A long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away….
Season 1, Episode 3:
Force
It is a time of peace in the galaxy.
Three months have passed since the Empire's defeat at the hands of the Rebel Alliance.
A New Republic is beginning to rise from the ashes. Leia Organa contributes largely to its development.
Meanwhile, making a new home for himself on the Forest Moon of Endor, Luke Skywalker continues his training as he prepares to begin a new generation of Jedi Knights.
I
"You okay, kid?" Han asked. He holstered his blaster, and went to help his brother-in-law, who lay on the grass with a smoking crater in his wooden chest guard.
"I'm fine, Han," Luke grunted, pulling himself up before Han was even near.
"Master Luke, I must recommend that you stop," C-3PO urged, anxiously lifting his stiff golden arms.
"Suppose Captain Solo were to misfire and accidentally make a serious wound?"
"Don't worry, Threepio," Luke said, sending Han his most Han-esque smirk.
"Han doesn't miss,"
Han returned the smile. "Chewie," He said to his Wookie friend, who stood behind C-3PO and R2-D2.
"Keep Goldie quiet, would ya?"
Chewbacca growled softly onto the top of C-3PO's head, foggying its glimmering metal.
"Oh, dear," The droid muttered, his fixated wide-eyed expression accurately representing his fear.
R2 beeped beside him.
"I do too know when to quit!"
"So is this something Yoda said you should learn?" Han asked, twirling his blaster on one finger.
"Not exactly," Luke replied. "But if I'm going to start training new Jedi, I need to be prepared for every scenario,"
"But if you're up against a blaster, why not just disarm 'em?"
"Could be a sniper; I might not see them but hear the shot,"
"Then jump outta the way. Or block it with your lightsaber,"
"I could. But what if there were others around me? The shot could hurt someone else. But using the Force, I can block the shot and keep it from hitting anyone, or even use it against my opponent,"
Han rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine, you got me there." He aimed at the blackened center of Luke's wooden chest armor.
The Jedi promptly placed his hands behind his back.
"You gonna keep the beard?" Han asked.
"Yes…" Luke stroked the blonde hair coating the lower half of his face with his flesh left hand.
It made him look like how Han imagined Ben Kenobi did in his youth, long ago in the glory days of the Jedi. In all honesty, Han found it appropriate; a new age of Jedi called for a new bearded knight.
"Just feels right," Luke continued. "Everything's changing; I should change with-"
PEW!
Han squeezed the trigger and Luke extended his flesh hand.
Between them was a thin line of blue light, shaking in the air as if wrestling with some invisible force.
Han looked past the bullet of light and at his brother-in-law's face. He seemed calm, but not relaxed. Determined, but not tense. His expression was a perfect medium, and it hypnotized Han. It was the face of control; not the desire for it, as he had seen in the faces of friends and foes like Lando or Jabba, but the real possession of total control. In a way, Han admired it. He almost envied it.
The beard, he thought, helped a lot.
Luke raised his arm abruptly, and the bullet flew straight into the sky. It struck a tree branch, which plummeted to the forest floor, much to the surprise and irritation of several chittering Ewoks.
"Sorry, Wicket!" Luke called up to them, his masterful look reverted back to the inexperienced farmer Han first met on Tatooine all those years ago.
"Keep that up and you'll cut down enough wood to build a new temple," A soft but firm voice said behind Han.
He turned around and found who he knew as Leia Solo, and who the public knew as Leia Organa. She wore the green waistcoat worn by all New Republic senators, which blended into the grass and leaves covering Endor. Her dark brown hair was tied into a ponytail.
"Hard day at the office?" Han asked, giving his coyest smirk and putting an arm around Leia as she passed.
"Actually, things are coming along more swimmingly now," She answered, placing a hand on his cheek.
"Practically every aspect of the Empire has been replaced with a more benevolent candidate. Also, Lando sends his regards." She patted his cheek hard enough to make a slapping sound, but gentle enough that it didn't sting.
She then turned to Luke, who had already discarded his makeshift vest and made his way over for a hug.
Han smiled at them, remembering back on Hoth when Leia had kissed her brother. Han knew it had only been to get a rise out of him, but he wondered if the memory chewed on the siblings' minds with each embrace, each kind word, each passing smile. Or perhaps it was now just a nostalgic joke between brother and sister.
"Shall we continue your training?" Luke asked.
"Yes," Leia answered. "I could use some spiritual exercise after a day of politics,"
Han went to join Chewie and the droids, watching as the Skywalker siblings knelt down on the luscious Endorian grass.
He watched Luke give instructions as he always did; close your eyes, breathe, feel the Force surrounding you, binding you, flowing through you.
Leia obeyed, and moments later, the grass around her waved without wind, and the nearby rocks floated into the air. Each day they got higher; today they rose to at least two inches.
Han leaned against a tree behind him, folding his arms as he watched his family experiment with powers beyond his understanding or his care. He still didn't believe that the Force was everything Luke and Ben had told him, he felt something comforting in Luke's conviction to it, like some form of sense was returning to the galaxy. But as he watched the lesson, he knew that Luke's new Jedi Order was not yet beginning. Despite Leia's interest in the Force, Han knew that she was a politician and a leader first. This wasn't about training Leia, it was about training Luke. It was about preparing to train others, people younger and more suggestible than Leia, and doing so without anyone to ask if it was being done right or not.
Chewbacca growled anxiously.
"What is it, Chewie?" Han asked, his hand going straight to his blaster. He could tell when Chewie sensed danger.
He looked up into the bright Endorian sky, and saw something like a meteorite heading straight for him. As it neared, Han saw that it wasn't a meteor, but a man with a jetpack. He drew closer, revealing his filthy green armor, his small, pale red cape, his rifle, and his helmet with a T-shaped visor, glaring down at Han like a flying predator.
"Boba Fett?!" Han exclaimed as both a warning and a question.
Everyone leaped out of the bounty hunter's path as he fired upon the grass, making a smoking black line from where the Skywalker siblings had been to a ways up the tree Han had been leaning on.
"Oh, deaaaaaaaaar!" C-3PO cried. R2 shrieked along with him.
Boba Fett somersaulted in the air and landed on the tree, kicking off of it and towards Han, pinning him to the forest floor by the throat. Han's blaster tumbled out of his hand and skidded along the dirt, far out of his reach.
"How are you alive?!" Han gasped as his hands were pinned by Fett's left hand and right boot.
"Chewie said you fell in the Sarlacc Pit back at Jabba's Palace!"
"I did," the bounty hunter growled. His voice was different from what Han remembered; gone was the icy, menacing tone of a predator waiting to pounce, replaced by the hoarse, hardened voice of an aged general.
"Hold on…" Han coughed. "Of course! You're just a copycat wearing his armor!"
"I am the same man you humiliated on Tatooine, Solo!" Fett spat. "Things have changed for me, as they will change for you and your friends,"
Behind him, Chewbacca had drawn his bowcaster, Leia had pulled a blaster from her coat, and Luke had ignited his lightsaber, his bearded stone face dark beside the green glow.
Remaining fixated on Han, Boba Fett pressed a button on his left glove with his thumb.
A missile burst from his jetpack, shooting straight upwards like a firework. It curved in the air and began a breakneck return journey to the ground where Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca stood.
Luke held his flesh left hand out, and the missile slowed to a halt, trembling in the air as fire sputtered fruitlessly from its thruster.
"Not your smartest move, Boba." Luke turned his hand, not feeling his fingers, but instead scorching metal, and the missile tilted to face its original owner.
"Now let Han go,"
"Don't boast too much about intelligence, Jedi!" Fett shouted, pulling Han up and trapping him in a half-nelson. He then used his free right hand to retrieve his blaster, curled it under Han's free arm, and pressed the barrel against his neck.
