"Okay…this time for sure."
He held up his hand, pointing at the rock. Kendall focused intensely, closing his eyes, biting his lip as the red-haired young man tried to visualize the rock floating in midair. He'd been at this for hours and hours and hours, trying every single day since he'd arrived in Pokitaru. Frequency sat nearby, munching on a fruit, looking intrigued.
Kendall had not been doing well with the Force technique of levitating objects. He'd done better than he used to, that was for sure. That was a comforting thought. Indeed, when he had, at long, long last, after going at it for weeks and weeks and doing nothing, to FINALLY lift a small stick into the air about the side of a ruler…
It hadn't been much, but to just see it floating in midair had brought tears to Kendall's eyes. At long, long last, after months of being unable to move so much as a pebble…he'd finally lifted up SOMETHING with the Force. And he couldn't have been happier. He'd been so happy he'd kissed Frequency right on the lips.
"I LOVE YOU!"
SMMMMMK!
"Woaaah! Dude!" Frequency had to push him back. "I'm, like, super flattered, but I'm straight, man." Frequency told him gently. "Not into that kinda stuff." He added, waving his paws in the air as Kendall blushed.
"S-Sorry."
"I'm really happy for you though, dude. Nice to see you finally Force Lifting stuff. Now…" He held up a rock. "…let's try this rock!"
Well, unfortunately…Kendall's sheer joy at getting this to work had begun to fade, because he could only get the rock to wiggle. He grit his teeth, he furrowed his brow, he felt sweat beads breaking out on his face as he concentrated, trying to visualize the rock moving as Frequency remained quiet, watching nearby, continuing to munch on that big, fat, orange fruit he had. He chewed slowly, watching intently as Kendall cringed, flopping onto his knees.
"Float, damn it! Float! Come on! COME ONNNN! AAARGGGH!"
Well…it worked, at long last. THWUMPH. The rock flopped up, right into the air, hovered for a few moments before Kendall's eyes and then…THUMHF. Down to the ground it went, Kendall flopping onto his face.
"I need a fucking drink." He moaned out loud.
…
…
…
…"Take a look at…the FUTURE!"
Leia had to admit, the device certainly was impressive. Dr. Bryne had thoroughly thought out every detail of this tour of her lab, the middle-aged woman smiling at Leia as she gestured at her creation. Her species were Nikto, they had a faintly reptilian design, scaly skin, black eyes, symmetrical horns on their heads, and it wasn't uncommon to see lack of noses. She and Leia and the others in the lab had put on tight-fitting protective armor with "bubble" helmets…though the bubbles were more in the shape of "Rook" chess pieces than anything else. Leia looked the machine over, intrigued as she examined it, writing down notes on a datapad she'd brought with her.
The device itself was enormous, faintly glowing a mixture of red and black, like someone had stuck a spinning top upside-down, pulsating energy coursing inside, tubes connecting it to the eclectic computers lying all about the laboratory. Capsules showing off the various siphonings of energy laid to the side as Dr. Bryne smiled in delight.
"This is quite the display of pyrotechnics. But I really do need to ask, what's it for?"
"Power. There's enough power in that containment canister you see up there to power ALL of Nar Shadaa! Not just the city. The entire planet! And without dangerous waste OR damage to the environment!" Dr. Bryne remarked as Leia whistled.
"My, my, that's wonderful!" She smiled at the good doctor, bowing her head. "I would take my hat off to you. If I had one." She confessed. "So this is what the future looks like, eh? Looks like it's so bright, I'll have to wear shades."
"I'm not sure it's ready. But no, no, Dr. Bryne wanted to sell you a bill of goods." Said a nearby Walz scientist, in rather croaky English. The Walz scientist had thick white fur all over their body and a tubular mouth sticking out of its head, with beady black eyes as the scientist frowned deeply. It was hard to tell, you really had to closely watch a Walz's eyes to tell how they felt, but it was undeniable…she was angry.
"Dr. Jahn, I take it you have a problem with her Energy Actualizer?"
"Putting it mildly, yes." Said the female Walz as she snorted. "She's tapped into the most basic form of energy on Earth. In the containment field is a type of living algae. Found on a few milligrams of ordinary water, and it produces trillions of watts of electricity!" She told Leia. "Now, naturally,I can get why you wouldn't think that's a problem at first, but watch…"
Dr. Jahn typed away on a nearby computer console, and a display popped on, showing off the strange, faintly pinkish algae. "See? There it is. This is a feed of the "Life Matrix" we have inside the Energy Actualizer. Watch what happens when we do a basic simulation. I'm accelerating the algae's natural functions and…behold! They're breeding like BUNNIES!" She proclaimed, pointing at the screen. "They double their numbers every half a minute, and with every minute, their power level is increasing twofold!"
