So here is the turning point of the entire storyline and what not. I still can't believe that it's been 10 chapter to only cover four missions. Still, it was necessary and a welcome change from my usual rushing. Enjoy!
I own nothing, but if i did...well let's just say Juno is pretty good looking
Chapter 10:
Kinds of Care
With the coordinates locked in, Juno quickly made the jump to hyperspace in an effort to reach the Executor before the pain returned. However, fate was not on Juno's side, and as they were halfway to their destination, the pilot felt only a small stab at what was to come. The sudden onrush of pain caused Juno to clench her side and double over. Clear vision battled black spots as Juno tried to slow her breathing. With her other hand firmly gripping the console, the pilot attempted to block out the pain by mentally focusing on other things. Again the pilot's attempts were thwarted as wave after wave of fire ravaged her insides. Juno was determined to win this battle, and switched tactics by biting the inside of her cheeks. The pain renewed with every breath she was forced to take, and Juno silently cursed the lack of medical equipment onboard the ship.
"Can't handle a little pain?" taunted Starkiller.
How dare he? The pain was not little, nor was it something she could not handle. In fact, Juno was proud of herself for staying conscious. "I don't expect you to understand us normal people," she spat, still clenching at the pain.
"Why should I make any effort to?" he queried. "People like you are beneath me."
"And yet you depend on me to fly this ship," Juno replied hotly, but the venom of her voice as lost as she winced in pain.
Starkiller only nodded. "Similar to a servant don't you think?"
A servant? Anger boiled in the pit of Juno's stomach, her pain only fueling it further. "A servant? I am more than mere servant! I can fly circles around Lord Vader himself!"
"Not in your condition," he countered with a smirk.
"I could do it blindfolded and a hand tied behind my back," she answered vehemently.
The Rogue Shadow decelerated out of hyperspace. The apprentice looked out at the Executor and said, "Well then I guess you can fly us into the hangar."
"You bet your Sith ass I can," Juno responded as she gripped the controls and deftly landed the ship.
Juno turned and smiled defiantly at Starkiller only to find that he wore a smirk of his own, "Knew you could do it."
"Then what was all that antagonizing about?" she queried.
"You don't notice anything?" he asked expectantly. "Or rather the absence of something."
And then it all clicked into place for Juno, followed immediately by a stab of pain. "You were distracting me," she ventured weakly, as she grasped her side once again. Starkiller simply nodded and slid his arms underneath Juno and carried her off of the ship. Too tired to protest, and deciding that struggling would only hurt more, Juno did not resist. A medical team entered the hangar as the two came down the boarding ramp, with a syringe waiting to be used. The apprentice lightly placed Juno into the awaiting hover gurney. As the pinprick from the needle registered in her brain, Juno shot Starkiller one last look. "You're still a bastard."
He only responded with his usual chuckle, "Perhaps, but one that…cares about…his pilot." Juno smirked at the young man's hesitation before losing consciousness.
Juno opened her eyes slowly to fid herself suspended in a bacta tank. Two doctors looked up from their work and stepped closer o her tank. One pressed a button and spoke, "Please nod your head if you are in no pain." Juno did so. "Excellent, drain the tank."
The healing liquid drained and Juno landed lightly on the floor before removing the oxygen mask. "Get dressed. Now!" Juno raised her eyebrows at the command, but simply did as told.
The pilot looked at her jacket and pants. "Where are my accommodations?" she queried.
"They've been stripped," one doctor said as she shrugged on the jacket.
"What for?" she asked, annoyed that her accomplishments have apparently been thrown out of the airlock.
The door to the room swished opened. "Traitors do not receive medals," came the metallic voice of Lord Vader himself.
"A…traitor?" Juno asked numbly. She could only stare at the floor. Everything she had ever worked for was gone, never to return. All the years at the Academy, the training, the battles, the sacrifices, were worthless. How did this happen? But she knew. The only thing that had changed in her life was her association with Starkiller. The Emperor must have found out about Vader's apprentice. That was the only logical explanation. She had no energy fight. How could she? Vader's presence made any thoughts of escape impossible.
"You are to be imprisoned aboard the ISS Empirical," Vader said.
"Where is he?" she asked defiantly, wondering why his fate mattered in the current situation.
"Who?" Vader asked with his metallic whine.
"You know exactly who I am talking about!" Juno spat out, before there was intense pressure around her windpipe. And there it was, her own demise was too come from her own foolish mouth. The pilot always figured that she would go down in some sort of battle.
Vader stepped closer. "You are lucky that you still live, unlike the person you speak." The grip was released and Juno fell to her knees. Dead? No doubt she would soon join him in his fate. "As it stands, you will be interrogated."
