As the Dark Times fade.
Disclaimer: Skymaster23 does not condone violence towards women.
Segment 4 will imply a PG-13 rated scene.
"What is the meaning of this; why isn't Sariss there tearing them apart?!" Jerec says to himself, only to hear the door to his briefing cabin opening, followed by the sound of somebody being thrown in harshly, along with the sound of artificial breaths.
"Because you forgot to get the emperor's permission." Darth Vader tells him. "Consider yourself fortunate that your services are still required." He added as he force-pulls Jerec, who only now realizes that Kadaan must have been misleading him from the start, towards him.
"Toln?" Carlin asks in disbelief as the stormtrooper aiming at Ralth removes his helmet, barely noting the other stormtroopers or the officer next to them. "Why are you here?" He knew that Toln would have been greatly affected when hearing about what happened at the Hanna spaceport, but this was the worst way he could have dealt with it.
He could almost hear the man's thoughts. "Kill the rebellion, they caused Carlin's death. Carlin's here infront of me. Kill the rebellion, they caused Carlin's... alive; but, my revenge... A lie? Lies!"
"You... you know damn well why, Starkiller." Toln spat out, unwittingly proving that the empire still isn't aware that Carlin isn't "the pilot". "When i heard about Hanna, i left the Brimstone for the Stormtrooper corp. I suffered for months so that i could get vengeance for the closest person i had for a brother. And then i get told that it was all for nothing! How dare you lie to us... how could you kill all those people at yavin?! Not to mention hosnian prime, jinata, and numerous other planets that the pieces of The Death Star collided with afterwards(1)."
"Toln, please... as much as i regret what happened, i didn't start it." Carlin tells him, wondering if he wanted to know if the Rebel One pilot is aware of this. "The empire is the liar you should be concerned about."
"Don't give me that, rabble-rouser." The imperial officer says as he walks forward, only for Carlin to hold up his lightsaber.
"You were not spoken to, sir. Please, do not interrupt us again." Carlin tells him while giving no attention to the stormtroopers aiming at him. "It's impolite."
"...T-that is imperial property, hand it over at once!"
"Release Mr. Ghireh."
"This is not one of your worthless planet's time-wasters. Surrender or we kill both of you just like that spacer with the giant head." The officer says next as Ralth glares at him.
"Don't talk about my friend like that!" The Vurk shouted, and the officer walks over to him.
"Be quiet, lizard. Just be glad we only needed one of you." He says as he smacks Ralth's snout, causing the Vurk to mumble something in his language. He then attempts to back-hand Ralth, only for one of the other stormtroopers to speak.
"Major, look out!"
The officer turns around right before a blaster bolt hits him dead-center. "...You were told to come here alone, Carlin!" Toln tells him as he stabs Ralth in the chest with a datadagger.
"I did-Ralth!"/"Hate to say it, but he may be right." Carlin says, followed by another stormtrooper who points to a corner, where a Sabat is seen. "Partisans... we're too exposed here!"
One of the stormtroopers ignores this and starts to aim at Carlin. "You remember how many fingers it took to get Gord to stop spitting in your lunch at primary school?" He asks, having lost sight of Toln. The trooper stares at him before shooting at him, but has the rifle kicked out of his hands. "Wrong answer; he would know it was this many." Carlin says, and the trooper has two of his fingers pulled back before a partisan shoots him.
Carlin releases the dead enemy and heads towards Ralth, deflecting stray bolts along the way, but stops when one of them hits a wall near a random partisan, making her pause long enough for Toln to shoot her, and gives an unwanted "thank you" gesture to Carlin as he looks on in dismay before the latter exits the hanger. "...You alright, Ralth?" He asks.
"What do you think, stupid?" Ralth asks him. "Jraan's dead, I'm leaking, and we're about to be hostages." He says angrily, and Carlin turns to see their "rescuers" aiming at them before stepping aside for one with a gas-mask, who says something to them.
"Let your "chancellor" know that the empire has not lost it's taste for Kyber." One partisan translated before Carlin and Ralth are beaten unconscious.
They eventually wake up to find themselves in an escape pod. "They took the ship... those Vrelts took the ship and left us in the big isn't for seven hours!" Ralth shouts as checks his chronometer and punches Carlin in the arm.
