19 BBY
Victoria POV
To say that my life turned upside down is an understatement. One minute, the clones who I trusted with my life for the past three years were assisting Master Ablingada and myself in driving the droids off of the outer rim world of Malibu, and the next, blue blaster bolts started flying towards us.
*A few hours earlier*
The battle here on Malibu is going well. My master, Nug-nug Ablingada, the clones, and I have almost driven the droid army off of this world. We are advancing towards Redstone Gulch, which is located roughly a kilometer away from our current position. According to clone intelligence, the last remaining pocket of resistance by the droid army is located there.
Suddenly, Commander Powers, who I had grown close to throughout the war, runs up to us and claims to have big news. I ask him what is happening, and he says, "Master Kenobi has engaged General Grievous on Utapau, the war is nearly over."
Upon hearing those words, a huge smile crossed my face, as all I had known since I became a padawan was war. Master Ablingada selected me just two days before the first battle of Geonosis. Since then, when I wasn't fighting clankers on the front lines, I was on a cruiser flying through hyperspace to the next battle. I am only 14, yet I have already been through more than most people in the galaxy will experience in their entire lives. I can only imagine the excitement that Commander Powers and the others are feeling, as they were created for one purpose, this war, and I hope that they will get to choose how to live once this is all over.
Nug-nug sees my smile and tells me and the clones, "Do not get ahead of yourself my young padawan. We are not done yet."
As if on cue, I sense approaching danger, so I ignite my lightsaber. My blue blade ignites just in time to reflect a red blaster bolt towards the B1 battle droid who fired it at me. The droid collapses to the ground, but by then, Nug-nug and I are already intercepting shots from other droids, and the clones are firing back as well. I feel the pain and suffering clones around me as they start to fall in combat, and I fight to conceal my tears knowing they won't live to see the end of the war that is almost here.
Behind the B1s and B2s, two tri-droids open fire on our formation, taking out several clones with each shot. Master Ablingada and I glance at each other, and I use the force to enhance my leap over to one of them, while he takes on the other. I jump up and cut off two of its legs, causing it to fall over. I look in the direction of the other tri-droid, and I notice that he had the same success.
We rejoin our troops to continue the battle, but something suddenly feels off. I glance in the direction of Commander Powers and see a strange hooded figure on his comlink. I feel a shift in the force, and I feel like something terrible is about to happen. All the clones point their blasters at us and simultaneously open fire.
I reflect their shots toward them, but I direct them toward their arms and legs, hoping to avoid killing them. These men had served under me for the entire war, so I could not bring myself to kill them even though they were suddenly trying to kill Master Ablingada and I.
I start to tire after deflecting so many shots from the men who I used to trust with my life, and seeing this, Master Ablingada jumps between me and the clones, reflecting their shots into their chests, which kills them. Sensing that he is about to be overwhelmed, he tells me to always trust in the force. As the clone's shots start to hit him, he screams at me, saying "Victoria, run!" I struggle to hold back my tears as he falls to the ground dead.
Thanks to his sacrifice, I put some distance between myself and the clones, and eventually, the blaster fire stops once they lose track of me. I know they are looking for me, so I must find a way off this planet as quickly as possible.
*The present*
I don't know what I am going to do now. My master is dead, and the clones, who were like brothers to me, will stop at nothing to ensure I join him. I start to cry as I think of all that I have lost in the last few hours.
Suddenly, my comlink beeps, causing me to snap out of it. I pull up the message, and I find that the temple beacon has been activated, and it is calling all surviving Jedi back to Coruscant. "Perhaps it still stands, as there are always thousands of knights and masters stationed there," I think. I know that if I hope to reach Coruscant, I need a ship. However, every ship that came with me is surrounded by clones, so those are not an option for me.
After a few hours of running away, I come across what appears to be a boarding school called Pacific Coast Academy, as it is on the coast of Malibu's one ocean, the Pacific. I almost run into a brunette, who upon closer inspection looks almost exactly like me. I freeze in shock at what I see, and she does the same. She introduces herself as Lola Martinez, and I tell her, "I'm Victoria Vega."
She develops a surprised look on her face as she tells me, "Your parents told me so much about you. They said you were force-sensitive and they gave you to the Jedi order so you could use your gift to help the galaxy. I am confused, and ask her, "you know my parents?" Lola replies, "of course I do, I'm your cousin, Victoria."
"It's great to meet you Lola, but I have a problem," I say. I tell her, "I was fighting the droids in Redstone Gulch when the clones suddenly turned on my master and I, and only I made it out alive." She says, "why don't you hide in my room until we can get you off this planet." I thank her, and she leads me to her room, room 101 in Fulton Hall.
Lola introduces me to her two roommates, Zoey Brooks and Quinn Pensky, and Zoey's boyfriend, Chase Matthews. I explain my situation to them, and I make it clear that nobody else is to know that I am here, lest someone inform the clones. They promise not to tell anyone, and Quinn informs me that she has a modified VCX-100 light freighter, called the Otis, which they are willing to use to get me to Coruscant.
She pulls up a hologram of the ship and explains that she improved its shields, added two proton torpedo launchers, and "quinnvented" a cloaking device small enough to fit on a light freighter, and a class 0.7 hyperdrive, which would allow it to outrun any ship with a standard hyperdrive.
The four friends suddenly receive a message from the dean, and it reads, "All PCA students must tune in to a special session of congress occurring right now on Coruscant." The girls turn on the holoprojector in their dorm, and Chancellor Palpatine, who is more wrinkled than I remember, appears.
He says, "The Jedi rebellion has been foiled … The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated … The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed, but I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger"... In order to ensure security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the First Galactic Empire for safe and secure society!" This is followed by deafening applause within the Senate chambers.