"Unless you really do plan to blow up your friend with me,"
"I can drop the missile behind you," Luke rebutted. "You'll take the brunt of it, and I can promise you we'll be quick enough to detain you afterwards,"
"Quicker than my trigger finger?" The bounty hunter snarled. "I don't think so. Now back off, and you can have your turn when Solo's finished,"
Han was sweating. He knew that there must be some way of escape; there always was. But in that moment, and all those before, before the solution revealed itself to him, when it seemed like his number was finally up, he couldn't help but sweat.
It only made him think even harder.
He looked at Leia, who looked back at him with the same perfectly balanced expression as Luke.
Beneath the blaring of the restrained missile, Han heard something shifting in the soil behind him; his blaster.
He opened his left hand, ready to catch the weapon when it came flying. Instead, there was a short, sharp blast, and then Boba Fett was shouting in pain.
That works, too, Han thought, breaking free before snatching Fett's rifle away.
The bounty hunter bent down to clutch his wounded thigh, and then lashed out suddenly at Han with a blade concealed in his gauntlet.
Chewbacca roared and fired at Fett, who dodged swiftly before activating his jetpack and charging at the wookie.
Luke seized the opportunity and brought the missile down in the space between Han and Chewie. The explosion was small (although most explosions seemed small to anyone who had watched the destructions of two Death Stars) but enough to send Boba Fett hurtling into the nearest tree trunk, his pained cry harmonizing with both bony and wooden cracks.
As the bounty hunter fell to his knees, Han dashed towards him and seized his helmet. He ripped it away and, as he had expected, did not find the bald, scowling face of his old enemy.
"Ha!" I knew you weren't him!" Han exclaimed in triumph.
He grinned in the face of a red-haired man with a goatee and striking green eyes.
"I am Boba Fett!" The stranger coughed.
Han looked closer, and though the face was new to him, the jagged, piercing glare trapped inside it, screaming back at him like a man frozen in carbonite, was all too familiar.
This was strange enough for Han, but then the face, Boba Fett or not, began emitting a humid, golden glow, as if it were irradiated.
"Damn…I was just getting to like this new one…" Fett coughed again, and then his glare turned into a malevolent grin.
Han had never seen Boba Fett smile.
"Don't worry, Han, old friend," He whispered. "There's a lot more where that came from…"
His eyes dropped shut, and then glow completely shrouded his face. For a few seconds, Boba Fett's face seemed to have been replaced by a miniature supernova. When the light dimmed, Fett's skin had darkened, as had his hair, which had stretched to reach his shoulders.
His brown eyes hovered opened. He grinned at Han once more, and then fell limp.
"Is he dead?" Luke asked.
Han slid two fingers under Fett's neck, and what he discovered was even more harrowing than any of Boba Fett's smiles.
Thump-thump-thump-thump...Thump-thump-thump-thump...
II
By the time Boba Fett was stirring awake, a band of Ewoks had already tied him to a tree trunk. The bounty hunter looked up at his captors, finding their perturbed, speculative faces, and his lips curled into a dark grin that chilled even Han's spine.
Han waited for him to speak, but he just kept grinning. Han glanced at Fett's helmet under Chewbacca's arm, and had to fight the urge to snatch it away and slam it onto its owner's head.
"W-Well, th-that's not possible," C-3PO stammered.
"What's not possible, Threepio?" Luke asked.
"I was just scanning Boba Fett for any potential causes of his change in appearance, or of the rapid heartbeat that Captain Solo mentioned. But my scans indicate that Boba Fett has two hearts,"
R2 beeped at him.
"Of course my scanners are fully functional! You can scan Boba Fett yourself if you don't believe me!"
"And he definitely didn't have two hearts before?" Han questioned.
"Nothing has two hearts, sir. Every organic creature in the known universe has only one. The amount of blood that would require two hearts to circulate would be extravagant!"
"One just wasn't cutting it for me," Boba Fett snarled, lifting his long-haired head to grin menacingly at the rebels.
"I thought it was time to upgrade,"
"Upgrade to what?" Leia asked, approaching him. "What have you become? And more importantly, how did you gain the means to do it?"
"Here's my question," Fett sneered. "What will you do if I keep quiet about it? As you just saw, there's not much that I can't walk off anymore,"
"Let me ask you another way…" Luke stepped up, slowly waving his gloved metal hand past Fett's face.
Han stretched an arm behind his head as he watched. He knew the Jedi's mind trick was a gamble; extremely effective if successful, but embarrassing if failed. He winced, knowing in his gut that this was going to be an instance of the latter, and already feeling embarrassed for his brother-in-law.
"You will tell us what you've done to yourself," Luke calmly commanded.
Fett's filthy smile widened, his teeth unusually white.
"No. I. Won't,"
"Well, I'm out of ideas," Han shrugged.
"Fresh out already?" Somebody behind him said. The voice was calm, and yet it had a depth and a sharpness that demanded to be heard. It clutched the ears of rebels, droids, and bounty hunters alike, and pulled them in its direction.
"Pity; they always go just before I arrive,"
Strolling along the luscious Endorian grass was a tall man with a fedora resting on his curly brown hair. He seemed dress to deliver a lecture; green cravat, brown jacket, sensible beige pants. Then there was the scarf, made from wool of every color and waving past the man's knees, which left the rebels befuddled at who or what he could possibly be.
Beside him was a woman only an inch shorter, with long, straight blonde hair, and wearing a navy blue coat and a crimson tie. They each had their heads lifted at the rebels, not enough to appear condescending, but enough so that they seemed to be studying them.
"But be considerate..." The woman replied her friend while looking at the rebels and their captive.
"These days, it can be difficult to maintain a steady income of ideas,"
"Yes, but it doesn't hurt to ask one to try a little harder," The man responded, his words argumentative but his voice forgiving.
"Ah, but it's foolish to ask anyone to try better than their best," The woman replied, her voice softer than the man's, but still possessing its hypnotic allure.
"Too true, too true,"
"And who are you supposed to be?" Han interrogated, folding his arms
"I'm the Doctor," the man said, as if it were obvious, with a tip of his hat.
"And this is Romana,"
"Romanadvoratrelundar, if you want to be formal," the woman added.
Han scoffed at them.
"You're a doctor?" Leia asked.
"Not a doctor. The Doctor,"
"You must have a name,"
"I do; it's the Doctor. And do forgive my eavesdropping, but I couldn't help but overhear you all discussing things related with having two hearts,"
"Don't get comfortable just yet," Leia crossed her arms behind her back, addressing the Doctor with all the sternness of the rebel general known by the rest of the galaxy.
"You arrive mere minutes after Boba Fett; logic dictates that you're his back-up,"
"Well, that's scarcely our fault," Romana retorted with the casual confidence of either an innocent suspect or an expert liar.
"Had we turned up first, could we have expected to be welcomed with open arms?"
"One could hardly call us back-up," the Doctor added. "Perhaps I could use my scarf as a garotte, but I would never stoop to such a low. It would loosen the wool,"
"Then what are you doing here?" Han asked, raising his voice enough to make his impatience known.
"Our ship brought us here," the Doctor explained. "We were on our way to visit some old friends on Xenon, but then we came across this part of the cosmos, which we've never visited before, and decided it might be fun to explore,"
"Seems like quite the coincidence," Luke replied.
"Doesn't it?" the Doctor and Romana chimed.
"But enough about us," the Doctor said as they strolled past the rebels.
"I'd like to discuss your double-hearted friend here,"
Han felt only a faint urge to restrain this peculiar wild-eyed man; not enough to act on, but it was definitely there. He couldn't help but distrust the pair of travelers, and yet their almost calculated childishness gave him little to distrust. Perhaps they really were just wanderers who happened to arrive in time to assist with the Boba Fett situation. Or they had something much more sinister planned. Either way, Han could do nothing to stop them here.
