Chapter 21: Dark Voyage

A red lightsaber pierced a rebel's chest.

Darth Vader watched the life fade from the poor fool's eyes, the last one to fall by his blade today. He shut off his lightsaber and dropped the rebel onto a pile of bodies, most of them in cauterized pieces. It had only taken him ten minutes to clear out this rebel safe house, located inside an asteroid surprisingly close to the core worlds. Subterfuge and a little bit of Force trickery had gotten him inside, and he had proceeded to exterminate the rebels without damaging the safe house. There was certain to be something of value here, enough to warrant taking the safe house intact.

Finished with the messy work, Darth Vader radioed a Star Destroyer lurking just beyond the safe house's sensor range. "Relentless, the rebels have been neutralized. Dispatch an inspection team immediately." Vader nudged a severed limb with his boot. "Send a cleanup crew. I have made a mess."

Not bothering to wait for the teams to arrive, Darth Vader left the safe house through an airlock. That led back into the vacuum of space, but that did not matter to his cybernetic life support. He simply leapt off the asteroid and into microgravity, using the Force to guide his trajectory. His personal TIE fighter was still where he left it, orbiting the asteroid with all systems powered down. The access hatch was open and Darth Vader drifted into it, the Force making sure he did not miss. Once inside he closed the hatch and got into the pilot's seat, booting up the systems and preparing to leave.

Once the engines were running the tie fighter quickly flew off into space, soon passing a couple of transports flying in the opposite direction. Up ahead was the Star Destroyer Relentless, slowly cruising toward the asteroid now that it didn't need to remain out of sensor range. Darth Vader gave the Relentless a wide berth, making it clear that he wasn't going to board it. Despite that clear message a transmission was still sent to him, and Darth Vader was tempted to ignore it and go about his business elsewhere.

Still, proper courtesy demanded he answer, and he pressed the button to do so. "Yes."

"Priority message for you sir, it came with the highest security codes."

"Put it through," Vader ordered. His tie fighter received the message, verified the security codes, and secured the transmission link. A small hologram appeared, and Darth Vader recognized the person. "Cylo, what do you want?"

"Your expertise," Cylo answered. "I am running experiments on subjects with supernatural abilities. I'm told you are aware of them. Results have been elusive to say the least. I believe your point of view in these matters would be most insightful."

"I will set course for Earth immediately," Vader said, already prepping for the hyperspace jump.

"Not Earth," Cylo said. "I took some test subjects off world for my experiments. The Tyrant has returned to Coruscant so I can use the facilities there."

"Very well," Vader said, entering the proper coordinates into the hyperdrive. "I will be there soon."

Toph wasn't sure what happened, but everyone among her fellow captives was in much better health.

For a while there everyone was feeling sick in one form or another, from the earthbenders separated from the Earth to the firebenders and sole waterbender suddenly feeling ill all at once. It had lasted for a day and a half, during such time several of them overheard their captors talking about taking a trip back home. When it was over the firebenders felt their strength return, and the waterbender felt better than ever before. The earthbenders had to wait a while longer, until they were taken off this ship and brought somewhere else.

The captives had been sedated during transport, and were coming out of it inside a large laboratory. Toph found herself inside a sealed chamber, the walls several feet thick and forged from metal purer than she had ever encountered. Try as she might to get a better view through vibrations, Toph couldn't see far enough to find solid ground. Over half a dozen floors were in view below her, with no sign of any foundations within range. Toph figured they had to be very high above the ground, in a building so tall it must cast an enormous shadow.

Eventually Toph got tired of waiting and started pounding on a wall. "If you're going to do something, do it already!"

In a room on the far end of the skyscraper, a curious general watched through a video feed. "You heard the little lady. Let's get on with the test."

