Chapter 55

Please enjoy. Also, please refiew, particurally the fight scene I wrote here. I need feedback on it before writing the next chapter.

Seth watched as the stormtroopers charged the palace gates, worry starting to creep into him. What if he had made a mistake? What if those speeders from before had been the actual Queen and Seth had miscalculated?

"No." He thought to himself. "I'm sure. And either way, if the Queen doesn't come from these gates, I'm dead."

Seth continued his silent vigil atop the, waiting patiently for his prey.


Queen Apailana was not the youngest Queen ever elected. In fact, she was about the same age the former Queen Amidala had been when she'd faced her crisis with the Trade Federation. Of course, then there had still been a sense of justice in the world; of equality and democracy. Now, the Empire ruled.

Apailana kept going over the sequence of events in her head. Where had she gone wrong? Throughout the past couple of months, she had followed her conscious. She'd subtly resisted the new order, rescued waylaid Jedi wherever she could, and kept her people safe and free despite the Empire's continued incursions on Naboo sovereignty.

In the end, was it all futile? Did her resistance up till now mean nothing? Would a better ruler have made the cold decision to abandon the Jedi who had saved Naboo countless times? And the principles of the Republic…Would a better ruler have abandoned them in these turbulent times?

Suddenly, the Apailana felt tears well in her eyes. Silly really, to be crying now, before Naboo has even fallen. Especially since she'd had so long to prepare. It wasn't as if there was any lost hope. Apailana realized there had never been any. From the moment she decided to fight the Empire, that fight had been a lost cause.

From the beginning, the Apailana knew, deep down in her gut, that the Empire would discover her small tokens of resistance and crush it. From the beginning, she knew the RSF, though excellently trained, was no match for the battle hardened and well organized clone troopers. No matter what precautions they took, in the end the Empire merely needed to march in and destroy them. No matter how hard her soldiers fought, there were too few. In the end, Naboo's freedom had simply been the result of the Emperor's decision to not strike back. They had been at his mercy for months.

Sighing, the Apailana wiped her eyes, careful to not disturb the makeup covering her face. It was too early to despair. Whatever her mistakes, she had a chance to redeem them here. If she and the rest of the Jedi could escape, they could use her political authority and the truth of what happened today to rally thousands of outraged systems against the Empire. Naboo's cause would survive in the spirit of their rebellions and, someday, they would be free.

"Your majesty." Voolif Monn said, appearing suddenly behind her. "The Decoy team is away. It is time."

She turned to the Shistavanen Jedi and nodded. Her face was now a mask of serenity. The Queen was back again. She drew an elegant blaster from a nearby table, checking the power pack. When she was sure it was powered and ready, she followed the master to where the Jedi were gathering. Sha Koon was in the lead, her bright yellow saber a beacon against the night outside.

"Are you ready milady?" She asked respectfully, her hand already on the door. Outside, the sound of blasterfire was increasing as the stormtroopers closed in on the palace grounds. The RSF troopers had fallen back to their final defensive position; a circle of walls around the remains of the particle cannon, blocking the palace gates.

The Queen readied herself, getting in the center of a phalanx of her Jedi protectors. Glynn-Beti and her padawan took the rear, faces grimly focused on the enemies swarming outside. Sha Koon stood to at the head of the column, flanked by Master Bant and Monn. To her right, a bald Jedi was conversing with an Ithorian master, and to her left, another young Jedi with stark blond hair was helping a wounded Arkanian Jedi to his feet. They were all there to protect her. Everything was riding on this escape.

"I'm prepared." She answered, drawing herself up regally. "Let us go meet the Empire."

Sha Koon nodded, and pushed open the doors with a burst of the Force. The street, lit up by fires set by stormtroopers, was filled with passing blaster bolts. The Jedi's blades intercepted everyone one of them as they jogged, almost at a leisurely pace, across the plaza, to freedom.


Gavin had been in bad situations before. Given his life choices, it was likely he would be in bad situations again. Of course, that was assuming he survived this particular situation. Trapped beneath his own Flash speeder, its weight bearing down on what he assumed was a crack rib. Besides him, Hollis was barely conscious, but trying to push the speeder off him.