"Now then, Mr. Fett, was it? Tell me something about yourself." the Doctor looked right into Boba Fett's face, but the bounty hunter only glared back at him.
"Well, if you can't say anything nice…"
"He's a bounty hunter," Luke answered. "He worked for our enemies in the past, but we saw him die some time ago. Now he seems to be able to heal himself by changing his appearance,"
"Ah…" the Doctor was fixated on Fett. "Now that's very interesting...How did you do at the Academy, Boba?"
"...Well enough," the bounty hunter growled.
"Hm. Somehow I doubt that,"
"What Academy is this?" Leia asked.
"The Prydonian Academy on Gallifrey," Romana answered. "Of which the Doctor and I are graduates,"
"And like all graduates…" the Doctor began before abruptly taking Luke's flesh hand and placing it on his own wrist.
The Jedi felt his own pulse.
Thump-thump...Thump-thump…
And the Doctor's.
Thump-thump-thump-thump...Thump-thump-thump-thump…
"Just like Boba…" Luke said, looking up with astonishment at the Doctor, who looked back with a toothy grin, as if he were about to burst into laughter at the Jedi's befuddlement.
"M-Master Luke," C-3PO piped up. "M-My scans detect an alarming level of similarity between Boba Fett's DNA and that of the Doctor and Miss Dvoratrelundar,"
"As they should, m'dear," the Doctor replied, spinning away from Luke. His scarf slapped the Jedi across the knees as he went.
"Romana and I are Time Lords from the planet Gallifrey, all of whom have two hearts and are able to regenerate, which Mr. Fett here has already demonstrated,"
"But one is not born a Time Lord," Romana added, stepping in front of the Doctor.
"One must earn the biology of a Time Lord by attending the Academy,"
"To ensure that such power only falls into reliable hands," Leia inferred.
"Precisely," the two Time Lords chimed excitedly.
"In theory, at least," the Doctor muttered.
"Every Time Lord that ever was has attended the Academy," Romana continued. "The two are synonymous,"
"Which is why it is both very peculiar and very concerning that your bounty hunter friend has suddenly returned possessing every trait expected of a Time Lord save for an official diploma." He directed his toothy smile to Boba Fett.
"No offense to you, Mr. Fett. I'm sure the Academy would be glad to have you, but I'm afraid rules are rules,"
"Never been one for 'em myself," the bounty hunter snarled.
"So you think someone's sellin' black market Time Lord endowments?" Han suggested.
"Quite possibly," the Doctor replied, his pensive face up at the perfect Endorian sky. "How one would go about doing so, I cannot imagine…" He grinned at Han. "But that's half the fun, isn't it?"
"Yes, but before we get on with the fun, Doctor," Romana began. "Perhaps we should interrogate Fett more closely for the origin of his Time-Lordship,"
"Oh, yes, of course. And such Time-Lordship should mean that he is susceptible to telepathic contact,"
"It's worth a shot,"
"Most things are,"
The Doctor and Romana stood on either side of Boba Fett and shut their eyes. Their expressions relaxed, becoming the same perfect medium that Han had seen on Luke, Leia, and Ben Kenobi.
"Contact," they whispered.
Boba Fett's icy grin stayed on the rebels, particularly Han.
"Your new friends are completely nuts," He sneered.
He suddenly winced, his head snapping down as if he had just been hit.
The Doctor and Romana suddenly lit up, but Fett stayed down.
"Well, that's a start," Romana said.
"One must start somewhere," the Doctor added as they both turned, walking briskly the way they came.
"What did you do?" Luke asked them as they passed.
"Just a little Time Lord telepathy," Romana answered.
"Since your friend is now a Time Lord, it becomes a little easier to give his mind a quick browse for the place at which he was made so," the Doctor continued. He looked over his shoulder, never slowing down.
"Aren't you all coming?"
The rebels exchanged befuddled looks.
"Chewie, bring Boba," Han ordered. His friend growled curtly in agreement.
"Are we sure it's a good idea to go with them?" Luke asked.
"They're weirdos and they're full of themselves," Han replied. "But other than that, they've actually been pretty helpful,"
"But that thing they did just now," Leia said. "That 'contact.' Luke, do you think that had something to do with the Force?"
"Possibly," Luke muttered, walking after the Time Lords and gesturing with his flesh hand for his friends to follow. They did.
"And then there's that Doctor's voice,"
"What about it?" Han asked.
"The depth. The words. At first, I thought it was just me, but every time he opens his mouth, he just sounds more and more familiar,"
"Who does he sound like?"
Han and Leia thought, replaying the Doctor's voice and words in their heads, as well as those of any other deep voices they remembered. Soon, they landed on one voice; one haunting voice that had tormented them for years, who had tormented the galaxy for decades, and though he was three months dead, wasn't quite finished yet.
No matter how chipper the Doctor sounded, the rebels would never stop hearing the voice of Darth Vader.
III
"What a piece of junk," Han scoffed when he saw the Doctor's ship.
He hadn't been expecting too much, but he had at least thought he would find more than a blue wooden box barely big enough for one person, let alone six people, a wookie, and two droids.
"Don't you listen to him, my dear," the Doctor said, caressing the box's corner.
Han shivered at this, recognizing such an intimate touch from those shared by himself and Leia. In a way, it was even more intimate.
Han found the box's registration above its door, beneath a single cubic lightbulb; Police Box. Between the two words, in smaller writing; Public Call. There was another sign on the door; Pull to Open.
The Doctor and Romana pushed.
"After you," the latter said, leaving the double doors only open enough to let out a small sliver of light.
The two Time Lords bowed for their guests.
Han looked to Luke, Leia, C-3PO, R2-D2, and Chewbacca, who carried Boba Fett's helmet in hand, with its unconscious owner on his shoulder much like how the Doctor wore his lengthy scarf.
They all seemed hesitant; even R2's stolid red eye seemed to show a concern for being locked in a box and then incinerated or crushed or worse. But they had escaped worse and much less peculiar deaths in the past.
"C'mon, you cowards," Han scoffed, marching towards the box.
"What do you honestly expect to find in a tiny blue box?!"
He shoved the doors open, ready to find nothing but a few sad buttons on a wall right in front of him, but instead he found himself in a warm sitting room with red carpet and smooth wooden walls.
Stained glass windows illuminated the room with red, blue, green, and yellow. The light shined off the room's centerpiece; a hexagonal wooden console packed with as many buttons and switches as the Millenium Falcon.
The room was made of materials and designs from the distant past, older than the Jedi or the Old Republic or anything that Han knew. And yet it seemed brand new. Barely touched.
Han could have sworn he had gone back in time.
He walked further in, his hands out, ready to find the wall where the holographic illusion would end, but he was able to walk all the way to the console, to feel its smooth wooden panels, smell its fresh aroma, and glide his fingers over the buttons that begged to be pressed.
Han knew this wasn't possible. As he took in the vast room contained in the miniscule box, he felt strangely ashamed, like he no longer had any business thinking of what was or wasn't possible.
"Welcome back, master, mistress," a squeaky voice piped up from underneath the console.
Han looked down and found a droid unlike any he'd encountered before. This one had a cubic body, and a square head with a rectangular snout, giving it a dog's appearance. That, Han thought, couldn't have been an accident, not with those miniature radar dishes in place of floppy ears, or that stick at the back that seemed to have no purpose apart from wagging. On its side was written, K-9.
"K-9, huh?" Han read with a chuckle. "Cute,"
"Thank you, sir," K-9 beeped. "Although I trust you not to underestimate my aptitude in the fields of both science and self-defense,"
"Wouldn't dream of it, boy,"
"It's called the TARDIS," the Doctor announced.
