Chapter 28

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

In orbit above Umbara

"Force me!" yelled Jaina as she was once again forced into evasive maneuvers by the strange Umbaran starfighters on her tail.

The Umbaran starfighters looked more like ornamentations than real starfighters with the way they were made. They had large triangular shaped wings swept backwards from the cockpit with two smaller fins attached to the top of the ship above the command chair. The 'cockpit' itself was strange in the fact that it was only a command chair surrounded by a ray shield for protection. From what Jaina had seen, they were very maneuverable due to the fact that the pilot controlled it through hand interface rather than controls. This allowed greater maneuverability but also left their cockpit vulnerable due to the fact that even a small bit of damage to the controls made them inoperable. The engines were also placed in a vertical configuration with three exhaust vents, furthering its strangeness. They had only one rapid-fire laser cannon beneath the cockpit and two electromagnet missile launchers that were equal to a proton torpedo in sheer destructive potential. All in all, they were very different from normal starfighters.

'Doesn't stop them from being so damn effective!' thought Jaina angrily as she dodged another barrage of laser shots.

They had been battling in space for almost half an hour and had quickly found that while strange, the Umbaran fighters were piloted by very good pilots who took advantage of their ship's strangeness to catch them off-guard. If it wasn't for Jaina's Jedi reflexes and awareness, she would have been shot out of the sky hundreds of times already.

Suddenly, the pursuing fighters were destroyed by a barrage of lasers and Jaina let loose a sigh of relief. Her comm crackled before her brother Jacen's amused voice came through.

"Hey Jaina," he says, "I don't suppose you'd like to than-"

"What took you so long?" demanded Jaina, interrupting Jacen's fun. He was always making jokes and wisecracks and they were always lame. "I lined them up for you ages ago. I thought you'd fallen asleep."

Jacen sheepishly chuckles over the comm. "Sorry, I'm not used to piloting an X-wing yet."

Jaina rolls her eyes. "I told you to ask for a TIE but noooo... you didn't want the same ship as Anakin. Anyway, got a plan?"

There was silence over the comm before Jacen hesitantly spoke. "I was kinda hoping you did."

Jaina looked over the chaos off the battlefield with a grim look. The battle was more or less a stalemate at the moment. On the starfighter front, they had quickly adapted to the strange ships movements and were winning 90% of the skirmishes. On the warship front they were technically winning. However, while there were dozens of Umbaran cruisers down and only three Republic cruisers down, the Umbarans seemed to have an almost limitless supply coming from the planet. Until the planetary shield went down, it was a battle of attrition, one which the Umbarans were sure to win. The Umbarans hadn't even managed to launch their Star destroyers yet and Jaina dreaded when they did. The Umbarans would finally have the firepower to match the Republic Star Destroyers which would make the so far one-sided battle into a long grueling fight for supremacy.

However, Jaina couldn't worry about that now. Their squadron was spread out across the battlefield due to both inexperience fighting together and them being needed everywhere. It was quickly found that a single Jedi pilot could take down an enemy starfighter squadron down all by him- or herself and they were sent everywhere to make sure the more inexperienced pilots weren't overwhelmed. What's worse was that the enemy was making liberal use of Spiral-class assault ships to try and land boarding parties on their capital ships. Only the Jedi could sense them due to their advanced stealth systems and they had spent much time just defending their capital ships until Ashara managed to land on their flagship and used battle meditation to be both support them and to sense for any more attempts at boarding. It was lucky Harry had warned them because they had already lost a frigate due to the enemy Saber Guards skills.

Jaina looked at her status screen and nodded to herself. "There's two Dreadnaught-class heavy cruisers making a break for our flagship. They're being followed by a few CC-9600 frigates and we know that those have a few boarding drills on them so we need to destroy the cruisers so our capital ships have a clean line of sight on those smaller frigates before they can get close enough to try and board. You got my back, Jac?"

Jaina's comm crackled and she could feel her twin's determination through their bond. "Always, Yaya."

The two flew side by side toward the two cruisers, weaving past other battles to reach their target. They slowed down once they were in range and began their attack run. They silently agreed on their targets; engines for Jacen and weapons for Jaina; before firing.

Jacen managed to disable one ship's engines completely with a well-placed proton torpedo but only manged to destroy one of the other cruiser's engines. However, Jaina had quickly flown over both cruisers while releasing her remaining payload of proton torpedoes, managing to destroy both their sensors and weapon system due to a lucky shot. Both cruisers quickly became dead in space, a matter that was made worse when Luke and Mara passed by on their X-wings and finished them off, causing them to explode before moving on toward the CC-9600 frigates.

Jaina's comm crackled and Luke wry voice came through. "Nice shot, Jaina, but next time just finish them off. While their weapons system is off-line they can still fire indiscriminately if they wish. We lost a few pilots that way earlier. They seem to not care who they hit since they know they have plenty of reinforcements."

Jaina sighed but acknowledged the point. "You're right, Uncle Luke. Sorry."

Jacen, however, didn't agree. "We shouldn't just kill them Uncle Luke. For all we know, they're being tricked into this. We can't kill them for following orders especially since they're not technically part of the New Republic."

This time it was Mara that spoke. "They might not be part of the New Republic but they were also building this fleet for a purpose and I doubt it was a good one. They also kidnapped a Jedi Knight and her apprentices when they came in good faith. Either way, the middle of a battle is not the place to have a philosophical discussion about the morality of our actions. From a purely strategic point of vies, it's better to destroy them than run the risk of them continuing to cause damage even if they're dead in space."

Jaina felt Jacen about to continue the argument but Jaina interrupted. "I'm out of torpedoes so I need to refuel. How's the battle going?"

Luke sighed as he finished off the last of the frigates. "We're winning but it doesn't mean much when the enemy seems to be limitless. We need that shield down and the only way I can think of doing that from our side is concentrating everything we have in one spot but that'll leave us open for counter-attack for a while afterwards."

Jaina thought about it before she had an idea as she stared at the wreckage of a few enemy cruisers. "So if we can hit a single spot on the shields with massive force the entire thing should fail, right?"

Luke let loose a feeling of curiosity in the Force before answering. "Yes, basically."

Jaina grinned as she flew toward the largest concentration of enemy wreckage. "Then let's slam this wreckage into the shields! I can't imagine the shields surviving being hit by a large cruiser."

Luke was silent before hesitantly speaking. "That would work... if their engines still functioned. We need their engines to give them the proper forward momentum to hit it with sufficient force. Anything else and it'd just bounce right off. Furthermore, someone would have to stay on it in order to direct it toward the shields without it crashing into the wreckage of another ship. Sorry Jaina but it was a good idea."

Jaina sighed. "Yea, you're right. Well, I guess we just have to wait for Harry to take down their shields from inside. I'm going to refuel."

"Acknowledged."

Jaina flew her ship back toward the flagship to refuel, all the while thinking one thing.

'Hurry up, Harry. We can't hold off forever!'


A single drop of water dropped from a hanging stalagmite as Harry and company were running down their path trying to reach the end. It had only been five minutes since they separated from the others but they still hadn't reached the end of the path. Suddenly, Harry stopped as he heard something coming from further down the path. Nakia and Shae stopped beside him, hesitantly looking around as if to spot whatever had caused Harry to tense and look around cautiously.

"What is it, beloved?" asked Nakia quietly.

Harry narrowed his eyes as he heard the sound again. "Can't you hear that? It sounds like... bugs. Or at least something with a lot of feet."

Shae tensed as she placed a finger to her right temple as she searched her databanks for any info related to Umbaran tech. She was quiet a moment as the sounds increased and suddenly tensed before taking out her blasters.

"Millicreeps!" yelled Shae as the aforementioned droids turned the corner.

Harry ignited his lightsabers as he studied this new enemy. The enemy was a foot and half long droid in the shape of a six-legged insect scurrying along the floor on it belly. It was similar to a centipede only with only six legs and a long barbed tail. The most dangerous aspect was the fact that both its feet and its long tail were sparking with electricity and by the sight of the sharp points at the end of the each barb of its tail, it wasn't for anything good.

"Shit!" yelled Nakia as she sent a Force push at them to make some distance. The ones that flew away just got back up again and closed the distance once more. "What can you tell us about them Shae?!"

Shae sent a stream of flames at the approaching millicreeps and it worked at first but eventually they started scurrying along the ceiling and walls to overwhelm her. "Don't let them get close! They electrify and impale their enemies! Force lightning would only make them stronger since they absorb it! Long-range only!"

That was easier said than done as Shae could only sent a certain amount of flames at a time and Force pushes only delayed the inevitable. Harry suddenly had an idea and hoped it would work.

"Let me try something!" yelled Harry. Harry gathered a lot of ionic lightning in his hands before sending it in a wide arc to hit everything in front of him. Since he was in front of the girls, they weren't affected and every millicreep within ten feet of Harry was fried as the ionic lightning overloaded their circuits and they let out small explosions as they died. Harry grinned at his success but it quickly left when almost a hundred more came from further down the tunnel.

"Wait! I have an idea," said Nakia with a determined look on her face. She ignited her darksaber before closing her eyes in concentration. Harry felt her gather an almost obscene amount of Force energy and channel it into her darksaber. The blade seemed to become even blacker if that made any sense and just as the millicreeps were almost upon them, Nakia opened her eyes that now had a sickly yellow ring surrounding her blue iris. It made for a disturbing sight to see her black sclera, sickly yellow ring surrounding her irises and her ice blue eyes glaring at the millicreeps. She then let out a primal yell and impaled her darksaber into the ground.

Suddenly, large spears of black dark side energy sprang out of the ground beneath each and every millicreep, impaling and destroying them. All was silent as Nakia slowly pulled the darksaber out of the ground and the spears followed suit as they slowly disappeared back into the ground, leaving no trace of them being there except for the wreckage of destroyed millicreeps.

Nakia was breathing deeply as she tried to catch her breath from the strenuous use of the Force. It had been centuries since she'd used the Force for anything more than hiding her presence and to her chagrin, it was showing.

Harry was wide-eyed at the display of power and he looked at Nakia with a slight pout. "Just how much have you been holding back when you fight me?"

Nakia had caught her breath and just smirked at him. "I would never aim to harm you, beloved."

Harry just pouted further. "That doesn't make me feel any better."

Nakia just laughed until Shae walked between them. "That was great, Nakia, but we need to get moving. There might be more on the way."

Harry and Nakia nodded before Harry led the way further down the path. After two more encounters with enemies (one with Umbaran Acolytes and another with more millicreeps), they eventually reached the end of the path only to find two Saber Guards and two soldiers that looked remarkably similar to Imperial Senate Guards. A fact that was only reinforced when they ignited their cortosis staffs. The Saber Guards were different from the others they'd seen in the fact that their armor had silver accents instead of being completely gold.

Harry looked at them warily but quickly looked away from them to look at the tower behind them. The tower looked similar to holo-images Harry had seen of the Tower of Law on Bimmisaari. However, unlike the Tower of Law, it ended with a sharp point on the top rather than a flat surface. Harry had looked at it because he felt Astraal and the girls at the top. Though he was far away, he could barely see a line of figures entering a magnetic tram located at the top of the Tower. Harry's heart leapt when he could barely hear his apprentices' muffled curses coming from a trio of masked figures being dragged toward the tram by two cloaked figures.

The figure that was dragging Astraal stopped and seemed to look toward Harry before sending him a mocking wave. Behind the figure walked an Umbaran woman that could only be Sly Moore herself. Even from this distance, Harry could feel the darkness both Sly Moore and the two cloaked figures were radiating. It was as if they were completely shrouded in the dark side. Harry could only watch helplessly as Astraal and the girls were dragged into the tram before it activated and left.

