Chapter Twenty-One: Dawn of the Rakghouls

"Fleet, this is Commander Luke Skywalker reporting in as ordered," Luke said.

He was pleased to hear Han Solo's voice. "Luke, you're late. What's happening?"

"We detoured to Felucia at the Admiral's direction, Colonel."

"Felucia?" Colonel Solo said. "What in the stars did he find on Felucia?"

"Well, Colonel…"

"Han, kid. It's just me pulling duty this time since Hobbie was sick."

"Well, Han, Harry…I mean, Shaddix found another wife. Actually, make that two. Two new wives. Captain Juno Eclipse and a former padawan named Maris Brood. And…well, now he remembers who he used to be."

"Oh, and who's that?"

"I can't say over an open line. And I don't think you'd believe me if I told you. I also recovered Jedi Master Yoda. We're en route to the new sanctuary base."

"Yeah, 'bout that. Listen, kid, we've lost an entire ground taskforce on some mud hole called Jabiim. We had two frigates there, a thousand troopers and an old tank, and we've lost all contact with not just the taskforce, but the planet itself. We've got three simultaneous engagements in Kashyyyk, Mon Calamari and now on Kaaandas. We don't have the resources to go find out what's happening. General Rieekan requests that Admiral Shaddix take a look and see what's going on. That is, if he's not too busy with his two billion wives."

"I'll check," Luke said, chuckling.

"Oh, Luke, one more thing. When you get back, you're going to have a lot of company in the Jedi business. A whole family showed up—two former padawans and a daughter they've been training. Baroli—the girl has blue hair. Very cute. You should look her up unless you and Danni the Veltron finally got something going."

Luke blushed. "I'll see when we get back," he stammered.

"Yeah. 'Cause, you know, I'm not sure Danni's right for you."

Luke didn't need the Force to know what that meant. "You've slept with her."

"You know, I'm not sure sleep is the right word. Don't get me wrong—she's Veltron. She'd still do you in a minute just for the emotional high it gives her. You know how Veltron get when they make others feel good. But I'm pretty sure you're looking for more than a girl who gets high on sex."

"Yeah, maybe. What about you?"

"Are you kidding? Guys like me live for girls who get high on sex. Anyway, check on Jabiim and let Rieekan know what you find, okay?"

"I will, Han. Talk to you soon."

"General came in with a whole battle group," Deek said an hour after Kyle, Jan and their men found sanctuary in the tower. He, Kyle, Jan and Captain Myers from Kyle's SpecForce squad gathered around a table in what was once an officer's restaurant atop the tower. Around the floor, terrified Jabiimi families clumped together while exhausted soldiers ate rations and stared at the ceiling from where they collapsed on the floor.

"I was on duty when the evac order came from the Arc Hammer. All personnel were to evacuate pending an experimental weapons deployment. Moc said Jabiim was chosen as a test bed because of the diminishing returns from the mines and the increased violence from the rebels. So they all went."

"All but you."

"I found a woman here that didn't care that I shared my face with millions of others," the clone said. "Gave me a son. Couldn't just walk away from that. So I gathered them together in the emergency shelter under this tower. Her family and friends followed, but I didn't care. I was afraid it wouldn't matter. I saw on the holonet what happened to Alderaan. But it wasn't like this. When the boom didn't come, I walked up to the top of the tower and looked what was happening."

He snorted. "The local rebels were swarming the spaceport. Thinking they'd run the imps off. Stupid. The shuttle opens up and four big, black droid destroyers walked out almost like they were storm troopers, and just laid into the rebels. Another pair brought out a long case. Looked almost like a stasis chamber, like the Kaminoans used on us clones during the war. One trooper opened the case; the other stuck a stun rod or something into it, and next thing you know the rebels are turning into rakghouls. The dark troopers fought the rakghouls off just like the rebels, loaded the case back in the shuttle, and then left. And things just went to hell from there."

It was the best description yet of Project Talisman Kyle had ever heard. More importantly, though, they had a name associated with it. "Funny thing about General Moc," Kyle said. "He gave me the Imperial Medal of Honor when I was a cadet."

"How'd you get a medal like that as a cadet?"

"My omega exercise went down the well. I pulled half my people out of what should have killed us all, killed a lot of rebels. Then I found out from Lord Shaddix himself the Empire killed my dad, and none of it seemed to make sense."

Deek shrugged. "That's what the Empire does."

Kyle almost dropped his helmet when the speaker beeped at him. "Attention, this is the Alliance vessel Rogue Shadow to any survivors on Jabiim," came a familiar contralto voice. "If you can hear me, please respond."

"I can hear you," Kyle said with a sigh of relief. "Princess, that you?"

"It's me, Kyle. What's your status?"

"Not good," Kyle said. "I have about two hundred men left, and just under three hundred civilians. We're trapped in a tower in the north-east quadrant of the city near the space port. Unfortunately, there is no hoverpad and the base is armored. The civvies got in through a cross-walk which they blew right after. My people and I got up on a make-shift bridge I had to blow again as well."

"What's the tower look like?" Leia asked.

"Easy. It's the one surrounded by ten thousand rakghouls."

"Hang in there," Leia said. "We're coming."

Kyle stood. "Deek, you wanna see why the Empire's going to lose this war?"

"Sure," the clone said.

The two men, Jan and Myers walked to the windows that looked out into the night. Others, seeing their attention focused outside, did the same. A moment later they saw a deadly black ship fly into view. It hovered over the writhing mass of rakghouls.

The hatch on the side of the ship opened, and a lone figure stepped out into the air.

"Who the hell is that?" Deek asked.

"That, my friend, is Lord Shaddix," Kyle said. "He's the reason we destroyed the Death Star and cost the Empire so much at Yavin."

Around the hovering figure, the air began to waiver, as if it were being heated. Suddenly a spark of flame appeared out of midair, dancing before the figure. The flame grew larger and larger, flickering in the rain as it seemed almost to writhe around the man.

Suddenly the man made a sharp motion and the flame became a pillar of white heat that slammed down into the horde of rakghouls. Deek and the others watched as the flame spread out across the whole area, flowing like plasma into every nook and cranny.

A moment later, the rakghouls were gone. Every single one was simply gone.

Outside, the figure floated up out of view, though a few moments later they could hear a strange grinding noise.

"The roof!" Deek said. He led the way up a narrow flight of access stairs and kicked open a secured lock just in time to see the silver ship landing on a hoverpad that just moments before had not been there.

The figure from the fire was already walking toward them. "Kyle," he said by way of greeting, "how do you keep getting yourselves into these situations?"

"It's a gift. Is that an admiral's uniform?"

"Is that a colonel's uniform?" Shaddix snapped back. His eyes narrowed at Deek. "Who's the clone?"

"Deserter. Decided his wife and child were more important than his own life. He's given us the best leads we have on Project Talisman."

Shaddix nodded, and then walked to the edge of the roof as the Rogue Shadow landed. Kyle followed, drawn by the presence the man projected. "You seem different," Kyle said.

"A lot's happened since we last spoke," Shaddix said. "My real name is Harry Potter. Shaddix was a creation of Palpatine's sick imagination. I remember everything, Kyle. More than you can imagine. And in all of those thousands of years, I've never felt anything like this." He made a vague motion toward the planet.

Kyle, though, was trying to wrap his mind around the thousands of years part. "Sir…"

"Harry, please."

"Harry, what do you mean?"

Harry turned back and smiled at the Force-strong warrior. "I'm what your people would call a Celestial, Kyle. Palpatine revived me and then made sure I never recovered my memories. But now I have. And those memories are telling me that the evil that struck this planet is darker than any I've ever imagined. It's corrupted soul magic. Whatever did this was so powerful that it warped the very souls of the population into the monsters we see. Once the soul perversion was introduced, it became a virulent plague and spread with each scratch or bite. It is evil."

He took a long, shuddering breath, then turned and looked back at those assembled on the roof. "How many do you have?"

"'Bout four hundred all told, half are civilians."

"The Rogue Shadow won't hold that many and if I modify it to hold them without serious preparation, it will break down."

"What about the Teelin?" Kyle asked.

"She wasn't in orbit when we arrived. It's possible that she entered the atmosphere if Cracken's people called for help. Nebulon-Bs are notoriously cranky in the atmosphere, and that particular ship was forty years old. It might very well have crashed. The Alliance has not heard from it."

"So what do we do?"

"We need to retake the Yavin," Harry said. "The Alliance can't afford to just throw an asset like that away regardless.

Kyle made a point of looking down the side of the building at the blackened mud. "How'd you do that?"

"Magic."

"Think you can do it again?"

"In localized areas," Harry said. "I'm not at my full strength just yet, but almost. We saw the Yavin as we flew by. Do you have anyone certified to fly her?"

Jan Ors stepped up. "I can fly anything. Kyle's rated too. We have maybe a dozen others who could fill out a bridge crew if the ship isn't too damaged. But how are we going to clear it out?"

"I'll take care of it," Harry said. "Pack up whoever you need to crew the ship into the Shadow." Harry turned to the Clone. "What's your name, trooper?"

"Deeks."

"Deeks, I'm leaving you in charge of everything until we get back with our frigate. Then we'll load your people up and get you out of here. Probably to Dantooine for now. Sound fair?"

"Yes, sir!" Deeks said with a stiff salute.

"All right. Kyle, get your people."

Harry walked back into the Rogue Shadow, and a few minutes later Kyle and a dozen exhausted SpecForce troopers joined Jan on the ship as well.

In the cockpit, Juno easily lifted off and took the ship over the field where the Yavin still rested. The field was crawling with tens of thousands of rakghouls. Harry walked through the now crowded lounge to find Kyle and Jan mercilessly questioning their men to make sure they could do the job. All of them paused as Harry entered, walked to the central ramp, and then casually walked down the ramp over the writhing field of monsters.

Kyle cautiously joined him. "That's a lot of beasties," Kyle said. "You sure you're up for this?"

Harry shrugged. "It's what I do."

With that, Harry jumped from the ramp into the dark field. The only light came from the ship, until a moment later when a ring of fire appeared around Harry. It lit the monsters in terrible clarity, moments before it started burning them.

He felt Jan approaching from behind and smiled weakly as she took his hand and looked down. "By the Force, how can he do that?"

"You should have seen him on Dagobah," Luke said from behind them. "He made couches out of thin air. He made the rain stop with a glance. He remembers freeing Yoda's ancestors from slavery a million years ago. When I look at him, I can't help but believe we're going to win."

Below, the fire raged around in a broad circle that swept the rakghouls from the field. A blue ball of light suddenly shot up before them in the shape of a antlered animal. An animal which said, in Harry's voice, "Have Juno bring the Shadow into the Yavin's hold."

The silvery figure faded away.

Luke relayed the order and the Rogue drifted lazily into the massive hold of the frigate. Harry was already there waiting for them. They stepped down the ramp to the smell of sulphur. The floor of the hangar was blackened but otherwise clean.

"Cracken at least had the presence of mind to lock down the ship," Harry explained. "I don't sense any more of the rakghouls on board. There are more coming toward us, though. They don't see well, but the light of the fiendfyre was enough to attract their attention. Juno, Luke and Mara, could you help Kyle's people get the ship in the air? We'll swing by the tower to pick up survivors and then we'll do a fly by to see if anyone else is hiding. I sense some other survivors—perhaps in the mines."

