Author's Responses at the end:
Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Heart of Darkness
"That's one big ship," Mara muttered.
Kyle nodded. "You've never seen one before, have you? I remember helping Leia on the first one when we fought Palpatine's clone. That was not a fun day."
Mara said nothing. The two stood in the back of the bridge of the Ralroost while the destroyer approached a behemoth. At over seventeen and a half kilometers, the Eclipse-class dreadnought was truly a monster. It dwarfed the 850-meter Ralroost, like a humming twyl flying under a kowakian eagle serpent.
The whole bridge was silent, save for the sound of the computers and navigation controls. The Ralroost was doing a close flyby. The Deep Core was a bright region of space, alive with radiation from the maze of nebula, quasars, black holes and other exotic structures only found in the center of the galaxy. However, as bright as the sky was, the view through the transparisteel windows of the bridge was absolutely black with the hull of the behemoth.
"It doesn't appear to have suffered much damage at first glance," Admiral Kre'fey said.
Admiral Thrawn stood near the Bothan. "The armor is sufficiently dense that nothing short of a large meteor impact would leave noticeable damage."
"Good to know," Kyle muttered.
Thrawn handed a datachip to Kre'fey. "The command override to open the docking bay."
"Thank you, Grand Admiral," the Bothan said. He inserted the chip in a receptacle on his command chair. "Navigation, Z-minus two thousand meters. Take us underneath the ship."
The destroyer started sinking down in relation to the dreadnaught. Finally the sky lit up again as they breached the lower horizon of the monster. With the light reflecting off the dark gray armor, they could all see a section of the hull crawling back. Docking lights suddenly lit the cavernous interior of a docking bay larger than most ships.
"A docking bay large enough to hold an actual star destroyer. Nice," Kyle muttered.
"We'll need the space," Thrawn pointed out with a half-smile that on anyone else would be described as a smirk. "The personnel transport will need to dock as well."
From the bridge of the Bothan attack cruiser they watched as the smaller transport nestled into the impossibly large docking bay and connected to a series of airlocks beside them. As soon as the two ships made a solid connection, Mara let out a long breath. "Wow," she whispered.
Thrawn turned and stared with one raised brow.
"The Dark Side is strong here," Kyle explained. "We can feel the Emperor's presence."
"You are not the only ones to feel his presence on this ship," Thrawn assured them. "The question is whether or not you will be able to banish that presence so we can safely restart it."
"We'll give it our best try," Kyle assured the blue-skinned admiral.
Within half an hour, Mara, Kyle, Anakin and Karia were waiting beside Thrawn, Kir Kanos and a handful of soldiers wearing a mix of the old NRDF uniforms and stormtrooper armor. The airlock cycled, and all of them were hit by a wave of stale air.
"Breathable," Kyle noted, "but it's pretty obvious the air cyclers haven't run in a while."
"It's cold," Anakin said.
"That's not just the air, either," Kyle noted. He turned back to Thrawn and the men. "I'm assuming this ship has internal defenses. In the event the Emperor's spirit has control of them, I want everyone to stay between us. Mara, you and Anakin should bring up the rear."
Though Mara was undoubtedly the stronger, Kyle was senior in Jedi matters. Plus, she trusted him. The decision to have one Kryptonian with a regular Jedi teamed up was a good idea. She grabbed Anakin and the two fell back to the rear of the column as they stepped onto the Eclipse.
Almost immediately the hall reverberated with a mad cackle. "Well, I'd say he knows we're here," Karia said.
Almost instantly, four sets of blaster cannons dropped from the ceiling around them and opened fire. Lightsabers snapped on and shielded the soldiers, until twin beams of heat from both Karia and Mara reduced the cannons to smoldering ruin. "Well, that was fun," Kyle said. "Admiral, this was your ship before it was with the Alliance. Where would be the best place to go?"
"Having learned our lesson at the Battle of Coruscant," Thrawn said, "these ships were built with multiple redundant command centers. If we can reach one, we should be able to determine the ship's status very quickly. There should be one approximately three kilometers straight on."
