Therapy Room
Imperial Basement
Imperial Palace
Imperial City
Imperial Center
2 weeks later
"Hello, Sheev."
Palpatine opened his eyes in surprise and sat up slightly, allowing the mud to slide off his torso. The mud felt delightfully squishy.
"Jinn!"
"You look good," the ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn commented.
"I feel good," the Emperor returned, lowering his right hand into the purplish mud. "The combination of Light Force healing, medicinal mud, plushies, and the death of my brother has done wonders for my health."
"Well, good, good," Jinn replied, rather wide eyed.
"So how are things in the Force Afterlife?" Palpatine asked casually, leaning back and closing his eyes.
"They are well enough," the ghost replied with some uncertainty. "I am here to ask you a question."
"Ask away."
"Would you be interested in speaking to Master Yoda?"
Palpatine blinked in surprise and held out a hand to a small towel, which leaped into his hand. He carefully wiped off his face with it and then nodded graciously, "Certainly. I'd be delighted to see Yoda whenever he had time to appear in all his spectral glory. I would very much welcome his insight into healing the galaxy."
There was an anxious twitch in the Force and Palpatine looked up in bewilderment, "Is there a problem? I realize our last interaction was quite negative, what with us battling with lightsabers while I threw Force Lightning around erratically, but I've changed. Please assure him of that."
Jinn sighed and lowered himself into a cross legged position, "The thing is, Sheev, Yoda is still alive."
"Really!? Well, that old gnome is just full of surprises! Where has he been hiding himself all these years?"
Again, Jinn hesitated and Palpatine lifted up a muddy hand, "It's quite all right. You need not tell me until you are ready."
"Dagobah," the specter said quickly, "and you'll have to send a rescue team. He has many skills, but keeping a spaceship in working order in the middle of a swamp is not one of them."
"I can certainly manage that."
/
Landing Bay
Jabba's Palace
Nondescript but powerful freighter
Tatooine
Dusk
2 weeks later
"I had forgotten how much I hate this planet," Luke Skywalker muttered softly.
"I had not forgotten," Darth Vader replied starkly.
"I don't know," Ahsoka murmured, gazing out the cockpit onto the endless vista of sand. On the horizon, the second sun was dipping its golden orb below the distant hills. "It's stark but beautiful, don't you think?"
"No," father and son stated simultaneously.
Tano chuckled and glanced towards the back of their ship, "Are you ready, Luke?"
"Yes," Luke replied, rising to his feet. "Let's do this."
"Be careful, Son," Vader ordered sternly.
Luke's eyes twinkled but he merely nodded obediently, "I will, Father. You be careful too."
Two minutes later, Luke descended the ramp onto the sandy ground with three 'slaves' in tow. An Ithorian was standing waiting for them with a couple of Gamorrean guards at his back. The Ithorian was wearing shabby leather clothing and his left eye looked like it had gone through a meat grinder. Not a healthy sentient.
"Is this the lot?" the Ithorian demanded, barely looking at Luke. Luke, with brown dyed hair and green lensed eyes, was dressed in shabby brown robes and had a few artistically applied scars on his face. He looked pretty scruffy, but clearly Jabba's staff was used to various and sundry disreputable types appearing on their doorstep.
"That's them," Luke agreed, pointing a thumb at the Emperor's Hands Aralina and Brilana Silk plus Mara Jade. All three were scantily clad and wore shock collars, none of which were functional.
"Is one of 'em a clone?" the Ithorian inquired of the twins.
"Identical twins from normal birth," Luke replied.
The Ithorian gazed at the women with a definite leer in his decent eye, and Luke took a deep breath to keep from lashing out physically or verbally. This was all part of the plan. Part of the plan.
"This way. We'll check to make sure they are healthy, but Jabba will be most pleased with them. You'll make a decent amount, Trader Stryx."
Within the ship, Vader and Ahsoka watched as Luke departed with the three Hands on tow.
"Don't worry," the Togruta said even as she whacked her former master affectionately on the arm. "Luke's amazingly advanced considering his limited training and the Hands will keep him safe. They are an accomplished bunch."
"Accomplished, perhaps," Vader agreed, rising to his feet and striding toward the rear of the freighter. "I fear they may have underlying hostility towards my son. He has admitted to being not just a Rebel, but the individual who destroyed the Death Star."
"Nonsense. Palpatine himself ordered them to watch out for Luke. Besides, your son is a very charming guy. I can tell they like him."
Darth Vader stopped abruptly, causing Tano to almost run into him.
"What's eating you now?" she demanded, exasperated.
"They ... like him?!" Vader asked in his most suspicious tone. It was not nearly as intimidating as in the past since he wasn't using the vocoder, but he still managed to sound threatening past the oxygen mask over his scarred but much healthier face.
Ahsoka stared at him and groaned aloud, "Don't be a ninny, Skyguy. They just like him as a person. Because he is likeable. They don't like him ... that way. Not yet anyway."
