Inside Vader's chambers aboard the Executor
Vader watched the holo-feed that the final Shadow Guardsman took. Seeing his apprentice fighting again, brought back some memories. And Vader was secretly happy that the lessons that he had drilled into the two young Je'daii had made them so good at surviving the situations they were put in. Taking a step forward, Vader merely kicked away the body of the last Shadow Guardsman, his incompetence for the failed mission had cost his head. Reaching his hyperbaric chamber Vader sat on his meditation pad as the holo-feed continued to play, it was at the part where Ezra realized the identity of the Prototype, seeing the shock and hurt on his face was almost the worth the loss of the Prototype. As the hyperbaric chamber began to close, Vader removed his mask and helmet as his mind started going over the possibilities to try and defeat the two former apprentices, from the footage alone Vader knew that they would be a tough match.
Closing his eyes and shutting off the holo-video Vader began meditating, drawing on his anger and pain to try and figure out what to do. He was interrupted by a beeping noise from his holo-transmitter that Vader kept in his meditation chamber. Reaching down and depressing the control that controlled the arms that would lower his helmet and mask onto his face and head. Once completed Vader reached out with the force and called the holo-transmitter to his hand as the chamber opened.
"I gave explicit orders not to be disturbed, what is the issue that one of you incompetent buffoons couldn't address and requires me to oversee it?" Vader growled into the transmitter, his mechanical hand torquing down on the transmitter, causing several cracks to form along its polished durasteel surface.
"My lord, I am terribly sorry to disturb you but a report just came in from Kamino, and I know that-aack-" The commander on the other end of the line was silenced as Vader clenched his other hand, strangling the man and crushing his windpipe. It was never wise to disobey the dark lord.
Vader strode across the room, glancing at the decapitated Shadow Guard one last time before walking out of his private chambers and to the bridge to receive the report. Once he arrived, Vader was greeted by a body bag on the ground containing the officer who chose to disturb him in his meditation, before he turned to a young Ensign who seemed to be trembling at the sight of the imposing Sith.
"M-My Lord, here is the report that came in f-from Kamino," The Ensign stammered out before he haphazardly saluted Vader and handing the package over to him.
"That is all Ensign," Vader commanded as he turned on his heel and strode back out to his personal chamber. The poor Ensign let out a slow breath that he didn't know he was holding before letting his shoulders relax. Except Vader stopped, right at the threshold of the door. Almost as if he was contemplating something, before he turned the package over in his hands and noticed that a small incision had been made on the side, not overly large but large enough that someone could plug a computer into the datapad that the package held. Turning around the Ensign felt his breath leave his body not from the force but from sheer terror. The unnamed Ensign felt all of the pores of his body start to produce copious amounts of sweat as he looked into the emotionless faceplate of Darth Vader who, in what seemed like an instant managed to cross the distance between them and stand directly in front of him. Looking up the Ensign started to feel the 'eyes' of the mask on Vader's face bore right through him, as if those very soulless sockets got to determine if his life was worth sparing or not.
"Why was this package opened?" came the mechanical voice of the towering cyborg,
"I-I don't know my Lord, I-I'm just a courier, you would need to talk to the people who receive the mail." The Ensign replied Vader glanced at the name badge on the man's chest if you were going to kill someone it was a courtesy to at least know their name.
"Well, Ensign Ferguson. I am going to go and see if what you say is true. If you are lying I will have all of your family killed for your spying-" Vader said as he turned to go to the mail room and sort out what had happened.
"And my lord, what if I am telling the truth?" The Ensign meekly asked before he felt a burning sensation, then nothing. Falling to the ground with the hilt of Vader's saber still protruding from his chest as Vader finished, "-And if you are telling the truth, I will be sure that you get a respectable funeral," Before stalking off into the bowels of the ship. The tampered package still grasped firmly in his mechanical hand. The lightsaber gave a small wiggle, before flying into the outstretched hand of Vader who walked out just as the doors closed. The other officers stood stalk still as if waiting for the dark lord to walk back in and slay them all where they stood, before one of the holo-operators reached up to the headset she was wearing and called for another bodybag.
