Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Note: Next chapter is here at long last! Thanks for your patience, everyone! As always, I'd like to thank my readers and those wonderful people who take the time to review. It makes writing this worth it when I can see how many people take the time to read this story. A huge thank you must also go to my beta, Liisiko, who manages to take a look through these chapters even with her busy schedule.

CHAPTER 38 - Past

Location: The Armistice

Juno sighed, swiping an oily cloth over her sweat-slicked brow and turning her attention back to the Rogue Shadow. A diagnostic had shown the ship was leaking fluid and she'd decided to fix it up quick before a small problem became a big one. Unfortunately, uncovering and correcting the problem had proved far more time consuming than she had first thought.

"Spanner." She held out her hand and PROXY handed it to her. Gritting her teeth, she began to tighten the bolts back into place, pausing to wipe a hand on her greasy overalls. "Is there any news yet, PROXY?"

"No, Captain. I believe the encryption has given them some problems."

She sighed. With every day that passed Galen was getting more and more impatient. He'd spent hours training yesterday, dueling with PROXY and then sweeping through a number of different solo routines; driving himself to exhaustion just so he could keep himself occupied. He'd disappeared again that day and she hadn't seen him since the morning meal.

"It was far above the level of my expertise, true." Juno replied after a moment, handing the heavy tool back to the droid and feeling along the edges of the inner panel to make sure it was seated correctly. It was. "But I think they're trying to delay us."

"They've succeeded." The droid pointed out.

She stood, stretched the kinks out of her spine and cast a glance at the gangly droid. "Have you had any word from Galen?"

"Master said he was going to check on progress."

Hound them, more like. She thought to herself grimly. "That'll end badly."

"Quite possibly." The holodroid admitted. "It might also be useful to know, Captain, that the Tantive IV has just requested landing permission."

"Princess Organa is here?"

"It would appear so."

"Let me guess." Galen said, his mouth twisting wryly. "Juno sent you?"

"She did." PROXY's head cocked to the side in an oddly human manner. "Are you in good repair, Master?"

"I had another vision," he admitted, slumping back against the wall of the waiting room across from the senator's office. The office was empty, but he was certain a messenger would be sent that way as soon as the insane clone's codes had been translated into something meaningful.

"You are improving." The droid complimented.

He shook his head. "I don't understand what I see." But his hands were shaking and he wondered if that was really true. Perhaps he just didn't want to understand. Perhaps he was afraid of what it could mean.

"I could offer some insight, Master?"

"You can try." He shrugged, giving an account of what he had seen.

In his vision the gaping-mouthed monster had come again, its body swathed in shadow that trailed wherever it stepped. It had moved and the darkness had moved with it; a darkness so impenetrable that only the glare of its eyes could be seen beneath its veil. Galen had called to get its attention, though what he had said he did not know. The sound was enough to give the monster pause and its head had twisted towards him. The eyes, set deep in its face, had glowed with the eerie light of dying stars. The darkness clung to its body like a second skin.

"You were weak when I found you." The monster had said; with the voice of the Dark Lord.

The darkness had come for him then, thin tendrils of oily black drifting across the floor, reaching up for him like the arms of frightened children.

"I drew my lightsaber." Galen explained. "And they were afraid of the light it cast. Wary. But not for long."

They had struck as quick as snakes, constricting about his arms and legs, burning wherever they touched. He had tried to fight it too, but to no avail and he could still recall the horror of having the air squeezed from his lungs so that each breath came shallower than the one before. The anger had come then, a burning rage born of his incapacitation. It fed into his limbs, heating them, strengthening them and the strength of the darkness receded suddenly, the blade sliding easily through the tendrils. And, incensed, Galen had hacked at them again and again, not realizing – until a long moment after – that the blade was red.

The tendrils, hacked and broken, twitched on the floor.

"Now your hatred has become your strength." The monster had said and Galen had looked down to see the bare skin the tendrils had laid open; charred black and smoking. His chest had heaved with anger.

"At last." The monster continued. "The dark side is your ally."

"Is that everything, Master?" The droid asked when Galen had paused too long.

