Star Wars Legacy: Family Ties
A/N: I don't own Star Wars. It is owned by George Lucas. Star Wars Legacy Comics are written and illustrated by Jon Ostrander and Jan Duursema. All Original Characters belong to me.
A/N: This fanfiction is dedicated to ChildofWinds over at JCC.
Chapter 4
The planet Vendaxa was a planet mixed of jungles and grasslands. The Mynock had crash landed in the jungle. Too far away from the meeting point, it was complained. And add to that the wildlife had taken a decided disliking to humans and aliens alike. "This way, it's this way," Astraal shouted, as they fled past debris. "Hey Cade, think you could have landed the Mynock any further from the crash site," Jariah had time to say between continuous firing of his blaster. "E chu ta! You try putting down in this murgling jungle! I put down where I could," Cade replied, between shotting his own blaster. The crew of the Mynock moved through the jungle, firing their blasters continually at the chasing beasts.
"My parents' ship crashed here when I was very small only my twin brother and I survived. There were no creatures here then. He and I thought it would be safe to meet here I we were ever in danger," Astraal answered, to the question that Jariah had asked as they moved to the wreckage of the ship, the meeting point.
"And where are you supposed to go, when it gets too dangerous here," Cade shot back, as they climbed the wreckage to get away from the acklay. The dragon like beast rose up, on its hind legs, bringing its pincer claws down, attacking, even as Cade and Jariah shot it from close range, the blaster impact on its armoured hide only minimal. "Your brother's a no-show Lady. Not sure what good another Missionary's gonna do us, anyway."
"Unless we fed him to the acklay," Jariah suggested, more in jest and frustration.
"Astraal," the Princess shouted, as the acklay was about to impale her with its pincer claw. Out of nowhere, two beings appeared, two lightsabers, green and blue, holding of the acklay, the Missionary's twin brother clutching her in a tight hug, the other scoring a deep cut on the acklay's face. "Brother, Master Sazen," Astraal greeted, thankful that she had been saved. The two Jedi took out the acklay, with the Force, and their lightsabers, the teamwork of the two Jedi obviously skilled.
"Chuba," Jariah swore, "her brother's no missionary, he's a slemmo Jedi."
"We're three, they're two, we can tak'em!" Deliah stated.
"We are going to take that?" Jariah shot back, as he saw the two Jedi bringing the acklay down, "You been dipping into Cade's deathstick stash?"
"Shado, I am so glad to see you," Astraal said, as soon as the acklay had fallen.
"And I you. Astraal. Though I wonder at the company you keep these days," Shado replied, holding one arm in front of her protectively. Wolf and the Princess were about to walk away.
The Princess turned around, and said, "It seems our business together is complete. Unfortunately, neither the Jedi or I have the credits to pay you. I would feel awful about that except I'm reasonably certain you know I'm actually the Princess Marasiah Fel and that you were planning to collect the bounty on me." She started to walk away, it had not been hard to deduce that, "on the remote possibility I'm wrong, I will arrange for a generous payment to be paid into whatever account you wish, once the Jedi, Astraal and I am clear of Vendaxa and of you."
"Whatever, Princess. Syn. Blue, let's cut our losses and go," Cade replied, wanting nothing more than to leave before the Jedi realised who he was.
"What? Cade you're not going to just let them rip us off like that are you?" Jariah shot back angry. Too late, Cade thought, now that's done it, he thought as he saw the Jedi turn around.
"Cade," Master Sazen asked. Cade had no choice but to turn around and face them.
"That's right, Cade," he stated, "problem?" his tone of voice and look was full of defiance.
"No," Master Sazen replied, calmly. "Come Princess, we'd best…" go…he was about to say, when an explosion rocked the whole area. Their ship had been destroyed. Now they were stuck. He immediately dropped into the Force, and felt the Sith.
"Was that your ride, hon?" Deliah taunted, "Shame, looks like you might be needing the Mynock after all."
"The price just doubled, Princess," Jariah stated. Sia had not time for this, not now. The Sith that had been chasing her, was here. "I felt…" she stated. Sazen confirmed her feats, "yes nearby, a Sith and getting closer."