With the ship locked down before everything went wrong, they were able to get to the bridge without difficulty and quickly closed the main loading ramp. With the dozen SpecForce commandoes and a handful of truly skilled pilots, the Yavin lifted out of the mud of Jabiim just as another wave of raghouls cleared the crest.

The ship drifted slowly over the dead city until they reached the lone lit tower. They dropped a secondary ramp to the hoverpad while the new bridge crew kept the ship perfectly still. The four hundred survivors quickly boarded the frigate.

At Harry's direction, the ship left the city entirely and drifted to a set of high, stark mountains. It took coaxing from Deek and his native wife to convince the rebel miners that it was not a good idea to try and wait out the plague. Another hundred and ten men, women and children boarded the ship.

They did an atmospheric fly-by of the ten other major urban areas and found that the plague had spread rapidly. After one more pocket of a dozen survivors, Harry declared there was nothing else they could do. The Yavin sealed up its ramps and made orbit.

The trip to Dantooine did not take more than a day—a day spent in stunned silence. The survivors of Jabiim looked as if they had not truly survived. Their eyes were dead, killed by the horrors of watching loved ones and friends turn into monsters, or die at the hands of monsters.

It was a somber ship that arrived at Dantooine.

Harry spoke to the planetary administrator, since the Empire did not bother to keep a presence on the small, agricultural world. The administrator took one look at the survivors and agreed to help them.

Harry did his part by donating to the colonel two thirds of the ship's provisions, and several blaster rifles so that the new colonists could better defend themselves against the local predators. He even donated the quick set shelters that Cracken would have used for his own men if he had survived.

"Thank you, Admiral," Deeks said as the new colony was finally set up.

Harry shook the man's hand. "Best of luck on your family, Deeks. I hope your kids never have to see anything like this again."

"Thank you, sir. And I hope you get whoever's doing this."

"Oh, don't worry, we will."

With that, the Yavin lifted off from the surface. Harry made his way back to the bridge where he found all four of his wives, Luke, Kyle, Jan, and even Yoda. He joined them as they broke orbit and made their way to the new sanctuary base.

"So, any thoughts of what you're going to say to your dad?" Mara was asking Leia. "Now that you're one of four instead of one of two?"

"Speak to Bail I will," Yoda said. "Explain to him. Understand he will."

The group fell silent for a moment as the Yavin burst into hyperspace. When they had settled into the swirling blue tunnel of faster-than-light travel, Harry said, "Kyle, you and Jan need to hunt this thing down. I'm going to contact Vernan and make sure you have everything you need. I'm also going to pull three of my heavy assault cruisers for your exclusive use."

"Harry, that's a lot of resources," Leia began.

Harry looked at her a moment before she blinked and said, "It's that dangerous, isn't it?"

"It is a threat worse than any Death Star," he said. "The Death Star is a physical weapon. It kills you. It kills your world. It can be destroyed and stopped or avoided. This Talisman weapon cannot be stopped. It cannot be blocked. Not even I can block what happened. Only the Force strong are afforded any protection, and even then it can be overcome. It destroys souls. We must find it, and when we do, you need to call me, and I will come destroy it."

"Why not find it yourself, if you're so powerful?" Kyle said.

Harry looked at him. "The Emperor knows I've come into my power. He can feel it. He can feel me anywhere in the galaxy, just like Yoda could. He'll know if I start approaching the target and that will give them time to get away. But while you're searching for the Talisman, I'm going to be doing my own preparations." He turned to Juno. "We're going to remake this ship, Juno. If you permit. We're going to make it into a Mage ship. And when the time comes, the Empire won't have time to get the Talisman away."

"I understand," Juno said with a somber nod. "Whatever you need, we'll help you with."

"And we'll hunt this thing down," Kyle swore.

Harry nodded, and then looked at Kyle and Jan. "But I think you two have something to take care of first."

"What do you mean?" Kyle said, with a blush.

"I can see your bond," he said. "Jan, do you love him?"

Jan blinked in surprise and felt the eyes of all their SpecForce bridge crew on her. After a moment, though, she raised her chin defiantly and said, "Yes."

"Kyle, do you love her?"

"Yes."

"Then by the power vested in me by right of having once been a god of love and bonds; by the power of the Force; and finally because I said so, you are now man and wife. I'll file the certificate, and I'll make damned sure Vernan and the rest of the command staff know you are not to be separated in your duties. You're the best team I've seen, and now you'll serve together for the rest of your lives."

"Just like that?" Kyle said.

"Just like that," Harry said.

"Good enough for me!" Jan declared. She grabbed Kyle's hand and dragged him off the bridge to the loud, raucous applause of their men.

Part Three: Dark Forces in Pretty Faces

Chapter Twenty-Two: Fast Times at Hoth Base

Leia woke up one morning four months after Jabiim surrounded on either side by breasts. On her left she saw a pair of voluptuous breasts of almost bone-pale skin topped with purple nipples. Looking above the breasts she saw a delicate red horn had punctured the pillow. Again.

She turned to the smaller but well shaped pair of pert breasts on her other side and saw a flash of red hair. Mara, then. She looked down at her own breasts and decided that, compared to the women on either side of her, she left something to be desired. Her breasts were neither as shapely as Mara's nor as large as Maris's. Juno's were a good normal size, but were also very shapely, pert, and most importantly, even. It shamed the princess to admit that her breasts were not evenly shaped. Her right breast was slightly, but noticeably larger, than her left.

Without a doubt, of the four wives, she had the worst looking pair of breasts.

She tried not to squeal when a strong hand reached over Mara's hip and very succinctly cupped her naked sex. She looked up over the thatch of red hair and saw Harry smiling at her. "You are beautiful," he assured her quietly after sensing her thoughts. He ran his hand slowly up her body until they cupped her left breast nearest him. "You are beautiful just the way you are."

"You say that to all the girls," Leia said.

"And it's all true," he agreed.

A head of blonde hair lifted above Harry's shoulders, and then moaned. "It's too cold to get up."

"It's not that cold," Mara mumbled without moving.

"So you want to shower first then?" Juno snapped.

"It's still a little cold," Mara conceded.

Juno nodded in triumph, and then curled up closer to Harry. Harry squirmed until he was on his back and spread his arms until he was essentially hugging all four of them. "I'm hungry," Maris said.

"Go get something then," Juno suggested.

"Too cold," Maris said. She shivered and then snuggled closer to Leia.

"Watch the horns," Leia warned.

"Sorry." She snuggled even closer.

At first Leia was not sure what to make of sleeping with three other women in the nude. Though she knew that some human females liked other females in a sexual fashion, she was not one of them. She realized she was too competitive to really find another woman sexually attractive. On the opposite side of that was Maris Brood, who because of her personal history was so starved for affection growing up that she would love anyone of the family, in any way, at any time. It took months for Leia to grow accustomed to being hugged by a naked, paled-skinned woman with horns.

And she still felt vague discomfort any time she felt the harsh hair of Maris's sex against her.

Mara was also willing to experiment with the others, but usually all she thought of was Harry. Leia was astounded at how energetic the former Sith was. Chances were, if they were alone and one of the other wives was not already doing so, Mara and Harry were shagging: in the fresher; in the closet; on the bed.

Once on the ceiling. That was strange. One time on a bet with Juno, Mara and Harry had sex non-stop for three days, pausing only for food, drink and occasionally showers. And even though they were excused to shower, they coupled there too. Leia would have been insanely jealous, until he offered to do the same with her.

"I have too much to do," she assured him. So she only took a day.

It was a good day.

Juno was the surprising one to Leia. Shortly after the Rebellion moved its main headquarters to Hoth, she walked into their large suite to find Juno and Maris very happily loving each other. Leia's first thought wasn't surprise, but rather confusion over what they actually got out of it. How could they have sex without a penis involved? And yet the two women were obviously enjoying each other and she could feel their pleasure through their bonds.

Juno looked up from between the Zabrak's legs and grinned. "Want to join us?" she asked.

Leia stammered. "Oh, no thank you. Do you where Harry is?"

"With Mara working on the Shadow."

"Oh, okay."

That night after dinner Juno convinced Leia to take a walk with her around the base. The two women usually garnered a lot of attention. The fact a living Celestial was on the base was startling enough, but that he had four wives drove the rumor mongers insane.

"Today made you uncomfortable, didn't it?" Juno asked.

Leia shook her head, realizing she was distracting herself. "I…I suppose it did. I'm sorry. I have no right to judge you…"

"I never thought you were," Juno said with a sad smile. "Frankly I've never had any relationships like this before. Sure, the girls at the Academy experimented. The Empire kept us strictly segregated from the male cadets. But I never took it seriously."

"But then you married Harry?"

Juno shrugged. "You of all people should understand, Leia. After Galen, I thought I would never love again. And then I went to Yoda to become a Jedi, and he would tell me stories of this incredible man who needed love to survive. And he turned out to be everything I could have ever dreamed. I could have resisted, I suppose, but I just didn't want to. I guess from an outsider's perspective it sounds awful. Still, this situation is ideal in a way. I've found a lover in Maris. And while we get all the Harry time we want, with each other we leave more time for you and Mara. Because Mara's willing to do anything with anyone when she's randy, but we all know she prefers Harry."

"That's true," Leia admitted with a wry smile. "I may have to put a leash on Mara, though. Gods that girl just won't leave him alone."

Juno smiled and put an arm around Leia. "She was raised without any physical affection, the same as Maris. For some people, that leads to a fear of touching. For others, it leads to a need for it. And I don't know if you've noticed, but Harry is for each of us exactly what we need."

Leia noticed that Harry tended to instruct or even lead Maris, while he quizzed Juno and Leia. Mara just went along with whatever the rest of the wives decided, quite often with Harry's penis inside her.

I need to stop thinking about Harry's penis, Leia brought her thoughts brought her back to the present. She thought this as Harry very deftly reached over Mara and suckled her breast.

"I really need to stop thinking about your penis," Leia moaned aloud.

"If you don't want it I do," Mara said.

But Harry somehow floated right over Mara, who had rolled onto her stomach, until he laid on Leia, slipping inside her even as his lips moved to her neck.

"That's so beautiful," Maris breathed.

Leia's breath caught as the now blessedly familiar warmth and pleasure blossomed inside of her. She shifted and spread her legs wider to ease his access, no longer caring that her knee was caught firmly between Maris's legs. "That feels so good," she moaned.

"It always does," Mara whispered. She was watching them with hungry eyes, her hand running up and down Harry's spine. "Me next?"

"Yes," Harry grunted as he sped up. He and Leia finished with a mutual moan before he moved over to make love to Mara, who remained face down and simply lifted her rump for him. Leia lay perfectly still beside them, basking in the glow, until she felt a pair of lips on her other breast and looked down to see a red horn near her chin, and two purple lips suckling her.

"Watch the horns," she said.

"Sorry," Maris said around a handful of nipple.

Leia hated to admit it, but the suckling did feel good, and the way Maris had captured and was now rubbing against her leg did not feel bad, not really.

"We'll make a woman out of you yet, Leia," Juno said over Harry as Mara began to moan loudly. That was the other thing about Mara. She was very loud.

They did not all make love as a group every morning, but it was always interesting when they did, because they each made love differently. Leia liked it slow and steady. Mara liked frenzy and passion, like now. The whole bed was shaking and she was almost screaming now in ecstasy and pulling at the covers convulsively until they finally finished.

Mara wilted, flushed as red as her hair with a huge, goofy grin on her face. By then Harry had moved on. "Doing the full circuit, are we?" Juno asked with one elegantly arched brow. She flipped him over and rode him, preferring always to be on top.