Harry was so distracted he barely dodged one of the Senate Guards stabs as he attacked him. Harry was instantly set upon by one of the Saber Guards as well and Harry ignited his violet and ice blue lightsabers to fend them off.

Harry gritted his teeth before deciding on a course of action. "Shae! Use your jetpack and fly to the top of that tower! Secure a tram and find out where they were headed! Use any means to secure that tram, even if it means blowing up the bridge leading to it! We can't let them sabotage efforts to follow them!"

Shae had been hanging back as Nakia engaged the remaining Senate and Saber Guards as she turned to Harry. "But Harry, Moore said it was all a trap! She probably wants you to follow her to somewhere she has the upper hand!"

Harry just glared at his enemies as he continued to dodge and block their slashes. "Doesn't matter! Just please do it!"

Shae sighed before activating her jetpack and flying to the top of the tower. Seeing that she had listened to him, Harry concentrated on his enemies.

The Saber Guard and the Senate Guard had obviously trained together because they worked together to keep him off-balance. However, Harry had gotten tired of the constant delays and no longer felt like being merciful. He pressed the attack and his lightsabers became a whirl of colors as he ferociously attacked both enemies. They were caught off guard by his aggressiveness and were pushed back as Harry used both his lightsabers and his body as a weapon to inflict damage on them.

Harry was going completely on instinct as he used Vaapad's aggressiveness to force them on the defensive. At one point, Harry broke the Senate Guard's defense and landed a vicious blow across his face from his right cheek to his left temple. It had also ripped off his mask, showing the face beneath.

Harry felt like hurling as he looked on the deformed face of what could only be a failed clone. It looked like it was supposed to be a man but his nose was missing, his mouth was stitched together and his eyes were a sickly green that radiated bloodlust and madness.

'At least that confirms how Moore managed to have so many Force-sensitive guards,' thought Harry grimly. 'She clones them and keeps the ones that survive regardless of how they look.'

The deformed Senate Guard growled before viciously attacking with his cortosis staff by attempting to stab Harry through. That proved to be a mistake since Harry simple sidestepped and spinned along the length of the staff into the clone's space and viciously beheaded him. Harry was allowed no rest as the Saber Guard was instantly on top of him. However, without his friend to help him Harry quickly broke through his guard before cutting him in half at the waist.

Harry took deep breaths before turning in time to see Nakia summon another black spear behind the last Saber Guard, impaling him through the stomach as she held him in a saberlock. The Senate Guard seemed to have been stabbed through the chest beforehand. As the last enemy fell, Harry activated his comm and called Cassiopeia.

"Cassie, do you read me?"


Cassiopeia used her cortosis staff to impale the last of the enemy through the chest with the plasma blade. She took a deep breath as she looked around at the carnage surrounding her.

As her team ventured deeper down their path, the rocky cave walls had given way to metal and artificial lighting. While this was good in terms of being able to see where they were going, it was bad when they met their new enemies.

At first glance, their new enemy looked like a walking skeleton and Cassiopeia had frozen in panic thinking they were zombies (she really shouldn't had stayed up all night when she was 4 watching zombie movies). However, she quickly noticed that they were really just men wearing a black flight suit with a white cod piece, chest piece, knee pads and arm guards similar to stormtrooper armor. The armor along their arms reached their hands and turned their fingers into claws to cut through their enemy. Their helmet looked similar to some Kaleesh masks Cassiopeia had seen before and she couldn't help but shiver when she saw them. However, none of this would have posed a problem except for one thing: they had stealth suits that made them invisible to the naked eye.

Cassiopeia had cursed the fact that no one in her group could use Force sight or had advanced sensors to see the enemy like Shae. After a few minutes of the group barely avoiding the enemies' strikes, Cassiopeia had an idea. She pulled out her father's wand before incanting, "Homenum Revelio!"

The spell was used to reveal the presence of humanoid organics and despite these freaks being way too flexible to be anything but the result of genetic engineering, they were still mostly humanoid. This allowed the spell to reveal the enemies' in an aura surrounding where they were standing. Lancer had seen the effects and growled angrily before roaring and picking up the nearest enemy by the leg and using him like a sword to hit the other enemies hard enough to damage their delicate stealth suit and throw them into the walls.

Cassiopeia, Ethan and Brea quickly took advantage and while the former two attacked from close range, Brea used her almost god-like accuracy to shoot the enemy through the head with every shot. They had repeated this encounter three more times before they reached the end of the path.

Cassiopeia looked at the corpses Brea had made in awe as she noticed that they were all perfect head shots. Even the enemies that looked similar to Imperial Senate Guards shown in holo-vids sometimes. These had been the worst of the enemies so far since they had cortosis staffs similar to Cassiopeia and used it almost as good as she did. However, Cassiopeia had the advantage due to being able to use the Force to speed up her reflexes and reaction time.

Cassiopeia sighed as she looked around before her comm crackled and Harry's voice came through.

"Cassie, do you read me?"

Cassiopeia raised a finger to her head comm and answered. "Yeah, I hear you, cuz. What's wrong?"

"Nothing here but we only arrived in time to see Moore take Astraal and the girls away. We also met up a few new enemies in the form of Senate Guards."

Cassiopeia frowned and kicked the corpse of the nearest Senate Guard. "Yeah, we met those too. Hard as hell to kill with only a staff since they use those too and know how to fight against them. My firewhip is useless in closed in places like this. We also met a new enemy that Brea says are called Terror soldiers, be careful if you meet them since they can go invisible. Although you'll have it easier since you can use Force sight."

"I'll keep that in mind. Can you see where the planetary shield generator is yet?"

Cassiopeia looked up at the large cloning facility they had entered. It was very large with a central tube with blue light inside that Cassiopeia guessed must be the power source for the entire place. Attached to the central tube were six hexagonal metal plates about 5 feet thick with six cloning tanks on each point of every hexagon. The only way up seemed to be by jumping from plate to plate to reach the elevator at the top. Cassiopeia looked down from where they were standing which seemed to be the central control for the facility. Below them, the central tube continued downward and according to schematics, was where the planetary shield generator was located.

Cassiopeia sighed. "Not from here but I know where it is. However, it's in the opposite direction of where the children are being held. According to schematics, the children are found on the top floor of this place, near the surface. However, the shield generator is on the bottom level, just above the 'Leviathan cage' which I must say makes me pretty uneasy."

Harry was quiet for second before responding. "Then you'll have to split up. Send Lancer and Brea to take care of the generator since Lancer will probably destroy it easily by himself and Brea can cover him. You and Ethan can easily scale up the facility and reach the children before they realize your objective. If there's another way out of the facility, cave in the tunnel behind you so you don't get attacked from behind."

Cassiopeia frowned in thought before nodding. "That was what I was planning but I'm glad you agree. We'll contact you once the generator's down." With that, Cassiopeia ended the transmission and turned to the others. "You heard him people. Lancer and Brea are to go and destroy the generator while me and Ethan secure the children on the top floor. Be careful since both places will probably have much greater security than what we've faced so far. However, before we go help me place charges along the walls to cave in the tunnel. There's another exit on the top floor toward the surface so we can all escape through there."

Ethan took out four Class-A thermal detonators and gave one to each person. At Cassiopeia's mark, all four tossed them down the tunnel they came through and watched as the high yield explosives caused the tunnel to cave in, blocking any enemy pursuit. Cassiopeia nodded at the successful cave-in and then turned to Lancer and Brea.

"Well, I don't know you two so well but I like you already. So take care and we'll meet up after you're done."

The group of four separated into two groups of two with Cassiopeia going with Ethan up towards the top floor and Lancer and Brea jumping down to the lower levels to reach the generator.


Lancer landed with a crash, Brea having ridden on his shoulders. He stood up to his full two-meter height and looked at Brea amusedly as she dropped from his shoulders beside him.

"You're like my personal monkey the way you ride on my shoulder sometimes."

Instantly, Lancer wished he'd kept his mouth shut as Brea instantly had one of her blaster pistol pointed at his face and a sickly sweet smile on her face.

"What was that?"

Lancer started to sweat in fear because he knew she would have no compunctions about shooting him right in the face and saying he had died tragically in an accident.

Lancer gave her a trembling smile. "I said you're so flexible and... accurate that you seem like a... vicious krayt dragon to your enemies."

Brea smiled and winked before holstering her pistol and Lancer let out a sigh of relief. "That's what I thought you said. Now come one you hairless Wookie, we have a generator to destroy."

Lancer just stared at Brea's retreating back before muttering, "Sometimes I wonder why I put up with her." Then Lancer's eyes when lower onto Brea's beautiful backside and a slightly perverted smile crossed his face. "Oh yeah, that's why."

A blaster bolt passed by Lancer's cheek and he gulped as he saw Brea pointing her smoking pistol at him and glaring. "My back side is not to for your ogling pleasure." A slightly disturbing and perverted giggle escaped her mouth. "Except for Harry. He can stare and grab all he wants."

Lancer couldn't help but roll his eyes as Brea went to her perverted little world where Harry did unspeakable things to her body. She only ever showed this part to Lancer and only when they were alone. Despite what she said, she was too shy and embarrassed to say anything to Harry's face. It was made worse since it seemed every woman attracted to Harry was incredibly beautiful and his first girlfriend was one of the finest representations of the Twi'lek species. All this made her act as if she felt nothing but professional feelings for Harry. However, Lancer doubted she actually loved Harry. It was more like lust since she didn't know him well enough to say she loved him.

'Lucky bastard,' thought Lancer depressively. He shook his head and snapped his fingers in front of Brea to bring her out of whatever perverted fantasies she had concocted. "Come on, Brea. We have a job to do."

Brea instantly became serious and nodded her understanding that now wasn't the time. Lancer led the way as they entered a turbolift that would lead them further down the facility. The turbolift opened to a wide area with empty cloning tanks along the walls. Lancer couldn't help but scowl at the sight of the cloning tanks.

"What kind of people do this to children? Especially for their entire life? Are all Sith this inhumane?"

Brea mouth was in a thin line as she glared around her. "Worse. Most Sith would sell everything, even their souls, for a bit more power. They're idiots because they inevitably give up more than they gain but the problem is that they're idiots with power. If they were weak, they would be extinct by now."

Lancer only grunted his understanding even as his face still showed his disgust. As they entered the chamber proper, two large hulking droids came out of side doors. Lancer pulled out his gun in his left hand and carried his large blade in his right while Brea pulled out her dual pistols and aimed them at the new enemy.

The droids consisted of a large and bulky body with two massive, splayed legs and huge, razor sharp bladed arms. Their head was similar to the terror soldiers from earlier except it was obvious this thing was completely mechanical. Lancer felt a slimmer of worry enter his gut when he saw they were over two meters tall yet moved with a speed that belied their size. These weren't your typical large and slow droids that were easily outrun. These things were fast enough to catch up with most Jedi.

Of the group, Lancer was the only one besides Shae that wasn't technically Force-sensitive. While he had some Force-sensitivity, it wasn't high enough to rank Jedi training even if he wanted it. He only had enough to give him a vague feeling of unease when entering a trap and to make him have much more stamina than usual. However, under Brea's guidance he had managed to use what little sensitivity he had to augment his abilities. Usually, Lancer was strong enough to stand toe to toe with even the strongest Wookie. However, Brea had taught him to channel the Force constantly so that his skin became as strong as durasteel and his strength doubled in short bursts. His skin's resistance was constant but his strength wasn't and needed to be consciously channeled to work.

Lancer narrowed his eyes and channeled what little bit of the Force he could to be ready and augment his strength. It was just in time since the Terror Biodroid on the right dashed towards them.

While Brea jumped to the left and fought the remaining enemy, Lancer stood his ground and shot the incoming droid in the face a few times before holstering the gun and rolling to the right to dodge the biodroid's slash. He then brought his giant blade in a vicious upward slash under the biodroid's chin in an attempt to impale it through the head.

