Two days into the trip from Cophrigin to Bespin, Jax peered out of his tiny compartment through a haze of icy tension to take stock of the ongoing cold war between Kit and Panga. Under the excuse that he needed to meditate and prepare, he had managed to sequester himself away from two women who seemed intent on waging verbal warfare at every opportunity. In the odd times that he actually attempted to meditate; it had done less for his confidence than simply trying to keep his mind focused on anything other than the task at hand. His avoidance had come to a screeching halt when Panga had announced their impending arrival on the Bespin system. Slowly, reluctantly, Jax had slipped into the Chiss uniform that they had found on the shuttle, finding it slightly too tight. Looking at himself in the mirror, he felt he could pass as a Chiss official, were it not for the look of abject fear etched onto his face.
Panga had devised a plan to emerge on the planet's shadow side and then hitch a ride on an incoming tanker. Kit had objected to this plan, given that Panga's ship carried an ostentatious red and black color scheme that would make it stand out like a Wookie in a crowd, but Panga, in her usual mocking fashion, continued to aggravate Kit by promising a surprise without revealing what the surprise was. Kit naturally had not trusted the assurance, and with the timer counting down to their arrival, she had resumed the argument that had waxed and waned throughout the trip. Jax heard the argument firing up, and knowing that he could not avoid them any longer, he walked to the cockpit and listened quietly at the doorway.
"Ok, so the Hutts, the Republic, and the Chiss all want our heads. Maybe now would be a good time to explain how you aren't going to kill us all?" Kit said, her arms and legs crossed as she sat in the co-pilot's seat.
Panga, clearly relishing Kit's discomfort, said in response, "You remember how I pulled the wool over your eyes at Tatooine?"
Kit rolled her eyes without a response. Panga continued, "And you remember how you sat in a room with me and didn't realize I was there holding your weapons for a full five minutes?"
"Quit jerking me around and make your point," Kit spat.
"I know how to blend in," Panga said, smiling mischievously. She flipped a series of switches on her control panel and nodded to the viewport in the cockpit.
Kit looked out the cockpit's viewport at the wings of the Harpy, but instead of seeing wings painted in showy red and black patterns, she saw the indistinct blurred outline of wings that reflected the starry blackness of space.
"Does this thing cloak?" Kit asked, astonished despite her annoyance.
"No cloaking. You lose your shields and your firing ability. The surface of this ship and my suit are chameleonic. They reflect the background AND deflect radar signatures," Panga explained.
Kit muttered under her breath, "So that's how. . ." before snapping back into attention. "And why didn't you explain this before?"
"Because it's just too much fun winding you up, Antilles," Panga said, smirking. She then maneuvered the craft toward a lumbering gas tanker drifting toward the planet. A pair of twin-cockpit Cloud Cars escorted the craft as it crawled toward the city's port. Panga nudged the Harpy forward and settled into a gentle drift below the tanker. She rotated the Harpy 180-degrees and then allowed the tanker's gravity field to pull the Harpy toward its belly. Moments before contact, Panga fired her repulsor lifts, and with an imperceptible bump, the Harpy sealed itself to the ship.
"Now, we float into Cloud City's port undetected. I detach, allowing us to fall into the cloud deck. We then creep up the city's underbelly and dock at the entrance to the passages. Bip, bop, boop," she concluded with a self-satisfied grin.
"Alright," Kit said with a trace of appreciation in her voice as they drifted along undetected on the belly of the tanker. "Jax and I make our way to Lando; Jax does some of his Jedi magic if we meet anybody along the way; we grab Lando and get out of here."
Both women turned to look at Jax, who shrank back uncomfortably. Panga said, "I hope all that navel gazing did the trick. The last thing we want here is a fight."
"I'm good," Jax lied.
Panga raised her eyebrows as if to express her skepticism, but verbally she added, "I'll be on standby."
Fifteen minutes later, the tanker had docked. Panga released the Harpy, and it dropped precipitously into the clouds below. The ship shook as the winds whipping through the clouds pushed it here and there, but it stabilized as Panga kicked on the sublight drive. She piloted the ship ahead to the mining column on the bottom of the city, and she lifted the nose on the ship to creep along the spire, blending into the gray color scheme as she moved slowly to their targeted entry point. After skimming the underside of the floating city, Panga slowed the ship to a halt and nudged it up against the city's underbelly with a gentle thump.
"You're up," Panga said aloud to Kit and Jax. Jax and Kit left the cockpit, both grabbing their respective weapons. They opened the Harpy's ventral hatch, revealing a sealed door on the underside of the city. Kit twisted the handle, and the door sprang back and slid to the side, revealing a darkened passageway. They climbed up and into the passageway, and Jax ignited his lightsaber – its silver blade cast a brilliant light down the darkened corridor as the pair set out ahead.
