Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious or any of the Star Wars characters. Couldn't begin to guess at who I borrowed from, given some of the critters mentioned are from the EU. What I do own is the plot, and just barely. So don't sue.
:}
Jade shot across the room, cradling her father, even as desperation built up inside her. "Calm yourself." Her father snapped. "Everything dies. Even me. But I was fortunate, because I lived long enough to not only have my soul saved, but to find love in so many places. Jade, my girl, I did you wrong. I know, I needed a weapon, and Baron just wouldn't do. But you Jade, you were so strong. Far stronger then I ever was…."
"Dad, please don't go..." Jade cried, her tears flowing for this man she'd tried so hard to please, and often hated just because she never seemed able to win his approval. "Don't go. I..."
"Not your physical strength, girl." The man whispered, his voice too weak to speak. "Character. You never lost the ability to love. I… I needed the princess, Holly, to help me find love, and you, you never let anyone take yours. Not even me."
"NO!" Jade screamed, in a short, angry burst. "No, I have power, and I won't let you die!" Her rage was once again rising, this time born out of her love, and the hurt from losing the man she'd so desperately wanted to love her.
"CALM YOURSELF!" The spirit roared. "We can still save him, but to do so, you must calm down. The emotion can give power, but without the will to use it, that is all wasted. Calm down, feel your love, your fear, but channel it, with me, channel it to healing. Give of yourself, and pull him back. There is still a lot left for this man to do!"
Jade used all her training to relax, unclenching her body, allowing the force to just flow through her. Backed by her own power, as well as the power of the spirit, she could do things that were, up until that moment, impossible. The force, the weapon she'd used to cause so much damage, was now healing her father, pulling at her own lifeforce to create an anchor, and from there, energy fixed damaged and broken bones. Jade felt some pain, physical hurt that let her know part of her own life was being ripped away from her. She kept going, watching as the force went above and beyond, turning from healing to regenerating, closing wounds, regrowing last body parts, and in general bringing her father back from beyond the brink.
Jade knew, deep inside, even with all her power, this was beyond her. 'The spirit is helping. Good! I can handle the pain, the hurt, if it helps my father come back. He's more then earned the retirement he almost had. So come back, dad, cause you're not leaving me quite yet.'
Jade focused as much as her still emotional mind could, letting her father take everything, hoping it'd be enough. Jade continued like this until, as her vision blurred, she felt her father finish healing. "He'll be fine, girl. You can stop." The spirits voice echoed in her fading mind. Jade kept pushing, understanding her dad may have healed, but he was so far from finished regaining his strength.
"ENOUGH!" The spirit yelled, and Jade was yanked away from her dad, tossed backwards to the wall. Her body struck hard, sliding down, and Jade's remaining consciousness was quickly snuffed out.
Jade's eyes fluttered open to see herself being hauled along by a pair of repurposed protocol droids. They were close to the Beetle, having almost made it to their escape method. "Jade, that was stupid." Malcolm chided her, letting the pale girl know he knew she was awake.
"Sorry, give me a moment, and I'll be fine." Jade apologized, trying to stand up. The droids never let go.
"No, you're too weak." Beck warned her. That was when she realized he was there to.
"How?" Jade asked.
"I sent a message to the guards, telling them to send him in." Trina told her. "I had access to the codes, from Smyde and his kid, so I sent a text. Who knew they still used them."
"Easier to send an ID code along with a Text message." Lord Grey said. "And Jade, while I appreciate your saving my life, you risked the princess by putting yourself out of commission like that. Good thing she's resourceful. Had the guards bring Beck in, then used her spot in the Tube to ambush the guards. All while I was still gathering myself back together. I'm afraid, like you, I'll need a few days before I can fully use the force again. We both all but died in there, and it'll be a while before our powers fully return. Luckily, I won't need much to use the weapon Smyde had hidden on the ship we'd rescued your friends from. I suspect it was supposed to be brought here with the princess, but his son wasn't aware of it's importance, and Trina here was far more valuable to them anyways. Still, with luck, it'll distract the guards long enough for us to make it away."
"What weapon?" Trina wondered.
"No idea." Beck said. "I only saw some odd gemstone mister West insisted was too dangerous to take along."
"That gemstone is an old Rakata weapon." Malcolm said. "It's an explosion, trapped in time. I set it so I'll be able to release it from a distance, using the force. However, we're still gonna wanna be off the station when that thing blows."
"How big an..." Jade started.
"Madam, please, don't struggle." One of the droids said in it's annoying voice.
"Put me down." Jade insisted.
"No, you're still too week." Beck countered. "And the droids, they listen to me."
"He was able to do some kind of reprogramming thingy, made them work for him." Trina seemed to beam.
