25: IAYF

"Chiyo-chan! Are you here?" Miru called. Her voice echoed flatly in a stale, cold air of cargo bay fifteen. Clutching her jacket about her, she entered hesitantly, eyes scanning the darkened room. "I know you're in here!"

"Go away!" Chiyo yelled, voice thin and strained. Miru couldn't tell where it was coming from. Even though she knew the older girl wouldn't hurt her, it was still a little frightening.

Miru continued into the room, breath rising in plumes to the ceiling five meters above. Everything was an identical slate color except for inky shadows that crowded in and hung over her as if threatening to drop on her head. As she neared a particular stack of metal crates, air whispered faintly and something skittered across them to the other side of the room. "You're not hiding from me, are you? Chiyo-chan, you're being ridiculous!"

"Miru, please! Leave me alone!"

"Chiyo, would you--? Come on! I'm your friend… you can tell me anything!" For a time, the only sound was the distant throbbing of the Katana's engines. "Please!"

"Miru, is it so hard to believe that just once I actually do want to be alone?"

"Frankly, yes. The others listen because they don't realize how insecure you are, Chiyo-chan. You only pull something like this when you want to see if anybody cares enough to chase after you. And I, for one, am going to keep on you until you stop being such an idiot!"

"That's crazy! I don't…" The prodigy fell silent. After a long pause to consider, she finally dropped down right next to her friend, eliciting a startled yelp. "You're brutal, Miru."

"Brutal? Pfft! It's good Yuka didn't find you. She's way too nice."

Chiyo giggled softly. "I'm so glad you guys are here." She slid down the crates to sit at their base. "So… what now?"

"That's up to you." Miru sat next to her. "You got the dye out, I see… that's good. It made you look like a sukeban." She started running her fingers through Chiyo's hair. "Here, I'll do up your pigtails again. Do you want to tell me about it?"

"About what?"

"I don't know. How 'bout whatever has you playing Jack the Ripper down here?"

Her casualness was bracing. "I… don't know how to say it."

Miru started humming a tune, holding up handfuls of her friend's tresses critically. She was very deliberate when it came to these things; Chiyo knew that she'd be stuck there for a while.

"It's… I… bugged out."

"No kidding."

"But it was worse than that. I was so… so angry. I hated myself for being so weak, I hated the Empire for causing all this, I hated the Vratix for twisting themselves because of me, I hated Kagura for trying to comfort me… I even hated that stupid viewport--I don't know why. I'd never felt anything like that before." She tried to hang her head, but got yanked back up. "Ow!"

"Sorry. This is delicate work, C-chan… hey, keep going."

"I don't know what else to say… it's… I'm scared. I can't believe that that's a part of me. I can't believe the things I've done, what I've learned. It's still all foggy, but what I remember is just… Miru, what am I?"

Miru tugged her friend's pigtails a little. That was probably the fastest she'd ever done a person's hair. "Done. As for your question… you're Chiyo-chan. What else could you be?"

"I…"

"No, listen to me," Miru took her shoulders. "Whatever you've done, whatever you've found out about yourself… you always had it in you to do those things. What you've found out has always been true. You're you, and you don't have to be anything you don't want. Feel any better?"

"Hadn't thought about it that way." Chiyo rested her chin on her knees. "You know it's not that simple, though."

"Yeah, but admit it. You feel better. Now will you come with me? Yuka's probably freaking out by now." What else could Chiyo do? But even as they left together, Miru had to wonder what her friend must have gone through…

What indeed?


As the Silver Rose escaped into hyperspace, Chiyo landed on the platform they had only recently vacated. She sprang from the cockpit in a single bound and landed lightly on the pavement, un-ignited lightsaber at the ready. If there was anybody lying in wait, they'd get a nasty surprise…

But instead of a crowd of stormtroopers, she was confronted by a cluster of small, ugly creatures. "We are the Ughnaut delegation!" the lead one said in a gravelly voice, "Welcome to Cloud City!"

"Welcome! Welcome!" the others chorused, bowing to her. "…elcome!" a slow one on the end finished when all the others were done, falling on his face. "We'll take your luggage!" one volunteered. "Let's, let's!" the others agreed.

"I don't have anything…" she replied uncomfortably, searching for the ambush. "Thank you for the offer, though."