With Jax leading the way, the two crept through the narrow, dusty corridor coated with what looked like a decade's worth of dust. The two forged ahead, with Kit frequently referring to the schematic that Chewie provided to guide their decisions at various junctions along the way. After 20 minutes of careful navigation and strenuous climbing, they saw diffused light and heard the muted noise of the city, with the occasional speeder drifting by and muted conversations in alien tongues. The light and conversation filtered in from vents that opened to the streets above, and Jax extinguished his lightsaber to ensure its persistent humming would not attract attention.
Kit stepped closer to one of the vents and peered through. She looked out to see a smattering of Cloud City residents scurrying about. They appeared haggard, even timid. She swept her gaze along the span of the street before her, stopping on a cluster of armored troops who were neither Republic nor local security. Stepping away from the vent to allow Jax to look, she whispered, "Look familiar?"
Jax stepped forward and peered through the vent. He saw the armored soldiers and recognized the design in their armor. It was not dissimilar from the matte black armor he wore on his last mission at Xarthax. However, the neutral gray color scheme merged with softer edges and partially open facemasks to remove some of the menace. He recognized other tell-tales, including the weapons and the postures of the soldiers from other encounters over the past year and prior to his break from the Order of Ren. The Resistance had run up against the Chiss Ascendancy before, which Jax had described as a co-opted form of the original government used to grant the Order of Ren legitimacy to the Republic. For the past year, the Chiss had helped the Republic stem an incursion of alien attacks on Republic planets, even though Kit knew that the Order of Ren had both fabricated the attacks with one hand while using the Chiss to help them stop the attacks with the other hand. Many in the galaxy had been skeptical about the Chiss thanks to their memories of Grand Admiral Thrawn's legacy of Imperial tyranny followed by a nearly successful insurrection. However, Bolsko's government had embraced and elevated them, and gradually some in the galaxy began to trust them as they helped turn the tide of the various environmental catastrophes befalling Republic worlds.
"Chiss soldiers," he whispered.
Kit nodded, and whispered into her commlink, "Panga, we got Chiss soldiers up here. No Republic. This could get messy."
Panga acknowledged the message as Jax continued to stare through the vent. As he spied the soldiers, a new figure entered the street as if straight from his worst, forgotten nightmares. It was humanoid, with a tapered skull and angular ridges running over its grey forehead. The creature towered over the other soldiers, and it began grunting and gesturing as the soldiers hastened away. The creature turned around, surveying the street, and Jax gasped as he noted its cruel silver eyes, plated armor, and wicked looking scythe. An electric jolt of recognition preceded a wave of panic. His breath quickened, and his heart raced. The constricted feeling in his throat and the shaking in his hands caused him to weaken at the knees, and as the panic spread, he found himself sinking to the floor, hyperventilating as his vision constricted.
Waves of images flooded through his mind. He saw a female Chiss child screaming for her mother. He saw a blue-skinned woman, beautiful and slight, dragged away by armored soldiers. He felt the blunt ache of a blaster rifle slamming into his face. And cutting through this rapid succession of images, he saw the brutal face of the mysterious being screaming into his own, beating him down, and dragging him away from a burning hut. He heard screams, and as the screams grew, he relived the image of a burning village. Elderly Chiss men and women were gunned down in the streets. Massive machines plowed through the town square, firing into buildings. A generator exploded in the distance. He pushed and fought, cutting down soldiers with a shovel. He felt the blow to the back of his head, and he looked up to see the same being who had just entered the street standing above him. The being roared, bringing the butt of his scythe down against his face.
Jax came to with Kit hunched over him. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and he felt like he was losing control. "Jax!" she hissed, shaking him to try to bring him back into his senses. "Jax! Be. Quiet!" she hissed again.
Jax swiveled his head wildly as he tried to orient himself after the relentless wave of images flooding his mind. He felt Kit's hand turn his head toward her, and he stared into her brown, almond-shaped eyes. "Breathe, Jax," she whispered as soothingly as she could despite her own fear that they'd be discovered.
She began to breathe deeply, lifting and lowering her hand in time with her breathing to guide him. Jax began to follow her guidance, and gradually the sense of panic waned, leaving him shaken and empty.
When the panic attack subsided, Kit asked, "What the hell was that about?"
"That thing," Jax said, and even acknowledging what had happened started to stir some of the anxiety again. He took another steadying breath before he continued. "I've seen it before."
"Where?" Kit asked, frowning.
"I'm not sure, but," he hesitated, believing she would think he was crazy, "I think he was there when I was taken from my home."
"Before you were in the Order of Ren?" Kit asked, her frown shifting into empathic concern.