While the slash landed, it failed to penetrate and only made the biodroid take a few steps back from the strength of the blow. Lancer's eyes flashed at the new information regarding the enemy. It's armor was apparently strong enough to resist powerful blows since it was barely scratched despite Lancer using half his full strength. Lancer jumped back to dodge the biodroid's attempt to impale him and noticed that the biodroid had used so much strength he was actually stuck to the floor for now.

Lancer quickly took advantage and jumped up before falling down using the momentum created by gravity to impale the biodroid through the back. Sparks flew as Lancer viciously sawed his sword in and out of the droid as it tried to push him off but lacked the flexibility to do so. With a cry of exertion, Lancer pulled his sword up the biodroid's spine until it's head popped out. The biodroid froze before falling down defeated.

Lancer turned to Brea only to see her riding the biodroid like a speeder and shooting it in the back with her dual pistols. She eventually breached its armor and continued shooting its inner circuitry until the entire thing shuddered and Brea jumped off in time for it to blow into pieces.

The two caught their breath before Brea activated her headcomm and called Harry. "Harry, you there?"


Harry blocked the Royal Guard's slash before jumping to avoid the Saber Guard's low slash to his legs. Harry's lightsabers were a blur of violet and blue as he parried all three of his enemies slashes and thrusts while unleashing kicks and punches at them whenever they let down their guard. Finally, one of the two Royal Guards made a mistake and tried for a overhead slash down toward him before Harry blocked it with his blue lightsaber in his left hand while having his back to him, putting his violet lightsaber in a reverse grip and impaling the Royal Guard through the chest. Harry then grabbed the impaled Royal Guard's force pike and blocked both the Saber Guard's and the remaining Royal Guard's overhand slashes with it. He then took his violet lightsaber out of now dead Royal Guard chest and sent a powerful Force push at them that sent them flying. Harry grabbed the Force pike and threw like a spear, impaling the Royal Guard before dashing at the dazed Saber Guard and beheading him.

Harry turned as two more silver armored Saber Guards attacked him and he blocked it with his blades. These were the worst of all the enemies Harry had faced in his opinion. While the Royal Guards were great tacticians and knew how to use everyone in groups, these silver Saber Guards were experts in using both their sabers and the Force.

Harry channeled Force lightning through his lightsabers and used it to push the Silver Guards away. Harry then was forced to cross his sabers to block one Silver Guard's Force lightning before redirecting it at the other Silver Guard when he dashed at him. Harry then threw his blue lightsaber, impaling the second Silver Guard before rolling out of the way of the first's Force push, summoning his blue lightsaber back to his hand and dashing at the remaining Silver Guard before he could attack with the Force again. Harry was getting tired and eventually one of those attacks would land if he didn't end it quickly.

Harry attacked in a flurry of blades, never giving the Silver Guard a second to counter-attack. Harry continued to use the momentum of his slashes to increase his speed until the Guard made a mistake and Harry cut off the top half of his head. As the Guard fell down dead, Harry tried to catch his breath since he sensed there were no more enemies.

Harry looked toward Nakia only to see her grab the last Silver Guard in a Force choke while he had his guard down and slam him so hard against the floor Harry heard most of his bones break. Harry looked around and gave a frustrated sigh as he saw the dozens of dead Guards around them.

They were only on the third floor of the four floor building and Harry was getting frustrated. Shae had commed them earlier that there were two powerful Force-sensitives on the fourth floor near the tram she had secured and for some reason they hadn't attacked her. She guessed they had orders to take care of him first before engaging anyone else and were waiting for him up there. Shae had been forced to blow up the bridge leading to the tram she had secured when almost twenty Guards had tried to swarm her position. Shae blew up the bridge they were crossing and killed off the remaining ones with a mixture of her flames and pistols. Her jetpack needed time to recharge before using again so she was stuck until they arrived.

Harry looked around at the dead enemies with a critical eye.

It seemed as if Moore was obsessed with bringing back the Empire as it was under Palpatine because she was recreating the Emperor's Royal Guards Regiment through the clones. Nakia and him had run into the Royal Guards version on the first floor and the Silver Guards version on the second. They had a bit of a problem facing the former due to them being capable commanders and their tendency to attack him in concert with Saber Guards and Senate Guards. It was only Harry's extensive training and prowess with a lightsaber that let him survive those confrontations. The Silver Guards seemed incapable of attacking together in groups bigger than two and so while they were much more dangerous, they didn't have the danger of overwhelming him if he acted smart. However, Harry was slowly getting tired and this last fight had taken almost everything from him.

On the other hand, Nakia only had a slight sheen of sweat on her body and Harry couldn't help but stare at her heaving bosom as she took deep breaths to regain her strength. Harry looked up when she turned to him and the amusement in her eyes showed she knew what he was looking at. Rather than be embarrassed, Harry looked her straight in the eye so she could see the lust in his eyes.

"Nakia... when we get out of here I'm gonna to fuck you so hard that you'll never walk straight again."

Lust entered Nakia's eyes as she sauntered up to him and molded herself to his chest. "I can't wait, beloved. I love the feel of you inside me. You're insatiable."

That last comment reminded Harry of Astraal, who had said that to him many times and that also led him to think of the last thing she said through the loudspeaker.

'You're wrong! Harry loves me... he loves me!'

Nakia seemed to sense what caused his change in mood because she drew him into a kiss before looking at him in the eye. "Don't worry beloved. I'll talk to her and take full responsibility. I'll say I seduced you and you only broke because you were sad because of the break-up."

That snapped Harry out of his thoughts and he glared at her. "I'm not letting you take the blame for this, Nakia. I wanted to sleep with you. I'll talk to her afterwards."

Nakia was unconvinced but didn't say anything except kissing him again. "I love you, beloved. Remember, I'll accept any position in your life as long as I can stay by your side."

Her declaration still made Harry uncomfortable due to him feeling he was unworthy of it but he didn't say anything. Suddenly, his comm beeped and Harry heard Brea's voice.

"Harry, are you there?"

He separated from Nakia's embrace reluctantly and he answered the call on his headcomm. "Yeah, I'm here. Did you guys destroy the generator yet?"

"Sorry, but no. However, we're halfway there already. The problem is that resistance is getting pretty heavy. The last enemy was a freaking huge droid with bladed arms sharp enough to stand up to a lightsaber! It might take longer than planned to destroy it."

Harry frowned at that. "Be careful then. Destroying the generator would be meaningless if you die along the way."

"Aye, aye sir. The shield will be down within the hour." With that, the call ended.

Harry looked at Nakia with a tired look on his face and she drew him into a scorching kiss that got Harry's blood traveling to his lower regions. After a whispered 'I love you' from Nakia, they separated and walked toward the turbolift that led to the fourth floor.

As they entered the turbolift, Nakia looked at Harry and noticed how tired he was from the constant fighting. While very strong, Harry lacked the endurance that Nakia had gained from millennia of honing her skills. Nakia had learned the trick of using only the exact amount of Force energy needed to use a power and therefore saved most of her strength by not using more than necessary. Harry, on the other hand, tended to overcharge his powers due to lack of experience using them in battle. Training with a power is different from using it in battle, after all.

The tower didn't look like a manufacturing plant from the outside but the inside was a different story. It quickly became obvious that this was a manufacturing plant for weaponry for the various Guards. There had been a large storeroom that held everything from force pikes to mass-produced lightsabers (something previously thought to be impossible). There had been enough weapons there to outfit an army of Guards. The idea of there being that many Guards sent chills up their spines. The Jedi were barely in the hundreds and these Guards were more than a match for most Knights. The only reason the previous incarnation of Royal Guards were so easily defeated were because they weren't trained in the Force. However, these new versions were extensively trained and they became more difficult the higher in the hierarchy they were. Harry doubted that Moore taught them all and most were probably taught through memory flashes. The problem was whose because Harry doubted that Moore's training consisted of lightsaber training and offensive Force powers alone. Moore seemed more like the assassin type than the confrontational type. Whoever they got their memories from was obviously a front-line fighter and was very good.

The turbolift opened to the fourth floor which was a wide open chamber with many crates stacked up all over the place. Both Harry and Nakia tensed since this was the floor where Shae said the two powerful Force-sensitives were located. There was a path through the middle of the crates and Harry could see the tram Shae had secured as well as Shae herself hiding behind a pillar and exchanging fire with some Umbaran soldiers. Every time one of the Guards tried to get close, Shae would send a burst of fire to make them retreat or burn them to death.

As Harry and Nakia stepped out of the turbolift, they were forced to separate and dodge as a powerful blast of red Force lightning landed where they were standing. The blast was so strong that it hit the turbolift and destroyed its circuits, rendering it inoperable.

Harry activated his dual curved-hilt lightsabers while Nakia activated her darksaber while glaring up where the lightning came from. Harry followed her example and saw two shadows standing on top of the highest pile of crates. The one on the right had her right hand outstretched toward them and Harry could see that the hand was decidedly female with pale skin like they didn't see much sunlight. The figure on the right lowered her hand and they both walked forward into the light.

Harry could instantly see that they were twins by the fact that they were completely identical. In fact, the only difference was that the one on the left's tribal face tattoos were vertical while the one on the right's were horizontal. They looked to be Near-Human females with black hair and a curvaceous body. They were wearing skin-tight gray flight suits that had black symbols similar to the tattoo on their faces. They were also wearing black high-heeled boots and had a lightsaber held loosely in their left hands. They both had dark blue eyes and black lipstick that only enhanced the dangerous yet seductive aura they gave off. However, Harry glanced at Nakia and quickly decided that these girls had nothing on the sheer sexiness Nakia simply oozed off even when she wasn't trying.

The one on the left smirked at them before speaking. "Welcome, Knight Potter and..." she smirked at Nakia in a way that suggested she was below her. "...friend. Welcome to the place where you will die. I'm your host, Kaa, and this is my sister, Lii."

The aforementioned Lii stepped forward with a wicked smirk. "Don't worry. We promise to make your path to death so painful that death will seem like sweet release." Lii turned to Harry and some kind of twisted lust entered her eyes. "It's too bad. I wold have loved to keep you and teach you what a real woman can do."

With that, the twins jumped and attacked them. However, Nakia seemed to have taken offense to Lii's last comment because she quickly sent a Force push at her that caught her off-guard before blocking Kaa's red lightsaber with her darksaber. Nakia quickly pushed her off and sent a strong Force push through her leg as she kicked Kaa away. Nakia glared at the girls before turning to Harry.

"Go ahead, Harry. I'll deal with these wanna-be Sith whores. You need to get to Astraal before Moore escapes or else we may never find her or the girls again."

Harry was torn. On one hand, Nakia was right and Harry couldn't waste anymore time or else risk Moore losing interest and just killing the girls or else escaping with them. On the other hand, Harry would die rather than abandon one of his friends.

"I can't just abandon you, Nakia!" yelled Harry angrily.

Nakia smirked before she summoned a minefield of dark-side spears from the ground that caused the girls to rapidly backpedal or be skewered. She then turned back to Harry with a smirk. "Beloved, I'm touched you care for me so but I'm offended that you think I can't handle these... whores alone. I'm perfectly capable of dealing with them by myself and I'll catch up with you later. Either way, you need time to recover because as you are now, you wouldn't last more than a few seconds against them. You're that tired."

Harry tried to deny it but couldn't. His muscles were screaming at him to rest for a while and he was sure that if he tried to fight, he would be barely at 10%. Harry sighed angrily but conceded the point.

"Fine but you better survive this and meet back up with me. We still have to work out what we have."

Nakia gave him a sultry smile and winked. "And you still have to fuck me so hard that I won't be able to walk straight again."

