Chapter Thirty-One:

Coruscant

Luke was doing his absolute best to remain as lucid as possible, but with all the drugs the torture droid had been pumping through his system of late, that was becoming harder and harder to do. Still, there was something in his gut telling him that the rescue he'd set up for himself was nigh at hand.

Luke wanted to be somewhat helpful during it, but he wasn't certain that would happen with the way the droid was messing with him today.

Another round of torture devices had arrived, and the droid was testing them out on Luke's already ravaged body. Luke's only bright spot was that he was actually starting to become numb to the pain.

...the prick of a needle came to his arm...

Well, he wasn't certain if it was truly a good thing or not, but then again, his mind was hardly clear anymore...

Luke shook his head, frowning in confusion as the latest drug settled in. Hadn't he thinking of something important just a moment ago?

...the grey walls are extra shiny today... Luke mused with a slaphappy tinge to his thoughts.

...I wonder what they gave me this time...

00000

Nella was surprised by how easy it was to get through the halls undetected, and she had to wonder if Artoo hadn't done something more to help. She was grateful either way, but chose to focus on her mission.

Once outside the door to the room that housed the turbolift to sublevel twelve, Nella retrieved her hidden robe from a compartment on her chest. She donned it and then floated along at what was average human height.

With an ease born from her programming and training via Master Luke, Nella input the code into the keypad to the lift and was gratified to watch it open for her. Nella entered and selected the button that would take her below, and waited in anticipation for the lift to stop.

She didn't quite know what to expect once she was in sublevel twelve, but she knew to be cautious. If she could have, Nella would have taken a deep breath once the lift came to a rest at the end of the lift tube.

The door took a second to open, adding to the ominous feel of the place, and then it slid silently open to reveal the most depressing sight Nella's photoreceptors had seen so far. Nothing but gloomy, frightening corridors greeted her, with doors that did nothing to ease anyone walking their lengths.

Nella remained rooted in place for long seconds, and was roused back to the moment at hand when a green-armored face appeared around the door to the turbolift.

"You going to stand in there all day or come out?" the stormtrooper asked mildly, eyeing the robed figure suspiciously.

Nella made a noise that was similar to a man clearing his throat and pitched her voice lower than usual. "I was just taking my time."

"Sure you were," the other replied. "And you are?"

Nella thought fast, and then went for the intimidation approach, hoping it worked. "That's none of your business."

The trooper raised his weapon somewhat. "It is if you're down here Bud. Name."

Nella moved closer. "Do you think that if I wasn't supposed to be here I would have gained access to this turbolift? One we both know to be highly restricted?"

The man seemed to take that in, and Nella realized that even if he agreed now, he could rat her out before she even got close to Master Luke. With an electronic sigh, Nella lifted an arm and shot him with stun rings, dropping him like a stone and then carrying him out of immediate view.

Nella was just grateful there weren't any cameras down here. Luke had said the Emperor hadn't wanted any chances of footage getting leaked, and so once she was inside sublevel twelve, she'd be free from being caught on camera.

Nella straightened her robe and began a thorough search of the vast space for her master, missing the burst of code that emitted from the compromised security man's armor.

00000

Somewhere in space

It was the dead of night onboard, and so no one noticed when a lone, ancient fighter left the hangar bay of Home One and jumped into dead space. The pilot reminisced momentarily of his younger days, when Anakin had flown at his side, teasing his master on how he needed to loosen up in the cockpit.

Obi Wan, now General Hurst, smiled sadly, wishing not for the first time he'd been able to help his brother and best friend in his hour of need. Instead, things had happened when Obi Wan hadn't been there.

No, he'd been on Utapau, dealing with General Grievous. It had taken some time for the Jedi Master to realize that had all been a ploy by the late Sheeve Palpatine to get Obi Wan away from Anakin, thus isolating the conflicted younger man and making it easier for him to be picked off.

Obi Wan shook out of his reverie when his droid companion, R5-H1 tootled curiously. "Yes, R5 I was just about to open communications. Please begin the security measures Years-Old-Day-Aged."

