Part 27: Helga's Choice

Aboard the Trade Federation battleship, Darth Curly led Helga and Big Bob to the Throne Room. They were guarded by several battle droids, though their hands were manicled and Helga had a collar which shocked her everytime she tried to use the Force.

Helga glanced at her father, who was looking very worried at the prospect of seeing his cloned "perfect" daughter again. She wanted to do something to comfort him, but she too felt a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach at the idea of seeing Olga now. The lightsaber that she had hidded inside her robes was the only sorce of comfort for her. She was thankful that Darth Curly hadn't decided to search her.

They walked across a long plank that had several levels which all seemed to go down to a deep section of the ship, probably the reactor. At the end of this plank was a large set of double doors which opened as soon as they came up to them.

The massive throne room was large with a high ceiling and some cables and hoses hanging down from above. On one side was a pit with some weird looking controls around it and a console marked: CARBON FREEZING and HAZARDOUS. The room was dark, except for some red lights and a few dim lights around the room. The whole room looked like something dark, something underground, sinister...

Evil.

Helga could literally feel the darkness in the room, despite not being able to sense the Force, she could somehow feel the evil that this room embodied, as if it were a living thing. The same evil that posessed Darth Curly and Olga. The Dark Side of the Force.

The only other source of light came from a round window on top of several towering stairs where an elevated rotating chair sat. It was currently facing the other way, out the window. Its occupant was hidden from view, but Helga knew who it was.

When they walked towards the throne, Helga noticed Viceroy Rhonda walk pass. Rhonda gave Helga a dubious look and snorted upon taking in her outfit. "Tacky," she muttered before she left. The battle droids remained at their post by the doors, their sensor-eyes always watching.

Helga scowled, though she really didn't care about her at all.

As they started up the stairs, Helga glanced over and saw Master Phoebe chained to the far wall, a Force restraining collar around her neck as well. She looked at Helga with such worry and pain. Helga began to wonder if she already knew about Arnold as well.

Oh my Arnold, my love...Helga thought to herself in sorrow. The pain of the loss was too new, she hadn't even had time to properly grieve for him. Her heart felt as if there were a whole in it. A deep one.

Inside she let the pain and grief turn into something else...something more useful. The hole was being slowly filled with a desire for vengence, to get revenge for Arnold and to kill off her grief by destroying the ones responsible for it.

Just give me an opening Olga! She thought darkly.

A small part of her mind suddenly spoke up. Helga, don't you remember what Stinky's ghost told you, what Master Gertie said about hate and anger leading to the Dark Side? That's what they want!

She shook her head, trying to rid herself of her doubts. She would only have one shot at this.

They reached the top of the stairs.

Darth Curly bowed at the waist to the massive chair. "Master, I have brought you a couple of visitors."

The chair rotated and Emperor Olga smiled a cool smile at them. "Yes I know."

The very sight of Olga, dressed now in the black robes of a Dark Lord of the Sith made her anger rise.

Almost as if knowing so, the corners of Olga's lips perked up slightly in dark pleasure. Her eyes turned first to Big Bob.

"Daddy, its been such a long time," She said, sounding almost as if she were genuinely happy to see him, rather than pleased for an opportunity to gloat at someone she now conisdered beneath her. "You thought you could hide from me forever, but now its so good to see you again. You should be very proud. You are about to have a daughter who will be the ruler of the entire Galaxy!" Her eyes took on an insane look from her lust for power.

Big Bob only looked at Olga sadly, "I would have been prouder if the daughter that I raised to love life didn't enjoy destroying it."

Emperor Olga sighed and looked bored, "Oh well, enough father-daughter bonding." She raised her hand and thrust Big Bob from the platform and across the room with The Force. He landed near Master Phoebe, who looked down at him concerned. He seemed unconscious.

"Daddy!" Helga yelled out. She hoped that he was okay.

Now the evil Sith Emperor turned all of her attention to Helga.