"I've told you, that's not really a problem." Said Dr. Bryne as she shook her head back and forth. "Just the opposite! The rapid replication makes the bio energy being produced so ideal for our needs. It's a process that creates energy automatically, and then produces even MORE energy!"
"And how much energy can we safely contain?" Dr. Jahn snapped as she rose up, folding her arms in front of her chest. "What happens if our regulators cut out for all of ONE second? Like…say…THIS?!" She slammed her fist into the side of a computer.
THA-THWOOM!
"OH HOLY SHIT!" Dr. Bryne yelled out. "Tomas! Status?!" Dr. Bryne raced to a computer console as another doctor quickly typed across a control console, sweat beads breaking out on the other scientist's heads, Leia stepping back, eyes going wide as dinner plates.
"Automatic safety locks closed, regulators back on, but the power curve IS rising, Dr. Bryne. And fast!"
"Blow the dampers and flush the whole system!"
"See the problem?" Dr. Jahn told Leia as Leia cringed, shaking her head back and forth. "The SLIGHTEST unanticipated problem and the whole thing turns into something more dangerous than a runaway nuclear reactor!" Leia shook her head some more, hands on her hips as she let loose a long breath.
"My, oh my." She murmured. "Look, you could have brought this problem up WITHOUT the rather grandstanding demonstration. Generally speaking, I prefer my life-threatening situations to be of my OWN creation." Leia remarked dryly.
"Don't you realize what could have happened?! If the Actualizer blew, the discharge would destroy this whole facility!" Dr. Bryne snapped at the Walz scientist, poking her in her chest, her eyes a-blaze.
"Then…there IS a potential danger?" Leia inquired. "A danger which might exist even without that grandstanding from before?"
"There is a danger in harnessing ANY kind of danger. Sometimes it can be immediate, other times it can be long-term, but really, there's no danger." Dr. Bryne insisted as Leia saw something faintly out of the corner of her eye.
"Wait, not even from that smoking panel?"
"What?" Everyone wheeled around, gazing at the smoking panel, their eyes bulging wide, Dr. Bryne looking on in horror. "Oh my holy shit! MS. ORGANA! RUN! RUN FOR-"
A loud, horrific, thundering roar rang through the air, an explosion knocking people clean off their feet. Everything went black for Leia as she let out a yell, bumped her head against a chunk of wall…and remembered nothing more.
At that moment, Han Solo had been on his way towards the facility with Kendall, who was currently still in his disguise he'd been wearing on Pokitaru, Han waving a hand in front of Kendall's covered-up eyes.
"You really took your eyes out?"
"Yes. I did." Kendall insisted with a sigh. "I know it's hard to believe, but the longer I practice it, the more "in tune" with the Force I feel. Sometimes I spend an entire day without them. The more I FORCE my body to rely on the Force, the more it seems to be rewarding me. I feel more connected to it every day. It used to be like…" Kendall waved his hands in the air, trying to gesticulate. "Like it was a fruit just dangling out of reach. But then it turned into…well, the wind. Sometimes it's constantly blowing, other times it's just a breeze blowing in to provide relief, but it's much more reliable than what it was before."
"Well, that's good." Han told him as they approached the laboratory. "Now, remember, this is gonna be a surprise for Leia. She thinks I've forgotten our anniversary, but I got her something REAL special." He said as he held out the inside of his vest, giving Kendall a big grin before realizing- "Oh. Damn it. Forgot, you can't really "see"." He got the gift from out of his vest pocket and handed it to Kendall as Kendall felt over it, his brow furrowing.
"It feels like…a rock, but…but there's a strange warmth to it. And…" His body seemed to shudder and shake. He felt a profound, horrifying sadness swell up in him, an urge to cry. "I…I feel almost sick holding it. Why…why do I want to cry?" He murmured aloud. "It's just a rock…"
"It's not just ANY rock. It's a piece of Alderaan, of the heart of the planet. It took me a long time to find it and to track it down, then I had it cooled off, cleaned up a bit, and now it's ready for her." Han told her. "Way better than any chocolates or flowers or alcohol or the like." He reasoned. "It's a part of her home. This way, she'll always have something to remember it by, to remember the good times, and what the planet meant for her. It's proof not all of it is just dust in the wind."