Suddenly the chamber dropped through the building, sliding down a shaft to a lower level. At the bottom one of the chamber's walls slid to the side, opening an adjacent chamber three levels high and twice as wide across. All sorts of dirt and stone were scattered about, tempting ammunition for Toph to exploit. But she saw something else nearby, in another chamber opposite from the one she was in. A massive beast was waiting behind another wall, all but certain to be released the moment Toph went for the dirt and stone.

The general watching didn't want to wait. "Release the rancor."

The far wall slid into the floor, and the beast within walked into the larger chamber. Well over thirty feet tall, the rancor stomped ahead on its relatively stunted legs. Almost comically long arms nearly dragged on the floor, reaching out for anything the rancor could eat. A large mouth hung open, waiting for fresh meat to consume. The rancor saw and smelled the only other living thing around, the little girl at the opposite end of the chamber. So it walked in the girl's direction, its simple mind expecting an easy meal.

If the beast was going to eat her, Toph would make sure it had to work for it. "Come and get it."

Toph hurried to the nearest mass of dirt and stone, which she earthbent into a solid boulder twice her size. She punched to propel that boulder into the rancor's head, hitting with enough force to tip the beast backward. But the rancor quickly recovered, and resumed its walk toward Toph. She made more boulders and hurled them at the rancor, slowing it down but not enough to stop it. Soon the rancor was right over her, reaching down with one long arm. Toph leapt forward and in between the rancor's legs, and hurled a boulder up into a universally sensitive spot.

The rancor groaned from that particular blow, and Toph got behind the beast while it was recovering. She gathered as much rock as she could underneath her feet, creating a mound of rock half the rancor's height. Toph jumped from there and landed on the rancor's back, finding a soft spot just below the beast's skull. She earthbent a piece of the rock mound to her and shaped it into a dome, stopping the rancor's hands from grabbing her. Then she took some rock and made stone gauntlets over her fists, and proceeded to punch the soft spot over and over.

A loud and painful roar echoed in the chamber, nearly deafening to Toph's ears. The rancor lurched backward and flailed about, trying to shake off the source of the pain. Both large hands grabbed the stone dome protecting Toph, which cracked and crumbled when the rancor squeezed. The broken pieces pressed against Toph as the rancor took hold, squeezing both stone and flesh as it pulled its tightening fist forward. The rancor held Toph in front of itself, and then tossed its entire handful into its mouth.

Toph pulled the pieces of stone around herself, covering every bit of her body as she passed between the rancor's jaws. The rancor swallowed her and the stone shell whole, and gagged when she got lodged in its throat. There Toph broke the stone shell into sharp pieces and sent them outward, tearing through soft flesh and ripping the rancor's throat to ribbons. She fell through the resulting hole and hit the ground, drenched in a torrent of blood pouring from the rancor's neck. Toph quickly got up and moved out from beneath the rancor, expecting it to collapse any second.

Despite the severity of the wound, it took a while for the rancor to die. It took a few steps backward, clutching at its throat to no avail. The rancor's roars grew weaker with each passing second, gradually replaced by gurgling blood in its throat. The rancor fell forward and crashed face first, lying very still and quiet in a growing pool of its own blood. Toph didn't relax until the rancor's heart stopped beating, and the flow of blood came to a quiet stop. She let out a breath she had been holding, and wiped some of the rancor's blood off her face.

Toph stood up tall, and shook the blood off her hand. "Got anything else?"

The general watching was very impressed. "Let's find something bigger."

It was a short trip to Coruscant through hyperspace, and the planet was a welcome sight when Darth Vader returned to normal space. The planet resembled a sparkling jewel hanging in the void, the lights of countless buildings shining bright on both day and night sides. An entire fleet of Star Destroyers was in orbit above Coruscant, an ever present protection from threats to the Empire. Darth Vader flew his tie fighter past the Tyrant, currently flying in geostationary orbit above his destination. It was a slow but steep descent into the atmosphere, heading straight toward a state of the art scientific facility.