"No." Though perhaps that was the worst of it, he thought grimly, closing his fingers tight to hide their trembling. "And then the monster was gone and I was alone again, floating through space." This part of the vision he knew better. One moment he would be alone and in the next the Death Star would appear, lurking silently amongst the stars; its single eye raining green fire down at him.

Except that this time Leia's voice, always looking for hope, had offered him a name.

"Who is Obi-Wan Kenobi, PROXY? I know the name."

"Ah, Master, you forget? You know him well, or his fighting style, at least." The droid's gangly body transformed and standing before Galen was the familiar figure of a man with a wave of auburn hair and a neatly clipped beard. He had fought this training program often as a boy though he had not much cared for names. He was to learn their techniques. Learn to beat them. Little else had mattered to him back then.

"A Jedi Master." Galen knew that much at least.

"Indeed." This time PROXY's voice was not his own but that of the man whose shape he had taken. A calm, polite tone that matched well with his neat, traditional appearance. "Master Kenobi was renowned as one of the greatest duelists and Force-users of his time."

"His preference was the Soresu form." Galen recalled.

"Affirmative. His skill with that particular form was said to be unsurpassed. His career achievements are also something to behold. He was the first Jedi in over one thousand years to—"

"—Is it possible that he could still be alive?" Galen interrupted impatiently. He didn't care to hear about how many battles the Jedi had been in or how many titles he had won himself.

"It is hard to say, Master. There is no record of his death. The list of suspected survivors has shortened dramatically over the years. However, Obi-Wan Kenobi was not your average Jedi. If any have survived this long undiscovered the odds of him being one of them are quite good."

Galen couldn't help but feel a horrible sense of foreboding, shoving away from the wall to look towards the door. The corridor outside was silent and empty.

The droid's fingers closed comfortingly over his shoulder and when Galen looked at him he was still donned in his Kenobi disguise.

"What do you think it all means?"

Kota would have known, a voice in his head reminded.

"Visions do not operate with logic, Master. A droid would struggle to compute. Did you not recognize the beast?"

"No. It was shielded by the darkness but the words—they were Vader's."

"I think you will come to fight it." The droid responded easily. "As designed by the Dark Lord. He means to bring about your downfall – but we have always known that."

"I think you're right, PROXY." He replied, not able to shake the feeling that this time the attempt just might be successful.

"If it helps, Master." The droid continued, in his own voice now – shedding Kenobi's skin. "I believe Senator Organa has docked. It may be wise to seek her counsel in this matter."

"Leia is here?"

"Affirmative."

"That might not be such a bad idea."

Leia was dressed for action in white leggings, heavy-duty boots and a long-sleeved jacket zipped to her throat. Her hair, braided as always, was coiled in an elaborate nest atop her head as she crossed the dock answering as many questions as she gave. When Galen drew closer she looked up as if she had sensed his coming. Her expression did not turn angry or cold but there was something else there. Disappointment, perhaps? He'd never been all that good at reading the less subtle emotions on a person's face.

She strode up to him as she handed a datapad back to a short, female Rodian who scurried along at her side. "You may tell Ja'Quhar that I will approve the resources." Leia was saying, turning her attention upon him only when her Rodian companion had taken her leave.

"I had hoped to get a chance to speak with you, Starkiller," she said. "I came as soon as I was able. I trust that progress has been made with the encrypted data?"

"They won't say." Not to him, in any case.

"So." She hooked him with her eyes. "What do you intend to do now?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"We always have a choice," she replied and he was surprised to realize that her expression was not disappointment after all. It was concern.

"Do we?" he asked, wondering whether he had a choice in the path he was about to take.

"Yes," she replied, adamant. "And I'd like to hear yours."

"We're going to go after the clone as soon as we have the information from the datacard." Galen confirmed.

"I feared you would say that."

"But you're not surprised?"

"No. Not at all. I won't say that it's a wise course of action - given the risks - but perhaps in this case the risks would be worth it. If you can put an end to the dark clone's destruction, perhaps we can all move forward together and start anew."

"I don't think I'll be coming back once this is done," he warned her grimly.

Leia did look surprised at that. "You are preparing for the worst?"

