I forgot to mention this earlier, but I basically picture Koroleva's armour as looking exactly like Captain Phasma's from The Force Awakens. Also, after a comment in a review I can't help but think of her voice as sounding just like Asajj Ventress from The Clone Wars.
A scream ripped from Nina's throat, and Matthias was halfway towards scolding her for bringing potential enemies down on them before he realised what was happening.
She'd collapsed to the ground, shaking, her face white as a sheet. He crouched in front of her, but she didn't seem to see him; her gaze was fixed on a point over his shoulder, far, far away. Her lips trembled as she pressed them together tightly. Tears shone in her eyes.
"What is it?" he asked, somewhat bewildered.
She took a shuddering breath, then unwound her hands from around her knees. "A- a great disturbance in the Force," she said breathlessly, her tears now escaping and sliding down her cheeks. "Like millions - maybe billions - of voices suddenly cried out in terror." She met his eye then, and he felt the impact of her next words like a punch to the gut: this was where everything changed. This was where the game they were playing became real. "They were suddenly silenced."
"Then it's happened," Kuwei said, his voice hoarse. Matthias started, before looking up at the boy - he was so quiet he'd almost forgotten he was there. "The weapon's been fired. A planet has been destroyed."
Kuwei looked pale and shaky himself, if not to the degree that Nina was. Matthias knew next to nothing about Force-sensitivity, but he wondered if the boy had sensed the cataclysm himself, to some extent.
"Then it's too late," Nina said distantly. "We failed. Billions of people are dead, because we failed."
"It's not too late," Matthias countered automatically, scrambling for some semblance of normalcy. Nina was such a vibrant personality - seeing her so broken was just. . . wrong.
"Seems pretty late to me." Kuwei's voice was old, bitter beyond his years, carrying a brittle edge that had begun to crumble.
Matthias shook his head, more in denial than rational thought. "No. There has to be a way to destroy that- that planet-killer-"
"The Death Star," Kuwei supplied helpfully.
"-the Death Star, right. There has to be a way to destroy it. Nothing is infallible. There will be a way to destroy it, and we have to find it. We have to find it, and use it, before the Death Star can unleash this kind of hell ever again. You," he turned to Kuwei, "you said your father worked on it, right? Do you know of any weaknesses?"
The boy froze, then said hesitantly, "I know of one." At Matthias's eager silence, he continued, "My father knows more about it than I do. We have to find him, and get him out, so he can tell your Rebellion everything he knows. I know he laid a trap in the station - that Death Star was designed to be blown up. By him."
"Great!" Matthias said, something in his chest collapsing in relief. "So we'll find Bo Yul-Bayur, fly ourselves out of here, and then-" He froze. "Nina?"
Nina's head was cocked in the direction they'd come, her face pinched into a frown. She pushed herself off the wall, into a standing position, and slid her hand down to her lightsaber. "You two go on," she murmured. "I'll catch up."
"What?" Matthias asked. "What are you doing? We need to-"
"Go." There was no arguing with that voice. "Trust me, Matthias." It was the first time she'd ever used his first name, rather than his last. "Go. I'll be there soon."
He exchanged a glance with Kuwei, but capitulated. "Alright. . ."
He forced himself not to look back as they turned the next corner. Even when he heard the hum of a lightsaber being ignited, he kept his eyes straight ahead.
The footsteps approaching ground along Nina's nerves, tensing her back until she wanted hunch over and curl up into a ball, never to emerge again. Each inexorable thump brought back memories that ought to remain forgotten, memories that tore at her resolve.
Thump.
Zoya teaching her how to hold her first practice saber, bowing to her opponent, then swinging it in her hands to test out the balance and nearly chopping her own arm off with how badly she misjudged the movement.
Thump.
The feeling of rough grass tickling her face and knees as she crouched in the fields, desperately waiting for the clone troopers to move on in their search so she and her master could escape, as so many Jedi hadn't.
Thump.
The stifling interior of a smuggler's cargo hold as she and Zoya, stowaways, fled the Core to the lawless Outer Rim.
Thump.
The ruthless hum of a voice through a vocoder, the clash of saber on saber, and the small gasp Zoya had made as the crimson blade tore through her like flimsi.
Thump.
The image before her right now: a woman in silver armour, a bloody lightsaber in her right hand, malice spilling into the Force wherever she walked.
Nina ran through everything she'd ever learned about Darth Koroleva in her head:
Armour was shot through with cortosis - lightsabers couldn't cut through it.
She'd appeared at the end of the Clone Wars - no one knew where she'd been before that.
Orchestrated the Jedi Purges along with her master, Emperor Morozova - been given credit for them the moment she appeared.