R5 whistled again and Obi Wan waited for the green light that the line was utterly secure from any eavesdroppers before he signaled the only person it went to. Courtesy of Maz Kanata, Obi Wan had managed to convince the aged Yoda to allow a single line of communication for emergency purposes.

It took a little while as it always did, but eventually a gravelly voice spoke through Yoda's end. "A long time it has been, Obi Wan."

"Master Yoda." Obi Wan smiled gently. "It's good to hear your voice."

"Hmm. Sentimentality, you have not called for." Yoda reminded the human.

"No." Obi Wan agreed, recalling his business. "I need to talk to you about the twins."

A sigh sounded from Yoda, and Obi Wan could imagine the tiny man shaking his head sadly. "A horrible lot for Young Luke, this has been, but hardened him I feel it has."

Obi Wan frowned. "By being hurt by his father?"

"No: by seeing what his father and mother truly are. Grown up, Luke has, Obi Wan. Watched him a long time I have. Soft he was before, yes, but now, ready for training and life of a Jedi, he will be."

Obi Wan thinned his lips. "There had to be another way Vader could have handled his son."

"There is," Yoda said gravely. "A Sith Vader is, and many ways to force one to his will, Vader has."

Obi Wan's heart clenched. "You don't really think he'd use hssiss poison on his own child, do you?" But the words were flat and hopeless even to Obi Wan's ears. If Vader would torture his own son for running off for a bit then he'd most certainly poison his child into a Sith.

"Gone, Anakin is, Obi Wan." Yoda reprimanded mildly. "Cling to the past you still do, and hamper you it does."

Obi Wan sighed, fingering his beard in his usual manner. "So what do we do? How do we get Luke out?"

"Not sure, am I. But careful planning this will need," Yoda replied.

"You are still planning to train Luke, aren't you?" Obi Wan asked.

"Yes, if wants it, he does," Yoda answered.

"And what of Leia? She joined the Rebellion as a double agent, and will be working from both fronts."

Yoda gave a hum of surprise at that. "A fiery one, she is." Silence fell, during which Obi Wan knew the other was thinking. Then, "train her too, we should. Teach Leia you will. Luke, I will train."

Obi Wan nodded. "I will ask her if that's something she wants. And I will think of something to get Luke out. I swear it. Luke will not become a Sith against his will."

Yoda made an odd noise as a curious ripple touched the Force, with both Jedi feeling it. "Indeed. Careful we must be. Goodbye, Obi Wan." And with that Yoda ended the transmission.

Obi Wan remained in empty space for some time afterward, trying to decipher the touch on the Force he'd felt. But nothing he tried garnered results, and so he gave up trying. Turning the ship back toward Home One, Obi Wan jumped a few times per the usual precautions and then rejoined the mother ship.

00000

Coruscant

Nella knew time was starting to work against her, and the more she searched without success, the more concerned she grew that she wouldn't find her master. Had the Empire known she was coming after all and moved him? Had they gotten inside Master Luke's head and figured out his secrets? Nella hesitated, but out of loyalty to Luke, kept going.

Nella had reached a room near the very back of the level, and finally her hearing picked up the sounds of an 'interrogation' as the Empire liked to call it. A heat reading picked up one life form in a room, and a cold one that was still moving.

A droid, Nella realized.

She had to wonder at the minimal security down here: aside from the single trooper, Nella hadn't run into anyone. She supposed that the turbolift was secure enough, and the man was just an added line of defense.

But... maybe there was hidden security she wasn't aware of yet? Something designed for only after a prisoner tried to break out?

Nella shook her head and forced herself to focus, remembering Master Luke's advice on distractions on the mission. They hindered, not helped, and in the long run did more damage than good. Try to anticipate what you could, and just go along with the rest as it came up.

Nella approached the closed door with caution, using her enhanced software to monitor what was going on inside. She could see the droid's movements, and knew when it had its back turned. Nella waited for the droid to turn away from her before she entered the room, weapon arm raised and already shooting... but the torture droid had obviously been retrofitted with sensors of its own, because it jumped out of the way.

