The Adventures of Rickon and Osha Chapter 4
Outline
Chapter 4's main function is to introduce the first confrontation between Rickon Stark, Osha, and the Inquisitor Mara Taral. The Jedi stranger Han Lee then comes to their rescue, revealing his identity as a Jedi. There is a clash of lightsaber blades and Osha rediscovers her forgotten powers. We also get to learn more about Mara Taral's past. Like Osha/Nymphadora Tonks, Mara is a reincarnation of another Harry Potter character – Bellatrix Lestrange, one of Lord Voldermort's top henchmen. To sum up this chapter, Game of Thrones meets Star Wars and Harry Potter. The first half of the chapter is written from the point of view (POV) of Rickon while the second half of the chapter is told from the POV of Mara.
Part 1: Rickon's POV
Nightfall had descended on Westeros. The dark blue sky was lit up by a half moon and a speckle of stars. The temperature was dropping. Luckily, there was a warm southern breeze passing through the area. Osha and Rickon had caught a hare and had feasted on hare stew for dinner. Its pelt would make a good pair of moccasins, thought Osha who was aware that winter was just round the corner. Rickon was washing their pot, crockery, and utensils in a nearby stream. The direwolf Shaggydog was roaming in the nearby fields, presumably chasing down some prey. Shaggydog was perfectly capable of looking after himself. Direwolves grew up faster than human children. The air around them was calm and quiet. Perhaps it was just too quiet. Something wasn't right. Osha felt a foreboding sense that something was coming for her and Rickon. There seemed to be some movement in the grass and bushes around them. Were they the footfalls of some animals or perhaps a fellow traveller? Rickon had just returned from washing the dishes. He laid them down beside their bag beside a birch tree.
"Shhhh, be quiet," whispered Osha "There's someone or something in the grass at front of us."
"What?," asked Rickon "Who or what could it be?"
"Let's sit still and be...ahhhh," screamed Osha, her last word interrupted as she was struck by a bright bolt which knocked her unconscious.
"Osha…," screamed a terrified Rickon. Suddenly, he was grabbed from behind by a pair of strong scaly, reptilian hands. Rickon tried to bite his captor's hands but found that they were as tough as leather. Rickon tilted his head upwards and stared into the dark reptilian eyes of a big lizard man. He smirked, revealing a row of sharp teeth. At front, Rickon could see a black armored figure armed with a big metal stick emerging from the tall grass. The man wore a rounded black helmet with two narrow slits for eyes. He was followed by a tall, dark-haired woman who had pale skin and was dressed in black clothes. Unlike other women, she did not wear a dress but instead wore a skin-tight black jumpsuit. She carried a glowing red sword similar to the one Rickon had seen in his dream a few nights ago. The woman was followed by two skeletal mechanical figures, both of whom also carried laser swords. Unlike the dark woman, their laser swords glowed in iridescent blue and green colours. Rickon turned to his right and saw a brown, furry man dressed in manly clothes crouching beside Osha. His hands were foraging through her dress. He had a canine snout and resembled a man with a dog's head sewn on his body. More dark figures appeared in the horizon, forming a semi-circle.
"Rickon Stark, my name is Mara Taral," said the dark woman "I am a servant of the Galactic Empire. My master Darth Vader has learnt that you have special powers and he has sent me to bring you to him. Join us and no harm will come to you and your guardian."
Who in the Seven Hells were these strangers? What was the Galactic Empire? Who was Darth Vader? How did they know so much about him? Rickon sensed a dark presence around these strangers, particularly around the dark-haired woman.
The "dog man" near Osha stood up and said: "The stun gun has done it works. Someone fetch me a pair of handcuffs."
"Who are you?," screamed Rickon "Why did you hurt Osha? What has she ever done to you? I'm the second heir to House Stark and I belong here. Let me go."
"Now, don't be difficult boy," said Mara "We are only offering you a better life and new opportunities. Don't disappoint my master."
"Where's the boy's wolf?," asked the lizard man holding Rickon in a coarse, guttural voice. "I'm not leaving without my pelt."
All of a sudden, as if to answer his question, a large grey figure appeared out of nowhere and leapt onto Rickon's captor. Rickon somersaulted out of harm's way and rushed towards Osha. There was a loud, deafening howl of agony from behind. Rickon turned and saw that Shaggygdog had bitten off a large chunk of the lizard man's left arm. The lizard man was crouching on his knees and nursing the bleeding stump of his left arm. He was howling and sobbing in pain. Mara cursed sharply and ordered her Stormtroopers to open fire on the direwolf. At that point, Mara and her black armoured soldiers were knocked to their feet by a strong force.