And finally: she'd never, ever, shown her face in public.
Nina unhooked her own lightsaber and lit it. The pink colour of the blade was too close to Koroleva's red for her liking, but this lightsaber was hers. She'd built it herself from scratch. She would accept it as it was.
"You shouldn't have come here," and there it was, the mechanical not-quite-a-purr that had haunted Nina's dreams for years, "Jedi."
Nina lifted her chin. "I don't think you have any jurisdiction over where I may or may not go, murderer."
A sound came out of the vocoder that might have been a snort; Nina couldn't really tell. But what Koroleva said was, "You seem to be extremely hateful for a Jedi."
There was mockery in the words, and perhaps that was what made Nina snap.
"You killed my master!" she cried, the words harsh and loud over the hum of their sabers. "Why wouldn't I hate you?"
"I've killed a great many Jedi Masters. You'll have to be more specific." And then she was sneering. Nina ground her teeth into oblivion.
"I'm sure you remember mine. Zoya Nazyalensky? Ring a bell?" Nina's grip on her lightsaber tightened, even as she shifted into an offensive position.
She shouldn't be doing this. She shouldn't be baiting Koroleva like this - she should be running in the opposite direction. She shouldn't be shouting about all the nightmares that kept her up at night. Not to the physical manifestation of one.
But the name seemed to mean something to Koroleva. Her back stiffened, and she breathed, "So you're Zoya's."
The coldness in the room increased tenfold. Nina felt the rage and hatred in her opponent swell and, surprisingly enough, she felt her own swell to meet it.
That, more than anything, terrified her the most.
But fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate, so there was really no escaping this vicious cycle.
"You saw me kill her," Koroleva said aloud. There was something akin to an epiphany in her voice, and Nina's blood boiled at it. "You were nearby when I struck her down - you must have been the one to steal her lightsaber before I could claim it - and yet you didn't interfere. You didn't lift a finger to help." Nina was trembling now; her fingers ached from the strain of gripping her lightsaber so tightly. Koroleva made a sound similar to a bitter laugh. Her words were almost accusatory. "For all her faults, Zoya deserved more loyalty than that."
Nina charged.
Nina, for all her faults with meditation and just her inability to grasp the Jedi concept of "calm", was a pretty good duellist. She was skilled with a lightsaber, and had overpowered more than one trained wielder in her life - not to mention untrained ones.
But Darth Koroleva was something else entirely. All she had to do was sweep her lightsaber and theirs clashed, sparks jumping against the stark whiteness of the corridor. Nina skidded back, untouched, but she glared at the Sith Lord, the crash of the lightsabers against each other still ringing in her ears.
"You're so. . . angry," Koroleva observed softly - almost gently. Bemusedly. "You would make a marvellous Sith. If you were to let me train you, give you a second chance-"
"Never." The word was part scream, part hiss, and part. . . Nina didn't know, but it left her throat raw and her lungs gasping for air. She slashed her lightsaber round in an arc, but it just bounced harmlessly off her opponent's armour.
Cortosis. Resistant. Right.
"You could be great," Koroleva continued. Nina didn't know how or why, but she got the sense that the woman's eyes were narrowed behind her helmet. "You could leave behind your dreary existence, and be something more. As we did."
Nina scoffed. "Who do you think-"
"You could stop being the one everyone turns to as their last hope," Koroleva went on smoothly. "You could be part of a group again, a team. You wouldn't have to work on your own, do things alone, because no one else can do what you do."
Nina's heart thudded in her chest. She couldn't breathe - she couldn't think. But not because she hated this- this monster in front of her, this facsimile of everything she'd ever hoped and dreamed of.
But because she wanted what she was talking about.
She wanted to be around others like her again. She wanted to work in a team where her talents weren't seen as special, weren't seen as the trump card to be played at the last minute. She wanted to not be crushed under the weight of expectations anymore.
"You could not be alone."
But what that meant was that she wanted to be back in the Jedi Temple with all the other younglings. It did not mean she wanted to join the person who was the reason that wasn't possible.
Nina took a step back, and held up her lightsaber ready to attack. "I don't want any of that," she lied.
Koroleva's posture stiffened as she drew herself up to her full height. She wasn't particularly tall or imposing, Nina noted, yet she commanded presence anyway. "So be it, then."
Nina watched the crimson arc as it bore down on her as she would watch a mildly interesting show. She knew distantly that she was about to die, and for some reason that didn't stir her into action. So she just watched, as mesmerised as a little girl seeing a "laser sword" for the very first time.
And then the explosions went off.
Thermal detonators, some distant part of her brain registered, but the rest of her had already regained her senses and she was scrambling to get out of there, backing away from the section of the corridor that had become a wreckage. Koroleva lay on her side in the centre of it.
