Chapter 2

All the Jedi scattered within the Core felt the pain at the same time, and they all knew what it was: a fellow Jedi was being lured to the Dark Side. In unison they all began to send messages in the Force to Arcee Atari, the young Padawan of Olivia Karrde. They sent as much peace and calm and was possible to her considering her present condition. Some of it was accepted, they could tell. But some of their advice and help fell on deaf ears. Throughout the entire area, Jedi were stretching out to the Force, hoping and praying that the Sith would not once again take over the galaxy completely.

Jedi who were close to Arcee such as Anya, Xanthe, and Olivia cringed with the burden that came from feeling their friend being tempted with the Dark Side. They all opened themselves to the Force and tried not to weep for their friend.

Arcee felt the tears streaming down her face as she tried her best to understand this torment she was feeling. She didn't know what it was she was going through or how she would ever get out of it, and the pain was nearly more than she could bear. She could feel the spirits of her friends trying to help her, even all the nearby Jedi, and suddenly she understood: she was being seduced by the Dark Side. It felt so…different to lash out and let herself writhe in anger, but she knew she had to stop it. 'If only Master Olivia was here,' she thought to herself. And with that, she stood up and made her way to the bridge of the Wild Karrde.

"Alright, team, let's do this," she said, leading the group out through the main hatch. Her boyfriend Xanthe caught her arm, and she looked him in the eye.

"Are you okay?" he asked, tears in his eyes.

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine," she replied, but there was trembling in her voice.

Darby Palpatine stood in her place in front of her throne, waiting for her grand moment. 'At last,' she thought, 'the Sith will again rule the galaxy!'

She knew the "rescue party" that her soon to be protégé had assembled would take a little while to break in and get past her highly trained guards, so she had made sure to place all the least skilled ones on duty. She wanted the group to come into her throne room.

Soon enough, the large blast doors that were the entrance of her throne room shook and then opened. Her Stormtrooper who seemed to think that she didn't realize he was a rebel spy had most likely let them in. How splendid! She could have him killed, too!

When Arcee led the team into the Palace throne room, the first thing she notice was that the Empress was standing inside with Master Olivia kneeling beside her. Arcee's anger nearly overcame her, but she managed to stay calm as she stepped forward and ignited her lightsaber, stretching out to the Force for strength.

"I've been waiting for you, Arcee," Palpatine said with a giggle, "What took you so long?" And at that moment, right before Arcee's eyes, the Sith Lady ignited her red-bladed lightsaber, and the blade stabbed right through the heart of her beloved Master. Before Arcee had time to even realize what had happened, her eyes locked with Olivia's.

"Don't kill her, Arcee," Olivia whispered, "Oh, please don't kill her." Those were her final words.

Darby let out a cackle and yelled, "Guards!" The room flooded with Stormtroopers who seemed to come from nowhere. With a sneer, the Empress said, "Did you really think you could trick me?"

The small band of rebels braced themselves and began to fight for their lives, and the lives of many others. Daryn quickly made his way out of the room and down to the dungeon. He fired two quick shots and the prison guards were down. He ran inside and began to unlock each door, one by one. Soon the cells were all empty. "Quick, get up to the throne room!" he instructed them. They all ran past him and piled into the turbolift. All except one, anyway.

Anya Jade stopped next to Daryn in the doorway. "I forgot to thank you for all you've done," she said, and gave him a quick kiss. Before he knew what hit him, she grabbed his hand and led him to the turbolift with the others.

Thoren Fett looked around him, senses alert, and tried to come up with a quick game plan. He saw on his HUD sensors in his Mandalorian helmet that the several people had just come in through the large blast doors. When he turned to see many of his friends who had been captives, including Talon Karrde and Anya Jade, he was shot in the shoulder from behind. As gray faded to black and he crumpled in pain to the floor, he remembered his last thought being that would have to remember to thank that rogue Stormtrooper when he got the chance.

Arcee charged on Empress Palpatine, lightsaber lifted high above her head. She fell into a dual with the Sith, who parried all her strikes with apparent ease, all the while giggling and muttering, "Good, good."

The dual lasted several minutes, and Arcee finally began to get the upper hand. She had soon flung Darby's lightsaber from her hand and had her backed into a corner. She raised the weapon above her head, prepared to slash it and rid the galaxy of this monster. But in her head rang the words of her Master: "Don't kill her, Arcee! Oh, please don't kill her."

With tears filling up her eyes, tormented in heart and flesh, Arcee closed down her weapon and bowed her head, prepared to face her death. But to her surprise, nothing happened. She looked up, and the Empress was nowhere to be seen. She had always heard that when a Sith died, a blue light could be seen for miles, and the body simply… vanished. Somehow, in her mind, she felt that maybe she had killed the Sith after all, since she had vanished. She began to convince herself that she had simply missed seeing the blue light because she was looking down.

The Stormtroopers filed out of the room, leaving only the rescue team, prisoners, and their rogue friend behind. Arcee felt the deepest pain she had ever felt before, for she thought that she had failed her Master's final wishes. She glanced all around her at the bodies of Stormtroopers and rebels alike, but miraculously, she sensed the deaths of only Stormtroopers, and all her friends' were merely injured or knocked out. She saw Thoren at the far end of the room in a crumpled heap on the floor, his shoulder bleeding.

From behind, she heard Xanthe's voice, "We're gonna need to get all these people to a medic, and fast."

"Yeah…" she mumbled. She couldn't seem to get her thoughts straight.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Xanthe asked. She just laid her head on his shoulder and began to cry. He didn't know what to say, so he just held her close and waited for her to elaborate.

Anya walked over to where Thoren was passed out on the floor and tried to wake him. To her surprise, he roused almost immediately, asking all sorts of questions. She told him to calm down and motioned for Talon and Daryn to come help her help him up. They came over and lifted him from the ground, and Daryn helped him walk out the blast doors and to the Wild Karrde. Anya looked at Talon and wanted to comfort him, but no words would come. When her eyes met his, they filled with tears. She really felt for him because she knew he would have a very hard time making it without her at his side. If this didn't completely crush him, she knew it would come awfully close.

Soon, Wild Karrde was filled with all the rebels and began to make its way to the nearest medical center on Coruscant. Daryn LaHaye was piloting it, and Anya sat with him in the cockpit. Everyone else was either in sickbay or in their quarters.

"You know, Anya, it's hard to believe that our little force recaptured the Palace just like that," Daryn said.

"I know. I sensed the Empress's group completely leaving the Core. It would seem we've actually taken back the entire system," Anya replied.

"I don't know about you, but I kinda feel like celebrating once all our friends have been through the bacta tanks."

"Hey, that sounds great to me. In fact, I say you and me should get a head start on everybody else. We could go get a bite to eat or something after we drop them off at the medical center."

"What about Arcee? She seems to be in pretty bad shape."

"Yeah, you're right. But what can we do about it?"

"I dunno. I figured you would know since you're both Jedi and female. Seems like you'd understand this a lot better than me."

"No one understands Arcee."

"Especially since Master Karrde has been killed."

"Yeah, Olivia was the one person who came the closest. I would say it's probably up to Xanthe now."

"But you're her best friend."

Anya didn't know what to say to that. It was absolutely true, but she still couldn't see what she was supposed to do about it. She decided that she would go see Arcee first thing after they dropped off the injured. She could only hope she would get to see Daryn again sometime afterward.