Vader walked down the drab hallways of the still incomplete super star destroyer, making his way to the mail room he could see several officers walking to and fro. Still unpleased with the lack of progress with his personal flagship, Vader would occasionally stare down an Engineer he saw relaxing against the wall with a cup of caf. The poor Engineer would then cower in fear before Vader continued onward. Vader didn't mind the lower ranks of the Imperial Navy and oddly, respected them. Sure he wouldn't take a blaster bolt for them, but he did make sure that the workers were paid handsomely and had excellent benefit packages in case they ever were hurt. In all, he rather found he even enjoyed their company, using his various spy camera's to listen in on their conversations. Hearing people complain and moan, and otherwise just hold small talk was the cyborg's way of getting in human interaction. The number of secrets that Vader knew was astounding about the many crew members, and even knew some of the more memorable characters by name. Petty Officer Maxwell, for instance, a severely political man, was a believer in fringe conspiracy theories. Vader's personal favorite was the one about how the 'Jedi Purge' was actually a part of the Jedi's grand plan, and both Palpatine and Vader were actually secretly taking orders from the Jedi Council. While he didn't laugh at the theory, he thought that it was interesting that PO Maxwell was able to piece together the various different threads of information to try and form his own coherent story. Another was Warrant Officer Ruby, that was another interesting man altogether, let's just leave it at he believes he is a werewolf.
Recounting these events made Vader think of happier times as he walked through the hallways and through the various rooms within the destroyer. Times when Vader was, in fact, Anakin Skywalker, the hero of the Republic, not Darth Vader, feared enforcer of the Empire. But as with all things now, these memories always came with pain, Obi-Wan, the younglings, his wife. Drawn from his thoughts by the clearing of a throat Vader looked down and saw the face of an elderly woman, probably in her late fifties. She wore the rank of Sublieutenant on her chest plate and seemed to be holding a gaze of not terror but impatience.
"Can I help you, my lord?" The Sublieutenant asked Vader could have sworn that he heard her mumble something under her breath. The force was telling him that she was extremely annoyed. Glancing at his clock on the HUD in his mask Vader was able to discern that it was in fact almost her lunch break and she was probably getting hungry.
"Yes, I received a package earlier from Kamino. I have come to find out why it was opened," Vader droned out in an authoritative tone.
The woman merely cocked and eyebrow before turning around and stepping into the office, after a few taps on her computer the woman asked, "Are you sure you received a package? All my records show that you haven't received anything,"
"Then why am I holding it right here?" Vader responded with the package in his now outstretched hand, his anger starting to rekindle, this woman was walking a very fine line with him, and one wrong move could mean that the troopers down in the morgue would have to add another body to the incinerator.
The woman gave one look at the package before tapping her chin with a slightly wrinkled finger, "Now that I look at it, that looks like something that ISB would send, they use a different system than the others. I would need to get my superior to authorize me looking into it if you want," The Sublieutenant asked as she tried to come up with a reasonable solution for the dilemma that faced the cyborg.
"No, that won't be necessary," Vader replied, hearing the name of the intelligence branch of the Empire only meant one thing, Sidious was having more people spy on him to make sure he was actually going through with the contingency plan. Turning around, Vader left the Sublieutenant in silence as he made his way back to the relative comfort of his private chambers.
Aboard the Rogue Shadow: Return trip from Corellia
Ezra was stabilized within the small med-station that they had aboard the Rogue Shadow. Galen had taken Choni and Shilli to the common area as Juno checked in on Proxy who was navigating through hyperspace. While this was going on Sabine was sitting in the chair right beside Ezra, holding a bag of frozen vegetables to her face, occasionally reaching out and stroking his hand. Galen had said that he had endured worse. But she wasn't sure what could constitute as worse in this situation. From the scans that Galen had taken, Ezra had a spiral fracture of his femur, dislocated a hip, broke his collarbone in three places, had a bruised esophagus, a collapsed lung, some minor internal bleeding, and another concussion, this one was much worse than the one he received while on the rescue mission when they met the Ghost crew.