Harry chuckled before drawing her into a kiss and running toward where Shae was. Lii saw him escaping and glared.

"I don't think so!" She tried to send a barrage of red Force lightning at him but Nakia summoned a spear of dark-side energy to block it before attempting to take off Lii's head for trying to kill her beloved.

Nakia glared as Lii dodged the slash and rapidly backpedal till she was beside her sister again. "Don't you touch him you cheap Coruscanti whore!"

Lii glared at her before Kaa placed a hand on her shoulder. "Peace, sister. Looks like this Anzanti bitch is stronger than she appears. We'll need to work together to defeat her."

Lii conceded the point before the sisters got into a pose back to back with Lii holding her lightsaber in her right hand pointing to Nakia and Kaa mirroring her with her lightsaber in her left hand pointing to Nakia as well. "Well, bitch. Time to cut you up and sell you piece by piece."

Nakia just smiled dangerously as she got into a her opening stance: a two-handed low guard, with the hilt held at waist height in both hands, blade held back and to the side, angled downwards, with her feet closely spaced. Any Force-user trained in lightsaber combat would recognize the Niman low-guard opening stance.

Kaa and Lii obviously recognized it because they both sneered before the latter spoke. "Niman? That form is the weakest of them all! Even Shii-Cho would be better than that useless form. We'll cut you up so fast you won't even know what hit you!"

Nakia just smirked evilly as she gave them a challenging stare. "Then come and try, little girls."

With a cry of rage, the twins charged.

Back with Harry, he had activated his blades and cut through the closest Guards while they were distracted by Shae's barrage of blaster bolts. After killing the remaining enemies with the help of Shae on the other side of the destroyed bridge, Harry stepped up to the edge and looked at the distance separating the two side.

"Can you make the jump, Harry?" asked Shae dubiously.

She had reason to be since the gap was over 50 feet wide. Harry nodded hesitantly once he thought about it.

"I think so. Get ready to catch me if I can't." With that, Harry stepped back a few feet to get a running start before running full speed to the gap. He was going almost at his full speed when he jumped the gap.

10 feet...20 feet...30 feet...40 feet... ah, shit! Not going to make it!

Harry was about 45 feet across when he started to fall below the level of the other side of the destroyed bridge. He thought he would fall to his death where he would land on the jagged rocks below but luckily something wrapped around his waist and the breath left him when he stopped. He looked up to see Shae had used the grappling hook in her left wrist to catch him and was currently swearing as she used a pillar as leverage to pull him back up.

"Dammit, Harry! You can afford to lose a few pounds, you know!" complained Shae as she slowly pulled him up.

Harry took offense at that. "I'll have you know that every pound is pure muscle! And I didn't see you complaining that one time you saw me without a shirt."

Beneath her helmet, Shae blushed as she remembered that time and she almost lost the grip on the rope as she imagined seeing what she hadn't seen yet.

"S-Shut up!" yelled an embarrassed Shae.

A minute later, Harry was back up on Shae's side of bridge and he entered the magnetic tram to check if it was functional. Harry turned to Shae with a frown.

"Do you know where it leads?"

Shae nodded. "Yeah, it leads to some sort of super secret facility on the surface. All I could find about it is that it's a massive tower and takes up almost 60% of the energy produced by the planet's generators. I don't know what it could be but it can't be good."

Harry nodded his agreement. "Probably. Okay, let's go." With that, Harry activated the tram and put it in autopilot before sitting down and closing his eyes in order to meditate to regain his strength for the coming fight. However, even as he did that he spoke with Shae. "Okay, here's the plan. Once we're above ground I need you to find a ship with some kind of cloaking and pick up everyone once they finished their tasks with the exception of Cassie. No one can know you guys were here except for us. It would take too long to explain and I also don't want to compromise Lancer and Brea's identities. I don't you implicated either since it could start trouble with the Mandalorians later. I'll send R3 with the Wayward Son to pick up Cassiopeia so he can take her to the flagship. I have a feeling she's hurt."

Shae frowned under her helmet but outwardly nodded. "Alright. I understand your reasoning. My jetpack is back to full capacity so it can take me the nearest hangar easily."

Harry nodded and watched as they exited toward the surface. Looking up, Harry could see the blue sheen of the planetary shield as well as the explosions in space as the Republic task force faced off against the Umbaran fleet. Harry turned to Shae and nodded and she walked toward the hatch that led to the roof. She climbed out and activated her jetpack to get off the tram.

As she left, Harry contacted FAITH. "FAITH, you there?"

It took a second but FAITH answered. "Exclamation: Master! You're alive! Retraction: Not that I thought otherwise."

Harry just rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, the shield should be down soon so you'll be front and center leading the ground forces against the Umbarans. Remember, no mercy unless they surrender at which time you'll hand them over to the Republic soldiers to deal with. Tell R3 to pick up Cassiopeia before leaving to the flagship."

FAITH nodded his understanding. "Statement: Understood, master. I'll be sure to spill the innards of every one of these meatbags that dared to deserve your wrath!"

Harry just rolled his eyes and spoke. "You do that." He then ended the transmission and sat down to meditate and recover his strength.


Cassiopeia cursed as she fought off two Royal Guards at once using her cortosis staff. She had to admit that while she liked her staff, those lightsaber pikes were pretty cool as well. However...

"Hah!" yelled Cassiopeia victoriously as she electrocuted one to death before turning to the remaining survivor.

…..the lightsaber pikes didn't have the ability to electrocute your enemy.

Cassiopeia and Ethan had been steadily making their way to the top floor where the children were held but had been facing steadily increased resistance as they climbed. There were Acolytes, Saber Guards, Royal Guards and even freaking Jettroopers! Cassiopeia hated those freaking flying bee-like bastards!

Anyway, they were close to the top by now and the turbolift would take them to the top floor...

….if they managed to beat these last two Royal Guards that was.

"Dammit, just die already!" cried out Cassiopeia in frustration as he continued to block her attacks.

Not far from her, Ethan was also having trouble finishing off his Royal Guard to the simple fact that the bastard kept using the Force to send crates and similar stuff at Ethan so he was forced to abandon his attack and dodge.

"Stupid idiotic Guard! You're making me look bad!" yelled out Ethan before he grabbed a small platform nearby and wrenching it out of its moorings. This caused the Royal Guard to pause in shock which gave Ethan the time to throw it at the Guard. The Guard dodged it by jumping over it but that was exactly what Ethan wanted since he was on him instantly and cut the hand holding the Guard lightsaber pike right off before blasting him with the Force so he fell off their platform and down toward the bottom of the facility.

Cassiopeia had also managed to kill her Guard by simply saberlocking with him and then pulling out a knife and stabbing the guy under his chin, killing him instantly.

Cassiopeia growled. "Why didn't I do that from the beginning!?"

Ethan just shrugged. "Cause you're stupid?"

Cassiopeia gave him a withering glare that caused him to put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. She huffed angrily before leading Ethan toward the turbolift and pressing the 'up' button. It took a while to go up since it seemed the top floor was separated from the floor below by a considerable amount. Ethan took the chance to ask something he'd been wondering ever since he saw Cassiopeia.

"Soooo... you think of me at all these past few years?"

Cassiopeia whipped her head toward him and her eyes softened before she looked away and scoffed. "Like I would waste my time thinking of you. You left me, remember?"

Ethan frowned. "Only because you were all enamored by that stupid idiot Max. I told you he was bad new but you didn't listen despite what we had. You had left me the moment that pretty boy appeared."

Cassiopeia looked away so he wouldn't see the guilt on her face. What he said was true after all. They had been together after a fashion but the moment Max appeared she had basically left Ethan high and dry.

"I'm sorry," muttered Cassiopeia. Ethan looked at her and nodded his acceptance. Cassiopeia looked at him and frowned slightly. "So, any girlfriends these last few years?" Cassiopeia tried to keep her tone casual but failed miserably.

Ethan noticed but ignored it. "One or two but nothing serious."

A happy smile crossed Cassiopeia's face before she suppressed it. "That's too bad. I haven't dated anyone except Max either. Guess we just don't have any luck."

The atmosphere got increasingly uncomfortable as time passed but luckily, they reached the top floor quickly. Cassiopeia and Ethan looked around to see the coast was clear. They silently walked toward where the children were held and kneeled down below the transparisteel window when they saw the children weren't alone. They peeked through the window to study their enemies.

The leader was obviously the tall Zabrak male with a cybernetic right arm and red tattoos that encircled his face with his eyes, mouth and nose in the center. He was wearing an orange shirt and black pants and had a lightsaber hanging from his left hip. Beside him were two soldiers armored to look like Royal Guardsmen but wore black armor instead of the usual red armor. They had their lightsaber pikes ignited at their sides to augment the aura of intimidation they gave off.

The Zabrak was manhandling a small 8 year old girl with blonde hair and green eyes by grabbing her left arm tightly with his cybernetic arm. She was nearly sobbing and begging him to stop hurting her but he just grabbed her arm tighter and shook her harder. The other 5 children were huddled on the other side of the room, sobbing and holding each other while trying to block out the sight. There was three boys and two girls (three if you included the blonde girl) and all of them were Human. There was three boys, two with brown hair and one with blue, and the two girls had black and green hair respectively. Their eyes were shut so Cassiopeia couldn't see their eyes. All the children were dressed in what looked like a normal hospital gown of a light blue color and every single one had at least one bruise on their bodies.

"- upid little girl! How dare you try to escape! You all are only allowed out of your cages because we need your bodies in peak condition to clone. If it wasn't for that I would cut off every one of your limbs and stick you in a tube!" screamed the Zabrak at the girl.

The girl sobbed as it was obvious the grip he had on her arm was hurting her. "I-I'm s-sorry... p-please, stop hurting me. I just wanted to see a f-flower."

The Zabrak just sneered and let go of her arm before backhanding her so hard she fell to the floor bleeding from her mouth. He then ignited his own red lightsaber and the Shadow Guard seemed to tense.

"Well, then. We can arrange that. Unfortunately, we'll need you to part a few of your body parts to assure you won't try to escape. Don't worry, you won't die. But you also don't need your arms and legs to be useful as a template to make clones!" The Zabrak then raised his lightsaber as if to start cutting off her limbs.

Cassiopeia had seen enough and sent a powerful Force push through the window, breaking the glass and then jumping through with Ethan right behind her.

The Zabrak turned at her entrance and sneered when he saw her ignite her cortosis staff's energy blade and Ethan ignite his own green lightsaber. "What do we have here then? Some dumb little rats scurrying about? We can't have that now can we? Kill them and bring me their bodies. They can serve as templates for even more clones!"

Cassiopeia glared and jumped over the enemies to land in front of the children before sending a strong Force push at the three enemies. They were so surprised that they couldn't defend against it and were sent flying out the very same window Ethan and her had entered. Ethan was forced to duck or be hit by their flying bodies. Cassiopeia then turned to the children with a serious look.

"Does any of you know the way out toward the surface?"

The blonde girl that had been manhandled stepped forward hesitantly. "I-I do..." she looked up at them with small light of hope in her eyes. "...are you here to save us?"

Cassiopeia tried to give her a reassuring smile but she was never very good with children, even when she was a child herself. "Yeah, so we'll take care of these idiots while you go and escape. We'll meet you on the surface afterward, ok?"

The blonde girl nodded hesitantly and although it was obvious her left arm was heavily bruised or even broken she just held it in her right and coerced the children into following her. They eventually stopped crying and followed after her as she used the Force to open a door on the other side of the room and left at a run.

Meanwhile, Cassiopeia and Ethan had run out to the hallway were the Zabrak and the Shadow Guard had landed and were currently facing off against them.