Nella tracked him, aiming for the face and scoring a hit on its shoulder when it dodged a second time. Nella shrieked when a piece of equipment sailed her way via the other, larger droid's arms. She managed to get out of the path of imminent danger, only to see the other droid leaping up and over the table Master Luke was strapped to.

Nella growled low in her proverbial throat and took precise aim... and shot its face clean off when the droid was mere inches from her. Just to be sure, when it fell, she continued to shoot it to make sure the droid was really out.

Only when she was satisfied by how blackened and smoking it was did Nella stop. She realized her robe had slipped off but left it for the time being. She hurried up to Luke, who was only semi-aware, and his eyes seemed to refuse to focus properly for any lasting length of time.

Nella wasn't an expert on biology, but even she knew he was in immediate need of medical help. Help she couldn't give.

Nella shoved aside her worry for her master, withdrew a special device he'd given her to use and strapped it around her master's waist. With a careful set-up and calibration to her own sensors, Nella activated the device and watched with satisfaction as her master's body began to levitate via the repulsor field now bolstering his form.

Nella unstrapped him now that she knew he wouldn't simply fall to the floor, and with a silent command to the device on Luke, she hovered him to the door. Before exiting Nella donned her robe once more and then made a hasty exit.

She never noticed the hidden doors opening and admitting three black, silent shapes; so caught up in the escape was she.

But once she entered the main corridor and made a swift bee-line for the turbolift, Nella's sensors went haywire with warnings. She stopped instantly and spun around to cover her Master Luke as blasterfire ripped through the air where she'd been.

Nella saw they were next to an open doorway and shoved Luke into it to protect him as she went into battle mode. Both arms on her body morphed into the weapons Luke had implanted there, and with the calculated precision only found in an assassin, Nella went to work eliminating the opponent.

Her photoreceptors picked up three remodeled super battle droids and knew she had her work cut out for her. One was standing before her and pouring down suppression fire while his two companions tried to flank her.

Nella dipped into the open doorway and leaned back out to return fire as she thought of a way out of this.

She happened to look up at one point in the firefight, as she dipped back inside her hiding spot, and if she could have, she'd have grinned. Nella leaned out once more to throw a hailstorm of blaster bolts at her opponent and then dipped back in while he was recovering.

She dropped the robe; zipped up to the ventilation grate above and entered, making sure to close it behind her to avoid the others knowing where she went. Silently she hovered through the vents, using her special vision to see the droid standing in the hallway. It had stopped firing, and was cautiously advancing on her position, thinking she'd given up.

Nella let it pass her position, watching from a grate above the main hallway, and once the batteldroid was above her Nella dropped a miniature grenade onto its back. The device instantly magnetized to the droid's metallic body and within seconds— during which Nella was moving in the opposite direction as swiftly as possible— it exploded into fiery bits.

Nella silently cheered and then had to slam on the breaks when blasterfire ripped into the vent where she was, and she exited the shaft through the next available grate. Swapping blasters from the regular strength to the black-market version Master Luke had rigged up for her, Nella opened fire instantly on her opponent as it was still focused upward.

Nella got in a few good shots, leaving gaping holes in its armor, before it took aim at her and Nella spun one-hundred-eighty degrees in one direction. As she came back around she shot at its glowing chest receptor, the concentrated blast doing far more damage than any regular blaster would have.

The droid went down with a metallic groan before Nella shot it again and watched it burst into flame, emitting acrid smoke that billowed around the space.

Nella realized she'd left Master Luke alone too long in the same moment she realized she'd lost the position of the final droid.

Moving as fast as she could, Nella raced back for the room she'd left her master in. When she got to the doorway, a shot from the final droid— who had taken up a position near the prisoner— caught Nella in the lower abdomen.

Nella shrieked and spun out of control, hitting the far wall and sliding to the floor. She waited precious seconds for her servos to reorient— ignoring the small shower of sparks that shot out from the injury— and then jumped up and hustled back to the room Master Luke was in.

She entered this time, only to find her face full of the super battle droid's weapon arm. Nella froze, realizing sadly that she had failed Luke after all, but for some reason the shot never landed. Oh, it went off, but it missed completely.

