Chapter 38: The Emperor's Hand

Mara Jade didn't know what she was looking at. It was new to her, that much was certain.

It seemed like a teenage boy, dressed in simple monk's robes, although tattered in places from extensive wear and tear. That shaved head of his had a tattoo in the shape of an arrow, pointing down and drawing the eye to the boy's face. However, the boy was transparent, and what Mara could see of him was in shades of blue. But this was no hologram, lacking the wavering static that accompanied such communications. The boy's feet were sticking through the floor, though that didn't seem to bother him, not as much as being spotted that is.

"Yeah, I see you," Mara said, answering this apparition's question. "And I'll ask you one more time. Why are you following me?"

The boy held up his hands in a peaceful gesture. "I happened to be nearby, saw you sneaking around, and I wondered what you were looking for?"

Not accepting that answer, Mara drew a blaster and pointed at the boy's face. "You're a bad liar."

She pulled the trigger, fired a blaster bolt, and saw it pass right through the boy's head. Still, the boy instinctively recoiled from the shot, even if it didn't seem to do anything to him. Mara shot again just to be sure, and the second blaster bolt went through him just like the first, hitting a wall further down this maintenance corridor. The boy checked himself over for any injury, and he seemed relieved to be unharmed. He even let out a long sigh, though Mara didn't feel any breeze coming from it, and it seemed he didn't need to breath but did so out of habit.

"Okay, that was uncalled for." The boy put his hands on his waist, and he made a cheeky smile. "Can we start over? Let's start over. I'm Aang. What's your name?"

Mara was sure what to make of this, someone she just shot at wanting to play nice. She wasn't about to be honest with him, whatever this Aang was. "It's Chiara. Now why are you really down here?"

Aang sighed again and shrugged his shoulders. "Oh you know, skulking around where I don't belong, seeing things I'm not supposed to be seeing. It's really easy when no one can see or hear you and can walk through walls."

Imagining all the ways that sort of ability could be useful in her line of work, Mara certainly wanted to know more. "Please, do go on."

Leaning back in a chair set against the long table, Sokka kept an eye on the inner door and the other eye on Aang's body. "What's taking them so long?"

It had been well over an hour since Luke went into the next room and Aang left his body, every minute of it spent waiting for something bad to happen. Service droids had brought in food and drinks for everyone, though only Toph had bothered to indulge in such pleasantries. Neither Sokka nor Katara were in any mood to eat, and Toph eagerly took the portions they weren't using. Katara's attention was fixed solely on Aang, who still looked perfectly peaceful meditating on the floor. So far no one had disturbed him, but it was going to be very awkward if they needed to leave in a hurry.

"I have no idea," Toph answered. She was sitting in a chair sideways with her back against the table. "I can't track where his spirit form or whatever it is, no vibrations to tell me where he is."

"We can't wait forever," Sokka complained.

That was when Aang's eyes opened, he stood up, and he felt a slight cramp in his legs. "Hey guys, how have things been?"

"Boring," Katara answered. "Still, good to have you back. Did you find anything?"

"Plenty," Aang said. He looked around the room for a second, checking for anyone that might be listening in. "I got a good look at the place."

"Tell us later," Toph interrupted. She had just stood up straight, facing the inner door. "They're coming out of there."

"Good timing," Sokka said, glancing at Aang.

The inner door opened, and all eyes were drawn to it. Luke walked out first, heading over to the others to stand next to them. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting. There was a lot to talk about."

Darth Vader came out after Luke, and the door closed behind him. "We have come to an understanding. Skywalker can inform you of the details."

"Wait a second?" Sokka said. "That can't be everything. Weren't we supposed to be involved in the negotiations too?"

"Only Skywalker was required to come," Vader said. "You came of your own accord. You only have yourselves to blame for disappointment."

"I think we should go over this in private," Luke suggested. He turned back toward Vader. "I trust it won't be a problem if we return to the Falcon?"

"Of course not," Vader said. "You may do as you please."

Toph wanted to make a witty retort, but noticed Vader eyeing her right now, and she got the sense he recognized her. "What are you looking at?"

Vader crossed his arms, saying nothing.

With nothing left to deal with here, Luke and the others left the meeting room and walked through the ship. There was a stormtrooper escort of course, but only until they had reached the hangar. The Falcon was still there, right where they left it, Han and Chewbacca still inside and making internal repairs. The rebels sent along with them were standing guard at the entrance ramp, rather bored but doing their best not to show it. They were relieved to see Luke and the others return unharmed, having worried about the very real possibility of betrayal.

