her company named Hoar who likes to drink Korriban fire whiskey, so I've been told. Would any of you happen to know where I can find such a duo of people?" he asked the customers and bartender.
"You might have met them here a couple hours ago, the Tusken was drinking my whiskey like water and even asked me to permit him to take a bottle. I don't know where they were going but I can tell you that they were in the company of a man called Paris Zaarin, does this help?" the bartender said. Paris Zaarin... that's Demetrius' son, no doubt but what would Arden be doing with him unless he came to her with an offer from his father? What could such an offer be that Paris was sent to persuade Arden and Hoar to join them after Arden made her statement of defection? he thought.
Quickly switching his mechanical eye to infrared, he scanned the bartender and saw no deception in his explanation that Arden and Hoar had gone with Paris. After switching it to regular sight, he thanked the bartender and immediately marched off back to his ship whilst formulating another plan. Unless Demetrius had not yet heard the news about Arden Lyn's defection from the Empire, there was only one reason why he would want her to join his ranks: he planned to defect himself. However, despite doubting it, he was not unwilling to be wrong on either of these deductions he had made.
He was willing to accept the truth of her being an undercover agent and the Emperor ordering her to kill those troops. But it didn't explain why he had sent Tremayne to hunt her down unless he ordered him to do so to keep an eye on her. Still, I wonder why the Emperor would need to keep an eye on an undercover agent of the Empire Tremayne observed as he thought about this. That was when it hit him: Demetrius Zaarin and his son did intend to defect from the Empire as Arden Lyn had.
Now it would have been just a matter of taking a hyperspace trip to the Parmel System and spying on the Zaarin family as well as Arden but that was beyond him. Subtlety was seldom ever a skill that Tremayne relied on and spying was one of the most subtle things a servant of the Empire could do. However, he did want to get at Arden somehow and decided that the best thing to do was wait for her to come to him. If Zaarin intended to ally himself with Arden, capturing or killing the Emperor would be the biggest if not the only reason why.
It was time he shared his suspicions, or possible revelations, to the Emperor and warn him against possibly imminent danger from the two of them. They were a deadly combination if they intended to defect from the Empire but this made sense to High Inquisitor Tremayne now. Demetrius was a smart man and knew that he himself could never hope to defeat Lord Vader, let alone Palpatine. So he recruited someone else to do the job for him at the first possible opportunity to do it, a brilliant strategy and it showed an example of self-awareness.
I will find you, Arden Lyn and I will have my revenge for the injuries you had inflicted on me when we last met. Be sure of that he vowed silently as he boarded his shuttle. "Where to, now Inquisitor?" the pilot asked. "Imperial Center, I have confidential information for the Emperor that I believe will interest him very much," Tremayne answered in time for takeoff.
In the seven and a half years since beginning his expeditions back into the Unknown Regions, Vice Admiral Thrawn had been very successful. Not only had he mapped the worlds that were commanded by the Chiss Ascendancy before he personally dissolved but the Killiks were revealed too. He had also seen worlds that were neutral or conquered by other organizations that Thrawn had never known about before. As if that wasn't interesting enough, some of these organizations had been in control of their worlds for several hundred years before Thrawn arrived and destroyed them.
Conquest had never been more exciting to Thrawn but it was researching the various cultures that had remained untouched until he arrived that truly enticed him. Examining a culture allowed him the insights he needed to destroy them should they rise up against him militaristically. However, he managed to wipe out warrior races just fine if they didn't give him a chance to observe and study them. Still, nothing formed a void in his heart more than the fact that he still didn't have Arden Lyn under his wing.
True that he had had his chance twenty-three years ago during the Clone Wars but her Battle Meditation had so amazed him that he simply could not live without it under his shadow. The power to boost the morale of his armies so greatly that victory was sealed was simply to great to be ignored. Granted, it was likely that Palpatine also knew arcane ceremonies similar to Battle Meditation but he was so confident of his strategical abilities that he seldom used them if at all. Admirable but it revealed his arrogance when he did it extensively and a true sign of the pompous ways of any emperor.
"Vice Admiral, reports are coming in throughout the HoloNet News of an attack on the priests of Bunduki that included a defected Emperor's Hand. She killed several stormtroopers as well as all of the head priests of the Palawa and she injured Dark Jedi Yun in the process of killing them. They say her name is Arden Lyn and that she has joined Admiral Demetrius Zaarin's son Paris," a captain stated. "What in the universe would compel the HoloNet to do a report on the son of the Grand Admiral persuading a defective Hand, I wonder?" Thrawn asked.
He didn't need the question to be answered, he could already calculate that Demetrius and his son Paris intended to overthrow the Emperor just by that move. However, he wanted to see if his subordinate officer could figure it out for himself as well as he had done. "I would say that Zaarin did it either because he doesn't know about her defection or else has intent to defect also," the man answered. "Good, very good because it is the second one that is possible for a man like Demetrius Zaarin or his son Paris," Thrawn said.
"What do you propose to do about this?" the captain inquired. "For now, we will be patient and continue mapping the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. However, when we are called upon to destroy Zaarin's defective forces we will," Thrawn explained. "Very well sir and what of Arden Lyn?" the captain continued.
"I beg your pardon?" Thrawn asked. The question had genuinely thrown him off guard but then he remembered telling this gentleman, named Pluto, about his past experiences with Arden. It was at that point that he calmed down and was almost ready to answer before Pluto reminded him of that. "You said that you had hoped she would join you once again for fighting your enemies," he stated. "Whenever and however possible, I will do what I can to see about getting her to join me upon the repulsion of the Zaarin insurrection that is sure to come; we must let the wheels of his mind turn on him.
"For when they do, he will become incompetent and arrogant to where even his advanced technologies will not save him," Thrawn explained. "Yes sir, I see no reason why we shouldn't be patient in waiting for Zaarin's arrogant psyche to destroy itself from within. That usually is how you destroy any man on equal or greater intelligence than you, no?" Pluto asked. Chuckling, Thrawn admitted that he was guilty as charged and dismissed the captain to continue his routine duties. After he left, Thrawn returned to his signature activity: thinking and meditating on near-perfect strategies.