"I had a few security codes, from my mom, and I figured the Dark Order wouldn't have done much beyond restraining bolts for their droids. So, I tried, and we had volunteers willing to carry our unconscious warrior to her ship."
"Which we'll need, because while most of her access to the force will be limited, she should be able to use it to help her pilot the ship." Mister West finished. "We're going to be navigating an asteroid field, and to do that, even for a short while, will be hard. Jade, this is why you shouldn't take such risks. Our priority was and is the princess. I'm not the pilot you are, and wouldn't be able to do this. Only you have a real chance of getting us out of here without the restraining field the base is generating."
"You're gonna use the explosion to disable the restraining field." Jade understood. "They won't be able to follow, and once we've put a few asteroids between us and them, they won't be able to shoot us either."
"Exactly." The Grey knight confirmed. "Now, Three should have finished preparing the ship. We just need to get there, somehow get the ship free, and fly out of here."
"Easy." Beck said. "They haven't figured out that Smyde is dead yet, or the whole place would be on alert. Mister West here told me that his planned exit trick had already been discovered, so wouldn't be useful anymore, so we've been working on a contingency." His hand motioned between himself and Trina. "Trina had given me the codes, and I made myself an ID. This will get us to the ship, and if we act quickly enough, off the station."
"Now, we just have to act regal." Trina added. "Jade, you stay in the droids arms. We'll be able to explain you better that way. Lord Grey, you stay close to your child." She shifted, eyeing the hanger deck, with the multitude of guards and guns, then straitened her shoulders and marched off towards the ship. Beck and the others raced to catch up.
As expected, a dozen stormtroopers moved to block their egress. "Halt, access to this ship is restricted." The officer in charge told them.
"Out of our way." Trina ordered. "Or face the supreme leaders wrath."
"Ma'am, please, let me handle this." Beck begged. "Sorry, she's a noble, and we know how they can be." His apologetic manner and moves reminded Jade of one of the many times he'd apologized for her, often when she'd meant whatever, during their time together. "It's just, Lord Smyde ordered us to go to their ship and retrieve something, and we're, um, you know..." He gestured.
"Whats wrong with the pilot?" The officer asked.
"Lord Rend entertained her, and we're not really sure what they did." Beck said, trying to sound like he REALLY didn't want to know. "We were told she could recover on the ship. Meanwhile, her ladyship, being Lord Antone associate, and trusted, will oversee us while we take the ship out to confirm that they have codes that override some, or many, of the bases original commands." He looked sheepishly around. "We do want that, right?"
"Let me assign you some guards." The Stormtrooper officer said.
"Not that much space on the ship." Trina countered.
"Suit yourself." Malcolm tossed out. "We'll be busy piloting the ship, and showing your man here the codes. I guess the guards could make sure her ladyship here is comfortable. Any of them have any experience as servants?"
The officer pondered his choices, just a moment, and then said "I'm gonna call this in."
"You do that." Beck said. "In the meantime, can we get started getting the ship ready for launch? Or are our clearances blocked?"
"No, you have clearance." The officer said. "Just, stay safe until I can get this worked out."
Beck and the others finished making it to the ship, carrying Jade up the boarding ramp and into the hull. Jade wasn't released by the droids until she was in the cockpit, something that increasingly annoyed the girl. Jade was placed in the pilots seat, then watched as her father took up the copilots seat as the droids strapped her in.
"Ready?" He asked.
"This is the Stellar Grasshopper requesting clearance to launch." Jade said over the com unit. The alarms started, and Jade started pushing buttons to get the ship going.
"Stellar Grasshopper, we're under a class one alert. Please stay calm." The voice on the comm said. "We've released the landing bay latches, and you're cleared to launch. Please do not deviate from the recorded rout on your screen."
The ship rose up, and quickly made it's way out of the station. "Okay, why'd the let us go?" Jade wondered.
"Because they only know Smyde is dead." Beck guessed. "They have no idea if we caused it or not."
"Stellar Grasshopper, please return to the landing bay. We've just received new orders, and your clearance has been revoked." The comm unit chirped.
"Guess we're leaving now." Jade said, and punched it. Closing her eyes, just for a moment, she imagined the rout they'd take out of the field. Then, she banked, pushing her way out of the deflector field, and into the asteroid field proper. The ship shook as smaller bits of debris slammed into it, but Jade managed to avoid hitting anything that would cause major damage. The young Gray Knight discovered, even with the force, she had to keep her eyes open, use them as much as her insight, to pilot around the uncountable chunks of rock and metal floating around in the field.
"Guys, this rides getting kinda rough." Trina warned.