Trying to stay awake as she had a minor concussion from when the figure had hit her in the face. Sabine didn't know who the figure was as she didn't get a good look at his face. All she knew, was that they were powerful and it had taken nearly everything Ezra had to finish the fight. Glancing up she could hear some commotion going on in the hallway, what sounded like Shilli and Choni arguing over something before Shilli burst into the room, surprising Sabine and causing her to drop the frozen vegetables.
"Shilli, come back here! Ezra and Sabine need their rest," Choni scolded as the toddler ran up to Sabine, her huge almost too cute eyes looking up at her.
"Are you okay?" Shilli asked, face full of worry, Sabine had forgotten that much of what had happened wasn't something that any toddler should be forced to go through. Yet, Shilli seemed pretty upbeat about the whole thing.
"Yeah, I'm okay. What about you two? I never saw what happened after that figure hit me. Did he hurt you guys also?" Sabine asked, trying not to show that she was worried for the two Pantorans.
"No, at least I don't think so, all he did was walk up and put a finger on our foreheads. According to the other guy, what happened was he shocked us in such a way that caused us to go into unconsciousness. He said it a pretty powerful ability, one that if used wrong could fry the brain of the person being subjected to it," Choni replied, watching as Shilli walked up to the bed, she was only able to reach the edge of the bed barely.
"Is he going to be okay?" Shilli asked, her innocence making Sabine want to pick her up and tell her that everything was going to be okay. But she couldn't, they were on the clock for getting Ezra to a proper medical facility where they could treat his injuries, especially the internal bleeding and the concussion. But with the added weight of the Phantom, even the much faster hyperdrive that the Rogue Shadow had, it would be still a few more hours before they reached the safety of Attolon.
"He's okay," Sabine lied, "Ezra's just really tired,"
"When will he wake up?" Shilli asked, again looking at Sabine with her large brown eyes, trying to comprehend in her young mind what was going on. So much had happened in such a short span of time, that Sabine was sure that the little girl had more than a few questions whizzing around in her mind.
"I don't know, all we can do is wait, and pray to the manda that he makes it," Sabine answered solemnly, she tried to quell any worries that she had, but couldn't. Ezra was severely injured, the Phantom was crippled and probably would be out of commission for a while, and on top of it, they had two refugees who would need to be evaluated by the rebel high command.
"What's the manda?" Shilli asked, her train of thought about Ezra completely derailed.
Sabine laughed, despite the aching jaw, "The manda is a collective soul, of all Mandalorians, when you die you become a part of that soul,"
"Oh, so can the manda help Ezra?" Shilli asked, once again, childlike curiosity surprised Sabine, most outsiders didn't want to know about Mandalorian culture. Instead, choosing to view them as soulless warriors.
"I don't know if the manda will help Ezra, but I would like to think so," Sabine replied, gazing down at the bruised and battered face of Ezra, reaching out to wipe away a long strand of hair from his face. Once she finished, Sabine heard the door opening revealing a very tired looking Juno.
"Sorry guys just needed to get some anti-nausea medicine," Juno explained as she moved through the cabinets, once she found the medication she continued, "Galen managed to whip up some rations for everyone, I would grab them while they're hot,"
Both Choni and Shilli nodded before taking their leave, glancing down at Sabine in an apologetic manner. While this was happening Sabine chose to stay in her seat, she didn't wish to leave Ezra. Juno, seeing this smiled and acknowledged the young Mandalorian.
"You know, I used to think that your kind was kind of unfeeling. Guess I was wrong," Juno commented as she grabbed a paper cup and filled it with water, before downing the pills.