With another steadying breath, he began to explain, "I saw fire – flames. I saw people screaming. I was fighting. I felt a blow to my head, and he was there. Everything goes black." He paused, straining his focus to sift through the images he experienced to make sense of them. "I had a wife. A child, too."
"Oh, Jax," Kit said sympathetically, but a burst of static from her comm followed, and Panga asked, "You stopped moving. What's going on?"
Kit hissed into the comm, saying, "Just a pit stop. We're on our way." She put her hand on Jax's shoulder. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this. If you think we should turn back. . ." she said, leaving the sentence open to emphasize that it would be Jax's choice.
Jax felt shame welling within him at his weakness. It awoke a fresh determination to push ahead no matter the cost to himself. Anger stirred in him at the memories that awoke – perhaps if he crossed paths with the terrifying creature from forgotten nightmares. . .
"Yeah, I'm good," Jax said, taking another deep breath and bringing himself to his feet. He looked out the vent again, but the creature was gone. Turning to Kit, he said, "Let's go."
Kit frowned, feeling her own apprehension rising, but Jax turned away and stalked down the passages below the streets, and she jogged off after him. They continued through the passages below the city streets without further incident, and in ten minutes, they arrived at the location on Kit's schematic indicating a doorway that should open to the entrance of Lando's residence. Kit shut down the projected schematic and turned to Jax as he shut down his lightsaber and said, "Okay, there may or may not be guards in front of the doorway. If there are, do that Jedi mind trick thing you guys always do. No unwanted attention. Ok?"
Jax exhaled sharply as he attempted to drum up confidence. It was true that he had successfully performed the mind trick before, but he had neglected to tell Kit or Panga that the only times he had done so were during training on volunteers from the Resistance flight crew technician corps. It had taken him the better part of a year to master it, and each time he successfully pulled it off, the effects wore off within seconds. Forcing a confidence he did not truly feel, he thought to himself, Soldiers? Techs? What's the difference? But even as he tried to pump himself up, a voice nagged at him in his head, saying, The difference is everything, idiot.
Kit released the latch to the door, which slid open with a hiss. Jax followed her out of the passageway into the pristine, brightly lit halls of Cloud City's administrative residences. Straightening themselves up, they walked forward purposely, attempting to look as if they belonged there. Rounding the corner, they found themselves approaching a pair of guards flanking a white door. The guards wore outfits like those they saw on the soldiers patrolling the street, although the open masks and the lighter weaponry suggested that they were guards instead of soldiers.
As they approached, both guards stiffened in apprehension. Jax walked slightly ahead with Kit to his side. He noted the lack of security cameras and felt a twinge of relief. As they neared, Jax stopped and addressed the guards, saying, "I've brought up an engineer from mining operations to share data on increasing productivity with the Administrator."
The guard raised his eyebrows at Jax and said, "This is the first I've heard of it." Kit noted the iciness in his voice and contrasted it with Jax's shakier tone. The guard on the left tensed, and Kit knew they were not fooled. The guard on the right continued, saying, "Show me your identification."
Jax felt a tremor of fear pass through him. He felt Kit stirring next to him, and he responded in a slightly shakier voice while waving his hand through the air before him, saying, "You don't need to see our identification; you will allow us to pass."
"Excuse me?" said the guard, surprised and coldly indignant. "Corporal, you are in no position to make orders."
Jax looked down at the insignia on his lapel, noting that he had no more idea what it meant than Kit did. He looked up and waved his hand again, saying more desperately this time, "You will allow us to pass."
"Vim, radio command and tell them we have intruders," said the guard whom Jax was addressing.
Kit sighed impatiently. Jax looked to her, panicked. She rolled her eyes and said, "Like hell you will," as she drew her blaster and shot Vim in the chest. The blast woke Jax out of his stupor, and he reacted instinctively, igniting his lightsaber, and thrusting it through the guard's chest. The blade passed through, puncturing a whole in the wall. A klaxon began to blare far off, and a red warning light cast an ominous glow over the corridor. Jax looked down at the Chiss guard as he slid to the ground. The man looked up at Jax in confusion and pain, and the red glow in his eyes faded as he died, leaving Jax cold and empty inside.
"Hell of a time to lose focus, Jax," Kit spat as she began working the control panel to the door.
"Let's just grab him and get out of here," Jax said, attempting to deflect the blame and refocus on the problem at hand. Kit pulled a card off the guard she shot and held it up to a reader. The door slid open with a hiss, and they stepped through the entrance.
Lando Calrissian, clothed in a gold tunic with a handsome blue cape, stopped mid-stride in the center of the circular, brightly lit suite. Wide windows displayed the city below with towering caps of yellow and orange clouds billowing in the distance. As he froze, he furrowed his brow in consternation at the unexpected arrivals. Straightening himself up, he spoke with a tense curiosity, saying, "Who are you?"