Once they were inside they found Han walking through the Falcon, hands wiping off grease with a dirty rag. "About time you guys got back. Can we get the hell out of here already?"

"Afraid not," Luke answered. "We've got a lot to talk about."

"Yeah, we need to compare notes," Sokka said.

"Can we get a hold of Leia first?" Aang asked. "I need to see if she knows anyone going by Chiara."

Back to being alone again, Mara Jade continued with her mission.

In the maintenance corridors of the ship she found the redundant communication servers, having bypassed a variety of security measures to get there. Records of every transmission sent and received by the Executor could be found here, if one had appropriate access codes. She had special codes given by the Emperor himself, allowing her access equal to that of a Grand Admiral. Mara used her codes at a terminal, disabled the relevant security systems that would sound any alarms, and accessed the communication logs from the last few weeks.

Mostly dry reading, but important nevertheless, and Mara took her time going through it all. There was plenty of internal chatter about where the Executor had been deployed, though many of the crew were given very few details and wanted to know what was really going on. The senior staff officers were well aware of the details, and they were not happy. This so-called truce was something they didn't want to participate in, and Mara was furious that such a truce was even considered. The communications made no secret of who brought it about, the one person who could override everyone else in the military.

Darth Vader had arranged the whole thing.

There had to be some mistake, or so Mara thought at first. This was Darth Vader, public enforcer of the Emperor's will, the single greatest terror and most faithful servant of the Empire since its creation. He had more rebel kills to his name than anyone else, and it was his personal mission to exterminate the rebellion. It seemed impossible for someone like him to try to make a deal with the rebels, whatever he hoped to gain being beyond Mara's understanding. Something was clearly wrong here, something big enough to sway Vader's judgement, something Mara needed to discover.

Yet she couldn't access Vader's communications, for his authorization was greater than Mara's access codes. There were messages sent from him on file, but they remained encrypted and unreadable. She could still download the files, though there would be a record of her actions in the server. In any event she wasn't going to be unnoticed here, even with security measures disabled. Someone was going to notice her activities eventually, and she was going to have to leave before someone came down here to investigate.

Mara downloaded the logs into a transfer drive and removed it, then turned and walked away from server. "This calls for a more personal touch."

"I'm sorry Aang, we don't have any record of a Chiara."

Leia was speaking through a hologram projected by R2-D2, her transmission relayed through the Falcon. The droid was projecting the hologram into the small living space aboard the ship, and everyone else inside was sitting around it. Aang had asked Leia to look up the name Chiara in the rebel database, or at least the records available aboard Home One. It had only taken a few minutes for the computer to search the database, but found nothing. No names, no aliases, no places or things, nothing that could hint at who or what this Chiara was.

"At least you looked," Aang said. Still, he couldn't hide is disappointment. "I couldn't ask for more."

"However, this might be a good thing," Leia said. "Whoever this woman is, if she is secretly working against the Empire, it could be a sign of dissent within the ranks."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Han said, standing to the side and listening in. "For all you know this could all be some elaborate trick."

"We're already in the ideal position for a double-cross," Leia pointed out. "Adding another layer of mystery just seems excessive."

"I don't think this is some kind of trick," Katara said. "Aang was in spirit form, and he came across this woman by chance. If Vader could have set this up and make it look like an accidental meeting, then we have far bigger problems than him trying to deceive us."

Luke glanced at Aang with a curious look. "You're going to have to show me how you do that."

"Later," Aang promised, facing Luke in turn. "That's all I got about the mystery lady. How did your meeting with Vader go?"

"Not how I thought it would," Luke admitted. He hesitated to continue, as if not certain of this himself. "He might be lying about this, I'm not entirely sure, but he said he wanted to overthrow the Emperor."

Just about everyone did a double take. "What?!"

"I know, it sounds crazy," Luke said. "Vader claims he isn't powerful enough to do it by himself. That part sounds true. And he isn't entirely sure that having me at his side would do it either."

"He can't really expect you to ally with him?" Leia questioned. "It was trouble enough just to set up this meeting. A long-term Alliance like that would be impossible to create, let along keep long enough to dethrone the Emperor."

"There's more going on here than we think," Sokka realized.

"I'm getting to that," Luke said. He took out a transfer drive and plugged it into R2-D2, and the droid projected a hologram of Earth. "Vader claims there is a power on Earth that could allow us to bring down the Emperor. That sphere Sokka and I came across is part of it."