A hooded figure with a green laser sword suddenly appeared out of nowhere at front of the dog-headed man and Osha. Before the dog-headed man could respond, he raised his left hand and sent an unseen force which threw the dog-headed man against a nearby tree, knocking him unconscious. The black armoured men then open fire. Their "metal sticks" issuing blasts of blue fire. However, the hooded figure easily deflected their blasts with his laser sword, throwing their blaster bolts back at them. Several were knocked to the ground by the impact of their own deflected bolts. The hooded figure easily dispatched three of the armoured figures with his laser sword, slicing them in half.
The dark-haired woman and her robotic bodyguards then closed in on the stranger. They formed a loose semi-circle around him, intending to finish him off. However, the hooded man stretched out his left hand, unleashing a blast of bright energy which hit one of the robots, knocking it out of action. The second robotic figure dived in on the hooded stranger from the right. However, the hooded man merely sliced him in half with his laser sword. He then parried with the dark woman with their laser swords exchanging blows. Shaggydog attempted to enter the fray but the dark-haired woman threw him against a tree with the Force, knocking him unconscious.
At first, the hooded stranger seemed to have the upper hand. However, the dark woman managed to land a blow with her laser sword on the man's left arm. The man screamed in pain and dropped his laser sword, which rolled on the ground towards Rickon. She then took advantage of the man's pain to kick him in the stomach, knocking him to the ground. As the hooded man dropped, his hood fell off. Rickon quickly recognized the man as Han Lee, that chatty stranger whom he and Osha had met at that tavern in Frostville. As the man nursed his wound, the dark woman towered over him.
"So, we meet again at last, Han," taunted Mara, with a smile appearing on her pale face "I remember you. You were a pupil of the later Master Windu. He always favoured the Vaapad style of lightsaber combat."
"Who are you?," asked Han Lee.
"Don't you remember me," replied Mara "I was your fellow classmate at the Jedi Academy. We attended the same classes that Windu taught."
"You leave the boy and his guardian alone," barked Han Lee "You have no business…."
"Aw, shut up, Jedi," replied Mara "You are a fugitive, an enemy of the Empire and nothing. I am a servant of the Empire and Darth Vader's favourite Inquisitor."
"Only a servant of evil and tyranny," shouted Han Lee "How could you serve the very man who betrayed and murdered our brothers and sisters? You were my best friend back at the Academy."
"You were not there to protect me when the Jedi Temple fell," screamed Mara, her eyes blazing in anger "I was beaten and tortured by the Empire until I embraced the Dark Side."
"I'm sorry, Mara," said Han Lee tearfully. "I was offworld in the Outer Rim at the time. I barely escaped the Purge. I crashed my starfighter on this planet and have been stranded here for years."
"The Empire is my family now," barked Mara "When given the opportunity, I joined the Emperor's Inquisitors in order to escape from that hell hole. I now help the Emperor to hunt down rebels, separatists and Jedi like you."
Smirking, Mara raised her crimson lightsaber above Han Lee's head.
"Now, let me put you out of your…," said Mara triumphantly.
Before Mara could finish her sentence, the air rang with the cry EXPELLIARMUS. Suddenly, the Dark Sider was hurled to the ground by an unseen force. Mara fell to the ground and lay motionless. Rickon popped his head out of his hiding place in the bush while Han tilted his head upwards. To everyone's surprise, Osha had regained consciousness and was standing upright. She approached Han Lee and helped him to his knees, placing her hand across his shoulders. She then motioned for Rickon to join.
"Thank you so much for saving me and Rickon's life," Osha said to Han Lee "We are forever indebted to you."
"No problem, just doing my job," coughed Han Lee.
Osha bandaged his wounds with some rags while Rickon tended to Shaggydog. Fortunately, the direwolf was unharmed apart from a few bruises and a hurt forepaw. Rickon stroked the wounded wolf who licked his master's face.
"Come, let's get out of here before she stirs," said Osha, who was careful not to step on the unconscious Mara. "I may not be as talented as you, Han Lee. But I can remember how to knock someone unconscious with a spell."
Rickon, Osha, Shaggydog and the wounded Han Lee slipped away from the clearing into the night. They left the clearing before the "bad starfolk" could stir. Han Lee also took the lightsabers of the two fallen Magna Guards. These droids would not need them anymore. Better to take them back then to let them fall into the hands of the Sith again. Long ago, these lightsabers had belonged to Jedi who had fallen during the Great Purge.