After transmitting the proper identification codes, a small landing pad was made available for Darth Vader's use. He landed his tie fighter on the top of a tall skyscraper, and he quickly got out of his ship and set foot on solid metal. Darth Vader took a moment to look at the skyline, appreciating the beauty of a city after so being away from civilization for so long. Afterward Darth Vader entered an elevator and it took him into the building, heading down to one of the middle levels where the main lab was located.

The elevator doors opened and Darth Vader walked into the lab, noticing all the scientists getting really quiet while he passed them by. They were working on various biological samples, attempting to extract whatever gene sequences enabled supernatural abilities. He sensed frustration from nearly all of them, and he figured they were no closer to having the answer. He saw Cylo at the far end of the lab, observing the dissection of a specimen that did not survive the trip here. Cylo noticed the sudden silence, turned around to see Darth Vader approaching, and gestured for him to follow.

"I appreciate you coming on such short notice," Cylo said. "Your insight will be most invaluable."

"What have you discovered so far?" Darth Vader asked.

"Very little," Cyclo admitted. He led Vader to another part of the lab, where two other scientists were examining genetic code sequences. "There is a base pair sequence that we haven't been able to identify. But our efforts to decode this sequence have been inconclusive."

"I have little interest in genetic engineering," Darth Vader said. "Get to the point."

"Scientific answers still elude us," Cylo said. "Supernatural answers, on the other hand, are your area of expertise."

"They do not use the Force, if that is what you suspect," Darth Vader said. He followed Cylo into an observation room, where they could see a few prisoners from behind thick two way glass. "They use something else for their power."

"Whatever 'something' is, it must not exist in hyperspace," Cylo said. "None of their powers worked during the trip here. Most were restored when we arrived, but the earthbenders weren't restored until they were brought down here."

"Interesting," Darth Vader said. His gaze settled on a few of the prisoners. "That makes containment… easier…"

"Vader?" Cylo said, noticing the way he trailed off. "Is something the matter?"

"They are different from before," Darth Vader answered. He placed one hand on the two way glass, reaching through to feel with the Force. "There is, slightly more to them here."

Cylo looked at those prisoners, earthbenders that were in their best physical condition since leaving Earth. "So there's more to it than just hyperspace. Where they are has an effect on their powers."

"I have seen this before," Darth Vader said. "Their waterbenders claimed to be stronger when they were in orbit. They believed it was because they were closer to their moon."

"Yes, I've read that report," Cylo said. "Unfortunately, the one waterbender we brought with us hasn't been fit for experimentation."

"You can always return to Earth for more," Darth Vader said. He had another experiment in mind. "Bring some of them to Carida. I want to see what effect that world may have on them."

Well aware of the conditions on that planet, Cylo knew where Darth Vader was going. "As you wish."

"Where are we going this time?"

Toph knew she wasn't going to get an answer, though it still felt good to complain. The imperials had seen fit to put her out again, and when she awoke she was back on a Star Destroyer and her bending was gone. Judging by the state of the firebender prisoners, the ship was traveling across the galaxy again. Toph was certain there had to be a reason for being moved again, and she doubted it was because of her killing one of their pets. All she could do now was wait and wonder where they were going, having nothing to kill the time.

Upon arrival the firebenders regained their power, and Toph felt their reaction despite the walls in between them. "Finally!"

Toph punched the floor to amplify the vibrations, pushing her sight to its limit. It stretched far enough to see stormtroopers preparing specialized equipment, though for what purpose Toph couldn't possibly guess. Some of them seemed to actually be a little worried, and it got Toph wondering what would have these stormtroopers spooked. She would get to find out soon, knowing that when vents in the walls pumped gas into the cell to knock her out again. Toph made a rude gesture, keeping it until her vision went black.

Sometime later she woke up, feeling a mix of sensations while lying face first on hard ground. "Ugh… what the… what kind of place is this?"