Wondering what was happening Nella looked around, and saw Luke momentarily awake and holding up a pair of fingers. Not knowing how long her master could keep up his assistance in his precarious physical position, Nella shifted from her arm blaster to a specialized knife. It extended from the interior of her arm like an extension of the limb, and she shoved it into the heart of the droid, twisting and ripping.

The droid seized and went down, and Nella shot it so it too would go up in flames. By this time Luke had lost consciousness, going limp. Barely remembering to don her robe again, Nella hustled to get him out of the room. She made it to the turbolift this time and as it climbed, the little droid willed the lift to go faster.

00000

Leia sat back from the terminal with a heavy sigh, having just finished erasing all traces of her activity. She stood with a huge stretch, and was about to retire for the evening when something caught her attention in the Force. She paused, frowning in consternation as she tried to figure out what it was.

A flash of Luke's face came to her and Leia's frown deepened, but she started moving almost as if in a daze. Partway to the door, Leia's datapad bleeped and she retrieved it.

And gaped at the message coming to her from one of her spider droids.

A strange being is taking the Prince. Now in turbolift.

Her protective instincts flaring to their full height, Leia swore viciously and raced from the library, the memory of Luke asking for her to help someone forgotten in the heat of the moment.

The Princess took the fastest route for her to the turbolift that would take her to sublevel twelve; the northern approach. No one would kidnap her brother!

But would that mean an end to his suffering? Leia shook her head. Yes, it would for now, but what would they do with him when they got him away? And who were they anyway?

Making a call to the one person she trusted in all of the palace's security, Leia prayed she wasn't too late.

00000

Mara tapped out a rhythm on her console, trying and failing to relax enough to calm her beating heart. So close... she was so close now she could almost hear the pompous fools who dared call themselves senators boasting about all the supposed good they were doing. Mara had always thought that the Imperial Senators talked about themselves loud enough to be heard across the galaxy without the HoloNet.

She thinned her lips, deciding it would be best to be ready for anything, and so she strapped into her seat more fully and forced herself to take deep, cleansing breaths.

00000

Nella thanked her lucky stars when the turbolift reached the upper floor and opened to reveal no one there. She wasted no time in hovering her master back the way she'd come along the southern corridors, and Nella moved with far less caution, especially when she caught movement on her monitored line. Nella had hacked into one of the communications lines in the palace during her recon, and was now using that to monitor the position of the troopers within.

Thus she heard Sergeant Hubert Quane being hailed by Princess Leia, and Nella heard that Leia was using the northern corridors. Nella felt a new urgency when Quane said he'd take the southern route. Nella glanced at her unconscious package and grabbed him with her arms, pushing him along even faster.

She barely got into the shadows just behind one cross-junction before the approaching Sergeant appeared around the corner, the man's glowrod out and searching the halls after he passed Nella's position.

Nella heard him call for trooper reinforcements and she considered her options. With more troopers coming out, Nella could no longer just float Master Luke along. Nella checked the map in her memory banks and noted a laundry chute nearby.

One just large enough to admit Luke if he was placed feet-first. Nella made her choice and set course for her new destination, keeping to the shadows this time. She passed several squads of troopers, each time managing to evade them and their searches, though a few times it was a close call. At long last she got to the utility room and wasted no time in maneuvering Luke inside the laundry chute.

Keeping a firm hold on his hair— and grateful he wasn't awake to feel it being pulled in such a manner— Nella floated him carefully down to the basement level, which also happened to be the level of the hangar bay.

Nella checked the coast once she and Luke had landed in the large laundry collection bin and then floated Luke along, noting that the search party hadn't come this far down yet. In fact, they were probably searching the upper-level exits and hangar bays first, not thinking of the collection of ships so far down.

Which was why Luke had ordered her to use the Armistice, Nella realized.

She entered the hangar bay at last, and was relieved to hear Artoo whistling at her to hurry, and Nella did so. Once Luke was secured inside the vessel, however, Nella turned to the helpful droid... and took aim.