"Ish to heasy." He said in a slurred voice. He'd smashed his head against the control panel of the speeder when they'd been hit and his mouth was full of blood. "But thesh repulsher shtil worksh."

"All we need to do is flip it over." Gavin finished, struggling even harder now, but to no avail. It was just too heavy. Then, there was a commotion to Gavin's right. He twisted his head to look, and saw a line of lightsabers advancing across the battlefield, carving a path through the line of stormtroopers.

Gavin's head was injured, but they looked like blurs to him, darting everywhere at once, their sabers deflecting every bolt back the way it came. In the middle, there was a cluster of the Queen's handmaidens, their blasters drawn and firing, surrounding the Queen herself. Gavin's Queen.

With a roar, Gavin pushed one last time, determined to help the Queen in her desperate flight for safety. Hollis joined him, throwing his shoulder into it like a bull, his voice gurgling as he yelled through the blood in his mouth. For a moment, the speeder turned, standing on its side and almost crushing Gavin, but then it finished its turn and was finally upright.

Gavin pushed himself to his feet, already drawing a pistol from his belt. "Get this speeder moving." He ordered Hollis. "Save the Queen!"


Seth saw it. His target. He no longer thought of the Queen as a she, or even as a person. In his mind, she was already dead, and he was free. All he needed to do was squeeze the trigger.

Using the Force, Seth enveloped himself in a cloak of nothingness, disguising his presence in the Force. None of the Jedi would know, until it was too late, that the assassin aiming a blaster rifle at the Queen was a master of the Force. Sinking deep into it, he allowed the Force to guide his actions, waiting for the moment where it told him to strike, waiting for the moment where he had a clear shot, and each of the Jedi below was busy fending off other attacks from the troopers trying to breach their line.

He cradled her head in the sights of the rifle, as if he was her gentle lover, guiding her to death. At that moment, he was closer to her then anyone in her life had ever been.

There it was. A moment as brief and as long as a supernova. He fired.

The kill was instant. She turned at the last moment, no doubt drawn by the green light flaring in the outskirts of her vision. Seth saw several of the Jedi turn their heads in the blast, and the Kel Dor master leading them managed to sprint forward, screaming a horrified, "No!", but she was too late.


The green light burned through Apailana's skull instantly. It wasn't like in the holobooks, where the dead didn't feel a thing. For several moments, as Apailana felt her knees give way beneath her, she was in the greatest agony of her life. She supposed that everyone's death was different; that everyone saw something different. As Apailana fell to her knees, her blaster fell from nerveless fingers, and her white makeup was now obscured by an organic looking blotch of blood that was dripping from her forehead.

She had time to think lightly, "I've been shot," then slipped into darkness. She was only fourteen.


Seth pulled his rifle up, watching as the Queen's limp body stumbled, as if it were going to continue running, then fell. She was dead. Very dead. Around her, the bewildered Jedi turned to meet their new opponent. Seth allowed them to feel him in the Force now. There was no reason to hide now. Only a Force sensitive, only someone who has mastered it, could have made that shot…and they knew it.

Sabers ignited, the Kel Dor Jedi and the Mon Calamari one made Force propelled leaps, landing on the balcony railings, there sabers raised for the kill. Seth dropped his rifle, slipping betweenthem as their blades fell. He leapt, twisting in mid air between them and lashing out with his arms, striking them with powerful fists. Both Jedi masters flew away, their surprised faces gaping in alarm at his strength.

Seth continued his fall, timing it so when a young Jedi, obviously a padawan, with stubby horns on his head was charging towards him, Seth simply landed, both feet crashing into his chest and pinning him to the floor. He felt the sheer force of his landing crush the young being's chest cavity and sternum with a sickening squelch. He rolled over, his mouth a stream of blood as he retched and vomited.

To his right, Seth felt a rage fill the Force. He turned just in time to see a blue blade held by a Bothan Jedi singing towards his face. He ducked, caught the Bothan's wrist in a vice like grip and, with his other hand, punched up with enough force to bend her entire elbow up, breaking it with a series of dull crackles. The Bothan fell, clutching her arm. Seth turned, leaving her for the stormtroopers.