"Sounds like spirit shenanigans," Aang figured. He got up and took a closer look at the hologram, noting the two symbols placed at the poles. "I presume Vader found another one at the North Pole?"

"Yes," Luke confirmed. "And he said they can be affected by the Force."

"This sounds like a very bad idea," Katara interrupted. "Spirits have brought us nothing but trouble. They never lifted a finger against the Empire, even when the freaking Avatar begs for help, and stole Sokka away seemingly for laughs. If they're involved in whatever scheme Vader is cooking up, it cannot be good for us."

"I've got to agree with her," Aang said. He saw almost everyone else nod in agreement. "If I had to guess, I'd say Vader can't get whatever he wants from the spirits on his own."

"Could be why he needs you," Sokka said, looking at Luke. "And once he doesn't need you anymore, I wouldn't be surprised if he double-crosses you."

"Now that sounds more like the Vader we know," Leia said. "He went through a lot of trouble just to get you here. This thing he needs you for, what he thinks could let him overthrow the Emperor, I'm willing to bet it would be a disaster if he decided to use it against us."

"We're still not sure what exactly it is he wants," Aang said. "All we have right now is hearsay and guesswork. We need more information."

"Definitely," Sokka said. He took a moment to think, put a hand to his chin, and then turned toward Luke. "I think we should play along with Vader's scheme for now. Figure out what he wants with the spirits. Aang, you're the only one that can go wherever you please. Leave your body here and get back to skulking around the place in spirit form."

"Sounds like a plan," Aang said. He got comfortable where he was sitting, getting back into position for meditation. "While I'm in there, I'll see if Chiara has anything to add."

When Admiral Ozzel returned to his quarters after a very long day, he knew he wasn't alone.

All of his things were right where he left them, but a keen eye could tell when something had been moved and put back in its proper place. Someone had gone through his things, and had been quite thorough in covering their tracks. Ozzel slowly walked into the room, his eyes looking for someone looking back, his body moving like nothing was out of the ordinary. He went to his private computer terminal, pressed the button to turn it on, but didn't sit in the chair nearby. Instead he stood there in silence, waiting for his unknown visitor to come into the light.

Sure enough, she appeared from behind, her steps nearly silent as she drew her blaster. "Admiral…"

Ozzel sighed, turned around, and seeing the red headed woman confirmed his worst suspicions. "So… the Emperor's Hand has come to claim my life. Can't say I'm surprised. It certainly looks like I've betrayed the Empire."

"It does look that way," Mara said. She kept her blaster aimed at Ozzel's head, but didn't pull the trigger. "But then, looks are often deceiving. It wasn't your decision to broker a truce with the rebels, now was it? That was all Vader's doing, against your better judgement."

"You know Vader as well as I do," Ozzel said. "Anyone that defies him tends to turn up dead."

"That is a bad habit of his," Mara said. She slightly lowered her blaster, aiming for center of mass instead of the head. "But this is a new extreme for him. He would have you and your entire crew give their lives for treasonous orders, or have you all killed for defying those orders."

"And the simple appearance of disloyalty to the Emperor has him send people like you to kill us anyway," Ozzel said. He glanced at the blaster, and then met Mara's gaze proper. "My life is forfeit regardless, Vader has seen to that. Question is, are you going to take it now, or later?"

Mara let silence reign for a moment, staring into Ozzel's eyes, until she lowered her blaster. "Later, I think. I want to find out why Vader is behaving this way. What could possibly be so important that he would defy the Emperor like this?"

"Two things, I believe," Ozzel said. "The first is this planet, Earth. It is unique, in many respects, and it may be why he set up this truce here. Second is a particular rebel pilot he's taken a fancy to, who seems to have consumed his attention as of late, this young man called Skywalker."

"Skywalker," Mara repeated. It seemed to remind her of something, though she couldn't quite place it. "I will need to have a chat with him."

Luke had barely stepped off the Falcon when he felt Vader approaching.

He didn't see him yet, still a few dozen meters away with several bulkheads in the way, but on his way to the hangar nevertheless. Luke stopped and stood in front of the Falcon, waiting for Vader to arrive, his eyes following the direction of Vader's movement. He took it as a sign of his progress with the Force, being able to sense others like Ben could. While he waited Luke glanced around the hangar, observing crewmen preparing Vader's personal TIE Fighter, as well as an imperial shuttle next to it. It seemed they would be ready for takeoff before Vader would arrive, and Luke suspected where they would be going.

After a few minutes of waiting Luke saw some doors open. "Vader, I didn't realize you wanted to leave this soon."