He supposed it must seem odd to others. He who had done so much without a moment's hesitation. Charging to his goal no matter how hopeless it might seem. But his visions were touched with darkness and soon Obi-Wan Kenobi would be their only hope. And where did that leave him? "You were right," he said at last.

"Right? About what?"

"I overheard your conversation with Juno back on the ship. You warned her about me falling back into league with the Sith."

Leia had the grace, at least, to look apologetic. "Her faith in you is strong."

"But misplaced." It hurt to say it. It really did. Leia had clearly not been expecting that sort of admission from him, either. She was staring at him as if afraid he might not be the clone she had come to accept as Starkiller. But he didn't want to linger long on that subject. His visions were full of darkness and he didn't want to repeat them to her.

"And Juno? What about her? Will she cease contact, too?"

Galen didn't answer that. He wasn't going to speak for Juno. He risked death – or worse – by going after the dark clone but he wouldn't let anything happen to her. He wasn't sure whether she would want to come back to the Rebels or not when all this was done.

"This isn't what I came to talk to you about."

"No? It seems to me like it's quite important."

"You're preparing for some grand battle?" he pressed on, not wanting to let himself be diverted.

"Always, Starkiller."

He sucked in a deep breath and thought; Here goes nothing. "An assault against the Death Star?"

She looked at him with both curiosity and suspicion. "Do I want to know how you found out that information?"

"The Force provides." He didn't care how ridiculous that might sound to her, but Leia's face told him that she believed him. "I saw the Death Star fully operational, primed to attack."

"What else did you see?"

He ignored the question. "Do you know where it is? Has it been completed already?"

"Our spies tell us that it will soon be operational. Did you see its target?"

"No," he replied. "I didn't."

She shook her head. "No matter. We have other means of finding that information and if all goes well we'll have everything we need before long."

And, as they left the dock behind, he asked: "Leia. Do these plans of yours include the assistance of a Jedi?"

"A Jedi?" she sounded reluctant.

"An Obi-Wan Kenobi?"

Leia's eyes flew to him. "How did you—" She trailed, realizing that the Force had probably shown him that, too. "He was a dear friend of my father's. They knew each other back before the Clone Wars."

"Then you know where he is? This Obi-Wan?"

"We know he is alive."

Her reply hadn't answered his question and he wondered at her indirectness. What did she think he was going to do? Hunt him down and kill him? Go into an uncontrollable rage at the thought of being replaced? "So you are looking for him? If you're not, I'd strongly suggest that you do. I think you'll need him before this is done."

"Our intention is to recruit him to our cause. That responsibility will be left to my father when the time is right and not before."

Galen couldn't help but wonder how much use an old, cowardly Jedi might be, even one as esteemed as this Master Kenobi. Hiding out somewhere, afraid of being discovered. Afraid of making a stand. Or maybe it wasn't as dire as all of that. Maybe he was waiting for a sign, too. Some vision to let him know it was finally time to take a stand against the Empire.

He just hoped that if this old Master Jedi was their 'only hope' that he would be more than a frightened old man.

Sia was as effervescent as ever, singing to herself in the locker room as Juno entered. The dark haired woman was dressed in a distinctly feminine garb and was fixing her unruly hair in the mirror. It brightened Juno's spirits to see the flight officer so happy even if she was singing distinctly out of tune.

"You're in a good mood today," Juno called out, trying her best to smile. Her last few days had been trying to say the least and she'd spent the majority of them tired and frustrated.

"I've got a date." Sia replied easily.

"With that…pilot?"

"Not the pilot you're thinking of." The woman smiled coquettishly.

"What was wrong with the last one?"

"What can I say? I'm a fickle woman." Sia shrugged. "You have time for lunch? I've got some time to kill before I'm scheduled to meet this guy. I found out something interesting about you, too."

"About me?"

"Uh huh. About you and your time with the Empire."

Juno's lungs seemed to constrict. "How did you—?"

"—I found an old speech of yours, back when you were given command of the Salvation." She smiled. "It made for some interesting reading." The woman stepped forwards and looped her arm through Juno's. "So, do you have some time?"

"Well…I don't know. I'm not the best company right now."

Sia seemed to snap out of her floaty state at that response. "Is everything okay?"