"Yes, let's take a three klick hike on a kriffin' spaceship," Karia said.
"Language," Mara called up to her.
Karia grinned. "Sorry."
It was not just a hike. They were attacked repeatedly and at odd intervals. On at least one occasion, the automated defenses fired directly into the center of the column. Even with super speed, Mara was unable to save everyone. They ended up losing almost half the column by the time they reached the command nodule.
After quickly disarming all the internal defenses, Anakin walked to the nearest console while the few engineers to survive started doing their own diagnostics. Karia stood by him, resting a hand on his shoulder as he simply sat there with his hands on the console.
"I can feel him in there," the young Jedi finally said. "He's…living, I guess you'd say...in the main computer core of the ship." He shuddered and Karia hugged his shoulders. "So much hatred. It's all he knows now. Hate and pain."
"All the more reason to drive him from this galaxy," Kyle declared. "We're going to need a space."
"There's a lounge through that door," Anakin said.
They looked and found a spacious room with couches and tables, a large fresher unit and a kitchen area. The four Jedi stepped through. "Perfect," Kyle said with a nod. He looked back at Thrawn. "Admiral, we're going to need to be alone for this."
"I understand, Master Jedi," the admiral said. "If any of you need anything, please ask."
Once the Chiss admiral left, the four Jedi closed the lounge door and then sat on the floor in a diamond formation, facing each other. Karia faced Anakin; Mara faced Kyle. "I can feel him," Karia noted in a subdued voice.
"Yeah, he's as nasty a piece of work in death as he was in life," Kyle said.
"He was worse when alive," Mara said. "He had all the evil, but while he was living that evil was directed by one of the most brilliant minds to ever live. It wasn't just brute power that overthrew and destroyed the old Jedi order. Now, all I can sense is rage and madness."
"So what are we going to actually do?" Anakin said.
"The dark abhors the light," Kyle said. "We're going to flood the whole ship in the light. We're going to force him to either leave the ship, or preferably leave this plane of existence entirely."
"This is a really big ship to flood with the Force," Anakin said.
"Good thing there are four of us then, isn't it?" Kyle answered back with a grin.
"He's going to fight back though," Mara predicted. "He's going to fight us with every ounce of his power. He'll throw our own fears back at us; he'll throw everything he can. He'll try to drive us to the brink of insanity. Just remember, you are the masters of your own minds. All he can do is try to scare you. He only has as much power as you actually give him."
"Yeah, I'll pretend to believe that," Anakin said. "'Cause he feels pretty powerful from where I'm sitting."
"It's time to start," Kyle said.
He closed his eyes, and all of them could feel the experienced master slip immediately into the Force. Mara closed her eyes next. Though her transition wasn't as fast, it was still only a second before she was completely immersed.
Karia and Anakin shared a long look at each other. "See you on the other side?" he asked.
"That could be taken too many ways," Karia decided. "How 'bout, we'll see each other in a few minutes."
"Better," Anakin agreed.
Both closed their eyes. Anakin took several deep breaths to properly immerse himself in the Force. It took much longer for him and Karia than it did for the adults, but then again both of them were Jedi masters. Still, eventually he felt that still, absolutely calm of the Force and knew he'd reached the point he needed too. He could feel the other three around him so clearly he could actually see them. In the Force Kyle was a cool blue, while Mara and Karia both burned like brilliant white diamonds.
He reached out toward the smaller diamond glow and felt her reach out to him. In the Force there were no words. There were no pleasantries. There was only truth. And in that brilliant white truth of the Force, Anakin knew that he loved Karia with all his heart, and that she loved him as well.
Suddenly the brilliant diamond light was gone. A cloak of shadow fell over the four of them, accompanied by the insane cackle of the dead emperor. Anakin stilled the fear he felt and projected his calm into the Force. He pushed the light side with all his might, but still the shadow remained.
He heard a new voice then. One familiar and loved. "What do you think you're doing, Anakin?"