"My dear baby sister," she began, her voice no longer warm and bubbling with almost humoring cheerfulness, but cold and sinister. "At last you have arrived at my moment of triumph." She looked down at the binders and at the restraining collar on Helga and made a gesture. "You no longer require either of those." The binders and collar were unlocked and fell to the floor with a couple of clanks.

Olga looked up at the battle droids, "Leave us!" The droids left the room.

Darth Curly moved to Olga's side and smiled.

Helga had full control of the Force again and she could feel the Dark Side all around her, coming from the two beings in front of her.

Olga leaned forward in the chair, moving closer to Helga slightly...almost in striking distance.

"I am looking forward to completing your training, and soon, my baby sister, you will call me master." Olga told her smiling.

Helga allowed herself to smile a little now. "You are gravely mistaken about that, Olga."

"Oh no, my younger sibling," Emperor Olga said, leaning forward more in the chair and smiling a gloating smile. "I believe your the one mistaken, about a great many things."

Helga felt the anger rising in her more, a cold feeling crossing over her...the Force within her felt very quick and powerful. She wondered slightly if one could use the Dark Side judiciously...maybe just a little bit?

No! That voice of reason shouted in her mind.

Olga smiled more, the gloating evident in her voice as she said, "Good, I can feel the hate swelling in you. It's very powerful. You despise me, that is good. It is your first step towards your new destiny."

Helga looked at Olga, "No." She said this in a whisper as her hand moved slightly towards her lightsaber. She knew how to make it quick, she just needed Olga to stand up...

"Oh you don't believe me? Well, one way or another, you will become a true believer in the Dark Side of the Force." Olga said, standing up.

Now Olga was close enough.

"NEVER!" Helga shouted and brought her hand up, using a powerful blast of the Force to knock both Emperor Olga and Darth Curly back. Darth Curly fell from the towering platform where the throne sat and Olga back into her throne. Shock was evident on her face.

Helga pulled out and ignited Arnold's lightsaber. It glowed a brilliant blue against the semi-darkness of the room and she leveled it at a surprised Emperor Olga, who had barely enough time to show a look of terror.

Phoebe, looked up at and shouted, "HELGA NO!"

The lightsaber made a sound as, in one quick motion, Helga brought it down upon the Sith Emperor, aiming right for her neck...

(Arnold's POV)

Outside the palace, moving slowly towards bay where the other patrol vehicles were stationed, both Gerald and Arnold felt a sudden surge of anger in the Force.

Arnold felt it came from Helga and, for a brief moment, he saw in his minds eye, Helga bringing down his lightsaber on his evil sister's neck and severing her head clean off...

NO! Arnold screamed in his mind. HELGA! DON'T!

Time stood very still then...

(Helga's POV)

...but then she stopped just before the blue blade of light would have cut Olga to pieces.

Olga looked up stunned at Helga, who still held the lightsaber blade at her throat. Darth Curly was back at her side and reached for his own lightsaber, but not activating it. His eyes were fixed on Helga.

Helga stood there, Arnold's blue lightsaber in front of her, tears forming in her blue eyes which only stared strait ahead...

Arnold?!

She'd felt him just then, even though she knew he was dead, she felt his presence. But it seemed so real, almost as if he were still alive and close to her at this very moment. Through her grief and pain, she could feel his love and worry for her...

(Arnold's POV)

...Arnold thought he sensed her answer him and he could feel that she had not yet done what she invisioned in her thoughts, but she was ready to do so. Only now she was at the edge of uncertainty.

He briefly wondered how he had been able to see her thoughts just then at that moment, but it was unimportant compared to what he had to tell her. He just hoped and prayed that she would be able to hear it.

Helga...

(Helga's POV)

...She knew he couldn't possibly still be alive after that fall, she'd seen the blood on that strip of his robe, yet his presence was there all the same.

Then she heard his voice in her thoughts speaking to her...Helga, you're better than them! I know you are! You are stronger than the Dark Side and I am with you! I will always be with you! I know you wont let them turn you!