"All part of the plan." Jade said, even as the heavy turbo lasers from the base opened up on them. Now Jade had to doge around to avoid being hit by weapons that, despite the name, were more particle beams that rays of light. Her skills were tested to the point where she was realizing just how good she was. "Damn, dad, what did you do to me?"
"The spirit was an ace pilot." Malcolm guessed, but sounded sure. "Just focus on flying."
"You do something about silencing those guns." Jade shouted back.
"We're still too close." Lord Grey warned. "Keep flying, and I'll let you know when we can do something about this."
Jade dodged and weaved, praying to whatever spirits or gods would listen for help. The force, in it's own way, responded, helping her find an open space some distance from the station. That was, of course, the spot where the fighters were rushing towards. "Dad, any time now."
"Avoid the fighters, and lets get moving. Beck, man one of the guns, please. I'm angling the deflector shields." Mister West called out.
"We only have one gun port." Beck complained. "You know what? Here goes nothing. Lets just hope I hit something" Beck said, opening fire, hoping to dissuade the fighters from getting too close.
Three beeped, reminding the humans it'd already calculated their jump, and had finished adjusting for stellar movement. "We're gonna jump, just as soon as we're past the Tie fighters." Jade called back.
Jade never wanted to guess at the impossibility of what she was doing, but someplace in the back of her mind, she was calculating the odds of navigating an asteroid field while dodging fire and trying to avoid the fighters ahead. The goth wound up using the debris as a shield, blocking the pilots ability to truly track them, then hitting a burst of speed as she exited the field and raced past the Dark Orders forces. Beck's weapon did what it could, erasing more rock and raw metal then actually dissuading the agile fighters that were after them. Still, that trick worked, and before anyone was really ready, the rw speed of the Beetle took them out to open space, where the girl could jump to hyper, but at the same time, they were far more vulnerable. "We're out." Jade cried. "Three, feed the coordinates into the computer, and lets get the frack out of here."
Then, as Jade was about to punch the go button for the hyper drive, dodging to avoid being too easy a target, but still wanting to face straight forward, her father reached out with the force and activated the weapon now hidden on lord Smyde's person. The small gem, really a nova trapped in time and condensed to the size of a pinhole, erupted, sending waves of energy and gravity at the speed of light. The expanding explosion was seen rushing towards them even as their ship made the jump to light speed, seconds ahead of both the shock wave, and the gravity pulse that would make that part of hyper impassable for weeks. The danger was now behind them.
"Everyone okay?" Jade asked. "Three, do a damage assessment. See what we can fix in hyper, and what needs fixing. Also, we need to contact Control, find out where we're meeting up with the others. Once that's done, we go, assuming the Beetle can take us there."
"I thought it was the stellar Grasshopper?" Trina said.
"They obviously gave the ship a fake name." Beck explained. "Really, Trina, given what they were planning, it only makes sense."
"They were planning on blowing up the whole system." Trina countered. "Who cares if anyone knew the name of the ship. And before you say it, when a ship shows up carrying us, you and me, everyone involved in the conspiracy is gonna know who's ship it was, even if we were using a fake name. So why use one, if it won't help?"
"Guys, please, I'm trying to go unconscious." Jade wanted to shout, but her head hurt too much.
"Again?" Trina asked. "Didn't you just take a nap?"
"I was unconscious." Jade growled, but Trina was smiling. "Knocked myself out in battle, and saving my dad, and oh yea, you."
"I know." Trina chuckled. "Just, if you must, then rest, but we may not be in hyper that long."
"Just how do you know this chiz?" Jade suspected she knew the answer, but wanted to ask anyways.
"Tori, Beck and I were all taught technology from an early age." Trina said, acting like it was no big. "Course, no one told me who Beck was, or I'd have used that to try and get him to date me."
"You mean you always knew you were a princess?" The pale girl felt even paler, and suspected it had little to do with the exertions she'd just made.
"I knew that, in theory, I was a princess." Trina replied. "So I tried to act like one. Kinda made me come across as desperate, I guess, but I knew I was special, and wanted my life to reflect that."
"Why's Tori so different?" The blue eyed girl wondered.
"Cause they weren't raising her to be a potential heir to the throne." Beck filled in. "Hay, it's a guess. I didn't really know that much about them, up until we were taken, and I learned that THEY were the children of our princess in exile."
"Yea, well..." Jade felt faint, and stopped resisting. 'Dad can fly it from here.'
Jade woke to find herself in her small cabin, resting on the bunk. Outside, the two commandeered protocol droids stood watch, even as voices could be heard arguing.
"But I still don't understand, why name the droids?" Trina's voice sounded steeped in confusion.