Maris looked up from Leia's nipple, saw the gorgeous form Juno presented as she began to ride Harry, and moaned. "Go ahead," Leia said with a knowing smile.

Maris almost jumped over she and Mara until she was sitting on…oh goodness. Leia shook her head, but each to their own.

Mara, now laying next to them, grinned. "Don't knock it until you try it," she told Leia. "He has talent."

"Oh, I know."

At last Juno finished, grunting as her entire body convulsed under an orgasm so intense all the other wives felt it. She fell back off Harry as Maris took her place, even as the Zabrak leaned over to give Juno a second while accepting her first.

"Bail would never understand this," Leia whispered.

Mara agreed. "And yet it's the most beautiful thing I've ever known. Because I love you all. You're my family."

Maris cried out, loudly. Juno did as well, convulsing again. Harry finished by kissing each of his wives passionately. "So," he said with a happy grin, "who wants to go get breakfast?"

"It's too cold to get up!" all four wives shouted.

Harry snorted. "Fine. You just had sex with me so I would get you food, didn't you?"

"Did it work?" Juno said, still breathless from his and Maris's ministrations.

He chuckled. "It usually does. I'll be back in a bit. Don't get too comfy without me." He hopped off the bed and padded naked through the otherwise icy room to the insulated fresher. Juno and Maris jumped back under the covers and all four snuggled together, made cold by Harry's absence.

"So Leia," Juno said. "Not so bad having a woman's lips on you, is it?"

"It's not bad, but it's not Harry either," Leia said.

"Any love is good love," Maris said. The oldest of them all was smiling with an open, almost innocent look of joy on her face.

Her horns had poked another hole in their long pillow. Fortunately, Harry conjured a new one every night. Maris then sat up, disturbing the comforter as she looked at each of the other three women. Her eyes grew moist as she said, "I love you all so much! I never had a family before. And now I have all of you. Thank you!"

"We love you too, Maris," Mara said. "Now shut up and get back down here. It's cold!"

Rather than be hurt by Mara's grouchy response to Maris's declaration of love, which actually occurred every two to three days, Maris merely laughed at the intensity of the emotion she felt, laid back down and pulled the comforter up. She then kissed Mara soundly on the lips. The red head just shrugged it off, neither offended nor enticed by it having just been satiated.

Leia, though, propped herself up a little while staying under the cover, and looked them over as well. "Maris says it all the time, but I feel that way too. After Alderaan, I wondered if I would ever feel like I belong to a family again. Even with my father here, it's been strange. But with you girls…I do love you. You are my sisters. Thank you for letting me be a part of this."

The other three looked at her for the longest time, before they all snuggled together. Harry emerged from the fresher dressed in casual slacks that seemed not nearly warm enough. Their burgeoning magical skills allowed them to sense the charms he used to warm himself.

"You girls look really comfortable. Are you sure you don't want to come with me, though?"

"Harry, how can we miss you if you don't go away?" Juno said.

"Fine, fine," Harry said.

"I want caf, Harry. A full carafe, black," Mara said.

"Me too," Leia said.

"Juice please," Maris asked.

"Caf for me too," Juno said. "And a pastry."

"Ohh, that sounds good!" Maris said.

"Eggs," Mara said. "And toast! And caf."

"And a grain muffin and sesti fruit for you, Leia?" Harry asked.

Leia grinned. Though the sex didn't occur every morning, the food ritual did. He knew what they ate better than they did. "Yes, please."

Harry stood at the door. "Okay. Stay warm. I'll be back with food soon."

When he was gone, Mara giggled. "Frak you girls, I love Harry. He brings me caf."

That set off a round laughter, even as they all snuggled closer together to ward off the cold. It was most definitely too cold to get up.

"I wonder why they always sleep so late?" Luke wondered aloud as he, Obi-Wan and Ylenic It'kla watched Harry saunter into the cafeteria with a happy smile and a whistled song on his lips.

Behind him, Obi-Wan and Ylenic shared a long look before both shaking their head.

That afternoon, Luke continued his training by sparring with the newest member of the growing Jedi Order.

Jekria Lo'gaan was seventeen years old. Her parents, Drake and Ekria Lo'gaan, were both former Padawans that survived the purge and abandoned their Jedi identities to survive. After the public outing of Jedi Masters Yoda, Obi-Wan, and upon Yoda's insistence, newly promoted Jedi Master Ylenic It'kla, former padawans and Jedi knights were appearing as if from nowhere. So far, they had Jedi Knight Qu Rahn, former padawan Olee Starstone, and former padawan Chase Piru and her companion Seddwia.

The biggest surprise was the arrival of an obvious Jedi Master who called herself Lady Caryn, and a young padawan named Ana Tathis. Luke overheard Obi-Wan referring to Caryn as An'ya Ku'ro, but never heard it again.

Ana was busy sparring with the Twi'lek Seddwia, who herself had some Jedi training from Chase Piru.

Which left Luke with Jekria Lo'gaan.

The blue-haired padawan was much faster than Luke was physically, though less powerful as well. Luke adapted by switching to Form V rather than the quicker form IV that Jekria used. So far she had tagged him twice, even though he regularly beat everyone else who had beaten her. The problem was she kept distracting him.

Despite the fact that they were on the icy world of Hoth, Jekria was wearing extremely form-fitting training clothes. So form fitting, he could actually make out the outline of her breasts and the nubs of….

"Stang," he muttered as she tagged him again. "Right, you're just too good for me," he said.

Nearby, Obi-Wan bowed his head into his hand and shook it. Jekria, though, gave a predatory grin. "You better believe it, farm boy," she said. She turned and left the training cavern with a sway to her lips that left Luke a little dizzy.

Nearby, Ana Tathis and Seddwia were both giggling at him.

"Luke, I think that's enough today," Obi-Wan said in a tired, hopeless voice. "Go take a shower. I understand your duty rotation starts in an hour."

"Yes, Master Kenobi," Luke said with a startled bow.

"Very well. And Luke? Make it a cold shower."

Luke was not THAT naïve. "Yes, Master."

The sound of the other padawans giggling followed him out of the room. He shook his head and smiled a little at himself. He supposed it was funny, how thoroughly Jekria was able to distract him.

He found his small quarters and took a quick shower. Though Hoth was cold, it had no shortage of water, and so water showers were easily available. He showered now, enjoying the heat in the small, self-contained fresher unit that was a luxury of his rank.

He finished quickly, still accustomed to very short, water-saving showers from his childhood on a desert world, and emerged from the fresh with a towel around his waist to get dressed.

He stopped just outside and froze as if confront the ghost of Darth Vader himself. "What…what…."

Jekria lounged on his bed, still in her frightfully skin-tight training gear. Except she had zipped the front down to reveal the sides of two beautifully formed round mounds on her chest. "Hello, commander," the seventeen-year-old said. She stood in a fluid motion and stepped toward the floundering Luke.

"Er, what are you doing here?"

Jekria smiled, and again it had a faint predatory quality to it. "I wanted to see more of you," she said. She laid a hand against his bare chest and grinned when he jumped. "And now that I have, I have to say I'm impressed."

"Jekria, your parents…"

"My parents were my age when they conceived me," she said. She paused, and for a brief moment the smile faded. "I've been watching you, Luke. Since the day we arrived I've been watching you. How strong the Force is with you. How generous you are. What a good officer and kind person you are. And I've watched you watch me, and I've come to realize that you are a truly wonderful person."

She kept inching closer, until the fabric of her unitard was pushing against his bare chest. "I don't believe in games, and the war doesn't allow us the time to court. So I tell you right now, Luke, that I want you. No one else, just you. And I think you want me too, don't you?"

Luke found he couldn't speak, so instead he gave a frantic, panicked nod.

The predatory smile turned gentle, with a light in her eyes that Luke could not identify, but which made him feel very warm and slightly dizzy. She deliberately leaned forward and kissed his chest, and the feel of her lips on his chest cost him his breath.

She kissed him again, moving up his chest to his neck, until at last their lips met. She pulled back and smiled again at the brilliant flush on his cheeks. "Take off my clothes, Luke," she suggested.

"Okay."

When Luke did not show up for his duty rotation, Admiral Harry Potter walked into the CAG briefing room to where Han Solo was having to fill in, and simply held out a hand.

"Yeah, fine," Solo said as he handed over a few credit chits. The other pilots, human males and females, two Mon Calamari and a Quarren, all cheered.

Harry grinned. "So who won the betting pool?"

Lieutenant Hobbie growled. "Oh come on!" he said. The other pilots looked at the betting pool, then turned to Harry. The admiral grinned as the squadron very grudgingly handed over the betting pool of credits.

The admiral pocketed it all. "So who was the top contender?"

"Danni, of course," Solo said.

"I thought she was with you?" Harry asked.

Klivian chuckled. "Danni's with pretty much everybody."

"Yeah, she's pretty nice," Daria Felst said. Harry grinned at the female human.

Yes, that was Danni the Veltron. "Who next?"

"That Tathis girl," Klivian said. "She is pretty cute."

"She's as clueless as Luke," Solo said. "I'm not sure she would know what to do with a man if she had one."

"I thought he was homosexual," one of the Mon Cal's said with an elegant shrug.

"That's because you never saw him looking at Jekria," Solo said. "I just didn't think she'd be the one to make the first move."

Harry grinned again. "It might have been pointed out to her by Luke's family that because he was so shy and noble, that he would never get around to doing it himself, no matter how interested he was."

"That's cheating!" Han said.

"Hey, don't look at me. Leia's his sister. She has a right to be concerned. Give him the day off, and I'll put the betting pool to drinks for the squadron."

"Deal!" everyone called out.

Harry left the room satisfied that at last Luke was taken care of. He made his way to the command center to find two of his wives talking seriously with General Rieekan and Bail Organa.

"So who won the betting pool?" Bail asked as he arrived.

"I did, of course," Harry said.

"The voice of eternal wisdom," Rieekan said.

"Well, I've had several hundred thousand children and grandchildren get married, so I'm fairly familiar with the rituals. I think she'll be exactly what he needs. In fact, once he gets over the shock of it, I think you'll find he becomes a much better officer for her addition to his life."

"I suspect you're right," Rieekan allowed. "Admiral, I think you should know that we've just heard from Colonel Katarn. They have finally identified where the Arc Hammer is."

All humor fled from Harry's face. Fortunately, there had been no more uses of the Talisman, but the risk was always there. "Where?"

"It operates out of a fueling station in the outer rim called Ergo," Rieekan said. "But the ship is being accompanied by Admiral Thrawn's super star destroyer, the Executor, and a fleet of ten star destroyers and another three hundred smaller ships. Almost a sector fleet's worth of firepower. We would frankly have an easier time taking on the Death Star."

"I'm not too concerned with the ships around it," Harry said. "The Rogue Shadow has been upgraded sufficiently that we can sneak in without being detected. No, what concerns me is the Talisman. If the Emperor activates it, any insertion force that goes in there is going to be at risk."

"What are you thinking?" Leia said.

Harry gave her a serious look. "Me and Kyle. No one else. I'll need you and the others to stay on the Shadow in case we're detected, but otherwise just two of us."

"If Kyle gets hurt, Jan will never forgive you," Juno pointed out.

"I'm not sure Kyle can get hurt," Harry said. "Every few generations, there's always that one person who seems to be able to take on whole armies by himself, but who never really gets the fame you'd think he deserves. Kyle is that hero. He'll be fine." He kissed Leia and then Juno. "We'll leave tomorrow. Set up a rendezvous with Kyle for me?"

