Chapter Sixteen: Yoda Man

Jedi Padawan Juno Eclipse sagged to the ground, coated in sweat from her run. Without being told, she immediately slipped into a rejuvenating meditation. The Force flowed through her body, easing the aching muscles and aiding her lungs absorb the oxygen her body craved.

In a minute, hear breathing and heart rate were back to normal.

"Good," a high-pitched voice said from nearby. "Calm you are. Much have you learned."

"I had a good teacher," Juno said with a wry smile, even while she kept her eyes closed.

"Flatter me you do," Yoda said as he hobbled to sit on a log in front of her. "An able student are you. Thirst for knowledge you do, but never do you let your thirst control you."

"Master…"

"A vision you had last night," Yoda said.

"Yes, Master. I dreamed he was coming here. I dreamed…" Her cheeks flushed. "I dreamed we were together. Intimately."

"The future you see, if you but wish it," Yoda said.

Juno absorbed the answer. She opened her eyes after a long minute and studied the diminutive Jedi master. "You've been preparing me for him, haven't you?"

"Possibilities, I saw," Yoda admitted. "Diminished is the Forever Mage. A shadow of what he should be. Only through more bonds will power and memory come."

"In my vision, there were other women there. One with red hair, and…and Princess Leia. They were with us as well."

"Many things we see, through the Force," Yoda said. "Saw a Sith break against the mind of Leia Organa Skywalker, I did."

"Will it hurt, Master? Will it be my free will I give to him? Will I be nothing more than a breeder for his children and a sheath for his saber?"

"It is sung in the Journal," Yoda said, "and so it has came to pass many times, that the wives of the Lord of Light have been leaders in their own right. His lieutenants they are; his advisors. Warriors themselves have they often been. Never has a wife of the Forever Mage been subjugated to his will, for to do so would violate all that he is. More often he bends to theirs, for it is their will and strength, in addition to their love, that anchors him."

"If feels like an archaic holodrama. I'm the lonely daughter being sold off in marriage to the rich, mysterious nobleman. I've only seen him once, and then only for a second."

"Your heart and the Force, let guide you," Yoda said.

"What is he like?"

"Not what you think," Yoda said. "Come, time for tea we have, before arrive they do."

An hour later found master and student enjoying tea on board the Rogue Shadow when the droid PROXY stepped into the homey break room. "Pardon me, Captain Eclipse. Ships sensors have detected an Imperial Lambda-class shuttle entering the atmosphere."

"Thank you, PROXY. Please activate the ship's beacon to guide them in. We've been expecting them."

"Very well," the droid said before it turned and left.

In the silence that followed, Juno quietly took hers and Master Yoda's cups and rinsed them out before placing them back into their secured shelf. When done, she knelt down before the Jedi.

"Thank you," she said. "I've learned so much. There's so much more to learn, but without you, I would not even know what knowledge I lack. Thank you so much."

"Welcome, you are," Yoda said. "If still existed the Temple did, my padawan would I take you to be. But my student you will not be much longer. There is even more to learn than you know."

They could hear the rumble of an approaching ship even through the halls of their own. "Meet our guests we should," Yoda said.

"My I carry you, Master?"

Yoda nodded. Juno offered her back, as if they were going on another run, and walked the Jedi master through the ship to the ramp. She gently set him down and waited as a white Imperial shuttle soared over head. And continued to soar over head until out of sight, from where they heard a very loud crash that sent every flying creature in the jungle into the air.

"Master, did the Forever Mage just crash his shuttle?" Juno asked, incredulous.

"Poor pilots do Mages make, so the Journals say," Yoda said with a chuckle. "Carry me you should."

She Force-summoned the harness she used for that very purpose. Yoda settled himself onto her back, and together they took off toward the direction of the crash.

They knew they were approaching just from a stern voice saying, "Shaddix, why didn't you just wake me up? I told you you'd crash!"

"Sorry."

"And Luke, you're one of the best pilots in the Alliance," came yet another voice. "Father and Master Kenobi insisted we bring you, why didn't you take over?"

"Leia, he's an admiral. He outranks me."

"He's only been an admiral for two weeks! And even his own pilots refuse to let him fly."

Juno emerged from the jungle onto the banks of one of the many bogs that dominated the planet, and found four very wet, grouchy people a few meters away, staring at a sinking shuttle. "You know," Shaddix said at last, "I didn't really like that thing anyway. It pulled left. I wish Dantels had just brought us."

"You're just trying to make yourself feel better about crashing yet another ship," a lithesome young woman whose red hair was plastered about her shoulders, snapped. "And I understood why the Council wanted to meet with us first before they let us run off again."

"No, it really did pull to port," Luke said. "I think the portside thruster flow modulator was faulty."

"So instead of replacing the missing part," the Princess Leia said waspishly, "you let him crash it?"

"Sorry," Luke said, looking as chagrinned as Shaddix.

Into this miserable sight stepped Juno and Master Yoda. "Problems with your ship?" she asked.

The four newcomers spun around, various weapons coming to play. Juno noticed that every one of them carried a lightsaber—Shaddix actually carried two. Leia's face lit up immediately. "Captain Eclipse!" She took a step forward before noticing the small green creature on Juno's back. "And…Master Yoda?"

"Yoda I am."

Shaddix, though, was staring at Yoda like a man possessed. He walked unsteadily to the diminutive Jedi master and knelt down before the being. "Why do I feel like I know you?" he asked.

"Once it was, my kind served you," Yoda said. "Waiting for you I have been, Forever Mage. Waiting for the whole of my life."

"By the Force, Kyle, you stink!" Jan said.

Kyle Katarn did not look amused as he dragged the small, loudly complaining Moff Rebus behind him. "I'm pretty sure this sludge is toxic, too," he muttered. "Would you prepare the decon bath for me?"

"Sure."

Following the horror at Talay, Kyle reported to Intelligence their findings, and the only clue they found at the base—a modified Imperial blaster rifle with the etched initials MR.

As the Alliance slipped out of Yavin, Kyle received information from the Intelligence cell on Selonia that MR was the mark of eccentric Imperial weapons designer Moff Rebus. The terms "eccentric" barely touched on the surface of a man who built weapons of both personal and mass destruction in the sewers of a dead planet.

"Let me go you mangy bantha-beard!" the small man ranted, while Kyle continued to drag him to Jan's personal ship, the Moldy Crow.

"I want to be a part of the interrogation," Kyle said darkly.

"You can have him," Jan said. The two stank from the toxic sewers Kyle had to go through to get his man. But, as with everything Kyle set out to do, he succeeded.

Jan ran ahead to get the shower ready. This was going to be a fun report to write.

On logs around a campfire set in front the small hut that Yoda called home for twenty years, Juno watched the man named Shaddix as he learned about a life he could not remember.

Her story she told him quickly—detailing what she could remember about the ceremony she witnessed years ago. He looked thoughtful when she recalled the names invoked by the Dathomiri witches—Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Potter.

"Were they good people?" he finally asked.

"I think they were," Juno said. "They sensed the Force in me, and told me not to let the darkness of my masters at the time taint me."

"Five women dead because of me," he said.

"Because of Palpatine," Leia said, almost angry that he blamed himself. "You did not ask for them, you didn't ask to be…reborn, I suppose. It's not your fault, and I won't hear you say it again."

Mara nodded her firm assent, and Shaddix smiled weakly at their support. Juno watched the exchange closely, as she had watched them since they arrived. The three seemed connected on every level, and looked at each other with open adoration that made her feel all the more lonely for never having had a chance to explore those emotions with Galen.

When she was done with her story, Yoda took over, telling what he knew of Shaddix's past. On another log, the young Luke Skywalker Luke listened with a rapt expression, much like a little boy listening to his grandfather tell a story.

While Luke was handsome and glowed with Force potential, Juno had difficulty looking away from Shaddix, Leia and Mara. She watched how the three of them sat entranced as Yoda sang from the Journal of Whills. That is, he chanted in a sing-song fashion that his people called singing. Of all of them, Shaddix himself seemed the most fascinated.

By his own admission, Shaddix had no memories before waking in the Emperor's lair. He sat now, an arm around the red-head's waist and the other hand clenched firmly in the Princess's hand, listening to the story of his life he could not remember living.

The song went on for an hour until finally Yoda's voice squeaked and he had to stop. He barely made it into the fifth of what seemed to be a near infinite number of lives that Shaddix had lived previously. "Long, the Journal of the Whills is," he said. "Many days long. To sing it completely, a great feat is." He smiled. "Never finished it did I."

"Thank you for sharing it," Shaddix said. "So, how old am I? I mean, how long has it been? What happened? Why don't I recognize anything?"

Yoda looked at the seemingly young man with a somber expression. "Know for sure we know not. Much was lost, many generations passed. Long lived my people are, a thousand years for our eldest. A hundred years there is between our generations. Ten thousand generations it has been since cast from heaven my people were."

Shaddix blanched, and Juno noticed how the women on either side leaned into him, as if bracing him.

"A million years?" Shaddix whispered.

"So our theologians think," Yoda said. Juno turned to Yoda, catching a rare hint of emotion in the master's eyes. "Our god you are. Defended us you did from the angry gods. Died and were reborn you were, many times, in the war of heaven. When the heavens burned, led us all you did to this realm of being. Cast us from your side you did, but with cause. To save us, you cast us from heaven."

"I'm only twenty, twenty-one at the most," Shaddix said. "How could I possibly be your god?"

"Not your first life this is," Yoda said. "The song, remember the song. The Reborn God you are. The Forever Mage. For all time have you existed, born again and again to lead your people. But always, in all lives, the Journal of the Whills calls for five wives. Five to anchor your soul to your body. Such is your power that without all five, your body cannot hold the light of your being."

Yoda looked long and hard and Leia and Mara. "While powerful your wives are, only two there are."

"Not enough," Leia said.

Juno blinked, surprised to hear the princess say such a thing. Mara, though, nodded. "We had a dream that there were three women missing. His light couldn't enter him because there were not enough."

Shaddix's brilliant green eyes shifted from Yoda to Juno. "Is that why you're here, Captain Eclipse?"

"I'm here because I wished to become a Jedi," she said. "I came to honor the memory of Rahm Kota and Galen Marek."

A hint of guilt passed Shaddix's face. "I believed the Emperor's lies and thought Kota poisoned Mara. I captured him and was going to interrogate him, but the Emperor's agents killed him before I could. I'm very sorry for his death."

Juno bit her lip and nodded. "So do you know what caused her illness?"

Shaddix looked from one woman to the other, and finally said, "If everything I've just heard is to be believed…"

"It was your own power which caused her illness," Yoda said. "Not enough was any one woman, no matter her power. Why it is she woke, when bond with Leia Skywalker Organa you did."

Leia did not look happy with Yoda's name for her, but she still nodded. "At the end of the interrogation, when we had the vision of the galaxies," she said. "We went from fighting to kissing."

"As much as I regret hurting you," he said, "that was still the most incredible kiss."

Leia's smile looked sad. She turned to Yoda and asked, "Will his memories ever come back?"

"With more bonds, yes," Yoda said.

"You've been watching Shaddix all night," Mara said to Juno. "The fact that you're here, now, means that you had a role to play. Yoda obviously knew there had to be more women. And from the lack of surprise, you knew as well."

"I knew," Juno admitted. Her cheeks flared. "I've had Force visions."

"Really?" Mara said with an arched brow. "Were they spicy? Because you do know that when you bond with him, you have to consummate it with sex," Mara said.

Juno felt her cheeks blush. "I guessed."

"Lots and lots of sex," Mara added with a grin.