Cassiopeia looked around and realized that they couldn't fight in such a closed-in space and whispered to Ethan. "Ethan, we need to lead them into a more open area. I think there's a large chamber before the turbolift that leads to the surface. We'll lead them there, okay?"

Ethan nodded in understanding.

The Zabrak was glaring at Cassiopeia in anger. "Stupid whore! Do you know who I am?"

"Ugly all day?" mocked Cassiopeia. Ethan had to keep in his laughter as the Zabrak turned purple in rage.

"I am Mellichae! I led the Sith Shadows on Dathomir and almost conquered that planet! You pathetic wanna-be Jedi are no match for my strength!"

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Why do the bad guys always have to be so arrogant? Didn't he see you blast him out of the room like a rag doll?"

Cassiopeia smirked. "You know what they say. The weakest dog barks the loudest."

Mellichae let out a scream of fury and charged Cassiopeia but she just sidestepped and hit him with a Force-empowered punch in the face that made him slam against the wall.

"Well, come and get us. If you can!" mocked Cassiopeia as she ran down the hallway, leading Mellichae and the Shadow Guard toward the chamber where they would fight.

Mellichae growled in anger. "You won't get away! Come on you idiots, they're getting away!"

Cassiopeia almost tripped as she tried to keep in her laughter at the idiot's contradictory statement. Cassiopeia and Ethan ran down the hallway, taking the long way toward the exit so Mellichae and company wouldn't suspect anything and so the children had time to escape. After 10 minutes of running in circles, Cassiopeia and Ethan finally burst into the chamber.

The chamber was a large oval-like area similar to the Senate Chamber except without the Senate pods. However, there were platforms floating around that displayed different areas of the facility and Cassiopeia guessed the control of each platform controlled that part of the facility. The walls were a light blue color and the floor was a black color so clean that it slightly reflected the platforms above.

Looking up at the highest platform, Cassiopeia gave a sigh of relief when she saw the children leaving through the turbolift located there. The only way to reach there (unless you could Force-jump) was to use a small personal hoverlift big enough to hold one person (or two children) that were located along the walls. They were circular and had nothing to hold on to except the controls themselves. Mellichae wouldn't be able to chase after them unless he beat Ethan and her and she made a mental note to destroy both the platforms and the personal hoverlifts if she thought she was going to lose.

The door behind them burst open and Cassiopeia and Ethan readied themselves for the fight. Mellichae seemed ecstatic that he cornered them (forgetting that the turbolift was located in the highest platform) and started to gloat.

"Nowhere to run now, little mice. Now be smart and just surrender." Lust entered his eyes and he leered at Cassiopeia. "I'll be sure that your stay is... comfortable."

Cassiopeia just gave him a look of disgust while Ethan looked livid. "Yeah, I'm sure you'll visit me personally, wouldn't you you freak?"

Mellichae quickly turned red at the insult and growled. "So be it you whore. Then I'll just have to cut off a few limbs and force you to submit."

Cassiopeia took out her collapsible cortosis staff and opened it before igniting the plasma blade at the end. "I'll like to see you try, little boy."

Ethan followed suit and quickly ignited his green lightsaber before engaging the two Shadow Guards while Cassiopeia leaped onto the nearest platform with Mellichae following.


Lancer and Brea were running along the lower levels trying to reach the generator. It wasn't easy since there were dozens of those Terror Biodroids everywhere as well as those Terror soldiers. They had passed by a lab where they saw clones of a man be cut open and implanted with cybernetics in order to create the Terror soldiers. The worst part was that they were made like it was a factory and they were simply objects, with the bodies of the unconscious clones going from station to station with each station implanting a different cybernetic. Brea and Lancer had proceeded to destroy the lab with some well-placed thermal detonators before continuing on their way.

They passed several large rooms with everything from weapons to swoops and speeders. There was even an underwater hangar that seemed to open up to an underwater tunnel that led to the surface. There were hundreds of amphibious fighters in the hangar and Brea correctly guessed they were for clones bred for piloting. Soon after passing by the underwater hangar, they reached the turbolift that would take them to the lower level where the generator was located.

They stealthily walked across the level until they located the chamber with the generator in very center of the level. Brea and Lancer hid around a corner as they studied the large chamber that held the generator in the center.

The generator was huge. The entire chamber was circular and almost 200 meters in diameter and almost 100 meters from floor to ceiling with the generator taking up almost 80% of the chamber's space. The walls and ceiling were full of complicated circuitry and hundreds of thick wires were connected from them to the generator. The floor, however, was made of transparisteel that showed that the bottom levels were completely underwater. Brea couldn't see anything in the water but she remembered the map saying that the waters beneath the generator was called Leviathan cage so she guessed that there was something there. There was a force field on both sides of the transparisteel floor and the only way to reach the generator was by walking on top of a metal walkway hovering a few feet above the transparisteel floor. The entire chamber was well-illuminated so it was easy to see the coast was clear but at the same time the glare of the lights made it impossible to see through the transparisteel floor to the water below beyond a few feet deep.

Brea then studied the generator. The generator was designed in the same shape as DSS-02 shield generator which was the shield generator used on Hoth. There was a giant screen in front of the computer that Brea guessed controlled the flow of energy manually when the automatic controls failed. However, Lancer noticed the generator was noticeably smaller than the one used on Hoth which caused Lancer to frown and turn to Brea.

"Are you sure this is it? This isn't even a tenth as big as the one used on Hoth and that one only covered the base not the whole planet. Surely this isn't big enough to power the planetary shield?"

Brea just continued to study the room as she spoke. "Yes, I'm sure Lancer. This isn't the only generator. This is just the one that controls the others. Heck this one barely gives 10% of the shield's energy. However, this one is the most important since it controls the flow between all the others. If something happened to this one, then the others couldn't send the correct current of energy to the shield causing the entire thing to fail as they send too much and explode."

Lancer grunted his understanding and after seeing there was no one around was around for the fifth time, they cautiously walked across the metal walkway and toward the computer. Halfway there, Lancer stopped while looking down through the transparisteel floor and Brea almost ran into him.

"What is it Lancer?" asked Brea cautiously.

Lancer was quiet before shaking his head. "I thought I saw something down there but it was nothing."

Brea gave a cautious look to the water below before following Lancer to the generator. Unnoticed to both, a large shadow crossed beneath them.

Once they reached the computer, Brea began her thing. Of the two she was the best hacker and could hack into almost any database with ease. She was the reason Zule got the designs to so many capital ships easily since not only did she access them but she left no trace that she had been there since she didn't download anything. She simply printed out a copy of the designs and brought them to Zule on paper. Security nowadays prevent downloading designs onto jumpdrives and sending them to other servers but ignored when one simply printed out the designs on paper. Like Brea always said, sometimes the simplest way is the best.

She typed quickly while Lancer watched over her in case security arrived. Five minutes later, Brea cursed and slammed a fist against the console. Lancer walked over with a frown.

"What is it, Brea?"

Brea sighed. "I can do it through here and leave no trace that it was us but it would take over an hour and security would be alerted that something was happening pretty quickly. It's also a closed circuit so you can't hack into it from another computer, you have to be here physically."

Lancer's frown deepened. "We don't have an hour."

Brea nodded. "Yep, guess it's time for plan B." They looked at each other and spoke simultaneously. "Hack and slash."

With that, Lancer took out his gun and put it grenade launcher mode before starting to shoot at the generator while Brea jumped on top of it and used her katana to cut the wires connected to it. It took a few minutes but eventually the generator started to let out stalling noises which started to rise in pitch. Once it was becoming too loud, Brea jumped down beside Lancer.

"That's enough, let's get out of here!"

They started to run cross the walkway when Brea noticed that the force field surrounding the transparisteel floor was gone. She got an idea and used her razor sharp katana to cut the walkway horizontally, separating where she and Lancer were from the circular metal floor holding the generator.

Now, the walkway ended in a circular part that held the generator which was only connected to the floor through the very walkway that they were running on. The walkway itself was holding up the weight of the generator from touching the transparisteel floor. The idea was that if they needed to defend the generator, there was only one way for attackers to come and they could defend it easily since it would work like a bottleneck. Anyone who fell off the walkway would fry against the ray shield protecting the transparisteel floor. However, the shield was now gone and without the walkway and wires holding it up, the generator and the metal walkway it was on top of fell down, breaking the transparisteel floor and falling into the depths.

Lancer had stopped when she saw what Brea had done and walked over to stand beside her just as they heard a sound of an explosion underwater. "Well, that was one way of doing it."

Brea smiled. "Now there won't be any alarms sounding making us have to fight our way back to the upper levels."

Just as she said that, the water exploded as a giant devilsquid came out of the water with a roar. Lancer and Brea took out their guns (9118 heavy carbine and DC-17m carbine respectively) and shot the devilsquid in its open mouth. It roared in pain and charged them.

They jumped back as it rammed the walkway they were standing on and Brea grimaced. "Dammit, this must be the so-called Leviathan they were talking about. It's just a devilsquid but they must not recognize it since they're native to Dac."

Suddenly, the devilsquid let out a cry of pain and seemed to be pulled under the water again. All was quiet for a few moments before Lancer spoke.

"Brea?"

Brea turned to him only to see him looking at the water with a look of fear on his face. "Yea?"

Lancer gulped. "I don't think that the Leviathan they were talking about was the devilsquid."

Brea frowned. "What makes you say that?"

Lancer simply aimed his gun at the water and shot it. There was huge roar of a creature so big it made the devilsquid seem like a baby. Brea looked down at the water just in time to see something move up to it so it was just below the water level. Suddenly, the green surface moved and showed that half of the giant 200 yard surface was in reality a pair of giant eyelids that covered a equally giant pair of yellow eyes. With a roar that shook the entire facility, long tendrils exploded out of the water and attacked them.

Rather than engage in a fruitless fight against that giant creature's tendrils, Brea had a much more effective plan.

"RUUUN!"

Lancer didn't have to be told twice as they ran like the devil himself was after them, which considering the size of that creature's mouth alone wasn't far from the truth. The entire floor started exploding behind them as the creature attempted to reach them. They barely managed to enter the turbolift to the next level when the floor of the entire bottom level was ripped off and water started entering.

Lancer turned to Brea with a grimace. "We won't be able to outrun it, Brea. What do we do?"

Brea bit her lip as she started to think and just when the turbolift opened, she grinned. "I got an idea."


Cassiopeia jumped to another platform to avoid another blast of blue Force lightning from Mellichae. Cassiopeia hated to admit it but the man was good. His lightsaber technique had obviously been taught by either Moore herself or someone else because it was quite refined. He wasn't as good as say Harry was (she had watched him spar against Ethan once when they were waiting for info on Sintas's daughter and realized how much Harry had been holding back against her) but he was good enough to give her a run for her money. It was times like this that she was glad Harry bugged her into training against him so she would know how to fight lightsaber wielding enemies.

'Of course, this would be easier if I had a second to gather myself,' thought Cassiopeia with a grimace. However, Mellichae wasn't willing to give her that time and continued to send blast of Force lightning at her. She had personally learned that while her staff held up against lightsabers easily, they couldn't prevent her from being electrocuted by Force lightning.

"That's the problem with those staffs, dear," mocked Mechillae. "They can stand up to lightsabers but not against the Force!"

Cassiopeia grimaced as she was forced to roll out of the way of another blast of lightning. Cassiopeia finally had enough when she noticed that her hair had been scorched by that last blast of lightning. Rather than jump away from him, Cassiopeia jumped toward him. This caught him off guard and Cassiopeia quickly took advantage by attacked with her staff in a vicious display of spearmanship, using the energy blade like the blade of the spear.

Mellichae was caught off-guard since she had been using both ends since the beginning of the fight and was unready for the different form of fighting she was employing. Cassiopeia took advantage and blasted him in the face with a strong Force push, pushing him off the platform and making him land on his back on the floor below.