"It's nothing, really," she managed at last. "Just waiting for news. Something Starkiller was never much good at. He's been distant recently, too." But it was more than just distant. He seemed constantly occupied by his own thoughts. Lost in visions or worrying over what he had seen. She moved across to her own locker and pulled her jacket from the hanger.

"Come on. Let's go." Sia grabbed her arm. "I'm not taking no for an answer."

And in the next moment Juno found herself being dragged out into the corridor.

"So." Sia began. "Is it true?"

Juno hesitated. "Yes. It is."

"I never would have thought it!" The officer sounded more excited than she should have. "Just goes to show that you can't judge a person by appearance alone. Sweet, workaholic Juno. Although, I bet you did look rather suave in those trim, black uniforms." She winked. "To be fair, you do have a Jedi as a boyfriend. That's not exactly anything to be sniffed at."

"You don't seem that…bothered by it." She remembered colleagues who had been. Those who had watched with suspicion. She hoped she had won them over before her time with the Salvation had prematurely ended, but she could never be certain that they had fully trusted her.

"Why would I? You're with the Alliance now. That doesn't mean I'm not curious, though."

Juno couldn't help but feel slightly harassed. Wasn't sure whether she was even ready to talk about it, even with someone she knew.

"There's got to be some story behind you defecting, right?" She was smiling wide, her teeth a brilliant white. "Was it love that brought you to the rebels? Did Starkiller infiltrate one of the Imperial bases? Did you captivate him so utterly that he had no choice but to spare your life? Or maybe it was the other way around?"

"There was no Alliance back then." Juno reminded her.

"Then why?"

"My eyes were opened, that's all." Sia stared wordlessly at her and Juno sighed. "Do you really want to know?"

"Is it really that bad? We've all done things that we regret."

"Even if I told you what happened, you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me." Sia challenged and, twenty minutes later, they were sat in the dock with lunch stolen away from the mess hall. The stifling heat of the corridors had been driven away by the powerful venting systems and Juno clutched her warm drink as if for dear life.

The two women sat in silence for a long while, Juno mulling over the possibilities of sharing her past with this new found friend of hers. It surprised her to realize that maybe she did want to. That maybe she needed to share it because keeping it all in was proving hard. No one understood. No one except Galen.

And if they were to die in service, to have someone remember them…that would be good, wouldn't it? To be remembered?

Eventually, she admitted: "I don't know how much I should say."

"As much as you want to," Sia replied kindly.

Juno risked a glance up into the woman's face. A face that was friendly and open and politely inquisitive. This was the face of a friend; a strange concept to Juno who'd not had many friends to confide in since being reassigned by Vader. Well none, in truth. The easy camaraderie of her time as a fighter pilot was long lost to her now though memories of that had come flooding back during her time tutoring the new recruits for the Alliance. The feeling of joy had been partially ruined by the guilt that had come with it. She shouldn't miss aspects of that old life, should she?

"It's not just my story to tell." She said after a moment. It was Galen's, too.

"Hey, hey. Listen. I know I can be footloose at times but I can be subtle when it matters." When Sia got no response, she continued: "We've all made mistakes, Juno. The thing that's important is that we make up for them. I know that you've more than made up for yours with everything that you have done since joining the rebels."

Juno wasn't sure that she had. "I've done some pretty terrible things."

Sia looked on unbelieving.

"I was handpicked by Vader to take part in a classified project." She couldn't help but notice the whites of Sia's eyes as they widened. "That's how terrible some of my actions were." And she thought of Callos, its vast and beautiful habitat now decimated – because of her.

"Vader?"

Juno nodded grimly.

"But look at what you've achieved here with us." Sia insisted. "And to defy Vader's orders and break away like you did – that took some incredible strength. Most people wouldn't have been able to do that."

The words should have brought comfort. They only brought bitterness. "If circumstances hadn't worked out in the way that they did, I probably wouldn't have." Even if she had wanted to leave the Empire she couldn't have done it alone. Starkiller had offered her that escape and she had taken it. Without him…who knew where she might have been? Dead…probably.

"Things happen for a reason. You could have ignored your conscience and carried on regardless."

"It was hard to ignore." Juno replied with a bitter laugh. "I was labeled a traitor for simply doing my job."