"Interrogated? But you-" the pilot never finished her sentence, as she was instead thrown back into the bacta tank, shattering the glass. Juno felt the shards of glass embed themselves into her back. And then Vader was upon her, ad as she looked up at him from all fours, he simply raised a hand. As the Dark Lord's hand descended, so to did the glass. Despite the pain, Juno found it ironic that she was enduring a similar punishment to her former charge. Whether from pain or from Vader's doing, the pilot fell unconscious.
It was cold. That was the first thing Juno noticed as soon as she was roused from her forced sleep. "I said wake up prisoner!" a guard shouted outside her door. Prisoner. She would have to get used to being called that. Not Captain, not Juno, not Ms. Eclipse, but prisoner. The guard walked in, and roughly led her from the room. "First day of interrogation, scum," he spat. She was swiftly led to a room with a force cage inside. Juno grimaced; this was not going to be pleasant.
Once inside the cage, Juno only stared at the warden as he decided what to ask the pilot first. "What was your objective?" he asked with his hand hovering over the activation button.
What was she supposed to say? Telling the truth would be no help. Lying would also get her nowhere. She did know that even the warden had no idea what her answers were supposed to be. The entire interrogation was a farce; that was no secret. She sighed, "What's the point?" Electricity shot through her body, causing the pilot to convulse. Instead of halting the torture and asking more questions, the pain just kept coming until her body thankfully collapsed.
She woke up inside the force cage, and the warden simply smiled when she stood. "I've never seen such a lazy prisoner. Asleep for an entire day," he paused and stepped closer. "Such a shame that you're stuck behind this cage. Oh the things I could do to you." Juno stepped to the back of the cage in an attempt to get as far away from the vile man as she could. The warden frowned, slapped the button and walked out to leave Juno to her pain.
This routine continued for several weeks, Juno knew because the warden delighted in telling her how many days she was held captive. She woke up and immediately the force cage was deactivated. "You're coming with me," the warden said tersely as the two stormtroopers with him stepped forward. She followed, and was quickly shoved towards the bridge. "Today there will be a very special interrogation and-"
"Alert! Specimen containment field in sector 10 has malfunctioned. Nearby squads are ordered to investigate," came an announcement.
"Seems like you have your own problems," Juno said, before being strapped to a podium. "Do you think anything has changed? I have nothing to tell you!"
"Then perhaps this will be your execution," the warden warned. The warden and several other officers stepped forward with grins plastered on their faces. Without warning, the warden backhanded Juno across the face. This was followed immediately by an injection. "So we can keep beating you," the man explained, showing her the syringe mockingly.
The ship lurched violently and the nearby star illuminated the giant viewport in the room. "Alert! Ship navigation systems have malfunctioned! Repeat, navigation systems have malfunctioned!"
Juno smirked. "It seems somebody or something did not appreciate your care." That much was obvious, but what kind of madman sabotages a ship to crash into a nearby star? Not that they did not deserve it of course. However, the tactic seemed rather impetuous.
The former Captain did not have time to think on this further as the warden and his lackeys advanced on her again. "That may be, but you're sure as hell not leaving," he said wickedly before his cronies began beating her.
Punches, kicks, backhands, elbows and knees rained down on Juno like a relentless storm. Eventually, she could only hang there limply, the restraints being the only thing that could hold her up. "All escape pods have been jettisoned. Empty. Uh…await…um…await further orders."
The beatings stopped, the men began to panic around her. Still hanging there, physically in pain but her body looking no worse for wear, Juno tested her bonds finding them still secure. The ship was going down, and escape was impossible. What about the experiment? How was the experiment going to escape without a pod? A ship she supposed would be logical. Sighing, Juno resigned herself to her fate, supposing it was better to be a "traitor" to a corrupted Empire than a mindless slave. The temperature in the room kept getting hotter, and Juno simply hung her head in defeat.
"Juno!" called a voice.
The pilot tried to look up at whomever was calling her name but found that she was too weak to even lift her head. She knew that voice from somewhere. She cursed the beatings, blaming them for her current lapse in memory. "The traitor dies with the rest of us! Don't let him reach her!"
Him? So it was a male who was escaping. Escaping and trying to rescue her? She strained to lift her head, but to no avail. There was screaming and the sound of a…lightsaber. Lightsaber? The energy restraints dropped, and Juno fell limply to the floor.
Familiar arms slid themselves under her knees and around her torso. Finally, Juno looked up. It could not be! The very reason why she was branded a traitor had just rescued her. She was angry with the young man, but intensely relieved to see that he was in fact, not dead. "Vader said you were dead…but you came back…for me?" she asked, before wrapping her arms around his neck. "I…I've been branded a traitor to the Empire and-"
But Starkiller covered her mouth with a hand. "It doesn't matter. I don't care about any of that. I'm leaving the Empire behind." As he carried her, Juno could only smile and hold on tighter to the one man that actually cared about her in her entire life.
Happy holidays to everybody! Hope you enjoyed my gift to all of you! Now i comes the part of filling in how they managed to track Kota down.