Ethan was having similar problems as Cassiopeia. The Shadow Guard were obviously the best of the best for a reason and they showed it. He only had one blade and even if he had another, he had never trained in using two. This made it hard for him to defend against them since they used both ends of the lightsaber pike to fight rather than just the plasma blade. It was like fighting two strong Force-sensitives with double-bladed lightsabers.

"Shit!" yelled Ethan as he used his lightsaber to absorb one Guards Force lightning.

Did he mention they made liberal use of several dark-side Force power?

"Gahh!" coughed Ethan as the second Guard used Force choke against him and threw him against the wall harshly. Luckily, he had managed to keep his lightsaber in his hand and deflected the first's stab to the side before kicking him in the chest to make room.

Ethan saw from the corner of his eye as Cassiopeia took the offensive and decided to mimic her. He entered the second Guard's personal space and grabbed his lightsaber pike much like he had seen Harry do with the Riot Troopers. He moved it to block the other Guards slash and then ignited his lightsaber right under the first's chin, killing him instantly. Ethan smirked as that left him with only one enemy now just as Mellichae landed harshly on the floor not far away.

Cassiopeia had jumped down after Mellichae and tried to impale him but he managed to roll out of the way. Cassiopeia jumped back to avoid having her legs cut off from under her, leaving her staff impaled on the ground. She grimaced and took out her fire whip. She attacked Mellichae with it and found out how useless it was against him when he simply cut it after he sidestepped it.

However, it had bought the time needed for Cassiopeia to telekinetically pull the staff back to her and she attacked him again. They exchanged blows a few more times before he started mocking her again.

"The lightsaber is far superior to a staff. More maneuverable, faster and far lighter. One could swing one all day without tiring but with a staff, the weight eventually tires you out."

And indeed, Cassiopeia was sweating heavily from the long day of using her staff against the tougher enemies. As Mellichae had shown, a fire whip won't work against the better trained Force-users who have fought similar weapons before. Therefore, she had been forced to use her staff. Cassiopeia had never used her staff for such a long time before and it was taking its toll. She needed to end this fast.

Cassiopeia jumped back to make some space and saw exactly what she was hoping for. Mellichae was charging a powerful stream of Force lightning in his remaining organic arm and threw it at her with a roar of anger.

Rather than dodge it, Cassiopeia concentrated and pulled the lightning into the plasma blade before starting to spin the staff above her head. The lightning was drawn into the vortex she was creating above her and indeed, made it stronger. Mellichae stopped sending lightning with his mouth agape.

"W-What? What is that!?"

Cassiopeia smiled grimly. "It's for this!" With a cry of exertion, she threw her staff like a javelin. The lightning empowered the staff and made it fly so fast that Mellichae couldn't dodge it and was impaled by the lightning-empowered plasma blade at the end. The force was so strong that his body was thrown through the air and impaled onto the far wall.

Cassiopeia fell down on her knees with a cry of pain as she looked at her burned hands. The concentration needed to not only ignore the pain but manipulate the lightning like she wanted had been extreme and she was completely spent. She couldn't fight anymore.

Luckily, Ethan managed to behead his last enemy and hearing her cry of pain, ran over to her.

"Are you okay?" Then, he saw her burned hands and hissed. "It's okay, Cassie. Bacta will fix that right up. We've done our part so let's get out of here."

He picked her up bridal style and summoned her staff to his hands just as Lancer and Brea flew into the room, each on their own Balutar-class swoop. The entire facility shook as a roar of rage sounded along with the unmistakable sound of rushing water.

"Come on! Get on, we need to go!" yelled Brea. She stopped beside them and Ethan gently placed Cassiopeia behind her and Cassiopeia held in a yell of pain as she had to wrap her entire arms around Brea's waist in order to hold on since her hands were too damaged.

Brea noticed and hissed in sympathy. "Don't worry, we're leaving."

Ethan got on behind Lancer just as a giant tendril ripped out of the floor followed by another roar of rage. Brea quickly gunned the engine and flew toward the turbolift while shooting a hole to fly the swoop through in order to enter the tunnel the turbolift used, Lancer and Ethan right behind her.

"What the hell is that?!" yelled Ethan.

"I don't know... but it's big." said Brea fearfully.

Ethan gave her a deadpan look. "No? Reeaally? That must be a galaxy-shaking breakthrough!"

Any further arguing was lost when another, much closer roar was heard and they gunned the engines as they rose vertically up the lift. Tendrils chased them up the lift and they had to use what little space there was to dodge them. Brea fired another barrage of grenades when they got close to the top, blowing the top of the lift open and letting them exit into a hangar that was empty of anyone.

The Sea Leviathan let out a scream of frustration since it couldn't follow them and everyone held their breaths as he literally caused the ground to quake. After a minute, the tremors receded and everyone let out a sigh of relief when they realized it was gone.

Everyone tensed when they heard the sound of a jetpack but it only turned out to be Shae.

Shae looked from Cassiopeia's burned hands to Ethan breathing heavily. "Guess it's a good thing I came with orders to pick up everyone after they're done with their objectives, huh?"

Everyone chuckled slightly before Cassiopeia looked around for the children they had rescued. "Children? Are you here? It's me, the girl who rescued you."

There was silence for a moment before the six children crawled out under a VT-49 Decimator in the far corner. The blonde girl was in the lead and they only relaxed once they saw Cassiopeia. The girl quickly ran over and hugged Cassiopeia whispering 'Thank you, thank you, thank you' over and over again. Cassiopeia just smiled sadly and said it was okay.

Shae coughed lightly to get their attention. "Not to rain on anyone's parade but me, Ethan, Lancer and Brea need to get out here. No one knows we're here and we need to keep it that way unless you want to be under someone's microscope your whole life. I still need to pick up Nakia as well."

Cassiopeia nodded and bit her lip. "But I can't fly a ship like this." She raided her burned hands. "We also can't stay here. They might come back for the children."

Shae just shook her head. "Not a problem since R3 is coming with the Wayward Son to pick you up. The pilot droid there will fly you guys to the Republic flagship." Shae turned to the others before sighing heavily. "Alright then, let's go. Say your goodbyes cause we need to go before this entire system is quarantined. We need to go quickly cause the republic troops are already landing."

Indeed, they could see dozens of cruisers and transports breaking the atmosphere as Republic starfighters engaged Umbaran fighters in the skies.

Cassiopeia nodded. "Okay then, we'll contact the Republic flagship with our identities so we can land there while you guys go find Nakia and escape." Just as she said that, the Wayward Son arrived and landed. Cassiopeia smiled and turned to the children. "Come on, kids. Time to be free. No more experiments or mean men, I promise."

The blonde girl set her face in a determined look and led the children up the ramp of the ship. Cassiopeia said her goodbyes and they all separated to their respective ships.


"The shield is down! Repeat the planetary shield is down!"

Jaina whooped as she read the message being broadcasted to all starfighter squadrons. They had been fighting for almost an hour and were close to being too weak to engage the enemy on land. "Alright! Time to take the fight to them and rescue that overgrown Ewok! Come on, guys. Harry needs us! I've been having a bad feeling for a while now."

Her comm crackled and Luke spoke. "Alright everyone. Priority is securing both Knight Potter and Knight Vao as well as their apprentices. Engage enemy fighters only on your way to their location. We'll contact him to see where he is."

Jaina nodded her consent. "Alright, then. Let's go people!"

The Jedi squadron broke through the atmosphere and entered a hell-hole. The sky was full of dogfights between Republic and Umbaran fighters as well as Republic transports with ground soldiers. They were all converging on the signal sent by FAITH so they could invade the main hidden hangars. From the sight of blaster bolts flying, FAITH had already engaged some of the Umbaran soldiers. She could just imagine the joy the droid was feeling at this moment.

Suddenly, the water they were flying over exploded and they separated just in time to miss being eaten by a giant …. thing. From what Jaina saw it was at least 1,000 meters long and shaped like a giant amphibious snake. She could see it had long tendrils that it was using to attack the fighters in the air whether they were Umbaran or Republic.

Mara cursed. "Dammit! That thing is huge! Change of plans people! Jaina will go on to help Harry while we stay to kill this freak of nature. Even from here I can sense it was created through the dark side and I doubt it will be easy to kill. It'll take all of us to take him down."

Jaina nodded and flew away from the others and toward where she felt Harry was. The feelings coming through the bond told her he was in trouble and she would be damned if she let him fight alone.


Umbaran soldiers raised their rifles and pointed them at the door of the tram that just arrived. They had strict orders to kill everyone in any tram that came after Moore and they would follow it to the letter.

Suddenly, there was a sound of lightsabers igniting and Harry jumped from the roof and in the middle of their formation. There was a few seconds of chaos as Harry cut through them and they were too disoriented to respond before they were all dead.

Harry looked up at the giant gray tower where the tram stopped. It was at least 100 stories tall and had a hangar near the bottom floor where Harry sensed the girls and Moore was. Harry frowned as he noticed several large generators around the tower and wondered why it needed so much power. He shook his head and pushed out of his head before running toward the hangar

When he reached the hangar, he found Sly Moore with two cloaked figures at her side and a masked Astraal kneeling on the floor facing him with the girls unconscious beside her. The hangar was very big with several amphibious fighters parked nearby as well as some TIEs. The entrance and exit for starfighters was wide open letting Harry see the dozens of dogfights occurring all over the sky. They seemed to be getting closer and after confirming that help was on the way in the form of Jaina, Harry concentrated on the people in front of him.

Moore was wearing her usual clothing when she worked under Palpatine, a long shadowcloak that revealed nothing of her figure. The two figures on either side of her wore long black cloaks that hid any identifying characteristics. However, Harry got the distinct feeling the one on Moore's right was female and the one on her left was male. The girls were wearing their usual clothing of t-shirts (red for Tahiri and green for Visas) and brown pants. Astraal was wearing her usual red shirt that showed her belly and showed plenty of cleavage. However, what got Harry's blood boiling was that she was only wearing panties and there was evidence that it had been removed at one point. Harry glared at cloaked figure to Moore's left who chuckled when he noticed what Harry had realized.

Harry looked from each person before finally landing his eyes on the mask Astraal was wearing. He recognized the mask she was wearing; it was a Sith torture mask. It not only cut a person's connection of the Force but also made them too dizzy to focus correctly.

Moore gave Harry a sickly sweet smile that hid nothing of her extreme hate toward him. "Knight Potter, how kind of you to join us. Knight Vao here has been anxiously awaiting your arrival."

At the sound of Moore saying Harry was there, Astraal raised her head and tried to focus on Harry's blurry figure. "Harry? Is that you?"

Harry looked at Astraal with tenderness in his eyes. "Yeah, baby. It's me. Don't worry, I'll get you out of this."

Astraal swayed slightly but her next words were slightly stronger. "I know, baby." she turned to the figures behind her. "Harry's gonna kick your ass."

The figure on Moore's left walked behind Astraal and caressed her lekku causing her to shudder in disgust. "What's wrong, dear Astraal? Did you not like my attentions?"

That got Harry's full attention and he glared at the bastard that just admitted to raping Astraal. He just chuckled in the face of Harry's anger and stepped around Astraal to face him with the other cloaked figure stepping forward to stand beside him, blocking Harry's view of the girls.

Moore smirked and turned away. "I would love to watch you die, Potter but the shield has failed and I need to properly greet our Republic guests."

Harry glared at her. "You've lost, Moore. The Republic is even now landing and they'll take the planet easily."

Moore laughed. "Oh dear Harry. Don't you think I have a back-up plan? This tower is in reality a giant superlaser much like the one on the Death Star. I'll fire it up and start by killing your dear Aunt on the Republic flasghip." She laughed as she saw Harry's face pale. "Yes, you just led your entire family to their deaths!" With that, she entered a turbolift and ascended to the top floor.

