Three days until Christmas!

Lo shivered slightly as he huddled under the bed where Kobayashi had shoved him. He could sense them… he could see them… he could smell them… they were coming and they would do anything to find them.

Kobayashi retreated to the corner of the room, just to the right of the door. Lo watched fearfully and then his eyes flickered towards the door. He heard their voices; he could see them in his mind. They were perspiring from working their muscles but their adrenaline kept their hearts racing and their minds alert. One of them reached for a fusion cutter, motioning to the others to stand aside. He activated the tool and immediately began tracing a large circle around the door leading to Lo's room.

They were coming in.

Little One tried to slink further back under the bed and towards the wall, but the space was small and he had gone as far as he could go. Kobayashi tightened his grip on his blaster, readying it for battle. He leveled it to the door, waiting for the people to enter.

Lo had an idea who these people were. The Rebel Alliance had only been mentioned as a side note and never directly mentioned, but Lo had latched onto it. It had sounded so… familiar. It sounded so… disgusting. When they had first said the name, Little One had hated it.

Now he knew why. These Rebels were demons out to hurt him and his family. He hoped Kobayashi would be alright.

The soldier finished his work on the door and kicked the sliced metal. He was the first to enter into the room. Kobayashi held his ground, watching, waiting… and then he fired.

The man crumpled to the ground, not moving. Was he… was he…?

He was dead.

Little One had never directly heard about death from the others. Somehow, Lo never asked about death because he never needed an explanation. In fact, he wanted to avoid the topic altogether. The very word brought images of corpses to his mind, and he didn't even know where they came from.

Suddenly, a Wookiee knocked the entire door down, allowing all of the soldiers to rush in at once. Kobayashi's surprise attack was over. They immediately turned to face him. Lo held his breath in horror. They… they wouldn't dare!

The Rebels opened fire. Kobayashi shot back as much as he could, but inevitably, Lo heard it… he heard Kobayashi's cry of pain… of defeat…

Of death.

Death… death… no…

Kobayashi feebly lifted his blaster in an attempt to continue the fight as the blood leaked out of his gut. The Rebels drew close to him, preparing to finish the job.

Lo didn't know what to do. The world around him seemed to slow down. What would have been a second seemed an hour. He was so terrified and horrified at the same time… what could he do? He didn't know how to wield a blaster or fight like the others did! What could he do? He couldn't… he couldn't just let Kobayashi die… no… NO!

"Mom…"

"Ani, is that you? You look so handsome,"

"I've come to rescue you, Mom,"

"Ani… I—I love…"

Blood… he could smell it… he could taste it… he could feel it… and he would make it spill everywhere.

Everything grew hazy and… red… everything was covered in blood… and he loved it.

An animalistic growl rumbled in his throat as his clear blue eyes turned red. The Rebels drew closer, walking in slow motion. Lo wouldn't let them get any closer to Kobayashi. The animalistic growl erupted into a full-blown roar of rage. He would get those Rebels… he would kill them!

Lo burst out from under the bed and thrust his arms out in both directions, sending a powerful wave through the air. The Rebels tumbled and went flying. Sickening crunches accompanied their impact into each other or the walls. There was only one left, and that was the stubborn Wookiee.

Grabbing the beast's throat, Lo lifted the Wookiee up to where his feet were dangling off the ground. Little One kept the grip deathly tight. He watched the light fade from the Wookiee's eyes and then smiled, throwing the corpse against the wall. He then turned to Kobayashi, kneeling beside him. Kobayashi was slumped against the wall, his eyes closed, and his mouth hanging open slightly.

Rage filled Lo even further. No Rebel would live through this day!

Jifo had been at his post dutifully when the power had gone out. Then the fear came. He knew where that was coming from. Capt. Mentzer did as well.

Cursing the captain muttered, "I told that lieutenant to keep him calm!"

The fear remained, giving the bridge a dark atmosphere. Jifo thought it couldn't get any worse, but it did. The fear went away and was replaced by a horrible gnawing feeling. His insides went white hot and then suddenly went cold, almost as if he were dead. The others felt it as well. A collective gasp of pain went around the bridge. The captain fell to his knees.

Jifo leaned against his console, feeling sick to his stomach with the smell of blood overpowering his senses.

Suddenly, realization struck him like lightning. The memories of Death Squadron losing power and everyone feeling Vader's emotions came to mind immediately.