"I am sorry, Artoo, but you can't be seen as an accomplice." And with that she fired a static burst at the droid to knock him out. Artoo screamed as his circuits were overloaded and then he fell forward to land on his face.

Nella hadn't wanted to hurt him, but she'd had to for his own good. Then she started the ship, opened the hangar bay door and took off for the skies, counting on the element of surprise to get her far enough up to have an advantage.

00000

"General, we have an unsanctioned launch from the Palace's no-fly zone!" a lieutenant shouted from a station in the crew pit of the Imperial Star Destroyer Dominant.

The man being addressed puffed out his chest authoritatively, not willing to let something like this go down on his watch. "Well then, let's take it down! Launch two flights!"

00000

Leia reached the turbolift room first and saw the door open... and noticed that a strange odor was in the turbolift car. Leia winced at how acrid it was, and only realized it was smoke when wisps of it trailed out into the larger room. Backing out, Leia bumped into Quane, who'd just arrived.

"Princess, are you alright?" Quane asked, even as he sniffed the air. "Phew! What in space is that smell?"

"It smells like burning circuitry," Leia complained, turning away and noticing strange markings in the dust on the floor. Markings that were leading away from the lift. "Look there! They've already gotten him out!"

Quane frowned, also eyeing the floor. "But there are no footprints, and no drag marks from a body either. Are you sure?"

Leia hesitated, but the Force was now whispering to her and she deigned to listen to it and her gut. "Yes. Come on!"

But even as they followed the trail that turned down the southern corridor, Leia had to wonder what was really going on. The markings disappeared once the dust had come off the... object, and it almost looked like a robe had been dragging on the floor.

Leia and Quane lost the trail only a few paces after that, but did run into a squad coming their way.

"Captain, any word on the Prince?" Quane demanded.

"None Sir." The trooper answered. "I..."

Leia's comlink went off then, and she snatched it off her belt. "Princess Leia here, what is it?"

"Forgive the intrusion Princess, but..." the voice hesitated. "Well, there was an unsanctioned launch from the lower, private hangar bay just now."

Leia stared at the device in her hands as if it had grown a head. "Would you like to run that by me again?"

"A ship took off from your family's, ah, hobby hangar bay, Princess. Someone just stole a ship from the collection," the trooper stated, and Leia could imagine him waiting for a verbal lashing.

But Leia suddenly realized what had happened. "Stang! That's why we can't find them! They went down instead of up! They knew we'd never think to look there first."

Leia spun around and sprinted for her skiff. "Get TIE fighters on that ship but do not shoot to kill; only disable, understand? Anyone who destroys that ship will deal with me personally!"

"Yes, Milady!" the trooper on the comlink replied before he shut it off. Then, just as swiftly, he was back on. "Milady, the Dominant just launched two flights of TIE's."

"Relay my orders!" Leia snapped, realizing that it was probably already too late.

"Yes Ma'am!"

Quane was hot on her heels as Leia barreled toward her ship. "I'll come with you."

"Fine." Leia clipped, not stopping even as her companion ordered Leia's immediate launch from the hangar bay.

They arrived and Leia leapt for the controls, grateful as ever for the emergency start-up her father had installed once Leia became a full Shadow for him. The function was used to start the ship up in a hurry of she needed to make a fast getaway.

Or if she needed to reclaim her kidnapped brother.

Leia's systems showed green and she blasted from the space with reckless abandon, aiming for the faraway blip that now appeared on her scopes.

00000

Nella made it nearly to open space before she was swarmed by two squadrons of TIE fighters. She tried not to panic as she delved into the pilot programming Luke had installed, but she had next to zero combat-pilot training. This was the one part of the mission she had truly expressed doubts about to Master Luke, who'd assured her she'd be fine.

Nella was flying purely on his programming, and so had to trust that because she didn't know what else to do. And, of course, there was the little matter of her injured body... and some of her systems were no longer functioning at full capacity round-the-clock thanks to the lucky shot from that batteldroid.

The enemy ships opened fire and Nella dodged them the best she could. At first she did alright, and only one or two blasts got through, but then the shields began to fail as the Empire's pilots caught up with her, and Nella decided to try outrunning them instead of dog-fighting the TIE's.