The last words were said with the feeling she sensed from him that he had faith in her to do the right thing...I believe in you Helga!

Oh Arnold...I love you...She thought as a single tear ran down her cheek...

(Arnold's POV)

...He felt it, Helga could hear him and she made her decision.

Then he felt her through The Force, it was the warm feeling that he felt when he stood with her by the window of the Moave Avenger's crew cabin looking out at the stars...when he sat with her and watched the sun setting beside her...when she kissed him that first time...

Love.

Then he heard her voice, in almost a whisper in his mind, Oh Arnold...I love you...

He smiled and a tear ran down his own cheek as he answered back...I love you too Helga...

(Helga's POV)

When Helga heard that response in her mind, and felt the truth of those words, he heart was filled again, despite the face he was not there physically.

She knew that revenge would not bring him back, nor would giving in to hate. Her love for Arnold was what mattered and his faith in her.

To Olga she smiled, even with the tears in her eyes. "I'll never turn to the Dark Side of the Force." She told her flatly as she backed away, removing the tip of the blade from Olga's throat, but still holding out between her and the Sith Lords.

"I wanted to take revenge on you and Darth Curly for what you did to my family and to Arnold, but that will not undo anything. Arnold always saw the good inside me, even when I never knew it was there myself. He knew I would do the right thing."

Both Master Phoebe and Big Bob, who regained consciousness, but only feined being passed out for the time being, smiled at her words, both of them releived by her words.

Olga, on the other hand, now no longer afraid of being cut down, gave Helga a look that would have split an asteroid into a million pieces. "You little fool," She spat. "You should have destroyed me when you had the chance!"

Helga shook her head, "I am not like you, Olga! I understand what it means to respect life and to love!"

"Love?! Ha! Such a weak emotion!" Olga said disdainfully, a look of distaste on her face. "Look what your vaunted love has done for you. If you'd used your anger, you would have been able to finish me off! But your silly feelings for your lost boyfriend will now be your downfall! Your love (she said the word distastefully again) has made you soft, weak..."

"No Olga," Helga said quietly, backing away towards the stairs, the lightsaber between them as she back down them. "My love for Arnold is my strength!"

"Spare me!" Emperor Olga shouted impatiently, waving her hand. "Very well, if you will not turn willingly, then you will turn by force!"

Master Phoebe shouted out, "Helga! Keep away from the machinery! They'll try to use it to..."

Instantly, Olga fired lightning bolts from her fingertips at Master Phoebe, which blasted a hunk of metal out of the wall, pulling her chained hands free of it and knocking her down on the floor next to Big Bob.

"No coaching from the peanut gallery!" Olga said, smirking.

Helga got between Phoebe and Olga and used the lightsaber's blade as a lightning rod to stop the bolts from hurting the defenseless Jedi more.

Olga frowned and stopped. "You try my patience, baby sister."

Over near the floor, while the Dark Lord's attention was with Helga, Big Bob wispered to Phoebe, "Lay back and pretend you are hurt." He began to remove a small pin from his belt and use it to try and pick the lock on the collar that prevented the little Jedi from using the Force. It was a complex lock and it would take time.

Helga only grinned and held her lightsaber to keep them at bay.

Darth Curly smiled and activated one side of his own lightsaber, the red blade of light clashing with the dark background. "Oh how cute," he said nastily to his master. "The little girl wants to play lightsaber duel. With your permission your highness?"

Olga nodded and grinned a little now, suddenly feeling she had the upper hand. "Just dont get too carried away, Lord Curly."

Darth Curly smiled an evil smile now, "I won't hurt her...permanently."

Helga realized that she knew absolutely nothing about lightsaber fighting, but remembering what Arnold and Gertie instructed her about trusting the Force to guide her, she readied herself.

Darth Curly lunged and the two lightsaber blades clashed...the duel of the fates was on!

To Be Continued...

Hang on Helga, help is on the way! D.R.