Vader walked over to Luke and stood in front of him. "I saw no need to waste time. You are ready for the task ahead of us. We can depart as soon as you wish."

Luke glanced at the TIE Fighter and the shuttle, thinking about the two points of interest Vader had shown him. "Which pole are we going to first, North or South?"

"I will be travelling to the Northern Pole," Vader specified. "The Southern Pole is for you. We must tend to both places at the same time. Only together can they be opened."

That explained why more than one ship was being prepared, and Luke glanced back at the Falcon. "I would like to bring a few companions with me."

"If you insist, though they will not be necessary," Vader said. "Bring as many as you wish."

Luke tapped a wrist communicator. "Han, can you send Katara and Sokka out here."

"Yeah, sure," Han said through the radio.

In just a few moments the two siblings came out of the Falcon, and Katara stopped next to Luke. "What's going on?"

"We're taking a little trip," Luke answered. He turned toward Sokka in particular. "It's to that frozen forest beneath the Everstorm. Are you up for getting a little payback on the spirits?"

Sokka spotted stormtroopers loading heavy weaponry into the shuttles. "Only if I get to use one of those."

Luke looked over at the stormtroopers and their various weapons, a chaingun blaster in particular catching his eye. "I think that can be arranged."

"You think those will work on spirits?" Katara asked.

"Bound to do more than my sword did," Sokka figured. He pointed a thumb at the lightsaber on Luke's belt. "That thing made spirits disintegrate altogether. Surely enough blaster bolts ought to do it too."

"Only one way to find out," Luke said. He turned and started walking toward the shuttle. "Come on. We're leaving right away."

As they walked over to the shuttle Luke left a quick message for Han, letting him know what was going on. It wouldn't do to just leave without letting the others know where they were going, especially when the imperials were providing the transportation. Han was going to have to relay the message to Leia, and she would do what she could to track the shuttle from Home One, taking every precaution she would be able to think of for this situation. He would have to tell Aang as well, whenever he would come back from another spirit walk.

"There you are! I've been looking everywhere!"

Mara heard Aang's voice before she saw him, and she turned to see him phasing through a wall. She had been walking down a long corridor at the time, heading toward the hangar, still having some distance to go before she could get there. But she was willing to stop for Aang, as it seemed that he had been trying to find her for a while now. Mara couldn't blame him for having trouble finding her, she had been covering a lot of ground rather quickly, and that was a small fraction of this massive ship. At least he caught up with her while in transit, when he would not have been an awkward intrusion.

"I didn't think you'd be back this soon," Mara said. "Did something happen?"

"Not exactly, no," Aang said. "My friends wanted to know a bit more about you. They didn't realize there was someone on the inside sneaking around this ship."

"I try not to make myself well known," Mara said. She didn't like this line of conversation, and didn't want to be standing around waiting to get caught. "Look, I'm trying to get to the hangar. If you're going to be tagging along, at least be useful and scout ahead for me."

"Yeah sure," Aang said. He started walking in the right direction, knowing which way to go to get back to his body. "What do you need to go there for?"

Mara hesitated to answer, not wanting to give anything away, but this seemed like something a potential look-out ought to know. "Last I checked, Vader was going to meet someone down there. I would like to get there before they go anywhere else."

"Okay," Aang said. He found no problem with this, for it seemed like the best chance he might get to personally introduce her to his friends. "I'll let you know if you're about to run into trouble."

Aang went off ahead, phasing through a wall and disappearing from Mara's view. She resumed her walk through the corridor, picking up the pace after a brief stop, eyes constantly looking for anything that might slow her down. Every few minutes she would spot Aang phasing in and out of the corridor, checking both sides for stormtrooper patrols, sometimes stopping to alert her when their paths would intersect. Having forewarning allowed her to stop and hide when needed, until the patrols passed, and then she could resume without unnecessary delay.

Eventually the corridor led to an observation chamber overlooking the hangar, with a view two decks above the landing pads. From here one could see the entire hangar and every ship inside, the Millennium Falcon being the odd one out amongst all the imperial vessels. Mara stood next to the wide window, quickly looking over the hangar, searching for anyone that didn't belong here. She spotted Vader immediately, him being unmistakable anywhere, talking with a young man she hadn't seen before, who she figured had to be Skywalker.

Aang phased through a wall and walked up to her. "I think we're a bit too late. It looks like Vader is about to leave."

"Looks that way," Mara said. She watched Vader board his TIE Fighter, but was surprised to see Skywalker board a shuttle instead. "Wait, why are they not leaving together?"