The four friends and I are in shock. I explained to them that the Jedi couldn't have done such a thing, but if there was an attempt by a small group of Jedi to overthrow the chancellor, I had no idea of such a plot. Thankfully, they all believed me, but we agreed that we had to be extra careful now that everyone at PCA heard the broadcast branding those like me as traitors.
Shortly after the chancellor's, or emperor's broadcast, my comlink beeps again. I pull up the message, and it was another one from the temple.
Master Kenobi appeared, and he said, "This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen, with the dark shadow of the Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder for any surviving Jedi: Trust in the force. Do not return to the Temple. That time has passed, and our future is uncertain. We will each be challenged. Our trust. Our faith. Our friendships. But we must persevere and in time a new hope will emerge. May the force be with you. Always."
"Well, I guess I'm not headed back to Coruscant," I tell them. However, I am not sure if anywhere in the galaxy is safe for the Jedi. Lola quickly speaks up, and tells me that my family is located in the Senate District, and says, "we are still heading there so you can meet them."
My mouth opens wide in surprise, and I ask her to tell me about them. She explains, "Your sister Trina is an aspiring singer who has no talent, yet does not realize it. She still somehow got into a prestigious performing arts high school called Coruscant Arts."
"Wonderful," I sarcastically respond. She continues, "Saying that my mom, Holly, just stays at home, and my dad, David, works for the Coruscant police. Now that I know a little about my family, I am ready to meet them. She explains that their semester break is in two days, and the five of us in the room agree to use that time by taking the Otis to Coruscant so I can meet my family.
Two days later
Today is the day we leave for Coruscant. After much discussion over the past two days, I decided to change my name from Victoria to Tori to better hide from the Empire. We waited until the middle of the night to leave the dorm, to avoid raising suspicions. Chase met up with us outside the hangar, and Quinn was already inside the Otis getting it ready for the trip. Once the ship was fueled up, everyone strapped into their seats, and the Otis took off.
The trip was uneventful until we cleared Malibu's atmosphere. Once we reached orbit, an Imperial Venator Class star destroyer hailed the Otis and ordered us to turn around, as there was a Jedi on the planet who had not been found, and no ships were allowed off to ensure that she could not escape.
Lola stated, "I'm an actress, I'll handle this," and she replied, "We have a sick PCA student on board, and we must get her to Polis Massa for treatment." However, the captain of the star destroyer still refused to let us through. "Time to put this ship to the test," Quinn said.
Quinn kept the Otis on its course and told all of us to man the guns, which we did. The star destroyer launched a squadron of V-wings to intercept us, and seeing this new company, she put the ship into evasive maneuvers. Once the V-wings entered range, all of our guns opened fire, and we flew into a dogfight against my former friends, and we killed a few of them. The fighters scored a couple of hits on us, but our shields held, thanks to Quinn's upgrades to them.
Then, we entered the range of the Venator, which opened fire on us. Thankfully, we were able to outmaneuver the larger capital ship, so we avoided getting hit by its slower-firing turbolasers. Quinn then fired two proton torpedoes at the ship, which destroyed it. Now that the path was clear, she input the coordinates and the Otis entered hyperspace.
Two weeks later
I hold my breath as the Otis prepares to drop out of hyperspace above Coruscant. We were all nervous, as we knew the Imperial fleet over Coruscant would be much larger than the one over Malibu.
Immediately upon exiting hyperspace, Quinn engaged the cloaking device, hoping to avoid a similar confrontation to the one we faced over Malibu. The fleet did not appear to respond to our presence, so we continued along our course.
Quinn expertly piloted the Otis into the atmosphere, where she disengaged the cloaking device. Once there, we asked for permission to land in a hangar near where the Vega's lived. We got permission and landed. Lola said that she would pay, as we were visiting my family and I was her cousin. She tried to use Republic credits, which were refused, and the hangar's owner explained that the Emperor changed the currency to Imperial credits and that Republic credits were now worthless.
I knew what I had to do, but I was worried it would expose me. I outstretched my hand, and used a Jedi mind trick, telling him, "Republic credits will do fine." Thankfully, he was weak-minded enough for the mind trick to work, and he accepted our credits.
The others were in shock at what I could do, despite already knowing that I was a Jedi. Chase spoke up and said, "I'm just glad you're on our side," and we all shared a laugh, with Zoey closing in and briefly kissing him on the lips. We continued and arrived outside the Vega residence, from which I could see the Jedi temple, which was still burning. I start to cry again, seeing that the only family I had ever known was truly gone and that the place I was raised in, where my earliest memories came from, was burning to the ground because of what had happened over the last few days. I snap out of it, realizing that I am at the home of my real family and that I had no memories of them, so I need to rectify that.
I knock on the door, and Lola and I wait. An older brunette answers the door and asks who I am. Lola tells her, "this is your daughter, Victoria." I quickly respond, telling her to call me Tori now. My mother starts crying, telling me that she regretted giving me to the Jedi the second she heard Palpatine's speech, and couldn't bear to look at the temple since it started burning. She let us inside and introduced me to my sister and father. My father tells me that he did not buy anything Palpatine said about the supposed Jedi rebellion and that the family will welcome me back after I spent most of my life with the Jedi.
Trina comes down from her room and yells, what do you mean I have a sister! I see that she is upset about not being the center of attention all the time. I tell her that I've heard she is a singer, and ask to hear it. She starts singing, and my mom and dad immediately cover their ears, shortly followed by Lola and me. "You weren't exaggerating when you said she was untalented," I whisper to Lola.
I tell them about what my life was like inside the Jedi temple, up until the moment the clones turned on me, and then described my escape in detail. They were all horrified and promised that I would be safe with them, and I agreed to stay.
For the first time since the clones turned on me, I felt truly happy.