"We'll get it done," Leia said with determination in her eye.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Darkest Before the Morn

The Yavin was now Kyle Katarn's personal command. The ship was designated as planetary assault ship. Colonel Katarn had five hundred soldiers and three heavy cruisers under his command. He now commanded a sufficient force to vaporize a city, though with only five hundred soldiers he would not be able to invade and occupy it.

More importantly, he had a wife of four months at his side, serving as his executive officer, his moral compass, and his higher mental functions.

Those higher mental functions were not happy.

"So you are going to just hop on Admiral Potter's personal ship, board the Arc Hammer all by yourselves, and blow it up?"

"That's the plan," Kyle said. "When you consider I'm going with Harry, it's not as insane as it sounds."

"Yes it is," Jan nearly snarled. "Don't get me wrong—the man married us. But I don't appreciate him taking my husband on suicide missions."

"I don't think it's a suicide mission," Kyle said. "He can teleport, Jan. He's going to teleport us in, and then get us out once we've destroyed the Talisman Project. It's possible no one will even know we're there!"

"Colonel, we've received a signal that the Rogue Shadow is en route. They request permission to dock in the ventral hangar bay."

"Granted," Kyle said easily to the corporal. Being an army ship, they followed army rankings. "Well, Jan, do you want to come meet him so you can yell at him too?"

"Damned right."

The two made their way through the frigate until they reached the hangar bay. While not as large as what a Star Destroyer would have, the hangar was actually disproportionately large for a ship of Yavin's size due to its dedicated function as a military transport. The two waited with a small honor guard of soldiers for the Rogue Shadow to appear.

They continued to wait, until Kyle clicked his comlink. "Bridge, when are they supposed to be here?"

"Sir, they report they have already landed."

Jan raised a brow. "What?"

The air in front of them shimmered, and suddenly the Rogue Shadow was there, resting on the hangar deck. The ramp was already down, and Harry Potter stood on its end with an impish grin on his face.

"What do you think?" he called. "I made a few upgrades."

Jan was already examining some of the changes she could see in the stealth ship. Specifically she studied what looked like a large mounted beam weapon that ran down the starboard side of the asymmetrical ship. "What is that?" she asked pointing.

"Phased particle cannon," Harry said. "You don't need more than one of those on any ship."

"I've never heard the term."

"No, I'm sure you haven't."

As they approached Maris Brood ran down the ramp with an awe-struck look on startling, beautiful face. "This ship is incredible! It holds over a hundred concussion missiles!"

Kyle blinked. "That's not even physically possible on a ship this size."

"Shrinking charms," Harry said with a shrug. "And not all of them are missiles. I tinkered and made a few variable-yield hypermatter torps too. For those days when a hundred gigatons is just not enough."

Again, no explanation of what a "hypermatter" torpedo appeared to be coming anytime soon. They walked up the ramp and into an interior that looked more like a rustic living area than the interior of a ship. The walls looked almost like wood and brick, and one wall had a window that actually showed a scene of Alderaan. Moreover, there was at least fifty times the volume of space within the ship than the exterior allowed for.

"Magic," Kyle muttered.

"Yep," Harry said happily. "This ship is not a warship to be lived on. It's a home to go to war in."

Leia emerged from a hallway leading toward what in the normal universe would have been the ship's cockpit. She smiled brilliantly at still newly married couple. "Hello again," she said, giving both of them a hug. "Ready for the tour?"

Kyle and Jan gave stunned nods.

"Great. This is the sitting room." She led them through a hallway while Harry disappeared somewhere else. "To the right is the swimming pool."

"Swimming pool?" Kyle asked. "On a ship this size?" He looked through into a massive Gymnasium just as large as the ship itself filled with a large pool of water.

"Through there is the training room."

Another gymnasium, equally large.

"Here is where you two will be staying."

The room was a complete, well appointed suite with a soft king-sized bed, end tables, a holosuite and a luxuriously appointed fresher.

"And then here's the master suite."

Both Jan and Kyle noticed the bed taking up the center of the room. It was easily eight feet wide and rounded, with a veritable wall of pillows. Though they could not see it all, through one door they saw a bath large enough to seat eight.

With the tour over, they made their way to the cockpit. Jan looked at the cockpit in confusion. "That's not a standard layout," she noted.

"No," Harry said. Juno took the pilot's seat, while Mara took the co-pilot's seat. Leia and Maris joined Harry at different consoles around the interior, which was much larger than the exterior hinted at.

The ship hummed to life. "And that's not a standard power system," Kyle noted.

"No, it isn't."

"Everyone strapped in?" Mara said.

"We're ready," Maris said.

The ship lifted silently from the deck of the hangar and glided out into open space. "Do you have the coordinates?" Juno asked.

"Here." Kyle fished out the data chit and handed it over. Juno entered the data and nodded. "Go it. Okay, well, here goes nothing."

"What does she mean?" Kyle asked.

The sky exploded into a maelstrom of white light which finally resolved into a tunnel not too dissimilar to hyperspace. And a minute later, the sky reverted to normal. "I have the station," Mara said from her position.

Juno adjusted her coordinates, and Kyle sucked in a breath as Ergo station came into view. "We were three days from that station."

"I crossed a void between galaxies in a week," Harry said. "Mages use a true form of hyperspace your people never heard of. As far as I know, your people never attempted to advance your propulsion systems beyond what you already have. You found hyperdrive early on, which is fast but inefficient and requires an intimate mapping of space to be safe, hence you stay on known routes. True hyperspace is outside of normal matter, and so mapping is less important. This ship goes through planets and stars."

"Are you going to share this technology?" Jan asked.

"Never."

"Why?"

"Because the Emperor would get it and use it to blow up planets, murder whole civilizations, and kill puppies. The planets and civilizations I could live with—but I will never allow anyone to needlessly harm a puppy."

They all stared at him, trying to figure out what a puppy was. However, Harry was already moving. "Kyle, coming? Juno, love, please keep the ship cloaked and take us to the Arc Hammer."

"On our way. You're going to apparate?"

"Yes. Be on standby to get us out fast."

Kyle joined him, pausing only long enough to grab a bag of weapons. "Have enough guns there, Kyle?"

"You can never have enough guns," Kyle countered.

"Okay, hang on tight."

He grabbed Kyle's arm as Leia and Jan Ors Katarn joined them in the sitting room. Jan was about to call out to Kyle that she loved him, but before she could the two were gone. "Don't worry," Leia said, somehow sensing her intent. "He knows."

The shuttle drifted without power in the midst of a shattered comet making its way into the atmosphere of Hoth. Adrift as the planet was in a dirty system filled with asteroids and comets, the occurrence was not unusual.

The pilot of the shuttle was skilled—it hits the atmosphere with no power but at the perfect angle to minimize the disruption of re-entry, positioned solely by chemical positional jets. Once in the atmosphere, it extended its tri-foils but still did not activate any drive systems, not even its repulsor coils, until it was almost on the surface. The shuttle's powerful thruster block then exploded with fusion power and sent it barreling across the planet's icy surface toward the anomalous readings their probe had picked up.

The shuttle found a narrow crevice fifty clicks from the site and went down to land. It's rear latch opened and fifty men draped in white armor and thermal skirts and neck scarves emerged in two lines. Each carried a specialized repeater blaster carbine with a mini rocket/grenade launcher attached behind.

After the men disembarked, their gear came sliding out as well. Specialized, cold-proof speeder bikes, fifty in all. The snow troopers locked their carbines in the specialized holder on the side of the bikes and climbed on. The bikes purposefully forced them into a near horizontal position to minimize their silhouette against the snow. The bikes themselves were a mottled white color with a large filter at the back to absorb the heat of the thruster without actually interfering with the thrust itself.

The leader took off, and all fifty followed along behind in a single line, again designed to minimize the disruption of the soil. They flew slowly, only twenty clicks an hour, again to minimize the amount of snow thrown up by their trail.

It took over two hours for them to reach the anomaly, but the snow troopers did not mind. They were human, of course, given the Empire's humano-centric recruiting policies, but all were from cold-climate planets. They like the cold, though with their thermal skirts and insulated armor they could barely feel it.

They finally reached the anomaly. Rather than ride right up to it, they dismounted half a click away and examined it from a distance. They saw the force fence around it to keep out the indigenous life, and also saw the two laser cannon turrets on either end. They continued to wait for nearly an hour until they saw a sentry cross between the turrets—a rebel uniform.

The fiftieth man climbed back onto his speeder bike and started the trek back, going just as slow on the return as they did on the first part of the journey. Meanwhile, the forty-nine remaining storm troopers pulled their white carbines off their bikes, pulled their collapsible thermal skirts of their head, and began the slow, laborious process of crawling toward the power generator of Hoth Base.

Crawling slowly, often waiting still for ten minutes or more, it took easily two more hours to reach the thermal generator. By then the sun was setting. Rather than continue their attack, the snow troopers used their carbines and specialized, self-heating knives to dig into the snow while keeping the surface flat with their thermal skirts. Within minutes they had established a mostly comfortable burrow under the ice and snow within a dozen feet of the rebel power generator.

That night the night staff in the command center never saw the tight, three second tight laser-transmission beam shot from fifty kilometers from their base. It was not an open holonet transmission, but rather a brief burst of red light in which the necessary data was encapsulated.

The beam diffused partially through the atmosphere, but was still tight enough to go through the monitoring satellites that looked like asteroids caught in orbit of the planet, until the beam reached the awaiting sector fleet.

On the flagship of the fleet, a powerful but not extraordinary Imperial-II class Star Destroyer called Empire's Will, bright red eyes set in a blue-skinned face scanned over the decoded transmission burst with satisfaction.

"Begin moving the fleet," Grand Admiral Thrawn ordered the captains of his fleet by holonet. "Remember, slow and patient. Do not let them detect our approach. Make sure to fly fighters ahead of your ship to clear any potential mines."

As one the ship captains bowed in acknowledgement, and the attack began.

While the rebel fleet was engaged in Mon Calamari, and now Corellia, they had only a pair of heavy assault cruisers in the nearby asteroid belt to call on. Thrawn had already dispatched twenty of his frigates and corvettes to deal with the heavy cruisers. The smaller ships could navigate through the asteroid belt easier than the larger star destroyers.

In took most of the evening, but Thrawn's fleet cleared the asteroid belt without a single loss of life, save for one unfortunate TIE pilot who got cocky and clipped a solar panel against an asteroid.

Dawn was just rising over the base when Thrawn cave the signal.

The fifty snow troopers emerged from their burrows and ran toward the generator. The turret operators were themselves exhausted by the long shift and never saw the white figures moving against the white snow until the first thermal detonators went off, blowing the turret hatch and killing the men inside. Both turrets were neutralized, and the sentry was taken down with a knife to the throat. Not a single shot was fired.

Within the command center, General Rieekan walked in with a friendly nod to his night relief and sent the younger man to get some sleep. He sat down near the tactical table that showed a holographic representation of the Hoth System, sipped his caf, and started reading the morning reports.

He did not get very far when his comlink went off. "This is Rieekan," he said.

"Carlist," came the pensive-sounding voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, "I and my fellow Jedi have been feeling a danger in the Force. It was elusive last night, but when we woke up this morning the feeling was very acute. Do you have anything on…."