It was a struggle just to turn her head, feeling like someone's foot was pressing down on it. Yet there was nothing on top of her, and her muscles burned when she tried to move. She managed to pull her arms in and push off the ground, lifting her torso up a foot and relieving the pressure on her ribs. Toph turned around and got to a sitting position, already out of breath from moving a body that felt nearly twice as heavy. It took some will to overcome the weight, but slowly Toph managed to stand up and take a few steps.

The vibrations painted a strange picture for Toph to see. "What rabaroo hole did I fall into?"

Though the ground itself seemed like any old soil, albeit squashed into thinner layers, the things standing on the ground were very much alien. Exotic trees and bushes were growing out of the ground, but their trunks and leaves were shorter while their roots were anchored deep below the surface. Strange animals were moving around at a deliberately slow pace, all walking on four limbs that were thick with muscle. There was no sign of any birds standing on branches or the ground, and no sounds of anything alive flying in the air.

Further away Toph saw small buildings, but made from very dense material that held up under tons of weight. She couldn't even begin to imagine the engineering involved, even with her view of the very solid foundations. Toph also saw some people inside those buildings, their bodies adapted to deal with weighing well over five hundred pounds. She certainly could imagine how strong they would be in a normal place, far more than anyone she ever knew, and yet even they would seem weak in a place like this.

"What is this, heavy world?" Toph complained. Still, despite being weighed down by her own flesh, Toph felt better than she had been in months. "What are you guys trying to prove?"

Sure enough a few people came out, wearing imperial uniforms and wielding blasters smaller than the norm. "Stay back. We will open fire if you come closer."

"Not that I could if I wanted to," Toph grumbled. She lifted up her fists, arm muscles needing to work for it, and she slowly flexed her fingers. "In case you haven't noticed, it's hard for me to move."

"That's the point," the imperial said.

"Doesn't make much sense," Toph said. "What do you gain from putting me here? You already have a pretty good way of keeping me locked up. Why bother with making me twice as heavy?"

Course, one answer quickly sprang to mind. It was another one of that weird scientist's experiments, that much was clear. Toph didn't dwell on that for very long, instead wanting to take what little payback she could get. She planted her feet, clenched her fists, and swung her left arm up. In front of her the ground shattered, dozens of large pieces flying up and away from her, slamming into the imperials and crushing them instantly. And the ground kept on breaking apart further away, far beyond what Toph had meant to do.

Shattering ground hit the small building's foundations, and the whole thing collapsed in on itself. Toph's jaw hung open, and she held her fist in front of her face. "Huh… so that's why they brought me here."

As if to confirm her realization, Toph heard something in the distance. It sounded like large metal doors opening, their screeching echoing far and wide, promising the release of something very dangerous. It was followed by a loud and hungry roar, similar to one she had heard recently but with a deeper boom to its voice. She felt tremors in the ground set to the rhythm of slow footsteps, enhancing her vibration sight and letting her see further away. Toph prepared herself for a fight, certain that something big and scary was coming for her.

Soon the source of the vibrations came into view, and she recognized the beast coming her way. It was another rancor, similar to what she fought on that other planet, but breed for survival on a high gravity world. It had denser bones to support its body, stronger muscles to move those bones, and a shorter stature for stability. Toph saw it all long before the rancor arrived, certain to be harder to defeat, no small part due to her handicap here. Still she wasn't going to back down, not like that was an option here anyway.

"A rematch huh," Toph muttered. She got into her favorite earthbending stance, but found it hard to maintain with her arms so heavy. "Bring it on."

The rancor smelled food, and it charged with surprising speed. Toph swung an arm up to raise a wall, got one twenty feet higher than she wanted, only for the rancor to break it down and keep on going. The rancor reached Toph and reached down to grab her, but Toph jumped and rolled out of the way. Hitting the ground harder than usual left small bruises everywhere, and Toph retaliated for that by earthbending a massive stone spike. It went up right in between the rancor's legs, skewering the beast all the way up to its head.