"What's he talking about, I don't feel anything," Jariah said. Suddenly, Darth Talon and numerous beats jumped out. Wolf and Shado ignited their lightsabers, and turned to engage the Sith and the beasts. "Astraal, Princess get away," Shado said as he and Darth Talon clashed.
Meanwhile, the beasts continued to attack, "Kark! What did we ever do to them," Deliah questioned, as she fired her blaster taking a beast down.
"Sith's driving them on. Telling 'em we're tasty," Cade shot back as he killed another beast with a well placed blaster shot.
"Easy pickings, You said no way we can lose real vacation spot ya found here Cade," Jariah stated as he killed another. "Shut up and kill something," the answer came as Cade continued to pump out shots from his blaster.
Meanwhile, the two Jedi and Darth Talon were engaged in a duel. "I am Darth Talon," the red twi'lek stated, "I am my master's hand." She executed a flipping manoeuvre taking her over Wolf's head as he slashed low. "I am your death," her red lightsaber met Shado's blue. She force pushed Shado away, sending him backwards, as she shot Force lightning, at Sazen, "you are the one. The empty-sleeved Jedi, Sazen. Darth Nihl marked you Jedi. He took your arm, I will take your life," she taunted, as she saw him writhing from the pain of the Force Lightning.
"Stand away from him, Sith," the Princess shouted, igniting her own light blue coloured lightsaber. "I will not allow you to kill another who has risen in my defence. I felt you kill Elke Vetter. That was enough." She drew on the Force as she brought her lightsaber up to strike in a classic Shii-cho move.
"I feel the Force surge through you Princess. Vetter was…" Talon replied, "your master. But you are not a knight not yet, merely a student." She forced pushed the Princess, sending her sprawling. "Do what you do best, Princess, run," she taunted.
"Cade, take the Princess and Astraal away on your ship. Get her away," the Zabrak Jedi Master said.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Deliah assented, as she went to run towards the ship.
"No, my place is here," the Princess complained; her hair now dishevelled from the brief fight against Talon.
"Ossus, like Ossus," Cade could only say, he flashed back again to his youth, 'Cade, Master Sazen had said, 'get those younglings on the shuttle now and get off the planet,' He saw Sazen kill another stormtrooper.
"Cade," Deliah said, snapping him back to reality, "Cade c'mon snap out of it. This isn't our fight. Like you said cut our losses. Let's go," almost begging.
"Kark it," Cade said, as he fired at Talon.
"He's gone insane," Deliah said, "we've gone insane," she fired as did Jariah. Darth Talon used the Force and ripped the blasters out of their hands as she deflected the bolts.
"We are so dead," Jariah said, as Darth Talon approached.
"No," Cade said, as he bought his own Force powers to bare, the raw power of the Skywalker blood surging through him, as the wreckage of a whole ship, jiggled and then lifted. "No," he shouted, as he Force threw the ship at the Sith, crushing her. He grabbed his blaster back, as she disappeared into the distance.
"Let's get to the Mynock, figure you're coming too, Princess, seeing the Jedi's ship got blown up and all," Cade stated, as they headed back. The Princess could only stare in amazement, what was one so powerful in the Force doing as a bounty hunter. He's easily as powerful as Father in terms of raw power. I must find out more. We need as many Imperial Knights to take down the Sith.
Back at the Mynock, they found that Darth Talon had sabotaged many of the systems on the ship. Obviously they didn't intend to pay. "Going to take a lot of work to get my baby back in the air," Deliah said, why didn't she just vaporize the Mynock like she did the Jedi ship," as Astraal volunteered to check the comm. system, explaining that she had often done it as a Missionary.
Shado and Wolf were standing away, on the other side of the ship, "I'll hunt the Sith," Shado stated. "I can feel her out there too. A flickering shadow in the Force. Let the Sith come to us, if she is able. Stay close and remain alert," Wolf replied.
Meanwhile, Astraal had fixed the comm. system and was trying to contact her superior, the Head of the Imperial Mission, Moff Konrad Rus. Shado questioned her trust in the Moff, "You could have become a Jedi, Astraal, The Force was always strong in you too." She replied that she completely trusted the Moff, explaining that he embodied everything that the Mission stood for. Little did she know that Moff Rus was in league with the Sith, something that she would find out soon.