"A traitor? Before you fled? Juno, how in the world did you escape with your life?"

Juno smiled a sad smile. "I was rescued."

"Wait, wait, wait. We need to start from the beginning. You're losing me already."

Juno wondered if there was the time. The story was long and to go through making careful edits would take even longer. Even still, she steeled herself and began: "I didn't realize it back then, but the new classified project Vader assigned to me—it was the end of the road. It was an important role but one that I wasn't supposed to survive." And she thought of the seven pilots who had come before her. All of them skilled and all of them dead. "He sent pilots there to die when he didn't have any further use left for them…or when they proved a nuisance. The day I started my new assignment was the day that I met Starkiller."

"Your first day? But how did that happen? A pilot should never come head to head with a Jedi. What was he doing in enemy territory?"

Juno could not explain why she felt so afraid to make this fact known but she was and the words stuck on her tongue and refused to budge.

A thin line appeared between the flight officer's brows. "Juno, what is it? What aren't you telling me?"

Juno drew in a steadying breath. "He wasn't a Jedi, Sia. Not then." She wasn't even sure he qualified as a Jedi now, though he was closer to that title than anything else.

"He was an Imperial, too." Sia breathed, understanding dawning on her.

"He was a Sith. Vader's apprentice." And the dam burst; the words flowing out of Juno so fast that she couldn't have stopped them even if she had wanted to.

Sia, for once, listened without a single interruption and if she struggled to keep up, she gave no sign. The account was simplified but muddled, some events so turned around in her head she sometimes wondered if they had ever happened at all. But there were others that came to her with incredible clarity.

She spoke of their hunt for Jedi. Of Vader's betrayal and her capture, imprisoned for months upon the Executor. How Starkiller had miraculously returned to rescue her and their journey across the galaxy to find Kota. How they had worked together to bring about an alliance between discontented leaders. Starkiller discovering snippets of his lost identity.

"We changed together. There was no sudden epiphany. We were both haunted by our pasts, struggling to find our place. We worked together. We were betrayed together and we found our true paths together."

And, in the end, the only details she left out were Galen's betrayal of her when she had caught him conferring with Vader and the true reason behind his miraculous return. Sia did not need to know that he was a clone. Juno told her they had just made a mistake. They had thought him dead when truly he had been captured and held prisoner. It was close enough to the truth.

"It explains a lot." Sia spoke when the story was done.

"It does?" Her throat hurt and she realized, only then, that she was trembling. But she felt good, too. She felt free.

"Why he wasn't like I imagined a Jedi to be. Why you were so close to one another and why he's so desperately protective of you." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Juno. You might not think that you've made up for your past mistakes but even I can see that you have." Sia took her hand. "The Alliance wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for the two of you."

Juno didn't know what to say to that.

"And Kota's death…"

"It was hard." Juno ended. She missed the old Jedi deeply and she knew that it still haunted Galen, even if he didn't bring it up much any more "He was like a father to Galen." And to me, too. She thought to herself. He had stood by her and comforted her as any parent should. That could not be said of her biological father.

"And now he's going to be facing a deranged clone of himself. The Emperor has a twisted sense of humor."

"And the encryption will give you his location?" Sia asked.

"Yes." Juno replied. "We're walking willingly into another trap." How many more were they going to walk into before they learned their lesson? Perhaps they wouldn't be getting out of this one.

"You're going alone? Without support?"

"Garm and Mon Mothma won't have anything to do with it." Juno replied. "They see it as folly. A lost cause. They think we're going to throw our lives away or lose Galen to the darkness."

"And what do you think?"

"...I don't think we'll be coming back." With Galen acting as he was there was no denying the very real possibility that this could be the end of the line.

"What do you mean?"

"I have a bad feeling." She couldn't explain it.

"You're being paranoid." Sia assured. "You've beaten the odds before."

"Maybe I am." Juno continued, "but I can't shake the feeling that we've been playing into the Emperor's hands all this time. But what can we do? Starkiller won't back down now—even I couldn't persuade him to do that."

"You could let him go alone?"

"No. Never. I've lived a year without him already. I won't suffer that again."

To be continued...

(for an estimate on when to expect the next chapter see my profile)