From the midst of the shadow stepped the familiar form of his brother Jacen. Only, this Jacen looked different. His skin was gray; his eyes were as black as the shadows around him. Coral spurs erupted from the skin of his shoulders and the back of his hands.
"You're not real," Anakin said.
"I am real," Jacen said. "I am what would have been. We're the grandchildren of Darth Vader, Anakin. We exist because of the Dark Side, and it is ultimately the Dark Side that we will all return to. I would have fallen too, had I lived. What you see is what I would have been."
"No!" Anakin said, struggling to maintain his calm. "Jacen would never turn to the Dark Side. Jacen was the best Jedi I ever knew!"
"I am Jacen," the ghost of his brother said. "I am what he would have been. You cannot deny it."
"I don't have to," Anakin said. "My brother is dead. You're just a sad, pale imitation."
Suddenly the shadow parted before a spear of brilliant white light, and Karia was there. The ghost form of Jacen though did not flinch away from the light of the young Kryptonian. Rather, he smiled at Anakin with an expression the younger Solo had seen only one time, during Jacen and Jor-El's duel after Helska.
A bone-spur hand reached out and grasped the brilliance that was Karia, and even in the Force Anakin could feel her surprise, pain and fear. "Only now do you begin to understand," Jacen said. "The Dark Side is the most powerful. Your pitiful attempts to destroy the darkness will never succeed."
"Karia!" Anakin said. "You're stronger than that! Fight him!"
Karia did not respond. He could feel the power of her presence fading. She was dying. The Dark Side presence was literally smothering her to death. Desperate, Anakin struck out not at Jacen, but at Karia, pushing with all the love he had.
The shadow split before the spear of his own light, and from beyond it he sensed her presence, whole and unharmed, but very scared. Jacen's face warped in rage. "You fool, do you think you can stop me?" It was no longer even Jacen's voice.
I'm here, Karia said through their Force bond. I love you.
I love you too! Anakin said. He held onto the bond with everything he had, strengthening it with Force and will. On the other side he felt Karia doing the same, until the bond itself glowed with brilliant light side energy.
Anakin! This was Kyle's presence, strong and undaunted. Your bond is the key! Feed it. Use it. Open yourself to Mara and me.
Anakin opened himself without hesitation. He felt Kyle in the Force, soothing cool with a core as hot and brilliant as anything the Kryptonians had. The moment they bonded he knew what Kyle had seen. He knew the Jedi master was haunted by the emaciated form of his wife, dying in his arms while his own mother hung suggestively over the elder Jedi.
Kyle made no move to block the image, or even deny it. In that instance Anakin understood the love that his mother and her co-Grand Master shared, and the respect they had for each other that prevented them from ever acting on that love. Rather than upset Anakin, the knowledge left him in awe.
Then there was Mara. He relived her worst day; the day she went before her old master and admitted that she had failed to destroy Kale Naberrie. The day the Emperor stripped her of her office and her purpose in life. The physical pain of his Force lightning was nothing compared to the soul-wrenching agony of losing everything she had ever known.
He watched through her eyes as she experienced her son killing everyone she loved. And then watched her ultimate fear—her husband and son fighting to the death.
She shrugged it aside with Kyle's help, just like Anakin overcame his attack with Karia's help. She joined their bond, and just as he knew her fears and her past, she knew the overwhelming love he had for her daughter. Rather than reject it or feel anger, he instead felt her acceptance and her own love for him.
You have always been a part of my family, she sent to him in the Force. And you always will be.
What started out as the Force bond between Anakin and Karia had blossomed into a lattice of bonds connecting the four of them together in love and acceptance. They were so closely connected that all four of them acted as a single unit, moving together without need for discussion or planning.
Light-side energy exploded out from them, pushing back the shadows. The moment they broke the immediate bubble they could feel the Dark Side presence retreating toward the aft of the ship and pushed after.
They all sensed the Emperor's presence weakening and knew the end was near. They pushed harder, channeling everything they had. The Emperor pushed back, and for a second that felt like an eternity Dark and Light energy swirled against each other in the heart of the ship. When the end came, it did so suddenly and without warning. The Dark Side energy exploded back away from the Light, imploding against the brilliance of the Jedi.