As the connection was established, Shado left her, returning to wait for the Sith. She reported that she was a Vendaxa, but the Jedi had driven off the Sith that hunted the Princess, and that they were headed to Bastion back to the Emperor Fel. He ordered her to remain on Vendaxa until the Emperor reached her or he did. What Astraal didn't know was that he was standing next to Darth Krayt and not Emperor Fel. He and Krayt plotted to pass this information onto Roan Fel, to flush him out.
On Bastion, Roan Fel seethed, as he found out where his only daughter was. He was now dressed in the armour of the Imperial Knights adorned with gold shoulder plating, as he engaged in an argument with his two senior Knight Masters, Antares and Ganner. "It's me Krayt wants. This is a trap and Sia is bait. There will be no rescue mission, Draco," he continued as he stalked around the Imperial ante-room of the Bastion palace, the circular window giving a snapshot of the night.
"But…Master, this is your daughter," Knight Master Antares shot back.
"I know who she is," Roan snarled, "I love my daughter, but the fate of the Empire of the Galaxy is at stake. Not all of the troops loyal to us have made their way here yet. Krayt cannot be allowed to know we have taken Bastion. Not yet," he repeated the logical argument, though in his heart he knew he should rescue her.
"You know I would die before giving the Sith your location," Antares argued back.
"No rescue, my word is final!" Roan answered, as he stalked off in a huff, leaving Antares and Ganner alone.
"Antares, I'm sorry," Ganner said, trying to placate his superior, "I'm with you, but we have sworn an oath of loyalty and the Emperor has spoken."
"I know, Ganner, but is loyalty always the same as obedience," Antares questioned.
Back on Vendaxa, Princess Fel looked worried, and would have been worried had she known what had just transpired on Bastion. She desperately wanted to be safe, but knew that she was being followed. Could I even run to father? Far away in a grove, Darth Talon was communicating with her Sith reinforcements, lead by Darth Nihl, the Nagai Sith who had 'slain' the brown robed man or so he thought. "Darth Nihl," she said into her wrist holocomm.
"Darth Talon," came the reply, "we await your instructions."
"Hold position and send troops overland to me, silently. The Jedi think I am wounded or dead. I want them to retain that illusion." That was typical Sith arrogance on her part. "No sign yet of the Imperials," she continued, "Ready your fighters for their run, horizon approach, we wait for Roan Fel to appear and then they die. Talon out." She switched her communicator off as she waited, and looked through her macrobinoculars, seeing that the Mynock was being fixed.
Wolf followed Cade to where he was repairing part of the Mynock, away from the others. "I can still feel her, the Sith. She's out there somewhere, but I can't sense exactly where."
"You sure," Cade replied, "I hit her pretty hard," from his position on top of the engine where he was checking a panel. She's Sith, came the reply. Cade drew on the Force and stretched his feelings out, he felt the shadow too, "Yeah, she's out there."
"I was right about you. I knew that you were alive, and I knew that you were still a Jedi. That's why I've been looking for you since Ossus," Wolf continued to say.
"Well that was seven years wasted. Cade Skywalker died that day at Ossus. All that's left is what Rav and his crew scavenged out of the wreckage," Cade replied, coldly.
"Cade the force is too powerful in you for you just to walk away," Wolf countered, "Healing me like you did was not something you were taught. You did that by instinct alone."
"Like my instinct to tap into all the fear and rage I had in me? I walked in the Dark Side that day, Master. When I took off in that fighter all I wanted was more death." Cade responded, "Last second, I sealed the flightsuit, jettisoned as the ship exploded, I withdrew from the Force so that the Sith couldn't find me. Went into deep meditation to save my oxygen. I came back to myself three days later flowing over Ossus. There were so many stars," he mused, thinking back, "I got picked up by the pirate Rav. They spared me because I said I knew where stuff was hidden in the Temple. I saw the bodies lying in the rubble and had to leave them there. The pirates laughed. All the mighty Jedi there were dead. They said. Where was their ally, the Force now? Should've asked me, I could've told them. It's with the Sith," he finished the end almost a tirade, more than anything else.
"The Force is always with those who use it. How you use it defines who you are. You can't run away from that," Master Sazen replied, "Cade."