"Mara, be nice," Leia said.

"Like you didn't have lots and lots of sex too?"

Leia sighed in defeat. "Yes. And I still feel strange about it. I know father's not that happy I'm sharing a man either."

"May I ask you both a question?" Juno said.

The other ladies nodded.

"Are you happy with him?"

Shaddix blushed brilliantly, but did not move or speak.

Mara answered first. "The Emperor forced me to bond with him using Sith mind control. I was the first and only one for almost two years, and it nearly killed me. When I woke up, I was confused and angry, but by then the bond had already been formed and consummated. I realized what had happened and that it wasn't really Shaddix's fault, but I still wanted to be so angry at him. It felt as if my life had been stolen from me. Then he kissed me, and none of that mattered."

She looked at Shaddix, and all sign of the acerbic young woman faded before a gentle smile. "I know I'm not the nicest girl in the galaxy. I was raised by a Sith lord, after all. But if I had to do it all again to be where I am now? I really think I would. I am happy. Shaddix makes me happy." Shaddix's eyes grew moist, and Mara blew a raspberry. "Even if he is a drama queen."

"Stop," he whispered as he leaned down and gently kissed her.

"He was my captor and interrogator," Leia answered in her turn. "He hurt me terribly to get the plans to the Death Star I'd hidden. And yet I realize looking back that he hated himself for what he thought he had to do. He didn't know who he was, and he knew that if he didn't get the plans, worse men would torture me to death. But it all changed when Motti…" She stopped speaking for a moment.

Through the Force Juno could feel the other woman's pain, but she could also feel a surge of loving warmth from Shaddix as he held her hand. Leia smiled at him, and then nodded. "On the day my virginity was taken by force, I discovered my strength. Shaddix attacked my mind like before, but it was his mind that lost the fight. I killed the Sith in him that day. And a few days later, I consummated my bond with him. And yes, Juno, I am happy. And I think you would be too."

"So does that mean we should all just troop into her ship and go have sex?" Mara asked brightly.

"Is it that simple?" Luke asked, breaking the tension.

"Worked for us," Leia said. She looked at her furiously blushing brother. "Oh Mara, we need to get Luke a girlfriend. This must be killing him."

Luke blushed again, so bright he was in danger of making the fire dim.

"That Voltron girl liked him," Shaddix said. "And she'd do him in a minute."

"How do you know?" Leia asked, indignant her bondmate would speak of a female like that.

"Because she told him she'd do him in a minute," Shaddix said.

"She did, right in front of Luke," Mara added. "And the rest of Solo's squadron, and one of the deck officers. Solo asked if he could watch."

Luke buried his face in his hands. "My love life is not any of your concern," he said.

"It wouldn't be if you had one," Mara said. "We're just concerned for you, Luke. I mean, at the rate Shaddix's going, there aren't going to be any women left for you to have a relationship with. And once they're all bonded to Shaddix, we'll all think of you as a little brother."

Luke looked up and blinked. "You think of me as a little brother?"

"Well, yeah. I'm bonded to Leia as much as to Shaddix. She thinks of you that way, so I do," Mara said.

Luke shook his head. "Master Yoda, Master Kenobi said the Jedi of old weren't allowed attachment."

"And look where that got them," Shaddix said.

"Powerful, love is," Yoda said. "Drove your father, it did. If accept his love for your mother I did, different would history be. Not driven to Palpatine, Anakin would have been. A great Jedi could he have been. But listen not to the teasing of children. In your own time will you find love."

"Children?" Mara said indignantly.

"When nine hundred years old one is, everyone is a child."

"Am I?" Shaddix asked.

"Yes," Yoda said. "Without your memories, you are a child. But an ancient soul waits within. Bond with Padawan Eclipse, and that soul will be freed."

Shaddix looked from Mara and Leia. "What do you think?" he asked them.

"Well, she is very beautiful," Mara said.

"And smart," Leia added. "She saved Bail, Mon and Garm when Galen Marek fought off Vader and the Emperor. She was our first intelligence officer, and General Vernon almost cried when she left for Dagobah. She's also a great pilot."

Shaddix nodded. "That much I know. During the Dantooine raid, Han Solo, my best pilot, said she just plain out flew him. Coming from a Corellian, that is quite an admission."

Juno watched intently as Shaddix stood and stepped around the fire to kneel before her. All the Force visions she had been experiencing for the past six months swirled around her as he took her hand. The contact burned in a most delicious, unimaginable way. Just his touching her made her whole body tremble.

"Juno, I don't know if there is any ritual we're supposed to follow or not, so I guess I'll just ask you. Once this bond forms, it is for life. Whether you're a bondmate like Leia, or my wife like Mara, it will be for the remainder of your life. I can promise that…."

She leaned forward and kissed him, hard.

On the other side of the fire, Mara chuckled. "That is truly the only way to shut him up."

Shaddix's hands wrapped around her back and Juno fell to her knees in front of him as the kiss deepened. The air shimmered around them all.

"Okay, Luke, go to bed," Leia said. "Shaddix, Juno, Mara, in the ship now!"

Shaddix and Juno parted, staring at each other with intense but startled expressions. Without any further prompting, Shaddix stood with Juno's hand in his and walked quickly toward the ship with Leia and Mara a step behind.

In the silence that followed, Luke shook his head. "Some guys have all the luck."

"For every day of your life," Yoda said, "The Reborn God has died fighting for the light. Terrible were many of his deaths. Greater pain he has felt than any being alive in this galaxy. Grant him this joy, throughout all time it is the only joy he is allowed."

Luke looked back at the ship. "I suppose so."

"Master Obi-Wan you spoke of," Yoda said. "Many years since my friend I have seen. Tell me of him."

So the two spent the remainder of the evening talking about old friends, while in the Rogue Shadow bonds were formed, and lives were remembered.

Chapter Seventeen: A Festering Mess

Kyle swung his lightsaber—a gift from Kenobi during his last, abbreviated lesson—and caught the Imperial officer by surprise. Behind him, the SpecForce squad fired their modified, silent blasters, and in less than five seconds the squad of stormtroopers was dead.

"Motion or EMs?" Kyle whispered.

Behind him, in armor herself, Jan shook her head. "No motion, I'm not detecting any pulses indicating an alarm."

Kyle nodded in satisfaction. Though he missed the action on Yavin, his actions on Talay and Anoat were impressive enough to Vernon for him to be once more kicked up the command chain to lieutenant colonel. At the rate he was going, he would be supreme commander of the universe before he was thirty.

And somehow, he knew Jan would be right behind him, telling him what to do every minute of the day.

They knew about the Metallurgical Testing Station on Fest only because Moff Rebus could not stop bragging. He didn't actually answer any of their questions, but he bragged incessantly about how wonderful the new metal the Empire was researching was, and how many holes they would blast into the rebel scum once the testing on Fest was done.

For an evil genius, Rebus really wasn't that smart.

But the results spoke for themselves, and Kyle was leading the largest insertion team he'd had since he left the Empire.

Some were familiar faces, as well. Almost a quarter of his squad was made up of his former storm troopers who defected with him. He stood now, counting heads as the team shuffled past, a hundred men and women armed to the teeth, with an assault shuttle on the far side of the planet ready for air support or pick up if necessary.

SpecForce was not organized for large-scale combat, though. The Rebel military concentrated on small squad-force strike teams of four to five operators, each cross-trained to do all the jobs necessary in each team. It was an efficient organization, and the reason Kyle chose SpecForce instead of the regular Alliance army. Shaddix's glowing recommendation to General Vernon on his behalf ensured he got in.

"All are in position," the squad captains reported.

The facility was in the standard Imperial lay out, with broad halls and gray walls. His insertion team squatted behind the rocks leading up to then front entrance. The walls surrounding the base were easily forty feet high, and Kyle's monocle could detect the detection field rising up the wall surface.

"On three, teams one through nine are a go, team ten to cover." Kyle said. "Weapons hot, stun officers and anyone in white lab coats. Kill the rest. On three. One, two, three, go go go!"

Nine teams of ten men and women, plus Kyle and Jan, broke from their cover. Instantly two wall-mounted laser cannons swung out from hidden compartments, only to be met by a barrage of shoulder-mounted rockets from the covering tenth team. The incoming teams suddenly shot into the air as their gravity boots launched them above the laser-shielded walls.

Storm troopers were already pouring onto the ramparts of the wall but were not prepared for airborne troopers bearing down on them. Repeater blasters shot off staccato blasts that raked the defenders. Kyle was the first to land at the forefront of his men and had a lightsaber out with his right hand while he fired his blaster rifle with his left.

The battle was short and vicious. Three Rebels died, but the cost to the Empire was easily ten times that.

"Move!" Kyle said. "Teams seven and eight together," he ordered, since those were the teams with the losses. The plan was dependent on at least five teams. The main base defense seemed to be its secrecy—it did not appear on any Imperial documents and the system was otherwise empty.

Still, each hall was equipped with ceiling-mounted e-web blasters. However, each SpecForce team answered with a Destructive Electromagnetic Pulse 2 ion carbine, almost known was a DEMP 2 carbine. The e-webs had a three second turn radius, which meant that unless it was already pointed at you, it gave you a second or two to move or fire back.

If it was already pointed at you, you were dead.

Most cases, though, they were table to get off a shot from the DEMP II, which disabled the e-webs almost instantly. Only five fell to the e-webs before their teammates could destroy the weapons. They continued to meet sporadic resistance as they went, but with eight functioning teams and Kyle's lightsaber, the lightly defended facility had difficulty trying to hold back the onslaught.

That's when they meet the Dark Trooper.

Team 3 just finished clearing out a squad of storm troopers down the hall from Kyle when a single black thing stepped in the hall in front of them. Kyle felt a surge of danger in the Force and looked up in time to see the ten men of Team 3 die before a barrage of dumb-fire missiles shot from almost point blank range.

"All teams converge, heavy in hall 22B!" Kyle ordered as he rushed forward with his blaster rifle firing.

The dark trooper moved faster than any human Kyle had seen and managed to dodge most of the fire while firing a blue-white plasma shot.

With a curse on his lips and a push with the Force, Kyle sent himself flying forward away from the burst. He dropped his blaster in the process, but emerged from the forward dive in a rolling thrust.

His lightsaber struck the lethal construct in the center of its abdominal plate and actually had his hand pushed aside; he could see burns and scorch marks in the armor, but the lightsaber did not pierce it. The dark trooper did not hesitate and sent Kyle flailing through the air with a backhand.

Team four emerged around a corner and opened up with DEMP guns and blasters. The Dark Trooper absorbed a lot of damage and fired back, forcing the team to break.

Kyle, bleeding and dizzy from the blow, jumped back into the fray. His saber slashed at the massive cannon the droid carried. An ordinary gun would have fallen in two—but even with this new metal, Kyle's swing was strong enough to damage the gun.

Again a fist sent him flying, this time toward his scattered people. He looked up from the blow to see the cannon pointed at him. This close, he saw it was a droid in storm-trooper type armor.

The droid pulled the trigger and the cannon exploded.

Kyle Force-pushed against the floor, causing himself to slide back and away from the worse of the concussion. His ears rang, though, and he could feel tiny bits of debris biting into his body from it. When he opened his eyes and the stars cleared, the droid stood in the center of the hall swaying unevenly. Its right arm was gone and one leg was damaged.

"Finish it!" Kyle cried in a pain-hoarsened voice.

The rest of the teams by then had congregated and fired on the droid until it went down. Instantly Jan and the nearest medic were there. "Ears," Kyle said. "Can't hear."