Part 2: Mara Taral's POV
After being knocked out, Mara Taral experienced a frightening Force vision. In that dream, Mara found herself in the midst of a great battle within a stony castle. People were shouting, screaming and hurling spells at each other. Mara had found herself trying to kill a young orange-haired girl. Not with a lightsaber but with a wand, a magical weapon that she had read about in fairy tales and myths. She had heard herself say the word "Avada Kedavra" and witnessed a bright ray of light shoot out of her wand. However, the girl had managed to jump out of the way in the nick of time. Mara then found herself fighting furiously against the girl's mother, a short, plump woman with the same orange hair. Mara saw a look of hatred and rage in the face of her opponent – a mother who had already lost her son and was not willing to lose her only daughter to the enemy. Mara heard her opponent screaming at her furiously. She then heard herself taunting the woman about her dead son, a lad named "Freddie." The woman then screamed that she would never touch her children ever again. Mara had heard herself laugh, evidently not taking the orange-haired woman's threat seriously. Her opponent had not uttered a word but Mara suddenly felt something like a sharp sword pierce through her chest into her heart. Almost immediately, Mara felt her body stiffen as the life drained out of her.
Mara then found herself enveloped in a bright ray of life. As she faded into nothingness, she felt her life flash by like comets racing through the black depths of space. Not as a Nightsister-turned-Jedi Padawan-turned Darth Sider. But growing up in a different world filled with wizards, witches, and spells. In that world, she was not called Mara Taral but was instead named Bellatrix Lestrange. She found herself growing up in a wealthy family of "pure-blood" witches. She found herself attending a magical school and then later rising through the ranks of a secret society led by a charismatic Dark Lord. There had been a great war. She and her comrades had tortured a couple from the opposing side to the state of insanity. Lestrange's side had lost this great conflict and she and her comrades had been imprisoned for their crimes. However, their Dark Lord had returned from his state of limbo several years later and had freed her and her comrades. Together, they had fought against an order of wizards and witches who were opposed to their new order. One of their enemies had been a special teenaged boy known as "the boy who lived." For some strange reason, her master had been obsessed about killing him. As Bellatrix, she had participated in numerous battles, killing many of her Dark Lord's foes, virtually everything prior to that fateful last stand in that great castle. Throughout her vision, the name Bellatrix Lestrange had constantly ringed in her ears and mind. Suddenly, Mara realized that she had been Bellatrix Lestrange in her previous life. How did she end up in this galaxy? What was she doing here?
Mara awoke from her Force-induced vision to find that her quarry and foes had escaped. All thanks to Rickon's guardian Osha who somehow looked remarkably familiar. Suddenly, Mara/Bellatrix recalled that she had killed a certain woman named Nymphadora Tonks during the fateful Battle of Hogwarts. Osha looked almost exactly like Tonks, the half-blood who had fought alongside the mudbloods and traitors during that great battle. However, Mara had little time to settle on her thoughts as she scanned her bedraggled and scattered troops. The whole operation had been a disaster because she had failed to knock out the direwolf and take the Jedi fugitive into account. IG-164's circuits had been ionized by the Jedi fugitive, knocking him out of commission. IG-165 had been sliced in half across the torso. Out of the nine-member squad that accompanied her to capture Rickon, three had been sliced in half across the torso while another four had sustained blaster bolt wounds. A medical droid was attending to the wounded while the Bothan Mer'slya was tending to Corssk, who was missing his left arm and moaning in pain. That was no problem since he could always regrow it. On the bright side, Mara was relieved that she had not deployed her entire platoon for the operation. She had been saving the rest in the event that her plan to capture Rickon fouled up. The rest of her forces would be needed in the manhunt to track down Rickon, Osha and their Jedi protector. Mara was not one to cry over spilled bantha's milk. Instead, she took tonight's debacle as a lesson.
One of the Stormtroopers handed Mara a comlink. She quickly contacted Able Fett, the officer who had been placed in charge of her landing ship Stalker. Able Fett was a veteran of the Clone Wars and was one of the last surviving clones of Jango Fett. He had been wounded during a Separatist bomb attack in Castell but had been rebuilt as a cyborg. He had piloted Low Altitude Assault Transport gunships during the Clone Wars. Now, he served as the captain of the Stalker. Mara quickly related her predicament and ordered him to bring the shuttle to the clearing to airlift the wounded to the safety of the Chimaera. They could not afford to leave any trace of their presence behind. The dead were to be incinerated. In her heart, Mara vowed vengeance on both the Jedi Han Lee and Osha/Nymphadora Tonks. This time, she would silence them both permanently.