"Ow! You certainly hit hard for someone with a hole in his lung."
"That's where you people keep yours; this organ tells me if I'm swimming down too far. And here's another for having a lousy choice of siblings."
"Cut it out; Toln's... he was a friend. The first i ever had." Carlin tells him as he accepts that the days of he and Toln being on the tertiary school pathfinding team, placing dirty clothes in Nirame's backpack, collecting dejarik monsters, and being caught watching a skin-holo by his mother are over.
The two say nothing else until they hear the pod's proximity alarm. "Open the viewport, open the viewport!"
When Carlin does so, they see a Y-wing flying past them. "-cape pod, this is Gray Six; is anyone alive in there?" They both hear once Ralth finds the pod's comlink.
"Acting captain Ghireh here, as is Deler." Ralth replies.
"Copy. What happened to the rest of your freighter?"
"A bunch of mudscruffers led by some Tognath showed up and robbed me."/"Don't you mean us?"/"Clamp it."
"You said Tognath, right?" Gray Six asks. "Partisans must have somebody in the taskforce, again." He said in an annoyed tone.
"I wouldn't know about that, but the ones we were "rescued by" made a disturbing claim for the chancellor."
"I'll bet. What did they say?"
"They want her warned that the empire is still mining Kyber crystals."
An hour after that, Carlin and Ralth return to the Iraida. Rhiss is amongst the crewmembers welcoming them back. "I knew they wouldn't keep him busy long."/"You not believe what gladness i having!"/{How many plastic boys do you think he took down, Krill... Where'd she go?} Sate, Jubbo, and Linramkuf each say as he passes them by.
"I assume you're not angry anymore?" He asks Rhiss.
All she does is grin and hug him. "Only if you promise not to do it again."
"I'll try." He says, then asks as they walk off. "Maybe now you can explain how Tano got you onboard?"
"I was watching Scrivner's Revenge with Samoc and some other girls when that Togruta walks in and drags me to some room-only it was... she didn't tell me about anything other than your plan, but it was like it went on and on forever, and there were voices coming from everywhere." She replies, causing his hand to twitch for a second at the fifth word, but she doesn't notice and motions around.
He's about to speak again when they hear someone running, but before either can turn, Bail slaps Carlin's back several times while Rhiss chuckles at the sight. "Dank farrik, as if ridin' dat imp fighteh ain't proof 'nough y'all is one'a dem Jedi Knights pappy's l'il brother done told me 'bouts!" The Dantooine native says.
"I would imagine that... "pappy"... means father?" Carlin asks him.
"Yep; Paxi Sylo was mah uncle's name. His ma done sent him to check on da Bol pen(2) when he 'eard lots'a booms in da distance. He got on one hill where clones n' droids be blastin' each otheh near a mile away till a mighty big thing appeared. It slammed dem clones s'hard, he was knocked off his feet; but dat didn't stop ol' master Windu, no sir! He took on da whole droid army n' dere hammerin' menace by himself behfer jumpin' right infron'a Paxi, who gave da man some water, an' went on home to doodle it all." Bail explains while showing the doodles.
"Hey, i saw these on an interrupted holo-broadcast when i was on Bimmisaari." Rhiss says aloud right before Carlin flinches and looks around.
"Got's yerself a problem, Carlin?" Bail asks.
"I'm not sure." He replies. "I've been working more on swordsmanship than anything else, so sometimes i sense nearby emotions without intending to."
As Rhiss and Bail shrug at this, neither of the three are aware of the cause being Cpl. Ramis, who is in one of the lesser-used maintenance tunnel intersections, fooling with herself while saying Carlin's name repeatedly in a ragged tone.
Five weeks later, Tano is watching Carlin as he practices his lightsaber skills against a remote. "I still don't get it." He says to himself.
"What, exactly?"
He glances at her before continuing. "I trained with this model of remote even before i knew the Jedi still existed. I know precisely how many microseconds they take for aiming and firing, and yet i still can't get the bolts to bounce off where i want them."
"There lies the problem." Tano tells him. "You focus too much about timing, trajectories, and wrist movement. You need to want to send the bolts back at your opponent."
