Anakin was even less thrilled when Thrawn showed up then he had expected. The torture had ceased again and for a moment he dared hope it was his allies. Then he noticed a gas filtering in. Instantly, he held his breath, using the Force to slow his breathing and feigned weakness. Finally the door opened. His Force connection stuttered as the enemy entered. Thrawn opened the door and stepped in. He noticed one of the noghri behind him and realized instantly that Thrawn didn't know they recognized him. A good sign, that. The bad sign was the fact that Thrawn was wearing one of the creatures that was still alive. But the worse was that they lugged in another one on another carry harness. His stomach dropped. Anakin could, actually still feel the Force. It had taken much effort, but he could detect it. Controlling it was another matter. The white noise of the ysalamir negated his efforts.
The collar buzzed warningly as the guards grabbed him. A droid hovered nearby on repulsorlifts. Distracted by the creature, he almost didn't see it, or the outstretched fluid filled needle. He tried to jerk aside as it rushed him only to feel the flaming warning burn of collar and cuffs. A needle sank into his neck. Nausea threatened and he had to force on keeping his empty but churning stomach in line. They wrestled him into the harness, cuffing hands behind his back. Then they hauled him upright. He had to lock his knees to keep from swaying. His head was swimming.
"Let's go." Thrawn said calmly, leading the way out. He let them pass him and stayed a half step behind on the way to the hanger. They bullied Anakin forward, it was taken a good deal more energy than he suddenly had just to walk. What had they given him? He wondered. The gas had been meant to incapacitate him, was the needle just for assurance? Just to prove he had no power here? The noghri hadn't been able to take all the ysalamir out and he was too foggy to fight through the effects to the Force.
Ahsoka glared out at the hanger, eyes glued to the man by the shuttle. "Pellaeon." She growled.
"I take it you don't like him. Something personal?" Leia was desperate for diversion from her growing list of things that could go wrong.
"Met him during the Clone Wars, when I was Anakin's padawan. He made a big fuss about me having to wear a uniform on 'his' ship. Said mine didn't cover enough." She rolled her eyes. "I was dressed modestly, but with an outfit that gave me maximum mobility. Can't say I didn't resent him telling a Jedi how they could or couldn't dress!"
Kabarakh appeared at their side again, so sudden they jumped.
"Are all your people that good at sneaking up?" Ahsoka demanded.
"Yes."
"No wonder the Empire wanted you on their side. Any news?"
The noghri's sense was worried. "We have killed most of the creatures and made it look like an illness...or a natural death. But..." He huffed. "We could not get the ones nearest the Grand Admiral. He wears one to escort Lord Vader out. And he took another portable in with him."
"Why would he do tha...oh no." Ahsoka said in horror.
"Do you think?" Leia gasped.
The noghri nodded. "They will force him to wear it..."
"We'll have to shoot it when it gets here."
"That better be our best shot. It'll literally be right on top of him." Leia looked worried.
"And we won't be able to target it with the Force."
"I can do it." The noghri said calmly. "My people are hunters. This is what we do."
By the time they entered the hanger, Anakin felt like he'd been stepped on by an AT AT. His whole body screamed with aches he couldn't suppress with the Force. The churning inside was probably from the drug they'd given him. And his prosthetic legs felt like water but the stubs of the originals burned with increasing pressure. He knew the attack was coming but all his senses were halved. The first warning was Pellaeon's surprised cry and soft thuk of blade entering flesh. The guards released him to return fire and he sank to his knees. Two particular shots raised his head. One slammed a guard around, uninjured himself but killing the creature he carried. The other was silent, a whir of a knife being thrown and a brief thunk and squawk, the first noise he'd heard from the lizards. The Force surged back. Glancing up, he saw Leia and Ahsoka, along with the noghri, battling the guards. Rukh, Thrawn's bodyguard was going hand to hand with him. The other noghri appeared as if through a mist, slaying all in their path. Leia and Ahsoka were a whirl of blaster fire and lightsaber blades. Leia's was only a training blade and while many fell to it, none were dead.
Ahsoka threw Anakin's lightsaber. One of Thrawn's noghri bodyguards jumped to his side and freed his hands before leaping into the fray. Anakin body slammed the guards with desperate power. He kicked one hard and sent the blasters flying with a Force shove. One boomeranged back as he called it and started shooting. Then with a casual stretch of his other arm he caught his lightsaber and got to work. The world was still swimming slightly. The drug was affecting his balance and part of his attention had to fight it. Anger threatened to rise when he saw troops on an overhead balcony mow down three noghri. Rukh got in a near fatal blow to Thrawn, but aiming at the lizard first had cost the noghri surprise. Pellaeon was white with fear but wrestling Rukh from behind, who finally threw him over his shoulder into Thrawn. Leia and Ahsoka charged for a ship, diving for the ramp. Anakin worked his way toward them. The Force flickered again as he passed the shuttle they had planned to transport him on. More ysalamiri aboard?
