While the malevolent Imperial and First Order forces were routing out the Rebels of their secret bases and planned their final defeat, on the edge itself of the Outer Rim...
...
Max felt weird. Not that she was wearing right now, nor the circumstances that brought her inside the galaxy far, far away.
No. There was something else.
Looking from the window of the Rebel cruiser into the deep space with worm holes, countless stars and planets with lifeforms... Max, the girl who defeated the Emperor himself, thought on only one thing...
Chloe.
Thinking that she might live, yet also die... that was cruel for Max's mind. The girl itself felt good, but yet sad at the same time. The pictures of her moments with Chloe, either five years back or the present one blinked before her eyes..
"Why? Why did it return..." ... "Is it punishment for dabbing with time... for saving my love... my friends?..." ... "... am I... cursed..."
These thoughts haunted lonely-feeling Max like phantasms. Not really, but her head felt heavy... and pressing... like in those times before...
She thought it was from all that walking through the cruiser. It felt for her like she walked through the whole way from Arcadia Bay to Portland. She hadn't ever done it, but it felt like that. Her feet hurt, so she stopped at the window. To get a rest. But those thoughts filled her mind so quickly she forgot on the pain. There was something else...
Suddenly, a voice stepped inside Max's thoughts. Quiet, not loud. But it's tone was horrifying enough... and too familiar...
"I have told you... It is just the beginning.." The cackling voice, filled with arrogance and poison, made Max realize it...
"No... I am not you." She whispered. "I am not your pet, Palpatine... I'll never submit to your games." She was speaking in her mind, and whispering it through her lips at the same time. If the Emperor is connected somehow to her, at least she wanted to give him a clear answer.
"Fuck you."
A simple, evil laugh sounded like an echo, across the stars...
"We shall see., my child. We shall see.."
And when Palpatine's evil voice passed out into the galaxy, a familiar hand, old one, pulled Max's shoulder neatly. Waking the girl out of her 'transe'.
...
"Hey, Max?" A voice, and a neat pull of Han woke up the girl, standing at the window with a view of thousand stars. If he was worried, he was just good in hiding it.
The napping-looking girl looked on the old smuggler with a smirk, looking into his eyes. She looked scared, yet safe. For now.
"Han... You would not believe me.." Max whispered, while trying to forget on Palpatine, Empire... Everyone who ever had hurt her seriously. Not Victoria, Nathan or David...
The old man looked on the stressed out girl, chuckling. "Girl, I have seen a lot of things I hadn't believed they were possible... Sith, Jedi... Nobody can surprise me, or anything." Han placed his firm hand on Max's shoulder and rubbed it for a bit, looking into the stars. "Forget on it if it was bad. It isn't important.."
Max nodded. What if it was just a dream, or, more likely... a nightmare or a bad thought? You can be never sure when it comes from your head. She felt exactly the same... unsure. But she threw the recent experience away and looked on the smuggler.
"You're right. I need to think on present, not on what if's or possibilities."
Max smiled more, feeling the warmth coming out of Han's hand and looked behind the man, seeing Chewbacca talking to the tall officer, looking like a human wolverine. He looked familiar, yet... fresh. Beige officer suit with a brown leather pauldron on the right side, brown pants and knee boots, having a can-looking weapon on his utility belt's right side... and a lightsaber on the left.
The old bagger Han laughed, patting Max's head and turned to the wookie and the sturdy-looking officer, interested in how a officer got a lightsaber, a weapon of the Jedi...
"Hey, Max, come here." Han called Max with a known 'come here' gesture and stepped a bit back, putting the girl right before the officer. "Max, this is Kyle Katarn. A jedi knight and one who saved you and your friend on your home planet from the clutches of the Empire."
The named one giggled a bit, slightly pushing Han into a shoulder. "I wouldn't call it a rescue, but rather a race to death."
Max looked on Kyle and could not stop her mouth to whistle from amaze. "Wow.. I suggest thanks should follow, master Katarn.." She looked on the metal floor, right on the tips of her knee boots and blushed. It was the first time to see such a handsome man.. even though the love for Chloe did not die out.
The officer just smiled, looking on the girl and touched his belt. "At first, just call me Kyle. I hate titles, like 'Master', 'Commander' or 'Chief'. I prefer calling me by my real name, not just some dirty title or something." Kyle then smiled like a jester on Han, standing next to him face-to-face.
"Still against the authorities, Kyle?" The smuggler asked. It was known in the Rebel millitary that Kyle hates titles. He preferred the friendship over the authority.
The officer-Jedi chuckled and released a slight breath, putting his arms into a cross on his chest. "You know me well, Solo."
"Hey, you called me Solo?" Han asked the Jedi with a teasing grin.
Kyle's eyesight clashed with the sight of the old man's eyes, but the tension was broken by their smiling grins. Chewbacca's happy, quiet roar made young Max to laugh.
"Yeah, got a problem with that?" The Jedi answered Solo's 'title' question and looked on the old man, smiling with a tease.
Han growled silently. Out of fun. "Still the same Jedi I know." He smiled as Chewbacca stepped to Max. The wookie gave her an obsolete blaster, known as E-11, or 'Imperial blaster.'
