Chapter XV - Krad's Landing
Luke had thought that, being reptiles, dewbacks would have an unpleasant smell. Most reptilian creatures did. But other than a faint burnt-bacon aroma, the dewbacks seemed to be an exception.
"They're a bit slow going through sand, but on most terrain they can cover more ground than a bantha or eopie," S'kina explained. "And they can go days without food or water."
"You certainly know animals," Luke marveled, patting his mount's wrinkled side as it drank deeply from the lake in preparation for the journey.
S'kina shrugged modestly as she tightened the harness on her own steed. "When you have lived around them for most of your life, you pick up a few things."
He smiled and finished tying a supply bag to the dewback's back. S'kina was unlike any woman he had ever met -- a wise and powerful Force-user, yet with a vulnerable side. She made him feel complete, enhanced, made a better person through her comradeship. He loved her, and it thrilled him to know she loved him in return.
His one regret was that he was going to have a time of it explaining all this to his father. It wasn't as if Anakin still bore a grudge against Sandpeople, but there were still some uncomfortable feelings lingering. And as S'kina had already lost so much due to his actions... He thrust the thoughts aside. He'd figure out some means of settling all this on the way. It wasn't as if Anakin would be waiting for them at Mos Eisley. He had a while to plan how to smooth things out.
"My lightsaber," she said suddenly, pawing through her pack. "I must have left it in the house. I'll be right back."
"Nah, I'll get it for you," he replied, returning to the hut.
Somehow a small bantha calf had found its way into the house, and it kept getting in his way as he searched. When he finally located the weapon, it was in the coils of a non- poisonous but rather aggressive snake that snapped irritably at him as he tried to reclaim the lightsaber. Finally, using the Force to calm the reptile and a hand firmly behind its head to keep it from biting him, he managed to untangle it.
From outside came the howl of a Tusken battle cry, and he bolted from the house.
S'kina was watching the sky and uttering a ululating wail that rang from the peaks and set their dewbacks to prancing nervously. An Imperial shuttle was settling to the valley floor, scattering the herds and flinging up clouds of dust as it touched down. Dark emanations poured from the ship, laced with a sense of bloodthirsty triumph and sadistic anticipation. Behind that seething presence he sensed the frightened yet resolute auras of his five students.
"A Dark One!" S'kina shouted.
"Here," Luke said, tossing her the gaderffi before igniting his own. She snapped the weapon in two and ignited the lightsaber end, keeping the bladed end ready.
The landing ramp hissed open with a puff of gas, and a red-skinned black-armored Kruvexian stepped off the shuttle, flanked by Aurra Sing and Jodo Kast.
"Luke Skywalker," the Kruvexian said calmly, not looking at all threatened by two drawn sabers. "At last we meet." He gave a small bow. "Krad the Destroyer, son of Jedi Knight Zorn the Swift."
"Release my Padawans, Krad," Luke ordered. "They have no quarrel with you."
"Patience," he replied. "All will occur in its own time. But my quarrel is not with you or your New Jedi Order, but with Darth Vader."
"Darth Vader no longer exists," Luke explained.
That was the wrong thing to say. Krad's gray eyes flashed in anger, and the pebbles at his feet trembled ominously.
"Darth Vader lives on the planet of Earth and is the man you refer to as Father," he snarled. "He murdered my mother in cold blood. And I have no choice but to avenge her death."
"You're wrong, Krad," Luke replied. "You do have a choice. You can choose to let go of your hate, or you can suffer the same fate my father did."
A crack of energy slammed in the air, and the water in the lake sprayed into the air, soaking everything and everyone around it.
"I'm not here to argue philosophy, Skywalker," snarled Krad. "I'm here to tell you not to interfere with what I am about to do. This must be done, and I won't have you spoiling it."
"I'm afraid you can't keep me from interfering," Luke replied. "As a Jedi I'm sworn to protect fellow members of the Order."
Krad gave a small smile. "Then protect those members that deserve it." He gestured sharply at Kast, who turned and entered the shuttle again. "I give you a choice, Skywalker -- your students or your father. Which is more deserving of life? And which will truly benefit your Order?"
A dozen Mandalorian guards trooped out, escorting his Padawans. They were tightly cuffed, and all bore signs of struggle. Korie sent a wave of relief along the Force that their master was okay.
/Stay calm/ Luke ordered. /We'll find a way out of this./
"You drive a hard bargain, Krad," he said aloud. "And you seem to be rather confidant that you can carry this out. Last I heard, killing or kidnapping a Jedi carried the death sentence."
"Then Darth Vader is quite deserving of that fate, isn't he?" Krad replied smugly.
S'kina proceeded to step forward, clear her throat, and calmly suggest that Krad do something quite graphic with a bantha.
Luke stared at her. How liberal had Obi-wan been in teaching her Basic?
"Ah, a Tusken Jedi," Krad crooned, ignoring her filthy comment. "A survivor of the Purges? Perhaps she, like me, would like to see the end of the last Sith as well."
"On the contrary," she replied. "What makes you think you have a monopoly on pain and suffering, Krad? You are not the only one to lose a loved one to Anakin Skywalker. You lost your mother. But Skywalker's father killed my family. He wounded my mother so that she died the moment I was born. He attacked our tribe years later, leading them to believe I carried a curse. And he murdered my Jedi Master. I have as much, if not more, reason to hate him as you. But unlike you, I have chosen to put away my hate and forgive him."