Harry was left gritting his teeth and glaring at the two figures in front of him. The man chuckled and took off his cloak, revealing his face with the female copying him.

The man was of fairly average build, with brown hair and of average height. He was wearing a normal black shirt and black pants that afforded maneuverability. He looked to be about 40 years old if not a bit older yet had a look in his eyes as if he'd experienced more than anyone his age. The thing that truly set him apart were his sickly Sith yellow eyes and the hate they exuded.

The female was strange. At first, Harry thought she was a Zeltron due to her good looks and red skin. However, she had black hair which was tied in a bun, something Zeltrons don't have, and there was also something ….. off about her. She exuded the dark side even greater than the man did. She was wearing a skin-tight black shirt that barely covered her large breasts and had sleeves that extended down her arms and also covered her neck up to her chin. She had long skin-tight black pants much like the man beside her. She looked to be about Harry's age if not a bit older and carried herself with an air of arrogance.

The man gave him a savage grin before speaking in a condescending tone. "We might as well introduce ourselves since we're going to be your executioners today. I am Thaum Rystra and this is my Sith apprentice Valik Kressh. We are Sith." He grinned evilly as he saw Harry's confusion in regards to Valik's species. "In case you are wondering. Valik's species is none other than the original Sith species themselves."

Harry eyes widened in shock. "Impossible! The Sith are extinct and the few that were alive were killed along with the Sorcerers of Tund!"

Thaum smiled evilly as Valik grimaced. "Yes but my dear apprentice here is a clone of my former master Valik Kodank." He placed a hand on her behind and Harry could see that Valik was barely holding herself back from attacking him. "I can tell you personally that she is every bit as delicious as her template."

Harry scowled in disgust at the sick man. "You rape your own apprentice as well? How sick are you?"

Thaum's eyes burned as he glared at Harry. "I assure you. Every woman wants my touch... eventually." He laughed as Harry glared at him. "Want me to tell you how I broke your dear Astraal?"

Harry barely held himself back from charging the sick man. Thaum noticed and took out his lightsaber. Harry frowned as he studied the lightsaber.

The lightsaber was forty-five centimeters long that consisted of a deep black cylindrical rod wrapped in a bronze metal in the shape of a dragon. The emitter was placed so it seemed that the blade came out of the jaws of the dragon. The thing that truly got Harry's attention thought was the way the weapon exuded the dark-side even darker than Thaum himself.

Thaum activated the blade, showing a blade with a violet hue and an obsidian-colored core with blood-red flecks flashing up and down the blade.

Thaum smiled evilly at Harry's wary look. "This is the soulsaber. You'll find out some of it's properties soon, I imagine."

Valik took out a double-bladed lightsaber and ignited it, showing rare pure black blades. She smiled mockingly at him. "Are you going to take out your blade?"

Harry decided he should keep them off-balance a little and smiled at her handsomely. "Now, now. Shouldn't we go out on a date first before we get to that? I have some self-respect."

Valik looked amused at his comment. "Hmmm, maybe if you survive I'll take you up on that offer, handsome."

Thaum glared at Harry jealously. "Enough talking! Time to die Potter!"

Harry ignited his blue and violet lightsabers and clashed with the two Sith.


"Joyful exclamation: Die, meatbags, die!"

FAITH was having the time of his life. He was leading the Republic ground forces into the main hangar to quickly put an end to Umbaran resistance and he was happily shooting every Umbaran in sight with glee.

A soldier behind him turned to his captain with a scared look in his eyes. "Captain? Is that droid... all there?"

Just as he said that, an Umbaran hover tank appeared and started firing. Rather than run away from it, FAITH ran toward it and fired indiscriminately at it, getting its attention. When he was close enough, FAITH jumped over the tanks cannon fire and landed on it before igniting a blue lightsaber and made a man-sized hole in the cockpit. He then put his arm inside the hole he had made and pulled the pilot out before shooting the man in the face and tossing him aside. He then gleefully entered the tank before turning it around and firing on the Umbaran soldiers.

FAITH managed to destroy over twenty enemy tanks before they realized what had happened and turned on him. He quickly jumped out of the tank just before it exploded only to jump onto a Impeding assault tank and succeed it as well. The chaos he unleashed as he started making hit and runs against the Umbaran lines made it so the previously overwhelmed Republic forces took the upper hand.

The captain turned back to the soldier that had asked him the question and shook his head. "Hell no but be glad he's on our side."

With that, the soldiers followed behind the crazy droid and into victory.


Nakia glared as she absorbed another stream of red Force lightning from Kaa in her darksaber before deflecting it toward Lii. The girl was caught off-guard and took the stream straight on, unable to block it.

"Lii!" yelled Kaa when she saw what Nakia had done. She couldn't say anymore because Nakia was instantly on her and she was forced to backpedal. Nakia clicked her tongue in frustration when she saw she had failed to kill one of the two sisters again when Kaa jumped to safety.

Nakia was getting frustrated.

The girls weren't especially strong. Sure, they worked well together and had a few tricks but separate they were only as strong as a mid-level Jedi Knight. Together they could probably match a low-level Master or high-level Knight. However, Nakia was far above even a high-level Master in her prime so this should be easy.

However, centuries of peace and not using her Force powers had caused her to lose some of her edge and it showed in the fact that the girls were still alive. In the old days, she would have killed them within 10 minutes maximum.

'Now I feel old,' thought Nakia depressively.

Nakia dodged Lii's slash, hit her with a Force push and blocked Kaa's slash with her darksaber. There was a reason Nakia used Niman over every other style. It was not only extremely flexible with no discernible weaknesses, it was also the base for both using Force powers together with the blade and getting used to dual wielding (not that Nakia ever did). The problem for most practitioners was that they were impatient and it took at least a decade to master Niman to any discernible degree.

Nakia had been using Niman for over 24,000 years. She was way past a master of the style.

Kaa glared at Nakia. "Why won't you die you old hag?!"

Nakia just smiled. "I guess this old hag is too much for you little girls. Plus, you wish you looked this good at my age."

Nakia would have continued to mock them but she suddenly felt danger around Harry and she decided enough was enough. She had been using the girls to get back her edge and get used to using the Force again after so long but now that Harry was in danger there was no time to play with them. She broke the saberlock and jumped back to get some space.

Nakia stood in front of the girls that now had various cuts and bruises all over their bodies while Nakia stood untouched if not a little out of breath due to how long it had been since she fought so long with a lightsaber. Nakia put her darksaber in the Niman low guard opening stance again and glared at the girls.

"Sorry, girls. But playtime is over."

With speed she hadn't demonstrated throughout the entire fight, she blurred in front of the girls. They tried to slash at her with their patented double slash but Nakia just ducked under it and gathered the Force into a powerful Force push that slammed them against the wall so hard Nakia heard a few bones crack.

Nakia's eyes took on a yellow ring around her iris again as she gathered the Force and let it loose a stream of red Force lightning so powerful it made theirs look like a child playing with sparks. They tried to absorb and redirect it but even together it was too much for them and it electrocuted them so bad that when Nakia cut the flow, there was nothing left but charred corpses.

Nakia sniffed in disdain. "Old hag, huh? Please. I can still get any man I want but the one I love is in trouble right now so ta-ta."

Nakia ran out of the chamber and jumped the gap between the bridges with some effort. She then hijacked another tram before making it follow Harry's tram's path.

Her comm sounded and she answered it to hear it was Shae.

"Nakia, where are you? Harry ordered us to pick you up so you aren't implicated in this mess."

Nakia just shook her head. "Go on without me. Harry's in danger and I need to go to him or he'll die."

Shae was quiet for a moment before sighing. "Fine, go save his reckless ass. But tell him it was your idea if you get caught."

Nakia just smiled sadly. "I'll take anything as long as he lives." With that she ended the call and pushed the tram to its full speed to reach Harry sooner.

'Hold on, beloved. I'm coming.'


Harry was in the fight of his life. Never before had he been so pressed and he was starting to believe their claim of being Sith. He was using every skill he knew from trakata to Vaapad and even aspects of his lightning form just to keep up with them. Neither of the two was a pushover but at the moment, Thaum was the greater threat simply because of the soulsaber.

Harry realized what one of the soulsaber's effects was: it could suck the Force energy from both the surroundings and the wielder's enemies whenever he landed a blow. Harry was hard-pressed to make sure the blade didn't land while also blocking Valik's powerful blows.

Harry put his blue lightsaber in a reverse grip to block Valik's under blow from behind while using his violet lightsaber to block Thaum's high slash from in front. The other problem was that he couldn't use the momentum of their blows to attack faster since they always attacked from different directions. It canceled the momentum from the other's slash and kept Harry from using it.

Harry let loose a powerful Force wave through the floor that caught them off-guard and threw them into the far wall. Harry quickly used the chance to run towards Astraal and take off her mask.

Astraal's face was bruised and her lip was bleeding slightly but she still looked beautiful. She shook her head to get rid of the disorientation before looking at Harry and smiling in relief.

"Harry? Baby, I'm sorry. If I hadn't gotten caught..."

Harry interrupted her self-flagellation since Thaum and Valik were recovering. "Don't worry about it, baby." Harry used his blue lightsaber to cut off her metal cuffs as well as the girls' who were still unconscious. "Now take the girls and escape. Luke and the others are around so steal that ship over there and get out of here. Head for the Republic flagship."

Astraal looked from the Sith that were standing on the other side of the hangar and running toward them to Harry. "No! I can't let you fight alone!"

Harry grinned as he felt Jaina getting closer. "I'm not going to."

Suddenly, Jaina's starfighter flew in the hangar and fired upon the Sith. They jumped away from Harry and Astraal to escape being killed and Jaina jumped out of the fighter to land beside Harry.

Jaina looked at Astraal in relief and pulled her into a hug. "Astraal! I'm glad you're okay."

Astraal returned the hug gently since she was still sore and smiled. "Thanks Jaina."

Jaina then broke the hug and smacked Harry upside the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" complained Harry as he rubbed the back of his head.

Jaina just glared at him. "That was for going in without back-up! You could have caused all of you to die if we hadn't arrived!"

Harry could only grin sheepishly. "Sorry but I wasn't exactly thinking straight. All I knew was that Astraal and the girls needed me."

Jaina just huffed and turned to see the Sith getting back up again and watching them warily now that Harry wasn't alone. "Who are those bastards?"

Harry glared at them. "I'll tell you in a sec." He turned back to Astraal and pointed at Jaina's still hovering starfighter. "Astraal, take the girls and get on Jaina's ship. You're wounded and I wouldn't put it past them to use you as leverage if they start losing." Astraal looked like she was about to argue but Harry cur her off gently. "Please, baby. I wouldn't forgive myself if anything happened to you after finally rescuing you. Plus, the girls need you."

Astraal looked at the still unconscious girls before sighing. "Okay, Potter. You win." Her eyes got a familiar look in them before she pulled him in for a scorching kiss. She broke it a placed her forehead against his. "But you better get back because we need to talk. I love you."

Guilt at his infidelity coursed through him but he forced a smile on his face. "I promise we'll talk. I love you too. By the way, tell Dad that he needs to send fighters to destroy this tower. It's a giant superlaser like the Death Star and she's aiming to kill Aunt Leia."

Astraal's eyes widened before she nodded in understanding and gave him another kiss before wincing as she got up. She then used the Force to make her ignore her wounds and walked over to the girls and picking them up, one over each shoulder, and jumping into Jaina's starfighter's cockpit. The cockpit closed and started to leave the hangar.

Thaum lifted a hand toward the starfighter, stopping it with the Force. "I don't think so, my little Twi'lek whore."