Other Jedi were being flanked and killed now. Seth saw an Ithorian fall underneath a hail of blaster bolts while another Arkanian Jedi looked on in horror before he too fell. At the palace gates, two Jedi, both disoriented and wounded humans were hauled to their feet and executed by a squad of Palpatine's white faced enforcers.

Seth could see they were losing focus, too surprised by the changes in circumstances to coordinate their attacks. Truly, the Jedi Order had lost something in the Clone Wars. Still, there were three that remained, and they all converged on Seth now; the Mon Calamari, her face calm, but filled with sorrow; the Shistavanen Jedi, who was all snarling teeth and bristled hair; and the Kel Dor Jedi, the calmest presence in the Force, but somehow also the most dangerous.

They all lunged at him, the Mon Calamari leaping high into the air while the other two barreled towards him. Seth stepped forward, letting the Mon Calamari land behind him. He engaged the other two quickly, confident that he could fight two Jedi Masters at once.

Flipping, he aimed a double legged kick at the Shistavanen Jedi's chest. The Jedi raised a palm, aiming a burst of the Force at Seth. He felt the air around him contract into a fist, squeezing his waist and hurling him across the street.

Seth landed on his hands, turning his fall into an elegant roll that brought him up just in time to grab the falling hilt of the attacking Mon Calamari. He squeezed, trying to simply crush her webbed hands between his fingers and her own hilt. The Jedi's fish eyes widened, and she yelped in pain.

He lashed out with his other hand, aiming a lethal strike that would penetrate those bulbous eyes and hit her sensitive brain behind them, but the Jedi raised her own hand. She didn't block, but rather, redirected the strike up and away from her, so his attack passed over her right shoulder. Swinging her knees up, she crunched her body into a ball and placed her webbed feet against Seth's stomach. She kicked off; breaking Seth's grip and throwing him back even as she flipped through the air.

Seth recovered and shook himself, but was surprised when he felt the air behind him bunch into a fist and throw him across the ground. He spun, crouching like an animal as the Shistavanen Jedi rushed him, his green saber flashing everywhere at once. Seth avoided it, careful to keep his body balanced and close.

The Shistavanen overstepped once, lunging too far and exposing too much of his undefended side. Serh ducked beneath his blade and tackled him, pinning the wolf like Jedi to the ground. He had his left hand on the lightsaber now, and held it to the ground with his left hand while his right found the Jedi's throat. All it would take was one good squeeze, and the Jedi would die.

He found it, savoring the kill for only a moment, before he began squeezing. Then, he fell back, his stomach twisting with suprise and pain. The Shistavanen had lashed out at him, raking his face with his clawed hands and leaving a long, deep gash along his metal helmet, opening it up from the upper right corner, to the lower left jaw. The Jedi followed the slash with a kick to the stomach that sent Seth sliding back…right into the waiting yellow blade of the Kel Dor.

Sensing this in the Force, Seth bent backwards, his back bending like a bow as he flipped backwards and over the fiery yellow blade. As he passed, he reached out with his left hand, grabbing the Kel Dor's arm as he did and bending it back into a strict arm bar. The Kel Dor didn't struggle. She just dropped her lightsaber and nodded at the Shistavanen Jedi, who nodded back.

At first, Seth didn't realize what was happening. The Force flashed with warning, but he could see all three of his adversaries, and none of them were in any position to attack him. Not with his hostage. He only understood seconds later, when the wolf like Jedi lunged forward, his saber held horizontally so it would burn through both his comrade and Seth in one blow.

Desperately, Seth reached out with the Force, calling the Jedi's fallen lightsaber to his free hand. He ignited it and tried to intercept the Shistavanen's green saber with that, but the Kel Dor caught his hand in her hand, holding it in place so he couldn't defend or move away. A suicide attack.

Seth pulled his arm bar up, leveraging it up so her elbow bone began to shift painfully beneath her. It must have been agonizing, but the Jedi did nothing; simply waiting for her fellow Jedi's attack to kill them both.