Again the sand shook with a sudden fluctuation in the Force. "How can you so easily forget all he has done?! You may not care, but I do! Skywalker shall atone for his crimes in blood!"
She gave another battle cry. "You'll not harm either Skywalker!"
"You think you can stop me?" he taunted.
She screamed and went after him, weapons raised high.
"S'kina, no!" Luke shouted, but it was too late.
Krad had his horn-handled lightsaber out in the blink of an eye. Violet and silver blades ground against each other with a wicked hiss, then locked as they assumed battle stances. Just as quickly S'kina brought the gaderffi blade around to strike Krad's shoulder, but he grabbed her arm in his free hand and twisted, breaking her wrist. She screamed in pain and dropped the blade. Swiftly he knocked her lightsaber out of her other hand and grabbed her around the waist, holding his own weapon to her throat.
The battle had started so quickly that, by the time Luke had assumed an attack position of his own, it was over.
"If you wish her dead, by all means strike," Krad hissed.
"Let her go!" Luke ordered.
"Krad, let me kill her," Aurra begged. "It's been too long..."
"Will you get off your Jedi-killing fixation for two minutes!" demanded Kast.
"You promised I could have one," Aurra went on, ignoring the Mandalorian.
"No," Krad snapped. "I am altering the deal."
"But..."
"Pray I don't alter it any further."
She curled her lip in hatred but subsided.
"Let's try this again," Krad offered, holding the Tusken tightly and keeping his weapon millimeters from her neck. "Agree to not interfere when I kill Vader, or refuse and watch these six die. You have one minute, starting now, to make your choice."
S'kina shook her head desperately, then whimpered in pain when Krad dug his claws into her arm. Through his Force bond with his students he could hear them tell him no, that he should do all he could to save Anakin, that their lives were inconsequential.
But Luke knew, even as he agonized over the realization, that in taking that course of action, he was ultimately being selfish. He loved Anakin, but in the long run his death would affect the Jedi Order less than the death of five of his best students. If he were to let the Padawans die that his father could live, he would be as much a betrayer of the Order as Vader. And he knew Anakin would never forgive him if he found out at what price Luke had bought his life.
"Forgive me, Father," Luke murmured through a tight throat, and he shut off his weapon.
"Master!" cried Gabriel in shock.
"If it came down to losing almost a third of the Jedi Order or losing Anakin," Luke replied with a nearly suffocating regret, "the galaxy would be better off losing Anakin."
Krad laughed in triumph and flung S'kina aside. "Wise decision, Skywalker. Very wise. My mother would have been proud to call you comrade."
Luke tried not to make eye contact with him as he started to go to S'kina so he could make sure she was okay.
A clawed hand gripped his arm and halted him. "However," Krad went on, "since I'm not entirely sure you won't break your word..."
Vision-shattering pain rampaged through Luke's mind, tearing apart his hasty defenses. He screamed as Krad's mind probe, amplified by the natural telepathic power of his species, ripped through and violated all it came in contact with. Every nerve in his body, every muscle and bone, felt on fire. The Force shrieked around him in protest.
/Luke!/ came Leia's distant cry. /What's wrong?/
/Master!/ his students screamed. /Hold on! Fight it!/
/Luke!/ Anakin shouted. /No!/
S'kina's Force-touch was an inarticulate cry of rage, grief, and love too great for words to convey.
Then all went numb as he collapsed to the sands, face damp with sweat and tears, blood trickling from a corner of his mouth where he had bit through his tongue in agony. He was cold, so cold, wrapped in a freezing darkness, and he tried to tap on the Force to shunt away that dread chill...
But the Force wouldn't obey. He had been stripped of its incredible powers, its guidance, its comfort, and he could only tremble in fear.
As if from a vast distance he heard Chyna's anguished yell. "What did you do to him?"
"He has been drained of the Force," Krad replied. "Once I'm finished with Vader, I MAY restore him. And I may not. That all depends on if you whelps behave yourselves while I'm gone. Aurra, Kast, board the shuttle. We're leaving."
Arms wrapped around him, cradling him, and S'kina's melodious voice was now ragged with sobs as she murmured his name over and over, brushing his face with gloved fingers.
"Get him inssssside!" ordered Xna. "Quick! Before Dessssstroyer-boy changesssss hisssss mind and deccccidesssss to kill him!"
Xna's comment preceded merciful oblivion.
---------
Leia gasped and clutched at Han's arm as they walked through Mon Calamari's largest spaceport, toward the Falcon and their trip home.
"What is it?" he asked, pulling her into a comm station to avoid the stares of passerby.
"Luke," she whispered hoarsely. She'd always had a strong bond with her twin, and she could often sense his mood or condition even when far away. Now, though he was halfway across the galaxy, she knew that he was in great pain. Desperately she sought his mind, trying to discover what was wrong, but a roiling stormcloud of the dark side obscured the specifics. Suddenly the turbulence withdrew, leaving a frightening blankness.
"Luke!" she screamed, collapsing against Han.
"What happened?" Han demanded.
"I can't feel him," she sobbed. "He's... he's gone..."
Han bowed his head and grimaced in an effort to suppress his grief. He, too, shared a close friendship with Luke despite being Force-blind, and had come to regard Luke almost as a younger brother. If he had truly died...
"To the Falcon," he ordered in a broken voice. "We're going to Tatooine."