When he said that, both stopped talking and quickly put in a sonic stabilizer in each ear. The pain diminished as small squirts of bacta began their work. In the mean time, the devices allowed him to hear again, though through an artificial filter.

"What was that thing?" Jan asked.

"Something made of phrik that blew big holes in us," Kyle said. "If that's the Empire's new project, we're in for some good times ahead." He climbed to his feet, employing every Jedi trick Masters Kenobi It'kla taught him. "Is the rest of the base secured?"

"It is," the captain of Team 1 said.

"Let's go to the labs, then."

The separate teams did their jobs with predictable efficiency, cleaning out the interior defenses and defenders. All the captured researchers were gathered in the man laboratory. The station commander was still unconscious, but his code card sat on a table top not far from the team members guarding the prisoners.

A captain in a white lab coat was already awake and staring at the rebels with an expression of contempt.

"Well, well," Kyle said as he stepped into the room. "Captain Danson. Fancy seeing you here."

The captain spat. "Traitor. The Emperor is going to kill you!"

"Probably has bigger fish to fry," Kyle said. "So, tell me about these big troopers."

"I'll tell you nothing!" Danson said. "I can't believe I called you a friend once."

"Don't feel too bad. We were both young and stupid. But the difference is, I grew up and got smart. You just grew up. Jan, you have it?"

Jan handed Kyle a hypospray. Danson's eyes widened and he started to struggle when a pair of commandos held him down. Kyle injected his former academy classmate with the truth serum and then sat back, cross-legged in front of the man while the drug took effect.

"You okay, Kyle?" Jan whispered.

"I'll make it," Kyle promised.

When he saw Danson get glassy eyed, he took a deep breath and brought the Force to bear on the other man's mind. "Captain Danson, I am Lieutenant Kyle Katarn. You know me from the Academy."

"Yeah," Danson said with a faint smile. "Couldn't hold your whiskey for anything."

"I drank you under the tables twice, you lying Gamorrean cow."

"Yeah, good to see you again, Kyle."

"You too, Tenis. I have received orders from Moff Rebus to do an accounting of the research here. Report."

Danson's brows creased as for a moment he fought against the combined effects of the drugs and Kyle's mind against his own. The battle was brief, though. "Phase II of the Dark Trooper project was successful, but the phrikite processing is still slower than anticipated. However, we have produced enough troopers to escort Project Talisman as required."

"What is the status of Project Talisman?"

"The test on Talay was successful, although we lost a trooper there," Danson said. "We are ready for wide-spread deployment. Once the world is targeted, Project Talisman will deliver the plague vector and be fully protected against any ground defenses by the Dark Trooper escorts. Dark Troopers are not affected by the plague, but can be affected by rakghouls in sufficient numbers."

Kyle felt a little fist of cold in his chest. "Tenis, what is Project Talisman?"

"A piece of living history," Danson said. "You'll see more in the secured lab. With the commander's code card."

Kyle reared back. "Stun him, I've lost control," he said.

"You're all going to die," Danson shouted a moment before the blue stun rings hit him.

Kyle fell back and stretched out on the floor, recovering not just from his injuries, but the strain of overcoming the man's mind, even only temporarily. Jan knelt nearby, looking down at him in concern. "What'd he mean?"

"Well, at a guess, I'd say he meant something was going to kill us," he said.

Team One all chuckled. It was such a typical Katarn response. Kylisms, they were coming to be known.

"Smart ass," Jan said. She helped Kyle to his feet. "Well, do we look in the lab?"

"Not yet," Kyle said. "Danson said that after he slipped out of my control. He wanted us to go in there, and that means it's a nasty surprise. Let's raid all data first and get ready to clear out."

After they used the key code to access all the computer data and dumped it in mass into their crystals, Jan found out why Danson wanted them to enter the secured labs.

On the surveillance cams, they could see a pair of rakghouls in containment chambers, growling and pacing the floors angrily.

"Dark Troopers sounds bad," Jan said as they stared at the monsters, "but Project Talisman sounds terrifying. What if they introduced the plague into a heavily populated world? The last major rakghoul plague was on Taris thousands of years ago, and the world lost almost half its population."

Kyle nodded silently. "I don't know, Jan." He looked down at a man he had gone to school with; a man who would have happily watched him die at the hands of living nightmares.

"No prisoners, no traces," he said. "We have the data we need. All teams evacuate, we'll blow the base from orbit just like Talay."

"Agreed," Jan said.

In a million years, Luke Skywalker would never have imagined the life he now lived.

It all seemed like a lifetime ago that he was standing on the edge of his uncle's moisture farm, staring into the horizon and wishing he was out amidst the stars after adventure. That was before Artoo and Threepio crashed into his life, and his Aunt and Uncle died.

He trained briefly along side Kyle, as did Leia and Mara, under the combined tutelage of Master's Kenobi and It'Kla. Kyle had no idea who Luke was, until he finally confronted the other man about his Aunt and Uncle.

"I'm very sorry, Luke," came Kyle's response. "My troopers were under orders to retrieve the data at all costs. I read their report and they saw that that your aunt and uncle were openly hostile and that Owen Lars actually brandished a sand rifle at them. They responded as storm troopers are trained to respond to threats. I know that's cold comfort. I suspect they were trying to protect you. I'm sorry for your loss."

"Are you?" Luke said, unable to help the bitter tone to his words.

"The Empire killed my father too," Kyle said. "They tried to make it look like the work of rebels. But Shaddix found the truth and told me right before I transferred to his command. Before the end, he killed the man responsible. But the thing is, knowing Jerec is dead doesn't make me feel any better. So I've tried to be the best man I could be to honor my father."

Luke decided he liked Kyle after that.

Leia was the greater shock, though. A sister. A beautiful, smart, well-educated sister raised in the Core and elected as a sector senator while Luke was still going to public school and tinkering with vaporators. She amazed him and humbled him and made him wonder what he could have been with the right up-bringing.

Then he laughed at himself for wanting to change what he couldn't. Still, Bail was very, very nice to Luke and had taken on something of a fatherly role for the young Jedi, which Luke greatly appreciated.

His training in the Force was also progressing very fast under the combined talents of Obi-Wan Kenobi, his own father's master, and Ylenic It'kla. It was a rare day when anyone could best him in any of the Force-contests they had, not even Kyle, who was the most aggressive.

Of course, that meant when one of the others did beat him, everyone teased him, like the time Luke slipped and Leia blasted him through a wall of ice on Hoth.

But the most confusing thing in Luke's life was Shaddix.

Sometimes Shaddix acted like a teenager—laughing and joking. Other times he sat down with the executive council of the Alliance and flawlessly, often with nothing more than a sketch board, drew out plans for the defense of a base that ended up, at last reports, costing the Empire almost two million men.

Luke knew, as did most of the rest of the Alliance, that the Rebel leadership felt thrown off by the almost polar opposite aspects of Shaddix's personality. They were even more confused by his continuing relationship with two woman—one of whom was the adopted daughter of an Alliance founder. Bail hated it.

Luke wasn't too fond of it either. And yet, when he saw them together, they appeared so very happy. It was hard for him to be too harsh in his judgments.

Luke looked over at the large, black ship surrounded by the quick-growing trees of Dagobah. Inside, he knew his sister, Mara Jade and now Jedi Padawan Juno Eclipse were sleeping with Shaddix. His sister was having sex with a man who might very well be millions of years old.

Luke shook his head, remembering what Yoda told him. A Jedi did not let jealously guide his actions, but sometimes he looked at Mara, perhaps one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, and he couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

That she looked at him as a brother made Luke unutterably sad; when he looked at her, he felt as if they could have been something more than casual friends; more than brother and sister.

It didn't matter, though. What mattered was the Force, and finding his place in it.

He sighed and sat up. Around him, the evening air thrummed with life. There was a darkness on Dagobah, a darkness Yoda used to shroud his presence from the Emperor's constant searching. But with the darkness came life, and with life came the Force.

It was the one guilty pleasure Luke allowed himself, the feeling he got of bathing in the Force. It was the only way he could describe the sensation of letting the Force just lap at his body like water on a beach. It held its own ancient and undeniable rhythm, and the feeling of it calmed Luke like nothing else.

Because of his immersion in the Force, he felt Yoda approaching and was not surprised when the tiny Jedi Master sat across from him.

"Master," Luke said.

"Woke me, you did," Yoda said.

"I'm sorry, Master. I'll stop."

"No, do not stop," Yoda said. "Strong you are in the force, Young Skywalker. As strong as your father. But your mothers' heart do you have. Doubted I did your father's place in the Order, and with reason. But with you, doubt I do not. When rebuilt the order is, a leader of it you shall be."

"I…I thank you, Master."

Before he could respond further, the ramp of the Rogue Shadow lowered and a figure stumbled out into the dark. Through the Force, the figure looked like a living, breathing sun. His power was so bright and brilliant it actually hurt, and so Luke had no choice but to rouse himself from his meditation.

Doing so allowed him to see a naked, shivering Shaddix stumble toward the small fire and collapse there. Not to his knees, but a full-facial collapse into the sod.

"Shaddix?" Luke jumped to the former Sith's side and rolled the man over.

Shaddix's face was coated in sweat, and now dirt and loam. He was shivering violently as if from a great fever, and ground his teeth together so tightly it looked as if they might break. "Master Yoda, what's wrong?"

Yoda walked over more calmly, with a somber expression. "Remembering, he is."

"How could remembering do this to him?"

"Imagine, young Skywalker, having the memories of thousands of lives poured into your mind all at once."

They looked up as the light from the ship's open ramp dimmed. Three women wearing various robes stepped barefoot onto the ground, rushing to where Luke knelt down and held the shaking man.

"Luke, what happened?" Leia asked as they arrived.

"He just stumbled out and fell down," Luke said.

"The third bond formed has," Yoda said. "Returning, his memories are. All of them."

"He's hurting so badly," Juno whispered. Luke almost reared away in shock at the power he felt when Juno, then Leia and Mara all placed their hands on the shivering young body. Almost at once the shivering stopped.

"You're all glowing," Luke whispered in awe.

"Before the Force were the gods," Yoda said. "Powers divine they possessed. Becoming gods themselves the wives must, for only as equals can they truly love the Forever Mage."

Shaddix suddenly started convulsing, even with all three women touching him. Mara let out a strangled sound of pain and Juno paled. Leia gasped but ground her teeth with determination. After a moment, though, the convulsions ended. Shaddix opened his eyes, and the light from his power illuminated the whole clearing, though only for a moment.

"Remember you do," Yoda said.

"Yes." Shaddix's voice was different than what Luke remembered. It sounded so unutterably tired.

"Shaddix?" Leia asked.

He turned his head until he was looking into her face. "My name is Harry Potter."

Chapter Eighteen: The Real Story

With morning came rain. The three bond mates of Harry Potter sat out by the doused fire despite the downpour. None of them said anything as the warm moisture saturated their clothes and skin. The three of them looked as miserable as they felt.

Luke kept them company because it hurt to see people he cared about be upset.

Yoda stayed because he enjoyed the rain.

They had stayed up almost all night, since the being named Harry Potter walked naked and alone into the jungle. The women at first tried to follow him, but somehow he locked them to the ground where they knelt, until he was sufficiently far away that looking for him in the dark would be dangerous.

They cried for a little while, huddled together weeping. Of the three, Luke thought Juno Eclipse appeared the most heartbroken. Though she said nothing aloud, he could see in her face that she thought Harry Potter's departure and pain was her fault.