For a moment, Nina thought - hoped - she was dead. But no; her sickly patch of darkness was still vibrant in the Force and she was stirring even before her wide eyes, metal clad limbs clanking as they shifted, the movements slow. Nina made to take a step away, to flee, because Force knew she needed to get out of there, but-
Koroleva's helmet had been knocked off in the explosion. And as she looked up to meet Nina's eye, she knew her.
She'd only seen a few holos of her before, but she knew those delicate lips, knew the unassuming eyes, the weak chin, sharp nose. Erase a few wrinkles and dye her hair brown and Koroleva could've stepped right out of one of Zoya's old holograms.
Oh, Force. . .
Nina was going to vomit.
"Don't-" Koroleva - but that wasn't her name, was it? - began, her voice curling possessively round the words, her hand reaching out, but the Sith Lord was still dazed. She was still trapped under chunks of fallen ceiling, and her grip on the Force was tenuous at best.
Nina turned and ran
Jesper was still struggling to come to terms with what he'd just witnessed when the viewscreen began to roll up again. The applause around him was deafening, and half-heartedly, distantly, he clapped with them - he had a role to play after all. But everything was very quiet in his head.
He found himself staring at the viewscreen as it moved; he needed something to focus on, something that was steady, or even more of his world would collapse around him.
The moving screen made him nauseous too, so he focused on the transparisteel window behind it. It was dark with rain but there was a shadow flickering just beyond it, it looked almost like- oh stars please no is that-
"What's that?" An alarmed shout broke through the jubilant cheering. Everyone turned to look. Now the viewscreen was gone, the item was clear: a cord.
A tether.
A climbing coil.
In fact, it was almost certainly the sort that Jesper had seen in Inej's inventory in the past few days, which meant she'd been nearby, so-
Oh, no-
He could practically see the gears in the Imperials' heads turning: someone had been climbing down there without their knowledge. Someone who wanted to remain clandestine, hidden. And that may have been inconsequential at any other time, but considering the importance of what they'd just witnessed. . .
"Rebels!" It was a murmured word, but more and more people picked up on it and repeated it, until Jesper was in a whispering chamber of Rebels. A louder shout went up: "They're here! They're attacking the facility!"
Everyone froze. No one dared to so much as blink.
Then, one person's panic outweighed their fear. They bolted for the door and the room followed, until there was a writhing mass of people trying to squeeze themselves out of one door, and this really wasn't going to end well-
The Imperial from earlier - Retvenko - stood at the front again. "That is enough!" he shouted. "Act civilised! It must simply be a loose cable or the likes. I can assure you, ladies and gentlemen," he said, trying for a winning smile, "there is no Rebel attack being held on this facili-"
There was a boom in the background. The walls and floor shook slightly.
Of all the times to stage a distraction, Kaz, Jesper thought, now is not the best.
He and Wylan exchanged a single glance, then immediately did what everyone else did at that moment: dived for the door
Inej was just beginning to steady her breathing again after Koroleva left when the viewscreen she'd observed earlier erupted into light. Squinting, she attempted to see round her vantage point of behind the crates, but she couldn't make out much more than a green and blue blur. There were gasps of horror from the assembled scientists when the screen was littered with embers of red and orange, but she still couldn't work out what was going on.
Then came the explosions.
The ground trembled and the scientists screamed; it was only experience that had Inej clamping her mouth shut before one escaped her too. The Imperial who'd spoken to Koroleva - Ivan - contorted his face in worry, and lifted his wrist to consult his comlink. After a moment of consultation, he nodded smartly and shut it down.
"It's a Rebel attack," he muttered to his assistant. "The meeting's turned into a stampede."
"Our orders?"
"Kill the scientists." Ivan didn't look at the scientists in question as he said that; instead he scanned the area, scrutinised all the nooks and crannies he could see that might be housing rebel scum. "Before the Rebels get ahold of them."
Inej's breathing hitched in her throat, but the woman was unfazed. She barked a command to the stormtroopers nearby and they all lifted their blasters.
"Ready, aim," she counted down, "fire-"
"Wait!" Inej screamed into the ensuing blasterfire, bursting from her hiding place and taking the element of surprise as an opportunity to shoot three of the six troopers . The other three followed in quick succession, but, Inej noted with a plummeting stomach, the bodies of the scientists had already slumped to the ground.
Ivan's assistant pulled her blaster on her; Inej ducked the shot. It seared through the fabric at her left shoulder, but she was right-handed anyway and kept moving, kept going, wrenched the blaster from the woman's hands and backhanding her across the face. A well-placed kick, and then she was toppling backwards, off the platform, down into the basin they were suspended over. . .
