A/N: Hey all! Oh my-gosh! I'm so blown by all the overwhelming reviews! You're all so kind and generous, I'm kinda nervous now about whether this fic/series will keep up w/ the expectations! LOL; well, I'm gonna give it my best! Anyways, I did get two questions:
1. Why did Luke not use his 'meta' powers to defend himself? A: you'll find out later on.
2. What was the 'Force upsurge' that Vader & Luke felt? Any why only them? A: same.
Sorry! But these things ARE gonna be addressed later in the story; so no spoilers! :)
Anyways, w/o further ado...onward!
As always, Star Wars is STILL not mine; dang that mouse thwarting my plans! LOL.
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SW Ep. V: Jedi Assassin Ch.25— Foreordained
Leia squinted her eyes as she stood in the hanger's yawning entrance, thankful a trench led to it; it helped bar some of the mercilessly biting ice shards and howling winds from assaulting her.
Some.
On either side of the princess, Artoo and Noc scanned the vicinity for any signs of the three men; Artoo with a small dish extending from his domed top; Noc's eyes were onyx with scarlet codes running through them as micro scanners embedded within his feathers did their work.
"Anything?" she asked loudly over the wailing gusts.
Both 'machines' shook their heads. Noc let out a frustrated screech.
Artoo must have understood at least the gist of it because he turned his domed head to the bird and made some assuring bleeps and chirps. From his perch on an icy outcropping, Noc glanced at the droid before answering with clank of his tongue that sounded slightly conceding.
Leia smiled; Noc seemed somewhat eased at least.
She headed back inside. General Bel-Iblis was waiting for her.
His face was lined with grim lines though.
"Nothing yet, General," Leia allowed, trying to keep her tone hopeful.
Garm's nostrils flared from a vexed exhale. He hated it too: not being able to send out a search party now. Having to wait till dawn was telling on everyone, Leia noticed, as hushed voices vented anxiety and worried looks were exchanged throughout the hanger area.
Nearby, Darklighter grunted loudly and kicked a piece of equipment, sending it flying across the hanger before slamming hard into the far wall.
Garm saw it, but aside from a sympathetic stare aimed at the boy, he remained silent; Leia's lips twitched in an appreciative smile.
Wedge strode over and put an arm around Biggs, whispering something that to Leia sounded encouraging.
"There's nothing to be done until first light," Garm suddenly said, apparently to no one, because he abruptly turned and stalked off, his expression shadowed with regret.
Crunching snow alerted Leia to someone coming up behind her. It was the deck officer. Chewie deigned that moment to appear on her right. Leia didn't have time to wonder how he'd done so without making a noise.
"All the patrols are in," he informed her, almost apologetically, "still no sign of the Solos or Kenobi."
She nodded, already aware.
Threepio skittered up to add his input. "Mistress Leia, Artoo's scanners have not been able to trace any signals; yet, he admits his range is far too weak to abandon all hope."
The deck officer frowned remorsefully. "There's nothing more to be done tonight, Your Highness; the shield doors must be closed."
She glanced at the open doors, silently begging the boys to appear on their taun-tauns...but she saw only Nocturne, still scanning even as Artoo tried coaxing him to follow inside.
Poor, loyal creature.
"Let me get Luke's bird first," she murmured. Her legs felt like lead as she somehow willed them to take her to the falcon.
She rested a gloved hand on his head. "Come inside Noc," she entreated.
He ignored her; she heard the hardware inside him humming and his one visible eye flashed strange colors as he no doubt switched to another scanning program.
She crouched beside him at eye level when epiphany struck. "Has Fade reached out to you?" she hopefully asked.
A few seconds of no reaction, then a dismal shake of the feathery head.
Leia's shoulders slouched. So, she was either too weak to do so...or...
Leia didn't let herself finish the thought. She peered down at the shifting snow and then back to Noc. His stiff body and glaring gaze told her plainly he had no plans to move-not until his master returned.
"I don't pretend to know what your limits are," she confessed, leaning towards him until her lips almost brushed his feathers as she spoke where his ear ought to be, "but even you can't survive this cold. The temperature hasn't even hit its lowest yet. And what will I tell Luke when he comes back tomorrow and you're frozen solid? He'll blame me you know."