Distracted, he scarcely saw the sudden blur that leaped and flipped through the air from behind it's ysalamiri camouflage. A lightsaber blade powered between him and his allies. In the midst of a sudden flurry of blows and with blaster fire as well, it was a long moment before his opponent was visible past the light show. Mara Jade. Her fury was obvious. Her red hair clashed with the red lightsaber she bore. She ducked underneath, whirled, came from above and below. She was driving him back toward that shuttle. He heard Thrawn's voice call out a command, but Mara gave no sign of hearing it. Green eyes blazed. "Traitor!" She spat. "It's time to face your Master."
"I have no Master." Anakin growled. "And Palpatine was the traitor!"
There was a clatter coming from behind him and he was forced to divide attention between the woman in front and the blaster fire aiming from behind. He coiled and leaped, a Force jump high, flipping over her head toward his allies who were blocked behind a wall of stormtroopers. They'd formed a fence around him, pointing in and out! Leia and Ahsoka, even most of the noghri were near the other shuttle and trying to fight to him. But they were failing. Noghri fell, battling to the death to get through. Even as he spun to try and land behind Mara, he knew he didn't have the power to get past the trooper line in this leap. He was still affected by the drugs. Thrawn was motioning them to fall back but not break the line, denying entrance to the hoped for escape ship. He jerked in midair, yanked his legs aside to avoid the whirling lightsaber Mara threw at him. But she was an excellent multi tasker. Even as he avoided that blow she aimed down, he sensed it but couldn't react in time, something hard slammed him from the side and he dropped hard to the floor. The drug was kicking in again.
The troops were surrounding him and on top of him. There were too many, again, and he felt bitter fear rise that his allies would go down with him.
"Go." He called through the Force to his desperately fighting allies.
He felt their rejection of the command, the desperation. But he could feel darkness rising from the planet below. He kicked and bucked, sword spinning through the troops. Rage at his own weakness hit him. Power surged and he threw them off. But something felt wrong... he was tasting victory...
"Anakin!" Ahsoka called in the Force. It hit him like a cold splash. His blood seemed to sizzle and it wasn't from the restraints. He shook his head. "Go!"
He felt reluctant realization dawn on Ahsoka, despair in Leia. They grabbed their noghri allies, who resisted at first and dove into the shuttle, taking off shots blasted the engines.
"Tractor beam!" Roared Pellaeon from a long way off.
Mara landed on him, lightsaber hilt at his spine and he spasmed in pain as she punched a nerve. His vision grayed and his fingers convulsed. He gathered the Force for a desperate last stand. Better to go down fighting. Then he saw the rocket launcher, aimed at the shuttle. If it hit it on the way out it would take out half the hanger but it would also destroy the shuttle.
"Fire on my order." Thrawn said.
"But sir, it will damage the hanger..."
"On my order." The voice was chill and determined. The shuttle was wavering neither out nor in, straining against a tractor beam.
Anakin reached out, yanking at the rocket launcher as the pain of Mara's attack threatened to black him out.
"Surrender or I will blow them out of the sky, even if it takes us with it." Thrawn's voice was firm.
Anakin's heart froze. It was worth it so they wouldn't take him, even in pieces, but Ahsoka and Leia, the noghri, they did not deserve it. Then again, they wouldn't want to be taken alive either... "Let them go." He hissed, fighting for control of the launcher, ignoring pain, ignoring everything, or I'll turn it on you!"
"I'm ready to die to do my duty." Thrawn countered.
Anakin felt a sudden shift in the Force. The shuttle seemed to leap forward. He yanked the launcher away and shoved it hard as Thrawn yelled fire. The holder of it fell helpless, the weapon shattered. The blast aimed at the shuttle went wild but it would still hit. With the last of his strength, he shoved his arm past Mara's block and threw his lightsaber, activated. It collided with the blast, deflecting it away from the shuttle and flew off. A massive explosion hit the edge of the hanger, for a moment the outer shield breached and air started to rush out. But it was restored almost instantly. The pressure on his back increased and a knife appeared at his throat, joining the lightsaber hilt digging his spine. He glimpsed someone hauling another ysalamir off the shuttle and felt the Force fade as it closed in. Mara must've felt it too. She let out a soft curse. But she still had the high ground. And he was surrounded by stormtroopers and a very smug Grand Admiral.
Anakin swore silently that somehow, he'd find away to wipe away that smirk. He knew it wasn't a very Jedi thought, but he didn't care. Nonetheless, for now, he'd lost this round. No, he decided. It was a stalemate. If he'd lost, they would've gotten his rescuers too.