As Carlin considers this, they hear an announcement. "Now hear this, this taskforce is abandoning it's scheduled patrol following new orders to proceed to Echo Base. That is all."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Tano says.
"That makes two of us." Carlin added.
This is verified when the taskforce reaches the alliance's new headquarters to discover that nearly the entire fleet is there as well.
Carlin and Tano are called to the Iraida's situation room, where they are given the worst news since the loss of Alderaan. "He did what?" Capt. Derimoor asks the Chancellor.
"You heard correctly; Moff Seerdon has blockaded the entire Chandrila system in response to his defeat at Fest."
It didn't make sense to most of them. "That's absurd, Chancellor; those two systems have no connection." Admiral Ackbar says, but is rebuked.
"There is a connection, sir." Carlin, the only one aside from Mothma who did know, tells everybody in the room. "Fest must be a cover for the Tansarii incident's outcome. I'm the reason our people are in danger."
"Please do not be so quick to blame yourself, Pvt. Deler. I was always aware that this would happen since the day Padme, who was, consecutively, a queen and a senator of the emperor's homeworld of Naboo, was the first of the 2,000 to be murdered. How often i ask myself which choices she would make." Mon Mothma informs him in a tone that resembling the one she used about Bail Organa's death.
The fleet commanders confer on this before agreeing that he's right about the Fest connection. "...Whatsa dey dew'in on da surfacey?" An Ankura-Gungan captain asks.
"My contacts have determined that Moff Seerdon has spent the last month requisitioning an unusually large amount of construction crews and large-scale equipment from all over the core." Captain Kallus explains as a projection of Chandrila appeared, showing a single marker. "Even stranger is that they're all being delivered to one location... Nayli, where he was born and raised. The cities of Hanna and Emita, on the other hand, are facing a more conventional threat." He added as both sites are shown to be surrounded by infantry and mechanized units.
The point of this, they all agreed, is for Seerdon to make Nayli the new capital of Chandrila. It is therefore decided that The Alliance is to respond with six taskforces, the first three (Defiance, Independence, and Aspiration) will distract the imperial ships, while the other three (Rebel One, Liberty, and Tarpals) will destroy the shieldgate and send down landing forces. "Carlin Deler, as risky as this is; do you accept being ordered to take part in the attack on Emita?" Mon Mothma asks him.
He pauses to think. In all probability, this would mean combating his former coworkers from the CCP; possibly even the stormtrooper squad Toln is in. If all of the former have been informed that he was alive... "The real risk is bringing ourselves so close to Coruscant, Chancellor. What is the plan for refugees?" He asks her.
Seeing through his veiled reference to his family, she tells him that they and other civilians with relatives in the alliance will be sent to safe-worlds of similar environments. "Then i will do what i must, Chancellor." Carlin says, not needing to be force-sensitive to know that Tano does not agree with it.
After all, he didn't agree with it.
"On behalf of all of us, Carlin Deler, i thank you." Mon Mothma tells him before addressing the rest. "...Commence operation; and may the force be with us."
With the meeting adjourned, Carlin is about to head to the barracks when Tano leads him down a different corridor. "Where are we going, this time?"
"Funny that you should ask that, because there will be some cheating on this test." She says as she opens a door that leads to something that should not be inside a Venator-class starship.
An endless starry void with white paths and circles that makes Carlin grab the doorway for a second until he notices the lack of decompression. "T... this must be what Rhiss was telling me about." He says to himself as he gives a practice tap with his heel before entering it. "But what is it?" He asks as "the voices" are heard.
"Come closer... I'll tell you the most important thing you need to know about Jedi... we're not afraid to dies for a worthy cause."
"All the answers fall short of the truth."
"I... I'm looking for someone. My husband was supposed to meet him... A Jedi."
"Rhiss; let my boys finish him off. Easier to clean up what's left that way."
"The strongest stars have hearts of Kyber."
"A Jedi's life is about sacrifices... besides, somebody's got to save our skins."
"This is the World Between Worlds; all time and space connects here." She tells him.
"Time and space? So, we won't be late for the mission?" Carlin asks her.
"Not once we reach the destination... there, going up." She says as she force-lifts him to an "upper level".
"What the-whaaa! Do not do that to me again!" He shouts as he gets up and brushes himself off after she jumped up after him.