Toph patiently waited for the beast to die, hearing its dying breaths quickly go silent. When it happened Toph dropped onto her rear end, her legs very sore and unwilling to hold her up any longer. Out of breath and struggling to get it back, Toph was exhausted after even that short excursion. She fell back further and laid down on the ground, wanting nothing more than to take a nap. It was quite infuriating to be worn out so quickly, and she hated this heavy world more and more. And her troubles weren't over yet, as she soon saw through the vibrations.

"Come on…" Toph complained. She struggled to get back up, needed a few tries to do it, and got ready for another fight. "More of them?"

Watching from the comfort of normal gravity aboard the Tyrant, Darth Vader observed Toph's struggle with high gravity. Carida was a planet with nearly twice the mass of a typical terrestrial world, and so the Tyrant had to use a far higher orbit to avoid falling into its relatively immense gravity well. The Empire used Carida as training ground for stormtroopers, the high gravity providing much needed experience in adapting to new environments. Now it served a different purpose, and had already proven the theory Darth Vader had when he suggested coming here.

"She draws strength from the planet," Darth Vader said. He kept his gaze on a monitor in this observation room, not bothering to look at Cylo standing nearby. "It seems that a bigger planet has more for her to draw from. It has increased her power considerably."

"Yes, but she's having difficulty using it," Cylo said. He saw how she got worn out after one rancor, albeit one she had slain far faster than on Coruscant. "The high gravity is wearing her out quickly."

"She hasn't adapted yet," Darth Vader said. "When she does, her power will reach new heights."

Cylo pressed a few buttons to switch video feeds, looking at several other earthbenders in turn, each having similar experiences with increased power but reduced mobility. "We've confirmed your theory. It's time to rein them in, before they try to escape."

"Not just yet," Darth Vader insisted. He switched the video feet back to Toph, who now had three rancors surrounding her. "I want to see this."

To be fair, Cylo was curious as well. "As you wish."

However, it seemed she wasn't willing to put on a show for her captors. As the rancors closed in Toph earthbent the ground she was lying on, making it sink several dozen meters beneath the surface. It also shattered the ground around the part that sank, leaving the rancors on unstable footing and making them fall forward, colliding with each other on top of Toph's little hole. As a result their bodies concealed Toph from view, and she didn't reappear somewhere else. And when the rancors finally moved out of the way the hole was sealed, its creator having gone completely underground.

"Huh…" Cylo muttered. "Not what I thought she would do."

"She won't get far," Darth Vader said. "There's a layer of metal underneath the surface. She has no power over it."

"Of course there is…"

Toph had found the layer metal very quickly, and it stretched outward in every direction. After clearing all the rock and dirt out of her way, Toph had her hands and knees on the metal blocking her path. Now she understood why her captors had set her loose, the assumption being that she wouldn't be able to escape. The metal appeared to be the roof of an ancient bunker, built on a massive scale before being forgotten and buried by time. Toph could see empty passages on the other side, exactly what she needed to get out of here.

"Got to get inside," Toph muttered. She put her hands on the metal, feeling for impurities within. "Great, more of this crap."

The metal was more of the same highly refined material Toph discovered aboard a Star Destroyer, with hardly any impurities to speak of. The surface was pitted and rusted all over, evidence of corrosion over centuries of time, but only corrupting the outer inch of metal. Beneath the corroded spots the metal was still pure, a testament to the forging techniques that made the metal so pure. Toph couldn't help but admire it a little, appreciating the craftsmanship of the metal, even if it was a problem standing in her way.

Toph chose to take it as a challenge, for it certainly was that for her. It was also a chance to finally use a technique she had created during the year before the Empire arrived at Earth, a technique designed specifically to deal with people putting her in metal prisons. Through the vibrations she searched for cracks and weak spots in the metal, anything she could use to get started on her technique. She didn't have a lot of opportunities to practice until now, but this was the time to put to the test the theory of metalbending.

"There," Toph muttered, finding what she needed. "Okay, this should work."