They clung together, arms wrapped around each other, and before his eyes Luke could see Juno becoming one of them; bonding with them just as Mara and Leia bonded together despite being so radically different in temperament.

At some point, Luke entered Juno's ship and made caf for them all, and tea for Yoda. But otherwise they stayed huddled together, comforting each other while Luke and Yoda waited.

An hour after sunrise, the man named Harry Potter stepped through a line of trees and walked into the clearing. When he left, he was as naked as the day he was born…reborn. Now, as he stepped through the trees, he was dressed in an immaculate gray admiral's uniform with a green Alliance sash.

All three women looked up the moment he entered the clearing; and he was looking at all three of them intently as he walked past Luke. As he passed, Luke shivered at the feeling of power that radiated off him. But Harry had eyes only for his bond mates. Wordlessly, he knelt down before them.

He took Juno's hand and brought it up to his lips. Luke felt his cheeks flare as he saw her close her eyes and visibly tremble under the touch.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he said. "I needed time to assimilate the memories. But I'm back. I won't leave you again." With that he leaned forward, took her face in his hands, and kissed her soundly. She actually moaned from the kiss, and swayed in place as he turned and gave both Mara, and then Leia, long, lingering kisses.

He looked up, and the rain stopped.

Luke's shiver turned into a shudder. Through the Force, Luke knew this man just stopped the rain. He felt a warm breeze, and suddenly he was dry. His clothes, hair and skin were all dry. He looked down and the mud was solid, like granite, and no longer covered everything.

The women were as dry as he was—even their hair. Brunette, red-head and blonde, all three were perfectly dry.

In a faltering voice, Juno asked the question even Luke was thinking. "Are you really a god?"

The chuckle from Potter sounded disturbingly dark. "No. I'm just a kid who was too stupid to die right the first time." He then waved a hand, and from the air a comfortable couch appeared. Luke jumped with a start when the log below him shimmered and changed into a plush chair.

Harry sat in the center of the couch and looked at the three stunned women. "Join me?"

Without word, they did so, sitting in the plush, comfortable couch. Harry stretched his arms out around them, with Juno and Leia on his left, and Mara on his right. He sighed and closed his eyes as the three of them snuggled into him.

Only then did he looked at Yoda. "You did well, my friend. You and all of your people. The elvin races have done better than we could ever have hoped to survive and grow strong."

Yoda's large eyes actually shimmered with unshed tears. "To heaven will you take us?"

"No," Harry said sadly. "Because what you remember as heaven was actually servitude. Elves were bound to our power. You could not live without us, and so you lived as servants to us. Often loved, but still ultimately enslaved. You did not lose heaven, my friend. The low and high elves gained freedom at last. And no matter how much you ask, I will not take that away from you."

Yoda's ears dropped, but still he smiled. "Child I am," he whispered. "Asking father for a trinket."

"You're no more a child than I am," Harry said. "I knew your ancestors, Yoda. If they could see you now, they would tell you how very proud they are of how far their children have come."

Yoda said nothing, but bowed his head in thought.

"So you remember?" Mara asked.

"I remember."

"Who are you?" Leia asked.

"I was born on a world that hasn't existed in two million years, a world where humanity first evolved. We didn't have spaceflight. There was no hyperdrive. Just us, alone in our one world, oblivious to the rest of the universe. Humans lived then much like now. We were born, worked, loved, if we were lucky we grew old, and then we died. But almost from the earliest days of humanity there was also a small population that was different."

"Jedi?" Luke asked brightly.

Harry grinned. "Would you believe that Jedi only exist because of an anti-radiation cure we created?"

"What?" Luke blinked.

"Wizards," Harry continued. "Humans capable of performing magic—that is, the intentional and willful manipulation of the universe around us with our minds. It was primitive of first—chanted songs to call rain. Curses to sicken or destroy our enemies. But as the base humans evolved and advanced, so did we. We created foci to help us wield our power. But we were very few—thousands to the millionsof humans. Hundreds of thousands to billions. So in time we hid ourselves away and became a separate society. Some of the leaders of the society formed a school, and went on to become the founders of our world. In fact we called them the Four Founders. They were Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. And I was their direct descendent—the last to claim heritage from all four."

"A year and a half after I was born, a dark wizard, spurred by prophecy, killed my parents and accidently embedded a portion of his soul in me. From that point forward, the two of us were linked and destined to destroy the other. But I was also the last carrier of these Founder's lines. So the magic of the school they created came to me, and with her guidance, I formed betrothal bonds with four young women to continue the magical lineages. A fifth was joined to carry my own family name. Frankly, when I found out the only way to kill this dark wizard was for the soul in me to die, and thus die myself, I accepted it because I had a chance to love five extraordinary, wonderful women and felt life could not get any better. But Hogwarts, our school, had other plans. One night, she led us through a ceremony that anchored my soul to the heart stone of the castle. I think at the time it was just a way to ensure that my wives could have children even after I died. I didn't question the details. I was only sixteen, after all. But the time came and the dark lord attacked. And to save one of my wives and my oldest friend, I walked out to him and let him torture me to death."

The three women listened in silence, their hands pressing against him. Luke gulped and Yoda looked sad.

"I've died so many times," Harry continued, "but that first death was always the worst, because I didn't know what was going to happen, and because they hurt me so badly. But my wives, led by the magic of the castle, performed the ceremony that you, Juno, witnessed, for the first time. And I was reborn. The scar that linked me to the dark lord was gone. I was born into my full power—the culmination of four powerful bloodlines. And I went forward and defeated that dark wizard."

He sighed. "Things weren't perfect. The wars of the base humans grew increasingly violent, and a few decades later, nuclear war engulfed our world and wiped wizard kind out entirely. Save for my granddaughter. She lived for three hundred years, looking for spontaneously born mages who could perform the ritual. She found them, and I found myself reborn four centuries after my second death. And that's when I realized that the ritual was not a one-use thing. That was the beginning. Mages spread out among the stars. We advanced. We studied our power with the advanced sciences of the base line humans. We learned to meld the two and take the best of each until something new was formed. And still we grew and changed. We fought wars and formed religions and lived and loved. We were happy and sad. We were victorious and lost horribly. Again and again I was born, lived, grew old and died. I fought wars against tyrants and fought wars to crush revolutions."

He paused, seemingly lost in the same memories he was recounting.

"And then I died for what I thought was the last time, I did so secure in the belief that we had achieved real peace. Humans and other species no longer fought. A galactic court resolved conflicts before wars arrived, and Mages ensured the peace against those who would threaten it. I died at peace, thinking I would never need to wake again."

Luke was startled to see a single tear run down his cheek.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Hubris," he said. "I was reborn again by five women barely recognizable as being Mages. Fifty thousand years I slept, and in that time Mages evolved as their power increased. They straddled the line between physical existence and an evolved state of pure energy. And they thought they knew what was best for all the beings of our galaxy. Even those who actually were gods."

He looked to his wives. "That's why I know I am not a god. Because I have met real ones. Beings who were billions of years old and whose very existence was brought forth from and tied to the continuation of the Universe itself. They too had the power to affect reality, but on a scale that seemed to dwarf our own, and considered themselves the most powerful beings in our galaxy. But over the million years since my first birth, mages went from being ignorant wizards waving wands around, to evolved beings of power who understand how their power worked, and mastered it completely. We became a threat."

"And struck, the angry gods did," Yoda said, as if quoting from scripture.

"And they struck," Harry agreed. "They caused the sun of my birth world to go Nova. In the blink of an eye, five hundred billion humans on three worlds—the world of my birth and two terraformed worlds, ceased to exist. They then struck at Caldos—the world I claimed as the home world for all future mages after my second rebirth. But their power reflected back onto themselves because of our planetary wards. It infuriated them, and they attacked other human worlds instead. They went back in time and we went with them, defending ourselves through the centuries. But still we were losing. They were so powerful. So my people summoned me—the Forever Mage. I emerged to find mages on the verge of physical perfection. Evolved and brilliant beyond anything you could imagine. I, who was always the most powerful mage by an order of magnitude, was just one of several with such power. But they had grown so powerful they had lost the viciousness to fight, and the means to do so. They were locked in defense and losing because of it. They summoned me, taught me their power as if I were a child all over, and let me loose with an army of mages."

The fire before them suddenly turned white and shot up in a cone, causing the others to rear back. Projected into the cone of white light, they could see images. Massive ships a hundred kilometers thick and wide soared through the stars, ripping space itself into great sheets of white.

"What is that?" she asked.

"The Continuum," Harry said. "A phase of existence beyond time and physical description, where the gods dwelled. In their billions of years of history, they had never been directly attacked. Until me. I struck at their home, just as they struck at mine, and I killed them. Whole star systems winked out of existence as, one by one, I killed the gods. But they fought back. I died each time they attacked, and was revived. I was almost as immortal as they were in my own way. I was the lower species' answer to them. Rather than face their own extinction, out of rage and hatred the last of the gods caused the extinction of everyone else."

"The galaxies," Leia remembered her vision.

"They changed time and space. They changed the underlying physics of the universe itself. The globular galaxy came slamming into our galaxy travelling a hundred million times faster than light. It took all our power to shield our worlds and retreat. The last god followed me, personally, and blamed me for the deaths of all the others. With the last mage command ship, I struck at the god and hurt it so badly it felt into the void, but it almost killed me again in the brief conflict.

"My wives and I brought the remnants of humanity from our home galaxy here and built star systems for them to live on. But our actions had more consequences than even we realized. You see, our power was lethal to none-mages over long periods of exposure. It was ultimately the reason why mages left the human worlds, to protect the humans. During the war, we flooded both our galaxy and this galaxy with massive amounts of anaphasic radiation—a side effect of our manipulation of universal forces. The dosage was high enough that some species actually started dying immediately. So we created what you call midi-chlorians to protect the humans and other species. With the last vestiges of our power, we freed Yoda's people, took from them our magic, and flooded their veins with midi-chlorians. We then used the last command ship and flooded the galaxy with midi-chlorians, even though it drained us all to our deaths."

He sighed. "And a million years later, Palpatine somehow found a book written by one of my wives, charmed to withstand the ages, found the heartstone, and forced my return."

"So now what?" Juno asked.

"Now, I teach you to harness real power. We find two more wives so that all of us are at full power, and we change the galaxy," he said. "But before that, there is something I need to do."

"What?" Juno asked.

"I need to love you all."

With that, Harry Potter and all three of his wives disappeared. The couch shimmered into air. The plush chair Luke sat on reverted back to a hard log, while the ground got muddy and the rain started to fall again.

Luke walked over and knelt beside Yoda, who had not moved at all. "Master Yoda?"

"Like nothing I imagined, he was," Yoda said. "Tell my people I must. A great day this is."

Luke heard a loud scream from the ship and jumped to his feet, prepared to help. "Loud, Mara Jade Potter is," Yoda said. "Disturb them you should not, or turned into a lizard you might be. Passionate is the Forever Mage."

The screams came again, and this time Luke could hear from Mara's voice that they were not screams of pain. He sat back down. "Maybe Danni the Veltron isn't so bad," he whispered to himself.

In the Rogue Shadow, Mara quivered as Harry rolled off her into the waiting embrace of Juno. As he kissed her and sent pulses of magic into her that had her quivering, he said, "You are my Ravenclaw. The seeker of knowledge and wisdom."

She spread her legs to accept him with her body and moaned. "Yes," she said. It was only their second time, and yet he felt absolutely perfect to her. Her moans increased with his tempo, until she could make no sound but heavy breathing. He finished and left her quivering. He then rolled onto Leia.