"Because I like to leave my mark on my property." Malcolm's voice replied. "I could use the designation they're given, but that's like letting someone else name my dog. Sure, when you get a used one, they often come with a name. But you can, and should, rename them. Few dogs know their own name anyways, and will respond to whatever you call them."
"They say use the name the dog has, because they probably already are familiar with that name, and are more likely to respond to it." Trina countered. "However, I get it, I really do. But honestly, you're just numbering them."
"I had my reasons." The Grey Knight assured her. "Now hush, because Jade's awake."
"Man, never gonna get used to that." Trina said, even as the door to Jade's room opened all the way. "So, how're you doing?"
"I'm alive, awake, and confused." Jade said. "So, what the holy chiz was that explosion?'
"I'd thought it was just a fusion reactor going off." Malcolm told her. "I guess, to the ancients, that's really all it was. But to us, it was a small star going nova, and it took out the station, as well as the whole system."
"And the force can do THAT?!" Jade pushed, wanting to know the limits of her abilities.
"The Rakata had mastered both the force, and technology around the force, far more then any other species we'd met, up until we dealt with the ancients, like the Vorlons, who are even more advanced." Lord Grey assured the girl. "The power it took to trap that explosion in time, compress it to the size and mass of a small stone, truly unbelievable. That is the goal and some day, maybe mankind will advance to the point where we're there."
"Um, not to make too fine a point of it, but if we're in space, and I know we are, then why haven't we dealt with any aliens?" Trina asked, smirking at Beck. "I know, technically, we're all aliens, but I meant, is it just humans out here?"
"You obviously already know the answer to that." Beck said, sighing. "The dark order used clones and members of a small, select number of races. The imperial family was also from the main race that ran the Dark Order, and it's oddly almost genetically identical to humans. No one really can explain why, except maybe the ancients, or the Rakata, since their empire supposedly covered vast parts of the galaxy, and I don't have a clue as to why we haven't dealt with any of the other races yet."
"We will, soon." Mal assured them. "The safe house we're going too is in a cosmopolitan city, full of all kinds of species. You kids will get a taste of the variety of species that inhabit our empire."
"And what about the Dark Order?" Jade asked, finding the strength to push herself up to sit. "Plus, if it's okay, I think I should eat something."
"We'll have food for you soon." Her father assured her. "And as for the Dark Order, they're gone. We took out their leadership in one explosion, as well as crippling their only real claim to the throne. No, the remainder will be offered a chance to come rejoin the imperium, and hopefully the war will be over. Now, rest, I don't need you any more."
"Wait, what?" Jade sounded confused. "So, what happens now?"
"You'll be offered to Katrina here as a bodyguard, of course..." The elder knight started.
"Nope." Trina cut him off. "No offense, but I heard that you may have a thing for my sister, so I wanna know where she stands in all this. Is there's a connection, then maybe we can go a step closer, and give Tori someone to love her who won't be using her all the time. Plus, I'm hoping Baron will be willing to come on as an adviser, maybe use his visions to help us avoid future problems."
"You know about Baron already?" The blue eyed girl marveled.
"You're dad and me, we talked. A lot." Trina smiled. "Plus, kid kinda invaded my dreams, once we were safely away from the station. Misses Oliver, or as you call her, Control, also filled me in on a lot of things. Apparently Baron was talking to my parents about this chiz, and spilled a lot of secrets about our favorite goth wanna be."
"How long was I out?" Jade questioned.
"Over a day." Her father said.
"You needed the rest." Trina added. "And more then earned a little sympathy. We'll see what kind of life you can have."
"Please, I'm supposed to be guarding you." Jade growled, trying to keep her temper in check. She didn't like being dismissed, and finding out how long she'd slept wasn't helping.
"No, you're supposed to be having a life." Trina countered. "The empire, they're gonna need you in order to rebuild several ancient orders of force users, maybe help us build up some kind of counter to the dark side."
"The only real counter is balance." Malcolm told her. "But I understand your concern. Trust me, Jade will be of service, whatever service you need from her."
"Jade, if Tori can feel for you the way you've discovered you feel for her, then what I want is for you to be with her, make my baby sister happy." The princess told the pale girl. "If not, we'll find a way for you to have your duty, and your dreams. I, more then anyone, know how much it sucks to have your dreams stolen simply because of choices someone else made. So, ETA?"
Jade glanced at her father, who smiled. "Just two more hours, and we'll reach planet side." The adult told them. "From there, we sort this chiz out."
:}
Looks like their heading someplace safe to figure out where they go from here. Thoughts? I have a bit left, two chapters, but for now, jade has earned some rest.
So, will Tori want a guard, or a girlfriend?
And what will beck say when he see's an alien?