They all sensed the angry scream, almost a howl, as they exorcised the Emperor from this last tool of destruction. Just like that, it was over.
They could not disband the bonds just like that. It took a moment for them to release the energy. Eventually, though, they hovered just on the edge of full consciousness. "We did it," Anakin whispered.
"Just what we were waiting to hear," Admiral Thrawn said.
Anakin's eyes snapped open. "Wait, what?"
Darts slammed into Mara's and Karia's necks. Anakin watched, disbelieving, as the two nearly impervious women slumped over to the floor unconscious. Anakin became instantly aware of other presences in the lounge. Thrawn, Kanos and several troopers.
Kyle responded with the swiftness of a Jedi Master. A wave of brute Force energy slammed out around his body, impacting Thrawn and most of the stormtroopers. Kir Kanos, former Imperial Guard, jumped over the ring of energy with a Force-pike in hand. Kyle had just a second to ignite his saber before the Force-pike came down. Even with all his skill, the Jedi Master simply did not have time to fully prepare for the onslaught of such a skilled opponent. He batted one side of the Force-pike away only to receive the other end in a vicious slash to his ribs.
The blow was followed by a kick to the head. The entire confrontation took three seconds.
In that three seconds, Anakin knew he could not win. He responded by instinct and by the Force. While Kyle's defensive blow knocked Thrawn and most of his soldiers back, Anakin exploded to his feet and zipped through the lounge door into the nodular command center faster than a normal humanoid could follow.
He found himself surrounded by stormtroopers and Imperial engineers. There was no sign at all of the NRDF engineers or soldiers.
Realizing this still wasn't the time to fight, he pushed further against the troopers guarding the exit to the corridor and shot past them. There were even more troopers in a column outside. "Ah, come on!" Anakin muttered.
"Get him!" the lead stormtrooper said.
Anakin Force-pushed, putting everything he had into the blow. The first three lines of troopers went tumbling back into their colleagues, and with that opening Anakin turned and sprinted down the hall.
Back in the lounge, Thrawn picked himself up and observed the damage. "We captured the most dangerous elements," he summarized. "Are the cells ready for them?"
"They are," Kanos said. The former Crimson Guard wore officer grays for now, but he carried his pike like one born to it. "The young Jedi could still be trouble."
"We will deal with him when the time comes. The Force does not make Jedi impervious to good planning. Bring the ysalamiri on board."
"And the Kryptonians?"
"The darts were laced with the last Kryptonite I could find," Thrawn said. "It should be sufficient to keep them incapacitated."
"But not enough to kill them," Kanos said.
"No. However, I'm told that when exposed to the light of a red star they are much more vulnerable," the Admiral said. "When we have destroyed the Vong and reasserted the might of the Empire, we shall expose them to the light of my native world's sun. The radiation alone should leave them perfectly vulnerable."
Kanos simply nodded. "Naberrie will come after them."
"Naberrie will not know what is happening until it is too late," Thrawn said. "As far as he knows, this is the only Eclipse-class dreadnaught we have. When two arrive at Imperial Center to obliterate the Vong and the Alliance fleet, it will be too late for him to stop us."
"That's what my former master thought," Kanos pointed out.
"Indeed," Thrawn said. "Hopefully we shall have a firmer grip on reality. Come, let's get our guests to their new quarters, shall we?"
Author's Responses:
Well, hope everyone enjoyed my little twist. Honestly, did anyone think Thrawn was loyal to anything other than himself and the Empire?
Dajohu, Exodus5, Vyrexuviel, Roosterman71; TheKnight200--thank you for reading and reviewing. I appreciate it.
Q: I see Kale is whining again.
A: Yeah, but he's winding down, and you have to admit that Han knows perfectly how to handle him.
That was the only actual question, I suppose. And that's alright. As I said before, the actual writing of this story is done! Yeah! Now it's just a matter of beta reading. Thank you for reading!