"We're to take you to Lord Nochichi," the leader said. "If you'll come with us?" She gave a start upon hearing his name, but then nodded gravely. "Please."

"…uggage!" the slow one said.

Fortunately, nobody started singing 'Follow the Yellow Brick Road' as they set out. Apart from their feet on the decking, the city was eerily quiet. "What happened here?" she asked the Ughnauts.

"Shooting and yelling," one replied. "We hid," another added.

"I can sympathize," Chiyo said absently. She couldn't sense her friends. Had she missed them, or…? No. No, no, no. They must have left ahead of her. "Where are we going?"

"Home."

For the Ughnauts, of course, home was the deepest part of Osaka, the dimly-lit industrial sectors. They left her at the entrance of the carbonite refinery, scurrying back to their hiding places. Deep down, the girl wished she could do the same.

The refinery was nothing special, but to her young, agitated mind it looked like a scene out of Dante. By this time the equipment had been running for a while, and had filled the vast room with thin tan smoke, rising in pillars from stacks set around open troughs of carbonite. Wind swirled from a great chasm that emptied right out into Bespin's atmosphere. If it were humans that worked here, it would never have met Imperial safety standards.

"Ms. Tomo…?" Chiyo looked around in confusion. The sense of her friend was extremely weak and distant… as if the other were sleeping deeply or on the edge of death. Before she could even begin to search for it, though, her senses were suddenly overpowered.

"Welcome, Chiyo-chan." Darth Nochichi drifted down out of the swirling smoke above her, cloak billowing in a nonexistent wind. A surge of anger and fear rose in her, but she smothered it quickly. You have to stay serene… a Jedi is serene… "Have you come to join me or to die?"

Chiyo ignited her lightsaber and held it at the ready. Its cold blue light cleared her mind instantly, focusing her like a razor.

"To die, then. For vengeance, is that it?"

"No," Chiyo kept her voice level and her mind clear. Emotions stormed within her, ignored. "I'm here to stop you because you're evil."

"Evil… that is a concept that has no meaning to me. I could understand vengeance, however. I killed your father, after all. And your master… I expected better of Nanashi."

The Jedi refused to be baited. "That's enough."

"Very well, then. If you won't release your anger, attack me calmly; see how that works out for you."

Chiyo leapt to the attack! It was a gorgeous, seven-foot, Force-aided leap that carried her all the way to the floating Sith Lord with her azure blade whirling about her. It would have been perfect if she weren't intercepted by a flying crate in midair and knocked sprawling.

She rose unsteadily and tried to attack again, but another crate clipped the back of her head and she staggered, dropping her saber. A third flung itself at her face, but Chiyo reached out with the Force and stopped it two feet off.

"Ha!" she crowed, mere moments before a lead pipe rose behind her and swung into her short-ribs with a sickening crack. Suddenly unimpeded, the crate rushed forth—

"Why don't you give up and hand over your lightsaber?"

Mustering force of will she hadn't known was in her, Chiyo rose painfully and called the lightsaber to her hand. "You can take it…" she gritted, swiping at the streams of blood gushing from her nose and lip. "From my cold, dead hand."

"Hmm… fair enough."

Nochichi ignited his own weapon, effortlessly swept hers aside and struck. For a few seconds, all was silent. Chiyo stared down in numb shock, trying to figure out how she could be looking at her hand clutching the lightsaber at that particular angle…. An invisible fist knocked her over, skidding across the floor to the chasm's edge.

"You cannot win. I was a Sith Lord before your father was even born… actually, in a way, I am your father."

The statement slashed through Chiyo's shock. "What?"

Nochichi seemed to enjoy this idea. "Yes. Chiyo-chan, I am your father!"

"But… that's not possible!"

"You know it to be true!"

"No, seriously! How is that possible?" She rose to a crouch, eyes trying and failing to focus on the monster before her. "I… you're an Eddorian and I'm human!"

"Well… mostly." Chiyo stared. If he were capable of reading human facial expressions, Nochichi would have thought hers priceless. "Eddorian and human minds both have their advantages; it's only natural that certain parties would want to take advantage of this. When Mihama found out what had been done, he… took exception. Our argument was rather short."

"You… he…" Chiyo shook her head frantically. "No. No! It can't be!"