Inej pulled the Imperial's blaster on Ivan, clutching her own with her injured left arm.
"What-" he began, but never finished. The shot to his chest rather prevented that from happening.
Inej gritted her teeth at the sound his body made when it hit the deck, but she was already searching through the fallen scientists, sharp eyes alert even through the rain. There was one who looked familiar - she used both hands, grimacing when she stressed her injury, to roll him over and study his face. It was definitely Bo Yul-Bayur.
And he was definitely dead.
For as moment as she knelt, Inej felt failure crash over her. If Yul-Bayur was dead, then they had no sources on what the weapon was or how to destroy it, and it could be unleashed on the galaxy like the Emperor's vengeful God of War, all because she'd failed. . .
Then she was back to practicality.
She'd injured her shoulder, but it was still mostly usable. The Imperials knew they were here; the base would be on lockdown; it would be harder to get out - both out of the facility, and out into hyperspace. She couldn't do anything about getting Wylan and Jesper back to the ship, nor could she do anything but hope that the others were still there - hadn't gotten caught.
The only thing she could do was get back to the ship herself.
So she would.
Inej dumped the Imperial's blaster - it made her feel dirty, holding it - and made her way off the platform.
Nina rounded a corner and, in her desperation to put as much distance between herself and Koroleva as possible, promptly crashed into Matthias.
"Nina!" His hands shot out to steady her as she stumbled. "What happened-"
"No time to explain!" she shouted over her shoulder as she bolted past him. Kuwei caught on faster than Matthias and quickly followed; the bodyguard swore under his breath, giving chase.
"Where are we going?" he demanded without missing a step, miraculously not out of breath. Nina supposed you had to be fit and healthy to be hired as a bodyguard for an Imperial lord's son.
"Back to the ship," she replied in pants, veering left round the next corner. When they reached a door Nina spent all of one moment looking at it before she blasted it open with the Force. "The explosions. . .will have set. . .Imperials on our tails. They know we're here. Need to get off-planet quickly."
In her peripheral vision, she saw him open his mouth to argue, but she dived into the pounding rain before she heard his splutter.
"Nina! Wait!"
She ignored the shout and bent over almost double as she ran blindly into the darkness, wet hair swinging round to cling to her face. Sometime later - it could have been ten seconds or ten hours, for all Nina knew - the misshapen silhouette of the Barrel bulged from the gloom and she sprinted for it, splashing footsteps behind her evidence that the others were following.
When she staggered onto the ship, Kaz pulled a blaster on her.
She just looked him up and down, spread her arms to make the lightsaber apparent and cocked her eyebrow.
Kaz lowered the blaster with a grunt. "Took you long along." He glanced past her to Matthias - to Kuwei. "Who're you?"
"A friend," Nina said breathlessly, because she did not like the look Kaz was giving him. I was like he was debating his weak spots, vulnerabilities, how best to knock him out and keep him unconscious in the brig.
Kaz scoffed. "Not mine." But he looked away nevertheless. "Where's Inej?"
Nina shook her head. "We haven't seen her."
Kaz's posture stiffened, his lips pursing. "Jesper?"
"What the actual kriff, Kaz."
"I assume that's him," Nina said lightly, turning to watch the flyboy stagger into the ship with the merchling on his tail. Matthias made an immediate beeline for Wylan, and started - though he would deny it, Nina was sure - fussing.
Kaz raised his brows at his partner. "You asked for a distraction."
"I didn't ask for you to blow up a wing of the facility!"
"That was you?" Nina asked at the same time as someone else - glancing round, she saw that Inej had just climbed onto the ship, equally disgruntled.
Kaz shrugged, but Nina didn't miss how he relaxed at seeing Inej alive and well. "Jesper asked for a distraction. He got one." His dark eyes scanned Inej again, and his tone changed. "You're hurt."
She was, Nina realised. She was holding her left shoulder gingerly, and bright blood bloomed from what looked like a nasty blaster wound.
"It's nothing," her friend said, and sure, it didn't look fatal, but that didn't mean Nina was going to- "We need to fly this ship out of here before they thicken the blockade."
"You're right." Jesper made for the cockpit.
Nina was a little more frightened. "They've already set up a blockade?" Inej nodded. "Can we-"
"Uhhh, guys," Jesper called through the open door. "Scanners detect a massive object emerging from hyperspace nearby," they all exchanged bewildered looks at the fear in his voice, "and it looks to be about the size of a moon."
Wylan's face drained of colour.
"Fly us out of here. Now."
"Aye aye, merchling."
By the time Nina realised that Inej had just cracked a joke, she was already in the cockpit.