--------
Fangs and Dodger were in the process of hotwiring the door lock of the barracks -- or at least making a bold attempt, as neither of them were particularly adept at electronic work. Blade made no move to help them, being even less knowledgeable at the subject, but saw fit to make snide comments from time to time. Everyone else watched hopefully, seeing an end to their imprisonment at last.
"Nice one," Blade said sarcastically as a fountain of sparks flared out of the locking mechanism. "Didn't know you two were pyrotechnicians."
"Why don't you go sit on a scanner grid if you're not gonna help?" suggested Fangs tartly.
One of the stealth troopers, Mystic, suddenly clapped his hands to his helmet and gave a sharp cry.
"What is it?" asked Dodger. "These two arguing gives you a migraine?"
"A disturbance in the Force..." moaned Mystic.
"Force?" a TIE pilot snorted. "What are you, a Jedi?"
"Stealth troopers have Jedi DNA," an ensign pointed out. To Mystic he said, "What's causing it?"
"I felt Luke Skywalker cry out," he explained. "He was in great agony. Then... nothing. As if a glowpanel had burnt out."
"Sithspawn!" screeched Dodger, setting at his work with renewed effort. Fangs pitched in where he could. Though they were too late to save Luke, perhaps they could escape in time to save his father from a similar fate.
---------
"Patrick, you've been playing 'Galaxies' for two hours," complained Jason. "Will you get off the computer and let me have a turn?"
"Use the other PC," Patrick mumbled, guiding his Wookie character through a Naboo swampland.
"C'mon, you know it doesn't have 'Galaxies!" Jason whined. "And who bought the game in the first place?"
"Just let me finish this mission."
"That's what you said at six o'clock last Monday, and you were still playing at four in the frickin' morning..."
"Hey, a little help here?" asked Zack, sticking his head through the doorway.
"Wrangle the kiddies yourself," Jason griped.
"Come on!" begged Zack. "They're crying up a storm and I can't get 'em to calm down..."
"Crying?" Patrick repeated, pausing the game and standing.
"You didn't make 'em watch 'Bambi,' did you?" Jason demanded.
"No, they were watching 'Attack of the Clones,' and we'd just gotten to the arena scene when the Wookie gave an almighty howl and Rachel started bawling, and that got 'em all going..."
Sure enough, when the brothers entered the room there wasn't a dry eye to be found -- or nose, for that matter. Jason seemed to forget his dislike of the Padawans as he knelt by the hiccuping Balosaur and helped him wipe his nose. Patrick picked up Niya and held her as she sobbed, while Zack made another round with a box of Kleenex.
"Hey, kids, what's wrong?" Jason asked.
"S-s-somethin' b-b-bad's happened," choked the Kaminoan.
"Bad? Where?" Zack was instantly all ears.
"Somethin' happened to Master Skywalker!" cried Rachel.
The men froze. "Anakin?" asked Patrick.
"Nuh-uh," Ressk replied.
Zack gaped. "LUKE!"
"Someone's gotta call Anakin and tell him!" exclaimed Jason.
"I have a feeling he already knows," Jason replied balefully.
--------
It was like being plunged into the molten pit all over again. Unspeakable pain assailed Anakin as he was preparing dinner for himself, and with a surprised cry he fell to his knees, the plate he was holding shattering on the floor. Waves of agony tore cruelly through his body, as if someone was prying open his skull and raking claws across his mind.
An equally pain-wracked scream rang across space and into his brain.
"Luke!" He fell on his side and curled into a fetal position as the fire raged through him again. If he was feeling this much agony, Luke must be suffering far, far worse.
Someone was pounding on the door to his apartment, calling his name. He ignored the entreaty. Not knowing what else to do, he poured all the power at his command into his son's tortured body, urging him to fight this menace, hoping it would be enough. He could feel Luke's battered mind respond, feel Leia's desperate inquiry, the children's fear, the terror of six (six?) Force-strong onlookers as they watched Luke helplessly, the perverse satisfaction of the attacker...
Then a bone-numbing darkness overwhelmed Luke's presence.
"NO!"
Frantically Anakin tried to touch his son's mind, but there was no response. Where Luke should have been, there was only a terrifying blankness.
His body shook with sobs as he wept for his son, his beloved son, his rescuer, his pride and joy, now cruelly taken from him. Something metallic-tasting ran down his throat, and it took him a moment to realize it was blood from where he had bitten through his lower lip. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Luke was dead. Dead in payment for a crime Anakin had committed. He clenched his fists and longed for death to take him, that he might see Luke again...
/Anakin!/ It was Korie, touching his mind.
/Leave me/ he ordered. /I know what has happened. My son is dead, and it's my fault.../
/No, he lives! But the pirate leader, Krad the Destroyer, has stripped him of the Force. He's very sick from the shock./
He gave a sob of relief. Luke was alive! But bereft of the Force, he was almost worse than dead.
/Guard him with your lives/ he commanded. /I'm coming./
/But.../
He broke off the contact before she could complete the thought. Opening his eyes, he saw his apartment had become a madhouse, crammed with stealth troopers and members of the Elite. Opal and Mrs. Hendrix were hovering over him, anxious expressions on their faces.
"I just heard him screaming," Opal was explaining to the landlady, close to tears. "It sounded like he was being murdered. I came in, and it looked like he was having some sort of seizure..."
"Calm down, darlin'," Mrs. Hendrix told her. "We'll sort this out. Hey Mr. Skywalker, can you hear me?"
"Luke's been hurt," Anakin replied, sitting up. Stars, his throat felt raw. How long had he been screaming?