One golden-cobalt eye fixed on her. He was wise to her ploy, the bright gleam said all; yet, he fluffed his royal and silver feathers at length in defeat.
Neither were under any delusions; Hoth was a world which showed no mercy.
Reluctantly, Noc stepped onto her arm when she extended the limb to his feet. Her clothes were thick enough where his knife-like talons posed no danger.
And he was careful, she saw.
Noc's head was fixed behind them, on the horizon as they returned to the relative safety of the hanger.
She met the deck officer's gaze upon entering.
"Close the doors," he ordered a subordinate.
"Yessir," the younger man said, and pulled the series of controls.
Metal grated in protest as the massive doors met each other.
The second they crashed together, Chewie let out a despairing howl.
Leia didn't react; she was too numb. When Noc joined in, screaming at the doors, flying off her arm to beat his wings and claws against them in frantic dismay, Leia could only swallow the massive lump in her throat.
Luke...Han; she longed so desperately to help them, beneath her skin, her soul cried out louder than Hoth's maddening winds.
An Alderaanian prayer her parents taught her as a child surfaced in her thoughts. She forced her eyes to not fill, her face to not show fear or grief-
Why didn't she have powers like Luke!? She could go out and save them all.
Instead, she could only allow her lips to utter a muted plea that they'd return come the dawn.
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"What's wrong?" Han asked.
Han leaned over his friend as Luke softly moaned. Across from him, Kenobi was poised likewise, set a hand upon Luke's sweaty brow.
Luke shuddered, as if recoiling from something, and then let out a frightened gasp.
Han had never heard him make sounds like that before. Kenobi's face darkened with worry, his gaze somehow far away.
Must be doing more of that Jedi business again...with the 'Force' or such. Han grimaced.
"What's wrong?" he pressed, more insistent this time.
Kenobi seemed to rivet back to himself, but his eyes were haunted with a graveness that made the captain's skin break out in bumps that had nothing to do with Hoth's cold.
Another kind of chill coursed through him.
"We have to wake him," the Jedi avowed, turning to Fade, "he's on Vader's ship."
Han started. "He's what? Where? How did-?" and then he cut himself off. Details could wait; the kid couldn't.
"Kid, kid you gotta wake up!" He shook Luke, but Kenobi seized his arm.
"Forgive me captain, but this is"-
Han let out a frustrated noise. "'Jedi business?'" he half patronized.
Kenobi only nodded. "I'll return soon." And before Han could even ask, the Jedi laid on his side next to Luke and passed out, his body going limp.
Han rubbed his brow in consternation, glanced down at the amethyst feline- or rather her washed out imprint. "Is there anything I can do that doesn't involve feeling useless?"
Granted; he bit that out, but he hated this...this...
What could he even call it?
He huffed out a sigh.
I'm sorry, captain, the feline intoned, but this is-
"'Jedi business'?"
I was going to say 'foreordained,' but that term works as well I guess.
She sounded forlorn.
Han shook his head. "Okay, okay, I just...," he froze mid-gesture, and slowly turned back to the ethereal. "What do you mean: 'foreordained'?"
I mean that the powers that be have decided that this event must take place; I can see it, written upon the fabric of the universe.
The feline's eyes, even nearly invisible, were filled with a depth of knowing that made Han swallow hard.
Oh, this was so beyond smuggling goods and dodging Imps.
A now much-more-infinitely-concerned-Han peered back down at his younger friend.
Kid, what have you gotten yourself into this time?
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When Vader passed through a set of immense grey double doors that led to a chamber swallowed by shadows, Luke followed, intuition murmuring that this was the dark lord's meditation area.
When the large doors slid shut behind him, Luke could scarcely make out the Sith. It was more by Vader's ominous breathing that Luke could pinpoint his location; that and fleeting glimpses of the dark lord's long cape.
He drew closer as Vader came to stand beside a pod-like structure that Luke wondered at briefly, before Vader pivoted on his heel.