"Calm down and follow me." She tells him, and leads him to one circle, which sends him to a damp, foggy location.
"Calm down? As in whether or not the empire will find us?" He asks while checking the sky and holding a hand over his nose. "More likely some native beast would do away with us before then." He says, only to find that she must have stayed in that strange location. "I don't know why, but this all looks... and smells more like the sort of place you'd expect the emperor to be in if he were female... if this wasn't all in the mind." He says, then watches a low-flying creature be yanked into the water.
"So certain, are you?" He hears from behind him.
"And why shouldn't i be? Time dilation is far more believable; unless you breathe in too much of this..." He says next, and gradually turns toward a small green creature. He looks closer at the being and remembers that it resembles one he's seen before.
No, not resembles.
"You, er, you took part in the vision Ahsoka Tano showed me on Berchest, didn't you?" He then asks, not sure how he knows this is a male of whatever his species is.
"Indeed; just as i gave you the warning at Teardrop, young Deler." The being informs him.(3)
"...You're another survivor of Order 66." Carlin realizes.
"Yes. I was Grand Master Yoda of the Jedi council." He is told, and remembers this to be the name of the fifth Jedi who "officially" had been executed for conspiring to assassinate the imperial senate the night before the empire was created, and kneels for the person.
"My sincerest apologies, esteemed one. I will accept whatever reprimand you intend for my rudeness."
"If that is what you wish..." Yoda tells him, and pokes the center of Carlin's head with his walking-stick. "Stand and find some other way to embarrass yourself." He says next while walking away. Carlin follows and notes that despite how many insects a planet like this should have, he hasn't been bitten once. Eventually, they reach a building that's no taller than he is. "Come in and eat, you must be hungrier than the you at this point in time."
"This point? Wher-when... when did Tano send me?" He asks him, partly wondering if "that him" is still alive.
"From your memories, the world between worlds has brought you ten days after my previous guest." Yoda informs him.
"The pilot from Rogue Squadron." Carlin says quietly, figuring Yoda told Tano how to access that realm. "For several reasons, neither of us knows the other's name." He replies.
"Only by title, you know this ally of yours?" Yoda asks rhetorically, and they head inside. "Then no more needs to be said, other than how more respectful you are... much like your ancestor, Caralinus, now that i think about it."
When he, eventually, makes himself comfortable, he asks how Yoda knows learned that name, having been told by his grandfather, without his mother's consent, that his name was derived from the one just mentioned.
"From him."
"From him? But he was killed during the Nihil conflict over two hundred years ago; how could you have spoken with him?" He asks next, causing Yoda to scoff.
"An easy thing to do, since i was only seven hundred when he was my padawan." Yoda says while grinning, and waits for Carlin's brain to restart. "What motivation have you to be like him?"
Carlin sighs before explaining about his reaction to hearing about Alderaan, his escape from Chandrila, and what effect it had on his sister. "I... i must learn the abstract half of The Force to help her. Please, sir."
"Hmm; and in doing so, you hope your mother will be more inclined to speak with you again after the battle you are taking part in?" Yoda asks, and hands him something from a tray.
Carlin begins to reply before noticing the hidden message, and scowls at himself because it's true how underhanded, how shameful, this plan is... but he couldn't find a better way.
"You are not the first, and will not be the last, to face this dilemma." Yoda says aloud as Carlin forces down the offered item, and soon passes out.
He wakes up to find himself somehow tied, with the exception of his right arm, from a treebranch. "You, of all people, drugged me?!" He asks when he spots Yoda standing next to a rock that his lightsaber has been placed on.
"More than ones mind, the force can be used for." Yoda tells him.
"I know that already." Carlin replies, assuming that Yoda "read" his memory of that time with the TIE fighter. "The objective is to try getting it back from-"
"No try; do, or do not."
"...Very well, master Yoda." He says, and thinks back to that event. After a few moments, the weapon starts to shake and fly towards him. Or atleast his shoulder when an animal's screeching distracts him. Once he finishes that lesson, he is told to move the rock that his weapon was on. "That's quite a shift, isn't it?"
"Only because you believe it to be. Think not of what it is. Just as with you and the lightsaber, The Force has always connected you with the rock." Yoda tells him.