But Carlist Rieekan was no longer listening. His eyes were glued to the holographic tactical display showing fifty ships suddenly firing upon and utterly destroying their heavy cruisers. "Oh Force," he whispered. He slammed the base-wide intercom. "All stations, this is General Rieekan. We are under attack! Repeat, we are under attack. Our heavy cruisers have been destroyed. All men to battle stations. Begin emergency evacuation procedures at once!"

The forty-nine storm troopers finished placing their charges along the base of the power generators. The time for stealth was over and they ran at full tilt until they reached their speeder bikes. They were flying away at full speed when the charges went off, immediately destroying the power generator.

In the command center, Lieutenant Toryn Farr gasped as the whole station darkened for a moment before the emergency generators came in. "General, we've lost the generator," she said in a dead voice. "Shields are gone, the ion cannons are inoperable."

Rieekan closed his eyes, cursing under his breath just as the first turbolaser cannon blasts hit the perimeter of the base. Without their shield in place, there was no defense against orbital bombardment. There was no reason for the Empire to launch a ground assault. Admiral Thrawn had no interest in invading and conquering the planet. His task as assigned by the Emperor personally was to simply obliterate the Alliance.

In the base below, Obi-Wan, Yoda and It'kla gathered the small group of Jedi while Han Solo and Luke Skywalker scrambled to get to their fighters. The Imperial fleet was being very methodical and began the obliteration of the planet surface on the perimeter of the base, moving inward in a sheet of death.

The Alliance did not have time to pack their supplies. Most did not even have time to run. Carlist Rieekan died with Toryn Farr and the rest of the command staff. General Vernon died seconds later. Solo, half of his pilots, Luke and most of the Jedi made it to their fighters and managed to launch. They flew into an atmosphere burning with turbolaser fire from one side of the horizon to the other. The snow was gone, as was the top quarter mile of the surface as the Empire steadily reduced Hoth to a burning ball of slag.

Luke watched in horror as Jake Lo'gaan's fighter disappeared in a ball of gas. He could hear Jekria's cry of anguish at the death of her father. Luke did not even have the strength to cry out, such was the numbness of their defeat. Han cursed loudly as he watched one after another of his pilots die.

The fighters flew ahead of the rain of destruction and surged up to make it into orbit. There they found a whole swarm of a thousand TIE fighters waiting for them. The commander of the TIE squadrons recognized the atmospheric superiority of the T-64 X-wing fighters and chose instead to engage in the TIE's prime medium.

"There's no choice," Han said grimly. "Blow through, top speed. Do not stop, do not deviate from your goal. Drop forward shields to maximize your firepower and burn for all your worth. Rendezvous with the Mon Calamari fleet if you get through."

"Good luck, Han," Luke said.

"You too, kid," Han said. "Good luck to us all. Now, go!"

The three dozen or so X-wing fighters, all that remained of the six-thousand strong members of the Hoth rebel base, plowed into the cloud of TIE-fighters with their laser cannons and torpedos blasting away desperately.

Of the thirty-six ships that entered the cloud, thirteen emerged from the other side of the TIE fighters. In the lead, Luke Skywalker wiped bitter, stinging tears from his eyes. Jekria Lo'gaan's fighter was not one of the baker's dozen that emerged.

"I'm so sorry, kid," Han said a moment before his fighter surged into hyperspace.

Luke nodded, wiped his nose, and followed.

Two men appeared in an empty corridor. The corridor was the same gray as all Imperial ships. "First things first," Harry said. The two started walking down the hall until they reached a computer terminal.

Kyle removed a small slicer box and jacked it in. "Okay, here we go," he said. "Project Talisman is housed in a development lab on Deck 23C. And look—the ship has a Dark Trooper production line as well. Goody."

Both men heard a loud clanging sound in the rhythm of steps and looked up in time to see two massive dark troopers turned the corner directly in front of them.

Harry was about to transfigure the two machines into plants when Kyle removed a very large rifle from his pack and fired in a single, practiced motion. A streak of blue light slammed into the two droids and blew them apart, while also ripping apart the walls of the corridor and setting off every alarm on the ship.

"Subtle," Harry said. "You want to stay with me or go blow things up?"

"Blow things up, of course," Kyle said.

"Fine." Harry grabbed Kyle's belt buckle in a way that made the young Jedi gasp.

"Whoa, now, I'm a married man!"

"Your belt buckle is now a portkey," Harry said with a grin. "Grab it and say 'Jan' and it will take you back to the Rogue Shadow."

"Gotcha. Thanks."

"All right, have fun. Don't die."

"You neither."

Harry watched the brave young warrior run in the opposite direction until he disappeared around the corner. Moments later he heard the sound of the huge gun firing again, followed moments later by screaming.

He disillusioned himself and continued on his way. Almost immediately he encountered resistance in the form of ceiling-mounted e-webs and more dark troopers. The e-webs exploded at a glance and he transfigured the droids into glass. The first step shattered their bodies under their own weight.

There were a handful of storm troopers that he turned into frogs, but the officer he summoned. He read the man's mind and in a second gained a clear picture of the lab where the Talisman Project was kept. With that image, Harry closed his eyes and disapparated.

On the other side of the hall, Kyle ducked behind a corner as more dark troopers fired plasma cannons at him. He reached out with his burgeoning Force sense and grasped one firmly enough to bring it flying forward. As it passed his position he shot it in the back with his own concussion rifle.

The shockwave hurt like hell, but it was the only thing that seemed to dent or damage the huge dark troopers. The second one cleared the corner just in time for Kyle to light his saber and thrust it into the exposed armpit of the machine. The arm with the cannon came off, exposing a larger opening. Kyle thrust his saber in through the chest cavity of the droid and watched if fall sparking and twitching to the floor.

He had to take a deep breath to recover from the close concussion blast before he continued. He didn't get very far before another, larger Dark Trooper stepped into his path. Only, he sensed a presence in this trooper.

"Kyle Katarn," a familiar voice said. "I knew at the Academy you would go far, but I never thought it would be so far away from honor and loyalty. What a disappointment you've become."

Kyle had heard that deep, grandfatherly voice many times during his Academy days. Once upon a time he listened with complete respect. "General Rohm Moc. I'd say it's good to see you again, but I'd be lying. I've come to put these troopers of yours to rest."

"We'll see about that," Moc said. "Though even if you succeed here, you'll fail. Did you notice the absence of storm troopers, Kyle? The absence of personnel at all? That's for a reason. The ships around this base are mere shells—old redressed hulks. Even as we speak, your base on Hoth is being obliterated. At last the Imperial Navy is under the command of a truly worthy man, even if he is not truly human."

Kyle fought hard to control his breathing. He sensed nothing but hurtful, joyous truth in the man's words. "Seems a lot of work to go through just to trap a lowly Alliance colonel."

"Oh, dear, foolish boy," Moc said. "This was never about you. This is about your friend the Celestial. He is going to find that the Muur Talisman is more than a match even for him. And even if he should survive the day, nothing he fights for will. Not that it matters."

Moc raised one arm and fired a plasma cannon blast without hesitation.

Kyle felt the threat in the Force just moments before and flung himself forward and to the side like he did when fighting the first Dark Trooper. However, this was not a droid brain, but an experienced, capable fighter.

Moc brought his other hand around in a powerful chop that clipped Kyle's right arm, snapping it easily.

The Jedi fell awkwardly and felt his knee cap crack with numbing pain. He managed to just roll away as Moc launched a volley of blaster fire.

"Jan!" Kyle shouted as he clutched his belt buckle.

He felt a discomforting pull on his navel, and moments later fell into a couch in the sitting room of the Rogue Shadow. "Jan!" he cried again.

Seconds later Jan was running into the room, following by Harry's wives. She immediately started treating his arm while Kyle looked up at Leia. "General Moc said this was all a trap to lure Harry away from Hoth Base. He said the base was destroyed and our fleets at Kashyyyk and Mon Calamari were obliterated."

Leia blanched, and behind her the other wives did as well. "We can't signal them while cloaked," Juno finally said. "We'll just have to wait until Harry gets back. Where is he?"

"Still on board. We split up." Kyle grimaced. "I'm going to go into a healing trance, but wake me if you need to."

Leia and the rest nodded and then watched as Kyle laid back on the couch and seemed to go to sleep.

Leia felt an arm around her shoulder and turned to see Mara holding her. "I'm sure he's all right," Mara said. "We'd know if he wasn't."

"Yes," Leia said weakly.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Morne

Harry felt when Kyle left the ship. Kyle and his single opponent were the only living things he could feel after he killed few living men, though he knew the ship was brimming with Dark Troopers.

He had already encountered a dozen of the fearsome robots. The weapons fired the moment they spotted him, and continued firing even after he apparated to a point behind them and transfigured their bodies to glass. The shockwave of their own weapons was usually enough to shatter them at that point.

Still, the whole thing felt wrong. The air thrummed with a danger as profound and pervasive as anything Harry had ever felt.

"Harry, Kyle has come over," Leia's voice came over the comlink. "General Moc told him that Hoth base was under attack."

"Does Kyle believe him?"

"Yes."

Harry nodded grimly. "We need to finish this, and then we'll go see what's happening."

He continued through the halls, transfiguring and destroying dark trooper after dark trooper. He was nearing the lab when the first rakghouls appeared. Only, these rakghouls wore the remnants of Imperial naval uniforms and carried guns. He sensed no intelligence within them, and yet their attacks showed intelligence.

More and more came. He transfigured them into rocks and sticks as he made his way through the halls. It appeared the entire lab crew had been turned into rakghouls, and by the time he reached the lab the halls were littered with rocks and sticks.

He stopped at the transparisteel windows of the lab and felt as if someone had punched him.

A woman stood in the middle of the lab surrounded by rakghouls. They seemed to be obeying her commands.

The woman herself was stunningly beautiful, with rich black hair that hung down in a thick braid that reached down the small of her back. The braid was wrapped in white cloth. Her white two-piece uniform left her middrift bare and showed her considerable cleavage, but her arms were covered in sleeves that ended in gauntlets. She held a blazing yellow lightsaber in her hand. Around her neck was a scorpion-like choker that nearly glowed black with evil energy.

Red, enraged eyes looked at him through the glass.

"At last," she hissed. Her accept was strange and lilted, as if she were attempting to affect an age old dialect of basic. A moment later, though, Harry realized it was not an affectation. "My captor finally shows his face. Are you ready to die, Sith?"

Harry stared at her, captivated. The woman's power was stronger than anything he had encountered. However, it was the dark Sith magic that hung about her shoulders that caught his attention.

He raised a hand and the woman tensed for battle.

He flicked his fingers and the rakghouls were gone. In their place were rocks and sticks. Only then did he step into the lab proper. The woman was seemingly unfazed by his attack and swung her yellow lightsaber with deadly skill.

Harry pulled his twin sabers and parried. "I am not Sith," he said as he held back a flurry of blows.

"You are!" she said. "The general showed me images of you killing that man for the Sith Lord. You killed that man and murdered his family!"

Harry shrugged. "Well, I did kill the man. But I smuggled his family off planet and faked their deaths. I was trying to organize a coup to overthrow the Sith and needed him to believe me one of his servants. And frankly Carnac was a sleaze. His wife and kids were innocent, though."

"Liar!"

"My name is Harry Potter. And I was on Jabiim. The planet where you unleashed your power. Millions of people died on that world. Is that what you wanted?"

"NO!" The shout bordered on a hopeless wail of despair. "Never! I didn't mean to. The droids woke me and hurt me. It was instinctive. Muur struck before I could control it."