While Kyle, with a side-smile, pushed a few buttons at the panel next to him, Max observed the blaster in wookie's hands. She never held a gun... well, except when Frank was close to hurt Chloe.. but since then, never.
"I... can't take it, Chewie... I am a pacifist." The girl said quietly and pushed the blaster away gently with her right hand. Wookie released a worried sound, what pulled Han's attention to Max.
"You need it if you wanna survive in this galaxy, kid." The smuggler took the blaster out of Chewbacca's paws and handed it to Max. She gently refused with a headshake.
Max immediately remembered the first, and luckily only, moment when she had a real gun in her hands... Back in Arcadia Bay at the junkyard. Ah, memories... the moment on the railway just blazed through her eyes and felt the touch as Chloe touched her hand while walking on the rails, keeping the balance...
"No... it's just I hate guns..." She remembered using lightsaber on Stormtroopers five years ago, even she held it for the first time. Like, the first real one, but it looked like Max knew to use it perfectly, not getting anything cut away while swinging.
Han looked on Max's stressed face and lifted her by holding her chin and chuckled. "Trust the old vets, lady. This galaxy isn't for cowards and folk who can't take care of themselves."
With these words, the girl slowly took the weapon offered by the smuggler and carefully put it on her belt. With Han's help, of course.
Kyle checked Han and Max with a small look, with an unsure face and looked back to the metal door, slowly pulling away. "Ready, girl?" The jedi said without any special tone and stepped into the room, with Chewie and Han right behind him.
The young girl had a bad feeling about entering. It could be safe, she was talking to herself inside her head, but as well... it could be all a big trap, leading to death or, more uncomfortable, becoming the Emperor's blind lackey.
After being assured it is safe by Chewbacca's calling sounds, Max made a few steps into the room. It looked like the dark room she remembered really, really well... but the blue light combined with side lamps and computers assured her it is safe. For now.
Big, thick wires on the ground made Max nearly trip over them. The computers, looking big, blickered with red, blue and green lights. It seemed they were used for checking a medical condition...
Then, Max looked in the front. She saw the source of the strong, blue light.
Chloe.
She was in the massive tube, filled with water and a breathing mask on her mouth and nose. In her underwear and light medical shirt, there was a clear sign of a wound - slightly above her left breast, it looked like a lightsaber scar. Max briefly remembered on the nightmare she had before awakening into this reality...
A red light.
A girl killed.
Everything just played before her eyes, as she relived it. THe immersive amount of pain hit her heart. She could not believe Chloe was alive! It seemed like a good dream, but considering the real touch of a Wookie or the smuggler, standing next to her...
"Could she... be awaken?" The girl whispered to herself in the mind, touching the glass cylinder, full of bacta, with her fingertips. Max hoped Chloe could somehow show to all the people inside she is still breathing.
After a while, it looked like Chloe's hand was moving, but the medical droid reported to Kyle Katarn it is normal during the finalizing the Bacta Healing process. Max then sighed and looked sad on Han, while Chloe's right hand was still moving.
"Chloe...?"
Max slowly moved her hand towards Chloe's. Despite being divided by a glass cylinder, it feels like they were right each other, every barrier just dispersing in her thoughts. The brunette could feel it - Chloe was mentally awake, just her body was not ready to 'wake up' yet. But just that touch through the glass made the girl happy. She was sure her best friend, her love... was still there. She stood in the touch for another few seconds, before...
The red light filled the medical bay. Han and Kyle went outside the room and with attention flowing through their heads, were looking what caused the Home One's alarm to go crazy like that.
The old smuggler looked out from the window on the nebula. Suddenly, the sweat went from his forehead, sliding down his face. Too soon, too soon! Han said to himself.
...
"Sir, we have dispatched the Rebel Fleet. But by the sensors, they saw us too." An older officer with a bit dusty uniform reported to General Hux.
The General let out a slight grin out of his mouth. Without Thrawn or anyone from the Empire to 'snug' this prize from his hands, he felt immersive pleasure from the find. With the Grand Admiral's directions. But the blonde officer did not care. As long as the Agonizer would not fail in its task.
"Are they igniting the hyperspace?" Hux asked with a cold voice to his ensign, turning his head slightly towards him.
The old man looked into his datapad, swiping his fingers through it for a few seconds. With a calm face, he looked up on his superior and answered: "No, sir. They are not. For now. As I know the Rebels, they will try to escape as soon as possible."
"Very well, then." The General replied, standing closer to the bridge's window, his sight locked on the Rebels. His hands were jointed behind his back, giving Hux a stronger aura of a commander. He then, after a closer study of the Rebel Fleet, turned back to the crew and started giving orders.
"Release the fighter squadrons, let them deal with the rebel smaller crafts. Target the Agonizer's weapons on the capital ships, Mon Cal and the Defender. Engines first. We cannot allow them to escape with Emperor's Hand!"
With his officers in hurry and delivering orders, Hux was observing the soon-to-be-destroyed Rebel ships. This could remedy Starkiller... it will.