"You are my Slytherin," he said as his already hardened member slipped into her as well. "Cunning and brilliant, ambitious and strong, but with a compassion beyond yourself. You are everything the bond could desire and more."

"I love you," Leia said as she moaned.

"And I love you, Leia," he breathed back before leaning down and caressing her neck with his lips. He sent more pulses of magic into her body even as he thrust into her, until like the others she was left quivering with ecstasy unlike any should could ever have imagines.

And finally he came back to Mara, engulfing he even as she stretched and writhed sinuously against his body. "And who am I?" she asked.

"You're mine," he said simply. "Mara Jade Potter. Now we need Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, and the family will be complete.

The three women stared at him expressions of awe. "You just made love to all three of us," Leia whispered. "How are you not comatose?"

"It is magic," he said simply. Then he smiled as a memory came to him. "During one period in my last galaxy, both Mages and Humans worshipped me as a fertility god. It was embarrassing, but for a few hundred years women would revive me not because there was need of me, but because they knew I could love without physical limit. There would be public sex marathons for weeks. It was embarrassing, but on the other hand, there was no war either."

"How long did you last?" Mara asked, even as she turned on her side and started rubbing her rear against him.

"Weeks," he said. "As long as there is food, water and time for breaks, I can go on indefinitely. We heal each other's wounds, which also means any soreness or chaffing. We energize each other and restore each other. I could love you all, again and again, as many times as you could desire."

"Prove it," Mara said. She reached back, grabbed him, and guided him into her from behind.

"As you wish," he said, before he started suckling her neck again.

"Magic is wonderful," Juno said as she watched her new husband and bond sister love each other again. "I'm next."

Commander Cirk Gorran stifled a groan as his AT-ST once again got wedged between the massive fungal trees that covered the planet of Felucia. "Just blast it," he said.

The pilot nodded, backed the two-legged scout walker out from the narrow space and blasted it with the side-mounted laser cannons. In the new space the explosions cleared, they continued forward. Behind him a line of four more AT-STs followed, accompanied by fifty infantryman.

They were witch hunting.

The garrison on Felucia was small at best and not the most well-funded of all the posts. Felucia did not have a large or sophisticated populace—mostly Gossams who immigrated during the Clone Wars and never left.

The Empire itself merely stepped into the Confederacy of Independent System's role, taking over the CIS's capital of Kway Teow, and even garrisoning in the former CIS garrison headquarters. But unlike the CIS, the Empire did not tolerate resistance.

When the native Felucians began to attack both Gossams and human staff for the garrison, he decided enough was enough.

That's when Gorran's nightmare started.

He sent one of the garrison's three AT-ATs into the jungles to deal with the Felucians once and for all. He had yet to hear back from that AT-AT even after five months.

He sent in a squad of twenty storm troopers armed with enough firepower to take out a battalion of old CIS battle droids. Two men returned blubbering on about monsters from the shadows and the witch on the rancor.

Flyovers with TIEs were worse than useless—even the rancors that lived on the planet were invisible under the thick jungle cover.

The attacks actually grew bolder following Gorran's failed attempts to deal with it. Farmers started to complain bitterly and even rioted once, though his men were capable enough to put that fiasco down. But the truth was, neither he nor his base was safe while the threat continued.

And so here he was, leading a ground assault team into the densest part of the jungle in the capital sector, intent to kill anything sentient that lived.

If Gorran actually read the Moff College procedural memos, he might have seen that garrison commanders on other worlds used ground-clearing fire bombs to create an interdiction zone around all habitable areas and military sites that prevented hidden attacks, since many native species found Imperial occupation unpleasant. While ecologically damaging, such action would have created a kilometer-wide kill zone that would have effectively ended all attacks on his facility, and protected the town plus any settlements around the city.

Sadly, Gorran was too busy playing holonet sabacc tournaments and having parties with the female contractors who came with the garrison to actually read memos. So, he instead sat in an uncomfortable AT-ST, fighting back motion sickness, as he left fifty infantrymen and another twenty in the AT-STs into the jungle.

He had no idea where he was going.

The first clue that something was not right was the massive bull rancor that burst from the jungle wall directly in front of his AT-ST. The great beast stood as tall as the AT-ST itself and with one sweep of its massively clawed hand, Gorran's world turned sideways with the crashing of his AT-ST.

When he came to his senses a moment later, he became aware of terrified voices screaming through the comlink in his helmet, and also of a terrible pain in his left. He looked down and saw his knee bent at an unnatural angle.

"Pilot, are our weapons still active?" he asked.

He then saw that the pilot was at best unconscious, or worse, and more likely, was dead. His head was turned at the same angle as Gorran's knee.

He popped the top hatch and dragged himself from his webbing. As he emerged, he heard the sound of blaster fire and screaming soldiers, but his view was obstructed by the muddy ground he felt into.

He could not help but cry out in pain as his fall wrenched his broken knee. The cry attracted unwanted attention. With guttural grunts, Felucians swarmed around him, bipedal but almost unrecognizable as living beings because of the huge masks they were. Webbed fingers grasped spears, bows and arrows, and newly acquired Imperial blaster rifles.

From their midst stepped the witch herself.

"You're real," Gorran whispered.

She stood before him wearing as little as the Felucians themselves—filthy leather pants and nothing else. Her face was partially covered by a smaller version of a Felucian mask, but he could still see yellow eyes staring coldly through them.

If Gorran did not have a broken leg and a small chance of survival, he might have been aroused her bared, mud-splattered chest. But pain and the threat of impending death overwhelmed his admittedly large libido.

"Commander Gorran," the witch said in an oddly pleasant voice, "you've been a naughty boy, haven't you?"

"If you surrender now," Gorran said, "I will plead leniency for you at your trial."

"Surrender?" Her laugh chilled him. "Commander, I promise you will not plead leniency for me or anyone else. When my friends said you were here in person, I just had to see it. But now that I've seen you, the novelty has worn off. You were not a worthy opponent to begin with. But at least you'll contribute something to this world."

With that, she turned and walked away. The Felucians also backed away, seeming to meld into the air and the jungle around the fallen convoy. "Base, this is Commander Gorran," he said into his comlink, "send air pick up immediately!"

"Shuttle inbound, commander," a voice responded.

It was the last voice he ever heard.

His shattered AT-ST rattled as it rolled away, and Gorran found himself staring into the eyes of the same bull rancor that knocked his craft down. It made a satisfied grunting sound as it reached for him.

"Noooooooo!"

Chapter Nineteen: A Girl and her Rancor

"Will the local garrison detect us?" Leia asked.

Juno shook her head. "The Rogue is almost invisible to Imperial sensors. Only the new Imp-II class destroyers can detect us with their upgraded sensor suites. The garrison won't even know we're there. The question is where do we land?"

"Guide you, the Force will," Yoda said from the hatch leading into the cockpit.

Juno nodded. She closed her eyes and reached out with her senses just as Yoda said, and then recoiled. "This world is…angry."

"Sensitive to the force, the natives are," Yoda said. "In Shaak Ti did they trust. Hurt them her death did. To the dark side, they turned."

Leia watched as Juno flew with a sure hand over the teaming forests of the planet, her eyes closed and her true senses extended. After only a few minutes of flying, they came to a clearing marked by black scorches and four broken AT-STs. Some of the scout walkers had been torn apart like food cans.

Juno did not comment on the destroyed Imperial convoy as she sat the Rogue Shadow down.

A moment later, Harry stuck his head into the cockpit. Through the port screens he could see the fallen AT-STs. "Hmm, I like her already."

"This planet is thrumming with darkness," Juno said.

"Yeah, it tickles a little," Harry said. "Come on, she should be coming soon."

He led his three bondmates, Luke and Yoda out of the shadow, then turned and squinted at it. The others gasped as the ship disappeared. "Everybody remember where we parked," he said.

They did not have long to wait for the lost padawan to make an appearance. The forests of huge fungus-like trees parted before a monstrosity.

"Wow, now that's a beasty," Harry muttered.

"It's a rancor," Juno said with forced calm. "A bull rancor."

"And that is a half-naked woman riding the rancor," Luke said.

"Of course he'd notice the woman first," Mara muttered. "Gods, you need a girlfriend, Luke."

Harry though walked through the mud toward the rancor. A moment later two more rancors emerged, along with a line of blue-skinned figures shimmering with bioluminescence and the Force. Harry continued walking toward them anyway, stopping halfway across the battle-scarred clearing.

"Hi!" he called. "Are you Maris Brood?"

Atop her rancor, the witch of Felucia felt a thrill of something almost like fear. "Who are you?" she demanded. "I recognize that ship—has the Emperor sent you?"

Harry cocked his head. "So the Emperor sent me with Master Yoda, did he?"

Her yellow eyes locked onto the diminutive Jedi master, and he could see her body respond as if struck. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I have come for you," Harry said, "but not like you seem to expect."

The rancor roared. Maris started to sooth it, when below her Harry bellowed back. The rancor snuffled and Maris could sense its confusion. "What are you doing?"

"I'm asking Sshhhrrhaak what he thinks about you," Harry said. "Your rancor is actually quite intelligent."

As if to prove the assertion, the creature grunted at Harry and made a low rumbling sound. Maris could not speak the Rancor's primitive language directly, but she could recognize affection in the sound.

"He likes you," Harry said. "He said you need a strong bull to guide you. He said you are lost and wish to be found."

"How…how can you speak with Rancors?"

"Magic. I can speak with almost anything that is self-aware. I'm here, Maris Brood, to court you. I wish you to be my wife."

Maris couldn't help it—she started to laugh. The laughter was strong enough that it made her ribs sore. Around her, her Felucian friends snuffled in confusion at the strange warrior who made their mistress laugh so hard.

Maris continued to laugh as she launched herself off her Rancor, lit her shoto lightsabers in mid-flit, and landed in a roll, both blades extended to cut her 'suitor' in half. She was surprised when a blue lightsaber swept both her blades away.

"I was trained Sith, if you must know, but I know Jedi arts as well.. My Imperial name is Darth Shaddix, Dark Lord of the Sith. But you can call me Harry."

Laughter gave way to rage as Maris launched her attack. She moved quickly but with the uneven strength and flow of a half-trained padawan long removed from that training. Harry ignited both blades and simply blocked her attempts to skewer him.

"While we're doing introductions," he said casually as he continued to block and parry, "the beautiful girl with the red hair over there is my wife Mara Jade Potter. The statuesque blonde in the Jedi robes is my…Juno, do you want to be my bondmate or wife?"

Snarling in rage at his casual defense against her best attacks, Maris sank invisibly to the Force.

Juno ignored the battle. "Well, I think for all intents and purposes we are married. I would like to think of you as my husband at this point."

"Excellent!" Harry reached out toward the air with a claw motion and jerked his hand to one side. Maris stumbled into view, clearly startled.

"So, this is my wife of three days, Juno Eclipse, Lady Ravenclaw. Leia, still a bondmate?"

"For now," Leia said. "I reserve the right to change later."

"Okay. And finally, the petite brunette is the Princess Leia Organa Skywalker of Alderaan, former sector senator, Jedi padawan and the Lady Slytherin."

Maris broke away, breathing heavily and clearly incensed. "What is wrong with you? Fight me!"

"I don't want to fight you," Harry said. "I want to save you."

"From what? I'm fine here."

"From yourself, Maris Brood."

She ground her teeth. "You should be more worried about yourself!" She charged forward, and this time Harry did not use his blades. He raised a palm, and a burst of white light shot out. The light seemed almost to take the shape of a strange animal before it passed into Maris.