"You're a weapon," Harry said. "The Sith Emperor has been using you to strike at his enemies. They built droids who could not be turned to escort and control you. They took you to a rebel-friendly world and made you destroy it. I can't let that happen again."

She shifted her balance. "The Talisman wants you. He can feel your power."

"I bet he can. Muur was a Sith, then?"

"Yes. He wants me to give the talisman to you."

"And what happens to you?"

"Nothing. I'll die before I let this cursed talisman fall into the hands of a Sith."

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

She swung with a yell. Harry disapparated and banished her to a wall. She spun around, eyes wide. "Who are you?' she snapped back.

"I'll tell you if you tell me," he said. "But I promise I am not Sith. I'm here to destroy the weapon the Empire has been using to destroy my friends."

The woman straightened a little, though her saber remained at the ready. "I believe you," she whispered. "Very well. My name is Celeste Morne of Ossus. I was tasked by the Jedi Covenant to hunt down and find the Muur Talisman on Taris three years after the Sith destroyed my world. Unfortunately, I found it. I witnessed its power, and so I…I agreed to take it with me into Dreypa's Oubliette, a device that would hold me in suspended animation. The Sith found me, and used me as a weapon."

Harry was still not completely versed on everything in the galaxy's history, but he and his wives had researched Taris because of the rakghouls. The realization that he was looking at a four-thousand year old Jedi was startling.

"You do realize that Ossus was destroyed four thousand years ago," he said softly.

"What?' For a brief moment, the fight went out of her and her shoulders sagged. "How is that possible?"

"Time goes quickly when you're in suspended animation," he said. "Or dead."

Her wandering gaze snapped back to her face. "Who are you?"

"As I said, my name is Harry Potter. I am what your people would call a Celestial. The same Sith that used you summoned me, and tried to use me as his personal weapon. He eventually learned his mistake, and I've been fighting him since. You're welcome to join us."

"Never!" she said. "I'll never let anyone use the talisman!"

"Then destroy it."

"I can't."

"I can," Harry said resolutely. He loosened the binds he kept over his magic, letting his true power shine forth.

Her red eyes widened. "What are you?" she whispered.

"I told you," he said with a smile. "I am a two-million year old Celestial. The midi-chlorians that give you the Force were based on my DNA. My people created them. We built the human start systems. We brought humanity to this galaxy. And right now, I tell you I have the power to destroy the talisman."

"Muur does not believe you," Morne said in a shaky voice. "He thinks he can use your power for his own."

Harry grinned, but there was no humor in it. "Then let him try."

Without warning scorpion-like choker unlocked itself from Morne's neck and flew toward Harry on its own volition. Harry caught it and felt the cold, burning power of the talisman. "I've been destroying irritating little pieces of trash like you a million years before you were born, Muur," he whispered to the sentience contained within the device. It was, in a very real sense, a Sith horcrux.

He began chanting the exorcism spell, summoning the full power of his magic as he did so. Nearby, Celeste Morne staggered against a wall, gasping and crying at the pain of suddenly being freed. Harry, though, ignored her as he brought the full strength of his power against the most evil of devices.

The sentience within the device sensed the threat and reached out in the only way it could. Celeste screamed as black fluid gathered at the corners of her eyes.

"I don't think so," Harry growled. He poured more strength into his incantation, and Celeste stopped screaming and lurched over unconscious to the floor.

I will not be defeated! The spirit of Muur raged. I am forever! I am eternal!

"You don't have any idea of what forever means!" Harry hissed. "I am the Forever Mage! And in the name of the light and magic, I banish you forever, Karness Muur. BEGONE!"

Power surged once more. The scorpion-like talisman glowed bright white for a brief moment, before it cracked.

The physical destruction was mild compared to the spiritual scream that rent the Force.

Harry staggered back, numb from the shock of the destruction, and exhausted from the sheer amount of magic it took to destroy the tasliman. He staggered to the fallen Jedi and knelt down beside her.

He was about to wake her when he heard heavy footsteps behind him.

"So you are the mighty Harry Potter," General Rohm Moc said from the center of his lethal Dark Trooper exosuit. "And to think the Emperor was ever worried about…."

He never finished. Harry transfigured the suit into a tin can, but did not resize the man within. The results were bloody and instantaneous.

He turned back to Celeste, using a conjured cloth to wipe the black fluid from her eyes. She came too and saw him leaning over her and tending her. "What…."

"Easy," he said softly. "The talisman has been destroyed. You're free."

She shook her head, and natural tears started to wash away the black. "I'll never be free," she whispered. "I killed so many…."

"And how many more did you save by taking the talisman into yourself?" Harry asked. Harry couldn't help himself. He smiled at her. "By Merlin, what you did is the bravest thing I think I've ever seen. You knew exactly what your fate would be and you did it anyway. By heaven that's incredible. You're incredible!"

She stared into his amazed eyes. "Are you really a Celestial?"

He leaned closer until he could smell her. He could tell she had not bathed in a long time—she smelled of blood, sweat and pain. But the musk of her body was also strong, and he felt himself responding to it.

"I have lived and died many times," he said softly to her. "Five women gather around an artifact from my youth, pledge themselves to be mine, and I am reborn. Again and again through the ages, I've faced dark lords and tyrants, armies and gods, always with five women at my side to guide and strengthen me. But this time, the fifth has been missing. But I see her now in your eyes. You have the courage and power of the best of Gryffindor."

He opened the bond, not enough to enslave her, but enough for her to feel what he could offer. He was expecting her to flush and gasp with the power of it.

He was not expecting a blast of Force energy sending him careening into the glass wall of the lab. "Ouch," he muttered as he slid to the floor.

"Lies!" Morne hissed. "You'd try to seduce my just like Muur did. One eternal slavery for another! Never!" Her yellow lightsaber flashed. "I'll die first. I'll kill you long before then!"

Harry had no choice but to disapparate as the blade cut through the glass. She spun around and attacked again as he appeared, sensing through the Force where he was going to appear before he actually did.

As a wizard, he could have beaten her easily. But he hesitated to do so. He didn't know if his hesitation was because she was so beautiful in her righteous anger, or because of the fact that, Jedi to Jedi, she was quickly simply kicking his ass.

He found the sensation oddly…comforting. It felt good to know that this beautiful woman, who was powerful but only within the range of her people, could out fight him. It made him feel human again.

"Why are you smiling!" she snarled.

"Because you're beating me," he said.

"You're a fool."

"Yes, probably," he agreed. He had to backpedal to avoid a swipe that would have cut him in half. "When you kill me, what will you do then?"

"You talk about death as if you are its friend."

"Oh, we are good friends. We go way back. Let me show you."

He sent images of his deaths to her, one after the other, hundreds and then thousands. The mental assault stopped her attack immediately and caused her to fell to her knees and retch all over the floor.

He cleaned the mess with a flick of his hands. "Sorry," he said softly.

She looked up, eyes narrowed. "The seduction didn't work, now you try horror?"

He shrugged. "How's this for a trick." He de-activated both his sabers and then tossed them to her. He then sat down cross-legged across from her and grinned. "I'm completely at your mercy."

She jumped back to her feet and had the saber at his neck. "I should kill you where you stand!"

"Actually, I'm sitting. So you should kill me where I sit."

She blinked in surprise at the jest. "You don't think I'll do it."

"Oh, that's just it—I know you'll do it. I can feel it from you. You have the strength to kill if you need to. Even yourself. You're dedication knows limits. I could beat you with my power, but it doesn't feel fair. So, since you're the better Jedi, I will submit to you. Kill me if you think you must."

She looked at him in confusion. "I don't sense evil in you."

"Well, you know, when you stop long enough to actually reach out with your senses, it's amazing what you can figure out. I am not Sith! I came here to destroy the Muur Talisman. And in the process I discovered the most incredible, beautiful, powerful woman I've seen in two million years. Can you blame me for trying to woo you?"

She took a step back but kept her saber at the ready. "You just met me."

He closed his eyes. "I can see your soul, Celeste Morne. If you look, you will see mine as well."

He felt her extending her senses to his mind, and without hesitation opened himself up to her, exposing hundreds of thousands of years of memory.

Celeste Morne knew pain. From watching her world die as a young padawan at the end of the Great Sith War, to the indescribable horrors of Taris, she knew pain.

She knew the Darkness as if it were her lover. Karnass Muur seduced her into accepting the power of the talisman to keep it out of the hands of the Mandolorian Pulsipher. However, she was strong enough to withstand the power he offered. Only to defeat his ultimate purpose did she keep the talisman and allow herself to be frozen in time.

Only, time and again in those last, terrible days, she used the talisman as a weapon against the Mandolorians, who were sweeping across the galaxy in the midst of the destruction of the Great Sith War. If not for the clumsy padawan, Carrick, she would have continued to do so.

He offered her the oubliette as a way to once and forever stop the threat the talisman presented. In her devotion to the Jedi and her hatred of the Sith, and because of Carrick's loyalty to her, she agreed.

Yet it seemed just a heart beat later, the lid of the oubliette opened and she found herself facing a Sith named Darth Vader, and the nightmare started over again. She managed to beat the Sith Lord back and turned his crew into rakghouls to force him to leave her. She crashed onto a barren moon and considered herself permanently stranded. And it remained that way for many years.

She thought herself beyond all hope. But then the ultimate Sith Lord came. He arrived alone, seemingly old and helpless. A wizened, ugly old man with Sith-burned orange eyes and a metallic smile.

He used platitudes like "Dear" and "Child", but his soul was so wretched it made the spirit of Karnass Muur purr. She attempted to strike him down, but the Sith's power was too great, and the last she saw of him with a contented smile as he forced her back into the oubliette.

After that she had only glimpses of the great dark droids that hurt her and caused her to reflexively lash out with the power. Again and again. Until the last time when she woke to a lab full of terrified officers and two more of the dark troopers. She lashed out at once, turning everyone she could sense in rakghouls so that she might escape.

Only, instead of escape, she found herself falling into the pit of a strange young man's memories. It felt as if she were falling down a great well. All around she saw memories playing out. Some were of him fighting valiantly. Many were of him loving women, and of their impassioned cries.

And finally she found herself sitting at a small table set before a large, arcing window that looked out over a beautiful, peaceful valley dominated by a lake of deep, dark blue water.

The transition should have left her bedazzled, but for some reason she felt oddly calm. Across from her she saw another woman, with thick, bushy hair barely held in check by a tie of some type. The other woman had soothing, intelligent brown eyes and a broad smile.

"Hello," she said.

Feeling as if she were in a dream, Celeste said, "Hello. Who are you?"

"I am the first woman Harry Potter ever loved. I am his first wife. You may call me Hermione."

Celeste blinked and looked around the room. The room suddenly seemed to go on forever, and wherever she looked, she saw thousands of women looking back at her. "Who are all these women?"

"These are your sisters," Hermione said. "They are all the Lady Gryffindors who came after me. Though he pretends he doesn't, Harry remembers every wife he ever had. One life after the other, hundreds of thousands of lives spread over uncountable eons, he still remembers. Because he truly loves every wife he has. And because those lives give him the power he needs to save the galaxy."

"You're really Potter, aren't you?" Celeste said. "And this is an elaborate hoax."

"I am a memory within Harry, so in that sense, yes, I am Harry," Hermione said. "I am an amalgamation of all his memories of me. And since I was not just his first wife, but the first girl who ever hugged him—the first to ever kiss him—the first to ever make love to him—his memories of me have a strong emotional content and strength than any of the others. I am more real, you might say. Because, though he loved all his wives throughout history, he loved me first and foremost."