Han turned to find the Time Lords strolling briskly into the ship, removing their hats and placing them on the console as if entering a house. Han could remember himself and Chewbacca entering the Falcon hundreds of times in the same comforted manner.
Behind them, Han's companions followed, each of them looking about the room with the same expression as C-3PO.
"Which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space," Romana added. She flipped a switch on the console and the doors, which stood out in the fanciful room by still resembling the old box outside, whirred shut.
"...It's bigger inside," Leia said.
Chewbacca growled in agreement as he dropped Boba Fett lazily by the door. He kept the helmet.
"Yes," the Doctor grinned. "The TARDIS is dimensionally transcendental,"
He pressed a few buttons, and the ship echoed with a powerful, mechanical groaning, like an enormous train chugging up a colossal mountain.
"Do forgive me, but my manners seem to be only half there," the Doctor continued. "I've invited you into my home, but neglected to ask who you are,"
"I'm Luke,"
"Leia,"
"Han Solo. The big guy's Chewbacca, or Chewie if you want to save some breath,"
The wookie growled softly.
"I am C-3PO, and this is R2-D2,"
The smaller droid beeped excitedly.
"Yes, yes, your names are all fine," the Doctor said. "But who are you? Who could you be that somebody would become a Time Lord just to try and kill you?"
The rebels exchanged looks. Talking to the Time Lords, especially the Doctor, was like a friendly war. It always seemed to them like he was trying to have the upper hand, even during something as simple as asking their names.
It was a trait they recognized from both the egotistical and the sinister.
"We were leaders of the Rebel Alliance to overthrow the Galactic Empire and restore the Republic," Leia answered.
"You were," the Doctor replied, smiling like a student thoroughly engaged in a fascinating lecture.
"And now? I assume you accomplished your goal?"
Han saw Leia's eyes change. It was something he was sure only he and Luke could see. Behind the stolid face of the princess, the general, the senator making a statement, there was a burning outrage at the notion that she was being interrogated.
Han turned from Leia to the Doctor, who kept smiling as if unaware of the frustration he was causing.
Perhaps he was.
Han considered; maybe their years of rebellion had made it impossible for him and his family to tell evil from eccentric.
"And now we each play a part in rebuilding the Republic," Leia continued. "I shape the senate and build relations with other planets and systems, and Luke prepares to begin a new Jedi Order,"
"Jedi?" the Doctor repeated, still the riveted student.
"Oh, don't tell me you haven't heard of the Jedi, Doctor," Romana said, leaning against the console and smiling in a teasing manner.
"No, I've not. Have you?"
"No, but I thought you said you knew everything,"
"Yes, well, I meant it more as a complaint; a reflection on the disappointing smallness of the universe,"
"Master," K-9 interjected. "I recorded your statement, made two months, one week, four days, five hours, thirty-eight minutes, nineteen seconds ago, and detected no signs of disappointment, but immense traces of pride and grandeur-"
"Yes, yes, thank you, K-9!"
"Welcome, master,"
The rebels couldn't help but smirk.
"But it's always exciting to learn about new cultures…" the Doctor continued, straightening his lapels as if hoping it would restore his control of the conversation.
"So, Luke, yes? Tell me about this Jedi you're so keen on,"
"Well…" Luke began.
Han could feel his hesitance, the befuddlement of having to explain something you've never had to explain before because everybody already knew; like explaining why two plus two is four, or what the Jedi Order was.
Nevertheless, Luke explained, and he did so with a warm excitement not unlike the Doctor's or Romana's.
"The Jedi were an order of knights who kept the peace in the Old Republic. They were wiped out ages ago by the Empire,"
"I see. And how exactly did you keep the peace, as you say?" the Doctor sounded skeptical, like he was anticipating the Jedi to be the Republic's totalitarian law enforcement.
"They would use diplomacy where possible," Luke replied, smiling as if to comfort the Doctor of his unspoken suspicion.
"But I feel like you mean weapons. If it came to that, they were armed with lightsabers, like this."
He took his saber's hilt from his belt and held it up. The Doctor and Romana looked intently at it, studying it. K-9 made a series of soft beeps that sounded somewhat like a dog's growl.
"But their most valuable asset and ally was the Force,"
"The Force?" the Doctor repeated.
"A military unit or a form of energy?" Romana asked, looking pleased with herself for doing so.
"The latter," Luke answered with a laugh. "They could tap into it to manipulate objects, the environment around them, even the minds of others. Basically, they would borrow the Force's power to enhance their own influence on their surroundings,
"Let's see, then," the Doctor began, fumbling eagerly in his pockets.
"What?"
"You can't go around saying things like that without giving a demonstration…" He dumped his belongings one-by-one onto the console beside his and Romana's hats.
A yo-yo, a box of matches, something metal and brick-shaped which may or may not be a battery, a whistle, a puzzle cube, and a thin silver device with a red tip that resembled a screwdriver.
Finally, the Doctor found a white paper bag and held it over the console, showing Luke that it was filled with colorful, sugar-coated candies.
"Have a jelly baby." It sounded like a challenge.
Luke's face entered that perfect medium again, looking right into the Doctor's wild eyes.
He held his flesh hand out.
An orange jelly baby leaped over the console and into the Jedi's mouth.
"Fascinating," the Doctor whispered, flicking a green jelly baby into his mouth before offering the bag to Romana.
"How do you do it? Chemicals in your bloodstream? Perhaps your brainwaves are connected to the magnetic forces in the air?"
Luke swallowed. The sweetness stayed in his mouth long after the jelly baby was gone.
"I just…Do it,"
Han couldn't help but smirk at the explanation which Luke had given before, now delivered with hesitance instead of conviction.
"No you don't," the Doctor scolded. "Nothing is inexplicable,"
"How do you explain this, then?" Luke retorted, holding his arms out at the wooden walls and the stained glass windows.
"Quite simply," the Doctor began. "Transdimensional engineering. The room in which we stand exists on a different dimensional plane than the TARDIS' exterior. You might think of it as a gateway to another world,"
"Alright…" Luke folded his arms, lifting his head in a mimicry of how the Doctor had first greeted him.
"Then what about whatever it was you two did to Boba Fett?"
"Telepathic contact? I told you; it comes with being a Time Lord,"
"Because that seemed like the Force to me. I wonder; could it be that your people are Force sensitive?"
The Doctor's face changed to one which the rebels had not seen on which yet, and which they assumed was exceptionally difficult to coax out of him; genuine surprise.
"Now, that is fascinating,"
"That must be your favorite word," Han cracked.
"Third favorite," K-9 corrected. "At 562 uses. Second is shut up at 703 uses, and first is jelly baby at 918 uses,"
"Shut up, K-9,"
"704 uses,"
"I've never known such attitude from a droid," C-3PO whimpered.
"If I may redirect this discussion," Leia interjected. "How exactly is an Academy graduate made into a Time Lord?"
"Thank you, Leia," Romana replied.
The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but Romana beat him to it.
"Upon graduation, one is exposed to the time vortex energy from the Eye of Harmony on Gallifrey; just enough to gain a dozen regenerations,"
"A dozen?" Leia responded. "Makes sense; prolonged life is much more reasonable than complete immortality,"
"In theory," Romana continued. "One could gain more, but it's rare that the High Council would grant any Time Lord additional cycles,"
"I have a feeling that Boba Fett's taken more than his fair share," Leia speculated.
"You know what I think?" Han said. "I think he has gotten his fair share. He's a bounty hunter; he goes where the pay is. I bet you there's some new crime lord out there paying people in regenerations instead of money,"
"Wanted dead or alive," Luke mused. "Reward; twelve spare lives,"
"And considering how quickly Fett went through two," Leia added. "Demand must be high. Whoever controls this new market would have a tremendous amount of influence…"
Though she kept her stone face, she couldn't keep from going pale.
