Chapter 7

As he began to lose consciousness, most likely for the last time, he felt someone touch his hand. He didn't have the strength to open his eyes, but he knew who it was. Her love and acceptance began seeping into him, filling him and healing his wound. The blanket began to clear as he felt the Force shine from the inside out.

As he regained his strength, he looked up into the eyes of his sister and smiled. "About time you got here."

"Not my fault you had to choose a planet in the outer rim. Took forever to get here." Leia smiled down at him amid the chaos around them.

Luke smiled back. "How did you learn to do that?"

"Anakin taught me. It was one of the first things he chose, which turned out to be easier when focused. Han hurt his hand while fixing the Falcon, again, and I was able to heal it. Anakin said I did really well." She looked very proud of herself, and Luke knew why. He hadn't been gone but a week at most, so that made her grasp of healing so quickly amazing.

"I'm glad, Leia. Thank you," he said while standing up and hugging her.

"You guys gonna gush over the Force, or you gonna help us out?" Han yelled from a few feet away, while fist fighting with an Imperial guard.

Luke reached out with his hand and threw the guard over the side of the mesa.

"Show off," Han muttered before moving to the side and aimed for the guards on the top of the castle.

Luke reached for his lightsabre before remembering that the guards had taken his sack and his weapons. Reaching out, he took hold of one of the blasters from a guard a few feet away, pulling it toward him. It flew very close to Han and Chewy. Chewy growled at him, turning around to face the wall again aiming at the guards on the roof. Luke grabbed the blaster as it screamed through the air at him, taking the gun and hitting one of the guards on the roof right in the chest. He plummeted down off the roof and hit the ground with a thud.

This gave his position away to the guards. Leia ran out of sight, firing her own blaster, to find shelter from the storm of blaster shots raining down on them. Luke ran to the opposite side, hoping that the guards would follow him and not Leia. To his satisfaction, the blaster shots followed him to the side of the building, where Han, Chewy and a dozen other New Republic fighters were also finding shelter. The shots continued to go until one of the guards held up his hand.

"Hold now. They are ready."

Luke had no idea what they were talking about, but everyone else stopped firing so he did as well. The Imperial guards kept firing, but everyone on the other side had stopped. A low rumble could be heard in the distance, coming from the side of the cliff of the mesa. As the sound got louder, Luke began to determine what was happening.

All the New Republic fighters had scattered off the main plaza area, and were hiding near the Lammda, in front of the of the gate separating the plaza from the castle.

"Soldiers; clear the temple," said one of the fighters near him.

"Temple?" Luke asked.

"The main building up there is the B'omarr Monastery. It's an old temple no longer in use," said one of the other fighters, since the leader was still barking out orders.

"Welcome to the fight, kid," Han said, amused.

"Hey, I was brought here by Imperial guards. I didn't fly directly to this location you know." If Han responded, Luke didn't hear it. Right as he finished his comment, there was a horribly loud noise rising to the plaza level on the mesa. A large airship, blasters pointing, was gearing to fire. The Imperial guards began firing at the ship, but to no avail.

The airship fired heavily on the door leading into the temple's plaza area, and past the gate that locked in the internal temple area, causing the Imperial guards to falter, and many to fall. Luke and Han stepped out the same time and aimed at the guards on the temple adjunct roofs. Since they were focused on the airship, Luke and Han were able to take them out easily. This ceased the firing from above.

"Always having to save your ass, kid." Chewy growled in agreement.

"Oh be quiet. You enjoy a good fight and you know it."

Han and Chewy both laughed. Han shot at one of the guards who hadn't been killed in the airship's attack. "I would rather be taking a nap."

"But is not this what we do best?" Luke pulled himself away from the shuttle, ran toward the gate and Force jumped his way on top of the rock gate that surrounded the temple. He could hear Han's derogatory comments, but they were ignored. Luke carefully peered down over the gate to get a look at the Imperial fleet on the other side. Many were dead, laying on the ground surrounding the blast made by the airship, but there were at least three battalions gearing up to fight. They severely outnumbered the New Republic fighters.

Jumping back down to where Han, Chewy and the others were, he relayed what he saw to the commander. He immediately picked up his radio and began talking strategy with, Luke assumed, someone on the airship. Leia appeared next to them holding Luke's sack that the guards had taken from him.