"Why am I here?"

"Because you are going to be the last Lady Gryffindor," Hermione said with a wistful smile. "Not even Harry realizes this. Not consciously, anyway. You see, he truly is a Celestial. Our kind wielded true power, of which the Force is only the most shallow reflection. We evolved and grew strong until we thought ourselves gods, and then we realized the depths of our mistake when real gods challenged us. Through it all, Harry remained brave and strong. He was born again and again, dying again and again, to help save his people. But there is one battle left. And it is a battle he cannot fight unless he has all five of his wives. He has four—it is you he lacks. With your power, grace and love, he will be ready and will be able to put everything back to the way it was supposed to be."

"I am no man's wife."

"Harry is not just any man. He is the Forever Mage. And I can tell you from personal experience that if you allow him to, he can give you such passion and happiness that you will never feel any desire to consider the horrors of your past, while additionally giving you the challenge of changing the future with him."

"You speak as if I don't have a choice."

"There is always choice, Celeste Morne. When you wake from this vision, you can cut him down. The four beautiful, strong women who have already chosen to join him will die as their bonds are severed, but you will not face the temptation of his love again. But when Harry saw your soul, so did I, and I know you will not do this. For you are so full of love that you were willing to give up your life and your future to save people you had never met. You are the closest person to being like Harry that any of us have ever met. And it is that similarity that will bind you. For like you, Harry has had to give up his life and future many times. And like you, his destiny involves a great battle that will reshape the galaxy itself. It is because of this that I know you will choose wisely. And when the time comes, your memory will join us here, and your soul will reside with the rest of us in heaven. Let him love you, Celeste Morne. Of all the people in the galaxy, you deserve his love, even if only for what time you can have it."

Suddenly the room and the woman was gone, and Celeste found herself sitting cross-legged two feet from Harry Potter. He opened his eye and she saw they were an alien shade of green she had never seen before.

"What did you find in there?" he asked softly.

"A woman named Hermione."

His smile turned sad and wistful. "After all these years, I still carry a little part of her with me," he said sadly. "It's amazing that you can still miss someone after so long. I've loved every wife, but I've often wondered if she wasn't my one and only soul mate."

"She says I will be the new Lady Gryffindor."

"It is my hope."

"She says you have a final battle to fight."

"The Emperor of this galaxy is Sith. I intend to destroy him and restore freedom to the galaxy," he said. "Few Jedi survive. You will not just be my wife—you will be a Jedi master to help restore the order."

"I…I have never been with a man. I never thought I would be."

He leaned forward and slowly unleashed the bond. He watched as the flush started in her chest and moved up. "What you are feeling is the first stage of a bond of magic. Similar to a Force bond. It will bind us as man and wife. But at this stage I could stop it and you could live your life as you wish. Once upon a time I did not have control over this bond, but I do now, and I will never bond with someone against their will if I have any say in it. Do you wish me to sever this bond, Celeste?"

She closed her eyes, luxuriating in the foreign sensation. "No," she whispered.

"Good," he said. "Because in all my hundreds of thousands of lives, I've never met anyone as selfless and powerful as you, not since my wonderful Hermione." He unleashed the full power of the bond and Celeste convulsed as if struck, moaning as she did so.

"I don't know what to do," she moaned. And so he leaned forward, placed his lips against hers, and showed her. She ran his lips down her long neck, tasting the sweat and musk of her four thousand year captivity.

"Yes," she gasped, realizing now through his physical touch what the urges of the bond meant.

And so Harry Potter and Celeste Morne consummated their bonds on the floor of the lab in the otherwise abandoned Arc Hammer while across the galaxy, the planet of Hoth burned into a glassy cinder.

Chapter Twenty Five: Wizard's Revenge

Jan Ors looked up from her husband in alarm when she heard Leia gasp and almost fall over. "What is it?' she demanded.

Moments later a furiously blushing Mara Jade entered the medical bay of the Rogue Shadow. "Leia, did you feel it?"

"I'm still feeling it," Leia said.

"Feeling what?" Jan asked.

Before she got her answer, Juno Eclipse and Maris Brood also entered, smiling happily. "He found her!" Maris exclaimed happily.

"Found who?" Jan asked.

"But how?" Mara asked the other wives, ignoring Jan for the moment in her obvious excitement. "How could he find her on board an Imperial ship?"

"I don't know, but it's definitely her," Maris said. She swayed. "They're doing it again."

"If someone doesn't answer me, I'm going to start shooting," Jan snarled.

"Harry found the fifth wife," Leia said, taking pity on the other woman.

"Fifth wife?" Jan said. "Because four isn't enough?"

"Not for him," Mara said.

"Before you girls got all itchy," Kyle Katarn said in a pained voice, "did any of you manage to contact Hoth?"

The question burned away the excitement the four women seemed to share. Leia sighed. "No, I haven't, and I admit I'm worried. Father was there, along with most of our ground forces, food supplies for the fleet, and all the replacement fighters we had built up. Not to mention munitions resupplies. It was our largest base of operations. It seems hard to believe."

"The Force led me to believe that Moc was telling the truth."

"We'll keep trying," Leia said. She stood and left the medical bay with her sister wives, leaving Jan and Kyle alone.

"Five wives, sheesh," Kyle muttered.

"Don't even think it," Jan said.

"I wasn't. I can't even keep up with you."

It was the right answer. She leaned down at kissed him so thoroughly he had to gasp when they parted. "Don't forget it, you idiot. Look at you. You almost got yourself killed. I don't know why I put up with you!"

"Because I love you?"

"Oh, yeah." She kissed him more tenderly this time. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"Promise."

Two hours later, Harry Potter and the new Lady Gryffindor appeared with a wispy "pop" in the middle of the sitting room.

Celeste began reaching for her lightsaber when she sensed people waiting for her, but stopped at Harry's gentle touch. "Celeste, I'd like you to meet your sister bond mates." He guided her to a diminutive but stately woman with brunette hair and compassionate brown eyes.

"This is Leia, Lady Slytherin. She is the adopted daughter of Senator Bail Organa, Viceroy of Alderaan and the last daughter of the House of Organa. Alderaan was destroyed over a year ago, and so there will be no more Alderaanian nobles. Her natural parents were Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and former Queen of Naboo Padme Amidala."

The death of planets was not unheard of, even in Celeste's time. "Hello," she said.

"Leia, this is Jedi Knight Celeste Morne, Lady Gryffindor. Celeste is a veteran of the Great Sith War, and was on Taris during the Rakghoul Plague."

Leia's eyes widened. "The Great Sith War?"

"She has been in suspended animation for several millennia to save the galaxy from the talisman that created the plague. Unfortunately, the Emperor found her."

"And the Talisman?"

"Destroyed, though with much effort." Harry turned Celeste to a lithe, startlingly beautiful young woman with vibrant red hair. "This is Mara Jade Potter. She was initially manipulated by the Sith into bonding with me first, but we've grown to love each other a great deal since then."

Celeste could not help but reach out and touch the red locks. "You remind me of Nomi Sunrider," she said.

Mara looked at the older woman in awe. "You knew Nomi Sunrider?"

"She was part of the relief effort to save the Jedi of Ossus before it was destroyed by a Sith-spawned supernova. She was very beautiful—like you."

"Thank you," Mara said simply.

"This is Jedi Knight Juno Eclipse, Lady Ravenclaw," Harry said. Juno smiled at the latest addition to the family.

"Welcome, my sister," Juno said softly. She stepped forward and hugged Celeste. "If what he said is true, you have four thousand years of history to catch up on. I can help you if you but ask."

"And finally Maris Brood, Lady Hufflepuff. Maris was a padawan when the Sith Emperor conducted a purge that wiped out most of the order. She brushed against the darkness, but now burns all the brighter because of it."

The Zabrak was staring unabashedly at Celeste. "You're just like Harry," she said. "You've lived forever because you were willing to sacrifice everything."

Celeste looked from the beautiful Zabrak to Harry, then back again. "I suppose we have similarities," she allowed. She looked around the spacious ship. "Where are we? How did we come here?"

"Through the power of Mages one can teleport," Harry explained. "Leia?"

Leia disappeared with a pop, only to reappear across the floor. "It's a learned skill," Lady Slytherin said with a wry smile at the amazed look on Celeste's face.

"So, how's Kyle?" he asked.

"Broken," Leia said.

"Let's go fix him."

Jan looked up at Harry and his wives entered. She immediately caught sight of the stunningly beautiful Celeste Morne. "Number five, huh?"

"Are you number six?" Celeste asked dryly.

"No, she's number one, for me," Kyle said. "So where was the talisman?"

"Around her neck," Harry said. "She was a Jedi Knight during the Great Sith War. She found the talisman and kept it from harming others by going into suspended animation with it. Bravest damned thing I've seen in all my lifetimes. The plagues were not her fault."

"Wow," Kyle said. He looked back at Morne. "Hello, I'm Kyle Katarn. Colonel. Jedi in training."

"And broken," Harry said. "Let's fix that." He placed a hand on the cast around Kyle's arm, then his leg, and finally his ribs. When his removed his hand from each spot, a faint afterglow remained.

"Alright, remove the casts. He should be fine now."

Jan looked up at Harry in surprise, but Kyle was already removing the casts. "That is so cool," he said. "Can Jedi masters heal that fast?"

"No," Celeste Morne said, astounded. "More mage power?"

"Yep. We're just full of surprises. Now, let's head to the bridge and go see what's happening with Hoth. Leia, have you heard anything?"

"Nothing yet," she said.

They led the way through the massive interior. "How big is this vessel?" Celeste asked.

"A lot larger on the inside than on the out," Harry explained. "I used magic to increase the interior dimensions beyond that of the exterior of the ship. From the outside it looks like a strange shuttle. But inside, as you can see, it has all the comforts of home."

They reached the cockpit and took their positions. "You aren't the pilot?" Celeste asked Harry. "I thought this was your ship."

"Actually, its Juno's," Harry said. "And they don't let me fly."

"The last ship he piloted, he crashed in a swamp," Mara said with a fond smile. "He commands a fleet of ten ships, and even the captains of those ships won't let him take the helm. He's a famously bad pilot."

"Which is ironic since given swoop and speeder bikes, I'm the best there's ever been," he said with a shrug.

They activated the ship's unique hyperdrive, and moments later arrived at Hoth.

The silence was only broken by Celeste Morne saying, "I don't remember Hoth being that color."

"It wasn't yesterday," Harry said grimly.

The planet had been subjected to a general order Base Delta Zero—a complete bombardment from orbit that obliterated any trace of the surface and left nothing but molten rock.

"Oh my stars," Leia breathed. "How…"

"Ships are incoming," Juno announced from the pilot's seat. "Two star destroyers and four heavy cruisers. Sensors are detecting additional ships on the far side of the planet. It looks like they are just finishing up the bombardment."

In a voice as cold as Hoth used to be, Harry said, "Give me weapons control, please."

Celeste watched as Harry pulled up a completely foreign-looking computer console. Through the view ports she saw a pair of massive ships and four smaller but still huge craft were heading right toward them.

Suddenly six white lights belched out from the asymmetrical ship. Each light moved toward a separate target. The incoming ships started firing their turbolasers both at the Rogue Shadow and at the approaching torpedoes, but nothing came of their tries.