Nella pushed the Armistice for all the speed she was worth, which didn't seem like a lot, but they were almost to a jump point, and so Nella went with her current approach, hoping it worked.

A blast to the rear of the vessel rocked it and Nella watched with dismay as the shields were slowly eaten away at. Through her slightly disabled functioning, Nella executed a few desperate barrel rolls to try avoiding more shots, but one finally punched through and she felt her hopes sink like a duracrete block in water.

At the same time, an alarm pounded its siren call through the air and a blast door slammed shut, sealing off the rear end of the ship.

Nella glanced back at where shed stashed Luke on the acceleration couch instead of the beds, and she was suddenly glad for that.

00000

Leia's ship was far faster than any TIE fighter, and so it took her little time to reach open space, and by then she was finally able to see the fleeing ship surrounded by a swarm of TIE's. To Leia it looked like flies to a piece of carrion, but the metaphor washed away as she realized that the ship carrying her twin was now venting interior atmosphere into a hard vacuum.

Swearing, Leia punched a finger onto the communications console. "Princess Leia Vader to TIE squadron... Teeva." Leia had to glance at the readout for the squad name. "Cease fire immediately! Prince Luke is onboard that ship!"

"Princess?" a startled voice replied. "What are you doing here?"

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Leia cried as the squadron continued to try and destroy the escaping ship. Another hit was scored and flames exited the ship, and Leia's heart lurched with terror.

"Yes Milady!"

"Princess, I don't think we will make it there in..."

"Shut up!" Leia snapped at Quane as he tried to tell her they'd be too late. Leia could feel a weight in her spirit that brought her nearly to tears, but she still pushed her ship forward, angling to catch the approaching ship. But even with how fast hers went, the battle was still just too far away for her to do much else but pray for a miracle.

00000

Nella was crying out in electronic panic as something in the ship exploded and she suddenly lost control of the entire vessel. It was now only moving forward because of the inertia still pushing it forward, and that wouldn't last very long.

Not knowing what else to do, Nella abandoned the controls of the ship and made to get her master into an emergency flight suit and helmet, even as their only means of escape began to plummet without control.

Then a new klaxon blared, signaling the imminent destruction of the Armistice and Nella worked faster, trying anything to save Luke's life at this point... even if she no longer had any idea how to do that.

00000

Leia watched as the TIE's abandoned the pursuit, and then they all turned tail to run when the vessel started emitting fire-bursts into space in rapid succession like solar flares from a sun.

The next thing Leia knew a large explosion ripped through the space Luke's ship had occupied, darkening all scope and viewports as the shockwave hit Leia's ship.

"NOOO!" Leia screamed, being blinded as well from the too-bright light of the inferno from her brother's exploding ship.

"Princess, pull up!" Quane barked as their ship wobbled out of control also, with the viewport no longer facing the destroyed ship.

"LUKE!" Leia shrieked, even as she struggled to see so she could fly.

Realizing her predicament, Quane seized control of their ship and blasted away from the scene until the Princess' skiff was back under control. He then turned to the sobbing teenager and bent over to look at her eyes.

"Princess, are you..."

"NO! I am NOT alright!" Leia shot back furiously, blinking rapidly as her vision finally started returning. "Go back!"

"There's nothing to go back to!"

Leia grabbed him by the scruff of his tunic and jerked him nose-to-nose with her. "I. said. go. back!"

Quane thinned his lips, but nodded once and obeyed. He silently steered them back to the explosion, noting that there was nothing left of the other ship to see, let alone any bodies.

Leia took note of this too, but still forced Quane to search for a full ten minutes before she gave up.

"Take me back," Leia whispered, curling into a ball on the pilot's seat and sobbing mightily. "...Luke..."


(A/N: for those of you who followed my Suns Among Stars Trilogy, you will be (hopefully) pleased to hear that the promised sequel is at last under works. I'm working on plot details ATM, and will hopefully begin the writing soon. Please keep an eye out for it. Current working title is "The Rising Darkness". Thanks everyone!)