In the next moment, the dark side froze Luke where he stood, grasping him like invisible manacles.
A surprised gasp slipped out; he reflexively struggled against his bonds as the Sith closed the gap between them.
"Greetings, young one," Vader evenly said, "It seems we meet again." A pause. "Your daring continues to impress me."
Luke didn't bother with words, only pulled on the Force in newer ways Fade had trained him; with a determined sound, he broke free.
Vader to his credit, did not react.
"Well done," he rumbled at length, "I see your strange companion has taught you more of the Force. Good."
"I doubt you'll think so in the days to come," Luke flatly replied. He wanted to throw Vader's confidence, let him wonder whether or not his 'discovering' Hoth was in fact orchestrated by the rebellion.
Let him wonder if it's a trap.
Vader only chuckled darkly. "We shall see; though, after our last encounter, your creature ought to have warned as I have: it is reckless to walk the Force with such impunity. You cannot always control your destinations...nor those you encounter-as you've surely discovered."
Vader had already realized it then: that Luke could not control it. He remained perfectly still; not wishing to betray his hand.
Vader nodded but said nothing; as though confirming something. "Tell me then, child; why seek me out a second time?" He gestured, though it was hard to discern in the steeped blackness. "Have you come to behold my vessel? The one target you failed to destroy?"
Luke knew it was a taunt. His eyes narrowed threateningly. "I did fail...but I'm hardly finished." He raised his chin. "You'd better pray you find me before I find you...because I won't fail again."
He sensed Vader smile from behind that horrifying mask. "Such brazenness. I wondered at first, at the Force's choice of you," he stepped closer and then carefully around Luke, as though examining him, "but the Force never selects in folly-as you have proven."
Luke refused to recoil from the dark lord; too many had cowered in his presence and clearly Vader was all too accustomed to inspiring terror.
Pity then Luke had already faced horrors that would drive most into madness.
More was the pity Luke had become the horror that had driven many to not mere insanity, but death too.
He straightened and stared the Sith down; one nightmare to another.
"I won't join you," he said, his tone deathly quiet, "and I won't allow you to make this ship the rebellion's executor." He grinned. "But I will let the dark lord go down with the ship."
But even as Luke reached for the Force, even as he flung it at the ship's extensive framework, Vader was already prepared.
The room shuddered as light side and dark side met; Luke tensed, instinctively semi-crouching as Vader's power assaulted him on all sides.
Overhead, dura-steel moaned and buckled as monolithic power clashed. The Force howled around them, banshee wails as the warriors psychically fought.
Vader's head tipped in a way that betrayed to Luke he was smiling again.
"Your determination becomes you, young one," the Sith appraised over the raucous as he pressed Luke from every angle, "but I remain the master. Your ally surely warned you that you are not yet ready to face me."
"She might have failed to mention it," Luke defiantly gritted out, lifting his arms to help him focus as he pulled at more and more of the Force.
He sensed Vader grin. "Ill-advised; she ought to have prepared you for this moment…Luke."
Luke jolted, unable to keep his shock at bay; Vader capitalized on his split-second lapse of control.
Luke's essence as pinned on the floor less than a moment later.
Authoritative footfalls announced the Sith's approach.
"Indeed," Vader gloated as he loomed over Luke, "your Jedi friends have been most informative."
Luke's kept his mouth sealed tight; even as an incredulous hiss fought to escape him.
"Did I not tell you so before, young one?" Vader gestured. "The Jedi are expert betrayers. They bargained with your name in an effort to save their own miserable lives."
A wave of nausea washed over Luke as the Force confirmed yes; it was true.
Vader grinned again behind his loathsome mask. "You waste yourself on them; why, child? It is perfectly obvious why Kenobi and Master Windu remain with you, even as the other Jedi vermin scurry all over the galaxy: they are investing in you. You are their hope; they have realized their time is over; they cannot defeat me, and so they devote their talents and knowledge into grooming you—you; an assassin. Their failure is so pitiful and they so desperate they are willing to sully themselves in an infamous criminal with untold amounts of blood soaking his hands."