Jifo bolted up. He had to find Vader. Stumbling through the depression where most of the consoles were, Jifo climbed up to the catwalk and rushed out of the bridge, keeping his blaster ready. He had to find Vader. He had to find him.

He had to find him!

He knew it was his duty to watch the boy… but this was important as well. If he didn't figure out what was going on, the boy wouldn't live much longer.

Obi-Wan Kenobi shouldered his sack and closed the door to his hovel. The Force-sensitive person's demeanor had changed drastically. The person had been accessing the Force instinctively before. The person had been terrified and confused. Now, though… the person was consumed by an animalistic rage.

This person was going for the kill.

He had to find him.

"Die!"

Lo's scream pierced the air, an octave below how it would normally sound. The Rebels dropped one by one, blood spilling onto the floor. It dripped from Lo's hand, where he held a jagged pipe that had been broken out of the wall during the space battle. The other ships outside were still silent and still. Not a soul breathed.

As he felt it trickle down his hand, his red hazy world grew darker and murkier. He could feel himself slipping away. He could practically feel the lust for blood heightening. It was getting worse. He was losing control…

He didn't care.

More odd thoughts and words appeared in his mind, only spurring him further.

"Anakin, Palpatine is evil!"

"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!"

"Well then you are lost!"

"GYAAAAAAAHH!" Lo brought the pole down and bashed a soldier's head in, watching blood ooze out. He could see pieces of the person's skull. A piece of him felt sick, but it was drowned out by pleasure.

"Master Skywalker, there are too many of them! What are we going to do?"

Sweat and blood weren't the only things trickling down Lo's face.

Emperor Palpatine paced his throne room restlessly, accessing the Force. He knew that signature of pure hatred anywhere, but it hadn't been so out of control and animalistic since Mustafar. What was going on?

The door opened and an officer entered, bowing and saying, "Your shuttle is ready, my lord."

"Very good," Palpatine replied.

The officer left and Palpatine paused for a moment before leaving as well. He went to the hangar bay and boarded an Imperial shuttlecraft that would take him to Death Squadron's last known location. Although the issue with the rogue Force-sensitive was troublesome, it was nothing in comparison to Vader's sudden outburst. Something had gone wrong, something that would cause Vader to lose all control of his emotions. After Mustafar, Palpatine hadn't suspected the boy to have that much rage left in him.

The shuttle's engine roared to life and in a few minutes, the pilot was plotting the hyperspace coordinates.

Padmé moaned as a migraine suddenly hit her. Sola, who had been sitting beside her, jumped to her feet.

"Padmé, what's wrong?"

"Headache," she mumbled, a hand immediately going to her head.

Sola called for the doctor, who quickly surmised that nothing was physically wrong with her. Sola asked Padmé when it started. Padmé responded by saying it just happened. Her sister worried over her without moving. She offered to get some water and Padmé let her.

While Sola was gone, Padmé leaned back against the pillow and groaned. Odd images floated through her mind before she heard Anakin's voice in the midst of it.

No! I'm not losing anyone else!

"Anakin?" Padmé muttered. "Anakin, where are you?"

All of a sudden, the migraine vanished as quickly as it came.

Jifo growled in irritation as he literally swam through the hallway. The last of the atmospheric conditioning had died away, which meant the artificial gravity died. Jifo had to push himself from the wall and propel forward. Thankfully there was no friction to slow him.

He knew that the life support had died. They were currently breathing the air that had been pumped through the ventilation system before the power went out. That meant that eventually, they would suffocate if the power didn't return.

Death by suffocation was the last thing that Jifo had in mind. However, he pushed those thoughts out of his head as he desperately tried to get to the emergency ladder that led to all the decks. He opened the hatch on the other wall, just beside the turbolift. Inside was a small circular tube that went through all the decks. A ladder was attached to the wall opposite of the hatch.

Jifo floated into the chamber and used the ladder to pull himself downward and then stopped himself when he reached Deck 4. He opened the hatch and entered the corridor.

Avoiding debris that was floating in the hallway, Jifo finally reached Vader's room. However, when he looked at the door, he saw that it had been broken down.

Cursing harshly, Jifo pulled himself into the room and looked around. He suddenly saw bodies of dead Rebels. A part of the boarding party, he surmised. But where are Kobayashi and Vader?

As he turned himself around to search for the twosome, he caught sight of a body with an Imperial uniform floating in the corner of the room. His heart stopped and his breath caught in his throat.

"No…" he muttered, pushing himself towards the body.

It was Kobayashi.

Okay, that was a very un-Christmasy chapter. O_O

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