"They could even bribe members of the senate…" She turned to the Doctor, who was sporting his toothy grin again.
"Are you amused, Doctor?"
"Oh, do forgive me. It's just that it's so refreshing to see people thinking. I'd say you don't even need my help. Of course, I'm much too interested now to abstain, so I'll stay with you the rest of the way. Besides, with illegal Time Lord genetic tampering involved, Romana and I are somewhat obligated to put a stop to it. Aren't we, Romana?"
"The Council would probably just force us to stop it eventually, anyway," She replied. "May as well avoid the aggravation,"
"Indeed…" the Doctor flipped his fedora onto his curly brown hair.
"So why don't we get started?" He marched for the rusted white doors.
"Are we there already?" Luke questioned.
"No," the Doctor grinned back at him. "We arrived a few minutes ago, but I was so enjoying our discussion,"
With that, he slipped out the door, followed closely by Romana and K-9. The end of the Doctor's scarf slithered out after them.
"Even his droid seems a tad eccentric," C-3PO observed.
"You're one to talk," Han responded.
The droid looked at him, his fixated wide-eyed face indicating offense.
"I think we can trust them," Luke said. "At least for now,"
"What worries me more is that there's a race out there that can manipulate people by extending their lives," Leia added. "Who's to say that this High Council on Gallifrey isn't behind all this?"
"Who knows?" Han asked, resting a hand on the handle of his blaster.
"If they are, then we'll just do what we always do with evil organizations, right?"
Luke and Leia smiled at him, and Chewbacca growled in agreement.
They followed the Time Lords and their peculiar droid. As they did, Leia turned to Han with a look of mischief.
"I don't know about you, but that felt like less than twelve parsecs,"
IV
The rebels looked out at a purple sky possessed by the orange tint of dusk. Silhouetted against it were skyscrapers like swords reaching for the stars.
Hovercrafts cruised between the sharp buildings in two orderly pairs. Han and Leia suspected that the drivers felt much more stressed than they appeared from down below, considering how bustling they knew life on Coruscant could be.
"Massive, suffocating city. Extravagantly large population. Corporate-centered, judging by the towers," the Doctor observed. "Definitely the place for an interplanetary crime lord's base of operations. The only question now is where specifically,"
"This is Coruscant," Luke said, looking into the distance with a look of dread about him.
"You've been before?" Romana asked, as if expecting a dry recollection of a long gone holiday.
"No, but I've been told by my masters that a Jedi temple used to be here, before the Emperor turned it into his own palace. Somehow, I don't think that's a coincidence,"
At this, the Doctor spun around, his wild eyes on Luke.
"You suggested that the Time Lords may be also be able to tap into your Force power," He said in an agitated whisper.
"Perhaps you're right, and whoever's behind this isn't just after the Time Lords' power, but the Jedi's as well,"
Before anyone could so much as gasp, a dozen armored figures landed sharply in a circle around them and the TARDIS.
The air became polluted with the exhaust from their jetpacks.
They all wore masks, either covering half or all of their faces. Some were men, some were women. Some had blue skin, green skin, five fingers, three fingers, tails, fur, fins, gills.
They each had at least one blaster aimed at the rebels and the Time Lords.
Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewbacca reached for their weapons, but the Doctor spoke quicker than they could move.
"Hello there!" He chirped with a tip of his hat. "I see you've been expecting us. Allow us to offer our complete and total surrender,"
"What?!" Han spat.
He made to storm towards the Doctor, but for a split second, he glanced at Romana. She had that balanced expression again.
Han stopped, feeling a migraine coming on, like something growing inside his head. Then, amidst everything in his brain; his repressed fear, his anger at the Doctor, his increasing intrigue at this new gang of bounty hunter Time Lords, there was something else.
A thought he could not remember thinking of, as if something had crept into his mind and placed it there.
Han suddenly realized that the simplest way to find the bounty hunters' boss was to get an escort from the bounty hunters themselves. Once they knew who the true mastermind was, they could stop him right in his own lair.
It seemed like a perfect plan to Han, even if Romana had abruptly injected it into his mind.
The Time Lady turned to Leia, Luke, and Chewbacca, who each winced at their migraine before their faces relaxed in realization and acceptance.
Unfortunately, the Time Lord trick could not work on the droids.
"Oh, dear," C-3PO whimpered as black-furred bounty hunter made a clicking growl at him.
R2 made a beep that sounded like a short shriek.
"Hush, you two," K-9 snapped squeakily.
C-3PO's petrified stare jolted down to the dog droid, whose satellite dish ears whirred teasingly.
"The boss is waitin' for ya, scarfy," a female bounty hunter with pale green skin snarled, pointing at the grinning Doctor with one of her three clawed fingers.
"C'mon; let's get 'em back. And remember; boss never said we had to be careful,"
Just as the bounty hunters began closing in on them, there was a deafening roar from Chewbacca.
Han darted around and found Boba Fett in front of an ajar TARDIS, thrusting a gauntlet-concealed blade into the wookie's stomach.
"CHEWIE!"
Han paid no attention to his volume. The drivers of the hovercrafts high above him might have heard, but he didn't care; none of their hectic lives could possibly involve anything worse than a best friend bleeding from the guy in front of them.
Boba Fett pulled his knife from Chewbacca, and Han immediately slammed his palm onto the wound.
The blood was hot and thick. Han felt like he was keeping a geyser from erupting.
Chewie placed a furry hand on his to help his effort.
Han looked up at his friend, into his face, his blue eyes like two diminutive islands in a sea of brown fur. They looked back at him, digging into him as if trying to tether himself to an upright position. Or at least a conscious one.
"You bastard!" Han spat at Boba Fett, clutching the fur around Chewbacca's wound.
"Aw, I'm sorry, Solo," Fett smiled with the sinister smugness of a magician who had just made a small animal disappear.
"But since I was reborn again, I've been thinking how rushed my last self's attempt on your life was. So I've decided instead to go the route of killing each of your friends slowly and precisely. Then, when it's your turn…" His lips cracked into a filthy reiteration of the Doctor's grin.
"You'll be waiting for me to kill you. Then maybe I'll make you wait for it a good, long while, just to drink it all in,"
"You're sick, Fett," Leia growled.
He snickered.
"I'm still getting used to it, but I'm already loving it…"
He bent down and picked up his helmet, which Chewbacca had dropped when he had been stabbed. Some wookie blood had dripped onto it just above the visor. Boba Fett did not wipe it away.
"In all honesty, though, as much as I enjoy each new face…" He lowered the helmet onto his long-haired head as if it were a crown. His slimy grin was soon shrouded behind the familiar, piercing 'T.'
"This one will always be my favorite...Alright, friends; let's go visit our generous employer,"
The rebels and the Time Lords were made into the middle of the group, with half of the bounty hunters leading the way, and the rest behind them, prodding them in the back with a blaster barrel if they were too slow, or simply for fun.
Boba Fett walked right behind Han and Chewie, who could feel his shadowy grin like a serpent's tongue caressing their necks.
Han looked to his left, past his struggling friend and to the Doctor, who looked back at him and Chewbacca with another expression that must be exceptionally difficult to earn from him.
The Doctor was scared.
V
As Han's hand was sandwiched between Chewbacca's furry hand and his thick blood, he could barely breathe.
Mere minutes later, as Leia saw their destination, the abandoned shadowy building of the former Imperial Palace, and even more formerly the Jedi Temple, she could barely breathe.
Inside, when they were finally introduced to the bounty hunters' boss, none of the rebels could breathe.
For a while, Luke did not.