"Join me, Chiyo-chan. Together we can…"

"No!" Nochichi trailed off, unused to being interrupted. "I'd sooner die!"

There followed a long, grim stare-down. Chiyo stood, arm wrapped about her shoulder, staring with all the defiance she could muster through the haze that had descended upon her. Beneath his armor, Nochichi turned such a brilliant, violent red that the whole room seemed to glow. He actually started shaking in the air, so angry was he… but then, all at once, he seemed to shrug.

"Then die."

The lead pipe slammed across her chest and she fell.


"Is this true?" Empress Yukari shrieked. "Nyamo, you, you slime!"

"I couldn't hide it forever, could I?" Professor Kurosawa sat back slowly, folding her hands on her stomach. "You must feel like such an idiot… sharing all those drinks with one of the Rebellion's Big Four."

"I can't believe you!"

"You know, as a person, you're not so bad," Kurosawa observed. "If only you were a better ruler, we might have been friends. Best friends, even."

"I would never be friends with such a… such a…" If there weren't so many light-years between them, Yukari might have tried to strangle her with her bare hands. "Don't think it's so easy being Empress!"

"I don't… but I also think that things can't go on the way you're taking them. I am truly sorry, Empress Yukari. We're just playing the parts we were given."

"Well…" Yurkari smirked. "It won't go easy for you. I was about to tell you about this new agent Nochichi got for me. She's something incredible… heh, heh."

"Actually, I have an incredible one of my own," Kurosawa replied.

"What? But- hey, that's not fair!"

The Professor blinked. "How is that not fair? You're the one who has the Empire behind you, Nochichi and that damn Death Star of yours…"

"There is that," Yukari conceded.

"Of course, we're gonna knock it out of space pretty soon."

"What?" the Empress was absolutely livid. "You… that's… that's…!" At that moment, her nemesis cut the connection and Yukari's manner completely changed. "Absolutely perfect!" she finished, giving an impressive Wicked Witch of the West style cackle. "Abso-friggin'-lutely perfect!"

She turned to another screen and addressed Kimura, who'd been listening in. "Did you hear that? Your plan is working."

"Indeed," he acknowledged, rubbing his chin. "So, is it working well enough that you wouldn't say no to dinner sometime?"

"Not on your life!" the Empress moved to disconnect.

"Argh! The bitter taste of def—!" pwip!

And meanwhile, Kurosawa turned to Princess Kaori and Matsuyama, who'd been standing in the office with her. "Did you hear that? What could she mean by incredible one?"

"I have a few ideas," Matsuyama answered. "If I'm right, I'll have a name for you inside of a week."

"Do that. And are you clear on your assignment?" Kurosawa asked the Princess.

"Yes. I think it'll be fun."

"Get to it, then. Force be with you." The way she said it, both knew that she meant it. Minamo Kurosawa was just charismatic like that.

As the two of them left together, Matsuyama said, "Hey, did I ever tell you about the time the Empress stole my speeder-bike?"

"Only about a hundred times," Kaori replied amiably.

"It was back in my Academy days, and I was running late…"


A ways away, Kagura was leaning against a wall waiting for the Princess. She had seriously cleaned up since Thyferra, but now seemed a little careworn. Though she'd really opened up with the soldier during their stay in Osaka, Kaori didn't feel comfortable asking her what the matter was.

"See you later, Princess," Matsuyama said, continuing on his way. "Oh! Ms. Kagura, who was it you wanted me to look up?"

"Lars, uh, Owen and Beru…"

"Right. It shouldn't be too tough."

"Thanks, man."

"Lars?" Kaori asked as the former Intelligence Chief walked away. "Weren't they Chiyo-chan's…?"

"Yeah. She hasn't asked any questions--poor kid hasn't had a moment to sit still and think since we lost them. I don't know what I'll tell her if it turns out they're dead or something, though."

"You act so careless, but you're always looking after everyone."

"Not by choice," Kagura grumped. "It's my job."

They walked together for a time. Kagura noticed their path was taking them towards the "Juice Bar," but she didn't really feel like asking why. Why did she follow, then? In the absence of official direction, she'd resumed her duties as Kaori's guard.

"Who was that guy?" Kagura suddenly asked.

"Huh?"

"Matsuyama's guy. The one that shot up all those stormtroopers."