"Hang on, I'll check," Aang said.

Mara watched Aang phase through the window, float down to the Falcon, disappearing inside that junk heap of a ship. It had Mara wondering if anyone else could see him, or if Aang could choose to become corporeal wherever he wished and speak with people in the flesh. Either way it would save Mara the time to look up shuttle logs, assuming Aang did know someone that could tell him where the shuttle was going. Then she saw him reappear from the ship, float back up to the window and phase through it again.

"They're going to Earth," Aang reported. He turned around in time to see the ships flying out of the hangar. "Vader is going to the North Pole, and Luke is going to the South Pole."

"This doesn't make any sense," Mara said. Still, it helped to learn Skywalker's first name. "Vader goes through this much trouble to meet this Luke, and now they split up. Why?"

"My friends say they're doing something involving spirits," Aang answered. "Luke took two of them with him, the rest are still aboard our ship."

"Wait, spirits?" Mara questioned. "You can't be serious."

"You've been talking to my spirit form this entire time," Aang said. "And trust me, you don't want spirits involved in whatever you're doing. They're all a bunch of jerks."

"I'll take your word on it," Mara said, making a mental note to research spirits later. "I need to find out what Vader is doing. You said the North Pole, right?"

"Yes," Aang confirmed. "Do you have a ship to get down there?"

"It would take too long to reach it," Mara admitted, as it was docked to an airlock on the opposite side of the Executor. "I need to leave now if I want any chance at catching up with Vader."

"Well we can't take our ship," Aang said. "I'm fairly sure they'll shoot down the Falcon if it tries to leave without warning."

"We?" Mara questioned, looking Aang in the eye.

"Of course," Aang said. "You, me, maybe Toph, if you're going after Vader you're going to need help."

If she had been going after anyone else, Mara would have assured Aang that she never needed help. But this was Darth Vader, and it was only a matter of time before he realized she was on his trail. "Alright, if you insist, we'll take one of those."

Aang saw Mara pointing into the hangar, right at one of several TIE Bombers hanging on the wall. "How many people can fit in one of those things? I plan on bringing my body along for this."

"They're meant for two, but three can fit if you don't mind cramped spaces," Mara said. She looked around the hangar one more time, seeing plenty of options for a diversion. "Get your friend and wait outside your ship. When you get my signal, get inside the lowest bomber."

"What's the signal?" Aang asked.

"Not sure yet," Mara said. "But you will know it when you see it."

"Yes, that's it… a little further… almost there… and… now."

Toph was making it much easier for Han to move a convoluted power coupling into place, having his entire arm buried in cables and support struts, unable to see what he was doing. Her vibration sight allowed Toph to see for him, enabling Han to remove and replace the power coupling without having to take the entire wall apart. It saved Han a whole day's worth of work, dealt with a minor problem that had been bugging him for a while, and gave him a whole new appreciation of the blind girl. Once the coupling was in place Han pulled his arm out, glad to finally have that bit of maintenance finished.

"Thanks for the help," Han said, replacing a panel to cover up the various components in the wall. "Given your way of looking at things, I'd say you have a bright future in engineering."

Toph smiled and put her back against the wall. "I'll have to think about that."

Then they heard rushed footsteps, and they saw Aang running into this curved corridor. "There you are. I hope you're ready to move."

"Well that was quick," Toph said. "You were just back a minute ago. What's going on?"

"We've got a chance to get down to Earth," Aang answered. "It's risky, we are going after Vader after all, but I think it will work."

"Count me out," Han said. "The Falcon isn't going anywhere until we get the go ahead to return to Home One. I'm sure the imperials are just waiting for an excuse to shoot at us."

"Good thing we aren't taking the Falcon," Aang said. "Chiara is going to get one of the other ships out there. Once she gives the signal, we book it while everyone's distracted."

"What's the signal?" Toph asked.

"She didn't say," Aang answered. "So I want to get outside before it happens."

"Have fun with that," Han said. He started walking toward the cockpit. "I am going to make sure they know I have nothing to do with whatever is about to happen."

"Just tell Leia we're leaving," Aang said.

"Yeah, after you're gone," Han said, heading down the corridor. "I'm sure someone's listening in on every transmission we make. I'm not going to be the guy that tips them off."

Aang watched Han leave, and then he turned back to Toph. "Are you okay with coming along? We'd be in a tiny ship flying through space for a little while."

"Are you trying to make me not go with you?" Toph asked. She walked up close, smiled, and lightly hit Aang's shoulder. "Look, after coming to my rescue, of course I'll help with anything you want."