The charging woman stopped, blinking in shock. Around the clearing Felucians snuffled and the rancors grunted. To the Jedi assembled by the ship, it felt as if the rancors were approving.

"What was that?" Maris asked. All the anger was gone, leaving only curiosity in its wake.

"Happiness," Harry said. "How long has it been, Maris, since you felt anything like that?"

She looked up at him. "It's a lie. It's all a lie."

The air around Harry shimmered, and suddenly he seemed to catch fire; only the flame was perfectly white. Shards of the light shot out in all directions as he stepped toward the startled lost padawan.

"Maris Brood," he said in a voice that boomed across the clearing, "I am Harry Potter, the Forever Mage. I was born from love and sacrifice, and I live to serve and love those around me. I have come for you, Maris, because I have seen your soul. You've tasted pain and despair and loneliness, but there is still good in you. And so I offer you myself. As husband and master. I offer you sister wives to love and care for you. I offer you power and learning like you've never imagined. And I offer you peace, happiness, and most importantly, family. If you just take it."

Harry stepped closer to the trembling girl. "I also offer you this promise, Maris. That while I live, I shall never abandon you. I shall never hurt you. I will never betray you. I vow this on my soul and my magic, to forever be yours. But you must make the choice. I cannot make it for you."

"They betrayed me," Maris whispered. "Master Ti left me here alone to die."

"She gave her life so that you could live," Harry said, still in that strangely deep, authoritative tone. "She loved you so deeply she gave everything she had for you. But Maris, do you think your master would wish you to live this way? Would a master willing to give her life for you not want you to know happiness?"

"Happiness is a lie," Maris said. Her trembling grew too much and she toppled knees in the mud.

Harry stepped forward until he knelt down beside her. Gently, he lifted a hand until he rested a palm against her muddy cheek. The trembling stopped and Maris sighed as she leaned against the hand. "How can you be real?" she whispered in awe as the white light within his hand passed into her.

"What you are feeling is a possibility," Harry said, finally in a more normal tone of voice. "A hint of what we could share." His hand came around until his cupped her chin and lifted her face until her nose was inches from his. "Maris, I am a being of power. An ancient soul in a new body. My soul wants so badly to return to the comfort of death. For me to live I must have five anchors. Women of power and goodness. And in return, I offer you happiness and love. Not just mine, but of your sisters. Come with us. Let us love you. Let us make you happy."

She was shaking violently now as she stared up into his eyes. "It has to be a lie."

"You know it isn't."

"I've been here almost my whole life."

"Then it is time to start a new life."

"I don't think I can."

Nearby, Mara rushed forward until she knelt beside the bewildered and frightened padawan. "I'll help you," Mara said. "You'll be my sister! It's so wonderful, Maris. Please, please come with us."

Maris bowed her head, and then collapsed forward until her head rested on Harry's chest. Great, terrible sobs wracked her chest. Mara laid a hand on the woman's bare, filthy back between the thick strands of dirty braids. A moment later, Juno and Mara joined her, even as Harry cradled her.

"No more tears," he whispered as he initiated the bond.

The air around them shimmered. Leia, Juno and Mara all felt the rush as the air energized around them. Maris's sobs turned into a low moan. Almost of their own accord, filthy white arms reached around his neck. Purple lips made moist by tears met his.

Maris finally broke the kiss with a startled expression. "You're real," she whispered. "You're really holding me."

"I am."

She turned and looked up at the mighty bull rancor, smiling sadly. "I think…I think it's time for me to go," she told it.

The rancor grumbled happily at her, before turning to lead his herd back into the brush. When they were gone, she looked back at Harry. "It wasn't a trick, was it?"

"No," he said. "We've bonded now, Maris. If you wish to take the name, you would be Maris, Lady Hufflepuff."

"Hufflepuff?" she said. "What an odd name."

"It is the name of a powerful mage from before even my time. She believed in loyalty and hard work. My magic selected that line for you, Maris, because you needed both to be loyal, and to have the loyalty of those around you. Without it, you were lost. But we've found you. You're a part of a new family, and we will never leave you."

Mara stood, and then Harry. Together they helped the trembling Maris to her feet. Only then did she look down and realize she was all but naked. Rather than try to cover herself, she said, "I have nothing to wear."

Harry waved a hand and black silk cloth spun itself from the air until it covered her. Maris simply held the cloth around her before looking up at Harry. His face was smudged with mud from her arms and her lips. "You promise to love me?"

"I can honestly say that I will love you forever, Maris. I promise this."

Maris stared at her reflection in the mirror, startled by what she saw. It had been so very long since she was surrounded by hard, artificial walls. It had been longer still since she stared into a mirror. Vanity was not encouraged in the temple, and even if it were, she was still just a child when she left.

Juno Eclipse's ship surprised her—the fresher was much larger and complete than she would have thought on a personal craft. She stood alone in it now, trying to remember how things worked.

The flusher was simple enough and she made use of it without hesitation. But the bath…such things were unusual on starships. The dorms her clan of younglings used in the Temple held only a unisex common shower. This was actually a pre-fabricated unit comprised of a tub, three walls and a shower stall with real water.

It took a moment of fiddling before the water started pouring out of the spout into the bath, and another to switch it to the shower head. She pulled a featureless plastic curtain across the open side to keep the water from splashing everywhere, and simply stood under the water.

She lowered her head as the soothing warmth flowed over her and watched as bits of mud began to flake off and drain away. She raised an arm and ran one hand down its length, exposing the pale skin below. The weight of her hair started to pull at her so she reached up to uncoil the braids she wrapped around her own neck in order to keep them out of her face.

The braids were clotted with oil, mulch and other filth, and she realized with surprise that she had never washed her hair the entire time they were on Felucia, which was most of her life.

She sat down in the tub with the shower still going and began to undo braids held together by a cement of filth. She eventually turned the water off after plugging the drain so she could work on her hair. Eventually she got all the braids undone and pulled the bundle of hair around her shoulder.

It was so long! Loose and flowing, the hair could easily reach her ankles. It was so much—too much. The worse came when she examined one strand and saw insects crawling in it. She looked down into the filthy water and realized the water was also alive with the vermin that had been living in her hair.

There was a knock on the door. "What!" Maris cried, horrified and disgusted with herself.

The door opened and the princess came in. The daughter of Bail Organa. The beautiful little princess in her white and brown Alliance uniform with the perfectly coiffed hair without a smudge of dirt on her, where here Maris was sitting naked in a tub of muddy water with bugs crawling around her. She wanted to yell at the beautiful girl, or make a biting comment. Instead all that came out was a teary-eyed "There are vermin living in my hair."

Leia, who was simply coming to check Maris, stopped and blinked in surprise. The Zabrak was younger than she thought at first, though obviously older than she was. She sat naked and pale in a tub of filthy water with hair long enough to cover her whole body and an expression of hopeless frustration and loss.

The woman was beautiful, strikingly so with her delicate red horns and yellow eyes. Her natural coloring gave her purple lips, and those lips were caught in a grimace of self-disgust, even while those yellow eyes bled tears.

"I was just coming to see if you are all right."

"I'm filthy and sore and covered in bugs," Maris said as she splashed the water with her fists in frustration.

"How long has it been since you've had a bath like this?"

The confession of "I don't know" came as a barely audible whisper.

The compassionate spokeswoman for rights and liberty came to the fore. "Don't move," she said before disappearing from the room.

Five minutes later Leia returned with a basket in her hand. She pulled up the sleeves of her uniform, put one of the two towels in the room on the floor, and knelt down beside the Jedi padawan.

"I heard them call you Skywalker. Leia Skywalker Organa. Are you…are you Anakin's daughter?"

"I am Bail Organa's daughter. Anakin Skywalker is my biological father only."

The answer at first surprised Maris, but then she smiled weakly. "I had such a crush on him. We all did. He was so handsome and seemed so kind to us. Sometimes between missions he would come and spend the whole day just playing with us. I didn't…" She couldn't finish.

Leia didn't answer at first as she took a box of white powder and dumped the whole thing on Maris's head. As the padawan sputtered, Leia finally said, "I saw a recording. Of when he fought my mother right before he went into that horrid armor. Obi-Wan said the man in that video was not the man who loved my mother. He said the Dark Side twisted him into a monster."

"That's what the Dark Side does," Maris admitted. "I…I hurt your adopted father. Why are you helping me?"

"Because I was raised by my father," Leia said simply, "and it's the right thing to do. You've bonded with Harry. You are my sister now." She began vigorously rubbing the powder into Maris's long hair. The lather poured into the water, killing all the vermin on or in it, and effectively cleansing the Zabrak's entire body.

"Now stand up," Leia commanded, firmly in boss mode.

The silent padawan did just that as Leia pulled the plug to let the filthy, insect-laden water drain. She turned the shower back on and helped Maris rinse the insecticide from her hair. She then gave the young woman a conditioning shampoo and body soap.

"Finish up and I'll be here to help you with your hair."

Maris stammered her thanks before finishing her shower. When she finished she found Leia and, surprisingly, Mara, waiting for her with a water-stained gown and a determined expression. "That's a lot of hair," Mara said. "But stars above I wish my breasts were that big.

Maris looked down and saw the tips of her hair brushing against her heels, but could not see her own toes for the mounds Mara admired so much.

The drying of her body took minutes. The drying of her hair seemed interminable. Finally, she looked up to see Leia and Mara observing her hair with a pair of cutters.

"Lower back?" Leia asked.

"You and your Alderaani hair styles," Mara muttered. "Shoulder length. Maybe even shorter. Look at that neck—why cover up beauty like that?"

"You think I'm beautiful?" Maris said, surprised.

Mara blinked and then smiled. "You are extraordinary. I'm getting randy just looking at you." She stepped forward and gathered the locks up until she was able to lift them to just above the level of Maris's ears. "Your face is beautiful, but your neck is what Harry will truly love."

"It's about more than just what Harry wants," Leia said. "She needs to feel good about herself for herself."

Maris, though, looked at Mara. "You really think he'll like my neck?"

Leia sighed and rolled her eyes, knowing she'd lost the argument. "Fine." With one quick pass, she cut the older woman's hair.

Maris sighed as the weight left her. "Wow," she whispered. "I never realized it was so heavy."

With her hair off her shoulders, Mara and Leia began working the tangles out of it, pleased to see the conditioner had done its job.

"You have beautiful hair," Leia said. "Have to be careful, though. Those horns are sharp."

Maris laughed for a moment, and then stared at her reflection in the mirror in surprise. "I…thank you, Princess."

"My name is Leia."

"And my name is Mara," Mara said with a smile.

"I'm Maris."

"A pleasure to meet you, Maris," they said.

"And you. Thank you for helping me."

Leia examined her work critically before nodding in satisfaction. "It was my pleasure. You are a beautiful woman."

Mara went further, wrapped her arm around Maris's narrow waist, and hugged her. "Very beautiful."

"I hope he thinks so," Maris whispered.

"He does," Harry said from the door.

"Harry, she's naked!" Leia said.

"I noticed, thank you."

Maris did not bother hiding herself as she turned to face this strange man who saved her from the darkness of her own rage. She saw the last of the bondmates standing behind him with wide eyes.

"Oh, she's gorgeous!" Juno said.

"I know, right?" Mara said. "Come on, let's go have sex!"

"You three go ahead," Harry said with a grin. "Maris and I need a little time alone."

Mara looked appraisingly at Leia. "The answer is still no, Mara." Mara turned to Juno.

"I'm still not sure what the question is," Juno admitted.

"I'll show you!" Mara said. She slipped past Harry, and Leia followed a moment. She paused at the door.

"Remember her life," the princess said softly before disappearing.