"Well, I guess I could…see that." Kendall chuckled before he felt a sudden, horrifying shudder tear through him as he gave Han the piece of Leia's destroyed planet back to Han, a deep, horrible, sort of spiritual pick axe seemed to dig itself into his frame as Kendall reeled back. "Something's gone horribly wrong!" He cried out.
And then he heard the noise. He and Han reeled back, the facility before them going up in flames as Han screamed. "LEIA! LEIA!" He cried out, immediately racing forward, Kendall deciding to rip off the bandage around his eyes, shoving his eyeballs back into their sockets from the little pouch he had on his belt. No fooling around, just go, go, GO! He barreled towards the facility, quickly catching up to Han, pulling ahead as they began to sort through the rubble that laid all about them. The smoke was everywhere, Kendall and Han waving it away as they looked about through the ravaged facility. It was dusty, and smoky, and it felt like breathing poisoned chalk, thick, foul, unnatural…
They began to move big, thick pieces of wall and roof to the sides, cringing, struggling to try and find survivors. To try and find…Leia.
"Leia…oh come on, Leia…Leia! LEIA, please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay." Han whispered, tears brimming in his eyes as Kendall cringed, looking around at the chunks of wall and roof and floor. It was all intermingled, like a bad salad! "Kendall! Can…can you try to move all this with…you know. With the Force?"
"Even after all the connection I've gained to the Force, I've only been able to move small rocks and sticks." Kendall groaned. "But…but I'll try." He admitted as Han put a hand on his shoulder and he looked in the direction of one collapsed pile of wall. He held out his hands, concentrating. "Come on…move! MOVE! MOVE, DAMN IT!" He cried out, trying to concentrate, to visualize the chunks of wall that had collapsed down into a messy pile moving up, ascending into the sky.
"Hey…hey, it's shaking! It's moving!" Han cried out as Kendall felt a sense of joy flow through him. At long, long last, after weeks, MONTHS of not able to move anything but super small objects…he was moving something this big! "Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"
"Ha-ha! It's working! It's working, it's working!" Kendall proclaimed with a big grin on his face.
Then their smiles of joy faded as the pile exploded outward, and a considerably big, muscular, powerful-looking woman rose out. It hadn't been moving because of Kendall…it'd been moving because this incredibly powerful being had knocked the pile off her in irritation. Han and Kendall gasped, looking at her, stunned and amazed. She was wearing the remnants of a protective armor suit that covered her chest and most of her arms and legs, but the helmet around her head had long-since chattered, and the gloves and boots on her frame were now in tatters. The face though was hard to "read"…energy was coalescing around it, obscuring most of her features. It was like she was a continuously burning candle!
"Um…ma'am, are…are you alright…?" Kendall gently inquired, trying to approach her. She was huge! He could feel energy reeling off of her, and she was around eight feet tall! "I'm here to help-"
The woman's backhand knocked him back through the air! THA-THWOOMH. He flopped against a chunk of wall, cringing as Han gasped. "Damn, that huuuuurt!" Kendall moaned as he struggled to rise up. "She hits like a Trandoshan bodybuilder!"
"I'll try to stun her, kid!" Han cried out as he got out his blaster, putting it on the "Stun" setting as he fired at the woman. TSSSEEEW, TSEEWWW! The shots buzzed out of his blaster's muzzle, barreling towards her. The blasts shot right towards the woman, who ducked a bit to avoid the onslaught of blasts as Han kept shooting. "We gotta try and take her down nice and easy, maybe she doesn't know what she's doin'." Han reasoned.
The woman snarled, grabbing a big piece of rebar, tossing it at Han. "Shiiiiiit!" He cried out, hitting the floor as it almost took his head clean off! "Or maybe she knows EXACTLY what she's doing!"
Kendall held his head, taking in deep, long breaths…and then he reached up to his eyes again. "Alright. Trust in the Force. Trust in the Force." He said, taking his eyeballs out, placing them back in his sockets, and focusing. He tried to visualize the pieces of wall and ceiling and floor, to picture them flying up, up into the air, wrapping around the crazed woman who was tossing chunks of wall at Han. Han kept dodging, diving left and right, but one had clipped his shoulder, and another slammed into his side, making him flop down, yelling in agonized pain. He had to do something, and he had to do it now!
"Please! HELP ME!" Kendall screamed out inside of his head, trying to reach out to the Force itself. "Han's going to die if I don't do something! Help me!"