"Oh…" Kaori smiled ruefully. "I only met him once. I'm glad he didn't recognize me. It was at an event… a concert I think. Yeah, you were there! He came storming up and rudely asked me why I was making 'googly eyes' at his daughter."

"That guy! I remember…" Kagura's eyes widened, "Wow, we were still in school back then. Your bodyguards threw him out on his ass? That the one?"

"That's the one," Kaori replied. "That was Yuichi Sakaki. Looks like he mellowed out a bit, though."

"Wow, he sure did." Kagura thought back. "Maybe he learned from the experience, eh?"

Kaori chuckled. "Maybe."

"You seem to be doing a lot better," Kagura commented. "Something happen?"

"Yeah, but it's kind of stupid."

"Try me."

"I… I had a dream about Ms. Sakaki. It made me feel more at peace than I had ever since Alderaan was… since it was gone. I don't know why, I mean, it's just a dream, but I woke up feeling so much better."

The other looked at her sideways. She'd read old stories about Jedi who'd visit people after their deaths. Was this such a case? (Being entirely honest, probably not, but it was a nice thought.)

"I see that look; I know it's weird. But it made me realize I didn't have to rely on her anymore. I can pull through as myself… but do you suppose it was real?"

Kagura shrugged. "I wouldn't be the one to ask."


"Ah, Wedge here's just having a hot streak," Mike said loudly. "Just wait; I'll be the Katana's ace pilot in no time!"

Wedge just shook his head and laughed. The two of them sat at a table in the "Juice Bar" with Yomi and a recently deposited Chiyo, who, apart from a slightly distant gaze, seemed almost back to normal. Outside the viewports, the Rebel Armada hung in endless shining ranks, giving a wild headrush to just about every rebel who happened to glance out.

Miru and Yuka had gone to their own table some distance away, and were very absorbed in whatever it was they were doing over there. They were too shy to sit with pilots anyway, being but lowly "powder monkeys."

"I mean, seriously. 'Wedge Antilles, Hero of the Rebellion?' How weird does that sound?"

"Well, good luck with that, Mr. Mike … but what in the world are you two wearing?" Chiyo asked. "Is that Mr. Porkins?"

It was as she said: both pilots wore bright-red T-shirts that had the likenesses of Jek Porkins on their chests in black. The backs, she had seen on approaching, had a blatantly huge rebel insignia.

"Oh, these." Wedge sat back so she could see the picture better. "Our old friend's become something of a symbol. Did you see the sensor records of the Implacable battle?" Chiyo shook her head. "Before Nochichi got him, he vaped something like twelve fighters. Someone got inspired to make these, and now we have a minor phenomenon."

Wedge wasn't right to call it "minor." The likenesses of Jek Porkins spread far and wide over the following years. In just a generation, he would become a symbol to all for bravely standing against oppression and injustice. Wherever college students would get plucky and anti-authoritarian, out would come the Porkins shirts.

"So you're a smuggler?" Mike asked.

Yomi blinked, coming back from wherever she had been. "Huh?"

"Jeez, what is it with these two? Are you girls high or something?"

Wedge cast an apologetic glance to the women, then turned to his fellow pilot. "We should probably go. We're on patrol in a few minutes."

"Okay…"

As they stood, however, Kaori and Chihiro arrived and bowed to the group in unison. "Hello," Chihiro greeted. "We're on assignment."

"What is it?" Mike asked impatiently. The new arrivals were standing in their path.

"Kurosawa has ordered us to find or make a symbol for the Rebellion," Kaori explained. "Something for us to rally around. Something lovable and yet dangerous. Something charismatic, interesting and maybe a little mysterious."

After an awkward silence, Chiyo looked around in innocent bafflement. "Wh- what's everybody looking at me for? Waugh!" The Princess and her partner each grabbed one of her arms and towed her away. "What are you…? Hey!"

Yomi and the two pilots stared after them.

"I thought Porkins was fine," Wedge commented.


"She lives, yet. I have another chance."

In the dim confines of the Death Egg, Nochichi pondered this development. He shouldn't be surprised; things had had a way of working out for him like this since before he could remember.

His will went out, extending inky feelers all the way to a secluded, inhospitable world called Anoth. There, in a monastery that had long ago been corrupted by the teachings of the Sith, three young men with orange-red hair knelt at the touch of their master's mind.

"Go out and find your sister."