Harry stepped in all the way and closed the door. "I was thinking we could talk before we consummated the bond and made anything permanent."

"If I change my mind, will I go back?" she asked.

"No. Including Yoda, I know two Jedi masters and a very capable knight who would take you as a padawan and complete your training. Love me or not, I will not let you get lost again." He turned to the rub, and before Juno's amazed eyes the tub doubled and then tripled in size, seeming to move the walls themselves back as it did so. A moment later, it was filled with steaming water.

"Now that you've had a bath to get clean, I thought we might have a bath to relax." He shrugged out of the strange black robes he wore, and Maris sucked in a breath seeing a man nude for the first time.

She was surprised at how beautiful he was; at how she wanted him. He held out a hand to her, which she took, and let him guide her into the water. He sat down, sinking up to his stomach in the tub. She followed, and sank down opposite him.

"You have questions," he said.

"What are you?"

"My name is Harry Potter. I was born on a planet called Earth, in a distant galaxy, approximately two million years ago. I am what the people of this galaxy have come to call a Celestial."

Her yellow eyes widened. "How…?"

So Harry told her the story of his life; of his first wives and the bonds they shared; of the horcrux and his surrender to Voldemort. Then of the war that destroyed the wizarding world; and the ritual which revived it over three centuries later.

"Every couple of centuries five women would perform the ritual, either because they needed me, or because someone thought they needed me and compelled the women to do it. Each life I learned something new. These bonds don't just call me to be reborn; they anchor me to this plane. It is the price of this method of immortality."

"Couldn't your wives make the horcrux as well to life forever?" she asked.

"One critical piece would be missing," he said. "The heartstone of Hogwarts. Turns out it is the most magical artifact that was every created. Not the most powerful, but the most magical. Once I bound my soul to the heartstone, it could not be used for anyone else. And even in all my power, I could not recreate it. But honestly, Maris, there is no need. I've died so many times that I do not fear it. I don't pretend to know about other species, but when a mage dies, their soul does translate into a higher plane of existence. A new continuum where we can stay forever. The first woman I ever loved is still there, waiting for me, where s many of my wives have allowed themselves to fade into mere memory. In a real sense, all Mages are immortal."

"But I'm not a…."

"When we consummate the bond, you will become a mage," Harry said. "Although I hope you keep the horns. Are they ticklish?" He reached across and gently caressed the base of her front horn. The sensation caused gooseflesh to ripple across her body.

He smiled, noticing the effect on her body. "Well, maybe not ticklish, but they are obviously sensitive."

"You came to Felucia for me alone," she said. "Why?"

"Juno told me about you. I have a saving people thing. I always have. When I heard your story, I wanted to save you. There was also the hope that I could form a bond with you. The saving you thing is not dependent on the bond. I don't want you to feel obligated."

"How do we consummate the bond?"

"You know."

Maris bit her lip. "I…I would like to hear you say it."

"Well," Harry said, "first I would pull you to me, and I would kiss your neck like this."

"Ohhhhh," Maris breathed. Mara was right. His lips felt so good on her neck. "What next?"

"Next, I'm going to lick your horn. Think of it as a personal fetish from the second Mrs. Potter."

She did not object as he gently guided her head down so he could run his tongue around the base of her horn. The sensation was so startling she had to restrain herself from jumping and impaling the roof of his mouth. Instead, she went lower and kissed his neck as he kissed hers.

"What next?' she asked as she ran her lips across his skin.

"I was thinking about those incredible purple nipples, myself."

He showed her what he meant, and she gasped at it. He showed her more than she ever imagined, and when the time came where she could not stand it, he showed her how a bond was consummated. The ecstasy was so powerful it bordered on pain, overwhelming any sense of control she had, until she screamed in release from it.

She should not have been surprised when she suddenly found herself surrounded by three other beautiful women. She leaned back, basking, in the arms of Leia and Juno and watched as Harry and Mara made love. Then he and Leia, and then he and Juno, one after the other, without a break. And then he was back before her, slipping between her legs and filling her with power and magic.

She didn't understand how he could go non-stop, but did not question it too closely either. All she knew was that he was filling up her soul, which had fallen dangerously empty over the years. She wept and smiled as he loved her, and knew at long last she was home.

Chapter Twenty: It's a Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud World

"How in the hell did you talk me into this again?" Kyle said as he pulled at the collar of his shiny new Alliance SpecForce uniform.

Jan batted her eyes. "I said please?"

"I've hit you before," he warned.

"And got your scrawny ass kicked because of it."

"True."

The banter between he and Ors continued as the two walked toward the bridge of the Teelin, the Nebulon-B Alliance frigate escorting them to Jabiim. He wore the uniform of a newly commissioned Colonel in the Alliance Special Forces command, having once again been promoted.

The past year working along-side the rebel operative who from the Empire was a strange experience. Like Lord Shaddix, she was at one frustrating and exhilarating. She was one of the finest field operatives the Alliance had, and served as his intelligence officer.

But something changed on Talay. There was something about the fear on her face that moved him in a way he had not felt before. The shell of anger and rage over his father's death started to crack a little as he watched her scream before a rakghoul assault. He saw that same fear in her eyes on fest. Jan did not scream, ever. It infuriated him that there was something in the universe that could make this woman scream at all, and he wanted to destroy it.

Now, with none of the Jabiimi settlements responding, it was beginning to look like Project Talisman was finally deployed in a large scale.

On the bridge of the Teelin, Kyle stood biting his lip and thinking about Talay. Nearby, Captain Tanning clucked his tongue. "Well, we've tried every frequency. One thing odd though, is that the Imperial garrison is gone. This was a highly subjugated world, but there is no trace of any Imperial presence."

"Which means the Empire pulled out before it deployed the weapon," Jan said.

"Sir," communications said, "the Yavin has just arrived. We're receiving a signal."

"Put it on, Devins."

A moment later, a hologram of General Airen Cracken appeared. "Colonel Katarn, at last! I've been monitoring your work tracking this thing down and have wanted to see you in action."

"Thank you, General," Kyle said. "We don't believe the device is still on the surface, but we're hoping we can find some intelligence to narrow down exactly what it is. But sir, you should know if this is the rakghoul plague, and contact with the rakghouls will infect your men."

"I've been researching history since I first read about your Talay mission. I wasn't able to recreate the serum, but I have something almost as good. We're going down there in stormtrooper armor with full environmental isolation settings."

"Smart," Kyle said.

"I thought so too. We're going to be landing near Jabiimabad, the capital city. We're taking the whole ship down in the event we need to evacuate any civilians. I recommend you bring your people over here. Captain Tanning, I want the Teelin to stay in orbit and monitor for any incoming Imperial activity."

"Understood, General," Captain Tanning said.

Half an hour later, Kyle, Jan and his SpecForce team of a hundred soldiers shuttled over to the Yavin, a brightly painted Clone Wars-era Acclamator-cass frigate. The Acclamator frigates were originally designed to carry an entire invasion force of 16,000 clones and all the assorted attack craft necessary for surface combat. The Alliance did not have personnel to ship around 16,000 men armies.

The thousand men and women in the main assembly area of the ship was, for the Alliance, a significant commitment. It was, Kyle knew, a gesture to the Jabiimi people. The Jabiim rebellion had been fighting the Empire privately for twenty years; it was time for them to join the larger Rebellion.

Airen Cracken proved to be a wide-bodied, wide-faced man with graying hair and a friendly smile. A rebel on his own world who took the fight against the Empire to the stars, Cracken was in his own way a fanatic. He was also an intelligence genius and was already being touted as Vernan's replacement when the old Intelligence chief retired, which he was considering on a daily basis.

"Kyle Katarn, a pleasure," the General said as he shook Kyle's hand. "And the indomitable Jan Ors. Vernan's told me you two are the best command team he's ever seen."

"Glad you think so," Kyle said. "So, initial direction, sir?"

"We set up a perimeter, and then start reconnaissance in Force. For the duration of this mission you are second in command."

"Thank you, sir."

The old but well-built frigate slid through the turbulent atmosphere of the planet. The pilot brought the hulking thing down with only a little bounce to the landing struts. The massive loading ramp dropped to reveal a landscape of rain and mud.

During the landing Kyle made the rounds of Cracken's army. Most were actually regular army, including still more of Kyle's old storm troopers who greeted their former officer with friendly smiles. He made a quick study of the force shield pylons that they would be using to establish the perimeter around the ship.

As soon as the ramp was down, two dozen speeder bikes shot out into the rain with the pylons. The bikers sank the pylons into the mud every hundred feet in a circle around the base of the entire ship, creating sufficient area underneath the ship itself for the soldiers to assemble and set up camp. When the last pylon was sunk, all the separate pylons extended to fifteen feet high while shooting a stabilizing dart further into the muddy soil, and in a cascade a force shield hummed into existence, panel by panel, between the pylons.

Cracken then unveiled his pet prize—a mint-condition, Clone War era juggernaut tank. The fifty-meter long behemoth. Kyle walked up to one of the wheels, and did not even come up to a third of its diameter. "Wow," he muttered to Jan. "An old A6. How in the Force did Cracken snag that thing?"

"Rebel requisition," Jan said. "He stole it."

When Cracken meant recon in force, he meant it. Over a hundred of his soldiers packed into the Juggernaut while another five hundred broke into fifty teams of ten for ground recon. "We riding in style?" Jan asked.

Kyle looked at the massive tank for a long time, and then shook his head. "I have a feeling."

"An 'I have a feeling that if I asked Jan on a civvie date she will say yes' feeling, or a 'oh my stars were all going to die screaming' feeling?"

"Yeah, that kind of feeling," Kyle said. "Wait, what?"

It was a testament to their relationship that Jan didn't answer. Instead, she looked at the tank herself. "Should we warn Cracken?"

"Warn him about what? That I have a bad feeling?"

"That you're a half-trained Jedi and that your bad feelings are always right?"

"We need to find out what happened, Jan. Ground's the only way to do that. But I want you in armor and armed to the teeth."

"All right." When Kyle spoke like that—a distant earnestness—she learned to listen.

On the surface the expedition force looked very inspiring. Airen Cracken's Juggernaught tank was so large that Kyle did not even reach above the ground-side tread, much less the wheel itself. It required a turbolift to get people into it.

Evidently the general had done his homework on Jabiim. Those massive wheels plowed through the muddy fields surrounding the Yavin with little difficulty. The troops, unfortunately, had a hard time. Eventually they formed two columns and followed the compacted tracks of the tank out of the field and into the city proper.

Cracken landed on the opposite side of the city from the space port with the intent to sweep through the city for any survivors, before doing the recon of the port itself for intel regarding how Project Talisman was being delivered.

On the surface, that too seemed like a good idea. Except for the nagging feeling Kyle had. It was the same exact feeling he had before Talay, only now he had enough training to recognize it as a Force premonition.

Everyone was in stormtrooper armor, but Kyle's people wore green scout trooper armor to help them coordinate their own command better.

One they reached the outskirts of the city, just over a rise from the field where they landed, the expedition force sped up to a brisk jog.

The horror started almost immediately when Team 28 reported injured civilians approaching. A moment later, all the teams heard screaming, and then silence. On the Juggernaut, the team controller reported that Team 28 lifesigns were flat.

Kyle activated his comlink. "All teams, listen up. This is Katarn. The rakghoul plague spreads through almost any contact. If a civilian appears to be injured in any way, there is a good chance they are infected. Do not let them enter your secure area. If you see any black fluid around their faces, shoot to kill. If their mouths are bigger than your head, shoot to kill!"