However, Harry had predicted he might do that and lifted a nearby starfighter and threw it at him. Valik stopped it but was forced to drop it when Jaina did the same and she couldn't stop both. Thaum and Valik jumped out of the way and Astraal was free to escape, which she quickly did.

Thaum and Valik stood side by side a few meters away from Harry and Jaina who were also standing side by side.

Jaina leaned toward Harry. "Now will you tell me?"

Harry nodded slowly as he glared at them. "They're Sith." Harry felt Jaina's surprise through their bond and continued. "They said as much and the way they feel in the Force plus their strength makes me believe it. I don't know who trained the Master of the two but it wasn't Palpatine. He said that the female is a clone of his Master and she's a Sith. As in a Sith in terms of species."

Jaina's eyes widened at the revelation. "That's... okay, I'm official on high alert. These guys are dangerous."

Harry nodded slowly as they approached. "Yeah." Harry looked at Jaina from the corner of his eye before speaking through their bond. "Jay-jay. We can use our bond to strengthen each other. We can defeat them only if we work together."

Jaina looked at him from the corner of her eye and nodded slowly. "Okay, Ewok. Let's do this."

They opened their bond fully and strengthened each other through it. There were no secrets at that moment between them. Jaina's heart hurt as she saw him with Nakia but at the same time understood his need for someone who was sure in their love for him. She saw how much he still loved Astraal and his confusion as to what to do about it. Most of all, she felt the love he had for her. It was like a hammer blow and although he tried to hide it, she saw how much he loved her. Jaina felt so unworthy of it as she saw how she treated him through his eyes. 'I really treated him like shit,' thought Jaina sadly.

Harry was forced to see moments she had with Zekk as well as feel her attraction to him. However, his heart filled with joy as he felt how much she loved him. It was that love that led her to come to his aid and no matter how much she denied it, he knew that she loved him more than a brother or cousin. She loved him like a woman loves her one true love. 'Great,' gripped Harry internally. 'Now the triangle has become a... square? No, an isoceles? Whatever, three women are after me now. I hope there isn't a fourth someday.'

Back on Yavin 4, Tenel Ka sneezed.

All this happened within a second and soon the two Sith were in front of them with their lightsabers ignited. Thaum sneered at Jaina. "And who's this? Another pathetic Jedi?"

Jaina glared at him. "I'm Jaina Solo, Jedi apprentice."

Thaum laughed and Valik smirked. "They send an apprentice as back-up? To kill two Sith Lords? Truly the Jedi have fallen."

Jaina ignited her violet lightsaber in response. With his Force senses heightened, Harry felt the crystal in his green lightsaber pulse in order to counter the aura the soulsaber was emitting. Getting an idea, Harry holstered his blue lightsaber and took out his green one. He ignited it in his right hand while ignited his violet in his left.

Thaum got into a Djem So opening stance as Valik entered a Juyo one. Harry looked from one to the other before telepathically talking to Jaina. 'I'll take Thaum. He and I have unfinished business.'

Jaina telepathically nodded. 'Then the red-skinned whore is mine. And don't think I didn't see the memory of you flirting with her earlier. I felt that you actually think she's attractive.'

Harry sweated as he could feel the glare from Jaina trying to bore through his head. In later years, he would deny it completely but her glare made Harry decide to make the first move.

Harry attacked Thaum with a high slash as Jaina stabbed at Valik.

The two duels went on only a few feet from each other as both sides tried to dominate each other. Jaina and Harry were much stronger now that their bond was strengthening each other and it showed in their way of fighting.

At one point, Valik had drawn Jaina into her personal space and given her a vicious knee to the chest that caused her to drop her lightsaber. Valik then held Jaina right arm out and tried to stab her through the back while she was vulnerable. However, Harry had sensed her in trouble and when Thaum ducked under a slash from Harry with his violet lightsaber, Harry threw it perfectly so it impacted her lightsaber enough to make her miss and lose her grip on Jaina's arm before rebounding back into his hand, all within a second.

Jaina wasted no time and broke free before giving her a Force-empowered kick in Valik's face that threw her a few meters away. She then summoned her lightsaber and jumped to attack Thaum from above but was caught unaware when he sent a blast of Force lightning at her that sent her flying with a cry of pain.

Hearing Jaina's cry of pain, caused Harry to get angry and he sent a powerful Force push straight to Thaum's face as he turned back to him, sending him flying to land next to Valik on his knees.

Harry went to stand beside Jaina who summoned her lightsaber to her again before nodding to Harry and they ran to engage the two Sith again.

This continued for a while before Thaum separated Harry from Jaina and made it so he couldn't continue to help her. He then started to taunt him. First it was about him being weak and slow and when that didn't work he started to taunt him about how he took Astraal while she was in captivity. Seeing that that was having some effect, he went in for the proverbial kill.

"I'm disappointed that I didn't get to taste that Twi'lek again but that Solo girl is a nice substitute. I wonder, will she taste like cherries when I take her?"

The image of this man violating his beloved sky princess threw Harry into a rage. The Force came in at him from all sides and he attacked violently. Thaum was caught off-guard as Harry's blows became stronger and more vicious. Worse yet was that Harry had realized that the soulsaber's effect of absorbing his Force energy every time they traded blows didn't work when he used his green lightsaber. Harry guessed that the Solari crystal's light energies negated the soulsaber's effects.

Thaum was forced on the defensive as Harry used every trick in the book to push him back again and and again. While he was angry, Harry maintained his focus and started to make a plan to end this once and for all. Gathering every scrap of Force energy he had, Harry blocked Thaum's soulsaber with his violet lightsaber. Thaum was so surprised that he didn't react in time when Harry pushed his blade wide, entered his space in a spin with his back to Thaum and stabbed him through the heart with his green lightsaber in a reverse grip in his left hand. Harry had switched the lightsabers just before the maneuver to catch him off-guard.

Harry took deep breaths since the maneuver left him almost completely drained. Not only channeling that much Force energy but the soulsaber sucked most of it when he blocked it with his violet blade. Apparently only blocking it with his green one negated its effects.

Harry jogged toward Jaina's fight with Valik and saw they were mostly even until Valik turned and saw her master dying on the floor where Harry left him. Rather than be angry, a wide smile crossed her face and she let out a bark of joy. "Finally! I thought I would never be free of that bastard!" She then kicked Jaina away before summoning the soulsaber from Thaum's dead hands before Harry could stop it. She ignited it, soulsaber in her right hand and her double-bladed lightsaber in her left. She crossed them over her chest and the effect made her seem even more sinister.

Harry helped Jaina back up and looked at her cautiously. "You're outnumbered, Valik. Give up and you'll be shown mercy."

Valik just laughed. "Please, handsome. Thaum held me back because he feared me. He even had installed some phrases in my mind when they made me to make sure he could control me with just a word. He never allowed me to study at my leisure and kept me on a leash." Valik's eyes glittered in madness. "But I studied in secret and I'm much stronger than him. I only hid it so he wouldn't suspect anything. I knew he would die today and now I'm free. Now to celebrate," Valik gave Harry a false look of sympathy, "I'm afraid you must die."

She was suddenly upon them and both Jaina and Harry were hard-pressed to survive her initial assault. While before she was attacking with a form of Juyo, now she was attacking viciously with a mix of Djem So and Ataru and the difference showed greatly.

Valik suddenly jumped over one of Harry's thrusts and slashed at his face with the soulsaber. Harry gave a cry of pain as she landed a cut over his right eye that went vertically over the eyelid but luckily didn't manage to cut his eye though it did get close enough for the blade's dark side aura to affect it, not that Harry knew at the moment.

Valik smiled evilly. "That was your eye, Potter. Next time, it'll be your head!"

Thinking that she had managed to cut out one of his eyes, Jaina gave a cry of rage and attacked viciously. Harry tried to help but before he could, Valik landed a diagonal slash too fast to see across Jaina's torso from her left hip to her right shoulder before Force pushing her away.

"Jaina!" cried out Harry. Harry's rage returned and he attacked. Valik just smiled and easily weathered his assault. Unnoticed to him, Harry's right eye started to get a yellow ring around the iris as his anger grew. Valik just smiled and when Harry overextended, she spun around him and landed a vicious horizontal slash across his back and Force pushed him away so he landed on top of the groaning Jaina. The slash wasn't deep enough to cut his spine but it did prevent him from moving anything below his neck for a time due to the pain.

Valik cackled and slowly walked over to them. Jaina was cradling Harry's head and trying to wake him since he had passed unconscious from the pain. Seeing Valik approach, she fought through the pain and made a childish attempt to protect Harry with her body so Valik wouldn't reach him.

Valik smirked evilly at the sight. "Now isn't that precious? Tell me, Solo. Do you love him?"

Jaina just glared at her defiantly through her pain. "Yes and I'll kill you for hurting him."

Valik just smirked and raised the soulsaber in her right hand to cut through them both before speaking. "Then die together!"

Just as the blade fell, it was blocked by a black blade that was shaped similar to a katana. Valik's eyes widened just before a vicious kick pushed her away. Valik recovered and saw none other than Nakia standing there defending Harry and Jaina's fallen forms.

Nakia glared at Valik with hate in her eyes. "She's not the only one who loves him and I'll make you beg for death for hurting my beloved!"

Nakia was a blur as she attacked Valik viciously. They traded blows up and down the hangar, Valik being pushed back by Nakia's superior skill and experience. Harry slowly came back to consciousness and Jaina fought through her excruciating pain to put his head in her lap and started to put her hand through his hair as he looked at Nakia and Valik fighting.

"Nakia?" asked Harry groggily.

Jaina nodded her head and smiled. "She saved us. Valik was going to kill us but she blocked her slash. We need to thank her."

Harry nodded painfully and looked back at the fight to see it about to end.

Despite Valik's incredible skill, she was still unused to fighting with both her double-bladed saber and the soulsaber and it became her downfall. She left herself open in one point and Nakia's darksaber flashed through the air and cut off her right arm, which held the soulsaber, just below the elbow. Valik screamed in pain and Nakia viciously Force pushed her to the wall so hard she left an indentation.

Valik growled in rage and started to get up again when the tower shook. There was a sound of explosions from the upper levels and Harry could only guess they'd destroyed the tip of the tower and rendered the superlaser inoperable. Just as that happened two X-wings landed nearby and Luke and Mara jumped out, igniting their lightsabers.

Luke dashed to stand beside Nakia with his lightsaber ignited. He glanced at Nakia warily for a second but shook it off when he noticed her standing between the Sith and where Harry and Jaina were laying.

Meanwhile, Mara had run to Harry's side where he was slowly losing the fight to maintain conscious. "Harry! It's Mom! Hang on, we'll get you help just hang on!"

Valik glared at Luke and Nakia as they stood there and realized that as she was she would lose. "You have a choice Jedi. Either capture/kill me or save the boy because I promise you... if you try to to kill or capture me, I'll make sure help won't get here in time to save him. What's your choice?"

Luke and Nakia wavered and glanced at where Mara was trying to use the force to keep Harry conscious before glancing at each other and nodding. They turned off their lightsabers and stepped back.

Valik sneered. "Good choice. Till next time, Skywalker."

The last thing Harry saw was Valik running away and Luke and Nakia running over to him as Mara screamed at him to stay awake before all was darkness.

AN: There's chapter 28!

Hope you liked the action sequences. The final fights weren't as good as I imagined cause I couldn't add a lot of things I wanted. Mostly because Harry had been fighting all day and he wouldn't be able to use a lot of the more Force-intensive powers like Force lightning. Still, I hope you liked it. The original version had Harry losing his right hand but it seemed too similar to Anakin Skywalker already with him getting the scar on his right eye (which is important) so I just had him almost lose his ability to walk.

As always, Read and review!