They found him in a room walled by a single wide window divided by several pillars, offering a commanding view of the city outside. He sat in a single seat deep in the room, leaving an immense amount of space for more chairs, although there was only one.
Luke imagined a circle of seats, and immediately realized that this was where the Jedi had once held council. Somehow, he knew that the place where the cloaked man sat was where Yoda, Obi-Wan, or perhaps even his father had once sat.
The man looked up as the rebels were brought in, and Luke felt his frigid gaze immediately. He felt like he had been whisked back in time, back to the last time he had willingly surrendered to his enemies, and been brought before a cloaked figure.
Luke saw the figure's face; burned so fiercely that it resembled a well-rotted corpse.
He saw his eyes, popping out of their sockets, as if screaming at Luke for just watching as his father threw him into the scorching reactor of the second Death Star.
Luke was certain.
The Emperor had returned.
"Welcome back, my friends," He said, his voice like a spider crawling through each ear.
He stood up as the rebels were shoved into the room and onto their knees, during which Han allowed only a few drops of blood to escape Chewbacca's stomach.
The Emperor stood up and approached his enemies.
"Especially you…"
Luke waited for it; the hoarse spitting of the words 'young Skywalker', like they were some kind of disgusting punishment.
"My dear Doctor…"
The Emperor stood over the Time Lord, grinning at him with teeth as black and decayed as the rest of his face.
"Master…" The Doctor whispered.
Luke's mind raced; were the Doctor and Romana apprentices of the Emperor's? Had all this really been a trap?
Then he thought about the word, Master, and how he had said said it to Yoda, Master Yoda, how C-3PO said it to him, Master Luke, and how he had heard K-9 say it to the Doctor back on the TARDIS, Welcome, Master. Always obligated, courteous, natural.
This was not how the Doctor spoke.
The Doctor.
Luke's head lifted as he was chilled with realization. If there was a Time Lord who felt so attached to his wit and intelligence that he would name himself the Doctor, then surely there was also one so obsessed with power and control that he would name himself the Master.
"You look healthy," the Doctor continued, resurrecting his toothy grin.
"Much more youthful than the one I used to spar with 'round the UNIT compound,"
Luke exhaled, savoring a nanosecond of relief that the Emperor was still dead. However, there was still the matter of this Master and his bounty hunter Time Lords, and Chewbacca bleeding out.
"What an extraordinary bit of luck that you would happen upon my old friend, Boba," the Master said, as if the Doctor had been a surprise birthday present.
"Isn't it?" Boba Fett replied, shoving past Han and Chewie to get to the Master's side, although there was plenty of room to walk around the kneeling group.
"They were on the very same forest moon I'd tracked Solo to, and the new power you gave me interested them enough to come here,"
"Did you stab the big hairy one?"
"Yes, I did, actually,"
"Then it seems things are playing out to both of our likings for a change...You sound different, Boba. Did you suffer another regeneration?" The Master asked as if Boba Fett had only bumped his head; it was difficult to tell if he was being condescending or if he was simply eccentric.
"Not at all; I enjoyed every moment,"
"You know…" Luke began, biting his lip; he was determined never to call this man, this thing, Master. He could do it against the Emperor, and he would do it again now.
"This place was once very important to my family. I wonder why you chose it as the base for your criminal activities,"
"Criminal?" The Master repeated, insulted. "I would hardly call merely wanting to remain alive criminal...But to answer your question; like my old friend, the Doctor, I have something of an attachment to history. A place like this, notorious in generations gone by, but now untouched by the new governments, was the perfect candidate,"
"And I agree immensely with your choice, Master," the Doctor replied, using the word in such a fleeting, casual manner that he seemed to purge its domineering meaning from it.
"But I'm more curious of how you've been turning your new friends into Time Lords. I assume you haven't been taking them to Gallifrey to use the Eye of Harmony?"
"As it happens, I've found another, much more convenient means of accessing the time vortex than the Eye of Harmony…" the Master backed up to one of the pillars dividing the wide window. He pushed on it, and it opened, revealing a room with a console not unlike the one in the Doctor's TARDIS.
This one, however, had a panel missing. The new hole spouted a beam of golden light. As they gazed at it, the rebels heard somebody whispering. They could not hear what they were saying, but its indiscernible voice was irresistible.
Han noticed Boba Fett turning to look at the light. He could hear the twenty-four hearts of the twelve other bounty hunters throbbing behind him.
"You've accessed the time vortex via your TARDIS," Romana said. "That's quite clever, Master. You can't have come up with it yourself,"
The Master made a short hum that sounded like he was trying not to lash out at Romana.
"It was a lucky guess, really. Although, considering the results of my previous attempts to prolong my life…" He waved a charred, bony hand in front of his skull-like visage.
"I decided it would be better to test it on others first. The bounty hunters roaming this part of the galaxy provided me with the perfect demographic of volunteers. Such as Mister Boba Fett, who I found crawling with only a single remaining limb from a beast's domain on some repellent desert wasteland called Tatooine. You can imagine, then, that people in his line of work would be very grateful for the opportunity I offered,"
Boba Fett didn't respond; he was entranced by the light emitting from the Master's TARDIS.
"Well, you've outdone yourself," Leia congratulated dryly. "So why haven't you used it to heal yourself yet?"
"He was waiting for me to turn up," the Doctor answered just as the Master opened his rotted mouth.
"The Master and I go quite a ways back. He prefers I be present for all of his schemes. Makes him feel nostalgic, you see,"
As the rebels listened to the Doctor, they each felt another migraine coming on.
"You know me too well, Doctor," the Master said, tilting his charred head.
"And after I've finally repaired this husk, I'll have my associates to do as they please with your friends,"
The rebels considered how Luke and Leia would push over the Master and his underlings using the Force, and then Romana would whisk the Master's TARDIS into some random region of uninhabited space, while the rest of them subdued the bounty hunters.
"Meanwhile, my old friend, I shall keep you here, where you will watch my new order rise; a universe ruled by my own race of Time Lords. And with each step closer I get, I will take one of your lives,"
The plan, as comfortably as it fit in the rebels' minds, beared Romana's signature.
"Perhaps I'll even give you some back if I find myself still enjoying it,"
"Oh, that all sounds delightful," the Doctor said, grinning at the Master from under the rim of his fedora.
"But I'm afraid I'm all booked,"
Luke and Leia shut their eyes, imagining a wind knocking the Master and the bounty hunters to the floor. They could feel it cooling their faces, evaporating the sweat on their brows.
Then it soared away from them and realized their vision.
The rebels were on their feet. Leia drew her blaster, Luke ignited his lightsaber, and Romana sprinted into the Master's TARDIS.
Han followed with a wavering Chewbacca over his shoulder.
"Captain Solo!" C-3PO cried, pursuing with tiny but speedy steps like a toddler still mastering the art of walking. R2 rolled along beside him.
"I would strongly advise against putting Chewbacca in there! We don't know for sure what other side effects there are!"
"Han!" Leia and Luke called.
"I've gotta try!" Han shouted back, already inside the TARDIS with the two droids right behind him.
Boba Fett looked up, and then rolled into the TARDIS. He got to one knee and looked straight at the Skywalker siblings.
Even behind the glaring 'T', they could feel his filthy grin.
The bounty hunters leaped to their feet, and Boba Fett slammed the TARDIS doors.
VI
The Master's TARDIS was cold.
Where the Doctor had put wood and carpet, the Master had put black metal. Instead of stained glass windows, there were only rows upon rows of circular panels.
Once more, Han felt like he had traveled back in time, this time to the first Death Star. He was less convinced now that the Master and the Emperor weren't one and the same.
"You should be outside," Romana scolded in the calm yet cold manner of a schoolteacher.