His signal was interrupted by screams from Team 13. Every trooper there could hear bestial growls through the link.

"Damn it, this isn't working," Kyle muttered. "All teams, form up around the tank, on the double!"

His own teams started to respond. His HUD flashed red again as team 41 flashed out so fast they did not even have time to scream. Thirty soldiers were dead in the first two minutes. Other teams appeared from side streets, running until they saw the juggernaut, and then visibly relaxing.

The street seemed narrower for some reason as they came into a district with taller buildings. There was no sign of combat on the buildings, but the streets were littered with debris and bodies. "We're heading toward the spaceport," Kyle told everyone. "We're looking for data on how the plague was introduced to the populace. This is no longer a rescue mission. Team captains, click acknowledgement."

The acknowledgments came through quickly—no one wanted to stay on the nightmare world any longer than necessary. They made it nor more than five clicks from the Yavin perimeter when every soldier heard a loud thud. All eyes turned and saw with horror a monster standing atop the tank.

"Mobile command you have a target on your hull. Seal up all hatches now!" Kyle shouted.

It was too late. Through luck or lingering malignant intelligence, the rakghoul managed to pry open a hatch in the back troop area. When the hatch was open, all hell exploded over them.

The sounds of animal rage filled the streets as rakghouls came pouring out of every street, and jumping from all the rooftops. The first rakghoul on the tank was blown off by its point defense guns, but twenty more quickly followed and poured inside to the hundred troopers who were essentially trapped inside a giant, rolling tin can. More followed the initial twenty, soon flooding the huge tank.

"Oh Force," Kyle breathed, feeling the soldiers die in the Force. "That's it, pull back to base on me. Defensive lines, fire on everything that moves!"

Even as he issued the order, though, Kyle realized it was too late. His SpecForce team responded, forming up around him in a circle that covered all angles, and immediately started firing. But the regular army teams were panicking; those that were not killed in the initial rush, anyway.

"Running is good!" Jan said.

Kyle scanned his HUD. "Team ten, get over here! Ten twelve, now! All team members, collapse on me. We're leaving!"

Some of the teams closest to the juggernaut survived the initial rush of rakghouls and now ran for all they were worth. At first the monsters lingered over the fallen soldiers, feeding. But there were so many of the beasts that many followed.

Kyle and his people fired away, killing dozens of creatures while hundred more followed. The straggling soldiers fell, their expressions of terror hidden behind their cold storm trooper helmets. But their screams were all too loud.

More and more rakghouls came out of the surrounding buildings, loping like deformed caricatures of normal animals. "Back perimeter, arm and drop your detonators!" Kyle ordered.

The twenty SpecForce members making up the back line did as they instructed. They didn't throw the detonators, they simply armed them and ran. The rakghouls were so close that by the time the detonators exploded ten seconds later, it caught the first wave.

It slowed the others down not out of concern, but because those not hurt fed on those that were. But there were still so many, numbering in the thousands now, that it was only a second's respite.

"How far?" Kyle asked.

"One more klick," Jan said. "We should reach the top of the hill in a minute." She, like the rest, was panting in a combination of physical stress and mental terror. But still she kept her voice even.

Blaster fire rang out almost continuously now, cutting the beasts down but not in sufficient numbers to stop them. Their only hope was to make to the secure perimeter.

They cleared crest of the hill leading down to the Yavin.

The clearing was filled with rakghouls. Thousands of rakghouls. And the perimeter field was simply gone.

"Oh poodoo," Jan muttered.

"Break left, break left!" Kyle screamed. He turned and ran for all he was worth along the edge of the hill. The mud grew thinner as exposed rock rose under their feet. The rising rock also led to the hill becoming steeper and steeper, until it formed a cliff just to their right. Additional cover.

Now able to concentrate just on three sides, Kyle collapsed his people further and continued moving and fighting along the cliff's edge. In the distance, the air thundered with the sound of hungry monsters.

"Kyle, I don't think we're going to get out of this," Jan said. The terror was there again, a primordial fear that he could not fault at all. He was terrified as well. But hearing that tone in her voice made him mad. More than made. It made him furious.

"We are going to make it!" he declared. "We are. All of you, we are going to get through this. Even if we have to kill ever damned beast on this planet. Don't any of you dare give up on me!"

The sun was growing dim as it approached a cloud-heavy horizon. He did not want to be caught out in the dark.

The fight continued non-stop. Exhaustion pulled at their legs as they trudged through the mud. The mud slowed the rakghouls down as well, but not enough. The only thing that stopped them was bodies—many paused to eat their own kind. And bodies Kyle delivered, he and his people. He tried not to think about the glimmer of white armor that was left behind with each step, or the occasionally more somber green armor of one of his SpecForce men.

They continued to move, sticking to the cliff as they circumnavigated the city. In Kyle's mind, the spaceport became their only hope. Whether it was the Force or just his imagination, he held out the space port as a place of possible refuge.

Men continued to die, screaming as they felt. Kyle witnessed two actually shoot themselves when they realized they did not have the energy to keep going. He did not blame them—a quick death was a mercy.

"Kyle, a mining sled!" Jan pointed out.

He glanced away from the lines long enough to see her pointing at a large hover vehicle mired in the mud. The vehicle was designed to transport mineral ore from the mine to the processing plant on the edge of town. It was easily large enough to hold several hundred.

"Listen up, I need everyone for form against the sled there!" Kyle said. "Hold the line no matter the cost!"

Jan was already scrambling up the side of the crazily tilted sled into the control cabin. He watched her, and when he felt a stir of warning, launched himself into the air with all the Force-borne power he could. He felt up onto the cabin where Jan was working frantically to get the vehicle active, and slashed out with his lightsaber just as a rakghoul climbed up the opposite end.

Below him, more rakghouls gathered to climb over the far side of the sled.

"I got it!" Jan roared.

It took all Kyle's training and agility to stay on his feet as the sled suddenly righted itself in the mood. "Everyone up the ladders now!" Kyle screamed. He threw the last of his detonators into the lines of rakghouls and bought his men a few precious minutes. It was not enough for all—he saw at least thirty regulars and ten of his SpecForce people fall before the rakghouls.

It was too late for them. "Jan, got!" Kyle shouted.

The sled surged forward, knowing the clinging rakghouls loose and almost throwing the soldiers from the bed.

In seconds, the sled was flying over the muddy plain faster than any rakghoul could go. Kyle took a moment to survey his men. Some of the veterans were already passed out, catching what rest they could. A few were shaking from the horror of it. All were covered in mud, blood and worse.

But they were alive.

He slipped into the control cabin. "You see the light?"

"Yep," she said. Her voice dripped exhaustion, just like the others.

"Jan?"

"Yeah?"

"When we get out of this, I want to buy you dinner. Not a working dinner, either. I'd like you to wear a nice dress, I'll wear this silly uniform, and I would like to treat you like the lady you are. Okay?"

"Sounds nice, Kyle," Jan said, smiling sadly. He could see in her eyes that she did not think they were going to get out.

He made sure the course for the sled was set, removed his muddy helmet, gently removed hers, and then kissed her. He kissed her like he'd been wanting to kiss her since AX-456. "We're going to make it," he said intensely, "because I want to see you in a nice dress. And then I want to see you out of it."

"A bit forward, aren't you?" she asked, teasing despite everything.

"For you, yes."

She gave one dry sob, then nodded resolutely. "If we get out of this, Kyle Katarn, I will frak you till you're blue."

He grinned and couldn't help the surge of adrenaline he felt. "Well hell Jan, now we're sure to get out of this."

He kissed her one more time, slipped her helmet on, and then did the same.

They reached the tower in no time, and saw why the lights had survived—apparently the tower next to the spaceport had its own independent power source, and was heavily armored around the base with only one heavily sealed entry point. The primary point of entry appeared to have been a skywalk that now laid in tatters across the open space between the tower and the spaceport dome.

"How much lift does this baby have?" Kyle asked.

"Enough," Jan said with a grin.

With that, Kyle slipped out the window to the bed of the sled. "Everyone up!"

With varying levels of energy, the survivors got up. "I need an injury report now. Look at the man beside you and check his armor for any punctures or injuries. Do so now."

Of the two hundred survivors, only one man, a regular army trooper, bore any open wounds. Kyle walked across the sled to the man and as he did so, he could feel the black twisting in the Force around him.

"What's your name, son?" he said.

"Corporal Tennison, Sir!" the young man said in an exhausted, pained voice.

"Corporal, you've got the plague," Kyle said. "From what I saw on Talay, it's going to hurt like hell, and then you're going to turn into a monster and we're going to grease you. I'm sorry to get you the bad news, kid. I really am. Do you have any family?"

"Family all died on Toprawa, sir!"

"I was on Toprawa, it was a bad situation," Kyle agreed. "Anyone you want me to get your effects to?"

The young man was crying now. "No, sir. Just, don't let me turn into one of those things."

"I won't, son." Kyle lifted his blaster and shot Corporal Tennison through the face-plate at point blank range. The young man's body flew off the sled and slammed into the mud, bouncing twice.

"We're almost to shelter. I don't know for sure what's waiting for us, but I saw lights, so we have hope. The Alliance knows we're here and will no doubt send someone to find out what's going on. We just need to stay alive. But I'll tell you this—I just shot a young man who was on our side to save us all. If you have a bite or a scratch from one of those things, then do us a favor and kill yourself now. Because I'm not sure I can do that again. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" came the thunderous response of the survivors.

The sled began to slow as they approached the tower. The vehicle slowly rose into the air as it coasted on momentum, until the bed became nearly even with the shattered base of the skywalk.

Kyle was about to jump through when a very large man in which armor appeared with a portable e-web. His helmet was off, revealing the aging face of a Clone trooper. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"We're what's left of a rescue mission," Kyle said. "Things went a little FUBAR."

"No room for you," the trooper said. "Go away."

"Can't do that," Kyle said. "More ships will come, we just need some time to rest."

"I'm not going to risk my people for more imps. Get out."

A distance behind the trooper, Kyle saw a woman in native green fabric clutching a child. The woman was pale and delicate in appearance, but the child was strangely swarthy, much like the trooper.

The man was a deserter.

"My name is Colonel Kyle Katarn of the Alliance to Restore the Republic," he said. "I was part of an expedition to see why we lost contact with the Jebiim rebel leadership. We found out the hard way. We're not here to hurt you or your people."

"The rebels are all dead," the trooper said. "Only ones left on this mudhole are civvies. No one wants your war."

"Not here to fight," Kyle said. "Just let us rest until our own rescue comes."

The trooper spat in the space between the sled and skywalk base. "No one's coming to rescue us. General Moc ordered the evacuation himself. They did this to us."

"I know," Kyle said. "They did the same thing to a base of ours. Come on, friend. I'm not your enemy. I just need a place for my men and I to billet until the Alliance comes. Please don't make this a fight."

In the distance, they could hear a rakghoul howling. Thousands more responded, and the sound was getting closer.

That's when Jan climbed out of the control cabin, her helmet in her hands, and walked to Kyle's side. The trooper must have seen something in the pair; he finally raised the heavy e-web to the sky. "Fine, come on through. But you're going to have to ditch that sled away from here."

"I've programmed it to go on its own in five minutes," Jan said.

"Five minutes to evac to the tower!" Kyle said. "Everyone, move move move!"

As exhausted as they were, it only two minutes to get all two hundred men in the tower. Three minutes later the sled moved forward just as the first line of rakghouls arrived. They tried scaling the tower, but the metal base was stronger than their claws and they could find no purchase.

"Welcome to hell," the trooper said. "Names Deek."