Luke sensed more than heard the amused chuckle.
"Surely young Luke, you see their ways now: they will sacrifice you to save themselves, and to mitigate their shameful failure. None of them will willingly die to stop me; but they will send you in their place."
Luke reigned back his power, letting himself feel the shock. Vader must have detected his disbelief because he relented somewhat.
It was enough.
Luke lashed out with the Force; there was a thunderous explosion as Vader went flying.
When he connected with the far wall, the sound was nearly as deafening as the first.
Luke leapt to his intangible feet.
He was sickened, yes; he was aghast—
But to an assassin the job always came first- he could be shocked later on.
He wasted not another second. Extending his arms as Vader regained his coherence, Luke reached for the mainframe.
All over the ship, men jumped back, yelling in fear and disbelief as computer terminals exploded; as computer panels and insets self-destructed.
Warnings blared all over the massive structure. Luke caught the sounds, even muffled by the enormous door.
Vader's ship was crippled.
The dark lord rose, Luke felt him reach out with the dark side to assess the damage.
Something like a growl left the Sith's throat.
Luke didn't resist when the dark side seized him again.
"This will not save your friends," Vader coolly avowed.
Luke let himself smile. "It will save them for now," he smugly corrected.
"You would have done better to attack the life support systems," Vader informed him, the knowing in his voice thick and condescending.
"Yes, it would have," Luke allowed, unruffled. He should have killed the life support his training said, but…he was not fully the Specter, not anymore.
In the inner recesses of his soul, Luke Skywalker was slowly demanding more and more say in his actions, fighting against the Specter's cold efficiency.
Vader tilted his head to one side, no doubt picking up that…something had changed, even if he could not identify what.
Meanwhile, Luke held his concern at bay; Vader should be livid, enraged…his ship was all but dead after all.
So, where was the infamous storm of fury?
It struck Luke that Vader could be shrewd as well, calculating. Was he going to feint-?
Luke screamed as fiery talons suddenly dug into his mind. Clutching his head, he collapsed to his knees.
His torture-resistance training had been…thorough. But this…this….
He yanked at the Force to help shield him, to block Vader; but the dark lord's power rose all around him in insidious, vile waves.
He recoiled.
Like in his visions!
"It is passed time to learn who you are, boy," Vader calmly attested, "even further passed time that you join me."
"Never!" Luke spat out, wrenching harder at his powers.
"You are not fully trained, young one," Vader observed as he indifferently watched Luke's futile efforts, "for all your potential is only that: potential. Untapped strength cannot stop me."
No; Luke could feel it: the mountain of dark side potency Vader pinned him beneath on the Death Star. It was slowly building over him even as knives of white-hot energy stabbed further into his mind, eating away at his defenses.
Trying to divulge his last name.
A gasp of pain slipped out as Luke felt his outer defenses give way beneath Vader's onslaught.
"What is your surname, boy?" the dark lord demanded.
"No!" Luke bit out, buckling over as the mountain's weight crushed him.
"Tell me, child, and the pain will stop," Vader emotionlessly said.
Luke only laughed without humor at that. Training had made it clear: the pain never stopped.
Ever.
Now, Luke picked up the first flickers of the renowned anger.
Vader's patience had reached its limit. "I can make the pain end boy…or I can make it worse."
Luke thought back to Dromerick's unspeakable creations; of vile, dreadful abominations so revolting that even years later, they haunted the darkest recesses of Luke's mind, both awake and sleeping.
If Vader could top that-?
Luke only laughed again. No, he doubted it very much; Sith or not.
But another layer of his defenses was breeched; Luke cried out as the pain increased.
Vader as close; so close…no, if he discovered who Luke was related to—
And then it was gone.
Luke's apparition-form went limp. No; no! It could not be!
If Vader relented, it could only be because he'd won! But how was that possible? Luke didn't feel his final layers safeguards give way.
"You," Vader breathed in a furious whisper.
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A/N: Okay all; so that's it for now. Yes, me and cliff hangers still have a thing going on! LOL; but please enjoy and leave a review. It's always awesome to hear how I'm doing! Till next time!