With slight finger flexing Toph earthbent some dirt to her, and forced it into the cracks and pits in the surface of the metal. Using the increased power to her earthbending, Toph made the dirt seep into the metal and vanish beneath the surface. Then she clenched both fists and pulled them back, beckoning the dirt she'd put into the metal. The surface of the metal was torn asunder, sharp fragments flying around Toph and getting stuck in the dirt. Now a few inches thinner, the metal was somewhat weaker, and Toph was grinning like a mad girl.

"Sweet!" Toph said. She cracked her knuckles and got back to work. "Needs work, but I'll take it!"

It took a few more tries to peel away all of the metal, needing to force more dirt into the metal each time to make it bendable. Soon enough she made a hole big enough to fit through, opening the way into the bunker below. Toph didn't dare drop through the hole and break a limb on impact, so instead she took the scrap metal and made a crude slide with, using it to slide down safely. It still hurt when she hit the next floor down, landing harder than she wanted to. But it did get her inside the bunker, and the momentary safety it offered.

"There," Toph grumbled. She walked a few feet down a dust covered corridor she'd broken into, and then lied down on the old dirty floor. "This isn't getting any easier."

"She has exceeded expectations."

Darth Vader was most impressed, and certainly intrigued by that little girl's ingenuity. Of all the earthbenders observed in Carida's environment, that girl was the only one to obtain some measure of safety. The rest had all been recaptured and brought back aboard the Tyrant, easy to do after they had worn themselves out in the high gravity. The girl had found a way to get through the underground metal, something no one aboard the Tyrant had expected. It would take some time to reach her down there, but there was no urgent need to do so.

Cylo, on the other hand, was more interested in analyzing the data gathered today. "In more ways than one, she has. We can use her accomplishments here to convince other earthbenders to work with us. The promise of power can go a long way to making people do what we want."

Darth Vader nodded, knowing that motivation very well. "Others would be preferable to use. The ones we have now, there will be no convincing them. Especially this one, she is beyond our control."

"We still need to contain her," Cylo said. He looked away from the data and toward Vader. "It will be a lot harder to do that after she acclimates to the gravity and masters her increased power."

"Do as you wish with that matter," Darth Vader said. In the grand scheme of things, leaving her loose on Carida was a minor concern. If metal walls wouldn't hold her, the planet surface certainly would. "It no longer concerns me."

"And what will you be doing?" Cylo asked.

"I still have other matters to attend to," Darth Vader answered. He turned away and head for the door, but stopped at the threshold. "You have your data, make good use of it."

Darth Vader left the room, leaving Cylo along to handle his tasks his way. Darth Vader passed through the bridge, observed the crew doing their jobs, and left without saying a word. He considered heading for his personal tie fighter, brought aboard the Tyrant before leaving Coruscant, but decided to delay his departure. He was overdue for regular maintenance of his cybernetics, and the Tyrant had the facilities needed for that task. So he headed for the quarters reserved for his use, where very few besides himself dared to enter.

Inside those quarters a spherical room opened, split horizontally with the top half moving up. Darth Vader went inside and it closed around him, cutting off all sensation from outside. He sat down and allowed specialized machines to work, removing the detachable parts of his body to make repairs. It was a painful process to endure, just as bad now as it had been the first time. But pain was good, pain reminded him that he was still alive, that there was still enough man within the machine to be truly alive.

During the maintenance Darth Vader reached out to the Force, letting it replace the sensations of physical reality. Though as vague as ever, the Force remained his greatest asset. Today he sensed something unfamiliar within the Force, an ancient presence that had laid dormant for millennia. Curious, Darth Vader reached for it, and in turn the ancient presence reached for him. In his mind's eye Darth Vader saw a dark red visage, a single eye looking out from the middle. Words were lost in this meeting through the Force, but the meaning remained intact.

When he returned to the waking world, Darth Vader knew where he needed to be.

"Earth…"