"Yeah, we were just about to come and tell you that," Zack said. "Pat and Jason are trying to keep the kids under control, but they felt something happen to Luke through the Force and are going hysterical..."
"How badly is he hurt?" asked Emily.
"Not dead, I hope," murmured Conrad.
"He has been deprived of his ability to touch the Force," Anakin said, standing.
Austin went white. "Awful. Just awful."
Anakin turned to his landlady. "Lock up my apartment for me. I'm leaving."
"Where are you..." she began. "Honey, don't tell me you're goin' after him!"
"My son needs me!" Anakin said firmly, going into his bedroom. He threw together the bare essentials for the trip -- some of his medications, a medkit, Republic currency, his ID card, a blaster, car keys.
"Anakin..." began Liberty when he entered the kitchen, pack over one shoulder.
"Tell Jason and Patrick to keep the shop open while I'm gone," he told her.
"But you're exiled!" Cody finished for her. "You can't leave our system!"
He stopped at the door and sagged against the frame as crushing realization set in. By leaving for Tatooine, he would be breaking the edict set by the Jedi. If it had merely been a Republic sentence, he probably wouldn't have cared so much. But he couldn't disobey the Jedi, not after he'd been granted so generous a reprieve by them already! He was as good as chained to this planet.
But his son was suffering, perhaps dying. That was all that mattered now. He had to go. He'd pay the consequences later.
"I must go," he declared. "Banished or not, I must go to my son."
Mrs. Hendrix turned to the two stealth troopers on her left. "Go get the guy in Apartment Eight for me, will ya?"
The soldiers hesitated, not used to taking orders from civilians.
"Do as she says!" Anakin snapped.
The troopers bolted out the door.
"We're going with you," Austin said firmly.
"No," Anakin ordered. "I'm not endangering anyone needlessly."
"You need all the help you can get," Brigham pointed out.
"No! You will all remain on Earth. I must do this alone."
Austin shook his head resignedly. "All I can say is to be very careful. The Republic is still looking for an excuse to imprison you for life, and this is the perfect opportunity for them to find one." He pressed something into Anakin's hand. "You'll need this."
He looked at the lightsaber, astonished. "It's my old saber! Where did you get this?"
"Luke gave it to me awhile back," Austin explained. "Said it was found when vandals destroyed and looted Palpatine's palace. Some trooper must have found it on Cloud City and given it to the Emperor as a trophy. Luke said to give it to you when I judged you would need it, and this looks like a time where you'll need it." He squeezed Anakin's shoulder. "Be careful, man. Try not to do anything stupid, okay?"
"You forget you're talking to a Skywalker," Amethyst muttered. "Doing something stupid is an everyday occurrence for them."
The troopers returned, dragging in a wildly protesting Vader impostor with an extremely foul mouth.
"Mr. Polowski," Anakin greeted. "Good of you to join us."
"Darth Polowski," he corrected. "Sith Warrior of the Sons of the Sith, who wishes to have no truck with a betrayer of the Sith Order."
"Sorry, hon, but you're gonna help Skywalker here," Mrs. Hendrix said. "You're gonna live in his apartment awhile. Pretend to be him so no one will notice he's gone."
Polowski laughed disdainfully. "Sorry, sister, but I don't take orders from Force-blinds."
/Strange, considering you're one/ thought Anakin. Aloud he said, "You will, however, do as I say. Much is at stake here."
Polowski called Anakin several names that prison inmates get beat up for repeating.
"Let me put it another way." He gave a small, nearly undetectable wave. "You will remain here and keep up appearances until I get back."
"I will remain here and keep up appearances until you get back," the impostor repeated in a monotone voice.
"Troops, watch over this man as if he were me and don't let him leave this apartment," Anakin told the soldiers. "Mrs. Hendrix, thank you. I owe you."
"Just pay your rent on time," she replied, giving him a hug.
---------
Sparky thought it interesting that Star City, of all places, had a spaceport while very few other cities on Earth had one. Of course, this wasn't much of a spaceport -- just a few gaps in the trees that the city charged people to park their ships in, plus a bar some brave entrepreneur had established close by. But still...
"What's your haul?" a fellow freighter pilot asked him, tossing back a glass of whiskey.
"Mostly X-wing parts," he told the Duros. "A few hyperdrive generators in the mix somewhere. My hands will have to sort it all out when we reach port on Nar Shadda."
"You can afford hands?"
"Well, they're not exactly hired help. Just two droids and a Wookie friend who's along for the ride. But they get the job done." He sipped a Coke. "What about you?"
"Durasteel ore. On its way to the Udara refineries." He took a peek out the window. "That guy better watch his driving or he's gonna kill someone."
Sparky looked to see a familiar red convertible shriek to a halt just outside the bar, laying down rubber the whole way. Anakin jumped out of the vehicle and strode into the establishment. The Duros' eyes went wide, and he excused himself.
"Anakin?" Sparky said questioningly as the Jedi approached his table.
"I need a lift to Tatooine, Sparky," he said quickly.
"But you're exiled..."
"I'll pay you double the standard fare. This is urgent. Luke is in serious danger..."
He didn't let him finish. "I'll take you free. My ship's in the second clearing over. You'll know it, it says INCOM on the side. But what about the Executor? Can't you take it to Tatooine?"
"It departed two weeks ago for an Ord Mantell shipyard. It needs repairs on its starboard sublight engines."
"I see. Got a comm? I need to tell Chewie and the droids to get us ready for takeoff."