"Thank you," Aang said. "Come on, let's get outside."

Aang and Toph walked through the corridor, stopping only to pick up Aang's staff before heading out. They walked down the Falcon's entrance ramp, setting foot on the hangar floor. Outside they got some looks from stormtroopers and crewmen going about their day, some were wondering what they wanted, others thinking they were out to meet somebody. Aang and Toph stayed close to the Falcon, and so they were left alone by everyone else. As long as they didn't stray too far that wouldn't change, at least until someone got too suspicious.

They had a few moments to stand and look around the hangar, watching the crewmen and stormtroopers at work. Most were tending to the imperial ships docked all over the place, maintaining the TIE Fighters and shuttles and other assorted vessels. Others were standing guard and watching the Falcon, making sure no one made any unwanted moves. Aang waved at a couple of stormtroopers, but they didn't wave back, leaving Aang a little disappointed. He kept an eye on a TIE Bomber, waiting for the signal to take it.

An explosion seemed like a pretty good signal.

A cargo hauler at the far end of the hangar had been completely destroyed, its load of fuel going up in a massive fireball. Several shuttles and TIE Fighters nearby had been severely damaged, and debris had been ejected nearly as far as the Falcon. Crewmen responded immediately with fire control measures, needing to put out a massive inferno before it could consume the entire hangar. Stormtroopers worked to remove sensitive equipment from immediate danger, putting the safety of the ship first, ignoring all other concerns around them.

While almost everyone hurried toward the explosion, Toph noticed someone moving in the opposite direction. "That must be your mystery friend."

Aang turned in the direction Toph faced, spotting someone in stormtrooper armor, quickly noticing that it wasn't a good fit on her. "Makes sense to get a disguise."

No time to lose, Aang and Toph sprinted for the TIE Bomber. Now that no eyes were on them, no one tried to stop them. Chiara got to it first, leaping surprisingly high to reach the tiny ship mounted on the wall. When they were beneath the tiny ship Aang wrapped his arms around Toph, called on the only element that still worked here, firebending from his feet to add a boost to his leap. It was enough to just barely reach the tiny ship, both Aang and Toph needing to reach up to grab the bottom of an open hatch, holding on by their fingertips.

A stormtrooper helmet stuck out of the hatchway, and a gloved hand was offered. "So you weren't a figment of my imagination after all. Good to see you in the flesh."

She helped Aang and Toph up and into the TIE Bomber, closing the hatch once all three were inside. It was cramped inside the tiny ship, with only two seats inside for the pilot and gunner, barely enough space for a third person crouched in between. Chiara took the pilot seat, already starting the engine and igniting thrusters, nearly ready to detach the tiny ship from the wall. Aang settled into the gunner seat, though he didn't dare touch the controls. Toph crouched in the space between, dreading the inevitable moment when her world would shrink to just this tiny ship.

"Here we go," Chiara said. "Hold on to something."

The TIE Bomber detached from the wall, thrusters burning to keep it from hitting the floor. It turned toward the hangar doors, still open with only the atmospheric force fields in the way. It seemed that the explosion had been more than a distraction, having damaged the mechanisms for closing the hangar doors, ensuring that this would not be a short flight. The TIE Bomber turned and flew through the force fields, leaving the Executor and entering empty space. Their departure had drawn attention, but it was already too late to stop them from leaving.

"So what's going to stop them from shooting us down?" Toph asked.

"Don't worry about it," Chiara said, her hands tightly gripped on the controls. "We'll be fine."

Still, she engaged the engines to maximum, and the TIE Bomber flew through space at breakneck speed. She had good reason for it, as the Executor's dorsal turrets activated and took aim at the stolen bomber. Thousands of blaster bolts were fired, much to the shock of the rebels aboard Home One, surprised that they were not the target. Yet none of the blaster bolts met their mark, the closest shots missing by the smallest of margins. The tiny ship swerved left and right and up and down, as if following a route where blaster bolts would not be at any given moment, making it seem like the misses were all due to luck.

Once the tiny ship was out of range the turrets stopped firing, and Aang could finally let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "That was close."

"Not really," Chiara said. She set a course for Earth, and the planet was quickly filling up the view. "Now if it had been Vader shooting at us, well that would be different."

"Why's that?" Toph asked, barely keeping herself from throwing up in here.

She chose not to answer, instead adjusting course for the planet's northern pole. "We should arrive in half an hour. Get some rest if you can. You're going to need it."