"Why would you think that?" Sabine asked defensively, not exactly sure what the blonde pilot meant.
"Well, let's say that my information about your culture was heavily corrupted by the Imperials, I have since learned of the shaky truce that is between your people and the Empire," Juno replied pulling up another seat.
"Oh," Was all Sabine could say in response. In reality, the pilot and she had spent minimal time together. While on Attolon Sabine usually was off training with the few ground forces that Phoenix squadron had, while Juno and Hera drilled the pilots in various flight maneuvers. Not that Sabine didn't train for air warfare, she just usually did it when Juno wasn't the trainer, choosing the comfort of Hera instead to teach her.
"How did you meet Ezra and Galen?" Sabine blurted out, not meaning to pry she quickly backtracked, "I don't mean to intrude, but I was always curious,"
Juno laughed as she leaned back in her chair, "Well, it all started when I became a war criminal," Seeing the look of shock on Sabine's face was enough to make her break out into a small fit of giggles that stopped after a short while, leaving a very awkward pause in the conversation.
"I was the leader of the Black Eight Squadron, youngest pilot to ever achieve that title," Juno continued, seeing the admiration come across Sabine's face caused Juno to smile warmly before continuing, "After the bombing of Callos I was 'reassigned', Vader deemed me too soft to hold the command of his elite fighter unit. Thus I got sent on a deep undercover assignment for him, and that was to transport Galen, who at the time was merely known to me as 'Starkiller one' on his various missions. Over time we both came to respect one another, Galen used to be quite different, a lot angrier, but after a while, we came to like one another, and eventually fell in love,"
"Huh, sounds kind of like a fairy tale," Sabine commented, reaching out to stroke Ezra's hand. Only for it to grip hers as Ezra faintly garbled out some gibberish. Unable to fully speak due to the breathing apparatus in his mouth keeping fresh air pumping into his lungs.
Reaching over Sabine guided the breathing apparatus out of his mouth only for Ezra to say, "Galen was always nuts about you. Trust me,"
Quirking an eyebrow at the comment Juno merely motioned for him to continue, as he was gathering his strength to finish Galen walked in, Ezra only smirked before saying, "He called you a smartass," Galen immediately froze before he looked over at Juno, not exactly sure what was being told just that he was in trouble.
"I'm sorry for whatever it is that Ezra is trying to blame on me," Galen blurted out. Hoping not to upset his pregnant wife.
"I'm not blaming you for anything, just telling Juno what you said after you first met," Ezra filled in.
"I didn't call her a smartass," Galen said, squinting as if trying to remember the conversation in particular.
"Well, your exact words were, 'I don't know what to think of that smartass pilot,.'" Ezra said, wearing a shit-eating grin as he saw Juno turn to her husband with her eyebrow still quirked as if daring him to try and explain his way out of this one.
"Umm, uh, hmm." Galen mumbled out as he sought to come up with a reasonable explanation, only for Sabine to step in and ask Ezra, "How did you know that meant that Galen was nuts for Juno by him saying that?"
"Simple, Galen used to call me a smartass all the time whenever I would get in trouble with an Imperial officer, and he would have to come bail me out. I always viewed it as his preferred term of endearment," Ezra explained, smiling at his brother and offering him a small wink.
"Well, it looks like Sabine and Ezra managed to get you out of that trouble," Juno commented, allowing a small smile to leak out onto her face.
"Yeah, anyways, I came to let you know that Proxy said it will be about a half an hour before we reach Atollon. There is also still some food left over, and both of our new guests are currently sleeping in Ezra's room," Galen informed, "I can bring some food in if any of you are hungry,"
"I'm a little hungry," Sabine said, trying to hide her embarrassment. She never liked asking for anything, but she couldn't help it. The last time she and Ezra had eaten anything had been the day before when they went to the art museum.