Seeing no way out, Seth jumped straight up into the air, carrying the Kel Dor master with him at least twenty feet into the air. The master bent forward in mid air and kicking down at a dumbstruck Seth. She used his own arm bar to turn him around and around, then hurled him to the ground with a powerful kick. Using the force of that kick, she nimbly flipped away. Seth, propelled by her Force powered kick, hurtled to the ground, impacting with enough force to shift and crack stone beneath him.

Seth, still clutching the Kel Dor's lightsaber, got to his feet. Across the way, the Jedi were reforming, gathering together in a tight line to battle him. Presenting a united front. The Kel Dor raised a four fingered hand, pointing a single crooked figure at him.

"Are you mad?" Seth asked, his breathes coming short and shallow. He was getting tired.

"No." She replied calmly. "But I sense you are."

As she pointed, the Force around her surged, and debris rose from the battlefield around her. Like jagged daggers, they flew forward, fired like bullets from a gun called the Force. They struck Seth hard. Jagged metal burned into his skin and heavy displaced bricks from the cobblestone street crushing what remained of his stormtrooper armor. He fell back, the wave of the Force throwing him backwards and pinning him up against the wall.

The storm of Force power stopped, and Seth looked up just in time to see the Shistavanen Jedi flying towards him, a howl rippling from his throat. He was going to strike, ambushing Seth while he was distracted. But he wasn't distracted. His green saber was ignited, belching green flame and falling towards him. But Seth had a saber too.

Seth raised his captured lightsaber, catching the green saber on the yellow blade of the Kel Dor's. They spat sparks like broken circuits, and the Shistavanen bore down with sheer canine strength, till it was only an inch from his throat.

The wolf faced Shistavanen leaned forward, pressing him down till he was on his back, fending off the snarling Jedi. His canine teeth were snapping and biting towards Seth's throat, resorting to a feral savagery in his attempts to kill the assassin. Finally, the teeth found his throat and sunk in, trying to rip out the all important jugular vein.

Seth grabbed the Shistavanen's hand, grabbing his saber as well. He pushed up with both his saber and the Jedi's, pushing them up to the enemy Jedi's throat till, like a pair of scissors, he clipped them together, severing the tip of the Jedi's hairy throat. The wolf like Jedi rolled off Seth, clutching his throat and wordlessly trying to howl. Seth stood above him, watching him die for a moment.

Then, he turned to the remaining two Jedi; the Mon Calamari, and the Kel Dor. The two of them were shaken, but reforming for attack. They came at him, carefully coordinating their attacks through the Force; but it didn't matter. Seth was feeling the Force now, and he knew what would happen even before it did.

Seth's body seemed to jerk, then disappear. Much to the surprise of the pair of charging Jedi, he appeared between them, his arms extended, the Force focusing the air on either side of him into a sledgehammer blow. He released it, launching the pair of Jedi in opposite directions like a pair of rag dolls. He leapt after the still unarmed Kel Dor, catching her mid-air and capturing her in a careful series of grabs and locks. The landed almost gently on the ground, the Kel Dor kneeling, facing away from her assailant.

She was squirming, trying to break Seth's grip on her, but couldn't for fear of him breaking several of her bones. Across the way, the Mon Calamari was shifting her grip on her lightsaber nervously, trying to get an angle from which she could rescue her comrade. Seth almost laughed. How naive.

With a smile, Seth reached down, and gripped the front of the Kel Dor mask. Her struggling redoubled futilely. Then, with the tiniest jerk, he ripped the mask off her face. Facing away from him, Seth couldn't see the Kel Dor's face as the oxygen poisoned and burned her. Looking across the way, the Mon Calamari's face was a mask of horror and sorrow.

Seth couldn't see it, but he knew enough about Kel Dor biochemistry to know what was happening. Her mouth would be working, even as she tried to shut her mouth to block the poisonous atmosphere. Her eyes, no longer protected by the goggles that had been part of her mask, were bleeding and burning. It would take quite a time for the poison to finally reach a part of her internal organs that would kill her. Till then, he would make the Mon Cal watch as her friend shriveled and withered like a leaf. It would be a painful and long process.