"Since i arrived here?"
"No, since you were born."
Two months later, he is carrying Yoda around on his back when he suddenly stops. "Hear something, do you?"
Carlin risks a glance at him while looking around. "There's no sounds here, at all, master. It feels... like when Sakal and i saw those bodies." He says, having long since told Yoda how he'd met Naughlen.
Yoda pointed to a random direction. "Over there. The Dark Side has taken hold of it... confront it; unarmed." He instructed.
Against his better judgment, Carlin does as he is told. After a while, he sees a hole in the ground, and climbs down, passing snakes and lizards until he finally sees something inorganic. An entryway, but whether it was pre-imperial or not is brushed aside when he hears a voice. Ralth's voice. "You can tell that sack of bones that he can shove his gratitude up his-gahk!" He hears, and moves faster until he sees a room where the unnamed Miraluka is lifting Ralth in the air without holding him. Rhiss, his squadmates, and Nirame are also there.
"This has to be an illusion." He thinks to himself.
"'lin, i don't k~now what's going on, but do something! Save usss!" Nirame pleads as the Miraluka strangles Ralth and tosses him aside before activating a lightsaber and stabbing her. Carlin is about to reach for his out of reflex, but suddenly feels every muscle stop working, then watches another person walk from behind him.
It's himself wearing Count Dooku's clothes, who says nothing as all of them are slashed or impaled. After Rhiss falls, her body and everything else vanishes. Carlin heads back to Yoda. "W... what was... that?"
"Fear." He answered simply and meaningfully. "You keep yourself trapped by the past; fearing you will be too much like Dooku." He says, making Carlin recall his first Makashi lesson. "Fearing that made you angry, because you hated that the emperor made him command Grievous to carry out the bombing that led to your birth-father's death. Fear, anger, and hate lead to the Dark Side of The Force. Give in to it and forever, will it dominate your destiny, as it did with Dooku and Vader."
"And the emperor, too?"
"Yes; although unlike them, or you, he never had the chance to be Jedi."
"...Unlike me?"
"Aw, forgot to mention that. Before the clone wars began; you, Carlin Deler, were to have been brought to the temple. Only by deleting the list you and many others were on when Obi-Wan and i returned and saw the devastation, were you kept from the emperor's attention for so long." Yoda tells him.
"You're saying that, in a way, the emperor saved me from himself?" He asks while gawking at Yoda.
"In strange ways, The Force wills us."
Two days later, Carlin is doing the easiest phase of his training... listening to everything around him. After an hour, the sounds start to be understandable; a nest of Bogwings being raided by a snake, a spotlight sloth showing it's young which plant is which, and two sleens fighting over territory, until the sounds start getting louder, and he opens his eyes. "I'll admit having to listen to all this noises for a thousand years is impressive but..." He says when he realizes he's alone. "Master?!" He asks outloud, and searches the area before seeing him bent over while holding his chest.
"There's one less reason to complain." He hears from behind him.
"Tano?" He asks after flinching. "How long has this been going on?"
"It's not just because of training you and that Rogue pilot. His duel with the emperor took a whole century's worth of life from him. I can't say how long he has, but once he's gone-" She partly explains.
"So to will be every gener... ation that i have outlasted." Yoda finishes for himself. "There is no death, there is the force." He says next. "By Ahsoka's presence, i take it she can no longer wait for you to finish. Just as well, it is."
"Master Yoda's right; i came here because i can't hold that portal open much longer. But don't worry, physically, it'll be like you never left." Tano tells Carlin.
After agreeing, he bows his head. "Thank you for all you have taught me, Master Yoda. I will put it to good use."
"Yes... use it well. May the force be with you."
Back on the Iraida, Carlin watches Tano shut the door. "And with that, you are ready." She tells him.
To save his sister, and his world, he has to be.
Chapter six.
(1). This didn't really happen, but it's easy to imagine that debris went somewhere. The amount of lowercases indicates how little Toln cares about those worlds.
(2) The Clone Wars shorts didn't include that; but Paxi had to be outside from some reason.
(3) Mostly normalizing Yoda's speech the same way it had been in ESB; with the scrambled sentences being part of the ruse he used on Luke.