"That's fine, did you want anything Ezra?" Galen asked again, Ezra only shook his head before he laid back and tried to shut his eyes, only for Sabine to stop him.
"Hey, until you get cleared, no sleeping. You got a pretty severe concussion," Sabine spoke out, poking him in the side.
"Just 'cause I took a little beating doesn't mean I am going to die, I've been through worse," Ezra groaned out.
"She's right Ezra, no sleeping until the medical team clears you," Juno scolded, before getting up to head to the cockpit.
"Sabine, the food is in the mini-fridge, feel free to warm it up and get yourself anything to drink from it, I need to talk to Ezra alone for a moment," Galen said, trying not to offend the Mandalorian, "Don't worry, we won't be long, I will come get you when we're done,"
"Okay," Sabine reluctantly agreed, not wanting to leave Ezra's side while he was hurt but choosing to leave him in the care of his brother anyway.
As soon as the door closed Galen looked at Ezra, seeing the young kid he took from the streets of Lothal all those years ago, it was hard for him to see Ezra like this.
"What happened Ezra? How did you two get discovered?" Galen inquired, trying to keep his worry from leaking out, to little effect.
"I don't know. We were at the art exhibit when I went to talk to Choni, the Pantoran, and one thing led to another, and she asked Sabine and me out to coffee. Unfortunately, there was an Imperial spy there, he got pictures of the three of us together and blew our cover, I should have been paying better attention," Ezra grumbled out, trying to relay his frustration at the whole event.
"Okay, but what happened on the star destroyer? How did you get so beat up?" Galen fired back, trying to keep the conversation going, not wanting Ezra to get bogged down in what happened.
"Well, that is where things got weird, when we were pulled aboard, we face the regular contingent of stormtroopers, but there was also three, possibly four Shadow Guards," Ezra slowly said, trying to recall the events in chronological order.
"Shadow Guards? Why would they be aboard a star destroyer? Seems like the Empire knew they needed some extra muscle, but why?" Galen wondered out loud, trying to come up with why the empire would send four Shadow Guards to deal with what they knew as two possible rebel agents.
"But that isn't the only thing, the force user I fought, Galen, he was you. Or at least a clone of you," Ezra said, trying to contain the disgust he had at the thought. Vader going and actually cloning them? That would be impossible, everyone knew that you couldn't clone force sensitives, they were too unstable.
"A clone of me? How? That's supposed to be impossible," Galen said, almost not believing the story, but he felt Ezra's force signature, he was telling the truth.
"I don't know, but you know Vader, he took lots of medical tests of us growing up. I wouldn't doubt that one of those tests was to get a bone marrow sample, wouldn't be surprised if he took a couple actually," Ezra commented, trying to think of ways that one could clone a force user, it seemed almost unnatural.
"I'll have to talk with Kanan and Kota about this, they might know more on the subject," Galen finally said after thinking things over, "While I'm doing that, you need to rest, just no sleeping, and when you get cleared we need to go consult Bendu, he might know more,"
"I'm all right, Vader would have already forced me into a duel against Proxy by know," Ezra said with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood, but it only seemed to make Galen more upset.
"That isn't the point, what is the point is that obviously we are dealing with people who are on the same playing field as the Emperor and Vader, we need to definitely train more on not only lightsaber combat but our force walls, we can't rely on our physical hardiness to get us through any more fights. I'm sure that Kanan can help with that," Galen said before rising from the bed and making his way to the door, "I'll tell your girlfriend that you are free now, just try to stay awake okay? Can't have you dying on us right before we get to safety,"
"Whatever you say, brother," Ezra responded before sitting up and stretching his arms. Watching his brother take his leave from the room.
Okay guys, sorry about the wait. So yeah I am sure most of you guessed that the Prototype was a clone of either Galen or Ezra. So to those of you who played the second force unleashed I am sad to say that the good Starkiller clone will not make an appearance in this story. So until next time,
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