Luke had thought that, being reptiles, dewbacks would have an unpleasant smell. Most reptilian creatures did. But other than a faint burnt-bacon aroma, the dewbacks seemed to be an exception.
"They're a bit slow going through sand, but on most terrain they can cover more ground than a bantha or eopie," S'kina explained. "And they can go days without food or water."
"You certainly know animals," Luke marveled, patting his mount's wrinkled side as it drank deeply from the lake in preparation for the journey.
S'kina shrugged modestly as she tightened the harness on her own steed. "When you have lived around them for most of your life, you pick up a few things."
He smiled and finished tying a supply bag to the dewback's back. S'kina was unlike any woman he had ever met -- a wise and powerful Force-user, yet with a vulnerable side. She made him feel complete, enhanced, made a better person through her comradeship. He loved her, and it thrilled him to know she loved him in return.
His one regret was that he was going to have a time of it explaining all this to his father. It wasn't as if Anakin still bore a grudge against Sandpeople, but there were still some uncomfortable feelings lingering. And as S'kina had already lost so much due to his actions... He thrust the thoughts aside. He'd figure out some means of settling all this on the way. It wasn't as if Anakin would be waiting for them at Mos Eisley. He had a while to plan how to smooth things out.
"My lightsaber," she said suddenly, pawing through her pack. "I must have left it in the house. I'll be right back."
"Nah, I'll get it for you," he replied, returning to the hut.
Somehow a small bantha calf had found its way into the house, and it kept getting in his way as he searched. When he finally located the weapon, it was in the coils of a non- poisonous but rather aggressive snake that snapped irritably at him as he tried to reclaim the lightsaber. Finally, using the Force to calm the reptile and a hand firmly behind its head to keep it from biting him, he managed to untangle it.
From outside came the howl of a Tusken battle cry, and he bolted from the house.
S'kina was watching the sky and uttering a ululating wail that rang from the peaks and set their dewbacks to prancing nervously. An Imperial shuttle was settling to the valley floor, scattering the herds and flinging up clouds of dust as it touched down. Dark emanations poured from the ship, laced with a sense of bloodthirsty triumph and sadistic anticipation. Behind that seething presence he sensed the frightened yet resolute auras of his five students.
"A Dark One!" S'kina shouted.
"Here," Luke said, tossing her the gaderffi before igniting his own. She snapped the weapon in two and ignited the lightsaber end, keeping the bladed end ready.
The landing ramp hissed open with a puff of gas, and a red-skinned black-armored Kruvexian stepped off the shuttle, flanked by Aurra Sing and Jodo Kast.
"Luke Skywalker," the Kruvexian said calmly, not looking at all threatened by two drawn sabers. "At last we meet." He gave a small bow. "Krad the Destroyer, son of Jedi Knight Zorn the Swift."
"Release my Padawans, Krad," Luke ordered. "They have no quarrel with you."
"Patience," he replied. "All will occur in its own time. But my quarrel is not with you or your New Jedi Order, but with Darth Vader."
"Darth Vader no longer exists," Luke explained.
That was the wrong thing to say. Krad's gray eyes flashed in anger, and the pebbles at his feet trembled ominously.
"Darth Vader lives on the planet of Earth and is the man you refer to as Father," he snarled. "He murdered my mother in cold blood. And I have no choice but to avenge her death."
"You're wrong, Krad," Luke replied. "You do have a choice. You can choose to let go of your hate, or you can suffer the same fate my father did."
A crack of energy slammed in the air, and the water in the lake sprayed into the air, soaking everything and everyone around it.
"I'm not here to argue philosophy, Skywalker," snarled Krad. "I'm here to tell you not to interfere with what I am about to do. This must be done, and I won't have you spoiling it."
"I'm afraid you can't keep me from interfering," Luke replied. "As a Jedi I'm sworn to protect fellow members of the Order."
Krad gave a small smile. "Then protect those members that deserve it." He gestured sharply at Kast, who turned and entered the shuttle again. "I give you a choice, Skywalker -- your students or your father. Which is more deserving of life? And which will truly benefit your Order?"
A dozen Mandalorian guards trooped out, escorting his Padawans. They were tightly cuffed, and all bore signs of struggle. Korie sent a wave of relief along the Force that their master was okay.
/Stay calm/ Luke ordered. /We'll find a way out of this./
"You drive a hard bargain, Krad," he said aloud. "And you seem to be rather confidant that you can carry this out. Last I heard, killing or kidnapping a Jedi carried the death sentence."
"Then Darth Vader is quite deserving of that fate, isn't he?" Krad replied smugly.
S'kina proceeded to step forward, clear her throat, and calmly suggest that Krad do something quite graphic with a bantha.
Luke stared at her. How liberal had Obi-wan been in teaching her Basic?
"Ah, a Tusken Jedi," Krad crooned, ignoring her filthy comment. "A survivor of the Purges? Perhaps she, like me, would like to see the end of the last Sith as well."
"On the contrary," she replied. "What makes you think you have a monopoly on pain and suffering, Krad? You are not the only one to lose a loved one to Anakin Skywalker. You lost your mother. But Skywalker's father killed my family. He wounded my mother so that she died the moment I was born. He attacked our tribe years later, leading them to believe I carried a curse. And he murdered my Jedi Master. I have as much, if not more, reason to hate him as you. But unlike you, I have chosen to put away my hate and forgive him."