The torpedoes hit at roughly the same time, enveloping their targets in mile-wide spheres of pure white light. When the spheres faded, only shrapnel remained. "Wow," Mara breathed. "Are you sure you don't want to give the Alliance this technology?"

"Once the Alliance has it, the Empire will get it," Harry said. "I'm not going to open that can of worms just yet," Harry insisted.

"The other ships are coming around the planetary horizon," Juno said. "It looks to be near sector fleet strength."

"Juno, take us in," Harry said. "We're going to show them what it means to anger a mage."

"Revenge is not the Jedi way," Celeste said.

He grinned darkly. "I'm not a Jedi. I am a wizard."

The Shadow accelerated under Juno's sure hand. Celeste and the others watched in amazement as Harry shot torpedo after torpedo, obliterating the first lines of ships. As they got closer, a shimmering bream of white energy burst out from under the bridge and impacted with a gigantic star destroyer directly ahead of them.

The beam tore through armor, directly into the hypermatter reactor. As the first star destroyer died in a spectacular explosion that buffeted the small Rogue Shadow, the phased particle cannon tore into a second and then a third. By the time Juno finished the strafing run, half the ships were either gone entirely, or blown into pieces. The rest of the ships in the fleet were breaking off to either escape through the asteroid belt, or to gain better position to repel the attacker.

Juno, sensing Harry's intent, brought the Shadow back around, and once again he started firing the phased particle canon, targeting each Imperial ship perfectly so that one shot meant one kill. Those ships that had already moved a distance away, he fired a single torpedo at. As they flew, Kyle and Jan made their way in silently, watching as a single yacht-sized ship managed to obliterate an entire sector fleet by itself.

When the last ship died, Mara said, "We just killed a million people."

Harry settled back from the console. "Seven hundred and thirty-six thousand according to the ship's scans," he whispered. He rubbed his face. "We need to find out who escaped. Do we have anything on the Gold Channel?"

"No," Leia said. "But that could be due to jamming. Our largest fleet concentration was at Mon Calamari trying to protect the shipyards there."

"Then that's where we're going," Harry said resolutely. "Juno?"

She was already entering the coordinates. Celeste looked around the cockpit and said, "I need to know exactly what is happening."

"The Republic fell twenty years ago to the Sith," Leia summarized quickly. "My father and two other senators slowly began to build up a resistance, until almost five years ago their separate factions came together to form a Rebel Alliance to fight the Empire. Our largest and most important base was on Hoth. And it looks like the Empire wiped it out completely. My…my father was there."

"As was the last remnants of the Jedi Order," Juno added.

Celeste nodded somberly and looked at Harry. "I was a mere distraction, wasn't I?" she asked softly.

"I'm afraid so," Harry said. "That impressive-looking fleet was comprised mostly of empty hulls of old ships." He reached out and took her hand. "But I would have gone anyway, and no matter what, I can't make myself regret finding you. For the first time in this galaxy, I am at my full power. For the first time, we're going to take the fight to the Empire."

The ship flashed through true hyperspace, and emerged a moment later into a scene from hell. Nearly five hundred Imperial ships were in a hemispherical formation around a much, much smaller Rebel fleet trapped against the atmosphere of Mon Calamari, pounding on the ships mercilessly.

"We've got signals now!" Leia said. "By the Force, it's a massacre! We've lost half our fleet!"

"Then it's time to even the odds," Harry said. "Juno, please take us in."

Like at Hoth, the small Shadow launched what should have been an impossible number of torpedoes, each one finding and obliterating its target. Ten, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty torpedoes made quick work of an equal number of front line ships. The quick destruction of so many Imperial vessels caught the attention of the Imperial navy and eased up the bombardment of the Rebel fleet.

As soon as the torpedoes were exhausted, the Shadow started with its phased particle cannon, continuing with its one-shot, one-kill ratio as it tore through the stunned Imperial fleet. Harry stood up from his console, though. "Maris, take the weapons?"

She slid into his seat without hesitation and he kissed her cheek. "Where are you going?" Celeste asked.

"Juno, take a pass by that super star destroyer. Don't fire on it, though."

"Where are you going?" Leia said, echoing Celeste's question.

"This was too well coordinated," Harry said. "So I'm going to go meet the man in charge. Don't worry too much if you see anything strange. Remember, with Celeste, the bonds are complete. I'll be back soon."

With that, he disappeared with nary even a pop.

"Well, he didn't say anything about shooting the rest of the ships," Maris said. She bounced in her seat. "I love the guns on this thing!"

In the void, a figure appeared in space without armor or a suit. Only as a turbolaser canon blast seared through space a hundred feet away did the energy of the blast cause the bubble around him to become briefly visible.

The figure began accelerating toward the nineteen kilometer long Executor-class star dreadnaught that seemed to be commanding the fleet. All around Harry, TIE-fighters and X-Wing fighters spit death at each other while massive war machines broke ranks to try and detect and evade the Rogue Shadow.

Harry continued through the void, secure in the fact that between his small size and his Runic shield, he was relatively safe. He could have apparated into the dreadnaught, but without a clear image of the interior he decided it was too risky. Instead, when he reached the command tower of the ship, he transfigured the outer hull to paper and entered, and then repaired the seal and returned the paper to its original state, layer after layer, until he emerged on an upper observation deck.

Already marines were pouring onto the deck, alerted to his presence. Harry quickly disillusioned himself and then apparated to the opposite side of the deck. While the marines continued to search the deck, he made his way down the narrow stairs on the far side of the deck until he reached the main corridor. From there he could easily see into the bridge itself.

At the very end of the bridge, looking through a wall of viewports at the battle beyond, stood a blue-skinned man with black hair, red eyes, and a white Grand Admiral's uniform. Several men in gray uniforms were clumped around him talking urgently, probably about how easily the Rogue Shadow was tearing through the fleet.

Harry casually walked down the command walkway, noticing the crowded consoles in the pits. The room was lined with storm troopers, fifty at least. But that was not who Harry noticed. Spread at uneven intervals were small, blue-skinned reptilian bipeds bristling with knives and melee weapons.

They were sniffing, and he had no doubt they could smell him.

The blue skin grand admiral turned his head to the nearest of these creatures and nodded before obviously dismissing his officers. He turned calmly and said, "Mr. Potter. Welcome aboard the Vengeance."

Harry allowed his disillusionment to fade. Instantly every storm trooper in the room brought their weapons to bear, while the reptilians gathered around the grand admiral.

"You must be Thrawn," Harry said. "I take it the Talisman Project was simply a diversion to get me away from Hoth?"

"Just so," Thrawn said with a nod. "After the debacle at Yavin, the Emperor felt your presence was sufficient to change the course of a battle. And given that I have just lost a quarter of my fleet within minutes of your arrival, I'm inclined to believe this. It is a shame we must kill you—I'd be fascinated to have a conversation with you."

"Quite," Harry said. The door to the command center slammed shut behind him. The air around him shimmered, and without hesitation storm troopers started to fire. The blaster bolts reflected back to the shooters from his shield, and in moments most were dead or wounded. The shimmer started to spark, and moments later it was a ring of fire around him.

The Noghri attacked in a wave, moving faster than normal humans could have hoped. They disintegrated one after the other when they got too close to the fire around Harry. He raised one hand, and with a flash the fire spread out in a ring at the speed of a bullet.

In a split second, he and Thrawn were the only ones on the bridge.

"Impressive," Thrawn whispered. "Not even the Emperor knows you can do such things."

Behind them, the door to the command deck began to thud with the efforts of ship marines to get in. Harry ignored the sound as he walked to Thrawn.

"Your fleet at Hoth has been destroyed to the last ship," Harry said. "And your fleet here will follow."

"Perhaps," Thrawn said. "In the meantime, the leadership of your rebellion has been killed. We intercepted Senator Mothma's ship attempting to leave this system and destroyed it. Our fleet at Correllia reported some time ago that Garm Bel Iblis's personal command ship was destroyed as well. And since only twelve fighters escaped Hoth, I feel confident that we killed Bail Organa. You might have destroyed our fleets, but we have destroyed your Rebellion."

Harry grieved for his wife's father. He walked toward the still calm and composed Grand Admiral. "You and your Emperor made one fatal error, Thrawn. You didn't get me."

"I admit there was a miscalculation on the part of the Emperor for your ability to survive. We were, both of us, fairly convinced that you would not survive the Talisman. May I ask what happened?"

"I destroyed the talisman, and have bonded with Celeste Morne. She is my fifth and final wife."

"Congratulations, I suppose," Thrawn said. "A rather barbaric custom, having multiple mates, but I understand your origins go back many, many years."

"You can say that," Harry agreed. He continued to walk until he was only a foot or two from Thrawn. "I was just going to destroy this ship, but I think I have another use for it. But in the meantime, where is the Emperor?"

"He's on Imperial Center, of course," Thrawn said.

"I don't think so," Harry said. "He's afraid of me. He knows what I can do to him, especially now that I am at full power."

"I cannot control what you believe," Thrawn said with a shrug. "I can only speak the truth."

"We shall see," Harry said.

Even Thrawn was startled by the speed with which Harry latched his hand to the Chiss's forehead. The elegant figure bent back and grunted in effort and pain as Harry brutally invaded his mind. There was no strategy, no tactics. Just sheer, brute-force power ripping through the highly disciplined and intelligent mind of Grand Admiral Thrawn.

He let go, and the Chiss fell to the deck gasping. "Quite unpleasant," he said, ever the professional.

"A second Death Star?" Harry asked. "How could he get it built so fast? The first took twenty years."

"A prototype was already built in the Maw," Thrawn said, not hesitating now that the secret was out. "They used that as the platform to speed construction. And when it is done, the Emperor will hunt you down and destroy you."

"I bet he will." Harry looked out the viewports. Star destroyers were now breaking formation entirely to escape the black death of the Rogue Shadow. He smiled grimly. "You have an interesting mind, Thrawn. Your plan was very effective. You emulated my attack plan against Dantooine, didn't you?"

"It worked very well," Thrawn confirmed.

"Yes. Well, I'm sorry we don't have more time to talk. Thank you, by the way, for the ship. I'll make good use of it by ramming it down Palpatine's throat."

With that, Thrawn disappeared, only to appear directly outside the viewport of the Vengeance. His eyes bulged and his face expanded as the vacuum began the quick, painful process of ending his life.

Harry walked to the center of the bridge, sat down, and began to concentrate. A sphere of light formed around him, and then like the fire shot out at incredible speed. The light encompassed the entire super star destroyer, until at the end all nineteen kilometers were enmeshed in it.

When it passed, the crew and compliment of over three hundred thousand men and women found themselves in space around the ship, their faces fixed in silent screams of pain and terror as they died.

Harry stood on shaky legs and walked to the communications panel. He manually overrode the Imperial frequencies and found the Rebel one. Broadcasting in the clear, he said, "This is Harry Potter to all Alliance ships. I have just gained control of Thrawn's command ship. The admiral and the rest of the crew are dead. I understand that the other members of the Alliance High Council are dead. As the surviving member, I am hereby taking command of all Alliance assets. If those members of the fleet are on a ship too damaged to battle, prepare to transfer to this ship. If your ship is reparable, then start repairing. Rogue Shadow, please finish mopping up the last of the enemy ships and then come aboard. We have some planning to do. Potter out."

With that done, he walked back across the command deck and stared out the viewport at the bodies of all the people he killed. A moment later, he turned and vomited.

No matter his power, murder never sat easily on the conscience of Harry Potter.