He looked up, and the Mon Cal Jedi was walking towards her, her face a calm sea of serenity. She was not angry…but very, very determined. By now, she no doubt realized that she could not possibly save either of her comrades, or even herself. Why she continued fighting, Seth would never understand. But as he outmaneuvered her again and again, forcing her back until she was trapped against the wall, he felt a grim satisfaction as each of his fists connected with her fleshy fish-like skin. When he finally strangled her broken and bleeding body, he felt more powerful than ever before.


Gavin watched in dumbstruck horror as the Queen's body took a few involuntary steps, then tumbled, steam rising from the burn in her head. He already knew she was dead. Besides him, Hollis whispered a horrified curse came out muffled from his broken jaw. He had already drawn his blaster, and was firing at the stormtroopers advancing on them, even as he screamed for Gavin to get into the upright speeder.

He numbly saw a flash of lightsabers and blaster bolts, and soon the Jedi who were supposed to be protecting the Queen were fighting another enemy, some unknown assailant who's moves looked like blurs.

Gavin's body took a step backwards, then another. Away from the Queen he was sworn to protect. Years of military training and constant combat kicked in, and Gavin jumped into the driver's seat of the speeder, still firing over his shoulder as the heavily damaged vehicle limped away.

Hollis, in the passenger seat, was cradling his jaw with one hand and fiddling with the com system with the other. As the speeder began to pull away from the stormtrooper's perimeter, they both began to relax. No doubt most of the remaining RSF units were either surrendering, or making a break for the outskirts. Most stormtroopers would be busy with them, letting Gavin and his old friend escape.

But to where? Their gambit to escape with the Queen had failed. The Decoy convoy may have made it to the hanger, but it was unlikely. Still, it was their best shot. The Empire's control was still limited to the palace area. The hanger, far from the actual battlefield, may still be under RSF control.

Gavin felt Hollis pull on his leather uniform's sleeve, jerking his thoughts back into the present. "Lishen to dish."

Gavin nodded, and picked up the small comlink headset Hollis was offering, putting it to his head.

"-SF units." An urgent voice Gavin recognized as Panaka's uttered in a commanding tone. "The Empire is now in control of the Royal palace, in response to a rebel insurrection bent on assassinating the Queen. Enemy spies have infiltrated, and have given orders using false identification chips. Under emergency Code Beta oh-six-oh seven, I order all RSF units to stand down, and await further orders regarding RSF support of Imperial peace keeping forces."

Gavin listened for a few more moments, waiting for more. However, the message only began to repeat, no doubt continuing on a loop over all RSF and emergency broadcast frequencies.

"This would explain our lack of reinforcements." Gavin murmured, carefully piloting his speeder down a series of back alleys and side streets in order to avoid Imperial patrols. "Panaka's orders no doubt interfered."

"Probubre." Hollis agreed, clicking the comlink off and returning it to the dashboard of the speeder. "Eiver way, we need ta go."

Gavin, still feeling numb as the reality of their situation sunk in, turned the speeder, and burned jets down the street, praying the Decoy team had survived.


Seth stood over the crumpled body of the Mon Calamari Jedi, using the heel of his foot to turn her body over, revealing the lightsaber that had fallen beneath her body as she'd died. With a derisive snort, he picked it up, and pocketed it in his belt, along with the rest of the sabers he'd collected that day. There were a lot to collect, but he only took the Kel Dor's, the Shistavanen's, and the Mon Cal's, leaving the rest for the stormtroopers.

Seth made sure he was hidden in one of the side streets before another squad came round, then went about the business healing his injuries, and removing much of the shattered stormtrooper armor. Before long, he was in his partially armored jumpsuit, his prison.

With a sigh, he picked up the comlink unit that had come with his helmet, listening to stormtrooper channels across the city. Too his surprise, he heard several squads reporting Jedi escaping on speeders. The decoys.

Seth groaned loudly. His work was never done. Making sure his belt was securely fashioned with its new weight, Seth made a Force propelled leap onto the nearby rooftops, and began running across them, his next targets already in his sights.

Next Chapter coming soon. Please give me some feedback, particurally on the fight scene. Fight scenes are an area I struggle in, and I am trying to correect that. Too chaotic? Not enough description? The next chapter requires an important fight scene, so I'll wait unti I get enough feedback and advice before continuing, so I can correct any mistakes before writing it.