Again the sand shook with a sudden fluctuation in the Force. "How can you so easily forget all he has done?! You may not care, but I do! Skywalker shall atone for his crimes in blood!"
She gave another battle cry. "You'll not harm either Skywalker!"
"You think you can stop me?" he taunted.
She screamed and went after him, weapons raised high.
"S'kina, no!" Luke shouted, but it was too late.
Krad had his horn-handled lightsaber out in the blink of an eye. Violet and silver blades ground against each other with a wicked hiss, then locked as they assumed battle stances. Just as quickly S'kina brought the gaderffi blade around to strike Krad's shoulder, but he grabbed her arm in his free hand and twisted, breaking her wrist. She screamed in pain and dropped the blade. Swiftly he knocked her lightsaber out of her other hand and grabbed her around the waist, holding his own weapon to her throat.
The battle had started so quickly that, by the time Luke had assumed an attack position of his own, it was over.
"If you wish her dead, by all means strike," Krad hissed.
"Let her go!" Luke ordered.
"Krad, let me kill her," Aurra begged. "It's been too long..."
"Will you get off your Jedi-killing fixation for two minutes!" demanded Kast.
"You promised I could have one," Aurra went on, ignoring the Mandalorian.
"No," Krad snapped. "I am altering the deal."
"But..."
"Pray I don't alter it any further."
She curled her lip in hatred but subsided.
"Let's try this again," Krad offered, holding the Tusken tightly and keeping his weapon millimeters from her neck. "Agree to not interfere when I kill Vader, or refuse and watch these six die. You have one minute, starting now, to make your choice."
S'kina shook her head desperately, then whimpered in pain when Krad dug his claws into her arm. Through his Force bond with his students he could hear them tell him no, that he should do all he could to save Anakin, that their lives were inconsequential.
But Luke knew, even as he agonized over the realization, that in taking that course of action, he was ultimately being selfish. He loved Anakin, but in the long run his death would affect the Jedi Order less than the death of five of his best students. If he were to let the Padawans die that his father could live, he would be as much a betrayer of the Order as Vader. And he knew Anakin would never forgive him if he found out at what price Luke had bought his life.
"Forgive me, Father," Luke murmured through a tight throat, and he shut off his weapon.
"Master!" cried Gabriel in shock.
"If it came down to losing almost a third of the Jedi Order or losing Anakin," Luke replied with a nearly suffocating regret, "the galaxy would be better off losing Anakin."
Krad laughed in triumph and flung S'kina aside. "Wise decision, Skywalker. Very wise. My mother would have been proud to call you comrade."
Luke tried not to make eye contact with him as he started to go to S'kina so he could make sure she was okay.
A clawed hand gripped his arm and halted him. "However," Krad went on, "since I'm not entirely sure you won't break your word..."
Vision-shattering pain rampaged through Luke's mind, tearing apart his hasty defenses. He screamed as Krad's mind probe, amplified by the natural telepathic power of his species, ripped through and violated all it came in contact with. Every nerve in his body, every muscle and bone, felt on fire. The Force shrieked around him in protest.
/Luke!/ came Leia's distant cry. /What's wrong?/
/Master!/ his students screamed. /Hold on! Fight it!/
/Luke!/ Anakin shouted. /No!/
S'kina's Force-touch was an inarticulate cry of rage, grief, and love too great for words to convey.
Then all went numb as he collapsed to the sands, face damp with sweat and tears, blood trickling from a corner of his mouth where he had bit through his tongue in agony. He was cold, so cold, wrapped in a freezing darkness, and he tried to tap on the Force to shunt away that dread chill...
But the Force wouldn't obey. He had been stripped of its incredible powers, its guidance, its comfort, and he could only tremble in fear.
As if from a vast distance he heard Chyna's anguished yell. "What did you do to him?"
"He has been drained of the Force," Krad replied. "Once I'm finished with Vader, I MAY restore him. And I may not. That all depends on if you whelps behave yourselves while I'm gone. Aurra, Kast, board the shuttle. We're leaving."
Arms wrapped around him, cradling him, and S'kina's melodious voice was now ragged with sobs as she murmured his name over and over, brushing his face with gloved fingers.
"Get him inssssside!" ordered Xna. "Quick! Before Dessssstroyer-boy changesssss hisssss mind and deccccidesssss to kill him!"
Xna's comment preceded merciful oblivion.
---------
Leia gasped and clutched at Han's arm as they walked through Mon Calamari's largest spaceport, toward the Falcon and their trip home.
"What is it?" he asked, pulling her into a comm station to avoid the stares of passerby.
"Luke," she whispered hoarsely. She'd always had a strong bond with her twin, and she could often sense his mood or condition even when far away. Now, though he was halfway across the galaxy, she knew that he was in great pain. Desperately she sought his mind, trying to discover what was wrong, but a roiling stormcloud of the dark side obscured the specifics. Suddenly the turbulence withdrew, leaving a frightening blankness.
"Luke!" she screamed, collapsing against Han.
"What happened?" Han demanded.
"I can't feel him," she sobbed. "He's... he's gone..."
Han bowed his head and grimaced in an effort to suppress his grief. He, too, shared a close friendship with Luke despite being Force-blind, and had come to regard Luke almost as a younger brother. If he had truly died...
"To the Falcon," he ordered in a broken voice. "We're going to Tatooine."