"I'll go back," Han grunted. "As soon as I help my friend…"
He glanced at the light emitting from the time vortex. The whispering was louder now; it constantly shifted between male and female, old and young. Han still could not make out any words, but its allure had become even more powerful. His neck strained at the idea of turning away from it.
He heard C-3PO and R2 shrieking behind him, and darted around to find the droids being thrown aside by Boba Fett.
The bounty hunter drew his knife and lunged.
Han went for his blaster. Chewbacca bought him some time by catching Fett's arm.
Boba Fett flicked the blade into his free hand and thrust it into the base of Chewie's neck.
The wookie shook the room with a gargling roar, and then grasped Boba Fett's head in two massive blood-stained hands. He threw him to the side of the room, winning the helmet in the struggle.
With his blaster at the ready, Han dashed to the fallen bounty hunter, whose slimy grin met him from behind a curtain of long black hair.
Han placed the barrel on Boba Fett's forehead, then pulled the trigger without a second thought.
"Nine," He said.
Boba Fett's head rolled backwards in a blinding cloud of golden light. For about three seconds, his body was completely limp, and then it sprung back to life and seized Han's throat.
For a while, Han was glared at by nothing but a formless aura of light. Soon, it began to form into a head as it deafened Han with insane cackling. The light became little more than a glimmer, and Han discovered that Boba Fett's skin had paled, his hair had shortened and become blonde, and that he was now female.
"Eight," Han wheezed, the armored gloves tightening around his neck.
He put another one between Fett's eyes.
There was light and silence for only a second, and then Han was laughed at by a blue-skinned creature with a short black beak.
The gloves grew tighter.
"Seven,"
Another shot. Boba Fett's head lit up again. He was back two seconds later as a bald black man with green pupil-less eyes.
He kept laughing, his gaping jaw spewing wisps of golden light. He leaned closer to Han, pressing his forehead against the blaster's barrel, daring, demanding Han to take another of his precious regenerations, and see if he could wear them all out before he suffocated, or before Chewbacca bled out.
See what good it will do.
As the universe became a blur orbiting Boba Fett's glowing, cackling face, Han was determined. All thirteen Boba Fetts would meet the same end; killed by Han Solo.
Something struck Fett at the back of the neck. His wide, maniacal face faded, and he collapsed on top of Han.
The icy dimness of the Master's TARDIS returned into focus, as did the image of Romana standing above him, her right hand behind her back, and her left held out, palm open, as if awaiting a handshake, or having struck something.
"Thanks," Han coughed, heaving the unconscious bounty hunter off of him and obliging Romana's hand.
"Venusian Aikido," she said. "Just one of many helpful skills one can learn while traveling with the Doctor. But you should go help the others; they'll need all the help they can get to overcome the Master's allies,"
"I will, I will, alright?" Han snapped.
He turned to Chewbacca, who was on his knees with one furry arm on the console, his crimson-stained gut and neck painting the black floor red as the time vortex behind him brightened the room with gold.
C-3PO and R2-D2 stood beside him, their static faces looking down at him with concern. They inched carefully around the growing pool of blood, trying not to seem insensitive.
"As soon as I help Chewie," Han said.
"I can take him to a hospital in this TARDIS before I get rid of it," Romana pressed.
"No! We've waited too long already! I'm not risking his life when there's a way of healing him right in front of us!"
"You're not seriously considering making him a Time Lord?"
"I'm afraid I must concur with Miss Dvoratrelundar, Captain Solo," C-3PO added. "You saw how unhinged Boba Fett became in those recent regenerations. You could very well risk changing Chewbacca for the worse, not for the better,"
The wookie made a gargling growl at him, and he shifted backwards.
"Not only that," Romana continued. "But what gives you the right to bestow near-immortality upon anyone?"
"And what gives you the right to say that I can't?!" Han retorted. "Especially seeing as your people are the ones who put a monopoly on the damn thing in the first place! But I'm not talking about making Chewie a full-on Time Lord! You said that your people look into this vortex thing long enough for twelve regenerations. So if Chewie looked in for short enough, then he could just heal without getting any regenerations. Right?"
Romana folded her arms, answering him with only a cold glare. Han noticed that she was about an inch taller than him, but she looked down at him with every millimeter.
"Right?!"
"It would have to be quick," She answered. "Barely a second; enough energy to heal but not to alter the body or the mind. It would be more like blinking into the vortex...But it is your friend we're discussing; why don't you consult him?"
Han nodded as if accepting a challenge, and then went to Chewbacca's side. The sight of his friends bleeding so profusely, coupled with the persistent whispering from the time vortex, burned Han's head worse than any telepathic contact he had yet received.
"Did you get that, pal?" Han asked, kneeling beside the wookie with much less regard for the puddle of blood than the droids.
"You just gotta look into that thing for a second, and you'll be alright,"
Chewbacca looked at him. Han internally confessed that, as inseparable as he was from his wookie partner, he remembered too many of their conversations as asides, be it focused on driving in the Falcon cockpit, across a bar table, or over their shoulders while standing back-to-back in a shootout. He couldn't remember enough times when he had seen Chewie's face. Not looked at it, but seen it as the face of his friend; the only face that had never scowled or glared at him or grinned evilly at his misfortune. The furry, black-eyed face that was always beside him.
Refusing the vortex could mean that Han would never be able to see that face again. But accepting it, and looking in for too long, could mean the same thing.
"Look…" Han sighed. "It's your life, bud. It's your choice. Whatever you want, I'm with you all the way,"
Chewie slapped a furry hand on his shoulder. He growled softly, and made the best smile his maw would allow.
It was good enough for Han.
The wookie turned on his knees towards the time vortex, and peered into the glimmering vortex.
VII
Luke shut his eyes.
He saw nothing, but he could feel everything around him. He could feel Leia at his back, the Doctor beside him, and the Master nearby. He could feel the warmth emitting from the Master's TARDIS, the electricity coursing through K-9 beside him, the fumes from the hovercrafts outside, and the scorching heat from the blaster bolts mere inches away his head.
"That's enough," the Master said as calmly as requesting a cheque, and the blasts stopped coming immediately.
He had eighteen, and could tell that Leia had the rest. They were both ready to dispel them back at the bounty hunters, but then the Doctor rested a hand on each of their shoulders.
"Would you two be able to spare me a minute?" He whispered in their ears.
They thanked him for not using telepathic contact. The additional strain may very well have meant their demise.
They nodded.
"Splendid," the Doctor stepped away from them.
"I must say, Master," He said as if admiring a renovated house. "I'm very impressed with all you've done. I'd say you've well-earned that new regeneration cycle. I'm curious, though; how did you work out how to access the time vortex through your TARDIS? Don't tell me you were so bored that you decided to begin removing pieces of the console?"
"There's never a boring moment for me, Doctor," the Master began. "I was recently approached by someone with knowledge of the universe beyond that of you or I. She shared some of that knowledge with me in exchange for a favor,"
"What sort of favor?"
Luke could hear the Doctor's hearts racing. At first he thought the Time Lord was frightened, but upon a closer listen, realized that he was elated. He was high on the tension, the mystery, the danger.
"Tsk tsk tsk. That would be telling, Doctor," the Master giggled. "And I know how much you enjoy solving these little mysteries for yourself,"
"That is true,"
"You need it, don't you?" the Master suddenly spat. "A mystery. A dilemma to solve. You'll go mad otherwise...But then again, you're quite mad already, aren't you?"
"There's nothing wrong with that," the Doctor said dismissively.
Luke felt the scarf brush his knees as the Time Lord moved around him.
"Not to you, or to dear Romanadvoratrelundar, but what of your friends? Miss Grant, Miss Smith, Leela, the dear Brigadier, or your darling granddaughter? Or your new friends here? Those who would follow you, protect you throughout your madness? Are you still able to feel any real friendship for them? Because from where I stand, it seems you are merely using their abilities to allow yourself the opportunity to grandstand, as you do. It seems that your so-called companions are little more than your own band of bounty hunters,"
As the Master spoke, Luke realized that he wasn't talking to the Doctor; he was talking to him and Leia.