"I found this lying next to a bunch of dead Imperial guards. I thought it looked familiar."

Luke grabbed the sack and rummaged around; gratefully he pulled his lightsabre out, ignited it and Force jumped back up to the top of the gate. Without hesitating, he jumped down to where the Imperial guards were, and cut one down immediately. Getting the attention of the others, Luke began to deflect blaster shots and he started eliminating the guards, fighting his way toward the temple door.

He heard a commotion behind him and sensed Chewy, Han and Leia coming in behind him, having used the door instead of his method. Luke kept his focus in front of him and continued to fight against the guards. He kicked one toward two others, effectively flooring three at once, while he deflected two more shooting at him. Angling his lightsabre just right, the next two blaster shots he redirected into two guards storming him, stopping their progress. Fighting through the group, he felt Leia get injured. Though he could tell it was minor, it still made him pause just enough that a blaster bolt hit him on his side.

Ignoring the pain as much as possible, he retreated to check on Leia. Han was hovering over her, while Chewy was shooting guards as they came closer. The rest of the New Republic fleet began to attack the remaining guards that were still coming.

Bending down over his sister, Luke examined the blaster shot that hit her arm. "Why do you always hurt your arm?"

"Because she holds it out too far when firing." Han was riffling through his back to get a bandage, but Luke put his hand on Han, stopping him.

Putting his hand over the wound, Luke began to Force heal her. "Maybe she likes the attention?"

"Maybe she wants a week off from her responsibilities?"

"Maybe she's tired of both of you talking about her as if she is not here. He caught me by surprise, in case you were interested." Leia stood up, shaking them both off her. "I can manage quite well on my own, thank you. No need for two mother hens to follow me around."

"Hey, who just healed you?"

"I was making sure you weren't going to die on me!"

"Oh, enough of you two." She stormed off toward the entrance to the temple leaving them both behind. Luke and Han quickly got up and followed close behind her while Chewy remained behind with the New Republic fighters still battling the guards. They skirted around the pillars in the walkway and helped the fighters out by eliminating the guards they were fighting.

Slowly, they gained ground toward the temple door, but the number of guards increased as they got closer. Luke remembered the conversation he had overheard and ran back to the Republic commander.

"Commander, the Emperor's troops are cut in half. The other half are exploring the outer rim for children. They are trying to build up their army again."

"Well, let's hope they are far enough away to not receive any alerts to come and help. We were barely able to defeat the barricade in orbit; a lot of our ships took damage in the process."

"Commander, we are outnumbered here. We need more troops to get through the group at the door of the temple." Luke and the commander looked up to see Han, Leia and the remaining Republic fighters hiding behind the walkway pillars as they got pummeled by blaster shots.

Luke ran up to join them and stepped out from behind the pillar deflecting the blaster shots back into the sea of guards. Taking them down slowly, he was able to gain some momentum fighting the solders. Han and Leia came up behind him, shooting at the ones that were still attacking. Chewy came running up yelling something to Han.

"What are they doing?" Han yelled, leaning slightly toward Leia.

Luke look closer at the guards, who were shifting to the side just a little. Out of the center of the darkened temple door bolts of electricity came and shocked all the fighters to the ground. As quickly as they started, though, they stopped. The Republic fighters, and the four of them, were all on the ground having taken the electric bolt straight to their chests, stunning them. As they started to recover, all the Imperial guard, including the Emperor he assumed, began to fall back into the temple.

"They are falling back. They know we have them."

A/N: I wanted to celebrate the completion of Part 2 by giving all of you another chapter! I'll go back to regular days (Tuesdays and Fridays), but today is just because I'm so excited and wanted to move forward.

Couple of reminders: We are in the Liberty-Taking section, right? I love Star Wars and have watched it for years - I do not claim to be an expert, and honestly there are things that I altered for my story. No getting mad at me for it! :)

Also, just a reminder I'm posting on AO3, in case you wish to read this story there instead. I am readying Part 2 (and about half finished with Part 3 already) so that I can slide right into posting that. As we get closer to the end I will give all of you the details for Part 2 if you want to keep reading.

Thanks to all of you who continue to come back! It means the world to me! Also, thank you to my beta Zombiefied419 - couldn't do this without you my friend!

Chapter Sources:

wiki/B%27omarr_Monastery_(Teth)

Star Wars Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force

Movie Sources:

Star Wars The Attack of the Clones