--------
Fangs and Dodger were in the process of hotwiring the door lock of the barracks -- or at least making a bold attempt, as neither of them were particularly adept at electronic work. Blade made no move to help them, being even less knowledgeable at the subject, but saw fit to make snide comments from time to time. Everyone else watched hopefully, seeing an end to their imprisonment at last.
"Nice one," Blade said sarcastically as a fountain of sparks flared out of the locking mechanism. "Didn't know you two were pyrotechnicians."
"Why don't you go sit on a scanner grid if you're not gonna help?" suggested Fangs tartly.
One of the stealth troopers, Mystic, suddenly clapped his hands to his helmet and gave a sharp cry.
"What is it?" asked Dodger. "These two arguing gives you a migraine?"
"A disturbance in the Force..." moaned Mystic.
"Force?" a TIE pilot snorted. "What are you, a Jedi?"
"Stealth troopers have Jedi DNA," an ensign pointed out. To Mystic he said, "What's causing it?"
"I felt Luke Skywalker cry out," he explained. "He was in great agony. Then... nothing. As if a glowpanel had burnt out."
"Sithspawn!" screeched Dodger, setting at his work with renewed effort. Fangs pitched in where he could. Though they were too late to save Luke, perhaps they could escape in time to save his father from a similar fate.
---------
"Patrick, you've been playing 'Galaxies' for two hours," complained Jason. "Will you get off the computer and let me have a turn?"
"Use the other PC," Patrick mumbled, guiding his Wookie character through a Naboo swampland.
"C'mon, you know it doesn't have 'Galaxies!" Jason whined. "And who bought the game in the first place?"
"Just let me finish this mission."
"That's what you said at six o'clock last Monday, and you were still playing at four in the frickin' morning..."
"Hey, a little help here?" asked Zack, sticking his head through the doorway.
"Wrangle the kiddies yourself," Jason griped.
"Come on!" begged Zack. "They're crying up a storm and I can't get 'em to calm down..."
"Crying?" Patrick repeated, pausing the game and standing.
"You didn't make 'em watch 'Bambi,' did you?" Jason demanded.
"No, they were watching 'Attack of the Clones,' and we'd just gotten to the arena scene when the Wookie gave an almighty howl and Rachel started bawling, and that got 'em all going..."
Sure enough, when the brothers entered the room there wasn't a dry eye to be found -- or nose, for that matter. Jason seemed to forget his dislike of the Padawans as he knelt by the hiccuping Balosaur and helped him wipe his nose. Patrick picked up Niya and held her as she sobbed, while Zack made another round with a box of Kleenex.
"Hey, kids, what's wrong?" Jason asked.
"S-s-somethin' b-b-bad's happened," choked the Kaminoan.
"Bad? Where?" Zack was instantly all ears.
"Somethin' happened to Master Skywalker!" cried Rachel.
The men froze. "Anakin?" asked Patrick.
"Nuh-uh," Ressk replied.
Zack gaped. "LUKE!"
"Someone's gotta call Anakin and tell him!" exclaimed Jason.
"I have a feeling he already knows," Jason replied balefully.
--------
It was like being plunged into the molten pit all over again. Unspeakable pain assailed Anakin as he was preparing dinner for himself, and with a surprised cry he fell to his knees, the plate he was holding shattering on the floor. Waves of agony tore cruelly through his body, as if someone was prying open his skull and raking claws across his mind.
An equally pain-wracked scream rang across space and into his brain.
"Luke!" He fell on his side and curled into a fetal position as the fire raged through him again. If he was feeling this much agony, Luke must be suffering far, far worse.
Someone was pounding on the door to his apartment, calling his name. He ignored the entreaty. Not knowing what else to do, he poured all the power at his command into his son's tortured body, urging him to fight this menace, hoping it would be enough. He could feel Luke's battered mind respond, feel Leia's desperate inquiry, the children's fear, the terror of six (six?) Force-strong onlookers as they watched Luke helplessly, the perverse satisfaction of the attacker...
Then a bone-numbing darkness overwhelmed Luke's presence.
"NO!"
Frantically Anakin tried to touch his son's mind, but there was no response. Where Luke should have been, there was only a terrifying blankness.
His body shook with sobs as he wept for his son, his beloved son, his rescuer, his pride and joy, now cruelly taken from him. Something metallic-tasting ran down his throat, and it took him a moment to realize it was blood from where he had bitten through his lower lip. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Luke was dead. Dead in payment for a crime Anakin had committed. He clenched his fists and longed for death to take him, that he might see Luke again...
/Anakin!/ It was Korie, touching his mind.
/Leave me/ he ordered. /I know what has happened. My son is dead, and it's my fault.../
/No, he lives! But the pirate leader, Krad the Destroyer, has stripped him of the Force. He's very sick from the shock./
He gave a sob of relief. Luke was alive! But bereft of the Force, he was almost worse than dead.
/Guard him with your lives/ he commanded. /I'm coming./
/But.../
He broke off the contact before she could complete the thought. Opening his eyes, he saw his apartment had become a madhouse, crammed with stealth troopers and members of the Elite. Opal and Mrs. Hendrix were hovering over him, anxious expressions on their faces.
"I just heard him screaming," Opal was explaining to the landlady, close to tears. "It sounded like he was being murdered. I came in, and it looked like he was having some sort of seizure..."
"Calm down, darlin'," Mrs. Hendrix told her. "We'll sort this out. Hey Mr. Skywalker, can you hear me?"
"Luke's been hurt," Anakin replied, sitting up. Stars, his throat felt raw. How long had he been screaming?