He no longer felt the marble of the council room. He felt cold metal and heard the rumbling of a reactor miles beneath him. He still felt the Master; he felt the hooded figure's gaze on him like a vulture eyeing a fresh carcass, creeping into his mind, searching for that one trigger that would shape it to his own desires.
Luke would not let him find it. He knew Leia wouldn't either.
He locked the Emperor out, and listened only to the Doctor and his two jubilant hearts.
The blaster bolts had inched closer.
"What can I say, Master?" the Doctor asked.
Luke and Leia each felt a casual arm flung around them.
"You have me all figured out,"
The Skywalker siblings were pulled to the marble floor, and their concentration on the Force was severed.
The room erupted into a torrent of released blaster fire, and then into a cloud of golden light.
"Is that not murder, master?" K-9 asked.
Luke and Leia looked up, and found a dozen regenerating bounty hunters. The Master was slumped in his chair, looking particularly sinister for a corpse.
"No, K-9," the Doctor answered, straightening his fedora. "All we did was jump out of the way." He patted Luke and Leia each on the back.
"Well done, you two. Now get up; we need to get this lot into the Master's TARDIS before they come to,"
Luke and Leia reached out. Neither was yet able to lift a living body with the Force, but they were able to lift two or three jetpacks with an unsuspecting bounty hunter attached.
"Not that I don't appreciate your assistance, Doctor," Leia began. "But I have little patience for those who string me or my family along,"
"Oh?" the Doctor replied, pulling a bounty hunter towards the TARDIS by the rim of his chestplate.
"Even if it ultimately works?"
"My issue isn't with whether or not it works," She carried her two bounty hunters in the Doctor's direction, her glare on them, though it was intended for the Time Lord.
"My issue is with your taking advantage of others for your own ends, which the Master made clear you are in the habit of doing,"
"Yes, I must commend you again for resisting that bit of misdirection of his," the Doctor said, as if ignorant of Leia's criticism.
"Listen, Doctor," Luke interjected, aiming for a medium between the Doctor's calm and Leia's severity.
"Your intelligence has been invaluable today, but in tricking the Master, you also tricked us. I'd like to call you an ally, but I can't if you're going to manipulate us as you would our enemies,"
"Well, I apologize for not taking your feelings into account," the Doctor retorted with strictness double that of either Skywalker sibling.
"Look; you lot are some of the brightest I've seen in the galaxy. Believe me; it's so full of people with so little brain. But you're different, I know, I've seen. But if you want to protect what's right in the galaxy, if you want your Jedi to be capable of overcoming people like the Master, you must be willing to take risks…"
He stopped for a moment, and when his trenchant voice that continued to echo in Luke and Leia's minds as the voice of Darth Vader returned, it was a whisper. Not as angry as before. Now it was melancholy.
"Believe me; I've had to do much worse things over the centuries…"
Luke and Leia said nothing else. They both heard the Doctor's twin hearts; gone was the elation at the sensation of danger. Now there was something which did not even sound like Boba Fett's heartbeat. Now it was as despondent as the Doctor's ancient face.
The doors of the Master's TARDIS creaked open, and then a delightfully familiar growl filled the room.
"We too late for the party?" Han asked, his cocky tone echoing with a note of relief.
Luke and Leia looked past the Doctor and found Chewbacca leaving the TARDIS with a grinning Han under his furry arm. The wookie's fur was stained with blood, but there was no sign of any wound.
The Skywalker siblings were initially terrified at what the time vortex might have turned their friend into, but upon seeing how relieved Chewie, Han, Romana, and even C-3PO looked, they relaxed. Whatever had happened, everyone was alright, and that was enough.
They looked at the Doctor, and found him looking at Chewbacca with his usual toothy grin. This time, however, it was pale and layered with sweat. This, Luke thought, was another reaction difficult to earn from the Doctor. A very particular sort of satisfaction.
The Doctor, he thought, must lead a crushingly unsatisfying life.
VIII
"Are days such as this regular for you, K-9?" C-3PO asked, wobbling down the steps of the palace with R2 and K-9 on either side of him.
Chewbacca was ahead of him with the rest of his family under his massive arms. The Doctor and Romana were beside them, gladly distributing jelly babies.
"Most regular, C-3PO," K-9 answered.
"How do you cope with so much pressure?"
"I simply do," He said with a smugness which 3PO had not thought any droid to be capable of.
"Then again, that may be somewhat more difficult for an older model such as yourself,"
"Well, I never…" 3PO whispered.
R2 chirped at him.
"Oh, hush, R2. You're just as old as I, if not older,"
The golden droid looked ahead, and found the others already approaching the transcendental blue box at the bottom of the steps.
It had taken only two minutes to get the Master's corpse and his groggy, newly regenerated bounty hunters into his TARDIS before launching it to some random coordinates in deep space, but C-3PO felt like another generation had gone by. He looked forward to returning to the Forest Moon of Endor. Despite the few stressful aspects of the moon, such as the rambunctious habits of the Ewoks or Master Luke's more ambitious training methods, C-3PO genuinely believed that it was one of the most peaceful places in the galaxy. He often felt that living there was his reward for surviving all the danger he had been dragged into by Masters Anakin and Luke over all those years. He was anxious to return, and hoped that the next time he had to leave, it would be to a place that was even more peaceful, perhaps without any troublesome Ewoks, and with Master Luke a fully-experienced Jedi Knight.
3PO looked to the TARDIS once more.
He could have sworn that they had landed further away.
The Doctor opened the door.
PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW! PEW!
3PO was frozen on the fourth to last step. R2 and K-9 stopped beside him, watching on as their friends writhed on the ground, and Boba Fett and the Master stepped out of the TARDIS.
"Master…" K-9 whimpered. "...Mistress,"
Though it was almost dusk, there was plenty of light from Coruscant's many structures, and yet Boba Fett and the Master were still shrouded in shadow. It seemed as if they were shadows. They glowed like they were about to regenerate, but the light they emitted was black instead of gold.
They were shining darkness.
"Terribly sorry, Doctor," The Master said, kneeling down beside his nemesis, whose scarfed chest puked a stream of white light. Though there was distance between them, 3PO could hear his voice as if he were screaming in both of his audio sensors.
"But I'm afraid you won't be solving this puzzle,"
The Doctor did not look at him; his wild eyes had gone black.
"You seemed bored on that forest moon, Solo," Boba Fett said, looking down at Han, whose chest was spitting blue light.
"I hope this will excite you,"
"Don't you three worry," A third voice said, this one a woman who, despite being nowhere to be found, sounded as if she were right in front of C-3PO.
"Your masters are just fine. You might say they've been upgraded,"
The droids looked at the ajar TARDIS, and found its homely interior polluted by something like a thick black cloud.
C-3PO looked down at Master Luke, who bent on the ground to look back at him. He reached out with his flesh hand, pleading at the droids with his blackening eyes as his chest spewed a dark green light.
His face was one of fear which 3PO did not think even his own static face depicted, and then it darkened to one of anger which the droid had only ever seen on one other.
Anakin Skywalker.
FORCE, or Star Wars x Doctor Who
Season 1, Episode 3
NEXT TIME ON JUSTICE LEAGUE INFINITE!
A lonely boy obsessed with the extraterrestrial.
A lonely girl adored by the extraterrestrial.
A diabolical plot involving world domination and gene splicing.
A robot and his ice cream cone.
A glimpse at the mysterious entity that has been snatching up heroes.
And a little Elvis music to liven it all up.
Coming soon!