"I'm Kit. This is Jax," Kit said. "We're with the Resistance. We need your help, and we gotta go in a hurry."
"Leia's Resistance?" Lando asked.
Kit felt a lump settle in her throat, but she pushed through the reminder, saying, "That's the one."
Lando looked out the window momentarily, then back to Kit. She could see sadness in his expression as he said, "I'm sorry. But I can't help you."
Jax and Kit shared a glance that said clearly, well that's not what I expected, and they turned back to Lando. He raised a hand anticipating their arguments and said, "Before you start, Chiss soldiers will be on their way. If you leave now, I can say that I turned you away, and no harm will come. If you linger, they will kill you, and I won't be able to stop them."
"But Lando, we need you. We must find the Falcon," Kit said, rushing through the words.
"What did you do to my ship?" He asked, bristling.
"We didn't," Jax said. "Ben Solo has it."
Lando frowned, and Kit added, "It may be the only way to uncover the truth about the Chiss, Bolsko, the whole lot. We believe the Falcon can help us decode the encryptions."
"But isn't Ben on the Republic's side?" Lando asked, still frowning.
"Not anymore, we think. Some think he killed Leia," she said, casting a glance at Jax. Jax stiffened, and she could feel anger radiating from him at the mention. "Some of us aren't so sure, but we don't think he's with the Republic anymore," she finished as she looked back to Lando.
Outside, the klaxons continued to blare, and Jax darted to the doorway. He could hear distant voices approaching.
"You need to leave. Now." Lando said. There was a firm finality in his voice.
"But we need…" Kit began, but Lando cut her off.
"Listen to me," Lando said. "The Chiss made it clear that they will hurt my people if I don't continue to churn out gas for them. They arrested me. Imprisoned me." Lando paused as if trying to summon up the will to admit a painful truth, then continued. "They. . . tortured me. If I go, my people suffer. I can't let that happen."
A blaster bolt shot through the corridor, hitting the wall outside Lando's door. Jax ignited his lightsaber and the silver blade erupted. He deflected one of the blasts back into the hallway and called back, "Kit, we got company!"
"Lando, Leia died trying to get this information out to the people. Finding Ben, getting this information out may be the only thing we have left to turn this around. Otherwise, the Order of Ren, the Chiss - they won't stop," Kit explained urgently as Jax deflected another set of blasts from outside.
Lando looked out toward the window, and Kit imagined him assessing the risk to his people if he left. Kit winced as she heard another volley of blaster bolts shoot by Jax at the door, and she knew their time was running out. She heard Jax shout, "Kit, we gotta go!" and she turned back to Lando.
He pulled his gaze away from the window, and Kit deduced he was done calculating the odds. She suspected he might be gauging whether this would also help him get Cloud City back, which if he did quickly would minimize the collateral damage. Closing his eyes for a moment and inhaling deeply, he looked to her and said, "Okay."
Kit reacted immediately, shouting to Jax, "Alright let's get out of here."
But as Kit began to move to the door, Lando held up his hand, saying, "Not that way."
"What?!" Kit asked, surprised.
Lando pushed a series of buttons on his wrist device as he walked away. He bumped a panel on the wall with his elbow, and it sprang open. He removed a belt and a blaster from the inside, as well as a small handheld device. He then crossed the room, and Kit followed him curiously. He opened a second panel on the wall, and keyed in a code.
"The Chiss have some very impressive tech," Lando said, "but they're a cold, analytical sort. They know nothing about trick cards and misdirection."
After finishing the code, a door sprang open, revealing a dimly lit passage. Lando stepped back, and his smile returning, he gestured to the door, saying, "After you, madame Antilles."
Kit grinned, then called over her shoulder, "Come on, Jax!"
Jax did not respond. She turned to look at the doorway, and she saw him maneuvering his lightsaber like a man possessed. Blasts deflected outward, until suddenly they ceased. Jax jogged back into the room, saying, "It's clear now, but more are coming."
"Then let's get out of here," Kit called impatiently.
"No, if we go that way, they'll figure it out and follow us," Jax said.
"No they won't," said Lando, and Kit could tell he took mild offence to Jax's comment.
"Trust me," Jax said, "Or, rather, trust the Force."
"Don't you dare!" Kit shouted, bristling as she remembered the last time a Jedi got crazy ideas about what the Force was telling them to do. But before she could argue, another volley of blasts hit the wall above Jax, and he was back into defense mode. She heard him call out, "Just go! I'll rendezvous with Panga. Get outta here. Go!"
"Damnit," Kit cursed, and she stepped into the hallway with Lando following close behind.