Not surprisingly, this comment was not entirely reassuring and Vader stiffened in outrage.
"My son deserves far better than a mere Hand."
The Togruta rolled her eyes, "We are not talking about this now! We have a mission, remember? Let's get that completed and then discuss your son's love life."
She maneuvered around Vader in the passage and quickly hit the release button for a door.
The door slid open and she smiled, "Hello, my darlings."
/
Jabba the Hutt leaned over and put a pudgy hand into the aquarium where four hapless paddy frogs were wiggling happily. He gazed thoughtfully at them for a moment, then plunged an expert hand in and grabbed the fattest, which froze in shock at its sudden capture. A moment later, the blobby Hutt had thrown the frog into his mouth.
Utterly delicious.
He glanced around with satisfaction. It had been a good day. His latest dancer had annoyed him and been fed to the rancor below the throne room. Jabba loved feeding the rancor.
Better yet, he'd received word that three lovely human female slaves had just arrived for purchase, all of whom were apparently dancers. Delightful. He always got tired of his dancers and fed them to the rancor eventually, but three of them might keep him happy for a few weeks.
There was a sudden thunder of feet from the entrance leading to the landing bays and Jabba turned his head with some difficulty. He really had gained quite a bit of weight in the last few years. Maybe he should go on a diet. But then, if he didn't get to eat what he wanted, when he wanted, as much as he wanted, was life really worth living?
With shocking speed, a pack of Vask-wolves suddenly surged into the room, their tongues hanging and their fangs glistening in the dim light. Before he recovered from his confusion enough to yell, the lead creature leapt forward and went for his neck, sinking it's extremely sharp teeth into the soft skin.
He screamed now, screamed in agony and rage as the other wolves attacked him, some biting his bulgy body, two took an arm – one even attacked his precious tail. There was yelling from his guards and blasters going off but somehow the vicious gray beasts were continuing their attack. His orange blood was sloshing onto his body and he was crying out from pain and fear and no one was rescuing him, he was injured, he was dying ...
/
Slave Quarters
Jabba's Palace
An alarm went off, causing the Galderian slave master to turn away from Luke and the three Hands. A moment later, Luke chopped his head off with his blue lightsaber, then deflected a blast from a startled guard in the corner even as Mara Jade grabbed the slave master's blaster and shot two more guards.
Brilana and Aralina Silk, moving as one, strode over to the exit door, opened it, and moved to the right a few meters.
"Slave quarters this way," Brilana called out calmly. "We'll free them."
"Jabba's bleeding out," Luke told Mara, even as he began setting charges in the corridor to the left. The slaves would have a far greater chance of escaping if they were separated by collapsed tunnels from Jabba's loathsome minions.
"Good," Mara replied matter of factly. "I knew the wolves could take him."
"I'm a little surprised," Luke admitted. "I understand the Vask wolves have a tremendous sense of smell, but there have to be a million other smells competing for attention in this filthy cesspool of sentienty. Father says they went right for Jabba."
"My babies are quite capable of following a single borrat through the sewers of Imperial City," Mara stated with a sniff. "They couldn't miss a gigantic Hutt. I just hope Vader and Tano take care of my sweeties."
Luke shot her a look of wonder. The Loth wolves were large, scary, hideous, and ferocious. Sweeties? Really?
"I'm certain they will return them in good health," he said in a placating tone.
"Don't patronize me, Skywalker."
/
Jabba's Throne Room
Ahsoka gestured from the alcove where she and Vader were hiding and yanked a blaster to the right, causing the bolt to veer away from the Vask wolf currently chewing on Jabba's tail.
"The Hutt is dead," Vader murmured even as he used the Force to open the grate on the floor of the Throne Room, causing many of Jabba's confused flunkeys to slide into the rancor cage below them.
Ahsoka nodded professionally, lifted a whistle hanging on a string on her neck, and blew it.
Without hesitation, the entire pack of wolves abandoned the corpulent corpse and ran happily toward the twosome, easily evading the open pit on the floor.
Vader and Tano strode quickly back toward the landing bay with a slave transmitter deactivation wand snagged from the corpse of Bib Fortuna, Jabba's major domo. Luke and the Hands were waiting for them, along with a host of prisoners and slaves. Thirty minutes later, the chips were deactivated, and four ships were in the air and blasting out into space with their rescued cargo on board.
/
Roof
Imperial Palace
Imperial City
Imperial Center
Afternoon
"My dear Master Yoda," Palpatine said with a cry of pleasure. "How delightful to see you after all these years."
The tiny Jedi Master leaped casually from the two person fighter and dropped to the floor, then stumped over to his former nemesis.
The tiny Jedi tilted his head and gazed directly into Palpatine's blue eyes, then shook his head.
"Thought this day would come I did not," the old elf commented.
"Neither did I, Master Jedi. Neither did I."