"Watch me, I will never pick up a lightsaber again," Cade stated, as he walked away, to check on the engine repairs. "Hey Blue, how are the engines," he shouted up the engine porthole. She shot down the porthole, hanging upside down. "we could take off now. Maybe but I can't vouch for how long they'd run. Can you buy me another hour or two?"
"Oh sure," Cade shot back, voice dripping with sarcasm, "I'll just ask the nice Sith Assassin lady if she'll put off slaughtering us all until Deliah's satisfied with her engines."
"Sith assassin, fireball in space," Deliah mused, "How can I decide? Hand me that spanner would'ya."
"Yeah, tough choices here," Cade replied, as he handed her the spanner, "So have you two figured out how to spend the bounty yet?"
"That's thinking a little too far ahead, isn't it? First we gotta get through the Jedi not the mention the Sith!" Deliah replied.
"I'm not talking about the bounty on the Princess. I'm talking about the bounty for me, now that you know I'm a Jedi," Cade answered, darkly.
"What are you talking about, Cade," Deliah said, as she jumped down, flipping over and landing next to Cade, "We have no plans of turning you in. Thing is, I've been thinking how useful our own private Jedi could be. Think of the scams we could run." Part of her knew that Syn was thinking about it, part of her, thought that a private Jedi for a lover would be useful.
"Syn's thinking about it, I guarantee it," Cade confirmed.
"Won't deny it. Why should I?" Jariah answered. "I don't like Jedi, Don't trust 'em. They can take control of your mind, make you do stuff. Maybe you made us pick up those blasters and fight Sith."
"It doesn't work that way, stupid. And I didn't do anything to you. Not that you'll believe me," Cade shot back, "After all I'm a Jedi and you don't trust Jedi unless they're dead, right," as his anger began to rise, "dead's easier to collect on than alive. Isn't that what you say, Syn? Best way to shoot'em is in the back. Ain't that right?"
"You just waiting for me to turn around, Syn," Cade said, as he saw and felt that Jariah was drawing his blaster.
"No you son of a murglak," Jariah countered, as he bought his blaster up, "I'll shoot you right in the face."
Cade reflexively drew on the Force, and grabbed the blaster out of Syn's hand, sending it flying into the grass. He stalked off, seething, as Jariah looked shocked at what had just transpired, and Deliah just plain shocked.
"You just make friends wherever, you go, don't you hotshot," Sia stated, as she saw Cade stalk past, angry. She could feel it through the Force.
"Shoot it out, your exhaust vent, Lady," Cade responded, "I'm not in the mood."
"Ease up skyjockey," Sia replied, in a more conciliatory tone. "I may be the only person here who understands you," she continued, as she came to stop next to him, the gentle Vendaxan breeze creating an illusion of peace.
"You, Oh sure! A kriffing Imperial Princess understands me!" Cade replied, incredulously.
"More than you know," she replied, coming to face him, her amber eyes focused on his face, "Shado told his sister that you're actually Cade Skywalker, and Astraal told me."
"The Vaos should have their mouths fused shut," Cade answered, the less people who knew about his Skywalker heritage the better.
"The point is," Marasiah explained, "I have a legacy too. And I'm just as trapped by mine as you are by yours. Sometimes I wish I could just change my name, make a new life," she mused.
"Go ahead," Cade replied, "It's a big galaxy."
"Not big enough," Sia replied, "You recognized me and so would others. They'd use me as you were going to do, to go get to my father, like the Sith are trying to do." They continued to walk through the Vendaxan jungle. "It's obvious that the Sith could have taken me or killed me at any time. The fact that they haven't means they are trying to make my father come for me, or drive me to my father. And neither of us will do that. That's okay. There are far bigger things at stake," she reflected.
"Ah, C'mon," Cade replied, "Honour, Duty? Tried those. They killed just about everyone I cared about."
"They may kill me, but some things are more important than the one life of any one person, including mine," Sia replied. "I said I understood you, Cade Skywalker, but I am not you," she continued, as she sighed, "I envy you your freedom, but I'm not walking away from my responsibilities. The Sith are Evil. It's the Empire's and my father's shame, that we were ever allied with them. We must make it right. Eventually we must all strike back at our fears." She looked up into the night sky, the stars twinkling brightly in the night.