"Yeah, we were just about to come and tell you that," Zack said. "Pat and Jason are trying to keep the kids under control, but they felt something happen to Luke through the Force and are going hysterical..."
"How badly is he hurt?" asked Emily.
"Not dead, I hope," murmured Conrad.
"He has been deprived of his ability to touch the Force," Anakin said, standing.
Austin went white. "Awful. Just awful."
Anakin turned to his landlady. "Lock up my apartment for me. I'm leaving."
"Where are you..." she began. "Honey, don't tell me you're goin' after him!"
"My son needs me!" Anakin said firmly, going into his bedroom. He threw together the bare essentials for the trip -- some of his medications, a medkit, Republic currency, his ID card, a blaster, car keys.
"Anakin..." began Liberty when he entered the kitchen, pack over one shoulder.
"Tell Jason and Patrick to keep the shop open while I'm gone," he told her.
"But you're exiled!" Cody finished for her. "You can't leave our system!"
He stopped at the door and sagged against the frame as crushing realization set in. By leaving for Tatooine, he would be breaking the edict set by the Jedi. If it had merely been a Republic sentence, he probably wouldn't have cared so much. But he couldn't disobey the Jedi, not after he'd been granted so generous a reprieve by them already! He was as good as chained to this planet.
But his son was suffering, perhaps dying. That was all that mattered now. He had to go. He'd pay the consequences later.
"I must go," he declared. "Banished or not, I must go to my son."
Mrs. Hendrix turned to the two stealth troopers on her left. "Go get the guy in Apartment Eight for me, will ya?"
The soldiers hesitated, not used to taking orders from civilians.
"Do as she says!" Anakin snapped.
The troopers bolted out the door.
"We're going with you," Austin said firmly.
"No," Anakin ordered. "I'm not endangering anyone needlessly."
"You need all the help you can get," Brigham pointed out.
"No! You will all remain on Earth. I must do this alone."
Austin shook his head resignedly. "All I can say is to be very careful. The Republic is still looking for an excuse to imprison you for life, and this is the perfect opportunity for them to find one." He pressed something into Anakin's hand. "You'll need this."
He looked at the lightsaber, astonished. "It's my old saber! Where did you get this?"
"Luke gave it to me awhile back," Austin explained. "Said it was found when vandals destroyed and looted Palpatine's palace. Some trooper must have found it on Cloud City and given it to the Emperor as a trophy. Luke said to give it to you when I judged you would need it, and this looks like a time where you'll need it." He squeezed Anakin's shoulder. "Be careful, man. Try not to do anything stupid, okay?"
"You forget you're talking to a Skywalker," Amethyst muttered. "Doing something stupid is an everyday occurrence for them."
The troopers returned, dragging in a wildly protesting Vader impostor with an extremely foul mouth.
"Mr. Polowski," Anakin greeted. "Good of you to join us."
"Darth Polowski," he corrected. "Sith Warrior of the Sons of the Sith, who wishes to have no truck with a betrayer of the Sith Order."
"Sorry, hon, but you're gonna help Skywalker here," Mrs. Hendrix said. "You're gonna live in his apartment awhile. Pretend to be him so no one will notice he's gone."
Polowski laughed disdainfully. "Sorry, sister, but I don't take orders from Force-blinds."
/Strange, considering you're one/ thought Anakin. Aloud he said, "You will, however, do as I say. Much is at stake here."
Polowski called Anakin several names that prison inmates get beat up for repeating.
"Let me put it another way." He gave a small, nearly undetectable wave. "You will remain here and keep up appearances until I get back."
"I will remain here and keep up appearances until you get back," the impostor repeated in a monotone voice.
"Troops, watch over this man as if he were me and don't let him leave this apartment," Anakin told the soldiers. "Mrs. Hendrix, thank you. I owe you."
"Just pay your rent on time," she replied, giving him a hug.
---------
Sparky thought it interesting that Star City, of all places, had a spaceport while very few other cities on Earth had one. Of course, this wasn't much of a spaceport -- just a few gaps in the trees that the city charged people to park their ships in, plus a bar some brave entrepreneur had established close by. But still...
"What's your haul?" a fellow freighter pilot asked him, tossing back a glass of whiskey.
"Mostly X-wing parts," he told the Duros. "A few hyperdrive generators in the mix somewhere. My hands will have to sort it all out when we reach port on Nar Shadda."
"You can afford hands?"
"Well, they're not exactly hired help. Just two droids and a Wookie friend who's along for the ride. But they get the job done." He sipped a Coke. "What about you?"
"Durasteel ore. On its way to the Udara refineries." He took a peek out the window. "That guy better watch his driving or he's gonna kill someone."
Sparky looked to see a familiar red convertible shriek to a halt just outside the bar, laying down rubber the whole way. Anakin jumped out of the vehicle and strode into the establishment. The Duros' eyes went wide, and he excused himself.
"Anakin?" Sparky said questioningly as the Jedi approached his table.
"I need a lift to Tatooine, Sparky," he said quickly.
"But you're exiled..."
"I'll pay you double the standard fare. This is urgent. Luke is in serious danger..."
He didn't let him finish. "I'll take you free. My ship's in the second clearing over. You'll know it, it says INCOM on the side. But what about the Executor? Can't you take it to Tatooine?"
"It departed two weeks ago for an Ord Mantell shipyard. It needs repairs on its starboard sublight engines."
"I see. Got a comm? I need to tell Chewie and the droids to get us ready for takeoff."