And…it worked. It was almost miraculous. The chunks of roof shot forward, ensnaring the crazed, superpowered woman, pinning her to the ground. She snarled, trying to force it off her, but it wasn't working. She appeared trapped for now, well and truly trapped!
It was then that a voice rang out. "UGH…is…is everyone okay…?"
Kendall looked up. Even with his injuries, Han was still trying to help move rubble, and he'd shifted some away from an enormous broken-open large ventilation tube. Several people in rather ruined protective armor suis were climbing out, blood drizzling down their heads or their arms, a Walz scientist holding her skull. "Is…is Leia alright?" She inquired.
"Wait, Leia?" Han and Kendall looked at each other, Kendall racing over to the Walz scientist.
"Leia was near the actualizer and right in the path of the blast when it discharged. She pushed Dr. Bryne out of the way in time but…"
"We believe her cells ABSORBED the energy within." Said Dr. Bryne as she gripped her head, a huge, horrible gash had been cut out of it from a chunk of glass that had sliced right through as Han began to rip off his shirt, patching her up as best he could with Kendall getting out some Bacta Spray from his belt pouch to tend to other people's wounds. "It's the same way a solar panel draws in energy from the sun."
"What can we do?" Han asked.
"I don't think there's anything we CAN do. The process of the bio energy stimulation's acting in her body now. Her cells will just keep storing the radiation, building up more and more, and then…"
"EVERYONE DUCK!" Kendall cried out, seeing Leia's body glowing brightly. They all ducked down just in time as Leia let loose a loud, screeching cry. An enormous, shuddering, horrifying KRAKKA-THRA-BOOOM rang through the air, the pieces of rubble pinning her down were blown off, a shockwave rippling off her frame as her figure glowed more brightly than before. Waves of energy cascaded off of her, the immediate area around her being filled with craters as the shockwaves found their marks! They were all lucky they were far away from her, if they'd been just a foot closer…
"See? And the longer she has the power in her, the more it'll happen, and the greater the shockwaves." Dr. Bryne reasoned.
"Can we do anything?" Han begged of Dr. Jahn. "Can't we do SOMETHING?!"
"I don't think we can…unless you know a way to siphon off that energy somehow." Dr. Jahn said sadly as she shook her head back and forth.
"Maybe we can." Kendall reasoned. "Is there anything here in this lab that could do it?"
"Not here in this lab. But…well, if we got her to the power plant a few miles down the road and were able to hook her up to the facility, maybe, MAYBE we could do it, but she'd be exploding dangerously all the while!" Dr. Jahn remarked. "Could we get her there in time?"
"We WILL." Han insisted. "Where do you keep your vehicles?"
"The garage wasn't destroyed completely, there may be something that'll work in there. But what about her tendency to blow?" Dr. Bryne inquired as Kendall stepped forward.
"I'll handle it." He insisted as he looked at Leia, who was holding her continuously burning head, cringing, screeching horribly, as if in continuous, agonizing pain. "…Leia…oh please, let this work…" Kendall insisted, as he held out a hand, taking in a deep, long breath as Han and the others looked on. All Kendall could think about was Leia, trying to help her, to save her. He kept picturing her face, remembering how he'd felt when she'd complimented his skill at lightsaber combat, remembering how the Force had come to him using her face, of all things. It knew, it KNEW Leia was the most trusted face he had in his heart. He trusted Leia to be his Mistress, he was…well…
He was her padawan, wasn't he?
And with that, it was as if a switch was turned on. Leia began to hover up, up, into the air, Kendall feeling some sweat beads break out on his head, a deep heat rising in him but…it was working. She was hovering above, high in the sky, and Han's face lit up.
"Now if she "explodes" she won't hurt anyone!" He reasoned. "We gotta hurry though. Come on, let's get to the power plant!" He told Dr. Bryne and the other doctors. "Kid, keep my wife steady. Don't you DARE drop her, or I'll drop you!" He said with a bit of a teasing wave of his fist as Kendall grit his teeth.
"I'll try."
"Like my pal Luke's old master said, DO. Do or do not. There is no try." Han reasoned.
"How're you supposed to know if you CAN do something if you don't try, though?" Kendall began to say before Leia began to wobble about. "Ohhh no you don't! OH no you don't!" Kendall held up both hands, focusing intensely, a tiny bit of blood dribbling down from his nose. "OOOF. B-Better hurry, everyone. She's…ERGH…heavy! Hoo boy, maybe she needs to hit the gym after all this!" He laughed…
Inwardly though, he felt like his body was being burned from the inside. But he couldn't let them know how much holding her up hurt. No way. Han needed him to be strong. And Leia even MORE so. They brought over a hovercar, Kendall climbing in the back, focusing on Leia, dragging her along through the air as the car carefully went down the road towards the power plant, not too fast, to ensure Kendall didn't lose focus.