For a long moment he lay still, blowing hard. Pellaeon's voice rang out. "...and someone find out what happened to that tractor beam."
It flickered through Anakin's head that he'd not seen Artoo. Mara shifted, knee digging in tighter and he finally ventured, "Have you thought about going on a diet?" Anakin inquired.
She snorted. "Maybe you should think about the diet the Emperor will put you on."
"I'm used to bad diets." He replied. "I'm also used to his lies. I take it you are still buying them. That bit about being his only Hand, for instance?"
For a moment she froze, then she snarled, "I am his only Hand!"
"He trusted no-one. Not even you. He always had someone else in the wings."
Her blade bit his neck.
"Jade." Thrawn said firmly. "I believe that's for the Emperor to decide."
"When did he develop such a smart mouth?" She demanded.
"Perhaps he had it all along. Turn off the external speaker and he could've been saying anything in that helmet."
The hanger was still in chaos. Equipment smoldered and burned, throwing sparks from the deflected blaster bolts. Wounded soldiers groaned, many missing limbs. Droids were hurrying to fix, clean up or just escape. With all eyes turned toward the cause of the chaos, none noticed one particular astromech, roll over and pick up the silvery cylinder laying on the ground. It's blue blade was still on a scorching a hole in the wall, but he flicked it off with his gripper and pulled it into his chassis. Turning, he worked his way onto the far side of the shuttle and activated an emergency maintenance hatch. With a mild astromech grumble over the tight fit, he squeezed inside and pulled it shut. Wherever Anakin was going, he was going with him. It wasn't long after before the engines rumbled and they lifted off. Listening carefully, sensors probing, he could separate Anakin's bio sign from the other's on the shuttle. Comforted to know they hadn't changed to a different ship, Artoo Detoo waited in the darkness.
The shuttle lifted off and Ahsoka and Leia fought past a cordon of Imperial fighters. "We're going to have to land. We'll never get through that." Ahsoka noted, staring with horror between the fleet and the dark planet.
"We need to contact Luke and the others." Leia's voice shook. Suddenly she stopped. "Luke? I feel him..." She paused, as if listening. "I know what we need to do." Leia said suddenly. "Can we fake an explosion, make it look like this ship was destroyed?"
"I'm not sure the faking will be required." Ahsoka observed as the blaster fire intensified.
"We need to get clear enough to eject."
"Ah. And the cloaked shuttle picks us up? That'll be tight if we don't want anyone to see it."
"I know. But Luke's on that one and you're on this one. That should count for something!"
"Okay." She peered ahead. "There, see that wreckage there? Probably another ship they intercepted. We hit the far side we'll be out of sight for a short bit."
Leia hovered by the airlock in a spacesuit, glancing back at the few surviving noghri. "Everybody ready?"
Kabarakh nodded unhappily. "I am sorry we failed you..."
"Not your fault. And we haven't given up yet."
Ahsoka yelled, "Now!" Leia dove out of the airlock, followed by the noghri. A few seconds later Ahsoka followed. The shuttle airlock shut behind her and continued on a preprogrammed course. They jetted for the nearby wreckage and not surprisingly, the shuttle blew up a few seconds later, blasted by multiple weapons fire.
"I sure hope there aren't any secret relay sensors on this heap." Ahsoka muttered, gloved hand holding a projection on the derelict. "Hurry Luke. They might look for survivors." They hustled into the remains of the derelicts hanger. Abruptly, the shuttle decloaked.
"Hurry! They'll detect it any second..." Leia ran for the shuttle and hurried aboard. Han, Chewbacca and Luke started at the flood of grey, space suited aliens. "They're with us. Kabarakh, this is Anakin's, uh, Vader's son, my brother Luke."
Luke and Han looked at each other in surprise. "Oh. You're the noghri..."
"Go, we're in" Ahsoka called. Chewbacca hit the cloaking device and Han spun the ship back out.
"Where to?"
Leia swallowed. "Down."
"What happened?"
"I am sorry. There were too many. A female with a lightsaber...she took us off guard." Kabarakh said unhappily.
"Mara Jade?" Luke asked.
"Apparently. She was really good. So was Thrawn. They boxed Anakin in. They risked us getting away but not with him," Ahoska said.
Luke sighed, swallowing fear for his father. "Wait, where's Artoo?"
Leia's lips were tight. "He went to turn of the tractor beam. We thought he'd join us...I guess he couldn't catch up. And we couldn't wait."
"So, he might be with Father?"
Ahsoka's brow furrowed and then a quirk of a smile appeared. "You know, he just might be. If anyone could find a way, it's him. And he has an advantage, people overlook droids."
"Let's hope so." Han stared at the planet as they closed in. "Because if there is one thing I find unnerving, it's the idea that a man who was Darth Vader was terrified of this place."
to be continued