More blood was dribbling down from Kendall's nostrils, his body was turning pale as Leia's body shuddered and shook and-
KRAKKA-THA-THROOOM! She exploded AGAIN, her body glowing very brightly, shockwaves ricocheting out! Their vehicle shook a bit, the shockwaves were getting larger as Kendall was panting heavily, some blood beginning to drizzle out the side of his ears. "ERGH…are we…almost…th-there?" He inquired as Han held his shoulder.
"Hold on, kid. You're doing great!" He encouraged Kendall with a gentle smile. "Keep it up, keep it up!"
Kendall took in deep, long breaths, closing his eyes as the hovercar finally touched down outside the power plant, the guards outside staring in confusion as the scientists approached. "What the Hell do you all think you're doing?" One of the guards inquired as he looked at the scene before him. "What is all this?"
"We need to get her hooked up to the plant's machinery, immediately!" Dr. Bryne said, reaching into her pocket, showing off her credentials. "Post haste! It's the only way to siphon off the energy she's putting out. Her explosions will get larger and larger until the entire city-"
KRAKKA-THA-SCHWOOOM! Everyone was knocked back slightly, Kendall letting out an agonized yell, flopping slightly onto one knee. "I CAN'T…HOLD HER MUCH LONGER!" He screamed.
"Exactly! See?!" Dr. Bryne yelled at the guard as he hesitated.
"I dunno, I mean…"
"We so don't have time for this." Han said, walking up to him and THA-THWAK. Punching him out. The other guards stared at this, positively stunned he'd just knocked the other guard out with a single punch before Han's pistol was suddenly up!
TSSEWWW! TSEEWWW! In an instant, they'd been dropped, unconscious, and Han was ushering the scientists and Kendall inside as Kendall lowered Leia down to ground level, floating her inside, and into the power plant. The scientists raced over to the central control panel, shoving technicians aside, Han ushering them to the wall with his pistol as Kendall placed Leia onto the floor. Dr. Jahn and Dr. Bryne quickly attached big, huge cables to her as Kendall kept her pinned on the ground, cuts beginning to open up all over his body as he screamed and yelled, the pressure was proving far, FAR too much.
"Quickly! S-Siphon the p-power off!" He cried out as Han, nearest to the control panel, threw the switch. The biggest switch of all.
CLUNK!
Down it went, Leia's body turning a beautiful, bright, glowing shade of white, and then…
All of the power throughout the entire city SURGED. Every light seemed to turn into a blazing inferno, the hospitals and food stores and apartments and casinos and garages and every type of building in between suddenly tripled their output of taken-in power! The entire planet seemed to light up more brilliantly than it had ever before as Darth Furiosa and Darth Raize stared in shock, their floating vid screen displaying ten different channels at once. The two sat on their couch, amazed and stunned, their chandelier lights glowing brighter than bonfires, positively gobsmacked before…
THWOOOSH. It was as if an enormous wind swept through Nar Shadaa. In an instant, everything seemed to return to normal, Leia moaning, her frame no longer glowing, Han kneeling by her, gently caressing her cheek as her eyes fluttered. "…H-Han…?" Leia softly muttered, looking up into his face.
"Hey." Han said gently, as he reached into his vest and pulled out his gift for her. "I didn't forget. Happy Anniversary."
"Aren't you the charmer." Leia said with a pained smile. "I ache all over, though."
"Let me kiss it and make it better." Han said, kissing her cheek, her neck, her forehead…her lips…
Kendall, meanwhile, had flopped onto his back, moaning as the scientists administered some Bacta to HIM, to treat his cuts. He cringed as he spat some blood from his mouth, taking in deep, ragged breaths. He really…really hoped he wouldn't have to do that again. Anytime soon. But at least, at long last…he'd finally proven he could move large objects with the Force. The power had always been in him, he'd just needed to be pushed to his utmost extreme to do it. And yes, it had clearly cost him a lot, he felt like his insides were burning, but…he'd done it.
He'd DONE it.
"Heh…" Kendall smiled. "If only my dad could see me now…"
And with that, he conked out, unconsciousness finally digging its claws into him, and he remembered nothing more.
